The NO upsilon A Far Detector Data Acquisition System

The NOvA experiment is a long-baseline neutrino experiment designed to make measurements to determine the neutrino mass hierarchy, neutrino mixing parameters and CP violation in the neutrino sector. In order to make these measurements the NOvA collaboration has designed a highly distributed, synchronized, continuous digitization and readout system that is able to acquire and correlate data from the Fermi lab accelerator complex (NuMI), the NOvA near detector at the Fermi lab site and the NOvA far detector which is located 810 km away at Ash River, MN. This system has unique properties that let it fully exploit the physics capabilities of the NOvA detector. The design of the NOvA DAQ system and its capabilities are discussed in this paper

The large-scale ionization cones in the Galaxy

There is compelling evidence for a highly energetic Seyfert explosion (10^{56-57} erg) that occurred in the Galactic Centre a few million years ago. The clearest indications are the x-ray/gamma-ray "10 kpc bubbles" identified by the Rosat and Fermi satellites. In an earlier paper, we suggested another manifestation of this nuclear activity, i.e. elevated H-alpha emission along a section of the Magellanic Stream due to a burst (or flare) of ionizing radiation from Sgr A*. We now provide further evidence for a powerful flare event: UV absorption line ratios (in particular CIV/CII, SiIV/SiII) observed by the Hubble Space Telescope reveal that some Stream clouds towards both galactic poles are highly ionized by a source capable of producing ionization energies up to at least 50 eV. We show how these are clouds caught in a beam of bipolar, radiative "ionization cones" from a Seyfert nucleus associated with Sgr A*. In our model, the biconic axis is tilted by about 15 deg from the South Galactic Pole with an opening angle of roughly 60 deg. For the Stream at such large Galactic distances (D > 75 kpc), nuclear activity is a plausible explanation for all of the observed signatures: elevated H-alpha emission and H ionization fraction (X_e > 0.5), enhanced CIV/CII and SiIV/SiII ratios, and high CIV and SiIV column densities. Wind-driven "shock cones" are ruled out because the Fermi bubbles lose their momentum and energy to the Galactic corona long before reaching the Stream. The nuclear flare event must have had a radiative UV luminosity close to the Eddington limit (f_E ~ 0.1-1). Our time-dependent Seyfert flare models adequately explain the observations and indicate the Seyfert flare event took place T_o = 3.5 +/- 1 Myr ago. The timing estimates are consistent with the mechanical timescales needed to explain the x-ray/gamma-ray bubbles in leptonic jet/wind models (2-8 Myr).Comment: 21 pages; 15 figures; 2 movies (this version matches published version

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

Contextual Constraint Modeling in Grid Application Workflows

This paper introduces a new mechanism for specifying constraints in distributed workflows. By introducing constraints in a contextual form, it is shown how different people and groups within collaborative communities can cooperatively constrain workflows. A comparison with existing state-of-the-art workflow systems is made. These ideas are explored in practice with an illustrative example from High Energy Physics.