SaskTel (Canada)

This paper draws on the first comprehensive study of Two Spirit, trans, nonbinary, and gender-nonconforming (2STNBGN) people in Saskatchewan. Despite challenges, including rising conservatism and targeted political attacks, we temper assumptions that trans and queer people want to leave Saskatchewan for other locations where the 2STNBGN community is assumed to be bigger. Many of our participants described choosing to stay in the province as an intentional way to build community, advocate for support, and cultivate belonging. We further explore a distinctly prairie politic that includes Two Spirit and Indigiqueer projects of belonging to land and community, cross-provincial trans community organizing, and a complicated geography that supersedes binaries between urban and rural. Our research tells us that gender-diverse people on the prairies are enacted through a “grounded relationality,” a context-dependent, binary-resistant expression through place, whether that place is land, city, country, or small-town paint store. Ultimately, our research shows that despite an increasingly chilly political climate toward 2STNBGN people, Saskatchewan still bears witness to trans joy, innovative activism, and an activated trans community that is invested in a future that they are a part of.

We present a 44-year-old female with an initial presentation with distal renal tubular acidosis (RTA) after she presented with hypokalaemia and normal anion gap acidosis. Three years following the diagnosis, she presented with progressive renal impairment. In the absence of any clinical, biochemical and radiological clues, she underwent a renal biopsy which showed severe tubulitis secondary to lymphocytic infiltration. Serological investigations subsequently revealed positive anti-nuclear, anti-Sjögren’s syndrome related antigen A (SS-A), and anti-Sjögren’s syndrome related antigen B (SS-B) antibodies, supporting the diagnosis of Sjögren’s syndrome. This case is unique in that distal RTA was the presenting clinical manifestation of Sjögren’s syndrome. We hope that a consideration for Sjögren’s syndrome is made in patients with seemingly idiopathic RTA.

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) is the causative bacterium of Johne’s disease (JD) in ruminants. The control of JD in the dairy industry is challenging, but can be improved with a better understanding of the diversity and distribution of MAP subtypes. Previously established molecular typing techniques used to differentiate MAP have not been sufficiently discriminatory and/or reliable to accurately assess the population structure. In this study, the genetic diversity of 182 MAP isolates representing all Canadian provinces was compared to the known global diversity, using single nucleotide polymorphisms identified through whole genome sequencing. MAP isolates from Canada represented a subset of the known global diversity, as there were global isolates intermingled with Canadian isolates, as well as multiple global subtypes that were not found in Canada. One Type III and six “Bison type” isolates were found in Canada as well as one Type II subtype that represented 86% of all Canadian isolates. Rarefaction estimated larger subtype richness in Québec than in other Canadian provinces using a strict definition of MAP subtypes and lower subtype richness in the Atlantic region using a relaxed definition. Significant phylogeographic clustering was observed at the inter-provincial but not at the intra-provincial level, although most major clades were found in all provinces. The large number of shared subtypes among provinces suggests that cattle movement is a major driver of MAP transmission at the herd level, which is further supported by the lack of spatial clustering on an intra-provincial scale.

this paper a set of low permittivity DRAs are considered to investigate the capability of increasing impedance bandwidth. All proposed DRAs have the same dimensions and are fed by vertical strips. The effect of length, width, and thickness of the strip on the coupling value is examined. It is found that this approach can strongly feed DRAs with permittivities as low as 4. The structures are analyzed using Ansoft HFSStrade and CST Microwave Studiotrade.

In a network of three or more transmission lines connected together at a common "star" point, signals encounter a large transmission discontinuity that impairs communication. Part of an incident signal is reflected backward and the remaining portion is split amongst the outgoing lines. For example, when 6 lines with equal impedances are connected together, ongoing signals are attenuated by 9.5 dB. Reflections can be mitigated by adding series matching impedances to each line at the star point but this increases ongoing signal attenuation to 14 dB for the example of 6 connected lines. We present a method where negative impedance is applied to the star point to simultaneously reduce signal reflection and attenuation. The paper initially considers coaxial transmission lines with equal impedances and shows experimental results for baseband pulse transmission. Stability is a concern when adding negative impedance and accurate knowledge of line impedance is required. The paper concludes with a discussion on impedance compensation at a building breaker panel where transmission line impedances vary widely and are a function of frequency

In this paper, the feasibility of realizing high performance filters at microwave frequencies using the LIGA technique is investigated. A direct post-coupled 3-order Chebyshev bandpass filter is designed to verify this concept. An ideal filter model as well as a model that incorporates the practical design aspects measured from a LIGA PMMA cavity structure are simulated by the finite element method. The comparison of the results from the two models suggests that LIGA fabrication introduces only minor deteriorations and high performance microwave filters are possible.

An integrated voltage-controlled oscillator using TSMC 0.18 mum CMOS technology is presented to demonstrate and compare the phase noise performance between the VCO using a new type of MEMS variable capacitor and that using conventional CMOS varactor, which is built on-chip together with the CMOS VCO. A representative MEMS variable capacitor, fabricated using the LIGA process, has a nominal capacitance of 1.05 pF and exhibits a Q factor of 40.9 at 2.7 GHz. The simulation results show that with this LIGA-MEMS capacitor, a 4.3 dB of phase noise improvement at 300 kHz offset from the carrier is achieved when the VCO operates at 2.7 GHz

A system is presented which uses optical single sideband transmission at 10 Gb/s together with electrical dispersion compensation at the receiver. Transmission with a bit error rate better than 10/sup -10/ on nondispersion shifted fiber is experimentally demonstrated over 320 km and the dispersion from 1000 km of fiber was effectively equalized in simulation. In the transmitter, driving one or two modulators with a combination of a baseband digital signal and the Hilbert transform of that signal creates an optical single sideband signal. In terms of reducing the effects of chromatic dispersion, transmitting the signal in a single sideband format has two advantages over a double sideband format. First, the optical bandwidth of the transmitted single sideband signal is approximately one half of a conventional double sideband signal. Second, an optical single sideband signal with transmitted carrier can be "self-homodyne" detected and the majority of the phase information preserved since no spectrum back folding occurs upon detection. This allows the received signal to be partially equalized in the electrical domain.