Key Enabling Technologies for 5G: Millimeter-Wave and Massive MIMO

[EN] 5G wireless networks are expected to operate with orders of magnitude higher performance than the current 4G deployments. The demand for 5000 times higher data rates leads to the necessity of finding new techniques to increase spectral efficiency and of exploring new frequency bands above 6 GHz. It has been proved that from UHF up to C band, a significant increase in system spectral efficiency can be reached through various techniques, such as Coordinated Multi-Point (CoMP), Massive Multiple-Input-Multiple-Output (MIMO), and interference management and cancellation; still, the resulting performance will not cope with the full expectations of IMT-2020 and 5G-PPP requirements for 5G networks, mainly in terms of offering 10 Gbps peak data rates with connection densities of 100 k¿1 M devices/km2. To overcome this limitation, the future architecture of such 5G networks is being defined to be deployed on small cells and to use higher frequency bands, such as super high frequency (SHF, 3¿30 GHz) or extremely high frequency (EHF, 30¿300 GHz), also referred as to centimeter and millimeter wave bands, respectively.Cardona Marcet, N.; Correia, LM.; Calabuig Soler, D. (2017). Key Enabling Technologies for 5G: Millimeter-Wave and Massive MIMO. International Journal of Wireless Information Networks. 24(3):201-203. doi:10.1007/s10776-017-0366-zS20120324

A Mark in Time Saves Nein

A method for predicting political interactions and policy outcomes based on two political theorems is presented and illustrated with an examination of the decision to merge the two German currencies. Political perceptions and actions are anticipated by combining the substantive knowledge of area experts with the theoretical insights embedded in the median voter theorem and a monotonicity theorem that links expectations to probabilistic statements of action. The proposed model has proven accurate about 90 percent of the time. The proposed forecasting method identifies a sequential strategy that may have been followed by Chancellor Kohl in forging the coalition needed to merge successfully the two German currencies. Using comparative statics, the analysis suggests how subtle and sophisticated Chancellor Kohl had to be to succeed in getting the policy outcome he desired despite stiff opposition.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66924/2/10.1177_019251219201300106.pd

Dielectric characterization of healthy and malignant colon tissues in the 0.5 18 GHz frequency band

Several reports over the last few decades have shown that the dielectric properties of healthy and malignant tissues of the same body organ usually show different values. However, no intensive dielectric studies of human colon tissue have been performed, despite colon cancer's being one of the most common types of cancer in the world. In order to provide information regarding this matter, a dielectric characterization of healthy and malignant colon tissues is presented. Measurements are performed on ex vivo surgery samples obtained from 20 patients, using an open-ended coaxial probe in the 0.5 18 GHz frequency band. Results show that the dielectric constant of colon cancerous tissue is 8.8% higher than that of healthy tissues (p = 0.002). Besides, conductivity is about 10.6% higher, but in this case measurements do not have statistical significance (p = 0.038). Performing an analysis per patient, the differences in dielectric constant between healthy and malignant tissues appear systematically. Particularized results for specific frequencies (500 MHz, 900 MHz, 2.45 GHz, 5 GHz, 8.5 GHz and 15 GHz) are also reported. The findings have potential application in early-stage cancer detection and diagnosis, and can be useful in developing new tools for hyperthermia treatments as well as creating electromagnetic models of healthy and cancerous tissues.The authors would like to thank the medical staff of the endoscopy unit of Hospital Universitari i Politecnic La Fe for their assistance in the gathering of tissue samples. This work was supported by Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad, Spain (ref. TEC2014-60258-C2-1-R, TEC2014-56469-REDT), by FEDER funds, and by a UPV-IISLaFe action (CEI-2G, 2014).Fornés Leal, A.; García Pardo, C.; Frasson, M.; Pons Beltrán, V.; Cardona Marcet, N. (2016). Dielectric characterization of healthy and malignant colon tissues in the 0.5 18 GHz frequency band. Physics in Medicine and Biology. 61(20):7334-7346. https://doi.org/10.1088/0031-9155/61/20/7334S73347346612

Beyond cultural diplomacy? The role of culture in EU-China Relations

Overshadowed by the predominance of political and economic relations within the study of EU-China bilateral relations, cultural relations remain to be an underrepresented topic when exploring the intricacies of sino-european interactions. Under the hypothesis that the particularities of individual Member States' bilateral relations, as well as the divergent political systems and the difficult administrative environment of China highly condition a common European approach to cultural relations, this paper aims at providing both policy-makers and cultural practitioners on the ground a resource to understand the important role that the cultural dimension of international relations plays in fostering intercultural dialogue and understanding in an age of competition. Reflecting on future scenarios dependent on the development of global trends, it calls for an enhanced coordination between European actors, the creation of a common framework for expertise building, and a very mindful approach to the way in which European values are projected.Eclipsades pel predomini de les relacions polítiques i econòmiques dins l'estudi de les relacions bilaterals UE-Xina, les relacions culturals continuen sent un tema poc representat a l'hora d'explorar les complexitats de les interaccions sinoeuropees. Sota la hipòtesi que les particularitats de les relacions bilaterals dels estats membres, així com els sistemes polítics divergents i el difícil entorn administratiu de la Xina condicionen altament les relacions culturals amb un enfocament europeu comú, aquest document té com a objectiu proporcionar als responsables polítics i als professionals de la cultura sobre el terreny un recurs per entendre l'important paper que juga la dimensió cultural de les relacions internacionals per afavorir el diàleg i la comprensió interculturals en una època caracteritzada per la competència. Reflexionant sobre els escenaris futurs que depenen del desenvolupament de les tendències globals, es proposa una coordinació millorada entre els actors europeus, la creació d'un marc comú per a la formació d'expertesa i un enfocament molt conscient de la manera com es projecten els valors europeus

Preparation and characterization of biodegradable gelatine and starch films embedding cerium oxide nanoparticles stabilized by PLGA micelles for antibiofilm applications

Cerium oxide nanoparticles (CeO2NPs) have been widely investigated for numerous applications due to their redox activity, free radical scavenging property, and biofilm inhibition. Here we describe a new antibiofilm system based on CeO2NPs protected and stabilised by PLGA micelles embedded in two different biodegradable and biocompatible films. CeO2NPs were synthesised following the W/O microemulsion method and subsequently encapsulated in PLGA micelles according to the single emulsion/solvent procedure. All formulations (free NPs, empty micelles and loaded micelles) were incorporated in gelatine and starch films aimed at food packaging use. The chemical and physical characterizations of the NPs and micelles solutions were carried out by Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). Blank films and films incorporating micelles and NPs were also characterized by Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and by XPS. Antibacterial experiments were also performed to investigate the system viability for the final use

Reading(,) with and without commas.

All major writing systems mandate the use of commas to separate clauses and list items. However, casual writers often omit mandatory commas (Lunsford & Lunsford, 2008). Little empirical or theoretical research has been done on the effect that omitting mandatory commas has on eye movement control during reading. We present an eye-tracking experiment in Spanish, a language with a clear standard as to mandatory comma use. Sentences were presented with or without mandatory commas while readers' eye movements were recorded. There was a local increase in in go-past time for the pre-comma region when commas were presented, which was balanced out by shorter first-pass and second-pass times on the subsequent regions. In global sentence reading time, there was no evidence for an advantage of presenting commas. These findings suggest that, even when commas are mandatory, their effect is to shift when processing takes place rather than to facilitate processing overall

Do grading gray stimuli help to encode letter position?

Numerous experiments in the past decades recurrently showed that a transposed-letter pseudoword (e.g., JUGDE) is much more wordlike than a replacement-letter control (e.g., JUPTE). Critically, there is an ongoing debate as to whether this effect arises at a perceptual level (e.g., perceptual uncertainty at assigning letter position of an array of visual objects) or at an abstract language-specific level (e.g., via a level of “open bigrams” between the letter and word levels). Here, we designed an experiment to test the limits of perceptual accounts of letter position coding. The stimuli in a lexical decision task were presented either with a homogeneous letter intensity or with a graded gray intensity, which indicated an unambiguous letter order. The pseudowords were either transposed-letter pseudowords or replaced-letter pseudowords (e.g., jugde vs. jupte). The results showed much longer response times and substantially more errors in the transposedletter pseudowords than in the replacement-letter pseudowords, regardless of visual format. These findings favor the idea that language-specific orthographic element factors play an essential role when encoding letter position during word recognition

What are the letters e and é in a language with vowel reduction? the case of Catalan

Although the Latin-based orthographies of most Western languages employ vowels with accent marks (e.g., é vs. e), extant models of letter and word recognition are agnostic as to whether these accented letters and their non-accented counterparts are represented by common or separate abstract units. Recent research in French with a masked priming alphabetic decision task was interpreted as favoring the idea that accented and non-accented vowels are represented by separate abstract orthographic units (orthographic account: é↛e and e↛é; Chetail & Boursain, 2019). However, a more parsimonious explanation is that salient (accented) vowels are less perceptually similar to non-salient (non-accented) vowels than vice versa (perceptual account: e→é, but é↛e; Perea et al., 2021a; Tversky, 1977). To adjudicate between the two accounts, we conducted a masked priming alphabetic decision experiment in Catalan, a language with a complex orthography-to-phonology mapping for non-accented vowels (e.g., e→/e/, /ə/, / /). Results showed faster responses in the identity than in the visually similar condition for accented targets (é-É < e-É), but not for non-accented targets (e-E = é-E). Neither of the above accounts can fully capture this pattern. We propose an explanation based on the rapid activation of both orthographic and phonological codes

Hyperspectral Microscopy of Near-Infrared Fluorescence Enables 17-Chirality Carbon Nanotube Imaging

The intrinsic near-infrared photoluminescence (fluorescence) of single-walled carbon nanotubes exhibits unique photostability, narrow bandwidth, penetration through biological media, environmental sensitivity, and both chromatic variety and range. Biomedical applications exploiting this large family of fluorophores will require the spectral and spatial resolution of individual (n,m) nanotube species € fluorescence and its modulation within live cells and tissues, which is not possible with current microscopy methods. We present a wide-field hyperspectral approach to spatially delineate and spectroscopically measure single nanotube fluorescence in living systems. This approach resolved up to 17 distinct (n,m) species (chiralities) with single nanotube spatial resolution in live mammalian cells, murine tissues ex vivo, and zebrafish endothelium in vivo. We anticipate that this approach will facilitate multiplexed nanotube imaging in biomedical applications while enabling deep-tissue optical penetration, and single-molecule resolution in vivo