Sub-Saharan Africa has been far more severely affected by AIDS than any other part of the world. The United Nations reports that 26.6 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 two-thirds 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.

This report provides a background and overview of arsenic-treated wood.

CDF Run II relative branching ratio measurements for 65 pb{sup -1} of data in the channels B{sub s} {yields} D{sub s}{sup {-+}}{pi}{sup {-+}}, {Lambda} {sub b}{sup 0} {yields} {Lambda}{sub c}{sup {+-}}{pi}{sup {-+}} and B {yields} h{sup +}h{sup -} are presented. Further, an observation of B{sub s} {yields} K{sup {+-}} K{sup {-+}} and a measurement of A{sub CP} are presented.

This report discusses the federal budget for fiscal year 2005.

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "In connection with fulfilling our requirement to audit the financial statements of the U.S. government, we audited and reported on the Schedules of Federal Debt Managed by the Bureau of the Public Debt (BPD) for the fiscal years ended September 30, 2003 and 2002. As part of these audits, we performed a review of the general and application computer controls over key BPD financial systems."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Illegal trafficking in cigarettes can generate enormous profits and is purportedly a multibillion dollar a year enterprise. As cigarette taxes increase, so do the incentives for criminal organizations to smuggle cigarettes into the United States. Cigarette smuggling results in lost tax revenues, undermines government health policy objectives, can attract sophisticated and organized criminal groups, and could be a source of funding for terrorists. Because of these concerns, GAO examined (1) the nature and scope of the problem of smuggled cigarettes entering the United States, including federal tax revenue losses and potential health risks; (2) federal law enforcement agencies'--U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF)--efforts to thwart the smuggling of cigarettes into the United States; and (3) legal initiatives being pursued to enhance law enforcement efforts to thwart the smuggling of cigarettes into the United States."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Coast Guard conducts homeland security and search and rescue operations from nearly 200 shoreside stations along the nation's coasts and waterways. After several rescue mishaps that resulted in the deaths of civilians and station personnel, Congress recognized a need to improve performance at stations and appropriated additional funds to increase stations' readiness levels. For fiscal year 2003, the Coast Guard received designated funds of $15.7 million specifically to increase spending for stations' staffing, personal protection equipment (such as life vests and cold weather protection suits), personnel retention, and training needs. Congress directed GAO to determine if the Coast Guard's fiscal year 2003 outlays for stations increased by this amount over fiscal year 2002 expenditure levels. GAO also assessed the adequacy of the processes used by the Coast Guard to account for the expenditure of designated funds."

Digital Rights Management (DRM) refers to the technology that copyright owners use to protect digital media. This report surveys several of the DRM bills that were introduced in the 107th Congress and those that are pending in the 108th Congress. Generally, the bills are directed at two separate goals. One goal is to increase access to digitally-protected media for lawful purposes. The other attempts to thwart digital piracy and would do so by enhancing civil and criminal sanctions for digital (and traditional) copyright infringement and educating the public about the rights of copyright holders.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Civilian Radioactive Waste Management (OCRWM) is currently developing the technical bases to support the submittal of a license application for construction of a geologic repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The Office of Repository Development (ORD) is responsible for developing the design of the proposed repository surface facilities for the handling of spent nuclear fuel and high level nuclear waste. Preliminary design activities are underway to sufficiently develop the repository surface facilities design for inclusion in the license application. The design continues to evolve to meet mission needs and to satisfy both regulatory and program requirements. A system engineering approach is being used in the design process since the proposed repository facilities are dynamically linked by a series of sub-systems and complex operations. In addition, the proposed repository facility is a major system element of the overall waste management process being developed by the OCRWM. Such an approach includes iterative probabilistic dynamic simulation as an integral part of the design evolution process. A dynamic simulation tool helps to determine if: (1) the mission and design requirements are complete, robust, and well integrated; (2) the design solutions under …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Despite its significant investment in business systems, the Department of Defense (DOD) continues to have long-standing financial and inventory management problems that prevent it from producing reliable and timely information for making decisions and for accurately reporting on its billions of dollars of inventory. GAO was asked to (1) identify DOD's fiscal year 2004 estimated funding for its business systems, (2) determine if DOD has effective control and accountability over its business systems investments, and (3) determine whether selected business systems will help resolve some of DOD's long-standing problems and whether they are being effectively managed."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "For decades, the Department of Defense (DOD) has tested and fired munitions on more than 24 million acres of operational ranges. Munition constituents such as lead, trinitrotoluene (TNT), and perchlorate may cause various health effects, including cancer. Concerned about the potential cost to clean up munitions, Congress required DOD to estimate the cost to clean up its operational ranges. Congress asked GAO to determine (1) how DOD identified the location and last use of operational ranges and the basis for DOD's cost estimates for cleaning up those ranges; and (2) DOD's policy to address contaminants linked to the use of munitions on operational ranges and, where contaminants such as perchlorate have been detected, what corrective actions the military services have taken."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Subtitle D of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 allows the Department of Energy (Energy) to help its contractors' employees file state workers' compensation claims for illnesses determined by a panel of physicians to be caused by exposure to toxic substances while employed at an Energy facility. This report examines the effectiveness of the benefit program under Subtitle D and focuses on four key areas: (1) the number, status, and characteristics of claims filed with Energy; (2) the extent to which Energy policies and procedures help employees file timely claims for these state benefits; (3) the extent to which there will be a "willing payer" of workers' compensation benefits, that is, an insurer that--by order from or agreement with Energy--will not contest these claims; and (4) a framework that could be used for evaluating possible options for changing the program."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Subtitle D of the Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program Act of 2000 allows the Department of Energy (Energy) to help its contractors' employees file state workers' compensation claims for illnesses determined by a panel of physicians to be caused by exposure to toxic substances while employed at an Energy facility. Congress mandated that GAO study the effectiveness of the benefit program under Subtitle D. GAO focused on four key areas: (1) the number, status, and characteristics of claims filed with Energy; (2) the extent to which Energy policies and procedures help employees file timely claims for these state benefits; (3) the extent to which there will be a "willing payer" of workers' compensation benefits, that is, an insurer that--by order from or agreement with Energy--will not contest these claims; and (4) a framework that could be used for evaluating possible options for changing the program."

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A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The emergence of peer-to-peer file-sharing applications that allow networks to share computer files among millions of users has changed the way copyrighted materials, including digital music, videos, software, and images can be distributed and has led to a dramatic increase in the incidence of copyright infringement (piracy) of these digital materials. These applications enable direct communication between users, allowing users to access each other's files and share digital music, videos, and software. According to a coalition of intellectual property owners in the entertainment industry, an increasing number of students are using the fast Internet connections offered by college and university networks to infringe copyrights by illegally downloading and sharing massive volumes of copyrighted materials on peer-to-peer networks. GAO was asked to describe (1) the views of major universities on the extent of problems experienced with student use of file-sharing applications as well as the actions that the universities are taking to deal with them and (2) the actions that federal enforcement agencies have taken to address the issue of copyright infringement on peer-to-peer networks as well as agency views on any legislative barriers to dealing with …

Conjugated polymers capable of responding to external stimuli by changes in optical, electrical or electrochemical properties can be used for the construction of direct sensing devices. Polydiacetylene-based systems are attractive for sensing applications due to their colorimetric response to changes in the local environment. Here we present the design, preparation and characterization of self-assembling functional bolaamphiphilic polydiacetylenes (BPDAs) inspired by Nature's strategy for membrane stabilization. We show that by placing polar headgroups on both ends of the diacetylene lipids in a transmembranic fashion, and altering the chemical nature of the polar surface residues, the conjugated polymers can be engineered to display a range of radiation-, thermal- and pH-induced colorimetric responses. We observed dramatic nanoscopic morphological transformations accompanying charge-induced chromatic transitions, suggesting that both side chain disordering and main chain rearrangement play important roles in altering the effective conjugation lengths of the poly(ene-yne). These results establish the foundation for further development of BPDA-based colorimetric sensors.

Boron containing stainless steels are used in the nuclear industry for applications such as spent fuel storage, control rods and shielding. It was of interest to compare the corrosion resistance of three borated stainless steels with standard austenitic alloy materials such as type 304 and 316 stainless steels. Tests were conducted in three simulated concentrated ground waters at 90 C. Results show that the borated stainless were less resistant to corrosion than the witness austenitic materials. An acidic concentrated ground water was more aggressive than an alkaline concentrated ground water.

This report was prepared for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Richland Operations Office, Surface Environmental Surveillance Project, to provide demographic data required for ongoing environmental assessments and safety analyses at the DOE Hanford Site near Richland, Washington. This document includes 2000 Census estimates for the resident population within an 80-kilometer (50-mile) radius of the Hanford Site. Population distributions are reported relative to five reference points centered on meteorological stations within major operating areas of the Hanford Site - the 100 F, 100 K, 200, 300, and 400 Areas. These data are presented in both graphical and tabular format, and are provided for total populations residing within 80 km (50 mi) of the reference points, as well as for Native American, Hispanic and Latino, total minority, and low-income populations.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Traffic crashes are a major cause of death and injury in the United States. In 2002, there were 42,815 fatalities and over 2.9 million injuries on the nation's highways. Crashes on rural roads (roads in areas with populations of less than 5,000) account for over 60 percent of the deaths nationwide, or about 70 deaths each day. Further, the rate of fatalities per vehicle mile traveled on rural roads was over twice the urban fatality rate. GAO identified (1) the factors contributing to rural road fatalities, (2) federal and state efforts to improve safety on the nation's rural roads, and (3) the challenges that may hinder making improvements in rural road safety. GAO obtained information from the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and other organizations with knowledge of these issues. In addition, GAO analyzed fatal crash data on rural roads from Department of Transportation databases and visited five states that account for about 20 percent of the nation's rural road mileage. GAO also contacted academic experts and examined legislative proposals for improving rural road safety. We provided copies of a …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since the tragic events of September 11, 2001, the National Capital Region (NCR), comprising jurisdictions including the District of Columbia and surrounding jurisdictions in Maryland and Virginia, has been recognized as a significant potential target for terrorism. GAO was asked to report on (1) what federal funds have been allocated to NCR jurisdictions for emergency preparedness; (2) what challenges exist within NCR to organizing and implementing efficient and effective regional preparedness programs; (3) what gaps, if any, remain in the emergency preparedness of NCR; and (4) what has been the role of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in NCR to date."

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A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Effective controls over information systems are essential to ensuring the protection of financial and personnel information and the security and reliability of bank examination data maintained by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC). As part of our calendar year 2003 financial statement audits of three FDIC Funds, GAO assessed the effectiveness of the corporation's general controls on its information systems. Our assessment included follow up on the progress that FDIC has made in correcting or mitigating computer security weaknesses identified in our audits for calendar years 2001 and 2002."

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A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "For more than a decade, GAO has identified the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's (NASA) contract management as a high-risk area--in part because of NASA's inability to collect, maintain, and report the full cost of its programs and projects. Lacking this information, NASA has been challenged to manage its programs and control program costs. The scientific and technical expectations inherent in NASA's mission create even greater challenges--especially if meeting those expectations requires NASA to reallocate funding from existing programs to support proposed new efforts. Because cost growth has been a persistent problem in a number of NASA programs, GAO was asked to examine NASA's cost estimating for selected programs, assess NASA's cost-estimating processes and methodologies, and describe any barriers to improving NASA's cost-estimating processes. To conduct GAO's work, GAO analyzed a total of 27 NASA programs--10 of which GAO reviewed in detail."