Agency strategic plan for the Texas Bond Review Board describing the organization's planned services, activities, and other goals during fiscal years 2013 through 2017.

Interview with Julio Cesar Jo Gallent, an immigrant from Martí, Cuba. Jo discusses his family fleeing Cuba, being rescued by the Coast Guard, staying in a camp at Guanatamo Bay, arriving in Miami, education and daily life in Castro's Cuba, American education, moving to Garland, Texas, visiting Cuba, and Cuba-US relations.

Interview with Miguel Soria, Mexican-born immigrant to Plano, Texas. The interview includes Soria's personal experiences about childhood in Mexico, his first visit to the U.S., illegally crossing the border to live in Dallas, Texas, and experiences with a human smuggler, along with his experiences as an undocumented person and with discrimination. It also includes his thoughts on the DREAM act and the immigration process, and advice for future immigrants.

This book chapter presents an overview of research conducted in our laboratory on preparation, optical and physico-chemical properties of metallic and nanohybrid materials. Metallic nanoparticles, particularly gold, silver, platinum or a combination of those are the main focus of this review manuscript. These metallic nanoparticles were further functionalized and used as templates for creation of complex and ordered nanomaterials with tailored and tunable structural, optical, catalytic and surface properties. Controlling the surface chemistry on/off metallic nanoparticles allows production of advanced nanoarchitectures. This includes coupled or encapsulated core-shell geometries, nano-peapods, solid or hollow, monometallic/bimetallic, hybrid nanoparticles. Rational assemblies of these nanostructures into one-, two- and tridimensional nano-architectures is described and analyzed. Their sensing, environmental and energy related applications are reviewed.

Agency strategic plan for the Texas Office of Public Utility Counsel describing the organization's planned services, activities, and other goals during fiscal years 2013 through 2017.