Wyoming subbituminous coal was liquefied using three different two-stage process configurations in bench-scale tests. These process configurations differed in the type of fractionated deashing resid being recycled to the individual stages. The objective of these runs was to determine whether, by recycle of specific resid streams to the thermal stage, the second stage catalyst life could be improved without detrimentally affecting distillate yield or hydrogen consumption. The results indicate that the two-stage process configuration consisting of hydrotreating the Light Deashed Resid and direct recycle of heavy Deashed Resid to the thermal stage produced the best results. This process configuration resulted in a distillate yield of 54 wt % (MAF coal basis) and overall coal conversion in the 93 to 95% range, as measured by pyridine-soluble analytical test while operating in a total distillate mode. These results are very encouraging from the lower rank Wyoming subbituminous coal. Among the three two-stage process configurations tested, the particular process configuration of hydrotreating Light Deashed Resid resulted in the least amount of catalyst deactivation. As a part of this research effort, a test procedure for quick evaluation of various resids and catalysts in terms of coke precursors was also developed. This procedure utilizing as-produced …

This report provides background information and issues for Congress on multiyear procurement (MYP) and block buy contracting (BBC), which are special contracting mechanisms that Congress permits the Department of Defense (DOD) to use for a limited number of defense acquisition programs. Compared to the standard or default approach of annual contracting, MYP and BBC have the potential for reducing weapon procurement costs by several percent.

This report provides background information and potential issues for Congress on the Navy's irregular warfare (IW) and counterterrorism (CT) operations. The Navy's IW and CT activities pose a number of potential oversight issues for Congress, including the definition of Navy IW activities and how much emphasis to place on IW and CT activities in future Navy budgets.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal grant and loan funding for activities that reduce mobile source diesel emissions is fragmented across 14 programs at the Department of Energy (DOE), the Department of Transportation (DOT), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). From fiscal years 2007 through 2011, the programs obligated at least $1.4 billion for activities that have the effect of reducing mobile source diesel emissions. The programs have varying goals and purposes; nevertheless, each program allows or requires a portion of its funding to support activities that reduce mobile source diesel emissions, such as replacing fleets of older diesel trucks or school buses with natural gas vehicles. In addition, each of the 14 programs overlaps with at least one other program in the specific activities they fund, the program goals, or the eligible recipients of funding. GAO also identified several instances of duplication where more than one program provided grant funding to the same recipient for the same type of activities. However, GAO was unable to determine whether unnecessary duplication exists because of limited information on program administrative costs, among other things. GAO did not find any gaps among the programs, …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "BOP’s use of authorities to reduce a federal prisoner’s period of incarceration varies. BOP primarily utilizes three authorities—the Residential Drug Abuse Treatment Program (RDAP), community corrections, and good conduct time."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This supplemental report is a companion to Sub-Saharan Africa: Trends in U.S. and Chinese Economic Engagement (GAO-13-199). This supplement presents the results of our case studies of U.S. and Chinese economic engagement in three sub-Saharan African countries--Angola, Ghana, and Kenya. We conducted these case studies to compare the United States' and China's trade, grants and loans, and investment activities in sub-Saharan Africa. For contextual information about the three countries and additional information on U.S. and Chinese engagement in sub-Saharan Africa broadly, see GAO-13-199."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Air Force's schedule that supported the February 2012 Milestone B decision for the Defense Enterprise Accounting and Management System (DEAMS) did not meet best practices. The cost estimate did meet best practices, but the issues associated with the schedule could negatively affect the cost estimate. GAO found that the schedule supporting the Air Force's decision to invest in DEAMS partially or minimally met the four characteristics for developing a high-quality and reliable schedule. For example, the schedule did not reflect all government and contractor activities, and resources were not assigned to specific activities. The schedule also lacked a valid critical path, preventing management from focusing on the activities most likely to cause critical program delays if they are not completed as planned. In addition, a schedule risk analysis was not conducted to predict a level of confidence in meeting the program's completion date."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Hurricanes Katrina and Rita displaced over 1 million people and affected some of the poorest areas of the country. Many of those affected by the hurricanes received federal assistance from the Old Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance (Social Security), Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Food Stamp, Unemployment Insurance (UI), and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs beforehand and others were newly eligible after the storms. Under the Comptroller General's authority, GAO assessed the (1) challenges the hurricanes created for programs to take applications and pay benefits, (2) factors that helped or hindered programs' efforts, and (3) areas that warrant further attention and actions being taken to improve programs' disaster response. To do this work, GAO reviewed policies, reports, and plans, and interviewed program officials at the federal level and in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The United States and other G-7 countries have ECAs that support domestic exports, but Ex-Im differs from other ECAs in several important ways, including its explicit mission to promote domestic employment. The G-7 ECAs range from government agencies to private companies contracted by governments. Most of these ECAs, including Ex-Im, are expected to supplement, not compete with, the private market. Ex-Im offers direct loans, which were increasingly utilized during the recent financial crisis, while European ECAs do not."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "From 2009 through 2012, certified registered nurse anesthetists (CRNA)—a type of advanced-practice nurse specializing in anesthesia care—billed Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) for a minimal share of selected chronic pain procedures, less than ½ of 1 percent of these procedures in each year. Physicians without board certification in pain medicine billed for the majority of selected procedures each year, while pain physicians consistently billed for roughly 40 percent of selected procedures. Furthermore, although the number of chronic pain procedures billed by all rural providers increased from 2009 through 2012, the number of procedures billed by rural CRNAs declined over the period. Of all CRNA claims for selected procedures, the share billed by CRNAs in rural areas fell from 66 percent in 2009 to 39 percent in 2012."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA) was enacted in part to help ensure that only eligible persons are registered to vote. Under HAVA, as of January 1, 2004, states were to create computerized statewide voter registration lists to serve as official rosters of legally registered voters for elections for federal office. States, however, were given the option to seek a waiver to postpone implementation of HAVA provisions until 2006. All but nine states did so. This report discusses the experiences of the nine states that were subject to the original HAVA deadline--Alaska, Arizona, Georgia, Hawaii, Kentucky, Minnesota, South Carolina, South Dakota, and West Virginia. The report describes actions election officials in these states reported taking to meet specific HAVA requirements--as applicable to their states--for (1) establishing computerized statewide voter registration lists and (2) verifying the accuracy of information on voter registration applications and maintaining accurate computerized voter lists. GAO is also reporting what states said about challenges they faced and lessons learned implementing the requirements. Draft sections of this report were reviewed by the nine states; the Election Assistance Commission, which was responsible for …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART Office) within the Department of Justice (DOJ) has determined that 19 of the 37 jurisdictions that have submitted packages for review have substantially implemented the Sex Offender Registration and Notification Act (SORNA). Although the SMART Office has determined that 17 of the jurisdictions that submitted packages have not yet substantially implemented SORNA, the office concluded that 15 of these 17 jurisdictions have implemented at least half of the SORNA requirements; the office has not yet made a determination for 1 jurisdiction that submitted a package. A majority of nonimplemented jurisdictions reported that generating the political will to incorporate the necessary changes to their state laws and related policies or reconciling legal conflicts are among the greatest challenges to implementation. For example, officials from 27 nonimplemented jurisdictions reported reconciling conflicts between SORNA and state laws--such as which offenses should require registration--as a challenge to implementing SORNA. Officials from 5 of 18 jurisdictions that responded to a survey question asking how DOJ could help address these challenges reported that the SMART Office could provide greater flexibilities; …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "DOD spends $10 billion annually on multiyear procurement (MYP) contracts for weapons systems. MYPs may save money through more efficient relationships with suppliers and producers, but may also suffer losses if cancelled and can limit future budget flexibility. Recently, Congress has been concerned about DOD's management of the process and savings realized by MYPs. GAO was asked to evaluate DOD's review process for MYP candidates; examine MYP program outcomes; identify the impact of changes to MYP savings threshold guidance, and determine how much DOD validates MYP performance. To do this, GAO reviewed statutes and other guidance, held discussions with relevant officials, examined DOD budget justifications and contracts, and conducted limited case studies."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "View Chinese version of Highlights (PDF, 1 page)."

This report provides a list of roughly 200 congressional liaison offices with phone numbers, addresses, and other contact information.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO provided information on United States infrastructure, focusing on: (1) trends in the government's investment in infrastructure; (2) how federal agencies can improve their decision-making for the acquisition and management of infrastructure; and (3) the challenges to an effective investment in infrastructure at the federal level."

The Gas Suspension Absorber (GSA) system brings coal combustion gases into contact with a suspended mixture of solids, including sulfur-absorbing lime. After the lime absorbs the sulfur pollutants, the solids are separated from the gases in a cyclone device and recirculated back into the system where they capture additional sulfur pollutant. The cleaned flue gases are sent through a dust collector before being released into the atmosphere. The key to the system's superior economic performance with high sulfur coals is the recirculation of solids. Typically, a solid particle will pass through the system about one hundred times before leaving the system. Another advantage of the GSA system is that a single spray nozzle is used to inject fresh lime slurry. The GSA system is expected to be the answer to the need of the US industry for an effective, economic and space efficient solution to the SO{sub 2} pollution problem.

Clean Coal Technology implies the use of coal in an environmentally acceptable manner. Coal combustion results in the emission of two types of acid rain precursors: oxides of sulfur (SO{sub x}) and oxides of nitrogen (NO{sub x}). This Clean Coal Technology project will demonstrate a combination of two developed technologies to reduce both NO{sub x} and SO{sub x} emissions: gas reburning and calcium based dry sorbent injection. The demonstrations will be conducted on two pre-NSPS utility boilers representative of the US boilers which contribute significantly to the inventory of acid rain precursor emissions: tangentially and cyclone fired units. Because of cost growth and lack of available funding, no further work has been done after Phase 1 at site B; the wall fired unit.

The original conception of the work was that genetic determinants of the sulfoxide/sulfone/sulfonate/sulfate ( 4S'') pathway in Pseudomonas spp. would be cloned in vivo and then transferred to Thiobacillus spp. This ambition remains an appealing prospect; however, fulfilling that ambition has been confounded by an instability observed in the DbtS{sup +} phenotype in Pseudomonas spp. But the persisting interest in the phenotype has lead to isolation of fresh strains which have a DbtS{sup +} phenotype. One strain in particular, N1-36, has been the focus of extensive characterizations in long-term cultures. During the present quarter, seven cultures maintained in a fermentor'' for a week or longer have been run to determine rate and extent of growth, extent of conversion of dibenzothiophene (DBT) or dibenzosulfone (DBTO{sub 2}) to monohydroxybiphenyl (OH-BP), effect of pH maintained at 6.0, and the effect of adding glucose to cultures in which the amount of glucose had been diminished by bacterial consumption. In addition, a study of the effectiveness of using R68.445 as a vehicle for in vivo cloning of genes was completed this semester, and introduction of DbtS{sup +} determinants into Thiobacillus spp. continues to be an important goal.

The Environmental Protection Department/Environmental Monitoring Section (EPD/EMS) administers the Savannah River Site's (SRS) Groundwater Monitoring Program. During second quarter 1990 (April through June) EPD/EMS conducted routine sampling of monitoring wells and drinking water locations. EPD/EMS established two sets of flagging criteria in 1986 to assist in the management of sample results. The flagging criteria aid personnel in sample scheduling, interpretation of data, and trend identification. The flagging criteria are based on detection limits, background levels in SRS groundwater, and drinking water standards. An explanation of flagging criteria for the second quarter is presented in the Flagging Criteria section of this document. All analytical results from second quarter 1990 are listed in this report.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federally funded programs to expand broadband access encompass but do not specifically target small businesses. These programs—the Broadband Initiatives Program (BIP), Broadband Technologies Opportunities Program, Community Connect Grants, Connect America Fund, Rural Broadband Access Loan and Loan Guarantee Program, and Telecommunications Infrastructure Loan Program—have eligibility requirements based on the need of an area, as well as deployment requirements that can maximize the number of businesses served. For example, the Community Connect grants require providers to serve all businesses and residences in deployment areas. Since these federal programs do not target deployment to small businesses, they do not measure the impact on small businesses. However, BIP has a specific goal to increase access to rural Americans and provide broadband speeds to businesses, and in August 2013, the United States Department of Agriculture reported BIP's funding had resulted in over 5,800 businesses' receiving new or improved broadband service since 2009. Other programs have broader goals and measures related to the program's purpose, such as serving schools and libraries."

This document describes a model for condensation of sulfuric acid aerosol given an initial concentration and/or source of gaseous sulfur trioxide (e.g. fuming from oleum). The model includes the thermochemical effects on aerosol condensation and air parcel buoyancy. Condensation is assumed to occur heterogeneously onto a preexisting background aerosol distribution. The model development is both a revisiting of research initially presented at the Fall 2001 American Geophysical Union Meeting [1] and a further extension to provide new capabilities for current atmospheric dispersion modeling efforts [2]. Sulfuric acid is one of the most widely used of all industrial chemicals. In 1992, world consumption of sulfuric acid was 145 million metric tons, with 42.4 Mt (mega-tons) consumed in the United States [10]. In 2001, of 37.5 Mt consumed in the U.S., 74% went into producing phosphate fertilizers [11]. Another significant use is in mining industries. Lawuyi and Fingas [7] estimate that, in 1996, 68% of use was for fertilizers and 5.8% was for mining. They note that H{sub 2}SO{sub 4} use has been and should continue to be very stable. In the United States, the elimination of MTBE (methyl tertiary-butyl ether) and the use of ethanol for gasoline production are further increasing …

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We have developed a highly accurate computational capability to calculate the equation of state (EOS) and defect formation energies of metallic systems. We are using a newly developed algorithm that enables the study of metallic systems with quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) methods. To date, technical limitations have restricted the application of QMC methods to semiconductors, insulators and the homogeneous electron gas. Using this new 'QMC for metals' we can determine, for the first time, the significance of correlation effects in the EOS and in the formation energies of point defects, impurities, surfaces and interfaces in metallic systems. These calculations go beyond the state-of-the-art accuracy which is currently obtained with Density Functional Theory approaches. Such benchmark calculations can provide more accurate predictions for the EOS and the formation energies of vacancies and interstitials in simple metals. These are important parameters in determining the mechanical properties as well as the micro-structural evolution of metals in irradiated materials or under extreme conditions. We describe the development of our 'QMC for metals' code, which has been adapted to run efficiently on a variety of computer architectures including BG/L. We present results of the first accurate quantum Monte Carlo calculation of an EOS of a …