Newsletter issued by the Texas Main Street Program discussing news, events, and other information related to the program as well as featuring designated participating communities and providing technical advice regarding conservation and restoration.

Newsletter of the Texas Medical Board describing news and events as well as updates about medical licenses, disciplinary actions, and other regulatory information.

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Authority of certain persons to direct the disposition of blood seized during the investigation of an intoxication-related offense (RQ-1082-GA).

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a school district board of trustees may appoint a single-member district trustee to an at-large position as the district transitions to a new election scheme (RQ-1091-GA).

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a sheriff must submit an office policy manual to the county commissioners court for approval (RQ-1087-GA).

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether State Bar of Texas president-elect candidates who are nominated by petition under subsection 81.019(c), Government Code, are nevertheless subject to State Bar of Texas election rules and policies (RQ-1 088-GA).

Document issued by the Office of the Attorney General of Texas in Austin, Texas, providing an interpretation of Texas law. It provides the opinion of the Texas Attorney General, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether an arrested person may waive the requirement that he or she be taken before a magistrate and admonished in accordance with article 15.17 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (RQ-1 085-GA).

Report on the excavations at the Santa Maria creek site in Caldwell County, Texas during 2006 and 2007. The report includes a discussion of research methods, analysis of the findings, and history of the area.

This study is to update data that reflects new development in technology, add new costs, add onshore distribution data from offshore oil and gas activities, and methodology to estimate the different level of granularity.

Summary describing the work completed at Louisiana State University Center for Energy Studies for 'Offshore Drilling Industry and Rig Construction Market in the Gulf of Mexico.' It includes background information on the project funding and sponsorship, goals, methodology, and findings.

Report on the purpose of mobile offshore drilling units (MODUs) and the economic impacts of rig construction in the United States.

PNNL is conducting work to provide the technical basis for estimating radionuclide release from the engineered portion of the disposal facility for Hanford immobilized low-activity waste (ILAW). Before the ILAW can be disposed, DOE must conduct a performance assessment (PA) for the Integrated Disposal Facility (IDF) that describes the long-term impacts of the disposal facility on public health and environmental resources. As part of the ILAW glass testing program, PNNL is implementing a strategy, consisting of experimentation and modeling, to provide the technical basis for estimating radionuclide release from the glass waste form in support of future IDF PAs. Key activities in FY12 include upgrading the STOMP/eSTOMP codes to do near-field modeling, geochemical modeling of PCT tests to determine the reaction network to be used in the STOMP codes, conducting PUF tests on selected glasses to simulate and accelerate glass weathering, developing a Monte Carlo simulation tool to predict the characteristics of the weathered glass reaction layer as a function of glass composition, and characterizing glasses and soil samples exhumed from an 8-year lysimeter test. The purpose of this report is to summarize the progress made in fiscal year (FY) 2012 and the first quarter of FY 2013 toward implementing …

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This project was funded by the U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) to address environmental research questions specifically related to Alaska�s oil and gas natural resources development. The focus of this project was on the environmental issues associated with allocation of water resources for construction of ice roads and ice pads. Earlier NETL projects showed that oil and gas exploration activities in the U.S. Arctic require large amounts of water for ice road and ice pad construction. Traditionally, lakes have been the source of freshwater for this purpose. The distinctive hydrological regime of northern lakes, caused by the presence of ice cover and permafrost, exerts influence on lake water availability in winter. Lakes are covered with ice from October to June, and there is often no water recharge of lakes until snowmelt in early June. After snowmelt, water volumes in the lakes decrease throughout the summer, when water loss due to evaporation is considerably greater than water gained from rainfall. This balance switches in August, when air temperature drops, evaporation decreases, and rain (or snow) is more likely to occur. Some of the summer surface storage deficit in the active layer and surface water bodies (lakes, ponds, …

This report summarizes the 2012 annual inspection, sampling, measurement, and maintenance activities performed at the Salmon, Mississippi, Site (Salmon site). The draft Long-Term Surveillance and Maintenance Plan for the Salmon Site, Lamar County, Mississippi (DOE 2007) specifies the submittal of an annual report of site activities with the results of sample analyses. A revised plan is in preparation. The Long-Term Surveillance Plan for the Salmon, Mississippi, Site is intended for release in 2013. The Salmon site consists of 1,470 acres. The site is located in Lamar County, Mississippi, approximately 10 miles west of Purvis, Mississippi, and about 21 miles southwest of Hattiesburg, Mississippi The State of Mississippi owns the surface real estate subject to certain restrictions related to subsurface penetration. The State is the surface operator; the Mississippi Forestry Commission is its agent. The federal government owns the subsurface real estate (including minerals and some surface features), shares right-of-entry easements with the State, and retains rights related to subsurface monitoring. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Legacy Management (LM), a successor agency to the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission, is responsible for the long-term surveillance of the subsurface real estate

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20 nm sized Co{sub 3}O{sub 4} nanoparticles are in-situ grown on the chemically reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sheets to form a rGO-Co{sub 3}O{sub 4} composite during hydrothermal processing. The rGO-Co{sub 3}O{sub 4} composite is employed as the pseudocapacitor electrode in the 2 M KOH aqueous electrolyte solution. The rGOCo{sub 3}O{sub 4} composite electrode exhibits a specific capacitance of 472 F/g at a scan rate of 2 mV/s in a two-electrode cell. 82.6% of capacitance is retained when the scan rate increases to 100 mV/s. The rGOCo{sub 3}O{sub 4} composite electrode shows high rate capability and excellent long-term stability. It also exhibits high energy density at relatively high power density. The energy density reaches 39.0 Wh/kg at a power density of 8.3 kW/kg. The super performance of the composite electrode is attributed to the synergistic effects of small size and good redox activity of the Co{sub 3}O{sub 4} particles combined with high electronic conductivity of the rGO sheets.

A binder system containing polyurethane precursors was used to in situ foam (direct foam) a (La{sub 0.6}Sr{sub 0.4}){sub 0.98} (Co{sub 0.2} Fe{sub 0.8})O{sub 3-{delta}} (LSCF) cathode composition upon a yttrium-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte coated with a porous #3;10 mm thick cathode active layer. The YSZ electrolyte was #3;110 mm in thickness, and a full cell was created by application of a Ni/(Ce{sub 0.9}Gd{sub 0.1})O{sub 2} cermet as the baseline anode. Cells possessing the foamed LSCF cathode were compared to cells constructed via standard methods in terms of resultant microstructure, electrochemical performance, and introceptive character. The foamed cathode tended to possess a high level of tortuous porosity which was ellipsoidal and interconnected in character. Both the standard and foamed cathode structures were subjected to an infiltration process, and the resultant microstructure was examined. The impregnation efficiency of the foamed cathode was at least #3;10% greater per deposition than that of an unfoamed porous LSCF cathode. The SOFC with the Pt nano-catalyst impregnated foamed cathode demonstrated a maximum power density of 593 mW/cm{sup 2} utilizing wet H{sub 2} fuel, which is 52% higher than a SOFC with the baseline Pt-impregnated LSCF cathode (#3;390 mW/cm{sup 2}) at 800 {degrees}C. The cathode compositional and …

Energy, water and land are scarce resources, critical to humans. Developments in each affect the availability and cost of the others, and consequently human prosperity. Measures to limit greenhouse gas concentrations will inevitably exact dramatic changes on energy and land systems and in turn alter the character, magnitude and geographic distribution of human claims on water resources. We employ the Global Change Assessment Model (GCAM), an integrated assessment model to explore the interactions of energy, land and water systems in the context of alternative policies to limit climate change to three alternative levels: 2.5 Wm-2 (445 ppm CO2-e), 3.5 Wm-2 (535 ppm CO2-e) and 4.5 Wm-2 (645 ppm CO2-e). We explore the effects of two alternative land-use emissions mitigation policy options—one which taxes terrestrial carbon emissions equally with fossil fuel and industrial emissions, and an alternative which only taxes fossil fuel and industrial emissions but places no penalty on land-use change emissions. We find that increasing populations and economic growth could be anticipated to almost triple demand for water for agricultural systems across the century even in the absence of climate policy. In general policies to mitigate climate change increase agricultural demands for water still further, though the largest changes …

The goal of this technical memorandum is to suppor

This report presents results of data collected during the annual post-closure site inspections conducted at the Central Nevada Test Area surface Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 417 in May 2011 and July 2012. The annual post-closure site inspections included inspections of the UC-1, UC-3, and UC-4 sites in accordance with the Post-Closure Monitoring Plan provided in the CAU 417 Closure Report (NNSA/NV 2001). The annual inspections conducted at the UC-1 Central Mud Pit (CMP) indicated that the site and soil cover were in good condition. No new fractures or extension of existing fractures were observed and no issues with the fence or gate were identified. The vegetation on the cover continues to look healthy, but the biennial vegetation survey conducted during the 2012 inspection indicated that the total foliar cover was slightly higher in 2009 than in 2012. This may be indicative of a decrease in precipitation observed during the 2-year monitoring period. The precipitation totaled 9.9 inches from July 1, 2010, through June 30, 2011, and 5 inches from July 1, 2011, through June 30, 2012. This decrease in precipitation is also evident in the soil moisture data obtained from the time domain reflectometry sensors. Soil moisture content data show …

The main purpose of the Coordinated Infrastructure for Fault Tolerance in Systems initiative has been to conduct research with a goal of providing end-to-end fault tolerance on a systemwide basis for applications and other system software. While fault tolerance has been an integral part of most high-performance computing (HPC) system software developed over the past decade, it has been treated mostly as a collection of isolated stovepipes. Visibility and response to faults has typically been limited to the particular hardware and software subsystems in which they are initially observed. Little fault information is shared across subsystems, allowing little flexibility or control on a system-wide basis, making it practically impossible to provide cohesive end-to-end fault tolerance in support of scientific applications. As an example, consider faults such as communication link failures that can be seen by a network library but are not directly visible to the job scheduler, or consider faults related to node failures that can be detected by system monitoring software but are not inherently visible to the resource manager. If information about such faults could be shared by the network libraries or monitoring software, then other system software, such as a resource manager or job scheduler, could ensure …

Gnome-Coach was the site of a 3-kiloton underground nuclear test conducted in 1961. Surface and subsurface contamination resulted from the underground nuclear testing, post-test drilling, and a groundwater tracer test performed at the site. Surface reclamation and remediation began after the underground testing. A Completion Report was prepared, and the State of New Mexico is currently proceeding with a conditional certificate of completion for the surface. Subsurface corrective action activities began in 1972 and have generally consisted of annual sampling and monitoring of wells near the site. In 2008, the annual site inspections were refined to include hydraulic head monitoring and collection of samples from groundwater monitoring wells onsite using the low-flow sampling method. These activities were conducted during this monitoring period on January 18, 2012. Analytical results from this sampling event indicate that concentrations of tritium, strontium-90, and cesium-137 were generally consistent with concentrations from historical sampling events. The exceptions are the decreases in concentrations of strontium-90 in samples from wells USGS-4 and USGS-8, which were more than 2.5 times lower than last year's results. Well USGS-1 provides water for livestock belonging to area ranchers, and a dedicated submersible pump cycles on and off to maintain a constant volume …