Report that gives an overview of current intelligence issues of interest to the 112th Congress. It includes background and analysis including most recent development, ongoing Congressional concerns, specific issues for the 112th Congress, and a summary of related legislation from the 109th through the 112th Congresses.

Report that addresses some of the questions that have been raised about the changes made by the Federal Highway Administration to certain standardized street and highways signs.

This report reviews the intelligence appropriations process, describes various changes that have been proposed, and analyzes the issues associated with the proposals.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "From fiscal years 1994 through 2009, the Department of Defense (DOD) separated over 13,000 active military servicemembers under its homosexual conduct policy. These separations represent about 0.37 percent of the 3.6 million members separated for all reasons, including expiration of terms of service and retirement. In 2005, GAO reported on the number of separated servicemembers under DOD's homosexual conduct policy who held critical skills and the costs associated with administering the policy from fiscal years 1994 through 2003. GAO was asked to examine data from fiscal years 2004 through 2009 to determine (1) the extent to which the policy has resulted in the separation of servicemembers with skills in critical occupations and important foreign languages and (2) the services' costs for certain activities associated with administering the policy. GAO obtained and analyzed DOD personnel and cost data; examined DOD regulations and policy documents; and conducted interviews with officials from the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, the Defense Manpower Data Center, and each of the military services. GAO provided a draft of this report to DOD for review and comment. DOD …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Assistance provided by the Department of the Treasury (Treasury), under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Federal Reserve) to American International Group, Inc. (AIG) represents one of the federal government's largest investments in a private-sector institution since the financial crisis began in 2008. AIG is a holding company that, through its subsidiaries, engaged in a broad range of insurance and insurancerelated activities in the United States and abroad. As part of GAO's statutory oversight of TARP, this report updates a set of indicators GAO last reported in April 2010. Specifically, GAO discusses (1) trends in AIG's financial condition, (2) trends in the unwinding of AIG Financial Products (AIGFP) and the financial condition of AIG's insurance companies, and (3) the status of the government's exposure to AIG. To update the indicators, GAO primarily used available public filings as of September 30, 2010, and more current publicly available information; reviewed rating agencies' reports; and identified critical activities and discussed them with officials from Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and AIG. Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and AIG provided technical comments …

Increasing calls for intelligence support and continuing innovations in intelligence technologies combine to create significant challenges for both the executive and legislative branches. This report discusses Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) systems, which are integral components of both national policymaking and military operations, including counterterrorism operations. ISR systems are costly and complicated, and the relationships among organizations responsible for designing and operating these systems are equally complicated. These factors create numerous oversight issues for Congress, which this report addresses.

The National Security Council (NSC) was established in 1947. This report describes the history of the NSC, how is structure and influence have varied over the years from one Administration to another, what its current structure and who its current members are, varying opinions as to what the role of the NSC should be, and future developments for the NSC.

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This report introduces and analyzes innovation policy issues concerning pharmaceutical patent litigation settlements, including pharmaceutical patent litigation procedures under the Hatch-Waxman Act, the concept of reverse payment settlements, the status of reverse payment settlements under the antitrust laws, and congressional issues and alternatives.

A new scheme for mode locking a free-electron laser amplifier is proposed based on electron beam current modulation. It is found that certain properties of the original concept, based on the energy modulation of electrons, are improved including the spectral brightness of the source and the purity of the series of short pulses. Numerical comparisons are made between the new and old schemes and between a mode-locked free-electron laser and self-amplified spontaneous emission free-electron laser. Illustrative examples using a hypothetical mode-locked free-electron laser amplifier are provided. The ability to generate intense coherent radiation with a large bandwidth is demonstrated.

Until recently, the use of oxalic acid for chemically cleaning the Savannah River Site (SRS) radioactive waste tanks focused on using concentrated 4 and 8-wt% solutions. Recent testing and research on applicable dissolution mechanisms have concluded that under appropriate conditions, dilute solutions of oxalic acid (i.e., 1-wt%) may be more effective. Based on the need to maximize cleaning effectiveness, coupled with the need to minimize downstream impacts, SRS is now developing plans for using a 1-wt% oxalic acid solution. A technology gap associated with using a 1-wt% oxalic acid solution was a dearth of suitable corrosion data. Assuming oxalic acid's passivation of carbon steel was proportional to the free oxalate concentration, the general corrosion rate (CR) from a 1-wt% solution may not be bound by those from 8-wt%. Therefore, after developing the test strategy and plan, the corrosion testing was performed. Starting with the envisioned process specific baseline solvent, a 1-wt% oxalic acid solution, with sludge (limited to Purex type sludge-simulant for this initial effort) at 75 C and agitated, the corrosion rate (CR) was determined from the measured weight loss of the exposed coupon. Environmental variations tested were: (a) Inclusion of sludge in the test vessel or assuming a …

OPV cell efficiencies have increased significantly over the last decade and verified champion efficiencies are currently at 8.3% for both single and multi-junction device types. These increases in efficiency have been driven through the development and optimization of the donor and acceptor materials in bulk heterojunction active layers. Plextronics and Solarmer Energy Inc. are two of the world leading developers of these donor and acceptor materials. Solarmer Energy has reported NREL certified 6.77% efficiencies using optimized low band gap donor materials in combination with PC61BM and PC71BM acceptors and recently reported a champion NREL certified efficiency of 8.1%. Plextronics has reported Newport certified efficiencies of 6.7% using PC71BM acceptors with low band gap materials. In addition, Plextronics has also demonstrated that OPV efficiency of P3HT based materials can be improved by 50% by improving the Voc using alternative acceptors (indene substituted C60 and C70) to PC61BM and PC71BM. However, performance of these alternative acceptors in combination with low band gap materials has not been investigated and the potential for efficiency improvement is evident. In this collaboration, four low band gap donor materials from Solarmer Energy Inc were combined with Plextronics’ indene-class acceptors Plextronics’ indene substituted C60 and C70 acceptors to …

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We have developed an automated data analysis method for atmospheric particles using scanning transmission X-ray microscopy coupled with near edge X-ray fine structure spectroscopy (STXM/NEXAFS). This method is applied to complex internally mixed submicrometer particles containing organic and inorganic material. Several algorithms were developed to exploit NEXAFS spectral features in the energy range from 278 to 320 eV for quantitative mapping of the spatial distribution of elemental carbon, organic carbon, potassium, and noncarbonaceous elements in particles of mixed composition. This energy range encompasses the carbon K-edge and potassium L2 and L3 edges. STXM/NEXAFS maps of different chemical components were complemented with a subsequent analysis using elemental maps obtained by scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM/EDX). We demonstrate the application of the automated mapping algorithms for data analysis and the statistical classification of particles.

The cathode catalyst layer within a proton-exchange-membrane fuel cell is the most complex and critical, yet least understood, layer within the cell. The exact method and equations for modeling this layer are still being revised and will be discussed in this paper, including a 0.8 reaction order, existence of Pt oxides, possible non-isopotential agglomerates, and the impact of a film resistance towards oxygen transport. While the former assumptions are relatively straightforward to understand and implement, the latter film resistance is shown to be critically important in explaining increased mass-transport limitations with low Pt-loading catalyst layers. Model results demonstrate agreement with experimental data that the increased oxygen flux and/or diffusion pathway through the film can substantially decrease performance. Also, some scale-up concepts from the agglomerate scale to the more macroscopic porous-electrode scale are discussed and the resulting optimization scenarios investigated.

This report reviews the management and performance of the Fort Bend Independent School District's (Fort Bend ISD) student behavior management system.

Here we describe the gold-indium reaction along gold wires soldered at both ends. It begins with the combined radial/axial reaction in the vicinity of the solder mound as seen in metallurgical sections along the axis of the wire. We show that this combined radial/axial reaction has no effect on the resistance of the system, even though it shortens the length of the gold wire while converting it to gold indide. After this radial/axial reaction is complete, a purely axial reaction begins. For thin gold wires (i.e. 38.1 {micro}m diameter) the onset of that reaction is strongly correlated with the time at which the linear reaction model predicts the complete consumption of the gold wire inside the solder mounds. This purely axial reaction converts the whole wire rapidly to gold indide, and leads to substantial resistance changes and complete distortion of the wire between the solder mounds. The reaction product is AuIn{sub 2} everywhere, but both Sn and Pb also are identified everywhere on the surface by Electron Dispersive Spectroscopy.

Large-scale EE programs would modestly increase tariffs but reduce consumers' electricity bills significantly. However, the primary benefit of EE programs is a significant reduction in power shortages, which might make these programs politically acceptable even if tariffs increase. To increase political support, utilities could pursue programs that would result in minimal tariff increases. This can be achieved in four ways: (a) focus only on low-cost programs (such as replacing electric water heaters with gas water heaters); (b) sell power conserved through the EE program to the market at a price higher than the cost of peak power purchase; (c) focus on programs where a partial utility subsidy of incremental capital cost might work and (d) increase the number of participant consumers by offering a basket of EE programs to fit all consumer subcategories and tariff tiers. Large scale EE programs can result in consistently negative cash flows and significantly erode the utility's overall profitability. In case the utility is facing shortages, the cash flow is very sensitive to the marginal tariff of the unmet demand. This will have an important bearing on the choice of EE programs in Indian states where low-paying rural and agricultural consumers form the majority of …

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Absorption isotherm data exists for a wide variety of hydrogen-metal systems. When working with high purity gases, appropriately sized equipment, and hydrides with equilibrium pressures above several hundred Pa, data collection is relatively straightforward. Special consideration must be given to experiments involving low equilibrium pressure hydrides, as even sub-ppm levels of gas impurities can generate partial pressures many times greater than the equilibrium pressures to be measured. Tritium absorption experiments are further complicated by the continuous generation of helium-3. The time required to transfer and absorb a known quantity of tritium onto a sample ultimately limits the minimum pressure range that can be studied using the standard technique. Equations are presented which show the pressure of helium-3 in a sample cell based on the amount of tritium to be absorbed, the sample cell volume and temperature, and the decay time of tritium. Sample calculations for zirconium show that at 300 C, the estimated helium-3 pressure in the cell will be equal to the hydrogen absorption pressure after only milliseconds of tritium decay. An alternate method is presented that permits the collection of equilibrium data at pressures orders of magnitude lower than possible using a direct approach.

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Scanning transmission x-ray microscopy (STXM) combines x-ray microscopy and near edge x-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (NEXAFS). This combination provides spatially resolved bonding and oxidation state information. While there are reviews relevant to STXM/NEXAFS applications in other environmental fields (and magnetic materials) this chapter focuses on atmospheric aerosols. It provides an introduction to this technique in a manner approachable to non-experts. It begins with relevant background information on synchrotron radiation sources and a description of NEXAFS spectroscopy. The bulk of the chapter provides a survey of STXM/NEXAFS aerosol studies and is organized according to the type of aerosol investigated. The purpose is to illustrate the current range and recent growth of scientific investigations employing STXM-NEXAFS to probe atmospheric aerosol morphology, surface coatings, mixing states, and atmospheric processing.

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