LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
LLC resonant DC/DC converter with current-driven synchronized voltage-doubler rectifier

This paper proposes a current driving scheme for synchronous rectifier (SR) in the LLC resonant converter with a voltage-doubler rectifier. The voltage-doubler rectifier has a simple-structure transformer which only needs one winding on the secondary side. The voltage stress across SRs is reduced to half of that in a center-tapped rectifier, which means SRs with smaller on resistance can be used. With one Current Transformer (CT), the proposed current-driven SR features simple and well performs. Most of the reflected current from the CT will be feed backed to the output so that the power loss is low. Due to the current balance in the two output capacitors of the voltage-doubler rectifier, the magnetic balance circuit for the CT is not required. A prototype with 300–400V input and 16V/5.6A output is built to verify the theoretical analysis, and efficiency of the converter is up to 93.5% at 350Vin and full load condition.
Design and Analysis of Dynamic Energy Return Prosthesis Foot Using Finite Element Method

Transtibial amputation may be caused by a disease or an accident. The rehabilitation for this type of amputation is to replace the amputated part by a prosthetic limb. Most of the commercially available DER (Dynamic Energy return) prosthetic feet contain soft components, that store and release energy. In contrast, the proposed model of prosthetic foot stores and release energy by means of material properties and geometry. Traditionally, the performance analysis of prosthetic feet required the existence of prototype. However, latest numerical techniques allow analysis, during the design stage. ISO-22675 has proposed experimental setup and standard for the analysis of any prosthetic foot. In this work, instead of using experimental setup and physical prototype, the proposed foot has been modeled, analyzed, and optimized using FEM (finite element method) as per the boundary conditions specified by ISO-22675, during the design process. The aim of his paper is to develop a low-cost, fixed prosthetic lower limb, DER foot, that is within the buying power of lower income class and its performance and features are as per ISO standards. The foot has been designed using displacement and stiffness parameters of Niagara FootTM and analyzed as per ISO Protocol 22675 using FEM analysis.
Methodology for high accuracy contact angle measurement.

A new version of axisymmetric drop shape analysis (ADSA) called ADSA-NA (ADSA-no apex) was developed for measuring interfacial properties for drop configurations without an apex. ADSA-NA facilitates contact angle measurements on drops with a capillary protruding into the drop. Thus a much simpler experimental setup, not involving formation of a complete drop from below through a hole in the test surface, may be used. The contact angles of long-chained alkanes on a commercial fluoropolymer, Teflon AF 1600, were measured using the new method. A new numerical scheme was incorporated into the image processing to improve the location of the contact points of the liquid meniscus with the solid substrate to subpixel resolution. The images acquired in the experiments were also analyzed by a different drop shape technique called theoretical image fitting analysis-axisymmetric interfaces (TIFA-AI). The results were compared with literature values obtained by means of the standard ADSA for sessile drops with the apex. Comparison of the results from ADSA-NA with those from TIFA-AI and ADSA reveals that, with different numerical strategies and experimental setups, contact angles can be measured with an accuracy of less than 0.2 degrees. Contact angles and surface tensions measured from drops with no apex, i.e., by means of ADSA-NA and TIFA-AI, were considerably less scattered than those from complete drops with apex. ADSA-NA was also used to explore sources of improvement in contact angle resolution. It was found that using an accurate value of surface tension as an input enhances the accuracy of contact angle measurements.
Ewangelikalne geografie postkolonialnej Lizbony

African evangelical immigrants residing in Lisbon and Lisbon suburban areas exercise different spatial and space making practices to insert in the religious and social life of the host country. Remapping and creating new spatial logics as well as the use of spatial metaphors are important practices of social and religious activities of these communities in Portugal
Quantitative bedside assay for cardiac troponin T: a complementary method to centralized laboratory testing.

BACKGROUND
In the evaluation of chest pain patients, whole blood bedside assays of highly specific cardiac molecules may be an attractive alternative to centralized clinical chemistry testing. We now report on an optimized test strip device for cardiac troponin T (cTnT) that can be analyzed by a cardiac reader for quantitative assessment of the test result.


METHODS AND RESULTS
The cTnT test strip reader measures, via a CCD camera, the reflectance of the signal line. For quantitative analysis, a calibration curve was constructed from 1030 samples of 252 consecutive patients with acute coronary syndromes. In a method comparison of 140 samples, the quantitative results of the cTnT test strip reader correlated closely with the results of the cTnT ELISA (r = 0.98; y = 0.85x + 0. 002). Within-run and day-to-day (n = 10) mean CVs were between 11% and 16%, respectively. The cross-reactivity with skeletal troponin T was <0.02%. In patients with myocardial infarction, 45% and 91% of all samples were positive on admission and at 4-8 h after the onset of symptoms, respectively. ROC curve analysis demonstrated a comparable efficiency of the cTnT test strip reader and the laboratory-based cTnT ELISA in patients with suspected myocardial infarction.


CONCLUSIONS
It is now possible to quantitatively determine cTnT at the patient's bedside with a rapid and convenient test device. This will facilitate the diagnostic work up of patients with suspected myocardial cell necrosis.
Experimental and numerical investigation of the hydroforming behavior of paperboard

The material behavior of two different types of paperboard was characterized in tensile tests and in a new test device called paperboard bulge test. A particularly adapted hydroforming process was used to produce threedimensional paperboard structures. Furthermore, an online measurement device to describe the mold-filling behavior is introduced. The experimental results were compared to the results obtained with an FEA investigation. The investigations showed the possibilities of the new forming process, as well as the advantages of FEA methods used to pre-define the process parameters.
Prospective randomized study on the efficacy of blue light in the treatment of psoriasis vulgaris.

BACKGROUND
Blue light has no known toxic effects on human skin, but reduces the proliferative capacity of keratinocytes in vitro. We therefore investigated the efficacy of blue light in the treatment of psoriasis vulgaris (PV).


METHODS
Forty patients with mild to moderate PV and bilateral plaques were assigned to two groups. Group 1 (n = 20) received irradiation at home with blue light (light-emitting diode, LED, emission maximum: 420 nm) once daily for 4 weeks. In parallel, group 2 (n = 20) performed irradiations with another blue light device (LED emission maximum: 453 nm). The contralateral control plaques remained untreated in both groups.


RESULTS
Thirty-seven patients completed the trial. The main study parameter, the difference of Local Psoriasis Severity Index (LPSI) scores of the irradiated plaques compared to the control plaques, showed statistically significant improvement after 4 weeks of treatment in both groups [group 1 (420 nm): n = 17, p = 0.04; group 2 (453 nm): n = 20, p = 0.04]. Accordingly, plaque status as assessed by both the physicians and the patients improved continuously during the 4 weeks of treatment and steadily declined thereafter.


CONCLUSION
Blue light appears to be a promising treatment modality in PV that warrants further evaluation in larger studies.
Catechol-<ce:italic>O</ce:italic>-Methyltransferase Val158Met Polymorphism Moderates Anterior Cingulate Volume in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder

BACKGROUND
Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is associated with structural and functional compromise of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which may in turn be associated with impairment of its ability to regulate the amygdala. The Val158Met polymorphism in the catechol-O-methyltransferase gene, which substantially influences dopamine inactivation in the frontal lobe in general and in ACC in particular, may moderate ACC integrity in PTSD.


METHODS
We tested this hypothesis in a sample of Vietnam and Persian Gulf War veterans who experienced substantial military operational stress, including 51 who met criteria for PTSD and 48 matched controls who did not.


RESULTS
Participants with PTSD were previously reported to have smaller ACC volumes than controls in this sample. A novel repeated-measures analysis of variance was conducted with PTSD diagnosis, Val158Met genotype, and their interaction predicting left and right ACC volume. Genotype was not directly related to ACC volume, but it did significantly interact with the PTSD diagnosis. The difference in ACC volume between the participants without PTSD and participants with PTSD was greater among individuals homozygous for the Val allele than among carriers of the Met allele. This finding was driven largely by the right ACC. Analyses of Caucasian-only, non-Caucasian-only, and male-only subsamples indicated similar patterns.


CONCLUSIONS
Our findings suggest Val158Met genotype moderates the effect of PTSD-related processes on right ACC volume.
Force-directed layout of origin-destination flow maps

This paper introduces a force-directed layout method for creating origin-destination flow maps. Design principles derived from manual cartography and automated graph drawing to increase readability of flow maps and graph layouts are taken into account. The origin-destination flow maps produced with our algorithm show flows with quadratic Bézier curves that reduce flow-on-flow and flow-on-node overlaps, and avoid sharp or irregular bends in flow lines. A survey of expert cartographers found that flow maps created with our automated method are similar in quality to manually produced flow maps. ARTICLE HISTORY Received 7 November 2016 Accepted 13 March 2017
Metal-layer capacitors in the 65 nm CMOS process and the application for low-leakage power-rail ESD clamp circuit

Between the metal–insulator–metal (MIM) capacitor and metal–oxide–metal (MOM) capacitor, the MIM capacitor has a better characteristic of stable capacitance. However, the MOM capacitors can be easily realized through the metal interconnections, which does not need additional fabrication masks into the process. Moreover, the capacitance density of the MOM capacitor can exceed the MIM capacitor when more metal layers are used in nanoscale CMOS processes. With advantages of lower fabrication cost and higher capacitance density, the MOM capacitor could replace MIM capacitor gradually in general integrated circuit (IC) applications. Besides, the MOM capacitor ideally do not have the leakage issue. Thus, the MOM capacitor can be used instead of MOS capacitor to avoid the gate leakage issue of thin-oxide devices in nanoscale CMOS processes. With the MOM capacitor realized in the power-rail electrostatic discharge (ESD) clamp circuit, the overall leakage is decreased from 828 lA to 358 nA at 25 C, as compared to the traditional design with MOS capacitor in the test chip fabricated in a 65 nm CMOS process. 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Analysis of the Learning Effectiveness of the STEAM-6E Special Course—A Case Study about the Creative Design of IoT Assistant Devices for the Elderly

This study developed a STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Math)-6E (Engage, Explore, Explain, Extend, Enrich, Evaluate; 6E Learning by Design) special course based on the theme of creative design of IoT (Internet of Things) assistant devices for the elderly and investigated the impact of this course on students’ learning effectiveness. It invited eight experts and scholars for focus interviews, jointly developed the STEAM-6E special course, designed teaching activities around the theme of creative design of IoT assistant devices for the elderly, and created a learning effectiveness scale. Furthermore, it selected 46 students majoring in nursing in a vocational and technological college as its subjects and distributed copies of a questionnaire among them to explore learning effectiveness. This study reached the following conclusions. The STEAM-6E special course on the creative design of IoT assistant devices for the elderly included three dimensions, that is, the STEAM course, 6E teaching, and the acquisition of professional knowledge, as well as 17 competence indicators. The nursing students affirmed the learning outcome in the STEAM-6E course, the 6E teaching model, and thematic knowledge after attending the STEAM-6E course. The hands-on activities of the STEAM-6E special course could guide students to learn key points step by step. The STEAM-6E special course can strengthen students’ abilities to integrate STEAM knowledge and improve their learning effectiveness in each discipline. The STEAM-6E special course for the elderly improved the cooperative learning, professional knowledge, and confidence of the students. In light of these conclusions, this study developed a teaching model for the STEAM-6E special course on the creative design of IoT assistant devices for the elderly and proposed several suggestions for curriculum planning and the implementation of a STEAM-6E special course.
Mobile Edge Computing

The ongoing development of the fifth-generation (5G) wireless technologies takes place in a unique landscape of recent advancement in information processing, marked by the emerging prevalence of cloud-based computing and smart mobile devices. These two technologies complement each other by design, with cloud servers providing the engine for computing and smart mobile devices naturally serving as human interface and untethered sensory inputs. Together, they are transforming a wide array of important applications such as telecommunication, industrial production, education, e-commerce, mobile healthcare, and environmental monitoring. We are entering a world where computation is ubiquitously accessible on local devices, global servers, and processors everywhere in between. Future wireless networks will provide communication infrastructure support to this ubiquitous computing paradigm, but at the same time they can also utilize the new-found computing power to drastically improve communication efficiency, expand service variety, shorten service delay, and reduce operation expenses. Previous generations of wireless networks are passive systems. Residing near the edge of the Internet, they serve only as communication access pathways for mobile devices to reach the Internet core and the public switched telephone network (PSTN). Improvements to these wireless networks have focused on the communication hardware and software, such as advanced electronics and signal processing in the transmitters and receivers. Even for 5G, substantial research effort has been devoted to densification techniques, such as small cells, device-todevice (D2D), and massive multi-input multi-output (MIMO). Successes of this communication-only wireless evolution reflect the classical view of an information age centered at information consumption through the Internet. Yet, in many emerging applications, communication and computation are no longer separated, but interactive and unified. For example, in an augmentedreality application, which might be displayed on smart eye-glasses, the user’s mobile device continuously records its current view, computes its own location, and streams the combined information to the cloud server, while the cloud server performs pattern recognition and information retrieval and sends back to the mo-
Use of Rome II criteria in childhood defecation disorders: applicability in clinical and research practice.

OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the prevalence of pediatric functional gastrointestinal disorders with the use of the Rome II criteria and to compare these data with the classic Iowa criteria.


STUDY DESIGN
Patients recorded defecation and encopresis frequency. A standard history was taken and a physical examination including a rectal examination was done. The prevalence of both criteria was assessed and compared.


RESULTS
One hundred ninety-eight consecutive patients (age, 0.66 to 15.76 years; 131 male subjects) were included. According to the Rome II criteria, 64%, 18%, and 21% of patients fulfilled the criteria for functional constipation, functional fecal retention, and functional nonretentive fecal soiling, respectively. Using the classic criteria, 74% and 18% of patients fulfilled the criteria for pediatric constipation and solitary encopresis, respectively; 16% of the patients fulfilling the pediatric constipation criteria were not recognized by the Rome II constipation criteria. Fair agreement was found between functional nonretentive fecal soiling and solitary encopresis. Encopresis was present in 79% of constipated children.


CONCLUSIONS
The Rome criteria are restrictive and exclude several children with constipation. We recommend including encopresis and rectal digital examination and excluding arbitrary age limits and retentive behavior in the revision of the Rome criteria.
Investigating drivers of bank loyalty : the complex relationship between image , service quality and satisfaction

Josée Bloemer Associate Professor of Marketing, Department of Applied Economics, Limburg University Centre, Diepenbeek, Belgium Ko de Ruyter Associate Professor of Marketing, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands Pascal Peeters Research Assistant, Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Maastricht University, Maastricht, The Netherlands
Medication adherence and growth in children with CKD.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Poor growth is a consequence of CKD, but can often be partially or fully prevented or corrected with the use of a number of medications. The extent of nonadherence with medications used to treat or mitigate growth failure in CKD has not been examined prospectively in children with CKD.


DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS
The prevalence of both prescription of and nonadherence to recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH), phosphate binders, alkali, active vitamin D, nutritional vitamin D, iron, and erythrocyte-stimulating agents was summarized over the first seven visits of the Chronic Kidney Disease in Children cohort study. The association between self-reported nonadherence to each medication group and the mean annual change in age- and sex-specific height z score was quantified using seven separate linear regression models with generalized estimating equations.


RESULTS
Of 834 participants, 597 reported use of at least one of these medication groups and had adherence data available. Nonadherence ranged from 4% over all visits for erythrocyte-stimulating agents to 22% over all visits for nutritional vitamin D. Of the study participants, 451 contributed data to at least one of the analyses of adherence and changes in height z score. Children nonadherent to rhGH had no change in height z score, whereas those adherent to rhGH had a significant improvement of 0.16 SDs (95% confidence interval, 0.05 to 0.27); the effect size was slightly larger and remained significant after adjustment. Among participants with height≤3rd percentile and after adjustment, adherence to rhGH was associated with a 0.33 SD (95% confidence interval, 0.10 to 0.56) greater change in height z score. Nonadherence with other medication groups was not significantly associated with a change in height z score.


CONCLUSIONS
Self-reported nonadherence to rhGH was associated with poorer growth velocity in children with CKD, suggesting an opportunity for intervention and improved patient outcome.
Cryotherapy in the prevention of oral mucositis in patients receiving low-dose methotrexate following myeloablative allogeneic stem cell transplantation: a prospective randomized study of the Gruppo Italiano Trapianto di Midollo Osseo nurses group

Severe oral mucositis is a major cause of morbidity following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (AHSCT). Cryotherapy, that is, the application of ice chips on the mucosa of the oral cavity during the administration of antineoplastic agents, may reduce the incidence and severity of chemotherapy-related oral mucositis. In this multicenter randomized study, we addressed whether cryotherapy during MTX administration is effective in the prevention of severe oral mucositis in patients undergoing myeloablative AHSCT. One hundred and thirty patients undergoing myeloablative AHSCT and MTX-containing GVHD prophylaxis were enrolled and randomized to receive or not receive cryotherapy during MTX administration. The incidence of severe (grade 3–4) oral mucositis, the primary end point of the study, was comparable in patients receiving or not cryotherapy. Moreover, no difference was observed in the incidence of oral mucositis grade 2–4 and the duration of oral mucositis grade 3–4 or 2–4, or in the kinetics of mucositis over time. In univariate and multivariate analysis, severe oral mucositis correlated with TBI in the conditioning regimen and lack of folinic acid rescue following MTX administration. Thus, cryotherapy during MTX administration does not reduce severe oral mucositis in patients undergoing myeloablative allogeneic HSCT. Future studies will assess cryotherapy before allogeneic HSCT.
Aerobic and sequential anaerobic fermentation to produce xylitol and ethanol using non-detoxified acid pretreated corncob

BACKGROUND
For economical bioethanol production from lignocellulosic materials, the major technical challenges to lower the production cost are as follows: (1) The microorganism should use efficiently all glucose and xylose in the lignocellulose hydrolysate. (2) The microorganism should have high tolerance to the inhibitors present in the lignocellulose hydrolysate. The aim of the present work was to combine inhibitor degradation, xylitol fermentation, and ethanol production using a single yeast strain.


RESULTS
A new process of integrated aerobic xylitol production and anaerobic ethanol fermentation using non-detoxified acid pretreated corncob by Candida tropicalis W103 was proposed. C. tropicalis W103 is able to degrade acetate, furfural, and 5-hydromethylfurfural and metabolite xylose to xylitol under aerobic conditions, and the aerobic fermentation residue was used as the substrate for ethanol production by anaerobic simultaneous saccharification and fermentation. With 20% substrate loading, furfural and 5-hydroxymethylfurfural were degraded totally after 60 h aerobic incubation. A maximal xylitol concentration of 17.1 g l(-1) was obtained with a yield of 0.32 g g(-1) xylose. Then under anaerobic conditions with the addition of cellulase, 25.3 g l(-1) ethanol was produced after 72 h anaerobic fermentation, corresponding to 82% of the theoretical yield.


CONCLUSIONS
Xylitol and ethanol were produced in Candida tropicalis W103 using dual-phase fermentations, which comprise a changing from aerobic conditions (inhibitor degradation and xylitol production) to anaerobic simultaneous saccharification and ethanol fermentation. This is the first report of integrated xylitol and ethanol production from non-detoxified acid pretreated corncob using a single microorganism.