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Saudi Arabia, a monarchy ruled by the Saudi dynasty, enjoys special importance in the international community because of its unique association with the Islamic religion and its oil wealth. Since the establishment of the modern Saudi kingdom in 1932, it has benefitted from a stable political system based on a smooth process of succession to the throne and an increasingly prosperous economy dominated by the oil sector. Decrees by King Fahd in March 1992 establishing an appointive consultative council and provincial councils and promulgating a basic law providing for certain citizens' rights could signal a gradual trend toward a more open political system.

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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a county may charge an applicant for a plat revision the costs of issuing notice of the proposed revision (RQ-0309-JC)

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a municipality may provide labor and equipment to construct utilities on public easements and rights-of-way to serve a private subdivision (RQ-0313-JC)

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, John Cornyn, regarding a legal question submitted for clarification: Whether a commissioners court is authorized to establish certain policies restricting employees associations for whose benefit payroll deductions for membership dues may be made and related question (RQ-0314-JC)

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "Federal agencies have created ombudsmen offices to expedite the resolution of employees' complaints about workplace issues. An ombudsman provides an informal alternative to more formal administrative processes in the workplace, using various techniques and often working "outside the box" to deal with conflicts and other organizational disputes. GAO found that the number of ombudsman offices handling workplace issues in federal agencies is small but is expected to grow. These offices deal with a wide range of workplace issues, from helping employees get answers to questions about agency policies and cutting through "red tape" to more serious situations, such as allegations about employment discrimination. In studying the ombudsmen offices at the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), and the U.S. Secret Service, GAO found some common approaches as well as some differences in their operations. Common to all three offices was their broad responsibility and authority to deal with almost any workplace issue, their ability to bring systemic issues to management's attention, and the way in which they worked with other agency offices in providing assistance to employees. But how they were structured …

A letter report issued by the General Accounting Office with an abstract that begins "The U.S. government owns a 0.4-acre lot adjoining the U.S. ambassador's residence in a prime location in Paris, France. In 1998, the State Department's Office of the Inspector General reported that the property was underused and that using this high-value property was not economically justified. GAO found that State's decision in February 2000 to continue using the lot for parking was not based on a full consideration of security needs, secure parking alternatives, and the merits of selling the property. French authorities have indicated that the property is valuable and marketable. At a time when the State Department has billions of dollars of security construction and maintenance needs at its embassies and consulates around the world, the sale of the parking lot in Paris, France, should receive serious consideration if State can arrange alternative, cost-effective, and secure parking for official vehicles and if a purchaser would pay $10 million for the lot."

The advent of coupled earth system models has raised an important question in parallel computing: What is the most effective method for coupling many parallel models to form a high-performance coupled modeling system? We present our solution to this problem--The Model Coupling Toolkit (MCT). We explain how our effort to construct the Next-Generation Coupler for NCAR Community Climate System Model motivated us to create this toolkit. We describe in detail the conceptual design of the MCT and explain its usage in constructing parallel coupled models. We present preliminary performance results for the toolkit's parallel data transfer facilities. Finally, we outline an agenda for future development of the MCT.

Total System Performance Assessment (TSPA) is used as a key decision-making tool for the potential geologic repository for high level radioactive waste at Yucca Mountain, Nevada, USA. Because of the complexity and uncertainty involved in a post-closure performance assessment, an important goal is to produce a transparent document describing the assumptions, the intermediate steps, the results, and the conclusions of the analyses. An important objective for a TSPA analysis is to illustrate confidence in performance projections of the potential repository given a complex system of interconnected process models, data, and abstractions. The methods and techniques used for the recent TSPA analyses demonstrate an effective process to portray complex models and results with transparency and credibility.

At Argonne National Laboratory we have developed a high performance regional climate modeling simulation capability based on the NCAR MM5v3.4. The regional climate simulation system at Argonne currently includes a Java-based interface to allow rapid selection and generation of initial and boundary conditions, a high-performance version of MM5v3.4 modified for long climate simulations on our 512-processor Beowulf cluster (Chiba City), an interactive Web-based analysis tool to facilitate analysis and collaboration via the Web, and an enhanced version of the CAVE5d software capable of working with large climate data sets. In this paper we describe the application of this modeling system to investigate the role of model resolution in predicting extreme events such as the ''Hurricane Huron'' event of 11-15 September 1996. We have performed a series of ''Hurricane Huron'' experiments at 80, 40, 20, and 10 km grid resolution over an identical spatiotemporal domain. We conclude that increasing model resolution leads to dramatic changes in the vertical structure of the simulated atmosphere producing significantly different representations of rainfall and other parameters critical to the assessment of impacts of climate change.

This user's guide describes Visual Sample Plan (VSP) Version 1.0 and provides instructions for using the software. VSP selects the appropriate number and location of environmental samples to ensure that the results of statistical tests performed to provide input to environmental decisions have the required confidence and performance. VSP Version 1.0 provides sample-size equations or algorithms needed by specific statistical tests appropriate for specific environmental sampling objectives. The easy-to-use program is highly visual and graphic. VSP runs on personal computers with Microsoft Windows operating systems (95, 98, Millenium Edition, 2000, and Windows NT). Designed primarily for project managers and users without expertise in statistics, VSP is applicable to any two-dimensional geographical population to be sampled (e.g., surface soil, a defined layer of subsurface soil, building surfaces, water bodies, and other similar applications) for studies of environmental quality .

The initial study on nanoparticles of magnetite was carried out in an epoxy matrix. The formation of agglomerates of Fe3O4 nanoparticles was studied by mu-XRF, magnetic, TEM and SEM techniques. Because of the elevated viscosity of epoxy resin and its effect on particle agglomeration, this study was extended using less viscous polyvinyl alcohol and some sol gels as a matrix. Unlike the results found in epoxy resin, spherical agglomerates were found in a PVA matrix even at Fe3O4 concentration of up to 50%.

This user's guide describes Visual Sample Plan (VSP) Version 1.0 and provides instructions for using the software. VSP selects the appropriate number and location of environmental samples to ensure that the results of statistical tests performed to provide input to environmental decisions have the required confidence and performance. VSP Version 1.0 provides sample-size equations or algorithms needed by specific statistical tests appropriate for specific environmental sampling objectives. The easy-to-use program is highly visual and graphic. VSP runs on personal computers with Microsoft Windows operating systems (95, 98, Millenium Edition, 2000, and Windows NT). Designed primarily for project managers and users without expertise in statistics, VSP is applicable to any two-dimensional geographical population to be sampled (e.g., surface soil, a defined layer of subsurface soil, building surfaces, water bodies, and other similar applications) for studies of environmental quality.

The non-destructive determination of isotope ratios (NDA) present in plutonium- and uranium-bearing materials is best accomplished with a MultiGroup Analysis methodology on spectral data obtained with high-resolution germanium detector systems. This methodology is currently employed in codes such as MGA, MGAU or U235. The MGA code, for example, works well on Pu samples and employs a number of isolated spectral lines in the analysis. The algorithm uses Gaussian and Lorentzian peak shapes that are empirically modified to account for various physical and instrumental effects. Additional effects due to external absorbers, sample self-attenuation and detector relative efficiency are also included. Uranium samples are analyzed with MGAU and U235 using a simpler but similar algorithm in the narrow energy range between 85- and 100-keV. Although the details can be complex, the problem described above is ultimately reduced to evaluating a simple ratio. Applied to uranium, for example, one evaluates where the subscripts A and B refer to quantities associated with {sup 235}U and {sup 238}U, respectively. Specifically, N{sub 235U}/N{sub 238U} is the isotope ratio {sup 235}U/{sup 238}U, I is the measured gamma-ray peak intensity, and E is the counting efficiency, BR is the appropriate branching ratio, t is the appropriate half-life, {alpha}{sup …

We discuss concurrent multiscale simulations of dynamic and temperature-dependent processes found in nanomechanical systems coupled to larger scale surroundings. We focus on the behavior of sub-micron Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems (MEMS), especially micro-resonators. The coupling of length scales methodology we have developed for MEMS employs an atomistic description of small but key regions of the system, consisting of millions of atoms, coupled concurrently to a finite element model of the periphery. The result is a model that accurately describes the behavior of the mechanical components of MEMS down to the atomic scale. This paper reviews some of the general issues involved in concurrent multiscale simulation, extends the methodology to metallic systems and describes how it has been used to identify atomistic effects in sub-micron resonators.