Sensitivity of seismically cued antineutrino detectors to nuclear explosions

We evaluate the sensitivity of large, gadolinium-doped water detectors to antineutrinos released by nuclear fission explosions, using updated signal and background models and taking advantage of the capacity for seismic observations to provide an analysis trigger. Under certain realistic conditions, the antineutrino signature of a 250-kiloton pure fission explosion could be identified several hundred kilometers away in a detector about the size of the largest module currently proposed for a basic physics experiment. In principle, such an observation could provide rapid confirmation that the seismic signal coincided with a fission event, possibly useful for international monitoring of nuclear weapon tests. We discuss the limited potential for seismically cued antineutrino observations to constrain fission yield, differentiate pure fission from fusion-enhanced weapon tests, indicate that the seismic evidence of an explosion had been intentionally masked, or verify the absence of explosive testing in a targeted area. We conclude that advances in seismic monitoring and neutrino physics have made the detection of explosion-derived antineutrinos more conceivable than previously asserted, but the size and cost of sufficiently sensitive detectors continue to limit applications

Lanthanide Complexes as Chiral Probes Exploiting Circularly Polarized Luminescence

A series of studies has been undertaken to facilitate the identification and development of chiral lanthanide complexes that are able to report on changes in their local environment through modulation of the circular polarization of their emission. Reports of such systems remain relatively rare in the literature, notwithstanding the prevalence and importance of chirality in biological systems. The work described herein is separated into five chapters, the first of which comprises a discussion of relevant background information, along with a comprehensive review of responsive lanthanide-based CPL probes reported to date. A classification of these probes is built up, which informs the content of the following three chapters. Chapter 2 describes work undertaken in the pursuit of a novel lanthanide-based system for use as a CPL probe for the detection of proteins. The synthesis of an enantiopure lanthanide complex was undertaken and characterisation of this system carried out with reference to a structurally related racemic complex. A series of comparative investigations designed to probe the relative protein binding capability of these complexes was subsequently performed, which revealed that the observation of induced CPL from racemic lanthanide systems may be brought about by a change in complex constitution. This is the first example of such an effect from a well-defined racemic lanthanide complex in solution. Chapter 3 goes on to detail studies undertaken to demonstrate the utility of this racemic lanthanide system as a probe for chiral detection. Chapter 4 describes investigations carried out in an attempt to identify new systems exhibiting chiral quenching effects in solution. Initially, two pairs of enantiomeric electron-rich quenching species were assessed for their ability to quench the emission from an enantiopure DOTA-derived lanthanide complex differentially. Subsequently, investigations were focussed on examining the quenching of emission from novel enantiopure lanthanide complexes based on a 1,4,7-triazacyclononane framework, using cobalt complexes as the quenching species. Finally, Chapter 5 contains experimental procedures for each compound synthesised, as well as general experimental procedures

The Importance of Place in Public Space Design

Don’t get me wrong, the new main branch of the Dayton Metro Library is wonderful. It’s bright, innovative, and inviting. Mostly, it’s well suited for Dayton. This last aspect is something that I hadn’t felt until I visited another city’s new central library in Austin, Texas. It’s easy to see the beauty of the Austin Public Library and want all of its features for the Dayton Public Library without much thought about the important differences between the cities

But What Has Helga Crane to Do with the West Indies? Plantation Afterlives in the Black Atlantic

“But What Has Helga Crane to Do with the West Indies? Plantation Afterlives in the Black Atlantic” situates the emergence of the southern gothic in modernist American and Caribbean works as a response to the shifting cultural narrative of the plantation in the twentieth century. In this project, I argue that the plantation seeps out of its place and time to haunt landscapes it may never have touched and times in which slavery is long over. While the plantation system is broadly recognized as a literary, political, and cultural force in nineteenth-century literary studies, I conceive it is also a driving force of southern literature even after the physical plantations begin to fade. In this project, I examine how literary portrayals of plantations flourish in the 1920s and 30s, from the writings of the Nashville Agrarians to the popularity of Gone with the Wind, arguing that this period represents a literary re-mythologizing of the plantation’s legacy as a benevolent and positive model for the south. A significant contribution of this dissertation is then in demonstrating how plantations are present in works that are not traditionally understood as plantation fiction, and that these works offer a resistance to this re-mythologizing through turning to the gothic: the transatlantic plantation gothic in Nella Larsen’s Quicksand and Jean Rhys’ Voyage in the Dark, the impact of environmental labor on the plantation gothic in Jean Toomer’s Cane and Eric Walrond’s Tropic Death, and finally, how plantation modernity affects portrayals of natural disasters in plantation territories in Zora Neale Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching God and M. NourbeSe Philip’s Zong!. Ultimately, this project contributes to the discussion of plantation modernity currently occurring in Southern Studies beyond the nineteenth century and into the modernist period, while also demonstrating how movements often construed as disparate in American literary studies, like the Harlem Renaissance and the Nashville Agrarians, were actually in close conversation

Mapping and Restoration Inventory of Fringing Marsh Habitat in the Casco Bay Estuary, Project Report

During the spring and summer of 2007 a survey of the fringing marshes existing along the mainland coast of Casco Bay was commissioned by the Casco Bay Estuary Partnership and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The work was performed by personnel supervised by the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve (WNERR) in Wells, Maine. A delineation of fringing marshes based on aerial photography was performed during the spring and early summer months. This delineation, based upon aerial imagery taken in 2003, identified approximately 1,160 marsh units along the mainland coast of Casco Bay (islands were omitted from this study). Later in the summer, after maturation of marsh vegetation, survey teams were dispatched in two separate efforts in support of the image-based identification. Boat transects were taken along representative shorelines and fringing marshes detected were marked at each end with a GPS point allowing an approximation of marsh location, and extent, to be recorded. Survey teams on foot visited a number of randomly-selected sample points and performed on-site measurement of marsh area (total, high marsh, low marsh, and major invasive patches), an estimate (based on elevation differences) of potential total marsh area after a forty centimeter (40 cm) rise in average sea level, and performed a \u27rapid assessment\u27 of marsh characteristics and degradation condition. Based on the estimated average fringing marsh area, there is approximately 41 hectares of marsh covering nearly 150 km of the mainland coastline of Casco Bay. While some marsh is very healthy, development and other factors have taken their toll. The average impact assessment score was 73% (100% would be a \u27perfect\u27 score, with no problems); the median was just slightly higher at 75%. The average degradation score was 0.17 (with unity, \u271\u27, being the worst possible 1 score and \u270\u27 the best); similarly, the median was slightly better at 0.15. The image-based identification performed well in identifying marshes. Based on 2007 \u27surface truth\u27 provided by the boat transects, the image delineation (from 2003 imagery) identified between 50% and 70% (depending on the radius of tolerance used to define detection of a single marsh) of the marshes. When changes to the marshes over time are considered, this reflects favorably on its use. The marshes identified can serve as a basis for further efforts to find, assess, improve, and protect marshes in Casco Bay

Investigating the Past, Present and Future Responses of Shallap and Zongo Glaciers, Tropical Andes, to the El Niño Southern Oscillation

Tropical Andean glaciers are highly sensitive to climate change and are impacted by the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO). However, glaciological data are scarce, meaning that there are substantial knowledge gaps in the response of Andean glaciers to future anthropogenic and ENSO forcing and these are crucial to address, as glaciers represent a key water source for downstream populations and ecosystems. Here we integrated data from glaciological field studies, remote sensing, statistical analysis and glacier modelling to analyse the response of two Andean glaciers (Zongo and Shallap) to ENSO and their potential sensitivity to a range of climate forcing scenarios. Both glaciers retreated and experienced increasingly negative mass balance between the 1990s and the 2010s and responded strongly and rapidly to contemporary ENSO forcing, although this relationship evolved over time. Sensitivity experiments demonstrate that Shallap and Zongo are highly sensitive to ENSO forcing scenarios and the combination of ENSO and climate warming can cause rapid ice loss under the most extreme scenarios. Results also demonstrate the strong sensitivity of both glaciers to changes in the equilibrium line altitude, whereby rapid ice loss occurred when melt extended into present-day accumulation areas

Measurements of Electron Antineutrino Disappearance in the Double Chooz Experiment

This thesis presents complementary measurements of the neutrino oscillation parameter sin²2θ₁₃ made by observing the electron antineutrino flux from two nuclear reactors in Chooz, France. Antineutrinos are identified through both products of the inverse beta decay interaction, bar νₑ + p → e⁺ + n, in a high-precision liquid scintillator detector located approximately 1 km from the reactors. The most sensitive signal channel involves neutron captures by a gadolinium dopant, while a search for neutron captures on hydrogen provides a high-statistics validation. In both channels, the value of sin²2θ₁₃ is revealed by an energy- and reactor power-dependent deficit of antineutrino-like events, compared to a reactor simulation. All analyses produce results consistent with one another and with findings of other experiments. These datasets also expose features of the antineutrino spectrum not predicted in reactor flux models. Data from the newly inaugurated near detector, anticipated in the final part of this thesis, holds unique potential to clarify these features, pursue signals from sterile neutrinos, and contribute to global knowledge of three-neutrino mixing

Exceptional retreat of Novaya Zemlya's marine-terminating outlet glaciers between 2000 and 2013

Novaya Zemlya (NVZ) has experienced rapid ice loss and accelerated marine-terminating glacier retreat during the past 2 decades. However, it is unknown whether this retreat is exceptional longer term and/or whether it has persisted since 2010. Investigating this is vital, as dynamic thinning may contribute substantially to ice loss from NVZ, but is not currently included in sea level rise predictions. Here, we use remotely sensed data to assess controls on NVZ glacier retreat between 1973/76 and 2015. Glaciers that terminate into lakes or the ocean receded 3.5 times faster than those that terminate on land. Between 2000 and 2013, retreat rates were significantly higher on marine-terminating outlet glaciers than during the previous 27 years, and we observe widespread slowdown in retreat, and even advance, between 2013 and 2015. There were some common patterns in the timing of glacier retreat, but the magnitude varied between individual glaciers. Rapid retreat between 2000 and 2013 corresponds to a period of significantly warmer air temperatures and reduced sea ice concentrations, and to changes in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) and Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO). We need to assess the impact of this accelerated retreat on dynamic ice losses from NVZ to accurately quantify its future sea level rise contribution

eBank UK: linking research data, scholarly communication and learning

This paper includes an overview of the changing landscape of scholarly communication and describes outcomes from the innovative eBank UK project, which seeks to build links from e-research through to e-learning. As introduction, the scholarly knowledge cycle is described and the role of digital repositories and aggregator services in linking data-sets from Grid-enabled projects to e-prints through to peer-reviewed articles as resources in portals and Learning Management Systems, are assessed. The development outcomes from the eBank UK project are presented including the distributed information architecture, requirements for common ontologies, data models, metadata schema, open linking technologies, provenance and workflows. Some emerging challenges for the future are presented in conclusion