Monthly publication documenting statistics related to economic information in the Mexico-Texas border areas including types of border crossings, employment, customs revenues, and other related data.

Newsletter published by the Texas State Office of Risk Management discussing news, events, and activities of the agency as well as other topics related to risk management for state employees. This issue includes information about emergency preparations, reporting claims, medical disputes, cost of pharmaceuticals, safety training, and ergonomic adjustments.

Magazine discussing natural resources, parks, hunting and fishing, and other information related to the outdoors in Texas.

Monthly travel magazine discussing locations and events in Texas to encourage travel within the state.

Monthly newsletter from the Texas State Board of Public Accountancy regarding updates and information pertaining to Texas CPAs.

From introduction: The following document describes a 10-year, multiagency, collaborative program proposed to advance ecosystem science and resource management in Hawaii.

Newsletter from the University of Texas System Cancer Center, M.D. Anderson Hospital and Tumor Institute discussing cancer care and research to inform physicians of recent developments in the field.

The Energy & Environmental Research Center has designed a biomass power system using a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) thermally integrated with a downdraft gasifier. In this system, the high-temperature effluent from the SOFC enables the operation of a substoichiometric air downdraft gasifier at an elevated temperature (1000 C). At this temperature, moisture in the biomass acts as an essential carbon-gasifying medium, reducing the equivalence ratio at which the gasifier can operate with complete carbon conversion. Calculations show gross conversion efficiencies up to 45% (higher heating value) for biomass moisture levels up to 40% (wt basis). Experimental work on a bench-scale gasifier demonstrated increased tar cracking within the gasifier and increased energy density of the resultant syngas. A series of experiments on wood chips demonstrated tar output in the range of 9.9 and 234 mg/m{sup 3}. Both button cells and a 100-watt stack was tested on syngas from the gasifier. Both achieved steady-state operation with a 22% and 15% drop in performance, respectively, relative to pure hydrogen. In addition, tar tolerance testing on button cells demonstrated an upper limit of tar tolerance of approximately 1%, well above the tar output of the gasifier. The predicted system efficiency was revised down …

Within the next ten years the Standard Model will likely have to be modified to encompass a wide range of newly discovered phenomena, new elementary particles, new symmetries, and new dynamics. These phenomena will be revealed through experiment with high energy particle accelerators, mainly the LHC. This will represent a revolution in our understanding of nature, and will either bring us closer to an understanding of all phenomena, through existing ideas such as supersymmetry to superstrings, or will cause us to scramble to find new ideas and a new sense of direction. We are thus entering a dramatic and important time in the quest to understand the fundamental laws of nature and their role in shaping the universe. The energy scales now probed by the Tevatron, of order hundreds of GeV, will soon be subsumed by the LHC and extended up to a few TeV. We expect the unknown structure of the mysterious symmetry breaking of the Standard Model to be revealed. We will then learn the answer to a question that has a fundamental bearing upon our own existence: 'What is the origin of mass?' All modern theories of 'electroweak symmetry breaking' involve many new particles, mainly to provide …

Powerspan's multipollutant control process called electrocatalytic oxidation (ECO) technology is designed to simultaneously remove SO{sub 2}, NO{sub x}, PM{sub 2.5}, acid gases (such as hydrogen fluoride [HF], hydrochloric acid [HCl], and sulfur trioxide [SO{sub 3}]), Hg, and other metals from the flue gas of coal-fired power plants. The core of this technology is a dielectric barrier discharge reactor composed of cylindrical quartz electrodes residing in metal tubes. Electrical discharge through the flue gas, passing between the electrode and the tube, produces reactive O and OH radicals. The O and OH radicals react with flue gas components to oxidize NO to NO{sub 2} and HNO{sub 3} and a small portion of the SO{sub 2} to SO{sub 3} and H{sub 2}SO{sub 4}. The oxidized compounds are subsequently removed in a downstream scrubber and wet electrostatic precipitator. A challenging characteristic of selected North Dakota lignites is their high sodium content. During high-sodium lignite combustion and gas cooling, the sodium vaporizes and condenses to produce sodium- and sulfur-rich aerosols. Based on past work, it was hypothesized that the sodium aerosols would deposit on and react with the silica electrodes and react with the silica electrodes, resulting in the formation of sodium silicate. The deposit …

The growth of Fe upon GaAs(001) has been studied with Spin-Resolved Photoelectron Spectroscopy (SRPES), Photoelectron Spectroscopy (PES) and X-ray Magnetic Linear Dichroism (XMLD) in PES. Despite evidence of atomic level disorder such as intermixing, an over-layer with the spectroscopic signature of {alpha}-Fe(001), with a bcc real space ordering, is obtained. The results will be discussed in light of the possibility of using such films as a spin polarized source in device applications.

Mercury continuous emissions monitoring systems (CEMS) are being implemented in over 800 coal-fired power plant stacks. The power industry desires to conduct at least a full year of monitoring before the formal monitoring and reporting requirement begins on January 1, 2009. It is important for the industry to have available reliable, turnkey equipment from CEM vendors. Western Research Institute (WRI) is working closely with the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to facilitate the development of the experimental criteria for a NIST traceability protocol for dynamic elemental mercury vapor generators. The generators are used to calibrate mercury CEMs at power plant sites. The Clean Air Mercury Rule (CAMR) which was published in the Federal Register on May 18, 2005 requires that calibration be performed with NIST-traceable standards (Federal Register 2007). Traceability procedures will be defined by EPA. An initial draft traceability protocol was issued by EPA in May 2007 for comment. In August 2007, EPA issued an interim traceability protocol for elemental mercury generators (EPA 2007). The protocol is based on the actual analysis of the output of each calibration unit at several concentration levels ranging initially …

An in situ method for studying the role of laser energy on the microstructural evolution of polycrystalline Si is presented. By monitoring both laser energy and microstructural evolution simultaneously in the dynamic transmission electron microscope, information on grain size and defect concentration can be correlated directly with processing conditions. This proof of principle study provides fundamental scientific information on the crystallization process that has technological importance for the development of thin film transistors. In conclusion, we successfully developed a method for studying UV laser processing of Si films in situ on nanosecond time scales, with ultimate implications for TFT application improvements. In addition to grain size distribution as a function of laser energy density, we found that grain size scaled with laser energy in general. We showed that nanosecond time resolution allowed us to see the nucleation and growth front during processing, which will help further the understanding of microstructural evolution of poly-Si films for electronic applications. Future studies, coupled with high resolution TEM, will be performed to study grain boundary migration, intergranular defects, and grain size distribution with respect to laser energy and adsorption depth.

This report summarizes NOAA's budget request for the 2009 fiscal year.

"This report summarizes what is currently known about effects of climate change on energy production and use in the United States."

"This report summarizes what is currently known about effects of climate change on energy production and use in the United States."

This document focuses attention on emissions trading and greenhouse gases by providing internet links to governmental sites affiliated with emissions trading, government agencies, and other miscellaneous sites.

The Raman spectrum of dust particles exposed to the NSTX plasma is different from the spectrum of unexposed particles scraped from an unused graphite tile. For the unexposed particles, the high energy G-mode peak (Raman shift ~1580 cm-1) is much stronger than the defect-induced D-mode peak (Raman shift ~ 1350 cm-1), a pattern that is consistent with Raman spectrum for commercial graphite materials. For dust particles exposed to the plasma, the ratio of G-mode to D-mode peaks is lower and becomes even less than 1. The Raman measurements indicate that the production of carbon dust particles in NSTX involves modifications of the physical and chemical structure of the original graphite material. These modifications are shown to be similar to those measured for carbon deposits from atmospheric pressure helium arc discharge with an ablating anode electrode made from a graphite tile material. We also demonstrate experimentally that heating to 2000-2700 K alone can not explain the observed structural modifications indicating that they must be due to higher temperatures needed for graphite vaporization, which is followed either by condensation or some plasma-induced processes leading to the formation of more disordered forms of carbon material than the original graphite.

Seven sites where Pu release to the environment has raised significant environmental concerns have been reviewed. A summary of the most significant hydrologic and geochemical features, contaminant release events and transport processes relevant to Pu migration at the seven sites is presented.

This report presents results of a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) modeling study to evaluatethe impacts of a full-length spillwall at The Dalles Dam. The full-length spillwall is being designed and evaluated as a structural means to improve tailrace egress and thus survival of juvenile fish passing through the spillway. During the course of this study, a full-length spillwall at Bays 6/7 and 8/9 were considered. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has proposed extending the spillwall constructed in the stilling basin between spillway Bays 6 and 7 about 590 ft farther downstream. It is believed that the extension of the spillwall will improve egress conditions for downstream juvenile salmonids by moving them more rapidly into the thalweg of the river hence reducing their exposure to predators. A numerical model was created, validated, and applied the The Dalles Dam tailrace. The models were designed to assess impacts to flow, tailrace egress, navigation, and adult salmon passage of a proposed spill wall extension. The more extensive model validation undertaken in this study greatly improved our confidence in the numerical model to represent the flow conditions in The Dalles tailrace. This study used these validated CFD models to simulate the potential impacts …

A new imaging high resolution x-ray crystal spectrometer (XCS) has been developed to measure continuous profiles of ion temperature and rotation velocity in fusion plasmas. Following proof-of-principle tests on the Alcator C-Mod tokamak and the NSTX spherical tokamak, and successful testing of a new silicon, pixilated detector with 1MHz count rate capability per pixel, an imaging XCS is being designed to measure full profiles of Ti and vφ on C-Mod. The imaging XCS design has also been adopted for ITER. Ion-temperature uncertainty and minimum measurable rotation velocity are calculated for the C-Mod spectrometer. The affects of x-ray and nuclear-radiation background on the measurement uncertainties are calculated to predict performance on ITER.

The purpose of the Workshop 'Excellence Empowered by a Diverse Academic Workforce: Achieving Racial & Ethnic Equity in Chemistry' was to promote the development of a cadre of academic leaders who create, implement and promote programs and strategies for increasing the number of racial and ethnic minorities to equitable proportions on the faculties of departments throughout the academic chemistry community. An important objective of the workshop was to assist in creating an informed and committed community of chemistry leaders who will create, implement and promote programs and strategies to advance racial and ethnic equity in both the faculty and the student body with the goal of increasing the number of U.S. citizen underrepresented minorities (URM) participating in academic chemistry at all levels, with particular focus on the pipeline to chemistry faculty. This objective was met by (1) presentations of detailed data describing current levels of racial and ethnic minorities on the faculties of chemistry departments; (2) frank discussion of the obstacles to and benefits of racial/ethnic diversity in the chemistry professoriate; (3) summary of possible effective interventions and actions; and (4) promotion of the dissemination and adoption of initiatives designed to achieve racial/ethnic equity. Federal programs over the past thirty …

The purpose of this report is to assemble the information needed to estimate the significance of the opportunity for producing biofuels in the region as well as the associated challenges. The report reviews the current state of the industry, the biomass resources that are available within current production practices, and the biofuels production technology that is available within the marketplace. The report also identifys the areas in which alternative approaches or strategies, or technologoical advances, might offer an opportunity to expand the Nortwest biofuels industry beyond its current state.

The objective of this CRADA was to develop the experimental and theoretical basis of a technology to produce yttrium barium copper oxide (YBCO) superconducting flexible tapes derived from nanoparticle metal oxide sols. The CRADA was a joint effort between Oxford Superconducting Technology, Brookhaven National Laboratory and Karpov Institute of Physical Chemistry. The effort was divided into three main tasks, the synthesis of a heteroepitaxial oxide buffer layer, and the manufacture of a flexible biaxially textured metallic substrate and the synthesis of a heteroepitaxial crystalline YBCO layer. The formation of a heteroepitaxial buffer layer was implemented using technology developed at the Karpov Institute of Physical Chemistry for the synthesis, stabilization and deposition of polymer stabilized nanoparticle metal oxide sols. Using this technology, flexible oriented RABiTS nickel tapes, manufactured and supplied by the CRADA partner, Oxford Superconducting Technology, Carteret, New Jersey, were coated with a film of metal oxide nanoparticles. After coating the RABiTS nickel tapes with the nanoparticle sols the nickel tape/nanoparticle composite structure was sintered in order to form a dense crystalline heteroepitaxial oxide layer on the surface of the tape, also known as a ‘buffer’ layer. The final phase of the research was the formation of a heteroepitaxial YBCO …