A Universal Formulation for Multilevel Selective Harmonic Elimination - PWM with Half-Wave Symmetry

Selective harmonic elimination - pulse width modulation (SHE-PWM) can be utilized to improve the efficiency of multilevel voltage source converters due to its ability to provide low switching frequency and tight control of low-order harmonics. In addition, SHE-PWM with half-wave (HW) symmetry provides a higher number of solutions than quarter-wave (QW) symmetry and therefore, the waveform design can be improved. This work proposes a universal formulation, which can be utilized with HW symmetry, that provides a unique system of equations valid for any possible multilevel waveform. Thereby, without using predefined waveforms, this formulation provides the ability to search simultaneously both the firing angles and the switching patterns, simplifying significantly the search process and providing a high number of solutions. With the aim of selecting the optimum sets of firing angles, the solutions provided by HW and QW symmetries are compared, based on several metrics of harmonic performance, for particular test cases. Experimental results also validate the universal formulation with HW symmetry.Eusko Jaurlaritza; Secretaria de Estado de Investigacion Desarrollo e Innovacio

Effect of Paclitaxel in the Water Dynamics of MCF-7 Breast Cancer Cells Revealed by Dielectric Spectroscopy

Using dielectric spectroscopy experiments performed at multiple temperatures and frequency ranges, we demonstrate how the chemotherapy drug paclitaxel changes the dynamic properties of water in a breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). From the measured data, we present evidence that treatment with paclitaxel leads to a slight increase in activation energy in a relaxation related to bulk-like water. More importantly, we also observe that paclitaxel changes the constraining imposed by the biological interfaces on hydration water, whose single-particle dynamics becomes slower and with higher activation energy. These variations are only observable after freezing the dynamics from other cellular components, such as proteins and DNAs, regardless of the state of the cells, that is, treated or not treated or even if the cells are no longer viable. Therefore, changes in water dynamics could be detected prior to those related to the global dynamics within the cellular environment.They acknowledge the financial support from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (grant agreement 731019—EUSMI). M.L.M. is funded by FAPEG (20171026700070) and CNPQ (205609/2014-7 and 300509/2017-0). S.A.I., AA, and J.C.L. also acknowledge the financial support from IT-1175-19 and Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, project: PGC2018-094548-B-I00 (MCIU/AEI/FEDER UE).Peer reviewe

Factors Contributing to the Utilization of Adult Mental Health Services in Children and Adolescents Diagnosed with Hyperkinetic Disorder

Objectives. To examine whether age of First diagnosis, gender, psychiatric comorbidity, and treatment modalities (pharmacotherapy or psychotherapy) at Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) moderate the risk of Adult Mental Health Services (AMHS) utilization in patients diagnosed with hyperkinetic disorder at CAMHS. Methods. Data were derived from the Madrid Psychiatric Cumulative Register Study. The target population comprised 32,183 patients who had 3 or more visits at CAMHS. Kaplan-Meier curves were used to assess survival data. A series of logistic regression analyses were performed to study the role of age of diagnosis, gender, psychiatric comorbidity, and treatment modalities. Results. 7.1% of patients presented with hyperkinetic disorder at CAMHS. Compared to preschool children, children and adolescents first diagnosed with hyperkinetic disorder at CAMHS were more likely to use AMHS. Female gender and comorbidity with affective disorders, schizophrenia, schizotypal and delusional disorders increased the risk of use of AMHS. Pharmacological or combined treatment of hyperkinetic disorder diagnosed at CAMHS was associated with increased risk of use at AMHS. Conclusions. Older age of first diagnosis, female gender, psychiatric comorbidity, and pharmacological treatment at CAMHS are markers of risk for the transition from CAMHS to AMHS in patients with hyperkinetic disorder diagnosed at CAMHS

Heterogeneity in Health Insurance Coverage Among US Latino Adults

We sought to determine the differences in observed and unobserved factors affecting rates of health insurance coverage between US Latino adults and US Latino adults of Mexican ancestry. Our hypothesis was that Latinos of Mexican ancestry have worse health insurance coverage than their non-Mexican Latino counterparts. The National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) database from 1999–2007 consists of 33,847 Latinos. We compared Latinos of Mexican ancestry to non-Mexican Latinos in the initial descriptive analysis of health insurance coverage. Disparities in health insurance coverage across Latino categories were later analyzed in a multivariable logistic regression framework, which adjusts for confounding variables. The Blinder-Oaxaca technique was applied to parse out differences in health insurance coverage into observed and unobserved components. US Latinos of Mexican ancestry consistently had lower rates of health insurance coverage than did US non-Mexican Latinos. Approximately 65% of these disparities can be attributed to differences in observed characteristics of the Mexican ancestry population in the US (e.g., age, sex, income, employment status, education, citizenship, language and health condition). The remaining disparities may be attributed to unobserved heterogeneity that may include unobserved employment-related information (e.g., type of employment and firm size) and behavioral and idiosyncratic factors (e.g., risk aversion and cultural differences). This study confirmed that Latinos of Mexican ancestry were less likely to have health insurance than were non-Mexican Latinos. Moreover, while differences in observed socioeconomic and demographic factors accounted for most of these disparities, the share of unobserved heterogeneity accounted for 35% of these differences

Departure from the vogel behaviour in the glass transition region-thermally stimulated recovery, creep and dynamic mechanical analysis studies

In this work the study of the dynamics of the segmental motions close to Tg of a poly(methyl methacrylate), PMMA, network was analysed by distinct mechanical spectroscopy techniques. Three techniques were employed: dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), creep and thermally stimulated recovery (TSR). The time–temperature superposition principle was applied to the DMA and creep results, and master curves were successfully constructed. A change from a Vogel to an Arrhenius behaviour was observed in these results. Above Tg it was found a distinct temperature dependence for the retardation times calculated from creep and the relaxation times calculated from DMA. This unexpected behaviour was attributed to the merging of the a and the b relaxations that occurs in PMMA systems. The apparent activation energies ðEaÞ were also calculated from DMA, creep and TSR experiments. Above Tg the Ea values obtained agreed very well for all the techniques. In addition, the fragility exhibited by this material was investigated by the mechanical spectroscopy techniques referred above and by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). The obtained values of the fragility index m indicated that the PMMA network is a kinetically fragile system. The thermodynamic manifestation of the fragility was also analysed

Impact of COVID-19 on cardiovascular testing in the United States versus the rest of the world

Objectives: This study sought to quantify and compare the decline in volumes of cardiovascular procedures between the United States and non-US institutions during the early phase of the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the care of many non-COVID-19 illnesses. Reductions in diagnostic cardiovascular testing around the world have led to concerns over the implications of reduced testing for cardiovascular disease (CVD) morbidity and mortality. Methods: Data were submitted to the INCAPS-COVID (International Atomic Energy Agency Non-Invasive Cardiology Protocols Study of COVID-19), a multinational registry comprising 909 institutions in 108 countries (including 155 facilities in 40 U.S. states), assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on volumes of diagnostic cardiovascular procedures. Data were obtained for April 2020 and compared with volumes of baseline procedures from March 2019. We compared laboratory characteristics, practices, and procedure volumes between U.S. and non-U.S. facilities and between U.S. geographic regions and identified factors associated with volume reduction in the United States. Results: Reductions in the volumes of procedures in the United States were similar to those in non-U.S. facilities (68% vs. 63%, respectively; p = 0.237), although U.S. facilities reported greater reductions in invasive coronary angiography (69% vs. 53%, respectively; p < 0.001). Significantly more U.S. facilities reported increased use of telehealth and patient screening measures than non-U.S. facilities, such as temperature checks, symptom screenings, and COVID-19 testing. Reductions in volumes of procedures differed between U.S. regions, with larger declines observed in the Northeast (76%) and Midwest (74%) than in the South (62%) and West (44%). Prevalence of COVID-19, staff redeployments, outpatient centers, and urban centers were associated with greater reductions in volume in U.S. facilities in a multivariable analysis. Conclusions: We observed marked reductions in U.S. cardiovascular testing in the early phase of the pandemic and significant variability between U.S. regions. The association between reductions of volumes and COVID-19 prevalence in the United States highlighted the need for proactive efforts to maintain access to cardiovascular testing in areas most affected by outbreaks of COVID-19 infection

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

Convalescent plasma in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (RECOVERY): a randomised controlled, open-label, platform trial

SummaryBackground Azithromycin has been proposed as a treatment for COVID-19 on the basis of its immunomodulatoryactions. We aimed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of azithromycin in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19.Methods In this randomised, controlled, open-label, adaptive platform trial (Randomised Evaluation of COVID-19Therapy [RECOVERY]), several possible treatments were compared with usual care in patients admitted to hospitalwith COVID-19 in the UK. The trial is underway at 176 hospitals in the UK. Eligible and consenting patients wererandomly allocated to either usual standard of care alone or usual standard of care plus azithromycin 500 mg once perday by mouth or intravenously for 10 days or until discharge (or allocation to one of the other RECOVERY treatmentgroups). Patients were assigned via web-based simple (unstratified) randomisation with allocation concealment andwere twice as likely to be randomly assigned to usual care than to any of the active treatment groups. Participants andlocal study staff were not masked to the allocated treatment, but all others involved in the trial were masked to theoutcome data during the trial. The primary outcome was 28-day all-cause mortality, assessed in the intention-to-treatpopulation. The trial is registered with ISRCTN, 50189673, and ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT04381936.Findings Between April 7 and Nov 27, 2020, of 16 442 patients enrolled in the RECOVERY trial, 9433 (57%) wereeligible and 7763 were included in the assessment of azithromycin. The mean age of these study participants was65·3 years (SD 15·7) and approximately a third were women (2944 [38%] of 7763). 2582 patients were randomlyallocated to receive azithromycin and 5181 patients were randomly allocated to usual care alone. Overall,561 (22%) patients allocated to azithromycin and 1162 (22%) patients allocated to usual care died within 28 days(rate ratio 0·97, 95% CI 0·87–1·07; p=0·50). No significant difference was seen in duration of hospital stay (median10 days [IQR 5 to >28] vs 11 days [5 to >28]) or the proportion of patients discharged from hospital alive within 28 days(rate ratio 1·04, 95% CI 0·98–1·10; p=0·19). Among those not on invasive mechanical ventilation at baseline, nosignificant difference was seen in the proportion meeting the composite endpoint of invasive mechanical ventilationor death (risk ratio 0·95, 95% CI 0·87–1·03; p=0·24).Interpretation In patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19, azithromycin did not improve survival or otherprespecified clinical outcomes. Azithromycin use in patients admitted to hospital with COVID-19 should be restrictedto patients in whom there is a clear antimicrobial indication