Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses GAO's efforts to coordinate with the accountability community--the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board (the Board), the Inspectors General (IGs), and state and local government auditors--to help ensure effective and efficient oversight of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) funds. The Recovery Act assigns GAO a range of responsibilities including bimonthly reviews of the use of funds by selected states and localities. Because funding streams will flow from federal agencies to the states and localities, it is important for us to coordinate with the accountability community. Also, on March 19, 2009, GAO testified before this Subcommittee about the more than $21 billion in Recovery Act funds estimated to be spent for research and development (R&D) activities at four federal agencies. This statement discusses (1) GAO's efforts to fulfill its responsibilities under the Recovery Act; (2) GAO's coordination with others in the accountability community; (3) GAO's authorities to assist whistleblowers and elicit public concerns; and (4) updated information on the status of Recovery Act funds for R&D. It is based in part on GAO's first bimonthly Recovery Act report, Recovery Act: As Initial Implementation Unfolds in …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony highlights the results of our March 2009 report on undercover investigative tests, which confirmed the continued existence of significant fraud vulnerabilities in this process. We also provided a letter to you in April 2009, describing our recent work on passport fraud and summarizing actions the Department of State (State) has taken to address the prior weaknesses related to fraud vulnerabilities we identified. We have found that these vulnerabilities stem from people, process, and technology. For example, the lack of training and resources provided to people contributes to vulnerabilities in the detection of fraudulent applications and counterfeit documents. The limitations in the access to inter-agency information contribute to vulnerabilities related to processes. Finally, the lack of databases and information-sharing technologies contribute to vulnerabilities in the verification of passport applicants' records. A U.S. passport not only allows an individual to travel freely in and out of the United States, but also can be used to obtain further identification documents, prove U.S. citizenship, and set up bank accounts, among other things. Because passports issued under a false identity help enable individuals to conceal their movements and activities, there is …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Information security is a critical consideration for any organization that depends on information systems and computer networks to carry out its mission or business. It is especially important for government agencies, where maintaining the public's trust is essential. The need for a vigilant approach to information security has been demonstrated by the pervasive and sustained computerbased (cyber) attacks against the United States and others that continue to pose a potentially devastating impact to systems and the operations and critical infrastructures that they support. GAO was asked to describe (1) cyber threats to federal information systems and cyberbased critical infrastructures and (2) control deficiencies that make these systems and infrastructures vulnerable to those threats. To do so, GAO relied on its previous reports and reviewed agency and inspectors general reports on information security."

The Navy is procuring a new type of surface combatant called the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS). The Navy wants to procure a total of 55 LCSs. This report details the 2007 restructuring of the LCS program, as well as various financial information relating to the program. The issue for Congress is whether to approve, reject, or modify the Navy's plans for the LCS program. The LCS program raises potential oversight issues for Congress relating to various aspects of the program, all of which are explored within this report.

This report discusses the White House's request for supplemental appropriations that include funding for defense, foreign affairs, and domestic fire fighting. The report details the different programs and areas that the appropriations would fund, including operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, preparedness and emergency management measures relating to the swine flu outbreak, border security between the United States and Mexico, benchmark assessment in Afghanistan and Pakistan, and other general defense operations.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to adoption of the Interstate Compact on Educational Opportunity for Military Children.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to the administration of and exemptions from the gas production tax.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to information submitted to and maintained in the immunization registry after an individual becomes an adult.

This report addresses the impact of (1) the time and temperature curing conditions (profile) and (2) the impact of higher aluminate concentrations in the decontaminated salt solution on Saltstone processing and performance properties. The results demonstrate that performance properties as well as some of the processing properties of Saltstone are highly sensitive to the conditions of time and temperature under which curing occurs. This sensitivity is in turn dependent on the concentration of aluminate in the salt feed solution. In general, the performance properties and indicators (Young's modulus, compressive strength and total porosity) are reduced when curing is initially carried out under high temperature. However, this reduction in performance properties is dependent on the sequence of temperatures (the time/temperature profile) experienced during the curing process. That is, samples that are subjected to a 1, 2, 3 or 4 day curing time at 60 C followed by final curing at 22 C lead to performance properties that are significantly different than the properties of grouts allowed to cure for 1, 2, 3 or 4 days at 22 C followed by a treatment at 60 C. The performance properties of Saltstone cured in the sequence of higher temperature first are generally less …

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) commitment to assuring the health and safety of its workers includes the conduct of epidemiologic surveillance activities that provide an early warning system for health problems among workers. The Illness and Injury Surveillance Program monitors illnesses and health conditions that result in an absence of workdays, occupational injuries and illnesses, and disabilities and deaths among current workers.

The DAiSES project [Te04] was focused on enabling conventional operating systems, in particular, those running on extreme scale systems, to dynamically customize system resource management in order to offer applications the best possible environment in which to execute. Such dynamic adaptation allows operating systems to modify the execution environment in response to changes in workload behavior and system state. The main challenges of this project included determination of what operating system (OS) algorithms, policies, and parameters should be adapted, when to adapt them, and how to adapt them. We addressed these challenges by using a combination of static analysis and runtime monitoring and adaptation to identify a priori profitable targets of adaptation and effective heuristics that can be used to dynamically trigger adaptation. Dynamic monitoring and adaptation of the OS was provided by either kernel modifications or the use of KernInst and Kperfmon [Wm04]. Since Linux, an open source OS, was our target OS, patches submitted by kernel developers and researchers often facilitated kernel modifications. KernInst operates on unmodified commodity operating systems, i.e., Solaris and Linux; it is fine-grained, thus, there were few constraints on how the underlying OS can be modified. Dynamically adaptive functionality of operating systems, both in …

This project focused on: 1) evaluating the performance of the DOE ARM SGP Raman lidar system in measuring profiles of water vapor and aerosols, and 2) the use of the Raman lidar measurements of aerosol and water vapor profiles for assessing the vertical distribution of aerosols and water vapor simulated by global transport models and examining diurnal variability of aerosols and water vapor. The highest aerosol extinction was generally observed close to the surface during the nighttime just prior to sunrise. The high values of aerosol extinction are most likely associated with increased scattering by hygroscopic aerosols, since the corresponding average relative humidity values were above 70%. After sunrise, relative humidity and aerosol extinction below 500 m decreased with the growth in the daytime convective boundary layer. The largest aerosol extinction for altitudes above 1 km occurred during the early afternoon most likely as a result of the increase in relative humidity. The water vapor mixing ratio profiles generally showed smaller variations with altitude between day and night. We also compared simultaneous measurements of relative humidity, aerosol extinction, and aerosol optical thickness derived from the ARM SGP Raman lidar and in situ instruments on board a small aircraft flown routinely …

The Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) requested the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) to develop tooling and equipment to remotely replace gaskets in mechanical Hanford connectors to reduce personnel radiation exposure as compared to the current hands-on method. It is also expected that radiation levels will continually increase with future waste streams. The equipment is operated in the Remote Equipment Decontamination Cell (REDC), which is equipped with compressed air, two master-slave manipulators (MSM's) and an electro-mechanical manipulator (EMM) arm for operation of the remote tools. The REDC does not provide access to electrical power, so the equipment must be manually or pneumatically operated. The MSM's have a load limit at full extension of ten pounds, which limited the weight of the installation tool. In order to remotely replace Hanford connector gaskets several operations must be performed remotely, these include: removal of the spent gasket and retaining ring (retaining ring is also called snap ring), loading the new snap ring and gasket into the installation tool and installation of the new gasket into the Hanford connector. SRNL developed and tested tools that successfully perform all of the necessary tasks. Removal of snap rings from horizontal and vertical connectors is performed by …

Nanostructured materials may play a significant role in controlled release of pharmacologic agents for treatment of cancer. Many nanoporous polymer materials are inadequate for use in drug delivery. Nanoporous alumina provides several advantages over other materials for use in controlled drug delivery and other medical applications. Atomic layer deposition was used to coat all the surfaces of the nanoporous alumina membrane in order to reduce the pore size in a controlled manner. Both the 20 nm and 100 nm titanium oxide-coated nanoporous alumina membranes did not exhibit statistically lower viability compared to the uncoated nanoporous alumina membrane control materials. In addition, 20 nm pore size titanium oxide-coated nanoporous alumina membranes exposed to ultraviolet light demonstrated activity against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. Nanostructured materials prepared using atomic layer deposition may be useful for delivering a pharmacologic agent at a precise rate to a specific location in the body. These materials may serve as the basis for 'smart' drug delivery devices, orthopedic implants, or self-sterilizing medical devices.

The primary objective of this project was to evaluate carbon exchange dynamics across a region of North America between the Great Plains and the East Coast. This region contains about 40 active carbon cycle research (AmeriFlux) sites in a variety of climatic and landuse settings, from upland forest to urban development. The core research involved a scaling strategy that uses measured fluxes of CO{sub 2}, energy, water, and other biophysical and biometric parameters to train and calibrate surface-vegetation-atmosphere models, in conjunction with satellite (MODIS) derived drivers. To achieve matching of measured and modeled fluxes, the ecosystem parameters of the models will be adjusted to the dynamically variable flux-tower footprints following Schmid (1997). High-resolution vegetation index variations around the flux sites have been derived from Landsat data for this purpose. The calibrated models are being used in conjunction with MODIS data, atmospheric re-analysis data, and digital land-cover databases to derive ecosystem exchange fluxes over the study domain.

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Vinylene Carbonate (VC) was added to the electrolyte in graphite-lithium half-cells. We report its effect on the coulombic efficiency (as capacity shift) of graphite electrodes under various formation cycling conditions. Cyclic voltammetry on glassy carbon showed that VC passivates the electrode against electrolyte reduction. The dQ/dV plots of the first lithiation of the graphite suggest that VC alters the SEI layer, and that by varying the cell formation rate, the initial ratio of ethylene carbonate to VC in the SEI layer can be controlled. VC was found to decrease first cycle efficiency and reversible capacity (in ongoing cycling) when used to excess. However, experiments with VC additive used with various formation rates did not show any decrease in capacity shift.

This report summarizes what is known from open sources about the North Korean nuclear weapons program--including weapons-usable fissile material and warhead estimates--and assesses current developments in achieving denuclearization.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to the duty of the General Land Office to clean, maintain, and clear debris from a public beach affected by a declared disaster.

Bill introduced by the Texas House of Representatives relating to the hours for the wholesale delivery or sale of alcoholic beverages.

This report analyze the legal and diplomatic issues involved with the possible accession of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' (ASEAN) Treaty of Amity and Cooperation (TAC) by the United States. It is expected that this process could be concluded within the year.

This report provides an overview of key actions taken and authorities invoked by WHO and the U.S. government. First, it discusses the WHO process to determine the phase of a threatened or emerging flu pandemic and touches on a number of related issues. The report then examines actions taken by the Departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services and provides information about appropriations and funding for pandemic flu activities.

Daily publication of the U.S. Office of the Federal Register contains rules and regulations, proposed legislation and rule changes, and other notices, including "Presidential proclamations and Executive Orders, Federal agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required to be published by act of Congress, and other Federal agency documents of public interest" (p. ii). Table of Contents starts on page iii.

This report discusses how successive U.S. governments have urged the creation of an anti-missile system to protect against long-range ballistic missile threats from adversary states. The proposed U.S. system has encountered resistance in some European countries and beyond.