A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 2003, the Department of Homeland Security's U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been unable to collect at least $480 million in antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duties. In July 2004, CBP revised its policy regarding the continuous bonds (CB) that importers post. The policy potentially significantly increases the amount of the bonds for affected importers. Following the application of the policy to imports of shrimp as a "test case," U.S. importers and trading partners initiated legal action to prevent CBP from continuing to apply the policy. GAO examined why and how CBP revised its CB policy, how CBP implemented the revised policy, and the effects of the revised policy."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU), which number around 100, undertake capital projects to provide appropriate settings for learning, but many face challenges in doing so. In 1992, Congress created the HBCU Capital Financing Program to help HBCUs fund capital projects by offering loans with interest rates near the government's cost of borrowing. We reviewed the program by considering (1) HBCU capital project needs and program utilization, (2) program advantages compared to other sources of funds and schools' views on loan terms, (3) the Department of Education's (Education) program management, and (4) certain schools' perspectives on and Education's plan to implement loan provisions specifically authorized by Congress in June 2006 to assist in hurricane recovery efforts. To conduct our work, we reviewed applicable laws and program materials and interviewed officials from federal agencies and 34 HBCUs."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "During economic downturns, states may struggle to finance Medicaid, a federal-state health financing program for certain low-income individuals. States receive federal matching funds for their Medicaid programs according to a statutory formula based on each state's per capita income (PCI) in relation to national PCI. The number of individuals eligible for Medicaid can increase during downturns as a result of rising unemployment. GAO previously reported that any federal assistance to respond to downturns should be well-timed and account for each state's fiscal circumstances. GAO was asked to consider strategies to help states offset increased Medicaid expenditures in the event of future economic downturns. GAO analyzed policy proposals and federal and state strategies to cope with downturns to identify and develop three potential strategies. GAO explored (1) targeting assistance to states most affected by a downturn, (2) using 2 instead of 3 years of PCI data to compute federal matching rates to more accurately reflect states' economic circumstances, and (3) giving states the option to obtain assistance based on their own determination of need. GAO discussed the strategies with experts, identified design considerations, and analyzed each strategy's …

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The interaction of actinides with microorganisms has been extensively studied to elucidate migration behavior of actinides in the environments. However, the mechanisms of interaction of microorganisms and actinides are poorly understood. They have been conducting basic science on microbial accumulation of actinides in order to elucidate the environmental behavior of actinides under relevant conditions. The effect of exudates from bacteria cells on the sorption of Eu(III) and Cm(III) by Chlorella vulgaris was studied by a batch method. The pH dependence of log K{sub d} of Eu(III) and Cm(III) for cellulose, major component of C. vulgaris cell, differed from that for C. vulgaris. On the contrary, log K{sub d} of Eu(III) and Cm(III) for cellulose in the solution containing exudates from C. vulgaris cells in a 0.5% NaCl solution showed a similar pH dependence to that by C. vulgaris. These results strongly suggested that exudates affect on the sorption of Eu(III) and Cm(III) on C. vulgaris. Effect of desferrioxamine B (DFO), one of exudates to chelate the insoluble Fe(III), on the sorption of Pu(IV), Th(IV) and Eu(III) by Pseudomonas fluorescens was studied. In the presence of DFO the sorption of Pu(IV), Th(IV) and Eu(III) on the cells increased with a decrease …

Development of {sup 14}C analysis with precision better than 2{per_thousand} has the potential to expand the utility of {sup 14}CO{sub 2} measurements for carbon cycle investigations as atmospheric gradients currently approach traditional measurement precision of 2-5{per_thousand}. The AMS facility at the Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, produces high and stable beam currents that enable efficient acquisition times for large numbers of {sup 14}C counts. One million {sup 14}C atoms can be detected in approximately 25 minutes, suggesting that near 1{per_thousand} counting precision is economically feasible at LLNL. The overall uncertainty in measured values is ultimately determined by the variation between measured ratios in several sputtering periods of the same sample and by the reproducibility of replicate samples. Experiments on the collection of one million counts on replicate samples of CO{sub 2} extracted from a whole air cylinder show a standard deviation of 1.7{per_thousand} in 36 samples measured over several wheels. This precision may be limited by the reproducibility of Oxalic Acid I standard samples, which is considerably poorer. We outline the procedures for high-precision sample handling and analysis that have enabled reproducibility in the cylinder extraction samples at the <2{per_thousand} level and describe future directions to …

Microorganisms can affect the stability and mobility of the actinides U, Pu, Cm, Am, Np, and the fission products Tc, I, Cs, Sr, released from nuclear fuel reprocessing plants. Under appropriate conditions, microorganisms can alter the chemical speciation, solubility and sorption properties and thus could increase or decrease the concentrations of radionuclides in solution and the bioavailability. Dissolution or immobilization of radionuclides is brought about by direct enzymatic action or indirect non-enzymatic action of microorganisms. Although the physical, chemical, and geochemical processes affecting dissolution, precipitation, and mobilization of radionuclides have been investigated, we have only limited information on the effects of microbial processes. The mechanisms of microbial transformations of the major and minor actinides and the fission products under aerobic and anaerobic conditions in the presence of electron donors and acceptors are reviewed.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether Federal Reserve notes are eligible as collateral for repurchase agreements under chapters 404 and 2256 of the Government Code—Clarification of Attorney General Opinion GA-0324 (2005) (RQ-0438-GA)

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This report updates recent information concerning, specifically, North Korea’s long-range ballistic missile program. On July 4-5, 2006, North Korea test-launched seven ballistic missiles, including a new Taepo Dong 2 that failed soon after launch. Apparently successful shorter-range missile tests included some combination of SCUDs and No Dongs. More recently, North Korea conducted an underground nuclear test and said it would deploy nuclear weapons on their ballistic missiles, although there is no evidence they are doing so.

This report discusses the debate over western water resources, which revolves around the issue of how best to plan for and manage the use of this renewable, yet sometimes scarce and increasingly sought after, resource.

The authors report recent measurements of charmless B decays to the final states K{sup +}K{sup +}K{sup -}, {phi}{phi}K, {eta}'{eta}'K, M{sub S}{sup 0}K{sub S}{sup 0}K{sub L}{sup 0}, {bar {Lambda}}p{pi}{sup +}, K*{sup +}h{sup +}h{sup -} and KX(inclusive). The results were obtained using a data sample of up to 288.5 fb{sup -1} recorded by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric B factory at SLAC.

The overall goal of the Tank Farm Vadose Zone Project, led by CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc., is to define risks from past and future single-shell tank farm activities at Hanford. To meet this goal, CH2M HILL Hanford Group, Inc. tasked scientists from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to perform detailed analyses on vadose zone sediments from within Waste Management Area (WMA) C. This report is the first of two reports written to present the results of these analyses. Specifically, this report contains all the geologic, geochemical, and selected physical characterization data collected on vadose zone sediment recovered from borehole C4297, installed adjacent to Tank C-105, and from borehole 299-E27-22, installed directly north of the C Tank Farm. Sediments from borehole 299-E27-22 were considered to be background uncontaminated sediments against which to compare contaminated sediments for the C Tank Farm characterization effort. This report also presents our interpretation of the data in the context of sediment types, the vertical extent of contamination, the migration potential of the contaminants, and the likely source of the contamination in the vadose zone and groundwater below the C Tank Farm. The information presented in this report supports the A-AX, C and U Waste Management Area …

This final report summazies the reactor sharing activities at the Rensselaer Critical Facility. An example of a typical tour is also included.

Soils are structurally heterogeneous across a wide range of spatio-temporal scales. Consequently, external environmental conditions do not have a uniform effect throughout the soil, resulting in a large diversity of micro-habitats. It has been suggested that soil function can be studied without explicit consideration of such fine detail, but recent research has indicated that the micro-scale distribution of organisms may be of importance for a mechanistic understanding of many soil functions. Due to a lack of techniques with adequate sensitivity for data collection at appropriate scales, the question 'How important are various soil processes acting at different scales for ecological function?' is challenging to answer. The nano-scale secondary ion mass spectrometer (NanoSIMS) represents the latest generation of ion microprobes which link high-resolution microscopy with isotopic analysis. The main advantage of NanoSIMS over other secondary ion mass spectrometers is the ability to operate at high mass resolution, whilst maintaining both excellent signal transmission and spatial resolution ({approx}50 nm). NanoSIMS has been used previously in studies focusing on presolar materials from meteorites, in material science, biology, geology and mineralogy. Recently, the potential of NanoSIMS as a new tool in the study of biophysical interfaces in soils has been demonstrated. This paper describes …

Report of site-specific decommissioning in-process inspection activities at the University of Washington Research and Test Reactor Facility.

The toxicological source terms used for potential accident assessment in the Hanford Tank Farms DSA are based on toxicological sums-of-fractions (SOFs) that were calculated based on the Best Basis Inventory (BBI) from May 2002, using a method that depended on thermodynamic equilibrium calculations of the compositions of liquid and solid phases. The present report describes a simplified SOF-calculation method that is to be used in future toxicological updates and assessments and compares its results (for the 2002 BBI) to those of the old method.

Recent Chandra observations of an outflowing gas in GRO J1655-40 resulted in a suggestion by Miller et al. (2006) that the wind in this system must be powered by a magnetic process that can also drive accretion through the disk around the black hole. The alternative explanations, of radiation pressure or thermally driven flows, were considered unsatisfactory because of the highly ionized level of the gas and because of the derived small distance from the black hole, well inside the minimum distance required for an efficient X-ray heated wind. The present paper shows that there is a simple photoionized wind solution for this system where the gas is much further out than assumed by Miller et al., at r/r{sub g} = 10{sup 4.7-5.7}. The expected wind velocity, as well as the computed equivalent widths of more than 50 absorption lines in this single-component 1D model, are all in good agreement with the Chandra observations.

Laboratory-scale flowsheet tests of the fractional crystallization process were conducted with actual tank waste samples in a hot cell at the 222-S Laboratory. The process is designed to separate medium-curie liquid waste into a low-curie stream for feeding to supplemental treatment and a high-curie stream for double-shell tank storage. Separations criteria (for Cs-137 sulfate, and sodium) were exceeded in all three of the flowsheet tests that were performed.

An approach for the topological representation of simplicial finite element meshes as graphs is presented. It is shown that by using a graph, the topological changes induced by fracture reduce to a few, local kernel operations. The performance of the graph representation is demonstrated and analyzed, using as reference the 3D fracture algorithm by Pandolfi and Ortiz [22]. It is shown that the graph representation initializes in O(N{sub E}{sup 1.1}) time and fractures in O(N{sub I}{sup 1.0}) time, while the reference implementation requires O(N{sub E}{sup 2.1}) time to initialize and O(N{sub I}{sup 1.9}) time to fracture, where NE is the number of elements in the mesh and N{sub I} is the number of interfaces to fracture.

This report discusses the civil reserve air fleet (CRAF), its structure, Contractual Relationship, Cost Factors, Industrial Base and Cost Factors. It also points out the benefits and opportunities for both DOD and U.S. airlines that CRAF presents.

This report discusses child welfare provisions in the budget reconciliation bill.

This report discusses How is a CFSR Conducted , what is Assesses? and Aggregate State Performance on Outcomes in the initial CSR.

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