Eco-efficiency analysis of water distribution system flushing into a containment Pond.

For a salt or other conservative contaminant contamination event in a water distribution system, opening fire hydrants to flush the system is currently an accepted decontamination method. However, all the contaminated flushed water is discharged to the local surroundings of the fire hydrants and imposes an environmental impact. Another system decontamination alternative can be using a containment pond to catch the contaminated water.

Fe(II) reduction of pyrolusite (β-MnO) and secondary mineral evolution.

Iron (Fe) and manganese (Mn) are the two most common redox-active elements in the Earth's crust and are well known to influence mineral formation and dissolution, trace metal sequestration, and contaminant transformations in soils and sediments. Here, we characterized the reaction of aqueous Fe(II) with pyrolusite (β-MnO) using electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, aqueous Fe and Mn analyses, and Fe Mössbauer spectroscopy. We reacted pyrolusite solids repeatedly with 3 mM Fe(II) at pH 7.

Opportunities and Challenges in the Design and Analysis of Biomass Supply Chains.

The biomass supply chain is one of the most critical elements of large-scale bioenergy production and in many cases a key barrier for procuring initial funding for new developments on specific energy crops. Most productions rely on complex transforming chains linked to feed and food markets. The term 'supply chain' covers various aspects from cultivation and harvesting of the biomass, to treatment, transportation, and storage.

A Review of Environmental Life Cycle Assessments of Liquid Transportation Biofuels in the Pan American Region.

Life-cycle assessment (LCA) has been applied to many biofuel and bioenergy systems to determine potential environmental impacts, but the conclusions have varied. Different methodologies and processes for conducting LCA of biofuels make the results difficult to compare, in-turn making it difficult to make the best possible and informed decision. Of particular importance are the wide variability in country-specific conditions, modeling assumptions, data quality, chosen impact categories and indicators, scale of production, system boundaries, and co-product allocation.

Fe(II)-catalyzed recrystallization of goethite revisited.

Results from enriched (57)Fe isotope tracer experiments have shown that atom exchange can occur between structural Fe in Fe(III) oxides and aqueous Fe(II) with no formation of secondary minerals or change in particle size or shape. Here we derive a mass balance model to quantify the extent of Fe atom exchange between goethite and aqueous Fe(II) that accounts for different Fe pool sizes. We use this model to reinterpret our previous work and to quantify the influence of particle size and pH on extent of goethite exchange with aqueous Fe(II).

Fe atom exchange between aqueous Fe2+ and magnetite.

The reaction between magnetite and aqueous Fe(2+) has been extensively studied due to its role in contaminant reduction, trace-metal sequestration, and microbial respiration. Previous work has demonstrated that the reaction of Fe(2+) with magnetite (Fe(3)O(4)) results in the structural incorporation of Fe(2+) and an increase in the bulk Fe(2+) content of magnetite. It is unclear, however, whether significant Fe atom exchange occurs between magnetite and aqueous Fe(2+), as has been observed for other Fe oxides.

Search for the associated production of the standard-model Higgs Boson in the all-hadronic channel.

We report on a search for the standard-model Higgs boson in pp collisions at square root(s) = 1.96 TeV using an integrated luminosity of 2.0 fb(-1).

First observation of B(s)(0) --> D(s)(+/-)K(-/+) and measurement of the ratio of branching fractions B(B(s)(0) --> D(s)(+/-)K(-/+)/B(B(s)(0) --> D(s)(+)pi(-)).

A combined mass and particle identification fit is used to make the first observation of the decay B(s)(0) --> D(s)(+/-)K(-/+) and measure the branching fraction of B(s)(0) --> D(s)(+/-)K(-/+) relative to B(s)(0) --> D(s)(+)pi(-). This analysis uses 1.2 fb(-1) integrated luminosity of pp collisions at square root(s) = 1.

Measurement of the top-quark mass with dilepton events selected using neuroevolution at CDF.

We report a measurement of the top-quark mass M_{t} in the dilepton decay channel tt[over ] --> bl;{'+} nu_{l};{'}b[over ]l;{-}nu[over ]_{l}. Events are selected with a neural network which has been directly optimized for statistical precision in top-quark mass using neuroevolution, a technique modeled on biological evolution. The top-quark mass is extracted from per-event probability densities that are formed by the convolution of leading order matrix elements and detector resolution functions.

Atom exchange between aqueous Fe(II) and goethite: an Fe isotope tracer study.

The reaction of aqueous Fe(II) with Fe(III) oxides is a complex process, comprising sorption, electron transfer, and in some cases, reductive dissolution and transformation to secondary minerals. To better understand the dynamics of these reactions, we measured the extent and rate of Fe isotope exchange between aqueous Fe(II) and goethite using a 57Fe isotope tracer approach. We observed near-complete exchange of Fe atoms between the aqueous phase and goethite nanorods over a 30-day time period.

Direct bound on the total decay width of the top quark in pp collisions at sqrt[s]=1.96 TeV.

We present the first direct experimental bound on the total decay width of the top quark, Gamma(t), using 955 pb(-1) of the Tevatron's pp collisions recorded by the Collider Detector at Fermilab. We identify 253 top-antitop pair candidate events. The distribution of reconstructed top quark mass from these events is fitted to templates representing different values of the top quark width.

Search for maximal flavor violating scalars in same-charge lepton pairs in pp collisions at sqrt[s]=1.96 TeV.

Models of maximal flavor violation (MxFV) in elementary particle physics may contain at least one new scalar SU(2) doublet field Phi(FV)=(eta(0),eta(+)) that couples the first and third generation quarks (q_(1), q_(3)) via a Lagrangian term L(FV)=xi(13)Phi(FV)q(1)q(3). These models have a distinctive signature of same-charge top-quark pairs and evade flavor-changing limits from meson mixing measurements. Data corresponding to 2 fb(-1) collected by the Collider Dectector at Fermilab II detector in pp[over ] collisions at sqrt[s]=1.

Measurement of the single-top-quark production cross section at CDF.

We report a measurement of the single-top-quark production cross section in 2.2 fb;{-1} of pp collision data collected by the Collider Detector at Fermilab at sqrt[s]=1.96 TeV.

Search for the Higgs boson produced in association with Z-->l+l in pp collisions at sqrt[s]=1.96 TeV.

We present a search for the Higgs boson in the process qq-->ZH-->l;{+}l;{-}bb[over ]. The analysis uses an integrated luminosity of 1 fb;{-1} of pp[over ] collisions produced at sqrt[s]=1.96 TeV and accumulated by the upgraded Collider Detector at Fermilab (CDF II).

Search for supersymmetry in pp collisions at sqrt[s]=1.96 TeV Using the trilepton signature for chargino-neutralino production.

We use the three lepton and missing energy trilepton signature to search for chargino-neutralino production with 2.0 fb;{-1} of integrated luminosity collected by the CDF II experiment at the Tevatron pp[over ] collider. We expect an excess of approximately 11 supersymmetric events for a choice of parameters of the mSUGRA model, but our observation of 7 events is consistent with the standard model expectation of 6.

Forward-backward asymmetry in top-quark production in pp[over] collisions at sqrt[s]=1.96 TeV.

We present measurements of the forward-backward charge asymmetry in top pair production using 1.9 fb;{-1} of pp[over ] collisions at sqrt[s]=1.96 TeV recorded with the Collider Detector at Fermilab II.

Search for the flavor-changing neutral-current decay t-->Zq in pp collisions at sqrt[s] = 1.96 TeV.

We report a search for the flavor-changing neutral-current decay of the top quark t-->Zq (q=u, c) in pp collisions at sqrt[s]=1.96 TeV using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.9 fb(-1) collected by the CDF II detector.

Search for large extra dimensions in final states containing one photon or jet and large missing transverse energy produced in pp collisions at square root[s]=1.96 TeV.

We present the results of searches for large extra dimensions in samples of events with large missing transverse energy E_{T} and either a photon or a jet produced in pp[over ] collisions at sqrt[s]=1.96 TeV collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab II. For gamma+E_{T} and jet+E_{T} candidate samples corresponding to 2.

Search for doubly charged Higgs bosons with lepton-flavor-violating decays involving tau leptons.

We search for pair production of doubly charged Higgs particles (H+/- +/-) followed by decays into electron-tau (etau) and muon-tau (mutau) pairs using data (350 pb(-1) collected from [over]pp collisions at sqrt[s]=1.96 TeV by the CDF II experiment. We search separately for cases where three or four final-state leptons are detected, and combine results for exclusive decays to left-handed etau (mutau) pairs.

Search for pair production of scalar top quarks decaying to a tau lepton and a b quark in pp over collisions at sqrt s=1.96 TeV.

We search for pair production of supersymmetric top quarks (t over1), followed by R-parity violating decay t over1-->taub with a branching ratio beta, using 322 pb(-1) of pp over collisions at sqrt s=1.96 TeV collected by the upgraded Collider Detector at Fermilab. Two candidate events pass our final selection criteria, consistent with the standard model expectation.

Search for resonant tt[overline] production in pp[overline] collisions at sqrt[s]=1.96 TeV.

We report on a search for narrow-width particles decaying to a top and antitop quark pair. The data set used in the analysis corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 680 pb(-1) collected with the Collider Detector at Fermilab in run II. We present 95% confidence level upper limits on the cross section times branching ratio.

Search for the Higgs boson in events with missing transverse energy and b quark jets produced in pp collisions at square root(s)=1.96 TeV.

We search for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with an electroweak vector boson in events with no identified charged leptons, large imbalance in transverse momentum, and two jets where at least one contains a secondary vertex consistent with the decay of b hadrons. We use approximately 1 fb(-1) integrated luminosity of pp collisions at square root(s)=1.96 TeV recorded by the Collider Detector at Fermilab II experiment at the Tevatron.

Strong evidence for ZZ production in pp[over] collisions at sqrt[s]=1.96 TeV.

We report the first evidence of Z boson pair production at a hadron collider with a significance exceeding 4 standard deviations. This result is based on a data sample corresponding to 1.9 fb(-1) of integrated luminosity from pp[over] collisions at sqrt[s]=1.

Observation of the decay Bc+/--->J/psipi+/- and measurement of the Bc+/- mass.

The Bc+/- meson is observed through the decay Bc+/--->J/psipi+/-, in data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 2.4 fb(-1) recorded by the Collider Detector at Fermilab II detector at the Fermilab Tevatron. A signal of 108+/-15 candidates is observed, with a significance that exceeds 8sigma.