As highlighted by the Social Security Administration (SSA), the aging of the (United States) population, hastened by the impending retirement of the huge baby-boom generation, has caused policy-makers to question whether the U.S. Social Security system can meet the demands for retirement benefits in the future. Because the current system largely pays benefits through taxes paid by current workers, the financial health of the system is sensitive to the ratio of dependents to workers—sometimes called the age dependency ratio or support ratio. Trends and projections of dependency ratios, including the relationship between both older (years 65 and older) and younger (under age 20) dependents to the working-age population in the United States are considered in the first section of this demographic report. Next, the United States is compared to nine other nations, including the seven other members of the G8. In the final section, policy implications of the changing dependent-to-worker ratios are considered in the context of pay-as-you-go (paygo) social security systems.

This report deals with broader issues in U.S relations with the Caribbean, including foreign assistance, anti-drug trafficking and anti-money laundering cooperation, support to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic in the region, and security concerns.

There has been an increasing interest in the monitoring of nuclear fuel for power reactors by detecting the anti-neutrinos produced during operation. Small liquid scintillator detectors have already demonstrated sensitivity to operational power levels, but more sensitive monitoring requires improvements in the efficiency and uniformity of these detectors. In this work, we use a montecarlo simulation to investigate the detector performance of four different detector configurations. Based on the analysis of neutron detection efficiency and positron energy response, we find that the optimal detector design will depend on the goals and restrictions of the specific installation or application. We have attempted to present the relevant information so that future detector development can proceed in a profitable direction.

This report briefly discusses how the Congressional Record is created and distributed. The Congressional Record is the most widely recognized published account of the debates and activities in Congress and it often reflects the intent of Congress in enacting legislation.

This report provides Background Information about Defense Surplus Equipment Disposal. The Department of defense through DLA has a policy of disposing government equipment and supplies.

This report identifies additional bills that have been introduced in the 109th Congress to address specific concerns related to how the Endangered Species Act (ESA is implemented and how endangered species are managed, and will be updated periodically to reflect legislative action.

This report replaces CRS Issue Brief IB10139, Fishery, Aquaculture, and Marine MAmmal Legislation in the 109th Congress.

The purpose of this project was to demonstrate the energy efficiency and reduced emissions that can be obtained with a dual torch DC plasma transferred arc-melting system. Plasmelt Glass Technologies, LLC was formed to solicit and execute the project, which utilize a full-scale test melter system. The system is similar to the one that was originally constructed by Johns Manville, but Plasmelt has added significant improvements to the torch design and melter system that has extended the original JM short torch lives. The original JM design has been shown to achieve melt rates 5 to 10 times faster than conventional gas or electric melting, with improved energy efficiency and reduced emissions. This project began on 7/28/2003 and ended 7/27/06. A laboratory scale melter was designed, constructed, and operated to conduct multiple experimental melting trials on various glass compositions. Glass quality was assessed. Although the melter design is generic and equally applicable to all sectors within the glass industry, the development of this melter has focused primarily on fiberglass with additional exploratory melting trials of frits, specialty, and minerals-melting applications. Throughput, energy efficiency, and glass quality have been shown to be heavily dependent on the selected glass composition. During this project, …

None

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To document the interactions of aliens with the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and other government entities, USCIS creates alien files, or A-files. While deemed critical, especially in making citizenship decisions, A-files are sometimes missing during adjudications. In 2002, naturalization was granted to an alien whose A-file was missing and who was later found to be associated with a terrorist organization. GAO focused its review on (1) how often USCIS adjudicates naturalization applications without an A-file and why, (2) the effect that missing A-files can have on the adjudication process, and (3) steps taken to help mitigate the risk of missing A-files. To address these questions, GAO interviewed officials and staff from USCIS and reviewed relevant data, policies, and procedures related to processing naturalization applications and the automated file-tracking system DHS established to track the movement of A-files."

This report is intended as an introduction to the meat packing/processing industry, the unions that have been active in that field, and labor-management practices among the packers and their employees.

Pleotint has embarked on a novel approach with our Sunlight Responsive Thermochromic, SRT™, windows. We are integrating dynamic sunlight control, high insulation values and low solar heat gain together in a high performance window. The Pleotint SRT window is dynamic because it reversibly changes light transmission based on thermochromics activated directly by the heating effect of sunlight. We can achieve a window package with low solar heat gain coefficient (SHGC), a low U value and high insulation. At the same time our windows provide good daylighting. Our innovative window design offers architects and building designers the opportunity to choose their desired energy performance, excellent sound reduction, external pane can be self-cleaning, or a resistance to wind load, blasts, bullets or hurricanes. SRT windows would provide energy savings that are estimated at up to 30% over traditional window systems. Glass fabricators will be able to use existing equipment to make the SRT window while adding value and flexibility to the basic design. Glazing installers will have the ability to fit the windows with traditional methods without wires, power supplies and controllers. SRT windows can be retrofit into existing buildings,

None

None

AFCI Storage and Disposal participants at LLNL, ANL and INL provide assessment of how AFCI technology can optimize the future evolution of the fuel cycle, including optimization of waste management. Evaluation of material storage and repository disposal technical issues provides feedback on criteria and metrics for AFCI, and evaluation of AFCI waste streams provides technical alternatives for future repository optimization. LLNL coordinates this effort that includes repository analysis at ANL and incorporation of repository impacts into AFCI criteria at INL. Cooperative evaluation with YMP staff is pursued to provide a mutually agreed technical base. Cooperation with select international programs is supported.

Several active interrogation techniques are being developed to detect shielded special nuclear materials (SNM) hidden in cargo containers loaded on container ships arriving at US ports. It raises the questions of the types of cargos in which SNM could be hidden, and their impact on detected signatures. Since the definition of a set of ''typical'' or standard cargos has proven to be difficult, we analyzed shipping manifests for US imports shipped through North American ports collected on 14 days distributed over 12 months. From these data, we generated several distribution functions such as commodity categories, average densities, and packaging types that could be of interest to the cargo scanning community. One of the cargo scanning techniques currently under development at LLNL is based on neutron active interrogation, and relies on the unique signature of beta-delayed gammas emitted by fission products in the 3 to 7 MeV energy range. {sup 19}F(n,a){sup 16}N, has been identified as the main potential interference for 7 and 9 MeV neutron beams. Estimates of cargo compositions based on manifests identified as containing fluorine are presented.

This article reports world averages for measurements on b-hadron properties obtained by the Heavy Flavor Averaging Group (HFAG) using the available results as of at the end of 2005. In the averaging, the input parameters used in the various analyses are adjusted (rescaled) to common values, and all known correlations are taken into account. The averages include lifetimes, neutral meson mixing parameters, parameters of semileptonic decays, branching fractions of B decays to final states with open charm, charmonium and no charm, and measurements related to CP asymmetries.

High-redshift blazars are promising candidates for detection by the Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope (GLAST). GLAST, expected to be launched in the Fall of 2007, is a high-energy gamma-ray observatory designed for making observations of celestial gamma-ray sources in the energy band extending from 10 MeV to more than 200 GeV. It is estimated that GLAST will find several thousand blazars. The motivations for measuring the gamma-ray emission from distant blazars include the study of the high-energy emission processes occurring in these sources and an indirect measurement of the extragalactic background light. In anticipation of the launch of GLAST we have compiled a catalog of candidate high-redshift blazars. The criteria for sources chosen for the catalog were: high radio emission, high redshift, and a flat radio spectrum. A preliminary list of 307 radio sources brighter than 70mJy with a redshift z {ge} 2.5 was acquired using data from the NASA Extragalactic Database. Flux measurements of each source were obtained at two or more radio frequencies from surveys and catalogs to calculate their radio spectral indices {alpha}. The sources with a flat-radio spectrum ({alpha} {le} 0.5) were selected for the catalog, and the final catalog includes about 200 sources.

This document describes a Computed Tomography (CT) reconstruction code called CCG-LCONE. CCG-LCONE is used to reconstruction objects from projections acquired on a cone beam radiographic system. This document will describe in brief the theory behind parts of the code, as well as detail the structure of the code, so it will function as both a ''User's Guide and a Programmer's Guide''. The Introduction will describe CT in general and cone beam systems in particular. It will explain why CCG-LCONE was developed and give an overview of the design and function. This report discusses the various parts of the system, both theory and code structure.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2003, the United States and other countries began implementing the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme (KPCS) to curtail the trade of rough diamonds that had fueled severe conflicts in Africa, known as conflict diamonds. CDTA provides the statutory framework for U.S. implementation of the KPCS. As mandated in CDTA, this report (1) describes the institutional framework established to implement the act, (2) examines implementation of the domestic provisions of the act and challenges it faces, and (3) examines how the United States has helped to strengthen the KPCS and challenges it faces."

The reprocessing of commercial spent nuclear fuel (SNF) generates a Zircaloy cladding hull waste which requires disposal as a high level waste in the geologic repository. The hulls are primarily contaminated with fission products and actinides from the fuel. During fuel irradiation, these contaminants are deposited in a thin layer of zirconium oxide (ZrO{sub 2}) which forms on the cladding surface at the elevated temperatures present in a nuclear reactor. Therefore, if the hulls are treated to remove the ZrO{sub 2} layer, a majority of the contamination will be removed and the hulls could potentially meet acceptance criteria for disposal as a low level waste (LLW). Discard of the hulls as a LLW would result in significant savings due to the high costs associated with geologic disposal. To assess the feasibility of decontaminating spent fuel cladding hulls, two treatment processes developed for dissolving fuels containing zirconium (Zr) metal or alloys were evaluated. Small-scale dissolution experiments were performed using the ZIRFLEX process which employs a boiling ammonium fluoride (NH{sub 4}F)/ammonium nitrate (NH{sub 4}NO{sub 3}) solution to dissolve Zr or Zircaloy cladding and a hydrofluoric acid (HF) process developed for complete dissolution of Zr-containing fuels. The feasibility experiments were performed using Zircaloy-4 …

Nitinol is a superelastic alloy made of equal parts nickel and titanium. Due to its unique shape memory properties, nitinol is used to make medical stents, lifesaving devices used to allow blood flow in occluded arteries. Micromechanical models and even nitinol-specific finite element analysis (FEA) software are insufficient for unerringly predicting fatigue and resultant failure. Due to the sensitive nature of its application, a better understanding of nitinol on a granular scale is being pursued through X-ray diffraction techniques at the Stanford Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory (SSRL) at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC). Through analysis of powder diffraction patterns of nitinol under increasing tensile loads, localized strain can be calculated. We compare these results with micromechanical predictions in order to advance nitinol-relevant FEA tools. From this we hope to gain a greater understanding of how nitinol fatigues under multi-axial loads.

This report discusses the major provisions of the Endangered Species Act, both domestic and international, and also discusses some of the background issues, such as extinction in general, and the effectiveness of the statute.

None