Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since GAO first identified the Department of Defense’s (DOD) Personnel Security Clearance Program as a high-risk area, DOD, in conjunction with Congress and executive agency leadership, took actions that resulted in significant progress toward improving the processing of security clearances. Congress held more than 14 oversight hearings to help oversee key legislation, such as the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which helped focus attention and sustain momentum of the governmentwide reform effort. In addition, the committed and collaborative efforts of DOD, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), Office of Management and Budget (OMB), and Office of Personnel Management (OPM) as leaders of the Suitability and Security Clearance Performance Accountability Council (Performance Accountability Council) demonstrated commitment to and created a vision for the reform effort, which led to significant improvements in the timeliness of processing security clearances. As a result, in 2011, GAO removed DOD’s Personnel Security Clearance Program from its high-risk list because of the agency’s progress in improving timeliness, development of tools and metrics to assess quality, and commitment to sustaining progress. Specifically, GAO found that DOD met the 60-day statutory …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Projects that received credit assistance through the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA) program, administered by the Department of Transportation (DOT), tend to be large, high-cost highway projects. As of April 2012, DOT has executed 27 TIFIA credit agreements for 26 projects with project sponsors such as state DOTs and transit agencies. Overall, DOT has provided nearly $9.1 billion in credit assistance through 26 loans and one loan guarantee. By mode, there are 17 highway, 5 transit, and 4 intermodal projects. Most projects have a total cost of over $1 billion. DOT monitors individual credit agreements but does not systematically assess whether its TIFIA portfolio as a whole is achieving the program’s goals of leveraging federal funds and encouraging private co-investment. DOT has identified goals and objectives for the TIFIA program, but its limited use of performance measures makes it difficult to determine the degree to which the program is meeting these goals and objectives. Given that DOT already collects project data, it could use these data to better evaluate the program’s overall progress toward meeting its goals."

Report that looks at the purpose and background of Community Services Block Grants (CSBG), which provide federal funds to states, territories, and tribes for distribution to local agencies to support a wide range of community-based activities to reduce poverty.

Agency strategic plan for the Texas Commission on Jail Standards describing the organization's planned services, activities, and other goals during fiscal years 2013 through 2017.

This report discusses the current state of Bahrain, which has undergone substantial political reforms since the late 1990s, but which still suffers from tension between the Shiite majority and the Sunni-led government. This report focuses particularly on Bahrain's relationship with the United States and with regional issues.

This report discusses key spectrum policy provisions in the bills, as well as other spectrum policy issues that are being considered in the 112th Congress, such as the role of wholesale networks like that being deployed by LightSquared.

This report looks at the purpose and background of Community Services Block Grants (CSBG), which provide federal funds to states, territories, and tribes for distribution to local agencies to support a wide range of community-based activities to reduce poverty. CSBG was last reauthorized in 1998, although and related programs have been funded by Congressional approval since then.

This report provides a brief overview of the transition underway after the resignation of Egyption president, Hosni Mubarak, and the effect on U.S.-Egyptian relations. It analyzes several issues for Congress including Egyptian-Israeli relations and U.S. foreign aid to Egypt.

The Forest County Potawatomi Community (FCPC or Tribe) owns a six-story parking facility adjacent to its Potawatomi Bingo Casino (the Casino) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, as well as a valet parking facility under the Casino (collectively, the Parking Facility). The Parking Facility contained 205-watt metal halide-type lights that, for security reasons, operated 24 hours per day, 7 days per week. Starting on August 30, 2010, the Tribe replaced these fixtures with 1,760 state-of-the-art, energy efficient 55-Watt LED lights. This project resulted in an immediate average reduction in monthly peak demand of 238 kW over the fourth quarter of 2010. The average reduction in monthly peak demand from October 1 through December 31, 2010 translates into a forecast annual electrical energy reduction of approximately 1,995,000 kWh or 47.3% of the pre-project demand. This project was technically effective, economically feasible, and beneficial to the public not only in terms of long term energy efficiency and associated emissions reductions, but also in the short-term jobs provided for the S.E. Wisconsin region. The project was implemented, from approval by U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to completion, in less than 6 months. The project utilized off-the-shelf proven technologies that were fabricated locally and installed by local …

SuperB, the 2nd-generation B-Factory with a luminosity of 10{sup 36}/cm{sup 2}/s proposed for LNF, is being designed from the start to be capable of providing a spin-polarized electron beam in the low-energy ring (LER) with longitudinal polarization at the interaction point. Due to the high luminosity at moderate beam current the beam lifetime is short (a few minutes), and a polarized injector will be used. Spin rotators have been designed and the equilibrium polarization evaluated. It will be shown that an average polarization of about 70% can be expected.

For the top-off operation it is important to understand the time evolution of charge injected into the storage ring. The large-amplitude horizontal oscillation quickly filaments and decoheres, and in some cases exhibits non-linear x-y coupling before damping to the stored orbit. Similarly, in the longitudinal dimension, any mismatch in beam arrival time, beam energy or phase-space results in damped, non-linear synchrotron oscillations. In this paper we report on measurements of injection beam dynamics in the transverse and longitudinal planes using turn-by-turn BPMs, a fast-gated, image-intensified CCD camera and a Hamamatsu C5680 streak camera.

This dissertation mainly focuses on the investigation of the cellular membrane trafficking of mesoporous silica nanoparticles. We are interested in the study of endocytosis and exocytosis behaviors of mesoporous silica nanoparticles with desired surface functionality. The relationship between mesoporous silica nanoparticles and membrane trafficking of cells, either cancerous cells or normal cells was examined. Since mesoporous silica nanoparticles were applied in many drug delivery cases, the endocytotic efficiency of mesoporous silica nanoparticles needs to be investigated in more details in order to design the cellular drug delivery system in the controlled way. It is well known that cells can engulf some molecules outside of the cells through a receptor-ligand associated endocytosis. We are interested to determine if those biomolecules binding to cell surface receptors can be utilized on mesoporous silica nanoparticle materials to improve the uptake efficiency or govern the mechanism of endocytosis of mesoporous silica nanoparticles. Arginine-glycine-aspartate (RGD) is a small peptide recognized by cell integrin receptors and it was reported that avidin internalization was highly promoted by tumor lectin. Both RGD and avidin were linked to the surface of mesoporous silica nanoparticle materials to investigate the effect of receptor-associated biomolecule on cellular endocytosis efficiency. The effect of ligand …

The interaction-region design for a linac-ring electron-proton collider based on the LHC ('LR-LHeC') poses numerous challenges related to collision scheme, synchrotron radiation, aperture, magnet technology, and optics. We report a first assessment and various options.

We consider three scenarios for the recirculating electron linear accelerator (RLA) of a linac-ring type electron-proton collider based on the LHC (LHeC): (i) a pulsed linac with a final beam energy of 60 GeV ['p-60'], (ii) a higher luminosity configuration with two cw linacs and energy-recovery (ERL) also at 60 GeV ['erl'], and (iii) a high energy option using a pulsed linac with 140-GeV final energy ['p-140']. We discuss parameters, synchrotron radiation, footprints, and performance for the three scenarios.

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The New York Canyon Stimulation Project was to demonstrate the commercial application of Enhanced Geothermal System techniques in Buena Vista Valley area of Pershing County, Nevada. From October 2009 to early 2012, TGP Development Company aggressively implemented Phase I of Pre-Stimulation and Site/Wellbore readiness. This included: geological studies; water studies and analyses and procurement of initial permits for drilling. Oversubscription of water rights and lack of water needed for implementation of EGS were identified and remained primary obstacles. Despite extended efforts to find alternative solutions, the water supply circumstances could not be overcome and led TGP to determine a "œNo Go" decision and initiate project termination in April 2012.

This document contains material and energy flows for lithium-ion batteries with an active cathode material of lithium manganese oxide (LiMn{sub 2}O{sub 4}). These data are incorporated into Argonne National Laboratory's Greenhouse gases, Regulated Emissions, and Energy use in Transportation (GREET) model, replacing previous data for lithium-ion batteries that are based on a nickel/cobalt/manganese (Ni/Co/Mn) cathode chemistry. To identify and determine the mass of lithium-ion battery components, we modeled batteries with LiMn{sub 2}O{sub 4} as the cathode material using Argonne's Battery Performance and Cost (BatPaC) model for hybrid electric vehicles, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles, and electric vehicles. As input for GREET, we developed new or updated data for the cathode material and the following materials that are included in its supply chain: soda ash, lime, petroleum-derived ethanol, lithium brine, and lithium carbonate. Also as input to GREET, we calculated new emission factors for equipment (kilns, dryers, and calciners) that were not previously included in the model and developed new material and energy flows for the battery electrolyte, binder, and binder solvent. Finally, we revised the data included in GREET for graphite (the anode active material), battery electronics, and battery assembly. For the first time, we incorporated energy and material flows for …

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Aqueous radioactive wastes from Savannah River Site (SRS) separations and vitrification processes are contained in large underground carbon steel tanks. Inspections made during 2011 to evaluate these vessels and other waste handling facilities along with evaluations based on data from previous inspections are the subject of this report. The 2011 inspection program revealed that the structural integrity and waste confinement capability of the Savannah River Site waste tanks were maintained. All inspections scheduled per SRR-LWE-2011-00026, HLW Tank Farm Inspection Plan for 2011, were completed. Ultrasonic measurements (UT) performed in 2011 met the requirements of C-ESR-G-00006, In-Service Inspection Program for High Level Waste Tanks, Rev. 3, and WSRC-TR-2002-00061, Rev.6. UT inspections were performed on Tanks 25, 26 and 34 and the findings are documented in SRNL-STI-2011-00495, Tank Inspection NDE Results for Fiscal Year 2011, Waste Tanks 25, 26, 34 and 41. A total of 5813 photographs were made and 835 visual and video inspections were performed during 2011. A potential leaksite was discovered at Tank 4 during routine annual inspections performed in 2011. The new crack, which is above the allowable fill level, resulted in no release to the environment or tank annulus. The location of the crack is documented in …

We demonstrate control of the carrier density of single phase anatase TiO{sub 2} thin films by nearly two orders of magnitude by modulating the growth kinetics during pulsed laser deposition, under fixed thermodynamic conditions. The resistivity and the intensity of the photoluminescence spectra of these TiO{sub 2} samples, both of which correlate with the number of oxygen vacancies, are shown to depend strongly on the growth rate. A quantitative model is used to explain the carrier density changes.