Multiresolution coding techniques for digital television: A review

Multiresolution decompositions for video coding are reviewed. Both nonrecursive and recursive coding schemes are considered. In nonrecursive schemes, it is shown that pyramid structures have certain advantages over subband or wavelet techniques, and a specific spatiotemporal pyramid coding of HDTV is discussed in some detail. It is shown that recursive, DPCM like schemes will incur a slight loss of optimality due to a restricted form of prediction if multiresolution decomposition with compatible decoding is required. Compatibility and transmission issues are also discussed. Multiresolution transmission for digital broadcast TV is introduced. This, when combined with multiresolution source coding, achieves spectrum efficiency, robustness and graceful degradation under channel impairments.Invited PaperWork supported in part by the National Science Foundation under grants ECD-88-11111, MIP-90-14189 and Bell Communications Research.Work supported by the National Science Foundation under grants ECD-88-11111. K.M. Uz is now with David Sarnoff Research Center in Princeton, NJ 08543.     

The role of paraffin wax in the formation of minor products in the catalytic cracking of petroleum distillates over La-Y

An investigation of the role of paraffin wax in the catalytic cracking of wax-bearing petroleum distillates has been carried out in a fixed-bed reactor containing La-Y catalyst over a temperature range from 482° to 524°C. By using the concept of initial product selectivity derived from the time-on-stream theory of catalyst decay, it was found that increasing the wax content of the feedstocks resulted in an increase in the yield of C₅⁺ gasoline and a decrease in the yields of most of the gaseous products and of coke. Ethane and propylene and the olefin content of the gasoline increased in yield with the addition of wax. The mixing of cracking feedstocks has only a linear effect on the reactivity and no synergistic effects in any of the observed properties of the reaction are in fact observed.     

A Polynomial Time Solution to Minimum Forwarding Set Problem in Wireless Networks under Unit Disk Coverage Model

Network-wide broadcast (simply broadcast) is a frequently used operation in wireless ad hoc networks (WANETs). One promising practical approach for energy-efficient broadcast is to use localized algorithms to minimize the number of nodes involved in the propagation of the broadcast messages. In this context, the minimum forwarding set problem (MFSP) (also known as multipoint relay (MPR) problem) has received a considerable attention in the research community. Even though the general form of the problem is shown to be NP-complete, the complexity of the problem has not been known under the practical application context of ad hoc networks. In this paper, we present a polynomial time algorithm to solve the MFSP for wireless network under unit disk coverage model. We prove the existence of some geometrical properties for the problem and then propose a polynomial time algorithm to build an optimal solution based on these properties. To the best of our knowledge, our algorithm is the first polynomial time solution to the MFSP under the unit disk coverage model. We believe that the work presented in this paper will have an impact on the design and development of new algorithms for several wireless network applications including energy-efficient multicast, broadcast, and topology control protocols for WANETs and sensor networks.     

Electrohydrodynamic‐Induced SERS Immunoassay for Extensive Multiplexed Biomarker Sensing

Cancer diagnosis and patient monitoring require sensitive and simultaneous measurement of multiple cancer biomarkers considering that single biomarker analysis present inadequate information on the underlying biological transformations. Thus, development of sensitive and selective assays for multiple biomarker detection might improve clinical diagnosis and expedite the treatment process. Herein, a microfluidic platform for the rapid, sensitive, and parallel detection of multiple cancer‐specific protein biomarkers from complex biological samples is presented. This approach utilizes alternating current electrohydrodynamic‐induced surface shear forces that provide exquisite control over fluid flow thereby enhancing target–sensor interactions and minimizing non‐specific binding. Further, the use of surface‐enhanced Raman scattering‐based spectral encoding with individual barcodes for different targets enables specific and simultaneous detection of captured protein biomarkers. Using this approach, the specific and sensitive detection of clinically relevant biomarkers including human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2); Mucin 1, cell surface associated (MUC1); epidermal growth factor receptor; and Mucin 16, cell surface associated (MUC16) at concentrations as low as 10 fg mL^?1 in patient serum is demonstrated. Successful target detection from patient samples further demonstrates the potential of this current approach for the clinical diagnosis, which envisages a clinical translation for a rapid and sensitive appraisal of clinical samples in cancer diagnostics.     

Mechanosynthesis of Nd-Fe-B alloys

A mechanical alloying technique has been applied for Nd-Fe-B alloy synthesis from the mixture of neodymium, iron and Fe-B powders. The direct formation of Nd₂Fe₁₄B phase ( phase) was not observed, but an Nd-Fe multilayer structure was formed during the milling process. Annealing of milled powders at 1023 K for 1 h resulted in magnet formation. The dependence of the magnetic properties on milling time was observed. For the applied milling device and parameters, the optimum milling time proved to be 4 h and the coercive force reached a value of about 1000 kAm^–1.     

General view on current conveyors

We propose a new current conveyor terminology and explain how these terms are coined. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A Distributed Approach for Monitoring Multicast Service Availability

With the deployment of native multicast in commercial networks, multicast is getting closer to becoming a ubiquitous service in the Internet. The success of this deployment largely depends on the availability of good management tools and systems. One of the most important management tasks for multicast is to verify the availability of the service to its users. This task is usually referred to as reachability monitoring. Reachability monitoring requires a number of monitoring stations to work together to collect this information in a distributed manner in the interdomain scale. In this paper we present a general architecture for multicast reachability monitoring systems and focus on three critical functions: agent configuration, monitoring, and feedback collection. For each component, we provide a number of alternative approaches to implement the required functionality and discuss their advantages and disadvantages. Then, we focus on the feedback collection component. To a large extent, it determines the complexity and the overhead of a monitoring system. Using simulations, we compare a number of alternative approaches for feedback collection and make suggestions on when to use each. We believe our work provides insight into the issues and considerations in designing and developing multicast reachability monitoring systems.