This report discuses the assessment conducted by OTA office in preparation for climatic changes.

This is the OTAs second report on climate change. OTA examines how the Nation can best prepare for an uncertain future climate. This assessment tackles the difficult tasks of assessing how natural and human systems may be affected by climate change and of evaluating the tools at our disposal to ease adaptation to a warmer climate.

This report discusses the level of technology required to produce weapons of mass destruction, the material required, and the export controls.

This report discusses the role of radio technologies and services in our daily lives. The report elaborates on the outcomes and implications for U.S. radio technology, and the next steps and lessons for the future.

This is the final report on climate change. OTA examines how the Nation can best prepare for an uncertain future climate.

This report focuses on key topics and issues that are central to the successful use of electronic deli very by government. This report provides Congress with alternative strategies for improving the performance of government by using modern information technologies.

This report is intended as an introduction to and overview of the issues that affect multinational firms and the U.S. technology base.

This report discusses the problem of fratricide, or “friendly fire” casualties among combat units. The House Armed Services Committee requested that OTA assess the technology and techniques available to reduce this tragic loss of life.

This report is part of a process leading to regulations to be issued by the U.S. Department of Transportation. This process has included a review of a draft of this study by the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board (ATBCB).

Adult education needs are difficult to define and difficult to meet; what constitutes adequate literacy changes continually as the demands facing individuals grow more complex. This report is an attempt to identify those capabilities, along with limitations, and outline how new information technologies can be marshaled to meet the goal of a fully literate citizenry.

This background paper analyzes technologies for tomorrow’s information superhighways. Advanced networks will first be used to support scientists in their work, linking researchers to supercomputers, databases, and scientific instruments. The paper also describes six test networks that are being funded as part of the High Performance Computing and Communications Program.

This report describes the OTA study that examined regulatory, research, and technology issues related to passenger safety and evacuation testing.

This report identifies opportunities for and constraints to reducing Andean coca production through: 1) improving U.S. alternative development efforts and 2) applying biological control technology (bio-control) to eradicate illegally produced coca.

This report reviews numerous analyses of the economic impacts of the major approaches to health care reform addressed in this Report-Single Payer, Play-or-Pay, Individual Vouchers or Tax Credits, and Managed Competition and identifies some of the key issues and significant assumptions behind the estimates provided in these analyses.

This report discusses the pharmaceutical labeling requirements imposed on U.S.-based companies by the laws of the United States and the barriers to U.S. regulation of their labeling in other countries.

This report focuses on the improvement of energy efficiency. It reviews how energy is used in the former centrally planned economies. Then it analyzes the potential effectiveness of modern technology in reducing energy waste and the factors that constrain improvements. The report also examines government programs assisting energy efficiency technology transfer and opportunities for U.S. businesses. Finally, it discusses congressional policy options to support technology transfer.

This report focuses on the opportunities for advancing the energy efficiency of the U.S. economy through technology improvements and institutional change in the electric utility sector. In particular, the report examines the prospects for energy savings through expansion of utility demand-side management and integrated resource planning programs and related Federal policy options.

This paper describes a number of suggestions to improve the value of the USGCRP to both scientists and policymakers. The report observes that the USGCRP is focused narrowly on climate change. As a result, USGCRP may not be able to provide decision makers and natural resource managers with the information they will need to respond to other aspects of global change, The background paper also explicates the continuing debate over whether the sensors and satellites planned by USGCRP: 1) will be able to acquire data in sufficient detail to elucidate the mechanisms responsible for global change; 2) are appropriate for long-term monitoring of key indices of global change.

This report discusses the assessment of non-indigenous-species (NIS), and has three focal points: the status of harmful NIS in the United States; technological issues regarding decision making and species management; and institutional and policy frameworks. Each chapter elaborates on the findings summarized here and contains additional examples of problem species and their locations.

This paper concludes that, thus far, Department of Energy has (DOE) and its contractors have devoted little attention to cleanup worker health and safety. They have not convinced workers and managers that a “new culture” of accountability in environment, safety, and health is truly ascendent.

This report discusses the indirect cost of medical malpractice, commonly referred to as “defensive medicine,” that may add to overall health care costs. The cost of defensive medicine remains unknown and is subject to much speculation because there are no sound empirical data.

This report focuses on energy use in industry, and how government policy can affect it. Trends and patterns in industrial energy use are reviewed, energy-efficient industrial equipment and practices are described, and the factors that influence corporate investment in efficient technologies are explored. Lastly, past Federal efforts to improve industrial energy efficiency are reviewed, and policy options for encouraging the further development and adoption of efficient industrial technologies are discussed.

This Report examines the evidence on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of selected clinical preventive services, and whether and how this information might be used to design insurance benefits.

This paper examines the health services and economics literature to learn what is known about the effects of patient cost-sharing (that is, annual deductibles, coinsurance, copayments, and out-of-pocket maximurns) on patients’ use of health care services, on plan expenditures, and on patients’ health outcomes.