A BER Based Selection Combining Protocol for Adaptive Cooperative Cognitive Radios

This paper illustrates the performance of bit error rate based selection combining (BER-SC) protocol for adaptive cooperative cognitive radios. In the proposed framework, the unlicensed (i.e. secondary) system utilizes an adaptive mode of transmission to help the licensed (i.e. primary) system to achieve the desired quality of service in exchange for opportunistic spectrum access. The total transmission is divided in two phases. In Phase I, the primary transmitter (PT) broadcasts the data to the primary receiver (PR), which is overheard by the secondary transmitter (ST) and secondary receiver (SR). In Phase II, ST decodes the primary data and linearly combines its own data with the primary data. Using M-QAM the combined data is adaptively modulated, where M = 4, 16 or 64 depending on the received channel feedback, and relayed to PR and SR. At PR, BER-SC is employed to retrieve the primary data, and at SR interference cancellation is used to retrieve the secondary data. The analytical expressions are derived for the BER and the outage probability. The obtained results demonstrate the higher performance gains for both primary and secondary system by using adaptive mode of transmission at ST and BER-SC at PR.

     

Converting Eucalyptus biomass into ethanol: Financial and sensitivity analysis in a co-current dilute acid process. Part II

The technical and financial performance of high yield Eucalyptus biomass in a co-current dilute acid pretreatment followed by enzymatic hydrolysis process was simulated using WinGEMS^® and Excel^®. Average ethanol yield per dry Mg of Eucalyptus biomass was approximately 347.6 L of ethanol (with average carbohydrate content in the biomass around 66.1%) at a cost of $0.49 L⁻¹ of ethanol, cash cost of ∼ $0.46 L⁻¹ and CAPEX of $1.03 L⁻¹ of ethanol. The main cost drivers are: biomass, enzyme, tax, fuel (gasoline), depreciation and labor. Profitability of the process is very sensitive to biomass cost, carbohydrate content (%) in biomass and enzyme cost. Biomass delivered cost was simulated and financially evaluated in Part I; here in Part II the conversion of this raw material into cellulosic ethanol using the dilute acid process is evaluated.     

Multigene Profiling of Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs) for Prognostic Assessment in Treatment-Naïve Metastatic Hormone-Sensitive Prostate Cancer (mHSPC)

The substantial biological heterogeneity of metastatic prostate cancer has hindered the development of personalized therapeutic approaches. Therefore, it is difficult to predict the course of metastatic hormone-sensitive prostate cancer (mHSPC), with some men remaining on first-line androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) for several years while others progress more rapidly. Improving our ability to risk-stratify patients would allow for the optimization of systemic therapies and support the development of stratified prospective clinical trials focused on patients likely to have the greatest potential benefit. Here, we applied a liquid biopsy approach to identify clinically relevant, blood-based prognostic biomarkers in patients with mHSPC. Gene expression indicating the presence of CTCs was greater in CHAARTED high-volume (HV) patients (52% CTC_high) than in low-volume (LV) patients (23% CTC_high; * p = 0.03). HV disease (p = 0.005, q = 0.033) and CTC presence at baseline prior to treatment initiation (p = 0.008, q = 0.033) were found to be independently associated with the risk of nonresponse at 7 months. The pooled gene expression from CTCs of pre-ADT samples found AR, DSG2, KLK3, MDK, and PCA3 as genes predictive of nonresponse. These observations support the utility of liquid biomarker approaches to identify patients with poor initial response. This approach could facilitate more precise treatment intensification in the highest risk patients.     

Tumor Necrosis Factor-α Induces a Preeclamptic-like Phenotype in Placental Villi via Sphingosine Kinase 1 Activation

Preeclampsia (PE) involves inadequate placental function. This can occur due to elevated pro-inflammatory tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α). In other tissues, TNF-α signals via sphingosine kinase 1 (SphK1). SphK1 hinders syncytial formation. Whether this occurs downstream of TNF-α signaling is unclear. We hypothesized that placental SphK1 levels are higher in PE and elevated TNF-α decreases syncytial function, increases syncytial shedding, and increases cytokine/factor release via SphK1 activity. Term placental biopsies were analyzed for SphK1 using immunofluorescence and qRT-PCR. Term placental explants were treated after 4 days of culture, at the start of syncytial regeneration, with TNF-α and/or SphK1 inhibitors, PF-543. Syncytialization was assessed by measuring fusion and chorionic gonadotropin release. Cell death and shedding were measured by lactate dehydrogenase release and placental alkaline phosphatase-positive shed particles. Forty-two cytokines were measured using multiplex assays. Placental SphK1 was increased in PE. Increased cell death, shedding, interferon-α2, IFN-γ-induced protein 10, fibroblast growth factor 2, and platelet-derived growth factor-AA release induced by TNF-α were reversed upon SphK1 inhibition. TNF-α increased the release of 26 cytokines independently of SphK1. TNF-α decreased IL-10 release and inhibiting SphK1 reversed this effect. Inhibiting SphK1 alone decreased TNF-α release. Hence, SphK1 partially mediates the TNF-α-induced PE placental phenotype, primarily through cell damage, shedding, and specific cytokine release.     

Reduced comparator high speed low power ADC using 90 nm CMOS technology

The increasing demand of high speed and low power ADC in serial links, gigabit ethernet, high speed instruments in general and communication technologies such as ultra wide band systems in particular has put tremendous pressure on efficient design of data converters. Presently flash ADC is the architecture of choice with sampling frequency ranging from 2 to 40 GS/s with 4–6 bit resolution, where speed and low resolution is required. However we are forced to compromise between performance and complexity when such ADC is used. In this paper a single channel high speed low power CMOS based 4-bit ADC using reduced comparator and multiplexer based architecture is presented. For improving the conversion rate, both the analog (comparator array) and the digital (encoder) parts of the proposed ADC are fully modified and the architecture uses only 4 comparators instead of 15 as used in conventional flash ADC, thereby saving considerable amount of power. The proposed 4-bit 2 GS/s ADC is designed and simulated in Tanner tools with 1.2 V supply voltage using 90 nm CMOS technology. HSpice simulation result of proposed architecture shows a power dissipation of 23 mW with INL and DNL errors between ±0.4 LSB and ±0.34 LSB respectively. ENOB and SNDR for the proposed architecture are 3.72 and 24.2 respectively.     

Measuring environmental improvements image in companies implementing green manufacturing, by means of a fuzzy logic model for decision-making purposes

Green manufacturing is becoming an important strategy that manufacturing companies are implementing in their facilities to differentiate themselves from competitors. Several research efforts have been done aiming to understand the improvements achieved with green manufacturing. However, additional research needs to be conducted on how companies differ from each other, and how they can compare themselves to leading companies in environmental terms. The objective of this research was to design, verify, and validate a model able to deliver a positioning index (environmental improvement index, EII_GM) that measures the environmental image of a company as a function of their environmental improvements, and as compared to achievements in the same areas by leading companies implementing green manufacturing. The model was developed using a fuzzy logic approach. Main findings indicate that the highest levels in the EII_GM are achieved when simultaneously improving the four variables considered (water, waste, energy, and CO₂ emissions), with energy savings being the most important variable for companies improving only one variable. The environmental improvement index developed shows its importance as a planning and decision-making tool for manufacturing companies pursuing a higher environmental image, and a differentiation strategy from competitors based on environmental improvements.     

Inhibiting Erastin-Induced Ferroptotic Cell Death by Purine-Based Chelators

Ferroptosis is a cell death event caused by increased lipid peroxidation leading to iron-dependent oxidative stress and is associated with a wide variety of diseases. In recent years, ferroptosis inhibition has emerged as a novel strategy to target different pathologies. Here, we report the synthesis of two purine derivatives, 1 and 2 , for iron chelation strategy and evaluate their potency to inhibit erastin-induced ferroptosis. Both compounds showed efficient iron chelation in solution as well as in cellular environment. The crystal structure of the purine derivatives with iron demonstrated a 2 : 1 (ligand to metal center) stoichiometry for iron and purine derivative complexation. The synthesized compounds also decrease the reactive oxygen species concentration in cell cultures. Compound 2 showed better potency towards the prevention of ferroptotic cell death as compared to commercially available iron chelator in the erastin-induced ferroptosis cell culture model. Such purine analogues are potential functional scaffolds for the development of target molecules for ferroptosis inhibition.     

Prediction of global spread of COVID-19 pandemic: a review and research challenges

Artificial Intelligence Review - Since the initial reports of the Coronavirus surfacing in Wuhan, China, the novel virus currently without a cure has spread like wildfire across the globe, the...     

Development of analytical model for energy detectors with SC and MRC diversity over Inverse‐Gamma fading

An ever‐escalating demand for wireless applications has caused great concern for the proper exploitation of the accessible radio spectrum. Cognitive radio materializes as an auspicious remedy to the present‐day crisis of spectral congestion, by detecting the licensed primary user (PU). This is accomplished with the assistance of the spectrum sensing technique, which provides an indication of the presence of PU over the spectrum. Energy detection is one of the prevailing spectrum sensing techniques due to its low implementation complexity. In the present work, the performance of an energy detector (ED) over Inverse‐Gamma (I‐Gamma) fading distribution is examined. Initially, a closed‐form expression of the probability density function for I‐Gamma distribution with maximal ratio combining diversity reception is derived. Following it, an investigation of an ED‐based cognitive radio device is carried out in the form of the average probability of detection (PD) and average area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). In addition, we also present a performance analysis of an ED with selection combining diversity. Optimization of the detection threshold is also executed alongside the low signal‐to‐noise ratio analysis. In the end, the resulting expression of the PD is exploited to examine the functioning of cooperative spectrum sensing within the erroneous environment. The validation of derived mathematical forms has been confirmed by comparing it with the Monte‐Carlo simulation and exact numerical results.     

Fatigue design of welded double‐sided T‐joints and double‐sided cruciform joints in steel marine structures: A total stress concept

Fatigue is a governing design limit state for marine structures. Welded joints are important in that respect. The weld notch stress (intensity) distributions contain essential information and formulations have been established to obtain a total stress fatigue damage criterion and corresponding fatigue resistance curve; a total stress concept. However, the involved weld load carrying stress model does not provide the required estimates and trends for varying geometry dimensions and loading & response combinations. A new one has been developed and performance evaluation for T‐joints and cruciform joints in steel marine structures shows that in comparison with the nominal stress, hot spot structural stress and effective notch stress concept based results up to 50% more accurate fatigue design life time estimates can be obtained. Taking advantage of the weld notch stress formulations, the effective notch stress concept performance has improved adopting a stress‐averaged criterion rather than a fictitious notch radius‐based one.