Orthogonal Constant-Amplitude Sequence Families for System Parameter Identification in Spectrally Compact OFDM

In rectangularly-pulsed orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems, constant-amplitude (CA) sequences are desirable to construct preamble/pilot waveforms to facilitate system parameter identification (SPI). Orthogonal CA sequences are generally preferred in various SPI applications like random-access channel identification. However, the number of conventional orthogonal CA sequences (e.g., Zadoff-Chu sequences) that can be adopted in cellular communication without causing sequence identification ambiguity is insufficient. Such insufficiency causes heavy performance degradation for SPI requiring a large number of identification sequences. Moreover, rectangularly-pulsed OFDM preamble/pilot waveforms carrying conventional CA sequences suffer from large power spectral sidelobes and thus exhibit low spectral compactness. This paper is thus motivated to develop several order-I CA sequence families which contain more orthogonal CA sequences while endowing the corresponding OFDM preamble/pilot waveforms with fast-decaying spectral sidelobes. Since more orthogonal sequences are provided, the developed order-I CA sequence families can enhance the performance characteristics in SPI requiring a large number of identification sequences over multipath channels exhibiting short-delay channel profiles, while composing spectrally compact OFDM preamble/pilot waveforms.Comment: 15 pages, 4 figure

Convergence of quantum random walks with decoherence

In this paper, we study the discrete-time quantum random walks on a line subject to decoherence. The convergence of the rescaled position probability distribution $p(x,t)$ depends mainly on the spectrum of the superoperator $\mathcal{L}_{kk}$. We show that if 1 is an eigenvalue of the superoperator with multiplicity one and there is no other eigenvalue whose modulus equals to 1, then $\hat {P}(\frac{\nu} {\sqrt t},t)$ converges to a convex combination of normal distributions. In terms of position space, the rescaled probability mass function $p_t (x, t) \equiv p(\sqrt t x, t)$, $x \in Z/\sqrt t$, converges in distribution to a continuous convex combination of normal distributions. We give an necessary and sufficient condition for a U(2) decoherent quantum walk that satisfies the eigenvalue conditions. We also give a complete description of the behavior of quantum walks whose eigenvalues do not satisfy these assumptions. Specific examples such as the Hadamard walk, walks under real and complex rotations are illustrated. For the O(2) quantum random walks, an explicit formula is provided for the scaling limit of $p(x,t)$ and their moments. We also obtain exact critical exponents for their moments at the critical point and show universality classes with respect to these critical exponents

EFFECTS OF IXERIS CHINENSIS (THUNB.) NAKAI BOILING WATER EXTRACT ON HEPATITIS B VIRAL ACTIVITY AND HEPATOCELLULAR CARCINOMA

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection and hepatocellular carcinoma are major diseases that affect the Taiwanese population. Therefore, the development of an alternative herbal medicine that can effectively treat these diseases is a research target. In this study, we tested Ixeris Chinensis (Thunb.) Nakai boiling water extract (ICTN BWE) in vitro and analysed its effects on the HBV and liver cancer. Materials and Methods: We used a human liver cancer cell line (Hep3B, a cell line that continuously secretes HBV particles into a medium) as an experimental model for the screening of various ICTN BWE concentrations and their effects on the HBV in vitro. Results: Our results showed that 75 µg/mL ICTN BWE downregulated the relative expression of the hepatitis B virus surface antigens (HBsAg) to 77.1%. Using the human liver cancer cell lines HuH-7 and HepG2, and 3-(4,5- dimethylthiazol-zyl)-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT) and tumour clonogenic assays, we then showed that ICTN BWE inhibits hepatocellular carcinoma growth. Conclusion: Fluorescent microscopy of DAPI(4',6-Diamidino-2-phenylindole)-stained nuclei and DNA fragmentation assays confirmed the inhibitory effects of ICTN BWE on liver tumour cell growth through induction of apoptosis

Decadal Oscillation of Fall Temperature in Taiwan

This study verifies the existence of an evident decadal oscillation in fall (September - November) temperature for Taiwan. It has an island-wide spatial pattern and a central frequency of 11 years. Acorresponding decadal-oscillation mode of tropical sea surface temperature (SST) is found to be largely responsible for inducing the decadal temperature oscillation for Taiwan via the following regulating processes. On a decadal timescale, periods of decadal warming in Taiwan concur with major cold anomalies in tropical SST over the eastern Indian Ocean and the central Pacific. These cold SST anomalies modulate tropical Walker circulation so as to produce anomalous descending centers in their regions. Meanwhile, the complementary anomalous ascending motion and anomalous low-level convergence center occur near the Maritime continent. These anomalous ascending and descending centers act as tropical forcing sources to evoke a low-level Rossby-wave-like circulation anomaly in the Asian-Pacific regions. Taiwan is surrounded by a low-level anomalous high to its east and an anomalous low to its west. These circulations induce anomalous flows from the south to warm Taiwan via anomalous warm advection. The above regulating processes reverse in polarity during periods of decadal cooling in Taiwan

A Retrospective Cohort Study Comparing Stroke Recurrence Rate in Ischemic Stroke Patients With and Without Acupuncture Treatment.

Little was known about the effects of acupuncture on stroke recurrence. The aim of this study is to investigate whether ischemic stroke patients receiving acupuncture treatment have a decreased risk of stroke recurrence. A retrospective cohort study of 30,058 newly diagnosed cases of ischemic stroke in 2000 to 2004 was conducted based on the claims of Taiwan National Health Insurance Research Database. The use of acupuncture treatment and stroke recurrence were identified during the follow-up period from 2000 to 2009. This study compared the risk of stroke recurrence between ischemic stroke cohorts with and without acupuncture treatment by calculating adjusted hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of acupuncture associated with stroke recurrence in the Cox proportional hazard model. The stroke recurrence rate per 1000 person-years decreased from 71.4 without to 69.9 with acupuncture treatment (P < 0.001). Acupuncture treatment was associated with reduced risk of stroke recurrence (HR 0.88; 95% CI 0.84-0.91). The acupuncture effect was noted in patients with or without medical treatment for stroke prevention but its impact decreased with aging of stroke patients. Compared with stroke patients without acupuncture treatment and medication therapy, the hazard ratios of stroke recurrence for those had medication therapy only, acupuncture only, and both were 0.42 (95% CI 0.38-0.46), 0.50 (95% CI 0.43-0.57), and 0.39 (95% CI 0.35-0.43), respectively. This study raises the possibility that acupuncture might be effective in lowering stroke recurrence rate even in those on medications for stroke prevention. Results suggest the need of prospective sham-controlled and randomized trials to establish the efficacy of acupuncture in preventing stroke

WiRiS: Transformer for RIS-Assisted Device-Free Sensing for Joint People Counting and Localization using Wi-Fi CSI

Channel State Information (CSI) is widely adopted as a feature for indoor localization. Taking advantage of the abundant information from the CSI, people can be accurately sensed even without equipped devices. However, the positioning error increases severely in non-line-of-sight (NLoS) regions. Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) has been introduced to improve signal coverage in NLoS areas, which can re-direct and enhance reflective signals with massive meta-material elements. In this paper, we have proposed a Transformer-based RIS-assisted device-free sensing for joint people counting and localization (WiRiS) system to precisely predict the number of people and their corresponding locations through configuring RIS. A series of predefined RIS beams is employed to create inputs of fingerprinting CSI features as sequence-to-sequence learning database for Transformer. We have evaluated the performance of proposed WiRiS system in both ray-tracing simulators and experiments. Both simulation and real-world experiments demonstrate that people counting accuracy exceeds 90%, and the localization error can achieve the centimeter-level, which outperforms the existing benchmarks without employment of RIS

Temporal Arteritis

Temporal arteritis, a chronic inflammatory vasculitis involving medium- and large-sized arteries, has rarely been reported in Asia. However, we report 2 cases, in which the patients initially presented with headache. Physical examination disclosed engorged, hard and palpable vessels in the temporal areas. Temporal-artery biopsy revealed 2 different types of arteritis: the multinucleated giant cell type and the panarteritis type without multinucleated giant cells. One patient was positive for immunoglobulin G anticardiolipin antibody. The pathologic findings of the different subsets of temporal arteritis, and the relationship between anticardiolipin antibody and the extent of vascular complications of temporal arteritis, are discussed

Fabrication of blue top-emitting organic light-emitting devices with highly saturated color

Abstract Blue top-emitting organic light-emitting devices (TOLEDs) with highly saturated color were developed by microcavity effect. The device structure studied was glass/reflective silver/indium-tin oxide (ITO)/organic electroluminescent stack/semi-transparent cathode (calcium/silver). By changing the thicknesses of ITO and organic layers in the microcavity structure device doped with p-bis(p-N, Ndi-phenyl-aminostyryl)benzene (DSA-ph), highly saturated color with Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage chromaticity coordinates (CIE x;y ) of (0.14, 0.08) was obtained