Tests results are given for exposure of multimode optical fiber to high temperatures (300 deg. C) and high partial pressure (15 bar) hydrogen. These results demonstrate that fluorine down doped optical fibers are much more hydrogen tolerant than traditional germanium doped multimode optical fibers. Also demonstrated is the similar hydrogen tolerance of carbon coated and non-carbon coated fibers. Model for reversible H2 impact in fiber versus T{sup o}C and H2 pressure is given. These results have significant impact for the longevity of use for distributed temperature sensing applications in harsh environments such as geothermal wells.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification regarding: Whether two bills that amend section 36.121 of the Water Code, which relates to the regulatory authority of groundwater conservation districts, are in irreconcilable conflict. (RQ-0985-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Authority of the Aransas County Navigation District to develop, maintain, and finance Rockport Beach Park. (RQ-0986-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether section 74.501 of the Property Code prohibits the Comptroller from making direct payments of unclaimed property proceeds to certain persons (RQ-0988-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Authority of a commissioners court to adopt regulations under section 352.081 ,Local Government Code , Which relate to local burn bans(RQ-1013-GA).

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether, under particular circumstances, a school district may, pursuant to section 22.011, Education Code, permit charities to participate in campaigns to solicit contributions (RQ-1031-GA)

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Confidentiality of alcoholic beverage reports submitted to the Comptroller under section 151.462 of the Tax Code.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Transfer of a tax lien pursuant to section 32.06 of the Tax Code, and the items that may be secured by the transferred lien.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Authority to operate a golf cart under section 551.403 of the Transportation Code.

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "We identified four categories of assistance U.S. agencies have provided: (1) counter-IED training and equipment, (2) a counter-IED public awareness campaign, (3) training of border officials, and (4) legal assistance for laws and regulations to counter IEDs and IED precursors. We found that each agency providing counter-IED assistance to Pakistan performs a unique role based on its specialized knowledge and expertise. DHS, for example, takes primary responsibility for border management and customs investigation training. DHS conducts joint regional training and operational exercises for both Pakistani and Afghan border officials, including international border interdiction training and cross-border financial investigation training. DHS also plays a lead role in Program Global Shield to foster cross-border cooperation and initiate complementary border management and customs operations. According to DHS, the main goals of Program Global Shield are (1) to identify and interdict falsely declared explosive precursor chemicals, (2) to initiate investigations of smuggled or illegally diverted IED materials, and (3) to uncover smuggling and procurement networks that foster illicit trade."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO found that DISH complied with the Special Master's examination. DISH provided the Special Master with information on its subscribers and royalty payments, and cooperated on a survey of all major network-affiliated broadcast stations nationwide. Since our March 23, 2012, report, the Special Master issued a report noting that there was no substantial evidence of improprieties by DISH regarding the Section 119 statutory license."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This report identifies (1) the dual-use exports, if any, that Ex-Im financed in fiscal years 2010 through 2011 and (2) the end uses of any such exports. Ex-Im did not finance any dual-use exports in fiscal years 2010 and 2011, according to our review of relevant data on Ex-Im authorizations."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In recent years, the government’s reliance on DUNS numbers has increased significantly. There has been a dramatic increase in the number and types of entities that are required to have DUNS numbers to do business with the government. GSA also has expanded the level of business information services that it acquires from Dun & Bradstreet. These services include data verification and monitoring as well as corporate linkage information to support enhanced reporting capabilities. As GSA has increased its use of the DUNS number and business information services, its costs have increased from about $1 million in 2002 to approximately $19 million per year under the current contract. The current contract for DUNS numbers is a sole-source contract awarded to Dun & Bradstreet in 2010 for a 3-year base period with options for 5 additional years—the contract now totals up to $154 million."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "USAID and USDA share broad objectives for nonemergency food aid programs; however, the agencies have established some planning processes to limit overlap in these programs. For example, both USAID and USDA have objectives that address financial services, infrastructure, agricultural productivity, agribusiness development, and child and maternal nutrition needs in food insecure countries. Some of these shared objectives are the result of authorizing legislation, through which Congress outlines nonemergency food aid objectives, while others are included in presidential initiatives and agency strategies. We also found that USAID and USDA nonemergency food aid programs shared common geographic focus areas in which they implemented similar activities. For example, in fiscal year 2011, both USAID and USDA had nonemergency food aid programs in Guatemala and Uganda and both programs were providing agricultural training. Furthermore, implementing partners in Guatemala and Uganda administering programs for both agencies told us that USAID and USDA have parallel administrative structures in the field and distinct requirements for performance management. However, we found that these agencies have established some processes to plan and coordinate country activities in efforts to limit overlap. For example, to improve coordination in nonemergency …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Although SPOT was designated as the common database for the statutorily required information on contracts, assistance instruments, and related personnel in Iraq and Afghanistan, officials from DOD, State, and USAID generally relied on other data sources they regarded as more reliable to prepare the 2011 joint report. For example, only State relied directly on SPOT for contractor and assistance personnel information, while none of the three agencies used SPOT to identify the number of contractor and assistance personnel killed or wounded in the two countries. The agencies used a variety of sources to prepare the 2011 joint report and, in some cases, used different data sources or changed their methodologies from what was used for the 2010 joint report. This was generally done in an effort to provide better information or address limitations identified in our prior reports."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Most USDA and Interior agencies did not have readily available information on attorney fee claims and payments made under EAJA and other fee-shifting statutes for fiscal years 2000 through 2010. As a result, there was no way to readily determine who made claims, the total amount each department paid or awarded in attorney fees, who received the payments, or the statutes under which the cases were brought for the claims over the 11-year period. Both USDA and Interior officials stated that given the decentralized nature of their departments and the absence of an external requirement to track or report on attorney fee information, decisions such as whether to track attorney fee data and the manner in which to do so are best handled at the agency level. Specifically, officials from 65 of the 75 USDA and Interior agencies we contacted told us that they did not track or could not readily provide us with this information. The remaining 10 USDA and Interior agencies either had mechanisms to track information on attorney fees or were able to compile this information manually using hard copy files or directed us to …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The QI program enrolled about 426,000 individuals nationwide in 2009--the most recent year for which comprehensive enrollment data were available--with expenditures of about $431 million. While QI enrollment increased 30 percent from fiscal year 2006 to fiscal year 2009, program expenditures increased at a slightly faster rate, rising 39 percent during this time. On average, one quarter of individuals potentially eligible for the QI program were enrolled during fiscal years 2006 through 2009. However, the percentage of eligible individuals enrolled in the program climbed from 21 percent in fiscal year 2006 to 29 percent in fiscal year 2009. CMS does not have comprehensive national data on TMA enrollment and expenditures; the 41 states that had enrollment data reported that over 3.5 million individuals were enrolled in TMA in 2011, the most recent year for which complete enrollment data were reported by the highest number of states. Fewer states were able to report TMA expenditure data; however, 32 states reported TMA total expenditures of about $3.9 billion in 2011."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2010, the 55 highest-expenditure Part B drugs represented $16.9 billion in spending, or about 85 percent of all Medicare spending on Part B drugs, which totaled $19.5 billion. The number of Medicare beneficiaries who received each of these drugs varied from 15.2 million receiving the influenza vaccines to 660 hemophilia A patients receiving a group of biologicals known collectively as factor viii recombinant, which had the largest average annual cost per beneficiary--$217,000. Our analysis showed that most of the 55 drugs increased in expenditures, prices, and average annual cost per beneficiary from 2008 to 2010. The 5 drugs with the largest increase in Medicare expenditures over this time period also had the largest increase in the number of beneficiaries receiving each drug. Four of the 10 drugs which showed the greatest increase in expenditures were also among the 10 drugs showing the greatest price increases."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In our view, DOD's 2012 sustainable ranges report meets the annual statutory reporting requirements that DOD describe its progress in implementing its sustainable ranges plan and any additional actions taken or to be taken in addressing training constraints caused by limitations on the use of military lands, marine areas, and airspace. DOD's 2012 report also provides updates to several elements of the plan that the act required DOD to include in its original submission in 2004. These elements include (1) proposals to enhance training range capabilities and address any shortfalls in resources, (2) goals and milestones for tracking planned actions and measuring progress, and (3) projected funding requirements for implementing planned actions, among others. Taken together, these elements of DOD's 2012 sustainable ranges report describe the department's progress in implementing its comprehensive plan and addressing training constraints at its ranges, thus meeting the annual reporting requirements of the act."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA), a separately organized agency within the Department of Energy (DOE), has successfully ensured that the nuclear weapons stockpile remains safe and reliable by using state-of-the-art facilities as well as the skills of top scientists. Nevertheless, DOE’s and NNSA’s ineffective oversight of its contractors has contributed to many safety and security problems. As work carried out at NNSA’s sites involves dangerous nuclear materials such as plutonium and highly enriched uranium, stringent safety procedures and security requirements must be observed. In response to numerous serious safety incidents over several decades, DOE has taken steps to improve safety oversight. Recently, laboratory and other officials have raised concerns, however, that federal oversight has become excessive and overly burdensome. To address these concerns, DOE completed a safety and security reform effort to streamline or eliminate many DOE directives. However, GAO reported in April 2012 that the benefits of this reform effort are unclear because DOE did not determine if the original directives were, in fact, burdensome. In addition, the reform effort did not fully address safety concerns GAO and others identified in the areas of quality assurance, …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Delivering and demonstrating the Next Generation Air Transportation System's (NextGen) benefits: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) must deliver capabilities that provide aircraft operators with a return on their investments in NextGen avionics to convince operators to continue making equipment investments. However, operators have expressed concerns that FAA has not produced the navigational procedures needed to achieve benefits from existing avionics, such as reduced fuel burn and flight time. To help produce more beneficial procedures, FAA is, among other things, involving air traffic controllers and other stakeholders in the design of new procedures."

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Future overseas contingencies are inherently uncertain, but effective planning for operational contract support can help reduce the risks posed by those uncertainties. The Department of Defense (DOD) has made an effort to emphasize the importance of operational contract support at the strategic level through new policy and guidance and ongoing efforts. For example, in January 2011, the Secretary of Defense issued a memorandum outlining actions and indicating a need to influence a cultural shift in how the department manages contracted support in a contingency environment. DOD has also recognized the need to translate strategic requirements into plans at the operational level, but GAO's past work has shown that DOD's progress in anticipating contractor support in sufficient detail in operation plans has been slow. As a result, DOD has risked not fully understanding the extent to which it will be relying on contractors to support combat operations and being unprepared to provide the necessary management and oversight of deployed contractor personnel. One way to help address this risk is to ensure military commanders and senior leaders are cognizant of the roles contractors have in supporting DOD's efforts and the …

Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy project sheet summarizing general information about the Green Electricity Network Integration (GENI) program including critical needs, innovation and advantages, impacts, and contact information. This sheet discusses a new method of electrical power transmission that would improve electrical grid efficiency as part of the "Compact Dynamic Phase Angle Regulators for Transmission Power Routing" project.