284 research outputs found
Organic Pollutants, Heavy Metals and Toxicity in Oil Spill impacted Salt Marsh Sediment Cores, Staten Island, New York City, USA
Sediment cores from Staten Island's salt marsh contain multiple historical oil spill events that impact ecological health. Microtox solid phase bioassay indicated moderate to high toxicity. Multiple spikes of TPH (6524 to 9586 mg/kg) and ÎŁ16 PAH (15.5 to 18.9 mg/kg) were co-incident with known oil spills. A high TPH background of 400â700 mg/kg was attributed to diffuse sources. Depth-profiled metals Cu (1243 mg/kg), Zn (1814 mg/kg), Pb (1140 mg/kg), Ni (109 mg/kg), Hg (7 mg/kg), Cd 15 (mg/kg) exceeded sediment quality guidelines confirming adverse biological effects. Changes in Pb206/207 suggested three metal contaminant sources and diatom assemblages responded to two contamination events. Organic and metal contamination in Saw Mill Creek Marsh may harm sensitive biota, we recommend caution in the management of the 20â50 cm sediment interval because disturbance could lead to remobilisation of pre-existing legacy contamination into the waterway
Potential Environmental Impacts of CO2 Leakage from the Study of Natural Analogue Sites in Europe
AbstractSites of natural CO2 leakage provide opportunities to study the potential environmental impacts of such leakage on near-surface ecosystems. As part of the FP7 RISCS (Research into Impacts and Safety in CO2 Storage) project a geochemical, botanical and microbiological study have been conducted on a natural CO2 vent in Florina, Greece and the findings are compared with the results drawn from Latera, Italy and Laacher See, Germany. Plant and microbial communities appear to have adapted to long-term CO2 exposure. Therefore the findings may not be representative of the effects of potential leakage from man made storage sites
Baseline variability in onshore near surface gases and implications for monitoring at CO2 storage sites
The measurement of gas concentrations and fluxes in the soil and atmosphere is a powerful tool for monitoring geological carbon capture and storage (CCS) sites because the analyses are made directly in the biosphere in which we live. These methods can be used to both find and accurately quantifying leaks, and are visible and tangible data for public and ecosystem safety. To be most reliable and accurate, however, the measurements must be interpreted in the context of natural variations in gas concentration and flux. Such baseline data vary both spatially and temporally due to natural processes, and a clear understanding of their values and distributions is critical for interpreting near-surface gas monitoring techniques. The best example is CO2 itself, as the production of this gas via soil respiration can create a wide range of concentrations and fluxes that must be separated from, and not confused with, CO2 that may leak towards the surface from a storage reservoir. The present article summarizes baseline studies performed by the authors at various sites having different climates and geological settings from both Europe and North America, with focus given to the range of values that can result from near surface processes and how different techniques or data processing approaches can be used to help distinguish a leakage signal from an anomalous, shallow biogenic signal
Time-integrated luminosity recorded by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e+e- collider
This article is the Preprint version of the final published artcile which can be accessed at the link below.We describe a measurement of the time-integrated luminosity of the data collected by the BABAR experiment at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e+e- collider at the Ï(4S), Ï(3S), and Ï(2S) resonances and in a continuum region below each resonance. We measure the time-integrated luminosity by counting e+e-âe+e- and (for the Ï(4S) only) e+e-âÎŒ+ÎŒ- candidate events, allowing additional photons in the final state. We use data-corrected simulation to determine the cross-sections and reconstruction efficiencies for these processes, as well as the major backgrounds. Due to the large cross-sections of e+e-âe+e- and e+e-âÎŒ+ÎŒ-, the statistical uncertainties of the measurement are substantially smaller than the systematic uncertainties. The dominant systematic uncertainties are due to observed differences between data and simulation, as well as uncertainties on the cross-sections. For data collected on the Ï(3S) and Ï(2S) resonances, an additional uncertainty arises due to Ïâe+e-X background. For data collected off the Ï resonances, we estimate an additional uncertainty due to time dependent efficiency variations, which can affect the short off-resonance runs. The relative uncertainties on the luminosities of the on-resonance (off-resonance) samples are 0.43% (0.43%) for the Ï(4S), 0.58% (0.72%) for the Ï(3S), and 0.68% (0.88%) for the Ï(2S).This work is supported by the US Department of Energy and National Science Foundation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada), the Commissariat Ă lâEnergie Atomique and Institut National de Physique NuclĂ©aire et de Physiquedes Particules (France), the Bundesministerium fĂŒr Bildung und Forschung and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germany), the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (Italy), the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (The Netherlands), the Research Council of Norway, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Ministerio de Ciencia e InnovaciĂłn (Spain), and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (United Kingdom). Individuals have received support from the Marie-Curie IEF program (European Union) and the A.P. Sloan Foundation (USA)
Measurement of the B0-anti-B0-Oscillation Frequency with Inclusive Dilepton Events
The - oscillation frequency has been measured with a sample of
23 million \B\bar B pairs collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II
asymmetric B Factory at SLAC. In this sample, we select events in which both B
mesons decay semileptonically and use the charge of the leptons to identify the
flavor of each B meson. A simultaneous fit to the decay time difference
distributions for opposite- and same-sign dilepton events gives ps.Comment: 7 pages, 1 figure, submitted to Physical Review Letter
Comparison of the impacts of elevated COâ soil gas concentrations on selected European terrestrial environments
Selected European studies have illustrated the impacts of elevated COâ concentrations in shallow soils on pasture. For the first time, general unified conclusions can be made, providing COâ thresholds where effects on plants and soil microbiology are observed and making recommendations on how this information can be used when planning projects for COâ storage. The sites include those where COâ is being naturally released to the atmosphere from deep geological formations; and a non-adapted site, with no previous history of COâ seepage, where COâ has been injected into the unsaturated soil horizon. Whilst soil gas concentrations will be influenced by flux rates and other factors, the results suggest that a concentration of between 10% and 15% COâ soil gas at 20 cm depth, which is within the root zone, is an important threshold level for observing changes in plant coverage. Site-specific plant âindicatorsâ are also observed for COâ concentrations at â„35%. Microbiological changes are seen where COâ soil gas concentrations are between 15% and 40%. As part of site characterisation, an evaluation of the risks of leakage and their potential environmental impacts should be undertaken
Observation of the baryonic decay B \uaf 0 \u2192 \u39bc+ p \uaf K-K+
We report the observation of the baryonic decay B\uaf0\u2192\u39bc+p\uafK-K+ using a data sample of 471
7106 BB\uaf pairs produced in e+e- annihilations at s=10.58GeV. This data sample was recorded with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II storage ring at SLAC. We find B(B\uaf0\u2192\u39bc+p\uafK-K+)=(2.5\ub10.4(stat)\ub10.2(syst)\ub10.6B(\u39bc+))
710-5, where the uncertainties are statistical, systematic, and due to the uncertainty of the \u39bc+\u2192pK-\u3c0+ branching fraction, respectively. The result has a significance corresponding to 5.0 standard deviations, including all uncertainties. For the resonant decay B\uaf0\u2192\u39bc+p\uaf\u3c6, we determine the upper limit B(B\uaf0\u2192\u39bc+p\uaf\u3c6)<1.2
710-5 at 90% confidence level
Search for Darkonium in e+e- Collisions
Collider searches for dark sectors, new particles interacting only feebly with ordinary matter, have largely focused on identifying signatures of new mediators, leaving much of dark sector structures unexplored. In particular, the existence of dark matter bound states (darkonia) remains to be investigated. This possibility could arise in a simple model in which a dark photon (A0 ) is light enough to generate an attractive force between dark fermions. We report herein a search for a JPC ÂŒ 1ââ darkonium state, the ÏD, produced in the reaction eĂŸeâ â ÎłÏD, ÏD â A0 A0 A0 , where the dark photons subsequently decay into pairs of leptons or pions, using 514 fbâ1 of data collected with the BABAR detector. No significant signal is observed, and we set bounds on the Îł â A0 kinetic mixing as a function of the dark sector coupling constant for 0.001 < mA0 < 3.16 GeV and 0.05 < mÏD < 9.5 GeV.publishedVersio
Measurement of the CP-Violating Asymmetry Amplitude sin2
We present results on time-dependent CP-violating asymmetries in neutral B decays to several CP eigenstates. The measurements use a data sample of about 88 million Y(4S) --> B Bbar decays collected between 1999 and 2002 with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B Factory at SLAC. We study events in which one neutral B meson is fully reconstructed in a final state containing a charmonium meson and the other B meson is determined to be either a B0 or B0bar from its decay products. The amplitude of the CP-violating asymmetry, which in the Standard Model is proportional to sin2beta, is derived from the decay-time distributions in such events. We measure sin2beta = 0.741 +/- 0.067 (stat) +/- 0.033 (syst) and |lambda| = 0.948 +/- 0.051 (stat) +/- 0.017 (syst). The magnitude of lambda is consistent with unity, in agreement with the Standard Model expectation of no direct CP violation in these modes
A search for the decay
We search for the rare flavor-changing neutral-current decay in a data sample of 82 fb collected with the {\sl BABAR}
detector at the PEP-II B-factory. Signal events are selected by examining the
properties of the system recoiling against either a reconstructed hadronic or
semileptonic charged-B decay. Using these two independent samples we obtain a
combined limit of
at the 90% confidence level. In addition, by selecting for pions rather than
kaons, we obtain a limit of using only the hadronic B reconstruction method.Comment: 7 pages, 8 postscript figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
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