In this work, gold powder made from gold leaf investigated to have the potential as a filler of conductive ink. The resistance of a conductive film decreased from 6.2kΩ to 1 Ω by adding only 2.0wt% of gold powder to conductive polymer (PEDOT:PSS) ink. The change of the resistance depends on the characteristics of gold powder. Gold powder with smaller and uniform sizes and good dispersibility is beneficial to form a continuous percolation network.

This paper proposes a consensus-based subgradient method under a common constraint set with switching undirected graphs. In the proposed method, each agent has a state and an auxiliary variable as the estimates of an optimal solution and accumulated information of past gradients of neighbor agents. We show that the states of all agents asymptotically converge to one of the optimal solutions of the convex optimization problem. The simulation results show that the proposed consensus-based algorithm with accumulated subgradient information achieves faster convergence than the standard subgradient algorithm.

Two new families of balanced almost binary sequences with a single zero element of period L=2q are presented in this letter, where q=4d+1 is an odd prime number. These sequences have optimal autocorrelation value or optimal autocorrelation magnitude. Our constructions are based on cyclotomy and Chinese Remainder Theorem.

In this study, we propose a statistical reputation approach for constructing a reliable packet route in ad-hoc sensor networks. The proposed method uses reputation as a measurement for router node selection through which a reliable data route is constructed for packet delivery. To refine the reputation, a transaction density is defined here to showcase the influence of node transaction frequency over the reputation. And to balance the energy consumption and avoid choosing repetitively the same node with high reputation, node remaining energy is also considered as a reputation factor in the selection process. Further, a shortest-path-tree routing protocol is designed so that data packets can reach the base station through the minimum intermediate nodes. Simulation tests illustrate the improvements in the packet delivery ratio and the energy utilization.

Contemporary software projects often utilize a README.md to share crucial information such as installation and usage examples related to their software. Furthermore, these files serve as an important source of updated and useful documentation for developers and prospective users of the software. Nonetheless, both novice and seasoned developers are sometimes unsure of what is required for a good README file. To understand the contents of README, we investigate the contents of 43,900 JavaScript packages. Results show that these packages contain common content themes (i.e., ‘usage’, ‘install’ and ‘license’). Furthermore, we find that application-specific packages more frequently included content themes such as ‘options’, while library-based packages more frequently included other specific content themes (i.e., ‘install’ and ‘license’).

The Game of Life, a two-dimensional computationally universal cellular automaton, is known to exhibits 1/f noise in the evolutions starting from random configurations. In this paper we perform the spectral analysis on the computation process by a Turing machine constructed on the array of the Game of Life. As a result, the power spectrum averaged over the whole array has almost flat line at low frequencies and a lot of sharp peaks at high frequencies although some regions in which complicated behavior such as frequent memory rewriting occurs exhibit 1/f noise. This singular power spectrum is, however, easily turned into 1/f by slightly deforming the initial configuration of the Turing machine. These results emphasize the peculiarity of the computation process on the Game of Life that is never shared with the evolutions from random configurations. The Lyapunov exponents have positive values in three out of six trials and zero or negative values in other three trails. That means the computation process is essentially chaotic but it has capable of recovering a slight error in the configuration of the Turing machine.

Two points x, y inside a simple polygon P are said to be mutually link-2 visible if there exists the third point z ∈ P such that z is visible from both x and y. The polygon P is link-2 LR-visible if there are two points s, t on the boundary of P such that every point on the clockwise boundary of P from s to t is link-2 visible from some point of the other boundary of P from t to s and vice versa. We give a characterization of link-2 LR-visibility polygons by generalizing the known result on LR-visibility polygons. A new idea is to extend the concepts of ray-shootings and components to those under notion of link-2 visibility. Then, we develop an O(n log n) time algorithm to determine whether a given polygon is link-2 LR-visible. Using the characterization of link-2 LR-visibility polygons, we further present an O(n log n) time algorithm for determining whether a polygonal region is searchable by a k-searcher, k ≥ 2. This improves upon the previous O(n2) time bound [9]. A polygonal region P is said to be searchable by a searcher if the searcher can detect (or see) an unpredictable intruder inside the region, no matter how fast the intruder moves. A k-searcher holds k flashlights and can see only along the rays of the flashlights emanating from his position.

The technique of lossless compression via substring enumeration (CSE) is a kind of enumerative code and uses a probabilistic model built from the circular string of an input source for encoding a one-dimensional (1D) source. CSE is applicable to two-dimensional (2D) sources, such as images, by dealing with a line of pixels of a 2D source as a symbol of an extended alphabet. At the initial step of CSE encoding process, we need to output the number of occurrences of all symbols of the extended alphabet, so that the time complexity increases exponentially when the size of source becomes large. To reduce computational time, we can rearrange pixels of a 2D source into a 1D source string along a space-filling curve like a Hilbert curve. However, information on adjacent cells in a 2D source may be lost in the conversion. To reduce the time complexity and compress a 2D source without converting to a 1D source, we propose a new CSE which can encode a 2D source in a block-by-block fashion instead of in a line-by-line fashion. The proposed algorithm uses the flat torus of an input 2D source as a probabilistic model instead of the circular string of the source. Moreover, we prove the asymptotic optimality of the proposed algorithm for 2D general sources.

Let d=2pm-1 be the Niho decimation over $mathbb{F}_{p^{2m}}$ satisfying $gcd(d,p^{2m}-1)=3$, where m is an odd positive integer and p is a prime with p ≡ 2(mod 3). The cross-correlation function between the p-ary m-sequence of period p2m-1 and its every d-decimation sequence with short period $rac{p^{2m}-1}{3}$ is investigated. It is proved that for each d-decimation sequence, the cross-correlation function takes four values and the corresponding correlation distribution is completely determined. This extends the results of Niho and Helleseth for the case gcd(d, p2m-1)=1.

The next generation mobile system “5G” are under research, development and standardization for a service start of around year 2020. It is likely to use frequency bands higher than existing bands to have wider bandwidth for high throughput services. This paper reviews technical issues on higher frequency bands applying mobile systems including system trials and use case trials. It identifies expectations for antennas & propagation studies toward 5G era.

In this paper, a printed inverted-F antenna for radiating circularly polarized wave around its resonant frequency is proposed. To get good axial ratio at the frequency band with 10dB-return loss, a rectangular element is loaded at the feeding line perpendicularly. The axial ratio and the frequency giving the minimum axial ratio can be adjusted by the ratio of the length to the width of the whole antenna and by the dimension of the loaded rectangular element. The operational principle for circular polarization is explained using the electric current distributions. Moreover, the approach of the enhancement for the bandwidth is discussed. The simulated and measured bandwidths of the 10dB-return loss with a 3dB-axial ratio are 2.375GHz-2.591GHz (216MHz) and 2.350-2.534GHz (184MHz), respectively. The proposed antenna's dimension is 0.067λ2c (λc is the wavelength at the center frequency). The proposed antenna is compact and planar, and is therefore useful for circular polarization in the ISM band.

Multi-static Primary Surveillance Radar (MSPSR) has recently attracted attention as a new surveillance technology for civil aviation. Using multiple receivers, Primary Surveillance Radar (PSR) detection performance can be improved by synthesizing the reflection characteristics which change due to the aircraft's position. In this paper, we report experimental results from our proposed optical-fiber-connected passive PSR system with transmit signal installed at the Sendai Airport in Japan. The signal-to noise ratio of experimental data is evaluated to verify moving target detection. In addition, we confirm the operation of the proposed system using a two-receiver setup, to resemble a conventional multi-static radar. Finally, after applying time correction, the delay of the reflected signal from a stationary target remains within the expected range.

It is well known that the power transfer efficiency (PTE) of a wireless power transfer (WPT) system is maximized at a specific coupling coefficient under the fixed system parameters. For an adaptive WPT system, various attempts have been made to achieve the maximum PTE by changing the system parameters. Applying the input matching networks to the WPT system is one of the most popular implementation methods to change the source impedance and improve the PTE. In this paper, we derive the optimum source condition for the given load and the achievable maximum PTE under the optimum source condition in a closed-form. Furthermore, we propose a method to estimate the input impedance, without feedback information, and an input matching network structure that transforms the source impedance into the optimum source obtained from the estimated input impedance. The proposed technique is successfully implemented at a resonant frequency of 13.56MHz. The experimental results are in close agreement with the theoretical achievable maximum PTE and show that the use of only a single matching network can sufficiently achieve a PTE close to the ideal maximum PTE.

We propose a novel bit error rate (BER) analysis model of weighted-type fractional Fourier transform (WFRFT)-based systems with WFRFT order offset Δα. By using the traditional BPSK BER analysis method, we deduce the equivalent signal noise ratio (SNR), model the interference in the channel as a Gaussian noise with non-zero mean, and provide a theoretical BER expression of the proposed system. Simulation results show that its theoretical BER performance well matches the empirical performance, which demonstrates that the theoretical BER analysis proposed in this paper is reliable.

Pilot contamination due to pilot reuse in adjacent cells is a very serious problem in massive multi-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. Therefore, proper pilot allocation is essential for improving system performance. In this paper, we formulate the pilot allocation optimization problem so as to maximize uplink sum rate of the system. To reduce the required complexity inherent in finding the optimum pilot allocation, we propose a low-complexity pilot allocation algorithm, where the formulated problem is decoupled into multiple subproblems; in each subproblem, the pilot allocation at a given cell is optimized while the pilot allocation in other cells id held fixed. This process is continued until the achievable sum rate converges. Through multiple iterations, the optimum pilot allocation is found. In addition, to improve users' fairness, we formulate fairness-aware pilot allocation as maximization problem of sum of user's logarithmic rate and solve the formulated problem using a similar algorithm. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithms match the good performance of the exhaustive search algorithm, meanwhile the users' fairness is improved.

This paper proposes optimal beam patterns of analog beamforming for SU (Single User) massive MIMO (Multi-Input Multi-Output) transmission systems. For hybrid beamforming in SU massive MIMO systems, there are several design parameters such as beam patterns, the number of beams (streams), the shape of array antennas, and so on. In conventional hybrid beamforming, rectangular patch array antennas implemented on a planar surface with linear phase shift beam patterns have been used widely. However, it remains unclear whether existing configurations are optimal or not. Therefore, we propose a method using OBPB (Optimal Beam Projection Beamforming) for designing configuration parameters of the hybrid beamforming. By using the method, the optimal beam patterns are derived first, and are projected on the assumed surface to calculate the achievable number of streams and the resulting channel capacity. The results indicate OBPB with a spherical surface yields at least 3.5 times higher channel capacity than conventional configurations.

Semitransparent organic solar cells were fabricated using lamination process. The devices were realized by using two independent substrates with transparent indium-tin-oxide electrode. One substrate was coated with poly(ethylenedioxy-thiophene)/poly(styrenesulfonate) layer and active layer of poly(3-hexylthiophene-2,5-diyl) (P3HT) and (6,6)-phenyl-C61 butyric acid methyl ester mixture. Another substrate was coated with ultra-thin polyethylenimine ethoxylated. The two substrates were laminated using hot press system. The device exhibited semitransparency and showed typical photovoltaic characteristics with open voltage of 0.59 V and short circuit current of 2.9 mA/cm2.

Photon upconversion (UC) is a technique to convert long wavelength light into short wavelength light. UC fluorescence by triplet-triplet annihilation (TTA) follows a mechanism involving two kinds of molecules as sensitizer and emitter. In this study, we constructed the photon UC dyes system that was applicable to weak excitation light and convert the red light into yellow light in high efficiency. The present result will be useful for the purpose of application to optical elements and light medical care.

Organic photoconductors (OPC) have been an important research and development topics for high quality electrophotography. By using electric field induced optical second harmonic generation (EFISHG) measurement, we can probe carrier processes in electrophotographic processes such as photo carrier generation, carrier separation, and carrier transportation for copier image production. We here selectively probe charge generation and accumulation in charge generation layer and charge transport layer in multilayer structure OPCs. We studied charge accumulation in OPC under illumination (wavelength 635nm) of double-layer-type OPC with structure of hole transport layer coated on charge generation layer. The result showed that light absorption efficiently produces free holes and electrons in the charge generation layer, followed by excessive hole accumulation at the CG/CT interface due to photo-conducting effect of CG layer. The short-wavelength irradiation at 405nm induced photovoltaic effect. These results demonstrated that the EFISHG measurement is useful to selectively probe carrier process in one layer of the multilayer OPC and to the discussion of carrier process for electrophotographic image productions.

Copper (Cu) electroless plating was conducted on planar and microstructured polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) substrates. In this study, organic thin films terminated with nitrogen (N)-containing groups, e.g. poly (dimethylaminoethyl methacrylate) brush (PDMAEMA), aminopropyl trimethoxysilane monolayer (APTES), and polydopamine (PDA) were used to anchor palladium (Pd) catalyst. While electroless plating was successfully promoted on all sample surfaces, PDMAEMA was found to achieve the best adhesion strength to the PDMS surfaces, compared to APTES- and PDA-covered PDMS substrates, due to covalent bonding, anchoring effects of polymer chains as well as high affinity of N atoms to Pd species. Our process was also successfully applied to the electroless plating of microstructured PDMS substrates.