A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In recent years, GAO has reported on challenges the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has faced in effectively managing major acquisitions, including programs which were deployed before appropriate testing and evaluation (T&E) was completed. In 2009 and 2010 respectively, DHS issued new T&E and acquisition directives to address these challenges. Under these directives, DHS Science and Technology Directorate's (S&T) Test & Evaluation and Standards Office (TES) is responsible for overseeing T&E of DHS major acquisition programs--that is, those with over $300 million in life-cycle costs--to ensure that T&E and certain acquisitions requirements are met. GAO was asked to identify (1) the extent to which TES oversees T&E of major acquisitions; and (2) what challenges, if any, TES officials report facing in overseeing T&E across DHS components. GAO reviewed DHS directives and test plans, interviewed DHS officials, and reviewed T&E documentation from a sample of 11 major acquisition programs from each of 11 different DHS components. The results of the sample cannot be generalized to all DHS programs, but provided insights."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This letter responds to the mandate contained in Section 1312(c) of the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010, for GAO to conduct a study of the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Procurement Center Representatives (PCR) and Commercial Market Representatives (CMR), including ways to improve their effectiveness. To fulfill this mandate, we provided congressional staff a briefing on the results of this work in meetings with them on March 22, 23, and 24, 2011. Each year, the federal government awards hundreds of billions of dollars in contracts for goods and services--more than $500 billion in fiscal year 2010 alone. It uses this buying power to maximize procurement opportunities for small businesses through long-standing policies such as set-asides and requiring large contractors to set goals for using small business subcontractors. SBA's PCRs and CMRs play an important role in helping ensure that small businesses gain access to contracting and subcontracting opportunities. In particular, a PCR's key responsibilities include reviewing proposed agency contract events--such as potentially bundled or consolidated contracts--and making set-aside recommendations to agency contracting officers (through informal and formal means), reviewing agency small business programs (surveillance reviews), and counseling small …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "A mentor-protege program is an arrangement in which mentors--businesses, typically experienced prime contractors--provide technical, managerial, and other business development assistance to eligible small businesses, or protege. In return, the programs provide incentives for mentor participation, such as credit toward subcontracting goals, additional evaluation points toward the awarding of contracts, an annual award to the mentor providing the most effective developmental support to a protege, and in some cases, cost reimbursement. Overall, mentor-protege programs seek to enhance the ability of small businesses to compete more successfully for federal government contracts by furnishing them with assistance to improve their performance. We identified 13 federal agencies that currently have mentor-protege programs including the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), Department of Defense (DOD), Department of Energy (DOE), Department of State (DOS), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), General Services Administration (GSA), Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Small Business Administration (SBA), Department of the Treasury (Treasury), United States Agency for International Development (USAID), and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). The Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 required that we conduct a study …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) recently reported that its financial results for the first half of this fiscal year--a net loss of $2.6 billion--are worse than projected. USPS expects continued financial challenges as mail volume continues to decline. Most notable is the decline of First-Class Mail (its most profitable mail) by over 25 billion pieces, or about 25 percent, over the past decade. GAO has reported on proposals to revise USPS pension and retiree health obligations, but such actions alone will not be sufficient to address the accelerating volume decline and changing use of the mail. This statement discusses (1) why it is important to restructure USPS's networks and (2) what actions are needed to facilitate additional progress. This statement is based primarily on past and ongoing GAO work."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2010, auto manufacturers recalled more vehicles than any other year, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the federal oversight authority for vehicle recalls. However, many recalled vehicles are never fixed, posing a risk to vehicle operators, other drivers, and pedestrians. After the recent recalls of Toyota vehicles, Congress raised questions about the auto safety defect recall process, including the sufficiency of NHTSA's oversight authorities and whether vehicle owners are being effectively motivated to comply with recalls. In response, GAO reviewed laws and documents and interviewed NHTSA and stakeholders about the (1) extent of NHTSA's role in the recall process, and how its authorities compare to selected federal and foreign agencies that oversee recalls; (2) benefits and challenges of the recall process for NHTSA and manufacturers; and (3) options for improving the recall process. GAO also conducted focus groups with vehicle owners to better understand their perspectives."

This report discusses legislative action that applied the Budget Control Act (BCA)-mandated spending reduction to FY2012 defense funding legislation was taken by the Senate Appropriations Committee on September 7, 2011, when it adopted discretionary spending ceilings for each of its 12 subcommittees that required the Defense Subcommittee to cut $25.9 billion from the President's request for programs funded by the DOD Appropriations bill. On September 15, the Senate Appropriations Committee reported an amended version of the House-passed DOD Appropriations bill (H.R. 2219) that would cut $29.3 billion from the Administration request.

This report discusses legislative action that applied the Budget Control Act (BCA)-mandated spending reduction to FY2012 defense funding legislation was taken by the Senate Appropriations Committee on September 7, 2011, when it adopted discretionary spending ceilings for each of its 12 subcommittees that required the Defense Subcommittee to cut $25.9 billion from the President's request for programs funded by the DOD Appropriations bill. On September 15, the Senate Appropriations Committee reported an amended version of the House-passed DOD Appropriations bill (H.R. 2219) that would cut $29.3 billion from the Administration request.

This report gives an overview of the status of FY2012 appropriations and funding issues for the Senate, House of Representatives, and support agencies.

This report discusses several issues relating to homelessness among veterans, which has become more prominent since the beginning of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

This report provides an estimate of the initial impact of the changing oil prices on the nation's merchandise trade deficit.

This report begins with a discussion of the complex supply chains that now underlie automotive production. It then explains the procedures established in the KORUS FTA for determining whether an automotive product qualifies as being of South Korean or United States origin and compares those procedures to the rules established in the free trade agreement between South Korea and the European Union. Finally, it discusses whether the domestic content rules in the KORUS FTA could enable circumvention of the rules of origin by allowing automotive components produced in North Korea’s Kaesong Industrial Complex (KIC) to enter the United States duty-free in assembled motor vehicles, and thereby receive the benefits provided by the agreement.

The final beam cooling stages of a Muon Collider may require DC solenoid magnets with magnetic fields of 30-50 T. In this paper we present progress in insert coil development using commercially available YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7-{delta}} Coated Conductor. Technological aspects covered in the development, including coil geometry, insulation, manufacturing process and testing are summarized and discussed. Test results of double pancake coils operated in liquid nitrogen and liquid helium are presented and compared with the performance of YBa{sub 2}Cu{sub 3}O{sub 7-{delta}} tape short samples.

Tank 50H is the feed tank for the Saltstone Production Facility (SPF). At present, Tank 50H contains two standard slurry pumps and two Quad Volute slurry pumps. Current requirements and mixing operation is to run three pumps for one hour prior to initiating a feed transfer to SPF. Savannah River Site (SRS) Liquid Waste would like to move one or both of the Quad Volute pumps from Tank 50H to Tank 51H to replace pumps in Tank 51H that are failing. In addition, one of the standard pumps in Tank 50H exhibits high seal leakage and vibration. SRS Liquid Waste requested Savannah River National (SRNL) to conduct a study to evaluate the feasibility of mixing the contents of Tank 50H with one to three standard slurry pumps. To determine the pump requirements to blend miscible and immiscible liquids in Tank 50H, the author reviewed the pilot-scale blending work performed for the Salt Disposition Integration Project (SDIP) and the technical literature, and applied the results to Tank 50H to determine the number, size, and operating parameters needed to blend the tank contents. The conclusions from this analysis are: (1) A single rotating standard slurry pump (with a 13.6 ft{sup 2}/s U{sub …

Microbial ecologists are taking a metagenomics approach to analyze complex and diverse soil microbial communities.

The Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is the deepest and largest offshore spill in U.S. history and its impacts on marine ecosystems are largely unknown. Here, we showed that the microbial community functional composition and structure were dramatically altered in a deep-sea oil plume resulting from the spill. A variety of metabolic genes involved in both aerobic and anaerobic hydrocarbon degradation were highly enriched in the plume compared to outside the plume, indicating a great potential for intrinsic bioremediation or natural attenuation in the deep-sea. Various other microbial functional genes relevant to carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus, sulfur and iron cycling, metal resistance, and bacteriophage replication were also enriched in the plume. Together, these results suggest that the indigenous marine microbial communities could play a significant role in biodegradation of oil spills in deep-sea environments.

We have designed and lab tested a new ferrite cored induction coil sensor for measuring the secondary fields from metallic UXO with the BUD system. The objective was to replace the 5-inch diameter air-cored coils in the BUD system with smaller sensors that would allow the placement of multiple sensors in the smaller package of the new BUD hand-held system. A ferrite-cored solenoidal coil of length L can easily be made to have sensitivity and noise level roughly the same as an air-cored coil of a diameter on the same order as L. A ferrite-cored solenoidal coil can easily have a feedback configuration to achieve critical damping. The feedback configuration leads to a very stable response. Feedback ferrite-cored solenoidal coils show very little interaction as long as they are separated by one half their length.

The feasibility of using nanosensors to measure temperature distribution and predict thermal breakthrough in geothermal reservoirs is addressed in this report. Four candidate sensors were identified: melting tin-bismuth alloy nanoparticles, silica nanoparticles with covalently-attached dye, hollow silica nanoparticles with encapsulated dye and impermeable melting shells, and dye-polymer composite time-temperature indicators. Four main challenges associated with the successful implementation of temperature nanosensors were identified: nanoparticle mobility in porous and fractured media, the collection and detection of nanoparticles at the production well, engineering temperature sensing mechanisms that are both detectable and irreversible, and inferring the spatial geolocation of temperature measurements in order to map temperature distribution. Initial experiments were carried out to investigate each of these challenges. It was demonstrated in a slim-tube injection experiment that it is possible to transport silica nanoparticles over large distances through porous media. The feasibility of magnetic collection of nanoparticles from produced fluid was evaluated experimentally, and it was estimated that 3% of the injected nanoparticles were recovered in a prototype magnetic collection device. An analysis technique was tailored to nanosensors with a dye-release mechanism to estimate temperature measurement geolocation by analyzing the return curve of the released dye. This technique was used in a hypothetical …

Scoping tests to evaluate the effects of agitation and pH adjustment on simulant sludge agglomeration and uranium metal oxidation at {approx}95 C were performed under Test Instructions(a,b) and as per sections 5.1 and 5.2 of this Test Plan prepared by AREVA. (c) The thermal testing occurred during the week of October 4-9, 2010. The results are reported here. For this testing, two uranium-containing simulant sludge types were evaluated: (1) a full uranium-containing K West (KW) container sludge simulant consisting of nine predominant sludge components; (2) a 50:50 uranium-mole basis mixture of uraninite [U(IV)] and metaschoepite [U(VI)]. This scoping study was conducted in support of the Sludge Treatment Project (STP) Phase 2 technology evaluation for the treatment and packaging of K-Basin sludge. The STP is managed by CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company (CHPRC) for the U.S. Department of Energy. Warm water ({approx}95 C) oxidation of sludge, followed by immobilization, has been proposed by AREVA and is one of the alternative flowsheets being considered to convert uranium metal to UO{sub 2} and eliminate H{sub 2} generation during final sludge disposition. Preliminary assessments of warm water oxidation have been conducted, and several issues have been identified that can best be evaluated through laboratory …

In previous papers (Shvidler and Karasaki, 1999, 2001, 2005, and 2008) we presented and analyzed an approach for finding the general forms of exactly averaged equations of flow and transport in porous media. We studied systems of basic equations for steady flow with sources in unbounded domains with stochastically homogeneous conductivity fields. A brief analysis of exactly averaged equations of nonsteady flow and nonreactive solute transport was also presented. At the core of this approach is the existence of appropriate random Green's functions. For example, we showed that in the case of a 3-dimensional unbounded domain the existence of appropriate random Green's functions is sufficient for finding the exact nonlocal averaged equations for flow velocity using the operator with a unique kernel-vector. Examination of random fields with global symmetry (isotropy, transversal isotropy and orthotropy) makes it possible to describe significantly different types of averaged equations with nonlocal unique operators. It is evident that the existence of random Green's functions for physical linear processes is equivalent to assuming the existence of some linear random operators for appropriate stochastic equations. If we restricted ourselves to this assumption only, as we have done in this paper, we can study the processes in any …

Microstructure evolution kinetics in irradiated materials has strongly spatial correlation. For example, void and second phases prefer to nucleate and grow at pre-existing defects such as dislocations, grain boundaries, and cracks. Inhomogeneous microstructure evolution results in inhomogeneity of microstructure and thermo-mechanical properties. Therefore, the simulation capability for predicting three dimensional (3-D) microstructure evolution kinetics and its subsequent impact on material properties and performance is crucial for scientific design of advanced nuclear materials and optimal operation conditions in order to reduce uncertainty in operational and safety margins. Very recently the meso-scale phase-field (PF) method has been used to predict gas bubble evolution, void swelling, void lattice formation and void migration in irradiated materials,. Although most results of phase-field simulations are qualitative due to the lake of accurate thermodynamic and kinetic properties of defects, possible missing of important kinetic properties and processes, and the capability of current codes and computers for large time and length scale modeling, the simulations demonstrate that PF method is a promising simulation tool for predicting 3-D heterogeneous microstructure and property evolution, and providing microstructure evolution kinetics for higher scale level simulations of microstructure and property evolution such as mean field methods. This report consists of two parts. …

This report provides an overview of federal legislative history research, the legislative process, and where to find congressional documents. The report also summarizes some of the reasons researchers are interested in legislative history, briefly describes the actions a piece of legislation might undergo during the legislative process, and provides a list of easily accessible print and electronic resources.

On April 20, 2010, a catastrophic eruption of methane caused the Deepwater Horizon exploratory drill rig drilling the Macondo Well in Mississippi Canyon Block 252 (MC252) to explode. The Deepwater Horizon oil spill was unprecendeted for several reasons: the volume of oil released; the spill duration; the well depth; the distance from the shore-line (77 km or about 50 miles); the type of oil (light crude); and the injection of dispersant directly at the wellhead. This study clearly demonstrated that there was a profound and significant response by certain members of the in situ microbial community in the deep-sea in the Gulf of Mexico. In particular putative hydrocarbon degrading Bacteria appeared to bloom in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, even though the temperature at these depths is never >5 C. As the plume aged the shifts in the microbial community on a temporal scale suggested that different, yet metabolically important members of the community were able to respond to a myriad of plume constituents, e.g. shifting from propane/ethane to alkanes and finally to methane. Thus, the biodegradation of hydrocarbons in the plume by Bacteria was a highly significant process in the natural attenuation of many compounds released during …

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This report details the chemical and radionuclide contaminant results for the characterization of the 2011 First Quarter sampling of Tank 50 for the Saltstone Waste Acceptance Criteria (WAC). Information from this characterization will be used by Waste Solidification Engineering (WSE) to support the transfer of low-level aqueous waste from Tank 50 to the Salt Feed Tank in the Saltstone Facility in Z-Area, where the waste will be immobilized. This information is also used to update the Tank 50 Waste Characterization System. The following conclusions are drawn from the analytical results provided in this report: (1) The concentrations of the reported chemical and radioactive contaminants were less than their respective WAC targets or limits unless noted in this section; (2) The reported detection limit for {sup 59}Ni is above both the requested limits from Reference 2 and the established limits in Reference 3; (3) The reported detection limit for {sup 94}Nb is above the requested limit from Reference 2; however, it is below the established limits in Reference 3. This is a change from previously reported results; (4) The reported concentration of {sup 242m}Am is above the target in Listed in Attachment 8.4 of the Saltstone WAC. This is a change …