A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since GAO's first audit of the fiscal year 1997 consolidated financial statements of the U.S. government (CFS), material weaknesses in internal control and other limitations on the scope of GAO's work have prevented GAO from expressing an opinion on the consolidated financial statements, other than the Statement of Social Insurance (accrual-based consolidated financial statements). The Department of the Treasury (Treasury), in coordination with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is responsible for preparing the CFS. As part of the fiscal year 2009 CFS audit, GAO identified material weaknesses and other control deficiencies in Treasury's processes used to prepare the CFS that warrant management's attention and corrective action. The purpose of this report is to (1) provide details on new control deficiencies GAO identified during its audit of the fiscal year 2009 CFS that related to the preparation of the CFS, (2) recommend improvements, and (3) provide the status of corrective actions taken to address GAO's previous 44 recommendations in this area."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This letter formally transmits the summary of a briefing we gave in June 2010 in response to a mandate in the Department of Homeland Security Appropriations Act, 2010, and subsequent agency comments. This mandate required the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to complete an expenditure plan that satisfied 11 specified conditions, and for the plan to be submitted to and approved by the House and Senate Appropriations Committees before the agency could obligate $75 million of the $800 million appropriated for U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) border security fencing, infrastructure and technology. Also, the Act required us to review this expenditure plan. In addition, Conference, Senate, and House committee reports accompanying the act directed that the plan address 7 items (referred to as "committee reports' directions" in this letter). In response to these requirements, the Department of Homeland Security submitted a plan to Congress on May 20, 2010, titled "Border Security Fencing, Infrastructure and Technology (BSFIT) Fiscal Year 2010 Expenditure Plan." As required by the act, we reviewed the plan and on June 17 and 18, 2010, briefed the offices of the Senate and House Appropriations Subcommittees, …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Residents of the Gulf Coast continue to struggle to recover almost 5 years after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita devastated the area in August and September of 2005. In many cases the federal government coordinates with, and provides support to, nonprofit organizations in order to deliver recovery assistance to impacted residents. A better understanding of how the federal government works with nonprofit organizations to provide such assistance may be helpful for recovery efforts on the Gulf Coast as well as for communities affected by major disasters in the future. GAO was asked to describe (1) how the federal government has worked with nonprofit organizations to facilitate Gulf Coast recovery following the 2005 hurricanes and (2) steps the federal government has taken to address challenges to strengthen relationships with nonprofits in the future. Toward this end, GAO reviewed the applicable disaster recovery literature and relevant supporting documents. GAO also interviewed officials from federal, state, and local governments as well as a wide range of nonprofit officials involved in Gulf Coast recovery."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) operates nearly 70,000 lodging rooms--similar to hotel rooms--and spent nearly $1 billion in 2009 to operate them. In 2002, Congress provided authority to privatize lodging facilities. Army privatized lodging at 10 installations in August 2009 and plans to privatize its remaining domestic facilities in the future. The National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008 requires GAO to review lodging privatization and an Army report. This report addresses (1) the factors the military services considered in their decisions to privatize, (2) challenges in the Army's privatization efforts, (3) the effect of the economic downturn on the Army's privatization program, and (4) the extent to which an Army report required by the act, issued in March 2010, addresses the elements in the law. GAO reviewed documentation and interviewed officials from the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the military services, the developer for the Army's privatization project, and four Army installations where lodging was privatized."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "When potential borrowers apply for a mortgage loan, lenders typically use borrowers' credit scores--which are based on their credit payment histories, debt, length of credit history, new credit accounts or requests, and types of credit used--to help determine their creditworthiness. However, some borrowers have limited or no credit histories, and lenders are unable to determine their creditworthiness using this traditional method. For these nontraditional borrowers, lenders may assess creditworthiness through alternative means, including the compilation of performance on rental payments; utility, phone, and cable television bills; and insurance or tuition payments. While some lenders have developed statistical scoring methods to determine borrowers' creditworthiness based on these data, others rely on the judgment of their staff to make determinations on a case-by-case basis, according to Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) officials. HUD permits lenders that originate mortgages insured by HUD's Federal Housing Administration (FHA) to establish a borrower's credit history through alternative means and has provided guidance to FHA lenders for evaluating these nontraditional credit histories. According to HUD officials, 7,319 nontraditional borrowers were approved for FHA-insured mortgages in fiscal year 2009. Section 2124 of the Housing …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Before approving a new drug, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)--an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)--assesses a drug's effectiveness. To do so, it examines information contained in a new drug application (NDA), including data from clinical trials in humans. Several types of trials may be used to gather this evidence. For example, superiority trials may show that a new drug is more effective than an active control--a drug known to be effective. Non-inferiority trials aim to demonstrate that the difference between the effectiveness of a new drug and an active control is small--small enough to show that the new drug is also effective. Drugs approved on this basis may provide important benefits, such as improved safety. Because non-inferiority trials are difficult to design and interpret, they have received attention within the research community and FDA. FDA has issued guidance on these trials. GAO was asked to examine FDA's use of non-inferiority trial evidence. This report (1) identifies NDAs for new molecular entities--potentially innovative new drugs not FDA-approved in any form--that included evidence from non-inferiority trials, (2) examines the characteristics of these …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To increase access to primary and preventive care services for individuals living in medically underserved communities, Congress authorized federally qualified health centers (FQHC) as a health care facility type and established requirements for Medicare coverage and payment as FQHCs under the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act (OBRA) of 1990. FQHCs are typically rural and urban safety net providers that provide primary and preventive care services to individuals regardless of their ability to pay. In general, a health center may qualify as a FQHC if it receives a federal grant under Section 330 of the Public Health Service Act; meets the requirements to receive such a grant; or is an outpatient health program/facility operated by certain tribal or urban Indian organizations. Currently, Medicare reimburses FQHCs for these services with an all-inclusive payment rate--resulting costs exceeding the maximum Medicare reimbursement under the upper payment limits every year from 1997 to 2004. The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 required GAO to examine the payment structure that Medicare used to pay FQHCs for services provided to Medicare beneficiaries and to take into consideration the prospective payment methodology used by …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The development of oil and natural gas resources on federal lands contributes to domestic energy production but also results in concerns over potential impacts on those lands. Numerous public protests about oil and gas lease sales have been filed with the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which manages these federal resources. GAO was asked to examine (1) the extent to which BLM maintains and makes publicly available information related to protests, (2) the extent to which parcels were protested and the nature of protests, and (3) the effects of protests on BLM's lease sale decisions and on oil and gas development activities. To address these questions, GAO examined laws, regulations, and guidance; BLM's agencywide lease record-keeping system; lease sale records for the 53 lease sales held in the four BLM state offices of Colorado, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming during fiscal years 2007-2009; and protest data from a random sample of 12 of the 53 lease sales. GAO also interviewed BLM officials and industry and protester groups."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Nations that are Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change periodically submit inventories estimating their greenhouse gas emissions. The Convention Secretariat runs a review process to evaluate inventories from 41 "Annex I" nations, which are mostly economically developed nations. The 153 "non-Annex I" nations are generally less economically developed and have less stringent inventory reporting guidelines. The Department of State (State) represents the United States in international climate change negotiations. GAO was asked to report on (1) what is known about the comparability and quality of inventories and barriers, if any, to improvement; (2) what is known about the strengths and limits of the inventory review process; and (3) views of experts on implications for current and future international agreements to reduce emissions. GAO analyzed inventory reviews and inventories from the seven highest-emitting Annex I nations and seven of the highest emitting non-Annex I nations. GAO also selected and interviewed experts."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) provides $70.3 billion for three education programs--the State Fiscal Stabilization Fund (SFSF), Title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (Title I), and Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The Act requires recipients to be accountable for how these funds are being used and what is being achieved. To help attain the level of transparency needed for accountability, recipients are to report quarterly on their award activities and expected outcomes. This information is available to the public on Recovery.gov, the government's official Recovery Act Web site. This report covers three Education programs funded by the Recovery Act. It (1) describes what the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Department of Education (Education) did to facilitate implementation of requirements for recipients to describe the use of funds and (2) assesses the extent to which award descriptions are transparent It also describes reported fund uses for a sample of subrecipients. GAO reviewed requirements for reporting in the Act as well as guidance provided by OMB and Education. GAO assessed the transparency of descriptions for the …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "State and local governments work in partnership with the federal government to implement numerous intergovernmental programs. Fiscal pressures for state and local governments may exist when spending is expected to outpace revenues for the long term. GAO was asked to examine (1) the long-term fiscal pressures facing state and local governments and historical spending and revenue trends, (2) spending and revenue trends to identify patterns among states, and (3) what is known about the implications of these fiscal pressures for federal policies. Using aggregate data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis's National Income and Product Accounts, this analysis draws on results from the March 2010 update to GAO's state and local government fiscal model. GAO's model uses historical data to simulate expenditures and revenues for the sector for the next 50 years. Data from the U.S. Census Bureau are used to analyze patterns of state and local government expenditures and revenues among the states from 1977 to 2007, the most recent 30-year period for which these data were available. A review of GAO and other reports synthesizes what is known about the implications of these long-term …

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Weekly newspaper from Dallas, Texas that includes local, state, and national news and advertising of interest to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community.

We report time-resolved Kerr effect measurements of magnetization dynamics in ferromagnetic SrRuO{sub 3}. We observe that the demagnetization time slows substantially at temperatures within 15K of the Curie temperature, which is {approx} 150K. We analyze the data with a phenomenological model that relates the demagnetization time to the spin flip time. In agreement with our observations the model yields a demagnetization time that is inversely proportional to T-T{sub c}. We also make a direct comparison of the spin flip rate and the Gilbert damping coefficient showing that their ratio very close to k{sub B}T{sub c}, indicating a common origin for these phenomena.

The U.S. Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory funded this research collaboration effort between NextEnergy and the University of Michigan, who successfully designed, built, and tested a reformer system, which produced highquality syngas for use in SOFC and other applications, and a novel reactor system, which allowed for facile illumination of photocatalysts. Carbon and raw biomass gasification, sulfur tolerance of non-Platinum Group Metals (PGM) based (Ni/CeZrO2) reforming catalysts, photocatalysis reactions based on TiO2, and mild pyrolysis of biomass in ionic liquids (ILs) were investigated at low and medium temperatures (primarily 450 to 850 C) in an attempt to retain some structural value of the starting biomass. Despite a wide range of processes and feedstock composition, a literature survey showed that, gasifier products had narrow variation in composition, a restriction used to develop operating schemes for syngas cleanup. Three distinct reaction conditions were investigated: equilibrium, autothermal reforming of hydrocarbons, and the addition of O2 and steam to match the final (C/H/O) composition. Initial results showed rapid and significant deactivation of Ni/CeZrO2 catalysts upon introduction of thiophene, but both stable and unstable performance in the presence of sulfur were obtained. The key linkage appeared to be the hydrodesulfurization activity of the …

Over the past decades, it has been well established that the mechanical behavior of materials changes when they are confined geometrically at least in one dimension to small scale. It is the aim of the 2010 Gordon Conference on 'Thin Film and Small Scale Mechanical Behavior' to discuss cutting-edge research on elastic, plastic and time-dependent deformation as well as degradation mechanisms like fracture, fatigue and wear at small scales. As in the past, the conference will benefit from contributions from fundamental studies of physical mechanisms linked to material science and engineering reaching towards application in modern applications ranging from optical and microelectronic devices and nano- or micro-electrical mechanical systems to devices for energy production and storage. The conference will feature entirely new testing methodologies and in situ measurements as well as recent progress in atomistic and micromechanical modeling. Particularly, emerging topics in the area of energy conversion and storage, such as material for batteries will be highlighted. The study of small-scale mechanical phenomena in systems related to energy production, conversion or storage offer an enticing opportunity to materials scientists, who can provide new insight and investigate these phenomena with methods that have not previously been exploited.

The GRC series on Membranes: Materials and Processes have gained significant international recognition, attracting leading experts on membranes and other related areas from around the world. It is now known for being an interdisciplinary and synergistic meeting. The next summer's edition will keep with the past tradition and include new, exciting aspects of material science, chemistry, chemical engineering, computer simulation with participants from academia, industry and national laboratories. This edition will focus on cutting edge topics of membranes for addressing several grand challenges facing our society, in particular, energy, water, health and more generally sustainability. During the technical program, we want to discuss new membrane structure and characterization techniques, the role of advanced membranes and membrane-based processes in sustainability/environment (including carbon dioxide capture), membranes in water processes, and membranes for biological and life support applications. As usual, the informal nature of the meeting, excellent quality of the oral presentations and posters, and ample opportunity to meet many outstanding colleagues make this an excellent conference for established scientists as well as for students. A Gordon Research Seminar (GRS) on the weekend prior to the GRC meeting will provide young researchers an opportunity to present their work and network with outstanding experts. …

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Tapering the undulator parameter is a well-known method for maintaining the resonant condition past saturation, and increasing Free Electron Laser (FEL) efficiency. In this paper, we demonstrate that shifting the electron bunch phase relative to the radiation is equivalent to tapering the undulator parameter. Using discrete phase changes derived from optimized undulator tapers for the Linac Coherent Light Source (LCLS) x-ray FEL, we show that appropriate phase shifts between undulator sections can reproduce the power enhancement of undulator tapers. Phase shifters are relatively easy to implement and operate, and could be used to aid or replace undulator tapers in optimizing FEL performance.

We propose a simple single-stage scheme to produce fully coherent 3nm radiation. Seeding an electron bunch prior to compression simultaneously shortens the laser wavelength and duration, and increases the modulation amplitude. The final X-ray wavelength is tunable by controlling the compression factor with the RF phase. We propose a two chicane scheme that allows for nearly arbitrary modulation amplitudes, extending the method to photocathode beams. We also show that transportation of fine compressed modulation structure is feasible due to a canceling effect of the second chicane.

We use a Vlasov-Fokker-Planck program and a linearized Vlasov solver to study the microwave instability threshold of impedance models: (1) a Q = 1 resonator and (2) shielded coherent synchrotron radiation (CSR), and find the results of the two programs agree well. For shielded CSR we show that only two dimensionless parameters, the shielding parameter {Pi} and the strength parameter S{sub csr}, are needed to describe the system. We further show that there is a strong instability associated with CSR, and that the threshold, to good approximation, is given by (S{sub csr})th = 0.5 + 0.12{Pi}. In particular, this means that shielding has little effect in stabilizing the beam for {Pi} {approx}< 2; for larger {Pi} it is effective, with threshold current depending on shielding aperture as h{sup -3/2}. We, in addition, find another instability in the vicinity of {Pi} = 0.7 with a lower threshold, (S{sub csr}){sub th} {approx} 0.2. We find that the threshold to this instability depends strongly on damping time, (S{sub csr}){sub th} {approx} {tau}{sub p}{sup -1/2}, and that the tune spread at threshold is small - both hallmarks of a weak instability.

An air and radon pathways analysis was conducted for the F-Area Tank Farm (FTF) to estimate the flux of volatile radionuclides and radon at the ground surface due to residual waste remaining in the tanks following closure. This analysis was used as the basis to estimate the dose to the maximally exposed individual (MEI) for the air pathway per Curie (Ci) of each radionuclide remaining in the combined FTF waste tanks. For the air pathway analysis, several gaseous radionuclides were considered. These included carbon-14 (C-14), chlorine-36 (Cl-36), iodine-129 (I-129), selenium-79 (Se-79), antimony-125 (Sb-125), tin-126 (Sn-126), tritium (H-3), and technetium-99 (Tc-99). The dose to the MEI was estimated at the SRS Boundary during the 100 year institutional control period. For the 10,000 year post closure compliance period, the dose to the MEI was estimated at the 100 m compliance point. Additionally, the dose to the MEI was estimated at a seepage outcrop located 1600 m from the facility. For the radon pathway analysis, five parent radionuclides and their progeny were analyzed. These parent radionuclides included uranium-238 (U-238), plutonium-238 (Pu-238), uranium-234 (U-234), thorium-230 (Th-230), and radium-226 (Ra-226). The peak flux of radon-222 due to each parent radionuclide was estimated for the simulation …

We performed direct calculations of carrier hopping rates in strongly disordered conjugated polymers based on the atomic structure of the system, the corresponding electronic states and their coupling to all phonon modes. We found that the dependence of hopping rates on distance and the dependence of the mobility on temperature are significantly different than the ones stemming from the simple Miller-Abrahams model, regardless of the choice of the parameters in the model. A model that satisfactorily describes the hopping rates in the system and avoids the explicit calculation of electron-phonon coupling constants was then proposed and verified. Our results indicate that, in addition to electronic density of states, the phonon density of states and the spatial overlap of the wavefunctions are the quantities necessary to properly describe carrier hopping in disordered conjugated polymers.