Search

In this paper, a Phase-shift-modulated (PS) Resonant Two-switch Boosting Switched-capacitor Converter (RTBSC) and its modulation map are proposed. Compared with the traditional RTBSC, all diodes are replaced by active switches and then phase-shift modulation is applied. The advantages of the modified topology are obtained as follow. 1) The voltage gain can be regulated efficiently either below or above the nominal value even at light-load condition, making it suitable for applications with voltage fluctuations; 2) The conduction loss is reduced by replacing all diodes in RTBSC with low turn-on resistance transistors, especially for high-order and high-gain configuration; 3) All switches achieve the zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) turn-on operation; 4) The soft-charging property smooths the current profile. Aside from the topology modification, a comprehensive analysis of operation principle, voltage gain, component stress and ZVS region is given. On the basis, a modulation map with the optimal operation region is proposed. It provides a guideline to operate and design such converters in the target gain range, low component stress and ZVS region, making up for the lack of modulation map and design guideline in aforementioned literatures. A 120W prototype with low-voltage side 43-60V and high-voltage side 150V was designed to verify the above analyses.

Millimeter wave components, such as circulators and isolators, frequently use magnetic fields to break symmetry of the signal propagation and provide unidirectional signal transmission. While effective, these components have not seen the level of miniaturization of other millimeter wave components, primarily due to the discrete nature of the magnets used in the components. Using circulators in the 40-50 GHz range as a motivating application, requirements arise for the deposited films, namely immunity to eddy currents, sufficient magnetization to act as self-biasing magnets, and out-of-plane orientation of the self-biasing field. Based on these required properties, hexaferrite materials are selected for their strong magnetocrystalline anisotropy (MCA) and low conductance. The difficulty of integrating these components monolithically with monolithic microwave integrated circuits (MMIC) originates from the incompatibility of crystal structure with standard semiconductor materials and process conditions. Additive manufacturing using a composite of strontium hexaferrite (SrFe12O19) particles and photoresist has been chosen as a method to overcome the difficulties of integrating hexaferrite material to semiconductor substrates. Due to their large internal anisotropy field, the particles of strontium hexaferrite tend to rotate to the field direction instead of changing magnetization direction under application of an external magnetic field (less than the anisotropy field). We have developed a method for 3D printing composites of high strontium hexaferrite concentration (up to 20% by volume) in a liquid photoresist, SU8. Rotation of hexaferrite particles in polymer matrix and thus magnetic anisotropy has been demonstrated in the composite, which is subsequently cured to hold the physical position and orientation of the particles. The anisotropy of the self-biasing field provided by the films has been experimentally characterized, and a ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) frequency ~43 GHz has been observed. We have also characterized the viscosity of the particle-laden polymer at different particle concentrations. 3D printing of this composite with poling will make it possible to directly print magnetic components that require out-of-plane anisotropic magnetization.

Objective The objective was to develop a novel scoring system that would be predictive of postoperative pulmonary complications in critically ill patients after cardiac and major vascular surgery. Methods A total of 17,433 postoperative patients after coronary artery bypass graft, valve, or thoracic aorta repair surgery admitted to the cardiovascular intensive care units at Cleveland Clinic Main Campus from 2009 to 2015. The primary outcome was the composite of postoperative pulmonary complications, including pneumonia, prolonged postoperative mechanical ventilation (>48 hours), or reintubation occurring during the hospital stay. Elastic net logistic regression was used on the training subset to build a prediction model that included perioperative predictors. Five-fold cross-validation was used to select an appropriate subset of the predictors. The predictive efficacy was assessed with calibration and discrimination statistics. Post hoc, of 13,353 adult patients, we tested the clinical usefulness of our risk prediction model on 12,956 patients who underwent surgery from 2015 to 2019. Results Postoperative pulmonary complications were observed in 1669 patients (9.6%). A prediction model that included baseline and demographic risk factors along with perioperative predictors had a C-statistic of 0.87 (95% confidence interval, 0.86-0.88), with a corrected Brier score of 0.06. Our prediction model maintains satisfactory discrimination (C-statistics of 0.87) and calibration (Brier score of 0.07) abilities when evaluated on an independent dataset of 12,843 recent adult patients who underwent cardiovascular surgery. Conclusions A novel prediction nomogram accurately predicted postoperative pulmonary complications after major cardiac and vascular surgery. Intensivists may use these predictors to allow for proactive and preventative interventions in this patient population.

Magnetic circuit components have long been the largest and most difficult components to miniaturize. Printed circuit board (PCB) fabrication methods cannot achieve small diameter, high aspect-ratio vias for high winding turn numbers to achieve high inductance, and microelectronics methods cannot achieve the high-quality and thick ferrite core materials. In this paper, we present an alternative breakthrough method of printed circuit fabrication to significantly reduce the effective via diameter for embedded magnetic devices, boosting the inductance per unit area. To reduce the effective via diameter, high-density via plugs are ex-situ fabricated and shaped, and then embedded into PCB substrate in the same process as standard magnetic core embedding. The structure of the plug is such that precise placement within the substrate, or alignment to the plug with the winding pattern, is not necessary. Devices presented in this paper use via plugs with an effective diameter of 40 μm and a theoretically unlimited aspect ratio, though refinements in the plug fabrication process are expected to reduce the via diameter down to 10μm. The process is experimentally demonstrated with a 14-turn racetrack shaped transformer; novel diagnostic methods using magneto-optic garnet films to image current paths are also demonstrated.

The goal of this study was to see how much genetic and environmental interaction affects essential oil yield and patchouli alcohol content and find superior genotypes over the years of patchouli's unique aroma in India. The tests were carried out for one year in 2013–2014 (initial evaluation trial) and then for three years in 2015–2016, 2016–2017, and 2017–2018 (major yield assessment trials). The fourteen patchouli genotypes and one commercial variety (CIM- Samarth) were studied in an RBD design with three replications. A pooled analysis of variance was performed across the environments/years for the eleven economic attributes. The results showed that most of the attributes had significant differences. In all three environments/years, genetic correlations between economic traits played a critical role in genetic improvement, for example, the traits X3-vs-X4, X3-vs-X5, and X4-vs-X5. As a result, according to correlations throughout the selective environments/years, picking these features will be favorable. Furthermore, the heritability in a broad sense (h2BS) was expressed as a percentage. The scores for all ten attributes ranged from 87.13 to 99.25%. The genetic advance over mean (GAM) percent, which ranged from 13.42 to 162.83%, was equally fascinating. The four winning genotypes for essential oil yield, G/PATC-11, G/PATC-1, G/PATC-2, and G/PATC-5, and the lines G/PATC-1, G/PATC-4, G/PATC-9, and G/PATC-11 for patchouli alcohol percent), were explained by biplot analysis as stable and higher-yielding genotypes. The percentage of ar-curcumene in stable genotypes with a distinct fragrance ranged from 8.60 to 8.71% in G/PATC 4, G/PATC 11, G/PATC 14, and G/PATC 1. Ar-curcumene has been found for the first time in the patchouli (Pogostemon cablin (Blanco) Benth) species. As a result, it may be prudent to cultivate these stable genotypes on a big scale in India.

This brief proposes a low voltage ultra-low power 10-bit 100-MS/s successive approximation register (SAR) analog-to-digital converter (ADC). To overcome the performance degradation due to the signal-related current fluctuation under lower supply voltage, an adaptive-biasing comparator with current self-compensation (CSC) technique is proposed to obtain a constant working current, reducing the minimum supply voltage from 0.7V in conventional ADCs to 0.55V. Since full-scale range shrinks with the supply voltage, voltage undershoot in power rail caused by capacitor digital-to-analog converter (C-DAC) deteriorates effective-number-of-bits (ENOB). Conventional solutions involve enhanced regulators and large decoupling capacitors, which cost remarkable power dissipation and large chip area. This brief presents a pulse-injection undershoot compensation technique which reduces the DAC-related supply fluctuation from a typical 15mV to 1.8mV, and improves the ENOB by 0.4 bit. The prototype was fabricated in TSMC 28nm HPC CMOS technology. The proposed SAR ADC achieves an SNDR of 54.7dB and an SFDR of 68dB with the power consumption of 0.16mW under 0.55V supply voltage, a figure of merit (FoM) of 3.6-fJ/conversion-step is achieved. The chip area of the ADC core is 130μm×225μm.

Water electrolysis is a promising technology to produce hydrogen but it was severely restricted by the slow oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Herein, we firstly reported an advanced electrocatalyst of MOF-derived hollow Zn–Co–Ni sulfides (ZnS@Co9S8@Ni3S2-1/2, abbreviated as ZCNS-1/2) nanosword arrays (NSAs) with remarkable hydrogen evolution reaction (HER), OER and corresponding water electrolysis performance. To reach a current density of 10 mA cm−2, the cell voltage of assembled ZCNS-1/2//ZCNS-1/2 for urea electrolysis (1.314 V) is 208 mV lower than that for water electrolysis (1.522 V) and stably catalyzed for over 15 h, substantially outperforming the most reported water and urea electrolysis electrocatalysts. Density functional theory calculations and experimental result clearly reveal that the properties of large electrochemical active surface area (ECSA) caused by hollow NSAs and fast charge transfer resulted from the Co9S8@Ni3S2 heterostructure endow the ZCNS-1/2 electrode with an enhanced electrocatalytic performance.

In this work, we consider transferring the structure information from large networks to compact ones for dense prediction tasks in computer vision. Previous knowledge distillation strategies used for dense prediction tasks often directly borrow the distillation scheme for image classification and perform knowledge distillation for each pixel separately, leading to sub-optimal performance. Here we propose to distill structured knowledge from large networks to compact networks, taking into account the fact that dense prediction is a structured prediction problem. Specifically, we study two structured distillation schemes: i) pair-wise distillation that distills the pair-wise similarities by building a static graph; and ii) holistic distillation that uses adversarial training to distill holistic knowledge. The effectiveness of our knowledge distillation approaches is demonstrated by experiments on three dense prediction tasks: semantic segmentation, depth estimation and object detection. Code is available at: https://git.io/StructKD, Comment: v1:10 pages cvpr2019 accepted; v2:15 pages for a journal version; Code is available at: https://github.com/irfanICMLL/structure_knowledge_distillation; fix typos

This chapter introduces heat flow in the subsurface. It begins with defining heat, energy, and enthalpy and proceeds to an overview of conductive and advective heat transport. It then reviews the general equations of heat flow and examines two analytic solutions for one-dimensional heat flow, which are useful for examining vertical groundwater flow rates. The chapter continues with discussion of crustal-scale heat flow followed by discussion of shallow heat flow and temperature profiles. This latter discussion includes an examination of evidence of climate change, and methods for estimating recharge rates and groundwater discharge rates. The following section describes hydrothermal systems, hot springs, and geysers. The chapter concludes with sections covering geothermal energy production and ground-source heat pump systems.

Uterine rupture can be associated with severe maternal and neonatal morbidity and mortality. It should be considered as a differential diagnosis in all pregnant women who present with acute abdomen, haemoperitoneum and have specific risk factors, even during the first trimester. This is a case report of a 25-year-old woman who presented to emergency department with abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding at approximately 6–8 weeks gestation. She developed an acute surgical abdomen and required urgent surgical management. Despite intervention, she had massive haemorrhage, disseminate intravascular coagulation, admission to intensive care unit and prolonged hospital stay as complications. Posterior uterine wall rupture while rare, must be considered as a differential diagnosis as early intervention is crucial to prevent bad outcomes.

Paiton Extra High Voltage Substation is one of the large substations that serve transmission with a voltage of 500 kV in East Java, which gets electricity supply from PLTU Paiton of 4600 MW, for outgoing Paiton GITET also sends electrical power to Grati 1, Grati 2 and Kediri 1, Kediri 2 with a voltage rating of 500 kV. Based on the Decree of the Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources (ESDM) Number 0074.K / 21 / MEM / 2015 concerning the Ratification of the 2016-2025 Electricity Supply Business Plan (RUPTL), the load growth every year has increased. Therefore, there will be additional Generating Units with a capacity of 1000 MW at PLTU Paiton, it is necessary to analyze the effect of additional loads in 2017 - 2022 on the 500 KV GITET system before and after the addition of a 1000 MW generator. Based on the analysis, it is known that the additional power of 1000 MW will strengthen the Paiton GITET reserve margin in bearing the load growth, it can be seen from the reserve margin value before the addition of power plants by 16% and after the addition of 29%. For the ability of the Paiton - Grati GITET transmission line until 2022, the load is 62% with a power loss of 35.41 MW (2.85%) and the load on the Paiton - Kediri GITET transmission line is 62% with a power loss of 35.41 MW (2.85%) indicates that the channel still in good shape. In addition, the load condition for the IBT transformer until 2022 is 84%, it can be concluded that the transformer is in good condition.

This paper studies the coordinated use of smart inverters with legacy voltage regulating devices to help increase the energy savings from conservation voltage reduction (CVR) in distribution systems with high photovoltaic penetration. Two voltage optimization algorithms are developed to evaluate the CVR benefit by considering two types of smart inverter functions: aggregated reactive power control and autonomous volt/VAR control. In each algorithm, smart inverters are coordinately controlled with the operation of legacy voltage regulating devices including load tap changers and capacitor banks. Both algorithms are tested on representative utility distribution system models. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms can achieve around 1.8-3.6% energy savings when only using legacy voltage regulating devices and an additional 0.3-0.9% when adding smart inverters.

Text entry for smartwatches is a useful service for many applications like sending text messages and replying emails. Traditional touchscreen-based approaches are two-handed text entry methods, that could be cumbersome when the user is performing other tasks with one hand. Therefore, we propose AirText, the first one-handed text entry method which achieves accurate and practical handwriting in the air for commercial smartwatches. By analyzing the inertial readings from the smartwatch worn on the wrist, AirText is able to accurately recognize the in-air handwritten characters. However, the wrist movements, which produce the inertial readings, are harmful to the user to focus on the screen. In order to address this challenge, AirText uses a novel cross-modal supervision design to achieve accurate character recognition from the small wrist movements. AirText further includes a novel word recommendation method to speed up the text entry. We implement AirText on five smartwatches and evaluate its performance extensively with eight volunteers and more than 25,000 in-air handwritten characters. Results show that AirText outperforms two baselines methods and achieves comparable text entry speed as two-handed approaches.

The prone position is extensively used to improve oxygenation in patients with severe acute respiratory distress syndrome caused by SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia. Occasionally, these patients exhibit cardiac and respiratory functions so severely compromised they cannot tolerate lying in the supine position, not even for the time required to insert a central venous catheter. The authors describe three cases of successful ultrasound-guided internal jugular vein cannulation in prone position. The alternative approach here described enables greater safety and well-being for the patient, reduces the number of episodes of decompensation, and risk of tracheal extubation and loss of in-situ vascular lines.

The steep voltage slopes of today’s wide-bandgap (WBG), fast-switching power semiconductors — like SiC and GaN — lead amongst other challenges to reflection on long cables and thereby overvoltage at inductive loads. To enable the use of these inverters with motors without specially reinforced insulation the voltage slopes need to be slowed down. This article presents a new low-loss countermeasure, which involves the parallel connection of two half-bridges via an interphase transformer. For this one half-bridge is delayed relative to the other one by a delay tuned to a resonant circuit. Undesired DC components in the cross-current of the interphase transformer occur due to non-idealities in the voltage symmetry. The subsequent DC magnetization ultimately can cause the core to saturate. The paper describes the effects due to inaccurate timings and the aspects to keep in mind when dimensioning the magnetic core. Also, this article describes an approach to deal with the undesired current components using a closed-loop control. For that, a special differential-mode shunt is used which enables a dedicated measurement of the cross-current mean value and mitigates the influence of the switching frequency. Finally, the controller concept is presented. The controller is implemented and verified on a 500 kVA SiC inverter test bench.

Background Coma is one of the frequently encountered clinical conditions in any intensive care unit (ICU), which is responsible for considerable morbidity and mortality. Therefore, this study was designed to look at the clinical and EEG profile of Nonconvulsive Status Epilepticus (NCSE) in comatose ICU patients using portable electroencephalography (EEG). Methods In all 102 patients of unresponsive coma (GCS ≤ 8), who remained in poor sensorium despite 48 h of optimum treatment in ICU, were included in the study. All patients underwent 1 h of electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring with a portable EEG machine. All EEGs were screened according to Salzburg Consensus Criteria (SCC) for Nonconvulsive Status Epilepticus (NCSE). Patients with evidence of NCSE were administered parenteral Antiepileptic Drugs (AED). A repeat EEG was done after 24 h of baseline to ascertain the effect of AED. The primary outcome was the recognition of patients with NCSE on the basis of established EEG criteria. The secondary outcome measure was the Glasgow outcome scale (GOS) at the time of discharge. Results Out of 102 cases enrolled, 12 (11.8%) cases were detected to have NCSE on portable EEG. The mean age of patients with NCSE was 52.2 years. In terms of gender distribution, 2/12 (17%) were female, and 10/12 (83%) were male (M: F = 5:1). Median GCS was 6 (range 3–8). Looking at CNS infections, 4/12 (33.3%) had evidence of some form of CNS infection in the NCSE group, compared to 16/90 (18%) in the group without NCSE. This difference was statistically significant (P-value 2 points) after administration of AED’ was noted with good clinical outcomes (GOS 5). In five of these 12 cases, death was the final outcome (GOS 1). Conclusions NSCE should be considered in the differential diagnosis of all unresponsive comatose ICU patients. In resource-limited settings, where continuous EEG monitoring may not be feasible, bedside portable EEG testing can be used to diagnose patients with NCSE. Treating NCSE reverses epileptiform EEG changes and improves clinical outcomes in a subset of comatose ICU patients.

Presbyphonia negatively impacts quality of life in patients with age-related voice changes. A proof-of-concept study showed promise for high vocal intensity exercise to treat presbyphonia, which became the basis for a novel intervention for age-related voice changes known as Phonation Resistance Training Exercises (PhoRTE). Expiratory Muscle Strength Training (EMST) has also been proposed as an additional intervention to target and strengthen the aging respiratory system; however, EMST has undergone limited evaluation as an adjunct treatment for elderly patients undergoing voice therapy for presbyphonia. This study determined if the addition of EMST to PhoRTE voice therapy (PhoRTE + EMST) is at least as effective at voice improvement as PhoRTE alone.Prospective, randomized, controlled, single-blinded, non-inferiority.Participants aged 55 years or older with a diagnosis of vocal fold atrophy were randomized to complete PhoRTE therapy or PhoRTE + EMST. The primary outcome was change in Voice Handicap Index-10 (VHI-10). Secondary outcomes included the Aging Voice Index, maximum expiratory pressure, and acoustic and aerodynamic measures of voice. Repeated measures linear mixed models were constructed to analyze outcomes at a significance level of α = 0.10.Twenty-six participants were recruited for the study, and 24 participants were randomized to either treatment arm. Sixteen participants completed the entire study. Both treatment arms showed statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvements in VHI-10 (PhoRTE mean [M] = -8.20, P0.001; PhoRTE + EMST M = -9.58, P0.001), and PhoRTE + EMST was noninferior to PhoRTE alone (P = 0.069). Both groups experienced a statistically significant pre-post treatment decrease (improvement) in AVI scores (PhoRTE M = -18.40, P = 0.004; PhoRTE + EMST M = -16.28, P = 0.005). PhoRTE+EMST had statistically significantly greater changes in maximum expiratory pressure compared to PhoRTE alone (PhoRTE M = 8.24 cm HThis study demonstrates that voice therapy targeting high vocal intensity exercise (eg, PhoRTE) and EMST can play a role in improving voice outcomes for patients with presbyphonia.

Background Carbapenemase producing gram-negative bacteria (GNB) has become a huge problem in majority of tertiary care centers worldwide. They are associated with very high morbidity and mortality rates, especially when they cause invasive infections. Therefore, rapid detection of these organisms is very important for prompt and adequate antibiotic therapy as well as infection control. The aim of this study was rapid detection of carbapenemase genes and thereby likely carbapenem resistance, 24–48 hours in advance, directly from the positive-flagged blood culture bottles using CHROMagar and Xpert® Carba-R. Methods Aspirate from positively flagged blood culture bottles was subjected to differential centrifuge. All gram-negative bacilli on gram stain from the deposit were processed in Xpert® Carba-R and inoculated on CHROMagar. The presence of genes and growth on CHROMagar was compared with carbapenem resistance on VITEK-2 Compact. Results A total of 119 GNB isolates were processed. One or more of the carbapenemase genes were detected in 80 isolates. On comparison with VITEK-2 result, 92 samples showed concordance for carbapenem resistance 48 hours in advance. There was discordance in 21 isolates with 12 major errors and 09 minor errors. The sensitivity of direct Xpert® Carba-R test for rapid detection of carbapenem resistance, 48 hours in advance, was 81.42%. The sensitivity of direct CHROMagar test for accurate detection of carbapenem resistance, 24 hours in advance, was 92.06%. Conclusion The ability to detect carbapenem resistance with very high accuracy, 48 hours in advance, helps in appropriate antibiotic therapy and implementation of effective infection control practices.

Statement of problem Bilateral balanced occlusion has been advocated over nonbalanced occlusion for improved removable complete denture stability and function. However, assessments of quality of life and patient satisfaction studies between the 2 occlusion schemes are lacking. Purpose The objective of this parallel randomized control trial was to determine the difference in quality of life and patient satisfaction between the nonbalanced and bilaterally balanced occlusal schemes. Material and methods Sixty participants were included in the parallel randomized control trial of nonbalanced and bilaterally balanced complete dentures. Thirty were recruited into each group with definitive inclusion and exclusion criteria as per the Consolidated Standards of Reporting Trials (CONSORT) guidelines. Quality of life was estimated from the oral health quality of life (Oral Health Impact profile) for edentulous patients questionnaire, and patient satisfaction was analyzed from a visual analog scale. The estimation was made at 0, 3, and 6 months after denture insertion. The data were statistically analyzed with the Friedman, Mann-Whitney, and t test (α=.05). Results The mean ±standard deviation Oral Health Impact profile score was 60.81 ±8.87 for nonbalanced dentures and 64.12 ±8.98 for bilaterally balanced dentures. The mean ±standard deviation visual analog scale score was 2.84 ±0.28 for nonbalanced dentures and 2.90 ±0.31 for bilaterally balanced dentures. The Mann-Whitney and t test indicated nonsignificant differences between the 2 groups and at different time intervals for Oral Health Impact profile and visual analog scale scores (P>.05). Conclusions The study detected no significant differences between the 2 occlusal schemes in quality of life or patient satisfaction.

Souissi, MA, Elghoul, Y, Souissi, H, Masmoudi, L, Ammar, A, Hamdi chtourou, and Souissi, N. The effects of three corrections strategies of errors on the snatch technique in 10-12-year-old children: A randomized controlled trial. J Strength Cond Res XX(X): 000-000, 2020-Sports movement correction is one of the major problems for motor control and learning. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to determine which of the 3 strategies, i.e., the self-observation method with direct instructions (SO-DI), self-observation alone (SO), or the direct instruction (DI), would be useful for correcting errors during the snatch technique. Forty-eight children with 2 months of experience were randomly assigned to one of 4 training conditions: SO-DI, SO, DI, or control. In this study, the experience lasted 15 sessions. Subjects completed the test sessions before (T0) and after (T1) 12 training sessions and a retention test session after 2 weeks (T2). The Kinovea version 0.8.15 software was used to measure the kinematic parameters of weightlifting performance. After the training intervention, the data showed that the SO-DI group registered a greater improvement in all kinematic parameters compared with the SO, DI, and control groups, and this benefit was present 2 weeks later in the retention test (e.g., the horizontal displacement of the bar in the first pull with respect to the starting position [T1 vs. T0: +32.57 ± 6.69%, d = 1.87, p < 0.001; T2 vs. T0: 25.07 ± 11.55%, d = 1.32, p < 0.001] and the horizontal displacement of the bar between the receiving position and the reference line [T1 vs. T0: 24.34 ± 29%, d = 1.17, p < 0.01; T2 vs. T0: 25.53 ± 30.4%, d = 0.99, p < 0.01]). The results of the present study could have practical implications for physical education teachers because, even if practice is required to improve the technique, the effectiveness of the learning process is essential to enhance learner self-efficacy and motivation.

Investigating the prognostic value of the Murray law-based quantitative flow ratio (μQFR) on the clinical outcome after treatment of in-stent restenosis (ISR) with a drug-coated balloon (DCB).Patients participating in a previous randomized clinical trial for DCB-ISR were post-hoc analyzed. The primary endpoint was vessel-oriented composite endpoint (VOCE), defined as cardiac death, target vessel-related myocardial infarction, and ischemia-driven target vessel revascularization. μQFRs at baseline and after DCB angioplasty was calculated, and its prognostic value as a predictor of VOCE was explored in Cox regression.A total of 169 lesions in 169 patients were analyzed. At one-year follow-up, 20 VOCEs occurred in 20 patients. Receiver-operating characteristic curve analysis identified a post-procedural μQFR of ≤ 0.89 as the best cut-off to predict VOCE (area under curve [AUC]: 0.74; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.67-0.80; p0.001), superior to post-procedural in-stent percent diameter stenosis (DS), which reported an AUC of 0.61 (95% CI: 0.53-0.68; p = 0.18). Post-procedural μQFR was significantly lower in patients with VOCE compared with those without (0.88 [interquartile range: 0.79-0.94] vs. 0.96 [interquartile range: 0.91-0.98], respectively; p0.001). After correction for potential confounders, post-procedural μQFR ≤ 0.89 was associated with a 6-fold higher risk of VOCE than lesions with μQFR0.89 (hazard ratio: 5.94; 95% CI: 2.33-15.09; p0.001).Post-procedural μQFR may become a promising predictor of clinical outcome after treatment of DES-ISR lesions by DCB angioplasty.

Power components such as High Electron Mobility Transistors (HEMTs) are used for high power and high frequency applications. These tend to overheat and destroy their packaging and connections to the wire bondings. This paper presents planar micro-thermoelectric sensors (μTESs) developed to measure partial heat flow dissipated by the HEMTs to avoid the HEMTs from reaching critical temperatures. These sensors use the same active materials as well as the same fabrication process as the HEMTs, enabling them to be fabricated simultaneously for a simple integration. The HEMTs’ active layers consist in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures resulting in the formation of a 2D Electron Gas (2DEG) at the interface. Tension factors of 47 mV/(K.mm2) were obtained with these sensors and heat flows of 0.2 W to 7 W were measured.

BackgroundDespite its efficacy in treating comorbid insomnia and depression, cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is limited in its accessibility and, in many countries, cultural compatibility. Smartphone-based treatment is a low-cost, convenient alternative modality. This study evaluated a self-help smartphone-based CBT-I in alleviating major depression and insomnia.MethodsA parallel-group randomized, waitlist-controlled trial was conducted with 320 adults with major depression and insomnia. Participants were randomized to receive either a 6-week CBT-I via a smartphone application, proACT-S, or waitlist condition. The primary outcomes included depression severity, insomnia severity, and sleep quality. The secondary outcomes included anxiety severity, subjective health, and acceptability of treatment. Assessments were administered at baseline, post-intervention (week 6) follow-up, and week 12 follow-up. The waitlist group received treatment after the week 6 follow-up.ResultsIntention to treat analysis was conducted with multilevel modeling. In all but one model, the interaction between treatment condition and time at week 6 follow-up was significant. Compared with the waitlist group, the treatment group had lower levels of depression [Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D): Cohen's d = 0.86, 95% CI (−10.11 to −5.37)], insomnia [Insomnia Severity Index (ISI): Cohen's d = 1.00, 95% CI (−5.93 to −3.53)], and anxiety [Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale – Anxiety subscale (HADS-A): Cohen's d = 0.83, 95% CI (−3.75 to −1.96)]. They also had better sleep quality [Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI): Cohen's d = 0.91, 95% CI (−3.34 to −1.83)]. No differences across any measures were found at week 12, after the waitlist control group received the treatment.ConclusionproACT-S is an efficacious sleep-focused self-help treatment for major depression and insomnia.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04228146. Retrospectively registered on 14 January 2020. https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04228146

The electrochemical performance of solid oxide cells (SOCs) is investigated under both fuel cell and electrolyzer operations to understand their asymmetric behavior between the two operation modes. The current–voltage and electrochemical impedance characteristics of a hydrogen-electrode-supported cell are experimentally analyzed. Also, a numerical model is developed to reproduce the cell performance and to understand the internal resistances of the cell. Partial pressures of supplied gas and load current are varied to evaluate their effects on the cell performance. The gas partial pressures of hydrogen and steam supplied to the hydrogen electrode are kept equivalent so that the cell performance can be fairly compared between the two operation modes when the same current is applied. It is found that the origin of the asymmetry is mostly from the hydrogen electrode; both activation and concentration overpotentials show asymmetric behavior particularly at high current densities. A numerical experiment is also conducted by deliberately changing parameters in the model. Asymmetry in the activation overpotential is found to be originated from the non-identical charge-transfer coefficients in the Butler–Volmer equation and also from the non-uniform gas concentration formed in the hydrogen electrode under current-biased conditions. On the other hand, asymmetry in the concentration overpotential is associated with the non-equimolar counter diffusion of hydrogen and steam caused by the effect of Knudsen diffusion. Therefore, enhancing gas transport in the hydrogen electrode and reducing the contribution of Knudsen diffusion are effective approaches to reduce asymmetry not only in the concentration overpotential but also in the activation overpotential.

Statement of problem A consensus on the clinical performance of implant-supported removable partial dentures (ISRPDs) is lacking. Purpose The purpose of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to evaluate the clinical performance of ISRPDs in terms of the implant survival rates, marginal bone loss, and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs). Material and methods Four electronic databases (MEDLINE/PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, and Cochrane Library) were independently searched by 2 reviewers for articles published up to December 2020. A single-arm meta-analysis was performed to evaluate the implant survival rates and marginal bone loss by using the R program. The Cochrane collaboration tool was used to evaluate the risk of bias of randomized controlled trials (RCTs), and the Newcastle-Ottawa scale for non-RCT studies. Results Sixteen studies were included, with a total of 334 participants and a mean age of 58 years. The participants received a total of 581 dental implants, 475 conventional and 106 mini-implants. All included studies reported implant survival rate above 90% (range: 92% to 100%). Meta-analysis indicated a high proportion of implant survival rates of 3% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 2% to 5%) and a low mean raw score of marginal bone loss 0.98 mm (CI: 0.61 to 1.36 mm). Compared with conventional RPDs, improved patient quality of life and satisfaction were reported by studies that evaluated ISRPDs. RCT studies exhibited a low risk of bias for most domains, while most non-RCT studies were classified as good quality. Conclusions ISRPDs exhibited high implant survival rates and acceptable bone loss with improvement in the quality of life and satisfaction of patients when compared with conventional RPDs. Therefore, they can be considered suitable for the rehabilitation of partially edentulous patients.

Relay selection solutions for underwater acoustic cooperative networks suffer significant performance degradation as they fail to adapt to incomplete information, noisy interference and overwhelming dynamics. To address this challenge, a hierarchical adversarial multi-armed bandit learning framework by proposing an online reward estimation layer is designed to improve adaptive relay decision control. In online reward estimation layer, adaptive Kalman filter estimator is developed to properly handle noisy observation to support accurate reward. Meanwhile an online predict mechanism is projected for all relays to enrich learning information. Furthermore, based on estimate error variance, an adaptive exploration structure is developed to accelerate the balance between exploration and exploitation. All gathered information are exploited to learn relay quality for the decision-making. Accordingly, we present a Hierarchical Adversarial Bandit Learning (HABL) algorithm to fully exploit the heuristic interaction between the hierarchical framework. HABL integrates reward estimation, information prediction, adaptive exploration and decision making carefully in a holistic algorithm to maximize the learning efficiency. Thereby, the HABL-based relay selection algorithm has higher system throughput and lower communication cost. Further, we rigorously analyze the convergence of HABL algorithm and give its upper bound on the cumulative regret. Finally, extensive simulations elucidate the effectiveness of the HABL.

The vetiver is an excellent source for essential oil, fodder, thatching, handicrafts, and mulching. Besides its various utility, a limited study has been done as fodder for ruminants. The major studies in the vetiver were focused on oil production, soil/water conservation. The study related to livestock cattle feeding on vetiver is very meager. The essential oil content, yield, nutritional, and protein quality of the fodder are highly affected by the G × E interaction. Objectives were to determine the extent of genotype × environment interaction for the nutritional quality of fodder, oil yield and to identify stable genotypes for the future breeding program. The thirty lines were evaluated to meet the above objectives to select genotypes with high oil yield and fodder quality. The genotypes were planted in RBD at the Institute in three years. The observations were recorded on twenty traits. The roots were distilled for oil by hydro-distillation for 24 h. GC analysis was performed in a Varian CP 3800 system using an Elite-5 fused silica column (30 m × 0.25 mm × 0.25 μm). The pooled mean observations of all characters were analyzed for stability by the GGE biplot. For after the pooled ANOVA across years, all the twenty traits showed highly significant variations except four. Except for one variable, essential oil content, genotype was very significant for all twenty traits (%). For maturity stage × year interaction, all the twenty traits also showed high significance except four traits. For the maturity stage × genotypes interaction, all the twenty traits also showed highly significant variations except four traits. For years × genotypes interaction, all twenty traits also showed highly significant differences. For the maturity stage× years × genotypes interaction, all the twenty traits also showed high significance except one trait. The genotype Vg-11/selection 24 expressed the highest performance for eight traits: digestibility, protein, potassium, phosphorus (%), iron, copper, and manganese (mg/Kg) in vetiver leaves and the root yield/plot (g). The genotype Vg-15 for the three traits: calcium (%), khusinol, and β-vetivone (%) in essential oil. Despite the importance of essential oil, its leaves are vital due to their nutritional quality and can be used as fodder. Genotype Vg-11/selection 24 may recommend as a suitable and nutritious fodder and Vg-13 for high oil. The vetiver also has a perfect opportunity to be as nutritious fodder in livestock for nutrition and production.

This article examines convergence by providing a systematic literature review using scientometric method. Despite the steady growth of convergence literature, we still have an incomplete understanding of convergence concepts as well as the processes of industry convergence (IC). Our systematic review highlights several key findings. First, our review highlights six clusters of research on convergence. Second, our analysis suggests that the process of convergence does not necessarily progress in the three- to four-step supply-side process as postulated in the literature, i.e., from scientific convergence, technology convergence, market convergence, and finally to IC. Although existing literature suggests that IC occurs as a result of supply-side convergence, we expand on this proposition and put forth market-driven convergence processes. Third, we provide a typology of the convergence concepts to bring clarity and avoid indiscriminate use of the various convergence concepts. Finally, our article offers new debates on the literature of convergence, providing scholars with research directions that extend beyond the standard convergence processes. Our systematic review is relevant to scholars and managers as the study highlights a taxonomy of convergence scholarship, a typology of convergence concepts, and a re-evaluation of the IC process model to drive the research forward.

Background Since July 2019, Pakistan and Afghanistan have been facing an outbreak of serotype-2 circulating vaccine derived poliovirus (cVDPV2) in addition to continued transmission of serotype-1 wild poliovirus (WPV1) and SARS-CoV-2 in 2020. Understanding the risks of cVDPV2 transmission due to pause of global vaccination efforts and the impact of potential vaccination response strategies in the current context of COVID-19 mitigation measures is critical. Methods We developed a stochastic, geographically structured mathematical model of cVDPV2 transmission which captures both mucosal and humoral immunity separately and allows for reversion of serotype-2 oral polio vaccine (OPV2) virus to cVDPV2 following vaccine administration. The model includes geographic heterogeneities in vaccination coverage, population immunity and population movement. The model was fitted to historic cVDPV2 cases in Pakistan and Afghanistan between January 2010-April 2016 and July 2019-March 2020 using iterated particle filtering. The model was used to simulate spread of cVDPV2 infection from July 2019 to explore impact of various proposed vaccination responses on stopping transmission and risk of spread of reverted Sabin-2 under varying assumptions of impacts from COVID-19 lockdown measures on movement patterns as well as declines in vaccination coverage. Results Simulated monthly incidence of cVDPV2 from the best-fit model demonstrated general spatio-temporal alignment with observed cVDPV2 cases. The model predicted substantial spread of cVDPV2 infection, with widespread transmission through 2020 in the absence of any vaccination activities. Vaccination responses were predicted to substantially reduce transmission and case burden, with a greater impact from earlier responses and those with larger geographic scope. While the greatest risk of seeding reverted Sabin-2 was predicted in areas targeted with OPV2, subsequent spread was greatest in areas with no or delayed response. The proposed vaccination strategy demonstrated ability to stop the cVDPV2 outbreak (with low risk of reverted Sabin-2 spread) by February 2021. Conclusion Outbreak response vaccination campaigns against cVDPV2 will be challenging throughout the COVID-19 pandemic but must be implemented urgently when feasible to stop transmission of cVDPV2.

In VANETs, it is important to support fast and reliable multi-hop broadcast for safety-related applications. The performance of multi-hop broadcast schemes is greatly affected by relay selection strategies. However, the relationship between the relay selection strategies and the expected broadcast performance has not been fully characterized yet. Furthermore, conventional broadcast schemes usually attempt to minimize the waiting time difference between adjacent relay candidates to reduce the waiting time overhead, which makes the relay selection process vulnerable to internal interference, occurring due to retransmissions from previous forwarders and transmissions from redundant relays. In this paper, we jointly take both of the relay selection and the internal interference mitigation into account and propose a fast, reliable, opportunistic multi-hop broadcast scheme, in which we utilize a novel metric called the expected broadcast speed in relay selection and propose a delayed retransmission mechanism to mitigate the adverse effect of retransmissions from previous forwarders and an expected redundancy probability based mechanism to mitigate the adverse effect of redundant relays. The performance evaluation results show that the proposed scheme yields the best broadcast performance among the four schemes in terms of the broadcast coverage ratio and the end-to-end delivery latency.

Vibration measurement is a crucial task in industrial systems, where vibration characteristics reflect health conditions and indicate anomalies of the devices. Previous approaches either work in an intrusive manner or fail to capture the micrometer-level vibrations. In this work, we propose mmVib, a practical approach to measure micrometer-level vibrations with mmWave radar. First, we derive a metric called Vibration Signal-to-Noise Ratio (VSNR) that highlights the directions of reducing measurement errors of tiny vibrations. Then, we introduce the design of mmVib based on the concept of Multi-Signal Consolidation (MSC) for the error reduction and multi-object measurement. We implement a prototype of mmVib, and the experiments show that it achieves 3.946% relative amplitude error and 0.02487% relative frequency error in median. Typically, the average amplitude error is only 3.174um when measuring the 100um-amplitude vibration at around 5 meters. Compared to two existing mmWave-based approaches, mmVib reduces the 80th-percentile amplitude error by 69.21% and 97.99% respectively.

Nb2O5 nanoparticles with an average particle size of 10 nm supported on a rhombic dodecahedral metal organic framework (MOF) were successfully synthesized by a facile one-pot hydrothermal reaction and subsequent calcination process. Experimental results demonstrated that the prepared catalyst drastically improved the hydrogen storage behavior of MgH2. 7 wt% Nb2O5@MOF doped MgH2 started to desorb hydrogen at 181.9 °C and 6.2 wt% hydrogen could be released within 2.6 min and 6.3 min at 275 °C and 250 °C, respectively. The fully dehydrogenated composite also displayed excellent hydrogenation by decreasing the onset absorption temperature to 25 °C and taking up 4.9 wt% and 6.5 wt% hydrogen within 6 min at 175 °C and 150 °C, respectively. Moreover, the corresponding activation energy was calculated to be 75.57 ± 4.16 kJ mol−1 for desorption reaction and 51.38 ± 1.09 kJ mol−1 for absorption reaction. After 20 cycles, 0.5 wt% hydrogen capacity was lost for the MgH2+7 wt% Nb2O5@MOF composite, much lower than 1.5 wt% of the MgH2+7 wt% Nb2O5 composite. However, the addition of Nb2O5@MOF had limited effect on reducing the dehydrogenation enthalpy of MgH2. Microstructure analysis revealed that Nb2O5 particles were uniformly distributed on surface of the MgH2 matrix and synergistically improved the hydrogen storage property of MgH2 with MOF.

As an innovative propulsion technique, laser augmented chemical propulsion (LACP) seems superior to the traditional ones. However, the corresponding combustion theories have still to be ascertained for LACP. Burning rate of 5-aminotetrazole (5-ATZ) propellant has been studied by testing pressed samples under different combustor pressures and laser powers. Based on micro computed tomography (MicroCT), an advanced thickness-over-time (TOT) method to characterize the regression of the produced non-planar burning surface is established. Because of a shell structure covering the combustion surface, the burning rate of the implemented 5-ATZ propellant is not constant during laser ablation. Resorting to functional fitting, a new law of non-constant burning including the effect of the observed unique burning surface structures is proposed. Accordingly, applicable combustion conditions of 5-ATZ based propellants have been preliminarily speculated for future research activities.

Converting CO2 to valuable materials is attractive in environmental protection and resource utilization. In this study, a vapor–liquid interface reaction system for mass production of high-quality graphene is reported. The graphene obtained has high crystallinity and few defects during the reaction of CO2 and Mg melt. The growth mechanism of graphene is demonstrated in vapor–liquid interface area by combining the CO2 bubbles as a soft template to guide growth with the confinement effect of dense MgO nanoparticles. The quality of the graphene is verified by epoxy composites with high electromagnetic shielding effectiveness. Additionally, the V–L reaction method ingeniously solves the dispersion of graphene in metal, providing a preparation strategy of Mg matrix composites with structure and function integration.

Owing to the advantages of high operating voltage, environmental benignity, and low cost, potassium-based dual-ion batteries (KDIBs) have been considered as a potential candidate for large-scale energy storage. However, KDIBs generally suffer from poor cycling performance and unsatisfied capacity, and inactive components of conductive agents, binders, and current collector further lower their overall capacity. Herein, we prepare coral-like carbon nanowires (CCNWs) doped with nitrogen as a binder-free anode material for K+-ion storage, in which the unique coral-like porous nanostructure and amorphous/short-range-ordered composite feature are conducive to enhancing the structural stability, to facilitating the ion transfer and to boosting the full utilization of active sites during potassiation/de-potassiation process. As a result, the CCNW anode possesses a hybrid K+-storage mechanism of diffusive behavior and capacitive adsorption, and stably delivers a high capacity of 276 mAh g-1 at 50 mA g-1, good rate capability up to 2 A g-1, and long-term cycling stability with 93 % capacity retention after 2000 cycles at 1 A g-1. Further, assembling this CCNW anode with an environmentally benign expanded graphite (EG) cathode yields a proof-of-concept KDIB, which shows a high specific capacity of 134.4 mAh g-1 at 100 mA g-1, excellent rate capability of 106.5 mAh g-1 at 1 A g-1, and long-term cycling stability over 1000 cycles without negligible capacity loss. This study provides a feasible approach to developing high-performance anodes for potassium-based energy storage devices.

This paper presents a framework for telepresence operation by touching live video on a touchscreen. Our goal is to enable users to use a smartpad to teleoperate everyday objects by touching the objects live video they are watching. To this end, we coined the term teleinteractive device to describe such an object with an identity, an actuator, and a communication network. We developed a touchable live video image-based user interface (TIUI) that empowers users to teleoperate any teleinteractive device by touching its live video with touchscreen gestures. The TIUI contains four modules touch, control, recognition, and knowledge to perform live video understanding, communication, and control for telepresence operation. We implemented a telepresence operation system that consists of a telepresence robot and teleinteractive devices at a local site, a smartpad with the TIUI at a remote site, and communication networks connecting the two sites. We demonstrated potential applications of the system in remotely controlling telepresence robots, opening doors with access control panels, and pushing power wheelchairs. We conducted user studies to show the effectiveness of the proposed framework.

A number of transport vehicles have been fitted with electric traction motors and their inverters. The traction motor is required to continue to operate even if the inverter is under fault conditions. We propose a motor with two controllable rotors for a traction motor, which consists of 2 rotors and 1 stator. In this paper, we propose a fault-tolerant control method for a two-controllable-rotor motor using a 6-phase inverter. The operational principle of the two-controllable-rotor motor is described. The mathematical model under fault tolerant control is shown, and a fault-tolerant control method for the two-controllable-rotor motor is described. The proposed fault tolerant control method is verified by conducting finite element analysis and carrying out measurements on a prototype.

Three-dimensional printing (3DP) is considered to be one of the important technologies for a new manufacturing mode. When ceramsite sand is used as a 3DP material to produce a mold (core), the prin...

Abstract: Sexual dysfunction can adversely affect the quality of life, self-confidence, and interpersonal relationships. Some studies reported a relationship between vitamin supplementation and sexual health. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the effect of vitamins on female and male sexual function. All relevant English and Persian articles published in English databases (Medline, Scopus, Cochrane Library, Web of Sciences, Psycho-Info, and Proquest) and Farsi databases (SID and Magiran) until July 2020 were searched. The Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions was used for assessing the risks of bias. A total of 11 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) on 337 women, 472 men, and 35 couples were included. One study reported that vitamin D 300000 IU supplement administrated twice through intramuscular injection (at the beginning and after four weeks) had a significant effect on female sexual function (p0.05). A study reported the significant effect of niacin (vitamin B3) 1500 mg daily for 12 weeks on erectile function (p=0.004). The results showed that vitamins A, C, and E had no significant effect on male and female sexual function. The conduction of trials with long-term interventions is recommended to reach a more definitive conclusion about the effect of vitamins on sexual function.

Objectives Deep hypothermic circulatory arrest (DHCA) is often required for patients undergoing repair of descending thoracic aortic aneurysm (DTAA) or thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm via left thoracotomy when proximal crossclamping is not feasible or when aneurysmal disease extends into the transverse aortic arch. Historical literature suggests higher complications rates due to the technical complexity of this approach; we examined outcomes with this approach at our center. Methods Between January 2008 and May 2018, 84 patients with DTAA or Crawford extent I thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm underwent open repair. DHCA was employed in 46 of 84 (55%) patients, of which 33 (72%) required repair of distal arch and DTAA, and 13 (28%) required repair of the distal arch and extent I thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm. Patients who underwent DHCA had more chronic dissections than those in the non-DHCA group (70% vs 34%; P ≤ .05). Results Major adverse outcomes for the DHCA group versus non-DHCA group were as follows: early mortality 3 out of 46 (7%) versus 4 out of 38 (11%) (P = .70), stroke 3 out of 46 (7%) versus 1 out of 38 (3%) (P = .62), permanent spinal cord deficit 2 out of 46 (4%) versus 3 out of 38 (8%) (P = .65), permanent renal failure necessitating dialysis 1 out of 46 (2%) versus 2 out of 38 (5%) (P = .59). Freedom from major adverse outcomes was 38 out of 46 (83%) versus 31 out of 38 (82%) for DHCA versus non-DHCA (P = 1). Conclusions DHCA can be employed via left thoracotomy for combined arch and DTAA or extent I thoracoabdominal aortic aneurysm open repair.

Transparan İletken Oksit (TCO) ince filmler günümüzde güneş pilleri, LED’ler, lazerler gibi optoelektronik cihazlarda sıklıkla kullanılmaktadır. Bu kontakların kullanımı cihazların verimliliğini doğrudam etkilemektedir. Bu çalışmanın amacı heteroeklemli güneş hücrelerinin (HJSCs) (n+) a-Si:H yüzünde ve yüksek elektron hareketliliği olan tranzistörlerde (HEMT) kullanmak üzere atomik katman kaplama (ALD) tekniği kullanarak alüminyum katkılı çinko oksit (AZO) üretmek ve optimize etmektir. Bu çalışmada büyütme sıcaklığı ve alüminyum katkılama oranının ALD’de büyütülmüş AZO’nun yapısal, elektriksel ve optik özelliklerine etkisi çalışılmıştır.Sonuçlar göstermiştir ki filmler görünür bölgede %80-90 arasında ışık geçirgenliğine, düşük elektriksel rezistansa (2.04x10-3 ohm.cm) ve 5.25 cm2/V.s değerinde mobiliteye sahiptir., Transparent Conductive Oxide (TCO) films are widely used in optoelectronic devices, such as solar cells, LEDs, and Lasers. Utilization of these contacts directly affects the device efficiencies. Purpose of this study is to produce and optimize properties of Aluminum doped Zinc Oxide (AZO) using a vapor phase technique, Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) for (n+) a-Si:H surface of silicon Heterojunction Solar Cells (HJSCs) and High Electron Mobility Transistor (HEMT) applications. This study is focused on the effect of the deposition temperature and aluminum atomic concentration on structural, electrical and optical properties of ALD grown AZO ohmic contact films. The results show that as-deposited films have 80-90% transmittance in the visible spectra, low resistance (2.04x10-3 ohm.cm) and mobility value of 5.25 cm2/V.s.

Soil tillage is the most energy-intensive and costly process. Therefore, the creation of combined machines that perform multiple operations in one workflow is a pressing issue for today, the solution of which is inextricably linked to the integration of agricultural operations into one technological process that brings economic, organizational and agrobiological benefits. Based on the peculiarities of soil preparation for planting or planting crops as an object, and the need for further scientific design of the combined technological process of soil application of fertilizers, active crumbling and cultivation of root, plant residues and fertilizers as a subject, the purpose of scientific research analysis of the interaction of the rotor with the reservoir, determination and optimization of the basic parameters of knives, radius, rotational speed with a view to providing classic soil cutting and mixing with fertilizers. At State Agrarian and Engineering University in Podiya the design of the combined plow was developed. The technological process of their work combines the operations of deep plowing, the active grinding of the formation and the earning of root and crop residues, as well as the introduction of mineral fertilizers. As a result of researches, the angles of installation of the knife with respect to the radius of the rotor α, the angle of sharpening γ, the cutting angle ψ, the occipital angle ζ, the angle of conicity of the rotor β, the angle of displacement of the blades (rays) of the attachment, the magnitude of the transformation of the angle of sharpening, the analysis of the part of the sharpening , and according to its results the required speed of rotation at which the soil passes on the surface of the knife without loading is determined and the effect of its unloading is provided

Theoretical studies of the milling tillage working body, in particular, dynamic properties under conditions of periodic external load, are substantiated and the main technological parameters are substantiated, and energy performance indicators are analyzed. The following data were adopted as the initial data for theoretical studies of the milling working body: the size of the row-spacing and strips, the dimensional characteristics of the root and stem residues. Theoretical studies of the milling machine gave such justified results: the diameter of the milling drum Dfr.bar = 0.3 m, the rotation frequency of the milling drum nfr.bar = 190 ... 430 hv-1, the number of installed knives on one disk n = 4 pcs, the rotating speed Vob = 6.59 m/s. Rational parameters and operating modes are justified: milling power Nfr = 19.3 kW, torque on the milling drum shaft Mkr = 0.45 kN·m. Theoretically substantiated milling working body is implemented in the development of a combined grinder of plant residues of thick-stem crops. The investigated working body, which performs the technological process of grinding compacted plant residues of thick-stemmed crops with the proposed technology, will allow us to further substantiate in more detail the mathematical model of the combined method of processing the field clogged with plant residues and determine the structural and technological structure of the grinder. The further development of the theoretical foundations of grinding plant residues and soil, in particular milling working bodies used in combined units, has been obtained

The growth of the essential oils market is explained by the growing demand for natural and organic products. Today, the global aromatherapy market with essential oils is growing, and demand for essential oils is increasing at the same rate. The studies are dedicated to the valuable essential oil culture ‒ fennel, the spread of which in the forest-steppe zone of Ukraine will allow to obtain high profitability by agro-forming of different forms of ownership and will help to provide the Ukrainian market with raw materials of appropriate quality. The article offers a solution to the pressing issue of expanding the area of new unconventional culture in the conditions of the Forest-Steppe of Ukraine by improving technological measures in the cultivation of culture. The basis of scientific research is the study of sowing terms (1st decade of April, for soil LTR 6-80C), (2nd decade of April, for LTR of soil 10-120C); row spacing (5, 30, 45 and 60 cm) and seeding rates (1, 1.5 and 2 million sprouting seeds per hectare). Among the plans of the research tasks were: to conduct the accounting of yields and to determine indicators of seeds quality (the content of essential oil in fennel seeds and its conditional yield per hectare of sowing), depending on the studied factors. Crop accounting was performed by continuous submerged threshing. The yield was brought to 100% purity and standard humidity according to the method described by V.O. Moiseychenko and V.O. Yeshchenko. Mathematical data processing was performed according to the method of B.A. Dopehova. The results of the research show that the sowing variants in the first decade of April, with a wide-row method (45 cm) sowing rate of one million sprouting seeds per hectare, yielded the optimum yield of fennel – 1.48 t / ha. In the same variant, the maximum content of essential oil was obtained – 6.23% and its yield from the hectare sowing area‒ 59.2 kg.

DNA may be the most versatile molecule discovered to date. Beyond its well-known central role in genetics, DNA has the potential to be a remarkably usefultechnological material. It has been demonstrated as a scaffold for the assemblyof organic and inorganic nanomaterials [1]; a vehicle for drug delivery [2]; amedium for computation [3]; and a possible wire for transporting electricalsignals [4]. A key factor in exploiting DNA in these ways is the ability tointegrate DNA with other materials. In this paper, we review two approachesto forming DNA complexes with functional nanomaterials: (1) linking DNAwith single-wall carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs), which can then be used asnanoscale electrical contacts for probing electron transport in DNA; and (2)directed nanoassembly of Au nanoparticles using DNA/PNA (peptide nucleicacid) hybrid scaffolds.

Long bone metastases are a disease of high social importance. The goals of surgical treatment are to relieve pain, maintain or restore joint function, and prevent or treat pathological fractures. "Oligometastases" is a disease with a limited number (3-5) of metastatic lesions in the same body district, where an aggressive treatment can be carried out with "curative" intent. This study aimed to evaluate patients with bone metastases surgically treated to determine how surgical treatment can influence prognosis and quality of life, comparing solitary metastasis, oligometastases, and multiple metastases.This is a retrospective analysis of 130 patients with long bone metastases surgically treated between October 2015 and August 2019: 40 patients had solitary metastasis; 38 had less than three metastases (oligometastases), and 52 had multiple metastases. Surgery was resection and reconstruction with a cemented prosthesis (95) or nailing (35).Overall survival was significantly better in patients with solitary metastasis or oligometastases than in those with multiple metastases (p0.0001). Patients treated with resection and prosthesis had significantly better survival than those treated with nailing (p0.0001). Implant complications requiring surgical revision occurred in 20 patients treated with prostheses, while no complications occurred in patients treated with nailing.Survival of cancer patients has improved in the last two decades, leading to an increase of diagnosed metastases. Patients with oligometastases have a survival similar to those with a single metastasis. Optimal implants survival curves should stay above the curves of patients survival.Since there are no differences in survival, patients with oligometastases should be treated as patients with a solitary lesion, with more aggressive surgery (wide resection and reconstruction with prosthesis). Intramedullary nailing is still indicated in metaphyseal or diaphyseal metastases in patients with advanced disease or poor prognosis when the life expectancy does not overcome the expected survival of the nail, avoiding the need for further surgery.

Introduction: The Activated Clotting Time (ACT) is commonly used to manage anticoagulation during cardiac surgery. The aim of this study was to compare the older manually operated Hemochron® Response and the automated Hemochron® Signature Elite. Methods: In this observational study the clinically relevant differences of both devices were investigated simultaneously, using duplicate measurements, in 29 patients who underwent a Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting (CABG) or Aortic Valve Replacement (AVR) in order to determine reliability, bias, and to detect which method has the lowest variation. Blood samples were obtained from the arterial line prior to surgery, after administration of 300 IU/kg heparin, 5 minutes after initiation of cardiopulmonary bypass and successively every 30 minutes, and after protamine administration. Results: A total of 202 measurements were performed. Of these 10 measurements were out of range in the Response and 9 in the Elite. About 27 single unstable magnet errors were seen in the Response versus no measurement errors in the Elite. No statistically significant differences between the Response (p = 0.22, Wilcoxon rank) and Elite (p = 0.064) duplicates were observed. The Response values were consistently higher during heparinization than the Elite measurements (p = 0.002, repeated measurements) with an average positive bias of around 56 seconds during heparinization (Bland-Altman). Overall, the coefficient of variation (CoV) increased during heparinization. Conclusion: The Elite was more reliable, but the variation was higher for the Elite than the Response. The observed positive bias in the Response compared to the Elite could affect heparin administration during surgery making the two systems not interchangeable.