The report addresses those questions by exploring deadlocked votes in rulemaking, enforcement matters, and advisory opinions (AOs) during the current Commission's first year in office -- from July 2008 through June 2009 -- when concern over deadlocks has most recently reemerged.

This report discusses the Energy and Water Development appropriations bill that provides funding for civil works projects of the Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), for the Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation (Reclamation), the Department of Energy (DOE), and several independent agencies.

This report develops three scenarios to approximate different dimensions of the relationship between the global economic downturn and protectionism. The scenarios are not predictions, but descriptions of how and why pressures for protection could be manifested and transmitted under different circumstances and assumptions.

Anion exchange with S was performed on ZnO colloidal nanoparticles. The resulting hollow ZnS nanoparticles are crystal whose shape is dictated by the initial ZnO. Crystallographic and elemental analyses provide insight into the mechanism of the anion exchange.

This report first provides a brief federal legislative history of identity theft laws. It analyzes the current trends in identity theft, including prevalent identity theft-related crimes, the federal agencies involved in combating identity theft, and the trends in identity theft complaints and prosecutions.

This report assesses the effects of the absence of intelligence authorization legislation since FY2005. Since FY2005, no annual intelligence authorization bill has been enacted. Although the National Security Act requires intelligence activities to be specifically authorized, this requirement has been satisfied in recent years by one-sentence catch-all provisions in defense appropriations acts authorizing intelligence activities.

This report discusses provisions of the Detainee Treatment Act concerning standards for the interrogation and treatment of detainees.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "NASA's Constellation program is developing the Ares I Crew Launch Vehicle and the Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle as the agency's first major efforts in a plan to return to the moon and eventually send humans to Mars. GAO has issued a number of reports and testimonies on various aspects of this program, and made several recommendations. GAO was asked to assess NASA's progress in implementing GAO's recommendations for the Ares I and Orion projects, and identify risks the program faces. GAO analyzed NASA plans and schedules, risk mitigation information, and contract performance data relative to knowledge-based acquisition practices identified in prior GAO reports, and interviewed government officials and contractors."

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This report outlines the treatment of noncitizens under H.R. 3200, America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009. The report analyzes specific provisions in H.R. 3200, and whether there are eligibility requirements for noncitizens in the selected provisions.

This report discusses a plan announced by EPA in January 2005, called the Air Compliance Agreement, intended to produce air quality monitoring data on animal agriculture emissions from a small number of farms, while at the same time protecting all participants (including farms where no monitoring takes place) through a "safe harbor" from liability under certain provisions of federal environmental laws.

Continuum mechanics relies on the fundamental notion of a mesoscopic volume"element" in which properties averaged over discrete particles obey deterministic relationships. Recent work on granular materials suggests a continuum law may be inapplicable, revealing inhomogeneities at the particle level, such as force chains and slow cage breaking. Here, we analyze large-scale three-dimensional Discrete-Element Method (DEM) simulations of different granular flows and show that an approximate"granular element" defined at the scale of observed dynamical correlations (roughly three to five particle diameters) has a reasonable continuum interpretation. By viewing all the simulations as an ensemble of granular elements which deform and move with the flow, we can track material evolution at a local level. Our results confirm some of the hypotheses of classical plasticity theory while contradicting others and suggest a subtle physical picture of granular failure, combining liquid-like dependence on deformation rate and solid-like dependence on strain. Our computational methods and results can be used to guide the development of more realistic continuum models, based on observed local relationships betweenaverage variables.

This report examines the original intent and purpose of the Berry Amendment and legislative proposals to amend the application of domestic source restrictions, as well as potential options for Congress.

This report consists of the budget deficit and the trade deficit of what is their relationship.

The goal of this work was to develop a composite proton exchange membrane utilizing 1) readily available, low cost materials 2) readily modified and 3) easily processed to meet the chemical, mechanical and electrical requirements of high temperature PEM fuel cells. One of the primary goals was to produce a conducting polymer that met the criteria for strength, binding capability for additives, chemical stability, dimensional stability and good conductivity. In addition compatible, specialty nanoparticles were synthesized to provide water management and enhanced conductivity. The combination of these components in a multilayered, composite PEM has demonstrated improved conductivity at high temperatures and low humidity over commercially available polymers. The research reported in this final document has greatly increased the knowledge base related to post sulfonation of chemically and mechanically stable engineered polymers (Radel). Both electrical and strength factors for the degree of post sulfonation far exceed previous data, indicating the potential use of these materials in suitable proton exchange membrane architectures for the development of fuel cells. In addition compatible, hydrophilic, conductive nano-structures have been synthesized and incorporated into unique proton exchange membrane architectures. The use of post sulfonation for the engineered polymer and nano-particle provide cost effective techniques to produce …

This dissertation focused on new applications of laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). The diverse fields that were investigated show the versatility of the technique. In Chapter 2, LA-ICP-MS was used to investigate the rare earth element (REE) profiles of garnets from the Broken Hill Deposit in New South Wales, Australia. The normalized REE profiles helped to shed new light on the formation of deposits of sulfide ores. This information may be helpful in identifying the location of sulfide ore deposits in other locations. New sources of metals such as Pg, Zn, and Ag, produced from these ores, are needed to sustain our current technological society. The application of LA-ICP-MS presented in Chapter 3 is the forensics analysis of automotive putty and caulking. The elemental analysis of these materials was combined with the use of Principal Components Analysis (PCA). The PCA comparison was able to differentiate the automotive putty samples by manufacturer and lot number. The analysis of caulk was able to show a differentiation based on manufacturer, but no clear differentiation was shown by lot number. This differentiation may allow matching of evidence in the future. This will require many more analyses and the construction of a …

This report reviews the management and performance of the Early Independent School District's (EISD's) Food Services Operation.

This report provides background information on the types of water supply and wastewater treatment projects traditionally funded by the federal government and the several existing programs to assist communities with water supply and wastewater recycling and treatment.

This report describes the current forestry assistance programs and presents basic information on the programs to assist forestry practices, forest protection, forest recovery, and rural economies.

We review recent work on understanding the next to leading order corrections to the classical fields that dominate the initial stages of a heavy ion collision. We have recently shown that the leading ln 1/x divergences of these corrections to gluon multiplicities can be factorized into the JIMWLK evolution of the color charge density distributions.

This report summarizes information on historical waste loss events associated with tanks and piplines in the 241-A and 241-AX tank farms.

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This fact sheet tracks the current heads of government in Central and South America, Mexico, and the Caribbean, and provides the dates of the last and next election for head of government. It also provides the national independence date for each country.

This report provides an overview of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) preemption, discusses legal challenges to fair share laws, and analyzes the fair share requirements included as part of the Massachusetts Health Care Reform Act.