This report discusses a variety of animal agriculture issues that generated debate during the 106th Congress, including low livestock prices, especially for hogs. Economic difficulties have revived questions such as the impacts of consolidation in the livestock industry, and the price effects of animal imports from Canada and Mexico. This report also discusses a number of legislative proposals to assist livestock producers and enforce sanitary and phytosanitary standards, as well as continuing trade disputes and negotiations with China, the European Union, New Zealand, and Australia.

The extent to which emissions from motor vehicles and the amount of sulfur in commercial gasoline should be regulated has become a controversial issue. The EPA is proposing national limits on gasoline sulfur levels which would become effective in 2004. This report provides background information on the regulation of vehicle emissions in the United States, analyzes key elements of the National Low Emission Vehicle (LEV) program and the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Tier 2 proposal, summarizes major views on the proposal that have been expressed by the automobile industry, the oil refining industry, and some environmental organizations, and discusses relevant legislative activity in the 106th Congress.

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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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

Document 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 a community college district may charge and collection from its students a mandatory technology fee, and related questions.

Document 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 a sheriff's authority to refuse to accept a bail bond executed by an attorney for a client the attorney represents in a criminal case is governed by article 2372p-3, V.T.C.S., or Code of Criminal Procedure articles 17.11, 17.13, and 17.14; whether a sheriff may require an attorney or bondsman to post collateral; and related questions (RQ-1100)

Other written product issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "GAO commented on the Health Care Financing Administration's (HCFA) plans for operating the Medicare Integrity Program (MIP), focusing on whether: (1) the law authorizing the MIP permits HCFA to assign responsibility for local Medicare coverage policy to the payment safeguard contractors (PSC) who will run the MIP under contract to HCFA; and (2) HCFA's proposed MIP regulations would provide an adequate legal basis for HCFA to conduct local policy-making through PSCs. GAO noted that HCFA reasonably interpreted the law to mean that its PSCs could set local Medicare coverage policy. GAO also noted that the proposed MIP regulations provide an adequate basis for HCFA's action."

Correspondence issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Small Business Administration's (SBA) Women's Business Center Program, focusing on: (1) a description of the women's business centers, including their funding status, their experiences in raising matching funds, the types of services offered in a women's business center's first and last year of grant funding, and the differences between parent and satellite centers; (2) the extent to which SBA's award criteria predict long-term success or failure of women's business centers; and (3) the Office of Women's Business Ownership's compliance with legislative reporting requirements and the inherent difficulties with obtaining the required data from the women's business centers."

A legislative appropriation request for the biennium 2000-2001, in order to provide more effective claims administration and risk management services and ultimately result in savings to state agencies in the form of reduced workers' compensation claims and costs, reduced insurance purchases and improved insurance coverages, and more effective risk management programs.

Lithium batteries are typically constructed from a lithium cobalt oxide cathode and a carbon anode. We have investigated intermetallic anode materials based on tin, which can provide a high capacity at a slightly higher voltage (400 mV) than metallic lithium and thus reduce the safety concerns associated with the carbon anode. In particular, we have investigated the copper-tin system at around the composition Cu{sub 6}Sn{sub 5} and have determined the effect on cycling and capacity of electrodes with various ratios of copper to tin. Anode compositions that are slightly copper rich (Cu{sub 6}Sn{sub 4}) were found to exhibit greater utilization of the tin than those with the stoichiometric bronze ratio (Cu{sub 6}Sn{sub 5}) or those having a slight excess of tin (Cu{sub 6}Sn{sub 6}). The differences in electrochemical behavior are explained in terms of an inert matrix model.

The Alternative Motor Fuel Act of 1988 requires the U.S. Department of Energy to demonstrate and evaluate alternative fuels usage in the United States. DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory is conducting the Alternative Fuel Truck Evaluation Project to compare alternative fuel and diesel fuel trucks. Information for the comparison comes from data collected on the operational, maintenance, performance, and emissions characteristics of alternative fuel trucks being used in vehicle fleets and comparable diesel fuel trucks servings as controls within the same fleets. This report highlights the start-up experience and presents the lessons learned from a project that operated a fleet of liquefied natural gas (LNG) refuse haulers in Washington, Pennsylvania.

Adaptive Optics used for correcting low-order wavefront aberrations were tested and compared using interferometry, beam propagation, and a far-field test. Results confirm that the design and manufacturing specifications were met. Experimental data also confirms theoretical performance expectations, indicating the usefulness of these optics (especially in a laser-beam processing system), and identifying the resulting differences between the two fabrication methods used to make the optics.

A sample of {approximately} 400 B{sub d}{sup 0}/{bar B}{sub d}{sup 0} {r_arrow} J/{psi}K{sub s}{sup 0} decays collected in {bar p}p collisions by the CDF detector is used to directly measure the CP-violation parameter sin (2{beta}). They find sin(2{beta}) = 0.79{sub {minus}0.44}{sup + 0.41}, favoring the standard model expectation of a large CP violation in this B{sup 0} decay mode.

Safety is a key concern for a high-power energy storage system such as will be required in a hybrid vehicle. Present lithium-ion technology, which uses a carbon/graphite negative electrode, lacks inherent safety for two main reasons: (1) carbon/graphite intercalates lithium at near lithium potential, and (2) there is no end-of-charge indicator in the voltage profile that can signal the onset of catastrophic oxygen evolution from the cathode (LiCoO{sub 2}). Our approach to solving these safety/life problems is to replace the graphite/carbon negative electrode with an electrode that exhibits stronger two-phase behavior further away from lithium potential, such as Li{sub 4}Ti{sub 5}O{sub 12}. Cycle-life and pulse-power capability data are presented in accordance with the Partnership for a New Generation of Vehicles (PNGV) test procedures, as well as a full-scale design based on a spreadsheet model.

The status of lattice calculations of heavy quark phenomenology is reviewed. Particular emphasis is placed on the understanding and control of the calculational uncertainties. The ensuring implications for constraining the CKM matrix elements are discussed.

We report on the results to date for two plug-flow reactor experiments, PFR-11 and PFR-13, designed to simulate reactive transport chemical and physical processes. These experiments provide a physical model of idealized one dimensional plug flow and chemical reaction using deionized water and crushed Topopah Springs Tuff (Tsw2). Data consist of effluent ion concentrations and pH measurements taken at several times during both experiments and limited mineralogical analysis of post-test solid phases for PFR-11.

Rare decays of beauty particles were studied in several two-body exclusive hadronic charmless modes using the 19.4 pb^-1 Z-pole data collected with the SLD detector at SLAC from 1993 to 1998. These decays are mediated by both tree level b {yields} u and one-loop penguin b {yields} s, d transitions. Upper limits for the branching ratios are set for the investigated modes B_s, B₀ {yields} P⁺P^-, B⁺ {yields} V P⁺ and B_s, B⁰ {yields} V V , where the pseudoscalar particle P⁺ is either {pi}⁺ or K⁺ and the vector particle V is either {rho}⁰, K^{* 0} or {phi}. Using an event selection algorithm consisting of a set of hard cuts combined with a set of discriminator functions, the efficiencies range between 24% and 37% with near zero background.

A processing approach has been identified and reduced to practice in which a residual stress profile can be designed such that cracks in a brittle material are arrested or grow in a stable fashion. In the procedure, cracks in the body encounter an increase in the magnitude of residual compression as the crack propagates. If correctly designed, the process increases strength, significantly decreases strength variability and gives rise to multiple cracking. This approach is demonstrated for an ion-exchanged silicate glass using four-point and biaxial flexure strength testing. Optical microscopy was used to study the morphology and development of the multiple cracking that precedes the final failure.

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Frequency-domain shot-record migration can produce higher quality images than Kirchhoff migration but typically at a greater cost. The computational cost of shot-record migration is the product of the number of shots in the survey and the expense of each individual migration. Many attempts to reduce this cost have focused on the speed of the individual migrations, trying to achieve a better trade-off between accuracy and speed. Another approach is to reduce the number of migrations. We investigate the simultaneous migration of shot records using frequency-domain shot-record migration algorithms. The difficulty with this approach is the production of so-called cross terms between unrelated shot and receiver wavefields, which generate unwanted artifacts or noise in the final image. To reduce these artifacts and obtain an image comparable in quality to the single-shot-per-migration result, we have introduced a process called phase encoding which shifts or disperses these cross terms. The process of phase encoding thus allows one to trade signal-to-noise ratio for the speed of migrating the entire survey. Several encoding functions and two application strategies have been tested. The first strategy, combining multiple shots per migration and using each shot only once, provides a reduction in computation directly related to the number …

A very brief summary of recent electroweak results from hadron colliders is given. The emphasis is placed on inclusive W{sup {+-}} and Z{sup 0} production, the measurement of the mass of the W boson and the measurement of trilinear gauge boson couplings.

This paper introduces a new type of chopper, which is similar to a beam transformer first discussed by R. Wideroe[1]. It is based on the fact that the RFQ has a rather small energy window. A pulsed beam transformer that provides 10% energy modulation to the beam in front of an RFQ can effectively chop the beam. It has fast rise- and fall-time and a short physical length. A prototype, which consists of a cavity and a high voltage pulsed power supply, has been constructed and tested. Two types of magnetic materials were tried for making the core of the cavity--the Finemet and the ferrite Philips 4M2. While the former gave good performance, the latter failed the test. Results from the bench measurements and a plan for beam tests are briefly described. For details the readers are referred to Ref. [2].

This report describes work performed by Solar Cells, Inc. (SCI), during this Photovoltaic Manufacturing Technology (PVMaT) subcontract. Cadmium telluride (CdTe) is recognized as one of the leading materials for low-cost photovoltaic modules. SCI has developed this technology and is preparing to scale its pilot production capabilities to a multi-megawatt level. This four-phase PVMaT subcontract supports these efforts. The work was related to product definition, process definition, equipment engineering, and support programs development. In the area of product definition and demonstration, two products were specified and demonstrated-a grid-connected, frameless, high-voltage product that incorporates a pigtail potting design and a remote low-voltage product that may be framed and may incorporate a junction box. SCI produced a 60.3-W thin-film CdTe module with total-area efficiency of 8.4%; SCI also improved module pass rate on the interim qualification test protocol from less than 20% to 100% as a result of work related to the subcontract. In the manufacturing process definition area, the multi-megawatt manufacturing process was defined, several of the key processes were demonstrated, and the process was refined and proven on a 100-kW pilot line that now operates as a 250-kW line. In the area of multi-megawatt manufacturing-line conceptual design review, SCI completed a …