Globalized parametric optimization of microwave components by means of response features and inverse metamodels

Simulation-based optimization of geometry parameters is an inherent and important stage of microwave design process. To ensure reliability, the optimization process is normally carried out using full-wave electromagnetic (EM) simulation tools, which entails significant computational overhead. This becomes a serious bottleneck especially if global search is required (e.g., design of miniaturized structures, dimension scaling over broad ranges of operating frequencies, multi-modal problems, etc.). In pursuit of mitigating the high-cost issue, this paper proposes a novel algorithmic approach to rapid EM-driven global optimization of microwave components. Our methodology incorporates a response feature technology and inverse regression metamodels to enable fast identification of the promising parameter space regions, as well as to yield a good quality initial design, which only needs to be tuned using local routines. The presented technique is illustrated using three microstrip circuits optimized under challenging scenarios, and demonstrated to exhibit global search capability while maintaining low computational cost of the optimization process of only about one hundred of EM simulations of the structure at hand on the average. The performance is shown to be superior in terms of efficacy over both local algorithms and nature-inspired global methods.

COVID-19 PANDEMIC: AN OUTLINE OF DIGITAL LEARNING TOOLS FOR CREATING TEACHING AND LEARNING CONTENTS

There is currently little or no literature on COVID-19 in relation to educational studies especially in the area of continuous teaching and learning activities. The only literature available is directly related to medical studies. This is not because education is not directly affected by the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic but rather because studies in education rarely incorporate effects of disease on the effective provision of education to learners across the globe. The paper focused on the digital learning tools for creating teaching and learning contents at COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The prime target of the researchers is to outlinethe digital learning tools as it is useful for creating teaching and learning contents for teachers at all level of education. There are many free and paid online digital learning tools available for creating teaching and learning content, such tools include: schoology; Google classroom; Edmodo; Moddle; Grockit; ePals and a lot but just to mention but few. The aforementioned tools were free for some extent, but teachers/tutors and students have to use internet for using these tools for long teaching and learning purpose. Some of the benefits of digital learning tools include the following; to reduce time and cost, issue of any pandemic or lockdown and maintaining social distance to minimize the spread of the disease more especially during pandemic. The paper therefore suggested that there is need for insights regarding the use of digital learning tools and teachers/tutors and students alike should consider digital learning tools for creating and continuous teaching and learning activities. The paper also recommended among others that educational stakeholders in Nigeria should provide training for teachers on how to use various digital learning tools in creating teaching and learning contents.

Deploying an Application to Cloud Platform Using Continous Integration and Continous Delivery

Cloud Computing is the best way for bussiness owner deploy an application to reduce cost issue because it is implement pay as you go concept. Generally, an application on production level or deployed into cloud instance should not have any error or bug. It should be tested and maintain properly. The problem when an application have intensive development that takes more effort to test the application and deploy. So, need a strategy to deploy an application into cloud instance to make the proccess more efficient. Nowadays, Version Control System (VCS) platform provide Continous Integration and Continous Delivery (CI/CD) feature. Users can utilize that platform to perform automated test and deployment easily. This reasearch purposed to examine how to use CI/CD feature and evaluate it in case of deploying web application to Cloud Platform. Researcher use Gitlab wich is provide CI/CD feature for free and deploy the app to Amazon Web Service. The researcher also utilize docker container to accommodate all processes. The result are Continous Integration can improove application quality because most lines of codes are tested using unit or feature test scenario. Using CI/CD feature improove security issue of deployment. Deployment proccess run automatically without human intervention so it will reduce human error factors. This feature also ensure high availability of an application. Deployment proccess will take zero downtime. The application can quickly update without any downtime and configuration. Last, docker container take an important role for deployment of application into cloud instance.

Detection of urinary metabolites of metabolic pathway disorders by using VTGE and LC-HRMS techniques

BackgroundIn recent, various human health disorders including cancer, diabetes, neurodegenerative and metabolic diseases are noticed among human populations. Currently, genetic and proteomic approaches are highly reported to detect metabolic disorders that also include inborn error of metabolisms. These existing detection methods are faced with cost issue and time consuming factors. Therefore, metabolites as biomarkers are one of potential avenues to detect metabolic disorders. Further, exploitation of urine as potential source of metabolite biomarkers, there are limitation in this area of research due to abundance of non-metabolite components such as proteins and nucleic acids. Hence, methods and processes are required to precisely fractionate metabolites from urine of inborn error of metabolism patients and then identified by analytical tools such as LC-HRMS and GC-MS.MethodsSterile filtered urine samples (750 µl) mixed with (250 µl) loading buffer were electrophoresed on VTGE that uses acrylamide gel (acrylamide:bisacrylamide, 30:1) as matrix of 15%. Further, vertical tube gel electrophoresis (VTGE) technique combined with LC-HR-MS to identify metabolites that are known as the biomarkers of metabolic disorders was carried out.Results and DiscussionThe authors provide evidence on the use of novel VTGE coupled with LC-HRMS to detect metabolites among metabolic disorders. Data suggest the applicability of VTGE coupled with LC-HRMS technique to detect metabolites such as 2-methyluridine, 2-Methylglutaric acid, 2-Methyl citric acid, 2-Hydroxyglutaric acid in case of metabolic disorders.ConclusionThis preliminary work is suggested to be extended to large clinical samples to validate application of this method to detect metabolic disorders including inborn error of metabolisms.

Small AntiMicrobial Peptide with In Vivo Activity Against Sepsis

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are considered as potential therapeutic sources of future antibiotics because of their broad-spectrum activities and alternative mechanisms of action compared to conventional antibiotics. Although AMPs present considerable advantages over conventional antibiotics, their clinical and commercial development still have some limitations, because of their potential toxicity, susceptibility to proteases, and high cost of production. To overcome these drawbacks, the use of peptides mimics is anticipated to avoid the proteolysis, while the identification of minimalist peptide sequences retaining antimicrobial activities could bring a solution for the cost issue. We describe here new polycationic -amino acids combining these two properties, that we used to design small dipeptides that appeared to be active against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, selective against prokaryotic versus mammalian cells, and highly stable in human plasma. Moreover, the in vivo data activity obtained in septic mice reveals that the bacterial killing effect allows the control of the infection and increases the survival rate of cecal ligature and puncture (CLP)-treated mice.

Compensation for disturbance in New South Wales: value vs cost

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to explore compensation for compulsorily acquired businesses in the pre-statutory value to the owner regime compared to the post-statutory cost and loss to the owner regime. Design/methodology/approach The study involved researching decisions of the NSW Land and Environment Court and appellate courts in the pre- and post-statutory regimes. It also involved the identification of value to owner compensation in pre-statutory decisions and comparison with costs and loss to owner compensation in post-statutory decisions. Findings The study found that the few post-statutory decisions on disturbance compensation for compulsorily acquired businesses appear inconsistent with the provisions of the statute; however, the value vs cost debate has not yet been fully tested in the courts. Research limitations/implications The research is limited by the number and types of cases brought before the primary court and the number and types of cases then brought before the appellate courts. Practical implications With recent decisions in the post-statutory regime adopting a more clinical interpretation of the Act concerning other heads of claim for disturbance, future cases before the courts may be expected to have a greater focus on the value vs cost issue for compensation claims for compulsorily acquired businesses. Social implications Compensation based on a clinical interpretation of cost or loss arising from the compulsory acquisition of a business in the post-statutory regime may result in inequitable compensation to the acquired party, failing the primary provision of the Act to justly compensate for the acquisition. Originality/value While conceptual differences between cost and value were considered and distinguished long ago in the valuation discipline in Australia and overseas, this is the first time they have emerged in the legal discipline in Australia through specific statutory wording.

Pengujian Kepresisian Modul GNSS Murah Dual Frequency Pada Pengamatan GNSS Dengan Metode RTK-NTRIP

AbstrakGNSS berkembang dengan pesat seiring berkembangnya zaman. Dominasi dari receiver GNSS tipe geodetik memiliki kekurangan, yaitu terkait permasalahan biaya (cost issue) yang tinggi. Permasalahan biaya tersebut dapat diatasi dengan pengembangan Original Equipment Manufacturer boards (OEM-boards) yang memerlukan biaya murah untuk menjadi modul GNSS yang bisa digunakan untuk pengukuran RTK-NTRIP. Penelitian ini bertujuan menguji tingkat kepresisian dari modul GNSS murah dual frequency untuk pengukuran metode RTK-NTRIP dengan panjang baseline 0,1 km, 2 km, 10 km, dan 20 km. Pengukuran dilakukan berdasarkan New International Standard ISO 17123-8:2015 yang terdiri dalam tiga tahap, yaitu pengukuran menggunakan receiver GPS geodetik metode statik, pengukuran menggunakan modul GNSS murah dual frequency, dan pengukuran menggunakan receiver geodetik metode RTK-NTRIP. Kepresisian ditentukan berdasarkan simpangan baku horizontal dan vertikal, diuji menggunakan Simplified Test Procedure. Tingkat kepresisian yang dihasilkan modul GNSS murah tergolong tinggi, untuk komponen horizontal berkisar antara 8 mm s.d. 3 cm dan vertikal antara 7 mm s.d. 3 dm. Nilai kepresisian horizontal telah memenuhi standar yang ditetapkan oleh New International Standard ISO 17123-8:2015, sedangkan komponen vertikal tingkat kepresisiannya terbatas pada baseline kurang dari 10 km.Kata kunci: Panjang baseline, modul GNSS murah; tingkat kepresisianAbstractGNSS was a technology that grows rapidly. Unfortunately, most of geodetic GNSS receivers had disadvantages related to the cost issue. Original Equipment Manufacturer boards (OEM-boards) could be developed as low cost GNSS modules which is used for RTK-NTRIP measurements to overcome the cost problem. This research was objected to measure the level of precision from dual-frequency GNSS modules of the RTK-NTRIP method, tested on baselines with 0.1 km, 2 km, 10 km, and 20 km length Based on New International Standard ISO 17123-8: 2015 measurements were established with three stages, static measurement with geodetic GPS receiver, measurement with cheap dual-frequency GNSS modules, and RTK-NTRIP measurements with geodetic GPS receiver. Precision was determined based on horizontal and vertical standard deviation and tested using the Simplified Test Procedure. It was founded that low cost GNSS modules could achieved the the high-level precision, 8 mm to 3 cm for horizontal component and 7 mm to 3 dm for the vertical. Horizontal precision had reached the New International Standard ISO 17123-8: 2015, while the vertical precision still could be reached the standard with limitation, i.e. for baselines with less 10 kilometers length.Keywords: baseline length, low cost GNSS modules, level of precision

SYNTHETIC MODEL OF THE NATIONAL ECONOMIC SYSTEM OF THE REPUBLIC OF BELARUS BASED ON MODIFIED TABLES "COSTS-OUTPUT"

The article has developed a synthetic model of national economic system on the basis of modification of tables "cost Issue", which will allow for forecasting and planning for the development of the country at the level of economic activities, grounded approach to the formation of transformation scenarios and quantify the impact of decisions in this regard