The preponderance of matter over antimatter in the early Universe, the dynamics of the supernova bursts that produced the heavy elements necessary for life and whether protons eventually decay -these mysteries at the forefront of particle physics and astrophysics are key to understanding the early evolution of our Universe, its current state and its eventual fate. The Long-Baseline Neutrino Experiment (LBNE) represents an extensively developed plan for a world-class experiment dedicated to addressing these questions.Experiments carried out over the past half century have revealed that neutrinos are found in three states, or flavors, and can transform from one flavor into another. These results indicate that each neutrino flavor state is a mixture of three different nonzero mass states, and to date offer the most compelling evidence for physics beyond the Standard Model. In a single experiment, LBNE will enable a broad exploration of the three-flavor model of neutrino physics with unprecedented detail. Chief among its potential discoveries is that of matter-antimatter asymmetries (through the mechanism of charge-parity violation) in neutrino flavor mixing -a step toward unraveling the mystery of matter generation in the early Universe. Independently, determination of the unknown neutrino mass ordering and precise measurement of neutrino mixing parameters by LBNE may reveal new fundamental symmetries of Nature.Grand Unified Theories, which attempt to describe the unification of the known forces, predict rates for proton decay that cover a range directly accessible with the next generation of large underground detectors such as LBNE's. The experiment's sensitivity to key proton decay channels will offer unique opportunities for the ground-breaking discovery of this phenomenon.Neutrinos emitted in the first few seconds of a core-collapse supernova carry with them the potential for great insight into the evolution of the Universe. LBNE's capability to collect and analyze this high-statistics neutrino signal from a supernova within our galaxy would provide a rare opportunity to peer inside a newly-formed neutron star and potentially witness the birth of a black hole.To achieve its goals, LBNE is conceived around three central components: (1) a new, highintensity neutrino source generated from a megawatt-class proton accelerator at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, (2) a fine-grained near neutrino detector installed just downstream of the source, and (3) a massive liquid argon time-projection chamber deployed as a far detector deep underground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility. This facility, located at the site of the former Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota, is ∼1,300 km from the neutrino source at Fermilab -a distance (baseline) that delivers optimal sensitivity to neutrino charge-parity symmetry violation and mass ordering effects. This ambitious yet cost-effective design incorporates scalability and flexibility and can accommodate a variety of upgrades and contributions.With its exceptional combi...

Natural gas is typically considered to be the cleaner-burning fossil fuel that could play an important role within a restricted carbon budget. Whilst natural gas emits less CO2 when burned than other fossil fuels, its main constituent is methane, which has a much stronger climate forcing impact than CO2 in the short-term. Estimates of methane emissions in the natural gas supply chain have been the subject of much controversy, due to uncertainties associated with estimation methods, data quality and assumptions used. This paper presents a comprehensive compilation of estimated CO2 and methane emissions across the global natural gas supply chain, with the aim of providing a balanced insight for academia, industry and policy makers by summarising the reported data, locating the areas of major uncertainty and identifying where further work is needed to reduce or remove this uncertainty. Overall, the range of documented estimates of methane emissions across the supply chain is vast amongst an aggregation of different geological formations, technologies, plant age, gas composition and regional regulation, not to mention differences in estimation methods. Estimates of combined methane and CO2 emissions ranged from 2 -42 g CO2 eq./ MJ HHV, whilst methane-only emissions ranged from 0.2% -10% of produced methane. The methane emissions at the extraction stage are the most contentious issue, with limited data available but potentially large impacts associated with well completions for unconventional gas, liquids unloading and also from the transmission stage. From the range of literature estimates, a constrained range of emissions was estimated that reflects the most recent and reliable estimates: total supply chain GHG emissions were estimated to be between 3.6 and 42.4 g CO2 eq./ MJ HHV, with a central estimate of 10.5. The presence of 'super emitters', a small number of facilities or equipment that cause extremely high emissions, is found across all supply chain stages creating a highly skewed emissions distribution. However, various new technologies, mitigation and maintenance approaches, and legislation are driving significant reductions in methane leakage across the natural gas supply chain.

The selective hydrogenation of a,b unsaturated aldehydes has been performed in a range of room temperature ionic liquids. The reaction data reported show that it is possible to enhance the selectivity of supported palladium catalysts for the reduction of the conjugated CNC bond by using ionic liquids as solvents compared with conventional molecular organic solvents. The catalyst system is easily recycled without the need to isolate or filter the catalyst and may be used without further treatment.

No abstract

Carbon dioxide solubility in a set of carboxylate ionic liquids formulated with stoicheiometric amounts of water is found to be significantly higher than for other ionic liquids previously reported. This is due to synergistic chemical and physical absorption. The formulated ionic liquid/water mixtures show greatly enhanced carbon dioxide solubility relative to both anhydrous ionic liquids and aqueous ionic liquid solutions, and are competitive with commercial chemical absorbers, such as activated N-methyldiethanolamine or monoethanolamine. † CCDC 1055905 and 1055906. For crystallographic data in CIF or other electronic format see

Molecular hydrogenation catalysts have been co-entrapped with the ionic liquid [Bmim]NTf(2) inside a silica matrix by a sol-gel method. These catalytic ionogels have been compared to simple catalyst-doped glasses, the parent homogeneous catalysts, commercial heterogeneous catalysts, and Rh-doped mesoporous silica. The most active ionogel has been characterised by transmission electron microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and solid state NMR before and after catalysis. The ionogel catalysts were found to be remarkably active, recyclable and resistant to chemical change.

No abstract

In this Letter, we present a method to pattern microribbons of the Te nanowire/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(4-styrene-sulfonate) nanocomposite and report the electrical conductivity and Seebeck coefficient from 10 to 400 K. The results reveal three important findings that have not been previously reported for this nanocomposite. First, the Seebeck coefficient and electrical conductivity increase from 10 to 400 K in a complex, thermally activated mechanism. Second, we have found that oxidation of the Te nanowires occurs slowly over time. Third, aging of the devices shows a slight decrease in electrical conductivity at room temperature, while the Seebeck coefficient doubles. These results suggest that encapsulation of the films will be necessary for practical energy harvesting applications of this nanocomposite.