Formation and Dissociation of Phosphorylated Peptide Radical Cations

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Stationary and adaptive color-shift reduction methods based on the bilevel driving technique for phosphor-converted white LEDs

The bilevel driving technique has realized a 2-D control of the luminosity and emitted color of white LEDs with duty cycle and forward current levels. Unfortunately, various combinations of these dimming control parameters can lead to significant changes in junction temperature, which further modify the luminosity and emitted color of LEDs. In this paper, the theoretical aspects of these complex interactions and the impact of bilevel drive on the color-shift properties of white LEDs are discussed in detail by using a mathematical color-shift model. Two color-shift reduction methods are proposed based on the insights obtained from this model. This study shows that a heat sinks thermal resistance that minimizes the overall color shift over dimming can be uniquely determined from the knowledge of some measurable LED parameters, and gives rise to a global minimum color shift. If such a thermal resistance cannot be realized due to practical limitations, the second method that utilizes an adaptive change of forward current levels over dimming can be adopted. Based on their nature, these methods are classified as stationary and adaptive methods, respectively. Their validity is supported by experimental measurements on a commercial white LED. © 2011 IEEE.published_or_final_versio

Synthesis of input-rectifierless AC-DC converters

This paper discusses the basic construction procedure and topological possibilities of creating ac/dc converters out of simple dc/dc conveners. It is shown that two separately controlled dc/dc conveners are sufficient for producing a regulated dc output and shaping the input current, from an ac voltage source, without the need for input rectifiers. Some design constraints are discussed, emanating from the limitation of the conversion ratios that can be achieved by particular dc/dc converters. Selected topologies are verified experimentally.published_or_final_versio

General impedance synthesis using simple switching converters

A general impedance synthesizer using a minimum number of switching converters is studied in this paper. We begin with showing that any impedance can be synthesized by a circuit consisting of only two simple power converters, one storage element (e.g., capacitor), and one dissipative element (e.g., resistor) or power source. The implementation of such a circuit for synthesizing any desired impedance can be performed by (i) programming the input current given the input voltage such that the desired impedance function is achieved; (ii) controlling the amount of power dissipation (generation) in the dissipative element (source) so as to match the required active power of the impedance to be synthesized. Then, the instantaneous power will automatically be balanced by the storage element. Such impedance synthesizers find a lot of applications in power electronics. For instance, a resistance synthesizer can be used for power factor correction (PFC), a programmable capacitor or inductor synthesizer (comprising of small high-frequency converters) can be used for control applications.published_or_final_versio

Sequence Variations of Full-Length Hepatitis B Virus Genomes in Chinese Patients with HBsAg-Negative Hepatitis B Infection

BACKGROUND: The underlying mechanism of HBsAg-negative hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection is notoriously difficult to elucidate because of the extremely low DNA levels which define the condition. We used a highly efficient amplification method to overcome this obstacle and achieved our aim which was to identify specific mutations or sequence variations associated with this entity. METHODS: A total of 185 sera and 60 liver biopsies from HBsAg-negative, HBV DNA-positive subjects or known chronic hepatitis B (CHB) subjects with HBsAg seroclearance were amplified by rolling circle amplification followed by full-length HBV genome sequencing. Eleven HBsAg-positive CHB subjects were included as controls. The effects of pivotal mutations identified on regulatory regions on promoter activities were analyzed. RESULTS: 22 and 11 full-length HBV genomes were amplified from HBsAg-negative and control subjects respectively. HBV genotype C was the dominant strain. A higher mutation frequency was observed in HBsAg-negative subjects than controls, irrespective of genotype. The nucleotide diversity over the entire HBV genome was significantly higher in HBsAg-negative subjects compared with controls (p = 0.008) and compared with 49 reference sequences from CHB patients (p = 0.025). In addition, HBsAg-negative subjects had significantly higher amino acid substitutions in the four viral genes than controls (all p<0.001). Many mutations were uniquely found in HBsAg-negative subjects, including deletions in promoter regions (13.6%), abolishment of pre-S2/S start codon (18.2%), disruption of pre-S2/S mRNA splicing site (4.5%), nucleotide duplications (9.1%), and missense mutations in "alpha" determinant region, contributing to defects in HBsAg production. CONCLUSIONS: These data suggest an accumulation of multiple mutations constraining viral transcriptional activities contribute to HBsAg-negativity in HBV infection.published_or_final_versio

A randomised controlled study comparing the efficacy of once-daily triple therapy with twice-daily triple therapy in the eradication of Helicobacter pylori

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