Beginning July 1, 2012, Subsidized Stafford Loans will be available exclusively to undergraduate students. The federal government "subsidizes" these loans by relieving the borrower of the requirement to pay the interest that accrues while the borrower is in school and during other authorized periods. In the 112th Congress, proposals have been made to reduce the interest rate applicable to Subsidized Stafford Loans that will be made to undergraduate students during AY2012-2013 from 6.8% to 3.4%. Proposals include the Interest Rate Reduction Act and the Stop the Student Loan Interest Rate Hike Act of 2012. It is estimated that a reduction in the interest rate would benefit approximately 7.4 million students who are likely to borrow Subsidized Stafford Loans during the upcoming award year.

Over the last few years, the term "partnership" has spread like wildfire through official U.S. national security guidance documents and rhetoric. At the Department of Defense (DOD), which spearheaded the proliferation of the term, "partnership" has been used to refer to a broad array of civilian as well as military activities in support of national security.1 At other U.S. government agencies, and at the White House, the use of the term "partnership" has been echoed and applied even more broadly-not only in the national security arena, but also to all facets of U.S. relationships with foreign partners. "Partnership" is not new in either theory or practice. A lack of sufficient strategic direction regarding the use of the term could raise a series of potential concerns for Congress.

The post-World War II U.S.-Japan alliance has long been an anchor of the U.S. security role in East Asia. The alliance facilitates the forward deployment of about 36,000 U.S. troops and other U.S. military assets in the Asia-Pacific, thereby undergirding U.S. national security strategy in the region. For Japan, the alliance and the U.S. nuclear umbrella provide maneuvering room in dealing with its neighbors, particularly China and North Korea. Difficult problems remain in the alliance, particularly in resolving problems related to the stationing of marines on Okinawa.

This report provides a broad overview of the provisions included in the President's budget request. The budget groups proposed tax provisions into several general categories. According to the Administration's estimates, the tax proposals in the budget would increase revenues $280 billion over the next 10 years

This report discusses the two main groups of spending reductions in the Budget Control Act of 2011: (1) discretionary spending caps and (2) an automatic $1.2 trillion spending reduction process that comes into effect on January 02, 2012. It also looks at projected effects of the Act.

The post-World War II U.S.-Japan alliance has long been an anchor of the U.S. security role in East Asia. The alliance facilitates the forward deployment of about 36,000 U.S. troops and other U.S. military assets in the Asia-Pacific, thereby undergirding U.S. national security strategy in the region. For Japan, the alliance and the U.S. nuclear umbrella provide maneuvering room in dealing with its neighbors, particularly China and North Korea. This report looks at the relations post-2011 earthquake and tsunami hit in Japan, as well as issues with U.S. marines stationed in Okinawa and economic relations.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In summary, we found the following:"

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 1996, federal agencies have taken several actions to strengthen their oversight of phosphate mining on federal land. For example, BLM now conducts more detailed environmental analysis when evaluating new mine plans; requires phosphate mine operators to provide more comprehensive plans for reclaiming mine sites (restoring the land to a stable condition that can support other uses); and requires the mine operators to provide financial assurances that are based on the full estimated cost of reclaiming mines, in contrast to BLM’s previous practice of calculating financial assurances based simply on the acreage associated with mines. However, gaps remain in agency policies and coordination that could limit the agencies’ efforts to address contamination from phosphate-mining operations. For example, BLM has not documented its new full-cost financial assurance practice in agency policy and therefore has limited assurance that it will be implemented consistently. BLM also has not fully coordinated with the Forest Service when establishing mine lease conditions and setting financial assurance amounts. Limited coordination is of particular concern because 16 phosphate leases in Idaho are scheduled for review and possible readjustment in the next 5 years, and …

This report contains an explanation of the major provisions of the federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes. The discussion divides the federal estate tax into three components: the gross estate, deductions from the gross estate, and computation of the tax, including allowable tax credits. The federal estate tax is computed through a series of adjustments and modifications of a tax base known as the "gross estate." Certain allowable deductions reduce the gross estate to the "taxable estate," to which is then added the total of all lifetime taxable gifts made by the decedent. The tax rates are applied and, after reduction for certain allowable credits, the amount of tax owed by the estate is reached.

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This paper describes recent advances in Monte Carlo simulations of microchannel plate (MCP)–based x-ray detectors, a continuation of ongoing work in this area. A Monte Carlo simulation model has been developed over the past several years by National Security Technologies, LLC (NSTec). The model simulates the secondary electron emission process in an MCP pore and includes the effects of gain saturation. In this work we focus on MCP gain saturation and dynamic range. We have performed modeling and experimental characterizations of L/D = 46, 10-micron diameter, MCP-based detectors. The detectors are typically operated by applying a subnanosecond voltage pulse, which gates the detector on. Agreement between the simulations and experiment is very good for a variety of voltage pulse waveforms ranging in width from 150 to 300 ps. The results indicate that such an MCP begins to show nonlinear gain around 5 × 10^4 electrons per pore and hard saturation around 105 electrons per pore. The simulations show a difference in MCP sensitivity vs voltage for high flux of photons producing large numbers of photoelectrons on a subpicosecond timescale. Simulations and experiments both indicate an MCP dynamic range of 1 to 10,000, and the dynamic range depends on how the …

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Turbochargers in commercial turbo-diesel engines are multi-material systems where usually the compressor rotor is made of aluminum or titanium based material and the turbine rotor is made of either a nickel based superalloy or titanium, designed to operate under the harsh exhaust gas conditions. The use of cast titanium in the turbine section has been used by Cummins Turbo Technologies since 1997. Having the benefit of a lower mass than the superalloy based turbines; higher turbine speeds in a more compact design can be achieved with titanium. In an effort to improve the cost model, and develop an industrial supply of titanium componentry that is more stable than the traditional aerospace based supply chain, the Contractor has developed component manufacturing schemes that use economical Armstrong titanium and titanium alloy powders and MgR-HDH powders. Those manufacturing schemes can be applied to compressor and turbine rotor components for diesel engine applications with the potential of providing a reliable supply of titanium componentry with a cost and performance advantage over cast titanium.

A large centralized geothermal heat pump system was installed to provide ice making, space cooling, space heating, process water heating, and domestic hot water heating for an ice arena in Eagan Minnesota. This paper provides information related to the design and construction of the project. Additionally, operating conditions for 12 months after start-up are provided.

The microwave radiometer 3-channel (MWR3C) provides time-series measurements of brightness temperatures from three channels centered at 23.834, 30, and 89 GHz. These three channels are sensitive to the presence of liquid water and precipitable water vapor.