Fast and Accurate Simulation Technique for Large Irregular Arrays

A fast full-wave simulation technique is presented for the analysis of large irregular planar arrays of identical 3-D metallic antennas. The solution method relies on the Macro Basis Functions (MBF) approach and an interpolatory technique to compute the interactions between MBFs. The Harmonic-polynomial (HARP) model is established for the near-field interactions in a modified system of coordinates. For extremely large arrays made of complex antennas, two approaches assuming a limited radius of influence for mutual coupling are considered: one is based on a sparse-matrix LU decomposition and the other one on a tessellation of the array in the form of overlapping sub-arrays. The computation of all embedded element patterns is sped up with the help of the non-uniform FFT algorithm. Extensive validations are shown for arrays of log-periodic antennas envisaged for the low-frequency SKA (Square Kilometer Array) radio-telescope. The analysis of SKA stations with such a large number of elements has not been treated yet in the literature. Validations include comparison with results obtained with commercial software and with experiments. The proposed method is particularly well suited to array synthesis, in which several orders of magnitude can be saved in terms of computation time.Comment: The paper was submitted to IEEE Transaction on Antennas and Propagation on 01 - Feb.- 2017. The paper is 12 pages with 18 figure

The insulin-like growth factor system and adenocarcinoma of the colon

The insulin-like growth factor (IGF) system is important in normal growth and development. However, it is also known to be involved with malignant transformation and cellular proliferation. IGF binding proteins modulate the biological activity of IGF-I, either potentiating or inhibiting its activity, as well as determining how much enters the circulation at any one time. IGF binding protein-4 (IGFBP-4), for example is believed to be inhibitory to the effects of IGF-I. This thesis shows that the colon cancer cell lines Colo 205, HT29 and WiDR proliferate in response to IGF-I, and that IGFBP-4 at high concentrations inhibits their growth. However, it was found that with lower concentrationsof IGFBP-4, proliferation in HT29 and WiDR cells increased. Nevertheless in two cell lines, IGFBP-4 partially negated the proliferative effects of IGF-I. An antibody against IGFBP-4 was used to show that endogenous IGFBP-4 plays an important role in modifying cell growth. In order to start in vivo experiments which required considerable quantities of IGFBP-4, this protein was produced in an expression system and purified using an immunoaffinity column method. The rhIGFBP-4 thus produced was shown to be functional and to inhibit colorectal cancer cell growth in vitro. A nude mouse model of colon cancer was produced and the expression of components of the IGF system in this model determined using PCR. Experiments were performed using conditioned medium from Colo 205 cells to investigate IGFBP-4 protease activity. This thesis shows that manipulation of the IGF system is a potential target for further research into treatment for adenocarcinoma of the colon

Schweighofer (Schwaighofer), Johann Michael

(1806 - 1852), Klavierbaue

Accelerated macro basis functions analysis of finite printed antenna arrays through 2D and 3D multipole expansions

An efficient technique is presented for the analysis of finite printed antenna arrays made of identical elements. It is based on a closed-form expression for the spatial-domain Green’s function (GF) given as a finite sum of cylindrical waves (obtained through rational function fitting) plus one spherical wave. From there, a multipole expansion can be obtained for planar layered medium GFs. The macro basis function (MBF) technique is applied to the method of moments (MoM) solution of a mixed-potential integral equation, this reduces the size of the MoM impedance matrix and allows for a direct solution. However, the evaluation of the entries of this reduced matrix becomes the dominant contribution to the total computation time. The aforementioned multipole expansion is exploited to provide a fast construction of the reduced MoM matrix, whose elements are the reaction integrals between the MBFs considered to characterize the currents on the array element. The complexity of evaluating the interactions between MBFs is found to be dominated by the calculations related to the spherical wave term. Thus, taking into account the layered medium does not increase the order of the complexity with respect to a multipole-accelerated computation of reaction integrals in a homogeneous medium

Interpolatory Macro Basis Functions Analysis of Non-Periodic Arrays

An efficient method-of-moments (MoM) technique for analyzing non-periodic antenna arrays of identical elements with fixed orientation is presented. The proposed method, which uses macro basis functions (MBFs), is based on a compact representation of the interactions between MBFs. These interactions are expressed via a low-order harmonic-polynomial function after an explicit pre-computation of the reaction integrals in a very limited set of relative positions. This is possible for arrays of arbitrary size thanks to three transformations- subtraction of the far-field expression for the interactions, phase correction and modified radial distance- applied successively to the pre-computed interactions. After obtaining the harmonic-polynomial expressions, the computation time for the reaction integral between two MBFs is independent from the complexity of the antenna array element

Antenna calibration for near-field material characterization

A novel antenna calibration method is presented for near-field problems, such as material characterization or inverse scattering. The procedure accurately accounts for differences between simulations of objects close to antennas and the equivalent experimental measurements. It is based on the method of moments (MoM) solution to surface integral scattering equations. An efficient choice of macrobasis functions (MBFs) is applied to the antenna, which reduces the computational costs by several orders of magnitude. The calibration involves scanning a target of known constitution through the antenna near field, assigning a tuning parameter to each MBF and optimizing said parameters, so as to reduce the error between antenna simulations and measurements. This adjusts the antenna’s simulated surface currents, so as to more accurately represent the currents on the experimental apparatus. Thus, an efficient antenna model is obtained, which more accurately represents the real-world antenna. The calibration technique is verified by applying it to the characterization of dielectric objects of known but arbitrary shape

Accelerated Macro Basis Functions analysis of finite printed antenna arrays through 2D and 3D multipole expansions

An efficient technique is presented for the analysis of finite printed antenna arrays made of identical elements. It is based on a closed-form expression for the spatial-domain Green’s function (GF) given as a finite sum of cylindrical waves (obtained through rational function fitting) plus one spherical wave. From there, a multipole expansion can be obtained for planar layered medium GFs. The macro basis function (MBF) technique is applied to the method of moments (MoM) solution of a mixed-potential integral equation, this reduces the size of the MoM impedance matrix and allows for a direct solution. However, the evaluation of the entries of this reduced matrix becomes the dominant contribution to the total computation time. The aforementioned multipole expansion is exploited to provide a fast construction of the reduced MoM matrix, whose elements are the reaction integrals between the MBFs considered to characterize the currents on the array element. The complexity of evaluating the interactions between MBFs is found to be dominated by the calculations related to the spherical wave term. Thus, taking into account the layered medium does not increase the order of the complexity with respect to a multipole-accelerated computation of reaction integrals in a homogeneous medium