This report discusses the effect of human activities on global climate change. Human activities, particularly burning of fossil fuels, have increased atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) and other trace gases, including chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), methane, and nitrous oxide.

This report provides information on the history of continuing resolutions; the nature, scope, and duration of CRs during the last 30 years; the various types of CRs that have been enacted; and an overview of those instances when budget authority has lapsed and a funding gap has resulted.

This report analyzes S. 151, 108th Congress, as reported by the Senate Committee on the Judiciary (S.Rept. 108-2) and passed by the Senate, and considers whether it would violate freedom of speech.

During the first session of the 108th Congress, the House and Senate will consider many different budgetary measures. Most measures pertain to fiscal year (FY) 2004 (which began on October 1, 2003) and beyond. Some also pertain to the budget for FY2003. As the session progresses, this report will describe House and Senate action on major budgetary legislation within the framework of the congressional budget process and other procedural requirements.

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This report outlines U.S. military operations in Bosnia and discusses issues such as U.S. and Allied Participation in Bosnia Peacekeeping (IFOR/SFOR), duration, cost, arms control and military assistance. This report also includes most recent development, background analysis, and legislation.

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The CWC bans the development, production, stockpiling, and use of chemical weapons by members signatories. It also requires the destruction of all chemical weapons stockpiles and production facilities. Neither the United States nor Russia will be able to meet the original CWC’s deadlines for destruction of their CW stockpiles, and have been granted extensions to at least 2012. The Convention provides the most extensive and intrusive verification regime of any arms control treaty, extending its coverage to not only governmental but also civilian facilities. The Convention also requires export controls and reporting requirements on chemicals that can be used as warfare agents and their precursors. The CWC establishes the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to oversee the Convention’s implementation.

This report summarizes the debate on the government policy regarding industrial competitiveness and technological advancement and its influence on the U.S. economy. It discusses the most recent developments, dives into the background and analysis of the topic, and talks about congress' plans and approach.

The National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has been conducting Natural Rearing Enhancement System (NATURES) research since the early 1990s. NATURES studies have looked at a variety of mechanisms to enhance production of wild-like salmonids from hatcheries. The goal of NATURES research is to develop fish culture techniques that enable hatcheries to produce salmon with more wild-like characteristics and increased postrelease survival. The development of such techniques is called for in the Columbia Basin Fish and Wildlife Program. This document is the draft report for the Supplemental Fish Quality Contract DE-AI79-91BP20651 Over the history of the project, the effects of seminatural raceway habitats, automated underwater feeders, exercise current velocities, live food diets, and predator avoidance training have been investigated. The findings of these studies are reported in an earlier contract report (Maynard et al. 1996a). The current report focuses on research that has been conducted between 1999 and 2002. This includes studies on the effect of exercise on salmon and steelhead trout, effects of predator avoid training, integration of NATUES protocols into production hatcheries, and the study of social behavior of steelhead grown in enriched and conventional environments. Traditionally, salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) are reared in barren concrete raceways that lack natural …

In the past funding period we have concentrated in developing new 99mTc labeled MIBG analogs. Basic chemistry of ligand synthesis, radiochemistry of Re and 99mTc complex formation, separation of stereoisomers and in vitro stability were investigated. We have prepared a number of new MIBG derivatives containing chelating moiety N2S2 and additional groups to increase lipophilicity. Unfortunately none of the new 99mTc labeled MIBG analogs showed promise as an imaging agent for myocardial neuronal function. Radioactive-iodine-labeled meta-iodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) is currently being used as an in vivo imaging agent to evaluate neuroendocrine tumors as well as the myocardial sympathetic nervous system in patients with myocardial infarct and cardiomyopathy. It is generally accepted that MIBG is an analog of norepinephrine and its uptake in the heart corresponds to the distribution of norepinephrine and the density of sympathetic neurons. A series of MIBG derivatives containing suitable chelating functional groups N2S2 for the formation of [Tcv0]+3N2S2 complex was successfully synthesized and the 99mTc-labeled complexes were prepared and tested in rats. One of the compounds, [99mTc]M2, tested showed significant, albeit lower, heart uptakes post iv injection in rats (0.18% dose/organ at 4 hours) as compared to [l25l]MIBG (1.4% dose/organ at 4 hours). The heart uptake of …

This report includes background and analysis of the United States postal reform. Causes of financial crisis, transformative plans, and activity from past congresses are also discussed in this report.

This report will focus on the second issue by examining the economics of financial privacy in the context of the opt-out/opt-in debate, and consider the implications of a regulatory change.

This report provides an overview of the implementation phase of the department organization and management of the Homeland Security.

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CH2M Hill Hanford Group, Inc. is identifying and developing supplemental process technologies to accelerate the Hanford tank waste cleanup mission. Bulk vitrification, containerized grout, and steam reforming are three technologies under consideration for treatment of the radioactive saltcake wastes in 68 single-shell tanks. To support development and testing of these technologies, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) was tasked with developing a cold dissolved saltcake simulant formulation to be representative of an actual saltcake waste stream, preparing a 25-L batch of the simulant, and analyzing the composition of the batch to assure conformance to formulation targets. Lacking a defined composition for dissolved actual saltcake waste, PNNL used available tank waste composition information and an equilibrium chemistry model (Environmental Simulation Program, ESP) to predict the concentrations of analytes in solution. Observations of insoluble solids in initial laboratory preparations for the model predicted formulation prompted minor modifications in the concentration of phosphate and silicon in the final simulant formulation. The analytical results for the 25-L simulant batch agree within the expected measurement accuracy (~10%) of the target concentrations and are highly consistent for replicate measurements, with a few minor exceptions. The instrumental analyses indicate that the batch of solution adequately reflects the as-formulated …