This paper introduces a hybrid pilot-aided channel estimation technique for mitigating the effect of pilot contamination for the uplink of multi-cell multiuser massive MIMO systems. The proposed hybrid pilot is designed such that it enjoys the complementary advantages between time-multiplexed (TM) pilot and time-superimposed (TS) pilot, and thereby, allows superior solution to the conventional ...

Conventional practice within the United Kingdom and beyond is to conduct economic evaluations with "health" as evaluative space and "health maximization" as the decision-making rule. However, there is increasing recognition that this evaluative framework may not always be appropriate, and this is particularly the case within public health and social care contexts. This article presents a method...

Multicentre randomised trials are complex projects with many operational uncertainties. The embedding of a formal check upon study progress and viability at a pre-specified time point (sometimes referred to as an 'internal pilot') is becoming increasingly common within multicentre pragmatic randomised trials. However, it is worth considering this practice. We argue that most, if not all, multic...

The Scottish Vowel Length Rule (SVLR) – formerly ‘Aitken’s Law’ [1, 5, 6] – is a contextconditioned vowel length alternation that in Scottish and Northern Irish varieties of English coexists with the so-called Voicing Effect (VE, or ‘pre-fortis clipping’) [3]. It is known that SVLRlike alternations occur in varieties of English spoken in northern England close to the Scottish border [1, 4, 8], ...

FACULTY AND STUDENT PERCEPTIONS ON THE INTRODUCTION OF OBJECTIVE STRUCTURED CLINICAL EXAMINATION IN AN UNDERGRADUATE PHYSIOTHERAPY COURSE: A PILOT STUDY Mullai Dhinakaran *1, Jugesh Chattwal 2, Dheeraj K.V 3. *1 Associate Professor, College of Physiotherapy, CMC & Hospital, Ludhiana, Punjab, India. 2 Professor, Head of the Department, Department of Paediatrics, CMC & Hospital, Ludhiana, India. ...

Risk analysis of production system, while the actual and appropriate data is not available, will cause wrong system parameters prediction and wrong decision making. In uncertainty condition, there are no appropriate measures for decision making. In epistemic uncertainty, we are confronted by the lack of data. Therefore, in calculating the system risk, we encounter vagueness that we have to use ...

Patient choice is becoming the centre of health policy in the UK and other countries. But there is ambiguity about what choice means. As the term is used in everyday life, choice is the foundation of the doctrine of patient consent. The doctor is responsible for choosing appropriate treatment, and the patient is responsible for choosing (for consenting to or refusing) what is offered and accept...

The aim of this project was to improve the documentation of treatment escalation decisions at a district general hospital in southwest England. A pilot "Ceiling of Treatment" proforma was trialled on the care of the elderly wards at the Royal United Hospital (RUH), Bath. Successive PDSA cycles enabled revision of the proforma for use across the Trust. Data were collected on the proportion of pa...