A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. Census Bureau conducted the Accuracy and Coverage Evaluation (ACE) survey to estimate the number of people missed, counted more than once, or otherwise improperly counted in the 2000 Census. On the basis of uncertainty in the ACE results, the Bureau's acting director decided that the 2000 Census tabulations should not be adjusted in order to redraw the boundaries of congressional districts or to distribute billions of dollars in federal funding. Although ACE was generally implemented as planned, the Bureau found that it overstated census undercounts because of an error introduced during matching operations and other uncertainties. The Bureau concluded that additional review and analysis of these uncertainties would be needed before the data could be used. Matching more than 1.4 million census and ACE records involved the following four phases, each with its own matching procedures and multiple layers of review: computer matching, clerical matching, field follow-up, and clerical matching. The Bureau applied quality assurance procedures to each phase of person matching. Because the quality assurance procedures had failure rates of less than one percent, the Bureau reported that person matching quality assurance was …

This report discusses projected agricultural imports and exports for FY2002, as well as legislation that deals with federal programs in support of agricultural exports and federal aid dedicated to farms and agricultural reform.

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Thousands of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) controllers will soon be eligible to retire because of extensive hiring in the 1980's to replace striking air traffic controllers. Although the exact number and timing of the controllers' departures has not been determined, attrition scenarios developed by both FAA and GAO indicate that the total attrition will grow substantially in both the short and long term. As a result, FAA will likely need to hire thousands of air traffic controllers in the next decade to met increasing traffic demands and to address the anticipated attrition of experienced controllers, predominately because of retirement. FAA has yet to developed a comprehensive human capital workforce strategy to address its impending controller needs. Rather, FAA's strategy for replacing controllers is generally to hire new controllers only when current, experienced controllers leave. This does not take into account the potential increases in future hiring and the time necessary to train replacements. In addition, there is uncertainty about the ability of FAA's new aptitude test to identify the best controller candidates. Further, FAA has not addressed the resources that may be needed at its …

The Department of Energy (DOE) currently has mercury (Hg) contaminated materials and soils at the various sites. Figure 1-1 (from http://www.ct.ornl.gov/stcg.hg/) shows the estimated distribution of mercury contaminated waste at the various DOE sites. Oak Ridge and Idaho sites have the largest deposits of contaminated materials. The majorities of these contaminated materials are soils, sludges, debris, and waste waters. This project concerns treatment of mercury contaminated soils. The technology is applicable to many DOE sites, in-particular, the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge Tennessee and Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL). These sites have the majority of the soils and sediments contaminated with mercury. The soils may also be contaminated with other hazardous metals and radionuclides. At the Y12 plant, the baseline treatment method for mercury contaminated soil is low temperature thermal desorption (LTTD), followed by on-site landfill disposal. LTTD is relatively expensive (estimated cost of treatment which exclude disposal cost for the collect mercury is greater than $740/per cubic yard [cy] at Y-12), does not treat any of the metal or radionuclides. DOE is seeking a less costly alternative to the baseline technology. As described in the solicitation (DE-RA-01NT41030), this project initially focused on evaluating cost-effective in-situ …

U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) used large quantities of mercury in the uranium separating process from the 1950s until the late 1980s in support of national defense. Some of this mercury, as well as other hazardous metals and radionuclides, found its way into, and under, several buildings, soil and subsurface soils and into some of the surface waters. Several of these areas may pose potential health or environmental risks and must be dealt with under current environmental regulations. DOE's National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) awarded a contract ''Alternative Field Methods to Treat Mercury in Soil'' to IT Group, Knoxville TN (IT) and its subcontractor NFS, Erwin, TN to identify remedial methods to clean up mercury-contaminated high-clay content soils using proven treatment chemistries. The sites of interest were the Y-12 National Security Complex located in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the David Witherspoon properties located in Knoxville, Tennessee, and at other similarly contaminated sites. The primary laboratory-scale contract objectives were (1) to safely retrieve and test samples of contaminated soil in an approved laboratory and (2) to determine an acceptable treatment method to ensure that the mercury does not leach from the soil above regulatory levels. The leaching requirements were to meet the …

This report discusses the Andean Regional Initiative (ARI), implemented by the Bush Administration in 2001 to provide economic and counter-narcotics assistance for Colombia and regional neighbors. The report discusses the goals of the ARI, as well as related appropriations.

An early warning system to counter bioterrorism, the Autonomous Pathogen Detection System (APDS) continuously monitors the environment for the presence of biological pathogens (e.g., anthrax) and once detected, it sounds an alarm much like a smoke detector warns of a fire. Long before September 11, 2001, this system was being developed to protect domestic venues and events including performing arts centers, mass transit systems, major sporting and entertainment events, and other high profile situations in which the public is at risk of becoming a target of bioterrorist attacks. Customizing off-the-shelf components and developing new components, a multidisciplinary team developed APDS, a stand-alone system for rapid, continuous monitoring of multiple airborne biological threat agents in the environment. The completely automated APDS samples the air, prepares fluid samples in-line, and performs two orthogonal tests: immunoassay and nucleic acid detection. When compared to competing technologies, APDS is unprecedented in terms of flexibility and system performance.

This report discusses the ongoing debate about whether or not to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) for energy development. The report discusses arguments for and against such development and focuses especially on related pieces of legislation that directly affects the future of the ANWR.

This booklet explains major portions of the ongoing environmental monitoring program conducted by Argonne National Laboratory-East in the calendar year 2000. The full Site Environmental Report, written by N.W. Golchert, R.G. Kolzow and L.P. Moos, can be obtained by contacting Argonne National Laboratory in Argonne, Illinois, 60439, or by going to the Web site (www.anl.gov). This booklet includes descriptions of the Argonne-East site, missions and programs; the status of compliance with environmental regulations; environmental protection and restoration activities; current projects; past, present and potential problems and the monitoring program for air, water and radioactivity in the area. ''The policy of Argonne National Laboratory is that its activities are to be conducted in such a manner that worker and public health and safety and protection of the environment are given the highest priority.'' The environmental surveillance program conducts regular monitoring for radiation, radioactive materials and nonradiological materials on the Argonne-East site and in the surrounding region. The detection of such releases to the environment is of great importance. If a release occurs, the monitoring program clearly identifies the substance, its magnitude and its origin. Programs and controls are set up to eliminate, contain or remove the substance from the environment. Argonne …

This report presents an overview of the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict. This is a clash between the principles of territorial integrity and self-determination that is occurring in the Caucasus, creating the longest inter-ethnic dispute in the former Soviet Union. The report includes the background and analysis of history, warfare and peace process in the region. The report discusses the Armenian and Azerbaijani perspective, the role and views of others (Iran, Turkey, Russia), as well as the U.S. policy regarding the conflict.

Although it has been a high priority Army program, a number of factors have complicated the RAH-66 Comanche program. Since its inception, the program has been restructured several times–postponing the initial operational capability (IOC) and increasing overall program costs. Presently, there is debate within the Army regarding whether the program should be reduced significantly to make funds available to pursue other modernization priorities.

As the 108th Congress addresses short-term budget decisions, it may also want to consider the long-run impacts of those decisions and the major shifts in budget composition that are underway. Congress may be pressed to add new benefits in response to population aging, such as improved support for long-term care and broader Medicare drug coverage.

The report is categorized into seven categories: (I) Background and Analysis, (II) Budget Totals, (III) Budget Action, (IV) Outlays, (V) Receipts, (VI) Surpluses or Deficits, and (VII) The Budget and The Economy.

This report discusses the budget for fiscal year 2002. The congress debates issues such as budget action, receipts surpluses or deficits, and the economy

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Balanced Budget and Emergency Deficit Control Act of 1985 requires that the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) and the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) issue sequestration reports annually to Congress. Overall, GAO found that OMB and CBO substantially complied with the act in fiscal year 2002. However, as in previous years, some of the required OMB and CBO reports were issued late. Further, GAO identified a total of 19 items where differences of over $500 million existed between CBO's and OMB's scoring of discretionary budget authority and/or outlays for enacted laws."

These steps were taken to maintain weekly archives: (1) Friday morning you stop the archiver and wait for it to finish writing data (the lock file will be removed from the directory); (2) move the current archive information to a PC via FTP; (3) remove all previous archive information in the previous directory; (4) move the current archive into the previous directory; (5) start a new archive; (6) burn a CDROM of the archive; and (7) copy the current archive to a specific directory. There are 2 ways to check if the Calorimeter Archiver is running, either through the WEB based front end or directly from a command line. Once the archiver is running it can be monitored from a WEB page. This only works with a browser launched from the online machine running the archiver. Each time the browser is reloaded there should be an update reported in the last write check field. You might have to wait a few minutes to see the update. Calorimetry currently takes readings every (300 sec.) 5 minutes. The second method to verify the archiver is running is to issue a command from a Linux cluster machine.

Soft money is a major issue in the campaign finance reform debate because such funds are generally unregulated and perceived as resulting from a loophole in the Federal Election Campaign Act (FECA). More specifically, soft money is considered to be funds that are raised and spent according to applicable state laws, which FECA prohibits from being spent directly on federal elections, but that may have an indirect influence on federal elections. This Issue Brief discusses three major types of soft money: political party soft money, corporate and labor union soft money, and soft money used for issue advocacy communications.

This is one report in the series of reports that discuss the campaign finance practices and related issues. Concerns over financing federal elections have become a seemingly perennial aspect of our political system, centered on the enduring issues of high campaign costs and reliance on interest groups for needed campaign funds. The report talks about the today’s paramount issues such as perceived loopholes in current law and the longstanding issues: overall costs, funding sources, and competition.

The understanding of the physical mechanisms by which important biological inhibitors control the nucleation, growth, aggregation, and phase transformation of calcium oxalate crystals at fundamental level is of importance not only to the advances in biomineralization but also to the development of stone disease therapy. Of the three phases of calcium oxalate crystalline, calcium oxalate monohydrate (COM) and dehydrate (COD) are found in the majority of stones formed in the urinary system. Only COM, a major inorganic component of kidney stones, produces adverse physiological effects to human, however. Although a great deal of research has been carried out on the modulation of nucleation, growth, aggregation, and phase transformation of calcium oxalates by biological molecules, the basic mechanism has not yet been determined due to inherent limitations of those techniques that have been utilized The invention of atomic force microscopy (AFM) has opened a new avenue for the study of the crystal growth in general. One can now probe the growth kinetics and dynamics, and morphology of crystal surfaces down to molecular levels as a typical AFM has a lateral resolution of nanometers. In this study, in situ AFM was used to monitor the COM surface under controlled growth conditions. The …

The goal of this project was to develop chimeric proteins composed of a DNA mismatch or damage binding protein and a nuclease, as well as methods to detect DNA mismatches and damage. We accomplished this through protein engineering based on using polymerase chain reactions (PCRs) to create chimeras with novel functions for damage and mismatch detection. This project addressed fundamental questions relating to disease susceptibility and radiation-induced damage in cells. It also supported and enhanced LLNL's competency in the emerging field of proteomics. In nature, DNA is constantly being subjected to damaging agents such as exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation and various environmental and dietary carcinogens. If DNA damage is not repaired however, mutations in DNA result that can eventually manifest in cancer and other diseases. In addition to damage-induced DNA mutations, single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), which are variations in the genetic sequence between individuals, may predispose some to disease. As a result of the Human Genome Project, the integrity of a person's DNA can now be monitored. Therefore, methods to detect DNA damage, mutations, and SNPs are useful not only in basic research but also in the health and biotechnology industries. Current methods of detection often use radioactive labeling …

This report discusses the background information and most recent development in U.S.-China relations since mid-1996. Since the early 1990s, U.S.-China relations have followed an uneven course, with modest improvements overshadowed by various recurring difficulties and setbacks. Longstanding bilateral difficulties have included U.S. problems with the PRC’s worsening human rights record, growing tensions over the PRC’s southern military build-up opposite Taiwan and Taiwan’s political status, and continued controversy over allegations of Chinese proliferation of weapons to unstable regimes.

U.S.-China economic ties have expanded substantially over the past several years. China is now the third largest U.S. trading partner, its second largest source of imports, and its fourth largest export market. However, U.S.-China commercial ties have been strained by a number of issues, including a surging U.S. trade deficit with China, China's refusal to float its currency, and failure to fully comply with its World Trade Organization (WTO) commitments, especially its failure to provide protection for U.S. intellectual property rights (IPR). This report explores these issues in detail, especially concerning the lack of protection for U.S. IPR.

The smut that appeared on the universal covers after the OAB cleaning process consists of sub-micron size aluminum particles originating from the machining of these parts prior to cleaning. The rigorous gross and precision cleanings with Brulin in the OAB cleaning process could not completely wash these fine particles away from the surfaces. However, applying a phosphoric acid etch before the cleaning helped to remove these fine aluminum particles. Experimental results again showed that an acid etching before cleaning is essential in preventing the occurrence of smut in aluminum alloy after gross/precision cleaning. A mechanism, based on the electrostatic {zeta}-potential, is proposed to explain the occurrence of smut that is often encountered during the cleaning of aluminum alloys.

On August 7, 2002, President-elect, Alvaro Uribe Velez, age 49, is scheduled to take office amid an intensifying conflict. Uribe’s election has been widely attributed to his law-and-order campaign promises to pursue the guerrillas vigorously by increasing Colombia’s military budget, doubling the size of the military to 100,000, and creating a one-million man civilian militia to aid the Colombian military, as well as to the worsening security situation in Colombia.