A look at how the Chrysler Loan Guarantee Act of 1979 affected TARP funding for the Detroit Big Three.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Because marine mammals, such as whales and dolphins, often inhabit waters where commercial fishing occurs, they can become entangled in fishing gear, which may injure or kill them--this is referred to as "incidental take." The 1994 amendments to the Marine Mammal Protection Act (MMPA) require the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to establish take reduction teams for certain marine mammals to develop measures to reduce their incidental takes. GAO was asked to determine the extent to which NMFS (1) can accurately identify the marine mammal stocks--generally a population of animals of the same species located in a common area--that meet the MMPA's requirements for establishing such teams, (2) has established teams for those stocks that meet the requirements, (3) has met the MMPA's deadlines for the teams subject to them, and (4) evaluates the effectiveness of take reduction regulations. GAO reviewed the MMPA, and NMFS data on marine mammals, and take reduction team documents and obtained the views of NMFS officials, scientists, and take reduction team members."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The federal government's spending on the Medicare Advantage (MA) program has grown substantially in recent years, from approximately $60 billion in 2006 and $77 billion in 2007 to an estimated $91 billion in 2008. MA organizations provide health care coverage to Medicare beneficiaries through private health plans, thus offering an alternative to the original Medicare fee-for-service (FFS) program. Payments to MA organizations are, in part, based on the projected expenditures organizations submit in their bids for providing Medicare-covered services, as well as actual enrollment and beneficiary health status. Once Medicare payments are determined, they are not modified based on differences between actual and projected expenses. MA organizations are not required to submit claims data to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)--the agency that administers Medicare--but they must report actual expenditures for the year 2 years prior to the upcoming contract year. For example, MA organizations reported their actual 2006 expenditures in their bid submission for contract year 2008. When MA organizations submit their bids, the actual expenditures reported in their bid submissions reflect the MA organizations' most recent full calendar year of actual expenditure data. In …

This report describes the steps which precede the joint session and the procedures set in the Constitution and statute by which the House and Senate jointly certify the results of the electoral vote. It also discusses the procedures set in law governing challenges to the validity of an electoral vote, and makes reference to the procedures followed during the joint session in 2005 by which the election of George W. Bush was certified.

This report examines the political and economic landscape of the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The UAE’s open economy and society have won praise, but lax export controls, particularly in the emirate of Dubai, are causing U.S. concern over proliferation of advanced technology; terrorist transiting; and human trafficking. The UAE undertook its first major electoral process in December 2006, although with a small, hand-picked electorate and for a body with limited powers.

This report discusses about the Corporate Executive Compensation Accountability and Transparency Act. It also discusses about the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 and the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008.

None

This report discusses Federal laws and policies related to Greenhouse Gas Reductions regarding Climate Change.

Over the last number of years researchers at ISU have been developing protein based plastics from soybeans, funded by Soy Works Corporation. These materials have been characterized and the processing of these materials into prototype products has been demonstrated. A wide range of net-shape forming processes, including but not limited to extrusion, injection molding and compression molding have been studied. Issues, including technology transfer, re-formulation and product consistency, have been addressed partially during this contract. Also, commercial-scale processing parameters for protein based plastic products were designed, but not yet applicable in the industry. Support in the trouble shooting processing and the manufacturing of protein based plastic products was provided by Iowa State University during the one year contract.

Nationwide, the demand for electricity due to population and industrial growth is on the rise. However, climate change and air quality issues raise serious questions about the wisdom of addressing these shortages through the construction of additional fossil fueled power plants. In 1997, the President's Committee of Advisors on Science and Technology Energy Research and Development Panel determined that restoring a viable nuclear energy option was essential and that the DOE should implement a R&D effort to address principal obstacles to achieving this option. This work has addressed the need for improved thermal/fluid analysis capabilities, through the use of computational fluid dynamics, which are necessary to support the design of generation IV gas-cooled and supercritical water reactors.

This research and development program was designed to improve nondestructive evaluation of large mechanical objects by providing both fast and thermal neutron sources for radiography. Neutron radiography permits inspection inside objects that x-rays cannot penetrate and permits imaging of corrosion and cracks in low-density materials. Discovering of fatigue cracks and corrosion in piping without the necessity of insulation removal is possible. Neutron radiography sources can provide for the nondestructive testing interests of commercial and military aircraft, public utilities and petrochemical organizations. Three neutron prototype neutron generators were designed and fabricated based on original research done at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL). The research and development of these generators was successfully continued by LBNL and Adelphi Technology Inc. under this STTR. The original design goals of high neutron yield and generator robustness have been achieved, using new technology developed under this grant. In one prototype generator, the fast neutron yield and brightness was roughly 10 times larger than previously marketed neutron generators using the same deuterium-deuterium reaction. In another generator, we integrate a moderator with a fast neutron source, resulting in a high brightness thermal neutron generator. The moderator acts as both conventional moderator and mechanical and electrical support structure …

Risk estimates derived from epidemiological studies of exposed populations, as well as the maximum permissible doses allowed for occupational exposure and exposure of the public to ionizing radiation are all based on the assumption that the human population is uniform in its radiosensitivity, except for a small number of individuals, such as ATM homozygotes who are easily identified by their clinical symptoms. The hypothesis upon which this proposal is based is that the human population is not homogeneous in radiosensitiviry, but that radiosensitive sub-groups exist which are not easy to identify. These individuals would suffer an increased incidence of detrimental radiation effects, and distort the shape of the dose response relationship. The radiosensitivity of these groups depend on the expression levels of specific proteins. The plan was to investigate the effect of 3 relatively rare, high penetrate genes available in mice, namely Atm, mRad9 & Brca1. The purpose of radiation protection is to prevent! deterministic effects of clinical significance and limit stochastic effects to acceptable levels. We plan, therefore to compare with wild type animals the radiosensitivity of mice heterozygous for each of the genes mentioned above, as well as double heterozygotes for pairs of genes, using two biological endpoints: …

Efforts to reduce the flux of Sr-90 to the Columbia River from Hanford Site 100-N Area past-practice liquid waste disposal sites have been underway since the early 1990s. Termination of all liquid discharges to the ground in 1993 was a major step toward meeting this goal. However, Sr-90 adsorbed on aquifer solids beneath liquid waste disposal sites and extending beneath the near-shore riverbed remains a continuing contaminant source to groundwater and the Columbia River. The initial pump-and-treat system proved to be ineffective as a long-term solution because of the geochemical characteristics of Sr-90. Following an evaluation of potential Sr-90 treatment technologies and their applicability under 100-NR-2 Operable Unit hydrogeologic conditions, the U.S. Department of Energy and the Washington State Department of Ecology agreed to evaluate apatite sequestration as the primary remedial technology, combined with a secondary polishing step utilizing phytoextraction if necessary. Aqueous injection was initiated in July 2005 to assess the efficacy of in-situ apatite along the 100 m of shoreline where Sr-90 concentrations are highest. The remedial technology is being developed by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. CH2M Hill Plateau Remediation Company is implementing this technology in the field with support from PNNL.

We have reexamined our previously published data to search for evidence of correlations between the rates for the alpha, beta-minus, beta-plus, and electron capture decays of 22Na, 44Ti, 108Agm, 121Snm, 133Ba, and 241Am and the Earth?Sun distance. We find no evidence for such correlations and set limits on the possible amplitudes of such correlations substantially smaller than those observed in previous experiments.

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) and National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) are conducting research to investigate the feasibility of producing mixed alcohols from biomass-derived synthesis gas (syngas). PNNL is tasked with obtaining commercially-available catalysts or preparing promising mixed-alcohol catalysts and screening them in a laboratory-scale reactor system. Commercially-available catalysts and the most promising experimental catalysts are provided to NREL for testing using a slipstream from a pilot-scale biomass gasifier. A total of 28 tests were conducted to evaluate 22 different promoters as well as an unpromoted catalyst. The following general trends were observed for the test results: • The highest carbon selectivity to C2+ oxygenates occurred at the lowest reaction temperatures and accompanying lowest space time yields (STYs). • The lowest carbon selectivity to C2+ oxygenates occurred at the highest reaction temperatures because of high carbon conversion to hydrocarbons. • The highest C2+-oxygenate STYs occurred between 300°C and 325°C, with the gas hourly space velocity (GHSV) adjusted when necessary to maintain carbon conversion ranges between ~ 30 and 40 percent. Higher carbon selectivity to hydrocarbons at higher temperatures resulted in lower C2+-oxygenate STYs. • When catalysts were heated to between 300°C and 325°C the catalysts showed evidence of some deactivation …

The fuel-cycle energy use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions associated with the application of fuel cells to distributed power generation were evaluated and compared with the combustion technologies of microturbines and internal combustion engines, as well as the various technologies associated with grid-electricity generation in the United States and California. The results were primarily impacted by the net electrical efficiency of the power generation technologies and the type of employed fuels. The energy use and GHG emissions associated with the electric power generation represented the majority of the total energy use of the fuel cycle and emissions for all generation pathways. Fuel cell technologies exhibited lower GHG emissions than those associated with the U.S. grid electricity and other combustion technologies. The higher-efficiency fuel cells, such as the solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC), exhibited lower energy requirements than those for combustion generators. The dependence of all natural-gas-based technologies on petroleum oil was lower than that of internal combustion engines using petroleum fuels. Most fuel cell technologies approaching or exceeding the DOE target efficiency of 40% offered significant reduction in energy use and GHG emissions.

As computation scales beyond terascale, the scientific problems under study through computing are increasingly pushing the boundaries of human knowledge about the physical world. It is more pivotal than ever to quickly and reliably extract new knowledge from these complex simulations of ultra scale. In this project, the PI expanded the traditional notion of transfer function, which maps physical quantities to visual cues via table look-ups, to include general temporal as well as multivariate patterns that can be described procedurally through specialty mini programming languages. Their efforts aimed at answering a perpetual question of fundamental importance. That is "what a visualization should show". Instead of waiting for application scientists to initiate the process, the team at University of Tennessee worked closely with scientists at ORNL in a proactive role to envision and design elegant, powerful, and reliable tools that a user can use to specify "what is interesting". Their new techniques include visualization operators that revolve around correlation and graph properties, relative patterns in statistical distribution, temporal regular expressions, concurrent attribute subspaces and traditional compound boolean range queries. The team also paid special attention to ensure that all visualization operators are inherently designed with great parallel scalability to handle tera-scale …

The radial propagation of spatiotemporal turbulent structures in the scrape-off layer of the National Spherical Torus Experiment [M. Ono, M.G. Bell, R.E. Bell, et al. Plasma Phys. Control. Fusion 45, A335 (2003)] is investigated. Two-dimensional spatiotemporal imaging of the Dα emission intensity is used to observe the fluctuation structures in the poloidal plane perpendicular to the ambient magnetic field. Turbulent structures are extracted and the individual properties such as velocity, spatial scale and amplitude are determined. The typical poloidal scale of the structures is kϑ = 0.5 cm−1. The poloidal and radial structure velocities are < 5 km/s and 1 km/s, respectively. The radial velocities do not vary significantly with their spatial size within this set of data.

The ground and excited states of neutral and cationic PuO and PuO2 have been studied with multiconfigurational quantum chemical methods followed by second order perturbation theory, the CASSCF/CASPT2 method. Scalar relativistic effects and spin-orbit coupling have been included in the treatment. As literature values for the ionization energy of PuO2 are in the wide range of ~;;6.6 eV to ~;;10.1 eV, a central goal of the computations was to resolve these discrepancies; the theoretical results indicate that the ionization energy is near the lower end of this range. The calculated ionization energies for PuO, PuO+ and PuO2+ are in good agreement with the experimental values.

This contract report is one of a series of reports that document implementation components of the Bonneville Power Administration's (BPA) funded project: Integrated Status and Effectiveness Monitoring Program (ISEMP - BPA project No.2003-017-00, Chris Jordan, NOAA-NWFSC project sponsor). Other components of the project are separately reported, as explained below. The ISEMP project has been created as a cost effective means of developing protocols and new technologies, novel indicators, sample designs, analytical data management, communication tools and skills, and restoration experiments that support the development of a region-wide Research, Monitoring, and Evaluation (RME) program to assess the status of anadromous salmonids populations, their tributary habitat and restoration and management actions. The most straightforward approach to developing a regional-scale monitoring and evaluation program would be to increase standardization among status and trend monitoring programs. However, the diversity of species and their habitat, as well as the overwhelming uncertainty surrounding indicators, metrics, and data interpretation methods requires the testing of multiple approaches. Thus, ISEMP has adopted an approach to develop a broad template that may differ in the details among subbasins, but one that will ultimately lead to the formation of a unified RME process for the management of anadromous salmonid populations and …

None

The gas-phase reactivity of doubly-charged lanthanide cations, Ln2+ (Ln = La, Ce, Pr, Nd, Sm, Eu, Gd, Tb, Dy, Ho, Er, Tm, Yb, Lu), with alkanes (methane, ethane, propane, n-butane) and alkenes (ethene, propene, 1-butene) was studied by Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry. The reaction products consisted of different combinations of doubly-charged organometallic ions?adducts or species formed via metal-ion-induced hydrogen, dihydrogen, alkyl, or alkane eliminations from the hydrocarbons?and singly-charged ions that resulted from electron, hydride, or methide transfers from the hydrocarbons to the metal ions. The only lanthanide cations capable of activating the hydrocarbons to form doubly-charged organometallic ions were La2+, Ce2+, Gd2+, and Tb2+, which have ground-state or low-lying d1 electronic configurations. Lu2+, with an accessible d1 electronic configuration but a rather high electron affinity, reacted only through transfer channels. The remaining Ln2+ reacted via transfer channels or adduct formation. The different accessibilities of d1 electronic configurations and the range of electron affinities of the Ln2+ cations allowed for a detailed analysis of the trends for metal(2+) reactivity and the conditions for occurrence of bond activation, adduct formation, and electron, hydride, and methide transfers.

Fourier transform ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometry was employed to study the products and kinetics of gas-phase reactions of Cm+ and Cm2+; parallel studies were carried out with La+/2+, Gd+/2+ and Lu+/2+. Reactions with oxygen-donor molecules provided estimates for the bond dissociation energies, D[M+-O](M = Cm, Gd, Lu). The first ionization energy, IE[CmO], was obtained from the reactivity of CmO+ with dienes, and the second ionization energies, IE[MO+](M = Cm, La, Gd, Lu), from the rates of electron-transfer reactions from neutrals to the MO2+ ions. The following thermodynamic quantities for curium oxide molecules were obtained: IE[CmO]= 6.4+-0.2 eV; IE[CmO+]= 15.8+-0.4 eV; D[Cm-O]= 710+-45 kJ mol-1; D[Cm+-O]= 670+-40 kJ mol-1; and D[Cm2+-O]= 342+-55 kJ mol-1. Estimates for the M2+-O bond energies for M = Cm, La, Gd and Lu are all intermediate between D[N2-O]and D[OC-O]--i.e., 167 kJ mol-1&lt; D[M2+-O]&lt; 532 kJ mol-1 -- such that the four MO2+ ions fulfill the thermodynamic requirement for catalytic O-atom transport from N2O to CO. It was demonstrated that the kinetics are also favorable and that the CmO2+, LaO2+, GdO2+ and LuO2+ dipositive ions each catalyze the gas-phase oxidation of CO to CO2 by N2O. The CmO2+ ion appeared during the reaction of Cm+ with …

None