A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act of 1996 (NAHASDA) changed how the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) provides housing assistance to Native Americans. Congress created NAHASDA to recognize self-determination for tribes in addressing their low-income housing needs. In NAHASDA's 2008 reauthorization, Congress asked GAO to assess the program's effectiveness. This report discusses (1) how tribes have used NAHASDA funds, (2) how NAHASDA has improved the process of providing tribes with funds for housing, and (3) the extent to which NAHASDA has contributed to infrastructure improvements in tribal communities. GAO analyzed agency documentation, surveyed all tribes receiving grants in fiscal year 2008, conducted site visits with select tribes, and interviewed officials at HUD and other agencies."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "By law, GAO is directed to assess the annual progress the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) made in developing and fielding the Ballistic Missile Defense System (BMDS). GAO also assessed MDA's progress toward improving accountability and transparency in agency operations, management processes, and its acquisition strategy. To accomplish this, GAO reviewed asset fielding schedules, test plans and reports, as well as pertinent sections of Department of Defense (DOD) policy to compare MDA's current level of accountability with that of other DOD programs. GAO's fiscal year 2009 assessment of MDA's cost, schedule, and performance progress is more limited than previous assessments because MDA removed key components of schedule and performance goals from its annual report of goals. In addition, though it had committed to, MDA did not report total cost estimates in 2009."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Coast Guard, a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), conducts 11 statutory missions that range from marine safety to defense readiness. In an effort to enhance performance the Coast Guard continues to implement its Deepwater program--the acquisition program to replace or upgrade its vessels and aircraft--while also carrying out a reorganization program to update its command structure, among other things. This testimony discusses the Coast Guard's (1) budget request for fiscal year 2011 and key performance indicators for fiscal year 2009; and (2) key management challenges confronting the Coast Guard. This testimony is based on GAO products issued in 2009 and 2010 (including GAO-09-682, GAO-09-810T, and GAO-10-268R); other GAO products issued over the past 11 years--with selected updates in February 2010; and preliminary observations from ongoing GAO work on the Deployable Operations Group. GAO analyzed budget and performance documents, such as DHS's fiscal year 2011 budget justification, and interviewed Coast Guard officials."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In the 1990s, creosote was discovered under a residential neighborhood in Manville, New Jersey. Creosote, a mixture of chemicals, is used to preserve wood products, such as railroad ties. Some of the chemicals in creosote may cause cancer, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). EPA found that creosote from a former wood-treatment facility (known as the Federal Creosote site) had contaminated soil and groundwater at the site. Under the Superfund program--the federal government's principal program to clean up hazardous waste--EPA assessed site risks, selected remedies, and worked with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to clean up the site. As of May 2009, construction of EPA's remedies for the site had been completed; however, total site costs were almost $340 million and remedial construction costs had exceeded original estimates. In this context, GAO was asked to examine (1) how EPA assessed risks and selected remedies for the site, and what priority EPA gave to site cleanup; (2) what factors contributed to the difference between the estimated and actual costs; and (3) how EPA and the Corps divided responsibilities for site work. GAO analyzed EPA and …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In May 2009, the U.S. administration announced plans to increase the Department of Transportation's (DOT) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards and establish the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions standards for vehicles. NHTSA redesigned CAFE standards for light trucks for model years 2008 through 2011, and some experts raised questions about the rigor of the computer modeling NHTSA used to develop these standards. GAO was asked to review (1) the design of NHTSA and EPA's proposed standards; (2) how they are collaborating to set these standards; (3) improvements compared to a previous rulemaking, if any, NHTSA made to the modeling; and (4) the extent to which NHTSA analyzed the effects of past light truck standards and the accuracy of data used to set them. GAO reviewed relevant rulemaking and modeling documents, and interviewed agency officials and other experts."

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The high energy (s{sup 1/2} = 500 GeV) polarized proton beam experiments performed in RHIC, require high polarization of the proton beam. With the AGS used as the pre-injector to RHIC, one of the main tasks is to preserve the polarization of the proton beam, during the beam acceleration in the AGS. The polarization preservation is accomplished by the two partial helical magnets [1,2,3,4,5,6,7] which have been installed in AGS, and help overcome the imperfection and the intrinsic spin resonances which occur during the acceleration of protons. This elimination of the intrinsic resonances is accomplished by placing the vertical tune Q{sub y} at a value close to 8.98, within the spin-tune stop-band created by the snake. At this near integer tune the perturbations caused by the partial helical magnets is large resulting in large beta and dispersion waves. To mitigate the adverse effect of the partial helices on the optics of the AGS, we have introduced compensation quads[2] in the AGS. In this paper we present the beam optics of the AGS which ameliorates this effect of the partial helices.

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The idea of using multiple partial helical magnets was applied successfully to the AGS synchrotron, to preserve the proton beam polarization. In this paper we explore in details the idea of using four helical magnets placed symmetrically in the AGS ring. This modification provides many advantages over the present setup of the AGS that uses two partial helical magnets. First, it provides a larger 'spin tune gap' for the placement of the vertical betatron tune of the AGS during acceleration, second, the vertical spin direction during the beam injection and extraction is closer to vertical, third, the symmetric placement of the snakes allows for a better control of the AGS optics, and for reduced values of the beta and eta functions, especially near injection, fourth, the optical properties of the helical magnets also favor the placement of the horizontal betatron tune in the 'spin tune gap', thus eliminating the horizontal spin resonances. In this paper we provide results on the spin tune and on the optics of the AGS with four partial helical magnets, and we compare these results with the present setup of the AGS that uses two partial helical magnets.

Electron lenses for the head-on beam-beam compensation are under construction at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. The bunch length is of the same order as the {beta}-function at the interaction point, and a proton passing through another proton bunch experiences a substantial phase shift which modifies the beam-beam interaction. We review the effect of the bunch length in the single pass beam-beam interaction, apply the same analysis to a proton passing through a long electron lens, and study the single pass beam-beam compensation with long bunches. We also discuss the beam-beam compensation of the electron beam in an electron-ion collider ring.

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This soil characterization report summarizes sampling activities and analytical results, provides copies of laboratory data reports, and meets the requirements of Section IV.G.2 of the Permit (NEV HW0021, November 2005) and Sections P.3.d.7.b and P.3.n of the Permit Application (DOE/NV--1053-VOL 4, May 2005).

We study the effect of atmospheric electric fields on the radio pulse emitted by cos- mic ray air showers. Under fair weather conditions the dominant part of the radio emission is driven by the geomagnetic field. When the shower charges are accelerated and deflected in an electric field additional radiation is emitted. We simulate this effect with the Monte Carlo code REAS2, using CORSIKA-simulated showers as input. In both codes a routine has been implemented that treats the effect of the electric field on the shower particles. We find that the radio pulse is significantly altered in background fields of the order of ~100 V/cm and higher. Practically, this means that air showers passing through thunderstorms emit radio pulses that are not a reliable measure for the shower energy. Under other weather circumstances significant electric field effects are expected to occur rarely, but nimbostratus clouds can harbor fields that are large enough. In general, the contribution of the electric field to the radio pulse has polarization properties that are different from the geomagnetic pulse. In order to filter out radio pulses that have been affected by electric field effects, radio air shower experiments should keep weatherinformation and perform full polarization …

We believe the mathematical research community is facing a great challenge to re-evaluate the role of proof in light of recent developments. On one hand, the growing power of current computer systems, of modern mathematical computing packages, and of the growing capacity to data-mine on the Internet, has provided marvelous resources to the research mathematician. On the other hand, the enormous complexity of many modern capstone results such as the Poincare conjecture, Fermat's last theorem, and the classification of finite simple groups has raised questions as to how we can better ensure the integrity of modern mathematics. Yet as the need and prospects for inductive mathematics blossom, the requirement to ensure the role of proof is properly founded remains undiminished.

This manual examines procedures and strategy related to committee markups and provides sample procedural scripts.

This report discusses the construction and history of the European Parliament (EP), its role in functions of the EU as well as internationally, various international supports and criticisms of the EP, and the EP's ties with the U.S. Congress.

This report presents basic background information on health insurance that may be useful to legislators considering health insurance reforms. It describes health insurance reform approaches and provides brief descriptions of health insurance reform bills introduced in the 111th Congress.

The character of the war in Afghanistan evolved from a violent struggle against al Qaeda and its Taliban supporters to a multi-faceted counterinsurgency (COIN) effort. This report provides an examination of the war's background, context, and early execution; an analytical discussion of the COIN war to date, including strategy, organization, participation, and key facets of the effort including population security, advising the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF), counter-narcotics, reconciliation, community outreach, and civil-military coordination; and an analysis of major strategic and operational issues and options that the 111th Congress may opt to consider.

This report presents U.S. military casualties as well as governmental and nongovernmental estimates of Iraqi civilian, police, and security forces casualties.

This report describes the origin, authority, and policy in the procurement of food for the military. Military food items, also known as subsistence items, are generally procured under the auspices of the Defense Logistics Agency (DLA), an agency of the Department of Defense (DOD) which provides worldwide logistics support for the U.S. military services. Under DLA, DLA Troop Services (formerly the Defense Supply Center Philadelphia) is the inventory control point for food, clothing, textiles, medicines, medical equipment, general and industrial supplies, and services for the military, their eligible dependents, and other non-DOD customers worldwide. DLA Troop Services buys and manages about $13.4 billion worth of food, clothing, textiles, and other products.

This report provides a summary overview of issues regarding the relationship between the United States and the EU, many of which may be of interest to the second session of the 111th Congress. The global financial crisis and recession has challenged both sides to forge a common response. The United States and EU have a number of lingering trade disputes, but have led the push to liberalize world trade, and have sought to reduce non-tariff and regulatory barriers in the transatlantic marketplace.

The hydrolysis reaction of uranium hexafluoride (UF{sub 6}) is a key step in the synthesis of uranium dioxide (UO{sub 2}) powder for nuclear fuels. Mechanisms for the hydrolysis reactions are studied here with density functional theory and the Stuttgart small-core scalar relativistic pseudopotential and associated basis set for uranium. The reaction of a single UF{sub 6} molecule with a water molecule in the gas phase has been previously predicted to proceed over a relatively sizeable barrier of 78.2 kJ {center_dot} mol{sup -1}, indicating this reaction is only feasible at elevated temperatures. Given the observed formation of a second morphology for the UO{sub 2} product coupled with the observations of rapid, spontaneous hydrolysis at ambient conditions, an alternate reaction pathway must exist. In the present work, two trimolecular hydrolysis mechanisms are studied with density functional theory: (1) the reaction between two UF{sub 6} molecules and one water molecule, and (2) the reaction of two water molecules with a single UF{sub 6} molecule. The predicted reaction of two UF{sub 6} molecules with one water molecule displays an interesting 'fluorine-shuttle' mechanism, a significant energy barrier of 69.0 kJ {center_dot} mol{sup -1} to the formation of UF{sub 5}OH, and an enthalpy of reaction ({Delta}H{sub …

The activation energy of a high melting temperature sol-gel (SG) derived tantalum-tungsten oxide thermite composite was determined using the Kissinger isoconversion method. The SG derived powder was consolidated using the High Pressure Spark Plasma Sintering (HPSPS) technique to 300 and 400 C to produce pellets with dimensions of 5 mm diameter by 1.5 mm height. A custom built ignition setup was developed to measure ignition temperatures at high heating rates (500-2000 C {center_dot} min{sup -1}). Such heating rates were required in order to ignite the thermite composite. Unlike the 400 C samples, results show that the samples consolidated to 300 C undergo an abrupt change in temperature response prior to ignition. This change in temperature response has been attributed to the crystallization of the amorphous WO{sub 3} in the SG derived Ta-WO{sub 3} thermite composite and not to a pre-ignition reaction between the constituents. Ignition temperatures for the Ta-WO{sub 3} thermite ranged from approximately 465-670 C. The activation energy of the SG derived Ta-WO{sup 3} thermite composite consolidated to 300 and 400 C were determined to be 37.787 {+-} 1.58 kJ {center_dot} mol{sup -1} and 57.381 {+-} 2.26 kJ {center_dot} mol{sup -1}, respectively.

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.