A 12 b 50 MS/s successive-approximation register (SAR) ADC with a highly linear C-R hybrid DAC is presented. The proposed DAC significantly reduces the required total number of unit capacitors by ...processing the upper bits based on a binary-weighted capacitor array and the remaining lower bits based on reference segment voltages, which are obtained from a simple resistor string. The reduced number of unit capacitors enables the use of larger unit capacitance, resulting in improved matching accuracy. In the C-R hybrid DAC, an input range scaling technique, which matches a full-scale input range to the reference voltage range, implements the binary-weighted SAR operation without additional capacitors and reference voltages. The DAC linearity is improved considerably through the process-insensitive capacitor-array layout, which cancels out oxide-gradient errors. The prototype ADC in a 0.18 μm CMOS process demonstrates measured differential and integral non-linearities within 0.71 LSB and 0.85 LSB at 12 b, respectively, with a maximum signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio and a spurious-free dynamic range of 64.3 and 74.7 dB at 50 MS/s, respectively. The ADC occupies an active die area of 0.17 mm2 and consumes 2.63 mA with a 1.8 V supply voltage.
Objectives
To evaluate the association of a history of threatened preterm labour (TPL) followed by term delivery with the risk of spontaneous preterm delivery (PTD) in subsequent pregnancy.
Design
...Population‐based cohort study.
Setting
Data of the National Health Insurance Claims Database and a national health‐screening programme for infants and children in South Korea.
Population
Women who had their first singleton delivery in 2010 and a subsequent second singleton delivery between 2011 and 2015.
Methods
Multivariable analysis adjusting for maternal age and interval between first and second deliveries was used to assess the risk of PTD based on PTD, TPL followed by term delivery, and term delivery in the first pregnancy.
Main outcome measures
The risk of PTD during the second pregnancy.
Results
This study included 115 629 women with two consecutive deliveries during the study period. Spontaneous PTD rates in the second pregnancy were 7.71, 2.22 and 1.02% in women with PTD, TPL followed by term delivery, and term delivery in the first pregnancy, respectively. Threatened preterm labour followed by term delivery in the first pregnancy was associated with increased risk of PTD in the subsequent pregnancy after adjustment for potential confounding factors (adjusted odds ratio 2.21; 95% CI 1.76–2.78).
Conclusion
Although women with a history of TPL followed by term delivery had a lower risk of PTD during a subsequent pregnancy compared with those with history of previous PTD, they still had a significantly increased risk of PTD compared with those who delivered at term without TPL.
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The history of threatened preterm labour followed by term delivery is related to increased risk of subsequent spontaneous preterm delivery.
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The history of threatened preterm labour followed by term delivery is related to increased risk of subsequent spontaneous preterm delivery.
A design for a pogo-pin probe card featuring a metallic socket is proposed to eliminate signal leakage and coupling loss in a multi-port environment. The proposed metallic pogo-pin socket includes a ...metal wall structure between adjacent pogo pins, ensuring complete isolation. This metal wall offers an advantage in removing coupling issues between pogo pins that can occur with typical dielectric pogo-pin sockets. The designed probe card is fabricated as a prototype and verified for its performance. Measurement results using a test through line show that coupled power is minimized, providing a low-loss transmission performance of −2.14 dB to an RF chip at 50 GHz, all within a compact size. Although the dielectric spacer used to secure the pogo pins allows for some leakage, it can maintain a low coupling performance of under −15 dB in the millimeter-wave band. The prototype probe card can deliver an RF signal to a 5G circuit with a low loss of −0.7 dB at 28 GHz and −1.9 dB at 39 GHz frequency. The designed probe card is capable of transmitting multiple RF signals to the RF system without signal distortion in a multi-port environment.
Dacomitinib showed superior progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival compared to gefitinib in patients with advanced non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC) harboring epidermal growth factor ...receptor (EGFR) mutations in the ARCHER1050 study. However, because that study did not include patients with brain metastases, the efficacy of dacomitinib in patients with brain metastases has not been clarified.
This single-arm phase II study enrolled 30 patients with treatment-naïve advanced NSCLC harboring activating EGFR mutations from January 2021 to June 2021 and started them on dacomitinib (45 mg/day). All patients had non-irradiated brain metastases with a diameter of ≥5 mm. The primary endpoint was confirmed intracranial objective response rate (iORR).
Patients had exon 19 deletions (46.7%) and L858R mutations in exon 21 (55.3%). The confirmed iORR was 96.7% (29/30), with an intracranial complete response of 63.3%. Median intracranial PFS (iPFS) was not reached, with 12- and 18-month iPFS rates of 78.6% 95% confidence interval (CI) 64.8% to 95.4% and 70.4% (95% CI 54.9% to 90.1%), respectively. In the competing risk analysis, the 12-month cumulative incidence of intracranial progression was 16.7%. Regarding the overall efficacy for intracranial and extracranial lesions, the overall ORR was 96.7%, and the median PFS was 17.5 months (95% CI 15.2 months-not reached). Grade 3 or higher treatment-related adverse events were reported in 16.7% of patients, and 83.3% required a reduced dacomitinib dose to manage adverse events. However, none permanently discontinued dacomitinib treatment due to treatment-related adverse events.
Dacomitinib has outstanding intracranial efficacy in patients with EGFR-mutant NSCLC with brain metastases.
We demonstrated sensitive detection of individual yeast cells and yeast films by using slot antenna arrays operating in the terahertz frequency range. Microorganisms located at the slot area cause a ...shift in the resonant frequency of the THz transmission. The shift was investigated as a function of the surface number density for a set of devices fabricated on different substrates. In particular, sensors fabricated on a substrate with relatively low permittivity demonstrate higher sensitivity. The frequency shift decreases with increasing slot antenna width for a fixed coverage of yeast film, indicating a field enhancement effect. Furthermore, the vertical range of the effective sensing volume has been studied by varying the thickness of the yeast film. The resonant frequency shift saturates at 3.5 μm for a slot width of 2 μm. In addition, the results of finite-difference time-domain simulations are in good agreement with our experimental data.
Reactor experiment for neutrino oscillation (RENO) began data-taking from August 2011. It successfully observed reactor antineutrino disappearance in April 2012 to measure the smallest mixing angle ...of θ13. Two identical detectors, one at near location and the other at far location, are constructed at the Yonggwang nuclear power plant in South Korea, to compare the observed reactor neutrino fluxes. Each RENO detector is filled with 16 mass tons of Gadolinium loaded liquid scintillator (GdLS) in the neutrino target region, and with 28 mass tons of unloaded liquid scintillator (LS) in the γ-catcher region surrounding the target. LS was developed to satisfy chemical, physical, optical properties, and safety requirements. Linear alkyl benzene (LAB) was chosen as a solvent because of its high flash-point, sufficient light yield, and being environmentally friendly. GdLS is carefully developed to keep a long attenuation length and high light yield for a long time period. In this paper, we report the characteristics and mass production of the RENO LS and GdLS.
A new defected ground structure (DGS) for the microstrip line is proposed in this paper. The proposed DGS unit structure can provide the bandgap characteristic in some frequency bands with only one ...or more unit lattices. The equivalent circuit for the proposed defected ground unit structure is derived by means of three-dimensional field analysis methods. The equivalent-circuit parameters are extracted by using a simple circuit analysis method. By employing the extracted parameters and circuit analysis theory, the bandgap effect for the provided defected ground unit structure can be explained. By using the derived and extracted equivalent circuit and parameters, the low-pass filters are designed and implemented. The experimental results show excellent agreement with theoretical results and the validity of the modeling method for the proposed defected ground unit structure.
Annealing of metallic glasses (MGs) at temperature near glass transition temperature (Tg) triggers relaxation and often hampers their performances in service. Rejuvenation treatment of MGs by thermal ...cycling is recently intensively investigated. However, the mechanism responsible for the structural rejuvenation still remains elusive. In this work, we present a systematic study on the rejuvenation effect of a Zr46Cu38Al8Ag8 MG annealed at 0.9Tg for various durations, subjected to thermo-cycling treatment. It is found that well relaxed samples after long-term annealing are almost unaffected, while short-term annealed samples exhibit large rejuvenation effect by thermo-cycling treatment. Using synchrotron X-ray diffraction, we find that thermal cycling results in a disordering at the short-range scale, where the rejuvenation effect is large in a heterogeneous sample. More interestingly, the thermo-cycling treatment on intermediate structure with 20 h-annealed sample relatively exhibits a high degree rejuvenation effect, as compared to shorter- and longer-term annealed samples. This finding indicates that the activation barrier for rejuvenation strongly depends on the original structural states, e.g., free volume, inherent stress and structural heterogeneity.
•Thermo-cycling indeed causes rejuvenation and disordering in metallic glass.•Well-relaxed sample with homogeneous structure is unaffected by thermo-cycling.•Intermediate structure state maximizes the rejuvenation effect.•Competition between relaxation effect and homogeneity effect controls rejuvenation.
Vibrational modes in the terahertz (THz) frequency range are good indicators of lead halide perovskite’s crystallization phase. We performed real-time THz spectroscopy to monitor the crystallization ...kinetics in the perovskite films. First, THz absorptance was measured while the perovskite film was annealed at different temperatures. By analyzing the Avrami exponent, we observed an abrupt dimensionality switch (from 1D to 2D) with increasing temperature starting at approximately 90 °C. We also monitored the laser-induced crystallinity enhancement of the preannealed perovskite film. The THz absorptance increased initially, then subsequently decayed over a couple of hours, although the enhancement factor varies depending on the film crystallinity. In particular, the Avrami analysis implied that the light-induced crystallization was assisted by the 1D diffusion processes. The activation photon energy was measured at 2.3 eV, which indicated that enhanced crystallization originated from the photoinduced structural change of residual lead iodide at the grain boundary.
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