This measure tracks Sea Grant’s success in assisting industry personnel with the adoption of responsible harvesting and processing techniques that improve social, economic, and ecological sustainability. Industry personnel include recreational, commercial (wild and cultured), and subsistence fishery participants, processors, and retailers. Practices include techniques, technologies and best management practices adopted. Fisheries sustainability and seafood safety refers to any combination of the ability of the ecosystem to remain diverse and productive; the social, cultural, and economic resilience of the fishing community; personal or crew safety; and quality and safety of the seafood product.

This metric measures the degree to which a patent is correctly issued in compliance with all the requirements of Title 35 as well as the relevant case law at the time of issuance. A statutorily compliant office action includes all applicable rejections and any asserted rejection is correct in that the decision to reject is based on sufficient evidence to support a conclusion of unpatentability.

Tracks the USPTO’s efforts in relation to prioritizing countries of interest for purposes of improved IP protection and enforcement, capacity building, and legislative reform, including creation of country/region strategic plans
and specific action plans.

The indicator measures the average number of days required by NTIS to fully execute the agreements on a per project basis between NTIS' Joint Venture Partners (JVPs) and Federal, State, and Local Agencies on a yearly basis. The lower the number of days required to fully execute a Joint Venture Authority agreement between NTIS, its Joint Venture Partners, and Federal, State, and Local Agencies, the more investments made by the Federal Government in technology.

The Arctic is a vast, remote region that is critical to the United States economy, weather and sea ice forecasting, our understanding of ecosystem health (including marine mammals and fisheries), and our understanding of climate change. Due to the presence of low temperatures, harsh sea conditions, limited telecommunications infrastructure, and sea ice, maintaining a network of sea ice buoys, Air-Launched Autonomous Micro-Observers, and Bering & Chukchi moorings is difficult, necessitating constant deployment of a combination of expendable technologies and retrieval and redeployment of a large network of moorings in the Bering and Chukchi Seas.

This measure reflects the timeliness of the disposal of a trademark application. It is measured from the date of filing to date of registration, abandonment or issuance of a notice of allowance, excluding applications that are suspended, awaiting further action, or involved in inter partes proceedings.

Seasonal outlooks are used by sectors of the U.S. economy, such as energy, agriculture, transportation, etc. as one factor in resource decision making. Seasonal outlooks are reported as the probability of temperature being above normal, near normal, below normal or, where no definite seasonal guidance can be provided, equal chances. The seasonal outlooks are the cumulative skill calculated for regions where predictions are made. These forecasts are verified using a 48 month running mean of Heidke Skill score computed for seasonal outlooks for each 3-month seasonal mean (e.g., January-February-March mean; February-March-April mean; March-April-May mean; and so on).

Americans live in the most severe weather-prone country on Earth. StormReady Communities support a Weather- Ready Nation by preparing for the occurrence of high impact environmental events. On an annual basis NWS targets 100 new StormReady Communities pending funding availability. StormReady supports NWS’ disaster risk reduction strategy and is offered to provide guidance and incentive to officials who want to improve their hazardous weather and flood operations. A long-term goal for the program is to make every county or county-equivalent in the United States StormReady. The 2010 U.S. Census identifies 3,234 county or county-equivalents in the United States. We are 44 percent of the way there with 1,419 county or county- equivalents currently recognized as StormReady. A StormReady Community is defined as a local government* entity or facility** that has the authority and ability to adopt the StormReady recognition guidelines for the residents and visitors within its jurisdiction. *The term “local government” means – (A) A county, parish, borough, municipality, city, town, township, local public authority, school district, special district, intrastate district, council of governments (regardless of whether the council of governments is incorporated as a nonprofit corporation under State law), regional or interstate government entity, or agency or instrumentality of a local government; (B) An Indian tribe or authorized tribal organization, or Alaska Native village or organization; and a rural community, unincorporated town or village, or other public entity, which has the ability to achieve StormReady recognition. **The term “facility” for a StormReady community exclusively means - universities, military installations, state/national parks, power plants/utilities, transportation centers (e.g., airports), theme parks/entertainment complex, and large event venues (e.g. stadiums).

Ensure that releases of updated software functionality, onboarding additional customer groups, and other expansions of system capabilities for these critical programs are delivered on time and on-budget.