Enabling Future Sustainability Transitions: An Urban Metabolism Approach to Los Angeles Pincetl et al. Enabling Future Sustainability Transitions

Summary: This synthesis article presents an overview of an urban metabolism (UM) approach using mixed methods and multiple sources of data for Los Angeles, California. We examine electric energy use in buildings and greenhouse gas emissions from electricity, and calculate embedded infrastructure life cycle effects, water use and solid waste streams in an attempt to better understand the urban flows and sinks in the Los Angeles region (city and county). This quantification is being conducted to help policy-makers better target energy conservation and efficiency programs, pinpoint best locations for distributed solar generation, and support the development of policies for greater environmental sustainability. It provides a framework to which many more UM flows can be added to create greater understanding of the study area's resource dependencies. Going forward, together with policy analysis, UM can help untangle the complex intertwined resource dependencies that cities must address as they attempt to increase their environmental sustainability

A simulation code to assist designing space missions of the Airwatch type

The design of an Airwatch type space mission can greatly benefit from a flexible simulation code for establishing the values of the main parameters of the experiment. We present here a code written for this purpose. The cosmic ray primary spectrum at very high energies, the atmosphere modelling, the fluorescence yield, the photon propagation and the detector response are taken into account in order to optimize the fundamental design parameters of the experiment, namely orbit height, field of view, mirror radius, number of pixels of the focal plane, threshold of photo-detection. The optimization criterion will be to maximize counting rates versus mission cost, which imposes limits both on weight and power consumption. Preliminary results on signals with changing energy and zenith angle of incident particles are shown

The Cosmic-Ray Proton and Helium Spectra measured with the CAPRICE98 balloon experiment

A new measurement of the primary cosmic-ray proton and helium fluxes from 3 to 350 GeV was carried out by the balloon-borne CAPRICE experiment in 1998. This experimental setup combines different detector techniques and has excellent particle discrimination capabilities allowing clear particle identification. Our experiment has the capability to determine accurately detector selection efficiencies and systematic errors associated with them. Furthermore, it can check for the first time the energy determined by the magnet spectrometer by using the Cherenkov angle measured by the RICH detector well above 20 GeV/n. The analysis of the primary proton and helium components is described here and the results are compared with other recent measurements using other magnet spectrometers. The observed energy spectra at the top of the atmosphere can be represented by (1.27+-0.09)x10^4 E^(-2.75+-0.02) particles (m^2 GeV sr s)^-1, where E is the kinetic energy, for protons between 20 and 350 GeV and (4.8+-0.8)x10^2 E^(-2.67+-0.06) particles (m^2 GeV nucleon^-1 sr s)^-1, where E is the kinetic energy per nucleon, for helium nuclei between 15 and 150 GeV nucleon^-1.Comment: To be published on Astroparticle Physics (44 pages, 13 figures, 5 tables

Extreme Energy Cosmic Rays (EECR) Observation Capabilities of an "Airwatch from Space'' Mission

The longitudinal development and other characteristics of the EECR induced atmospheric showers can be studied from space by detecting the fluorescence light induced in the atmospheric nitrogen. According to the Airwatch concept a single fast detector can be used for measuring both intensity and time development of the streak of fluorescence light produced by the atmospheric shower induced by an EECR. In the present communication the detection capabilities for the EECR observation from space are discussed.Comment: 3 pages (LaTeX). To appear in the Proceedings of TAUP'9

NEMO: A Project for a km3^3 Underwater Detector for Astrophysical Neutrinos in the Mediterranean Sea

The status of the project is described: the activity on long term characterization of water optical and oceanographic parameters at the Capo Passero site candidate for the Mediterranean km$^3$ neutrino telescope; the feasibility study; the physics performances and underwater technology for the km$^3$; the activity on NEMO Phase 1, a technological demonstrator that has been deployed at 2000 m depth 25 km offshore Catania; the realization of an underwater infrastructure at 3500 m depth at the candidate site (NEMO Phase 2).Comment: Proceeding of ISCRA 2006, Erice 20-27 June 200

Measurement of the atmospheric muon flux with the NEMO Phase-1 detector

The NEMO Collaboration installed and operated an underwater detector including prototypes of the critical elements of a possible underwater km3 neutrino telescope: a four-floor tower (called Mini-Tower) and a Junction Box. The detector was developed to test some of the main systems of the km3 detector, including the data transmission, the power distribution, the timing calibration and the acoustic positioning systems as well as to verify the capabilities of a single tridimensional detection structure to reconstruct muon tracks. We present results of the analysis of the data collected with the NEMO Mini-Tower. The position of photomultiplier tubes (PMTs) is determined through the acoustic position system. Signals detected with PMTs are used to reconstruct the tracks of atmospheric muons. The angular distribution of atmospheric muons was measured and results compared with Monte Carlo simulations.Comment: Astrop. Phys., accepte

The ANTARES Collaboration: Contributions to ICRC 2017 Part I: Neutrino astronomy (diffuse fluxes and point sources)

Papers on neutrino astronomy (diffuse fluxes and point sources, prepared for the 35th International Cosmic Ray Conference (ICRC 2017, Busan, South Korea) by the ANTARES Collaboratio

Search for muon-neutrino emission from GeV and TeV gamma-ray flaring blazars using five years of data of the ANTARES telescope

The ANTARES telescope is well-suited for detecting astrophysical transient neutrino sources as it can observe a full hemisphere of the sky at all times with a high duty cycle. The background due to atmospheric particles can be drastically reduced, and the point-source sensitivity improved, by selecting a narrow time window around possible neutrino production periods. Blazars, being radio-loud active galactic nuclei with their jets pointing almost directly towards the observer, are particularly attractive potential neutrino point sources, since they are among the most likely sources of the very high-energy cosmic rays. Neutrinos and gamma rays may be produced in hadronic interactions with the surrounding medium. Moreover, blazars generally show high time variability in their light curves at different wavelengths and on various time scales. This paper presents a time-dependent analysis applied to a selection of flaring gamma-ray blazars observed by the FERMI/LAT experiment and by TeV Cherenkov telescopes using five years of ANTARES data taken from 2008 to 2012. The results are compatible with fluctuations of the background. Upper limits on the neutrino fluence have been produced and compared to the measured gamma-ray spectral energy distribution.Comment: 27 pages, 16 figure