Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas Senate and House of Representatives relating to requesting that the Texas Legislature send a letter of congratulations to President Barack H. Obama.

We discuss the no-core shell model approach, an ab initio method with effective Hamiltonians derived from realistic nucleon-nucleon (NN) potentials as a function of the finite harmonic-oscillator (HO) basis space. We present results for three and four nucleon systems in model spaces that include up to 50{Dirac_h}{Omega} and 18{bar h}{Omega} HO excitations, respectively. For these light systems we are in agreement with results obtained by other exact methods. Also, we calculate the properties of {sup 6}Li and {sup 6}He in model spaces up to 10{Dirac_h}{Omega}, and of {sup 12}C for model spaces up to 6{Dirac_h}{Omega}.

A microfluidic switch has been demonstrated using an AC Magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) pumping mechanism in which the Lorentz force is used to pump an electrolytic solution. By integrating two AC MHD pumps into different arms of a Y-shaped fluidic circuit, flow can be switched between the two arms. This type of switch can be used to produce complex fluidic routing, which may have multiple applications in {micro}TAS.

The purpose of this report is to provide a concise but comprehensive overview of Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility instrumentation status. The report is divided into the following five sections: (1) new instrumentation in the process of being acquired and deployed, (2) field campaigns, (3) existing instrumentation and progress on improvements or upgrades, (4) proposed future instrumentation, and (5) Small Business Innovation Research instrument development.

This report will discuss the methodology, measurements, assumptions, and results of the U-235 content calculations for each of the drums.

Clouds exert major influences on both shortwave and longwave radiation as well as on the hydrological cycle. Accurate representation of clouds in climate models is a major unsolved problem because of high sensitivity of radiation and hydrology to cloud properties and processes, incomplete understanding of these processes, and the wide range of length scales over which these processes occur. Small changes in the amount, altitude, physical thickness, and/or microphysical properties of clouds due to human influences can exert changes in Earth's radiation budget that are comparable to the radiative forcing by anthropogenic greenhouse gases, thus either partly offsetting or enhancing the warming due to these gases. Because clouds form on aerosol particles, changes in the amount and/or composition of aerosols affect clouds in a variety of ways. The forcing of the radiation balance due to aerosol-cloud interactions (indirect aerosol effect) has large uncertainties because a variety of important processes are not well understood precluding their accurate representation in models.

This report discusses the current political state of Afghanistan, as well as the Afghan government. This report also discusses Afghanistan's relationship with the United States, particularly U.S. efforts to urge President Hamid Karzai to address corruption within the Afghan government.

The purpose of the Craig Wood Fired Boiler Project is to use waste wood from local sawmilling operations to provide heat to local public buildings, in an effort to reduce the cost of operating those buildings, and put to productive use a byproduct from the wood milling process that otherwise presents an expense to local mills. The scope of the project included the acquisition of a wood boiler and the delivery systems to feed wood fuel to it, the construction of a building to house the boiler and delivery systems, and connection of the boiler facility to three buildings that will benefit from heat generated by the boiler: the Craig Aquatic Center, the Craig Elementary School, and the Craig Middle School buildings.

This report discusses the American disabilities act (ADA) and also deals with The Americans with Disabilities Act: Supreme Court Decisions.

This report briefly discusses the Bush Administration's proposal to reduce the deficit between FY2004 and FY2009. It discusses the provisions of the FY2006 budget proposal in respect to the Administration's deficit reduction goal. CRS has constructed a modified baseline budget which, arguably, provides a “best guess” of the path of future deficits if current policy is extended. Under this alternative, the deficit is projected to rise to $425 billion in FY2009.

The D-Zero crane rail is analyzed for use as an anchor support for a one person Horizon{trademark} Horizontal Lifeline system that will span the pit area at D-Zero assembly hall. The lifeline will span 75 ft across the pit area, will be located out of the travel of the crane and above the concrete lentil wall. The crane rail is a suitable anchor for a one person Horizon TM Horizontal Lifeline system. The expected stress on the rail is 1,995 psi which has a factor of safety of 5.5 on the allowable stress. The anchor position is located 18 feet away from the concrete lentil wall and out of the travel of the overhead crane.

The LLNL Target Fabrication Team (TFT) asked the Center for Non-Destructive Characterization (CNDC) to use CNDC's KCAT or Xradia's Micro computed tomography (CT) system to collect three-dimensional (3D) tomographic data of a set of double-shell targets and determine, among other items, the following: (1) the concentricity of the outer surface of the inner shell with respect to the inner surface of the outer shell with an accuracy of 1-2 micrometers, and (2) the wall thickness uniformity of the outer shell with an accuracy of 1-2 micrometers. The CNDC used Xradia's Micro CT system to collect the data. Bill Brown performed the concentricity analysis, and John Sain performed the wall thickness uniformity analysis. Harry Martz provided theoretical guidance, and Dan Schneberk contributed technical (software) support. This document outlines the analysis procedures used in each case. The double-shell targets, as shown in Figures 1 and 2, consist of an inner shell (or capsule), a two-piece spherical aerogel intermediary shell, and a two-piece spherical outer shell. The three elements are designed and fabricated to be concentric--with the aerogel shell acting as a spacer between the inner shell and outer shell--with no to minimum air gaps in the final assembly. The outer diameters of …

The transport of chemicals or heat in fractured reservoirs is strongly affected by the fracture-matrix interfacial area. In a vapor-dominated geothermal reservoir, this area can be estimated by inert gas tracer tests, where gas diffusion between the fracture and matrix causes the tracer breakthrough curve (BTC) to have a long tail determined by the interfacial area. For water-saturated conditions, recent studies suggest that sorbing solute tracers can also generate strong tails in BTCs that may allow a determination of the fracture-matrix interfacial area. To theoretically explore such a useful phenomenon, this paper develops an analytical solution for BTCs in slug-tracer tests in a water-saturated fractured reservoir. The solution shows that increased sorption should have the same effect on BTCs as an increase of the diffusion coefficient. The solution is useful for understanding transport mechanisms, verifying numerical codes, and for identifying appropriate chemicals as tracers for the characterization of fractured reservoirs.

Bioventing (BV) is a promising, cost-effective technology for the biodegradation of soil contaminated with petroleum hydrocarbons. The goal of BV is to stimulate naturally-occurring soil microorganisms to degrade organic contaminants in the soil. In natural systems the rate of biodegradation is eventually limited by the lack of oxygen and other electron acceptors (i.e., a compound that gains electrons during biodegradation) rather than by the lack of nutrients (i.e., electron donors). In conventional bioventing systems, oxygen is delivered by an electric blower to subsurface wells. The airflow rate is usually low in contrast to soil vapor extraction, just enough to provide sufficient oxygen to maintain or enhance microbial activity. In order to design a bioventing system wisely, decision makers should understand the role that design variables may play. Those design variables include locations of injection wells, injection rates, air pressure and moisture at wells, water table control, monitoring well locations, etc. Trade-off between these variables should be made before the implementation of a bioventing system. Obviously, the mathematical model corresponding to the multiphase flow and multi-species reactive transport is essential to describing the relations between design variables and system response. The work phases for the project are: (Phase 1) building biodegradation …

Using a highly coherent focused electron probe in a 5th order aberration-corrected transmission electron microscope, we report on resolving a crystal spacing less than 50 pm. Based on the geometrical source size and residual coherent and incoherent axial lens aberrations, an electron probe is calculated, which is theoretically capable of resolving an ideal 47 pm spacing with 29percent contrast. Our experimental data show the 47 pm spacing of a Ge 114 crystal imaged with 11-18percent contrast at a 60-95percent confidence level, providing the first direct evidence for sub 50-pm resolution in ADF STEM imaging.

A prototype oligonucleotide ''functional chip'' has been developed to screen novel DNA repair proteins for their ability to bind or alter different forms of DNA. This chip has been developed as a functional genomics screen for analysis of protein-DNA interactions for novel proteins identified from the Human Genome Project The process of novel gene identification that has ensued as a consequence of available sequence information is remarkable. The challenge how lies in determining the function of newly identified gene products in a time-and cost-effective high-throughput manner. The functional chip is generated by the robotic application of DNA spotted in a microarray format onto a glass slide. Individual proteins are then analyzed against the different form of DNA bound to the slide. Several prototype functional chips were designed to contain various DNA fragments tethered to a glass slide for analysis of protein-DNA binding or enzymatic activity of known proteins. The technology has been developed to screen novel, putative DNA repair proteins for their ability to bind various types of DNA alone and in concert with protein partners. An additional scheme has been devised to screen putative repair enzymes for their ability to process different types of DNA molecules. Current methods to …

Western Research Institute (WRI) in conjunction with the University of Wyoming, Department of Renewable Resources and the U.S. Department of Energy, under Task 35, conducted a laboratory-scale study of hydrocarbon biodegradation rates versus a variety of physical and chemical parameters to develop a base model. By using this model, biodegradation of Petroleum hydrocarbons in heterogeneous soils can be predicted. The base model, as developed in this study, have been tested by both field and laboratory data. Temperature, pH, and nutrients appear to be the key parameters that can be incorporate into the model to predict biodegradation rates. Results to date show the effect of soil texture and source on the role of each parameter in the rates of hydrocarbon biodegradation. Derived from the existing study, an alternative approach of using CO{sub 2} accumulation data has been attempted by our collaborators at the University of Wyoming. The model has been modified and fine tuned by incorporating these data to provide more information on biodegradation.

This report is categorized into seven categories: (I) Most recent developments, (II) Background and Analysis, (III) Definitions of Hard and Soft Money in Federal Elections, (IV) Political Party Soft Money, (V) Corporate and Labor Union Soft Money, (VI) Soft Money Spent on Issue Advocacy and (VII) Selected 107th Congress Legislation.

A systematic investigation of candidate hydrogen permeation materials applied to a substrate using Pulsed Laser Deposition has been performed. The investigation focused on application of leading permeation-resistant materials types (oxide, carbides, and metals) on a stainless steel substrate. and evaluation of the stability of the applied coatings. Type 304L stainless steel substrates were coated with aluminum oxide, chromium oxide, and aluminum. Characterization of the coating-substrate system adhesion was performed using scratch adhesion testing and microindentation. Coating stability and environmental susceptibility were evaluated for two conditions-air at 350 degrees Celsius and Ar-H2 at 350 degrees Celsius for up to 100 hours. Results from this study have shown the pulsed laser deposition process to be an extremely versatile technology that is capable of producing a sound coating/substrate system for a wide variety of coating materials.

Recent laser ignition experiments on octahydro-1,3,5,7-tetranitro-1,3,5,7-terrazocine (HMX) and 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB) subjected to laser fluxes ranging from 10 to 800 W/cm{sup 2} produced ignition times from seconds to milliseconds. Global chemical kinetic thermal decomposition models for HMX and TATB have been developed to calculate times to thermal explosion for experiments in the seconds to days time frame. These models are applied to the laser ignition experimental data in this paper. Excellent agreement was obtained for TATB, while the calculated ignition times were longer than experiment for HMX at lower laser fluxes. At the temperatures produced in the laser experiments, HMX melts. Melting generally increases condensed phase reaction rates so faster rates were used for three of the HMX reaction rates. This improved agreement with experiments at the lower laser fluxes but yielded very fast ignition at high fluxes. The calculated times to ignition are in reasonable agreement with the laser ignition experiments, and this justifies the use of these models for estimating reaction times at impact and shock ''hot spot'' temperatures.

A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board's organizational changes, determining the status of the Board's: (1) organization; (2) operations; and (3) efforts to update and develop plans, policies, and procedures for accomplishing the Board's mission."

This project will examine the chemical speciation of neptunium in spent nuclear fuel. The R&D fields covered by the project include waste host materials and actinide chemistry. Examination of neptunium is chosen since it was identified as a radionuclide of concern by the NERI workshop. Additionally, information on the chemical form of neptunium in spent fuel is lacking. The identification of the neptunium species in spent fuel would allow a greater scientific based understanding of its long-term fate and behavior in waste forms. Research to establish the application and development of X-ray synchrotrons radiation (XSR) techniques to determine the structure of aqueous, adsorbed, and solid actinide species of importance to nuclear considerations is being conducted at Argonne. These studies extend current efforts within the Chemical Technology Division at Argonne National Laboratory to investigate actinide speciation with more conventional spectroscopic and solids characterization (e.g. SEM, TEM, and XRD) methods. Our project will utilize all these techniques for determining neptunium speciation in spent fuel. We intend to determine the chemical species and oxidation state of neptunium in spent fuel and alteration phases. Different types of spent fuel will be examined. Once characterized, the chemical behavior of the identified neptunium species will be …

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In August 1999, EnerTech Environmental, LLC (EnerTech) and the Federal Energy Technology Center (FETC) entered into a Cooperative Agreement to develop the first SlurryCarb{trademark} facility for converting Municipal Sewage Sludge (MSS) into a high-density slurry fuel, which could be co-utilized with coal in various industrial applications. Funded primarily by private investors, this program was divided into two major phases, Project Definition (Phase 0) and Design, Construction, and Operation (Phase 1). Project Definition, performed during this reporting period, was designed to define the project from a technical, economic, and scheduling standpoint. Once defined, much of the project risk would be appropriately mitigated thereby providing stakeholders, such as FETC, less risk when investing in the more costly Phase 1, which includes the design, construction, and operation of the first SlurryCarb{trademark} facility. Since May 1999, EnerTech has made significant progress in the tasks required in Phase 0 for bringing this project to Phase 1. These accomplishments have enhanced the probability for success thereby reducing the risk to the United States Department of Energy's (DOE) for its investment in the project. Phase 0 technical accomplishments include: Locating and securing a project site for the 60 dry ton per day (DTPD) SlurryCarb{trademark} facility; Locating and …