A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In September 2004, Hurricane Ivan and Tropical Storm Jeanne passed through the Caribbean, taking lives and causing widespread damage in several countries. After initial U.S. emergency relief, in October 2004 Congress appropriated $100 million in supplemental funding, primarily for Grenada, Jamaica, and Haiti, which were significantly affected. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), leader of the U.S. recovery programs, agreed, in consultation with the Office of Management and Budget, to complete the programs by December 31, 2005, giving the agency a 1-year time frame. GAO was asked to (1) review the nature and status of the programs in Grenada, Jamaica, and Haiti as of December 31, 2005; (2) identify factors that affected the programs' progress; and (3) assess USAID's use of guidance and lessons learned from previous similar programs and efforts to draw lessons from the current programs."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has authority to approve air carrier requests to deploy less-than-lethal weapons, including electric stun devices, onboard commercial aircraft to thwart an attack. Since the terrorist attacks of 2001, one air carrier received approval to deploy electric stun devices. To address concerns regarding reports of injuries after the use of these devices and to ensure that the impacts of these devices onboard aircraft have been fully evaluated, this report answers the following: (1) What analyses has the federal government conducted to assess the safety and effectiveness of these devices onboard commercial aircraft? (2) What controls does TSA have in place to help ensure uniform and timely review of air carrier requests to deploy these devices onboard commercial aircraft?"

This sampling and analysis plan (SAP) describes planned data collection activities for four entry boreholes through the sediment overlying the basalt, up to three new deep rotary boreholes through the basalt and sedimentary interbeds, and one corehole through the basalt and sedimentary interbeds at the Waste Treatment Plant (WTP) site. The SAP will be used in concert with the quality assurance plan for the project to guide the procedure development and data collection activities needed to support borehole drilling, geophysical measurements, and sampling. This SAP identifies the American Society of Testing Materials standards, Hanford Site procedures, and other guidance to be followed for data collection activities.

The principal research effort for Phase 1 (Concept Development) of the project has been data compilation; determination of the tectonic, depositional, burial, and thermal maturation histories of the North Louisiana Salt Basin; basin modeling (geohistory, thermal maturation, hydrocarbon expulsion); petroleum system identification; comparative basin evaluation; and resource assessment. Existing information on the North Louisiana Salt Basin has been evaluated, an electronic database has been developed, and regional cross sections have been prepared. Structure, isopach and formation lithology maps have been constructed, and burial history, thermal maturation history, and hydrocarbon expulsion profiles have been prepared. Seismic data, cross sections, subsurface maps and burial history, thermal maturation history, and hydrocarbon expulsion profiles have been used in evaluating the tectonic, depositional, burial and thermal maturation histories of the basin. Oil and gas reservoirs have been found to be associated with salt-supported anticlinal and domal features (salt pillows, turtle structures and piercement domes); with normal faulting associated with the northern basin margin and listric down-to-the-basin faults (state-line fault complex) and faulted salt features; and with combination structural and stratigraphic features (Sabine and Monroe Uplifts) and monoclinal features with lithologic variations. Petroleum reservoirs include Upper Jurassic and Cretaceous fluvial-deltaic sandstone facies; shoreline, marine bar and …

The purpose of this report is to describe the activation of the fourth cathode installed in the DARHT-II Injector. Appendices have been used so that an extensive amount of data could be included without danger of obscuring important information contained in the body of the report. The cathode was a 612 M type cathode purchased from Spectra-Mat. Section II describes the handling and installation of the cathode. Section III is a narrative of the activation based on information located in the Control Room Log Book supplemented with time plots of pertinent operating parameters. Activation of the cathode was performed in accordance with the procedure listed in Appendix A. The following sections provide more details on the total pressure and constituent partial pressures in the vacuum vessel, cathode heater power/filament current, and cathode temperature.

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Thermal spray coating is usually applied through directing molten or softened particles at very high velocities onto a substrate. An eddy current non-destructive inspection technique is presented here for thermal spray coating interface quality characterization. Several high-velocity-oxy-fuel (HVOF) coated steel plates were produced with different surface preparation conditions before applying the coating, e.g., grit-blasted surface, wire-brush cleaned surface, and a dirty surface. A quad-frequency eddy current probe was used to manually scan over the coating surface to evaluate the bonding quality. Experimental results show that the three surface preparation conditions can be successfully differentiated by looking into the impedance difference observed from the eddy current probe. The measurement is fairly robust and consistent. More specimens are also prepared with variations of process parameters, such as spray angle, stand-off distance, and application of corrosion protective sealant, etc. They are blindly tested to evaluate the reliability of the eddy current system. Quantitative relations between the coating bond strength and the eddy current response are also established with the support of destructive testing. This non-contact, non-destructive, easy to use technique has the potential for evaluating the coating quality immediately after its application so that any defects can be corrected immediately.

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Summary of the work conducted by the National Geothermal Collaborative (a consensus organization) to identify impediments to geothermal development and catalyze events and dialogues among stakeholders to over those impediments.

This report provides information about the Background and Funding on Child Nutrition and WIC Programs. child nutrition programs provide free meals to lower-income children.The CACFP subsidies meals and snacks served by children.

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This report includes information regarding intelligence issues for Congress. The intelligence community, ongoing congressional concerns, and issues in the 109th Congress are among topics discussed in this report.

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The Three Affliated Tribes on the Fort Berthold Reservation studied the feasibility of a commercial wind facility on land selected and owned by the Tribes and examined the potential for the development of renewable energy resources on Tribal Lands.

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Through this project, Advanced Energy Conversion (AEC) has developed, tested, refined and is preparing to commercialize a 2.5kW utility-interactive inverter system for distributed generation. The inverter technology embodies zero-voltage switching technology that will ultimately yield a system that is smaller, less expensive and more efficient than existing commercial technologies. This program has focused on commercial success through careful synthesis of technology, market-focus and business development. AEC was the primary participant. AEC is utilizing contract manufacturers in the early stages of production, allowing its technical staff to focus on quality control issues and product enhancements. The objective of this project was to bring the AEC inverter technology from its current pre-production state to a commercial product. Federal funds have been used to build and test production-intent inverters, support the implementation of the commercialization plan and bring the product to the point of UL certification.

The end of the Cold War freed India-U.S. relations from the constraints of global bipolarity, but interactions continued for a decade to be affected by the burden of history, most notably the longstanding India-Pakistan rivalry and nuclear weapons proliferation in the region. Recent years, however, have witnessed a sea change in bilateral relations, with more positive interactions becoming the norm. India's swift offer of full support for U.S.-led counterterrorism operations after September 2001 was widely viewed as reflective of such change. The United States seeks to curtail the proliferation of nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles in South Asia. Continuing U.S. interest in South Asia focuses on ongoing tensions between India and Pakistan. U.S. concerns about human rights issues related to regional dissidence and separatism in several Indian states continue. Many U.S. business interests view India as a lucrative market and candidate for foreign investment.

This report identifies selected websites for maps of Iraq, including government, library, and organizational websites. Maps of the Middle East, Iraq, facilities used by U.S. forces in the Gulf, and U.S. government humanitarian assistance and reconstruction activities in Iraq are also provided.

This report identifies selected websites for maps of Iraq, including government, library, and organizational websites. Maps of the Middle East, Iraq, facilities used by U.S. forces in the Gulf, and U.S. government humanitarian assistance and reconstruction activities in Iraq are also provided.