A weekly publication, the Texas Register serves as the journal of state agency rulemaking for Texas. Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents such as requests for proposals. After adoption, these rulemaking actions are codified into the Texas Administrative Code.

Semi-monthly newspaper from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news and advertising of interest to the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community.

This newsletter is prepared for the NARUC Subcommittee on Renewable Energy to promote information sharing on state-level renewable electric activities. It is sponsored by the Office of Power Technologies of the U.S. Department of Energy.

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

Article on a comparison of analytical methods and a direct emission versus first-derivative fluorometric methods for quinine determination in tonic waters.

This paper will briefly review the technical status, cost, and applications of major renewable energy technologies in 1998, and also discuss some of the socioeconomic impacts of wide-scale adoption of renewables.

This primer is intended for people interested in DOE environmental problems and in their potential solutions. It will specifically look at some of the more hazardous metal and radionuclide contaminants found on DOE lands and at the possibilities for using bioremediation technology to clean up these contaminants. Bioremediation is a technology that can be used to reduce, eliminate, or contain hazardous waste. Over the past two decades, it has become widely accepted that microorganisms, and to a lesser extent plants, can transform and degrade many types of contaminants. These transformation and degradation processes vary, depending on physical environment, microbial communities, and nature of contaminant. This technology includes intrinsic bioremediation, which relies on naturally occurring processes, and accelerated bioremediation, which enhances microbial degradation or transformation through inoculation with microorganisms (bioaugmentation) or the addition of nutrients (biostimulation).

This report addresses the common indoor sources of volatile organic compounds specifically the emission rates and techniques for reducing consumer exposures.

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

The working document has been put together by the members of the Sapphire project at LLNL. The goal of Sapphire is to apply and extend techniques from data mining and pattern recognition in order to detect automatically the areas of interest in very large data sets. The intent is to help scientists address the problem of data overload by providing them effective and efficient ways of exploring and analyzing massive data sets. One of the key areas where they expect this technology to be used is in the analysis of the output from ASCI simulations. It is expected that a simulation running on the 100 Tflop ASCI machine in the year 2004 will produce data at the rate of 12TB/hour. Given the difficulties they currently have in analyzing and visualizing a terabyte of data, it is imperative that they start planning now for ways that will make the analysis of petabyte data sets feasible. This document focuses on the relevance of data mining and pattern recognition to ASCI, discusses potential applications of these techniques in ASCI, and identifies research issues that arise as they apply the algorithms in these areas to massive data sets.

Small, reliable chemical sensors are needed for a wide range of applications, such as weapon state-of-health monitoring, nonproliferation activities, and manufacturing emission monitoring. Significant improvements in present surface acoustic wave sensors could be achieved by developing a flexural plate-wave (FPW) architecture, in which acoustic waves are excited in a thin sensor membrane. Further enhancement of device performance could be realized by integrating a piezoelectric thin film on top of the membrane. These new FPW-piezoelectric thin film devices would improve sensitivity, reduce size, enhance ruggedness and reduce the operating frequency so that the FPW devices would be compatible with standard digital microelectronics. Development of these piezoelectric thin film // FPW devices requires integration of (1) acoustic sensor technology, (2) silicon rnicromachining techniques to fabricate thin membranes, and (3) piezoelectric thin films. Two piezoelectric thin film technologies were emphasized in this study: Pb(Zr,Ti)O{sub 3} (PZT) and AlN. PZT thin films were of sufficient quality such that the first high frequency SAW measurements on PZT thin films were measured during the course of this study. Further, reasonable ferroelectric properties were obtained from PZT films deposited on Si surface micromachined FPW device membranes. Fundamental understanding of the effect of nanodimension interfacial layers on AlN …

An imagining camera that is used with X-Ray radiography systems in high explosive experiments has been built and fielded. The camera uses a 40mm diameter Micro-Channel Plate Itensifier (MCPI) for optical gain and photographic film for image recording. In the normal location of the X-ray film pack, a scintillating screen is placed instead. The camera system views the screen and records the image. The sensitivity of the MCPI to light makes the camera design sensitive to small details that a film pack does not need to consider. The X-ray image recording system was designed and bulit for situations where the film pack of the X-ray shadowgraph is not retrievable after the experiment. The system has been used in a number of experiments.

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

Monthly newspaper from Double Oak, Texas that includes news, information, and entertainment for residents of the Double Oak community along with advertising.

Maintenance of the DOE CFFF facility was suspended, due to a stop work order issued in September 1998. Property accounting actions were continued on a minimum basis with university funding. No work was done on the environmental management and environmental restoration for the facility. Continued progress is reported on the five (5) high temperature superconductivity projects under Task 6. A cooperative group has been formed to facilitate the development of chemical processes for the manufacture of HTS superconductor wire. The group includes EURUS Technologies, Incorporated, Sandia National Laboratory, Clemson University, University of Houston and the National Magnet Laboratory. The ac loss project continues laboratory work in an effort to determine the optimum configuration for multiple conductor cables to minimize the ac loss. The cost/performance analysis concentrated on addressing comments on the draft Topical Report on the life cycle cost analysis of coated conductor manufacture by electron beam and PLD. Work on diagnostics for real time process control reported includes surface smoothness measurement by scatterometry, Raman scattering for real time determination of crystalline structure and oxygen content and atomic absorption measurements for control of stoichiometry in MOCVD deposition of YBCO.

In order to increase the DNA sequencing throughput of the Joint Genome Institute, we have developed a microchannel electrophoresis system. The critical new and unique elements of this system include 1) a process for the production of arrays of 96 and 384 microchannels on bonded glass substrates up to 14 x 58 cm and 2) new sieving media for high resolution and high speed separations. With custom fabrication apparatus, microchannels are etched in a borosilicate substrate, and then fusion bonded to a top substrate 1.1 mm thick that has access holes formed in it. SEM examination shows a typical microchannel to be 40 micrometers deep x 180 micrometers wide by 46 cm long. This technology offers significant advantages over discrete capillaries or conventional slab-gel approaches. High throughput DNA sequencing with over 550 base pairs resolution has been achieved in roughly half the time of conventional sequencers. In February 1999, we begin a pre-production evaluation protocol for the microchannel and for three glass capillary electrophoresis systems (two from industry and one developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the Joint Genome Institute). In order to utilize these instruments for DNA production sequencing, we have been evaluating and implementing software to convert …

This annual Neutron Soil Moisture Monitoring report provides an analysis and summary for site inspections, meteorological information, and neutron soil moisture data obtained at the Area 23 Hazardous Waste Trenches Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) unit, located in Area 23 of the Nevada Test Site, Nye County, Nevada during the October 1997 - October 1998 period. Inspections of the Area 23 Hazardous Waste Trenches RCRA unit are conducted to determine and document the physical condition of the covers, facilities, and any unusual conditions that could impact the proper operation of the waste unit closure. Physical inspections of the closure were completed quarterly and indicated that the site is in good condition with no significant findings noted. An annual subsidence survey of the elevation markers was conducted in July 1998. There has been no subsidence at any of the markers since monitoring began six years ago. The objective of the neutron logging program is to monitor the soil moisture conditions along 30 neutron access tubes and detect changes that may be indicative of moisture movement at a point located directly beneath each trench. All monitored access tubes are within the compliance criteria of less than 5 percent residual volumetric moisture …

Monthly report documenting contracts for road construction and maintentance in Texas, organized by county and district. It includes information about each project including contractor, dates, costs, and other relevant data.

Quarterly newspaper from St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas that includes news and information of interest to the alumni community along with advertising.

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

The dielectric performance of epoxy foams was investigated to determine if such materials might provide advantages over more standard polyurethane foams in the encapsulation of electronic assemblies. Comparisons of the dielectric characteristics of epoxy and urethane encapsulant foams found no significant differences between the two resin types and no significant difference between as-molded and machined foams. This study specifically evaluated the formulation and processing of epoxy foams using simple methylhydrosiloxanes as the flowing agent and compared the dielectric performance of those to urethane foams of similar density.

Models were designed to resolve deficiencies in the SCDAP/RELAP5/MOD3.2 calculations of the configuration and integrity of hot, partially oxidized cladding. These models are expected to improve the calculations of several important aspects of fuel rod behavior. First, an improved mapping was established from a compilation of PIE results from severe fuel damage tests of the configuration of melted metallic cladding that is retained by an oxide layer. The improved mapping accounts for the relocation of melted cladding in the circumferential direction. Then, rules based on PIE results were established for calculating the effect of cladding that has relocated from above on the oxidation and integrity of the lower intact cladding upon which it solidifies. Next, three different methods were identified for calculating the extent of dissolution of the oxidic part of the cladding due to its contact with the metallic part. The extent of dissolution effects the stress and thus the integrity of the oxidic part of the cladding. Then, an empirical equation was presented for calculating the stress in the oxidic part of the cladding and evaluating its integrity based on this calculated stress. This empirical equation replaces the current criterion for loss of integrity which is based on …

The Petroleum Marketing Monthly (PMM) provides information and statistical data on a variety of crude oils and refined petroleum products. The publication presents statistics on crude oil costs and refined petroleum products sales for use by industry, government, private sector analysts, educational institutions, and consumers. Data on crude oil include the domestic first purchase price, the f.o.b. and landed cost of imported crude oil, and the refiners` acquisition cost of crude oil. Refined petroleum product sales data include motor gasoline, distillates, residuals, aviation fuels, kerosene, and propane. Monthly statistics on purchases of crude oil and sales of petroleum products are presented in the Petroleum Marketing Monthly in five sections: summary statistics; crude oil prices; prices of petroleum products; volumes of petroleum products; and prime supplier sales volumes of petroleum products for local consumption. 7 figs., 50 tabs.

On October 19, 1998, the Office of Inspector General (OIG) was asked to undertake a review of the Department of Energy`s aircraft activities. It was also requested that they report back within 90 days. The OIG has gathered information concerning the number of aircraft, the level of utilization, and the cost of the Department`s aircraft operations. They have also briefly summarized four issues that, in their judgment, may require management attention.