Optimization of DSSS Receivers Using Hardware-in-the-Loop Simulations

Over the years, there has been significant interest in defining a hardware abstraction layer to facilitate code reuse in software defined radio (SDR) applications. Designers are looking for a way to enable application software to specify a waveform, configure the platform, and control digital signal processing (DSP) functions in a hardware platform in a way that insulates it from the details of realization. This thesis presents a tool-based methodolgy for developing and optimizing a Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) transceiver deployed in custom hardware like Field Programmble Gate Arrays (FPGAs). The system model consists of a tranmitter which employs a quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) modulation scheme, an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel, and a receiver whose main parts consist of an analog-to-digital converter (ADC), digital down converter (DDC), image rejection low-pass filter (LPF), carrier phase locked loop (PLL), tracking locked loop, down-sampler, spread spectrum correlators, and rectangular-to-polar converter. The design methodology is based on a new programming model for FPGAs developed in the industry by Xilinx Inc. The Xilinx System Generator for DSP software tool provides design portability and streamlines system development by enabling engineers to create and validate a system model in Xilinx FPGAs. By providing hierarchical modeling and automatic HDL code generation for programmable devices, designs can be easily verified through hardware-in-the-loop (HIL) simulations. HIL provides a significant increase in simulation speed which allows optimization of the receiver design with respect to the datapath size for different functional parts of the receiver. The parameterized datapath points used in the simulation are ADC resolution, DDC datapath size, LPF datapath size, correlator height, correlator datapath size, and rectangular-to-polar datapath size. These parameters are changed in the software enviornment and tested for bit error rate (BER) performance through real-time hardware simualtions. The final result presents a system design with minimum harware area occupancy relative to an acceptable BER degradation

How does patient choice impact on secondary care: an in depth investigation in a large teaching hospital

Over recent decades health care policy in the English NHS has focused on the role of patient choice of provider as a lever for health care improvement (Mays 2010; Fotaki 2013). The thesis explores the degree to which patient choice policy has been successful in its aim. Specifically, it explores the influence that patient choice policy has on changing and shaping organisation culture in an acute hospital trust. A qualitative case study was undertaken in a teaching hospital Trust involving interviews with 30 interviewees drawn from different levels of the hierarchy in the hospital. The study also reviewed documents to understand where PCP was positioned in the hospitals ambition. The study found that patient choice had not changed organisational behaviour in the hospital and did not have the desired impact as expected by policy makers. The study identified that the PCP programme theory had failed to recognise the impact that the culture of an organisation has on change. The culture of the hospital was still one of ‘knowing what was best for its patients’ and rejecting the notion that patients wanted choice. Also, the incentives of patient choice policy were considered weak in the context of hospitals overrun with demand and competing priorities

Studies on immobilization of horseradish peroxidase.

Dept. of Chemistry and Biochemistry. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1986 .D853. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 40-07, page: . Thesis (M.Sc.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1986

Knowledge Regarding Health Hazards of Junk Food and Its Prevention Among Adolescents

Introduction Good health is the necessity of living a healthy existence for every person which needs to maintain a healthy diet and healthy habits throughout the life. However, the habit of consuming junk food in many is increasing each day and making our future sad and diseased mainly our younger generations. Parents have to be very aware in the direction of the consuming behavior in their children and kids due to the fact in the early life they do not know and decide their good or bad so it is parents who are fully responsible for the good or bad eating habits among their child. They have to train their children approximately eating habits from early life and cause them to clear about the differences among healthy and junk foods. A pre-experimental with one group pre-test and post-test research design was used in this study. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the sample and the sample size was 60 adolescents’ students of high school. Data were collected by using structured knowledge questionnaire. Analysis was done by using descriptive and inferential statistics. The Result showed that out of 60 samples the overall mean pre-test knowledge score of study was 13.82(SD=4.21) and 29.06(SD=2.86) was the mean post-test knowledge score. The comparison of pre and post-test knowledge of adolescents reveals that the overall improvement mean was 15.24 with Standard Deviation (1.35). Association was done between demographic variables and post-test level of knowledge score of adolescents by using chi- square (χ2) test. The calculated chi square values was less than the table values indicated that there was no significant association between the demographic variables such as Age, Gender, Education,  Residential area, Type of family ,  Monthly income of family , Father’s education, Mother’s education, Father’s occupation, Mother’s occupation, Source of information  and Monthly pocket money of a child

PRESCRIPTION AUDIT FOR EVALUATION OF PRESCRIBING PATTERN OF THE DOCTORS FOR RATIONAL DRUG THERAPY IN A TERTIARY CARE HOSPITAL

Background: Irrational prescribing is a global problem. In order to promote rational drug usage standard policies on use of drugs must be set, and this can be done only after the current prescription practices have been audited.  Methods: The study was carried out prospectively over a period of six months in the department general medicine of our tertiary care hospital. Results: 288 prescriptions were analyzed. Total no. of drugs in 288 prescriptions were 2559. Therefore average number of drugs/prescription is 8.8. Drugs were prescribed by generic names in 4.16% of cases, drugs on EDL are only 36.92% and fixed dose combinations are 35.87% of total drugs. Dosage forms used were mostly oral 84.40%. Injectables were only 12.07% and topical forms were least 0.58%. Basic information of patient was written in 100% prescriptions. Complete diagnoses were written in 73.26% prescriptions. Only 86.80% prescriptions were legible and only 72.56% prescriptions were complete in terms of dose, route, strength, frequency and dosage forms. Disease pattern seen was variable. Diseases of cardiovascular system were maximum 33.33% followed by diseases of respiratory system 22.91% and diseases of endocrine system 11.45%. The most common drug groups prescribed were multivitamins, minerals & enzymes, cardiovascular drugs, antiulcer drugs and antibiotics. The incidence of polypharmacy was also common. Conclusions: There is immense scope for improvement in prescribing patterns in areas of writing generic names of drugs, essential drugs, writing legible and complete prescriptions. Polypharmacy was evident from our study.  Keywords: Prescription auditing, Rational pharmacotherapy, Polypharmacy, Essential dru

Debt Sustainability of States in India: An Assessment

The debt position of the state governments in India, which deteriorated sharply between 1997-98 and 2003-04, has witnessed significant improvement since 2004-05. Debt sustainability analysis based on empirical estimation of inter-temporal budget constraint and fiscal policy response function in a panel data framework, covering 20 Indian states for the period 1980-81 to 2015-16, indicates that the debt position at the state level is sustainable in the long run. The increase in contingent liabilities of states and take-over of large chunk of these liabilities through debt restructuring of State Power Distribution Companies, however, would adversely affect the debt position of states

A Moonlighting Function of Plasmodium falciparum Histone 3, Mono-Methylated at Lysine 9?

BACKGROUND: In the human malaria parasites Plasmodium falciparum, histone modifications have been implicated in the transcriptional regulation. The acetylation and methylation status of the histones have been linked with transcriptional regulation of the parasite surface virulence factors as well as other genes with stage specific expression. In P. falciparum as well as other eukaryotes, different histone modifications were found to be compartmentalized to distinct regions in the nuclei. This compartmentalization is believed to be one of the main prerequisites for their function in epigenetic regulation of gene expression. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we investigate intracellular distributions of five previously uncharacterized histone modifications including histone 4 acetylation on lysine residue 5 (H4K5Ac), H4K8Ac, H3K9Ac, H4Ac4 and H3K9Me1 during the asexual developmental stages. With the exception of H3K9Me1, the modified histones were localized to the nuclear periphery. This provides a strong indication that the P. falciparum nuclear periphery is one of the most active regions in epigenetic regulation of gene expression. Interestingly, H3K9Me1 is not associated with the nuclei but instead resides in the parasitophorous vacuole (PV), the double membrane compartments surrounding the parasite cell within the host erythrocyte. In this compartment, H3K9Me1 partially co-localizes with Etramp proteins. The localization of H3K9Me1 in the PV is conserved in the other species including P. yoelii and P. vivax. CONCLUSIONS: Similar to other eukaryotes, the periphery of the P. falciparum nuclei is likely one of the most active areas in epigenetic regulation of gene expression involving multiple histone modifications. On the other hand, H3K9Me1 evolved a new function that is linked with the PV. This functional role appears to be evolutionarily conserved in Plasmodium species

Exploring end-of-life care for South Asian kidney patients: interviewer reflections

The reduction of inequalities in access to quality care has been a central tenet of UK health policy. Ethnic minorities may experience additional inequalities because of language and other cultural barriers. This article reports interviewer reflections of conducting interviews with South Asian kidney patients about their experiences of end-of-life care. It explores themes which emerged from the analysis of a focus group held with eight bilingual research interviewers. The relevance of these themes to understanding inequalities and access to end-of-life care is discussed; together with the potential for the research process to contribute to service improvement