Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate in memory of U.S. Marine Corps Lance Corporal Colton Wesley Rusk of Orange Grove.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate honoring the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and the National Park Service for their collaboration on The Education Center at The Wall.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate recognizing March 30, 2011, as Marshall Day at the State Capitol.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate in memory of William Parks Johnson of Wimberley.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate commemorating the inaugural season of the Dripping Springs Pop Warner football and cheerleading program.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate honoring U.S. Army veteran Margarito Peña for his service to his country.

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.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) generally focus on many of the same broad topics and rely on agency safeguards, as well as on the scientific community's professional norms, to prevent inadvertent duplication of research projects within and between the agencies. Shortcomings with certain agency safeguards, however, may increase the potential risk of project duplication within or between the two agencies. ARS and NIFA built in their own safeguards to help prevent project duplication, such as (1) panels of independent external scientists who review proposed projects and (2) agency requirements for staff to ensure that proposed work is relevant, including checking the Current Research Information System (CRIS)--USDA's primary system containing project-level information on its ongoing and completed research projects--for potentially duplicative research projects in both agencies. The agencies also rely on professional norms to safeguard against duplication, such as the peer review process used by scientific journals to limit the publication of unnecessarily duplicative research. Indeed, agency officials and stakeholders could not provide recent examples of duplication within or between the two agencies, and …

The analysis of specific control strategies and dynamic behavior of the supercritical carbon dioxide (S-CO{sub 2}) Brayton cycle has been extended to the two reactor types selected for continued development under the Generation IV Nuclear Energy Systems Initiative; namely, the Very High Temperature Reactor (VHTR) and the Sodium-Cooled Fast Reactor (SFR). Direct application of the standard S-CO{sub 2} recompression cycle to the VHTR was found to be challenging because of the mismatch in the temperature drop of the He gaseous reactor coolant through the He-to-CO{sub 2} reactor heat exchanger (RHX) versus the temperature rise of the CO{sub 2} through the RHX. The reference VHTR features a large temperature drop of 450 C between the assumed core outlet and inlet temperatures of 850 and 400 C, respectively. This large temperature difference is an essential feature of the VHTR enabling a lower He flow rate reducing the required core velocities and pressure drop. In contrast, the standard recompression S-CO{sub 2} cycle wants to operate with a temperature rise through the RHX of about 150 C reflecting the temperature drop as the CO{sub 2} expands from 20 MPa to 7.4 MPa in the turbine and the fact that the cycle is highly recuperated …

An increasing number of homes with existing photovoltaic (PV) energy systems have sold in the U.S., yet relatively little research exists that estimates the marginal impacts of those PV systems on the sales price. A clearer understanding of these effects might influence the decisions of homeowners, home buyers and PV home builders. This research analyzes a large dataset of California homes that sold from 2000 through mid-2009 with PV installed. Across a large number of hedonic and repeat sales model specifications and robustness tests, the analysis finds strong evidence that homes with PV systems sold for a premium over comparable homes without. The effects range, on average, from approximately $3.9 to $6.4 per installed watt (DC), with most models coalescing near $5.5/watt, which corresponds to a premium of approximately $17,000 for a 3,100 watt system. The research also shows that, as PV systems age, the premium enjoyed at the time of home sale decreases. Additionally, existing homes with PV systems are found to have commanded a larger sales price premium than new homes with similarly sized PV systems. Reasons for this discrepancy are suggested, yet further research is warranted in this area as well as a number of other areas …

This report discusses the coup and its aftermath in Kyrgyzstan, and its implications for Kyrgyzstan, U.S. interests, Russia and other Euroasian states.

Proponents of biennial budgeting have generally advanced three arguments-that a two-year budget cycle would (1) reduce congressional workload by eliminating the need for annual review of routine matters; (2) reserve the second session of each Congress for improved congressional oversight and program review; and (3) allow better long-term planning by the agencies that spend federal funds at the federal, state, or local level.

This report presents an overview of the economic and political situation in Bosnia. It starts out by describing the current situation, the negotiations on forming a new central government, the international role in Bosnia, and the last part discusses the implications of U.S. policy.

The "digital divide" is a term used to describe a perceived gap between "information haves and have-nots," or in other words, between those Americans who use or have access to telecommunications and information technologies and those who do not. Whether or not individuals or communities fall into the "information haves" category depends on a number of factors, ranging from the presence of computers in the home, to training and education, to the availability of affordable Internet access.

This report was prepared by PNNL for the U.S. Department of Energy Building America Program. The report provides information to home owners who want to make their existing homes more energy efficient by sealing leaks in the building envelope (ceiling, walls, and floors) that let in drafts and let conditioned air escape. The report provides descriptions of 19 key areas of the home where air sealing can improve home performance and energy efficiency. The report includes suggestions on how to find a qualified weatherization or home performance contractor, what to expect in a home energy audit, opportune times for performing air sealing, and what safety and health concerns to be aware of. The report describes some basic building science concepts and topics related to air sealing including ventilation, diagnostic tools, and code requirements. The report will be available for free download from the DOE Building America website. It is a suitable consumer education tool for home performance and weatherization contractors to share with customers to describe the process and value of home energy retrofits.

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Algebraic multigrid (AMG) is a popular solver for large-scale scientific computing and an essential component of many simulation codes. AMG has shown to be extremely efficient on distributed-memory architectures. However, when executed on modern multicore architectures, we face new challenges that can significantly deteriorate AMG's performance. We examine its performance and scalability on three disparate multicore architectures: a cluster with four AMD Opteron Quad-core processors per node (Hera), a Cray XT5 with two AMD Opteron Hex-core processors per node (Jaguar), and an IBM BlueGene/P system with a single Quad-core processor (Intrepid). We discuss our experiences on these platforms and present results using both an MPI-only and a hybrid MPI/OpenMP model. We also discuss a set of techniques that helped to overcome the associated problems, including thread and process pinning and correct memory associations.

This report discusses climate change and issues related to carbon leakage by examining the European Union's (EU's) cap-and-trade program with a review and analysis of various EU efforts to address the concerns of energy-intensive, trade-exposed industries. Additionally, it considers similar provisions enacted or proposed by the U.S.and analyzes potential World Trade Organization (WTO) implications in relation to U.S. trade agreements.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "According to the National Research Council (NRC) and others, infrastructure such as roads and bridges, wastewater systems, and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) centers are vulnerable to changes in the climate. Changes in precipitation and sea levels, as well as increased intensity and frequency of extreme events, are projected by NRC and others to impact infrastructure in a variety of ways. When the climate changes, infrastructure-- typically designed to operate within past climate conditions--may not operate as well or for as long as planned, leading to economic, environmental, and social impacts. For example, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that, within 15 years, segments of Louisiana State Highway 1-- providing the only road access to a port servicing 18 percent of the nation's oil supply--will be inundated by tides an average of 30 times annually due to relative sea level rise. Flooding of this road effectively closes the port."

The Legislative Reference Service, it was charged with responding to congressional requests for information. For more than 50 years, this department assisted Congress primarily by providing facts and publications and by transmitting research and analysis done largely by other government agencies, private organizations, and individual scholars. In 1970, Congress enacted a law transforming the Legislative Reference Service into the Congressional Research Service (CRS) and directing CRS to devote more of its efforts and increased resources to performing research and analysis that assists Congress in direct support of the legislative process.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Departments of Defense (DOD) and State and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have relied extensively on contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan, including using contractors to help administer other contracts or grants. Relying on contractors to perform such functions can provide benefits but also introduces potential risks, such as conflicts of interest, that should be considered and managed. Pursuant to the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008, GAO reviewed (1) the extent to which DOD, State, and USAID rely on contractors to perform contract and grant administration in Iraq and Afghanistan; (2) the reasons behind decisions to use such contractors and whether the decisions are guided by strategic workforce planning; and (3) whether agencies considered and mitigated related risks. GAO analyzed relevant federal and agency policies and agency contract data, and conducted file reviews and interviews for 32 contracts selected for case studies."

This report examines issues related to financial regulators and cost-benefit analysis' (CBA), including potential difficulties facing such regulators and methods available to them when preforming a CBA, the analytical requirements the agencies currently face, and the arguments for and against increasing requirements on financial regulators. This report also briefly describes several examples of proposed legislation that would change the requirements facing financial regulators.

This report discusses the difficulties of collecting war-related casualty data in Iraq and Syria and provides an overview of some of the current estimated figures available through selected organizations.

This report discusses the current administration's request of $523.9 billion to cover the fiscal year 2017 discretionary "base budget" of the Department of Defense (DOD).