This paper presents a digital reaction-diffusion system (DRDS)--a model of a discrete-time discrete-space reaction-diffusion dynamical system--for designing new image processing algorithms inspired by biological pattern formation phenomena. The original idea is based on the Turing's model of pattern formation which is widely known in mathematical biology. We first show that the Turing's morphogenesis can be understood by analyzing the pattern forming property of the DRDS within the framework of multidimensional digital signal processing theory. This paper also describes the design of an adaptive DRDS for image processing tasks, such as enhancement and restoration of fingerprint images.

The current voltage characteristics of the ballistic metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor (MOSFET) is reviewed. Reducing the carrier scattering by employing e.g. the intrinsic channel structure and the low temperature operation, nanometer to sub-0.1 µm size MOSFETs operation approaches the ballistic transport. The drain current is derived by analyzing the carrier behavior in the vicinity of the potential maximum in the channel. The carrier degeneracy and the predominant carrier distribution in the lowest subband around the maximum point have critical effects on the current value. A convenient approximation of the current in terms of terminal voltages is given. The current control mechanism is discussed with use of the "Injection velocity," with which carriers are injected from the source to the channel. An index to represent the ballisticity is given, and some published experimental data are analyzed. Transport of the quasi-ballistic MOSFET is discussed.

We analyze electron transport of silicon single-electron transistors (Si SETs) with an ultra-small quantum dot using a master-equation model taking into account the discreteness of quantum levels and the finiteness of scattering rates. In the simulated SET characteristics, aperiodic Coulomb blockade oscillations, fine structures and negative differential conductances due to the quantum mechanical effects are superimposed on the usual Coulomb blockade diagram. These features are consistent with the previously measured results. Large peak-to-valley current ratio of negative differential conductances at room temperature is predicted for Si SETs with an ultra-small dot whose size is smaller than 3 nm.

This paper considers a high-rate turbo code which employs high-rate convolutional codes as component codes, and presents a novel method of reducing the decoding complexity of the codes. By eliminating some of branches that have the lowest reliabilities among all the branches entering each node, the proposed algorithm reduces the complexity in the process of the add-compare-select (ACS) between the consecutive stages of iterative decoding. That is, the complexity gradually decreases as the number of iterations increases. We compare the unpunctured high-rate turbo code with a classical punctured high-rate turbo code in terms of performance/complexity trade-off under the same code rate. Simulation results show that the proposed approach with a good trade-off provides an alternative coding scheme to the classical punctured high-rate turbo coding for the application to high-data-rate wireless communication systems.

In the past, a number of scheduling algorithms that approximate GPS, such as WFQ, have been proposed and have received much attention. This class of algorithms provides per-flow QoS guarantees in terms of the bounded delay and minimum bandwidth guarantee. However, with O(log N) computational cost for each new arrival scheduling, where N is the number of backlogged flows, these algorithms are expensive to implement (e.g., in terms of scalability). Moreover, none of them addresses the issues of delay distribution and jitter. In this paper, we propose a new traffic scheduling discipline called Jitter Control Frame-based Queueing (JCFQ) that provides an upper bound for delay jitter in the case of rate-controlled connections, such as packet video streams and IP telephony, while guaranteeing bounded delay and worst-case fair weighted fairness, such as in the WF2Q algorithm, but with O(1) complexity in selecting the next packet to serve, assuming that the number of flows is fixed. Three different algorithms for slot or service order assignment between flows are proposed: Earliest Jitter Deadline First (EJDF), Rate Monotonic (RM) and Maximum Jitter First (MJF). In these algorithms, delay jitter is formulated into the virtual finish time calculation. We compare the fairness, delay and jitter performance of the JCFQ with that of the MJF algorithm with WF2Q via simulation. The results show that with proper choice of the slot size, JCFQ can achieve better flow isolation in delay distribution than can WF2Q.

Nowadays, many IP based communication systems are connected by high-speed networks to realize high-speed TCP/IP communication. However, since the mechanism of TCP/IP protocols is based on a best effort service, the quality of the communication may change by the time or the route of the traffic. Therefore, it is important for network providers to investigate the quality of their users' communication. In order to analyze the traffic on an Internet backbone, the realtime analysis is one of the important factors. So far, several tools were developed for the purpose of the traffic measurement. However, none of them can analyze sufficient statistics to evaluate the quality for each end user's communication in realtime. Therefore, we have designed and implemented a performance monitor, which collects the statistics representing the performance such as TCP throughput while capturing the traffic. The statistics are collected by every pair of IP addresses and by every application. The monitor also provides the function to analyze effectively for the statistics records such as sorting and filtering of the records and the graphical user interface to operate the software tool. This paper describes the design and implementation of the performance monitor.

In this paper we study the scalability issue in the design of a centralized bandwidth broker model for dynamic control and management of QoS provisioning. We propose and develop a path-oriented, quota-based dynamic bandwidth allocation mechanism for efficient admission control operations under the centralized bandwidth broker model. We demonstrate that this dynamic bandwidth allocation mechanism can significantly reduce the overall number of QoS state accesses/updates, thereby increasing the overall call processing capability of the bandwidth broker. Based on the proposed dynamic bandwidth allocation mechanism, we also extend the centralized architecture with a single bandwidth broker to a hierarchically distributed architecture with multiple bandwidth brokers to further improve its scalability. Our study demonstrates that the bandwidth broker architecture can be designed in such a manner that it scales with the increase in the network capacity.

In mechanical splice technology, loss change during temperature cycling is mainly caused by fiber slippage or shift at the interface between fibers and fiber clamping substrates. The upper limit of the fabrication accuracy of the fibers and substrates restricts the total number of fibers in a splice. To overcome this, we propose a novel fiber clamping method using the elasticity of the substrate surface. We clamp the fibers more strongly at the fiber clamping ends, where the fibers need a greater friction force than around the butt-joint, to hold them in position. Taking the case of an 8-fiber ribbon splice, we compared linear marks on the substrates with the boundary linewidth curves for the onset of slippage. We achieved an insertion loss change of less than 0.1 dB during a temperature cycling test in accordance with Telcordia Technologies test specification. When we clamp fibers using the plasticity of the substrate surface, we can also reduce the required fabrication accuracy. However, insufficient accuracy causes an unexpected loss change due to fiber shift as a result of a plastic flow on the substrate surface in contact with the fibers.

The linearity of the GaAs Field Effect Transistor (FET) power amplifier is greatly influenced by the nonlinear characteristics of gate-source capacitance (Cgs) and drain-source current (Ids) for the FETs. However, previously suggested analysis methods of GaAs FET non-linearity are mainly focused on the investigations by each individual non-linear component (Cgs or Ids) without considering both non-linear effects. We analyze more accurately the non-linearity of GaAs FETs by considering non-linear effects of Cgs and Ids simultaneously. We also investigate the third-order intermodulation distortion (IMD3) of the GaAs FET in relation to source and load impedances that minimize FET non-linearities. From the simulation results by Volterra-series technique, we show that the least IMD3 is found at the minimum source resistance (RS) and maximum load resistance (RL) in the equivalent output power (Pout) contour. Simulated results are compared with the load and source pull data, with good agreement.

The formulation of the process of analog system design has been done on the basis of the control theory application. This approach generalizes the design process and produces different design trajectories inside the same optimization procedure. The problem of the optimal design algorithm construction is defined as the minimal-time problem of the control theory. The main equations for the proposed design methodology were elaborated. These equations include the special control functions that are introduced artificially to generalize the design problem. Optimal dependencies of the control functions give the possibility to reduce the total computer design time. This idea was tested with different optimization algorithms of the design process. Numerical results of some simple electronic circuit design demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed approach. These examples show that the traditional design strategy is not time-optimal and the potential computer time gain of the optimal design strategy increases when the size and complexity of the system increase.

The diverse broadcast means that will be available in the future will cause an increased demand for programs. When the input of the posture of an agent is used to manipulate a virtual computer graphics actor, it is better if the system does not require a special studio and devices. In the present paper, we propose a way to extract images from a single picture based on estimates of blooming. This is done using a partial auto-correlation analysis that carries out backward and forward predictions simultaneously. And, we divide targets into the stratified depth from a single image. An experiment was conducted using a picture taken with a digital camera, and satisfactory results were obtained.

In this paper we describe a multicast routing algorithm, which builds upon mobile multicast agents of an ad-hoc network. Mobile multicast agents (MMAs) form a virtual backbone of an ad-hoc network and they provide multicast tree discovery, multicast tree maintenance and datagram delivery. First, we construct a cluster-spine hierarchy structure for an ad-hoc network. Second, we propose a multicast routing algorithm, which is inspired by Ad-hoc On-Demand Distance Vector (AODV) routing protocol. The results show that the MMA multicast algorithm can simplify the multicast tree discovery, reduce control overhead of the network, and increase the total network throughput, in comparison with general AODV multicast operation. We also overcome the deficiency of CBRP multicast routing, which places much burden on cluster heads.

We believe the quantum functional device to be a future perspective device, if we solve the problems that it has nowadays. We will summarize such problems with several discussions from the viewpoint of circuit and system.

This paper describes a method of age-group classification of young males based on their facial images. The facial shapes of males and females are mostly formed by age 20 and 15, respectively. Our study only considered young males as they have a longer period during which facial shape is a determining factor in age estimation. Age classification was carried out using artificial neural networks. We employed 440 facial images in our experiment, composed of 4 different photographic images taken at ages 12, 15, 18 and 22 of 110 young males. Two methods of age classification were used, each employing different features extracted from the facial images, namely, "mosaic features" and "KL features. " As a result, we obtained about an 80% successful classification rate using mosaic features, and a slightly lower rate using KL features. We also analyzed the connection weights between the hidden and input layers of the trained networks, and examined facial features characteristic to each age group.

In this paper, an attempt was made to evaluate mental workload using chaotic analysis of EEG. EEG signals registered from Fz and Cz during a mental task (mental addition) were recorded and analyzed using attractor plots, fractal dimensions, and Lyapunov exponents in order to clarify chaotic dynamics and to investigate whether mental workload can be assessed using these chaotic measures. The largest Lyapunov exponent for all experimental conditions took positive values, which indicated chaotic dynamics in the EEG signals. However, we could not evaluate mental workload using the largest Lyapunov exponent or attractor plot. The fractal dimension, on the other hand, tended to increase with the work level. We concluded that the fractal dimension might be used to evaluate a mental state, especially a mental workload induced by mental task loading.

Routing security is related to the confidentiality of the route taken by the data transmitted over the network. If the route is detected by the adversary, the probability is higher that the data are lost or the data can be intercepted by the adversary. Therefore, the route must be protected. To accomplish this, we select an intermediate node secretly and transmit the data using this intermediate node, instead of sending the data to the destination node using the shortest path. Furthermore, if we use a number of secret routes from the starting node to the destination node, data security is much stronger since we can transmit partial data rather than the entire data along a secret route. In this paper, the routing algorithm for multiple secret paths on MRNS (Mixed Radix Number System) Network, which requires O(l) for the time complexity where l is the number of links on a node, is presented employing the HCLS (Hamiltonian Circuit Latin Square) and is analyzed in terms of entropy.

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is a United States-Japan joint project to measure rainfall from space. The first spaceborne rain radar is aboard the TRMM satellite. Rain/no-rain discrimination for the TRMM provides useful information for on-line data processing, storage, and post-processing analysis. In this paper, rain/no-rain discrimination for the TRMM has been validated through simulation and theory for the no-rain condition and by comparison with the ground-based radar data for rain conditions.

ATM networks are connection-oriented. Making a call requires first sending a message to do an admission control to guarantee the connections' QoS (quality of service) in the network. In this paper, we focus on the problem of translating a global QoS requirement into a set of local QoS requirements in ATM networks. Usually, an end-user is only concerned with the QoS requirements on end-to-end basis and does not care about the local switching node QoS. Most of recent research efforts only focus on worst-case end-to-end delay bound but pay no attention to the problem of distributing the end-to-end delay bound to local switching node. After admission control, when the new connection is admitted to enter the network, they equally allocate the excess delay and reserve the same bandwidth at each switch along the path. But, this can not improve network utilization efficiently. It motivates us to design a novel local QoS requirement allocation scheme to get better performance. Using the number of maximum supportable connections as the performance index, we derive an optimal delay allocation (OPT) policy. In addition, we also proposed an analysis model to evaluate the proposed allocation scheme and equal allocation (EQ) scheme in a series of switching nodes with the Rate-controlled scheduling architecture, including a traffic shaper and a non-preemptive earliest-deadline-first scheduler. From the numerical results, we have shown the importance of allocation policy and explored the factors that affect the performance index.

In this paper, we deal with the problem of compatibility class encoding, and propose a novel algorithm for finding a good functional decomposition with application to LUT-based FPGA synthesis. Based on exploration of the design space, we concentrate on extracting a set of components, which can be merged into the minimum number of multiple-output CLBs or LUTs, such that the decomposition constructed from these components is also minimal. In particular, to explore more degrees of freedom, we introduce pliable encoding to take over the conventional rigid encoding when it fails to find a satisfactory decomposition by rigid encoding. Experimental results on a large set of MCNC91 logic synthesis benchmarks show that our method is quite promising.

As Information Technology progresses, our daily lives are getting "connected" more and more. At the same time, however, problems are appearing. The center of these problems can be captured as the "Communication Overflow. " To cope with such problems, we propose an approach that tries to provide a communication environment that assists users in managing their communication activities. The key notion of this approach is to enhance the "Awareness of Connectedness. " Here, agents which are suggestive of awareness of connectedness play an important role. In this paper, we describe the key notion and introduce a brief road-map towards the environment for the awareness of connectedness. Two candidate tools for the environment are described. The first one is a visualization tool for communication media that provides feedback of users' communication activities. Its purpose is to enhance the awareness for communication. The second tool is a simple, intuitive interactive media that exchanges the statuses of users. It is an alternative network communication media that might be suitable for very light-weight, almost-acknowledge-only communication mode. Some results on an experiment of these two tools are also reported.