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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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.

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, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether the cash lease methods of valuation of open-space land comports with section 1-d-1 of article VIII of the Texas Constitution (RQ-708)

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, Dan Morales, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Authority of the Texas Employment Commission to transfer or assign a lien or notice of assessment based on unpaid wages, under chapter 61, Labor Code, to the wage claimant (RQ-745)

The cryogenic lines GHE and LN2 contain two lines each, one for supply and the other for return. The tubing was stress analyzed per ASME code for pressure piping, standard ANSI/ASME B31.3. A commercial pipe stress analysis and design system by ALGOR{reg_sign} was used for the analysis along with the calculated maximum stress, 25,050 psi. They were all analyzed for combined pressure, thermal movement, and dead weight and all the stresses were below this allowable stress limit. There are sections of the transfer lines that will be increased from a 1-1/2-inch vacuum jacket to a 2-inch vacuum jacket. This increase accounts for the maximum displacement, 0.466-inch in troubled areas as seen in subsequent drawings. The greatest displacement allowed for a 1-1/2-inch vacuum jacket is 0.421-inch for a 1/2-inch pipe on the nominal centerline. The greatest displacement allowed for a 2-inch vacuum jacket is 0.658-inch. We will have a clearance of 0.192-inch when using the 2-inch vacuum jacket.

Data were collected prior to termination of discharge at three sites (including two open bay sites at Delacroix Island and Bay De Chene) for the risk assessments. The Delacroix Island Oil and Gas Field has been in production since the first well drilling in 1940; the Bay De Chene Field, since 1942. Concentrations of 226Ra, 228Ra, 210Po, and 228Th were measured in discharges. Radium conc. were measured in fish and shellfish tissues. Sediment PAH and metal conc. were also available. Benthos sampling was conducted. A survey of fishermen was conducted. The tiered risk assessment showed that human health risks from radium in produced water appear to be small; ecological risk from radium and other radionuclides in produced water also appear small. Many of the chemical contaminants discharged to open Louisiana bays appear to present little human health or ecological risk. A conservative screening analysis suggested potential risks to human health from Hg and Pb and a potential risk to ecological receptors from total effluent, Sb, Cd, Cu, Pb, Ni, Ag, Zn, and phenol in the water column and PAHs in sediment; quantitiative risk assessments are being done for these contaminants.

The purpose and objective of this analysis is to systematically identify and evaluate hazards related to the Yucca Mountain Project Exploratory Studies Facility (ESF) surface and subsurface conveyor system (for a list of conveyor subsystems see section 3). This process is an integral part of the systems engineering process; whereby safety is considered during planning, design, testing, and construction. A largely qualitative approach was used since a radiological System Safety Analysis is not required. The risk assessment in this analysis characterizes the accident scenarios associated with the conveyor structures/systems/components in terms of relative risk and includes recommendations for mitigating all identified risks. The priority for recommending and implementing mitigation control features is: (1) Incorporate measures to reduce risks and hazards into the structure/system/component (S/S/C) design, (2) add safety devices and capabilities to the designs that reduce risk, (3) provide devices that detect and warn personnel of hazardous conditions, and (4) develop procedures and conduct training to increase worker awareness of potential hazards, on methods to reduce exposure to hazards, and on the actions required to avoid accidents or correct hazardous conditions. The scope of this analysis is limited to the hazards related to the design of conveyor structures/systems/components (S/S/Cs) that …

The purpose of this analysis is to systematically identify and evaluate hazards related to the Yucca Mountain Project Exploratory Studies Facility (ESF) Design Package 1E, Surface Facilities, (for a list of design items included in the package 1E system safety analysis see section 3). This process is an integral part of the systems engineering process; whereby safety is considered during planning, design, testing, and construction. A largely qualitative approach was used since a radiological System Safety Analysis is not required. The risk assessment in this analysis characterizes the accident scenarios associated with the Design Package 1E structures/systems/components(S/S/Cs) in terms of relative risk and includes recommendations for mitigating all identified risks. The priority for recommending and implementing mitigation control features is: (1) Incorporate measures to reduce risks and hazards into the structure/system/component design, (2) add safety devices and capabilities to the designs that reduce risk, (3) provide devices that detect and warn personnel of hazardous conditions, and (4) develop procedures and conduct training to increase worker awareness of potential hazards, on methods to reduce exposure to hazards, and on the actions required to avoid accidents or correct hazardous conditions.

The authors discuss the signal-to-noise ratio of an intensity interferometry experiment for a highly asymmetric x-ray source using different aperture shapes in front of the photodetectors. It is argued that, under ideal conditions using noiseless detectors and electronics, the use of slit-shaped apertures, whose widths are smaller but whose lengths are much greater than the transverse coherence widths of the beam in the corresponding directions, provides no signal-to-noise advantage over the use of pinhole apertures equal to or smaller than the coherence area. As with pinholes, the signal-to-noise ratio is determined solely by the count degeneracy parameter and the degree of coherence of the beam. This contrasts with the signal-to-noise ratio enhancement achievable using slit-shaped apertures with an asymmetric source in a Young`s experiment.

The top search in the lepton plus jets channel with the Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF) is presented. The analysis uses a 67 pb{sup {minus}1} data sample of p{bar p} collisions at {radical}s = 1.8 TeV. Soft lepton tagging (SLT) and secondary vertex tagging (SVX) of b jets are used to reduce backgrounds. A significant excess of events over expected backgrounds is seen, and together with the excess of observed events in the dilepton (DIL) channel, firmly establish the existence of the top quark. Combining all channels, the t{bar t} production cross section is measured to be {sigma} {sub t{bar t}} = 7.6{sub -2.0}{sup +2.4} pb. The Branching of top to Wb is measured to be Br(t {yields} Wb) = 0.87{sub -0.30}{sup +0.13}(stat) {sub -0.11}{sup +0.13}(syst).

Disclosed is a joining technique that requires no external heat source and generates very little heat. It involves the reaction of thin multilayered films deposited on faying (closely fit or joining) surfaces to create a stable compound that functions as an intermediate or braze material in order to create a high strength bond. While high temperatures are reached in the reaction of the multilayer film, very little heat is generated because the films are very thin. It is essentially a room temperature joining process. It can be used for joining silicon wafers and integrated circuits.

Factors affecting the rate and extent of benzoate degradation by anaerobic syntrophic consortia were studied. Cocultures of a syntrophic benzoate degrader, strain SB, with a hydrogen/formate-using sulfate reducer degraded benzoate to a threshold that depended on the amount of substrate and acetate present. The benzoate threshold was not a function of the inhibition of benzoate degradation capacity by acetate or the toxicity of the undissociated form of acetate. Rather, a critical or minimal Gibb`s free energy value may exist where thermodynamic constraints preclude further benzoate degradation. A sensitive assay to detect low formate concentrations was developed to measure the formate levels when the benzoate threshold was reached. We showed that increased acetate concentrations, even when hydrogen and formate levels are low, affects the extent of benzoate degradation, implicating the importance of interspecies acetate transfer. In addition to benzoate, various saturated and unsaturated fatty acids, 2-methylbutyrate, and methyl esters of fatty acids supported growth in coculture with a hydrogen-using partner. SB is the only syntrophic bacterium known to use both benzoate and fatty acids. Phylogenetic analysis showed that SB clustered with sulfate reducers in the delta subclass of the Proteobacteria. SB grew well in coculture with Desulfoarculus baarsii, a sulfate reducer …