Distributed STBCs with full-diversity partial interference cancellation decoding

Recently, Guo and Xia introduced low complexity decoders called Partial Interference Cancellation (PIC) and PIC with Successive Interference Cancellation (PIC-SIC), which include the Zero Forcing (ZF) and ZF-SIC receivers as special cases, for point-to-point MIMO channels. In this paper, we show that PIC and PIC-SIC decoders are capable of achieving the full cooperative diversity available in wireless relay networks. We give sufficient conditions for a Distributed Space-Time Block Code (DSTBC) to achieve full diversity with PIC and PIC-SIC decoders and construct a new class of DSTBCs with low complexity full-diversity PIC-SIC decoding using complex orthogonal designs. The new class of codes includes a number of known full-diversity PIC/PIC-SIC decodable Space-Time Block Codes (STBCs) constructed for point-to-point channels as special cases. The proposed DSTBCs achieve higher rates (in complex symbols per channel use) than the multigroup ML decodable DSTBCs available in the literature. Simulation results show that the proposed codes have better bit error rate performance than the best known low complexity, full-diversity DSTBCs.

Full-rate full-diversity achieving MIMO precoding with partial CSIT

In this paper, we consider a slow-fading nt ×nr multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) channel subjected to block fading. Reliability (in terms of achieved diversity order) and rate (in number of symbols transmitted per channel use) are of interest in such channels. We propose a new precoding scheme which achieves both full diversity (nt ×nrth order diversity) as well as full rate (nt symbols per channel use) using partial channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT). The proposed scheme achieves full diversity and improved coding gain through an optimization over the choice of constellation sets. The optimization maximizes dmin2 for our precoding scheme subject to an energy constraint. The scheme requires feedback of nt - 1 angle parameter values, compared to 2ntnr real coefficients in case of full CSIT. Further, for the case of nt × 1 system, we prove that the capacity achieved by the proposed scheme is same as that achieved with full CSIT. Error rate performance results for nt = 3,4,8 show that the proposed scheme performs better than other precoding schemes in the literature; the better performance is due to the choice of the signal sets and the feedback angles in the proposed scheme.

Revision of the scolopendrid centipede digitipes Attems, 1930, from India (Chilopoda: Scolopendromorpha): reconciling molecular and morphological estimates of species diversity

Recent work on molecular phylogenetics of Scolopendridae from the Western Ghats, Peninsular India, has suggested the presence of six cryptic species of the otostigmine Digitipes Attems, 1930, together with three species described in previous taxonomic work by Jangi and Dass (1984). Digitipes is the correct generic attribution for a monophyletic group of Indian species, these being united with three species from tropical Africa (including the type) that share a distomedial process on the ultimate leg femur of males that is otherwise unknown in Otostigminae. Second maxillary characters previously used in the diagnosis of Digitipes are dismissed because Indian species do not possess the putatively diagnostic character states. Two new species from the Western Ghats that correspond to groupings identified based on monophyly, sequence divergence and coalescent analysis using molecular data are diagnosed based on distinct morphological characters. They are D. jangii and D. periyarensis n. spp. Three species named by Jangi and Dass (Digitipes barnabasi, D. coonoorensis and D. indicus) are revised based on new collections; D. indicus is a junior subjective synonym of Arthrorhabdus jonesii Verhoeff, 1938, the combination becoming Digitipes jonesii (Verhoeff, 1938) n. comb. The presence of Arthrorhabdus in India is accordingly refuted. Three putative species delimited by molecular and ecological data remain cryptic from the perspective of diagnostic morphological characters and are presently retained in D. barnabasi, D. jangii and D. jonesii. A molecularly-delimited species that resolved as sister group to a well-supported clade of Indian Digitipes is identified as Otostigmus ruficeps Pocock, 1890, originally described from a single specimen and revised herein. One Indian species originally assigned to Digitipes, D. gravelyi, deviates from confidently-assigned Digitipes with respect to several characters and is reassigned to Otostigmus, as O. gravelyi (Jangi and Dass, 1984) n. comb.

Modulation Diversity for Spatial Modulation Using Complex Interleaved Orthogonal Design

In this paper, we propose modulation diversity techniques for Spatial Modulation (SM) system using Complex Interleaved Orthogonal Design (CIOD). Specifically, we show that the standard SM scheme can achieve a transmit diversity order of two by using the CIOD meant for two transmit antenna system without incurring any additional system complexity or bandwidth requirement. Furthermore, we propose a low-complexity maximum likelihood detector for our CIOD based SM schemes by exploiting the structure of the CIOD. We show with our simulation results that the proposed schemes offer transmit diversity order of two and give a better symbol error rate performance than the conventional SM scheme.

Splicing Functions and Global Dependency on Fission Yeast Slu7 Reveal Diversity in Spliceosome Assembly

The multiple short introns in Schizosaccharomyces pombe genes with degenerate cis sequences and atypically positioned polypyrimidine tracts make an interesting model to investigate canonical and alternative roles for conserved splicing factors. Here we report functions and interactions of the S. pombe slu7(+) (spslu7(+)) gene product, known from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and human in vitro reactions to assemble into spliceosomes after the first catalytic reaction and to dictate 3' splice site choice during the second reaction. By using a missense mutant of this essential S. pombe factor, we detected a range of global splicing derangements that were validated in assays for the splicing status of diverse candidate introns. We ascribe widespread, intron-specific SpSlu7 functions and have deduced several features, including the branch nucleotide-to-3' splice site distance, intron length, and the impact of its A/U content at the 5' end on the intron's dependence on SpSlu7. The data imply dynamic substrate-splicing factor relationships in multiintron transcripts. Interestingly, the unexpected early splicing arrest in spslu7-2 revealed a role before catalysis. We detected a salt-stable association with U5 snRNP and observed genetic interactions with spprp1(+), a homolog of human U5-102k factor. These observations together point to an altered recruitment and dependence on SpSlu7, suggesting its role in facilitating transitions that promote catalysis, and highlight the diversity in spliceosome assembly.

Conformational Diversity in Contryphans from Conus Venom: cis-trans Isomerisation and Aromatic/Proline Interactions in the 23-Membered Ring of a 7-Residue Peptide Disulfide Loop

Conformational diversity or shapeshifting in cyclic peptide natural products can, in principle, confer a single molecular entity with the property of binding to multiple receptors. Conformational equilibria have been probed in the contryphans, which are peptides derived from Conus venom possessing a 23-membered cyclic disulfide moiety. The natural sequences derived from Conus inscriptus, GCV(D)LYPWC* (In936) and Conus loroisii, GCP(D)WDPWC* (Lo959) differ in the number of proline residues within the macrocyclic ring. Structural characterisation of distinct conformational states arising from cis-trans equilibria about Xxx-Pro bonds is reported. Isomerisation about the C2-P3 bond is observed in the case of Lo959 and about the Y5-P6 bond in In936. Evidence is presented for as many as four distinct species in the case of the synthetic analogue V3P In936. The Tyr-Pro-Trp segment in In936 is characterised by distinct sidechain orientations as a consequence of aromatic/proline interactions as evidenced by specific sidechain-sidechain nuclear Overhauser effects and ring current shifted proton chemical shifts. Molecular dynamics simulations suggest that Tyr5 and Trp7 sidechain conformations are correlated and depend on the geometry of the Xxx-Pro bond. Thermodynamic parameters are derived for the cis trans equilibrium for In936. Studies on synthetic analogues provide insights into the role of sequence effects in modulating isomerisation about Xxx-Pro bonds.

Full-rate full-diversity finite feedback space-time schemes with minimum feedback and transmission duration

A Finite Feedback Scheme (FFS) for a quasi-static MIMO block fading channel with finite N-ary delay-free noise-free feedback consists of N Space-Time Block Codes (STBCs) at the transmitter, one corresponding to each possible value of feedback, and a function at the receiver that generates N-ary feedback. A number of FFSs are available in the literature that provably attain full-diversity. However, there is no known full-diversity criterion that universally applies to all FFSs. In this paper a universal necessary condition for any FFS to achieve full-diversity is given, and based on this criterion the notion of Feedback-Transmission duration optimal (FT-optimal) FFSs is introduced, which are schemes that use minimum amount of feedback N for the given transmission duration T, and minimum T for the given N to achieve full-diversity. When there is no feedback (N = 1) an FT-optimal scheme consists of a single STBC, and the proposed condition reduces to the well known necessary and sufficient condition for an STBC to achieve full-diversity. Also, a sufficient criterion for full-diversity is given for FFSs in which the component STBC yielding the largest minimum Euclidean distance is chosen, using which full-rate (N-t complex symbols per channel use) full-diversity FT-optimal schemes are constructed for all N-t > 1. These are the first full-rate full-diversity FFSs reported in the literature for T < N-t. Simulation results show that the new schemes have the best error performance among all known FFSs.

Diversity order vs rate in an AWGN channel

We study the diversity order vs rate of an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel in the whole capacity region. We show that for discrete input as well as for continuous input, Gallager's upper bounds on error probability have exponential diversity in low and high rate region but only subexponential in the mid-rate region. For the best available lower bounds and for the practical codes one observes exponential diversity throughout the capacity region. However we also show that performance of practical codes is close to Gallager's upper bounds and the mid-rate subexponential diversity has a bearing on the performance of the practical codes. Finally we show that the upper bounds with Gaussian input provide good approximation throughout the capacity region even for finite constellation.

Variation at Diabetes- and Obesity-Associated Loci May Mirror Neutral Patterns of Human Population Diversity and Diabetes Prevalence in India

South Asian populations harbor a high degree of genetic diversity, due in part to demographic history. Two studies on genome-wide variation in Indian populations have shown that most Indian populations show varying degrees of admixture between ancestral north Indian and ancestral south Indian components. As a result of this structure, genetic variation in India appears to follow a geographic cline. Similarly, Indian populations seem to show detectable differences in diabetes and obesity prevalence between different geographic regions of the country. We tested the hypothesis that genetic variation at diabetes-and obesity-associated loci may be potentially related to different genetic ancestries. We genotyped 2977 individuals from 61 populations across India for 18 SNPs in genes implicated in T2D and obesity. We examined patterns of variation in allele frequency across different geographical gradients and considered state of origin and language affiliation. Our results show that most of the 18 SNPs show no significant correlation with latitude, the geographic cline reported in previous studies, or by language family. Exceptions include KCNQ1 with latitude and THADA and JAK1 with language, which suggests that genetic variation at previously ascertained diabetes-associated loci may only partly mirror geographic patterns of genome-wide diversity in Indian populations.

Structural Diversity in Multinuclear PdII Assemblies that Show Low- Humidity Proton Conduction

Systematic investigation on synergetic effects of geometry, length, denticity, and asymmetry of donors was performed through the formation of a series of uncommon Pd-II aggregates by employing the donor in a multicomponent self-assembly of a cis-blocked 90 degrees Pd-II acceptor and a tetratopic donor. Some of these assemblies represent the first examples of these types of structures, and their formation is not anticipated by only taking the geometry of the donor and the acceptor building units into account. Analysis of the crystal packing of the X-ray structure revealed several H bonds between the counteranions (NO3-) and water molecules (OHON). Moreover, H-bonded 3D-networks of water are present in the molecular pockets, which show water-adsorption properties with some variation in water affinity. Interestingly, these complexes exhibit proton conductivity (1.87x10(-5)-6.52x10(-4)Scm(-1)) at 296K and low relative humidity (ca. 46%) with activation energies of 0.29-0.46eV. Moreover, the conductivities further increase with the enhancement of humidity. The ability of these assemblies to exhibit proton-conducting properties under low-humidity conditions makes these materials highly appealing as electrolytes in batteries and in fuel-cell applications.

Interference Alignment With Diversity for the 2 x 2 X-Network With Four Antennas

A transmission scheme based on the Alamouti code, which we call the Li-Jafarkhani-Jafar (LJJ) scheme, was recently proposed for the 2 x 2 X-network i.e., two-transmitter (Tx) two-receiver X-network] with two antennas at each node. This scheme was claimed to achieve a sum degrees of freedom (DoF) of 8/3 and also a diversity gain of two when fixed finite constellations are employed at each Tx. Furthermore, each Tx required the knowledge of only its own channel unlike the Jafar-Shamai scheme which required global CSIT to achieve the maximum possible sum DoF of 8/3. In this paper, we extend the LJJ scheme to the 2 x 2 X-network with four antennas at each node. The proposed scheme also assumes only local channel knowledge at each Tx. We prove that the proposed scheme achieves the maximum possible sum DoF of 16/3. In addition, we also prove that, using any fixed finite constellation with appropriate rotation at each Tx, the proposed scheme achieves a diversity gain of at least four.

Structural diversity and ligand specificity of lectins. The Bangalore effort

Structural studies in this laboratory encompass four of the five major classes of plant lectins, including the one discovered by us. In addition to addressing issues specific to individual lectins, the work provided insights into protein folding, quaternary association and generation of ligand specificity. Legume and beta-prism fold lectins constitute families of proteins in which small alterations in essentially the same tertiary structure lead to large variations in quaternary structure, including that involving an open structure. Strategies for generating ligand specificity include water bridges, variation in loop length, post translational modification and oligomerization. Three of the structural classes investigated have subunits with three-fold symmetry. The symmetry in the structure is reflected in the sequence to different extents in different subclasses. The evolutionary implications of this observation have been explored. The work on lectins has now been extended to those from mycobacteria.

Species and acoustic diversity of bats in a palaeotropical wet evergreen forest in southern India

The Western Ghats of India is among the top 25 biodiversity hotspots in the world. About 43% of the reported 117 bat species in India are found in this region, but few quantitative studies of bat echolocation calls and diversity have been carried out here thus far. A quantitative study of bat diversity was therefore conducted using standard techniques, including mist-netting, acoustical and roost surveys in the wet evergreen forests of Kudremukh National Park in the Western Ghats of Karnataka. A total of 106 bats were caught over 108 sampling nights, representing 17 species, 3 belonging to Megachiroptera and 14 to Microchiroptera. Acoustical and roost surveys added three more species, two from Microchiroptera and one from Megachiroptera. Of these 20 species, 4 belonged to the family Pteropodidae, 10 to Vespertilionidae, 3 to Rhinolophidae, 2 to Megadermatidae and 1 to Hipposideridae. We recorded the echolocation calls of 13 of the 16 microchiropteran species, of which the calls of 4 species (Pipistrellus coromandra, Pipistrellus affinis, Pipistrellus ceylonicus and Harpiocephalus harpia) have been recorded for the first time. Discriminant function analyses of the calls of 11 species provided 91.7% correct classification of individuals to their respective species, indicating that the echolocation calls could be used successfully for non-invasive acoustic surveys and monitoring of bat species in the future.