The Joint COntrols Project Framework

The Framework is one of the subprojects of the Joint COntrols Project (JCOP), which is collaboration between the four LHC experiments and CERN. By sharing development, this will reduce the overall effort required to build and maintain the experiment control systems. As such, the main aim of the Framework is to deliver a common set of software components, tools and guidelines that can be used by the four LHC experiments to build their control systems. Although commercial components are used wherever possible, further added value is obtained by customisation for HEP-specific applications. The supervisory layer of the Framework is based on the SCADA tool PVSS, which was selected after a detailed evaluation. This is integrated with the front-end layer via both OPC (OLE for Process Control), an industrial standard, and the CERN-developed DIM (Distributed Information Management System) protocol. Several components are already in production and being used by running fixed-target experiments at CERN as well as for the LHC experiment test beams. The paper will give an overview of the key concepts behind the project as well as the state of the current development and future plans.Comment: Paper from the 2003 Computing in High Energy and Nuclear Physics (CHEP03), La Jolla, Ca, USA, March 2003, 4 pages, PDF. PSN THGT00

The Supply of Social Insurance

We propose a theory of the welfare state, in which social transfers are chosen by a governing group interacting with non-governing groups repeatedly. Social demands from the non-governing groups are credible because these groups have the ability to generate social conflict. In this context social insurance is supplied as an equilibrium response to income risks within a self-enforcing social contract. When we explore the implications of such a view of the social contract, we find four main determinants of the welfare state: the degree of aggregate income risk; the heterogeneity of group-specific income risks; the public administration’s ability to implement group-specific transfers; and the ability of the non-governing groups to coordinate their social demands. We also analyze the link between public good provision and social insurance

Interplay between the ionic and electronic density profiles in liquid metal surfaces

First principles molecular dynamics simulations have been performed for the liquid-vapor interfaces of liquid Li, Mg, Al and Si. We analize the oscillatory ionic and valence electronic density profiles obtained, their wavelengths and the mechanisms behind their relative phase-shift.Comment: Accepted for publication in Journal of Chemical Physic

The stellar population and the evolutionary state of HII regions and starburst galaxies

RHII and starbursts are both powered by massive stars. They are the main contributors to the heating of the ISM via radiative and mechanical energy. Techniques to derive the stellar content and the evolutionary state of RHIIs and starbursts from their ultraviolet and optical integrated light are reviewed. A prototypical RHII (NGC 604) and nuclear starburst (NGC 7714) are discussed in more detail. The results reveal the necessity of multiwavelength analyses of these objects to estimate their stellar content and their evolutionary state in a consistent way.Comment: Proceedings of the JENAM Conference (Toulouse, September 1999). To be published in New Astronomy Reviews, Editors Daniel Schaerer and Rosa Gonzalez Delgado. 12 pages, 7 figure