This book identifies accumulated environmental, social and economic effects of oil and gas teasing, exploration, and production on Alaska's North Slope. Economic benefits to the region have been accompanied by effects of the roads, infrastructure and activities of oil and gas production on the terrain, plants, animals and peoples of the North Slope. While attempts have been made by the oil industry and regulatory agencies to reduce many of the adverse environmental effects, they have not been eliminated. The book makes recommendations for further environmental research related to environmental effects.

The frontier represented by the near solar system confronts humanity with intriguing challenges and opportunities. With the inception of the Human Exploration and Development of Space (HEDS) enterprise in 1995, NASA has acknowledged the opportunities and has accepted the very significant challenges. Microgravity Research in Support of Technologies for the Human Exploration and Development of Space and Planetary Bodies was commissioned by NASA to assist it in coordinating the scientific information relevant to anticipating, identifying, and solving the technical problems that must be addressed throughout the HEDS program over the coming decades. This report assesses scientific and related technological issues facing NASA's Human Exploration and Development of Space endeavor, looking specifically at mission enabling and enhancing technologies which, for development, require an improved understanding of fluid and material behavior in a reduced gravity environment.

In situ bioremediation--the use of microorganisms for on-site removal of contaminants--is potentially cheaper, faster, and safer than conventional cleanup methods. But in situ bioremediation is also clouded in uncertainty, controversy, and mistrust.
This volume from the National Research Council provides direction for decisionmakers and offers detailed and readable explanations of
the processes involved in in situ bioremediation,
circumstances in which it is best used, and
methods of measurement, field testing, and modeling to evaluate the results of bioremediation projects.
Bioremediation experts representing academic research, field practice, regulation, and industry provide accessible information and case examples; they explore how in situ bioremediation works, how it has developed since its first commercial use in 1972, and what research and education efforts are recommended for the future. The volume includes a series of perspective papers.
The book will be immediately useful to policymakers, regulators, bioremediation practitioners and purchasers, environmental groups, concerned citizens, faculty, and students.

Much of the U.S. coastline is rapidly changing--mostly eroding. That fact places increasing pressure on the planners and managers responsible for coastal development and protection, and could have a direct effect on many of the 125 million Americans living within 50 miles of the coast who rely on its resources and beaches for their livelihood or recreation. Although rapid advances have been made in the measurement systems needed to understand and describe the forces and changes at work in the surf-zone environment, their potential for allowing more accurate and reliable planning and engineering responses has not been fully realized. This book assesses coastal data needs, instrumentation, and analyses, and recommends areas in which more information or better instrumentation is needed.

Flexible electronics describes circuits that can bend and stretch, enabling significant versatility in applications and the prospect of low-cost manufacturing processes. They represent an important technological advance, in terms of their performance characteristics and potential range of applications, ranging from medical care, packaging, lighting and signage, consumer electronics and alternative energy (especially solar energy.) What these technologies have in common is a dependence on efficient manufacturing that currently requires improved technology, processes, tooling, and materials, as well as ongoing research. Seeking to capture the global market opportunity in flexible electronics, major U.S. competitors have initiated dedicated programs that are large in scope and supported with significant government funding to develop and acquire these new technologies, refine them, and ultimately manufacture them within their national borders. These national and regional investments are significantly larger than U.S. investment and more weighted toward later stage applied research and development. The Flexible Electronics Opportunity examines and compares selected innovation programs both foreign and domestic, and their potential to advance the production of flexible electronics technology in the United States. This report reviews the goals, concept, structure, operation, funding levels, and evaluation of foreign programs similar to major U.S. programs, e.g., innovation awards, S&T parks, and consortia. The report describes the transition of flexible electronics research into products and to makes recommendations to improve and to develop U.S. programs. Through an examination of the role of research consortia around the world to advance flexible electronics technology, the report makes recommendations for steps that the U.S. might consider to develop a robust industry in the United States. Significant U.S. expansion in the market for flexible electronics technologies is not likely to occur in the absence of mechanisms to address investment risks, the sharing of intellectual property, and the diverse technology requirements associated with developing and manufacturing flexible electronics technologies. The Flexible Electronics Opportunity makes recommendations for collaboration among industry, universities, and government to achieve the critical levels of investment and the acceleration of new technology development that are needed to catalyze a vibrant flexible electronics industry. Table of Contents Front Matter Executive Summary 1 Flexible Electronics and the Manufacturing Challenge 2 Assessing the Potential of Flexible Electronics 3 Government Promotional Efforts 4 The Emerging Competitive Landscape 5 European Initiatives 6 East Asia 7 United States 8 Findings and Recommendations Bibliography

Best Available and Safest Technologies for Offshore Oil and Gas Operations: Options for Implementation explores a range of options for improving the implementation of the U.S. Department of the Interior's congressional mandate to require the use of best available and safety technologies in offshore oil and gas operations. In the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, Congress directs the Secretary of the Interior to regulate oil and gas operations in federal waters. The act mandates that the Secretary "shall require, on all new drilling and production operations and, wherever practicable, on existing operations, the use of the best available and safest technologies which the Secretary determines to be economically feasible, wherever failure of equipment would have a significant effect on safety, health, or the environment, except where the Secretary determines that the incremental benefits are clearly insufficient to justify the incremental costs of utilizing such technologies." This report, which was requested by Department of the Interior's Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), also reviews options and issues that BSEE is already considering to improve implementation of the best available and safest technologies requirement. Table of Contents Front Matter BEST AVAILABLE AND SAFEST TECHNOLOGIES FOR OFFSHORE OIL AND GAS OPERATIONS: OPTIONS FOR IMPLEMENTATION Summary 1 Introduction 2 Processes for Identifying Technologies 3 Processes for Evaluating and Developing Technologies 4 Implementation Mechanisms References Appendix A: Statement of Task Appendix B: Lessons from Other Organizations for Best Available and Safest Technologies Implementation Study Committee Biographical Information

Spills of Emulsified Fuels: Risks and Response is part of an evolving body of work conducted by the National Research Council (NRC) to help inform debate and decision-making regarding the ecological consequences of releases associated with the widespread use of fossil fuels. Like earlier NRC reports, it attempts to understand the chemical, physical, and biological behavior of a complex mix of compounds that make up various petroleum hydrocarbon-based fuels. The specific risk factors presented by emulsified fuels are difficult to characterize, mainly because there have been no spills of emulsified fuels to date, and thus there is little practical experience with these products.

The Grand Canyon Monitoring and Research Center began long-term planning at its inception and, in May 1997, produced a Long-Term Monitoring and Research Strategic Plan that was adopted by stakeholder groups (the Adaptive Management Work Group and the Technical Work Group) later that year. The Center then requested the National Research Council's (NRC) Water Science and Technology Board to evaluate this plan.

The Blast Mitigation for Structures Program (BMSP) is a research and development activity conducted by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) to improve the performance of buildings that are targets of terrorist attack. The primary goal of the BMSP is to reduce loss of life and injuries to the occupants of these buildings through the development of innovative techniques for new structures and retrofitting existing facilities. The committee's findings and recommendations are contained in this initial assessment report.

Simulations are widely used in the military for training personnel, analyzing proposed equipment, and rehearsing missions, and these simulations need realistic models of human behavior. This book draws together a wide variety of theoretical and applied research in human behavior modeling that can be considered for use in those simulations. It covers behavior at the individual, unit, and command level. At the individual soldier level, the topics covered include attention, learning, memory, decisionmaking, perception, situation awareness, and planning. At the unit level, the focus is on command and control. The book provides short-, medium-, and long-term goals for research and development of more realistic models of human behavior. Table of Contents Front Matter Executive Summary 1 Introduction 2 Human Behavior Representation: Military Requirements and Current Models 3 Integrative Architectures for Modeling the Individual Combatant 4 Attention and Multitasking 5 Memory and Learning 6 Human Decision Making 7 Situation Awareness 8 Planning 9 Behavior Moderators 10 Modeling of Behavior at the Unit Level 11 Information Warfare: A Structural Perspective 12 Methodological Issues and Approaches 13 Conclusions and Recommendations References Appendix: Biographical Sketches Index

A number of trends and forces are converging to require change in the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) nautical charting mission. The most salient among these are changes in customer requirements, with a growing demand for customized and digital nautical information products; a changing customer base that encompasses uses of nautical charts in conjunction with coastal management, regulation, and development activities; and advances in technologies both for acquiring survey data and for structuring, displaying, analyzing, and disseminating nautical information. This volume assesses the needs of users of nautical information; reviews existing and emerging technologies; and examines major issues associated with information acquisition, chart preparation, and dissemination. The book addresses user requirements for improved nautical chart products, as well as technical and programmatic issues relating to the need for and provision of nautical information. Table of Contents Front Matter Executive Summary 1 Overview of the Nautical Information System 2 User Needs for Nautical Information 3 Filling the Data Base: Data Collection 4 The Digital Nautical Data Base: From Paper Charts to Electronic Charts and Beyond 5 Nautical Information as a Component of a Marine Geographic Information System 6 Nautical Information Products and Their Dissemination: Toward a New Way of Doing Business 7 Resource Constraints: Removing the Barriers 8 Conclusions and Recommendations Appendix A: Biographies of Committee Members Appendix B: Other Agencies Appendix C-1: Nautical Chart and Information Survey Appendix C-2: Responses to Survey Appendix D: Workshop on the Future Needs of Users for Nautical Information Appendix E: Principles of Benefit-Cost Analysis Applied to Surveys Appendix F: U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Appendix G: Examples of Uses of Data by State Environmental Agencies Appendix H: A National Coastal Zone (Shoreline) Data Base

This book reviews the uses and abuses of microsimulation models--large, complex models that produce estimates of the effects on program costs and who would gain and who would lose from proposed changes in government policies ranging from health care to welfare to taxes. Volume 1 is designed to guide future investment in modeling and analysis capability on the part of government agencies that produce policy estimates. It will inform congressional and executive decision makers about the strengths and weaknesses of models and estimates and will interest social scientists in the potential of microsimulation techniques for basic and applied research as well as policy uses. The book concludes that a "second revolution" is needed to improve the quality of microsimulation and other policy analysis models and the estimates they produce, with a special emphasis on systematic validation of models and communication of validation results to decision makers.

This book assesses the 50 regional seismic networks funded by various federal, state, and private sources that operate autonomously in the United States. Most have aging equipment and suffer from declining sources of operating funds. Yet, they provide valuable scientific data as well as information about seismicity and earthquakes around their locales.
The volume describes the advent of the new National Seismic Network, operated by the U.S. Geological Survey. The National Seismic Network provides a unique opportunity to integrate the regional networks with the national network. This system will preserve the valuable work of the regional networks and enhance the capabilities of the national network.

While major oil spills are rare, oil slicks can have disastrous environmental and economic consequences. This book summarizes research on the use of chemical dispersants: their effectiveness and limitations and the results of using them in different spill situations. Based on laboratory and field research as well as on actual case histories, this book contains a clear-cut set of recommendations for action, planning, and research. Of special interest is the chapter on the biological effects of oil itself and of oil treated with chemical dispersants.

Over the last 100 years, sea level has risen approximately 12 centimeters and is expected to continue rising at an even faster rate. This situation has serious implications for human activity along our coasts. In this book, geological and coastal engineering experts examine recent sea level trends and project changes over the next 100 years, anticipating shoreline response to changing sea level and the consequences for coastal development and uses. Scenarios for future sea level rise and several case studies are presented.

According to surveys, the public believes the chickens it is buying are wholesome. Poultry Inspection: The Basis for a Risk-Assessment Approach looks at current inspection procedures to determine how effective the Food Safety Inspection Service is in finding dangerous levels of contaminants and disease-producing microorganisms. The book first describes the history behind the current system, noting that the amount of poultry inspected has increased dramatically while techniques and regulations have remained constant since 1968. The steps involved in an inspection are then described, followed by a discussion of alternative and innovative inspection procedures. It then provides a risk-assessment model for poultry, including submodels for each stage of processing. Risk assessment is used to protect health, establish priorities, identify problems, and set acceptable levels of risk. The model is applied both to microbiological hazards and to chemical contaminants.

Are the nation's ports adequate for our present and future needs? This volume points out that no significant new deep-water construction has occurred for a decade, and provides the information and analysis needed to goad the ports and the federal government into action. The book asks three questions: Is additional port construction and maintenance dredging needed now or over the next 20 years? What would prevent dredging if it is needed? What alternatives could make additional dredging possible? The book identifies several problems in dredging ports, including the long interval between a decision to deepen a port and the time the alterations are complete. The United States needs to speed port construction to meet changing needs, and the committee recommends that we prepare for future needs by dredging now.

Assessments, understood as tools for tracking what and how well students have learned, play a critical role in the classroom. Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards develops an approach to science assessment to meet the vision of science education for the future as it has been elaborated in A Framework for K-12 Science Education (Framework) and Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). These documents are brand new and the changes they call for are barely under way, but the new assessments will be needed as soon as states and districts begin the process of implementing the NGSS and changing their approach to science education. The new Framework and the NGSS are designed to guide educators in significantly altering the way K-12 science is taught. The Framework is aimed at making science education more closely resemble the way scientists actually work and think, and making instruction reflect research on learning that demonstrates the importance of building coherent understandings over time. It structures science education around three dimensions - the practices through which scientists and engineers do their work, the key crosscutting concepts that cut across disciplines, and the core ideas of the disciplines - and argues that they should be interwoven in every aspect of science education, building in sophistication as students progress through grades K-12. Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards recommends strategies for developing assessments that yield valid measures of student proficiency in science as described in the new Framework. This report reviews recent and current work in science assessment to determine which aspects of the Framework's vision can be assessed with available techniques and what additional research and development will be needed to support an assessment system that fully meets that vision. The report offers a systems approach to science assessment, in which a range of assessment strategies are designed to answer different kinds of questions with appropriate degrees of specificity and provide results that complement one another. Developing Assessments for the Next Generation Science Standards makes the case that a science assessment system that meets the Framework's vision should consist of assessments designed to support classroom instruction, assessments designed to monitor science learning on a broader scale, and indicators designed to track opportunity to learn. New standards for science education make clear that new modes of assessment designed to measure the integrated learning they promote are essential. The recommendations of this report will be key to making sure that the dramatic changes in curriculum and instruction signaled by Framework and the NGSS reduce inequities in science education and raise the level of science education for all students.

The blowout of the Macondo well on April 20, 2010, led to enormous consequences for the individuals involved in the drilling operations, and for their families. Eleven workers on the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig lost their lives and 16 others were seriously injured. There were also enormous consequences for the companies involved in the drilling operations, to the Gulf of Mexico environment, and to the economy of the region and beyond. The flow continued for nearly 3 months before the well could be completely killed, during which time, nearly 5 million barrels of oil spilled into the gulf. Macondo Well-Deepwater Horizon Blowout examines the causes of the blowout and provides a series of recommendations, for both the oil and gas industry and government regulators, intended to reduce the likelihood and impact of any future losses of well control during offshore drilling. According to this report, companies involved in offshore drilling should take a "system safety" approach to anticipating and managing possible dangers at every level of operation -- from ensuring the integrity of wells to designing blowout preventers that function under all foreseeable conditions-- in order to reduce the risk of another accident as catastrophic as the Deepwater Horizon explosion and oil spill. In addition, an enhanced regulatory approach should combine strong industry safety goals with mandatory oversight at critical points during drilling operations. Macondo Well-Deepwater Horizon Blowout discusses ultimate responsibility and accountability for well integrity and safety of offshore equipment, formal system safety education and training of personnel engaged in offshore drilling, and guidelines that should be established so that well designs incorporate protection against the various credible risks associated with the drilling and abandonment process. This book will be of interest to professionals in the oil and gas industry, government decision makers, environmental advocacy groups, and others who seek an understanding of the processes involved in order to ensure safety in undertakings of this nature.

In response to HUD's request, the NRC assembled a panel of experts, the Committee for Oversight and Assessment of the Partnership for Advancing Technology in Housing, under the auspices of the Board on Infrastructure and the Constructed Environment. Over an initial term of three years, the committee was asked to review and comment on the following aspects of the PATH program: overall goals; proposed approach to meeting the goals and the likelihood of achieving them; and measurements of progress toward achieving the goals.

In order to achieve the revolutionary new defense capabilities offered by materials science and engineering, innovative management to reduce the risks associated with translating research results will be needed along with the R&D. While payoff is expected to be high from the promising areas of materials research, many of the benefits are likely to be evolutionary. Nevertheless, failure to invest in more speculative areas of research could lead to undesired technological surprises. Basic research in physics, chemistry, biology, and materials science will provide the seeds for potentially revolutionary technologies later in the 21st century.

We are what we eat. That old expression seems particularly poignant every time we have our blood drawn for a routine physical to check our cholesterol levels. And it's not just what we eat that affects our health. Whole ranges of behaviors ultimately make a difference in how we feel and how we maintain our health. Lifestyle choices have enormous impact on our health and well-being. But how do we communicate the language of good health so that it is uniformly received -- and accepted -- by people from different cultures and backgrounds?

Take, for example, the case of a 66-year-old Latina. She has been told by her doctor that she should have a mammogram, but her sense of fatalism tells her that it is better not to know if anything is wrong. To know that something is wrong will cause her distress, and this may well lead to even more health problems. Before she leaves her doctor's office, she has decided not to have a mammogram -- that is, until her doctor points out that having one is a way to take care of herself so that she can continue to take care of her family. In this way the decision to have a mammogram feels like a positive step.

Public health communicators and health professionals face dilemmas like this every day. Speaking of Health looks at the challenges of delivering important messages to different audiences. Using case studies in the areas of diabetes, mammography, and mass communication campaigns, it examines the ways in which messages must be adapted to the unique informational needs of their audiences if they are to have any real impact.

Speaking of Health looks at basic theories of communication and behavioral change and focuses on where they apply and where they donot. By suggesting creative strategies and guidelines for speaking to diverse audiences now and in the future, the Institute of Medicine seeks to take health communication into the twenty-first century. In an age in which we are inundated by multiple messages every day, this book will be a critical tool for all who are interested in communicating with diverse communities about health issues.

The science of animal nutrition has made significant advances in the past century. In looking back at the discoveries of the 20th century, we can appreciate the tremendous impact that animal nutrition has had on our lives. From the discovery of vitamins and the sweeping shift in the use of oilseeds to replace animal products as dietary protein sources for animals during the war times of the 1900s-to our integral understanding of nutrients as regulators of gene expression today-animal nutrition has been the cornerstone for scientific advances in many areas.
At the milestone of their 70th year of service to the nation, the National Research Council's (NRC) Committee on Animal Nutrition (CAN) sought to gain a better understanding of the magnitude of recent discoveries and directions in animal nutrition for the new century we are embarking upon. With financial support from the NRC, the committee was able to organize and host a symposium that featured scientists from many backgrounds who were asked to share their ideas about the potential of animal nutrition to address current problems and future challenges.

Ignition of upholstered furniture by small open flames from matches, cigarette lighters, and candles is one of the leading causes of residential-fire deaths in the United States. These fires accounted for about 16% of civilian fire deaths in 1996. On average, each year since 1990, about 90 deaths (primarily of children), 440 injuries, and property losses amounting to 50 million dollars have resulted from fires caused by the ignition of upholstered furniture by small open flames. Certain commercial seating products (such as aircraft and bus seats) are subject to flammability standards and sometimes incorporate FR-treated upholstery cover materials, but there is no federal-government requirement for residential upholstered furniture, and it is generally not treated with FR chemicals. It is estimated that less than 0.2% of all U.S. residential upholstery fabric is treated with flame-retardant (FR) chemicals. The Consumer Product Safety Act of 1972 created the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) as an independent federal regulatory agency whose mission is to protect the public from unreasonable risks of injury and death associated with consumer products. CPSC also administers the Flammable Fabrics Act, under which it regulates flammability hazards and the Federal Hazardous Substances Act (FHSA), which regulates hazardous substances including chemicals. In 1993, the National Association of State Fire Marshals petitioned CPSC to issue a performance-based flammability standard for upholstered furniture to reduce the risk of residential fires. The Commission granted that portion of the petition relating to small open flame ignition risks. In response to concerns regarding the safety of FR chemicals, Congress, in the fiscal year 1999 appropriations report for CPSC, requested that the National Research Council conduct an independent study of the health risks to consumers posed by exposure to FR chemicals that are likely to be used in residential upholstered furniture to meet a CPSC standard. The National Research Council assigned the project to the Committee on Toxicology (COT) of the Commission on Life Sciences' Board on Environmental Studies and Toxicology. COT convened the Subcommittee on Flame-Retardant Chemicals, which prepared this report. Subcommittee members were chosen for their recognized expertise in toxicology, pharmacology, epidemiology, chemistry, exposure assessment, risk assessment, and biostatistics. Toxicological Risks of Selected Flame-Retardant Chemicals is organized into 18 chapters and two appendices. Chapter 2 describes the risk assessment process used by the subcommittee in determining the risk associated with potential exposure to the various FR chemicals. Chapter 3 describes the method the subcommittee used to measure and estimate the intensity, frequency, extent, and duration of human exposure to FR chemicals. Chapters 4-19 provide the subcommittee's review and assessment of health risks posed by exposure to each of the 16 FR chemicals. Data gaps and research needs are provided at the end of these chapters.

Research Needs in Subsurface Science provides an overview of the subsurface contamination problems across the DOE complex and shows by examples from the six largest DOE sites (Hanford Site, Idaho Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, Nevada Test Site, Oak Ridge Reservation, Rocky Flats Environmental Technology Site, and Savannah River Site) how advances in scientific and engineering knowledge can improve the effectiveness of the cleanup effort. This report analyzes the current Environmental Management (EM) Science Program portfolio of subsurface research projects to assess the extent to which the program is focused on DOE's contamination problems. This analysis employs an organizing scheme that provides a direct linkage between basic research in the EM Science Program and applied technology development in DOE's Subsurface Contaminants Focus Area. Research Needs in Subsurface Science also reviews related research programs in other DOE offices and other federal agencies (see Chapter 4) to determine the extent to which they are focused on DOE's subsurface contamination problems. On the basis of these analyses, this report singles out the highly significant subsurface contamination knowledge gaps and research needs that the EM Science Program must address if the DOE cleanup program is to succeed.