This report looks at the history and applications of the Lacey Act. As it stands now the Act, via a 2008 amendment, allows the U.S. to enforce the laws of other countries as well. One currently proposed legislation would limit application of the law to specific wood products, while another would eliminate any reference to violations of foreign laws and end criminal prosecutions for violating the act.

Reporting the findings of the investigation of the sealed source leak at BNL in Sept 2011.

The Omega-P SBIR project described in this Report has as its goal the development, test, and evaluation of a fast electrically-controlled L-band tuner for BNL Energy Recovery Linac (ERL) in the Electron Ion Collider (EIC) upgrade of the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). The tuner, that employs an electrically-controlled ferroelectric component, is to allow fast compensation to cavity resonance changes. In ERLs, there are several factors which significantly affect the amount of power required from the wall-plug to provide the RF-power level necessary for the operation. When beam loading is small, the power requirements are determined by (i) ohmic losses in cavity walls, (ii) fluctuations in amplitude and/or phase for beam currents, and (iii) microphonics. These factors typically require a substantial change in the coupling between the cavity and the feeding line, which results in an intentional broadening of the cavity bandwidth, which in turn demands a significant amount of additional RF power. If beam loading is not small, there is a variety of beam-drive phase instabilities to be managed, and microphonics will still remain an issue, so there remain requirements for additional power. Moreover ERL performance is sensitive to changes in beam arrival time, …

The Phase I work reported here responds to DoE'ss stated need "...to develop improved accelerator designs that can provide very high gradient (>200 MV/m for electrons...) acceleration of intense bunches of particles." Omega-P'™s approach to this goal is through use of a ramped train of annular electron bunches to drive a coaxial dielectric wakefield accelerator (CDWA) structure. This approach is a direct extension of the CDWA concept from acceleration in wake fields caused by a single drive bunch, to the more efficient acceleration that we predict can be realized from a tailored (or ramped) train of several drive bunches. This is possible because of a much higher transformer ratio for the latter. The CDWA structure itself has a number of unique features, including: a high accelerating gradient G, potentially with G > 1 GeV/m; continuous energy coupling from drive to test bunches without transfer structures; inherent transverse focusing forces for particles in the accelerated bunch; highly stable motion of high charge annular drive bunches; acceptable alignment tolerances for a multi-section system. What is new in the present approach is that the coaxial dielectric structure is now to be energized by-not one-”but by a short train of ramped annular-shaped drive bunches …

The G-20 is an international forum for discussing and coordinating economic policies among major advanced and emerging economies. Congress may want to exercise oversight over the Administration's participation in the G-20 process, including the policy commitments that Administration is making in the G-20 and the policies it is encouraging other G-20 countries to pursue.

Although bacterial culture remains the gold standard for detection of viable bacteria in environmental specimens, the typical time requirement of twenty-four hours can delay and even jeopardize appropriate public health intervention. In addition, culture is incapable of detecting viable but not culturable (VBNC) species. Conversely, nucleic acid and antibody-based methods greatly decrease time to detection but rarely characterize viability of the bacteria detected. Through selection by membrane permeability, the method described in this work employs positive dielectrophoresis (pDEP) for separation and purification of viable and VBNC species from water and allows concentration of bacteria for downstream applications.

A novel pathway for the high efficiency production of metal from metal oxide means of electrolysis in ionic liquids at low temperature was investigated. The main emphasis was to eliminate the use of carbon and high temperature application in the reduction of metal oxides to metals. The emphasis of this research was to produce metals such as Zn, and Pb that are normally produced by the application of very high temperatures. The reduction of zinc oxide to zinc and lead oxide to lead were investigated. This study involved three steps in accomplishing the final goal of reduction of metal oxide to metal using ionic liquids: 1) Dissolution of metal oxide in an ionic liquid, 2) Determination of reduction potential using cyclic voltammetry (CV) and 3) Reduction of the dissolved metal oxide. Ionic liquids provide additional advantage by offering a wide potential range for the deposition. In each and every step of the process, more than one process variable has been examined. Experimental results for electrochemical extraction of Zn from ZnO and Pb from PbO using eutectic mixtures of Urea ((NH2)2CO) and Choline chloride (HOC2H4N(CH3)3+Cl-) or (ChCl) in a molar ratio 2:1, varying voltage and temperatures were carried out. Fourier Transform …

The Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) provides economic assistance through a competitive selection process to developing nations that demonstrate positive performance in three areas: ruling justly, investing in people, and fostering economic freedom. MCC issues include the level of funding to support MCC programs, the impact of budget reductions on MCC programs, the rate of program implementation, the results of MCC compacts, and procurement and corruption concerns.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense (DOD) has identified 11 initiatives aimed at slowing its rising health care costs, but has not fully applied results-oriented management practices in developing plans to implement and monitor its initiatives. Results-oriented management practices include developing plans that identify goals, activities, and performance measures; resources and investments; organization roles, responsibilities, and coordination; and key external factors that could affect goals, such as a decrease of funding to a program. At the conclusion of GAO’s review, DOD had completed and approved a detailed implementation plan, including a cost savings estimate, for just 1 of its 11 initiatives. Developing cost savings estimates is critical to successful management of the initiatives for achieving the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review’s call for reduced growth in medical costs. DOD also has not completed the implementation of an overall process for monitoring progress across its portfolio of health care initiatives and has not completed the process of identifying accountable officials and their roles and responsibilities for all of its initiatives. Without comprehensive, results-oriented plans, a monitoring process, and clear leadership accountability, DOD may be hindered in its ability to achieve …

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."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Of the approximately 400 non-federally recognized tribes that GAO identified, 26 received funding from 24 federal programs during fiscal years 2007 through 2010. Most of the 26 non-federally recognized tribes were eligible to receive this funding either because of their status as nonprofit organizations or state-recognized tribes. Similarly, most of the 24 federal programs that awarded funding to non-federally recognized tribes during the 4-year period were authorized to fund nonprofit organizations or state-recognized tribes. In addition, some of these programs were authorized to fund other entities, such as tribal communities or community development financial institutions."

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 …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 2006, the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) has closed redundant facilities and consolidated mail processing operations and transportation to reduce excess capacity in its network, resulting in reported cost savings of about $2.4 billion. Excess capacity remains, however, because of continuing and accelerating declines in First-Class Mail volume, automation improvements that sort mail faster and more efficiently, and increasing mail preparation and transportation by business mailers, much of whose mail now bypasses most of USPS’s processing network."

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