Active rc networks of low sensitivity for integrated circuit transfer function

Active RC network is capable of extremely high Q performance with exceptional stability and has independently adjustable zeros and poles. The circuit consists of two integrators and two summers that are interconnected to produce a complete second-order numerator and a second-order denominator

Early oral-motor interventions for pediatric feeding problems: What, when and how

Children with developmental delays often have feeding difficulties resulting from oral-motor problems. Based on both clinical experience and a review of published studies, oral-motor interventions have been shown to be effective in improving the oral function of preterm infants and children with neuromotor disorders, such as cerebral palsy. However, oral-motor problems may be under identified in other populations of children with developmental difficulties. The purpose of this paper is to provide a conceptual framework for understanding oral-motor skill development and problems that can occur in any infant and young child and to review oral-motor treatment techniques and their empirical support

Efficacy and safety of lebrikizumab in adult patients with mild-to-moderate asthma not receiving inhaled corticosteroids

Background: Asthma is a heterogeneous and complex disease in both its clinical course and response to treatment. IL-13 is central to Type 2 inflammation and contributes to many features of asthma. In a previous Phase 2 study, lebrikizumab, an anti-IL-13 monoclonal antibody, did not significantly improve FEV1 in mild-to-moderate asthma patients not receiving ICS therapy. This Phase 3 study was designed to further assess the efficacy and safety of lebrikizumab in adult patients with mild-to-moderate asthma treated with daily short-acting β2-agonist therapy alone. Methods: Adult patients with mild-to-moderate asthma were randomised to receive lebrikizumab 125 mg subcutaneously (SC), placebo SC, or montelukast 10 mg orally for 12 weeks, with an 8-week follow-up period. The primary efficacy endpoint was absolute change in pre-bronchodilator FEV1 from baseline at Week 12. Findings: A total of 310 patients were randomised and dosed in the study. The mean absolute change in FEV1 from baseline at Week 12 was higher in the lebrikizumab-treated arm compared with placebo (150 mL versus 67 mL); however, this improvement did not achieve statistical significance (overall adjusted difference of 83 mL [95% CI:-3, 170]; p = .06). Montelukast did not improve FEV1 as compared with placebo. Lebrikizumab was generally safe and well tolerated during the study. Interpretation: Lebrikizumab did not significantly improve FEV1 in mild-to-moderate asthma patients at a dose expected to inhibit the IL-13 pathway. Inhibiting IL-13 in this patient population was not sufficient to improve lung function. These data support the findings of a previous trial of lebrikizumab in patients not receiving ICS

Deterministic Lateral Displacement:Challenges and Perspectives

The advent of microfluidics in the 1990s promised a revolution in multiple industries from healthcare to chemical processing. Deterministic lateral displacement (DLD) is a continuous-flow microfluidic particle separation method discovered in 2004 that has been applied successfully and widely to the separation of blood cells, yeast, spores, bacteria, viruses, DNA, droplets, and more. Deterministic lateral displacement is conceptually simple and can deliver consistent performance over a wide range of flow rates and particle concentrations. Despite wide use and in-depth study, DLD has not yet been fully elucidated or optimized, with different approaches to the same problem yielding varying results. We endeavor here to provide up-to-date expert opinion on the state-of-art and current fundamental, practical, and commercial challenges with DLD as well as describe experimental and modeling opportunities. Because these challenges and opportunities arise from constraints on hydrodynamics, fabrication, and operation at the micro- and nanoscale, we expect this Perspective to serve as a guide for the broader micro- and nanofluidic community to identify and to address open questions in the field

Coordination as a function of skill level in the gymnastics longswing

The purpose of this study was to investigate the nature of inter-joint coordination at different levels of skilled performance to: (1) distinguish learners who were successful versus unsuccessful in terms of their task performance; (2) investigate the pathways of change during the learning of a new coordination pattern and (3) examine how the learner’s coordination patterns relate to those of experts in the longswing gymnastics skill. Continuous relative phase of hip and shoulder joint motions was examined for longswings performed by two groups of novices, successful (n = 4) and unsuccessful (n = 4) over five practice sessions, and two expert gymnasts. Principal component analysis showed that during longswing positions where least continuous relative phase variability occurred for expert gymnasts, high variability distinguished the successful from the unsuccessful novice group. Continuous relative phase profiles of successful novices became more out-of-phase over practice and less similar to the closely in-phase coupling of the expert gymnasts. Collectively, the findings support the proposition that at the level in inter-joint coordination a technique emerges that facilitates successful performance but is not more like an expert’s movement coordination. This finding questions the appropriateness of inferring development towards a “gold champion” movement coordination