This report tracks historical federal funding associated with the America Creating Opportunities to Meaningfully Promote Excellence in Technology, Education, and Science (COMEPETES) Reauthorization Act of 2010, which are set to expire in 2013.

This report examines the antipoverty effects of unemployment insurance benefits during the past recession and the economic recovery.

Summary In Brief The Associated Particle Tagging (APT) project, a collaboration of Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Idaho National Laboratory (INL) and the Idaho State University (ISU)/Idaho Accelerator Center (IAC), has completed an exploratory study to assess the role of magnetic spectrometers as the linchpin technology in next-generation tagged-neutron and tagged-photon active interrogation (AI). The computational study considered two principle concepts: (1) the application of a solenoidal alpha-particle spectrometer to a next-generation, large-emittance neutron generator for use in the associated particle imaging technique, and (2) the application of tagged photon beams to the detection of fissile material via active interrogation. In both cases, a magnetic spectrometer momentum-analyzes charged particles (in the neutron case, alpha particles accompanying neutron generation in the D-T reaction; in the tagged photon case, post-bremsstrahlung electrons) to define kinematic properties of the relevant neutral interrogation probe particle (i.e. neutron or photon). The main conclusions of the study can be briefly summarized as follows: Neutron generator: • For the solenoidal spectrometer concept, magnetic field strengths of order 1 Tesla or greater are required to keep the transverse size of the spectrometer smaller than 1 meter. The notional magnetic spectrometer design evaluated in this feasibility study uses a 5-T …

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China, the only Communist Party-led nation in the G-20 grouping of major economies, is in the midst of a sweeping set of political transitions that began in 2011 and could conclude as late as 2014. This report is intended to provide Congress with a guide to the transitions, covering their distinct features and specific issues of interest, including the Party’s next steps in the ongoing scandal involving Bo Xilai, the former Chongqing Party Secretary and Politburo member who fell from grace after his wife was implicated in the murder of a British businessman. This report also previews some of the challenges facing China’s new leaders, starting with the requirement to consolidate their power.

The Quest Camera was installed at the Palomar Obervatory in California. The camera was used to carry out a survey of low redshift Type 1a supernovae.The purpose of this DOE grant was to perform short term maintenance on the QUEST camera.

This research project included two main thrusts; energetic particle effects on resistive MHD modes in tokamaks, and turbulence interactions with tearing modes in simplified geometry.

This report provides an overview of the committee funding process in the House; it analyzes funding levels since 1995, reviews House floor and committee action on committee funding in the 112th Congress, summarizes the rules and regulations that structure the use of committee funds, and analyzes actual committee funding spending patterns during five previous years.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal agency assessments of the performance of information technology (IT) investments in operations and maintenance (O&M)--commonly referred to as operational analyses (OAs)--vary significantly. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) guidance calls for agencies to develop an OA policy and perform such analyses annually to ensure steady state investments continue to meet agency needs. The guidance also includes 17 key factors (addressing areas such as cost, schedule, customer satisfaction, and innovation) that are to be assessed. The five agencies GAO reviewed varied in the extent to which they carried out these tasks."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Chief Information Officers (CIO) at six federal agencies rated the majority of their information technology (IT) investments as low risk, and many ratings remained constant over time. Specifically, CIOs at the selected agencies rated a majority of investments listed on the federal IT Dashboard as low risk or moderately low risk from June 2009 through March 2012; at five of these agencies, these risk levels accounted for at least 66 percent of investments. These agencies also rated no more than 12 percent of their investments as high or moderately high risk, and two agencies (Department of Defense (DOD) and the National Science Foundation (NSF)) rated no investments at these risk levels. Over time, about 47 percent of the agencies' Dashboard investments received the same rating in every rating period. For ratings that changed, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) reported more investments with reduced risk when initial ratings were compared with those in March 2012; the other four agencies reported more investments with increased risk. In the past, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) reported trends for risky IT …

This report discusses challenges created by the global illegal drug trade, including: undermining political and regional stability, bolstering the role and capabilities of transnational criminal organizations in the drug trade, and the burden caused by drug use an addition on local communities and economic development. In addition, this report discusses U.S. policy efforts to thwart illegal drug trade.

This report analyzes employment data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics from December 2007 to September 2012, including characteristics of job loss and gain within several industries.

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Qweak will determine the weak charge of the proton, Q{sup p}{sub W}, via an asymmetry measurement of parity-violating elastic electron-proton scattering at low four momentum transfer to a precision of 4%. Q{sup p}{sub W} has a firm Standard Model prediction and is related to the weak mixing angle, sin{sup 2} {Theta}{sub W}, a well-defined Standard Model parameter. Qweak will probe a subset of new physics to the TeV mass scale and test the Standard Model. The details of how this measurement was performed and the analysis of the 25% elastic dataset will be presented in this thesis. Also, an analysis of an auxiliary measurement of the parity-violating asymmetry in the N -> {Delta} transition is presented. It is used as a systematic inelastic background correction in the elastic analysis and to extract information about the hadronic parity violation through the low energy constant, d{sub Delta}. The elastic asymmetry at Q{sup 2} = 0.0252 ± 0.0007 GeV{sup 2} was measured to be A{sub ep} = -265 ± 40 ± 22 ± 68 ppb (stat., sys., and blinding). Extrapolated to Q{sup 2} = 0, the value of the proton's weak charge was measured to be Q{sup p}{sub W} = 0.077 ± 0.019 …

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Aqueous phase reforming is useful for processing oxygenated hydrocarbons to hydrogen and other more useful products. Current processing is hampered by the fact that oxide based catalysts are not stable under high temperature hydrothermal conditions. Silica in the form of structured MCM-41 is thermally a more stable support for Co and Ni than conventional high surface area amorphous silica but hydrothermal stability is not demonstrated. Carbon nanotube supports, in contrast, are highly stable under hydrothermal reaction conditions. In this project we show that carbon nanotubes are stable high activity/selectivity supports for the conversion of ethylene glycol to hydrogen.

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A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

This memorandum provides information on federal spending for programs explicitly intended for people with low or limited income.

This report discusses the current Congressional issues in relation to Venezuela, including background on the political situation and recent developments, the economic conditions, relevant U.S. policies, and the legislative initiatives in the 111th and 112th Congresses. The United States traditionally has had close relations with Venezuela, a major supplier of foreign oil, but there has been friction in relations under the government of populist President Hugo Chávez. U.S. officials have expressed concerns about human rights, Venezuela's military arms purchases, its relations with Cuba and Iran, and its efforts to export its brand of populism to other Latin American countries.