A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the nation's infectious diseases surveillance network, focusing on the: (1) extent to which states conduct public health surveillance and laboratory testing of selected emerging infectious diseases; (2) problems state public health officials face in gathering and using laboratory-related data in the surveillance of emerging infectious diseases; and (3) assistance that the Department of Health and Human Services' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides to states for laboratory-related surveillance and the value of this assistance to state officials."

Development of a computer system for access to distributed genome mapping data is continuing. This effort is to develop software which accesses multiple databases and retrieves data which contain information useful for accelerating mapping human chromosomes. For example, the molecular sequence databases (GenBank, EMBL Data Library, PIR, SwissProt) which contain data required for the development of oligonucleotides for probing DNA as well as for extracting data for primer pair development for PCR-based methods. It is also to develop software which qualitatively integrates the following mapping data: (1) markers regionally localized using cytogenetic methods, (2) polymorphic markers ordered by genetic linkage analysis, (3) clones ordered by various finger-printing'' methods, (4) fragments ordered by long-range restriction mapping, (5) single genomic fragments or clones that have STSs assigned to them, (6) nucleotide sequences, (7) the associated metadata such as the submitting investigator's name, location, etc; the source organism; the chromosome the element is from; the chromosomal location is whatever detail is available.

Deposition velocity is a parameter used in atmospheric transport models to specify the amount an atmospheric constituent transferred from the atmosphere to the surface of the earth. The material may deposit on the surface of soil, water, or vegetation. The deposition may be the result of rainfall or diffusion. A method for the calculation of deposition velocity based upon the decrease in deposition with distance from a point source is presented. The method does not require a knowledge of the time over which the deposition occurs or the concentration of the material in the atmosphere. However, the method does assume the deposition rate is proportional to the air concentration. The sensitivity to errors resulting from certain errors in the measurements and from violation of some of the assumptions of the model underlining the calculations are also to be discussed. The method has been used to estimate the deposition velocity of I-129. Two sets of I-129 deposition data at various distances from the center of SRS were used in the calculations. The results indicate that the deposition velocity is near a value of 0.2 cm/s. This is consistent with the processes that are known to control iodine deposition.

This report gives a self-consistent conceptual design for the final focusing'' beam optics and analysis spectrometer optics for the Grating Acceleration Experiment, the Inverse Cerenkov Acceleration Experiment, and the Nonlinear Compton Scattering Experiment. The introductory section describes the basic principles and constraints involved in the overall design. The next two sections give second order TRANSPORT calculations for the final focus system and the spectrometer system for the three experiments. The fourth section presents Monte Carlo simulations of the expected x-y distributions for the spectrometer detector for the three experiments. Appendices A and B contains further details about the assumptions used in the Monte Carlo simulations. Appendix C contains the working drawings used for determining distances on the experimental floor.

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 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, Jim Mattox, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification; Whether newly imposed limitations on a district judge's salary affect his compensation for service on a county juvenile board (RQ-1818)

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;Effect of Hop wood v. State of Texas on Various Scholarships programs of the University of Houston(ID# 39347).

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 article 37.122 of the Education Code prohibits the sale of alcoholic beverages at non-school events held at a student activities complex owned by an independent school district (RQ-1003)

The SCC radiation field is higher than that encountered by previous hadron collider detectors. In particular, the electromagnetic (EM) calorimeter compartment sees the highest radiation dose. Since an EM calorimeter also makes the most precise energy measurement, special care must be lavished on this part of a calorimeter. Previous studies have concentrated on Monte Carlo examinations of 2 longitudinal compartments within the EM which can alleviate radiation damage. Recently, it was realized that a ``shower maximum`` detector, such as exists in CDF, also contains information of the conversion point of an electromagnetic shower. As such, it can potentially be used in a fashion analogous to the longitudinal compartments, although it is not designed to be optimized for this role.

An unplanned release of tritiated water occurred at K reactor on SRS between 22-December and 25-December 1991. This water moved down through the effluent canal, Pen Branch, Steel Creek and finally to the Savannah River. Samples were collected in the Savannah River and associated waterways over a period of a month. The Environmental Technology Section (ETS) of the Savannah River Laboratory performed liquid scintillation analyses to monitor the passage of the tritiated water from SRS to the Atlantic Ocean.

The program focuses on materials research and development, fabrication process development, cell/stack performance testing and characterization, cost and system analysis, and quality development.

Development of a computer system for access to distributed genome mapping data is continuing. This effort is to develop software which accesses multiple databases and retrieves data which contain information useful for accelerating mapping human chromosomes. For example, the molecular sequence databases (GenBank, EMBL Data Library, PIR, SwissProt) which contain data required for the development of oligonucleotides for probing DNA as well as for extracting data for primer pair development for PCR-based methods. It is also to develop software which qualitatively integrates the following mapping data: (1) markers regionally localized using cytogenetic methods, (2) polymorphic markers ordered by genetic linkage analysis, (3) clones ordered by various ``finger-printing`` methods, (4) fragments ordered by long-range restriction mapping, (5) single genomic fragments or clones that have STSs assigned to them, (6) nucleotide sequences, (7) the associated metadata such as the submitting investigator`s name, location, etc; the source organism; the chromosome the element is from; the chromosomal location is whatever detail is available.

This document is the final report deliverable for Phase 2 analytical work for the 105-N Basin Sediment Disposition Task. On December 23, 1997, ten samples were received at the 222-S Laboratory as follows: two (2) bottles of potable water, six (6) samples for process control testing and two (2) samples for characterization. Analyses were performed in accordance with the Letter of Instruction for Phase 2 Analytical Work for the 105-N Basin Sediment Disposition Task (Logan and Kessner, 1997) (Attachment 7) and 105-N Basin Sediment Disposition Phase-Two Sampling and Analysis Plan (SAP) (Smith, 1997). The analytical results are included in Table 1. This document provides the values of X/Qs for the onsite and offsite receptors, taking into account the building wake and the atmospheric stability effects. X/Qs values for the potential fire accident were also calculated. In addition, the unit dose were calculated for the mixtures of isotopes.

This document is the analytical laboratory report for tank 241-AX-103 push mode core segments collected between July 30, 1997 and August 11, 1997. The segments were subsampled and analyzed in accordance with the Tank 241-AX-103 Push Mode Core Sampling and Analysis Plan (TSAP) (Comer, 1997), the Safety Screening Data Quality Objective (DQO) (Dukelow, et al., 1995) and the Data Quality Objective to Support Resolution of the Organic Complexant Safety Issue (Organic DQO) (Turner, et al., 1995). The analytical results are included in the data summary table (Table 1). None of the samples submitted for Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC), Total Alpha Activity (AT), plutonium 239 (Pu239), and Total Organic Carbon (TOC) exceeded notification limits as stated in the TSAP (Conner, 1997). The statistical results of the 95% confidence interval on the mean calculations are provided by the Tank Waste Remediation Systems Technical Basis Group in accordance with the Memorandum of Understanding (Schreiber, 1997) and not considered in this report.

This report gives a self-consistent conceptual design for the ``final focusing`` beam optics and analysis spectrometer optics for the Grating Acceleration Experiment, the Inverse Cerenkov Acceleration Experiment, and the Nonlinear Compton Scattering Experiment. The introductory section describes the basic principles and constraints involved in the overall design. The next two sections give second order TRANSPORT calculations for the final focus system and the spectrometer system for the three experiments. The fourth section presents Monte Carlo simulations of the expected x-y distributions for the spectrometer detector for the three experiments. Appendices A and B contains further details about the assumptions used in the Monte Carlo simulations. Appendix C contains the working drawings used for determining distances on the experimental floor.

Deposition velocity is a parameter used in atmospheric transport models to specify the amount an atmospheric constituent transferred from the atmosphere to the surface of the earth. The material may deposit on the surface of soil, water, or vegetation. The deposition may be the result of rainfall or diffusion. A method for the calculation of deposition velocity based upon the decrease in deposition with distance from a point source is presented. The method does not require a knowledge of the time over which the deposition occurs or the concentration of the material in the atmosphere. However, the method does assume the deposition rate is proportional to the air concentration. The sensitivity to errors resulting from certain errors in the measurements and from violation of some of the assumptions of the model underlining the calculations are also to be discussed. The method has been used to estimate the deposition velocity of I-129. Two sets of I-129 deposition data at various distances from the center of SRS were used in the calculations. The results indicate that the deposition velocity is near a value of 0.2 cm/s. This is consistent with the processes that are known to control iodine deposition.

The Hanford Tanks Initiative was established in 1996 to address a range of retrieval and closure issues associated with radioactive and hazardous waste stored in Hanford`s single shell tanks (SSTs). One of HTI`s retrieval goals is to ``Successfully demonstrate technology(s) that provide expanded capabilities beyond past practice sluicing and are extensible to retrieve waste from other SSTS.`` Specifically, HTI is to address ``Alternative technologies to past practice sluicing`` ... that can ... ``successfully remove the hard heel from a sluiced tank or to remove waste from a leaking SST`` (HTI Mission Analysis). During fiscal year 1997, the project contracted with seven commercial vendor teams to demonstrate retrieval technologies using waste simulants. These tests were conducted in two series: three integrated tests (IT) were completed in January 1997, and four more comprehensive Alternative Technology Retrieval Demonstrations (ARTD) were completed in July 1997. The goal of this testing was to address issues to minimize the risk, uncertainties, and ultimately the overall cost of removing waste from the SSTS. Retrieval technologies can be separated into three tracks based on how the tools would be deployed in the tank: globally (e.g., sluicing) or using vehicles or robotic manipulators. Accordingly, the HTI tests included an …

The continuity equation for electromagnetic (EM) energy flow is used to describe radiation flow in the transport regime. The scheme of a discrete representation of H_z and a stochastic representation of H_x, H_y gives an effectively continuous representation of directed energy in the x-y plane, such that the ray effect of transport theory is absent. Since the in-plane amplitudes are generated at each time step, it is necessary to store only the perpendicular amplitudes and the results appear to be robust with respect to the coarse of this discretization.

Enhancer of gene silencing 1 (egs1) is an Arabidopsis mutant that enhances post-transcriptional gene silencing of the rolB gene introduced by genetic engineering (transgene). The goal of our proposal was cloning EGS1 based on its map position. Although we screened more than 2000 chromosomes for recombination, we were unable to get closer than 2 cM to the gene. We experienced an unexpected tendency of the post-transcriptionally silenced transgene to switch to a more stable silenced state. This made it impossible to select egs1 homozygotes for map based cloning. This forced us to reconsider our cloning strategy. One possibility would have been to use a different transgene as the target of gene silencing. We tested two other transgenes. Both encoded proteins unrelated to the first but they were all expressed from the same type of promoter and they all had a similar tendency to become post-transcriptionally silenced. After screening over 80 F2 segregants from each cross between our egs1 mutant and Arabidopsis of the same ecotype homozygous for the new transgene, we were disappointed to find that the egs1 mutation did not enhance post-transcription silencing of the two new genes. In 80 plants we expected to have between 4 and 6 …

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We have measured the steady state concentration of gas phase C{sub 2} in Ar/H{sub 2}/CH{sub 4} and Ar/H{sub 2}/C{sub 60} microwave plasmas used for the deposition of nanocrystalline diamond films. High sensitivity white light absorption spectroscopy is used to monitor the C{sub 2} density using the d{sup 3}II {l_arrow} A{sup 3}II (0,0) vibrational band of C{sub 2} as chamber pressure, microwave power, substrate temperature and feed gas mixtures are varied in both chemistries. Understanding how these parameters influence the C{sub 2} density in the plasma volume provides insight into discharge mechanisms relevant to the deposition of nanocrystalline diamond.

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information about: (1) welfare-to-work formula and competitive grants awarded to, or declined by, states for fiscal year (FY) 1998; (2) how selected grantees are planning to use these funds; and (3) how selected grantees plan to meet welfare-to-work requirements to better integrate the states' workforce development services with other human services for welfare recipients."

This project attempts to demonstrate the effectivensss of exploiting thin-layered, low energy deposits at the distal margin of a propagating turbinite complex through u se of hydraulically fractgured horizontal of high-angle wells. TGhe combinaton of a horizontal or high-angle weoo and hydraulic fracturing will allow greater pay exposure than can be achieved with conventional vertical wells while maintaining vertical communication between thin interbedded layers and the wellbore.