Progress during the second quarter of a three-year study was made in two areas: Coal selection and characterization, combustor modifications and preliminary testing. Potential sources for coal have been identified and an attempt will be made to use the same coals as a similar doe study. Advances have continued in our SEM-based analytical techniques. Modifications to an existing reactor system have been initiated. A new coal feeder has been installed and tested. Finally, specific tasks for the next quarter have been identified and reported.

This report summarizes the progress made from 9-1-93 to 5-1-94 on this DOE grant. As participants in the subsurface science program, the authors are assessing the influence of environmental conditions on the distribution and evolution of subsurface microorganisms employing molecular techniques. The approach utilizes 16S rRNA targeted oligonucleotide probes, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of gene sequences, and sequencing techniques. Continued progress towards identifying target sequences for selected microbial types and groups is being made by analysis of rRNA sequence data for subsurface microorganisms and other microorganisms in the rRNA databases. Hybridization probes for these target sequences are being produced and used to classify isolated strains of subsurface microbes into focus clades useful for testing origins hypotheses.

The Port Card will be one link in the data acquisition system for the D0 Silicon Vertex Detector. This system consists of the following parts, starting at the detector: Silicon strip detectors are mounted in a spaceframe and wire-bonded to custom bare-die integrated circuits (SVX-II chips) that digitize the charge collected by the strips. The 128-channel chips are mounted on a High-Density Interconnect (HDI) that consists of a small flex circuit that routes control signals and eight data bits for each of three to ten chips onto a common data bus. A cable then routes this bus approximately thirty feet out from the detector to the Port Card. The Port Card houses a commercial chipset that serializes the data in real time and converts the signal into laser light impulses that are then transmitted through a multi-mode optical fiber about 150 feet to a Silicon Acquisition & Readout board (SAR). Here, the data is transformed back to parallel electrical signals that are stored in one of several banks of FIFO memories. The FIFOs place their data onto the VME backplane to a VME Buffer Driver (VBD) which stores the event data in buffers for eventual readout over a thirty-two signal …

Compilation of monthly reports from departments in the city of San Antonio, Texas providing statistics, project updates, and other information about services and activities.