Article on first-principles analysis of electron-phonon interactions in graphene.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Recent events including last month's attack on Internal Revenue Service offices in Texas, and the January 2010 shooting in the lobby of the Nevada, federal courthouse demonstrate the continued vulnerability of federal facilities and the safety of the federal employees who occupy them. These events also highlight the continued challenges involved in protecting federal real property and reiterate the importance of protecting the over 1 million government employees, as well as members of the public, who work in and visit the nearly 9,000 federal facilities. This testimony is based on past GAO reports and testimonies and discusses challenges Federal Protective Service (FPS) faces in protecting federal facilities and tenant agencies' perspective of FPS's services. To perform this work, GAO visited a number of federal facilities, surveyed tenant agencies, analyzed documents, and interviewed officials from several federal agencies."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. insular areas of American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands (USVI) face serious economic and fiscal challenges and rely on federal funding to deliver critical services. The Department of the Interior (Interior), through its Office of Insular Affairs (OIA), provides roughly $70 million in grant funds annually to increase insular area self-sufficiency. GAO and others have raised concerns regarding insular areas' internal control weaknesses, which increase the risk of grant fund mismanagement. GAO was asked to determine (1) whether previously reported internal control weaknesses have been addressed and, if not, to what extent they are prevalent among OIA grant projects; (2) the challenges, if any, insular areas face in implementing OIA grant projects; and (3) the extent to which OIA has taken action to improve grant project implementation and management. GAO reviewed a random sample of 173 OIA grant files, conducted site visits, and interviewed OIA and insular area officials."

This report describes work by the Interagency Climate Change Task Force. The group's goals include forming recommendations for a national strategy for climate change adaptation, improving the resilience and adaptive capacity of the federal government towards climate change, and improving public understanding of specific climate change vulnerabilities.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Free weekly newspaper that includes business and classified advertising.

Newspaper clipping of an article about Eleanor "Mickey" Brown receiving the "Women in American History Award" from the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR). The article includes a photo of Brown holding the award with DAR Regent Sandra Skach. There is an article about passing on heritage to the next generation on the back of the clipping.

Letter from Janey Lack to Mickey McLernan saying that she enjoyed the article and hopes she enjoyed her trip to D. C..

For a given symmetric positive definite matrix A {element_of} R{sup N x N}, we develop a fast and backward stable algorithm to approximate A by a symmetric positive-definite semi-separable matrix, accurate to a constant multiple of any prescribed tolerance. In addition, this algorithm preserves the product, AZ, for a given matrix Z {element_of} R{sup N x d}, where d << N. Our algorithm guarantees the positive-definiteness of the semi-separable matrix by embedding an approximation strategy inside a Cholesky factorization procedure to ensure that the Schur complements during the Cholesky factorization all remain positive definite after approximation. It uses a robust direction-preserving approximation scheme to ensure the preservation of AZ. We present numerical experiments and discuss potential implications of our work.

Using data collected with the BABAR detector at the SLAC PEP-II electron-positron storage ring operating at a center-of-mass energy near 10.58 GeV, the branching fractions {Beta}({tau}{sup -} {yields} {pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{nu}{sub {tau}}) = (8.83 {+-} 0.01 {+-} 0.13)%, {Beta}({tau}{sup -} {yields} K{sup -}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{nu}{sub {tau}}) = (0.273 {+-} 0.002 {+-} 0.009)%, {Beta}({tau}{sup -} {yields} K{sup -}{pi}{sup -}K{sup +}{nu}{sub {tau}}) = (0.1346 {+-} 0.0010 {+-} 0.0036)%, and {Beta}({tau}{sup -} {yields} K{sup -}K{sup -}K{sup +}{nu}{sub {tau}}) = (1.58 {+-} 0.13 {+-} 0.12) x 10{sup -5} are measured where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. The invariant mass distribution for the {tau}{sup -} {yields} {pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{nu}{sub {tau}} {yields} K{sup -}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{nu}{sub {tau}}, {tau}{sup -} {yields} K{sup -}{pi}{sup -}K{sup +}{nu}{sub {tau}} and {tau}{sup -} {yields} K{sup -}K{sup -}K{sup +}{nu}{sub {tau}} decays are unfolded to correct for detector effects. A measurement of {Beta}({tau}{sup -} {yields} {phi}{pi}{sup -}{nu}{sub {tau}}) = (3.42 {+-} 0.55 {+-} 0.25) x 10{sup -5}, a measurement of {Beta}({tau}{sup -} {yields} {phi}K{sup -}{nu}{sub {tau}}) = (3.39 {+-} 0.20 {+-} 0.28) x 10{sup -5} and an upper limit on {Beta}({tau}{sup -} {yields} K{sup -}K{sup -}K{sup +}{nu}{sub {tau}}[ex.{phi}]) {le} 2.5 x 10{sup -6} {at} 905 CL are determined from …

We propose an experimental scheme to observe spin Hall effects with cold atoms in a light induced gauge potential. Under an appropriate configuration, the cold atoms moving in a spatially varying laser field experience an effective spin-dependent gauge potential. Through numerical simulation, we demonstrate that such a gauge field leads to observable spin Hall currents under realistic conditions. We also discuss the quantum spin Hall state in an optical lattice.

The recent Quantum Hall experiments in graphene have confirmed the theoretically well-understood picture of the quantum Hall (QH) conductance in fermion systems with continuum Dirac spectrum. In this paper we take into account the lattice, and perform an exact diagonalization of the Landau problem on the hexagonal lattice. At very large magnetic fields the Dirac argument fails completely and the Hall conductance, given by the number of edge states present in the gaps of the spectrum, is dominated by lattice effects. As the field is lowered, the experimentally observed situation is recovered through a phenomenon which we call band collapse. As a corollary, for low magnetic field, graphene will exhibit two qualitatively different QHE's: at low filling, the QHE will be dominated by the 'relativistic' Dirac spectrum and the Hall conductance will be odd-integer; above a certain filling, the QHE will be dominated by a non-relativistic spectrum, and the Hall conductance will span all integers, even and odd.

Cd{sub 0.46}Zn{sub 0.04}Te{sub .50} crystals have been exposed to high density Ar plasmas in order to modify the surface chemistry and control the surface conductivity. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) reveals that this bombardment results in a modified surface atomic ratio, with Cd being preferentially removed compared to Te. In addition, the native oxide is removed and suppressed for an extended period of time. Current-voltage data is analyzed in order to determine the effect on surface leakage current after exposure. It is found that surface leakage current can be decreased by approximately 2.5 orders of magnitude following Ar{sup +} bombardment.

We study the Fermi surface instabilities of the Pomeranchuk type in the spin triplet channel with high orbital partial waves (F{sub l}{sup a} (l > 0)). The ordered phases are classified into two classes, dubbed the {alpha} and {beta}-phases by analogy to the superfluid {sup 3}He-A and B-phases. The Fermi surfaces in the {alpha}-phases exhibit spontaneous anisotropic distortions, while those in the {beta}-phases remain circular or spherical with topologically non-trivial spin configurations in momentum space. In the {alpha}-phase, the Goldstone modes in the density channel exhibit anisotropic overdamping. The Goldstone modes in the spin channel have nearly isotropic underdamped dispersion relation at small propagating wavevectors. Due to the coupling to the Goldstone modes, the spin wave spectrum develops resonance peaks in both the {alpha} and {beta}-phases, which can be detected in inelastic neutron scattering experiments. In the p-wave channel {beta}-phase, a chiral ground state inhomogeneity is spontaneously generated due to a Lifshitz-like instability in the originally nonchiral systems. Possible experiments to detect these phases are discussed.

The arrival of the Cassini-Huygens probe at Saturn's moon Titan - the only Solar System body besides Earth and Venus with a solid surface and a thick atmosphere with a pressure of 1.4 atm at surface level - in 2004 opened up a new chapter in the history of Solar System exploration. The mission revealed Titan as a world with striking Earth-like landscapes involving hydrocarbon lakes and seas as well as sand dunes and lava-like features interspersed with craters and icy mountains of hitherto unknown chemical composition. The discovery of a dynamic atmosphere and active weather system illustrates further the similarities between Titan and Earth. The aerosol-based haze layers, which give Titan its orange-brownish color, are not only Titan's most prominent optically visible features, but also play a crucial role in determining Titan's thermal structure and chemistry. These smog-like haze layers are thought to be very similar to those that were present in Earth's atmosphere before life developed more than 3.8 billion years ago, absorbing the destructive ultraviolet radiation from the Sun, thus acting as 'prebiotic ozone' to preserve astrobiologically important molecules on Titan. Compared to Earth, Titan's low surface temperature of 94 K and the absence of liquid water …

A new isotope of Hs was produced in the reaction 208Pb(56Fe, n)263Hs at the 88-Inch Cyclotron of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Six genetically correlated nuclear decay chains have been observed and assigned to the new isotope 263Hs. The measured cross section was 21+13-8.4 pb at 276.4 MeV lab-frame center-of-target beam energy. 263Hs decays with a half-life of 0.74 ms by alpha-decay and the measured alpha-particle energies are 10.57 +- 0.06, 10.72 +- 0.06, and 10.89 +- 0.06 MeV. The experimental cross section is compared to a theoretical prediction based on the Fusion by Diffusion model [W. J. Swiatecki et al., Phys. Rev. C 71, 014602 (2005)].

The reaction of the ground state methylidyne radical CH (X2Pi) with pyrrole (C4H5N) has been studied in a slow flow tube reactor using Multiplexed Photoionization Mass Spectrometry coupled to quasi-continuous tunable VUV synchrotron radiation at room temperature (295 K) and 90 oC (363 K), at 4 Torr (533 Pa). Laser photolysis of bromoform (CHBr3) at 248 nm (KrF excimer laser) is used to produce CH radicals that are free to react with pyrrole molecules in the gaseous mixture. A signal at m/z = 79 (C5H5N) is identified as the product of the reaction and resolved from 79Br atoms, and the result is consistent with CH addition to pyrrole followed by Helimination. The Photoionization Efficiency curve unambiguously identifies m/z = 79 as pyridine. With deuterated methylidyne radicals (CD), the product mass peak is shifted by +1 mass unit, consistent with the formation of C5H4DN and identified as deuterated pyridine (dpyridine). Within detection limits, there is no evidence that the addition intermediate complex undergoes hydrogen scrambling. The results are consistent with a reaction mechanism that proceeds via the direct CH (CD) cycloaddition or insertion into the five-member pyrrole ring, giving rise to ring expansion, followed by H atom elimination from the nitrogen …

Interview with Roy J. Grogan, longtime Weatherford resident and elected official, as part of the Weatherford Oral History Project. The interview includes Grogan's personal experiences of childhood and education in Weatherford, Depression-era struggles, enlisting in the U.S. Navy, and World War II. Additionally, Grogan talks about his studies at Weatherford College, Duke University, and Duke Law, his legal career with the FBI and as a land developer, his political career on the Weatherford City Council and Weatherford College Board of Regents, the integration of Weatherford schools, and his involvement in state party politics. The interview includes an appendix with Grogan's resume.

This report provides an overview of the Stafford Act and Stafford Act declarations. The report discusses the types of assistance and eligibility, funding caps and cost shares, hazard mitigation assistance, disaster relief funds, and other issues for the 111th Congress.

This report discusses the HOPE Act as it relates to U.S. trade policy, the Haitian economy, and post-earthquake reconstruction efforts.

This report provides an introduction to German foreign and security policy. The report discusses the foundations of German foreign policy, Germany in the European Union (EU), evolving security and defense policy, and transatalantic implications.

This report presents an overview of the large and diverse sector of water infrastructure systems, describes security-related actions by the government and private sector since September 11, 2001, and discusses additional policy issues and responses, including congressional interest.

This report discusses how an interim continuing resolutions (CRs), provisions and requirements may impact directly upon an agency. Second, the report analyzes Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and agency documents that have provided guidance or requirements for how an agency should navigate through periods of interim CRs. Third, the report analyzes brief mentions of claims of impact contained in Government Accountability Office (GAO) reports from a 20-year span.

This report discusses Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) Task Forces, which have been certified, trained, and funded by the federal government. The task forces represent a partnership involving federal, local government, and private sector experts. Most recently, USAR teams received considerable publicity, and reportedly achieved life-saving results, in their mission to Haiti after the earthquakes of early 2010.