A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Each year, the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) processes millions of applications for immigration benefits using a paper-based process. In 2005, USCIS embarked on a major, multiyear program to transform its process to a system that is to incorporate electronic application filing, adjudication, and case management. In 2007, GAO reported that USCIS was in the early stages of the Transformation Program and that USCIS's plans partially or fully met key practices. In 2008, USCIS contracted with a solutions architect to help develop the new system. As requested, GAO evaluated the extent to which USCIS has followed DHS acquisition policy in developing and managing the Transformation Program. GAO reviewed DHS acquisition management policies and guidance; analyzed transformation program planning and implementation documents such as operational requirements; compared schedule and cost information with GAO best practice guidance; and interviewed USCIS officials.."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The President's fiscal year 2012 budget proposal requests $13.6 billion to fund the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), including $204 million in spending funded through user fee collections. Well-designed and well-implemented user fees can reduce taxpayer burden by funding portions of IRS services that provide special benefits to users beyond what is normally provided to the public. As such, GAO was asked to (1) describe the types and amounts of IRS user fees and how IRS collects and uses them, (2) assess how IRS sets and reviews existing user fees, and (3) assess how IRS identifies additional areas where new fees could be justified. GAO reviewed relevant laws, guidance, and literature on user fee design and implementation. GAO reviewed IRS documents and cost estimates and interviewed IRS officials in the Chief Financial Officer's (CFO) office and program divisions."

This report discusses the Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA; P.L. 112-25), which established new budget enforcement mechanisms for reducing the federal deficit by at least $2.1 trillion over the 10-year period FY2012-FY2021. The BCA places statutory limits, or caps, on discretionary spending for each of those 10 fiscal years, which will save an estimated $0.9 trillion during that period. In addition, it creates a Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (Joint Committee), which is instructed to develop legislation to reduce the federal deficit by at least another $1.5 trillion through FY2021.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a city that has adopted civil service rules for its police officers under chapter 143 of the Local Government Code may authorize a reserve police force (RQ-0972-GA)

The CLIC machine incorporates a 20 mrad crossing angle at the IP to aid the extraction of spent beams. In order to recover the luminosity lost through the crossing angle a crab cavity is proposed to rotate the bunches prior to collision. The crab cavity is chosen to have the same frequency as the main linac (11.9942 GHz) as a compromise between size, phase stability requirements and beam loading. It is proposed to use a HE11 mode travelling wave structure as the CLIC crab cavity in order to minimise beam loading and mode separation. The position of the crab cavity close to the final focus enhances the effect of transverse wake-fields so effective wake-field damping is required. A damped detuned structure is proposed to suppress and de-cohere the wake-field hence reducing their effect. Design considerations for the CLIC crab cavity will be discussed as well as the proposed high power testing of these structures at SLAC. Design of a crab cavity for CLIC is underway at the Cockcroft Institute in collaboration with SLAC. This effort draws on a large degree of synergy with the ILC crab cavity developed at the Cockcroft Institute and other deflecting structure development at SLAC. A …

None

HERMES (High Explosive Response to MEchanical Stimulus) was developed to fill the need for a model to describe an explosive response of the type described as BVR (Burn to Violent Response) or HEVR (High Explosive Violent Response). Characteristically this response leaves a substantial amount of explosive unconsumed, the time to reaction is long, and the peak pressure developed is low. In contrast, detonations characteristically consume all explosive present, the time to reaction is short, and peak pressures are high. However, most of the previous models to describe explosive response were models for detonation. The earliest models to describe the response of explosives to mechanical stimulus in computer simulations were applied to intentional detonation (performance) of nearly ideal explosives. In this case, an ideal explosive is one with a vanishingly small reaction zone. A detonation is supersonic with respect to the undetonated explosive (reactant). The reactant cannot respond to the pressure of the detonation before the detonation front arrives, so the precise compressibility of the reactant does not matter. Further, the mesh sizes that were practical for the computer resources then available were large with respect to the reaction zone. As a result, methods then used to model detonations, known as …

Samples of sludge were collected from the K East fuel storage basin (KE Basin) floor, contiguous pits (Weasel Pit, North Load Out Pit, Dummy Elevator Pit, and Tech View Pit), and fuel storage canisters between 1995 and 2003 for chemical and radionuclide concentration analysis, physical property determination, and chemical process testing work. Because of the value of the sludge in this testing and because of the cost of obtaining additional fresh samples, an ongoing program of sludge preservation has taken place with the goals to track the sludge identities and preserve, as well as possible, the sludge composition by keeping the sludge in sealed jars and maintaining water coverage on the sludge consistent with the controlling Fluor Hanford (FH) Sampling and Analysis plans and FH contracts with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL). This work was originally initiated to provide material for planned hydrothermal treatment testing in accordance with the test plan for the Sludge Treatment Project (STP) corrosion process chemistry follow on testing (Delegard et al. 2007). Although most of the planned hydrothermal testing was canceled in July 2007 (as described in the forward of Delegard et al. 2007), sample consolidation and characterization was continued to identify a set …

SuperB aims at the construction of a very high luminosity (10{sup 36} cm{sup -2} s{sup -1}) asymmetric e{sup +}e{sup -} Flavour Factory, with possible location at the campus of the University of Rome Tor Vergata, near the INFN Frascati National Laboratory. In this paper the basic principles of the design and details on the lattice are given. SuperB is a new machine that can exploit novel very promising design approaches: (1) large Piwinski angle scheme will allow for peak luminosity of the order of 10{sup 36} cm{sup -2} s{sup -1}, well beyond the current state-of-the-art, without a significant increase in beam currents or shorter bunch lengths; (2) 'crab waist' sextupoles will be used for suppression of dangerous resonances; (3) the low beam currents design presents reduced detector and background problems, and affordable operating costs; (4) a polarized electron beam can produce polarized {tau} leptons, opening an entirely new realm of exploration in lepton flavor physics. SuperB studies are already proving useful to the accelerator and particle physics communities. The principle of operation is being tested at DAFNE. The baseline lattice, based on the reuse of all PEP-II hardware, fits in the Tor Vergata University campus site, near Frascati. A CDR …

A sample of 7253 K{sup {+-}} {yields} {pi}{sup {+-}}e{sup +}e{sup -}({gamma}) decay candidates with 1.0% background contamination has been collected by the NA 48/2 experiment at the CERN SPS, which allowed a precise measurement of the decay properties. The branching ratio in the full kinematic range was measured to be BR = (3.11 {+-} 0.12) x 10{sup -7}, where the uncertainty includes also the model dependence. The shape of the form factor W(z), where z = (M{sub ee}/M{sub K}){sup 2}, was parameterized according to several models, and, in particular, the slope {delta} of the linear form factor W(z) = W{sub 0}(1 + {delta}z) was determined to be {delta} = 2.32 {+-} 0.18. A possible CP violating asymmetry of K{sup +} and K{sup -} decay widths was investigated, and a conservative upper limit of 2.1 x 10{sup -2} at 90% CL was established.

The study compares commercial available filler products with a new developed “Hybrid Fiber Filler Composite Material” and how main structural, optical and strength properties are affected by increasing the filler content of at least 5% over commercial values. The study consists of: (i) an overview of paper filler materials used in the paper production process, (ii) discusses the manufacturing technology of lime based filler materials for paper applications, (iii) gives an overview of new emerging paper filler technologies, (iv) discusses a filler evaluation of commercial available digital printing paper products, (v) reports from a detailed handsheet study and 12” pilot plant paper machine trial runs with the new Hybrid Fiber Filler Composite Material, and (vi) evaluates and compares commercial filler products and the new Hybrid Fiber Filler Composite Material with a life cycle analyses that explains manufacturing, economic and environmental benefits as they are applied to uncoated digital printing papers.

This report provides a brief explanation of the U.S. patent and trademark office appropriations process.

This report discusses the basics of GPS technology, society's reliance on it, and some of the related legal and privacy implications.

The front-end electronics (FEE) noise characterization to electromagnetic interference and the compatibility of the different subsystems are important topics to consider for the LHC calorimeter upgrades. A new power distribution scheme based on switching power converters is under study and will define a noticeable noise source very close to the detector's FEE. Knowledge and experience with both FFE noise and electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) issues from previous detectors are important conditions to guarantee the design goals and the good functionality of the upgraded LHC detectors. This paper shows an overview of the noise susceptibility studies performed in different CMS subdetectors. The impact of different FEE topologies in the final sensitivity to electromagnetic interference of the subsystem is analyzed and design recommendations are presented to increase the EMC of the detectors to the future challenging power distribution topologies.

None

None

This report discusses the current political state of Iran, focusing particularly on the influence of the Taliban and other militant groups and on the leadership of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. This report also discusses the U.S.-Iran relationship and U.S. efforts under the Obama Administration to provide military, reconstructive, and stabilization aid.

This report analyzes Brazil's political, economic, and social conditions, and how those conditions affect its role in the region and its relationship with the United States.

None