Estimating marginal cohort working life expectancies from sequential cross-sectional survey data

This article applies recently developed health expectancy methodologies to estimate the average duration of future work life in different states of work ability. Data on working capacity obtained from sequential cross-sectional samples of the cohort population were available from Finnish surveys conducted among active municipal employees. We used these data to estimate cohort marginal probabilities and expected occupancy times in the work ability states. One finding is that the proportion of workers with excellent or good work ability decreased monotonically with advancing age for both genders, but men were prone to have worse work ability and a shorter work career than women. Transition from poor to good or excellent work ability state was estimated to increase working life expectancy of a 45-year-old person by four years for both genders. This study indicates that the work ability of aging Finnish workers deteriorates prematurely, leading to serious socio-economic consequences. Thus it is important to examine the development of work ability already at an early age when it is still possible to intervene in the process

Performance - Complexity Comparison of Receivers for a LTE MIMO–OFDM System

Implementation of receivers for spatial multiplexing multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal-frequency-division-multiplexing (OFDM) systems is considered. The linear minimum mean-square error (LMMSE) and the K-best list sphere detector (LSD) are compared to the iterative successive interference cancellation (SIC) detector and the iterative K-best LSD. The performance of the algorithms is evaluated in 3G long-term evolution (LTE) system. The SIC algorithm is found to perform worse than the K-best LSD when the MIMO channels are highly correlated, while the performance difference diminishes when the correlation decreases. The receivers are designed for 2X2 and 4X4 antenna systems and three different modulation schemes. Complexity results for FPGA and ASIC implementations are found. A modification to the K-best LSD which increases its detection rate is introduced. The ASIC receivers are designed to meet the decoding throughput requirements in LTE and the K-best LSD is found to be the most complex receiver although it gives the best reliable data transmission throughput. The SIC receiver has the best performance–complexity tradeoff in the 2X2 system but in the 4X4 case, the K-best LSD is the most efficient. A receiver architecture which could be reconfigured to using a simple or a more complex detector as the channel conditions change would achieve the best performance while consuming the least amount of power in the receiver

Receiver Implementation for MIMO-OFDM with AMC and Precoding

Receivers for horizontally encoded LTE based MIMO-OFDM systems are considered in this paper. Adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) is used as well as precoding. The linear minimum mean square error (LMMSE), successive interference cancellation (SIC) and K-best list sphere detectors (LSD) are compared. The receivers were designed and implemented for 2×2 and 4×4 antenna systems and meet the decoding rate requirement in LTE, i.e, 210 Mb/s in 2×2 and 405 Mb/s in 4×4 antenna systems. The results show that the performance of the receivers is similar in low SNR but the performance difference increases when a higher rank transmission is used. The K-best LSD has the highest performance and complexity. A simpler receiver could be used in the low SNRs to save power and a more complex receiver in the high SNRs when a higher goodput is needed.NokiaNokia Siemens Networks (NSN)Texas InstrumentsXilinxNational Science Foundatio

Architecture Design and Implementation of the Metric First List Sphere Detector Algorithm

Soft-output detection of a multiple-input–multiple-output (MIMO) signal pose a significant challenge in future wireless systems. In this paper, we introduce a soft-output modified metric first (MMF)-LSD algorithm for MIMO detection. We design a scalable architecture and address a method to decrease memory requirements. We provide implementation results for a spatial multiplexing (SM) system with four transmitted streams and with 16- and 64-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) on a 0.18- m CMOS application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) technology. The MFF-LSD implementation is more efficient than the depth first (DF) -LSD in the crucial low signal-to-noise rate (SNR)region and the detection rate of the 64-QAM implementation is 39.2 Mbps@26 db with 48.2 kGEs complexity

ARCHITECTURE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF THE INCREASING RADIUS - LIST SPHERE DETECTOR ALGORITHM

A list sphere detector (LSD) is an enhancement of a sphere detector (SD) that can be used to approximate the optimal MAP detector. In this paper, we introduce a novel architecture for the increasing radius (IR)-LSD algorithm, which is based on the Dijkstra’s algorithm. The parallelism possibilities are introduced in the presented architecture, which is also scalable for different multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. The novel architecture is implemented on a Virtex-IV field programmable gate array (FPGA) chip using high-level ANSI C++ language based Catapult C Synthesis tool from Mentor Graphics. The used word lengths, the latency of the design, and the required resources are presented and analyzed for 4 x 4 MIMO system with 16- quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). The detector implementation achieves a maximum throughput of 12.1Mbps at high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR)

Nature of chemistry in the national frame curricula for upper secondary education in Finland, Norway and Sweden

The aim of this study was to discover how current chemistry syllabi in the frame curricula for up- per secondary education in three Nordic countries (Finland, Norway, and Sweden) take into account topics related to the nature of chemistry. By qualitative content analysis, the statements related to the nature of chemistry were divided into categories. Conclusions and implications for improving the frame curricula under study were made by comparing results with research into the nature of science. Chemistry syllabi from the Nordic frame curricula analyzed take into account the aims related to the nature of chemistry in a very similar manner. The ideas that should be made more explicit in all of the analyzed curricula are: i) the limits of the chemical models and theories, ii) the relationship between chemistry and other natural sciences, iii) the importance of creativity in chemical research, iv) the concepts of evidence in science texts, v) the social nature of chemical research, and vi) chemistry as a technological practice.Peer reviewe

Implementation of LS, MMSE and SAGE Channel Estimators for Mobile MIMO-OFDM

The use of decision directed (DD) channel estimation in a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) downlink receiver is studied in this paper. The 3GPP long term evolution (LTE) based pilot structure is used as a benchmark. The space-alternating generalized expectation-maximization (SAGE) algorithm is used to improve the performance from that of the pilot symbol based least-squares (LS) channel estimator. The DD channel estimation improves the performance with high user velocities, where the pilot symbol density is not sufficient. Minimum mean square error (MMSE) filtering can also be used in estimating the channel in between pilot symbols. The DD channel estimation can be used to reduce the pilot overhead without any performance degradation by transmitting data instead of pilot symbols. The pilot overhead is reduced to a third of the LTE pilot overhead, obtaining a ten percent increase in throughput. The pilot based LS, MMSE and the SAGE channel estimators are implemented and the performance-complexity trade-offs are studied

ASIC Implementation Comparison of SIC and LSD Receivers for MIMO-OFDM

MIMO-OFDM receivers with horizontal encoding are considered in this paper. The successive interference cancellation (SIC) algorithm is compared to the K-best list sphere detector (LSD). A modification to the K-best LSD algorithm is introduced. The SIC and K-best LSD receivers are designed for a 2 x 2 antenna system with 64-quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). The ASIC implementation results for both architectures are presented. The K-best LSD outperforms the SIC receiver in bad channel conditions but the SIC receiver performs better in channels with less correlated MIMO streams. The latency of the K-best LSD is large due to the high modulation order and list size. The throughput of the SIC receiver is more than 6 times higher than that of the K-best LSD.TekesFinnish Funding Agency for Technology and InnovationNokiaTexas InstrumentsNokia Siemens Networks (NSN)Elekrobi

COMPARISON OF TWO NOVEL LIST SPHERE DETECTOR ALGORITHMS FOR MIMO-OFDM SYSTEMS

In this paper, the complexity and performance of two novel list sphere detector (LSD) algorithms are studied and evaluated in multiple-input multiple-output orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (MIMO-OFDM) system. The LSDs are based on the K-best and the Schnorr-Euchner enumeration (SEE) algorithms. The required list sizes for LSD algorithms are determined for a 2×2 system with 4- quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), 16-QAM, and 64-QAM. The complexity of the algorithms is compared by studying the number of visited nodes per received symbol vector by the algorithm in computer simulations. The SEE based LSD algorithm is found to be a less complex and a feasible choice for implementation compared to the K-best based LSD algorithm.ElekrobitNokiaTexas InstrumentsFinnish Funding Agency for Technology and InnovationTeke

Sagnac Rotational Phase Shifts in a Mesoscopic Electron Interferometer with Spin-Orbit Interactions

The Sagnac effect is an important phase coherent effect in optical and atom interferometers where rotations of the interferometer with respect to an inertial reference frame result in a shift in the interference pattern proportional to the rotation rate. Here we analyze for the first time the Sagnac effect in a mesoscopic semiconductor electron interferometer. We include in our analysis Rashba spin-orbit interactions in the ring. Our results indicate that spin-orbit interactions increase the rotation induced phase shift. We discuss the potential experimental observability of the Sagnac phase shift in such mesoscopic systems