U.S. International Trade: Trends and Forecasts

[Excerpt] This report provides an overview of the current status, trends, and forecasts for U.S. import and export flows as well as certain balances. The purpose of this report is to provide current data and brief explanations for the various types of trade flows along with a brief discussion of trends that may require attention or point to the need for policy changes. The use of trade policy as an economic or strategic tool is beyond the scope of this report but can be found in various other CRS reports. Further detail on trade in specific commodities, with particular countries or regions, or for different time periods, can be obtained from the Department of Commerce, U.S. International Trade Commission, or by contacting the authors of this report

Representing Rhetoric: Post-truth and the Example of Thank You for Smoking

Grounding assumptions about the function of public discourse are critical to the formation and functioning of society. One way of examining those assumptions is through analyzing how public discourse gets represented in popular culture. Patricia Roberts-Miller’s (2004) taxonomy of models of public spheres serves as a template for the analysis of the film Thank You for Smoking (2006). This analysis demonstrates how the film both advocates for and contributes to the evolution of a post-truth public sphere by obscuring the historical controversy over tobacco. Truth and knowledge are not merely hidden or ignored but neutralized, and “spin” is therefore normalized and ultimately justified as a necessary protection of individual rights in a libertarian democracy

Measurement of Hysteretic Shale Capillary Pressure – Saturation Relationships using a Water Activity Meter

Capillary pressure is the pressure difference across the interface of two immiscible fluids within a porous medium due to the interfacial tension between fluids and is related to both the properties of the fluids and the porous medium. Capillary pressure within a porous medium will change depending upon its degree of saturation. Understanding the relationship between capillary pressure and saturation for a rock allows for the modeling of multi-phase flow. Many traditional methods of measuring capillary pressure are unsuitable for the characterization of shale due to their inability to measure the high capillary pressures found within the small pores. Furthermore, the mercury injection method used to determine shale pore-size distribution may be problematic due to both compression and contamination of the sample, as well as difficulty in converting the mercury capillary pressure to reservoir fluid capillary pressure. A possible alternative to the mercury injection method is the water activity meter which has been utilized extensively in the soil sciences for measuring capillary pressure. However, its application to lithified material has been limited. This study used a water activity meter to collect capillary pressure measurements (ranging from 2-200 MPa) at several saturation levels (ranging from 10-100%) for seven types of oil and gas producing shale. Nonlinear regression was used to fit the capillary pressure-saturation data for each shale type to the Brooks and Corey model which describes the relationship between capillary pressure and saturation using four parameters. Six of the seven shale types investigated were successfully parameterized indicating that the water activity meter may be a viable method for characterizing the capillary pressure-saturation relationship of shale for inclusion in numerical reservoir models. There were no significant differences between the wetting and drying Brooks and Corey parameters for the different shales, indicating that hysteresis was not a major factor. As expected, the different shale types had significantly different Brooks and Corey parameters for a given drying/ wetting regime. Bulk density, matrix density, and porosity measurements were also made on each shale type. These properties were correlated with total organic carbon content and were also statistically different between the examined shale types

Creature of the state? : homeschooling, the law, human rights, and parental autonomy

The demarcation of authority between parents and the State regarding education of children has become an increasingly complex issue over the past three decades. During the same period the number of parents around the world choosing educational alternatives such as homeschooling has grown exponentially, causing significant legislative and jurisprudential shifts in the United States as well as other Western nations. If the State is responsible for education or has a significant interest therein, then it must have broad authority by which to prescribe the method, mechanism, and acceptable outcomes of education; it must also be able to review and enforce these desired outcomes. If parents, on the other hand, are responsible, then it is the State’s duty to defer to parents absent a compelling reason to interfere. A survey of the philosophical foundations from ancient to modern times demonstrates the tension between the State and parents in the realm of education; however, modern human rights norms contained in post-1945 international human rights documents provide explicit grounds on which the State must defer to parental choice in education

Petrology and structure of a portion of the pЄ Mullen Creek metaigneous mafic complex, Medicine Bow Mountains, Wyoming

1979 Spring.Includes bibliographical references (pages 148-155).Includes two maps (plate I, plate II).The Mullen Creek mafic complex, located in the central Medicine Bow Mountains of Wyoming, is a Precambrian sequence of layered metaigneous mafic rocks intruded by several small, irregular plutons of felsic composition. The sequence consists of a diversified assemblage of rock types that exhibit variable degrees of regional and kinetic metamorphism as well as hybridization resulting from subsequent intrusion of felsic bodies. The main mafic body is a layered metagabbroic mass that has undergone gravitational differentiation to form gabbro-anorthositic gabbro-anorthosite-pyroxenite differentiates. Convectional motion appears to have been operative during crystallization as evidenced by cross-bedding, scour channeling, igneous laminations, and localized rhythmic layering. Systematic changes in the bulk composition of the layered sequence are suggested by increasing phosphorous, sodium, titanium, vanadium, zirconium, iron to magnesium ratio, and decreasing nickel in similar units with increasing stratigraphic height. Reversals in compositional variations are indicated by mineralogic and geochemical changes. Diabase, late stage gabbro, two periods of basalt dikes, and a minimum of two felsic phases intrude the layered sequence. One felsic body, the Horse Creek granodiorite, may represent a late stage differentiate of the layered gabbroic sequence. Regional amphibolite grade metamorphism has masked most of the primary mineralogy of the mafic units, but numerous relict textures are present throughout most of the complex. A late stage of kinetic metamorphism at lower amphibolite -upper greenschist facies has imparted a cataclastic and accompanying retrograde metamorphic overprint locally. Emplacement of younger felsic rocks during the waning stages of the regional metamorphic event is responsible for hybridization of surrounding mafic units. The mafic complex has been subjected to at least two folding episodes and multiple episodes of faulting and shearing. The complex has been folded anticlinally about a slightly overturned axis plunging steeply to the northwest with indeterminate internal folding. Refolding is reflected by a shallow westerly trending synanticlinical fold. Local shearing produced a penetrative fabric that subparallels the Mullen Creek-Nash Fork shear zone. Many Precambrian faults apparently were reactivated during the Laramide orogeny

Blue Crab Farming on Maryland's Eastern Shore

Biologists speculate that a combination of pollution and overharvesting might soon lead to the extinction of the blue crab in the Chesapeake Bay. This project investigates inland crab farming as a means by which to resurrect the region's dwindling blue crab industry and alleviate pressure on rapidly declining wild fisheries. Although the project transplants the blue crab onto land, it minimizes the impact to the plants and animals displaced. In short, the project asks us to rethink how we fish and how we farm and how they relate. The architectural proposal seeks to establish the general parameters of a heretofore untried blue crab farming operation and to apply these rules to a specific farm project in Dorchester County, Maryland. The final product consists of a series of greenhoused raceways, constructed wetlands, working meadows, a laboratory for rearing crab eggs to juvenile development, a picking/processing facility, restaurant, and modest educational facilities