Commissioning of the Beam Interlock System for the TT40 and TT41 Transfer Lines of the SPS

The extraction area of LSS4 in the SPS and the TT40 and TT41 transfer lines have been equipped with a new interlock system to protect the machine elements against beam induced failure during operation with the high intensity CNGS beams. The system commissioning that was performed during the 2006 SPS run followed pre-defined commissioning procedures. An extensive WEB based documentation of the tests has been established to track the state of the interlock system, in particular of interlock references. This document presents a short summary of the commissioning as well as the complete documentation of the interlock tests

Baseline LHC machine parameters and configuration of the 2015 proton run

This paper shows the baseline LHC machine parameters for the 2015 start-up. Many systems have been upgraded during LS1 and in 2015 the LHC will operate at a higher energy than before and with a tighter filling scheme. Therefore, the 2015 commissioning phase risks to be less smooth than in 2012. The proposed starting configuration puts the focus on feasibility rather than peak performance and includes margins for operational uncertainties. Instead, once beam experience and a better machine knowledge has been obtained, a push in $\beta^*$ and performance can be envisaged. In this paper, the focus is on collimation settings and reach in $\beta^*$---other parameters are covered in greater depth by other papers in these proceedings.Comment: submitted for publication in a CERN yellow report (Proceedings of the LHC Performance Workshop - Chamonix 2014

The assessment of water resources in ungauged catchments in Rwanda

Study region: Rwanda is a landlocked country in Africa with precipitation ranging from 800 mm yr−1 in the east to 1500 mm yr−1 in high-altitude regions in the north and west. Study focus: Streamflow estimation is an important task that is required in water resource assessments due to its importance in planning, decision-making and economic development. In this study, streamflow characteristics of ungauged catchments in Rwanda were calculated using a regionalization approach based on climate similarity and stepwise multiple-regression analysis. One climatic homogeneous region was identified and datasets of nine gauged stations and general available catchment characteristics were used to develop non-transformed and log-transformed regression models. New hydrological insights for the region: Results of this study show that climate, physiography and land cover strongly influence the hydrology of catchments in Rwanda. Using leave-one-out crossvalidation, the log-transformed models were found to predict the flow parameters more suitably. These models can be used for estimating the flow parameters in ungauged catchments in Rwanda and the methodology can be applied in any other region, as long as sufficient and good quality streamflow data is available

The Baltic cobra effect : security issues stemming from ethnic Russian populations

This thesis uses a qualitative historic analysis to understand the nature of the security threat posed to the Baltic States by the Russian Federation. It analyzes Russian foreign policy and actions in conjunction with Baltic security responses and laws to reveal a security dilemma stemming from ethnic Russian populations in the Baltics whose vulnerability to Russian influence are increased, rather than decreased, by Baltic responses. Finally, this thesis proposes possible policy solutions the United States might pursue to mitigate this threat beyond the use of purely military means and prevent the ability of Russia to threaten the Baltic States and the NATO security allianceRussian, East European, and Eurasian StudiesGlobal Policy Studie

A Method for Simultaneous Optimisation of Orbit and Dispersion in Storage Rings

An algorithm for the simultaneous optimisation of orbit and dispersion in a storage ring is presented. Based on orbit and dispersion measurements the algorithm determines the optimal corrector settings in order to simultaneously minimize the r.m.s orbit, the r.m.s dispersion and the r.m.s strenght of the dipoles correctors. A number of different options for error handling of beam position monitors, weighting, and correction have been introduced to ensure the stability of the algorithm in the environment of a large accelerator. Experimental results are presented for the LEP collider demonstrating the efficiency of the method. The use of this correction algorithm for LEP in 1999 allowed achieving about a factor of two smaller vertical emittances than in previous years

Beta-Beating Corrections in the SPS as a Testbed for the LHC

For several years optics measurement and correction algorithms have been developed for the LHC. During 2008 these algorithms have been tested in the SPS and RHIC. The experimental results proving the readiness of the applications are presented