24 research outputs found
Ultra Wideband Communications: from Analog to Digital
ï»żUltrabreitband-Signale (Ultra Wideband [UWB]) können einen
signifikanten Nutzen im Bereich drahtloser Kommunikationssysteme haben. Es
sind jedoch noch einige Probleme offen, die durch Systemdesigner und
Wissenschaftler gelöst werden mĂŒssen. Ein Funknetzsystem mit einer derart
groĂen Bandbreite ist normalerweise auch durch eine groĂe Anzahl an
Mehrwegekomponenten mit jeweils verschiedenen Pfadamplituden
gekennzeichnet. Daher ist es schwierig, die zeitlich verteilte Energie
effektiv zu erfassen. AuĂerdem ist in vielen FĂ€llen der naheliegende
Ansatz, ein kohÀrenter EmpfÀnger im Sinne eines signalangepassten Filters
oder eines Korrelators, nicht unbedingt die beste Wahl. In der vorliegenden
Arbeit wird dabei auf die bestehende Problematik und weitere
Lösungsmöglichkeiten eingegangen.
Im ersten Abschnitt geht es um âImpulse Radio UWBâ-Systeme mit
niedriger Datenrate. Bei diesen Systemen kommt ein inkohÀrenter EmpfÀnger
zum Einsatz. InkohÀrente Signaldetektion stellt insofern einen
vielversprechenden Ansatz dar, als das damit aufwandsgĂŒnstige und robuste
Implementierungen möglich sind. Dies trifft vor allem in AnwendungsfÀllen
wie den von drahtlosen Sensornetzen zu, wo preiswerte GerÀte mit langer
Batterielaufzeit nötigsind. Dies verringert den fĂŒr die KanalschĂ€tzung
und die Synchronisation nötigen Aufwand, was jedoch auf Kosten der
Leistungseffizienz geht und eine erhöhte Störempfindlichkeit gegenĂŒber
Interferenz (z.B. Interferenz durch mehrere Nutzer oder schmalbandige
Interferenz) zur Folge hat.
Um die Bitfehlerrate der oben genannten Verfahren zu bestimmen, wurde
zunÀchst ein inkohÀrenter Combining-Verlust spezifiziert, welcher
auftritt im Gegensatz zu kohÀrenter Detektion mit Maximum Ratio Multipath
Combining. Dieser Verlust hÀngt von dem Produkt aus der LÀnge des
Integrationsfensters und der Signalbandbreite ab.
Um den Verlust durch inkohÀrentes Combining zu reduzieren und somit die
Leistungseffizienz des EmpfÀngers zu steigern, werden verbesserte
Combining-Methoden fĂŒr Mehrwegeempfang vorgeschlagen. Ein analoger
EmpfÀnger, bei dem der Hauptteil des Mehrwege-Combinings durch einen
âIntegrate and Dumpâ-Filter implementiert ist, wird fĂŒr UWB-Systeme
mit Zeit-Hopping gezeigt. Dabei wurde die Einsatzmöglichkeit von dĂŒnn
besetzten Codes in solchen System diskutiert und bewertet. Des Weiteren
wird eine Regel fĂŒr die Code-Auswahl vorgestellt, welche die StabilitĂ€t
des Systems gegen Mehrnutzer-Störungen sicherstellt und gleichzeitig den
Verlust durch inkohÀrentes Combining verringert.
Danach liegt der Fokus auf digitalen Lösungen bei inkohÀrenter
Demodulation. Im Vergleich zum AnalogempfÀnger besitzt ein
DigitalempfÀnger einen Analog-Digital-Wandler im Zeitbereich gefolgt von
einem digitalen Optimalfilter. Der digitale Optimalfilter dekodiert den
Mehrfachzugriffscode kohÀrent und beschrÀnkt das inkohÀrente Combining
auf die empfangenen Mehrwegekomponenten im Digitalbereich. Es kommt ein
schneller Analog-Digital-Wandler mit geringer Auflösung zum Einsatz, um
einen vertretbaren Energieverbrauch zu gewÀhrleisten. Diese Digitaltechnik
macht den Einsatz langer Analogverzögerungen bei differentieller
Demodulation unnötig und ermöglicht viele Arten der digitalen
Signalverarbeitung. Im Vergleich zur Analogtechnik reduziert sie nicht nur
den inkohÀrenten Combining-Verlust, sonder zeigt auch eine stÀrkere
Resistenz gegenĂŒber Störungen. Dabei werden die Auswirkungen der
Auflösung und der Abtastrate der Analog-Digital-Umsetzung analysiert. Die
Resultate zeigen, dass die verminderte Effizienz solcher
Analog-Digital-Wandler gering ausfÀllt. Weiterhin zeigt sich, dass im
Falle starker Mehrnutzerinterferenz sogar eine Verbesserung der Ergebnisse
zu beobachten ist. Die vorgeschlagenen Design-Regeln spezifizieren die
Anwendung der Analog-Digital-Wandler und die Auswahl der Systemparameter in
AbhÀngigkeit der verwendeten Mehrfachzugriffscodes und der Modulationsart.
Wir zeigen, wie unter Anwendung erweiterter Modulationsverfahren die
Leistungseffizienz verbessert werden kann und schlagen ein Verfahren zur
UnterdrĂŒckung schmalbandiger Störer vor, welches auf Soft Limiting
aufbaut. Durch die Untersuchungen und Ergebnissen zeigt sich, dass
inkohÀrente EmpfÀnger in UWB-Kommunikationssystemen mit niedriger
Datenrate ein groĂes Potential aufweisen.
AuĂerdem wird die Auswahl der benutzbaren Bandbreite untersucht, um einen
Kompromiss zwischen inkohÀrentem Combining-Verlust und StabilitÀt
gegenĂŒber langsamen Schwund zu erreichen. Dadurch wurde ein neues Konzept
fĂŒr UWB-Systeme erarbeitet: wahlweise kohĂ€rente oder inkohĂ€rente
EmpfÀnger, welche als UWB-Systeme Frequenz-Hopping nutzen. Der wesentliche
Vorteil hiervon liegt darin, dass die Bandbreite im Basisband sich deutlich
verringert. Mithin ermöglicht dies einfach zu realisierende digitale
Signalverarbeitungstechnik mit kostengĂŒnstigen Analog-Digital-Wandlern.
Dies stellt eine neue Epoche in der Forschung im Bereich drahtloser
Sensorfunknetze dar.
Der Schwerpunkt des zweiten Abschnitts stellt adaptiven Signalverarbeitung
fĂŒr hohe Datenraten mit âDirect Sequenceâ-UWB-Systemen in den
Vordergrund. In solchen Systemen entstehen, wegen der groĂen Anzahl der
empfangenen Mehrwegekomponenten, starke Inter- bzw.
Intrasymbolinterferenzen. AuĂerdem kann die FunktionalitĂ€t des Systems
durch Mehrnutzerinterferenz und Schmalbandstörungen deutlich beeinflusst
werden. Um sie zu eliminieren, wird die âWidely Linearâ-Rangreduzierung
benutzt. Dabei verbessert die Rangreduzierungsmethode das
Konvergenzverhalten, besonders wenn der gegebene Vektor eine sehr groĂe
Anzahl an Abtastwerten beinhaltet (in Folge hoher einer Abtastrate).
ZusÀtzlich kann das System durch die Anwendung der R-linearen Verarbeitung
die Statistik zweiter Ordnung des nicht-zirkularen Signals vollstÀndig
ausnutzen, was sich in verbesserten SchÀtzergebnissen widerspiegelt.
Allgemeine kann die Methode der âWidely Linearâ-Rangreduzierung auch in
andern Bereichen angewendet werden, z.B. in âDirect
Sequenceâ-Codemultiplexverfahren (DS-CDMA), im MIMO-Bereich, im Global
System for Mobile Communications (GSM) und beim Beamforming.The aim of this thesis is to investigate key issues encountered in the
design of transmission schemes and receiving techniques for Ultra Wideband
(UWB) communication systems. Based on different data rate applications,
this work is divided into two parts, where energy efficient and robust
physical layer solutions are proposed, respectively.
Due to a huge bandwidth of UWB signals, a considerable amount of multipath
arrivals with various path gains is resolvable at the receiver. For low
data rate impulse radio UWB systems, suboptimal non-coherent detection is a
simple way to effectively capture the multipath energy. Feasible techniques
that increase the power efficiency and the interference robustness of
non-coherent detection need to be investigated. For high data rate direct
sequence UWB systems, a large number of multipath arrivals results in
severe inter-/intra-symbol interference. Additionally, the system
performance may also be deteriorated by multi-user interference and
narrowband interference. It is necessary to develop advanced signal
processing techniques at the receiver to suppress these interferences.
Part I of this thesis deals with the co-design of signaling schemes and
receiver architectures in low data rate impulse radio UWB systems based on
non-coherent detection.â We analyze the bit error rate performance of
non-coherent detection and characterize a non-coherent combining loss,
i.e., a performance penalty with respect to coherent detection with maximum
ratio multipath combining. The thorough analysis of this loss is very
helpful for the design of transmission schemes and receive techniques
innon-coherent UWB communication systems.â We propose to use optical
orthogonal codes in a time hopping impulse radio UWB system based on an
analog non-coherent receiver. The âanalogâ means that the major part of
the multipath combining is implemented by an integrate and dump filter. The
introduced semi-analytical method can help us to easily select the time
hopping codes to ensure the robustness against the multi-user interference
and meanwhile to alleviate the non-coherent combining loss.â The main
contribution of Part I is the proposal of applying fully digital solutions
in non-coherent detection. The proposed digital non-coherent receiver is
based on a time domain analog-to-digital converter, which has a high speed
but a very low resolution to maintain a reasonable power consumption.
Compared to its analog counterpart, itnot only significantly reduces the
non-coherent combining loss but also offers a higher interference
robustness. In particular, the one-bit receiver can effectively suppress
strong multi-user interference and is thus advantageous in separating
simultaneously operating piconets.The fully digital solutions overcome the
difficulty of implementing long analog delay lines and make differential
UWB detection possible. They also facilitate the development of various
digital signal processing techniques such as multi-user detection and
non-coherent multipath combining methods as well as the use of advanced
modulationschemes (e.g., M-ary Walsh modulation).â Furthermore, we
present a novel impulse radio UWB system based on frequency hopping, where
both coherent and non-coherent receivers can be adopted. The key advantage
is that the baseband bandwidth can be considerably reduced (e.g., lower
than 500 MHz), which enables low-complexity implementation of the fully
digital solutions. It opens up various research activities in the
application field of wireless sensor networks.
Part II of this thesis proposes adaptive widely linear reduced-rank
techniques to suppress interferences for high data rate direct sequence UWB
systems, where second-order non-circular signals are used. The reduced-rank
techniques are designed to improve the convergence performance and the
interference robustness especially when the received vector contains a
large number of samples (due to a high sampling rate in UWB systems). The
widely linear processing takes full advantage of the second-order
statistics of the non-circular signals and enhances the estimation
performance. The generic widely linear reduced-rank concept also has a
great potential in the applications of other systems such as Direct
Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA), Multiple Input Multiple
Output (MIMO) system, and Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), or
in other areas such as beamforming
Clinicopathological significance of SOX4 expression in primary gallbladder carcinoma
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Aim</p> <p>SOX4, as a member of the SRY-related HMG-box (SOX) transcription factor family, has been demonstrated to be involved in tumorigenesis of many human malignancies; however, its role in primary gallbladder carcinoma (PGC) is still largely unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate SOX4 expression in PGC and its prognostic significance.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>From 1997 to 2006, 136 patients underwent resection for PGC. The median follow-up was 12.8 months. Immunostainings for SOX4 were performed on these archival tissues. The correlation of SOX4 expression with clinicopathological features including survival was analyzed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>SOX4 was expressed in 75.0% (102/136) of PGC but not in the normal epithelium of the gallbladder. In addition, the over-expression of SOX4 was significantly associated with low histologic grade (<it>P </it>= 0.02), low pathologic T stage (<it>P </it>= 0.02), and early clinical stage (<it>P </it>= 0.03). The levels of SOX4 immunostainings in PGC tissues with positive nodal metastasis were also significantly lower than those without (<it>P </it>= 0.01). Moreover, Kaplan-Meier curves showed that SOX4 over-expression was significantly related to better overall (<it>P </it>= 0.008) and disease-free survival (<it>P </it>= 0.01). Furthermore, multivariate analyses showed that SOX4 expression was an independent risk factor for both overall (<it>P </it>= 0.03, hazard ratio, 3.682) and disease-free survival (<it>P </it>= 0.04, hazard ratio, 2.215).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our data indicate for the first time that the over-expression of SOX4 in PGC was significantly correlated with favorable clinicopathologic features and was an independent prognostic factor for better overall and disease-free survival in patients. Therefore, SOX4 might be an auxiliary parameter for predicting malignant behavior for PGC.</p> <p>Virtual slides</p> <p>The virtual slide(s) for this article can be found here: <url>http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/1534825818694957</url>.</p
Using satellite remote sensing and numerical modelling for the monitoring of suspended particulate matter concentration during reclamation construction at Dalian offshore airport in China
In this study, remote sensing and numerical modelling were used to monitor the distribution of suspended particulate matter (SPM) concentrations induced by a reclamation construction of an offshore artificial island airport in Chinaâs Bohai Sea. A hydrodynamic model and a water quality model were used to simulate the SPM diffusion under the actions of tides and currents. An artificial neural network (ANN) model was then developed based on HJ-1A/1B satellite and measured SPM concentrations. The obtained main results are as follows: (1) The dispersion area of SPM with a concentration higher than 10Â mg/l obtained by the numerical model was approximately 105.15Â km2; (2) The developed ANN model provided an excellent relationship between the measured and retrieved SPM concentrations, with R2Â =Â 0.97 and mean relative error (MRE) of 30%, at the model validation phase; (3) The SPM distribution obtained by the numerical model showed a qualitatively similar pattern with that obtained by the ANN model, indicating the modelled SPM distribution was credible. Thus, when the distribution of SPM concentrations cannot be derived from the satellite images due to weather conditions, the numerical model can be used to simulate the SPM distribution in the sea area around the construction
Tracking moving objects in video using enhanced mean shift and region-based motion field
In this paper, we propose a scheme for moving object tracking from videos by combining mean shift and motion field statistics. For mean shift, we employ an enhanced spatial-range mean shift that enables a reduced number of oversegmentation. For motion statistics, we combine the optical flow and high-order moment to generate motion regions that are associated with moving objects (or object parts). Experiments have been conducted on several indoor and outdoor (color/gray-scale) image sequences ranging from simple to median complexity. To evaluate the performance, three objective criteria are applied in addition to the visual inspection. The results show that the proposed method is promising for moving object tracking in video, with an averaging detection rate of 95%. Further, the proposed scheme is compared with that using the conventional mean shift for the tracking, indicating a significantly reduction in false alarm (â 30%)
Tracking moving objects in video using enhanced mean shift and region-based motion field
In this paper, we propose a scheme for moving object tracking from videos by combining mean shift and motion field statistics. For mean shift, we employ an enhanced spatial-range mean shift that enables a reduced number of oversegmentation. For motion statistics, we combine the optical flow and high-order moment to generate motion regions that are associated with moving objects (or object parts). Experiments have been conducted on several indoor and outdoor (color/gray-scale) image sequences ranging from simple to median complexity. To evaluate the performance, three objective criteria are applied in addition to the visual inspection. The results show that the proposed method is promising for moving object tracking in video, with an averaging detection rate of 95%. Further, the proposed scheme is compared with that using the conventional mean shift for the tracking, indicating a significantly reduction in false alarm (â 30%)
Satellite ground stations with electronic beam steering
In this work, we propose electronic beam steering via antenna arrays as a substitute for large parabolic antennas at satellite ground stations. We concentrate on two array geometries, faceted arrays and hemispherical arrays. A thorough analysis is carried out of the radiation characteristics, the array size, as well as the antenna element distribution and spacing. Moreover, in order to fulfill the requirement of the array design, that is, to achieve a higher gain at low elevation angles where the longer spacecraft to ground station distance leads to a larger range loss, we propose to adjust the number of active antenna elements, i.e., some antenna elements are turned on while others are turned off according to the required level of antenna gain. This also contributes to a concept of an optimized array design for this specific application. In the simulations, the array optimization for both array geometries is further investigated and realized with a realistic ephemeris incorporated. The numerical results support the proposal of replacing large reflector antennas by electronic beam steering via antenna arrays at satellite ground stations
Three Constituents of <i>Moringa oleifera</i> Seeds Regulate Expression of Th17-Relevant Cytokines and Ameliorate TPA-Induced Psoriasis-Like Skin Lesions in Mice
As a folk medicine, Moringa oleifera L. is used effectively to treat inflammatory conditions and skin diseases. However, its mechanism of action is not well understood, limiting its medical use. We isolated and identified three compounds, namely niazirin, marumoside A and sitosterol-3-O-β-d-glucoside, from the seeds of Moringa oleifera, and studied their effects on the expression of Th17-relevant cytokines (IL-12/IL-23 p40, IL-17A, IL-22 and IL-23 p19) using lipopolysaccharide-stimulated THP-1 cells. Additionally, as Th17 plays a critical role in the pathogenesis of psoriasis, we used a 12-O-tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA)-induced psoriasis-like skin lesion mouse model to study their potential therapeutic application in vivo. The compounds suppressed the expression of IL-12/IL-23 p40, IL-17A, IL-22 and IL-23 p19 in vitro, and in vivo they ameliorated psoriasis-like skin lesions, decreased IL-17A mRNA expression, and increased the expression of keratinocyte differentiation markers. To our knowledge, this is the first report regarding the mechanism and therapeutic application of Moringa oleifera seeds to treat psoriasis-like lesions in vivo
Bionic Design of Furrow Opener Based on Muskrat Claw-Toe Structure to Improve the Operating Performance of Deep Application of Liquid Fertilizer in Paddy Fields in Cold Region of China
The deep application of liquid fertilizer in paddy fields is a fertilization technique that applies liquid fertilizer deep near the root system of paddy field crops, which can effectively improve the absorption rate of the crops and reduce the amount of fertilizer applied. In the cold regions of China, the soil return rate of the furrowing operation of the deep application of liquid fertilizer in paddy fields is low, which can easily cause the excessive liquid leakage of fertilizer and affect crop growth. Therefore, it is difficult to popularize in large areas. According to the characteristics of paddy soil in the cold regions of China and the operating requirements of a high backfill rate and low disturbance rate of the soil of the deep application of liquid fertilizer, this paper designed a bionic liquid fertilizer deep application furrow opener based on the claw-toe structure of the muskrat. In this study, an indoor soil bin test was conducted by constructing a deep application environment for the liquid fertilizer in paddy fields. The results of the soil bin test showed the effects of the key operating parameters of the bionic design of the liquid fertilizer deep application furrow opener, spraying pressure of the liquid fertilizer and operating speed on the furrowing resistance, soil disturbance rate and the leakage amount of liquid fertilizer. The bionic design of the liquid fertilizer deep application furrow opener has a low soil disturbance rate and leakage amount of fertilizer when the operating speed is 0.8 m sâ1, and the spraying pressure is 0.2 MPa. This furrow opener significantly improves the operating performance of the deep application of liquid fertilizer in the cold regions of China and is suitable for the deep application of liquid fertilizer in the paddy fields of this region