Readout Electronics for the CALICE ECAL and Tile HCAL

The aims of the CALICE test beam program are presented. The proposed electronics readout system for the CALICE ECAL is described. It is a purpose-built VME-based, unbuffered system.Comment: Conference proceedings for LCWS2002, Jeju Island, Korea, 26-30 August 200

CALICE Electromagnetic Calorimeter Readout Status

The status of the prototype readout boards for the CALICE electromagnetic calorimeter is presented. Results on linearity, noise, and minimum ionising signals, both from a radiactive source and cosmic rays, are shown.Comment: Conference proceedings for LCWS2004, Paris, France, 19-23 April 200

Handling uncertainties in background shapes: the discrete profiling method

A common problem in data analysis is that the functional form, as well as the parameter values, of the underlying model which should describe a dataset is not known a priori. In these cases some extra uncertainty must be assigned to the extracted parameters of interest due to lack of exact knowledge of the functional form of the model. A method for assigning an appropriate error is presented. The method is based on considering the choice of functional form as a discrete nuisance parameter which is profiled in an analogous way to continuous nuisance parameters. The bias and coverage of this method are shown to be good when applied to a realistic example.Comment: Accepted by J.Ins

Is the cosmological "constant" a nonlocal quantum residue of discreteness of the causal set type?

The evidence for an accelerating Hubble expansion appears to have confirmed the heuristic prediction, from causal set theory, of a fluctuating and ``ever-present'' cosmological term in the Einstein equations. A more concrete phenomenological model incorporating this prediction has been devised and tested, but it remains incomplete. I will review these developments and also mention a possible consequence for the dimensionality of spacetime.Comment: plainTeX, 13 pages. To appear in the proceedings of the PASCOS-07 Conference, held July, 2007, London, England. Most current version is available at http://www.physics.syr.edu/~sorkin/some.papers/ (or wherever my home-page may be

A proposed DAQ system for a calorimeter at the International Linear Collider

This note describes R&D to be carried out on the data acquisition system for a calorimeter at the future International Linear Collider. A generic calorimeter and data acquisition system is described. Within this framework modified designs and potential bottlenecks within the current system are described. Solutions leading up to a technical design report will to be carried out within CALICE-UK groups.Comment: 13 pages, 4 figure

Role of thyroid hormones in early postnatal development of skeletal muscle and its implications for undernutrition

Published online by Cambridge University Press 09 Mar 2007Energy intake profoundly influences many endocrine axes which in turn play a central role in development. The specific influence of a short period of mild hypothyroidism, similar to that induced by undernutrition, in regulating muscle development has been assessed in a large mammal during early postnatal life. Hypothyroidism was induced by providing methimazole and iopanoic acid in the feed of piglets between 4 and 14 d of age, and controls were pair-fed to the energy intake of their hypothyroid littermates. Thyroid status was evaluated, and myofibre differentiation and cation pump concentrations were then assessed in the following functionally distinct muscles: longissimus dorsi (l. dorsi), soleus and rhomboideus. Reductions in plasma concentrations of thyroxine (T4; 32%, P < O·Ol), triiodothyronine (T3;48%, P < 0·001), free T3, (58%, P < 0·001)and hepatic 5'-monodeiodinase (EC 1.11.1.8) activity (74%, P < 0·001) occurred with treatment. Small, although significant, increases in the proportion of type I slow-twitch oxidative fibres occurred with mild hypothyroidism, in l. dorsi (2%, P < 0·01) and soleus(7%, P < 0·01). Nuclear T3-receptor concentration in l. dorsi of hypothyroid animals compared with controls increased by 46% (P < 0·001), a response that may represent a homeostatic mechanism making muscle more sensitive to low levels of circulating thyroid hormones. Nevertheless, Na+, K+-ATPase (EC 3.6.1.37) concentration was reduced by 15–16% in all muscles (l.dorsi P< 0·05,soleus P < 0·001, rhomboideus P < 0·05), and Ca2+-ATPase (EC 3.6.1.38) concentration was significantly reduced in the two slow-twitch muscles: by 22% in rhomboideus (P < 0·001) and 23% in soleus (P < 0·05). It is concluded that during early postnatal development of large mammals a period of mild hypothyroidism, comparable with that found during undernutrition, induces changes in myofibre differentiation and a down-regulation of cation pumps in skeletal muscle. Such changes would result in slowness of movement and muscle weakness, and also reduce ATP hydrolysis with a concomitant improvement in energetic efficiency.A. P. Harrison, D. R. Tivey, T. Clausen, C. Duchamp and M. J. Daunce