This report provides a brief history and overview of the aims of these statutes: the Railway Labor Act (RLA) enacted in 1926, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), and the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute (FSLMRS). It also discusses key statutory provisions for each statute.

Congress is renewing its interest in facilitating the immigration of foreign professional workers in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) fields. The STEM workforce is seen by many as a catalyst of U.S. global economic competitiveness and is likewise considered a key element of the legislative options aimed at stimulating economic growth. "STEM visa" is a shorthand for an expedited immigration avenue that enables foreign nationals with graduate degrees in STEM fields to adjust their immigration status to legal permanent residence (LPR) without waiting in the queue of numerically-limited LPR visas.

This report examines U.S. foreign assistance activities in the People's Republic of China (PRC), including U.S. Department of State and U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) programming, foreign operations appropriations, policy history, and legislative background. International programs supported by U.S. departments and agencies other than the Department of State and USAID are not covered in this report.

In an increasingly global economy, and with retirement starting for the Baby Boomer generation, Congress has indicated a strong interest in ensuring that today's young people have the educational attainment and employment experience needed to become highly skilled workers, contributing taxpayers, and successful participants in civic life. Challenges in the economy and among certain youth populations, however, have heightened concern among policymakers that some young people may not be prepared to fill these roles. This report covers this history and current status of governmental assistance in federal youth employment and job training programs.

A condition for sheath instability due to secondary electron emission (SEE) is derived for low collisionality plasmas. When the SEE coefficient of the electrons bordering the depleted loss cone in energy space exceeds unity, the sheath potential is unstable to a negative perturbation. This result explains three different instability phenomena observed in Hall thruster simulations including a newly found state with spontaneous ~20MHz oscillations. When instabilities occur, the SEE propagating between the walls becomes the dominant contribution to the particle flux, energy loss and axial transport.

A bounded plasma where the hot electrons impacting the walls produce more than one secondary on average is studied via particle-in-cell simulation. It is found that no classical Debye sheath or space-charge limited sheath exists. Ions are not drawn to the walls and electrons are not repelled. Hence the unconfined plasma electrons travel unobstructed to the walls, causing extreme particle and energy fluxes. Each wall has a positive charge, forming a small potential barrier or "inverse sheath" that pulls some secondaries back to the wall to maintain the zero current condition.

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A recommendation to eliminate all characterization of pour stream glass samples and the glass fabrication and Product Consistency Test (PCT) of the sludge batch qualification sample was made by a Six-Sigma team chartered to eliminate non-value-added activities for the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) sludge batch qualification program and is documented in the report SS-PIP-2006-00030. That recommendation was supported through a technical data review by the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) and is documented in the memorandums SRNL-PSE-2007-00079 and SRNL-PSE-2007-00080. At the time of writing those memorandums, the DWPF was processing sludge-only waste but, has since transitioned to a coupled operation (sludge and salt). The SRNL was recently tasked to perform a similar data review relevant to coupled operations and re-evaluate the previous recommendations. This report evaluates the validity of eliminating the characterization of pour stream glass samples and the glass fabrication and Product Consistency Test (PCT) of the sludge batch qualification samples based on sludge-only and coupled operations. The pour stream sample has confirmed the DWPF's ability to produce an acceptable waste form from Slurry Mix Evaporator (SME) blending and product composition/durability predictions for the previous sixteen years but, ultimately the pour stream analysis has added minimal value to …

Although significant performance improvements have been realized since the first demonstration of sunlight-driven water splitting in 1972, mainstream adoption of photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells remains limited by an absence of cost-effective electrodes that show simultaneously high conversion efficiency and good durability. Here we outline current and future efforts to use advanced theoretical techniques to guide the development of a durable, high-performance PEC electrode material. Working in close collaboration with experimental synthesis and characterization teams, we use a twofold approach focusing on: (1) rational design of novel high-performance electrode materials; and (2) characterization and optimization of the electrode-electrolyte interface.

A storage ring with tunable momentum compaction has the advantage in achieving different RMS bunch length with similar RF capacity, which is potentially useful for many applications, such as linear collider damping ring and pre-damping ring where injected beam has a large energy spread and a large transverse emittance. A tunable bunch length also makes the commissioning and fine tuning easier in manipulating the single bunch instabilities. In this paper, a compact ring design based on a supercell is presented, which achieves a tunable momentum compaction while maintaining a large dynamic aperture.

Concrete containment structures and cement-based fills and waste forms are used at the Savannah River Site to enhance the performance of shallow land disposal systems designed for containment of low-level radioactive waste. Understanding and measuring transport through cracked concrete is important for describing the initial condition of radioactive waste containment structures at the Savannah River Site (SRS) and for predicting performance of these structures over time. This report transmits the results of a literature review on transport through cracked concrete which was performed by Professor Jason Weiss, Purdue University per SRR0000678 (RFP-RQ00001029-WY). This review complements the NRC-sponsored literature review and assessment of factors relevant to performance of grouted systems for radioactive waste disposal. This review was performed by The Center for Nuclear Waste Regulatory Analyses, San Antonio, TX, and The University of Aberdeen, Aberdeen Scotland and was focused on tank closure. The objective of the literature review on transport through cracked concrete was to identify information in the open literature which can be applied to SRS transport models for cementitious containment structures, fills, and waste forms. In addition, the literature review was intended to: (1) Provide a framework for describing and classifying cracks in containment structures and cementitious materials used …