Letter from Linda Schott to Barbara Lawrence thanking the San Antonio chapter of The Links, Inc. for becoming a "FRIEND" of the Center for the Study of Women and Gender at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Schott provides some details about recent projects undertaken by the center.

The major piece of equipment was a Furnace Model 1000 used during the Nitrate to Ammonia and Ceramic (NAC) process to sinter the ceramic final product. NAC is a new technology to immobilize liquid radioactive waste simulants. The grant also funded related control and measuring equipment.

Pressurized, entrained gasification is a promising new technology for the clean and efficient combustion of coal. Its principle is to operate a coal gasifier at a high inlet gas velocity to increase the inflow of reactants, and at an elevated pressure to raise the overall efficiency of the process. Unfortunately, because of the extraordinary difficulties involved in performing measurements in hot, pressurized, high-velocity pilot plants, its fluid dynamics are largely unknown. Thus the designer cannot predict with certainty crucial phenomena like erosion, heat transfer and solid capture. In this context, we are conducting a study of the fluid dynamics of Pressurized Entrained Coal Gasifiers (PECGs). The idea is to simulate the flows in generic industrial PECGs using dimensional similitude. To this end, we employ a unique entrained gas-solid flow facility with the flexibility to recycle--rather than discard--gases other than air. By matching five dimensionless parameters, suspensions in mixtures of helium, carbon dioxide and sulfur hexafluoride simulate the effects of pressure and scale-upon the fluid dynamics of PECGs. Because it operates under cold, atmospheric conditions, the laboratory facility is ideal for detailed measurements.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas to accompany a news story. This story aired at 5 P.M.

Daily newspaper from Baytown, Texas that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Funeral program for Estoria Ward Nichols, born April 13, 1907 and died March 27, 1997. The funeral was held Monday, March 31, 1997 at East St. Paul United Methodist Church, officiated by Pastor Barbara Miller. Funeral arrangements were made through Lewis Funeral Home and she was buried in Meadowlawn Memorial Park in San Antonio, Texas.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story.

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Video footage from the KXAS-TV/NBC station in Fort Worth, Texas, to accompany a news story. This story aired at 10 P.M.

A letter from Christine M. Ketay to D. Jack Davis informing Davis that the North Texas Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts is to be a recipient of the President's Award for 1997 during the upcoming Honors Day celebration. There is the same letter but directed towards R. William McCarter. Attached letters are from various people and organizations offering their nomination of NTIEVA for the President's Award.

Recent modifications have been performed on the T-Plant Railcar Waste Transfer System, This Acceptance Test Procedure (ATP) has been prepared to demonstrate that identified piping welds and mechanical connections incorporated during the modification are of high integrity and are acceptable for service. This will be achieved by implementation of a hydrostatic leak test.

Daily newspaper from Altus, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Daily newspaper from Chickasha, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Newsletter of the Texas Department of Health discussing the news, activities, and events of the organization and other information related to health in Texas.

Daily newspaper from Sapulpa, Oklahoma that includes local, state, and national news along with advertising.

Washability analysis is the basis for nearly all coal preparation plant separations. Unfortunately, there are no on-line techniques for determining this most fundamental of all coal cleaning information. In light of recent successes at the University of Utah, it now appears possible to determine coal washability on-line through the use of x-ray computed tomography (CT) analysis. The successful development of such a device is critical to the establishment of process control and automated coal blending systems. In this regard, Virginia Tech, Terra Tek Inc., and Cyprus-Amax Coal Company have joined with the University of Utah and agreed to undertake the development of an x-ray CT-based on-line coal washability analyzer with financial assistance from DOE. The three-year project will cost $594,571, of which 33% ($194,575) will be cost-shared by the participants. The project will involve development of appropriate software and extensive testing/evaluation of well- characterized coal samples from three coal preparation plants. Each project participant brings special expertise to the project which is expected to create a new dimension in coal cleaning technology. Finally, it should be noted that the analyzer may prove to be a universal analyzer capable of providing not only washability analysis, but also particle size distribution analysis, …

Historically, sulfur dioxide (SO{sub 2}) emissions were unregulated. As the environmental consequences of such emissions began to surface, increasingly stringent, federal and state government mandated pollution control requirements were imposed on the electric power generating industry. Coal burning utilities were forced to make one of two dioices. They could install flue gas scrubbing equipment or start to burn lower sulfur containing coal. The proposed research is directed at those utilities that have made the second choice, or utilities desiring to undertake new plant construction.

Beginning in January 1997 (following arrival of the FY-97 funding) we have been preparing for our first series of experiments under this grant at the University of Rochester Laboratory for Laser Energetics (LLE) on the Omega Upgrade laser facility, now scheduled to commence June 2, 1997. For these experiments we have purchased (just arrived) a four-channel gated-stripline microchannel plate (MCP) detector to be coupled to our soft x-ray flat-field grazing incidence spectrograph used previously at LLE. This will permit time-resolved `snapshots` of the complete spectra with a resolution to times as short as 180 ps per strip. An advantage of this technique over the streak camera used previously is the lack of any carbon absorbers such as in the thin plastic cathode required for the streak camera. This eliminates absorption in the 30-44 {angstrom} spectral region in which we are interested for intermediate-Z target materials such as Mg, Al and Si. An auxiliary turbomolecular-drag pump has also been installed in order to obtain the necessary vacuum for optimum MCP operation.

The objective of this project was to demonstrate and promote the commercialization of coal-fired atmospheric fluidized bed combustion (AFBC) systems, with limestone addition for SO{sub 2} emissions control and a baghouse for particulate emissions control. This AFBC system was targeted for small scale industrial-commercial-institutional space and process heat applications. A cost effective and environmentally acceptable AFBC technology in this size range would displace a considerable amount of gas/oil with coal while resulting in significant total cost savings to the owner/operators. In the Proof-of-Concept Phase, a 2.2 x 10{sup 6} Btu/hr unit was installed and successfully operated at Cedar Lane Farms (CLF), a commercial nursery in Ohio. The heat from the fluidized bed was used to heat hot water which was recirculated through greenhouses for cool weather heating. The system was designed to be fully automated with minimal operator attention required. The AFBC system installed at CLF was an improved design that incorporated flyash/sorbent reinjection and an underbed feed system to improve limestone utilization. With these additions it was possible to lower the Ca/S ratio from {approximately} 3.0 to 2.0, and still maintain an SO{sub 2} emissions level of 1.2 lb/10{sup 6} Btu when burning the same high sulfur Ohio coal …

This report contains a general introduction, the experimental section, general conclusions, and two appendices: using projection operators to construct the basis functions and the magnetic transition of bulk pyrrhotite samples in the low-temperature range. Four chapters have been removed for separate processing. They are: From pyrrhotite to troilite: An application of the Landau theory of phase transitions; Phase transition in near stoichiometric iron sulfide; A ordering, incommensuration and phase transitions in pyrrhotite. Part 1: A TEM study of Fe{sub 7}S{sub 8}; and Part 2: A high-temperature X-ray powder diffraction and thermomagnetic study.

In the different tobacco lines expressing different polyols, the authors have investigated how the presence of polyols affects ion uptake during short periods of stress. In addition, they began investigations on recovery from short periods of stress, e.g. eight days of drought and/or five days in 400 mM NaCl. The transgenic plants take up sodium more slowly. The next set of experiments, modeled after the experiments done with Mesembryanthemum will investigate ion transport and partitioning in control and transgenic tobacco. Photosynthetic activities of drought-stressed mannitol/ononitrol tobacco were investigated. Measurements of fluorescence, carbon fixation rates and electron transport indicated that the polyol-containing plants loose photosynthetic competence more slowly than controls. Transfer of the mtlD gene (mannitol production) into Arabidopsis has been accomplished. The transgenic plants are phenotypically normal. They survive 300 mM NaCl when the stress is started when the plants are mature--in contrast to wild type which is killed at 150 mM. Seeds from mannitol-containing plants germinate (100%) in 100 mM NaCl while germination rate of wild type is about 20%. In 200 mM NaCl n wild type germinates, while in some transgenic lines still 50% of the seeds germinated. At 250 mM NaCl during germination, the transgenic seeds are …

Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy is a simple, fast, reliable and nondestructive analytical method. By using the method developed in Clark Atlanta University, consistent and reliable infrared spectral results can be obtained. An accurate radiant energy can be calculated from these infrared spectra by using a blackbody as the calibration standards. By means of the specially-designed-and-lab-made sampling inlet and the Horiba gas analyzers, the compositions of CO{sub 2}, CO, UCH, NOx and O{sub 2} etc. from the combustion exhaust gases have been on-line accurately analyzed. The commercial natural gas IR burner performed differently in the different conditions. For the methane-air combustion, at the equivalence ratio {Phi} = 1, the IR burner produced its maximum radiation efficiency, {approximately}31.4%, and the concentration of CO{sub 2} reached its maximum value, {approximately}10.7%. In the fuel-lean region, the O{sub 2} concentration in the emission gas decreased proportionally as {Phi} increased, but the concentrations of CO and UHC were kept in a couple of hundred ppm ranges. In the fuel-rich region, the O{sub 2} concentration was kept as a constant, {approximately}0.2%, but the CO and UHC concentrations were quickly jumped to thousands ppm or more as {Phi} further increased. The NOx formation was mainly dependent on the …