Obesity has reached pandemic proportions. Hormonal and metabolic imbalances are the key factors that lead to obesity. South Asian populations have a unique phenotype, peculiar dietary practices, and ...a high prevalence of consanguinity. Moreover, many lower middle-income countries lack appropriate resources, super-specialists, and affordability to manage this complex disorder. Of late, there has been a substantial increase in both obesity and diabesity in India. Thus, many more patients are being managed by different types of bariatric procedures today than ever before. These patients have many types of endocrine and metabolic disturbances before and after bariatric surgery. Therefore, these patients should be managed by experts who have knowledge of both bariatric surgery and endocrinology. The authors propose "Barocrinology", a novel terminology in medical literature, to comprehensively describe the field of obesity medicine highlighting the role of knowing endocrine physiology for understating its evolution, insights into its complications and appreciating the changes in the hormonal milieu following weight loss therapies including bariatric surgery. Barocrinology, coined as a portmanteau of "baro" (weight) and endocrinology, focuses upon the endocrine and metabolic domains of weight physiology and pathology. This review summarizes the key pointers of bariatric management from an endocrine perspective.
A secret-key agreement for in-band full-duplex (FD) technology can be regarded as a valuable method for establishing security at the physical layer level. In this paper, we study an FD system model ...in conjunction with a secret-key agreement. The legitimate users interact through two-way channel probing and one-way reconciliation. We first introduce two complementary key generation models for FD and half-duplex (HD) settings, and compare their performances by introducing the key-reconciliation function. Furthermore, we study the impact of probing-reconciliation tradeoff and the role of a strong eavesdropper, and analyze the system performance in the high-signal-to-noise ratio regime. We show that under certain conditions, the FD mode negatively affects the capabilities of the eavesdropper and offers several advantages in terms of secret-key rate over the conventional HD setups. Our analysis reveals that the perfect self-interference cancelation is not necessary to obtain performance gains over the HD mode.
Cadmium (Cd) toxicity in agricultural crops is a widespread problem. Little is known about biochar and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) effect on Cd concentration in maize plant either applied ...separately or in combination. Current study was performed to demonstrate effects of biochar and
Rhizophagus clarus
on plant growth, photosynthesis activity, nutrients (P, Ca, Mg, Fe, Cu, and Mn), and Cd concentration in maize grown in Cd-spiked soil. The alkaline soil was spiked by Cd factor at three levels: 0 (Cd 0), 5 (Cd 5), and 10 (Cd 10) mg/kg; biochar factor at two levels: 0 and 1%; and mycorrhizal inoculum factor at two levels: MF0 and MF1 (
R. clraus
). Plants were harvested after 70 days of seed germination, and various morphological and physiological parameters, as well as elemental concentration and root colonization, were recorded. Addition of biochar increased plant biomass by 21% (Cd 5) and 93% (Cd 10), MF1 enhanced by 53% (Cd 0) and 69% (Cd 10), while biochar + MF1 enhanced dry plant biomass by 70% (Cd 0) and 94% (Cd 10). Results showed maximum increase of 94% (Cd 10) in plant biomass was observed in Cd-spiked soil. Root colonization decreased proportionally by increasing Cd concentration and at Cd 10, colonization was 36.7% and 31.7% for MF1 and biochar + MF1 treatments, respectively. Besides that, addition of biochar enhanced root attributes (root length, volume, and surface area) by 34–58% compared to control in Cd 10. The MF1 increased these attributes by 11–78% while biochar + MF1 enhanced by 32–61% in Cd-spiked soil. However, biochar + MF1 neutralized Cd stress in maize plant for gaseous attributes (assimilation rate, transpiration rate, intercellular CO
2
, and stomatal conductance). The MF1 enhanced Cd concentration in plant as it was 3.32 mg/kg in Cd 5 and 6.73 mg/kg in Cd 10 treatments while addition of biochar phytostabilized Cd and reduced its concentration in plants by 2.0 mg/kg in Cd 5 and 4.27 mg/kg in Cd 10. The biochar + MF1 had 2.9 mg/kg and 4.8 mg/kg Cd concentration in Cd 5 and Cd 10 plants, respectively. Phosphorus concentration was augmented in shoots (up to 26%) and roots (up to 20%) of maize plant in biochar-amended soil than control plants. In biochar + MF1, concentration of P was 1.01% and 0.73% in Cd 5 and Cd 10, respectively. It is concluded that biochar + MF1 treatment enhances plant biomass while addition of sole biochar reduced Cd uptake, slightly indifferent to earlier treatment.
In this paper, we are interested in right (resp., left) quasi-polycyclic (QP) codes of length
n
=
m
ℓ
with an associated vector
a
=
(
a
0
,
a
1
,
…
,
a
m
-
1
)
∈
F
q
m
, which are a generalization of ...quasi-cyclic codes (QC) and quasi-twisted (QT) codes. They are defined as invariant subspaces of
F
q
n
by the right (resp., left) QP operator
T
~
a
→
(resp.,
T
~
a
←
). A correspondence between the right (resp., left)
ℓ
-QP codes and the linear codes of length
ℓ
over the ring
R
a
→
,
m
:
=
F
q
x
/
x
m
-
a
→
(
x
)
,
a
→
(
x
)
=
∑
i
=
0
m
-
1
a
i
x
i
(resp.,
R
a
←
,
m
:
=
F
q
x
/
x
m
-
a
←
(
x
)
,
a
←
(
x
)
=
∑
i
=
0
n
-
1
a
i
x
m
-
1
-
i
) is given. This correspondence leads to some basic characterizations of these codes such as generator and parity check polynomials. Moreover, we also discuss the structure of the 1-generator QP codes, and we prove BCH-like and the Hartmann–Tzeng-like bounds on the minimum distance of QP codes. Finally, we give examples of new quantum codes derived from QP codes as an application of some of the results. Several of these codes are MDS.
We study the problem of secure transmission over a Gaussian two-user multi-input single-output (MISO) broadcast channel (BC) under the assumption that links connecting the transmitter to the two ...receivers may have unequal strength statistically . In addition to this, the state of the channel to each receiver is conveyed in a delayed manner to the transmitter. We focus on a two state topological setting of strong v.s. weak links. Under these assumptions, we first consider the MISO broadcast channel and establish inner and outer bounds on secure generalized degrees of freedom (SGDoF) region with different topology states. The encoding scheme sheds light on the usage of both resources, i.e., topology of the model and delayed channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT); and, allows digitization and multicasting of overheard side information, while transmitting confidential message over the stronger link. Furthermore, for a special class of channels, we show that the established bounds agree and so we characterize the sum SGDoF. Next, we extended this model to the Gaussian MISO two receiver channel with an external eavesdropper, under the assumption that the state of the channel which is available to each receiver is conveyed either perfectly (P) or with delay (D) to the transmitter equal fractions of time, while only delayed CSI is available from the eavesdropper to the transmitter. For this case, we first establish an outer bound on the SGDoF region. Next, we develop an achievability scheme that shows that as opposed to coding independently over different states, joint encoding across the alternating CSIT and topological states enables strictly better secure rates.
In this paper, we are interested in linear codes invariant under the (σ,δ)-action of a given matrix M, that we call (M,σ,δ)-skew codes. Various subclasses of these codes, depending on the ...(σ,δ)-cyclical property of M, are derived. In particular, we distinguish between three fundamental types: (M,σ,δ)-cyclic, (M,σ,δ)-quasi-cyclic and (M,σ,δ)-multi-cyclic. These different subclasses allow us to obtain some of the well known types of linear codes as special cases depending on the choice of M. We observe that the (σ,δ)-similarity in Mn(Fq) gives rise to various relations between these codes. As common in the study of cyclic codes and their generalizations, we use the skew polynomial ring Fqx,σ,δ to study (M,σ,δ)-skew codes. As an application of the theory developed here, we construct some optimal linear codes and MDS codes over different alphabets with additional desirable properties such as self orthogonality and linear complementary duality (LCD).
Sub-pixel registration is a crucial step for applications such as super-resolution in remote sensing, motion compensation in magnetic resonance imaging, and nondestructive testing in manufacturing, ...to name a few. Recently, these technologies have been trending towards wavelet-encoded imaging and sparse/compressive sensing. The former plays a crucial role in reducing imaging artifacts, while the latter significantly increases the acquisition speed. In view of these new emerging needs for applications of wavelet-encoded imaging, we propose a sub-pixel registration method that can achieve direct wavelet domain registration from a sparse set of coefficients. We make the following contributions: (i) We devise a method of decoupling scale, rotation, and translation parameters in the Haar wavelet domain, (ii) we derive explicit mathematical expressions that define in-band sub-pixel registration in terms of wavelet coefficients, (iii) using the derived expressions, we propose an approach to achieve in-band sub-pixel registration, avoiding back and forth transformations. (iv) Our solution remains highly accurate even when a sparse set of coefficients are used, which is due to localization of signals in a sparse set of wavelet coefficients. We demonstrate the accuracy of our method, and show that it outperforms the state of the art on simulated and real data, even when the data are sparse.
Multiview super resolution image reconstruction (SRIR) is often cast as a resampling problem by merging non-redundant data from multiple images on a finer grid, while inverting the effect of the ...camera point spread function (PSF). One main problem with multiview methods is that resampling from nonuniform samples (provided by multiple images) and the inversion of the PSF are highly nonlinear and ill-posed problems. Non-linearity and ill-posedness are typically overcome by linearization and regularization, often through an iterative optimization process, which essentially trade off the very same information (i.e. high frequency) that we want to recover. We propose a different point of view for multiview SRIR that is very much like single-image methods which extrapolate the spectrum of one image selected as reference from among all views. However, for this, the proposed method relies on information provided by all other views, rather than prior constraints as in single-image methods which may not be an accurate source of information. This is made possible by deriving explicit closed-form expressions that define how the local high frequency information that we aim to recover for the reference high resolution image is related to the local low frequency information in the sequence of views. The locality of these expressions due to modeling using wavelets reduces the problem to an exact and linear set of equations that are well-posed and solved algebraically without requiring regularization or interpolation. Results and comparisons with recently published state-of-the-art methods show the superiority of the proposed solution.
We study the problem of secure transmission over a Gaussian multi-input single-output (MISO) two receiver channel with an external eavesdropper, under the assumption that the state of the channel ...which is available to each receiver is conveyed either perfectly (P) or with delay (D) to the transmitter. Denoting by S 1 , S 2 , and S 3 , the channel state information at the transmitter (CSIT) of user 1, user 2, and eavesdropper, respectively, the overall CSIT can then alternate between eight possible states, i.e., (S 1 , S 2 , S 3 ) ∈ {P, D} 3 . We denote by λ S 1 S 2 S 3 the fraction of time during which the state S 1 S 2 S 3 occurs. Under these assumptions, we first consider the Gaussian MISO wiretap channel and characterize the secure degrees of freedom (SDoF). Next, we consider the general multi-receiver setup and characterize the SDoF region of fixed hybrid states PPD, PDP, and DDP. We then focus our attention on the symmetric case in which λ PDD = λ DPD . For this case, we establish bounds on SDoF region. The analysis reveals that alternating CSIT allows synergistic gains in terms of SDoF, and shows that by opposition to encoding separately over different states, joint encoding across the states strictly enables better secure rates. Furthermore, we specialize our results for the two receivers channel with an external eavesdropper to the two-user broadcast channel. We show that the synergistic gains in terms of SDoF by alternating CSIT are not restricted to multi-receiver wiretap channels, and can also be harnessed under broadcast setting.
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