Top Physics at the LHC

Top quark physics will be a prominent topic in Standard Model physics at the LHC. The enormous amount of top quarks expected to be produced will allow to perform a wide range of precision measurements. An overview of the planned top physics programme of the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the LHC is given.Comment: Contribution to the Conference Proceedings of the "XXXXth Rencontres de Moriond, QCD and High Energy Hadronic Interactions, La Thuile, March 12-19, 2005

Preparation of Loads and Aeroelastic Analyses of a High Altitude, Long Endurance, Solar Electric Aircraft

High altitude, long endurance aircraft can serve as platform for scientists to make observations of the earth over a long period of time. Staying airborne only by solar electric energy is, as of today, a challenge for the aircraft design and requires an extremely light weight structure at the edge of the physically possible. This paper focuses on the loads and aeroelastic aspects of such a configuration, discusses the selected strategies and presents the applied methods and tools, including the resulting models prepared for the HAPomega configuration currently under development at the DLR. Because of the structural flexibility and the slow speed of the aircraft, flight mechanical and flight control aspects interact with aeroelastics e.g. during a gust encounter, making a non-linear time domain simulation necessary. Both maneuver and gust loads are used for the structural sizing and result in a very light and slender airframe with very low eigenfrequencies

Communication in the operating theatre: A systematic literature review of observational research

Background: Communication is extremely important to ensure safe and effective clinical practice. A systematic literature review of observational studies addressing communication in the operating theatre was conducted. The focus was on observational studies alone in order to gain an understanding of actual communication practices, rather than what was reported through recollections and interviews. Methods: A systematic review of the literature for accessible published and grey literature was performed in July 2012. The following information was extracted: year, country, objectives, methods, study design, sample size, healthcare professional focus and main findings. Quality appraisal was conducted using the Critical Appraisal Skills Programme. A meta-ethnographic approach was used to categorize further the main findings under key concepts. Results: Some 1174 citations were retrieved through an electronic database search, reference lists and known literature. Of these, 26 were included for review after application of full-text inclusion and exclusion criteria. The overall quality of the studies was rated as average to good, with 77 per cent of the methodological quality assessment criteria being met. Six key concepts were identified: signs of effective communication, signs of communication problems, effects on teamwork, conditions for communication, effects on patient safety and understanding collaborative work. Conclusion: Communication was shown to affect operating theatre practices in all of the studies reviewed. Further detailed observational research is needed to gain a better understanding of how to improve the working environment and patient safety in theatre

Fault-Tolerant Control for a High Altitude Long Endurance Aircraft

High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) aircraft consist of extremely light-weight structures in combination with a high wingspan and high aspect ratio. The combination of these properties results in an unique dynamic behavior of the aircraft system featuring a strong interaction of structural and rigid body eigenmodes. These characteristics lead to specific demands on the robustness and fault tolerance of flight control algorithms of such aircraft. The control system must be able to navigate the aircraft safely along defined tracks even in case of fault scenarios. Due to the size of these aircraft they are usually over-actuated featuring multiple redundant control surfaces. This redundancy is used in this paper to design a fault tolerant control system ensuring optimal control performance during fault scenarios. The strategy is based on a fault detection and isolation (FDI) algorithm to detect malfunctioning control surfaces. This fault information is used to switch to alternate control laws in a multi-model control approach. The FDI filters are designed using the nullspace-based design paradigm, while the alternate controllers are synthesized applying structured H1 control design techniques

Immediate Outcome Indicators in Perioperative Care: A Controlled Intervention Study on Quality Improvement in Hospitals in Tanzania.

Outcome assessment is the standard for evaluating the quality of health services worldwide. In this study, outcome has been divided into immediate and final outcome. Aim was to compare an intervention hospital with a Continuous Quality Improvement approach to a control group using benchmark assessments of immediate outcome indicators in surgical care. Results were compared to final outcome indicators. Surgical care quality in six hospitals in Tanzania was assessed from 2006-2011, using the Hospital Performance Assessment Tool. Independent observers assessed structural, process and outcome quality using checklists based on evidence-based guidelines. The number of surgical key procedures over the benchmark of 80% was compared between the intervention hospital and the control group. Results were compared to Case Fatality Rates. In the intervention hospital, in 2006, two of nine key procedures reached the benchmark, one in 2009, and four in 2011. In the control group, one of nine key procedures reached the benchmark in 2006, one in 2009, and none in 2011. Case Fatality Rate for all in-patients in the intervention hospital was 5.5% (n = 12,530) in 2006, 3.5% (n = 21,114) in 2009 and 4.6% (n = 18,840) in 2011. In the control group it was 3.1% (n = 17,827) in 2006, 4.2% (n = 13,632) in 2009 and 3.8% (n = 17,059) in 2011. Results demonstrated that quality assurance improved performance levels in both groups. After the introduction of Continuous Quality Improvement, performance levels improved further in the intervention hospital while quality in the district hospital did not. Immediate outcome indicators appeared to be a better steering tool for quality improvement compared to final outcome indicators. Immediate outcome indicators revealed a need for improvement in pre- and postoperative care. Quality assurance programs based on immediate outcome indicators can be effective if embedded in Continuous Quality Improvement. Nevertheless, final outcome indicators cannot be neglected

Baseline Flight Control System for High Altitude Long Endurance Aircraft

High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) aircraft consist of extremely light-weight structures in combination with a high wingspan and high aspect ratio. The coupling of these properties results in a dynamic behavior of the aircraft system which is different to classical transport or unmanned aircraft configurations. The key finding in the analysis of the dynamic behavior ofthe aeroelastic HALE aircraft is a strong interaction of structural and rigid body eigenmodes.This leads to challenges in the design of a robust flight control algorithm for the full flight envelope with state-of-the-art techniques. This work addresses these difficulties and proposes a generic design process which can be used to develop flight control algorithms for HALE aircraft. The design process starts with the definition of specific performance and robustness criteriafor HALE flight control laws which emerge from the combination of general aircraft design standards with the limitations and capabilities of theHALEconfiguration. Subsequently, again-scheduled, fixed structure control design architecture is proposed. The inner loop controldesign is enriched with envelope protection functionalities. The design process concludes withan extensive validation and verification process to clear the baseline flight control system forflight testing. The proposed design process is applied to the German Aerospace Center’s newlydeveloped HALE platform

Exports and inputs of organic carbon on agricultural soils in Germany

The quantity and quality of organic carbon (Corg) input drive soil Corg stocks and thus fertility and climate mitigation potential of soils. To estimate fluxes of Corg as net primary production (NPP), exports, and inputs on German arable and grassland soils, we used field management data surveyed within the Agricultural Soil Inventory (n = 27.404 cases of sites multiplied by years). Further, we refined the concept of yield-based Corg allocation coefficients and delivered a new regionalized method applicable for agricultural soils in Central Europe. Mean total NPP calculated for arable and grassland soils was 6.9 ± 2.3 and 5.9 ± 2.9 Mg Corg ha-1 yr-1, respectively, of which approximately half was exported. On average, total Corg input calculated did not differ between arable (3.7 ± 1.8 Mg ha-1 yr-1) and grassland soils (3.7 ± 1.3 Mg ha-1 yr-1) but Corg sources were different: Grasslands received 1.4 times more Corg from root material than arable soils and we suggest that this difference in quality rather than quantity drives differences in soil Corg stocks between land use systems. On arable soils, side products were exported in 43% of the site * years. Cover crops were cultivated in 11% of site * years and contributed on average 3% of the mean annual total NPP. Across arable crops, total NPP drove Corg input (R2 = 0.47) stronger than organic fertilization (R2 = 0.11). Thus, maximizing plant growth enhances Corg input to soil. Our results are reliable estimates of management related Corg fluxes on agricultural soils in Germany

Performance of the CMS Cathode Strip Chambers with Cosmic Rays

The Cathode Strip Chambers (CSCs) constitute the primary muon tracking device in the CMS endcaps. Their performance has been evaluated using data taken during a cosmic ray run in fall 2008. Measured noise levels are low, with the number of noisy channels well below 1%. Coordinate resolution was measured for all types of chambers, and fall in the range 47 microns to 243 microns. The efficiencies for local charged track triggers, for hit and for segments reconstruction were measured, and are above 99%. The timing resolution per layer is approximately 5 ns

Robust Path-following Control with Anti-Windup for HALE Aircraft

In this paper, a robust path-tracking controller for a High Altitude Long Endurance (HALE) aircraft is presented. The main control paradigm for operating a HALE aircraft consists of a basic path following control, i.e. tracking a reference flight path and airspeed while dealing with very limited thrust. The priority lies in keeping airspeed inside the small flight envelope of HALE aircraft even during saturated thrust. For the basic path following objective, a mixed sensitivity approach is proposed which can easily deal with decoupled tracking and robustness requirements. To deal with saturated control inputs, an anti-windup scheme is incorporated in the control design. A novel observer-based mixed sensitivity design is used which allows directly using classical anti-windup methods based on back-calculation. The control design is verified in nonlinear simulation and compared to a classical total energy control based controller