Income, ethnicity, education, and occupation are examples of socio-economic factors associated with the occurrence of disease, whether an investigation focuses on an individual or on an aggregation of individuals. In this study, data aggregated to the county level are used to explore two issues - geographic variation and geographic covariation of ten selected causes of death in the United States. The counties of the United States are characterized by 15 socio-economic variables and age-adjusted mortality rates for the ten selected causes of death. The observed variation among the US counties, as measured by the socio-economic variables, is first assessed, then the geographic variation and covariation are described for each cause of death and, finally, the covariation among causes of death is analyzed after adjusting for the influences of the measured sources of county variation.

The objective for the Winter Validation Study was to gather field data for validation of the Terrain-Responsive Atmospheric Code (TRAC) under winter time meteorological conditions. Twelve tracer tests were conducted during a two-week period in February 1991. Each test lasted 12 hours, with releases of SF{sub 6} tracer from the Rocky Flats Plant near Golden, Colorado. The tests included ground-based and airborne sampling to 16 km from the release point. This presentation summarizes meteorological conditions during the testing period. Forty six viewgraphs are included.

This report discusses the current state of Bahrain, which has undergone substantial political reforms since the late 1990s, but which still suffers from tension between the Shiite majority and the Sunni-led government. This report focuses particularly on Bahrain's relationship with Iran and with the United States.

This report is a succinct overview of the U.S.-Taiwan relationship including an analysis of issues. For decades, Taiwan has been of significant security, economic, and political interest to the United States. While the United States does not diplomatically recognize Taiwan, it is a significant autonomous actor in the world.

Report that examines what has changed in the natural gas industry and focuses on the demand side and ancillary benefits to the U.S. economy.

Report that reviews the Supreme Court's 2012 Mayo Collaborative Services v. Prometheus Laboratories decision (wherein the court held that a patent claiming a method of optimizing therapies for autoimmune disease was invalid) and briefly consider its implications for innovation and public health.

Report that provides an overview of Lebanon and current issues of U.S. interest. It offers background information, analyzes recent developments and key legislative debates, and tracks legislation, U.S. assistance, and recent congressional action.

This report describes some of the requirements placed on the derivatives market by the Dodd-Frank Act, which provides exceptions to the clearing and trading requirements for commercial end-users, or firms that use derivatives to hedge the risks of their nonfinancial business operations.

Report that discusses the current political conditions of Cuba as well as its relationship with the United States. In particular, the report focuses on U.S. policy regarding Cuba including various economic sanctions, human rights issues, and foreign aid appropriations.

This report discusses the political structure, reform efforts, and human rights issues in Bahrain. It also discusses the U.S.-Bahrain security and foreign policy relations as well as Bahrain's economic ties with the United States and Saudi Arabia.

This report discusses the issues surrounding Social Security recipients that usually receive an annual cost-of-living adjustment (COLA).

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The tax credit for qualified research expenses provides significant subsidies to encourage business investment in research intended to foster innovation and promote long-term economic growth. Generally the credit provides a subsidy for research spending in excess of a base amount but concerns have been raised about its design and administrability. Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to describe the credit's use, determine whether it could be redesigned to improve the incentive to do new research, and assess whether recordkeeping and other compliance costs could be reduced. GAO analyzed alternative credit designs using a panel of corporate tax returns and assessed administrability by interviewing Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and taxpayer representatives."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO determined that the Department of Defense’s (DOD) March and June 2013 submissions on establishing a Defense Health Agency (DHA) to reform the governance of the Military Health System (MHS) met three statutory requirements to include information on goals, performance measures, and staffing; partially met one requirement to include information on timelines; and was not required to include information on shared services because the reporting time frame was not applicable. GAO also assessed the submissions to determine the extent to which DOD incorporated key management practices from GAO’s prior work on business-process reengineering. DOD’s submissions provided some useful information but did not fully incorporate some key management practices as explained below."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2004, the Department of State created the Office of the Coordinator for Reconstruction and Stabilization to coordinate U.S. planning and implementation of stabilization and reconstruction operations. In December 2005, President Bush issued National Security Presidential Directive 44 (NSPD-44), charging State with improving coordination, planning, and implementation of such operations and ensuring that the United States can respond quickly and effectively to overseas crises. GAO was asked to report on State's efforts to improve (1) interagency planning and coordination for stabilization and reconstruction operations, and (2) deployment of civilians to these operations. To address these objectives, we conducted interviews with officials and reviewed documents from U.S. agencies and government and private research centers."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Small Business Administration (SBA) guarantees individual loans that lenders originate. The agency uses its Loan and Lender Monitoring System (L/LMS) to assess the individual risk of each loan, and SBA's contractor developed a lender risk rating system based on L/LMS data. However, questions have been raised about the extent to which SBA has used its lender risk rating system to improve its oversight of lenders. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to examine (1) how SBA's risk rating system compares with those used by federal financial regulators and lenders and the system's usefulness for predicting lender performance and (2) how SBA uses the lender risk rating system in its lender oversight activities. To meet these objectives, GAO reviewed SBA documents; interviewed officials from three federal financial regulators and 10 large SBA lenders; analyzed SBA loan data; and interviewed SBA officials."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since the September 2001 terrorist attacks, Congress has provided about $542.9 billion, as of May 2007, to the Department of Defense (DOD) for the Global War on Terrorism (GWOT). Prior GAO reports have found DOD's reported GWOT obligation data unreliable and problems with transparency over certain costs. DOD made changes to its reporting procedures, requiring components to perform a monthly variance analysis on obligation data and to include affirmation statements attesting to the accuracy of cost data. Under the Comptroller General's authority to conduct evaluations on his own initiative, GAO assessed (1) the outlook of DOD's reported GWOT obligations for fiscal year 2007 and funding requests for fiscal year 2008, (2) the effect of changes in DOD's GWOT funding guidance, and (3) DOD's progress in implementing variance analysis and affirmation statements. For this engagement, GAO analyzed fiscal year 2007 GWOTrelated appropriations and reported obligations, as well as DOD's corrective actions."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To assess the risks and potential effects from disruptions in the Global Positioning System (GPS) on critical infrastructure, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published the GPS National Risk Estimate (NRE) in 2012. In doing so, DHS conducted a scenario-based risk assessment for four critical infrastructure sectors using subject matter experts from inside and outside of government. Risk assessments involve complex analysis, and conducting a risk assessment across multiple sectors with many unknowns and little data is challenging. DHS's risk management guidance can be used to help address such challenges. However, we found the NRE lacks key characteristics of risk assessments outlined in DHS's risk management guidance and, as a result, is incomplete and has limited usefulness to inform mitigation planning, priorities, and resource allocation. A plan to collect and assess additional data and subsequent efforts to ensure that the risk assessment is consistent with DHS guidance would contribute to more effective GPS risk management."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Established in January 2004 with a mission to reduce poverty through economic growth, the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) has committed $6.9 billion for compacts with 19 developing countries. MCC vests compact management with accountable entities in recipient countries, called Millennium Challenge Accounts (MCA). MCAs, with guidance from MCC, allocate resources, oversee and implement a financial plan, approve expenditures and procurements, and implement compact projects. This report, directed by the fiscal year 2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act, assesses MCC and MCA (1) financial controls; (2) procurement practices; and (3) development, implementation, and oversight of contracts and projects. GAO focused on financial and procurement transactions and projects at MCAs in Honduras, Georgia, and Cape Verde, countries with high disbursement totals as of the end of fiscal year 2008."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The 10 federal information technology (IT) operations and maintenance (O&M) investments with the largest budgets in fiscal year 2012—and the eight agencies that operate them—are identified by GAO in the table below. They support agencies by providing, for example, global telecommunications infrastructure and information transport services for the Department of Defense."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The 26 major federal agencies that were required to participate in the PortfolioStat initiative fully addressed four of seven key requirements established by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB). However, only 1 of the 26 agencies addressed all the requirements. For example, agencies did not develop action plans that addressed all elements, such as criteria for identifying wasteful, low-value or duplicative information technology (IT) investments, or migrate two commodity IT areas—such as enterprise IT systems and IT infrastructure—to a shared service by the end of 2012."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "For some time, there has been concern over the increases in the prices of weapon systems spare parts and the adverse impact higher prices have had on military readiness. Prices for aviation spare parts managed by the Navy increased at an annual rate of 12 percent from 1994 to 1999. Several factors have contributed to price increases. First, the cost of repairing an item has generally gone up over time. Second, the surcharge that is charged to customers has also increased over time. The Navy has tried to alleviate customer concerns about high surcharge rates by moving certain overhead costs from the surcharge to repair costs. But this approach simply moved the overhead costs instead of reducing them. Still, the Navy understands the need to control spare parts prices and plans to further investigate the underlying causes of the increases."

This report presents data compiled on the estimated energy conservation achieved by programs included in the Illinois Energy Conservation Plan. Summaries are given for the following areas: thermal and lighting standards; state and local procurement standards; carpooling, vanpooling, and public transit; right turn on red; energy data information system; Homeowner's Extension Program; agricultural resource applications; Farm Energy Conservation Program; Commercial Industrial Program; Public Utilities Program; School Energy Management Program; energy management assistance to local government; Administration of State Plan; energy conservation information; energy management for state buildings; solar energy; waste to energy and resource recovery; intergovernmental coordination; community technology assistance.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2007, Medicare spent $8.3 billion for durable medical equipment (DME) and related supplies. To reduce spending, the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA) required that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) phase in, with several rounds of bidding, a large-scale competitive bidding program (CBP) for certain DME and other items. DME suppliers began bidding in round 1 of the CBP on May 15, 2007. After contracts were awarded, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA), was enacted on July 15, 2008. Because of numerous concerns MIPPA delayed the program, terminated supplier contracts, and required CMS to begin the CBP round 1 rebid in 2009. GAO was asked to report on (1) the results of CBP round 1, (2) the major challenges CMS had in conducting CBP round 1, and (3) the steps CMS has taken to improve future CBP rounds. GAO reviewed CMS data and relevant laws and regulations, and interviewed officials from CMS and its contractors, and DME suppliers and professional associations."

Water injection has been recognized as a powerful techniquefor enhancing energy recovery from vapor-dominated geothermal systemssuch as The Geysers. In addition to increasing reservoir pressures,production well flow rates, and long-term sustainability of steamproduction, injection has also been shown to reduce concentrations ofnon-condensible gases (NCGs) in produced steam. The latter effectimproves energy conversion efficiency and reduces corrosion problems inwellbores and surface lines.This report reviews thermodynamic andhydrogeologic conditions and mechanisms that play an important role inreservoir response to water injection. An existing general-purposereservoir simulator has been enhanced to allow modeling of injectioneffects in heterogeneous fractured reservoirs in three dimensions,including effects of non-condensible gases of different solubility.Illustrative applications demonstrate fluid flow and heat transfermechanisms that are considered crucial for developing approaches to insitu abatement of NCGs.