This report begins with an inventory of basic information: definitions and guides to histories of the growth of open access publishing and citation archives and descriptions of selected major open access activities. It moves on to summarize major points of difference between proponents and opponents of nongovernmental open access publishing and databases, and then highlights federal, including National Institutes of Health (NIH), open access activities and contentious issues surrounding these developments. The report also briefly describes open access developments in the United Kingdom (where a number of governmental and nongovernmental initiatives have occurred) and in the international arena. Finally, controversial issues which could receive attention the 110th Congress are summarized.

Deep-sea coral communities have long been recognized by fisherman as areas that support large populations of commercial fish. As a consequence, many deep-sea coral communities are threatened by bottom trawling. Successful management and conservation of this widespread deep-sea habitat requires knowledge of the age and growth rates of deep-sea corals. These organisms also contain important archives of intermediate and deep-water variability, and are thus of interest in the context of decadal to century-scale climate dynamics. Here, we present {Delta}{sup 14}C data that suggest that bamboo corals from the Gulf of Alaska are long-lived (75-126 years) and that they acquire skeletal carbon from two distinct sources. Independent verification of our growth rate estimates and coral ages is obtained by counting seasonal Sr/Ca cycles and probable lunar cycle growth bands.

Technology developed by the late Dr. Felix Sebba of the VPI Chemical Engineering Department by which an oil phase can be broken up into small droplets and encapsulated in a continuous water phase led to research on the possible merits of a fuel prepared by this procedure. The resulting mixture is called a polyaphron. Part 1 of this report describes the testing of polyaphronated gasoline in an automobile engine. Nitrogen oxides (NO{sub x}) emissions, total hydrocarbon (HC) emissions, and exhaust temperature were determined for various load and RPM combinations. Difficulties with viscosity and separation of the water phase have prevented complete testing at road load conditions. Rather than continue with engine testing, some bench tests of polyaphrons were performed to see the effect of various filtering processes on fuel stability as well as measuring viscosity and density. These results are reported in Part 2 of this paper. 6 figs., 4 tabs.

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A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Ranking Democratic Member, House Committee on Veterans' Affairs, asked GAO to determine (1) whether VA's internal assessments indicate its regional offices are complying with the requirements of the Veterans Claims Assistance Act (VCAA) of 2000 for obtaining military service records for veterans' disability compensation claims and (2) whether VBA could improve its procedures for obtaining military service records for claims involving post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)."

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This report discusses proposals for international tsunami early warning systems and examines U.S. policy regarding tsunamis.

Contains general notes and research (including and informational packet and map) for Air Force Team Analyst Craig Hall regarding Otis ANGB, MA

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This document is an addendum to the Corrective Action Decision Document (CADD) that has been prepared for Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 254, Area 25 Reactor Maintenance, Assembly, and Disassembly (R-MAD) Decontamination Facility. CAU 254 consists of Corrective Action Site (CAS) 25-23-06, Decontamination Facility. The purpose of this addendum is to provide a rationale for the recommendation of a revised preferred alternative corrective action for CAU 254. This preferred alternative corrective action, Alternative 3, consists of the removal of accessible soil/sediment and all building material above ground level from the CAU 254 Site. This alternative is being recommended because a cost-effective technology is now available to dismantle the contaminated building and ensure complete removal of all CAU 254 CADD-identified contaminants of concern and any associated contamination. This preferred closure method alternative reduces the potential for future exposure pathways. Procedures will be developed, presented in the Corrective Action Plan, and implemented to ensure worker health and safety, protection of human health and the environment, and to meet all unrestricted release requirements in accordance with applicable state and federal regulations.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Smithsonian Institution (Smithsonian) is the world's largest museum complex. Its funding comes from its own private trust fund assets and federal appropriations, with the majority of funds for facilities coming from federal appropriations. In 2005, GAO reported that the Smithsonian's current funding would not be sufficient to cover its estimated $2.3 billion in facilities projects through 2013 and recommended that the Smithsonian Board of Regents, its governing body, develop and implement a funding plan. Recently, problems related to a lack of adequate oversight of executive compensation and other issues have raised concerns about governance at the Smithsonian. This testimony discusses GAO's recently issued work on the Smithsonian's real property management efforts and its efforts to develop and implement strategies to fund its facilities projects. In addition, it describes preliminary results of GAO's ongoing work on the Smithsonian's governance challenges. The work for this testimony is based on GAO's September 2007 report, Smithsonian Institution: Funding Challenges Affect Facilities' Conditions and Security, Endangering Collections, which included recommendations. For ongoing governance work, GAO reviewed Smithsonian documents and interviewed Smithsonian officials, academics, and representatives of nonprofit associations."

Contains general USAF BRAC issues from various states for Air Force Team Analyst Craig Hall

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As of August 2013, the Chief Information Officers (CIO) at the eight selected agencies rated 198 of their 244 major information technology (IT) investments listed on the Federal IT Dashboard (Dashboard) as low risk or moderately low risk, 41 as medium risk, and 5 as high risk or moderately high risk. However, the total number of investments reported by these agencies has varied over time, which impacts the number of investments receiving CIO ratings. For example, Energy reclassified several of its supercomputer investments from IT to facilities and Commerce decided to reclassify its satellite ground system investments. Both decisions resulted in the removal of the investments from the Dashboard, even though the investments were clearly IT. In addition, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) does not update the public version of the Dashboard as the President's budget request is being created. As a result, the public version of the Dashboard was not updated for 15 of the past 24 months, and so was not available as a tool for investment oversight and decision making."

Contains Community input for Army Team Analyst Wes Hood regarding Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD

This report details the U.S international border security and barriers deployed along the border.

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This report discusses radiation protection and dose reporting requirements, presents the 2011 occupational radiation dose data along with trends over the past 5 years, and provides instructions to submit successful as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA) projects.

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.

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Fiscal Year 2008 (FY-08) represents a transitional year for the StreamNet project. While the project continued to acquire/update, standardize, georeference and disseminate fish-related data for the state, some tribal and one federal fisheries agencies, it also took on several new initiatives and is anticipating new regional guidance on data needs. Passage of the Columbia Basin Accords caused an administrative change within the project, separating the work done by the Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission (CRITFC) out to a separate contract with BPA. This will change the structure of the StreamNet contract but not change the relationship with the StreamNet Library or data developed by CRITFC, and will likely increase the availability of tribal data to StreamNet due to increased funding for tribal data efforts. This change will take effect in FY-09. We also expect that data work will be adjusted in the future in response to executive level policy direction in the Columbia Basin based on efforts to establish priorities under a regional data management framework. Data development emphasis was shifted this year to place highest priority on data that support indicators of fish abundance for the focal species covered in the Status of the Resource (SOTR) report, as requested …

This report discusses that framework and proposals, starting with the 111th Congress, to amend more than 30 acts of Congress that are part of or relevant to it.

Contains notes and research (Naval Base San Diego, CA Broadway Complex #1) COBRA Data-by Brian McDaniel of the NAVY Team.