The Effect of Macrodiversity on the Performance of Maximal Ratio Combining in Flat Rayleigh Fading

The performance of maximal ratio combining (MRC) in Rayleigh channels with co-channel interference (CCI) is well-known for receive arrays which are co-located. Recent work in network MIMO, edge-excited cells and base station collaboration is increasing interest in macrodiversity systems. Hence, in this paper we consider the effect of macrodiversity on MRC performance in Rayleigh fading channels with CCI. We consider the uncoded symbol error rate (SER) as our performance measure of interest and investigate how different macrodiversity power profiles affect SER performance. This is the first analytical work in this area. We derive approximate and exact symbol error rate results for M-QAM/BPSK modulations and use the analysis to provide a simple power metric. Numerical results, verified by simulations, are used in conjunction with the analysis to gain insight into the effects of the link powers on performance.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures; IEEE Transaction of Communication, 2012 Corrected typo

Performance Analysis of Dual-User Macrodiversity MIMO Systems with Linear Receivers in Flat Rayleigh Fading

The performance of linear receivers in the presence of co-channel interference in Rayleigh channels is a fundamental problem in wireless communications. Performance evaluation for these systems is well-known for receive arrays where the antennas are close enough to experience equal average SNRs from a source. In contrast, almost no analytical results are available for macrodiversity systems where both the sources and receive antennas are widely separated. Here, receive antennas experience unequal average SNRs from a source and a single receive antenna receives a different average SNR from each source. Although this is an extremely difficult problem, progress is possible for the two-user scenario. In this paper, we derive closed form results for the probability density function (pdf) and cumulative distribution function (cdf) of the output signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) and signal to noise ratio (SNR) of minimum mean squared error (MMSE) and zero forcing (ZF) receivers in independent Rayleigh channels with arbitrary numbers of receive antennas. The results are verified by Monte Carlo simulations and high SNR approximations are also derived. The results enable further system analysis such as the evaluation of outage probability, bit error rate (BER) and capacity.Comment: 24 pages, 7 figures; IEEE Transaction of Wireless Communication 2012 Corrected typo

An investigation to examine the relationship between illness representations, quality of life and treatment adherence amongst young adults (aged 17-30 years) with insulin dependent diabetes

This study explored treatment adherence amongst young adults aged 17-21 years and 23-30 years with insulin dependent diabetes. The Self-Regulatory Model (Leventhal, Nerenz & Steele, 1984) was drawn upon and the aim was to examine the relationship between treatment adherence and three independent variables including illness perceptions, medication beliefs and perceived quality of life. The sample included seventy-seven male and female participants who were recruited from four outpatient hospital clinics within the South of England. Thirty-seven participants were aged between 17-21 years and thirty-nine aged between 23-30 years. Self reported measures of treatment adherence and haemoglobin blood test results revealed that many participants were struggling to maintain good glycaemic control. Furthermore, significant differences between age groups were revealed within self report adherence measures with the younger age group reporting greater non adherence to glucose testing and diet. A non parametric correlation design was used to determine whether there was a relationship within each age group between measures of treatment adherence and the independent variables. No relationship was found between Illness perceptions and treatment adherence, although medication beliefs were associated with insulin misuse concerning weight control within the younger age group only. Furthermore, positive associations were found between quality of life measure, insulin adherence and glycaemic control within both age groups. The results are discussed in relation to the Self Regulatory Model and it is suggested that the association between quality of life and treatment adherence requires further exploration. Future research proposals are outlined and the clinical implications of this study are discussed in some depth

Multiple pasts and possible selves : negotiating uncertainty in the actualist historical novel

This thesis is composed of two parts: an exegesis, which examines how uncertainty, multiplicity and paradox have been negotiated in works of ‘actualist’ historical fiction, and a creative component, the novel Half-Wild, which explores the multiple identities and contradictory accounts at play in the various lives of the historical figure Eugenia Falleni (1875–1938). The exegesis opens with an examination of the influence that ‘uncertainty’, as described by the ‘new physics’, has had on the twentieth-century literary imagination. It focuses in particular on the relationship between Neils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg’s interpretation of quantum physics and the troubling of history, gender and identity in narrative fiction. Susan Strehle’s definition of ‘actualist’ fiction—positioned between realism and metafiction—is introduced in order to discuss works of historical fiction that engage with uncertain, dynamic pasts, as opposed to a fixed, fact-focused past. The argument continues with a close reading of Hilary Mantel’s A Place of Greater Safety and Thomas Pynchon’s Mason & Dixon, two novels engaged in ‘actual’ history which oscillate between realism and metafiction in order to destabilise the received versions of their referent subjects and events. These novels are selected as examples of how historical fiction’s emphasis is not now on the determining of fact, but on the engagement with history as an act or process—a writing through fact and interaction with sources, a combining, recombining and troubling of possible ways things were, without eschewing the integrity of the facts themselves. The exegesis concludes with an extended analysis of the sources pertaining to the life, trial for murder, and death of the historical figure Eugenia Falleni, and how these sources have been used, ignored, or interacted with by other authors who have narrativised her life. I continue the argument by applying the principles of Strehle’s actualist fiction in my own novel, Half-Wild. The novel explores themes of indeterminacy, possibility, and paradox within representations of Falleni’s life by allowing contradictory versions of her story to co-exist in the same narrative. It makes use of collage and the juxtaposition of documentary materials, such as newspaper reports and court transcripts, as well as first-person narration and free indirect style to perform an ‘inhabitation’ of multiple, often contradictory, points of view. The novel is divided into five parts, each focusing on a different persona of Falleni’s: as tomboy Tally Ho growing up in Wellington, New Zealand; as the adult called both Harry and Jack Crawford in Sydney; as the cross-dressing Italian woman Nina Falleni; as the ‘man-woman’ convicted by the judiciary and Australian tabloid press of murdering her first wife, Annie; and as Jean Ford, a woman lying in a coma at Sydney Hospital after being struck by a car on Oxford St, Paddington, eight years after her release from prison. For a writer in 2016, it is difficult to affect a naïve obliviousness to how narrative frameworks manipulate the aspects of the past being described, or to how that past is itself linguistic, fictive, and performative in nature. With Falleni’s story refracted into five parts, each part destabilises the others: any reference to one ‘authentic’ self underpinning her various personae is avoided, allowing contradiction to inform the multiple expressions of her fluid identity, and, at the same time, the parts to operate as their own complete, immersive fiction-worlds, each contextualising one of the many ‘authentic’ selves

Methyl hydrazinocarboxylate as a practical alternative to hydrazine in the Wolff–Kishner reaction

Herein we describe a facile protocol for the reduction of aromatic ketones and aldehydes to the corresponding methylene unit. The procedure involves isolation of a carbomethoxyhydrazone intermediate that is easily decomposed to the reduced product without the requirement for large quantities of pernicious hydrazine

The Making of New Zealanders

Ron Palenski is a noted journalist as well as historian. As someone who has written on the history of sport and who runs the New Zealand Hall of Fame, he has a keen interest in national identity, so much so that we wrote a PhD on the subject at the University of Otago. The Making of New Zealanders is based on this thesis, though readers would not have known without being told as Palenski's skill as a writer ensures that the style is vigorous, engaging and accessible

VIEWS OF THE BORDERLINE PERSONALITY DISORDER DIAGNOSIS ‘Service-Users’ and Professionals’ Views of the Borderline Personality Disorder Diagnosis: A Q-methodological Study’

Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) is a contentious diagnosis due in part to the abstract nature of personality, as well as the controversies surrounding the current classification systems. Individuals with this diagnosis make up a significant proportion of mental health services, but what the label means to people is unclear. The first paper is a literature review about recovery from BPD, distinct from the process of remission. Ten papers were included, and the range of themes synthesised into an overview about recovery. The second, empirical, paper examined service-users’ and professionals’ perspectives of the BPD diagnosis. Q methodology was selected to gather an appreciation and objective understanding of subjective beliefs about recovery, treatment and stigma. This will identify the key factors underpinning these perspectives. The following factors were found: ‘Stigma, Internalisation and Social Construction’; ‘Essentialism, Acceptance and Compassion’; and, ‘Change, Externalisation and Shared Understandings.’ The personal meanings attributed to the BPD diagnosis are important and, to respect the subjectivity and idiosyncrasies of people who may meet the criteria for this diagnosis, should be explored before the diagnosis is made. The third paper is a reflective piece about the overall research process

Androgen action via testicular arteriole smooth muscle cells is important for leydig cell function, vasomotion and testicular fluid dynamics

Regulation of blood flow through the testicular microvasculature by vasomotion is thought to be important for normal testis function as it regulates interstitial fluid (IF) dynamics which is an important intra-testicular transport medium. Androgens control vasomotion, but how they exert these effects remains unclear. One possibility is by signalling via androgen receptors (AR) expressed in testicular arteriole smooth muscle cells. To investigate this and determine the overall importance of this mechanism in testis function, we generated a blood vessel smooth muscle cell-specific AR knockout mouse (SMARKO). Gross reproductive development was normal in SMARKO mice but testis weight was reduced in adulthood compared to control littermates; this reduction was not due to any changes in germ cell volume or to deficits in testosterone, LH or FSH concentrations and did not cause infertility. However, seminiferous tubule lumen volume was reduced in adult SMARKO males while interstitial volume was increased, perhaps indicating altered fluid dynamics; this was associated with compensated Leydig cell failure. Vasomotion was impaired in adult SMARKO males, though overall testis blood flow was normal and there was an increase in the overall blood vessel volume per testis in adult SMARKOs. In conclusion, these results indicate that ablating arteriole smooth muscle AR does not grossly alter spermatogenesis or affect male fertility but does subtly impair Leydig cell function and testicular fluid exchange, possibly by locally regulating microvascular blood flow within the testis

Reformers, mothers and babies : aspects of infant survival : Australia 1890-1945

This thesis examines the relationships between infant mortality, organised campaigns to reform mothers by education in mothercraft (the infant welfare movement) and mothers' behaviour. It proposes that the movement in Australia did not contribute as powerfully to the decline in infant mortality as its protagonists professed and believed. This conclusion rests on the demonstration of inappropriate relationships in time and space between the putative cause and effect, as recorded in the historiography of infant welfare. In Australia both fertility and infant mortality fell from the 1880s. The major declines in infant mortality began before the rise of mothercraft institutions; infant mortality went down evenly between the states when the baby health centres spread unevenly; and the prescriptions of infant care responded to, more than they affected, the mortality pattern. Both the u n derlying trend and ideas about infant mortality are considered: a 'missionary model' is applied, and the movement is interpreted to have been a missionary movement of intense belief systems. Mothers' practices followed a different chronology from the rules of infant nurture, while how mothers behaved depended on their circumstances. The in fan t welfare movement capitalised on the o p p o rtu n ities represented by rapid demographic change. Building on the fertility decline and reduced infant mortality, it helped induce a more intensive attention to babies. The raised standards expected of mothers by 1945 were made possible by improved chances of life and health

Validation and reliability of the Alzheimer’s disease-Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation food frequency questionnaire

Accuracy in measuring intake of dietary constituents is an important issue in studies reporting the associations between diet and chronic diseases. We modified a Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to include foods of interest in the field of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) research. The aim of the current study was to determine the reliability and validity of the AD-CSIROFFQ in 148 cognitively normal older adults. The AD-CSIROFFQ was completed before and after completion of a four-day weighed food record. Of the 508 food and beverage items reported, 309 had sufficient consumption levels for analysis of reliability. Of the 309 items, over 78% were significantly correlated between the two questionnaire administrations (Spearman’s rank correlations). We used two additional methods to assess absolute nutrient intake agreement between the AD-CSIROFFQ and the weighed food records (Pearson’s correlation coefficients and Bland–Altman plots) and quintile rankings to measure group level agreement. The adequate correlations observed between questionnaire responses suggest that the AD-CSIROFFQ is reliable. All nutrient intakes were acceptable for ranking of individuals on a group level, whilst the agreement levels with respect to the weighed food records for 11 of the 46 nutrients show validity in terms of their individual level absolute intake. The AD-CSIROFFQ makes an important contribution to the tools available for assessing usual dietary intake in groups of older adults with respect to AD research