CPW-coupled-fed elliptical monopole antenna for UWB applications

IEEE Radio Wireless Week 2012 (RWW2012)In this paper, a coplanar-waveguide (CPW)-coupled-fed elliptical monopole antenna (CCFEMA) is presented for UWB applications. The antenna has a large bandwidth covering the frequency band from 2.8 GHz to 16.5 GHz with return loss larger than 10 dB and radiation pattern similar to that of a dipole antenna. With an appropriate modification of the radiation patches, a band-notched antenna based on the CCFEMA can also be designed to have a good band-notched performance for the band from 5.0 GHz to 6.0 GHz to avoid interfering with WLAN. The return loss, radiation pattern, peak gain, efficiency and band-notched characteristic of the antenna are studied using computer simulation. For verification, a prototyped antenna is also fabricated and then measured using the antenna measurement system, Satimo Starlab. The results show that the proposed antenna is a good candidate for UWB applications. © 2012 IEEE.published_or_final_versionThe 2012 IEEE Radio and Wireless Symposium (RWS), Santa Clara, CA., 15-18 January 2012. In IEEE Radio and Wireless Symposium Proceedings, 2012, p. 295-29

Antagonistic bioactivity of an endophytic bacterium H-6

An endophytic bacterium, H-6, was isolated from leaves of Huperzia serrata grown in the Lushan Mountain, China. The strain was identified as Burkholderia sp. H-6 based on morphological, physiological and biochemical methods as well as on 16S rDNA analysis. This strain inhibited mycelium growth in vitro of 6 plant pathogenic fungi, especially of Phytophthora capsici, Fusarium graminearumt and Sclerotinia libertiana. In greenhouse pot experiments, soil drenches with cell densities of 106, 108 and 1010 CFU ml-1 H-6 reduced significantly P. capsici, in pepper seedling by 51.7, 58.7 and 60.2%, respectively, compared to the inoculated control, 3 weeks after sowing. Growth parameters such as lengths and fresh weights of roots and shoots of P. capsici-inoculated control plants were significantly lower compared to P. capsici-inoculated and H-6-treated plants, which is an added advantage of the strain used as potential biocontrol agent in future.Key words: Endophytic bacterium, 16S rDNA gene, antagonistic activity, Huperzia serrata

Human motion tracking based on complementary Kalman filter

Miniaturized Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) has been widely used in many motion capturing applications. In order to overcome stability and noise problems of IMU, a lot of efforts have been made to develop appropriate data fusion method to obtain reliable orientation estimation from IMU data. This article presents a method which models the errors of orientation, gyroscope bias and magnetic disturbance, and compensate the errors of state variables with complementary Kalman filter in a body motion capture system. Experimental results have shown that the proposed method significantly reduces the accumulative orientation estimation errors

Biological roles of crop NADP-malic enzymes and molecular mechanisms involved in abiotic stress

The abiotic stress tolerance of plants is very important for plant growth, development, survival and functional performance. NADP-ME is one of the most important enzymes in plants. Studying the role that NADP-malic enzyme plays in many metabolisms may help researchers improve the plant abiotic tolerance. The studies on NADP-ME in plants focus on its activity under different stresses. The regulation of NADP-ME gene expression in transgenic plants and the mechanism about abiotic stress resistance are less. In this paper, we reviewed the characteristics of the activity and genes expression of NADP-ME under drought, salt and temperature stresses. We also focused on the role of NADP-ME when it resists these varying stresses and the mechanism on how it performs.Key words: Plant NADP-malic enzyme, abiotic stress, gene expression, molecular mechanism

Monotone iterative procedure and systems of a finite number of nonlinear fractional differential equations

The aim of the paper is to present a nontrivial and natural extension of the comparison result and the monotone iterative procedure based on upper and lower solutions, which were recently established in (Wang et al. in Appl. Math. Lett. 25:1019-1024, 2012), to the case of any finite number of nonlinear fractional differential equations.The author is very grateful to the reviewers for the remarks, which improved the final version of the manuscript. This article was financially supported by University of Łódź as a part of donation for the research activities aimed at the development of young scientists, grant no. 545/1117

Limit points of eigenvalues of (di)graphs

The study on limit points of eigenvalues of undirected graphs was initiated by A. J. Hoffman in 1972. Now we extend the study to digraphs. We prove: 1. Every real number is a limit point of eigenvalues of graphs. Every complex number is a limit point of eigenvalues of digraphs. 2. For a digraph D, the set of limit points of eigenvalues of iterated subdivision digraphs of D is the unit circle in the complex plane if and only if D has a directed cycle. 3. Every limit point of eigenvalues of a set D of digraphs (graphs) is a limit point of eigenvalues of a set of bipartite digraphs (graphs), where consists of the double covers of the members in D. 4. Every limit point of eigenvalues of a set D of digraphs is a limit point of eigenvalues of line digraphs of the digraphs in D. 5. If M is a limit point of the largest eigenvalues of graphs, then -M is a limit point of the smallest eigenvalues of graphs

The optical microscopy with virtual image breaks a record: 50-nm resolution imaging is demonstrated

We demonstrate a new 'microsphere nanoscope' that uses ordinary SiO2 microspheres as superlenses to create a virtual image of the object in near field. The magnified virtual image greatly overcomes the diffraction limit. We are able to resolve clearly 50-nm objects under a standard white light source in both transmission and reflection modes. The resolution achieved for white light opens a new opportunity to image viruses, DNA and molecules in real time

Caspase 3/ROCK1 pathway mediates high glucose-induced platelet microparticles shedding

Background: Platelet microparticles (PMPs) are closely associated with diabetic macrovascular complications. This study aimed to explore the underlying mechanisms of high glucose-induced PMPs generation. Methods: Washed platelets, obtained from the plasma of healthy male Sprague-Dawley rats, were incubated with high glucose. PMPs were isolated using gradient centrifugation and counted by flow cytometry. Expression and activity of ROCK1 and caspase3 were evaluated by real-time PCR, Western blotting, and activity assay kit. Results: High glucose enhanced PMPs shedding in the presence of collagen. The mRNA and protein levels of ROCK1, but not ROCK2, were increased in platelets incubated with high glucose. Y-27632, an inhibitor of ROCK, blocked the increased PMPs shedding induced by high glucose. Expression and activity of caspase3 were elevated in platelets under the high glucose conditions. Z-DVED-FMK, a caspase3 inhibitor, inhibited ROCK1 activity and decreased the PMPs generation under high glucose. Conclusion: High glucose increased PMPs shedding via caspase3-ROCK1 signal pathway