The spermine-based hydroxypyridonate octadentate chelator 3,4,3-LI(1,2-HOPO) was investigated for its ability to act as an antennae that sensitizes the emission of Sm{sup III}, Eu{sup III}, and Tb{sup III} in the Visible range (Φ{sub tot} = 0.2 - 7%) and the emission of Pr{sup III}, Nd{sup III}, Sm{sup III}, and Yb{sup III} in the Near Infra-Red range, with decay times varying from 1.78 μs to 805 μs at room temperature. The particular luminescence spectroscopic properties of these lanthanide complexes formed with 3,4,3-LI(1,2-HOPO) were used to characterize their respective solution thermodynamic stabilities as well as those of the corresponding La{sup III}, Gd{sup III}, Dy{sup III}, Ho{sup III}, Er{sup III}, Tm{sup III}, and Lu{sup III} complexes. The remarkably high affinity of 3,4,3-LI(1,2-HOPO) for lanthanide metal ions and the resulting high complex stabilities (pM values ranging from 17.2 for La{sup III} to 23.1 for Yb{sup III}) constitute a necessary but not sufficient criteria to consider this octadentate ligand an optimal candidate for in vivo metal decorporation. The in vivo lanthanide complex stability and decorporation capacity of the ligand were assessed, using the radioactive isotope {sup 152}Eu as a tracer in a rodent model, which provided a direct comparison with the in vitro thermodynamic results …

This report discusses the current political state of Afghanistan, as well as the Afghan government. This report also discusses Afghanistan's relationship with the United States, particularly U.S. efforts to urge President Hamid Karzai, to address corruption within the Afghan government. The report also includes discussion of election fraud and corruption in Afghanistan.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The attempted bombing of Northwest flight 253 in December 2009 underscores the need for effective aviation security programs. Aviation security remains a daunting challenge with hundreds of airports, thousands of aircraft, and thousands of flights daily carrying millions of passengers and pieces of checked baggage. The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has spent billions of dollars and implemented a wide range of aviation security initiatives. Three key layers of aviation security are (1) TSA's Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program designed to identify persons who may pose a security risk; (2) airport perimeter and access controls security; and (3) checked baggage screening systems. This testimony provides information on the extent to which TSA has taken actions to validate the scientific basis of SPOT, strengthen airport perimeter security and access controls, and deploy more effective checked baggage screening systems. This statement is based on prior reports GAO issued from September 2009 through July 2011 and selected updates in June and July 2011. GAO analyzed documents on TSA's progress in strengthening aviation security, among other things."

In today's globalized economy, we cannot live without imported products. Most people do not realize how thin the safety net of regulation and inspection really is. Less than three percent of imported products receive any form of government inspection prior to sale. Avoid flea markets, street vendors and deep discount stores. The sellers of counterfeit wares know where to market their products. They look for individuals who are hungry for a brand name item but do not want to pay a brand name price for it. The internet provides anonymity to the sellers of counterfeit products. Unlike Europe, U.S. law does not hold internet-marketing organizations, responsible for the quality of the products sold on their websites. These organizations will remove an individual vendor when a sufficient number of complaints are lodged, but they will not take responsibility for the counterfeit products you may have purchased. EBay has a number of counterfeit product guides to help you avoid being a victim of the sellers of these products. Ten percent of all medications taken worldwide are counterfeit. If you do buy medications on-line, be sure that the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy Verified Internet Pharmacy Practice Sites (VIPPS) recommends the pharmacy …

The threat of a dirty bomb or other major radiological contamination presents a danger of large-scale radiation exposure of the population. Because major components of such contamination are likely to be actinides, actinide decorporation treatments that will reduce radiation exposure must be a priority. Current therapies for the treatment of radionuclide contamination are limited and extensive efforts must be dedicated to the development of therapeutic, orally bioavailable, actinide chelators for emergency medical use. Using a biomimetic approach based on the similar biochemical properties of plutonium(IV) and iron(III), siderophore-inspired multidentate hydroxypyridonate ligands have been designed and are unrivaled in terms of actinide-affinity, selectivity, and efficiency. A perspective on the preclinical development of two hydroxypyridonate actinide decorporation agents, 3,4,3-LI(1,2-HOPO) and 5-LIO(Me-3,2-HOPO), is presented. The chemical syntheses of both candidate compounds have been optimized for scale-up. Baseline preparation and analytical methods suitable for manufacturing large amounts have been established. Both ligands show much higher actinide-removal efficacy than the currently approved agent, diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DTPA), with different selectivity for the tested isotopes of plutonium, americium, uranium and neptunium. No toxicity is observed in cells derived from three different human tissue sources treated in vitro up to ligand concentrations of 1 mM, and both ligands …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This letter provides additional information about federal financial literacy activities that were addressed in two reports to Congress issued in March 2011, Opportunities to Reduce Potential Duplication in Government Programs, Save Tax Dollars, and Enhance Revenue and List of Selected Federal Programs That Have Similar or Overlapping Objectives, Provide Similar Services, or Are Fragmented Across Government Missions. These reports were prepared in response to a statutory requirement to identify federal programs, agencies, offices, and initiatives, either within departments or governmentwide that have duplicative goals or activities."

A large variety of energy-efficiency policy measures exist. Some are mandatory, some are informative, and some use financial incentives to promote diffusion of efficient equipment. From country to country, financial incentives vary considerably in scope and form, the type of framework used to implement them, and the actors that administer them. They range from rebate programs administered by utilities under an Energy-Efficiency Resource Standards (EERS) regulatory framework (California, USA) to the distribution of Eco-points rewarding customers for buying highly efficient appliances (Japan). All have the primary objective of transforming the current market to accelerate the diffusion of efficient technologies by addressing up-front cost barriers faced by consumers; in most instances, efficient technologies require a greater initial investment than conventional technologies. In this paper, we review the different market transformation measures involving the use of financial incentives in the countries belonging to the Major Economies Forum. We characterize the main types of measures, discuss their mechanisms, and provide information on program impacts to the extent that ex-ante or ex-post evaluations have been conducted. Finally, we identify best practices in financial incentive programs and opportunities for coordination between Major Economies Forum countries as envisioned under the Super Efficient Appliance Deployment (SEAD) initiative.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Large numbers of civilians in war-torn areas of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have been the victims of horrific violence, including rape, mutilation, and sexual slavery carried out by armed groups and others. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act mandated GAO to submit to appropriate congressional committees a report assessing the rate of sexual and gender-based violence in war-torn areas of the DRC and adjoining countries. This report aims to provide Congress with the best possible understanding of the most recent estimates of sexual violence in eastern DRC and adjoining countries as it considers the range of policy options available to address the alarming incidence of such violence in the region. This report identifies and assesses available information on sexual violence in war-torn eastern DRC and adjoining countries. GAO reviewed and analyzed reports, memorandums, and other documents and interviewed officials from the Department of State (State), other United States agencies, and the United Nations (UN), as well as researchers and representatives from nongovernmental organizations."

This paper presents the summary of testing by the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) to support development of a light weight (<140 lbs) air transport qualified Type A Fissile Packaging. The package design incorporates features and materials specifically designed to minimize packaging weight. The light weight package is being designed to provide confinement to the contents when subjected to the normal and hypothetical conditions required of an air transportable Type A Fissile radioactive material shipping package. The objective of these tests was to provide design input to the final design for the LORX Type A Fissile Air Transport Packaging when subjected to the performance requirements of the drop, crush and puncture probe test of 10CFR71. The post test evaluation of the prototype packages indicates that all of the tested designs would satisfactorily confine the content within the packaging. The differences in the performance of the prototypes varied significantly depending on the core materials and their relative densities. Information gathered from these tests is being used to develop the final design for the Department of Homeland Security.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses issues related to the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). In hearings conducted from 1990 through 1994, Congress noted that violence against women was a problem of national scope and that the majority of crimes associated with domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking were perpetrated against women. These hearings culminated in the enactment of VAWA in 1994 to address these issues on a national level. VAWA established grant programs within the Departments of Justice (DOJ) and Health and Human Services (HHS) for state, local, and Indian tribal governments and communities. These grants have various purposes, such as providing funding for direct services including emergency shelter, counseling, and legal services for victims of domestic violence, sexual assaults and stalking across all segments of the population. Recipients of funds from these grant programs include, among others, state agencies, tribes, shelters, rape crisis centers, organizations that provide legal services, and hotlines. In 2000, during the reauthorization of VAWA, language was added to the law to provide greater emphasis on dating violence. The 2006 reauthorization of VAWA expanded existing grant programs and added new programs addressing, among …

This report will discuss the history of the Fairness Doctrine, enforcement of the doctrine by the FCC, abolition of it by the FCC, efforts to effect and to prevent its reinstatement, and potential constitutional issues with reinstating the doctrine as applied to broadcasters and as applied to satellite and cable television providers.

The Fast Bunch Integrator is a bunch intensity monitor designed around the measurements made from Resistive Wall Current Monitors. During the Run II period these were used in both Tevatron and Main Injector for single and multiple bunch intensity measurements. This paper presents an overview of the design and use of these systems during this period. During the Run II era the Fast Bunch integrators have found a multitude of uses. From antiproton transfers to muti-bunch beam coalescing, Main Injector transfers to halo scraping and lifetime measurements, the Fast Bunch Integrators have proved invaluable in the creation and maintenance of Colliding Beams stores at Fermilab.

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.

This report aims to inform consideration of H.R. 890 and S. 466 and possible alternatives by providing: background on Holocaust-era compensation and restitution issues; an overview of the International Commission on Holocaust Era Insurance Claims (ICHEIC), including criticism and support of its claims process and Administration policy on ICHEIC; and an overview of litigation on Holocaust-era insurance claims and the proposed legislation.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As part of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Federal Protective Service (FPS) is responsible for protecting federal employees and visitors in approximately 9,000 federal facilities owned or leased by the General Services Administration (GSA). FPS has a budget of approximately $1 billion and maintains approximately 1,200 full-time employees and about 13,000 contract security guards that help accomplish the agency's facility protection mission. This testimony is based on past reports and testimonies and discusses challenges FPS faces in carrying out its mission with regard to (1) risk management, (2) strategic human capital planning, (3) oversight of its contract guard program, and (4) ensuring that its fee-based funding structure is the appropriate mechanism for funding the agency. GAO also addresses the extent to which FPS has made progress in responding to these challenges. To perform this work, GAO used its key facility protection practices as criteria, visited FPS regions and selected GSA buildings, reviewed training and certification data for FPS's contract guards, and interviewed officials from DHS, GSA, guard contractors, and guards."

The optimization of an accelerator relies on the ability to monitor the behavior of the beam in an intelligent and timely fashion. The use of processor-driven front-ends allowed for the deployment of smart systems in the field for improved data collection and analysis during Run II. This paper describes the implementation of the two main systems used: National Instruments LabVIEW running on PCs, and WindRiver's VxWorks real-time operating system running in a VME crate processor.

This report discusses the background of the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and answers some common questions about it. The RFS was expanded under the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 in an effort to reduce dependence on foreign oil, promote biofuel use, and stabilize transportation fuel prices, among other goals. Over a 15-year period, the RFS seeks to establish a market for biofuels in the transportation sector by requiring that increasing amounts of biofuels be blended into transportation fuel.

This report explains those government activities funded under the military construction appropriation, examines trends in military construction funding over the past few years, and outlines military construction issues extant in each of the major regions of U.S. military activity.

The limitations of current therapies for the treatment of iron overload or radioisotope contamination have stimulated efforts to develop new orally bioavailable iron and actinide chelators. Siderophore-inspired tetradentate, hexadentate and octadentate terephthalamidate and hydroxypyridonate ligands were evaluated in vivo as selective and efficacious iron or actinide chelating agents, with several metal loading and ligand assessment procedures, using {sup 59}Fe, {sup 238}Pu, and {sup 241}Am as radioactive tracers. The compounds presented in this study were compared to commercially available therapeutic sequestering agents [deferoxamine (DFO) for iron and diethylenetriaminepentaacetic acid (DPTA) for actinides] and are unrivaled in terms of affinity, selectivity and decorporation efficacy, which attests to the fact that high metal affinity may overcome the low bioavailability properties commonly associated to multidenticity.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In addition to trading on behalf of customers, banks and their affiliates have conducted proprietary trading, using their own funds to profit from short-term price changes in asset markets. To restrain risk-taking and reduce the potential for federal support for banking entities, the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the act) prohibits banking entities from engaging in certain proprietary trading. It also restricts investments in hedge funds, which actively trade in securities and other financial contracts, and private equity funds, which use debt financing to invest in companies or other lessliquid assets. Regulators must implement these restrictions by October 2011. As required by Section 989 of the act, GAO reviewed (1) what is known about the risks associated with such activities and the potential effects of the restrictions and (2) how regulators oversee such activities. To conduct this work, GAO reviewed the trading and fund investment activities of the largest U.S. bank holding companies and collected selected data on their profits, losses, and risk measures. GAO also reviewed regulators' examinations and other materials related to the oversight of the largest bank holding companies."

This report analyzes various revenue options for deficit reduction, highlighting proposals made by the President's Fiscal Commission and the Debt Reduction Task Force. Others, such as House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan and the Obama Administration, have noted the importance of tax reform as part of a deficit reduction plans. These plans, however, do not provide the same level of detail as the Fiscal Commission and Debt Reduction Task Force, and are therefore not reviewed in detail as part of this report.

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A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Real estate valuations, which encompass appraisals and other estimation methods, have come under increased scrutiny in the wake of the recent mortgage crisis. The Dodd- Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the Act) mandated that GAO study the various valuation methods and the options available for selecting appraisers, as well as the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC), which established appraiser independence requirements for mortgages sold to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the enterprises). GAO examined (1) the use of different valuation methods, (2) factors affecting consumer costs for appraisals and appraisal disclosure requirements, and (3) conflict-of-interest and appraiser selection policies and views on their impact. To address these objectives, GAO analyzed government and industry data; reviewed academic and industry literature; examined federal policies and regulations, professional standards, and internal policies and procedures of lenders and appraisal management companies (AMC); and interviewed a broad range of industry participants and observers.."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses our work on residential real estate valuations. Real estate valuations, which encompass appraisals and other value estimation methods, play a critical role in mortgage underwriting by providing evidence that the market value of a property is sufficient to help mitigate losses if the borrower is unable to repay the loan. However, recent turmoil in the mortgage market has raised questions about mortgage underwriting practices, including the quality and credibility of some valuations. An investigation into industry appraisal practices by the New York State Attorney General led to an agreement in 2008 between the Attorney General; Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the enterprises); and the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA), which regulates the enterprises. This agreement included the Home Valuation Code of Conduct (HVCC), which set forth certain appraiser independence requirements for loans sold to the enterprises and took effect in 2009. The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (Pub. L. No. 111-203) (the Dodd-Frank Act) directed us to study the effectiveness and impact of various valuation methods and the options available for selecting appraisers, as well as the impact of HVCC. This testimony …