Books published by National Academies Press

At any one time, at least 30,000 people in the U.S. are living with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), a rapidly progressive, fatal neurological disease affecting individuals, caregivers, at-risk genetic carriers, and others. In 2022, Congress directed the National Institutes of Health to commission a National Academies committee of experts to recommend key actions public, private, and nonprofit sectors should take to make ALS a livable disease within the next 10 years. The resulting report, Living with ALS, focuses on an integrated ALS multidisciplinary care and research system to help facilitate earlier diagnosis and connections to specialty care.

The future safety of maritime transportation in the United States-a major factor in the nation's international trade and economic well-being-will depend heavily on the quality of port and waterways information systems. Many U.S. ports and waterways lack adequate information services, although certain elements of advanced systems are now available in some locations. Barriers to improvements in information systems include the division of responsibilities for waterways management among multiple agencies at all levels of government, a lack of coordination among the federal agencies responsible for waterways management, inadequate budgets for some critical maritime programs, the high costs of some specialized technologies, stakeholder opposition to user fees, limited access to certain key data, the incompatibility of many independently developed systems, and the absence of standards for some attractive technologies.In this report, the second phase of a three-year study by the Committee on Maritime Advanced Information Systems of the National Research Council, a strategy is presented for overcoming the major barriers and deficiencies and providing a minimum level of maritime safety information nationwide. In this phase of the study, the committee concentrated on maritime information systems that promote safety, which is the area of greatest need. The committee did not examine in detail the relationship between navigation safety and maritime transportation efficiency or evaluate information systems that promote efficiency; the committee believes, however, that these issues deserve further attention.

In 1997, the Congress directed the NRC to carry out a series of assessments of project management at the Department of Energy (DOE). The final part of that series, this report presents an examination of DOE's progress in improving program management, including the Department's response to recommendations of the previous assessments in the series.

Provides a plan for addressing these needs and suggests the creation of a new government entity, the National Institute of Forensic Science, to establish and enforce standards within the forensic science community.

The granting of offsets to promote exports of major aircraft systems has been a source of significant controversy. Critics believe that offsets undermine the U.S. manufacturing base; lead to the transfer of commercial technology, possibly affecting national security; and result in the loss of high-wage jobs. Defenders of the practice argue that offsets are a fact of commercial life and can result in net U.S. job gains.In an effort to focus the offsets debate on analytical issues, the White House National Economic Council asked the National Research Council to convene expert academicians, representatives from the aerospace industry, and top government officials to discuss the impact of offsets on the U.S. economy. To ensure a rigorous discussion encompassing all points of view, the conference included a series of papers outlining the positions of key participants. This resulting volume offers a comprehensive and up-to-date analysis of the impact of aerospace offsets.