On July 22, 2004, the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, known as the 9/11 Commission, issued its final report, detailing the events up to and including the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks upon the United States. The 9/11 Commission recommended that the Senate adopt rules requiring hearings and votes to confirm or reject national security nominees within 30 days of their submission at the start of each new presidential administration. Implementing the commission's proposal would involve imposing new restrictions on both the power of committee chairs to control the agenda of their committees and the rights of Senators to delay or block nominations through holds and extended debate. This report discusses in detail this proposal, how it could be implemented, and the potential effects of its implementation.

The Engineered Barrier System (EBS) represents the system of human engineered barriers in the isolation of high-level radioactive waste in the proposed repository at Yucca Mountain. It is designed to complement and enhance the natural barriers to isolate and prevent the transport of radionuclides into the surrounding environment. The transport mechanism most frequently postulated for radionuclides is liquid water flux that has penetrated the EBS through corrosion breaches in the drip shield and waste packages (WP). A water flux-splitting model is used to predict flow through WP and drip shield breaches and is documented in the ''EBS Radionuclide Transport Abstraction''. A future revision of the ''EBS Radionuclide Transport Abstraction'' will be one component of the total system performance assessment--license application (TSPA-LA) for the Yucca Mountain repository. The flux-splitting model is conservative based on the following assumptions: (1) Drip impact occurs without a loss of water mass. (2) Dripping flux falls exactly at the crown of the drip shield as opposed to different locations on the curved surface, which will effect splashing and flow patterns. (3) The flux passing through a drip shield patch is proportional to the ratio of the length of the penetration in the axial direction to the …

The primary focus of this issue brief is legislative action with respect to abortion. However, discussion of those legislative proposals necessarily involves a brief discussion of the leading U.S. Supreme Court decisions concerning a woman’s right to choose whether to terminate her pregnancy. For a more detailed discussion of the relevant case law, see CRS Report 95-724, Abortion Law Development: A Brief Overview.

The deployment of active sonar by the U.S. Navy and its potential impacts on marine mammals has been an ongoing issue of intense debate; regulatory, legislative, and judicial activity; and international concern. This report summarizes legal and political events related to active sonar and marine mammals since 1994. This report summarizes some of the more significant recent events pertaining to active military sonar, in particular.

This document is the final report on Grant No. DE-FG02-98ER45714, ''Alabama-ORNL Collaboration: Adaptation of Fast Multipole Code for Atomic-scale Micromagnetics.'' It describes the development of a new and efficient code for the calculation of magnetostatic interactions in simulation of magnetic media and disks.

We performed a computational and experimental analysis of fast cookoff of LX-10 (94.7% HMX, 5.3% Viton A) confined in a 2 kbar steel tube with reinforced end caps. A Scaled-Thermal-Explosion-eXperiment (STEX) was completed in which three radiant heaters were used to heat the vessel until ignition, resulting in a moderately violent explosion after 20.4 minutes. Thermocouple measurements showed tube temperatures as high as 340 C at ignition and LX-10 surface temperatures as high as 279 C, which is near the melting point of HMX. Three micro-power radar systems were used to measure mean fragment velocities of 840 m/s. Photonics Doppler Velocimeters (PDVs) showed a rapid acceleration of fragments over 80 {micro}s. A one-dimensional ALE3D cookoff model at the vessel midplane was used to simulate the heating, thermal expansion, LX-10 decomposition composition, and closing of the gap between the HE (High Explosive) and vessel wall. Although the ALE3D simulation terminated before ignition, the model provided a good representation of heat transfer through the case and across the dynamic gap to the explosive.

This report discusses the increasing attention being paid to alternative fuels and advanced technology vehicles, the proponents of which point to their potential to improve urban air quality, decrease dependence on foreign oil, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The report also discusses the major barriers currently preventing widespread use of such technologies, and discusses these technologies in the particular contexts of the 2005 Gulf Coast hurricanes and the Energy Policy Act of 2005.

The purpose of this project was to conduct detailed surface mapping of one of the areas drilled by the Joint Industry Project with ChevronTexaco to understand gas hydrates in the Gulf of Mexico. The gently sloping, mostly flat floor of the Mississippi Canyon is interrupted by mounds and depressions that presumably reflect the complex geology and geohydrology related to turbidite deposition and pervasive salt tectonism. The seafloor mounds we mapped in this study occur in approximately 1300 water depth along the floor of the Mississippi Canyon in lease block areas Atwater Valley 13 and 14. High resolution sidescan sonar (100 kHz and 500 kHz) backscatter imagery, and chirp sub-bottom profiler data were collected using the DT1 deep-towed oceanographic mapping instrument, concentrating on the region directly adjacent to and surrounding two mounds identified as, mounds D and F, and in the region directly adjacent to and surrounding the mounds. The backscatter data have been mosaiced and normalized to provide information on the shape and extent of the mounds, the possible lateral extent of fauna, such as mussel and clam fields on the mounds, possible seep related flows and the occurrence of carbonate material. The extent of a mudflow can be mapped …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The aviation industry and business traveler groups have proposed the registered traveler concept as a way to reduce long waits in airport security lines caused by heightened security screening measures implemented after the September 11 terrorist attacks. In addition, aviation security experts have advocated this concept as a way to better target security resources to those travelers who might pose greater security risks. The Aviation and Transportation Security Act of November 2001 allows the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to consider developing a registered traveler program as a way to address these two issues. GAO completed this review to inform Congress and TSA of policy and implementation issues related to the concept of a registered traveler program."

This report provides a brief overview of the basic terminology and concepts used in the federal budget process.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, the U.S. Congress, the administration, law enforcement officials, and the public have questioned the effectiveness of U.S. visa programs in protecting national security. Some have voiced concern that terrorists or other criminals may exploit one of these programs--the Visa Waiver Program--to enter the United States. The program enables citizens of 28 participating countries to travel to the United States for tourism or business for 90 days or less without first obtaining a visa. It was created, in part, to promote the effective use of government resources and to facilitate international travel without threatening U.S. security. GAO was asked to review the Visa Waiver Program, including the process for assessing countries' eligibility to participate in the program. GAO was also asked to determine the implications--specifically those affecting national security, foreign relations, tourism, and State Department resources--of eliminating the program. GAO analysts traveled to several visa waiver countries, including Belgium, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, and Uruguay, as well as to Argentina, whose participation in the program was recently revoked."

This report is about the Broadband Internet Access, The Background and analysis of Broadband. It's importance, and about broadband technologies like Cable, Satellite and other technologies. The status of Broadband Deployment and Development Issues.

The density-driven crossover of electron-hole pairs frominsulating to conducting states is observed via the internal 1s-2pexciton resonance. Decreasing interparticle distance induces strongshifts and broadening, and ultimately the disappearance of the excitonicresonance.

This report discusses the president's FY2003 budget that was proposed tax cuts and spending increases to stimulate the economy, rapid increases in defense and homeland security spending, and a selection of other spending increases and decreases in discretionary spending.

This report discusses the budget for fiscal year 2003. It debates issues such as budget action, receipts surpluses or deficits, and the economy.

This report discusses the budget reconciliation process that is used by congress during the past quarter-century to implement major changes in budget policy.

This report briefly discusses the annual budget resolution, which sets forth Congress's budget plan for a period of at least five fiscal years. It includes total levels of new budget authority, outlays, revenues, the deficit, and the public debt for each of the fiscal years covered. Once a budget resolution is adopted, Congress may enforce its provisions, through points of order, at several levels: the total levels of spending and revenues, the level of resources allocated to committees, and the level of resources allocated to the appropriations subcommittees.

The 'Computational Crystallography Toolbox' (cctbx, http://cctbx.sourceforge.net/) is the open-source component of the Phenix project (http://www.phenix-online.org/). Most recent cctbx developments are geared towards supporting new features of the phenix.refine application. Thus, the open-source mmtbx (macromolecular toolbox) module is currently being most rapidly developed. In this article we give an overview of some of the recent developments. However, the main theme of this article is the presentation of a light-weight example command-line application that was specifically developed for this newsletter: sequence alignment and superposition of two molecules read from files in PDB format. This involves parameter input based on the Phil module presented in Newsletter No. 5, fast reading of the PDB files with the new iotbx.pdb.input class, simple sequence alignment using the new mmtbx.alignment module, and use of the Kearsley (1989) superposition algorithm to find the least-squares solution for superposing C-alpha positions. The major steps are introduced individually, followed by a presentation of the complete application. The example application is deliberately limited in functionality to make it concise enough for this article. The main goal is to show how the open-source components are typically combined into an application. Even though the example is quite specific to macromolecular crystallography, we believe it …

The present work describes our ongoing efforts towards the creation of micro and nanoscaled ordered arrays of protein covalently attached to site-specific chemical linkers patterned by different microlithographic techniques. We present a new and efficient solid-phase approach for the synthesis of chemically modified long alkyl-thiols. These compounds can be used to introduce chemoselective reacting groups onto silicon-based surfaces. We show that these modified thiols can be used for creating nano- and micrometric chemical patterns by using different lithographic techniques. We show that these patterns can react chemoselectively with proteins which have been recombinantly modified to contain complementary chemical groups at specific positions thus resulting in the oriented attachment of the protein to the surface.

U.S.-China economic ties have expanded substantially over the past several years. China is now the third largest U.S. trading partner, its second largest source of imports, and its fourth largest export market. However, U.S.-China commercial ties have been strained by a number of issues, including a surging U.S. trade deficit with China, China's refusal to float its currency, and failure to fully comply with its World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments, especially its failure to provide protection for U.S. intellectual property rights (IPR). This report explores these issues in detail, especially concerning the lack of protection for U.S. IPR.

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.

We present a comparison of two algorithms for solving the equations of unsteady inviscid compressible flow in a Eulerian frame. The first algorithm is a staggered grid Lagrange plus remap scheme. The Lagrange step in this method is a time-centered version of the scheme due to Tipton, while the remap step employs a variant of the corner transport upwind scheme due to Colella. The second algorithm is a spatially operator-split version of the higher-order Godunov scheme for gas dynamics due to Colella. They use the two methods to compute solutions to a number of one- and two-dimensional problems. The results show the accuracy and performance of the two schemes to be generally equivalent. In a 1984 survey paper by Woodward and Colella, staggered grid, Lagrange plus remap, artificial viscosity schemes did not compare favorably with cell-centered direct Eulerian higher-order Godunov methods. They examine, therefore, how certain features of the staggered grid scheme discussed here contribute to its improved accuracy. They show in particular that the improved accuracy of the present scheme is due in part to the use of a monotonic artificial viscosity in the Lagrange step and the use of an improved upwind method in the remap step.

Electroluminescent devices such as light-emitting diodes (LED) and high-energy density batteries. These new polymers offer cost savings, weight reduction, ease of processing, and inherent rugged design compared to conventional semiconductor materials. The photovoltaic industry has grown more than 30% during the past three years. Lightweight, flexible solar modules are being used by the U.S. Army and Marine Corps for field power units. LEDs historically used for indicator lights are now being investigated for general lighting to replace fluorescent and incandescent lights. These so-called solid-state lights are becoming more prevalent across the country since they produce efficient lighting with little heat generation. Conductive polymers are being sought for battery development as well. Considerable weight savings over conventional cathode materials used in secondary storage batteries make portable devices easier to carry and electric cars more efficient and nimble. Secondary battery sales represent an $8 billion industry annually. The purpose of the project was to synthesize and characterize conductive polymers. TRACE Photonics Inc. has researched critical issues which affect conductivity. Much of their work has focused on production of substituted poly(phenylenevinylene) compounds. These compounds exhibit greater solubility over the parent polyphenylenevinylene, making them easier to process. Alkoxy substituted groups evaluated during this study …

Heat pipes are often proposed as cooling system components for small fission reactors. SAFE-300 and STAR-C are two reactor concepts that use heat pipes as an integral part of the cooling system. Heat pipes have been used in reactors to cool components within radiation tests (Deverall, 1973); however, no reactor has been built or tested that uses heat pipes solely as the primary cooling system. Heat pipe cooled reactors will likely require the development of a test reactor to determine the main differences in operational behavior from forced cooled reactors. The purpose of this paper is to describe the results of a systems code capable of modeling the coupling between the reactor kinetics and heat pipe controlled heat transport. Heat transport in heat pipe reactors is complex and highly system dependent. Nevertheless, in general terms it relies on heat flowing from the fuel pins through the heat pipe, to the heat exchanger, and then ultimately into the power conversion system and heat sink. A system model is described that is capable of modeling coupled reactor kinetics phenomena, heat transfer dynamics within the fuel pins, and the transient behavior of heat pipes (including the melting of the working fluid). The paper …