Miscellaneous Parameters


Miscellaneous Parameters, Figure 1

Note that Figure 1 is divided into three sections:

  1. The top half of the figure lists "System Parameters,"
  2. The left side of the bottom half has two specific parameters,
  3. The right side of the bottom half gives options for "Height and Weight."

We shall now discuss each of these three sections.

System Parameters

1. "Customer Name"

This is normally set at the time the system is installed and is never changed, unless the company changes its name.

2. "System Type"

This is specific for the type of counter. As of October 2, 2007, the software is written only for the "Do-It-Yourself" whole body counter. Therefore, although the DOS version of the "Helge" software included the "Do-It-Yourself" whole body counter, it also provided options for five versions of the "Quicky" counter, the "BRC" waste analyzer, and the "HPGe" 55 gallon barrel waste analyzer.

3. "System Identification"

The value inserted here is unique to the particular counter and is used by the Helgeson Maintenance Staff for identification purposes in the Helgeson records.

4. Units of Activity

The choices are "nCi," if you wish to report the results in nanocuries, or "Bq," if you wish to report the results in becquerels.

5. Length of Travel

This represents the distance that a point on the detector will travel from one end of the counter to the other. In figure 1, above, the distance is reported in centimeters because as will be seen in the next section in discussing the left half of the lower section of the page, you will note that the "Subject dimensions are metric units" has been checked as the active unit. Obviously, if this box is not checked, the subject dimensions are listed in the English system, inches and pounds. See Figure 2, below.

"The Left Side of the Bottom Half"

These two items are truly "miscellaneous," and are located here because this is the "Miscellaneous Parameters" section.

If the "One result per page" box is checked, then only one analytical result will be printed on the output page. The default condition is to check this box.

The second box on this page is very important, as was mentioned above. All dimensions in the databases are stored in the CGS system, therefore, the height and weight of the individual are stored in centimeters and kilograms, respectively. However, most people in the United States are used to the English system in which the distance measurements are given in inches and the weight measurements are given in pounds. Therefore, Figure 2, below, will be chosen by most people most of the time.

Height and Weight
Years of experience in the field of whole body counting have shown that there should be maxima and minima limits on the height and weight of the size of the subject being counted. (The only time in 40 years of whole body counting that this was not true was during the counting of infant children following the problems at Three Mile Island.) Thus, this section of the "Miscellaneous Parameters" chapter contains the options for entering these data. Note that even with these entries, it would still be possible to count babies by setting the minimum values sufficiently low. Figure 2, below, shows the "Miscellaneous Parameters" screen when it is set to the English measuring system.


Miscellaneous Parameters, Figure 2

This is the end of the chapter on "Miscellaneous Parameters ."