Training sequence design and channel estimation of OFDM-CDMA broadband wireless access networks with diversity techniques

In this paper, an OFDM-CDMA system employing various diversity schemes is considered for a possible candidate of broadband wireless access networks and broadcasting applications. With an emphasis on a preamble design for multi-channel separation, we address a channel estimation based on the time-domain windowing and its imperfectness in OFDM-based multiple-antenna transmission systems. By properly designing each preamble for multiple antennas to be orthogonal in the time domain, the channel estimation can be applied to the HIPERLAN/2 and IEEE 802.11a standards in the case of more than two transmit antennas. Also, the effect of diversity techniques on the performance of OFDM-CDMA based broadband wireless access networks is investigated and the maximum achievable diversity gain for a two-path Rayleigh fading environment is evaluated. Simulation results show that the OFDM-CDMA system applying a space-time-frequency diversity with a full-rate full diversity code can give the diversity of D=4 and D=8 for both multi-user cases of maximum user and half user capacities, respectively.     

Mechanical Properties and Chemical Composition of Peanuts as Affected by Harvest Date and Maturity

Harvest date and maturity (by the Hull Scrape method) were compared to mechanical properties and chemical composition of peanuts. In general, later-harvested or mature peanuts exhibited higher cutting and shear-compression forces, shear-compression energy and slope of force-deformation curve than earlier-harvested or immature peanuts. Mesocarp color of peanuts could be used as an index to group peanuts with similar shear-compression energy (sensory crunchiness). Harvest date did not affect dry basis chemical composition except carbohydrates content decreased slightly as digging was delayed. Oil content increased and carbohydrates decreased as peanuts matured. Total unsaturated fatty acids content increased with maturity.     

QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS OF TEXTURE CHANGE IN COD MUSCLE DURING FROZEN STORAGE

The textural deterioration of cod muscle during frozen storage was investigated by objective measurement using the Instron Universal Testing Machine. The rates of texture change as a function of storage time revealed that the increased toughness and decreased cohesiveness could be described by a first-order relationship. Higher storage temperatures resulted in more rapid rates of textural deterioration. Larger activation energy constants for toughness of cod muscle as compared to cohesiveness indicated that toughening was more temperature dependent than cohesiveness. The increased toughness and the decreased cohesiveness of frozen-stored fish appeared to be related to the protein denaturation of the cod muscle and the loss of water-holding capacity, respectively.     

Quality of ecologically produced foods of animal origin

The production of organic (ecological) food of animal origin is done in many ways and uses many different breeds. Therefore a real comparison with conventionally produced food is difficult. From the limited number of published data it appears, that the characteristics of quality of the products, the nutritional, hygienic, sensorial and technological factors, are not very different in both systems of production. In some factors organic food gets better marks, in others the conventionally produced food. The differences are in the production system (process quality) during lifetime of the animals.     

Sucrosemia in untreated celiac disease: a potential screening test

During studies to develop serum tests of small intestinal permeability, we detected an unidentified disaccharide in HPLC traces of sera from untreated celiacs. This present study aimed to identify the disaccharide and determine whether the presence of the disaccharide in the serum after an oral challenge had potential as a simple screening test for celiac disease. The disaccharide was identified as sucrose by incubation studies of sera with disaccharidases. Twenty untreated celiacs, 15 treated celiacs, and 20 normal or dyspeptic controls were studied for the presence of sucrose in their serum after an oral load (8 g). The results in celiacs were compared with the presence of serum IgA endomysial antibodies. The 10 normal controls were also given a larger sucrose challenge (50 g). Ten of the untreated celiacs and 10 controls had their brush border disaccharidase activities measured. Sucrose eluted in the same position as the unidentified disaccharide in the HPLC trace and the latter could be removed by incubation with sucrase. All untreated celiacs but none of the treated celiacs had sucrose in their serum after the 8-g oral challenge. None of the controls had sucrose in their serum after the 8-g or 50-g challenges. Three untreated celiacs were IgA endomysial antibody negative as were all the treated cases. Brush border sucrase activity was low in untreated celiac disease. The presence of sucrose in the serum after an oral load shows promise as a noninvasive test for celiac disease.     

Development of a simple model for batch and boundary information updation for a similar ship’s block model

In early 2000,large domestic shipyards introduced shipbuilding 3D computer-aided design (CAD) to the hull production design process to define manufacturing and assembly information.The production design process accounts for most of the man-hours (M/H) of the entire design process and is closely connected to yard production because designs must take into account the production schedule of the shipyard,the current state of the dock needed to mount the ship’s block,and supply information.Therefore,many shipyards are investigating the complete automation of the production design process to reduce the M/H for designers.However,these problems are still currently unresolved,and a clear direction is needed for research on the automatic design base of manufacturing rules,batches reflecting changed building specifications,batch updates of boundary information for hull members,and management of the hull model change history to automate the production design process.In this study,a process was developed to aid production design engineers in designing a new ship’s hull block model from that of a similar ship previously built,based on AVEVA Marine.An automation system that uses the similar ship’s hull block model is proposed to reduce M/H and human errors by the production design engineer.First,scheme files holding important information were constructed in a database to automatically update hull block model modifications.Second,for batch updates,the database’s table,including building specifications and the referential integrity of a relational database were compared.In particular,this study focused on reflecting the frequent modification of building specifications and regeneration of boundary information of the adjacent panel due to changes in a specific panel.Third,the rollback function is proposed in which the database (DB) is used to return to the previously designed panels.     

Fuel combustion test in constant volume combustion chamber with built-in adaptor

Combustion tests of pre-mixture of methane and air in constant volume combustion chamber(CVCC) have been carried out by means of flame propagation photo and gas pressure measurement,the effects of CVCC body temperature,intake pressure of pre-mixture of methane and air,equivalence ratio and location of the built-in adaptor have been investigated.The whole combustion chamber can be divided into two parts,i.e.the upper combustion chamber and the lower combustion chamber,by the built-in adaptor with through hol...     

Determining node duty cycle using Q-learning and linear regression for WSN

Wireless sensor network(WSN)is effective for monitoring the target environment,which consists of a large number of sensor nodes of limited energy.An efficient medium access control(MAC)protocol is thus imperative to maximize the energy efficiency and performance of WSN.The most existing MAC protocols are based on the scheduling of sleep and active period of the nodes,and do not consider the relationship between the load condition and performance.In this paper a novel scheme is proposed to properly determine the duty cycle of the WSN nodes according to the load,which employs the Q-leaming technique and function approximation with linear regression.This allows low-latency energy-efficient scheduling for a wide range of traffic conditions,and effectively overcomes the limitation of Q-learning with the problem of continuous state-action space.NS3 simulation reveals that the proposed scheme significantly improves the throughput,latency,and energy efficiency compared to the existing fully active scheme and S-MAC.