Encoding for the Blackwell Channel with Reinforced Belief Propagation

A key idea in coding for the broadcast channel (BC) is binning, in which the transmitter encode information by selecting a codeword from an appropriate bin (the messages are thus the bin indexes). This selection is normally done by solving an appropriate (possibly difficult) combinatorial problem. Recently it has been shown that binning for the Blackwell channel --a particular BC-- can be done by iterative schemes based on Survey Propagation (SP). This method uses decimation for SP and suffers a complexity of O(n^2). In this paper we propose a new variation of the Belief Propagation (BP) algorithm, named Reinforced BP algorithm, that turns BP into a solver. Our simulations show that this new algorithm has complexity O(n log n). Using this new algorithm together with a non-linear coding scheme, we can efficiently achieve rates close to the border of the capacity region of the Blackwell channel.Comment: 5 pages, 8 figures, submitted to ISIT 200

On the structure and evolution of planets and their host stars −- effects of various heating mechanisms on the size of giant gas planets

It is already stated in the previous studies that the radius of the giant planets is affected by stellar irradiation. The confirmed relation between radius and incident flux depends on planetary mass intervals. In this study, we show that there is a single relation between radius and irradiated energy per gram per second ($l_-$), for all mass intervals. There is an extra increase in radius of planets if $l_-$ is higher than 1100 times energy received by the Earth ($l_\oplus$). This is likely due to dissociation of molecules. The tidal interaction as a heating mechanism is also considered and found that its maximum effect on the inflation of planets is about 15 per cent. We also compute age and heavy element abundances from the properties of host stars, given in the TEPCat catalogue (Southworth 2011). The metallicity given in the literature is as [Fe/H]. However, the most abundant element is oxygen, and there is a reverse relation between the observed abundances [Fe/H] and [O/Fe]. Therefore, we first compute [O/H] from [Fe/H] by using observed abundances, and then find heavy element abundance from [O/H]. We also develop a new method for age determination. Using the ages we find, we analyse variation of both radius and mass of the planets with respect to time, and estimate the initial mass of the planets from the relation we derive for the first time. According to our results, the highly irradiated gas giants lose 5 per cent of their mass in every 1 Gyr.Comment: 15 pages, 13 figures, 3 tables. Accepted by MNRA

Compact massive objects in Virgo galaxies: the black hole population

We investigate the distribution of massive black holes (MBHs) in the Virgo cluster. Observations suggest that AGN activity is widespread in massive galaxies (M>1e10 solar masses), while at lower galaxy masses star clusters are more abundant, which might imply a limited presence of central black holes in these galaxy-mass regimes. We explore if this possible threshold in MBH hosting, is linked to nature, nurture, or a mixture of both. The nature scenario arises naturally in hierarchical cosmologies, as MBH formation mechanisms typically are efficient in biased systems, which would later evolve into massive galaxies. Nurture, in the guise of MBH ejections following MBH mergers, provides an additional mechanism that is more effective for low mass, satellite galaxies. The combination of inefficient formation, and lower retention of MBHs, leads to the natural explanation of the distribution of compact massive ob jects in Virgo galaxies. If MBHs arrive to the correlation with the host mass and velocity dispersion during merger-triggered accretion episodes, sustained tidal stripping of the host galaxies creates a population of MBHs which lie above the expected scaling between the holes and their host mass, suggesting a possible environmental dependence.Comment: MNRAS letter

In vivo function of the murid herpesvirus-4 ribonucleotide reductase small subunit

The difficulty of eliminating herpesvirus carriage makes host entry a key target for infection control. However, its viral requirements are poorly defined. Murid herpesvirus-4 (MuHV-4) can potentially provide insights into gammaherpesvirus host entry. Upper respiratory tract infection requires the MuHV-4 thymidine kinase (TK) and ribonucleotide reductase large subunit (RNR-L), suggesting a need for increased nucleotide production. However, both TK and RNR-L are likely to be multifunctional. We therefore tested further the importance of nucleotide production by disrupting the MuHV-4 ribonucleotide reductase small subunit (RNR-S). This caused a similar attenuation to RNR-L disruption: despite reduced intra-host spread, invasive inoculations still established infection, whereas a non-invasive upper respiratory tract inoculation did so only at high dose. Histological analysis showed that RNR-S−, RNR-L− and TK− viruses all infected cells in the olfactory neuroepithelium but unlike wild-type virus then failed to spread. Thus captured host nucleotide metabolism enzymes, up to now defined mainly as important for alphaherpesvirus reactivation in neurons, also have a key role in gammaherpesvirus host entry. This seemed to reflect a requirement for lytic replication to occur in a terminally differentiated cell before a viable pool of latent genomes could be established

The moderating effect of brand orientation on inter-firm market orientation and performance

While prior research has shown that market and brand orientation are key contributors to successful business performance, research to date has not fully explored how inter firm collaboration for these two key orientations can enhance business performance. The purpose of the paper is to investigate the relationship between inter-firm market and performance; to test for the moderating role of brand orientation in that relationship. A total of 169 completed pairs of surveys were collected of small and medium enterprises operating internationally in a variety of industries in Switzerland. The results show that inter-firm market and brand orientation are two antecedents of marketing and financial performance. The impact of inter-firm market on marketing and financial performance is significant when the brand orientation is favorable. This study extends previous research by examining the moderating role of brand orientation on inter firm market orientation, which is important, especially for firms wanting to increase their brand reputation by entering into partnerships with other firms. Further research is indicated, to identify the key moderators of the driving force of inter-firm market in relation to business performance and the reason why maintaining a strong brand presence is important in the international marketplace

The Elements, Lawrence University Flute Ensemble, January 30, 2017

Harper Hal

Murid herpesvirus-4 lacking thymidine kinase reveals route-dependent requirements for host colonization

Gammaherpesviruses infect at least 90 % of the world's population. Infection control is difficult, in part because some fundamental features of host colonization remain unknown, for example whether normal latency establishment requires viral lytic functions. Since human gammaherpesviruses have narrow species tropisms, answering such questions requires animal models. Murid herpesvirus-4 (MuHV-4) provides one of the most tractable. MuHV-4 genomes delivered to the lung or peritoneum persist without lytic replication. However, they fail to disseminate systemically, suggesting that the outcome is inoculation route-dependent. After upper respiratory tract inoculation, MuHV-4 infects mice without involving the lungs or peritoneum. We examined whether host entry by this less invasive route requires the viral thymidine kinase (TK), a gene classically essential for lytic replication in terminally differentiated cells. MuHV-4 TK knockouts delivered to the lung or peritoneum were attenuated but still reached lymphoid tissue. In contrast, TK knockouts delivered to the upper respiratory tract largely failed to establish a detectable infection. Therefore TK, and by implication lytic replication, is required for MuHV-4 to establish a significant infection by a non-invasive route

Beaconing Approaches in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks: A Survey

A Vehicular Ad hoc Network (VANET) is a type of wireless ad hoc network that facilitates ubiquitous connectivity between vehicles in the absence of fixed infrastructure. Beaconing approaches is an important research challenge in high mobility vehicular networks with enabling safety applications. In this article, we perform a survey and a comparative study of state-of-the-art adaptive beaconing approaches in VANET, that explores the main advantages and drawbacks behind their design. The survey part of the paper presents a review of existing adaptive beaconing approaches such as adaptive beacon transmission power, beacon rate adaptation, contention window size adjustment and Hybrid adaptation beaconing techniques. The comparative study of the paper compares the representatives of adaptive beaconing approaches in terms of their objective of study, summary of their study, the utilized simulator and the type of vehicular scenario. Finally, we discussed the open issues and research directions related to VANET adaptive beaconing approaches.Ghafoor, KZ.; Lloret, J.; Abu Bakar, K.; Sadiq, AS.; Ben Mussa, SA. (2013). Beaconing Approaches in Vehicular Ad Hoc Networks: A Survey. Wireless Personal Communications. 73(3):885-912. doi:10.1007/s11277-013-1222-9S885912733ITS-Standards (1996) Intelligent transportation systems, U.S. Department of Transportation, http://www.standards.its.dot.gov/about.aspCheng, L., Henty, B., Stancil, D., Bai, F., & Mudalige, P. (2005). Mobile vehicle-to-vehicle narrow-band channel measurement and characterization of the 5.9 Ghz dedicated short range communication (DSRC) frequency band. IEEE Transactions on Selected Areas in Communications, 25(8), 1501–1516.van Eenennaam, E., Wolterink, K., Karagiannis, G., & Heijenk, G. (2009). Exploring the solution space of beaconing in vanets. In Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE international vehicular networking conference, Tokyo (pp. 1–8).Torrent-Moreno, M. (2007). Inter-vehicle communications: Assessing information dissemination under safety constraints. In Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE conference wireless on demand network systems and services, Austria (pp. 59–64).Lloret, J., Canovas, A., Catalá, A., & Garcia, M. (2012). Group-based protocol and mobility model for vanets to offer internet access. Journal of Network and Computer Applications 2224–2245 doi: 10.1016j.jnca.2012.02.009 .Nzouonta, J., Rajgure, N., Wang, G., & Borcea, C. (2009). Vanet routing on city roads using real-time vehicular traffic information. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 58(7), 3609–3626.Fukui, R., Koike, H., & Okada, H. (2002). Dynamic integrated transmission control(ditrac) over inter-vehicle communications. In Proceedings of the 2002 IEEE vehicular technology conference, Birmingham (pp. 483–487).Schmidt, R., Leinmuller, T., Schoch, E., Kargl, F., & Schafer, G. (2010). Exploration of adaptive beaconing for efficient intervehicle safety communication. IEEE Network, 24(1), 14–19.Ghafoor, K., Bakar, K., van Eenennaam, E., Khokhar, R., Gonzalez, A. A fuzzy logic approach to beaconing for vehicular ad hoc networks, Accepted for publication in Telecommunication Systems Journal.Ghafoor, K., & Bakar, K. (2010). A novel delay and reliability aware inter vehicle routing protocol. Network Protocols and Algorithms, 2(2), 66–88.Mittag, J., Thomas, F., Härri, J., & Hartenstein, H. (2009). A comparison of single-and multi-hop beaconing in vanets. In Proceedings of the 2009 ACM international workshop on vehicular internetworking, Beijing (pp. 69–78).Sommer, C., Tonguz, O., & Dressler, F. (2010). Adaptive beaconing for delay-sensitive and congestion-aware traffic information systems. In Proceedings of the 2010 IEEE international vehicular networking conference (VNC), New Jersey (pp. 1–8).Guan, X., Sengupta, R., Krishnan, H., & Bai, F. (2007). A feedback-based power control algorithm design for vanet. In Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE international conference on mobile networking for vehicular environments, USA (pp. 67–72).AL-Hashimi, H., Bakar, K., & Ghafoor, K. (2011). Inter-domain proxy mobile ipv6 based vehicular network. Network Protocols and Algorithms, 2(4), 1–15.Rawat, D., Popescu, D., Yan, G., & Olariu, S. (2011). Enhancing vanet performance by joint adaptation of transmission power and contention window size. Transactions on Parallel and Distributed Systems, 22(9), 1528–1535.European-ITS (2009) Eits-technical report 102 638 v1.1.1, European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), http://www.etsi.org/WebSite/homepage.aspxNHTSA, I. Joint program office”, report to congress on the national highway traffic safety administration its program, program progress during 1992–1996 and strategic plan for 1997–2002, US Department of Transportation, Washington, DC.Godbole, D., Sengupta, R., Misener, J., Kourjanskaia, N., & Michael, J. (1998). Benefit evaluation of crash avoidance systems. Transportation Research, 1621(1), 1–9.Reinders, R., van Eenennaam, M., Karagiannis, G., & Heijenk, G. (2004). Contention window analysis for beaconing in vanets. In Proceedings of the 2011 IEEE international conference on wireless communications and mobile computing (IWCMC), Istanbul (pp. 1481–1487).Yang, L., Guo, J., & Wu, Y. (2008). Channel adaptive one hop broadcasting for vanets. In Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE international conference on intelligent transportation systems, Beijing (pp. 369–374).Tseng, Y., Ni, S., Chen, Y., & Sheu, J. (2002). The broadcast storm problem in a mobile ad hoc network. Wireless Networks, 8(2), 153–167.van Eenennaam, E. M., Karagiannis, G., & Heijenk, G. (2010). Towards scalable beaconing in vanets. In Proceedings of the 2010 ERCIM workshop on eMobility, Lulea (pp. 103–108).Ros, F., Ruiz, P., & Stojmenovic, I. (2012). Acknowledgment-based broadcast protocol for reliable and efficient data dissemination in vehicular ad-hoc networks. IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing, 11(1), 33–46.Torrent-Moreno, M., Santi, P., & Hartenstein, H. (2006). Distributed fair transmit power adjustment for vehicular ad hoc networks. In Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE international conference on sensor and ad hoc communications and networks, Reston, VA (pp. 479–488).Artimy, M. (2007). Local density estimation and dynamic transmission-range assignment in vehicular ad hoc networks. IEEE Transactions on Intelligent Transportation Systems, 8(3), 400–412.Caizzone, G., Giacomazzi, P., Musumeci, L., & Verticale, G. (2005). A power control algorithm with high channel availability for vehicular ad hoc networks. In Proceedings of the 2005 IEEE international conference on communications, Seoul (pp. 3171–3176).Torrent-Moreno, M., Santi, P., & Hartenstein, H. (2009). Vehicle-to-vehicle communication: Fair transmit power control for safety critical information. IEEE Transaction for Vehicular Technology, 58(7), 3684–3703.Torrent-Moreno, M., Schmidt-Eisenlohr, F., Fubler, H., & Hartenstein, H. (2006). Effects of a realistic channel model on packet forwarding in vehicular ad hoc networks. In Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE conference on wireless communications and networking, USA (pp. 385–391).NS, Network simulator (June 2011). http://nsnam.isi.edu/nsnam/index.php/MainPageNakagami, M. (1960). The m-distribution: A general formula of intensity distribution of rapid fadinge. In W. C. Hoffman (Ed.), Statistical method of radio propagation. New York: Pergamon Press.Narayanaswamy, S., Kawadia, V., Sreenivas, R., & Kumar, P. (2002). Power control in ad-hoc networks: Theory, architecture, algorithm and implementation of the compow protocol. In Proceedings of the 2002 European wireless conference next generation wireless networks: technologies, protocols, Italy (pp. 1–6).Cheng, P., Lee, K., Gerla, M., & Harri, J. (2010). Geodtn+ nav: Geographic dtn routing with navigator prediction for urban vehicular environments. Mobile Networks and Applications, 15(1), 61–82.Gomez, J., & Campbell, A. (2004). A case for variable-range transmission power control in wireless multihop networks. In Proceedings twenty-third annual joint conference of the IEEE computer and communications societies, Hong kong (pp. 1425–1436).Ramanathan, R., & Rosales-Hain, R. (2000). Topology control of multihop wireless networks using transmit power adjustment. In Proceedings nineteenth annual joint conference of the IEEE computer and communications societies, Hong kong (pp. 404–413).Artimy, M., Robertson, W., & Phillips, W. (2005). Assignment of dynamic transmission range based on estimation of vehicle density. In Proceedings of the 2nd ACM international workshop on vehicular ad hoc networks, Germany (pp. 40–48).Samara, G., Ramadas, S., & Al-Salihy, W. (2010). Safety message power transmission control for vehicular ad hoc networks. Computer Science, 6(10), 1027–1032.Rezaei, S., Sengupta, R., Krishnan, H., Guan, X., & Student, P. (2008). Adaptive communication scheme for cooperative active safety system.Rezaei, S., Sengupta, R., Krishnan, H., & Guan, X. (2007). Reducing the communication required by dsrc-based vehicle safety systems. In Proceedings of the 2007 IEEE international conference on intelligent transportation systems, Bellevue, WA (pp. 361–366).Sommer, C., Tonguz, O., & Dressler, F. (2011). Traffic information systems: Efficient message dissemination via adaptive beaconing. IEEE Communications Magazine, 49(5), 173–179.Thaina, C., Nakorn, K., & Rojviboonchai, K. (2011). A study of adaptive beacon transmission on vehicular ad-hoc networks. In Proceeding of the 2011 IEEE 13th international conference on communication technology (ICCT), Vancouver (pp. 597–602).Boukerche, A., Rezende, C., & Pazzi, R. (2009). Improving neighbor localization in vehicular ad hoc networks to avoid overhead from periodic messages. In Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE global telecommunications conference, USA (pp. 1–6).Bai, F., Sadagopan, N., & Helmy, A. (2008). Important: A framework to systematically analyze the impact of mobility on performance of routing protocols for adhoc networks. In Proceedings of the 2003 22th annual joint conference of the IEEE computer and communications, USA (pp. 825–835).Nguyen, H., Bhawiyuga, A., & Jeong, H. (2012). A comprehensive analysis of beacon dissemination in vehicular networks. In Proceedings of the 75th IEEE vehicular technology conference, Korea (pp. 1–5).Djahel, S., & Ghamri-Doudane, Y. (2012). A robust congestion control scheme for fast and reliable dissemination of safety messages in vanets. In Proceeding of the 2012 IEEE conference wireless communications and networking, Paris, France (pp. 2264–2269).O. Technologies (Augast 2012) Opnet modeler, http://www.opnet.com/Huang, C., Fallah, Y., Sengupta, R., & Krishnan, H. (2010). Adaptive intervehicle communication control for cooperative safety systems. IEEE Network, 24(1), 6–13.OPNET (June 2012) Opnet modeler, http://www.opnet.com/Kerner, B. (2004). The physics of traffic: Empirical freeway pattern features, engineering applications, and theory. Berlin: Springer.Vinel, A., Vishnevsky, V., & Koucheryavy, Y. (2008). A simple analytical model for the periodic broadcasting in vehicular ad-hoc networks. In Proceedings of the 2008 IEEE international GLOBECOM workshops, Philadelphia, PA (pp. 1–5).Mariyasagayam, N., Menouar, H., & Lenardi, M. (2009). An adaptive forwarding mechanism for data dissemination in vehicular networks. In Proceedings of the 2009 IEEE Vehicular Networking Conference, Boston (pp. 1–5).Hung, C., Chan, H., & Wu, E. (2008). Mobility pattern aware routing for heterogeneous vehicular networks. In Proceedings of the 2008 international conference on wireless communications and networking, Las Vegas (pp. 2200–2205).Yang, K., Ou, S., Chen, H., & He, J. (2007). A multihop peer-communication protocol with fairness guarantee for ieee 802.16-based vehicular networks. IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology, 56(6), 3358–3370.Lequerica, I., Ruiz, P., & Cabrera, V. (2010). Improvement of vehicular communications by using 3G capabilities to disseminate control information. IEEE Network Magazine, 24(1), 32–38.Oh, D., Kim, P., Song, J., Jeon, S., & Lee, H. (2005). Design considerations of satellite-based vehicular broadband networks. IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine, 12(5), 91–97.Ko, Y., Sim, M., & Nekovee, M. (2006). Wi-fi based broadband wireless access for users on the road. BT Technology Journal, 24(2), 123–129.Choffnes, D., & Bustamante, F. (2005). An integrated mobility and traffic model for vehicular wireless networks. In Proceedings of the 2005 ACM international workshop on vehicular ad hoc networks, Cologne (pp. 69–78).TIGER (October 2010) Topologically integrated geographic encoding and referencing system, http://www.census.gov/geo/www/tiger/Mittag, J., Thomas, F., Harri, J., & Hartenstein, H. (2009). A comparison of single and multi-hop beaconing in vanets. In Proceedings of the 2009 ACM international workshop on vehiculaar internetworking, Beijing (pp. 69–78).Rappaport, T. (1996). Wireless communications: Principles and practice (2nd ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall PTR