Fast-Track Authority for Trade Agreements (Trade Promotion Authority): Background and Developments in the 107th Congress (open access)

Fast-Track Authority for Trade Agreements (Trade Promotion Authority): Background and Developments in the 107th Congress

This report discusses one of the major trade issues in the 107th Congress: whether or not Congress approves authority for the President to negotiate trade agreements with expedited, or "fast track" procedures. Under this authority, Congress agrees to consider legislation to implement the nontariff trade agreements under a procedure with mandatory deadlines, no amendment, and limited debate. The President is required to consult with congressional committees during negotiation of nontariff trade agreements and notify Congress before entering into any such agreement. The President was granted fast-track authority almost continuously from 1974 to 1994, but the authority lapsed and has not been renewed.
Date: May 14, 2001
Creator: Sek, Lenore
System: The UNT Digital Library
AIDS in Africa (open access)

AIDS in Africa

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.
Date: May 14, 2001
Creator: Copson, Raymond W.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Bilingual Education: Four Overlapping Programs Could Be Consolidated (open access)

Bilingual Education: Four Overlapping Programs Could Be Consolidated

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In fiscal year 2000, the federal government funded four bilingual education programs--Program Development and Implementation Grants, Program Enhancement Projects, Comprehensive School Grants, and Systemwide Improvement Grants--that award grants to school districts to serve children with limited English proficiency. This report reviews (1) how similar the performance goals and measures, eligibility criteria, and allowable services are among the four bilingual education programs; (2) to what extent the different kinds of grants were made to the same types of schools or school districts and were used to provide the same services; (3) what is known about these programs' effectiveness; and (4) whether these programs can be better coordinated or if opportunities exist for program coordination and cost savings. GAO found that all four federal bilingual education programs share the same performance goals and measures, use similar eligibility criteria, and allow for similar uses of program funds. In fiscal year 2000, the four bilingual programs made grants to school districts that shared some characteristics and provided similar services; however, individual schools typically did not receive funding from more than one program. The services provided with program funds are similar, …
Date: May 14, 2001
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
System: The UNT Digital Library
PROCEEDINGS OF RIKEN BNL RESEARCH CENTER WORKSHOP ON SPIN PHYSICS AT RHIC IN YEAR-1 AND BEYOND. (open access)

PROCEEDINGS OF RIKEN BNL RESEARCH CENTER WORKSHOP ON SPIN PHYSICS AT RHIC IN YEAR-1 AND BEYOND.

The much anticipated RHIC spin physics program will commence this fall when the first physics run with colliding beams of polarized protons is expected. More specifically, the planned year-1 RHIC-Spin measurements are (1) the double-spin asymmetry A{sub LL}{sup {pi}} in production of pions by collisions of longitudinally polarized protons (in order to obtain first information on the proton's spin-dependent gluon density, {Delta}g); (2) the transverse single-spin asymmetry A{sub N}{sup {pi}} for pion production. These two reactions provided part of the motivation for our workshop. On the first day there were informative talks on the specific plans of STAR (by Rakness) and PHENIX (by Goto) for the polarized run of Year-1. Some of the theoretical questions related to the double-spin asymmetry A{sub LL}{sup {pi}} were discussed on the first day by Vogelsang and Kretzer, which centered mostly around the questions of how well the unpolarized fragmentation functions are known, the need for next-to-leading order calculations, and on how sensitive the asymmetry is to the possible {Delta}g distributions. Vetterli presented HERMES measurements of fragmentation functions, which overlap in Q{sup 2} with the future lower-p{sub T} measurements at RHIC.
Date: May 14, 2001
Creator: Bland, L.; Boer, D.; Saito, N. & Vogelsang, W.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Microsensors for In-Situ, Real-Time Detection and Characterization of Toxic Organic Substances (open access)

Microsensors for In-Situ, Real-Time Detection and Characterization of Toxic Organic Substances

We have further developed and demonstrated the novel ORNL micro-calorimetric spectroscopy technique for the detections and characterization of toxic organic substances. In this technique target molecules were allowed to adsorb on the surface of sub-femtojoule sensitive micromechanical thermal detectors. The adsorption of molecules on the thermal detector surface causes a differential surface stress resulting in an initial ''trigger''. By exposing the thermal detector microstructure elements to different photon wavelengths, an extremely sensitive and unique photothermal signature response was obtained. We adsorbed sub-monolayer levels of target chemicals onto the bi-material detector surfaces. We obtained infrared photothermal spectra for trace concentrations of several organics such as diisopropyl methylphosphonate (DIMP), and trinitrotoluene (TNT) over the wavelength region 2.5 to 14.5 {micro}m. We found that in the wavelength region 2.5 to 14.5 {micro}m the photothermal spectra of DIMP and TNT exhibit a number of peaks and are in excellent agreement with traditional infrared absorption spectra found in the literature. Chemical detectors based on micro-calorimetric spectroscopy can be used to sensitively sense a relatively small number of molecules adsorbed on a thermal detector surface. This photothermal signature resulting from photon irradiation and subsequent thermal transfer can be used for improved chemical characterization.
Date: May 14, 2001
Creator: Rajic, S.
System: The UNT Digital Library
Older Americans Act: 2000 Reauthorization Legislation (open access)

Older Americans Act: 2000 Reauthorization Legislation

None
Date: May 14, 2001
Creator: unknown
System: The UNT Digital Library
Burundi: The Peace Process and U.S. Policy (open access)

Burundi: The Peace Process and U.S. Policy

This report is about Burundi, specifically the peace process and U.S. policy
Date: May 14, 2001
Creator: Dagne, Ted
System: The UNT Digital Library
March 2001 Working Group Meeting on Heavy Vehicle Aerodynamic Drag: Presentations and Summary of Comments and Conclusions (open access)

March 2001 Working Group Meeting on Heavy Vehicle Aerodynamic Drag: Presentations and Summary of Comments and Conclusions

A Working Group Meeting on Heavy Vehicle Aerodynamic Drag was held at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on March 28 and 29, 2001. The purpose of the meeting was to present and discuss technical details on the experimental and computational work in progress and future project plans. Due to the large participation from industry and other research organizations, a large portion of the meeting (all of the first day and part of the second day) was devoted to the presentation and discussion of industry's perspective and work being done by other organizations on the demonstration of commercial software and the demonstration of a drag reduction device. This report contains the technical presentations (viewgraphs) delivered at the Meeting, briefly summarizes the comments and conclusions, and outlines the future action items.
Date: May 14, 2001
Creator: Greenman, R.; Dunn, T.; Owens, J.; Laskowski, G.; Flowers, D.; Browand, F. et al.
System: The UNT Digital Library
AMRH and High Energy Reinicke Problem (open access)

AMRH and High Energy Reinicke Problem

The authors describe AMRH results on a version of the Reinicke problem specified by the V and V group of LLNL's A-Div. The simulation models a point explosion with heat conduction. The problem specification requires that the heat conduction be replaced with diffusive radiation transport. The matter and radiation energy densities are tightly coupled.
Date: May 14, 2001
Creator: Shestakov, A I & Greenough, J A
System: The UNT Digital Library
Addendum to the 200 West Area Dust Mitigation Strategies: Treatment of the Dust Source Area (open access)

Addendum to the 200 West Area Dust Mitigation Strategies: Treatment of the Dust Source Area

This document describes the source area for the blowing dust encountered in the southwest portion of the 200 West Area. Strategies for short-term stabilization of the entire source area, short-term stabilization of a portion of the source area based on levels of respirable dust, and long-term stabilization of the entire source area are provided. An separate evaluation of aerosolized water as a means of reducing airborne dust is also provided.
Date: May 14, 2001
Creator: Becker, James M. & Sackschewsky, Michael R.
System: The UNT Digital Library