This report reviews Argentina's financial crisis, the bond exchanges of 2005 and 2010, ongoing litigation, prospects for a final solution, related U.S. legislation, and broader policy issues. These include lessons on the effectiveness and cost of Argentina's default strategy, the ability to force sovereigns to meet their debt obligations, and ways to avoid future defaults like Argentina's.

To accelerate the adoption of these emerging marine hydrokinetic technologies, navigational and environmental issues and concerns must be identified and addressed. As hydrokinetic projects move forward, various stakeholders will need to be engaged; one of the key issues that project proponents face as they engage stakeholders is that many conflicting uses and environmental issues are not well-understood. Much of this lack of understanding comes from a limited understanding of the technologies themselves. To address this issue, in September 2008, RE Vision consulting, LLC, was selected by the Department of Energy, under their market acceleration program, to apply a scenario-based assessment approach to the emerging hydrokinetic technology sector. The goal was to improve understanding of potential environmental and navigation impacts of these technologies and focus stakeholders on the critical issues. To meet this goal, the study established baseline scenarios for wave and tidal power conversion at potential future deployment sites. The scenarios captured variations in technical approaches and deployment scales and thus grounded the analysis in realistic constraints. The work conducted under this award provides an important foundation to other market acceleration activities carried out by the DoE and other stakeholders in this sector. The scenarios were then evaluated using a …

Given proper care in siting, design, deployment, operation and maintenance, marine and hydrokinetic technologies could become one of the more environmentally benign sources of electricity generation. In order to accelerate the adoption of these emerging hydrokinetic and marine energy technologies, navigational and environmental concerns must be identified and addressed. All developing hydrokinetic projects involve a wide variety of stakeholders. One of the key issues that site developers face as they engage with this range of stakeholders is that many of the possible conflicts (e.g., shipping and fishing) and environmental issues are not well-understood, due to a lack of technical certainty. In September 2008, re vision consulting, LLC was selected by the Department of Energy (DoE) to apply a scenario-based approach to the emerging wave and tidal technology sectors in order to evaluate the impact of these technologies on the marine environment and potentially conflicting uses. The project’s scope of work includes the establishment of baseline scenarios for wave and tidal power conversion at potential future deployment sites. The scenarios will capture variations in technical approaches and deployment scales to properly identify and characterize environmental impacts and navigational effects. The goal of the project is to provide all stakeholders with an …

Given proper care in siting, design, deployment, operation and maintenance, wave energy conversion could become one of the more environmentally benign sources of electricity generation. In order to accelerate the adoption of these emerging hydrokinetic and marine energy technologies, navigational and environmental concerns must be identified and addressed. All developing hydrokinetic projects involve a wide variety of stakeholders. One of the key issues that site developers face as they engage with this range of stakeholders is that, due to a lack of technical certainty, many of the possible conflicts (e.g., shipping and fishing) and environmental issues are not well-understood,. In September 2008, re vision consulting, LLC was selected by the Department of Energy (DoE) to apply a scenario-based assessment to the emerging hydrokinetic technology sector in order to evaluate the potential impact of these technologies on the marine environment and navigation constraints. The project’s scope of work includes the establishment of baseline scenarios for wave and tidal power conversion at potential future deployment sites. The scenarios capture variations in technical approaches and deployment scales to properly identify and characterize environmental effects and navigational effects. The goal of the project is to provide all stakeholders with an improved understanding of the …

Relying on coal for energy requires optimizing the extraction of heat content from various blends of coal fuel and reducing harmful constituents and byproducts. Having a real-time measurement instrument provides relevant information about toxic constituents released in the atmosphere from burning coal and optimizes the performance of a power plant. A few commercial instruments exist and have been in operation for more than a decade. However, most of these instruments are based on radioactive sources and are bulky, expensive and time-consuming. The proposed instrument is based on the Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS). The advantage of LIBS is that it is a standoff instrument, does not require sample preparation and provides precise information about sample constituents.

This report seeks to clarify why one group of individuals with disabilities may be eligible for benefits under Veteran's Disability Compensation (VDC), but ineligible for benefits under Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) (and vice versa), through a description and comparison of several distinguishing characteristics of the SSDI and VDC programs. This report concludes with a discussion of the challenges facing the administration of both programs, including processing delays for pending claims and appeals.

A literature survey on the dissolution of spent nuclear fuel from the University of Missouri Research Reactor (MURR) has been performed. This survey encompassed both internal and external literature sources for the dissolution of aluminum-clad uranium alloy fuels. The most limiting aspect of dissolution in the current facility configuration involves issues related to the control of the flammability of the off-gas from this process. The primary conclusion of this work is that based on past dissolution of this fuel in H-Canyon, four bundles of this fuel (initial charge) may be safely dissolved in a nitric acid flowsheet catalyzed with 0.002 M mercuric nitrate using a 40 scfm purge to control off-gas flammability. The initial charge may be followed by a second charge of up to five bundles to the same dissolver batch depending on volume and concentration constraints. The safety of this flowsheet relies on composite lower flammability limits (LFL) estimated from prior literature, pilot-scale work on the dissolution of site fuels, and the proposed processing flowsheet. Equipment modifications or improved LFL data offer the potential for improved processing rates. The fuel charging sequence, as well as the acid and catalyst concentrations, will control the dissolution rate during the initial …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Under the Uniformed and Overseas Citizens Absentee Voting Act (UOCAVA), citizens covered are permitted to register and vote absentee. The Secretary of Defense has the primary responsibility for federal UOCAVA functions, and the Department of Defense's (DOD) Federal Voting Assistance Program (FVAP) facilitates absentee voters' participation in federal elections. Since 2001, the DOD Office of Inspector General and GAO have reviewed FVAP's efforts and recommended improvements to its procedures and the direction FVAP provides to the services. In response to a congressional request, this report evaluates how FVAP (1) addresses its mission and evaluates efforts to conduct it, (2) aligns budget priorities with strategic goals, and (3) implemented DOD Office of Inspector General and GAO recommendations made from 2001 through 2009. GAO analyzed FVAP's performance measures, relevant DOD directives, FVAP's strategic plans, budgets, and past audit reports. Also, GAO interviewed agency officials."

While window frames typically represent 20-30percent of the overall window area, their impact on the total window heat transfer rates may be much larger. This effect is even greater in low-conductance (highly insulating) windows which incorporate very low conductance glazings. Developing low-conductance window frames requires accurate simulation tools for product research and development. The Passivhaus Institute in Germany states that windows (glazing and frames, combined) should have U-values not exceeding 0.80 W/(m??K). This has created a niche market for highly insulating frames, with frame U-values typically around 0.7-1.0 W/(m2 cdot K). The U-values reported are often based on numerical simulations according to international simulation standards. It is prudent to check the accuracy of these calculation standards, especially for high performance products before more manufacturers begin to use them to improve other product offerings. In this paper the thermal transmittance of five highly insulating window frames (three wooden frames, one aluminum frame and one PVC frame), found from numerical simulations and experiments, are compared. Hot box calorimeter results are compared with numerical simulations according to ISO 10077-2 and ISO 15099. In addition CFD simulations have been carried out, in order to use the most accurate tool available to investigate the convection …

Thermal ionization and gas mass spectrometers are widely used across the Department of Energy (DOE) Complex and contractor laboratories. These instruments support critical missions, where high reliability and low measurement uncertainty are essential. A growing number of these mass spectrometers are significantly older than their original design life. The reality is that manufacturers have declared many of the instrument models obsolete, with direct replacement parts and service no longer available. Some of these obsolete models do not have a next generation, commercially available replacement. Today's budget conscious economy demands for the use of creative funds management. Therefore, the ability to refurbish (or upgrade) these valuable analytical tools and extending their useful life is a cost effective option. The Savannah River Site (SRS) has the proven expertise to breathe new life into older mass spectrometers, at a significant cost savings compared to the purchase and installation of new instruments. A twenty-seven year old Finnigan MAT-261{trademark} Thermal Ionization Mass Spectrometer (TIMS), located at the SRS F/H Area Production Support Laboratory, has been successfully refurbished. Engineers from the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) fabricated and installed the new electronics. These engineers also provide continued instrument maintenance services. With electronic component drawings being DOE …

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.

High-resolution tracking detectors based on Active Pixel Sensor (APS) have been valuable tools in Nuclear Physics and High-Energy Physics research, and have contributed to major discoveries. Their integration time, radiation length and readout rate is a limiting factor for the planed luminosity upgrades in nuclear and high-energy physics collider-based experiments. The goal of this program was to demonstrate and develop high-gain, high-resolution tracking detector arrays with faster readout, and shorter radiation length than APS arrays. These arrays may operate as direct charged particle detectors or as readouts of high resolution scintillating fiber arrays. During this program, we developed in CMOS large, high-resolution pixel sensor arrays with integrated readout, and reset at pixel level. Their intrinsic gain, high immunity to surface and moisture damage, will allow operating these detectors with minimal packaging/passivation requirements and will result in radiation length superior to APS. In Phase I, we designed and fabricated arrays with calorimetric output capable of sub-pixel resolution and sub-microsecond readout rate. The technical effort was dedicated to detector and readout structure development, performance verification, as well as to radiation damage and damage annealing.

Marine wave and tidal energy technology could interact with marine resources in ways that are not well understood. As wave and tidal energy conversion projects are planned, tested, and deployed, a wide range of stakeholders will be engaged; these include developers, state and federal regulatory agencies, environmental groups, tribal governments, recreational and commercial fishermen, and local communities. Identifying stakeholders’ environmental concerns in the early stages of the industry’s development will help developers address and minimize potential environmental effects. Identifying important concerns will also assist with streamlining siting and associated permitting processes, which are considered key hurdles by the industry in the U.S. today. In September 2008, RE Vision consulting, LLC was selected by the Department of Energy (DoE) to conduct a scenario-based evaluation of emerging hydrokinetic technologies. The purpose of this evaluation is to identify and characterize environmental impacts that are likely to occur, demonstrate a process for analyzing these impacts, identify the “key” environmental concerns for each scenario, identify areas of uncertainty, and describe studies that could address that uncertainty. This process is intended to provide an objective and transparent tool to assist in decision-making for siting and selection of technology for wave and tidal energy development. RE Vision …

This report examines the federal budgets for the fiscal years 2011 and 2012. It gives an overview of the federal budget, addresses the problems of budgeting in a strained economy, and discusses considerations for Congress, both in the short term and the long term.

This report briefly summarizes the progress made by ARM postdoctoral fellow, Yanluan Lin, at GFDL during the period from October 2008 to present. Several ARM datasets have been used for GFDL model evaluation, understanding, and improvement. This includes a new ice fall speed parameterization with riming impact and its test in GFDL AM3, evaluation of model cloud and radiation diurnal and seasonal variation using ARM CMBE data, model ice water content evaluation using ARM cirrus data, and coordination of the TWPICE global model intercomparison. The work illustrates the potential and importance of ARM data for GCM evaluation, understanding, and ultimately, improvement of GCM cloud and radiation parameterizations. Future work includes evaluation and improvement of the new dynamicsPDF cloud scheme and aerosol activation in the GFDL model.

The detention of alleged enemy combatants at the U.S. Naval Station in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, together with proposals to transfer some such individuals to the United States for prosecution or continued detention, has been a subject of considerable interest for Congress. Several authorization and appropriations measures enacted during the 111th Congress, and various pending bills, address the disposition and treatment of Guantanamo detainees. This report analyzes relevant provisions in enacted legislation and selected pending bills.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (Recovery Act) and subsequent appropriations have dramatically increased federal funds available for high speed intercity passenger rail from $120 million in fiscal year 2008 and fiscal year 2009 combined to $10.5 billion available in fiscal year 2010. Other issues, such as developing industry capacity to supply rail equipment and fostering multiyear public support for such systems must be resolved. As part of its efforts to assess Recovery Act initiatives, GAO reviewed (1) how states started or improved passenger rail services in the recent past, (2) rail industry plans to accommodate the increased passenger rail investments, and (3) Federal Railroad Administration (FRA) plans to oversee the use of federal intercity passenger rail funds. GAO reviewed federal legislation; interviewed state, industry and federal officials; and reviewed selected literature. GAO is not making any recommendations. The Department of Transportation did not express an overall opinion on a draft of this report. It did provide technical and clarifying comments, which GAO incorporated."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal agencies are increasingly using electronic means to create, exchange, and store information, and in doing so, they frequently create federal records: that is, information, in whatever form, that documents government functions, activities, decisions, and other important transactions. As the volume of electronic information grows, so does the challenge of managing electronic records. Both federal agency heads and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) have responsibilities for managing federal records. As requested, after providing some context about records management in the federal government and the roles of federal agencies and NARA, this testimony describes the challenges of electronic records management and potential means of addressing these challenges. In preparing this testimony, GAO relied primarily on its previous work, supplemented by analysis of publicly available documents."

Recent studies have found the performance of commercial handheld detectors with automatic RIID software to be less than acceptable. Previously, we have explored approaches rooted in speech processing such as cepstral features and information-theoretic measures. Scientific advances are often made when researchers identify mathematical or physical commonalities between different fields and are able to apply mature techniques or algorithms developed in one field to another field which shares some of the same challenges. The authors of this paper have identified similarities between the unsolved problems faced in gamma-spectroscopy for automated radioisotope identification and the challenges of the much larger body of research in speech processing. Our research has led to a probabilistic framework for describing and solving radioisotope identification problems. Many heuristic approaches to classification in current use, including for radioisotope classification, make implicit probabilistic assumptions which are not clear to the users and, if stated explicitly, might not be considered desirable. Our framework leads to a classification approach with demonstrable improvements using standard feature sets on proof-of-concept simulated and field-collected data.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico has drawn national attention to the exploration and production of oil and gas from leases on federal lands and waters. The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) oversees onshore oil and gas activities, the Minerals Management Service's (MMS) Offshore Energy and Minerals Management oversees offshore oil and gas activities, and MMS's Minerals Revenue Management collects revenues from oil and gas produced. Interior's oil and gas oversight has long been the subject of audits and investigations by GAO, Interior's Office of Inspector General (OIG), and others. In response to the recent oil spill, the Secretary of the Interior has proposed reorganizing MMS. Over the past 5 years, GAO has issued numerous recommendations to the Secretary of the Interior to improve the agency's management of oil and gas resources--most recently resulting in two reports in March 2010. Overall, GAO's work in this area can be useful in evaluating key aspects of the Secretary's plans to reorganize MMS. In particular, GAO's findings and recommendations can provide guidance on how to achieve effective oversight of federal oil and gas management …

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Propane as an auto fuel has a high octane value and has key properties required for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. To operate a vehicle on propane as either a dedicated fuel or bi-fuel (i.e., switching between gasoline and propane) vehicle, only a few modifications must be made to the engine. Until recently propane vehicles have commonly used a vapor pressure system that was somewhat similar to a carburetion system, wherein the propane would be vaporized and mixed with combustion air in the intake plenum of the engine. This leads to lower efficiency as more air, rather than fuel, is inducted into the cylinder for combustion (Myers 2009). A newer liquid injection system has become available that injects propane directly into the cylinder, resulting in no mixing penalty because air is not diluted with the gaseous fuel in the intake manifold. Use of a direct propane injection system will improve engine efficiency (Gupta 2009). Other systems include the sequential multi-port fuel injection system and a bi-fuel 'hybrid' sequential propane injection system. Carbureted systems remain in use but mostly for non-road applications. In the United States a closed-loop system is used in after-market conversions. This system incorporates an electronic sensor that provides …

Sonar and speech techniques have been investigated to improve functionality and enable handheld and other man-portable, mobile, and portal systems to positively detect and identify illicit nuclear materials, with minimal data and with minimal false positives and false negatives. RadSonar isotope detection and identification is an algorithm development project funded by NA-22 and employing the resources of Savannah River National Laboratory and three University Laboratories (JHU-APL, UT-ARL, and UW-APL). Algorithms have been developed that improve the probability of detection and decrease the number of false positives and negatives. Two algorithms have been developed and tested. The first algorithm uses support vector machine (SVM) classifiers to determine the most prevalent nuclide(s) in a spectrum. It then uses a constrained weighted least squares fit to estimate and remove the contribution of these nuclide(s) to the spectrum, iterating classification and fitting until there is nothing of significance left. If any Special Nuclear Materials (SNMs) were detected in this process, a second tier of more stringent classifiers are used to make the final SNM alert decision. The second algorithm is looking at identifying existing feature sets that would be relevant in the radioisotope identification context. The underlying philosophy here is to identify parallels between …