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.

The Supreme Court, in Toyota Motor Manufacturing v. Williams, held that to be an individual with a disability under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) an individual must have substantial limitations on abilities that are central to daily life,rather than only to those abilities used in the workplace. In an unanimous opinion written by Justice O’Connor, the Court interpreted the definition of individual with disability narrowly to exclude individuals who are limited only in the performance of manual tasks associated with their job. This report will briefly discuss Williams and its implications for the ADA.

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

A progress report for the Bastrop Independent School District (ISD) to determine how they are doing in implementing the suggestions of their performance review.

Twenty-two scientists from around the nation and the world met to discuss the way that the molecules, structures, processes and concepts of the biological world could be used or mimicked in designing novel materials, processes or devices of potential practical significance. The emphasis was on basic research, although the long-term goal is, in addition to increased knowledge, the development of applications to further the mission of the Department of Energy.

None

This report provides an overview of the structure and status of the CSR program, the issues raised about the program, early reports on its implementation, and relevant legislative action by the U.S. Congress

Intensive animal feeding operations create large amounts of animal waste that must be safely disposed of in order to avoid environmental degradation. Cattle feedlots and chicken houses are two examples. In feedlots, cattle are confined to small pens and fed a high calorie grain diet in preparation for slaughter. In chicken houses, thousands of chickens are kept in close proximity. In both of these operations, millions of tons of manure are produced every year. In this project a co-firing technology is proposed which would use manure that cannot be used for fertilizer, for power generation. Since the animal manure has economic uses as both a fertilizer and as a fuel, it is properly referred to as feedlot biomass (FB) for cow manure, or litter biomass (LB) for chicken manure. The biomass will be used a as a fuel by mixing it with coal in a 90:10 blend and firing it in existing coal fired combustion devices. This technique is known as co-firing, and the high temperatures produced by the coal will allow the biomass to be completely combusted. Therefore, it is the goal of the current research to develop an animal biomass cofiring technology. A cofiring technology is being developed …

We are working on developing an Integrated Systems Analysis Environment (ISAE) for application to analysis and optimization of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). ISAE is based on the concept of Co-simulation, which allows the modeling of complex systems with extreme flexibility. Co-simulation allows the development of virtual ITS systems that can be analyzed and optimized as an overall integrated system. The virtual ITS system is defined by selecting different components from a component library. System component models can be written in multiple programming languages running on different computer platforms. At the same time, ISAE provides full protection for proprietary models. Co-simulation is a cost-effective alternative to competing methodologies, such as developing a translator or selecting a single programming language for all system components. Co-simulation has been recently demonstrated using an example of an automotive system. The demonstration was successfully performed. The paper describes plans on how to implement ISAE and Co-simulation to ITS, and the great advantages that this implementation would represent.

This quarterly report documents significant achievements in the Enhanced Practical Photosynthetic CO{sub 2} Mitigation project during the period from 10/3/2001 through 1/02/2002. Most of the achievements are milestones in our efforts to complete the tasks and subtasks that constitute the project objectives. Our research team has made significant progress towards completion of our Phase I objectives, and our current efforts remain focused on fulfilling these research objectives in accordance with the project timeline. Overall, we believe that we are on schedule to complete Phase I activities by 10/2002, which is the milestone date from the original project timeline. Specific results and accomplishments for the fourth quarter of 2001 include: (1) New procedures and protocols have been developed to increase the chances of successful implementation in the bioreactor of organisms that perform well in the lab. The new procedures include pre-screening of organisms for adhesion characteristics and a focus on identifying the organisms with maximum growth rate potential. (2) Preliminary results show an increase in adhesion to glass and a decrease in overall growth rates when using growth media prepared with tap water rather than distilled water. (3) Several of the organisms collected from Yellowstone National Park using the new procedures …

Roof bolting is the most popular method for underground openings in the mining industry, especially in the bedded deposits such as coal, potash, salt etc. In fact, all U.S. underground coal mine entries are roof-bolted as required by law. However, roof falls still occur frequently in the roof bolted entries. The two possible reasons are: the lack of knowledge of and technology to detect the roof geological conditions in advance of mining, and lack of roof bolting design criteria for modern roof bolting systems. This research is to develop a method for predicting the roof geology and stability condition in real time during roof bolting operation. Based on such information, roof bolting design criteria for modern roof bolting systems will be developed for implementation in real time. A new mechanical approach to estimate rock strengths using the acquired drilling parameters has been proposed. This approach takes a number of important factors, that have never been studied in the previous researches, into the considerations. Good results have been shown using the new approach on the testing data.

This report contains an explanation of the major provisions of the Federal estate, gift, and generation-skipping transfer taxes. The discussion divides the Federal estate tax into three components: the gross estate, deductions from the gross estate, and computation of the tax, including allowable tax credits.

This report describes five major activities that the Alliance to Save Energy performed for the years 2000 and 2001 to support and compliment DOE's Energy Smart Schools Partnership. The major tasks under this project were to: (1) Promote the School Efficiency Peer Exchange program for school personnel; (2) develop the Earth Apple Awards program and disseminate the best award-winning ideas; (3) link Green Schools with Rebuilt with at least one metropolitan area such as Philadelphia or Buffalo; (4) support Rebuild/Energy Smart Schools through working at the state level to develop business, state, and local government and through making presentations in support of school efficiency; (5) update the curriculum search originally conducted in 1995.

Nine strains were identified to grow with gasoline as sole sulfur source. Two different genes were cloned from Gordonia terrae KGB1 and tested for the ability to support gasoline BDS. The first of these, fmoA, was cloned by screening a KGB1 gene library for the ability to convert indole to indigo (a sulfur-regulated capability in KGB1). The fmoA gene was overexpressed in a gasoline tolerant strain of Pseudomonas putida PpG1 and the recombinant strain was shown to convert thiophene to a dimer of thiophene sulfoxide at rates nearly two orders of magnitude higher than KGB1 could catalyze the reaction. Despite this high activity the recombinant PpG1 was unable to demonstrate any activity against gasoline either in shake flask or in bench-scale gasoline BDS bioreactor. A second gene (toeA) was cloned from KGB1 and shown to support growth of Rhodococcus erythropolis JB55 on gasoline. The toeA gene was also identified in another gasoline strain T. wratislaviensis EMT4, and was identified as a homolog of dszA from R. erythropolis IGTS8. Expression of this gene in JB55 supported conversion of DBTO2 (the natural substrate for DszA) to HPBS, but activity against gasoline was low and BDS results were inconsistent. It appeared that activity …

This report provides an overview of the Information Technology Management Reform Act (ITMRA) of 1996, or as it is better known, the Clinger-Cohen Act. Although the Clinger Cohen Act is a combination of the Federal Acquisition Reform Act (FARA) and the ITMRA, this report focuses on the information technology procurement and management reforms only.

None

Proton imaging is a diagnostic with enormous potential for the investigation of fundamental plasma physics problems which were impossible to explore up to now. By using this diagnostic, for the first time the measurement of transient electric fields in dense plasmas has been obtained, determining their evolution on a picosecond scale with micrometric spatial resolution. The data is of great relevance to Inertial Confinement Fusion both in the conventional and Fast Ignitor approach. Detailed analysis and modeling is presently undergoing.

None

Congressional Research Service (CRS) report entailing information about discipline provisions being made to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This report details the provisions in disciplinary action made to IDEA in the 1997 Amendments to the act. Some of these provisions include the Ten Day Rule, school initiated interim alternative educational placements, and manifestation determination review. The report concludes with more proposed amendments to IDEA since 1997.

We describe a hybrid data-representation and rendering technique for visualizing large-scale particle data generated from numerical modeling of beam dynamics. The basis of the technique is mixing volume rendering and point rendering according to particle density distribution, visibility, and the user's instruction. A hierarchical representation of the data is created on a parallel computer, allowing real-time partitioning into high-density areas for volume rendering, and low-density areas for point rendering. This allows the beam to be interactively visualized while preserving the fine structure usually visible only with slow point based rendering techniques.

Florida International University's (FIU) Hemispheric Center for Environmental Technology (HCET) evaluated five saws for their effectiveness in cutting specially prepared fiberglass-reinforced plywood crates. These crates were built as surrogates for crates that presently hold radioactively contaminated glove boxes at the Department of Energy's (DOE) Los Alamos facility. The Porter-Cable circular saw was assessed on August 15-16, 2001 (Porter-Cable No.1 and Porter-Cable No.2, respectively). During the FIU test of efficacy, a team from the Operating Engineers National Hazmat Program (OENHP) evaluated the occupational safety and health issues associated with this technology. The Porter-Cable saw is a straightforward machine for cutting wood of varying thickness. The blade is fully guarded with a fixed upper and a lower retractable guard. The lower guard retracts as the blade engages the work piece. The unit is operated with an on/off guarded trigger switch and is supported with a handgrip mounted near the front of the saw. The saw is equipped with a directional nozzle, which aims sawdust away from the operator and the line of cut. An optional vacuum system, attached to the directional nozzle, is used to remove and collect dust. During the demonstration of Porter-Cable No.1, personal noise sampling indicated that one worker …

None

None

The objectives of this project is to demonstrate the use of a new geophysical system to collect economically competitive induced polarization (IP) data using natural electromagnetic (EM) field as a source. The proposed technology uses naturally-existing EM fields, which provides greater depth of exploration and significant economic, energy, environmental and safety benefits.