[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 116 (Friday, June 14, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 30220-30221]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-15098]



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DEPARTMENT OF COMMERCE

Applications for Duty-Free Entry of Scientific Instruments

    Pursuant to Section 6(c) of the Educational, Scientific and 
Cultural Materials Importation Act of 1966 (Pub. L. 89-651; 80 Stat. 
897; 15 CFR part 301), we invite comments on the question of whether 
instruments of equivalent scientific value, for the purposes for which 
the instruments shown below are intended to be used, are being 
manufactured in the United States.
    Comments must comply with 15 CFR 301.5(a) (3) and (4) of the 
regulations and be filed within 20 days with the Statutory Import 
Programs Staff, U.S. Department of Commerce, Washington, DC 20230. 
Applications may be examined between 8:30 A.M. and 5:00 P.M. in Room 
4211, U.S. Department of Commerce, 14th Street and Constitution Avenue, 
NW., Washington, DC.

    Docket Number: 96-048. Applicant: U.S. Department of Agriculture, 
Agricultural Research Service, National Forage Seed Production Research 
Center, 3450 SW Campus Way, Corvallis, OR 97331-7102. Instrument: Mass 
Spectrometer System, Model Europa 20-20. Manufacturer: Europa 
Scientific, Inc, United Kingdom. Intended Use: The instrument will be 
used to determine fertilizer nitrogen in organic and inorganic forms in 
soil, water and plant samples. It will also be used to determine 
gaseous products that are involved in soil metabolism and respiration 
and are lost from soils into the atmosphere. The objective of the 
experiments to be conducted will be to improve the understanding of how 
agricultural management practices affect the chemical and biochemical 
transformations of nitrogen and carbon in water, soils and plants. 
Application accepted by Commissioner of Customs: May 6, 1996.

    Docket Number: 96-049. Applicant: University of California at San 
Diego, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, 9500 Gilman Drive, La 
Jolla, CA 92093. Instrument: Mass Spectrometer, Model VG Sector 54. 
Manufacturer: VG Isotech, United Kingdom. Intended Use: The instrument 
will be used in the study of geological materials and natural waters to 
examine the isotopic composition of certain elements in these samples. 
The main objectives of the experiments conducted will be to examine the 
time scales of geologic processes (i.e., dating studies) or to use 
isotopic compositions of the materials being studied as tracers of 
geologic processes. In addition, the instrument will be used for 
educational purposes in the courses: SIO252C: Isotope Geochemistry, 
SIO299: Independent Research and ES144: Introduction to Isotope 
Geochemistry. Application accepted by Commissioner of Customs: May 7, 
1996.

    Docket Number: 96-050. Applicant: University of Michigan, 
Transportation Research Institute, 2901 Baxter Road, Ann Arbor, MI 
48109-2150. Instrument: (10) Infrared Headway Sensor Systems, Model 
ODIN 4F MS. Manufacturer: Leica AG, Switzerland. Intended Use: The 
instrument will be used in a study through which a total of ten 
passenger cars are outfitted and tested with ICC systems. A set of 
current ``issues'' pertaining to system features, duration of ICC 
acclimation period, driver characteristics, traffic environments, etc. 
will be incorporated into the study. The objectives of this 
investigation are: (1) Test the ability of a vehicle to maintain 
automatically a safe level of speed and distance between it and 
preceding vehicles, (2) evaluate improvements in safety, (3) evaluate 
the potential for decreasing the number and severity of rear end 
collisions and (4) evaluate the safety impact of the level of 
convenience which may be higher than is normally offered with standard 
cruise control. Application accepted by Commissioner of Customs: May 
10, 1996.

    Docket Number: 96-051. Applicant: Yale University School of 
Medicine, Department of Cell Biology, 333 Cedar Street, New Haven, CT 
06520-8002. Instrument: Free-Flow Electrophoresis Device, Model OCTOPUS 
PZE. Manufacturer: Dr. Weber GmbH, Germany. Intended Use: The 
instrument will be used for the separation and isolation of subcellular 
components from mammalian cells and tissues. Experiments will involve 
the disruption of various types of cells and the injection of cell 
homogenates into the FFE chamber for the purpose of collecting 
individual organelles for biochemical and functional analysis. 
Application accepted by Commissioner of Customs: May 10, 1996.

    Docket Number: 96-052. Applicant: North Carolina State University, 
Campus Box 7212, Raleigh, NC 27695-7212. Instrument: ISOCMS Accessory 
for Microanalyzer. Manufacturer: CAMECA Instruments, France. Intended 
Use: The instrument will be used in conjunction with a microanalyzer to 
help facilitate determination of the levels of impurities to the PPB 
and PPT level in materials of engineering importance using the SIMS 
techniques of dynamic depth profiling, static surface analysis, three 
dimensional depth profiling, surface mapping, etc. Application accepted 
by Commissioner of Customs: May 13, 1996.

    Docket Number: 96-053. Applicant: Wayne State University, 540 
Canfield Avenue, Detroit, MI 48201. Instrument: Electron Microscope, 
Model JEM-1010. Manufacturer: JEOL Ltd., Japan. Intended Use: The 
instrument will be used for morphological examination of ocular 
(cornea, retina and lens), neuronal (brain and spinal cord) and lung 
tissues. Cellular mechanisms of the action of bacterial toxins in vitro 
will also be studied. Application accepted by Commissioner of Customs: 
May 14, 1996.

    Docket Number: 96-054. Applicant: University of Georgia, National 
Environmentally Sound Production Agriculture Laboratory, Administration

[[Page 30221]]

Building, Coastal Plain Experiment Station, Moore Highway, Trifton, GA 
31794. Instrument: Ground Conductivity Meter, Model EM38. Manufacturer: 
Geonics Ltd., Canada. Intended Use: The instrument will be used for 
studies of subsurface discontinuities in soil properties. Application 
accepted by Commissioner of Customs: May 15, 1996.

    Docket Number: 96-055. Applicant: The Pennsylvania State 
University, Department of Geosciences, 503 Deike Building, University 
Park, PA 16802. Instrument: Mass Spectrometer, Model MAT 252. 
Manufacturer: Finnigan MAT, Germany. Intended Use: The instrument will 
be used to analyze the isotopic composition of fossil air samples 
extracted from polar ice cores. The data from these experiments will 
provide the means of reconstructing the composition of the past 
atmosphere over the last 250,000 years. The objective of the proposed 
work will be to better understand the factors which influence the 
biogeochemical cycling of carbon, oxygen and nitrogen in the natural 
environment. In addition, the instrument will be used in several 
geoscience courses for demonstrating various techniques used during the 
acquisition of stable isotope ratios of various air samples. 
Application accepted by Commissioner of Customs: May 20, 1996.

    Docket Number: 96-056. Applicant: Princeton University, PO Box 33, 
Princeton, NJ 08544-0033. Instrument: Electrical Capacitance Tomography 
Unit, Model PTL 300-TP-G. Manufacturer: Process Tomography, Ltd., 
United Kingdom. Intended Use: The instrument will be used to study the 
mechanics of flow of solid particles consisting of sand grains of about 
100 microns in diameters or standard aluminosilicate particles of 
comparable dimensions suspended in a gas. Application accepted by 
Commissioner of Customs: May 23, 1996.

    Docket Number: 96-057. Applicant: University of Iowa, Mass 
Spectrometry Facility, 71 Chemistry Building, Iowa City, IA 52242. 
Instrument: Magnetic Sector Mass Spectrometer, Model VG AutoSpec. 
Manufacturer: Micromass, Inc., United Kingdom. Intended Use: The 
instrument will be used primarily for structural studies of organic, 
organometallic, inorganic and biochemical compounds to determine 
molecular weight, elemental composition, and other details crucial to 
the characterization and structure determination of a wide variety of 
natural and synthetic chemical compounds encountered in research.
    Application accepted by Commissioner of Customs: May 23, 1996.
Frank W. Creel,
Director, Statutory Import Programs Staff.
[FR Doc. 96-15098 Filed 6-13-96; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 3510-DS-P