Sharp-Rejection, Wide and Deep Stopband Low Pass Filter Design Using Open Stubs and DGS Patterns

A sharp rejection, wide and deep stopband microstrip low pass filter is investigated in this paper. The proposed low pass filter is composed of three defected ground structure patterns and four open stubs. Simulated results verify that the filter has a sharpness factor of 0.9, a low insertion loss of 0.65 and a return loss less than 15 dB. Moreover, a wide stopband at 20 dB rejection ranging from 4.55 GHz to 11.62 GHz is accomplished. The filter presented in this work was compared with the previous works completed on low pass filter with sharp rejection. It has shown that the filter provides good performances in terms of sharp rejection, wide and deep rejection band and small passband insertion loss compared to those reported in the literatures

Descriptive Epidemiology of Nasal Carriage of Staphylococcus aureus and Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus Among Patients Admitted to Two Healthcare Facilities in Algeria

Aim: To evaluate nasal carriage rate and variables associated with Staphylococcus aureus and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) in patients admitted in two healthcare facilities. Results: S. aureus was isolated from 159 (26%) of the enrolled patients. Methicillin-susceptible S. aureus was isolated from 150 (24.5%) patients, and MRSA was isolated from 9 (1.5%). Cancer and previous hospitalization were associated with a significantly higher frequency of nasal S. aureus carriage among the patients admitted to the general hospital and the nephrology department, respectively. MRSA isolates were heterogeneous with respect to their staphylococcal cassette chromosome mec element (SCCmec) type, sequence type (ST), and toxin genes (pvl and tst1) content. Four isolates were attributed with the ST80-MRSA-IV clone, which is known to be predominant in Algeria. Conclusions: This is the first assessment of S. aureus and MRSA nasal carriage and associated variables in Algeria. Our findings provide also a picture of the MRSA strains circulating in the community in this geographic area. They can be useful as a guide for implementing screening and control procedures against S. aureus/MRSA in the Algerian healthcare facilities

Miniaturized Concentric Hexagonal Fractal Rings Based Monopole Antenna for WLAN/WiMAX Application

In this paper a new antenna design technique is introduced in order to achieve tri-band operation as well as antenna miniaturization. The technique consists of using two concentric first-iterative hexagonal rings connected to each other as a radiating patch fed with a Y-shaped microstrip line. The proposed antenna operates at three frequency bands to cover 2.4/5.8 GHz WLAN and 3.5GHz WiMAX bands. The numerical analysis and simulation are carried out with CST MWS. The measured return losses of the proposed antenna show good performance and good agreement with the simulated results. Consequently the proposed antenna with compact size of 9.77 mm x 17 mm x 1.63 mm is well suited for wireless applications

Design and Fabrication of a Novel Quadruple-Band Monopole Antenna Using a U-DGS and Open-Loop-Ring Resonators

In this Article, a novel quadruple-band microstrip patch antenna is proposed for the systems operating at quad-band applications. The antenna structure is composed of modified rectangular patch antenna with a U-shaped defected ground structure (DGS) unit and two parasitic elements (open-loop-ring resonators) to serve as a coupling-bridge. The proposed antenna with a total size of 31×33 mm2 is fabricated and tested. The measured result indicates that the designed antenna has impedance bandwidths for 10 dB return loss reach about 180 MHz (4.4–4.58 GHz), 200 MHz (5.4–5.6 GHz), 1100 MHz (7.2–8.3 GHz), and 700 MHz (9.6–10.3 GHz), which meet the requirements of the wireless local area network (WLAN), worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX), C and X bands applications. Good agreement is obtained between measurement and simulation results

The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) as a Multidimensional Performance Measurement System Tool: Case the Company of Algeria Post

This paper aimed to clarify the role that the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) as a performance measurement tool in the company of Algeria Post. The BSC is a strategic performance management system, has been proven suitable for the public sector as the financial aspect is not their only concern. The BSC is « A multidimensional performance measurement system that should serve as decision support for managers. It includes indicators of progress and delay as well as internal and external indicators. It organizes the measures in a coherent system around four balanced perspectives: financial perspective, customer perspective, internal process, learning, and growth ». (Kaplan. S & Norton, 2004, P186)

Zebrafish Bioassay-guided Microfractionation for the Rapid in vivo Identification of Pharmacologically Active Natural Products

The rapid acquisition of structural and bioactivity information on natural products (NPs) at the sub- milligram scale is key for performing efficient bioactivity-guided isolations. Zebrafish offer the possibility of rapid in vivo bioactivity analysis of small molecules at the microgram scale – an attractive feature when combined with high-resolution fractionation technologies and analytical methods such as UHPLC-TOF-MS and microflow NMR. Numerous biomedically relevant assays are now available in zebrafish, encompassing most indication areas. Zebrafish also provide the possibility to screen bioactive compounds for potential hepato-, cardio-, and neurotoxicities at a very early stage in the drug discovery process. Here we describe two strategies using zebrafish bioassays for the high-resolution in vivo bioactivity profiling of medicinal plants, using either a one-step or a two-step procedure for active compound isolation directly into 96-well plates. The analysis of the microfractions by microflow NMR in combination with UHPLC-TOF-MS of the extract enables the rapid dereplication of compounds and an estimation of their microgram quantities for zebrafish bioassays. Both the one-step and the two-step isolation procedures enable a rapid estimation of the bioactive potential of NPs directly from crude extracts. In summary, we present an in vivo , microgram-scale NP discovery platform combining zebrafish bioassays with microscale analytics to identify, isolate and evaluate pharmacologically active NPs

Separation of Oligosaccharides from Lotus Seeds via Medium-pressure Liquid Chromatography Coupled with ELSD and DAD

peer-reviewedLotus seeds were identified by the Ministry of Public Health of China as both food and medicine. One general function of lotus seeds is to improve intestinal health. However, to date, studies evaluating the relationship between bioactive compounds in lotus seeds and the physiological activity of the intestine are limited. In the present study, by using medium pressure liquid chromatography coupled with evaporative light-scattering detector and diode-array detector, five oligosaccharides were isolated and their structures were further characterized by electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. In vitro testing determined that LOS3-1 and LOS4 elicited relatively good proliferative effects on Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus. These results indicated a structure-function relationship between the physiological activity of oligosaccharides in lotus seeds and the number of probiotics applied, thus providing room for improvement of this particular feature. Intestinal probiotics may potentially become a new effective drug target for the regulation of immunity

Xrn1 influence on gene transcription results from the combination of general effects on elongating RNA pol II and gene-specific chromatin configuration

mRNA homoeostasis is favoured by crosstalk between transcription and degradation machineries. Both the Ccr4-Not and the Xrn1-decaysome complexes have been described to influence transcription. While Ccr4-Not has been shown to directly stimulate transcription elongation, the information available on how Xrn1 influences transcription is scarce and contradictory. In this study we have addressed this issue by mapping RNA polymerase II (RNA pol II) at high resolution, using CRAC and BioGRO-seq techniques in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. We found significant effects of Xrn1 perturbation on RNA pol II profiles across the genome. RNA pol II profiles at 5ʹ exhibited significant alterations that were compatible with decreased elongation rates in the absence of Xrn1. Nucleosome mapping detected altered chromatin configuration in the gene bodies. We also detected accumulation of RNA pol II shortly upstream of polyadenylation sites by CRAC, although not by BioGRO-seq, suggesting higher frequency of backtracking before pre-mRNA cleavage. This phenomenon was particularly linked to genes with poorly positioned nucleosomes at this position. Accumulation of RNA pol II at 3ʹ was also detected in other mRNA decay mutants. According to these and other pieces of evidence, Xrn1 seems to influence transcription elongation at least in two ways: by directly favouring elongation rates and by a more general mechanism that connects mRNA decay to late elongation.Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad BFU2016-77728- C3-1-P, BFU2016-77728-C3-3-P, BFU2016- 77728-C3-2-P, RED2018-102467-TJunta de Andalucía BIO271, US-1256285, BIO258, UJA 1260360Generalitat Valenciana AICO/2019/08

Host mobility key management in dynamic secure group communication

The key management has a fundamental role in securing group communications taking place over vast and unprotected networks. It is concerned with the distribution and update of the keying materials whenever any changes occur in the group membership. Wireless mobile environments enable members to move freely within the networks, which causes more difficulty to design efficient and scalable key management protocols. This is partly because both member location dynamic and group membership dynamic must be managed concurrently, which may lead to significant rekeying overhead. This paper presents a hierarchical group key management scheme taking the mobility of members into consideration intended for wireless mobile environments. The proposed scheme supports the mobility of members across wireless mobile environments while remaining in the group session with minimum rekeying transmission overhead. Furthermore, the proposed scheme alleviates 1-affect-n phenomenon, single point of failure, and signaling load caused by moving members at the core network. Simulation results shows that the scheme surpasses other existing efforts in terms of communication overhead and affected members. The security requirements studies also show the backward and forward secrecy is preserved in the proposed scheme even though the members move between areas