Principles and performance analysis of SeCond: A system for epidemic peer-to-peer content distribution

We propose and design a peer-to-peer system, SeCond, addressing the distribution of large sized content to a large number of end systems in an efficient manner. In contrast to prior work, it employs a self-organizing epidemic dissemination scheme for state propagation of available blocks and initiation of block transmissions. In order to exploit heterogeneity of peers, enhance the utilization of system resources and for the ease of deployment, scalability, and adaptivity to dynamic peer arrivals/departures, we propose mechanisms for adjusting protocol parameters dynamically according to the bandwidth usages. We describe design and analysis details of our protocol SeCond. Comprehensive performance evaluations and comparison with the BitTorrent system model have been accomplished for a wide range of scenarios. Performance results include scalability analysis for different arrival/departure patterns, flash-crowd scenario, overhead analysis, and fairness ratio. The major metrics we study include the average file download time, load on the primary seed, uplink/downlink utilization, and communication overhead. We show that SeCond is a scalable and adaptive protocol which takes the heterogeneity of the peers into account. The protocol is as fair as BitTorrent although it has no explicit strategy addressing free-riding. We also illustrate the applicability of an analytical fluid model to the behavior of SeCond.     

Fatty acid profiles and fat contents of commercially important seawater and freshwater fish species of Turkey: A comparative study

The fat content and fatty acid compositions of edible muscle of commercially important seawater and freshwater fish species were investigated. The fatty acid compositions of seawater fish species were found to be 25.5–39.4% saturated (SFA), 13.2–29.0% monounsaturated (MUFAs) and 25.2–48.2% polyunsaturated acids (PUFAs), whereas the fatty acid compositions of freshwater fish from Lake Seyhan consisted of 28.0–34.6% saturated (SFA), 10.7–22.7% monounsaturated (MUFAs) and 23.2–43.7% polyunsaturated acids (PUFAs). The proportions of n3 PUFAs of seawater fish (ranging from 22.6 for waker to 44.2% for blue fish) were higher than those of n3 PUFAs of freshwater fish (ranging from 11.5% for North African catfish to 28.4% for zander). However, the levels of n6 PUFAs of seawater fish (ranging from 0.43% for blue fish to 14.4% for sea bass) were lower than those of n6 PUFAs of freshwater fish (ranging from 5.27% for kutum to 16.8% for tench). The results showed that fatty acid profiles of most freshwater fish are basically comparable to those of seawater fish as sources of PUFAs.     

Auto-tuning of PID controller according to fractional-order reference model approximation for DC rotor control

This paper presents a stochastic, multi-parameters, divergence optimization method for the auto-tuning of proportional–integral–derivative (PID) controllers according to a fractional-order reference model. The study aimed to approximate the step response of the real closed-loop flight control system to the response of a theoretical reference model for a smoother and more precise flight control experience. The proposed heuristic optimization method can auto-tune a PID controller without a precise plant model. This is very advantageous when dealing with model and parameter uncertainties in real control application and practice. Experimental study confirms the reference model driven auto-tuning of the DC rotor prototype.     

Throughput maximization in electromagnetic energy harvesting cognitive radio sensor networks

In the near future, billions of wireless devices are expected to be operational. To enable the required machine to machine communications, two major problems must be addressed. How to obtain the required spectrum efficiency, and how to deliver the required power to these devices. The most promising answers to these questions are cognitive radio and energy harvesting, respectively. Energy harvesting enables deployment of sensors and devices without having to worry about their battery lifetime. Cognitive radio increases the utilization of spectrum by accessing unused spectrum dynamically. Energy harvesting from electromagnetic waves is suitable for these low power, low cost devices used in machine to machine communications because only minimal additional hardware is required for such energy harvesting. With this idea as the starting point, we first present an analysis on how much throughput can be obtained from a cognitive, electromagnetic energy harvesting wireless network. Then, we show when and how cooperation among network nodes may increase performance. We believe that our results will provide insight for the development of future cooperative cognitive energy harvesting networks. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

MAC protocols for wireless sensor networks: a survey

Wireless sensor networks are appealing to researchers due to their wide range of application potential in areas such as target detection and tracking, environmental monitoring, industrial process monitoring, and tactical systems. However, low sensing ranges result in dense networks and thus it becomes necessary to achieve an efficient medium-access protocol subject to power constraints. Various medium-access control (MAC) protocols with different objectives have been proposed for wireless sensor networks. In this article, we first outline the sensor network properties that are crucial for the design of MAC layer protocols. Then, we describe several MAC protocols proposed for sensor networks, emphasizing their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, we point out open research issues with regard to MAC layer design.     

Fixed versus adaptive admission control in direct broadcast Satellite networks with return channel systems

In this paper, as part of the adaptive resource allocation and management (ARAM) system (Alagoz, 2001), we propose an adaptive admission control strategy, which is aimed at combating link congestion and compromised channel conditions inherent in multimedia satellite networks. We present the performance comparisons of a traditional (fixed) admission control strategy versus the new adaptive admission control strategy for a direct broadcast satellite (DBS) network with return channel system (DBS-RCS). Performance comparisons are done using the ARAM simulator. The traffic mix in the simulator includes both available bit rate (ABR) traffic and variable bit rate (VBR) traffic. The dynamic channel conditions in the simulator reflect time variant error rates due to external effects such as rain. In order to maximize the resource utilization, both for fixed and adaptive approaches, assignment of the VBR services are determined based on the estimated statistical multiplexing and other system attributes, namely, video source, data transmission, and channel coding rates. In this paper, we focus on the admission control algorithms and assess their impact on quality-of-service (QoS) and forward link utilization of DBS-RCS. We show that the proposed adaptive admission control strategy is profoundly superior to the traditional admission control strategy with only a marginal decrease in QoS. Since the ARAM system has several parameters and strategies that play key roles in terms of the performance measures, their sensitivity analysis are also studied to verify the above foundations.     

A Note on Robust Stability Analysis of Fractional Order Interval Systems by Minimum Argument Vertex and Edge Polynomials

By using power mapping (s=vm), stability analysis of fractional order polynomials was simplified to the stability analysis of expanded degree integer order polynomials in the first Riemann sheet. However, more investigation is needed for revealing properties of power mapping and demonstration of conformity of Hurwitz stability under power mapping of fractional order characteristic polynomials. Contributions of this study have two folds:Firstly, this paper demonstrates conservation of root argument and magnitude relations under power mapping of characteristic polynomials and thus substantiates validity of Hurwitz stability under power mapping of fractional order characteristic polynomials. This also ensures implications of edge theorem for fractional order interval systems. Secondly, in control engineering point of view, numerical robust stability analysis approaches based on the consideration of minimum argument roots of edge and vertex polynomials are presented. For the computer-aided design of fractional order interval control systems, the minimum argument root principle is applied for a finite set of edge and vertex polynomials, which are sampled from parametric uncertainty box. Several illustrative examples are presented to discuss effectiveness of these approaches.      

Signet ring breast carcinoma metastases limited to the endometrium and cervix

Weak biospecific recognition has been established for affinity separation in high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The use of weak affinity chromatography (WAC) has been limited previously by the insufficient separation efficiency achieved, allowing only some 1000 plates/m to be obtained. However, it has been shown that chiral drug separation can be performed with capillary affinity gel electrophoresis (CAGE) at considerably improved efficiency as compared with traditional chromatographic procedures. Our present study demonstrates the potential of weak affinity monoclonal antibodies as a generic method for immunologically based separations in capillary electrophoresis. Monoclonal antibodies were polymerized within a silica capillary and were used for the separation of structurally similar carbohydrate antigens. The results indicate that weak biospecific interactions can be utilized in a CAGE format to produce highly selective separation of the alpha- and beta-forms of p-nitrophenyl-labeled maltose. It remains to be seen, however, how efficient weak affinity separation in CAGE can be compared with affinity HPLC protocols. Details of typical separations and of the preparation of the antibody gel are presented.     

Novel quantization‐based spectrum sensing scheme under imperfect reporting channel and false reports

In this paper, a novel sensing scheme, uniform quantization for cooperative sensing (UniQCS), that employs a uniform quantizer is proposed. UniQCS is based on energy detection and uses weight vector for global decision function. It performs better than hard decision algorithms such as majority and k‐out‐of‐n in terms of probability of detection and false alarm at the cost of a marginal increase in overhead bits under imperfect reporting channel and false reports. The probability of detection is maximized for a given probability of false alarm constraint by the proposed method. For detailed analysis, the UniQCS is compared with equal gain combiner scheme, which performs far better than hard decision algorithms, via highest bandwidth requirement. The proposed algorithm performs close to equal gain combiner. Moreover, the robustness of UniQCS to sensing error is analyzed when some nodes always report false decisions to the fusion center and the reporting channel is imperfect. For probability of false alarm equal to 0.01, performance gain of UniQCS is at least 45% compared with the other methods when there are two false reporting nodes. UniQCS performance gain is at least 15% compared with other methods for probability of reporting channel error equal to 0.001. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.