Villumsen Contreras (hosebulb31)

This article proposes a recent Adaptive-Predictive (AP) control technique applied to a DC-DC buck converter. This converter topology has a wide range of applications in the current electronic and electrical systems that demand an efficient use of low bus voltage and specific requirements in load current consumption. Nevertheless, this converter, and in general any DC-DC converter topology, presents a control challenge due to its nonlinear nature. Hence, in this article, it is proposed an adaptive-predictive control scheme that has low implementation complexity and improves the buck converter performance since it provides a fast response of the output voltage. Moreover, the output is adequately regulated even when the system is subjected to perturbations in the reference voltage, in the input voltage, in the load or in the converter parameters that may be seen as faults in the system. On the other hand, one of the main contributions of the proposed control technique with respect to other controllers is that the AP control scheme allows to on-line infer the parametric status of the plant thanks to its adaptive stage. In addition, a dynamic Hysteresis Modulator (HM) is properly inserted in the control strategy to improve the dynamic behavior of the Adaptive Mechanism (AM), and in general, of the entire closed-loop control performance. To validate the effectiveness of the control design, a wide range of numerical experiments are carried out by using Matlab/Simulink. Finally, the developed control technique was implemented in a benchmark experimental platform. According to the experimental results, the proposed predictive control is suitable for real scenarios in the power electronics applications.Objective To characterize and determine risk factors for key dimensions of well-being at hospital discharge in families of neonates with acute symptomatic seizures. Study design This prospective, observational cohort study enrolled 144 parent-infant dyads among neonates with acute symptomatic seizures from 9 pediatric hospitals in the Neonatal Seizure Registry. One parent per family completed a discharge survey, which included measures of anxiety and depression, health-related quality of life, and impact on the family. Multivariable regression analyses adjusted for site were constructed to examine parent and infant characteristics associated with well-being. Results At discharge, 54% of parents reported symptoms of anxiety and 32% reported symptoms of depression. Parents of infants with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy reported more depression and worse quality of life than parents of infants with other seizure etiologies. Parental quality of life was also lower with greater infant age at discharge. A higher level of maternal education was associated with greater impact on the family. All these differences were medium to large effect sizes, ranging from 0.52 to 0.78. Conclusions Symptoms of anxiety and depression are common in parents of infants with neonatal seizures, and several parent and infant characteristics are associated with poorer parental quality of life and family well-being. These findings are a call to action to improve mental health screening and services for parents of infants with neonatal seizures.Objective To evaluate healthcare utilization in Medicaid enrolled children with neonatal abstinence syndrome (NAS) in the first 2 years of life. Study design A retrospective, longitudinal cohort study evaluating Medicaid enrolled children born in New York (1999-2011) and Texas (1999-2010) was performed. Healthcare utilization, including inpatient days, emergency department and outpatient visits, and filled prescriptions in children after birth hospitalization was assessed. A tapered propensity-matching methodology was used, matching each child with NAS with 5 children without NAS, first on demographics, then on both demographics and clinical covariates (clinical diagnoses and congenital anomalies at birth). Poisson and negativ