On the Outage Probability of the Full-Duplex Interference-Limited Relay Channel

In this paper, we study the performance, in terms of the asymptotic error probability, of a user which communicates with a destination with the aid of a full-duplex in-band relay. We consider that the network is interference-limited, and interfering users are distributed as a Poisson point process. In this case, the asymptotic error probability is upper bounded by the outage probability (OP). We investigate the outage behavior for well-known cooperative schemes, namely, decode-and-forward (DF) and compress-and-forward (CF) considering fading and path loss. For DF we determine the exact OP and develop upper bounds which are tight in typical operating conditions. Also, we find the correlation coefficient between source and relay signals which minimizes the OP when the density of interferers is small. For CF, the achievable rates are determined by the spatial correlation of the interferences, and a straightforward analysis isn't possible. To handle this issue, we show the rate with correlated noises is at most one bit worse than with uncorrelated noises, and thus find an upper bound on the performance of CF. These results are useful to evaluate the performance and to optimize relaying schemes in the context of full-duplex wireless networks.Comment: 30 pages, 4 figures. Final version. To appear in IEEE JSAC Special Issue on Full-duplex Wireless Communications and Networks, 201

Subjective Media Quality Recovery From Noisy Raw Opinion Scores: A Non-Parametric Perspective

This paper focuses on the challenge of accurately estimating the subjective quality of multimedia content from noisy opinion scores gathered from end-users. State-of-the-art methods rely on parametric statistical models to capture the subject's scoring behavior and recover quality estimates. However, these approaches have limitations, as they often require restrictive assumptions to achieve numerical stability during parameter estimation, leading to a lack of robustness when the modeling hypotheses do not fit the data. To overcome these limitations, we propose a paradigm shift towards non-parametric statistical methods. Specifically, we introduce a threefold contribution: i) in contrast to the prevailing approach in subjective quality recovery assuming a parametric score distribution, we propose a non parametric approach that guarantees greater accuracy by measuring reliability per subject and per stimulus, overcoming the limits of existing approaches that measure only per subject reliability; ii) we propose ESQR, a non-parametric algorithm for subjective quality recovery, demonstrating experimentally that it has higher robustness to noise compared to numerous state-of-the-art algorithms, thanks to the weaker assumptions made on data compared to parametric approaches; iii) the proposed approach is theoretically grounded, i.e., we define a non-parametric statistic and prove mathematically that it provides a measure of score reliability. The code to run ESQR and reproduce the results in this paper is made freely available at: http://media.polito.it/ESQR

Modélisation de Réseaux sans Fils de Grandes Dimensions à l'aide de la Géométrie Stochastique

The main goal of this work is to study cooperative aspects of large wireless networks from the perspective of stochastic geometry. This allows the consideration of important effects such as the random spatial distribution of nodes, as well as the effects of interference and interference correlation at receivers, which are not possible when a single link is considered in isolation.First, some aspects of the performance of the relay channel in the context of a large wireless network are considered. Mainly, the performance, in terms of outage probability (OP), of a single full-duplex relay channel utilizing decode-and-forward (DF) or compress-and-forward, when the interference is generated by uniform spatial deployment of nodes, modeled as a Poisson point process. The OP performance of these two protocols is compared with a point-to-point transmission and with a half-duplex DF protocol. Afterwards, the case in which more than one transmitter in the network may use a relay is considered. The effects of cooperation versus interference are studied, when the users use either full-duplex DF, or point-to-point transmissions. In a second phase, this work explores the advantages that could be obtained through out-of-band device-to-device (D2D) video file exchanges in cellular networks. These advantages are measured in terms of the fraction of requests that can be served in a time-block through D2D, thus avoiding a downlink file transfer from the base station. For this, a stochastic geometry framework is introduced, in which the user file-caching policy, user pairing strategy, and link quality and scheduling issues are considered.L'objectif de cette thèse est d'étudier certains aspects des réseaux coopératifs sans fils à l'aide de la géométrie stochastique. Ça permets de considérer la distribution spatiale aléatoire des utilisateurs et les effets adverses de leur interaction, comme l’interférence.Nous étudions la performance, évaluée par la probabilité d'outage, atteignable dans un canal de relai full-duplex quand les nœuds opèrent dans un grand réseau sans fils où les émetteurs interférants sont modelés avec un processus ponctuel de Poisson homogène. Nous trouvons la probabilité d'outage des protocoles décodez-et-renvoyez (decode-and-forward, DF), et comprimez-et-renvoyez (compress-and-forward) et nous faisons une comparaison avec une transmission point à point et un protocole DF half-duplex. Ensuite, nous étudions une situation plus générale dans laquelle les émetteurs qui causent l'interférence peuvent aussi utiliser un relai ou faire des transmissions point à point. Nous étudions la relation entre les avantages de la cooperation et l'interférence qu'elle même génère.Dans la deuxième partie nous étudions la performance des stratégies de partage de vidéos par communications entre dispositifs mobiles (device-to-device, D2D) hors de la bande des communications cellulaires. Nous étudions la fraction des demandes de vidéos qui peuvent être satisfaites par D2D, c’est-à-dire, par le biais des émissions locales, plutôt que par la station de base. Pour étudier ce problème, nous introduisons un modèle de processus ponctuel, qui considère la stratégie de stockage dans les utilisateurs, le problème de comment lier les utilisateurs et les problèmes de la transmission et coordination entre les utilisateurs

El desafío de la comunicación pública de la ciencia a nivel institucional

Históricamente existe una considerable desvalorización de las actividades de comunicación pública de las ciencias. En general los/as trabajadores/as no consideran necesario incluir este tipo de actividades en sus tareas diarias ni son contempladas en el funcionamiento institucional. En este sentido es esperable, no así razonable, que hayamos estado en una especie de esfera, restándole significancia al vínculo con otros sectores de la sociedad. Por esto, en el año 2015 fue creada el Área de Extensión y Comunicación del Instituto de Limnología “Dr. Raúl Ringuelet” (ILPLA). Durante estos años de trabajo los lazos del Instituto se han incrementado, logrando articulaciones sólidas con escuelas, clubes, comedores, otros institutos y organismos gubernamentales nacionales, provinciales y municipales. Las actividades incluyen la participación en ferias de ciencia, visitas con escuelas, jornadas de debate, un proyecto de extensión (Exploracuátic@s), y una serie de artículos de divulgación denominada “Click sobre el Agua”. De esta manera la creación del área ha logrado la revalorización de las actividades de comunicación pública de la ciencia, posicionando al ILPLA como un referente en cuestiones ambientales y acuáticas.Fil: Garcia, Javier Ricardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Limnología "Dr. Raúl A. Ringuelet". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Instituto de Limnología; ArgentinaFil: Alvarez, María Fernanda. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Limnología "Dr. Raúl A. Ringuelet". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Instituto de Limnología; ArgentinaFil: Cortese, Bianca. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Patagonia Norte. Centro de Investigación Esquel de Montaña y Estepa Patagónica. Universidad Nacional de la Patagonia "San Juan Bosco". Centro de Investigación Esquel de Montaña y Estepa Patagónica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Limnología "Dr. Raúl A. Ringuelet". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Instituto de Limnología; ArgentinaFil: Altieri, Paula Daniela. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Limnología "Dr. Raúl A. Ringuelet". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Instituto de Limnología; ArgentinaFil: Monti, Carolina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Limnología "Dr. Raúl A. Ringuelet". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Instituto de Limnología; ArgentinaFil: Simonetti, Maximo Andres. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Limnología "Dr. Raúl A. Ringuelet". Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Museo. Instituto de Limnología; ArgentinaVII Congreso Internacional de Comunicación Pública de la Ciencia y la TecnologíaCordobaArgentinaUniversidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y NaturalesUniversidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Matemática, Astronomía, Física y ComputaciónUniversidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias QuímicasUniversidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias de la ComunicaciónUniversidad Nacional de Córdoba. Facultad de Ciencias SocialesObservatorio Astronómico de CórdobaConsejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios sobre Cultura y Sociedad. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios sobre Cultura y Socieda

Yield and Economic Performance of Organic and Conventional Cotton-Based Farming Systems – Results from a Field Trial in India

The debate on the relative benefits of conventional and organic farming systems has in recent time gained significant interest. So far, global agricultural development has focused on increased productivity rather than on a holistic natural resource management for food security. Thus, developing more sustainable farming practices on a large scale is of utmost importance. However, information concerning the performance of farming systems under organic and conventional management in tropical and subtropical regions is scarce. This study presents agronomic and economic data from the conversion phase (2007–2010) of a farming systems comparison trial on a Vertisol soil in Madhya Pradesh, central India. A cotton-soybean-wheat crop rotation under biodynamic, organic and conventional (with and without Bt cotton) management was investigated. We observed a significant yield gap between organic and conventional farming systems in the 1st crop cycle (cycle 1: 2007–2008) for cotton (229%) and wheat (227%), whereas in the 2nd crop cycle (cycle 2: 2009–2010) cotton and wheat yields were similar in all farming systems due to lower yields in the conventional systems. In contrast, organic soybean (a nitrogen fixing leguminous plant) yields were marginally lower than conventional yields (21% in cycle 1, 211% in cycle 2). Averaged across all crops, conventional farming systems achieved significantly higher gross margins in cycle 1 (+29%), whereas in cycle 2 gross margins in organic farming systems were significantly higher (+25%) due to lower variable production costs but similar yields. Soybean gross margin was significantly higher in the organic system (+11%) across the four harvest years compared to the conventional systems. Our results suggest that organic soybean production is a viable option for smallholder farmers under the prevailing semi-arid conditions in India. Future research needs to elucidate the long-term productivity and profitability, particularly of cotton and wheat, and the ecological impact of the different farming systems

Expected Performances of the NOMAD/ExoMars instrument

NOMAD (Nadir and Occultation for MArs Discovery) is one of the four instruments on board the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter, scheduled for launch in March 2016. It consists of a suite of three high-resolution spectrometers – SO (Solar Occultation), LNO (Limb, Nadir and Occultation) and UVIS (Ultraviolet and Visible Spectrometer). Based upon the characteristics of the channels and the values of Signal-to-Noise Ratio obtained from radiometric models discussed in [Vandaele et al., Optics Express, 2015] and [Thomas et al., Optics Express, 2015], the expected performances of the instrument in terms of sensitivity to detection have been investigated. The analysis led to the determination of detection limits for 18 molecules, namely CO, H2O, HDO, C2H2, C2H4, C2H6, H2CO, CH4, SO2, H2S, HCl, HCN, HO2, NH3, N2O, NO2, OCS, O3. NOMAD should have the ability to measure methane concentrations <25 parts per trillion (ppt) in solar occultation mode, and 11 parts per billion in nadir mode. Occultation detections as low as 10 ppt could be made if spectra are averaged [Drummond et al., Planetary Space and Science, 2011]. Results have been obtained for all three channels in nadir and in solar occultation

Water Vapor Vertical Profiles on Mars in Dust Storms Observed by TGO/NOMAD

It has been suggested that dust storms efficiently transport water vapor from the near‐surface to the middle atmosphere on Mars. Knowledge of the water vapor vertical profile during dust storms is important to understand water escape. During Martian Year 34, two dust storms occurred on Mars: a global dust storm (June to mid‐September 2018) and a regional storm (January 2019). Here we present water vapor vertical profiles in the periods of the two dust storms (Ls = 162–260° and Ls = 298–345°) from the solar occultation measurements by Nadir and Occultation for Mars Discovery (NOMAD) onboard ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO). We show a significant increase of water vapor abundance in the middle atmosphere (40–100 km) during the global dust storm. The water enhancement rapidly occurs following the onset of the storm (Ls~190°) and has a peak at the most active period (Ls~200°). Water vapor reaches very high altitudes (up to 100 km) with a volume mixing ratio of ~50 ppm. The water vapor abundance in the middle atmosphere shows high values consistently at 60°S‐60°N at the growth phase of the dust storm (Ls = 195°–220°), and peaks at latitudes greater than 60°S at the decay phase (Ls = 220°–260°). This is explained by the seasonal change of meridional circulation: from equinoctial Hadley circulation (two cells) to the solstitial one (a single pole‐to‐pole cell). We also find a conspicuous increase of water vapor density in the middle atmosphere at the period of the regional dust storm (Ls = 322–327°), in particular at latitudes greater than 60°S

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (4th edition)1.

In 2008, we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, this topic has received increasing attention, and many scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Thus, it is important to formulate on a regular basis updated guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Despite numerous reviews, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to evaluate autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. Here, we present a set of guidelines for investigators to select and interpret methods to examine autophagy and related processes, and for reviewers to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of reports that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a dogmatic set of rules, because the appropriateness of any assay largely depends on the question being asked and the system being used. Moreover, no individual assay is perfect for every situation, calling for the use of multiple techniques to properly monitor autophagy in each experimental setting. Finally, several core components of the autophagy machinery have been implicated in distinct autophagic processes (canonical and noncanonical autophagy), implying that genetic approaches to block autophagy should rely on targeting two or more autophagy-related genes that ideally participate in distinct steps of the pathway. Along similar lines, because multiple proteins involved in autophagy also regulate other cellular pathways including apoptosis, not all of them can be used as a specific marker for bona fide autophagic responses. Here, we critically discuss current methods of assessing autophagy and the information they can, or cannot, provide. Our ultimate goal is to encourage intellectual and technical innovation in the field