16th National Conference of Black Physics Students - The agenda and its report.

This report provides an overview of the 2002 farm bill and an update status of the farm bill.

This report examines the increased imports of Japanese vehicles in context of a policy by the Japanese government to reduce the exchange rate of the yen. The report also examines other reasons for the increase in Japanese vehicle imports such as U.S. manufacturers not building the type of car primarily bought by consumers.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas Senate and House of Representatives granting the legislature permission to adjourn for more than three days during the period beginning on Wednesday, March 7, 2007, and ending on Monday, March 12, 2007.

This is a final Acceptance for Beneficial Use (ABU) for Pumping and Instrumentation Control (PIC) skid ''N''. PIC skid ''N'' is ready for pumping tank U-109. All the testing and documentation has been completed as required on the AE3U checklist. This AE3U covers only the readiness of the PIC skid ''N''. Other U-farm preparations including dilution tank fabrication, portable exhauster readiness, leak detection, valve pit preparation, and the Operation Control Station readiness are not part of this ABU. PIC skid ''N'' is a new skid fabricated and tested at Site Fabrication Services. The skid controls the jet pump and monitors various instruments associated with the pumping operation. This monitoring includes leak detection along the waste transfer route and flammable gases in the pump pit. This Acceptance for Beneficial Use documents that Pumping Instrumentation and Control (PIC) skid ''N'' is ready for field use. This document does not cover the field installation or operational testing.

The Constitution of the United States makes no specific allowance for any one of the co-equal branches to have access to information held by the others and contains no provision expressly establishing a procedure for, or a right of, public access to government information. Nonetheless, Congress has legislated various public access laws. These include two records access statutes — the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act — and two meetings access statutes — the Federal Advisory Committee Act and the Government in the Sunshine Act. This report provides background on the issue of government transparency and examines relevant litigation.

We present high resolution imaging observations of a sample of previously unidentified far-infrared galaxies at z < 0.3. The objects were selected by cross-correlating the IRAS Faint Source Catalog with the VLA FIRST catalog and the HST Guide Star Catalog to allow for adaptive optics observations. We found two new ULIGs (with L{sub FIR} {ge} 10{sup 12} L{sub {circle_dot}}) and 19 new LIGs (with L{sub FIR} {ge} 10{sup 11} L{sub {circle_dot}}). Twenty of the galaxies in the sample were imaged with either the Lick or Keck adaptive optics systems in H or K{prime}. Galaxy morphologies were determined using the two dimensional fitting program GALFIT and the residuals examined to look for interesting structure. The morphologies reveal that at least 30% are involved in tidal interactions, with 20% being clear mergers. An additional 50% show signs of possible interaction. Line ratios were used to determine powering mechanism; of the 17 objects in the sample showing clear emission lines--four are active galactic nuclei and seven are starburst galaxies. The rest exhibit a combination of both phenomena.

This report documents the composite analysis performed on the two active SRS low-level radioactive waste disposal facilities. The facilities are the Z-Area Saltstone Disposal Facility and the E-Area Vaults Disposal Facility.

This report provides an overview of the Age Discrimination in Employment Act (ADEA) and discusses current legal and legislative developments.

The 107th Congress is considering trade issues with implications for the U.S. agricultural sector. Trade in agricultural commodities and food products affects farm income and rural employment, and it also generates economic activity beyond the farm gate. With agricultural export sales the equivalent of one-quarter of farm income, some policymakers view U.S. efforts to develop market opportunities overseas as vital to the sector’s financial health. Decisions taken by the Bush Administration, and actions taken by Congress, thus will affect the outlook for agricultural trade.

The prospect of future growth in demand for agricultural products makes China’s accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) an important issue for the U.S. agricultural sector. Most agricultural interest groups strongly support China’s entry into the WTO, because they think it will increase U.S. agricultural exports and enhance farm income. In the 107th Congress, attention is focused on China’s final WTO accession negotiations where differences over agriculture have become an issue.

This report discusses the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) proposed rule on the effect of interstate transport of air pollutants on non-attainment of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS). The Interstate Air Quality (IAQ) rule suggests a region-wide emissions cap to be implemented in two phases.

This report consists of the America competes act and the FY2009 budget.

This report talks about Application of a Dynamic Stress Theory to Pike Leaks

Fifty years ago, the Savannah River Site (SRS) was built to produce nuclear materials. These operations impacted air, soil, groundwater, ecology and the local environment. Throughout its history, SRS has addressed these contamination issues directly and has maintained a strong commitment to environmental stewardship. The site boasts many environmental firsts. Notably, SRS was the first major DOE facility to perform a baseline ecological assessment. This pioneering effort, by Ruth Patrick and the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, was performed during SRS planning and construction in the early 1950's. This unique early example sets the stage for subsequent efforts. Since that time, the scientists and engineers at SRS have proactively identified environmental problems as they occurred and have skillfully developed elegant and efficient solutions.

A report of an archaeological survey of the proposed Billingsley West Cell in Coppell, Texas.

Archaeological survey report of the proposed site of the SH 289 Wetland Mitigation Project in Grayson County, Texas, performed to determine whether any historic resources were located on the proposed construction sites.

This report describes the Future Combat System (FCS) program, which was to be the Army's major research, development, and acquisition program consisting of 14 manned and unmanned systems linked by an extensive communications and information network.

Energy reduction goals for Federal agencies were first established in the National Energy Conservation Policy Act of 1988, and directed 10{percent} reduction in facility energy use based on a 1985 baseline. Since that time, Federal sites have been actively seeking and implementing a wide variety of energy-efficiency measures in facilities across the Federal sector. In the intervening years this energy reduction goal has been progressively increased to 20{percent} through legislation (Public Law 102-486, The Energy Policy Act of 1992) and a number of Executive Orders. Executive Order 13123, Greening the Government Through Efficient Energy management (signed June 3, 1999), further increased the facility energy-efficiency improvement goal from 30{percent} in 2005 to 35{percent} by 2010 relative to the 1985 baseline.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The major network carriers dominate traffic at most of their large hubs and extensive evidence exists that fares in markets where competition is absent are consistently above competitive levels. GAO believes that the oversight scheme contemplated when the industry was deregulated--with antitrust enforcement by the Department of Justice (DOJ) and oversight of unfair trade practices by the Department of Transportation (DOT)--has not been entirely successful in preserving and ensuring competition. Although the current legislative scheme grants explicit authority for DOT to regulate unfair competitive practices, the legislation does give DOT substantial leeway on the scope of its action. Thus, with the range of competitive challenges confronting the industry and directly affecting consumers, especially in the face of unprecedented industry consolidation, GAO believes there is merit in the overall intent of the proposed Aviation Competition Restoration Act to direct DOT to actively monitor the state of competition in the industry and to institute remedial actions as appropriate."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Aviation Operations Monitoring Service (NAOMS), begun by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in 1997, aimed to develop a methodology that could be used to survey a wide range of aviation personnel to monitor aviation safety. NASA expected NAOMS surveys to be permanently implemented and to complement existing federal and industry air safety databases by generating ongoing data to track event rates into the future. The project never met these goals and was curtailed in January 2007. GAO was asked to answer these questions: (1) What were the nature and history of NASA's NAOMS project? (2) Was the survey planned, designed, and implemented in accordance with generally accepted survey principles? (3) What steps would make a new survey similar to NAOMS better and more useful? To complete this work, GAO reviewed and analyzed material related to the NAOMS project and interviewed officials from NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the National Transportation Safety Board. GAO also compared the development of the NAOMS survey with guidelines issued from the Office of Management and Budget, and asked external experts to review and assess the survey's …

On February 27, 2003, House Judiciary Chairman James Sensenbrenner introduced H.R. 975, the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2003. Subcommittee hearings were held on March 4, and the legislation was marked-up and ordered to be reported by the full committee on March 12. This report provides an overview of selected major provisions of the legislation.

The FY 2005 program was initiated on March 31, 2005, and concluded on July 16, 2005. The FY 2005 program initially included 25 wells requiring workover (P&A, Magenta reconfiguration, cleaning and keeping). During the process, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) requested transfer of two wells (H-7c and H-8c) to their ownership for future livestock watering. These wells were transferred to the BLM through execution of Form wr-03, Declaration of Owner of Underground Water Rights, between the New Mexico Office of the State Engineer (NMOSE), the BLM, and the DOE Carlsbad Field Office (CBFO). One well (H-2b2) was cleaned and retained as a Culebra monitor well for continued use. One well (H-3d) was converted to a shallow well to monitor the formational contact between the Dewey Lake Redbeds Formation and the Santa Rosa Formation in support of the DP-831 discharge permit monitoring program. Nine dual-completion wells were reconfigured as Magenta-only monitor wells, and 12 wells were plugged and abandoned permanently. This report presents the summary in the same order that the wells were worked in the field.

The methods and codes employed in the U.S. Heavy Ion Fusion program to simulate the beams in an Integrated Research Experiments (IRE) facility and a fusion driver are presented in overview. A new family of models incorporating accelerating module impedance, multi-beam, and self-magnetic effects is described, and initial WARP3d particle simulations of beams using these models are presented. Finally, plans for streamlining the machine-design simulation sequence, and for simulating beam dynamics from the source to the target in a consistent and comprehensive manner, are described.