Wireless interference networks with limited feedback

Wir betrachten das Problem der Akquirierung von Kanalzustandsinformationen an den Sendern von drahtlosen Netzwerken und entwickeln Feedbackverfahren und Sendestrategien für verschiedene Netzwerk Architekturen. Die entwickelten Verfahren werden analysiert und die Skalierung der Performance des Gesamtsystems anhand bestimmter Systemparameter bestimmt. Zuerst betrachten wir eine einzelne Zelle eines zellularen Systems und nehmen an, dass die Beamformingvektoren durch ein festes Codebuch vorgegeben sind. Wir entwickeln und analysieren ein neues Feedbackverfahren, dass Flexibilität und Robustheit vereint und dadurch effiziente und zuverlässige Kommunikation mit den Empfängern ermöglicht. Eine Analyse des Verfahrens zeigt, dass die Skalierung des Ratenverlustes durch quantisierte Kanalzustandsinformation besser ist als bei vergleichbaren Verfahren. Für das Feedbackverfahren wird ein spezieller Algorithmus entwickelt der es ermöglicht Codebücher für verschiedene Kanalmodelle zu generieren und zu optimieren. Die analytischen Ergebnisse werden durch Simulationen validiert und bestätigen einen Gewinn gegenüber vergleichbaren Verfahren. Anschließend betrachten wir zellulare Systeme mit mehreren Zellen. Wir charakterisieren die Freiheitsgrade (degrees of freedom) unter verschiedenen Annahmen über das Kanalmodell. Des weiteren entwickeln wir verschiedene Algorithmen, die die optimalen Freiheitsgrade erreichen können. Anschließend wird ein Feedbackverfahren entwickelt, dass den Feedbackaufwand für die entwickelten Algorithmen signifikant reduziert. Wir analysieren eine breite Klasse von zellularen Systemen die beliebige koordinierte Sendestrategien verwenden. Für diese Klasse von Systemen leiten wir die Skalierung des Ratenverlustes relativ zum Feedbackaufwand her. Abschließend zeigen wir, wie die analytischen Ergebnisse auf das entwickelte Feedbackverfahren angewendet werden können. Im letzten Kapitel entwickeln wir ein Framework, dass das Potenzial von Compressed Sensing nutzt um den Messaufwand und Feedbackaufwand in zellularen Systemen mit vielen Teilnehmern signifikant zu reduzieren. Das Framework ermöglicht es die Datenraten der Nutzer innerhalb gegebener Fehlerschranken zu schätzen. Grundlage ist neben Compressed Sensing ein neues Messverfahren, dass die Überlagerung von Signalen im Kanal nutzt, um zufällige nicht adaptive Messungen der Kanalkoeffizienten am Empfänger zu ermöglichen. Diese Messungen werden zu einer zentralen Steuereinheit übertragen und dort dekodiert. Wir analysieren die Genauigkeit der Rekonstruktion für einen linearen und einen nicht-linearen Dekodierer und leiten die Skalierung mit der Anzahl der Messungen her. Abschließend zeigen wir, wie der entwickelte Ansatz in zellularen Systemen angewendet werden kann.We consider the problem of acquiring accurate channel state information at the transmitters of a wireless network. We develop different feedback and transmit strategies for different network architectures and analyze their performance. First, we consider a single cell of cellular system and assume that the beamforming vectors are given by a fixed transmit codebook. We develop and analyze a new feedback and transmit strategy which combines flexibility and robustness needed for efficient and reliable communication. We prove that it has better scaling properties compared to classical results on the limited feedback problem in the broadcast channel and that this benefit improves with an increasing number of transmit antennas. We show how feedback codebooks can be designed for different propagation environments. Link level and system level simulations sustain the analytic results showing performance gains of up to 50 % or 70 % compared to zeroforcing when using multiple antennas at the base station and multiple antennas or a single antenna at the terminals, respectively. We characterize the degrees of freedom (i.e. the multiplexing gain) of multi-cellular systems under different assumptions on the channel model and for different system setups. We propose different algorithms that possibly achieve the optimal degrees of freedom. The first algorithm aims on aligning the interference at each receiver in a subspace of the available receive space. Our second algorithm aims on directly maximizing the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) of all receivers. By allowing symbol extensions over time or frequency and including a user selection we are able to achieve the alignment of interference for many system setups and exploit multi-user diversity. For coordinated transmit strategies we find the scaling of the performance loss with the feedback load. A distributed interference alignment algorithm is introduced. The algorithm makes efficient use of quantized channel state information and significantly reduces the feedback overhead. We develop a framework that we call compressive rate estimation. To this end, we assume that the composite channel gain matrix (i.e. the matrix of all channel gains between all network nodes) is compressible which means it can be approximated by a sparse or low rank representation. We develop a sensing protocol that exploits the superposition principle of the wireless channel and enables the receiving nodes to obtain non-adaptive random measurements of columns of the composite channel matrix. The random measurements are fed back to a central controller who decodes the composite channel gain matrix (or parts of it) and estimates individual user rates. We analyze the rate loss for a linear and a non-linear decoder and find the scaling laws according to the number of non-adaptive measurements

The state of the Martian climate

60°N was +2.0°C, relative to the 1981–2010 average value (Fig. 5.1). This marks a new high for the record. The average annual surface air temperature (SAT) anomaly for 2016 for land stations north of starting in 1900, and is a significant increase over the previous highest value of +1.2°C, which was observed in 2007, 2011, and 2015. Average global annual temperatures also showed record values in 2015 and 2016. Currently, the Arctic is warming at more than twice the rate of lower latitudes

Insomnia in school-age children with Asperger syndrome or high-functioning autism

BACKGROUND: Asperger syndrome (AS) and high-functioning autism (HFA) are pervasive developmental disorders (PDD) in individuals of normal intelligence. Childhood AS/HFA is considered to be often associated with disturbed sleep, in particular with difficulties initiating and/or maintaining sleep (insomnia). However, studies about the topic are still scarce. The present study investigated childhood AS/HFA regarding a wide range of parent reported sleep-wake behaviour, with a particular focus on insomnia. METHODS: Thirty-two 8–12 yr old children with AS/HFA were compared with 32 age and gender matched typically developing children regarding sleep and associated behavioural characteristics. Several aspects of sleep-wake behaviour including insomnia were surveyed using a structured paediatric sleep questionnaire in which parents reported their children's sleep patterns for the previous six months. Recent sleep patterns were monitored by use of a one-week sleep diary and actigraphy. Behavioural characteristics were surveyed by use of information gleaned from parent and teacher-ratings in the High-Functioning Autism Spectrum Screening Questionnaire, and in the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire. RESULTS: Parent-reported difficulties initiating sleep and daytime sleepiness were more common in children with AS/HFA than in controls, and 10/32 children with AS/HFA (31.2%) but none of the controls fulfilled our definition of paediatric insomnia. The parent-reported insomnia corresponded to the findings obtained by actigraphy. Children with insomnia had also more parent-reported autistic and emotional symptoms, and more teacher-reported emotional and hyperactivity symptoms than those children without insomnia. CONCLUSION: Parental reports indicate that in childhood AS/HFA insomnia is a common and distressing symptom which is frequently associated with coexistent behaviour problems. Identification and treatment of sleep problems need to be a routine part of the treatment plan for children with AS/HFA

Constitutive activity of NF-kappa B in myeloid cells drives pathogenicity of monocytes and macrophages during autoimmune neuroinflammation

The NF-κB/REL-family of transcription factors plays a central role in coordinating the expression of a wide variety of genes controlling immune responses including autoimmunity of the central nervous system (CNS). The inactive form of NF-κB consists of a heterodimer which is complexed with its inhibitor, IκB. Conditional knockout-mice for IκBα in myeloid cells (lysMCreIκBαfl/fl) have been generated and are characterized by a constitutive activation of NF-κB proteins allowing the study of this transcription factor in myelin-oligodendrocyte-glycoprotein induced experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (MOG-EAE), a well established experimental model for autoimmune demyelination of the CNS

Cold atoms in space: community workshop summary and proposed road-map

We summarise the discussions at a virtual Community Workshop on Cold Atoms in Space concerning the status of cold atom technologies, the prospective scientific and societal opportunities offered by their deployment in space, and the developments needed before cold atoms could be operated in space. The cold atom technologies discussed include atomic clocks, quantum gravimeters and accelerometers, and atom interferometers. Prospective applications include metrology, geodesy and measurement of terrestrial mass change due to, e.g., climate change, and fundamental science experiments such as tests of the equivalence principle, searches for dark matter, measurements of gravitational waves and tests of quantum mechanics. We review the current status of cold atom technologies and outline the requirements for their space qualification, including the development paths and the corresponding technical milestones, and identifying possible pathfinder missions to pave the way for missions to exploit the full potential of cold atoms in space. Finally, we present a first draft of a possible road-map for achieving these goals, that we propose for discussion by the interested cold atom, Earth Observation, fundamental physics and other prospective scientific user communities, together with the European Space Agency (ESA) and national space and research funding agencies.publishedVersio

Cold atoms in space: community workshop summary and proposed road-map

We summarise the discussions at a virtual Community Workshop on Cold Atoms in Space concerning the status of cold atom technologies, the prospective scientific and societal opportunities offered by their deployment in space, and the developments needed before cold atoms could be operated in space. The cold atom technologies discussed include atomic clocks, quantum gravimeters and accelerometers, and atom interferometers. Prospective applications include metrology, geodesy and measurement of terrestrial mass change due to, e.g., climate change, and fundamental science experiments such as tests of the equivalence principle, searches for dark matter, measurements of gravitational waves and tests of quantum mechanics. We review the current status of cold atom technologies and outline the requirements for their space qualification, including the development paths and the corresponding technical milestones, and identifying possible pathfinder missions to pave the way for missions to exploit the full potential of cold atoms in space. Finally, we present a first draft of a possible road-map for achieving these goals, that we propose for discussion by the interested cold atom, Earth Observation, fundamental physics and other prospective scientific user communities, together with the European Space Agency (ESA) and national space and research funding agencies