Congressional Lawmaking: A Perspective On Secrecy and Transparency

[Excerpt] Openness is fundamental to representative government. Yet the congressional process is replete with activities and actions that are private and not observable by the public. How to distinguish reasonable legislative secrecy from impractical transparency is a topic that produces disagreement on Capitol Hill and elsewhere. Why? Because lawmaking is critical to the governance of the nation. Scores of people in the attentive public want to observe and learn about congressional proceedings. Yet secrecy is an ever-present part of much legislative policymaking; however, secrecy and transparency are not “either/or” constructs. They overlap constantly during the various policymaking stages. The objectives of this report are four-fold: • first, to outline briefly the historical and inherent tension between secrecy and transparency in the congressional process; • second, to review several common and recurring secrecy/transparency issues that emerged again with the 2011 formation of the Joint Select Deficit Reduction Committee; • third, to identify various lawmaking stages typically imbued with closed door activities; and • fourth, to close with several summary observations. This report will not be updated

残留性有機汚染化合物の水環境中への溶解挙動の測定および計算予測

学術(環

Vibration reduction of cable-stayed bridge model retrofitted with SMA restrainers

Shape Memory Alloys (SMAs) are more and more frequently used in civil structures subjected to extreme dynamic loadings. Due to their unique properties, the SMAs are used for seismic retrofit of bridges, tall buildings and masts. The paper presents selected results of numerical calculations of a cable-stayed steel bridge model retrofitted with SMA restrainers. The original set of constitutive relationships describing pseudoelastic properties of SMA was used for this purpose. The formulation of SMA model is based on analysis of a special rheological scheme representing its constitutive properties. The SMA model was implemented within FEM software Abaqus using an user defined subroutine. It was proved that the application of SMA restrainers can reduce significantly vibrations and internal forces caused by seismic excitations

Underinsurance in cyclone and flood environments: a case study in Cairns, Queensland

This article examines findings from a 2018 project in Cairns, Far North Queensland, on insurance and risk perception. Using a mixed-methods approach, the study explored how people regard insurance, if at all, and how they use it to reduce their risk of financial loss following a disaster event. Results suggest that while most home owners hold insurance, renters are less likely to have contents insurance leaving them financially vulnerable if losing their property. Cost of insurance is considered one barrier to taking out insurance, however, other issues such as risk perception, self-efficacy and trust in insurers are issues for both home owners and renters. The paper furthers knowledge of underinsurance in disaster-prone areas and provides vital information for understanding motivation to withdraw from insurance

Effective Separation and Recovery of Manganese and Potassium from Biomass Ash by Solvent Extraction

Manganese (Mn) is considered an important, energy-critical metal due to its leading role in the production of electrochemical energy storage devices. One valuable source of Mn is hyperaccumulator plants used for the phytoremediation of contaminated soil. In this study, stems and leaves of ginger (Zingiber officinale), which accumulate Mn at moderate levels (∼0.2 wt %) and potassium (K) at high levels (>5 wt %), were analyzed to assess the potential of recovering metals from this plant. The extraction behaviors of Mn and K were studied using raw and ash samples (100−600 °C). It was crucial to set an appropriate incineration temperature (300 °C) to selectively extract K (∼96%) and Mn (∼90%) using water and nitric acid over two consecutive steps. Additionally, citric acid, a cost-effective and environmentally friendly solvent, was just as effective (∼85%) as nitric acid in extracting Mn. X-ray absorbance nearedge spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction analysis of the ash before and after extractions were applied to elucidate the extraction mechanism. The results revealed that selective extraction of both compounds was possible due to the change in the oxidative state of Mn(II) (soluble in water) into Mn(III) and Mn(IV) (insoluble in water) during sample incineration. Simultaneously, there were complex reactions associated with the changes within potassium carbonate compounds; however, these did not affect the K extraction efficiency

House Voting Procedures: Forms and Requirements

This report discusses the procedural considerations suffuse voting and the methods of voting in both the House and in the Committee of the Whole

Unanimous Consent Agreements in the Senate

This report discusses the idea of "unanimous consent" in the Senate. Without its tradition of unanimous consent, the Senate would find it harder to process its complex workload

Sponsorship and Cosponsorship of Senate Bills

This report describes the process and rules governing sponsorship of bills in the Senate