A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Smithsonian is the world's largest museum complex and research organization, with 18 museums and galleries, 10 science centers, and a zoological park. The age of the structures, past inattention to maintenance needs, and high visitation have left its facilities in need of revitalization and repair. Currently, the Smithsonian estimates $2.3 billion in costs for revitalization, construction, and maintenance projects between 2005 and 2013. This report addresses (1) how the current condition of the Smithsonian's facilities has affected access to the collections, and the collections themselves; (2) what changes the Smithsonian has made to its organization, practices, and prioritization processes to improve its facilities management; and (3) the estimated costs and status of the Smithsonian's facilities projects and their funding sources."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In accordance with the President's Management Agenda, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has sponsored initiatives to promote electronic government--the use of information technology, such as Web-based Internet applications, to enhance government services. Generally, these "e-gov" initiatives do not have direct appropriations but depend on a variety of funding sources, including monetary contributions from participating agencies. GAO was asked to review the funding of e-gov initiatives that relied on such contributions: specifically, to determine, for fiscal years 2003 and 2004, whether agencies made contributions in the amounts planned and to determine the timing of these contributions."

Gravity waves arise in gravitationally stratified compressible flows at low Mach and Froude numbers. These waves can have a negligible influence on the overall dynamics of the fluid but, for numerical methods where the acoustic waves are treated implicitly, they impose a significant restriction on the time step. A way to alleviate this restriction is to filter out the modes corresponding to the fastest gravity waves so that a larger time step can be used. This paper presents a filtering strategy of the fully compressible equations based on normal mode analysis that is used throughout the simulation to compute the fast dynamics and that is able to damp only fast gravity modes.

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The objective of this spent fuel burnup credit work was to study and describe a VVER-440 reactor spent fuel assembly (FA) initial state before irradiation, its operational irradiation history and the resulting radionuclide distribution in the fuel assembly after irradiation. This work includes the following stages: (1) to pick out and select a specific spent (irradiated) FA for examination; (2) to describe the FA initial state before irradiation; (3) to describe the irradiation history, including thermal calculations; (4) to examine the burnup distribution of select radionuclides along the FA height and cross-section; (5) to examine the radionuclide distributions; (6) to determine the Kr-85 release into the plenum; (7) to select and prepare FA rod specimens for destructive examinations; (8) to determine the radionuclide compositions, isotope masses and burnup in the rod specimens; and (9) to analyze, document and process the results. The specific workscope included the destructive assay (DA) of spent fuel assembly rod segments with an {approx}38.5 MWd/KgU burnup from a single VVER-440 fuel assembly from the Novovorenezh reactor in Russia. Based on irradiation history criteria, four rods from the fuel assembly were selected and removed from the assembly for examination. Next, 8 sections were cut from the four …

We present modeled neutron capture cross sections relevant to stellar production of {sup 60}Fe. Systematics for the input parameters required by the Hauser-Feshbach statistical model are developed based on measured data in the local region of the isotopic plane (20 {le} Z {le} 29, 43 {le} A {le} 65). These parameters and used to calculate reaction cross sections and rates for select target isotopes. Modeled cross sections are compared to experimental data where available. The {sup 59}Fe(n,{gamma}){sup 60}Fe and {sup 60}Fe(n, {gamma}){sup 61}Fe rates are compared to previous calculations. A brief discussion of errors related to the modeling is provided. We conclude by investigating the sensitivity of stellar production of {sup 26}Al and {sup 60}Fe to the {sup 59}Fe(n,{gamma}){sup 60}Fe and {sup 60}Fe(n,{gamma})61Fe reaction rates using a single zone model.

In the last few years, it was clearly shown that cross-field transport in the far SOL could be significantly faster than previously thought and that this transport exhibited convective rather then diffusive features. As a result, in high density cases the plasma coming into the SOL from the core recycled at the wall of the tokamak main chamber, rather than flowing into the divertor and recycling there, as the conventional picture of edge plasma flows would suggest. It was also shown that coherent structures, often called ''blobs'', played very important roles in the particle and energy transport inside the SOL region for both L and H confinement modes. The blobs seen in the SOL are extended along the magnetic field lines and have a plasma density two to three times higher than the ambient SOL plasma density and poloidal and radial scales of about 1 cm. In experimental measurements, the blobs propagated in radial direction towards the chamber wall with a velocity {approx} 10{sup 5} cm/s, and the contribution of non-diffusive flux associated with transport of blobs to the total particle flux in the far SOL attained 70-90%. In addition, recent assessment of experimental data and theoretical models shows that …

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This report is on Balkan Cooperation on War Crimes Issues: 2005 Update.

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The growing and diverse nature of recreation on federal lands has increased the challenge of balancing recreation with other land uses, and balancing different types of recreation. Motorized recreation has been particularly controversial, with issues centering on access and environmental impacts. The 109th Congress may consider legislation and conduct oversight on issues involving recreation on federal lands, including traditional recreational pursuits and newer forms of motorized recreation. Other federal land recreation issues of possible interest include recreational uses within the National Wildlife Refuge System, recreation at federal water, recreation fees, and Grand Canyon Colorado River management.

The growing and diverse nature of recreation on federal lands has increased the challenge of balancing recreation with other land uses, and balancing different types of recreation. Motorized recreation has been particularly controversial, with issues centering on access and environmental impacts. The 109th Congress may consider legislation and conduct oversight on issues involving recreation on federal lands, including traditional recreational pursuits and newer forms of motorized recreation. Other federal land recreation issues of possible interest include recreational uses within the National Wildlife Refuge System, recreation at federal water, recreation fees, and Grand Canyon Colorado River management.

The construction of the National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC), with an estimated construction cost of $128 million, will be the The first Department of Homeland Security laboratory specifically focused on biodefense. Its programmatic contents and component organization are unclear, as conflicting the information has been provided during each of the past three budget cycles. Congressional oversight of programs, especially those performed in federal facilities for homeland security purposes, is considered key to maintaining transparency in biodefense. Policy issues that may interest Congress include funding for the construction of the NBACC facility, transparency of research activities performed through the center, and the potential for duplication of effort between the Department of Homeland Security and other federal agencies. This report will be updated as circumstances warrant.

This report discusses the ongoing debate about whether or not to approve energy development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Current law forbids energy leasing in the Refuge. This report addresses several legislative options on the issue, as well as policymakers' arguments for and against development, especially in the wake of increasing terrorism since 2000-2001.

China’s economy continues to be a concern to U.S. policymakers. On the one hand, China’s economic growth presents huge opportunities for U.S. exporters. On the other hand, the surge in Chinese exports to the United States has put competitive pressures on many U.S. industries. Many U.S. policymakers have argued that greater efforts should be made to pressure China to fully implement its WTO commitments and to change various economic policies deemed harmful to U.S. economic interests, such as its currency peg and its use of subsidies to support its SOEs. In addition, recent bids by Chinese state-owned firms to purchase various U.S. firms have raised concerns among Members over the impact such acquisitions could have on U.S. national and economic security.

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Damage to or destruction of the nation’s water supply and water quality infrastructure by a terrorist attack could disrupt the delivery of vital human services in this country, threatening public health and the environment or possibly causing loss of life. Interest in such problems has increased greatly since September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in New York City and at the Pentagon.

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The Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (OASDI) program, commonly referred to as Social Security, is facing a long-term fiscal deficit. In response to this challenge, President Bush has made Social Security reform the key focus of his domestic social policy agenda during his second term. On February 2, the President issued a document, “Strengthening Social Security for the 21st Century,” which lays out the specifications for a system of voluntary individual accounts to be phased-in as part of a reformed Social Security system. Administration officials concede that the individual accounts themselves do not alleviate the solvency problem. The individual account proposal would likely make the solvency problem worse over the next 75 years. The President has not yet specified how the additional shortfall due to the individual accounts will be financed. The President has stated that these accounts are just one piece of a comprehensive Social Security reform package and that additional measures will be needed to achieve long-term solvency. At the time of this report’s publication, the President has not specified what these additional measures might be.

This report evaluates that assertion, and considers other effects China’s peg has on the U.S. economy. These include the beneficial effects on consumption, interest rates, and investment spending. Nationwide, these effects should offset job loss in the trade sector, at least in the medium term. Several bills have been introduced in the 109th Congress to address China’s currency policy, including H.R. 1216, H.R. 1498, H.R. 1575, S. 14, S. 295, S. 377, and S. 593; some would impose trade sanctions against China unless it accepted a market-based system of currency valuation.

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