A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Breast cancer is the second leading cause of cancer deaths among American women. In 2001, 192,200 new cases of breast cancer were diagnosed and 40,200 women died from the disease. The probability of survival increases significantly, however, when breast cancer is discovered in its early stages. Currently, the most effective technique for early detection of breast cancer is screening mammography, an X-ray procedure that can detect small tumors and breast abnormalities up to two years before they can be detected by touch. Nationwide data indicate that mammography services are generally adequate to meet the growing demand. Between 1998 and 2000, both the population of women 40 and older and the extent to which they were screened increased by 15 percent. Although mammography services are generally available, women in some locations have problems obtaining timely mammography services in some metropolitan areas. However, the greatest losses in capacity have come in rural counties. In all, 121 counties, most of them rural, have experienced a drop of more than 25 percent in the number of mammography machines in the last three years. Officials from 37 of these counties reported …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since 1986, China has narrowed the gap between the U.S. and Chinese semiconductor manufacturing technology from between seven to 10 years to two years or less. China's success in acquiring manufacturing technology from abroad has improved its semiconductor manufacturing facilities for more capable weapons systems and advanced consumer electronics. The multilateral Wassenaar Arrangement on Export Controls for Conventional Arms and Dual-Use Goods and Technologies has not affected China's ability to obtain semiconductor manufacturing equipment because the United States is the only member of this voluntary arrangement that considers China's acquisition of semiconductor manufacturing equipment a cause for concern. Under the Export Administration Regulations pertaining to China, the general licensing policy is to approve applications, except those items that would make a direct and significant contribution to specific areas of China's military. Furthermore, U.S. agencies have not done the analyses, such as assessing foreign availability of this technology or the cumulative effects of such exports on U.S. national security interests, necessary to justify such a practice or serve as the basis for licensing decisions. Consequently, the executive branch lacks a sound, well-documented basis for making export-licensing decisions …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since 1980 Congress has passed laws to facilitate the transfer of technology from federal laboratories to U.S. businesses. In particular, the National Competitiveness Technology Transfer Act of 1989 authorized federal laboratories operated by contractors, including the Department of Energy's (DOE) national laboratories, to enter into cooperative research and development agreements (CRADA). Under a CRADA, the partner and DOE laboratory agree to jointly conduct research and typically share the research costs. By fiscal year 1992, DOE's national laboratories were among the leading federal laboratories participating in CRADAs. Recently however, the 12 laboratories that DOE surveyed have substantially reduced their CRADA partnerships and their technical assistance to small businesses. Instead, the laboratories have increasingly transferred technology through agreements that did not involve collaborative research and were funded by a business or other nonfederal entity. Managers at most of the laboratories say the lack of dedicated funding for technology for transfer to technology partnerships, including funding targeted to small businesses, is the most important barrier to their technology transfer activities. Managers at most laboratories said that DOE's lack of a high-level, effective advocate for technology transfer and DOE's lack …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Last year the United States proposed that the World Bank and other development banks distribute more grants to the world's poorest countries to help ease their long-term debt burdens. The United States recommended that grants replace up to half of all future lending. The proposal has been controversial because of its potential impact on the resources available to poor countries. The World Bank estimates that the proposal could reduce its resources by $100 billion during the next 40 years. A shift of multilateral loans to grants would reduce poor countries' debt burdens and increase their ability to repay future debt. The total financial loss to the World Bank of a 50-percent shift from loans to grants during the next 40 years would be $15.6 billion in present value terms. Financing the proposal through harder terms on the remaining loans to poor countries would reduce and potentially nullify any improvement to their debt sustainability arising from the 50-percent grants proposal. However, if donor contributions to the World Bank were to increase by 1.6 percent a year, which is less than the projected rate of inflation during the …

This report describes work that was performed under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) between UT-Battelle, LLC (Contractor) and a commercial participant, VIASYS Healthcare Inc. (formerly Nicolet Biomedical, Inc.). The Contractor has patented technology that forewarns of impending epileptic events via scalp electroencephalograph (EEG) data and successfully demonstrated this technology on 20 datasets from the Participant under pre-CRADA effort. This CRADA sought to bridge the gap between the Contractor's existing research-class software and a prototype medical device for subsequent commercialization by the Participant. The objectives of this CRADA were (1) development of a combination of existing computer hardware and Contractor-patented software into a clinical process for warning of impending epileptic events in human patients, and (2) validation of the epilepsy warning methodology. This work modified the ORNL research-class FORTRAN for forewarning to run under a graphical user interface (GUI). The GUI-FORTRAN software subsequently was installed on desktop computers at five epilepsy monitoring units. The forewarning prototypes have run for more than one year without any hardware or software failures. This work also reported extensive analysis of model and EEG datasets to demonstrate the usefulness of the methodology. However, the Participant recently chose to stop work on the CRADA, due …

This report documents the information base for the melt-dilute SNF form needed for submittal of a license application for the repository to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The National Spent Fuel Program will use the information in this report to compile the information base for all DOE-SNF and transmit to the DOE Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (DOE-OCRWM or DOE-RW). The DOE-RW is the agency that will actually submit the license application.

This note addresses the general concerns for the design of a ferrite cavity. The parameters are specified for the RCMS, for which the frequency ramp is in the range of 1.27 MHz to 6.44 MHz, or a ratio of 1:5.

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This report provides information on the 33 Asian Pacific Americans who have served in the United States Congress from 1903 to the present, including 13 Resident Commissioners from the Philippine Islands. These Resident Commissioners served from 1907-1946 while the Philippines were a U.S. territory and commonwealth (all were Philippines born). Information on Members and territorial delegates includes party affiliations, length and dates of service, and committee assignments.

With the Nation's coal-burning utilities facing the possibility of tighter controls on mercury pollutants, the U.S. Department of Energy is funding projects that could offer power plant operators better ways to reduce these emissions at much lower costs. Mercury is known to have toxic effects on the nervous system of humans and wildlife. Although it exists only in trace amounts in coal, mercury is released when coal burns and can accumulate on land and in water. In water, bacteria transform the metal into methylmercury, the most hazardous form of the metal. Methylmercury can collect in fish and marine mammals in concentrations hundreds of thousands times higher than the levels in surrounding waters. One of the goals of DOE is to develop technologies by 2005 that will be capable of cutting mercury emissions 50 to 70 percent at well under one-half of today's costs. ADA Environmental Solutions (ADA-ES) is managing a project to test mercury control technologies at full scale at four different power plants from 2000--2003. The ADA-ES project is focused on those power plants that are not equipped with wet flue gas desulfurization systems. ADA-ES will develop a portable system that will be moved to four different utility power …

Criticality analysis of the proposed Melt-Dilute (MD) form of aluminum-based spent nuclear fuel (SNF), under geologic repository conditions, was performed following the methodology, documented in the Disposal Criticality Analysis Methodology Topical Report. This methodology evaluates the potential for nuclear criticality as determined by the composition of the waste and its geometry, namely waste form configuration, including presence of moderator, reflecting structural material, and neutron absorbers. The initial emplaced configuration of the SNF form is a dry package placed in a mined repository passageway. Criticality calculations show that even with waste package failure, followed by degradation of material within the waste package and potential loss of neutron absorber materials, sub-critical conditions can be maintained.

This project was based on preliminary data that was published by Dr. Boothman (Yang et al. 2000) which indicated a strong induction of apoJ gene expression, increased secretion of the protein, and accumulation of an apparently somewhat different form of the apoJ protein in the nucleus of MCF-7 breast carcinoma cells undergoing response to DNA damage. A clone expressing apoJ protein was isolated that was capable of interacting with Ku80, a component of the double strand break repair complex that is essential for the successful repair of rearranging immunoglobulin and T-cell receptor genes as evidenced by failure to produce mature B and T cells in the absence of Ku70. ApoJ clones isolated and characterized by Dr. Boothman bound strongly to a Ku-70 ''bait'' protein. Over-expression of these same clones in a cell line was capable of killing the cell. ApoJ is very strongly induced in many instances of programmed cell death and has been proposed repeatedly to play some sort of effector role in the process. Our principle hypothesis for this study was that the strong induction of the apoJ gene and the particular expression of a nuclear form of the protein was potentially a causal factor in the decision …

This issue brief covers only Parts A and E of ESEA Title I. Part A of Title I, grants to LEAs, constitutes over 90% of total Title I funding, while Part E authorizes program evaluation and demonstration projects of innovative practices, including the Comprehensive School Reform Program. Other Parts of Title I authorize the Even Start program of joint services to young disadvantaged children and their parents (Part B), plus aid for the education of migrant (Part C) and neglected or delinquent youth (Part D).

This report provides information on the 33 Asian Pacific Americans who have served in the United States Congress from 1903 to the present, including 13 Resident Commissioners from the Philippine Islands. These Resident Commissioners served from 1907-1946 while the Philippines were a U.S. territory and commonwealth (all were Philippine born). Information on Members and territorial delegates includes party affiliations, length and dates of service, and committee assignments.

This report provides a brief overview of the alternative minimum tax (AMT) for individuals, discusses the issues associated with the current system, and describes current legislation to amend the AMT. The report will be updated as legislative action warrants.