Using elasticsearch for archiving with TANGO-controls framework

The TANGO controls framework community has put a lot of effort in creating the HDB++ software system that is an high performance, event-driven archiving system. Its design allows storing data into traditional database management systems such as MySQL as well as NoSQL database such as Apache Cassandra. The architecture allow also to easily extend it to other noSql database like, for instance, Elasticsearch. This paper describes the extension for Elasticsearch made and how to use it alongside its graphical tool called Kibana

Challenges and strategies for the maintenance of the SKA Telescope Manager

The Square Kilometre Array (SKA) is an ambitious project aimed to build a radio telescope that will enable breakthrough science not possible with current facilities over the next 50 years. Because of this long expected operational period, the maintenance of Telescope Manager (TM), the SKA Element responsible for the coordination of all Elements composing the Telescope (e.g. Dishes for mid-frequency or Low-Frequency Aperture Arrays), plays a crucial role for the overall SKA operation. A challenge is represented by the technological evolution in hardware and software, which is rather fast nowadays: only in the last 10 years, for instance, new operating systems were born, as well as new technologies for data storage and for calculation. Dealing with such changing environment deserves therefore a deep analysis in terms of maintenance. In spite of the importance of hardware maintenance for TM, its software maintenance is actually the real challenge, given TM is a system almost entirely composed by software applications. In computer science, indeed, it is almost impossible to build a software which does not need to be changed over time: new requirements emerge, old requirements change during application lifetime, errors are discovered or performance must be improved. For all these reasons the management of software changes is critical to maintain the value of the software developed, especially for a complex system like SKA TM. In this paper the maintenance for both SKA TM hardware and software is presented with respect to the Operational (i.e. related to Maintenance Process) and Organizational (i.e. related to Logistic Support) aspects

HDB@ELK: another noSql customization for the HDB++ archiving system

The TANGO controls framework community has put a lot of effort in creating the HDB++ software system that is an high performance, event-driven archiving system. Its design allows storing data into traditional database management systems such as MySQL as well as NoSQL database such as Apache Cassandra. The architecture allow also to easily extend it to other noSql database like, for instance, ELK. This paper describes the step needed to extend the HDB++ and explore the possibilities to use the ELK technology in term of analysis being enabled and tools provided

Autonomous Observations in Antarctica with AMICA

The Antarctic Multiband Infrared Camera (AMICA) is a double channel camera operating in the 2-28 micron infrared domain (KLMNQ bands) that will allow to characterize and exploit the exceptional advantages for Astronomy, expected from Dome C in Antarctica. The development of the camera control system is at its final stage. After the investigation of appropriate solutions against the critical environment, a reliable instrumentation has been developed. It is currently being integrated and tested to ensure the correct execution of automatic operations. Once it will be mounted on the International Robotic Antarctic Infrared Telescope (IRAIT), AMICA and its equipment will contribute to the accomplishment of a fully autonomous observatory.Comment: 12 pages, 4 figures, Advances in Astronomy Journal, Special Issue "Robotic Astronomy", Accepted 11 February 201

Ultra-small octahedral PtNP-labeled antibodies as an ultrasensitive nanozyme probe for chemiluminescence detection in bioanalytics

Chemiluminescence (CL)-based probes are one of the most sensitive detection principles in nanodiagnostics. A widely used system is the CL substrate for peroxidase (HRP) employed to label a variety of molecules ranging from small steroids to protein. The CL cocktail for HRP is based on luminol or its analogues, hydrogen peroxide, and an enhancer, allowing the detection of submolar concentrations of the enzyme-labeled analyte. The catalyst of the CL reaction, namely HRP, can be replaced by other more practical and highly stable nano-catalysts/nanozymes; among them, recent studies have demonstrated the superior performance of Pt nanomaterials [1]. In this work, we propose the use of ultra-small (3 nm) citrate-coated octahedral Pt nanocrystals prepared by a new wet chemical reduction method in aqueous environment and conjugated to a secondary human IgG antibody, as an ultrasensitive probe for luminol/hydrogen peroxide CL detection. Conjugates with different nanocrystal-to-antibody molar ratios were first fully characterized and purified by Field-Flow Fractionation (FFF) [2]. FFF confirms the homogeneous size of the conjugated which represents a fundamental parameter for their efficiency. The FFF-selected purified conjugates are homogeneous in size and highly concentrated, and readily available for downstream CL tests, an important requirement for the use of FFF as semi-prep step. First results demonstrate the applicability of Pt nanocrystals as probes for CL detection. Indeed the Pt nanocrystals-antibodies CL signal has been measured for the different nanoparticles-IgG molar ratios, showing an increasing signal as a function of nanoparticles concentration with the possibility to detect IgG down to 10-12 M, value close to that obtained using HRP [3]. In addition, the light signal reaches a steady state value for more than 30 minutes, thus facilitating the assay handling. These results paves the way to the use of Pt nanomaterials, highly monodisperse in size and shape and with easy-to-remove coating, for the production of highly efficient catalysts/nanozymes for CL applications and the development of simple and rapid new tests

TANGO-grafana: An online diagnostic tool to assist in the analysis of interconnected problems difficult to debug in the context of the Square Kilometre Array (SKA) telescope project

The selected solution for monitoring the SKA Minimum Viable Product (MVP) Prototype Integration (SKAMPI) is Prometheus. Starting from a study on the modifiability aspects of it, the Grafana project emerged as an important tool for displaying data in order to make specific reasoning and debugging of particular aspect of SKAMPI. Its plugin architecture easily allow to add new data sources like prometheus but the TANGO related data sources has been added as well. The main concept of grafana is the dashboard, which enable to create real analysis. In this paper four example analysis are presented which take advantage of four different datasources and a variety of different panel (widget) for reasoning on archiving data, monitoring data, state of the system and general health of it

Monitoring and controlling the SKA telescope manager: a peculiar LMC system in the framework of the SKA LMCs

The SKA Telescope Manager (TM) is the core package of the SKA Telescope: it is aimed at scheduling observations, controlling their execution, monitoring the telescope health status, diagnosing and fixing its faults and so on. To do that, TM directly interfaces with the Local Monitoring and Control systems (LMCs) of the various SKA Elements (e.g. Dishes, Low-Frequency Aperture Array, etc.), exchanging commands and data with each of them. TM in turn needs to be monitored and controlled, in order its continuous and proper operation - and therefore that of the whole SKA Telescope - is ensured. It appears indeed that, while the unavailability of one or more instances of any other SKA element should result only in a degraded operation for the whole telescope, a problem in TM could cause a complete stop of any operation. In addition to this higher responsibility, a local monitoring and control system for TM has to collect and display logging data directly to operators, perform lifecycle management of TM applications and directly deal - when possible - with management of TM faults (which also includes a direct handling of TM status and performance data). In this paper, the peculiarities presented by the TM monitoring and control and the consequences they have on the design of a related LMC system are addressed and discussed

Operational challenges for astronomical instrumentation in Antarctica: results from five years of environmental monitoring of AMICA at Dome C

The Antarctic Plateau is one of the best observing sites on Earth, especially for infrared astronomy. The extremely low temperatures (down to -80°C), the low pressure (around 650 mbar) and the very dry atmosphere (PWV less than 1 mm) allow for a very clear and dark sky, as well as for a very low instrumental background. These unique properties, however, make it also very difficult to install and operate astronomical instrumentation. AMICA (Antarctic Multiband Infrared CAmera) is an instrument especially designed for Antarctic operation, whose installation at Dome C has been completed in 2013. Since then it has been continuously working over the last five years, monitoring and controlling in particular the environmental and operating conditions through a dedicated application, its Environmental Control System (ECS). The recorded behavior of AMICA highlighted a set of peculiar aspects of the site that are hard to consider a priori. Although mechanical and electronic COTS components can reliably work in thermally insulated and controlled boxes, simple insulation causes their overheating because of the air dryness and rarefaction which make the heat transfer extremely inefficient. Heat removal is also a real problem when managing heavy-duty devices like cryocoolers, whose excess power removal needs to be fast and efficient. Finally, the lack of an electrical ground generates a wide variety of transient electrical and electromagnetic phenomena which often make electronic instrumentation very unstable. A list of new recommendations is therefore presented, as a guideline for future astronomical instruments operating in Antarctica

A frailty index predicts post-liver transplant morbidity and mortality in HIV-positive patients

Background: We hypothesized that frailty acts as a measure of health outcomes in the context of LT. The aim of this study was to explore frailty index across LT, as a measure of morbidity and mortality. This was a retrospective observational study including all consecutive 47 HIV+patients who received LT in Modena, Italy from 2003 to June 2015. Methods: frailty index (FI) was constructed from 30 health variables. It was used both as a continuous score and as a categorical variable, defining 'most frail' a FI > 0.45. FI change across transplant (deltaFI, \uce\u94FI) was calculated as the difference between year 1 FI (FI-Y1) and pre-transplant FI (FI-t0). The outcomes measures were mortality and "otpimal LT" (defined as being alive without multi-morbidity). Results: Median value of FI-t0 was 0.48 (IQR 0.42-0.52), FI-Y1 was 0.31 (IQR 0.26-0.41). At year five mortality rate was 45%, "optimal transplant" rate at year 1 was 38%. All the patients who died in the post-LT were most frail in the pre-LT. \uce\u94FI was a predictor of mortality after correction for age and MELD (HR = 1.10, p = 0.006) and was inversely associated with optimal transplant after correction for age (HR = 1.04, p = 0.01). Conclusions: We validated FI as a valuable health measure in HIV transplant. In particular, we found a relevant correlation between FI strata at baseline and mortality and a statistically significant correlation between, \uce\u94FI and survival rate