A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "FDA has not taken sufficient steps to ensure that antibiotic labels contain up-to-date breakpoints. FDA designates certain drugs as “reference-listed drugs” and the sponsors of these drugs play an important role in ensuring the accuracy of drug labels. Reference-listed drugs are approved drug products to which generic versions are compared. As of November 2011, FDA had not yet confirmed whether the breakpoints on the majority of reference-listed antibiotics labels were up to date. FDA contacted sponsors of 210 antibiotics in early 2008 to remind sponsors of the importance of maintaining their labels and requested that they assess whether the breakpoints on their drugs’ labels were up to date. Sponsors were asked to submit evidence to FDA showing that the breakpoints were either current or needed revision. As of November 2011, over 3.5 years after FDA contacted sponsors, the agency had not yet confirmed whether the breakpoints on the labels of 70 percent, or 146 of the 210 antibiotics, were up to date. FDA has not ensured that sponsors have fulfilled the responsibilities outlined in the early 2008 letters. For those submissions FDA has received, it has …

This report describes a new seismic source characterization (SSC) model for the Central and Eastern United States (CEUS). It will replace the Seismic Hazard Methodology for the Central and Eastern United States, EPRI Report NP-4726 (July 1986) and the Seismic Hazard Characterization of 69 Nuclear Plant Sites East of the Rocky Mountains, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Model, (Bernreuter et al., 1989). The objective of the CEUS SSC Project is to develop a new seismic source model for the CEUS using a Senior Seismic Hazard Analysis Committee (SSHAC) Level 3 assessment process. The goal of the SSHAC process is to represent the center, body, and range of technically defensible interpretations of the available data, models, and methods. Input to a probabilistic seismic hazard analysis (PSHA) consists of both seismic source characterization and ground motion characterization. These two components are used to calculate probabilistic hazard results (or seismic hazard curves) at a particular site. This report provides a new seismic source model. Results and Findings The product of this report is a regional CEUS SSC model. This model includes consideration of an updated database, full assessment and incorporation of uncertainties, and the range of diverse technical interpretations from the larger technical community. …

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Our analysis showed that DOD’s Fiscal Year 2010 Annual Energy Management Report fully addressed two, did not address one (issue 4), and partially addressed five of the eight expanded reporting requirements. In some cases, it was difficult to determine the extent to which DOD had addressed an issue because information related to a specific reporting requirement was fragmented or scattered throughout the report. With regard to the one issue not addressed, DOD indicated it had plans to address it in a separate report tentatively scheduled to be published in early 2012."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Support function costs at NNSA and Science sites for fiscal years 2007 through 2011 are not fully known because DOE changed its data collection approach beginning in 2010 to improve its data and, as a result, does not have complete and comparable cost data for all years. In fiscal years 2007 through 2009, total support costs for NNSA and Science sites grew from $5 billion to about $5.5 billion (nominal dollars). Costs for fiscal year 2010 are unknown because DOE was pilot-testing its new reporting system and only collected data from some sites. For fiscal year 2011, the data are more complete, but changes to DOE’s definitions for support functions make it difficult to compare costs across all years. DOE has taken some steps to ensure the quality of the data in its new system and plans to fully implement a quality control process, such as peer reviews, to ensure data can be compared across sites, but has not yet done so."

Guidance issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins ""

The overall project goal was to quantify the trends and variability for Net ecosystem exchange of CO{sub 2}, H{sub 2}O, and energy by northeastern forests, with particular attention to the role of succession, differences in species composition, legacies of past land use, and disturbances. Measurements included flux measurements and observations of biomass accumulation using ecosystem modeling as a framework for data interpretation. Continuation of the long-term record at the Environmental Measurement Site (EMS) Tower was a priority. The final quality-assured CO{sub 2}-flux data now extend through 2010. Data through 2011 are collected but not yet finalized. Biomass observations on the plot array centered on the tower are extended to 2011. Two additional towers in a hemlock stand (HEM) and a younger deciduous stand (LPH) complement the EMS tower by focusing on stands with different species composition or age distribution and disturbance history, but comparable climate and soil type. Over the period since 1993 the forest has added 24.4 Mg-C ha{sup -1} in the living trees. Annual net carbon uptake had been increasing from about 2 Mg-C ha{sup -1}y{sup -1} in the early 1990s to nearly 6 Mg-C ha{sup -1}y{sup -1} by 2008, but declined in 2009-2010. We attribute the increasing …

The Juvenile Salmon Acoustic Telemetry System (JSATS) was developed for the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers Portland District (USACE) to address questions related to survival and performance measures of juvenile salmonids as they pass through the Federal Columbia River Power System (FCRPS). Researchers using JSATS acoustic transmitters (ATs) were tasked with standardizing the surgical implantation procedure to ensure that the stressors of handling and surgery on salmonids were consistent and less likely to cause effects of tagging in survival studies. Researchers questioned whether the exposure time in 'knockdown' anesthesia (or induction) to prepare fish for surgery could influence the survival of study fish (CBSPSC 2011). Currently, fish are held in knockdown anesthesia after they reach Stage 4 anesthesia until the completion of the surgical implantation of a transmitter, varies from 5 to 15 minutes for studies conducted in the Columbia Basin. The Columbia Basin Surgical Protocol Steering Committee (CBSPSC ) expressed concern that its currently recommended 10-minute maximum time limit during which fish are held in anesthetic - tricaine methanesulfonate (MS-222, 80 mg L-1 water) - could increase behavioral and physiological costs, and/or decrease survival of outmigrating juvenile salmonids. In addition, the variability in the time fish are held at …

The project had the goal to develop and commercialize a low-cost rotary steerable system (LCRSS) capable of operating downhole at conventional pressures and temperatures to reduce operating costs by a minimum of 50% and lost-in-hole charges by at least 50% over the currently offered systems. The LCRSS system developed under this project does reduce operating costs by 55% and lost-in-hole charges by at least 50%. The developed product is not commercializable in its current form. The overall objective was to develop and commercialize a low cost rotary steerable system (LCRSS) capable of operating downhole at conventional pressures and temperatures (20,000 psi/150 C) while reducing the operating costs by 50% and the lost-in-hole charges by 50% over the currently available systems. The proposed reduction in costs were to be realized through the significant reduction in tool complexity, a corresponding increase in tool reliability as expressed in the mean-time between failure (MTBF), and a reduction in the time and costs required to service tools after each field operation. Ultimately, the LCRSS system was to be capable of drilling 7 7/8 in. to 9 5/8 in. borehole diameters. The project was divided into three Phases, of which Phases I & II were previously …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Our review identified articles that used varying approaches to estimate the savings associated with generic drug use in the United States. One group of studies estimated the savings in reduced drug costs that have accrued from the use of generics. For example, a series of studies estimated the total savings that have accrued to the U.S. health care system from substituting generic drugs for their brand-name counterparts, and found that from 1999 through 2010 doing so saved more than $1 trillion. A second group of studies estimated the potential to save more on drugs through greater use of generics. For example, one study assessed the potential for additional savings within the Medicare Part D program—which provides outpatient prescription drug coverage for Medicare—and found that if generic drugs had always been substituted for the brand-name drugs studied, about $900 million would have been saved in 2007. A third group of studies estimated the effect on health care costs of using generic versions of certain types of drugs where questions had generally been raised about whether substituting generic drugs for brand-name drugs was medically appropriate. Unlike the other …

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

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The services have coordinated some sea turtle protection efforts, including jointly developing recovery plans, and they established a memorandum of understanding in 1977 to define their roles in joint administration of their efforts. Nevertheless, neither the memorandum nor the services have clearly defined how and when the services are to coordinate; also, the services do not consistently share information about the majority of the take they authorize. According to sea turtle experts GAO spoke with, each service may therefore be authorizing sea turtle take without knowing how much its counterpart has authorized, and the combined allowance may be harming threatened and endangered sea turtles and delaying their recovery."

The report is the Final Construction Quality Assurance (CQA) Report for the 92-Acrew Evapotranspiration Cover, Area 5 Waste Management Division Retired Mixed Waste Pits, Nevada National Security Site, Nevada, for the period of January 20, 2011, to January 31, 2012 The Area 5 RWMS uses engineered shallow-land burial cells to dispose of packaged waste. The 92-Acre Area encompasses the southern portion of the Area 5 RWMS, which has been designated for the first final closure operations. This area contains 13 Greater Confinement Disposal (GCD) boreholes, 16 narrow trenches, and 9 broader pits. With the exception of two active pits (P03 and P06), all trenches and pits in the 92-Acre Area had operational covers approximately 2.4 meters thick, at a minimum, in most areas when this project began. The units within the 92-Acre Area are grouped into the following six informal categories based on physical location, waste types and regulatory requirements: (1) Pit 3 Mixed Waste Disposal Unit (MWDU); (2) Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 111; (3) CAU 207; (4) Low-level waste disposal units; (5) Asbestiform low-level waste disposal units; and (6) One transuranic (TRU) waste trench.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Federal dollars obligated to tribal 8(a) firms grew from $2.1 billion in fiscal year 2005 to $5.5 billion in 2010, a greater percentage increase than non-tribal 8(a) obligations (160 percent versus 45 percent). Obligations to 8(a) firms owned by Alaska Native Corporations (ANC) represented the majority of tribal obligationsevery year during the period, rising to $4.7 billion in 2010. While tribal 8(a) firms comprised 6.2 percent of total 8(a) firms, their obligations accounted for almost a third of total 8(a) obligations in fiscal year 2010. Over the 6 years, the percentage of competitively awarded obligations to tribal 8(a) firms rose; however, solesource contracts remained the primary source of growth, representing at least 75 percent of all tribal 8(a) obligations in a given year."

Friction at contacting surfaces in relative motion is a major source of parasitic energy loss in machine systems and manufacturing processes. Consequently, friction reduction usually translates to efficiency gain and reduction in energy consumption. Furthermore, friction at surfaces eventually leads to wear and failure of the components thereby compromising reliability and durability. In order to reduce friction and wear in tribological components, material surfaces are often hardened by a variety of methods, including conventional heat treatment, laser surface hardening, and thin-film coatings. While these surface treatments are effective when used in conjunction with lubrication to prevent failure, they are all energy intensive and could potentially add significant cost. A new concept for surface hardening of metallic materials and components is Friction Stir Processing (FSP). Compared to the current surface hardening technologies, FSP is more energy efficient has no emission or waste by products and may result in better tribological performance. FSP involves plunging a rotating tool to a predetermined depth (case layer thickness) and translating the FSP tool along the area to be processed. This action of the tool produces heating and severe plastic deformation of the processed area. For steel the temperature is high enough to cause phase transformation, …

The goal of this program was to develop and demonstrate fuel injection technologies that will facilitate the development of cost-effective turbine engines for Integrated Gasification Combined Cycle (IGCC) power plants, while improving efficiency and reducing emissions. The program involved developing a next-generation multi-point injector with enhanced stability performance for lean premix turbine systems that burn hydrogen (H2) or synthesis gas (syngas) fuels. A previously developed injector that demonstrated superior emissions performance was improved to enhance static flame stability through zone staging and pilot sheltering. In addition, piezo valve technology was implemented to investigate the potential for enhanced dynamic stability through high-bandwidth modulation of the fuel supply. Prototype injector and valve hardware were tested in an atmospheric combustion facility. The program was successful in meeting its objectives. Specifically, the following was accomplished: Demonstrated improvement of lean operability of the Parker multi-point injector through staging of fuel flow and primary zone sheltering; Developed a piezo valve capable of proportional and high-bandwidth modulation of gaseous fuel flow at frequencies as high as 500 Hz; The valve was shown to be capable of effecting changes to flame dynamics, heat release, and acoustic signature of an atmospheric combustor. The latter achievement indicates the viability of …

The mission of the DOE's Fuel Cell Technologies'™Hydrogen Fuels R&D effort is to research, develop, and validate technologies for producing, storing, and delivering hydrogen in an efficient, clean, safe, reliable, and affordable manner. A key program technical milestone for hydrogen technology readiness is to produce hydrogen from diverse, domestic resources at $2.00-$3.00 per gallon of gasoline equivalent (gge) delivered, untaxed. Low-cost, high-temperature hydrogen separation membranes represent a key enabling technology for small-scale distributed hydrogen production units. Availability of such membranes with high selectivity and high permeability for hydrogen will allow their integration with hydrocarbon reforming and water gas shift reactions, potentially reducing the cost of hydrogen produced. Pd-metal-based dense membranes are known for their excellent hydrogen selectivity and permeability characteristics, however, utilization of these membranes has so far been limited to small scale niche markets for hydrogen purification primarily due to the relatively high cost of Pd-alloy tubes compared to pressure swing adsorption (PSA) units. This project was aimed at development of thin-film Pd-alloy membranes deposited on Pall Corporation's DOE-based AccuSep® porous metal tube substrates to form a composite hydrogen separation membrane for these applications. Pall's composite membrane development addressed the typical limitations of composite structures by developing robust membranes …

This report gives general overview of the history of the origins and uses of "hollow forces" (i.e., "military forces that appear mission-ready but, upon examination, suffer from shortages of personnel and equipment, and from deficiencies in training"). Senior Department of Defense (DOD) leaders have invoked the specter of a "hollow force" to describe what could happen to the U.S. Armed Forces if significant cuts to the defense budget are enacted. As Congress will play a major role in shaping the Armed Forces both in terms of size, capabilities, and how it is equipped and trained, a nuanced understanding of how the military once became "hollow" could provide a useful context for current and anticipated legislative action.

The Higgs boson was postulated in 1964, and phenomenological studies of its possible production and decays started in the early 1970s, followed by studies of its possible productionin e{sup +} e{sup -}, {anti p}p and pp collisions, in particular. Until recently, the most sensitive searches for the Higgs boson were at LEP between 1989 and 2000, which have been complemented bysearches at the Fermilab Tevatron. The LHC has recently entered the hunt, excluding a Higgs boson over a large range of masses and revealing a tantalizing hint in the range 119 to125 GeV, and there are good prospects that the existence or otherwise of the Higgs boson will soon be established. One of the most attractive possibilities is that the Higgs bosonis accompanied by supersymmetry, though composite options have yet to be excluded. This article reviews some of the key historical developments in Higgs physics over the past half-century.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Air Force has not fully implemented the recommendations from GAO’s 2009 report. With regard to GAO’s recommendation that the military services should formally assign ASA duties to the units that consistently conduct them and ensure that the readiness of those units is fully assessed, the Air Force did so. However, the National Guard Bureau is considering reversing that action because it believes that the recommendation can be better addressed through the Air Force’s standard deployment process. The Air Force has also not established a timetable to implement ASA as a steady-state mission; has not developed and implemented a plan to recapitalize the aging fighter aircraft that conduct ASA operations before the end of their service lives; and, when ASA units are deployed to support other ongoing operations, the Air Force continues to identify replacement units to perform the ASA mission on an ad hoc basis. All of the above were related to recommendations GAO made to the Air Force in its 2009 report. Separately, GAO found considerable confusion about the capabilities associated with ASA operations in part because, in September 2011, NORAD stopped using the …

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

The manner in which the control systems are being designed and operated in the energy sector is undergoing some of the most significant changes in history due to the evolution of technology and the increasing number of interconnections to other system. With these changes however come two significant challenges that the energy sector must face; 1) Cyber security is more important than ever before, and 2) Cyber security is more complicated than ever before. A key requirement in helping utilities and vendors alike in meeting these challenges is interoperability. While interoperability has been present in much of the discussions relating to technology utilized within the energy sector and especially the Smart Grid, it has been absent in the context of cyber security. The Lemnos project addresses these challenges by focusing on the interoperability of devices utilized within utility control systems which support critical cyber security functions. In theory, interoperability is possible with many of the cyber security solutions available to utilities today. The reality is that the effort required to achieve cyber security interoperability is often a barrier for utilities. For example, consider IPSec, a widely-used Internet Protocol to define Virtual Private Networks, or “ tunnels”, to communicate securely through …

Given the computing industry trend of increasing processing capacity by adding more cores to a chip, the focus of this work is tuning the performance of a staple visualization algorithm, raycasting volume rendering, for shared-memory parallelism on multi-core CPUs and many-core GPUs. Our approach is to vary tunable algorithmic settings, along with known algorithmic optimizations and two different memory layouts, and measure performance in terms of absolute runtime and L2 memory cache misses. Our results indicate there is a wide variation in runtime performance on all platforms, as much as 254% for the tunable parameters we test on multi-core CPUs and 265% on many-core GPUs, and the optimal configurations vary across platforms, often in a non-obvious way. For example, our results indicate the optimal configurations on the GPU occur at a crossover point between those that maintain good cache utilization and those that saturate computational throughput. This result is likely to be extremely difficult to predict with an empirical performance model for this particular algorithm because it has an unstructured memory access pattern that varies locally for individual rays and globally for the selected viewpoint. Our results also show that optimal parameters on modern architectures are markedly different from those …

To facilitate wider penetration of renewable resources without compromising system reliability concerns arising from the lack of predictability of intermittent renewable resources, a tool for use by California Independent System Operator (CAISO) power grid operators was developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in conjunction with CAISO with funding from California Energy Commission. This tool predicts and displays additional capacity and ramping requirements caused by uncertainties in forecasts of loads and renewable generation. The tool is currently operational in the CAISO operations center. This is one of two final reports on the project.

To facilitate wider penetration of renewable resources without compromising system reliability concerns arising from the lack of predictability of intermittent renewable resources, a tool for use by California Independent System Operator (CAISO) power grid operators was developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in conjunction with CAISO with funding from California Energy Commission. The tool analyzes and displays the impacts of uncertainties in forecasts of loads and renewable generation on: (1) congestion, (2)voltage and transient stability margins, and (3)voltage reductions and reactive power margins. The impacts are analyzed in the base case and under user-specified contingencies.A prototype of the tool has been developed and implemented in software.