In the realm of Single Image Super-Resolution (SISR), the meticulously crafted Nonlocal Sparse Attention-based block demonstrates its efficacy in noise reduction and computational cost reduction for nonlocal (global) features. However, it neglect the traditional Convolutional-based block, which proficient in handling local features. Thus, merging both the Nonlocal Sparse Attention-based block and the Convolutional-based block to concurrently manage local and nonlocal features poses a significant challenge. To tackle the aforementioned issues, this paper introduces the Channel Contrastive Attention-based Local-Nonlocal Mutual block (CCLN) for Super-Resolution (SR). (1) We introduce the CCLN block, encompassing the Local Sparse Convolutional-based block for local features and the Nonlocal Sparse Attention-based network block for nonlocal features. (2) We introduce Channel Contrastive Attention (CCA) blocks, incorporating Sparse Aggregation into Convolutional-based blocks. Additionally, we introduce a robust framework to fuse these two blocks, ensuring that each branch operates according to its respective strengths. (3) The CCLN block can seamlessly integrate into established network backbones like the Enhanced Deep Super-Resolution network (EDSR), achieving in the Channel Attention based Local-Nonlocal Mutual Network (CCLNN). Experimental results show that our CCLNN effectively leverages both local and nonlocal features, outperforming other state-of-the-art algorithms.

Power line communication (PLC) provides a flexible-access, wide-distribution, and low-cost communication solution for distribution network services. However, the PLC self-organizing networking in distribution network faces several challenges such as diversified data transmission requirements guarantee, the contradiction between long-term constraints and short-term optimization, and the uncertainty of global information. To address these challenges, we propose a backpressure learning-based data transmission reliability-aware self-organizing networking algorithm to minimize the weighted sum of node data backlogs under the long-term transmission reliability constraint. Specifically, the minimization problem is transformed by the Lyapunov optimization and backpressure algorithm. Finally, we propose a backpressure and data transmission reliability-aware state-action-reward-state-action (SARSA)-based self-organizing networking strategy to realize the PLC networking optimization. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm has superior performances of data backlogs and transmission reliability.

Data resource sharing can guarantee the reliable and safe operation of distribution power grid. However, it faces the challenges of low security and high delay in the sharing process. Consortium blockchain can ensure the security and efficiency of data resource sharing, but it still faces problems such as arbitrary master node selection and high consensus delay. In this paper, we propose an improved practical Byzantine fault tolerance (PBFT) consensus algorithm based on intelligent consensus node selection to realize high-security and real-time data resource sharing for distribution power grid. Firstly, a blockchain-based data resource sharing model is constructed to realize secure data resource storage by combining the consortium blockchain and interplanetary file system (IPFS). Then, the improved PBFT consensus algorithm is proposed to optimize the consensus node selection based on the upper confidence bound of node performance. It prevents Byzantine nodes from participating in the consensus process, reduces the consensus delay, and improves the security of data resource sharing. The simulation results verify the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

This paper discusses the synchronization of two identical canard-generating oscillators. First, we investigate a canard explosion generated in a system containing a Bonhoeffer-van der Pol (BVP) oscillator using the actual parameter values obtained experimentally. We find that it is possible to numerically observe a canard explosion using this dynamic oscillator. Second, we analyze the complete and in-phase synchronizations of identical canard-generating coupled oscillators via experimental and numerical methods. However, we experimentally determine that a small decrease in the coupling strength of the system induces the collapse of the complete synchronization and the occurrence of a complex synchronization; this finding could not be explained considering four-dimensional autonomous coupled BVP oscillators in our numerical work. To numerically investigate the experimental results, we construct a model containing coupled BVP oscillators that are subjected to two weak periodic perturbations having the same frequency. Further, we find that this model can efficiently numerically reproduce experimentally observed synchronization.

This paper proposes an analytical model of maximum operating frequency of class-D zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) inverter. The model includes linearized drain-source parasitic capacitance and any duty ratio. The nonlinear drain-source parasitic capacitance is equally linearized through a charge-related equation. The model expresses the relationship among frequency, shunt capacitance, duty ratio, load impedance, output current phase, and DC input voltage under the ZVS condition. The analytical result shows that the maximum operating frequency under the ZVS condition can be obtained when the duty ratio, the output current phase, and the DC input voltage are set to optimal values. A 650 V/30 A SiC-MOSFET is utilized for both simulated and experimental verification, resulting in good consistency.

This paper presents a multi-channel biomedical sensor system with system-level chopping and stochastic analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion techniques. The system-level chopping technique extends the input-signal bandwidth and reduces the interchannel crosstalk caused by multiplexing. The system-level chopping can replace an analog low-pass filter (LPF) with a digital filter and can reduce its area occupation. The stochastic A/D conversion technique realizes power-efficient resolution enhancement. A novel auto-calibration technique is also proposed for the stochastic A/D conversion technique. The proposed system includes a prototype analog front-end (AFE) IC fabricated using a 130 nm CMOS process. The fabricated AFE IC improved its interchannel crosstalk by 40 dB compared with the conventional analog chopping architecture. The AFE IC achieved SNDR of 62.9 dB at a sampling rate of 31.25 kSps while consuming 9.6 μW from a 1.2 V power supply. The proposed resolution enhancement technique improved the measured SNDR by 4.5 dB.

Permutation polynomials have been studied for a long time and have important applications in cryptography, coding theory and combinatorial designs. In this paper, by means of the multivariate method and the resultant, we propose four new classes of permutation quadrinomials over 𝔽q3, where q is a prime power. We also show that they are not quasi-multiplicative equivalent to known ones. Moreover, we compare their differential uniformity with that of some known classes of permutation trinomials for some small q.

The concept of dual function radar-communication (DFRC) provides solution to the problem of spectrum scarcity. This paper examines a multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) DFRC system with the assistance of a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS). The system is capable of sensing multiple spatial directions while serving multiple users via orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM). The objective of this study is to design the radiated waveforms and receive filters utilized by both the radar and users. The mutual information (MI) is used as an objective function, on average transmit power, for multiple targets while adhering to constraints on power leakage in specific directions and maintaining each user’s error rate. To address this problem, we propose an optimal solution based on a computational genetic algorithm (GA) using bisection method. The performance of the solution is demonstrated by numerical examples and it is shown that, our proposed algorithm can achieve optimum MI and the use of RIS with the MIMO DFRC system improving the system performance.

With the increase of the number of Mobile User Equipments (MUEs), numerous tasks that with high requirements of resources are generated. However, the MUEs have limited computational resources, computing power and storage space. In this paper, a joint coverage constrained task offloading and resource allocation method based on deep reinforcement learning is proposed. The aim is offloading the tasks that cannot be processed locally to the edge servers to alleviate the conflict between the resource constraints of MUEs and the high performance task processing. The studied problem considers the dynamic variability and complexity of the system model, coverage, offloading decisions, communication relationships and resource constraints. An entropy weight method is used to optimize the resource allocation process and balance the energy consumption and execution time. The results of the study show that the number of tasks and MUEs affects the execution time and energy consumption of the task offloading and resource allocation processes in the interest of the service provider, and enhances the user experience.

Edge devices with strict safety and reliability requirements, such as autonomous driving cars, industrial robots, and drones, necessitate software verification on such devices before operation. The human cost and time required for this analysis constitute a barrier in the cycle of software development and updating. In particular, the final verification at the edge device should at least strictly confirm that the updated software is not degraded from the current it. Since the edge device does not have the correct data, it is necessary for a human to judge whether the difference between the updated software and the operating it is due to degradation or improvement. Therefore, this verification is very costly. This paper proposes a novel automated method for efficient verification on edge devices of an object detection AI, which has found practical use in various applications. In the proposed method, a target object existence detector (TOED) (a simple binary classifier) judges whether an object in the recognition target class exists in the region of a prediction difference between the AI’s operating and updated versions. Using the results of this TOED judgement and the predicted difference, an automated verification system for the updated AI was constructed. TOED was designed as a simple binary classifier with four convolutional layers, and the accuracy of object existence judgment was evaluated for the difference between the predictions of the YOLOv5 L and X models using the Cityscapes dataset. The results showed judgement with more than 99.5% accuracy and 8.6% over detection, thus indicating that a verification system adopting this method would be more efficient than simple analysis of the prediction differences.

Diagnosis at an early stage is clinically important for the cure of skin cancer. However, since some skin cancers have similar intuitive characteristics, and dermatologists rely on subjective experience to distinguish skin cancer types, the accuracy is often suboptimal. Recently, the introduction of computer methods in the medical field has better assisted physicians to improve the recognition rate but some challenges still exist. In the face of massive dermoscopic image data, residual network (ResNet) is more suitable for learning feature relationships inside big data because of its deeper network depth. Aiming at the deficiency of ResNet, this paper proposes a multi-region feature extraction and raising dimension matching method, which further improves the utilization rate of medical image features. This method firstly extracted rich and diverse features from multiple regions of the feature map, avoiding the deficiency of traditional residual modules repeatedly extracting features in a few fixed regions. Then, the fused features are strengthened by up-dimensioning the branch path information and stacking it with the main path, which solves the problem that the information of two paths is not ideal after fusion due to different dimensionality. The proposed method is experimented on the International Skin Imaging Collaboration (ISIC) Archive dataset, which contains more than 40,000 images. The results of this work on this dataset and other datasets are evaluated to be improved over networks containing traditional residual modules and some popular networks.

To improve the direction-of-arrival estimation performance of the small-aperture array, we propose a source localization method inspired by the Ormia fly’s coupled ears and MUSIC-like algorithm. The Ormia can local its host cricket’s sound precisely despite the tremendous incompatibility between the spacing of its ear and the sound wavelength. In this paper, we first implement a biologically inspired coupled system based on the coupled model of the Ormia’s ears and solve its responses by the modal decomposition method. Then, we analyze the effect of the system on the received signals of the array. Research shows that the system amplifies the amplitude ratio and phase difference between the signals, equivalent to creating a virtual array with a larger aperture. Finally, we apply the MUSIC-like algorithm for DOA estimation to suppress the colored noise caused by the system. Numerical results demonstrate that the proposed method can improve the localization precision and resolution of the array.

To improve the control performance of the permanent magnet synchronous motor speed control system, the fractional order calculus theory is combined with the sliding mode control to design the fractional order integral sliding mode sliding mode surface (FOISM) to improve the robustness of the system. Secondly, considering the existence of chattering phenomenon in sliding mode control, a new second-order sliding mode reaching law (NSOSMRL) is designed to improve the control accuracy of the system. Finally, the effectiveness of the proposed strategy is demonstrated by simulation.

Terahertz (THz) ultra-massive multiple-input multiple-output (UM-MIMO) is envisioned as a key enabling technology of 6G wireless communication. In UM-MIMO systems, downlink channel state information (CSI) has to be fed to the base station for beamforming. However, the feedback overhead becomes unacceptable because of the large antenna array. In this letter, the characteristic of CSI is explored from the perspective of data distribution. Based on this characteristic, a novel network named Attention-GRU Net (AGNet) is proposed for CSI feedback. Simulation results show that the proposed AGNet outperforms other advanced methods in the quality of CSI feedback in UM-MIMO systems.

In this letter, we study the dynamic antenna grouping and the hybrid beamforming for high altitude platform (HAP) massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. We first exploit the fact that the ergodic sum rate is only related to statistical channel state information (SCSI) in the large-scale array regime, and then we utilize it to perform the dynamic antenna grouping and design the RF beamformer. By applying the Gershgorin Circle Theorem, the dynamic antenna grouping is realized based on the novel statistical distance metric instead of the value of the instantaneous channels. The RF beamformer is designed according to the singular value decomposition of the statistical correlation matrix according to the obtained dynamic antenna group. Dynamic subarrays mean each RF chain is linked with a dynamic antenna sub-set. The baseband beamformer is derived by utilizing the zero forcing (ZF). Numerical results demonstrate the performance enhancement of our proposed dynamic hybrid precoding (DHP) algorithm.

Integrated Sensing and Communication at terahertz band (ISAC-THz) has been considered as one of the promising technologies for the future 6G. However, in the phase-shifters (PSs) based massive multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) hybrid precoding system, due to the ultra-large bandwidth of the terahertz frequency band, the subcarrier channels with different frequencies have different equivalent spatial directions. Therefore, the hybrid beamforming at the transmitter will cause serious beam split problems. In this letter, we propose a dual-function radar communication (DFRC) precoding method by considering recently proposed delay-phase precoding structure for THz massive MIMO. By adding delay phase components between the radio frequency chain and the frequency-independent PSs, the beam is aligned with the target physical direction over the entire bandwidth to reduce the loss caused by beam splitting effect. Furthermore, we employ a hardware structure by using true-time-delayers (TTDs) to realize the concept of frequency-dependent phase shifts. Theoretical analysis and simulation results have shown that it can increase communication performance and make up for the performance loss caused by the dual-function trade-off of communication radar to a certain extent.

This paper proposes a novel differential active self-interference canceller (DASIC) algorithm for asynchronous in-band full-duplex (IBFD) Gaussian filtered frequency shift keying (GFSK), which is designed for wireless Internet of Things (IoT). In IBFD communications, where two terminals simultaneously transmit and receive signals in the same frequency band, there is an extremely strong self-interference (SI). The SI can be mitigated by an active SI canceller (ASIC), which subtracts an interference replica based on channel state information (CSI) from the received signal. The challenging problem is the realization of asynchronous IBFD for wireless IoT in indoor environments. In the asynchronous mode, pilot contamination is induced by the non-orthogonality between asynchronous pilot sequences. In addition, the transceiver suffers from analog front-end (AFE) impairments, such as phase noise. Due to these impairments, the SI cannot be canceled entirely at the receiver, resulting in residual interference. To address the above issue, the DASIC incorporates the principle of the differential codec, which enables to suppress SI without the CSI estimation of SI owing to the differential structure. Also, on the premise of using an error correction technique, iterative detection and decoding (IDD) is applied to improve the detection capability while exchanging the extrinsic log-likelihood ratio (LLR) between the maximum a-posteriori probability (MAP) detector and the channel decoder. Finally, the validity of using the DASIC algorithm is evaluated by computer simulations in terms of the packet error rate (PER). The results clearly demonstrate the possibility of realizing asynchronous IBFD.

In this paper, we consider an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA)-based multiuser full-duplex wireless powered communication network (FD WPCN) system with beamforming (BF) at an energy transmitter (ET). The ET performs BF to efficiently transmit energy to multiple users while suppressing interference to an information receiver (IR). Multiple users operating in full-duplex mode harvest energy from the signals sent by the ET while simultaneously transmitting information to the IR using the harvested energy. We analytically demonstrate that the FD WPCN is superior to its half-duplex (HD) WPCN counterpart in the high-SNR regime. We propose a transmitter design method that maximizes the sum rate by determining the BF at the ET, power allocation at both the ET and users, and sub-band allocation. Simulation results show the effectiveness of the proposed method.

This paper proposes a scatterer information estimation method using numerical data for the response waveform of a backward transient scattering field for both E- and H-polarizations when a two-dimensional (2-D) coated metal cylinder is selected as a scatterer. It is assumed that a line source and an observation point are placed at different locations. The four types of scatterer information covered in this paper are the relative permittivity of a surrounding medium, the relative permittivity of a coating medium layer and its thickness, and the radius of a coated metal cylinder. Specifically, a time-domain saddle-point technique (TD-SPT) is used to derive scatterer information estimation formulae from the amplitude intensity ratios (AIRs) of adjacent backward transient scattering field components. The estimates are obtained by substituting the numerical data of the response waveforms of the backward transient scattering field components into the estimation formulae and performing iterative calculations. Furthermore, a minimum thickness of a coating medium layer for which the estimation method is valid is derived, and two kinds of applicable conditions for the estimation method are proposed. The effectiveness of the scatterer information estimation method is verified by comparing the estimates with the set values. The noise tolerance and convergence characteristics of the estimation method and the method of controlling the estimation accuracy are also discussed.

We achieved 10-Gbit/s data transmission using a cutting-edge 120-GHz-band high-speed contactless communication technology, which allows seamless connection to a local area network (LAN) by simply placing devices on a desk. We propose a glass substrate-integrated rectangular waveguide that can control the permeability of the top surface to 120-GHz signals by contacting a dielectric substrate with the substrate. The top surface of the rectangular waveguide was replaced with a glass substrate on which split-ring resonators (SRRs) were integrated. The transmission loss of the waveguide with a glass substrate was 2.5 dB at 125 GHz. When a dielectric sheet with a line pattern formed on the contact surface was in contact with a glass substrate, the transmission loss from the waveguide to the dielectric sheet was 19.2 dB at 125 GHz. We achieved 10-Gbit/s data transmission by contacting a dielectric sheet to the SRR-integrated glass substrate.