A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 1998 and 1999 reports, GAO concluded that enforcement actions, known as sanctions, were ineffective in encouraging nursing homes to maintain compliance with federal quality requirements: sanctions were often rescinded before being implemented because homes had a grace period to correct deficiencies. In response, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) began requiring immediate sanctions for homes that repeatedly harmed residents. Using CMS enforcement and deficiency data, GAO (1) analyzed federal sanctions from fiscal years 2000 through 2005 against 63 homes previously reviewed and (2) assessed CMS's overall management of enforcement. The 63 homes had a history of harming residents and were located in 4 states that account for about 22 percent of homes nationwide."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has been unable to collect hundreds of millions of dollars in antidumping (AD) and countervailing (CV) duties. The Department of Commerce imposes these duties to remedy injurious unfair foreign trade practices (unfairly low prices or subsidies). The noncollection of AD/CV duties means that the U.S. government has not fully remedied the unfair trade practices and bears a substantial loss of revenue. GAO was asked to examine the (1) nature and extent of uncollected AD/CV duties, (2) factors contributing to uncollected AD/CV duties and steps taken to address these factors, and (3) options for aiding duty collections. To analyze these issues, GAO reviewed CBP data for fiscal years 2001 through 2007, agency documents and reports, and interviewed government officials and private sector representatives"

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Medicaid program paid for nearly one-half of the nation's total long-term care expenditures in 2004. To be eligible for Medicaid long-term care, individuals may transfer assets (income and resources) to others to ensure that their assets fall below certain limits. Individuals who make transfers for less than fair market value (FMV) can be subject to a penalty that may delay Medicaid coverage. The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) changed the calculation and timing of the penalty period and set requirements for the treatment of certain types of assets. GAO was asked to provide data on the extent to which asset transfers for less than FMV occur. GAO examined (1) the financial characteristics of elderly nursing home residents nationwide, (2) the demographic and financial characteristics of a sample of Medicaid nursing home applicants, (3) the extent to which these applicants transferred assets for less than FMV, and (4) the potential effects of the DRA provisions related to Medicaid eligibility for long-term care. GAO analyzed data from the Health and Retirement Study (HRS), a national panel survey, and from 540 randomly selected Medicaid nursing home application …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Multiemployer-defined benefit pension plans, which are created by collective bargaining agreements covering more than one employer and generally operated under the joint trusteeship of labor and management, provide coverage to over 9.7 million of the 44 million participants insured by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). The recent termination of several large single-employer plans--plans sponsored by individual firms--has led to millions of dollars in benefit losses for thousands of workers and left PBGC, their public insurer, an $11.2 billion deficit as of September 30, 2003. The serious difficulties experienced by these single-employer plans have prompted questions about the health of multiemployer plans. This report provides the following information on multiemployer pension plans: (1) trends in funding and worker participation, (2) PBGC's role regarding the plans' financial solvency, and (3) potential challenges to the plans' long-term prospects."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2007, the Department of Defense (DOD) paid contractors $158.3 billion for a range of services, including contract specialists. To better understand the use of contractors in this role, GAO initiated a case study, under the authority of the Comptroller General, at the Army Contracting Agency's (ACA) Contracting Center of Excellence (CCE). GAO determined (1) the extent to which and why CCE relies on contractor contract specialists, (2) how risks of contractor use are mitigated, (3) how the cost of the contractors compares to that for CCE's government employees, and (4) whether the contract vehicles were appropriate. GAO reviewed a random sample of contract files to understand the contractors' duties and responsibilities, compared compensation costs, and reviewed documents from the General Services Administration (GSA), under whose contracts CCE ordered the contract specialists."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Prescription drug abuse is a growing public health problem. In particular, methadone-associated overdose deaths--those in which methadone may have caused or contributed to the death--have risen sharply. Before the late 1990s, methadone was used mainly to treat opioid addiction but has since been increasingly prescribed to manage pain. Taken too often, in too high a dose, or with other drugs or alcohol, methadone can cause serious side effects and death. Methadone-associated overdose deaths can occur under several different scenarios, including improper dosing levels by practitioners, misuse by patients who may combine methadone with other drugs, or abuse--using the drug for nontherapeutic purposes. This report examines the regulation of methadone, factors that have contributed to the increase in methadone-associated overdose deaths, and steps taken to prevent methadone-associated overdose deaths. GAO reviewed documents, laws and regulations, data, and research from relevant state and federal agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). GAO also interviewed federal officials, officials in five selected states, officials from professional associations and advocacy groups, and experts in pain management, addiction treatment, and forensic sciences."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Social Security Administration's (SSA) AeDib initiative is designed to provide SSA with a more efficient, paperless system that will enable its disability components to electronically view and share claims data and process claims electronically. Yet previous GAO reviews found that SSA's accelerated strategy to develop AeDib involved risks that could threaten a complete and successful transition to this capability. At the Subcommittee's request, GAO reviewed AeDib to assess (1) SSA's progress and strategy, (2) the adequacy of measures taken to avoid software development problems similar to those encountered in SSA's previous efforts, (3) the adequacy of cost/benefit analyses, and (4) SSA's consultation with stakeholders."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "To increase child support collections, Congress has considered proposals to improve the ability of private firms to gather information to help locate noncustodial parents and enforce the payment of child support. At the end of fiscal year 2000, the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) indicated that $89 billion in child support was owed but unpaid--a 96-percent increase since the end of fiscal year 1996. GAO believes that this amount is understated. Thousands of private and public sector entities can collect child support. Both private firms and state agencies reported collections from about 60 percent of their cases. Twenty-two of the 24 private firms GAO reviewed reported that they relied on private information vendors--commercial firms that sell information such as addresses, telephone numbers, and social security numbers--as their primary information source, whereas about one-third of state agencies reported using this source. State agencies relied heavily on state and federal automated databases to locate noncustodial parents and their assets. Additionally, private firms and the state agencies reported calling noncustodial parents to collect child support. However, only the private firms called third parties, such as relatives and neighbors …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pesticides play a significant role in increasing production of tobacco, food, and other crops by reducing the number of crop-destroying pests. However, if used improperly, pesticides can have significant adverse health effects. GAO was asked to (1) identify the pesticides commonly used on tobacco crops and the potential health risks associated with them, (2) determine how the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) assesses and mitigates health risks associated with pesticides used on tobacco, and (3) assess the extent to which federal agencies regulate and test for pesticide residues on tobacco."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "To assist low-income beneficiaries with their share of premiums and other out-of-pocket costs associated with Medicare, Congress has created four Medicare savings programs. Historic low enrollment in these programs has been attributed to several factors, including lack of awareness about the programs, and cumbersome eligibility determination and enrollment processes through state Medicaid programs. Concerned about this low enrollment, Congress passed legislation as part of the Medicare, Medicaid, and SCHIP Benefits Improvement and Protection Act of 2000 (BIPA) requiring the Social Security Administration (SSA) to notify low-income Medicare beneficiaries of their potential eligibility for Medicare savings programs. The statute also required GAO to study the impact of SSA's outreach effort. GAO examined what outreach SSA undertook to increase enrollment, how enrollment changed following SSA's 2002 outreach, and how enrollment changed in selected states following SSA's outreach and what additional outreach efforts these states undertook. GAO reviewed information obtained from SSA and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), analyzed enrollment data provided by SSA and CMS, and interviewed officials in and obtained data from six selected states (Alabama, California, Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania, and Washington)."

Within a constrained carbon environment, the risks of future natural gas supply, and the need to move to market-based electricity prices, the study team found: (1) the deployment of new nuclear energy in Poland itself is very competitive in the next decade or two; (2) if such generation could be made available to Poland prior to deployment of its own nuclear generation facilities, Poland would benefit from partnering with its Baltic neighbors to import electricity derived from new nuclear generation facilities sited in Lithuania; and (3) Poland appears to be a good candidate for a partnership in the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) as an emerging nuclear energy country.

Within a constrained carbon environment, the risks of future natural gas supply, and the need to move to market-based electricity prices, the study team found: (1) the deployment of new nuclear energy in Poland itself is very competitive in the next decade or two; (2) if such generation could be made available to Poland prior to deployment of its own nuclear generation facilities, Poland would benefit from partnering with its Baltic neighbors to import electricity derived from new nuclear generation facilities sited in Lithuania; and (3) Poland appears to be a good candidate for a partnership in the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) as an emerging nuclear energy country.

The objective of this project is forewarning of machine failures in critical equipment at next-generation nuclear power plants (NPP). Test data were provided by two collaborating institutions: Duke Engineering and Services (first project year), and the Pennsylvania State University (Applied Research Laboratory) during the second and third project years. New nonlinear methods were developed and applied successfully to extract forewarning trends from process-indicative, time-serial data for timely, condition-based maintenance. Anticipation of failures in critical equipment at next-generation NPP will improve the scheduling of maintenance activities to minimize safety concerns, unscheduled non-productive downtime, and collateral damage due to unexpected failures. This approach provides significant economic benefit, and is expected to improve public acceptance of nuclear power. The approach is a multi-tiered, model-independent, and data-driven analysis that uses ORNL's novel nonlinear method to extract forewarning of machine failures from appropriate data. The first tier of the analysis provides a robust choice for the process-indicative data. The second tier rejects data of inadequate quality. The third tier removes signal artifacts that would otherwise confound the analysis, while retaining the relevant nonlinear dynamics. The fourth tier converts the artifact-filtered time-serial data into a geometric representation, that is then transformed to a discrete distribution function …

This paper examines the relationship between system frequency, reliability and markets. It was prompted by the frequency deviations recently experienced at 2200 hours daily but is more generally concerned with the question of what frequency control is necessary. The paper does not provide new information or document new research. Nor is it intended to educate readers concerning power system engineering. Instead, the purpose is to reexamine well known truths concerning the power system and to freshly explore the basic relationship between frequency, reliability and markets: stepping back, if you will, to see if we are collectively missing something. The concern of this paper is with frequency and reliability. Off-nominal frequency can impact reliability and markets efficiency (as we are using the term here) in four ways. It could damage equipment (generation, transmission, or load). It could degrade the quality of the product being delivered to end users (too low and lights would flicker unacceptably, for example). It could result in the collapse of the power system itself (by triggering protective system actions, for example). Or it could result in overloading transmission lines as various generators try to restore system frequency impacting markets efficiency. Often these causes operate in concert. Generator …

Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) located in Albuquerque New Mexico is a community college that serves American Indians and Alaska Natives. SIPI’s student body represents over 100 Native American Tribes. SIPI completed a renewable energy feasibility study program and established renewable energy hardware on the SIPI campus, which supplements and creates an educational resource to teach renewable energy courses. The SIPI campus is located, and has as student origins, areas, in which power is an issue in remote reservations. The following hardware was installed and integrated into the campus facilities: small wind turbine, large photovoltaic array that is grid-connected, two photovoltaic arrays, one thin film type, and one polycrystalline type, one dual-axis active tracker and one passive tracker, a hot air system for heating a small building, a portable hybrid photovoltaic system for remote power, and a hot water system to preheat water used in the SIPI Child Care facility. Educational curriculum has been developed for two renewable energy courses one being the study of energy production and use, and especially the roles renewable energy forms like solar, wind, geothermal, hydro, and biomass plays, and the second course being a more advanced in-depth study of renewable energy system design, maintenance, …

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In September 2005, the Commodity Credit Corporation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (CCC/USDA) initiated periodic sampling of groundwater in the vicinity of a grain storage facility formerly operated by the CCC/USDA at Morrill, Kansas. On the basis of available information, the CCC/USDA believes that one or more third parties operated this facility after termination of the CCC/USDA's lease in 1971. The sampling at Morrill is being performed on behalf of the CCC/USDA by Argonne National Laboratory, in accord with a monitoring program approved by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), to monitor levels of carbon tetrachloride contamination identified in the groundwater at this site (Argonne 2004, 2005a). Under the KDHE-approved monitoring plan (Argonne 2005b), the groundwater has been sampled twice yearly for a recommended period of two years. The samples are analyzed for volatile organic compounds (VOCs), as well as for selected geochemical parameters to aid in the evaluation of possible natural contaminant degradation (reductive dechlorination) processes in the subsurface environment. The sampling is presently conducted in a network of 12 monitoring wells and 3 private wells (Figure 1.1), at locations approved by the KDHE. The scope of the originally approved monitoring has been expanded to include …

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As Kraft pulp mills move toward minimum impact manufacturing, one of the most difficult challenges is the development of strategies for dealing effectively with buildup, carryover, and recovery of cationic and anionic non-process elements (NPEs). Even at low concentrations, NPEs present a serious concern due to scaling and other reactions caused by Ca, Mg, Mn, Fe, Cu, phosphates, silicates, and aluminates. The drivers behind NPE removal include environmental regulatory issues (e.g., Mn), scale formation, reduced bleaching efficiency, and corrosion. Before closure can be achieved in the bleach cycle, methods must be developed for efficient and cost-effective removal of NPEs from bleach filtrate streams. To be commercially viable, a highly selective, high-capacity, and regenerable media must be developed. In addition, limited prefiltration and high resistance to attrition of exchange material will significantly reduce costs, which is key to widespread commercial application. This project accurately determined the chemical composition of a Weyerhauser bleach plant effluent in the Eop, D0, and D1 stages. Due to environmental regulatory concerns, Mn was the principal target of this study. Mn was found to be present in these samples in the range of 0.16 to 3.97 ppm. The Mn was found to be in the divalent oxidation …

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