Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "From 2008 to 2009, the U.S. unemployment rate increased significantly from 5.3 percent to 9.2 percent, leaving many Americans jobless and at risk of losing their employer-sponsored health care. Through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) and subsequent amendments, employees who were involuntarily terminated between September 1, 2008, and May 31, 2010, became eligible to continue their health care coverage for up to 15 months at reduced rates. Previously, the Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985 (COBRA) allowed certain former employees to maintain health coverage by paying the entire cost of coverage. Under ARRA, former employees pay 35 percent of insurance premiums while employers pay the remaining 65 percent. Employers are reimbursed through a tax credit against their payroll tax liability or through a tax refund if the credit exceeds their payroll tax liability. The Congressional Budget Office estimated that the cost of this program to the federal government would be $25.1 billion. According to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), as of March 20, 2010, employers had claimed approximately $2.2 billion in COBRA credits. Employers claiming COBRA credits use quarterly or annual payroll tax …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Nonprofit organizations, such as the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), play an important role in providing a wide range of public services. To provide these services, these organizations rely on funding through federal grants and contracts, among other sources. Just as it is important for federal agencies to be held accountable for the efficient and effective use of taxpayer dollars, it is also important for these nonprofit organizations to be held accountable for their use of federal funds. ACORN was established in 1970 as a grassroots organization to advocate for low-income families. By 2009, ACORN reportedly had 500,000 members and had expanded into a national network of organizations involved in the development of affordable housing, foreclosure counseling, voter registration, and political mobilization, among other things. ACORN organizations relied on membership dues and on federal and private foundation funding to support various activities. Voter registration fraud allegations in a number of states and widely distributed videotapes depicting what appeared to be inappropriate behavior by employees of several local ACORN chapters spurred calls to identify federal funding provided to ACORN and ACORN-related organizations and for legislation to …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "We have identified several workforce related challenges faced by the Federal Protective Service (FPS) since its transfer to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in 2003, including low morale among staff, increased attrition, and the loss of institutional knowledge. Our prior work has found that FPS continues to face challenges in identifying the optimal number of staff needed to adequately conduct its mission. In response to Congress's mandate in the House Report, which accompanied the DHS fiscal year 2009 Appropriations Act requiring GAO to evaluate the adequacy of FPS's workforce size, this report includes preliminary observations on the following questions: (1) What is the current status of FPS's efforts to determine its workforce requirements? (2) To what extent do FPS's efforts align with commonly used workforce analysis and planning practices? (3) What, if any, challenges may impede implementation of FPS's efforts?"

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This letter formally transmits briefing slides in response to your request. We were asked to determine to what extent the Department of the Navy complied with the requirement in Section 2476 of Title 10 of the United States Code to invest a total amount equal to not less than 6 percent of the average total combined workload funded at all the depots of the Department of the Navy for the preceding 3 fiscal years in the capital budgets of covered depots listed in the law. We presented this briefing to your staff on May 5, 2010, in which we concluded that the Department of the Navy complied with the minimum required depot capital investment. In addition, we have a related ongoing review of the condition of the public Naval shipyards, which are included under the Navy depots that receive capital investment funding."

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; Whether a water supply corporation has the option of refusing to extend service under sections 13.2501 and 13.2502, Water Code (RQ-0850-GA)

This report provides an overview of clean air legislative and regulatory issues. The contents include EPA'S greenhouse gas regulations, legislation on climate change, emissions from power plant information, and Air quality standards.

Li(Ni{sub 0.4}Co{sub 0.15}Al{sub 0.05}Mn{sub 0.4})O{sub 2} was investigated to understand the effect of replacement of the cobalt by aluminum on the structural and electrochemical properties. In situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) was performed, utilizing a novel in situ electrochemical cell, specifically designed for long-term X-ray experiments. The cell was cycled at a moderate rate through a typical Li-ion battery operating voltage range. (1.0-4.7 V) XAS measurements were performed at different states of charge (SOC) during cycling, at the Ni, Co, and the Mn edges, revealing details about the response of the cathode to Li insertion and extraction processes. The extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) region of the spectra revealed the changes of bond distance and coordination number of Ni, Co, and Mn absorbers as a function of the SOC of the material. The oxidation states of the transition metals in the system are Ni{sup 2+}, Co{sup 3+}, and Mn{sup 4+} in the as-made material (fully discharged), while during charging the Ni{sup 2+} is oxidized to Ni{sup 4+} through an intermediate stage of Ni{sup 3+}, Co{sup 3+} is oxidized toward Co{sup 4+}, and Mn was found to be electrochemically inactive and remained as Mn{sup 4+}. The EXAFS results during cycling …

In a recent report Navratil et al. evaluated the angle-integrated cross section and the angular distribution for 14-MeV n+T elastic scattering by inferring these cross sections from accurately measured p+3He angular distributions. This evaluation used a combination of two theoretical treatments, based on the no-core shell model and resonating-group method (NCSM/RGM) and on the R-matrix formalism, to connect the two charge-symmetric reactions n+T and p+{sup 3}He. In this report we extend this treatment to cover the neutron incident energy range 6-14 MeV. To do this, we evaluate angle-dependent correction factors for the NCSM/RGM calculations so that they agree with the p+{sup 3}He data near 6 MeV, and using the results found earlier near 14 MeV we interpolate these correction factors to obtain correction factors throughout the 6-14 MeV energy range. The agreement between the corrected NCSM/RGM and R-Matrix values for the integral elastic cross sections is excellent ({+-}1%), and these are in very good agreement with total cross section experiments. This result can be attributed to the nearly constant correction factors at forward angles, and to the evidently satisfactory physics content of the two calculations. The difference in angular shape, obtained by comparing values of the scattering probability distribution P({mu}) …

The focus of this project was an overall process improvement through the enhancement of the co-product streams. The enhancement of the process operations and co-products will increase both ethanol production and the value of other process outputs and reduces the amount of waste byproducts. This leads to a more economical and environmentally sound alternative to landfill disposal of municipal solid waste (MSW). These enhancements can greatly increase the commercial potential for the production of ethanol from MSW by the Masada CES OxyNol process. Both technological and economical issues were considered for steps throughout the conversion process. The research efforts of this project are varied but synergistic. The project investigated many of the operations involved in the Masada process with the overall goal of process improvements. The general goal of the testing was to improve co-product quality, improve conversions efficiencies, minimize process losses, increase energy efficiency, and mitigate process and commercialization risks. The project was divided into 16 subtasks as described in general terms below. All these tasks are interrelated but not necessarily interdependent.

The frequency footprint of ID and 2D profiling instruments needs to be carefully considered in comparing ID surface roughness spectrum measurements made by different instruments. Contributions from orthogonal direction frequency components can not be neglected. The use of optical profiling instruments is ubiquitous in the measurement of the roughness of optical surfaces. Their ease-of-use and non-contact measurement method found widespread use in the optics industry for measuring the quality of delicate optical surfaces. Computerized digital data acquisition with these instruments allowed for quick and easy calculation of surface roughness statistics, such as root-mean-square (RMS) roughness. The computing power of the desktop computer allowed for the rapid conversion of spatial domain data into the frequency domain, enabling the application of sophisticated signal processing techniques to be applied to the analysis of surface roughness, the most powerful of which is the power spectral density (PSP) function. Application of the PSD function to surface statistics introduced the concept of 'bandwidth-limited' roughness, where the value of the RMS roughness depends critically upon the spatial frequency response of the instrument. Different instruments with different spatial frequency response characteristics give different answers when measuring the same surface.

The W boson mass working group discussed the current status of the W boson mass measurement and the prospects for improving on LEP and Tevatron measurements at the LHC.

Benzene, a ubiquitous human carcinogen, forms DNA adducts through its metabolites such as p-benzoquinone (p-BQ) and hydroquinone (HQ). N(2)-(4-Hydroxyphenyl)-2'-deoxyguanosine (N(2)-4-HOPh-dG) is the principal adduct identified in vivo by (32)P-postlabeling in cells or animals treated with p-BQ or HQ. To study its effect on repair specificity and replication fidelity, we recently synthesized defined oligonucleotides containing a site-specific adduct using phosphoramidite chemistry. We here report the repair of this adduct by Escherichia coli UvrABC complex, which performs the initial damage recognition and incision steps in the nucleotide excision repair (NER) pathway. We first showed that the p-BQ-treated plasmid was efficiently cleaved by the complex, indicating the formation of DNA lesions that are substrates for NER. Using a 40-mer substrate, we found that UvrABC incises the DNA strand containing N(2)-4-HOPh-dG in a dose- and time-dependent manner. The specificity of such repair was also compared with that of DNA glycosylases and damage-specific endonucleases of E. coli, both of which were found to have no detectable activity toward N(2)-4-HOPh-dG. To understand why this adduct is specifically recognized and processed by UvrABC, molecular modeling studies were performed. Analysis of molecular dynamics trajectories showed that stable G:C-like hydrogen bonding patterns of all three Watson-Crick hydrogen bonds are …

This work studies the performance and scalability characteristics of"hybrid" parallel programming and execution as applied to raycasting volume rendering -- a staple visualization algorithm -- on a large, multi-core platform. Historically, the Message Passing Interface (MPI) has become the de-facto standard for parallel programming and execution on modern parallel systems. As the computing industry trends towards multi-core processors, with four- and six-core chips common today and 128-core chips coming soon, we wish to better understand how algorithmic and parallel programming choices impact performance and scalability on large, distributed-memory multi-core systems. Our findings indicate that the hybrid-parallel implementation, at levels of concurrency ranging from 1,728 to 216,000, performs better, uses a smaller absolute memory footprint, and consumes less communication bandwidth than the traditional, MPI-only implementation.

Minimally-doubled chiral fermions have the unusual property of a single local field creating two fermionic species. Spreading the field over hypercubes allows construction of combinations that isolate specific modes. Combining these fields into bilinears produces meson fields of specific quantum numbers. Minimally-doubled fermion actions present the possibility of fast simulations while maintaining one exact chiral symmetry. They do, however, introduce some peculiar aspects. An explicit breaking of hyper-cubic symmetry allows additional counter-terms to appear in the renormalization. While a single field creates two different species, spreading this field over nearby sites allows isolation of specific states and the construction of physical meson operators. Finally, lattice artifacts break isospin and give two of the three pseudoscalar mesons an additional contribution to their mass. Depending on the sign of this mass splitting, one can either have a traditional Goldstone pseudoscalar meson or a parity breaking Aoki-like phase.

This report presents background information and potential oversight issues for Congress on the Navy's Arleigh Burke (DDG-51) and Zumwalt (DDG-1000) class destroyer programs. Congressional decisions concerning these programs could substantially affect Navy capabilities, and funding requirements, and the U.S. shipbuilding industrial base.

Plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) are being developed for mass production by the automotive industry. PHEVs have been touted for their potential to reduce the US transportation sector's dependence on petroleum and cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by (1) using off-peak excess electric generation capacity and (2) increasing vehicles energy efficiency. A well-to-wheels (WTW) analysis - which examines energy use and emissions from primary energy source through vehicle operation - can help researchers better understand the impact of the upstream mix of electricity generation technologies for PHEV recharging, as well as the powertrain technology and fuel sources for PHEVs. For the WTW analysis, Argonne National Laboratory researchers used the Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation (GREET) model developed by Argonne to compare the WTW energy use and GHG emissions associated with various transportation technologies to those associated with PHEVs. Argonne researchers estimated the fuel economy and electricity use of PHEVs and alternative fuel/vehicle systems by using the Powertrain System Analysis Toolkit (PSAT) model. They examined two PHEV designs: the power-split configuration and the series configuration. The first is a parallel hybrid configuration in which the engine and the electric motor are connected to a single mechanical transmission …

Daily newspaper from Sweetwater, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

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Check of $424.93 for founders trophies made on June 14, 2010.

Recording of Dr. Faiz Aman discussing Burusho society in the Yasin dialect of Burushaski.

Daily publication of the U.S. Office of the Federal Register contains rules and regulations, proposed legislation and rule changes, and other notices, including "Presidential proclamations and Executive Orders, Federal agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required to be published by act of Congress, and other Federal agency documents of public interest" (p. ii). Table of Contents starts on page iii.

he appropriate size and role of the government is one of the most fundamental and enduring debates in American politics. What role does the state play in economic activity? How is the economy affected by government intervention? Many of the arguments surrounding the proper size of government are economic in nature, and these are discussed in this report.

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ruled by the Al Saud family since its founding in 1932, wields significant political and economic influence as the birthplace of the Islamic faith and by virtue of its large energy reserves. This report provides background information about Saudi Arabia and analyzes current issues in U.S.-Saudi relations.

This report will look at the laws, programs, and policies encouraging development of wind, solar, and biomass power in China and the United States as the major renewable energy technologies common to both countries. While hydropower is the most developed source of renewable energy in both China and the United States, additional development of conventional hydropower is not a major focus of U.S. or China's renewable energy policy and will not be featured in this discussion.