Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

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

Semiweekly newspaper from Boerne, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed budget accounting and budget enforcement as they relate to trust funds and other special funds in the budget, focusing on: (1) the structure of the federal budget--especially categorizations within the unified budget; (2) the budget outlook, discretionary caps, and enforcement situation as the nation enters a projected era of unified budget surpluses; and (3) potential implications of changes in the treatment of the aviation programs."

We report the first in situ measurements of thermomechanical stresses in a 1000 I/O 250 {micro}m pitch piezoresistive flip chip test chip assembled to a 755 I/O 1.0 mm pitch 35 mm Ball Grid Array (BGA). The BGA substrates employed build-up dielectric layers containing micro-vias over conventional fiberglass laminate cores. Experimental data, which include in situ stress and die bending measurements, were correlated to closed form and Finite Element Method (FEM) calculations. Cracking and delamination were observed in some of the experimental groups undergoing temperature cycling. Through use of bounding conditions in the FEM simulations, these failures were associated with debonding of the underfill fillet from the die edge that caused stresses to shift to weaker areas of the package.

The isochronal anneal technique used to predict isothermal anneal behavior of MOS devices is analyzed as a function of experimental parameters. The effects of detrapping of trapped holes and compensating electrons are discussed.

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A strategy of site characterization, modeling, and monitoring are used to evaluate the performance of an interim cover at a low-level radioactive waste management site. The soil water migration papthway must be evaluated to assure the long-term isolation of low-level radioactive waste. Water balance studies using precision weighing lysimeters have been conducted for five years near the radioactive waste site ath the Nevada Test Site. The numerical flow models UNSAT-H and HYDRUS-2D were tested using the weighing lysimeter data and then used to evaluate various cover design issues including cover thickness, presence of vegetation, and monitoring system design.

This report describes the development of an improved permeability modification simulator performed jointly by BDM Petroleum Technologies and Schlumberger Dowell under a cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) with the US Department of Energy. The improved simulator was developed by modifying NIPER's PC-GEL permeability modification simulator to include a radial model, a thermal energy equation, a wellbore simulator, and a fully implicit time-stepping option. The temperature-dependent gelation kinetics of a delayed gel system (DGS) is also included in the simulator.

An e-mail to A.F. Weaver, concerning Ike Sablosky, written by Greg Meyer of Texas A & M, March 9, 1999. Mr. Weaver apparently had inquired about Mr. Sablosky in connection with a photograph.

An email from Mary Matalin to Charles C. Francis about wanting to meet him and her response to the Republican Party's stance on gay and lesbian issues.

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Daily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Optocouplers are used for a variety of applications aboard spacecraft including electrical isolation, switching and power transfer. Commercially available light emitting diode (LED)-based optocouplers have experienced severe degradation of light output due to extensive displacement damage occurring in the semiconductor lattice caused by energetic proton bombardment. A new optocoupler has been designed and fabricated which utilizes vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) and resonant cavity photodetector (RCPD) technologies for the optocoupler emitter and detector, respectively. Linear arrays of selectively oxidized GaAs/AlGaAs VCSELS and RCPDS, each designed to operate at a wavelength of 850nm, were fabricated using an airbridge contacting scheme. The airbridged contacts were designed to improve packaging yields and device reliability by eliminating the use of a polyimide planarizing layer which provided poor adhesion to the bond pad metallization. Details of the airbridged optocoupler fabrication process are reported. Discrete VCSEL and RCPD devices were characterized at temperatures between {minus}100 to 100 C. Devices were packaged in a face-to-face configuration to form a single channel optocoupler and its performance was evaluated under conditions of high-energy proton bombardment.

A hand-held chemical laboratory ({mu}ChemLab) is being developed that utilizes a silicon- nitride-supported microhotplate in the front-end, gas sampling and preconcentration stage. Device constraints include low-power (<200mW at 5V), rapid heating (<20msec), and a relatively uniform temperature distribution throughout the heated area ({approximately}3mm{sup 2}). To optimize for these criteria, the electro-thermal behavior of the microhotplate was modeled using Thermal Analysis System (TAS). Predicted steady-state and transient behavior agree well with infrared (IR) microscope data and measured transient response for a low-stress silicon nitride thermal conductivity of k{sub n} = 6.4 x 10{sup {minus}2} W x (cm x {degree}C){sup {minus}1} and a convection coefficient of h{sub cv} = 3.5 x 10{sup {minus}3} W x (cm{sup 2} x {degree}C){sup {minus}1}. The magnitude of h{sub cv} is framed in the context of vacuum measurements and empirical data. Details and limitations of the IR measurement are discussed. Finally, the efficacy of methods for reducing thermal gradients in the microhotplate's active area is presented.

This paper presents an approach for treating uncertainty in the performance assessment process to efficiently address regulatory performance objectives for radioactive waste disposal and discusses the application of the approach at the Greater Confinement Disposal site. In this approach, the performance assessment methodology uses probabilistic risk assessment concepts to guide effective decisions about site characterization activities and provides a path toward reasonable assurance regarding regulatory compliance decisions. Although the approach is particularly amenable to requirements that are probabilistic in nature, the approach is also applicable to deterministic standards such as the dose-based and concentration-based requirements.

Funeral program for Mrs. Jo Dee Smith, born July 21, 1933 and died March 6, 1999. The funeral was held March 9, 1999 at Damascus Missionary Baptist Church, officiated by Rev. Earl Harris. Funeral arrangements were made through Hardy's Mortuary and she was buried in Sunset Memorial Park in San Antonio, Texas.

Weekly newspaper from Harper, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

This report describes the research conducted in the High Energy Physics Division of Argonne National Laboratory during the period of January 1, 1998 through June 30, 1998. Topics covered here include experimental and theoretical particle physics, advanced accelerator physics, detector development, and experimental facilities research. Lists of Division publications and colloquia are included.

Letter to Garry and Steven Cox about the Texas Human Rights Foundation becoming a beneficiary of the 1999 Black Tie Dinner.

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We have developed an interactive computer-aided design program that supports mechanical design of devices fabricated in surface micro-machining processes. The program automates kinematic analysis via a novel configuration space computation code, performs real-time simulation, and supports functional parametric design. Designers can visualize system function under a range of operating conditions, can find and correct design flaws, and can optimize performance. We used the program to detect and correct a design flaw in a micro-mechanical indexing mechanism fabricated at Sandia with the SUMMiT process.

Non-elutable ion exchange is being considered as a potential replacement for the In-Tank Precipitation process for removing cesium from Savannah River Site (SRS) radioactive waste. Crystalline silicotitanate (CST) particles are the reference ion exchange medium for the process. A major factor in the construction cost of this process is the size of the ion exchange column required to meet product specifications for decontaminated waste. To validate SRS column sizing calculations, SRS subcontracted two reknowned experts in this field to perform similar calculations: Professor R. G. Anthony, Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&038;M University, and Professor S. W. Wang, Department of Chemical Engineering, Purdue University. The appendices of this document contain reports from the two subcontractors. Definition of the design problem came through several meetings and conference calls between the participants and SRS personnel over the past few months. This document summarizes the problem definition and results from the two reports.