A statement of record issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Federal research and preparedness activities related to bioterrorism center on detection; the development of vaccines, antibiotics, and antivirals; and the development of performance standards for emergency response equipment. Preparedness activities include (1) increasing federal, state, and local response capabilities; (2) developing response teams; (3) increasing the availability of medical treatments; (4) participating in and sponsoring exercises; (5) aiding victims; and (6) providing support at special events, such as presidential inaugurations and Olympic games. To coordinate their efforts to combat terrorism, federal agencies are developing interagency response plans, participating in various interagency work groups, and entering into formal agreements with other agencies to share resources and capabilities. However, coordination of federal terrorism research, preparedness, and response programs is fragmented, raising concerns about the ability of states and localities to respond to a bioterrorist attack. These concerns include insufficient state and local planning and a lack of hospital participation in training on terrorism and emergency response planning. This testimony summarizes a September 2001 report (GAO-01-915)."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Balanced Budget Act of 1997 required Medicare to change its payment system for ambulance services. In response, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), now called the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), proposed a fee schedule to standardize payments across provider types on the basis of national rates for particular services. Under the act, the fee schedule was to have applied to ambulance services furnished on or after January 1, 2000. HCFA published a proposed rule in September 2000 and has received public comment, but it has not yet issued a final rule. This testimony discusses the unique concerns of rural ambulance providers and the likely effects of the proposed fee schedule on these providers. Many rural ambulance providers face a set of unique challenges in implementing an appropriate payment policy. Rural providers--particularly those serving large geographic areas with low population density--tend to have high per-trip costs compared with urban and suburban providers. The proposed Medicare fee schedule does not sufficiently distinguish the providers serving beneficiaries in the most isolated rural areas and may not appropriately account for the higher costs of low-volume providers."

There are many terms that are used in association with the U.S. Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) Transparency Project associated with the Mayak Fissile Materials Storage Facility. This is a collection of proposed definitions of these terms.

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The concept of Whole Genome Amplification is something that has arisen in the past few years as modifications to the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) have been adapted to replicate regions of genomes which are of biological interest. The applications here are many--forensics, embryonic disease diagnosis, bio terrorism genome detection, ''imoralization'' of clinical samples, microbial diversity, and genotyping. The key question is if DNA can be replicated a genome at a time without bias or non random distribution of the target. Several papers published in the last year and currently in preparation may lead to the conclusion that whole genome amplification may indeed be possible and therefore open up a new avenue to molecular biology.

This progress report covers continuing work to develop a temperature probe for a coal gasifier. A workable probe design requires finding answers to crucial questions involving the probe materials. We report on attempts to answer those questions. We previously reported an apparent anomaly in the high-temperature behavior of fused-silica optical components. This time, we report on further anomalies in other components. These unexpected results impede or prevent acquiring data related to the project. The commercial manufacturer of gasifier probes had agreed to lend us three ceramic inner sheaths and one outer sheath for experimentation. He subsequently sent us one inner sheath. We designed a test fixture to be used in a proposed test of phosphor material in a reducing environment at a power company's test facility. Funding delays outside our control caused a related project to be put on hold. Because the two projects shared travel funds, we are unable to continue experimental work until funding resumes. Meanwhile, we are doing some of the labor-intensive data reduction for our recent calibration curves.

The objective of this project was to conduct high-performance computing research and teaching at AAMU, and to train African-American and other minority students and scientists in the computational science field for eventual employment with DOE. During the project period, eight tasks were accomplished. Student Research Assistant, Work Study, Summer Interns, Scholarship were proved to be one of the best ways for us to attract top-quality minority students. Under the support of DOE, through research, summer interns, collaborations, scholarships programs, AAMU has successfully provided research and educational opportunities to minority students in the field related to computational science.

We investigate and compare several generic depreciation methods to assess the effectiveness of possible policy measures with respect to the depreciation schedules for investments in combined heat and power plants in the United States. We assess the different depreciation methods for CHP projects of various sizes (ranging from 1 MW to 100 MW). We evaluate the impact of different depreciation schedules on the tax shield, and the resulting tax savings to potential investors. We show that a shorter depreciation cycle could have a substantial impact on the cost of producing power, making cogeneration more attractive. The savings amount to approximately 6-7 percent of capital and fixed operation and maintenance costs, when changing from the current system to a 7 year depreciation scheme with switchover from declining balance to straight line depreciation. Suggestions for further research to improve the analysis are given.

This report describes the work performed to design, develop, and demonstrate an IBECS network/ballast interface that is useful for economically dimming controllable ballasts in commercial buildings. The first section of the report provides the general background of the IBECS (Integrated Building Environmental Communications System) research and development work as well as the context for the development of the network/ballast interface. The research and development effort that went into producing the first proof-of-concept circuit and the physical prototype of that concept is detailed in the second section. In the third section of the report, we describe the lessons learned from the first demonstration of the network/ballast interface at an office at LBNL. The fourth section describes how electrical noise interference encountered with the first generation of interface led to design changes for a refined prototype that hardened the interface from electrical noise generated by the ballast. The final section of the report discusses the performance of refined prototype after we replaced the proof-of-concept prototype with the refined prototypes in the demonstration office at LBNL.

The second part of the sixth RHIC Spin Collaboration (RSC) meeting was held on November 15, 2001 at Brookhaven National Laboratory. Previous meetings have elaborated on the new generation of proton spin-structure studies (e.g. gluon polarization and flavor separation of q and {bar q} polarizations via real W{sup {+-}} production) enabled by studying polarized proton collisions at energies and momentum transfers where perturbative QCD models are expected to be applicable. The focus of this meeting was on many of the experimental issues that must be resolved to achieve these physics goals. This summary is written with the benefit of hindsight following the completion of the first-ever run of a polarized proton collider. This first run can be considered as a successfully completed milestone of the RHIC Spin Collaboration. Other milestones remain important. Long term machine items were identified in Waldo Mackay's talk, the most important being the completion of the spin rotator magnets that will be installed in 2002 to allow the flexible orientation of the proton beam polarization at the PHENM and STAR experiments. At the meeting Waldo discussed a stronger partial snake magnet for the AGS as a means of producing highly polarized proton beams to inject into …

This report documents concerns about children's environment well-being, such as being exposed to certain chemicals, and what the the legislatures face to draw conclusions and identify certain issues.

Noise measurements on CdZnTe detectors show that the main sources of detector-related noise are shot noise due to bulk leakage current and 1/f noise due to the detector surfaces. The magnitude of surface leakage current appears to have little or no effect on the detector noise. Measurements on guard-ring devices fabricated using gold-evaporated contacts show that the contacts behave as Schottky barriers, and the bulk current at typical operating voltages is likely dependent on the contact properties rather than directly on the material's bulk resistivity. This also suggests that the level of shot noise is affected by the detector contacts and not necessarily by the material's bulk resistivity. A significant reduction in the noise of coplanar-grid detectors has been obtained using a modified contact fabrication process.

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Analyses suggest that carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) can be injected into depleted gas reservoirs to enhance methane (CH{sub 4}) recovery for periods on the order of 10 years, while simultaneously sequestering large amounts of CO{sub 2}. Simulations applicable to the Rio Vista Gas Field in California show that mixing between CO{sub 2} and CH{sub 4} is slow relative to repressurization, and that vertical density stratification favors enhanced gas recovery.

The Carbon Dioxide Information Analysis Center (CDIAC), which includes the World Data Center (WDC) for Atmospheric Trace Gases, is the primary global change data and information analysis center of the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). More than just an archive of data sets and publications, CDIAC has, since its inception in 1982, enhanced the value of its holdings through intensive quality assurance, documentation, and integration. Whereas many traditional data centers are discipline-based (for example, meteorology or oceanography), CDIAC's scope includes potentially anything and everything that would be of value to users concerned with the greenhouse effect and global climate change, including concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO{sub 2}) and other radiatively active gases in the atmosphere; the role of the terrestrial biosphere and the oceans in the biogeochemical cycles of greenhouse gases; emissions of CO{sub 2} and other trace gases to the atmosphere; long-term climate trends; the effects of elevated CO{sub 2} on vegetation; and the vulnerability of coastal areas to rising sea levels.

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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.

This report details the constitutional standards that currently apply to indirect aid programs and summarizes all of the pertinent state and federal court decisions, including the Ohio case that will be heard by the Supreme Court. On September 25, 2001, the Supreme Court agreed to review a case raising the controversial issue of the constitutionality of education vouchers. In Zelman v. Simmons-Harris the Sixth Circuit held Ohio’s Pilot Scholarship Program, which provided up to $2500 to help low-income students in Cleveland’s public schools attend private schools in the city, to violate the establishment of religion clause of the First Amendment.

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