Trellis- and network-coded modulation for decode-and-forward two-way relaying over time-varying channels

We present a bandwidth-efficient joint channel coding-modulation scheme conceived for the broadcast channel (BC) of Decode-and-forward Two-way Relaying (DF-TWR), where Trellis-coded modulation (TCM) is intrinsically amalgamated with network-coded modulation (NCM) for achieving both a channel coding gain and a high throughput. We conceive a low-complexity receiver algorithm for our joint Trellis- and Network-coded modulation (TC-NCM) scheme, which applies decoding and demodulation simultaneously, without the need to first demodulate the signal before decoding, as in the traditional solutions. As a further contribution, the TC-NCM scheme is intrinsically amalgamated with adaptive transceiver techniques. We then further investigate the performance of our near-instantaneously adaptive discrete-rate TC-NC-QAM/PSK scheme. Both simulation results and numerical analysis are presented, which are compared to the performance of traditional NCM schemes. The results show that our scheme not only increases the achievable transmission rate, but also improves the reliability, yet it is of modest complexity

4-(4-Chloro­phen­yl)-3-cyano-7-(4-meth­oxy­phen­yl)-5-oxo-5,6,7,8-tetra­hydro-4H-chromen-2-aminium methano­late

In the cation of the title organic ion pair compound, C23H20ClN2O3 +·CH3O−, the cyclo­hexyl ring shows a half-boat conformation and the dihedral angles between two benzene rings and the pyran ring are 83.14 (7) and 73.18 (9)°. In the crystal, centrosymmetrically related cations are linked into a dimer by pairs of N—H⋯N hydrogen bonds, generating an R 2 2(12) ring motif. The anion inter­acts with the dimer through an N—H⋯O hydrogen bond. π–π inter­actions between pyran rings of adjacent dimers, with a centroid–centroid distance of 3.861 (2) Å, are also observed

(4R,7S)-2-Amino-4-(3,4-dimeth­oxy­phen­yl)-5-oxo-7-phenyl-5,6,7,8-tetra­hydro-4H-chromene-3-carbonitrile monohydrate

The title compound, C24H22N2O4·H2O, was obtained by the reaction of 3,4-dimeth­oxy­benzaldehyde, malononitrile and 5-phenyl­cyclo­hexane-1,3-dione. The cyclo­hexyl and pyran rings show half-boat and V-shaped conformations, respectively. The dihedral angle between the phenyl and benzene ring planes is 30.67 (9)°. The organic mol­ecules are packed in a two-dimensional network parallel to the bc plane stabilized by inter­molecular N—H⋯N and N—H⋯O hydrogen bonds

Interface induced high temperature superconductivity in single unit-cell FeSe films on SrTiO3

Searching for superconducting materials with high transition temperature (TC) is one of the most exciting and challenging fields in physics and materials science. Although superconductivity has been discovered for more than 100 years, the copper oxides are so far the only materials with TC above 77 K, the liquid nitrogen boiling point. Here we report an interface engineering method for dramatically raising the TC of superconducting films. We find that one unit-cell (UC) thick films of FeSe grown on SrTiO3 (STO) substrates by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) show signatures of superconducting transition above 50 K by transport measurement. A superconducting gap as large as 20 meV of the 1 UC films observed by scanning tunneling microcopy (STM) suggests that the superconductivity could occur above 77 K. The occurrence of superconductivity is further supported by the presence of superconducting vortices under magnetic field. Our work not only demonstrates a powerful way for finding new superconductors and for raising TC, but also provides a well-defined platform for systematic study of the mechanism of unconventional superconductivity by using different superconducting materials and substrates

Sources of variation in nutrient intakes among men in Shanghai, China

Background and objective: Random errors, from any source, will attenuate epidemiological risk estimates. Before we launched the Shanghai Men’s Health Study (SMHS), a large population-based cohort study investigating the diet–cancer association among Chinese men, a dietary calibration study was conducted among 96 men aged 40–75 years (mean age 56.5 years), with biweekly 24-hour dietary recalls (24HDRs) implemented over a 1-year period. Data from this study were analysed to evaluate the nature and magnitude of variances for intake of 26 nutrients among SMHS participants, to compare variance ratios of 26 nutrients among Chinese men and women and individuals in other studies, and to estimate the number of 24HDRs required for future dietary calibration studies in similar populations. Design: Ninety-six healthy, free-living men in Shanghai were administered biweekly 24HDR interviews 24 times over a 1-year period. To assess between-individual and within-individual contributions to variance, a mixed effects model was fitted and ratios of within-individual to between-individual (s^ 2 w=s^ 2 b) dietary intake variances were computed. Setting: Shanghai, China. Results: In agreement with reports from studies conducted in the USA and many other countries, we found that within-individual variances were usually larger than between-individual variances in dietary intake for all nutrients. The sum of all other variation (e.g. weekday and weekend, seasonal, interviewer) accounted for less than 5% of total variation. Ratios of within- to between-individual variances (for logtransformed data) ranged from 1.25 for carbohydrate intake to near 8 for d-tocopherol intake. Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that among middle-aged and elderly Chinese men in Shanghai, within- and between-individual variation account for more than 95% of the total variation for 26 nutrients. Further dietary validation studies in the same population could be adequately carried out with only 12 days of dietary recalls, if 100 participants were enrolled

Immune microenvironment analysis and novel biomarkers of early-stage lung adenocarcinoma evolution

BackgroundLung cancer is the deadliest and most diagnosed type of cancer worldwide. The 5-year survival rate of lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) dropped significantly when tumor stages advanced. Patients who received surgically resecting at the pre-invasive stage had a 5-year survival rate of nearly 100%. However, the study on the differences in gene expression profiles and immune microenvironment among pre-invasive LUAD patients is still lacking.MethodsIn this study, the gene expression profiles of three pre-invasive LUAD stages were compared using the RNA-sequencing data of 10 adenocarcinoma in situ (AIS) samples, 12 minimally invasive adenocarcinoma (MIA) samples, and 10 invasive adenocarcinoma (IAC) samples.ResultsThe high expression levels of PTGFRN (Hazard Ratio [HR] = 1.45; 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 1.08-1.94; log-rank P = 0.013) and SPP1 (HR = 1.44; 95% CI: 1.07-1.93; log-rank P = 0.015) were identified to be associated with LUAD prognosis. Moreover, the early LUAD invasion was accompanied by the enhancement of antigen presentation ability, reflected by the increase of myeloid dendritic cells infiltration rate (Cuzick test P < 0.01) and the upregulation of seven important genes participating in the antigen presentation, including HLA-A (Cuzick test P = 0.03), MICA (Cuzick test P = 0.01), MICB (Cuzick test P = 0.01), HLA-DPA1 (Cuzick test P = 0.04), HLA-DQA2 (Cuzick test P < 0.01), HLA-DQB1 (Cuzick test P = 0.03), and HLA-DQB2 (Cuzick test P < 0.01). However, the tumor-killing ability of the immune system was inhibited during this process, as there were no rising cytotoxic T cell activity (Cuzick test P = 0.20) and no increasing expression in genes encoding cytotoxic proteins. ConclusionIn all, our research elucidated the changes in the immune microenvironment during early-stage LUAD evolution and may provide a theoretical basis for developing novel early-stage lung cancer therapeutic targets

Narrowband Biphotons: Generation, Manipulation, and Applications

In this chapter, we review recent advances in generating narrowband biphotons with long coherence time using spontaneous parametric interaction in monolithic cavity with cluster effect as well as in cold atoms with electromagnetically induced transparency. Engineering and manipulating the temporal waveforms of these long biphotons provide efficient means for controlling light-matter quantum interaction at the single-photon level. We also review recent experiments using temporally long biphotons and single photons.Comment: to appear as a book chapter in a compilation "Engineering the Atom-Photon Interaction" published by Springer in 2015, edited by A. Predojevic and M. W. Mitchel

Molecular crowding creates an essential environment for the formation of stable G-quadruplexes in long double-stranded DNA

Large numbers of guanine-rich sequences with potential to form G-quadruplexes have been identified in genomes of various organisms. Such sequences are constrained at both ends by long DNA duplex with a complementary strand in close proximity to compete for duplex formation. G-quadruplex/duplex competition in long double-stranded DNA has rarely been studied. In this work, we used DMS footprinting and gel electrophoresis to study G-quadruplex formation in long double-stranded DNA derived from human genome under both dilute and molecular crowding condition created by PEG. G-quadruplex formation was observed in the process of RNA transcription and after heat denaturation/renaturation under molecular crowding condition. Our results showed that the heat denaturation/renaturation treatment followed by gel electrophoresis could provide a simple method to quantitatively access the ability of G-quadruplex formation in long double-stranded DNA. The effect of K+ and PEG concentration was investigated and we found that stable G-quadruplexes could only form under the crowding condition with PEG at concentrations near the physiological concentration of biomass in living cells. This observation reveals a physical basis for the formation of stable G-quadruplexes in genome and supports its presence under the in vivo molecular crowding condition

Effect of liposomal bupivacaine for preoperative erector spinae plane block on postoperative pain following video-assisted thoracoscopic lung surgery: a protocol for a multicenter, randomized, double-blind, clinical trial

BackgroundThere is still a controversy about the superiority of liposomal bupivacaine (LB) over traditional local anesthetics in postoperative analgesia after thoracic surgery. This study aims to determine the effect of LB versus bupivacaine hydrochloride (HCl) for preoperative ultrasound-guided erector spinae plane block (ESPB) on postoperative acute and chronic pain in patients undergoing video-assisted thoracoscopic lung surgery.MethodsThis multicenter, randomized, double-blind, controlled trial will include 272 adult patients scheduled for elective video-assisted thoracoscopic lung surgery. Patients will be randomly assigned, 1:1 and stratified by site, to the liposomal bupivacaine (LB) group or the bupivacaine (BUPI) HCl group. All patients will receive ultrasound-guided ESPB with either LB or bupivacaine HCl before surgery and patient-controlled intravenous analgesia (PCIA) as rescue analgesia after surgery. The numeric rating scale (NRS) score will be assessed after surgery. The primary outcome is the area under the curve of pain scores at rest for 0–72 h postoperatively. The secondary outcomes include the total amount of opioid rescue analgesics through 0–72 h postoperatively, time to the first press on the PCIA device as rescue analgesia, the area under the curve of pain scores on activity for 0–72 h postoperatively, NRS scores at rest and on activity at different time points during the 0–72 h postoperative period, Quality of Recovery 15 scores at 72 h after surgery, and NRS scores on activity on postsurgical day 14 and postsurgical 3 months. Adverse events after the surgery are followed up to the postsurgical day 7, including postoperative nausea and vomiting, fever, constipation, dizziness, headache, insomnia, itching, prolonged chest tube leakage, new-onset atrial fibrillation, severe ventricular arrhythmia, deep venous thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, pulmonary atelectasis, cardiac arrest, ileus, urinary retention, chylothorax, pneumothorax, and organ failure. Analyzes will be performed first according to the intention to treat principle and second with the per-protocol analysis.DiscussionWe hypothesize that LB for preoperative ultrasound-guided ESPB would be more effective than bupivacaine HCl in reducing postoperative pain in video-assisted thoracoscopic lung surgery. Our results will contribute to the optimization of postoperative analgesia regimens for patients undergoing video-assisted thoracoscopic lung surgery.Clinical trial registration:http://www.chictr.org.cn, identifier ChiCTR2300074852