A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Officers with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) within the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) investigate violations of immigration laws and identify aliens who are removable from the United States. ICE officers exercise discretion to achieve its operational goals of removing any aliens subject to removal while prioritizing those who pose a threat to national security or public safety and safeguarding aliens' rights in the removal process. The General Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to examine how ICE ensures that discretion is used in the most fair, reasoned, and efficient manner possible. GAO reviewed (1) when and how ICE officers and attorneys exercise discretion and what internal controls ICE has designed to (2) guide decision making and (3) oversee and monitor officers' decisions. To conduct this work, GAO reviewed ICE manuals, memorandums, and removal data, interviewed ICE officials, and visited 21 of 75 ICE field offices."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Social Security Protection Act of 2004 temporarily expanded the practice of paying representatives' fees directly out of a claimant's benefits. This practice, known as fee withholding, was previously available only to attorneys in Disability Insurance (DI) cases. It has been extended to attorneys in Supplemental Security Income (SSI) cases, and to nonattorneys--who meet eligibility criteria--in both DI and SSI cases. The act also mandated that GAO examine (1) the professional experience of disability representatives, (2) how judges and claimants view representatives' performance, (3) how the implementation of fee withholding for nonattorneys has been viewed, and (4) the impact of fee withholding in the SSI program. GAO surveyed representatives and judges, and interviewed claimants and Social Security Administration (SSA), state, and other officials."

In response to DOE's Solicitation for Grant Applications DE-PS36-03GO93007, 'Hydrogen Production and Delivery Research', SRI International (SRI) proposed to conduct work under Technical Topic Area 5, Advanced Electrolysis Systems; Sub-Topic 5B, High-Temperature Steam Electrolysis. We proposed to develop a prototype of a modular industrial system for low-cost generation of H{sub 2} (<$2/kg) by steam electrolysis with anodic depolarization by CO. Water will be decomposed electrochemically into H{sub 2} and O{sub 2} on the cathode side of a high-temperature electrolyzer. Oxygen ions will migrate through an oxygen-ion-conductive solid oxide electrolyte. Gas mixtures on the cathode side (H{sub 2} + H{sub 2}O) and on the anode side (CO + CO{sub 2}) will be reliably separated by the solid electrolyte. Depolarization of the anodic process will decrease the electrolysis voltage, and thus the electricity required for H{sub 2} generation and the cost of produced H{sub 2}. The process is expected to be at least 10 times more energy-efficient than low-temperature electrolysis and will generate H{sub 2} at a cost of approximately $1-$1.5/kg. The operating economics of the system can be made even more attractive by deploying it at locations where waste heat is available; using waste heat would reduce the electricity required for …

This research project falls in the domain of response surface methodology, which seeks cost-effective ways to accurately fit an approximate function to experimental data. Modeling and computer simulation are essential tools in modern science and engineering. A computer simulation can be viewed as a function that receives input from a given parameter space and produces an output. Running the simulation repeatedly amounts to an equivalent number of function evaluations, and for complex models, such function evaluations can be very time-consuming. It is then of paramount importance to intelligently choose a relatively small set of sample points in the parameter space at which to evaluate the given function, and then use this information to construct a surrogate function that is close to the original function and takes little time to evaluate. This study was divided into two parts. The first part consisted of comparing four sampling methods and two function approximation methods in terms of efficiency and accuracy for simple test functions. The sampling methods used were Monte Carlo, Quasi-Random LP{sub {tau}}, Maximin Latin Hypercubes, and Orthogonal-Array-Based Latin Hypercubes. The function approximation methods utilized were Multivariate Adaptive Regression Splines (MARS) and Support Vector Machines (SVM). The second part of the study …

Global sensitivity analysis (GSA) measures the variation of a model output as a function of the variations of the model inputs given their ranges. In this paper we consider variance-based GSA methods that do not rely on certain assumptions about the model structure such as linearity or monotonicity. These variance-based methods decompose the output variance into terms of increasing dimensionality called 'sensitivity indices', first introduced by Sobol' [25]. Sobol' developed a method of estimating these sensitivity indices using Monte Carlo simulations. McKay [13] proposed an efficient method using replicated Latin hypercube sampling to compute the 'correlation ratios' or 'main effects', which have been shown to be equivalent to Sobol's first-order sensitivity indices. Practical issues with using these variance estimators are how to choose adequate sample sizes and how to assess the accuracy of the results. This paper proposes a modified McKay main effect method featuring an adaptive procedure for accuracy assessment and improvement. We also extend our adaptive technique to the computation of second-order sensitivity indices. Details of the proposed adaptive procedure as wells as numerical results are included in this paper.

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This report consists of two tables, preceded by a brief narrative. The first table summarizes the annual funding provisions, by program, in (1) current law, (2) H.R. 2419 as passed, and (3) the Bush Administration's farm bill proposals. The second table compares FY2007 authorized and actual funding levels for programs authorized in the 2002 farm bill with FY2008 and FY2012 funding levels that would be authorized in the 2007 House-passed farm bill.

The goal accomplished in thisproject was to improve the Synergia code by improving the integration of the Impact space charge algorithms into Synergia and improving the graphical user interface for analyzing results. We accomplished five tasks along these lines: (i) a refactoring of the Impact space charge algorithm to make it more accessible by other codes, (ii) development of the Forthon interface between Impact and Python, (iii) implementation of a Python-MPI interface to allow parallel space charge calculation, (iv) a new user-friendly interface for analyzing Synergia results, and (v) a toolkit for doing parallel analysis of Synergia results.

This report describes the seismicity and earthquake monitoring activities within the Yucca Mountain region during fiscal year 2004 (FY2004 - October 1, 2003, through September 30, 2004) based on operation of the Southern Great Basin Digital Seismic Network (SGBDSN). Network practices and earthquake monitoring conducted at the Nevada Seismological Laboratory (NSL) under DOE directives for prior fiscal years are covered in similar yearly reports (see references). Real-time systems, including regional data telemetry and data management at NSL, provide for the automatic determination of earthquake locations and magnitudes and notification of important earthquakes in the region to UNR staff and DOE management. All waveform and meta-data, including automatic locations, phase arrival information, and analyst reviewed information, are managed through a relational database system allowing quick and reliable evaluation and analysis of ongoing earthquake activity near Yucca Mountain. This network, which contains weak-motion and strong-motion instrumentation, addresses the seismic hazard of the Yucca Mountain area by providing accurate earthquake magnitudes for earthquake recurrence estimates, spatial hypocentral control to very low magnitudes for identifying and assessing active faults and verifying tectonic models, true ground motions over the complete range of expected earthquake amplitudes for developing predictive models, and earthquake source information for characterizing …

This report examines what economics has to say about both the short- and long-run effects of an increase in the national saving rate on economic growth.

This report provides an Overview of Census Bureau Data on Recipients for child support.

This report provides Farm bill issues Crop of 2007 related to Insurance and Disaster assistance.

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This report summarizes research efforts that have been funded and conducted showing the comparative clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness.

In this dissertation I describe a study of double-charm and charm-strange baryons based on data collected with the BABAR Detector at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. In this study I search for new baryons and make precise measurements of their properties and decay modes. I seek to verify and expand upon double-charm and charm-strange baryon observations made by other experiments. The BABAR Detector is used to measure subatomic particles that are produced at the PEP-II storage rings. I analyze approximately 300 million e+e- {yields} c{bar c} events in a search for the production of double-charm baryons. I search for the double-charm baryons {Xi}{sup +}{sub cc} (containing the quarks ccd) and {Xi}{sup ++}{sub cc} (ccu) in decays to {Lambda}{sup +}{sub c}K{sup -}{pi}{sup +} and {Lambda}{sup +}{sub c}K{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup +}, respectively. No statistically significant signals for their production are found, and upper limits on their production are determined. Statistically significant signals for excited charm-strange baryons are observed with my analysis of approximately 500 million e+e- {yields} c{bar c} events. The charged charm-strange baryons {Xi}{sub c}(2970){sup +}, {Xi}{sub c}(3055){sup +}, {Xi}{sub c}(3123){sup +} are found in decays to {Lambda}{sup +}{sub c}K{sup -}{pi}{sup +}, the same decay mode used in the {Xi}{sup +}{sub …

The Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP) is a new nuclear fuel cycle paradigm with the goals of expanding the use of nuclear power both domestically and internationally, addressing nuclear waste management concerns, and promoting nonproliferation. A key aspect of this program is fast reactor transmutation, in which transuranics recovered from light water reactor spent fuel are to be recycled to create fast reactor transmutation fuels. The benefits of these fuels are to be demonstrated in an Advanced Burner Reactor (ABR), which will provide a representative environment for recycle fuel testing, safety testing, and modern fast reactor design and safeguard features. Because the GNEP programs will require facilities which may have an impact upon the environment within the meaning of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), preparation of a Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) for GNEP is being undertaken by Tetra Tech, Inc. The PEIS will include a section on the ABR. In support of the PEIS, the Nuclear Engineering Division of Argonne National Laboratory has been asked to provide a description of the ABR alternative, including graphics, plus estimates of construction and operations data for an ABR plant. The compilation of this information is presented in the remainder …

We present the results of a search for four exclusive semileptonic decays B {yields} D{sup (*)}{tau}{sup -}{bar {nu}}{sub {tau}} in 209 fb{sup -1} of data collected with the BABAR detector, corresponding to 232 million e+e- {yields} {Upsilon}(4S) {yields} B{bar B} events. We select events with a D{sup (*)} meson and a light lepton (e or {mu}) recoiling against a fully-reconstructed B meson. We perform a fit to the lepton spectrum and missing mass squared to discriminate signal events from backgrounds, predominantly B {yields} D{sup (*)}{tau}{sup -}{bar {nu}}{sub {tau}}. A control sample of identified D**{ell}{sup -}{bar {nu}}{sub {ell}} events is included in the fit to estimate the background contribution from these decays. We measure {beta}(B {yields} D{sub {tau}{nu}}) = (0.86{+-}0.24{+-}0.11{+-}0.06)% and {beta}(B {yields} D*{sub {tau}{nu}}) = (1.62{+-}0.31{+-}0.10{+-}0.05)%, where the errors are statistical, systematic, and normalization-mode related, respectively, and where the results are expressed for the {bar B}{sup 0} lifetime.

Annual report detailing the effectiveness of Texas risk management during fiscal year 2007 including cost containment measures measures to reduce workers' compensation payments.