Estimates of Different Clients Across the Whole Feeding America System

Chapter 4.8 provides an estimate of the total number of different clients served by all three types of Feeding America emergency food providers, taken together. Key Findings: Approximately 8% of pantry users said they had also used a kitchen or a shelter.Approximately 51% of kitchen users said they had also used either a pantry or a shelter.Approximately 33% of shelter users said they had also used a pantry or a kitchen. (Excerpted from Hunger in America 2010.

Error-Resistant Distributed Quantum Computation in Trapped Ion Chain

We consider experimentally feasible chains of trapped ions with pseudo-spin 1/2, and find models that can potentially be used to implement error-resistant quantum computation. Similar in spirit to classical neural networks, the error-resistance of the system is achieved by encoding the qubits distributed over the whole system. We therefore call our system a ''quantum neural network'', and present a ''quantum neural network model of quantum computation''. Qubits are encoded in a few quasi-degenerated low energy levels of the whole system, separated by a large gap from the excited states, and large energy barriers between themselves. We investigate protocols for implementing a universal set of quantum logic gates in the system, by adiabatic passage of a few low-lying energy levels of the whole system. Naturally appearing and potentially dangerous distributed noise in the system leaves the fidelity of the computation virtually unchanged, if it is not too strong. The computation is also naturally resilient to local perturbations of the spins.Comment: 10 pages, 7 figures, RevTeX4; v2: another noise model analysed, published versio

Automated processing of whole blood samples for the determination of immunosuppressants by liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry

Background: Liquid chromatography tandem-mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) is an efficient technology for routine determination of immunosuppressants in whole blood; however, time-consuming manual sample preparation remains a significant limitation of this technique. Methods: Using a commercially available robotic pipetting system (Tecan Freedom EVO), we developed an automated sample-preparation protocol for quantification of tacrolimus in whole blood by LC-MS/MS. Barcode reading, sample resuspension, transfer of whole blood aliquots into a deep-well plate, addition of internal standard solution, mixing, and protein precipitation by addition of an organic solvent is performed by the robotic system. After centrifugation of the plate, the deproteinized supernatants are submitted to on-line solid phase extraction, using column switching prior to LC-MS/MS analysis. The only manual actions within the entire process are decapping of the tubes, and transfer of the deep-well plate from the robotic system to a centrifuge and finally to the HPLC autosampler. Whole blood pools were used to assess the reproducibility of the entire analytical system for measuring tacrolimus concentrations. Results: A total coefficient of variation of 1.7% was found for the entire automated analytical process (n=40; mean tacrolimus concentration, 5.3 mu g/L). Close agreement between tacrolimus results obtained after manual and automated sample preparation was observed. Conclusions: The analytical system described here, comprising automated protein precipitation, on-line solid phase extraction and LC-MS/MS analysis, is convenient and precise, and minimizes hands-on time and the risk of mistakes in the quantification of whole blood immunosuppressant concentrations compared to conventional methods