Track clustering with a quantum annealer for primary vertex reconstruction at hadron colliders

Clustering of charged particle tracks along the beam axis is the first step in reconstructing the positions of hadronic interactions, also known as primary vertices, at hadron collider experiments. We use a 2036 qubit D-Wave quantum annealer to perform track clustering in a limited capacity on artificial events where the positions of primary vertices and tracks resemble those measured by the Compact Muon Solenoid experiment at the Large Hadron Collider. The algorithm, which is not a classical-quantum hybrid but relies entirely on quantum annealing, is tested on a variety of event topologies from 2 primary vertices and 10 tracks up to 5 primary vertices and 15 tracks. It is benchmarked against simulated annealing executed on a commercial CPU constrained to the same processor time per anneal as time in the physical annealer, and performance is found to be comparable for small numbers of vertices with an intriguing advantage noted for 2 vertices and 16 tracks

Mapping the field of military nursing research 1990–2013: A bibliometric review

BACKGROUND: Over the past 20 years, military forces worldwide have been engaged in a number of conflicts and humanitarian operations and the impact of this on the field of military nursing research is unknown. The aim of this bibliometric review was to investigate the research field of military nursing in the main databases with the purpose to describe trends in military nursing research since 1990. OBJECTIVES: To identify military nursing papers in the main databases and to describe the field of military nursing research for the period 1990–2013 in terms of research productivity, trends in topic focus, trends in authorship and country of publication. METHOD: Bibliometric review of published military nursing research papers was undertaken in March 2014 and data was extracted and coded and trends were analyzed using SPSSv21. RESULTS: In total 237 articles were included in the review. The majority of publications emanating from America (n = 175, 73.8%) and the quantity of papers has increased significantly since the commencement of the second Gulf War in Iraq from 2003 onwards (n = 156, 65.8%). This has been accompanied by a shift in topic focus from professional (n = 16, 20.3%) and occupational issues (n = 17, 21.5%) pre 2003, to clinical (n = 48, 30.4%) and an increase in multidisciplinary research from 4% in 1990–94 to 29% in 2010–13. The mean citations were 10.6 (sd 17.0) and the mean references per paper post 2003 showed a marked increase from 23.5 to 25.4. CONCLUSION: The military nursing research field appears stronger than it has been in the past twenty years and has demonstrated increased transferability to other fields. To maintain this momentum and further develop the field of military nursing research, military forces worldwide need to devise focused nursing research strategies that involve international and multidisciplinary collaboration.Department of HE and Training approved lis

Art Therapy and Autism: Communication Pathways

Research has been increasing in the psychology world on using art therapy as an effective method for improving the communication skills for children with Autism (Gazeas, 2012, p.16). Using this research and my own experience I created a gallery of art based on personal experience and artistic tools based on research for working with individuals with Autism. My gallery works show what I have discovered and developed while reading the research papers of psychologists. The thesis contributes a fraction of the view on art therapy and how it works with Autism.NASUNY BrockportHonors CollegeBSZhang, Ji

Metabolism and drug resistance in Trypanosomatids

The principle aim of this project is the investigation of metabolism and mechanisms of pentamidine resistance in trypanosomatids. An understanding of these mechanisms may allow the development of novel drugs to treat Leishmaniasis and human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), caused by the protozoan parasites Leishmania spp and Trypanosoma brucei. In this study a pentamidine resistance L. mexicana promastigote cell line was generated in vitro. This cell line was 20-fold resistant to pentamidine when compared to the parental wild type cells. Furthermore, these lines were cross resistant to other diamidine compounds. A proteomic analysis of these cell lines revealed numerous changes to the proteome, with the down regulation of several flagellar proteins. A hypothesis to investigate a role of the voltage dependent anion channel (VDAC) in pentamidine resistance was also explored. The metabolomic approach involved the investigation of transketolase and the pentose phosphate pawthway. A previous study involving a transketolase knockout T. brucei cell line indicated that an increased sensitivity to pentamidine and methylene blue. A transketolase deficient L. mexicana cell line was generated to test this hypothesis in Leishmania, however the differences were minimal. A metabolomic analysis of the L. mexicana tkt null cell line (lmtkt-/-) revealed an increase in ribose 5-phosphate, a key substrate of transketolase. Erythrose 4-phosphate also increased in the lmtkt-/- cells, indicating a source of this metabolite independent of TKT. It appears that the deletion of TKT prevents any flux through the oxidative branch of the PPP returning to the glycolytic pathway. Interestingly, the lmtkt-/- cells do not acidify the medium to the same extent as the wild type cells; however a glucose assay indicated that both cell lines used similar quantities of glucose. This would suggest that there is a change in the metabolites excreted by the lmtkt-/- cell line. Finally, a global metabolomics approach was investigated using high resolution mass spectrometry. Metabolomics is a rapidly developing field in systems biology, and whilst significant improvements have been made in mass spectrometry; the ability to analyse and interpret raw metabolomic datasets on a global scale has been largely neglected. Consequently, a database program to query these complex datasets was constructed

Steady-State Method to Measure the In-Plane Thermal Conductivity of Thin Sheet Materials

A new generation of silicon pixel detectors is required to cope with the unprecedented luminosities at the high-luminosity phase of the Large Hadron Collider (HL-LHC) in 2025. The HL-LHC provides a high radiation, high interaction rate environment for the innermost detector region of the CMS detector. This can lead to an uncontrolled increase in temperature of the detector that can destroy the silicon pixels. Moreover, too high operating temperature can add noise to the data obtained from the detector and can slow the read out cheap down. Therefore, the Phase II upgrade to the Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) experiment requires an improved heat removal scheme. This challenge can be solved by using carbon fiber as one of the materials for silicon detector support structure. This material has relatively high thermal conductivity and structural stability. To properly simulate the behavior of a support structure in the experiment environment, it is crucial to know the thermal conductivity of these materials. The thermal conductivity of carbon fiber is anisotropic, meaning that it is different for different directions through the material. Therefore, we measure the thermal conductivity along and perpendicular to the fibers. To measure the in-plane thermal conductivity of thin sheet carbon fiber, the steady-state method is employed. The validation of the apparatus is done with two materials of known conductivity. In-plane thermal conductivity measurements of several thin carbon fiber sheets are performed. Measurement results show the Carbon Fiber K13D2U thermal conductivity of 515 W/mK in the plane and along the fiber

Prevalence of problematic smartphone usage and associated mental health outcomes amongst children and young people: a systematic review, meta-analysis and GRADE of the evidence

Background:Over the past decade, smartphone use has become widespread amongst today’s children and young people (CYP) which parallels increases in poor mental health in this group. Simultaneously, media concern abounds about the existence of ‘smartphone addiction’ or problematic smartphone use. There has been much recent research concerning the prevalence of problematic smartphone use is in children and young people who use smartphones, and how this syndrome relates to mental health outcomes, but this has not been synthesized and critically evaluated.Aims:To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine the prevalence of PSU and quantify the association with mental health harms.Methods:A search strategy using Medical Subject Headings was developed and adapted for eight databases between January 1, 1st 2011 to October 15th 2017. No language restriction was applied. Of 924 studies identified, 41 were included in this review, three of which were cohort studies and 38 were cross sectional studies. The mental health outcomes were self-reported: depression; anxiety; stress; poor sleep quality; and decreased educational attainment, which were synthesized according to an a priori protocol. Results:The studies included 41,871 CYP, and 55% were female. The median prevalence of PSU amongst CYP was 23.3% (14.0-31.2%). PSU was associated with an increased odds of depression (OR=3.17;95%CI 2.30–4.37;I2=78%); increased anxiety (OR=3.05 95%CI 2.64–3.53;I2=0%); higher perceived stress (OR=1.86;95%CI 1.24–2.77;I2=65%); and poorer sleep quality (OR=2.60; 95%CI; 1.39–4.85, I2=78%). Conclusions:PSU was reported in approximately one in every four CYP and accompanied by an increased odds of poorer mental health. PSU is an evolving public health concern that requires greater study to determine the boundary between helpful and harmful technology use. Policy guidance is needed to outline harm reduction strategies. <br/

Digital gene expression analysis of two life cycle stages of the human-infective parasite, Trypanosoma brucei gambiense reveals differentially expressed clusters of co-regulated genes

&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Background&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;The evolutionarily ancient parasite, Trypanosoma brucei, is unusual in that the majority of its genes are regulated post-transcriptionally, leading to the suggestion that transcript abundance of most genes does not vary significantly between different life cycle stages despite the fact that the parasite undergoes substantial cellular remodelling and metabolic changes throughout its complex life cycle. To investigate this in the clinically relevant sub-species, Trypanosoma brucei gambiense, which is the causative agent of the fatal human disease African sleeping sickness, we have compared the transcriptome of two different life cycle stages, the potentially human-infective bloodstream forms with the non-human-infective procyclic stage using digital gene expression (DGE) analysis.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Results&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;Over eleven million unique tags were generated, producing expression data for 7360 genes, covering 81% of the genes in the genome. Compared to microarray analysis of the related T. b. brucei parasite, approximately 10 times more genes with a 2.5-fold change in expression levels were detected. The transcriptome analysis revealed the existence of several differentially expressed gene clusters within the genome, indicating that contiguous genes, presumably from the same polycistronic unit, are co-regulated either at the level of transcription or transcript stability.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Conclusions&lt;/b&gt;&lt;/p&gt; &lt;p&gt;DGE analysis is extremely sensitive for detecting gene expression differences, revealing firstly that a far greater number of genes are stage-regulated than had previously been identified and secondly and more importantly, this analysis has revealed the existence of several differentially expressed clusters of genes present on what appears to be the same polycistronic units, a phenomenon which had not previously been observed in microarray studies. These differentially regulated clusters of genes are in addition to the previously identified RNA polymerase I polycistronic units of variant surface glycoproteins and procyclin expression sites, which encode the major surface proteins of the parasite. This raises a number of questions regarding the function and regulation of the gene clusters that clearly warrant further study.&lt;/p&gt