Two-Stage Blind Detection of Differential Space-Time Block Coded Continuous Phase Modulation

We introduce a space-time (ST) continuous phase modulation (CPM) and its companion noncoherent receiver. Through careful selection of an underlying differential code, the defining characteristics of the CPM transmissions are effectively maintained. Using a set of interference suppressed statistics and taking advantage of the ST differential encoding, the receiver first performs low complexity block detection. Channel estimates are then obtained at a rate notably higher than the CPM symbol rate, enabling a second-stage coherent sequence detector to refine the initial decisions. Simulation results for two CPM formats, with two and four transmit antennas, validate the proposed ST-CPM scheme.     

Dyadic drumming across the lifespan reveals a zone of proximal development in children.

Many social interactions require the synchronization—be it automatically or intentionally—of one's own behavior with that of others. Using a dyadic drumming paradigm, the authors delineate lifespan differences in interpersonal action synchronization (IAS). Younger children, older children, younger adults, and older adults in same- and mixed-age dyads were instructed to drum in synchrony with their interaction partner at a constant, self-chosen tempo. Adult-only dyads showed the highest and children-only the lowest levels of IAS accuracy. It is important to note that children improved reliably in IAS accuracy when paired with older partners. The observed age-related differences in IAS accuracy remained reliable after statistically controlling for individual differences in the ability to synchronize to a metronome and for between-dyad differences in tempo. The authors conclude that IAS improves from middle childhood to adulthood and that adult interaction partners may facilitate its development. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved)     

Me against myself: Motivational conflicts and emotional development in adulthood.

Two studies investigated adult age differences in the frequency and emotional consequences of motivational conflicts (i.e., feeling that one wants to or should do something else in a given situation). Study 1 compared younger and older adults. Study 2 included a more age-heterogeneous sample ranging from 20 to 70 years. Data were obtained using diary and experience-sampling methods. Multilevel regression showed that motivational conflict was associated with lower emotional well-being. With age, the frequency of motivational conflict decreased, while emotional well-being increased. Importantly, the age-related decrease in motivational conflicts partly accounted for the age-related increase in emotional well-being. Findings were consistent across studies and robust after the authors controlled for age differences in a number of control variables including time use. The authors conclude that an age-related decrease in motivational conflicts in daily life may be among the factors underlying the positive development of emotional well-being into older adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Free skin transplantation in the maxillo-facial area. Report on 172 cases

Between 1971 and 1977, in the department of maxillo-facial surgery (University of Tübingen) 160 patients were treated by 172 free skin grafting in the oral and maxillo-facial region. In 140 cases split skin grafts, in 32 cases full-thickness skin grafts were used. The aesthetic and functional results were very good to satisfactory in 98.3% (169 out of 172 grafts), in 1.7% (3 cases) did skin grafting have to be repeated.     

Temperature Dependent Mobility Measurements of Alkali-Earth Ions in Superfluid Helium (4He)

Mobility measurements of alkali-earth ions Be ⁺ , Mg ⁺ , Ca ⁺ , Sr ⁺ and Ba ⁺ in the temperature range 1.27 to 1.66 K are presented. The mobility of Be ⁺ shows a different behavior in comparison to that of Mg ⁺ , although the properties of the two elements are similar. This may suggest that Be ⁺ forms an alternate structure, perhaps a snowball, compared to the bubble like defect of Mg ⁺ .     

GUPRO - Generic Understanding of Programs An Overview

GUPRO is an integrated workbench to support program understanding of heterogenous software systems on arbitrary levels of granularity. GUPRO can be adapted to specific needs by an appropriate conceptual model of the target software.GUPRO is based on graph-technology. It heavily relies on graph querying and graph algorithms. Source code is extracted into a graph repository which can be viewed by an integrated querying and browsing facility. For C-like languages GUPRO browsing includesa complete treatment of preprocessor facilities.This paper summarizes the work done on GUPRO during the last seven years.     

Diagnosis and therapy of splenic abscess exemplified by 3 unusual cases

The total enumeration and biotyping of staphylococci isolated from the rumen content of deer is presented in this study. The total counts of staphylococcal isolates from deer reached 1.5 x 10(3) cfu/ml. Of 960 colonies, 904 were taxonomically identified. Coagulase-negative staphylococci mainly Staphylococcus simulans and Staph. xylosus were the most frequently isolated species, followed by Staph. warneri, Staph. lentus, Staph. saprophyticus, Staph. epidermidis and Staph. hominis. Moreover, the atypical species were isolated, such as Staph. chromogenes, Staph. capitis, Staph. caseolyticus and Staph. auricularis. Except Staph. aureus, no coagulase-positive staphylococci were found. The strain identified showed high resistance to vancomycin (61.2%) and to chloramphenicol (41.9%). The resistance to erythromycin and bacitracin was demonstrated in 16.1% and 35.5% of isolates. On the other hand, 99% of isolates were sensitive to gentamycin, 96% to linkomycin, 93% to methicilin and 87% of isolates were sensitive to bacitracin and virginiamycin. The mean value of lactic acid production was 0.446 +/- 0.026 mol/l. The majority of strains belonged to ureolytic bacteria with low urease production. However, eight different species showed urease activity higher than 30 nkat/ml. No bacteriocin active strain was detected by indicator organisms used. Although the percentage of nonidentifiable strains was high (64.7%), the detection of different species improved and confirmed species variability in the rumen microbial ecosystem of deer as well as in total. Moreover, additional tests are under way, especially those regarding bacteriocin production.     

Correlation of odontogenic soft tissue infection and thermal effects with special reference to temperature sense. Statistical analysis of 2,111 patients

Many persons are exposed to preservatives/biocides based on methylchloroisothiazolinone/methylisothiazolinone (MCI/MI), since toiletries and cosmetics, as well as products/water-based systems used occupationally, may all contain MCI/MI. In toiletries and cosmetics, the MCI/MI concentration is often below 15 ppm (0.0015%). In some industries, workers handle high concentrations of MCI/MI, which can cause chemical burns and induce sensitization if skin is exposed. Contact allergy to MCI/MI is common and reports on chemical burns have been published. Thus, there is a need for prevention of skin diseases caused by MCI/MI. The inactivation of MCI/MI by glutathione (GSH) in emollients, containing different amounts of lipids, was studied by HPLC. Various amounts of GSH were added to Fenuril, Essex, and Locobase, giving 3 preparations of each emollient containing 0.10%, 0.50% and 2.0% GSH, respectively. The inactivation of 15 ppm MCI/MI and the total inactivating capacity of GSH in these preparations, kept at room temperature and refrigerated, was studied over a period of 6 months. The inactivating capacity of GSH in the emollients was almost equivalent, regardless of the lipid contents of the emollients, type of storage and age. On the other hand, the GSH concentration in the emollients had a crucial importance on the inactivation of MCI/MI. Emollients containing 2% GSH were capable of inactivating up to 2400 ppm MCI/MI.     

An eigen-assisted noncoherent receiver for Alamouti-type space-time modulation

We consider noncoherent block detection of Alamouti-type space-time (ST) modulations, employing PSK constellations in quasi-static Rayleigh-fading channels with L receive antennas. The proposed detector, termed an eigen-assisted (EA) receiver, constructs a sample-correlation matrix from the L length-N received signals, determines its two principal eigenvectors, and uses these eigenvectors to reconstruct the two transmitted length-N patterns. Scalar differential encoding is performed at the transmit antennas, and as a result, the transmitted data can be recovered from the reconstructed patterns using scalar multiple-symbol differential detection. In other words, ST-differential encoding is not required at the transmitter and the constellation expansion typically observed with nonbinary signaling is avoided; a highly desirable result under a peak power constraint. Furthermore, the performance of the proposed EA-receiver is only 0.25 dB away from the coherent detection (with differential encoding) lower bound for the modulations considered. For quadrature phase-shift keying at a bit-error rate of 10/sup -4/, our EA-receiver with N=64 outperforms a decision feedback detector by 1 dB (L=1) and conventional ST-differential detection by more than 2.5 dB (L=2). Note that the complexity of our receiver, per symbol decision, is essentially independent of N and is comparable to that of a conventional ST-differential detector. The conclusion is reached that the proposed encoder/receiver pair is a promising alternative to currently known noncoherent techniques employing Alamouti-type ST-modulations.     

Focusing and restricting: Two aspects of motivational selectivity in adulthood.

Using a short-term longitudinal design, the authors investigated implications of 2 facets of motivational selectivity--restricting (to few goals) and focusing (on central and similar goals)--for goal-pursuit investment. Participants were 20-69 years old (Time 1, N = 177; Time 2, N = 160). Results show that motivational selectivity in terms of focusing (but not in terms of restricting) is associated with an enhanced involvement in goal pursuit (assessed 3 months later), irrespective of age. Structural equation models demonstrated that this association is completely mediated by the degree of mutual facilitation among goals. Furthermore, motivational selectivity increases from middle to older adulthood. This contributes to the maintenance of high goal involvement into later adulthood, despite aging-related increases in resource limitations. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)