Performance of BICM-SC and BICM-OFDM systems with diversity reception in non-gaussian noise and interference

In this paper, we present a general mathematical framework for performance analysis of single?carrier (SC) and orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems employing popular bit?interleaved coded modulation (BICM) and multiple receive antennas. The proposed analysis is applicable to BICM systems impaired by general types of fading (including Rayleigh, Ricean, Nakagami-m, Nakagami-q, and Weibull fading) and general types of noise and interference with finite moments such as additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN), additive correlated Gaussian noise, Gaussian mixture noise, co-channel interference, narrowband interference, and ultra-wideband interference. We present an approximate upper bound for the bit error rate (BER) and an accurate closed-form approximation for the asymptotic BER at high signal-to-noise ratios for Viterbi decoding with the standard Euclidean distance branch metric. For the standard rate-1/2 convolutional code the proposed approximate upper bound and the asymptotic approximation become tight at BERs of 10-6 and 10-12, respectively. However, if the code is punctured to higher rates (e.g. 2/3 or 3/4), the asymptotic approximation also becomes tight at a BER of 10-6. Exploiting the asymptotic BER approximation we show that the diversity gain of BICM systems only depends on the free distance of the code, the type of fading, and the number of receive antennas but not on the type of noise. In contrast their coding gain strongly depends on the noise moments. Our asymptotic analysis shows that as long as the standard Euclidean distance branch metric is used for Viterbi decoding, BICM systems optimized for AWGN are also optimum for any other type of noise and interference with finite moments.     

Mesh cutting during real-time physical simulation

The ability to cut through meshes in real-time is an essential ingredient in a number of practical interactive simulations. Surgical simulation, cloth design, clay sculpting and many other related VR applications require the ability to introduce arbitrary discontinuities through models to separate, reposition, and reshape various pieces of the model as needed for the target application. In addition, in order to provide the necessary realism for these applications, model deformations must be computed from an underlying physically-based model—most commonly a continuum-based finite element model.In this work, we present a method for representing and computing, at interactive rates, the deformations of a mesh whose topology is being dynamically modified with multiple virtual tools. The method relies on introducing controlled discontinuities in the basis functions used to represent the geometry of deformation, and on fast incremental methods for updating global model deformations. The method can also generate the forces needed for force rendering in a haptic environment. The method is shown to scale well with problem size (linearly in the number of nonzeros of the Cholesky factor) allowing realistic interaction with fairly large models.     

Enhancing solar energy collection by using curved flow technology coupled with flow in porous media: an experimental study

In this study two solar energy collectors were designed and built. To enhance the heat transfer characteristics, flow in curved channel technology is used. Porous media (with 0.1453 porosity) composed of coarse aluminum chips fill the flow channels to provide for further increase in heat transfer performance and for extra energy storage capability.Measured data were recorded water flow rates that range between 50 and 400 l/h. The results show that the enhancement of heat transfer characteristics associated with the existence of porous media does not improve the calculated collector daily efficiency. The collector daily efficiency reduces during sunlight relative to that for that of clean collectors by approximately 1.0% and 2.0% at flow rates of 300 and 200 l/h, respectively. The daily efficiency at 300, 200 l/h flow rates are 60%, 56%, respectively, for the collector without porous media and 59%, 54%, respectively for the collector packed with porous media.It is noticed that using porous medium significantly decreases the rate of decline in water temperature to approximately half its value for the case without porous medium for flow rate of 300 l/h during the absence of sunlight. Also using porous medium will decrease the temperature rise across the collector during sunlight.The maximal outlet temperature reached was 73 °C for the collector without porous media at 70 l/h flow rate and 60 °C for the collector backed with porous medium at 50 l/h flow rate.     

Use of response surface methodology in a fed-batch process for optimization of tricarboxylic acid cycle intermediates to achieve high levels of canthaxanthin from Dietzianatronolimnaea HS-1

In this work, we applied statistical experimental design to a fed-batch process for optimization of tricarboxylic acid cycle (TCA) intermediates in order to achieve high-level production of canthaxanthin from Dietzia natronolimnaea HS-1 cultured in beet molasses. A fractional factorial design (screening test) was first conducted on five TCA cycle intermediates. Out of the five TCA cycle intermediates investigated via screening tests, alfaketoglutarate, oxaloacetate and succinate were selected based on their statistically significant (P < 0.05) and positive effects on canthaxanthin production. These significant factors were optimized by means of response surface methodology (RSM) in order to achieve high-level production of canthaxanthin. The experimental results of the RSM were fitted with a second-order polynomial equation by means of a multiple regression technique to identify the relationship between canthaxanthin production and the three TCA cycle intermediates. By means of this statistical design under a fed-batch process, the optimum conditions required to achieve the highest level of canthaxanthin (13172 ± 25 μg l⁻¹) were determined as follows: alfaketoglutarate, 9.69 mM; oxaloacetate, 8.68 mM; succinate, 8.51 mM.     

Fuzzy-Q-learning-based autonomic management of macro-diversity algorithm in UMTS networks

Third generationUmts network has come with significant high-quality services that considerably increase the complexity of its management. Autonomic management has been introduced to alleviate these complex lengthy tasks. In this paper, we propose an autonomic management of macro-diversity algorithm inUmts networks. The new approach allows to dynamically adapt macro-diversity parameters to varying network situations. The online adaptation of these parameters is made by an intelligent controller calledfuzzy-Q-Learning. The combination of Fuzzy Inference System (Fis) and Q-learning algorithm allows to determine the best on-line parameterization of base stations and to deal with large number of continuous states and actions. The proposed scheme improves the system capacity up to 30% compared to a classical network with fixed parameters, balances the load between base stations and minimizes human interventions in the network management. However, the reactivity of the controller should be chosen with a special care since it impacts the frequency of active set updates and hence signalling messages in the radio interface as well as in the core network.     

Adaptive image compression technique for wireless sensor networks

When using wireless sensor networks for real-time image transmission, some critical points should be considered. These points are limited computational power, storage capability, narrow bandwidth and required energy. Therefore, efficient compression and transmission of images in wireless sensor network is considered. To address the above mentioned concerns, an efficient adaptive compression scheme that ensures a significant computational and energy reduction as well as communication with minimal degradation of the image quality is proposed. This scheme is based on wavelet image transform and distributed image compression by sharing the processing of tasks to extend the overall lifetime of the network. Simulation results are presented and they show that the proposed scheme optimizes the network lifetime, reduces significantly the amount of the required memory and minimizes the computation energy by reducing the number of arithmetic operations and memory accesses.     

Optimised cross-layer synchronisation schemes for wireless sensor networks

This paper aims at synchronisation between the sensor nodes. Indeed, in the context of wireless sensor networks, it is necessary to take into consideration the energy cost induced by the synchronisation, which can represent the majority of the energy consumed. On communication, an already identified hard point consists in imagining a fine synchronisation protocol which must be sufficiently robust to the intermittent energy in the sensors. Hence, this paper worked on aspects of performance and energy saving, in particular on the optimisation of the synchronisation protocol using cross-layer design method such as synchronisation between layers. Our approach consists in balancing the energy consumption between the sensors and choosing the cluster head with the highest residual energy in order to guarantee the reliability, integrity and continuity of communication (i.e. maximising the network lifetime).     

Single electron transistor: Energy-level broadening effect and thermionic contribution

In this paper, a theoretical study of single electron transistor (SET) based on silicon quantum dot (Si–QD) has been studied. We have used a novel approach based on the orthodox theory. We studied the energy–level broadening effect on the performance of the SET, where the tunnel resistance depends on the discrete energy. We have investigated the I–V curves, taking into account the effects of the energy-level broadening, temperature and bias voltage. The presence of Coulomb blockade phenomena and its role to obtain the negative differential resistance (NDR) have been also outlined.