The Extended-window Channel Estimator For Iterative Channel-and-symbol Estimation

The application of the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm to channel estimation results in a well-known iterative channel-and-symbol estimator (ICSE). The EM-ICSE iterates between a symbol estimator based on the forward-backward recursion (BCJR equalizer) and a channel estimator, and may provide approximate maximum-likelihood blind or semiblind channel estimates. Nevertheless, the EM-ICSE has high complexity, and it is prone to misconvergence. In this paper, we propose the extended-window (EW) estimator, a novel channel estimator for ICSE that can be used with any soft-output symbol estimator. Therefore, the symbol estimator may be chosen according to performance or complexity specifications. We show that the EW-ICSE, an ICSE that uses the EW estimator and the BCJR equalizer, is less complex and less susceptible to misconvergence than the EM-ICSE. Simulation results reveal that the EW-ICSE may converge faster than the EM-ICSE. © 2005 Hindawi Publishing Corporation.200529299Barry, J.R., Lee, E.A., Messerschmitt, D.G., (2003) Digital Communications, , Kluwer Academic Publishers, Norwell, Mass, USA, 3rd editionAyadi, J., De Carvalho, E., Slock, D.T.M., Blind and semi-blind maximum likelihood methods for FIR multichannel identification (1998) Proc. IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, Signal Processing (ICASSP'98), 6, pp. 3185-3188. , Seattle, Wash, USA, MayFeder, M., Catipovic, J.A., Algorithms for joint channel estimation and data recovery-application to equalization in underwater communications (1991) IEEE J. Oceanic Eng., 16 (1), pp. 42-55Kaleh, G.K., Vallet, R., Joint parameter estimation and symbol detection for linear or nonlinear unknown channels (1994) IEEE Trans. Commun., 42 (7), pp. 2406-2413Anton-Haro, C., Fonollosa, J.A.R., Fonollosa, J.R., Blind channel estimation and data detection using hidden Markov models (1997) IEEE Trans. Signal Processing, 45 (1), pp. 241-247Garcia-Frias, J., Villasenor, J.D., Combined turbo detection and decoding for unknown ISI channels (2003) IEEE Trans. Commun., 51 (1), pp. 79-85Kammeyer, K.-D., Kühn, V., Petermann, T., Blind and nonblind turbo estimation for fast fading GSM channels (2001) IEEE J. Select. Areas Commun., 19 (9), pp. 1718-1728Berthet, A.O., Ünal, B.S., Visoz, R., Iterative decoding of convolutionally encoded signals over multipath Rayleigh fading channels (2001) IEEE J. Select. Areas Commun., 19 (9), pp. 1729-1743Lopes, R.R., Barry, J.R., Exploiting error-control coding in blind channel estimation (2001) IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM'01), 2, pp. 1317-1321. , San Antonio, Tex, USA, NovemberKrishnamurthy, V., Moore, J.B., On-line estimation of hidden Markov model parameters based on the Kullback-Leibler information measure (1993) IEEE Trans. Signal Processing, 41 (8), pp. 2557-2573White, L.B., Perreau, S., Duhamel, P., Reduced computation blind equalization for FIR channel input Markov models (1995) IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC'95), 2, pp. 993-997. , Seattle, Wash, USA, JuneShao, M., Nikias, C.L., An ML/MMSE estimation approach to blind equalization (1994) Proc. IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, Signal Processing (ICASSP'94), 4, pp. 569-572. , Adelaide, SA, Australia, AprilCirpan, H.A., Tsatsanis, M.K., Stochastic maximum likelihood methods for semi-blind channel estimation (1998) IEEE Signal Processing Lett., 5 (1), pp. 21-24Paris, B.-P., Self-adaptive maximum-likelihood sequence estimation (1993) IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM'93), 4, pp. 92-96. , Houston, Tex, USA, November-DecemberBaum, L.E., Petrie, T., Soules, G., Weiss, N., A maximization technique occurring in the statistical analysis of probabilistic functions of Markov chains (1970) Annals of Mathematics Statistics, 41 (1), pp. 164-171Dempster, A.P., Laird, N.M., Rubin, D.B., Maximum likelihood from incomplete data via the em algorithm (1977) Journal of the Royal Statistics Society, 39 (1), pp. 1-38Bahl, L.R., Cocke, J., Jelinek, F., Raviv, J., Optimal decoding of linear codes for minimizing symbol error rate (1974) IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, 20 (2), pp. 284-287Berrou, C., Glavieux, A., Thitimajshima, P., Near Shannon limit error-correcting coding and decoding: Turbo-codes (1993) IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC'93), 2, pp. 1064-1070. , Geneva, Switzerland, MayBenedetto, S., Divsalar, D., Montorsi, G., Pollara, F., Serial concatenation of interleaved codes: Performance analysis, design, and iterative decoding (1998) IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, 44 (3), pp. 909-926Tüchler, M., Koetter, R., Singer, A.C., Turbo equalization: Principles and new results (2002) IEEE Trans. Commun., 50 (5), pp. 754-767Lopes, R.R., Barry, J.R., Soft-output decision-feedback equalization with a priori information (2003) IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM'03), 3, pp. 1705-1709. , San Francisco, Calif, USA, DecemberPoor, H.V., (1994) An Introduction to Signal Detection and Estimation, , Springer-Verlag, New York, NY, USA, 2nd editionMontemayor, C.A., Flikkema, P.G., Near-optimum iterative estimation of dispersive multipath channels (1998) IEEE 48th Vehicular Technology Conference (VTC'98), 3, pp. 2246-2250. , Ottawa, ON, Canada, MaySandell, M., Luschi, C., Strauch, P., Yan, R., Iterative channel estimation using soft decision feedback (1998) IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM'98), 6, pp. 3728-3733. , Sydney, NSW, Australia, Novembe

Application of nanotechnology in the agro-food sector

Nanotechnology is an emerging field of research that has been widely applied in different scientific and engineering areas. The agro-food sector is not an exception, which considers its applicability in several areas of major interest for both consumers and producers. This review considers major concepts related to nanostructures and nano-based instruments used in the food sector, as well as their applications in agro-food products. Food safety through the use of nanosensors for pathogen detection, smart packaging, and valorisation of food products by nanoencapsulation/nanodelivery of food ingredients (e.g. flavours) are examples of important areas of nanotechnology. Consumers' apprehension regarding food stability and safety issues is also considered.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Walls of Marginal Stability and Dyon Spectrum in N=4 Supersymmetric String Theories

The spectrum of quarter BPS dyons in N=4 supersymmetric string theories can change as the asymptotic moduli cross walls of marginal stability on which the dyon can break apart into a pair of half BPS states. In this paper we classify these marginal stability walls and examine this phenomenon in the context of exact dyon spectrum found in a class of N=4 supersymmetric string theories. We argue that the dyon partition functions in different domains separated by marginal stability walls are the same, but the choice of integration contour needed for extracting the degeneracies from the partition function differ in these different regions. We also find that in the limit of large charges the change in the degeneracy is exponentially suppressed compared to the leading contribution. This is consistent with the fact that in the computation of black hole entropy we do not encounter any change as the asymptotic moduli fields move across the walls of marginal stability. Finally we carry out some tests of S-duality invariance in the theory.Comment: LateX file, 1 figure, 42 pages; v2 more tests of S-duality added with complete proof for all N<7; v3: minor change

Effect of soil grain size distribution on the mechanical damage of nonwoven geotextiles under repeated loading

Installation processes (which induce mechanical damage) may cause undesirable changes on the properties of geosynthetics, affecting their performance. This work evaluates the effect of mechanical damage on the short-term tensile behaviour of two nonwoven geotextiles (with different masses per unit area). The geotextiles were damaged in laboratory using a standardised procedure and an artificial aggregate (corundum) and eight other soils. The damage induced was characterized using wide-width tensile tests. Results showed reductions of the tensile strength of both geotextiles, which depended on the grain size distribution and uniformity of the soils and on the mass per unit area of the geotextiles. The reduction in tensile strength provoked by corundum was higher than the decreases caused by most of the other soils. The mechanical damage tests also led to a reduction of elongation at maximum load and an increase of stiffness

On the dyon partition function in N=2 theories

We study the entropy function of two N =2 string compactifications obtained as freely acting orbifolds of N=4 theories : the STU model and the FHSV model. The Gauss-Bonnet term for these compactifications is known precisely. We apply the entropy function formalism including the contribution of this four derivative term and evaluate the entropy of dyons to the first subleading order in charges for these models. We then propose a partition function involving the product of three Siegel modular forms of weight zero which reproduces the degeneracy of dyonic black holes in the STU model to the first subleading order in charges. The proposal is invariant under all the duality symmetries of the STU model. For the FHSV model we write down an approximate partition function involving a Siegel modular form of weight four which captures the entropy of dyons in the FHSV model in the limit when electric charges are much larger than magnetic charges.Comment: 48 page

Three String Junction and N=4 Dyon Spectrum

The exact spectrum of dyons in a class of N=4 supersymmetric string theories gives us information about dyon spectrum in N=4 supersymmetric gauge theories. This in turn can be translated into prediction about the BPS spectrum of three string junctions on a configuration of three parallel D3-branes. We show that this prediction agrees with the known spectrum of three string junction in different domains in the moduli space separated by walls of marginal stability.Comment: LaTeX file, 14 page

Rare Decay Modes of Quarter BPS Dyons

The degeneracy of quarter BPS dyons in N=4 supersymmetric string theories is known to jump across walls of marginal stability on which a quarter BPS dyon can decay into a pair of half BPS dyons. We show that as long as the electric and magnetic charges of the original dyon are primitive elements of the charge lattice, the subspaces of the moduli space on which a quarter BPS dyon becomes marginally unstable against decay into a pair of quarter BPS dyons or a half BPS dyon and a quarter BPS dyon are of codimension two or more. As a result any pair of generic points in the moduli space can be connected by a path avoiding these subspaces and there is no jump in the spectrum associated with these subspaces.Comment: LaTeX file, 9 pages; v2: a minor logical error corrected with no change in the result

Two Centered Black Holes and N=4 Dyon Spectrum

The exact spectrum of dyons in a class of N=4 supersymmetric string theories is known to change discontinuously across walls of marginal stability. We show that the change in the degeneracy across the walls of marginal stability can be accounted for precisely by the entropy of two centered small black holes which disappear as we cross the walls of marginal stability.Comment: LaTeX file, 12 pages; v3: added footnote 2 regarding overall sign of the index, expanded footnote 3, added reference

Dyon Spectrum in Generic N=4 Supersymmetric Z_N Orbifolds

We find the exact spectrum of a class of quarter BPS dyons in a generic N=4 supersymmetric Z_N orbifold of type IIA string theory on K3\times T^2 or T^6. We also find the asymptotic expansion of the statistical entropy to first non-leading order in inverse power of charges and show that it agrees with the entropy of a black hole carrying same set of charges after taking into account the effect of the four derivative Gauss-Bonnet term in the effective action of the theory.Comment: LaTeX file, 39 pages; minor change

Dying Dyons Don't Count

The dyonic 1/4-BPS states in 4D string theory with N=4 spacetime supersymmetry are counted by a Siegel modular form. The pole structure of the modular form leads to a contour dependence in the counting formula obscuring its duality invariance. We exhibit the relation between this ambiguity and the (dis-)appearance of bound states of 1/2-BPS configurations. Using this insight we propose a precise moduli-dependent contour prescription for the counting formula. We then show that the degeneracies are duality-invariant and are correctly adjusted at the walls of marginal stability to account for the (dis-)appearance of the two-centered bound states. Especially, for large black holes none of these bound states exists at the attractor point and none of these ambiguous poles contributes to the counting formula. Using this fact we also propose a second, moduli-independent contour which counts the "immortal dyons" that are stable everywhere.Comment: 27 pages, 2 figures; one minus sign correcte