This report looks at the distinct population segments (DPS) process as it is applied to the gray wolf. It also reviews experimental populations of wolves under the ESA and their protections.

This report consists of the presidential declarations, eligible activities, and funding on the Federal Stafford Act disaster assistance.

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This report provides information about Health Insurance where people buy insurance to protect themselves against the possibility of financial loss in the future. Americans obtain insurance in different settings and a variety of methods.

In the recent plasma wakefield accelerator experiments at SLAC, the energy of the particles in the tail of the 42 GeV electron beam were doubled in less than one meter [1]. Simulations suggest that the acceleration length was limited by a new phenomenon--beam head erosion in self-ionized plasmas. In vacuum, a particle beam expands transversely in a distance given by {beta}*. In the blowout regime of a plasma wakefield [2], the majority of the beam is focused by the ion channel, while the beam head slowly spreads since it takes a finite time for the ion channel to form. It is observed that in self-ionized plasmas, the head spreading is exacerbated compared to that in pre-ionized plasmas, causing the ionization front to move backward (erode). A simple theoretical model is used to estimate the upper limit of the erosion rate for a bi-gaussian beam by assuming free expansion of the beam head before the ionization front. Comparison with simulations suggests that half this maximum value can serve as an estimate for the erosion rate. Critical parameters to the erosion rate are discussed.

We have recently demonstrating the doubling of the energy of particles of the ultra-short, ultra-relativistic electron bunches of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center [1]. This energy doubling occurred in a plasma only 85 cm-long with a density of {approx} 2.6 x 10{sup 17} e{sup -}/cm{sup -3}. This milestone is the result of systematic measurements that show the scaling of the energy gain with plasma length and density, and show the reproducibility and the stability of the acceleration process. We show that the energy gain increases linearly with plasma length from 13 to 31 cm. These are key steps toward the application of beam-driven plasma accelerators or plasma wakefield accelerators (PWFA) to doubling the energy of a future linear collider without doubling its length.

Evaporitic environments are found in a variety of depositional environments as early as the Archean. The depositional settings, microbial community and mineralogical composition vary significantly as no two settings are identical. The common thread linking all of the settings is that evaporation exceeds precipitation resulting in elevated concentrations of cations and anions that are higher than in oceanic systems. The Dead Sea and Storrs Lake are examples of two diverse modern evaporitic settings as the former is below sea level and the latter is a coastal lake on an island in the Caribbean. Each system varies in water chemistry as the Dead Sea dissolved ions originate from surface weathered materials, springs, and aquifers while Storrs Lake dissolved ion concentration is primarily derived from sea water. Consequently some of the ions, i.e., Sr, Ba are found at significantly lower concentrations in Storrs Lake than in the Dead Sea. The origin of the dissolved ions are ultimately responsible for the pH of each system, alkaline versus mildly acidic. Each system exhibits unique biogeochemical properties as the extreme environments select certain microorganisms. Storrs Lake possesses significant biofilms and stromatolitic deposits and the alkalinity varies depending on rainfall and storm activity. The microbial community …

This report shows, for the years 1989 through 2006, the assessment level, actual payment, and total outstanding contributions for the United States and each of the other U.N. members assessed at 1% or higher.

Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Work in the Carpenter laboratory under the aegis of grant DE-FG02-98ER14857 concerned the formation, properties, and reactions of organic free radicals known or believed to be important in hydrocarbon combustion. Both computational and experimental methods were employed in these studies.

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

The E163 laser acceleration experiments conducted at SLAC have stringent requirements on the temporal properties of two regeneratively amplified, 800nm, Spitfire laser systems. To determine the magnitude and cause of timing instabilities between the two Ti:Sapphire amplifiers, we pass the two beams through a cross-correlator and focus the combined beam onto a Hamamatsu G1117 photodiode. The photodiode has a bandgap such that single photon processes are suppressed and only the second order, two-photon process produces an observable response. The response is proportional to the square of the intensity. The diode is also useful as a diagnostic to determine the optimal configuration of the compression cavity.

This report reviews the types of air emissions from livestock and poultry operations and their human health and environmental impacts. It then discusses provisions of several federal laws concerned with environmental impacts, beginning with the Clean Water Act, because protecting water resources has been the primary regulatory focus regarding livestock and animal operations.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Garfield Crawford. Crawford was born 13 June 1922 in Edgar, Wisconsin and graduated from high school in Green Bay. He entered the Army Air Forces in March 1943. He trained at various bases and with a variety of aircraft. Upon graduating from multi-engine, he was assigned as an aircraft commander and went to Walla Walla, Washington for crew training. Arriving at Nadzab, New Guinea he made several training flights with experienced pilots prior to going to Wakde where the crew was assigned a B-24 in the 307th Bomb Group, 421st Bomb Squadron. Crawford recalls his first combat mission to Balikpapan. Of the twenty-four bombers on the mission, fourteen where lost due to heavy flak and Japanese fighters. He also recalls a mission to Negros Island where they encountered sixty enemy aircraft that dropped phosphorus bombs and steel rods above his formation in attempts to knock them down. During this mission, his friend’s plane went down. A month later, while returning from a bombing mission over Corregidor, he saw signals on the ground from the surviving crew members. They were rescued and sent home. Crawford flew thirty-eight other mission, …

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Garfield Crawford. Crawford was born 13 June 1922 in Edgar, Wisconsin and graduated from high school in Green Bay. He entered the Army Air Forces in March 1943. He trained at various bases and with a variety of aircraft. Upon graduating from multi-engine, he was assigned as an aircraft commander and went to Walla Walla, Washington for crew training. Arriving at Nadzab, New Guinea he made several training flights with experienced pilots prior to going to Wakde where the crew was assigned a B-24 in the 307th Bomb Group, 421st Bomb Squadron. Crawford recalls his first combat mission to Balikpapan. Of the twenty-four bombers on the mission, fourteen where lost due to heavy flak and Japanese fighters. He also recalls a mission to Negros Island where they encountered sixty enemy aircraft that dropped phosphorus bombs and steel rods above his formation in attempts to knock them down. During this mission, his friend’s plane went down. A month later, while returning from a bombing mission over Corregidor, he saw signals on the ground from the surviving crew members. They were rescued and sent home. Crawford flew thirty-eight other mission, …

This report examines the statutory procedures governing covert action and associated questions to consider.

This report provides an overview of the CSRT procedures, summarizes court cases related to the detentions and the use of military commission, and summarizes the Detainee Treatments Act, as amended by the Military Commissions Act of 2006, analyzing its effects on detainee-related litigation in federal court.

This report discusses the establishment and the role of the U.S. embassy in Iraq.

This report discusses current issues related to the War Crimes Act of 1996 and Common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions, which sets out minimum standards for the treatment of detainees in armed conflicts "not of an international character (e.g., civil wars, rebellions, and other conflicts between State and non-State actors).

This report describes the privileges and immunities generally owed by the U.S. to foreign diplomatic, consular, and international organization personnel under treaties and statutes. It does not discuss certain exceptions to these immunities that may apply to U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents who are employed by international organizations or foreign embassies or consulates.

This report discusses the constitutional issues raised in relation to state and local laws intended to deter the presence of unauthorized aliens, along with the implications that federal civil rights statutes might have on the implementation and enforcement of measures restricting such persons' ability to obtain employment, housing, or other state and local benefits or services.

We report on the development and prototyping efforts undertaken with the goal of producing a micro-vertex detector for the STAR experiment at the RHIC accelerator at BNL. We present the basic detector requirements and show a sensor development path, conceptual mechanical design candidates and readout architecture. Prototyping and beam test results with current generation MimoSTAR-2 sensors and a readout system featuring FPGA based on-the-fly hit finding and data sparsification are also presented.

This report focuses on a conflict between the European Union (EU) and the United States, Canada, and Argentina. The United States suggests that the European Union's moratorium costs the U.S. 300 million dollars in exports to the EU annually. Moreover, the report highlights other concerns the U.S. has with the EU's biotechnology policies.

For some time now, ballistic missile defense (BMD) has been a key national security priority, even though such interest has been ongoing since the end of World War II. Many current BMD technologies date their start to the 1980s, and even earlier. This effort has been challenging technically and politically controversial. More than $120 billion has been spent on a range of BMD programs since the mid-1980s; Congress appropriated $9.4 billion for FY2007 and $9.9 billion for FY2008. This report provides a brief overview of U.S. BMD efforts to date.