A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), reauthorized at $48 billion for fiscal years 2009 through 2013, supports HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment, and care services overseas. The reauthorizing legislation, as well as other key documents and PEPFAR guidance, endorses the alignment of PEPFAR activities with partner country HIV/AIDS strategies and the promotion of partner country ownership of U.S.-supported HIV/AIDS programs. This report, responding to a legislative directive, (1) examines alignment of PEPFAR programs with partner countries' HIV/AIDS strategies and (2) describes several challenges related to alignment or promotion of country ownership. GAO analyzed PEPFAR planning documents and national strategies for four countries--Cambodia, Malawi, Uganda, and Vietnam--selected to represent factors such as diversity of funding levels and geographic location. GAO also reviewed documents and reports by the U.S. government, research institutions, and international organizations and interviewed PEPFAR officials and other stakeholders in headquarters and the four countries."

This report begins by showing the trend in the male-female wage gap and by examining the explanations that have been offered for its enduring presence. It next discusses the major laws directed at eliminating sex-based wage discrimination as well as relevant federal court cases. The report closes with a description of pay equity legislation that has been considered by Congress in recent years, including bills introduced in the 111th Congress.

The development of offshore oil, gas, and other mineral resources in the United States is impacted by a number of interrelated legal regimes, including international, federal, and state laws. International law provides a framework for establishing national ownership or control of offshore areas, and domestic federal law mirrors and supplements these standards. This report discusses these issues.

This report will examine logistical support contracts for troop support services (also known as service contracts) in Iraq and Afghanistan, primarily administered through a smaller program, the United States Air Force Contract Augmentation Program (AFCAP) and a larger program, the United States Army's Logistics Civil Augmentation Program (LOGCAP). This report will focus primarily on contracts involving Department of Defense (DOD) appropriated funds, although some projects involve a blending of funds from other agencies.

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In February 2009, Congress created two new programs as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act): (1) the Tax Credit Assistance Program (TCAP) administered by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and (2) the Grants to States for Low-Income Housing Projects in Lieu of Low-inome Housing Credits Program under Section 1602 of the Recovery Act (Section 1602 Program) administered by the Department of the Treasury (Treasury). Congress created these new programs to address the lack of private investment capital in Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) projects after the credit market was disrupted in 2008. Both programs were intended to provide gap financing for stalled, "shovel-ready" projects and to offset a drop in tax credit demand and pricing. Under these programs, state Housing Finance Agencies (HFA) administer federal funds in the form of grants and loans from HUD and Treasury to fill financing gaps in planned tax credit projects."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report responds to two ongoing GAO mandates under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). It is the latest in a series of reports on the uses of and accountability for Recovery Act funds in 16 selected states, certain localities in those jurisdictions, and the District of Columbia (District). These jurisdictions are estimated to receive about two-thirds of the intergovernmental assistance available through the Recovery Act. This report also responds to GAO's mandate to comment on the jobs estimated in recipient reports. GAO collected and analyzed documents and interviewed state and local officials and other Recovery Act award recipients. GAO also analyzed federal agency guidance and interviewed federal officials."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The United States uses arms transfers through government-to-government Foreign Military Sales (FMS) and direct commercial sales (DCS) to support its foreign policy and national security goals. The Departments of Defense (DOD) and State (State) have authorized arms worth billions of dollars to six Persian Gulf countries: Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The United States established the Gulf Security Dialogue (GSD) to discuss security issues with these countries. GAO was asked to determine (1) the dollar value and nature of U.S. arms transfers authorized for the Gulf countries' governments, (2) the extent to which U.S. agencies documented how arms transfers to Gulf countries advanced U.S. foreign policy and national security goals, and (3) the role of the GSD. To conduct this work, GAO analyzed U.S. government regional plans, arms transfer data from fiscal years 2005 to 2009, case-specific documentation for fiscal years 2008 and 2009, and program guidance; and interviewed officials in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, women made up nearly 47 percent of the total workforce in the United States in July 2010. Women's participation in the labor force, particularly among women with children, is much higher today than several decades ago. For example, using data from the Current Population Survey, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that couples in which only the husband worked represented 18 percent of married couple families in 2007, compared with 36 percent in 1967. In addition, an increasing proportion of women are attaining higher education. Among women aged 25 to 64 in the labor force, the proportion with a college degree roughly tripled from 1970 to 2008. Further, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission found that the percentage of female officials and managers in the private sector increased from just over 29 percent in 1990 to 36.4 percent in 2002. Although women's representation across the general workforce is growing, there remains a need for information about the challenges women face in advancing their careers. In 2001, using 1995 and 2000 data from the Current Population Survey, we found women were …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In August and September 2009, Humana--a large private health insurer--sent a letter to the approximately 930,000 beneficiaries enrolled in its Medicare Advantage (MA) plans, advising that leading health reform proposals could adversely affect MA beneficiaries. Signed by Humana's Chief Medical Officer, the letter stated that if proposed funding cuts became law, "millions of seniors and disabled individuals could lose many of the important benefits and services that make MA health plans so valuable," and encouraged beneficiaries to contact their members of Congress and ask them to protect MA funding. Once the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) learned about the mailing, the agency directed Humana on September 18, 2009, and all other MA organizations on September 21, 2009, to immediately stop all communications to beneficiaries about the potential impact of health reform legislation while CMS investigated whether such communications violated federal laws, regulations, or MA program guidance. CMS issued clarifying guidance to all MA organizations on October 16, 2009, and took compliance action against some organizations, closing its investigation. CMS is responsible for overseeing communications between MA organizations and beneficiaries enrolled in their plans. Because MA organizations …

This report discusses the state of poverty in the United States, including how poverty is measured, selected poverty-related demographics, and certain federal aid efforts to those who are impoverished.

Between May 2009 and August 2010, arrests were made for 19 "homegrown," jihadist-inspired terrorist plots by American citizens or legal permanent residents of the United States. The apparent spike in such activity after May 2009 suggests that at least some Americans - even if a tiny minority - continue to be susceptible to ideologies supporting a violent form of jihad. This report describes homegrown violent jihadists and the plots and attacks that have occurred since 9/11. This report also provides official definitions for terms such as "homegrown," "jihadist," and "violent jihadist." The report also discusses the radicalization process and the forces driving violent extremist activity. It analyzes post-9/11 domestic jihadist terrorism, describes law enforcement and intelligence efforts to combat terrorism and the challenges associated with those efforts. It also outlines actions underway to build trust and partnership between community groups and government agencies and the tensions that may occur between law enforcement and engagement activities.

This report will describe and analyze the Federal Circuit's 2009 decision that requires a per-article penalty for false marking, as well as two subsequent Federal Circuit decisions in 2010 that answer several questions that have arisen during the recent false patent marking litigation. It also identifies and discusses legislation in the 111th Congress that would amend § 292 in order to retroactively end qui tam false marking suits and with the intent of reducing the number of false marking suits filed in the future.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Calculation of impact fees for a platted subdivision(RQ-0854-GA).

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Method by which a hospital district may set an ad valorem tax rate when it has not set a tax rate since 1996(RQ-0856-GA).

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A study has confirmed the feasibility of designing, fabricating and installing resonant magnetic field perturbation (RMP) coils in JET1 with the objective of controlling edge localized modes (ELM). A system of two rows of in-vessel coils, above the machine midplane, has been chosen as it not only can investigate the physics of and achieve the empirical criteria for ELM suppression, but also permits variation of the spectra allowing for comparison with other experiments. These coils present several engineering challenges. Conditions in JET necessitate the installation of these coils via remote handling, which will impose weight, dimensional and logistical limitations. And while the encased coils are designed to be conventionally wound and bonded, they will not have the usual benefit of active cooling. Accordingly, coil temperatures are expected to reach 350 C during bakeout as well as during plasma operations. These elevated temperatures are beyond the safe operating limits of conventional OFHC copper and the epoxies that bond and insulate the turns of typical coils. This has necessitated the use of an alternative copper alloy conductor C18150 (CuCrZr). More importantly, an alternative to epoxy had to be found. An R&D program was initiated to find the best available insulating and bonding …

Policy makers and program designers in the U.S. and abroad are deeply concerned with the question of how to scale up energy efficiency to a level that is commensurate both to the scale of the energy and climate challenges we face, and to the potential for energy savings that has been touted for decades. When policy makers ask what energy efficiency can do, the answers usually revolve around the technical and economic potential of energy efficiency - they rarely hone in on the element of energy demand that matters most for changing energy usage in existing homes: the consumer. A growing literature is concerned with the behavioral underpinnings of energy consumption. We examine a narrower, related subject: How can millions of Americans be persuaded to divert valued time and resources into upgrading their homes to eliminate energy waste, avoid high utility bills, and spur the economy? With hundreds of millions of public dollars flowing into incentives, workforce training, and other initiatives to support comprehensive home energy improvements, it makes sense to review the history of these programs and begin gleaning best practices for encouraging comprehensive home energy improvements. Looking across 30 years of energy efficiency programs that targeted the residential …

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), and a number of professional organizations have established a target of zero net energy (ZNE) in buildings by 2030. One definition of ZNE is a building with greatly reduced needs for energy through efficiency gains with the balance of energy needs supplied by renewable technologies. The push to ZNE is a response to research indicating that atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases have increased sharply since the eighteenth century, resulting in a gradual warming of the Earth?s climate. A review of ZNE policies reveals that the organizations involved frame the ZNE issue in diverse ways, resulting in a wide variety of myths and a divergent set of epistemologies. With federal and state money poised to promote ZNE, it is timely to investigate how epistemologies, meaning a belief system by which we take facts and convert them into knowledge upon which to take action, and the propagation of myths might affect the outcome of a ZNE program. This paper outlines myths commonly discussed in the energy efficiency and renewable energy communities related to ZNE and describes how each myth is a different way of expressing"the truth." The paper continues by …

The developers of the Paharpur Business Center (PBC) and Software Technology Incubator Park in New Delhi, India offer an environmentally sustainable building with a strong emphasis on energy conservation, waste minimization and superior indoor air quality (IAQ). To achieve the IAQ goal, the building utilizes a series of air cleaning technologies for treating the air entering the building. These technologies include an initial water wash followed by ultraviolet light treatment and biolfiltration using a greenhouse located on the roof and numerous plants distributed throughout the building. Even with the extensive treatment of makeup air and room air in the PBC, a recent study found that the concentrations of common volatile organic compounds and aldehydes appear to rise incrementally as the air passes through the building from the supply to the exhaust. This finding highlights the need to consider the minimization of chemical sources in buildings in combination with the use of advanced air cleaning technologies when seeking to achieve superior IAQ. The goal of this project was to identify potential source materials for indoor chemicals in the PBC. Samples of building materials, including wood paneling (polished and unpolished), drywall, and plastic from a hydroponic drum that was part of the …

Spectral reflectance was used to determine the thickness of thin glue layers in a study of the effect of the glue on radiance and reflectance measurements of shocked-tin substrates attached to lithium fluoride windows. Measurements based on profilometry of the components were found to be inaccurate due to flatness variations and deformation of the tin substrate under pressure during the gluing process. The accuracy of the spectral reflectance measurements were estimated to be ±0.5 μm, which was sufficient to demonstrate a convincing correlation between glue thickness and shock-generated light.

This report provides an overview of the New Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START), including a comparison to the original START Treaty, the belief of the Obama Administration and outside analysts that New START will enhance U.S. national security, and the criticisms of those who say that New START is a distraction from more important items on the nonproliferation agenda.

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This supplementary report to GAO-10-999 provides individual state appendixes for 16 states and the District of Columbia for GAO's work on the seventh of its bimonthly reviews of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act)."

Ultrafast nanocrystallography has the potential to revolutionize biology by enabling structural elucidation of proteins for which it is possible to grow crystals with 10 or fewer unit cells. The success of nanocrystallography depends on robust orientation-determination procedures that allow us to average diffraction data from multiple nanocrystals to produce a 3D diffraction data volume with a high signal-to-noise ratio. Such a 3D diffraction volume can then be phased using standard crystallographic techniques."Indexing" algorithms used in crystallography enable orientation determination of a diffraction data from a single crystal when a relatively large number of reflections are recorded. Here we show that it is possible to obtain the exact lattice geometry from a smaller number of measurements than standard approaches using a basis pursuit solver.

Funeral program for Mr. Major King King, Sr., born November 2, 1958 and died September 11, 2010. The funeral was held Monday, September 20, 2010 at Calvary Baptist Church, officiated by Rev. Kevin Nelson. Funeral arrangements were made through Carter-Taylor-Williams Mortuary and he was buried in Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery near San Antonio, Texas.