RESUMO
The utility of quantum computers for simulating lattice gauge theories is currently limited by the noisiness of the physical hardware. Various quantum error mitigation strategies exist to reduce the statistical and systematic uncertainties in quantum simulations via improved algorithms and analysis strategies. We perform quantum simulations of Z_{2} gauge theory with matter to study the efficacy and interplay of different error mitigation methods: readout error mitigation, randomized compiling, rescaling, and dynamical decoupling. We compute Minkowski correlation functions in this confining gauge theory and extract the mass of the lightest spin-1 state from fits to their time dependence. Quantum error mitigation extends the range of times over which our correlation function calculations are accurate by a factor of 6 and is therefore essential for obtaining reliable masses.
RESUMO
Onychomycosis is the most prevalent nail ailment in adults, accounting for 50% of all nail infections. Dermatophyte fungi are the primary cause, but non-dermatophyte molds (NDM) and yeasts can also cause onychomycosis. It remains important to precisely determine the fungal cause of onychomycosis since the response to current treatments may vary between fungal classes. Real-time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) has become a widespread tool for detecting fungal organisms for diagnosis due to its sensitivity and ability to detect down to the species level. This retrospective study aims to evaluate the qPCR Onycho+ test for dermatophyte detection using remnants of toenails from a cohort of patients from Puerto Rico. Two hundred forty-two toenail samples submitted for histological examination via Periodic acid Schiff (PAS) staining for suspected onychomycosis were analyzed by the Onycho+ test and Sanger sequencing of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS-2). Compared to the gold standard Sanger sequencing method, the Onycho+ test reported an agreement of 91.39%, a sensitivity of 100% and a specificity of 84.5% in detecting dermatophytes, superior to the histology method which had a 69.53% agreement, 85.1% sensitivity and 57.1% specificity. The distribution of fungal organisms detected in this cohort shows a dermatophyte majority but a higher-than-expected proportion of NDMs. Nails negative for the Onycho+ test and positive for histology were mostly NDMs. This study demonstrates that the clinical performance of the Onycho+ test is superior to histology in detecting dermatophytes and that a combination of Onycho+ and histology can result in a higher clinical accuracy.