On BER assessment of conventional- and wavelet-OFDM over AWGN channel

Orthogonal wavelets enclose more potential of dropping the ISI- and ICI-sway amid the carriers due to multipath propagation over the free-space fading channels. Moreover, wavelet-OFDM is more bandwidth efficient as compared to conventional OFDM and is less affected by Doppler shift. Accordingly, a BER estimation of discrete Fourier transform (DFT) based OFDM system and discrete wavelet transform (DWT) based OFDM system is carried out in this work. The assessment is demonstrated by means of diverse modulation schemes explicitly BPSK, QPSK, 8-PSK, QAM, 8-QAM, 16-QAM for both conventional- and wavelet-OFDM wireless system over AWGN channels. Higher orders of PSK schemes involve more SNR requirement to target an acceptable BER of 10⁻⁵ over AWGN channels in both the cases. Furthermore, the efficiency of W-OFDM increases with decreasing the required value of BER.     

Modeling and simulation of long reach high speed inter-satellite link (ISL)

A hybrid OFDM–IsOWC system incorporating diverse modulation schemes like optical double side band (ODSB), optical tandem side band (OTSB) and optical single side band (OSSB) is carried out to optimize a long reach high speed inter-satellite link (ISL) with acceptable SNR and BER. The proposed system is also reported under the influence of antenna efficiency and pointing error at varied values of power levels. Simulations point toward that the proposed hybrid OFDM–OSSB–IsOWC transmission system promises significantly enhanced ISL link compared to conventional IsOWC systems.     

Lagrangian heuristics for scheduling new product development projects in the pharmaceutical industry

To stay ahead of their competition, pharmaceutical firms must make effective use of their new product development (NPD) capabilities by efficiently allocating its analytical, clinical testing and manufacturing resources across various drug development projects. The resulting project scheduling problems involve coordinating hundreds of testing and manufacturing activities over a period of several quarters. Most conventional integer programming approaches are computationally impractical for problems of this size, while priority rule-driven heuristics seldom provide consistent solution quality. We propose a Lagrangian decomposition (LD) heuristic that exploits the special structure of these problems. Some resources (typically manpower) are shared across all on-going projects while others (typically equipment) are specific to individual project categories. Our objective function is a weighted discounted cost expressed in terms of activity completion times. The LD heuristics were subjected to a comprehensive experimental study based on typical operational instances. While the conventional “Reward–Risk” priority rule heuristic generates duality gaps between 47–58%, the best LD heuristic achieves duality gaps between 10–20%. The LD heuristics also yield makespan reductions of over 30% over the Reward–Risk priority rule.     

An approximate analytical solution of time-fractional telegraph equation

In this article, the powerful, easy-to-use and effective approximate analytical mathematical tool like homotopy analysis method (HAM) is used to solve the telegraph equation with fractional time derivative α (1 < α ? 2). By using initial values, the explicit solutions of telegraph equation for different particular cases have been derived. The numerical solutions show that only a few iterations are needed to obtain accurate approximate solutions. The method performs extremely well in terms of efficiency and simplicity to solve this historical model.     

Solution of the nonlinear fractional diffusion equation with absorbent term and external force

The article presents the approximate analytical solutions of general nonlinear diffusion equation with fractional time derivative in the presence of an absorbent term and a linear external force obtained with the help of powerful mathematical tool like Homotopy Perturbation Method. By using initial value, the approximate analytical solutions of the equation are derived. The fractional derivatives are described in the Caputo sense. Numerical results for different particular cases are presented graphically. The anomalous behavior of nonlinear diffusivity in the presence or absence of external force and reaction term are calculated numerically and presented graphically.     

Effect of desiccant isotherm on the design parameters of desiccant wheel

A one dimensional mathematical model is developed to optimize the design parameters of desiccant wheel. The result shows that after some value of design parameters, change in moisture removal is negligible. The optimum isotherm shape should be R = 0.1. At this isotherm optimum value of wheel length, and channel pitch should be in the range of 0.2–0.25 and 0.003–0.004 m respectively.     

Radiological assessment of natural and fallout radioactivity in the soil of Chamba and Dharamshala areas of Himachal Pradesh,India

This paper presents the results of measurement of natural and fallout radioactivity in soil samples of Chamba and Dharamshala areas in Himachal Pradesh, India. Spatial distribution of ²³⁸U, ²²⁶Ra, ²³²Th, ⁴⁰K, ¹³⁷Cs was determined using High resolution gamma-ray spectrometry. The mean activity concentration in Chamba region due to ²³⁸U, ²³²Th, ⁴⁰K and ¹³⁷Cs was 32.3, 58.4, 588.3, and 10.9 Bq kg⁻¹, respectively, whereas in Dharamshala it was 35.7, 61.3, 594.9, 10.0 Bq kg⁻¹, respectively. Absorbed gamma dose rate (D) in air was calculated using appropriate dose conversion factors, which was varying from 45 to 103 nGy h⁻¹. To control the radiation exposure due to natural radioactivity in soil, if it is used as building materials, radium equivalent activity (Ra_eq) and activity index were also evaluated. Radium equivalent activity calculated for the soil ranged from 95.5 to 234.2 Bq kg⁻¹ with average of 171.0 Bq kg⁻¹.The calculated Activity concentration index was ranged from 0.34 to 0.85 with an average value of 0.64. The natural and fallout radioactivity in soil of this region is comparable with Indian average and other parts of the world. The percentage contribution of ²³⁸U, ²³²Th and ⁴⁰K and ¹³⁷Cs to the average external gamma dose rate was 22, 46, 32, 2%, respectively. This shows that the dose contribution due to fallout radioactivity is negligible as compared to the natural radioactivity.     

Photochemical formation and decomposition of 8-[β-arylethenyl]-2,2,6-trimethyl-7,9,10-trioxa-tricyclo[6.2.2.0]dodec-11-ene to novel 6-hydroxy-1,7,7-trimethyl-2-oxa-bicyclo[4.4.0]dec-4-en-3-one in the presence of oxygen

Irradiation of (E,E)-arylidene-β-ionones in the presence of oxygen leads to the formation of 8-[β-arylethenyl]-2,2,6-trimethyl-7,9,10-trioxa-tricyclo[6.2.2.0^1,6]dodec-11-enes (3). However, prolonged irradiation in the presence of oxygen leads to their conversion to 6-hydroxy-1,7,7-trimethyl-2-oxa-bicyclo[4.4.0]dec-4-en-3-one (4), apparently proceeding through addition of oxygen to the side chain π-bond in 3.