National Taiwan University of Science and Technology

About: National Taiwan University of Science and Technology is a education organization based out in Taipei, Taipei, Taiwan. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Fuzzy logic & Control theory. The organization has 16288 authors who have published 21577 publications receiving 426294 citations. The organization is also known as: Taiwan Tech & Taiwantech.

Coordinated Beamforming for Multiuser MISO Interference Channel Under Rate Outage Constraints

Abstract: This paper studies the coordinated beamforming design problem for the multiple-input single-output (MISO) interference channel, assuming only channel distribution information (CDI) known to the transmitters. Under a given requirement on the rate outage probability for receivers, we aim to maximize the system utility (e.g., the weighted sum rate, weighted geometric mean rate, and the weighed harmonic mean rate) subject to the rate outage constraints and individual power constraints. The outage constraints, however, lead to a complicated, nonconvex structure for the considered beamforming design problem and render the optimization problem difficult to handle. Although this nonconvex optimization problem can be solved in an exhaustive search manner, this brute-force approach is only feasible when the number of transmitter-receiver pairs is small. For a system with a large number of transmitter-receiver pairs, computationally efficient alternatives are necessary. Hence, the focus of this paper is the design of such efficient approximation methods. In particular, by employing semidefinite relaxation (SDR) and first-order approximation techniques, we propose an efficient successive convex approximation (SCA) algorithm that provides high-quality approximate beamforming solutions via solving a sequence of convex approximation problems. The solution thus obtained is further shown to be a stationary point for the SDR of the original outage constrained beamforming design problem. Furthermore, we propose a distributed SCA algorithm where each transmitter optimizes its own beamformer using local CDI and information obtained from limited message exchange with the other transmitters. Our simulation results demonstrate that the proposed SCA algorithm and its distributed counterpart indeed converge, and promising performance can be achieved for all the considered system utilities.

Surface modification and endothelialization of polyurethane for vascular tissue engineering applications: a review

Abstract: Cardiovascular implants, especially vascular grafts made of synthetic polymers, find wide clinical applications in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. However, cases of failure still exist, notably caused by restenosis and thrombus formation. Aiming to solve these problems, various approaches to surface modification of synthetic vascular grafts have been used to improve both the hemocompatibility and long-term patency of artificial vascular grafts. Surface modification using hydrophilic molecules can enhance hemocompatibility, but this may limit the initial vascular endothelial cell adhesion. Therefore, the improvement of endothelialization on these grafts with specific peptides and biomolecules is now an exciting field of research. In this review, several techniques to improve surface modification and endothelialization on vascular grafts, mainly polyurethane (PU) grafts, are summarized, together with the recent development and evolution of the different strategies: from the use of PEG, zwitterions, and polysaccharides to peptides and other biomolecules and genes; from in vitro endothelialization to in vivo endothelialization; and from bio-inert and bio-active to bio-mimetic approaches.