On the perspective transformation for efficient relay placement in wireless multicast networks

This letter investigates the relay placement problem in wireless multicast networks consisting of multiple sources, relays, and destinations. The data transmission from the sources to the destinations is carried out via the relays employing physical-layer network coding technique. Hybrid automatic repeat request protocol with incremental redundancy is applied for reliable communication. In particular, considering a general setting of nodes in irregularly shaped network, an efficient relay placement algorithm is proposed based on perspective transformation technique to find optimal relay positions for minimizing either the total energy consumption or the total delay in the whole network. The proposed algorithm not only helps reduce the relay searching complexity but also facilitates the relay placement for optimizing networks of any shape

Performance analysis of cooperative transmission for cognitive wireless relay networks

In this paper, we consider cooperative transmission in cognitive wireless relay networks (CWRNs) over frequency-selective fading channels. We propose a new distributed space-time-frequency block code (DSTFBC) for a two-hop nonregenerative CWRN, where a primary source node and multiple secondary source nodes convey information data to their desired primary destination node and multiple secondary destination nodes via multiple cognitive relay nodes with dynamic spectrum access. The proposed DSTFBC is designed to achieve spatial diversity gain as well as allow for low-complexity decoupling detection at the receiver. Pairwise error probability is then analysed to study the achievable diversity gain of the proposed DSTFBC for different channel models including Rician fading and mixed Rayleigh-Rician fading

Cooperative retransmission for wireless regenerative multirelay networks

This paper investigates retransmission (RT) mechanisms in wireless regenerative multirelay networks. Conventionally, the RT can be realized in a cooperative manner with the assistance of all available relays. However, this may result in high overall power consumption due to the RT of the same packets across the nodes, particularly when the number of relays is large. We propose a cooperative RT (CR) scheme based on relay cooperation (RC) and binary xor operations to significantly reduce the number of packets retransmitted to produce a more power-efficient system with nonoverlapped RTs. Significantly, we also derive the error probability of RT decisions at the source and relays and show that the proposed CR scheme improves the reliability of the RTs. Furthermore, by deriving the average number of packets to be retransmitted at the source and relays, we not only show that the proposed CR scheme reduces the number of RTs and removes overlapped retransmitted packets but determine the optimized number of relays used for the RT phase as well. Finally, simulation results are presented to demonstrate the validity of the analytical expressions

Distributed space-time-frequency block code for cognitive wireless relay networks

In this study, the authors consider cooperative transmission in cognitive wireless relay networks (CWRNs) over frequency-selective fading channels. They propose a new distributed space-time–frequency block code (DSTFBC) for a two-hop non-regenerative CWRN, where a primary source node and multiple secondary source nodes convey information data to their desired primary destination node and multiple secondary destination nodes via multiple cognitive relay nodes with dynamic spectrum access. The proposed DSTFBC is designed to achieve spatial diversity gain as well as allow for low-complexity decoupling detection at the receiver. Pairwise error probability is then analysed to study the achievable diversity gain of the proposed DSTFBC for different channel models including Rician fading and mixed Rayleigh–Rician fading

Efficient cooperative spectrum sensing for three-hop cognitive wireless relay networks

This paper is concerned with cooperative spectrum sensing (CSS) mechanisms in three-hop cognitive wireless relay networks (CWRNs). The data transmission from a source to a destination is realised with the aid of two layers of cognitive radio (CR) users which are in the transmission coverage of two primary users. In this paper, we first propose a new CSS scheme for a layer of CR users to improve the spectrum sensing performance by exploiting both local decisions at the CR users and global decisions at the fusion centre. Particularly, we derive the probabilities of missed detection and false alarm for a practical scenario where all sensing, reporting, and backward channels suffer from Rayleigh fading. The derived expressions not only show that our proposed CSS achieves a better sensing performance than the conventional scheme but also characterise the effects of the fading channels on the sensing reliability. Furthermore, we propose a CSS scheme for two CR layers in a three-hop CWRN using binary XOR operator to help reduce one phase of sensing for a higher system throughput

The effects of foundation size on the seismic performance of buildings considering the soil-foundation-structure interaction

Copyright © 2016 Techno-Press, Ltd. Shallow footings are one of the most common types of foundations used to support mid-rise buildings in high risk seismic zones. Recent findings have revealed that the dynamic interaction between the soil, foundation, and the superstructure can influence the seismic response of the building during earthquakes. Accordingly, the properties of a foundation can alter the dynamic characteristics (natural frequency and damping) of the soil-foundation-structure system. In this paper the influence that shallow foundations have on the seismic response of a mid-rise moment resisting building is investigated. For this purpose, a fifteen storey moment resisting frame sitting on shallow footings with different sizes was simulated numerically using ABAQUS software. By adopting a direct calculation method, the numerical model can perform a fully nonlinear time history dynamic analysis to realistically simulate the dynamic behaviour of soil, foundation, and structure under seismic excitations. This three-dimensional numerical model accounts for the nonlinear behaviour of the soil medium and structural elements. Infinite boundary conditions were assigned to the numerical model to simulate free field boundaries, and appropriate contact elements capable of modelling sliding and separation between the foundation and soil elements are also considered. The influence of foundation size on the natural frequency of the system and structural response spectrum was also studied. The numerical results for cases of soil-foundation-structure systems with different sized foundations and fixed base conditions (excluding soil-foundation-structure interaction) in terms of lateral deformations, inter-storey drifts, rocking, and shear force distribution of the structure were then compared. Due to natural period lengthening, there was a significant reduction in the base shears when the size of the foundation was reduced. It was concluded that the size of a shallow foundation influences the dynamic characteristics and the seismic response of the building due to interaction between the soil, foundation, and structure, and therefore design engineer should carefully consider these parameters in order to ensure a safe and cost effective seismic design

Slice-level Detection of Intracranial Hemorrhage on CT Using Deep Descriptors of Adjacent Slices

The rapid development in representation learning techniques such as deep neural networks and the availability of large-scale, well-annotated medical imaging datasets have to a rapid increase in the use of supervised machine learning in the 3D medical image analysis and diagnosis. In particular, deep convolutional neural networks (D-CNNs) have been key players and were adopted by the medical imaging community to assist clinicians and medical experts in disease diagnosis and treatment. However, training and inferencing deep neural networks such as D-CNN on high-resolution 3D volumes of Computed Tomography (CT) scans for diagnostic tasks pose formidable computational challenges. This challenge raises the need of developing deep learning-based approaches that are robust in learning representations in 2D images, instead 3D scans. In this work, we propose for the first time a new strategy to train \emph{slice-level} classifiers on CT scans based on the descriptors of the adjacent slices along the axis. In particular, each of which is extracted through a convolutional neural network (CNN). This method is applicable to CT datasets with per-slice labels such as the RSNA Intracranial Hemorrhage (ICH) dataset, which aims to predict the presence of ICH and classify it into 5 different sub-types. We obtain a single model in the top 4% best-performing solutions of the RSNA ICH challenge, where model ensembles are allowed. Experiments also show that the proposed method significantly outperforms the baseline model on CQ500. The proposed method is general and can be applied to other 3D medical diagnosis tasks such as MRI imaging. To encourage new advances in the field, we will make our codes and pre-trained model available upon acceptance of the paper.Comment: Accepted for presentation at the 22nd IEEE Statistical Signal Processing (SSP) worksho

Sustainable Growth and Ethics: a Study of Business Ethics in Vietnam Between Business Students and Working Adults

Sustainable growth is not only the ultimate goal of business corporations but also the primary target of local governments as well as regional and global economies. One of the cornerstones of sustainable growth is ethics. An ethical organizational culture provides support to achieve sustainable growth. Ethical leaders and employees have great potential for positive influence on decisions and behaviors that lead to sustainability. Ethical behavior, therefore, is expected of everyone in the modern workplace. As a result, companies devote many resources and training programs to make sure their employees live according to the high ethical standards. This study provides an analysis of Vietnamese business students’ level of ethical maturity based on gender, education, work experience, and ethics training. The results of data from 260 business students compared with 704 working adults in Vietnam demonstrate that students have a significantly higher level of ethical maturity. Furthermore, gender and work experience are significant factors in ethical maturity. While more educated respondents and those who had completed an ethics course did have a higher level of ethical maturity, the results were not statistically significant. Analysis of the results along with suggestions and implications are provided

Etching suspended superconducting hybrid junctions from a multilayer

A novel method to fabricate large-area superconducting hybrid tunnel junctions with a suspended central normal metal part is presented. The samples are fabricated by combining photo-lithography and chemical etch of a superconductor - insulator - normal metal multilayer. The process involves few fabrication steps, is reliable and produces extremely high-quality tunnel junctions. Under an appropriate voltage bias, a significant electronic cooling is demonstrated