This report discusses the results of the Italian Parliamentary election on March 4, 2018 which ended with no party gaining a majority making a coalition necessary. Populist parties gained a significant number of seats and implications of their rise to power for Italy, the EU, NATO, and the U.S. are discussed.

This month's issue has the following articles: (1) Fifty Years of Stellar Laser Research - Commentary by Edward I. Moses; (2) A Stellar Performance - By combining computational models with test shot data, scientists at the National Ignition Facility have demonstrated that the laser is spot-on for ignition; (3) Extracting More Power from the Wind - Researchers are investigating how atmospheric turbulence affects power production from wind turbines; (4) Date for a Heart Cell - Carbon-14 dating reveals that a significant number of heart muscle cells are regenerated over the course of our lives; and (5) Unique Marriage of Biology and Semiconductors - A new device featuring a layer of fat surrounding a thin silicon wire takes advantage of the communication properties of both biomolecules and semiconductors.

This report tracks the process by which Congress provides the funding for U.S. assessed contributions to the regular budgets of the United Nations, its agencies, and U.N. peacekeeping operation accounts, as well as for U.S. voluntary contributions to U.N. system programs and funds. It includes information on the President's request and the congressional response, as well as congressional initiatives during this legislative process. Basic information is provided to help the reader understand this process.

CHPRC D&D Projects is adding three filtration system on two 1-ft concrete pads adjacent to the north side of existing KW Basin building. This analysis is prepared to provide qualitative assessment based on the review of design information available for 105KW basin substructure. In the proposed heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) filtration pad designs a 2 ft gap will be maintained between the pads and the north end of the existing 1 05KW -Basin building. Filtration Skids No.2 and No.3 share one pad. It is conservative to evaluate the No.2 and No.3 skid pad for the wall assessment. Figure 1 shows the plan layout of the 105KW basin site and the location of the pads for the filtration system or HVAC skids. Figure 2 shows the cross-section elevation view of the pad. The concrete pad Drawing H-1-91482 directs the replacement of the existing 8-inch concrete pad with two new 1-ft think pads. The existing 8-inch pad is separated from the 105KW basin superstructure by an expansion joint of only half an inch. The concrete pad Drawing H-1-91482 shows the gap between the new proposed pads and the north wall and any overflow pits and sumps is 2-ft. Following analysis …

An archaeological survey report of the proposed site of the Marine Creek Corridor Linear Park Improvements Project in Fort Worth, Texas to determine whether there were any cultural resources in the area.

This report collects statistics from a variety of sources on casualties sustained during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), which began on October 7, 2001. OEF actions took place primarily in Afghanistan; however, OEF casualties also includes American casualties in Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Guantanamo Bay (Cuba), Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines, Seychelles, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Yemen.

This report discusses issues surrounding the funding for development of Marine Corps Amphibious Combat Vehicles (ACVs) and Marine Personnel Carriers (MPCs). The Marines are required by law to have the necessary equipment to conduct amphibious operations and land operations.

We show that accretion disks around Active Galactic Nuclei (AGNs) could account for the enormous power in observed ultra high energy cosmic rays {approx}10{sup 20} eV (UHEs). In our model, cosmic rays are produced by quasi-steady acceleration of ions in magnetic structures previously proposed to explain jets around Active Galactic Nuclei with supermassive black holes. Steady acceleration requires that an AGN accretion disk act as a dynamo, which we show to follow from a modified Standard Model in which the magnetic torque of the dynamo replaces viscosity as the dominant mechanism accounting for angular momentum conservation during accretion. A black hole of mass M{sub BH} produces a steady dynamo voltage V {proportional_to} {radical}M{sub BH} giving V {approx} 10{sup 20} volts for M{sub BH} {approx} 10{sup 8} solar masses. The voltage V reappears as an inductive electric field at the advancing nose of a dynamo-driven jet, where plasma instability inherent in collisionless runaway acceleration allows ions to be steadily accelerated to energies {approx} V, finally ejected as cosmic rays. Transient events can produce much higher energies. The predicted disk radiation is similar to the Standard Model. Unique predictions concern the remarkable collimation of jets and emissions from the jet/radiolobe structure. Given …

This report discusses the concept of executive privilege and whether the communications of a president-elect are protected by executive privilege.

This report provides background on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), discusses the categories of records FOIA exempts from public release, and analyzes statistics on FOIA administration. The report also provides background on several legal and policy issues related to FOIA, including the release of controversial records, the growth in use of certain FOIA exemptions, and the adoption of new technologies to improve FOIA administration. The report concludes with an examination of potential FOIA-related policy options for Congress.

A heuristic model for the plasma scrape-off width balances magnetic drifts against parallel loss at c{sub s} /2, resulting in a SOL width ~ {rho}{sub p}. T{sub sep} is calculated from Spitzer–Härm parallel thermal conduction. This results in a prediction for the power scrape-off width in quantitative agreement both in magnitude and scaling with recent experimental data. To achieve the ~ c{sub s} /2 flow assumed in this model and measured experimentally sets requirements on the ratio of upstream to total SOL particle sources, relative to the square-root of the ratio of target to upstream temperature. The Pfisch-Schlüter model for equilibrium flows has been modified to allow near-sonic flows, appropriate for gradient scale lengths of order {rho}{sub p}, resulting in a new quadrupole radial flow pattern. The strong parallel flows and plasma charging implied by this model suggest a mechanism for H-mode transition, consistent with many observations

The F-Area Tank Farm (FTF) Performance Assessment (PA) utilizes waste speciation in the waste release model used in the FTF fate and transport modeling. The waste release modeling associated with the residual plutonium in Tank 18 has been identified as a primary contributor to the Tank 18 dose uncertainty. In order to reduce the uncertainty related to plutonium in Tank 18, a better understanding of the plutonium speciation in the Tank 18 waste (including the oxidation state and stoichiometry) is desired. Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) utilized Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) to analyze Tank 18 samples to provide information on the speciation of plutonium in the waste material. XRD analysis of the Tank 18 samples did not identify any plutonium mineral phases in the samples. These indicates the crystalline mineral phases of plutonium are below the detection limits of the XRD method or that the plutonium phase(s) lack long range order and are present as amorphous or microcrystalline solids. SEM analysis of the Tank 18 samples did locate particles containing plutonium. The plutonium was found as small particles, usually <1 {micro}m but ranging up to several micrometers in diameter, associated with particles of an iron matrix …

This report explains the role of the thrift savings plan on the federal employees' retirement system.

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This report discusses the current political state of Afghanistan, as well as the Afghan government. This report also discusses Afghanistan's relationship with the United States, particularly U.S. efforts to urge President Hamid Karzai to address corruption within the Afghan government.

This report discusses the current political state of Afghanistan, focusing particularly on the influence of the Taliban and other militant groups and on the leadership of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. This report also discusses the U.S.-Afghanistan relationship, in both the short and long term, and U.S. efforts under the Obama Administration to provide military, reconstructive, and stabilization aid.

This report covers concerns and issues relating to governance, elections, election fraud/nepotism, human rights, and Afghan culture in Afghanistan. It discusses the pros and cons of U.S.A. intervention in the shaping of these endeavors.

This report discusses Oman's political and governmental structure, economy, foreign policy, and human rights concerns as well as U.S. security assistance and cooperation.

This report discusses the U.S. Department of Agruculture's (USDA) broadband loan and grant program in rural utilities areas.

This report lists the fifteen previous instances of U.S. Attorney General's recusing themselves from an investigation since 1989 after the announcement by U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions that he was recusing himself from and any investigations regarding President Donald Trump's presidential campaign.

The PET radionuclides, 18F and 11C consist of very high radiation to mass amounts and should be easily adapted to new technologies such as “chip chemistry” with nanofluidics. However, environmental contamination with nonradioactive fluorine, carbon and other trace contaminants add sufficient mass, micrograms to milligrams, to prevent adapting PET radiochemistry to the nanochip technologies. In addition, the large volumes of material required for beam irradiation make it necessary to also remove the 18F and 11C from their chemical matrices. These steps add contaminants. The work described in this report was a systematic investigation of sources of these contaminants and methods to reduce these contaminants and the reaction volumes for radiochemical synthesis. Several methods were found to lower the contaminants and matrices to within a factor of 2 to 100 of those needed to fully implement chip technology but further improvements are needed.

The main purpose of the Coordinated Infrastructure for Fault Tolerance in Systems initiative has been to conduct research with a goal of providing end-to-end fault tolerance on a systemwide basis for applications and other system software. While fault tolerance has been an integral part of most high-performance computing (HPC) system software developed over the past decade, it has been treated mostly as a collection of isolated stovepipes. Visibility and response to faults has typically been limited to the particular hardware and software subsystems in which they are initially observed. Little fault information is shared across subsystems, allowing little flexibility or control on a system-wide basis, making it practically impossible to provide cohesive end-to-end fault tolerance in support of scientific applications. As an example, consider faults such as communication link failures that can be seen by a network library but are not directly visible to the job scheduler, or consider faults related to node failures that can be detected by system monitoring software but are not inherently visible to the resource manager. If information about such faults could be shared by the network libraries or monitoring software, then other system software, such as a resource manager or job scheduler, could ensure …

This report provides an overview of actions taken by Congress to provide FY2013 appropriations for the accounts funded by the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education, and Related Agencies appropriations bill.

The largest earthquake ever recorded in Haiti devastated parts of the country, including the capital, on January 12, 2010. This report discusses the disaster and various responses, ranging from the Haitian government's initial response to foreign humanitarian and financial aid.