2012 – Federal Register Recent Federal Regulation Documents

Notice is hereby given that the Office of Research Integrity (ORI) has taken final action in the following case: Marc Hauser, Ph.D., Harvard University: Based on the report of an investigation conducted by Harvard University (Harvard) and additional analysis conducted by ORI in its oversight review, ORI found that Dr. Marc Hauser, former Professor, Department of Psychology, Harvard, engaged in research misconduct in research supported by National Center for Research Resources (NCRR), National Institutes of Health (NIH), grants P51 RR00168-37 and CM-5-P40 RR003640-13, National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD), NIH, grant 5 R01 DC005863, and National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), NIH, grant 5 F31 MH075298. ORI found that Respondent engaged in research misconduct as follows: Respondent published fabricated data in Figure 2 of the paper Hauser, M.D., Weiss, D., & Marcus, G. ``Rule learning by cotton- top tamarins.'' Cognition 86:B15-B22, 2002, which reported data on experiments designed to determine whether tamarin monkeys habituated to a sound pattern consisting of three sequential syllables (for example AAB) would then distinguish a different sound pattern (i.e., ABB). Figure 2 is a bar graph showing results obtained with 14 monkeys exposed either to the same or different sound patterns than they were habituated to. Because the tamarins were never exposed to the same sound pattern after habituation, half of the data in the graph was fabricated. Figure 2 is also false because the actual height of the bars for the monkeys purportedly receiving the same test pattern that they had been habituated to totaled 16 animals (7.14 subjects as responding and 8.87 subjects as non-responding). Respondent retracted the paper in 2010 (Cognition 117:106). In two unpublished experiments designed to test whether or not tamarin monkeys showed a greater response to certain combinations of unsegmented strings of consonants and vowels than others, Respondent falsified the coding of some of the monkeys' responses, making the results statistically significant when the results coded by others showed them to be non-significant. Respondent acknowledged to his collaborators that he miscoded some of the trials and that the study failed to provide support for the initial hypothesis. This research was never written up for publication. In versions of a manuscript entitled ``Grammatical Pattern Learning by Human Infants and Monkeys'' submitted to Cognition, Science, and Nature, Respondent falsely described the methodology used to code the results for experiments 1 and 3 on ``grammar expectancy violations'' in tamarin monkeys either by claiming coding was done blindly or by fabricating values for inter-observer reliabilities when coding was done by only one observer, in both cases leading to a false proportion or number of animals showing a favorable response. Specifically, in three different experiments in which tamarin monkeys were exposed first to human voice recordings of artificial sounds that followed grammatical structure and then exposed to stimuli that conformed to or violated that structure, Respondent (1) provided an incorrect description of the coding methodology by claiming in the early versions of the manuscripts that ``two blind observers'' coded trials and a third coded trials to resolve differences, while all of the coding for one experiment was done just by the Respondent, and (2) in a revised manuscript, while Respondent no longer mentioned ``two blind observers, he claimed that ``Inter-observer reliabilities ranged from 0.85 to 0.90,'' a statement that is false because there was only one observer for one of the experiments. Furthermore, in an earlier version of the manuscript, Respondent falsely reported that ``16 out of 16 subjects'' responded more to the ungrammatical rather than the grammatical stimuli for the predictive language condition, while records showed that one of the sixteen responded more to grammatical than ungrammatical stimuli, and one responded equally to grammatical and ungrammatical. Respondent and his collaborators corrected all of these issues, including recoding of the data for some of the experiments prior to the final submission and publication in Cognition 2007. In the paper Hauser, M.D., Glynn, D., Wood, J. ``Rhesus monkeys correctly read the goal-relevant gestures of a human agent.'' Proceedings of the Royal Society B 274:1913-1918, 2007, Respondent falsely reported the results and methodology for one of seven experiments designed to determine whether rhesus monkeys were able to understand communicative gestures performed by a human. Specifically, (1) in the ``Pointing without food'' trial, Respondent reported that 31/40 monkeys approached the target box while the records showed only 27 approached the target (both results are statistically significant), and (2) there were only 30 videotapes of the ``Pointing without food'' trials, while Respondent falsely claimed in the paper's Materials and Methods that ``each trial was videotaped.'' Respondent was not responsible for the coding, analyses, or archiving but takes full responsibility for the falsifications reported in the published paper. Respondent and one of his coauthors replicated these findings with complete data sets and video records and published them in Proceedings Royal Society B 278(1702):58-159, 2011. Respondent accepts responsibility for a false statement in the Methodology section for one experiment reported in the paper Wood, J.N., Glynn, D.D., Phillips, B.C., & Hauser, M.D. ``The perception of rational, goal-directed action in nonhuman primates.'' Science 317:1402-1405, 2007. The statement in the paper's supporting online material reads that ``All individuals are * * * readily identifiable by natural markings along with chest and leg tattoos and ear notches.'' In fact, only 50% of the subjects could be identified by this method, thus leading to the possibility of repeated testing of the same animal. Respondent and one of his coauthers replicated these findings with complete data sets and video records and published them in Science 332:537, 2011 (www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/317/5843/1402/DC2 published online 25 April 2011). Respondent engaged in research misconduct by providing inconsistent coding of data in his unpublished playback experiment with rhesus monkeys exploring an abstract pattern in the form of AXA by falsely changing the coding results where the prediction was that habituated animals were more likely to respond to an ungrammatical stimulus than a grammatical one. After an initial coding of the data by his research assistant, in which both Respondent and assistant agreed that an incorrect procedure was used, the Respondent recoded the 201 trials and his assistant coded a subset for a reliability check. The Respondent's codes differed from the original in 36 cases, 29 of them in the theoretically predicted direction, thereby producing a statistically significant probability of p =

The Office of the Under Secretary for Food Safety, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), are sponsoring a public meeting on September 6, 2012. The objective of the public meeting is to provide information and receive public comments on agenda items and draft United States (U.S.) positions that will be discussed at the 32nd session of the Codex Committee on Fish and Fishery Products (CCFFP) of the Codex Alimentarius Commission (Codex), which will be held in Bali, Indonesia from October 1-5, 2012. The Under Secretary for Food Safety, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and the Food and Drug Administration recognize the importance of providing interested parties the opportunity to obtain background information on the 32nd session of the CCFFP and to address items on the agenda.

This document contains temporary regulations that address certain integrated transactions that involve a foreign currency denominated debt instrument and multiple associated hedging transactions. The regulations provide that if a taxpayer has identified multiple hedges as being part of a qualified hedging transaction, and the taxpayer has terminated at least one but less than all of the hedges (including a portion of one or more of the hedges), the taxpayer must treat the remaining hedges as having been sold for fair market value on the date of disposition of the terminated hedge. The text of the temporary regulations also serves as the text of the proposed regulations set forth in the notice of proposed rulemaking on this subject in the Proposed Rules section in this issue of the Federal Register.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, Public Law 104-13 (44 U.S.C. 3506(c)(2)(A)).

NMFS is prohibiting directed fishing for species that comprise the shallow-water species fishery by vessels using trawl gear in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). This action is necessary because the fourth seasonal apportionment of the Pacific halibut bycatch allowance specified for the shallow-water species fishery in the GOA has been reached.

On June 15, 1984, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) delegated to the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System (Board) its approval authority under the Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA), to approve of and assign OMB control numbers to collection of information requests and requirements conducted or sponsored by the Board. Board-approved collections of information are incorporated into the official OMB inventory of currently approved collections of information. Copies of the Paperwork Reduction Act Submission, supporting statements and approved collection of information instruments are placed into OMB's public docket files. The Federal Reserve may not conduct or sponsor, and the respondent is not required to respond to, an information collection that has been extended, revised, or implemented on or after October 1, 1995, unless it displays a currently valid OMB control number.

Pursuant to 102 (2)(c) of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), the National Park Service (NPS) announces the availability of the Record of Decision for the Final General Management Plan and Environmental Impact Statement (GMP/EIS), Hampton National Historic Site, Maryland. As soon as practicable, the NPS will begin to implement the preferred alternative as contained in the Final GMP/EIS issued by the NPS on March 23, 2012, and summarized in the Record of Decision. Copies of the Record of Decision may be obtained from the contact listed below or online at the park's Web site (https:// www.nps.gov/hamp) or the NPS Planning, Environment, and Public Comment (PEPC) Web site (https://parkplanning.nps.gov/hamp).

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps) and the California Department of Fish and Game (CDFG) intend to jointly prepare a Draft Environmental Impact Statement/Environmental Impact Report (DEIS/EIR) for the proposed Ballona Wetlands Restoration Project. The proposed project is intended to return the daily ebb and flow of tidal waters, maintain freshwater circulation, and augment the physical and biological functions and services in the project area. Restoring the wetland functions and services would allow native wetland vegetation to be reestablished, providing important habitat for a variety of wildlife species. As a restored site, the Ballona Wetlands would play an important role to provide seasonal habitat for migratory birds. A restored, optimally functioning wetland would also benefit the adjacent marine environment and enhance the quality of tidal waters. The purpose of this notice is to inform the public the comment period for scoping has been extended to October 23, 2012.

The National Park Service intends to award a temporary concession contract to a qualified person for the conduct of certain visitor services within Canyon de Chelly National Mounument for a term not to exceed 3 years. The visitor services include lodging, food and beverage and retail.

We propose to supersede an existing airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to certain The Boeing Company Model 747-400 and 747- 400F series airplanes. The existing AD currently requires installing drains and drain tubes to eliminate water accumulation in the dripshield above the M826 cardfile in the main equipment center. Since we issued that AD, we received reports of continued water damage to diode fire card 285U0072-1 in the M826 automatic fire overheat logic test system cardfile following a false FWD CARGO FIRE message, with no change in frequency, which resulted in an air turn back. This proposed AD would instead require installing drain tubes, relocating wire bundle routing, installing a new drip shield and drip shield deflectors, and replacing insulation blankets. For certain airplanes, this proposed AD would also concurrently require sealing the drain slot, installing spuds, and installing drain tubes. We are proposing this AD to prevent water from exiting over the edge of the existing drip shield and contaminating electrical components in the M826 cardfile, which could result in an electrical short and potential loss of several functions essential for safe flight.

We propose to supersede an existing airworthiness directive (AD) that applies to certain The Boeing Company Model 767 airplanes. The existing AD currently requires sealing certain fasteners and stiffeners in the fuel tank, changing certain wire bundle clamp configurations on the fuel tank walls, inspecting certain fasteners in the fuel tanks and determining the method of attachment of the vortex generators, and performing corrective action if necessary. We issued that AD to prevent possible ignition sources in the auxiliary (center) fuel tank, main fuel tanks, and surge tanks caused by a wiring short or lightning strike, which could result in fuel tank explosions and consequent loss of the airplane. Since we issued that AD, another possible ignition source location was identified. This proposed AD would add a general visual inspection for the presence of a polytetrafluoroethylene (TFE) sleeve at the clamp location on the rear spar, and installation of a TFE sleeve if necessary. This proposed AD would also add airplanes to the applicability. We are proposing this AD to correct the unsafe condition on these products.

In accordance with the provisions of the Privacy Act, as amended, this notice announces a renewal of an existing computer matching program that we are currently conducting with VA/VBA.

The Colville Resource Advisory Committee will meet in Colville, Washington. The committee is authorized under the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act (Pub. L. 110-343) (the Act) and operates in compliance with the Federal Advisory Committee Act. The purpose of the committee is to improve collaborative relationships and to provide advice and recommendations to the Forest Service concerning projects and funding consistent with the title II of the Act. The meeting is open to the public. The purpose of the meeting is vote on fiscal year 2012 projects.

The Department of Commerce, as part of its continuing effort to reduce paperwork and respondent burden, invites the general public and other Federal agencies to take this opportunity to comment on proposed and/or continuing information collections, as required by the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995.

The Coast Guard will establish a temporary safety zone on the Cuyahoga River, Cleveland, OH. This safety zone is intended to restrict vessels from a portion of the Cuyahoga River during the Head of the Cuyahoga, the U.S. Rowing Masters Head Race International Championship, and the Cleveland Dragon Boat Festival. This safety zone is necessary to protect spectators, participants, and vessels from the hazards associated with rowing regattas.