The annual State, Foreign Operations, and Related Agencies appropriations bill is the primary legislative vehicle through which Congress reviews the U.S. international affairs budget and influences executive branch foreign policy making in general. On May 7, 2009, President Obama submitted a budget proposal for FY2010 that requests $53.9 billion for the international affairs budget. This report analyzes the FY2010 request, recent-year funding trends, and congressional action for FY2010. To date, this includes the introduction and committee approval of H.R. 3081, the House State-Foreign Operations Appropriations bill for FY2010.

The remarkable thermal stability of LiFePO{sub 4} and its charged counterpart, FePO{sub 4}, have been instrumental in its commercialization as a lithium ion battery cathode material. Despite the similarity in composition and structure, and despite the high thermal stability of the parent compound, LiMnPO{sub 4}, we find that the delithiated phase Li{sub y}MnPO{sub 4}, (which contains a small amount of residual lithium), is relatively unstable and reactive toward a lithium ion electrolyte. The onset temperature for heat evolution in the presence of 1M LiPF{sub 6} in 1:1 ethylene carbonate/propylene carbonate is around 150 C, and the total evolved heat is 884 J/g, comparable to that produced under similar conditions by charged LiCoO{sub 2} electrodes.

The multiplication M of a multiplying object can be determined by analyzing the arrival times of thermal neutrons in detectors such as helium tubes. A source emitting neutrons randomly will lead to neutron inter arrival times obeying Poisson process statistics. By observing how the inter arrival times of detected counts differ from Poisson statistics, one can assess properties of the neutron source such as the source intensity and multiplication. While the method of analyzing the inter arrival times of neutrons using count distributions to determine characteristics of the source has been used for a long time, the treatment of the errors on the determined quantities multiplication M and source strength S have not yet been adequately treated. This object of this report is to assess these errors.

With limited natural resources, a crippling illiteracy rate, and high population growth, Yemen faces an array of daunting development challenges that some observers believe make it at risk for becoming a failed state in the next few decades. As the country's population rapidly rises, resources dwindle, and terrorist groups take root in the outlying provinces, the Obama Administration and the 111th Congress are left to grapple with the consequences of Yemeni instability. As President Obama and the 111th Congress reassess U.S. policy toward the Arab world, the opportunity for improved U.S.-Yemeni ties is strong, though recurring tensions over counterterrorism cooperation and lack of U.S. interest in Yemen within the broader foreign policy community persist.

Despite substantial effort, no one has succeeded in efficiently producing methanol from CO2 using homogeneous photocatalytic systems. We are pursuing reaction schemes based on a sequence of hydride-ion transfers to carry out stepwise reduction of CO2 to methanol. We are using hydride-ion transfer from photoproduced C-H bonds in metal complexes with bio-inspired ligands (i.e., NADH-like ligands) that are known to store one proton and two electrons.

We are carrying out coordinated theoretical and experimental studies of toward photochemical water splitting using band-gap-narrowed semiconductors (BGNSCs) with attached multi-electron molecular water oxidation and hydrogen production catalysts. We focus on the coupling between the materials properties and the H{sub 2}O redox chemistry, with an emphasis on attaining a fundamental understanding of the individual elementary steps in the following four processes: (1) Light-harvesting and charge-separation of stable oxide or oxide-derived semiconductors for solar-driven water splitting, including the discovery and characterization of the behavior of such materials at the aqueous interface; (2) The catalysis of the four-electron water oxidation by dinuclear hydroxo transition-metal complexes with quinonoid ligands, and the rational search for improved catalysts; (3) Transfer of the design principles learned from the elucidation of the DuBois-type hydrogenase model catalysts in acetonitrile to the rational design of two-electron hydrogen production catalysts for aqueous solution; (4) Combining these three elements to examine the function of oxidation catalysts on BGNSC photoanode surfaces and hydrogen production catalysts on cathode surfaces at the aqueous interface to understand the challenges to the efficient coupling of the materials functions.

The purpose of this report is to provide a concise but comprehensive overview of Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Climate Research Facility instrumentation status. The report is divided into the following five sections: (1) new instrumentation in the process of being acquired and deployed, (2) field campaigns, (3) existing instrumentation and progress on improvements or upgrades, (4) proposed future instrumentation, and (5) Small Business Innovation Research instrument development.

The Distributed Energy Resources Customer Adoption Model is used to estimate the value an Oakland nursing home, a Riverside high school, and a Sunnyvale data center would need to put on higher electricity service reliability for them to adopt a Consortium for Electric Reliability Technology Solutions Microgrid (CM) based on economics alone. A fraction of each building's load is deemed critical based on its mission, and the added cost of CM capability to meet it added to on-site generation options. The three sites are analyzed with various resources available as microgrid components. Results show that the value placed on higher reliability often does not have to be significant for CM to appear attractive, about 25 $/kWcdota and up, but the carbon footprint consequences are mixed because storage is often used to shift cheaper off-peak electricity to use during afternoon hours in competition with the solar sources.

SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory is developing a next generation H-bridge switch plate [1], a critical component of the SNS High Voltage Converter Modulator [2]. As part of that effort, a new IGBT gate driver has been developed. The drivers are an integral part of the switch plate, which are essential to ensuring fault-tolerant, high-performance operation of the modulator. The redesigned driver improves upon the existing gate drive in several ways. The new gate driver has improved fault detection and suppression capabilities; suppression of shoot-through and over-voltage conditions, monitoring of dI/dt and Vce(sat) for fast over-current detection and suppression, and redundant power isolation are some of the added features. In addition, triggering insertion delay is reduced by a factor of four compared to the existing driver. This paper details the design and performance of the new IGBT gate driver. A simplified schematic and description of the construction are included. The operation of the fast over-current detection circuits, active IGBT over-voltage protection circuit, shoot-through prevention circuitry, and control power isolation breakdown detection circuit are discussed.

This report discusses the emerging development of nationwide alert systems to recover missing adults, such as those with mental impairment (such as Alzheimer's disease), developmental disabilities, or suicidal tendencies. This report provides an overview of such alert systems in 11 states: Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, Rhode Island, Texas, and Virginia. This report also provides a discussion of issues for Congress to consider with respect to the federal role, if any, in developing state alert programs for missing adults.

A package sent to the Bureau of Land Management containing a property description, a notice of intent to relinquish, aerial photos, and engineering drawings

Tunneling electrons in a scanning tunneling microscope were used to excite specific vibrational quantum states of adsorbed water and hydroxyl molecules on a Ru(0 0 0 1) surface. The excited molecules relaxed by transfer of energy to lower energy modes, resulting in diffusion, dissociation, desorption, and surface-tip transfer processes. Diffusion of H{sub 2}O molecules could be induced by excitation of the O-H stretch vibration mode at 445 meV. Isolated molecules required excitation of one single quantum while molecules bonded to a C atom required at least two quanta. Dissociation of single H{sub 2}O molecules into H and OH required electron energies of 1 eV or higher while dissociation of OH required at least 2 eV electrons. In contrast, water molecules forming part of a cluster could be dissociated with electron energies of 0.5 eV.

We study the dynamics of a chiral SU(2) gauge theory with a Weyl fermion in the I = 3/2 representation and of its supersymmetric generalization. In the former, we find a new and exotic mechanism of confinement, induced by topological excitations that we refer to as magnetic quintets. The supersymmetric version was examined earlier in the context of dynamical supersymmetry breaking by Intriligator, Seiberg, and Shenker, who showed that if this gauge theory confines at the origin of moduli space, one may break supersymmetry by adding a tree level superpotential. We examine the dynamics by deforming the theory on S{sup 1} x R{sup 3}, and show that the infrared behavior of this theory is an interacting CFT at small S{sup 1}. We argue that this continues to hold at large S{sup 1}, and if so, that supersymmetry must remain unbroken. Our methods also provide the microscopic origin of various superpotentials in SQCD on S{sup 1} x R{sup 3}--which were previously obtained by using symmetry and holomorphy--and resolve a long standing interpretational puzzle concerning a flux operator discovered by Affleck, Harvey, and Witten. It is generated by a topological excitation, a 'magnetic bion', whose stability is due to fermion pair exchange …

This report opens with a historical analysis of the unique immigration policy that evolved with Cuba and an explanation of its nexus with other federal policies. It follows with time series analysis of Cuban migration trends. The report concludes by discussing current challenges and issues.

Cell-based fluorescence imaging assays have the potential to generate massive amount of data, which requires detailed quantitative analysis. Often, as a result of fixation, labeled nuclei overlap and create a clump of cells. However, it is important to quantify phenotypic read out on a cell-by-cell basis. In this paper, we propose a novel method for decomposing clumps of nuclei using high-level geometric constraints that are derived from low-level features of maximum curvature computed along the contour of each clump. Points of maximum curvature are used as vertices for Delaunay triangulation (DT), which provides a setof edge hypotheses for decomposing a clump of nuclei. Each hypothesis is subsequently tested against a constraint satisfaction network for a near optimum decomposition. The proposed method is compared with other traditional techniques such as the watershed method with/without markers. The experimental results show that our approach can overcome the deficiencies of the traditional methods and is very effective in separating severely touching nuclei.

SLAC is developing a 10 MW, 5 Hz, 1.6 ms, L-band (1.3 GHz) Sheet-Beam Klystron as a less expensive and more compact alternative to the ILC baseline Multiple-Beam Klystron. The Klystron is intended as a plug-compatible device of the same beam current and operating voltage as existing Multiple-Beam Klystrons. At this time, a beam tester has been constructed and currently is in test. The beam tester includes an intercepting cup for making beam quality measurements of the 130 A, 40-to-1 aspect ratio beam. Measurements will be made of the electrostatic beam and of the beam after transporting through a drift tube and magnetic focusing system. General theory of operation, design trade-offs, and manufacturing considerations of both the beam tester and klystron will be discussed.

This paper will report on the test results of a prototype 1320 watt power module for a high availability power supply. The module will allow parallel operation for N+1 redundancy with hot swap capability. The two quadrant output of each module allows pairs of modules to provide a 4 quadrant (bipolar) operation. Each module employs a novel 4 FET buck regulator arranged in a bridge configuration. Each side of the bridge alternately conducts through a small saturable ferrite that limits the reverse current in the FET body diode during turn off. This allows hard switching of the FETs with low switching losses. The module is designed with over-rated components to provide high reliability and better then 97% efficiency at full load. The modules use a Microchip DSP for control, monitoring, and fault detection. The switching FETS are driven by PWM modules in the DSP at 60 KHz. A Dual CAN bus interface provides for low cost redundant control paths. The DSP will also provide current sharing between modules, synchronized switching, and soft start up for hot swapping. The input and output of each module have low resistance FETs to allow hot swapping and isolation of faulted units.

This is the first report of Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope observations of the quasar 3C 454.3, which has been undergoing pronounced long-term outbursts since 2000. The data from the Large Area Telescope (LAT), covering 2008 July 7-October 6, indicate strong, highly variable {gamma}-ray emission with an average flux of {approx} 3 x 10{sup -6} photons cm{sup -2} s{sup -1}, for energies > 100 MeV. The {gamma}-ray flux is variable, with strong, distinct, symmetrically-shaped flares for which the flux increases by a factor of several on a time scale of about three days. This variability indicates a compact emission region, and the requirement that the source is optically thin to pair-production implies relativistic beaming with Doppler factor {delta} > 8, consistent with the values inferred from VLBI observations of superluminal expansion ({delta} {approx} 25). The observed {gamma}-ray spectrum is not consistent with a simple power-law, but instead steepens strongly above {approx} 2 GeV, and is well described by a broken power-law with photon indices of {approx} 2.3 and {approx} 3.5 below and above the break, respectively. This is the first direct observation of a break in the spectrum of a high luminosity blazar above 100 MeV, and it is likely direct …

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This report discusses the environmental activities of the U.S. Coast Guard, which fall within the service's program for protection of natural resources, and consist of maritime oil spill prevention, marine debris, and pollution response preparedness. Protection of living marine resources and fisheries also falls in this category, but is not discussed here. Marine environmental protection is one of six "non-homeland security missions" specified in the Homeland Security Act of 2002.

Pacific lamprey Lampetra tridentata have received little attention in fishery science until recently, even though abundance has declined significantly along with other anadromous fish species in Idaho. Pacific lamprey in Idaho have to navigate over eight lower Snake River and Columbia River hydroelectric facilities for migration downstream as juveniles to the Pacific Ocean and again as adults migrating upstream to their freshwater spawning grounds in Idaho. The number of adult Pacific lamprey annually entering the Snake River basin at Ice Harbor Dam has declined from an average of over 18,000 during 1962-1969 to fewer than 600 during 1998-2006. Based on potential accessible streams and adult escapement over Lower Granite Dam on the lower Snake River, we estimate that no more than 200 Pacific lamprey adult spawners annually utilize the Clearwater River drainage in Idaho for spawning. We utilized electrofishing in 2000-2006 to capture, enumerate, and obtain biological information regarding rearing Pacific lamprey ammocoetes and macropthalmia to determine the distribution and status of the species in the Clearwater River drainage, Idaho. Present distribution in the Clearwater River drainage is limited to the lower sections of the Lochsa and Selway rivers, the Middle Fork Clearwater River, the mainstem Clearwater River, the South …

Daily publication of the U.S. Office of the Federal Register contains rules and regulations, proposed legislation and rule changes, and other notices, including "Presidential proclamations and Executive Orders, Federal agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required to be published by act of Congress, and other Federal agency documents of public interest" (p. ii). Table of Contents starts on page iii.

In this report, the PI summarizes the results and achievements obtained in the sponsored project. Overall, the project has been very successful and produced both research results in massive data-intensive computing and data management for large scale supercomputers today, and in open-source software products. During the project period, 14 conference/journal publications, as well as two PhD students, have been produced due to exclusive or shared support from this award. In addition, the PI has recently been granted tenure from NC State University.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In March 2004, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) launched the financial management line of business (FMLOB) initiative, in part, to reduce the cost and improve the quality and performance of federal financial management systems by leveraging shared service solutions and implementing other reforms. In March 2006, GAO reported that OMB's approach did not fully integrate certain fundamental system implementation-related concepts and recommended OMB take specific actions. This report discusses (1) OMB's progress in addressing GAO's prior FMLOB recommendations and implementation challenges and (2) the effectiveness of OMB's monitoring of financial management system modernization projects and their costs. GAO's methodology included reviewing OMB's FMLOB-related guidance and reports and interviewing OMB and Financial Systems Integration Office (FSIO) staff."