78th Texas Legislature, Fourth Called Session, House Concurrent Resolution 12 (open access)

78th Texas Legislature, Fourth Called Session, House Concurrent Resolution 12

Concurrent resolution introduced by the Texas House of Representatives and Senate relating to granting permission to adjourn from April 27 to May 3, 2004.
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: Texas. Legislature. House of Representatives.
Object Type: Legislative Document
System: The Portal to Texas History
Analysis of Long-range Clean Energy Investment Scenarios forEritrea, East Africa (open access)

Analysis of Long-range Clean Energy Investment Scenarios forEritrea, East Africa

We discuss energy efficiency and renewable energy investments in Eritrea from the strategic long-term economic perspective of meeting Eritrea's sustainable development goals and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Energy efficiency and renewable energy are potentially important contributors to national productive capital accumulation, enhancement of the environment, expansion of energy services, increases in household standard of living, and improvements in health. In this study we develop a spreadsheet model for calculating some of the national benefits and costs of different levels of investment in energy efficiency and renewable energy. We then present the results of the model in terms of investment demand and investment scenario curves. These curves express the contribution that efficiency and renewable energy projects can make in terms of reduced energy sector operating expenses, and reduced carbon emissions. We provide demand and supply curves that show the rate of return, the cost of carbon emissions reductions vs. supply, and the evolution of the marginal carbon emissions per dollar of GDP for different investment levels and different fuel-type subsectors.
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: Van Buskirk, Robert D.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Authorized Limits Request: Radiological Clearance of Select Hanford Reach National Monument Lands (open access)

Authorized Limits Request: Radiological Clearance of Select Hanford Reach National Monument Lands

This document describes development of radiological release criteria (Authorized Limits) for Hanford Reach National Monument lands that DOE plans to release to the U.S. Department of the Interior.
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: Napier, Bruce A. & Glines, Wayne M.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
An Experimental Study of Drag Reduction Devices for a Trailer Underbody and Base (open access)

An Experimental Study of Drag Reduction Devices for a Trailer Underbody and Base

Low speed wind tunnel measurements are made on a 1/16th scale generic tractor-trailer model at a width-based Reynolds number of 325,000. The model is fixed to a turntable, allowing the yaw angle to be varied between {+-}14 degrees in 2 degree increments. Various add-on drag reduction devices are mounted to the model underbody and base. The wind-averaged drag coefficient at 65 mph is computed for each configuration, allowing the effectiveness of the add-on devices to be assessed. The most effective add-on drag reduction device for the trailer underbody is a wedge-shaped skirt, which reduces the wind-averaged drag coefficient by 2.0%. For the trailer base, the most effective add-on drag reduction device is a set of curved base flaps having a radius of curvature of 0.91 times the trailer width. These curved base flaps reduce the wind-averaged drag coefficient by 18.8%, providing the greatest drag reduction of any of the devices tested. When the wedge-shaped skirt and curved base flaps are used in conjunction with one another, the wind-averaged drag coefficient is reduced by 20%.
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: Ortega, J M & Salari, K
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Federal Assistance: Temporary State Fiscal Relief (open access)

Federal Assistance: Temporary State Fiscal Relief

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "As part of the Jobs and Growth Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2003, the federal government provided $10 billion in temporary fiscal relief payments to states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. commonwealths and territories (herein referred to as states). Generally, use of these funds is unrestricted in nature; the act authorizes funds to be used to "provide essential government services" and to "cover the costs... of complying with any federal intergovernmental mandate." These funds were intended to provide antirecession fiscal stimulus to the national economy and to help close state budget shortfalls due to the recession that began in March 2001. According to the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL), in February 36 states reported facing budget shortfalls with a cumulative budget gap of about $25.7 billion. This report responds to the February 13, 2004, request by the Chairman of the Senate Committee on the Budget to provide information to help Congress assess the use of the temporary state fiscal relief payments. Specifically, we are reporting (1) what is known about the potential impacts of unrestricted fiscal relief on the fiscal behavior of states, (2) how …
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Future Years Defense Program: Actions Needed to Improve Transparency of DOD's Projected Resource Needs (open access)

Future Years Defense Program: Actions Needed to Improve Transparency of DOD's Projected Resource Needs

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Congress needs the best available data about DOD's resource tradeoffs between the dual priorities of transformation and fighting the global war on terrorism. To help shape its priorities, in 2001 DOD developed a capabilities-based approach focused on how future adversaries might fight, and a risk management framework to ensure that current defense needs are balanced against future requirements. Because the Future Years Defense Program (FYDP) is DOD's centralized report providing DOD and Congress data on current and planned resource allocations, GAO assessed the extent to which the FYDP provides Congress visibility over (1) projected defense spending and (2) implementation of DOD's capabilities-based defense strategy and risk management framework."
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): Selected Changes that Would be Made to the Law by S. 1248, 108th Congress (open access)

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA): Selected Changes that Would be Made to the Law by S. 1248, 108th Congress

CRS Report for Congress entailing information about changes being made to the law because of the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). Topics include, eligibility by jurisdiction, safeguarding, evaluation and Individualized Education Programs (IEPS), etc..
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: Apling, Richard N. & Jones, Nancy Lee
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Late Time Neutrino Masses, the LSND Experiment and the Cosmic Microwave Background (open access)

Late Time Neutrino Masses, the LSND Experiment and the Cosmic Microwave Background

Models with low-scale breaking of global symmetries in the neutrino sector provide an alternative to the seesaw mechanism for understanding why neutrinos are light. Such models can easily incorporate light sterile neutrinos required by the LSND experiment. Furthermore, the constraints on the sterile neutrino properties from nucleosynthesis and large scale structure can be removed due to the non-conventional cosmological evolution of neutrino masses and densities. We present explicit, fully realistic supersymmetric models, and discuss the characteristic signatures predicted in the angular distributions of the cosmic microwave background.
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: Chacko, Z.; Hall, Lawrence J.; Oliver, Steven J. & Perelstein, Maxim
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Mechanical and Thermal Design for the MICE Focusing SolenoidMagnet System (open access)

The Mechanical and Thermal Design for the MICE Focusing SolenoidMagnet System

The focusing solenoids for MICE surround energy absorbers that are used to reduce the transverse momentum of the muon beam that is being cooled within MICE. The focusing solenoids will have a warm-bore diameter of 470 mm. Within this bore is a flask of liquid hydrogen or a room temperature beryllium absorber. The focusing solenoid consists of two coils wound with a copper matrix Nb-Ti conductor originally designed for MRI magnets. The two coils have separate leads, so that they may be operated at the same polarity or at opposite polarity. The focusing magnet is designed so that it can be cooled with a pair of 1.5 W (at 4.2 K) coolers. The MICE cooling channel has three focusing magnets with their absorbers. The three focusing magnets will be hooked together in series for a circuit stored-energy of about 9.0 MJ. Quench protection for the focusing magnets is discussed. This report presents the mechanical and thermal design parameters for this magnet, including the results of finite element calculations of mechanical forces and heat flow in the magnet cold mass.
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: Yang, S.Q.; Green, M.A.; Barr, G.; Bravar, U.; Cobb, J.; Lau, W. et al.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
The Mice Focusing Solenoids and their Cooling System (open access)

The Mice Focusing Solenoids and their Cooling System

This report describes the focusing solenoid for the proposed Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) [1]. The focusing solenoid consists of a pair of superconducting solenoids that are on a common bobbin. The two coils, which have separate leads, may be operated in the same polarity or at opposite polarity. This report discusses the superconducting magnet design and the cryostat design for the MICE focusing module. Also discussed is how this superconducting magnet can be integrated with a pair of small 4.2 K coolers.
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: Green, M.A.; Barr, G.; Lau, W.; Senanayake, R.S. & Yang, S.Q.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Military Personnel: Active Duty Compensation and Its Tax Treatment (open access)

Military Personnel: Active Duty Compensation and Its Tax Treatment

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The Department of Defense's (DOD) total military compensation package for active duty members consists of both cash and noncash benefits. Since the late 1990s, Congress and the DOD have increased military cash compensation by increasing basic pay and allowances for housing, among other things. Military members also receive tax breaks, which are a part of their cash compensation. Moreover, active duty personnel are offered substantial noncash benefits, such as retirement, health care, commissaries, and childcare. In some cases, these noncash benefits exceed those available to private-sector personnel. DOD relies heavily on noncash benefits because it views benefits as critical to morale, retention, and the quality of life for service members and their families. To better understand the military compensation system, Congress asked us to provide the Chairman and Ranking Minority Member of the Senate Committee on Finance with information on active duty military compensation and its tax treatment. In January 2004, we briefed Congressional staff on our preliminary observations. Because our work identified that the combat zone tax exclusion could impact some service members, Congress asked us to focus our work on military cash compensation and to do …
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The UNT Digital Library
Modeling the Thermal Mechanical Behavior of a 300 K Vacuum Vesselthat is Cooled by Liquid Hydrogen in Film Boiling (open access)

Modeling the Thermal Mechanical Behavior of a 300 K Vacuum Vesselthat is Cooled by Liquid Hydrogen in Film Boiling

This report discusses the results from the rupture of a thin window that is part of a 20-liter liquid hydrogen vessel. This rupture will spill liquid hydrogen onto the walls and bottom of a 300 K cylindrical vacuum vessel. The spilled hydrogen goes into film boiling, which removes the thermal energy from the vacuum vessel wall. This report analyzes the transient heat transfer in the vessel and calculates the thermal deflection and stress that will result from the boiling liquid in contact with the vessel walls. This analysis was applied to aluminum and stainless steel vessels.
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: Yang, S.Q.; Green, M.A. & Lau, W.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Opportunities for Congressional Oversight and Improved Use of Taxpayer Funds: Budgetary Implications of Selected GAO Work (open access)

Opportunities for Congressional Oversight and Improved Use of Taxpayer Funds: Budgetary Implications of Selected GAO Work

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "This report contains in a single document the budgetary implications of selected program reforms discussed in past GAO work but not yet implemented or enacted. Since 1994, we have prepared annual reports similar to this product, in order to continue to assist congressional committees in identifying approaches to reduce federal spending or increase revenues. This year's report contains over 100 examples of budget options organized by budget function. Where possible, budgetary savings estimates provided by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) or the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) are presented."
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: United States. General Accounting Office.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Quantitative Characterization of Inertial Confinement Fusion Capsules Using Phase Contrast Enhanced X-Ray Imaging (open access)

Quantitative Characterization of Inertial Confinement Fusion Capsules Using Phase Contrast Enhanced X-Ray Imaging

Current designs for inertial confinement fusion capsules for the National Ignition Facility (NIF) consist of a solid deuterium-tritium (D-T) fuel layer inside of a copper doped beryllium capsule. Phase contrast enhanced x-ray imaging is shown to render the D-T layer visible inside the Be(Cu) capsule. Phase contrast imaging is experimentally demonstrated for several surrogate capsules and validates computational models. Polyimide and low density divinyl benzene foam capsules were imaged at the Advanced Photon Source synchrotron. The surrogates demonstrate that phase contrast enhanced imaging provides a method to characterize surfaces when absorption imaging cannot be used. Our computational models demonstrate that a rough surface can be accurately reproduced in phase contrast enhanced x-ray images.
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: Kozioziemski, B. J.; Koch, J. A.; Barty, A.; Martz, H. E.; Lee, W. & Fezzaa, K.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Simulations of Target Interactions with Pulsed High Energy Solid State Lasers (open access)

Simulations of Target Interactions with Pulsed High Energy Solid State Lasers

In a solid-state heat capacity laser (SSHCL), waste heat is stored in the lasing slabs, minimizing temperature gradients and optical distortions. After the maximum number of pulses is reached, the slabs are cooled or rapidly exchanged with cool slabs. During the past several years, our laboratory at LLNL has built a number of SSHCLs, demonstrating powers beyond 10 kW. In this paper, we model target interactions produced by a 10 kW device (500 J/pulse and 20 Hz), operating at a wavelength of 1.053 {micro}m. The laser contains 9 Nd:glass slabs pumped by flashlamps.
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: Boley, C & Rubenchik, A
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Simultaneous Microwave Imaging System for Density and Temperature Fluctuation Measurements on TEXTOR (open access)

Simultaneous Microwave Imaging System for Density and Temperature Fluctuation Measurements on TEXTOR

Diagnostic systems for fluctuation measurements in plasmas have, of necessity, evolved from simple 1-D systems to multi-dimensional systems due to the complexity of the MHD and turbulence physics of plasmas illustrated by advanced numerical simulations. Using the recent significant advancements in millimeter wave imaging technology, Microwave Imaging Reflectometry (MIR) and Electron Cyclotron Emission Imaging (ECEI), simultaneously measuring density and temperature fluctuations, are developed for TEXTOR. The MIR system was installed on TEXTOR and the first experiment was performed in September, 2003. Subsequent MIR campaigns have yielded poloidally resolved spectra and assessments of poloidal velocity. The new 2-D ECE Imaging system (with a total of 128 channels), installed on TEXTOR in December, 2003, successfully captured a true 2-D images of Te fluctuations of m=1 oscillation (''sawteeth'') near the q {approx} 1 surface for the first time.
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: Park, H.; Mazzucato, E.; Munsat, T.; Domier, C. W.; Johnson, M.; N. C. Luhmann, Jr. et al.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance Delphi Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (open access)

Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance Delphi Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

The objective of this project is to develop a 5 kW Solid Oxide Fuel Cell power system for a range of fuels and applications. During Phase I, the following will be accomplished: Develop and demonstrate technology transfer efforts on a 5 kW stationary distributed power generation system that incorporates steam reforming of natural gas with the option of piped-in water (Demonstration System A). Initiate development of a 5 kW system for later mass-market automotive auxiliary power unit application, which will incorporate Catalytic Partial Oxidation (CPO) reforming of gasoline, with anode exhaust gas injected into an ultra-lean burn internal combustion engine. This technical progress report covers work performed by Delphi from July 1, 2003 to December 31, 2003, under Department of Energy Cooperative Agreement DE-FC-02NT41246. This report highlights technical results of the work performed under the following tasks: Task 1 System Design and Integration; Task 2 Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Stack Developments; Task 3 Reformer Developments; Task 4 Development of Balance of Plant (BOP) Components; Task 5 Manufacturing Development (Privately Funded); Task 6 System Fabrication; Task 7 System Testing; Task 8 Program Management; Task 9 Stack Testing with Coal-Based Reformate; and Task 10 Technology Transfer from SECA CORE Technology Program. In …
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: Shaffer, Steven; Kelly, Sean; Mukerjee, Subhasish; Schumann, David; Geiger, Gail; Keegan, Kevin et al.
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
A Study of Microstructural Length Scale Effects on the Behaviour of FCC Polycrystals Using Strain Gradient Concepts (open access)

A Study of Microstructural Length Scale Effects on the Behaviour of FCC Polycrystals Using Strain Gradient Concepts

Grain size is a critically important aspect of polycrystalline materials and experimental observations on Cu and Al polycrystals have shown that a Hall-Petchtype phenomenon does exist at the onset of plastic deformation. In this work, a parametric study is conducted to investigate the effect of microstructural and deformation-related length scales on the behavior of such FCC polycrystals. It relies on a recently proposed non-local dislocation-mechanics based crystallographic theory to describe the evolution of dislocation mean spacings within each grain, and on finite element techniques to incorporate explicitly grain interaction effects. Polycrystals are modeled as representative volume elements (RVEs) containing up to 64 randomly oriented grains. Predictions obtained from RVEs of Cu polycrystals with different grain sizes are shown to be consistent with experimental data. Furthermore, mesh sensitivity studies revealed that, when there is a predominance of geometrically necessary dislocations (GNDs) relative to statistically-stored dislocations (SSDs), the polycrystal response becomes increasingly mesh sensitive. This was found to occur specially during the early stages of deformation in polycrystals with small grains.
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: Cheong, K S; Busso, E P & Arsenlis, A.
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Study of Row Phase Dependent Skew Quadrupole Fields in Apple-II Type EPUs at the ALS (open access)

Study of Row Phase Dependent Skew Quadrupole Fields in Apple-II Type EPUs at the ALS

Since about 5 years, Apple-II type Elliptically Polarizing Undulators (EPU) have been used very successfully at the ALS to generate high brightness photon beams with arbitrary polarization. However, both EPUs installed so far cause significant changes of the vertical beamsize, especially when the row phase is changed to change the polarization of the photons emitted. Detailed measurements indicate this is caused by a row phase dependent skew quadrupole term in the EPUs. Magnetic measurements revealed the same effect for the third EPU to be installed later this year. All measurements to identify and quantify the effect with beam will be presented, as well as some results of magnetic bench measurements and numeric field simulations.
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: Steier, C.; Marks, S.; Prestemon, Soren; Robin, David; Schlueter, Ross & Wolski, Andrzej
Object Type: Article
System: The UNT Digital Library
Synthesis of New Water-Soluble Metal-Binding Polymers combinatorial Chemistry Approach (open access)

Synthesis of New Water-Soluble Metal-Binding Polymers combinatorial Chemistry Approach

(1) Synthesis of Fused Tetraheterocyclic Azepines: (2) Synthesis of Linear Bidentate Diisoxazole and Bidentate Isoxazole-Furyl/Thienyl/Pyridyl Motifs: (3) Synthesis of Pyrazolo[3,4-g] [2,1] dihydrobenzoisoxazol(in)es: (4) Synthesis of Spiro-Fused (C5)-Isozazoline-(C4)-Pyrazolones:
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: Miller, R. Bryan
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Tax Benefits for Health Insurance: Current Legislation (open access)

Tax Benefits for Health Insurance: Current Legislation

None
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: Lyke, Bob
Object Type: Report
System: The UNT Digital Library
Texas Attorney General Opinion: GA-0184 (open access)

Texas Attorney General Opinion: GA-0184

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 “vessel and outboard motor ownership records” are “customer information” under section 11.030 of the Parks and Wildlife Code (RQ-0132-GA)
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: Texas. Attorney-General's Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History
Texas Attorney General Opinion: GA-0185 (open access)

Texas Attorney General Opinion: GA-0185

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: Residency requirements for directors of the Texas Mexican Railway Company (RQ-0133-GA)
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: Texas. Attorney-General's Office.
Object Type: Text
System: The Portal to Texas History
Texas Register, Volume 29, Number 19, Pages 4333-4618, May 07, 2004 (open access)

Texas Register, Volume 29, Number 19, Pages 4333-4618, May 07, 2004

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.
Date: May 7, 2004
Creator: Texas. Secretary of State.
Object Type: Journal/Magazine/Newsletter
System: The Portal to Texas History