4,889 research outputs found
Modelling delay and noise in arbitrarily coupled RC trees.
No full textClosed-form equations for second-order transfer functions of general arbitrarily coupled resistance-capacitance (RC) trees with multiple drivers are reported. The models allow precise delay and noise calculations for systems of coupled interconnects with guaranteed stability and represent the minimum complexity associated with this class of circuits. Their accuracy is extensively compared against other relevant models and is found to be better or comparable to more expensive models. All results are derived from a theoretical approach, and their physical basis is examined. The simplicity, accuracy, and generality of the models make them suitable for use in early signal integrity analyses of complex systems and incremental physical optimization
A Compact 10-MHz RC Frequency Reference With a Versatile Temperature Compensation Scheme
No full textThis article presents the design and implementation of a compact CMOS RC frequency reference. It consists of a frequency-locked loop (FLL) that locks the period of a voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) to the time an RC network takes to charge to a reference voltage. Conventionally, an RC time constant with a near-zero temperature coefficient (TC) is realized by using a trimmed network of resistors with different TCs. In this work, such a network is used to realize a temperature-dependent reference voltage whose TC cancels that of a single-resistor RC time constant. Compared with the conventional approach, which requires resistors with TCs of opposite polarity, the proposed approach can be implemented with resistors with TCs of similar polarity, and so it can be implemented in most CMOS processes. To compensate for RC spread, a trimmed capacitor is used to adjust the nominal frequency. Two prototype chips were made, one based on p- /n-polysilicon resistors and other based on silicided/p-diffusion resistors. Fabricated in a standard 180-nm CMOS technology, the polysilicon-based prototype has an active area of 0.01 mm2 and an absolute inaccuracy of ±2800 ppm from -45 °C to 125 °C with a fixed TC-trim and a one-point frequency trim. After one week of accelerated aging at 150 °C, however, significant drift (5000 ppm) was observed. The diffusion-based prototype exhibits greater inaccuracy (±14 400 ppm) but much less drift (600 ppm).Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Electronic InstrumentationMicroelectronic
Nursing consultations and control of diabetes in general practice: retrospective observational study
No full textBackgroundDiabetes affects around 3.6 million UK people. Previous research using aggregated practice data found that general practices employing more nurses delivered better diabetes care, but did not include data on individual patient characteristics or consultations received. AimTo examine whether the proportion of consultations with people with diabetes provided by nurses in GP practices is associated with control of diabetes measured by levels of glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c).Design and SettingA retrospective observational study using consultation records from 319,649 patients with diabetes in 471 UK General Practices from 2002-2011 to examine the associations between staffing inputs and control of diabetes.MethodHierarchical multilevel models to examine associations between the proportion of consultations undertaken by nurses and attainment of HbA1c targets in the practice population over time, controlling for case-mix and practice level factors.Results The proportion of consultations with nurses has increased by 20% since 2002 but people with diabetes made fewer consultations per year in 2011 compared to 2002 (11.6 vs 16.0). Glycaemic control has improved and was more uniformly achieved in 2011 than 2002. Practices where nurses provide a higher proportion of consultations perform no differently to those where nurse input is less (lowest vs. highest nurse contact tertile OR [95%CI]: HbA1c ? 53 mmol/mol (7%) 2002 1.04 [0.87 – 1.25], 2011 0.95 [0.87 – 1.03]; HbA1c ? 86 mmol/mol (10%) 2002 0.97 [0.73 – 1.29], 2011 0.95 [0.86 – 1.04]). ?Conclusion Practices which primarily use GP’s to deliver diabetes care might release significant resources with no adverse effect by switching their services towards nurse-led care
‘Care left undone’ during nursing shifts: associations with workload and perceived quality of care
No full textBackground There is strong evidence to show that lower nurse staffing levels in hospitals are associated with worse patient outcomes. One hypothesised mechanism is the omission of necessary nursing care caused by time pressure—‘missed care’.Aim To examine the nature and prevalence of care left undone by nurses in English National Health Service hospitals and to assess whether the number of missed care episodes is associated with nurse staffing levels and nurse ratings of the quality of nursing care and patient safety environment.Methods Cross-sectional survey of 2917 registered nurses working in 401 general medical/surgical wards in 46 general acute National Health Service hospitals in England.Results Most nurses (86%) reported that one or more care activity had been left undone due to lack of time on their last shift. Most frequently left undone were: comforting or talking with patients (66%), educating patients (52%) and developing/updating nursing care plans (47%). The number of patients per registered nurse was significantly associated with the incidence of ‘missed care’ (p<0.001). A mean of 7.8 activities per shift were left undone on wards that are rated as ‘failing’ on patient safety, compared with 2.4 where patient safety was rated as ‘excellent’ (p<0.?001).Conclusions Nurses working in English hospitals report that care is frequently left undone. Care not being delivered may be the reason low nurse staffing levels adversely affects quality and safety. Hospitals could use a nurse-rated assessment of ‘missed care’ as an early warning measure to identify wards with inadequate nurse staffing.</p
A CMOS Dual-RC frequency reference with ±250ppm inaccuracy from -45°C to 85°C
No full textTo comply with wired communication standards such as USB, SATA and PCI/PCI-E, systems-on-chip require frequency references with better than 300ppm accuracy. LC-based references achieve 100ppm accuracy [1], but suffer from high power consumption (∼20mW). Thermal diffusivity (TD) references require less power (∼2mW), at the expense of less accuracy (1000ppm) [2]. RC-based references offer the lowest power consumption, but their accuracy is typically limited to ∼0.1% [3]. In RC relaxation oscillators, comparator offset and delay are the major sources of inaccuracy [4,5]. References based on frequency-locked loops (FLLs) circumvent these by locking an oscillator's frequency to the time-constant of an RC filter, but their accuracy is then limited by the nonlinear temperature dependency of on-chip resistors [3,6].Session 3.3 Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Electronic Instrumentation(OLD)Applied Quantum ArchitecturesMicroelectronic
Ball-Wheeled RC Car
No full textOur project revolves around designing and creating a prototype of a remote-control car that uses a spherical tire, giving 360-degree control. This car would allow for a full range of motion in every direction, in turn allowing for greater maneuverability with a substantial drop in skill requirement. Our prototype will use a joystick control and an Arduino microprocessor to power servo motors to drive the ball tires, rubber balls in our prototype. Our project hopes to serve as a proof-of-concept for a viable design for a commercially available sphere-tire car
Elite tennis player sensitivity to changes in string tension and the effect on resulting ball dynamics
No full textEighteen elite male tennis players were tested to determine their ability to identify string tension differences between rackets strung from 210 N (47 lb) to 285 N (64 lb). Each player impacted four tennis balls projected from a ball machine before changing rackets and repeating the test. Eleven participants (61%) could not correctly detect a 75 N (17 lb) difference between rackets. Only two participants (11%) could correctly detect a 25 N (6 lb) difference. To establish whether varying string tensions affected ball rebound dynamics, the ball's rebound speed and landing position were analysed. The mean rebound ball speed was 117 km h-1, with only the trials from the 210 N racket producing significantly lower (P < 0.05) rebound speeds than the 235 N and 260 N rackets. This is contrary to previous laboratory-based tests where higher rebound speeds are typically associated with low-string tensions. The anomaly may be attributable to lower swing speeds from participants as they were not familiar with such a low string tension. Ball placement did not appear related to string tension, with the exception of more long errors for the 235 N racket and fewer long errors for the 285 N racket. It was concluded that elite male tennis players display limited ability to detect changes in string tension, impact the ball approximately 6% faster than advanced recreational tennis players during a typical rallying stroke, and that ball placement is predominantly unrelated to string tension for elite performers
Experimental and theoretical investigation of crack width calculation methods for RC ties
No full textThis paper theoretically and experimentally investigates the semi-empirical formulas recommended by Eurocode 2 (EC2), fib Model Code 2010 (MC2010), and Eurocode 2 with the German National Annex (DIN) for calculating crack widths in reinforced concrete. It is shown that the formulas can be derived from the principles for the idealized behavior of RC ties. However, instead of explicitly solving the resulting differential equations, the use of simplifications leads to inconsistent formulas. An experimental study was carried out involving the testing of eight RC ties to discover the modeling uncertainty of the formulas. It was found that EC2 substantially overestimated the crack widths for the RC ties. MC2010 and DIN seemed to predict the crack widths better, but gave rather a large number of nonconservative crack width predictions. These experimental results, combined with the theoretical study, suggest that a more consistent calculation model should be formulated by explicitly solving the resulting differential equation.Green Open Access added to TU Delft Institutional Repository ‘You share, we take care!’ – Taverne project https://www.openaccess.nl/en/you-share-we-take-care Otherwise as indicated in the copyright section: the publisher is the copyright holder of this work and the author uses the Dutch legislation to make this work public.Applied Mechanic
Energetic cost of running with and without the ball in male basketball players
No full textThis study aimed to assess the energetic cost ( C) at different running conditions (RC) with/without the ball (1000m at 80% of VO(2)max) during: Linear running, Shuttle running (180 degrees), Linear running with stop and restart, between two groups according to the position/role (guards: n=15; forwards/centres: n=15). Experimental approach to the problem required the following tests/devices: a portable Metabolimeter was used to assess the metabolic parameters for each RC, Squat Jump (OptoJump) to assess the strength's decrease differences of the lower limbs before/ after each test and Ratings of Perceived Exertion (RPE) after each RC to assess the training load, while the Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS-IMU) was used to assess the body inclinations and Acceleration/ Deceleration for each RC. The T-test was used for independent samples and Two-way repeated measures ANOVA was used to assess the significant differences for each variable between each RC. The results of this study could be useful not only for coaches to optimize basketball training load related to the RC (with and without the ball), but also to optimize the motor learning in young basketball players and to optimize the load of work in relation to the position and energetic capacities of players. The main evidence of this study has confirmed initial hypothesis, showing a different metabolic expenditure in the six running conditions ( Linear Running, Linear Running & Stop and restart, Shuttle run with and without ball) and between the two groups taken in consideration (Guards and Forwards/Centres). In addition, different energetic cost between the two groups increases even more during the running with the ball compared to running without the ball
RC SMOOTHING OF SPECTRA
No full textAuthor Institution: Department of Physics, Michigan State University East LansingBy convoluting an exponential function with calculated spectra consisting of single and multiple sets of lines of various widths and line shapes, we have determined the effects that time constant (RC) has on recorded spectra. For equivalent experiments, in which the scanning rates d/dt are equal, we have concluded that the optimum value of RC is essentially independent of whether the spectrum is to be digitized or not, and independent of the sampling rate if digitization is used. A trade-off among the desirable and undesirable effects of RC leads us to recommend a value of RC about one-tenth of the full width at half height of the sharpest individual lines in the observed spectrum. This research was supported by a grant from the National Science Foundation
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