Modeling of Electromagnetic Systems by Coupling of Subproblems – Application to Thin Shell Finite Element Magnetic Models

The direct application of the finite element method to realistic electromagnetic problems is challenging, especially when modeling structures with thin conductive and/or magnetic parts. This work presents a subproblem method for correcting the inaccuracies inherent to classical thin shell models, and to efficiently handle geometrical and material variations in parametric studies

The Finite Element Method Applied to the Magnetostatic and Magnetodynamic Problems

Modelling of realistic electromagnetic problems is presented by partial differential equations (FDEs) that link the magnetic and electric fields and their sources. Thus, the direct application of the analytic method to realistic electromagnetic problems is challenging, especially when modeling structures with complex geometry and/or magnetic parts. In order to overcome this drawback, there are a lot of numerical techniques available (e.g. the finite element method or the finite difference method) for the resolution of these PDEs. Amongst these methods, the finite element method has become the most common technique for magnetostatic and magnetodynamic problems

Subproblem h-Conform Formulation for Accurate Thin Shell Models Between Conducting and Nonconducting Regions

peer reviewedA subproblem method (SPM) with h-formulation is developed for correcting the inaccuracies near edges and corners that arise from using thin shell (TS) models to replace thin volume regions by surfaces. The developed surface-to-volume correction problem is defined as a step of multiple SPs, with inductors and magnetic or conducting regions, some of them being thin. The TS model assumes that the fields in the thin regions are approximated by a priori 1-D analytical distributions along the shell thickness (C. Geuzaine et al., “Dual formulations for the modeling of thin electromagnetic shells using edge elements,” IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 36, no. 4, pp. 799–802, 2000). Their interior is not meshed and ratherextracted from the studied domain, which is reduced to a zero-thickness double layer with interface conditions (ICs) linked to 1-D analytical distributions that however neglect end and curvature effects. This leads to inaccuracies near edges and corners that increase with the thickness. To cope with these difficulties, the authors have recently proposed a SPM based on the h-formulation for a thin region located between non-conducting regions (Vuong Q. Dang et al., “Subproblem Approach for Thin Shell Dual Finite Element Formulations”, IEEE Trans. Magn., vol. 48, no. 2, pp. 407–410, 2012). The magnetic field h is herein defined in nonconducting regions by means of a magnetic scalar potential , i.e. h = -grad{\phi} , with discontinuities of through the TS. In this paper, the SPM is extended to account for thin regions located between conducting regions or between conducting and nonconducting regions, in the general case of multiply connected regions. In these regions, the potential is not defined anymore on both sides of the TS and the problem has to be expressed in terms of the discontinuities of h, possibly involving on one side only, to be strongly defined via an IC through the TS. In the proposed SP strategy, a reduced problem with only inductors is first solved on a simplified mesh without thin and volume regions. Its solution gives surface sources (SSs) as ICs for added TS regions, and volume sources (VSs) for possible added volume regions. The TS solution is further improved by a volume correction via SSs and VSs that overcome the TS assumptions, respectively suppressing the TS model and adding the volume model. Each SP has its own separate mesh, which increases the computational efficiency. Details on the proposed method will be given in the extended paper, with practical applications

Analysis of Electromagnetic Parameters of Hybrid Externally Excited Synchronous Motors for Electric Vehicle Applications

This paper presents two different approaches to improve the electromagnetic torque and output power of the hybrid Externally Excited Synchronous Motor (EESM) applied to Electric Vehicles (EVs). An analytical approach is first considered to define the main parameters of the proposed machine. Based on the obtained results from the analytical model, the hybrid EESM is designed with different rotor shapes and step-skewing magnet segments to reduce the total losses and improve torque ripple. Then, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) is applied to compute and simulate electromagnetic parameters, such as the magnetic flux density, mean torque, and output power. The development of these two approaches is validated on an actual EESM machine and the agreement with the theory is shown

Analysis of Power and Torque for the IPM Motors with High Flux Density in Stator

The new idea of this paper is to focus on investigating the influence of characteristics on the power and torque of an Interior Permanent Magnet (IPM) motor designed by the Tesla rear-drive. The detail of improvement designs of double V (2V) shape and inverter delta (VI) shape has been proposed for electric vehicles taking a high constant torque in a wide range speed into account. The torque ripple, output power and torque density are developed and evaluated in different topologies via the finite element method. The two-layered rotor structure with the 2V and VI shapes is also designed to give the suitable choices for manufacturing in mass production. For the higher torque density and efficiency, the two-layered 2V or VI magnets of IPM motor with 72 slots/ 8 poles can be adjusted with the sinusoidal step skewing to minimize the torque ripple, harmonic components and back elec- tromotive force. The developed method is performed on the practical problem of the IPM motor of 200 kW −450 Nm, which is applied to the single drive system delivers

Caveats of fungal barcoding: a case study in Trametes s.lat. (Basidiomycota: Polyporales) in Vietnam reveals multiple issues with mislabelled reference sequences and calls for third-party annotations

DNA barcoding using the nuclear internal transcribed spacer (ITS) has become prevalent in surveys of fungal diversity. This approach is, however, associated with numerous caveats, including the desire for speed, rather than accuracy, through the use of automated analytical pipelines, and the shortcomings of reference sequence repositories. Here we use the case of a specimen of the bracket fungus Trametes s.lat. (which includes the common and widespread turkey tail, T. versicolor) to illustrate these problems. The material was collected in Vietnam as part of a biodiversity inventory including DNA barcoding approaches for arthropods, plants and fungi. The ITS barcoding sequence of the query taxon was compared against reference sequences in GenBank and the curated fungal ITS database UNITE, using BLASTn and MegaBLAST, and was subsequently analysed in a multiple alignment-based phylogenetic context through a maximum likelihood tree including related sequences. Our results initially indicated issues with BLAST searches, including the use of Frairwise local alignments and sorting through Total score and E value, rather than Percentage identity, as major shortcomings of the DNA barcoding approach. However, after thorough analysis of the results, we concluded that the single most important problem of this approach was incorrect sequence labelling, calling for the implementation of third-party annotations or analogous approaches in primary sequence repositories. In addition, this particular example revealed problems of improper fungal nomenclature, which required reinstatement of the genus name Cubamyces (= Leioirametes), with three new combinations: C. flavidus, C lactineus and C. menziesii. The latter was revealed as the correct identification of the query taxon, although the name did not appear among the best BLAST hits. While the best BLAST hits did correspond to the target taxon in terms of sequence data, their label names were misleading or unresolved, including [Fungal endophyte], [Uncultured fungus], Basidiomycota, Trametes cf. cubensis, Lenzites elegans and Geotrichum candidum (an unrelated ascomycetous contaminant). Our study demonstrates that accurate identification of fungi through molecular barcoding is currently not a fast-track approach that can be achieved through automated pipelines

Some chalcones derived from thio-phene-3-carbaldehyde: synthesis and crystal structures.

The synthesis, spectroscopic data and crystal and mol-ecular structures of four 3-(3-phenyl-prop-1-ene-3-one-1-yl)thio-phene derivatives, namely 1-(4-hydroxy-phen-yl)-3-(thio-phen-3-yl)prop-1-en-3-one, C13H10O2S, (1), 1-(4-meth-oxy-phen-yl)-3-(thio-phen-3-yl)prop-1-en-3-one, C14H12O2S, (2), 1-(4-eth-oxy-phen-yl)-3-(thio-phen-3-yl)prop-1-en-3-one, C15H14O2S, (3), and 1-(4--bromophen-yl)-3-(thio-phen-3-yl)prop-1-en-3-one, C13H9BrOS, (4), are described. The four chalcones have been synthesized by reaction of thio-phene-3-carbaldehyde with an aceto-phenone derivative in an absolute ethanol solution containing potassium hydroxide, and differ in the substituent at the para position of the phenyl ring: -OH for 1, -OCH3 for 2, -OCH2CH3 for 3 and -Br for 4. The thio-phene ring in 4 was found to be disordered over two orientations with occupancies 0.702 (4) and 0.298 (4). The configuration about the C=C bond is E. The thio-phene and phenyl rings are inclined by 4.73 (12) for 1, 12.36 (11) for 2, 17.44 (11) for 3 and 46.1 (6) and 48.6 (6)° for 4, indicating that the -OH derivative is almost planar and the -Br derivative deviates the most from planarity. However, the substituent has no real influence on the bond distances in the α,β-unsaturated carbonyl moiety. The mol-ecular packing of 1 features chain formation in the a-axis direction by O-H⋯O contacts. In the case of 2 and 3, the packing is characterized by dimer formation through C-H⋯O inter-actions. In addition, C-H⋯π(thio-phene) inter-actions in 2 and C-H⋯S(thio-phene) inter-actions in 3 contribute to the three-dimensional architecture. The presence of C-H⋯π(thio-phene) contacts in the crystal of 4 results in chain formation in the c-axis direction. The Hirshfeld surface analysis shows that for all four derivatives, the highest contribution to surface contacts arises from contacts in which H atoms are involved

Awareness and preparedness of healthcare workers against the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic: A cross-sectional survey across 57 countries.

BACKGROUND: Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, there have been concerns related to the preparedness of healthcare workers (HCWs). This study aimed to describe the level of awareness and preparedness of hospital HCWs at the time of the first wave. METHODS: This multinational, multicenter, cross-sectional survey was conducted among hospital HCWs from February to May 2020. We used a hierarchical logistic regression multivariate analysis to adjust the influence of variables based on awareness and preparedness. We then used association rule mining to identify relationships between HCW confidence in handling suspected COVID-19 patients and prior COVID-19 case-management training. RESULTS: We surveyed 24,653 HCWs from 371 hospitals across 57 countries and received 17,302 responses from 70.2% HCWs overall. The median COVID-19 preparedness score was 11.0 (interquartile range [IQR] = 6.0-14.0) and the median awareness score was 29.6 (IQR = 26.6-32.6). HCWs at COVID-19 designated facilities with previous outbreak experience, or HCWs who were trained for dealing with the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak, had significantly higher levels of preparedness and awareness (p<0.001). Association rule mining suggests that nurses and doctors who had a 'great-extent-of-confidence' in handling suspected COVID-19 patients had participated in COVID-19 training courses. Male participants (mean difference = 0.34; 95% CI = 0.22, 0.46; p<0.001) and nurses (mean difference = 0.67; 95% CI = 0.53, 0.81; p<0.001) had higher preparedness scores compared to women participants and doctors. INTERPRETATION: There was an unsurprising high level of awareness and preparedness among HCWs who participated in COVID-19 training courses. However, disparity existed along the lines of gender and type of HCW. It is unknown whether the difference in COVID-19 preparedness that we detected early in the pandemic may have translated into disproportionate SARS-CoV-2 burden of disease by gender or HCW type

CoNIC Challenge: Pushing the Frontiers of Nuclear Detection, Segmentation, Classification and Counting

Nuclear detection, segmentation and morphometric profiling are essential in helping us further understand the relationship between histology and patient outcome. To drive innovation in this area, we setup a community-wide challenge using the largest available dataset of its kind to assess nuclear segmentation and cellular composition. Our challenge, named CoNIC, stimulated the development of reproducible algorithms for cellular recognition with real-time result inspection on public leaderboards. We conducted an extensive post-challenge analysis based on the top-performing models using 1,658 whole-slide images of colon tissue. With around 700 million detected nuclei per model, associated features were used for dysplasia grading and survival analysis, where we demonstrated that the challenge's improvement over the previous state-of-the-art led to significant boosts in downstream performance. Our findings also suggest that eosinophils and neutrophils play an important role in the tumour microevironment. We release challenge models and WSI-level results to foster the development of further methods for biomarker discovery