The use of technology and information systems in a quality improvement project developed in a Portuguese Internal Medicine Department: innovative ideas from RITUAL project

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Power allocation strategies for distributed precoded multicell based systems

Multicell cooperation is a promising solution for cellular wireless systems to mitigate intercell interference, improve system fairness, and increase capacity. In this article, we propose power allocation techniques for the downlink of distributed, precoded, multicell cellular-based systems. The precoder is designed in two phases: first the intercell interference is removed by applying a set of distributed precoding vectors; then the system is further optimized through power allocation. Three centralized power allocation algorithms with per-BS power constraint and diferente complexity trade-offs are proposed: one optimal in terms of minimization of the instantaneous average bit error rate (BER), and two suboptimal. In this latter approach, the powers are computed in two phases. First, the powers are derived under total power constraint (TPC) and two criterions are considered, namely, minimization of the instantaneous average BER and minimization of the sum of inverse of signal-to-noise ratio. Then, the final powers are computed to satisfy the individual per-BS power constraint. The performance of the proposed schemes is evaluated, considering typical pedestrian scenarios based on LTE specifications. The numerical results show that the proposed suboptimal schemes achieve a performance very close to the optimal but with lower computational complexity. Moreover, the performance of the proposed per-BS precoding schemes is close to the one obtained considering TPC over a supercell.Portuguese CADWIN - PTDC/ EEA TEL/099241/200

Receiver design for the uplink of base station cooperation systems employing SC-FDE modulations

The presented paper considers the uplink transmission in base station (BS) cooperation schemes where mobile terminals (MTs) in adjacent cells share the same physical channel. We consider single-carrier with frequency-domain equalization (SC-FDE) combined with iterative frequency-domain receivers based on the iterative block decision feedback equalization (IB-DFE). We study the quantization requirements when sending the received signals, from different MTs, at different BSs to a central unit that performs the separation of different MTs using iterative frequency-domain receivers. Our performance results show that a relatively coarse quantization, with only 4 bits in the in-phase and quadrature components of the complex envelope already allows close-to-optimum macro-diversity gains, as well as an efficient separation of the transmitted signals associated with each MT

Statistical control of processes aplied for peanut mechanical digging in soil textural classes

Thedigging of peanut, which has the pod production in the subsurface, is directly affected by soil conditions, physical or environmental characteristics, at the time of operation and may be the cause of unwanted losses. Therefore, the quality of the operation is very important for minimizing these losses. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the quality of mechanizeddiggingoperation of peanut according to three soil textural classes(Sandy, Medium and Loamy) and their water content conditions at operation through statistical process control. The experiment was conducted at three locations in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, under sampling scheme arranged in tracks and 40 sampling points for each textural class of soil, using the mechanical digging variables as indicators of quality. We found that the mechanized digging operation in Sandy soil was the most critical, just meeting the specifications of quality indicators, reflecting higher losses and lower quality of the operation. Medium soil showed at the digginggood and homogeneous conditions in relation to water content in soil and pods, and because it has favorable characteristics it obtained the lower total losses and higher quality of operation. Loamy soil showed satisfactory quality, meeting the specifications as well, but with poorer quality than the Medium Soil

Lead availability in soils from Portugal's Centre Region with special reference to bioaccessibility

Previous environmental biomonitoring studies indicated higher environmental lead (Pb) pollution levels at the districts of Aveiro and Leiria (Portugal). In evaluating the risk for human health, which is associated with contaminated soils after oral uptake, total soil concentrations have generally been held against criteria established from toxicological studies based upon the assumption that the uptake of the contaminant is similar in the toxicological studies and from the soils assessed. This assumption is not always valid, as most toxicological studies are carried out with soluble forms of the contaminants, whereas many soil contaminants are or become embedded in the soil matrix and thus exhibit limited availability. This study intends to estimate the soluble fraction of Pb in the soils from central Portugal, and to assess the bioaccessibility of Pb and, hence, infer exposure and risk for human health. Yet, as the physical-chemical properties of the soil exert some control over the solubility of Pb in the surface environment, the relation between such soil properties and the estimated soluble and/or bioaccessible fractions of Pb is also investigated. Other objective, with a more practical nature, was to give some contribution to find a suitable in vitro mimetic of the gastrointestinal tract environment. The results indicate relatively low total metal concentrations in the soils, even if differences between regions were observed. The Aveiro district has the higher total Pb concentration and the metal is in more soluble forms, that is, geoavailable. Soils with higher concentrations of soluble Pb show higher estimates of bioaccessible Pb. Soil pH seems to influence human bioaccessibility of Pb.publishe