257 research outputs found
Dalitz plot analyses of B-0 -> (D-DK+)-K-0 and B+-> (D)over-bar(-)D(0)K(+) decays
No full text© 2015, APS Journal
Banking on offsets: a political ecological and eco-geomorphic analysis of Section 404 compensatory stream mitigation banking in Illinois and Missouri
No full text"No net loss goals play a major role in U.S. environmental policies. No net loss policies are championed as ways to simultaneously allow economic development and protect the environment. One such example is Section 404 of the U.S. Clean Water Act. Section 404 is administered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers ('the Corps') and the Environmental Protection Agency. Section 404 pertains to the dredging and filling of jurisdictional streams and wetlands nationally. Section 404 oversight is triggered when an applicant—such as a land or highway developer—proposes to fill or dredge a stream or wetland as a part of their development project. As a part of their project, the applicant must mitigate their overall impact by avoiding additional impacts, minimizing any impacts that occur, and compensating for their impacts by providing a commensurate amount of ecological function to a stream or wetland elsewhere. Since 2008, federal regulation prefers that compensatory mitigation for stream impacts is provided by a stream mitigation bank: a segment of stream or river that is enhanced, restored, or conserved to replace lost or damaged functions. Thus, rather than compensating sites on a project-by-project basis, federal guidelines prefer that compensation occurs prior to impacts on larger sites that can offset multiple impacts within the same watershed.
This dissertation examines the process through which the St. Louis Corps commensurates impacts and mitigation to streams in Illinois and Missouri. Commensuration, the comparison of different objects or qualities using a common metric, is fundamental to implementing no net loss policies. This is because the amount of compensation required to mitigate impacts is measured using district-defined measures of stream credits. A stream credit is an abstract unit of value that is supposed to represent the total function of a stream. Each Corps district is responsible for developing their own method and criteria for defining the criteria and value of stream credits. These methods are called stream mitigation methods. Federal guidelines urge Corps districts design stream mitigation methods to assess stream impacts based on stream functions, rather than merely exchanging impacts and compensation using stream length or area (i.e. non-functional measures).
This dissertation contributes to three bodies of literature. First this dissertation contributes to practical studies of Section 404 compensatory mitigation by demonstrating significant hurdles to implementing in-kind compensatory stream mitigation banking nationwide. Second this dissertation contributes to the literature on stream and watershed management by demonstrating the applicability of the concept of stream naturalization to regulatory-based stream management. Third this dissertation contributes to the literature on the sociology of measurements and environmental compensation by testing theories of the constraints and drivers of measurement standardization. Using the framework of a sociology of translation, this dissertation shows that while methods are design with users in mind, the expectations of users is structured by a broader social context within which methods are created (i.e. the St. Louis Corps regulatory program).
The primary contribution of this dissertation is its explanation of how and why the St. Louis Corps implements no net loss goals by using non-functional metrics and non-functional commensuration systems. This dissertation shows the social factors that come into play to structure these outcomes. The result is that no net loss is achieved only numerically in Illinois and Missouri: while stream credits may balance, the actual functional conditions of streams remain uncompensated and unexamined. This dissertation is composed of four separate analyses. Each analysis provides additional insight into the logics and subsequent biophysical outcomes of Section 404 compensatory stream mitigation banking regulators and participants in Illinois and Missouri.
First, this dissertation explains the social dynamics involved in creating a standard method for assessing and evaluating stream function in Illinois and Missouri by Section 404 regulators and ecological experts. Previously unexplored, this contribution is achieved by analyzing the process by which the St. Louis Corps organizes and creates district-specific stream mitigation methods in Illinois and Missouri. The primary finding of this analysis is that the St. Louis Corps develops stream mitigation methods in Illinois and Missouri with the overall goal of ensuring that non-experts can use the methods rapidly. Thus, the Illinois and Missouri stream mitigation methods are not based on stream functions and therefore do not ensure no net loss of stream functions. Instead, the Illinois and Missouri stream mitigation methods are visual, activity, and physical-based assessments of impacts and mitigation.
Second, this dissertation follows a St. Louis Corps district regulator as he evaluates a Section 404 permit and assesses a proposed stream impact site using the Illinois stream mitigation method. Using participant observation, this analysis highlights the various comparisons that regulators make when commensurating stream impacts and potential stream mitigation. The primary finding of this section of the dissertation is that Corps regulators use individual discretion and personal preferences when assessing the value of stream impacts using the mitigation methods. This interpretive flexibility is rooted in the fact that the Illinois stream method is not prescriptive. Rather than requiring specific steps to assess the functional impact of a Section 404 activity, the method only requires visual assessment of physical channel conditions to discern the overall ""impact"" of a Section 404 project.
Third, this dissertation investigates how St. Louis regulators and mitigation bankers plan and design stream mitigation banking sites. In Illinois, along with elsewhere in the Midwestern U.S., stream mitigation banks provide stream credits through riparian corridor enhancement rather than in-channel stream work. Thus, stream credits are generated using work that is out-of-kind with impacts. Interviews with mitigation bankers and a St. Louis regulator reveal the underlying causes of this out-of-kind relationship. A primary finding of this analysis is that St. Louis regulators favor generating a larger pool of stream credits even if they are not generated using in-channel work. Without riparian work counting as stream credits, there would not be any stream credits available at mitigation banks in Illinois since stream mitigation bankers are hesitant to conduct in-channel work. St. Louis regulators allow out-of-kind stream credit work at mitigation banks because they are pressured by federal guidelines to encourage mitigation bankers to develop more mitigation banks. As a result, the preferences for mitigation bankers to essentially conduct wetland mitigation work and call it stream mitigation work becomes representative of how stream credits are generated at mitigation banks in Illinois and elsewhere in the Midwest.
Finally, this dissertation compares the geomorphic and water quality characteristics of impact sites and a mitigation banking site. Stream mitigation banks in Illinois exclusively generate stream credits through riparian corridor enhancement. Thus, mitigation banking sites are not in-kind with impact sites that include in-channel impacts. However, since riparian corridor work supposedly benefits in-channel habitat, there is interest in understanding whether or not riparian corridor banking sites generate non-compensatory mitigation benefits to the in-channel area. Using cross-sectional surveys, sediment analysis, watershed delineation, water quality measurements, and riparian corridor area comparisons, the fourth analysis in this dissertation compares four impact sites and their ""off-setting"" mitigation banking site stream. Findings from this analysis suggest that there are likely negligible non-compensatory mitigation benefits generated to the in-channel area from riparian corridor mitigation work based on the variables measured in this study."Submission published under a 24 month embargo labeled 'U of I Access', the embargo will last until 2018-08-01The student, Alex Peimer, accepted the attached license on 2016-07-06 at 11:09.The student, Alex Peimer, submitted this Dissertation for approval on 2016-07-06 at 11:20.This Dissertation was approved for publication on 2016-07-07 at 13:44.DSpace SAF Submission Ingestion Package generated from Vireo submission #9779 on 2016-11-10 at 12:24:55Made available in DSpace on 2016-11-10T18:39:18Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 2
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Previous issue date: 2016-07-07Embargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 95456
Lift date: 2018-11-10T18:39:22Z
Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD systemEmbargo set by: Seth Robbins for item 95456
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Reason: Author requested U of Illinois access only (OA after 2yrs) in Vireo ETD systemU of I Only Restriction Lifted for Item 95456 on 2018-11-11T10:15:32Z
Dalitz plot analyses of B-0 -> (D-DK+)-K-0 and B+-> (D)over-bar(-)D(0)K(+) decays
No full textWe present Dalitz plot analyses for the decays of B mesons to (D-DK+)-K-0 and (D) over bar (DK+)-D-0-K-0. We report the observation of the D*(s1)(2700)(+) resonance in these two channels and obtain measurements of the mass M(D*(s1)(2700)(+)) = 2699(-7)(+14) MeV/c(2) and of the width Gamma(D*(s1)(2700)(+)) = 127(-19)(+24) MeV, including statistical and systematic uncertainties. In addition, we observe an enhancement in the (DK+)-K-0 invariant mass around 2350-2500 MeV/c(2) in both decays B-0 -> (D-DK+)-K-0 and B+ -> (D) over bar (DK+)-D-0-K-0, which we are not able to interpret. The results are based on 429 fb(-1) of data containing 471 x 10(6) B (B) over bar pairs collected at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the BABAR detector at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Measurement of the D[superscript *](2010)[superscript +] natural linewidth and the D[superscript *](2010)[superscript +] - D[superscript 0] mass difference
No full textWe measure the mass difference, Δm[subscript 0], between the D[superscript *](2010)[superscript +] and the D[superscript 0] and the natural linewidth, Γ, of the transition D[superscript *](2010)[superscript +] → D[superscript 0]π[superscript +]. The data were recorded with the BABAR detector at center-of-mass energies at and near the Υ(4S) resonance, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of approximately 477 fb[superscript −1]. The D[superscript 0] is reconstructed in the decay modes D[superscript 0] → K[superscript −]π[superscript +] and D[superscript 0] → K[superscript −]π[superscript +]π[superscript −]π[superscript +]. For the decay mode D[superscript 0] → K[superscript −]π[superscript +] we obtain Γ = (83.4 ± 1.7 ± 1.5) keV and Δm[subscript 0] = (145425.6 ± 0.6 ± 1.8) keV, where the quoted errors are statistical and systematic, respectively. For the D[superscript 0] → K[superscript −]π[superscript +]π[superscript −]π[superscript +] mode we obtain Γ = (83.2 ± 1.5 ± 2.6) keV and Δm[subscript 0] = (145426.6 ± 0.5 ± 2.0) keV. The combined measurements yield Γ = (83.3 ± 1.2 ± 1.4) keV and Δm[subscript 0] = (145425.9 ± 0.4 ± 1.7) keV; the width is a factor of approximately 12 times more precise than the previous value, while the mass difference is a factor of approximately 6 times more precise.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio
Search for the decay modes D-0 -> e(+) e(-), D-0 -> mu(+) mu(-), and D-0 -> e(+/-) mu -/+
No full textWe present searches for the rare decay modes D-0 -> e(+) e(-), D-0 -> mu(+) mu(-), and D-0 -> e(+/-) mu(-/+) in continuum e(+) e(-) -> c (c) over bar events recorded by the BABAR detector in a data sample that corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 468 fb(-1). These decays are highly Glashow-Iliopoulos-Maiani suppressed but may be enhanced in several extensions of the standard model. Our observed event yields are consistent with the expected backgrounds. An excess is seen in the D-0 -> mu(+) mu(-) channel, although the observed yield is consistent with an upward background fluctuation at the 5% level. Using the Feldman-Cousins method, we set the following 90% confidence level intervals on the branching fractions: B(D-0 -> e(+) e(-)) mu(+) mu(-)) within [0.6,8.1] x 10(-7), and B(D-0 -> e(+/-) mu(-/+)) < 3.3 x 10(-7)
Dalitz plot analyses of B-0 -> (D-DK+)-K-0 and B+-> (D)over-bar(-)D(0)K(+) decays
No full textWe present Dalitz plot analyses for the decays of B mesons to (D-DK+)-K-0 and (D) over bar (DK+)-D-0-K-0. We report the observation of the D*(s1)(2700)(+) resonance in these two channels and obtain measurements of the mass M(D*(s1)(2700)(+)) = 2699(-7)(+14) MeV/c(2) and of the width Gamma(D*(s1)(2700)(+)) = 127(-19)(+24) MeV, including statistical and systematic uncertainties. In addition, we observe an enhancement in the (DK+)-K-0 invariant mass around 2350-2500 MeV/c(2) in both decays B-0 -> (D-DK+)-K-0 and B+ -> (D) over bar (DK+)-D-0-K-0, which we are not able to interpret. The results are based on 429 fb(-1) of data containing 471 x 10(6) B (B) over bar pairs collected at the Upsilon(4S) resonance with the BABAR detector at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
Erratum: Branching fraction measurements of the color-suppressed decays B[over ̄]^{0} to D^{(*)0}π^{0}, D^{(*)0}η, D^{(*)0}ω, and D^{(*)0}η^{′} and measurement of the polarization in the decay B[over ̄]^{0}→D^{*0}ω [Phys. Rev. D 84, 112007 (2011)]
No full textWe report updated branching fraction measurements of the color-suppressed decays B̅ 0→D0π0, D*0π0, D0η, D*0η, D0ω, D*0ω, D0η′, and D*0η′. We measure the branching fractions (×10-4): B(B̅ 0→D0π0)=2.69±0.09±0.13, B(B̅ 0→D*0π0)=3.05±0.14±0.28, B(B̅ 0→D0η)=2.53±0.09±0.11, B(B̅ 0→D*0η)=2.69±0.14±0.23, B(B̅ 0→D0ω)=2.57±0.11±0.14, B(B̅ 0→D*0ω)=4.55±0.24±0.39, B(B̅ 0→D0η′)=1.48±0.13±0.07, and B(B̅ 0→D*0η′)=1.49±0.22±0.15. We also present the first measurement of the longitudinal polarization fraction of the decay channel D*0ω, fL=(66.5±4.7±1.5)%. In the above, the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic. The results are based on a sample of (454±5)×106 BB̅ pairs collected at the Υ(4S) resonance, with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II storage rings at SLAC. The measurements are the most precise determinations of these quantities from a single experiment. They are compared to theoretical predictions obtained by factorization, Soft Collinear Effective Theory (SCET) and perturbative QCD (pQCD). We find that the presence of final state interactions is favored and the measurements are in better agreement with SCET than with pQCD
Measurement of the mass of the D[superscript 0] meson
No full textWe report a measurement of the D[superscript 0] meson mass using the decay chain D[superscript *](2010)[superscript +] → D[superscript 0]π[superscript +] with D[superscript 0] → K[superscript −]K[superscript −]K[superscript +]π[superscript +]. The data were recorded with the BABAR detector at center-of-mass energies at and near the Υ(4S) resonance, and correspond to an integrated luminosity of approximately 477 fb[superscript −1]. We obtain m(D[superscript 0]) = (1864.841 ± 0.048 ± 0.063) MeV, where the quoted errors are statistical and systematic, respectively. The uncertainty of this measurement is half that of the best previous measurement.United States. Dept. of EnergyNational Science Foundation (U.S.)Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio
Measurement of D[superscript 0]-D̅[superscript 0] mixing and CP violation in two-body D[superscript 0] decays
No full textWe present a measurement of D[superscript 0]-D̅[superscript 0] mixing and CP violation using the ratio of lifetimes simultaneously extracted from a sample of D[superscript 0] mesons produced through the flavor-tagged process D[superscript *+]→D[superscript 0]π[superscript +], where D[superscript 0] decays to K[superscript ∓]π[superscript ±], K[superscript -]K[superscript +], or π[superscript -]π[superscript +], along with the untagged decays D[superscript 0]→K[superscript ∓]π[superscript ±] and D[superscript 0]→K[superscript -]K[superscript +]. The lifetimes of the CP-even, Cabibbo-suppressed modes K[superscript -]K[superscript +] and π[superscript -]π[superscipt +] are compared to that of the CP-mixed mode K[superscript ∓]π[superscript ±] in order to measure y[subscript CP] and ΔY. We obtain y[subscript CP]=[0.72±0.18(stat)±0.12(syst)]% and ΔY=[0.09±0.26(stat)±0.06(syst)]%, where ΔY constrains possible CP violation. The y[subscript CP] result excludes the null mixing hypothesis at 3.3σ significance. This analysis is based on an integrated luminosity of 468 fb[superscript -1] collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e[superscript +]e[superscript -] collider.Alfred P. Sloan Foundatio
Dalitz plot analyses of B0 →d-D0K+ and B+ → D ̄ 0D0K+ decays
No full textWe present Dalitz plot analyses for the decays of B mesons to D-D0K+ and D ̄0D0K+. We report the observation of the Ds1∗(2700)+ resonance in these two channels and obtain measurements of the mass M(Ds1∗(2700)+)=2699+14−7 MeV/c2 and of the width Γ(Ds1∗(2700)+)=127-19+24MeV, including statistical and systematic uncertainties. In addition, we observe an enhancement in the D0K+ invariant mass around 2350-2500MeV/c2 in both decays B0→D-D0K+ and B+→D ̄0D0K+, which we are not able to interpret. The results are based on 429fb−1 of data containing 471×106BB ̄ pairs collected at the (4S) resonance with the BABAR detector at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory
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