A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To aid law enforcement efforts against financial crimes, under the Bank Secrecy Act (BSA) depository institutions must file the Treasury Department's Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's (FinCEN) currency transaction report (CTR) form on their customers' cash transactions of more than $10,000. While FinCEN's regulations allow institutions to exempt certain customers, over 15 million CTRs were filed in 2006. Public Law 109-351 directed GAO to report on (1) the usefulness of CTRs to law enforcement; (2) depository institutions' costs of meeting CTR requirements; and (3) ways to encourage use of exemptions to avoid unnecessary CTRs. Among other things, GAO obtained data from FinCEN on CTRs and exemptions from 2004 to 2006, surveyed 115 state and local law enforcement agencies and 680 depository institutions, held structured interviews with officials of federal agencies and depository institutions, and reviewed relevant laws and regulations."

The overall goal of the DOE EPSCoR Initiative in Structural and Computational Biology was to enhance the competiveness of Vermont research in these scientific areas. To develop self-sustaining infrastructure, we increased the critical mass of faculty, developed shared resources that made junior researchers more competitive for federal research grants, implemented programs to train graduate and undergraduate students who participated in these research areas and provided seed money for research projects. During the time period funded by this DOE initiative: (1) four new faculty were recruited to the University of Vermont using DOE resources, three in Computational Biology and one in Structural Biology; (2) technical support was provided for the Computational and Structural Biology facilities; (3) twenty-two graduate students were directly funded by fellowships; (4) fifteen undergraduate students were supported during the summer; and (5) twenty-eight pilot projects were supported. Taken together these dollars resulted in a plethora of published papers, many in high profile journals in the fields and directly impacted competitive extramural funding based on structural or computational biology resulting in 49 million dollars awarded in grants (Appendix I), a 600% return on investment by DOE, the State and University.

This cleanup verification package documents completion of remedial action, sampling activities, and compliance with cleanup criteria for the 118-F-2 Burial Ground. This burial ground, formerly called Solid Waste Burial Ground No. 1, was the original solid waste disposal site for the 100-F Area. Eight trenches contained miscellaneous solid waste from the 105-F Reactor and one trench contained solid waste from the biology facilities.

The post-meiotic phase of mouse spermatogenesis (spermiogenesis) is very sensitive to the genomic effects of environmental mutagens because as male germ cells form mature sperm they progressively lose the ability to repair DNA damage. We hypothesized that repeated exposures to mutagens during this repair-deficient phase result in the accumulation of heritable genomic damage in mouse sperm that leads to chromosomal aberrations in zygotes after fertilization. We used a combination of single or fractionated exposures to diepoxybutane (DEB), a component of tobacco smoke, to investigate how differential DNA repair efficiencies during the three weeks of spermiogenesis affected the accumulation of DEB-induced heritable damage in early spermatids (21-15 days before fertilization, dbf), late spermatids (14-8 dbf) and sperm (7- 1 dbf). Analysis of chromosomalaberrations in zygotic metaphases using PAINT/DAPI showed that late spermatids and sperm are unable to repair DEB-induced DNA damage as demonstrated by significant increases (P<0.001) in the frequencies of zygotes with chromosomal aberrations. Comparisons between single and fractionated exposures suggested that the DNA repair-deficient window during late spermiogenesis may be less than two weeks in the mouse and that during this repair-deficient window there is accumulation of DNA damage in sperm. Finally, the dose-response study in sperm indicated a …

It is important to identify and control the operational and compositional variables that impact the important processing and performance properties of Saltstone grout mixes. The grout that is produced at the Saltstone Production Facility (SPF) is referred to as Saltstone and is a waste form that immobilizes low concentrations of radionuclides as well as certain toxic metals. The Saltstone will be disposed of in vaults at Savannah River Site (SRS). An effort referred to as the Saltstone Variability Study has been initiated to achieve this goal. The protocols developed in this variability study are also ideally suited as a tool to assess the impact of proposed changes to the processing flow sheet for Liquid Waste Operations at SRS. One such proposal that is currently under consideration is to introduce a leaching step in the treatment of the High Level Waste (HLW) sludge to remove aluminum prior to vitrification at the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF). This leachate would significantly increase the soluble aluminate concentration in the salt feed that will be processed at the SPF. Consequently, an initial study of the impact of increased aluminate concentration on the Saltstone grout properties was performed. Prior work by Lukens (1) showed that …

Based on the mineralogy and petrography, coarse-grained, igneous, anorthite-rich (Type C) calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs) in the CV3 carbonaceous chondrite Allende have been recently divided into three groups: (i) CAIs with melilite and Al,Ti-diopside of massive and lacy textures (coarse grains with numerous rounded inclusions of anorthite) in a fine-grained anorthite groundmass (6-1-72, 100, 160), (ii) CAI CG5 with massive melilite, Al,Ti-diopside and anorthite, and (iii) CAIs associated with chondrule material: either containing chondrule fragments in their peripheries (ABC, TS26) or surrounded by chondrule-like, igneous rims (93) (Krot et al., 2007a,b). Here, we report in situ oxygen isotopic measurements of primary (melilite, spinel, Al,Ti-diopside, anorthite) and secondary (grossular, monticellite, forsterite) minerals in these CAIs. Spinel ({Delta}{sup 17}O = -25{per_thousand} to -20{per_thousand}), massive and lacy Al,Ti-diopside ({Delta}{sup 17}O = -20{per_thousand} to -5{per_thousand}) and fine-grained anorthite ({Delta}{sup 17}O = -15{per_thousand} to -2{per_thousand}) in 100, 160 and 6-1-72 are {sup 16}O-enriched relative spinel and coarse-grained Al,Ti-diopside and anorthite in ABC, 93 and TS26 ({Delta}{sup 17}O ranges from -20{per_thousand} to -15{per_thousand}, from -15{per_thousand} to -5{per_thousand}, and from -5{per_thousand} to 0{per_thousand}, respectively). In 6-1-72, massive and lacy Al,Ti-diopside grains are {sup 16}O-depleted ({Delta}{sup 17}O {approx} -13{per_thousand}) relative to spinel ({Delta}{sup 17}O = -23{per_thousand}). Melilite is the …

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I give a brief introduction to the purpose and goals of the EMMA experiment and describe how they will impact the design of the main EMMA ring. I then describe the mathematical model that is used to describe the EMMA lattice. Finally, I show how the different lattice configurations were obtained and list their parameters.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Daily student newspaper from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

Weekly Jewish newspaper from Fort Worth, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.

Semi-weekly newspaper from Bastrop, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Canadian, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with some advertising.

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This report examines the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA), which provides a comprehensive federal scheme for the regulation of employee pension and welfare benefit plans offered by employers. While ERISA does not require an employer to offer pension and welfare benefits, it does mandate compliance with its provisions if such benefits are offered. Congress enacted ERISA to eliminate the conflicting and inconsistent regulation of pension and employee welfare benefit plans by state laws. The provisions at issue in the preemption debate are sections 502(a) and 514(a) of ERISA.

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Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

The Raman spectrum of dust particles exposed to the NSTX plasma is different from the spectrum of unexposed particles scraped from an unused graphite tile. For the unexposed particles, the high energy G-mode peak (Raman shift ~1580 cm-1) is much stronger than the defect-induced D-mode peak (Raman shift ~ 1350 cm-1), a pattern that is consistent with Raman spectrum for commercial graphite materials. For dust particles exposed to the plasma, the ratio of G-mode to D-mode peaks is lower and becomes even less than 1. The Raman measurements indicate that the production of carbon dust particles in NSTX involves modifications of the physical and chemical structure of the original graphite material. These modifications are shown to be similar to those measured for carbon deposits from atmospheric pressure helium arc discharge with an ablating anode electrode made from a graphite tile material. We also demonstrate experimentally that heating to 2000-2700 K alone can not explain the observed structural modifications indicating that they must be due to higher temperatures needed for graphite vaporization, which is followed either by condensation or some plasma-induced processes leading to the formation of more disordered forms of carbon material than the original graphite.

Ideal MHD equations employed in the NOVA code are analyzed analytically and numerically in order to investigate the role of the pressure gradient on global reversed shear Alfvén eigenmodes (RSAEs) or Alfvén cascades. We confirm both numerically and analytically conclusions obtained earlier using the ideal MHD code NOVA and analytically that the plasma pressure gradient plays a key role in the existence condition and in the dispersion relation for the mode. The effect of the plasma pressure gradient is to shift the mode frequency up at the low part of the RSAE frequency chirp and downshift the mode frequency when the frequency approaches the TAE gap This finding is opposite to predictions in a recent publication , where the pressure gradient is found to be always stabilizing by means of downshifting the RSAE frequency and enhancing its in- teraction with the continuum. We resolve this discrepancy by showing that neglecting the pressure gradient effect on the plasma equilibrium (modification of the Shafranov shift and the averaged curvature) leads to conclusions at variance to the numerical and analytical results presented here. A new variational approximation of the RSAE is introduced which compares remarkably well with NOVA solutions. With this new approximation …

The Foam Delivery System used in the decontamination and decommissioning (D&amp;D) project for the K-25/K-27 Buildings at the East Tennessee Technology Park (ETTP) is comprised of a trailer-mounted Gusmer{reg_sign} H20/35 Pro-TEC Proportioning Unit and the associated equipment to convey electrical power, air, and foam component material to the unit. This high-pressure, plural-component polyurethane foam pouring system will be used to fill process gas and non-process equipment/piping (PGE/P) within the K-25/K-27 Buildings with polyurethane foam to immobilize contaminants prior to removal. The system creates foam by mixing isocyanate and polyol resin (Resin) component materials. Currently, the project plans to utilize up to six foaming units simultaneously during peak foaming activities. Also included in this system description are the foam component material storage containers that will be used for storage of the component material drums in a staging area outside of the K-25/K-27 Buildings. The Foam Delivery System and foam component material storage enclosures (i.e., Foaming Component Protective Enclosures) used to store polymeric methylene diphenyl diisocyanate (PMDI) component material are identified as Safety Significant (SS) Structures, Systems and Components (SSC) in the Documented Safety Analysis (DSA) for the project, Documented Safety Analysis for the K-25 and K-27 Facilities at the East Tennessee …

Weekly newspaper from Archer City, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.