Charm Physics Performance Studies for PANDA

The study of the charmonium (cbar c) system is a powerful tool to understand the strong interaction. In pbar p annihilations studied with PANDA, the mass and width of the charmonium state, such as h_c, will be measured with an excellent accuracy, determined by the very precise knowledge of the momentum, p, beam resolution (dp/p=10e(-4)-10e(-5)) and not limited by the resolution of the detector. The analysis of h_c demonstrates the feasibility to accurately determine a specific final state in the spectrum of charmed mesons. The preliminary background analysis of the pbar p -> pi0 pi0 pi0 decay competing with a signal channel pbar p -> h_c -> eta_c + gamma -> (pi0 + pi0 + eta) + gamma is under control. A comparison of three decay modes of charmonium h_c via the electromagnetic transition is presented

Feasibility Studies for the Panda Experiment at Fair

PANDA, the detector to study AntiProton ANnihilations at DArmstadt, will be installed at the future international Facility for Anti-proton and Ion Research (FAIR) in Darmstadt, Germany. The PANDA physics program is oriented towards the studies of the strong interaction and hadron structure performed with the highest quality beam of anti-protons [1]. In the preparation for PANDA experiments, large-scale simulation studies are being performed to validate the performance of all individual detector components and to advice on detector optimisation. The feasibility of the analysis strategies together with the calibration methods are being studied. Simulations were carried out using the framework called PandaROOT [2], based on ROOT and the Virtual Monte Carlo concept [3]. [1] http://www-panda.gsi.de; Technical Progress Report (2005); Physics Performance Report (2009), arXiv:0903.3905v1. [2] [PANDA Collaboration] S. Spataro, J. Phys. 119, 032035 (2008). [3] http://root.cern.chComment: Proceeding of the XXXI Mazurian Lakes Conference on Physics, Piaski, 30.08-6.09, 200

ED Diagnosis of Acute Coronary Syndromes: No Gender-Related Difference of \u27Chest Discomfort\u27

Background: There is evidence of gender and diabetes-related differences in symptoms of ACS upon presentation to the ED: i.e., non-diabetic men typically report ‘chest pain’, whereas women and diabetics may report atypical complaints such as arm or jaw pain, nausea, etc. This may reflect differences in either ACS-related chest pain, or differences between men vs. women in the perceptionof pain. Objective:Our aim was to obtain insight into this issue by comparing the frequency of broadly defined, ‘chest-associated discomfort’ rather than ‘chest pain’ reported by men vs. women and diabetics vs. non-diabetics with MI. Methods:This is a prospective, ongoing, IRB-approved study enrolling patients presenting to an urban academic medical center with the subsequent diagnosis of NSTEMI/STEMI. After admission patients were interviewed using a focused, semi-structured format and queried as to the presence (yes/no), severity, and quality of chest discomfort–defined as any symptom referred to the thorax–upon ED presentation. Severity was scored on a scale of 1 to 10; the quality was categorized as: pressure or tightness; burning or ‘heartburn’; sharp or shooting sensation; cramping; or other. Patients were excluded if unstable or otherwise unable to give a history. Incidence of discomfort was compared in women vs. men by Fisher’s exact test, while severity was compared by t-test. Results:Interim analysis of the 81 patients enrolled to date reveals no significant gender-related differences in either the incidence (91% in females versus 94% in males: p=0.69) or severity of chest discomfort (mean score of 7.4±2.8 in females versus 7.2±2.4 in males; p=0.76). Also no significant diabetes-related difference in either the incidence (86% in diabetics vs. 95% in non-diabetics, p=0.18) or severity (6.8±2.9 in diabetics vs. 7.4±2.4 in non-diabetics, p=0.34) of chest discomfort was found. Conclusion:These preliminary results suggest that, while there may be gender or diabetes-related differences in the perception of ‘chest pain’, there is an equivalent incidence and severity of ‘chest discomfort’ in all groups. This re-enforces the importance of pursuing broad complaints of chest discomfort in the ED

Unsupervised Reward Shaping for a Robotic Sequential Picking Task from Visual Observations in a Logistics Scenario

We focus on an unloading problem, typical of the logistics sector, modeled as a sequential pick-and-place task. In this type of task, modern machine learning techniques have shown to work better than classic systems since they are more adaptable to stochasticity and better able to cope with large uncertainties. More specifically, supervised and imitation learning have achieved outstanding results in this regard, with the shortcoming of requiring some form of supervision which is not always obtainable for all settings. On the other hand, reinforcement learning (RL) requires much milder form of supervision but still remains impracticable due to its inefficiency. In this paper, we propose and theoretically motivate a novel Unsupervised Reward Shaping algorithm from expert's observations which relaxes the level of supervision required by the agent and works on improving RL performance in our task

Thiol-Methylsulfone Based Hydrogels: Enhanced Control on Gelation Kinetics for 3D Cell Encapsulation

Hydrogels are useful temporal matrices for cell culture technologies. The successful mixing and encapsulation of cells within the gel requires the selection of efficient and cytocompatible gelation reactions occurring in the minute timescale under physiological conditions. The thiol-methylsulfonyl (MS) chemical reaction is introduced here as a novel chemistry to encapsulate cells in polymeric matrices. Thiol-MS crosslinking does not require a light activation step and can occur within the seconds-to-minutes timescale by adjusting the pH in the physiological range 8.0-6.6. This reaction is cytocompatible and the reaction product is hydrolytically stable in cell culture media up to 4 weeks. Cell encapsulation protocols enabling comfortable handling and yielding homogenous distribution of the embedded cells are described. All these features are relevant for the application of this crosslinking reaction to biomedical scenarios. Finally, this manuscript also compares the performance of thiol-MS hydrogels with the established thiol-maleimide and thiol-vinylsulfone hydrogels. The benefit of thiol-MS crosslinking in terms of control over hydrogelation kinetics is demonstrated

Proton radiography to improve proton radiotherapy: Simulation study at different proton beam energies

To improve the quality of cancer treatment with protons, a translation of X-ray Computed Tomography (CT) images into a map of the proton stopping powers needs to be more accurate. Proton stopping powers determined from CT images have systematic uncertainties in the calculated proton range in a patient of typically 3-4\% and even up to 10\% in region containing bone~\cite{USchneider1995,USchneider1996,WSchneider2000,GCirrone2007,HPaganetti2012,TPlautz2014,GLandry2013,JSchuemann2014}. As a consequence, part of a tumor may receive no dose, or a very high dose can be delivered in healthy ti\-ssues and organs at risks~(e.g. brain stem)~\cite{ACKnopf2013}. A transmission radiograph of high-energy protons measuring proton stopping powers directly will allow to reduce these uncertainties, and thus improve the quality of treatment. The best way to obtain a sufficiently accurate radiograph is by tracking individual protons traversing the phantom (patient)~\cite{GCirrone2007,TPlautz2014,VSipala2013}. In our simulations we have used an ideal position sensitive detectors measuring a single proton before and after a phantom, while the residual energy of a proton was detected by a BaF$_{2}$ crystal. To obtain transmission radiographs, diffe\-rent phantom materials have been irradiated with a 3x3~cm$^{2}$ scattered proton beam, with various beam energies. The simulations were done using the Geant4 simulation package~\cite{SAgostinelli2003}. In this study we focus on the simulations of the energy loss radiographs for various proton beam energies that are clinically available in proton radiotherapy.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, Presented at Jagiellonian Symposium on Fundamental and Applied Subatomic Physics, 7-12 June, 2015, Krak\'ow, Polan

Cuando la identidad está en riesgo: Musicoterapia, Cultura y Migración en el Hospital Público Pediátrico

Dentro de la Escuela Hospitalaria, institución que funciona en el contexto del Hospital Público Pediátrico de Buenos Aires, encontramos numerosos pacientes internados que proceden de otras provincias o países limítrofes. El desconocimiento de la cultura del “otro” por parte de médicos, enfermeros y docentes, redunda frecuentemente en una situación de marginación y aculturación para el paciente. A través de la música, se trabajará en el proceso de reconstrucción dinámica de la identidad del niño, que se ve amenazada por la doble situación de desarraigo inherente a la migración y a la hospitalización

Equivalence relations on matrices

Row equivalence, equivalence, and similarity of matrices are studied; some problems concerning an extension of these relations to infinite matrices are discussed