An overview of optimal and sub-optimal detection techniques for a non orthogonal spectrally efficient FDM

Spectrally Efficient non orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (SEFDM) Systems occupy less bandwidth than equivalent orthogonal FDM (OFDM). However, enhanced spectral efficiency comes at the expense of an increased complexity in the signal detection. In this work, we present an overview of different detection techniques that trade the error performance optimality for the signal recovery computational effort. Linear detection methods like Zero Forcing (ZF) and Minimum Mean Squared Error (MMSE) offer fixed complexity but suffer from a significant degradation of the Bit Error Rate (BER). On the other hand optimal receivers like Sphere Decoders (SD) achieve the optimal solution in terms of error performance. Notwithstanding, their applicability is severely constrained by the SEFDM signal dimension, the frequency separation between the carriers as well as the noise level in the system

Prevalence of oral mucosal lesions in psoriatic patients: a controlled study

Objectives: This study aimed to investigate and compare the prevalence of oral mucosal lesions in a group of psoriatic patients and healthy subjects, and its correlation to multiple clinical parameters. Study design: 100 psoriatic patients and 100 closely matched controls underwent clinical oral examination. Oral lesions were diagnosed according to the criteria proposed by the World Health Organization (WHO). The patients filled the Hospital Anxiety and Depression (HAD) questionnaire and the Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI). The severity of psoriasis was assessed by the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI). Categorical variables were evaluated using Chi-square test or Fisher's exact test with overall significance set at p< 0.05. Results: Oral mucosal lesions were diagnosed in 43 (43%) psoriatic patients and 17 (17%) control subjects (p=0.000). Comparing psoriatic patients to control subjects the prevalence of fissured tongue (FT) was 35% vs. 13% (p=0.000); geographic tongue (GT) 17% vs. 9% (p=0.09); combination of FT and GT 5% vs. 5% (p=1.00); oral candidosis 3% vs. 0% (p=0.81); leukoedema 1% vs. 3% (p=0.62); physiologic melanin pigmentations 4% vs. 1% (p=0.37) respectively. The clinical type of psoriasis, duration of the disease, method of disease management (medicated vs. non-medicated for psoriasis), smoking habit, psychological status or the disease severity did not influence the prevalence of FT and GT. Psoriatic patients who experienced 'very large' to 'extremely large' adverse effect of psoriasis on their quality of life have significantly higher prevalence of GT (p=0.04). Conclusions: FT is significantly more common in psoriatic patients compared to controls; hence studies investigating the nature of this relationship are warranted. Oral health care providers should be aware of the predisposition of psoriatic patients to oral candidosis

RoFnet – Reconfigurable Radio over Fiber Network Architecture Overview, Journal of Telecommunications and Information Technology, 2009, nr 1

This paper introduces the basic operational concepts of the RoFnet – reconfigurable radio over fiber network, which is a project supported by the Portuguese Foundation forScience and Technology. This project proposes an innovative radio over fiber optical access network architecture, which combines a low cost base station (BS) design, incorporating reflective semiconductor optical amplifiers, with fiber dispersion mitigation provided by optical single sideband modulation techniques. Optical wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) techniques are used to simplify the access network architecture allowing for different BSs to be fed by a common fiber. Different wavelength channels can be allocated to different BSs depending on user requirements. Additionally, in order to improve radio coverage within a cell, it is considered a sectorized antenna interface. The combination of subcarrier multiplexing with WDM, further simplifies the network architecture, by using a specific wavelength channel to feed an individual BS and different subcarriers to drive the individual antenna sectors within the BS

Diabetes-related molecular signatures in infrared spectra of human saliva

WOS: 000290261500001PubMed ID: 20630088Background: There is an ongoing need for improvements in non-invasive, point-of-care tools for the diagnosis and prognosis of diabetes mellitus. Ideally, such technologies would allow for community screening. Methods: In this study, we employed infrared spectroscopy as a novel diagnostic tool in the prediction of diabetic status by analyzing the molecular and sub-molecular spectral signatures of saliva collected from subjects with diabetes (n = 39) and healthy controls (n = 22). Results: Spectral analysis revealed differences in several major metabolic components - lipid, proteins, glucose, thiocyanate and carboxylate - that clearly demarcate healthy and diseased saliva. The overall accuracy for the diagnosis of diabetes based on infrared spectroscopy was 100% on the training set and 88.2% on the validation set. Therefore, we have established that infrared spectroscopy can be used to generate complex biochemical profiles in saliva and identify several potential diabetes-associated spectral features. Conclusions: Infrared spectroscopy may represent an appropriate tool with which to identify novel diseases mechanisms, risk factors for diabetic complications and markers of therapeutic efficacy. Further study into the potential utility of infrared spectroscopy as diagnostic and prognostic tool for diabetes is warranted

Evaluation of Oral Mucosal Lesions in 598 Referred Iranian Patients

The mucosal membrane of the oral cavity displays at times classical developmental lesions considered to be variations of normal structures rather than having disease characteristics. Of these lesions leukoedema, Fordyce granules, geographic-, fissured- and hairy tongue, median rhomboid glossitis and lingual varices were studied in 598 patients referred to the School of Dentistry, Tehran, Iran. The prevalence was studied in relation to age, gender, occupation, education, smoking habits, general health, addictions and or drug therapies. Oral developmental lesions were seen in 295 patients (49.3%). Only Fordyce granules (27,9%), fissured tongue (12,9%), leukoedema (12,5%) and hairy tongue (8,9%) had enough cases for statistical analysis. Three of these lesions increased with age but not fissured tongue. All were more common in men. After adjusting for age, the parameters education, occupation and complaints upon referral had little influence on the prevalence of the lesions. Fewer Fordyce granules were seen in oral mucosa of smoking men. Leukoedema and hairy tongue were significantly associated with smoking, leukoedema with diabetes mellitus. We conclude that there was a highly significant association between these oral lesions and age, gender and smoking. Few significant associations were found between oral lesions and general diseases