Materials from an OTA Senior Management Retreat including memoranda, summaries, and discussion points for previous or upcoming studies and programs. The retreat was held from November 12-14, 1986.

Environmental health focus with training conducted as part of the United Negro College Fund Special Programs Corporation/National Library of Medicine HBCU ACCESS Project at Winston-Salem State University, NC on November 10, 2010.

Prokaryotic life on earth is manifested by its diversity and omnipresence. These microbes serve as natural sources of a large variety of compounds with the potential to serve the ever growing, medicinal, chemical and transportation needs of the human population. However, commercially viable production of these compounds can be realized only through significant improvement of the native production capacity of natural isolates. The most favorable way to achieve this goal is through the genetic manipulation of metabolic pathways that direct the production of these molecules. While random mutagenesis and screening have dominated the industrial production of such compounds in the past our increased understanding of microbial physiology over the last five decades has shifted this trend towards rational approaches for metabolic design. Major drivers of this trend include recombinant DNA technology, high throughput characterization of macromolecular cellular components, quantitative modeling for metabolic engine ring, targeted combinatorial engineering and synthetic biology. In this chapter we track the evolution of microbial engineering technologies from the black box era of random mutagenesis to the science and engineering-driven era of metabolic design.

Interview with Jovita Soria, Mexican-born immigrant to Plano, Texas, for the DFW Metroplex Immigration Oral History Project. The interview includes Soria's personal experiences of childhood in Mexico, her first experience in Plano at the age of seventeen and her second on as a live-in nanny, her move to Abilene, Texas, and return to Mexico with her husband. Soria also talks about her return to Plano as an illegal immigrant, difficulties with illegal status, assimilation into Texas culture, children's experiences as Mexican-American, and her thoughts on the immigration process.

Text describes climate, agriculture, and soils of Jefferson County, Texas.

Interview with James N. Hall, a Army Air Force WWII veteran from Burkburnett, Texas. Hall discusses joining the Air Force from college, basic training, classification, flight training, the P-47, fighter tactics, deplyoment to Le Culot Airfield in Belgium, his first mission, briefings and intelligence, Air Support Parties, close air support, flak, bomber escort, air-to-air encounters, casualties, logistics, German civilians, crash landings, V-E Day, and return to civilian life.

Interview with Dr. James F. White, minister at the Perkins School of Theology and leader of the Citizens Organization for a Sound Trinity (COST) group, which was in opposition to the Trinity Barge Canal construction project. White provides details about newspaper coverage of the issue, the group's involvement in politics, and his views of other political issues.