The principle objective of the project was to develop an acoustic probe for determining the weight fraction of particles in a flowing suspension. The suspension can be solid-liquid (S-L) or solid-gas-liquid (S-G-L). The work accomplished during the first three years of DOE funding was devoted to the development of a rigorous theory for acoustic wave propagation through solid-liquid (S-L) and solid-gas-liquid (S-G-L). In the first funding period we developed an acoustic probe for S-G-L suspensions that has resulted in a theory, supported by our experiments, to describe small amplitude acoustic wave propagations in dilute suspensions (Norato, 1999; Spelter al., 1999, 2001: Norato et al. 2002). The theory agrees well with experimental data of sound attenuation over a wide range of particle sizes, frequencies, and weight percent solids. We have also completed theoretical and experimental investigation on the effect of entrained gas bubbles on the attenuation. This analysis permits us to determine the S-L weight percent in the presence of bubbles.

This report considers the issues surrounding genetically engineered (GE) crops or GMO's (genetically modified organisms). Moreover, the report debates the consequences of GE crops on the environment, food safety, and labeling. The report also debates the merits of regulation on the market the crops have entered.

This report describes the amendment process in the Committee of the Whole, including reading for an amendment, debating, amendment trees, and voting.

This report details the information related to country-of-origin information on fresh fruits and vegetables, red meats, seafood, and peanuts. The contents include the background, meat, and poultry inspection provisions, history of Congressional Action for the implementation

Neither LLNL nor any other organization has the capability to perform deterministic fabrication of mm-sized objects with arbitrary, {micro}m-sized, 3-D features and with 100-nm-scale accuracy and smoothness. This is particularly true for materials such as high explosives and low-density aerogels, as well as materials such as diamond and vanadium. The motivation for this project was to investigate the physics and chemistry that control the interactions of solid surfaces with laser beams and ion beams, with a view towards their applicability to the desired deterministic fabrication processes. As part of this LDRD project, one of our goals was to advance the state of the art for experimental work, but, in order to create ultimately a deterministic capability for such precision micromachining, another goal was to form a new modeling/simulation capability that could also extend the state of the art in this field. We have achieved both goals. In this project, we have, for the first time, combined a 1-D hydrocode (''HYADES'') with a 3-D molecular dynamics simulator (''MDCASK'') in our modeling studies. In FY02 and FY03, we investigated the ablation/surface-modification processes that occur on copper, gold, and nickel substrates with the use of sub-ps laser pulses. In FY04, we investigated laser …

This report discusses significant legislative provisions regarding environmental issues in bills, passed by both the House and Senate during the 108th Congress, that the 108th Congress, that would have reauthorized surface transportation programs for FY2004-FY2009.

The availability of compact transmission grating spectrometers now allows an attractive and economical alternative to the more familiar Czerny-Turner configuration for many high-temperature plasma applications. Higher throughput is obtained with short focal length refractive optics and stigmatic imaging. Many more spectra can be obtained with a single spectrometer since smaller, more densely packed optical input fibers can be used. Multiple input slits, along with a bandpass filter, can be used to maximize the number of spectra per detector, providing further economy. Curved slits can correct for the strong image curvature of the short focal length optics. Presented here are the governing grating equations for both standard and high-dispersion transmission gratings, defining dispersion, image curvature, and desired slit curvature, that can be used in the design of improved plasma diagnostics.

This report provides information about the Guide to Individuals Seated on the House Dais. The house of representatives meets in the capitol in the house chamber.

This report provides an overview of the Human Cloning discovery by South Korea and how the U.S. use it for medical research purposes. The nuclear of the egg is removed and replaced with a mature body cell.

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A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In March 1999, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented a telephone help line--1-800-MEDICARE--to provide information about program eligibility, enrollment, and benefits. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) directed GAO to examine several issues related to this 24-hour help line and the customer service representatives (CSRs) who staff it. In this report, GAO evaluated (1) the accuracy of the information the help line provides, (2) the training given to CSRs, and (3) CMS's efforts to monitor the accuracy of information provided through the help line."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Health care providers are concerned about the quality of Medicare guidance issued by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), an agency within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Specifically, they have reported that (1) they receive unclear guidance on program requirements and (2) because policies and procedures change frequently, they may rely on obsolete guidance, resulting in billing errors. Some government agencies issue advisory opinions in response to specific questions from requesters. These opinions permit agencies to apply law and regulation to a particular set of facts and provide requesters with specific guidance. The Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 directed GAO to determine the appropriateness and feasibility of establishing in the Secretary of Health and Human Services authority to issue legally binding advisory opinions to interpret Medicare regulations. GAO (1) identified factors relevant in establishing an advisory opinion process and (2) assessed the role such a process could play in clarifying program requirements. GAO examined four federal agencies' advisory opinion processes and interviewed officials from organizations representing Medicare stakeholders to learn how such a process might address their …

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The purpose of this document is to investigate Oracle database log buffer queuing and its affect on the ability to load data using a specialized data loading system. Experiments were carried out on a Linux system using an Oracle 9.2 database. Previous experiments on a Sun 4800 running Solaris had shown that 100,000 entities per minute was an achievable rate. The question was then asked, can we do this on Linux, and where are the bottlenecks? A secondary question was also lurking, how can the loading be further scaled to handle even higher throughput requirements? Testing was conducted using a Dell PowerEdge 6650 server with four CPUs and a Dell PowerVault 220s RAID array with 14 36GB drives and 128 MB of cache. Oracle Enterprise Edition 9.2.0.4 was used for the database and Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 2.1 was used for the operating system. This document will detail the maximum observed throughputs using the same test suite that was used for the Sun tests. A detailed description of the testing performed along with an analysis of bottlenecks encountered will be made. Issues related to Oracle and Linux will also be detailed and some recommendations based on the findings.

This report discusses key drinking water issues in the 108th Congress involving water infrastructure funding and problems caused by specific contaminants, such as the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether (MTBE), perchlorate, and lead in drinking water. Congress last reauthorized the Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) in 1996, and although funding authority for most SDWA programs expired in FY2003, broad reauthorization efforts were not pursued as EPA, states, and water utilities continued implementing the 1996 amendments.

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This report describes the FY2005 appropriations for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). The report includes tables that compare the FY2004 appropriations for the programs and activities of DHS, the President's FY2005 request, the congressional response to the request, and the amounts enacted for FY2005.

The purpose of this report is to document the biosphere model, the Environmental Radiation Model for Yucca Mountain, Nevada (ERMYN), which describes radionuclide transport processes in the biosphere and associated human exposure that may arise as the result of radionuclide release from the geologic repository at Yucca Mountain. The biosphere model is one of the process models that support the Yucca Mountain Project (YMP) Total System Performance Assessment (TSPA) for the license application (LA), TSPA-LA. The ERMYN provides the capability of performing human radiation dose assessments. This report documents the biosphere model, which includes: (1) Describing the reference biosphere, human receptor, exposure scenarios, and primary radionuclides for each exposure scenario (Section 6.1); (2) Developing a biosphere conceptual model using site-specific features, events, and processes (FEPs) (Section 6.2), the reference biosphere (Section 6.1.1), the human receptor (Section 6.1.2), and approximations (Sections 6.3.1.4 and 6.3.2.4); (3) Building a mathematical model using the biosphere conceptual model (Section 6.3) and published biosphere models (Sections 6.4 and 6.5); (4) Summarizing input parameters for the mathematical model, including the uncertainty associated with input values (Section 6.6); (5) Identifying improvements in the ERMYN compared with the model used in previous biosphere modeling (Section 6.7); (6) Constructing an …

The Savannah River Site (SRS) has been divided into six Integrator Operable Units (IOUs) that correspond to the watersheds of the five major streams on the SRS (Upper Three Runs, Fourmile Branch, Pen Branch, Steel Creek, and Lower Three Runs) and the portions of the Savannah River and Savannah River Swamp associated with the SRS. The streams are the primary integrators within each IOU because they potentially receive, through surface or subsurface drainage, soluble contaminants from all waste sites within their watersheds. If these contaminants reach biologically significant levels, they would be expected to effect the numbers, types, and health of stream organisms. In this study, biological sampling was conducted within each IOU as a measure of the cumulative ecological effects of the waste sites within the IOUs. The use of information from biological sampling to assess environmental quality is often termed bioassessment. The IOU bioassessment program included 38 sites in SRS streams and nine sites in the Savannah River. Sampling was conducted in 1996 to 1998, 2000, and 2003. Four bioassessment methods were used to evaluate ecological conditions in the IOU streams: the Index of Biotic Integrity, the Fish Health Assessment Index, measurement of fish tissue contaminant levels, and …

This report provides an overview of the implementation of adoption and safe families act on child welfare.

The objective of this work is to improve the process for CO{sub 2} capture by alkanolamine absorption/stripping by developing an alternative solvent, aqueous K{sub 2}CO{sub 3} promoted by piperazine. The stripper model with Aspen Custom Modeler and careful optimization of solvent rate suggests that 7 m MEA and 5 m K+/2.5 m PZ will be practically equivalent in energy requirement and optimum solution capacity. The multipressure stripper reduces energy consumption by 15% with a maximum pressure of 5 atm. The use of vanadium as a corrosion inhibitor will carry little risk of long-term environmental or health effects liability, but the disposal of solvent with vanadium will be subject to regulation, probably as a hazardous waste. Analysis of the pilot plant data from Campaign 1 has given values of the mass transfer coefficient consistent with the rate data from the wetted wall column. With a rich end pinch, 30% MEA should provide a capacity of 1.3-1.4 mole CO{sub 2}/kg solvent.