Investigation of the concept of beauty via a lock-in feedback experiment

Lock-in feedback circuits are routinely used in physics laboratories all around the world to extract small signals out of a noisy environment. In a recent paper (M. Kaptein, R. van Emden, and D. Iannuzzi, paper under review), we have shown that one can adapt the algorithm exploited in those circuits to gain insight in behavioral economics. In this paper, we extend this concept to a very subjective socio-philosophical concept: the concept of beauty. We run an experiment on 7414 volunteers, asking them to express their opinion on the physical features of an avatar. Each participant was prompted with an image whose features were adjusted sequentially via a lock-in feedback algorithm driven by the opinion expressed by the previous participants. Our results show that the method allows one to identify the most attractive features of the avatar

Development of an experimental 10 T Nb3Sn dipole magnet for the CERN LHC

An experimental 1-m long twill aperture dipole magnet developed using a high-current Nb3Sn conductor in order to attain a magnetic field well beyond 10 T at 4.2 K is described. The emphasis in this Nb3Sn project is on the highest possible field within the known Large Hadron Collider (LHC) twin-aperture configuration. A design target of 11.5 T was chosen

Effects of sowing date and insecticides on cereal aphid populations and barley yellow dwarf virus on barley in Kenya

The effects of the date of sowing and insecticide sprays on aphid populations and barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV) incidence in barley was studied in Mau Narok, Kenya. Rhopalosiphum padi (L.) and Metopolophium dirhodum (WLK.) were common aphid species, but other cereal aphids present were Rhopalosiphum maidis (Fitch), Stiobion avenae (F.), Schizaphis grammum (Rond.) and Hysteroneura setaria Thom. The incidence of BYDV was significantly decreased in plots sown with seed that had been treated with imidacloprid (NTN‐33893, Gaucho) and subsequently sprayed with foliar insecticide (Cypermethrin). Yield loss due to BYDV was also significantly different between the treatments and between the earlyplanted and the late‐planted crop (P < 0.05). Grain yield and 1000‐grain weight were not significantly different among insecticide treatments in the early‐planted crop. In the late‐planted crop, the yield increase with seed treatment alone was highly significant (P < 0.001), with a yield increase of 36‐43%, more than that of the untreated control. Grain yield was significantly (P < 0.05) negatively correlated with the total number of cereal aphids. as well as with the numbers of R. padi alone