USA Swimming: The Data Integration Project

USA Swimming (USAS) is the National Governing Body for the sport of swimming, one of more than 40 National Governing Bodies for amateur sports in the United States. Their mission is, in part, to administer competitive swimming in accordance with the Amateur Sports Act , and to provide programs and services for our members, supporters, affiliates and the interested public The USAS membership community consists of athletes, non-athletes, and clubs. One of the most important functions USAS performs is to gather and maintain information on members in all categories. Maintaining individual swimmers\u27 times in sanctioned meets, for example, forms the basis for swimmers to be ranked nationally. The responsibility for the gathering of data is relegated to 2,800 clubs and 59 local swimming committees scattered across the US. In their previous system, data needed for the USAS master databases was gathered by the clubs and sent to the local swimming committees, which consolidated the data and forwarded it to the national headquarters in Colorado Springs. Unfortunately, by 2002, it became clear that the hodgepodge of different hardware platforms and software used by the clubs and local swimming committees made the data gathering process ripe for errors, which resulted in unreliable data in multiple database systems at USAS headquarters. This case describes the process USAS management followed to establish and manage the development of a new system whose principal features include a new centralized database with a pre-posting holding tank for data cleansing as well as a Web portal providing valuable new functionality to the user community. The project involved significant risks, not the least of which was the widely dispersed user community. Risks were mitigated by the development of a prototype and by engaging an independent verification and validation firm. The new system achieved the benefits that USAS projected when the project was first conceived. The complicated technical infrastructure was replaced by a Web-based architecture that provides faster and more reliable service to the USAS community at a lower cost. The problem of inaccuracies in the data caused by data being stored in multiple databases was eliminated with the establishment of the new centralized database and the holding tank\u27s data cleansing capabilities. Users at USAS headquarters and in the field embraced the new system because it simplified the data gathering process and greatly improved the reliability of the information they obtain from the centralized database. Further, the Web-based portal provides a stable operating environment for day-to-day operations and a platform that allows adding enhancements easily to the system

Expected performance of a Laue lens based on bent crystals

In the context of the LAUE project devoted to build a long focal length focusing optics for soft gamma-ray astronomy (70/100 keV to $>$600 keV), we present results of simulation of a Laue lens, based on bent crystals in different assembling configurations (quasi-mosaic and reflection-like geometries). The main aim is to significantly overcome the sensitivity limits of the current generation of gamma-ray telescopes and improve the imaging capability.Comment: 7 pages, 7 figures, presented at the Space Telescopes and Instrumentation Symposium 2012: Ultraviolet to Gamma Ray Conference. Published in Proceedings of the SPIE, Volume 8443, id. 844331-844331-7 (2012

Design and test of a NbTi prototype coil for a low beta section

The design of superconducting quadrupoles for a proton and antiproton low beta section and the test of a prototype coil are presented. Previous studies [1,2] show that high gradient and short quadrupole magnets are required for a compact low beta section in order to allow the insertion of such a magnetic system with minor changes of the lattice [3]; each quadrupole is 400 mm long and has to provide a magnetic induction gradient of 60 T/m. A beam pipe of at least 120 mm diameter is required to avoid beam loss during injection and before the beam cooling. The magnetic design of the superconducting magnets for the low beta section is presented, together with a detailed discussion of the quench protection design. Two prototype coils were produced and one of them was tested. A detailed description of the test setup and a full discussion of the results will be presented

Who corrupts whom? A criminal eco-system made in Italy.

This research note focuses on the relationship between organised crime and corruption in Italy. It is part of a wider research project investigating that relationship across a number of European countries. In the first part of this contribution, along with a brief account of definitional issues, a summary review of previous work on the connections between organised crime and corruption is provided. The paper then attempts to delineate the uniqueness of the Italian case through some observations around the specific contours of organised and corrupt exchange in the country as they manifest themselves. After a brief methodological note, the analysis is interspersed with the opinions of key informants contacted for this research who have profound knowledge of the subject matter, having worked for many years as investigating judges or academic researchers. A division into areas in which the links between organised crime and corruption are observed tries to map the two phenomena and their joint modus operandi

Learning Graph Patterns of Reflection Coefficient for Non-destructive Diagnosis of Cu Interconnects

With the increasing operating frequencies and clock speeds in processors, interconnects affect both the reliability and performance of entire electronic systems. Fault detection and diagnosis of the interconnects are crucial for prognostics and health management (PHM) of electronics. However, traditional approaches using electrical signals as prognostic factors often face challenges in distinguishing defect root causes, necessitating additional destructive evaluations, and are prone to noise interference, leading to potential false alarms. To address these limitations, this paper introduces a novel approach for non-destructive detection and diagnosis of defects in Cu interconnects, offering early detection, enhanced diagnostic accuracy, and noise resilience. Our approach uniquely analyzes both the root cause and severity of interconnect defects by leveraging graph patterns of reflection coefficient, a technique distinct from traditional time series signal analysis. We experimentally demonstrate that the graph patterns possess the capability for fault diagnosis and serve as effective input data for learning algorithms. Additionally, we introduce a novel severity rating ensemble learning (SREL) approach, which significantly enhances diagnostic accuracy and noise robustness. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms conventional machine learning methods and multi-class convolutional neural networks (CNN), achieving a maximum accuracy of 99.3%, especially under elevated noise levels

The TRILL project: increasing the technological readiness of Laue lenses

Hard X-/soft Gamma-ray astronomy (> 100 keV) is a crucial field for the study of important astrophysical phenomena such as the 511 keV positron annihilation line in the Galactic center region and its origin, gamma-ray bursts, soft gamma-ray repeaters, nuclear lines from SN explosions and more. However, several key questions in this field require sensitivity and angular resolution that are hardly achievable with present technology. A new generation of instruments suitable to focus hard X-/soft Gamma-rays is necessary to overcome the technological limitations of current direct-viewing telescopes. One solution is using Laue lenses based on Bragg's diffraction in a transmission configuration. To date, this technology is in an advanced stage of development and further efforts are being made in order to significantly increase its technology readiness level (TRL). To this end, massive production of suitable crystals is required, as well as an improvement of the capability of their alignment. Such a technological improvement could be exploited in stratospheric balloon experiments and, ultimately, in space missions with a telescope of about 20 m focal length, capable of focusing over a broad energy pass-band. We present the latest technological developments of the TRILL (Technological Readiness Increase for Laue Lenses) project, supported by ASI, devoted to the advancement of the technological readiness of Laue lenses. We show the method we developed for preparing suitable bent Germanium and Silicon crystals and the latest advancements in crystals alignment technology.Comment: arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:2211.1688