Strong Flavor Dynamics for tops questions

[ChrisVer]

I was reading through this paper:
A Model for Strong Flavor Dynamics for the Top Quark
Ehab Malkawi, Tim Tait, C.--P. Yuan
It's pretty old, so maybe some things might have changed...

I have two questions.
Q1:
I quote from abstract:

If one takes the R_b data seriously

and from intro

If one takes the above measurements seriously, one can advocate specific types of new physics which tackle these experimental concerns

Were (or are) the measurments that showed the inconsistencies (to SM predictions) of Rc and Rb considered non-serious? In fact reading in a paper "taking those measurements seriously" made me giggle and think if I should take what's written "seriously" (or if I am badly mistaken).

Q2:
And finally I don't really understand the mass-hierarchy for the fermion mass spectrum (again mentioned in the intro).

The relatively large mass of the third generation fermions may suggest a dynamical behavior different from that of the first two generations

The top quark mass is relatively as larger to charm quark mass (3rd to 2nd), as charm is to up (2nd to 1st)... In numbers:
\frac{m_t}{m_c} \approx 134 ~~,~~ \frac{m_c}{m_u} \approx 561
Any idea? Or is the "relative" mass compared to something else (like the QCD scale)?

 

[mfb]

See the introduction of the first paper for references and significances. 3.5 and 2.5 sigma, respectively - something that can be a statistical fluctuation, but it could also be a hint of something new. The paper is discussing effects that can influence the value, but you can say "I don't take that 'seriously', it is probably just a statistical fluctuation".

The quark masses have a huge ratio for the third generation if you compare everything to the first generation, e.g. charm/up ~ 550, while top/up ~ 75000.