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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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

On May 25, 1989, President Bush proposed that the United States undertake the Structural Impediments Initiative (SII), a series of discussions with Japan to address certain fundamental Japanese economic policies and business practices that the United States claims impede U.S. exports and investments. The SII was, in part, a Bush Administration response to the stubborn U.S. trade deficit and other problems that have caused friction in the U.S. trading relationship with Japan. It was also a response to congressional pressure to deal more aggressively with Japanese unfair trade practices and to calls from critics to adopt a "managed" trade policy toward Japan.

The Monthly Energy Review gives information on production, distribution, and consumption for various energy sources, e.g. petroleum, natural gas, oil, coal, electricity, and nuclear energy. Some data is also included on international energy sources and supplies, the import of petroleum products into the US and pricing and reserves data (as applicable) for the various sources of energy listed above.

Objective is to determine the elastic constants of thin films deposited on substrates, measure residual stresses, and detect and characterize defects in thin film substrate configurations. A line-focus acoustic microscope is being used to measure speed of surface acoustic waves (SAW) in thin film/substrate system. V(z) curves (record of transducer voltage output (V) with variation of distance z between acoustic lens and specimen) were calculated in terms of characteristic functions of acoustic lens and reflectance function of fluid-loaded specimen, and were compared with data for isotropic, anisotropic, and layered anisotropic materials. For thin film/substrate of known elasticity, theoretical surface acoustic wave velocities agree with measured V(z) curves for full range of wave propagation directions. Results have been obtained for homogeneous nitride films and transition-metal nitride superlattice films.

The following tasks were reported on: Spacecraft integration and liaison, engineering support, safety, qualified unicouple fabrication, ETG fabrication/assembly/test, ground support equipment, RTG shipping and launch support, designs/reviews/mission applications, project management/quality assurance/contract changes.

Fernald is returning to the basics of interpersonal communication as a cornerstone of its public involvement program. The guiding premise behind this concept is the belief that face-to-face interaction between people is more likely to build trust and confidence than public meetings, news releases and other traditional public information techniques. A network of project spokespersons, called ``envoys,`` is being organized to develop person-to-person relationships with people interested in the future of Fernald. To support this approach, public affairs personnel are adopting roles as management consultants and communications coaches in addition to serving in their traditional role as public information specialists. Early observations seem to show signs of improvement in the level of public trust in Fernald decision-makers.

The Pennsylvania State University is conducting a coal-water slurry fuel (CWSF) program for the United States Department of Energy (DOE) and the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania with the objective of determining the viability of firing CWSF in an industrial boiler designed for heavy fuel oil. Penn State and DOE have entered into a cooperative agreement with the purpose of determining if CWSF prepared from a cleaned coal (containing approximately 3.5 wt % ash and 0.9 wt % sulfur) can be effectively burned in a heavy fuel oil-designed industrial boiler without adverse impact on boiler rating, maintainability, reliability, and availability. The project will also generate information to help in the design of new systems specifically configured to fire these clean coal-based fuels. The approach being used in the program is as follows: 1. Install a natural gas/fuel oil-designed package boiler and generate baseline data firing natural gas; 2. Shake down the system with CWSF and begin the first 1,000 hours of testing using the burner/atomizer system provided with the boiler. The first 1,000-hour demonstration was to consist of boiler operation testing and combustion performance evaluation using CWSF preheat, a range of atomizing air pressures (up to 200 psig as compared to the …

The US Department of Defense (DOD), through an Interagency Agreement with the US Department of Energy (DOE), has initiated a three-phase program with the Consortium for Coal-Water Slurry Fuel Technology, with the aim of decreasing DOD`s reliance on imported oil by increasing its use of coal. The program is being conducted as a cooperative agreement between the Consortium and DOE and the first phase of the program is underway. Phase I activities are focused on developing clean, coal-based combustion technologies for the utilization of both micronized coal-water slurry fuels (MCWSFs) and dry, micronized coal (DMC) in fuel oil-designed industrial boilers. Phase II research and development activities will continue to focus on industrial boiler retrofit technologies by addressing emissions control and precombustion (i.e., slagging combustion and/or gasification) strategies for the utilization of high ash, high sulfur coals. Phase III activities will examine coal-based fuel combustion systems that cofire wastes. Each phase includes an engineering cost analysis and technology assessment. The activities and status of Phase I are described below. The objective in Phase I is to deliver fully engineered retrofit options for a fuel oil-designed watertube boiler located on a DOD installation to fire either MCWSF or DMC. This will be …

A GPIB device support module is used to provide access to the operating parameters of a GPIB device. GPIB devices may be accessed via National Instruments 1014 cards or via Bitbus Universal Gateways. GPIB devices typically have many parameters, each of which may be thought of in terms of the standard types of database records available in EPICS. It is the job of the device support module designer to decide how the mapping of these parameters will be made to the available record types. Once this mapping is complete, the device support module may be written. The writing of the device support module consists primarily of the construction of a parameter table. This table is used to associate the database record types with the operating parameters of the GPIB instrument. Other aspects of module design include the handling of SRQ events and errors. SRQ events are made available to the device support module if so desired. The processing of an SRQ event is completely up to the designer of the module. They may be ignored, tied to event based record processing, or anything else the designer wishes. Error conditions may be handled in a similar fashion.

On Oct. 7, 1992, Hong Kong's new Governor, Christopher F. Patten, unveiled a set of proposals to expand the voting franchise in Hong Kong and broaden the scope of other democratic initiatives. The People's Republic of China, which resumes sovereignty over Hong Kong on July 1, 1997, has objected strenuously to the proposals, claiming they are a violation of the 1984 Sino-British Joint Declaration on the Question of Hong Kong. British and Hong Kong officials deny this, stating that the proposals deal with matters not mentioned in the Joint Declaration.

Weekly newsletter discussing natural resources, parks, hunting and fishing, and other information related to the outdoors in Texas.

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.

During 1992, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) conducted a user-needs study for the 1993 Residential Energy Consumption Survey (RECS). Every 3 years, the RECS collects information on energy consumption and expenditures for various classes of households and residential buildings. The RECS is the only source of such information within EIA, and one of only a few sources of such information anywhere. EIA sent letters to more than 750 persons, received responses from 56, and held 15 meetings with users. Written responses were also solicited by notices published in the April 14, 1992 Federal Register and in several energy-related publications. To ensure that the 1993 RECS meets current information needs, EIA made a specific effort to get input from policy makers and persons needing data for forecasting efforts. These particular needs relate mainly to development of the National Energy Modeling System and new energy legislation being considered at the time of the user needs survey.

This user manual describes the Los Alamos waste drum shufflers. The primary purpose of the instruments is to assay the mass of {sup 235}U (or other fissile materials) in drums of assorted waste. It can perform passive assays for isotopes that spontaneously emit neutrons or active assays using the shuffler technique as described on this manual.

This document contains the third quarterly technical progress report for PTI`s Bench-Scale Testing Project of a circuit integrating PTI`s KEN-FLOTETM Column Flotation Technology and PTI`s On-Line Quality Monitor and Control System. The twelve-month project involves installation and testing of a 200--300 lb/hr. bench-scale flotation circuit at PETC`s Coal Preparation Process Research Facility (CPPRF) for two bituminous coals (Upper Freeport and Pittsburgh No. 8 Seam Raw Coals). Figure 1 contains the project plan, as well as the approach to completing the major tasks within the twelve-month project schedule. The project is broken down into three phases, which include: Phase I -- Preparation: The preparation phase was performed principally at PTI`s Calumet offices from October through December, 1992. It involved building of the equipment and circuitry, as well as some preliminary design and equipment testing; Phase II -- ET Circuit Installation and Testing: This installation and testing phase of the project was performed at PETC`s CPPRF from January through June, 1993, and was the major focus of the project. It involved testing of the continuous 200--300 lb/hr. circuit; and Phase III -- Project Finalization: The project finalization phase is occurring from July through September, 1993, at PTI`s Calumet offices and involves finalizing …

This study assesses factors that utilities must address when they integrate intermittent renewable technologies into their power-supply systems; it also reviews the literature in this area and has a bibliography containing more than 350 listings. Three topics are covered: (1) interface (hardware and design-related interconnection), (2) operability/stability, and (3) planning. This study finds that several commonly held perceptions regarding integration of intermittent renewable energy technologies are not valid. Among fmdings of the study are the following: (1) hardware and system design advances have eliminated most concerns about interface, (2) cost penalties have not occurred at low to moderate penetration levels (and high levels am feasible); and (3) intermittent renewable energy technologies can have capacity values. Obstacles still interfering with intermittent renewable technologies are also indentified.

Gaseous alkali corrosion kinetics of Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} were investigated from 950 to 1100{degrees}C in an atmosphere containing 0.98 vol % sodium nitrate vapors. Linear reaction rates from 950 to 1100{degrees}C indicate that the alkali reaction Of Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} is interface-controlled with an activation energy of 199 kJ/mol. Rate controlling step of overall reaction appears to be the oxidation of Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} to SiO{sub 2}.An alkali reaction mechanism, involving a complex dissolution-oxidation process, was proposed. The difference between oxidation of Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} in air and reaction of Si{sub 3}N{sub 4} in presence of alkali is dissolution process of SiO{sub 2} in sodium silicate liquid. Gaseous alkali corrosion kinetics of alumina were also investigated at 1100 and 1150{degrees}C. The reaction thickness is linearly related to the reaction time, suggesting an interface-controlled reaction mechanism. The reaction rate constants are 0.24 {mu}m/h and 0.45 {mu}m/h at 1100 and 1150{degrees}C. The alumina grains seemed to be preferentially attacked along certain crystallographic directions. Subsolidus phase relations in the Na{sub 2}O-Al{sub 2}O{sub 3}-TiO{sub 2} system were also studied. Phase analysis indicates that the Na{sub 2}O-Al{sub 2}TiO{sub 5} section is not a true binary system. A revised phase diagram was constructed.

Increasing severity of regulations for handling of hazardous materials has led to formulation of adhesives with considerably lowered toxicities for use at the Oak Ridge Y-12 Plant. Fundamental was the development of Asilamine aromatic diamines, a family of liquid aromatic diamines useful as substitutes for methylenedianiline (MDA), a widely used adhesives curing agent. The use of Asilamine has allowed us to continue operations without dealing with expensive measures for regulation of MDA as a carcinogen promulgated by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

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 series of new Protocol Data Units (PDUs) that send only limited entity-state information over a distributed Interactive Simulation (DIS) network is described. These PDUs are tailored specifically to simulations that model numerous entities rather than simulator modeling a single entity. The use of these new PDUs could (under certain circumstances) realize compression factors of 16, 32, or up to 1200 to one in the amount of data that needs to be sent over a DIS network.

This directory contains abstracts and ordering information for EIA publications. The abstracts are arranged by broad subject category such as coal, petroleum, natural gas, and electric power. A comprehensive subject index, a title index, and a report number index are included. Each entry gives the title, report number, publication frequency, date, number of pages, and ordering information. Publication began with the 1979 edition.

Superplasticity in ceramics has now advanced to the stage that technologically viable superplastic deformation processing can be performed. In this paper, examples of biaxial gas-pressure forming of several ceramics are given. These include yttria stabilized, tetragonal zirconia (YTZP) a 20% alumina/YTZP composite, and silicon. In addition, the concurrent superplastic forming and diffusion bonding of a hybrid YTZP/C103 (ceramic-metal) structure are presented. These forming processes offer technological advantages of greater dimensional control and increased variety and complexity of shapes than is possible with conventional ceramic shaping technology.

We investigate the prospects of measuring the strange quark distribution function at the Tevatron, using W plus charm quark events. The W plus charm quark events. The W plus charm quark signal produced by strange quark - gluon fusion, sg {yields} W {sup {minus}}c and {bar s}g {yields} W {sup +} W+ charm quark cross section to the parametrization of the strange quark distribution function, and evaluate the various background processes. The different prospects of tagging the charm quark with the CDF and D{theta} detectors are briefly discussed.

The role of freshwater peatlands in the global methane cycle remains uncertain. Field measurements of methane emissions tend to be highly variable across a peatland and exhibit sharp seasonal fluctuations. The process of extrapolating these variable measurements to regional estimates is further complicated by rudimentary knowledge of the environmental controls can the production and emissions of methane from peat. The distribution of methanogenesis within the peat profile will strongly influence the response of methane emissions to potential climatic changes. During the summers of 1990 and 1991 we conducted a study on the mechanisms for the production, transport, and storage of methane within the Glacial Lake Agassiz peatland region as the regional climate shifted from extreme drought to a period of normal rainfall. This natural experiment provided unexpected insights on the linkages among climate, hydrology, and the methane cycle in large peat basins. This report presents project progress for period July 15, 1992--July 14, 1993