The paper describes the testing of a portable scanning system (RAPMOD), which is worn like a backpack and allows the user to walk through a building to collect essential energy-related data. From this walkthrough, the system collects data required for an energy model of the building using laser scanners, infrared scanners and cameras and converts these data into .idf format for use in EnergyPlus. The energy model includes the geometry of interior and exterior surfaces, window U-values, lighting levels, equipment levels and occupancy for each room. RAPMOD will be extended to include HVAC recognition in a subsequent phase of development. The main goal is to reduce the cost and skill level required to create energy simulation models for deep retrofit assessments, energy audits and retro commissioning for existing buildings through rapid and accurate energy model creation.

Feral swine in the United States are known to harbor both native and exotic Ixodid ticks. The expanding range, broad habitat use, high population potential, and large movements of feral swine may increase the distribution and density of certain tick species and tick-borne pathogens that can infect humans, livestock, and wildlife. This preliminary study was conducted to determine which tick species are present on feral swine as well as other mammals sympatric with feral swine in south-central Florida. We trapped large-, medium-, and small-bodied mammals at two study sites, Kissimmee Prairie Preserve State Park and MacArthur Agro-ecology Research Center, from February to May of 2014. We examined mammals for ticks and conducted drags for host-seeking ticks. We trapped five mammal species (feral swine, Florida mouse, marsh rice rat, Virginia opossum, and northern raccoon). From these animals we identified four native tick species (Amblyomma americanum, A. maculatum, Dermacentor variabilis, and Ixodes scapularis) and one exotic to the United States (A. auricularium). We also obtained carcasses of nine-banded armadillos in Brevard County, on which we found A. auricularium. This is the first report of I. scapularis in Okeechobee County and A. auricularium in Brevard and Highlands Counties. All four native tick species are known disease vectors. These data reiterate that many mammals that share habitat with livestock and commonly contact humans are hosts to many ticks of medical and veterinary importance. Coupled with the population, distribution potential, and movement of feral swine, the diversity of ticks found in this study highlights the need for further research on the ability of feral swine to host and distribute ticks and tick-borne pathogens among wildlife, livestock, and humans.

This paper reports results from a search for single and multinucleon disappearance from the O16 nucleus in water within the SNO+ detector using all of the available data. These so-called "invisible"decays do not directly deposit energy within the detector but are instead detected through their subsequent nuclear deexcitation and gamma-ray emission. New limits are given for the partial lifetimes: τ(n→inv)>9.0×1029 years, τ(p→inv)>9.6×1029 years, τ(nn→inv)>1.5×1028 years, τ(np→inv)>6.0×1028 years, and τ(pp→inv)>1.1×1029 years at 90% Bayesian credibility level (with a prior uniform in rate). All but the (nn→inv) results improve on existing limits by a factor of about 3.

SNO+ is a large-scale liquid scintillator experiment with the primary goal of searching for neutrinoless double beta decay, and is located approximately 2 km underground in SNOLAB, Sudbury, Canada. The detector acquired data for two years as a pure water Cherenkov detector, starting in May 2017. During this period, the optical properties of the detector were measured in situ using a deployed light diffusing sphere, with the goal of improving the detector model and the energy response systematic uncertainties. The measured parameters included the water attenuation coefficients, effective attenuation coefficients for the acrylic vessel, and the angular response of the photomultiplier tubes and their surrounding light concentrators, all across different wavelengths. The calibrated detector model was validated using a deployed tagged gamma source, which showed a 0.6% variation in energy scale across the primary target volume.

The SNO+ Collaboration reports the first evidence of reactor antineutrinos in a Cherenkov detector. The nearest nuclear reactors are located 240 km away in Ontario, Canada. This analysis uses events with energies lower than in any previous analysis with a large water Cherenkov detector. Two analytical methods are used to distinguish reactor antineutrinos from background events in 190 days of data and yield consistent evidence for antineutrinos with a combined significance of 3.5σ.

A measurement of the B8 solar neutrino flux has been made using a 69.2 kt-day dataset acquired with the SNO+ detector during its water commissioning phase. At energies above 6 MeV the dataset is an extremely pure sample of solar neutrino elastic scattering events, owing primarily to the detector's deep location, allowing an accurate measurement with relatively little exposure. In that energy region the best fit background rate is 0.25-0.07+0.09 events/kt-day, significantly lower than the measured solar neutrino event rate in that energy range, which is 1.03-0.12+0.13 events/kt-day. Also using data below this threshold, down to 5 MeV, fits of the solar neutrino event direction yielded an observed flux of 2.53-0.28+0.31(stat)-0.10+0.13(syst)×106 cm-2 s-1, assuming no neutrino oscillations. This rate is consistent with matter enhanced neutrino oscillations and measurements from other experiments.

The SNO+ experiment collected data as a low-threshold water Cherenkov detector from September 2017 to July 2019. Measurements of the 2.2-MeV γ's produced by neutron capture on hydrogen were made using an Am-Be calibration source, for which a large fraction of emitted neutrons are produced simultaneously with a 4.4-MeV γ. Analysis of the delayed coincidence between the 4.4-MeV γ and the 2.2-MeV capture γ revealed a neutron detection efficiency that is centered around 50% and varies at the level of 1% across the inner region of the detector, which to our knowledge is the highest efficiency achieved among pure water Cherenkov detectors. In addition, the neutron capture time constant was measured and converted to a thermal neutron-proton capture cross section of 336.3-1.5+1.2mb.

A liquid scintillator consisting of linear alkylbenzene as the solvent and 2,5-diphenyloxazole as the fluor was developed for the SNO+ experiment. This mixture was chosen as it is compatible with acrylic and has a competitive light yield to pre-existing liquid scintillators while conferring other advantages including longer attenuation lengths, superior safety characteristics, chemical simplicity, ease of handling, and logistical availability. Its properties have been extensively characterized and are presented here. This liquid scintillator is now used in several neutrino physics experiments in addition to SNO+.

This paper reports results from a search for nucleon decay through invisible modes, where no visible energy is directly deposited during the decay itself, during the initial water phase of SNO+. However, such decays within the oxygen nucleus would produce an excited daughter that would subsequently deexcite, often emitting detectable gamma rays. A search for such gamma rays yields limits of 2.5×1029 y at 90% Bayesian credibility level (with a prior uniform in rate) for the partial lifetime of the neutron, and 3.6×1029 y for the partial lifetime of the proton, the latter a 70% improvement on the previous limit from SNO. We also present partial lifetime limits for invisible dinucleon modes of 1.3×1028 y for nn, 2.6×1028 y for pn and 4.7×1028 y for pp, an improvement over existing limits by close to 3 orders of magnitude for the latter two.