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After a halt of four years, the n TOF spallation neutron facility at CERN has resumed operation in November 2008 with a new spallation target characterized by an improved safety and engineering design, resulting in a more robust overall performance and e cient cooling. The rst measurement during the 2009 run has aimed at the full characterization of the neutron beam. Several detectors, such as calibrated ssion chambers, the n TOF Silicon Monitor, a Mi- croMegas detector with 10B and 235U samples, as well as liquid and solid scintillators have been used in order to characterize the properties of the neutron uence. The spatial pro le of the beam has been studied with a specially designed \X-Y

For a sustainable building industry, reusable construction with a low demand for primary resources is needed. Moreover, if we want to reduce the amount of construction and demolition waste, construction with recycled aggregate should be considered. To investigate the environmental impacts of such concrete construction, life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to compare the following types of concrete construction: Reusable blocks with recycled brick aggregate, reusable blocks with recycled concrete, reusable blocks with natural aggregate, and regular concrete wall. Firstly, the properties of new concrete with recycled aggregate were measured, such as physical, mechanical, and thermal properties. Then, different constructions were designed and assessed using the method of Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML2001) and the method of National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (ReCiPe 2016) as characterization methods. Unsurprisingly, the regular concrete wall had a higher impact on most of the impact categories, e.g., 113 kg CO2 eq. (in the first scenario, using CML2001). In accordance with the circular principles, the reusability of blocks and recycling of aggregate are the main factors that affect the environmental impact of the constructions. Thus, the global warming potential (GWP) of construction with reusable recycled concrete blocks was only 53 kg CO2 eq. (in the second scenario). Moreover, we show differences in the results of CML2001 and ReCiPe 2016, e.g., in the Photochemical Oxidant Creation category.

Abstract Hybrid TiO2/SiO2 thin films deposited by material printing technique on flexible substrates were prepared, characterized and tested for solar photocatalytic disinfection. Effect of surface hydrophilicity/hydrophobicity of printed coatings on photocatalytic disinfection was studied by means of (i) drinking water contaminated with natural consortia of fecal bacteria (gram-negative: Escherichia coli and total coliforms; gram-positive: Enterococci), and (ii) seawater containing pathogenic gram-negative bacteria (Vibrio owensii, Vibrio alfacsensis and Vibrio harveyi). Inactivation of gram-negative bacteria in drinking water with fecal contamination by solar photocatalysis was slightly more efficient than solar disinfection, while for gram-positive bacteria similar efficiency was observed. These results, in combination with observed release of titanium from coatings (detected by means of inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer), indicate that TiO2/SiO2 needs further improvements for solar photocatalytic disinfection of drinking water. Efficiency of seawater disinfection towards gram-negative Vibrio spp. (Vibrio owensii, Vibrio alfacsensis and Vibrio harveyi) was significantly enhanced when TiO2/SiO2 coatings were used under natural solar light. Moreover, hydrophobic thin films led to faster Vibrio spp. inactivation as compared to hydrophilic ones, which was attributed to higher bacteria adhesion on hydrophobic coatings. However, decrease of photocatalytic activity of hydrophobic TiO2/SiO2 coatings was observed after ten experimental cycles mainly due to deposition of salts on the surface of photocatalyst. Generally, results of this study suggest that autochthonous bacteria such as Vibrio spp. in seawater are significantly more resistant to solar disinfection in comparison with not autochthonous bacteria such as Escherichia coli, total coliforms and Enterococci in contaminated drinking water.

Radiation use efficiency values estimation based on the biomass increment (one approach) and on NPP from eddy covariance (two approaches) estimation of NPP brings the values of 0.13, 0.40, and 0.47 g (C) MJ −1 , respectively. The productivity of terrestrial ecosystems is primarily reliant on the absorption of solar radiation energy and its conversion into biomass. Monteith (1977) first introduced the concept of radiation use efficiency (RUE), which expresses the effectiveness of a plant stand to use solar radiation for the formation of new biomass and to maintain existing biomass. The presented paper uses a long-term, decadal, time series of biomass data, which is based on forest inventory data and an allometric relation, and on the application of eddy covariance (EC) estimation of Net Primary Production (NPP). These approaches provide different values of light use efficiency (LUE). LUE is based on direct carbon exchange estimation, LUE i , which denotes instantaneous efficiency based on the relationship between the daily sum of incident global radiation (GR i ) and NPP and LUES, calculated as the ratio between the sum of NPP and the sum of GR i per growing season. RUE is based on direct yearly biomass increment expressed in carbon units (carbon = 0.5 × biomass) divided by the sum of GR i per year. The obtained values amount to 0.13, 0.40, and 0.47 g(C) MJ−1 for RUE, LUES, and LUE i , respectively. The higher value of LUE i reflects a direct relation with the efficiency of photosynthetic carbon pumping. In contrast, the RUE value, based on biomass inventories, is the result of woody mass formation that is caused by several mutually related physiological processes and “wastages” of radiation utilization.

The ATLAS Inner Detector is a composite tracking system consisting of silicon pixels, silicon strips and straw tubes in a 2 T magnetic field. Its installation was completed in August 2008 and the detector took part in data- taking with single LHC beams and cosmic rays. The initial detector operation, hardware commissioning and in-situ calibrations are described. Tracking performance has been measured with 7.6 million cosmic-ray events, collected using a tracking trigger and reconstructed with modular pattern-recognition and fitting software. The intrinsic hit efficiency and tracking trigger efficiencies are close to 100%. Lorentz angle measurements for both electrons and holes, specific energy-loss calibration and transition radiation turn-on measurements have been performed. Different alignment techniques have been used to reconstruct the detector geometry. After the initial alignment, a transverse impact parameter resolution of 22.1+/-0.9 ��m and a relative momentum resolution ��p/p = (4.83+/-0.16) \times 10-4 GeV-1 \times pT have been measured for high momentum tracks. 34 pages, 25 figures