The evolution of communication network architectures is steering towards more sustainable, flexible, and lightweight designs, particularly with the advent of sixth-generation (6G) mobile communications. Spectrum-rich optical integrated systems are anticipated to play a crucial role in this transformation, offering significant advantages such as high data rates, reduced interference, and improved energy efficiency. This paper introduces and experimentally demonstrates a novel optical integrated communication, sensing, and power transfer (O-ICSPT) system. The proposed system integrates optical wireless communication, sensing, and wireless power transfer into a multifunctional framework, addressing the limitations of existing systems in terms of flexibility and resource utilization. The experimental setup investigates the effects of bias current, peak-to-peak voltage, and light source wavelength on the performance of each functional module. Experimental results indicate that the O-ICSPT system achieves a maximum data rate of approximately 632.58 Mbps, a best ranging root mean square error approaching 0 m, and a peak energy harvesting capability of about 10.02 mW. These findings underscore the potential of the O-ICSPT system in future 6G integrated communication networks, marking the first experimental validation of such a system.

We revisit the simultaneous approximation model for the correlation clustering problem introduced by Davies, Moseley, and Newman [Davies et al., 2024]. The objective is to find a clustering that minimizes given norms of the disagreement vector over all vertices. We present an efficient algorithm that produces a clustering that is simultaneously a 63.3-approximation for all monotone symmetric norms. This significantly improves upon the previous approximation ratio of 6348 due to Davies, Moseley, and Newman [Davies et al., 2024], which works only for 𝓁_p-norms. To achieve this result, we first reduce the problem to approximating all top-k norms simultaneously, using the connection between monotone symmetric norms and top-k norms established by Chakrabarty and Swamy [Chakrabarty and Swamy, 2019]. Then we develop a novel procedure that constructs a 12.66-approximate fractional clustering for all top-k norms. Our 63.3-approximation ratio is obtained by combining this with the 5-approximate rounding algorithm by Kalhan, Makarychev, and Zhou [Kalhan et al., 2019]. We then demonstrate that with a loss of ε in the approximation ratio, the algorithm can be adapted to run in nearly linear time and in the MPC (massively parallel computation) model with poly-logarithmic number of rounds. By allowing a further trade-off in the approximation ratio to (359+ε), the number of MPC rounds can be reduced to a constant.

In this paper, we investigate the information piggyback capability of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) by encoding observed motion states. Specifically, at specific moments throughout the holistic navigation process, the distance between the UAV and the starting point, the position expressed by the three-dimensional (3D) Cartesian coordinates, the linear velocities, and the attitude angles are encoded into 16-bit digital symbols through a proposed codebook. In this way, covert data communications can be enabled, complementing conventional radio frequency (RF) communications in harsh electromagnetic environments. To achieve a well-designed flight controller that is necessary to enable fluent movement against external disturbances and accurate motion state encoding, we introduce the whole flight control structure and perform system dynamic analysis. The proposed motion control mechanism can mitigate the jitter and oscillation during the journey while ensuring the required motion status for information encoding purposes.

Existing end-to-end task-oriented semantic communication (ToSC) systems rely on deep neural network-based joint source and channel coding (DeepJSCC) architecture, which can extract and transmit task-relevant information for remote task inference. Although this architecture provides an efficient communication method, it poses specific security issues. Since DeepJSCC delivers task-related data without encryption, the risks of signal interception and reverse inference increase. This paper provides a physical layer solution for security protection via precoding optimization. We compare the proposed method with the traditional physical layer security strategy, which aims to maximize secrecy capacity under different task classifiers. Simulation results show the superiority of the proposed method in securing the task-inference performance.

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) have been advocated as a promising technology to overcome blockage issues in mmWave communications caused by severe propagation absorption and high directivity. This paper investigates the design of finite resolution phase shifters at the RIS to maximize the signal-to-noise ratio of a point-to-point multiple-input single output mmWave communication system. Both the transmitting antennas at the base station and the reflecting elements on the RIS are modeled as uniform planar arrays. The optimization of the discrete RIS design remains a computationally expensive procedure, especially for large reflecting surfaces and high resolution phase shifts. As a solution, we propose in this work a low-complexity suboptimal approach that exploits the structure of mmWave propagation channels. Specifically, the developed algorithms rely on decomposing the reflecting beamforming vectors and the channel path vectors into Kronecker products of factors of uni-modulus vectors. In addition to the computational complexity advantage, the proposed solutions also promise to require only partial information of the cascaded channel rather than the full one, the estimation of which is more practically convenient due to the passive nature of the RIS. To enable the proposed reflecting beamforming designs, we propose a channel estimation technique that invokes the atomic norm minimization framework to estimate the parameters of the channel, namely, the path’s magnitudes and their associated departure and arrival angles. Simulation results confirm the superiority of the proposed reflecting design and channel estimation scheme as compared to other existing techniques.

Large low earth orbit (LEO) mega-constellation systems have been designed and deployed as a global backbone to provide ubiquitous connectivity across the world. However, due to the high traffic load/congestion arisen from the required numerous information relay and forwarding, it is a challenge for LEO mega-constellation systems to set up long-distance connections between two remote terrestrial users for real-time communications, which requires strict low latency. Other than inter-LEO satellite links (ILSL), introducing third-party relays, such as terrestrial, aerial, and satellite relays, is an alternative way to improve the latency performance for wide-area deliveries of real-time traffic. However, the reliability of the transmitted signal will unavoidably degrade, because of the increased path-loss attributed to long-distance relaying transmissions. Then, to reveal the principle that the third-party relays affect the latency and reliability, in this work, an LEO satellite-terrestrial communication scenario is considered, in which two remote terrestrial users communicate with each other via an LEO mega-constellation system. Analysis models are built up to investigate the end-to-end time delay and outage performance while considering different ILSL, terrestrial, aerial, and satellite relay assisted transmission scenarios. More specifically, by applying geometrical probability theory, exact/approximated closed-form analytical expressions have been derived for average time delay

Nonterrestrial communications have emerged as a key enabler for seamless connectivity in the upcoming generation networks. This kind of network can support high data rate communications among aerial platforms (i.e., unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), high-altitude platforms (HAPs), and satellites) and cellular networks, achieving anywhere and anytime connections. However, there are many practical implementation limitations, especially overload power consumption, high probability of blockage, and dynamic propagation environment. Fortunately, the recent technology reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is expected to be one of the most cost-efficient solutions to address such issues. RIS with low-cost elements can bypass blockages and create multiple line-of-sight (LoS) links and provide controllable communication channels. In this article, we present a comprehensive literature review on the RIS-assisted nonterrestrial networks (RANTNs). First, the framework of the RANTNs is introduced with detailed discussion about distinct properties of RIS in NTNs and the two deployment types of RIS, that is, terrestrial RISs (TRISs), and aerial RISs (ARISs), and the classification of RANTNs, including RIS-assisted air-to-ground (A2G)/ground-to-air (G2A), ARIS-assisted ground-to-ground (G2G), and RIS-assisted air-to-air (A2A) communications. In combination with next-generation communication technologies, the advanced technologies in RANTNs are discussed. Then, we overview the literature related to RANTNs from the perspectives of performance analysis and optimization, followed by the widely used methodologies. Finally, open challenges and future research direction in the context of the RANTNs are highlighted.

To expedite research progress on terahertz (THz) communications, we analyze the outage performance of THz communication systems by a compound channel model in this paper. Different from existing models, the compound channel model incorporates the effects of spreading loss, molecular absorption loss, shadowing, and multi-path fading via a composite distribution. By using this model, we maintain an equilibrium of the outage performance analysis between mathematical tractability and the fidelity of realistic THz channels. Specifically, by utilizing the compound channel model, outage performance analysis can get rid of sophisticated case-specific channel modeling relying on field measurement and the ray-tracing assessment. To facilitate the application of the proposed channel model, we also design a maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) based channel parameter estimation approach for the compound channel model. The analytical results of outage performance by using the compound channel model are given in closed form and verified by numerical results.

This paper aims to derive expressions of the downlink ergodic user rates in a multi-cell large-scale multi-user multiple-input single-output (MISO) system under the assumption that each base station (BS) employs maximum ratio transmission (MRT) precoding and that single-antenna users in each cell are divided into groups, where channels of users in the same group share common covariance matrices and follow the double scattering channel model. Moreover, both channel estimation errors and pilot contamination effects caused by re-use of pilot sequences in neighboring cells are taken into consideration in this work. The analysis is carried out using statistical tools under the exact and asymptotic regimes in which the number of antennas at BS$N$, the number of users in each cell$K$, and the number of scatterers$S$grow large at the same pace. Furthermore, the obtained exact expressions and deterministic approximations of the ergodic rates are expressed in simplified closed-forms under the special case of multi-keyhole channels to yield useful insights. They reveal that signal-to-noise plus interference ratio (SINR) without user grouping in a multi-keyhole channel is similar to that under standard Rayleigh channel in the asymptotic regime. However, under user grouping, we show that the massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) gains promised by deploying large-scale antenna arrays in multi-cell settings are limited by the number of scatterers even if the number of antennas grows large. Simulation results illustrate the close match provided by the asymptotic analysis for moderate system dimensions and confirm the insights drawn from the theoretical findings.

Reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) appear as one of the most promising paradigms for future wireless communications, because of their high adjustability for diverse communication demands and the additional information-carrying capability by reflecting patterns. This paper investigates the capacity of RIS-assisted multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) symbiotic communications utilizing multiple reflecting patterns, where each reflecting pattern is non-uniformly activated to carry additional information. To enhance transmission performance, the reflecting patterns, reflecting activation probability, and the transmit covariance matrix are jointly designed. Since the exact expression of the system capacity is intractable, the lower and upper bounds on the capacity are derived and used for optimization in this paper. Based on the lower bound on the capacity, a gradient ascent algorithm is developed to find the optimal reflecting patterns, reflecting activation probability, and the transmit covariance matrix. By taking advantage of the concise-form upper bound on the capacity, closed-form solutions of the reflecting activation probability and transmit covariance matrix can be derived after optimizing the reflecting patterns. The superiority of the proposed design is investigated and verified by computer simulations. Some selected numerical results demonstrate that the proposed design can achieve a higher capacity than the benchmark adopting only one reflecting pattern.

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) has emerged as a promising mean to enhance wireless transmission. The effective reflected paths provided by RIS are able to alleviate the susceptibility to blockage effects, especially in high-frequency band communications, where signals experience severe path loss and high directivity. This paper is concerned with an RIS-assisted system over the millimeter wave (mmWave) channel characterized by sparse propagation paths. A base station tries to connect with the desired user through an RIS, while the undesired user can also receive the signal transmitted from BS unavoidably, which is treated as the interference signal. All terminals are assumed to be equipped with a single antenna for the sake of simplicity. The paper aims to propose an appropriate design of the phase shifts of each element at the RIS so as to maximize the received signal power transmitted from the base station (BS) at the desired user, while nulling the received interference signal power at the undesired user. The proposed reflecting design relies on the decomposition of the reflecting beamforming vectors and all channel path vectors into Kronecker product of factors being uni-modulus vectors. By exploiting characteristics of Kronecker mixed products, different factors of the reflecting are designed for either nulling the interference signal at the undesired user, or coherently combining data paths at the desired user. Furthermore, a channel estimation strategy is proposed to enable the proposed reflecting beamforming design. The magnitude, azimuth, and elevation arrival and departure angles of desired and undesired paths are estimated by an efficient 2-dimension (2-D) line spectrum optimization technique based on the atomic norm minimization (ANM) framework. The performance of the reflecting designs and channel estimation scheme is analyzed and demonstrated by simulation results.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) communications have been widely exploited in our daily life, which leads to rising concerns about the security issue. This work investigates the secrecy performance of a UAV-to-vehicle (UAV-2-V) communication system, where the information delivered over both downlink and uplink between a UAV ($S$) acting as a temporary aerial base-station and a legitimate vehicle ($D$) moving along a road which is overheard by an eavesdropping vehicle ($E$) on the same road. The location of$S$is assumed to be uniformly distributed in the sky, while the locations of$D$and$E$are uniformly distributed on the highway. The statistical characteristics, including the cumulative distribution function and probability density function of the received signal-to-noise ratio over both downlink and uplink, are characterized respectively. Closed-form expressions for the approximate and asymptotic secrecy outage probability (SOP) of the downlink experiencing Rician fading channels have been derived accordingly. Moreover, the secrecy outage performance of the uplink is investigated by deriving the closed-form expression of the exact and asymptotic SOP in two cases: the eavesdropping channel suffers Rician and Weibull fading, respectively. Finally, Monte-Carlo simulations are shown to verify our proposed analytical models.

In this paper, we propose a non-stationary satellite communication system model considering the impacts of Earth rotation by adopting the Earth-centered inertial (ECI), and the Earth-centered Earth-fixed (ECEF) coordinates. The position variations of a satellite (S) and a ground user (U) via coordinate transformations are demonstrated. Considering the variations of the distance between S and U, the instantaneous outage probability (OP) and channel capacity are calculated, as well as the system throughput within finite communication time. A simplified case is considered and analyzed while ignoring the Earth's rotation. Furthermore, the asymptotic expressions for the OP, capacity, and throughput are developed in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime to obtain some insights. We also provide new definitions for throughput and OP within a short communication duration. The application and future research directions based on the derived results, including resource allocation, satellite handover, communication scenarios with multiple satellites and mobile users, are also discussed. Finally, some selected numerical results are provided to validate our proposed analysis models.

BACKGROUND: The human leukocyte antigen (HLA) gene family plays a key role in the immune response and thus is crucial in many biomedical and clinical settings. Utilizing Sanger sequencing, the golden standard technology for HLA typing enables accurate identification of HLA alleles in high-resolution. However, only the commercial software, such as uTYPE, SBT-Assign, and SBTEngine, and very few open-source tools could be applied to perform HLA typing based on Sanger sequencing. RESULTS: We developed a user-friendly, cross-platform and open-source desktop application, known as SOAPTyping, for Sanger-based typing in HLA class I and II alleles. SOAPTyping can produce accurate results with a comprehensible protocol and featured functions. Moreover, SOAPTyping supports a more advanced group-specific sequencing primers (GSSP) module to solve the ambiguous typing results. We used SOAPTyping to analyze 36 samples with known HLA typing from the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA) International HLA DNA Exchange platform and 100 anonymous clinical samples, and the HLA typing results from SOAPTyping are identical to the golden results and 5.5 times faster than commercial software uTYPE, which shows the usability of SOAPTyping. CONCLUSIONS: We introduce the SOAPTyping as the first open-source and cross-platform HLA typing software with the capability of producing high-resolution HLA typing predictions from Sanger sequence data.

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) has emerged as a promising technique for future wireless communication networks. How to reliably transmit information in a RIS-based communication system arouses much interest. This paper proposes a reflecting modulation (RM) scheme for RIS-based communications, where both the reflecting patterns and transmit signals can carry information. Depending on that the transmitter and RIS jointly or independently deliver information, RM is further classified into two categories: jointly mapped RM (JRM) and separately mapped RM (SRM). JRM and SRM are naturally superior to existing schemes, because the transmit signal vectors, reflecting patterns, and bit mapping methods of JRM and SRM are more flexibly designed. To enhance transmission reliability, this paper proposes a discrete optimization-based joint signal mapping, shaping, and reflecting (DJMSR) design for JRM and SRM to minimize the bit error rate (BER) with a given transmit signal candidate set and a given reflecting pattern candidate set. To further improve the performance, this paper optimizes multiple reflecting patterns and their associated transmit signal sets in continuous fields for JRM and SRM. Numerical results show that JRM and SRM with the proposed system optimization methods considerably outperform existing schemes in BER.

As an efficient supplement for terrestrial communications, e.g., fifth-generation communication networks, satellite communication has been proved as a promising choice to realize seamless coverage, due to its inherent superiority over common wireless communication systems, like large-scale coverage area and flexibility of deployment. In this article, a satellite-terrestrial transmission (STT) system including a satellite transmitter (S) and a group of terrestrial receivers (D) is focused on. Considering the randomness of D and employing stochastic geometry, the outage performance and diversity gain of three hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) schemes, generalized slotted ALOHA (GSA), repetition time diversity (RTD) and general incremental redundancy (IR), are respectively studied. In detail, the exact closed-form analytical expression for the outage probability (OP) is derived for the GSA scheme, while the approximated expression for the OP of RTD scheme is presented and a useful expression for the OP of IR scheme is derived. Furthermore, the diversity gains of the three considered HARQ schemes are respectively investigated in STT scenarios. Finally, some numerical results are provided to validate the proposed analysis models.

Aerial relays have been regarded as an alternative and promising solution to extend and improve satellite-terrestrial communications, as the probability of line-of-sight transmissions increases compared with adopting terrestrial relays. In this paper, a cooperative satellite-aerial-terrestrial system including a satellite transmitter (S), a group of terrestrial receivers (D), and an aerial relay (R) is considered. Specifically, considering the randomness of S and D and employing stochastic geometry, the coverage probability of R-D links in non-interference and interference scenarios is studied, and the outage performance of S-R link is investigated by deriving an approximated expression for the outage probability. Moreover, an optimization problem in terms of the transmit power and the transmission time over S-R and R-D links is formulated and solved to obtain the optimal end-to-end energy efficiency for the considered system. Finally, some numerical results are provided to validate our proposed analysis models, as well as to study the optimal energy efficiency performance of the considered system.

In this paper, a cooperative hybrid visible light communication (VLC)-radio frequency (RF) system with spatially random terminals is considered. Especially, a source node ($S$) with a group of light-emitting diode (LED) lamps transmits information bits to a destination ($D$), which is located out of$S$’s coverage area, via a relay node ($R$).$R$is equipped with a photodetector and an antenna to set up a VLC link between$S$and$R$, and a radio frequency (RF) link between$R$and$D$, respectively. Meanwhile, an eavesdropper ($E$) equipped with a photodetector and an antenna tries to overhear the information delivery over VLC and RF links. Also, diversity receiving scheme is considered at$E$, while the same modulation scheme is considered over both VLC and RF links. Furthermore, decode-and-forward scheme is adopted at$R$to process and forward the received VLC signals. By employing stochastic geometry, we first characterize the probability density function and cumulative distribution function of the received signal-to-noise-ratio over both VLC and RF links, while considering the randomness of the locations of both$R$,$E$, and$D$. Then, the secrecy performance of the target system is studied by deriving the approximated expressions for the secrecy outage probability under various cases. Finally, the proposed analytical models are verified via Monte-Carlo simulations.

By incorporating the merits of satellite, aerial, and terrestrial communications, the space-air-ground integrated network (SAGIN) emerges in recent years as a promising solution to support seamless, high-rate, and reliable transmission with an extremely larger coverage than a classic terrestrial network. In essence, SAGIN is a cooperative relay network, in which high-altitude platforms (HAPs) and terrestrial base stations (BSs) serve as intermediates relaying signals between end device and satellite. In this article, we thereby view the SAGIN from the perspective of cooperative communications and introduce relay networking technologies to model and construct the framework of SAGIN. Meanwhile, we take the realistic propagation environment, HAP mobility and mathematical tractability into account and reconstruct the cooperative channel models for SAGIN, including the space-air, space-ground and air-ground links. Based on the constructed framework of SAGIN, we analyze the outage performance and approximate the outage probability as well as asymptotic outage probability in closed form. Numerical results generated by computer simulations verify our analysis and provide insight into the applicability of SAGIN. Although the relaying scenarios considered in this work are simplistic, the good tractability and expandability of the constructed framework provide a solid foundation for further research of advanced systems with complex configurations.

This paper investigates the use of a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) to aid point-to-point multi-data-stream multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communications. With practical finite alphabet input, the reflecting elements at the RIS and the precoder at the transmitter are alternatively optimized to minimize the symbol error rate (MSER). In the reflecting optimization with a fixed precoder, two reflecting design methods are developed, referred as eMSER-Reflecting and vMSER-Reflecting. In the optimization of the precoding matrix with a fixed reflecting pattern, the matrix optimization is transformed to be a vector optimization problem and two methods are proposed to solve it, which are referred as MSER-Precoding and MMED-Precoding. The superiority of the proposed designs is investigated by simulations. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed reflecting and precoding designs can offer a lower SER than existing designs with the assumption of complex Gaussian input. Moreover, we compare RIS with a full-duplex Amplify-and-Forward (AF) relay system in terms of SER to show the advantage of RIS.

This paper studies the ergodic rate performance of maximum ratio transmission (MRT) precoding in the downlink of a multi-user multiple-input single-output (MISO) system, where the channel between the base station (BS) and each user is modeled using the double scattering model. We utilize the minimum-mean-square-error (MMSE) channel estimate for this model, which is used in the design of the MRT precoding. Within this setting, we are interested in deriving tight approximations of the ergodic rate under the assumption that the number of BS antennas (N), the number of users (K) and that of scatterers (S) grow large with the same pace. These approximations are expressed in simplified closed-form expressions for the special case of multi-keyhole channels. They reveal that unlike the standard Rayleigh channel in which the SINR grows as O(N), K the SINR associated with a multi-keyhole channel scales as O(S). This particularly shows that the reaped gains of the K large-scale MIMO over double scattering channels do not linearly increase with the number of antennas and are limited by the number of scatterers. We further provide simulation results that confirm the close match provided by the asymptotic analysis for moderate system dimensions and provide some useful insights into the interplay between N, K and S.

In this paper, a cooperative hybrid visible light communication (VLC)-radio frequency (RF) relay system, which includes a transmitter (S) with a cluster of light emitting diodes (LED) lamps, a relay (R), and a destination (D), is taken into consideration. Moreover, decode-forward (DF) and amplify-forward (AF) schemes are considered at R to aid the data transmissions between S and D. Specially, R is randomly located in the coverage of the LED lamps, D is randomly distributed out of the coverage of the LED lamps. Then, VLC is employed for S-R link, and a traditional RF communication technology is adopted over the R-D link. Considering Nakagami-$m$fading over the R-D link, and the randomness of the locations of R and D, the statistical characteristics of the received signal-to-noise ratio at D under AF scheme, and the ones at R and D under the DF scheme are characterized, respectively. Subsequently, approximated analytical and asymptotic expressions for the outage probability of the considered system are derived, as well as the approximated expression for the average symbol error rate of M-ary quadrature amplitude modulation scheme under the DF scheme. Finally, simulation and numerical analysis are conducted to verify the correctness of our proposed models.

In this paper, a hybrid visible light communication-radio frequency (RF) system, including a legitimate receiver (R) and an eavesdropper (E) is considered. R can harvest energy from the light emitted by light emitting diodes (LEDs), which is used for the information transmission between R and the RF receiver which is close to the LED. It is assumed that E tries to eavesdrop the information delivered from R to the RF receiver and R is with finite energy storage. Considering the randomness of the locations of R and E, the statistical characteristics of the received signal-to-noise ratio at the RF receiver and E are characterized; then, we derive the analytical expressions for exact and asymptotic secrecy outage probability by using the stochastic geometry method. Finally, simulations are carried out to verify our proposed analytical models.

In this paper, a dual-hop decode-to-forward cooperative system is considered where multiple relays are with finite energy storage and can harvest energy from the destination. In our analysis, the relays are spatially randomly located with invoking stochastic geometry. In an effort to improve spectral efficiency, an optimal source-relay link scheme is employed. Assuming Nakagami-m fading, two different scenarios are considered: 1) the single-antenna source with perfect channel state information (CSI) and 2) the multiple-antenna source with transmit antenna selection and imperfect CSI. In both scenarios, the destination node is equipped with a single transmit antenna to forward power via frequency radio signal to the relay candidates. For improving the system performance, multiple antennas at the destination are considered to process the multiple copies of the received signal from the best relay. For characterizing the performance of the proposed scenarios, exact closed-form analytical expressions for the outage probability are derived. To obtain further insights, we carry out diversity gain analysis by adopting asymptotic relative diversity. We also derive the exact closed-form analytical expression for the system throughput. Finally, simulation results are presented to corroborate the proposed analysis and to show that: 1) the system performance is improved by enlarging the area of the circle and the density of the relays and 2) the energy storage size has impacts on the performance of considered networks, which determines the maximal transmit power at relays.

A Bayesian formulation of quickest change detection in multiple on-off processes is obtained within a decision-theoretic framework. For geometrically distributed busy and idle times, we show that the optimal joint design of channel switching and change detection has a simple threshold structure under a mild condition. Extensions to arbitrarily distributed busy and idle times, in particular, heavy tail distributions, are discussed. We show that this problem presents a fresh twist to the classic problem of quickest change detection that considers only one stochastic process. We demonstrate that the key to quickest change detection in multiple processes is to abandon the current process when its state is unlikely to change in the near future (as indicated by the measurements obtained so far) and seek opportunities in a new process to avoid realizations of long busy periods. This problem arises in spectrum opportunity detection in cognitive radio networks where a secondary user searches for idle channels in the spectrum.

We describe an algorithm, ReAS, to recover ancestral sequences for transposable elements (TEs) from the unassembled reads of a whole genome shotgun. The main assumptions are that these TEs must exist at high copy numbers across the genome and must not be so old that they are no longer recognizable in comparison to their ancestral sequences. Tested on the japonica rice genome, ReAS was able to reconstruct all of the high copy sequences in the Repbase repository of known TEs, and increase the effectiveness of RepeatMasker in identifying TEs from genome sequences.