Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to inviting the chief justice of the Supreme Court of Texas to address a joint session of the legislature on February 11, 2009.

We demonstrate the formation of superparamagnetic/ferromagnetic regions within ZnO(0001) single crystals sequently implanted with B and Co. While the pre-implantation with B plays a minor role for the electrical transport properties, its presence leads to the formation of amorphous phases. Moreover, B acts strongly reducing on the implanted Co. Thus, the origin of the ferromagnetic ordering in local clusters with large Co concentration is itinerant d-electrons as in the case of metallic Co. The metallic amorphous phases are non-detectable by common X-ray diffraction.

This report discusses the economy of China and how it is has been affected by the recent economic downturn. China has recently enjoyed one of the world's fastest-growing economies and has been a major contributor to world economic growth, but several Chinese industries have been hard by the crisis, and millions of workers have been laid off.

This report discusses the potential impact on communities attempting to achieve National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) and the impact on mercury emissions could be substantial, and has prompted some to call for congressional action to address the issue.

This report examines the statutory procedures governing covert action and associated questions to consider. Published reports have suggested that the Pentagon has expanded its counter-terrorism intelligence activities, and some observers have asserted that the Department of Defense (DOD) may have been conducting certain kinds of counterterrorism intelligence activities that would statutorily qualify as "covert actions," and thus require a presidential finding and the notification of the congressional intelligence committees.

The Umatilla Anadromous Fisheries Habitat Project (UAFHP) is an ongoing effort to protect, enhance, and restore riparian and instream habitat for the natural production of anadromous salmonids in the Umatilla River Basin, Northeast Oregon. Flow quantity, water temperature, passage, and lack of in-stream channel complexity have been identified as the key limiting factors in the basin. During the 2008 Fiscal Year (FY) reporting period (February 1, 2008-January 31, 2009) primary project activities focused on improving instream and riparian habitat complexity, migrational passage, and restoring natural channel morphology and floodplain function. Eight primary fisheries habitat enhancement projects were implemented on Meacham Creek, Birch Creek, West Birch Creek, McKay Creek, West Fork Spring Hollow, and the Umatilla River. Specific restoration actions included: (1) rectifying one fish passage barrier on West Birch Creek; (2) participating in six projects planting 10,000 trees and seeding 3225 pounds of native grasses; (3) donating 1000 ft of fencing and 1208 fence posts and associated hardware for 3.6 miles of livestock exclusion fencing projects in riparian areas of West Birch and Meacham Creek, and for tree screens to protect against beaver damage on West Fork Spring Hollow Creek; (4) using biological control (insects) to reduce noxious weeds on …

Ambient (i.e., static) and dynamic (i.e., pumping-induced) electromagnetic borehole flowmeter (EBF) surveys were performed in 10 selected In Situ Redox Manipulation (ISRM) barrier wells to characterize the distribution of in-well vertical flow conditions and to infer the relative hydraulic conductivity distribution in the upper-part of the unconfined aquifer. These wells are located in two areas where the aquifer is targeted for testing of zero-valent iron injection to mend a failed portion of the ISRM barrier at the 100 D Area, Hanford Site. Each of these two areas consists of a group of five wells, one group to the southwest and one group to the northeast. The upper ~15 to 20 ft (~4.6 to 6.1 m) of the unconfined aquifer was characterized for in-well vertical flow conditions and vertical profile information regarding relative hydraulic conductivity. At some well site locations, the upper ~2 to 3 ft (~0.6 to 1 m) of the well-screen interval could not be characterized under pumping (dynamic) conditions because of the presence of the pump.

Daily publication of the U.S. Office of the Federal Register contains rules and regulations, proposed legislation and rule changes, and other notices, including "Presidential proclamations and Executive Orders, Federal agency documents having general applicability and legal effect, documents required to be published by act of Congress, and other Federal agency documents of public interest" (p. ii). Table of Contents starts on page iii.

This report provides an analysis of the challenges facing property and casualty insurance and reinsurance companies in financing large-scale natural disasters, particularly during financial market turmoil.

Cylindrical fuel casks often have impact limiters surrounding just the ends of the cask shaft in a typical 'dumbbell' arrangement. The primary purpose of these impact limiters is to absorb energy to reduce loads on the cask structure during impacts associated with a severe accident. Impact limiters are also credited in many packages with protecting closure seals and maintaining lower peak temperatures during fire events. For this credit to be taken in safety analyses, the impact limiter attachment system must be shown to retain the impact limiter following Normal Conditions of Transport (NCT) and Hypothetical Accident Conditions (HAC) impacts. Large casks are often certified by analysis only because of the costs associated with testing. Therefore, some cask impact limiter attachment systems have not been tested in real impacts. A recent structural analysis of the T-3 Spent Fuel Containment Cask found problems with the design of the impact limiter attachment system. Assumptions in the original Safety Analysis for Packaging (SARP) concerning the loading in the attachment bolts were found to be inaccurate in certain drop orientations. This paper documents the lessons learned and their applicability to impact limiter attachment system designs.

Three-particle azimuthal correlation measurements with a high transverse momentum trigger particle are reported for pp, d + Au, and Au + Au collisions at {radical}s{sub NN} = 200 GeV by the STAR experiment. Dijet structures are observed in pp, d + Au and peripheral Au + Au collisions. An additional structure is observed in central Au + Au data, signaling conical emission of correlated charged hadrons. The conical emission angle is found to be {theta} = 1.37 {+-} 0.02(stat){sub -0.07}{sup +0.06}(syst), independent of p{sub {perpendicular}}.

This report provides an overview of U.S. international drug control policy. It describes major international counternarcotics initiatives and evaluates the broad array of U.S. drug control policy tools currently in use. The report also considers alternative counterdrug policy approaches to current initiatives and raises several counterdrug policy issues and considerations for policy makers.

This report discusses Islamic finance, which is based on principles of shariah, or "Islamic law." Major financial principles of shariah are a ban on interest, a ban on contractual uncertainty, adherence to risk-sharing and profit-sharing, promotion of ethical investments that enhance society, and asset-backing. While the Islamic finance industry represents a fraction of the global finance market, it has grown at double-digit rates in recent years.

This report identifies the potential environmental, health, and safety opportunities and challenges of nanotechnology; explains the importance of addressing nanotechnology EHS concerns; identifies and discusses nanotechnology EHS issues; and summarizes options for Congressional action, including the nanotechnology EHS-related provisions of selected legislation. The report also includes two appendices.

The 111th Congress is continuing to consider ocean policy and management recommendations of the two commission reports and the President's response. Comprehensive changes in ocean governance and administrative structure are proposed in the Oceans Conservation, Education, and National Strategy for the 21st Century Act (H.R. 21). Bills addressing specific topics such as coral reefs, marine sanctuaries, ocean acidification, ocean exploration and research, and shark conservation also have been introduced.

We introduce an operator-based scheme for preconditioning stiff components encoun- tered in implicit methods for hyperbolic systems of partial differential equations posed on regular grids. The method is based on a directional splitting of the implicit operator, followed by a char- acteristic decomposition of the resulting directional parts. This approach allows for solution to any number of characteristic components, from the entire system to only the fastest, stiffness-inducing waves. We apply the preconditioning method to stiff hyperbolic systems arising in magnetohydro- dynamics and gas dynamics. We then present numerical results showing that this preconditioning scheme works well on problems where the underlying stiffness results from the interaction of fast transient waves with slowly-evolving dynamics, scales well to large problem sizes and numbers of processors, and allows for additional customization based on the specific problems under study.

This report describes the consequences of foreclosure on homeowners, outlines recent foreclosure prevention plans implemented by the government and private organizations, and discusses the challenges associated with foreclosure prevention.

The kingdom of Saudi Arabia, ruled by the Al Saud family since its founding in 1932, wields significant political and economic influence as the birthplace of the Islamic faith and by virtue of its large energy reserves. This report provides background information about Saudi Arabia and analyzes current issues in U.S.-Saudi relations.

None

Magnetic susceptibility measurements and X-ray data confirm that tert-butyl-substituted manganocenes [(Me{sub 3}C){sub n}C{sub 5}H{sub 5?n}]{sub 2}Mn (n = 1, 2) follow the trend previously observed with the methylated manganocenes; that is, electron-donating groups attached to the Cp ring stabilize the low-spin (LS) electronic ground state relative to Cp{sub 2}Mn and exhibit higher spin-crossover (SCO) temperatures. However, introducing three CMe{sub 3} groups on each ring gives a temperature-invariant high-spin (HS) state manganocene. The origin of the high-spin state in [1,2,4-(Me{sub 3}C){sub 3}C{sub 5}H{sub 2}]{sub 2}Mn is due to the significant bulk of the [1,2,4-(Me{sub 3}C){sub 3}C{sub 5}H{sub 2}]{sup -} ligand, which is sufficient to generate severe inter-ring steric strain that prevents the realization of the low-spin state. Interestingly, the spin transition in [1,3-(Me{sub 3}C){sub 2}C{sub 5}H{sub 3}]{sub 2}Mn is accompanied by a phase transition resulting in a significant irreversible hysteresis ({Delta}T{sub c} = 16 K). This structural transition was also observed by extended X-ray absorption fine-structure (EXAFS) measurements. Magnetic susceptibility studies and X-ray diffraction data on SiMe{sub 3}-substituted manganocenes [(Me{sub 3}Si){sub n}C{sub 5}H{sub 5-n}]{sub 2}Mn (n = 1, 2, 3) show high-spin configurations in these cases. Although tetra- and hexasubstituted manganocenes are high-spin at all accessible temperatures, the disubstituted manganocenes exhibit …

Research on nuclear thermal propulsion systems (NTP) have been in forefront of the space nuclear power and propulsion due to their design simplicity and their promise for providing very high thrust at reasonably high specific impulse. During NERVA-ROVER program in late 1950's till early 1970's, the United States developed and ground tested about 18 NTP systems without ever deploying them into space. The NERVA-ROVER program included development and testing of NTP systems with very high thrust (~250,000 lbf) and relatively high specific impulse (~850 s). High thrust to weight ratio in NTP systems is an indicator of high acceleration that could be achieved with these systems. The specific impulse in the lowest mass propellant, hydrogen, is a function of square root of absolute temperature in the NTP thrust chamber. Therefor optimizing design performance of NTP systems would require achieving the highest possible hydrogen temperature at reasonably high thrust to weight ratio. High hydrogen exit temperature produces high specific impulse that is a diret measure of propellant usage efficiency.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to honoring Mark R. Warren for his service as president of the Texas Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to granting permission to the YMCA Youth and Government Program to use the legislative chambers and other Capitol Complex facilities.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to recognizing the Lubbock ISD Partners in Education program and local winners of the Texas Association of Partners in Education awards.