747 research outputs found
Radio Astronomy
Contains reports on three research projects.National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NsG-419)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Contract NSR-22-009-120)Lincoln Laboratory Purchase Order No. 74
Economies of Size in Municipal Water-Treatment Technologies: A Texas Lower Rio Grande Valley Case Study
As the U.S. population continues to increase, the priority on planning for future water quantity
and quality becomes more important. Historically, many municipalities have primarily relied
upon surface water as their major source of drinking water. In recent years, however,
technological advancements have improved the economic viability of reverse-osmosis (RO)
desalination of brackish-groundwater as a potable water source. By including brackishgroundwater,
there may be an alternative water source that provides municipalities an
opportunity to hedge against droughts, political shortfalls, and protection from potential surfacewater
contamination. In addition to selecting a water-treatment technology, municipalities and
their associated water planners must determine the appropriate facility size, location, etc.
To assist in these issues, this research investigates and reports on economies of size for
both conventional surface-water treatment and brackish-groundwater desalination by using
results from four water-treatment facilities in the Texas Lower Rio Grande Valley (LRGV). The
methodology and associated results herein may have direct implications on future water planning
as highlighting the most economically-efficient alternative(s) is a key objective.
In this study, economic and financial life-cycle costs are calculated for a “small”
conventional surface-water facility (i.e., 2.0 million gallons per day (mgd) Olmito facility) and a
“small” brackish-groundwater desalination facility (i.e., 1.13 mgd La Sara facility). Thereafter,
these results are merged with other, prior life-cycle cost analyses’ results for a “medium”
conventional surface-water facility (i.e., 8.25 mgd McAllen Northwest facility) and a “medium”
brackish-groundwater desalination facility (i.e., 7.5 mgd Southmost facility). The combined data
allow for examination of any apparent economies of size amongst the conventional surface-water
facilities and the brackish-groundwater desalination facilities.
This research utilized the CITY H20 ECONOMICS and the DESAL ECONOMICS © ©
Excel® spreadsheet models developed by agricultural economists with Texas AgriLife Research
and Texas AgriLife Extension Service. The life-cycle costs calculated within these spreadsheet
models provide input for work which subsequently provides the estimations of economies of size.
Although the economies of size results are only based on four facilities and are only applicable to
the Texas LRGV, the results are nonetheless useful. In short, it is determined that economies of
size are apparent in conventional surface-water treatment and constant economies of size are
apparent in brackish-groundwater desalination. Further, based on modified life-cycle costs
(which seek to more-precisely compare across water-treatment technologies and/or facilities),
this research also concludes that reverse-osmosis (RO) desalination of brackish-groundwater is
economically competitive with conventional surface-water treatment in this region
Two Earth-sized planets orbiting Kepler-20
Since the discovery of the first extrasolar giant planets around Sun-like
stars, evolving observational capabilities have brought us closer to the
detection of true Earth analogues. The size of an exoplanet can be determined
when it periodically passes in front of (transits) its parent star, causing a
decrease in starlight proportional to its radius. The smallest exoplanet
hitherto discovered has a radius 1.42 times that of the Earth's radius (R
Earth), and hence has 2.9 times its volume. Here we report the discovery of two
planets, one Earth-sized (1.03R Earth) and the other smaller than the Earth
(0.87R Earth), orbiting the star Kepler-20, which is already known to host
three other, larger, transiting planets. The gravitational pull of the new
planets on the parent star is too small to measure with current
instrumentation. We apply a statistical method to show that the likelihood of
the planetary interpretation of the transit signals is more than three orders
of magnitude larger than that of the alternative hypothesis that the signals
result from an eclipsing binary star. Theoretical considerations imply that
these planets are rocky, with a composition of iron and silicate. The outer
planet could have developed a thick water vapour atmosphere.Comment: Letter to Nature; Received 8 November; accepted 13 December 2011;
Published online 20 December 201
Polarizations of J/psi and psi(2S) Mesons Produced in ppbar Collisions at 1.96 TeV
We have measured the polarizations of \jpsi and \psiprime mesons as
functions of their transverse momentum \pt when they are produced promptly in
the rapidity range with \pt \geq 5 \pgev. The analysis is performed
using a data sample with an integrated luminosity of about 800 \ipb collected
by the CDF II detector. For both vector mesons, we find that the polarizations
become increasingly longitudinal as \pt increases from 5 to 30 \pgev. These
results are compared to the predictions of nonrelativistic quantum
chromodynamics and other contemporary models. The effective polarizations of
\jpsi and \psiprime mesons from -hadron decays are also reported.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figures, published in Physical Review Letter
Observation and Mass Measurement of the Baryon
We report the observation and measurement of the mass of the bottom, strange
baryon through the decay chain , where
, , and .
Evidence for observation is based on a signal whose probability of arising from
the estimated background is 6.6 x 10^{-15}, or 7.7 Gaussian standard
deviations. The mass is measured to be (stat.) (syst.) MeV/.Comment: Minor text changes for the second version. Accepted by Phys. Rev.
Let
Search for Third Generation Vector Leptoquarks in p anti-p Collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV
We describe a search for a third generation vector leptoquark (VLQ3) that
decays to a b quark and tau lepton using the CDF II detector and 322 pb^(-1) of
integrated luminosity from the Fermilab Tevatron. Vector leptoquarks have been
proposed in many extensions of the standard model (SM). Observing a number of
events in agreement with SM expectations, assuming Yang-Mills (minimal)
couplings, we obtain the most stringent upper limit on the VLQ3 pair production
cross section of 344 fb (493 fb) and lower limit on the VLQ3 mass of 317
GeV/c^2 (251 GeV/c^2) at 95% C.L.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, submitted to PR
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