Evidence from magnetospheric and solar flare research supports the belief that collisionless magnetic reconnection can proceed on the Alfven-wave crossing timescale. Reconnection behavior that occurs this rapidly in collisionless plasmas is not well understood because underlying mechanisms depend on the details of the ion and electron distributions in the vicinity of the emerging X-points. We use the direct implicit Particle-In-Cell (PIC) code AVANTI to study the details of these distributions as they evolve in the self-consistent E and B fields of magnetic reconnection. We first consider a simple neutral sheet model. We observe rapid movement of the current-carrying electrons away from the emerging X-point. Later in time an oscillation of the trapped magnetic flux is found, superimposed upon continued linear growth due to plasma inflow at the ion sound speed. The addition of a current-aligned and a normal B field widen the scope of our studies.

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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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

A method for constructing a cooled optic wherein one or more cavities are milled, drilled or formed using casting or ultrasound laser machining techniques in a single crystal base and filled with porous material having high thermal conductivity at cryogenic temperatures. A non-machined strain-free single crystal can be bonded to the base to produce superior optics. During operation of the cooled optic, N{sub 2} is pumped through the porous material at a sub-cooled cryogenic inlet temperature and with sufficient system pressure to prevent the fluid bulk temperature from reaching saturation.

A method for constructing a cooled optic wherein one or more cavities are milled, drilled or formed using casting or ultrasound laser machining techniques in a single crystal base and filled with porous material having high thermal conductivity at cryogenic temperatures. A non-machined strain-free single crystal can be bonded to the base to produce superior optics. During operation of the cooled optic, N{sub 2} is pumped through the porous material at a sub-cooled cryogenic inlet temperature and with sufficient system pressure to prevent the fluid bulk temperature from reaching saturation.

Even though the spectra obtained by inductively coupled plasma source spectrometry (ICP-MS) are relatively simple, their interpretation can be complicated by the presence of molecular and isobaric interferants. To the extent that isotopic abundances are known and constant, one can treat observed spectra as sums of known components. A linear decomposition approach for determining the concentrations of the components in a spectrum and correctly propagating uncertainties is presented. This technique differs from linear regression in that an exact fit is made to a subset of isotopes and goodness-of-fit is evaluated from the deviations between the predicted and measured intensities of the other, unfit isotopes. This technique can be applied to a wide range of spectral fitting problems. In this paper, its applicability to ICP-MS spectra is used to demonstrate the use and utility of the technique. 2 refs., 9 figs.