Soft-Decision Decoding of Punctured Convolutional Codes in Asynchronous-CDMA Communications Under Perfect Phase-Tracking Conditions

In this paper, the performance of punctured convolutional codes of short constraint lengths is discussed. The punctured codes are used to provide error protection to a particular user in an asynchronous CDMA system. A perfect phase reference is assumed to be available throughout this paper. A slow fading Rician channel is assumed. Maximum likelihood decoding through a Viterbi algorithm is used to decode the information symbols. Soft-decision decoding of punctured convolutional codes is considered in this paper. The upper bounds with Viterbi decoding are derived and plotted for the various punctured codes considered. The simulated results are found to agree very well with their upper and lower bounds.     

Post-breakdown bulk oscillations in gold-doped silicon p+−i−n+ double-injection diodes

Experimental work on post-breakdown bulk oscillations in n-type gold-doped phosphorus-compensated p⁺?i?n⁺ double-injection diodes is presented. An empirical relationship for the frequency of oscillation in this region is derived for the first time and discussed.     

Spectral Efficiency Evaluation for MRC Diversity Schemes Over Generalized Rician Fading Channels

In this paper, closed-form expressions for the capacities per unit bandwidth for generalized Rician fading channels are derived for power and rate adaptation, constant transmit power, channel inversion with fixed rate, and truncated channel inversion adaptation policies. The closed-form solutions are derived for the single antenna reception (without diversity combining) and maximal-ratio combining (MRC) diversity cases. Truncated channel inversion adaptation policy is the best policy for the single antenna reception case, while the channel inversion with fixed rate policy is the best policy for the MRC diversity case. Constant transmit power policy provides the lowest spectral efficiency as compared to the other policies with and without diversity.     

Stochastic Budget Optimization in Internet Advertising

Internet advertising is a sophisticated game in which the many advertisers “play” to optimize their return on investment. There are many “targets” for the advertisements, and each “target” has a collection of games with a potentially different set of players involved. In this paper, we study the problem of how advertisers allocate their budget across these “targets”. In particular, we focus on formulating their best response strategy as an optimization problem. Advertisers have a set of keywords (“targets”) and some stochastic information about the future, namely a probability distribution over scenarios of cost vs click combinations. This summarizes the potential states of the world assuming that the strategies of other players are fixed. Then, the best response can be abstracted as stochastic budget optimization problems to figure out how to spread a given budget across these keywords to maximize the expected number of clicks. We present the first known non-trivial poly-logarithmic approximation for these problems as well as the first known hardness results of getting better than logarithmic approximation ratios in the various parameters involved. We also identify several special cases of these problems of practical interest, such as with fixed number of scenarios or with polynomial-sized parameters related to cost, which are solvable either in polynomial time or with improved approximation ratios. Stochastic budget optimization with scenarios has sophisticated technical structure. Our approximation and hardness results come from relating these problems to a special type of (0/1, bipartite) quadratic programs inherent in them. Our research answers some open problems raised by the authors (in Algorithmica, 58(4):1022–1044, 2010).     

Biogenic synthesis and thermo‐magnetic study of highly porous carbon nanotubes

Nanomaterials synthesis using natural sources is the technology to up come with advanced materials through extracts of plant, microorganisms, poultry waste etc. In this study, the authors report the synthesis of porous carbon nanotubes using high‐temperature decomposition technique facilitated by cobalt salt using chicken fats, a poultry waste as a precursor. Since chicken fats contain fatty acids which can decompose into short hydrocarbon chains and cobalt can act as the catalyst. The formation of carbon nanotubes was confirmed by Raman spectra, peaks at 1580 and 1350.46 cm⁻¹ confirmed the graphite mode G‐band and structural imperfections defect mode D‐band, respectively. Transmission electron microscopy showed the formation of tube‐like structures. Nitrogen adsorption–desorption studies showed the high‐surface area of 418.1 m² g⁻¹ with an estimated pore diameter of 8.1 nm. Thermogravimetry analysis–derivative thermogravimetric analysis–differential thermal analysis showed the instant weight loss at 517°C attributed to the rapid combustion of nanotubes. A vibrating‐sample magnetometer showed the paramagnetic nature of the so‐formed carbon nanotubes formed.Inspec keywords: transmission electron microscopy, infrared spectra, nanomagnetics, pyrolysis, decomposition, adsorption, desorption, carbon nanotubes, differential thermal analysis, thermal analysis, nanofabrication, Raman spectra, X‐ray diffraction, scanning electron microscopy, paramagnetic materialsOther keywords: biogenic synthesis, highly porous carbon nanotubes, microorganisms, high‐temperature decomposition technique, cobalt salt, chicken fats, fatty acids, short hydrocarbon chains, Raman spectra, graphite mode G‐band, structural imperfections defect mode D‐band, transmission electron microscopy, paramagnetic nature, thermo‐magnetic properties, poultry waste, nitrogen adsorption‐desorption studies, thermogravimetry analysis, differential thermal analysis, carbon nanotubes, temperature 517.0 degC, C     

Growth and characterisation of triammonium citrate

Single crystals of triammonium citrate are grown from aqueous solution and characterized using X-ray and etching studies. Using single crystal X-ray diffraction, the crystal is found to be orthorhombic with lattice parametersa = 6·223 Å,b = 15·048 Å andc = 11·056 Å. Surface studies on the as-grown faces reveal stratigraphic patterns. Of the several etchants tried, glacial acetic acid appears to be the best etchant for revealing dislocation sites on the as-grown faces.     

Cytosine Arabinoside Release from Polymeric Matrices

Cytosine arabinoside (Ara-C) has been used in the treatment of acute myeloid leukemia. However, rapid deamination reduces its effectiveness. Polymeric matrices containing ara-C were prepared in polyether polyurethane copolymer to form a protective, supply of ara-C. Release studies from these devices showed linear relationships between Q, the amount release per unit area, versus the square root of time. Burst effects were predominant at higher loading doses. The diffusivity values indicated that enough drug could pass through the polymer for the combination to have potential application as implants in cancer therapy.     

Wet foam stability and tailoring microstructure of porous ceramics using polymer beads

The microstructures of the porous ceramics are improved considerably using polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) as a pore template since particles tend to adsorb irreversibly at the air-water interface. This paper presents a versatile approach for the production of porous SiO₂ ceramics by a process of direct foaming with the addition of PMMA beads. The adsorption free energy of the colloidal suspension was found to be 2.0?×?10⁹?kT. A wet foam stability of >80% was achieved using the surfactant hexylamine (0.05?M), which resulted in a colloidal suspension with the highest surface tension (116.2?mN?m^??1).     

Outage probability of SC receiver over exponentially correlated K fading channels

A mathematical expression for the outage probability of a selection combining diversity receiver with an arbitrary number of input branches is presented for exponentially correlated K fading channels. Numerical and simulation results are plotted and the effect of correlation, number of diversity branches and fading parameter on the outage performance of the receiver is studied. Results suggest that a correlation coefficient less than 0.5 may be used in practice.