[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 153 (Thursday, September 25, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1927]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          EARMARK DECLARATION

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. VERN BUCHANAN

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                     Wednesday, September 24, 2008

  Mr. BUCHANAN. Madam Speaker, pursuant to the Republican Leadership 
standards on earmarks, I am submitting the following information 
regarding earmarks I received as part of H.R. 2638, the Consolidated 
Security, Disaster Assistance, and Continuing Appropriations Act, 2009:
  Requesting Member: Congressman Vern Buchanan.
  Bill Number: H.R. 2638.
  Account: Emergency Operation Centers (EOC).
  Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Sarasota County.
  Address of Requesting Entity: 1660 Ringling Boulevard, Sarasota, FL 
34236.
  Description of Request: I secured $1,000,000 to help relocate and 
construct a new Sarasota County Emergency Operations Center. An 
engineering survey conducted in May 2007 determined that the Sarasota 
County Administration Building was not designed to withstand the forces 
of a major hurricane. This building houses the County Emergency 
Operations Center, 911 Consolidated Communications Center, and the 
Enterprise Information Technology Data Center. Sarasota County is in 
the midst of planning and designing a new 50,000 square foot public 
safety center that is structurally sound and geographically located to 
ensure that it can provide critical services and government continuity 
after the advent of a major storm event. Funding will be used to help 
relocate and construct a new Sarasota County Emergency Operations 
Center.
  Requesting Member: Congressman Vern Buchanan.
  Bill Number: H.R. 2638.
  Account: (RDT&E, Army, PE 0601004A).
  Legal Name of Requesting Entity: New College of Florida.
  Address of Requesting Entity: 5800 Bay Shore Road, Sarasota, FL 
34243.
  Description of Request: I secured $1,200,000 for the continuation of 
the Florida Collaborative Development of Advanced Material for 
Strategic Applications, which will introduce a research project with 
significant educational components and undergraduate student 
involvement that will study the physical mechanisms of laser assisted 
modification of two types of nanoparticles: three dimensional, almost 
spherical metal nanoparticles embedded in dielectric matrix and highly 
anisotropic one-dimensional structures confined into carbon nanotubes. 
The proposed study will utilize various spectroscopic and microscopic 
techniques to investigate in a coherent systematic manner the 
possibilities of modifying in a controlled and reproducible way, 
various structural and electronic properties of these two systems. In 
addition to the particle size analysis, the study will place special 
emphasis on the interpretation of the experimental data in terms of the 
particle shape, metal concentration, in the film after each consecutive 
step of the modification process. This study will be the first attempt 
to combine the data obtained from UV-VIS absorption spectroscopy and 
numerical Mie resonance analysis, with material characterization 
performed by Rutherford backscattering (RBS), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), 
Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Atomic Force Microscopy 
(AFM), and relate them to their optical non-linear properties studied 
by Z-scan measurements. The second part of the project will involve 
laser-assisted manipulation of filled double-walled carbon nanotubes 
and micro-Raman spectroscopy and TEM characterization of highly 
anisotropic 1D nanostructures confined into carbon nanotubes.
  The results of the proposed investigation will have two-fold 
significance. First, they will contribute new important information in 
the area of nanosized particles with the key goal of tailoring their 
properties. Second, the study will serve as an effective educational 
tool for teaching undergraduate students how to do ``real life'' 
research. The proposed area of research will give students a strong 
understanding of the fundamentals of physics and technology as an 
intellectual discipline and provide them the opportunity to work 
successfully in a diverse group. The research will be carried out 
primarily at New College of Florida in close collaboration with local 
scientists; the French National Research Center, Orsay, France; the Max 
Planck Institute for Microstructure Physics, Halle, Germany; the 
Central Laboratory of Solar Energy, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 
Sophia, Bulgaria; and the University Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France.

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