Since the September 2001 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, U.S. attention to terrorism in Latin America has intensified, with an increase in bilateral and regional cooperation. This report discusses the issue in relation to the U.S. State Department's April 2009 Country Report on Terrorism; Colombian President Hugo Chávez's sympathies with terrorist groups and lack of cooperation on antiterrorism efforts; growing U.S. concern over activities of terrorist groups Hezbollah and Hamas in the tri-border area of Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay; and various legislative initiatives related to Latin American terrorism issues being considered by the 112th Congress.

This report discusses the current political and foreign policy status of Morocco, especially with regard to its relationship with the United States and its struggles combating terrorism.

he federal government's basic procurement or acquisition process involves an agency identifying the goods and services it needs (also known as the agency's "requirements"), determining the most appropriate method for purchasing these items, and carrying out the acquisition. Although this process is simple in theory, any given procurement can be complex, involving a multitude of decisions and actions. This report describes the most common elements of the federal procurement process and resources that may be used in that process.

This report discusses section 123 of the Atomic Energy Act (AEA), the specific requirements of which must be met in order for the United States to engage in civilian nuclear cooperation with other states. The AEA also provides for exemptions to these requirements, export control licensing procedures, and criteria for terminating cooperation.

Two separate but closely related issues confront Congress each time the President introduces armed forces into a situation abroad that conceivably could lead to their involvement in hostilities. One issue concerns the division of war powers between the President and Congress, whether the use of armed forces falls within the purview of the congressional power to declare war and the War Powers Resolution. The other issue is whether or not Congress concurs in the wisdom of the action. A longer-term issue is whether the War Powers Resolution is an appropriate and effective means of assuring congressional participation in actions that might get the United States involved in war.

This report discusses the current political and foreign policy status of Morocco, especially with regard to its relationship with the United States and its struggles combating terrorism.

CVN-78, CVN-79, and CVN-80 are the first three ships in the Navy's new Gerald R. Ford (CVN- 78) class of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers (CVNs). This report provides background information and potential oversight issues for Congress on the CVN-78 program.

This report presents, first, a brief history, economic rationale, and legal background leading to the establishment of the U.S. Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) program, which provides non-reciprocal, duty-free tariff treatment to certain products imported from designated beneficiary developing countries (BDC's). A brief comparison of GSP programs worldwide, especially as they compare to the U.S. system, is also presented. Second, the report presents a discussion of U.S. implementation of the GSP, along with the present debate surrounding its renewal and legislative developments to date. Third, an analysis of the U.S. program's effectiveness and the positions of various stakeholders is presented. Fourth, implications of the expiration of the U.S. program and possible options for Congress are discussed.

This report provides background information on many of the competing demands for funding in the fiscal 2012-13 state budget.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Daily student newspaper from the University of North Texas in Denton, Texas that includes local, state, and campus news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Rusk, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with extensive advertising.

Weekly student newspaper from Texas Wesleyan University in Fort Worth, Texas that includes campus and local news along with advertising.

The increasing use of wind power as a source of electricity poses new challenges with regard to both power production and load balance in the electricity grid. This new source of energy is volatile and highly variable. The only way to integrate such power into the grid is to develop reliable and accurate wind power forecasting systems. Electricity generated from wind power can be highly variable at several different timescales: sub-hourly, hourly, daily, and seasonally. Wind energy, like other electricity sources, must be scheduled. Although wind power forecasting methods are used, the ability to predict wind plant output remains relatively low for short-term operation. Because instantaneous electrical generation and consumption must remain in balance to maintain grid stability, wind power's variability can present substantial challenges when large amounts of wind power are incorporated into a grid system. A critical issue is ramp events, which are sudden and large changes (increases or decreases) in wind power. This report presents an overview of current ramp definitions and state-of-the-art approaches in ramp event forecasting.

The Savannah River Site (SRS) tritium facilities have used 1st generation (Gen1) metal hydride storage bed assemblies with process vessels (PVs) fabricated from 3 inch nominal pipe size (NPS) pipe to hold up to 12.6 kg of LaNi{sub 4.25}Al{sub 0.75} metal hydride for tritium gas absorption, storage, and desorption for over 15 years. The 2nd generation (Gen2) of the bed design used the same NPS for the PV, but the added internal components produced a bed nominally 1.2 m long, and presented a significant challenge for heater cartridge replacement in a footprint limited glove-box. A prototype 3rd generation (Gen3) metal hydride storage bed has been designed and fabricated as a replacement candidate for the Gen2 storage bed. The prototype Gen3 bed uses a PV pipe diameter of 4 inch NPS so the bed length can be reduced below 0.7 m to facilitate heater cartridge replacement. For the Gen3 prototype bed, modeling results show increased absorption rates when using hydrides with lower absorption pressures. To improve absorption performance compared to the Gen2 beds, a LaNi{sub 4.15}Al{sub 0.85} material was procured and processed to obtain the desired pressure-composition-temperature (PCT) properties. Other bed design improvements are also presented.

This study is a simple comparison of high-level waste from plutonium production stored in tanks at the Hanford and Savannah River sites. Savannah River principally used the PUREX process for plutonium separation. Hanford used the PUREX, Bismuth Phosphate, and REDOX processes, and reprocessed many wastes for recovery of uranium and fission products. Thus, Hanford has 55 distinct waste types, only 17 of which could be at Savannah River. While Hanford and Savannah River wastes both have high concentrations of sodium nitrate, caustic, iron, and aluminum, Hanford wastes have higher concentrations of several key constituents. The factors by which average concentrations are higher in Hanford salt waste than in Savannah River waste are 67 for {sup 241}Am, 4 for aluminum, 18 for chromium, 10 for fluoride, 8 for phosphate, 6 for potassium, and 2 for sulfate. The factors by which average concentrations are higher in Hanford sludges than in Savannah River sludges are 3 for chromium, 19 for fluoride, 67 for phosphate, and 6 for zirconium. Waste composition differences must be considered before a waste processing method is selected: A method may be applicable to one site but not to the other.

The energy balance Bowen ratio (EBBR) system produces 30-minute estimates of the vertical fluxes of sensible and latent heat at the local surface. Flux estimates are calculated from observations of net radiation, soil surface heat flux, and the vertical gradients of temperature and relative humidity (RH). Meteorological data collected by the EBBR are used to calculate bulk aerodynamic fluxes, which are used in the Bulk Aerodynamic Technique (BA) EBBR value-added product (VAP) to replace sunrise and sunset spikes in the flux data. A unique aspect of the system is the automatic exchange mechanism (AEM), which helps to reduce errors from instrument offset drift.

The main function of the CO instrument is to provide continuous accurate measurements of carbon monoxide mixing ratio at the ARM SGP Central Facility (CF) 60-meter tower (36.607 °N, 97.489 °W, 314 meters above sea level). The essential feature of the control and data acquisition system is to record signals from a Thermo Electron 48C and periodically calibrate out zero and span drifts in the instrument using the combination of a CO scrubber and two concentrations of span gas (100 and 300 ppb CO in air). The system was deployed on May 25, 2005.

Weekly newspaper from Yoakum, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Edna, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Cuero, Texas that includes local, state and national news along with advertising.

Weekly newspaper from Clifton, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Sweetwater, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

This white paper provides a plan to formalize the evaluation of newly developed VAPs and a framework for the development of value-added products through four different stages: Initiation, Development, Evaluation, and Release.