What went wrong with: "The Interaction of Neutrons With 7Be: "Lack of Standard Nuclear Physics Solution to the "Primordial 7Li Problem"", by M. Gai [arXiv:1812.09914v1]?

We comment here on results of the project aimed at measuring the 7Be(n,x) reactions at SARAF, Israel, in 2016, posted by M. Gai in [arXiv:1812.09914v1] without the knowledge of parts of the collaboration and against the explicit veto of the collaborators and the administration of the Paul Scherrer Institut, Switzerland. We address both the experimental shortcomings and the drawbacks in project conduction. M. Gais preprint is labeled as "on behalf of the SARAF Israel-US-Switzerland Collaboration", the author list is given as a reference to another unpublished contribution (cited as [27]) to the NPA8 conference in June 2017 in Catania). However, M. Gai did never have the right to report on unpublished proprietary data of the entire collaboration, and he was not authorized to act "on behalf of the collaboration". The contribution is declared as "accepted for publication", but in fact was retracted during the refereeing process. After several careful data evaluations, we have to state that the results of these measurements are not trustworthy and neither the given experimental data basis nor the corresponding data analysis can be improved further. Therefore, we requested to retract the posting immediately [arXiv:1904.03023]. We have to emphasize that, in our opinion, arXiv is not the appropriate platform for handling frictions in a collaboration. These problems should have been solved internally before publishing. Unfortunately, with his single-handed posting against the explicit disagreement of parts of the collaboration, M. Gai did not leave another possibility. With the present article, we expressed all our concerns and objections and we consider herewith the public discussion of this issue as closed.Comment: arXiv admin note: This version has been removed by arXiv administrators due to copyright infringemen

Vacuum structure of a modified MIT Bag

An alternative to introducing and subsequently renormalizing classical parameters in the expression for the vacuum energy of the MIT bag for quarks is proposed in the massless case by appealing to the QCD trace anomaly and scale separation due to asymptotic freedom. The explicit inclusion of gluons implies an unrealistically low separation scale.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figure

Calculation of the Regularized Vacuum Energy in Cavity Field Theories

A novel technique based on Schwinger's proper time method is applied to the Casimir problem of the M.I.T. bag model. Calculations of the regularized vacuum energies of massless scalar and Dirac spinor fields confined to a static and spherical cavity are presented in a consistent manner. While our results agree partly with previous calculations based on asymptotic methods, the main advantage of our technique is that the numerical errors are under control. Interpreting the bag constant as a vacuum expectation value, we investigate potential cancellations of boundary divergences between the canonical energy and its bag constant counterpart in the fermionic case. It is found that such cancellations do not occur.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Eur.Phys.J.

Bounds on Lorentz and CPT Violation from the Earth-Ionosphere Cavity

Electromagnetic resonant cavities form the basis of many tests of Lorentz invariance involving photons. The effects of some forms of Lorentz violation scale with cavity size. We investigate possible signals of violations in the naturally occurring resonances formed in the Earth-ionosphere cavity. Comparison with observed resonances places the first terrestrial constraints on coefficients associated with dimension-three Lorentz-violating operators at the level of 10^{-20} GeV.Comment: 8 pages REVTe

Effect of area ratio on the performance of a 5.5:1 pressure ratio centrifugal impeller

A centrifugal impeller which was initially designed for a pressure ratio of approximately 5.5 and a mass flow rate of 0.959 kg/sec was tested with a vaneless diffuser for a range of design point impeller area ratios from 2.322 to 2.945. The impeller area ratio was changed by successively cutting back the impeller exit axial width from an initial value of 7.57 mm to a final value of 5.97 mm. In all, four separate area ratios were tested. For each area ratio a series of impeller exit axial clearances was also tested. Test results are based on impeller exit surveys of total pressure, total temperature, and flow angle at a radius 1.115 times the impeller exit radius. Results of the tests at design speed, peak efficiency, and an exit tip clearance of 8 percent of exit blade height show that the impeller equivalent pressure recovery coefficient peaked at a design point area ratio of approximately 2.748 while the impeller aerodynamic efficiency peaked at a lower value of area ratio of approximately 2.55. The variation of impeller efficiency with clearance showed expected trends with a loss of approximately 0.4 points in impeller efficiency for each percent increase in exit axial tip clearance for all impellers tested

Possibilities of preparation of exotic radionuclide samples at PSI for scientific investigations

The interactions of high-energy protons with matter produce a large variety of radionuclides due to the diversity of the induced nuclear reactions. Some of those isotopes are very rare, exotic, and, in many cases, difficult to produce by complementary methods. Valuable isotopes, interesting for scientific and technological applications, can be extracted from samples stemming from the surroundings or components of a proton accelerator, in particular if the load of the initial particle current is relatively high (esp. in the Megawatt range). Since PSI operates one of the most powerful high-energy proton accelerators world-wide, this facility is best-suited for an R&D program aimed at "harvesting” such isotopes. An initiative called ERAWAST (Exotic Radionuclides from Accelerator Waste for Science and Technology) was started in 2006 in order to identify and motivate potential users. After six years, first achievements as well as realistic future plans for front-end experiments are available. The present contribution describes radiochemical separation techniques for selected examples, summarizes the most prominent results and gives an outlook on the upcoming experiments within the scope of the ERAWAST progra

Developing a Pilot Case and Modelling the Development of a Large European CO₂ Transport Infrastructure -The GATEWAY H2020 Project

The H2020 GATEWAY project aims to develop a comprehensive model Pilot Case which, intentionally, will pave the ground for CCS deployment in Europe. It will result from the assessment of, technical, commercial, judicial and societal issues related to a future CO2 transport infrastructure. The Pilot Case derived on this basis, will emphasize a gateway for CO2 transport in the North Sea Basin. Four potential pilot cases have been evaluated through a combination of techno-economic modelling of the individual cases and evaluation against more qualitative criteria. The chosen Pilot Case, Rotterdam Nucleus, will be refined and developed during the remaining period of the GATEWAY project. To maximise impact, the GATEWAY project adapts its work to lay the foundation for a future application to a European ‘Project of Common Interest’ (PCI). Continuous dialogue with the most relevant stakeholders is an important part of GATEWAY, as a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) H2020 project

Effect of Yoga in the Therapy of Irritable Bowel Syndrome: A Systematic Review

© 2016 AGA Institute Background & Aims This review aims to systematically survey the effects of yoga on symptoms of irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), pain, quality of life, mood, stress, and safety in patients with IBS. Methods MEDLINE/Pubmed, Scopus, the Cochrane Library, CAM-QUEST, CAMbase, and IndMED were screened through November 2015. Randomized controlled trials comparing yoga with usual care, nonpharmacologic, or pharmacologic interventions were analyzed for patients with IBS. Primary outcomes included gastrointestinal symptoms, quality of life, and pain. Anxiety, mood, and safety were defined as secondary outcomes. Risk of bias was assessed according to the Cochrane Collaboration recommendations. Results Six randomized controlled trials with a total of 273 patients were included in the qualitative analysis. There was evidence for a beneficial effect of a yogic intervention over conventional treatment in IBS, with significantly decreased bowel symptoms, IBS severity, and anxiety. Furthermore, there were significant improvements in quality of life, global improvement, and physical functioning after yoga compared with no treatment. Two randomized controlled trials reported safety data stating that no adverse events occurred. Overall, risk of bias of the included studies was unclear. Conclusions The findings of this systematic review suggest that yoga might be a feasible and safe adjunctive treatment for people with IBS. Nevertheless, no recommendation can be made regarding yoga as a routine intervention for patients with IBS because of major flaws in study methods. More research is needed with respect to a high-quality study design and consensus in clinical outcome measurements in IBS. ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT02721836