This report contains the issues and regulatory developments in the army corps engineers' nationwide permits program.

This report begins with a short overview of Canada's political scene, economic conditions, security, foreign policy, and discusses Canada - U.S relations.

This report provides an overview of Arctic-related issues for Congress, including sovereignty claims; commercial shipping through the Arctic; oil, gas, and mineral exploration; endangered species; and increased military operations in the region. It includes background information on the region and on a variety of issues for which Congress may want to consider legislation.

The Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) at the University of Rochester is proposing a collaborative effort with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), Los Alamos National Laboratories (LANL), the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL), and General Atomics (GA) with the goal of developing a cryogenic polar drive (PD) ignition platform on the National Ignition Facility (NIF). The scope of this proposed project requires close discourse among theorists, experimentalists, and laser and system engineers. This document describes how this proposed project can be broken into a series of parallel independent activities that, if implemented, could deliver this goal in the 2017 timeframe. This Conceptual Design document is arranged into two sections: mission need and design requirements. Design requirements are divided into four subsystems: (1) A point design that details the necessary target specifications and laser pulse requirements; (2) The beam smoothing subsystem that describes the MultiFM 1D smoothing by spectral dispersion (SSD); (3) New optical elements that include continuous phase plates (CPP's) and distributed polarization rotators (DPR's); and (4) The cryogenic target handling and insertion subsystem, which includes the design, fabrication, testing, and deployment of a dedicated PD ignition target insertion cryostat (PD-ITIC). This document includes appendices covering: the primary criteria and functional …

We report the first detection of very-high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray emission above 140GeV from PKS 1424+240, a BL Lac object with an unknown redshift. The photon spectrum above 140GeV measured by VERITAS is well described by a power law with a photon index of 3.8 {+-}0.5{sub stat} {+-} 0.3{sub syst} and a flux normalization at 200 GeV of (5.1 {+-} 0.9{sub stat} {+-} 0.5{sub syst}) x 10{sup -11} TeV{sup -1} cm{sup -2} s{sup -1}, where stat and syst denote the statistical and systematical uncertainty, respectively. The VHE flux is steady over the observation period between MJD 54881 and 55003 (2009 February 19 to June 21). Flux variability is also not observed in contemporaneous high energy observations with the Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT). Contemporaneous X-ray and optical data were also obtained from the Swift XRT and MDM observatory, respectively. The broadband spectral energy distribution (SED) is well described by a one-zone synchrotron self-Compton (SSC) model favoring a redshift of less than 0.1. Using the photon index measured with Fermi in combination with recent extragalactic background light (EBL) absorption models it can be concluded from the VERITAS data that the redshift of PKS 1424+240 is less than 0.66.

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This report summarizes the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) and the major regulatory programs that mandate reporting by industrial facilities of releases of potentially hazardous chemicals to the environment, as well as local planning to respond in the event of significant, accidental releases.

This report provides a brief overview of the European Union (EU), an economic and political partnership between 27 sovereign member states. The report describes the formation of the EU, the three main institutions of the EU, and the EU's relationship with the United States.

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The purpose of this project was to better understand the 'Multiscale Dynamics of Relaxor Ferroelectrics'. The output of the project is summarized in the narrative. The results of the work were presented at a number of different conferences and four papers were written, the references to which are also indicated in the report and which have also been uploaded on e-link. The multiscale dynamics of relaxors was clearly identified in the three characteristic temperatures that were identified. In particular, we were the first group to identify an intermediate temperature, T*, at which the correlations between off-center ions in relaxor cross-over from being dynamic to being static and giving rise to the characteristic relaxor behavior in the dielectric constant. Other groups have now confirmed the existence of such an intermediate temperature. We also made and reported two other observations: (1) a coherent interference phenomena (EIT-like effect) near the transition of several relaxors, which provides information on the nature and mechanism of the transition; and (2) in a similar way, inelastic neutron scattering results were interpreted as resonant scattering of acoustic phonons by localized modes in polar nanodomains. In parallel with the neutron scattering work, we also developed a theory of the …

First results of ion and electron temperature pro le measurements from the x-ray imaging crystal spectrometer (XICS) diagnostic on the Large Helical Device (LHD) are presented. This diagnostic system has been operational since the beginning of the 2011 LHD experimental campaign and is the rst application of the XICS diagnostic technique to helical plasma geometry. The XICS diagnostic provides measurements of ion and electron temperature pro les in LHD with a spatial resolution of 2cm and a time resolution of ≥#21; 10ms. Ion temperature pro les from the XICS diagnostic are possible under conditions where charge exchange recombination spectroscopy (CXRS) is not possible (high density) or is perturbative to the plasma (low density or radio frequency heated plasmas). Measurements are made by using a spherically bent crystal to provide a spectrally resolved 1D image of the plasma from line integrated emission of helium-like Ar16+. The nal hardware design and con guration are detailed along with the calibration procedures. Line-integrated ion and electron temperature measurements are presented, and the measurement accuracy is discussed. Finally central temperature measurements from the XICS system are compared to measurements from the Thomson scattering and CXRS systems, showing excellent agreement.

A feasibility study is presented of a 2 + 2 TeV muon collider with a luminosity of L = 10{sup 35} cm{sup -2}s{sup -1}. The resulting design is not optimized for performance, and certainly not for cost; however, it does suffice - we believe - to allow us to make a credible case, that a muon collider is a serious possibility for particle physics and, therefore, worthy of R and D support so that the reality of, and interest in, a muon collider can be better assayed. The goal of this support would be to completely assess the physics potential and to evaluate the cost and development of the necessary technology. The muon collider complex consists of components which first produce copious pions, then capture the pions and the resulting muons from their decay; this is followed by an ionization cooling channel to reduce the longitudinal and transverse emittance of the muon beam. The next stage is to accelerate the muons and, finally, inject them into a collider ring wich has a small beta function at the colliding point. This is the first attempt at a point design and it will require further study and optimization. Experimental work will be …

This report discusses funding issues for Congress regarding the Aegis ballistic missile defense (BMD) program, which is carried out by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA). It looks at the background of the program and why it is necessary.

This report provides background information and issues for Congress on the Aegis ballistic missile defense (BMD) program, which is carried out by the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and the Navy, and gives Navy Aegis cruisers and destroyers a capability for conducting BMD operations Issues for Congress concerning the Aegis BMD program include demands for BMD capable Aegis ships, demands for Aegis ships in general, the U.S. economic impact of shifting four Aegis ships to Rota, Spain, U.S. vs. European naval contributions to European BMD, the capability of the SM-3 Block IIB Aegis BMD interceptor, and technical risk in the Aegis program.

This report discusses the Navy's plan to develop and design a class of 12 next-generation ballistic missile submarines, or SSBN(X)s, as replacements for the 14 Ohio class SSBNs currently in operation. The report explores certain related issues for Congress, including the affordability of the project and its potential impact on other Navy shipbuilding programs, alternatives to the program, and which shipyard or shipyards will build the proposed ships.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) periodically reviews licensees’ decommissioning funds and related licensee data to determine if licensees have provided reasonable assurance that they will accumulate adequate funds for decommissioning. For example, licensees must submit estimates to NRC of decommissioning costs throughout the life of the reactor and submit fund status reports at least every 2 years while the reactor is operating. Licensees typically accumulate such funds over time through trust fund investments. The minimum amount of funds considered adequate is established by NRC’s decommissioning funding formula, which is based on information collected more than 30 years ago."

We report on time-resolved coherent x-ray scattering experiments of laser induced magnetization dynamics in Co/Pd multilayers with a high repetition rate optical pump x-ray probe setup. Starting from a multi-domain ground state, the magnetization is uniformly reduced after excitation by an intense 50 fs laser pulse. Using the normalized time correlation, we study the magnetization recovery on a picosecond timescale. The dynamic scattering intensity is separated into an elastic portion at length scales above 65 nm which retains memory of the initial domain magnetization, and a fluctuating portion at smaller length scales corresponding to domain boundary motion during recovery.

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On December 22, 2010, President Obama signed into law legislation calling for the repeal of the existing law barring open homosexuality in the military by prescribing a series of steps that must take place before repeal occurs. One step was fulfilled on July 22, 2011, when the President signed the certification of the process ending the Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy, which was repealed on September 20, 2011. This report considers issues that Congress may wish to consider as the repeal process proceeds.

The United States and the Republic of the Philippines maintain close ties stemming from the U.S. colonial period, the bilateral security alliance, extensive military cooperation, and common strategic and economic interests. Although the United States closed its military bases in the Philippines in 1992, the two treaty allies have continued joint military activities related to counterterrorism and maritime security. This report looks at the U.S. foreign policy towards the Philippines.

A region-wide Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) was recently proposed by the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC). In order for the Western Area Power Administration (Western) to make more informed decisions regarding its involvement in the EIM, Western asked Argonne National Laboratory (Argonne) to review the EIM benefits study (the October 2011 revision) performed by Energy and Environmental Economics, Inc. (E3). Key components of the E3 analysis made use of results from a study conducted by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL); therefore, we also reviewed the NREL work. This report examines E3 and NREL methods and models used in the EIM study. Estimating EIM benefits is very challenging because of the complex nature of the Western Interconnection (WI), the variability and uncertainty of renewable energy resources, and the complex decisions and potentially strategic bidding of market participants. Furthermore, methodologies used for some of the more challenging aspects of the EIM have not yet matured. This review is complimentary of several components of the EIM study. Analysts and modelers clearly took great care when conducting detailed simulations of the WI using well-established industry tools under stringent time and budget constraints. However, it is our opinion that the following aspects of the …

The BABAR Collaboration has performed three searches for a light Higgs boson, A{sup 0}, in radiative Upsilon ({Upsilon}) decays: {Upsilon}(3S) {yields} {gamma}A{sup 0}, A{sup 0} {yields} {tau}{sup +}{tau}{sup -}; {Upsilon}(nS) {yields} {gamma}A{sup 0}, A{sup 0} {yields} {mu}{sup +}{mu}{sup -} (n = 2,3); and {Upsilon}(3S) {yields} {gamma}A{sup 0}, A{sup 0} {yields} invisible. Such a Higgs boson (A{sup 0}) appears in the Next-to-Minimal Supersymmetric extensions of the Standard Model, where a light CP-odd Higgs boson couples strongly to b-quarks. The searches are based on data samples that consist of 122 x 10{sup 6} {Upsilon}(3S) and 99 x 10{sup 6} {Upsilon}(2S) decays, collected by the BABAR detector at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. The searches reveal no evidence for an A{sup 0}, and product of branching fractions upper limits, at 90% C.L., of (1.5-16) x 10{sup -5}, (0.44-44) x 10{sup -6}, and (0.7-31) x 10{sup -6} were obtained for these searches, respectively. Also, we set the upper limits {Beta}({eta}{sub b} {yields} {tau}{sup +}{tau}{sup -}) < 8% and {Beta}({eta}{sub b} {yields} {mu}{sup +}{mu}{sup -}) < 0.9%.

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The state and local government sector continues to face near-term and long-term fiscal challenges that grow over time. The fiscal challenges confronting the state and local sector add to the nation’s overall fiscal challenges. The fiscal situation of the state and local government sector has improved in the past year as the sector’s tax receipts have slowly increased in conjunction with the economic recovery. Nonetheless, total tax receipts have only recently returned to the prerecession levels of 2007 and the sector still faces a gap between revenue and spending. The sector faces long-term fiscal challenges that grow over time. The fiscal position of the sector will steadily decline through 2060 absent any policy changes."