Interference Analysis of Multicarrier Systems Based on Affine Fourier Transform

Multicarrier techniques based on affine Fourier transform (AFT) have been recently proposed for transmission in the wireless channels. The AFT represents a generalization of the Fourier and fractional Fourier transform. We derive the exact and approximated interference power, upper bound and measure of applicability for the AFT based multicarrier (AFT-MC) system. It is demonstrated that the AFT-MC system effectively minimizes interference in time-varying multipath channels with line-of-sight component and narrow beamwidth of scattered components that often occurs in aeronautical and satellite communications.     

Modifications of the Cubic Phase Function

By introducing a symmetric pair of time instants, a modification of the Cubic phase （CP） function, named as the Quartic phase （QP） function, is proposed to estimate the quadratic FM signal. The performance in terms of estimate bias and variance is presented via the first-order permutation principle. Two extensions are presented for multiple components and the cubic FM signals. Both theoretical analysis and numerical examples confirm that the QP function and its extensions provide a number of advantages, such as： （1） lower asymptotic Mean-square error （MSE） for the estimate of the third-order phase pa- rameter at high SNR; （2） a better capability of discriminating multicomponent signals; （3） a lower SNR threshold for the estimates of the cubic FM signal.     

Robust L-estimation based forms of signal transforms and time-frequency representations

The L-estimation based signal transforms and time-frequency (TF) representations are introduced by considering the corresponding minimization problems in the Huber (1981, 1998) estimation theory. The standard signal transforms follow as the maximum likelihood solutions for the Gaussian additive noise environment. For signals corrupted by an impulse noise, the median-based transforms produce robust estimates of the non-noisy signal transforms. When the input noise is a mixture of Gaussian and impulse noise, the L-estimation-based signal transforms can outperform other estimates. In quadratic and higher order TF analysis, the resulting noise is inherently a mixture of the Gaussian input noise and an impulse noise component. In this case, the L-estimation-based signal representations can produce the best results. These transforms and TF representations give the standard and the median-based forms as special cases. A procedure for parameter selection in the L-estimation is proposed. The theory is illustrated and checked numerically.     

Problem solving by schizophrenic and schizoaffective patients on the Wisconsin and California Card Sorting Tests.

The performance of patients with schizophrenia or schizoaffective illness was compared with that of age- and education-matched normal controls on the Wisconsin and California Card Sorting Tests (WCST and CCST). On the WCST, both groups of patients achieved fewer than the normal number of categories and made more perseverative responses and errors. On the complete and short versions of the CCST, both patient groups generated, identified, and executed fewer than the normal number of concepts; provided less accurate and less complete verbal explanations for the correct concepts they did generate; and made more verbal and nonverbal perseverative responses than did the controls. There were no differences between patient groups on either test. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Kinetics of internal oxidation in Ag-6Sn-2In-1Te-0.2Ni and Ag-6Sn-0.6Cu-1Bi-0.2Ni type alloys

Internal oxidation process was followed in Ag-6Sn-2In-1Te-0.2Ni and Ag-6Sn-0.6Cu-1Bi-0.2Ni alloy types in free air and oxygen at 650 °C and 680 °C. It was found that the Cu and Bi bearing alloy had a higher rates of internal oxidation in all of the tested conditions, whish was due to Bi effect accelerating the internal oxidation. In the early stage of internal oxidation of the Ag-6Sn-2In-1Te-0.2Ni alloy, an inhomogeneous structure revealed, which changed to a homogenous pattern after longer oxidation times. Such a structure was suppressed in the Bi bearing alloy. The applied 6 bar oxygen atmosphere brought on a 5–6 times higher rate of internal oxidation, with a homogenous structure compared to the free air oxidation. In free air after long time oxidation (200 h–250 h), the rate of internal oxidation was found to have almost doubled in both alloys.     

Modelling of interstitials in the bcc phase

There are several widespread thermodynamic datasets which produce a spurious bcc interstitial solution at high temperature and high X content (X is an interstitally dissolved element). The reason for this is the standard model for bcc interstitial solutions (M(V a,X)₃), which requires careful selection of optimising parameters to minimise spurious appearances of the bcc phase. In this work the model M(V a,X)₁ is suggested as an alternative. This model is much easier to handle and its parameters can be directly compared with those of the fcc phase. The two models are compared for the Fe–C and Nb–N systems. In the Fe–C system almost identical results are achieved. In Nb–N there are some differences for high N content, but there is no experimental data to clearly support any model.     

Results in the reconstruction of the pyeloureteral segment using the Anderson-Hynes method

In an introduction the authors take into consideration the term Hydronephrosis and then they reviewed indications for a correction-repair of a pyelo-ureteral segment. There is shortly presented what is to be expected from an "ideal" procedure for a such reconstruction and then the operative technique of Anderson-Hynes method is described. They have operated on 37 patients using this procedure and according to X-ray finding (Degree of dilatation of calices and pyelon) patients were divided into four groups. Of primary importance in the evaluation of end results are: X-ray finding, urine analysis and subjective feeling. According to these criteria an excellent result has been attained in 15 patients, very good in 5, rather good in 8, while in 4 the result was bad; 5 patients were lost to follow-up.