Improving Bandwidth Efficiency in E-band Communication Systems

The allocation of a large amount of bandwidth by regulating bodies in the 70/80 GHz band, i.e., the E-band, has opened up new potentials and challenges for providing affordable and reliable Gigabit per second wireless point-to-point links. This article first reviews the available bandwidth and licensing regulations in the E-band. Subsequently, different propagation models, e.g., the ITU-R and Cane models, are compared against measurement results and it is concluded that to meet specific availability requirements, E-band wireless systems may need to be designed with larger fade margins compared to microwave systems. A similar comparison is carried out between measurements and models for oscillator phase noise. It is confirmed that phase noise characteristics, that are neglected by the models used for narrowband systems, need to be taken into account for the wideband systems deployed in the E-band. Next, a new multi-input multi-output (MIMO) transceiver design, termed continuous aperture phased (CAP)-MIMO, is presented. Simulations show that CAP-MIMO enables E-band systems to achieve fiber-optic like throughputs. Finally, it is argued that full-duplex relaying can be used to greatly enhance the coverage of E-band systems without sacrificing throughput, thus, facilitating their application in establishing the backhaul of heterogeneous networks.Comment: 16 pages, 6 Figures, Journal paper. IEEE Communication Magazine 201

Pengaruh Struktur Aktiva, Profitabilitas, Ukuran Perusahaan, Risiko Bisnis, dan Likuiditas Terhadap Struktur Modal (Struktur pada Perusahaan Manufaktur yang Terdaftar di Bursa Efek Indonesia Tahun 2012-2016)

ABSTRAK Pengaruh Struktur Aktiva, Profitabilitas, Ukuran Perusahaan, Growth, Risiko Bisnis, dan Likuiditas Terhadap Struktur Modal (Studi pada Perusahaan Manufaktur yang Terdaftar di Bursa Efek Indonesia Tahun 2012-2016) Bukhari Ramadhan F1215018 Tujuan penelitian ini adalah untuk menguji pengaruh antara struktur aktiva, profitabilitas, ukuran perusahaan, tingkat pertumbuhan perusahaan, risiko bisnis, dan likuiditas terhadap struktur modal perusahaan manufaktur yang terdaftar di Bursa Efek Indonesia periode 2012-2016. Populasi dalam penelitian ini adalah semua perusahaan manufaktur yang terdaftar di BEI periode 2012-2016. Sampel dalam penelitian diambil dengan menggunakan metode purposive sampling dengan kriteria: perusahaan selalu melaporkan laporan keuangan tahunan dan memiliki data keuangan yang lengkap untuk tahun 2012-2016, serta tidak pernah mengalami kerugian. Dengan metode tersebut, terdapat 55 perusahaan yang memenuhi kriteria untuk dijadikan sampel. Alat analisis yang digunakan yaitu regresi linier berganda dengan bantuan program SPSS 17.0. Hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa (1) struktur aktiva berpengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap struktur modal, (2) profitabilitas berpengaruh negatif dan signifikan terhadap struktur modal, (3) ukuran perusahaan berpengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap struktur modal, (4) growth tidak berpengaruh signifikan terhadap struktur modal, (5) risiko bisnis tidak berpengaruh signifikan terhadap struktur modal, (6) likuiditas berpengaruh negatif dan signifikan terhadap struktur modal. Berdasarkan hasil penelitian tersebut, perusahaan menetapkan struktur modal diharapkan ikut mempertimbangkan faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi sehingga struktur modal yang terbentuk adalah struktur modal yang optimal Kata Kunci : Struktur Aktiva, Profitabilitas, Ukuran Perusahaan, Growth, Risiko Bisnis dan Likuidita

Albendazole versus Praziquantel in the Treatment of Neurocysticercosis: A Meta-analysis of Comparative Trials

Neurocysticercosis is a parasitic disease caused by the pork tapeworm, Taenia solium, when the larval form of the parasite lodges in the central nervous system. This disease is most commonly found among members of agricultural societies with poor sanitary conditions and economies based on breeding livestock (especially pigs) with low hygiene standards. It is a disease with long history in humans, and the usual therapeutic intervention was surgery until the development of antiparasitic cysticidal agents, the most common being praziquantel and albendazole. T. solium infection can take many different forms in humans, but we concentrated on parenchymal neurocysticercosis with viable cysts. A consensus statement by a panel of experts on the subject supports the use of antiparasitic treatment, but does not indicate either albendazole or praziquantel as the drug of choice for this type of neurocysticercosis, because data from single relevant clinical trials are not conclusive. We conducted a meta-analysis to further evaluate the comparative effectiveness and safety of albendazole and praziquantel for this particular type of neurocysticercosis. The outcomes of our meta-analysis suggest that albendazole is more effective than praziquantel in controlling seizures in affected patients and in leading to the total disappearance of cysts and subsequently cure of patients with neurocysticercosis

Management of KPC-Producing Klebsiella pneumoniae Infections

Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC)-producing K. pneumoniae (KPC-KP) has become one of the most important contemporary pathogens, especially in endemic areas

A Research Agenda for Helminth Diseases of Humans: Social Ecology, Environmental Determinants, and Health Systems

In this paper, the Disease Reference Group on Helminth Infections (DRG4), established in 2009 by the Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR), with the mandate to review helminthiases research and identify research priorities and gaps, focuses on the environmental, social, behavioural, and political determinants of human helminth infections and outlines a research and development agenda for the socioeconomic and health systems research required for the development of sustainable control programmes. Using Stockols' social-ecological approach, we describe the role of various social (poverty, policy, stigma, culture, and migration) and environmental determinants (the home environment, water resources development, and climate change) in the perpetuation of helminthic diseases, as well as their impact as contextual factors on health promotion interventions through both the regular and community-based health systems. We examine these interactions in regard to community participation, intersectoral collaboration, gender, and possibilities for upscaling helminthic disease control and elimination programmes within the context of integrated and interdisciplinary approaches. The research agenda summarises major gaps that need to be addressed

A New Look at Dual-Hop Relaying : Performance Limits with Hardware Impairments

Physical transceivers have hardware impairments that create distortions which degrade the performance of communication systems. The vast majority of technical contributions in the area of relaying neglect hardware impairments and, thus, assume ideal hardware. Such approximations make sense in low-rate systems, but can lead to very misleading results when analyzing future high-rate systems. This paper quantifies the impact of hardware impairments on dual-hop relaying, for both amplify-and-forward and decode-and-forward protocols. The outage probability (OP) in these practical scenarios is a function of the effective end-to-end signal-to-noise-and-distortion ratio (SNDR). This paper derives new closed-form expressions for the exact and asymptotic OPs, accounting for hardware impairments at the source, relay, and destination. A similar analysis for the ergodic capacity is also pursued, resulting in new upper bounds. We assume that both hops are subject to independent but non-identically distributed Nakagami-m fading. This paper validates that the performance loss is small at low rates, but otherwise can be very substantial. In particular, it is proved that for high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the end-to-end SNDR converges to a deterministic constant, coined the SNDR ceiling, which is inversely proportional to the level of impairments. This stands in contrast to the ideal hardware case in which the end-to-end SNDR grows without bound in the high-SNR regime. Finally, we provide fundamental design guidelines for selecting hardware that satisfies the requirements of a practical relaying system.QC 20140120</p