A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report reviews the challenges facing U.S. agricultural biotechnology products in international trade. GAO found that new regulations and guidelines that may restrict U.S. exports of crops with a large biotech component are being enacted or considered by some U.S. trading partners and are also under discussion in various international organizations. These actions address approval, labeling, and traceability of agricultural biotech products. U.S. corn and soybean exports are most threatened by new foreign regulatory measures because of their biotech content. Although U.S. soybean exports have not yet experienced disruptions, U.S. corn exports have been largely shut out of the European Union (EU) market because U.S. farmers are producing some biotech varieties that have not been approved for marketing in the EU. U.S. agricultural biotech exports face several significant challenges in international markets. First, as the single major producer of biotech products, the United States has been relatively isolated in its efforts to maintain access to markets for these products. Second, in many parts of the world, consumer concerns are growing about the safety of biotech foods, which have led key market countries to implement or consider …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report reviews the Department of the Interior's fiscal year 2000 performance report and fiscal year 2002 performance report plan required by the Government Performance and Results Act. Specifically, GAO discusses Interior's progress in achieving the following four outcomes: (1) maintaining the health of federally managed land, water, and renewable resources; (2) ensuring visitors' satisfaction with the availability, accessibility, diversity, and quality of national parks; (3) meeting the federal government's responsibility to preserve and protect Indian trust lands and resources; and (4) ensuring the safe and environmentally sound development of mineral resources. GAO could not judge the agency's progress in promoting the health of federally managed land, water, and renewable resources because the goals Interior has reported do not foster a broad or departmentwide approach to measuring progress. Although the Park Service's strategies for continuing to meet and exceed its visitor satisfaction and visitor education goals appear clear and reasonable, the agency's fiscal year 2002 performance plan lacks information on the strategic human capital management strategies to achieve this outcome. GAO cannot judge the Bureau of Indian Affairs' progress in protecting Indian trust lands and resources …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report reviews the Department of Health and Human Service's (HHS) fiscal year 2000 performance report and fiscal year 2002 performance plan required by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 to assess HHS' progress in achieving selected key outcomes that are important to its mission. It is difficult to fully assess the HHS' progress in fiscal year 2000 toward achieving the outcomes GAO reviewed because lags in reporting performance data are common for many of its components such as the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, and the Food and Drug Administration. In some cases, the delays are associated with the need to obtain performance data from states and local organizations. Some HHS components are working to improve the timeliness of data submitted by others and, in some instances, have reported trend data to show that progress is being made. For example, both ACF and CDC supplied fiscal year 1999 performance data in their current performance reports--data that were not available until this year. It is likely that ACF's …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report reviews the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) fiscal year 2000 performance report and fiscal year 2002 performance plan required by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 to assess VA's process in achieving selected key outcomes that are important to its mission. VA reported making mixed progress towards achieving its key outcomes. For example, VA reported that it made good progress in providing high-quality care to patients, but it did not achieve its goal of processing veterans' benefits claims in a timely manner. GAO found out that VA made several improvements to its fiscal year 2000 performance report and 2002 performance plan. These improvements resulted in clearer discussions of VA's management challenges and additional performance measures for assessing program achievement. Furthermore, VA addressed all six of the major management challenges previously identified by GAO, and generally described goals or actions that VA is taking or plans to take in response to them. VA has established strategies for achieving strategic goals and objectives for two of these challenges: human capital management and information security. VA has established a performance goal and identified milestones for …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The United Nations' (U.N.) headquarters in New York clearly needs to be renovated, and the Secretary-General will ask member states to make key decisions in 2002 about the future of the renovation. As host country to U.N. headquarters, the United States needs to play a major role in making these decisions if the renovation is to proceed. However, the administration and the Department of State have not yet developed a comprehensive U.S. position on the renovation. Assuming the United States decides to support the renovation, it needs considerable lead time to examine the issues, including what scope of renovation meets U.N. and U.S. needs in the 21st century, what share of the renovation costs would the United States be willing to provide, and what process is needed to ensure that the construction is cost-effective and timely. One option for examining these issues would be to establish a team comprised of experts on construction management and U.N. issues, using appropriate administration resources from State, the National Academy of Sciences, and the General Services Administration."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report reviews the National Science Foundation's (NSF) fiscal year 2000 performance report and fiscal year 2002 performance report plan required by the Government Performance and Results Act. Specifically, GAO discusses NSF's progress in addressing several key outcomes that are important to NSF's mission. NSF reported that it made substantial progress in achieving its key outcomes. Although the planned strategies for achieving these key outcomes generally are clear and reasonable, some are vague and do not identify the specific steps for achieving the goals. NSF's fiscal year 2000 performance report and fiscal year 2002 performance plan reflect continued improvement compared with the prior year's report and plan. Although the 2002 performance plan does not substantially address NSF's human capital management, NSF is developing a five-year workforce strategic plan to address strategic human capital management issues that must be submitted to the Office of Management and Budget by July 20, 2001. NSF's performance report did not explain its progress in resolving information security challenges, but NSF indicated that it has internal management controls that continually monitor data security."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO reviewed the Social Security Administration's (SSA) fiscal year 2000 performance report and fiscal year 2002 performance plan to assess SSA's progress in achieving five key outcomes important to the agency's mission. The five key outcomes are (1) providing timely, accurate, and useful information and services to the public; (2) making disability determinations more timely and accurate; (3) reducing long-term disability benefits as people return to the workplace; (4) providing timely information to decisionmakers on program policy issues, such as long-term solvency of trust fund; and (5) reducing waste, fraud, abuse, and error in the Supplemental Security Income program. Although it lowered and met its goal for the volume of 800-number calls processed, SSA did not report on its progress toward improving the accuracy of 800-number service because data were not yet available. SSA's strategy for meeting its fiscal year 2002 goals included training customer staff to be more accurate. However, in its fiscal year 2002 plan, SSA merged two accuracy indicators without sufficient justification, which may affect SSA's ability to monitor and manage performance. Even though SSA lowered the targets for about half of its …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Liquefied petroleum gas (propane) has thousands of uses in homes, farms, and workplaces and is widely available in the United States. Although propane can be stored and handled safely, serious propane-related accidents have resulted in death and the destruction of property. At times, the efforts of local emergency personnel to respond to such accidents have been impeded by lack of hazard and safety information. This report describes (1) relevant revisions to the 1998 version of the code that were published in the 2001 version, as well as the process used to revise the code, (2) the views of key stakeholders about whether the 2001 version of the code provides local emergency response personnel with enough information to prepare for and respond to emergencies involving propane, and (3) the status of state and local government adoption of the 2001 code. The 2001 version of the NFPA code strengthens provisions of previous versions regarding information on the off-site effects of accidental propane releases. According to the nine key stakeholders interviewed by GAO, the 2001 version of the code would make more information available to local emergency response personnel. …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report reviews the Department of the Treasury's fiscal year 2000 performance report and fiscal year 2002 performance report plan required by the Government Performance and Results Act. Specifically, GAO discusses Treasury's progress in addressing several key outcomes that are important to Treasury's mission. In general, GAO could not adequately determine Treasury's progress on five key outcomes because the fiscal year 2000 performance report lacked at least some measures needed to directly assess each of the outcomes. However, other information that GAO reviewed and GAO's past work suggest that Treasury may be at risk of not achieving these outcomes. In assessing Treasury's strategies, GAO identified shortcomings in its plans for each of the outcomes it reviewed. Chief among the limitations common to both the Treasury's fiscal year 1999 and 2000 performance reports was that the performance goals and measures of Treasury's agencies were not always directly reflected in the broader departmental goals, limiting the reports' usefulness in determining whether these agencies are making progress in meeting their strategic goals in general and the outcomes GAO reviewed in particular. Treasury improved the fiscal year 2000 report by …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report reviews the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) fiscal year 2000 performance report and fiscal year 2002 performance plan required by the Government Performance and Results Act of 1993 (GPRA) to assess the agency's progress in achieving selected key outcomes that are important to EPA's mission. EPA reported reasonable progress in achieving its key outcomes. Specifically, EPA reported (1) attaining air quality standards in more areas of the country and reducing emissions of toxic pollutants, (2) making strides in achieving its goal of safe and clean drinking water, (3) making progress in cleaning up hazardous waste sites, and (4) making progress in ensuring that food is free from unsafe pesticide residues. Although EPA made several improvements to its fiscal year 2000 performance report, it still falls short in providing information on crosscutting goals and measures. EPA's 2002 performance plan's goals and performance measures address some, but not all, major management challenges."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Payments to farmers under federal farm programs have reached an historic high--over $20 billion in fiscal year 2000. Nearly half of U.S. farms are receiving payments for income or price support purposes and/or for engaging in activities such as land conservation. These payments, in total, made up almost one-half of net farm income in fiscal year 2000. Despite the annual influx of billions of federal dollars to the farm sector, the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports that the number of farms has been declining about one percent per year, with the most notable declines in small family farms and young farmers. GAO reviewed USDA's annual surveys of U.S. farm operations--called the Agricultural Resource Management Study--and state and crop information from its Program Payments Reporting System to (1) determine the distribution of farm payments over the past decade by farm size, operators' age, state, and crop and (2) identify the major barriers that make it difficult for young people to enter farming. GAO found that in recent years, over 80 percent of farm payments have been made to large- and medium-sized farms, while small farms have …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report reviews the Department of Commerce's fiscal year 2000 performance report and fiscal year 2002 performance plan required by the Government Performance and Results Act to assess Commerce's progress on achieving selected key outcomes. Commerce's combined performance report and performance plan is a significant improvement over its fiscal year 1999 performance report and fiscal year 2001 performance plan and addresses the recommendations made in GAO's June 2000 report. Furthermore, the report indicates that Commerce has made progress toward achieving two of the selected key outcomes. However, progress toward achieving the remaining two outcomes is unclear largely because of weaknesses related to measuring performance. Specifically, some of the measures are output-oriented, rather than outcome oriented; some measures have known limitations, which Commerce acknowledges; many of the measures used to assess performance in the past are being discontinued for the future; and Commerce plans to rely on one, narrowly focused measure to demonstrate progress for each performance goal related to these key outcomes. Furthermore, other data exist within the International Trade Administration (ITA) that could support additional measures related to these performance goals."

Weekly newspaper from Sulphur Springs, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Semi-weekly newspaper from Clifton, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

The two, multifaceted objectives of this research project are to (1) investigate the feasibility of vitrifying 2 or 3 high priority wastes, as identified by the Tank Focus Area group, using iron phosphate glasses (i.e., determine chemical durability as a function of waste loading, establish maximum usable waste loading, evaluate melt characteristics and wasteform properties), and (2) acquire the technical data for the types of raw materials and optimized melting and processing parameters that can be used to produce practical-size (prototype) quantities of iron phosphate glassy wasteforms. This research is intended to provide the scientific and engineering knowledge that is needed to utilize iron phosphate glasses for vitrifying selected nuclear wastes on a production scale.

Accurate description of transport pathways on the gross scale, the location of contamination, and characterization of heterogeneity within the vadose zone, are now realized as vital for proper treatment, confinement and stabilization of subsurface contamination at Department of Energy (DOE) waste sites. Electromagnetic (EM) methods are ideal for these tasks since they are directly sensitive to the amount of fluid present in porous media, as well as fluid composition. At many DOE sites it is necessary to employ lower frequency (<1 MHz) or diffusive electromagnetic fields because of the inability of ground penetrating radar (GPR) to penetrate to sufficient depths. The high frequency impedance method, which operated in the diffusive frequency range (10 Hz to 1 MHz), as well as the low end of the spectrum employed by GPR (1MHz-10 MHz), is an ideal technique to delineate and map the aforementioned targets. The method has clearly shown the potential to provide needed information on variations in subsurface saturation due to local storage tanks and perched water zones, as well as mapping geological structures related to the subsurface hydrological properties and heterogeneity within the vadose zone. Although it exhibits certain advantages over other EM methods, the impedance method comes with a …

An immediate EM science need is a reliable kinetic model that predicts long-term waste glass performance. A framework for which the kinetics of mineral-solution reactions can be used to interpret complex silicate glass properties is required to accurately describe the current and future behavior of glasses as synthetic monoliths or natural analogs. Reaction rates and mechanisms are essential elements in deciphering mineral/material reactivity trends within a compositional series or across a matrix of complex solution compositions. An essential place to start, and the goal of this research, is to quantify the reactivity of crystalline and amorphous SiO2 phases in the complex fluids of natural systems.

OAK-B135 The homeotic gene AGAMOUS (AG) has dual roles in specifying floral organ fate and limiting stem cell proliferation in Arabidopsis flowers. We show here that the floral identity protein LEAFY (LFY), a transcription factor expressed throughout the flower, acts together with the homeodomain protein WUSCHEL (WUS) to activate AG in the center of flowers. WUS was previously identified because of its role in maintaining a stem cell population in the center of both shoot and floral meristems. The unsuspected additional role of WUS in regulating floral homeotic gene expression supports the hypothesis that floral patterning makes use of a general meristem patterning system that was present before flowers evolved. We also show that AG represses WUS at later stages of floral development, thus creating a negative feedback loop that is required for the determinate growth of floral meristems.

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To address DOE's chemical sensing needs, a new class of chemical sensors is being developed to enable qualitative and quantitative, remote, real-time, optical diagnostics of chemical species in hazardous gas, liquid, and semi-solid phases by employing evanescent wave cavity ring-down spectroscopy (EWCRDS). The sensitivity of EW-CRDS was demonstrated previously under Project No.60231. The objective of this project is to achieve highly selective chemical detection in a complex matrix of interferants by combining EW-CRDS with molecular recognition (MR) chemistry and by exploiting the polarization dependence of EW-CRDS to enhance optical selectivity.

Spilled solvents have created pervasive groundwater contamination problems across the DOE complex because of their ubiquitous use, their toxicity and persistence in the environment, combined with the difficulty of recovering them from the subsurface. Because organic solvents are more dense than water and immiscible with water, they are commonly referred to as DNAPLs (dense non-aqueous phase liquids). They migrate below the water table downward and laterally under the influence of gravity, capillary, and viscous forces. Variations in media texture that the DNAPLs encounter as they migrate can have a profound influence on the migration path. This interplay between textural heterogeneities and driving forces complicates the migration of the DNAPLs and therefore it is not straightforward to predict the locations in the aquifer at which the spilled DNAPLs may ultimately reside. Uncertainties in the region of solvent contamination translate into higher remediation costs as the remedial system must be designed in light of these uncertainties. In an effort to clean up spilled DNAPLs, several remediation approaches are currently under development. Chemically enhanced solubilization, alcohol displacement, in situ oxidation, and air sparging are among the most promising. Many of these techniques have already undergone preliminary field demonstrations. However, results from such field …

The proposed research aims to develop a fundamental understanding of important biological and physical chemical parameters for effective decontamination of metal surfaces using environmentally benign aqueous-based biopolymer solutions. Understanding how heavy metal-chelating biopolymers coat and interact with contaminated surfaces will benefit the development of novel, safe, easy-to-apply decontamination methodologies for removal of radionuclides and heavy metals. The benefits of these methodologies will include the following: decreased exposure hazards for workers; decreased secondary waste generation; increased efficiency of decontamination; positive public appeal and development of novel, nature-friendly business opportunities; and lower cost of cleanup to the government.

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report reviews the Department of Labor's fiscal year 2000 performance report and fiscal year 2002 performance plan required by the Government Performance and Results Act. GAO found that Labor appears to be making progress in achieving the key outcomes in its strategic plan. Labor has increased its target levels for some goals for fiscal year 2002 and generally provided sound strategies for achieving these new targets. GAO continues to have concerns about some of the measures Labor uses. GAO is most concerned about the way in which Labor addresses two of its management challenges--information technology and strategic human capital management. Given the breadth of these goals, goal achievement cannot be fully assessed with the performance indicators Labor proposes. Without better indicators that more accurately and comprehensively measure performance toward the goal, Labor will be unable to fully assess its progress in these areas."