Modulation and coding for mobile radio communications: channelswith correlated Rice fading and Doppler frequency shift

We discuss the relative performance of coherent phase-shift keying (PSK), differential PSK (DPSK), and double differential PSK (DDPSK) modulation schemes over a mobile radio channel in which transmission is affected by additive noise, a constant carrier phase offset, a constant Doppler frequency shift, and correlated Rice fading. We first compare the performance of these schemes to assess the amount of degradation caused on each one of them by fading. Among our findings, we observe that DDPSK turns out to be less sensitive to the effects of correlated fading than the other two schemes and that in these conditions interleaving may not be beneficial. We then consider the introduction of trellis-coded modulation (TCM). The system we advocate as offering the best tradeoff between performance and complexity with the channel model assumed here includes double-differential encoding, differential detection, an open-loop Doppler phase tracking circuit, and differential decoding in addition to a simple TCM scheme     

A new approach to spatial compression of stereoscopic videos

This paper presents a new spatial compression method specifically designed for stereo videos. Different form current compressors, which simply apply known 2D compression techniques, the method proposed here was developed taking into account specificities of the components of the spatial compression process which may impact the correct depth visualization, named Chrominance Subsampling, Discrete WaveletTransform (DWT) and Quantization. Each component was evaluated analyzing where datalosses occur and proposing ways to provide a good balance between compression ratio and image quality, minimizing losses in depth perception. The evaluations were made using standard objective (PSNR) and subjective (DSCQS) metrics, applied to an anaglyphic stereoscopic video base. The results showedour method is competitive regarding compression rate and providessuperior image quality.     

Excess Specific Heat of KCl Crystals Caused by Randomly Distributed OH<Superscript>−</Superscript> Dipole Impurities

The peculiarities of low-temperature heat capacity of the KCl crystals containing randomly distributed OH^– impurities have been studied using pulsed differential calorimetry. The contribution of the two level systems (TLS) and resonance modes to heat capacity was observed. At low concentration (the case of isolated-not interacted impurities) the experimental data are in agreement with the theory. At high concentrations (the case of interacting impurities) an excess low-temperature specific heat was observed attributed by us to the creation of the wide spectrum of force constants due to chaotic distribution of interacting impurities (observed effect is similar to the well-known one in amorphous solids induced by so-called Boson Peak, but it cannot be explained by soft potential model). At the same time the part of hydroxyl taking place in resonance oscillations decreases with the increase of concentration. The results of these experiments explain also the anomaly observed earlier in KCl:OH systems (De Yoreo et al.) that was attributed to unknown impurities.     

Evidence for in vivo peroxynitrite production in human chronic hepatitis

During inflammation nitric oxide reacts at near diffusion limited rates with superoxide to form the strong oxidant peroxynitrite. Nitration on the ortho position is a major product of peroxynitrite attack on proteins. In the present study we investigated whether immunohistochemical detection of nitrotyrosine (footprint of peroxynitrite) can be associated with human hepatitis. Paraffin-embedded liver tissue biopsies from patients with chronic active hepatitis, chronic active hepatitis plus cirrhosis and chronic persistent hepatitis exhibit significant specific immunostaining with the antibody to nitrotyrosine. Positive staining was found in 57% and 72% of tissue specimens from patients with chronic hepatitis and cirrhosis, respectively. Immunohistochemical staining of nitrotyrosine residues was found in the hepatocytes and Kuppffer cells of the necrotic area. The presence of nitrotyrosine indicates that oxidants derived from nitric oxide such as peroxynitrite are generated in human hepatitis and may be involved in its pathogenesis.     

Adaptive Multiplication-Free Transversal Equalizers with Application to Digital Radio Systems

Recently, multiplication-free digital filters have been proposed for different applications to digital radio systems and signal processing. The absence of multiplication is obtained by constraining each coefficient to be sum of powers of two. In this way, multipliers are substituted by shift registers and, if appropriate, some adders. The optimal power-of-two coefficients must be computed through a nonlinear optimization procedure. Until now the problem of adapting the power-of-two coefficients of base band transversal equalizers in the case of time-varying channels had not been considered. In this paper two algorithms are proposed to cope with this problem and are compared from the viewpoint of complexity, accuracy, and convergence speed. As an application example, transmission of a biphase PSK digital radio system over a multipath fading channel is considered.     

Inhibition of poly (ADP-ribose) synthetase attenuates neutrophil recruitment and exerts antiinflammatory effects

A cytotoxic cycle triggered by DNA single-strand breakage and poly (ADP-ribose) synthetase activation has been shown to contribute to the cellular injury during various forms of oxidant stress in vitro. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of poly (ADP-ribose) synthetase (PARS) in the process of neutrophil recruitment and in development of local and systemic inflammation. In pharmacological studies, PARS was inhibited by 3-aminobenzamide (10-20 mg/kg) in rats and mice. In other sets of studies, inflammatory responses in PARS-/- mice were compared with the responses in corresponding wild-type controls. Inhibition of PARS reduced neutrophil recruitment and reduced the extent of edema in zymosan- and carrageenan-triggered models of local inflammation. Moreover, inhibition of PARS prevented neutrophil recruitment, and reduced organ injury in rodent models of inflammation and multiple organ failure elicited by intraperitoneal injection of zymosan. Inhibition of PARS also reduced the extent of neutrophil emigration across murine mesenteric postcapillary venules. This reduction was due to an increased rate of adherent neutrophil detachment from the endothelium, promoting their reentry into the circulation. Taken together, our results demonstrate that PARS inhibition reduces local and systemic inflammation. Part of the antiinflammatory effects of PARS inhibition is due to reduced neutrophil recruitment, which may be related to maintained endothelial integrity.     

Fast adaptive equalizers for narrow-band TDMA mobile radio

It is pointed out that the future European cellular digital mobile radio system in the 900 MHz band adopts a narrowband time division multiple access (TDMA) scheme with Gaussian minimum-shift keying (GMSK) modulation and burst type transmission. Consequently, very fast adaptation methods are necessary to cope with the time- and frequency-selective distortions produced by Rayleigh and multipath fading. The authors examine a few theoretical aspects of the application of recursive least squares (RLS) adaptation algorithms to the narrowband TDMA mobile radio system and give the relevant performance results for the fast Kalman algorithm, which turns out to be suitable for the considered application. In particular, signature curves, bit error rate, speed of convergence, steady-state behavior, numerical stability, required accuracy, and hardware complexity are discussed. Linear transversal and nonlinear decision-feedback equalizers are considered     

Mercaptoethylguanidine and guanidine inhibitors of nitric-oxide synthase react with peroxynitrite and protect against peroxynitrite-induced oxidative damage

Nitric oxide (NO) produced by the inducible nitric-oxide synthase (iNOS) is responsible for some of the pathophysiological alterations during inflammation. Part of NO-related cytotoxicity is mediated by peroxynitrite, an oxidant species produced from NO and superoxide. Aminoguanidine and mercaptoethylguanidine (MEG) are inhibitors of iNOS and have anti-inflammatory properties. Here we demonstrate that MEG and related compounds are scavengers of peroxynitrite. MEG caused a dose-dependent inhibition of the peroxynitrite-induced oxidation of cytochrome c2+, hydroxylation of benzoate, and nitration of 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid. MEG reacts with peroxynitrite with a second-order rate constant of 1900 +/- 64 M-1 s-1 at 37 degrees C. In cultured macrophages, MEG reduced the suppression of mitochondrial respiration and DNA single strand breakage in response to peroxynitrite. MEG also reduced the degree of vascular hyporeactivity in rat thoracic aortic rings exposed to peroxynitrite. The free thiol plays an important role in the scavenging effect of MEG. Aminoguanidine neither affected the oxidation of cytochrome c2+ nor reacted with ground state peroxynitrite, but inhibited the peroxynitrite-induced benzoate hydroxylation and 4-hydroxyphenylacetic acid nitration, indicating that it reacts with activated peroxynitrous acid or nitrogen dioxide. Compounds that act both as iNOS inhibitors and peroxynitrite scavengers may be useful anti-inflammatory agents.