Source Coding in Networks with Covariance Distortion Constraints

We consider a source coding problem with a network scenario in mind, and formulate it as a remote vector Gaussian Wyner-Ziv problem under covariance matrix distortions. We define a notion of minimum for two positive-definite matrices based on which we derive an explicit formula for the rate-distortion function (RDF). We then study the special cases and applications of this result. We show that two well-studied source coding problems, i.e. remote vector Gaussian Wyner-Ziv problems with mean-squared error and mutual information constraints are in fact special cases of our results. Finally, we apply our results to a joint source coding and denoising problem. We consider a network with a centralized topology and a given weighted sum-rate constraint, where the received signals at the center are to be fused to maximize the output SNR while enforcing no linear distortion. We show that one can design the distortion matrices at the nodes in order to maximize the output SNR at the fusion center. We thereby bridge between denoising and source coding within this setup

Compressive Sensing for Spread Spectrum Receivers

With the advent of ubiquitous computing there are two design parameters of wireless communication devices that become very important power: efficiency and production cost. Compressive sensing enables the receiver in such devices to sample below the Shannon-Nyquist sampling rate, which may lead to a decrease in the two design parameters. This paper investigates the use of Compressive Sensing (CS) in a general Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) receiver. We show that when using spread spectrum codes in the signal domain, the CS measurement matrix may be simplified. This measurement scheme, named Compressive Spread Spectrum (CSS), allows for a simple, effective receiver design. Furthermore, we numerically evaluate the proposed receiver in terms of bit error rate under different signal to noise ratio conditions and compare it with other receiver structures. These numerical experiments show that though the bit error rate performance is degraded by the subsampling in the CS-enabled receivers, this may be remedied by including quantization in the receiver model. We also study the computational complexity of the proposed receiver design under different sparsity and measurement ratios. Our work shows that it is possible to subsample a CDMA signal using CSS and that in one example the CSS receiver outperforms the classical receiver.Comment: 11 pages, 11 figures, 1 table, accepted for publication in IEEE Transactions on Wireless Communication

A decision support model simulating the vitamin supply over the year on a farm

The aim of this new project is to develop a prototype of a decision support model simulating the feed and vitamin supply during a year to different groups of animals (calves, heifers, dry cows, cows in early and late lactation) on a farm self-sufficient with feed. The model takes into account that the content of vitamin depends on choice of crops, utilization method, cutting date, conservation method and duration of storage together with traditional optimizing the feed-ing scheme

Performance and diarrhoea in piglets following weaning at seven weeks of age: Challenge with E. coli O 149 and effect of dietary factors

Four dietary factors (ad libitum versus feed restriction, control versus protein restriction at ad libitum feeding, control versus inclusion of lupine as a protein source at ad libitum feeding, and control versus extra vitamin E at ad libitum feeding) were tested in four separate experiments for the effect on diarrhoea. To introduce a diarrhoea-like condition, half of the piglets were challenged with an inoculation of an E. coli O 149 dose of 1 x 108 colony forming units on day two and three after weaning (day of weaning = day one). All piglets were susceptible since the dams were tested mono-zygotic susceptible to the attachment site of E. coli O 149 in the intestines. Each of the four experiments included 32 piglets from 4 sows. The design was 2 x 2 factorial with dietary factor and E. coli O 149 challenge as the two factors, each at two levels. The piglets were housed individually during the experiment which lasted for 10 days from weaning at 7 weeks of age. The daily recordings included feed intake, weight and faeces score (from 1 = firm and solid to 6 = yellow and watery). Faeces from days 2 to 5 were tested for E. coli strains. In addition, blood was sampled and serum was analysed for E. coli antibodies, IgG and IgM. Generally the E. coli challenge had no effect on growth and feed intake whereas faeces score and number of faeces haemolytic bacteria increased and faeces dry matter decreased. Feed restriction decreased the weight gain while faeces characteristics were unaffected. An analysis including all four experiments revealed that a feed intake of less than 200 g day one after weaning seems to be associated with a relatively high incidence of a post-weaning diarrhoea-like condition. Protein restriction decreased faeces score and increased faeces dry matter while weight gain tended to decrease. Inclusion of lupine affected neither weight gain nor faeces characteristics. Extra vitamin E did not affect weight gain while faeces dry matter decreased, and faeces score and number of faecal haemolytic bacteria increased. The dietary treatments had no effect on the immunological responses. In conclusion, the studied dietary factors could not alleviate a diarrhoea-like condition and at the same time maintain the growth rate. Furthermore, the results indicate that performance can be improved if piglets achieve a daily feed intake of at least 200 g from day one after weaning

Interfirm Linkages and the Vertical Structure and Dynamics of the Danish Trucking and Congress Tourism Industries

This paper questions the overall role of interfirm linkages in industrial dynamics. Studying Danish trucking and congress tourism, the paper addresses a number of particular questions concerning how industry responds to changing conditions. In trucking, the important interfirm linkages are pecuniary and entails nontrivial exchange among multiple dispersed agents, while in congress tourism Inter-organizational linkages are more strategic, with the activities of multiple agents forming together into products, without direct exchange.Industrial dynamics and evolution; inter-organizational linkages; vertical industry structure and division of labor; trucking; tourism

Compressive Parameter Estimation for Sparse Translation-Invariant Signals Using Polar Interpolation

We propose new compressive parameter estimation algorithms that make use of polar interpolation to improve the estimator precision. Our work extends previous approaches involving polar interpolation for compressive parameter estimation in two aspects: (i) we extend the formulation from real non-negative amplitude parameters to arbitrary complex ones, and (ii) we allow for mismatch between the manifold described by the parameters and its polar approximation. To quantify the improvements afforded by the proposed extensions, we evaluate six algorithms for estimation of parameters in sparse translation-invariant signals, exemplified with the time delay estimation problem. The evaluation is based on three performance metrics: estimator precision, sampling rate and computational complexity. We use compressive sensing with all the algorithms to lower the necessary sampling rate and show that it is still possible to attain good estimation precision and keep the computational complexity low. Our numerical experiments show that the proposed algorithms outperform existing approaches that either leverage polynomial interpolation or are based on a conversion to a frequency-estimation problem followed by a super-resolution algorithm. The algorithms studied here provide various tradeoffs between computational complexity, estimation precision, and necessary sampling rate. The work shows that compressive sensing for the class of sparse translation-invariant signals allows for a decrease in sampling rate and that the use of polar interpolation increases the estimation precision.Comment: 13 pages, 5 figures, to appear in IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing; minor edits and correction

Scalable Model-Based Management of Correlated Dimensional Time Series in ModelarDB+

To monitor critical infrastructure, high quality sensors sampled at a high frequency are increasingly used. However, as they produce huge amounts of data, only simple aggregates are stored. This removes outliers and fluctuations that could indicate problems. As a remedy, we present a model-based approach for managing time series with dimensions that exploits correlation in and among time series. Specifically, we propose compressing groups of correlated time series using an extensible set of model types within a user-defined error bound (possibly zero). We name this new category of model-based compression methods for time series Multi-Model Group Compression (MMGC). We present the first MMGC method GOLEMM and extend model types to compress time series groups. We propose primitives for users to effectively define groups for differently sized data sets, and based on these, an automated grouping method using only the time series dimensions. We propose algorithms for executing simple and multi-dimensional aggregate queries on models. Last, we implement our methods in the Time Series Management System (TSMS) ModelarDB (ModelarDB+). Our evaluation shows that compared to widely used formats, ModelarDB+ provides up to 13.7 times faster ingestion due to high compression, 113 times better compression due to the adaptivity of GOLEMM, 630 times faster aggregates by using models, and close to linear scalability. It is also extensible and supports online query processing.Comment: 12 Pages, 28 Figures, and 1 Tabl

Unusual iridoid glycosides in Veronica sects. Hebe and Labiatoides

In a chemosystematic investigation of three Southern hemisphere species of Veronica, namely the Australian V. derwentiana Andrews and V. perfoliata R.Br. (formerly Derwentia species), and the New Zealand V. catarractae G. Forster (formerly a species of Parahebe), the water-soluble constituents were isolated and identified by spectroscopic methods. Apart from other iridoid glucosides common to the genus, three unusual substituted benzoyl esters of aucubin (derwentiosides A-C) were obtained from V. derwentiana and a chlorinated iridoid glycoside (catarractoside) from V. catarractae in addition to other iridoids common to the genus. The chemical profile of V. perfoliata is similar to that of Northern hemisphere species of Veronica because of the presence of characteristic 6-O-catalpol esters. The profile of V. derwentiana is unique, since 6-O-esters of aucubin rather than of catalpol dominate, however, the acyl groups are the same as those present in catalpol esters found in some other Veronica sections. V. catarractae also contains one of the catalpol esters characteristic of Veronica, but in addition three 6-O-rhamnopyranosyl substituted iridoid glycosides, one of which is 6-O-rhamnopyranosylcatalpol. Esters of the latter compound are previously only known from the more derived species in recent phylogenetic trees of sect. Hebe to which V. catarractae now also belongs, but as a more basal member

Compressive Time Delay Estimation Using Interpolation

Time delay estimation has long been an active area of research. In this work, we show that compressive sensing with interpolation may be used to achieve good estimation precision while lowering the sampling frequency. We propose an Interpolating Band-Excluded Orthogonal Matching Pursuit algorithm that uses one of two interpolation functions to estimate the time delay parameter. The numerical results show that interpolation improves estimation precision and that compressive sensing provides an elegant tradeoff that may lower the required sampling frequency while still attaining a desired estimation performance.Comment: 5 pages, 2 figures, technical report supporting 1 page submission for GlobalSIP 201