Efficient space-time codes from cyclic division algebras

An overview of space-time code construction based on cyclic division algebras (CDA) is presented. Applications of such space-time codes to the construction of codes optimal under the diversity-multiplexing gain (D-MG) tradeoff, to the construction of the so-called perfect space-time codes, to the construction of optimal space-time codes for the ARQ channel as well as to the construction of codes optimal for the cooperative relay network channel are discussed. We also present a construction of optimal codes based on CDA for a class of orthogonal amplify and forward (OAF) protocols for the cooperative relay network

Ethnobotany of the Monpa ethnic group at Arunachal Pradesh, India

Background: The present paper documents the uses of plants in traditional herbal medicine for human and veterinary ailments, and those used for dietary supplements, religious purpose, local beverage, and plants used to poison fish and wild animals. Traditional botanical medicine is the primary mode of healthcare for most of the rural population in Arunachal Pradesh. Materials and methods: Field research was conducted between April 2006 and March 2009 with randomly selected 124 key informants using semi-structured questionnaire. The data obtained was analyzed through informant consensus factor (F(IC)) to determine the homogeneity of informant's knowledge on medicinal plants. Results: We documented 50 plants species belonging to 29 families used for treating 22 human and 4 veterinary ailments. Of the medicinal plants reported, the most common growth form was herbs (40%) followed by shrubs, trees, and climbers. Leaves were most frequently used plant parts. The consensus analysis revealed that the dermatological ailments have the highest F(IC) (0.56) and the gastro-intestinal diseases have F(IC) (0.43). F(IC) values indicated that there was high agreement in the use of plants in dermatological and gastro-intestinal ailments category among the users. Gymnocladus assamicus is a critically rare and endangered species used as disinfectant for cleaning wounds and parasites like leeches and lice on livestocks. Two plant species (Illicium griffithii and Rubia cordifolia) are commonly used for traditional dyeing of clothes and food items. Some of the edible plants recorded in this study were known for their treatment against high blood pressure (Clerodendron colebrookianum), diabetes mellitus (Momordica charantia), and intestinal parasitic worms like round and tape worms (Lindera neesiana, Solanum etiopicum, and Solanum indicum). The Monpas of Arunachal Pradesh have traditionally been using Daphne papyracea for preparing hand-made paper for painting and writing religious scripts in Buddhist monasteries. Three plant species (Derris scandens, Aesculus assamica, and Polygonum hydropiper) were frequently used to poison fish during the month of June-July every year and the underground tuber of Aconitum ferrox is widely used in arrow poisoning to kill ferocious animals like bear, wild pigs, gaur and deer. The most frequently cited plant species; Buddleja asiatica and Hedyotis scandens were used as common growth supplements during the preparation of fermentation starter cultures. Conclusion: The traditional pharmacopoeia of the Monpa ethnic group incorporates a myriad of diverse botanical flora. Traditional knowledge of the remedies is passed down through oral traditions without any written document. This traditional knowledge is however, currently threatened mainly due to acculturation and deforestation due to continuing traditional shifting cultivation. This study reveals that the rural populations in Arunachal Pradesh have a rich knowledge of forest-based natural resources and consumption of wild edible plants is still an integral part of their socio-cultural life. Findings of this documentation study can be used as an ethnopharmacological basis for selecting plants for future phytochemical and pharmaceutical studies.

Fast-Group-Decodable STBCs via Codes over GF(4): Further Results

Recently in, a framework was given to construct low ML decoding complexity Space-Time Block Codes (STBCs) via codes over the finite field F4. In this paper, we construct new full-diversity STBCs with cubic shaping property and low ML decoding complexity via codes over F4 for number of transmit antennas N = 2m, m >; 1, and rates R >; 1 complex symbols per channel use. The new codes have the least ML decoding complexity among all known codes for a large set of (N, R) pairs. The new full-rate codes of this paper (R = N) are not only information-lossless and fully diverse but also have the least known ML decoding complexity in the literature. For N ≥ 4, the new full-rate codes are the first instances of full-diversity, information-lossless STBCs with low ML decoding complexity. We also give a sufficient condition for STBCs obtainable from codes over F4 to have cubic shaping property, and a sufficient condition for any design to give rise to a full-diversity STBC when the symbols are encoded using rotated square QAM constellations.

Low ML Decoding Complexity STBCs via Codes Over the Klein Group

In this paper, we give a new framework for constructing low ML decoding complexity space-time block codes (STBCs) using codes over the Klein group K. Almost all known low ML decoding complexity STBCs can be obtained via this approach. New full- diversity STBCs with low ML decoding complexity and cubic shaping property are constructed, via codes over K, for number of transmit antennas N = 2(m), m >= 1, and rates R > 1 complex symbols per channel use. When R = N, the new STBCs are information- lossless as well. The new class of STBCs have the least knownML decoding complexity among all the codes available in the literature for a large set of (N, R) pairs.

Phenylboronic acids in crystal engineering: Utility of the energetically unfavorable syn,syn-conformation in co-crystal design

Phenylboronic acids can exist, in principle, in three different conformers (syn,syn; syn,anti and anti,anti) with distinct energy profiles. In their native state, these compounds prefer the energetically favored syn, anti-conformation. In molecular complexes, however, the functionality exhibits conformational diversity. In this paper we report a series of co-crystals, with N-donor compounds, prepared by a design strategy involving the synthons based on the syn, syn-conformation of the boronic acid functionality. For this purpose, we employed compounds with the 1,2-diazo fragment (alprazolam, 1H-tetrazole, acetazolamide and benzotriazole), 1,10-phenanthroline and 2,2'-bipyridine for the co-crystallization experiments. However, our study shows that the mere presence of the 1,2-diazo fragment in the coformer does not guarantee the successful formation of co-crystals with a syn, syn-conformation of the boronic acid. [GRAPHICS] The -B(OH)(2) fragment makes unsymmetrical O-H center dot center dot center dot N heterosynthons with alprazolam (ALP) and 1,10-phenanthroline (PHEN). In the co-crystals of phenylboronic acids with 1H-tetrazole (TETR) and 2,2'-bipyridine (BPY), the symmetrical boronic acid dimer is the major synthon. In the BPY complex, boronic acid forms linear chains and the pyridine compound interacts with the lateral OH of boronic acid dimers that acts as a connector, thus forming a ladder structure. In the TETR complex, each heterocycle interacts with three boronic acids. While two boronic acids interact using the phenolic group, the third molecule generates O-H center dot center dot center dot N hydrogen bonds using the extra OH group, of -B(OH)(2) fragment, left after the dimer formation. Thus, although molecules were selected retrosynthetically with the 1,2-diazo fragment or with nearby hetero-atoms to induce co-crystal formation using the syn,syn-orientation of the -B(OH)(2) functionality, co-crystal formation is in fact selective and is probably driven by energy factors. Acetazolamide (ACET) contains self-complementary functional groups and hence creates stable homosynthons. Phenylboronic acids being weak competitors fail to perturb the homosynthons and hence the components crystallize separately. Therefore, besides the availability of possible hydrogen bond acceptors in the required position and orientation, the ability of the phenyl-boronic acid to perturb the existing interactions is also a prerequisite to form co-crystals. This is illustrated in the table below. In the case of ALP, PHEN and BPY, the native structures are stabilized by weak interactions and may be influenced by the boronic acid fragment. Thus phenylboronic acids can attain co-crystals with those compounds, wherein the cyclic O-H center dot center dot center dot N hydrogen bonds are stronger than the individual homo-interactions. This can lower the lattice energy of the molecular complex as compared with the individual crystals. [GRAPHICS] Phenylboronic acids show some selectivity in the formation of co-crystals with N-heterocycles. The differences in solubility of the components fall short to provide a possible reason for the selective formation of co-crystals only with certain compounds. These compounds, being weak acids, do not follow the Delta pK(a) analysis and hence fail to provide any conclusive observation. Theoretical results show that of the three conformers possible, the syn,anti conformer is the most stable. The relative stabilities of the three conformers syn,anti,syn,syn and anti,anti are 0.0, 2.18 and 3.14 kcal/mol, respectively. The theoretical calculations corroborate the fact that only energetically favorable synthons can induce the formation of heterosynthons, as in ALP and PHEN complexes. From a theoretical and structural analysis it is seen that phenylboronic acids will form interactions with those molecules wherein the heterocyclic and acidic fragments can interrupt the homosynthons. However, the energy profile is shallow and can be perturbed easily by the presence of competing functional groups (such as OH and COOH) in the vicinity. [GRAPHICS] .

Group Actions and Elementary Number Theory

Abstract | In this article the shuffling of cards is studied by using the concept of a group action. We use some fundamental results in Elementary Number Theory to obtain formulas for the orders of some special shufflings, namely the Faro and Monge shufflings and give necessary and sufficient conditions for the Monge shuffling to be a cycle. In the final section we extend the considerations to the shuffling of multisets.

Structure of tandem and its implication for bifunctional intercalation into dna

Quinoxaline antibiotics (Fig. 1a, b) form a useful group of compounds for the study of drug–nucleic acid interactions1,2. They consist of a cross-bridged cyclic octadepsipeptide, variously modified, bearing two quinoxaline chromophores. These antibiotics intercalate bifunctionally into DNA2,3 probably via the narrow groove, forming a complex in which, most probably, two base pairs are sandwiched between the chromophores4,5. Depending on the nature of their sulphur-containing cross-bridge and modifications to their amino acid side chains, they display characteristic patterns of nucleotide sequence selectivity when binding to DNAs of different base composition and to synthetic polydeoxynucleotides4,6,7. This specificity has been tentatively ascribed to specific hydrogen-bonding interactions between functional groups in the DNA and complementary moieties on the peptide ring2,4,5. Variations in selectivity have been attributed both to changes in the conformation of the peptide backbone6 and no modifications of the cross-bridge7. These suggestions were made, however, in the absence of firm knowledge about the three-dimensional structure and conformation of the antibiotic molecules. We now report the X-ray structure analysis of the synthetic analogue of the antibiotic triostin A, TANDEM (des-N-tetramethyl triostin A) (Fig. 1c), which binds preferentially to alternating adenine-thymine sequences7. The X-ray structure provides a starting point for exploring the origin of this specificity and suggests possible models for the binding of other members of the quinoxaline series.

Carbohydrate-based liquid crystals

The carbohydrate based mesogens have gained an importance in the field of liquid crystals, primarily through the amphiphilic nature of many sugar derivatives. A constitutional requirement for the amphiphilic mesogen is that the molecule consists of distinct regions within the molecule that separately would have different responses to changes in thermal energies and/or solvations. Such molecules can be synthesized by linking one or more alkyl chains of appropriate length to both cyclic and acyclic sugars. A driving force for the mesophase formation in these molecules is the phase segregation, leading to aggregates, possessing distinct lyophilic and hydrophilic regions. In this review, we discuss the thermotropic behavior of the carbohydrate amphiphiles. We discuss the relationship between constitutions, configurations, functionalities of the sugar component and the length of the hydrophobic chains necessary to form the various types of thermotropic phases. The influence of the linking group between the hydrophilic sugar head groups and lyophilic alkyl chains on the transition temperatures and mesophase stabilities are also presented.

An analogue of the Wiener Tauberian Theorem for the Heisenberg Motion group

We show that the Wiener Tauberian property holds for the Heisenberg Motion group TnBgroups. However, our exposition is almost self contained and the techniques used in the proof are relatively simple.

Effect of dimerization on dynamics of spin-charge separation in Pariser-Parr-Pople model: A time-dependent density matrix renormalization group study

We investigate the effect of static electron-phonon coupling on real-time dynamics of spin and charge transport in pi-conjugated polyene chains. The polyene chain is modeled by the Pariser-Parr-Pople Hamiltonian with dimerized nearest-neighbor parameter t(0)(1 + delta) for short bonds and t(0)(1 - delta) for long bonds, and long-range electron-electron interactions. We follow the time evolution of the spin and charge using time-dependent density matrix renormalization group technique when a hole is injected at one end of the chain in its ground state. We find that spin and charge dynamics followed through spin and charge velocities depend both on chain length and extent of dimerization delta. Analysis of the results requires focusing on physical quantities such as average spin and charge polarizations, particularly in the large dimerization limit. In the dimerization range 0.0 <= delta <= 0.15, spin-charge dynamics is found to have a well-defined behavior, with spin-charge separation (measured as the ratio of charge velocity to spin velocity) as well as the total amount of charge and spin transported in a given time along the chain decreasing as dimerization increases. However, in the range 0.3 <= delta <= 0.5, it is observed that the dynamics of spin and charge transport becomes complicated. It is observed that, for large delta values, spin-charge separation is suppressed and the injected hole fails to travel the entire length of the chain.