Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "While private-sector pensions help millions of Americans achieve retirement income security, the number of private defined benefit (DB) plans1 has declined substantially over the past two decades. Recently, those concerned with the viability of the private defined benefit pension system point to significant increases in pension contributions plan sponsors must make and to the fact that most plans are currently underfunded. The underfunding of plans, due in large part to the sharp decline in the stock market combined with a general decline in interest rates, has increased substantially. The Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), whose single-employer insurance program insures the benefits of over 34 million workers and retirees in private defined benefit plans, estimated that the total underfunding exceeded $350 billion as of September 4, 2003. According to employer groups, plan sponsors face inflated and unpredictable pension contributions that have greatly diminished the attractiveness of maintaining DB plans. As a result, employer groups have suggested that plan sponsors may consider freezing their plans rather than confronting the possibility of increased pension contributions. A plan "freeze" could have adverse consequences for the retirement income security of participants because new …

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Given the ubiquitous presence of H and N isotopic anomalies in interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) and their probable association with carbonaceous material, the lack of similar isotopic anomalies in C has been a major conundrum. We report here the first observation of correlated N and C isotopic anomalies in organic matter within an anhydrous IDP. The {sup 15}N composition of the anomalous region is the highest seen to date in an IDP and is accompanied by a moderate depletion in {sup 13}C. Our observations establish the presence of hetero-atomic organic compounds of presolar origin among the constant flux of carbonaceous material accreting to the terrestrial planets within IDPs. Theoretical models suggest that low temperature formation of organic compounds in cold interstellar molecular clouds does produce C and N fractionations, but it remains to be seen if these models can reproduce the specific effects we observe here.

Semi-weekly newspaper from Clifton, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Semi-weekly newspaper from Seminole, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with extensive advertising.

OAK-B135 Interest in wind power development is growing as a means of expanding local economies. Such development holds promise as a provider of short-term employment during facility construction and long-term employment from ongoing facility operation and maintenance (O&M). It may also add to the supply of electric power in the area and support some expansion of the local economy through ripple effects resulting from initial increases in jobs and income. These ripple effects stem from subsequent expenditures for goods and services made possible by first-round income from the development, and are expressed in terms of a multiplier. If the local economy offers a wide range of goods and services the resulting multiplier can be substantial--as much as three or four. If not, then much of the initial income will leave the local economy to buy goods and services from elsewhere. Loss of initial income to other locales is referred to as a leakage. While there is a growing body of information about the local impacts of wind power, the economic impacts from existing wind power developments have not been thoroughly and consistently analyzed. Northwest Economic Associates, under contract to the National Wind Coordinating Committee (NWCC), conducted a study and produced …

Ammonia (NH{sub 3}) is the only significant gaseous base in the atmosphere and it has a variety of impacts as an atmospheric pollutant, including the formation of secondary aerosol particles: ammonium sulfate and ammonium nitrate. NH{sub 3} preferentially forms ammonium sulfate; consequently ammonium nitrate aerosol formation may be limited by the availability of NH{sub 3}. Understanding the impact of emissions of oxides of sulfur and nitrogen on visibility, therefore, requires accurately determined ammonia emission inventories for use in air quality models, upon which regulatory and policy decisions increasingly depend. This report presents an emission inventory of NH{sub 3} for the state of Wyoming. The inventory is temporally and spatially resolved at the monthly and county level, and is comprised of emissions from individual sources in ten categories: livestock, fertilizer, domestic animals, wild animals, wildfires, soil, industry, mobile sources, humans, and publicly owned treatment works. The Wyoming NH{sub 3} inventory was developed using the Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) Ammonia Model as framework. Current Wyoming-specific activity data and emissions factors obtained from state agencies and published literature were assessed and used as inputs to the CMU Ammonia Model. Biogenic emissions from soils comprise about three-quarters of the Wyoming NH{sub 3} inventory, though …

OAK-B135 Interest in wind power development is growing as a means of expanding local economies. Such development holds promise as a provider of short-term employment during facility construction and long-term employment from ongoing facility operation and maintenance. It may also support some expansion of the local economy through ripple effects resulting from initial increases in jobs and income. However, there is a need for a theoretically sound method for assessing the economic impacts of wind power development. These ripple effects stem from subsequent expenditures for goods and services made possible by first-round income from the development, and are expressed in terms of a multiplier. If the local economy offers a wide range of goods and services the resulting multiplier can be substantial--as much as three or four. If not, then much of the initial income will leave the local economy to buy goods and services from elsewhere. Loss of initial income to other locales is referred to as a leakage. Northwest Economic Associates (NEA), under contract to the National Wind Coordinating Committee (NWCC), investigated three case study areas in the United States where wind power projects were recently developed. The full report, ''Assessing the Economic Development Impacts of Wind Power,'' …

The Yucca Mountain Project is entering a the license application (LA) stage in its mission to develop the nation's first underground nuclear waste repository. After a number of years of gathering data related to site characterization, including activities ranging from laboratory and site investigations, to numerical modeling of processes associated with conditions to be encountered in the future repository, the Project is realigning its activities towards the License Application preparation. At the current stage, the major efforts are directed at translating the results of scientific investigations into sets of data needed to support the design, and to fulfill the licensing requirements and the repository design activities. This document addresses the program need to address specific technical questions so that an assessment can be made about the suitability and adequacy of data to license and construct a repository at the Yucca Mountain Site. In July 2002, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) published an Integrated Issue Resolution Status Report (NRC 2002). Included in this report were the Repository Design and Thermal-Mechanical Effects (RDTME) Key Technical Issues (KTI). Geotechnical agreements were formulated to resolve a number of KTI subissues, in particular, RDTME KTIs 3.04, 3.05, 3.07, and 3.19 relate to the physical, …

OAK-B135 The physics goal of this project is to measure forward production of neutrons and photons produced by high-energy proton beams striking a variety of targets. This will provide data essential to proton radiography. This work is being carried out in conjunction with the Fermilab Experiment 907 (MIPP) collaboration including physicists from Lawrence Livermore Laboratory. Our group is responsible for the E907 forward neutron/photon calorimeter. The project is on track to meet its technical milestones, though the overall schedule at Fermilab has slipped. The electromagnetic calorimeter and the hadron calorimeter were both assembled and ready for testing with beam in December 2003.

The primary objective of this characterization was to determine if there was any evidence for the accumulation of fissile material relative to the element Fe in the deposits. Secondary objectives were to determine their chemical and crystalline compositions and determine what species could be leached from the deposits and appear in condensate water going to the SRS Tank Farm system.

The purpose of this model report is to document the components of the site-scale saturated-zone flow model at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, in accordance with administrative procedure (AP)-SIII.lOQ, ''Models''. This report provides validation and confidence in the flow model that was developed for site recommendation (SR) and will be used to provide flow fields in support of the Total Systems Performance Assessment (TSPA) for the License Application. The output from this report provides the flow model used in the ''Site-Scale Saturated Zone Transport'', MDL-NBS-HS-000010 Rev 01 (BSC 2003 [162419]). The Site-Scale Saturated Zone Transport model then provides output to the SZ Transport Abstraction Model (BSC 2003 [164870]). In particular, the output from the SZ site-scale flow model is used to simulate the groundwater flow pathways and radionuclide transport to the accessible environment for use in the TSPA calculations. Since the development and calibration of the saturated-zone flow model, more data have been gathered for use in model validation and confidence building, including new water-level data from Nye County wells, single- and multiple-well hydraulic testing data, and new hydrochemistry data. In addition, a new hydrogeologic framework model (HFM), which incorporates Nye County wells lithology, also provides geologic data for corroboration and confidence …

The objective of this project is to develop a sonic well performance enhancement technology that focuses on near wellbore formations. In order to successfully achieve this objective, a three-year project has been defined with each year consisting of four tasks. The first task is the laboratory-scale study whose goal is to determine the underlying principles of the technology. The second task will develop a scale-up mathematical model to serve as the design guide for tool development. The third task is to develop effective transducers that can operate with variable frequency so that the most effective frequencies can be applied in any given situation. The system, assembled as part of the production string, ensures delivery of sufficient sonic energy to penetrate the near-wellbore formation. The last task is the actual field testing of the tool. The first year of the project has been completed.

OAK-B135 Results of laboratory experiments are presented on the dissolution behavior of the mineral, goethite, in the presence of hydroxamate siderophores. Data also are presented on the removal of lead adsorbed on goethite by siderophores.

This report summarizes the results of a research project conducted to develop new methods to label bacterial cells so that they could be tracked and enumerated as they move in the subsurface after they are introduced into the groundwater (i.e., during bioaugmentation). Labeling methods based on stable isotopes of carbon (13C) and vital fluorescent stains were developed. Both approaches proved successful with regards to the ability to effectively label bacterial cells. Several methods for enumeration of fluorescently-labeled cells were developed and validated, including near-real time microplate spectrofluorometry that could be performed in the field. However, the development of a novel enumeration method for the 13C-enriched cells, chemical reaction interface/mass spectrometry (CRIMS), was not successful due to difficulties with the proposed instrumentation. Both labeling methodologies were successfully evaluated and validated during laboratory- and field-scale bacterial transport experiments. The methods developed during this research should be useful for future bacterial transport work as well as other microbial ecology research in a variety of environments. A full bibliography of research articles and meeting presentations related to this project is included (including web links to abstracts and full text reprints).

Weekly newspaper from Holliday, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

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

Weekly newspaper from Yoakum, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Funeral program for Mrs. Dorothy Jean Wilson Lewis, born July 8, 1928 and died December 12, 2003. The funeral was held Wednesday, December 17, 2003 at Second Baptist Church, officiated by Rev. Dr. Robert L. Jemerson, Pastor. Funeral arrangements were made through Lewis Funeral Home and she was buried in Meadowlawn Memorial Park in San Antonio, Texas.

We examine 300 eV ICF capsules with ablators of Ge-doped CH, and consider the 2-D parameter space of ablator thickness and DT-ice thickness. At each point in this parameter space, we optimize the drive for a low entropy implosion. At five points in this parameter space, we run 2-D sensitivity studies with radiation drive asymmetries with both constant and time-varying Legendre coefficient P{sub 2}, P{sub 4}, P{sub 6}, and P{sub 8} to determine how much asymmetry the capsule can tolerate before the yield degrades substantially. We find that the thinner capsules with higher implosion velocities are more tolerant of drive asymmetries.

The National Ignition Facility (NIF), operating at green (2{omega}) light, has the potential to drive ignition targets with significantly more energy than the 1.8 MJ it will produce in its baseline, blue (3{omega}) operations. This results in a greatly increased ''target design space'', providing a number of exciting opportunities for fusion research including the possibility of ignition experiments with capsules absorbing energies in the vicinity of 1 MJ. We report the progress made exploring 2{omega} for NIF ignition, including potential 2{omega} laser performance, 2{omega} ignition target designs and 2{omega} Laser Plasma Interaction (LPI) studies.

This report contains an overview of the library services and technology act.

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This report provides Head Start issues on the 108th congress, a federal program that has provided comprehensive early childhood development services to low-income children since 1965.