A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Minority banks can play an important role in serving the financial needs of historically underserved communities and growing populations of minorities. For this reason, the Financial Institutions, Reform, Recovery, and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) established goals that the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) must work toward to preserve and promote such institutions (support efforts). To evaluate their efforts, as well as those of the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and the Federal Reserve, GAO (1) reviewed the profitability of minority banks, (2) identified the regulators' support and assessment efforts, and (3) obtained the views of minority banks on the regulators' efforts. GAO reviewed financial data from FDIC, interviewed regulators, and surveyed all minority banks."

Two-dimensional confined systems, such as substrate-supported incommensurate layers, are of interest because their structural and electronic properties may differ from those of bulk materials. While advances in experimental techniques have resulted in the growth of many such interesting systems, progress can often be hampered by the lack of an atomistic-scale understanding of the structure, especially for incommensurate systems. In this work, we develop an atomic-scale model for an ordered incommensurate gold-sulfide (AuS) adlayer that has been previously demonstrated to exist on the Au(111) surface, following sulfur deposition and annealing to 450 K. We introduce theoretical techniques within density functional theory to take into account charge transfer in an incommensurate system and model scanning tunneling microscopy images, which are in good agreement with experiment. Our simulations indicate that this model is remarkably robust. We analyze the nature of bonding in this structure using state-of-the-art Wannier-function based techniques. Our analysis provides a natural explanation for the extraordinary robustness and unusual stoichiometry of this layer. This structure and its chemistry have implications for related S-Au interfaces, such as those in self-assembled monolayers of thiols on Au substrates.

An ARAMS/FRAMES utility entitled ''Joint Frequency Data (JFD) Generator'' provides the capability of creating joint frequency tables. The resultant JFD tables contain summaries of the frequency of occurrence of meteorological dispersion, wind speed, and wind direction that are required as input in climatological air dispersion models. The JFD Generator computations are made by an updated version of the EPA STAR (STAbility ARray) program. Surface observations are combined with computed seasonally and diurnally varying solar flux rates to estimate the ambient atmospheric dispersion rates, represented as a stability category. The wind speeds and directions are obtained directly from the hourly surface observation data. The product is a file in a format that can be directly read by an air dispersion model. The JFD Generator can input hourly meteorological surface observation data in CD-144, Samson, and SCRAM data formats. An enhanced joint frequency table file that can be read directly by the ARAMS/FRAMES interface is produced. The output file has a format can be used by the MEPAS air dispersion program or can be modified for input to other models requiring joint frequency input.

This taxonomic key was devised to support development of a Rapid Bioassessment Protocol using ants at the Savannah River Site. The emphasis is on ''rapid'' and, because the available keys contained a large number of genera not known to occur at the Savannah River Site, we found that the available keys were unwieldy. Because these keys contained more genera than we would likely encounter and because this larger number of genera required both more couplets in the key and often required examination of characters that are difficult to assess without higher magnifications (60X or higher) more time was required to process samples. In developing this set of keys I recognize that the character sets used may lead to some errors but I believe that the error rate will be small and, for the purpose of rapid bioassessment, this error rate will be acceptable provided that overall sample sizes are adequate. Oliver and Beattie (1996a, 1996b) found that for rapid assessment of biodiversity the same results were found when identifications were done to morphospecies by people with minimal expertise as when the same data sets were identified by subject matter experts. Basset et al. (2004) concluded that it was not as …

In a recent article it was argued that dynamic heterogeneity in d-dimensional glass formers is a manifestation of an order-disorder phenomenon in the d+1 dimensions of spacetime. By considering a dynamical analogue of the free energy, evidence was found for phase coexistence between active and inactive regions of spacetime, and it was suggested that this phenomenon underlies the glass transition. Here we develop these ideas further by investigating in detail the one-dimensional Fredrickson-Andersen (FA) model in which the active and inactive phases originate in the reducibility of the dynamics. We illustrate the phase coexistence by considering the distributions of mesoscopic spacetime observables. We show how the analogy with phase coexistence can be strengthened by breaking microscopic reversibility in the FA model, leading to a non-equilibrium theory in the directed percolation universality class.

It will be challenging to measure the temporal profile of the hard X-ray SASE beam independently from the electron beam in the LCLS and other 4th generation light sources. A fast interaction mechanism is needed that can be probed by an ultrafast laser pulse in a pump-probe experiment. It is proposed to exploit the rotation in polarization of light reflected from a thin magnetized film, known as the surface magneto optic Kerr effect (SMOKE), to witness the absorption of the x-ray pulse in the thin film. The change in spin orbit coupling induced by the x-ray pulse occurs on the subfemtosecond time scale and changes the polarization of the probe beam. The limitation to the technique lies with the bandwidth of the probe laser pulse and how short the optical pulse can be made. The SMOKE mechanism will be described and the choices of materials for use with 1.5 {angstrom} x-rays. A schematic description of the pump-probe geometry for x-ray diagnosis is also described.

The accelerated development of digital libraries and archives, in tandem with efficient search engines and the computational ability to retrieve and parse massive amounts of information, are making it possible to quantify the time evolution of scientific literatures. These data are but one piece of the tangible recorded evidence of the processes whereby scientists create and exchange information in their journeys towards the generation of knowledge. As such, these tools provide a proxy with which to study our ability to innovate. Innovation has often been linked with prosperity and growth and, consequently, trying to understand what drives scientific innovation is of extreme interest. Identifying sets of population characteristics, factors, and mechanisms that enable scientific communities to remain at the cutting edge, accelerate their growth, or increase their ability to re-organize around new themes or research topics is therefore of special significance. Yet generating a quantitative understanding of the factors that make scientific fields arise and/or become more or less productive is still in its infancy. This is precisely the type of knowledge most needed for promoting and sustaining innovation. Ideally, the efficient and strategic allocation of resources on the part of funding agencies and corporations would be driven primarily by …

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Federal farm support, food assistance, agricultural trade, marketing, and rural development policies are governed by a variety of separate laws. Many of these laws periodically have been evaluated, revised, and renewed through an omnibus, multi-year farm bill. This report discusses the "farm bill" and it's components.

This report discusses the federal and private sector responses to 9/11.

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This report provides an overview of the CSRT procedures, summarizes court cases related to the detentions and the use of military commissions, and summarizes the Detainee Treatment Act, as amended by the Military Commissions Act 2006, analyzing how it might affect detainee-related litigation in federal court.

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This report describes the changes in the marginal tax rate structure over the past several years.

A realistic superconducting RF cavity has its shape deformed comparing to its designed shape due to the loose tolerance in the fabrication process and the frequency tuning for its accelerating mode. A PDE-constrained optimization problem is proposed to determine the deformation of the cavity. A reduce space method is used to solve the PDE-constrained optimization problem where design sensitivities were computed using a continuous adjoint approach. A proof-of-concept example is given in which the deformation parameters of a single cavity-cell with two different types of deformation were computed.

Secondary neutron-production cross-sections have beenmeasured from interactions of 230 MeV/nucleon He, 400 MeV/nucleon N, 400MeV/nucleon Kr, 400 MeV/nucleon Xe, 500 MeV/nucleon Fe, and 600MeV/nucleon Ne interacting in a variety of elemental and compositetargets. We report the double-differential production cross sections,angular distributions, energy spectra, and total cross sections from allsystems. Neutron energies were measured using the time-of-flighttechnique, and were measured at laboratory angles between 5 deg and 80deg. The spectra exhibit behavior previously reported in otherheavy-ion-induced neutron production experiments; namely, a peak atforward angles near the energy corresponding to the beam velocity, withthe remaining spectra generated by preequilibrium and equilibriumprocesses. The double-differential spectra are fitted with amoving-source parameterization. Observations on the dependence of thetotal cross sections on target and projectile mass arediscussed.

We summarize progress in the DOE project, "A Combined Synthetic, Spectroscopic, and Theoretical Approach to the Rational Design of Photophysical and Photochemical Properties of Dendrimers."

The authors observe a new D{sub s} meson with mass (2856.6 {+-} 1.5{sub stat.} {+-} 5.0{sub syst.}) MeV/c{sup 2} and width (48 {+-} 7{sub stat.} {+-} 10{sub syst.}) MeV/c{sup 2} decaying into D{sup 0}K{sup +} and D{sup +}K{sub S}{sup 0}. In the same mass distributions they also observe a broad structure with mass (2688 {+-} 4{sub stat.} {+-} 3{sub syst.}) MeV/c{sup 2} and width (112 {+-} 7{sub stat.} {+-} 36{sub syst.}) MeV/c{sup 2}. To obtain this result they use 240 fb{sup -1} of data recorded by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric e{sup +}e{sup -} storage rings at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center running at center-of-mass energies near 10.6 GeV.

The steel industry in the United States generates about 30 million tons of by-products each year, including 6 million tons of desulfurization and BOF/BOP slag. The recycling of BF (blast furnace) slag has made significant progress in past years with much of the material being utilized as construction aggregate and in cementitious applications. However, the recycling of desulfurization and BOF/BOP slags still faces many technical, economic, and environmental challenges. Previous efforts have focused on in-plant recycling of the by-products, achieving only limited success. As a result, large amounts of by-products of various qualities have been stockpiled at steel mills or disposed into landfills. After more than 50 years of stockpiling and landfilling, available mill site space has diminished and environmental constraints have increased. The prospect of conventionally landfilling of the material is a high cost option, a waste of true national resources, and an eternal material liability issue. The research effort has demonstrated that major inroads have been made in establishing the viability of recycling and reuse of the steelmaking slags. The research identified key components in the slags, developed technologies to separate the iron units and produce marketable products from the separation processes. Three products are generated from the …

According to the Administration's "National Security Strategy" document released on March 16, 2006, the United States "may face no greater challenge from a single country than Iran." To date, the Bush Administration has pursued several avenues to attempt to contain the potential threat posed by Iran, including supporting a long-term policy of changing Iran's regime. Iran's nuclear program is not the only major U.S. concern on Iran. Successive administrations have pointed to the threat posed by Iran's policy in the Near East region, particularly material support to groups that use violence to prevent or complicate Israeli-Arab peace. Iran's human rights practices and strict limits on free expression have been consistently criticized by official U.S. and U.N. reports.

The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is built on a structure conceived in the 1950s when over-the-air broadcasting was the best-available technology for widely disseminating emergency alerts. Bills in the 109th Congress that would improve emergency alert systems, domestically and internationally, include S. 50 (Senator Inouye) and H.R. 296 (Representative Menendez); these bills were prompted by the tsunami disaster but include measures that also apply to the need for a better all-hazard warning system in the United States. The report summarizes the technology and administration of EAS and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Weather Service (NWS) all-hazard network, new programs in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and some of the key proposals for change.

This report provides an overview of Egyptian politics and current issues in U.S.-Egyptian relations. It briefly provides a political history of modern Egypt, an overview of its political institutions, and a discussion of the prospects for democratization in Egypt, U.S.-Egyptian relations are complex and multi-faceted, and this report addresses the following current topics: the Arab-Israeli peace process, Iraq, terrorism, democratization and reform, human rights, trade, and military cooperation.

Protection of nuclear power plants from land-based assaults, deliberate aircraft crashes, and other terrorist acts has been a heightened national priority since the attacks of September 11, 2001. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) has strengthened its regulations on nuclear reactor security, but critics contend that implementation by the industry has been too slow and that further measures are needed. Several provisions to increase nuclear reactor security are included in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, signed August 8, 2005. The law requires NRC to conduct "force-on-force" security exercises at nuclear power plants at least once every three years and to revise the "design-basis threat" that nuclear plant security forces must be able to meet among other measures.