Chaos-based communication systems in non-ideal channels

Recently, many chaos-based communication systems have been proposed. They can present the many interesting properties of spread spectrum modulations. Besides, they can represent a low-cost increase in security. However, their major drawback is to have a Bit Error Rate (BER) general performance worse than their conventional counterparts. In this paper, we review some innovative techniques that can be used to make chaos-based communication systems attain lower levels of BER in non-ideal environments. In particular, we succinctly describe techniques to counter the effects of finite bandwidth, additive noise and delay in the communication channel. Although much research is necessary for chaos-based communication competing with conventional techniques, the presented results are auspicious. (C) 2011 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

A scheme for synchronizing clocks connected by a packet communication network

Consider a communication system in which a transmitter equipment sends fixed-size packets of data at a uniform rate to a receiver equipment. Consider also that these equipments are connected by a packet-switched network, which introduces a random delay to each packet. Here we propose an adaptive clock recovery scheme able of synchronizing the frequencies and the phases of these devices, within specified limits of precision. This scheme for achieving frequency and phase synchronization is based on measurements of the packet arrival times at the receiver, which are used to control the dynamics of a digital phase-locked loop. The scheme performance is evaluated via numerical simulations performed by using realistic parameter values. (C) 2011 Elsevier By. All rights reserved.

Short communication: Principal components and factor analytic models for test-day milk yield in Brazilian Holstein cattle

A total of 46,089 individual monthly test-day (TD) milk yields (10 test-days), from 7,331 complete first lactations of Holstein cattle were analyzed. A standard multivariate analysis (MV), reduced rank analyses fitting the first 2, 3, and 4 genetic principal components (PC2, PC3, PC4), and analyses that fitted a factor analytic structure considering 2, 3, and 4 factors (FAS2, FAS3, FAS4), were carried out. The models included the random animal genetic effect and fixed effects of the contemporary groups (herd-year-month of test-day), age of cow (linear and quadratic effects), and days in milk (linear effect). The residual covariance matrix was assumed to have full rank. Moreover, 2 random regression models were applied. Variance components were estimated by restricted maximum likelihood method. The heritability estimates ranged from 0.11 to 0.24. The genetic correlation estimates between TD obtained with the PC2 model were higher than those obtained with the MV model, especially on adjacent test-days at the end of lactation close to unity. The results indicate that for the data considered in this study, only 2 principal components are required to summarize the bulk of genetic variation among the 10 traits.

Science publication workshops as a strategy to improve the visibility of scholarly production: the experience of the University of Sao Paulo (USP) - Brazil

The objective of this work is to present the experience of workshops that have been developed at the University of Sao Paulo by the Integrated Library System in partnership with Research Commission. The poster presents the main results of workshops that were made in 2011, in two knowledge areas: life science and engineering, about science publication processes, and directed to graduates, pos-doctorates, researchers, professors and library staff. The realization of workshops made possible identifies gaps in different aspects of scholarly communication such as research planning, search information strategy, information organization, submission process, identification of journals with high impact, and so on, areas where professors and librarians can help. Besides, workshops reveal that the majority of participants believe in its importance. Despite the ubiquity of digital technology that transversely impacts all academic activities, it is imperative to promote efforts to find a convergence between information and media literacy in higher education and university research activities. This is particularly important when we talk about how science is produced, communicated and preserved for future use. In this scenario, libraries and librarians assume a new, more active and committed role.

Design and Performance Evaluation of Network-on-Chip Communication Protocols and Architectures

The scale down of transistor technology allows microelectronics manufacturers such as Intel and IBM to build always more sophisticated systems on a single microchip. The classical interconnection solutions based on shared buses or direct connections between the modules of the chip are becoming obsolete as they struggle to sustain the increasing tight bandwidth and latency constraints that these systems demand. The most promising solution for the future chip interconnects are the Networks on Chip (NoC). NoCs are network composed by routers and channels used to inter- connect the different components installed on the single microchip. Examples of advanced processors based on NoC interconnects are the IBM Cell processor, composed by eight CPUs that is installed on the Sony Playstation III and the Intel Teraflops pro ject composed by 80 independent (simple) microprocessors. On chip integration is becoming popular not only in the Chip Multi Processor (CMP) research area but also in the wider and more heterogeneous world of Systems on Chip (SoC). SoC comprehend all the electronic devices that surround us such as cell-phones, smart-phones, house embedded systems, automotive systems, set-top boxes etc... SoC manufacturers such as ST Microelectronics , Samsung, Philips and also Universities such as Bologna University, M.I.T., Berkeley and more are all proposing proprietary frameworks based on NoC interconnects. These frameworks help engineers in the switch of design methodology and speed up the development of new NoC-based systems on chip. In this Thesis we propose an introduction of CMP and SoC interconnection networks. Then focusing on SoC systems we propose: • a detailed analysis based on simulation of the Spidergon NoC, a ST Microelectronics solution for SoC interconnects. The Spidergon NoC differs from many classical solutions inherited from the parallel computing world. Here we propose a detailed analysis of this NoC topology and routing algorithms. Furthermore we propose aEqualized a new routing algorithm designed to optimize the use of the resources of the network while also increasing its performance; • a methodology flow based on modified publicly available tools that combined can be used to design, model and analyze any kind of System on Chip; • a detailed analysis of a ST Microelectronics-proprietary transport-level protocol that the author of this Thesis helped developing; • a simulation-based comprehensive comparison of different network interface designs proposed by the author and the researchers at AST lab, in order to integrate shared-memory and message-passing based components on a single System on Chip; • a powerful and flexible solution to address the time closure exception issue in the design of synchronous Networks on Chip. Our solution is based on relay stations repeaters and allows to reduce the power and area demands of NoC interconnects while also reducing its buffer needs; • a solution to simplify the design of the NoC by also increasing their performance and reducing their power and area consumption. We propose to replace complex and slow virtual channel-based routers with multiple and flexible small Multi Plane ones. This solution allows us to reduce the area and power dissipation of any NoC while also increasing its performance especially when the resources are reduced. This Thesis has been written in collaboration with the Advanced System Technology laboratory in Grenoble France, and the Computer Science Department at Columbia University in the city of New York.

Short communication: duplication in the 5'-flanking region of the beta-lactoglobulin gene is linked to the BLG A allele

beta-Lactoglobulin (beta-LG) is the major whey protein in the milk of cows and other ruminants. It is well established that the predominant genetic variants beta-LG A and B are differentially expressed. Extensive investigation of the genetic variation in the promoter region of the BLG gene revealed the existence of specific haplotypes associated with the A and B variants. However, the genetic basis for the differentially expressed BLG A and B alleles is still elusive. In this study additional genetic variation further upstream in the 5'-flanking region of the BLG gene was identified, including 6 single nucleotide substitutions, a single nucleotide deletion, and a 7-bp duplication. Comparison of DNA sequences showed that the investigated 5'-flanking region is highly conserved between ruminants, and the duplication g.-1885_-1879dupCTCTCGC and the substitution g.-1888A>G are only found in the BLG A and D alleles in cattle. The cytosine at position g.-1957 and the thymines at positions g.-2008 and g.-2049 are only found in BLG B alleles of cattle. It is suggested that the described genetic variability contributes to the differential allelic expression of the BLG gene.

United States certificate programs in technical communication : a feminist-sophistic investigation

Technical communication certificates are offered by many colleges and universities as an alternative to a full undergraduate or graduate degree in the field. Despite certificates’ increasing popularity in recent years, however, surprisingly little commentary exists about them within the scholarly literature. In this work, I describe a survey of certificate and baccalaureate programs that I performed in 2008 in order to develop basic, descriptive data on programs’ age, size, and graduation rates; departmental location; curricular requirements; online offerings; and instructor status and qualifications. In performing this research, I apply recent insights from neosophistic rhetorical theory and feminist critiques of science to both articulate, and model, a feminist-sophistic methodology. I also suggest in this work that technical communication certificates can be theorized as a particularly sophistic credential for a particularly sophistic field, and I discuss the implications of neosophistic theory for certificate program design and administration.

Uncovering poiesis : the role of production in technical communication, work, and public life

This dissertation is a report on a collaborative project between the Computer Science and the Humanities Departments to develop case studies that focus on issues of communication in the workplace, and the results of their use in the classroom. My argument is that case study teaching simulates real-world experience in a meaningful way, essentially developing a teachable way of developing phronesis, the reasoned capacity to act for the good in public. In addition, it can be read as a "how-to" guide for educators who may wish to construct their own case studies. To that end, I have included a discussion of the ethnographic methodologies employed, and how it was adapted to our more pragmatic ends. Finally, I present my overarching argument for a new appraisal of the concept of techné. This reappraisal emphasizes its productive activity, poiesis, rather than focusing on its knowledge as has been the case in the past. I propose that focusing on the telos, the end outside the production, contributes to the diminishment, if not complete foreclosure, of a rich concept of techné.

Add a Dash of Rhetoric, a Pinch of Technical Communication, a Handful of Pedagogy, and Mix Well: Cookbooks and Recipes as Instructional Texts, and What Domestic Texts from 1870 to 1935 Can Teach Us About Technical Communication

Through the use of rhetoric centered on authority and risk avoidance, scientific method has co-opted knowledge, especially women's everyday and experiential knowledge in the domestic sphere. This, in turn, has produced a profound affect on technical communication in the present day. I am drawing on rhetorical theory to study cookbooks and recipes for their contributions to changes in instructional texts. Using the rhetorical lenses of metis (cunning intelligence), kairos (timing and fitness) and mneme (memory), I examine the way in which recipes and cookbooks are constructed, used and perceived. This helps me uncover lost voices in history, the voices of women who used recipes, produced cookbooks and changed the way instructions read. Beginning with the earliest cookbooks and recipes, but focusing on the pivotal temporal interval of 1870-1935, I investigate the writing and rhetorical forces shaping instruction sets and domestic discourse. By the time of scientific cooking and domestic science, everyday and experiential knowledge were being excluded to make room for scientific method and the industrial values of the public sphere. In this study, I also assess how the public sphere, via Cooperative Extension Services and other government agencies, impacted the domestic sphere, further devaluing everyday knowledge in favor of the public scientific model. I will show how the changes in the production of food, cookbooks and recipes were related to changes in technical communication. These changes had wide rippling effects on the field of technical communication. By returning to some of the tenets and traditions of everyday and experiential knowledge, technical communication scholars, practitioners and instructors today can find new ways to encounter technical communication, specifically regarding the creation of instructional texts. Bringing cookbooks, recipes and everyday knowledge into the classroom and the field engenders a new realm of epistemological possibilities.

Science for the Carpathians: Using Regional Capacity to Cope with Global Change

Emphasizing the global and regional importance of mountain ecosystem services and referring to the anticipated future environmental changes affecting the provision of these services, this chapter takes a closer look at the Carpathian Mountains. In addition to climate change and general effects of globalization, rapid socioeconomic transformations after the fall of the Iron Curtain pose an extra challenge to the sustainable development of the region. Describing the early efforts of organizing mountain science through programs such as UNESCO MAB and UNEP at the global scale, this chapter focuses on the recent history of research coordination for the European mountains, in particular on the activities of the Carpathian Convention and the European Program of the Mountain Research Initiative, which were among main driving factors for the initiation of the Science for the Carpathians (S4C) network. This regional mountain research network was established in 2008 to foster scientific collaboration and communication and to promote applied research and capacity building, which in turn would support sustainable development in the Carpathian Mountains. Forum Carpaticum, a biennial open science conference, has become a central activity of the S4C network counting more than 400 members today.

Linked services for M2M communication with Enterprise IT systems

Linking the physical world to the Internet, also known as the Internet of Things, has increased available information and services in everyday life and in the Enterprise world. In Enterprise IT an increasing number of communication is done between IT backend systems and small IoT devices, for example sensor networks or RFID readers. This introduces some challenges in terms of complexity and integration. We are working on the integration of IoT devices into Enterprise IT by leveraging SOA techniques and Semantic Web technologies. We present a SOA based integration platform for connecting WSNs and large enterprise business processes. For ensuring interoperability our platform is based on Linked Services. These are thoroughly described, machine-readable, machine-reasonable service descriptions.

Traffic-Adaptive and Link-Quality-Aware Communication in Wireless Sensor Networks

This paper is a summary of the main contribu- tions of the PhD thesis published in [1]. The main research contributions of the thesis are driven by the research question how to design simple, yet efficient and robust run-time adaptive resource allocation schemes within the commu- nication stack of Wireless Sensor Network (WSN) nodes. The thesis addresses several problem domains with con- tributions on different layers of the WSN communication stack. The main contributions can be summarized as follows: First, a a novel run-time adaptive MAC protocol is intro- duced, which stepwise allocates the power-hungry radio interface in an on-demand manner when the encountered traffic load requires it. Second, the thesis outlines a metho- dology for robust, reliable and accurate software-based energy-estimation, which is calculated at network run- time on the sensor node itself. Third, the thesis evaluates several Forward Error Correction (FEC) strategies to adap- tively allocate the correctional power of Error Correcting Codes (ECCs) to cope with timely and spatially variable bit error rates. Fourth, in the context of TCP-based communi- cations in WSNs, the thesis evaluates distributed caching and local retransmission strategies to overcome the perfor- mance degrading effects of packet corruption and trans- mission failures when transmitting data over multiple hops. The performance of all developed protocols are eval- uated on a self-developed real-world WSN testbed and achieve superior performance over selected existing ap- proaches, especially where traffic load and channel condi- tions are suspect to rapid variations over time.