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 Information published in the Texas Register includes proposed, adopted, withdrawn and emergency rule actions, notices of state agency review of agency rules, governor's appointments, attorney general opinions, and miscellaneous documents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

This report discusses the Air Force F-22 fighter, also known as the Raptor. The administration wants to end F-22 procurement at 187 aircraft, and the administration's proposed FY2010 budget does not request funding for the procurement of additional F-22s in FY2010. The issue of F-22 procurement has emerged as one of the highest-profile items of debate on the FY2010 defense budget. This report discusses both sides of the debate.

This report discusses key issues regarding funding for a next-generation bomber (NGB) program. Congress's decisions on these issues could affect Air Force capabilities and funding requirements, and the U.S. aircraft manufacturing industrial base.

Compilation of Advanced Light Source newsletter, ALSNews, for 2009, Volumes 294-304.

This report examines China's foreign assistance and government-supported, often-preferential investment ventures in three regions: Africa, Latin America (Western Hemisphere), and Southeast Asia. These activities often are collectively referred to as "economic assistance" by some analysts and in this report.

This report examines changes to the Federal Budget for Fiscal Years 2008-2010. The report considers the factors that have an effect on various budgetary functions and decisions. The report specifically focuses on the effect of the 2007-2008 financial recession on the budget, but also considers more long-term fiscal issues such as health care for retiring Baby-Boomers.

This report presents an overview of Canada's financial system and its supervisory framework and draws some distinctions between that system and the current U.S. framework.

This report provides a historical account and analysis of the crisis through November 14, 2009. While business contraction appears to have abated, unemployment is shown to be on the rise and many businesses and countries are still facing difficulties.

The heats of vaporization of the room temperature ionic liquids (RTILs) N-butyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium bistrifluorosulfonylimide, N-butyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium dicyanamide, and 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide are determined using a heated effusive vapor source in conjunction with single photon ionization by a tunable vacuum ultraviolet synchrotron source. The relative gas phase ionic liquid vapor densities in the effusive beam are monitored by clearly distinguished dissociative photoionization processes via a time-of-flight mass spectrometer at a tunable vacuum ultraviolet beamline 9.0.2.3 (Chemical Dynamics Beamline) at the Advanced Light Source synchrotron facility. Resulting in relatively few assumptions, through the analysis of both parent cations and fragment cations, the heat of vaporization of N-butyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium bistrifluorosulfonylimide is determined to be Delta Hvap(298.15 K) = 195+-19 kJ mol-1. The observed heats of vaporization of 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium dicyanamide (Delta Hvap(298.15 K) = 174+-12 kJ mol-1) and N-butyl-N-methylpyrrolidinium dicyanamide (Delta Hvap(298.15 K) = 171+-12 kJ mol-1) are consistent with reported experimental values using electron impact ionization. The tunable vacuum ultraviolet source has enabled accurate measurement of photoion appearance energies. These appearance energies are in good agreement with MP2 calculations for dissociative photoionization of the ion pair. These experimental heats of vaporization, photoion appearance energies, and ab initio calculations corroborate vaporization of these RTILs as intact cation-anion ion …

A letter report issued by the Government Accountability Office with an abstract that begins "In 2010, after about 25 years of work and the expenditure of billions of dollars, the International Space Station (ISS) will be completed. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), the ISS crew will then be able to redirect its efforts from assembling the station to conducting research. In 2005, Congress designated the ISS as a national laboratory; in addition, the NASA Authorization Act of 2008 required NASA to provide a research management plan for the ISS National Laboratory. In light of these developments, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to review the research use of the ISS. Specifically, GAO (1) identified how the ISS is being used for research and how it is expected to be used once completed, (2) identified challenges to maximizing ISS research; and (3) identified common management practices at other national laboratories and large science programs that could be applicable to the management of the ISS. To accomplish this, GAO interviewed NASA officials and reviewed key documents related to the ISS. GAO also studied two ground-based national laboratories and several large science institutions."

This report looks at the background of Iran's nuclear policy. It covers the current status of Iran's nuclear facilities, and current controversy surrounding them, as well as the effects of international sanctions on Iran, recent sabotages on the Iran Enrichment Program, an estimated timeline of Iran's nuclear weapon capabilities, and whether or not Iran even has a nuclear weapons program.

This report discusses the relationship between the United States and Japan, including Japanese efforts to support the U.S. in the wake of the September 11th, 2001 terrorist attacks and the two countries' economic ties, especially with regards to the recent economic downturn. This report also discusses the general political atmosphere of Japan, including the recent and ongoing political turmoil in Tokyo.

This report discusses the Navy's proposed FY2011 budget requests (about $1.8 billion) for the procurement of 22 F/A- 18E/F Super Hornet strike fighters and about $1.0 billion for the procurement of 12 EA-18G Growler electric attack aircraft.

This website is the result of a project started in 1994 by the Department of Energy's Office of Human Radiation Experiments. The purpose of the group was to research experiments done to test the effects of radiation on humans and to compile documentation (including photographs, oral histories, declassified documents, and audio/visual clips) about the projects, making them available online in a single place. In addition to the different documentation that was cataloged, the group also published a report discussing the process and result of their research.

A request for studying the spectral performance of in-vacuum undulators (IVUs) for the APS storage ring was recently put forward. In-vacuum undulators are prevalent at other synchrotron radiation facilities such as the ESRF and the Spring-8. However, they never made it into the arsenal of undulators at the APS because the brilliance tuning curves were sufficiently wide due to the fact that the undulator minimum gap could be set as low as 10.5 mm. For sector 3, which in the past used a narrow-gap vacuum chamber, the minimum undulator pole gap was allowed to be set as low as 8.5 mm, providing contiguous tuning curves between the first and third harmonic radiation for a 2.7-cm-period device. (Subsequently, the narrow-gap vacuum chamber was removed and replaced with a standard vacuum chamber, which allows a minimum gap of 10.5 mm.) For sector 4, which currently holds the only narrow-gap vacuum chamber at the APS, the minimum gap is 9.5 mm. In this sector, a permanent magnet hybrid undulator with SmCo magnets is used instead of NdFeB magnets because of their higher radiation resistance and their better protection against radiation-induced demagnetization of the magnets. In the realm of looking to the future, new …

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This report focuses on current conflicts in Africa in which sexual violence is reported to be widespread or systematic. It describes the context in which such violence takes place, selected cases where it is currently occurring, and U.S. policy responses. It concludes with a discussion of potential policy considerations for Congress.

This report provides an overview discussion on the modernization of U.S. military tactical aircraft, meaning fighter aircraft, strike fighters, and attack planes. Tactical aircraft are a major component of U.S. military capability, and account for a significant portion of U.S. defense spending. In early 2009, the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps collectively had an inventory of about 3,500 tactical aircraft.

This report provides a review of traumatic brain injury (TBI) as an illness, its prevalence among veterans, current activity to address the issue in the Department of Veterans Affairs, and current policy issues.

This report examines the eligibility criteria and the fundamentals of the VA-administered disability benefit programs and related issues. It supplements and condenses the relevant materials that are available from the VA and its website. It also provides specific citations for further information and more in-depth analysis of information contained herein.

This report discusses the VH-71 program, which is intended to provide 23 new presidential helicopters to replace the current fleet of 19 aging presidential helicopters.

This report discusses background information on the V-22 Osprey Tilt-Rotor Aircraft, as well as procurement and related oversight issues for Congress.

We have investigated the response of a DoubleScatter Neutron Spectrometer (DSNS) for sources at long distances (gr than 200 meters). We find that an alternative method for analyzing double scatter data avoids some uncertainties introduced by amplitude measurements in plastic scintillators.Time of flight is used to discriminate between gamma and neutron events, and the kinematic distributions of scattering angles are assumed to apply. Non-relativistic neutrons are most likely to scatter at 45°, while gammas with energies greater than 2 MeV are most likely to be forward scattered. The distribution of scattering angles of fission neutrons arriving from a distant point source generates a 45° cone, which can be back-projected to give the source direction. At the same time, the distribution of Compton-scattered gammas has a maximum in the forward direction, and can be made narrower by selecting events that deposit minimal energy in the first scattering event. We have further determined that the shape of spontaneous fission neutron spectra at ranges gr than 110 m is still significantly different from thecosmic ray background.

An advanced soft X-ray detector has been designed and fabricated for use in synchrotron experiments that utilize X-ray absorption spectroscopy in the study a wide range of materials properties. Fluorescence X-rays, in particular C{sub K} at 277eV, are converted in a low pressure gas medium, and charge multiplication occurs in two gas electron multipliers, fabricated in-house from glass reinforced laminate, to enable single photon counting. The detector satisfies a number of demanding characteristics often required in synchrotron environments, such as UHV compatibility compactness, long-term stability, and energy resolving capability.