This report looks at privacy and health issues, as well as effectiveness, of advanced imaging technology (AIT) scanners at airports deployed by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).

This report contains information on the pay procedure and recent adjustments. It also contains historical information on the rate of pay for Members of Congress since 1789; the adjustments projected by the Ethics Reform Act as compared to actual adjustments in Member pay; details on past legislation enacted with language prohibiting the annual pay adjustment; and Member pay in constant and current dollars since 1992.

This report summarizes how insolvent states may borrow funds from the federal account within the Unemployment Trust Fund (UTF) to meet their unemployment compensation (UC) benefit obligations.

Report that discusses the current political state of Afghanistan, as well as the Afghan government. This report also discusses Afghanistan's relationship with the United States, particularly U.S. efforts to urge President Hamid Karzai to address corruption within the Afghan government. Election fraud and corruption in Afghanistan are also discussed.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The planned cost and schedule of the Coast Guard's portfolio of major acquisitions is unknown because of outdated acquisition program baselines and uncertainty surrounding affordability. The Coast Guard's approved baselines, which reflect cost and schedule estimates, indicate the estimated total acquisition cost of Coast Guard major acquisitions could be as much as $35.3 billion--an increase of approximately 41 percent over the original baselines. However, the approved baselines for 10 of 16 programs do not reflect current cost and schedule plans because programs have breached the cost or schedule estimates in those baselines, changed in scope, or do not expect to receive funding to execute baselines as planned. Furthermore, a continued mismatch between resources needed to support all approved baselines and expected funding levels has required the Coast Guard to make decisions about which programs to fund and which programs not to fund as part of its annual budget process. Both DHS and the Coast Guard have acknowledged this resource challenge, but efforts to address this challenge have not yet resulted in a clear strategy for moving forward."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Selected agencies leveraged only a fraction of their buying power through strategic sourcing and achieved limited savings. In fiscal year 2011, the Departments of Defense (DOD), Homeland Security (DHS), Energy, and Veterans Affairs (VA) accounted for 80 percent of the $537 billion in federal procurement spending, but reported managing about 5 percent or $25.8 billion through strategic sourcing efforts. These agencies reported savings of $1.8 billion--less than one-half of one percent of procurement spending. While strategic sourcing may not be suitable for all procurement spending, leading companies strategically manage about 90 percent of their procurements and report annual savings of 10 percent or more. Further, most agencies' efforts do not address their highest spending areas such as services, which may provide opportunities for additional savings."

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This report consists of the alternative minimum tax for individuals.

This report examines a key element of current federal support for manufacturing: tax benefits.

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This report provides responses to frequently asked questions about health care provided to veterans through the VHA.

The overarching goal of this study was to improve understanding of colloid-facilitated transport of radioactive cations through unsaturated soils and sediments. We conducted a suite of laboratory experiments and field experiments on the vadose-zone transport of colloids, organic matter, and associated contaminants of interest to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). The laboratory and field experiments, together with transport modeling, were designed to accomplish the following detailed objectives: 1. Evaluation of the relative importance of inorganic colloids and organic matter to the facilitation of radioactive cation transport in the vadose zone; 2. Assessment of the role of adsorption and desorption kinetics in the facilitated transport of radioactive cations in the vadose zone; 3. Examination of the effects of rainfall and infiltration dynamics and in the facilitated transport of radioactive cations through the vadose zone; 4. Exploration of the role of soil heterogeneity and preferential flow paths (e.g., macropores) on the facilitated transport of radioactive cations in the vadose zone; 5. Development of a mathematical model of facilitated transport of contaminants in the vadose zone that accurately incorporates pore-scale and column-scale processes with the practicality of predicting transport with readily available parameters.

Soil vapor extraction (SVE) and air injection well testing was performed at the Dynamic Underground Stripping (DUS) site located near the M-Area Settling Basin (referred to as DUS II in this report). The objective of this testing was to determine the effectiveness of continued operation of these systems. Steam injection ended on September 19, 2009 and since this time the extraction operations have utilized residual heat that is present in the subsurface. The well testing campaign began on June 5, 2012 and was completed on June 25, 2012. Thirty-two (32) SVE wells were purged for 24 hours or longer using the active soil vapor extraction (ASVE) system at the DUS II site. During each test five or more soil gas samples were collected from each well and analyzed for target volatile organic compounds (VOCs). The DUS II site is divided into four parcels (see Figure 1) and soil gas sample results show the majority of residual VOC contamination remains in Parcel 1 with lesser amounts in the other three parcels. Several VOCs, including tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and trichloroethylene (TCE), were detected. PCE was the major VOC with lesser amounts of TCE. Most soil gas concentrations of PCE ranged from 0 to …

At DOE’s request, ORAU conducted confirmatory surveys of the K-33 sub-slab soil during the period of August 2011 through May 2012. The survey activities included visual inspections and measurement and sampling activities. LSRS was forthcoming with information relating to surface scan results. Scans performed by the contractor were of adequate coverage and overall data appear to represent actual site conditions. However, the LSRS technicians failed to identify several areas of elevated direct gamma radiation. Most of the samples taken by ORAU at locations of elevated instrument response were above the remediation concentration for one or more radionuclides of concern (ROC). The contractor was, however, quick to perform additional remediation of areas identified to have contamination above the guidelines. Further investigation by ORAU was not requested once additional remediation was completed. It is presumed the remediation contractor’s future PCCR will present detailed and conclusive evidence that K-33 sub-slab soils either comply or do not comply with record of decision (ROD) criteria. However, ORAU concludes, based on both independent verification (IV) data and data provided by LSRS, that the remediation contractor followed appropriate and applicable procedures and that the associated data adequately represent site conditions.

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The Risk-Informed Safety Margin Characterization (RISMC) pathway is a set of activities defined under the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Light Water Reactor Sustainability Program. The overarching objective of RISMC is to support plant life-extension decision-making by providing a state-of-knowledge characterization of safety margins in key systems, structures, and components (SSCs). A technical challenge at the core of this effort is to establish the conceptual and technical feasibility of analyzing safety margin in a risk-informed way, which, unlike conventionally defined deterministic margin analysis, would be founded on probabilistic characterizations of uncertainty in SSC performance. In the context of probabilistic risk assessment (PRA) technology, there has arisen a general consensus about the distinctive roles of two types of uncertainty: aleatory and epistemic, where the former represents irreducible, random variability inherent in a system, whereas the latter represents a state of knowledge uncertainty on the part of the analyst about the system which is, in principle, reducible through further research. While there is often some ambiguity about how any one contributing uncertainty in an analysis should be classified, there has nevertheless emerged a broad consensus on the meanings of these uncertainty types in the PRA setting. However, while RISMC methodology shares some …

The theoretical ocean wave energy resource potential exceeds 50% of the annual domestic energy demand of the United States, is located close to coastal population centers, and, although variable in nature, may be more consistent and predictable than some other renewable generation technologies. As a renewable electricity generation technology, ocean wave energy offers a low air pollutant option for diversifying the U.S. electricity generation portfolio. Furthermore, the output characteristics of these technologies may complement other renewable technologies. This study addresses the following: (1) The theoretical, technical and practical potential for electricity generation from wave energy (2) The present lifecycle cost profile (Capex, Opex, and Cost of Electricity) of wave energy conversion technology at a reference site in Northern California at different plant scales (3) Cost of electricity variations as a function of deployment site, considering technical, geo-spatial and and electric grid constraints (4) Technology cost reduction pathways (5) Cost reduction targets at which the technology will see significant deployment within US markets, explored through a series of deployment scenarios RE Vision Consulting, LLC (RE Vision), engaged in various analyses to establish current and future cost profiles for marine hydrokinetic (MHK) technologies, quantified the theoretical, technical and practical resource potential, performed …

ABSTRACT The state of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) education in the United States has seen some unfavorable assessments over the past decade. In early February, 2010 the House of Representatives heard testimony on undergraduate and graduate education. The message from the panel, which included experts from academia, STEM-based industries, and the National Science Foundation (NSF) was dire and required an urgent response. The experts along with the committee’s chairperson, U. S. Representative Daniel Lipinski (D-IL) cited that the complexity of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics applications and coursework and the methodology utilized to teach these subjects are forcing students out of these disciplines. As the National Academies described in its 2007 report Rising Above the Gathering Storm, successful STEM education is not just an academic pursuit—it’s a necessity for competing in the knowledge-based economy that the United States had a key role in creating. The potential for action is being made available again as the America COMPETES Act of 2007 is up for reauthorization. Its initial focus was on STEM education at the K-12 levels, but efforts at the undergraduate and graduate levels are needed to retain students to fill the jobs left vacant as baby boomers retire. …

Inertial Confinement Fusion (ICF) presents unique opportunities for the extraction of clean energy from Fusion. Intense lasers and particle beams can create and interact with such plasmas, potentially yielding sufficient energy to satisfy all our national needs. However, few models are available to help aid the scientific community in the study and optimization of such interactions. This project enhanced and disseminated the computer code ePLAS for the early understanding and control of Ignition in ICF. ePLAS is a unique simulation code that tracks the transport of laser light to a target, the absorption of that light resulting in the generation and transport of hot electrons, and the heating and flow dynamics of the background plasma. It uses an implicit electromagnetic field-solving method to greatly reduce computing demands, so that useful target interaction studies can often be completed in 15 minutes on a portable 2.1 GHz PC. The code permits the rapid scoping of calculations for the optimization of laser target interactions aimed at fusion. Recent efforts have initiated the use of analytic equations of state (EOS), K-alpha image rendering graphics, allocatable memory for source-free usage, and adaption to the latest Mac and Linux Operating Systems. The speed and utility of …