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This report addresses the coupling and alignment of the PHENIX experiment solenoid in RHIC.

The purpose of this memo is to highlight an alternative to the approach for cw laser paint removal. The point to be made is that a direct diode design is feasible and can be far more competitive than a solid-state laser based system. Through by-passing the use of a solid-state laser media, we immediately gain a factor of about five in system efficiency based on measured optical-to-optical efficiencies of our average power diode pumped lasers. This permits a massive reduction in system cooling requirements. It should be noted that cooling system size was the greatest concern voiced by Gordon McFadden at Hobart Lasers with regards to his Nd:YAG laser systems operated in field applications. Furthermore, with direct diode use far fewer diode packages will be needed to deliver a given amount of wattage on the target. This will largely eliminate the intimidating sticker shock and shorten (proportionally by the diode count) the required run-to-fail times demanded of the system.

It has recently been brought to our attention that the LiYf{sub 4} (YLF) laser rods utilized in the alignment lasers of Nova tend to thin after several years of being exposed to the cooling water solution. As a consequence of this situation the YLF laser rods must occasionally be replaced. Since they found that they were able to minimize the dissolution rate for another fluoride crystal, Cr:LiSrAlF{sub 6} or Cr:LiSAF, by controlling the pH of the solution, they sought to determine if a similar fix could be applied to YLF laser crystals as well. For the case of Cr:LiSAF, the dissolution rate was observed to vary over 3 orders of magnitude depending on the pH, and a pH = 7 solution was determined to be optimal for improving the durability.

The overall objective of the Project is the expedited commercialization of advanced coal-fired low-emission boiler systems. The specified primary objectives are: NOx emissions not greater than one-third NSPS; SOx emissions not greater than one-third NSPS; and particulate emissions not greater than one-half NSPS. The specific secondary objectives are: improved ash disposability and reduced waste generation; reduced air toxics emissions; and increased generating efficiency. The final deliverables are a design data base that will allow future coal-fired power plants to meet the stated objectives and a preliminary design of a commercial generation unit.

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We calculate nuclear pairing gaps for ground-state configurations for 8979 nuclei from {sup 16}O to A = 339 in the Lipkin-Nogami pairing model. The energy levels required for the calculation are obtained from the folded-Yukawa single-particular model for ground-state shapes obtained in the macroscopic-microscopic approach by minimizing the total potential energy with respect to {epsilon}{sub 2},{epsilon}{sub 4}, {epsilon}{sub 3} and {epsilon}{sub 6} shape degrees of freedom. We study the behavior of the calculated pairing gap {Delta} and the number-fluctuation constant {lambda}2 on neutron number N and proton number Z. We discuss alternative methods for comparing calculated pairing gaps to odd-even experimental mass differences and study the trends of the deviations between calculated and measured quantities versus N and Z. In particular we discuss the many non-smooth contributions to the so-called experimental pairing gap that is extracted from odd-even measured mass differences and the resulting difficulties that are present when these axe compared to calculated results. In recent years several studies have investigated whether nuclear pairing depends on neutron excess. Furthermore, any dependence on neutron excess is small compared to both the random and the correlated errors in the pairing gaps that are extracted from experimental odd-even mass differences. Therefore appropriate …

Letter opinion 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 nepotism statutes require the termination of a deputy sheriff who has been employed by the elected sheriff for at least five years prior to the sheriff's marriage to the deputy's sister (ID#21704)

Letter opinion 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 it is a violation of the Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies Act for a reserve peace officer to perform traffic control flagperson duties on a construction site without being licensed by the Texas Board of Private Investigators and Private Security Agencies (RQ-607)