Congress has long been concerned about whether U.S. policy advances the national interest in reducing the role of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and missiles that could deliver them. China has taken some steps to mollify U.S. concerns about its role in weapons proliferation. Skeptics question whether China's cooperation in weapons nonproliferation has warranted President Bush's pursuit of stronger bilateral ties. This report discusses the national security problem of China's role in weapons proliferation and issues related to the U.S. policy response, including legislation, since the mid-1990s.

The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is one of several federally managed warning systems. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) jointly administers EAS with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in cooperation with the National Weather Service (NWS), an organization within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NOAA/NWS weather radio system has been upgraded to an all-hazard warning capability. This report summarizes the technology and administration of EAS and the NOAA/NWS all-hazard network, and some of the key proposals for change

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Congress has long been concerned about whether U.S. policy advances the national interest in reducing the role of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) and missiles that could deliver them. China has taken some steps to mollify U.S. concerns about its role in weapons proliferation. Skeptics question whether China's cooperation in weapons nonproliferation has warranted President Bush's pursuit of stronger bilateral ties. This report discusses the national security problem of China's role in weapons proliferation and issues related to the U.S. policy response, including legislation, since the mid-1990s.

The Emergency Alert System (EAS) is one of several federally managed warning systems. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) jointly administers EAS with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), in cooperation with the National Weather Service (NWS), an organization within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The NOAA/NWS weather radio system has been upgraded to an all-hazard warning capability. This report summarizes the technology and administration of EAS and the NOAA/NWS all-hazard network, and some of the key proposals for change

The term “spyware” is not well defined. Generally, it is used to refer to any software that is downloaded onto a person’s computer without their knowledge. Spyware may collect information about a computer user’s activities and transmit that information to someone else. It may change computer settings, or cause “pop-up” advertisements to appear (in that context, it is called “adware”). Spyware may redirect a Web browser to a site different from what the user intended to visit or change the user’s home page. A type of spyware called “keylogging” software records individual keystrokes, even if the author modifies or deletes what was written, or if the characters do not appear on the monitor. Thus, passwords, credit card numbers, and other personally identifiable information may be captured and relayed to unauthorized recipients.

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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.

The term "spyware" is not well defined. Generally, it is used to refer to any software that is downloaded onto a person's computer without their knowledge. Spyware may collect information about a computer user's activities and transmit their information to someone else. Most spyware is installed surreptitiously, and most users are therefore unaware that spyware exists on their computers. A central point of the spyware debate in Congress is whether new laws are needed, or if industry self-regulation, coupled with enforcement actions under existing laws, such as the Trade Commission Act, is sufficient.

The future status of Kosovo is the most sensitive and potentially destabilizing political question in the Balkans. The Administration views "getting Kosovo right" as key to integrating the Balkans into Euro-Atlantic institutions. This report discusses the issue of Kosovo's future status; that is, whether it should become an independent country or continue to be part of Serbia, but with a large degree of autonomy.

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) plans to spend nearly $230 billion over the next two decades implementing the Vision for Space Exploration. In January 2006, NASA publicly released its Exploration Systems Architecture Study (ESAS), which is an effort to identify the best architecture and strategy to implement the President's 2004 Vision for Space Exploration (Vision). The cost estimate for implementing the ESAS through fiscal year 2011 exceeds $31 billion. The estimate through fiscal year 2018 is over $122 billion, and the estimate through fiscal year 2025 is nearly $230 billion. These estimates include the architecture, robotic precursor missions, supporting technologies, and funding needed to service the International Space Station (ISS). NASA plans to implement this architecture through a "go as you can afford to pay" approach, wherein lower-priority efforts would be deferred, descoped, or discontinued to allow NASA to stay within its available budget profile. This approach assumes NASA's budget will increase moderately to keep pace with inflation. Given the long-term fiscal imbalances that will challenge the entire federal government now and in the future, it would be prudent for NASA to establish a program that …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "A large body of scientific evidence links exposure to particulate matter--a widespread form of air pollution--to serious health problems, including asthma and premature death. Under the Clean Air Act, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) periodically reviews the appropriate air quality level at which to set national standards to protect the public against the health effects of particulate matter. EPA proposed revisions to these standards in January 2006 and issued a draft regulatory impact analysis of the revisions' expected costs and benefits. The estimated benefits of air pollution regulations have been controversial in the past. A 2002 National Academies report generally supported EPA's approach but made 34 recommendations to improve how EPA implements its approach. GAO was asked to determine whether and how EPA applied the Academies' recommendations in its estimates of the health benefits expected from the January 2006 proposed revisions to the particulate matter standards. GAO examined the draft analysis, met with EPA officials, and interviewed members of the National Academies' committee. In providing technical comments on the report, EPA officials said it was fair and balanced and noted the agency's progress in addressing recommendations …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLBA) requires that states improve academic performance so that all students reach proficiency in reading and math by 2014 and that achievement gaps close among student groups. States set annual proficiency targets using an approach known as a status model, which calculates test scores 1 year at a time. Some states have interest in using growth models that measure changes in test scores over time to determine if schools are meeting proficiency targets. To determine the extent that growth models were consistent with NCLBA's goals, GAO assessed (1) the extent that states have used growth models to measure academic achievement, (2) the extent that growth models can measure progress in achieving key NCLBA goals, and (3) the challenges states may face in using growth models to meet adequate yearly progress (AYP) requirements and how the Department of Education (Education) is assisting the states. To obtain this information, we conducted a national survey and site visits to 4 states. While growth models are typically defined as tracking the same students over time, GAO used a definition that also included tracking schools …

Since the mid-1980s, certain employer-oriented groups and individuals have urged amendment of the Fair Labor Standards Act to alter current overtime pay requirements. This report contains information on the structure of the issue, compensatory time proposals of the 108th Congress, issues in the debate, and more relating to the issue.

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For a short bunch in an elliptical collimator we demonstrate that, as in a purely round collimator, the wake can be estimated from the primary fields of the beam alone. We obtain the wakes in the LCLS rectangular-to-round, undulator transitions using a hybrid method that includes indirect numerical (field) integration and an analytical potential energy term. For the LCLS 1 nC bunch charge configuration, we find the wake-induced energy change in the transitions to be small compared to that due to the resistance of the beam pipe walls.

The objective of this study was to ascertain the condition of braze joints and cooling water hardware from an accelerator section after prolonged use. Metallographic analysis was used to examine critical sites on an accelerator section that had been in use for more than 30 years. The end flange assembly showed no internal operational damage or external environmental effects. The cavity cylinder stack showed no internal operational damage however the internal surface was highly oxidized. The internal surface of the cooling water tubing was uniformly corroding at a rate of about 1 mil per year and showed no evidence of pitting. Tee fitting internal surfaces are corroding at non-uniform rates due to general corrosion and pitting. Remaining service life of the cooling water jacket is estimated to be about 20 years or year 2027. At this time, water supply pressure will exceed allowable fitting pressure due to corrosion of tubing walls.

This is a final technical report required by DOE for the Navajo Electrification Demonstration Program, This report covers the electric line extension project for Navajo families that currently without electric power.

A study of the beam distributions in the 2 mrad and 14/20 mrad extraction lines are presented. Beam losses, energy losses due to synchrotron radiation and spin diffusion are shown. Synchrotron radiation distributions generated by the beam as it traverses the extraction lines are studied.

Using a recently developed time domain numerical approach we calculate the short-range geometric wakefields of 3D collimators and compare with analytical models. We find, in the diffractive regime, that the transverse mode kick factor can be approximated from the change in field energy between the beam pipe and the collimator if the collimator is long, or using a ''field clipping'' estimate if it is short. For collimators of past and present measurements at SLAC, numerical, analytical, and measurement results are compared.

The long exposure times of the HST Ultra-Deep Field plus the use of an empirically derived position-dependent PSF, have enabled us to measure a cardioid/displacement distortion map coefficient as well as improving upon the sextupole map coefficient. We confirmed that curved background galaxies are clumped on the same angular scale as found in the HST Deep Field North. The new cardioid/displacement map coefficient is strongly correlated to a product of the sextupole and quadrupole coefficients. One would expect to see such a correlation from fits to background galaxies with quadrupole and sextupole moments. Events that depart from this correlation are expected to arise from map coefficient changes due to lensing, and several galaxy subsets selected using this criteria are indeed clumped.

Ion-induced beam instabilities and tune shifts are critical issues for the electron damping ring of the International Linear Collider (ILC). To avoid conventional ion trapping, a long gap is introduced in the electron beam by omitting a number of successive bunches out of a long train. However, the beam can still suffer from the fast ion instability, driven by ions that last only for a single passage of the electron bunches. Our study shows that the ion effects can be significantly mitigated by using multiple gaps, so that the stored beam consists of a number of relatively short bunch trains. The ion effects in the ILC damping rings are investigated using both analytical and numerical methods.