Study on High Frequency Surface Discharge Characteristics of SiO2 Modified Polyimide Film

Polyimide (PI) can be used as a cladding insulation for high frequency power transformers, and along-side discharge can lead to insulation failure, so material modification techniques are used. In this paper, different doped nano-SiO2 are introduced into polyimide for nanocomposite modification. The results of testing the life time of high-frequency electrical stress along-side discharge show that the 10% SiO2 doping has the longest life time. The results show that: for composites prone to corona, their flashover causes more damage, and both positive half-cycle and polarity reversal discharges are more violent; compared to pure PI, the positive half-cycle and overall discharge amplitude and number of modified films are smaller, but the negative half-cycle is larger; at creeping development stages, the number of discharges is smaller, and the discharge amplitude of both films fluctuates in the mid-term, with the modified films having fewer discharges and the PI films discharging more violently in the later stages. The increase in the intensity of the discharge was greater in the later stages, and the amplitude and number of discharges were much higher than those of the modified film, which led to a rapid breakdown of the pure polyimide film. Further research found that resistivity plays an important role in the structural properties of the material in the middle and late stages, light energy absorption in the modified film plays an important role, the distribution of traps also affects the discharge process, and in the late stages of the discharge, the heating of the material itself has a greater impact on the breakdown, so the pure polyimide film as a whole discharges more severely and has the shortest life.

Nachsorge unter erschwerten Vorzeichen – Erfahrungen forensischer Nachsorgeambulanzen mit Sexualstraftätern, die nach der Novelle der Verhältnismäßigkeitsregelung entlassen wurden

A major amendment of the German Criminal Code concerning treatment in forensic psychiatric hospitals (Secs. 63, 67 StGB) became effective in August 2016 and has led to an increasing number of discharges of sex offenders. In addition to inpatient treatment practice, this also poses great challenges for forensic aftercare. After a brief overview of the amendment, this article examines how it affects the release practice and legal probation. Based on the analysis of the post-inpatient development of ten sex offenders from North Rhine-Westphalia who were released for disproportionate reasons, the far-reaching consequences of the amendment forensic aftercare have to deal with are illustrated. Finally, attention is drawn to the great need for action and alternative solutions to reduce the length of stay and strengthens the patients fundamental right to freedom are proposed.

Frontiers in data analysis methods: from causality detection to data driven experimental design

On the route to the commercial reactor, the experiments in Magnetically Confinement Nuclear Fusion have become increasingly complex and they tend to produce huge amounts of data. New analysis tools have therefore become indispensable, to fully exploit the information generated by the most relevant devices, which are nowadays very expensive to both build and operate. The paper presents a series of innovative tools to cover the main aspects of any scientific investigation. Causality detection techniques can help identifying the right causes of phenomena and can become very useful in the optimisation of synchronisation experiments, such as the pacing of sawteeth instabilities with ICRH modulation. Data driven theory is meant to go beyond traditional machine learning tools, to provide interpretable and physically meaningful models. The application to very severe problems for the Tokamak configuration, such as disruptions, could help not only in understanding the physics but also in extrapolating the solutions to the next generation of devices. A specific methodology has also been developed to support the design of new experiments, proving that the same progress in the derivation of empirical models could be achieved with a significantly reduced number of discharges.

Extraction of Amber Raw Materials under Conditions of Electric Spark Action

The paper presents the results of amber extraction, which was subjected to high-voltage electric pulse treatment in order to intensify the extraction of target components. This method of processing made possible to achieve a high degree of grinding of the material and the appearance of additional micro- and macropores, which increased a total contact area of the phases required for an effective process of extracting raw materials. The processing was carried out in chambers of a high-voltage pulse-periodic generator with the storage capacities of 0.25 and 1.0 μF, an output voltage of 50 kV, and different number of pulses for the corresponding capacitor capacitance. For research, amber stones with an average size of 8.2 mm were selected. The process was carried out in an alcoholic medium with different electrical characteristics. As a result, the dependences of changes in the dry matter content, total mineralization, content of organic acids, active acidity pH, and optical density in the extract on a number of discharges at different pulse energies were obtained. The density of amber before and after processing was determined, which shows the ability of electric spark discharges to create additional porosity of the material necessary to ensure effective internal mass transfer. The results of the work can be used for the industrial implementation of electrospark processing of amber in order to obtain extracts with a complex of useful substances applicable in food, pharmaceutical, and cosmetic industries.

Comparative Study of Ethanol Intoxications in the Context of Covid-19 Pandemic Reported to the Year of 2019

Excessive alcohol consumption that causes disorders of social conduct, causes a rejection reaction with the intervention of the authorities. The paper compares trends related to people with the diagnosis of acute intoxication (F10.0) admitted to the "Elisabeta Doamna” Psychiatry Hospital in Galati, from the 1st of January to the 31th of December 2020 with the period from the 1st of January to the 31th of December 2019. In the retrospective study we selected people discharged with acute intoxication, code (F10.0), and harmful use (F10.1), excluding all patients with other psychiatric diagnoses from the database of the "Elisabeta Doamna" Psychiatry Hospital from 2020 to 2019. ICD-10 (Classification of mental and behavioral disorders) was used for diagnosis of psychiatric disorders. The data was processed statistically using: Microsoft Office-Excel, The Jamovi Project (2021). jamovi (Version 1.6) [Computer Software]. In 2020 there were 39.58% fewer discharges by a total of (7973 cases) compared to (13197 cases) in 2019. In 2020, acute intoxication (F10.0) accounted for 7.41% of total discharges compared to a percentage of (8.27%) in 2019, showing a decline by a percentage of 45.92%. Comparing the years 2020 with 2019 by gender (of the total number of discharges with acute intoxication (F10.0), there is an increase in the percentage of discharges by 1.16% (from 86.98% in 2019 to 88.14% in 2020), while in the female gender, the percentage trend has decreased by a percentage of 1.16% (from 13.02% in 2019 to 11.86% in 2020).

The Influence of Antiarrhythmic Device Intervention on Biopsychosocial Functioning and Anxiety in Patients with an Implanted Cardioverter Defibrillator

Background and objectives: The aim of the study was to assess the impact of cardioverter-defibrillator interventions on the psychosocial functioning of a patient and the occurrence of concerns related to ICD. Materials and Methods: The conducted study was a prospective and observational study that included 158 patients. The study was conducted in two stages: I before ICD implantation and II a follow-up visit six months after the ICD implantation. Standardized questionnaires were used in both stages. Results: In the first six months, a cardioverter-defibrillator discharge occurred in 28 participants, which constituted 17.72% of the study group. The number of ICD discharges positively correlated to insomnia, symptoms of anxiety, symptoms of depression, more discharges, more severe insomnia, anxiety and depression. There was also a negative correlation between the number of discharges and the degree of disease acceptance and in the quality of life domains: somatic, mental, social and environmental. The more discharges, the worse the disease acceptance and assessment of the quality of life. Conclusions: Individuals who experienced discharges assessed their quality of life as worse in all aspects (perception of the quality of life, own health, physical, mental, social and environmental domains), experienced anxiety and depressive disorders more often, were characterized by a worse functioning in a chronic disease, experienced insomnia more often and reported more concerns related to ICD implantation.

Correlation between compensated patient claims and 30-day mortality

Objective To test if compensation claims from patients (reported to the Norwegian System of Patient Injury Compensation) are correlated with the existing quality indicator of 30-day mortality (based on data from Norwegian Patient Registry). This correlation has not been previously evaluated. Design The association between patient claims and 30-day mortality at hospital trust level was assessed by the Pearson correlation coefficient. Setting The Norwegian System of Patient Injury Compensation is a governmental agency under the Ministry of Health and Care Services and deals with patient-reported complaints about incorrect treatment in the public and private healthcare services. Patient-reported claims may be an indicator of healthcare quality, as 30-day mortality. Participants All 19 Norwegian hospital trusts. Interventions : None. Main outcome measure Patient claims rates, 30-day mortality and Pearson correlation coefficient. Results Both number of deaths within 30 days and number of claims have declined over time. High correlation (0.77, P < 0.001) was found between number of deaths within 30 days and the total number of claims. In addition, an even stronger association was found with approved claims, with a correlation coefficient of 0.83 (P < 0.001). Moreover, adjusted 30-day mortality was significantly correlated with the patient-claim rate using number of bed-days as denominator, but not when using number of discharges. Conclusions The results from the present study indicate an association between compensation claims from patients and 30-day mortality, suggesting that both parameters reflect the latent quality of care for the hospital trusts, but they may capture different aspects of care.

Expansion of activity-based hospital payment in Israel: evaluation of effects on inpatient activity

Background In 2013-14, Israel stepped up the replacement of per-diem payments by Procedure-Related Group (PRG) based hospital payments, a local version of Diagnosis-Related groups (DRGs). PRGs were created for selected procedures in urology, general surgery, gynecology and ophthalmology. We analyzed how did this change affect inpatient activities, measured by the number of discharges, average length of stay (ALoS), and the case-severity Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI). Methods We investigated the impacts of the PRG-payment reform on 15 procedures. Observations covered groups of inpatients, by age and gender, who underwent these procedures in 2005-2016 at all non-profit hospitals. We examined the effect of the payment change on the number of discharges, ALoS and CCI using a multivariable analysis of Ordinary Least Squares controlling for patients, hospital characteristics, and year fixed-effects. Results Data on 89,533 patients were examined. During the study period, the ALoS decreased except for one procedure, the number of inpatients increased for most procedures, and case severity remained stable. The multivariable analysis suggests that the transition to PRG-payments contributed to changes in ALoS or case severity for only 3 out of 15 procedures examined. The PRG-reform contributed to changes of 10%-45% in the number of patients, but there was no clear trend: it increased in 9, and decreased in 5. The changes did not follow a clear pattern according to procedures’ price changes after the reform. Conclusions Factors that may have hampered the effects of the PRG-reform are conflicting incentives created by other co-existing hospital-payment components, such as revenue caps and retrospective subsidies, and the lack of resources to increase productivity. Key messages Provider payment reforms should carefully coordinate the entire payment system, otherwise the incentives may be blurred. Uncoordinated reforms may miss their goals.

Optimal Frequency Regulation V2G Control with DOD of EV Battery

As the proportion of electric vehicles increases, interest in Vehicle to Grid (V2G) service is increasing. Many studies are underway to use V2G for peak shaving and frequency regulation in power system. However, V2G can shorten battery cycle life for electric vehicle (EV) which is the most variable part in EV. Hence battery cycle life should be considered in V2G service. As well as the number of discharges, depth of discharge (DOD) also highly affects battery cycle life. High depth of discharge reduces the cycle life of the EV battery exponentially. However, conventional droop control, which has been used for frequency regulation, controls the active power linearly without regard to the DOD. This paper proposes an optimal frequency regulation V2G control which considers the DOD of EV. Proposed method uniformly distributes the discharge for V2G. Therefore battery cycle life is preserved and inconvenience of EV owner from discharge is reduced. The case study result demonstrates the advantages of the proposed method over the conventional droop method. Battery cycle life of entire EV is preserved and energy consumption under V2G is uniformly distributed.

Application of logistic regression to simulate the influence of rainfall genesis on storm overflow operation: a probabilistic approach

One of the key parameters constituting the basis for the assessment of the operation of stormwater systems is the annual number of storm overflows. Since uncontrolled overflow discharges are a source of pollution washed away from the surface of the catchment area, which leads to an imbalance in the receivers, there is a need for their prognosis and potential reduction. This paper proposes an innovative probabilistic model to simulate the number of storm overflow discharges, which takes into account atmospheric circulation and related rainfall in the research area (the city of Kielce located in the central part of Poland). The developed model consists of two independent elements. The first element is the model of logistic regression, which can be used to model storm overflow discharge resulting from the occurrence of a single rainfall episode. The paper confirmed that storm overflow discharge can be modeled on the basis of data on the total amount of rainfall and its duration. An alternative approach was also proposed, in which the possibility of forecasting overflow discharge only on the basis of the average rainfall intensity was demonstrated, which is a big simplification in simulation of the phenomenon under study in comparison with the works published so far in this scope. It is worth noting that the coefficients determined in logit models have a physical interpretation and these models have a universal character, which is why they can be easily adapted to other examined catchment areas. The second element of the model is a synthetic precipitation generator, in which the simulation of rainfall takes into account its genesis resulting from various processes and phenomena taking place in the troposphere. This approach makes it possible to take into account the stochastic nature of rainfall also in relation to the annual number of events. Calculations made in the paper on the example of the examined catchment allowed to assess the influence of rainfall characteristics (depth, intensity, duration) of different genesis on the probability of storm overflow discharge. On the basis of the obtained results, the range of variability of average rainfall intensity was determined, which determines the discharge by storm overflow, as well as the annual number of discharges resulting from the occurrence of rain of different genesis. The obtained results enable their practical implementation in the assessment of storm overflows only on the basis of knowledge concerning the genetic type of rainfall. They can be used to develop warning systems, in which information on the predicted rainfall genesis is a component of the assessment of the operation of the stormwater system and the facilities located on it.