A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Energy (DOE) relies on contractors to conduct its mission activities. DOE reimburses these contractors for allowable costs, including the costs of providing pension and other postretirement benefits, such as retiree health care plans. Since the economic downturn, DOE has had to devote significantly more funding toward reimbursing these benefit costs, in part because of a decline in interest rates and asset values that has increased contractor pension contributions. In a challenging budgetary environment, further growth in these costs could put pressure on DOE's mission work. GAO was asked to report on (1) the level of control DOE has over contractor pension and other postretirement benefit costs under its current business model and (2) the changes DOE has adopted since the national economic downturn to manage those costs and the extent to which those changes have enhanced its approach. To do so, GAO reviewed relevant laws, regulations, and DOE guidance; analyzed agency financial data; and interviewed officials."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In November 2010, we issued our opinion on the Federal Housing Finance Agency's (FHFA) fiscal years 2010 and 2009 financial statements. Our report also included our opinion on the effectiveness of FHFA's internal control over financial reporting as of September 30, 2010, and our evaluation of FHFA's compliance with provisions of selected laws and regulations for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2010. The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) created FHFA and gave it responsibility for, among other things, the supervision and oversight of the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae), the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac), and the 12 federal home loan banks. Specifically, FHFA was assigned responsibility for ensuring that the regulated entities operate in a fiscally safe and sound manner, including maintenance of adequate capital and internal controls, in carrying out their housing and community-development finance mission. HERA requires FHFA to annually prepare financial statements, and requires GAO to audit these statements. The purpose of this report is to present additional information on the internal control and accounting procedure issues we identified during our audit of FHFA's fiscal year 2010 …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Through fiscal year 2010, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) permitted its 21 health care networks to develop their own methodologies for allocating resources to medical centers. These methodologies varied considerably. Concerned that network methodologies were not fully transparent to VA headquarters, in fiscal year 2011, VA implemented a new single process for all networks to use to determine allocations to medical centers. VA headquarters retains overall responsibility for oversight of VA's resources, including ensuring networks do not spend more than the resources available. GAO was asked to review how VA networks allocate resources and how VA oversees these resources once they are allocated. In this report, GAO describes (1) VA's new process for networks to use in determining allocations to medical centers, and (2) how VA centrally monitors these resources. To do this work, GAO reviewed VA documents describing the new process and VA's monitoring efforts, in light of federal internal control standards, and interviewed VA officials.."

This report discusses why the federal government's fiscal path is unsustainable and provides an overview of proposals of selected groups that have published detailed recommendations on how to return the federal budget to a sustainable course.

This report discusses in brief the current political state of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as the crisis situation in eastern Congo that has displaced more than 250,000 civilians. It also describes U.S., U.N., and other international efforts to aid in resolving the crisis.

This report discusses the current political conditions of Rwanda, including a brief historical overview. The report also includes information about the poor human rights conditions in Rwanda and U.S. Rwanda relations.

This report discusses the current political conditions of Uganda, which have long been ravaged by the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), an armed rebel group backed by the government of Sudan. In particular, the report focuses on largely unsuccessful Ugandan efforts to resolve the conflict with the LRA, as well as talks with the U.S. under the Bush Administration and the recent suicide bombings in Kampala, Uganda, in July 2010.

This report provides background information and potential issues for Congress on the Littoral Combat Ship (LCS), a relatively inexpensive Navy surface combatant equipped with modular "plug-and-fight" mission packages. The Navy's proposed FY2012 budget requests funding for the procurement of four LCSs. Current issues for Congress concerning the LCS program include changes or potential changes to the composition of LCS mission modules announced by the Navy in January 2011, the combat survivability of the LCS, and hull cracking on LCS-1. Congress's decisions on the LCS program could affect Navy capabilities and funding requirements, and the shipbuilding industrial base.

This report looks at issues faced by the 112th Congress in regards to reauthorization of Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) programs. The House has passed a bill which would authorize programs through FY2014, while the Senate's bill would only last until FY2011. The Senate's bill also proposes an increase in jet fuel tax for general aviation and a new jet fuel surcharge for fractionally owned air crafts. The report covers key issues that need to be addressed for reconciliation between the two bills.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

This report presents an integrated energy system that combines the production of substitute natural gas through coal hydrogasification with an algae process for beneficial carbon dioxide (CO2) use and biofuel production (funded under Department of Energy (DOE) contract DE-FE0001099). The project planned to develop, test, operate and evaluate a 2 ton-per-day coal hydrogasification plant and 25-acre algae farm at the Arizona Public Service (APS) 1000 Megawatt (MW) Cholla coal-fired power plant in Joseph City, Arizona. Conceptual design of the integrated system was undertaken with APS partners Air Liquide (AL) and Parsons. The process engineering was separated into five major areas: flue gas preparation and CO2 delivery, algae farming, water management, hydrogasification, and biofuel production. The process flow diagrams, energy and material balances, and preliminary major equipment needs for each major area were prepared to reflect integrated process considerations and site infrastructure design basis. The total project also included research and development on a bench-scale hydrogasifier, one-dimensional (1-D) kinetic-model simulation, extensive algae stressing, oil extraction, lipid analysis and a half-acre algae farm demonstration at APS?s Redhawk testing facility. During the project, a two-acre algae testing facility with a half-acre algae cultivation area was built at the APS Redhawk 1000 MW natural …

Overview Fast reactors were evaluated to enable the transmutation of transuranic isotopes generated by nuclear energy systems. The motivation for this was that TRU isotopes have high radiotoxicity and relatively long half-lives, making them unattractive for disposal in a long-term geologic repository. Fast reactors provide an efficient means to utilize the energy content of the TRUs while destroying them. An enabling technology that requires research and development is the fabrication metallic fuel containing TRU isotopes using powder metallurgy methods. This project focused upon developing a powder metallurgical fabrication method to produce U-Zr-transuranic (TRU) alloys at relatively low processing temperatures (500ºC to 600ºC) using either hot extrusion or alpha-phase sintering for charecterization. Researchers quantified the fundamental aspects of both processing methods using surrogate metals to simulate the TRU elements. The process produced novel solutions to some of the issues relating to metallic fuels, such as fuel-cladding chemical interactions, fuel swelling, volatility losses during casting, and casting mold material losses. Workscope There were two primary tasks associated with this project: 1. Hot working fabrication using mechanical alloying and extrusion • Design, fabricate, and assemble extrusion equipment • Extrusion database on DU metal • Extrusion database on U-10Zr alloys • Extrusion database on …

An heuristic model for the plasma scrape-off width in H-mode plasmas is introduced. Grad B and curv B drifts into the SOL are balanced against sonic parallel flows out of the SOL, to the divertor plates. The overall particle flow pattern posited is a modification for open field lines of Pfirsch-Shlüter flows to include sinks to the divertors. These assumptions result in an estimated SOL width of ~ 2aρp/R. They also result in a first-principles calculation of the particle confinement time of H-mode plasmas, qualitatively consistent with experimental observations. It is next assumed that anomalous perpendicular electron thermal diffusivity is the dominant source of heat flux across the separatrix, investing the SOL width, defined above, with heat from the main plasma. The separatrix temperature is calculated based on a two-point model balancing power input to the SOL with Spitzer-Härm parallel thermal conduction losses to the divertor. This results in a heuristic closed-form prediction for the power scrape-off width that is in reasonable quantitative agreement both in absolute magnitude and in scaling with recent experimental data from deuterium plasmas. Further work should include full numerical calculations, including all magnetic and electric drifts, as well as more thorough comparison with experimental data.

Fish passage conditions over a modified deflector in Spillbay 20 at John Day Dam were evaluated by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), Portland District, using Sensor Fish devices. The objectives of the study were to describe and compare passage exposure conditions at two spill discharges, 2.4 and 4.0 thousand cubic feet per second (kcfs), identifying potential fish injury regions within the routes, and to evaluate a low-tailwater condition at the 2.4-kcfs discharge. The study was performed in April 2010 concurrent with HI-Z balloon-tag studies by Normandeau Associates, Inc. Sensor Fish data were analyzed to estimate 1) exposure conditions, particularly exposure to severe collision and shear events; 2) differences in passage conditions between treatments; and 3) relationships to live-fish injury and mortality data estimates. Nearly all Sensor Fish significant events were classified as collisions; the most severe occurred at the gate, on the spillbay chute, or at the deflector transition. Collisions in the gate region were observed only during the 2.4-kcfs discharge, when the tainter gate was open 1.2 ft. One shear event was observed during the evaluation, occurring at the deflector transition during passage at the 2.4-kcfs discharge at low tailwater. Flow quality, …

Mycoparasitism, a lifestyle where one fungus is parasitic on another fungus has special relevance when the prey is a plant pathogen, providing a strategy for biological control of pests for plant protection. Probably, the most studied biocontrol agents are species of the genus Hypocrea/Trichoderma.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to events to receive funding through a major events trust fund.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to election procedures and qualifications of members of boards of directors for water supply or sewer service corporations.

In reference 1 the authors described {gamma}-ray holdup assay of a Mossbauer spectroscopy instrument where they utilized two axial symmetric cylindrical shell acquisitions and two disk source acquisitions to determine Am-241 and Np-237 contamination. The measured contents of the two species were determined using a general detector efficiency calibration taken from a 12-inch point source.2 The authors corrected the raw spectra for container absorption as well as for geometry corrections to transform the calibration curve to the applicable axial symmetric cylindrical source - and disk source - of contamination. The authors derived the geometry corrections with exact calculus that are shown in equations (1) and (2) of our Experimental section. A cylindrical shell (oven source) acquisition configuration is described in reference 3, where the authors disclosed this configuration to gain improved sensitivity for holdup measure of U-235 in a ten-chamber oven. The oven was a piece of process equipment used in the Savannah River Plant M-Area Uranium Fuel Fabrication plant for which a U-235 holdup measurement was necessary for its decontamination and decommissioning in 2003.4 In reference 4 the authors calibrated a bare NaI detector for these U-235 holdup measurements. In references 5 and 6 the authors calibrated a bare …

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To accommodate a future need for additional waste disposal facilities at the Savannah River Site, the Solid Waste Management Division (SWMD) designated nine additional plots for development (Kasraii 2007; SRS 2010); these plots are collectively known as the E Area Completion Project (ECP). Subsurface samples were collected from ECP plots 6, 7, 8 and 9 (Figure 1) for chemical and physical property analyses to support Performance Assessment (PA) and Special Analyses (SA) modeling. This document summarizes the sampling and analysis scheme and the resultant data, and provides interpretations of the data particularly in reference to existing soil property data. Analytical data in this document include: gamma log, cone penetrometer log, grain size (sieve and hydrometer), water retention, saturated hydraulic conductivity (falling head permeameter), porosity, dry bulk density, total organic carbon, x-ray diffraction, and x-ray fluorescence data. SRNL provided technical and safety oversight for the fieldwork, which included completion of eight soil borings, four geophysical logs, and the collection of 522 feet of core and 33 Shelby tubes from ECP plots 6, 7, 8, and 9. Boart Longyear provided sonic drilling and logging services. Two soil borings were completed at each location. The first set of boreholes extended into (but did …

The DVL genes represent a new group of plant proteins that influence plant growth and development. Overexpression of DVL1, and other members of the DVL family, causes striking phenotypic changes. The DVL proteins share sequence homology in their C-terminal half. Point mutations in the C-terminal domain show it is necessary and deletion studies demonstrate the C-terminal domain is sufficient to confer the overexpression phenotypes. The phenotypes observed, and the conservation of the protein sequence in the plant kingdom, does suggest the DVL proteins have a role in modulating plant growth and development. Our working hypothesis is the DVL proteins function as regulators of cellular signaling pathways that control growth and development.

In our manuscript, we present a high-quality genome sequence of the Arabidopsis thaliana relative, Arabidopsis lyrata, produced by dideoxy sequencing. We have performed the usual types of genome analysis (gene annotation, dN/dS studies etc. etc.), but this is relegated to the Supporting Information. Instead, we focus on what was a major motivation for sequencing this genome, namely to understand how A. thaliana lost half its genome in a few million years and lived to tell the tale. The rather surprising conclusion is that there is not a single genomic feature that accounts for the reduced genome, but that every aspect centromeres, intergenic regions, transposable elements, gene family number is affected through hundreds of thousands of cuts. This strongly suggests that overall genome size in itself is what has been under selection, a suggestion that is strongly supported by our demonstration (using population genetics data from A. thaliana) that new deletions seem to be driven to fixation.

The Workshop on Accelerators for Heavy Ion Fusion was held at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory May 23-26, 2011. The workshop began with plenary sessions to review the state of the art in HIF (heavy ion fusion), followed by parallel working groups, and concluded with a plenary session to review the results. There were five working groups: IFE (inertial fusion energy) targets, RF approach to HIF, induction accelerator approach to HIF, chamber and driver interface, ion sources and injectors.

The Endangered Species Act has been one of the more contentious environmental laws. This may stem from its strict substantive provisions, which can affect the use of both federal and nonfederal lands and resources. This report discusses oversight issues and legislation introduced in the 112th Congress to address Endangered Species Act implementation and management of endangered and threatened species.