This report summarizes the critiques the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Supervision (OFHEO) made of accounting practices at Fannie Mae. The OFHEO's two main issues are under the domains of: amortization of discounts, premiums, fees involved in the purchase of home mortgages, and the other being accounting for financial derivatives contracts. The report emphasizes that these discrepancies created a false image of the company's earnings and in one case was the cause of the company's executives to receive bonuses.

The United States and its allies are helping Afghanistan emerging from more than 22 years of warfare, although substantial risk to Afghan stability remains. Before the U.S. military campaign against the orthodox Islamist Taliban movement began on October 7, 2001, Afghanistan had been mired in conflict since the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in 1979. The defeat of the Taliban has enabled the United States and its coalition partners to send forces throughout Afghanistan to search for Taliban and Al Qaeda fighters and leaders that remain at large, including Osama bin Laden. As the war against remaining Al Qaeda and Taliban elements winds down, the United States is shifting its military focus toward stabilizing the interim government, including training a new Afghan national army, and supporting the international security force (ISAF) that is helping the new government provide security.

There is a lack of consensus regarding the best method of balancing scientific publishing and national security. The current federal policy, as described in National Security Decision Directive 189, is that fundamental research should remain unrestricted and that in the rare case where it is necessary to restrict such information, classification is the appropriate vehicle to do so. Other mechanisms restrict international information flow, where Export Administration Regulations (EAR) and International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) control export of items and technical information on specific lists. Both EAR and ITAR contain a fundamental research exclusion, but this exclusion is lost if prepublication review of research results for sensitive information occurs.

In 2003, the Bush administration made a proposal for reform to strengthen pension plan funding and the financial condition of the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC). Various bills with the goal of reforming the PBGC were proposed in the 108th Congress but none were enacted into law. The doubling of the PBGC deficit from fiscal 2003 to fiscal 2004, has heightened awareness about the PBGC deficit situation. Congressional leaders from both parties have announced their intention to move aggressively on legislative solutions in the 109th Congress.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "ESPCs finance energy-saving capital improvements, such as lighting retrofits for federal facilities, without the government incurring the full cost up front. Partnerships tap the capital and expertise of the private sector to develop real property. This report describes (1) what specific attributes of ESPCs and partnerships contributed to budget scoring decisions, (2) the costs of financing through ESPCs compared to the costs of financing via timely, full, and up-front appropriations, and (3) how ESPCs and partnerships are monitored. Using case studies, GAO reviewed GSA and Navy ESPCs and DOE and VA partnerships."

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Data mining is emerging as one of the key features of many homeland security initiatives. Often used as a means for detecting fraud, assessing risk, and product retailing, data mining involves the use of data analysis tools to discover previously unknown, valid patterns and relationships in large data sets. This report discusses the data mining uses (i.e. Terrorism Information Awareness (TIA) Program) and issues (i.e. data quality, interoperability, privacy), as well as the limitations of data mining.

In this first year of the program we have focused on the selection of rare-earth dopants for luminescent sensing in thermal barrier coating materials, the effect of dopant concentration on several of the luminescence characteristics and initial fabrication of one type of embedded sensor, the ''red-line'' sensor. We have initially focused on erbium as the lanthanide dopant for luminescence doping of yttria-stabilized zirconia and europium as the lanthanide for luminescence doping of gadolinium zirconate. The latter exhibits a temperature-dependent luminescence lifetime up to at least 1100 C. A buried layer, ''red-line'' sensor in an electron-beam deposited yttria-stabilized zirconia coating with erbium has been demonstrated and exhibits a temperature-dependent luminescence lifetime up to at least 400 C.

This report discusses policy and legislation regarding fish and marine mammals. These animals are important resources in open ocean and nearshore coastal areas. Commercial and sport fishing are jointly managed by the federal government and individual states. Many laws and regulations guide the management of these resources by federal agencies.

This report discusses United States and United Nations preparations for Iraq’s planned elections for a transitional National Assembly, scheduled for January 30, 2005. Elections preparations are significantly hindered by continuing insurgency and threats of a boycott by many of Iraq’s Sunni Arabs.

Sorption of cesium and strontium on kaolinite powders was investigated as a means to minimize the emissions of these metals during certain high temperature processes currently being developed to isolate and dispose of radiological and mixed wastes. In this work, non-radioactive aqueous cesium acetate or strontium acetate was atomized down the center of a natural gas flame supported on a variable-swirl burner in a refractory-lined laboratory-scale combustion facility. Kaolinite powder was injected at a post-flame location in the combustor. Cesium readily vaporizes in the high temperature regions of the combustor, but was reactively scavenged onto dispersed kaolinite. Global sorption mechanisms of cesium vapor on kaolinite were quantified, and are related to those available in the literature for sodium and lead. Both metal adsorption and substrate deactivation steps are important, and so there is an optimum temperature, between 1400 and 1500 K, at which maximum sorption occurs. The presence of chlorine inhibits cesium sorption. In contrast to cesium, and in the absence of chlorine, strontium was only partially vaporized and was, therefore, only partially scavengeable. The strontium data did not allow quantification of global kinetic mechanisms of interaction, although equilibrium arguments provided insight into the effects of chlorine on strontium sorption. …

The death of King Hussein on February 7, 1999, removed a strong U.S. ally and force for stability; however, his son and successor, King Abdullah, has continued to follow the late King’s moderate and pro-western policies. In recent years, Jordan has taken significant steps toward building democratic life, including a return to limited parliamentary democracy. Parliament has eased restrictions in laws affecting the press, but some remain.

This report includes questions and answers regarding various military medical care services. What is the purpose of the Military Health Services System, who is eligible to receive this care, and what is the DOD pharmacy benefit are among questions asked and answered in this report.

Reliable quantitative prediction of contaminant transport in subsurface environments is critical to evaluating the risks associated with radionuclide migration. As part of the Underground Test Area (UGTA) program, radionuclide transport away from selected underground nuclear tests conducted in the saturated zone at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) is being examined. In the near-field environment, reactive transport simulations must account for changes in water chemistry and mineralogy as a function of time and their effect on radionuclide migration. Unlike the Kd approach, surface complexation reactions, in conjunction with ion exchange and precipitation, can be used to describe radionuclide reactive transport as a function of changing environmental conditions. They provide a more robust basis for describing radionuclide retardation in geochemically dynamic environments. In a companion report (Zavarin and Bruton, 2004), a database of radionuclide surface complexation reactions for calcite and iron oxide minerals was developed. In this report, a second set of reactions is developed: surface complexation (SC) and ion exchange (IE) to aluminosilicate minerals. The most simplified surface complexation model, the one-site non-electrostatic model (NEM), and the Vanselow IE model were used to fit a large number of published sorption data and a reaction constant database was developed. Surface complexation of …

A design requirement probability of 0.01 or less in a 4-hour period ensures that the nuclear heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) system in the primary confinement areas of the Dry Transfer Facilities (DTFs) and Fuel Handling Facility (FHF) is working during a Category 1 drop event involving commercial spent nuclear fuel (CSNF) assemblies (BSC 2004a , Section 5.1.1.48). This corresponds to an hourly HVAC failure rate of 2.5E-3 per hour or less, which is contributed to by two dominant causes: equipment failure and loss of electrical power. Meeting this minimum threshold ensures that a Category 1 initiating event followed by the failure of HVAC is a Category 2 event sequence. The two causes for the loss of electrical power include the loss of offsite power and the loss of onsite power distribution. Thus, in order to meet the threshold requirement aforementioned, the failure rate of mechanical equipment, loss of offsite power, and loss of onsite power distribution must be less than or equal to 2.5E-3 per hour for the nuclear HVAC system in the primary confinement areas of the DTFs and FHF. The loss of offsite power occurs at a frequency of 1.1E-5 per hour (BSC 2004a, Section 5.1.1.48). The …

This report focuses on the use and interpretation of firearms trace data produced by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF).

This report discusses trade issues in the 109th Congress. For over 50 years, U.S. trade officials have negotiated multilateral trade agreements to achieve lower trade barriers and rules to cover international trade. During the 108th Congress, U.S. officials negotiated and Congress approved four bilateral free-trade agreements with Australia, Chile, Morocco, and Singapore.

Report on the U.N. Population Fund, including its history, international contributions, evaluations of programs, and more.

I performed contact ultrasonic time-of-flight measurements on three binary U-6 wt-% Nb alloy (U-6Nb) cubes. Using the time-of-flight measurement results, thickness, and density, the Acoustic Velocity, Poisson's Ratio, Shear Modulus, and Modulus of Elasticity are calculated. A detailed data is summarized in the spreadsheets 1-6. The calculated data compares the material properties of each cube before and after a heat treatment (HT). The time-of-flight measurements were performed using the pulse/echo signal overlap technique discussed in the Review of Ultrasonic Pulse/Echo Signal Overlap Technique section of this report. The measurements were made using both the longitudinal and shear ultrasonic modes and acquired in the X, Y, and Z axes of each cube, as represented in Figure 1. Thickness and density measurements on the three cubes were performed by the Manufacturing and Materials Engineering Division, Dimensional Inspection Group. The HT was performed on all three cubes in the Manufacturing and Materials Engineering Division, Heat Treat Shop. The process consisted of 200 C for 2 hours in a vacuum furnace, followed by an argon purge to 25 C.

Condor County Consulting on behalf of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has performed wet season surveys for listed branchiopods at Site 300, located in eastern Alameda County and western San Joaquin County. LLNL is collecting information for the preparation of an EIS covering ongoing explosives testing and related activities on Site 300. Related activities include maintenance of fire roads and annual control burns of approximately 607 hectares (1500 acres). Control burns typically take place on the northern portion of the site. Because natural branchiopod habitat is sparse on Site 300, it is not surprising that listed branchiopods were not observed during this 2001-2002 wet season survey. Although the site is large, a majority of it has topography and geology that precludes the formation of static seasonal pools. Even the relatively gentle topography of the northern half of the site contains few areas where water pools for more than two weeks. The rock outcrops found on the site did not provide suitable habitat for listed branchiopods. Most of the habitat available to branchiopods on the site is puddles that form in roadbeds and dry quickly. The one persistent pool on the site, the larger of the two modified vernal pools and …

Condor Country Consulting conducted surveys for listed branchiopods in the 2002-2003 wet season to complete requirements of the Guidelines (USFWS 1996) used to determine the distribution of federally-listed branchiopods within the study area. The first survey was performed during the previous wet season (2001-2002). The 2002-2003 wet season survey, combined with the previous season's survey, is intended to provide LLNL with information that will assist them in determining the effects of the proposed action on federally listed branchiopods and provide information useful in the preparation of the associated environmental documentation. It is also expected to satisfy the survey requirements of the USFWS. For the purpose of this report, the term branchiopod refers specifically to phyllopodous branchiopods and not cladocerans. Fairy shrimp, tadpole shrimp, and clam shrimp are all categorized as phyllopodous branchiopods and are currently the only members of the Class Branchiopoda that contain species that are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. Although cladocerans are branchiopods and were found on the site, they are only referred to by the Order in this report because they are not the target species of this study.

To assist the University of California in obtaining biological assessment information for the ''2004 Environmental Impact Statement for Continued Operation of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL)'', Jones & Stokes conducted an inventory of small mammals in six major vegetation communities at Site 300. These communities were annual grassland, native grassland, oak savanna, riparian corridor, coastal scrub, and seep/spring wetlands. The principal objective of this study was to assess the diversity and abundance of small mammal species in these communities, as well as the current status of any special-status small mammal species found in these communities. Surveys in the native grassland community were conducted before and after a controlled fire management burn of the grasslands to qualitatively evaluate any potential effects of fire on small mammals in the area.

This report summarizes the critiques the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Supervision (OFHEO) made of accounting practices at Fannie Mae. The OFHEO's two main issues are under the domains of: amortization of discounts, premiums, fees involved in the purchase of home mortgages, and the other being accounting for financial derivatives contracts. The report emphasizes that these discrepancies created a false image of the company's earnings and in one case was the cause of the company's executives to receive bonuses.

In support for the Aggregation option, researchers performed a series of tests using actual Tank 48H slurries. The tests were designed to examine potential benzene generation issues if the Tank 48H slurry is disposed to Saltstone. Personnel used the archived Tank 48H sample (HTF-E-03-127, collected September 17, 2003) for the experiments. The tests included a series of three experiments (Tests A, B, and F) performed in duplicate, giving a total of six experiments. Test A used Tank 48H slurry mixed with approximately 20:1 with Defense Waste Processing Facility (DWPF) Recycle from Tanks 21H and 22H. Test B used Tank 48H slurry mixed with approximately 2.7:1 with DWPF Recycle from Tanks 21H and 22H, while Test F used Tank 48H slurry as-is. Tests A and B occurred at 45 degrees C, while Test F occurred at 55 degrees C. Over a period of 8 weeks, personnel collected samples for analysis, once per week. Each sample was tested with the in-cell gamma counter. The researchers noted a decline in the cesium activity in solution which is attributed to temperature dependence of the complex slurry equilibrium. Selected samples were sent to ADS for potassium, boron, and cesium analysis. The benzene generation rate was …