Using Modified Bessel Functions for Calculations of Drain Current Harmonics in a MOS Transistor Operating in Moderate Inversion

This work was supported by the NSERC, Canada, by the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, and by the Academy of Finland.The paper describes evaluation of drain current harmonics in a MOS transistor operating in moderate inversion and strong saturation. The dependence of the drain current on the gate-source and drain-source voltages is described using a simplified 'reconciliation' model developed by Y. Tsividis. Then, in the proposed model the current components corresponding to the terms depending exponentially on normalized gate-source and/or drain-source modulating sinusoidal voltage are evaluated using modified Bessel functions. This approach allows one to omit the small-signal requirement for modulating signals, and calculate the first, second and third harmonics of the drain current caused by the gate-source or drain-source voltages and also find the intermodulation terms. The results are applied to the design of low-distortion low-voltage amplifiers. The recommendations are confirmed by simulations.publishe

Analysis and design of CMOS coupled multivibrators

In this paper a wideband MOS quadrature oscillator constituted by two multivibrators is presented. Two different forms of coupling, named here as soft and hard, are investigated. Simulations are performed in a 0.13 žm CMOS technology to obtain the tuning range, the synchronization transients, and the influence of mismatches in timing capacitors and charging currents on synchronization. It is found that hard coupling reduces the quadrature error (about 1°, with 5% mismatches in timing capacitors and charging currents) and results in a low phase-noise (about 2 dB improvement) with respect to soft coupling. Either a single multivibrator or coupled multivibrators can be locked to an external synchronizing harmonic frequency, and the locking range is investigated by simulations. The simulations are done for oscillators covering the WTMS frequency bands

Raising the standards of patient-centered outcomes research in myelodysplastic syndromes: Clinical utility and validation of the subscales of the QUALMS from the MDS-RIGHT project.

BACKGROUND: Clinical decision-making for patients with myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) is challenging, and both disease and treatment effects heavily impact health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of these patients. Therefore, disease-specific HRQoL measures can be critical to harness the patient voice in MDS research. METHODS: We report a prospective international validation study of the Quality of Life in Myelodysplasia Scale (QUALMS) with a main focus on providing information on the psychometric characteristics of its three subscales: physical burden (QUALMS-P), emotional burden (QUALMS-E), and benefit finding (QUALMS-BF). The analysis is based on patients enrolled from three European countries and Israel, participating to the MDS-RIGHT Project. The scale structure and psychometric properties of the QUALMS were assessed. RESULTS: Overall, 270 patients with a median age of 74 years were analyzed and the majority of them (60.3%) had a low MDS-Comorbidity Index score. Results of the confirmatory factor analysis supported the underlying scale structure of the QUALMS, which, in addition to a total score, includes three subscales: QUALMS-P, QUALMS-E, and the QUALMS-BF. The QUALMS-P exhibited the highest Cronbach's alpha coefficients. Discriminant validity analysis indicated good results with the QUALMS-P and QUALMS-E distinguishing between patients with different performance status, comorbidity, anemia, and transfusion dependency status. No floor and ceiling effects were observed. Responsiveness to change analysis supported the validity of the measure. Patients with a hemoglobin (Hb) level of <11 g/dL at study entry, who subsequently showed an improvement in their Hb levels, also reported a mean score change of 9 and 8 points (scales ranging between 0 and 100) in the expected direction of the QUALMS-E and QUALMS-P, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Our study provides additional validation data on the QUALMS from the international MDS-RIGHT Project. The use of this disease-specific HRQoL measure may contribute to raise quality standards of patient-centered outcomes research in MDS