On the modeling of electromagnetically coupled microstrip antennas--The printed strip dipole

A generalized solution for a class of printed circuit antennas excited by a strip transmission line is presented. The strip transmission line may be embedded inside or printed on the substrate. As an example, microstrip dipoles electromagnetically coupled (Parasitically excited) to embedded strip transmission line have been analyzed accurately, and design graphs are provided for a specific substrate material. These graphs permit the establishment of a design procedure which yields the microstrip dipole length, overlap, offset, and substrate thickness with the goal of a desired input match for a given substrate material. The method accounts for conductor thickness and for arbitrary substrate parameter. Comparison with experiment shows excellent agreement.     

Simple approximate formulas for input resistance, bandwidth, andefficiency of a resonant rectangular patch

Simple approximate formulas for the input resistance, bandwidth, and radiation efficiency of a resonant rectangular microstrip patch are derived. These formulas become increasingly accurate as the substrate thickness decreases. Because the formulas are derived from approximations of a rigorous Sommerfeld solution, they provide insight into the effect of the substrate parameters on the patch properties, in addition to providing approximate design equations     

Gain enhancement methods for printed circuit antennas

Resonance conditions for a substrate-superstrate printed antenna geometry which allow for large antenna gain are presented. Asymptotic formulas for gain, beamwidth, and bandwidth are given, and the bandwidth limitation of the method is discussed. The method is extended to produce narrow patterns about the horizon, and directive patterns at two different angles.     

Full-wave spectral-domain analysis for open microstrip discontinuities of arbitrary shape including radiation and surface-wave losses (invited paper)

This article is a survey of the theoretical background for full-wave spectral-domain analysis of open microstrip discontinuities of arbitrary shape. The spectral-domain dyadic Green's function, which takes into account all the physical effects, such as radiation and surface waves, is used to formulate an electric field integral equation. The method of moments is then employed to find the current distribution on the microstrips, and subsequently, the scattering parameters of the junctions. Since all field components can be expressed in terms of the dyadic Green's function and the current distribution, the losses due to both radiation and surface waves are further determined through a rigorous Poynting vector analysis. To model the discontinuities of arbitrary shape, both rectangular and triangular subdomain functions are used as the current expansion functions in the moment method procedure. In addition, the semi-infinite traveling wave functions are applied to simulate the feeding structure and isolate individual junction effects. Several examples are demonstrated to illustrate the utility of different techniques in this analysis. Comparison of some numerical results with available experimental data shows excellent agreement. Finally, this approach is most natural for the characterization of 3-D integrated circuits and the design of printed antennas including excitation circuit effects. © 1992 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Mutual impedance computation between printed dipoles

The mutual impedance between microstrip dipoles printed on a grounded substrate is computed. Results for the microstrip dipoles in broadside, collinear, and echelon arrangements are presented. The significance of surface waves to mutual coupling is discussed.     

The moment method solution for printed wire antennas of arbitraryconfiguration

A printed wire antenna of arbitrary configuration is analyzed. The electric field tangential to the wire is derived using the current expanded by piecewise sinusoidal functions. These functions are also used to form the impedance matrix elements. Use of the stationary phase method leads to a simple expression for the radiation field. Numerical analyses based on the present formulation yield radiation characteristics of a zigzag dipole antenna, a loop antenna, and a round spiral antenna     

Lysophosphatidic Acid Is a Proinflammatory Stimulus of Renal Tubular Epithelial Cells

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) refers to a spectrum of diseases defined by renal fibrosis, permanent alterations in kidney structure, and low glomerular-filtration rate. Prolonged epithelial-tubular damage involves a series of changes that eventually lead to CKD, highlighting the importance of tubular epithelial cells in this process. Lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) is a bioactive lipid that signals mainly through its six cognate LPA receptors and is implicated in several chronic inflammatory pathological conditions. In this report, we have stimulated human proximal tubular epithelial cells (HKC-8) with LPA and 175 other possibly pathological stimuli, and simultaneously detected the levels of 27 intracellular phosphoproteins and 32 extracellular secreted molecules with multiplex ELISA. This quantification revealed a large amount of information concerning the signaling and the physiology of HKC-8 cells that can be extrapolated to other proximal tubular epithelial cells. LPA responses clustered with pro-inflammatory stimuli such as TNF and IL-1, promoting the phosphorylation of important inflammatory signaling hubs, including CREB1, ERK1, JUN, IκΒα, and MEK1, as well as the secretion of inflammatory factors of clinical relevance, including CCL2, CCL3, CXCL10, ICAM1, IL-6, and IL-8, most of them shown for the first time in proximal tubular epithelial cells. The identified LPA-induced signal-transduction pathways, which were pharmacologically validated, and the secretion of the inflammatory factors offer novel insights into the possible role of LPA in CKD pathogenesis.     

Developmental disparity between in vitro-produced and somatic cell nuclear transfer bovine days 14 and 21 embryos: implications for embryonic loss

In ruminants, the greatest period of embryonic loss coincides with the period of elongation when the embryonic disc is formed and gastrulation occurs prior to implantation. The impact of early embryonic mortality is not only a major obstacle to the cattle breeding industry but also impedes the application of new reproductive technologies such as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). In the present study, days 14 and 21 bovine embryos, generated by either in vitro-production (IVP) or SCNT, performed by either subzonal injection (SUZI) or handmade cloning (HMC), were compared by stereomicroscopy, immunohistochemistry, and transmission electron microscopy to establish in vivo developmental milestones. Following morphological examination, samples were characterized for the presence of epiblast (POU5F1), mesoderm (VIM), and neuroectoderm (TUBB3). On D14, only 25, 15, and 7% of IVP, SUZI, and HMC embryos were recovered from the embryos transferred respectively, and similar low recovery rates were noted on D21, suggesting that most of the embryonic loss had already occurred by D14. A number of D14 IVP, SUZI, and HMC embryos lacked an epiblast, but presented trophectoderm and hypoblast. When the epiblast was present, POU5F1 staining was limited to this compartment in all types of embryos. At the ultrastructural level, SCNT embryos displayed abundant secondary lysosomes and vacuoles, had fewer mitochondria, polyribosomes, tight junctions, desmosomes, and tonofilaments than their IVP counterparts. The staining of VIM and TUBB3 was less distinct in SCNT embryos when compared with IVP embryos, indicating slower or compromised development. In conclusion, SCNT and to some degree, IVP embryos displayed a high rate of embryonic mortality before D14 and surviving embryos displayed reduced quality with respect to ultrastructural features and differentiation markers.     

Part III: Dynamic evolution of the particle size distribution in batch and continuous particulate processes: A Galerkin on finite elements approach

The present study provides a comprehensive investigation on the numerical solution of the dynamic population balance equation (PBE) in batch and continuous flow particulate processes. The general PBE was numerically solved using the Galerkin on finite elements method (GFEM) for particulate processes undergoing simultaneous particle aggregation, growth and nucleation. The performance of the GFEM in terms of accuracy and stability was assessed by a direct comparison of the calculated particle size distributions (PSD) and/or their corresponding moments to available analytical solutions. Numerical simulations were carried out over a wide range of variation of particle aggregation and growth rates. Simulations of batch particulate processes revealed that the GFEM was generally more accurate than the standard fixed-grid sectional methods and more robust than the orthogonal collocation on finite elements method. In the case of continuous flow processes, numerical simulations were carried out till the dynamic solution reached its final steady-state. It was found that the calculated PSDs converged exactly to available analytical steady-state solutions of the PBE. The transient PSDs were often characterized by steep moving fronts that required careful discretization of the particle volume domain and the inclusion of an artificial diffusion term in order to eliminate numerical oscillations in the solution. Finally, for continuous particulate processes, the effect of various size-dependent particle growth models on the calculated steady-state PSDs was investigated.