Conveners
Posters: Evening Poster Session with Wine and Cheese
- Jens Meyer (ESRF)
We present a new version of the triple-axis software suite Takin whose most recent addition includes a magnon calculator based on [the same formalism as SpinW][1]. The new module is written in fast C++20 and features a graphical user interface for quickly manipulating magnetic structures and couplings, but can also be used as a library and scripted using Python. The module is furthermore...
Bragg Coherent Diffraction X-ray Imaging (BCDI) is a non-invasive X-ray characterisation technique for probing in three-dimensions (3D) structures of single nano-objects. While traditional BCDI analysis yields 3D maps of electron density, displacement, and heterogeneous strain, this work introduces a methodology and a user-friendly open-source tool for resolving 3D d-spacing maps within the...
Recent advances in X-ray beamline technologies, including the advent of very high brilliance beamlines at next generation synchrotron sources and advanced detector instrumentation, have led to an exponential increase in the speed of data collection. As a consequence, there is an increasing need for a data analysis platform that can refine and optimize data collection strategies in real time...
MicroTomo2 is an X-ray imaging station installed at the STAR accelerator facility of the University of Calabria. The STAR accelerator, currently under construction, will produce photons with energies up to 350 keV generated by the laser light-electron collisions using the Thomson back-scattering phenomenon. The MicroTomo2 experimental station will provide full-field X-ray radiography and...
The ESRF extremely brilliant source (EBS), Europe's first high energy 4th generation synchrotron, started user operation in August 2020. To benefit from the exceptional high quality X-rays produced by the ESRF-EBS all the experimental control and data analysis pipelines have been significantly upgraded on all the EMBL-ESRF Joint Structural Biology Group (JSBG) beamlines at the ESRF. On the...
Neutron tomography is a crucial tool for material examination, but ring artifacts can significantly decrease data quality and complicate tasks like segmentation and morphological analysis. The Block-Matching and 3D filtering (BM3D) algorithm, known for mitigating vertical streaks in sinograms and addressing the root cause of ring artifacts, is unfortunately slow and CPU-intensive. We introduce...
With pre-trained large models and their associated fine-tuning paradigms being constantly applied in deep learning, the performance of large models achieves a dramatic boost, mostly owing to the improvements on both data quantity and quality. Next-generation synchrotron light sources offer ultra-bright and highly coherent X-rays, which are becoming one of the largest data sources for...
In order to provide higher quality X-ray beams, synchrotron radiation light sources are becoming increasingly complex, including dozens of highly delicate optical devices and sensitive experimental setups. This creates a common problem for all users, namely the need to quickly and accurately adjust the attitude and optimize the beamline to achieve the optimal photon beam and experimental...
Google team showed a new Adam-tuned optimization solver for deep neural network training called LION (EvoLved Sign Momentum) by thousands of hours of training at TPU cluster, 2023. It is more memory-efficient than Adam as it only keeps track of the momentum and cuts the epsilon and a group of momentum parameters off. We applied “LION” solver to the physics-informed neural network-PtychoPINN...
Operando Catalysis experiments involve many different devices and processes running simultaneously and on different timescales. Data from sample environment which is changing over time has to be correlated with data from measurement techniques acquired using X-Ray beamlines. Users performing these experiments commonly face a daunting task of collating all their data together from different...
SOLEIL II project is set to commence in 2025. This project aims to develop an ambitious Diffraction Limited Storage Ring (DLSR) that will enhance brilliance, coherence, and flux. Additionally, the upgrade will include the improvement in the experimental techniques on the beamlines. Automation has been prioritized to adress evolving requirements and simplify user experiences at the beamlines...
Stable and continuous operation of large-scale distributed control systems are based on well- established configuration management and data logging. During service interruptions, like power cuts, hardware failures, network outages, planned maintenance and software deployment, parts of control system components may lose crucial configuration and restoring them to working condition may take...
BEC Widgets is an innovative Qt-based GUI framework specially designed to provide graphical user interfaces for the Beamline Experiment Control (BEC), tailored for users at the Swiss Light Source at Paul Scherrer Institute. BEC Widgets ensures seamless integration and a plug-and-play experience that significantly improves workflow efficiency and interactivity for beamline scientists.
With...
The Swiss Light Source at the Paul Scherrer Institut is undergoing an upgrade to a 4th generation synchrotron, presenting an opportunity to enhance its current software stack. To consolidate efforts, a software package for Beamline and Experiment Control (BEC) has been developed, primarily written in Python and leveraging established software tools. For the underlying hardware abstraction...
Blissterm is a web shell for the BLISS [1] beamline control framework. In addition to providing the BLISS shell via a web interface, blissterm also adds the possibility of creating simple User Interfaces (UIs) with minimal configuration. The shell can be adorned with for example motors, multi-position, and shutter objects, and there is also the possibility of creating separate monitoring...
CAMEO[1] is a general-purpose middleware providing services to manage distributed heterogeneous applications. It has been developed in the Instrument Control Service at the ILL to solve many common issues e.g. how to have a C++ control server, many Java GUI clients displaying plots calculated by a Python library, or how to integrate a proprietary software running on a dedicated Windows...
EPICS IOCs can be quite inefficient to develop and inflexible to use, because of architectural limitations inherent in EPICS itself. Based on the caproto library, we developed the queue_iocs framework, which we expect to be capable of replacing most EPICS IOCs currently used with more maintainable and flexible Python IOCs. Simple examples include workalikes of StreamDevice and asyn; seq-like...
An essential challenge by creating FAIR datasets is the often underestimated I, which stands for interoperability. Especially for a dataset that is meant to be exported from its ecosystem, it is important to store the metadata and data in the appropriate exchangeable format based on standards.
One possible source for metadata is an electronic lab notebook that stores it in a structured...
X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS) is a pivotal technique for material characterization. In the field of XAS, data assessment typically involves comparing the data with reference spectra from previous measurements, placing high demands on the quality of the spectra and measurement data. In order to advance data-driven scientific research, it is urgent to establish a reusable infrastructure...
The easy integration of sample environment hardware into Bluesky represents a crucial step for achieving the goals for automation of in-situ and operando experiments at photon sources required by the ROCK-IT project. The use of Ophyd as a common hardware abstraction layer facilitates the integration of sample environment hardware into an existing Bluesky environment. Based on the metadata and...
Computed tomographic microscopy is one of the milestone techniques of X-ray science. The I- and S-TOMCAT beamlines of the Swiss Light Source (SLS) specialize in in-vivo, in-situ and operando high-speed tomography with over 10 kHz sustained frame rates. The improved flux and brilliance of the new TOMCAT beamlines present new frontiers for dynamic applications. Hence, they will serve as a...
Daiquiri [1] is a web based User Interface (UI) framework for control system monitoring and data acquisition. It provides simple, intuitive, and responsive interfaces to control and monitor hardware, launch acquisition sequences, and manage associated metadata. Daiquiri concerns itself only with the UI layer, it does not provide a scan engine or controls system but can be easily integrated...
The Beamline and Experiment Control (BEC) is a new solution for beamline operations that targets the Swiss Light Source upgrade (SLS2.0) at Paul Scherrer Institute.
We present a deployment strategy for BEC components and dependencies, leveraging on-premise GitLab pipelines, runners, and Ansible roles/playbooks. GitLab pipelines orchestrate automated workflows, integrating version control...
Our research demonstrates the feasibility of utilizing compact X-ray setup coupled with advanced computational techniques for accurate and efficient breast cancer diagnostics. We present study of Small-Angle X-ray Scattering (SAXS) in human tissues through Geant4 Monte Carlo simulations. Scattering events from 1 mm thick tissue is recorded with sensitive detector placed at 20 mm (WAXS) and...
Breaking news, Instagram Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts,… Living in the era of information intoxication means the average person’s attention span was ~8 seconds in 2022. No wonder it’s hard to conquer readers’ attention with documentation. That’s why it’s important to make documentation exciting and interesting to read still keeping it informative.
Documentation is communication. And it...
Contemporary web applications are exceptionally efficient and often use a complex structure of frameworks and libraries for front-end development. This escalation in technical complexity requires a team with diverse, specialized skills, inevitably increasing the cost of web development. DonkiWeb is a simple, control system oriented, web SCADA that follows the KISS ( Keep It Simple, Stupid)...
These last years, ILL made a committed effort to implement data reduction for a large share of its instruments into the Mantid framework.
By doing so, ILL provides its users with access to the common Graphical User Interface (GUI) of Mantid (Mantid Workbench), bringing the effort on data reduction to a wide audience.
Taking advantage of their proximity with users, Mantid ILL developers...
POWTEX is a high-intensity TOF diffractometer at the FRM-II research reactor in Garching bei München, Germany. The instrument will serve the needs of the solid-state chemistry, geoscience, and materials science communities through neutron scattering measurements on POWder and TEXture samples.
The important part of the data processing workflow at POWTEX is data reduction, i.e. correction...
At large synchrotron radiation facility SPring-8, accommodating diverse experimental user demands requires various operation modes and advanced task management for measurement proxies. Despite these complexities, the need for efficient operation through automation has become increasingly essential. This presentation discusses initiatives to enhance operational efficiency at SPring-8, which...
Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) play a crucial role in defining the user-friendliness of software applications, enhancing efficiency by structuring and organizing the information presented. The ROCK-IT project aims to develop all necessary tools for the automation and remote access of synchrotron-based in-situ and operando experiments, using operando catalysis experiments as a pilot case....
FDA (Fast Data Analyser) is an application developed at ALBA Synchrotron to analyse the data produced with X-ray Absorption Spectroscopy (XAS), as well as with X-Ray Diffraction (XRD). It provides a quick and convenient way of loading, processing, and analysing the data with different methods, such as XANES (X-ray absorption near edge structure) normalization, EXAFS (Extended X-ray absorption...
On-the-fly 3D data reconstruction is a challenging need in synchrotron micro-tomography facilities. This presentation will have two parts. In the first part we will show the data workflow and infrastructure implemented at the FaXToR beamline of the ALBA Spanish synchrotron to follow dynamics inside the samples. In the second, we will present a new approach to implement tomography processing...
The Elettra Synchrotron, located in Italy near Trieste, has been operating for users since 1994 being the first third generation light source for soft X-rays in Europe. To stay competitive for world-class photon science, a massive upgrade of the storage ring has been planned in 2025. The goal is to build an ultra low emittance light source with ultra-high brilliance in the same building as the...
Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon operates multiple X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments for external users and while the experiments are very similar, their analysis is not. Pydidas [1] is a software package developed for the batch analysis of X-ray diffraction data. It is published as open source and intended to be widely reusable. Integration is based on the ESRF’s pyFAI package.
Because the wide...
The ESRF EBS upgrade has meant a tremendous increase in X-ray photon flux in the experimental beamlines (BLs), requiring faster and more advanced DAQ techniques. Faster and larger 2D detectors are being developed and need to be integrated into the BL control system. The BLISS control software, designed to push the BL instrumentation to its limits, fulfills the opportunities offered by this...
Providing a remote experimental environment for facility users and utilizing advanced computational resources of cloud environments for instrument control are challenging issues for scientific user facilities such as J-PARC MLF. Therefore, we have developed a hybrid cloud-based instrument control system by modifying IROHA2, which is the standard instrument control software framework for...
The ICAT server is a metadata catalogue to support large facility experimental data. python-icat is a Python client library for ICAT. The package provides a collection of modules for writing programs that access an ICAT service. The most important features include the dynamic generation of Python classes to represent the entity object types from the ICAT schema that is automatically adapted...
The Experiment Control System Reliability project aimed at enhancing the reliability of the beamlines operation at MAX IV. The project focused on the scanning software and the support process, identifying improvements to reduce downtime and increase system reliability. It was structured in innovative organisation to learn from one stable beamline and, in parallel, to improve the reliability...
The FMX (Frontier Microfocusing Macromolecular Crystallography) beamline at the NSLS-II light source has been developing a new experimental station for fixed target time-resolved serial crystallography on biological systems. We present here the controls-system for a chip scanner to enable the rapid collection of large numbers of room temperature crystallographic measurements on biological...
The Karabo control system is used facility-wide at European XFEL (EuXFEL) to steer experiments and collect scientific data. As a user-centered facility, EuXFEL deals with ever-changing requirements and faces often the need to integrate new instrumentation, or even to cope with user-provided hardware on relatively short notice.
Tango is a well-established control system, and many hardware...
X-ray absorption spectroscopy provides a wealth of information regarding the local structure and electronic properties of materials. However, data analysis is significantly more time-consuming than acquisition and initial data reduction. Decoding the information relies on comparing it with similar compounds for which the spectrum–property mapping is already established, a task that is very...
IBEX is the EPICS based experiment control program used on beamlines at the ISIS Neutron and Muon source. A key feature of IBEX is experiment configurations and how these can be split into components that can be re-used across many other configurations. In this context a configuration represents the collection of devices and their settings as well as other options such as data logging that are...
Mantid Imaging is a user friendly, interactive, open source and free to download GUI application for Linux and Windows. Mantid Imaging is used by the ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Instrument: IMAT, scientists and visiting users for data reduction, reconstruction, and live viewing of 2D and 3D data. The software application is designed to be intuitive such that users of varying technical ability...
METABOLATOR is a web application for automated analysis of microcalorimetric metabolic data using Monod's equation. The software was developed in collaboration between the Institute of Resource Ecology and the Department of Information Services and Computing at Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden - Rossendorf (HZDR), and is now offered as a web service for the community. In addition to publishing the...
As part of our efforts in the field of autonomous instrument control, we present a motion planning algorithm for triple-axis spectrometers and its open-source implementation. Due to angular constraints and walls in the instrument space, not every (Q, E) coordinate point is accessible to the spectrometer. A careful mapping of the available positions is usually required before each experiment to...
Karabo is a device-based distributed control system used to implement the control and data acquisition systems of the 3 tunnels and 7 instruments of European XFEL.
Motion systems, both PLC and non-PLC-based, are controlled through single and multi-axis Karabo devices with standardised interfaces and behaviour.
Combined motion of multiple motors is provided through multi-axis devices,...
The Balder beamline is placed at the 3 GeV storage ring at MAX IV Laboraty (a 4th generation synchrotron) and is dedicated to X-ray absorption and emission spectroscopy in the energy range of 2.4–40 keV [1]. The beamline can deliver a very high photon flux of 1013 ph/s and is suitable for experiments under in situ / operando conditions. This kind of experiment requires support for fast...
MXCuBE goes serial
M.Oskarsson, A.Beteva, D. de Sanctis, S.Basu, J. Orlans, S.Rose, S. Debionne, A. Homs, J. Kieffer, J.Meyer
The ESRF Extremely Brilliant Source upgrade programme included the construction of the new ID29 beamline, the first in the world beamline fully dedicated to room-temperature experiments and time-resolved macromolecular serial crystallography....
The research data management group at Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin is applying FAIR data management. Data starts to be moved from specific file formats into NeXus/HDF5 files. The standardization program involves the conversion of already generated data, and the automation for the creation of NeXus files from new experiments (example: Bluesky). Our tool, NexusCreator, allows to separate the...
Diamond has built up a portfolio of internally produced software with analogues in other facilities' products and off-the-shelf solutions in both the commercial and free-open-source spheres. Off-the-shelf software often fulfil most use cases for a fraction of the investment, allowing development resources to be allocated to areas which are unique to the requirements of a user-facing facility,...
The information technology (IT) requirements of complex data analysis have been growing steadily in the last decades. Among the techniques, readily performed at synchrotrons, computational tomography (CT) is one of the most IT resource demanding. This holds both for the computing (CPU and GPU) and storage (I/O) requirements. Taking into account the faster and larger detectors (exceeding 5...
Recent advances in synchrotron x-ray instrumentation have enabled the rapid acquisition of x-ray diffraction data from single crystals, allowing large contiguous volumes of scattering in reciprocal space to be collected in a matter of minutes, with data rates of several terabytes per day. NXRefine implements a complete workflow for both data acquisition and reduction of single crystal x-ray...
The advancements on instrumentations of advanced light sources and beamline technologies are making revolutionary changes to the modes of scientific experiments. The Mamba project was launched from 2020, aim to develop a systematic modern software system on top of Bluesky (NSLS II) to address the control and data acquisition task for HEPS experiments. Over the past years, Mamba has formed its...
Abstract. Many X-ray based techniques allow for simultaneous acquisition, e.g. XRF, XRD, SAXS, WAXS, XBIC, XBIV, and
many more. Although previously hardly every utilised, it is nowadays becoming the standard. Now that many technical challenges
are solved the next challenge lays in the analysis of the acquired data.
INTRODUCTION
Adding the possibility of multimodal data acquisition is a...
The SciCat[1] metadata catalog is in use at several scientific user facilities. SciCat stores metadata about datasets (both raw and derived), proposals, and instruments. When introduced into SciCat, each dataset is given a unique identifier. Datasets can be searched for and browsed in a web portal. Authorization rules can be applied to allow fine-grained access to datasets for staff and users....
The Open Electron Microscopy Data Network (OpenEM) is a Swiss-wide collaboration to improve data management at electron microscopy (EM) facilities and make the dissemination of EM data open and FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable). The collaboration is based around a central SciCat instance hosted at the Paul Scherrer Institute (discovery.psi.ch), which stores metadata from...
PiXiu is a program bridging the gap between first-principles density functional theory (DFT) and inelastic neutron scattering (INS) dynamical structure factor calculations. In addition to performing powder-averaging for powder samples, PiXiu is capable of calculating the dynamical structure factor in four dimensions for single crystals. Under the hood, PiXiu combines the Quantum Espresso and...
SasView is undergoing a plotting GUI refactoring project. Emphasis lies on a new version of plotting functionality, which is supposed to improve the user experience when using SasView and creating fits and plots with the program. A goal is, to move the triggers of already existing functions to a place, where users can see them more easily. Also, the function of displaying data in a dedicated...
In Macromolecular Cystallography (MX) experiments at Diamond Light Source (DLS), crystals are located by scanning samples around a rectangular grid, under synchrotron light, and looking for diffraction. The speeds of these scans have been limited by the position capture unit which co-ordinates trigger signals - the Zebra. Using a Zebra, these scans have historically had a step-like motion,...
Typically in the past, data collection software developed by individuals with non-software-focused roles often placed low priority on the User Interface (UI), considering it time-consuming and prone to software bugs. However, for software developers primarily tasked with delivering reliable software, the aim is to create a robust platform enabling users of all levels to efficiently collect...
Cross-institutional data sharing is still a challenging problem for the large datasets collected at the Advanced Photon Source (APS). Sector 6 at the APS routinely collects single-crystal x-ray diffraction data at a rate of several terabyes per day, which is streamed for automated data reduction in local file stores. Such large data volumes make it challenging to collaborate on data analysis...
ROCK-IT is a collaboration which aims to demonstrate the ability to perform complex operando catalysis experiments in a highly automated way, enabling remote operation. The project finds common solutions between different facilities which have various control systems and infrastructure. Ophyd provides a common abstraction layer to Tango, EPICS and SECoP. In the demonstrators of this project,...
Insights into "catalysts at work" are of high interest to academic and industrial users, prompting the ROCK-IT project partners DESY, HZB, HZDR, and KIT to enhance capabilities for in situ and operando experiments. ROCK-IT aims to meet the need for a holistic workflow through common remote access protocols, FAIR-data management standards, automation, robotics, experiment and beamline control...
A collaboration between Diamond Light Source and the University of Oxford funds a PhD project aimed at understanding the technical, social and policy implications of adopting the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable) Principles, and evaluating the effects of its implementation on synchrotron data. The work focuses on the early stage of the science life cycle, when the scientists...
Historically, data workflows for single crystal inelastic neutron experiments were using a pre-histogramming step, storing data for each detector as a histogram in energy transfer. Therefore, each bin of these histograms is then a measurement of the dynamic structure factor (or double differential cross section). A useful representation of this data includes transformation into momentum...
The SNAP diffractometer at SNS is highly re-configurable, featuring movable detectors, choppers, and optional neutron optics, introducing challenges in automated data reduction. The complexities of this data orchestration necessitated the development of the ongoing SNAPRed software. SNAPRed addresses this by defining unique Instrument States based on the instrumental configuration. A...
This contribution summarizes the development of pyFAI over the past year:
* Detectors flipping: orientation can now be specified in PONI
* Geometry is more open for exchanging experimental setup with other software
* Support for grazing incidence geometry
* Azimuthal error models in addition to Poissonian
* Offers unweighted azimuthal integration, like legacy version but with...
High Energy Photon Source (HEPS) is currently under construction. Prior to the installation of all equipment, tasks such as beam tuning can only be carried out based on the experience of the beamline staff and some mathematical estimations, in an imaginary space. While effective, this approach is not convenient. Here, taking the Low-dimension Structure Probe beamline of HEPS as a prototype, we...
The High Energy Photon Source (HEPS), currently under construction, represents an advanced experimental platform facilitating breakthroughs in fundamental scientific research. Boasting over fourteen experimental beamlines, HEPS offers a rich array of research domains and employs complex analytical methodologies. Consequently, it faces formidable data processing challenges, including managing...
The High Energy Photon Source (HEPS) encompasses a variety of experimental types, including diffraction, scattering, imaging, and spectroscopy. The data generated from these experiments are highly dimensional, uncertain, and computationally complex. Considering the users' needs for interoperable data analysis and high-performance I/O processing, it is necessary to organize and manage the data...
DESY has joined the SciCat collaboration later than other big European laboratories, but in Jan 2022 it was decided to go for SciCat at DESY. Since then, IT has set up an OpenStack and Kubernetes infrastructure maintaining 14 instances of which a handful are actively used. This enables us to address independently several issues. We would touch upon those topics which we think are most...
Continuous Integration/Continuous Delivery (CI/CD) can facilitate the development and integration process of advanced photon source software and algorithms. A significant amount of repetitive tasks, such as compiling, testing, deploying, and releasing, may impede the progress of algorithm and software development. Developers often need to expend considerable effort maintaining servers and...
The emergence of Rocky Linux, a community-driven enterprise operating system, represents a significant shift in SESAME's Scientific computing landscape. This paper explores the transition from CentOS to Rocky Linux by the computing group, examining motivations, advancements, and implications institution-wide.
In 2008, the Computing and Control group at SESAME initially adopted Scientific...
ARPES(ARPES : angle-resolved photoemission spectroscopy) is a powerful tool for observing electronic structures in solid-state materials, widely used in characterizing quantum materials. Spatially resolved ARPES (Nano-ARPES) allows measurements on relatively inhomogeneous surfaces, due to its sub-micrometer beam size. However, challenges remain due to the complexity of the surface,...
SIRIUS is a 4th generation synchrotron light source facility that was designed, built and is operated by the Brazilian Synchrotron Light Laboratory (LNLS/CNPEM). Currently, SIRIUS has 6 fully operational beamlines and other 8 beamlines in technical commissioning, scientific commissioning or installation phases. Most SIRIUS beamlines currently have their experiment control solutions based on...
High-level control systems and Graphical User Interfaces (GUIs) play essential roles in enabling users to interact with complex systems, particularly in beamline environments where precise control and real-time monitoring are crucial. Beamlines must provide tools that facilitate this interaction. On the Quati beamline¹, which is the XAS beamline of Sirius, the experiment control system is...
Synchrotron radiation (SR) light sources provide precise and deep insights that have been driving cutting-edge scientific research. Facing to SR scientific big data challenge, it is urgent to develop artificial intelligence (AI) analysis methods to enhance research efficiency including novel material discovery[1]. In this talk, I will focus on the construction of “Intelligence Terminal”...
