A Novel Design Approach to X-Band Minkowski Reflectarray Antennas using the Full-Wave EM Simulation-based Complete Neural Model with a Hybrid GA-NM Algorithm

In this work, a novel multi-objective design optimization procedure is presented for the Minkowski Reflectarray RAs using a complete 3-D CST Microwave Studio MWS-based Multilayer Perceptron Neural Network MLP NN model including the substrate constant εr with a hybrid Genetic GA and Nelder-Mead NM algorithm. The MLP NN model provides an accurate and fast model and establishes the reflection phase of a unit Minkowski RA element as a continuous function within the input domain including the substrate 1 ≤ εr ≤ 6; 0.5mm ≤ h ≤ 3mm in the frequency between 8GHz ≤ f ≤ 12GHz. This design procedure enables a designer to obtain not only the most optimum Minkowski RA design all throughout the X- band, at the same time the optimum Minkowski RAs on the selected substrates. Moreover a design of a fully optimized X-band 15×15 Minkowski RA antenna is given as a worked example with together the tolerance analysis and its performance is also compared with those of the optimized RAs on the selected traditional substrates. Finally it may be concluded that the presented robust and systematic multi-objective design procedure is conveniently applied to the Microstrip Reflectarray RAs constructed from the advanced patches

PPF - A Parallel Particle Filtering Library

We present the parallel particle filtering (PPF) software library, which enables hybrid shared-memory/distributed-memory parallelization of particle filtering (PF) algorithms combining the Message Passing Interface (MPI) with multithreading for multi-level parallelism. The library is implemented in Java and relies on OpenMPI's Java bindings for inter-process communication. It includes dynamic load balancing, multi-thread balancing, and several algorithmic improvements for PF, such as input-space domain decomposition. The PPF library hides the difficulties of efficient parallel programming of PF algorithms and provides application developers with the necessary tools for parallel implementation of PF methods. We demonstrate the capabilities of the PPF library using two distributed PF algorithms in two scenarios with different numbers of particles. The PPF library runs a 38 million particle problem, corresponding to more than 1.86 GB of particle data, on 192 cores with 67% parallel efficiency. To the best of our knowledge, the PPF library is the first open-source software that offers a parallel framework for PF applications.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures; will appear in the proceedings of the IET Data Fusion & Target Tracking Conference 201

The role of the nature of the noise in the thermal conductance of mechanical systems

Focussing on a paradigmatic small system consisting of two coupled damped oscillators, we survey the role of the L\'evy-It\^o nature of the noise in the thermal conductance. For white noises, we prove that the L\'evy-It\^o composition (Lebesgue measure) of the noise is irrelevant for the thermal conductance of a non-equilibrium linearly coupled chain, which signals the independence between mechanical and thermodynamical properties. On the other hand, for the non-linearly coupled case, the two types of properties mix and the explicit definition of the noise plays a central role.Comment: 9 pages, 2 figures. To be published in Physical Review

Soft biomimetic tapered babostructures for large-area antireflective surfaces and SERS sensing

Cataloged from PDF version of article.We report a facile fabrication method for the fabrication of functional large area nanostructured polymer films using a drop casting technique. Reusable and tapered silicon molds were utilized in the production of functional polymers providing rapid fabrication of the paraboloid nanostructures at the desired structural heights without the requirement of any complex production conditions, such as high temperature or pressure. The fabricated polymer films demonstrate promising qualities in terms of antireflective, hydrophobic and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) features. We achieved up to 92% transmission from the single-side nanostructured polymer films by implementing optimized nanostructure parameters which were determined using a finite difference time domain (FDTD) method prior to production. Large-area nanostructured films were observed to enhance the Raman signal with an enhancement factor of 4.9 x 10(6) compared to bare film, making them potentially suitable as freestanding SERS substrates. The utilized fabrication method with its demonstrated performances and reliable material properties, paves the way for further possibilities in biological, optical, and electronic applications

Factors Influencing Optical Coherence Tomography Peripapillary Choroidal Thickness: A Multicenter Study.

Purpose:To quantify peripapillary choroidal thickness (PCT) and the factors that influence it in healthy participants who represent the racial and ethnic composition of the U.S. population. Methods:A total of 362 healthy participants underwent optical coherence tomography (OCT) enhanced depth imaging of the optic nerve head with a 24 radial B-scan pattern aligned to the fovea to Bruch's membrane opening axis. Bruch's membrane, anterior scleral canal opening (ASCO), and the anterior scleral surface were manually segmented. PCT was measured at 100, 300, 500, 700, 900, and 1100 μm from the ASCO globally and within 12 clock-hour sectors. The effects of age, axial length, intraocular pressure, ethnicity, sex, sector, and ASCO area on PCT were assessed by ANOVA and univariable and multivariable regressions. Results:Globally, PCT was thicker further from the ASCO border and thinner with older age, longer axial length, larger ASCO area, European descent, and female sex. Among these effectors, age and axial length explained the greatest proportion of variance. The rate of age-related decline increased further from the ASCO border. Sectorally, the inferior-temporal sectors were thinnest (10.7%-20.0% thinner than the thickest sector) and demonstrated a higher rate of age-related loss (from 15.6% to 20.7% faster) at each ASCO distance. Conclusions:In healthy eyes, PCT was thinnest in the inferior temporal sectors and thinner PCT was associated with older age, European descent, longer axial length, larger ASCO area, and female sex. Among these associations, age had the strongest influence, and its effect was greatest within the inferior temporal sectors

Reply to Andersen et al.(2016) "Assumptions behind size-based ecosystem models are realistic"

In a recent publication (Froese et al., ICES Journal of Marine Science; doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsv122), we presented a critique of the balanced harvesting (BH) approach to fishing. A short section dealt with the size-spectrum models used to justify BH, wherein we pointed out the lack of realism of these models, which mostly represented ecosystems as consisting of a single cannibalistic species. Andersen et al. (ICES Journal of Marine Science; doi:10.1093/icesjms/fsv211) commented on our paper and suggested that we criticized size-spectrum models in general and that we supposedly made several erroneous statements. We stress that we only referred to the size-spectrum models that we cited, and we respond to each supposedly erroneous statement. We still believe that the size-spectrum models used to justify BH were highly unrealistic and not suitable for evaluating real-world fishing strategies. We agree with Andersen et al. that BH is unlikely to be a useful guiding principle for ecosystem-based fisheries management, for many reasons. The use of unrealistic models is one of them

A critique of the balanced harvesting approach to fishing

The approach to fisheries termed “balanced harvesting” (BH) calls for fishing across the widest possible range of species, stocks, and sizes in an ecosystem, in proportion to their natural productivity, so that the relative size and species composition is maintained. Such fishing is proposed to result in higher catches with less negative impact on exploited populations and ecosystems. This study examines the models and the empirical evidence put forward in support of BH. It finds that the models used unrealistic settings with regard to life history (peak of cohort biomass at small sizes), response to fishing (strong compensation of fishing mortality by reduced natural mortality), and economics (uniform high cost of fishing and same ex-vessel price for all species and sizes), and that empirical evidence of BH is scarce and questionable. It concludes that evolutionary theory, population dynamics theory, ecosystem models with realistic assumptions and settings, and widespread empirical evidence do not support the BH proposal. Rather, this body of evidence suggests that BH will not help but will hinder the policy changes needed for the rebuilding of ecosystems, healthy fish populations, and sustainable fisheries