[en] The nucleon elastic form factors are generally interpreted as a mapping of the charge and magnetic current distributions of the proton and neutron. New high Q² measurements have opened up fundamental questions about G_ep that remain to be answered. This talk will summarize current developments surrounding the nucleon form factors and explain why they are important to neutrino physicists. New parameterizations of the nucleon form factors, suitable for use by neutrino physicists, will be introduced and discussed

[en] Karst related groundwater flooding represents a significant hazard in many rural communities in Ireland. A series of unprecedented flood events in recent years have reinforced the need to improve our ability to quantify the location and likelihood of flood occurrence. Geological Survey Ireland, in collaboration with Trinity College Dublin and Carlow Institute of Technology, has established a collaborative project to investigate groundwater flooding, with particular emphasis on seasonal karst lakes known as turloughs. There are over 400 recorded turloughs across Ireland, the majority of which located on limestone lowlands. Turloughs can completely dry during summer months but extend to hundreds of hectares during the winter flood season. The practical limitations of establishing and maintaining a network of over 400 turloughs supported the use of remote sensing and GIS techniques to delineate flood extents and monitor flood prone areas in near real time using passive satellite imagery such as of the ESA Copernicus programme. Measurements at 50 sites for over 18 months were used to calibrate and validate results from satellite data. With limited recorded groundwater flood data, the use of remote sensing data provides historical archives of images to look at past flood conditions to optimise the detection of groundwater and delineate maximum groundwater flood maps. These new data will improve the fundamental hydrological understanding of groundwater flooding in Ireland, enabling key stakeholders to develop appropriate flood mitigation measures and allow for informed flood assessments to be made in future.

[en] Turloughs, a form of ephemeral groundwater-dependent wetland, are a defining feature of the imestone lowlands of Ireland. As a protected habitat under both the EU Water Framework and Habitats Directives, there is a requirement to maintain and enhance the conservation status of turloughs and to protect them from ecological degradation. However in order to achieve this we must understand the environmental processes that support turlough habitats in favourable condition. Key to this is adequate monitoring of the ephemeral groundwater flooding which defines the turlough habitat. However, a lack of appropriate monitoring infrastructure has been highlighted as a major impediment to effective habitat management. In response, Geological Survey Ireland have established a telemetric turlough monitoring network. The nature of groundwater flooding poses significant technical challenges to real-time monitoring installations; sites can be completely dry during summer months while during winter floodwaters can extend to hundreds of hectares. An exploratory network of over 50 sites were instrumented during an 18 month period to provide baseline data for the telemetric site selection process. Multi-criteria analysis was then applied to the design of the telemetric network; factors considered included hydrological regime, historic data availability, flood receptor density, ecological value and geographical representativeness. Selected sites have been instrumented with telemetric systems allowing real-time acquisition of groundwater flood data. The network is for the first time providing long-term observational data of these groundwater dependent wetlands, and in doing so taking an essential step towards their sustainable management and tackling the challenges posed by climate and global change.

[en] Quantifying the frequency and magnitude of flood events is a key step in the management of flood risks However, the nature of groundwater flooding on the lowland karst limestone plains of Ireland pose significant technical challenges in this respect. These areas are susceptible to groundwater flooding due to the combination of low soil and aquifer storage, high diffusivity and limited surface drainage. A sequence of extreme flood events in the past decade has highlighted the lack of understanding of groundwater flooding as a geohazard, and highlighted the need for greater understanding of the risks posed by groundwater flooding in a changing climate. A novel approach was developed to produce predictive groundwater flood maps for Ireland in line with the 2nd implementation cycle of the EU Floods Directive. A monitoring network of over 50 sites was established during to provide baseline model calibration data. These data were supplemented with water level time series derived from multi-temporal Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery for the key 2015/2016 flood event. Hydrological models capable of reproducing groundwater flood behaviour from antecedent rainfall and soil moisture conditions were developed. Models for viable groundwater flooding locations were calibrated on a combination of observed and SAR hydrographs. Using long-term observational and stochastic meteorological series as input, the models have been used to construct long-term hydrological series suitable for extreme value analysis and the generation of predictive groundwater flood extents and maps.

[en] High-statistics cross sections for the reactions γ + p → K+ + Λ and γ + p → K+ + Σ0 have been measured using CLAS at Jefferson Lab for center-of-mass energies W between 1.6 and 2.53 GeV, and for -0.85 < cos θK+c.m. < +0.95. In the K+Λ channel we confirm a resonance-like structure near W=1.9 GeV at backward kaon angles. The position and width of this structure change with angle, indicating that more than one resonance is likely playing a role. The K+ Λ channel at forward angles and all energies is well described by a t-channel scaling characteristic of Regge exchange, while the same scaling applied to the K+ Σ0 channel is less successful. Several existing theoretical models are compared to the data, but none provide a good representation of the results

[en] While the neutrino physics community has renewed its interest in the basic ν-A interaction, we are only now coming to grips with problems that have been studied for decades in the electron scattering community. NuInt07 included a number of presentations on recent electron scattering measurements that are relevant to neutrino physicists. This talk was intended to provide context for the electron scattering talks, and to preview important electron scattering results that were presented at the conference

[en] Current national approvals to irradiate food are usually specific to a particular food item; even where a whole class of food (e.g. spices) is referred to in approval documentation, clearance is often limited to a specified list of items within that class. Issue of clearances in this way can lead to undue expenditure of effort on the part of industry and regulatory authorities in submitting and approving repetitive applications to irradiated food items which may be almost identical to others cleared previously. International trade in irradiated foods may be impeded if the specific food items approved in potential exporting and importing countries do not coincide, despite being closely related. It is, therefore, proposed that governments should, wherever possible, adopt a policy of issuing clearances for the irradiation of foodstuffs on a class by class basis, rather than on the basis of individual food items. Justifications for such regulatory actions in terms of economics, facilitating trade and harmonization of regulations will be provided. (author). 1 tab

[en] Up until the Fukushima incident in March 2011 project activity in the uranium sector was driven by high uranium prices and merger and acquisition corporate activity. Soon after the incident, project development in the uranium sector collapsed and capital slowly dried up as uranium prices dropped. Uranium projects, like all other commodities, have a critical ‘to do list’ which is part of project feasibility and is essential to complete in order for these assets to be packaged as desirable world class projects ready for construction. This paper presents experience based on case studies from a number of recent uranium projects in Australia, Africa and Europe, either developed through to construction or at different phases of feasibility. The presentation will focus on the experience gained and the lessons learnt when managing the development of these uranium projects. Other examples will demonstrate where projects have exceeded expectations and delivered exceptional value, due to factors which are often underrated or ignored in the management of the exploration and mine development work cycle. (author)

[en] Quantum states which retain their coherence for sufficiently long to potentially affect biological processes are currently topical, for example in photosynthesis. It is argued here that, when addressing these issues theoretically, the usual focus on decoherence times may be inappropriate if the system retains non-zero residual coherence in the long term. It is suggested that this could be the generic behaviour for systems whose relevant internal coupling strength (e.g., the Forster coupling) is large compared with the strength of the interaction with the environment. This is illustrated for the case of a dipole dimer interacting with an environment of dipoles. Whilst not intended to be a model of any particular biological system, the illustrative parameters are intended to bear a crude resemblance to photosynthetic units at 300 K. The persistence of non-zero coherence is therefore potentially significant.

[en] Up until the recent Fukushima incident in March 2011 project activity in the uranium sector was driven by high uranium prices and merger and acquisition corporate activity. Soon after the incident, project development in the uranium sector collapsed and capital slowly dried up as Uranium prices dropped. New projects were put on hold, significantly reducing growth in the small to medium capital markets. Existing brownfield growth plans were halted as corporate strategies focused on improving the efficiency of existing assets. Recent positive sentiment supported by positive commentary in the uranium market, driven by an improved understanding of the supply and demand fundamentals and the restart of Japan’s nuclear reactors, has seen renewed corporate merger and acquisition activity. Developers are again taking an interest in new uranium project development.