Veiled Politics: Muslim Women's Visibility and Their Use in European Countries' Political Life

One of the many disastrous consequences of the tragic events of 9/11 is the war waged by the neocolonialists in order to "liberate" Muslim women. This gender-based war stands on a series of pillars, such as the presumption that Western civilization offers women a great deal of privileges, while Muslim culture gives none. Therefore, it would be logical to suppose that, because of the many opportunities the West grants to Muslim women who reside there, the latter may have an active role in the local political process. However, Muslim women have scarce visibility in European political life, and their presence is sometimes merely instrumental to some party: in most cases, women are coopted because they are a good sample of "secular Muslims" ( i.e. , they do not wear the hijab , i.e. , the veil and a modest attire); in others, they are appointed because they are veiled and can therefore become a good vehicle in order to win the support both of the Muslim community and of its sympathizers. In this paper, I will analyze some crucial aspects of Muslim women's formal political participation in some European countries; in addition, I will focus on the Italian case with the help of a series of interviews with Muslim women who play an active role in local political councils. The study shows how in European politics, Muslim women can become a commodity even when they stand out as rising political individuals; but also how they fight to gain visibility and public recognition, in spite of the tense situation and of the rampant Islamophobia

Multi-element UWB probe optimization for medical microwave imaging

The need for non-ionizing techniques for medical imaging applications has led to the use of microwave signals. Several systems have been introduced in recent years based on increasing the number of antennas and frequency bandwidth to obtain high resolution and good accuracy in locating objects. A novel microwave imaging system that reduces the number of required antennas for precise target location appropriate for medical applications is presented. The proposed system consists of four UWB extended gap ridge horn (EGRH) antennas covering the frequency band from 0.5 GHz to 1.5 GHz mounted on a cylindrical phantom that mimics the brain in an orthogonal set of two EGRH probes. This configuration has the ability to control both the longitudinal and transversal dimensions of the reconstructed target’s image, rather than controlling the spatial resolution, by increasing the frequency band that can be easily affected by medium losses. The system is tested numerically and experimentally by the detection of a cylindrical target within a human brain model.This work was financially supported by CICYT PID2019-107885GB-C31, and support grants for university departments and research units (FI-SDUR)(2021 FISDU 00195). This work was also supported by the National Center for Scientific and Technological Research (CNRST) under grant number PPR2/2015/36.Peer ReviewedPostprint (published version

A TLM Formulation Based on Fractional Derivatives for Dispersive Cole-Cole Media

An auxiliary differential equation (ADE) transmission line method (TLM) is proposed for broadband modeling of electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation in biological tissues with the Cole-Cole dispersion Model. The fractional derivative problem is surmounted by assuming a linear behavior of the polarization current when the time discretization is short enough. The polarization current density is approached using Lagrange extrapolation polynomial and the fractional derivation is obtained according to Riemann definition of a fractional α-order derivative. Reflection coefficients at an air/muscle and air/fat tissues interfaces simulated in a 1-D domain are found to be in good agreement with those obtained from the analytic model over a broad frequency range, demonstrating the validity of the proposed approach

An embroidered passive textile RFID tag based on a T-matched antenna

This paper addresses the design and fabrication of an embroidered textile RFID tag antenna. The main feature of this design is that we have embroidered an RFID chip on the textile support which avoids the use of metallic wires or soldering. The modeled equivalent circuit of the tag is presented to get physical insight into RFID tag antenna design. The detailed results given in this paper include the effect of the bending and the human body proximity on the antenna performance. It is shown that the bending does not introduce a conspicuous effect on the tags read range while the dissipative characteristics of the human body cause a gain and read range reduction. The proposed design may find applications in wearable devices dedicated to health monitoring applications.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Flexible UHF RFID Tag for Blood Tubes Monitoring

Low-cost and flexible radio frequency identification (RFID) tag for automatic identification, tracking, and monitoring of blood products is in great demand by the healthcare industry. A robust performance to meet security and traceability requirements in the different blood sample collection and analysis centers is also required. In this paper, a novel low-cost and flexible passive RFID tag is presented for blood sample collection tubes. The tag antenna is based on two compact symmetrical capacitive structures and works at the ultra-high frequency (UHF) European band (865 MHz–868 MHz). The tag antenna is designed considering the whole dielectric parameters such as the blood, substrate and tube. In this way, it operates efficiently in the presence of blood, which has high dielectric permittivity and loss. Measurement results of the proposed tag have confirmed simulation results. The measured performance of the tag shows good matching in the desired frequency band, leading to reading ranges up to 2.2 m, which is 4.4 times higher than typical commercial tags. The potential of this tag as a sensor to monitor the amount of blood contained in clinic tubes is also demonstrated. It is expected that the proposed tag can be useful and effective in future RFID systems to introduce security and traceability in different blood sample collection and analysis centers.The authors gratefully acknowledge financial support from Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad of Spain and the European Regional Development Funds for the financial support (grant no. TEC2016-75934-C04-4-R)

Broadband circular microstrip patch antenna for wimax marine application

Peer Reviewe

A TLM Algorithm forWave Propagation In Human Fat and Muscle TissuesWith a Cole-Cole Dispersion Model

A transmission line method (TLM)algorithm is proposedfor electromagnetic (EM) wave propagation in biologicaltissues with the Cole-Cole dispersion Model. A linear behaviorof the polarization current during the time step is assumed.The polarization current density is approached usingLagrange extrapolation polynomial, and the fractionalderivation is obtained according to Riemann definition. Reflectioncoefficients at an air/muscle interfaces simulated ina 1-D domain are found in good agreement with those obtainedfrom the analytic model

Global modeling of microwave three terminal active devices using the FDTD method

International audienc

Global modeling of microwave three terminal active devices using the FDTD method

International audienc

Cylindrical Microwave Imaging System with Extended Gap Ridge Horn Probes

In this paper, we present a cylindrical microwave imaging system based on a multi-frequency bi-focusing (MFBF) imaging technique using Extended Gap Ridge Horn antenna (EGRH) probe for medical applications. The proposed probe antenna is designed to operate between 0.5 GHz to 1 GHz and filled with a high permittivity material to have an impedance match to the human body. This system has been successfully simulated using CST Microwave studi