High‐Performance Dual‐Circularly Polarized Reflector Antenna Feed

This paper presents a high‐performance dual‐circularly polarized feed employing a dielectric‐filled circular waveguide. Novel features are incorporated in the proposed feed, such as a dielectric rod radiator for high gain and good impedance matching; dual quarter‐wave chokes for low axial ratio over wide angles and for low back radiation; an integrated septum polarizer; and two end‐launch‐type coaxial‐to‐waveguide transitions. The proposed feed shows excellent performance at 5.0 GHz to 5.2 GHz.     

Discovery of NKT cells and development of NKT cell-targeted anti-tumor immunotherapy

Natural Killer T (NKT) cells are unique lymphocytes characterized by their expression of a single invariant antigen receptor encoded by Vα14Jα18 in mice and Vα24Jα18 in humans, which recognizes glycolipid antigens in association with the monomorphic CD1d molecule. NKT cells mediate adjuvant activity to activate both CD8T cells to kill MHC-positive tumor cells and NK cells to eliminate MHC-negative tumor at the same time in patients, resulting in the complete eradication of tumors without relapse. Therefore, the NKT cell-targeted therapy can be applied to any type of tumor and also to anyone individual, regardless of HLA type.Phase IIa clinical trials on advanced lung cancers and head and neck tumors have been completed and showed significantly prolonged median survival times with only the primary treatment. Another potential treatment option for the future is to use induced pluripotent stem cell (iPS)-derived NKT cells, which induced adjuvant effects on anti-tumor responses, inhibiting in vivo tumor growth in a mouse model.     

A Digital Coreless Maximum Power Point Tracking Circuit for Thermoelectric Generators

This paper describes a maximum power point tracking (MPPT) circuit for thermoelectric generators (TEG) without a digital controller unit. The proposed method uses an analog tracking circuit that samples the half point of the open-circuit voltage without a digital signal processor (DSP) or microcontroller unit for calculating the peak power point using iterative methods. The simulation results revealed that the MPPT circuit, which employs a boost-cascaded-with-buck converter, handled rapid variation of temperature and abrupt changes of load current; this method enables stable operation with high power transfer efficiency. The proposed MPPT technique is a useful analog MPPT solution for thermoelectric generators.