Iterative Soft Input Soft Output Decoding of Reed-Solomon Codes by Adapting the Parity Check Matrix

An iterative algorithm is presented for soft-input-soft-output (SISO) decoding of Reed-Solomon (RS) codes. The proposed iterative algorithm uses the sum product algorithm (SPA) in conjunction with a binary parity check matrix of the RS code. The novelty is in reducing a submatrix of the binary parity check matrix that corresponds to less reliable bits to a sparse nature before the SPA is applied at each iteration. The proposed algorithm can be geometrically interpreted as a two-stage gradient descent with an adaptive potential function. This adaptive procedure is crucial to the convergence behavior of the gradient descent algorithm and, therefore, significantly improves the performance. Simulation results show that the proposed decoding algorithm and its variations provide significant gain over hard decision decoding (HDD) and compare favorably with other popular soft decision decoding methods.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures, final version accepted by IEEE Trans. on Information Theor

Trop-2 inhibits prostate cancer cell adhesion to fibronectin through the β1 integrin-RACK1 axis.

Trop-2 is a transmembrane glycoprotein upregulated in several human carcinomas, including prostate cancer (PrCa). Trop-2 has been suggested to regulate cell-cell adhesion, given its high homology with the other member of the Trop family, Trop-1/EpCAM, and its ability to bind the tight junction proteins claudin-1 and claudin-7. However, a role for Trop-2 in cell adhesion to the extracellular matrix has never been postulated. Here, we show for the first time that Trop-2 expression in PrCa cells correlates with their aggressiveness. Using either shRNA-mediated silencing of Trop-2 in cells that endogenously express it, or ectopic expression of Trop-2 in cells that do not express it, we show that Trop-2 inhibits PrCa cell adhesion to fibronectin (FN). In contrast, expression of another transmembrane receptor, α(v) β(5) integrin, does not affect cell adhesion to this ligand. We find that Trop-2 does not modulate either protein or activation levels of the prominent FN receptors, β(1) integrins, but acts through increasing β(1) association with the adaptor molecule RACK1 and redistribution of RACK1 to the cell membrane. As a result of Trop-2 expression, we also observe activation of Src and FAK, known to occur upon β(1) -RACK1 interaction. These enhanced Src and FAK activities are not mediated by changes in either the activity of IGF-IR, which is known to bind RACK1, or IGF-IR\u27s ability to associate with β(1) integrins. In summary, our data demonstrate that the transmembrane receptor Trop-2 is a regulator of PrCa cell adhesion to FN through activation of the β(1) integrin-RACK1-FAK-Src signaling axis

Hadron Collider Production of Massive Color-Octet Vector Bosons at Next-to-Leading Order

This paper completes the study of the next-to-leading order (NLO) QCD corrections to massive color-octet vector boson production at the LHC and Tevatron. The massive color-octet vector bosons are generically referred to as colorons. Building on our previous calculation of quark-initiated coloron production at NLO, we use the pinch technique to investigate coloron production via gluon fusion. We demonstrate that this one-loop production amplitude is finite, and find that its numerical contribution to coloron production is typically four orders of magnitude smaller than the contribution from quark annihilation. Coloron production via gluon fusion is therefore only relevant if the colorons are (nearly) fermiophobic. We then present extensive plots and tables of our full results for NLO coloron production at the Tevatron and the LHC.Comment: 22 pages, pdf figures included (references added