A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Each year thousands of international science students and scholars apply for visas to enter the United States to participate in education and exchange programs. They offer our country diversity and intellectual knowledge and are an economic resource. At the same time, the United States has important national security interests in screening these individuals when they apply for a visa. At a hearing held by the House Committee on Science on March 26, 2003, witnesses raised concern about the length of time it takes for science students and scholars to obtain a visa and about losing top international students to other countries due to delays in the visa process. GAO reviewed 1) how long it takes a science student or scholar from another country to obtain a visa and the factors contributing to the length of time, and 2) what measures are under way to improve the process and decrease the number of pending cases."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Each year thousands of international science students and scholars apply for visas to enter the United States to participate in education and exchange programs. They offer our country diversity and intellectual knowledge and are an economic resource. At the same time, the United States has important national security interests in screening these individuals when they apply for a visa. At a House Committee on Science hearing in March 2003, witnesses raised concern about the length of time it takes for science students and scholars to obtain a visa and about losing top international students to other countries due to visa delays. GAO reviewed 1) how long it takes a science student or scholar from another country to obtain a visa and the factors contributing to the length of time, and 2) what measures are under way to improve the process and decrease the number of pending cases."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "To address overfishing, the National Marine Fisheries Service started using individual fishing quotas (IFQ) as a fishery conservation and management tool in 1990. Under an IFQ program, a regional fishery management council sets a maximum, or total allowable catch, and allocates the privilege to harvest a certain portion of the catch in the form of quota to individual vessels, fishermen, or other eligible recipients. IFQ programs have achieved many of the desired conservation and management benefits, such as helping to stabilize fisheries, reducing excessive investment in fishing capacity, and improving safety. However, concerns have been raised about the economic effects of IFQ programs on fish processors and fishing communities, among others. This testimony is based on two GAO reports on issues related to the use of IFQs (Individual Fishing Quotas: Better Information Could Improve Program Management, GAO-03- 159, Dec. 11, 2002, and Individual Fishing Quotas: Methods for Community Protection and New Entry Require Periodic Evaluation, GAO-04-277, Feb. 24, 2004). Specifically, GAO addressed the (1) economic effects of the Alaskan halibut IFQ program on processors and (2) the methods available for protecting communities under an IFQ program."

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The creation of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) almost one year ago represents an historic moment for the federal government to fundamentally transform how the nation will protect itself from terrorism. DHS is continuing to transform and integrate a disparate group of agencies with multiple missions, values, and cultures into a strong and effective cabinet department. Together with this unique opportunity, however, also comes significant risk to the nation that could occur if this transformation is not implemented successfully. In fact, GAO designated this implementation and transformation as high risk in January 2003. Congress provided DHS with significant flexibility to design a modern human capital management system. GAO reported in September 2003 that the design effort to develop the system was collaborative and consistent with positive elements of transformation. Last Friday, the Secretary of DHS and the Director of the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) released for public comment draft regulations for DHS's new human capital system. This testimony provides preliminary observations on selected major provisions of the proposed system."

Poincare invariance, gauge invariance, conservation of parity and time reversal invariance are respected in an impulse approximation evaluation of the handbag diagram. Proton wave functions, previously constrained by comparison with measured form factors, that incorporate the influence of quark transverse and orbital angular momentum (and the corresponding violation of proton helicity conservation) are used. Computed cross sections are found to be in reasonably good agreement with early measurements. The helicity correlation between the incident photon and outgoing proton, K{sub LL}, is both large and positive at back angles. For photon laboratory energies of {le} 6 GeV, we find that K{sub LL} {ne} A{sub LL}, D{sub LL} {ne} 1, and that the polarization P can be large.

Recent physics results from CDF and D0 on heavy flavor physics, electroweak precision measurements, top physics, QCD and searches for new physics are discussed. The results are based on approximately 140 pb{sup -1} of data collected at {radical}s = 1.96 TeV between 2002 and 2003.

Fermilab plans to deliver 5-15 fb{sup -1} of integrated luminosity to the CDF and D0 experiments. The current inner silicon detectors at CDF (SVXIIa and L00) will not tolerate the radiation dose associated with high luminosity running and will need to be replaced. A new readout chip (SVX4) has been designed in radiation-hard 0.25 {micro}m CMOS technology. Single sided sensors are arranged in a compact structure, called a stave, with integrated readout and cooling systems. This paper describes the general design of the Run IIb system, testing results of prototype electrical components (staves), and prototype silicon sensor performance before and after irradiation.

The 27 GPa pressure-induced epsilon-phi phase transition in HMX is explored using the Isentropic Compression Experiment (ICE) technique at the Sandia National Laboratories Z-machine facility. Our data indicate that this phase transition is sluggish and if it does occur to any extent under the time scales (200-500 ns) and strain rates (5 x 10{sup 5}) typical of ICE loading conditions, the amount of conversion is small.

We report the first measurement of the saturation of stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) by an ion-trapping induced frequency shift, which was achieved by directly measuring the amplitude and absolute frequency of SBS-driven ion-acoustic waves (IAW). A frequency shift of up to 30% and a simultaneous saturation of driven IAW and SBS reflectivity was observed. The scaling of the frequency shift with the IAW amplitude compares well with theoretical calculations. We have further measured fast 30 ps oscillations of the SBS-driven IAW amplitude induced by the frequency shift.

Homologous recombinational repair is a major DNA repair pathway that preserves chromosomal integrity by removing double-strand breaks, crosslinks, and other DNA damage. In eukaryotic cells, the Rad51 paralogs (XRCC2, XRCC3, Rad51B, Rad51C, and Rad51D) are involved in this process, although their exact functions are largely undetermined. All five paralogs contain ATPase motifs, and XRCC3 appears to exist in a single complex with Rad51C. To begin to examine the function of this Rad51C-XRCC3 complex, we generated mammalian expression vectors that produce human wild-type XRCC3 or mutant XRCC3 with either a non-conservative mutation (K113A) or a conservative mutation (K113R) in the GKT Walker A box of the ATPase motif. The three vectors were independently transfected into Xrcc3-deficient irs1SF CHO cells. Wild-type XRCC3 complemented irs1SF cells, albeit to varying degrees, while ATPase mutants had no complementing activity, even when the mutant protein was expressed at comparable levels to that in wild-type-complemented clones. Because of the mutants' dysfunction, we propose that ATP binding and hydrolyzing activities of XRCC3 are essential. We tested in vitro complex formation by wild-type and mutant XRCC3 with His6-tagged Rad51C upon coexpression in bacteria, nickel affinity purification, and western blotting. Wild-type and K113A mutant XRCC3 formed stable complexes with Rad51C …

This report describes the classroom expense deduction, its interaction with other tax provisions, and proposals made concerning the tax benefit during the 108th Congress.

The relationship between genetic variation in gene expression and phenotypic variation observable in nature is not well understood. Identifying how many phenotypes are associated with differences in gene expression and how many gene-expression differences are associated with a phenotype is important to understanding the molecular basis and evolution of complex traits. Results: We compared levels of gene expression among nine natural isolates of Saccharomyces cerevisiae grown either in the presence or absence of copper sulfate. Of the nine strains, two show a reduced growth rate and two others are rust colored in the presence of copper sulfate. We identified 633 genes that show significant differences in expression among strains. Of these genes,20 were correlated with resistance to copper sulfate and 24 were correlated with rust coloration. The function of these genes in combination with their expression pattern suggests the presence of both correlative and causative expression differences. But the majority of differentially expressed genes were not correlated with either phenotype and showed the same expression pattern both in the presence and absence of copper sulfate. To determine whether these expression differences may contribute to phenotypic variation under other environmental conditions, we examined one phenotype, freeze tolerance, predicted by the differential …

This reports details the effect the Safe and and Drug-Free Schools and Communities Program including the change in violence and drug use.

This report discusses the context of India- U.S. relations, and its bilateral issues.

The University of Alabama, in cooperation with Texas A&M University, McGill University, Longleaf Energy Group, Strago Petroleum Corporation, and Paramount Petroleum Company, has undertaken an integrated, interdisciplinary geoscientific and engineering research project. The project is designed to characterize and model reservoir architecture, pore systems and rock-fluid interactions at the pore to field scale in Upper Jurassic Smackover reef and carbonate shoal reservoirs associated with varying degrees of relief on pre-Mesozoic basement paleohighs in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. The project effort includes the prediction of fluid flow in carbonate reservoirs through reservoir simulation modeling which utilizes geologic reservoir characterization and modeling and the prediction of carbonate reservoir architecture, heterogeneity and quality through seismic imaging. The primary goal of the project is to increase the profitability, producibility and efficiency of recovery of oil from existing and undiscovered Upper Jurassic fields characterized by reef and carbonate shoals associated with pre-Mesozoic basement paleohighs. Geoscientific reservoir property, geophysical seismic attribute, petrophysical property, and engineering property characterization has shown that reef (thrombolite) and shoal reservoir lithofacies developed on the flanks of high-relief crystalline basement paleohighs (Vocation Field example) and on the crest and flanks of low-relief crystalline basement paleohighs (Appleton Field example). The reef thrombolite …

This report discusses India's economic relationship with the United States. Discussing issues that relate to trade, poverty, and other subsequent challenges that would be faced in efforts to reform India's economy.