We propose a new search strategy for directly-produced sbottoms at the LHC with a small mass splitting between the sbottom and its decayed stable neutralino. Our search strategy is based on boosting sbottoms through an energetic initial state radiation jet. In the final state, we require a large missing transverse energy and one or two b-jets besides the initial state radiation jet. We also define a few kinematic variables to further increase the discovery reach. For the case that the sbottom mainly decays into the bottom quark and the stable neutralino, we have found that even for a mass splitting as small as 10 GeV sbottoms with masses up to around 400 GeV can be excluded at the 95% confidence level with 20 inverse femtobarn data at the 8 TeV LHC.

The Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) has developed prototype equipment to demonstrate remote surveying of Inner and Outer DOE Standard 3013 containers for fixed and transferable contamination in accordance with DOE Standard 3013 and 10 CFR 835 Appendix B. When fully developed the equipment will be part of a larger suite of equipment used to package material in accordance with DOE Standard 3013 at the Pit Disassembly and Conversion Project slated for installation at the Savannah River Site. The prototype system consists of a small six-axis industrial robot with an end effector consisting of a force sensor, vacuum gripper and a three fingered pneumatic gripper. The work cell also contains two alpha survey instruments, swipes, swipe dispenser, and other ancillary equipment. An external controller interfaces with the robot controller, survey instruments and other ancillary equipment to control the overall process. SRNL is developing automated equipment for the Pit Disassembly and Conversion (PDC) Project that is slated for the Savannah River Site (SRS). The equipment being developed is automated packaging equipment for packaging plutonium bearing materials in accordance with DOE-STD-3013-2004. The subject of this paper is the development of a prototype Radiological Survey Station (RSS). Other automated equipment being developed for …

None

None

None

The production of the heavy (c{bar c})-quarkonium, (c{bar b})-quarkonium, and (b{bar b})-quarkonium states [({bar Q}') quarkonium for short], via the W{sup +} semi-inclusive decays, has been systematically studied within the framework of the nonrelativistic QCD. In addition to the two color-singlet S-wave states, we also discuss the production of the four color-singlet P-wave states |(Q{bar Q}')({sup 1}P{sub 1}){sub 1}> and |(Q{bar Q}')({sup 3}P{sub J}){sub 1}> [with J = (0,1,2)] together with the two color-octet components |(Q{bar Q}')({sup 1}S{sub 0}){sub 8}> and |(Q{bar Q}')({sup 3}S{sub 1}){sub 8}>. Improved trace technology is adopted to derive the simplified analytic expressions at the amplitude level, which shall be useful for dealing with the following cascade decay channels. At the LHC with the luminosity L {proportional_to} 10{sup 34} cm{sup -2} s{sup -1} and the center-of-mass energy {radical}S = 14 TeV, sizable heavy-quarkonium events can be produced through the W{sup +} boson decays; i.e., 2.57 x 10{sup 6} {eta}{sub c}, 2.65 x 10{sup 6} J/{Psi}, and 2.40 x 10{sup 6} P-wave charmonium events per year can be obtained, and 1.01 x 10{sup 5} B{sub c}, 9.11 x 10{sup 4} B*{sub c}, and 3.16 x 10{sup 4} P-wave (c{bar b})-quarkonium events per year can be obtained. Main …

A new rapid method for the determination of {sup 210}Po in water samples has been developed at the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) that can be used for emergency response or routine water analyses. If a radiological dispersive device (RDD) event or a radiological attack associated with drinking water supplies occurs, there will be an urgent need for rapid analyses of water samples, including drinking water, ground water and other water effluents. Current analytical methods for the assay of {sup 210}Po in water samples have typically involved spontaneous auto-deposition of {sup 210}Po onto silver or other metal disks followed by counting by alpha spectrometry. The auto-deposition times range from 90 minutes to 24 hours or more, at times with yields that may be less than desirable. If sample interferences are present, decreased yields and degraded alpha spectrums can occur due to unpredictable thickening in the deposited layer. Separation methods have focused on the use of Sr Resin�, often in combination with 210Pb analysis. A new rapid method for {sup 210}Po in water samples has been developed at the Savannah River National Laboratory (SRNL) that utilizes a rapid calcium phosphate co-precipitation method, separation using DGA Resin� (N,N,N�,N� tetraoctyldiglycolamide extractant-coated resin, Eichrom …

We present several recent results from the BaBar collaboration in the areas of initial state radiation physics and transition form factors. An updated study of the processes e{sup +}e{sup -} {yields} K{sup +}K{sup -}{pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -} and e{sup +}e{sup -} {yields} K{sup +}K{sup -}{pi}{sup 0}{pi}{sup 0} provides an improved understanding of the Y (2175) meson. A very precise study of the process e{sup +}e{sup -} {yields} {pi}{sup +}{pi}{sup -} improves the precision on the calculated anomalous magnetic moment of the muon and provides by far the best information on excited {rho} states. Our previous measurements of the timelike transition form factors (TFF) of the {eta} and {eta}' mesons at Q{sup 2} = 112 GeV{sup 2}, combined with new measurements of the their spacelike TFFs and those of the {pi}{sup 0} and {eta}{sub c} mesons, provide powerful tests of QCD and models of the distribution amplitudes of quarks inside these mesons. The {eta}{sub c} TFF shows the expected behavior over the Q{sup 2} range 1-50 GeV{sup 2}, and we are sensitive to next-to-leading-order QCD corrections. The {eta} and {eta}' TFFs are consistent with expected behavior, but those for the {pi}{sup 0} are not. Extracting the strange and nonstrange components of the …

During the past decades, considerable theoretical efforts have been devoted to studying the electronic and geometric structures and related properties of surfaces. Such efforts are particularly important for systems like the actinides for which experimental work is relatively difficult to perform due to material problems and toxicity. The actinides are characterized by a gradual filling of the 5f-electron shell with the degree of localization increasing with the atomic number Z along the last series of the periodic table. The open shell of the 5f electrons determines the atomic, molecular, and solid state properties of the actinide elements and their compounds and understanding the quantum mechanics of the 5f electrons is the defining issue in the chemistry and physics of actinide elements. These elements are also characterized by the increasing prominence of relativistic effects and their studies can, in fact, help us understand the role of relativity throughout the periodic table. However, the electronic and geometric structures of the actinides, specifically the trans-uranium actinides and the roles of the 5f electrons in chemical bonding are still not well understood. This is crucial not only for our understanding of the actinides but also for the fact that the actinides constitute 'the missing …

Multiple sets of chemotaxis genes including three cheA homologs were identified in the genome sequence of the anaerobic bacterium Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough. Each CheA is a histidine kinase (HK) and part of a two component signal transduction system. Knock out mutants in the three cheA genes were created using single cross-over homologous recombination insertion. We studied the phenotypes of the cheA mutants in detail and discovered that ?cheA-3 has a non swarming/swimming phenotype both in the soft agar plates and Palleroni chamber assays. CheA-3 shows similarity to the Shewanella oneidensis CheA-3 and the Vibrio cholerae CheA-2 that are responsible for chemotaxis in the respective organisms. We did not find any morphological or structural differences between the three Delta cheA mutants and the wild type cells in electron microscopy. Our results from these studies are presented.

Executive Summary 1. We investigated the impacts of wind power development on the demography, movements, and population genetics of Greater Prairie-Chickens (Tympanuchus cupido) at three sites in northcentral and eastern Kansas for a 7-year period. Only 1 of 3 sites was developed for wind power, the 201MW Meridan Way Wind Power Facility at the Smoky Hills site in northcentral Kansas. Our project report is based on population data for prairie chickens collected during a 2-year preconstruction period (2007-2008), a 3-year postconstruction period (2009-2011) and one final year of lek surveys (2012). Where relevant, we present preconstruction data from our field studies at reference sites in the northern Flint Hills (2007-2009) and southern Flint Hills (2006-2008). 2. We addressed seven potential impacts of wind power development on prairie chickens: lek attendance, mating behavior, use of breeding habitat, fecundity rates, natal dispersal, survival rates, and population numbers. Our analyses of pre- and postconstruction impacts are based on an analysis of covariance design where we modeled population performance as a function of treatment period, distance to eventual or actual site of the nearest wind turbine, and the interaction of these factors. Our demographic and movement data from the 6-year study period at the …

Direct-drive-implosion experiments on the OMEGA laser [T. R. Boehly et al., Opt. Commun. 133, 495 (1997)] have showed discrepancies between simulations of the scattered (non-absorbed) light levels and measured ones that indicate the presence of a mechanism that reduces laser coupling efficiency by 10%-20%. This appears to be due to crossed-beam energy transfer (CBET) that involves electromagnetic-seeded, low-gain stimulated Brillouin scattering. CBET scatters energy from the central portion of the incoming light beam to outgoing light, reducing the laser absorption and hydrodynamic efficiency of implosions. One-dimensional hydrodynamic simulations including CBET show good agreement with all observables in implosion experiments on OMEGA. Three strategies to mitigate CBET and improve laser coupling are considered: the use of narrow beams, multicolor lasers, and higher-Z ablators. Experiments on OMEGA using narrow beams have demonstrated improvements in implosion performance.

None

None

This paper presents an approach to accomplish synthetic aperture radar (SAR) image segmentation, which are corrupted by speckle noise. Some ordinary segmentation techniques may require speckle filtering previously. Our approach performs radar image segmentation using the original noisy pixels as input data, eliminating preprocessing steps, an advantage over most of the current methods. The algorithm comprises a statistical region growing procedure combined with hierarchical region merging to extract regions of interest from SAR images. The region growing step over-segments the input image to enable region aggregation by employing a combination of the Kolmogorov-Smirnov (KS) test with a hierarchical stepwise optimization (HSWO) algorithm for the process coordination. We have tested and assessed the proposed technique on artificially speckled image and real SAR data containing different types of targets.

None

Considering the possibility to build an e{sup +}e{sup -} collider at the energies around the Z{sup 0}-boson resonance with a planned luminosity so high as L {proportional_to} 10{sup 34} {approx} 10{sup 36} cm{sup -2}s{sup -1} (super Z-factory), we make a detailed discussion on the (c{bar b})-quarkonium production through e{sup +}e{sup -} {yields} (c{bar b})[n] + b + {bar c} within the framework of non-relativistic QCD. Here [n] stands for the Fock-states |(c{sub b}){sub 1}[{sup 1}S{sub 0}]>, |(c{bar b})8[{sup 1}S{sub 0}]g>, |(c{bar b} ){sub 1}[{sup 3}S{sub 1}]>, |(c{bar b}){sub 8}[{sup 3}S{sub 1}]g>, |(c{bar b}){sub 1}[{sup 1}P{sub 1}]> and |(c{bar b}){sub 1}[{sup 3}P{sub J}]> (with J = (1, 2, 3)) respectively. To simplify the hard-scattering amplitude as much as possible and to derive analytic expressions for the purpose of future events simulation, we adopt the 'improved trace technology' to do our calculation, which deals with the hard scattering amplitude directly at the amplitude level other than the conventional way at the squared-amplitude level. Total cross-section uncertainties caused by the quark masses are predicted by taking m{sub c} = 1.50 {+-} 0.30 GeV and m{sub b} = 4.90 {+-} 0.40 GeV. If all higher (c{bar b})-quarkonium states decay to the ground state B{sub …

None