Army Drawdown and Restructuring: Background and Issues for Congress (open access)

Army Drawdown and Restructuring: Background and Issues for Congress

This is a report about Army Drwdown and Restructuring, specifically background and issues for congress.
Date: May 18, 2012
Creator: Feickert, Andrew
System: The UNT Digital Library
The U.S. Export Control System and the President's Reform Initiative (open access)

The U.S. Export Control System and the President's Reform Initiative

The 112th Congress may consider reforms of the U.S. export control system. The balance between national security and export competitiveness has made the subject of export controls controversial for decades. The U.S. export control system is diffused among several different licensing and enforcement agencies. This report not only discussed the background of such issues, but also the differences between the Obama Administration and Congress' approaches to export legislation reform.
Date: May 18, 2012
Creator: Fergusson, Ian F. & Kerr, Paul K.
System: The UNT Digital Library
The U.S. Export Control System and the President's Reform Initiative (open access)

The U.S. Export Control System and the President's Reform Initiative

This report discusses some of the proposed legislation and other issues related to the U.S. export control system. In considering the future of the U.S. export control system, Congress may weigh the merits of a unified export control system—the end result of the President's proposal—or the continuation of the present bifurcated system by reauthorizing the present Export Administration Act (EAA) or writing new legislation. In doing so, Congress may debate the record of the present dual-use system maintained by emergency authority, the aims and effectiveness of the present non-proliferation control regimes, the maintenance of the defense industrial base, and the delicate balance between the maintenance of economic competitiveness and the preservation of national security.
Date: May 18, 2012
Creator: Fergusson, Ian F. & Kerr, Paul K.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Iran: U.S. Concerns and Policy Responses (open access)

Iran: U.S. Concerns and Policy Responses

None
Date: May 18, 2012
Creator: Katzman, Kenneth
System: The UNT Digital Library
The 3.8% Medicare Contribution Tax on Unearned Income, Including Real Estate Transactions (open access)

The 3.8% Medicare Contribution Tax on Unearned Income, Including Real Estate Transactions

This reports summarizes a 3.8% Medicare contribution tax on unearned income and provides examples of how it is applied.
Date: May 18, 2012
Creator: Keightley, Mark P.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Federal Taxation of Aliens Working in the United States (open access)

Federal Taxation of Aliens Working in the United States

This report outlines issues regarding the taxation of aliens since several pieces of current legislation have been introduced that would impose restrictions for claiming child tax credits or for claiming credits and refunds. The report includes an overview of immigration status, resident or nonresident aliens, taxation of income for various classifications, and Social Security and medicare taxes.
Date: May 18, 2012
Creator: Lunder, Erika K.
System: The UNT Digital Library
U.S.-Vietnam Relations in 2011: Current Issues and Implications for U.S. Policy (open access)

U.S.-Vietnam Relations in 2011: Current Issues and Implications for U.S. Policy

In 2010 the US and Vietnam mobilized a multinational response to China's perceived attempts to boost its claims to disputed waters and islands in the South China Sea. This report looks at how various issues (US interests, Vietnamese interests, economic ties, and human rights) can affect this burgeoning relationship.
Date: May 18, 2012
Creator: Manyin, Mark E.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Central Asia: Regional Developments and Implications for U.S. Interests (open access)

Central Asia: Regional Developments and Implications for U.S. Interests

This report mainly focuses on Regional Developments and Implications for U.S. Interests in Central Asia after the collapse of soviet union in 1991.
Date: May 18, 2012
Creator: Nichol, Jim
System: The UNT Digital Library
Fire Protection Program Manual (open access)

Fire Protection Program Manual

This manual documents the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) Fire Protection Program. Department of Energy (DOE) Orders 420.1B, Facility Safety, requires LLNL to have a comprehensive and effective fire protection program that protects LLNL personnel and property, the public and the environment. The manual provides LLNL and its facilities with general information and guidance for meeting DOE 420.1B requirements. The recommended readers for this manual are: fire protection officers, fire protection engineers, fire fighters, facility managers, directorage assurance managers, facility coordinators, and ES and H team members.
Date: May 18, 2012
Creator: Sharry, J A
System: The UNT Digital Library
How FDA Approves Drugs and Regulates Their Safety and Effectiveness (open access)

How FDA Approves Drugs and Regulates Their Safety and Effectiveness

This report describes how drugs are approved and come to market, including FDA's role in that process.
Date: May 18, 2012
Creator: Thaul, Susan
System: The UNT Digital Library
Proposed FDA User Fee Acts: Generic Drug User Fee Amendments of 2012 (GDUFA) and Biosimilar User Fee Act of 2012 (BSUFA) (open access)

Proposed FDA User Fee Acts: Generic Drug User Fee Amendments of 2012 (GDUFA) and Biosimilar User Fee Act of 2012 (BSUFA)

None
Date: May 18, 2012
Creator: Thaul, Susan & Johnson, Judith A.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Higher Education: Improved Tax Information Could Help Families Pay for College (open access)

Higher Education: Improved Tax Information Could Help Families Pay for College

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Multiple Title IV programs and tax expenditures provided substantial aid to populations across income levels. In 2009, 12.8 million students received Title IV aid, and approximately 18-million tax filers claimed a higher education tax benefit for current expenses. Recent increases in both programs from 2008 to 2009 may be because of enrollment increases and legislative actions, among other factors. Title IV grants tend to benefit students and families with incomes below the national median (about $52,000 from 2006–2010), while loans and work-study serve these students and those with family incomes above the median. Most tax benefits from the tuition and fees deduction and the parental exemption for dependent students went to households with incomes above $60,000, whereas the majority of benefits from the other higher education tax expenditures in GAO’s review—such as the American opportunity credit—went to households with lower incomes."
Date: May 18, 2012
Creator: United States. Government Accountability Office.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP): Implementation and Status (open access)

Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP): Implementation and Status

The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) was created by the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act1 (EESA) enacted on October 3, 2008, to address the ongoing financial crisis. This report provides a brief outline of the programs created under TARP, recent changes made by Congress, and a summary of the current status and estimated costs of the program. It also provides an Appendix that contains detailed discussions of the individual TARP programs. This report will be updated as warranted by market and legislative events.
Date: May 18, 2012
Creator: Webel, Baird
System: The UNT Digital Library
Final Technical Report: First Principles Investigations for the Ensemble Effects of PdAu and PtAu Bimetallic Nanocatalysts (open access)

Final Technical Report: First Principles Investigations for the Ensemble Effects of PdAu and PtAu Bimetallic Nanocatalysts

Bimetallic surfaces with tunable chemical properties have attracted broad attention in recent years due to their ample potential for heterogeneous catalysis applications. The local chemical properties of constituents are strongly altered from their parent metals by 'ligand effect', a term encompassing the influences of charge transfer, orbital rehybridization and lattice strain. In comparison to the aforementioned, the 'ensemble effect' associated with particular arrangements of the active constituents have received much less attention, despite their notable importance towards the determination of reactivity and selectivity of bimetallic catalysts. We performed theoretical studies for understanding the ensemble effects on bimetallic catalysis: (i) simulations for the formation of different ensembles on PdAu and PtAu nanoclusters; (ii) studies of the size, shape, and substrate dependence of their electronic properties; and (iii) simulations for model reactions such as CO oxidation, methanol, ethylene and water dehydrogenation on PdAu and PtAu nanoclusters. In close collaboration with leading experimental groups, our theoretical research elucidated the fundamentals of Au based bimetallic nanocatalysts.
Date: May 18, 2012
Creator: Wu, Ruqian
System: The UNT Digital Library
Contribution to the development of DOE ARM Climate Modeling Best Estimate Data (CMBE) products: Satellite data over the ARM permanent and AMF sites: Final Report (open access)

Contribution to the development of DOE ARM Climate Modeling Best Estimate Data (CMBE) products: Satellite data over the ARM permanent and AMF sites: Final Report

To support the LLNL ARM infrastructure team Climate Modeling Best Estimate (CMBE) data development, the University of North Dakota (UND)'s group will provide the LLNL team the NASA CERES and ISCCP satellite retrieved cloud and radiative properties for the periods when they are available over the ARM permanent research sites. The current available datasets, to date, are as follows: the CERES/TERRA during 200003-200812; the CERES/AQUA during 200207-200712; and the ISCCP during 199601-200806. The detailed parameters list below: (1) CERES Shortwave radiative fluxes (net and downwelling); (2) CERES Longwave radiative fluxes (upwelling) - (items 1 & 2 include both all-sky and clear-sky fluxes); (3) CERES Layered clouds (total, high, middle, and low); (4) CERES Cloud thickness; (5) CERES Effective cloud height; (6) CERES cloud microphysical/optical properties; (7) ISCCP optical depth cloud top pressure matrix; (8) ISCCP derived cloud types (r.g., cirrus, stratus, etc.); and (9) ISCCP infrared derived cloud top pressures. (10) The UND group shall apply necessary quality checks to the original CERES and ISCCP data to remove suspicious data points. The temporal resolution for CERES data should be all available satellite overpasses over the ARM sites; for ISCCP data, it should be 3-hourly. The spatial resolution is the closest …
Date: May 18, 2012
Creator: Xie, B; Dong, X & Xie, S
System: The UNT Digital Library