Auxiliary health diagnosis method for lead-acid battery

This paper proposes a health auxiliary diagnosis method for the lead-acid battery unit. The proposed method is based on Approximate Entropy (ApEn). Since ApEn can quantify the regularity of a data sequence and the discharging curve for a health lead-acid battery unit is smooth, the proposed method can detect the degradation of battery unit caused by the internal short, opening of internal shorted or cell undergoing reversal using the distorted discharging curve. Aging experiments for the lead-acid battery are developed to verify the proposed method. The experimental results verify that the proposed health auxiliary diagnosis method can diagnosis the degradation of battery unit caused by the internal short, opening of internal shorted or cell undergoing reversal.Lead-acid battery State-of-health Approximate Entropy Coulomb counting method Coup de fouet Sample Entropy

Effectiveness of the BDProbeTec ET system for detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in sputum and bronchoalveolar lavage specimens

OBJECTIVE: The diagnostic efficacy of the BDProbeTEC ET Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) complex direct detection assay (DTB) performed on bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) specimens and sputum smears was compared with acid-fast bacilli (AFB) smear microscopy. METHOD: AFB smear microscopy, DTB and culture results of 286 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis were retrospectively reviewed. A total of 120 patients provided expectorated sputum samples, and 166 patients provided BAL specimens. Culture results and clinical diagnosis were used as gold standards. RESULTS: The sensitivity and specificity of the DTB assay in detecting MTB in sputum specimens was significantly higher compared to AFB smear microscopy (83.7% and 82.4%, vs. 75.6%, and 41.2%, respectively). The sensitivity and specificity of the DTB assay in detecting MTB in sputum samples was 77.2% and 100% compared to clinical diagnosis, while AFB smear had a sensitivity and specificity of 70.3% and 26.3%, respectively. Compared to culture, DTB had a sensitivity and specificity of 82.8% and 93.2%, respectively, in detecting MTB from BAL specimens; AFB smear had a sensitivity and specificity of 41.9% and 87.7%, respectively. Compared to clinical diagnosis, DTB had a sensitivity and specificity of 67.2% and 100%, respectively, in detecting MTB from BAL specimens; AFB smear had a sensitivity and specificity of 34.8% and 79.5%, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: The superior performance of the DTB assay relative to AFB smear microscopy makes it a valuable tool to enable early diagnosis of MTB, thereby improving patient care and reducing transmission