174 research outputs found
Orthogonal perfect DFT Golay codes
Deciding about which coding sequences should be used is an important issue in many communication
systems, such as those employing Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). In this paper, we propose a cascading electronic codec based on a recursive algorithm for the generation of perfect sequences, derived from an Inverse Discrete Fourier Transform (IDFT) of Golay codes. The sequences generated have a low Peak-to-Average Power Ratio (PAPR), around 3 dB, which is the PAPR of a sine wave. The proposal is compared to the original Golay codes, verifying that our codec provides better crosscorrelation and autocorrelation results, crucial to gain immunity to multi-path interference.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Custom Hardware Processor to Compute a Figure of Merit for the Fit of X-Ray Diffraction Peaks
Global Analysis of the post-SNO Solar Neutrino Data for Standard and Non-Standard Oscillation Mechanisms
What can we learn from solar neutrino observations? Is there any solution to
the solar neutrino anomaly which is favored by the present experimental
panorama? After SNO results, is it possible to affirm that neutrinos have mass?
In order to answer such questions we analyze the current available data from
the solar neutrino experiments, including the recent SNO result, in view of
many acceptable solutions to the solar neutrino problem based on different
conversion mechanisms, for the first time, using the same statistical
procedure. This allows us to do a direct comparison of the goodness of the fit
among different solutions, from which we can discuss and conclude on the
current status of each proposed dynamical mechanism. These solutions are based
on different assumptions: (a) neutrino mass and mixing, (b) non-vanishing
neutrino magnetic moment, (c) the existence of non-standard flavor-changing and
non-universal neutrino interactions and (d) the tiny violation of the
equivalence principle. We investigate the quality of the fit provided by each
one of these solutions not only to the total rate measured by all the solar
neutrino experiments but also to the recoil electron energy spectrum measured
at different zenith angles by the Super-Kamiokande collaboration. We conclude
that several non-standard neutrino flavor conversion mechanisms provide a very
good fit to the experimental data which is comparable with (or even slightly
better than) the most famous solution to the solar neutrino anomaly based on
the neutrino oscillation induced by mass.Comment: Minor changes in the solar magnetic field profile used, and some
refferences added. Final version to appear in PR
2D-Tasks for Cognitive Rehabilitation
Neuropsychological Rehabilitation is a complex clinic process which tries to restore or compensate cognitive and behavioral disorders in people suffering from a central nervous system injury. Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) in Biomedical Engineering play an essential role in this field, allowing improvement and expansion of present rehabilitation programs.
This paper presents a set of cognitive rehabilitation 2D-Tasks for patients with Acquired Brain Injury (ABI). These tasks allow a high degree of personalization and individualization in therapies, based on the opportunities offered by new technologies
Melanopsin-expressing amphioxus photoreceptors transduce light via a phospholipase C signaling cascade
© The Author(s), 2012. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in PLoS One 7 (2012): e29813, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0029813.Melanopsin, the receptor molecule that underlies light sensitivity in mammalian ‘circadian’ receptors, is homologous to invertebrate rhodopsins and has been proposed to operate via a similar signaling pathway. Its downstream effectors, however, remain elusive. Melanopsin also expresses in two distinct light-sensitive cell types in the neural tube of amphioxus. This organism is the most basal extant chordate and can help outline the evolutionary history of different photoreceptor lineages and their transduction mechanisms; moreover, isolated amphioxus photoreceptors offer unique advantages, because they are unambiguously identifiable and amenable to single-cell physiological assays. In the present study whole-cell patch clamp recording, pharmacological manipulations, and immunodetection were utilized to investigate light transduction in amphioxus photoreceptors. A Gq was identified and selectively localized to the photosensitive microvillar membrane, while the pivotal role of phospholipase C was established pharmacologically. The photocurrent was profoundly depressed by IP3 receptor antagonists, highlighting the importance of IP3 receptors in light signaling. By contrast, surrogates of diacylglycerol (DAG), as well as poly-unsaturated fatty acids failed to activate a membrane conductance or to alter the light response. The results strengthen the notion that calcium released from the ER via IP3-sensitive channels may fulfill a key role in conveying - directly or indirectly - the melanopsin-initiated light signal to the photoconductance; moreover, they challenge the dogma that microvillar photoreceptors and phoshoinositide-based light transduction are a prerogative of invertebrate eyes.This work was supported by the National Science Foundation of the USA (grant 0918930)
Study protocol of the European Urban Burden of Disease Project: a health impact assessment study
Introduction Cities have long been known to be society’s predominant engine of innovation and wealth creation, yet they are also hotspots of pollution and disease partly due to current urban and transport practices. The aim of the European Urban Burden of Disease project is to evaluate the health burden and its determinants related to current and future potential urban and transport planning practices and related exposures in European cities and make this evidence available for policy and decision making for healthy and sustainable futures. Methods and analysis Drawing on an established comparative risk assessment methodology (ie, Urban and Transport Planning Health Impact Assessment) tool), in nearly 1000 European cities we will (1) quantify the health impacts of current urban and transport planning related exposures (eg, air pollution, noise, excess heat, lack of green space) (2) and evaluate the relationship between current levels of exposure, health impacts and city characteristics (eg, size, density, design, mobility) (3) rank and compare the cities based on exposure levels and the health impacts, (4) in a number of selected cities assess in-depth the linkages between urban and transport planning, environment, physical activity and health, and model the health impacts of alternative and realistic urban and transport planning scenarios, and, finally, (5) construct a healthy city index and set up an effective knowledge translation hub to generate impact in society and policy. Ethics and dissemination All data to be used in the project are publicly available data and do not need ethics approval. We will request consent for personal data on opinions and views and create data agreements for those providing information on current and future urban and transport planning scenarios. For dissemination and to generate impact, we will create a knowledge translation hub with information tailored to various stakeholders
Traditional knowledge and cultural importance of Borassus aethiopum Mart. in Benin: interacting effects of socio-demographic attributes and multi-scale abundance
ResearchBackground: Eliciting factors affecting distribution of traditional knowledge (TK) and cultural importance of plant
resources is central in ethnobiology. Socio-demographic attributes and ecological apparency hypothesis (EAH) have
been widely documented as drivers of TK distribution, but their synergistic effect is poorly documented. Here, we
focused on Borassus aethiopum, a socio-economic important agroforestry palm in Africa, analyzing relationships
between the number of use-reports and cultural importance on one hand, and informant socio-demographic
attributes (age category and gender) on the other hand, considering the EAH at multi-scale contexts. Our
hypothesis is that effects of socio-demographic attributes on use-reports and cultural importance are shaped by
both local (village level) and regional (chorological region level) apparency of study species. We expected so
because distribution of knowledge on a resource in a community correlates to the versatility in the resource
utilization but also connections among communities within a region.
Methods: Nine hundred ninety-two face-to-face individual semi-structured interviews were conducted in six villages of
low versus high local abundance of B. aethiopum spanning three chorological regions (humid, sub-humid and semiarid)
also underlying a gradient of increasing distribution and abundance of B. aethiopum. Number of use-reports and
score of importance of uses of B. aethiopum were recorded in six use-categories including medicine, food, handcraft,
construction, firewood, and ceremonies and rituals. Data were analyzed using Poisson and ordered logistic modelsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio
Fine-grained parallelization of fitness functions in bioinformatics optimization problems: gene selection for cancer classification and biclustering of gene expression data
Clinical forms of Trypanosoma cruzi infected individuals in the chronic phase of Chagas disease in Puebla, Mexico
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