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A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Since the end of the Persian Gulf War in February 1991, the Department of Defense (DOD) has reported over $25 billion in incremental costs for its overseas contingency operations. These operations include the enforcement of no-fly zones, humanitarian assistance, and peace enforcement operations. The majority of these costs ($22 billion) have been incurred in the Balkans (Bosnia and Kosovo) and Southwest Asia. In fiscal year 2001, U.S. military forces are continuing to participate in a number of contingency operations, primarily in the Balkans and Southwest Asia. In this report, GAO reviews (1) the adequacy of DOD's incremental contingency operations funding for all ongoing contingency operations in fiscal year 2001, (2) DOD's estimated contingency operations costs for fiscal year 2002, and (3) the ramifications of DOD's plan to change the method for funding its operations in Southwest Asia. GAO found that (1) existing funds are sufficient to cover DOD's estimated costs for ongoing contingency operations for fiscal year 2001, (2) in June 2001, the administration submitted a revised fiscal year 2002 budget for DOD, which included $4 billion for ongoing operations in the Balkans and Southwest Asia, …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report reviews the Department of Housing and Urban Development's (HUD) fiscal year 2000 performance report and fiscal year 2002 performance plan to assess the agency's progress in achieving selected key outcomes important to the agency's mission. GAO found that although HUD did not attain all of the goals pertaining to the selected key outcomes in its fiscal year 2000 annual performance plan, the performance report shows that HUD made some progress toward achieving the outcomes. However, HUD's progress varied for each outcome, and the information presented in the performance report does not always provide enough information for the reader to evaluate HUD's contribution to achieving the outcome. In general, HUD's strategies for achieving these outcomes appear to be clear and reasonable."

Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cell (PEMFC) is one of the most promising power sources for space and electric vehicle applications. Platinum (Pt) catalyst is used for both fuel and air electrodes in PEMFCs. The carbon monoxide (CO) contamination of H{sub 2} greatly affects electrocatalysts used at the anode of PEMFCs and decrease the cell performance. This irreversible poisoning of the anode can happen even in CO concentrations as low as few ppm, and therefore, require expensive scrubbing of the H{sub 2}-fuel to reduce the contaminant concentration to acceptable level. In order to commercialize this environmentally sound source of energy/power system, development of suitable CO-tolerant catalyst is needed. In this work, we have synthesized several novel electrocatalysts (Pt/C, Pt/Ru/C Pt/Mo/C, Pt/Ir and Pt/Ru/Mo) for PEMFCs. These catalysts have been tested for CO tolerance in the H{sub 2}/air fuel cell. The concentration of CO in the H{sub 2} fuel varied from 10 ppm to 100 ppm. The performance of the electrodes was evaluated by determining the cell potential against current density. The effect of temperature, catalyst compositions, and electrode film preparation methods on the performance of PEM fuel cell has also been studied. It was found that at 70 C and 3.5 …

Dynamic high pressures are applied rapidly to materials to increase density and temperature, to alter. crystal structure and microstructure, and to change physical and chemical properties [1]. These effects are achieved at high pressures and many are retained on release from high pressures. Today it is possible to achieve pressures of order 50 to 500 GPa (5 Mbar), compressions up to fifteen fold greater than initial solid density in the case of hydrogen, and temperatures ranging from 1 K up to several ev (11,600 K) in condensed matter. At these extreme conditions the bonding , structure, physical properties and chemistry of condensed matter are changed substantially from what they are at ambient. This in turn opens up a whole new range of opportunities for novel condensed matter physics, chemistry, and planetary research at extreme conditions. If high pressure phases could be quenched to ambient, then new opportunities would become available in condensed matter and material sciences, as well as for technological applications. This article is concerned with high pressures achieved dynamically by shock compression [2]. In fact, the terms dynamic and shock are used interchangably to describe pressure pulses above 1 GPa (10 kbar) or so. Because dynamic compression is …

The authorizations of appropriations for most programs of federal aid to elementary and secondary (grades K-12) education, under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), expired at the end of FY2000. While the 106th Congress extensively considered several bills which would have reauthorized and amended most of these programs, only legislation extending the Impact Aid (ESEA Title VIII) and Even Start Family Literacy (ESEA Title I, Part B) programs was enacted. Selected other programs, such as the Class Size Reduction program, have been initiated and continued solely through annual appropriations legislation.

With the Nation's coal-burning utilities facing the possibility of tighter controls on mercury pollutants, the U.S. Department of Energy is funding projects that could offer power plant operators better ways to reduce these emissions at much lower costs. Mercury is known to have toxic effects on the nervous system of humans and wildlife. Although it exists only in trace amounts in coal, mercury is released when coal burns and can accumulate on land and in water. In water, bacteria transform the metal into methylmercury, the most hazardous form of the metal. Methylmercury can collect in fish and marine mammals in concentrations hundreds of thousands times higher than the levels in surrounding waters. One of the goals of DOE is to develop technologies by 2005 that will be capable of cutting mercury emissions 50 to 70 percent at well under one-half of today's costs. ADA Environmental Solutions (ADA-ES) is managing a project to test mercury control technologies at full scale at four different power plants from 2000--2003. The ADA-ES project is focused on those power plants that are not equipped with wet flue gas desulfurization systems. ADA-ES will develop a portable system that will be moved to four different utility power …

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This report discusses the sale of firearms over the internet, with a focus on the extent to which federal law regulates such activity. A review of the relevant factors indicates that while firearms transferred in an illegal manner via the internet may pose special investigatory problems for law enforcement, internet firearm sales are subject to the same regulatory scheme as traditional firearm transactions.

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Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Efforts by the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) to promote sound and uniform regulatory processes across the states are being put to the test as pressure builds from both the 1999 Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act and competitive forces for more efficient and streamlined insurance regulatory processes. One factor affecting the ultimate success of these efforts is the level of confidence state regulators will have in their counterparts' willingness and ability to adequately obtain, assess, and validate information provided by industry applicants in making regulatory decisions. Each state will be required to rely on the actions of regulators in other states to a greater degree than ever before. Whether regulators ultimately achieve uniformity in some areas or even attain reciprocity, continuing weaknesses in some states' regulatory framework can undermine the system. NAIC and state regulators believe that the development of more uniform and streamlined methods for obtaining licensing approval on individuals, products, and insurance companies in multiple states can enhance the ability of insurers to compete with other financial service entities while at the same time maintaining or improving the quality of insurance regulation. Both the timely completion and degree …

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A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Congress enacted the National Competitiveness Technology Transfer Act to encourage federal laboratories operated by contractors to enter into cooperative research and development agreements (CRADA) with businesses, universities, and other private partners. This act was designed to improve the United States' competitive position in the world economy by facilitating the transfer of technology from federal laboratories to U.S. businesses. This report reviews the National Nuclear Security Administration's (NNSA) (1) use of CRADAs and (2) views on the advantages and disadvantages of CRADAs. GAO found that NNSA has reduced its use of CRADAs while entering into more agreements fully funded by private partners. Dedicated funding for CRADAs was gradually phased out and program managers at the laboratories were supposed to rely on regular research funding to make up the shortfall. However, NNSA laboratory managers have stated that because the funding has not been replaced with research funds, their laboratories have either prematurely terminated many CRADAs or required the private partners to fully fund the work. According to NNSA officials, CRADAs offers both advantages and disadvantages. CRADAs have enabled laboratories to recruit and retain experienced staff and have improved …

A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

To enter into force, the U.S. trade agreement with Vietnam must be approved by the enactment of a joint resolution of Congress, considered under a specific fast-track procedure with deadlines for its various stages, with mandatory language and no amendments. This report discusses the functional sequence of the legislative and executive steps involved in the implementation of the agreement is described in this report.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report reviews the Food and Drug Administration's (FDA) inclusion of women in clinical drug trials. GAO found that women were a majority of the clinical trial participants in the new drug applications (NDA) it examined and that every NDA included enough women in the pivotal studies to be able to statistically demonstrate that the drug is effective in women. Although these findings are welcome, GAO also found three areas of concern. The first is the relatively small proportion of women in early small-scale safety studies. These early studies provide important information on drugs' toxicity and safe dosing levels for later stages of clinical development, and many of the NDAs GAO examined found significant sex differences in a drug's pharmacokinetics, or how it is absorbed, distributed, metabolized, excreted, and concentrated in the bloodstream. Second, GAO is not confident that either NDA sponsors or FDA's reviewers took full advantage of the available data to learn more about the effects of the drug in women and to explore potential sex differences in dosing. This is because NDA summary documents are not required to include analyses of sex differences, …