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This report begins with an inventory of basic information: definitions and guides to histories of the growth of open access publishing and citation archives and descriptions of selected major open access activities. It moves on to summarize major points of difference between proponents and opponents of nongovernmental open access publishing and databases, and then highlights federal, including National Institutes of Health (NIH), open access activities and contentious issues surrounding these developments. The report also briefly describes open access developments in the United Kingdom (where a number of governmental and nongovernmental initiatives have occurred) and in the international arena. Finally, controversial issues which could receive attention in the 109th Congress are summarized.

The Navy in February 2006 proposed to maintain in coming years a fleet of 313 ships, including, among other things, 11 aircraft carriers, 48 attack submarines (SSNs), 88 cruisers and destroyers, 55 Littoral Combat Ships (LCSs), 31 amphibious ships, and a Maritime Prepositioning Force (Future), or MPF(F), squadron with 12 new-construction amphibious and sealift-type ships. In conjunction with this proposed 313-ship fleet, the Navy submitted a 5-year (FY2007-FY2011) shipbuilding plan as part of the FY2007-FY2011 Future Years Defense Plan (FYDP), and a 30- year (FY2007-FY2036) shipbuilding plan that the Navy is required by law to submit each year.

The Navy in February 2006 proposed to maintain in coming years a fleet of 313 ships, including, among other things, 11 aircraft carriers, 48 attack submarines (SSNs), 88 cruisers and destroyers, 55 Littoral Combat Ships (LCSs), 31 amphibious ships, and a Maritime Prepositioning Force (Future), or MPF(F), squadron with 12 new-construction amphibious and sealift-type ships. The Navy says that for its shipbuilding plans to be affordable and executable, the Navy needs to control certain non-shipbuilding expenditures and build ships within estimated costs. The Navy's shipbuilding plans raise potential issues regarding the shipbuilding industrial base, particularly in the areas of the submarine design and engineering base, and the surface combatant construction base.

Members of the armed forces on duty in designated combat areas can send personal correspondence, free of postage, to addresses in the United States. There has never been a comparable provision of free postage for letters or packages sent from family members in the United States to loved ones in wartime service overseas. Two bills (H.R. 923 and H.R. 2874) have been introduced that would allow family members and, in the case of H.R. 2874, certain charities to send letters and packages to servicemen and women in combat zones free of postage. H.R. 923 in amended form as a bill that would allow service members overseas to send vouchers to family or loved ones that would be redeemable for the postage expenses of one letter of 15-pound package per month is included in the FY2007 Defense Authorization Act, which is now awaiting action in the Senate.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The judiciary pays over $900 million in rent annually to GSA for court-related space, representing a growing proportion of the judiciary's budget. The judiciary's rent payments are deposited into GSA's Federal Buildings Fund (FBF), a revolving fund used to finance GSA's real property services, including the construction and repair of federal facilities under GSA control. In December 2004, the judiciary requested a $483 million dollar permanent, annual rent exemption which GSA denied, saying that it undermined the intent of FBF and that GSA was unlikely to obtain appropriations to replace lost FBF income. GAO reviewed (1) recent trends in the judiciary's rent and space occupied and (2) challenges that the judiciary faces in managing its rent costs."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is engaged in an ongoing effort to share electronic medical information with the Department of Defense (DOD), which is important in helping to ensure high-quality health care for active duty military personnel and veterans. Also important, in the face of current military responses to national and foreign crises, is ensuring effective and efficient delivery of veterans' benefits, which is the focus of VA's development of the Veterans Service Network (VETSNET), a modernized system to support benefits payment processes. GAO is testifying on (1) VA's efforts to exchange medical information with DOD, including both near-term initiatives involving existing systems and the longer term program to exchange data between the departments' new health information systems, and (2) VA's ongoing project to develop VETSNET. To develop this testimony, GAO relied on its previous work and followed up on agency actions to respond to GAO recommendations."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The H-1B visa program assists U.S. employers in temporarily filling certain occupations with highly-skilled foreign workers. There is considerable interest regarding how Labor, along with Homeland Security and Justice, is enforcing the requirements of the program. This testimony summarizes our report, GAO-06-720, that describes how Labor carries out its H-1B program responsibilities and how Labor works with other agencies involved in the H-1B program."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The increasing threat of improvised explosive devices (IED) in Iraq has led to widespread interest by Congress and the public regarding the availability of critical force protection equipment. GAO initiated a series of engagements under the Comptroller General's authority to address these concerns. In March 2006, GAO reported on factors that affected the production and installation of armor for the Army's medium and heavy trucks. This engagement examines issues affecting the production and installation of armor for the Marine Corps' medium and heavy trucks. The objectives were to (1) determine the extent to which truck armor was produced and installed to meet identified requirements, (2) identify what factors affected the time to provide truck armor, and (3) identify what actions the Marine Corps and DOD have taken to improve the timely availability of truck armor."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Critical to the success of the federal government's transformation are its people--human capital. Yet, the government has not transformed, in many cases, how it classifies, compensates, develops, and motivates its employees to achieve maximum results within available resources and existing authorities. GAO has reported that the federal government as a whole may face challenges in offering competitive compensation to its senior leaders who have reached a statutory pay cap. As requested, GAO (1) provided trend data for basic pay rates of selected federal executive and judicial pay plans from 1970 to 2006, (2) identified elements of total compensation for the selected pay plans in 2006, and (3) identified principles for any possible restructuring of these pay plans. We selected 1970 as a baseline because salary increases went into effect in 1969 for executive-level positions as recommended by the Commission on Executive, Legislative, and Judicial Salaries. The pay plans cover the following--career Senior Executive Service (SES), administrative law judges (ALJ), senior-level (SL), Executive Schedule (EX), scientific or professional (ST), and members of Boards of Contract Appeals (BCA), as well as federal justices and judges--the Chief Justice, associate …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The H-1B visa program assists U.S. employers in temporarily filling certain occupations with highly-skilled foreign workers. There is considerable interest regarding how Labor, along with Homeland Security and Justice, is enforcing the requirements of the program. This report describes: (1) how Labor carries out its H-1B program responsibilities; and (2) how Labor works with other agencies involved in the H-1B program. We interviewed officials and analyzed data from all three agencies."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Medicaid--the federal-state health care financing program--covered over 56 million people at a cost of $295 billion in fiscal year 2004, the latest fiscal year for which complete data are available. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is the federal agency responsible for overseeing states' Medicaid programs and ensuring the propriety of expenditures reported by states for federal reimbursement. In 2002, GAO reported on weaknesses in CMS's oversight of Medicaid financial management and made recommendations to CMS to strengthen its oversight process. In fiscal year 2003, CMS started receiving funds from the Health Care Fraud and Abuse Control (HCFAC) program to help improve Medicaid financial management. GAO was asked to evaluate CMS's financial management activities, including following up on prior recommendations. In this report, GAO examined (1) the extent to which CMS has improved its ability to identify and address emerging issues that put federal Medicaid dollars at risk and (2) how CMS used funds for Medicaid from the HCFAC account."

Many commercial and industrial buildings have high ventilation rates. Although all that fresh air is great for indoor air quality, heating it can be very expensive. This short (2-page) fact sheet describes a technology available to use solar energy to preheat ventilation air and dramatically reduce utility bills.

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The President's fiscal year 2007 budget included a revised FY2006 deficit estimate of $423 billion, $72 billion larger than its previous estimate, and $53 billion larger than its original deficit estimate in February 2005. The Congressional Budget Office's March 2006 analysis of the President's proposals produced a $371 billion deficit estimate for FY2006. This report contains information on the background and analysis for the federal budget in the fiscal year 2006, the financial situation at that time, budgeting tools, budgetary actions, outlays, receipts, deficits, and related materials.

This report summarizes the recently reported security breach at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that resulted in the loss of veterans' personal information. Included are background, and a chronology of the events followed by Congress' response.

The conventional description of a solid is based on a static atomic structure with small amplitude so-called harmonic fluctuations about it. This is a final technical report for a project that has explored materials where fluctuations are sufficiently strong to severely challenge this approach and lead to unexpected and potentially useful materials properties. Fluctuations are enhanced when a large number of configurations share the same energy. We used pulsed spallation source neutron scattering to obtain detailed microscopic information about structure and fluctuations in such materials. The results enhance our understanding of strongly fluctuating solids and their potential for technical applications. Because new materials require new experimental techniques, the project has also developed new techniques for probing strongly fluctuating solids. Examples of material that were studied are ZrW2O8 with large amplitude molecular motion that leads to negative thermal expansion, NiGa2S4 where competing interactions lead to an anomalous short range ordered magnet, Pr1- xBixRu2O7 where a partially filled electron shell (Pr) in a weakly disordered environment produces anomalous metallic properties, and TbMnO3 where competing interactions lead to a magneto-electric phase. The experiments on TbMnO3 exemplify the relationship between research funded by this project and future applications. Magneto-electric materials may produce a magnetic …

In 2004 we designed and fabricated a 40 keV W/SiC multilayer coated mirrors with 2.0 nm period thickness that were tested at RAL (UK) in winter 2004/2005. The mirrors reflected from 35 to 70 keV (different grazing incidence angles) and showed high reflectivity. However, there was not enough beamtime at RAL to obtain quantitative results. Similar experiment will now be performed in Titan facility (LLNL). In this report we design and model multilayers with even shorter period than the ones used in 2004/2005 experiments. Our goal is to fabricate 1 nm period W/SiC multilayers with high reflectivity. This will enable operation at higher angle of grazing incidence and simplified the mounting fixture.

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There are two compelling reasons for understanding source term and near-field processes in a radioactive waste geologic repository. First, almost all of the radioactivity is initially in the waste form, mainly in the spent nuclear fuel (SNF) or nuclear waste glass. Second, over long periods, after the engineered barriers are degraded, the waste form is a primary control on the release of radioactivity. Thus, it is essential to know the physical and chemical state of the waste form after hundreds of thousands of years. The United States Department of Energy's Yucca Mountain Repository Program has initiated a long-term program to develop a basic understanding of the fundamental mechanisms of radionuclide release and a quantification of the release as repository conditions evolve over time. Specifically, the research program addresses four critical areas: (a) SNF dissolution mechanisms and rates; (b) formation and properties of U{sup 6+}-secondary phases; (c) waste form-waste package interactions in the near-field; and (d) integration of in-package chemical and physical processes. The ultimate goal is to integrate the scientific results into a larger scale model of source term and near-field processes. This integrated model will be used to provide a basis for understanding the behavior of the source term …

This document summarizes the pilot study to characterize The Dalles Dam Spillbay 6 vortex using a surface entrained Sensor Fish device. It was conducted by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) on April 13 and 14, 2006. The total spill was controlled at approximately 110 kcfs, the forebay elevation was 157.89 ft, and the discharge of Bay 6 at the tested gate opening of 14 ft was approximately 18 kcfs. The objectives of the full study are to (1) develop baseline conditions for the detailed analysis of Sensor Fish measurements by deploying Sensor Fish in different surface locations in the vortex periphery; (2) observe the entrainment pattern and extract hydraulic data of interest such as acceleration, rotation, pressure, and estimated velocity of Sensor Fish or drogues; (3) integrate the experimental results with companion computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations and inertial particle tracking studies. A total of 12 Sensor Fish were released in the surface at upstream edge, left edge, downstream edge, and the core of the vortex at Bay 6. Because of the high discharge, the vortex patterns at the test condition were less consistent than the patterns observed at lower discharges. Compared with the Sensor Fish released at mid-bay at …

The two phase program addresses long-term developments in deep well and hard rock drilling. TerraTek believes that significant improvements in drilling deep hard rock will be obtained by applying ultra-high rotational speeds (greater than 10,000 rpm). The work includes a feasibility of concept research effort aimed at development that will ultimately result in the ability to reliably drill ''faster and deeper'' possibly with smaller, more mobile rigs. The principle focus is on demonstration testing of diamond bits rotating at speeds in excess of 10,000 rpm to achieve high rate of penetration (ROP) rock cutting with substantially lower inputs of energy and loads. The significance of the ''ultra-high rotary speed drilling system'' is the ability to drill into rock at very low weights on bit and possibly lower energy levels. The drilling and coring industry today does not practice this technology. The highest rotary speed systems in oil field and mining drilling and coring today run less than 10,000 rpm-usually well below 5,000 rpm. This document details the progress at the end of Phase 1 on the program entitled ''Smaller Footprint Drilling System for Deep and Hard Rock Environments: Feasibility of Ultra-High-Speed Diamond Drilling'' for the period starting 1 March 2006 …