Miniature Circularly Polarized Rectenna with Reduced Out-of-Band Harmonics

Wireless embedded sensors are becoming increasingly important for many safety critical applications. Sensor batteries or capacitors must be charged as needed in order to achieve high data rate communications. A miniature circularly polarized rectenna operating at 5.5 GHz is introduced which, with the help of an integrated band-reject filter, reduces out-of-band harmonic emission significantly. The rectenna has a conversion efficiency of 74% with more than 50 dB out-of-band harmonic suppression at 11 GHz

Superior Protection against Malaria and Melanoma Metastases by a C-glycoside Analogue of the Natural Killer T Cell Ligand α-Galactosylceramide

α-Galactosylceramide (α-GalCer) is a glycolipid that stimulates natural killer T cells to produce both T helper (Th) 1 and Th2 cytokines. This property enables α-GalCer to ameliorate a wide variety of infectious, neoplastic, and autoimmune diseases; however, its effectiveness against any one disease is limited by the opposing activities of the induced Th1 and Th2 cytokines. Here, we report that a synthetic C-glycoside analogue of α-GalCer, α-C-galactosylceramide (α-C-GalCer), acts as natural killer T cell ligand in vivo, and stimulates an enhanced Th1-type response in mice. In two disease models requiring Th1-type responses for control, namely malaria and melanoma metastases, α-C-GalCer exhibited a 1,000-fold more potent antimalaria activity and a 100-fold more potent antimetastatic activity than α-GalCer. Moreover, α-C-GalCer consistently stimulated prolonged production of the Th1 cytokines interferon-γ and interleukin (IL)-12, and decreased production of the Th2 cytokine IL-4 compared with α-GalCer. Finally, α-C-GalCer's enhanced therapeutic activity required the presence of IL-12, which was needed to stimulate natural killer cells for optimal interferon-γ production, but did not affect IL-4. Overall, our results suggest that α-C-GalCer may one day be an excellent therapeutic option for diseases resolved by Th1-type responses

A Multifactorial Mechanism in the Superior Antimalarial Activity of α-C-GalCer

We have previously shown that the C-glycoside analog of α-galactosylceramide (α-GalCer), α-C-GalCer, displays a superior inhibitory activity against the liver stages of the rodent malaria parasite Plasmodium yoelii than its parental glycolipid, α-GalCer. In this study, we demonstrate that NK cells, as well as IL-12, are a key contributor for the superior activity displayed by α-C-GalCer. Surprisingly, the diminished production of Th2 cytokines, including IL-4, by α-C-GalCer has no affect on its superior therapeutic activity relative to α-GalCer. Finally, we show that the in vivo administration of α-C-GalCer induces prolonged maturation of dendritic cells (DCs), as well as an enhanced proliferative response of mouse invariant Vα14 (Vα14i) NKT cells, both of which may also contribute to some degree to the superior activity of α-C-GalCer in vivo

Decision support for target country selection of future generation sovereign wealth funds: Hedging the country industry risk

AbstractThis paper addresses the challenging problem of selecting target country for future Sovereign Wealth Funds’ (SWFs) asset allocation to hedge the industry risk, which is rarely studied in the field. The target country selection includes which country and how much to invest to obtain the return objective and minimize the risk of these funds. In terms of the industrial perspective, the home country as the investor should consider SWF as part of its budget to make decision in long term. In order to control the risk, this paper measures the similarity between the home and the recipient country of SWF investment. The industrial risk of SWFs’ recipient country is also taken into consideration which is measured by concentration ratio. Based on an analytical process of target country selection, the paper finds that Kazakhstan, India, Australia, Greece, Spain, United States, Austria, Portugal, Peru, Netherlands are the top 10 countries that China should consider as its investment priorities

Performance of C\u3csub\u3e2\u3c/sub\u3eH\u3csub\u3e4\u3c/sub\u3e Reductant in Activated-Carbon-Supported MnOx-Based SCR Catalyst at Low Temperatures

Hydrocarbons as reductants show promising results for replacing NH3 in SCR technology. Therefore, considerable interest exists for developing low-temperature (\u3c 200 °C) and environmentally friendly HC-SCR catalysts. Hence, C2H4 was examined as a reductant using activated-carbon-supported MnOx-based catalyst in low-temperature SCR operation. Its sensitivity to Mn concentration and operating temperature was parametrically studied, the results of which showed that the catalyst activity followed the order of 130 °C \u3e 150 °C \u3e 180 °C with an optimized Mn concentration near 3.0 wt.%. However, rapid deactivation of catalytic activity also occurred when using C2H4 as the reductant. The mechanism of deactivation was explored and is discussed herein in which deactivation is attributed to two factors. The manganese oxide was reduced to Mn3O4 during reaction testing, which contained relatively low activity compared to Mn2O3. Also, increased crystallinity of the reduced manganese and the formation of carbon black occurred during SCR reaction testing, and these constituents on the catalyst’s surface blocked pores and active sites from participating in catalytic activity

Fabrication of B doped g-C3N4/TiO2 heterojunction for efficient photoelectrochemical water oxidation

With the development of clean and renewable energy, hydrogen produced via photoelectrochemical (PEC) water splitting has attracted considerable attention. However, to develop the photoanodes with stable and excellent PEC ability is still a big challenge. In our work, TiO2 nanorods decorated with boron doped g-C3N4 (BCN/TiO2) is fabricated via thermal polymerization method to improve the PEC performance. The BCN/TiO2 displays 4-fold increase of the photocurrent density (1.01 mA cm−2) at 1.23 V vs. RHE under irradiation (100 mW cm−2, AM 1.5 G). And the onset potential of BCN/TiO2 exhibits a negative shift with 100 mV. Attributed to the broad light absorption of BCN and hetero-junction forming between BCN and TiO2, the IPCE value is increased to 87.8% in 380 nm, and the charge separation and transfer efficiency are both increased. Doping metal-free inorganic material with heteroatoms is a simple and efficient strategy to increase the light absorption within visible light and charge transfer efficiency in PEC and photocatalytic applications

Design and Analysis of an R-Shaped Dual-Band Planar Inverted-F Antenna for Vehicular Applications

A dual-band R-shaped planar inverted-F antenna is proposed for vehicular application. Utilization of this unique geometry dual-frequency operation is achieved with a single feed. The proposed antenna operates in the 225- and 450-MHz bands. Input impedance and return loss data as function of various antenna parameters are presented, which show that parameters can be adjusted in order to obtain optimum tuning. Radiation pattern data for the antenna mounted on the roof of two types of vehicles are given. The pattern in the low-frequency band is essentially omnidirectional while that in the high-frequency band is directional and normal to the antenna surface. With proper scaling, this antenna may be suitable for dual-band GSM 900/1800-MHz phone applications

Growth behaviour of Ge nano-islands on the nanosized Si{111} facets bordering on two {100} planes

Abstract Si(100) substrates were used to fabricate various nanosized {111} facets between the (100) planes using photolithography and anisotropic wet chemical etching. Following simultaneous Ge chemical vapour deposition on the neighbouring (100) and {111} facets, the Ge nano-island formation and distribution was observed on both the (100) terraces and the {111} side walls using a dynamical atomic force microscope. The nano-island formation on the nanosized {111} strip facets was found to be strongly suppressed upon reducing the strip width due primarily to the interaction of adatoms on the neighbouring facets. Specifically, the difference in the effective chemical potential of Ge adatoms on the two neighbouring facets leads to the depletion of nano-islands on the {111} strip with width <500 nm under the growth condition used in this study