This report presents an overview of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. This is a clash between the principles of territorial integrity and self-determination that is occurring in the Caucasus, creating the longest inter-ethnic dispute in the former Soviet Union. The report includes the background and analysis of history, warfare and peace process in the region. The report discusses the Armenian and Azerbaijani perspective, the role and views of others (Iran, Turkey, Russia), as well as the U.S. policy regarding the conflict.

Congressional Research Service (CRS) report entailing information about current legislation in regards to school choice. Topics include, legislation, proposals in the 107th Congress, tax subsidies, block grants, etc..

The Superfund program for cleaning up the nation’s worst hazardous waste sites was created by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980, or CERCLA (P.L. 96-510, as amended). This report discusses recent development and background issues, superfund issues, revenue issues, comprehensive reauthorization, and legislation regarding superfund program.

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The entry into force, on January 1, 1994, of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has eliminated the advantage that the beneficiaries of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA) and related provisions of the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) had enjoyed in trade with the United States relative to Mexico, and gave Mexico an increasingly significant competitive edge over the CBERA countries. The scheduled further implementation of the NAFTA would have resulted in a substantial advantage to Mexico over the CBERA countries and vitiate in part the purpose of the CBERA.

The report discusses the issues regarding the Homeland Security Act of 2002 (P.L. 107-296, 116 Stat. 2135), which contains provisions to arm pilots of passenger aircraft and gives deputized pilots the authority to use force, including lethal force, to defend the flight deck against criminal and terrorist threats. The report includes the legislative Background, implementation issues, equipment, training, operational procedures and costs.

This report discusses about the Homeland Security on Protecting Airliners from Terrorist Missiles where Recent events have focused attention on the threat that terrorists with shoulder fired surface-to-air missiles pose to commercial airliners. Most believe that no single solution exists to effectively mitigate this threat.

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Until the last decade, most neutron experiments have been performed at steady-state, reactor-based sources. Recently, however, pulsed spallation sources have been shown to be very useful in a wide range of neutron studies. A major review of neutron sources in the US was conducted by a committee chaired by Nobel laureate Prof. W. Kohn: ''Neutron Sources for America's Future-BESAC Panel on Neutron Sources 1/93''. This distinguished panel concluded that steady state and pulsed sources are complementary and that the nation has need for both to maintain a balanced neutron research program. The report recommended that both a new reactor and a spallation source be built. This complementarity is recognized worldwide. The conclusion of this report is that a new continuous neutron source is needed for the second decade of the 20 year plan to replace aging US research reactors and close the US neutron gap. it is based on spallation production of neutrons using a high power continuous superconducting linac to generate protons impinging on a heavy metal target. There do not appear to be any major technical challenges to the building of such a facility since a continuous spallation source has been operating in Switzerland for several years.

The huge emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil fuel fired power plants and industrial plants over the last century have resulted in an increase of the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration. Climatological modeling work has predicted severe climate disruption as a result of the trapping of heat due to CO{sub 2}. As an attempt to address this global warming effect, DOE has initiated the Vision 21 concept for future power plants. We first synthesized mesoporous aluminosilicates that have high surface area and parallel pore channels for membrane support materials. Later we synthesized microporous aluminosilicates as the potential thin membrane materials for selective CO{sub 2} adsorption. The pore size is controlled to be less that 1 nm so that the adsorption of CO{sub 2} on the pore wall will block the passage of N{sub 2}. Mesoporous and precipitated alumina were synthesized as the base material for CO{sub 2} adsorbent. The porous alumina is doped with Ba to enhance its CO{sub 2} affinity due to the basicity of Ba. It is shown by gas chromatograph (GC) that the addition of Ba enhances the separation CO{sub 2} from N{sub 2}. It was found that mesoporous alumina has larger specific surface area and better selectivity …

An infrared imaging system has been installed on NSTX (National Spherical Torus Experiment) at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory to measure the surface temperatures on the lower divertor and center stack. The imaging system is based on an Indigo Alpha 160 x 128 microbolometer camera with 12 bits/pixel operating in the 7-13 {micro}m range with a 30 Hz frame rate and a dynamic temperature range of 0-700 degrees C. From these data and knowledge of graphite thermal properties, the heat flux is derived with a classic one-dimensional conduction model. Preliminary results of heat flux scaling are reported.

This meeting took place at the Keystone, Colorado resort from March 25-30, 2003. It was attended by 206 participants, of which 35 were students; 39% of attendees submitted abstracts. The meeting had 30% returning attendees and 70% new attendees. The group of speakers was composed of internationally recruited junior and senior experts in their respective fields. The group included representatives from academia and the private sector, highlights the convergence of proteomics efforts in the two sectors. The completion of the genome sequences of a large number of prokaryotic and eukaryotic species has catalyzed new research approaches to study the structure, function and control of biological processes. They are characterized by the systematic and in many cases quantitative analysis of all the molecules of a particular type expressed by a cell or tissue. The systematic analysis of proteins has been terms ''proteomics''. In an initial phase, most of the proteomics efforts were focused on large-scale protein identification. More recently, the objectives and technologies of proteomics have been diversified and expanded. Current proteomics research attempts to systematically and, where applicable, quantitatively determine the many properties of proteins and their biological function, including: protein abundance, state of modification, specific activity, interaction with other …

During the reporting period, work continued on development of formulations using the materials down-selected from the initially identified contenders for the fibrous monolith wear resistant components. In the previous reporting period, a two-stage binder removal process was developed that resulted in prototype parts free of voids and other internal defects. During the current reporting period, work was performed to characterize the two-stage binder removal process for WC-Co based FM material systems. Use of this process has resulted in the fabrication of defect free sintered WC-Co FM bodies, with minimal free carbon porosity and densities approaching 100% theoretical. With the elimination of free carbon porosity and other binder removal process related defects, development work focused on optimizing the densification and eliminating defects observed in WC-Co based FM consolidated by pressureless sintering. Shrinkage of the monolithic core and shell materials used in the WC-Co based FM system was measured, and differences in material shrinkage were identified as a potential cause of cell boundary cracking observed in sintered parts. Re-formulation of material blends for this system was begun, with the goal of eliminating mechanical stresses during sintering by matching the volumetric shrinkage of the core and shell materials. Thirty-three 7/8 inch drill bit …

There have been extensive studies of the current and potential environmental impact of Russian Northern fleet activities. However, despite the fact that the total number of ships in both fleets are comparable, there have been very few studies published in the open literature of the impact of the Pacific fleet. This study of the Pacific fleet's impact on neighboring countries was undertaken to partially remedy this lack of analysis. This study is focused on an evaluation of the inventory of major sources of radioactive material associated with the decommissioning of nuclear submarines, and an evaluation of releases to the atmosphere and their long-range (>100km) transboundary transport.

This report provides background information on the types of water supply and wastewater treatment projects traditionally funded by the federal government and the several existing programs to assist communities with water supply and wastewater recycling and treatment.

This report discusses the January 2003 annual adjustment and locality payments.

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This report provides appropriations of Foreign Operations, Export Financing, and Related Programs for FY2003.