Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate granting the legislature permission to adjourn for more than three days.

This report discusses on going issues regarding biotechnology, which refers primarily to the use of recombinant DNA techniques to genetically modify or bioengineer plants and animals. Ongoing policy issues include the impacts of genetially engineered (GE) crops on the environment (e.g., pest and weed resistance), whether GE foods should be labeled, their potential contamination of conventionally raised and organic plants, and issues of liability.

This report focuses on the ways in which the states' efforts to impose requirements on out-of-state retailers are limited by the Constitution. The report discusses recent state legislation as well as legislation introduced in the two most recent Congresses.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "While the primary responsibility for protecting the nation's communications networks belongs to private-sector owners and operators, federal agencies also play a role in support of their security, as well as that of critical components supporting the Internet. Specifically, private-sector entities are responsible for the operational security of the networks they own, but the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and the Departments of Homeland Security (DHS), Defense, and Commerce have regulatory and support roles, as established in federal law and policy, and have taken a variety of related actions. For example, FCC has developed and maintained a system for reporting network outage information; DHS has multiple components focused on assessing risk and sharing threat information; Defense and DHS serve as co-chairs for a committee on national security and emergency preparedness for telecommunications functions; and Commerce has studied cyber risks facing the communications infrastructure and participates in standards development. However, DHS and its partners have not yet initiated the process for developing outcome-based performance measures related to the cyber protection of key parts of the communications infrastructure. Outcome-based metrics related to communications networks and critical components supporting the Internet …

This report first explores the potential uses of drones in the domestic sphere by federal, state, and local governments. It then surveys current Fourth Amendment jurisprudence, including cases surrounding privacy in the home, privacy in public spaces, location tracking, manned aerial surveillance, and those involving the national border. Next, it considers how existing jurisprudence may inform current and proposed drone uses. It then describes the various legislative measures introduced in the 113th Congress to address the legal and policy issues surrounding drones. Finally, it briefly identifies several alternative approaches that may constrain the potential scope of drone surveillance.

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "GAO found examples of improper payments and indicators of potential fraud in the Federal Employees' Compensation Act (FECA) program, which could be attributed, in part, to oversight and data-access issues. GAO found examples of claimants' receiving overlapping FECA and unemployment insurance (UI) benefits, which may be allowable under certain circumstances, but could also be erroneous. GAO also found that FECA program requirements allow claimants to receive earnings, and earnings increases, without necessarily resulting in adjustment of FECA compensation. For example, of the 32 FECA case files reviewed, GAO found five instances where an individual's wage-earning capacity (WEC), which is used to determine FECA benefits, was not adjusted even though the individual earned substantially more than the wage that was originally used to calculate the WEC. In addition, two FECA claimants continued to receive privateemployment salaries that were not subject to their WEC calculation. This is because, as currently written, program procedures allow claimants to receive increases in earnings, in certain circumstances, without adjustments to FECA compensation, and current law allows for claimants' earnings from dissimilar concurrent private employment at the time of injury to be exempt …

In this project, the collective efforts of all co-PIs aim to address three current limitations in modeling stochastic systems: (1) the inputs are mostly based on ad hoc models, (2) the number of independent parameters is very high, and (3) rare and critical events are difficult to capture with existing algorithms

This report contains an overview of the historical development and options for change on the franking privilege.

This report briefly summarizes the history of FutureGen, discusses why it has gained interest and support from some Members of Congress and the Administration while remaining in initial stages of development, and offers some policy considerations on barriers that challenge its further development as a model for a carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) program.

The discussion describes some basics about the grants process and some of the approaches and techniques used by congressional offices in dealing with this type of constitutional service

This report discusses considerations that may arise during possible attempts to increase the Department of Veterans Affairs' (VA) collaboration with federally qualified health centers (FQHC), and describes policy levers Congress might use to encourage VA-FQHC collaboration.

Statement of Problem and Objectives. Wafer breakage in automated solar cell production lines is identified as a major technical problem and a barrier for further cost reduction of silicon solar module manufacturing. To the best of our knowledge, there are no commercial systems addressing critical needs for in-line inspection of the mechanical quality of solar wafers and cells. The principal objective of the SBIR program is to validate through experiments and computer modeling the applicability of the Resonance Ultrasonic Vibrations system, which ultimately can be used as a real-time in-line manufacturing quality control tool for fast detection of mechanically unstable silicon solar cells caused by cracks. The specific objective of Phase II is to move the technology of in-line crack detection from the laboratory level to commercial demonstration through development of a system prototype. The fragility of silicon wafers possessing low mechanical strength is attributed to peripheral and bulk millimeter-length cracks. The research program is based on feasibility results obtained during Phase I, which established that: (i) the Resonance Ultrasonic Vibrations method is applicable to as-cut, processed wafers and finished cells; (ii) the method sensitivity depends on the specific processing step; it is highest in as-cut wafers and lowest in …

Proceedings of the Senate of Texas for the thirty-fourth day of the Regular session of the 83rd Legislature documenting legislation, reports, discussions, votes, and points-of-order.

This report provides an overview of the New Strategic Arms Reductions Treaty (START), including a comparison to the original START Treaty, the belief of the Obama Administration and outside analysts that New START will enhance U.S. national security, and the criticisms of those who say that New START is a distraction from more important items on the nonproliferation agenda.

This report summarizes what is known from open sources about the North Korean nuclear weapons program — including weapons-usable fissile material and warhead estimates — and assesses current developments in achieving denuclearization.

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A prototype simultaneous PET-MRI breast scanner has been developed for conducting clinical studies with the goal of obtaining high resolution anatomical and functional information in the same scan which can lead to faster and better diagnosis, reduction of unwanted biopsies, and better patient care.

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A series of diketopyrrolopyrrole(DPP)-based small molecules have been synthesized by palladium-catalyzed coupling reactions. Electron-donating moieties (benzothiophene, benzoselenophene, and benzotellurophene) are bridged by an electron-withdrawing DPP unit to generate donor-acceptor-donor (D-A-D) type molecules. We observe red-shifts in absorption spectra of these compounds by varying heteroatoms from sulfur to tellurium. In bulk heterojunction solar cells with [6,6]phenyl-C61-butyric acid methyl ester (PC61BM) as acceptor, we obtain power conversion efficiencies of 2.4% (benzothiophene), 4.1% (benzoselenophene), and 3.0% (benzotellurophene), respectively.

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, Greg Abbott, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a district attorney may, pursuant to section 41.005, Government Code, retain a commission on bond forfeiture collection (RQ-1 090-GA).

This report describes and analyzes U.S. Customs and Border Protection's (CBP) role in the U.S. import process. (The report does not cover CBP's role in the U.S. export control system.)

The objective of this research is to understand the factors contributing to addiction in the human and to understand the effects of addiction on the brain.

This investigation evaluated mass extraction rate from individual wells associated with the Western Sector Treatment System (formerly known as the DUS-II project). This was critical since each individual well can have a radius of influence in excess of 100-ft when operating using an active extraction system. Future soil vapor extraction should use the existing active extraction system, supplemented with deployment of passive extraction where appropriate.