Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "A genuine U.S. passport is a vital document, permitting its owner to travel freely into and out of the United States, prove U.S. citizenship, obtain further identification documents, and set up bank accounts, among other things. Since May 2005, we have issued several reports identifying significant fraud vulnerabilities in the passport issuance process. This report (1) describes our recent work on passport fraud and (2) summarizes actions the Department of State (State) has indicated it is taking to address the fraud vulnerabilities we identified."

This report discusses in detail the America COMPETES Act, which is intended to increase the nation's investment in research and development (R&D), and in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. This report discusses the funding increases authorized by the act for various relevant institutions, e.g., the National Science Foundation (NSF); the act's education activities intended to enhance the skills of STEM educators; and if Congress will continue to similarly fund the America COMPETES Act in the FY2010 budget.

This report explores various aspects of the Chinese economy, including specific policies that some Members of Congress consider a form of currency manipulation, the U.S.-China economic relationship, and the state of the Chinese economy with respect to the current global economic crisis.

Future light sources based on seeded free electron lasers (FEL) have the potential to increase the soft xray flux by several orders of magnitude with short bunch lengths to probe electron structure and dynamics. A low emittance, high rep-rate radio frequency (RF) photocathode electron gun will generate the electron beam that will require very stringent beam control and manipulation through the superconducting linear accelerator to maintain the high brightness required for an x-ray FEL. The initial or booster cavities of the superconducting radio frequency (SRF) linear accelerator will require stringent control of transverse kicks and higher order modes (HOM) during the beam manipulation and conditioning that is needed for emittance exchange and bunch compression. This SBIR proposal will develop, fabricate and test a continuous-wave SRF booster cryomodule specifically for this application. Phase I demonstrated the technical feasibility of the project by completing the preliminary SRF cavity and cryomodule design and its integration into an R&D test stand for beam studies at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The five-cell bulk niobium cavities operate at 750 MHz, and generate 10 MV each with strong HOM damping and special care to eliminate transverse kicks due to couplers. Due to continuous-wave operation at fairly …

The original funding under this project number was awarded for a period 12/1999 until 12/2002 under the project title Diamond and Hydrogenated Carbons for Advanced Batteries and Fuel Cells: Fundamental Studies and Applications. The project was extended until 06/2003 at which time a renewal proposal was awarded for a period 06/2003 until 06/2008 under the project title Metal/Diamond Composite Thin-Film Electrodes: New Carbon Supported Catalytic Electrodes. The work under DE-FG02-01ER15120 was initiated about the time the PI moved his research group from the Department of Chemistry at Utah State University to the Department of Chemistry at Michigan State University. This DOE-funded research was focused on (i) understanding structure-function relationships at boron-doped diamond thin-film electrodes, (ii) understanding metal phase formation on diamond thin films and developing electrochemical approaches for producing highly dispersed electrocatalyst particles (e.g., Pt) of small nominal particle size, (iii) studying the electrochemical activity of the electrocatalytic electrodes for hydrogen oxidation and oxygen reduction and (iv) conducting the initial synthesis of high surface area diamond powders and evaluating their electrical and electrochemical properties when mixed with a Teflon binder.

We measure changes in the penetration depth {lambda} of the T{sub c} {approx} 6 K superconductor LaFePO. In the process scanning SQUID susceptometry is demonstrated as a technique for accurately measuring local temperature-dependent changes in {lambda}, making it ideal for studying early or difficult-to-grow materials. {lambda} of LaFePO is found to vary linearly with temperature from 0.36 to {approx} 2 K, with a slope of 143 {+-} 15 {angstrom}/K, suggesting line nodes in the superconducting order parameter. The linear dependence up to {approx} T{sub c}/3 is similar to the cuprate superconductors, indicating well-developed nodes.

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.

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report presents the Government Accountability Office's (GAO) Performance Plan for Fiscal Year 2010. In the spirit of the Government Performance and Results Act, this annual plan informs the Congress and the American people about what we expect to accomplish on their behalf in the coming fiscal year. It sets forth our plan to make progress toward achieving our strategic goals for serving the Congress and the American people. This framework not only shows the relationship between our strategic goals and strategic objectives, but also show major themes that could potentially affect our work."

This report analyzes the legal issues associated with religious exemptions to photo identification laws. Although no lawsuits appear to have challenged federal laws with photo requirements, state photo identification laws have been challenged for several decades.

The sum of ionization and charge-exchange cross sections of several gas targets (H2, N2, He, Ne, Kr, Xe, Ar, and water vapor) impacted by 1MeV K+ beam are measured. In a high current ion beam, the self-electric field of the beam is high enough that ions produced from the gas ionization or charge exchange by the ion beam are quickly swept to the sides of accelerator. The flux of the expelled ions is measured by a retarding field analyzer. This allows accurate measuring of the total charge-changing cross sections (ionization plus charge exchange) of the beam interaction with gas. Cross sections for H2, He, and N2 are simulated using classical trajectory Monte Carlo (CTMC) method and compared with the experimental results, showing good agreement.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Service members found unfit for duty due to a service-related illness or injury may be eligible for military disability retirement. When their disability is not stable, however, they may be placed on the military's Temporary Disability Retired List (TDRL) and granted temporary benefits for as long as 5 years. GAO was asked to respond to concerns about TDRL caseloads, management, and impact on servicemembers. To address these concerns, we analyzed TDRL data; interviewed military officials; reviewed laws, regulations, and other relevant documents; and conducted 12 focus groups with temporary retirees. This report examines (1) recent trends in the TDRL caseload size, (2) recent trends in the characteristics of those placed on the TDRL, (3) disability retirement outcomes for TDRL placements, (4) the adequacy of TDRL management, and (5) the adequacy of information provided to TDRL retirees."

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This report provides background information on DDG-1000 (Zumwalt) program. The FY2010 defense appropriations bill, which was enacted as Division C of H.R. 2638/P.L. 110- 329 of September 30, 2008, a consolidated appropriations bill, provided $1,508.8 million in FY2009 DDG-1000 procurement funding, reflecting a decision to procure a third DDG-1000 in FY2009 using split funding (i.e., two-year incremental funding) in FY2009 and FY2010.

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Large-volume cadmium zinc telluride (CZT) radiation detectors would greatly improve radiation detection capabilities and, therefore, attract extensive scientific and commercial interests. CZT crystals with volumes as large as hundreds of centimeters can be achieved today due to improvements in the crystal growth technology. However, the poor performance of large-volume CZT detectors is still a challenging problem affecting the commercialization of CZT detectors and imaging arrays. We have employed Pockels effect measurements and synchrotron X-ray mapping techniques to investigate the performance-limiting factors for large-volume CZT detectors. Experimental results with the above characterization methods reveal the non-uniform distribution of internal electric field of large-volume CZT detectors, which help us to better understand the responsible mechanism for the insufficient carrier collection in large-volume CZT detectors.

We present a study of the decays B{sup 0} {yields} D{sup 0} K*{sup 0} and B{sup 0} {yields} {bar D}{sup 0} K*{sup 0} with K*{sup 0} {yields} K{sup +}{pi}{sup -}. The D{sup 0} and the {bar D}{sup 0} mesons are reconstructed in the final states f = K{sup +} {pi}{sup -}, K{sup +}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup 0}, K{sup +}{pi}{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -} and their charge conjugates. Using a sample of 465 million B{bar B} pairs collected with the BABAR detector at PEP-II asymmetric-energy e{sup +}e{sup -} collider at SLAC, we measure the ratio R{sub ADS} {triple_bond} [{Lambda}({bar B}{sup 0} {yields} [f]{sub D}{bar K}*{sup 0}) + {Lambda}(B{sup 0} {yields} [{bar f}]{sub D}K*{sup 0})]/[{Lambda}({bar B}{sup 0} {yields} [{bar f}]{sub D}{bar K}*{sup 0}) + {Lambda}(B{sup 0} {yields} [f]{sub D}K*{sup 0})] for the three final states. We do not find significant evidence for a signal and set the following limits at 95% probability: R{sub ADS}(K{pi}) < 0.244, R{sub ADS}(K{pi}{pi}{sup 0}) < 0.181 and R{sub ADS}(K{pi}{pi}{pi}) < 0.391. From the combination of these three results, we find that the ratio r{sub S} between the b {yields} u and the b {yields} c amplitudes lies in the range [0.07; 0.41] at 95% probability.

The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009, which the President signed into law on February 17, 2009, provided more than $17 billion in supplemental FY2009 discretionary appropriations for biomedical research, public health, and other health-related programs within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This report discusses the health-related programs and activities funded by ARRA, including details of how the administering HHS agencies and offices plan to allocate, award, and spend the funds.

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: Calculation of the "total return on all investment assets of the permanent school fund" for purposes of article VII, subsection 5(a)(2), Texas Constitution (RQ-0758-GA).