The study of cellulose biosynthesis has a long history of frustrations, false leads, and setbacks. The authors have been able to proceed further than others who have studied eukaryotic cellulose synthesis because of the high level of enzyme activity in crude membrane preparations from developing Dictyostelium cells. This has made possible experiments to study factors that influence the activity, to determine cellular localization, and to study the development regulation of the enzyme activity. In higher plants, the challenge is still to obtain highly active membrane preparations. However, they have not been able to move beyond the level of crude membranes. The high starting activity of Dictyostelium membranes gave hope that cellulose synthase activity could be purified, allowing the identification of the polypeptides involved in cellulose synthesis. The first step in the purification of a membrane-associated activity is the solubilization of the activity; this they have not yet been able to do. They have applied some of their methods developed in the study of the Dictyostelium glucan synthase to preparation of plant membranes to see if they can obtain any in vitro activity. For instance, the disruption medium, disruption methods, and assay conditions used in Dictyostelium were used to prepare plant …

In 1954 a radioactive plume from the thermonuclear device code named BRAVO contaminated the principal residential islands, Eneu and Bikini, of Bikini Atoll (11{sup o} 36 minutes N; 165{sup o} 22 minutes E), now part of the Republic of the Marshall Islands. The resulting soil radioactivity diminished greatly over the three decades before the studies discussed below began. By that time the shorter-lived isotopes had all but disappeared, but strontium-90 ({sup 90}Sr), and cesium-137, ({sup 137}Cs) were reduced by only one half-life. Minute amounts of the long-lived isotopes, plutonium-239+240 ({sup 239+240}Pu) and americium-241 ({sup 241}Am), were present in soil, but were found to be inconsequential in the food chain of humans and land animals. Rather, extensive studies demonstrated that the major concern for human health was {sup 137}Cs in the terrestrial food chain (Robison et al., 1983; Robison et al., 1997). The following papers document results from several studies between 1986 and 1997 aimed at minimizing the {sup 137}Cs content of annual food crops. The existing literature on radiocesium in soils and plant uptake is largely a consequence of two events: the worldwide fallout of 1952-58, and the fallout from Chernobyl. The resulting studies have, for the most part, dealt …

Volume 2 contains the following topical sections: Tank farm heel flushing/pH adjustment; Grouting experiments for immobilization of tank farm heel; Savannah River high level waste tank 20 closure; Tank farm closure information; Clean closure of tank farm; Remediation issues; Remote demolition techniques; Decision concerning EIS for debris treatment facility; CERCLA/RCRA issues; Area of contamination determination; Containment building of debris treatment facility; Double containment issues; Characterization costs; Packaging and disposal options for the waste resulting from the total removal of the tank farm; Take-off calculations for the total removal of soils and structures at the tank farm; Vessel off-gas systems; Jet-grouted polymer and subsurface walls; Exposure calculations for total removal of tank farm; Recommended instrumentation during retrieval operations; High level waste tank concrete encasement evaluation; Recommended heavy equipment and sizing equipment for total removal activities; Tank buoyancy constraints; Grout and concrete formulas for tank heel solidification; Tank heel pH requirements; Tank cooling water; Evaluation of conservatism of vehicle loading on vaults; Typical vault dimensions and approximately tank and vault void volumes; Radiological concerns for temporary vessel off-gas system; Flushing calculations for tank heels; Grout lift depth analysis; Decontamination solution for waste transfer piping; Grout lift determination for filling tank and vault …

The Oil and Gas Field Code Master List 1997 is the sixteenth annual listing of all identified oil and gas fields in the US. It is updated with field information collected through October 1997. The purpose of this publication is to provide unique, standardized codes for identification of domestic fields. Use of these field codes fosters consistency of field identification by government and industry. As a result of their widespread adoption they have in effect become a national standard. The use of field names and codes listed in this publication is required on survey forms and other reports regarding field-specific data collected by EIA. There are 58,366 field records in this year`s FCML, 437 more than last year. The FCML includes: field records for each State and county in which a field resides; field records for each offshore area block in the Gulf of Mexico in which a field resides; field records for each alias field name (definition of alias is listed); fields crossing State boundaries that may be assigned different names by the respective State naming authorities. This report also contains an Invalid Field Record List of 4 records that have been removed from the FCML since last year`s …