UNH Observatory Exoplanet Transit Depth Limit

Using the University of New Hampshire Observatory, we performed multiple exoplanet transits observations on a variety of systems. Of these transits, those performed with ideal weather conditions were chosen to do extensive analysis on. The transit chosen for initial analysis was HAT-P-56b. We then used Z-Score values, along with the average mean and standard deviation collected from multiple transits to determine a minimum possible transit depth of 7.4 +/- 0.6 mmag. This value will allow UNH to access exoplanet transit observation and / or confirm potential exoplanets, thus making the UNH Observatory more research capable. A follow up threshold transit around 7 mmag will be performed and show that our limit is achievable

Personal Beliefs, the Environment and College Students\u27 Exercise and Eating Behaviors

College students are at risk for overweight/obesity. It was hypothesized that better nutrition and physical activity (PA) would be related to healthy environmental perceptions and personal beliefs. A survey was administered to 169 students. Linear regressions were performed to examine the relationships between PA/healthy dietary habits and perceptions of body weight, self-efficacy, perceived threat of health problems, awareness of and satisfaction with campus services (PA), and availability of healthy foods (nutrition), for overweight and healthy-weight students separately. Among healthy-weight students, greater self-efficacy was associated with more PA and healthier diets. Among overweight students, greater satisfaction with PA services was associated with more PA

Behavioral approaches to weight control: A review of current research

Weight management is a salient issue for women. Studies of behavioral, pharmacological and surgical interventions indicate that women comprise the majority of patients presenting for weight-loss treatment. In this review we discuss the health impact of obesity for women, review behavioral treatments for adult overweight and obesity, and address topics of particular relevance for women, including concerns that weight-loss treatment may precipitate the development of eating pathology, as well as time periods of high risk for weight gain such as pregnancy and menopause

Testing Platform-independent Quantum Error Mitigation on Noisy Quantum Computers

We apply quantum error mitigation techniques to a variety of benchmark problems and quantum computers to evaluate the performance of quantum error mitigation in practice. To do so, we define an empirically motivated, resource-normalized metric of the improvement of error mitigation which we call the improvement factor, and calculate this metric for each experiment we perform. The experiments we perform consist of zero-noise extrapolation and probabilistic error cancellation applied to two benchmark problems run on IBM, IonQ, and Rigetti quantum computers, as well as noisy quantum computer simulators. Our results show that error mitigation is on average more beneficial than no error mitigation — even when normalized by the additional resources used — but also emphasize that the performance of quantum error mitigation depends on the underlying computer

Improving SIEM for critical SCADA water infrastructures using machine learning

Network Control Systems (NAC) have been used in many industrial processes. They aim to reduce the human factor burden and efficiently handle the complex process and communication of those systems. Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems are used in industrial, infrastructure and facility processes (e.g. manufacturing, fabrication, oil and water pipelines, building ventilation, etc.) Like other Internet of Things (IoT) implementations, SCADA systems are vulnerable to cyber-attacks, therefore, a robust anomaly detection is a major requirement. However, having an accurate anomaly detection system is not an easy task, due to the difficulty to differentiate between cyber-attacks and system internal failures (e.g. hardware failures). In this paper, we present a model that detects anomaly events in a water system controlled by SCADA. Six Machine Learning techniques have been used in building and evaluating the model. The model classifies different anomaly events including hardware failures (e.g. sensor failures), sabotage and cyber-attacks (e.g. DoS and Spoofing). Unlike other detection systems, our proposed work helps in accelerating the mitigation process by notifying the operator with additional information when an anomaly occurs. This additional information includes the probability and confidence level of event(s) occurring. The model is trained and tested using a real-world dataset

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance evaluation of aortic stenosis severity using single plane measurement of effective orifice area

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) is the standard method for the evaluation of the severity of aortic stenosis (AS). Valve effective orifice area (EOA) measured by the continuity equation is one of the most frequently used stenotic indices. However, TTE measurement of aortic valve EOA is not feasible or not reliable in a significant proportion of patients. Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) has emerged as a non-invasive alternative to evaluate EOA using velocity measurements. The objectives of this study were: 1) to validate a new CMR method using jet shear layer detection (JSLD) based on acoustical source term (AST) concept to estimate the valve EOA; 2) to introduce a simplified JSLD method not requiring vorticity field derivation.</p> <p>Methods and results</p> <p>We performed an in vitro study where EOA was measured by CMR in 4 fixed stenoses (EOA = 0.48, 1.00, 1.38 and 2.11 cm²) under the same steady flow conditions (4-20 L/min). The in vivo study included eight (8) healthy subjects and 37 patients with mild to severe AS (0.72 cm²≤ EOA ≤ 1.71 cm²). All subjects underwent TTE and CMR examinations. EOA was determinated by TTE with the use of continuity equation method (TTE_CONT). For CMR estimation of EOA, we used 3 methods: 1) Continuity equation (CMR_CONT); 2) Shear layer detection (CMR_JSLD), which was computed from the velocity field of a single CMR velocity profile at the peak systolic phase; 3) Single plane velocity truncation (CMR_SPVT), which is a simplified version of CMR_JSLDmethod. There was a good agreement between the EOAs obtained in vitro by the different CMR methods and the EOA predicted from the potential flow theory. In the in vivo study, there was good correlation and concordance between the EOA measured by the TTE_CONTmethod versus those measured by each of the CMR methods: CMR_CONT(r = 0.88), CMR_JSLD(r = 0.93) and CMR_SPVT(r = 0.93). The intra- and inter- observer variability of EOA measurements was 5 ± 5% and 9 ± 5% for TTE_CONT, 2 ± 1% and 7 ± 5% for CMR_CONT, 7 ± 5% and 8 ± 7% for CMR_JSLD, 1 ± 2% and 3 ± 2% for CMR_SPVT. When repeating image acquisition, reproducibility of measurements was 10 ± 8% and 12 ± 5% for TTE_CONT, 9 ± 9% and 8 ± 8% for CMR_CONT, 6 ± 5% and 7 ± 4% for CMR_JSLDand 3 ± 2% and 2 ± 2% for CMR_SPVT.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>There was an excellent agreement between the EOA estimated by the CMR_JSLDor CMR_SPVTmethods and: 1) the theoretical EOA in vitro, and 2) the TTE_CONTEOA in vivo. The CMR_SPVTmethod was superior to the TTE and other CMR methods in terms of measurement variability. The novel CMR-based methods proposed in this study may be helpful to corroborate stenosis severity in patients for whom Doppler-echocardiography exam is inconclusive.</p

Recruitment of young adults for weight gain prevention: randomized comparison of direct mail strategies

Abstract Background Recruiting young adults (ages 18–35 years) into weight gain prevention intervention studies is challenging and men are particularly difficult to reach. This paper describes two studies designed to improve recruitment for a randomized trial of weight gain prevention interventions. Study 1 used a quasi-experimental design to test the effect of two types of direct mailings on their overall reach. Study 2 used a randomized design to test the effect of using targeted messages to increase recruitment of men into the trial. Methods For Study 1, 60,000 male and female young-adult households were randomly assigned to receive either a recruitment brochure or postcard. Visits to recruitment websites during each mailing period were used to assess response to each mailing. Study 2 focused on postcard recruitment only. These households received either a targeted or generic recruitment postcard, where targeted postcards included the word “Men” in the headline text. Response rates to each type of card were categorized based on participant report of mailing received. Results The reach of the postcards and brochures were similar (421 and 386 website visits, respectively; P = 0.22). Individuals who received the brochure were more likely to initiate the online screener than those who received a postcard (P = 0.01). In Study 2, of those who completed the telephone screening, 60.9 % of men (n = 23) had received the targeted postcard as compared to the generic postcard (39.1 %, P = 0.30). The reverse was true for women (n = 62, 38.7 vs. 61.3 %, P = 0.08). Conclusions These studies suggest there was little difference in the reach of postcards versus brochures. However, recipients of brochures were more likely to continue to the next stage of study participation. As expected, men’s response to the weight gain prevention messages was lower than women’s response; but using targeted messages appears to have modestly increased the proportion of male respondents. These studies add to the limited experimental literature on recruitment messaging and provide further indication for using targeted messages to reach underrepresented populations while providing initial evidence on the effect of mailing type on message reach. Trial registration The Study of Novel Approaches to Weight Gain Prevention was registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (identifier: NCT01183689) on 13 August 2010

Impact of time-correlated noise on zero-noise extrapolation

Zero-noise extrapolation is a quantum error mitigation technique that has typically been studied under the ideal approximation that the noise acting on a quantum device is not time correlated. In this paper, we investigate the feasibility and performance of zero-noise extrapolation in the presence of time-correlated noise. We show that, in contrast to white noise, time-correlated noise is harder to mitigate via zero-noise extrapolation because it is difficult to scale the noise level without also modifying its spectral distribution. This limitation is particularly strong if "local"gate-level methods are applied for noise scaling. However, we find that "global"noise-scaling methods, e.g., global unitary folding, can be sufficiently reliable even in the presence of time-correlated noise