Bahrain: Reform, Security, and U.S. Policy (open access)

Bahrain: Reform, Security, and U.S. Policy

This report discusses the current state of Bahrain, which has undergone substantial political reforms since the late 1990s, but which still suffers from tension between the Shiite majority and the Sunni-led government. This report focuses particularly on Bahrain's relationship with Iran and Bahrain's relationship with the United States.
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Katzman, Kenneth
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Constraints on the pMSSM from LAT Observations of Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies (open access)

Constraints on the pMSSM from LAT Observations of Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies

We examine the ability for the Large Area Telescope (LAT) to constrain Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model (MSSM) dark matter through a combined analysis of Milky Way dwarf spheroidal galaxies. We examine the Lightest Supersymmetric Particles (LSPs) for a set of {approx}71k experimentally valid supersymmetric models derived from the phenomenological-MSSM (pMSSM). We find that none of these models can be excluded at 95% confidence by the current analysis; nevertheless, many lie within the predicted reach of future LAT analyses. With two years of data, we find that the LAT is currently most sensitive to light LSPs (mLSP < 50 GeV) annihilating into {tau}-pairs and heavier LSPs annihilating into b{bar b}. Additionally, we find that future LAT analyses will be able to probe some LSPs that form a sub-dominant component of dark matter. We directly compare the LAT results to direct detection experiments and show the complementarity of these search methods.
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Cotta, R. C.; Drlica-Wagner, A.; Murgia, S.; Bloom, E. D.; Hewett, J. L. & Rizzo, T. G.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Cropland Field Monitoring: MMV Page 1 Montana Cropland Enrolled Farm Fields Carbon Sequestration Field Sampling, Measurement, Monitoring, and Verification: Application of Visible-Near Infrared Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (VNIR) and Laser-induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) (open access)

Cropland Field Monitoring: MMV Page 1 Montana Cropland Enrolled Farm Fields Carbon Sequestration Field Sampling, Measurement, Monitoring, and Verification: Application of Visible-Near Infrared Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (VNIR) and Laser-induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS)

There is growing need for rapid, accurate, and inexpensive methods to measure, and verify soil organic carbon (SOC) change for national greenhouse gas accounting and the development of a soil carbon trading market. Laboratory based soil characterization typically requires significant soil processing, which is time and resource intensive. This severely limits application for large-region soil characterization. Thus, development of rapid and accurate methods for characterizing soils are needed to map soil properties for precision agriculture applications, improve regional and global soil carbon (C) stock and flux estimates and efficiently map sub-surface metal contamination, among others. The greatest gains for efficient soil characterization will come from collecting soil data in situ, thus minimizing soil sample transportation, processing, and lab-based measurement costs. Visible and near-infrared diffuse reflectance spectroscopy (VisNIR) and laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) are two complementary, yet fundamentally different spectroscopic techniques that have the potential to meet this need. These sensors have the potential to be mounted on a soil penetrometer and deployed for rapid soil profile characterization at field and landscape scales. Details of sensor interaction, efficient data management, and appropriate statistical analysis techniques for model calibrations are first needed. In situ or on-the-go VisNIR spectroscopy has been proposed as …
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Spangler, Lee; Bricklemyer, Ross & Brown, David
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Defense Contracting: Competition for Services and Recent Initiatives to Increase Competitive Procurements (open access)

Defense Contracting: Competition for Services and Recent Initiatives to Increase Competitive Procurements

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 2011, the competition rate for DOD’s non-R&D services was almost twice the competition rate as that of products, and almost 20 percent higher than that of R&D services."
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Don't Mess with the NEST (open access)

Don't Mess with the NEST

NEST stands for Nuclear Emergency Support Team. The NEST Mission Statement as first established: (1) Conduct, direct, coordinate search and recovery operations for nuclear material, weapons or devices; and (2) Assist in identification and deactivation of Improvised Nuclear Devices (INDs) and Radiological Dispersal Devices (RDDs). Then in 1980 a very sophisticated improvised explosive device was found at Harvey's Casino at Lake Tahoe, Nevada. The FBI and Bomb Squads were unprepared and it detonated. As a result the additional phrase 'and Sophisticated Improvised Explosive Devices (SIEDs)' was added to the Mission Statement.
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Larson, M
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Dynamic Behavior of Sand: Annual Report FY 11 (open access)

Dynamic Behavior of Sand: Annual Report FY 11

Currently, design of earth-penetrating munitions relies heavily on empirical relationships to estimate behavior, making it difficult to design novel munitions or address novel target situations without expensive and time-consuming full-scale testing with relevant system and target characteristics. Enhancing design through numerical studies and modeling could help reduce the extent and duration of full-scale testing if the models have enough fidelity to capture all of the relevant parameters. This can be separated into three distinct problems: that of the penetrator structural and component response, that of the target response, and that of the coupling between the two. This project focuses on enhancing understanding of the target response, specifically granular geomaterials, where the temporal and spatial multi-scale nature of the material controls its response. As part of the overarching goal of developing computational capabilities to predict the performance of conventional earth-penetrating weapons, this project focuses specifically on developing new models and numerical capabilities for modeling sand response in ALE3D. There is general recognition that granular materials behave in a manner that defies conventional continuum approaches which rely on response locality and which degrade in the presence of strong response nonlinearities, localization, and phase gradients. There are many numerical tools available to address …
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Antoun, Tarabay; Herbold, Eric & Johnson, Scott
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the 112th Congress: Conflicting Values and Difficult Choices (open access)

The Endangered Species Act (ESA) in the 112th Congress: Conflicting Values and Difficult Choices

None
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Buck, Eugene H.; Corn, M. Lynne; Alexander, Kristina; Sheikh, Pervaze A. & Meltz, Robert
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
European Union Enlargement: A Status Report on Turkey's Accession Negotiations (open access)

European Union Enlargement: A Status Report on Turkey's Accession Negotiations

This report provides a brief overview of the European Union's (EU) accession process and Turkey's path to EU membership.
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Morelli, Vincent
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Experimental Studies of a Neutron Tagger and Shield for Dark Matter (open access)

Experimental Studies of a Neutron Tagger and Shield for Dark Matter

Final report on neutron shield construction and testing.
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Fisher, Peter
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Federal Contracting: Effort to Consolidate Governmentwide Acquisition Data Systems Should Be Reassessed (open access)

Federal Contracting: Effort to Consolidate Governmentwide Acquisition Data Systems Should Be Reassessed

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The development of IAE has occurred in two stages using different acquisition strategies. In 2001, GSA began establishing a portfolio of standardized government-wide data systems through an acquisition strategy known as “adopt, adapt, acquire.” GSA adopted or adapted existing agency-specific systems for government-wide use, or if no viable system met an identified need, GSA acquired a new system. These efforts resulted in a portfolio of nine data systems. In 2008, GSA began consolidating its portfolio of systems into one integrated system called the System for Award Management (SAM). In developing the system, GSA hoped to eliminate redundancy, reduce costs, and improve efficiency. Unlike the existing systems that were each designed, developed, and operated by a single contractor, IAE relies on multiple vendors to perform these same tasks for SAM. The intent of this approach is to enhance competition and innovation and for the government to own the software associated with the system. SAM will be developed in phases. In each phase, capabilities from selected IAE systems will be added to SAM and those legacy systems will be shut down."
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Request: U.S. Government Accountability Office (open access)

Fiscal Year 2013 Budget Request: U.S. Government Accountability Office

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s (GAO) budget request for fiscal year (FY) 2013. We very much appreciate the confidence Congress has shown in our efforts to help support the Congress in carrying out its constitutional responsibilities and to help improve government performance and accountability for the benefit of the American people."
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Geology of the Source Physics Experiment Site, Climax Stock, Nevada National Security Site (open access)

Geology of the Source Physics Experiment Site, Climax Stock, Nevada National Security Site

A test bed for a series of chemical explosives tests known as Source Physics Experiments (SPE) was constructed in granitic rock of the Climax stock, in northern Yucca Flat at the Nevada National Security Site in 2010-2011. These tests are sponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration's National Center for Nuclear Security. The test series is designed to study the generation and propagation of seismic waves, and will provide data that will improve the predictive capability of calculational models for detecting and characterizing underground explosions. Abundant geologic data are available for the area, primarily as a result of studies performed in conjunction with the three underground nuclear tests conducted in the Climax granite in the 1960s and a few later studies of various types. The SPE test bed was constructed at an elevation of approximately 1,524 meters (m), and consists of a 91.4-centimeter (cm) diameter source hole at its center, surrounded by two rings of three 20.3-cm diameter instrument holes. The inner ring of holes is positioned 10 m away from the source hole, and the outer ring of holes is positioned 20 m from the source hole. An initial 160-m deep core hole was drilled …
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Townsend, M., Prothro, L. B., Obi, C.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Global Climate Change Initiative (GCCI): Budget Authority and Request, FY2010-FY2013 (open access)

The Global Climate Change Initiative (GCCI): Budget Authority and Request, FY2010-FY2013

The United States supports international financial assistance for global climate change initiatives in developing countries. The Global Climate Change Initiative (GCCI) aims to integrate climate change considerations into U.S. foreign assistance through a full range of bilateral, multilateral, and private sector mechanisms to foster low-carbon growth, promote sustainable and climate-resilient societies, and reduce emissions from deforestation and land degradation. The GCCI is implemented through programs at three "core" agencies—the Department of State, the Department of the Treasury, and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)—and is funded through the Administration's Executive Budget, Function 150 account, for State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs. As Congress considers potential authorizations and/or appropriations for activities administered through the GCCI, it may have questions concerning U.S. agency initiatives and current bilateral and multilateral programs that address global climate change.
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Lattanzio, Richard K.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Hydrogen Production and Purification from Coal and Other Heavy Feedstocks Year 6 - Activity 1.4 - Development of a National Center for Hydrogen Technology (open access)

Hydrogen Production and Purification from Coal and Other Heavy Feedstocks Year 6 - Activity 1.4 - Development of a National Center for Hydrogen Technology

Air Products and Chemicals, Inc., is developing the sour pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology which can be used to reject acid gas components (hydrogen sulfide [H{sub 2}S] and carbon dioxide [CO{sub 2}]) from sour syngas streams such as coal gasification syngas. In the current work, tests were conducted to investigate the impact of continuous exposure of real sour syngas and dilute levels of hydrochloric acid (HCl) and ammonia (NH{sub 3}) on the preferred adsorbent of that process. The results show a modest (~10%–15%) decrease in CO{sub 2} adsorption capacity after sour syngas exposure, as well as deposition of metals from carbonyl decomposition. Continuous exposure to HCl and NH{sub 3} yield a higher degree of CO{sub 2} capacity degradation (up to 25%). These tests represent worst-case approaches since the exposure is continuous and the HCl and NH{sub 3} levels are relatively high compare to an industrial sour syngas stream. Long-term PSA tests are needed to unequivocally evaluate the impact of cyclic exposure to these types of streams.
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Dunham, Grant
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Information Technology: FDA Needs to Fully Implement Key Management Practices to Lessen Modernization Risks (open access)

Information Technology: FDA Needs to Fully Implement Key Management Practices to Lessen Modernization Risks

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "While FDA has taken several important steps toward modernizing its IT environment, much remains to be done. FDA reported spending about $400 million for IT investments in fiscal year 2011; however, the agency currently lacks a comprehensive IT inventory that identifies and provides key information about the systems it uses and is developing. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and GAO guidance call for federal agencies to maintain such an inventory in order to monitor and manage their IT investments. This inventory should include information on each system, such as costs, functionality or purpose, and status. However, FDA does not have such a comprehensive list of its systems. Instead, the agency points to budget documents required by OMB, which included information on 44 IT investments for fiscal year 2011. The agency also provided a partial list of 21 mission-critical systems and modernization initiatives. Nonetheless, agency officials acknowledged that these documents do not identify all FDA’s systems or the complete costs, purpose, or status of each system. Until the agency has a complete and comprehensive inventory, it will lack critical information needed to effectively assess its IT …
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Letter to Russia (open access)

Letter to Russia

Below is the referee report. It is not as bad as it seems at first. The manuscript has not been rejected. Instead, the referee is 'not recommending publication.' On the APS website, the status is 'with authors,' instead of 'not under consideration.' Thus, this manuscript is still alive, but we will need to work on it. Please take a look at what the referee says below and let me know how you would respond. I will do the same. Hopefully, we will be able to respond well and find a way for this manuscript to get into PRB. According to the introduction of their manuscript, the authors intend to study the electronic structure of clusters of Pu atoms and, among other things, to illustrate how the properties of the cluster's central region approach those of the bulk Pu metal as the cluster size increases. It is then somewhat surprising to find out that all the 'cluster' calculations discussed in the paper are in fact set up in such a way that they model the bulk properties - the clusters are embedded in a kind of mean field that is designed to approximate the rest of an infinite lattice (the authors …
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Tobin, J G
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Limit of detection of Bacillus anthracis in complex soil and air samples using next-generation sequencing (open access)

Limit of detection of Bacillus anthracis in complex soil and air samples using next-generation sequencing

None
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Be, Nicholas A.; Thissen, James B.; Gardner, Shea; McLoughlin, Kevin; Fofanov, Viacheslav; Koshinsky, Heather et al.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Measurement of the D_s Decay Constant f_Ds and Observation of New Charm Resonances Decaying to D^(*)\pi (open access)

Measurement of the D_s Decay Constant f_Ds and Observation of New Charm Resonances Decaying to D^(*)\pi

The absolute branching fractions for the decays D{sub s}{sup -} {yields} {ell}{sup -}{bar {nu}}{sub {ell}} ({ell} = e, {mu}, or {tau}) are measured using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 521 fb{sup -1} collected at center of mass energies near 10.58 GeV with the BABAR detector at the PEPII e{sup +}e{sup -} collider at SLAC. The number of D{sub s}{sup -} mesons is determined by reconstructing the recoiling system DKX{gamma} in events of the type e{sup +}e{sup -} {yields} DKXD*{sub s}{sup -}, where D*{sub s}{sup -} {yields} D{sub s}{sup -} {gamma} and X represents additional pions from fragmentation. The D{sub s}{sup -} {yields} {ell}{sup -}{nu}{sub {ell}} events are detected by full or partial reconstruction of the recoiling system DKX{gamma}{ell}. The following results are obtained: {Beta}(D{sub s}{sup -} {yields} {mu}{sup -}{nu}) = (6.02 {+-} 0.38 {+-} 0.34) x 10{sup -3}, {Beta}(D{sub s}{sup -} {yields} {tau}{sup -}{nu}) = (5.00 {+-} 0.35 {+-} 0.49) x 10{sup -2}, and B(D{sub s}{sup -} {yields} e{sup -}{nu}) < 2.8 x 10{sup -4} at 90% C.L., where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The branching fraction measurements are combined to determine the D{sub s}{sup -} decay constant f{sub D{sub s}} …
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Benitez, Jose
Object Type: Thesis or Dissertation
System: The UNT Digital Library
Multnomah County Hydrokinetic Feasibility Study: Final Feasibility Study Report (open access)

Multnomah County Hydrokinetic Feasibility Study: Final Feasibility Study Report

HDR has completed a study of the technical, regulatory, and economic feasibility of installing hydrokinetic turbines under the Morrison, Broadway, and Sellwood bridges. The primary objective of installing hydrokinetic turbines is a demonstration of in-stream hydrokinetic technologies for public education and outreach. Due to the low gradient of the Lower Willamette and the effects of the tide, velocities in the area in consideration are simply not high enough to economically support a commercial installation. While the velocities in the river may at times provide enough energy for a commercial turbine to reach capacity, the frequency and duration of high flow events which provide suitable velocities is not sufficient to support a commercial hydrokinetic installation. We have observed that over an 11 year period, daily average velocities in the Lower Willamette exceeded a nominal cut-in speed of 0.75 m/s only 20% of the time, leaving net zero power production for the remaining 80% of days. The Sellwood Bridge site was estimated to have the best hydrokinetic resource, with an estimated average annual production of about 9,000 kWh. The estimated production could range from 2,500 kWh to 15,000 kWh. Based on these energy estimates, the amount of revenue generated through either a …
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Spain, Stephen
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Siting the International Linear Collider at Hanford (open access)

Siting the International Linear Collider at Hanford

Review of the proposed International Linear Collider, applications in high energy physics, and evaluation of the Hanford Site as a possible location for siting the facilityl.
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Kouzes, Richard T.; Asner, David M.; Brodzinski, Ronald L.; Fast, James E. & Miley, Harry S.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA): What Is It, and How Has It Been Utilized? (open access)

Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA): What Is It, and How Has It Been Utilized?

The deadly attacks on Afghan civilians allegedly by a U.S. service member have raised questions regarding the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) in place between the United States and Afghanistan that would govern whether Afghan law would apply in this circumstance. In the case of Afghanistan, the SOFA, in force since 2003, provides that U.S. Department of Defense military and civilian personnel are to be accorded status equivalent to that of U.S. Embassy administrative and technical staff under the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic relations of 1961. Accordingly, U.S. personnel are immune from criminal prosecution by Afghan authorities and are immune from civil and administrative jurisdiction except with respect to acts performed outside the course of their duties. Under the existing SOFA, the United States would have jurisdiction over the prosecution of the service member who allegedly attacked the Afghan civilians.
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Mason, R. Chuck
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
TANK 40 FINAL SB7B CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION RESULTS (open access)

TANK 40 FINAL SB7B CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION RESULTS

A sample of Sludge Batch 7b (SB7b) was taken from Tank 40 in order to obtain radionuclide inventory analyses necessary for compliance with the Waste Acceptance Product Specifications (WAPS). The SB7b WAPS sample was also analyzed for chemical composition including noble metals and fissile constituents, and these results are reported here. These analyses along with the WAPS radionuclide analyses will help define the composition of the sludge in Tank 40 that is currently being fed to the Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) as SB7b. At the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) the 3-L Tank 40 SB7b sample was transferred from the shipping container into a 4-L high density polyethylene bottle and solids were allowed to settle over the weekend. Supernate was then siphoned off and circulated through the shipping container to complete the transfer of the sample. Following thorough mixing of the 3-L sample, a 558 g sub-sample was removed. This sub-sample was then utilized for all subsequent analytical samples. Eight separate aliquots of the slurry were digested, four with HNO{sub 3}/HCl (aqua regia) in sealed Teflon{reg_sign} vessels and four with NaOH/Na{sub 2}O{sub 2} (alkali or peroxide fusion) using Zr crucibles. Two Analytical Reference Glass - 1 (ARG-1) standards were …
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Bannochie, C.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Testing the OPERA Superluminal Neutrino Anomaly at the LHC (open access)

Testing the OPERA Superluminal Neutrino Anomaly at the LHC

The OPERA collaboration has reported the observation of superluminal muon neutrinos, whose speed v{sub {nu}} exceeds that of light c, with (v{sub {nu}}-c)/c {approx_equal} 2.5 x 10{sup -5}. In a recent work, Cohen and Glashow (CG) have refuted this claim by noting that such neutrinos will lose energy, by pair-emission of particles, at unacceptable rates. Following the CG arguments, we point out that pair-emissions consistent with the OPERA anomaly can lead to detectable signals for neutrinos originating from decays of highly boosted top quarks at the LHC, allowing an independent test of the superluminal neutrino hypothesis.
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Davoudiasl, Hooman; /Brookhaven & Rizzo, Thomas G.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
U.S. National Science Foundation: An Overview (open access)

U.S. National Science Foundation: An Overview

The National Science Foundation (NSF) was created by the National Science Foundation Act of 1950, as amended (P.L.81-507). The NSF has the broad mission of supporting science and engineering in general and funding basic research across many disciplines. The agency provides support for investigator-initiated, merit-reviewed, competitively selected awards, state-of-the-art tools, and instrumentation and facilities. The majority of the research supported by the NSF is conducted at U.S. colleges and universities. The Administration's FY2013 budget request for NSF is $7,373.1 million, 4.8% above the FY2012 estimated level of $7,033.1 million.
Date: March 15, 2012
Creator: Matthews, Christine M.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library