Spurred in part by occasional warnings of potential terrorist threats in the post- 9/11 era, some policymakers have intensified their focus on continuity of operations (COOP) issues. COOP planning is a segment of federal government contingency planning linked to continuity of government (COG). Together, COOP and COG are designed to ensure survival of a constitutional form of government and the continuity of essential federal functions. This report focuses primarily on executive branch COOP activities.

This report is on U.S. Taxation of Overseas Investment and Income: Background and Issues in 2005.

Early in the 109th Congress, both S. 6, the Family and Community Protection Act of 2005, and S. 94, the Good Samaritan Hunger Relief Tax Incentive Act, have been introduced to encourage gifts of food by businesses for charitable purposes. While current law provides a deduction only to C corporations, these bills would expand the tax break to all business entities. The value of the existing deduction is the corporation’s basis in the donated product plus one half of the amount of appreciation, as long as that amount is less than twice the corporation’s basis in the product.

Ray looks up from his work table on which lies a blue print.

Ray Gomez looks up from his worktable.

Ray takes a break from his worktable.

Ray looks up from his worktable.

Ray Gomez stands in front of the building where he works.

Ray Gomez stands in front of the company building that he works for.

Ray stands in front of the building that he works in.

Early Music faculty recital performed at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

A chapter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since the events of September 11, 2001, the security of the nation's drinking water and wastewater infrastructure has received increased attention from Congress and the executive branch. Wastewater facilities in the United States provide essential services to residential, commercial, and industrial users by collecting and treating wastewater and discharging it into receiving waters. These facilities, however, may possess certain characteristics that terrorists could exploit either to impair the wastewater treatment process or to damage surrounding communities and infrastructure. GAO was asked to obtain experts' views on (1) the key security-related vulnerabilities affecting the nation's wastewater systems, (2) the activities the federal government should support to improve wastewater security, and (3) the criteria that should be used to determine how any federal funds are allocated to improve security, and the best methods to distribute these funds. GAO conducted a systematic, Web-based survey of 50 nationally recognized experts to seek consensus on these key wastewater security issues. EPA expressed general agreement with the report, citing its value as the agency works with its partners to better secure the nation's critical wastewater infrastructure."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "For years, the Coast Guard has conducted search and rescue operations from its network of stations along the nation's coasts and waterways. In 2001, reviews of station operations found that station readiness--the ability to execute mission requirements in keeping with standards--was in decline. The Coast Guard began addressing these issues, only to see its efforts complicated by expanded post-September 11, 2001, homeland security responsibilities at many stations. GAO reviewed the impact of changing missions on station needs, the progress made in addressing station readiness needs, and the extent to which plans are in place for addressing any remaining needs."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In the wake of a recent wave of corporate scandals, Senator Byron L. Dorgan noted that the American taxpayers have a right to expect that those who have committed corporate fraud and other criminal wrongdoing will be punished, and that the federal government will make every effort to recover assets held by the offenders. Recognizing that GAO previously reported on deficiencies in the Department of Justice's (Justice) criminal debt collection processes (GAO-01-664), Senator Dorgan asked GAO to review selected criminal white-collar financial fraud cases for which large restitution debts have been established but little has been collected. Specifically, GAO was asked to determine (1) the status of Justice's efforts to collect on the outstanding debt, (2) the prospects for future collections, and (3) whether specific problems have affected Justice's ability to collect the debt."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO was asked to determine (1) the impact of the recent increased operational tempo on the process used to reimburse Army Guard soldiers for travel expenses and the effect that travel reimbursement problems have had on soldiers and their families; (2) the adequacy of the overall design of controls over the processes, human capital, and automated systems relied on for Army Guard travel reimbursements; and (3) whether the Department of Defense's (DOD) current efforts to automate its travel reimbursement process will resolve the problems identified. GAO selected and audited 10 case study units that were identified in a preliminary assessment as having a variety of travel reimbursement problems."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 2004, the Social Security Administration (SSA) issued about 4.2 million original Social Security numbers (SSN) and 2 million SSN replacement cards to U.S.-born children. Despite its narrowly intended purpose, today, young children need a SSN to be claimed on their parent's income tax return or to apply for certain government benefits. Because children's SSNs, like all SSNs, are vulnerable to theft and misuse, the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Finance requested that GAO (1) document SSA's current processes and internal controls for issuing SSNs to U.S.-born children under the age of 18 and (2) identify any weaknesses that may affect SSA's ability to ensure the integrity of the SSN and the efficiency of enumeration processes."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The federal-aid highway program provides over $25 billion a year to states for highway and bridge projects, often paying 80 percent of these projects' costs. The federal government provides funding for and oversees this program, while states largely choose and manage the projects. Ensuring that states effectively control the cost and schedule performance of these projects is essential to ensuring that federal funds are used efficiently. We reviewed the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) approach to improving its federal-aid highway project oversight efforts since we last reported on it in 2002, including (1) FHWA's oversight-related goals and performance measures, (2) FHWA's oversight improvement activities, (3) challenges FHWA faces in improving project oversight, and (4) best practices for project oversight."

This supplemental report analyzes the relationship between credit score and claim experience by considering the impact of other rating variables using a multivariate analysis.

The atmospheric abundances of carbon dioxide and methane have increased dramatically during the industrial era. Measurements of the isotopic composition of these gases can provide a powerful tool for quantifying their sources and sinks. This report describes the development of a portable instrument for isotopic analysis CO{sub 2} and CH{sub 4} using tunable infrared laser absorption spectroscopy. This instrument combines novel optical design and signal processing methods with a widely tunable mid-infrared laser source based on difference frequency generation (DFG) which will can access spectral regions for all the isotopes of CO{sub 2} and CH{sub 4} with a single instrument. The instrument design compensates for the large difference in concentration between major and minor isotopes by measuring them with path lengths which differ by a factor of 100 within the same multipass cell. During Phase I we demonstrated the basic optical design and signal processing by determining {sup 13}CO{sub 2} isotopic ratios with precisions as small as 0.2{per_thousand} using a conventional lead salt diode laser. During Phase II, the DFG laser source was coupled with the optical instrument and was demonstrated to detect {sup 13}CH{sub 4}/{sup 12}CH{sub 4} ratios with a precision of 0.5{per_thousand} and an averaging time of 20 …

A class of ceramics, capable of exhibiting low coefficients of thermal expansion and catalytic properties was investigated. Investigations were directed towards nanoengineering of NZP ceramics and NZP-based composites by chemical means by controlling their compositions and processing variables. NaZr{sub 2}(PO{sub 4}){sub 3} (NZP) was synthesized by combining water-soluble precursors leading to the precipitation of a gel that was dried, calcined, pressed into pellets, then fired at 850 C. Without chemical additives, the resulting ceramic comprised pores ranging in size from approximately 25 to 50 nm and a surface area of about 30m{sup 2}/g. Hydroxyapatite, which has a needle-like morphology, was mechanically mixed with the calcined gel to template NZP crystallization. What resulted was a coarsening of the pore structure and a decrease in surface area. When copper nitrate was added to the solution during synthesis, the resulting ceramic underwent shrinkage upon firing as well as an increase in strength. HAp and copper additions combined resulted in 40% volume shrinkage and a doubling of the tensile strength to 16MPa. A very different type of porosity was achieved when silica was partly substituted for phosphorous in the NZP structure. Na{sub 3}Zr{sub 2}(Si{sub 2}P)O{sub 12} (NASCION) was synthesized in the same manner as …

The Westinghouse Savannah River Company, a contractor to the Department of Energy, has compared Revisions 1 and 2 of NUREG-0700-Human System Interface Design Review Guideline, from the United States Nuclear Regulatory Commission Nuclear Regulatory Guide. The comparison has been made with respect to which guidelines remained the same, the guidelines that were reformatted or reworded, additional guidelines, and deleted guidelines. This comparison was made in preparation of revising the previously developed Human Factors Engineering Analysis Tool for automating the review, analysis, and evaluation of human system interface designs. This tool has been described at previous conferences on human factors and the merits and benefits of the tool described. The tool has been successfully applied to over eight facilities at WSRC. This paper describes the methodology and results of the comparison and the plans to enhance the already successful automation tool. The number of criteria in NUREG-0700 increased from approximately 1650 in Revision 1 to almost 2200 in Revision 2. Approximately 1600 criteria remained the same, though they were significantly reorganized; while about 100 were reworded or reformatted to clarify or expand the guidance provided. Around 600 guidelines were added and approximately 70 deleted. The majority of the changes and additions …

Polarized electrons have been essential for high-energy parity-violating experiments and measurements of the nucleon spin structure. The availability of a polarized electron beam was crucial to the success of the Stanford Linear Collider (SLC) in achieving a precise measurement of the electroweak mixing angle, and polarized electron beams will be required for all future linear colliders. Polarized electrons are readily produced by GaAs photocathode sources. When a circularly polarized laser beam tuned to the bandgap minimum is directed to the negative-electron-affinity (NEA) surface of a GaAs crystal, longitudinally polarized electrons are emitted into vacuum. The electron polarization is easily reversed by reversing the laser polarization. The important properties of these photocathodes for accelerator applications are: degree of polarization of the extracted beam; ability to extract sufficient charge to meet accelerator pulse-structure requirements; efficiency and stability of operation; and absence of any asymmetries in the beam properties (charge, position, energy, etc.) upon polarization reversal. The performance of GaAs photocathodes has improved significantly since they were first introduced in 1978 [1]. The theoretical maximum polarization of 50% for natural GaAs was first exceeded in 1991 using the lattice mismatch of a thin InGaAs layer epitaxially grown over a GaAs substrate to generate …

Venoco Inc, intends to re-develop the Monterey Formation, a Class III basin reservoir, at South Ellwood Field, Offshore Santa Barbara, California. Well productivity in this field varies significantly. Cumulative Monterey production for individual wells has ranged from 260 STB to 8,700,000 STB. Productivity is primarily affected by how well the well path connects with the local fracture system and the degree of aquifer support. Cumulative oil recovery to date is a small percentage of the original oil in place. To embark upon successful re-development and to optimize reservoir management, Venoco intends to investigate, map and characterize field fracture patterns and the reservoir conduit system. State of the art borehole imaging technologies including FMI, dipole sonic and cross-well seismic, interference tests and production logs will be employed to characterize fractures and micro faults. These data along with the existing database will be used for construction of a novel geologic model of the fracture network. Development of an innovative fracture network reservoir simulator is proposed to monitor and manage the aquifer's role in pressure maintenance and water production. The new fracture simulation model will be used for both planning optimal paths for new wells and improving ultimate recovery. In the second phase …

Wheat straw (Triticum aestivum L.) is an abundant source of plant fiber. It is regenerated, in large quantities, every year. At present, this potentially valuable resource is greatly under-exploited. Most of the excess straw biomass (i.e., tonnage above that required for agronomic cropping system sustainability) is managed through expensive chopping/tillage operations and/or burnt in the field following harvest, resulting in air pollution and associated health problems. Potential applications for wheat straw investigated within this project include energy and composites manufacture. Other methods of straw utilization that will potentially benefit from the findings of this research project include housing and building, pulp and paper, thermal insulation, fuels, and chemicals. This project focused on components of the feedstock assembly system for supplying a higher value small grains straw residue for (1) gasification/combustion and (2) straw-thermoplastic composites. This project was an integrated effort to solve the technological, infrastructural, and economic challenges associated with using straw residue for these bioenergy and bioproducts applications. The objective of the research is to contribute to the development of a low-capital distributed harvesting and engineered storage system for upgrading wheat straw to more desirable feedstocks for combustion and for straw-plastic composites. We investigated two processes for upgrading wheat …