This report summarizes the major provisions of the agreement between the by House and Senate negotiators on the Medicare provisions.

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On November 30th to December 3rd, 1999, the highest decision-making body of the World Trade Organization (WTO), called the Ministerial Conference, will meet in Seattle to make broad policy decisions. The key issue for the trade ministers attending the meeting will be to decide on the structure and topics for the agenda of a new round of multilateral trade negotiations. Countries have committed to discuss agriculture and services trade in the new round. Other items that have been proposed for inclusion in the new round or for earlier consideration include tariff reductions, concessions for developing countries, labor issues and the environment, and the WTO decision-making process. Major labor, environmental, and consumer interest groups are expected to be present in Seattle to argue for more consideration of workers' rights and the environment within the WTO. This report provides a summary background on preparations for the Ministerial and related issues of congressional interest.

Tri-weekly student newspaper from Abilene Christian University in Abilene, Texas that includes local, state and campus news along with advertising.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

A weekly student newspaper from the Rice University in Houston, Texas that includes campus news and commentaries along with advertising.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) food service operations, focusing on: (1) the type and volume of food services VA provides; (2) how VA provides food services; (3) the cost VA incurs; and (4) the revenues VA generates from sales of excess food services."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Emergency Steel Guarantee Loan Board's and the Emergency Gas and Oil Guaranteed Loan Board's new rules on the Emergency Steel Guarantee Loan Program and the Emergency Oil and Gas Guaranteed Loan Program. GAO noted that: (1) the rules would establish the procedures for providing guarantees of up to $1 billion in loans for qualified steel and iron ore companies and $500 million in loans for qualified oil and gas companies; (2) both programs will be administered by both Boards; (3) prior to the issuance of the loan guarantee and while any guarantee is outstanding, the company must agree to permit an audit by GAO or its designee, and an independent auditor acceptable to the Boards; (4) audited financial statements are required to be submitted with an application; (5) the final rules have an announced effective date of December 27, 1999; and (6) both the Emergency Steel Guarantee Loan Board and the Emergency Oil and Gas Guaranteed Loan Board complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) new rule on the regulation of takeovers and security holder communications. GAO noted that: (1) the rule would revise the regulations applicable to takeover transactions (including tender offers, mergers, acquisitions, and similar extraordinary transactions) to permit significantly more communications before the time a mandated disclosure document must be publicly filed with the SEC; (2) in addition, the rule balances the treatment of cash and stock tender offers, simplifies and centralizes disclosure requirements, and eliminates existing regulatory inconsistencies in merger and tender offers; and (3) SEC complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO provided information on interjurisdictional adoption issues, focusing on the: (1) number of foster children who are available and waiting for an adoptive home to be identified; (2) actions taken by state and county child welfare agencies and nonprofit organizations to improve the adoption process when prospective adoptive families and foster children live in different jurisdictions; and (3) actions taken by the federal government to improve the adoption process when prospective adoptive families and foster children live in different jurisdictions."

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) new rule on cross-border tender and exchange offers, business combinations, and rights offerings. GAO noted that: (1) the rule contains tender offer and Securities Act registration exemptive rules for cross-border tender and exchange offers, business combinations, and rights offerings relating to the securities of foreign companies; (2) the purpose of the exemptions is to facilitate U.S. investor participation in these types of transactions; and (3) SEC complied with applicable requirements in promulgating the rule."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO determined: (1) the extent to which the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) had established adequate loan origination procedures and consistently applied them to determine whether loan applicants comply with the Direct Endorsement (DE) program's statutory, regulatory, and eligibility requirements and have any outstanding delinquent federal debt; and (2) whether HUD's Management and Marketing (M&M) contractors were adequately documenting the actions taken to preserve, protect, and maintain HUD's foreclosed properties."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the tax expenses associated with building the Department of Energy's Spallation Neutron Source project at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, focusing on whether it would be less expensive to build the project at any of the other participating national laboratories."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the resources and selected accomplishments of five inspectors general for fiscal years 1992 through 1998."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the: (1) extent to which the accuracy of the 1990 census address counts varied by geographic area; and (2) difficulties that the Bureau of the Census faces in building a quality address list."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)."

Semiweekly newspaper from Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas that includes local, national, and campus news along with advertising.

We report a novel sol-gel dip-coating process to form dual-layer microporous silica membranes with improved membrane performance and reproducibility. First, we deposit a surfactant-templated silica (STS) intermediate layer on top of a commercial {gamma}-alumina support both to improve its ''surface finish'' and to prevent a subsequently deposited microporous overlayer from penetrating into the support. Second, membranes are processed under clean room conditions to avoid dust contamination and, third, membranes are vacuum-calcined to promote further pore shrinkage and impart surface hydrophobicity. The resulting asymmetric membrane exhibits a gradual change in pore diameter from 50{angstrom} ({gamma}-alumina support layer) to 10-12{angstrom} (STS intermediate layer), and then to 3-4{angstrom} (30nm thick, ultramicroporous silica top-layer). Compared to a single-layer process using only the microporous overlayer, the dual-layer process improves both flux and selectivity. For the industrially important problem of natural gas purification, the combined CO{sub 2} flux [(3{approx} 0.5) x 10{sup {minus}4} cm{sup 3}(STP)/(s{center_dot}cm{sup 2}{center_dot}cm-Hg)] and CO{sub 2}/CH{sub 4} separation factors [200{approx}600] are superior to all previously reported values for separation of a 50/50 (v/v) CO{sub 2}/CH{sub 4} gas mixture. In addition, the membrane selectively separated hydrogen from a simulated reformate from partial oxidation of methanol as evidenced by a high concentration of hydrogen recovery.

{sup 13}C-enriched polyethylene was subjected to {gamma}-irradiation in the presence of air at 25 and 80 C for total doses ranging from 71 to 355 kGy. Significant quantities of hydroperoxides were detected in the 25 C irradiated sample by {sup 13}C magic angle spinning NMR spectroscopy. This method of detection was performed on the solid polymer and required no chemical derivatization or addition of solvent. The chemical stability and subsequent products of the hydroperoxide species were studied by annealing the irradiated samples in air at temperatures ranging from 22 to 110 C. A time-temperature superposition analysis provided an activation energy of 108 kJ/mol for the hydroperoxide decomposition process. The primary products of hydroperoxide decomposition were ketones and secondary alcohols with lesser amounts of acids and esters. EPR measurements suggest that the reactive hydroperoxide species reside in the amorphous phase of polyethylene, consistent with degradation occurring in the amorphous phase.

The cost effective radiological classification and disposal of solid materials with potential volume contamination, in accordance with applicable U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Orders, suffers from an inability to unambiguously distinguish among transuranic waste, low-level waste, and unconditional-release materials in a generic way allowing in-situ measurement and verification. Depending on a material''s classification, disposal costs can vary by a hundred-fold. With these large costs at risk, the issues involved in making defensible decisions are ripe for closer scrutiny. In many cases, key issues can be easily resolved by a combination of process information, some simple measurements, and calculational predictions from a computer model for radiation shielding. The proper classification and disposal of many solid wastes requires a measurement regime that is able to show compliance with a variety of institutional and regulatory contamination limits. Ultimate responsibility for this, of course, rests with radiological control or health physics organization of the individual site, but there are many measurements which can be performed by operations and generation organizations to simplify the process and virtually guarantee acceptance. Although this is not possible for all potential solid wastes, there are many that do lend themselves to such measures, particularly some of large volumes and …

The OBOE series of experiments presents a new fielding concept for LLNL subcritical experiments. An experimental alcove will be reused for many different experiments. Each individual experiment will be conducted within a steel experimental vessel. After each experiment, the vessel will be moved to the back of the alcove and entombed in grout. The alcove is designed with sufficient space to entomb 12 experiment vessels. Each experiment in the OBOE series of experiments is composed of one experimental package. Each experimental package will have high explosive (HE) and special nuclear material (SNM) in a subcritical assembly. Each experimental package will be placed in a steel experimental vessel within the OBOE zero-room. Each experiment will be detonated inside its experimental vessel in the OBOE zero-room that is formed by a steel and concrete barrier at the entrance to the U1a.102C drift. The containment plan for the OBOE series of experiments utilizes a two containment vessel concept. The first containment vessel is formed by the primary containment barrier that seals the U1a.102C drift. The second containment vessel is formed by the secondary containment barrier in the U1a.100 drift. While it is likely that the experiment vessel will contain the SNM from an …

Research activities underway to evaluate potential consequences of climate change and variability on the agriculture, water resources, and other U.S. sectors were mandated by the Global Change Research Act of 1990. These activities are being carried out in a public-private partnership under the guidance of the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) have been using integrated assessment methodologies to appraise the possible impacts of global warming and climatic variability on the behavior of managed and natural systems. This interim PNNL report contributes to the U.S. National Assessment process with an analysis of the modeled impacts of climatic changes projected by the Hadley/UKMO (HadCM2) general circulation model on agricultural productivity and selected environmental variables. The construction of climatic data for the simulation runs followed general guidelines established by the U.S. National Assessment Synthesis Team. The baseline climate data were obtained from national records for the period 1961 - 1990. The scenario runs for two future periods (2025 - 2030 and 2090 - 2099) were extracted from results of a HadCM2 run distributed at a half-degree spatial resolution. The Erosion Productivity Impact Calculator (EPIC) was used to simulate the behavior of 204 "representative farms" (i.e., soil-climate-management …

Fire is a significant hazard in most industrial and nuclear facilities. As such it is important that adequate safeguards be provided to ensure a responsible level of safety. In determining this level of safety it is necessary to know three key parameters. These are the frequency of the incipient fire, the probability that a fire will grow from the incipient stage to cause the potential consequence, and the potential consequences (i.e., losses) from an unwanted fire. Consequence predictions have been modeled and evaluated extensively and can be readily confirmed by comparison with historic loss records. These loss records can also provide significant insight into the probability that given a fire it grows to create a defined consequence. The other key parameter, frequency, is the focus of this report. this report determines an alternative method for estimating Savannah River Site (SRS) building fire frequencies as a function of floor area to the linear method previously used. The frequency of an incipient fire is not easily derived from existing fire loss records. This occurs because the fire loss records do not make reference to the sample population. To derive an initiating frequency both the number of events (incipient fires) and the population …

The cavity flood system is designed to be the primary safeguard for the integrity of the blanket modules and target assemblies during loss of coolant accidents, LOCA''s. In the unlikely event that the internal flow passages in a blanket module or a target assembly dryout, decay heat in the metal structures will be dissipated to the cavity flood system through the module or assembly walls. This study supplements the two previous studies by demonstrating that the cavity flood system can adequately cool the blanket modules when the cavity vessel beam window breaks.