A Flexible Computer Program for the Production of Insect Labels

(excerpt) In many instances multiple copies of identical insect labels are needed, either with or without blank spaces, for the purpose of placing collection or determination data with a specimen. One of several ways to produce acceptable insect labels is through the photo-reduction of typewritten copy. Compared to type setting, followed by press printing, this method provides greater flexibility, and often quicker results, especially when labels are needed only in relatively small quantities; also, it may be less expensive than press printing. However, the typing of full sheets of photo-ready copy is a tedious and time consuming process. If one has ready access to an electronic computer, with print-out on paper, this typewriting step may be obviated. The photo-ready copy is printed by the computer under direction of a suitable program which also contains the text needed for a particular label. Such a program, written in FORTRAN language, is presented here along with comments on its adaptation to specific needs

Performance of the LHCb High Level Trigger in 2012

The trigger system of the LHCb experiment is discussed in this paper and its performance is evaluated on a dataset recorded during the 2012 run of the LHC. The main purpose of the LHCb trigger system is to separate heavy flavour signals from the light quark background. The trigger reduces the roughly 11MHz of bunch-bunch crossings with inelastic collisions to a rate of 5kHz, which is written to storage.Comment: Proceedings for the 20th International Conference on Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP

Solutions to Cosmological Problems with Energy Conservation and Varying c, G and Lambda

The flatness and cosmological constant problems are solved with varying speed of light c, gravitational coupling strength G and cosmological parameter Lambda, by explicitly assuming energy conservation of observed matter. The present solution to the flatness problem is the same as the previous solution in which energy conservation was absent.Comment: 5 pages, Replaced with LaTex file with minor change

On Quantum Mechanical Aspects of Microtubules

We discuss possible quantum mechanical aspects of MicroTubules (MT), based on recent developments in quantum physics.We focus on potential mechanisms for `energy-loss-free' transport along the microtubules, which could be considered as realizations of Fr\"ohlich's ideas on the r\^ole of solitons for superconductivity and/or biological matter. By representing the MT arrangements as cavities,we present a novel scenario on the formation of macroscopic (or mesoscopic) quantum-coherent states, as a result of the (quantum-electromagnetic) interactions of the MT dimers with the surrounding molecules of the ordered water in the interior of the MT cylinders. We suggest specific experiments to test the above-conjectured quantum nature of the microtubular arrangements inside the cell. These experiments are similar in nature to those in atomic physics, used in the detection of the Rabi-Vacuum coupling between coherent cavity modes and atoms. Our conjecture is that a similar Rabi-Vacuum-splitting phenomenon occurs in the MT case.Comment: 26 pages LATEX (minor typos corrected no effect on conclusions

Probability of Causation for Lung Cancer After Exposure to Radon Progeny: A Comparison of Models and Data

The estimates of lung cancer risk due to the exposure to radon decay products are based on different data sets from underground mining and on different mathematical models that are used to fit the data. Diagrams of the excess relative rate per 100 working level months in its dependence on age at exposure and age attained are shown to be a useful tool to elucidate the influence that is due to the choice of the model, and to assess the differences between the data from the major western cohorts and those from the Czech uranium miners. It is seen that the influence of the choice of the model is minor compared to the difference between the data sets. The results are used to derive attributable lifetime risks and probabilities of causation for lung cancer following radon progeny exposures

Towards the Standard Model spectrum from elliptic Calabi-Yau

We show that it is possible to construct supersymmetric three-generation models of Standard Model gauge group in the framework of non-simply-connected elliptically fibered Calabi-Yau, without section but with a bi-section. The fibrations on a cover Calabi-Yau, where the model has 6 generations of SU(5) and the bundle is given via the spectral cover description, use a different description of the elliptic fibre which leads to more than one global section. We present two examples of a possible cover Calabi-Yau with a free involution: one is a fibre product of rational elliptic surfaces $dP_9$; another example is an elliptic fibration over a Hirzebruch surface. There we give the necessary amount of chiral matter by turning on in the bundles a further parameter, related to singularities of the fibration and the branching of the spectral cover.Comment: 31 pages, 1 eps-figure, reference added, bundle parameters for dP9 model change

A Survey of the Czechoslovak Follow-up of Lung Cancer Mortality in Uranium Miners

The major Czechoslovak cohort of uranium miners (S-cohort) is surveyed in terms of diagrams illustrating dependences on calendar year, age, and exposure to radon and radon progeny. An analysis of the dose dependence of lung cancer mortality is performed by nonparametric and, subsequently, by parametric methods. In the first step, two-dimensional isotonic regression is employed to derive the lung cancer mortality rate and the relative excess risk as functions of age attained and of lagged cumulated exposure. In a second step, analytical fits in terms of relative risk models are derived. The treatment is largely analogous to the methods applied by the BEIR IV Committee to other major cohorts of uranium miners. There is a marked dependence of the excess risk on age attained and on time since exposure. A specific characteristic of the Czechoslovak data is the nonlinearity of the dependence of the lung cancer excess risk on the cumulated exposure; exposures on the order of 100 working level months or less appear to be more effective per working level month than larger exposures but, in the absence of an internal control group, this cannot be excluded to be due to confounders such as smoking or environmental exposures. A further notable observation is the association of larger excess risks with longer protraction of the exposures