Efficient Iterative V-BLAST Detection Technique in Wireless Communication System

Recently, among the MIMO-OFDM detection techniques, a lot of papers suggested V-BLAST scheme which can achieve high data rate. Therefore, the signal detection of MIMOOFDM system is important issue. In this paper, efficient iterative VBLAST detection technique is proposed in wireless communication system. The proposed scheme adjusts the number of candidate symbol and iterative scheme based on channel state. According to the simulation result, the proposed scheme has better BER performance than conventional schemes and similar BER performance of the QRD-M with iterative scheme. Moreover complexity of proposed scheme has 50.6 % less than complexity of QRD-M detection with iterative scheme. Therefore the proposed detection scheme can be efficiently used in wireless communication

Influence of Coalescence on the Anisotropic Mechanical and Electrical Properties of Nickel Powder/Polydimethylsiloxane Composites.

Multifunctional polymer-based composites have been widely used in various research and industrial applications, such as flexible and stretchable electronics and sensors and sensor-integrated smart structures. This study investigates the influence of particle coalescence on the mechanical and electrical properties of spherical nickel powder (SNP)/polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) composites in which SNP was aligned using an external magnetic field. With the increase of the volume fraction of the SNP, the aligned SNP/PDMS composites exhibited a higher tensile strength and a lower ultimate strain. In addition, the composites with aligned SNP showed a lower percolation threshold and a higher electrical conductivity compared with those with randomly dispersed SNP. However, when the concentration of the SNP reached a certain level (40 vol. %), the anisotropy of the effective material property became less noticeable than that of the lower concentration (20 vol. %) composites due to the change of the microstructure of the particles caused by the coalescence of the particles at a high concentration. This work may provide rational methods for the fabrication of aligned composites

mtDNAmanager: a Web-based tool for the management and quality analysis of mitochondrial DNA control-region sequences

BACKGROUND: For the past few years, scientific controversy has surrounded the large number of errors in forensic and literature mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) data. However, recent research has shown that using mtDNA phylogeny and referring to known mtDNA haplotypes can be useful for checking the quality of sequence data. RESULTS: We developed a Web-based bioinformatics resource "mtDNAmanager" that offers a convenient interface supporting the management and quality analysis of mtDNA sequence data. The mtDNAmanager performs computations on mtDNA control-region sequences to estimate the most-probable mtDNA haplogroups and retrieves similar sequences from a selected database. By the phased designation of the most-probable haplogroups (both expected and estimated haplogroups), mtDNAmanager enables users to systematically detect errors whilst allowing for confirmation of the presence of clear key diagnostic mutations and accompanying mutations. The query tools of mtDNAmanager also facilitate database screening with two options of "match" and "include the queried nucleotide polymorphism". In addition, mtDNAmanager provides Web interfaces for users to manage and analyse their own data in batch mode. CONCLUSION: The mtDNAmanager will provide systematic routines for mtDNA sequence data management and analysis via easily accessible Web interfaces, and thus should be very useful for population, medical and forensic studies that employ mtDNA analysis. mtDNAmanager can be accessed at http://mtmanager.yonsei.ac.krope

Long-term balloon indwelling technique for the treatment of single benign biliary stricture

We aimed to evaluate the feasibility and safety of long-term balloon indwelling technique for the treatment of single benign biliary stricture. Five patients with single benign biliary stricture were included from December 2014 to November 2016. The patients were three men and two women with a mean age of 50 years (range, 30–65 years). A balloon catheter was inserted into the drainage catheter and emerged through the side hole of the catheter so that the balloon and drainage catheters could be placed together at the stricture site. Follow-up fluoroscopic examination was performed at least once every 2 weeks to evaluate the adequacy of expansion and location of the balloon. The balloon was reinflated at each session, and then removed after an approximately two-month indwelling period. The catheters used were 10–16 French and the diameter of indwelling balloons were 4–8 mm. The primary technical and clinical success rates were 100%. Maintenance of the balloon location was achieved in 25 of 26 follow-up fluoroscopic examinations (mean, 5.2 times per patient) with a rate of 96.1%. The mean follow-up period after successful removal of the balloon was 542.2 days (range, 93–1042 days), and there were no recurrences in the five cases. The long-term balloon indwelling technique is a good way to induce maximal dilatation at the stricture site without large diameter skin and subcutaneous tract dilatation and can be successfully used for single benign biliary stricture

Gypsum-Dependent Effect of NaCl on Strength Enhancement of CaO-Activated Slag Binders

This study explores the combined effect of NaCl and gypsum on the strength of the CaO-activated ground-granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS) binder system. In the CaO-activated GGBFS system, the incorporation of NaCl without gypsum did not improve the strength of the system. However, with the presence of gypsum, the use of NaCl yielded significantly greater strength than the use of either gypsum or NaCl alone. The presence of NaCl largely increases the solubility of gypsum in a solution, leading to a higher concentration of sulfate ions, which is essential for generating more and faster formations of ettringite in a fresh mixture of paste. The significant strength enhancement of gypsum was likely due to the accelerated and increased formation of ettringite, accompanied by more efficient filling of pores in the system

A refined prediction model for survival in hepatocellular carcinoma patients treated with transarterial chemoembolization

Background/AimsTransarterial chemoembolization (TACE) is widely performed as a major treatment for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients, and there is a need to stratify patients for whom the most benefit from the treatment. This study aimed to develop a refined prediction model for overall survival (OS) in patients undergoing TACE as a first-line treatment in a large cohort and validate its performance.MethodsA total of 2,632 patients with HCC of Barcelona Clinic Liver Cancer stage A or B who underwent TACE between 2008 and 2017 were enrolled. The patients were randomly assigned to a training cohort (n = 1,304) or a validation cohort (n = 1,328). Independent predictors of OS were used to develop a prediction model.ResultsThe median age of patients in the entire cohort was 63 years, with the majority having hepatitis B virus (56.6%) and being classified as Child-Pugh class A (82.4%). We developed a new prognostic model, called the TACE-prognostic (TP) score, based on tumor burden (sum of the largest tumor diameter and tumor number), alpha-fetoprotein, and Albumin-Bilirubin grade. Patients were classified into five risk groups according to TP scores, with median survival significantly differentiated in both training and validation cohorts (P < 0.001). The new model consistently outperformed other currently available models in both the training and validation cohorts.ConclusionThis newly developed TP scoring system has the potential to be a useful tool in identifying ideal candidates of TACE and predicting OS with favorable performance and discrimination. However, further external validation is needed to confirm its effectiveness