Review of Fundamental Properties of Gas Hydrates: Breakout Sessions of the International Workshop on Methane Hydrate Research and Development

The International Workshop on Methane Hydrate (MH) Research and Development (the Fiery Ice Workshop) began in 2001 with the goal of promoting laboratory and field research collaborations and providing a forum to share new knowledge on MH pertaining to coastal stability, climate change, and energy. Ten workshops have been held over the past 15 years in different countries. Each workshop has included presentations on national programs and policy areas, and new research, along with breakout sessions that focused on current key topics. Two or three concurrent breakout sessions were conducted twice during each workshop. In this paper, we review the breakout sessions on hydrate fundamental properties with the goal of identifying the major accomplishments and changes in hydrate science and engineering related to determining fundamental MH properties over the past 15 years

The detection of neutrino interactions in the emulsion/lead target of the OPERA experiment

The OPERA neutrino detector in the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS) was designed to perform the first detection of neutrino oscillations in appearance mode through the study of \u3bd\u3bc\u2192 \u3bd\u3c4 oscillations. The apparatus consists of an emulsion/lead target complemented by electronic detectors and it is placed in the high energy long-baseline CERN to LNGS beam (CNGS) 730 km away from the neutrino source. Runs with CNGS neutrinos were successfully carried out in 2007 and 2008 with the detector fully operational with its related facilities for the emulsion handling and analysis. After a brief description of the beam and of the experimental setup we report on the collection, reconstruction and analysis procedures of first samples of neutrino interaction event

Observation of a first \u3bd\u3c4 candidate event in the OPERA experiment in the CNGS beam

The OPERA neutrino detector in the underground Gran Sasso Laboratory (LNGS) has been designed to perform the first detection of neutrino oscillations in direct appearance mode through the study of the \u3bd\u3bc\u2192\u3bd\u3c4 channel. The hybrid apparatus consists of an emulsion/lead target complemented by electronic detectors and it is placed in the high energy long-baseline CERN to LNGS beam (CNGS) 730 km away from the neutrino source. Runs with CNGS neutrinos were successfully carried out in 2008 and 2009. After a brief description of the beam, the experimental setup and the procedures used for the analysis of the neutrino events, we describe the topology and kinematics of a first candidate ?? charged-current event satisfying the kinematical selection criteria. The background calculations and their cross-check are explained in detail and the significance of the event is assessed