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The paraxial WKB (pWKB) approximation, also called beam tracing method, has been employed in order to study the propagation of lower hybrid (LH) waves in a tokamak plasma. Analogous to the well-know ray tracing method, this approach reduces Maxwell's equations to a set of ordinary differential equations, while, in addition, retains the effects of the finite beam cross-section, and, thus, the effects of diffraction. A new code, LHBEAM (Lower Hybrid BEAM tracing), is presented, which solves the pWKB equations in tokamak geometry for arbitrary launching conditions and for analytic and experimental plasma equilibria. In addition, LHBEAM includes linear electron Landau damping for the evaluation of the absorbed power density and the reconstruction of the wave electric field in both the physical and Fourier space. Illustrative LHBEAM calculations are presented along with a comparison with the ray tracing code GENRAY and the full wave solver TORIC-LH.

This rport discusses issues for Congress regarding public safety and infrastructure security at water resource projects managed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Proposed legislation would bar the Secretary of the Army from promulgating or enforcing regulations that prohibit individuals from possessing firearms (including assembled or functional firearms) at Corps projects and instead require that firearms possession comply with state law.

The purpose of lessons learned is to identify insight gained during a project – successes or failures – that can be applied on future projects. Lessons learned can contribute to the overall success of a project by building on approaches that have worked well and avoiding previous mistakes. Below are examples of lessons learned during ERDF’s ARRA-funded expansion project.

This report presents statistics from a variety of sources on casualties sustained during Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF), which began on October 7, 2001, and is ongoing. OEF actions take place primarily in Afghanistan; however, OEF casualties also includes American casualties in Pakistan, Uzbekistan, Guantanamo Bay (Cuba), Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Jordan, Kenya, Kyrgyzstan, the Philippines, Seychelles, Sudan, Tajikistan, Turkey, and Yemen.

The annual Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriation funds agencies and program in three federal departments, as well as numerous related agencies and bureaus. Among the more controversial agencies represented in the bill is the Fish and Wildlife Service, in the Department of the Interior. This report analyzes the Fish and Wildlife Services funding levels contained in the FY2013 appropriations bill.

This list of about 200 congressional liaison offices is intended to help congressional offices in placing telephone calls and addressing correspondence to government agencies. In each case, the information was supplied by the agency itself and is current as of the date of publication. Entries are arranged alphabetically in four sections: legislative branch; judicial branch; executive branch; and agencies, boards, and commissions.

The Applied Computational Engineering and Statistics (ACES) group of the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) was asked to review recent measurements performed by the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) on material from that facility that is being considered for processing through the Mixed Oxide (MOX) Fuel Fabrication Facility (MFFF) at the Savannah River Site (SRS). There are specification limits for impurities in the feed to the MOX facility: a maximum limit and an exceptional limit. The limits for an impurity apply to the population of concentration values for that impurity for a class of material that is to be processed through MOX. For the purposes of this report, these limits were defined as follows. The concentration of an elemental impurity, expressed as micrograms of the element per gram of plutonium ({micro}g/g Pu), is to be no more than the maximum limit for that element for 98% of the material coming through MOX; that is, 98% of the material processed at MOX is to have a concentration of the given element less than the maximum limit. In addition, the concentration for a given element is to be no more than the exceptional limit for that element for 99.9% of the material …

The overall goal of this project has been to develop curricula, certification requirements, and accreditation standards for training on energy efficient practices and technologies for commercial building technicians. These training products will advance industry expertise towards net-zero energy commercial building goals and will result in a substantial reduction in energy use. The ultimate objective is to develop a workforce that can bring existing commercial buildings up to their energy performance potential and ensure that new commercial buildings do not fall below their expected optimal level of performance. Commercial building equipment technicians participating in this training program will learn how to best operate commercial buildings to ensure they reach their expected energy performance level. The training is a combination of classroom, online and on-site lessons. The Texas Engineering Extension Service (TEEX) developed curricula using subject matter and adult learning experts to ensure the training meets certification requirements and accreditation standards for training these technicians. The training targets a specific climate zone to meets the needs, specialized expertise, and perspectives of the commercial building equipment technicians in that zone. The combination of efficient operations and advanced design will improve the internal built environment of a commercial building by increasing comfort and safety, …

This report discusses the publication of federally-funded research results including positive aspects (wide dissemination that may drive innovation, job creation, technology development, and the advance of science), and the negatives (that some research results could also be used for malicious purposes). This report describes the underlying controversy, the potential benefits and harms of publishing these manuscripts, the actions taken by domestic and international stakeholders, and options to improve the way research is handled to minimize security concerns.

This report discusses the current political state of Afghanistan, focusing particularly on the influence of the Taliban and other militant groups and on the leadership of Afghan President Hamid Karzai. This report also discusses the U.S.-Afghanistan relationship, in both the short and long term, and U.S. efforts under the Obama Administration to provide military, reconstructive, and stabilization aid.

Brayton Power Conversion System

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This report discusses how the Department of Defense (DOD) is consolidating data centers in order to conserve energy.

This report seeks to help inform the debate regarding how many U.S. circuit and district court nominations should be confirmed by year's end, and how late in the year the Senate should continue to confirm them. It includes analysis of the number and timing of circuit court and district court nominations confirmed by the Senate in presidential election years from 1980 to 2008, as well as a comparison of the processing of judicial nominations during these years, using various quantitative measures. It also relates the findings to the Senate's processing of judicial nominations in 2012, as of June 30.

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This work presents explorations of the potential energy surface of clusters of atoms and of the interactions between molecules. First, structures of small aluminum clusters are examined and classified as ground states, transition states, or higher-order saddle points. Subsequently, the focus shifts to dispersion-dominated π-π interactions when the potential energy surfaces of benzene, substituted benzene, and pyridine dimers are explored. Because DNA nucleotide bases can be thought of as substituted heterocycles, a natural extension of the substituted benzene and pyridine investigations is to model paired nucleotide bases. Finally, the success of the dispersion studies inspires the development of an extension to the computational method used, which will enable the dispersion energy to be modeled – and the potential energy surface explored – in additional chemical systems. The effective fragment potential (EFP) method is described, as well as various quantum mechanical methods. An ab inito quantum mechanical study of 13-atom aluminum clusters is described. EFP studies of aromatic dimers are reported in which dispersion energy makes a significant contribution to the attraction between monomers. Theory and code development toward a means of computing dispersion energy in mixed ab inito-EFP systems are described.

This report reviews past and proposed treatment of hydraulic fracturing under the Safe Water Drinking Act, the principal federal statute for regulating the underground injection of fluids to protect groundwater sources of drinking water. It reviews current provisions for regulating underground injection activities, and discusses some possible implications of, and issues associated with, enactment of legislation authorizing the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate hydraulic fracturing under this statute.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The federal financial regulators have issued certain final rules for resolving large, complex financial companies under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act’s (Dodd-Frank Act) established Orderly Liquidation Authority (OLA). Under OLA, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) could serve as receiver of a failing financial company instead of the company entering the bankruptcy process. Regulators continue to address a number of issues related to FDIC’s new authority, including how creditors will ensure that they receive no less than they would under a Chapter 7 bankruptcy liquidation; how certain assets and liabilities would be treated in a new company created by FDIC under OLA; and what role the Securities Investor Protection Corporation would play in the resolution of a broker-dealer under OLA. Regulatory officials reported that they were continuing to draft rules to clarify how OLA would be used. FDIC and the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve (Federal Reserve) also have issued final rules requiring certain financial companies to file resolution plans or “living wills” that must detail how companies would resolve their operations through an orderly bankruptcy. Regulators told GAO that …

Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "We identified four categories of assistance U.S. agencies have provided: (1) counter-IED training and equipment, (2) a counter-IED public awareness campaign, (3) training of border officials, and (4) legal assistance for laws and regulations to counter IEDs and IED precursors. We found that each agency providing counter-IED assistance to Pakistan performs a unique role based on its specialized knowledge and expertise. DHS, for example, takes primary responsibility for border management and customs investigation training. DHS conducts joint regional training and operational exercises for both Pakistani and Afghan border officials, including international border interdiction training and cross-border financial investigation training. DHS also plays a lead role in Program Global Shield to foster cross-border cooperation and initiate complementary border management and customs operations. According to DHS, the main goals of Program Global Shield are (1) to identify and interdict falsely declared explosive precursor chemicals, (2) to initiate investigations of smuggled or illegally diverted IED materials, and (3) to uncover smuggling and procurement networks that foster illicit trade."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Federal Buildings Fund’s (FBF) balance has increased from $56 million in fiscal year 2007 to $2.2 billion in fiscal year 2012 primarily due to the growing difference between the resources provided to the FBF and the General Services Administration’s (GSA) use of these funds as determined through the budgeting and appropriations process. In the last 2 years, Congress has provided fewer resources than requested by the executive branch and generated by the FBF. Office of Management and Budget (OMB) staff and GSA officials stated that if GSA were able to spend all of the funds collected by the FBF each year, these funds would generally be sufficient to fund GSA’s needs. However, GSA, through the annual President’s Budget Request, has sought less obligational authority than the balance available in the fund. While the FBF’s balance has increased, various factors have limited the fund’s income. Funds from operations—revenue less costs excluding depreciation—that contribute to FBF income have declined from 2006 to 2011 when adjusted for inflation. Revenues have declined while costs have outstripped inflation over this time period. In addition, portions of GSA’s inventory operate at …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Annual revenues into the Assets Forfeiture Fund (AFF) from forfeited assets increased from $500 million in 2003 to $1.8 billion in 2011, in part due to an increase in prosecutions of fraud and financial crimes cases. Expenditures in support of forfeiture activities such as equitable sharing payments to state and local law enforcement agencies and payments to victims also increased over the same 9-year period, growing from $458 million in 2003 to $1.3 billion in 2011. The Department of Justice (DOJ) uses the difference between revenues and expenditures in any year to help cover anticipated expenses in the next fiscal year. Because the AFF uses fund revenues to pay for the expenses associated with forfeiture activities, DOJ carries over funds at the end of each fiscal year to ensure it has sufficient resources to cover expenses that may not be covered by the next year’s revenues. When determining the amounts to carry over, DOJ reviews historical data on past program expenditures, analyzes known future expenses such as salaries and contracts, and estimates the costs of any potential new expenditures. However, DOJ has not documented the process …

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