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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "This is Appendix 2 of GAO's 2006 Performance and Accountability Report. Section 6 of the GAO Personnel Flexibilities Act of 2000, Pub. L. No. 106-303 (2000), and section 11 of the GAO Human Capital Reform Act of 2004, Pub. L. No. 108-271 (2004), require GAO to report to the Congress regarding its use of certain of the provisions of these acts."

Other written product issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "Two key measures that have been used as indicators of the government's annual fiscal condition are the unified budget deficit measured primarily on a cash basis and the net operating cost measured on an accrual basis for financial statement purposes. The unified budget deficit has historically been the focus of budget debates and media reports in part because it closely approximates the government's short-term borrowing needs. Cash accounting can also be useful for controlling spending in the current year. However, the cash measure of fiscal condition, which is similar to keeping a checkbook, by nature excludes information about the long-term consequences of today's policy decisions and operations. Indeed, understanding our nation's long-term fiscal outlook is important because, as GAO's long-term simulations show, current fiscal policy is unsustainable. The accrual measure primarily provides more information on the longer-term implications of today's policy decisions and operations by showing certain costs incurred today but not payable for years to come, such as civilian and military pensions and retiree health care. While cash and accrual measures each serve different purposes, they present complementary information and can be used together to …

This is a report on the International Trade Corridor Plan. It consists of topics of trade, Texas roads, and truck traffic. There are charts and graphs showing the levels of trade between Mexico and the United States.

Annual report detailing expenditures by the Texas Department of Transportation during 2006, including the unified transportation program (UTP), turnpike and toll road projects, and some rail facilities, as well as the amount of bonds, public securities, and other funds used for transportation projects.

This report provides an overview of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) licensing process, the preliminary site activities that have taken place in the current fiscal year (FY-06), and the site-related plans for FY-07. The NRC maintains oversight of the construction and operation of a facility throughout its lifetime to assure compliance with the Commission's regulations for the protection of public health and safety, the common defense and security, and the environment. To implement this process, all nuclear power plant applications must undergo a safety review, an environmental review, and antitrust review by the NRC.

This document presents the qualitative comparison of DOE’s formal determination of energy savings of ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2004. The term “qualitative” is used in the sense of identifying whether or not changes have a positive, negative, or neutral impact on energy efficiency of the standard, with no attempt made to quantify that impact. A companion document will present the quantitative comparison of DOE’s determination. The quantitative comparison will be based on whole building simulation of selected building prototypes in selected climates. This document presents a comparison of the energy efficiency requirements in ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA 90.1-1999 (herein referred to as Standard 90.1-1999) and ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA 90.1-2004 (herein referred to as Standard 90.1-2004). The comparison was done through a thorough review of all addenda to Standard 90.1-1999 that were included in the published ANSI/ASHRAE/IESNA Standard 90.1-2001 (herein referred to as Standard 90.1-2001) and also all addenda to Standard 90.1-2001 that were included in the published Standard 90.1-2004. A summary table showing the impact of each addendum is provided. Each addendum to both Standards 90.1-1999 and 90.1-2001 was evaluated as to its impact on the energy efficiency requirements of the standard (greater efficiency, lesser efficiency) and as to significance. The final section of this document summarizes …

This report describes a study designed to explore the different properties of two different chalcogenide materials, As2S3 and As24S38Se38, when subjected to photolithographic wet-etching techniques. Chalcogenide glasses are made by combining chalcogen elements S, Se, and Te with Group IV and/or V elements. The etchant was selected from the literature and was composed of sodium hydroxide, isopropyl alcohol, and deionized water and the types of chalcogenide glass for study were As2S3 and As24S38Se38. The main goals here were to obtain a single variable etch rate curve of etch depth per time versus NaOH overall solution concentration in M and to see the difference in etch rate between a given etchant when used on the different chalcogenide stoichiometries. Upon completion of these two goals, future studies will begin to explore creating complex, integrated photonic devices via these methods.

PNNL was tasked by DOE to look at HVAC systems and equipment for Benchmark buildings based on 2003 CBECS data. This white paper summarizes the results of PNNL’s analysis of 2003 CBECS data and provides PNNL’s recommendations for HVAC systems and equipment for use in the Benchmark buildings.

This report is a guide to one of the regular appropriations bills that Congress considers each year. It summarizes the status of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill, its scope, major issues, funding levels, and related congressional activity.

Just as automobiles need fuel to operate, so do nuclear reactors. When fossil fuels such as gasoline are burned to power an automobile, they are consumed immediately and nearly completely in the process. When the fuel is gone, energy production stops. Nuclear reactors are incapable of achieving this near complete burn-up because as the fuel (uranium) that powers them is burned through the process of nuclear fission, a variety of other elements are also created and become intimately associated with the uranium. Because they absorb neutrons, which energize the fission process, these accumulating fission products eventually poison the fuel by stopping the production of energy from it. The fission products may also damage the structural integrity of the fuel elements. Even though the uranium fuel is still present, sometimes in significant quantities, it is unburnable and will not power a reactor unless it is separated from the neutron-absorbing fission products by a method called fuel reprocessing. Construction of the Fuel Reprocessing Complex at the Chem Plant started in 1950 with the Bechtel Corporation serving as construction contractor and American Cyanamid Company as operating contractor. Although the Foster Wheeler Corporation assumed responsibility for the detailed working design of the overall plant, …

Using a large sample of D{sup +} {yields} K{sup -}K{sup +}{pi}{sup +} decays collected by the FOCUS photoproduction experiment at Fermilab, we present the first non-parametric analysis of the K{sup -} {pi}{sup +} amplitudes in D{sup +} {yields} K{sup -}K{sup +}{pi}{sup +} decay. The technique is similar to the technique used for our non-parametric measurements of the D{sup +} {yields} {bar K}*{sup 0} e{sup +}{nu} form factors. Although these results are in rough agreement with those of E687, we observe a wider S-wave contribution for the {bar K}*{sub 0}{sup 0}(1430) contribution than the standard, PDG [1] Breit-Wigner parameterization. We have some weaker evidence for the existence of a new, D-wave component at low values of the K{sup -} {pi}{sup +} mass.

The D0 Collaboration presents first evidence for the production of single top quarks at the Fermilab Tevatron p{bar p} collider. Using a 0.9 fb{sup -1} dataset, we apply a multivariate analysis to separate signal from background and measure {sigma}(p{bar p} {yields} tb + X, tqb + X) = 4.9 {+-} 1.4 pb. The probability to measure a cross section at this value or higher in the absence of signal is 0.035%, corresponding to a 3.4 standard deviation significance. We use the cross section measurement to directly determine the CKM matrix element that describes the W tb coupling and find 0.68 < |V{sub tb}| {le} 1 at 95% C.L.

TCP is the most widely used transport protocol on the Internet today. Over the years, especially recently, due to requirements of high bandwidth transmission, various approaches have been proposed to improve TCP performance. The Linux 2.6 kernel is now preemptible. It can be interrupted mid-task, making the system more responsive and interactive. However, we have noticed that Linux kernel preemption can interact badly with the performance of the networking subsystem. In this paper we investigate the performance bottleneck in Linux TCP. We systematically describe the trip of a TCP packet from its ingress into a Linux network end system to its final delivery to the application; we study the performance bottleneck in Linux TCP through mathematical modeling and practical experiments; finally we propose and test one possible solution to resolve this performance bottleneck in Linux TCP.

Final technical report compares and evaluates new diesel and diesel hybrid-electric articulated buses operated as part of the King County Metro Transit (KC Metro) fleet in Seattle, Washington. The evaluation lasted 12 months.

We describe methods to identify {tau} leptons produced in high energy p{bar p} collisions ({radical}s = 1.96 GeV) at the Tevatron, using the D0 detector. Different procedures used for discrimination against background particles misidentified as taus are also discussed. Finally, we present some physics results obtained by applying these methods to illustrate their performance.

Long baseline neutrino oscillation physics in the U.S. is centered at the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (FNAL), in particular at the Neutrinos at the Main Injector (NuMI) beamline commissioned in 2004-2005. Already, the MINOS experiment has published its first results confirming the disappearance of {nu}{sub {mu}}'s across a 735 km baseline. The forthcoming NOvA experiment will search for the transition {nu}{sub {mu}} {yields} {nu}{sub e} and use this transition to understand the mass heirarchy of neutrinos. These, as well as other conceptual ideas for future experiments using the NuMI beam, will be discussed. The turn-on of the NuMI facility has been positive, with over 310 kW beam power achieved. Plans for increasing the beam intensity once the Main Injector accelerator is fully-dedicated to the neutrino program will be presented.

ILC project will be the next large high energy physics tool that will use polarized electrons (and positrons). For this machine spin physics will play an important role. The polarized electron source design is based on electron injectors built for the Stanford Linear Collider (polarized) and Tesla Test Facility (un-polarized). The ILC polarized electron source will provide a 5GeV spin polarized electron beam for injection into the ILC damping ring. Although most ILC machine parameters have been achieved by the SLC or TTF source, features of both must be integrated into one design. The bunch train structure presents unique challenges to the source laser drive system. A suitable laser system has not yet been demonstrated and is part of the ongoing R&D program for ILC at SLAC. Furthermore, ILC injector R&D incorporates photocathode development, increasing available polarization, and improving operational properties in gun vacuum systems. Another important area of research and development is advancing the design of DC and RF electron gun technology for polarized sources. This presentation presents the current status of the design and outlines aspects of the relevant R&D program carried out within the ILC community.

The authors present a new method for studying high-p{sub T} dilepton events (e{sup {+-}}e{sup {-+}}, {mu}{sup {+-}}{mu}{sup {-+}}, e{sup {+-}}{mu}{sup {-+}}) and simultaneously extracting the production cross sections of p{bar p} {yields} t{bar t}, p{bar p} {yields} W{sup +}W{sup -}, and p{bar p} {yields} Z{sup 0} {yields} {tau}{sup +}{tau}{sup -} at a center-of-mass energy of {radical}s = 1.96 TeV. They perform a likelihood fit to the dilepton data in a parameter space defined by the missing transverse energy and the number of jets in the event. The results, which use 360 pb{sup -1} of data recorded with the CDF II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider, are {sigma}(t{bar t}) = 8.5{sub -2.2}{sup +2.7} pb, {sigma}(W{sup +}W{sup -}) = 16.3{sub -4.4}{sup +5.2} pb, and {sigma}(Z{sup 0} {yields} {tau}{sup +}{tau}{sup -}) = 291{sub -46}{sup +50} pb.

We show that under a new U(1) gauge symmetry, which is non-anomalous in the presence of one ''right-handed neutrino'' per generation and consistent with the standard model Yukawa couplings, the most general fermion charges are determined in terms of four rational parameters. This generalization of the B-L symmetry with generation-dependent lepton charges leads to neutrino masses induced by operators of high dimensionality. Neutrino masses are thus naturally small without invoking physics at energies above the TeV scale, whether neutrinos are Majorana or Dirac fermions. This ''Leptocratic'' Model predicts the existence of light quasi-sterile neutrinos with consequences for cosmology, and implies that collider experiments may reveal the origin of neutrino masses.

The Advanced Test Reactor (ATR) is a high power density and high neutron flux research reactor operating in the United States. Powered with highly enriched uranium (HEU), the ATR has a maximum thermal power rating of 250 MWth with a maximum unperturbed thermal neutron flux rating of 1.0 x 1015 n/cm2–s. Because of these operating parameters, and the large test volumes located in high flux areas, the ATR is an ideal candidate for assessing the feasibility of converting an HEU driven reactor to a low-enriched core. The present work investigates the necessary modifications and evaluates the subsequent operating effects of this conversion. A detailed plate-by-plate MCNP ATR 1/8th core model was developed and validated for a fuel cycle burnup comparison analysis. Using the current HEU U 235 enrichment of 93.0 % as a baseline, an analysis can be performed to determine the low-enriched uranium (LEU) density and U-235 enrichment required in the fuel meat to yield an equivalent K-eff between the HEU core and the LEU core versus effective full power days (EFPD). The MCNP ATR 1/8th core model will be used to optimize the U-235 loading in the LEU core, such that the differences in K-eff and heat profile …

High-Level Functional & Operational Requirements for the AFCF -This document describes the principal functional and operational requirements for the proposed Advanced Fuel Cycle Facility (AFCF). The AFCF is intended to be the world's foremost facility for nuclear fuel cycle research, technology development, and demonstration. The facility will also support the near-term mission to develop and demonstrate technology in support of fuel cycle needs identified by industry, and the long-term mission to retain and retain U.S. leadership in fuel cycle operations. The AFCF is essential to demonstrate a more proliferation-resistant fuel cycle and make long-term improvements in fuel cycle effectiveness, performance and economy.

The probability of a laser caused ocular injury, to the aircrew of an undetected aircraft entering the exclusion zone about the AURA LIDAR airborne platform with the possible violation of the Laser Hazard Zone boundary, was investigated and quantified for risk analysis and management.

Small Wind Electric Systems: A Colorado Consumer's Guide provides consumers with information to help them determine whether a small wind electric system can provide all or a portion of the energy they need for their home or business based on their wind resource, energy needs, and economics. Topics include how to make a home more energy efficient, how to choose the correct turbine size, the parts of a wind electric system, how to determine whether enough wind resource exists, how to choose the best site for a turbine, how to connect a system to the utility grid, and whether it's possible to become independent of the utility grid using wind energy. In addition, the cover of the guide contains a list of contacts for more information.