Animal identification refers to marking individual or groups of farm animals so that they can be tracked from birth to slaughter. Animal identification is one segment of meat traceability, generally the tracking of identifiable products through the entire marketing chain to the ultimate consumer. This report details an overview of animal identification in the U.S., current programs to enforce animal identification, development of a National Identification Plan, the Foreign Trade Commission, and other selected issues.

The B-515 WAA is located in the southeast quadrant of the LLNL Main Site (see Figure D-1) along the west side of Building 515 (B-515). Hazardous wastes may be stored at the B-515 WAA for 90 days or less, until transferred to the appropriate Radioactive and Hazardous Waste Management (RHWM) facility or other permitted treatment, storage or disposal facility (TSDF). The design storage capacity of this WAA is 4,840 gallons. This appendix is designed to provide information specific to the Building 515 Waste Accumulation Area (B-515 WAA), a waste storage area. This appendix is not designed to be used as a sole source of information. All general information that is not specific to the B-515 WAA is included in the Contingency Plan for Waste Accumulation Areas, dated July 2004, and should be referenced.

This project is concerned with the kinetics and mechanisms of aromatics oxidation and the growth process to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) of increasing size, soot and fullerenes formation in flames. The overall objective of the experimental aromatics oxidation work is to extend the set of available data by measuring concentration profiles for decomposition intermediates such as phenyl, cyclopentadienyl, phenoxy or indenyl radicals which could not be measured with molecular-beam mass spectrometry to permit further refinement and testing of benzene oxidation mechanisms. The focus includes PAH radicals which are thought to play a major role in the soot formation process while their concentrations are in many cases too low to permit measurement with conventional mass spectrometry. The radical species measurements are used in critical testing and improvement of a kinetic model describing benzene oxidation and PAH growth. Thermodynamic property data of selected species are determined computationally, for instance using density functional theory (DFT). Potential energy surfaces are explored in order to identify additional reaction pathways. The ultimate goal is to understand the conversion of high molecular weight compounds to nascent soot particles, to assess the roles of planar and curved PAH and relationships between soot and fullerenes formation. The specific aims …

There is consensus that Border and Transportation Security (BTS) is a pivotal function in protecting the American people from terrorists and their instruments of destruction. The issue for Congress is how to achieve desired levels of security, while not compromising other important values in the process. This report addresses possible new approaches and policy options that might be explored by Congress to attain these goals. It is one of three CRS reports in a series that make use of analytical frameworks to better understand complex problems in BTS and to facilitate consideration of alternative policies and practices.

Border and Transportation Security (BTS) is a pivotal function in protecting the American people from terrorists and their instruments of destruction. This report addresses selected programs and policies now in place that seek to attain higher levels of BTS. It is the second in a three-part series of CRS reports that make use of analytical frameworks to better understand complex phenomena and cast them in terms that facilitate consideration of alternative policies and practices.

This report uses a series of graphical presentations to form one possible framework that might assist policy makers in understanding the complex nature of border and transportation security. It is the first in a three-part series of CRS reports that make use of analytical frameworks to better understand complex problems in border and transportation security and cast them in terms that facilitate the consideration of alternative policies and practices.

This report provides an overview of the current Title IV-E Foster Care Eligibility Review process and a discussion of state performance on available reviews conducted after the January 25,2000 rule's effective date.

Competitive sourcing is a government-wide initiative that subjects commercial activities performed by federal government employees to public-private competition. As a federal government policy, competitive sourcing debuted in 1966 with the publication of Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-76. Under the circular, commercial activities performed by federal employees are subjected to public-private competition.

The primary purpose of this technical report is to present concepts for retrieval operations, equipment to be used, scenarios under which waste retrieval operations will take place, methods for responding to potential retrieval problems, and compliance with the preclosure performance objectives of 10 CFR 63.111(a) and (b) [DIRS 156605] during the retrieval of waste packages from the subsurface repository. If a decision for retrieval is made for any or all of the waste, the waste to be retrieved would be dispositioned in accordance with the regulations applicable at the time.

Over time, the Senate has developed a series of procedures to deal with the concerns of its Members on nominations. First is the custom of senatorial courtesy, whereby Senators from the same party as the President might influence a nomination or kill it by objecting to it. This tradition has not always been absolute, but it has allowed Senators to play a fairly large role, particularly in the selection of nominees within a Senator’s home state, such as for district court judgeships.

This report discusses price support for wool and mohair, which became mandatory through legislation enacted in 1947 and in 1949. The National Wool Act of 1954 (P.L. 83-690) established direct payments for wool and mohair producers. The act’s stated purpose was to encourage production of wool because it was considered an essential and strategic commodity.

The goals of the St. Croix Tribe are to develop economically viable energy production facilities using readily available renewable biomass fuel sources at an acceptable cost per kilowatt hour ($/kWh), to provide new and meaningful permanent employment, retain and expand existing employment (logging) and provide revenues for both producers and sellers of the finished product. This is a feasibility study including an assessment of available biomass fuel, technology assessment, site selection, economics viability given the foreseeable fuel and generation costs, as well as an assessment of the potential markets for renewable energy.

This report is about Health Insurance Continuation Coverage.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Department of Homeland Security (DHS) organizations are expected to work together to protect the United States from terrorism. To support this primary mission, DHS has been acquiring billions of dollars worth of goods and services. DHS also has been working to integrate the disparate acquisition processes and systems that organizations brought with them when DHS was created 2 years ago. GAO was asked to identify (1) areas where DHS has been successful in promoting collaboration among its various organizations and (2) areas where DHS still faces challenges in integrating the acquisition function across the department. GAO was also asked to assess DHS's progress in implementing an effective review process for major, complex investments."

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A computer model was developed to simulate the spatial and chemical evolution of gaseous and aerosol chemicals released into the atmosphere. The evolution is followed over the range of a few kilometers, in environments including terrain variability, urban features including buildings, and variable winds. Submodels for both gas phase chemicals and the chemical composition of liquid and particulate aerosols are included, and preliminary tests of the model are described.

A low power polychromatic beam of microwaves is used to diagnose the behavior of turbulent fluctuations in the core of the JT-60U tokamak during the evolution of the internal transport barrier. A continuous reduction in the size of turbulent structures is observed concomitant with the reduction of the density scale length during the evolution of the internal transport barrier. The density correlation length decreases to the order of the ion gyroradius, in contrast to the much longer scale lengths observed earlier in the discharge, while the density fluctuation level remain similar to the level before transport barrier formation.

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The LLNL Plutonium Facility uses glove boxes for performing operations involving special nuclear materials (SNM) that for the most part are not connected to each other. Having standalone glove boxes mandates bag-in and bag-out operations to provide personnel safety in material transfers. The use of inexpensive disposable primary and secondary containers (i.e., food pack and paint cans) decreases operational risks by reducing glove box transfers. Typically, containers consist of produce cans, paint cans, lard cans, and egg cans; however, some cans with bolted flanges have been used for protection from oxidation or to reduce dose to the handler. The lard cans and egg cans are slip lid cans and have predominantly been used for the outermost containment, or secondary can, in the packaging configuration. For non-weapon parts the packaging has generally been, from the inner most container to the outside container as (1) the primary can, (2) a bag-out bag, (3) a poultry bag, and (4) a secondary can. This system has evolved over many years and has proven to be effective. During FY2002 through FY2004, the ''Legacy'' material projects at LLNL inspected, repackaged and processed (if necessary), approximately 1500 items, which translates to at least 3000 containers (primary and …

The present state-of-art Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) technology is based on platinum (Pt) as a catalyst for both the fuel (anode) and air (cathode) electrodes. This catalyst is highly active but susceptible to poisoning by CO, which may be present in the H{sub 2}-fuel used or may be introduced during the fuel processing. Presence of trace amount of CO and H{sub 2}S in the H{sub 2}-fuel poisons the anode irreversibly and decreases the performance of the PEMFCs. In an effort to reduce the Pt-loading and improve the PEMFC performance, we propose to synthesize a number of Pt-based binary, ternary, and quaternary electrocatalysts using Ru, Mo, Ir, Ni, and Co as a substitute for Pt. By fine-tuning the metal loadings and compositions of candidate electrocatalysts, we plan to minimize the cost and optimize the catalyst activity and performance in PEMFC. The feasibility of the novel electrocatalysts will be demonstrated in the proposed effort with gas phase CO and H{sub 2}S concentrations typical of those found in reformed fuel gas with coal/natural gas/methanol feedstocks. During this reporting period several bi-metallic electrocatalysts were synthesized using ultra-sonication. These catalysts (Pt/Ru, Pt/Mo and Pt/Ir) were tested in MEAs. From Galvonstatic study the catalytic …

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If enacted, the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act would subject prospective debtors under the U.S. Bankruptcy Code to a means test to determine whether they could liquidate under chapter 7 or reorganize under chapter 13. Large outstanding medical expenses alone will not determine eligibility to liquidate or reorganize. They will, however, affect the means test in one of two ways. Prebankruptcy health care expenses are likely to raise the amount of a debtor’s unsecured debt. Health insurance premiums and ongoing costs for care of the debtor’s dependents may be deducted from the debtor’s monthly income to determine the level of disposable income.

Under the DOE SciDAC project on Accelerator Science and Technology, a suite of electromagnetic codes has been under development at SLAC that are based on unstructured grids for higher accuracy, and use parallel processing to enable large-scale simulation. The new modeling capability is supported by SciDAC collaborations on meshing, solvers, refinement, optimization and visualization. These advances in computational science are described and the application of the parallel eigensolver Omega3P to the cavity design for the International Linear Collider is discussed.