25,187 research outputs found
Comparing the Economic Competitive Advantages of Indian Run Casinos Located on Sovereign Lands in Western New York Over Other Hospitality Operations
The Seneca Gaming Corporation has constantly attempted to convince the citizens of WNY that their casinos will provide long-term economic benefits to the area. The local “mainstream” media has, with few exceptions, repeatedly quoted the statistics that the SGC’s public relations people have provided them. The mainstream media has rarely if ever done an independent analysis of the numbers or sought answers to some of the more disturbing statistics
THz Instruments for Space
Terahertz technology has been driven largely by applications in astronomy and space science. For more than three decades cosmochemists, molecular spectroscopists, astrophysicists, and Earth and planetary scientists have used submillimeter-wave or terahertz sensors to identify, catalog and map lightweight gases, atoms and molecules in Earth and planetary atmospheres, in regions of interstellar dust and star formation, and in new and old galaxies, back to the earliest days of the universe, from both ground based and more recently, orbital platforms. The past ten years have witnessed the launch and successful deployment of three satellite instruments with spectral line heterodyne receivers above 300 GHz (SWAS, Odin, and MIRO) and a fourth platform, Aura MLS, that reaches to 2520 GHz, crossing the terahertz threshold from the microwave side for the first time. The former Soviet Union launched the first bolometric detectors for the submillimeter way back in 1974 and operated the first space based submillimeter wave telescope on the Salyut 6 station for four months in 1978. In addition, continuum, Fourier transform and spectrophotometer instruments on IRAS, ISO, COBE, the recent Spitzer Space Telescope and Japan's Akari satellite have all encroached into the submillimeter from the infrared using direct detection bolometers or photoconductors. At least two more major satellites carrying submillimeter wave instruments are nearing completion, Herschel and Planck, and many more are on the drawing boards in international and national space organizations such as NASA, ESA, DLR, CNES, and JAXA. This paper reviews some of the programs that have been proposed, completed and are still envisioned for space applications in the submillimeter and terahertz spectral range
Graph-Based Decoding in the Presence of ISI
We propose an approximation of maximum-likelihood detection in ISI channels
based on linear programming or message passing. We convert the detection
problem into a binary decoding problem, which can be easily combined with LDPC
decoding. We show that, for a certain class of channels and in the absence of
coding, the proposed technique provides the exact ML solution without an
exponential complexity in the size of channel memory, while for some other
channels, this method has a non-diminishing probability of failure as SNR
increases. Some analysis is provided for the error events of the proposed
technique under linear programming.Comment: 25 pages, 8 figures, Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information
Theor
Adaptive Methods for Linear Programming Decoding
Detectability of failures of linear programming (LP) decoding and the
potential for improvement by adding new constraints motivate the use of an
adaptive approach in selecting the constraints for the underlying LP problem.
In this paper, we make a first step in studying this method, and show that it
can significantly reduce the complexity of the problem, which was originally
exponential in the maximum check-node degree. We further show that adaptively
adding new constraints, e.g. by combining parity checks, can provide large
gains in the performance.Comment: 22 pages, 8 figures. Submitted to IEEE Transactions on Information
Theor
Thermal Monitoring: Raman Spectrometer System for Remote Measurement of Cellular Temperature on a Microscopic Scale
A simple setup was demonstrated for remote temperature monitoring of water, water-based media, and cells on a microscopic scale. The technique relies on recording changes in the shape of a stretching band of the hydroxyl group in liquid water at 3,100-3,700 cm^(-1). Rather than direct measurements in the near-infrared (IR), a simple Raman spectrometer setup was realized. The measured Raman shifts were observed at near optical wavelengths using an inverted microscope with standard objectives in contrast to costly near-IR elements. This allowed for simultaneous visible inspection through the same optical path. An inexpensive 671-nm diode pump laser (<100 mW), standard dichroic and lowpass filters, and a commercial 600-1,000 nm spectrometer complete the instrument
THz in biology and medicine: toward quantifying and understanding the interaction of millimeter- and submillimeter-waves with cells and cell processes
As the application and commercial use of millimeter- and submillimeter-wavelength radiation become more widespread, there is a growing need to understand and quantify both the coupling mechanisms and the impact of this long wavelength energy on biological function. Independent of the health impact of high doses of radio frequency (RF) energy on full organisms, which has been extensively investigated, there exists the potential for more subtle effects, which can best be quantified in studies which examine real-time changes in cellular functions as RF energy is applied. In this paper we present the first real time examination of RF induced changes in cellular activity at absorbed power levels well below the existing safe exposure limits. Fluorescence microscopy imaging of immortalized epithelial and neuronal cells in vitro indicate increased cellular membrane permeability and nanoporation after short term exposure to modest levels (10-50 mW/cm2) of RF power at 60 GHz. Sensitive patch clamp measurements on pyramidal neurons in cortical slices of neonatal rats showed a dramatic increase in cellular membrane permeability resulting either in suppression or facilitation of neuronal activity during exposure to sub-μW/cm2 of RF power at 60 GHz. Non-invasive modulation of neuronal activity could prove useful in a variety of health applications from suppression of peripheral neuropathic pain to treatment of central neurological disorders
Adaptive Cut Generation Algorithm for Improved Linear Programming Decoding of Binary Linear Codes
Linear programming (LP) decoding approximates maximum-likelihood (ML)
decoding of a linear block code by relaxing the equivalent ML integer
programming (IP) problem into a more easily solved LP problem. The LP problem
is defined by a set of box constraints together with a set of linear
inequalities called "parity inequalities" that are derived from the constraints
represented by the rows of a parity-check matrix of the code and can be added
iteratively and adaptively. In this paper, we first derive a new necessary
condition and a new sufficient condition for a violated parity inequality
constraint, or "cut," at a point in the unit hypercube. Then, we propose a new
and effective algorithm to generate parity inequalities derived from certain
additional redundant parity check (RPC) constraints that can eliminate
pseudocodewords produced by the LP decoder, often significantly improving the
decoder error-rate performance. The cut-generating algorithm is based upon a
specific transformation of an initial parity-check matrix of the linear block
code. We also design two variations of the proposed decoder to make it more
efficient when it is combined with the new cut-generating algorithm. Simulation
results for several low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes demonstrate that the
proposed decoding algorithms significantly narrow the performance gap between
LP decoding and ML decoding
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