This report provides a broad overview of U.S. strategic interests in Africa and the role of U.S. military efforts on the continent as they pertain to the creation of U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM). A discussion of AFRICOM's mission, its coordination with other government agencies, and its basing and manpower requirements is included.

This report provides information about the Broadband Internet Access and the Digital Divide through Federal Assistance Programs.Digital divide used to characterize the gap between "information have and have-not."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The principal role of the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB) is to investigate accidental releases of regulated or extremely hazardous substances to determine the conditions and circumstances that led to the accident and to identify the cause or causes so that similar accidents might be prevented. Accidental releases of these toxic and hazardous chemicals occur frequently and often have serious consequences. CSB reported to Congress that the agency received notification of approximately 900 chemical accidents in calendar year 2007, and that 31 of these accidents were serious or even fatal events that warranted the commitment of CSB investigators. CSB began operating in 1998 as an independent agency created under the Clean Air Act Amendments of 1990. The act directs CSB to (1) investigate and report on the cause or probable cause of any accidental chemical releases from stationary sources resulting in a fatality, serious injury, or substantial property damages; (2) make recommendations to reduce the likelihood or consequences of accidental chemical releases and propose corrective measures; and (3) establish regulations for reporting accidental releases. The agency publishes investigative reports and issues safety studies and videos to …

This report is on Churches and Campaign Activity: Analysis of the Houses of Worship Free Speech Restoration Act and Similar Legislation.

This report discusses climate change and deforestation. Deforestation results in carbon emissions when trees and underlying vegetation are burning or decomposing. Legislative policies on deforestation and climate change are analyzed in this report, and challenges for restoring forests in the tropics are discussed.

This report highlights certain non-criminal regulatory requirements of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA). The CSA and its implementing regulations establish a framework through which the federal government regulates the use of controlled substances for legitimate medical, scientific, research, and industrial purposes, and prevents these substances from being diverted for illegal purposes.

This report contains information about the economy including an overview of the current economic conditions, fiscal and monetary policies, forecasts for 2008-2009, and other topics related to economic growth.

Aerosol direct (DE), indirect (IE), and black carbon-snow albedo (BAE) effects on climate between 1890 and 1995 are compared using equilibrium aerosol-climate simulations in the Goddard Institute for Space Studies General Circulation Model coupled to a mixed layer ocean. Pairs of control(1890)-perturbation(1995) with successive aerosol effects allow isolation of each effect. The experiments are conducted both with and without concurrent changes in greenhouse gases (GHG's). A new scheme allowing dependence of snow albedo on black carbon snow concentration is introduced. The fixed GHG experiments global surface air temperature (SAT) changed -0.2, -1.0 and +0.2 C from the DE, IE, and BAE. Ice and snow cover increased 1.0% from the IE and decreased 0.3% from the BAE. These changes were a factor of 4 larger in the Arctic. Global cloud cover increased by 0.5% from the IE. Net aerosol cooling effects are about half as large as the GHG warming, and their combined climate effects are smaller than the sum of their individual effects. Increasing GHG's did not affect the IE impact on cloud cover, however they decreased aerosol effects on SAT by 20% and on snow/ice cover by 50%; they also obscure the BAE on snow/ice cover. Arctic snow, ice, …

This report covers issues and legislative changes addressed in the farm bill, legislative changes included in the FY2008 Agriculture appropriations measure (included in the FY2008 Consolidated Appropriations Act; P.L. 110-161), and proposed legislation that involves programs and activities that are normally not part of the farm bill (e.g., child nutrition program proposals).

This report provides an overview and analysis of two recurring questions surrounding the federal government's role in financing presidential nominating conventions. First, how much public funding supports presidential nominating conventions? Second, what options exist for changing that amount if Congress chooses to do so? Both issues have generated controversy in the past and continue to be the subject of debate.

The ASME Code Case N-729-1 defines alternative examination requirements for the Control Rod Drive Mechanism (CRDM) upper head penetration nozzle welds. The basis for these examination requirements was developed as part of an Industry program conducted by the Materials Reliability Program (MRP) through the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI). The results of this program were published in MRP-95 Rev. 1 and document a set of finite element weld residual stress analyses conducted on a variety of upper head penetration nozzles. The inspection zone selected by the industry was based on the stress where it was assumed that primary water stress corrosion cracking (PWSCC) would not initiate. As explained in MRP-95 Rev. 1, it has been illustrated that PWSCC does not occur in the Alloy 600 tube when the stresses are below the yield strength of that tube. Typical yield strengths at operating conditions for Alloy 600 range from 35 ksi to 65 ksi. A stress less than 20-ksi tension was chosen as a conservative range where PWSCC would not initiate. Over the last several years, Engineering Mechanics Corporation of Columbus (Emc2) has conducted welding residual stress analyses on upper head penetration J-welds made from Alloy 182 weld metal for the …

This report describes the benefits Presidents receive upon leaving office, details the history of the Former Presidents Act (FPA), and analyzes some legislative options for the 110th Congress related to former Presidents.

We present the first measurements of the {rho}(770){sup 0}, K*(892), {Delta}(1232){sup ++}, {Sigma}(1385), and {Lambda}(1520) resonances in d+Au collisions at {radical}s{sub NN} = 200 GeV, reconstructed via their hadronic decay channels using the STAR detector at RHIC. The masses and widths of these resonances are studied as a function of transverse momentum (p{sub T}). We observe that the resonance spectra follow a generalized scaling law with the transverse mass (m{sub T}). The <p{sub T}> of resonances in minimum bias collisions is compared to the <p{sub T}> of {pi}, K, and {bar p}. The {rho}{sup 0}/{pi}{sup -}, K*/K{sup -}, {Delta}{sup ++}/p, {Sigma}(1385)/{Lambda}, and {Lambda}(1520)/{Lambda} ratios in d + Au collisions are compared to the measurements in minimum bias p + p interactions, where we observe that both measurements are comparable. The nuclear modification factors (R{sub dAu}) of the {rho}{sup 0}, K*, and {Sigma}* scale with the number of binary collisions (N{sub bin}) for p{sub T} > 1.2 GeV/c.

One of the central challenges in modern science is the need to quickly derive knowledge and understanding from large, complex collections of data. We present a new approach that deals with this challenge by combining and extending techniques from high performance visual data analysis and scientific data management. This approach is demonstrated within the context of gaining insight from complex, time-varying datasets produced by a laser wakefield accelerator simulation. Our approach leverages histogram-based parallel coordinates for both visual information display as well as a vehicle for guiding a data mining operation. Data extraction and subsetting are implemented with state-of-the-art index/query technology. This approach, while applied here to accelerator science, is generally applicable to a broad set of science applications, and is implemented in a production-quality visual data analysis infrastructure. We conduct a detailed performance analysis and demonstrate good scalability on a distributed memory Cray XT4 system.

This report focuses on the international trade in terrestrial fauna, largely excluding trade in illegal plants, including timber, and fish, and discusses potential environmental and national security threats, as well as evaluating U.S. policy to combat wildlife trafficking.

This report focuses on the international trade in terrestrial fauna, largely excluding trade in illegal plants, including timber, and fish.

This report deals with rules of origin (ROO) in three parts. First, we describe in more detail the reasons that country of origin rules are important and briefly describe U.S. laws and methods that provide direction in making these determinations. Second, we discuss briefly some of the more controversial issues involving rules of origin, including the apparently subjective nature of some CBP origin determinations, and the effects of the global manufacturing process on ROO. Third, we conclude with some alternatives and options that Congress could consider that might assist in simplifying the process.

This report discusses the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), which is a federal provision that reduces the income tax liability of taxpayers claiming the credit. These taxpayers are typically investors in real estate development projects that have traded cash for the tax credits to support the production of affordable housing. The credit is intended to lower the financing costs of housing developments so that the rental prices of units can be lower than market rates, and thus, presumably, affordable.

Iran is materially assisting and influencing major Shiite Muslim factions in Iraq, most of which have ideological, political, and religious ties to Tehran. Among these factions is that of hardline anti-U.S. cleric Moqtada Al Sadr, whose Mahdi Army militia, according to some observers, serves as a proxy force for Tehran against the United States.

This report provides a general overview of Iran's economy, addresses related U.S. policy concerns, and discusses policy options for Congress. The purpose of this report is two-fold. First, it provides insight into important macroeconomic trends, policy reforms and objectives, key economic sectors, international trade patterns, and sources of foreign exchange. Second, in the context of U.S. economic sanctions imposed for national security and foreign policy reasons, it evaluates Iran's economic structure, strengths, and vulnerabilities and discusses U.S. policy concerns.

Recent progress in seismic tomography provides the first complete 3-D images of the combined thermal and chemical anomalies that characterise the unique deep mantle structure below the African continent. With these latest tomography results we predict flow patterns under Africa that reveal a large-scale, active hot upwelling, or superplume, below the western margin of Africa under the Cape Verde Islands. The scale and dynamical intensity of this West African superplume (WASP) is comparable to that of the south African superplume (SASP) that has long been assumed to dominate the flow dynamics under Africa. On the basis of this new tomography model, we find the dynamics of the SASP is strongly controlled by chemical contributions to deep mantle buoyancy that significantly compensate its thermal buoyancy. In contrast, the WASP appears to be entirely dominated by thermal buoyancy. New calculations of mantle convection incorporating these two superplumes reveal that the plate-driving forces due to the flow generated by the WASP is as strong as that due to the SASP. We find that the chemical buoyancy of the SASP exerts a strong stabilising control on the pattern and amplitude of shallow mantle flow in the asthenosphere below the southern half of the African …

Dense electron beams can now be generated on an ultrafast timescale using laser driven photo-cathodes and these are used for a range of applications from ultrafast electron defraction to free electron lasers. Here we determine a lower bound to the emittance of an electron beam limited by fundamental stochastic Coulomb interactions.

This report discusses two of the four major responsibilities of the Federal Reserve (Fed) as the nation's central bank: execution of monetary policy and ensuring financial stability through the lender of last resort function. This report provides an overview of these mandates and activities, recent developments, and the role of Congressional oversight.

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