This report discusses the current state of Bahrain, which has undergone substantial political reforms since the late 1990s, but which still suffers from tension between the Shiite majority and the Sunni-led government. This report focuses particularly on Bahrain's relationship with Iran and Bahrain's relationship with the United States.

Nuclear weapons contain special nuclear material (SNM), which produces unique or suspect signatures that can be detected. This report seeks to help Congress understand this technology. It discusses the science of detecting nuclear weapons and materials, describes nine advanced U.S. technologies selected to illustrate the range of projects in the pipeline, and offers observations for Congress. The report does not compare technologies.

This report provides an overview of recent industry proposals for new LNG import terminals. The report summarizes LNG hazards and the industry's safety record. It discusses federal laws and regulations related to LNG terminal siting with a focus on the authorities of key federal agencies and safety provisions in the permitting of onshore facilities.

This report provides information regarding pollution from ships and port facilities; discusses some of the measures being implemented and considered by local, state, and federal regulatory agencies; discusses the efforts to ratify and to strengthen Annex VI of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL); and describes legislation in Congress to control emissions from ships by amending the Clean Air Act (CAA).

Daily publication of the U.S. Office of the Federal Register contains rules and regulations, proposed legislation and rule changes, and other notices, including "Presidential proclamations and Executive Orders, Federal agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required to be published by act of Congress, and other Federal agency documents of public interest" (p. ii). Table of Contents starts on page iii.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Forest Service, which manages almost a quarter of the nation's lands, is the only major land management agency outside the Department of the Interior (Interior). Four federal land management agencies--the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service in Interior--manage most of the 680 million acres of federal land across the country. Growing ecological challenges, ranging from wildland fires to climate change, have revived interest in moving the Forest Service into Interior. GAO was asked to report on the potential effects of moving the Forest Service into Interior and creating a new bureau equal to Interior's other bureaus, such as BLM. GAO was also asked to identify factors that should be considered if such a move were legislated, as well as management practices that could facilitate a move."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses our work on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), under which the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) has the authority to purchase and insure up to $700 billion in troubled assets held by financial institutions through the Office of Financial Stability (OFS). As you know, Treasury was granted this authority in response to the financial crisis that has threatened the stability of the U.S. banking system and the solvency of numerous financial institutions. The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (the act) that authorized TARP on October 3, 2008, requires GAO to report at least every 60 days on findings resulting from our oversight of the status of actions taken under the program. We are also responsible for auditing OFS's annual financial statements and for issuing special reports on any issues that emerge from our oversight. To carry out these oversight responsibilities, we have assembled interdisciplinary teams with a wide range of technical skills, including financial market and public policy analysts, accountants, lawyers, and economists who represent combined resources from across GAO. In addition, we are building on our in-house technical expertise with targeted new hires, re-employed …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Elevated levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and the resulting effects on the earth's climate could have significant impacts in the United States and internationally. Potential impacts include a change in sea levels, ecosystems, and ice cover. The United States Congress is considering proposals to limit greenhouse gas emissions using market-based mechanisms that would place a price on emissions. Such programs would create an economic incentive for regulated entities to limit their emissions. Limiting greenhouse gas emissions requires an understanding of existing emissions as well as the development of a program to monitor, report, and verify emissions from entities that might be affected by a future regulatory program. A greenhouse gas mitigation program also requires an understanding of the numerous emissions sources and methods for calculating emissions of six major greenhouse gases--carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and several synthetic gases. This testimony focuses on (1) the importance of quality data on emissions in the context of a program intended to limit greenhouse gas emissions, and (2) key considerations in developing reliable data on greenhouse gas emissions. This testimony is based on several prior GAO reports and a …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The federal workforce, like the nation's workforce as a whole, is aging, and increasingly large percentages are becoming eligible to retire. Eventually baby boomers will leave the workforce and when they do, they will leave behind gaps in leadership, skills, and knowledge due to the slower-growing pool of younger workers. GAO and others have emphasized the need for federal agencies to hire and retain older workers to help address these shortages. Building upon earlier testimony, GAO was asked to examine (1) age and retirement eligibility trends of the current federal workforce and the extent to which agencies hire and retain older workers; (2) workforce challenges selected agencies face and the strategies they use to hire and retain older workers; and (3) actions taken by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) to help agencies hire and retain experienced workers. To address these questions, GAO analyzed data from OPM's Central Personal Data File, interviewed officials at three agencies with high proportions of workers eligible to retire, and identified agencies' promising practices to hire and retain older workers. What GAO Recommends"

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Railroad Passenger Corporation (Amtrak) and commuter rail agencies often share rights-of-way with each other and with freight railroads. Negotiating agreements that govern the shared use of infrastructure can be challenging, especially on issues such as liability and indemnity. As requested, this report discusses (1) the liability and indemnity provisions in agreements among passenger and freight railroads, and the resulting implications of these provisions; (2) federal and state court opinions and Surface Transportation Board (STB) decisions related to contractual liability and indemnity provisions of passenger and freight railroad agreements; (3) factors that influence the negotiations of liability and indemnity provisions among passenger and freight railroads; and (4) potential options for facilitating negotiations of liability and indemnity provisions. GAO obtained information from all existing and proposed commuter rail agencies, Amtrak, and major freight railroads through site visits or telephone interviews. GAO analyzed the liability and indemnity provisions in agreements between commuter rail agencies, Amtrak, and freight railroads. GAO also reviewed federal and state laws, STB decisions, and court cases related to liability and indemnity provisions. The Department of Transportation and STB had no comments on the …

This report assesses the effects of the absence of intelligence authorization legislation since FY2005. Since FY2005, no annual intelligence authorization bill has been enacted. Although the National Security Act requires intelligence activities to be specifically authorized, this requirement has been satisfied in recent years by one-sentence catch-all provisions in defense appropriations acts authorizing intelligence activities.

This report provides an overview of recent industry development of new LNG import terminals. The report summarizes LNG hazards and the industry's safety record. It discusses federal laws and regulations related to LNG terminal siting with a focus on the authorities of key federal agencies and safety provisions in the permitting of onshore facilities.

This report provides a brief introduction to the relevant law regarding follow-on biologics, the regulatory framework at the FDA, the scientific challenges for the FDA in considering the approval of follow-on biologics, and a description of the proposed legislation.

This report provides information regarding pollution from ships and port facilities; discusses some of the measures being implemented and considered by local, state, and federal regulatory agencies; discusses the efforts to ratify and to strengthen Annex VI of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL); and describes legislation in Congress to control emissions from ships by amending the Clean Air Act (CAA).

This report provides a brief legislative background, discussions of immigrant and nonimmigrant investor's visas, a comparison of U.S. and Canadian immigrant investor programs, an analysis of the relationship between investment and migration, and finally a review of current issues.

This report provides an overview of current U.S. financial regulation: which agencies are responsible for which institutions and markets, and what kinds of authority they have. Federal financial regulation in the United States has evolved through a series of piecemeal responses to developments and crises in the markets.

This report discusses the potential role that the block grant to states of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) may play in mitigating the effects of the recession for poor families with children. It discusses the recession and the economic insecurity of disadvantaged families, the TANF block grand and potential role in the recession, as well as legislative issues.

This report briefly reviews North Korea's ballistic missile program. In summer 2007, North Korea tested modern, short-range missiles. In February 2009, South Korea reported the DPRK had deployed a new intermediate-range missile.

The purpose of the present electrical signal path study is to explore the various issues related to the deployment of highly-segmented low-background Ge detectors for the MAJORANA double-beta decay experiment. A significant challenge is to simultaneously satisfy competing requirements for the mechanical design, electrical readout performance, and radiopurity specifications from the MAJORANA project. Common to all rare search experiments, there is a very stringent limit on the acceptable radioactivity level of all the electronics components involved. Some of the findings are summarized in this report.

In order to determine the wavelength dependence of atmospheric aerosol absorption in the Mexico City area, the absorption angstrom exponents (AAEs) were calculated from aerosol absorption measurements at seven wavelengths obtained with a seven-channel aethalometer during two field campaigns, the Mexico City Metropolitan Area study in April 2003 (MCMA 2003) and the Megacity Initiative: Local and Global Research Observations in March 2006 (MILAGRO). The AAEs varied from 0.76 to 1.56 in 2003 and from 0.54 to 1.52 in 2006. The AAE values determined in the afternoon were consistently higher than the corresponding morning values, suggesting the photochemical formation of absorbing secondary organic aerosols (SOA) in the afternoon. The AAE values were compared to stable and radiocarbon isotopic measurements of aerosol samples collected at the same time to determine the sources of the aerosol carbon. The fraction of modern carbon (fM) in the aerosol samples, as determined from {sup 14}C analysis, showed that 70% of the carbonaceous aerosols in Mexico City were from modern sources, indicating a significant impact from biomass burning during both field campaigns. The {sup 13}C/{sup 12}C ratios of the aerosol samples illustrate the significant impact of Yucatan forest fires (C-3 plants) in 2003 and local grass fires …

We development a general framework for information-passing and concurrent discrete to continuum scale bridging and applied it to biological, electro-mechanical and thermo-electrical systems. Funds were used for partial support of two post-doctoral research associates (Aiqin Li, Dawei Zhang) and three graduate students (Renge Li, Mohan Nuggehally, Joseph Riendeau).

We are now well-advanced in our development, prototyping and deployment of a high performance next generation Integrated Environment for Collaborative Work. The system, aimed at using the capability of ESnet and Internet2 for rapid data exchange, is based on the Virtual Room Videoconferencing System (VRVS) developed by Caltech. The VRVS system has been chosen by the Internet2 Digital Video (I2-DV) Initiative as a preferred foundation for the development of advanced video, audio and multimedia collaborative applications by the Internet2 community. Today, the system supports high-end, broadcast-quality interactivity, while enabling a wide variety of clients (Mbone, H.323) to participate in the same conference by running different standard protocols in different contexts with different bandwidth connection limitations, has a fully Web-integrated user interface, developers and administrative APIs, a widely scalable video network topology based on both multicast domains and unicast tunnels, and demonstrated multiplatform support. This has led to its rapidly expanding production use for national and international scientific collaborations in more than 60 countries. We are also in the process of creating a 'testbed video network' and developing the necessary middleware to support a set of new and essential requirements for rapid data exchange, and a high level of interactivity in …

Abstract: We report the application of the new Monte Carlo method, Smoothed Particle Inference (SPI, described in a pair of companion papers), towards analysis and interpretation of X-ray observations of clusters of galaxies with the XMM-Newton satellite. Our sample consists of publicly available well-exposed observations of clusters at redshifts z > 0.069, totaling 101 objects. We determine the luminosity and temperature structure of the X-ray emitting gas, with the goal to quantify the scatter and the evolution of the L{sub X} - T relation, as well as to investigate the dependence on cluster substructure with redshift. This work is important for the establishment of the potential robustness of mass estimates from X-ray data which in turn is essential towards the use of clusters for measurements of cosmological parameters. We use the luminosity and temperature maps derived via the SPI technique to determine the presence of cooling cores, via measurements of luminosity and temperature contrast. The L{sub X}-T relation is investigated, and we confirm that L{sub X} {proportional_to} T{sup 3}. We find a weak redshift dependence ({proportional_to} (1 + z){sup {beta}{sub LT}}, {beta}{sub LT} = 0.50 {+-} 0.34), in contrast to some Chandra results. The level of dynamical activity is established …

This article gives an overview of current plans and issues for polarimeters and energy spectrometers in the Beam Delivery System of the ILC. It is meant to serve as a useful reference for the Detector Letter of Intent documents currently being prepared. Concepts for high precision polarization and energy measurements exist. These concepts have resulted in detailed system layouts that are included in the RDR description for the Beam Delivery System. The RDR includes both upstream and downstream polarimeters and energy spectrometers for both beams. This provides needed complementarity and redundancy for achieving the precision required, with adequate control and demonstration of systematic errors. The BDS polarimeters and energy spectrometers need to be a joint effort of the ILC BDS team and the Detector collaborations, with collaboration members responsible for the performance and accuracy of the measurements. Details for this collaboration and assigning of responsibilities remain to be worked out. There is also a demonstrated need for Detector physicists to play an active role in the design and evaluation of accelerator components that impact beam polarization and beam energy capabilities, including the polarized source and spin rotator systems. A workshop was held in 2008 on ILC Polarization and Energy measurements, …