Off-line computing for experimental high-energy physics

The needs of experimental high-energy physics for large-scale computing and data handling are explained in terms of the complexity of individual collisions and the need for high statistics to study quantum mechanical processes. The prevalence of university-dominated collaborations adds a requirement for high-performance wide-area networks. The data handling and computational needs of the different types of large experiment, now running or under construction, are evaluated. Software for experimental high-energy physics is reviewed briefly with particular attention to the success of packages written within the discipline. It is argued that workstations and graphics are important in ensuring that analysis codes are correct, and the worldwide networks which support the involvement of remote physicists are described. Computing and data handling are reviewed showing how workstations and RISC processors are rising in importance but have not supplanted traditional mainframe processing. Examples of computing systems constructed within high-energy physics are examined and evaluated

Resources and Results in Union Rivalry: A Case Study

L'Association des employés de soutien de l'Université Laurentienne (AESUL) s'est méritée le titre de premier syndicat indépendant d'un groupe d'employés de soutien à être accréditée sous la Loi des relations du travail dans une université d'Ontario, et ce après un conflit de rivalité syndicale fort coloré avec le Syndicat canadien de la fonction publique (SCFP). Certains estiment que l'organisation est un processus par lequel on s'efforce d'abord de vendre l'idée du syndicalisme pour ensuite vanter les avantages d'un syndicat en particulier. Quand il s'agit d'une bataille entre syndicats concurrents, il est loisible d'examiner les moyens utilisés par chacun d'eux pour prôner leurs avantages respectifs.La présente analyse rétrospective et approfondie permet de mettre en relief trois points qui ont concouru à l'obtention du résultat final: le rôle des facteurs non économiques reliés au travail, l'idée que l'on se fait du syndicalisme et les moyens d'influer sur les décisions à prendre.Les données de cette étude ont été tirées des dossiers des deux syndicats en présence, de ceux de la Commission des relations du travail de l'Ontario ainsi que de ceux de l'Université Laurentienne. Le représentant régional du SCFP, des membres du comité de direction de l'AESUL, de l'ancien recteur de l'Université ainsi que du directeur des services à l'époque ont été longuement interviewés.L'AESUL doit son existence à l'Association des employés de bureau de l'Université qui, à ses débuts en 1970, n'était pas accréditée et qui comptait dans ses rangs des employés du bureau, des dactylos, des expéditeurs et des receveurs, les techniciens en bibliotechnie, les employés des presses universitaires et les perforatrices. À ce moment, le SCFP commençait à faire du recrutement dans le secteur des employés de bureau et, pendant les premiers mois de 1973, il s'est efforcé d'obtenir l'adhésion de ce groupe d'employés à l'Université Laurentienne. Les effectifs y étaient assez nombreux pour retenir l'attention d'un syndicat aussi important. Le comité exécutif de l'AESUL a jugé que la tentative du SCFP était en quelque sorte une effraction.La tension était considérable. Les partisans des deux camps s'affairaient à poser des affiches, à arracher celles de la partie adverse peu de temps avant l'heure de la fermeture des bureaux afin de s'assurer que les employés en prendraient connaissance avant l'heure de la sortie du travail. L'administration de l'Université fermait les yeux sur cette activité. Les partisans de l'AESUL faisaient valoir les avantages suivants: pouvoir accru de négociation, statut juridique reconnu, autonomie de l'association et protection contre l'intervention d'un tiers en cours de convention collective. De son côté, le SCFC insistait sur le pouvoir de négociation.En juillet 1973, quand l'AESUL a demandé l'accréditation, le SCFP s'y est opposé en accusant l'Université de favoriser l'association. Un mois plus tard, après une deuxième audition devant la Commission ontarienne, cette dernière décréta un vote qui donna lieu à une nouvelle campagne de propagande. Le vote fut tenu en octobre.Il est bon de signaler que, en aucun temps, l'AESUL n'a parlé ouvertement de syndicat. Il était question d'accréditation, mais non de syndicat. Même s'il existait beaucoup de relations entre les employés de l'Université et ceux del’INCO et de laFalconbridge qui sont syndiqués, le personnel de bureau de l'Université ne trouvait pas convenable de former un syndicat. L'idée de syndicat détonnait dans un milieu universitaire. La communauté de Sudbury avait toujours considéré l'Université comme une institution de haut savoir. Le concept syndicat ne pouvait s'appliquer ni à l'endroit ni au milieu de travail. C'est pourquoi les responsables de la campagne de recrutement se sont gardés d'utiliser le terme « syndicat », et ceci en dépit du fait que le syndicalisme est une institution bien connue à Sudbury.Il faut se demander pourquoi le SCFP, qui possédait ressources et compétence, a perdu cette bataille. C'est que l'AESUL a su miser sur les problèmes du travail. Eneffet, sur les vingt-trois points que cette dernière a touchés, dix-huit portaient sur les problèmes inhérents au travail et cinq seulement se rapportaient aux salaires et aux avantages sociaux. Au contraire, le SCFP a mis presque exclusivement l'accent sur ces deux points.Ce qui ressort de cette étude, c'est que l'AESUL doit son succès en grande partie à sa situation de premier occupant et à la facilité de persuader des gens qu'elle connaissait bien. Les dirigeants étaient au courant des problèmes de chaque petit groupe d'employés. Ces facteurs se sont avérés plus efficaces que les arguments de propagande directe, même si les derniers jours de la campagne furent marqués d'une chaude lutte. Quant à l'Université, elle s'est montrée très discrète tout au long du débat. En résumé, ce sont des motifs d'ordre pratique qui ont poussé les employés à favoriser l'Association plutôt que le syndicat.This paper shows the asymetric disequilibrium between available resources and results in the course of a union recruiting campaign in a case study of an experience of CUPE and LUSSA at Laurentian University

An extreme ultraviolet spectrometer experiment for the Shuttle Get Away Special Program

An extreme ultraviolet (EUV) spectrometer experiment operated successfully during the STS-7 mission in an experiment to measure the global and diurnal variation of the EUV airglow. The spectrometer is an F 3.5 Wadsworth mount with mechanical collimator, a 75 x 75 mm grating, and a bare microchannel plate detector providing a spectral resolution of 7 X FWHM. Read-out of the signal is through discrete channels or resistive anode techniques. The experiment includes a microcomputer, 20 Mbit tape recorder, and a 28V, 40 Ahr silver-zinc battery. It is the first GAS payload to use an opening door. The spectrometer's 0.1 x 4.2 deg field of view is pointed vertically out of the shuttle bay. During the STS-7 flight data were acquired continuously for a period of 5 hours and 37 minutes, providing spectra of the 570 A to 850 A wavelength region of the airglow. Five diurnal cycles of the 584 A emission of neutral helium and the 834 A emission of ionized atomic oxygen were recorded. The experiment also recorded ion events and pressure pulses associated with thruster firings. The experiment is to fly again on Mission 41-F

Searching edges in the overlap of two plane graphs

Consider a pair of plane straight-line graphs, whose edges are colored red and blue, respectively, and let n be the total complexity of both graphs. We present a O(n log n)-time O(n)-space technique to preprocess such pair of graphs, that enables efficient searches among the red-blue intersections along edges of one of the graphs. Our technique has a number of applications to geometric problems. This includes: (1) a solution to the batched red-blue search problem [Dehne et al. 2006] in O(n log n) queries to the oracle; (2) an algorithm to compute the maximum vertical distance between a pair of 3D polyhedral terrains one of which is convex in O(n log n) time, where n is the total complexity of both terrains; (3) an algorithm to construct the Hausdorff Voronoi diagram of a family of point clusters in the plane in O((n+m) log^3 n) time and O(n+m) space, where n is the total number of points in all clusters and m is the number of crossings between all clusters; (4) an algorithm to construct the farthest-color Voronoi diagram of the corners of n axis-aligned rectangles in O(n log^2 n) time; (5) an algorithm to solve the stabbing circle problem for n parallel line segments in the plane in optimal O(n log n) time. All these results are new or improve on the best known algorithms.Comment: 22 pages, 6 figure

Spacecraft instrument calibration and stability

The following topics are covered: instrument degradation; the Solar Backscatter Ultraviolet (SBUV) Experiment; the Total Ozone Mapping Spectrometer (TOMS); the Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment 1 (SAGE-1) and SAGE-2 instruments; the Solar Mesosphere Explorer (SME) UV ozone and near infrared airglow instruments; and the Limb Infrared Monitor of the Stratosphere (LIMS)

Approximating the Maximum Overlap of Polygons under Translation

Let $P$ and $Q$ be two simple polygons in the plane of total complexity $n$, each of which can be decomposed into at most $k$ convex parts. We present an $(1-\varepsilon)$-approximation algorithm, for finding the translation of $Q$, which maximizes its area of overlap with $P$. Our algorithm runs in $O(c n)$ time, where $c$ is a constant that depends only on $k$ and $\varepsilon$. This suggest that for polygons that are "close" to being convex, the problem can be solved (approximately), in near linear time

Human rights and public education

This article attempts a contrast to the contribution by Hugh Starkey. Rather than his account of the inexorable rise of human rights discourse, and of the implementation of human rights standards, human rights are here presented as always and necessarily scandalous and highly contested. First, I explain why the UK has lagged so far behind its European neighbours in implementing citizenship education. Second, a comparison with France shows that the latest UK reforms bring us up to 1789. Third, the twentieth-century second-generation social and economic rights are still anathema in the UK. Fourth, the failure to come to terms with Empire and especially the slave trade means that the UK’s attitude to third-generation rights, especially the right of peoples to self-determination, is heavily compromised. Taking into account the points I raise, citizenship education in the UK might look very different

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

Insulin-stimulated phosphorylation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase at serine-615 contributes to nitric oxide synthesis

Insulin stimulates endothelial NO (nitric oxide) synthesis via PKB (protein kinase B)/Akt-mediated phosphorylation and activation of eNOS (endothelial NO synthase) at Ser-1177. In previous studies, we have demonstrated that stimulation of eNOS phosphorylation at Ser-1177 may be required, yet is not sufficient for insulin-stimulated NO synthesis. We therefore investigated the role of phosphorylation of eNOS at alternative sites to Ser-1177 as candidate parallel mechanisms contributing to insulin-stimulated NO synthesis. Stimulation of human aortic endothelial cells with insulin rapidly stimulated phosphorylation of both Ser-615 and Ser-1177 on eNOS, whereas phosphorylation of Ser-114, Thr-495 and Ser-633 was unaffected. Insulin-stimulated Ser-615 phosphorylation was abrogated by incubation with the PI3K (phosphoinositide 3-kinase) inhibitor wortmannin, infection with adenoviruses expressing a dominant-negative mutant PKB/Akt or pre-incubation with TNFα (tumour necrosis factor α), but was unaffected by high culture glucose concentrations. Mutation of Ser-615 to alanine reduced insulin-stimulated NO synthesis, whereas mutation of Ser-615 to aspartic acid increased NO production by NOS in which Ser-1177 had been mutated to an aspartic acid residue. We propose that the rapid PKB-mediated stimulation of phosphorylation of Ser-615 contributes to insulin-stimulated NO synthesis