Blind channel estimation and signal retrieving for MIMO relay systems

In this paper, we propose a blind channel estimation and signal retrieving algorithm for two-hop multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) relay systems. This new algorithm integrates two blind source separation (BSS) methods to estimate the individual channel state information (CSI) of the source-relay and relay-destination links. In particular, a first-order Z-domain precoding technique is developed for the blind estimation of the relay-destination channel matrix, where the signals received at the relay node are pre-processed by a set of precoders before being transmitted to the destination node. With the estimated signals at the relay node, we propose an algorithm based on the constant modulus and signal mutual information properties to estimate the source-relay channel matrix. Compared with training-based MIMO relay channel estimation approaches, the proposed algorithm has a better bandwidth efficiency as no bandwidth is wasted for sending the training sequences. Numerical examples are shown to demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm

Rooted in time and place : a housing complex in South End, Boston

Thesis (M. Arch.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Architecture, 1990.Includes bibliographical references (p. 59).The intention of this thesis is to design an urban housing project which relies upon visual cues sited in the South End for its development. The site also provides the programmatic framework which consists of housing, restaurant, retail and cafe sitting area, music school and auditorium, art gallery and public access, private interior streets and community plaza, parking, and service. My interest in doing this study sprang from a sense of our present era being dominated by trends which discourage the practice of architecture as Architecture. The specific Architecture to which I refer is one which is "rooted in time and place," a key phrase from the 1986 thesis of MIT alumnus Robert Maulden, TECTONICS IN ARCHITECTURE, From the Physical to the Meta-Physical. From the universal philosophies of Heidegger and Maulden, the modern ideas of Tadao Ando and Gunter Behnisch and the historical, vernacular precedent of Cordoba, Spain, a design project evolves with special attention paid to the role of "the wall" in the urban context.by Chiong C. Lin.M.Arch

Multi-touch Technology in Early Childhood: Current Trends and Future Challenges

© ACM 2015. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive Version of Record was published in Interacción '15 Proceedings of the XVI International Conference on Human Computer Interactionhttp://dx.doi.org/10.1145/{10.1145/2829875.2829887The advantages of the direct manipulation style make the multi-touch technology an ideal mechanism to support learning activities for children. Moreover, although pre-kindergarten children are becoming frequent users of the technology little work has been done in the area to assess their actual abilities. This paper goes over the state of the art of multi-touch technology targeting pre-kindergarten children and its use for educational purposes. In addition, in this work we present future challenges that should be faced in the area in the near future to establish the basis on which designers will develop educational applications for children that fully exploit the multi-touch technology according to the actual abilities of pre-kindergarten children.Work supported by the MINECO (grants TIN2010-20488 and TIN2014-60077-R) and from GVA (ACIF/2015/075).Nácher-Soler, VE.; Jaén Martínez, FJ. (2015). Multi-touch Technology in Early Childhood: Current Trends and Future Challenges. ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/2829875.2829887SAbdul Aziz, N.A., Batmaz, F., Stone, R., and Paul, C. Selection of touch gestures for children's applications. Proc. of SIC'13, 721--726.Abdul Aziz, N.A., Mat, N.S., Batmaz, F., Stone, R., and Paul, C. Selection of Touch Gestures for Children's Applications: Repeated Experiment to Increase Reliability. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications 5, 4 (2014), 97--102.Baloian, N., Pino, J. a., and Vargas, R. Tablet gestures as a motivating factor for learning. Proc. of ChileCHI'13, 98--103.Bebell, D., Dorris, S., and Muir, M. Emerging Results From The Nation's First Kindergarten Implementation of iPads. Auburn, 2012.Buxton, B. Multi-touch systems that I have known and loved. 2013. http://billbuxton.com/multitouchOverview.html.Chiong, C. and Shuler, C. Learning: Is there an app for that? Investigations of young children's usage and learning with mobile devices and apps. New York, 2010.Common Sense Media. Zero to Eight: Childrens Media Use in America 2013. 2013.Egloff, T.H. Edutainment: a case study of interactive cd-rom playsets. Computers in Entertainment 2, 1 (2004), 13.Hinrichs, U. and Carpendale, S. Gestures in the wild: studying multi-touch gesture sequences on interactive tabletop exhibits. Proc. of CHI'11, 3023--3032.Hourcade, J.P. Interaction Design and Children. Foundations and Trends® in Human-Computer Interaction 1, 4 (2007), 277--392.Ingram, A., Wang, X., and Ribarsky, W. Towards the establishment of a framework for intuitive multi-touch interaction design. Proc. of AVI'12, 66--73.Johnson, L., Adams, S., and Cummins, M. The NMC Horizon Report: 2012 K-12. The New Media Consortium, Austin, Texas, 2012.Kammer, D., Dang, R., Steinhauf, J., and Groh, R. Investigating interaction with tabletops in kindergarten environments. Proc. of IDC'14, 57--66.Knoche, H., Rasmussen, N.A., and Boldreel, K. Do Interactions Speak Louder than Words? Dialogic Reading of an Interactive Tablet-based E-book with Children between 16 Months and Three Years of Age. Proc. of IDC'14, 285--288.Kremer, K.E. Conducting Game User Experience Research with Preschoolers. Workshop on Games User Research: practice, methods, and applications (collocated to CHI'12).Nacher, V., Jaen, J., Catala, A., Navarro, E., and Gonzalez, P. Improving Pre-Kindergarten Touch Performance. Proc. of ITS '14, 163--166.Nacher, V., Jaen, J., and Catala, A. Exploring Visual Cues for Intuitive Communicability of Touch Gestures to Pre-kindergarten Children. Proc. of ITS '14, 159--162.Nacher, V., Jaen, J., Navarro, E., Catala, A., and González, P. Multi-touch gestures for pre-kindergarten children. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 73, (2015), 37--51.Piaget, J.The Child and Reality. Grossman, New York, 1973.Rushton, S. and Juola-Rushton, A. Classroom Learning Environment, Brain Research and The No Child Left Behind Initiative: 6 years Later. Early Childhood Education Journal 36, 1 (2008), 87--92.Shneiderman, B., Plaisant, C., Cohen, M., and Jacobs, S. Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction. Prentice Hall, 2009.Shuler, C. iLearn II: An Analysis of the Education Category of the iTunes App Store. The Joan Ganz Cooney Center at Sesame Workshop, New York, 2012.Smith, S.P., Burd, E., and Rick, J. Developing, evaluating and deploying multi-touch systems. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 70, 10 (2012), 653--656.Vatavu, R., Cramariuc, G., and Schipor, D.M. Touch interaction for children aged 3 to 6 years: Experimental findings and relationship to motor skills. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 74, (2015), 54--76.Wakefield, J. and Smith, D. From Socrates to Satellites: iPad Learning in an Undergraduate Course. Creative Education 03, 05 (2012), 643--648.Wolock, E., Ann Orr, E.D., and Buckleitner, W. Child development 101 for the developers of interactive media. Active Learning Associates, Inc., 2006.Zaranis, N., Kalogiannakis, M., and Papadakis, S. Using Mobile Devices for Teaching Realistic Mathematics in Kindergarten Education. Creative Education 04, 07 (2013), 1--10

What are we downloading for our children? Best-selling children’s apps in four European countries

The present article provides an overview of the best-selling apps for the age range of 0–8 years under various categories, including ‘Kids’, ‘Books’, ‘Educational games’, ‘Family games’ and ‘Word games’ in the two major application stores (Google Play and iTunes App Store) in four economically diverse European countries: Hungary, Turkey, Greece and the Netherlands. As tablets seem to be a substantial part of children’s leisure activities, and thus apps might play an important role in their development, we conducted a content analysis to highlight two issues: the educational value of the most popular children’s apps and the fine-tuning of apps to the local culture and language of non-English speaking countries. There is a large overlap between the best-selling apps in the four countries; in fact, half of the apps appear among the most popular lists in more than one country. Consequently, most children’s apps do not include any oral language and, if they do, they are not available in the local language. Furthermore, the results show that a substantial part of the apps supported early literacy skills. In the majority of apps teaching literacy, although advertised for the youngest, the focus of instruction was more suited for school-age children

Perception of Filipino physicians on the roles and scope of practice of physical therapy in the Philippines: A multi-method quantitative study

Introduction: Physical therapists (PTs) are licensed practitioners who can assess, diagnose, and provide treatment interventions that restore patients to optimal function. While PTs can deliver complete management plans, the practice of physical therapy (PT) in the Philippines follows a referral system where physicians are the first contact of the patient, emphasizing the importance of physician\u27s perception towards the role of PTs and scope of PT service. This study aimed to determine the internal consistency of the Perception on Physical Therapists Questionnaire (PoPTQ), and to use this tool to report the existing perceptions of Filipino physicians on the practice of PT. Method: This study was divided into two phases and utilized a multi-method quantitative research design. For Phase 1 (psychometric), 18 questionnaires administered to Filipino physicians were used to compute Cronbach\u27s α of PoPTQ. A total of 134 questionnaires of the same population were analyzed for Phase 2 (cross-sectional), in which descriptive statistics and cross tab analysis were used to report the respondents\u27 perceptions. Both phases utilized online means of data gathering done via convenience sampling. Results: Phase 1 revealed a Cronbach\u27s α value of 0.528 for all items of PoPTQ. Phase 2 showed that physicians who have attended lectures discussing the roles of PTs or have experience with working with them have a higher referral rate than those with no prior exposure to PTs. Discussion: Filipino physicians believe that PTs can establish strong patient-therapist relationships, treat different patients, and acknowledge the roles of PTs in clinical and research settings. Data suggest that adequate foundational knowledge, positive perceptions, and high awareness of PTs\u27 roles and scope of practice are observed among Filipino physicians. However, there remains a need to increase collaboration opportunities between PTs and physicians in their academic years and programs that focus on the promotion of PT roles and scope of practice

Angiotensin-(1-7) prevents lipopolysaccharide-induced autophagy via the Mas receptor in skeletal muscle

Skeletal muscle atrophy, which occurs in lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-induced sepsis, causes a severe muscle function reduction. The increased autophagy contributes to sepsis-induced skeletal muscle atrophy in a model of LPS injection, increasing LC3II/LC3I ratio, autophagy flux, and autophagosomes. Angiotensin-(1-7) (Ang-(1-7)) has anti-atrophic effects via the Mas receptor in skeletal muscle. However, the impact of Ang-(1-7) on LPS-induced autophagy is unknown. In this study, we determined the effect of Ang-(1-7) on sepsis-induced muscle autophagy. C57BL6 wild-type (WT) mice and mice lacking the Mas receptor (KO Mas) were injected with LPS together with the systemic administration of Ang-(1-7) to determine autophagy in skeletal muscle. We also evaluated autophagy and p38 and c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK)activation. Our results show that Ang-(1-7) prevents LPS-induced autophagy in the diaphragm, tibialis anterior, and gastrocnemius of WT mice, which is demonstrated by a decrease in the LC3II/LC3I ratio and mRNA levels of lc3b and ctsl. This effect was lost in KO Mas mice, suggesting the role of the Mas receptor. The results in C2C12 cells show that Ang-(1-7) reduces several LPS-dependent effects, such as autophagy (LC3II/LC3I ratio, autophagic flux, and autophagosomes), activation of p38 and JNK, B-cell lymphoma-2 (BCL2) phosphorylation, and disassembly of the Beclin1/BCL2 complex. In conclusion, Ang-(1-7)/Mas receptor reduces LPS-induced autophagy in skeletal muscle. In vitro assays indicate that Ang-(1-7) prevents LPS-induced autophagy and modifies the MAPK signaling and the disassembly of a complex involved at the beginning of autophagy

Distinguishing Type 1 from Type 2 Myocardial Infarction Using CT Coronary Angiography

PURPOSE: To determine whether quantitative plaque characterization by using CT coronary angiography (CTCA) can discriminate between type 1 and type 2 myocardial infarction. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This was a secondary analysis of two prospective studies (ClinicalTrials.gov registration nos. NCT03338504 [2014–2019] and NCT02284191 [2018–2020]) that performed blinded quantitative plaque analysis on findings from CTCA in participants with type 1 myocardial infarction, type 2 myocardial infarction, and chest pain without myocardial infarction. Logistic regression analyses were performed to identify predictors of type 1 myocardial infarction. RESULTS: Overall, 155 participants (mean age, 64 years ± 12 [SD]; 114 men) and 36 participants (mean age, 67 years ± 12; 19 men) had type 1 and type 2 myocardial infarction, respectively, and 136 participants (62 years ± 12; 78 men) had chest pain without myocardial infarction. Participants with type 1 myocardial infarction had greater total (median, 44% [IQR: 35%–50%] vs 35% [IQR: 29%–46%]), noncalcified (39% [IQR: 31%–46%] vs 34% [IQR: 29%–40%]), and low-attenuation (4.15% [IQR: 1.88%–5.79%] vs 1.64% [IQR: 0.89%–2.28%]) plaque burdens (P < .05 for all) than those with type 2. Participants with type 2 myocardial infarction had similar low-attenuation plaque burden to those with chest pain without myocardial infarction (P = .4). Low-attenuation plaque was an independent predictor of type 1 myocardial infarction (adjusted odds ratio, 3.44 [95% CI: 1.84, 6.96]; P < .001), with better discrimination than noncalcified plaque burden and maximal area of coronary stenosis (C statistic, 0.75 [95% CI: 0.67, 0.83] vs 0.62 [95% CI: 0.53, 0.71] and 0.61 [95% CI: 0.51, 0.70] respectively; P ≤ .001 for both). CONCLUSION: Higher low-attenuation coronary plaque burden in patients with type 1 myocardial infarction may help distinguish these patients from those with type 2 myocardial infarction. Keywords: Ischemia/Infarction, CT Angiography, Quantitative CT Clinical trial registration nos. NCT03338504 and NCT02284191 Supplemental material is available for this article. © RSNA, 202

Middle ear microbiome differences in indigenous Filipinos with chronic otitis media due to a duplication in the A2ML1 gene

Middle ear microbial profiles of indigenous Filipinos with chronic otitis media. All panels compare carriers with non-carriers of the A2ML1 duplication variant. Panel description: (A) ι-diversity by observed OTUs; (B) ι-diversity by the Shannon diversity index; (C) β-diversity from unweighted UniFrac principal coordinate analysis; (D) β-diversity from weighted UniFrac principal coordinate analysis. (PDF 1019 kb