Hard Decision Cooperative Spectrum Sensing Based on Estimating the Noise Uncertainty Factor

Spectrum Sensing (SS) is one of the most challenging issues in Cognitive Radio (CR) systems. Cooperative Spectrum Sensing (CSS) is proposed to enhance the detection reliability of a Primary User (PU) in fading environments. In this paper, we propose a hard decision based CSS algorithm using energy detection with taking into account the noise uncertainty effect. In the proposed algorithm, two dynamic thresholds are toggled based on predicting the current PU activity, which can be successfully expected using a simple successive averaging process with time. Also, their values are evaluated using an estimated value of the noise uncertainty factor. These dynamic thresholds are used to compensate the noise uncertainty effect and increase (decrease) the probability of detection (false alarm), respectively. Theoretical analysis is performed on the proposed algorithm to deduce its enhanced false alarm and detection probabilities compared to the conventional hard decision CSS. Moreover, simulation analysis is used to confirm the theoretical claims and prove the high performance of the proposed scheme compared to the conventional CSS using different fusion rules.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, IEEE International Conference on Computer Engineering and Systems (ICCES 2015). arXiv admin note: text overlap with arXiv:1505.0558

Opposition inclusion and exclusion in the Arab world: Evidence from a new dataset

The literature on the Arab world is full of accounts on how authoritarian regimes manipulate the secular-Islamist cleavage to remain in power. This literature, however, has two gaps. First, there is no comparative data on the regional patterns of inclusion and exclusion that characterize regime-opposition relations in the Arab world. Second, studies usually do not account for the different shades of secular and Islamist groups. This research note bridges both gaps by introducing an original dataset: the Arab Opposition Power Relations dataset. The dataset codes power relations between four secular and Islamist groups in 13 Arab countries between 2005 and 2016 to a total of 624 group observations. Descriptive analysis of the dataset illustrates the changing patterns of inclusion and exclusion within and across countries both before and after the 2011 Arab uprisings. In so doing, the dataset opens new research frontiers for the vibrant literature on the resilience of authoritarianism in the Arab world

Protection of beliefs or believers: incitement to religious hatred replacing blasphemy and defamation of religion

Incitement to religious hatred and restrictions on freedom of expression protect religious believers from unlawful expression. There is neither need to defamation of religion resolutions nor to blasphemy legislation. The Islamic and several developing states have internationalized blasphemy law under the name of defamation of religion. Defamation of religion and blasphemy\u27s protection of religion contradicts with the individual based nature of human rights. It does not also comply with the classic understanding of defamation law that has only protected individual\u27s reputation. Defamation of religion requires the state to arbitrate amongst intangible competing religious truth. The lack of clear guidelines on what is and is not immune makes the enforcement of defamation of religion difficult. The ambiguity of defamation of religion, as a legal concept, opens the door further for state abuse

Electoral reform in authoritarian regimes: veto player uncertainty in Jordan

What explains the move of Jordan to a proportional representation (PR) electoral system in 2016 but not in 2012? This is puzzling given the high public pressure for electoral reform in 2011–12 in the wake of the Arab uprisings compared to 2016. Applying veto player theory to Jordan, this article argues that the non-adoption of PR in 2012 and the subsequent move to PR in 2016 lies mainly in the regime’s perceived uncertainty associated with the results of elections. In 2012, it was feared that elections under a PR system would replicate the 1989 opposition-dominated parliament. The regime, therefore, opted for a mixed system by complementing the single non-transferable vote system with a national party list. To justify such a system, compared to the demanded PR system, the regime resorted to rhetoric directed at both elite and mass levels. In 2016, however, the uncertainty associated with adopting a PR system ceased to exist. The fragmentation of Jordan’s strongest opposition group, the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood, reduced uncertainty about their electoral strength. At the same time, malapportionment reduced uncertainty regarding the outcomes of the elections. The article shows how electoral reform in authoritarian regimes, as in some democracies, can be explained through the perceived uncertainty of elections’ outcomes

Design for Sustainability with Biodegradable Composites

Many of the petroleum-based materials and products are causing problems with sustainability of resources and disposal at the end of their lives. Such problems can be solved if biodegradable materials from renewable resources are used in product design. For a material to be fully biodegradable, all its constituents must be biodegradable and should come from renewable resources if it is to be sustainable. Starch-plant fiber composites satisfy both conditions. In addition to their environmental benefits, materials from renewable resources can also be economically advantageous in certain applications, such as motorcar and packaging industries. This chapter starts with a review of the characteristics of biodegradable materials and uses case studies to illustrate their use in the design of sustainable products. The concept of design for a life (DFL), in which the material used in making a given product that will biodegrade at the end of its useful life, will also be explored

Optimal Control of a Second Order Parabolic Heat Equation

In this paper, we are concerned with the optimal control boundary control of a second order parabolic heat equation. Using the results in [Evtushenko, 1997] and spatial central finite difference with diagonally implicit Runge-Kutta method (DIRK) is applied to solve the parabolic heat equation. The conjugate gradient method (CGM) is applied to solve the distributed control problem. Numerical results are reported

Soft Decision Cooperative Spectrum Sensing Based Upon Noise Uncertainty Estimation

Spectrum Sensing (SS) constitutes the most critical task i n Cognitive Radio (CR) systems for Primary User (PU) detection. Cooperative Spectrum Sensing (CSS) is introduced to enhance the detection reliability of the PU in fading environments. In this paper, we propose a soft decision based CSS algorithm using energy detection by taking into account the noise uncertainty effect. In the proposed algorithm, two threshold levels are utilized based on predicting the current PU activity, which can be successfully expected using a simple successive averaging process with time. The two threshold levels are evaluated based on estimating the noise uncertainty factor. In addition, they are toggled in a dynamic manner to compensate the noise uncertainty effect and to increase the probability of detection and decrease the probability of false alarm. Theoretical analysis is performed on the proposed algorithm to evaluate its enhanced false alarm and detection probabilities over the conventional soft decision CSS using different combining schemes. In addition, simulation results show the high efficiency of the proposed scheme compared to the conventional soft decision CSS, with high computational complexity enhancements.Comment: 6 Pages, 5 Figures, ICC workshops 201

Insect fauna of canola and phenology of the diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella L. (Lepidoptera Plutellidae) as a key pest

Canola or oilseed rape (Brassica napus L.) is one of the most important crops worldwide as a main source of edible vegetable oil. A field study of the insect fauna and the phenology of diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella L. in canola was conducted during the 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 growing seasons. The study was carried out at the Experimental farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Suez Canal University, Ismailia. A total of 31 insect species were recorded from the crop (13 pest species, 9 natural enemy species and 9 insect pollinators). Diamondback moth and cabbage aphid were the dominant pests, lady beetles and hoverflies were the most abundant natural enemies and honeybees were the dominant pollinators. The phenology, infestation rate and parasitism of P. xylostella were determined for the two growing seasons. In 2012/2013, the peak population (14.5 larvae or pupae/plant) was recorded in the eleventh week when temperatures ranged from 8.8 to 18.2 °C with relative humidity of 70%, while in the 2013/2014 season the peak population (8.3 larvae or pupae/plant) was recorded in the twelfth week when temperatures ranged from 8.2 to 20.0 °C with relative humidity of 70%. The infestation levels of Plutella xylostella ranged from 20 to 80% during the 2012/2013 season, while in the 2013/ 2014 season infestation levels ranged from 10 to 50%. Percent parasitism showed more at least two peaks in each growing seasons. Peaks were 44.5 and 31.2% in 2012/2013 season and 30.2, 32.6 and 25.9% in 2013/2014 season

In vitro antioxidant activities of resveratrol, cinnamaldehyde and their synergistic effect against cyadox-induced cytotoxicity in rabbit erythrocytes

This study was conducted to explore the potential benefits of using cinnamaldehyde (CIN), resveratrol (RES) separately or in combination on cyadox (CYA)-induced alterations in isolated rabbit erythrocytes. Erythrocytes suspensions were partitioned into 7 groups (5 replicates/group), 1st kept as control treated with phosphate buffered saline (PBS) with dimethyl sulphoxide (DMSO); 2nd group was subjected to CYA (40 μg/ml), 3rd group was incubated with CIN (40 μM), 4th group was subjected to RES (40 μM), 5th group was co-exposed to CYA (40 μg/ml) and CIN (40 μM), 6th group was co exposed to CYA (40 μg/ml) and RES (40 μM), and 7th group was exposed to CYA in combination with both CIN and RES at the same indicated concentrations. The reaction mixtures of different groups were incubated at 37 °C for 3 h with gentle shaking every 15 minutes. Our results revealed that exposure to CYA caused a significant decrease (linear and quadratic) in superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) activities and the contents of reduced glutathione (GSH) and glutathione transferase (GST). Incubation of erythrocytes with CYA increased GSSG content, GSSG/GSH ratio, malonaldehyde (MDA) and protein carbonyl (PrC) concentrations while it decreased the total protein (TP). CYA also lead to hemolysis and energy depletion of erythrocytes beside activation of caspase cascades, suggesting the pro-oxidant effect CYA that could be implicated in eryptosis. CIN and RES were able to inverse these hazardous effects of CYA. However, CIN was more effective than RES, their combination showed a positive synergistic effect in protecting the cells against oxidative injury caused by CYA

Over-expression of pumpkin GA-oxidases in Arabidopsis thaliana

Gibberellins (GAs) form a complex family of diterpenoid compounds, some of which are potent endogenous regulators of plant growth and development. Pumpkin seeds contain GA-oxidases with unique catalytic properties resulting in GAs of unknown function for plant development. In order to understand their potential to achieve changes in GA levels and their role for plant development, we produced transgenic Arabidopsis expressing sense or antisense copies of pumpkin genes encoding GA-oxidases; CmGA7ox, CmGA3ox1, and CmGA2ox1 as well as sense copies of CmGA20ox1. Arabidopsis plants were transformed with the pumpkin genes downstream of a strong constitutive promoter cassette (E12-35S-Omega). The expression levels of pumpkin GA-oxidases were determined by competitive RT-PCR. Over-expression of CmGA7ox in Arabidopsis resulted in seedlings with elongated roots, taller plants that flower earlier and developed more siliques in long day. Similarly, over-expression of CmGA3ox1 resulted in elongated phenotypes and an increase in bioactive GA4, indicating that both enzymes catalyse limiting steps in the GA biosynthesis of Arabidopsis. In contrast, over-expression of CmGA20ox1 in Arabidopsis resulted in shorter hypocotyls and internodes, less siliques and flowering was delayed with reduced GA4 levels and increased levels of the inactive GA17 and GA25. Severe dwarfed plants were obtained by over-expressing CmGA2ox1 in Arabidopsis and associated with a decrease in the levels of bioactive GA4 and an increase inactive product GA34 in comparison to control plants. The phenotype of plants expressing antisense copies did not change compared to the wild type plants. Modifying GA-biosynthesis using this approach may be useful for controlling plant development in agricultural and horticultural important species.Gibberelline (GAs) bilden eine komplexe Familie von Diterpenverbindungen, von denen einige wirkungsvolle endogene Regulatoren des Wachstums und der Entwicklung von Pflanzen darstellen. Kürbissamen enthalten GA-Oxidasen mit einzigartigen katalytischen Eigenschaften, die zu Gibberellinen führen mit oft nicht bekannten Funktionen für die pflanzliche Entwicklung. Um ihren Einfluss auf eine Veränderung der GA Gehalte und ihre Rolle für die pflanzliche Entwicklung besser zu verstehen, haben wir transgene Arabidopsis Pflanzen hergestellt, die sense oder antisense Kopien von Kürbis GA-Oxidase kodierenden Genen exprimieren; die CmGA7ox, CmGA3ox1, und die CmGA2ox1, sowie sense Kopien von der CmGA20ox1. Die Arabidopsis Pflanzen wurden transformiert mit Kürbis Genen downstream einer starken konstitutiven Promotor Kassette (E12-35S-Omega). Die Expressionslevel der Kürbis GA-Oxidasen wurde mit Hilfe der kompetitiven RT-PCR bestimmt. Die Überexpression des CmGA7ox in Arabidopsis resultiere in Keimlingen mit verlängerten Wurzeln, in größere Pflanzen, die früher blühen, und mehr Schoten im Langtag bilden und die erhöhte GA Gehalte aufwiesen im Vergleich zu Wildtyp Pflanzen. Ähnlich bewirkte die Überexpression von CmGA3ox1 erhöhtes Wachstum und einen erhöhten bioaktiven GA4 Gehalt. Diese Ergebnisse deuten darauf hin, dass die von beiden Enzyme (CmGA7ox und CmGA3ox1) katalysierten Schritte limitierend in der GA-Biosynthese von Arabidopsis sind. Im Gegensatz dazu resultierte Überexpression von CmGA20ox1 in Pflanzen mit kürzeren Hypokotylen und Internodien, weniger Schoten und einer verzögerten Blütenbildung bei verringerten GA4 Gehalten und erhöhten Gehalten an inaktiven GA17 und GA25. Starkes Zwergwachstum wurde durch die Überexpression von CmGA2ox1 erzielt. Im Vergleich zu Kontrollpflanzen wurde bei diesen Pflanzen eine Abnahme von bioaktivem GA4 und eine Zunahme des Abbauproduktes GA34 festgestellt. Die Phänotypen von Pflanzen, die antisense Kopien exprimieren, veränderten sich nicht im Vergleich zu den Kontrollpflanzen. Die Veränderung der GA-Biosynthese durch die vorgestellten Strategien könnte nutzbringend zur Kontrolle der pflanzlichen Entwicklung bei landwirtschaftlichen und gärtnerisch bedeutsamen Spezies eingesetzt werden