A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) established a goal to achieve total asset visibility over 30 years ago. This initiative aims to provide timely, accurate information on the location, movement, status, and identity of equipment and supplies. To date, the effort has been unsuccessful. GAO was requested to determine (1) the implementation status of the Air Force's business system initiatives to achieve total asset visibility, and whether the Air Force has implemented related best practices, and (2) whether the Air Force's business transformation efforts to achieve total asset visibility are aligned within the Air Force and with DOD's broader business transformation priorities. GAO interviewed Air Force officials and reviewed Air Force documentation to obtain an understanding of the Air Force's system initiatives and strategy for achieving total asset visibility and to identify areas for improvement."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The International Marriage Broker Regulation Act of 2005 (IMBRA) was enacted to address issues of domestic violence and abuse against noncitizens (beneficiaries) married or engaged to U.S. citizens (petitioners) who have petitioned for them to immigrate to the U.S., including those who met through an international marriage broker (IMB). IMBRA mandated that GAO study the act's impact on the visa process for noncitizen spouses and fiance(e)s. This report addresses the extent to which the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); the Department of State (DOS); and the Department of Justice (DOJ) have implemented IMBRA, and the extent to which USCIS and DOS have collected and maintained data for this GAO report as required by IMBRA. To address these objectives, GAO reviewed the act and related legislation, analyzed IMBRA implementation guidance and available data on applications filed, and interviewed officials at USCIS, DOS, and DOJ."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Health centers funded through grants under the Health Center Program--managed by the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), an agency in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)--provide comprehensive primary care services for the medically underserved. HRSA provides funding for training and technical assistance (TA) cooperative agreement recipients to assist grant applicants. GAO was asked to examine (1) to what extent medically underserved areas (MUA) lacked health center sites in 2006 and 2007 and (2) HRSA's oversight of training and TA cooperative agreement recipients' assistance to grant applicants and its provision of written feedback provided to unsuccessful applicants. To do this, GAO obtained and analyzed HRSA data, grant applications, and the written feedback provided to unsuccessful grant applicants and interviewed HRSA officials."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) uses undercover, or covert, testing to approximate techniques that terrorists may use to identify vulnerabilities in and measure the performance of airport security systems. During these tests, undercover inspectors attempt to pass threat objects through passenger and baggage screening systems, and access secure airport areas. In response to a congressional request, GAO examined (1) TSA's strategy for conducting covert testing of the transportation system and the extent to which the agency has designed and implemented its covert tests to achieve identified goals; and (2) the results of TSA's national aviation covert tests conducted from September 2002 to June 2007, and the extent to which TSA uses the results of these tests to mitigate security vulnerabilities. To conduct this work, GAO analyzed covert testing documents and data and interviewed TSA and transportation industry officials."

The 100-F-46 french drain consisted of a 1.5 to 3 m long, vertically buried, gravel-filled pipe that was approximately 1 m in diameter. Also included in this waste site was a 5 cm cast-iron pipeline that drained condensate from the 119-F Stack Sampling Building into the 100-F-46 french drain. In accordance with this evaluation, the confirmatory sampling results support a reclassification of this site to No Action. The current site conditions achieve the remedial action objectives and the corresponding remedial action goals established in the Remaining Sites ROD. The results of confirmatory sampling show that residual contaminant concentrations do not preclude any future uses and allow for unrestricted use of shallow zone soils. The results also demonstrate that residual contaminant concentrations are protective of groundwater and the Columbia River.

The superconducting coupling solenoid to be applied in the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) is made from copper matrix Nb-Ti conductors with inner radius of 750 mm, length of 285 mm and thickness of 102.5 mm at room temperature. The magnetic field up to 2.6 T at the magnet centerline is to keep the muons within the MICE RF cavities. Its self inductance is around 592 H and its magnet stored energy is about 13 MJ at a full current of 210 A for the worst operation case of the MICE channel. The stress induced inside the coil during cool down and charging is relatively high. Two test coils are to build and test in order to validate the design method and develop the fabrication technique required for the coupling coil winding, one is 350 mm inner diameter and full length same as the coupling coil, and the other is one-quarter length and 1.5 m diameter. The 1.5 m diameter coil will be charged to strain conditions that are greater than would be encountered in the coupling coil. This paper presents detailed design of the test coils as well as developed winding skills. The analyses on stress in coil assemblies, …

A future high-energy electron-ion collider would explore the non-linear weakly-coupled regime of QCD, and test the Color Glass Condensate (CGC) approach to high-energy scattering. Hard diffraction in deep inelastic scattering off nuclei will provide many fundamental measurements. In this work, the nuclear diffractive structure function F{sub 2,A}{sup D} is predicted in the CGC framework, and the features of nuclear enhancement and suppression are discussed.

The objective of this project is to design, develop and demonstrate methods for the chemical stimulation of candidate EGS reservoirs as well as the chemical treatment of mineral-scaled wellbores. First, a set of candidate chemical compounds capable of dissolving calcite was identified. A series of tests was then performed on each candidate in order to screen it for thermal stability and reactivity towards calcite. A detailed analysis was then performed on each compound that emerged from the screening tests in order to characterize its decay kinetics and reaction kinetics as functions of temperature and chemical composition. From among the compounds emerging from the laboratory studies, one compounds was chosen for a field experiment in order to verify the laboratory predictions.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

This report discusses the energy policy that has been a recurring issue for Congress since the first major crisis in the 1970s. The report offers a general view of energy consumption trends, Table 1 shows consumption by economic sector — residential, commercial, transportation, and industry — from 1950 to the present.

This report discusses the issues with the housing policies of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), particularly as they relate to the Post-Katrina Act of 2006 (P.L. 109-295) and the Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Plan (P.L. 93-288). It includes an overview of the Stafford Act sections 403 and 408 as well as a breakdown of issues for Congress and possible Congressional approaches to address the policies.

Weekly newspaper from Dallas, Texas that includes local, state, and national news and advertising of interest to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community.

None

This report reviews the management and performance of the Moody Independent School District's (MISD) technology operations.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

From 1999 through 2007, the Fish and Wildlife Program of the Bonneville Power Administration funded a project to determine the number of fall Chinook and chum salmon spawning downstream of Bonneville Dam, the characteristics of their spawning areas, and the flows necessary to ensure their long-term survival. Data were collected to ensure that established flow guidelines are appropriate and provide adequate protection for the species of concern. The projects objectives are consistent with the high priority placed by the Northwest Power and Conservation Council Independent Scientific Advisory Board and the salmon managers on determining the importance of mainstem habitats to the production of salmon in the Columbia River Basin. Because of the influence of mainstem habitat on salmon production, there is a continued need to better understand the physical habitat variables used by mainstem fall Chinook and chum salmon populations and the effects of hydropower project operations on spawning and incubation. During FY 2007, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory focused on (1) locating and mapping deep-water fall Chinook salmon and chum salmon spawning areas, (2) investigating the interaction between groundwater and surface water near fall Chinook and chum salmon spawning areas, and (3) providing in-season hyporheic temperature and water surface elevation …

This report examines possible hydrologic effects of pump-and-treat remediation actions and provides a detailed analysis of water-level measurements for selected 200-ZP-1 T Tank Farm pump-and-treat system monitor wells during a recent shutdown (May 1, 2008) and restart activity (June 4, 2008) involving extraction well 299-W11-46. Specifically, this report 1) applies to recently developed methods for removing barometric pressure fluctuations from well water-level measurements to enhance the detection of pump-and-treat system effects at selected monitor wells, 2) analyzes the barometric-corrected well water-level responses to determine large-scale hydraulic properties, and 3) assesses characteristics and conditions that influence hydrologic responses (both laterally and vertically) associated with pump-and-treat systems. The general findings presented in this report have universal application for unconfined and confined aquifer systems.

Our Columbia group, in collaboration with Brookhaven and SMU, has been carrying out R&D on tracking detectors in cryogenic liquids, including neon and helium. A cryostat purchased by this Grant capable of working temperatures down to 1 K and pressures above the critical point of neon and helium has been operated with a variety of noble fluids. Gaseous Electron Multipliers (GEM) with hydrogen additives have been operated with tracks of radioactive sources read out both by electrical charge detecting electronics, and an optical camera purchased by this Grant, measuring mobility, charge yield, transitions through phase boundaries, gain limitations, and other properties. The goal is very high resolution in large volumes. The scope of the project is the provision of a high performance camera and its installation in a cryogenic facility providing pressure up to 40 atmospheres and a temperature from ambient down to about 1 K. In this section we will address the goals and results having to do with this project and particularly the performance of the camera, and provide a summary of the status of the detector project. The technical development of digital cameras has been dominated for the last forty years by the Charge-Coupled Device technology (CCD). …

None

We present recent work on a prototype compact neutron generator for associated particle imaging (API). API uses alpha particles that are produced simultaneously with neutrons in the deuterium-tritium (2D(3T,n)4 alpha) fusion reaction to determine the direction of the neutrons upon exiting the reaction. This method determines the spatial position of each neutron interaction and requires the neutrons to be generated from a small spot in order to achieve high spatial resolution. The ion source for API is designed to produce a focused ion beam with a beam spot diameter of 1-mm or less on the target. We use an axial type neutron generator with a predicted neutron yield of 108 n/s for a 50 muA D/T ion beam current accelerated to 80 kV. The generator utilizes a RF planar spiral antenna at 13.56 MHz to create a highly efficient inductively-coupled plasma at the ion source. Experimental results show that beams with an atomic ion fraction of over 80percent can be obtained while utilizing only 100 watts of RF power in the ion source. A single acceleration gap with a secondary electron suppression electrode is used in the tube. Experimental results, such as the current density, atomic ion fraction, electron temperature, …

This report discusses the current political conditions of Cuba as well as its relationship with the United States. In particular, the report focuses on U.S. policy regarding how to best support political and economic change in one of the world's remaining communist nations, in the context of Fidel Castro's departure from heading the government because of poor health.

This report provides background information on the DDG-1000 (Zumwalt) program. It discusses the Navy's proposed FY2010 budget requests of $1,084.2 million to complete the cost of a third Zumwalt-class destroyer that was authorized but only partially funded in FY2009.

This report discusses Pre-Disaster Mitigation (PDM), and "Project Impact," a FEMA pilot program. It provides an overview of PDM, legislative history, funding and mitigation studies related to Hurricane Katrina, issues for Congress, and overall observations.