The House Agriculture Committee has proposed extending Title XVI of the 1990 farm act (P.L. 101-624) for two years. Currently, the title will expire at the end of 1995. The title includes funding authority for the U.s. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) in-house research programs, as well as federal support for cooperative research, higher education, extension programs in the States, and several research grant programs. This report discusses efforts underway to extend this title and reform future legislation. It also outlines federal spending in these areas.

We have examined the mechanical response of unalloyed Ta and Ta-W alloy annealed plates over a wide range of loadings. It was observed in general that Ta exhibits nonuniform mechanical behavior, for example, hourglassing of compression samples and multiple instabilities during tensile deformation. In contrast, the Ta-W alloys do not exhibit any unusual nonuniform behavior. This work presents data revealing the spatial distribution of texture in Ta and Ta-W alloys. Significant variations in texture both through the thickness and from one area of the plate to another were found to be characteristic of Ta. The dominant feature of the texture variations was found to be enhanced <111> crystal direction fractions at the center of the plate, with a decreasing fraction near the surface. We find that the variation in texture in the Ta-W alloys is substantially less than that seen in Ta with primarily a <100> cube texture throughout. This study suggest that the texture gradients are responsible for the nonuniform mechanical response of Ta and that the uniform behavior of the Ta-W alloys is a consequence of the absence of texture gradients.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

Semiweekly newspaper from Pawhuska, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

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