Sub-Saharan Africa has been far more severely affected by AIDS than any other part of the world. The United Nations reports that 25.3 million adults and children are infected with the HIV virus in the region, which has about 10% of the world's population but more than 70% of the worldwide total of infected people. This report discusses this issue in detail, including the cause of the African AIDS epidemic, the social and economic consequences, response and treatment, and U.S. policy.

This report discusses how the decisions made by the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in July 1997 impacted the process by which decisions are made by the agency. The new standards were subject to litigation, oversight hearings, and a Supreme Court ruling. Moreover, issues concerning implementation of the proposed air quality standards were raised.

Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, consolidated, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress considers each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittees.

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Semiweekly newspaper from Boerne, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Semiweekly newspaper from Brady, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

There is a likelihood of large reserves of crude oil and natural gas in the Caspian Sea region, and a consequent large increase in oil and natural gas production from that area. Because diversity of energy sources is a consideration in Congressional deliberations on energy policy, this prospect could play a role in such discussions. However, there are notable obstacles to increases in Caspian Sea region production of oil and gas that may slow development.

LLM-105 (2,6-diamino-3,5-dinitropyrazine-1-oxide) is a new molecule which has performance and insensitivity between those of HMX and TATB. Its calculated energy content is about 85% that of HMX and 15% more than that of TATB. It is thermally stable, insensitive to shock, spark and friction and has impact insensitivity level approaching that of TATB. These combined properties make it a realistic high-performance IHE material, attractive for applications that require moderate performance and insensitivity. Several morphologies of LLM-105 and plastic-bonded formulations containing these materials and another binder were prepared and characterized. Their physical properties and detonation spreading characteristics are compared to those of ultrafine TATB. The impact sensitivity (drop hammer results) is sensitive to particle morphologies. Detonation-spreading, spot-size tests on LLM-105 compositions showed higher energy output and superior divergence behavior than is observed for ultrafine TATB. The small-scale safety data, pressing characteristics and results from divergence experiments will be summarized.

Several dairy issues that were debated during the 108th Congress are expected to continue as issues of interest in the 109th Congress. Separate bills were introduced in the 108th Congress to extend authority for both the Milk Income Loss Contract (MILC) Program and the dairy forward pricing pilot program, and to address dairy producer concerns about the importation of milk protein concentrates.

News release concerning a public meeting about the design for DART's future MLK Transit Center.

News release about DART's annual "Environmental/Recyclers Fair."

A quasi one-dimensional (1-D) steady-state model of the Hall thruster is presented. For the same discharge voltage two operating regimes are possible -- with and without the anode sheath. For given mass flow rate, magnetic field profile and discharge voltage a unique solution can be constructed, assuming that the thruster operates in one of the regimes. However, we show that for a given temperature profile the applied discharge voltage uniquely determines the operating regime: for discharge voltages greater than a certain value, the sheath disappears. That result is obtained over a wide range of incoming neutral velocities, channel lengths and widths, and cathode plane locations. It is also shown that a good correlation between the quasi 1-D model and experimental results can be achieved by selecting an appropriate electron mobility and temperature profile.

This report presents basic background information on the collapse of the Enron Corporation, identifying public policy issues in financial market oversight. This report briefly summarizes some federal laws carrying criminal penalties which may be implicated in the events surrounding the collapse of the Enron Corp. This report compares the auditing and accounting reform measures passed by the House (H.R. 3763) and reported by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. This report compares the major provisions of three auditor and accounting reform proposals: H.R. 3763, S. 2673, and a rule proposed on June 20, 2002, by the SEC that would create a new auditor oversight board by using the SEC’s existing authority to regulate corporate accounting. The report focuses on Section 404(a) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the federal statute that regulates employer-sponsored pension plans. Section 404(a) is considered the “touchstone for understanding the scope and object of an ERISA fiduciary’s duties.”

Ensemble performance at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

Daily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Precipitation hardenable Al-Zn-Mg alloys are susceptible to hydrogen environment assisted cracking (HEAC) when exposed to aqueous environments. In Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloys, overaged tempers are used to increase HEAC resistance at the expense of strength but overaging has little benefit in low copper alloys. However, the mechanism or mechanisms by which overaging imparts HEAC resistance is poorly understood. The present research investigated hydrogen uptake, diffusion, and crack growth rate in 90% relative humidity (RH) air for both a commercial copper bearing Al-Zn-Mg-Cu alloy (AA 7050) and a low copper variant of this alloy in order to better understand the factors which affect HEAC resistance. Experimental methods used to evaluate hydrogen concentrations local to a surface and near a crack tip include nuclear reaction analysis (NRA), focused ion beam, secondary ion mass spectroscopy (FIB/SIMS) and thermal desorption spectroscopy (TDS). Results show that overaging the copper bearing alloys both inhibits hydrogen ingress from oxide covered surfaces and decreases the apparent hydrogen diffusion rates in the metal.

None

This is a report by the 77th Legislature addressing electronic commerce conducted over the Internet and the collection of sales tax on remote transactions. The report focuses on how states treat taxable sales when technological innovation are changing the way retailers, wholesalers, and suppliers do business.

The report is about the Impact on U.S. Trade and Implications for U.S. Trade Policy. The economic impact of FTAs and Relevant Legislation. United States has proposed to engage in negotiations to establish bilateral and free trade agreements with a number of trading partners.

None

Funeral program for Mrs. Cloverine Mack, born December 1, 1913 and died April 3, 2002. The funeral was held April 9, 2002 at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, officiated by Dr. E. Thurman Walker. Funeral arrangements were made through the Lewis Funeral Home and she was buried in Meadowlawn Memorial Park in San Antonio, Texas.

Funeral program for Verile McGarity Wilborn (Sister-Baby), born March 24, 1916 and died April 4, 2002. The funeral was held April 9, 2002 at F. E. Lewis Funeral Chapel, officiated by Elder Roger Johnson. Funeral arrangements were made through Lewis Funeral Home and she was buried in Meadowlawn Memorial Park in San Antonio, Texas.

In this paper the authors provide a motivation for Grid computing based on a vision to enable a collaborative research environment. The authors vision goes beyond the connection of hardware resources. They argue that with an infrastructure such as the Grid, new modalities for collaborative research are enabled. They provide an overview showing why Grid research is difficult, and they present a number of management-related issues that must be addressed to make Grids a reality. They list projects that provide solutions to subsets of these issues.