Application of Rate Compatible Punctured Turbo Coded Hybrid ARQ to MC‐CDMA Mobile Radio

MC‐CDMA, a multicarrier (MC) modulation scheme based on code division multiple access (CDMA), is the most likely candidate for the next generation of mobile radio communications. The rate compatible punctured turbo (RCPT) coded hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) has been found to give improved throughput performance in a direct sequence (DS) CDMA system. However, the extent to which the RCPT HARQ improves the throughput performance of an MC‐CDMA system has not been fully understood. In this paper, we apply the RCPT HARQ to MC‐CDMA and evaluate by computer simulations its performance in a frequency selective Rayleigh fading channel. We found that the performance of RCPT HARQ MC‐CDMA is almost insensitive to channel characteristics. The performance can be drastically improved with receive diversity combined with space‐time transmit diversity. In addition, the comparison of RCPT HARQ MC‐CDMA, orthogonal frequency division multiplexing, and DS‐CDMA shows that under similar conditions the throughput of MC‐CDMA is the best in a frequency selective fading channel.     

Flow-induced stripe pattern formation in phase-separating fluids

We demonstrated that the introduction of a temperature gradient along the free surface induces a particular stripe pattern in phase-separating fluids. The horizontal temperature gradient drove lateral-periodic spiral liquid motion flowing from warmer to cooler places due to thermocapillarity. Properly chosen polymer compositions and initial film thicknesses in ternary solutions allowed us to promote a phase separation in the presence of spiral flow, which assembled the demixed polymer droplets along the flow-stagnation lines. The resulting assembled phases aligned in the temperature gradient direction and eventually formed periodic polymer stripes involving the same spacing as that of the flow axis. The critical condition for the stripe pattern formation was given by the ratio of two relevant film thicknesses, i.e. the thickness for the onset of the phase separation and that for the cessation of liquid motion.     

High affinity binding of 9-[3H]methyl-7-bromoeudistomin D to the caffeine-binding site of skeletal muscle sarcoplasmic reticulum

3H-Labeled 9-methyl-7-bromoeudistomin D ([3H] MBED), the most powerful inducer of Ca2+ release from sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR), was successfully prepared with a high specific activity of 10.2 Ci/mmol. [3H]MBED bound to terminal cisternae (TC) of skeletal muscle SR in a replacable and saturable manner, indicating the existence of its specific binding site. Caffeine inhibited the [3H]MBED binding to the TC-SR membranes from skeletal muscle with an IC50 value of 0.8 mM, in close agreement with a concentration that causes Ca2+ release from SR. Scatchard analysis gave values of KD = 40 nM and Bmax = 10 pmol/mg protein. The KD value was increased by caffeine, while that of Bmax was not changed, indicating a competitive mode of inhibition. Adenosine 5'-(beta, gamma-methylene)triphosphate enhanced [3H]MBED binding, but ryanodine and Ca2+ did not affect it. [3H]MBED binding to TC-SR membranes was inhibited by procaine, a representative blocker of Ca(2+)-induced Ca2+ release channels, whereas that was not changed by Mg2+, suggesting that procaine but not Mg2+ may exert its inhibitory effect on Ca(2+)-induced Ca2+ release by affecting the caffeine-binding sites. These results suggest that MBED shares the same binding site as that of caffeine in TC-SR. The [3H]MBED is the first radiolabeled ligand for caffeine-binding sites in Ca2+ release channels and thus may provide an essential biochemical tool for elucidating this site.     

Model reference adaptive control for the azimuth-pointing system of a balloon-borne stabilized platform

A balloon-born stabilized platform has been developed for the remotely operated altitude-azimuth pointing of a millimetre wave telescope system. This paper presents a development and implementation of model reference adaptive control (MRAC) for the azimuth-pointing system of the stabilized platform. The primary goal of the controller is to achieve pointing RMS better than 0.1°. Simulation results indicate that MRAC can achieve pointing RMS better than 0.01°. Ground test results show pointing RMS better than 0.03°. Data from the first flight at the National Scientific Balloon Facility (NSBF), Palestine, TX show pointing RMS better than 0.02°.     

Prevention of coprophagy modifies magnesium absorption in rats fed with fructo-oligosaccharides

We developed a new type of anal cup for prevention of coprophagy and determined whether the absorption of Ca and Mg and the stimulatory effects of feeding fructo-oligosaccharides (FO) on the absorption of Ca and Mg were altered by prevention of coprophagy in rats. Rats were fed on a FO-free diet or a diet containing 50 g FO/kg for 2 weeks with or without prevention of coprophagy. FO-feeding increased the apparent absorptive ratio of Ca and Mg in rats with or without prevention of coprophagy. However, in the FO-fed groups the absorptive ratio of Mg in rats with prevention of coprophagy was higher than in rats without prevention of coprophagy. The Ca content of the femur was higher in rats fed on the FO-diet than in rats fed on the FO-free diet both with and without coprophagy. In conclusion, FO-feeding increased the absorption of Ca and Mg in rats both with and without coprophagy. Moreover, prevention of coprophagy enhanced the absorption of Mg in rats fed with FO. Coprophagy has to be considered when the effects of luminal fermentation or mineral absorption are examined in rats.     

Preferential adsorption of bovine fibrinogen dimer onto polymer microspheres having heterogeneous surfaces consisting of hydrophobic and hydrophilic parts

The adsorption onto polymer microspheres of bovine fibrinogen (BFb) containing both dimeric and monomeric species was examined using various homopolymer, copolymer, and poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate)/polystyrene composite microspheres which were produced by the emulsifier-free (seeded) emulsion polymerization technique. The preferential adsorption of the BFb dimer was clearly observed in an optimum region of the surface hydrophilicities of the polymer microspheres. The preferential adsorption of the BFb dimer onto the composite polymer microspheres having heterogeneous surfaces with both hydrophilic and hydrophobic parts was more remarkable than that onto the homopolymer and copolymer microspheres having homogeneous surfaces. The behavior is discussed in comparison with those for bovine serum albumin and human γ-globulin.     

Tissue- and subcellular-distribution of the binding site of [3H]9- methyl-7-bromoeudistomin D, a potent caffeine-like Ca2+ releaser, in rabbits

Tissue and subcellular distribution of the binding site of 3H-labelled 9-methyl-7-bromoeudistomin D ([3H]MBED), a powerful caffeine-like Ca2+ releaser, were investigated in rabbits. The order of specific activities of total homogenates was liver > brain > other tissues. All binding was completely suppressed by 10 mM caffeine, indicating that all [3H]MBED binding sites are modulated by caffeine. [3H]MBED binding sites distributed mainly in membrane fractions rather than soluble fractions in most tissues. In lung and liver, [3H]MBED binding was enriched in microsomes. [3H]MBED may be useful as a probe to investigate the actions of caffeine at the molecular level not only in muscles but also in a variety of tissues including liver, kidney and lung.     

Combined effects of phase sweeping transmitter diversity andchannel coding

A novel transmitter diversity scheme that generates forced fading to improve the performance of channel coding is proposed and investigated. Since the required phase sweeping frequency is much smaller than the transmission bit rate, bandwidth expansion is negligible. A sinusoidal phase sweeping function ΔΘ sin(2πf_Ht) is employed in laboratory experiments using 32 kbit/s quarternary differential phase shift keying (QDPSK) with differential detection and BCH(23,12) code. It is shown that ΔΘ=200° and f_H=67 Hz can be used when m (interleaving depth)=10 b. Hence, excessively long interleaving is not required by the use of transmitter diversity. Under very slow Rayleigh fading (f_D=1 Hz), a measured improvement of 4.8 dB is obtained at a word error rate of 10^-2 without receiver diversity. Applications include paging systems that require very simple receivers     

Error rate analysis of MDPSK/CPSK with diversity reception undervery slow Rayleigh fading and cochannel interference

The distribution of the phase noise due to additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and cochannel interference (CCI) is analyzed for differential phase detection (DPD) and coherent phase detection (CPD) in a very slow nonfrequency selective Rayleigh fading environment. The effects of modulation timing offset between the desired signal and the CCI and of the overall channel filter response are considered. Simple closed-form expressions are derived for ideal selection diversity reception. The derived phase noise distributions are used for evaluating the bit error rate (BER) performance of 2-16DPSK/CPSK assuming square-root raised cosine Nyquist transmit/receive filters. It is found that the BER performance of CPSK is less sensitive to CCI modulation timing offset than DPSK, and that increasing the filter rolloff factor can improve the BER performance due to CCI. Finally, the accuracy of the BER approximation that uses the symbol error rate is discussed     

Bacterial flora of the respiratory tract in patients with long term tracheostomy--colonization of the lower respiratory tract by Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Throat secretions (TS) and bronchial secretions aspirated from tracheostomy sites (TSTA) from six subjects with long term tracheostomy were simultaneously collected and then cultured every two weeks from January, 1990, to December, 1992. Isolated bacteria were mainly alpha-streptococci (96.2%) and Neisseria (69.6%) in TS, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (75.7%) in TSTA. In all cases, P. aeruginosa was isolated from and colonization of the lower respiratory tract by this organism was apparent 24.4 months, on average, after tracheostomy. There were ten episodes of respiratory infection in five cases, eight of which occurred after colonization. P. aeruginosa was the causative organism in seven of these episodes. Findings in patients with long term tracheostomy indicated separate colonization of the upper and lower respiratory tracts and that P. aeruginosa colonized the lower respiratory tract. The colonization of the lower respiratory tract by P. aeruginosa would thus appear to be an important factor inducing respiratory infection.