Bi-monthly report on average prices paid for standing timber in Texas, calculated based on reported timber sales.

Monthly publication documenting statistics related to economic information in the Mexico-Texas border areas including types of border crossings, employment, customs revenues, and other related data.

Monthly newsletter documenting statistics related to employment in Texas including nonagricultural job trends, labor force numbers, and other relevant indicators as well as information on related topics.

Quarterly newsletter for Texas employers describing upcoming activities, new laws affecting businesses, articles on various business-related issues, and other relevant topics.

Booklet providing definitions and describing how to classify and describe types of traffic accidents and various circumstances in official reports, to aid in compiling statistics.

Annual handbook documenting information for college students about the Texas Guaranteed Tuition Plan, including general information about the program and how it works, fees and scholarships, how the plan applies to various institutions, and other information about using the program.

Newsletter published by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department to provide news, updates, and other information specifically related to wetlands and their conservation in the state.

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

Field data show that stone-coated metal shakes and S-mission tile, which exploit the use of infraredblocking color pigments (IrBCPs), along with underside venting reduce the heat flow penetrating the conditioned space of a residence by 70% compared with the amount of heat flow penetrating roofs with conventional asphalt shingles. Stone-coated metal roof products are typically placed on battens and counter-battens and nailed through the battens to the roof deck. The design provides venting on the underside of the metal roof that reduces the heat flow penetrating a home. The Metal Construction Association (MCA) and its affiliate members installed stone-coated metal roofs with shake and S-mission tile profiles and a painted metal shake roof on a fully instrumented attic test assembly at Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). Measurements of roof, deck, attic, and ceiling temperatures; heat flows; solar reflectance; thermal emittance; and ambient weather were recorded for each of the test roofs and also for an adjacent attic cavity covered with a conventional pigmented and direct nailed asphalt shingle roof. All attic assemblies had ridge and soffit venting; the ridge was open to the underside of the stone-coated metal roofs. A control assembly with a conventional asphalt shingle roof was used …

As many pressurized water reactors (PWRs) age and life extension of the aged plants is considered, void swelling behavior of austenitic stainless steel (SS) core internals has become the subject of increasing attention. In this report, the available database on void swelling and density change of austenitic SSs was critically reviewed. Irradiation conditions, test procedures, and microstructural characteristics were carefully examined, and key factors that are important to determine the relevance of the database to PWR conditions were evaluated. Most swelling data were obtained from steels irradiated in fast breeder reactors at temperatures >385 C and at dose rates that are orders of magnitude higher than PWR dose rates. Even for a given irradiation temperature and given steel, the integral effects of dose and dose rate on void swelling should not be separated. It is incorrect to extrapolate swelling data on the basis of 'progressive compounded multiplication' of separate effects of factors such as dose, dose rate, temperature, steel composition, and fabrication procedure. Therefore, the fast reactor data should not be extrapolated to determine credible void swelling behavior for PWR end-of-life (EOL) or life-extension conditions. Although the void swelling data extracted from fast reactor studies is extensive and conclusive, only …

The goal of the project was to demonstrate that low pressure loop EGR incorporating a diesel oxidation catalyst (DOC) and a diesel particulate filter (DPF) can be applied to an off-highway engine to meet Tier 3 (Task I) and Interim Tier 4 (Task II) off-road emissions standards. Task I data was collected using a John Deere 8.1 liter engine modified with a low pressure loop EGR system. The engine and EGR system was optimized and final data over the ISO 8178 eight mode test indicated the NOx emissions were less than 4 g/kWh and the PM was less than 0.02 g/kWh which means the engine met the Tier 3 off-road standard. Considerable experimental data was collected and used by Michigan Tech University to develop and calibrate the MTU-Filter 1D DPF model. The MTU-Filter 1D DPF code predicts the particulate mass evolution (deposition and oxidation) in the diesel particulate filter (DPF) during simultaneous loading and during thermal and NO{sub 2}-assisted regeneration conditions. It also predicts the pressure drop across the DPF, the flow and temperature fields, the solid filtration efficiency and the particle number distribution downstream of the DPF. A DOC model was also used to predict the NO{sub 2} upstream …

Bimonthly publication of the Texas Veterans Commission discussing specific topics of relevance to veterans in Texas. This pamphlet lists VA expenditures in Texas for each county for fiscal year 2005.

Monthly travel magazine discussing locations and events in Texas to encourage travel within the state.

This is a study on anthropogenic contaminants discharged from uses of petroleum products in Alaskan coastal waters. The reports also looks at metals and hydrocarbons in sediments.

This is a fact-sheet for U.S. Climate Change Science Program. It is an overview of the CCSP's research elements.

This is an overview fact-sheet for the U. S. Climate Change Science Program.

A report discussing the vulnerabilities of the United States in regards to a terrorist delivery of a weapon of mass effect (WME). It discusses homeland security, defense systems, ad terrorism.

This report documents a four-year study to assess hydraulic conditions in the lower Snake River. The work was conducted for the Bonneville Power Administration, U.S. Department of Energy, by the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. Cold water released from the Dworshak Reservoir hypolimnion during mid- to late-summer months cools the Clearwater River far below equilibrium temperature. The volume of released cold water augments the Clearwater River, and the combined total discharge is on the order of the Snake River discharge when the two rivers meet at their confluence near the upstream edge of Lower Granite Reservoir. With typical temperature differences between the Clearwater and Snake rivers of 10 C or more during July and August, the density difference between the two rivers during summer flow augmentation periods is sufficient to stratify Lower Granite Reservoir as well as the other three reservoirs downstream. Because cooling of the river is desirable for migrating juvenile fall Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) during this same time period, the amount of mixing and cold water entrained into Lower Granite Reservoir's epilimnion at the Clearwater/Snake River confluence is of key biological importance. Data collected during this project indicates the three reservoirs downstream of Lower Granite also stratify as …

The Northeast Regional Cancer Institute conducted cancer surveillance in Northeast Pennsylvania using data from the institute’s population-based regional cancer registry and the Pennsylvania Cancer Registry. The results of this surveillance have been used to set priorities for research and outreach activities at the Cancer Institute and selected results have been reported to medical professionals at member hospitals and in the community. One consistent observation of this surveillance was that colorectal cancer was unusually common in Northeast Pennsylvania; incidence was approximately 25% higher than the rate published for NCI’s Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) Program. In addition, death rates form colorectal cancer in several counties in this region were above the 90Th percentile for colorectal cancer mortality in the United States. As a result of these observations, several activities have been developed to increase awareness of colorectal cancer and the value of screening for this cancer in both the lay and medical communities. Funding from this grant also provided support for a population-based study of cancer risk factors, screening practices, and related behaviors. This project continues beyond the termination of the present grant with funding from other sources. This project gathers data from a representative sample of adults residing in …

Residential water heating is an important consideration in California?s building energy efficiency standard. Explicit treatment of ground-coupled hot water piping is one of several planned improvements to the standard. The properties of water, piping, insulation, backfill materials, concrete slabs, and soil, their interactions, and their variations with temperature and over time are important considerations in the required supporting analysis. Heat transfer algorithms and models devised for generalized, hot water distribution system, ground-source heat pump and ground heat exchanger, nuclear waste repository, buried oil pipeline, and underground electricity transmission cable applications can be adapted to the simulation of under-slab water piping. A numerical model that permits detailed examination of and broad variations in many inputs while employing a technique to conserve computer run time is recommended.

This report supports the effort for development of small scale fabrication of UCO (a mixture of UO{sub 2} and UC{sub 2}) fuel kernels for the generation IV high temperature gas reactor program. In particular, it is focused on optimization of dispersion conditions of carbon black in the broths from which carbon-containing (UO{sub 2} {center_dot} H{sub 2}O + C) gel spheres are prepared by internal gelation. The broth results from mixing a hexamethylenetetramine (HMTA) and urea solution with an acid-deficient uranyl nitrate (ADUN) solution. Carbon black, which is previously added to one or other of the components, must stay dispersed during gelation. The report provides a detailed description of characterization efforts and results, aimed at identification and testing carbon black and surfactant combinations that would produce stable dispersions, with carbon particle sizes below 1 {micro}m, in aqueous HMTA/urea and ADUN solutions. A battery of characterization methods was used to identify the properties affecting the water dispersability of carbon blacks, such as surface area, aggregate morphology, volatile content, and, most importantly, surface chemistry. The report introduces the basic principles for each physical or chemical method of carbon black characterization, lists the results obtained, and underlines cross-correlations between methods. Particular attention is given …

This Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) OS3300 Alpha/Beta Monitoring System Software and Hardware Operations Manual describes how to install and operate the software and hardware on a personal computer in conjunction with the EG&G Berthold LB150D continuous air monitor. Included are operational details for the software functions, how to read and use the drop-down menus, how to understand readings and calculations, and how to access the database tables.

High throughput genome sequencing centers that were originally built for the Human Genome Project (Lander et al., 2001; Venter et al., 2001) have now become an engine for comparative genomics. The six largest centers alone are now producing over 150 billion nucleotides per year, more than 50 times the amount of DNA in the human genome, and nearly all of this is directed at projects that promise great insights into the pattern and processes of evolution. Unfortunately, this data is being produced at a pace far exceeding the capacity of the scientific community to provide insightful analysis, and few scientists with training and experience in evolutionary biology have played prominent roles to date. One of the consequences is that poor quality analyses are typical; for example, orthology among genes is generally determined by simple measures of sequence similarity, when this has been discredited by molecular evolutionary biologists decades ago. Here we discuss the how genomes are chosen for sequencing and how the scientific community can have input. We describe the PhIGs database and web tools (Dehal and Boore 2005a; http://PhIGs.org), which provide phylogenetic analysis of all gene families for all completely sequenced genomes and the associated 'Synteny Viewer', which allows …

This Washington Closure Hanford science and technology (S&T) plan documents the activities associated with providing S&T support to the River Corridor Closure Project for fiscal year 2006.