Recent criticism of the Clinton Administration's policies toward China, Japan and other East Asian countries has contended that the United States is exerting much less influence and is becoming marginal in determining developments in this economically vibrant and strategically important area. Although there are important costs to U.S. influence associated with disputes with Beijing, Tokyo and others, an assessment of the U.S.-Japanese-Chinese triangular relationship that currently dominates trends in the region shows that the United States is likely to continue its influential position in post Cold War East Asia.

Japan-U.S. relations are more uncertain and subject to greater strain today than at any time since World War II. Longstanding military allies and increasingly interdependent economic partners, Japan and the United States have worked closely together to build a strong, multifaceted relationship based on democratic values and interests in world stability and development. But Japan today is our foremost economic and technological competitor. It consistently runs the largest annual international trade surplus with the U.S. ($59 billion in 1993). The end of the Cold War, lackluster international economic conditions, and the focus on economic issues in U.S. politics have raised new questions about the appropriate U.S. policy toward this Asian ally.

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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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.

Letter opinion 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 union membership of a director of the Brownsville Navigation District disqualifies him or her from voting on certain matters (ID# 23780)

Letter opinion 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 Texas Commission on Alcohol and Drug Abuse may investigate a complaint regarding the conduct of a person practicing as a chemical dependency counselor if the alleged conduct occurred prior to January 1, 1992 (ID# 22548)

Letter opinion 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 Psychologists' Certification and Licensing Act, V.T.C.S. art. 4512c, precludes licensed polygraph examiners from referring to themselves as "forensice psycho-physiologists" or to the polygraph services they provide as "the psychophysiological detection of deception" or "forensic psychophysiology" (ID# 22899)

Letter opinion 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; Propriety of Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Standards and Education by rule applying requirements regarding licensure of peace officers to licensure of public security officers, and related questions (ID# 21326)

Letter opinion 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 an appraisal district is authorized to maintain an addressing system for the provision of 9-1-1 emergency services (ID# 16536)

Letter opinion 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, under chapter 2257 of the Government Code, a depository institution may secure a deposit of public funds with Small Business Administration Certificates.

Letter opinion 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 Harris County is authorized to acquire county park land located outside the boundaries of Harris County.

Letter opinion 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 V.T.C.S. article 5221f, section 18(a) or section 17.42(a) of the Business and Commerce Code prohibits a consumer and retailer of a manufactured home from executing an agreement selecting binding arbitration in lieu of the courts as the forum for the resolution of all claims relating to the purchase of all claims relating to the purchase and occupancy of the manufactured home and related question (RQ-627)

The goals of this project have evolved from an investigation of ways of preparing Li and Hall`s Cu-ZSM-5 catalyst using new methods to yield a more robust catalyst, into an investigation of modified Cu-ZSM-5 catalysts for the simultaneous reduction of NO and oxidation of SO{sub 2}. This was not a conscious effort or decision on the part of the investigators, but resulted from a natural evolution of the project. The authors have developed a zeolite synthesis and characterization capability in the group and have prepared impregnated test materials for the investigation of different catalyst precursors. They have prepared different vanadium-impregnated aluminas, for evaluation of the impregnation method, and have succeeded in reproducing the results of Li and Hall`s Cu-ZSM-5 catalyst. This report reviews the progress during the first three quarters of the year, and includes progress from the last quarter. Results are discussed for the Raman spectroscopy of precursors; infrared spectroscopy of vanadium-impregnated alumina; zeolite overlayer on cordierite; reactivity of Cu-ZSM-5; and impregnation of vanadyl acetylacetonate on alumina.

A conceptual model of shallow infiltration processes at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, was developed for use in hydrologic flow models to characterize net infiltration (the penetration of the wetting front below the zone influenced by evapotranspiration). The model categorizes the surface of the site into four infiltration zones. These zones were identified as ridgetops, sideslopes, terraces, and active channels on the basis of water-content changes with depth and time. The maximum depth of measured water-content change at a specific site is a function of surface storage capacity, the timing and magnitude of precipitation, evapotranspiration, and the degree of saturation of surficial materials overlying fractured bedrock. Measured water-content profiles for the four zones indicated that the potential for net infiltration is higher when evapotranspiration is low (i.e winter, cloudy periods), where surface concentration of water is likely to occur (i.e. depressions, channels), where surface storage capacity is low, and where fractured bedrock is close to the surface.

The Federal Internetworking Requirements Panel (FIRP) was established by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) to reassess Federal requirements for open systems networks and to recommend policy on the Government`s use of networking standards. The Panel was chartered to recommend actions which the Federal Government can take to address the short and long-term issues of interworking and convergence of networking protocols--particularly the Internet Protocol Suite (IPS) and Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocol suite and, when appropriate, proprietary protocols. The Panel was created at the request of the Office of Management and Budget in collaboration with the Federal Networking Council and the Federal Information Resources Management Policy Council. The Panel`s membership and charter are contained in an appendix to this report.

Reaction-bonded silicon carbide ({alpha}-SiC) armor tiles were annealed at 2100{degree}C using microwave radiation at 2.45 GHz. Ultrasonic velocity measurements showed that the longitudinal and shear velocities, acoustic impedances, and acoustic moduli of the post-annealed tiles were statistically higher than for the unannealed tiles. However, the exposed surfaces of the annealed tiles experienced slight degradation, which was attributed to the high annealing temperatures.

Scaling laser systems to large sizes for power beaming and other applications can sometimes be simplified by combing a number of smaller lasers. However, to fully utilize this scaling, coherent beam combination is necessary. This requires measuring and controlling each beam`s pointing and phase relative to adjacent beams using an adaptive optical system. We have built a sub-scale brass-board to evaluate various methods for beam-combining. It includes a segmented adaptive optic and several different specialized wavefront sensors that are fabricated using diffractive optics methods. We have evaluated a number of different phasing algorithms, including hierarchical and matrix methods, and have demonstrated phasing of several elements. The system is currently extended to a large number of segments to evaluate various scaling methodologies.

We have made progress in characterizing a Cu-exchanged ZSM-5 for NO decomposition activity. Additionally, we are pursuing the impregnation of alumina with vanadium and copper and studying the adsorption and reaction of SO{sub 2} on these catalysts.

Quantification of the ground-water recharge from streamflow in the Fortymile Wash watershed will contribute to regional ground-water studies. Regional ground-water studies are an important component in the studies evaluating the ground-water flow system as a barrier to the potential migration of radionuclides from the potential underground high-level nuclear waste repository. Knowledge gained in understanding the ground-water recharge mechanisms and pathways in the Pah Canyon area, which is 10 km to the northeast of Yucca Mountain, may transfer to Yucca site specific studies. The current data collection network in Fortymile Canyon does not permit quantification of ground-water recharge, however a qualitative understanding of ground-water recharge was developed from these data.

Unlike most other techniques used to study nucleation, supersonic nozzles do not yield nucleation rates directly because the length of time over which nucleation contributes significantly to particle formation is not easy to determine or control. Nevertheless, experiments in nozzles are extremely important because they provide higher rates of cooling, higher supersaturations and higher nucleation rates than any of the other techniques. Their operating conditions are more typical of important industrial conditions found in aerodynamic and turbomechanical flows where homogeneous condensation can have serious consequences for the gas flow behavior. Because the fluid mechanics of nozzles is well-understand, condensation experiments in the nozzle are amenable to sophisticated modeling efforts, and much useful insight can be gained regarding the nucleation and droplet growth processes under these severe cooling conditions. This paper summarizes our recent experimental work using a gently diverging supersonic Laval nozzle to investigate the variation of onset temperature and pressure for varying amounts of condensible vapor in an excess of carrier gas. Many similar studies have been carried out previously, but the results of these studies are usually not sufficiently well documented to enable us to do modeling studies that permit assessment of the condensate characteristics at onset. By …

A flow reactor is being constructed at Georgia Tech for the NO decomposition reaction. The reactor is partially complete with the construction of a flow meter/controller system and a temperature controller system in place now. The stainless steel reactor tube and the furnace have been fabricated and fit to the sub-assembly containing the temperature control devices. The reactor sampling system is under fabrication. The authors plan to purchase a GC-MS to determine the composition of the exit gas. They have used Raman spectroscopy to characterize Zeolite A, a cobalt ethylenediamine complex, Co(en){sub 3}Cl{sub 3}, and Zeolite A impregnated with the cobalt complex. The Raman spectra from 1,700--100 cm{sup {minus}1} are shown.

Special fixtures and test methods have been developed for testing small disk compact specimens (1.25 mm diam by 4.6 mm thick). Specimens of European type 316L austenitic stainless steel were irradiated to damage levels of about 3 dpa at nominal irradiation temperatures of either 90 or 250 C and tested over a temperature range from 20 to 250 C. Results show that irradiation to this dose level at these temperatures reduces the fracture toughness but the toughness remains quite high. The toughness decreases as the test temperature increases. Irradiation at 250 C is more damaging than at 90 C, causing larger decreases in the fracture toughness. The testing shows that it is possible to generate useful fracture toughness data with a small disk compact specimens.

In 1993, DOE initiated a program to develop advanced gas turbines for power generation in utility and industrial applications. A materials/manufacturing plan was developed in several stages with input from gas turbine manufacturers, materials suppliers, universities, and government laboratories. This plan was developed by a small advanced materials and turbine technology team over a 6-month period. The technology plan calls for initiation of several high priority projects in FY 1995. The technical program for the materials/manufacturing element focuses on generic materials issues, components, and manufacturing processes. Categories include coatings and process development, turbine airfoil development, ceramics adaptation, directional solidification and single crystal airfoils manufactoring technology, materials characterization, catalytic combustor materials, and technology information exchange.

This report documents the work performed by the University of New Mexico Principal Investigators and Research Assistants while hosting the highly successful Summer 1994 Computational Sciences Workshop in Albuquerque on August 6--11, 1994. Included in this report is a final budget for the workshop, along with a summary of the participants` evaluation of the workshop. The workshop proceeding have been delivered under separate cover. In order to assist in the organization of future workshops, we have also included in this report detailed documentation of the pre- and post-workshop activities associated with this contract. Specifically, we have included a section that documents the advertising performed, along with the manner in which applications were handled. A complete list of the workshop participants in this section. Sample letters that were generated while dealing with various commercial entities and departments at the University are also included in a section dealing with workshop logistics. Finally, we have included a section in this report that deals with suggestions for future workshops.

A paper study for a highly efficient, environmentally benign, coal-fired electric power generation system, is presented. This system falls in the category of pressurized fluidized-bed combustion (PFBC) systems which has been dubbed super-clean super-efficient PFBC`s. The system presented starts with the second-generation PFBC concept and adds on advanced gas turbine, a solid oxide fuel cell, a supercritical steam cycle, a second low-temperature rankine cycle which pulls energy from the steam condenser, and inlet air cooling. The thermodynamic efficiency of the system is calculated to be 61.8 percent based on higher heating value (HHV).