Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to in memory of Robert O. "Bob" Schnell of Borger.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to recognizing March 4, 2003, as Ellis County Day at the State Capitol.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to recognizing 2003 as the sesquicentennial year for Hill County and the City of Hillsboro.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to recognizing GENCO Federal Credit Union on its 50th anniversary.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to recognizing March 5, 2003, as Eagle Pass Day at the State Capitol.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to relating to honoring the Longview Partnership's Leadership Tomorrow program.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to congratulating Tony Hills, Jr., of Alief Elsik High School on his athletic achievements.

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas Senate and House of Representatives relating to authorizing the burial of Steven Leslie Martin in the State Cemetery.

LiCoO2 is the most common lithium storage material for lithium rechargeable batteries, used widely to power portable electronic devices such as laptop computers. Lithium arrangements in the CoO2 framework have a profound effect on the structural stability and electrochemical properties of LixCoO2 (0 < x < 1), however, probing lithium ions has been difficult using traditional X-ray and neutron diffraction techniques. Here we have succeeded in simultaneously resolving columns of cobalt, oxygen, and lithium atoms in layered LiCoO2 battery material using experimental focal series of LiCoO2 images obtained at sub-Angstrom resolution in a mid-voltage transmission electron microscope. Lithium atoms are the smallest and lightest metal atoms, and scatter electrons only very weakly. We believe our observations of lithium to be the first by electron microscopy, and that they show promise to direct visualization of the ordering of lithium and vacancy in LixCoO2.

Mentions the trade barriers and trade relations between the United States and Australia. Gives a short summary on Australia's economy over the past few years and provides some history and statistics on trade between the two countries and how to further boost economic ties.

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

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

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

From a public policy perspective, the goals are to ensure that broadband deployment is timely, that industry competes fairly, and that service is provided to all sectors and geographical locations of American society. The federal government -- through Congress and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) -- is seeking to ensure fair competition among the players so that broadband will be available and affordable in a timely manner to all Americans who want it. While the FCC's position is not to intervene at this time, some assert that legislation is necessary to ensure fair competition and timely broadband deployment. One proposal would ease certain legal restrictions and requirements, imposed by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, on incumbent telephone companies who provide high speed data (broadband) access. Another proposal would compel cable companies to provide "open access" to competing Internet service providers.

The fifteen years of DOE support have encompassed two different projects, electron-transfer reactions of metal carbonyl anions and water-soluble organometallic complexes. Each of these is related to homogeneous catalysis and will be described in separate sections. Electron Transfer--Twenty-one manuscripts resulted from our studies of electron-transfer reactions of metal carbonyl anions and acknowledge DOE support. Construction of an infrared stopped-flow system allowed us to measure rates of reactions for the extremely air-sensitive metal carbonyl anions. As for carbanions, both one-electron and two-electron processes occur for metal carbonyl anions. The most unexpected feature was examples of a very rapid two-electron process, followed by a much slower one-electron back transfer. The two-electron processes were accompanied by transfer of a ligand between two metals, M-X + M{prime}{sup -} {yields} M{sup -} + M{prime}-X with X groups of CO{sup 2}, H{sup +}, CH{sub 3}{sup +} and Br{sup +}. These transfers, which can be considered nucleophilic displacements, occurred when M{prime}{sup -} was more nucleophilic than M{sup -}. The 21 published manuscripts explore one- and two-electron processes for many such organometallic complexes. Water-Soluble Organometallic Complexes--The potential of water-soluble organometallic complexes in ''green chemistry'' intrigued us. Sixteen manuscripts acknowledging DOE support have appeared thus far in this field. …

The objective of this project is to develop ceramic membranes for hydrogen separation from fuel gas or synthesis gas at temperatures 400-500 C. The membrane chosen for this purpose consists of a dense silica layer coated on a porous support by chemical vapor depositrion (CVD). The support used during the reporting period was zeolite silicalite grown on macroporous alumina tubes. Chemical vapor deposition was carried out using alternating exposure of the support to silicon tetrachloride (SiCl{sub 4}) and water vapor at 400-500 C. Under these conditions it takes about twenty-five reaction cycles to narrow down the pores of the zeolite support sufficiently for separation of hydrogen from other gases. The membranes were characterized by gas adsorption for pore size distribution, scanning electron microscopy, and EDAX for elemental composition. The permeance of H{sub 2}, N{sub 2}, CO{sub 2}, n-C{sub 4}H{sub 10}, and i-C{sub 4}H{sub 10} was measured in the temperature range 100-250 C. At 150 C, the H{sub 2}:N{sub 2} permeance ratio was in the range 100-200 at a hydrogen permeance of 5-10x10{sup -8} mol/m{sub 2}-s-Pa.

In response to the foreign challenge in the global marketplace, the United States Congress has explored ways to stimulate technological advancement in the private sector. The government has supported various efforts to promote cooperative research and development activities among industry, universities, and the federal R&D establishment designed to increase the competitiveness of American industry and to encourage the generation of new products, processes, and services. Among the issues before Congress are whether joint ventures contribute to industrial competitiveness and what role, if any, the government has in facilitating such arrangements.

This report presents basic background information on the collapse of the Enron Corporation, identifying public policy issues in financial market oversight. This report briefly summarizes some federal laws carrying criminal penalties which may be implicated in the events surrounding the collapse of the Enron Corp. This report compares the auditing and accounting reform measures passed by the House (H.R. 3763) and reported by the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs. This report compares the major provisions of three auditor and accounting reform proposals: H.R. 3763, S. 2673, and a rule proposed on June 20, 2002, by the SEC that would create a new auditor oversight board by using the SEC’s existing authority to regulate corporate accounting. The report focuses on Section 404(a) of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), the federal statute that regulates employer-sponsored pension plans. Section 404(a) is considered the “touchstone for understanding the scope and object of an ERISA fiduciary’s duties.”

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

The Federal Pell Grant program is the single largest source of grant aid for postsecondary education attendance funded by the federal government, providing grants to undergraduate students estimated to have totaled more than $11.6 billion in FY2002. This report reviews how the program works and provides analysis of program funding, recipients (numbers and characteristics), and the role being played by the program in the distribution of federal student aid. It concludes with an examination of several Pell-related issues that may be considered by the 108th Congress in the HEA reauthorization process. This report will be updated to reflect major legislative action to reauthorize the Pell Grant program.

A chapter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Supporting democracy abroad is a major U.S. foreign policy objective. To better understand how this assistance has been implemented in Latin America, GAO was asked to review programs in six countries--Bolivia, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, and Peru--that have been of particular importance to U.S. interests in Central and South America. Between fiscal years 1992 and 2002, U.S. agencies have funded more than $580 million in democracy-related programs in these countries. This report discusses the impact of and factors affecting this assistance and the overarching management issues that have affected program planning and implementation."

With the aid of a DOE grant (No. DE-FC26-01NT41050), Stolar Research Corporation (Stolar) developed the Horizon Sensor (HS) to distinguish between the different layers of a coal seam. Mounted on mining machine cutter drums, HS units can detect or sense the horizon between the coal seam and the roof and floor rock, providing the opportunity to accurately mine the section of the seam most desired. HS also enables accurate cutting of minimum height if that is the operator's objective. Often when cutting is done out-of-seam, the head-positioning function facilitates a fixed mining height to minimize dilution. With this technology, miners can still be at a remote location, yet cut only the clean coal, resulting in a much more efficient overall process. The objectives of this project were to demonstrate the feasibility of horizon sensing on mining machines and demonstrate that Horizon Sensing can allow coal to be cut cleaner and more efficiently. Stolar's primary goal was to develop the Horizon Sensor (HS) into an enabling technology for full or partial automation or ''agile mining''. This technical innovation (R&amp;D 100 Award Winner) is quickly demonstrating improvements in productivity and miner safety at several prominent coal mines in the United States. In …

This report outlines legal issues around permit drilling for oil and gas in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), Alaska as background for congressional legislation. Updated March 18, 2023.

An initiator device structure consisting of an energetic metallic nano-laminate foil coated with a sol-gel derived energetic nano-composite has been demonstrated. The device structure consists of a precision sputter deposition synthesized nano-laminate energetic foil of non-toxic and non-hazardous metals along with a ceramic-based energetic sol-gel produced coating made up of non-toxic and non-hazardous components such as ferric oxide and aluminum metal. Both the nano-laminate and sol-gel technologies are versatile commercially viable processes that allow the ''engineering'' of properties such as mechanical sensitivity and energy output. The nano-laminate serves as the mechanically sensitive precision igniter and the energetic sol-gel functions as a low-cost, non-toxic, non-hazardous booster in the ignition train. In contrast to other energetic nanotechnologies these materials can now be safely manufactured at application required levels, are structurally robust, have reproducible and engineerable properties, and have excellent aging characteristics.