Burnout among surgeons before and during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: an international survey

Background: SARS-CoV-2 pandemic has had many significant impacts within the surgical realm, and surgeons have been obligated to reconsider almost every aspect of daily clinical practice. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study reported in compliance with the CHERRIES guidelines and conducted through an online platform from June 14th to July 15th, 2020. The primary outcome was the burden of burnout during the pandemic indicated by the validated Shirom-Melamed Burnout Measure. Results: Nine hundred fifty-four surgeons completed the survey. The median length of practice was 10 years; 78.2% included were male with a median age of 37 years old, 39.5% were consultants, 68.9% were general surgeons, and 55.7% were affiliated with an academic institution. Overall, there was a significant increase in the mean burnout score during the pandemic; longer years of practice and older age were significantly associated with less burnout. There were significant reductions in the median number of outpatient visits, operated cases, on-call hours, emergency visits, and research work, so, 48.2% of respondents felt that the training resources were insufficient. The majority (81.3%) of respondents reported that their hospitals were included in the management of COVID-19, 66.5% felt their roles had been minimized; 41% were asked to assist in non-surgical medical practices, and 37.6% of respondents were included in COVID-19 management. Conclusions: There was a significant burnout among trainees. Almost all aspects of clinical and research activities were affected with a significant reduction in the volume of research, outpatient clinic visits, surgical procedures, on-call hours, and emergency cases hindering the training. Trial registration: The study was registered on clicaltrials.gov "NCT04433286" on 16/06/2020

Investigation on a Power Coupling Steering System for Dual-Motor Drive Tracked Vehicles Based on Speed Control

Double-motor drive tracked vehicles (2MDTV) are widely used in the tracked vehicle industry due to the development of electric vehicle drive systems. The aim of this paper is to solve the problem of insufficient propulsion motor torque in low-speed, small-radius steering and insufficient power in high-speed large-radius steering. In order to do this a new type of steering system with a coupling device is designed and a closed-loop control strategy based on speed is adopted to improve the lateral stability of the vehicle. The work done entails modeling and simulating the 2MDTV and the proposed control strategy in RecurDyn and Matlab/Simulink. The simulation results show that the 2MDTV with the coupling device outputs more torque and power in both steering cases compared to the 2MDTV without the coupling device, and the steering stability of the vehicle is improved by using the strategy based on speed

Continuous Steering Stability Control Based on an Energy-Saving Torque Distribution Algorithm for a Four in-Wheel-Motor Independent-Drive Electric Vehicle

In this paper, a continuous steering stability controller based on an energy-saving torque distribution algorithm is proposed for a four in-wheel-motor independent-drive electric vehicle (4MIDEV) to improve the energy consumption efficiency while maintaining the stability in steering maneuvers. The controller is designed as a hierarchical structure, including the reference model level, the upper-level controller, and the lower-level controller. The upper-level controller adopts the direct yaw moment control (DYC), which is designed to work continuously during the steering maneuver to better ensure steering stability in extreme situations, rather than working only after the vehicle is judged to be unstable. An adaptive two-hierarchy energy-saving torque distribution algorithm is developed in the lower-level controller with the friction ellipse constraint as a basis for judging whether the algorithm needs to be switched, so as to achieve a more stable and energy-efficient steering operation. The proposed stability controller was validated in a co-simulation of CarSim and Matlab/Simulink. The simulation results under different steering maneuvers indicate that the proposed controller, compared with the conventional servo controller and the ordinary continuous controller, can reduce energy consumption up to 23.68% and improve the vehicle steering stability

Mitigation Conducted Emission Strategy Based on Transfer Function from a DC-Fed Wireless Charging System for Electric Vehicles

The large dv/dt and di/dt outputs of power devices in wireless charging system (WCS) in electric vehicles (EVs) always introduce conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI) emissions. This paper proposes a mitigation conducted emission strategy based on transfer function from a direct current fed (DC-fed) WCS for EVs. A complete test for the DC-fed WCS is set up to measure the conducted emission of DC power cables in a frequency range of 150 kHz–108 MHz. An equivalent circuit with high-frequency parasitic parameters for WCS for EV is built based on measurement results to obtain the characteristics of conducted emission from WCS. The transfer functions of differential mode (DM) interference and common mode (CM) interference were established. A judgment method of using transfer functions to determine the dominated interference mode responsible for EMI is proposed. From the comparison of simulation results between CM or DM and CM+DM interference, it can be seen that the CM interference is the dominated interference mode which causes the conducted EMI in WCS in EVs. A strategy of giving priority to the dominated interference mode is proposed for designing the CM interference filter. Finally, the conducted voltage experiment is performed to verify the mitigation conducted emission strategy. The conducted voltage of simulation and experiment is decreased respectively by 21.17 and 21.4 dBμV at resonance frequency 30 MHz. The conduced voltage at frequency range of 150 kHz–108 MHz can be mitigated to below the limit level-3 of CISPR25 standard (GB/T 18655-2010) by adding the CM interference filters

Conducted EMI Prediction and Mitigation Strategy Based on Transfer Function for a High-Low Voltage DC-DC Converter in Electric Vehicle

The high dv/dt and di/dt outputs from power devices in a high-low voltage DC-DC converter on electric vehicles (EVs) can always introduce the unwanted conducted electromagnetic interference (EMI) emissions. A conducted EMI prediction and mitigation strategy that is based on transfer function for the high-low voltage DC-DC converter in EVs are proposed. A complete test for the DC-DC converter is conducted to obtain the conducted EMI from DC power cables in the frequency band of 150 kHz-108 MHz. The equivalent circuit with high-frequency parasitic parameters of the DC-DC converter is built`1 based on the measurement results to acquire the characteristics of the conducted EMI of the DC power cables. The common mode (CM) and differential mode (DM) propagation coupling paths are determined, and the corresponding transfer functions of the DM interference and CM interference are established. The simulation results of the conducted EMI can be obtained by software Matlab and Computer Simulation Technology (CST). By analyzing the transfer functions and the simulation results, the dominated interference is the CM interference, which is the main factor of the conducted EMI. A mitigation strategy for the design of the CM interference filter based on the dominated CM interference is proposed. Finally, the mitigation strategy of the conducted EMI is verified by performing the conducted voltage experiment. From the experiment results, the conducted voltage of the DC power cables is decreased, respectively, by 58 dBμV, 55 dBμV, 65 dBμV, 53 dBμV, and 54 dBμV at frequency 200 kHz, 400 kHz, 600 kHz, 1.4 MHz, and 50 MHz. The conduced voltage in the frequency band of 150 kHz–108 MHz can be mitigated by adding the CM interference filters, and the values are lower than the limit level-3 of CISPR25 standard (GB/T 18655-2010)