Study and Optimization of a Non-Foster Circuit for the Design of Wideband Metasurfaces

International audienceIn this paper, a detailed study and the optimization of a Negative Impedance Converter (NIC) circuit are presented to increase the bandwidth of a passive metasurface. The design and optimization procedure take into account the biasing and the effect of the transistors. The optimization ensures that the load can be realized with passive components

Influence of chronic exposure to thiamethoxam and chronic bee paralysis virus on winter honey bees.

Co-exposure to pesticides and viruses is likely to occur in honey bee colonies. Pesticides can be present in pollen, nectar, and persist in stored food (honey and bee bread), and viruses can be highly prevalent in honey bee colonies. Therefore, the present study describes the influence of chronic co-exposure to thiamethoxam and Chronic bee paralysis virus (CBPV) on bee survival, virus loads, expression level of immune and detoxication genes, and pesticide metabolism Experiments were performed on honey bees collected from a winter apiary with reduced viral contaminations. No synergistic effect of co-exposure was observed on bee survival, nor on the ability of bees to metabolise the pesticide into clothianidin. However, we found that co-exposure caused an increase in CBPV loads that reached the viral levels usually found in overt infections. The effect of co-exposure on CBPV replication was associated with down-regulation of vitellogenin and dorsal-1a gene transcription. Nevertheless, the observed effects might be different to those occurring in spring or summer bees, which are more likelyco-exposed to thiamethoxam and CBPV and exhibit a different physiology

Experimental demonstration of metamaterials application for mitigating scan blindness in phased array antennas

This paper presents two metamaterial-inspired solutions to mitigate the scan blindness effects in a phased array antenna. In the first solution, portions of a bed of nails are introduced in the radome to prevent the excitation of surface waves. In the second solution, a superstrate metasurface is designed to synthesize a permittivity tensor optimized to achieve a wide angle impedance matching. In both approaches, the numerical simulations are successfully compared with measurements of a phased array antenna prototype with 100 elements. The wire medium-based solution reveals an effective way for reducing the blind-spot in a wide bandwidth, while the metaradome has been found less suitable for the same purpose.This work was supported by the METALESA project A-1089- RT-GC that was coordinated by the European Defence Agency (EDA) and funded by 11 contributing Members (Cyprus, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain) in the framework of the Joint Investment Programme on Innovative Concepts and Emerging Technologies (JIP-ICET)

Identification of Urine Biomarkers to Improve Eligibility for Prostate Biopsy and Detect High-Grade Prostate Cancer

PCa screening is based on the measurements of the serum prostate specific antigen (PSA) to select men with higher risks for tumors and, thus, eligible for prostate biopsy. However, PSA testing has a low specificity, leading to unnecessary biopsies in 50–75% of cases. Therefore, more specific screening opportunities are needed to reduce the number of biopsies performed on healthy men and patients with indolent tumors. Urine samples from 45 patients with elevated PSA were collected prior to prostate biopsy, a mass spectrometry (MS) screening was performed to identify novel biomarkers and the best candidates were validated by ELISA. The urine quantification of PEDF, HPX, CD99, CANX, FCER2, HRNR, and KRT13 showed superior performance compared to PSA. Additionally, the combination of two biomarkers and patient age resulted in an AUC of 0.8196 (PSA = 0.6020) and 0.7801 (PSA = 0.5690) in detecting healthy men and high-grade PCa, respectively. In this study, we identified and validated novel urine biomarkers for the screening of PCa, showing that an upfront urine test, based on quantitative biomarkers and patient age, is a feasible method to reduce the number of unnecessary prostate biopsies and detect both healthy men and clinically significant PCa

Characterisation of saturated two-phase flows by means of fluorescence and phosphorescence techniques: a review

International audienc

Caractérisation des écoulements diphasiques à saturation par techniques de fluorescence et de phosphorescence : un état de l’art

National audienc

Electric field imaging of a high impedance surface for GNSS array decoupling application

An original method of characterization of high impedance surfaces (HIS) is presented to exhibit electric field patterns. The electric field frames are obtained through a resistive film located in the near field domain of the HIS. The film heating is recorded using an infrared camera and gives after post-processing electric field magnitude profiles. We applied this technique to a HIS specially tuned for reducing mutual coupling in a global navigation satellite systems (GNSS) array designed for the E5 Galileo band. The mushroom-like HIS, designed and realized with the help of simulation, is located near the ground plane of a micro-strip line which allows S parameter characterization. Present measurement enables near field characterization and field structure analysis, and is therefore a complement to usual analysis. Moreover, the technique shows the very special field structure, including sub-lambda details, created by the HIS and more generally by metamaterial structures

<em>In vitro</em> transmission of the Chronic Bee Paralysis Virus and co-exposure with a neonicotinoid in the honeybee

National audienc