The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act provides $7.2 billion primarily for broadband grant programs to be administered by two separate agencies: the National Telecommunications and Information Administration of the Department of Commerce and the Rural Utilities Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. This report is over the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, the implementation of the Broadband programs, and issues related to the implementation.

Performance in H-mode DT plasmas in ITER with various choices of heating systems are predicted and compared. Combinations of external heating by Negative Ion Neutral Beam Injection (NNBI), Ion Cyclotron Range of Frequencies (ICRF), and Electron Cyclotron Heating (ECH) are assumed. Scans with a range of physics assumptions about boundary temperatures in the edge pedestal, alpha ash transport, and toroidal momentum transport are used to indicate effects of uncertainties. Time-dependent integrated modeling with the PTRANSP code is used to predict profiles of heating, beam torque, and plasma profiles. The GLF23 model is used to predict temperature profiles. Either GLF23 or the assumption of a constant ratio for χø/χi is used to predict toroidal rotation profiles driven by the beam torques. Large differences for the core temperatures are predicted with different mixes of the external heating during the density and current ramp-up phase, but the profiles are similar during the flattop phase. With χø/χi = 0.5, the predicted toroidal rotation is relatively slow and the flow shear implied by the pressure, toroidal rotation, and neoclassical poloidal rotation are not sufficient to cause significant changes in the energy transport or steady state temperature profiles. The GLF23-predicted toroidal rotation is faster by a …

This report discusses various aspects of the Department of Defense's (DOD) fuel consumption and any resulting policy considerations for Congress.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Given the global context of the war on drugs--coupled with growing recognition since September 11, 2001 (9/11), of the nexus between drug trafficking and terrorism--the mission of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and efforts to forge effective interagency partnerships and coordination are increasingly important. GAO was asked to examine, in the context of the post-9/11 environment, DEA's (1) priorities, (2) interagency partnerships and coordination mechanisms, and (3) strategic plan and performance measures. GAO reviewed DEA policy, planning, and budget documents and visited 7 of DEA's 21 domestic field offices and 3 of its 7 regional offices abroad-- sites selected to reflect diverse drug-trafficking threats, among other factors. GAO also contacted other relevant federal agencies-- including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP)--and various state and local partner agencies."

This report provides background information and analysis of the U.S.-EU economic relationship for Members of the 111th Congress as they contemplate the costs and benefits of closer U.S. economic ties with the EU. It examines the economic and political framework of the relationship and the scope and magnitude of the ties based on data from various sources. In addition, the report analyzes the implications these factors have for U.S. economic policy toward the EU.

Biologics, which are sometimes termed biopharmaceuticals or biotechnology drugs, have begun to play an increasingly important role in U.S. health care. Not only are sales of biologics growing rapidly, some experts estimate that in coming years half of all newly approved drugs will result from biotechnology. This report contains information on marketing approval issues, intellectual property issues, and innovation issues as related to biologics.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requires federal agencies to generally provide the public with access to government information. In December 2005, the President issued Executive Order 13392, to improve agencies' FOIA processing. The order required each agency to review its operations and develop plans for improvement. Since its establishment, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has accounted for a major and increasing portion of pending FOIA requests governmentwide. While it has reported achieving a notable reduction since 2006, DHS still possesses the largest backlog of overdue requests in the government. GAO was asked to determine (1) what key steps DHS has taken to enhance its FOIA program, and (2) what opportunities exist to improve the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of FOIA operations across the department. To do this, GAO reviewed DHS's improvement plan; examined policies, procedures, and other documentation; and interviewed agency officials."

This report discusses §1611, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which requires companies receiving Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funding to comply with the more rigorous labor market rules of H-1B dependent companies if they hire foreign workers on H-1B visas.

The conversion of synthesis gas to hydrocarbons or alcohols involves highly exothermic reactions. Temperature control is a critical issue in these reactors for a number of reasons. Runaway reactions can be a serious safety issue, even raising the possibility of an explosion. Catalyst deactivation rates tend to increase with temperature, particularly of there are hot spots in the reactor. For alcohol synthesis, temperature control is essential because it has a large effect on the selectivity of the catalysts toward desired products. For example, for molybdenum disulfide catalysts unwanted side products such as methane, ethane, and propane are produced in much greater quantities if the temperature increases outside an ideal range. Slurry reactors are widely regarded as an efficient design for these reactions. In a slurry reactor a solid catalyst is suspended in an inert hydrocarbon liquid, synthesis gas is sparged into the bottom of the reactor, un-reacted synthesis gas and light boiling range products are removed as a gas stream, and heavy boiling range products are removed as a liquid stream. This configuration has several positive effects for synthesis gas reactions including: essentially isothermal operation, small catalyst particles to reduce heat and mass transfer effects, capability to remove heat rapidly …

This report provides an overview and analysis of the key issues to be discussed at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) April summit on April 3 and 4, 2009.

A gage has been constructed using conventional (high end) components for the application of measuring fragile syntactic foam parts in a non-contact mode. Success with this approach has been achieved through a novel method of transferring (mapping) high accuracy local measurements of a coated aluminum master, taken on a Leitz Coordinate Measurement Machine (CMM), to the gage software system. The mapped data is then associated with local voltage readings from two (inner and outer) laser triangulating probes. This couples discreet laser probe offset and linearity characteristics to the measured master geometry. The gage software compares real part measured data against the master data to provide non-contact part inspection that results in a high accuracy and low uncertainty performance. Uncertainty from the part surface becomes the prevailing contributor to the gaging process. The gaging process provides a high speed, hands off measurement with nearly zero impedance.

This report discusses the role of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), including an overview of the history of science and technology advice to the President, issues and options for Congress regarding (OSTP) Director, OSTP management and operations, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), and the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC). The report also discusses actions taken by the Obama Administration regarding OSTP.

This report discusses the role of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP), including an overview of the history of science and technology advice to the President, issues and options for Congress regarding (OSTP) Director, OSTP management and operations, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST), and the National Science and Technology Council (NSTC). The report also discusses actions taken by the Obama Administration regarding OSTP.

In a second development order, spin-forming equipment was again evaluated using the test shape, a hemispherical shell. In this second development order, pure vanadium and alloy titanium (Ti-6Al-4V) were spin-formed, as well as additional copper and 21-6-9 stainless. In the first development order the following materials had been spin-formed: copper (alloy C11000 ETP), 6061 aluminum, 304L stainless steel, 21-6-9 stainless steel, and tantalum-2.5% tungsten. Significant challenges included properly adjusting the rotations-per-minute (RPM), cracking at un-beveled edges and laser marks, redressing of notches, surface cracking, non-uniform temperature evolution in the titanium, and cracking of the tailstock. Lessons learned were that 300 RPM worked better than 600 RPM for most materials (at the feed rate of 800 mm/min); beveling the edges to lower the stress reduces edge cracking; notches, laser marks, or edge defects in the preform doom the process to cracking and failure; coolant is required for vanadium spin-forming; increasing the number of passes to nine or more eliminates surface cracking for vanadium; titanium develops a hot zone in front of the rollers; and the tailstock should be redesigned to eliminate the cylindrical stress concentrator in the center.

A total of 350,000, M012 strain, westslope cutthroat trout (WCT) eggs were received from Montana Fish Wildlife & Parks (MFWP), Washoe Park State Fish Hatchery in June of 2005 to accomplish this fishery management objective. These eggs were incubated, hatched and reared entirely inside the hatchery nursery building using a protected well water supply. Fish grew according to schedule and survival was excellent. The hatchery achieved a 0.78 feed fed to pounds gained conversion ratio for this group of WCT. Not all of the progenies from this fish lot were used for Hungry Horse Dam Fishery Mitigation Implementation. Some were used for other regional fishery management projects. Westslope cutthroat trout were reared using approved fish culture techniques as recommended in the USFWS Fish Hatchery Management Handbook and also utilizing a regimen adapted for hatchery specific site conditions. The fish health for these WCT was very good. Survival from first feeding fry stage to stocking was 79%. The hatchery had an annual fish health inspection performed by the USFWS Bozeman Fish Health Center in mid March of 2006. This inspection found all fish lots at Creston to be disease free. The Montana State Fish Health Board has placed the hatchery under …

Officer Reports for the Texas Society, Sons of the American Revolution, compiled for the March 20 - 22, 2009 114th Annual Convention.

The primary objective of this task was to perform a variability study of the high activity waste (HAW) acidic feed to determine the impact of feed variability on the quality of the final grout and on the mixability of the salt solution into the dry powders. The HAW acidic feeds were processed through the neutralization/pH process, targeting a final pH of 12. These fluids were then blended with the dry materials to make the final waste forms. A secondary objective was to determine if elemental substitution for cost prohibitive or toxic elements in the simulant affects the mixing response, thus providing a more economical simulant for use in full scale tests. Though not an objective, the HAW simulant used in the full scale tests was also tested and compared to the results from this task. A statistically designed test matrix was developed based on the maximum molarity inputs used to make the acidic solutions. The maximum molarity inputs were: 7.39 HNO{sub 3}, 0.11618 gallium, 0.5423 silver, and 1.1032 'other' metals based on their NO{sub 3}{sup -} contribution. Substitution of the elements aluminum for gallium and copper for silver was also considered in this test matrix, resulting in a total of …

A method for driving rotation and a countercurrent flow in a fully ionized plasma centrifuge is described. The rotation is produced by radiofrequency waves near the cyclotron resonance. The wave energy is transferred into potential energy in a manner similar to the α channeling effect. The countercurrent flow may also be driven by radiofrequency waves. By driving both the rotation and the flow pattern using waves instead of electrodes, physical and engineering issues may be avoided.