A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Census Bureau (Bureau) issued significant changes to rules governing the records that communities use to challenge the Bureau's population estimates. Previously, the Bureau routinely accepted all challenges, largely without regard to the data sources cited or provided so long as they supported the calculations and covered the appropriate reporting periods. According to Bureau officials, these changes are based on research that shows that estimates based on some methods and records (e.g., births, deaths, and migration) are substantially more accurate than estimates based on others. Among other changes, the Bureau modified procedures so that challenges by subcounty governments to the Bureau's estimates of people living in housing units will no longer affect countylevel population estimates. Moving forward, any such challenge resulting in an increase in the estimate of a subcounty population will be offset by a downward revision to the population estimate of all other communities in the same county. Also, the Bureau plans to routinely review population challenges in light of each community's population growth trend.Corroborating data will be required for challenges inconsistent with the trend."

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate congratulating Johnny Manziel of Texas A&M University on winning the 2012 Heisman Trophy.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate recognizing Municipal Government Day at the State Capitol.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate in memory of the Honorable M. A. Taylor of Waco.

As extreme-ultraviolet lithography (EUVL) approaches introduction at the 22-nm half-pitch node, several key aspects of absorber height effects remain unexplored. In particular, sidewall angle (SWA) restrictions based on the height of the mask absorber has not yet been clearly defined. In addition, the effects of absorber height on line-edge roughness (LER) from shadowing has not been examined. We make an initial investigation into how tight SWA constraints are and the extent to which shadow LER alters basic LER. Our approach to SWA aims to find SWA restrictions based on 10% of the total CD error budget (10% of CD). Thus, we allot the SWA budget a {+-}0.2nm tolerance for 22nm half-pitch. New with EUVL is the off-axis illumination system. One potential pitfall that must be carefully monitored is the effect of mask absorber height blocking light from reaching, and therefore, correctly detecting, the base edge position of a feature. While mask features can correctly compensate sizing to target at the wafer, the effects of this shadowing on LER have not yet been investigated. Specifically, shadow LER may exacerbate or mitigate the inherent LER on the mask. Shadowing may also cause a difference in the observed LER on the right and …

This report discusses the current debate over "net neutrality." While there is no single accepted definition of "net neutrality," most agree that any such definition should include the general principles that owners of the networks that compose and provide access to the Internet should not control how consumers lawfully use that network, and they should not be able to discriminate against content provider access to that network.

Monosodium titanate (MST) for use in the Actinide Removal Process (ARP) must be qualified and verified in advance. A single qualification sample for each batch of material is sent to SRNL for analysis, as well as a statistical sampling of verification samples. The Harrell Industries Lot No.120111 qualification and the first 12 verification samples met all the requirements in the specification indicating the material is acceptable for use in the process. Analyses of Pail 125 verification sample fails the criteria for solids content and has measurably lower pH, density, and total bottle weight. The verification sample for Pail 125 was retested for weight percent solids after checking that all of the solids had been suspended. The sample again failed to meet acceptance criteria. SRNL recommends accepting Pails 1 through 120. Pails 121 through 125 should be rejected and returned to the vendor.

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The operators of electrical grids, sometimes referred to as Balancing Authorities (BA), typically make critical decisions on how to most reliably and economically balance electrical load and generation in time frames ranging from a few minutes to six hours ahead. At higher levels of wind power generation, there is an increasing need to improve the accuracy of 0- to 6-hour ahead wind power forecasts. Forecasts on this time scale have typically been strongly dependent on short-term trends indicated by the time series of power production and meteorological data from a wind farm. Additional input information is often available from the output of Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) models and occasionally from off-site meteorological towers in the region surrounding the wind generation facility. A widely proposed approach to improve short-term forecasts is the deployment of off-site meteorological towers at locations upstream from the wind generation facility in order to sense approaching wind perturbations. While conceptually appealing, it turns out that, in practice, it is often very difficult to derive significant benefit in forecast performance from this approach. The difficulty is rooted in the fact that the type, scale, and amplitude of the processes controlling wind variability at a site change from day …

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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 the United States and with regional issues.

This report discusses the case of Bond v. United States, and implications in regards to the Necessary and Proper Clause. Carol Anne Bond, upon discovering that her husband had impregnated another woman, repeatedly dusted the woman's mail box, front door knob, and car door handles with a toxic chemical. Mrs. Bond was indicted in federal court and pled guilty to possessing a chemical weapon, but reserved the right to appeal. The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit rejected her constitutional challenge. A concurring member of the panel, however, urged the Supreme Court to clarify the nearly century-old pronouncement in Missouri v. Holland.

This report focuses on the first major step in managing border-related risks: assessing the risk posed by different types of threats at U.S. borders.

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.

In nuclear material processing facilities, it is often necessary to balance the competing demands of accuracy and throughput. While passive neutron multiplicity counting is the preferred method for relatively fast assays of plutonium, the presence of low-Z impurities (fluorine, beryllium, etc.) rapidly erodes the assay precision of passive neutron counting techniques, frequently resulting in unacceptably large total measurement uncertainties. Conversely, while calorimeters are immune to these impurity effects, the long count times required for high accuracy can be a hindrance to efficiency. The higher uncertainties in passive neutron measurements of impure material are driven by the resulting large (>>2) {alpha}-values, defined as the ({alpha},n):spontaneous fission neutron emission ratio. To counter impurity impacts for high-{alpha} materials, a known-{alpha} approach may be adopted. In this method, {alpha} is determined for a single item using a combination of gamma-ray and calorimetric measurements. Because calorimetry is based on heat output, rather than a statistical distribution of emitted neutrons, an {alpha}-value determined in this way is far more accurate than one determined from passive neutron counts. This fixed {alpha} value can be used in conventional multiplicity analysis for any plutonium-bearing item having the same chemical composition and isotopic distribution as the original. With the results …

This report examines the extent of the security problems in Central America, the efforts undertaken by Central government to address them, and U.S. support for Central American efforts through the Central America Regional Security Initiative.

Studies of the chemical properties of superheavy elements (SHE) pose interesting challenges due to their short half-lives and low production rates. Chemical systems must have extremely fast kinetics, fast enough kinetics to be able to examine the chemical properties of interest before the SHE decays to another nuclide. To achieve chemistry on such time scales, the chemical system must also be easily automated. Most importantly however, a chemical system must be developed which provides suitable separation and kinetics before an on-line study of a SHE can be performed. Relativistic effects make studying the chemical properties of SHEs interesting due to the impact these effects could have on the SHEs chemical properties. Relativistic effects arise when the velocity of the s orbital electrons approach the speed of light. As this velocity increases, the Bohr radius of the inner electron orbitals decreases and there is an increase in the particles mass. This contraction results in a destabilization of the energy of the outer d and f electron orbitals (5f and 6d in the case of SHE), which can cause these to expand due to their increased shielding from the nuclear charge. Another relativistic effect is the spin-orbit splitting for p, d, and …

This report discusses legal implications of the Concealed Carry Reciprocity Act of 2017 which was passed by the House in December 2017.

This Closure Report (CR) presents information supporting closure of the 92-Acre Area, which includes Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 111, 'Area 5 WMD Retired Mixed Waste Pits.' This CR provides documentation supporting the completed corrective actions and confirmation that the closure objectives were met. This CR complies with the requirements of the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order (FFACO) (FFACO, 1996 [as amended March 2010]). Closure activities began in January 2011 and were completed in January 2012. Closure activities were conducted according to Revision 1 of the Corrective Action Decision Document/Corrective Action Plan (CADD/CAP) for the 92-Acre Area and CAU 111 (U.S. Department of Energy, National Nuclear Security Administration Nevada Site Office [NNSA/NSO], 2010). The following closure activities were performed: (1) Construct an engineered evapotranspiration cover over the boreholes, trenches, and pits in the 92-Acre Area; (2) Install use restriction (UR) warning signs, concrete monuments, and subsidence survey monuments; and (3) Establish vegetation on the covers. UR documentation is included as Appendix C of this report. The post-closure plan is presented in detail in Revision 1 of the CADD/CAP for the 92-Acre Area and CAU 111, and the requirements are summarized in Section 5.2 of this document. When the next request …

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The program is directed toward development of new computational approaches to photoprocesses in nanostructures whose geometry and composition are tailored to obtain desirable optical responses. The emphasis of this specific program is on the development of computational methods and prediction and computational theory of new phenomena of optical energy transfer and transformation on the extreme nanoscale (down to a few nanometers).

This report discusses the evolution of a national critical infrastructure policy and the institutional structures established to implement it. Critical infrastructure includes physical assets used to produce and distribute services such as electricity (including the power plants and electric grid), communications, and computers. The report highlights five issues of Congressional concern: identifying critical assets; assessing vulnerabilities and risks; allocating resources; information sharing; and regulation.

This report discusses the missile defense program and whether current policy or program direction might change. The FY2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA, P.L. 114-328) made several notable changes that could have significant effects on the direction of U.S. BMD policy and programs.