Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) procures most of its goods and services through contracts, and it terminates very few of them. In fiscal year 2010, for example, NASA's procurements, ranging from small contracts for human resources consulting services to multimillion dollar contracts to build and operate spacecraft, totaled approximately $17.4 billion, representing about 83.4 percent of the agency's obligations that year. That same year, it terminated 28 of 16,343 active contracts and orders--a termination rate of about .17 percent. This rate is about the same--less than 0.2 percent--for each of the past 5 fiscal years. NASA contract terminations--the complete or partial cancellation of work under a contract before the contract's period of performance ends--are rare but could become more common in the future. The federal government is facing real fiscal limitations and will have to make difficult choices about upcoming priorities. This reality makes it more important than ever that NASA manage its projects as efficiently and effectively as possible and within its budget. This is a struggle for NASA. Our work has shown that NASA's large-scale projects tend to cost more and take longer to …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses highlights of GAO's report on the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) implementation of requirements for determining whether additional drinking water contaminants warrant regulation. The number of potential drinking water contaminants is vast--as many as tens of thousands of chemicals may be used across the country, and EPA has identified more than 6,000 chemicals that it considers to be the most likely source of human or environmental exposure. The potential health effects of exposure to most of these chemicals, and the extent of their occurrence in drinking water, are unknown. Under 1996 amendments to the Safe Drinking Water Act, every 5 years EPA is to determine for at least five contaminants whether regulation is warranted, considering those that present the greatest public health concern. EPA issued final regulatory determinations in 2003 and 2008 on a total of 20 contaminants, deciding in each case not to regulate. EPA did not recommend any new contaminants for regulation until February 2011, when it reversed its controversial 2008 preliminary decision to not regulate perchlorate, an ingredient in rocket fuel and other products. This statement summarizes our report being released today that …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' (CMS) efforts to protect the integrity of the Medicare and Medicaid programs, particularly through the use of information technology to help improve the detection of fraud, waste, and abuse in these programs. CMS is responsible for administering the Medicare and Medicaid programs and leading efforts to reduce improper payments of claims for medical treatment, services, and equipment. Improper payments are overpayments or underpayments that should not have been made or were made in an incorrect amount; they may be due to errors, such as the inadvertent submission of duplicate claims for the same service, or misconduct, such as fraud or abuse. The Department of Health and Human Services reported about $70 billion in improper payments in the Medicare and Medicaid programs in fiscal year 2010. Operating within the Department of Health and Human Services, CMS conducts reviews to prevent improper payments before claims are paid and to detect claims that were paid in error. These activities are predominantly carried out by contractors who, along with CMS personnel, use various information technology solutions to consolidate and analyze data to …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses child fatalities from maltreatment. Every year, children in the United States die after being physically abused, severely neglected, or otherwise maltreated, frequently at the hands of their parents or others who are entrusted with their care. Infants and toddlers are the most vulnerable to such abuse and neglect. According to estimates by the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), 1,770 children in the United States died from physical abuse or other forms of maltreatment in fiscal year 2009. Some experts believe that more children have died from maltreatment than are captured in this estimate and that there are inconsistencies and limitations in the data that states collect and report to NCANDS. In addition, many more children are severely harmed and may nearly die from maltreatment, but NCANDS does not collect data specifically on near-fatalities. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) maintains NCANDS, which is a voluntary state data-reporting system. HHS provides oversight of state child welfare systems, and in all states, child protective services (CPS) is part of the child welfare system. When state CPS investigators determine that a child's death …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Many Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) employees leave the SEC each year, and some of these former employees go to work for firms regulated by SEC or the law or consulting firms that represent them. This practice raises questions about the potential impact on SEC's ability to effectively carry out its mission, including the potential for undue influence by former SEC employees on SEC matters or cases. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act required GAO to examine the movement of former SEC employees to regulated firms and the associated concerns. Among other things, this report examines (1) the extent to which employees leave SEC to work for or represent regulated entities and the potential issues associated with such movements and (2) internal controls SEC has in place to manage potential conflicts of interest and how these controls compare across other agencies. To address these objectives, GAO analyzed data on former SEC employees, reviewed SEC's and other agencies' internal controls, and interviewed current and former SEC officials."

This report discusses how the Obama Administration differs from the Bush Administration regarding strategy in Iran relations; it also discusses the current political state of Iran, including incidents of violence and unrest. Much of the debate over U.S. policy toward Iran has centered on the nature of the current regime; some believe that Iran, a country of about 70 million people, is a threat to U.S. interests because hardliners in Iran's regime dominate and set a policy direction intended to challenge U.S. influence and allies in the region.

This report provides an overview of recent U.N. efforts to address violence against women (VAW) and highlights key U.N. interagency efforts. It also discusses selected U.N. funds, programs, and agencies that address international violence against women. It does not assess the extent to which VAW is directly addressed or is part of a larger initiative or program.

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C-reactor disassembly basin is being prepared for deactivation and decommissioning (D and D). D and D activities will consist primarily of immobilizing contaminated scrap components and structures in a grout-like formulation. The disassembly basin will be the first area of the C-reactor building that will be immobilized. The scrap components contain aluminum alloy materials. Any aluminum will corrode very rapidly when it comes in contact with the very alkaline grout (pH > 13), and as a result would produce hydrogen gas. To address this potential deflagration/explosion hazard, Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) reviewed and evaluated existing experimental and analytical studies of this issue to determine if any process constraints are necessary. The risk of accumulation of a flammable mixture of hydrogen above the surface of the water during the injection of grout into the C-reactor disassembly area is low if the assessment of the aluminum surface area is reliable. Conservative calculations estimate that there is insufficient aluminum present in the basin areas to result in significant hydrogen accumulation in this local region. The minimum safety margin (or factor) on a 60% LFL criterion for a local region of the basin (i.e., Horizontal Tube Storage) was greater than 3. Calculations also …

We have constructed in-frame deletions of 7 of the 10 PAS-GGDEF-EAL proteins in Shewanella oneidensis MR-1. We are currently in the process of characterizing the deletion mutants under a wide range of growth conditions. In addition to characterizing growth, we will also examine the biofilm formation of the deletion mutants. In addition to the genetic analyses of the mutants, we are also interested in comparing the activities of the various PAS-GGDEF-EAL proteins. Proteins containing PAS, GGDEF and EAL amino acid sequence motifs may play an important role in regulating c-di-GMP signaling in response to environmental conditions. A genetic and biochemical analysis into the roles of these proteins is underway. PDE activity was observed for several PAS-GGDEF-EAL proteins. One of these proteins, SO0427, also demonstrates possible DGC activity in vitro. Currently, we are studying the growth, motility and biofilm formation characteristics of deletion mutants, as well as the activity of the purified proteins.

The Hanford Site environmental report is prepared annually for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) in accordance with regulatory requirements. The report provides an overview of activities at the Hanford Site; demonstrates the status of the site's compliance with applicable federal, state, and local environmental laws and regulations, executive orders, and DOE policies and directives; and summarizes environmental data that characterize Hanford Site environmental management performance. The report also highlights significant environmental and public protection programs and efforts. Some historical and early 2011 information is included where appropriate.

This Concept Definition Study focused on developing a scientific understanding of methods to reduce energy consumption in data networks using rate adaptation. Rate adaptation is a collection of techniques that reduce energy consumption when traffic is light, and only require full energy when traffic is at full provisioned capacity. Rate adaptation is a very promising technique for saving energy: modern data networks are typically operated at average rates well below capacity, but network equipment has not yet been designed to incorporate rate adaptation. The Study concerns packet-switching equipment, routers and switches; such equipment forms the backbone of the modern Internet. The focus of the study is on algorithms and protocols that can be implemented in software or firmware to exploit hardware power-control mechanisms. Hardware power-control mechanisms are widely used in the computer industry, and are beginning to be available for networking equipment as well. Network equipment has different performance requirements than computer equipment because of the very fast rate of packet arrival; hence novel power-control algorithms are required for networking. This study resulted in five published papers, one internal report, and two patent applications, documented below. The specific technical accomplishments are the following: • A model for the power consumption …

The word 'reversible' has two (apparently) distinct applications in statistical thermodynamics. A thermodynamically reversible process indicates an experimental protocol for which the entropy change is zero, whereas the principle of microscopic reversibility asserts that the probability of any trajectory of a system through phase space equals that of the time reversed trajectory. However, these two terms are actually synonymous: a thermodynamically reversible process is microscopically reversible, and vice versa.

NRC assessment of the proposed deep underground science and engineering laboratory.

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This report summarizes the provisions of the proposed "Energy Sector Strategy of the World Bank Group." It situates the strategy within current WBG lending practices and in response to various stakeholder critiques. A final section outlines issues for Congress.

This report provides a description of the debit payments process and network pricing, as well as an overview of the effects of the Durbin Amendement implemented by the Federal Reserve which includes a cap on the interchange fee for large issuers. In particular, the Durbin Amendment is discussed in light of comments by Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke.

This report covers the Chinese-filed World Trade Organization (WTO) complaint against the U.S. over Section 421 of the Trade Acts of 1941, which has been renewed several times since. Section 421 authorizes the President to impose safeguards—that is, temporary measures such as import surcharges or quotas—on Chinese goods if domestic market disruption is found.

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.