The Inevitability of Militarization of Outer Space

At the end of the second decade of the 21st century, we witness a progressive increase of strategic importance of artificial satellites and other orbital systems, which is a consequence of the ever-accelerating development of space technologies that include weapons systems. The outer space becomes a theatre for a potential conflict. The states possessing sufficient technological potential will further develop and expand those systems, both defensive (for eliminating threats) and offensive (securing the military advantage and serving as a deterrent) to secure their current and future interests. The main argument of the paper demonstrates the necessity, from the perspective of the strong outer space sector players like the USA, Russia, China, to further develop space weapon systems and military units of space corps

Tributyltin (TBT) biodegradation induces oxidative stress of Cunninghamella echinulata

Tributyltin (TBT) is one of the most deleterious compounds introduced into natural environment by humans. The ability of Cunninghamella echinulata to degrade tributyltin (TBT) (5 mg l-1) as well as the effect of the xenobiotic on fungal amino acids composition and proteins profile were examined. C. echinulata removed 91% of the initial biocide concentration and formed less hazardous compounds dibutyltin (DBT) and monobutyltin (MBT). Moreover, the fungus produced a hydroxylated metabolite (TBTOH), in which the hydroxyl group was bound directly to the tin atom. Proteomics analysis showed that in the presence of TBT, the abundances of 22 protein bands were changed and the unique overexpressions of peroxiredoxin and nuclease enzymes were observed. Determination of free amino acids showed significant changes in the amounts of 19 from 23 detected metabolites. A parallel increase in the level of selected amino acids such as betaine, alanine, aminoisobutyrate or proline and peroxiredoxin enzyme in TBT-containing cultures revealed that TBT induced oxidative stress in the examined fungus.National Science Centre, Poland (Project No. UMO-2014/13/N/NZ9/00878)

A resource management scheme for multi-user GFDM with adaptive modulation in frequency selective fading channels

The topic is "Low-latency communication for machine-type communication in LTE-A" and need to be specified in more detail.This final project focus on designing and evaluating a resource management scheme for a multi-user generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM) system, when a frequency selective fading channel and adaptive modulation is used. GFDM with adaptive subcarrier, sub-symbol and power allocation are considered. Assuming that the transmitter has a perfect knowledge of the instantaneous channel gains for all users, I propose a multi-user GFDM subcarrier, sub-symbol and power allocation algorithm to minimize the total transmit power. This work analyzes the performance of using a specific set of parameters for aligning GFDM with long term evolution (LTE) grid. The results show that the performance of the proposed algorithm using GFDM is closer to the performance of using OFDM and outperforms multiuser GFDM systems with static frequency division multiple access (FDMA) techniques which employ fixed subcarrier allocation schemes. The advantage between GFDM and OFDM is that the latency of the system can be reduced by a factor of 15 if independent demodulation is considered.El objetivo de este proyecto final es el de diseñar y evaluar un esquema para administrar los recursos de un sistema multi-usuario donde se utiliza generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM), cuando el canal es de frequencia de desvanecimiento selectivo y se utiliza modulación adaptiva. Consideramos un sistema GFDM con subportadora, sub-símbolo i asignación de potencia adaptiva. Asumiendo que el transmisor conoce perfectamente el estado del canal para todos los usuarios, propongo un algoritmo que asigna los recursos de forma que la potencia total de transmisión es mínima. Este trabajo analiza la eficiencia de utilizar un grupo de parámetros concretos para alinear el sistema GFDM con el sistema de LTE. Los resultados muestran que el comportamiento del algoritmo en GFDM es muy similar al de OFDM, pero mucho mayor que cuando se compara con sistemas de asignación de recursos estáticos.L’objectiu d’aquest projecte final es dissenyar i avaluar un esquema per administrar els recursos per a un sistema multi-usuari fent servir generalized frequency division multiplexing (GFDM), quan el canal es de freqüència esvaniment selectiu i es fa servir modulació adaptativa. Considerem un sistema GFDM amb subportadora, sub-símbol i assignació de potencia adaptativa. Assumint que el transmissor coneix perfectament l’estat del canal per tots els usuaris, proposo un algoritme que assigna els recursos de forma que la potencia total de transmissió es la mínima. Aquest treball analitza l’eficiència de fer servir un grup de paràmetres concrets per tal d’alinear el sistema GFDM amb el sistema de LTE. Els resultats mostren que el comportament de l’algoritme en GFDM es molt similar al de OFDM i que millora bastant els resultats quan el comparem amb sistemes d’assignament de recursos estàtics

Analysing the speech act of refusing in the TV show Grey’s Anatomy

XXI Jornades de Foment de la Investigació de la Facultat de Ciències Humanes i Socials (Any 2016)Appropriate refusal interactions may be a difficult task for learners of English in a foreign context since they tend to apply the pragmatic rules of their native language to the target language. As a consequence, they may be seen as rude and impolite. An increasing number of scholars are focusing their efforts on the importance of pragmatics in the Foreign Language (FL) classroom. Recent studies have shown that video materials such as TV shows, news broadcasts or films provide students with authentic pragmatic input, by portraying plenty of instances of refusing situations in real settings. However, some researchers have questioned the validity of these situations considering that the language used in video materials is not real but ‘fictitious’, as it has been written in advance. Bearing in mind the results obtained by Fernández-Guerra in her 2008 and 2013 studies empirically proving the benefits of using TV series to teach the speech act of refusing, the present paper analyses the occurrences of all refusal situations appearing in three episodes from the first season of the TV show Grey’s Anatomy, to determine its usefulness in the FL classroom

Parallel memetic algorithms for independent job scheduling in computational grids

In this chapter we present parallel implementations of Memetic Algorithms (MAs) for the problem of scheduling independent jobs in computational grids. The problem of scheduling in computational grids is known for its high demanding computational time. In this work we exploit the intrinsic parallel nature of MAs as well as the fact that computational grids offer large amount of resources, a part of which could be used to compute the efficient allocation of jobs to grid resources. The parallel models exploited in this work for MAs include both fine-grained and coarse-grained parallelization and their hybridization. The resulting schedulers have been tested through different grid scenarios generated by a grid simulator to match different possible configurations of computational grids in terms of size (number of jobs and resources) and computational characteristics of resources. All in all, the result of this work showed that Parallel MAs are very good alternatives in order to match different performance requirement on fast scheduling of jobs to grid resources.Peer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Universality of Zipf's Law

Zipf's law is the most common statistical distribution displaying scaling behavior. Cities, populations or firms are just examples of this seemingly universal law. Although many different models have been proposed, no general theoretical explanation has been shown to exist for its universality. Here we show that Zipf's law is, in fact, an inevitable outcome of a very general class of stochastic systems. Borrowing concepts from Algorithmic Information Theory, our derivation is based on the properties of the symbolic sequence obtained through successive observations over a system with an unbounded number of possible states. Specifically, we assume that the complexity of the description of the system provided by the sequence of observations is the one expected for a system evolving to a stable state between order and disorder. This result is obtained from a small set of mild, physically relevant assumptions. The general nature of our derivation and its model-free basis would explain the ubiquity of such a law in real systems.Comment: 11 Pages, 2 figure