A Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) is a mechanism established by P.L. 99-602, the Federal Technology Transfer Act, to allow the transfer of technology, knowledge, and expertise from government laboratories to the private sector for further development and commercialization. The government provides support in the way of overhead for research and development performed in the federal laboratory and is prohibited from providing funding directly to the partner in the collaborative effort. Currently, more than 5,000 CRADAs have been signed. As the 105th Congress determines its approach to science and technology policies, the role of CRADAs continues to be debated within the context of federal support for R&D

Efforts by the 104th Congress to eliminate several government-industry-university research and development partnership programs reflected some opposition to federally funded programs designed to facilitate the commercialization of technology. Within the context of the budget decisions, the 106th Congress is expected to again debate the government's role in promoting collaborative ventures focused on generating new products and processes for the marketplace.

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, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a delinquent tax penalty to defray collection costs authorized pursuant on or after July 1 under Tax Code sections 31.03, 31.031, 31.032, or 31.04 (RQ-970)

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, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the commissioners court or the county clerk is authorized to control the expenditure of records management and preservation fees collected under Local Government Code section 118.0216, and related questions (RQ-953)

Interview with Trixie Lucille Dixon Sample, registered nurse from Kerrville, Texas. Mrs. Sample recounts stories from her 30 years working as a nurse at the Veteran's Hospital - including how she met her husband and the problems she encountered with the hospital's policy against married nurses.

Relative to ¹³⁷Cs gamma rays, the response of MTS-N (^NatLiF:Mg,Ti-0.04 cm thick) increased from 0.4 to 1.4 between x-ray energies of 6 and 30 keV and that of MCP-N (^NatLif:Mg, Cu, P-0.04 cm thick) increased from 0.02 to 1.2 between 6 and 26 keV. A mathematical model for TLD response was used with measured responses to determine overall TLD efficiency C(k) and efficiency relative to ¹³⁷Cs. The effective energy attenuation coefficient {mu}(k) and light attenuation coefficient f were also determined experimentally. The relative efficiency of MTS-N increased from 0.66 to 1.30 between 6 and 30 keV and that of MCP-N increased from 0.37 to 0.99 between 6 and 26 keV.

The Hanford Site is one of several US Department of Energy (DOE) sites throughout the US that has generated and stored transuranic (TRU) wastes. The wastes were primarily placed in 55-gallon drums, stacked in trenches, and covered with soil. In 1970, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission ordered that TRU wastes be segregated from other radioactive wastes and placed in retrievable storage until such time that the waste could be sent to a geologic repository and permanently disposed. Retrievable storage also defined container storage life by specifying that a container must be retrievable as a contamination-free container for 20 years. Hanford stored approximately 37,400 TRU containers in 20-year retrievable storage from 1970 to 1988. The Hanford TRU wastes placed in 20-year retrievable storage are considered disposed under existing Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations since they were placed in storage prior to September 1988. The majority of containers were 55-gallon drums, but 20-year retrievable storage includes several TRU wastes covered with soil in different storage methods.

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

A letter from Julie Anne to D. Jack Davis about conforming the use of the Getty Education Institute for the Arts' National Specialty Program funds for the North Texas Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts.

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

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

Ensemble concert performed at the UNT College of Music Recital Hall.

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

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

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

The assay of highly enriched {sup 233}U material presents some unique challenges. Techniques which apply to the assay of materials of Pu or enriched {sup 235}U do not convert easily over to the assay of {sup 233}U. A specialized neutron assay device is being fabricated to exploit the singles neutron signal, the weak correlated neutron signal, and an active correlated signal. These pieces of information when combined with {gamma} ray isotopics information should give a good overall determination of {sup 233}U material now stored in bldg. 3019 at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory.

The production of Non Destructive Assay (NDA) Working Reference Materials (WRMs) that are traceable to nationally recognized standards was undertaken to support implementation of the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory (INEEL) Nondestructive Waste Assay Capability Evaluation Project (CEP). The WRMs produced for the CEP project consist of Increased Am/Pu mass ration (IAP) and depleted Uranium (DU) WRMs. The CEP IAP/DU WRM set provides radioactive material standards for use in combination with 55 gallon drum waste matrix surrogates for the assessment of waste NDA assay system performance. The Production of WRMs is a meticulous process that is not without certain trials and tribulations. Problems may arise at any of the various stages of WRM production which include, but are not limited to; material characterization (physical, chemical, and isotopic), material blend parameters, personnel radiation exposure, gas generation phenomenon, traceability to national standards, encapsulation, statistical evaluation of the data, and others. Presented here is an overall description of the process by which the CEP WRMs were produced and certified as well as discussions pertaining to some of the problems encountered and how they were solved.

This paper describes a general methodological framework for evaluating the perceptual properties of auditory stimuli. The framework provides analysis techniques that can ensure the effective use of sound for a variety of applications including virtual reality and data sonification systems. Specifically, we discuss data collection techniques for the perceptual qualities of single auditory stimuli including identification tasks, context-based ratings, and attribute ratings. In addition, we present methods for comparing auditory stimuli, such as discrimination tasks, similarity ratings, and sorting tasks. Finally, we discuss statistical techniques that focus on the perceptual relations among stimuli, such as Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) and Pathfinder Analysis. These methods are presented as a starting point for an organized and systematic approach for non-experts in perceptual experimental methods, rather than as a complete manual for performing the statistical techniques and data collection methods. It is our hope that this paper will help foster further interdisciplinary collaboration among perceptual researchers, designers, engineers, and others in the development of effective auditory displays.

International Technology Corporation (IT) was contracted by General Electric Company (GE) to assist in the preparation of an Environmental, Health and Safety (HI&3) assessment of the implementation of Phase 3R of the Advanced Turbine System (ATS) 7H program at the GE Gas Turbines facility located in Greenville, South Carolina. The assessment was prepared in accordance with GE's contractual agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (GE/DOE Cooperative Agreement DE-FC21-95MC3 1176) and supports compliance with the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970. This report provides a summary of the EH&S review and includes the following: General description of current site operations and EH&S status, Description of proposed ATS 7H-related activities and discussion of the resulting environmental, health, safety and other impacts to the site and surrounding area. Listing of permits and/or licenses required to comply with federal, state and local regulations for proposed 7H-related activities. Assessment of adequacy of current and required permits, licenses, programs and/or plans.

The PHOBOS experiment at RHIC is designed to study multiplicity distributions and fluctuations over all of 4{pi}, as well as particle spectra and correlations at mid rapidity, with a particular emphasis on physics at low p{sub T}. The experiment is relatively small and relies almost entirely on silicon pad detector technology. The flexibility of the design, the conservative nature of the technologies used, and the ability to take data at high rates place the experiment in a good position to search for exotic physics from heavy-ion collisions at the early stages of RHIC operations.

This safety evaluation for packaging authorizes the shipment of up to two 4-L sludge samples to and from the 325 Lab or 222-S Lab for characterization. The safety of this shipment is based on the current U.S. Department of Energy Certification of Compliance (CoC) for the PAS-1 cask, USA/9184/B(U) (DOE).

The assay of sludge drums pushes the APNea System to a definite extreme. Even though it seems clear that neutron based assay should be the method of choice for sludge drums, the difficulties posed by this matrix push any NDA technique to its limits. Special emphasis is given here to the differential die-away technique, which appears to approach the desired sensitivity. A parallel analysis of ethafoam drums will be presented, since the ethafoam matrix fits well within the operating range of the AIWea System, and, having been part of the early PDP trials, has been assayed by many in the NDA community.

We examined the effectiveness of two different methods for correcting CTEN passive and active assays for bias due to variations in the source position in different drum types. Both use the same drum-averaged correction determined from a neural network trained to active flux monitor ratios as a starting point. One method then uses a neural network to obtain a spatial correction factor sensitive to the source location. The other method uses emission tomography. Both methods were found to give significantly improved assay accuracy over the drum-averaged correction, although more study is needed to determine which method works better.

Concert performed at the UNT College of Music Concert Hall.