This report collects statistics from a variety of sources on casualties sustained during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), which began on October 7, 2001, and is ongoing. OEF actions take place primarily in Afghanistan, but OEF casualties also include American casualties in other countries, listed within this report.

A series of developmental AFA alloys was selected for study based on: 25 Ni wt.% (alloys A-F), 20 wt% Ni (alloys G-H), and 12 Ni wt.% (alloys I-L). An emphasis in this work was placed on the lower alloy content direction for AFA alloys to reduce alloy raw material cost, rather than more highly alloyed and costly AFA alloys for higher temperature performance. Alloys A-D explored the effects of Al (3-4 wt.%) and C (0.05-0.2 wt.%) in the Fe-25Ni-14Cr-2Mn-2Mo-1W-1Nb wt.% base range; alloys E and F explored the effects of removing costly Mo and W additions in a Fe-25Ni-14Cr-4Al-2.5Nb-2Mn-0.2C base, alloys G and H examined Nb (1-2.5wt.%) and removal of Mo, W in a Fe-20Ni-14Cr-3Al-2Mn-0.2 C wt.% base; and alloys I-L examined effects of C (0.1-0.2 wt.%) and Mn (5-10 wt.%) on a low cost Fe-14Cr-12Ni-3Cu-2.5Al wt.% base (no Mo, W additions). Creep testing resulted in elemental trends that included the beneficial effect of higher carbon and lower niobium in 20-25%Ni AFA alloys and, the beneficial of lower Mn in 12%Ni AFA alloys. Corrosion tests in steam and sulfidation-oxidation environments showed, in general, these alloys were capable of a ten-fold improvement in performance when compared to conventional austenitic stainless steels. …

This report discusses the U.S. policy toward the Central Asia. It provides background information and most recent developments in Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. U.S. objectives have included promoting free markets, democratization, human rights, energy development, and the forging of East-West and Central Asia-South Asia trade links.

This report summarizes the further findings from the assessments of current status and future needs in code qualification and licensing of reference structural materials and new advanced alloys for advanced recycling reactors (ARRs) in support of Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative (AFCI). The work is a combined effort between Argonne National Laboratory (ANL) and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) with ANL as the technical lead, as part of Advanced Structural Materials Program for AFCI Reactor Campaign. The report is the second deliverable in FY08 (M505011401) under the work package 'Advanced Materials Code Qualification'. The overall objective of the Advanced Materials Code Qualification project is to evaluate key requirements for the ASME Code qualification and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approval of structural materials in support of the design and licensing of the ARR. Advanced materials are a critical element in the development of sodium reactor technologies. Enhanced materials performance not only improves safety margins and provides design flexibility, but also is essential for the economics of future advanced sodium reactors. Code qualification and licensing of advanced materials are prominent needs for developing and implementing advanced sodium reactor technologies. Nuclear structural component design in the U.S. must comply with the ASME Boiler …

Report on a flood protection plan for the Cottonwood Creek and Fish Creek Watersheds in the City of Arlington, Texas.

This report provides examples of recent Administration "combating violent extremism" (CVE) activity and examines some of the risks and challenges evident in the Strategic Implementation Plan for Empowering Local Partners to Prevent Violent Extremism in the United States' (SIP's) three objectives. The report also diagrams and briefly discusses the "future activities and efforts" outlined in the SIP for each of these three objectives.

In August 2011, the Obama Administration announced its counter-radicalization strategy. It is devised to address the forces that influence some people living in the United States to acquire and hold radical or extremist beliefs that may eventually compel them to commit terrorism. This is the first such strategy for the federal government, which calls this effort “combating violent extremism” (CVE). This report provides examples of recent Administration CVE activity and examines some of the risks and challenges evident in the SIP's three objectives. The report also diagrams and briefly discusses the “future activities and efforts” outlined in the SIP for each of these three objectives. A number of areas may call for oversight from Congress. These include the following: picking partners and establishing "rules of the road," intervention with at-risk individuals, identifying programs to assist grassroots CVE efforts, countering extremist ideas, the lack of a lead agency, and transparency.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has conducted about 2,800 security surveys and vulnerability assessments on critical infrastructure and key resources (CIKR). DHS directs its protective security advisors to contact owners and operators of high-priority CIKR to offer to conduct surveys and assessments. However, DHS is not positioned to track the extent to which these are performed at high-priority CIKR because of inconsistencies between the databases used to identify these assets and those used to identify surveys and assessments conducted. GAO compared the two databases and found that of the 2,195 security surveys and 655 vulnerability assessments conducted for fiscal years 2009 through 2011, 135 surveys and 44 assessments matched and another 106 surveys and 23 assessments were potential matches for high-priority facilities. GAO could not match additional high-priority facilities because of inconsistencies in the way data were recorded in the two databases, for example, assets with the same company name had different addresses or an asset at one address had different names. DHS officials acknowledged that the data did not match and have begun to take actions to improve the collection and organization of the …

This goal of this project was to develop cyber security audit and attack detection tools for industrial control systems (ICS). Digital Bond developed and released a tool named Bandolier that audits ICS components commonly used in the energy sector against an optimal security configuration. The Portaledge Project developed a capability for the PI Historian, the most widely used Historian in the energy sector, to aggregate security events and detect cyber attacks.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "At the departmental level, neither the Department of Defense (DOD) nor the individual military departments know the extent to which weapon system programs rely on long-term maintenance contracts. DOD policy requires DOD and the military departments to approve acquisition strategies and lifecycle sustainment plans, which include information on contractor support, but DOD officials reported that they do not collect information on the use of long-term contracts. DOD’s limited visibility over long-term maintenance contracts reflects broader DOD challenges with managing services acquisition. GAO’s past work has identified the need for DOD to obtain better data on its contracted services to enable it to make more strategic decisions. DOD is considering a number of policy- and data-related initiatives that could improve its knowledge of these contracts, but these efforts are in the early stages of development."

The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) located in Grand Forks, North Dakota, has operated the National Center for Hydrogen Technology� (NCHT�) since 2005 under a Cooperative Agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL). The EERC has a long history of hydrogen generation and utilization from fossil fuels, and under the NCHT Program, the EERC has accelerated its research on hydrogen generation and utilization topics. Since the NCHT�s inception, the EERC has received more than $65 million in funding for hydrogen-related projects ($24 million for projects in the NCHT, which includes federal and corporate partner development funds) involving more than 85 partners (27 with the NCHT). The NCHT Program�s nine activities span a broad range of technologies that align well with the Advanced Fuels Program goals and, specifically, those described in the Hydrogen from Coal Program research, development, and demonstration (RD&D) plan that refers to realistic testing of technologies at adequate scale, process intensification, and contaminant control. A number of projects have been completed that range from technical feasibility of several hydrogen generation and utilization technologies to public and technical education and outreach tools. Projects under the NCHT have produced hydrogen from natural gas, …

In this report, we summarize the research in physics of elementary particles conducted by the Florida Tech DOE supported group at the CMS experiment at CERN, during the last 3-year cycle under this grant.

The focus of this research project was atoms with scattering lengths that are large compared to the range of their interactions and which therefore exhibit universal behavior at sufficiently low energies. Recent dramatic advances in cooling atoms and in manipulating their scattering lengths have made this phenomenon of practical importance for controlling ultracold atoms and molecules. This research project was aimed at developing a systematically improvable method for calculating few-body observables for atoms with large scattering lengths starting from the universal results as a first approximation. Significant progress towards this goal was made during the five years of the project.

The goal of this study was to validate the previously observed high biological kill performance of PAEROSOL, a semi-dry, micro-aerosol decontamination technology, against common HAI in a non-human subject trial within a hospital setting of Madigan Army Medical Center (MAMC) on Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Tacoma, Washington. In addition to validating the disinfecting efficacy of PAEROSOL, the objectives of the trial included a demonstration of PAEROSOL environmental safety, (i.e., impact to hospital interior materials and electronic equipment exposed during testing) and PAEROSOL parameters optimization for future deployment.

Final report of a project to determine habitat parameters influencing distributions of Golden Orb (Q.aurea) mussels in the Guadalupe-San Antonio river basin: "The objectives of this study can be summarized by the following task: 1) Identify four samples with sufficient populations of Q.aurea to evaluate habitat parameters. 2) Evaluate the distribution of Q.aurea at selected sample sites in relation to habitat parameters and monitor flow conditions at these locations. 3) Calculate the shear stress ratio (RSS) for multiple flow conditions and the relationship with mussel density at selected sites. 4) Compile and summarize life history information for Q.aurea and related species" (p. 8).

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory evaluated juvenile salmonid passage and distribution at Lookout Point Dam (LOP) on the Middle Fork Willamette River for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District (USACE), to provide data to support decisions on long-term measures to enhance downstream passage at LOP and others dams in USACE's Willamette Valley Project. This study was conducted in response to the listing of Upper Willamette River Spring Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) and Upper Willamette River steelhead (O. mykiss) as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. We conducted a hydroacoustic evaluation of juvenile salmonid passage and distribution at LOP during February 2010 through January 2011. Findings from this 1 year of study should be applied carefully because annual variation can be expected due to variability in adult salmon escapement, egg-to-fry and fry-to-smolt survival rates, reservoir rearing and predation, dam operations, and weather. Fish passage rates for smolt-size fish (> {approx}90 mm and < 300 mm) were highest during December-January and lowest in mid-summer through early fall. Passage peaks were also evident in early spring, early summer, and late fall. During the entire study period, an estimated total of 142,463 fish {+-} 4,444 (95% confidence interval) smolt-size fish passed through turbine …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "During the 5-year period from fiscal year 2007 through 2011, the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Office of Inspector General (OIG) had budget and staffing resources that were consistent with other OIGs, and a monetary return for each budget dollar which exceeded the average return for Cabinet-level OIGs. During the 5-year period, the HUD OIG had total budgetary resources ranging from $121 million to $144 million, consistently ranking it fifth among all Cabinet-level OIGs. However, while the total budgetary resources for all Cabinet-level OIGs increased by about 45 percent over the 5-year period, the HUD OIG’s total budgetary resources increased by 19 percent. In terms of staffing, the HUD OIG’s full-time-equivalent staff (FTE) consistently ranked in the top four or five of the Cabinet-level OIGs. Also, the HUD OIG’s FTEs increased by about 13 percent during the 5-year period, as compared to about a 17 percent average increase for all Cabinet-level OIGs. During the same 5-year period, the HUD OIG reported an estimated average dollar return of about $13.62 for each HUD OIG total budgetary dollar received, while the 16 OIGs in the Cabinet-level …

The Reference Site (RS) study is part of the research, monitoring, and evaluation (RME) effort developed by the Action Agencies (Bonneville Power Administration [BPA], U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District [USACE], and U.S. Bureau of Reclamation) in response to Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS) Biological Opinions (BiOp). While the RS study was initiated in 2007, data have been collected at relatively undisturbed reference wetland sites in the LCRE by PNNL and collaborators since 2005. These data on habitat structural metrics were previously summarized to provide baseline characterization of 51 wetlands throughout the estuarine and tidal freshwater portions of the 235-km LCRE; however, further analysis of these data has been limited. Therefore, in 2011, we conducted additional analyses of existing field data previously collected for the Columbia Estuary Ecosystem Restoration Program (CEERP) - including data collected by PNNL and others - to help inform the multi-agency restoration planning and ecosystem management work underway in the LCRE.

This study, supported by the US Department of Energy, Wind Powering America Program, Maryland Department of Natural Resources and Chesapeake Bay Foundation, analyzed barriers to wind energy development in the Mid-Atlantic region along with options for overcoming or mitigating them. The Mid-Atlantic States including Delaware, Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia, have excellent wind energy potential and growing demand for electricity, but only two utility-scale projects have been installed to date. Reasons for this apathetic development of wind resources were analyzed and quantified for four markets. Specific applications are: 1) Appalachian mountain ridgeline sites, 2) on coastal plains and peninsulas, 3) at shallow water sites in Delaware and Chesapeake Bays, Albemarle and Pamlico Sounds, and 4) at deeper water sites off the Atlantic coast. Each market has distinctly different opportunities and barriers. The primary barriers to wind development described in this report can be grouped into four categories; state policy and regulatory issues, wind resource technical uncertainty, economic viability, and public interest in environmental issues. The properties of these typologies are not mutually independent and do interact. The report concluded that there are no insurmountable barriers to land-based wind energy projects and they could be economically viable today. Likewise potential sites …

The study reported here was conducted by researchers at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW), the University of Washington (UW), and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Portland District (USACE). This research project was initiated in 2007 by the Bonneville Power Administration to investigate critical uncertainties regarding juvenile salmon ecology in shallow tidal freshwater habitats of the lower Columbia River. However, as part of the Washington Memorandum of Agreement, the project was transferred to the USACE in 2010. In transferring from BPA to the USACE, the focus of the tidal freshwater research project shifted from fundamental ecology toward the effectiveness of restoration in the Lower Columbia River and estuary (LCRE). The research is conducted within the Action Agencies Columbia Estuary Ecosystem Restoration Program (CEERP). Data reported herein spans the time period May 2010 to September 2011.

The principle objective of this project was to characterize and test current and next generation high performance surfactants for improved chemical flooding technology, focused on reservoirs in the Pennsylvanian-aged (Penn) sands. In order to meet this objective the characteristic curvatures (Cc) of twenty-eight anionic surfactants selected for evaluation for use in chemical flooding formulations were determined. The Cc values ranged from -6.90 to 2.55 with the majority having negative values. Crude oil samples from nine Penn sand reservoirs were analyzed for several properties pertinent to surfactant formulation for EOR application. These properties included equivalent alkane carbon numbers, total acid numbers, and viscosity. The brine samples from these same reservoirs were analyzed for several cations and for total dissolved solids. Surfactant formulations were successfully developed for eight reservoirs by the end of the project period. These formulations were comprised of a tertiary mixture of anionic surfactants. The identities of these surfactants are considered proprietary, but suffice to say the surfactants in each mixture were comprised of varying chemical structures. In addition to the successful development of surfactant formulations for EOR, there were also two successful single-well field tests conducted. There are many aspects that must be considered in the development and …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Under section 319 of the Clean Water Act, state-selected projects to reduce nonpoint source pollution have helped restore more than 350 impaired water bodies since 2000, but other projects have encountered significant challenges. According to GAO survey results, 28 percent of projects did not achieve all objectives originally identified in the project proposal (e.g., implementing the desired number of pollution reduction practices), while many that did so still faced considerable challenges. About half such challenges were beyond staff control (e.g., bad weather or staff turnover), but the other half were challenges that generally could have been identified and mitigated before projects were proposed and selected for funding, such as gaining access to desired properties. In one state, for example, $285,000 in section 319 funds was to subsidize the cost to homeowners of repairing damaged septic systems. Once the grant was awarded, however, one homeowner signed up to participate."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of State’s (State) Office of the U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator (OGAC), the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) have evaluated a wide variety of President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) program activities, demonstrating a clear commitment to evaluation. However, GAO found that the findings, conclusions, and recommendations were not fully supported in many PEPFAR evaluations. Agency officials provided nearly 500 evaluations addressing activities ongoing in fiscal years 2008 through 2010 in all program areas relating to HIV/AIDS treatment, prevention, and care. GAO’s assessment of a selected sample of seven OGAC-managed evaluations found that they generally adhered to common evaluation standards, as did most of a selected sample of 15 evaluations managed by CDC and USAID headquarters. Based on this assessment, GAO determined that these evaluations generally contained fully supported findings, conclusions, and recommendations. However, based on a similar assessment of a randomly selected sample taken from 436 evaluations provided by PEPFAR country and regional teams, GAO estimated that 41 percent contained fully supported findings, conclusions, and recommendations, …

The gross federal debt, which represents the federal government's total outstanding debt, consists of two types of debt: (1) debt held by the public and (2) debt held in government accounts, also known as intragovernmental debt. Federal government borrowing increases for two primary reasons: (1) budget deficits and (2) investments of any federal government account surpluses in Treasury securities, as required by law. Nearly all of this debt is subject to the statutory limit. The federal debt limit currently stands at $14,294 billion.