Clutter Monster

d.Cluttering is a narrative exploring the relationship between physical/digital clutter in our daily lives and our individual mental/emotional spaces. Expressed through an installation composed of sound and video, the piece comments on the correlation and contribution of the clouding vision and our collective culture’s obsession with stuff. Building on this topic, made popular by the recent NY Times BestSeller book “The Life- Changing Magic of Tidying Up:The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organzing” by Marie Kondo and ancient traditions of Chinese Feng Shui, d.Cluttering questions the attachment to material goods that are often superimposed with meaning. Similarly to every day objects, sound (music) and words can also be conceived as clutter. By intentionally using methods of “participatory culture” to comment on “consumer culture,” the piece uses text, sound clips and video footage deliberately composed and arranged as ‘symbols’ to represent “clutter” in a collagery fashion, with digital “cutting up” of sonic palettes, letters, punctuation and visuals. Playing with unorthodox methods in sound creation, d.Cluttering is composed to represent sonic clutter, by aurally illustrating the duality of near-silence and chaotic mess to depict a sensory process of mental de-cluttering. In addition to the auditory portrayal of ‘clutter’, the piece utilizes video footage to create visual collages inspired by the historical narrative initiated by “dadaism,” “sound poems,” and “sacred art,” this piece intends to comment on the importance of being mindfully aware of clutter and the decluttering in our very own kind of “sacred space.”https://remix.berklee.edu/graduate-studies-production-technology/1042/thumbnail.jp

A Ultra-Light High Gain Circularly-Polarized Antenna Array for Mobile Satellite Terminals

© 2018 IEEE. A ultra-light, compact, high gain 16 × 6 CP antenna array is presented in this paper for Ku band mobile satellite applications. The 96-element array consists of 24 2 × 2 CP sub arrays fed by a substrate-integrated-waveguide (SIW) network. Two essential and innovative techniques were adopted in this design. First, in order to achieve the ultra-light weight, the radiation patches were etched on the Polyimide film supported by a patterned foam. A piece of thin SIW network was designed to feed the radiators. The total weight of the fabricated array prototype is only 66.5 gram and profile is low as 0.05 λ0. Second, a sequential rotation (SQR) feeding technique was applied to the aperture fed 2 × 2 CP sub array, which realized more than three times bandwidth enhancement than the direct (non-SQR) feeding approach. In addition, the measured results show the CP-operational bandwidth is 700 MHz from 11.55 to 12.25 GHz. The peak realized gain is 26.4 dBic and gain variation is stable (less than 3 dB) cross the entire operating bandwidth. Be ultra-light and high gain, it is an excellent candidate for Ku band satellite applications

Reconfigurable, Wideband, Low-Profile, Circularly Polarized Antenna and Array Enabled by an Artificial Magnetic Conductor Ground

© 1963-2012 IEEE. A reconfigurable, wideband, and low-profile circular polarization (CP) antenna is presented. Its wideband CP reconfigurability is realized by incorporating RF switches into a cross-bowtie radiator. A compact, wide bandwidth, and polarization-independent artificial magnetic conductor ground plane is developed to minimize the overall profile of the antenna while maintaining its wide bandwidth. The simplicity of this single-element design facilitates the realization of a reconfigurable, wide bandwidth CP array that achieves higher directivity without changing its overall profile. Prototypes of the single element and of a 1 × 4 array of these elements were fabricated and tested. The measured results for both prototypes are in good agreement with their simulated values, validating their design principles. They are low profile with a height ∼ 0.05 λ0. The array exhibits a wide fractional operational bandwidth: 1.65 GHz (21.7%), and a high realized gain: 13 dBic. Since they would enhance their channel capacity and avoid polarization mismatch issues, these reconfigurable CP antenna systems are very suitable for modern wireless systems

Topological Quantum Phase Transition in Synthetic Non-Abelian Gauge Potential

The method of synthetic gauge potentials opens up a new avenue for our understanding and discovering novel quantum states of matter. We investigate the topological quantum phase transition of Fermi gases trapped in a honeycomb lattice in the presence of a synthetic non- Abelian gauge potential. We develop a systematic fermionic effective field theory to describe a topological quantum phase transition tuned by the non-Abelian gauge potential and ex- plore its various important experimental consequences. Numerical calculations on lattice scales are performed to compare with the results achieved by the fermionic effective field theory. Several possible experimental detection methods of topological quantum phase tran- sition are proposed. In contrast to condensed matter experiments where only gauge invariant quantities can be measured, both gauge invariant and non-gauge invariant quantities can be measured by experimentally generating various non-Abelian gauges corresponding to the same set of Wilson loops

Enhancing resilience by reducing critical load loss via an emergent trading framework considering possible resources isolation under typhoon

Leveraging distributed resources to enhance distribution network (DN) resilience is an effective measure in response to natural disasters. However, the willingness and economy of distributed resources are typically ignored. To address this issue, this paper proposes an emergent trading framework that uses parking lots (PLs) as resources to provide power support to critical loads (CLs) in a blackout due to typhoons. In this trading framework, an evolutionary Stackelberg game-based trading model is established to consider maximizing all stakeholders' economic benefits, considering possible resources isolation under typical fault scenarios caused by typhoons, and a benefit allocation mechanism is proposed for all stakeholders to motivate all stakeholders to participate in the trading. This framework allows that critical loads could reduce their load loss, parking lots could receive adequate compensation to stimulate them to participate in the trading, and distribution utility could ensure its economic benefits. Furthermore, an iterative evolutionary-Stackelberg solution set-up is applied to obtain the equilibria of the proposed framework. Simulation results on the modified IEEE 69-bus test system and IEEE 123-bus test system reveal the validity of the proposed method

Advances in Reconfigurable Antenna Systems Facilitated by Innovative Technologies

© 2013 IEEE. Future fifth generation (5G) wireless platforms will require reconfigurable antenna systems to meet their performance requirements in compact, light-weight, and cost-effective packages. Recent advances in reconfigurable radiating and receiving structures have been enabled by a variety of innovative technology solutions. Examples of reconfigurable partially reflective surface antennas, reconfigurable filtennas, reconfigurable Huygens dipole antennas, and reconfigurable feeding network-enabled antennas are presented and discussed. They represent novel classes of frequency, pattern, polarization, and beam-direction reconfigurable systems realized by the innovative combinations of radiating structures and circuit components

Puerariae radix isoflavones and their metabolites inhibit growth and induce apoptosis in breast cancer cells

[[abstract]]Puerariae radix (PR) is a popular natural herb and a traditional food in Asia, which has antithrombotic and anti-allergic properties and stimulates estrogenic activity. In the present study, we investigated the effects of the PR isoflavones puerarin, daidzein. and genistein on the growth of breast cancer cells. Our data revealed that after treatment with PR isoflavones, a dose-dependent inhibition of cell growth occurred in HS578T, MDA-MB-231, and MCF-7 cell lines. Results from cell cycle distribution and apoptosis assays revealed that PR isoflavones induced cell apoptosis through a caspase-3-dependent pathway and mediated cell cycle arrest in the G2/M phase. Furthermore, we observed that the serum metabolites of PR (daidzein sulfates/glucuronides) inhibited proliferation of the breast cancer cells at a 50;K cell growth inhibition (GI(50)) concentration of 2.35 mu M. These results indicate that the daidzein constituent of PR can be metabolized to daidzein sulfates or daidzein glucuronides that exhibit anticancer activities. The protein expression levels of the active forms of caspase-9 and Bax in breast cancer cells were significantly increased by treatment with PR metabolites. These metabolites also increased the protein expression levels of p53 and p21. We therefore suggest that PR may act as a chemopreventive and/or chemotherapeutic agent against breast cancer by reducing cell viability and inducing apoptosis

G/T polymorphism in the interleukin-2 exon 1 region among Han Chinese systemic lupus erythematosus patients in Taiwan

[[abstract]]Interleukin-2 (IL-2), one of the crucial immunoregulatory cytokines required for T lymphocyte activation, plays an important role in autoimmune diseases. An IL-2 genetic G/T polymorphism (rs2069763) has been linked with multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. We tested a hypothesis that this polymorphism confers systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) susceptibility. Study participants were Han Chinese SLE patients and a healthy control group in Taiwan. Our results indicate (a) a significantly higher G allele frequency in SLE patients (P = 1.91 × 10− 14; OR = 3.94; 95% CI = 2.74–5.66), (b) a significantly higher G allele frequency in SLE patients with antinuclear antibodies (ANA) (P = 0.033; OR = 4.21; 95% CI = 1.01–17.51) and (c) a significantly lower G allele frequency in SLE patients with discoid rash (P = 0.019; OR = 0.41; 95% CI = 0.19–0.88). Our results suggest that this polymorphism may be involved in the genetic background of Taiwanese SLE

HLA-E Gene Polymorphism Associated With Susceptibility to Kawasaki Disease and Formation of Coronary Artery Aneurysms

[[abstract]]Objective. Kawasaki disease (KD) is a pediatric systemic vasculitis of unknown cause for which a genetic influence is supposed. The purpose of this study was to identify possible genetic variants in the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) region that are associated with KD and the development of coronary artery aneurysms (CAAs) in a Taiwanese population. Methods. The 168 genetic variants covering the MHC locus were analyzed in an association study of a Taiwanese cohort of 93 KD patients and 680 unrelated healthy children matched for sex and age with the study patients. Results. Eleven single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were associated with the occurrence of KD. The SNP located at the 3'-untranslated region of HLA-E (rs2844724) was highly associated (P < 1 x 10(-7)). In addition, the frequency of the C allele was higher in KD patients without CAAs than in controls (P < 0.001) due to a significantly increased frequency of the CC and CT genotypes. Plasma levels of soluble HLA-E were significantly higher in KD patients than in controls regardless of the presence of CAAs. Furthermore, there was a trend toward higher plasma levels of soluble HLA-E in KD patients with the CT and TT genotypes of the HLA-E gene polymorphism. Conclusion. Our results suggest that the HLA-E gene polymorphism may play a role in the pathogenesis of KD