A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Through its commodity program, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) provides commodity foods at no cost to schools taking part in the national school meals programs. Commodities include raw ground beef, cheese, poultry, and fresh produce. Like federal food safety agencies, the commodity program has taken steps designed to reduce microbial contamination that can result in severe illness. GAO was asked to review (1) the extent to which the program's purchasing specifications related to microbial contamination differ from federal regulations, (2) the extent to which specifications for raw ground beef differ from those imposed by some other large purchasers, and (3) examples of schools' practices to help ensure that food is not contaminated. GAO compared the program's purchasing specifications to federal regulations for food sold commercially, gathered information from seven large purchasers of ground beef, and interviewed officials in 18 school districts in five states, selected in part because of their purchasing practices."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) clinicians use expendable medical supplies--disposable items that are generally used one time--and reusable medical equipment (RME), which is designed to be reused for multiple patients. VA has policies that VA medical centers (VAMC) must follow when purchasing such supplies and equipment, tracking these items at VAMCs, and reprocessing--that is, cleaning, disinfecting, and sterilizing--RME. GAO was asked to evaluate (1) purchasing, tracking, and reprocessing requirements in VA policies and (2) VA's oversight of VAMCs' compliance with these requirements. GAO reviewed VA policies and selected two purchasing requirements, two tracking requirements, and two reprocessing requirements. At the six VAMCs GAO visited, GAO interviewed officials and reviewed documents to examine the adequacy of the selected requirements to help ensure veterans' safety. GAO also interviewed officials from VA headquarters and from six Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISN), which oversee VAMCs, and obtained and reviewed documents regarding VA's oversight."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses patient safety incidents at Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical centers and potential strategies to address the underlying causes of those incidents. VA operates one of the largest integrated health care delivery systems in the United States, providing care to over 5.5 million veterans annually. Organized into 21 Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISN), VA's health care system includes 153 VA medical centers (VAMC) nationwide that offer a variety of outpatient, residential, and inpatient services. In providing health care services to veterans, clinicians at VAMCs use reusable medical equipment (RME), which is designed to be reused for multiple patients and includes such equipment as endoscopes and some surgical and dental instruments. Because RME is used when providing care to multiple veterans, this equipment must be reprocessed--that is, cleaned and disinfected or sterilized--between uses. VA has established requirements for VAMCs to follow when reprocessing RME, which are designed, in part, to help ensure the safety of the veterans who receive care at VAMCs. This testimony, based on our May 2011 report, which is being released today, examines issues related to veterans' safety, including (1) selected reprocessing requirements …

Côte d'Ivoire is emerging from a severe political-military crisis that followed a disputed November 28, 2010, presidential runoff election between former president Laurent Gbagbo and his, former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara. Both claimed electoral victory and formed opposing governments. Their rivalry spurred a full-scale civil military conflict in early March 2011, after months of growing political violence. Armed conflict largely ended days after Gbagbo's arrest by pro-Ouattara forces, aided by United Nations (U.N.) and French peacekeepers, but limited residual fighting was continuing to occur as of April 20.

The United States is Colombia's leading trade partner. Colombia accounts for a very small percentage of U.S. trade (0.9% in 2010), ranking 20th among U.S. export markets and 25th as a source of U.S. imports. Economic studies on the impact of a U.S.-Colombia free trade agreement (FTA) have found that, upon full implementation of an agreement, the impact on the United States would be positive but very small due to the small size of the Colombian economy when compared to that of the United States (about 1.9%).

This report begins with a brief examination of clean energy, renewable energy, and alternative energy. It then presents possible selection criteria Congress could use to determine which sources could be eligible for a CES depending on the goal(s) of the CES. The report provides an overview of the energy sources most commonly discussed as potential CES qualifying sources: biomass, fossil fuels (natural gas combined-cycle and coal-fired power plants with carbon capture and sequestration), geothermal resources, nuclear, solar, water, and wind. The report describes where each source can be found in the United States, the estimated quantity available for electricity generation, technologies used to create electricity from the source, advantages and disadvantages of using the source for electricity generation, and policy implications should the source be included in a CES.5 The report also contains a section on energy efficiency and its potential inclusion in a CES.

This report examines formal interagency collaborative arrangements and activities, which are intended to enhance joint efforts and cooperation among independent federal agencies with shared responsibilities and overlapping jurisdictions. This report highlights some of the current challenges posed by HIV/AIDS, TB, and malaria, as well as several crosscutting policy issues that the 112th Congress may consider as it determines U.S. global health funding for these three diseases, including: Health Systems Strengthening, Country Ownership, Research and Development, Monitoring and Evaluation; and Bilateral vs. Multilateral Support.

The construction sector is a major component of the U.S. economy. During the past decade, construction was a prime beneficiary of low interest rates and the housing-led economic boom, but was also one of the largest casualties of the subsequent financial crisis. Construction spending comprised about 7%-8% of U.S. annual economic output from 1995 to mid-2000, reaching nearly 9% of gross domestic product at the peak of the housing run-up in 2006, before declining to about 5% in 2010. Likewise, construction employment ranged from a low of about 4.6 million during the early 1990s to a high of 7.7 million during the 2006 housing boom, and was about 5.5 million in early 2011.

This report discusses the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which provides economic assistance through a competitive selection process to developing nations that are pursuing political and economic reforms in three areas: ruling justly, investing in people, and fostering economic freedom. This report also discusses several concerns related to MCC implementation, including the level of funding to support MCC programs.

This report discusses the free trade agreement (FTA) the United States and Panama signed on June 28, 2007. While Panama's government ratified the FTA in July 2007, the 110th, 111th, and 112th Congresses have not yet implement ratification legislation.

This document compares the performance of various hydrodynamic models on a common benchmark problem, The Corpus Christi Bay benchmark, designed by Texas Water Development Board (TWDB). The benchmark problem includes a data-set for calibration of the model and another data-set for verification of the model. The application of the Finite-Volume Coastal Ocean Model (FVCOM) to this benchmark problem enabled TWDB to evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the model for use in predicting the three-dimensional circulation and salinity transport in bay and estuary systems on the Texas coast. (p. 2).

This document contains the "Jarrel Schwertner Water Supply Corporation (JSWSC)final report for the Regional Water Supply Facility Planning Grant and their response to the Texas Development Boards (TWDB) draft report comment letter."

This report discusses the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC), which provides economic assistance through a competitive selection process to developing nations that are pursuing political and economic reforms in three areas: ruling justly, investing in people, and fostering economic freedom. This report also discusses several concerns related to MCC implementation, including the level of funding to support MCC programs.

Ptychography promises diffraction limited resolution without the need for high resolution lenses. To achieve high resolution one has to solve the phase problem for many partially overlapping frames. Here we review some of the existing methods for solving ptychographic phase retrieval problem from a numerical analysis point of view, and propose alternative methods based on numerical optimization.

Ferrimagnetic Mn{sub 3-x}Co{sub x}Ga compounds have been investigated by magnetic circular dichroism in x-ray absorption (XMCD). Compounds with x > 0.5 crystallize in the CuHg{sub 2}Ti structure. A tetragonal distortion of the cubic structure occurs for x {le} 0.5. For the cubic phase, magnetometry reveals a linearly increasing magnetization of 2x Bohr magnetons per formula unit obeying the generalized Slater-Pauling rule. XMCD confirms the ferrimagnetic character with Mn atoms occupying two different sublattices with antiparallel spin orientation and different degrees of spin localization and identifies the region 0.6 < x {le} 0.8 as most promising for a high spin polarization at the Fermi level. Individual Mn moments on inequivalent sites are compared to theoretical predictions.

HyPerComp Inc. in research collaboration with TEXCEL has set out to build a Virtual Test Blanket Module (VTBM) computational system to address the need in contemporary fusion research for simulating the integrated behavior of the blanket, divertor and plasma facing components in a fusion environment. Physical phenomena to be considered in a VTBM will include fluid flow, heat transfer, mass transfer, neutronics, structural mechanics and electromagnetics. We seek to integrate well established (third-party) simulation software in various disciplines mentioned above. The integrated modeling process will enable user groups to interoperate using a common modeling platform at various stages of the analysis. Since CAD is at the core of the simulation (as opposed to computational meshes which are different for each problem,) VTBM will have a well developed CAD interface, governing CAD model editing, cleanup, parameter extraction, model deformation (based on simulation,) CAD-based data interpolation. In Phase-I, we built the CAD-hub of the proposed VTBM and demonstrated its use in modeling a liquid breeder blanket module with coupled MHD and structural mechanics using HIMAG and ANSYS. A complete graphical user interface of the VTBM was created, which will form the foundation of any future development. Conservative data interpolation via CAD (as …

The local structure and 4f orbital occupancy have been investigated in Ce{sub 1−x}Yb{sub x}CoIn{sub 5} via Yb L{sub III}-edge extended x-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS), Ce and Yb L{sub III}-edge x-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES), and angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy (ARPES) measurements. Yb(III) (4f{sup 13}) is the hole analog of Ce(III) (4f{sup 1}). Yb is found to be strongly intermediate-valent in Ce{sub 1−x}Yb{sub x}CoIn{sub 5} throughout the entire doping range, including pure YbCoIn{sub 5}, with an f-hole occupancy for Yb of n{sub f} ≃ 0.3 (i.e. Yb{sup 2.3+}), independent of Yb concentration and independent of temperature down to T = 20 K. In contrast, the f-electron orbital occupancy for Ce remains close to 1 for all Yb concentrations, suggesting that there is no mutual influence on n{sub f} between neighboring Ce and Yb sites. Likewise, ARPES measurements at 12 K have found that the electronic structure along {Gamma} − X is not sensitive to the Yb substitution, suggesting that the Kondo hybridization of Ce f electrons with the conduction band is not affected by the presence of Yb impurities in the lattice. The emerging picture is that in Ce{sub 1−x}Yb{sub x}CoIn{sub 5} there are two networks, interlaced but independent, that couple …

The extremely halophilic archaea are present worldwide in saline environments and have important biotechnological applications. Ten complete genomes of haloarchaea are now available, providing an opportunity for comparative analysis. We report here the comparative analysis of five newly sequenced haloarchaeal genomes with five previously published ones. Whole genome trees based on protein sequences provide strong support for deep relationships between the ten organisms. Using a soft clustering approach, we identified 887 protein clusters present in all halophiles. Of these core clusters, 112 are not found in any other archaea and therefore constitute the haloarchaeal signature. Four of the halophiles were isolated from water, and four were isolated from soil or sediment. Although there are few habitat-specific clusters, the soil/sediment halophiles tend to have greater capacity for polysaccharide degradation, siderophore synthesis, and cell wall modification. Halorhabdus utahensis and Haloterrigena turkmenica encode over forty glycosyl hydrolases each, and may be capable of breaking down naturally occurring complex carbohydrates. H. utahensis is specialized for growth on carbohydrates and has few amino acid degradation pathways. It uses the non-oxidative pentose phosphate pathway instead of the oxidative pathway, giving it more flexibility in the metabolism of pentoses. These new genomes expand our understanding of haloarchaeal …

Conventional resonant bar tests allow the measurement of seismic properties of rocks and sediments at low frequencies (several kilohertz). However, the tests require a long, slender sample which is often difficult to obtain from the deep subsurface and weak and fractured formations. We present an alternative low-frequency measurement technique to the conventional resonant bar tests. This technique involves a jacketed core sample placed between a pair of long, metal extension rods with attached seismic source and receiver—the same geometry as the split Hopkinson pressure bar test for large-strain, dynamic impact experiments. Because of the added length and mass to the sample, the resonance frequency of the entire system can be lowered significantly, compared to the sample alone. The proposed “Split Hopkinson Resonant Bar (SHRB)” test is applied in two steps. In the first step, extension and torsion-mode resonance frequencies and attenuation of the system are measured. Then, numerical inversions for the compressional and shear wave velocities and attenuation are performed. We initially applied the SHRB test to synthetic materials (plastics) for testing its accuracy, then used it for measuring the seismic velocities and attenuation of a rock core containing supercritical CO{sub 2}, and a sediment core while methane hydrate formed …

This report discusses a variety of issues related to expedited recission measures that may prove of possible interest to congress. It also discusses Expedited Rescission Proposals in the 111th, 112th Congress.

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This report discusses about Côte d’Ivoire which is emerging from a severe political-military crisis that followed a disputed November 28, 2010, Presidential runoff election between former president Laurent Gbagbo and his, former Prime Minister Alassane Ouattara.

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