This report compares the major provisions in the House- and Senate-passed bills and the conference agreement with each other and with the 2002 law, and provides a brief description of all individual sections or subsections within each title.

This report compares the major provisions in the House- and Senate-passed bills and the conference agreement with each other and with the 2002 law, and provides a brief description of all individual sections or subsections within each title.

This report consists of comparison of the 2008 farm bill conference agreement with the house and senate farm bills.

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The Heavy Ion Fusion Science Virtual National Laboratory (HIFS-VNL) has completed the fabrication of a new experimental target chamber facility for future Warm Dense Matter (WDM) experiments, and implemented initial target diagnostics to be used for the first target experiments in NDCX-1. The target chamber has been installed on the NDCX-I beamline. This achievement provides to the HIFS-VNL unique and state-of-the-art experimental capabilities in preparation for the planned target heating experiments using intense heavy ion beams.

Complexation of neptunium(V) with fluoride at elevated temperatures was studied by spectrophotometry and microcalorimetry. Two successive complexes, NpO{sub 2}F(aq) and NpO{sub 2}F{sub 2}{sup -}, were identified by spectrophotometry in the temperature range of 10-70 C. Thermodynamic parameters, including the equilibrium constants and enthalpy of complexation between Np(V) and fluoride at 10-70 C were determined. Results show that the complexation of Np(V) with fluoride is endothermic and that the complexation is enhanced by the increase in temperature - a two-fold increase in the stability constants of NpO{sub 2}F(aq) and more than five-fold increase in the stability constants of NpO{sub 2}F{sub 2}{sup -} as the temperature is increased from 10 to 70 C.

Computational science research components were vital parts of the SciDAC-1 accelerator project and are continuing to play a critical role in newly-funded SciDAC-2 accelerator project, the Community Petascale Project for Accelerator Science and Simulation (ComPASS). Recent advances and achievements in the area of computational science research in support of petascale electromagnetic modeling for accelerator design analysis are presented, which include shape determination of superconducting RF cavities, mesh-based multilevel preconditioner in solving highly-indefinite linear systems, moving window using h- or p- refinement for time-domain short-range wakefield calculations, and improved scalable application I/O.

Laser- and particle beam-driven plasma wakefield accelerators produce accelerating fields thousands of times higher than radio-frequency accelerators, offering compactness and ultrafast bunches to extend the frontiers of high energy physics and to enable laboratory-scale radiation sources. Large-scale kinetic simulations provide essential understanding of accelerator physics to advance beam performance and stability and show and predict the physics behind recent demonstration of narrow energy spread bunches. Benchmarking between codes is establishing validity of the models used and, by testing new reduced models, is extending the reach of simulations to cover upcoming meter-scale multi-GeV experiments. This includes new models that exploit Lorentz boosted simulation frames to speed calculations. Simulations of experiments showed that recently demonstrated plasma gradient injection of electrons can be used as an injector to increase beam quality by orders of magnitude. Simulations are now also modeling accelerator stages of tens of GeV, staging of modules, and new positron sources to design next-generation experiments and to use in applications in high energy physics and light sources.

The objectives of the confirmatory surveys were to confirm that remedial actions had been effective in meeting established release criteria and that documentation accurately and adequately describes the final radiological conditions of the PSR Impacted Areas.

This report is an overview and the then current issues related to Congressional or Federal Charters.

This report focuses on the duties and functions of staff positions in House and Senate personal offices, and provides sample position descriptions for 14 positions with similar job titles in each chamber. This report is one of several CRS products focusing on various aspects of congressional operations and administration.

A simple, observationally-motivated model is presented for understanding how halo masses, galaxy stellar masses, and star formation rates are related, and how these relations evolve with time. The relation between halo mass and galaxy stellar mass is determined by matching the observed spatial abundance of galaxies to the expected spatial abundance of halos at multiple epochs--i.e. more massive galaxies are assigned to more massive halos at each epoch. This 'abundance matching' technique has been shown previously to reproduce the observed luminosity- and scale-dependence of galaxy clustering over a range of epochs. Halos at different epochs are connected by halo mass accretion histories estimated from N-body simulations. The halo-galaxy connection at fixed epochs in conjunction with the connection between halos across time provides a connection between observed galaxies across time. With approximations for the impact of merging and accretion on the growth of galaxies, one can then directly infer the star formation histories of galaxies as a function of stellar and halo mass. This model is tuned to match both the observed evolution of the stellar mass function and the normalization of the observed star formation rate--stellar mass relation to z {approx} 1. The data demands, for example, that the star …

This report provides information about the Implementation and Termination of the Conservation Security Program.CSP is a program that provides financial and technical assistance to promote conservation and improvement of natural resources.

This report begins with an overview of Congress's authority pursuant to the Commerce and Bankruptcy Clauses to pass laws pertaining to foreclosures, and a review of Contract Clause, Substantive Due Process, and Takings Clause jurisprudence.

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Development of high-performance Nb{sub 3}Sn quadrupoles is one of the major goals of the LHC Accelerator Research Program (LARP). As part of this program, long racetrack magnets were made in order to check the fabrication steps for long Nb{sub 3}Sn coils, that the changes in coil length that take place during reaction and cooldown are correctly accounted for in the quadrupole design, and the use of a long aluminum shell for the support structure. This paper reports the construction of the first long Nb{sub 3}Sn magnet with racetrack coils 3.6 m long. The magnet reached a nominal 'plateau' at 9596 A after five quenches. This is about 90% of the estimated conductor limit. The peak field in the coils at this current was 11 T.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission, one of the agency's two current Commissioners stated recently, is at a crossroads. According to Commissioner Thomas Moore, either Congress will reverse the agency's steady decline or the Consumer Product Safety Commission will become so weakened as to be irrelevant. This report details a background of the commission, recent recalls, congressional concerns, and more as related to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The objective of this work is to discuss solute transport phenomena in fractured porous media, where the macroscopic transport of contaminants in the highly permeable interconnected fractures can be strongly affected by solute exchange with the porous rock matrix. We are interested in a wide range of rock types, with matrix hydraulic conductivities varying from almost impermeable (e.g., granites) to somewhat permeable (e.g., porous sandstones). In the first case, molecular diffusion is the only transport process causing the transfer of contaminants between the fractures and the matrix blocks. In the second case, additional solute transfer occurs as a result of a combination of advective and dispersive transport mechanisms, with considerable impact on the macroscopic transport behavior. We start our study by conducting numerical tracer experiments employing a discrete (microscopic) representation of fractures and matrix. Using the discrete simulations as a surrogate for the 'correct' transport behavior, we then evaluate the accuracy of macroscopic (continuum) approaches in comparison with the discrete results. However, instead of using dual-continuum models, which are quite often used to account for this type of heterogeneity, we develop a macroscopic model based on the Continuous Time Random Walk (CTRW) framework, which characterizes the interaction between the fractured …

Mild synthetic methods are demonstrated for the selective assembly of oxo-bridged heterobinuclear units of the type TiOCrIII, TiOCoII, and TiOCeIII on mesoporous silica support MCM-41. One method takes advantage of the higher acidity and, hence, higher reactivity of titanol compared to silanol OH groups towards CeIII or CoII precursor. The procedure avoids the customary use of strong base. The controlled assembly of the TiOCr system exploits the selective redox reactivity of one metal towards another (TiIII precursor reacting with anchored CrVI centers). The observed selectivity for linking a metal precursor to an already anchored partner versus formation of isolated centers ranges from a factor of six (TiOCe) to complete (TiOCr, TiOCo). Evidence for oxo bridges and determination of the coordination environment of each metal centers is based on K-edge EXAFS (TiOCr), L-edge absorption spectroscopy (Ce), and XANES measurements (Co, Cr). EPR, optical, FT-Raman and FT-IR spectroscopy furnish additional details on oxidation state and coordination environment of donor and acceptor metal centers. In the case of TiOCr, the integrity of the anchored group upon calcination (350 oC) and cycling of the Cr oxidation state is demonstrated. The binuclear units possess metal-to-metal charge-transfer transitions that absorb deep in the visible region. The …

This presentation by Keith Wipke at the 2008 DOE Hydrogen Program Annual Merit Review Meeting provides information about NREL's Controlled Hydrogen Fleet and Infrastructure Analysis Project.

DECam, camera for the Dark Energy Survey (DES), is undergoing general design and component testing. For an overview see DePoy, et al in these proceedings. For a description of the imager, see Cease, et al in these proceedings. The CCD instrument will be mounted at the prime focus of the CTIO Blanco 4m telescope. The instrument temperature will be 173K with a heat load of 113W. In similar applications, cooling CCD instruments at the prime focus has been accomplished by three general methods. Liquid nitrogen reservoirs have been constructed to operate in any orientation, pulse tube cryocoolers have been used when tilt angles are limited and Joule-Thompson or Stirling cryocoolers have been used with smaller heat loads. Gifford-MacMahon cooling has been used at the Cassegrain but not at the prime focus. For DES, the combined requirements of high heat load, temperature stability, low vibration, operation in any orientation, liquid nitrogen cost and limited space available led to the design of a pumped, closed loop, circulating nitrogen system. At zenith the instrument will be twelve meters above the pump/cryocooler station. This cooling system expected to have a 10,000 hour maintenance interval. This paper will describe the engineering basis including the thermal …

The ILC Crab Cavity is positioned close to the IP and delivered luminosity is very sensitive to the wakefields induced in it by the beam. A set of couplers were designed to couple to and damp the spurious modes of the crab cavity. As the crab cavity operates using a dipole mode, it has different damping requirements from an accelerating cavity. A separate coupler is required for the monopole modes below the operating frequency of 3.9 GHz (known as the LOMs), the opposite polarization of the operating mode (the SOM), and the modes above the operating frequency (the HOMs). Prototypes of each of these couplers have been manufactured out of copper and measured attached to an aluminum nine cell prototype of the cavity and their external Q factors were measured. The results were found to agree well with numerical simulations.

Deprotection blur in EUV resists fundamentally limits the smallest sized dense features that can be patterned in a single exposure and development step. Several metrics have recently been developed to explore the ways that different resist and process parameters affect the deprotection blur in EUV resists. One of these metrics is based on the imaging fidelity of a sharp corner on a large feature. As this metric has involved the close inspection of printing fidelity of corner features, it has brought attention to an interesting phenomena: corners print differently whether or not the remaining resist edge contains 270 degrees of resist or 90 degrees of resist. Here we present experimental data across a wide sampling of leading resists to show this effect is real and reproducible. They provide aerial image modeling results assuming thin and realistic mask models that show no corner bias between the aerial images in the 90-degree and 270-degree configurations. They also compare modeled patterning results assuming several resist models including the single blur, dual blur, and Prolith models, none of which reproduce the corner biasing that is observed experimentally.

This report analyzes war funding for the Defense Department and tracks funding for USAID and VA Medical funding.