From Summary: "The report then reviews various legislative proposals affecting network access to assess their potential impact on broadband network provider's ability to mange their networks and to practice anticompetitive strategic behavior."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "We are pleased to be here today to assist Congressin monitoring progress on the Capitol Visitor Center (CVC) project. Our remarks will focus on the Architect of the Capitol's (AOC) progress in achieving selected project milestones and in managing the project schedule since Congress's May 24, 2006, hearing on the project. As part of this discussion, we will address a number of key challenges and risks that continue to face the project, as well as actions AOC has taken or plans to take to address these risks. In addition, we will discuss the status of the project's costs and funding. Our remarks today are based on our review of schedules and financial reports for the CVC project and related records maintained by AOC and its construction management contractor, Gilbane Building Company; our observations on the progress of work at the CVC construction site; and our discussions with the CVC team (AOC and its major CVC contractors), AOC's Chief Fire Marshal, and representatives from the U.S. Capitol Police. We also reviewed AOC's construction management contractor's periodic schedule assessments and daily reports on the progress of interior wall and floor …

A current barrier to public acceptance of distributed generation (DG) and combined heat and power (CHP) technologies is the lack of credible and uniform information regarding system performance. Under a cooperative agreement, the Association of State Energy Research and Technology Transfer Institutions (ASERTTI) and the U.S. Department of Energy have developed four performance testing protocols to provide a uniform basis for comparison of systems. The protocols are for laboratory testing, field testing, long-term monitoring and case studies. They have been reviewed by a Stakeholder Advisory Committee made up of industry, public interest, end-user, and research community representatives. The types of systems covered include small turbines, reciprocating engines (including Stirling Cycle), and microturbines. The protocols are available for public use and the resulting data is publicly available in an online national database and two linked databases with further data from New York State. The protocols are interim pending comments and other feedback from users. Final protocols will be available in 2007. The interim protocols and the national database of operating systems can be accessed at www.dgdata.org. The project has entered Phase 2 in which protocols for fuel cell applications will be developed and the national and New York databases will continue …

A newly identified kiloparsec-scale X-ray jet in the high-redshift z=3.89 quasar 1745+624 is studied with multi-frequency Very Large Array, Hubble Space Telescope, and Chandra X-ray imaging data. This is only the third large-scale X-ray jet beyond z > 3 known and is further distinguished as being the most luminous relativistic jet observed at any redshift, exceeding 10{sup 45} erg/s in both the radio and X-ray bands. Apart from the jet's extreme redshift, luminosity, and high inferred equipartition magnetic field (in comparison to local analogues), its basic properties such as X-ray/radio morphology and radio polarization are similar to lower-redshift examples. Its resolved linear structure and the convex broad-band spectral energy distributions of three distinct knots are also a common feature among known powerful X-ray jets at lower-redshift. Relativistically beamed inverse Compton and ''non-standard'' synchrotron models have been considered to account for such excess X-ray emission in other jets; both models are applicable to this high-redshift example but with differing requirements for the underlying jet physical properties, such as velocity, energetics, and electron acceleration processes. One potentially very important distinguishing characteristic between the two models is their strongly diverging predictions for the X-ray/radio emission with increasing redshift. This is considered, though with …

Models for dynamical breaking of supersymmetric grand unified theories are presented. The doublet-triplet splitting problem is absent since the Higgs doublet superfields can be identified with the massless mesons of the strong gauge group whereas there are no massless states corresponding to the colored Higgs fields. Various strong gauge groups SU(N{sub c}), Sp(N{sub c}) and SO(N{sub c}) are examined. In a model with SO(9) strong gauge group, adding the {mu}-term for the Higgs fields triggers to break supersymmetry in a meta-stable vacuum. The pattern of the supersymmetry breaking parameters is predicted to be the gauge-mediation type with modifications in the Higgs sector.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) enforces the nation's environmental laws and regulations through its Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance (OECA). While OECA provides overall direction on enforcement policies and occasionally takes direct enforcement action, many enforcement responsibilities are carried out by EPA's 10 regional offices. In addition, these offices oversee the enforcement programs of state agencies that have been delegated the authority to enforce federal environmental protection regulations. This testimony is based on GAO's reports on EPA's enforcement activities issued over the past several years and on observations from ongoing work that is being performed at the request of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, and the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, House Committee on Appropriations. GAO's previous reports examined the (1) consistency among EPA regions in carrying out enforcement activities, (2) factors that contribute to any inconsistency, and (3) EPA's actions to address these factors. Our current work examines how EPA, in consultation with regions and states, sets priorities for compliance and enforcement and how the agency and states determine respective compliance and enforcement roles and responsibilities and allocate resources for these …

We introduce a new thermodynamic theory for detonation products that includes polar and ionic species. The new formalism extends the domain of validity of the previously developed EXP6 equation of state library and opens the possibility of new applications. We illustrate the scope of the new approach on PETN detonation properties and water ionization models.

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report responds to a Congressional request for information relating to a June 13, 2006 Congressional hearing on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) farm loan programs. In particular, the May 16, 2006 letter requested that we summarize our findings from the 1990s through 2002 on USDA's farm loan programs. Congress also requested that we provide any GAO opinions on the current management and status of the loan programs and identify any matters that Congress should consider."

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Many Members of Congress see continued tension between "free speech" decisions of the Supreme Court, which protect flag desecration as expressive conduct under the First Amendment, and the symbolic importance of the United States flag. Consequently, every Congress that has convened since those decisions were issued has considered proposals that would permit punishment of those who engage in flag desecration. This report is divided into two parts. The first gives a brief history of the flag protection issue, from the enactment of the Flag Protection Act in 1968 through current consideration of a constitutional amendment. The second part briefly summarizes the two decisions of the United States Supreme Court, Texas v. Johnson and United States v. Eichman, that struck down the state and federal flag protection statutes as applied in the context of punishing expressive conduct.

This report is divided into two parts. The first gives a brief history of the flag protection issue, from the enactment of the Flag Protection Act in 1968 through current consideration of a constitutional amendment. The second part briefly summarizes the two decisions of the United States Supreme Court, Texas v. Johnson and United States v. Eichman, that struck down the state and federal flag protection statutes as applied in the context punishing expressive conduct.

Report reviewing the management and performance of the Hearne Independent School District's (HISD's) educational, financial, and operations. functions.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Congestion is increasing rapidly across the nation and freight traffic is expected to almost double in 20 years. In many places, decision makers cannot simply build their way out of congestion, and traditional revenue sources may not be sustainable. As the baby boom generation retires and the costs of federal entitlement programs rise, sustained, large-scale increases in federal highway grants seem unlikely. To provide the robust growth that many transportation advocates believe is required to meet the nation's mobility needs, state and local decision makers in virtually all states are seeking alternative funding approaches. Tolling (charging a fee for the use of a highway facility) provides a set of approaches that are increasingly receiving closer attention and consideration. This report examines tolling from a number of perspectives, namely: (1) the promise of tolling to enhance mobility and finance highway transportation, (2) the extent to which tolling is being used and the reasons states are using or not using this approach, (3) the challenges states face in implementing tolling, and (4) strategies that can be used to help states address tolling challenges. GAO is not making any …

Radionuclides, metals, and dense non-aqueous phase liquids have contaminated about six billion cubic meters of soil at Department of Energy (DOE) sites. The subsurface transport of many of these contaminants is facilitated by colloids (i.e., microscopic, waterborne particles). The first step in the transport of contaminants from their sources to off-site surface water and groundwater is migration through the vadose zone. Developing our understanding of the migration of colloids and colloid-associated contaminants through the vadose zone is critical to assessing and controlling the release of contaminants from DOE sites. In this study, we examined the mobilization, transport, and filtration (retention) of mineral colloids and colloid-associated radionuclides within unsaturated porous media. This investigation involved laboratory column experiments designed to identify properties that affect colloid mobilization and retention and pore-scale visualization experiments designed to elucidate mechanisms that govern these colloid-mass transfer processes. The experiments on colloid mobilization and retention were supplemented with experiments on radionuclide transport through porous media and on radionuclide adsorption to mineral colloids. Observations from all of these experiments – the column and visualization experiments with colloids and the experiments with radionuclides – were used to guide the development of mathematical models appropriate for describing colloids and colloid-facilitated radionuclide …

On behalf of the BABAR and Belle collaborations, the authors report on the measurement of the angle {gamma} and of the sum of angles 2{beta} + {gamma} of the Unitarity Triangle.

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Sequence changes in regulatory regions have often beeninvoked to explain phenotypic divergence among species, but molecularexamples of this have been difficult to obtain. In this study, weidentified an anthropoid primate specific sequence element thatcontributed to the regulatory evolution of the LDL receptor. Using acombination of close and distant species genomic sequence comparisonscoupled with in vivo and in vitro studies, we show that a functionalcholesterol-sensing sequence motif arose and was fixed within apre-existing enhancer in the common ancestor of anthropoid primates. Ourstudy demonstrates one molecular mechanism by which ancestral mammalianregulatory elements can evolve to perform new functions in the primatelineage leading to human.

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Weak scale supersymmetric theories often suffer from several naturalness problems: the problems of reproducing the correct scale for electroweak symmetry breaking, the correct abundance for dark matter, and small rates for flavor violating processes. We argue that the first two problems point to particular regions of parameter space in models with weak scale supersymmetry: those with a small {mu} term. This has an interesting implication on direct dark matter detection experiments. We find that, if the signs of the three gaugino mass parameters are all equal, we can obtain a solid lower bound on the spin-independent neutralino-nucleon cross section, {sigma}{sub SI}. In the case that the gaugino masses satisfy the unified mass relations, we obtain {sigma}{sub SI} {approx}> 4 x 10{sup -46} cm{sup 2} (1 x 10{sup -46} cm{sup 2}) for fine-tuning in electroweak symmetry breaking no worse than 10% (5%). We also discuss a possibility that the three problems listed above are all connected to the hierarchy of fermion masses. This occurs if supersymmetry breaking and electroweak symmetry breaking (the Higgs fields) are coupled to matter fields with similar hierarchical structures. The discovery of {mu} {yields} e transition processes in near future experiments is predicted in such a framework.

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: Whether a county auditor who violates Local Government Code section 84.007(b)(2) has committed "official misconduct" and whether a violation of section 84.007(b)(2) can be cured retroactively.

Agency strategic plan for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice describing the organization's planned services, activities, and other goals during fiscal years 2007 through 2011.

Both point- and finite-source stochastic one-dimensional ground motion models, coupled to vertically propagating equivalent-linear shear-wave site response models are validated using an extensive set of strong motion data as part of the Yucca Mountain Project. The validation and comparison exercises are presented entirely in terms of 5% damped pseudo absolute response spectra. The study consists of a quantitative analyses involving modeling nineteen well-recorded earthquakes, M 5.6 to 7.4 at over 600 sites. The sites range in distance from about 1 to about 200 km in the western US (460 km for central-eastern US). In general, this validation demonstrates that the stochastic point- and finite-source models produce accurate predictions of strong ground motions over the range of 0 to 100 km and for magnitudes M 5.0 to 7.4. The stochastic finite-source model appears to be broadband, producing near zero bias from about 0.3 Hz (low frequency limit of the analyses) to the high frequency limit of the data (100 and 25 Hz for response and Fourier amplitude spectra, respectively).