Software applications for beam traceability and machine documentation at ISOLDE

The ISOLDE facility at CERN requires a wide variety of software applications to ensure maximum productivity. It will be further enforced by two new applications; Automatic Save After set uP (ASAP) and Fast Beam Investigation (FBI). ASAP saves crucial time for the engineers in charge (EIC) during the physics campaign. It automatizes and standardizes a repetitive process. For each new set up, the EIC is required to document the settings of all important elements before delivering beam to the users. FBI will be serving two different needs. First, it will be used as a beam traceability tool. The settings of every element of ISOLDE that could obstruct, stop or affect the beam will be tracked by the application. This will allow to understand better the presence of radioactive contaminants after each experiment at critical points in the facility. The second functionality will allow real time monitoring of the machine status during a physics run. FBI will be the most efficient way to visualize the status of the machine and find the reason that prevents the beam from arriving to the experimental station. Finally, an application has been developed to automatize with flexibility a sequence of pre-defined assignments, such as performing a measurement and setting a value to a device

Authorship inequalities in global health research: the IeDEA Southern Africa collaboration

Background The International epidemiology Databases to Evaluate AIDS conducts research in several regions, including in Southern Africa. We assessed authorship inequalities for the Southern African region, which is led by South African and Swiss investigators.Methods We analysed authorships of publications from 2007 to 2020 by gender, country income group, time and citation impact. We used 2020 World Bank categories to define income groups and the relative citation ratio (RCR) to assess citation impact. Authorship parasitism was defined as articles without authors from the countries where the study was conducted. A regression model examined the probability of different authorship positions.Results We included 313 articles. Of the 1064 contributing authors, 547 (51.4%) were women, and 223 (21.0%) were from 32 low-income/lower middle-income countries (LLMICs), 269 (25.3%) were from 13 upper middle-income countries and 572 (53.8%) were from 25 high-income countries (HICs). Most articles (150/157, 95.5%) reporting data from Southern Africa included authors from all participating countries. Women were more likely to be the first author than men (OR 1.74; 95% CI 1.06 to 2.83) but less likely to be last authors (OR 0.63; 95% CI 0.40 to 0.99). Compared with HIC, LLMIC authors were less likely to publish as first (OR 0.21; 95% CI 0.11 to 0.41) or last author (OR 0.20; 95% CI 0.09 to 0.42). The proportion of women and LLMIC first and last authors increased over time. The RCR tended to be higher, indicating greater impact, if first or last authors were from HIC (p=0.06).Conclusions This analysis of a global health collaboration co-led by South African and Swiss investigators showed little evidence of authorship parasitism. There were stark inequalities in authorship position, with women occupying more first and men more last author positions and researchers from LLMIC being ‘stuck in the middle’ on the byline. Global health research collaborations should monitor, analyse and address authorship inequalities