BACKGROUND Functional mitral regurgitation (FMR) is known to contribute to a poor prognosis in patients with heart failure (HF). Current guidelines do not recommend cardiac surgery in patients with FMR and impaired ejection fraction due to the high procedural risk. Percutaneous techniques aimed at mitral valve repair may constitute an alternative to currently used routine medical treatment. A...

In this paper we investigate the influence of 1st-level packaging components on the electromagnetic behaviour of power electronic modules. The main goal is to identify the critical layout paths and packaging components and to understand the mechanisms that affect the module performance. Several power electronics packaging technologies are compared on the basis of their electrical and electromag...

Bond wire lift-off will cause an increase of remaining wires’ power dissipation, which usually is ignored for healthy modules. However, only partial dissipation transfers through thermal path from junction to case, lead overestimate the whole collector emitter pole and underestimate calculated resistance using proportion temperature difference dissipation. A FEM model established show change he...

Thermal stress of the power semiconductor is one most important indicators for reliability assessment electronics-based systems. The mapping Insulated-Gate Bipolar Transistor (IGBT) junction temperature usually required to analyze thermal and loss dissipation. However, it difficult identify inherent mechanisms bond-wire solder layer failure modes in IGBT modules. In order solve problem, an onli...

OBJECTIVE The clinical use of spinal cord stimulation for treatment of chronic intractable pain has been increasingly successful because of recent technical improvements, particularly the development of multiple-contact electrodes supported by programmable implanted pulse generators. Contemporary electrodes can be placed percutaneously in some cases and require a limited laminectomy in other ca...

BACKGROUND Within their litter, young altricial mammals compete for energy (constraining growth and survival) but cooperate for warmth. The aim of this study was to examine the mechanisms by which huddling in altricial infants influences individual heat production and loss, while providing public warmth. Although considered as a textbook example, it is surprising to note that physiological mech...