Progress of Diamond Digital Low Level RF

The first version of digital low level RF (DLLRF) for the Diamond Light Source storage ring and booster was developed with ALBA Synchrotron. Six systems have been built so far. Two of them are in routine operation controlling two normal conducting HOM-damped cavi-ties in the Diamond storage ring. A third system is being used for cavity testing in the RF test facility (RFTF). The fourth system is being commissioned to control the sec-ond normal conducting booster cavity. The fifth DLLRF system is being prepared for the third normal conducting RF cavity in the storage ring. A new DLLRF system based on SIS8300-KU with RTM has been developed and tested in the last few years. We are aiming to develop a common platform for the differ-ent RF systems in Diamond, including the storage ring, the booster and the Linac. It will also be our baseline design for the future Diamond II. Firmware, software and supporting hardware have been developed and tested. The Linac version with arbitrary waveform generator mode was tested successfully to generate flat top pulse from SLED in the high power test in the Linac. The stor-age ring version was also tested successfully in RFTF.Comment: Poster presented at LLRF Workshop 2022 (LLRF2022, arXiv:2208.13680

Validation of the measure of delinquent social identity among youth offenders in the UK

The current study aimed to develop and validate the Measure of Delinquent Social Identity (MDSI). Dimensionality and construct validity of the MDSI was investigated in a sample of youth offenders (N = 536). Four alternative models of the MDSI were estimated using Mplus. The model identified as being the best fit for the data was a bifactor model with three dimensions (cognitive centrality, in-group affect, in-group ties), while controlling for the general factor. The three subscales differentially correlated with criminal friend index, self-esteem, parental attachment and peer rejection. Limitations and advantages, including practical implications, of the current research are discussed

Foodmaster and three stories

Graduation date: 2004The purpose of this thesis was to create a sustained piece of fiction that both\ud represented my growth as a writer throughout my time at Oregon State University, and\ud wove together a mixture of imagination, language, and creativity. My hope was to write\ud a novella that incorporated and drew from themes including work, community, and\ud family relationships, and also was an exploration in the very structure and form of literary\ud fiction.\ud After completing the novella, I found that similar themes continued to appear\ud within my fiction during my ongoing growth as a writer. What I ended up with was a\ud novella and collection of related stories that reflected the influences of my advisor Tracy\ud Daugherty and his tutelage, the courses that I took at this university and my\ud undergraduate university, and my own personal history.\ud This thesis was written over a two-year period, during which drafts of this novella\ud and stories were written and rewritten. Each story and chapter was submitted to a writing\ud workshop, read and edited by my major and minor advisor, and carefully reworked and\ud redrafted after much scrutiny and attention.\ud During the course of writing this thesis, many things influenced me, the most\ud prominent being the world of fiction that existed all around me. I was influenced by\ud fiction that I was reading in my course work, such as Donald Barthelme and Philip Roth,\ud but writers that I had grown up with, like Edgar Allen Poe and Ray Bradbury also\ud influenced me. Beyond the world of published fiction, I found not only influence, but\ud also more importantly inspiration from the work and criticism of the writers and students\ud within the Creative Writing Program here at Oregon State University.\ud The end result of these two years of work, study, writing, and criticism was a\ud piece of fiction that I am proud of, and plan to publish. This collection of fiction\ud represents not only a sustained study on the craft of creative writing, but also serves an\ud exploration of my own voice and style, and an awakening of my identity as a fiction\ud writer

Assessment of water-limited winter wheat yield potential at spatially contrasting sites in Ireland using a simple growth and development model

Publication history: Published online - 19 September 2017Although Irish winter wheat yields are among the highest globally, increases in the profitability of this crop are required to maintain its economic viability. However, in order to determine if efforts to further increase Irish wheat yields are likely to be successful, an accurate estimation of the yield potential is required for different regions within Ireland. A winter wheat yield potential model (WWYPM) was developed, which estimates the maximum water-limited yield achievable, within the confines of current genetic resources and technologies, using parameters for winter wheat growth and development observed recently in Ireland and a minor amount of daily meteorological input (maximum and minimum daily temperature, total daily rainfall and total daily incident radiation). The WWYPM is composed of three processes: (i) an estimation of potential green area index, (ii) an estimation of light interception and biomass accumulation and (iii) an estimation of biomass partitioning to grain yield. Model validation indicated that WWYPM estimations of water-limited yield potential (YPw) were significantly related to maximum yields recorded in variety evaluation trials as well as regional average and maximum farm yields, reflecting the model’s sensitivity to alterations in the climatic environment with spatial and seasonal variations. Simulations of YPw for long-term average weather data at 12 sites located at spatially contrasting regions of Ireland indicated that the typical YPw varied between 15.6 and 17.9 t/ha, with a mean of 16.7 t/ha at 15% moisture content. These results indicate that the majority of sites in Ireland have the potential to grow high-yielding crops of winter wheat when the effects of very high rainfall and other stresses such as disease incidence and nutrient deficits are not considered.Funding for this study was provided by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Ireland

Gcg-XTEN: An Improved Glucagon Capable of Preventing Hypoglycemia without Increasing Baseline Blood Glucose

While the majority of current diabetes treatments focus on reducing blood glucose levels, hypoglycemia represents a significant risk associated with insulin treatment. Glucagon plays a major regulatory role in controlling hypoglycemia in vivo, but its short half-life and hyperglycemic effects prevent its therapeutic use for non-acute applications. The goal of this study was to identify a modified form of glucagon suitable for prophylactic treatment of hypoglycemia without increasing baseline blood glucose levels.Through application of the XTEN technology, we report the construction of a glucagon fusion protein with an extended exposure profile (Gcg-XTEN). The in vivo half-life of the construct was tuned to support nightly dosing through design and testing in cynomolgus monkeys. Efficacy of the construct was assessed in beagle dogs using an insulin challenge to induce hypoglycemia. Dose ranging of Gcg-XTEN in fasted beagle dogs demonstrated that the compound was biologically active with a pharmacodynamic profile consistent with the designed half-life. Prophylactic administration of 0.6 nmol/kg Gcg-XTEN to dogs conferred resistance to a hypoglycemic challenge at 6 hours post-dose without affecting baseline blood glucose levels. Consistent with the designed pharmacokinetic profile, hypoglycemia resistance was not observed at 12 hours post-dose. Importantly, the solubility and stability of the glucagon peptide were also significantly improved by fusion to XTEN.The data show that Gcg-XTEN is effective in preventing hypoglycemia without the associated hyperglycemia expected for unmodified glucagon. While the plasma clearance of this Gcg-XTEN has been optimized for overnight dosing, specifically for the treatment of nocturnal hypoglycemia, constructs with significantly longer exposure profiles are feasible. Such constructs may have multiple applications such as allowing for more aggressive insulin treatment regimens, treating hypoglycemia due to insulin-secreting tumors, providing synergistic efficacy in combination therapies with long-acting GLP1 analogs, and as an appetite suppressant for treatment of obesity. The improved physical properties of the Gcg-XTEN molecule may also allow for novel delivery systems not currently possible with native glucagon

Efficient Code Generation in a Region-based Dynamic Binary Translator

Region-based JIT compilation operates on translation units comprising multiple basic blocks and, possibly cyclic or conditional, control flow between these. It promises to reconcile aggressive code optimisation and low compilation latency in performance-critical dynamic binary translators. Whilst various region selection schemes and isolated code optimisation techniques have been investigated it remains unclear how to best exploit such regions for efficient code generation. Complex interactions with indirect branch tables and translation caches can have adverse effects on performance if not considered carefully. In this paper we present a complete code generation strategy for a region-based dynamic binary translator, which exploits branch type and control flow profiling information to improve code quality for the common case. We demonstrate that using our code generation strategy a competitive region-based dynamic compiler can be built on top of the LLVM JIT compilation framework. For the ARM-V5T target ISA and SPEC CPU 2006 benchmarks we achieve execution rates of, on average, 867 MIPS and up to 1323 MIPS on a standard X86 host machine, outperforming state-of-the-art QEMU-ARM by delivering a speedup of 264%

Moving towards adaptive search in digital libraries

Search applications have become very popular over the last two decades, one of the main drivers being the advent of the Web. Nevertheless, searching on the Web is very different to searching on smaller, often more structured collections such as digital libraries, local Web sites, and intranets. One way of helping the searcher locating the right information for a specific information need in such a collection is by providing well-structured domain knowledge to assist query modification and navigation. There are two main challenges which we will both address in this chapter: acquiring the domain knowledge and adapting it automatically to the specific interests of the user community. We will outline how in digital libraries a domain model can automatically be acquired using search engine query logs and how it can be continuously updated using methods resembling ant colony behaviour. © 2011 Springer-Verlag

Setting the pace: the 2011 Australasian Podiatry Council conference

The 2011 Australasian Podiatry Council conference was held from April 26 to 29 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. This commentary provides a brief overview of the conference, including the speakers and topic areas covered, selected original research highlights, and award winning presentations