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Plasma diagnostics systems are becoming progressively more advanced. Contemporarily, researchers strive to achieve longer plasma pulses, and therefore, appropriate hardware is required. Analogue-to-Digital Converters are applied for data acquisition in many plasma diagnostic systems. Some diagnostic systems need data acquisition with gigahertz sampling frequency. However, gigasample digitizers working in continuous mode generate an enormous stream of data that requires suitable, high-performance processing systems. This becomes even more complicated and expensive for complex multi-channel systems. Nonetheless, numerous plasma diagnostic systems operate in a pulse mode. Thomson scattering (TS) diagnostics is a good example of a multi-channel system that does not require continuous data acquisition. Taking this into consideration, the authors decided to evaluate the CAEN DT5742 gigasample digitizer as a more cost-effective solution that would utilize the pulsed nature of the TS diagnostic system. The paper presents a complete data acquisition and processing system dedicated for plasma diagnostics based on the ITER real-time framework (RTF). Integration of RTF with real hardware is discussed. The authors of the paper have developed software including RTF function block for the CAEN DT5742 digitizer, example data processing algorithms, data archiving and publishing for plasma control system.

The COMPASS-U tokamak (R = 0.894 m, a = 0.27 m, Bt = 5 T, Ip = 2 MA) is a new medium-size device with fully metallic plasma facing components, currently under construction at the Institute of Plasma Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague. It features a unique combination of parameters, such as a high temperature of the tokamak walls up to 500 ◦C allowing a high recycling regime, a high magnetic field connected with a high plasma density above 1020 m -3 and with a high heat flux (perpendicular to divertor targets) density at the outer strikepoint up to 90 MW/m2 in attached conditions. These parameters of the device pose strict constraints and requirements on the design of individual diagnostic systems. Strategy and present status of the development of the diagnostic systems for COMPASS-U are provided. Plans for a diagnostic set for the first plasma are reviewed. The review of the diagnostics systems involves the high-temperature compatible slow (up to 20 kHz) and fast (up to several MHz) inductive and non-inductive magnetic sensors (including Thick Printed Copper coils and Hall sensors), the sub-millimetre interferometer with an unambiguous channel, Electron Cyclotron Emission, the interlock and overview cameras, high resolution Thomson scattering, radiation diagnostics (neutron diagnostics, soft and hard X-ray diagnostics, bolometers, impurity monitors, effective ion charge), probe diagnostics (including rail probes) and manipulators.

In recent years, cinematography and other digital content creators have been eagerly turning to Three-Dimensional (3D) imaging technology. The creators of movies, games, and augmented reality applications are aware of this technology’s advantages, possibilities, and new means of expression. The development of electronic and IT technologies enables the achievement of a better and better quality of the recorded 3D image and many possibilities for its correction and modification in post-production. However, preparing a correct 3D image that does not cause perception problems for the viewer is still a complex and demanding task. Therefore, planning and then ensuring the correct parameters and quality of the recorded 3D video is essential. Despite better post-production techniques, fixing errors in a captured image can be difficult, time consuming, and sometimes impossible. The detection of errors typical for stereo vision related to the depth of the image (e.g., depth budget violation, stereoscopic window violation) during the recording allows for their correction already on the film set, e.g., by different scene layouts and/or different camera configurations. The paper presents a prototype of an independent, non-invasive diagnostic system that supports the film crew in the process of calibrating stereoscopic cameras, as well as analysing the 3D depth while working on a film set. The system acquires full HD video streams from professional cameras using Serial Digital Interface (SDI), synchronises them, and estimates and analyses the disparity map. Objective depth analysis using computer tools while recording scenes allows stereographers to immediately spot errors in the 3D image, primarily related to the violation of the viewing comfort zone. The paper also describes an efficient method of analysing a 3D video using Graphics Processing Unit (GPU). The main steps of the proposed solution are uncalibrated rectification and disparity map estimation. The algorithms selected and implemented for the needs of this system do not require knowledge of intrinsic and extrinsic camera parameters. Thus, they can be used in non-cooperative environments, such as a film set, where the camera configuration often changes. Both of them are implemented with the use of a GPU to improve the data processing efficiency. The paper presents the evaluation results of the algorithms’ accuracy, as well as the comparison of the performance of two implementations—with and without the GPU acceleration. The application of the described GPU-based method makes the system efficient and easy to use. The system can process a video stream with full HD resolution at a speed of several frames per second.

Archives and IT systems in public administration. Introduction to the issue The subject of ICT systems currently in use in public administration units in Poland is incredibly extensive. On the one hand, it can be considered in the formal and legal context and on the other from a strictly technical point of view, related to the architecture or structure of applications, as well as software and hardware solutions used in them. The author has made an attempt to analyse issues related to the functioning of ICT systems, paying particular attention to domain-specific systems implemented in public administration units. The main matter under consideration are legal regulations concerning the essence of ICT systems, as well as handling electronic documentation stored in them. Domain-specific systems are independent ICT systems developed to provide services for a specific area of activity of a given institution, intended for carrying out strictly defined and specialised tasks. Such systems should make it possible to carry out all activities arising from legal provisions which concern the processing of data or compiling and storing documentation, which is managed in a way that reflects the whole decision-making process. The author made an attempt to present the most important issues related to the functioning of such ICT systems in public administration units in Poland. The article discusses legal regulations concerning such systems (and the way in which they are presented in applicable office and archive provisions), attempts to systematise and classify them and characterises their structure and basic tasks. The article presents issues of utmost importance from the point of view of state archives, related to the possibility of taking over archive materials. Attention was drawn not only to formal, legal or technical possibilities, but also organizational ones. The author characterises the manner and methods which can be used to judge the value of documentation coming from such systems. The author pointed out the most important research areas which concern the discussed issues: the place of domain-specific systems in modern offices and in electronic office administration, storing and securing electronic documents and shaping national archival resources. Nowadays, when we are dealing with a dynamic growth of various types of ICT systems, it is extremely important to protect documentation of a historical value, compiled in such systems.

DEVELOPMENT OF REGULATIONS REGARDING THE SYSTEM AND DUTIES OF LABOUR INSPECTION IN POLANDIn 2019, one hundred years have passed since the birth of labour inspection in Poland. From a historical point of view it is also possible to distinguish three main periods of development of regulations regarding the system and duties of this inspection: the interwar period, the communist period and the period of the Third Polish Republic. Taking into account the range of the influence of the social, economic and political conditions on the Polish legislation concerning the labour inspection, they can be divided into two groups. The first includes the conditions of the universal global character that reflect some general trends and processes. The second group has a local range. Its determinants refer to the specific conditions which are, in principle, characteristic only of the labour inspection in our country.

Synchrotrons and modern FEL light sources operate with bunch repetition rates in the MHz range. The profile of the electron beam inside the accelerator can be characterized with indirect experimental techniques where linear array detectors are employed to measure the emitted synchrotron radiation or the spectrum of a near-IR laser. To improve the performance of modern beam diagnostics we have developed KALYPSO, a detector system operating with a continuous frame rate of up to 2.7 MHz. To facilitate the integration in different experiments, a modular architecture has been adopted. Different semiconductor micro-strip sensors can be connected to front-end ASICs to optimize the quantum efficiency at different photon energies, ranging from visible light up to near-IR. The front-end electronics are integrated within an heterogeneous DAQ consisting of FPGAs and GPUs, which allows scientists to implement real-time data processing algorithms. The current version of the detector is in operation at the KARA synchrotron light source and at the European XFEL. In this contribution we present the detector architecture, the performance results and the on-going technical developments.

Energies 14(21), 7403 (2021). doi:10.3390/en14217403, An electro-optic detector is one of the diagnostic setups used in particle accelerators. It employs an electro-optic crystal to encode the longitudinal beam charge profile in the spectrum of a light pulse. The charge distribution is then reconstructed using data captured by a fast spectrometer. The measurement repetition rate should match or exceed the machine bunching frequency, which is often in the range of several MHz. A high-speed optical line detector (HOLD) is a linear camera designed for easy integration with scientific experiments. The use of modern FPGA circuits helps in the efficient collection and processing of data. The solution is based on Xilinx 7-Series FPGA circuits and implements a custom latency-optimized architecture utilizing the AXI4 family of interfaces. HOLD is one of the fastest line cameras in the world. Thanks to its hardware architecture and a powerful KALYPSO sensor from KIT, it outperforms the fastest comparable commercial devices., Published by MDPI, Basel

Review of scientific instruments 91(4), 045123 (2020). doi:10.1063/1.5142833, Electro-optical detection has proven to be a valuable technique to study temporal profiles of THz pulses with pulse durations down to femtoseconds. As the Coulomb field around a relativistic electron bunch resembles the current profile, electro-optical detection can be exploited for non-invasive bunch length measurements at accelerators. We have developed a very compact and robust electro-optical detection system based on spectral decoding for single-shot longitudinal bunch profile monitoring at the European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) for electron bunch lengths down to 200 fs (rms). Apart from the GaP crystal and the corresponding laser optics at the electron beamline, all components are housed in 19 in. chassis for rack mount and remote operation inside the accelerator tunnel. An advanced laser synchronization scheme based on radio-frequency down-conversion has been developed for locking a custom-made Yb-fiber laser to the radio-frequency of the European XFEL accelerator. In order to cope with the high bunch repetition rate of the superconducting accelerator, a novel linear array detector has been employed for spectral measurements of the Yb-fiber laser pulses at frame rates of up to 2.26 MHz. In this paper, we describe all sub-systems of the electro-optical detection system as well as the measurement procedure in detail and discuss the first measurement results of longitudinal bunch profiles of around 400 fs (rms) with an arrival-time jitter of 35 fs (rms)., Published by American Institute of Physics, [S.l.]

The superconducting stellarator Wendelstein 7-X has successfully concluded its third operation phase in October 2018. The machine will see substantial changes during the next two years when an actively cooled divertor will be installed, as well as many new diagnostic systems. The W7-X Control, Data Acquisition and Communication (CoDaC) group is responsible for the integration of all new diagnostics into the W7-X control ecosystem (around ten systems) as well as carrying out significant upgrades to the I&C and data acquisition of another 15 systems. This article will present an overview of the integration challenges for Operation Phase 2 (OP2) both from a technical perspective as well as highlight the strategy employed by the W7-X CoDaC group to meet those challenges within the time and resource budget. The cornerstone for this strategy is standardization as far as possible to minimize individual integration effort. Siemens PLCs already handle general slow control throughout the project. However, up until now, the integration work is still predominantly done fully in-house. In order to handle the large scope of work within the time budget, CoDaC will have to be in a position to outsource a significant part of the work. In addition, efforts are underway to make validation and commissioning of the central systems as efficient as possible using modeling and simulation environments as well as industry-standard requirements’ management.

European XFEL is a free electron laser capable of generating light pulses with wavelength as small as 0.05 nm, which will enable observation of objects at the atomic scale.

The Accelerator for the European X-Ray Free Electron Laser delivers femtosecond electron bunches at an energy of currently 14GeV at a repetition rate of up to 4.5MHz in bursts of up to 2700 pulses every 100ms to distribute them between different undulator beamlines. The emitted femtosecond x-ray laser pulses at wavelengths between 0.05nm and 6nm can serve up to three experiments in parallel. To measure the longitudinal bunch profile of the electron bunches, three detection systems based on electro-optical spectral decoding have been installed and are currently being commissioned. The systems are capable of recording individual longitudinal bunch profiles of all bunches in a burst with sub-ps resolution at a bunch repetition rate of 1.1 MHz, sampling the electron Coulomb field with laser pulses at 1030nm. A short detector latency of about 10µs also gives the prerequisites to establish a fast intra-burst feedback to stabilize the bunch profile. Bunch lengths and arrival times of entire bunch trains with single-bunch resolution have been measured as well as jitter and drifts for consecutive bunch trains. For comparison of detection techniques at one position, the laser signal is split and measured with a time-stretch setup in parallel.

KALYPSO is a novel detector operating at line rates above 10 Mfps. The detector board holds a silicon or InGaAs linear array sensor with spectral sensitivity ranging from 400 nm to 2600 nm. The sensor is connected to a cutting-edge, custom designed, ASIC readout chip, which is responsible for the remarkable frame rate. The FPGA readout architecture enables continuous data acquisition and processing in real time. This detector is currently employed in many synchrotron facilities for beam diagnostics and for the characterization of self-built Ytterbium-doped fiber laser emitting around 1050 nm with a bandwidth of 40 nm.

The video acquisition and processing systems are commonly used in industrial and scientific applications. Many of them utilize Camera Link interface for the transmission of a video stream from the camera to the host system. The framework presented in the paper enables capturing such data, processing it and transmitting to the host CPU. It consist of MTCA.4-compliant frame grabber and a set of software libraries supporting several different cameras. It is designed for use in large scale physics experiments such as ITER tokamak or European X-Ray Free-Electron Laser (E-XFEL), as well as in the Centre for Free-Electron Laser Science (CFEL). The proposed video acquisition solution features the worlds first Camera Link frame grabber for the MTCA.4 architecture. Thanks to the modern FPGA circuit architecture, the deserialization is done using only the built-in ISERDES primitives, which reduces the costs and complexity of the required hardware., 2 pages, 2 figures, short form article for Real-Time 2018 Conference

Superconducting Radio Frequency (SRF) cavities are used in modern accelerators to efficiently accelerate particles. When cavity is supplied with pulsed RF field it undergoes a mechanical strain due to the Lorentz force. The resulting deformation causes dynamic detuning whose amplitude depends on mechanical properties of the cavity, RF pulse rate and their profile. This effect causes considerable loss of acceleration performance. Therefore, it is usually actively compensated, most commonly with fast piezoelectric actuators. MicroTCA.4 standard was developed to accommodate control and data acquisition electronic systems of large-scale physics applications. The paper presents a design of high-power amplifier implemented using the MicroTCA.4 technology. The design of the driver was optimized for driving large-capacitance piezo actuators. Several possible architectures of the driver are presented and compared, taking into consideration the power and cooling limitations of MicroTCA.4. The design of a two-channel piezo driver and its initial laboratory test results are also discussed., 2 pages, 3 figures, short form for Real-Time 2018 Conference

ITER requires extensive diagnostics to meet the demands for machine operation, protection, plasma control and physics studies. The interfaces between plant instrumentation and control (I&C) and the central control system follow mandatory rules described in the Plant Control Design Handbook (PCDH) [1] , while the design strategy for PCDH compliant plant I&C is covered in its guidelines and supported by hardware catalogues. During preliminary and final design review as well as factory and site acceptance testing it is therefore important to determine the maturity of the I&C design and its implementation to ensure its compliance with the PCDH and the diagnostics performance requirements.

Fast evolution of high-performance cameras in recent years has made them promising tools for observing transient and fast events in large-scale scientific experiments. Complex experiments, such as ITER, take advantage of high-performance imaging system consisting of several fast cameras working in the range of visible and infrared light. However, the application of such devices requires a usage of high-performance data acquisition systems able to read and transfer large amount of data, reaching even 10 Gbit/s for a single camera. The MTCA.4 form factor fulfils the requirements of demanding imaging systems. The paper presents a first implementation of a complete image acquisition system built on the basis of MTCA.4 architecture, which is dedicated for the operation with high-resolution fast cameras equipped with Camera Link interface. Image data from the camera are received by the frame grabber card and transmitted to the host via the PCIe interface. The modular structure of MTCA.4 architecture allows connecting several cameras to a single MTCA chassis. The system can operate in two modes: with internal CPU installed in the MTCA chassis or with external CPU connected to the chassis with PCIe link. The usage of the external CPU opens a possibility to aggregate data from different subsystems. The system supports precise synchronization with the time reference using Precise Timing Protocol (IEEE 1588). The timing modules ensure clock distribution and triggers generation on backplane lines. These allow synchronization of image acquisition from different cameras with high precision. The software support for the system includes low-level drivers and API libraries for all components and a high-level EPICS-based environment for system control and monitoring.

The Micro Telecommunications Computing Architecture (MTCA) standard is a modern platform that is gaining popularity in the area of High Energy Physics (HEP) experiments. The standard provides extensive management, monitoring and diagnostics functionalities. The hardware control and monitoring is based on the Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI), that was initially developed for supervision of complex computers operation. The original IPMI specification was extended to support functions required by the MTCA specification. The Module Management Controller (MMC) is required on each Advanced Mezzanine Card (AMC) installed in MTCA chassis. The Rear Transition Modules (RTMs) have to be equipped with RTM Management Controllers (RMCs) which is required by the MTCA.4 subsidiary specification. The commercially available implementations of MMC and RMC are expensive and do not provide the complete functionality that is required by specific HEP applications. Therefore, many research centers and commercial companies work on their own implementation of AMC and RTM controllers. The available implementations suffer because of lack of common approach and interoperability problems. Since both Lodz University of Technology (TUL) and Deutsches Elektronen-Synchrotron (DESY) have long-term experience in developing ATCA and MTCA hardware, the authors decided to develop a unified solution of management controller fully compliant with AMC and MTCA.4 standards. The MMC v1.00 solution is dedicated for management of AMC and RTM modules. The MMC v1.00 is based on Atmel ATxmega MCUs and can be fully customized by the user or used as a drop-in-module without any modifications. The paper discusses the functionality of the MMC v1.00 solution. The implementation was verified with developed evaluation kits for AMC and RTM cards.

Zgodnie z jednolitą wykładnią powyższych przepisów Kodeks pracy w sposób autonomiczny i kompleksowy reguluje świadczenia należne niesłusznie zwolnionemu pracownikowi. Ograniczenie wysokości tych świadczeń jest najczęściej uzasadnione specyfiką stosunku pracy i koniecznością wyważenia wzajemnych interesów. Przyjmuje się, że realizacja prawa pracownika do odszkodowania powinna być w tym przypadku stosunkowo prosta i niezawodna. W rezultacie szkoda spowodowana niezgodnym z prawem zwolnieniem z pracy zostaje zrekompensowana, czasem przewyższając wysokość szkody, a czasem tylko częściowo. W przypadku wynagrodzenia za okres bezrobocia dodaje się, że brak kwoty tego świadczenia może osłabić motywację pracownika do szukania nowej pracy. Udostępnienie publikacji Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego finansowane w ramach projektu „Doskonałość naukowa kluczem do doskonałości kształcenia”. Projekt realizowany jest ze środków Europejskiego Funduszu Społecznego w ramach Programu Operacyjnego Wiedza Edukacja Rozwój; nr umowy: POWER.03.05.00-00-Z092/17-00. Publikacja współfinansowana ze środków Stowarzyszenia Henri Capitant des amis de la culture juridique française.

Several MEMS (Micro Electro-Mechanical Systems) devices have been analysed and simulated. The new proposed model of SiC MPS (Merged PIN-Schottky) diodes is in full agreement with the real MPS devices. The real size DLL (Dynamic Lattice Liquid) simulator as well as the research on modelling and simulation of modern VLSI devices with practical applications have been presented. Based on experience in the field of ATCA (Advanced Telecommunications Computing Architecture) based systems a proof-of-concept DAQ (data acquisition) system for ITER (International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor) have been proposed.

Modern low-level radio frequency (LLRF) control systems of linear accelerators are designed to achieve extremely precise field amplitude and phase regulation inside superconducting cavities. One of the crucial components of the feedback loop is a vector modulator used to drive the high-power RF chain supplying the accelerating cavities. The LLRF control systems for the Free Electron Laser in Hamburg (FLASH) and European X-ray Free Electron Laser (XFEL) are based on the emerging Micro-Telecommunications Computing Architecture (MTCA.4) platform offering numerous advantages for high-performance control systems. This paper describes the concept, design, and performance of the first vector modulator (uVM) module dedicated for RF controls compliant with the MTCA.4 specification developed by PCI Industrial Computer Manufacturers Group (PICMG). The uVM module has been built as a double-width, mid-size rear transition module (RTM) that is accessed by an advanced mezzanine card (AMC). The uVM module incorporates digital, analog, and diagnostic subsystems. The digital part is based on Xilinx Spartan 6 family field-programmable gate array (FPGA), with several fast gigalink connections to a control module. The uVM module is equipped with an intelligent platform management interface (IPMI) circuit required by the MTCA.4 standard. The FPGA controls the analog part, which includes fast, high-precision digital-to-analog converters (DACs), In-phase and quadrature modulator chips, programmable attenuators, power amplifiers, and fast RF gates for an external interlock system. The RF chain can be adopted to different carrier frequencies covering a frequency range from 50 MHz to 6 GHz. The design has been carefully optimized for high linearity and low-output signal phase noise. The diagnostic system of the RF chain allows monitoring of input and output power levels and failure detection in the RF circuits. A low-noise and high-performance clocking system makes the uVM a universal device, extending the scope of applications beyond the LLRF control systems. Extensive tests of the board were performed, and the measurement results are presented and discussed in this paper.

Cubic boron nitride (cBN) is commonly used as a cutting tools material for the sake of its high hardness and wear-resistance. But on the other hand cBN, it requires application of an expensive HPHT (High Pressure High Temperature) to avoid the transformation of cBN into low-hardness h-BN, they must be sintered under a pressure of 5 to 6 GPa which substantially increases their production costs. An alternative method, called PPS (Pulse Plasma Sintering), was proposed to decrease the production costs. The PPS significantly decreases the costs of production and therefore it is very attractive for industry. However, automation and dedicated control system for PPS is required to carefully control parameters and hamper the transformation of cBN into hBN. Only the application of automated production line guarantee high-quality of cubic boron nitride samples. The paper discusses the requirements and presents the architecture of the control system dedicated for pulse plasma sintering system.