Design and Validation of a Software Defined Radio Testbed for DVB-T Transmission

This paper describes the design and validation of a Software Defined Radio (SDR) testbed, which can be used for Digital Television transmission using the Digital Video Broadcasting - Terrestrial (DVB-T) standard. In order to generate a DVB-T-compliant signal with low computational complexity, we design an SDR architecture that uses the C/C++ language and exploits multithreading and vectorized instructions. Then, we transmit the generated DVB-T signal in real time, using a common PC equipped with multicore central processing units (CPUs) and a commercially available SDR modem board. The proposed SDR architecture has been validated using fixed TV sets, and portable receivers. Our results show that the proposed SDR architecture for DVB-T transmission is a low-cost low-complexity solution that, in the worst case, only requires less than 22% of CPU load and less than 170 MB of memory usage, on a 3.0 GHz Core i7 processor. In addition, using the same SDR modem board, we design an off-line software receiver that also performs time synchronization and carrier frequency offset estimation and compensation

Distributed Adaptive Learning of Graph Signals

The aim of this paper is to propose distributed strategies for adaptive learning of signals defined over graphs. Assuming the graph signal to be bandlimited, the method enables distributed reconstruction, with guaranteed performance in terms of mean-square error, and tracking from a limited number of sampled observations taken from a subset of vertices. A detailed mean square analysis is carried out and illustrates the role played by the sampling strategy on the performance of the proposed method. Finally, some useful strategies for distributed selection of the sampling set are provided. Several numerical results validate our theoretical findings, and illustrate the performance of the proposed method for distributed adaptive learning of signals defined over graphs.Comment: To appear in IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing, 201

Observing and tracking bandlimited graph processes from sampled measurements

A critical challenge in graph signal processing is the sampling of bandlimited graph signals; signals that are sparse in a well-defined graph Fourier domain. Current works focused on sampling time-invariant graph signals and ignored their temporal evolution. However, time can bring new insights on sampling since sensor, biological, and financial network signals are correlated in both domains. Hence, in this work, we develop a sampling theory for time varying graph signals, named graph processes, to observe and track a process described by a linear state-space model. We provide a mathematical analysis to highlight the role of the graph, process bandwidth, and sample locations. We also propose sampling strategies that exploit the coupling between the topology and the corresponding process. Numerical experiments corroborate our theory and show the proposed methods trade well the number of samples with accuracy

Real-Time Generation of Standard-Compliant DVB-T Signals

This paper proposes and discusses two software implementations of the DVB-T modulator, using C++ and MATLAB, respectively. All the key features of the DVB-T standard are included. The C++ DVB-T modulator, incorporated into the Iris framework developed by Trinity College of Dublin, works in real time on an Intel Core i7 2.4 GHz CPU with the Iris testbed. The MATLAB-based DVB-T modulator is coupled with a receiver implementation with channel estimation, equalization, soft-output demapping and channel decoding. The validation step demonstrates that the proposed DVB-T software implementations generate standard-compliant DVB-T signals that are correctly received by commercially available TV sets and USB dongles. The software code for the Iris-based C++ modulator, and for the MATLAB-based modulator and receiver, has been made publicly available under the GNU license

A multidrug approach to modulate the mitochondrial metabolism impairment and relative oxidative stress in fanconi anemia complementation group a

Fanconi Anemia (FA) is a rare recessive genetic disorder characterized by aplastic anemia due to a defective DNA repair system. In addition, dysfunctional energy metabolism, lipid droplets accumulation, and unbalanced oxidative stress are involved in FA pathogenesis. Thus, to modulate the altered metabolism, Fanc-A lymphoblast cell lines were treated with quercetin, a flavonoid compound, C75 (4-Methylene-2-octyl-5-oxotetrahydrofuran-3-carboxylic acid), a fatty acid synthesis inhibitor, and rapamycin, an mTOR inhibitor, alone or in combination. As a control, isogenic FA cell lines corrected with the functional Fanc-A gene were used. Results showed that: (i) quercetin recovered the energy metabolism efficiency, reducing oxidative stress; (ii) C75 caused the lipid accumulation decrement and a slight oxidative stress reduction, without improving the energy metabolism; (iii) rapamycin reduced the aerobic metabolism and the oxidative stress, without increasing the energy status. In addition, all molecules reduce the accumulation of DNA double-strand breaks. Two-by-two combinations of the three drugs showed an additive effect compared with the action of the single molecule. Specifically, the quercetin/C75 combination appeared the most efficient in the mitochondrial and lipid metabolism improvement and in oxidative stress production reduction, while the quercetin/rapamycin combination seemed the most efficient in the DNA breaks decrement. Thus, data reported herein suggest that FA is a complex and multifactorial disease, and a multidrug strategy is necessary to correct the metabolic alterations

EVM and Achievable Data Rate Analysis of Clipped OFDM Signals in Visible Light Communication

Orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) has been considered for visible light communication (VLC) thanks to its ability to boost data rates as well as its robustness against frequency-selective fading channels. A major disadvantage of OFDM is the large dynamic range of its time-domain waveforms, making OFDM vulnerable to nonlinearity of light emitting diodes (LEDs). DC biased optical OFDM (DCO-OFDM) and asymmetrically clipped optical OFDM (ACO-OFDM) are two popular OFDM techniques developed for the VLC. In this paper, we will analyze the performance of the DCO-OFDM and ACO-OFDM signals in terms of error vector magnitude (EVM), signal-to-distortion ratio (SDR), and achievable data rates under both average optical power and dynamic optical power constraints. EVM is a commonly used metric to characterize distortions. We will describe an approach to numerically calculate the EVM for DCO-OFDM and ACO-OFDM. We will derive the optimum biasing ratio in the sense of minimizing EVM for DCO-OFDM. Additionally, we will formulate the EVM minimization problem as a convex linear optimization problem and obtain an EVM lower bound against which to compare the DCO-OFDM and ACO-OFDM techniques. We will prove that the ACO-OFDM can achieve the lower bound. Average optical power and dynamic optical power are two main constraints in VLC. We will derive the achievable data rates under these two constraints for both additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel and frequency-selective channel. We will compare the performance of DCO-OFDM and ACO-OFDM under different power constraint scenarios

Transcribed-ultra conserved region expression is associated with outcome in high-risk neuroblastoma

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Neuroblastoma is the most common, pediatric, extra-cranial, malignant solid tumor. Despite multimodal therapeutic protocols, outcome for children with a high-risk clinical phenotype remains poor, with long-term survival still less than 40%. Hereby, we evaluated the potential of non-coding RNA expression to predict outcome in high-risk, stage 4 neuroblastoma.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>We analyzed expression of 481 Ultra Conserved Regions (UCRs) by reverse transcription-quantitative real-time PCR and of 723 microRNAs by microarrays in 34 high-risk, stage 4 neuroblastoma patients.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>First, the comparison of 8 short- versus 12 long-term survivors showed that 54 UCRs were significantly (<it>P </it>< 0.0491) over-expressed in the former group. For 48 Ultra Conserved Region (UCRs) the expression levels above the cut-off values defined by ROC curves were strongly associated with good-outcome (OS: 0.0001 <<it>P </it>< 0.0185, EFS: 0.0001 <<it>P </it>< 0.0491). Then we tested the Transcribed-UCR (T-UCR) threshold risk-prediction model on an independent cohort of 14 patients. The expression profile of 28 T-UCRs was significantly associated to prognosis and at least 15 up-regulated T-UCRs are needed to discriminate (<it>P </it>< 0.0001) short- from long-survivors at the highest sensitivity and specificity (94.12%). We also identified a signature of 13 microRNAs differently expressed between long- and short-surviving patients. The comparative analysis of the two classes of non-coding RNAs disclosed that 9 T-UCRs display their expression level that are inversely correlated with expression of 5 complementary microRNAs of the signature, indicating a negative regulation of T-UCRs by direct interaction with microRNAs. Moreover, 4 microRNAs down-regulated in tumors of long-survivors target 3 genes implicated in neuronal differentiation, that are known to be over-expressed in low-risk tumors.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our pilot study suggests that a deregulation of the microRNA/T-UCR network may play an important role in the pathogenesis of neuroblastoma. After further validation on a larger independent set of samples, such findings may be applied as the first T-UCR prognostic signature for high-risk neuroblastoma patients.</p

Involvement of GTA protein NC2β in Neuroblastoma pathogenesis suggests that it physiologically participates in the regulation of cell proliferation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The General Transcription Apparatus (GTA) comprises more than one hundred proteins, including RNA Polymerases, GTFs, TAFs, Mediator, and cofactors such as heterodimeric NC2. This complexity contrasts with the simple mechanical role that these proteins are believed to perform and suggests a still uncharacterized participation to important biological functions, such as the control of cell proliferation.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To verify our hypothesis, we analyzed the involvement in Neuroblastoma (NB) pathogenesis of GTA genes localized at 1p, one of NB critical regions: through RT-PCR of fifty eight NB biopsies, we demonstrated the statistically significant reduction of the mRNA for NC2β (localized at 1p22.1) in 74% of samples (p = 0.0039). Transcripts from TAF13 and TAF12 (mapping at 1p13.3 and 1p35.3, respectively) were also reduced, whereas we didn't detect any quantitative alteration of the mRNAs from GTF2B and NC2α (localized at 1p22-p21 and 11q13.3, respectively). We confirmed these data by comparing tumour and constitutional DNA: most NB samples with diminished levels of NC2β mRNA had also genomic deletions at the corresponding locus.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our data show that NC2β is specifically involved in NB pathogenesis and may be considered a new NB biomarker: accordingly, we suggest that NC2β, and possibly other GTA members, are physiologically involved in the control of cell proliferation. Finally, our studies unearth complex selective mechanisms within NB cells.</p