Selected Technology Issues in U.S. Aquaculture (open access)

Selected Technology Issues in U.S. Aquaculture

This report discusses different aquatic species that are produced in the United States, including various animal and plant ornamentals, species for environmental remediation, industrial and pharmaceutical feedstocks, and products for biomedical research.
Date: September 1995
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Nonferrous Metals: Industry Structure (open access)

Nonferrous Metals: Industry Structure

This report profiles the structures of four domestic nonferrous metals industries (copper, aluminurn, lead, and zinc) and the changes they have undergone since 1980. The study also outlines the U.S. position in the world markets.
Date: September 1990
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Orbiting Debris: A Space Environmental Problem (open access)

Orbiting Debris: A Space Environmental Problem

This background paper, OTA sought the contributions of abroad spectrum of knowledgeable individuals and organizations. Some provided information, others reviewed drafts. OTA gratefully acknowledges their contributions of time and intellectual effort. As with all OTA studies, the content of this background paper is the sole responsibility of the Office of Technology Assessment and does not necessarily represent the views of our advisors or reviewers.
Date: October 1990
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Affordable Spacecraft: Design and Launch Alternatives (open access)

Affordable Spacecraft: Design and Launch Alternatives

This background paper examines several proposals for reducing the costs of spacecraft and other payloads and describes launch systems for implementing them. It is one of a series of products of a broad assessment of space transportation technologies undertaken by OTA at the request of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology.
Date: January 1990
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Big Picture: HDTV and High-Resolution Systems (open access)

The Big Picture: HDTV and High-Resolution Systems

A report on High Definition Television (HDTV. During 1989, HDTV moved from obscurity to center stage in the ongoing debate over the role of the Federal Government in U.S. industrial competitiveness. HDTV and related High-Resolution System (HRS) technologies in the computer and communications sectors may significantly impact U.S. electronics manufacturing, accelerate fundamental restructuring of the U.S. communications infrastructure, and provide a host of valuable services.
Date: June 1990
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Children's Dental Services Under the Medicaid Program (open access)

Children's Dental Services Under the Medicaid Program

The report discusses the oral health of children eligible for Medicaid, the House Committee on Energy and Commerce and its Subcommittee on Health and the Environment requested OTA to determine whether children eligible for Medicaid are provided at least a minimum level of dental care. This study compares the dental manuals of seven State Medicaid programs with a set of “basic’ dental services (which comprise shared components of various well-accepted dental guidelines) to see if States allow these particular services.
Date: September 1990
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Computer Software and Intellectual Property (open access)

Computer Software and Intellectual Property

This background paper examines existing intellectual-property protection for computer software-copyrights, patents, and trade secrets—and provides an overview of the often conflicting views and concerns of various stakeholders. It was prepared in response to a request from the Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Administration of Justice of the House Committee on the Judiciary.
Date: March 1990
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Coping With an Oiled Sea (open access)

Coping With an Oiled Sea

In the aftermath of the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Alaska in March, 1989, a myriad of investigations were initiated to evaluate the causes of that accident and to propose remedies. The Office of Technology Assessment was asked to study the Nation’s oil spill clean-up capabilities and to assess the technologies for responding to such catastrophic spills in the future.
Date: March 1990
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Dioxin Treatment Technologies (open access)

Dioxin Treatment Technologies

This paper presents the status of national efforts to cleanup dioxin-contaminated sites and the technologies that have been used, proposed, and researched. It covers thermal and nonthermal treatment techniques as well as approaches such as stabilization and storage. It discusses the development of these technologies as well as advantages and disadvantages of their use.
Date: November 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Technologies for Reducing Dioxin in the Manufacture of Bleached Wood Pulp (open access)

Technologies for Reducing Dioxin in the Manufacture of Bleached Wood Pulp

As analytical technology improves, we are discovering dioxins associated with many products commonly found in the home and workplace. This report provides an assessment of these technologies; it does not address the policy issues related to regulating dioxin in paper products and controlling environmental release.
Date: May 1989
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Adjusting to a New Security Environment: The Defense Technology and Industrial Base Challenge (open access)

Adjusting to a New Security Environment: The Defense Technology and Industrial Base Challenge

This background paper, OTA sought information and advice from a broad spectrum of knowledgeable individuals and organizations whose contributions are gratefully acknowledged. As with all OTA studies, the content of this background paper is the sole responsibility of the Office of Technology Assessment and does not necessarily represent the views of our advisers and reviewers.
Date: February 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
American Military Power: Future Needs, Future Choices (open access)

American Military Power: Future Needs, Future Choices

This background paper outlines some of the issues of importance for making choices about the future nature and role of U.S. armed forces, and suggests how these choices will affect defense base requirements. The final report of the assessment, to be delivered in the spring of 1992, will address specific policy options arising from the strategic choices and tactical decisions discussed here.
Date: October 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Bioremediation for Marine Oil Spills (open access)

Bioremediation for Marine Oil Spills

This OTA background paper evaluates the current state of knowledge and assesses the potential of bioremediation for responding to marine oil spills. Our basic message is a dual one: we caution that there are still many uncertainties about the use of bioremediation as a practical oil spill response technology; nevertheless, it could be appropriate in certain circumstances, and further research and development of bioremediation technologies could lead to enhancing the Nation’s capability to fight marine oil spills.
Date: May 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Technologies Underlying Weapons of Mass Destruction (open access)

Technologies Underlying Weapons of Mass Destruction

This paper reviews the technical requirements for countries to develop and build nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, along with the systems most capable of delivering these weapons to distant or defended targets: ballistic missiles, combat aircraft, and cruise missiles.
Date: December 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Energy Use and the U.S. Economy (open access)

Energy Use and the U.S. Economy

The background paper extends the analysis of energy use into new areas by explicitly looking at how energy use has changed with the expansion of the service sector, the explosion of international trade, and greater complexity of the U.S. economy as the structure of businesses changed in response to new technologies and competitive challenges. The increasing sophistication of the U.S. economy means that the role of energy is less likely to be directly identified and is instead more likely to be an indirect factor that was added many steps before in the complex network that connects producer to consumer. This report explicitly separates direct from indirect energy use.
Date: June 1990
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Potential Environmental Impacts of Bioenergy Crop Production (open access)

Potential Environmental Impacts of Bioenergy Crop Production

This report reviews how bioenergy crops could potentially affect soil quality and soil erosion, water quality, air quality, habitat for a variety of species, and the global environment.
Date: September 1993
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Hip Fracture Outcomes in People Age 50 and Over (open access)

Hip Fracture Outcomes in People Age 50 and Over

This background paper is one of four documents resulting from OTA’s study of policy issues in the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis.
Date: September 1994
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Seeking Solutions: High Performance Computing for Science (open access)

Seeking Solutions: High Performance Computing for Science

This background paper focuses on the Federal role in supporting a national high-performance computing initiative. High-performance ‘‘supercomputers’ * are fast becoming tools of international competition and they play an important role in such areas as scientific research, weather forecasting, and popular entertainment. They may prove to be the key to maintaining America’s preeminence in science and engineering. The automotive, aerospace, electronic, and pharmaceutical industries are becoming more reliant on the use of high-performance computers in the analysis, engineering, design, and manufacture of high-technology products.
Date: March 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The FBI Fingerprint Identification Automation Program: Issues and Options (open access)

The FBI Fingerprint Identification Automation Program: Issues and Options

This report focuses on key assumptions that will affect the sizing and procurement of the new FBI system, and on other related steps that appear necessary to ensure complete and up-to-date record systems. These include full implementation of a Federal/State/local partnership for maintaining and exchanging fingerprint and criminal history records; enactment of an interstate compact or Federal legislation setting out uniform rules for the exchange of such records; standards and funding for improving criminal history record completeness and disposition reporting; and privacy and security protections for electronic fingerprint and record information.
Date: November 1991
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Alaskan Water for California?: The Subsea Pipeline Option (open access)

Alaskan Water for California?: The Subsea Pipeline Option

This background paper focuses on one technological option for increasing the supply of fresh water to the Southwest-that of building a freshwater subsea pipeline to transport water from Alaska to California. Originally a suggestion by Governor Walter Hickel of Alaska, the proposal has recently attracted attention in southern California.
Date: January 1990
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Federal and Private Roles in the Development and Provision of Alglucerase Therapy for Gaucher Disease (open access)

Federal and Private Roles in the Development and Provision of Alglucerase Therapy for Gaucher Disease

This background paper describes the development of alglucerase, illustrates the role that both the Federal Government and private sector can have in making new therapies available for orphan diseases, and lays out some of the tradeoffs that can exist between developing new medical technologies and controlling health care costs.
Date: October 1992
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Remotely Sensed Data From Space: Distribution, Pricing, and Applications (open access)

Remotely Sensed Data From Space: Distribution, Pricing, and Applications

This short background paper summarizes the discussion concerning data pricing and distribution from a one-day workshop convened by OTA on May 20, 1992.
Date: July 1992
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Science and Technology Issues in Coastal Ecotourism (open access)

Science and Technology Issues in Coastal Ecotourism

This paper presents information on the ecotourism trends; identifies issues related to resource conservation, ecotourism development and management, and planning; and presents questions for possible further consideration.
Date: October 1992
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Climate Treaties and Models: Issues in the International Management of Climate Change (open access)

Climate Treaties and Models: Issues in the International Management of Climate Change

This paper seeks to place the issue of climate change within an international context. Specifically, it addresses the feasibility of forging treaty agreements among countries to achieve significant worldwide reductions in emissions of greenhouse gases.
Date: June 1994
Creator: United States. Congress. Office of Technology Assessment.
System: The UNT Digital Library