Office of Technology Assessment - 17 Matching Results
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- Proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction: Assessing the Risks
- This report describes what nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons can do, analyzes the consequences of their spread for the United States and the world, and summarizes technical aspects of monitoring and controlling their production. This report also explains the array of policy tools that can be used to combat proliferation, identifying tradeoffs and choices that confront policymakers.
- The Chemical Weapons Convention: Effects on the U.S. Chemical Industry
- Background paper exploring the multifaceted challenge of integrating a private, primarily civil industry into the global arms-control regime established by the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).
- U.S. Telecommunications Services in European Markets
- This report discusses on telecommunications entering European markets as not just a set of tradable services, but also a basic function of society, essential for effective governance social cohesion, and economic viability’ and equity.
- Police Body Armor Standards and Testing, Vol. I
- This report discusses the standards for body-armor. The report describes the origin of the standard, the rationale for particular provisions, and the main points of controversy, which concern acceptable risks, the validity and discrimination of the test, and the reproducibility of results.
- Accessibility and Integrity of Networked Information Collections
- The paper begins with a survey of recent developments in networked information resources and tools to identify, navigate, and use such resources. The paper then discusses the changing legal framework that governs use of electronic information as contract law rather than simple sale within the context of copyright law becomes the dominant model for acquiring access to electronic information.
- The Lower Tiers of the Space Transportation Industrial Base
- This background paper was prompted by a workshop held at OTA in early March 1995, at which a small group, representing a broad cross-section of lower-tier firms, discussed their views of the space transportation industry.
- Effectiveness and Costs of Osteoporosis Screening and Hormone Replacement Therapy, Vol. I: Cost-Effectiveness Analysis
- This paper assesses the medical benefits and costs of both screening and hormone replacement therapy. It is divided into two volumes. This volume presents the results of a model that estimates the cost per year of life gained from osteoporosis screening and hormone replacement therapy in postmenopausal women.
- Effectiveness and Costs of Osteoporosis Screening and Hormone Replacement Therapy, Vol. II: Evidence on Benefits, Risks, and Costs
- This paper assesses the medical benefits and costs of both screening and hormone replacement therapy. It is divided into two volumes. This volume provides the basis for the assumptions about the costs and effects of screening and hormonal replacement therapy used in the cost-effectiveness model.
- Coverage of Laser Technology by Health Insurers
- This paper presents some empirical information on how insurers consider payment for new medical devices. It describes the survey results of medical directors affiliated with private health insurers about their coverage decisions using, as examples, three applications of lasers: laser angioplasty for opening narrowed or blocked coronary arteries; laser discectomy for treating herniated intervertebral discs; and photodynamic therapy (using a light–sensitive dye) for bladder cancer.
- Telecommunications Technology and Native Americans: Opportunities and Challenges
- The report discusses the opportunities for Native Americans to use telecommunications (including computer networking, videoconferencing, multimedia, digital and wireless technologies, and the like) in the realms of culture, education, health care, economic development, and governance.
- Cystic Fibrosis and DNA Tests: Implications of Carrier Screening
- This report concludes that the value of the cystic fibrosis (CF) carrier test is the information it provides. No one can estimate in common terms what it means to an individual to possess information about his or her genetic status, especially when the value concerns reproductive decision-making. As our knowledge of the human genome increases, what we do with information such as CF carrier status will depend on the perceptions and beliefs of all Americans.
- A New Technological Era for American Agriculture
- The report concludes that these technologies have the potential to provide new solutions to many agricultural problems. The challenge, however, will be whether government, industry, and the public can strike the proper balance of direction, oversight, and use to allow these technologies to flourish. Congress will be faced with many issues and choices as American agriculture moves into this new era.
- Special Care Units for People With Alzheimer's and Other Dementias: Consumer Education, Research, Regulatory, and Reimbursement Issues
- This report analyzes the available information about special care units for people with dementia. It discusses ways in which the Federal Government could encourage and support what is positive about special care units and at the same time protect vulnerable patients and their families from special care units that actually provide nothing special for their residents.
- Police Body Armor Standards and Testing, Vol. II—Appendixes
- This report is an extension of volume one, that discusses the standards for body-armor. The report describes the origin of the standard, the rationale for particular provisions, and the main points of controversy, which concern acceptable risks, the validity and discrimination of the test, and the reproducibility of results.
- Industrial Energy Efficiency
- This report focuses on energy use in industry, and how government policy can affect it. Trends and patterns in industrial energy use are reviewed, energy-efficient industrial equipment and practices are described, and the factors that influence corporate investment in efficient technologies are explored. Lastly, past Federal efforts to improve industrial energy efficiency are reviewed, and policy options for encouraging the further development and adoption of efficient industrial technologies are discussed.
- Development Assistance, Export Promotion, and Environmental Technology
- This background paper provides an overview of developing country environmental problems and markets for environmental technologies and services. It discusses preliminary estimates on the amount and purposes of environmental aid provided by donor countries in 1991. The paper discusses the commercial implications of other countries’ aid for U.S. environmental firms, and the Helsinki package adopted by the OECD in late 1991 to limit commercial advantage from use of tied aid credits.
- Preparing for an Uncertain Climate: Summary
- This is the final report on climate change. OTA examines how the Nation can best prepare for an uncertain future climate.