A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Energy (DOE), the largest civilian contracting agency in the federal government, relies primarily on contractors to operate its sites and carry out its diverse missions, such as maintaining the nuclear weapons stockpile, cleaning up radioactive and hazardous wastes, and performing research. Although federal law generally requires federal agencies to use competition in selecting a contractor, until the mid-1990s, DOE contracts for the management and operation of its sites generally fit within an exception that allowed for the use of noncompetitive procedures. Since 1996, DOE has made progress toward implementing contract reform initiative in three key areas--developing alternative contracting approaches, increasing competition, and using performance-based contracts. However, DOE continues to encounter challenges in implementing these initiatives. Although DOE has made strides in implementing contract reform initiatives, it is difficult to determine whether contractors' performance has improved because objective performance information is scarce. Over the past 8 years, DOE has primarily gauged progress by measuring its implementation of the reforms, such as the number of contracts competed each year, and by reviewing individual contract performance incentives. DOE faces a fundamental challenge to ensuring the effectiveness …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Immunizations are considered one of the leading public health achievements of the 20th century. Mandatory immunization programs have eradicated polio and smallpox in the United States and reduced the number of deaths from several childhood diseases, such as measles, to near zero. A consistent supply of many different vaccines is needed to support this effort. Recent childhood vaccine shortages have prompted federal authorities to recommend deferring some immunizations and have caused states to reduce immunization requirements. At the state and local levels, 49 state immunization programs reported rationing one or more vaccines. Shortages have also prompted most states to waive or change immunization requirements for school and day care programs so that children who have not received all mandatory immunizations could enroll. Many factors contributed to recent vaccine shortages, and while these have largely been resolved, the potential exists for future shortages. On the supply side, some manufacturers had production problems, causing them to fall below their expected output, while others discontinued making some vaccines altogether. On the demand side, one manufacturer could not keep pace with the greater-than-expected demand for a new recommended vaccine. Federal …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Title IV of the Higher Education Act (HEA), as first adopted in 1965, authorizes federal grant and loan programs, providing a total of $53 billion in assistance to 8.1 million students in fiscal year 1999. The Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997 allowed eligible taxpayers to reduce their tax liability by receiving up to $1,500 HOPE or $1,000 Lifetime Learning tax credit for tuition and course-related fees paid. The 2001 Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act created a new tax deduction for tuition expenses and expanded many existing higher education tax provisions. The federal investment in providing student assistance through the tax code has risen sharply from $.0056 billion in 1996 to $7.6 billion in 2002--more than 80 percent of which is comprised of HOPE and Lifetime Learning tax expenditures. GAO reviewed title IV aid programs and higher education tax provisions designed to assist students and families, to help Congress prepare for the reauthorization of HEA. GAO found that, in the 1999-2000 academic year, the Lifetime Learning and HOPE tax credits provided an estimated 4 in 10 undergraduate students with benefits that equaled a varying share …

This report offers an overview of the availability of intellectual property rights for plants, focusing upon the seed industry. It initially offers an introduction to seed innovation. The report then reviews the three intellectual property regimes applicable to plant innovation: utility patents, plant patents and plant variety protection certificates. It then details a 2001 decision of the U.S. Supreme Court, J.E.M. Ag Supply, Inc. v. Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc., which held that sexually reproducing plants may be subject to utility patents.

This report includes information regarding U.S. relations and bilateral issues within Syria. External relations, Syria's role in Lebanon, and U.S. aid are among topics discussed in this report.

Support utilization of the RINSC reactor for student and faculty instructions and research

The author presents the status of the long baseline neutrino oscillation experiment MINOS at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). He also summarizes the status of the detector and beam construction, the expected event rates and sensitivity to physics. He also comments on possible future plans to improve the performance of the experiment.

Several heterogeneous catalytic reactions show size dependence, whereby the specific rate changes with the average diameter of supported metal particles in the nanometer range. Geometric arguments relating the size dependence to the relative concentration of active sites on idealized crystal particles cannot account for all the observed results. In an effort to overcome the geometric limitations of supported particles, the authors had previously created novel supported metal catalysts called Layered Synthetic Microstructures (LSMs) by the physical vapor deposition of alternating thin films of Ni and silica onto 3-in. Si wafer substrates. Subsequent lithography followed by wet etching left an array of micron-sized towers. Relative catalytic rate measured for ethane hydrogenolysis showed that LSMs produced similar size effects as previously found with supported particles. In the current work, experiments were accomplished using LSMs with a wider range of metals (Ni, Pt, Ir, Rh, Ru, etc.) and supports (SiO{sub 2} and Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}). Dry etching with Ar ions was used. It was found that a distinction can be made between several types of size effects due to the well-defined geometry of LSM catalysts. Rates in some systems are truly size dependent, while in other systems rates are clearly dependent on the …

''Total System Performance Assessment-License Application (TSPA-LA) Methods and Approach'' provides the top-level method and approach for conducting the TSPA-LA model development and analyses. The method and approach is responsive to the criteria set forth in Total System Performance Assessment Integration (TSPAI) Key Technical Issue (KTI) agreements, the ''Yucca Mountain Review Plan'' (CNWRA 2002 [158449]), and 10 CFR Part 63. This introductory section provides an overview of the TSPA-LA, the projected TSPA-LA documentation structure, and the goals of the document. It also provides a brief discussion of the regulatory framework, the approach to risk management of the development and analysis of the model, and the overall organization of the document. The section closes with some important conventions that are utilized in this document.

This paper describes the intended application and development effort required to braze the copper foam to the stainless steel tubing.

A two-dimensional joint inversion technique, based on a least-squares criterion of the data misfit and model smoothness, has been developed using electromagnetic (EM) and seismic traveltime data to assess the feasibility of directly inverting for hydrological parameters, such as fluid electrical conductivity, porosity, and saturation. This is accomplished by relating hydrological parameters to geophysical properties with the help of the empirical Archie's law and the Wyllie time average equation. While the latter links the underground seismic wave velocity and subsurface media porosity, the former relates the bulk formation conductivity to hydrological parameters such as fluid conductivity and porosity. Direct joint inversion using various geophysical data also reduces the non-uniqueness of the problem since common parameters are involved, as is the porosity related to both seismic traveltime and magnetic field. This newly developed joint inversion algorithm has been applied to a set of crosshole seismic and EM field data provided by Chevron as part of the Lost Hills CO{sub 2} pilot project in Southern California. Both EM and seismic pre- and post-injection data were evaluated in terms of hydrological parameters using general empirical relationships derived from logging data. The results show that the injection has decreased the water saturation and bulk …

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 1935, the federal National Labor Relations Act provided U.S. workers the right to bargain over wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment with their employers, forming the framework for collective bargaining in the United States. The Act allowed workers to join together to form unions and required that employers recognize certified employee unions and bargain "in good faith." Although the Act applied broadly to "employees," it and subsequent amendments excluded certain groups of workers from its coverage. Three-quarters of the civilian workforce--or 103 million of the 135 million people in the labor force as of February 2001--had some form of collective bargaining rights from federal, state, or local statutes. In contrast, 32 million civilian workers were without collective bargaining rights under any law, either federal and state. The portion of the total labor force with collective bargaining rights has likely increased since 1959. Since 1959, no major group of workers has lost bargaining rights under the Act. However, other federal, state, and local laws have extended rights to some workers in the groups excluded from the Act, providing bargaining rights to 14.5 million …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "If the public used the dollar coin rather than the dollar note, the government could potentially save up to $500 million annually. The Mint spent $67.1 million to promote the new dollar coin from 1998 to 2001, including expenditures for a marketing and advertising program; public relations and publicity programs; 23 partnerships with banking, entertainment retail, grocery and restaurant chains; and promotional events with transit agencies. Most of the $67.1 million was used for a national advertising campaign to build public awareness, generate acceptance, and encourage use of the new dollar coin. The Mint also worked with contractors to stimulate the new dollar coin's use in state and local government operations and used its own staff for marketing activities in federal government facilities, but it did not track the costs for the use of Mint staff. According to the Mint, between January 2000 and December 2001, the new dollar coin had generated $1.1 billion in revenue and $968 million in seigniorage. The Mint faces several barriers in its efforts to increase the new dollar coin. The most substantial barrier is the current widespread use of the …

We discuss the electromagnetic form factors, axial form factors, and structure functions of a nucleon bound in the quark-meson coupling (QMC) model. Free space nucleon form factors are calculated using the improved cloudy bag model (ICBM). After describing finite nuclei and nuclear matter in the quark-based (EMC) model, the in-medium modification of the bound nucleon form factors is calculated in the same model. Finally, the bound nucleon structure function, F2, is extracted using the calculated in-medium electromagnetic form factors and Bloom-Gilman (quark-hadron) duality.

Accumulations of two solid phases (a nitrated aluminosilicate and sodium diuranate) formed scale deposits in the Savannah River Site (SRS) 2H Evaporator system. In Part I of this study, thermodynamically derived activity diagrams, also known as stability diagrams, were used on historic 2H feed tank (Tank 43) and drop Tank (Tank 38) chemistries in order to understand the effects of tank chemistry on solids formation in the 2H Evaporator. Evaluation of the 2F feed tank (Tank 26) and drop tank (Tank 46) chemistries evaluated in Part I of this study showed that the SRS 2F Evaporator system had not and was not near saturation with respect to aluminosilicate scale. In order to ensure that similar deposits had not and were depositing in the SRS 3H Evaporator, a similar evaluation was performed specific to the feeds processed from Tank 32 (feed tank) and Tank 30 (drop tank) in Part II of this study.

Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, consolidated, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress considers each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittees.

In the 108th Congress, debate over energy efficiency programs has focused on budget, oil, natural gas, and electricity issues, and provisions in the omnibus energy policy bill, S. 2095, H.R. 6, and S. 14/S. 1149. The Bush Administration’s FY2005 budget request for the Department of Energy’s (DOE’s) Energy Efficiency Program sought $875.9 million, including $543.9 for R&D and $332.0 million for grants. In the first session, the omnibus energy bill (H.R. 6) had several significant tax and regulatory measures for energy efficiency. It did not pass the Senate due to concerns about cost and an MTBE “safe harbor” provision.

The United States and its allies are helping Afghanistan emerging from more than 22 years of warfare, although substantial risk to Afghan stability remains. Before the U.S. military campaign against the orthodox Islamist Taliban movement began on October 7, 2001, Afghanistan had been mired in conflict since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The defeat of the Taliban has enabled the United States and its coalition partners to send forces throughout Afghanistan to search for Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters and leaders that remain at large, including Osama bin Laden. As the war against remaining Al Qaeda and Taliban elements winds down, the United States is shifting its military focus toward stabilizing the interim government, including training a new Afghan national army, and supporting the international security force (ISAF) that is helping the new government provide security.

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