A Printed U-Shaped Coplanar Waveguide Feed UWB Antenna for GPR Applications

A printed U-shaped coplanar waveguide fed (CPW) ultra-wideband (UWB) antenna is designed, fabricated, and measured in this paper for ground penetrating (GPR) applications. To enhance the working bandwidth, a set of cutoffs was introduced in different parts of the antenna. The antenna was printed on the FR4-epoxy substrate in a compact size of 0.252λ0×0.3λ0×0.015λ0 at 3 GHz. The calculated results were validated by realizing and measuring a prototype. Experimental demonstrations were done with the R& S®ZNB Vector Network Analyzer, which indicates that the antenna's working bandwidth extends from 3.09 GHz to 11.07 GHz (112.71%). Additionally, the antenna's radiation patterns were measured in an isolated anechoic chamber, which shows that the proposed antenna has omni-directional radiation patterns. Moreover, acceptable gain antenna values ranging between 1.74 and 7.04 dBi and high values of radiation efficiency of more than 80% were achieved over the whole working bandwidth. Besides, the antenna presents a stable group delay with a linear phase of S21 through the UWB frequency band. To prove the efficiency of the fabricated antenna for GPR applications, the operation of the antenna was experimentally tested in a sandy soil box. The obtained results show that the proposed antenna could be a good candidate for GPR applications

Patient/family views on data sharing in rare diseases: study in the European LeukoTreat project.: Survey assessing data sharing in leukodystrophies

International audienceThe purpose of this study was to explore patient and family views on the sharing of their medical data in the context of compiling a European leukodystrophies database. A survey questionnaire was delivered with help from referral centers and the European Leukodystrophies Association, and the questionnaires returned were both quantitatively and qualitatively analyzed. This study found that patients/families were strongly in favor of participating. Patients/families hold great hope and trust in the development of this type of research. They have a strong need for information and transparency on database governance, the conditions framing access to data, all research conducted, partnerships with the pharmaceutical industry, and they also need access to results. Our findings bring ethics-driven arguments for a process combining initial broad consent with ongoing information. On both, we propose key item-deliverables to database participants