Monthly newsletter of the Texas Department of Insurance discussing news and events related to the agency's activities and legislation related to insurance in the state, as well as regulatory guidance and other relevant information.

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.

Monthly newsletter documenting statistics related to employment in Texas including nonagricultural job trends, labor force numbers, and other relevant indicators as well as information on related topics.

Newsletter of the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs discussing news and announcements related to the agency and other information regarding community resources and affordable housing in the state.

Newsletter of the Texas Hunter Education Program discussing various events, news, and other information related to the program or of interest to hunters in Texas.

Newsletter for participants of the annual Texas Hummingbird Roundup, containing articles related to hummingbirds and providing a breakdown of information about where in Texas various hummingbirds were sighted.

Magazine for Texas Lottery retailers that contains news, retailer spotlights, and a list of lottery winners.

Annual report compiling information about required groundwater monitoring activities and cases of contamination by state-regulated activities during the 2000 calendar year. Includes tables with the enforcement status of each case of contamination.

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.

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

Quarterly newsletter of the Panhandle Groundwater Conservation District discussing the news, activities, and events of the organization and other information related to water in Texas.

Pamphlet containing information about Texas Lottery winners, scratch-off prizes, new games, and more.

Annual guide listing festivals in the state of Texas that are related to birds or other wildlife, providing descriptions, dates, and contact information.

Report detailing the findings of the Texas Study across 600 school libraries regarding their resources, services, usage, and best practices.

Semi-annual report documenting statistics and analysis of contracts awarded to historically underutilized business (HUBs) by Texas state agencies, including procurement goals and performances,2000 and 2001 semi-annual total expenditures chart.

Quarterly newsletter of the general manage at the Edwards Aquifer Authority discussing news and activities of the organization as well as other information related to water in southern Texas.

This paper presents a proposal for modifying the current employee annual evaluation process in SCAD. It purports to simplify that process, primarily by breaking up the resultant document into a set of more or less independent components. It claims to reduce the overall time and effort required from each actor.

Representative, simplified geothermal rock-fluid systems are investigated with a modeling approach to estimate how rock water interactions affect coupled properties related to mechanical stability and permeability improvement through fracturing. First, geochemical modeling is used to determine the evolution of fluid chemistry at temperatures up to 300 C when fluids are in contact with representative rocks of continental origin. Then, a kinetic crack growth model for quartz is used to predict growth rate for subcritical cracks in acidic and basic environments. The predicted growth rate is highly sensitive to temperature and pH in the ranges tested. At present, the model is limited to situations in which quartz controls the mechanical process of interest, such as well bore stability in silica cemented rocks and the opening of quartz filled veins to enhance permeability.

In calculating cosmic-ray exposure ages of meteorites it is generally assumed that the meteoroids were expelled from a shielded position within their parent body and then experienced a single stage exposure before colliding with Earth. The combination of noble gas and radionuclide measurements in several large meteorites, such as Jilin and Bur Ghelaui, have revealed complex exposure histories: i.e. an initial exposure on the surface of an asteroid (or within meter-sized meteoroid), followed by a second exposure as a smaller object. In fact, orbital dynamics calculations predicted that at least 30% of the meteorites arriving on Earth experienced two- or multiple-stage exposure histories [1]. More recently, after the recognition that the Yarkovsky effect plays an important role in delivering meteorites from the asteroid belt to Earth-crossing orbits, it was confirmed that complex exposure histories should be common [2]. Nevertheless, despite the ability to measure a wide range of radionuclides with accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS), only a few meteorites with complex exposure histories have been identified [e.g. 3,4]. The question is whether the relatively paucity of complex exposure histories is real or have we simply overlooked complex-exposure histories. In this work we focus on meteorites with low {sup 3}He/{sup 21}Ne ratios, …

Review and test speeds of various encryption technologies using Entrust Software. Multiple encryption algorithms are included in the product. Algorithms tested were IDEA, CAST, DES, and RC2. Test consisted of taking a 7.7 MB Word document file which included complex graphics and timing encryption, decryption and signing. Encryption is discussed in the GIAC Kickstart section: Information Security: The Big Picture--Part VI.

Interest in the synthesis of semiconductor nanoparticles has been generated by their unusual optical and electronic properties arising from quantum confinement effects. We have synthesized silicon and germanium nanoclusters by reacting Zintl phase precursors with either silicon or germanium tetrachloride in various solvents. Strategies have been investigated to stabilize the surface, including reactions with RLi and MgBrR (R = alkyl). This synthetic method produces group IV nanocrystals with passivated surfaces. These nanoparticle emit over a very large range in the visible region. These particles have been characterized using HRTEM, FTIR, UV-Vis, solid state NMR, and fluorescence. The synthesis and characterization of these nanoclusters will be presented.

We find the annihilation rate of positronium (Ps) within silica sodalite. Positron density and the electronic density seen by positrons are compared with a semi-empirical ''free volume'' model.

The production and handling in 1999 of about 200 million kilograms of bromine plus substantial derivatives thereof by Great Lakes Chemical Corp. and Albemarle Corporation in their southern Arkansas refineries gave OSHA Occupational Injury/Illness Rates (OIIR) in the range of 0.74 to 1.60 reportable OIIRs per 200,000 man hours. OIIRs for similar industries and a wide selection of other U.S. industries range from 1.6 to 23.9 in the most recent OSHA report. Occupational fatalities for the two companies in 1999 were zero compared to a range in the U.S.of zero for all computer manufacturing to 0.0445 percent for all of agriculture, forestry and fishing in the most recent OSHA report. These results show that bromine and its compounds can be considered as safe chemicals as a result of the bromine safety standards and practices at the two companies. The use of hydrobromic acid as an electrical energy storage medium in reversible PEM fuel cells is discussed. A study in 1979 of 20 megawatt halogen working fluid power plants by Oronzio de Nora Group found such energy to cost 2 to 2.5 times the prevailing base rate at that time. New conditions may reduce this relative cost. The energy storage aspect …

The soft lithography fabrication technique was applied to three microfluidic devices. The method was used to create an original micropump design and retrofit to existing designs for a DNA manipulation device and a counter biological warfare sample preparation device. Each device presented unique and original challenges to the soft lithography application. AI1 design constraints of the retrofit devices were satisfied using PDMS devices created through variation of soft lithography methods. The micropump utilized the versatility of PDMS, creating design options not available with other materials. In all cases, the rapid processing of soft lithography reduced the fabrication time, creating faster turnaround for design modifications.