Cratering is a subject that has been studied by many investigators for many years for many purposes. These purposes range from experimental studies of physical properties to large scale excavations using explosive charges of kiloton size. In the past ten years considerable effort has been devoted to cratering experiments for the purposes of determining the effects of cratering by nuclear explosions, with recent accent on Plowshare applications. From the large amount of data available for craters in alluvian has been possible to establish very reliable relationships between charge size, depth of bursty crater radii, and crater depths. In addition it has been possible to construct a preliminary theory of the mechanics of explosive crater formation. The available experimental data for nuclear and high explosive craters are reviewed, with particular emphasis on the data for desert alluvium, and the pertinent relationships are derived. A theory of the important cratering mechanisms, which has been evolved on the basis of these data and data from other sources, is outlined. (auth)

As the first part of a study to evaluate the economics of the various steps leading to and including the permanent disposal of high-activity liquid and solid radioactive waste, costs of interim liquid storage of acid and alkaline Purex and Thorex wastes were estimated for storage times of 0.5 to 30 years. A 6- ton/day plant was assumed, processing 1500 tons/year of uranium converter fuel at a burnup of 10,000 Mwd/ton and 270 tons/year of thorium converter fuel at a burnup of 20,000 Mwd/ton. Tanks of Savannah River design were assumed, with stainless steel construction for acid wastes and mild steel construction for neutralized wastes. The operating cycle of each tank was assumed to consist of equal filling and emptying periods plus a full (or dead) period. With interim storage time defined as filling time plus full time, tank costs were minimum when full time was 40 to 70% of the interim storage time, using present worth considerations. For waste storage times of 0.5 to 30 years, costs ranged from 2.2 x 10/sup -3/ to 9.5 x 10/sup -3/ mill/kwh/sub e/ for acid wastes and from 1.7 x 10/sup -3/ to 5.1 x 10/sup -3/ mill/kwh/sub e/ for neutralized wastes. …

This report discusses Supreme Court decisions made during the tenure of Earl Warren as Chief Justice from 1953 to 1969 related to criminal procedure and the rights of the accused.

The Schroedinger Integral Equation is derived for an N-body system, and solutions for required Green's functions are obtained. The initial method of numerical solution has yielded the correct ground states and lower excited states of He (test case) and dt..mu... Steps are being taken to improve the numerical accuracy.

This report discusses the Department of Defense (DOD) policy via the Defense Utilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) for disposing of government equipment and supplies considered surplus or deemed unnecessary to the agency's currently designated mission. The report focuses on DRMS background, as well as the most recent DRMS policy modifications.

Report that provides background and funding information for Victims of Crime Act (VOCA) programs and the Crime Victims Fund (CVF). It describes the process through which CVF funds are allocated and explains how the CVF impacts the annual budget for Department of Justice (DOJ).

This report discusses the information disclosure by high-level officials in all three branches of the federal government.

This report discusses the state of Iraqi politics, governance, and human rights. Topics include the worsening relations between local Sunni and Shiite populations.

This report provides a brief overview of the FY2014 State Department, Foreign Operations and Related Programs funding request, as well as top-line analysis of pending House and Senate State-Foreign Operations appropriations proposals.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Congress and the Health Care Financing Administration recognized that certain services needed to be excluded from the skilled nursing facility (SNF) prospective payment system (PPS) rate to help ensure beneficiary access to appropriate care and to financially protect the SNFs that take care of high-cost patients. The criteria used to identify services--high cost, infrequently provided during a SNF stay and likely to be overprovided--and the services currently excluded appear reasonable. Even so, questions remain about whether beneficiaries have appropriate access to services that are covered in the rate or whether additional services should have been excluded. A second concern is that Medicare coverage for excluded facility services has been shifted from part A to part B, which will increase beneficiary liability. and program spending might increase because certain services are excluded only when provided in hospital settings, thus discouraging the use of less expensive, clinically appropriate sites of service. Finally, excluding services from the PPS rate when they are provided in emergency rooms may lead to overuse of emergency rooms, unnecessarily increasing Medicare spending. The Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS) does not plan to …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "From 2000 to 2010, the number of patent infringement lawsuits in the federal courts fluctuated slightly, and from 2010 to 2011, the number of such lawsuits increased by about a third. Some stakeholders GAO interviewed said that the increase in 2011 was most likely influenced by the anticipation of changes in the 2011 Leahy-Smith America Invents Act (AIA), which made several significant changes to the U.S. patent system, including limiting the number of defendants in a lawsuit, causing some plaintiffs that would have previously filed a single lawsuit with multiple defendants to break the lawsuit into multiple lawsuits. In addition, GAO's detailed analysis of a representative sample of 500 lawsuits from 2007 to 2011 shows that the number of overall defendants in patent infringement lawsuits increased by about 129 percent over this period. These data also show that companies that make products brought most of the lawsuits and that nonpracticing entities (NPE) brought about a fifth of all lawsuits. GAO's analysis of these data also found that lawsuits involving software-related patents accounted for about 89 percent of the increase in defendants over this period."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Over the past several decades, the Army and Marine Corps have increased their use of simulation-based training--simulators and computer-based simulations. Historically, the aviation communities in both services have used simulators to train servicemembers in tasks such as takeoffs, and emergency procedures that could not be taught safely live. In contrast, the services' ground communities used limited simulations prior to 2000. However, advances in technology, and emerging conditions in Iraq and Afghanistan have led to increased use of simulation-based training in the ground forces. For example, in response to increases in vehicle rollovers, both services began using simulators to train servicemembers to safely evacuate vehicles. The services are also collaborating in the development of some simulation-based training devices. For instance, according to Marine Corps officials, the service reused 87 percent of the Army's Homestation Instrumentation Training System's components in its own training system, achieving about $11 million in cost avoidance and saving an estimated 7 years in fielding time. The services are also taking steps to better integrate live and simulation-based training, developing technical capabilities to connect previously incompatible simulation-based training devices. The Army's capability is now …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has not thoroughly evaluated the performance of each of the pilot projects over time even though the agency stated it would do so when it announced the pilot projects. For example, in 2011, USDA completed a report evaluating the pilot project at 20 young chicken plants concluding that an inspection system based on the pilot project would ensure equivalent, if not better, levels of food safety and quality than currently provided at plants not in the pilot project. However, among the limitations of its evaluation was the use of snapshots of data for two 2-year periods instead of data for the duration of the pilot project, which has been ongoing for more than a decade. In addition, USDA did not complete an evaluation on or prepare a report evaluating the pilot project at 5 young turkey plants and has no plans to do so because of the small sample size. Nevertheless, in publishing a proposed rule that includes an optional new poultry (chicken and turkey) inspection system, USDA stated that the new system was based on its experience with the …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The nation has experienced vast losses from natural hazards. The potential for future events, such as earthquakes and hurricanes, demonstrates the importance of hazard mitigation--actions that reduce the long-term risks to life and property from natural hazard events. GAO was asked to examine (1) natural hazards that present a risk to life and property in the United States, areas that are most susceptible to them, factors that may be increasing these risks, and mitigation activities that reduce losses; (2) methods for encouraging and impediments to implementing mitigation activities; and (3) collaborative efforts of federal agencies and other stakeholders to promote mitigation. To address these objectives, GAO collected and analyzed hazard data, reviewed population information, conducted site visits to locations with comprehensive mitigation programs, and collected information from relevant agencies and officials."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Following the anthrax attacks of October 2001, the United States Postal Service (USPS) has started to look at various technologies that could be implemented in the event of another bioterror attack. The high-efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filtration system is being used as a prototype at two facilities and is planned for implementation throughout the country. HEPA filtering technology is the state-of-the-art technology for the removal of particulate biohazards and other particles of micron-sized range. USPS has not adequately tested the HEPA filtration system to confirm that it will meet its intended purpose of trapping anthrax spores and its secondary purpose of cleaning the mail processing equipment. USPS's testing has not shown conclusively (1) the HEPA filtration system's ability to trap released hazards and other contaminants, and (2) what level of hazards or contaminants could be released into the mail processing environment as a result of the air filtration system's design. Furthermore, USPS has not verified through testing that the air filtration system will not interfere with the air sampling and detection equipment. Even though HEPA filtration systems could reduce the risk of exposure to biohazards, they …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Officials GAO interviewed inside and outside of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) generally agreed on the potential major benefits of the Compliance Assurance Process (CAP) to taxpayers and IRS as reflected in its goals. These goals include saving IRS time and resources to use for other audits while ensuring compliance, and reducing taxpayer burden while increasing certainty on tax amounts now owed."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has made some progress in addressing key challenges as it begins the gradual transition to the Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen). It has filled key leadership positions and developed tools to manage interdependent NextGen programs. FAA is working to address other identified challenges, including incentivizing aircraft operators to equip with NextGen technologies, identifying workforce roles under NextGen, and realigning and consolidating facilities. However, FAA has yet to make some decisions needed to move forward with these efforts. For example, FAA is evaluating realignment options to help realize efficiencies but has not yet identified which facilities will be consolidated or realigned."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 2011, the Army has conducted five Network Integration Evaluations (NIE), which have provided extensive information and insights into current network capabilities and potential solutions to fill network capability gaps. According to senior Department of Defense (DOD) test officials, the NIE objective to test and evaluate network components together in a combined event is sound, as is the opportunity to reduce overall test and evaluation costs by combining test events. Further, the NIEs offer the opportunity for a more comprehensive evaluation of the broader network instead of piecemeal evaluation of individual network components. However, the Army is not taking full advantage of the potential knowledge that could be gained from the NIEs, and some resulting Army decisions are at odds with knowledge accumulated during the NIEs. For example, despite poor results in developmental testing, the Army moved forward to operational testing for several systems during the NIEs and they demonstrated similarly poor results. Yet the Army plans to buy and field several of these systems. Doing so increases the risk of poor performance in the field and the need to correct and modify deployed equipment. On …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "A recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) final rule changing the Clean Air Act's New Source Review (NSR) program--a key means to protect public health and enhance air quality--has been under scrutiny by the Congress, industry, environmental groups, state and local air quality agencies, and the courts. GAO was asked to determine the basis of EPA's conclusions that (1) the rule's economic impacts would not be significant enough to merit a detailed analysis and (2) the NSR program, prior to the rule, discouraged some energy efficiency projects. GAO, among other things, reviewed EPA's analysis of the rule and its impacts, as well as guidance from EPA and the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) on analyzing such impacts. GAO also met with industry and environmental stakeholders."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Increasingly, government records involve documents that are electronically created and stored. In support of its mission to manage and archive these records and ensure access to the "essential evidence" that they contain, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is acquiring an advanced Electronic Records Archives (ERA). GAO was asked to determine, among other things, how the ERA program's system acquisition policies, plans, and practices conform to industry standards and how well NARA is meeting the ERA program's cost and schedule."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Between fiscal years 1989 and 2002, the Department of Defense (DOD) reduced its civilian workforce by about 38 percent, with little attention to shaping or specifically sizing this workforce for the future. As a result, the civilian workforce is imbalanced in terms of the shape, skills, and experience needed by the department. DOD is taking steps to transform its civilian workforce. To assist with this transformation, the department is considering adopting an Army workforce-planning model, known as the Civilian Forecasting System (CIVFORS), which the Army uses to forecast its civilian workforce needs. Other federal agencies are also considering adopting this model. GAO was asked to review the adequacy of the steps the Army has taken to ensure the credibility of the model."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on the: (1) portion of the labor force without pension coverage and how that proportion has changed over the past decade; (2) characteristics of workers in that labor force; and (3) proportion and characteristics of retired people who lack pension income or pension assets."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Congress is considering the reauthorization of the six franchise fund pilots authorized by the Government Reform Act of 1994. These self-supporting business-like entities were established to provide common administrative services on a fully reimbursable basis. The authorization for most of the pilots will expire at the end of fiscal year 2003. In addition to the suggestion of giving the pilots permanent authorization, there has been some discussion in recent years of expanding the franchise fund concept so that all departments and independent agencies can set up a franchise fund. To provide the context to evaluate franchise fund pilots and fully understand reauthorization issues, GAO agreed to identify the many funds, called intragovernmental revolving funds, that operate with purposes similar to that of franchise funds and to analyze their legal authorities to determine if franchise funds were somehow unique. In addition, we examined the operations and managerial cost accounting processes of the franchise fund pilots at the Departments of the Interior and Commerce. We determined if they had taken into account the criteria suggested by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), including: (1) adhering to OMB/Chief …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed strategies for managing human capital management at selected public and private call centers, focusing on: (1) whether they identify human capital needs as part of developing management strategies and practices to meet missions and goals; (2) implement human capital strategies and practices; and (3) evaluating human capital strategies and practices to continuously improve their operations."