Error Control Coding Techniques for Space and Satellite Communications

Bootstrap Hybrid Decoding (BHD) (Jelinek and Cocke, 1971) is a coding/decoding scheme that adds extra redundancy to a set of convolutionally encoded codewords and uses this redundancy to provide reliability information to a sequential decoder. Theoretical results indicate that bit error probability performance (BER) of BHD is close to that of Turbo-codes, without some of their drawbacks. In this report we study the use of the Multiple Stack Algorithm (MSA) (Chevillat and Costello, Jr., 1977) as the underlying sequential decoding algorithm in BHD, which makes possible an iterative version of BHD

Life After Prison: A Different Kind of Sentence?, a Forum at the Boston Center for the Arts

In September 2012, the Boston Center for the Arts (BCA) hosted a forum on life after prison as part of its series, Dialogue: Social Issues Examined Through the Playwright’s Pen. The forum coincided with performances at the Boston Center for the Arts of The MotherF**ker with the Hat, a play by Stephen Andy Guirgis about prisoner reentry. Andrea J. Cabral, then sheriff of Suffolk County and secretary of public safety in Massachusetts, moderated the forum in BCA’s Calderwood Pavilion, the same theater where SpeakEasy Stage Company was putting on the play. The four panelists work for nonprofit organizations primarily involved in assisting ex-offenders in making the transition back into society: Daniel Cordon, director of transitional employment at the Haley House in Roxbury and an ex-offender; Lyn Levy, founder and executive director of Span, Inc. in Boston; Gary Little, mentor coordinator at Span and an ex-offender; and Janet Rodriguez, founding president and CEO of SoHarlem in New York, which trains women given alternative sentences for nonviolent offenses to produce functional and wearable art. What follows is an edited and abridged transcript of their discussion of “Life After Prison: A Different Kind of Sentence?” and is based on the Boston Center for the Arts recording of this segment of Dialogue, which examines social issues through an artistic lens. A discussion period with the audience is summarized because the questions are not clearly audible and not all questioners stated their names and identities

Studies of lignin and polysaccharides recovery from kraft liquor for biotechnological applications

According to the biorefinery concept, this study has the objective of evaluating alternatives for the valorization of all the kraft liquor fractions. This liquor consists mainly in lignin, cellulose and hemicellulose. Currently, cellulose pulp industries recover the cooking chemicals by burning and energy is introduced into the process. Sustainable development guidelines, regarding the costs and wastes reduction and biotechnology principles may present new solutions for the production of valuable products. In this study, two methods for the polysaccharides extraction, in three different pH conditions, are presented. The only difference between these methods is the solvent applied: ethanol and 1,4‐dioxane. All the samples were maintained 24 h at 298 K. After a filtration step, the solid fraction resultant from the ethanol treatment had a carbohydrate content of 40.51%, 44.64% and 49.53%, for pH values of 3, 4 and 6, respectively. The treatment with 1,4‐dioxane, reached the following values: 21.17%, 18.41% and 29.73% for the same pH values. These results were obtained with HPLC analysis after polysaccharides hydrolysis. Three unknown peaks were detected that we considered to be sugar derivative compounds. Thus, the polysaccharides contents, for both treatments, might actually be superior. Concerning to the product purity, the ethanol extraction revealed to be the less efficient. The lignin content in the solid fraction, ranged between 28% and 31%, with 1,4‐dioxane extraction, and between 40% and 50%, with ethanol. The lignin molecular weight was determined with GPC, after and before liquor pH lowering. Thereby, for pH 6, pH 4 and pH 3 the obtained MWs were: 2376 Da, 1477 Da and 3705 Da, respectively. The molecular weight increase may be due to the lignin repolymerization. These results suggest that the polysaccharides recovery and lignin molecular weight may be related. As the molecular weight increases or decreases, the polysaccharides percentage presents the same behavior, regardless of the product purity. The data obtained after FT‐IR analysis suggested that there was no significant modifications on lignin structure. Summarizing, these preliminary results indicate that there is a possibility of recovering the kraft liquor´s polysaccharide while the residual lignin can still be used for burning to energy recovery.Erasmus Mundus ‐ ISAC ProgramFundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT)Millipore BrazilConselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico Brazil - Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CNPq‐CAPES

Error Control Coding Techniques for Space and Satellite Communications

Turbo coding using iterative SOVA decoding and M-ary differentially coherent or non-coherent modulation can provide an effective coding modulation solution: (1) Energy efficient with relatively simple SOVA decoding and small packet lengths, depending on BEP required; (2) Low number of decoding iterations required; and (3) Robustness in fading with channel interleaving

A Comparison of Tourism-Related Stressors Experienced by Residents of Three Island Destinations

Residents of island tourism destinations are subject to a variety of impacts their quality of life. One impact that has recently emerged as an issue is psychological stress. Psychological stress can often lead to negative physical and mental health outcomes. Island destinations develop along Butler’s (1980) Tourism Area Life Cycle in different ways based on geography, population, accessibility, and a variety of other variables. Oftentimes rapid development follows the creation of transportation links like a new airport or cruise port. The development of cruise ports in particular often bring rapid development with unforeseen consequences. In this study, we examine the tourism related stressors experienced by residents of three island destinations with varying levels of development and cruise tourism visitation. Thematic analysis of residents’ perceived stressors revealed that level of development and type of tourism play a role in the breadth, depth, and type of stressors perceived by residents

Effect of high parity on occurrence of anemia in pregnancy: a cohort study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Studies that explore the controversial association between parity and anaemia-in-pregnancy (AIP) were often hampered by not distinguishing incident cases caused by pregnancy from prevalent cases complicated by pregnancy. The authors' aim in conducting this study was to overcome this methodological concern.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A retrospective cohort study was conducted in Oman on 1939 pregnancies among 479 parous female participants with available pregnancy records in a community trial. We collected information from participants, the community trial, and health records of each pregnancy. Throughout the follow-up period, we enumerated 684 AIP cases of which 289 (42.2%) were incident cases. High parity (HP, ≥ 5 pregnancies) accounted for 48.7% of total pregnancies. Two sets of regression analyses were conducted: the first restricted to incident cases only, and the second inclusive of all cases. The relation with parity as a dichotomy and as multiple categories was examined for each set; multi-level logistic regression (MLLR) was employed to produce adjusted models.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In the fully adjusted MLLR models that were restricted to incident cases, women with HP pregnancies had a higher risk of AIP compared to those who had had fewer pregnancies (Risk Ratio, RR = 2.92; 95% CI 2.02, 4.59); the AIP risk increased in a dose-response fashion over multiple categories of parity. In the fully adjusted MLLR models that included all cases, the association disappeared (RR = 1.11; 95% CI 0.91, 1.18) and the dose-response pattern flattened.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>This study shows the importance of specifying which cases of AIP are incident and provides supportive evidence for a causal relation between parity and occurrence of incidental AIP.</p

Spondarthritis in the Triassic

Background: The evidence of several forms of arthritis has been well documented in the fossil record. However, for pre-Cenozoic vertebrates, especially regarding reptiles, this record is rather scarce. In this work we present a case report of spondarthritis found in a vertebral series that belonged to a carnivorous archosaurian reptile from the Lower Triassic (,245 million years old) of the South African Karoo. Methodology/Principal Findings: Neutron tomography confirmed macroscopic data, revealing the ossification of the entire intervertebral disc space (both annulus fibrosus and nucleus pulposus), which supports the diagnosis of spondarthritis. Conclusions/Significance: The presence of spondarthritis in the new specimen represents by far the earliest evidence of any form of arthritis in the fossil record. The present find is nearly 100 million years older than the previous oldest report of this pathology, based on a Late Jurassic dinosaur. Spondarthritis may have indirectly contributed to the death of the anima