In-house document for publishing procedures and conventions. It includes copy editing and grammar style.

This OTA assessment reviews the status of federal government efforts to provide safe sanitation to Alaskan Natives and the technologies that have been used or proposed for this purpose. Finally, the report examines the legislative and institutional setting for the waste sanitation problems, and the criteria that need to be applied in selecting and implementing new technologies.

This report responds to requests by the Senate and the House Armed Services Committees to investigate the potential for civil-military integration and the implications of such integration. It is divided into six chapters and five appendices.

There are two longstanding constraints to implementing more energy efficient practices: 1) a shortage of finds to invest in efficient equipment; and 2) a lack of information for program planning and budgeting about the extent of investment opportunities and about the best finding mechanisms. This paper reviews advances made in addressing these constraints since 1991.

The primary purpose of this report is to identify options for enhancing the effectiveness of export controls in slowing or preventing the spread of capabilities to develop and produce weapons of mass destruction.

This report discusses the process for developing a comprehensive HIV/AIDS prevention plan. Phase I established four general goals: 1) assess risks; 2) develop prevention technologies; 3) build p revention capacities; and 4) implement prevention programs. Phase II focused on four groups at increased risk for HIV infection: women and infants; injecting drug users; youth in high-risk situations; and men who have sex with men.

This report focuses on research and technology policy issues for aviation operations: safety, security, environmental protection, and the air traffic system.

This report focuses on technologies to improve energy supply in Central Europe and the former Soviet Union. The report is divided into two parts. The first part reviews energy supply technologies for fossil–fuel and nonfossil–based energy resources. In addition, it reviews the environmental consequences of energy production and consumption. The report highlights specific needs for U.S. technology and opportunities for U.S. business. The second part of the report is devoted to policy considerations. It describes the highly varied political, economic, and social context of reform. Next, it analyzes and catalogues Western energy–related assistance and investment programs for the region. The final chapter of the report presents policy options relating to energy supply and efficiency that will promote the achievement of U.S. political and economic goals.

This background paper is one of four documents resulting from OTA’s study of policy issues in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis.

The purpose of this report is to examine two crucial questions: 1. What are we getting out of this investment? 2. How can we improve it?

This report analyzes the case for developing a long-term, comprehensive strategic plan for civilian satellite remote sensing, and explores the elements of such a plan, if it were adopted. The report also enumerates many of the congressional decisions needed to ensure that future data needs will be satisfied.

This paper seeks to place the issue of climate change within an international context. Specifically, it addresses the feasibility of forging treaty agreements among countries to achieve significant worldwide reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases.

This report discusses the medical malpractice system that has frequently been cited as a contributor to increasing health care costs and has been targeted in many health care reform proposals as a potential source of savings. The report first examines the nature of defensive medicine, adopting a working definition of defensive medicine that embraces the complexity of the problem from both the physician and broader public policy perspectives. Finally, it comments on the potential impact of a variety of medical malpractice reforms on the practice of defensive medicine.

This report takes a strategic look at the development of electronic commerce and identifies the characteristics of the infrastructure that will be required to support it. The report found that, in an electronically networked economy, the design and underlying architecture of the global information infrastructure will have a major impact on national economic growth and development.

The paper has six major purposes, in order to analyze the uses of tests used in vocational programs, particularly those designed to measure broad technical skills, identify trends in vocational assessment, and identify policy issues relevant to improving test development and quality.

The report highlights some of the opportunities and challenges faced by a major federal agency in: 1 ) implementing the Administration’s “National Performance Review and “National Information Infrastructure” programs, and 2) addressing issues raised in OTA’s 1993 report Making Government Work: Electronic Delivery of Federal Services.

This report includes statements form OTA Chairman, Vice-Chairman, and Director, as well as TAAC Chairman. The report also discusses industry, commerce, and international security division, as well as health, life sciences and the environment division.

This report includes information on technological products released during FY1994, legislation in the 103rd Congress related to the Office of Technology Assessment (OTA), and background information on OTA itself, among other things.

This report contains justification for the Office of Technology Assessment's (OTA) estimated FY1996 budget request.

This report finds both competitive challenges and opportunities from environmental concerns and industrial competitiveness for two sets of American industries affected by environmental regulation: those in the business of making and selling environmental technologies, and the manufacturing firms that are among their major customers.

This report focuses on policy issues in three areas: 1 ) national cryptography policy, including federal information processing standards and export controls; 2) guidance on safeguarding unclassified information in federal agencies; and 3) legal issues and information security, including electronic commerce, privacy, and intellectual property.

This paper examines what is known about administrative costs in the health care systems of the United States and several other countries. In addition to exploring the types of activities that constitute health care administration, it reviews studies that measure and compare these activities in different countries, and it explores the potential usefulness of such comparisons.

This paper reviews how the United States compares with other developed countries on available health status measures, evaluates the validity of the data used to make such comparisons, and describes how international comparisons might be interpreted in the context of health care reform.

This paper emphasizes recent changes in the market for health care and health insurance in the Twin Cities, including the growth of managed care organizations, the growth of integrated delivery systems, the development of health insurance purchasing coalitions, and recent state health care reforms. The report concludes with a discussion of potential lessons from the Twin Cities for the health reform debate.