8,730 research outputs found
On the Error Performance of 8-VSB TCM Decoder for ATSC Terrestrial Broadcasting of Digital Television
The error performance of various 8-VSB TCM decoders for reception of terrestrial digital television is analyzed. In previous work, 8-state TCM decoders were proposed and implemented for terrestrial broadcasting of digital television. In this paper, the performance of a 16-state TCM decoder is analyzed and simulated. It is shown that not only a 16-state TCM decoder outperforms one with 8-states, but it also has much smaller error coefficients
Shocks and a Giant Planet in the Disk Orbiting BP Piscium?
Spitzer IRS spectroscopy supports the interpretation that BP Piscium, a gas
and dust enshrouded star residing at high Galactic latitude, is a first-ascent
giant rather than a classical T Tauri star. Our analysis suggests that BP
Piscium's spectral energy distribution can be modeled as a disk with a gap that
is opened by a giant planet. Modeling the rich mid-infrared emission line
spectrum indicates that the solid-state emitting grains orbiting BP Piscium are
primarily composed of ~75 K crystalline, magnesium-rich olivine; ~75 K
crystalline, magnesium-rich pyroxene; ~200 K amorphous, magnesium-rich
pyroxene; and ~200 K annealed silica ('cristobalite'). These dust grains are
all sub-micron sized. The giant planet and gap model also naturally explains
the location and mineralogy of the small dust grains in the disk. Disk shocks
that result from disk-planet interaction generate the highly crystalline dust
which is subsequently blown out of the disk mid-plane and into the disk
atmosphere.Comment: 25 pages, 4 figures, 1 table. Accepted to Ap
Radio Spectra and NVSS Maps of Decametric Sources
We constructed radio spectra for ~1400 UTR-2 sources and find that 46% of
them have concave curvature. Inspection of NVSS maps of 700 UTR sources
suggests that half of all UTR sources are either blends of two or more sources
or have an ultra-steep spectrum (USS). The fraction of compact USS sources in
UTR may be near 10%. Using NVSS and the Digitized Sky Survey(s) we expect to
double the UTR optical identification rate from currently ~19%.Comment: 2 pages, no figures; to appear in Proc. "Observational Cosmology with
the New Radio Surveys", eds. M. Bremer, N. Jackson & I. Perez-Fournon, Kluwer
Acad. Pres
NaAlSi: a self-doped semimetallic superconductor with free electrons and covalent holes
The layered ternary sp conductor NaAlSi, possessing the iron-pnictide "111"
crystal structure, superconducts at 7 K. Using density functional methods, we
show that this compound is an intrinsic (self-doped) low-carrier-density
semimetal with a number of unusual features. Covalent Al-Si valence bands
provide the holes, and free-electron-like Al 3s bands, which propagate in the
channel between the neighboring Si layers, dip just below the Fermi level to
create the electron carriers. The Fermi level (and therefore the
superconducting carriers) lies in a narrow and sharp peak within a pseudogap in
the density of states. The small peak arises from valence bands which are
nearly of pure Si, quasi-two-dimensional, flat, and coupled to Al conduction
bands. Isostructural NaAlGe, which is not superconducting above 1.6 K, has
almost exactly the same band structure except for one missing piece of small
Fermi surface. Certain deformation potentials induced by Si and Na
displacements along the c-axis are calculated and discussed. It seems likely
that the mechanism of pairing is related to that of several other lightly doped
two-dimensional nonmagnetic semiconductors (TiNCl, ZrNCl, HfNCl), which is not
well understood but apparently not of phonon origin.Comment: 9 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl
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Differential effects of anti-B7-1 and anti-B7-2 monoclonal antibody treatment on the development of diabetes in the nonobese diabetic mouse.
Insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM) is thought to be an immunologically mediated disease resulting in the complete destruction of the insulin-producing islets of Langerhans. It has become increasingly clear that autoreactive T cells play a major role in the development and progression of this disease. In this study, we examined the role of the CD28/B7 costimulation pathway in the development and progression of autoimmune diabetes in the nonobese diabetic (NOD) mouse model. Female NOD mice treated at the onset of insulitis (2-4 wk of age) with CTLA4Ig immunoglobulin (Ig) (a soluble CD28 antagonist) or a monoclonal antibody (mAb) specific for B7-2 (a CD28 ligand) did not develop diabetes. However, neither of these treatments altered the disease process when administered late, at > 10 wk of age. Histological examination of islets from the various treatment groups showed that while CTLA4Ig and anti-B7-2 mAb treatment blocked the development of diabetes, these reagents had little effect on the development or severity of insulitis. Together these results suggest that blockade of costimulatory signals by CTLA4Ig or anti-B7-2 acts early in disease development, after insulitis but before the onset of frank diabetes. NOD mice were also treated with mAbs to another CD28 ligand, B7-1. In contrast to the previous results, the anti-B7-1 treatment significantly accelerated the development of disease in female mice and, most interestingly, induced diabetes in normally resistant male mice. A combination of anti-B7-1 and anti-B7-2 mAbs also resulted in an accelerated onset of diabetes, similar to that observed with anti-B7-1 mAb treatment alone, suggesting that anti-B7-1 mAb's effect was dominant. Furthermore, treatment with anti-B7-1 mAbs resulted in a more rapid and severe infiltrate. Finally, T cells isolated from the pancreas of these anti-B7-1-treated animals exhibited a more activated phenotype than T cells isolated from any of the other treatment groups. These studies demonstrate that costimulatory signals play an important role in the autoimmune process, and that different members of the B7 family have distinct regulatory functions during the development of autoimmune diabetes
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