Hardware studies for the upgrade of the ATLAS Central Trigger Processor

The ATLAS Central Trigger Processor (CTP) is the final stage of the first level trigger system which reduces the collision rate of 40 MHz to a level-1 event rate of 75 kHz. The CTP makes the Level-1 trigger decision based on multiplicity values of various transverse-momentum thresholds as well as energy information received from the calorimeter and muon trigger sub-systems using programmable selection criteria. In order to improve the rejection rate for the first phase of the luminosity upgrade of the LHC to 3∙1034 cm-2 s-1 planned for 2015, one of the options being studied consists of adding a topological trigger processor, using Region-Of-Interest information from the calorimeter and potentially also the muon trigger. This will require an upgrade of the CTP in order to accommodate the additional trigger inputs. The current CTP system consists of a 9U VME64x crate with 11 custom designed modules where the functionality is largely implemented in FPGAs. The constraint for the upgrade study presented here was to reuse the existing hardware as much as possible. This is achieved by operating the backplane at twice the design frequency and required developing new FPGA firmware for several of the CTP modules. We present the design of the newly developed firmware for the input, monitoring and core modules of the CTP as well as results from initial tests of the upgraded system

Norm reasoning services

Norms are used in open Multi-Agent Systems as a formal specification of deontic statements aimed at regulating the actions of agents and the interactions among them. In this paper, we propose a set of services facilitating the development of both non-normative and normative agents for norm-governed MAS. Specifically, we propose to provide agents with norm reasoning services. These services will help agent designers/developers to programme agents that consider norm reasoning without having to implement the needed mechanisms to reason about norms by themselves. This article shows how these services perform as well as the results of the experiments that we conducted to evaluate their performance

Design, Development and Implementation of a Dependable Interlocking Prototype for the ITER Superconducting Magnet Powering System

An interlock system for CERN-LHC superconducting magnets is successfully operating since several years

The impact of surgical delay on resectability of colorectal cancer: An international prospective cohort study

The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to explore the impact of surgical delays on cancer resectability. This study aimed to compare resectability for colorectal cancer patients undergoing delayed versus non-delayed surgery

Outcomes from elective colorectal cancer surgery during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic

Aim: This study aimed to describe the change in surgical practice and the impact of SARS-CoV-2 on mortality after surgical resection of colorectal cancer during the initial phases of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. Method: This was an international cohort study of patients undergoing elective resection of colon or rectal cancer without preoperative suspicion of SARS-CoV-2. Centres entered data from their first recorded case of COVID-19 until 19 April 2020. The primary outcome was 30-day mortality. Secondary outcomes included anastomotic leak, postoperative SARS-CoV-2 and a comparison with prepandemic European Society of Coloproctology cohort data. Results: From 2073 patients in 40 countries, 1.3% (27/2073) had a defunctioning stoma and 3.0% (63/2073) had an end stoma instead of an anastomosis only. Thirty-day mortality was 1.8% (38/2073), the incidence of postoperative SARS-CoV-2 was 3.8% (78/2073) and the anastomotic leak rate was 4.9% (86/1738). Mortality was lowest in patients without a leak or SARS-CoV-2 (14/1601, 0.9%) and highest in patients with both a leak and SARS-CoV-2 (5/13, 38.5%). Mortality was independently associated with anastomotic leak (adjusted odds ratio 6.01, 95% confidence interval 2.58–14.06), postoperative SARS-CoV-2 (16.90, 7.86–36.38), male sex (2.46, 1.01–5.93), age >70 years (2.87, 1.32–6.20) and advanced cancer stage (3.43, 1.16–10.21). Compared with prepandemic data, there were fewer anastomotic leaks (4.9% versus 7.7%) and an overall shorter length of stay (6 versus 7 days) but higher mortality (1.7% versus 1.1%). Conclusion: Surgeons need to further mitigate against both SARS-CoV-2 and anastomotic leak when offering surgery during current and future COVID-19 waves based on patient, operative and organizational risks