Hundreds of sites across the United States contain trichloroethene (TCE) contamination, including the Department of Energy's Savannah River Site (SRS) in Aiken, South Carolina. Previous studies have indicated that microorganisms are capable of efficiently degrading TCE to nonhazardous end products. In this project, molecular and growth based methods were used for microbial characterization of a TCE impacted seepzone where TCE degradation is naturally occurring. The results from this work provide clear evidence that the SRB may play a significant role in TCE degradation along the Twin Lakes seepline.

This report provides information about the Cloture: Its Effect on Senate Proceedings.The senate in most circumstances allows its members to debate issues for as long as they want.

Cloture is the only means by which the Senate can vote to limit debate on a matter, and thereby overcome a possible filibuster. Until 1949, cloture could not be invoked on nominations, and before 1980 this action was attempted only twice. From 1949 through 2002, cloture was sought on 35 nominations, and invoked on 21.

The authors present an analysis of the color and variability characteristics for point sources in the Faint Sky Variability Survey (FSVS). The FSVS cataloged {approx} 23 square degrees in BVI filters from {approx} 16-24 mag to investigate variability in faint sources at moderate to high Galactic latitudes. Point source completeness is found to be >83% for a selected representative sample (V - 17.5-22.0 mag, B-V = 0.0-1.5) containing both photometric B, V detections and 80% of the time-sampled V data available compared to a basic internal source completeness of 99%. Multi-epoch (10-30) observations in V spanning minutes to years modeled by light curve simulations reveal amplitude sensitivities to {approx} 0.015-0.075 mag over a representative V = 18-22 mag range. Periodicity determinations appear viable to time-scales of an order 1 day or less using the most sampled fields ({approx} 30 epochs). The fraction of point sources is found to be generally variable at 5-8% over V = 17.5-22.0 mag. For V brighter than 19 mag, the variable population is dominated by low amplitude (< 0.05 mag) and blue (B-V < 0.35) sources, possibly representing a population of {gamma} Doradus stars. Overall, the dominant population of variable sources are bluer than B-V …

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In pure plutonium, the monoclinic {alpha} phase is the equilibrium phase at ambient temperature and pressure. The addition of a few percent of gallium, however, allows the fcc {delta} phase to be retained metastablely at ambient conditions. When the metastable {delta} phase is cooled to subambient temperatures, it partially transforms to the monoclinic {alpha}' phase, which has gallium supersaturated in the lattice. The {alpha}' phase reverts to the {delta} phase when the sample is heated above the ambient temperature. The martensite burst (M{sub b}) and reversion start (R{sub s}) temperatures are functions of the composition, heating rate, and prior thermal history. For a Pu-2.0 at% Ga alloy, the transformation hysteresis is approximately 150 C, which is large compared with other solid-solid phase transformations. Both the forward and reverse transformations are martensitic and proceed via a burst mode. Here, we use differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and resistometry to perform fundamental studies of the {alpha}'/{delta} transformations with the goal of understanding how aging may affect {delta} phase stability, particularly the M{sub b} temperature. Because materials properties of the {alpha}' and {delta} phases are considerably different (including a density increase of 25% and an accompanying resistivity increase of 46% upon transformation from {delta} …

This report includes information about Egyptian and U.S. relations, issues with these relations, and U.S. foreign assistance to Egypt.

On May 1, 2004, 10 states joined the European Union (EU), enlarging the Union to 25 members. The EU views the enlargement process as an historic opportunity to promote stability in Europe and further the integration of the continent by peaceful means. In addition to the 10 new members (Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia), three other states — Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia — hope to accede to the EU by 2007. Turkey is also a candidate and is expected to begin accession negotiations in 2005. Macedonia has also applied for EU membership.

The European Union (EU) experienced significant changes in 2004 as it enlarged from 15 to 25 members and continued work on a new constitutional treaty to institute internal reforms and further EU political integration. In 2005, the EU is expected to build on these efforts and seek to implement several recent foreign policy and defense initiatives. This report describes the current status of the EU’s “constitution,” EU enlargement, the EU’s evolving foreign and defense policies, and possible implications for U.S.-EU relations.

This report provides answers to key questions related to the European Union (EU). It describes the EU’s evolution, its governing institutions, trade policy, and efforts to forge common foreign and defense policies. The report also addresses the EU-U.S. and EU-NATO relationships.

In June 2004, the European Union (EU) concluded work on a constitutional treaty that contains changes to the EU’s governing institutions and decision-making processes. This new “constitution” grew out of the 2002-2003 Convention on the Future of Europe and previous EU efforts to institute internal reforms ahead of the Union’s expansion from 15 members to 25 in May 2004. The “constitution” aims to enable a larger EU to operate effectively and prevent gridlock, but it must still be ratified by all member states before it enters into force. This report provides background information on the Convention and describes the EU “constitution,” its key provisions, next steps, and possible implications for the U.S.-EU relationship.

It is planned to use the tritium dose model, DCART (Doses from Chronic Atmospheric Releases of Tritium), to reconstruct dose to the hypothetical maximally exposed individual from annual routine releases of tritiated water (HTO) and tritiated hydrogen gas (HT) from all Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) facilities and from the Sandia National (SNL) Laboratory's Tritium Research Laboratory over the last fifty years. DCART has been described in Part 1 of ''Historical Doses From Tritiated Water And Tritiated Hydrogen Gas Released To The Atmosphere from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)'' (UCRL-TR-205083). This report (Part 2) summarizes information about annual routine releases of tritium from LLNL (and SNL) since 1953. Historical records were used to derive facility-specific annual data (e.g., source terms, dilution factors, ambient air concentrations, meteorological data, including absolute humidity and rainfall, etc.) and their associated uncertainty distributions. These data will be used as input to DCART to calculate annual dose for each year of LLNL operations. Sources of information are carefully referenced, and assumptions are documented. Confidence on all data post-1974 is quite high. Prior to that, further adjustment to the estimated uncertainty may have to be made if more information comes to light.

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This report mainly discusses about the Forms and Requirements of House Voting Procedures. There are four ways for lawmakers to obtain a vote in the house. there are voice votes,division votes ,yea and nay votes and recorded votes.

This report provides the U.S. concerns and policy responses on Iran.

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Israeli-U.S. relations are an important factor in U.S. policy in the Middle East, and Congress has placed considerable emphasis on the maintenance of a close and supportive relationship. The main vehicle for expressing support for Israel has been foreign aid; Israel currently receives about $3 billion per year in economic and military grants, refugee settlement assistance, and other aid. Congress has monitored aid closely along with other issues in bilateral relations, and its concerns have affected Administration’s policies.

This document presents a site-specific DOE-STD-3013 (3013) surveillance program for 3013 material stored at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in the B332 Plutonium Facility. The 3013 standard requires the development of a surveillance program to assure the long-term safety of plutonium storage in 3013 compliant containers. A complex-wide Integrated Surveillance Program in Support of Long-Term Storage of Plutonium-Bearing Materials (ISP)(LA-UR-00-3246, Revision 1, March 2001) has been developed to give guidance on an acceptable surveillance approach and to set up a mechanism to integrate surveillance activities and facilitate the sharing of lessons learned. This LLNL 3013 surveillance program has been developed following guidelines established for Storage Sites in the ISP and is sufficient for the storage in the LLNL Plutonium Facility. The LLNL 3013 surveillance program must be coupled with the DOE complex wide Materials Identification and Surveillance (MIS) program and the ISP led by Savannah River Site (SRS). These programs support the technical basis for continuing safe storage of plutonium packages and provide the technical basis for the limited scope of the site-specific LLNL 3013 surveillance program. The LLNL 3013 surveillance program calls for surveillance of 3013 packages to begin approximately three years after packaging of the first oxide. One …

This report includes information regarding the relationship between the United States and Lebanon, as well as Lebanon's political profile, and foreign presence in Lebanon

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Maritime Administration (MARAD) has more than 100 obsolete and deteriorating ships awaiting disposal that pose potentially costly environmental threats to the waterways near where they are stored. Congress, in 2000, mandated that MARAD dispose of them by September 30, 2006. While MARAD has various disposal options available, each option is complicated by legal, financial, and regulatory factors. In this report, GAO assesses (1) whether MARAD will meet the September 2006 disposal deadline for these ships and, if not, why not; (2) the extent that MARAD has used alternative disposal methods other than scrapping, and barriers to using other methods; (3) the appropriateness of MARAD's methods for procuring ship disposal services; and (4) the impact of foreign competition and other factors on reducing disposal costs."

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This report describes research on the response of ductile materials to extreme loading conditions and high strain rates during impact combined with sliding friction. The work is a collaboration among two groups at Los Alamos National Laboratory and a tribology research group at The Ohio State University. The work involves experimental work and computer simulations at both laboratories and continuum mechanics analysis at OSU. Results to date demonstrate the importance of vorticity and mechanical mixing near the sliding interface in the development of tribomaterial.

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The high energy limit of Quantum Chromodynamics is one of the most fascinating areas in the theory of strong interactions. Over a decade ago the HERA experiment at DESY in Hamburg provided strong evidence for the rise of the proton structure function at small values of the Bjorken variable x. This behavior can be explained as an increase of the gluon density of the proton with energy or correspondingly with smaller values of x. This increase can be attributed on the other hand to the large probability of gluon splitting in QCD. The natural framework for describing the gluon dynamics at small x is the Balitskii-Fadin-Kuraev-Lipatov formalism developed some 30 years ago. It predicts that the gluon density grows very fast with increasing energy, as a power with a large intercept. This increase has to be tamed in order to satisfy the unitarily bound. Over two decades ago, Gribov, Levin and Ryskin proposed the mechanism called the parton saturation, which slows down the fast rise of the gluon density. This formalism accounts for an additional gluon recombination apart from the pure gluon splitting. It leads to the very interesting non-linear modification of the evolution equations for the gluon distributions. Since …