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Office of Scientific & Technical Information Technical Reports
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770
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472
Government Accountability Office Reports
185
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51
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Afghanistan: Post-Taliban Governance, Security, and U.S. Policy
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 and U.S. efforts under the Obama Administration to provide military, reconstructive, and stabilization aid.
Date:
December 2, 2009
Creator:
Katzman, Kenneth
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Biofuel alternatives to ethanol: pumping the microbial well
Engineered microorganisms are currently used for the production of food products, pharmaceuticals, ethanol fuel and more. Even so, the enormous potential of this technology has yet to be fully exploited. The need for sustainable sources of transportation fuels has gener-ated a tremendous interest in technologies that enable biofuel production. Decades of work have produced a considerable knowledge-base for the physiology and pathway engineering of microbes, making microbial engineering an ideal strategy for producing biofuel. Although ethanol currently dominates the biofuel mar-ket, some of its inherent physical properties make it a less than ideal product. To highlight additional options, we review advances in microbial engineering for the production of other potential fuel molecules, using a variety of biosynthetic pathways.
Date:
December 2, 2009
Creator:
Fortman, J. L.; Chhabra, Swapnil; Mukhopadhyay, Aindrila; Chou, Howard; Lee, Taek Soon; Steen, Eric et al.
Object Type:
Article
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Chemical Regulation: Observations on Improving the Toxic Substances Control Act
Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is authorized under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to obtain information on the risks of chemicals and to control those that it determines to pose an unreasonable risk. EPA also conducts assessments of chemicals under its Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program. Nonetheless, EPA does not have sufficient information to determine whether it should establish controls to limit public exposure to many chemicals that may pose substantial health risks. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has recommended statutory changes to TSCA to, among other things, provide EPA with additional authorities to obtain health and safety information from the chemical industry and to shift more of the burden to chemical companies for demonstrating the safety of their chemicals. GAO has also recommended that EPA adopt a streamlined, more transparent IRIS assessment process to address significant productivity and credibility issues. Problems with TSCA and IRIS led GAO to add transforming EPA's processes for assessing and controlling toxic chemicals to its list of high-risk areas warranting attention by Congress and the executive branch This testimony, based on prior GAO work, addresses EPA's implementation of TSCA and …
Date:
December 2, 2009
Creator:
United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Commercial Space Transportation: Development of the Commercial Space Launch Industry Presents Safety Oversight Challenges for FAA and Raises Issues Affecting Federal Roles
Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since the Government Accountability Office (GAO) reported on the commercial space launch industry in 2006, the industry has evolved and moved further toward space tourism. Commercial space tourism promises to make human space travel available to the public for the first time. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) oversees the safety of commercial space launches, licensing and monitoring the safety of such launches and of spaceports (sites for launching spacecraft), and FAA promotes the industry. FAA is also responsible for overseeing the safety of space tourism, but it may not regulate crew and passenger safety before 2012 except in response to high-risk incidents, serious injuries, or fatalities. This testimony addresses (1) recent trends in the commercial space launch industry, (2) challenges that FAA faces in overseeing the industry, and (3) emerging issues that will affect the federal role. This statement is based on GAO's October 2006 report on commercial space launches, updated with information GAO gathered from FAA, the Department of Commerce, and industry experts in November 2009 on industry trends and recent FAA actions. In past work, GAO recommended that FAA take several actions to improve its oversight …
Date:
December 2, 2009
Creator:
United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Development of a Stochastic Inversion Tool To Optimize Agreement Between The Observed And Predicted Seismic Response To CO2 Injection/Migration in the Weyburn-Midale Project
During Phase 1 of the Weyburn Project (2000-2004), 4D reflection seismic data were used to map CO{sub 2} migration within the Midale reservoir, while an extensive fluid sampling program documented the geochemical evolution triggered by CO{sub 2}-brine-oil-mineral interactions. The aim of this task (3b.11) is to exploit these existing seismic and geochemical data sets, augmented by CO{sub 2}/H{sub 2}O injection and HC/H{sub 2}O production data toward optimizing the reservoir model and thereby improving site characterization and dependent predictions of long-term CO{sub 2} storage in the Weyburn-Midale reservoir. Our initial project activities have concentrated on developing a stochastic inversion method that will identify reservoir models that optimize agreement between the observed and predicted seismic response. This report describes the technical approach we have followed, the data that supports it, and associated implementation activities. The report fulfills deliverable D1 in the project's statement of work. Future deliverables will describe the development of the stochastic inversion tool that uses geochemical data to optimize the reservoir model.
Date:
December 2, 2009
Creator:
Ramirez, A. L.; Hao, Y.; White, D.; Carle, S.; Dyer, K.; Yang, X. et al.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Disaster Assistance: Improvements in Providing Federal Disaster Case Management Services Could Help Agencies Better Assist Victims
Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "As a result of the damage caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005, the federal government funded several disaster case management programs. These programs help victims access services for disaster-related needs. This testimony addresses the following questions: 1) How did the federal government support disaster case management programs after Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, and how did federal agencies coordinate their efforts?; 2) What challenges did disaster case management agencies experience in delivering services under federally funded programs?; and 3) How will previous or existing federally funded programs be used to inform the development of a federal case management program for future disasters? This testimony is based on a July 2009 report (GAO-09-561). To complete this report GAO reviewed federal laws, regulations, and guidance, obtained data from two programs, conducted site visits to Louisiana and Mississippi, and interviewed case management providers and federal and state officials. For this testimony, GAO updated certain information."
Date:
December 2, 2009
Creator:
United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Homeland Security: DHS's Progress and Challenges in Key Areas of Maritime, Aviation, and Cybersecurity
A statement of record issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Securing the nation's transportation and information systems is a primary responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). Within DHS, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is responsible for securing all transportation modes; U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is responsible for cargo container security; the U.S. Coast Guard is responsible for protecting the maritime environment; and the National Protection and Programs Directorate is responsible for the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure. This statement focuses on the progress and challenges DHS faces in key areas of maritime, aviation, and cybersecurity. It is based on GAO products issued from June 2004 through November 2009, as well as ongoing work on air cargo security. GAO reviewed relevant documents; interviewed cognizant agency officials; and observed operations at 12 airports, chosen by size and other factors. The results are not generalizable to all airports."
Date:
December 2, 2009
Creator:
United States. Government Accountability Office.
Object Type:
Text
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The Impact of Wind Power Projects on Residential Property Values in the United States: A Multi-Site Hedonic Analysis
With wind energy expanding rapidly in the U.S. and abroad, and with an increasing number of communities considering wind power development nearby, there is an urgent need to empirically investigate common community concerns about wind project development. The concern that property values will be adversely affected by wind energy facilities is commonly put forth by stakeholders. Although this concern is not unreasonable, given property value impacts that have been found near high voltage transmission lines and other electric generation facilities, the impacts of wind energy facilities on residential property values had not previously been investigated thoroughly. The present research collected data on almost 7,500 sales of singlefamily homes situated within 10 miles of 24 existing wind facilities in nine different U.S. states. The conclusions of the study are drawn from eight different hedonic pricing models, as well as both repeat sales and sales volume models. The various analyses are strongly consistent in that none of the models uncovers conclusive evidence of the existence of any widespread property value impacts that might be present in communities surrounding wind energy facilities. Specifically, neither the view of the wind facilities nor the distance of the home to those facilities is found to have …
Date:
December 2, 2009
Creator:
Hoen, Ben; Wiser, Ryan; Cappers, Peter; Thayer, Mark & Sethi, Gautam
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Importance of systems biology in engineering microbes for biofuel production
Microorganisms have been rich sources for natural products, some of which have found use as fuels, commodity chemicals, specialty chemicals, polymers, and drugs, to name a few. The recent interest in production of transportation fuels from renewable resources has catalyzed numerous research endeavors that focus on developing microbial systems for production of such natural products. Eliminating bottlenecks in microbial metabolic pathways and alleviating the stresses due to production of these chemicals are crucial in the generation of robust and efficient production hosts. The use of systems-level studies makes it possible to comprehensively understand the impact of pathway engineering within the context of the entire host metabolism, to diagnose stresses due to product synthesis, and provides the rationale to cost-effectively engineer optimal industrial microorganisms.
Date:
December 2, 2009
Creator:
Mukhopadhyay, Aindrila; Redding, Alyssa M.; Rutherford, Becky J. & Keasling, Jay D.
Object Type:
Article
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Latin America and the Caribbean: Fact Sheet on Leaders and Elections
This fact sheet tracks the current heads of government in Central and South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean. It provides the dates of the last and next elections for the head of government and the national independence date for each country.
Date:
December 2, 2009
Creator:
Gomez-Granger, Julissa & Sullivan, Mark P.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Magnetic vortex dynamics on a picosecond timescale in a hexagonal permalloy pattern
We have observed a motion of magnetic vortex core in a hexagonal Permalloy pattern by means of Soft X-ray microscopy. Pump-probe stroboscopic observation on a picosecond timescale has been carried out after exciting a ground state vortex structure by an external field pulse of 1 ns duration. Vortex core is excited off from the center position of the hexagonal pattern but the analysis of the core trajectory reveals that the motion is nongyrotropic.
Date:
December 2, 2009
Creator:
Shim, J.-H.; Kim, D.-H.; Mesler, B.; Moon, J.-H.; Lee, K.-J.; Anderson, E. H. et al.
Object Type:
Article
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Metabolic engineering of microorganisms for biofuels production: from bugs to synthetic biology to fuels
The ability to generate microorganisms that can produce biofuels similar to petroleum-based transportation fuels would allow the use of existing engines and infrastructure and would save an enormous amount of capital required for replacing the current infrastructure to accommodate biofuels that have properties significantly different from petroleum-based fuels. Several groups have demonstrated the feasibility of manipulating microbes to produce molecules similar to petroleum-derived products, albeit at relatively low productivity (e.g. maximum butanol production is around 20 g/L). For cost-effective production of biofuels, the fuel-producing hosts and pathways must be engineered and optimized. Advances in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology will provide new tools for metabolic engineers to better understand how to rewire the cell in order to create the desired phenotypes for the production of economically viable biofuels.
Date:
December 2, 2009
Creator:
Kuk Lee, Sung; Chou, Howard; Ham, Timothy S.; Soon Lee, Taek & Keasling, Jay D.
Object Type:
Article
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Neutron Capture Cross Sections from Surrogate Measurements
None
Date:
December 2, 2009
Creator:
Escher, J E; Dietrich, F S & Scielzo, N D
Object Type:
Article
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Ocean Thermal Plantships for Production of Ammonia as the Hydrogen Carrier.
Conventional petroleum, natural gas, and coal are the primary sources of energy that have underpinned modern civilization. Their continued availability in the projected quantities required and the impacts of emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) on the environment are issues at the forefront of world concerns. New primary sources of energy are being sought that would significantly reduce the emissions of GHGs. One such primary source that can help supply energy, water, and fertilizer without GHG emissions is available in the heretofore unexploited thermal gradients of the tropical oceans. The world's oceans are the largest natural collector and reservoir of solar energy. The potential of ocean energy is limitless for producing base-load electric power or ammonia as the hydrogen carrier and fresh water from seawater. However, until now, ocean energy has been virtually untapped. The general perception is that ocean thermal energy is limited to tropical countries. Therefore, the full potential of at-sea production of (1) ammonia as a hydrogen carrier and (2) desalinated water has not been adequately evaluated. Using ocean thermal plantships for the at-sea co-production of ammonia as a hydrogen carrier and desalinated water offer potential energy, environmental, and economic benefits that support the development of the technology. …
Date:
December 2, 2009
Creator:
Panchal, C.B.; Pandolfini, P. P.; Kumm, W. H.; Systems, Energy; Univ., Johns Hopkins & Arctic Energies, Ltd.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Optical manipulation of ultrafast electron and nuclear motion on metal surfaces
We study the unoccupied electronic structure and dynamics of chemisorbed atoms and molecules on metal surfaces by time resolved two-photon photoemission (TR-2PP). spectroscopy, low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (LT-STM), and theory. Our research concerns simple atomic adsorbates such as alkali and alkaline earth atoms, which provide fundamentally important models for adsorbate-surface interactions, and more complex adsorbates such as fullerenes on noble metals, which illustrate emergent interfacial properties that derive from intrinsic molecular attributes, and moleculemolecule and molecule-surface interactions. Our goal is to understand how these interactions contribute to formation of the interfacial electronic structure, and how thus formed electronic properties affect interfacial phenomena of importance to energy transduction and storage. Moreover, we explore how the interfacial electronic excitation drives dynamical phenomena such as charge transfer and surface femtochemistry.
Date:
December 2, 2009
Creator:
Petek, Hrvoje
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Taiwan: Major U.S. Arms Sales Since 1990
This report discusses U.S. security assistance to Taiwan (calling itself Republic of China (ROC)), including policy issues for Congress and legislation.
Date:
December 2, 2009
Creator:
Kan, Shirley A.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
TANK FARMS OEPRATIONS RECOVERY ACT WASTE INITIATIVES
None
Date:
December 2, 2009
Creator:
DE, SWENSON
Object Type:
Article
System:
The UNT Digital Library
U.S. Arms Sales: Agreements with and Deliveries to Major Clients
This report provides background data on United States arms sales agreements with and deliveries to its major purchasers during calendar years 2001-2008, made through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program.
Date:
December 2, 2009
Creator:
Grimmett, Richard F.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child: Background and Policy Issues
This report provides an overview of the United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child's (CRC) background and structure and examines evolving U.S. policy toward the Convention, including past and current Administration positions and congressional perspectives.
Date:
December 2, 2009
Creator:
Blanchfield, Luisa
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The Adoption of Advanced Fuel Cycle Technology Under a Single Repository Policy
Develops the tools to investiage the hypothesis that the savings in repository space associated with the implementation of advanced nuclear fuel cycles can result in sufficient cost savings to offset the higher costs of those fuel cycles.
Date:
November 2, 2009
Creator:
Wilson, Paul
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Afghanistan: Politics, Elections, and Government Performance
This report 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.
Date:
November 2, 2009
Creator:
Katzman, Kenneth
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Age estimation in forensic sciences: Application of combined aspartic acid racemization and radiocarbon analysis
Age determination of unknown human bodies is important in the setting of a crime investigation or a mass disaster, since the age at death, birth date and year of death, as well as gender, can guide investigators to the correct identity among a large number of possible matches. Traditional morphological methods used by anthropologists to determine age are often imprecise, whereas chemical analysis of tooth dentin, such as aspartic acid racemization has shown reproducible and more precise results. In this paper we analyze teeth from Swedish individuals using both aspartic acid racemization and radiocarbon methodologies. The rationale behind using radiocarbon analysis is that above-ground testing of nuclear weapons during the cold war (1955-1963) caused an extreme increase in global levels of carbon-14 ({sup 14}C) which have been carefully recorded over time. Forty-four teeth from 41 individuals were analyzed using aspartic acid racemization analysis of tooth crown dentin or radiocarbon analysis of enamel and ten of these were split and subjected to both radiocarbon and racemization analysis. Combined analysis showed that the two methods correlated well (R2=0.66, p < 0.05). Radiocarbon analysis showed an excellent precision with an overall absolute error of 0.6 {+-} 04 years. Aspartic acid racemization also showed …
Date:
November 2, 2009
Creator:
Alkass, K.; Buchholz, B. A.; Ohtani, S.; Yamamoto, T.; Druid, H. & Spalding, S. L.
Object Type:
Article
System:
The UNT Digital Library
Boron-Lined Neutron Detector Measurements
Radiation portal monitors used for interdiction of illicit materials at borders include highly sensitive neutron detection systems. The main reason for having neutron detection capability is to detect fission neutrons from plutonium. The currently deployed radiation portal monitors (RPMs) from Ludlum and Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) use neutron detectors based upon 3He-filled gas proportional counters, which are the most common large neutron detector. There is a declining supply of 3He in the world, and thus, methods to reduce the use of this gas in RPMs with minimal changes to the current system designs and sensitivity to cargo-borne neutrons are being investigated. Four technologies have been identified as being currently commercially available, potential alternative neutron detectors to replace the use of 3He in RPMs. Reported here are the results of tests of a newly designed boron-lined proportional counter option. This testing measured the neutron detection efficiency and gamma ray rejection capabilities of a system manufactured by Reuter Stokes.
Date:
November 2, 2009
Creator:
Lintereur, Azaree T.; Kouzes, Richard T.; Ely, James H.; Erikson, Luke E. & Siciliano, Edward R.
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library
The Conforming Loan Limit
This report analyzes the implications of raising the conforming loan limit in high-cost areas.
Date:
November 2, 2009
Creator:
Weiss, N. Eric & Jickling, Mark
Object Type:
Report
System:
The UNT Digital Library