An Applied Electromagnetics Course with a Conceiving-Designing-Implementing-Operating Approach in Engineering Education

This paper describes and discusses the implementation of a project-based undergraduate course on applied electromagnetics in electronics engineering with a conceiving-designing-implementing-operating (CDIO) approach involving active project-based learning (PBL). The course, which requires a combination of mathematical and physics concepts for its completion, allows students to understand the principles of electromagnetic transmission theory in wireless communication systems. This paper presents the course proposal, its project description, and results hinting at the relationship with the CDIO process. The proposed projects allow students to engage in core concepts such as complex vectors, Maxwell’s equations, boundary conditions, Poynting\u27s theorem, uniform plane waves, reflection and transmission of waves, waveguides, cavity resonators, and computer-assisted design. The proposed methodology results suggest that students lowered their perception of the difficulty of the course, and most students recognized a better learning process of the core concepts for this course. In addition, students’ final course grades showed an average improvement of approximately 6% compared with the final grades of other groups with different methodologies

Pareto Set Computation in Convex Multi-objective Design using Adaptive Response Surface Method (ARSM)

Optimal design problems normally involve high dimensional design spaces and multiple objective functions. Depending on the complexity of the model, the time required to explore the design space could become excessive. This paper describes the calculation of the Pareto-optimal set based on adaptive surface methodology (ARSM) in order to reduce simulation times given a finite element analysis (FEA) simulation model. The Pareto-optimal strategy consists in the solution of a set of different single-objective problems. Each of this points is found via ARSM. The implementation of ARSM aims to use a few initial simulation points to approximate accurately the set of single-objective functions required. The methodology reduces significantly the number of points required to compute the efficient set compared to other strategies (e.g the exhaustive method), proving to reduce the simulation time of a computationally intensive model

Pareto Set Computation in Convex Multi-objective Design using Adaptive Response Surface Method (ARSM)

Optimal design problems normally involve high dimensional design spaces and multiple objective functions. Depending on the complexity of the model, the time required to explore the design space could become excessive. This paper describes the calculation of the Pareto-optimal set based on adaptive surface methodology (ARSM) in order to reduce simulation times given a finite element analysis (FEA) simulation model. The Pareto-optimal strategy consists in the solution of a set of different single-objective problems. Each of this points is found via ARSM. The implementation of ARSM aims to use a few initial simulation points to approximate accurately the set of single-objective functions required. The methodology reduces significantly the number of points required to compute the efficient set compared to other strategies (e.g the exhaustive method), proving to reduce the simulation time of a computationally intensive model

Hormonal Dependence and Cancer in Systemic Lupus Erythematosus.

To estimate the incidence and analyze any cancer-associated factors in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), differentiating between hormone-sensitive (HS) and non-HS cancers. This was a retrospective multicenter study of a patient cohort from the Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Registry of the Spanish Society of Rheumatology. Included were the first cancer post-SLE diagnosis, clinical and sociodemographic information, cumulative damage, severity, comorbidities, treatments, and refractoriness. Cancers were classified as HS (prostate, breast, endometrium, and ovarian) and non-HS (the remainder). The standardized incidence ratio (SIR) was calculated and logistic regression models were built. A total of 3,539 patients (90.4% women) were included, 154 of whom had cancer (91% female), and 44 had HS cancer (100% female). The cancer SIR was 1.37 (95% confidence interval [95% CI] 1.15-1.59), with higher values in women age Cancer incidence in patients with SLE was higher than in the Spanish population, particularly among young women. This increase might be due to non-HS cancers, which would be associated with SLE involving greater cumulative damage where more ACE inhibitors are prescribed

Ezetimibe added to statin therapy after acute coronary syndromes

BACKGROUND: Statin therapy reduces low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels and the risk of cardiovascular events, but whether the addition of ezetimibe, a nonstatin drug that reduces intestinal cholesterol absorption, can reduce the rate of cardiovascular events further is not known. METHODS: We conducted a double-blind, randomized trial involving 18,144 patients who had been hospitalized for an acute coronary syndrome within the preceding 10 days and had LDL cholesterol levels of 50 to 100 mg per deciliter (1.3 to 2.6 mmol per liter) if they were receiving lipid-lowering therapy or 50 to 125 mg per deciliter (1.3 to 3.2 mmol per liter) if they were not receiving lipid-lowering therapy. The combination of simvastatin (40 mg) and ezetimibe (10 mg) (simvastatin-ezetimibe) was compared with simvastatin (40 mg) and placebo (simvastatin monotherapy). The primary end point was a composite of cardiovascular death, nonfatal myocardial infarction, unstable angina requiring rehospitalization, coronary revascularization ( 6530 days after randomization), or nonfatal stroke. The median follow-up was 6 years. RESULTS: The median time-weighted average LDL cholesterol level during the study was 53.7 mg per deciliter (1.4 mmol per liter) in the simvastatin-ezetimibe group, as compared with 69.5 mg per deciliter (1.8 mmol per liter) in the simvastatin-monotherapy group (P<0.001). The Kaplan-Meier event rate for the primary end point at 7 years was 32.7% in the simvastatin-ezetimibe group, as compared with 34.7% in the simvastatin-monotherapy group (absolute risk difference, 2.0 percentage points; hazard ratio, 0.936; 95% confidence interval, 0.89 to 0.99; P = 0.016). Rates of pre-specified muscle, gallbladder, and hepatic adverse effects and cancer were similar in the two groups. CONCLUSIONS: When added to statin therapy, ezetimibe resulted in incremental lowering of LDL cholesterol levels and improved cardiovascular outcomes. Moreover, lowering LDL cholesterol to levels below previous targets provided additional benefit