Many dairy farmer groups are concerned that imports of milk protein concentrates (MPCs) are displacing domestic dairy ingredients and thus depressing farm milk prices. S.560 and H.R. 1160 would impose tariff rate quotas on certain MPCs, and S. 40 would prohibit the use of dry MPC in domestic cheese production. Dairy processor groups are opposed to these bills. A dairy producer group challenged the Customs Service classification of MPCs, but Customs ruled that current classifications are correct.

This is a select chronology of, and a finding guide for information on, congressional and presidential actions and documents related to major budget events in calendar year 2002, covering the FY2003 budget. Brief information is provided for the President’s budget, congressional budget resolutions, appropriations measures (regular, continuing, supplementals, and rescissions), budget reconciliation, House and Senate votes, line-item vetoes, publications, testimony, charts, and tables.

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A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In January 2001, the congressionally chartered Commission to Assess United States National Security Space Management and Organization--known as the Space Commission--reported that the Department of Defense (DOD) lacked the senior-level focus and accountability to provide guidance and oversight for national security space operations. Congress mandated that GAO provide an assessment of DOD's actions to implement the Space Commission's recommendations. Thus, GAO (1) updated its June 2002 assessment of DOD's actions to address the Space Commission's recommendations, (2) ascertained progress in addressing other long- term management concerns, and (3) assessed the extent to which DOD has developed a results-oriented management framework for space activities."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) spends more than $1.7 billion each year to move and store over 600,000 household goods shipments when relocating military personnel. It conducted and evaluated several pilot program studies aimed at fixing its problem-plagued program and, in 2002, issued a report to Congress with three recommendations. The 1997 Defense Appropriations Act Conference Report directed GAO to validate the results achieved by the pilot programs. In response, GAO examined the extent to which DOD's recommendations to Congress (1) offer solutions to long-standing problems in the current program and (2) are supported by the evaluation's findings and should be implemented. GAO also assessed the soundness of methodologies used by DOD to develop cost estimates to implement the recommendations."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Federally funded employment and training programs serve an important role in the nation's economy by helping job seekers enhance their job skills, identify job opportunities and ultimately find employment. While the Department of Labor is responsible for overseeing many of these programs, other agencies such as the Departments of Health and Human Services and Housing and Urban Development also play a role. In the 1990s, we issued a series of reports that highlighted the range of programs that provided employment and training services. Again in 2000, just after the implementation of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which provided for a consolidated service delivery system for many of the programs, we reviewed the workforce development system, identifying 40 federally funded employment and training programs--operated through seven federal agencies--for which a key program goal was providing employment and training assistance. As WIA approaches reauthorization, it is important to re-examine the system's structure to determine if additional changes are indicated. Specifically, we determined (1) how many federal employment and training programs there were in fiscal year 2002, their appropriations in fiscal years 2001, 2002, and 2003; and the proportion …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Specialty hospitals represent a small but growing segment of the health care industry. These hospitals specialize in providing care for certain conditions, such as cardiac care, or performing certain procedures, such as orthopedic surgery. Specialty hospitals are not an entirely new phenomenon, as children's and other types of specialty hospitals have existed for decades. Consequently, it is challenging to distinguish between the old and new types of specialty hospitals. One aspect that sets apart the newer genre of specialty hospitals is that many are owned, in part, by the physicians who work in them. Advocates contend that, because of their focused mission, specialty hospitals can provide high-quality specialty services more efficiently than general hospitals. Because specialty hospitals can tailor their facilities and resources to best fit the needs of certain types of patients, individuals treated in such hospitals may enjoy relatively greater convenience and comfort. Specialty hospitals may also offer physicians financial and work environment advantages. Advocates have stated that the focused mission and dedicated resources of specialty hospitals allow physicians to treat more patients than they could in general hospitals. Physicians may gain financially from this increased …

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In response to a Congressional request, we issued a report in March 2003 on the Department of Defense's (DOD) strategic planning efforts for civilian personnel at DOD and selected defense components, including the four military services and two defense agencies. In that report we made recommendations to the Secretary of Defense to strengthen civilian human capital planning, including integration with military personnel and sourcing initiatives. DOD's response to our March 2003 report and recommendations were received too late to be included in that report. To provide our perspective on DOD's comments, we briefly summarize our March 2003 report's objectives, results, and recommendations and DOD's comments, along with our evaluation of the comments. DOD's civilian employees play key roles in such areas as defense policy, intelligence, finance, acquisitions, and weapon systems maintenance. Although downsized 38 percent between fiscal years 1989 and 2002, this workforce has taken on greater roles as a result of DOD's restructuring and transformation. Responding to congressional concerns about the quality and quantity of, and the strategic planning for, the civilian workforce, we determined the following for DOD, the military services, and selected defense agencies (the …

The MiniBooNE experiment [1] is motivated by the LSND observation, [2] which has been interpreted as {nu}{sub {mu}} {yields} {nu}{sub e} oscillations, and by the atmospheric neutrino deficit, [3,4,5] which may be ascribed to {nu}{sub {mu}} oscillations into another type of neutrino. MiniBooNE is a single-detector experiment designed to: obtain {approx} 1000 {nu}{sub {mu}} {yields} {nu}{sub e} events if the LSND signal is due to {nu}{sub {mu}} {yields} {nu}{sub e} oscillations, establishing the oscillation signal at the > 5{sigma} level as shown in Fig. 1.1; extend the search for {nu}{sub {mu}} {yields} {nu}{sub e} oscillations significantly beyond what has been studied previously if no signal is observed; search for {nu}{sub {mu}} disappearance to address the atmospheric neutrino deficit with a signal that is a suppression of the rate of {nu}{sub {mu}}C {yields} {mu}N events from the expected 600,000 per year; measure the oscillation parameters as shown in Fig. 1.2 if oscillations are observed; and test CP conservation in the lepton sector if oscillations are observed by running with separate {nu}{sub {mu}} and {bar {nu}}{sub {mu}} beams. The detector will consist of a spherical tank 6.1 m (20 feet) in radius, as shown in Fig. 1.3, that stands in a 45-foot …

A thin metallic beam pipe reinforced by multi-layer spiral metallic ribs is proposed for rapid cycling proton synchrotrons. The pipe is made of Inconel 718 with thickness of a few tenths of mm. Each spiral rib has a cross section of about 0.3 mm{sup 2} and can be bonded to the pipe by using laser deposition technique (e.g., precision metal deposition, or PMD). Compared with other designs (e.g., ceramic beam pipe with a metallic cage used in the ISIS at the RAL), this new pipe will reduce the magnet aperture significantly, which, in turn, reduces the construction and operating cost of a synchrotron. Numerical simulations and analytical modeling are used to investigate the structural strength and deformation, and the eddy current effects, including heating, magnetic field distortion and the electro-magnetic force on the beam pipe. The results show that this new beam pipe will work. It can be employed to high intensity rapid cycling proton synchrotrons, such as the proton driver at FERMILAB and the JHF at JAERI/KEK. Effort to build a prototype is under way.

Energy Information Systems (EIS) for buildings are becoming widespread in the U.S., with more companies offering EIS products every year. As a result, customers are often overwhelmed by the quickly expanding portfolio of EIS feature and application options, which have not been clearly identified for consumers. The object of this report is to provide a technical overview of currently available EIS products. In particular, this report focuses on web-based EIS products for large commercial buildings, which allow data access and control capabilities over the Internet. EIS products combine software, data acquisition hardware, and communication systems to collect, analyze and display building information to aid commercial building energy managers, facility managers, financial managers and electric utilities in reducing energy use and costs in buildings. Data types commonly processed by EIS include energy consumption data; building characteristics; building system data, such as heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) and lighting data; weather data; energy price signals; and energy demand-response event information. This project involved an extensive review of research and trade literature to understand the motivation for EIS technology development. This study also gathered information on currently commercialized EIS. This review is not an exhaustive analysis of all EIS products; rather, it is …

This report discusses U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, or Republic of China (ROC), including policy issues for Congress and legislation. The Taiwan Relations Act (TRA), P.L. 96-8, has governed U.S. arms sales to Taiwan since 1979, when the United States recognized the People’s Republic of China (PRC) instead of the ROC. There are two other relevant elements of the “one China” policy: the August 17, 1982 U.S.-PRC Joint Communique and the “Six Assurances” made to Taiwan.

Nuclear data collected in an experiment performed at LANSCE/WNR with the GEANIE spectrometer to measure the cross sections for n + {sup 89}Y for E{sub n} < 20 MeV are reported. The estimated (n,2n) cross sections to the ground and isomeric states of {sup 88}Y differ significantly from those listed in the RADCHEM data base. Folded with a fast neutron spectrum, these results lead to integral differences of +15%, +2%, and -70% vs. the RADCHEM evaluation.

Experimental results from the Sustained Spheromak Physics Experiment, SSPX, are reviewed and applied to published reactor configurations. The results include several important features, including low fluctuation levels, (apparent) good magnetic flux surfaces, and moderate beta. Additional features needed for an attractive reactor but not yet demonstrated experimentally are identified by comparison with the reactor designs, and possible alternatives to a fully steady-state device are discussed.

The possibility of quantum confinement causing the intense visible luminescence seen in porous Si, first mentioned by Canham in 1991, led to enormous interest in that material. The large blue-shift in the band gap and increase in luminescent efficiency attributed to quantum confinement in porous Si, while still controversial, continues to fuel research on colloidal Si nanoparticles prepared by sonicating porous Si, and by solution chemistry. This interest continues, and has led naturally to an interest in colloidal Ge nanoparticles, since the elements are both indirect gap semiconductors, and the exciton of Ge has a larger Bohr radius. The earliest preparation of Ge nanoparticles by a colloidal chemistry method started as a continuation of the previous work on Si, but required either high temperatures and pressures, or laser annealing to produce crystalline nanoparticles. There has been only limited work on colloidal Ge nanoparticles prepared by sonicating porous Ge, with interest instead focused primarily on solution preparation of colloidal Ge nanoparticles. The reaction between Mg{sub 2}T and TCl{sub 4} in refluxing diglyme produced silicon and germanium nanoparticles in high yields, and the surface of these nanoparticles may be terminated using Grignard reagents. Since the particles produced by the initial metathesis reaction …