A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "U.S. asparagus imports increased in the 1990s and now comprise nearly one-half of the asparagus consumed in the United States. Peru is the second largest source of imported asparagus and benefits from duty-free treatment under the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA). ATPA is estimated to have displaced between two and eight percent of the value of domestic production from what it would have been without the act. Although the supply of fresh asparagus from imports has increased since ATPA's enactment, consumer demand has been strong, and prices have risen. In addition, an apparent increase in consumer preference for fresh asparagus has contributed to a downward shift in the domestic demand for processed asparagus. Most of the decline in the domestic production of processed asparagus occurred in Michigan and Washington, the two states that produce most canned and frozen asparagus. If ATPA is reauthorized, domestic producers of asparagus and, in particular, asparagus for processing, will likely face continued displacement, but consumers can expect continued benefits from the year-round availability of fresh asparagus. However, some of this displacement will likely occur even if ATPA is not reauthorized and …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Although some welfare recipients who might seem hard to employ are able to successfully enter the workforce, others have needed considerable time and support to become work-ready. As a result, some states have begun to implement or are considering strategies to help hard-to-employ recipients join the workforce. To be successful in moving hard-to-employ Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients into the workforce within their 60-month time limit for federal benefits, states must develop programs and provide work and work-preparation activities tailored to the needs of their hard-to-employ recipients and they must ensure that recipients with characteristics that impede employment have access to programs and activities that meet their needs. Some states believe that they would be better able to accomplish this if they (1) had caseload data on the number and characteristics of hard-to-employ TANF recipients, particularly those who will reach their 60-month limit before they are able to work and (2) used a range of work and work-preparation activities that meet the needs of hard-to-employ recipients, including activities that extend beyond those that meet federal work participation requirements."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Settling 30 years of sometimes acrimonious dispute, the National Park Service completed an exchange of land interests on two vacant parcels of land in Potomac Yard in March 2000. However, the Park Service could have received more than $15 million from the private developer--rather than owing the developer $14 million--if the exchanged interests had been appropriately valued. As a federal agency, the Park Service has a responsibility to protect federal taxpayers' interests when it acquires or conveys land interests. Yet, the Park Service did not do so when it instructed the appraiser to derive a value for development on the Alexandria parcel that was not shown to be reasonably probable, or when it used an appraised value on the Arlington parcel that understated the worth of the Park Service's interests. Consequently, the Park Service gave the developer credit for losses that might not have realistically occurred and did not receive enough credit for allowing the developer to develop the Arlington parcel. However, the transaction is now fully executed--as in similar situations when a government agency pays too much for an item under a contract--it is unlikely …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Office of the Secretary of Defense and the service headquarters provide overall policy guidance and negotiate agreements on the treatment of the military's historic properties. However, most decisions on historic properties are made at the installation level. The installations are responsible for identifying and evaluating properties to determine if they are eligible to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places as well as maintaining all properties that are listed on or have been determined eligible for listing on the National Register. The military lacks complete and reliable data on the number of its historic properties. None of the services have a centralized database that comprehensively identifies all of their respective historic properties. Data is not available on the costs to to maintain or repair historic properties. Cost data GAO examined at several installations showed that, overall, the day-to-day maintenance historic properties was similar to maintenance on non-historic properties."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The President's January 2001 changes in the export control thresholds for high performance computer exports are not adequately justified. Although the President's report recognizes that high performance computing capabilities will become increasingly available to other countries through computer clustering, the report fails to address all military significant uses for computers at the new thresholds and assess the national security impact of such uses. The support for the President's policy proposal for relaxed U.S. computer controls also is not adequate. Although the new policy was based on the conclusion that computer hardware exports can no longer be controlled, the executive branch did not adequately assess alternative control options. GAO identified several implications of the changes to the control thresholds and the proposed change in U.S. computer export control policy related to increased risks for U.S. national security. For example, the inadequacies of the President's justifications demonstrate the need for a comprehensive study of the issues involved. Furthermore, the policy proposal would reduce information that might be useful in detecting patterns of exports to customers engaged in proliferation activities because it would eliminate an annual reporting requirement that provides information …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Air Force has made progress in developing the F-22, particularly with respect to fulfilling the criteria for awarding a fully funded contract for low-rate initial production. Nevertheless, it lags significantly in flight-testing because of continuing assembly and manufacturing delays, and it is behind schedule in completing nonflying tests that assess the aircraft's structural integrity These delays increase the risk that the Air Force will likely have to extend the test program past the planned completion date or proceed to the next stages of the program without completing all flight-tests. Moreover, the scheduling delays increase the likelihood that costs will not fall within the congressional cap. The Director of Operational Test and Evaluation has indicated that, on the basis of the test program's current status, operational testing cannot be started as scheduled without clearly unacceptable risks and will probably be delayed almost a year. The Director also concluded there was no reason to authorize low-rate production in January 2001 and some justification to delay it. Cost growth in the development program because of manufacturing and design problems and underestimated amounts of labor required to complete scheduled …

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Various approaches have been proposed to increase private and public health care coverage of uninsured persons. The success of these proposals will depend on several key factors. The impact of tax subsidies on promoting private health insurance will depend on whether the subsidies reduce premiums enough to induce uninsured low-income individuals to buy health insurance and on whether these subsidies can be made available at the time the person needs to pay premiums. The effectiveness of public program expansions will depend on states' ability and willingness to use any new flexibility to cover uninsured residents as well as develop effective outreach to enroll the targeted populations. Although crowd-out is a concern with any of the approaches, some degree of public funds going to those currently with private health insurance may be inevitable to provide stable health coverage for some of the 42 million uninsured Americans."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This testimony discusses the progress of welfare reform. GAO found that states are transforming the nation's welfare system into a work-based, temporary assistance program for needy families, with a focus on moving people into employment rather than signing them up for cash assistance. States' implementation of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), undertaken in a time of strong economic growth, has been accompanied by a 50 percent decline in the number of families receiving cash welfare. GAO's review of state-sponsored studies available in 1999 and several more recent studies show that most of the adults in families remaining off the welfare rolls were employed at some time after leaving welfare. All six of the states GAO visited have modified their "work first" programs to better serve recipients who face difficulties in entering the workforce. States have found that some of the recipients with such difficulties do, in fact, find jobs. Although states have made significant progress in meeting work-focused goals attention should be paid to the following issues: (1) emphasizing and enhancing work-based strategies, including engaging hard-to-employ recipients in work and helping families stay off welfare and increase …

This pbar note is to describe a recent checkout of the AP3, AP2, AP1 and P2 (F11 to F17) Beam Position Measurement (BPM) systems. The integrity of all BPMs (plates, cables, connectors and RF module) were performed. For each beam-line, the BPM positions polarity were checked: all of the horizontal (vertical) BPMs of a beam-line are to be consistent in defining left/right (up/down) by the sign of the position. The plates impedances have been measured. The position offsets at the output of the RF modules due to cable and connector differences were determined. Anytime an Energy Doubler BPM RF module (EE-107660) was found not working, a working spare was inserted; three AP2 RF modules were replaced. One connector for one of the cables of BPM728 was repaired. Two new cables were pulled and terminated for BPM716 since there was >8dB difference between the cables. In addition, three digitizer boards were replaced.

The existence of species within the plant genus Flaveria with differing leaf cell arrangements and photosynthetic schemes (C3, C4, C3-C4) enabled us to identify genetic elements (promoters, 3'UTRs) that are responsible for the regulation of pre-existing metabolic genes in the pattern required for the high-efficiency C4 photosynthetic scheme. We analyzed DNA elements regulating the rbcS, malic enzyme, and malate dehydrogenase gene families in several species of Flaveria, using transient and stable transformation methods.

This work involved a comparison of surface solar radiation observations from the SOCMET-DATA BASE from 1960-1990 and results from a General Circulation Model to test and evaluate the effects of tropospheric aerosols on clouds.

The U.S. Department of Energy and its contractors are currently evaluating a site in Nevada (Yucca Mountain) for disposal of high-level radioactive waste from U.S. commercial nuclear plants and U.S. government-owned facilities. The suitability of the potential geologic repository is assessed, based on its performance in isolating the nuclear waste from the environment. Experimental data and models representing the natural and engineered barriers are combined into a Total System Performance Assessment (TSPA) model [1]. Process models included in the TSPA model are unsaturated zone flow and transport, thermal hydrology, in-drift geochemistry, waste package degradation, waste form degradation, engineered barrier system transport, saturated zone flow and transport, and biosphere transport. Because of the uncertainty in the current data and in the future evolution of the total system, simulations follow a probabilistic approach. Multiple realization simulations using Monte Carlo analysis are conducted over time periods of up to one million years, which estimates a range of possible behaviors of the repository. The environmental impact is measured primarily by the annual dose received by an average member of a critical population group residing 20 km down-gradient of the potential repository. In addition to the nominal scenario, other exposure scenarios include the possibility of …

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This report provides an overview of selecting and inviting witnesses during the planning of a House hearing.

I appreciate the opportunity to address this conference and describe some of our work and plans for future space missions and capabilities. My presentation will consist of a short overview of our program, some potential missions and enabling technologies, as well as, a description of some of our test vehicles and ongoing docking experiments. The Micro-Satellite Technology Program at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory is developing technologies for a new generation of a very highly capable autonomous microsats. A microsat is defined here as a vehicle that's less than 100 kilograms in mass. We're looking at a number of different microsat design configurations, between 0.5 to 1 meter in length and less than 40 kg in mass. You'll see several ground-test vehicles that we have been building that are modeled after potential future on-orbit systems. In order to have very aggressive missions, these microsats will require new integrated proximity operation sensors, advanced propulsion, avionics and guidance systems. Then to make this dream a reality a new approach to high fidelity ''hardware-in-the-loop'' ground testing, will be discussed that allows repeated tests with the same vehicle multiple times. This will enable you to ''get it right'' before going into space. I'll also show …

The use of low temperature plasmas in industry is illustrated by the discussion of four applications, to lighting, displays, semiconductor manufacturing and pollution control. The type of plasma required for each application is described and typical materials are identified. The need to understand radical formation, ionization and metastable excitation within the discharge and the importance of surface reactions are stressed.

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A four-cylinder 1.9 Volkswagen TDI Engine has been converted to run in Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) mode. The stock configuration is a turbocharged direct injection Diesel engine. The combustion chamber has been modified by discarding the in-cylinder Diesel fuel injectors and replacing them with blank inserts (which contain pressure transducers). The stock pistons contain a reentrant bowl and have been retained for the tests reported here. The intake and exhaust manifolds have also been retained, but the turbocharger has been removed. A heater has been installed upstream of the intake manifold and fuel is added just downstream of this heater. The performance of this engine in naturally aspirated HCCI operation, subject to variable intake temperature and fuel flow rate, has been studied. The engine has been run with propane fuel at a constant speed of 1800 rpm. This work is intended to characterize the HCCI operation of the engine in this configuration that has been minimally modified from the base Diesel engine. The performance (BMEP, IMEP, efficiency, etc) and emissions (THC, CO, NOx) of the engine are presented, as are combustion process results based on heat release analysis of the pressure traces from each cylinder.

Fish and marine mammals are important resources in the open ocean and nearshore coastal areas. A diverse body of laws and regulations guides the management of these resources by a multitude of federal agencies.

The Bush Administration FY2002 budget blueprint, submitted to Congress February 28, commits the nation to "mobilizing the armies of compassion" to "transform lives," and terms this effort the next bold step of welfare reform. The budget includes tax incentives for charitable donations. Earlier the President created the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in the White House, fulfilling a campaign promise.

The versatile dot matrix printer of the DECwriter II was modified to enable printing of symbol characters., e.g., Greek letters and other symbol for mathematical expressions and units of measurement. This development involved the replacement of the read-only memory (ROM) units with erasable-programmable read-only memory (EPROM) units.

This paper seeks to begin a discussion with regard to developing standardized Computer Aided Control System Design (CACSD) tools that are typically utilized in an undergraduate controls laboratory. The advocated CACSD design tools are based on the popular, commercially available MATLAB environment, the Simulink toolbox, and the Real-Time Workshop toolbox. The primary advantages of the proposed approach are as follows: (1) the required computer hardware is low cost, (2) commercially available plants from different manufacturers can be supported under the same CACSD environment with no hardware modifications, (3) both the Windows and Linux operating systems can be supported via the MATLAB based Real-Time Windows Target and the Quality Real Time Systems (QRTS) based Real-Time Linux Target, and (4) the Simulink block diagram approach can be utilized to prototype control strategies; thereby, eliminating the need for low level programming skills. It is believed that the above advantages related to standardization of the CACSD design tools will facilitate: (1) the sharing of laboratory resources within each university (i.e., between departments) and (2) the development of Internet laboratory experiences for students (i.e., between universities).

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The results of {sup 237}Np Moessbauer spectra provide a picture of the bonding of {sup 237}Np organometallics and their uranium analogues that could be obtained by no other method. In essence, Moessbauer results give a view of the compound from the position of the neptunium nucleus; the work summarized in this paper shows that the {sup 237}Np isomer shift results are consistent with available data and provide a useful picture of the bonding in actinide organometallics.