Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to obtaining criminal history record information on an applicant for or holder of a mortgage broker or loan officer license.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to the disclosure of certain information to a cemetery organization or funeral establishment for the purpose of marking a grave.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to state employee military leave.

Bill introduced by the Texas Senate relating to the assumption of road utility district authority by Fort Bend County Levee Improvement District No. 15, including the authority to impose taxes and issue bonds.

Appropriations are one part of a complex federal budget process that includes budget resolutions, appropriations (regular, supplemental, and continuing) bills, rescissions, and budget reconciliation bills. This Report is a guide to one of the 13 regular appropriations bills that Congress passes each year. It is designed to supplement the information provided by the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Legislative Branch Appropriations.

The United States recognized the independence of all the former Soviet republics by the end of 1991, including the South Caucasus states of Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Georgia. The United States has fostered these states' ties with the West in part to end the dependence of these states on Russia for trade, security, and other relations. The FREEDOM Support Act of 1992 provides authorization for assistance to the Eurasian states for humanitarian needs, democratization, and other purposes. In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, the Administration appealed for a national security waiver of the prohibition on aid to Azerbaijan, in consideration of Azerbaijan's assistance to the international coalition to combat terrorism. Azerbaijani and Georgian troops participate in stabilization efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq, and Armenian personnel serve in Iraq.

Operation of the Fermilab Main Injector is sensitive to magnetic field differences due to hysteretic effects. Measurements using the beam are reported with various current ramps. This will provide magnetic field information for accelerator operations with better ramp control than is available from magnet test facility data. This makes possible improved low field reproducibility with mixed 120 GeV and 150 GeV operation of the Main Injector.

Detailed simulations were performed on beam loss rates in the vicinity of the Tevatron Collider detectors due to beam-gas nuclear elastic interactions. It turns out that this component can drive the accelerator-related background rates in the CDF and D0 detectors, exceeding those due to outscattering from collimation system, inelastic beam-gas interactions and other processes [1, 2]. Results of realistic simulations with the STRUCT and MARS codes are presented for the interaction region components and the CDF and D0 detectors. It is shown that a steel mask placed upstream of the detectors can reduce the background rates by almost an order of magnitude.

Switchgrass breeding and genetics research was conducted from 1992-2002 at the Oklahoma State University as part of the national DOE-Bioenergy Feedstock Development Program (BFDP) effort to develop the species as a bioenergy feedstock crop. The fundamental objective of the program was to implement and conduct a breeding program to increase biomass yield capability in switchgrass and develop cultivars for the central and southern United States. Supporting research objectives included: (1) switchgrass germplasm collection, characterization, and enhancement; (2) elucidation of cytogenetic and breeding behavior; and (3) identification of best breeding procedures.

To illustrate a number of basic concepts in atomic and nuclear physics, we have developed three websites where students can analyze data from modern laboratories. By working through the on-line procedures, students will become acquainted with characteristic x-ray spectra, the concept of half-life, x-ray fluorescence, and neutron activation analysis.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The District of Columbia (D.C.) Child and Family Services Agency (CFSA) is responsible for protecting children at risk of abuse and neglect and ensuring that services are provided for them and their families. GAO was asked to discuss the extent to which CFSA has (1) met requirements of the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) of 1997 and other selected performance criteria, (2) adopted and implemented child protection and foster care placement policies, and (3) enhanced its working relationship with the D.C. Family Court. To address these questions, GAO analyzed data from CFSA's child welfare information system, known as FACES; reviewed laws, regulations, and reports; examined case files; and interviewed officials."

In this report several other Clean Water Act issues are likely to receive congressional attention, through oversight hearings and possibly in legislative proposals. Among the topics of interest is whether and how the Administration will revise the current program for restoration of pollution-impaired waters (the Total Maximum Daily Load, or TMDL program), in view of controversy over regulatory changes made during the Clinton Administration and continuing disagreement among states, cities, industry, and environmental advocates about program effectiveness and efficiency.

This paper presents the thermodynamic analysis of a coal-based zero-atmospheric emissions electric power plant. The approach involves an oxygen-blown coal gasification unit. The resulting synthetic gas (syngas) is combusted with oxygen in a gas generator to produce the working fluid for the turbines. The combustion produces a gas mixture composed almost entirely of steam and carbon dioxide. These gases drive multiple turbines to produce electricity. The turbine discharge gases pass to a condenser where water is captured. A stream of carbon dioxide then results that can be used for enhanced oil recovery, or for sequestration. This analysis is based on a 400 MW electric power generating plant that uses turbines that are currently under development by a U.S. turbine manufacturer. The power plant has a net thermal efficiency of 42.6%. This efficiency is based on the lower heating value of the coal, and includes the energy necessary for coal gasification, air separation and for carbon dioxide separation and sequestration. The paper also presents an analysis of the cost of electricity (COE) and the cost of conditioning carbon dioxide for sequestration for the 400 MW power plant. Electricity cost is compared for three different gasification processes (Texaco, Shell, and Koppers-Totzek) and …

The House of Representatives uses this parliamentary device to take procedural advantage of a somewhat different set of rules governing proceedings in the Committee than those governing proceedings in the House. The purpose is to expedite legislative consideration. This report briefly reviews the history of the Committee of the Whole, describes the current procedure associated with it, and identifies its procedural advantages.

In the commissioning of the Fermilab Recycler ring the need for higher order corrector magnets in the regions near beam transfers was discovered. Three types of permanent magnet skew quadrupoles, and two types of permanent magnet sextupoles were designed and built. This paper describes the need for these magnets, the design, assembly, and magnetic measurements.

DELTA Diesel Engine Light Truck Application End of Contract Report DE-FC05-97-OR22606 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY This report is the final technical report of the Diesel Engine Light Truck Application (DELTA) program under contract DE-FC05-97-OR22606. During the course of this contract, Detroit Diesel Corporation analyzed, designed, tooled, developed and applied the ''Proof of Concept'' (Generation 0) 4.0L V-6 DELTA engine and designed the successor ''Production Technology Demonstration'' (Generation 1) 4.0L V-6 DELTA engine. The objectives of DELTA Program contract DE-FC05-97-OR22606 were to: Demonstrate production-viable diesel engine technologies, specifically intended for the North American LDT and SUV markets; Demonstrate emissions compliance with significant fuel economy advantages. With a clean sheet design, DDC produced the DELTA engine concept promising the following attributes: 30-50% improved fuel economy; Low cost; Good durability and reliability; Acceptable noise, vibration and harshness (NVH); State-of-the-art features; Even firing, 4 valves per cylinder; High pressure common rail fuel system; Electronically controlled; Turbocharged, intercooled, cooled EGR; Extremely low emissions via CLEAN Combustion{copyright} technology. To demonstrate the engine technology in the SUV market, DDC repowered a 1999 Dodge Durango with the DELTA Generation 0 engine. Fuel economy improvements were approximately 50% better than the gasoline engine replaced in the vehicle.

We present results on the determination of the observable ratio R = BR(H{sup +} {yields} {tau}{sup +}{nu}{sup -})/BR(H{sup +} {yields} t{bar b}) of charged Higgs boson decay rates as a discriminant quantity between Supersymmetric and non-Supersymmetric models. Simulation of measurements of this quantity through the analysis of the charged Higgs production process gb {yields} tbH{sup +} and relative backgrounds in the two above decay channels has been performed in the context of ATLAS. A {approx} 12-14% accuracy on R can be achieved for tan {beta} = 50, m{sub H{sup {+-}}} = 300-500 GeV and after an integrated luminosity of 300 fb{sup -1}. With this precision measurement, the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) can easily discriminate between models for the two above scenarios, so long as tan {beta} > 20.

The subMW hybrid DFC/T power plant facility was upgraded with a Capstone C60 microturbine and a state-of-the-art full size fuel cell stack. The integration of the larger microturbine extended the capability of the hybrid power plant to operate at high power ratings with a single gas turbine without the need for supplementary air. The objectives of this phase of subMW hybrid power plant tests are to support the development of process and control and to provide the insight for the design of the packaged subMW hybrid demonstration units. The development of the ultra high efficiency multi-MW power plants was focused on the design of 40 MW power plants with efficiencies approaching 75% (LHV of natural gas). The design efforts included thermodynamic cycle analysis of key gas turbine parameters such as compression ratio.

Linear induction accelerators used in X-ray radiography have single-pulse parameters of the order 20 MeV of electron beam energy, 2 kA of beam current, pulse lengths of 50-100 ns, and spot sizes of 1-2 mm. The thermal energy deposited in a bremsstrahlung converter target made of tantalum from such a pulse is {approx}80 kJ/cc, more than enough to bring the target material to a partially ionized state. The tail end of a single beam pulse, or any subsequent pulse in a multi-pulse train, undergoes a number of interactions with the target that can affect beam transport and radiographic performance. Positive ions extracted from the target plasma by the electron beam space charge can affect the beam focus and centroid stability. As the target expands on the inter-pulse time scale, the integrated line density of material decreases, eventually affecting the X-ray output of the system. If the target plume becomes sufficiently large, beam transport through it is affected by macroscopic charge and current neutralization effects and microscopic beam/plasma instability mechanisms. We will present a survey of some of these interactions, as well as some results of an extensive experimental and theoretical campaign to understand the practical amelioration of these effects, carried …

This issue brief views reorganization and management as involving the alteration of the program administrative structure and operations of the executive branch for reasons of efficiency, economy, and direction. The underlying issue is who reorganizes or sets management policy—Congress or the President— and by what authority and, also, for what purpose?

Tevatron performance suffers from a coherent transverse instability. Experimental studies and theoretical examination allow identifying the instability as a weak head-tail, driven by the short-range wake fields in presence of the space charge. Growth rates and coherent tune shifts are measured at injection of single high-intensity proton bunches using a fast strip-line pickup. Landau damping through the octupole-generated betatron tune spread for all of unstable head-tail modes has been demonstrated.

This report discusses the need for cooperation between law enforcement and intelligence agencies and for human intelligence (humint), the use of agents to gather information, to counter terrorism and the risks associated with humint. Updated May 27, 2003.

We calculate the ion production rate for a beam of 2 x 10{sup 12} antiprotons in the Recycler Ring using the known vacuum residual gas composition. We study the effect of ion buildup around the antiproton beam on beam lifetime and stability. We compare the ion production rate with the actual measurement using the beam tune shifts when the RF gap in the circulating beam is removed.

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