Design and Characterization of a Neutron Calibration Facility for the Study of sub-keV Nuclear Recoils

As part of an experimental effort to demonstrate sensitivity in a large-mass detector to the ultra-low energy recoils expected from coherent neutrino-nucleus elastic scattering, we have designed and built a highly monochromatic 24 keV neutron beam at the Kansas State University Triga Mark-II reactor. The beam characteristics were chosen so as to mimic the soft recoil energies expected from reactor antineutrinos in a variety of targets, allowing to understand the response of dedicated detector technologies in this yet unexplored sub-keV recoil range. A full characterization of the beam properties (intensity, monochromaticity, contaminations, beam profile) is presented, together with first tests of the calibration setup using proton recoils in organic scintillator.Comment: submitted to Nucl. Instr. Meth.

Encoded Universality for Generalized Anisotropic Exchange Hamiltonians

We derive an encoded universality representation for a generalized anisotropic exchange Hamiltonian that contains cross-product terms in addition to the usual two-particle exchange terms. The recently developed algebraic approach is used to show that the minimal universality-generating encodings of one logical qubit are based on three physical qubits. We show how to generate both single- and two-qubit operations on the logical qubits, using suitably timed conjugating operations derived from analysis of the commutator algebra. The timing of the operations is seen to be crucial in allowing simplification of the gate sequences for the generalized Hamiltonian to forms similar to that derived previously for the symmetric (XY) anisotropic exchange Hamiltonian. The total number of operations needed for a controlled-Z gate up to local transformations is five. A scalable architecture is proposed.Comment: 11 pages, 4 figure

Avoiding lodging in irrigated spring wheat. II. Genetic variation of stem and root structural properties

Lodging-related traits were evaluated on the CIMMYT Core spring wheat Germplasm Panel (CIMCOG) in the Yaqui Valley of North-West Mexico during three seasons (2010–2013). Genetic variation was significant for all the lodging-related traits in the cross-year analysis, however, significant G × E interaction due to rank changes or changes in the absolute differences between cultivars were identified. The inconsistences on cultivar performances across seasons particularly reduced the heritability of key characters related to root lodging resistance (anchorage strength). Target characters related to stem lodging resistance (stem strength) showed good heritability values equal or above 0.70. Positive correlations between stem strength and stem diameter and between root plate spread and root strength were found. Selecting for greater stem diameter and wall width, greater root plate spread and shorter plant height could enable breeders to increase lodging resistance by increasing stem strength, root strength and decreasing plant leverage, respectively. Achieving a lodging-proof crop will depend on finding a wider root plate spread and implementing new management strategies. Genetic linkages between lodging traits will not constrain the combination of the key lodging-trait dimensions to achieve a lodging-proof ideotype. However, strong association between stem strength and stem wall width will increase the total biomass cost needed for lodging resistance

Large‐scale development of cost‐effective SNP marker assays for diversity assessment and genetic mapping in chickpea and comparative mapping in legumes

A set of 2486 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were compiled in chickpea using four approaches, namely (i) Solexa/Illumina sequencing (1409), (ii) amplicon sequencing of tentative orthologous genes (TOGs) (604), (iii) mining of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) (286) and (iv) sequencing of candidate genes (187). Conversion of these SNPs to the cost-effective and flexible throughput Competitive Allele Specific PCR (KASPar) assays generated successful assays for 2005 SNPs. These marker assays have been designated as Chickpea KASPar Assay Markers (CKAMs). Screening of 70 genotypes including 58 diverse chickpea accessions and 12 BC3F2 lines showed 1341 CKAMs as being polymorphic. Genetic analysis of these data clustered chickpea accessions based on geographical origin. Genotyping data generated for 671 CKAMs on the reference mapping population (Cicer arietinum ICC 4958 × Cicer reticulatum PI 489777) were compiled with 317 unpublished TOG-SNPs and 396 published markers for developing the genetic map. As a result, a second-generation genetic map comprising 1328 marker loci including novel 625 CKAMs, 314 TOG-SNPs and 389 published marker loci with an average inter-marker distance of 0.59 cM was constructed. Detailed analyses of 1064 mapped loci of this second-generation chickpea genetic map showed a higher degree of synteny with genome of Medicago truncatula, followed by Glycine max, Lotus japonicus and least with Vigna unguiculata. Development of these cost-effective CKAMs for SNP genotyping will be useful not only for genetics research and breeding applications in chickpea, but also for utilizing genome information from other sequenced or model legumes

INFLUÊNCIA DO TIPO DE ABORDAGEM PARA INJEÇÕES INTRAMUSCULARES, NAS REAÇÕES DE PRÉ-ESCOLARES

O trabalho propõe-se em verificar a influência do tipo de abordagem para injeções intramusculares, nas reações de pré-escolares. São observados dezesseis crianças distribuídas em dois grupos, controle e experimental, em unidades de Pronto Atendimento.This study propose to verify the influence of kind of approach in the administration of intramuscular injection, and the preschool reactions. Sixteen children were observed in first-aid-clinics and divided in two groups: control and experimental