Target Mass Monitoring and Instrumentation in the Daya Bay Antineutrino Detectors

The Daya Bay experiment measures sin^2 2{\theta}_13 using functionally identical antineutrino detectors located at distances of 300 to 2000 meters from the Daya Bay nuclear power complex. Each detector consists of three nested fluid volumes surrounded by photomultiplier tubes. These volumes are coupled to overflow tanks on top of the detector to allow for thermal expansion of the liquid. Antineutrinos are detected through the inverse beta decay reaction on the proton-rich scintillator target. A precise and continuous measurement of the detector's central target mass is achieved by monitoring the the fluid level in the overflow tanks with cameras and ultrasonic and capacitive sensors. In addition, the monitoring system records detector temperature and levelness at multiple positions. This monitoring information allows the precise determination of the detectors' effective number of target protons during data taking. We present the design, calibration, installation and in-situ tests of the Daya Bay real-time antineutrino detector monitoring sensors and readout electronics.Comment: 22 pages, 20 figures; accepted by JINST. Changes in v2: minor revisions to incorporate editorial feedback from JINS

A Statistical Treatment of the Gamma-Ray Burst "No Host Galaxy" Problem: II. Energies of Standard Candle Bursts

With the discovery that the afterglows after some bursts are coincident with faint galaxies, the search for host galaxies is no longer a test of whether bursts are cosmological, but rather a test of particular cosmological models. The methodology we developed to investigate the original "no host galaxy" problem is equally valid for testing different cosmological models, and is applicable to the galaxies coincident with optical transients. We apply this methodology to a family of models where we vary the total energy of standard candle bursts. We find that total isotropic energies of E<2e52~erg are ruled out while log(E)~53 erg is favored.Comment: To appear in Ap.J., 514, 15 pages + 7 figures, AASTeX 4.0. Revisions are: additional author, updated data, and minor textual change

Hadronic Charm Decays From B Factories

The B factories, KEKB and PEPII, provide enormous samples of charmed mesons and baryons as well as B{bar B} events. The BELLE and BaBar collaborations have discovered many new particles containing charm quarks in the last few years and have measured their properties with increasing precision. The current status and most recent studies of these charm particle properties is briefly reviewed

Aging Studies of 2nd Generation BaBar RPCs

The BaBar detector, operating at the PEPII B factory of the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC), installed over 200 2nd generation Resistive Plate Chambers (RPCs) in 2002. The streamer rates produced by backgrounds and signals from normal BaBar running vary considerably (0.1- &gt;20 Hz/cm2) depending on the layer and position of the chambers, thus providing a broad spectrum test of RPC performance and aging. The lowest rate chambers have performed very well with stable efficiencies averaging 95%. Other chambers had rate-dependant inefficiencies due to Bakelite drying which were reversed by the introduction of humidified gases. RPC inefficiencies in the highest rate regions of the higher rate chambers have been observed and also found to be rate dependant. The inefficient regions grow with time and have not yet been reduced by operation with humidified input gas. Three of these chambers were converted to avalanche mode operation and display significantly improved efficiencies. The rate of production of HF in the RPC exhaust gases was measured in avalanche and streamer mode RPCs and found to be comparable despite the lower current of the avalanche mode RPCs

Control of Ultra-cold Inelastic Collisions by Feshbash Resonances and Quasi-One-Dimensional Confinement

Cold inelastic collisions of atoms or molecules are analyzed using very general arguments. In free space, the deactivation rate can be enhanced or suppressed together with the scattering length of the corresponding elastic collision via a Feshbach resonance, and by interference of deactivation of the closed and open channels. In reduced dimensional geometries, the deactivation rate decreases with decreasing collision energy and does not increase with resonant elastic scattering length. This has broad implications; e.g., stabilization of molecules in a strongly confining two-dimensional optical lattice, since collisional decay of the highly vibrationally excited states due to inelastic collisions is suppressed. The relation of our results with those based on the Lieb-Liniger model are addressed.Comment: 5 pages, 1 figur

Empirical determination of severe trauma in seals from collisions with tidal turbine blades

This work was funded by Marine Scotland Science (Marine Mammal Scientific Support Program 2, MRE2). It was also supported by NERC National Capability Funding to the Sea Mammal Research Unit (grant no. SMRU10001).1. Tidal energy converters (turbines) are being developed in many countries as part of attempts to reduce reliance on hydrocarbon fuels. However, the moving blades of tidal turbines pose potential collision risks for marine animals. Accurate assessment of mortality risk as a result of collisions is essential for risk management during planning and consenting processes for marine energy developments. In the absence of information on the physical consequences of such collisions, predicting likely risks relies on theoretical collision risk models. The application of these at a population level usually assumes that all collisions result in mortality. This is unlikely and the approach therefore produces upwardly biased estimates of population consequences. 2. In this study, we estimate the pathological consequences of direct collisions with tidal turbines using seal carcasses and physical models of tidal turbine blades. We quantify severe trauma at a range of impact speeds and to different areas of seal carcasses. A dose–response model was developed with associated uncertainty to determine an impact speed threshold of severe trauma to use in future collision risk models. 3. Results showed that severe trauma was restricted to the thoracic region, with no evidence of injury to the lumbar or cervical spine. Pathological indicators of mortality were only predicted to occur in collision speeds in excess of 5.1 m/s (95% C.I. 3.2–6.6) and was affected by body condition; increasing blubber depth reduced the likelihood of severe trauma. 4. Synthesis and applications. This study provides important information for policy makers and regulators looking to predict the potential impacts of tidal turbines on marine mammals. We demonstrate that the probability of severe trauma in seals due to collisions with turbine blades is highly dependent upon collision speed, and that the majority of predicted collisions are unlikely to cause fatal skeletal trauma. We recommend that collision risk models incorporate appropriate mortality assumptions to ensure accurate estimates of the population consequences are produced in risk assessments for tidal turbine deployments.PostprintPeer reviewe

LOTIS Upper Limits and the Prompt OT from GRB 990123

GRB 990123 established the existence of prompt optical emission from gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). The Livermore Optical Transient Imaging System (LOTIS) has been conducting a fully automated search for this kind of simultaneous low energy emission from GRBs since October 1996. Although LOTIS has obtained simultaneous, or near simultaneous, coverage of the error boxes obtained with BATSE, IPN, XTE, and BeppoSAX for several GRBs, image analysis resulted in only upper limits. The unique gamma-ray properties of GRB 990123, such as very large fluence (top 0.4%) and hard spectrum, complicate comparisons with more typical bursts. We scale and compare gamma-ray properties, and in some cases afterglow properties, from the best LOTIS events to those of GRB 990123 in an attempt to determine whether the prompt optical emission of this event is representative of all GRBs. Furthermore, using LOTIS upper limits in conjunction with the relativistic blast wave model, we weakly constrain the GRB and afterglow parameters such as density of the circumburster medium and bulk Lorentz factor of the ejecta.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, To appear in Proceedings of the 5th Huntsville Gamma-Ray Burst Symposiu

Discovery and characterization of 91 novel transcripts expressed in cattle placenta

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Among the eutherian mammals, placental architecture varies to a greater extent than any other tissue. The diversity of placental types, even within a single mammalian order suggests that genes expressed in placenta are under strong Darwinian selection. Thus, the ruminant placenta may be a rich source of genes to explore adaptive evolutionary responses in mammals. The aim of our study was to identify novel transcripts expressed in ruminant placenta, and to characterize them with respect to their expression patterns, organization of coding sequences in the genome, and potential functions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>A combination of bioinformatics, comparative genomics and transcript profiling was used to identify and characterize 91 novel transcripts (NTs) represented in a cattle placenta cDNA library. These NTs have no significant similarity to any non-ferungulate DNA or RNA sequence. Proteins longer than 100 aa were predicted for 29 NTs, and 21 are candidate non-coding RNAs. Eighty-six NTs were found to be expressed in one or more of 18 different tissues, with 39 (42%) showing tissue-preference, including six that were expressed exclusively in placentome. The authenticity of the NTs was confirmed by their alignment to cattle genome sequence, 42 of which showed evidence of mRNA splicing. Analysis of the genomic context where NT genes reside revealed 61 to be in intergenic regions, whereas 30 are within introns of known genes. The genes encoding the NTs were found to be significantly associated with subtelomeric regions.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The 91 lineage-specific transcripts are a useful resource for studying adaptive evolutionary responses of the ruminant placenta. The presence of so many genes encoding NTs in cattle but not primates or rodents suggests that gene loss and gain are important mechanisms of genome evolution in mammals. Furthermore, the clustering of NT genes within subtelomeric regions suggests that such regions are highly dynamic and may foster the birth of novel genes. The sequencing of additional vertebrate genomes with defined phylogenetic relationships will permit the search for lineage-specific genes to take on a more evolutionary context that is required to understand their origins and functions.</p