Document 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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a member of the board of managers of a hospital district must abstain in matters involving prevailing wage disputes under chapter 2258 of the Government Code.

Document 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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Distinction between "the hair" and "the beard" for purposes of the barber statute.

Document 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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a home-rule city may expend tax funds to sponsor children's travel on out-of-state appearances.

Document 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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether the "fraudulent filing" provisions of the Business and Commerce Code apply to those transactions excepted under section 9.104 thereof.

Testimony issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed the Customs Service's development of: (1) a Resource Allocation Model (RAM); (2) an Automated Commercial Environment (ACE); and (3) airline passenger personal search procedures."

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the Department of Defense's report to Congress on its contractor support, focusing on the extent to which the report: (1) identified programs or systems using or planning to use contractor support arrangements; (2) supported the Air Force's view that the contractor support provides equal or superior warfighting capabilities; (3) identified the impact of such support arrangements on the government's logistics depots and core government logistics management skills; and (4) identified processes and criteria followed in determining whether government employees or the private sector can perform logistics management functions more cost-effectively."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a legislative requirement, GAO reviewed the District of Columbia (DC) Courts' payment processing procedures for defender services."

The Compliance Plan Volume (Volume 1) identifies project activity schedule milestones for achieving compliance with Land Disposal Restrictions. Information regarding the technical evaluation of treatment options for SRS mixed wastes is contained in the Background Volume (Volume 2) and is provided for information.

During the initial phase of the project a multifaceted feasibility study was carried out to examine whether the pilot project could be justified technically and economically at this site. This study included: (1) Recompletion of 9 shut-in wells and drilling of a additional producer and a new temperature observation well. A core was taken from the reservoir interval in the new producer, Pru-101. The wells were produced by conventional cyclic steaming over a period of 15 months to establish a production baseline for the site, (2) Characterization of the stratigraphy and petrophysical properties of the Monarch Sand reservoir using existing well logs and analyses on samples in the core taken from Pru-101. The resulting data were used to develop a geostatistical model of the reservoir at the Pru Fee property and a specific reservoir simulator for the pilot test site on the property, and (3) Use of the reservoir simulator to test various steamflood and cyclic steaming production options leading to design of a production strategy for the pilot steamflood based on a four pattern, 9-spot array covering 8 ac near the center of the 40 ac Pru Fee property. The array chosen required drilling additional producers and injectors to …

In lead-acid battery systems, cycling systems are often managed using float management strategies. There are many differences in battery management strategies for a float environment and battery management strategies for a cycling environment. To complicate matters further, in many cycling environments, such as off-grid domestic power systems, there is usually not an available charging source capable of efficiently equalizing a lead-acid battery let alone bring it to a full state of charge. Typically, rules for battery management which have worked quite well in a floating environment have been routinely applied to cycling batteries without full appreciation of what the cycling battery really needs to reach a full state of charge and to maintain a high state of health. For example, charge target voltages for batteries that are regularly deep cycled in off-grid power sources are the same as voltages applied to stand-by systems following a discharge event. In other charging operations equalization charge requirements are frequently ignored or incorrectly applied in cycled systems which frequently leads to premature capacity loss. The cause of this serious problem: the application of float battery management strategies to cycling battery systems. This paper describes the outcomes to be expected when managing cycling batteries with …

This chapter aims to review the magnetic structures observed in the RE{sub 2}Fe{sub 14}B (RE = Nd, Pr) system using various TEM magnetic imaging techniques. The authors focus on studies of die-upset Nd-based permanent magnets conducted mainly at Brookhaven National Laboratory in the past several years. Investigations on Nd-Fe-B sintered magnets and single crystals, as well as Pr-Fe-B die-upset magnets also will be covered. In Sec.2 and Sec.3 they review the microstructure, including grain alignment and secondary phases of the materials, and grain boundary structure and composition of the intergranular phase. Sec.4 is devoted to the domain structure, such as the width of domain and domain wall and domain-wall energy. Monte Carlo simulation of the effects of demagnetization fields will be presented in Sec.5. In-situ experiments on the dynamic behavior of domain reorientation as a function of temperature, pinning, grain boundary nucleation related to coercivity under various fields are described in Sec.6. Finally, in Sec.7 the correlation between microstructure and properties are discussed.

With the recent development of an International Comparisons Database which provides worldwide access to measurement comparison data between National Measurement Institutes, there is currently renewed interest in developing a database of comparisons for calibration laboratories within a country. For many years, the National Conference of Standards Laboratories (NCSL), through the Measurement Comparison Programs Committee, has sponsored Interlaboratory Comparisons in a variety of measurement areas. This paper will discuss the need for such a National database which catalogues and maintains Interlaboratory Comparisons data. The paper will also discuss future requirements in this area.

The so-called Palmgren-Miner concept that degradation is cumulative, and that failure is therefore considered to be the direct result of the accumulation of damage with time, has been known for decades. Cumulative damage models based on this concept have been derived and used mainly for fatigue life predictions for metals and composite materials. The authors review the principles underlying such models and suggest ways in which they may be best applied to polymeric materials in temperature environments. The authors first consider cases where polymer degradation data can be rigorously time-temperature superposed over a given temperature range. For a step change in temperature after damage has occurred at an initial temperature in this range, they show that the remaining lifetime at the second temperature should be linearly related to the aging time prior to the step. This predicted linearity implies that it may be possible to estimate the remaining lifetime of polymeric materials aging under application ambient conditions by completing the aging at an accelerated temperature. They refer to this generic temperature-step method as the Wear-out approach. They then outline the expectations for Wear-out experiments when time-temperature superposition is invalid, specifically describing the two cases where so-called interaction effects are absent …

The transition-metal oxides LiMn{sub 2}O{sub 4}, MnO{sub 2}, CrO{sub 2}, and LiCoO{sub 2} were evaluated for possible use as high-voltage cathodes for potential geothermal power applications. These were coupled with Li(Si) anodes and a low-melting CsBr-LiBr-KBr eutectic electrolyte that melts at 228.5 C. Single-cell tests at 250 C and 300 C at 15.8 and 31.6 mA/cm{sup 2} showed that MnO{sub 2} performed the best overall and had the lowest polarization. A 5-cell battery test using LiMn{sub 2}O{sub 4} cathodes was only modestly successful due to possible parasitic chemical reactions between the cathode and electrolyte at the much higher temperature (500 C) during discharge. The overall energy densities for these cathode were still less than for FeS{sub 2}.

Over 75,000 permeability measurements were collected from a meter-scale block of Massillon sandstone, characterized by conspicuous cross bedding that forms two distinct nested-scales of heterogeneity. With the aid of a gas minipermeameter, spatially exhaustive fields of permeability data were acquired at each of five different sample supports (i.e. sample volumes) from each block face. These data provide a unique opportunity to physically investigate the relationship between the multi-scale cross-stratified attributes of the sandstone and the corresponding statistical characteristics of the permeability. These data also provide quantitative physical information concerning the permeability upscaling of a complex heterogeneous medium. Here, a portion of the data taken from a single block face cut normal to stratification is analyzed. Results indicate a strong relationship between the calculated summary statistics and the cross-stratified structural features visible evident in the sandstone sample. Specifically, the permeability fields and semivariograms are characterized by two nested scales of heterogeneity, including a large-scale structure defined by the cross-stratified sets (delineated by distinct bounding surfaces) and a small-scale structure defined by the low-angle cross-stratification within each set. The permeability data also provide clear evidence of upscaling. That is, each calculated summary statistic exhibits distinct and consistent trends with increasing sample support. …

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This Corrective Action Decision Document identifies and rationalizes the U.S. Department of Energy, Nevada Operations Office's selection of a recommended corrective action alternative (CAA) appropriate to facilitate the closure of Corrective Action Unit (CAU) 230, Area 22 Sewage Lagoons, and CAU 320, Area 22 Desert Rock Airport Strainer Box, under the Federal Facility Agreement and Consent Order. Referred to as CAU 230/320, both CAUs are located at the Nevada Test Site (NTS) and comprise two Corrective Action Sites (CASs), 22-03-01 (Sewage Lagoons) and 22-99-01 (Strainer Box). The Area 22 Sewage Lagoons site also includes a buried Imhoff Tank, sludge bed, and associated sewer piping. A September 1999 corrective action investigation identified the only contaminant of concern above preliminary action levels at this CAU (i.e., total petroleum hydrocarbons as diesel-range organics). During this same investigation, three Corrective Action Objectives (CAOs) were identified to prevent or mitigate exposure to subsurface debris and contaminated soil. Based on these CAOs, a review of existing data, future use, and current operations in Area 22 of the NTS, three CAAs were developed for consideration: Alternative 1 - No Further Action, Alternative 2 - Closure in Place with Administrative Controls, and Alternative 3 - Excavation and Removal. …

The purpose of this project is to investigate the application of a sorbent-based process for removing and recovering mercury in the flue gas of coal-fired power plants. The process is based on the sorption of mercury by noble metals and the regeneration of the sorbent by thermal means, recovering the desorbed mercury for recycling. ADA Technologies holds a patent on this process (US 5,409,522) and has tested it under conditions typical of municipal waste incinerators. In this process, the noble metal sorbent is thermally regenerated, and the mercury is recovered for commercial recycle or disposal. ADA has adopted the name ''Mercu-RE'' to describe its process. ADA has been testing its process under conditions typical of coal-fired power plants where the mercury concentration is low (below 10 {micro}g/m{sup 3}) and little pressure drop can be tolerated. The objective of this program is to develop the Mercu-RE process as a suitable mercury emission control technology for use at coal-fired power plants.

We have compiled a topical reference on the phenomena, experiences, experiments, and prediction of uranium pyrophoricity for the Hanford Spent Nuclear Fuel Project (SNFP) with specific applications to SNFP process and situations. The purpose of the compilation is to create a reference to integrate and preserve this knowledge. Decades ago, uranium and zirconium fires were commonplace at Atomic Energy Commission facilities, and good documentation of experiences is surprisingly sparse. Today, these phenomena are important to site remediation and analysis of packaging, transportation, and processing of unirradiated metal scrap and spent nuclear fuel. Our document, bearing the same title as this paper, will soon be available in the Hanford document system [Plys, et al., 2000]. This paper explains general content of our topical reference and provides examples useful throughout the DOE complex. Moreover, the methods described here can be applied to analysis of potentially pyrophoric plutonium, metal, or metal hydride compounds provided that kinetic data are available. A key feature of this paper is a set of straightforward equations and values that are immediately applicable to safety analysis.

This plan describes the systems engineering process to develop and manage the technical baseline. It defines the documents, interfaces, and procedures used by the Tank Farm Contractor.

This document establishes an As-built Verification Plan (AVP) for implementing requirements in PHMC Engineering Requirements HNF-PRO-1819, Rev. 4, Sections 2.8.3.d and 2.10.8 and Spent Nuclear Fuels (SNF) Project Administrative Procedure EN-6-012-01. This AVP defines and implements approved processes to document the physical configuration of the project scope installed within the facility and identify discrepancies between the associated project engineering drawings and the field configuration, and the component index (CI) database as defined in AP EN 6-005-02. This AVP defines requirements for project activities verifying conformance of structures, systems, and components (SSCs) to project specified requirements.

This is the level one River Protection Project (RPP)/Waste Feed Delivery logic diagram for Feed Delivery Storage and Disposal Mission Summary for 2006 Hot Start.

Blue light emitting devices (LEDs) are rapidly becoming an increasingly important technology underscored by intense world-wide research and development. Blue emitter technology is the cornerstone for crucial applications that include full-color flat panel displays, ultra-high density optical memories and data storage, back lighting, and chemical and biological sensing. Currently, the GaN material system dominate the field of blue emitters, which in turn is dominated by Japanese researchers. However, critical obstacles remain for this material system. Growth-related defects, which arise from lattice-matching problems, degrade the device and limits operational lifetimes. Blue GaN diodes produced in Japan presently operate for the longest time. Those produced in the US have significantly shorter lifetimes.