Flavor Tagging at Tevatron incl. calibration and control

This report summarizes the flavor tagging techniques developed at the CDF and D{\O}experiments. Flavor tagging involves identification of the B meson flavor atproduction, whether its constituent is a quark or an anti-quark. It is crucial for measuring the oscillation frequency of neutral B mesons, both in the B^0 and B_S system. The two experiments have developed their unique approaches to flavor tagging, using neural networks, and likelihood methods to disentangle tracks from $b$ decays from other tracks. This report discusses these techniques and the measurement of B^0 mixing, as a means to calibrate the taggers.Comment: 6 pages, 7 Figures, Write-up for Beauty 2006 Conference proceeding

Doctoral Education and Academic Research (in India)

[Excerpt] The state of doctoral education and academic research in India is poor and the country has scant representation among the world’s great universities. The decline has happened in spite of early achievements. Reasons behind this are complex and defy easy explanations. Several probable causes in terms of resources / facilities / opportunities granted to Ph.D. students, faculty quality, financial resources, academic leadership and other issues are explored and some suggestions for improvement are provided

Nongenomic Effects of Estrogens on Epithelial Chloride Secretion.

The human colonic cell line T84, a model for studying epithelial chloride secretion and cystic fibrosis chloride channel (CFTR) function, was used to investigate the regulatory role of estrogens in transepithelial ion transport. Estrogens and other steroid hormones do not stimulate chloride secretion by themselves. However, 17 β-estradiol (17β-E2) rapidly (within seconds to minutes) potentiates carbachol- and thapsigargin-stimulated chloride secretion measured as short circuit current in voltage-clamped T84 monolayer cultures. The cholinergic agonist carbachol and the SR Ca2+ ATPase inhibitor thapsigargin stimulate chloride secretion by elevating intracellular calcium. 17α-estradiol, a stereoisomer that does not activate nuclear estrogen receptors, is equipotent with 17β-E2. Other non-estrogen steroids produce much less, if any, potentiation of calcium-stimulated chloride secretion. The estrogen receptor antagonist tamoxifen does not block 17β-E2 potentiation of calcium-stimulated chloride secretion, indicating that the classical estrogen receptors are not involved. Potentiation is greater when 17β-E2 is applied to the apical membrane than to the basolateral membrane. 17β-E2 effects on chloride secretion coincide with an increase in monolayer electrical conductance, which is consistent with activation of one or more ion channel species. Potentiation is not blocked by the chloride channel blockers DIDS and NPPB but is abolished by the PKA inhibitor H89, suggesting that 17β-E2 potentiation depends on the activity of CFTR but not other types of apical membrane chloride channels. 17β-E2 does not increase the activity of calcium-activated potassium channels in the basolateral membrane as measured in nystatin-permeabilized monolayers. 17β-E2 effects are not blocked by the MAP kinase kinase inhibitor PD 98059, or by the PKC inhibitor bisindoylmaleamide, suggesting that these signal transduction pathways are not involved. 17β-E2 potentiation requires extracellular Ca2+. Paradoxically, 17β-E2 reduces the rise in intracellular free Ca2+ levels in thapsigargin-stimulated T84 cells, as measured by fura-2 fluorescence. From my studies I conclude that 17β-E2 causes an increase in the sensitivity of T84 cells to calcium-elevating secretagogues. This effect may be due to nongenomic actions of 17β-E2 on CFTR function and/or the activity of store-operated calcium channels, which leads to a change in CFTR functional regulation

DIL - A CONVERSATIONAL AGENT FOR HEART FAILURE PATIENTS

There is an exceptionally high rate of readmissions and rehospitalizations for patients suffering from chronic diseases especially Heart Failure. Best efforts to address this alarming problem from the Care giver community have fallen short due to a number of factors most notably resource constraints like shortage of trained clinical staff, and money. Using a Design Science Research framework, this work designed and evaluated DIL , a Conversational Agent that complements the work of clinicians in achieving the desired behavioral and clinical outcomes. The aim is to provide the hospital with an information system that could bridge the current gap in care that occurs when the patient transitions from the hospital environment to the home environment. The expected contribution is to produce a novel artifact and demonstrate the efficacy and utility of the tool to assist patients with heart failure in improving their self-care. The study conclusions were extremely positive. DIL scored high on User engagement and satisfaction. Every patient felt significantly more positive after their interaction with DIL during the trial period, and had a positive outlook on their quality of life going forward. The patients in the trial found DIL to be helpful in keeping them motivated to follow a healthy lifestyle by controlling their diet, and adhering to clinical guidelines of regular exercise, and taking medications on a timely manner. Given the extremely positive experience of the patients, there is definitely room for such an IT artifact in supporting patients as they make the transition from hospital to the home setting

Proposed Simple Multicapillary Flow Model to Generate Constant Pressure: Electrofiltration Equation

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DIL - A Conversational Agent for Heart Failure Patients

There is an exceptionally high rate of readmissions and rehospitalizations for patients suffering from Heart Failure. Best efforts to address this alarming problem from the Caregiver community have fallen short due to a shortage of trained clinical staff, failure to perform necessary self-management, and money. Using a Design Science Research framework, this work designed and evaluated DIL” (Sanskrit word for Heart), a Conversational Agent that complements the work of clinicians in achieving the desired behavioral and clinical outcomes. The aim is to provide the hospital with an information system that could bridge the current gap in care that occurs when the patient transitions from the hospital to the home environment. In a pilot study, we show that DIL was able to demonstrate the efficacy and utility as a tool to assist patients with heart failure in improving their self-care