The accelerator automation application toolkit workshop presentations

Over the past 18 months on the GTA project at Los Alamos, we have been developing tools for building control systems for accelerators. The first tool developed has already demonstrated greatly reduced requirements for conventional computer programming in applying control systems to an accelerator. Even in the early stages, this work has received considerable attention and the system is currently being investigated or used at several other institutes. Further tools are either in the conceptual design, design, or implementation phase. Over the same period, a group at CERN has been developing the ideas and design for a generic software kit for the application of a control system to accelerators. The CERN software kit also addresses the technical management and documentation aspects of control systems. The purpose of the AT Division effort and the CERN kit is to greatly simplify the implementation and lifetime maintenance of an accelerator control system. Experience has shown that accelerator control systems are also applicable to other experimental physics machines. The purpose of the workshop was to explore these ideas and developments as well as other relevant developments in the field, to verify the viability of the concepts, and to develop further the written specifications for some of the components of such a toolkit. We had draft specifications prepared prior to the workshop. 21 figs

Surgical management of Tuberculum sellae Meningiomas: Myths, facts, and controversies.

The optimal management of tuberculum sellae (TS) meningiomas, especially the surgical strategy, continues to be debated along with several controversies that persist. A task force was created by the EANS skull base section committee along with its members and other renowned experts in the field to generate recommendations for the surgical management of these tumors on a European perspective. To achieve this, the task force also reviewed in detail the literature in this field and had formal discussions within the group. The constituted task force dealt with the practice patterns that exist with respect to pre-operative radiological investigations, ophthalmological and endocrinological assessments, optimal surgical strategies, and follow-up management. This article represents the consensually derived opinion of the task force with respect to the surgical treatment of tuberculum sellae meningiomas. Areas of uncertainty where further clinical research is required were identified

Surgical management of craniopharyngiomas in adult patients: a systematic review and consensus statement on behalf of the EANS skull base section.

Craniopharyngiomas are locally aggressive neuroepithelial tumors infiltrating nearby critical neurovascular structures. The majority of published surgical series deal with childhood-onset craniopharyngiomas, while the optimal surgical management for adult-onset tumors remains unclear. The aim of this paper is to summarize the main principles defining the surgical strategy for the management of craniopharyngiomas in adult patients through an extensive systematic literature review in order to formulate a series of recommendations. The MEDLINE database was systematically reviewed (January 1970-February 2019) to identify pertinent articles dealing with the surgical management of adult-onset craniopharyngiomas. A summary of literature evidence was proposed after discussion within the EANS skull base section. The EANS task force formulated 13 recommendations and 4 suggestions. Treatment of these patients should be performed in tertiary referral centers. The endonasal approach is presently recommended for midline craniopharyngiomas because of the improved GTR and superior endocrinological and visual outcomes. The rate of CSF leak has strongly diminished with the use of the multilayer reconstruction technique. Transcranial approaches are recommended for tumors presenting lateral extensions or purely intraventricular. Independent of the technique, a maximal but hypothalamic-sparing resection should be performed to limit the occurrence of postoperative hypothalamic syndromes and metabolic complications. Similar principles should also be applied for tumor recurrences. Radiotherapy or intracystic agents are alternative treatments when no further surgery is possible. A multidisciplinary long-term follow-up is necessary

Surgical management of craniopharyngiomas in adult patients: a systematic review and consensus statement on behalf of the EANS skull base section

Background and objective: Craniopharyngiomas are locally aggressive neuroepithelial tumors infiltrating nearby critical neurovascular structures. The majority of published surgical series deal with childhood-onset craniopharyngiomas, while the optimal surgical management for adult-onset tumors remains unclear. The aim of this paper is to summarize the main principles defining the surgical strategy for the management of craniopharyngiomas in adult patients through an extensive systematic literature review in order to formulate a series of recommendations. Material and methods: The MEDLINE database was systematically reviewed (January 1970\u2013February 2019) to identify pertinent articles dealing with the surgical management of adult-onset craniopharyngiomas. A summary of literature evidence was proposed after discussion within the EANS skull base section. Results: The EANS task force formulated 13 recommendations and 4 suggestions. Treatment of these patients should be performed in tertiary referral centers. The endonasal approach is presently recommended for midline craniopharyngiomas because of the improved GTR and superior endocrinological and visual outcomes. The rate of CSF leak has strongly diminished with the use of the multilayer reconstruction technique. Transcranial approaches are recommended for tumors presenting lateral extensions or purely intraventricular. Independent of the technique, a maximal but hypothalamic-sparing resection should be performed to limit the occurrence of postoperative hypothalamic syndromes and metabolic complications. Similar principles should also be applied for tumor recurrences. Radiotherapy or intracystic agents are alternative treatments when no further surgery is possible. A multidisciplinary long-term follow-up is necessary

Development of a Complication- and Treatment-Aware Prediction Model for Favorable Functional Outcome in Aneurysmal Subarachnoid Hemorrhage Based on Machine Learning.

Current prognostic tools in aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) are constrained by being primarily based on patient and disease characteristics on admission. To develop and validate a complication- and treatment-aware outcome prediction tool in aSAH. This cohort study included data from an ongoing prospective nationwide multicenter registry on all aSAH patients in Switzerland (Swiss SOS [Swiss Study on aSAH]; 2009-2015). We trained supervised machine learning algorithms to predict a binary outcome at discharge (modified Rankin scale [mRS] ≤ 3: favorable; mRS 4-6: unfavorable). Clinical and radiological variables on admission ("Early" Model) as well as additional variables regarding secondary complications and disease management ("Late" Model) were used. Performance of both models was assessed by classification performance metrics on an out-of-sample test dataset. Favorable functional outcome at discharge was observed in 1156 (62.0%) of 1866 patients. Both models scored a high accuracy of 75% to 76% on the test set. The "Late" outcome model outperformed the "Early" model with an area under the receiver operator characteristics curve (AUC) of 0.85 vs 0.79, corresponding to a specificity of 0.81 vs 0.70 and a sensitivity of 0.71 vs 0.79, respectively. Both machine learning models show good discrimination and calibration confirmed on application to an internal test dataset of patients with a wide range of disease severity treated in different institutions within a nationwide registry. Our study indicates that the inclusion of variables reflecting the clinical course of the patient may lead to outcome predictions with superior predictive power compared to a model based on admission data only