Antipodal radiation pattern of a patch antenna combined with superstrate using transformation electromagnetics

This paper aimed to show the design and performances of a flat superstrate placed above an L-band patch antenna. Obtained from the Transformation Electromagnetics technique, this superstrate enables to produce an antipodal radiation with a quasi-null radiation in the broadside direction. From the analytical transformations used for the calculation of the constitutive parameters, material permittivity and permeability profiles of the superstrate are deduced. Then, the field distribution and radiation patterns of the whole structure confirm the antipodal radiation behavior.     

Compact wideband antenna above a wideband non-uniform artificial magnetic conductor

A compact wideband antenna place above a non-uniform artificial magnetic conductor (AMC) is presented. The antenna is composed of a wideband coplanar waveguide fed antenna, with wideband harmonic suppression characteristic using non-uniform defected ground structure. Besides, a non-uniform wideband AMC is designed. The AMC unit cell is composed of a square patch into which a four arms spiral shape is etched. It exhibits a wider ±90° bandwidth than the spiral unit cell and a smaller size than the square patch unit cell. The antenna is placed above the proposed AMC structure formed by 6 × 5 unit cells. The overall dimensions of the complete structure are 0.7 × 0.6 λ ₀ ² , where λ ₀ is the free-space wavelength at the lowest frequency. It offers a low-profile configuration with a total thickness of λ ₀/14.3, and it is matched between 2.5 and 5.4 GHz (73.5 %). Furthermore, it has a stable main lobe radiation pattern in the E- and H-planes within the operating frequency band. Moreover, compared with the antenna without AMC, the broadside realized gain is significantly increased. A prototype has been realized, and there is a good agreement between simulated and measured results. Furthermore, the proposed structure presents a size reduction of about 34 %, and better radiation characteristics in comparison with the conventional square AMC.     

High-precision lattice QCD confronts experiment

The recently developed Symanzik-improved staggered-quark discretization allows unquenched lattice-QCD simulations with much smaller (and more realistic) quark masses than previously possible. To test this formalism, we compare experiment with a variety of nonperturbative calculations in QCD drawn from a restricted set of "gold-plated" quantities. We find agreement to within statistical and systematic errors of 3% or less. We discuss the implications for phenomenology and, in particular, for heavy-quark physics.     

Bs and Ds decay constants in three-flavor lattice QCD

Capitalizing on recent advances in lattice QCD, we present a calculation of the leptonic decay constants f(B(s)) and f(D(s)) that includes effects of one strange sea quark and two light sea quarks via an improved staggered action. By shedding the quenched approximation and the associated lattice scale uncertainty, lattice QCD greatly increases its predictive power. Nonrelativistic QCD is used to simulate heavy quarks with masses between 1.5m(c) and m(b). We arrive at the following results: f(B(s))=260+/-7+/-26+/-8+/-5 and f(D(s))=290+/-20+/-29+/-29+/-6 MeV. The first quoted error is the statistical uncertainty, and the rest estimate the sizes of higher order terms neglected in this calculation. All of these uncertainties are systematically improvable by including another order in the weak coupling expansion, the nonrelativistic expansion, or the Symanzik improvement program.     

New strategy for convergent steroid synthesis

We published recently our results on a new and convergent synthesis of natural steroids. The strategy was based on a cycloaddition reaction of Nazarov reagents 2 and 5 with cyclohexenones 1 and 4. In this paper we report results that deal with the synthesis of two new bicyclic Nazarov reagents (13 and 19) and their cycloaddition with two cyclohexenones (1 and 4). These new results constitute an important improvement concerning the versatility of the strategy since tetracycles having the stereochemistry found in natural steroids are now available.     

Axial ratio improvement of an Archimedean spiral antenna over a radial AMC reflector

This paper presents a method to improve the circular polarization of an Archimedean spiral antenna placed over a radial Artificial Magnetic Conductor (AMC). Results have been compared with the same radiating element over a more classical AMC reflector. A prototype of an Archimedean two-wire spiral antenna has been built to operate from 0.5?GHz to 6?GHz. Measurement results with this radial AMC give a relative bandwidth of 79?%, in which the broadside RHCP gain is improved. In this bandwidth the axial ratio of Archimedean spiral antenna placed over a radial AMC is less than 2?dB whereas it is higher than 3?dB with a classical cartesian shape of AMC reflector.     

Liquid chromatography electrospray tandem mass spectrometric and desorption electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometric analysis of chemical warfare agents in office media typically collected during a forensic investigation

Most prior analytical studies have dealt with the determination of chemical warfare agents in environmental or biological matrices that would typically be collected following battlefield use or in support of the Chemical Weapons Convention. These methods may be useful for some investigations, but may not be practical for indoor forensic investigations where chemical warfare agent use is suspected. There is a need for analytical methods for chemical warfare agent identification in office media, including flooring, wall surfaces, office fabrics and paper products, which would typically be collected in an office environment during forensic investigations. During this study, typical office environment media were spiked at the 4-20microg/g level with either a complex munitions grade sample of tabun (GA) or with a standard containing the three nerve agents, sarin (GB), cyclohexyl methylphosphonofluoridate (GF), soman (GD) and the nerve agent simulant, triethyl phosphate (TEP), to evaluate the potentials of liquid chromatography electrospray ionization mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS) and liquid chromatography electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry (LC-ESI-MS/MS) for forensic purposes. An emerging technique, desorption electrospray ionization (DESI-MS/MS), was also investigated for the direct determination of TEP, GB and GD sampled onto solid phase microextraction (SPME) fibers exposed to spiked office media. The spiked chemical warfare agents were recovered with varying efficiencies during this study, but in all cases sufficient chemical warfare agent was recovered for mass spectrometric identification purposes. Full high resolution mass spectra were acquired for all the chemical warfare agents in the continuum mode, which typically resulted in mass measurement errors of 0.001Da or less.     

Synthesis of pyrimidinones by action of benzamidine on a benzocycloheptenic β‐keto ester

The synthesis of a polycyclic heterocyclic ring system compound, ethyl 7‐hydroxy‐4‐oxo‐2‐phenyl‐4,5‐dihydro‐3H‐benzo[6,7]cyclohepta[1,2‐d]pyrimidine‐6‐carboxylate was carried out by condensation of benzamidine on diethyl 5,9‐dihydroxy‐7H‐benzo[a]cycloheptene‐6,8‐dicarboxylate, after opening and then closure of the seven membered ring.