A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Increasingly, broadband Internet service is seen as critical to a nation's physical infrastructure and economic growth. Universal access to, and increased use and adoption of, broadband service are policy goals stated in the National Broadband Plan, which the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released in March 2010. Some recent studies indicate that despite achieving nearly 95 percent broadband deployment and globally competitive adoption rates, the United States has moved from the top to the middle of the international rankings. Other developed countries, which have made universal access and increased adoption priorities, rank higher than the United States in these areas, and their experiences may be of interest to U.S. policymakers. GAO was asked to address (1) the status of broadband deployment and adoption in developed countries, (2) actions selected countries have taken to increase deployment and adoption, and (3) how recommendations in the National Broadband Plan align with the selected countries' actions. GAO analyzed relevant information for 30 developed countries that are members of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) and visited 7 of these countries selected for their broadband policies and economic or demographic …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Recent operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other locations around the world have highlighted the need for U.S. forces to train as they intend to fight. Military training ranges provide the primary means to accomplish this goal. The Department of Defense's (DOD) training ranges vary in size from a few acres, for small arms training, to over a million acres for large maneuver exercises and weapons testing, and include broad open ocean areas for offshore training and testing. New advances in military technology to combat emerging threats in ongoing operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other locations around the world generate the need to continually update and maintain DOD's training ranges. Senior DOD and military service officials have reported for some time that they face increasing difficulties in carrying out realistic training at military installations due to outside influences. DOD has defined a number of factors--including air pollution, noise pollution, endangered species, critical habitats and other protected resources, and urban growth around installations--that it says encroach upon its training ranges and capabilities. Because the military faces obstacles in acquiring new training lands, the preservation and sustainment of its current lands …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to the Fair Housing Act, Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regulations require grantees, such as cities, that receive federal funds through the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) and HOME Investment Partnerships Program (HOME) to further fair housing opportunities. In particular, grantees are required to prepare planning documents known as Analyses of Impediments (AI), which are to identify impediments to fair housing (such as restrictive zoning or segregated housing) and actions to overcome them. HUD has oversight responsibility for AIs. This report (1) assesses both the conformance of CDBG and HOME grantees AIs' with HUD guidance pertaining to their timeliness and content and their potential usefulness as planning tools and (2) identifies factors in HUD's requirements and oversight that may help explain any AI weaknesses. GAO requested AIs from a representative sample of the nearly 1,200 grantees, compared the 441 AIs received (95 percent response based on final sample of 466) with HUD guidance and conducted work at HUD headquarters and 10 offices nationwide."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Many states, cities, and localities are building or planning mass transit projects to meet the nation's transportation needs. The New Starts program--administered by the U.S. Department of Transportation's (DOT) Federal Transit Administration (FTA)--is an important source of new capital investment in mass transportation, providing grants to project sponsors (e.g., state and local government authorities), for the construction of major transit facilities. FTA uses contractors--known as project management oversight contractors (PMOC) and financial management oversight contractors (FMOC)--to help oversee the planning, construction, and financing of major capital projects, including those funded under the New Starts program. This report, as mandated by law, discusses (1) how FTA uses PMOCs and FMOCs to oversee New Starts projects and how the agency procures, monitors, and evaluates the contractors' services; and (2) the benefits of FTA's oversight approach and the challenges FTA faces in conducting its oversight. GAO reviewed applicable statutes, FTA guidance, regulations, and budget data, and interviewed DOT officials, project sponsors, contractors, and industry stakeholders. GAO is not making any recommendations in this report. DOT officials generally agreed with GAO's findings and provided technical comments, which we incorporated as …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Decades of nuclear materials production at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Savannah River Site in South Carolina have left 37 million gallons of radioactive liquid waste in 49 underground storage tanks. In December 2008, DOE entered into a contract with Savannah River Remediation, LLC (SRR) to close, by 2017, 22 of the highest-risk tanks at a cost of $3.2 billion. GAO was asked to assess: (1) DOE's cost estimates and schedule for closing the tanks at the Savannah River Site, and (2) the primary challenges, if any, to closing the tanks and the steps DOE has taken to address them. GAO visited the Savannah River Site and reviewed tank closure documents, as well as conducted an analysis of the construction schedule of the Salt Waste Processing Facility (SWPF), which is a facility vital to successful tank closure because it will treat a large portion of the waste removed from the tanks."

Many wars or conflicts in U.S. history have federally designated "periods of war," dates marking their beginning and ending. This report lists the beginning and ending dates for "periods of war" found in Title 38 of the Code of Federal Regulations, dealing with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). It also lists and differentiates other beginning dates given in declarations of war, as well as termination of hostilities dates and armistice and ending dates given in proclamations, laws, or treaties.

The amount of money saved has important economic consequences. Nationally, the amount of saving affects how much can be invested and ultimately the size of the capital stock. This report explains how national saving is measured, presents recent estimates of saving rates in the United States, and, for comparison, provides those of other major industrial countries.

This report provides an estimate of the initial impact of the changing oil prices on the nation's merchandise trade deficit.

On April 23, 2010, Arizona enacted S.B. 1070, which is designed to discourage and deter the entry or presence of aliens who lack lawful status under federal immigration law. This report discusses this piece of legislation and some of the notable preemption issues raised by its provisions. Where relevant, it examines the district court's ruling that the federal government is likely to succeed on the merits of its arguments that certain sections of S.B. 1070 are preempted by federal law. It also discusses other preemption issues potentially raised by S.B. 1070 or similar legislation, including some issues that were not expressly addressed by the district court in its preliminary ruling.

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) Federal Housing Administration (FHA) has helped millions of families purchase homes through its single-family mortgage insurance programs. In recent years, FHA has experienced a dramatic increase in its market role due to the contraction of other mortgage market segments. FHA insures almost all of its single-family mortgages under its Mutual Mortgage Insurance Fund (Fund), which is reviewed from both an actuarial and budgetary perspective each year. On the basis of an independent actuarial review, FHA reported in November 2009 that the Fund was not meeting statutory capital reserve requirements as of the end of fiscal year 2009, as measured by the Fund's estimated capital ratio (i.e., economic value divided by the unamortized insurance-in-force). Additionally, although the Fund historically has produced budgetary receipts for the federal government, a weakening in the performance of FHA-insured loans has heightened the possibility that FHA will require additional funds to help cover its costs on insurance issued to date. In light of FHA's changing market role and financial condition, Congress asked us to examine (1) how estimates of the Fund's capital ratio have changed since …

The FY2009 federal deficit swelled to $1.414 trillion, or nearly 10% of gross domestic product (GDP), due to the economic recession. The size of recent deficits has added to longstanding concerns regarding the federal government's long-term fiscal condition. However, deficit finance can serve as an important policy tool. This report discusses how deficit finance can help governments manage their economies and how large and persistent deficits can lead to severe economic problems.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Bi-weekly student newspaper from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Texas that includes campus news and local news of interest to students along with advertising.

Weekly student newspaper from the University of Dallas in Irving, Texas that includes campus news and commentaries along with advertising.

None

ADEPT Project: Currently, charging the battery of an electric vehicle (EV) is a time-consuming process because chargers can only draw about as much power from the grid as a hair dryer. APEI is developing an EV charger that can draw as much power as a clothes dryer, which would drastically speed up charging time. APEI's charger uses silicon carbide (SiC)-based power transistors. These transistors control the electrical energy flowing through the charger's circuits more effectively and efficiently than traditional transistors made of straight silicon. The SiC-based transistors also require less cooling, enabling APEI to create EV chargers that are 10 times smaller than existing chargers.

To keep the water supply safe and to ensure a swift and accurate response to a water supply contamination event, rapid and robust methods for microbial testing are necessary. Current technologies are complex, lengthy and costly and there is a need for rapid, reliable, and precise approaches that can readily address this fundamental security and safety issue. T2 Biosystems is focused on providing solutions to this problem by making breakthroughs in nanotechnology and biosensor techniques that address the current technical restrictions facing rapid, molecular analysis in complex samples. In order to apply the T2 Biosystems nucleic acid detection procedure to the analysis of nucleic acid targets in unprocessed water samples, Bacillus thuringeinsis was selected as a model organism and local river water was selected as the sample matrix. The initial assay reagent formulation was conceived with a manual magnetic resonance reader, was optimized using a high throughput system, and transferred back to the MR reader for potential field use. The final assay employing the designed and manufactured instruments was capable of detecting 10 CFU/mL of B. thuringiensis directly within the environmental water sample within 90 minutes. Further, discrimination of two closely related species of Bacilli was accomplished using the methods …

The success of LCLS has opened up a new era of x-ray sciences. An upgrade to LCLS is currently being planned to enhance its capabilities. In this paper we study the feasibility of using the echo-enabled harmonic generation (EEHG) technique to generate narrow bandwidth soft x-ray radiation in the proposed LCLS-II soft x-ray beam line. We focus on the conceptual design, the technical implementation and the expected performances of the echo-seeding scheme. We will also show how the echo-seeding scheme allows one to generate two color x-ray pulses with the higher energy photons leading the lower energy ones as is favored in the x-ray pump-probe experiments.

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (SLAC) has initiated a program to design and build a Marx-topology modulator to produce a relatively compact, low-cost, high availability klystron modulator for the International Linear Collider (ILC). Building upon the success of the P1 Marx, the SLAC P2 Marx is a second-generation modulator whose design further emphasizes the qualities of modularity and high-availability. This paper outlines highlights of this design and presents single-cell performance data obtained during the proof-of-concept phase of the project.

Ionic liquids are interesting and useful materials whose solvation time scales are up to thousands of times longer than in conventional solvents. The extended lifetimes of pre-solvated electrons and other energetic species in ionic liquids has profound consequences for the radiolytic product distributions and reactivity patterns. We use a newly developed, multiplexed variation of pulse-probe spectroscopy to measure the kinetics of the early dynamical and reactive events in ionic liquids.

During commissioning of the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) x-ray Free Electron Laser (FEL) at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory it was shown that saturation lengths much shorter than the installed length of the undulator line can routinely be achieved. This frees undulator segments that can be used to provide enhanced spectral properties and at the same time, test the concept of FEL Afterburners. In December 2009 a project was initiated to convert undulator segments at the down-beam end of the undulator line into Second Harmonic Afterburners (SHAB) to enhance LCLS radiation levels in the 10-20 keV energy range. This is being accomplished by replacement of gap-shims increasing the fixed gaps from 6.8 mm to 9.9 mm, which reduces their K values from 3.50 to 2.25 and makes the segments resonant at the second harmonic of the upstream unmodified undulators. This paper reports experimental results of the commissioning of the SHAB extension to LCLS.

In 2009 the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) at the SLAC National Accelerator Center started free electron laser (FEL) operation. In order to continue to produce the bright and short-pulsed x-ray laser demanded by FEL scientists, this pioneer hard x-ray FEL requires a perfectly tailored magnetic field at the undulators, so that the photons generated at the electron wiggling path interact at the right phase with the electron beam. In such a precise system, small (>0.01%) radiation-induced alterations of the magnetic field in the permanent magnets could affect FEL performance. This paper describes the simulation studies of radiation fields in permanent magnets and the expected signal in the detectors. The transport of particles from the radiation sources (i.e. diagnostic insert) to the undulator magnets and to the beam loss monitors (BLM) was simulated with the intra nuclear cascade codes FLUKA and MARS15. In order to accurately reproduce the optics of LCLS, lattice capabilities and magnetic fields were enabled in FLUKA and betatron oscillations were validated against reference data. All electron events entering the BLMs were printed in data files. The paper also introduces the Radioactive Ion Beam Optimizer (RIBO) Monte Carlo 3-D code, which was used to read from the …

Radio Frequency (RF) accelerating system noise and non-idealities can have detrimental impact on the LHC performance through longitudinal motion and longitudinal emittance growth. A theoretical formalism has been developed to relate the beam and RF loop dynamics with the bunch length growth [1]. Measurements were conducted at LHC to validate the formalism, determine the performance limiting RF components, and provide the foundation for beam diffusion estimates for higher energies and intensities. A brief summary of these results is presented in this work. During a long store, the relation between the energy lost to synchrotron radiation and the noise injected to the beam by the RF accelerating voltage determines the growth of the bunch energy spread and longitudinal emittance. Since the proton synchrotron radiation in the LHC is very low, the beam diffusion is extremely sensitive to RF perturbations. The theoretical formalism presented in [1], suggests that the noise experienced by the beam depends on the cavity phase noise power spectrum, filtered by the beam transfer function, and aliased due to the periodic sampling of the accelerating voltage signal V{sub c}. Additionally, the dependence of the RF accelerating cavity noise spectrum on the Low Level RF (LLRF) configurations has been predicted …