John Thomas Biggers (1924–2001) was one of the most significant African American artists of the twentieth century. He was known for his murals, but also for his drawings, paintings, and lithographs, and was honored by a major traveling retrospective exhibition from 1995 to 1997. He created archetypal imagery that spoke positively to the rich and varied ethnic heritage of African Americans, long before the Civil Rights era drew attention to their African cultural roots. His influence upon other artists was profound, both for the power of his art and as professor and elder statesman to younger generations. Olive Jensen Theisen’s long-time commitment to the art of John Biggers resulted from the serendipitous discovery of an early Biggers mural in a school storeroom in the mid-1980s. Theisen immediately recognized the artist, the work, and its significance. She then set about returning The History of Negro Education in Morris County, Texas to a place of honor and found herself becoming a friend and recorder of John Biggers’s stories and experiences relating to the creation of his other murals too, including Family Unity at Texas Southern University. Containing more than eighty color and black-and-white illustrations, Walls That Speak is a richly illustrated update …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "The Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008 (HERA) created the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) and gave it responsibility for, among other things, the supervision and oversight of the housing-related government-sponsored enterprises (GSE): Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and the 12 federal home loan banks. Specifically, FHFA was assigned responsibility for ensuring that each of the regulated entities operates in a fiscally safe and sound manner, including maintenance of adequate capital and internal controls, and carries out its housing and community development finance mission. HERA also requires FHFA to annually prepare financial statements, and further requires GAO to audit these statements. Pursuant to HERA's requirement, GAO audited FHFA's fiscal years 2010 and 2009 financial statements to determine whether (1) the financial statements were fairly stated, and (2) FHFA management maintained effective internal control over financial reporting. GAO also tested FHFA's compliance with selected laws and regulations. GAO is not making any recommendations in this report. In commenting on a draft of this report, FHFA stated that it was pleased with the results of the audit, and it would continue to work to enhance its internal controls …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "On October 3, 2008, the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) was signed into law. EESA authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to implement the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) and established the Office of Financial Stability (OFS) within the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) to do so. EESA requires the annual preparation of financial statements for TARP, and further requires GAO to audit these statements. GAO audited OFS's fiscal years 2010 and 2009 financial statements for TARP to determine whether, in all material respects, (1) the financial statements were fairly stated, and (2) OFS management maintained effective internal control over financial reporting. GAO also tested OFS's compliance with selected provisions of laws and regulations. In commenting on a draft of this report, the Acting Assistant Secretary, Office of Financial Stability, stated OFS concurred with the significant deficiency in its internal control over financial reporting that GAO identified. He also stated that OFS is committed to correcting the deficiency."

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "On September 6, 2008, the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) placed the Federal National Mortgage Association (Fannie Mae) and the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (Freddie Mac) into conservatorships. FHFA took this step after concern developed that the deteriorating financial condition of the two government-sponsored enterprises (GSE), which had about $5.4 trillion in combined financial obligations, threatened the stability of financial markets. Since then, the Department of the Treasury (Treasury) has provided financial support to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the enterprises) to help stabilize their financial condition and help ensure their ability to continue to support housing finance. As of September 2010, Treasury had provided about $150 billion in capital contributions to support the enterprises, and the Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the total cost to taxpayers could be nearly $400 billion over a 10-year period. In recent months, Congress and the administration have been considering a variety of proposals to reform the enterprises in order to help ensure their safety and soundness and the effectiveness of the U.S. housing finance system. We issued a report under the Comptroller General's authority on structural reform options for …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Entities responsible for managing home mortgage loans--called servicers--may initiate foreclosure proceedings on certain delinquent loans but then decide to not complete the process. Many of these properties are vacant. These abandoned foreclosure--or "bank walkaway"--properties can exacerbate neighborhood decline and complicate federal stabilization efforts. GAO was asked to assess (1) the nature and prevalence of abandoned foreclosures, (2) their impact on communities, (3) practices that may lead servicers to initiate but not complete foreclosures and regulatory oversight of foreclosure practices, and (4) actions some communities have taken to reduce abandoned foreclosures and their impacts. GAO analyzed servicer loan data from January 2008 through March 2010 and conducted case studies in 12 cities. GAO also interviewed representatives of federal agencies, state and local officials, nonprofit organizations, and six servicers, among others, and reviewed federal banking regulations and exam guidance. Among other things, GAO recommends that the Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) require servicers they oversee to notify borrowers and communities when foreclosures are halted and to obtain updated valuations for selected properties before initiating foreclosure. The Federal Reserve neither agreed nor disagreed …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Agencies must engage in a whole-of-government approach to protect the nation and its interests from diverse threats such as terrorism and infectious diseases. However, GAO has reported that gaps in national security staff knowledge and skills pose a barrier to the interagency collaboration needed to address these threats. Training and other professional development activities could help bridge those gaps. GAO was asked to identify: (1) training and other professional development activities intended to improve the ability of key national security agencies' personnel to collaborate across organizational lines and (2) how these activities were intended to improve participants' collaboration abilities. To address these objectives, GAO asked nine key agencies involved in national security issues to submit information on professional development activities that were explicitly intended to build staff knowledge or skills for improving interagency collaboration. In addition, GAO gathered and analyzed other information such as target audience, participation levels, and participating agencies. GAO also interviewed responsible human capital and training officials. GAO will explore how interagency participation and other factors may influence the success of these activities in a subsequent review."

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Water is critical to the stability of Afghanistan and is an essential part of U.S. efforts in Afghanistan. Since 2002, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Department of Defense (DOD) have awarded $250 million for water projects. This report examines (1) the alignment of U.S. water goals and projects with Afghan water-sector development goals; (2) U.S. agencies' coordination of water-sector efforts among themselves, with the Afghan government and the donor community; (3) U.S. efforts to manage and monitor these water projects; and (4) U.S. efforts to build sustainability into water-sector projects. GAO reviewed and analyzed planning, funding, and performance documents from U.S. agencies and implementing partners, and interviewed U.S. officials in Washington, D.C., and U.S., Afghan, and donor officials in Afghanistan."

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Since 1992, GAO has published long-term fiscal simulations showing federal deficits and debt levels under both "Baseline Extended" and an "Alternative" set of assumptions. GAO has regularly updated these twice a year. GAO developed its long-term model in response to a bipartisan request from Members of Congress concerned about the long-term effects of fiscal policy. GAO's simulations provide a broad context for consideration of policy options by illustrating both the importance of taking action and the magnitude of the steps necessary to change the path. They are not intended to suggest particular policy choices that are the prerogative of elected officials but rather to help facilitate a dialog on this important issue. As in the past, GAO shows two simulations: "Baseline Extended" and an "Alternative." Each is run using two different projections for Social Security and the major health entitlements--CBO's baseline and alternative assumptions and the Social Security and Medicare Trustees' (Trustees) intermediate assumptions and projections based on the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Office of the Actuary (CMS Actuary) alternative assumptions. "Baseline Extended" follows the Congressional Budget Office's (CBO) August 2010 baseline estimates for …

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Presented is GAO's performance and accountability report for fiscal year 2010. In the spirit of the Government Performance and Results Act, this annual report informs the Congress and the American people about what we have achieved on their behalf. The financial information and the data measuring GAO's performance contained in this report are complete and reliable."

This report discusses the efforts undertaken since even prior to September 11, 2001, to increase safety and security measures for facilities possessing certain amounts of hazardous chemicals. The 109th congress passed legislation in 2006 providing the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) statutory authority to regulate chemical facilities for security purposes. This statutory authority expires in December 2010. This report provides a brief overview of the existing statutory authority and the regulation implementing this authority. It describes several policy issues raised in previous debates regarding chemical facility security and identifies policy options that might resolve components of these issues. Finally, legislation introduced in the 111th Congress is discussed.

Recent depositions involving major servicers, including GMAC Mortgage, J.P. Morgan Chase, and Wells Fargo, have raised concerns about "robo-signing" -- the practice of having a small number of individuals sign a large number of affidavits and other legal documents submitted to courts and other public authorities by mortgage companies to execute foreclosure. This report explores concerns related to these issues by explaining the mortgage market process, procedural problems that have surfaced during foreclosure proceedings, and other relevant information.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to the Accountability of Tax Dollars Act of 2002, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is required to prepare and submit to Congress and the Office of Management and Budget audited financial statements. GAO, under its audit authority, audited SEC's financial statements to determine whether (1) the financial statements are fairly stated, and (2) SEC management maintained effective internal control over financial reporting. GAO also tested SEC's compliance with selected provisions of significant laws and regulations. In accordance with the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, GAO also reported on SEC's assessment of its internal control over financial reporting."

The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) provides benefits to veterans through three major operating units, one of which is the Veterans Health Administration (VHA), on which this report focuses. This report will track the FY2011 appropriations process for funding VHA, and will be updated as legislative activities warrant.

Photograph of an unidentified teacher with the Teach North Texas program in her classroom with her students. She is doing something with the hand of one of the students while two others watch. Her walls are decorated with posters and information.

Photograph of a student working on an activity in their class. Their pointer and middle fingers are taped to a stick that is also taped to their wrist and they are trying to do a task with paperclips. He is wearing a Cowboys football jersey and a nametag that reads "Gates Gan". He is a part of the Teach North Texas program.

Photograph of three students working on an activity in their class. Their pointer and middle fingers are taped to a stick that is also taped to their wrist and they are trying to do tasks with pennies and paperclips. The group is a part of the Teach North Texas UNT program.

Photograph of four students that are part of the Teach North Texas program. They are all seated in a make-shift circle on the ground and are working on an activity. They have a baggie in the middle of them and are using a pair of scissors. They are attaching sticks to their pointer fingers.

Photograph of students being helped by their teacher during an activity. She is attaching a stick to their fingers and wrist using tape. The students are waiting in a line to be helped. The teacher is a part of the Teach North Texas program.

Photograph of a student that is part of the Teach North Texas program. They are seated on the ground by the classroom's backpack cubbies. Their hand is raised and on it they've taped a stick to their fingers and wrist.

Possible environmental effects of marine and hydrokinetic (MHK) energy development are not well understood, and yet regulatory agencies are required to make decisions in spite of substantial uncertainty about environmental impacts and their long-term effects. An understanding of risk associated with likely interactions between MHK installations and aquatic receptors, including animals, habitats, and ecosystems, can help reduce the level of uncertainty and focus regulatory actions and scientific studies on interactions of most concern. As a first step in developing the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) Environmental Risk Evaluation System (ERES), PNNL scientists conducted a preliminary risk screening analysis on three initial MHK cases - a tidal project in Puget Sound using Open Hydro turbines, a wave project off the coast of Oregon using Ocean Power Technologies point attenuator buoys, and a riverine current project in the Mississippi River using Free Flow turbines. Through an iterative process, the screening analysis revealed that top-tier stressors in all three cases were the effects of the dynamic physical presence of the device (e.g., strike), accidents, and effects of the static physical presence of the device (e.g., habitat alteration). Receptor interactions with these stressors at the four highest tiers of risk were dominated by marine …

Predictive engine simulation models are needed to make rapid progress towards DOE's goals of increasing combustion engine efficiency and reducing pollutant emissions. These engine simulation models require chemical kinetic submodels to allow the prediction of the effect of fuel composition on engine performance and emissions. Chemical kinetic models for conventional and next-generation transportation fuels need to be developed so that engine simulation tools can predict fuel effects. The objectives are to: (1) Develop detailed chemical kinetic models for fuel components used in surrogate fuels for diesel and HCCI engines; (2) Develop surrogate fuel models to represent real fuels and model low temperature combustion strategies in HCCI and diesel engines that lead to low emissions and high efficiency; and (3) Characterize the role of fuel composition on low temperature combustion modes of advanced combustion engines.

Reconstruction of transcriptional regulatory networks is one of the major challenges facing the bioinformatics community in view of constantly growing number of complete genomes. The comparative genomics approach has been successfully used for the analysis of the transcriptional regulation of many metabolic systems in various bacteria taxa. The key step in this approach is given a position weight matrix, find an optimal threshold for the search of potential binding sites in genomes. In our previous work we proposed an approach for automatic selection of TFBS score threshold coupled with inference of regulon content. In this study we developed two modifications of this approach providing two additional levels of sensitivity.

Drosophila melanogaster cell lines are important resources for cell biologists. Here, we catalog the expression of exons, genes, and unannotated transcriptional signals for 25 lines. Unannotated transcription is substantial (typically 19% of euchromatic signal). Conservatively, we identify 1405 novel transcribed regions; 684 of these appear to be new exons of neighboring, often distant, genes. Sixty-four percent of genes are expressed detectably in at least one line, but only 21% are detected in all lines. Each cell line expresses, on average, 5885 genes, including a common set of 3109. Expression levels vary over several orders of magnitude. Major signaling pathways are well represented: most differentiation pathways are ‘‘off’’ and survival/growth pathways ‘‘on.’’ Roughly 50% of the genes expressed by each line are not part of the common set, and these show considerable individuality. Thirty-one percent are expressed at a higher level in at least one cell line than in any single developmental stage, suggesting that each line is enriched for genes characteristic of small sets of cells. Most remarkable is that imaginal discderived lines can generally be assigned, on the basis of expression, to small territories within developing discs. These mappings reveal unexpected stability of even fine-grained spatial determination. No two …

Dampness and mold have been shown in qualitative reviews to be associated with a variety of adverse respiratory health effects, including respiratory tract infections. Several published meta-analyses have provided quantitative summaries for some of these associations, but not for respiratory infections. Demonstrating a causal relationship between dampness-related agents, which are preventable exposures, and respiratory tract infections would suggest important new public health strategies. We report the results of quantitative meta-analyses of published studies that examined the association of dampness or mold in homes with respiratory infections and bronchitis. For primary studies meeting eligibility criteria, we transformed reported odds ratios (ORs) and confidence intervals (CIs) to the log scale. Both fixed and random effects models were applied to the log ORs and their variances. Most studies contained multiple estimated ORs. Models accounted for the correlation between multiple results within the studies analyzed. One set of analyses was performed with all eligible studies, and another set restricted to studies that controlled for age, gender, smoking, and socioeconomic status. Subgroups of studies were assessed to explore heterogeneity. Funnel plots were used to assess publication bias. The resulting summary estimates of ORs from random effects models based on all studies ranged from 1.38 to …