Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas Senate and House of Representatives relating to Granting the legislature permission to adjourn for more than three days during the period beginning on Wednesday, February 18, 2009, and ending on Monday, February 23, 2009.

Recent developments in the theory of strong interactions are discussed in the framework of the AdS/CFT duality between string theories of gravity in a higher dimension Anti-de Sitter space and conformal quantum field theories in physical space-time. This novel theoretical approach, combined with 'light-front holography', leads to new insights into the quark and gluon structure of hadrons and a viable first approximation to quantum chromodynamics, the fundamental theory of the strong and nuclear interactions.

This report analyzes the agriculture, nutrition, and rural provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA, P.L. 111-5). The ARRA boosts government spending on various infrastructure programs and government benefits programs, and offers individual and business tax benefits.

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

This report covers carbon capture and sequestration (CCS), but not other types of carbon sequestration activities whereby CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and stored in vegetation, soils, or oceans. Forests and agricultural lands store carbon, and the world's oceans exchange huge amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere through natural processes.

This report provides an overview of the fundamental choices involved between a cost (tax) and a quantity (cap) control instrument, including a discussion of policy tools that could be employed to bridge the gap between a carbon tax and a cap-and-trade program. It also analyzes the potential advantages and disadvantages of a carbon tax, discusses implementation issues for a carbon tax -- including where to apply the tax, at what level to set the tax, and options for distributing the tax revenues-- and provides conclusions.

This report summarizes highlights of scientific research and assessments related to human-induced climate change.

This report begins by reviewing the record of working conditions in the coal mining industry. It then describes the regulatory regime of the U.S. Department of Labor's Mine Safety and Health Administration, incorporating discussion of the standard-setting required by the Mine Improvement and New Emergency Response Act of 2006. The report closes with an examination of recent legislative initiatives.

Using an extreme-ultraviolet (EUV) microscope to produce high-quality images of EUV reticles, we have developed a new wavelength tuning method to acquire through-focus data series with a higher level of stability and repeatability than was previously possible. We utilize the chromatic focal-length dependence of a diffractive Fresnel zoneplate objective lens, and while holding the mask sample mechanically still, we tune the wavelength through a narrow range, in small steps. In this paper, we demonstrate the method and discuss the relative advantages that this data collection technique affords.

A system for collecting solid, post-explosion debris samples from the NIF chamber and their subsequent radiochemical analysis is currently under development. If the debris that condenses out of the plasma can be collected and analyzed, the number and type of nuclear reactions that occurred in the capsule material can be determined. this has applications both for radiochemical diagnostics of NIF capsule performance as well as radiochemical measurements relevant to basic science and stockpile stewardship. Several design prototypes have been studied and a prioritized list of radiochemical measurements that could be performed on NIF is under development based on interactions with capsule design, fabrication, and WCI design divisions.

Aerial images for isolated defects and the interactions of defects with features are compared between the Actinic Inspection Tool (AIT) at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) and the fast EUV simulation program RADICAL. Comparisons between AIT images from August 2007 and RADICAL simulations are used to extract aberrations. At this time astigmatism was the dominant aberration with a value of 0.55 waves RMS. Significant improvements in the imaging performance of the AIT were made between August 2007 and December 2008. A good match will be shown between the most recent AIT images and RADICAL simulations without aberrations. These comparisons will demonstrate that a large defect, in this case 7nm tall on the surface, is still printable even if it is centered under the absorber line. These comparisons also suggest that the minimum defect size is between 1.5nm and 0.8nm surface height because a 1.5nm defect was printable but a 0.8nm was not. Finally, the image of a buried defect near an absorber line through focus will demonstrate an inversion in the effect of the defect from a protrusion of the dark line into the space to a protrusion of the space into the line.

Geologic carbon sequestration is the injection of anthropogenic CO{sub 2} into deep geologic formations where the CO{sub 2} is intended to remain indefinitely. If successfully implemented, geologic carbon sequestration will have little or no impact on terrestrial ecosystems aside from the mitigation of climate change. However, failure of a geologic carbon sequestration site, such as large-scale leakage of CO{sub 2} into a potable groundwater aquifer, could cause impacts that would require costly remediation measures. Governments are attempting to develop regulations for permitting geologic carbon sequestration sites to ensure their safety and effectiveness. At present, these regulations focus largely on decreasing the probability of failure. In this paper we propose that regulations for the siting of early geologic carbon sequestration projects should emphasize limiting the consequences of failure because consequences are easier to quantify than failure probability.

The authors present a Dalitz-plot analysis of charmless B{sup {+-}} decays to the final state {pi}{sup {+-}}{pi}{sup {+-}}{pi}{sup {-+}} using a sample of (465 {+-} 5) x 10{sup 6} B{bar B} pairs collected by the BABAR experiment at {radical}s = 10.58 GeV. They measure the branching fractions {Beta}(B{sup {+-}} {yields} {pi}{sup {+-}}{pi}{sup {+-}}{pi}{sup {-+}}) = (15.2 {+-} 0.6 {+-} 1.2 {+-} 0.4) x 10{sup -6}, {Beta}(B{sup {+-}} {yields} {rho}{sup 0}(770){pi}{sup {+-}}) = (8.1 {+-} 0.7 {+-} 1.2{sub -1.1}{sup +0.4}) x 10{sup -6}, {Beta}(B{sup {+-}} {yields} f{sub 2}(1270){pi}{sup {+-}}) = (1.57 {+-} 0.42 {+-} 0.16{sub -0.19}{sup +0.53}) x 10{sup -6}, and {Beta}(B{sup {+-}} {yields} {pi}{sup {+-}}{pi}{sup {+-}}{pi}{sup {-+}} nonresonant) = (5.3 {+-} 0.7 {+-} 0.6{sub -0.5}{sup +1.1}) x 10{sup -6}, where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and model-dependent, respectively. Measurements of branching fractions for the modes B{sup {+-}} {yields} {rho}{sup 0}(1450){pi}{sup {+-}} and B{sup {+-}} {yields} f{sub 0}(1370){pi}{sup {+-}} are also presented. They observe no significant direct CP asymmetries for the above modes, and there is no evidence for the decays B{sup {+-}} {yields} f{sub 0}(980){pi}{sup {+-}}, B{sup {+-}} {yields} {chi}{sub c0}{pi}{sup {+-}}, or B{sup {+-}} {yields} {chi}{sub c2}{pi}{sup {+-}}.

Photograph of Dave Brubeck playing the piano during a residency at the University of North Texas in 2009. Brubeck is looking down at the piano as his hands hover over the keys.

Photograph of Dave Brubeck sitting at a piano during a residency at the University of North Texas in 2009. Brubeck is looking up from the piano and smiling.

Photograph of Dave Brubeck sitting at a piano during a residency at the University of North Texas in 2009. Brubeck is looking up from the piano and resting his hands on the pages of a music book.

We examine size dependent deliquescence/efflorescence phase transformation for particles down to several nanometers in size. A thin layer criterion (TLC) is introduced to define a deliquescence relative humidity (DRH) for small particles. The usual bulk deliquescence conditions are recovered in the limit of large dry particle size. Nano-size particles are shown to deliquesce to metastable states via a nucleation process at relative humidity just below the DRH. The nucleation barrier is located at a critical solution layer thickness and vanishes at the DRH defined by the TLC. Methods from nucleation theory form the basis for the analysis and yield new insights into the theory, facilitate the interpretation of measurements, and point to unification of deliquescence and efflorescence processes for particles in the nano regime. Methods include thermodynamic area constructions, Legendre transforms relating the binary free-energy surfaces for deliquescence and efflorescence processes, and application of nucleation theorems.

Deposit summary to American National Bank of Texas of $2,788.30 made on February 23, 2009.

Correspondence issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Recent events have drawn attention to the health care provided to detainees held by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a component of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). For fiscal year 2004 through fiscal year 2007, ICE reported that 69 detainees died while in ICE custody, and during 2008, national news organizations investigated and published reports of the circumstances surrounding several detainee deaths. Other reports have also outlined concerns about the health care provided to detainees. For example, in 2007, the DHS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found problems with adherence to ICE's medical standards at two ICE facilities it reviewed where detainee deaths had occurred. Additionally, members of Congress, the media, and advocacy groups have raised questions about the health care provided to detainees in ICE custody. An explanatory statement accompanying the fiscal year 2009 DHS appropriations act directed ICE to fund an independent, comprehensive review of the medical care provided to persons detained by DHS and identified $2 million for that purpose. ICE was created in March 2003 as part of DHS. From fiscal year 2003 through fiscal year 2007, the average daily population …

We consider the Bekenstein-Hawking entropy-area formula in four dimensional extended ungauged supergravity and its electric-magnetic duality property. Symmetries of both"large" and"small" extremal black holes are considered, as well as the ADM mass formula for N=4 and N=8 supergravity, preserving different fraction of supersymmetry. The interplay between BPS conditions and duality properties is an important aspect of this investigation.

We study effects of energy chirp on echo-enabled harmonic generation (EEHG). Analytical expressions are compared with numerical simulations for both harmonic and bunching factors. We also discuss the EEHG free-electron laser bandwidth increase due to an energy-modulated beam and its pulse length dependence on the electron energy chirp.

Email correspondence between Linda Allen, Al Daniels, Daniel Graney, Mike McCue, Ken Denson, and Erin Moore on February 22, 2009 to February 23, 2009, discussing adding information to SDD website.

This report provides information on various aspects of end-of-life care: (1) demographic and historical changes affecting death and dying in the United States (2) the definitions of end-of-life, palliative, and hospice care (3) costs associated with end-of-life care (4) end-of-life care laws and ethics (5) quality of care at the end of life and (6) policy issues that would modify or expand the federal government's role in addressing end-of-life care.

Ensemble concert presented at the UNT College of Music Kenton Hall.