Tracking Accelerator Settings.

Recording setting changes within an accelerator facility provides information that can be used to answer questions about when, why, and how changes were made to some accelerator system. This can be very useful during normal operations, but can also aid with security concerns and in detecting unusual software behavior. The Set History System (SHS) is a new client-server system developed at the Collider-Accelerator Department of Brookhaven National Laboratory to provide these capabilities. The SHS has been operational for over two years and currently stores about IOOK settings per day into a commercial database management system. The SHS system consists of a server written in Java, client tools written in both Java and C++, and a web interface for querying the database of setting changes. The design of the SHS focuses on performance, portability, and a minimal impact on database resources. In this paper, we present an overview of the system design along with benchmark results showing the performance and reliability of the SHS over the last year

Quick setup of unit test for accelerator controls system

Testing a single hardware unit of an accelerator control system often requires the setup of a program with graphical user interface. Developing a dedicated application for a specific hardware unit test could be time consuming and the application may become obsolete after the unit tests. This paper documents a methodology for quick design and setup of an interface focused on performing unit tests of accelerator equipment with minimum programming work. The method has three components. The first is a generic accelerator device object (ADO) manager which can be used to setup, store, and log testing controls parameters for any unit testing system. The second involves the design of a TAPE (Tool for Automated Procedure Execution) sequence file that specifies and implements all te testing and control logic. The sting third is the design of a PET (parameter editing tool) page that provides the unit tester with all the necessary control parameters required for testing. This approach has been used for testing the horizontal plane of the Stochastic Cooling Motion Control System at RHIC

Activity profile of top-class association football referees in relation to fitness test performance and match standard

The aim of this study was to examine the kinematic activity profiles, cardiovascular responses and physical fitness of top-class football referees (n=11) during the FIFA Confederations Cup 2005. Computerised match-analyses (n=9) were performed with a two-dimensional photogrammetric video system, and the cardiovascular demand imposed on the referees (n=12) was measured using heart rate recordings. Total distance covered was 10,218, s=643 m of which 3531, s=510 m was covered at high intensities (>3.6 m.s(-1)). Both total distance covered (r2=0.59; P=0.02) and high-intensity activities (r2=0.44; P=0.05) were related to the distance covered by the ball in the same match. The referees ran at high speed 37% further (P=0.01) in the actual tournament than during under-17 top-level officiating. After the 5-min interval during which high-speed running peaked, in the following 5 min the performance was reduced by 19% (P=0.01) in relation to the mean of the game. Mean heart rate was 161, s=9 b.min(-1) (86, s=3% of maximal heart rate (HRmax)). Mean heart rate (expressed as percentage of HRmax) was related in part (r2=0.36; P5 m.s(-1)) best describes the physical performance of referees; (3) heart rate recording can be a useful tool to determine the most intense periods of a match and (4) the new fitness tests adopted by FIFA were poor predictors of match activities

Experience with low-energy gold-gold operations in RHIC during FY 2010

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RHIC Polarized proton performance in run-8

During Run-8, the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) provided collisions of spin-polarized proton beams at two interaction regions. Physics data were taken with vertical orientation of the beam polarization, which in the 'Yellow' RHIC ring was significantly lower than in previous years. We present recent developments and improvements as well as the luminosity and polarization performance achieved during Run-8, and we discuss possible causes of the not as high as previously achieved polarization performance of the 'Yellow' ring

RHIC Performance for FY2011 Au+Au Heavy Ion Run

Following the Fiscal Year (FY) 2010 (Run-10) Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC) Au+Au run, RHIC experiment upgrades sought to improve detector capabilities. In turn, accelerator improvements were made to improve the luminosity available to the experiments for this run (Run-11). These improvements included: a redesign of the stochastic cooling systems for improved reliability; a relocation of 'common' RF cavities to alleviate intensity limits due to beam loading; and an improved usage of feedback systems to control orbit, tune and coupling during energy ramps as well as while colliding at top energy. We present an overview of changes to the Collider and review the performance of the collider with respect to instantaneous and integrated luminosity goals. At the conclusion of the FY 2011 polarized proton run, preparations for heavy ion run proceeded on April 18, with Au+Au collisions continuing through June 28. Our standard operations at 100 GeV/nucleon beam energy was bracketed by two shorter periods of collisions at lower energies (9.8 and 13.5 GeV/nucleon), continuing a previously established program of low and medium energy runs. Table 1 summarizes our history of heavy ion operations at RHIC

A database of PFT ventilation measurements

About five years ago, a method for measuring the ventilation flows of a building was developed at Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL). This method is based on the use of a family of compounds known as perfluorocarbon tracers or PFTs. Since 1982, BNL has measured ventilation in more than 4000 homes, comprising about 100 separate research projects throughout the world. This measurement set is unique in that it is the only set of ventilation measurements that acknowledge and measure the multizone characteristics of residences. Other large measurement sets assume that a home can be treated as a single well-mixed zone. This report describes the creation of a database of approximately half of the PFT ventilation measurements made by BNL over the last five years. The PFT database is currently available for use on any IBM PC or Apple Macintosh based personal computer system. In addition to its utility in modeling indoor pollutant dispersion, this database may also be useful to those people studying energy conservation, thermal comfort and heating system design in residential buildings. 2 refs