On the performance of error control coding with diversity formobile channels

Upper bounds on the bit error probability are applied to evaluate the error performance of coded systems over non-interleaved and partially interleaved Rician fading mobile channels. The correlation between successive received symbols is exploited to bound the error performance. The bound allows useful evaluation of coding gains on realistic communication systems without going into lengthy computer simulations. By further defining the maximum energy degradation factors, compact upper bounds are expressed in a similar way as on the fully interleaved or memoryless channels. The maximum energy degradation factors are computed for a wide variety of mobile channel conditions. These factors give an interesting evaluation of the fading conditions and may be used to design coded communication systems on mobile channels. Furthermore, independent space or frequency diversity may be taken into account in these bounds and it is shown that the energy degradation due to correlation is independent of this added independent diversity     

Bidirectional breadth-first algorithms for the decoding ofconvolutional codes

Bidirectional multiple-path tree searching algorithms for the decoding of convolutional codes are presented. These suboptimal coding algorithms use a multiple-path breadth-first bidirectional tree exploration procedure and long-memory convolution codes. It is shown that, compared to the usual M-algorithm, the bidirectional exploration considerably reduces the bit error propagation due to correct path loss. Computer simulations using rate-1/2 codes over binary symmetric channels are used to analyze the effect of the number of path extensions, code memory, and frame length on the bit error probability. The results show that with a bit error probability of 10^-5, coding gains on the order of 2 dB over the M-algorithm and 1 dB over a Viterbi decoder of equivalent complexity can be achieved     

Iterative threshold decoding without interleaving for convolutional self-doubly orthogonal codes

A novel iterative error control technique based on the threshold decoding algorithm and new convolutional self-doubly orthogonal codes is proposed. It differs from parallel concatenated turbo decoding as it uses a single convolutional encoder, a single decoder and hence no interleaver, neither at encoding nor at decoding. Decoding is performed iteratively using a single threshold decoder at each iteration, thereby providing good tradeoff between complexity, latency and error performance.     

Effects of clinical experience and client emotion on therapists' responses.

In an Emotion by Therapist Experience design, actresses portraying angry vs sad clients interacted with "therapists" (graduate clinical psychology students) varying in prior therapy experience (high, medium, or low). Results indicate that therapists judged angry clients less favorably than sad clients. More experienced therapists showed greater tolerance of anger. Therapists intervened less with angry clients than with depressed clients, and angry clients received less supportiveness, less directiveness, and fewer requests for information. (4 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Revue de La Psychologie Organisationnelle au Quebec.

Reviews the book, La psychologie organisationnelle au Quebec by Gilbert Tarrab et al (1983). This book has 25 chapters written by more than thirty authors. Despite its weaknesses, it comprises sufficient qualities representing an important stage of the development of organisational psychology in Quebec, Canada. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Bidirectional decoding of convolutional codes for indoor cellularradio

Bidirectional suboptimal breadth-first decoding of convolutional codes is an attractive technique for slowly varying and quasi-static fading channels as it restricts the extent of decoding errors due to correct path loss to very heavy noise or interference regions. This paper compares the performance of such a decoding scheme to the Viterbi algorithm over wideband TDMA indoor radio links where equalization and space diversity are also used to combat dispersive fading and cochannel interference. On the basis of equal computational complexity and equal decoding delay, suboptimal, breadth-first, bidirectional decoding of a long constraint length convolutional code is shown to be superior to Viterbi decoding of a shorter constraint length code. Furthermore, this advantage increases as the outage criterion (in terms of bit error rate) becomes more stringent which makes bidirectional decoding particularly attractive for data applications and makes channel coding a more attractive alternative to increasing the space diversity order at the receiver     

Validation canadienne-fran?aise de l’échelle des styles d’orientation des buts (ESOB).

The Goal Orientation Scale (GOS) developed by VandeWalle, Cron and Slocum (2001) is used to assess learners’ goal orientation style. However, this scale is in English, limiting its applications with francophone populations. This study documents the psychometric properties of a French version of the GOS. The instrument was translated and verified by expert translators then administered to 219 French-speaking students enrolled in two Quebec Universities. The subjects also responded to a measure of fear of negative evaluation, general self efficacy and locus of control. Analyses of the factor structure, internal consistency, temporal stability and the pattern of correlations with external variables indicates that this French version converges with the original English instrument. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

An evaluation of the systolic stack sequential decoder

The performance of a sequential stack decoder based on a new systolic priority queue is evaluated using extensive simulations over both memoryless Gaussian channels and Rayleigh fading channels. The results are used to determine interrelations between the decoder parameters, providing a simple way to design a systolic stack sequential decoder with an overall erasure probability approximately equal to the probability of a correct path overflow, while keeping the bit error rate of the decoder almost as low as that of the code. It is shown that this decoder circumvents some of the limitations inherent to usual stack decoders, while offering an increased decoding speed and being well suited for vlsi implementation.     

Electrochemical grafting of organic coating onto gold surfaces: Influence of the electrochemical conditions on the grafting of nitrobenzene diazonium salt

This paper aims at studying the influence of the following parameters on the electrodeposition, at both constant potential and potential sweeping, of paranitrobenzene diazonium (PNBD) onto gold electrodes: applied potential, number of cycles or reduction time. Quartz Crystal Microbalance, IR spectroscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy were used to bring evidence of a multilayer architecture favoured either by lower reduction potentials or higher cycle numbers but also showed a delamination phenomenon due to over-reductive potentials.     

Error performances of multi shift-register convolutional self-doubly-orthogonal codes

A class of orthogonal convolutional codes using a multi shift-register encoder and featuring self-doubly-orthogonal properties is analyzed under iterative decoding. The lower bounds of error performances of these codes can be approached within typically three to five iterations at moderate signal-to-noise ratios using either iterative threshold (TH) decoding or belief propagation (BP) decoding. Compared with iterative BP decoding, it is shown that iterative threshold decoding for these codes yields a much lower complexity at the same decoding latency.