Novel High-Frequency Electrical Characterization Technique for Magnetic Passive Devices.

Integrated magnetic components are key elements of the power supply on chip modules. Due to the application requirements, these magnetic devices work at very high frequency and have low inductances. Conventional small-signal tests do not provide all the required information about the magnetic device. Hence, it is important to develop new setups to apply large signals to accurately measure the performance of devices under realistic operating conditions, including nonlinear core effects. The proposed experimental setup is suitable to measure the device impedance under different large-signal test conditions, similar to those in the actual converter, since the excitation current can be configured through every winding: ac current up to 0.5 A at frequencies up to 120 MHz and dc bias current up to 2 A through one or both windings. Voltage and current are measured using commercial instrumentation. Due to the characteristics of the probes and the high frequency of the test, the attenuation and delay due to the probes and the experimental setup have to be taken into account when processing the voltage and current waveforms to calculate the impedances. The compensation test to calculate this attenuation and delay is described. Finally, the proposed setup is validated by measuring a two-phase coupled inductor microfabricated on silicon.This work was supported in part by the European Union through FP7 (Project: PowerSwipe) under Grant 318529, in part by the Science Foundation Ireland through the Investigators Programme under Grant 15/IA/3180, and in part by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness and FEDER funds under Project DPI2014-53685-C2-1-R and Project DPI2017-88062-R. This paper was recommended for publication by Associate Editor Matthew A. Wilkowski

A comparison of Child-Pugh, APACHE II and APACHE III scoring systems in predicting hospital mortality of patients with liver cirrhosis

BACKGROUND: The aim of this study was to assess the prognostic accuracy of Child-Pugh and APACHE II and III scoring systems in predicting short-term, hospital mortality of patients with liver cirrhosis. METHODS: 200 admissions of 147 cirrhotic patients (44% viral-associated liver cirrhosis, 33% alcoholic, 18.5% cryptogenic, 4.5% both viral and alcoholic) were studied prospectively. Clinical and laboratory data conforming to the Child-Pugh, APACHE II and III scores were recorded on day 1 for all patients. Discrimination was evaluated using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and area under a ROC curve (AUC). Calibration was estimated using the Hosmer-Lemeshow goodness-of-fit test. RESULTS: Overall mortality was 11.5%. The mean Child-Pugh, APACHE II and III scores for survivors were found to be significantly lower than those of nonsurvivors. Discrimination was excellent for Child-Pugh (ROC AUC: 0.859) and APACHE III (ROC AUC: 0.816) scores, and acceptable for APACHE II score (ROC AUC: 0.759). Although the Hosmer-Lemeshow statistic revealed adequate goodness-of-fit for Child-Pugh score (P = 0.192), this was not the case for APACHE II and III scores (P = 0.004 and 0.003 respectively) CONCLUSION: Our results indicate that, of the three models, Child-Pugh score had the least statistically significant discrepancy between predicted and observed mortality across the strata of increasing predicting mortality. This supports the hypothesis that APACHE scores do not work accurately outside ICU settings

Needs assessment survey of people with Acquired Brain Injury in the Mid-West region.

Due to the increase in Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) cases presenting to services arising, primarily, from the national increase in Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) and the increased survival rate of TBI and Stroke (CVA) cases a heightened focus on the adequacy of service provision to people with an acquired brain injury (ABI) has arisen. The following sub-groups of people with ABI have been identified: • Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) • Non-Traumatic Brain Injury (NTBI), including; Stroke (CVA), Anoxia and Hypoxia, Haemorrhage, Tumour and Infection • Alcohol Related Brain Injury (ARBI) • Substance Related Brain Injury (SRBI) Study objective: In order to inform effective planning and development of future service provision a social scientific assessment of the extent of need among people with ABI in the region required to be undertaken

Heinrich Wagner (1923-1988)

Mac Mathuna Séamus. Heinrich Wagner (1923-1988). In: Etudes Celtiques, vol. 26, 1989. pp. 215-217