The persistence of IXTOC-I oil along the South Texas coast

The ongoing study, initiated in April 1978, monitors the bird population utilizing this stretch of Gulf coast beach along with sea and weather conditions, beach profile measurements, demographic trends in this rapidly developing area, and the types of beach debris, natural and man-made, including oil and tarballs. The survey is now done on alternate days, and at this writing, 665 have been completed covering 8,000 km of beach, taking 1300 man-hours; 700,000 individual birds of 204 species have been counted. The survey is done by automobile, and distances are measured using a calibrated odometer with a repeatability of 0.03 km to known landmarks. The location of all tar-reefs along the beach has been monitored since 1979. Due to seasonal variations in sea level the tar-reefs remain submerged for much of the year. From late November through February low tides expose the reefs, but at the same time the passage of winter "northers" creates energetic wave systems which erodes them. Fields of characteristic tarballs eroded from the reefs are washed onto the beach and remain there until buried by sand or washed into the foredunes during storms. Figure 17 shows the location of reefs and tarball fields associated with the reefs from September 1979 through June 1983. The last period when the reefs were exposed (in early 1983) revealed several small reefs, the largest being 25 m long by 3 m wide by 25 cm thick, and many tarball fields. It should be noted that due to the limited resources and time available for this project, no effort has been made to locate the tar-reefs when they are submerged. Tar-reef and tarball samples have been collected at intervals throughout the study period and are preserved frozen at UT-MSIP A.Marine Scienc

Physical oceanography

The main objective of the physical oceanography program was to describe the upper ocean water structure around the Elephant Island area in relationship to the observed distribution of biological organisms. This was accomplished by measuring the vertical density profile of the waters to a depth of 750m (where possible) over (1) a coarse grid of 50 stations (Surveys A and D, Figure 3.1.1) around Elephant Island, (2) a finer-scale grid to the north of Elephant Island (Surveys Band C, Figures 3.1.2 and 3.1.3), (3) closely spaced stations along two sections extending across the shelf-break, also to the north of Elephant Island, and ( 4) by continuously monitoring the meteorological conditions along the ship's track to study mechanisms maintaining the upper mixed layer and pycnocline. The grids and transects were repeated on Leg II of the cruise.Marine Scienc

Physical oceanography

The physical oceanography component of the AMLR program provided the means to identify contributing water masses and environmental influences within the AMLR study area, as well as to log meteorological and sea surface conditions annotated by the ship's position. The instrumentation and data collection programs served as host to the other scientific components of the program. AMLR 96 is the seventh field season for the collaboration of physical measurements with biological studies.Marine Scienc

Entanglement in and ingestion of marine debris by sea turtles stranded along the South Texas coast

Entanglement data were collected from sea turtle stranding reports submitted to the Sea Turtle Stranding and Salvage Network from Mustang and North Padre Islands, Texas during 1986 and 1987. Data collected included: month and location of stranding, species stranded, curved carapace length of the turtle and type of entanglement. A general necropsy similar to that described by Wolke and George (1981) was performed on dead sea turtles stranded during 1986 and 1987 on Mustang, North Padre and South Padre Islands, Texas. During necropsy, the curved carapace length and width was measured, sex was determined by external examination of the gonads, the entire digestive tract was removed and all organs were examined for irregularities in an attempt to determine the cause of death of the turtle. The esophagus, stomach and intestinal tract were later opened in the lab. If debris was present, it was removed and its location in the digestive tract was noted. The remaining gut contents were preserved in 10% buffered formalin for later analysis.Marine Scienc

Physical oceanography

The physical oceanography component of the AMLR program provides information on the hydrography of the upper water column with the objective of assessing its influence on the observed distribution of krill (Euphausia superba). By making closely spaced CTD/rosette casts, the water masses of the Elephant Island region can be identified, and the mean current flow deduced. This component also records the meteorological and sea surface conditions continuously while the Surveyor is in the study region to study the effect of atmospheric conditions on the upper-water-layer structure. AMLR 1992 is the third field season for the collaboration of physical measurements with biological studies.Marine Scienc

A study of industrial hydrogen and syngas supply systems

The potential and incentives required for supplying hydrogen and syngas feedstocks to the U.S. chemical industry from coal gasification systems were evaluated. Future hydrogen and syngas demand for chemical manufacture was estimated by geographic area and projected economics for hydrogen and syngas manufacture was estimated with geographic area of manufacture and plant size as parameters. Natural gas, oil and coal feedstocks were considered. Problem areas presently affecting the commercial feasibility of coal gasification discussed include the impact of potential process improvements, factors involved in financing coal gasification plants, regulatory barriers affecting coal gasification, coal mining/transportation, air quality regulations, and competitive feedstock pricing barriers. The potential for making coal gasification the least costly H2 and syngas supply option. Options to stimulate coal gasification system development are discussed

Final report on "Beach and dune erosion on a South Texas barrier island beach since 1979"

In April 1978, a survey (BEACHobs) of Mustang Island Gulf beach was initiated by the author. The on-going survey is done bi-daily and extends a distance of 12.1 km from Gulf Access Road #1 to Gulf Access Road #2 (Fig. 1). BEACHobs was initially done to monitor the bird populations on this section of the beach which, in 1978, was less-visited by beach-goers than other sections of Mustang Island and North Padre Island Gulf beaches. This was primarily because it is distant from population centers in Port Aransas and Corpus Christi and the only beach access was by automobile. Also, the distance between access roads (7.25 miles) deterred people from driving its length. In 1978, however, a building boom was about to start on Mustang Island and the concept of the survey was to record bird population response to disturbance as the beach became more accessible to people via the beachfront condominiums. The survey soon expanded to include counts of people and automobiles, items of marine debris, measurements of surf zone oceanographic and beach weather conditions, simple measurements of beach widths, and location of tide lines, berms, driving lanes, and the dunes. Erosion/ accretion and other beach morphological measurements reported here were made from September 1979 through June 2000 at a single location, and from September 1988 through June 2000 at eight additional locations spaced at approximately one-mile intervals. ... The present study is unique in the number (>3,000), frequency (bi-daily), and duration (21 years) of measurements made.Texas General Coastal Land Office contract 98-291R, Coastal Management Program, Cycle 3, subrecipient grant agreementA publication (or report) of the Coastal Coordination Council pursuant to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration award no. NA87OZ025131 August 2000Marine Scienc

Energy Conversion Alternatives Study (ECAS), Westinghouse phase 1. Volume 6: Closed-cycle gas turbine systems

Both recuperated and bottomed closed cycle gas turbine systems in electric power plants were studied. All systems used a pressurizing gas turbine coupled with a pressurized furnace to heat the helium for the closed cycle gas turbine. Steam and organic vapors are used as Rankine bottoming fluids. Although plant efficiencies of over 40% are calculated for some plants, the resultant cost of electricity was found to be 8.75 mills/MJ (31.5 mills/kWh). These plants do not appear practical for coal or oil fired plants

Self-Templated Nucleation in Peptide and Protein aggregation

Peptides and proteins exhibit a common tendency to assemble into highly ordered fibrillar aggregates, whose formation proceeds in a nucleation-dependent manner that is often preceded by the formation of disordered oligomeric assemblies. This process has received much attention because disordered oligomeric aggregates have been associated with neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases. Here we describe a self-templated nucleation mechanism that determines the transition between the initial condensation of polypeptide chains into disordered assemblies and their reordering into fibrillar structures. The results that we present show that at the molecular level this transition is due to the ability of polypeptide chains to reorder within oligomers into fibrillar assemblies whose surfaces act as templates that stabilise the disordered assemblies.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure