With growing interest in oxygenates as octane booster for automotive fuels, various synthesis routes for these chemicals are being investigated. Among others, alternative routes to isobutene, the C4-components in MTBE-synthesis are under investigation. A promising path to isobutene is the heterogeneously catalyzed CO-hydrogenation to isobutanol with following dehydration (Fig. 1). As shown by thermodynamical studies, the heterogeneously catalyzed CO-hydrogenation to isobutanol is not expected to experience any thermodynamic constraints. However, heterogeneous hydrogenation of CO is a very exothermic process, a problem which can only be partly solved when being conducted in a plug flow reactor. When carried out in reaction vessels with moving catalyst bed (e.g. three phase stirred tank), heat transfer problems can be resolved, along with additional benefits connected with this reactor type. Several heterogeneous catalytic systems have been under investigation for their capability of isobutanol synthesis from syngas. Most promising catalysts for an active and selective isobutanol synthesis from CO are modified high temperature methanol catalysts.

This issue brief discusses the Airport Improvement Program and its complement, the Passenger Facility Charge (PFC). After a brief history of federal support for airport construction and improvement, the report describes AIP funding, its source of revenues, funding distribution, the types of projects the program funds, AIP and PFC policy issues, and the allowable use of AIP funds for airport security purposes.

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The Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1982 (which applied to FY1983 budget issues) suspended previously existing permanent law pertaining to cost-of-living adjustments(COLAs) for federal civilian and military retirees, and changed the COLA calculation formulas to postpone and/or reduce future COLAs for military retirees during 1983-1985 (FY1984-FY1986).This report examines executive and congressional COLA-related initiatives associated with each of the fiscal year budgeting processes from calendar year 1982 (FY1983) through calendar year 2000 (FY2001).

This report examines the economic and political situation in Cuba, including the human rights situation, and U.S. policy toward Cuba. The report also analyzes a number of issues facing Congress in U.S. policy toward Cuba, including: the overall direction of U.S. policy; challenges to U.S. policy in the World Trade Organization; restrictions on commercial food and medical exports; restrictions on travel; bilateral drug trafficking cooperation; Cuba and terrorism; funding for U.S.-government sponsored radio and television broadcasting to Cuba; the Russian signals intelligence facility in Cuba; migration issues; and compensation to the families of those Americans killed in 1996 when Cuba shot down two U.S. civilian planes. The report cites legislation that was passed in the 106th Congress, and also tracks legislative action on these various issues in U.S. policy toward Cuba in the 107th Congress.

Foam is solid-like under low stress and liquid-like under high stress. It can sustain a small load elastically but a large one causes it to flow indefinitely. When shear stress is present, a pair of adjacent bubbles can be squeezed apart by another pair, leading to a T1 switching event. This local but abrupt topological change results in bubble-complexes rearranging from one metastable configuration to another. The resulting macroscopic dynamics is highly nonlinear and complex, involving large local motion that depends on correlations between nearby bubbles. The main goal of this study was to find the connection between the behavior of individual membranes and the whole network and to relate local rearrangements to global rheological properties of flowing foams.

During waste retrieval, chemical reactions, waste property changes, and waste movements/mixing interact. Thus,to be accurate, a waste process assessment methodology must account for these physical and chemical waste characteristics and mechanisms. This study provides suggestions for column tests and simulation modeling efforts to investigate saltwell pumping of Hanford Tank S-112. In addition, GMIN chemical modeling was initiated for S-112 saltcake dilution with 50% and 100% water as the first step of evaluating the feasibility of the reactive transport code ARIEL as a waste retrieval assessment methodology. The chemical modeling predicted the S-112 saltcake chemistry reasonably well. Although it is too early to conclude the usefulness of this reactive transport modeling approach, it is worth further evaluating its applicability to the waste retrieval process.

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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.

The Savannah River Site, located in South Carolina, contains nuclear defense products and nuclear waste byproducts as result of national defense operations dating to the 1950s. The facility has been the subject of a variety of scientific investigations focusing on potential groundwater transportation of nuclides and other hazardous materials through the different aquifers within the air. The area of particular interest, and the subject of this report, is the General Separations Area.

This report outlines U.S. military operations in Bosnia and discusses issues such as U.S. and Allied Participation in Bosnia Peacekeeping (IFOR/SFOR), duration, cost, arms control and military assistance. This report also includes most recent development, background analysis, and legislation.

The Convention provides the most extensive and intrusive verification regime of any arms control treaty, extending its coverage to not only governmental but also civilian facilities. The Convention also requires export controls and reporting requirements on chemicals that can be used as warfare agents and their precursors. The CWC establishes the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) to oversee the Convention's implementation. Chemical Weapons Convention implementing legislation, as S. 610, passed the Senate unanimously on May 23, 1997. This legislation, which was an amendment in the nature of a substitute reported from the Judiciary Committee, provides the statutory authority for domestic compliance with the Convention's provisions. It sets criminal and civil penalties for the development, production, acquisition, stockpiling, transfer, possession, or use of chemical weapons.

This report includes recent developments in federal child care programs and tax provisions. The report discusses several federal programs that support child care or related services, primarily for low-income working families. In addition, the tax code includes provisions specifically targeted to assist families with child care expenses. The report presents the legislative activity in the 107th Congress in regard to child care legislature and provisions.

This report talks about Complex formation by the human Rad51B and Rad51C DNA repairproteins and their activities in vitro

The Department of Defense (DOD) administers five environmental programs in response to various requirements under federal environmental laws. These programs include environmental cleanup, environmental compliance, pollution prevention, environmental technology, and conservation. Additionally, the Department of Energy (DOE) is responsible for managing defense nuclear waste and cleaning up contaminated nuclear weapons sites. The Administration requested a total of $11.17 billion for these programs in FY2003, about $390 million more than the FY2002 funding level of $10.78 billion. Some of the ongoing issues associated with these programs are the adequacy, cost, and pace of cleanup, whether DOD and DOE adequately comply with environmental laws and regulations, and the extent to which environmental requirements encroach upon military readiness.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "When the Department of Defense closed military installations as a part of the base realignment and closure process and transferred properties to public and private ownership, it in some cases retained a portion of an installation as a military enclave. During this process, legal jurisdiction over an enclave may be transferred from the federal government to the local government. Such a transfer may incorporate provisions for fire protection and other services by local and state governments. A federal fire-fighting service provides fire protection services at the Navy's enclave located at the Philadelphia Naval Business Center. This is one of the three military enclaves, formed during the base closure and realignment process, which is still protected by federal firefighters. Twenty-four other military enclaves were converted from federal to local fire protection during the base closure process. The Navy retained a federal fire-fighting force at its enclave at the Philadelphia Naval Business Center because of Commonwealth of Pennsylvania did not respond to the Navy's request to change the jurisdiction of the Navy-retained land. The level of fire protection at the Philadelphia Naval Business Center is similar to that …

The objective of this study was quantification of the dynamics of litter decomposition, microbiota populations, and nutrient movement in response to nitrogen and phosphorus additions to a deciduous forest stand. Nitrogen (urea) was applied at rates of 0, 550, and 1100 kg/ha in combination with phosphorus (concentrated superphosphate) at rates of 0, 275, and 550 kg/ha. Total loss of organic material from white oak, red maple, and black gum litter bags over a 16-month period was 34, 35, and 45%, respectively. Phosphorus treatment retarded weight loss from litter bags of all species. Weight loss for the 0-, 275-, and 55-kg/ha levels of phosphorus averaged 23, 20, and 19% for white oak; 26, 25, and 25% for red maple; 29, 27 and 26% for black gum. Weight losses were increased by a small amount (1 to 2%) or not at all by nitrogen treatment. The NP interfaction weight loss means were intermediate to the main treatment means. The increase in decomposition associated with nitrogen was offset by the decrease associated with phosphorus. Litter and soil bacterial populations were significantly increased by nitrogen additions, while litter and soil fungi did not respond to nitrogen. Soil fungal populations were increased by phosphorus addition, …

The Bush Administration issued its plan for a national energy policy on May 16, 2001. The plan was controversial, characterized by some as leaner on conservation and renewables than Democratic proposals, and predisposed to trade off environmental considerations to increase supply. Comprehensive energy legislation was introduced in the Senate by both parties by late March (S. 388, S. 389, S. 596, S. 597). Bills reported by several House committees (H.R. 2436, H.R. 2460, H.R. 2511, and H.R. 2587) were combined in a single bill, H.R. 4, passed by the House, August 1, 2001. The House version of H.R. 4 would require a 5 billion gallon reduction in light-duty truck and SUV fuel consumption and would open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to leasing.

Heat shields from a factory test of the furnaces that will be used to heat the magnesium and uranium beds for the tritium extraction facility (TEF) were examined to determine the cause of discoloration. The samples were examined using visual, optical microscopy, electron microscopy, x-ray spectroscopy, and Auger electron spectroscopy.

An experimental study of the stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) instability has investigated the effects of velocity gradients and kinetic effects on the saturation of ion-acoustic waves in a plasma. For intensities less than I < 1.5 x 10{sup 15} W cm{sup -2}, the SBS instability is moderated primarily by velocity gradients, and for intensities above this threshold, nonlinear trapping is invoked to saturate the instability. We report direct evidence of detuning of SBS by a velocity gradient which was achieved by directly measuring the frequency shift of the SBS driven acoustic wave relative to the local resonant acoustic frequency. Furthermore, a novel use of Thomson scattering has allowed us to gather direct evidence of kinetic effects associated with the SBS process. Specifically, a measured two-fold increase of the ion temperature has been linked with laser beam excitation of ion-acoustic waves to large amplitudes by the SBS instability. Ion-acoustic waves were excited to large amplitude with a 2{omega} 1.2-ns long interaction beam with intensities up to 5 x 10{sup 15} W cm{sup -2}. The local frequency, amplitude, and spatial range of these waves were measured with a 3{omega} 200ps Thomson-scattering probe beam. These detailed and accurate measurements in well-characterized plasma conditions …

The CSNF geochemistry model abstraction, as directed by the TWP (BSC 2002b), was developed to provide regression analysis of EQ6 cases to obtain abstracted values of pH (and in some cases HCO{sub 3}{sup -} concentration) for use in the Configuration Generator Model. The pH of the system is the controlling factor over U mineralization, CSNF degradation rate, and HCO{sub 3}{sup -} concentration in solution. The abstraction encompasses a large variety of combinations for the degradation rates of materials. The ''base case'' used EQ6 simulations looking at differing steel/alloy corrosion rates, drip rates, and percent fuel exposure. Other values such as the pH/HCO{sub 3}{sup -} dependent fuel corrosion rate and the corrosion rate of A516 were kept constant. Relationships were developed for pH as a function of these differing rates to be used in the calculation of total C and subsequently, the fuel rate. An additional refinement to the abstraction was the addition of abstracted pH values for cases where there was limited O{sub 2} for waste package corrosion and a flushing fluid other than J-13, which has been used in all EQ6 calculation up to this point. These abstractions also used EQ6 simulations with varying combinations of corrosion rates of …

Integrated Energy Systems (IES) combine on-site power or distributed generation technologies with thermally activated technologies to provide cooling, heating, humidity control, energy storage and/or other process functions using thermal energy normally wasted in the production of electricity/power. IES produce electricity and byproduct thermal energy onsite, with the potential of converting 80 percent or more of the fuel into useable energy. IES have the potential to offer the nation the benefits of unprecedented energy efficiency gains, consumer choice and energy security. It may also dramatically reduce industrial and commercial building sector carbon and air pollutant emissions and increase source energy efficiency. Applications of distributed energy and Combined heat and power (CHP) in ''Commercial and Institutional Buildings'' have, however, been historically limited due to insufficient use of byproduct thermal energy, particularly during summer months when heating is at a minimum. In recent years, custom engineered systems have evolved incorporating potentially high-value services from Thermally Activated Technologies (TAT) like cooling and humidity control. Such TAT equipment can be integrated into a CHP system to utilize the byproduct heat output effectively to provide absorption cooling or desiccant humidity control for the building during these summer months. IES can therefore expand the potential thermal energy …

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