Production follow-up of the LHC main dipoles through magnetic measurements at room temperature
In this paper, we review the tools used for controlling the production of the LHC main dipoles through warm magnetic measurements. For the collared coil measurements, control limits are based on the statistics relative to the pre-series production. For the cold mass, the difference between collared coil and cold mass is considered, allowing a very stringent test. In both cases, measurements are split in straight part average, variations and coil ends contributions. Two different alarm levels exist in case the measured field is out of limits. The analysis can be carried out at the manufacturer and allows detection of anomalies in the measured magnetic field. These can be either due to wrong measurements or caused by assembly defects. Techniques used to work out information on the magnet assembly from the field harmonics are outlined. We summarize the experience gathered on about 180 collared coils and 120 cold masses, pointing out the bad cases and investigating the reliability of the measurements.
Superconducting magnets for the LHC main lattice
The main lattice of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) employs about 1600 main magnets and more than 4000 corrector magnets. All superconducting and working in pressurized superfluid helium bath, these impressive line of magnets fills more than 20 km of the underground tunnel. With almost 70 main dipoles already delivered and 10 main quadrupoles almost completed, we passed the 5% of the production and now all manufacturers have fully entered into series production. In this paper the most critical issues encountered in the ramping up in such a real large scale fabrication is addressed; uniformity of the coil size and of prestress, special welding technique, tolerances on curvature (dipoles) or straightness (quadrupoles) and of the cold mass extremities, harmonic content and, most important, the integrated field uniformity among magnets. The actual limits and the solution for improvements are discussed. Finally a realistic schedule based on actual achievements is presented.
The infection process, sporulation and survival of Alternaria helianthi on sunflower
SUMMARY 
 
Electron microscopy was used to study the infection of sunflower leaves by Alternaria helianthi. Conidia germinated by producing one to many germ tubes which grew across the leaf surface before forming appressoria. The fungus directly penetrated its host through the cuticle and epidermis. Entry into the host through wounds and stomates was also observed. Extracellular sheaths were found to be associated with germ tubes and intercellular hyphae of A. helianthi. Conidiophores developed through collapsed stomates, from leaf veins, trichomes and also from mycelium growing across the host leaf surface. Microcylic conidia were produced directly from parent conidia under certain conditions. Studies using a volumetric spore trap showed that the airborne spore concentration followed a distinct periodicity with peaks occurring between 0900 and 1100 h each day. Laboratory studies showed that safflower, noogoora burr and bathurst burr could serve as alternative hosts for A. helianthi. The pathogen was readily isolated from sunflower crop debris from a diseased crop that had been harvested 1 yr earlier.