DCT encoding of images leads to block artifact and mosquito noise degradations in the decoded pictures. We propose an estimation to determine the mosquito noise block and level; however, this technique lacks sufficient linearity. To improve its performance, we use the sub-divided block for edge effect suppression. The subsequent results are mostly linear with the quantization.

A half-cylindrical BK-7 prism/dielectric film with a grating/Ag film/fluorescent polymer film structure was prepared, and its surface plasmon (SP) excitation property was investigated. It was confirmed experimentally that SP excitations are possible in this structure by using prism and grating couplings. The SP excitation property depended on the direction of the grating vector. Furthermore, intense photoluminescence was observed when the SPs were simultaneously excited at the Ag/polymer interface by prism coupling and at the Cytop/Ag interface by grating coupling.

Recently enhancing the visual experience of the user has been a new trend for TV displays. This trend comes from the fact that changes of ambient illuminations while viewing a Liquid Crystal Display (LCD) significantly affect human impressions. However, psychological effects caused by the combination of displayed video image and ambient illuminations have not been investigated. In the present research, we clarify the relationship between ambient illuminations and psychological effects while viewing video image displayed on the LCD by using a questionnaire based semantic differential (SD) method and a factor analysis method. Six kinds of video images were displayed under different colors and layouts of illumination conditions and rated by 15 observers. According to the analysis, it became clear that the illumination control around the LCD with displayed video image, the feeling of 'activity' and 'evaluating' were rated higher than the feeling of fluorescent ceiling condition. In particular, simultaneous illumination control around the display and the ceiling enhanced the feeling of 'activity,' and 'evaluating' with keeping 'comfort.' Moreover, the feeling of 'activity' under the illumination control around the LCD and the ceiling condition while viewing music video image was rated clearly higher than that with natural scene video image.

In many real-world face recognition applications, there might be only one training image per person available. Moreover, the test images may vary in facial expressions and illuminations, or may be partially occluded. However, most classical face recognition techniques assume that multiple images per person are available for training, and they are difficult to deal with extreme expressions, illuminations and occlusions. This paper proposes a novel block-based bag of words (BBoW) method to solve those problems. In our approach, a face image is partitioned into multiple blocks, dense SIFT features are then calculated and vector quantized into different visual words on each block respectively. Finally, histograms of codeword distribution on each local block are concatenated to represent the face image. Our method is able to capture local features on each block while maintaining holistic spatial information of different facial components. Without any illumination compensation or image alignment processing, the proposed method achieves excellent face recognition results on AR and XM2VTS databases. Experimental results show that only using one neutral expression frame per person for training, our method can obtain the best performance ever on face images of AR database with extreme expressions, variant illuminations, and partial occlusions. We also test our method on the standard and darkened sets of XM2VTS database, and achieve the average rates of 100% and 96.10% on the standard and darkened sets of XM2VTS database, respectively.

This paper presents Q factor analysis for FET oscillators employing distributed-constant elements. We replace the inductor of a lumped constant Colpitts circuit by a shorted microstrip transmission line for high frequency applications. Involving the FET's transconductance and the transmission line's loss due to both conducting metal and dielectric substrate, we deduce the Q factor formula for the entire circuit in the steady oscillation state. We compared the computed results from the oscillator employing an uniform shorted microstrip line with that of the original LC oscillator. For obtaining even higher Q factor, we modify the shape of transmission line into nonuniform, i.e., step-, tapered-, and partially-tapered stubs. Non-uniformity causes some complexity in the impedance analysis. We exploit a piecewise uniform approximation for tapered part of the microstrip stub, and then involve the asymptotic expressions obtained from both stub's impedance and its frequency derivatives into the active Q factor formula. Applying these formulations, we calculate out the value of capacitance for tuning, the necessary FET's transconductance and achievable active Q factor, and then finally explore oscillator performances with a microstrip stub in different shapes and sizes.

The search for lightweight authentication protocols suitable for low-cost RFID tags constitutes an active and challenging research area. In this context, a family of protocols based on the LPN problem has been proposed: the so-called HB-family. Despite the rich literature regarding the cryptanalysis of these protocols, there are no published results about the impact of fault analysis over them. The purpose of this paper is to fill this gap by presenting fault analytic methods against a prominent member of the HB-family: HB+ protocol. We demonstrate that the fault analysis model can lead to a flexible and effective attack against HB-like protocols, posing a serious threat over them.

For copyright protection, a watermark signal is embedded in host images with a secret key, and a correlation is applied to judge the presence of watermark signal in the watermark detection. This paper treats a discrete wavelet transform (DWT)-based image watermarking method under specified false positive probability. We propose a new watermarking method to improve the detection performance by using not only positive correlation but also negative correlation. Also we present a statistical analysis for the detection performance with taking into account the false positive probability and prove the effectiveness of the proposed method. By using some experimental results, we verify the statistical analysis and show this method serves to improve the robustness against some attacks.

A modified proportional fairness (PF) scheduling scheme for OFDMA systems with imperfect channel quality indicator is suggested. It is based on user grouping, and in system level simulations, the proposed scheme improves average user throughput considerably when compared to conventional PF scheduling without grouping.

This letter introduces a new fairness concept, namely proportional quasi-fairness and proves that the optimal end-to-end rate of a network utility maximization can be proportionally quasi-fair with a properly chosen network utility function for an arbitrary compact feasible set.

In this paper, the performance of the induced dimension reduction (IDR) method implemented along with the method of moments (MoM) is described. The MoM is based on a combined field integral equation for solving large-scale electromagnetic scattering problems involving conducting objects. The IDR method is one of Krylov subspace methods. This method was initially developed by Peter Sonneveld in 1979; it was subsequently generalized to the IDR(s) method. The method has recently attracted considerable attention in the field of computational physics. However, the performance of the IDR(s) has hardly been studied or practiced for electromagnetic wave problems. In this study, the performance of the IDR(s) is investigated and clarified by comparing the convergence property and memory requirement of the IDR(s) with those of other representative Krylov solvers such as biconjugate gradient (BiCG) methods and generalized minimal residual algorithm (GMRES). Numerical experiments reveal that the characteristics of the IDR(s) against the parameter s strongly depend on the geometry of the problem; in a problem with a complex geometry, s should be set to an adequately small value in order to avoid the "spurious convergence" which is a problem that the IDR(s) inherently holds. As for the convergence behavior, we observe that the IDR(s) has a better convergence ability than GPBiCG and GMRES(m) in a variety of problems with different complexities. Furthermore, we also confirm the IDR(s)'s inherent advantage in terms of the memory requirements over GMRES(m).

The Maxwell-Wagner type interfacial charging processes were characterized by time-resolved second harmonic generation method (TR-SHG) using three typical organic double-layer devices, i.e., IZO/α-NPD/Alq3/Al for OLED and ITO/PI/α-NPD (or pentacene)/Au for MIM elements. Devices with a PI blocking layer represent one-carrier transport case, while the OLED is a typical two-carrier transport device. It is found that three devices show similar behavior of charging of the electrodes, however, interfacial charging behavior was different from case to case. On the basis of Maxwell-Wagner model, the different transients were analyzed with consideration of carrier species responsible for the interfacial charging. The observed TR-SHG well support the results of I-V measurements.

In this paper, we mathematically derive a matrix-form solution named resource allocation matrix (RAM) for sub-band allocation in an orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) system. The proposed scheme is designed to enhance throughput under a strict user fairness condition such that every user has an equal number of sub-bands per frame. The RAM designates the most preferable sub-band for every user. The proposed scheme is evaluated in terms of throughput and user fairness by comparison with the proportional fairness (PF) scheme and greedy scheme. Numerical results show that the proposed scheme has overwhelming superiority to other schemes in terms of fairness and tight competitive in terms of throughput.

This letter proposes a dynamic phasor-based apparent impedance measuring method for a single-line-to-ground fault. Using the proposed method, the effects of the decaying DC components on the apparent impedance of a single-line-to-ground fault can be completely removed. Compared with previous works, the proposed method uses less computation to measure an accurate apparent impedance.

To reduce the inaccuracy caused by inappropriate time window, we propose two probabilistic fault localization schemes based on the idea of "extending time window." The global window extension algorithm (GWE) uses a window extension strategy for all candidate faults, while the on-demand window extension algorithm (OWE) uses the extended window only for a small set of faults when necessary. Both algorithms can increase the metric values of actual faults and thus improve the accuracy of fault localization. Simulation results show that both schemes perform better than existing algorithms. Furthermore, OWE performs better than GWE at the cost of a bit more computing time.

This paper proposes a further improved technique on the stochastic functional approach for randomly rough surface scattering. The original improved technique has been established in the previous paper [Waves in Random and Complex Media, vol.19, no.2, pp.181-215, 2009] as a novel numerical-analytical method for a Wiener analysis. By deriving modified hierarchy equations based on the diagonal approximation solution of random wavefields for a TM plane wave incidence or even for a TE plane wave incidence under large roughness, large slope or low grazing incidence, such a further improved technique can provide a large reduction of required computational resources, in comparison with the original improved technique. This paper shows that numerical solutions satisfy the optical theorem with very good accuracy, by using small computational resources.

When a monochromatic electromagnetic plane wave is incident on an infinitely extending surface with the translation invariance property, a curious phenomenon often takes place at a low grazing angle of incidence, at which the total wave field vanishes and a dark shadow appears. This paper looks for physical and mathematical reasons why such a shadow occurs. Three cases are considered: wave reflection by a flat interface between two media, diffraction by a periodic surface, and scattering from a homogeneous random surface. Then, it is found that, when a translation invariant surface does not support guided waves (eigen functions) propagating with real propagation constants, such the shadow always takes place, because the primary excitation disappears at a low grazing angle of incidence. At the same time, a shadow form of solution is proposed. Further, several open problems are given for future works.

IP Fast Reroute techniques have been proposed to achieve fast failure recovery, just a few milliseconds. The basic idea of IP Fast Reroute is to reduce recovery time by precomputing backup routes. The multiple routing configurations (MRC) algorithm was proposed to implement IP Fast Reroute. MRC prepares backup configurations, which are used for finding a detour route after a failure. However, this algorithm establishes too many backup configurations to recover from failures. We propose a new backup configuration computation algorithm that creates the fewest possible configurations. The basic idea is to construct a spanning tree that excludes failure links in each backup configuration. We show that the effectiveness of our algorithm is especially high in large-scale power-law networks.

Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are widely used in reliability-critical systems due to their reconfiguration ability. However, with the shrinking device feature size and increasing die area, nowadays FPGAs can be deeply affected by the errors induced by electromigration and radiation. To improve the reliability of FPGA-based reconfigurable systems, a permanent fault recovery approach using a domain partition model is proposed in this paper. In the proposed approach, the fault-tolerant FPGA recovery from faults is realized by reloading a proper configuration from a pool of multiple alternative configurations with overlaps. The overlaps are presented as a set of vectors in the domain partition model. To enhance the reliability, a technical procedure is also presented in which the set of vectors are heuristically filtered so that the corresponding small overlaps can be merged into big ones. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach through applying it to several benchmark circuits. Compared with previous approaches, the proposed approach increased MTTF by up to 18.87%.

In UWB systems, data symbols are transmitted and received continuously. The Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) processor must be able to seamlessly process input/output data. This paper presents the design and implementation of a continuous data flow parallel memory-based FFT (CF-PMBFFT) processor without the use of input buffer for pre-loading the input data. The processor realizes a memory space of two N-words and multiple processing elements (PEs) to achieve the seamless data flow and meet the design requirement. The circuit has been fabricated in TSMC 0.18 µm 1P6M CMOS process with the supply voltage of 1.8 V. Measurement results of the test chip shows that the developed CF-PMBFFT processor takes a core area of 1.97 mm2 with a power consumption of 62.12 mW for a throughput rate of 528 MS/s.

Channel-factorization aided detector (CFAD) is one of the important low-complexity detectors used in multiple input, multiple output (MIMO) receivers. Through channel factorization, this method transforms the original MIMO system into an equivalent system with a better-conditioned channel where detection is performed with a low-complexity detector; the estimate is then transferred back to the original system to obtain the final decision. Traditionally, the channel factorization is done with the lattice reduction algorithms such as the Lenstra-Lenstra-Lovasz (LLL) and Seysen's algorithms with no consideration of the low-complexity detector used. In this paper, we propose a different approach: the channel factorization is designed specifically for the minimum mean-square-error (MMSE) detector that is a popular low-complexity detector in CFADs. Two new types of factorization algorithms are proposed. Type-I is LLL based, where the well-known DLLL-extended algorithm, the LLL algorithm working on the dual matrix of the extended channel matrix, is a member of this type but with a higher complexity. DLLL-extended is the best-performed factorization algorithm found in the literature, Type-II is greedy-search based where its members are differentiated with different algorithm's parameters. Type-II algorithms can provide around 0.5-1.0 dB gain over Type-I algorithms and have a fixed computational complexity which is advantageous in hardware implementation.