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The Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act of 1997, H.R. 1122 was vetoed by President Clinton on October 10, 1997. This legislation would have made it a federal crime, punishable by fine and/or incarceration, for a physician to perform a partial birth abortion unless it was necessary to save the life of a mother whose life is endangered by a physical disorder, illness, or injury. The partial-birth abortion legislation has stimulated a great deal of controversy. This report provides a brief overview of the abortion methods currently in use for which data have been published and some positions on the partial birth abortion legislation.

Report on the weapon capabilities of Iraq, specifically on chemical and biological weapons.

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This report summarizes current programs for adult education and literacy, provides a funding history, and analyzes major provisions of the legislative proposals being considered by the 105th Congress for amending adult education and literacy programs. Specifically, the report examines the provisions of H.R. 1385, the Employment, Training, and Literacy Enhancement Act of 1997, as passed by the House, and H.R. 1385, the Workforce Investment Partnership Act of 1998, as amended by the Senate (originally considered as S. 1186). Key issues include state and local administration issues, comprehensive state plan requirements, integration with other federal training and employment programs, and program performance standards. The report will be updated as legislative action occurs.

The Chinese government has strongly criticized U.S. announcements that it will develop or assist in deploying missile defense systems involving cooperation with U.S. allies in East Asia, and reports of such possible U.S. cooperation with Taiwan. For those in the United States, the U.S. plans have many perceived disadvantages and advantages;1 the latter include notably providing degrees of protection for the United States and its allies against ballistic missile attack. Many in China believe that proposed U.S. development and deployment of ballistic missile defenses at home and in East Asia pose potentially serious complications for China’s ability to use its nuclear weapons to deter possible U.S. pressure and aggression, and to use Chinese ballistic missile capability to exert leverage over Japan, Taiwan, and others in East Asia.

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

The Winter Fuels Report is intended to provide consise, timely information to the industry, the press, policymakers, consumers, analysts, and State and local governments on the following topics: Distillate fuel oil net production, imports and stocks on a US level and for all Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts (PADD) and product supplied on a US level; Natural gas supply and disposition and underground storage for the US and consumption for all PADD`s as well as selected National average prices; Residential and wholesale pricing data for heating oil and propane for those States participating in the joint Energy Information Administration (EIA)/State Heating Oil and Propane Program; Crude oil and petroleum price comparisons for the US and selected cities; and A 6-10 Day and 30-Day outlook for temperature and precipitation and US total heating degree days by city.

The Winter Fuels Report is intended to provide concise, timely information to the industry, the press, policymakers, consumers, analysts, and State and local governments on the following topics: Distillate fuel oil net production, imports and stocks on a US level and for all Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts (PADD) and product supplied on a US level; propane net production, imports and stocks on a US level and for PADD`s I, II, and III; natural gas supply and disposition and underground storage for the US and consumption for all PADD`S; as well as selected National average prices. Residential and wholesale pricing, data for heating oil and propane for those States participating, in the joint Energy Information Administration (EIA)/State Heating, Oil and Propane Program; crude oil and petroleum price comparisons for the US and selected cities; and a 6--10 Day, 30-Day, and 90-Day outlook for temperature and precipitation and US total heating, degree-days by city.

The Winter Fuels Report is intended to provide concise, timely information to the industry, the press, policymakers, consumers, analysts, and State and local governments on the following topics: distillate fuel oil net production, imports and stocks on a US level and for all Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts (PADD) and product supplied on a US level; propane net production, imports and stocks on a US level and for PADD`s I, II, and III; natural gas supply and disposition and underground storage for the US and consumption for all PADD`S; as well as selected National average prices; residential and wholesale pricing data for heating oil and propane for those States participating in the joint Energy Information Administration (EIA)/State Heating Oil and Propane Program; crude oil and petroleum price comparisons for the US and selected cities; and a 6--10 Day, 30-Day, and 90-Day outlook for temperature and precipitation and US total heating degree-days by city.

The Winter Fuels Report is intended to provide concise, timely information on the following topics: distillate fuel oil net production, imports and stocks for all PADD's and product supplied on US level; propane net production, imports and stocks for Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts (PADD) I, II, and III; natural gas supply and disposition and underground storage for the United States and consumption for all PADD's; residential and wholesale pricing data for propane and heating oil for those States participating in the joint Energy Information Administration (EIA)/ State Heating Oil and Propane Program; crude oil petroleum price comparisons for the United States and selected cities; and US total heating degree-days by city. 34 figs., 12 tabs.

This Report is intended to provide concise, timely information to the industry, the press, policymakers, consumers, analysts, and State and local governments on the following topics: distillate fuel oil net production, imports and stocks for all Petroleum Administration for Defense Districts (PADD) and product supplied on a US level; propane net production, imports and stocks for PADD's 1, 2, and 3; natural gas supply and disposition and underground storage for the United States and consumption for all PADD's; residential and wholesale pricing data for propane and heating oil for those States participating in the joint Energy Information Administration (EIA)/State Heating Oil and Propane Program; crude oil and petroleum price comparisons for the United States and selected cities; and US total heating degree-days by city. 37 figs., 13 tabs.

The Fischer-Tropsch (F-T) reaction provides a way of converting coal-derived synthesis gas (CO+H{sub 2}) to liquid fuels. Since the reaction is highly exothermic, one of the major problems in control of the reaction is heat removal. Recent work has shown that the use of slurry bubble column reactors (SBCRs) can largely solve this problem. Iron-based (Fe) catalysts are preferred catalysts for F-T when using low CO/H{sub 2} ratio synthesis gases derived from modern coal gasifiers. This is because in addition to reasonable F-T activity, the F-T catalysts also possess high water gas shift (WGS) activity. However, a serious problem with the use of Fe catalysts in a SBCR is their tendency to undergo attrition. This can cause fouling/plugging of downstream filters and equipment, making the separation of catalyst from the oil/wax product very difficult if not impossible, and results in a steady loss of catalyst from the reactor. The objectives of this research are to develop a better understanding of the parameters affecting attrition resistance of Fe F-T catalysts suitable for use in SBCRs and to incorporate this understanding into the design of novel Fe catalysts having superior attrition resistance. Catalyst preparations will be based on the use of spray …

We have improved our ability to model the response of energetic materials to thermal stimuli and the processes involved in the energetic response. Traditionally, the analyses of energetic materials have involved coupled thermal transport/chemical reaction codes. This provides only a reasonable estimate of the time and location of ensuing rapid reaction. To predict the violence of the reaction, the mechanical motion must be included in the wide range of time scales associated with the thermal hazard. The ALE3D code has been modified to assess the hazards associated with heating energetic materials in weapons by coupling to thermal transport model and chemistry models. We have developed an implicit time step option to efficiently and accurately compute the hours of heating to reaction of the energetic material. Since, on these longer time scales materials can be expected to have significant motion, it is even more important to provide high-order advection for all components, including the chemical species. We show two examples of coupled thermal/mechanical/chemical models of energetic materials in thermal environments.

This report describes the design, construction, and testing of a nanoindentation specimen holder used for dynamic observation of subsurface microstructure evolution under an indenter tip, while viewing in cross-section in a high-voltage transmission electron microscope (TEM). It also discusses the initial experimental results from in-situ indentation of Si samples in the TEM to demonstrate the capability of this new nanoindentation specimen holder, which uses three-axis position control of a diamond indenter in combination with micromachined specimens. Additionally, the sample design techniques developed for these procedures may eliminate the need for TEM specimen preparation in future ex-situ nanoindentation experiments and for sample preparation for characterizing these experiments in the electron microscope.

We are developing a new 3D code for application to electromagnetic induction tomography and applications to environmental imaging problems. We have used the finite-difference frequency- domain formulation of Beilenhoff et al. (1992) and the anisotropic PML (perfectly matched layer) approach (Berenger, 1994) to specify boundary conditions following Wu et al. (1997). PML deals with the fact that the computations must be done in a finite domain even though the real problem is effectively of infinite extent. The resulting formulas for the forward solver reduce to a problem of the form Ax = y, where A is a non-Hermitian matrix with real values off the diagonal and complex values along its diagonal. The matrix A may be either symmetric or nonsymmetric depending on details of the boundary conditions chosen (i.e., the particular PML used in the application). The basic equation must be solved for the vector x (which represents field quantities such as electric and magnetic fields) with the vector y determined by the boundary conditions and transmitter location. Of the many forward solvers that could be used for this system, relatively few have been thoroughly tested for the type of matrix encountered in our problem. Our studies of the stability …

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