Concerns about potential disruptions in U.S. trade flows due to a global health or security crisis are not new. The possibility of an avian flu pandemic with consequences for global trade is a concern that has received attention recently, although some experts believe there is little cause for alarm. This report considers possible trade disruptions, including possible impacts on trade between the United States and countries and regions that have reported avian influenza infections.

We report the first measurement of the Cu-O bond stretching phonon dispersion in optimally doped Bi2Sr1.6La0.4Cu2O6+delta using inelastic x-ray scattering. We found a softening of this phonon at q=(0.25,0,0) from 76 to 60 meV, similar to the one reported in other cuprates. A comparison with angle-resolved photoemission data on the same sample revealed an excellent agreement in terms of energy and momentum between the angle-resolved photoemission nodal kink and the soft part of the bond stretching phonon. Indeed, we find that the momentum space where a 63+-5 meV kink is observed can be connected with a vector q=(xi,0,0) with xi>= 0.22, corresponding exactly to the soft part of the bond stretching phonon.

This report summarizes China's economic issues and its currency manipulation, intended to make its exports cheaper and imports into China more expensive than they would be under free market conditions.

Many Members of Congress charge that China's policy of accumulating foreign reserves (especially U.S. dollars) to influence the value of its currency constitutes a form of currency manipulation intended to make its exports cheaper and imports into China more expensive than they would be under free market conditions. Although China made modest reforms to its currency policy in 2005, Members contend the forms have not gone far enough and have warned of potential legislative action. This report summarizes the main findings CRS Report RL32165, China's Currency: Economic Issues and Options for U.S. Trade Policy.

This report will provide a brief explanation of how the structure of the review scheme was expected to operate and describes how it has in fact been utilized.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Trade Organization (WTO) approach the issue of "currency manipulation" differently. The IMF Articles of Agreement prohibit countries from manipulating their currency for the purpose of gaining unfair trade advantage, but the IMF cannot force a country to change its exchange rate policies. The WTO has rules against subsidies, but these are very narrow and specific and do not seem to encompass currency manipulation. Several options might be considered for addressing this matter in the future, if policymakers deem this a wise course of action.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has relied on service acquisitions to meet its expansive mission. In fiscal year 2006, DHS spent $12.7 billion to procure services. To improve service acquisition outcomes, federal procurement policy establishes a preference for a performance-based approach, which focuses on developing measurable outcomes rather than prescribing how contractors should perform services. This testimony focuses on how contract outcomes are influenced by how well DHS components have defined and developed contract requirements and performance standards, as well as the need for improved assessment and oversight to ensure better acquisition outcomes. GAO's statement is based on its report being released today, which reviewed judgmentally selected contracts for eight major investments at three DHS components--the Coast Guard, Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)-- totaling $1.53 billion in fiscal years 2005 and 2006; prior GAO and DHS Inspector General reviews; management documents and plans; and related data, including 138 additional contracts, primarily for basic services from the Coast Guard, CBP, TSA, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement."

Department of Energy (DOE) Orders require each DOE site to develop onsite transportation safety documents (OTSDs). The Nevada Test Site approach divided all onsite transfers into two groups with each group covered by a standalone OTSD identified as Non-Nuclear and Nuclear. The Non-Nuclear transfers involve all radioactive hazardous material in less than Hazard Category (HC)-3 quantities and all chemically hazardous materials. The Nuclear transfers involve all radioactive material equal to or greater than HC-3 quantities and radioactive material mated with high explosives regardless of quantity. Both OTSDs comply with DOE O 460.1B requirements. The Nuclear OTSD also complies with DOE O 461.1A requirements and includes a DOE-STD-3009 approach to hazard analysis (HA) and accident analysis as needed. All Nuclear OTSD proposed transfers were determined to be non-equivalent and a methodology was developed to determine if “equivalent safety” to a fully compliant Department of Transportation (DOT) transfer was achieved. For each HA scenario, three hypothetical transfers were evaluated: a DOT-compliant, uncontrolled, and controlled transfer. Equivalent safety is demonstrated when the risk level for each controlled transfer is equal to or less than the corresponding DOT-compliant transfer risk level. In this comparison the typical DOE-STD-3009 risk matrix was modified to reflect transportation …

The next generation of large scale fusion devices--ITER/LMJ/NIF--will require diagnostic components to operate in environments far more severe than those encountered in present facilities. This harsh environment will be induced by fluxes of neutrons, gamma rays, energetic ions, electromagnetic radiation, and in some cases debris and shrapnel, at levels several orders of magnitude higher than those experienced in today's devices. For several years the question of possible synergy between inertial and the magnetic confinement research has been pursued by members of the respective communities. A first joint workshop specifically devoted to the identification and promotion of these synergies was organized in France, at Aix-en-Provence from June 27th to 29th, 2007. The workshop was attended by about 50 invited specialists. The participants identified a number of subject areas where common overlapping interests could benefit from additional interactions and meetings: windows, optical fibers, mirrors, cables, electronic components and 14 MeV neutron sources. In this paper we summarize the findings of these working groups. We put the discussion into context by including a brief description of the environments and the physical effects that have to be handled.

None

None

None

China is a major source of U.S. imports of consumer products (such as toys) and an increasingly important supplier of various food products. Reports of unsafe seafood, pet food, toys, tires, and other products imported from China over the past year or so have raised concern in the United States over the health, safety, and quality of imported Chinese products. This report provides an overview of this issue and implications for U.S.-China trade relations.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "To address the challenges that the nation faces, it will be important for federal agencies to change their cultures and create the institutional capacity to become high-performing organizations. This includes recruiting and retaining a federal workforce able to create, sustain, and thrive in organizations that are flatter, results-oriented, and externally focused. In 2001, GAO identified strategic human capital management as a governmentwide high-risk area because federal agencies lacked a strategic approach to human capital management that integrated human capital efforts with their missions and program goals. Although progress has been made since that time, strategic human capital management still remains a high-risk area. This testimony, based on a large body of completed work issued from January 2001 through April 2008, focuses on (1) challenges that federal agencies have faced in recruiting and hiring talented employees, (2) progress in addressing these challenges, and (3) additional actions that are needed to strengthen recruiting and hiring efforts. In its prior reports, GAO has made a range of recommendations to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM)--the government's personnel agency--and to agencies in such areas as hiring, workforce planning, and diversity management; a …

Cumulative reaction probability (CRP) calculations provide a viable computational approach to estimate reaction rate coefficients. However, in order to give meaningful results these calculations should be done in many dimensions (ten to fifteen). This makes CRP codes memory intensive. For this reason, these codes use iterative methods to solve the linear systems, where a good fraction of the execution time is spent on matrix-vector multiplication. In this paper, we discuss the tensor product form of applying the system operator on a vector. This approach shows much better performance and provides huge savings in memory as compared to the explicit sparse representation of the system matrix.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Interagency contracting--using another agency's contracts or contracting services--can provide agencies with opportunities to streamline the procurement process and achieve savings. However, GAO designated the management of interagency contracting a high-risk area in 2005 due, in part, to a lack of reliable data on its use and of clarity regarding contract management responsibilities. In 2002, the Department of State (State) issued the State First policy, requiring domestic bureaus to obtain approval from State acquisition officials before paying other agencies for contract support services. Under the Comptroller General's authority to conduct evaluations on his own initiative, GAO evaluated State's 1) insight into its use of interagency contracts, 2) policies on deciding when to use assisted interagency contracts, and 3) ability to ensure oversight. GAO's work included reviewing regulations, analyzing interagency contracting data, and conducting 10 case studies of direct and assisted interagency contracts that represented a range of State bureaus and servicing agencies."

None

A neutron bang time detector consisting of a scintillator, light pipe, photomultiplier tube (PMT), and high-bandwidth oscilloscope has been implemented on the 60-beam, 30-kJ OMEGA Laser Facility at the University of Rochester's Laboratory for Laser Energetics. Light from the scintillator, located 23 cm from the target, is transmitted outside the target bay through a 9.6-m-long, 2-in.-diam polished stainless steel pipe to the PMT. The PMT signal is recorded by two channels of a 6-GHz, 10-GS/s Tektronix 6604 oscilloscope. The OMEGA optical fiducial pulse train is recorded on the third oscilloscope channel using a fast photodiode to provide the timing reference to the laser. The bang-time detector is absolutely calibrated in time and is able to measure bang time for neutron yields above 1 x 10{sup 9} with accuracy of better than 25 ps.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Physical infrastructure is critical to the nation's economy and affects the daily life of virtually all Americans--from facilitating the movement of goods and people within and beyond U.S. borders to providing clean drinking water. However, this infrastructure--including aviation, highway, transit, rail, water, and dam infrastructure--is under strain. Estimates to repair, replace, or upgrade aging infrastructure as well as expand capacity to meet increased demand top hundreds of billions of dollars. Calls for increased investment in infrastructure come at a time when traditional funding for infrastructure projects is increasingly strained, and the federal government's fiscal outlook is worse than many may understand. This testimony discusses (1) challenges associated with the nation's surface transportation, aviation, water, and dam infrastructure, and the principles GAO has identified to help guide efforts to address these challenges and (2) existing and proposed options to fund investments in the nation's infrastructure. This statement is primarily based on a body of work GAO has completed for the Congress over the last several years. To supplement this existing work, GAO also interviewed Department of Transportation officials to obtain up-to-date information on the status of the Highway Trust …

This project was a collaboration between The Energy & Environmental Research Center (EERC) and Chugachmiut – A Tribal organization Serving the Chugach Native People of Alaska and funded by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Tribal Energy Program. It was conducted to determine the economic and technical feasibility for implementing a biomass energy system to service the Chugachmiut community of Port Graham, Alaska. The Port Graham tribe has been investigating opportunities to reduce energy costs and reliance on energy imports and support subsistence. The dramatic rise in the prices of petroleum fuels have been a hardship to the village of Port Graham, located on the Kenai Peninsula of Alaska. The Port Graham Village Council views the forest timber surrounding the village and the established salmon industry as potential resources for providing biomass energy power to the facilities in their community. Benefits of implementing a biomass fuel include reduced energy costs, energy independence, economic development, and environmental improvement. Fish oil–diesel blended fuel and indoor wood boilers are the most economical and technically viable options for biomass energy in the village of Port Graham. Sufficient regional biomass resources allow up to 50% in annual heating savings to the user, displacing up to …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is responsible for overseeing direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising of prescription drugs, which includes a range of media, such as television, magazines, and the Internet. If FDA identifies a violation of laws or regulations in a DTC advertising material, the agency may issue a regulatory letter asking the drug company to take specific actions. In 2002, GAO reported on delays in FDA's issuance of regulatory letters. GAO was asked to discuss trends in FDA's oversight of DTC advertising and the actions FDA has taken when it identifies violations. This statement is based on GAO's 2006 report, Prescription Drugs: Improvements Needed in FDA's Oversight of Direct-to-Consumer Advertising, GAO-07-54 (November 16, 2006). In this statement, GAO discusses the (1) DTC advertising materials FDA reviews, (2) FDA's process for issuing regulatory letters citing DTC advertising materials and the number of letters issued, and (3) the effectiveness of FDA's regulatory letters at limiting the dissemination of false or misleading DTC advertising. For its 2006 report, GAO examined FDA data on the advertising materials the agency received and reviewed the regulatory letters it issued citing prescription drug promotion from …

This study estimated energy, environmental and consumer economic impacts of U.S. Federal residential energy efficiency standards that became effective in the 1988-2006 period, and of energy efficiency standards for fluorescent lamp ballasts and distribution transformers. These standards have been the subject of in-depth analyses conducted as part of DOE's standards rulemaking process. This study drew on those analyses, but updated certain data and developed a common framework and assumptions for all of the products in order to estimate realized impacts and to update projected impacts. It also performed new analysis for the first (1990) fluorescent ballast standards, which had been introduced in the NAECA legislation without a rulemaking. We estimate that the considered standards will reduce residential/ commercial primary energy consumption and carbon dioxide emissions in 2030 by 4percent compared to the levels expected without any standards. The reduction for the residential sector is larger, at 8percent. The estimated cumulative energy savings from the standards amount to 39 quads by 2020, and 63 quads by 2030. The standards will also reduce emissions of carbon dioxide by considerable amounts.The estimated cumulative net present value of consumer benefit amounts to $241 billion by 2030, and grows to $269 billion by 2045. The …

The benchmark, ab initio quantum mechanical methods for molecular structure and spectra are now recognized to be coupled-cluster theory. To benefit from the transiiton to tera- and petascale computers, such coupled-cluster methods must be created to run in a scalable fashion. This Workshop, held as a aprt of the 48th annual Sanibel meeting, at St. Simns, Island, GA, addressed that issue. Representatives of all the principal scientific groups who are addressing this topic were in attendance, to exchange information about the problem and to identify what needs to be done in the future. This report summarized the conclusions of the workshop.

This report discusses rising food prices that are having impacts across the world, but especially among poor people in the low-income developing countries. The report addresses several issues, such as: Why Are Food Prices Increasing? How Countries Have Responded? Food Aid Funding Shortfalls, and the U.S. Response to Food Aid Funding Shortfalls.