Comparisons of PWM and one-cycle control for power amplifier with multilevel converter

Based on the concepts of cascade multilevel converters and one-cycle technique, comparisons are conducted to characterize the distortion of the pulsewidth modulation (PWM) and one-cycle control methods that were applied to converters. Simulation results for the different control schemes are obtained in PSIM software initially to see the effect of one-cycle control different from that of PWM control. Through the comparisons, the advantages and disadvantages are identified for each method. The one-cycle scheme is better than PWM control in reducing undesirable harmonics and tracing dynamic waveforms. Simulation and experimental results are also provided to verify the conclusions.     

Photovaractor for remote optical control of microwave circuits

A photovaractor for the remote optical control of microwave circuits was studied. The photovaractor was fabricated as a p-i-n photodiode placed in a pigtailed fiber optical module. The study of the impedance in the frequency range up to 3 GHz in darkness and under illumination has shown that the photovaractor capacitance strongly depends on the incident optical power. The capacitance variation of the photovaractor diode under illumination is discussed     

Mechanism analysis of gate-induced drain leakage in off-state n-MOSFET

An analytical expression for both band-to-band and band-trap-band indirect tunnelings is used to study the gate-induced drain leakage (GIDL) current of MOSFETs measured before and after hot-carrier stress. The voltage and temperature dependence of GIDL are characterized. Both results show that interface traps situated near the midgap participate in the conduction of GIDL, and band-trap-band indirect tunneling could be the major mechanism. This is further supported by the fact that the percentage increase in GIDL induced by hot-carrier stress is about the same as the corresponding increase in interface-trap density. On the other hand, under low-field conditions, trap-assisted Poole–Frenkle emission dominates over tunneling for temperatures even well below room temperature.     

Effects of thymectomy and glucocorticoid therapy on peripheral lymphocytes in myasthenia gravis

Clinical manifestations and peripheral blood lymphocyte subset changes were studied in patients with myasthenia gravis (MG) to elucidate the mechanism of clinical improvement following treatment, with thymectomy (Tx) or glucocorticoid (GC) therapy. The changes found were: 1. There was a significant increase in percentages of CD3+, CD29+ CD4+ cells and CD4/CD8 ratio and a significant decrease in percentages of CD8+ and CD16,56+ cells in patients who had never been treated with any immune therapy. 2. After Tx or GC therapy, CD3+ and CD4+, CD29+ cells were decreased, but the number CD19+ and CD16, CD56 cells did not change. 3. Tx had a special effect on CD8+ cells. In most of the patients who showed clinical improvement after Tx, CD8+ cells were increased and CD4/CD8 ratio wad decreased. 4. Anti-acetylcholine receptor (AChRAb) titers were markedly decreased after GC therapy. These results indicate that there were obvious abnormalities in cell-mediated immunity in addition to those in humoral immunity in myasthenia gravis. These abnormalities tended to be normalized after Tx or GC therapy.     

Rupture or stress injury of the flexor tendon pulleys? Early diagnosis with MRI

In node-positive breast carcinoma, the presence of tumour cells in the efferent vessels (EV) of the axillary nodes (positive EV status) was shown to be of poor prognosis in 1979. Later the presence of nodal micrometastases was also related to survival. This report describes a new subgroup in this system that is of potential therapeutic interest. It consisted of the 40% of the EV-positive cases with micrometastases (< 0.2 cm2) in their nodes, in addition to nodes with macrometastases. In them the difference in prognosis associated with EV status no longer held. Their prognosis did not differ markedly from that in the EV-negative patients. In the absence of such 'additional' micrometastases, the prognostic difference was still highly significant. There was also some indication that the presence of micrometastases consisting of embolic tumour growth alone may be associated with early death in EV-negative cases, in keeping with the prognosis in cases with lone micrometastases.     

Dynamics of Crust Formation and Kinetics of Quality Changes During Frying of Meatballs

Mathematical models describing dynamics of crust formation and kinetics of crust color and firmness changes were developed for the deep-fat frying of beef meatballs. Good agreement (R2 ranged between 0.815 and 0.987) was observed between experimental and predicted data. Crust color lightness, redness, and yellowness decreased exponentially with frying time while total color change increased. All color parameters followed first order reaction kinetics. Meatball firmness was measured by peak force obtained from a puncture test whose kinetics model had a reaction rate constant of 5.39E-3 1/(s.N^n-1) and a reaction order of 0.0013.