Joint Link Scheduling and Routing for Load Balancing in STDMA Wireless Mesh Networks

In wireless mesh networks, it is known to be effective to use a TDMA based MAC than a contention-based CSMA. In addition, if spatial TDMA is used, network performance can be improved further because of its spatial reuse effect. However this scheme still has a disadvantage in the system performance aspect without a load-balanced routing because the resource of links that are not used is wasted and frequently used links are out of resources. That is, the number of available flows in network is limited because load balancing is not performed. In this paper, we propose joint link scheduling and routing through a cross-layer scheme. For this, we propose a load balancing routing method to maximize available resources under the given traffic pattern and scheduling method for maximizing link utilization on the given route. These two methods are iterated until an optimized solution can be obtained. The proposed algorithm can be formulated using a mathematical LP problem and we show that it is very effective for load balancing compared to simple adoption of IEEE 802.11s which is a standard TDMA protocol in wireless mesh network. If the proposed algorithm is applied to initial design solution such as Smart Grid, the number of available flows can be increased and the load on each link can be balanced

Symmetry-protected flatband condition for Hamiltonians with local symmetry

We derive symmetry-based conditions for tight-binding Hamiltonians with flatbands to have compact localized eigenstates occupying a single unit cell. The conditions are based on unitary operators commuting with the Hamiltonian and associated with local symmetries that guarantee compact localized states and a flatband. We illustrate the conditions for compact localized states and flatbands with simple Hamiltonians with given symmetries. We also apply these results to general cases such as the Hamiltonian with long-range hoppings and higher-dimensional Hamiltonian.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

KINEMATIC ANALYSIS OF GOLF SWING PERFORMED WITH INTENDED LATE HITTING

The purposes of this study were to analyze and compare the kinematic parameters for standard and purpose golf swings. The purpose golf swing is characterized as intended late hitting and increase displacement of ball through the air (carry). Twenty-five male college golfers were recruited as sUbjects and Science eye field 3 camera system was used to measure the parameters of deterministic model. Paired t-test was used to compare between two different golf swings and correlation coefficients between selected parameters and carry were also computed. As results, a significant difference between standard and purpose golf swings was found in terms of increasing carry. Coefficients of correlation indicated that post-impact ball velocity, pre-impact club head velocity, and meet rate were positively correlated with carry. However, backspin, and angle of release were negatively correlated with carry. These results represented that the parameters of deterministic model were very useful indicators to determine performance and the purpose swing is beneficial to increase carry

Evaluation of a specific diagnostic marker for rheumatoid arthritis based on cyclic citrullinated peptide

AbstractA specific peptide marker for diagnosing rheumatoid arthritis (RA) was found based on cyclic citrullinated peptide (CCP) using the following three steps: (1) analysis of the binding epitope of autoimmune antibodies using ϵ-aminocaproic acid-modified peptides; (2) RA diagnosis using sequence-modified peptides; and (3) evaluation of the peptides’ diagnostic performance for RA diagnosis. Ninety-five serum samples were analyzed by ELISA and compared using MedCalc (version 15.2.1). Microplate binding ϵ-aminocaproic acid was added to the N- or C-terminal of the CCP sequence. The N-terminal anchoring peptide assay showed 15% higher specificity compared with the C-terminal anchoring peptide assay. Based on this result, the hydrophilic C-terminal sequence of CCP was substituted with a hydrophobic amino acid. Among the sequence-modified peptides, CCP11A (in which alanine was substituted for the 11th amino acid of CCP) assay showed the highest sensitivity (87%) and specificity (100%) for RA diagnosis. Thus, CCP11A was selected as a possible specific marker peptide for RA diagnosis and further analyzed. The results of this analysis indicated that CCP11A showed better specificity than the CCP assay in both healthy individuals (11% better) and OA cohort (20% better). From these results, CCP11A was evaluated as a specific marker for diagnosing RA with higher diagnostic performance

Decomposing Organizational Productivity Changes in Acute Care Hospitals in Tennessee, 2002-2006: A Malmquist Approach

After the passage of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the survival and the productivity of hospitals are a critical topic in health care management. This study measured the productivity of acute care hospitals in Tennessee, applying the DEA-Malmquist index, which can be decomposed into a technical efficiency and technological change index in relation to factors such as size, ownership, location, and network. This draws on utilization data and financial statements from 144 acute care hospitals in Tennessee from 2002 through 2006. The analysis indicates that community hospitals in Tennessee were generally inefficient. The community hospitals in Tennessee suffered both with respect to technological change and technical efficiency, with the latter playing a relatively more important role. This study finds the bigger-sized, urban, public or nonprofit, strategically allied hospitals to be more productive relatively speaking and suggests that community hospitals in Tennessee need to upsize their facilities or make other adjustments, such as changing their cost structure and the way they operate their facility or bringing in new management to increase productivity. Government and health policy makers also need to develop and enact health policies to ensure that hospitals are both able to make technical progress and improve efficiency and thereby increase productivity.This paper was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea Grant funded by the Korean Government (NRF-2010-330-B00031 and NRF-2012-330-B00194)

Application of Recycled Zero-Valent Iron Nanoparticle to the Treatment of Wastewater Containing Nitrobenzene

Zero-valent iron (ZVI) was synthesized using iron oxide, a byproduct of pickling line at a steel work. ZVI with a mean particle size of 500 nm was synthesized. The reaction activity of the synthesized ZVI was much higher than commercial ZVI. When applied to the decomposition of nitrobenzene (NB), the ZVI particles underwent corrosion and passivation oxide film formation, resulting in particle size decrease. The NB decomposition rate increased with increasing ZVI dosage level and with decreasing pH. The solution pH increased monotonously with increasing reaction duration, whereas the aniline concentration showed a maximum at 50 min. Based on the GC/MS analysis, NB is presumed to be reduced into aniline via reductive intermediates such as azobenzene and azoxybenzene. When combined with a subsequent biological process, the synthesized ZVI will be able to decompose NB in wastewater effectively

Isolation and characterization of the outer membrane of Escherichia coli with autodisplayed Z-domains

Abstract“Autodisplay technology” is an expression technique used to display the various recombinant proteins on the outer membrane (OM) of Escherichia coli. The resulting autodisplayed Z-domain has been used to improve the sensitivity of immunoassays. In this work, a facile isolation method of the OM fraction of E. coli with autodisplayed Z-domains was presented using (1) an enzyme reaction for the hydrolysis of the peptidoglycan layer and (2) short centrifugation steps. The purity of the isolated OM fraction was analyzed. For the estimation of contamination with bacterial proteins from other parts of E. coli, Western blots of marker proteins for the OM (OmpA), periplasm (β-lactamase), inner membrane (SecA), and cytoplasm (β-galactosidase) were performed. Additionally, assays of marker components or enzymes from each part of E. coli were carried out including the OM (KDO), inner membrane (NADH oxidase), periplasm (β-lactamase), and cytoplasm (β-galactosidase). The yield of OM isolation using this new method was determined to be 80% of the total OM amount, with less than 1% being contaminants from other parts of E. coli

The Prognostic Implications of Cystic Change in Clear Cell Renal Cell Carcinoma

Background : Cystic renal cell carcinoma has been reported to have a good prognosis. However, previous studies included cases of multilocular cystic renal cell carcinoma, which has an excellent prognosis, and renal cell carcinoma with cystic necrosis, which has an adverse prognosis. Therefore, we analyzed the prognostic influence of cystic change in clear cell renal cell carcinoma after excluding those morphological features. Methods : We identified 225 patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma who underwent nephrectomy between 2001 and 2003. The clinicopathologic features were compared with clinical outcomes. Results : Cystic change in clear cell renal cell carcinoma (n = 66) was significantly associated with younger patient age (< 55), smaller tumor size (<= 4 cm), lower pT stage (pT1, T2), M0 stage at initial diagnosis, lower tumor, node, and metastasis stage (I, II), and lower nuclear grade (1, 2). Patients with cystic change in clear cell renal cell carcinoma had significantly longer cancer-specific (p = 0.015) and progression-free survival (p = 0.004) than those without cystic change, by univariate analysis. Multivariate analysis revealed that cystic change significantly decreased the risk of cancer progression (risk ratio, 0.27; 95% confidence interval, 0.11 to 0.69). Conclusions : In patients with clear cell renal cell carcinoma, cystic change is a good independent predictor for survival.This work was supported by grant No. 04-2009-007 from the SNUH Research Fund.Jemal A, 2009, CA-CANCER J CLIN, V59, P225, DOI 10.3322/caac.20006Lopez-Beltran A, 2009, INT J UROL, V16, P432, DOI 10.1111/j.1442-2042.2009.02302.xGobbo S, 2008, AM J SURG PATHOL, V32, P1239Gong K, 2008, J CANCER RES CLIN, V134, P433, DOI 10.1007/s00432-007-0302-1Webster WS, 2007, UROLOGY, V70, P900, DOI 10.1016/j.urology.2007.05.029Lopez-Beltran A, 2006, EUR UROL, V49, P798, DOI 10.1016/j.eururo.2005.11.035Suzigan S, 2006, AM J CLIN PATHOL, V125, P217, DOI 10.1039/AH6FC77PYR2V6YAYFrank I, 2005, J UROLOGY, V173, P1889, DOI 10.1097/01.ju.0000158043.94525.d6Patard JJ, 2005, J CLIN ONCOL, V23, P2763, DOI 10.1200/JCO.2005.07.055Kim H, 2004, HUM PATHOL, V35, P1556, DOI 10.1016/j.humpath.2004.06.011Ficarra V, 2004, EUR UROL, V46, P559, DOI 10.1016/j.eururo.2004.07.002Han KR, 2004, UROL ONCOL-SEMIN ORI, V22, P410, DOI 10.1016/S1078-1439(03)00173-XImura J, 2004, APMIS, V112, P183Cheville JC, 2003, AM J SURG PATHOL, V27, P612Frank I, 2002, J UROLOGY, V168, P2395, DOI 10.1097/01.ju.0000035885.91935.d5Nassir A, 2002, UROLOGY, V60, P421GREENE FL, 2002, AJCC CANC STAGING MACorica FA, 1999, J UROLOGY, V161, P408Bielsa O, 1998, BRIT J UROL, V82, P16USUBUTUN A, 1998, INT UROL NEPHROL, V30, P391LYNCH CF, 1995, CANCER, V75, P316HARTMAN DS, 1986, UROLOGY, V28, P145