A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO is required to audit the consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government. Due to the significance of the federal debt held by the public to the governmentwide financial statements, GAO has also been auditing the Bureau of the Public Debt's (BPD) Schedules of Federal Debt annually. The audit of these schedules is done to determine whether, in all material respects, (1) the schedules prepared are reliable, (2) BPD management maintained effective internal control relevant to the Schedule of Federal Debt, and (3) BPD complies with selected provisions of significant laws related to the Schedule of Federal Debt. Federal debt managed by BPD consists of Treasury securities held by the public and by certain federal government accounts, referred to as intragovernmental debt holdings. The level of debt held by the public reflects how much of the nation's wealth has been absorbed by the federal government to finance prior federal spending in excess of total federal revenues. Intragovernmental debt holdings represent balances of Treasury securities held by federal government accounts, primarily federal trust funds such as Social Security, that typically have an obligation to invest their excess …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is responsible for keeping terrorists and other dangerous people from entering the country while also facilitating the cross-border movement of millions of travelers. CBP carries out this responsibility at 326 air, sea, and land ports of entry. In response to a congressional request, GAO examined CBP traveler inspection efforts, the progress made and the challenges that remain in staffing and training at ports of entry, and the progress CBP has made in developing strategic plans and performance measures for its traveler inspection program. This is a public version of a For Official Use Only report GAO issued on October 5, 2007. To conduct its work, GAO reviewed and analyzed CBP data and documents related to inspections, staffing, and training, interviewed managers and officers, observed inspections at eight major air and land ports of entry, and tested inspection controls at eight small land ports of entry. Information the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) deemed sensitive has been redacted."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Genetically engineered (GE) crops--including crops engineered to resist pests or tolerate herbicides--are widespread in the United States and around the world. Taking direction from the 1986 Coordinated Framework for Regulation of Biotechnology, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulate GE crops to ensure that they are safe. The unauthorized mixing of some GE crops with non-GE crops has caused controversy and financial harm. GAO examined (1) unauthorized releases of GE crops, (2) coordination among the three agencies, and (3) additional actions they have proposed to improve oversight. GAO gathered data from agencies and stakeholders; used criteria from prior GAO work to assess coordination; and reviewed agency proposals."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Global Hawk offers significant military capabilities to capture and quickly transmit high-quality images of targets and terrain, day or night, and in adverse weather--without risk to an onboard pilot. Global Hawk first flew in the late 1990s as a demonstrator and supported recent combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. In 2001, the Air Force began an acquisition program to develop and produce improved Global Hawks. In 2002, the Department of Defense (DOD) restructured and accelerated the program to include a new, larger and more capable air vehicle. GAO was asked to review the program and discuss (1) the restructuring's effect on the Air Force's ability to deliver new capabilities to the warfighter and (2) whether its current business case and management approach is knowledge-based and can help forestall future risks."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Labor (Labor) collects information on fees charged to 401(k) plans primarily through its Form 5500. Labor issued final regulations in November 2007, making changes to, among other things, Schedule C of the Form 5500. Labor put emphasis on reporting the indirect compensation paid to service providers and between service providers, in an effort to capture all of the costs that plan sponsors incur. Congress and others are concerned that Labor's rules could result in duplicative and confusing reporting. Given these concerns, Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to examine the new requirements and determine whether Labor's new requirements will provide (1) clear and understandable guidance to plan sponsors and (2) useful information to Labor and others. GAO analyzed Labor's regulations and interviewed Labor and other officials about disclosure and reporting practices."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Incomplete or inaccurate appraisals resulting in property overvaluations may expose the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Single-Family Mortgage Insurance programs--which insured about 3.7million single-family mortgage loans with a total value of about $425 billion in fiscal years 2001 through 2003--to greater financial risks. In 1999, GAO reported on the need for improvements in HUD's oversight of appraisers, which has historically been a challenge for the department. Also, in the past, GAO reported that, due in part to poor oversight of appraisers, HUD's Single-Family Mortgage Insurance programs remained a high-risk area. GAO conducted this review as a follow up to the 1999 report. This report examines (1) how HUD ensures that appraisers it approves are qualified to perform FHA appraisals, (2) the extent to which HUD employs a risk-based monitoring approach, and (3) HUD's efforts to take enforcement action against noncompliant appraisers."

Groundwater beneath much of Hanford's 100 Areas is contaminated with hexavalent chromium (Cr{sup +6}) as a consequence of treating reactor cooling water to prevent corrosion. Several treatment systems are in place to remove Cr{sup +6} from the groundwater; however, these systems currently do not reduce Cr{sup +6} to concentrations below aquatic standards. Of concern is the transport of Cr{sup +6} to areas within the channel of the river, as sensitive species inhabit the river and its associated transition zone. The aquatic standard for Cr{sup +6} is currently 11 ug/l under the Record of Decision (ROD) for Interim Action and Department of Energy (DOE) currently plans to pursue remediation of the groundwater to achieve the 11 ug/l standard. Because the compliance wells used to monitor the current remediation systems are located some distance from the river, they may not provide an accurate indication of Cr{sup +6} concentrations in the water that reaches the riverbed. In addition, because salmon spawning areas are considered a high priority for protection from Hanford contaminants, it would be advantageous to understand (1) to what extent Cr{sup +6} discharged to the near-shore or river ecosystems is diluted or attenuated and (2) mechanisms that could mitigate the exposure …

The F-area pump tanks are used to transfer supernate, sludge, and other materials. In any transfer, the solution must stay well mixed without allowing particulate matter to settle out of the liquid and, thus, accumulate in the bottom of the pump tank. Recently, the pulse jet mixing in F-area Pump Tank 1 (FPT1) has been decommissioned. An analysis of the liquid transfer through FPT1 has been performed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods to assess whether or not the velocities throughout the tank will remain high enough to keep all particulate suspended using only transfer and recirculation pumps. The following paragraph is an abbreviated synopsis of the transfer procedure for FPT1 [1, 2]. Prior to a transfer, FPT1 begins to be filled with inhibited water through the inlet transfer line (TI). When the tank liquid level reaches 52.5 inches above the absolute tank bottom, the recirculation pump (RI and RO) is activated. At a tank liquid level of 72.5 inches above the absolute tank bottom, the outlet transfer line (TO) is activated to reduce the liquid level in FPT1 and transfer inhibited water to H-area Pump Tank 7 (HPT7). The liquid level is reduced down to 39.5 inches, with an …

The model of two-fluid, axisymmetric, ambipolar magnetized plasma detachment from thruster guide fields is extended to include plasmas with non-zero injection angular velocity profiles. Certain plasma injection angular velocity profiles are shown to narrow the plasma plume, thereby increasing exhaust efficiency. As an example, we consider a magnetic guide field arising from a simple current ring and demonstrate plasma injection schemes that more than double the fraction of useful exhaust aperture area, more than halve the exhaust plume angle, and enhance magnetized plasma detachment.

Nuclear technologies have important distinctions and potential advantages for large-scale generation of hydrogen for U.S. energy services. Nuclear hydrogen requires no imported fossil fuels, results in lower greenhouse-gas emissions and other pollutants, lends itself to large-scale production, and is sustainable. The technical uncertainties in nuclear hydrogen processes and the reactor technologies needed to enable these processes, as well waste, proliferation, and economic issues must be successfully addressed before nuclear energy can be a major contributor to the nation's energy future. In order to address technical issues in the time frame needed to provide optimized hydrogen production choices, the Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative (NHI) must examine a wide range of new technologies, make the best use of research funding, and make early decisions on which technology options to pursue. For these reasons, it is important that system integration studies be performed to help guide the decisions made in the NHI. In framing the scope of system integration analyses, there is a hierarchy of questions that should be addressed: What hydrogen markets will exist and what are their characteristics? Which markets are most consistent with nuclear hydrogen? What nuclear power and production process configurations are optimal? What requirements are placed on the nuclear …

The STAR Silicon Strip Detector (SSD) was built by a collaboration of Nantes, Strasbourg and Warsaw collaborators. It is a beautiful detector; it can provide 500 mu m scale pointing resolution at the vertex when working in combination with the TPC. It was first used in Run 4, when half the SSD was installed in an engineering run. The full detector was installed for Run 5 (the Cu-Cu run) and the operation and performance of the detector was very successful. However, in preparation for Run 6, two noisy ladders (out of 20) were replaced and this required that the SSD be removed from the STAR detector. The re-installation of the SSD was not fully successful and so for the next two Runs, 6 and 7, the SSD suffered a cooling system failure that allowed a large fraction of the ladders to overheat and become noisy, or fail. (The cause of the SSD cooling failure was rather trivial but the SSD could not be removed betweens Runs 6 and 7 due to the inability of the STAR detector to roll along its tracks at that time.)

Hydrogen has received considerable attention as an alternative to fossil fuels. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) investigates the technical and economic feasibility of promising new technologies, such as hydrogen fuel cells. A recent report for DOE identified three near-term markets for fuel cells: (1) Emergency power for state and local emergency response agencies, (2) Forklifts in warehousing and distribution centers, and (3) Airport ground support equipment markets. This report examines forklift propulsion systems and addresses the potential energy and environmental implications of substituting fuel-cell propulsion for existing technologies based on batteries and fossil fuels. Industry data and the Argonne Greenhouse Gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy Use in Transportation (GREET) model are used to estimate full fuel-cycle emissions and use of primary energy sources, back to the primary feedstocks for fuel production. Also considered are other environmental concerns at work locations. The benefits derived from using fuel-cell propulsion are determined by the sources of electricity and hydrogen. In particular, fuel-cell forklifts using hydrogen made from the reforming of natural gas had lower impacts than those using hydrogen from electrolysis.

On September 7, 2005, the Commodity Credit Corporation of the U.S. Department of Agriculture (CCC/USDA) presented a Scoping Memo (Argonne 2005) for preliminary consideration by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE), suggesting possible remedial options for the carbon tetrachloride contamination in groundwater at Everest, Kansas. The suggested approaches were discussed by representatives of the KDHE, the CCC/USDA, and Argonne at the KDHE office in Topeka on September 8-9, 2005, along with other technical and logistic issues related to the Everest site. In response to these discussions, the KDHE recommended (KDHE 2005) evaluation of several remedial processes, either alone or in combination, as part of a Corrective Action Study (CAS) for Everest. The primary remedial processes suggested by the KDHE were the following: Hydraulic control by groundwater extraction with aboveground treatment; Air sparging (AS) coupled with soil vapor extraction (SVE) in large-diameter boreholes (LDBs); and Phytoremediation. As a further outcome of the 2005 meeting and as a precursor to development of a possible CAS, the CCC/USDA completed the following supplemental investigations at Everest to address several specific technical concerns discussed with the KDHE: (1) Construction of interpretive cross sections at strategic locations selected by the KDHE along the main …

In 2005 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) began a study to investigate the response of hatchery and run-of-the-river (ROR) juvenile Chinook salmon to the effects of rapid decompression during passage through mainstem Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) Kaplan turbines. In laboratory studies conducted by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) for USACE since 2005, juvenile fish have been exposed to rapid decompression in a barometric pressure chamber. An initial study considered the response of juvenile Chinook salmon bearing radio transmitters to rapid decompression resulting from exposure to a pressure time history simulating the worst case condition that might be experienced during passage through an operating turbine. The study in 2005 found that acclimation depth was a very important treatment factor that greatly influenced the significantly higher incidence of injury and mortality of rapidly decompressed Chinook salmon bearing radio telemetry devices. In 2006 we initiated a statistical investigation using data in hand into derivation of a new end-point measure for assessment of the physiological response of juvenile Chinook salmon to rapid decompression. Our goal was a measure that would more fully utilize both mortality and injury data while providing a better assessment of the most likely survival outcome for …

Mortgage debt cancellation can occur when lenders restructure loans, reducing principal balances, or sell properties, either in advance, or as a result, of foreclosure proceedings. If a lender forgiver or cancels such debt, current tax law treats it as cancellation of debt (COD) income subject to tax. There are exceptions for taxpayers may exclude canceled mortgage debt income under existing law.

As the world’s largest stock exchange and a key part of the U.S. economy, the NYSE is a central focus of Congress’s oversight of financial markets. This report sets out the basic issues in NYSE governance and market structure.

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The STK Bladestore is a disk subsystem consisting of ATA disks, fiber channel connectivity, and a RAID controller (LSI manufactured). There are essentially four host connections and four backend fiber connections. The host side ports are 2Gb/sec and with their advertised 400MB/sec bandwidth, the disk side ports are 1GB/sec. Our goal is to test this flavor of disk to see what the real world performance might be.

This report provides a list of who would possibly succeed Palestinian leader Yasir Arafat in the event of his death. It also outlines why said people would succeed him.

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This report provides a general analysis and overview of current foreclosure issues addressed in the bills cited above. It begins with a description of the behavior of aggregate foreclosure rates. The behaviors of foreclosure rates are placed in the context of activity in the housing and mortgage market to illustrate any relationships. The foreclosure process is then explained, first from the point of view of a traditional financial lending institution, and then from the viewpoint of securitization when loans are sold in secondary markets. Finally, this report collects information from other studies to obtain an estimate of the average foreclosure costs. A brief discussion of the effect uniform foreclosure legislation may have on costs follows.

An induction linac is used by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to perform radiographic testing at the Flash X-ray Radiography facility. Emittance characterization is important since x-ray spot size impacts the resolution of shadow-graphs. Due to the long pulse length, high current, and beam energy, emittance measurement using Optical Transition Radiation is an attractive alternative for reasons that will be described in the text. The utility of OTR-based emittance measurement has been well demonstrated for both RF and induction linacs. We describe the time-resolved emittance characterization of an induction linac electron beam. We have refined the optical collection system for the induction linac application, and have demonstrated a new technique for probing the divergence of a subset of the beam profile. The experimental apparatus, data reduction, and conclusions will be presented. Additionally, a new scheme for characterizing the correlation between beam divergence and spatial coordinates within the beam profile will be described.

This report analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of proposals to limit portfolio size.

This report discusses the nature of extenders, as temporary provisions and as tax benefits. Descriptions of the extenders are included.