In 2005 the United States incurred a record merchandise trade deficit of $766 billion on a census basis and $782 billion on a balance-of-payments basis (BoP). A surplus in services trade of $58 billion gave a deficit of $724 billion on goods and services (BoP) for the year — up to $108 billion or 17.2% from the $618 billion deficit in 2004.

The military generally provides support to law enforcement and immigration authorities along the southern border. Reported escalations in violence and illegal immigration, however, have prompted some lawmakers to reevaluate the extent and type of military support that occurs in the border region. President Bush has reportedly announced an interest in sending National Guard troops to support the Border Patrol. Addressing domestic laws and activities with the military, however, might run afoul of the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits use of the armed forces to perform the tasks of civilian law enforcement unless explicitly authorized. There are alternative legal authorities for deploying the National Guard, and the precise scope of permitted activities and funds may vary with the authority exercised.

This report discusses FY2006 supplemental appropriations for Iraq and other international activities, as well as Katrina hurricane relief.

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Testimony issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "For federal fiscal year 2004, state and local child protective services staff determined that an estimated 872,000 children have been victims of abuse or neglect. Title IV-B subparts 1 and 2 authorize a wide array of child welfare services with some restrictions on states' use of funds. This testimony discusses: (1) how states used Title IV-B dollars to serve families under subparts 1 and 2; (2) the extent that federal oversight ensured state compliance with spending requirements under subpart 1; and (3) what the research said about the effectiveness of service states have provided to families using Title IV-B funds. This testimony was primarily based on a 2003 report (GAO-03-956)."

This report will first give a statistical overview of various countries and then present a summary of U.S. insurance regulatory structure. This report also provides summaries of the systems in Canada, Australia, and Japan.

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This report provides information about the Child Nutrition and Women, Infant and children (WIC) Legislation in the 108th and 109th Congresses.

This report mainly provides information about the Frequently Asked Questions on the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program (SCAAP) on Immigration which is a formula grant program that provides financial assistance to states and localities for correctional officer salary costs.

This report provides information about the Congressional Liaison Offices of Selected Federal Agencies. This list of about 150 congressional Liaison is intended to help congressional offices in placing telephone calls and addressing correspondence to government agencies.

This report examines the data of the survey on the distribution of household wealth.

The Senate passed its version of the fiscal year 2007 budget resolution on March 16, 2006. After extended delays, the House passed its resolution on May 16, 2006. The extensive differences between the Senate and House versions of the FY2007 budget may prevent a House-Senate agreement. This report contains information on the background and analysis for the federal budget in the fiscal year 2007, the financial situation at that time, budgeting tools, budgetary actions, outlays, receipts, deficits, and related materials.

This report provides an overview of the vocational rehabilitation program. This report also discusses current authorization for vocational rehabilitation grants and recent legislative attempts to extend this authorization.

With a pretty good-resolution mountain profile, we simulated the underground muon background at the Daya Bay site. To get the sea-level muon flux parameterization, a modification to the standard Gaisser's formula was introduced according to the world muon data. MUSIC code was used to transport muon through the mountain rock. To deploy the simulation, first we generate a statistic sample of sea-level muon events according to the sea-level muon flux distribution formula; then calculate the slant depth of muon passing through the mountain using an interpolation method based on the digitized data of the mountain; finally transport muons through rock to get underground muon sample, from which we can get results of muon flux, mean energy, energy distribution and angular distribution.

Large format (1k x 1k and 2k x 2k) near infrared detectors manufactured by Rockwell Scientific Center and Raytheon Vision Systems are characterized as part of the near infrared R&D effort for SNAP (the Super-Nova/Acceleration Probe). These are hybridized HgCdTe focal plane arrays with a sharp high wavelength cut-off at 1.7 um. This cut-off provides a sufficiently deep reach in redshift while it allows at the same time low dark current operation of the passively cooled detectors at 140 K. Here the baseline SNAP near infrared system is briefly described and the science driven requirements for the near infrared detectors are summarized. A few results obtained during the testing of engineering grade near infrared devices procured for the SNAP project are highlighted. In particular some recent measurements that target correlated noise between adjacent detector pixels due to capacitive coupling and the response uniformity within individual detector pixels are discussed.

We present the results of a study of the performance of InGaAs detectors conducted for the SuperNova Acceleration Probe (SNAP) dark energy mission concept. Low temperature data from a nominal 1.7um cut-off wavelength 1kx1k InGaAs photodiode array, hybridized to a Rockwell H1RG multiplexer suggest that InGaAs detector performance is comparable to those of existing 1.7um cut-off HgCdTe arrays. Advances in 1.7um HgCdTe dark current and noise initiated by the SNAP detector research and development program makes it the baseline detector technology for SNAP. However, the results presented herein suggest that existing InGaAs technology is a suitable alternative for other future astronomy applications.

Precision near infrared (NIR) measurements are essential for the next generation of ground and space based instruments. The SuperNova Acceleration Probe (SNAP) will measure thousands of type Ia supernovae upto a redshift of 1.7. The highest redshift supernovae provide the most leverage for determining cosmological parameters, in particular the dark energy equation of state and its possible time evolution. Accurate NIR observations are needed to utilize the full potential of the highest redshift supernovae. Technological improvements in NIR detector fabrication have lead to high quantum efficiency, low noise detectors using a HgCdTe diode with a band-gap that is tuned to cutoff at 1:7 1m. The effects of detector quantum efficiency, read noise, and dark current on lightcurve signal to noise, lightcurve parameter errors, and distance modulus ?ts are simulated in the SNAP sim framework. Results show that improving quantum efficiency leads to the largest gains in photometric accuracy for type Ia supernovae. High quantum efficiency in the NIR reduces statistical errors and helps control systematic uncertainties at the levels necessary to achieve the primary SNAP science goals.

The primary activities associated with maintenance of the Subsurface Microbial Culture Collection (SMCC) were designed to ensure that the collection served as a valuable resource to DOE-funded and other scientists, especially DOE-funded scientists associated with the NABIR Program. These activities were carried out throughout the period covered by this report and in-cluded: (1) assistance in the selection of cultures for research, (2) distribution of cultures and/or data on request, (3) incorporation of newly isolated microbial strains, (4) preservation of newly isolated strains, (5) partial characterization of newly isolated strains, (6) development and main-tenance of representative subsets of cultures, (6) screening of SMCC strains for specific charac-teristics, (7) phylogenetic characterization of SMCC strains, (8) development and maintenance of a SMCC website, (9) maintenance of the SMCC databases, (10) archiving of SMCC records, and (11) quality assurance/quality control (QA/QC) activities. We describe in the Final Technical Report our accomplishments related to these activities during the period covered by this report.

Fast cookoff is of interest in the areas of fire hazard reduction and the development of directed energy systems for defense. During a fast cookoff (thermal explosion), high heat fluxes cause rapid temperature increases and ignition in thin boundary layers. We are developing ALE3D models to describe the thermal, chemical, and mechanical behavior during the heating, ignition, and explosive phases. The candidate models and numerical strategies are being evaluated using benchmark cookoff experiments. Fast cookoff measurements were made in a Scaled-Thermal-Explosion-eXperiment (STEX) for LX-10 (94.7% HMX, 5.3% Viton A) confined in a 4130 steel tube with reinforced end caps. Gaps were present at the side and top of the explosive charge to allow for thermal expansion. The explosive was heated until explosion using radiant heaters. Temperatures were measured using thermocouples positioned on the tube wall and in the explosive. During the explosion, the tube expansion and fragment velocities were measured with strain gauges, Photonic-Doppler-Velocimeters (PDVs), and micropower radar units. A fragment size distribution was constructed from fragments captured in Lexan panels. ALE3D models for chemical, thermal, and mechanical behavior were developed for the heating and explosive processes. A multi-step chemical kinetics model is employed for the HMX while a one-step …

We present the results of a detailed study of the noiseperformance of candidate NIR detectors for the proposed Super-NovaAcceleration Probe. Effects of Fowler sampling depth and frequency,temperature, exposure time, detector material, detector reverse-bias andmultiplexer type are quantified. We discuss several tools for determiningwhich sources of low frequency noise are primarily responsible for thesub-optimal noise improvement when multiple sampling.The effectivenessof reference pixel subtraction to mitigate zero point drifts isdemonstrated, and the circumstances under which reference pixelsubtraction should or should not be applied are examined. Spatial andtemporal noise measurements are compared, and a simple method forquantifying the effect of hot pixels and RTS noise on spatial noise isdescribed.

We report the magnetic and transport properties of Ga{sub 1-x}Mn{sub x}P synthesized via ion implantation followed by pulsed laser melting over a range of x, namely 0.018 to 0.042. Like Ga{sub 1-x}Mn{sub x}As, Ga{sub 1-x}Mn{sub x}P displays a monotonic increase of the ferromagnetic Curie temperature with x associated with the hole-mediated ferromagnetic phase while thermal annealing above 300 C leads to a quenching of ferromagnetism that is accompanied by a reduction of the substitutional fraction of Mn. However, contrary to observations in Ga{sub 1-x}Mn{sub x}As, Ga{sub 1-x}Mn{sub x}P is non-metallic over the entire composition range. At the lower temperatures over which the films are ferromagnetic, hole transport occurs via hopping conduction in a Mn-derived band; at higher temperatures it arises from holes in the valence band which are thermally excited across an energy gap that shrinks with x.

SATB1 is an important regulator of nuclear architecture that anchors specialized DNA sequences onto its cage-like network and recruits chromatin remodeling/modifying factors to control gene transcription. We studied the role of SATB1 in regulating the coordinated expression of Il5, Il4, and Il13 from the 200kb cytokine gene cluster region of mouse chromosome 11 during T-helper 2 (Th2)-cell activation. We show that upon cell activation, SATB1 is rapidly induced to form a unique transcriptionally-active chromatin structure that includes the cytokine gene region. Chromatin is folded into numerous small loops all anchored by SATB1, is histone H3 acetylated at lysine 9/14, and associated with Th2-specific factors, GATA3, STAT6, c-Maf, the chromatin-remodeling enzyme Brg-1, and RNA polymerase II across the 200kb region. Before activation, the chromatin displays some of these features, such as association with GATA3 and STAT6, but these were insufficient for cytokine gene expression. Using RNA interference (RNAi), we show that upon cell activation, SATB1 is not only required for chromatin folding into dense loops, but also for c-Maf induction and subsequently for Il4, Il5, and Il13 transcription. Our results show that SATB1 is an important determinant for chromatin architecture that constitutes a novel higher-order, transcriptionally-active chromatin structure upon Th2-cell activation.

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