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Green Products by Design: Choices for a Cleaner Environment (open access)

Green Products by Design: Choices for a Cleaner Environment

In this report, OTA provides a conceptual overview of how designers might integrate environmental concerns with traditional design objectives, and how policymakers can best take advantage of such opportunities. Although the concept of “green” design is gathering momentum, a number of technical, behavioral, economic, and informational barriers need to be addressed.
Date: September 1992
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Monitoring Limits on Sea-Launched Cruise Missiles (open access)

Monitoring Limits on Sea-Launched Cruise Missiles

This report examines in detail ways in which compliance with such a regime might be monitored. Surveying the life-cycle of SLCMs from development testing through deployment and storage, the assessment identifies the ‘indicators’ by which the missiles might be tracked and accounted for. It also assesses the paths of evasion that a determined cheater might take to avoid the proposed monitoring measures.
Date: September 1992
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
U.S.-Mexico Trade: Pulling Together or Pulling Apart? (open access)

U.S.-Mexico Trade: Pulling Together or Pulling Apart?

This report finds little likelihood that a NAFTA, by itself, will lead to the most dismal scenarios. But OTA’s analysis also indicates that market forces alone are not likely to produce the social and economic rewards the heads of both states have promised from a free trade agreement.
Date: September 1992
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Aging Nuclear Power Plants: Managing Plant Life and Decommissioning (open access)

Aging Nuclear Power Plants: Managing Plant Life and Decommissioning

This report examines the following: the outlook for safety management and economic life decisions for the Nation’s existing nuclear power plants as they age, the prospects for decommissioning, and current and potential Federal efforts that could contribute to more timely and better informed decisions regarding plant life and decommissioning.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Aircraft Evacuation Testing: Research and Technology Issues (open access)

Aircraft Evacuation Testing: Research and Technology Issues

This report describes the OTA study that examined regulatory, research, and technology issues related to passenger safety and evacuation testing.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Benefit Design in Health Care Reform: Clinical Preventive Services (open access)

Benefit Design in Health Care Reform: Clinical Preventive Services

This Report examines the evidence on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of selected clinical preventive services, and whether and how this information might be used to design insurance benefits.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Benefit Design in Health Care Reform: Patient Cost-Sharing (open access)

Benefit Design in Health Care Reform: Patient Cost-Sharing

This paper examines the health services and economics literature to learn what is known about the effects of patient cost-sharing (that is, annual deductibles, coinsurance, copayments, and out-of-pocket maximurns) on patients’ use of health care services, on plan expenditures, and on patients’ health outcomes.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Biological Components of Substance Abuse and Addiction (open access)

Biological Components of Substance Abuse and Addiction

This paper describes biological contributing factors to substance abuse and addiction. The second document being produced by this study will discuss the complex interactions of biochemical, physiological, psychological, and sociological factors leading to substance abuse and addiction.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Biopolymers: Making Materials Nature's Way (open access)

Biopolymers: Making Materials Nature's Way

This report discusses a study that provides a basic introduction to biopolymer technology; profiles some of the more promising polymer materials; reviews research activities in the United States, Europe, and Japan; and describes the principal technical challenges and regulatory issues that may affect biopolymer commercialization efforts.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Compilation of Abbreviations and Terms (open access)

Compilation of Abbreviations and Terms

This paper contains glossaries of terms and abbreviations compiled from selected reports issued between 1987 and 1992 by the Health Program and the Biological and Behavioral Sciences Program of the Office of Technology Assessment.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Continuing Challenge of Tuberculosis (open access)

The Continuing Challenge of Tuberculosis

This report synthesizes current understanding of tuberculosis (TB) in the United States, including the extent of the disease, the state of research of new preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic technologies to aid in its control, and the delivery of effective TB services. The report also provides an overview of Federal involvement in these activities.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Contributions of DOE Weapons Labs and NIST to Semiconductor Technology (open access)

Contributions of DOE Weapons Labs and NIST to Semiconductor Technology

This report examines how NIST and DOE weapons laboratories could contribute to advances in semiconductor technology aimed specifically at civilian applications. Semiconductor technology was chosen as an example of a technology focus for a civilian technology initiative, primarily because the industry had already developed a set of comprehensive technology roadmaps and the federal labs had substantial expertise in the area.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Coverage of Preventive Services: Provisions of Selected Current Health Care Reform Proposals (open access)

Coverage of Preventive Services: Provisions of Selected Current Health Care Reform Proposals

This paper first describes prevention and clinical preventive services, and specialties the way in which OTA uses the concept of preventive services in its analysis of current health care reform proposals. Second, the paper provides a “roadmap” to four major approaches to reform. Third, the paper summarizes the preventive services proposed under selected health care reform proposals.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Department of Veterans Affairs Persian Gulf Veterans' Health Registry (open access)

The Department of Veterans Affairs Persian Gulf Veterans' Health Registry

This report focuses on the VA “Persian Gulf War Veterans Health Registry,” which is referred to here as the “examination registry.”
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Dismantling the Bomb and Managing the Nuclear Materials (open access)

Dismantling the Bomb and Managing the Nuclear Materials

This report presents the results of OTA’s investigations and analyses regarding the types of adverse environmental and health impacts that resulted from nuclear weapons production in the past. In this report, OTA suggests various initiatives that Congress could consider to establish a national policy, determine the next steps in warhead dismantlement and nuclear materials management, approach decisions on the ultimate disposition of nuclear materials, enhance the institutional capabilities necessary to ensure success, and encourage sound dismantlement and materials management in Russia.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Energy Efficiency: Challenges and Opportunities for Electric Utilities (open access)

Energy Efficiency: Challenges and Opportunities for Electric Utilities

This report focuses on the opportunities for advancing the energy efficiency of the U.S. economy through technology improvements and institutional change in the electric utility sector. In particular, the report examines the prospects for energy savings through expansion of utility demand-side management and integrated resource planning programs and related Federal policy options.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Harmful Non-Indigenous Species in the United States (open access)

Harmful Non-Indigenous Species in the United States

This report discusses the assessment of non-indigenous-species (NIS), and has three focal points: the status of harmful NIS in the United States; technological issues regarding decision making and species management; and institutional and policy frameworks. Each chapter elaborates on the findings summarized here and contains additional examples of problem species and their locations.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Impact of Legal Reforms on Medical Malpractice Costs (open access)

Impact of Legal Reforms on Medical Malpractice Costs

This report discusses the indirect cost of medical malpractice, commonly referred to as “defensive medicine,” that may add to overall health care costs. The cost of defensive medicine remains unknown and is subject to much speculation because there are no sound empirical data.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Information Systems Related to Technology Transfer: A Report on Federal Technology Transfer in the United States (open access)

Information Systems Related to Technology Transfer: A Report on Federal Technology Transfer in the United States

This report focuses on the process of Federal Domestic Technology Transfer and the organizations and mechanisms that foster this process. It discusses the barriers in detail, and discusses options for improving the process including the case for a centralized, user friendly, information system.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Making Government Work: Electronic Delivery of Federal Services (open access)

Making Government Work: Electronic Delivery of Federal Services

This report focuses on key topics and issues that are central to the successful use of electronic deli very by government. This report provides Congress with alternative strategies for improving the performance of government by using modern information technologies.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Multinationals and the National Interest: Playing by Different Rules (open access)

Multinationals and the National Interest: Playing by Different Rules

This report is intended as an introduction to and overview of the issues that affect multinational firms and the U.S. technology base.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Potential Environmental Impacts of Bioenergy Crop Production (open access)

Potential Environmental Impacts of Bioenergy Crop Production

This report reviews how bioenergy crops could potentially affect soil quality and soil erosion, water quality, air quality, habitat for a variety of species, and the global environment.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Protecting Privacy in Computerized Medical Information (open access)

Protecting Privacy in Computerized Medical Information

This report analyzes the implications of computerized medical information and the challenges it brings to individual privacy. The report examines: 1) the nature of the privacy interest in health care information and the current state of the law protecting that information; 2) the nature of proposals to computerize health care information and the technologies available to both computerize and protect privacy in the information; and 3) models for protection of health care information.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Pulling Together for Productivity: A Union-Management Initiative at US West, Inc. (open access)

Pulling Together for Productivity: A Union-Management Initiative at US West, Inc.

This report is a case study which points to an alternative that benefits both workers and the firm. In this report OTA finds that the Home and Personal Services Division of U S WEST, Inc. has increased revenues, eliminated unnecessary work, and improved customer service.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library