L’optimisation des réseaux cellulaires assistée par ordinateur: le logiciel RNO (Radio Network Optimisation)

Quality of service has become today a major concern for operators of mobile communication networks. The massive development of networks and strong competition between operators has lead to the necessary and daily follow-up of network quality of service, a key factor for its subscriber’s fidelity. This article aims at presenting the optimization methodology and proposes its illustration with a case of RNO (Radio Network Optimisation) software usage, one of the Alcatel optimization toolchain component. After a short presentation of cellular network, the optimization basic principles are described. RNO software and its main functionnalities are then detailed before a last part dedicated to a real case of optimization done with RNO software.     

Editorial.

With this volume, the 47-year old Canadian Journal of Psychology takes a new name and makes a renewed commitment. In retitling the journal the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology, the intention is to reflect more clearly what has always been the major goal of the journal--to publish the best new research in experimental psychology, both Canadian and international, in both French and English. I am honoured to become the tenth editor of the major journal for experimental psychology in Canada. CJP has served the field very well; my primary goal is to ensure that CJEP continues to do so. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Communications on energy: Fighting London's cold war

This communication illustrates the work of the London Energy and Employment Network. LEEN has the twin aims of promoting a rational energy policy for London and, in the process, generating much needed employment. In cooperation with Hackney, one of Britain's poorest boroughs, LEEN organized Hackney's Cold War — a series of initiatives showing the practical measures, informational back-up and funding sources necessary for a local energy policy. LEEN intends to repeat this project in other London Boroughs, with the eventual aim of helping to persuade central government to adopt a more comprehensive approach to energy conservation nationally.     

THE OPTIMUM SPEED OF VISUAL INSPECTION USING A RANDOM SEARCH STRATEGY

Choosing a standard speed for visual inspection is difficult using standard work measurement techniques. This paper uses a different approach, taking a model of human functioning in inspection and deriving an optimum speed of working so as to balance the cost of time against the cost of errors. Random search is used as the model and both self-paced and externally-paced conditions are derived for multiple fault types. Optimization using a Golden Section search is used to provide optimum inspection speed.     

éditorial.

This issue begins with an invited paper by Ronald Melzack, continuing the "Distinguished Contribution Series" begun in 1990 by my predecessor, Gordon Winocur. Professor Melzack is known world-wide for his research on pain. In 1965, together with Patrick Wall, he proposed the gate control theory, an entirely new conception of pain. For the first time, there was an explicit physiological model emphasizing the role played by the brain as well as by the spinal cord, leading to a new integration of psychological and physiological contributions to pain, as well as to new avenues for the control of pain. This theory has been highly influential, as a quick look in virtually any textbook in biology or medicine will confirm. Professor Melzack's continuing development of his ideas is presented with remarkable clarity in his books and in his many journal articles. It is, therefore, especially exciting for CJEP to be the first to publish a sketch of his new neuromatrix theory. When the book developing this theory is published, it too will no doubt have an immediate and major impact. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

50-nm Self-Aligned and “Standard” T-gate InP pHEMT Comparison: The Influence of Parasitics on Performance at the 50-nm Node

Continued research into the development of III-V high-electron mobility transistors (HEMTs), specifically the minimization of the device gate length, has yielded the fastest performance reported for any three terminal devices to date. In addition, more recent research has begun to focus on reducing the parasitic device elements such as access resistance and gate fringing capacitance, which become crucial for short gate length device performance maximization. Adopting a self-aligned T-gate architecture is one method used to reduce parasitic device access resistance, but at the cost of increasing parasitic gate fringing capacitances. As the device gate length is then reduced, the benefits of the self-aligned gate process come into question, as at these ultrashort-gate dimensions, the magnitude of the static fringing capacitances will have a greater impact on performance. To better understand the influence of these issues on the dc and RF performance of short gate length InP pHEMTs, the authors present a comparison between In_0.7Ga_0.3As channel 50-nm self-aligned and "standard" T-gate devices. Figures of merit for these devices include transconductance greater than 1.9 S/mm, drive current in the range 1.4 A/mm, and fT up to 490 GHz. Simulation of the parasitic capacitances associated with the self-aligned gate structure then leads a discussion concerning the realistic benefits of incorporating the self-aligned gate process into a sub-50-nm HEMT system     

Two topographic maps for data visualisation

We review a new form of self-organizing map which is based on a nonlinear projection of latent points into data space, identical to that performed in the Generative Topographic Mapping (GTM) [Bishop et al. (1997) Neurl Comput 10(1): 215–234]. But whereas the GTM is an extension of a mixture of experts, our new model is an extension of a product of experts [Hinton (2000) Technical report GCNU TR 2000-004, Gatsby Computational Neuroscience Unit, University College, London]. We show visualisation results on some real data sets and compare with the GTM. We then introduce a second mapping based on harmonic averages and show that it too creates a topographic mapping of the data. We compare these mappings on real and artificial data sets. Responsible editor: Soumen Chakrabarti.     

The distribution of anthocyanins in grape skin extracts of port wine cultivars as determined by high performance liquid chromatography

The distribution of anthocyanins in methanolic skin extracts of 16 grape cultivars used for port wine production and grown at five sites in the Douro Valley in Northern Portugal has been assessed by high performance liquid chromatography. Results are confined to the seven most readily separated and identified anthocyanins and are expressed as percentages of their total (88–99% of the total integrated area). Anthocyanins based on malvidin (Mv) predominated. Of these, Mv 3-glucoside was the major pigment (33–60%), being exceeded by Mv 3-p-coumarylglucoside (2–51%) in only two cultivars; Mv 3-acetylglucoside (1–15%) was consistently the lowest. Peonidin 3-glucoside (1–27%) was prominent in four cultivars, but delphinidin 3-glucoside (1–11%), petunidin 3-glucoside (2–11%) and cyanidin 3-glucoside (trace-6%) were of low proportions throughout. The ratio Mv 3-acetylglucoside/total Mv glucosides appeared characteristic of cultivar, independent of site, and a useful aid to identification of grape cultivars. The coloured pulp of some cultivars contained peonidin 3-glucoside as a major component, present in greater proportions than in the skin; the percentage of Mv 3-p-coumarylglucoside was lower in pulp than in skin. The identities of six of the seven anthocyanins were confirmed by fast atom bombardment mass spectrometry and the structures of the Mv derivatives were determined by nuclear magnetic resonance. The formation of formyl and acetyl anthocyanin artefacts is described.