Research regarding the reproductive capacity and biotechnologies of cows

The decline of fertility in the last decades is a major concern in dairy farms being caused by a series of factors analysed in the present paper. Research took place on a number of 950 dairy cows exploited in a semi-intensive system in the North-East area of Romania. On the whole analysed population, the frequency of reproduction disorders were between 12 (in January) and 27% in July, with a greater intensity starting with the end of spring up to winter season. The most frequent reproduction disorders were anoestrus, losses of heat cycles, weak heats undetected in due time, metritis, feeding and others. The batch of the cows with over 85 days of infecundity represented 88.15%, while the batch with one to 27 days infecundity was of only 1.05%, and the batches with 28 to 56 days and 57 to 84 days of infecundity represented 4.25 and 6.55%, respectively from the total of analysed population. The most days of infecundity were recorded at primiparous cows (55.90%) followed by the second-parous ones (32.10%) and multiparous cows (12.00%). The losses by infecundity and sterility over passed the rate of 25% from production. The common feature of the reproduction biotechnologies consist maximization of the genetic process for cattle, of their wealth fare and fertility state, in the conditions of reducing the price cost per product unit.Keywords: Cows, reproductive capacity, biotechnologyAfrican Journal of BiotechnologyVol. 12(15), pp. 1909-191

Software Alignment of the LHCb Inner Tracker Sensors

This work uses the Millepede linear alignment method, which is essentially a $chi^2$ minimization algorithm, to determine simultaneously between 76 and 476 alignment parameters and several million track parameters. For the case of non-linear alignment models, Millepede is embedded in a Newton-Raphson iterative procedure. If needed a more robust approach is provided by adding quasi-Newton steps which minimize the approximate $chi^2$ model function. The alignment apparatus is applied to locally align the LHCb's Inner Tracker sensors in an a priori fixed system of coordinate. An analytic measurement model was derived as function of track parameters and alignment parameters, for the two cases: null and non-null magnetic field. The alignment problem is equivalent to solving a linear system of equations, and usually a matrix inversion is required. In general, as consequence of global degrees of freedom or poorly constrained modes, the alignment matrix is singular or near-singular. The global degrees of freedom are obtained: directly from $chi^2$ function invariant transformations, and in parallel by an alignment matrix diagonalization followed by an extraction of the least constrained modes. The procedure allows to properly define the local alignment of the Inner Tracker. Using Monte Carlo data, the outlined procedure reconstructs the position of the IT sensors within micrometer precision or better. For rotations equivalent precision was obtained

Test of the photon detection system for the LHCb RICH Upgrade in a charged particle beam

The LHCb detector will be upgraded to make more efficient use of the available luminosity at the LHC in Run III and extend its potential for discovery. The Ring Imaging Cherenkov detectors are key components of the LHCb detector for particle identification. In this paper we describe the setup and the results of tests in a charged particle beam, carried out to assess prototypes of the upgraded opto-electronic chain from the Multi-Anode PMT photosensor to the readout and data acquisition system.Comment: 25 pages, 22 figure

Spectrum and Charge Ratio of Vertical Cosmic Ray Muons up to Momenta of 2.5 TeV/c

The ALEPH detector at LEP has been used to measure the momentum spectrum and charge ratio of vertical cosmic ray muons underground. The sea-level cosmic ray muon spectrum for momenta up to 2.5 TeV/c has been obtained by correcting for the overburden of 320 meter water equivalent (mwe). The results are compared with Monte Carlo models for air shower development in the atmosphere. From the analysis of the spectrum the total flux and the spectral index of the cosmic ray primaries is inferred. The charge ratio suggests a dominantly light composition of cosmic ray primaries with energies up to 10^15 eV

LHCb Alignment Strategy

In this note, we review the alignment strategy for the LHCb detector. We discuss the internal alignment stategy for each subdetector and the alignment of each of the subdetectors relative to one another