The MR image segmentation is always a challenging problem because of the intensity inhomogeneity. Many existing methods don't reach their expected segmentations; besides their implementations are usually complicated. Therefore, we originally interleave the extended Otsu segmentation with bias field estimation in an energy minimization. Via our proposed method, the optimal segmentation and bias field estimation are achieved simultaneously throughout the reciprocal iteration. The results of our method not only satisfy the required classification via its applications in the synthetic and the real images, but also demonstrate that our method is superior to the baseline methods in accordance with the performance analysis of JS metrics.

Two types of 3D folded dipole antenna with feed line (FDAFL) were reported for a small terminal, which covered WiMAX 2.5/3.5GHz bands and WLAN 2.4GHz band. In this study, folded monopole antenna (FMA) is proposed as a variant of FDAFL. We show the broadband characteristics of FMA and determine the most suitable configuration of FMA array for realizing MIMO system. Also, a multiband variant is created by introducing a parasitic element to FMA. The result is a multiband FMA array with parasitic elements operating at 5GHz band of WiMAX and WLAN as well as WiMAX 2.5/3.5GHz bands and WLAN 2.4GHz band with total antenna efficiency of between 70% to 96% and the envelope correlation coefficient of less than 0.02. Finally, a prototype antenna is implemented, and we confirm the validity of the simulation by comparison to measured results.

The performance in terms of the user separation of multi-user multiple-input multiple-output (MU-MIMO) depends on not only the spatial correlation but also the location of the mobile stations (MSs). In order to take into account the performance in terms of the user separation, we need to consider the granularity of the beam and null width of the precoded antenna pattern in addition to the spatial correlation to determine the base station (BS) antenna configuration. In this paper, we propose Smart Vertical MIMO (SV-MIMO) as the best antenna configuration that achieves both spatial correlation and granularity of the beam and null width of the precoded antenna pattern. We evaluate SV-MIMO in a field experiment using a downlink 4-by-2 MU-MIMO configuration focusing on the dependency of the location of the MSs in Yokosuka, Japan. The majority of the measurement course is under line-of-sight (LOS) conditions in a single cell environment. The MSs are almost uniformly set 30 to 60 degrees in azimuth and 12 to 30 degrees in elevation and the distance from the BS antennas is approximately 150m at maximum. We also evaluate the performance of 4-by-2 MU-MIMO using the conventional type of horizontal array antenna and show the difference. The field experimental results show that throughput of greater than 1Gbps is achieved at the Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) of 14% by employing SV-MIMO for Rank-4 MU-MIMO. The throughput of SV-MIMO is 30% higher than that for the horizontal array antenna configuration at the CDF of 50%.

In Still-to-Video (S2V) face recognition, only a few high resolution images are registered for each subject, while the probe is video clips of complex variations. As faces present distinct characteristics under different scenarios, recognition in the original space is obviously inefficient. Thus, in this paper, we propose a novel discriminant analysis method to learn separate mappings for different scenario patterns (still, video), and further pursue a common discriminant space based on these mappings. Concretely, by modeling each video as a manifold and each image as point data, we form the scenario-oriented mapping learning as a Point-Manifold Discriminant Analysis (PMDA) framework. The learning objective is formulated by incorporating the intra-class compactness and inter-class separability for good discrimination. Experiments on the COX-S2V dataset demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method.

This paper proposes a new small multiband printed antenna for wireless telecommunications modules that can realize Machine-to-Machine applications. We reconfigure our previous antenna to cover the 700MHz, 800MHz, and 900MHz bands, and add two new elements (second strips) to cover the 2GHz band. The new antenna achieves operation in quad-bands: 700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz, and 2GHz. Frequency characteristics are analyzed using electromagnetic-simulation software based on the method of moments, and the validity of the numerical results is shown based on measured Voltage Standing Wave Ratio (VSWR) characteristics and the radiation patterns of a prototype antenna. The proposed antenna is compact with a VSWR bandwidth (≤2) of 27.5% in bands including 700MHz, 800MHz, and 900MHz, and a VSWR bandwidth (≤2) of 10.6% in the band including 2GHz. We clarify that the operating mechanism in the 2GHz band is equivalent to that of a one wavelength folded offset fed dipole antenna comprising a monopole element and second strips, and that the operating frequency in the 2GHz band can be determined by the path length from the tip of the monopole element to the tip of the second strip via a feeding point.

For the direct measurement of very fast transient current (VFTC) due to switch operation in gas insulated switchgear (GIS), usually it will interfere the original operation or change the structure of switch. In this paper a method for calculation of transient current caused by the disconnect operation in GIS by the inverse operation of the electromagnetic (EM) near field is presented. A GIS is modeled by the finite integration technique (FIT), and all the media between the excitation source and the observation position are considered as a black box whose input is VFTC and output is EM field. A coefficient matrix is established to reflect the connection between the input and output in frequency domain, and the VFTC in frequency domain will be the result of multiplying the inverse matrix by the measurement result minus the EM field caused by transient grounding potential rise (TGPR) or transient enclosure voltage (TEV) in the observation position. Finally the time domain form of VFTC can be obtained by the interpolation and IFFT. Comparison between the result and simulation shows the validation of this method.

A new real-time sound field transmission system is presented. To construct this system, a large listening area needs to be reproduced at not less than a constant height. Additionally, the driving signals of the loudspeakers should be obtained only from received signals of microphones. Wave field reconstruction (WFR) filtering for linear arrays of microphones and loudspeakers is considered to be suitable for this kind of system. An experimental system was developed to show the feasibility of real-time sound field transmission using the WFR filter. Experiments to measure the reproduced sound field and a subjective listening test of sound localization were conducted to evaluate the proposed system. Although the reproduced sound field included several artifacts such as spatial aliasing and faster amplitude decay, the experimental results indicated that the proposed system was able to provide sound localization accuracy for virtual sound sources comparable to that for real sound sources in a large listening area.

Optical interfaces have been recently standardized as the main physical layer interfaces for most short length optical communication systems, such as IEEE802.3ae, OIF-VSR, and the Fiber Channel. As interface speed increases, the requirements for forecasting the optical characteristics of direct modulated laser diodes (LDs) also increase because those standards define the specifications for physical layers with optical domains. In this paper, a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL) equivalent electronic circuit model is described with which designers can simulate the $I-L-V$, S-parameter, and transient characteristics of LDs on a circuit simulator by improving convergence. We show that the proposed VCSEL model can model an 850-nm bandwidth VCSEL with 10-Gbps operation.

In this manuscript we present a methodology for reducing the impact of the hosting room reflections in sound field rendering applications based on loudspeaker arrays. The problem is formulated in a least-squares sense. Since matrices involved in the problem are ill-conditioned, it is important to devise a suitable technique for the regularisation of the pseudo-inverse. In this work we adopt a truncated SVD method. The truncation, in particular, aims at reducing the impact of numerical errors and also errors on the knowledge of the sound speed. We include a wide set of experimental results, which validate the proposed technique.

Since electromagnetic (EM) noise resulting from an arc discharge disturbs other electric devices, parameters on electromagnetic compatibility, as well as lifetime and reliability, are important properties for electrical contacts. To clarify the characteristics and the mechanism of the generation of the EM noise, the arc column and voltage fluctuations generated by slowly breaking contacts with external direct current (DC) magnetic field, up to 20,mT, was investigated experimentally using Ag$_{90.7{ m wt%}}$SnO$_{2,9.3{ m wt}%}$ material. Firstly the motion of the arc column is measured by high-speed camera. Secondary, the distribution of the motion of the arc and contact voltage are discussed. It was revealed that the contact voltage fluctuation in the arc duration is related to the arc column motion.

Sound field reproduction systems seek to realistically convey 3D spatial audio by re-creating the sound pressure inside a region enclosing the listener. High-order Ambisonics (HOA), a sound field reproduction technology, is notable for defining a scalable encoding format that characterizes the sound field in a system-independent way. Sound fields sampled with a particular microphone array and encoded into the HOA format can be reproduced using any sound presentation device, typically a loudspeaker array, by using a HOA decoder. The HOA encoding format is based on the spherical harmonic decomposition; this makes it easier to design a decoder for large arrays of loudspeakers uniformly distributed over all directions. In practice, it is seldom possible to cover all directions with loudspeakers placed at regular angular intervals. An irregular array, one where the angular separation between adjacent loudspeakers is not constant, does not perform as well as a regular one when reproducing HOA due to the uneven sampling of the spherical harmonics. This paper briefly introduces the techniques used in HOA and advances a new approach to design HOA decoders for irregular loudspeaker arrays. The main difference between conventional methods and our proposal is the use of a new error metric: the radial derivative of the reconstruction error. Minimizing this metric leads to a smooth reproduction, accurate over a larger region than that achieved by conventional HOA decoders. We evaluate our proposal using the computer simulation of two 115-channel loudspeaker arrays: a regular and an irregular one. We find that our proposal results in a larger listening region when used to decode HOA for reproduction using the irregular array. On the other hand, applying our method matches the high-quality reproduction that can be attained with the regular array and conventional HOA decoders.

Sensing and reproduction of precise sound-space information is important to realize highly realistic audio communications. This study was conducted to realize high-precision sensors of 3D sound-space information for transmission to distant places and for preservation of sound data for the future. Proposed method comprises a compact and spherical object with numerous microphones. Each recorded signal from multiple microphones that are uniformly distributed on the sphere is simply weighted and summed to synthesize signals to be presented to a listener's left and right ears. The calculated signals are presented binaurally via ordinary binaural systems such as headphones. Moreover, the weight can be changed according to a human's 3D head movement. A human's 3D head movement is well known to be a crucially important factor to facilitate human spatial hearing. For accurate spatial hearing, 3D sound-space information is acquired as accurately reflecting the listener's head movement. We named the proposed method SENZI (Symmetrical object with ENchased ZIllion microphones). The results of computer simulations demonstrate that our proposed SENZI outperforms a conventional method (binaural Ambisonics). It can sense 3D sound-space with high precision over a wide frequency range.

A 60-GHz power amplifier (PA) with a reliability consideration for a hot-carrier-induced~(HCI) degradation is presented. The supply voltage of the last stage of the PA ($V_{{ m PA}}$) is dynamically controlled by an on-chip digitally-assisted low drop-out voltage regulator (LDO) to alleviate HCI effects. A physical model for estimation of HCI degradation of NMOSFETs is discussed and investigated for dynamic operation. The PA is fabricated in a standard 65-nm CMOS process with a core area of 0.21,mm$^{2}$, which provides a saturation power of 10.1,dBm to 13.2,dBm with a peak power-added efficiency~(PAE) of 8.1% to 15.0% for the supply voltage $V_{{ m PA}}$ which varies from 0.7,V to 1.0,V at 60,GHz, respectively.

Complex-valued Hopfield associative memory (CHAM) is one of the most promising neural network models to deal with multilevel information. CHAM has an inherent property of rotational invariance. Rotational invariance is a factor that reduces a network's robustness to noise, which is a critical problem. Here, we proposed complex-valued bipartite auto-associative memory (CBAAM) to solve this reduction in noise robustness. CBAAM consists of two layers, a visible complex-valued layer and an invisible real-valued layer. The invisible real-valued layer prevents rotational invariance and the resulting reduction in noise robustness. In addition, CBAAM has high parallelism, unlike CHAM. By computer simulations, we show that CBAAM is superior to CHAM in noise robustness. The noise robustness of CHAM decreased as the resolution factor increased. On the other hand, CBAAM provided high noise robustness independent of the resolution factor.

The Global Position System (GPS), which is well known as a global tool for positioning, is also the primary system for time transfer. GPS can deliver very precise time to every corner of the world. Usually, a GPS receiver indicates the precise time by means of the 1PPS (one pulse per second) signal. This paper studies the precise time transfer system structure of GPS receivers and then proposes an effective PPS signal generation method with predictive synchronous loop, combining phase error prediction and dynamic threshold adjustment. A GPS time transfer system is implemented and measured in detail to demonstrate the validity of the proposed algorithm. Assuming the receiver clock rate of 16.368MHz, the proposed method can achieve the accuracy of ±20ns in the scope 1δ which can meet the requirements of the vast majority of occasions. Through a long period of testing, we prove the feasibility of this algorithm experimentally.

In this work, a gate-all-around (GAA) tunneling field-effect transistor (TFET) with InGaAs/Si heterojunction for high-performance and low-standby power operations is studied. Gallium (Ga) compositon ($x)$ in In$_{1-x}$Ga$_{x}$As source substantially affects the physical properties related with device performances including lattice constant, bandgap energy, effective tunneling mass, channel mobility, and others. Thus, it is worthy investigating the effect of Ga fraction on performances of the proposed heterojunction TFET. For this goal, the device design and its performance evaluation are carried out by technology computer-aided design (TCAD). Direct-current (DC) performances are investigated in terms of on-state current ($I_{ m{on}})$, off-state current ($I_{ m{off}})$, current ratio ($I_{ m{on}}$/$I_{ m{off}})$, and subthreshold swing ($S$). Furthermore, it is shown that the device with an n-type Si insertion layer between source and channel demonstrates the enhanced DC characteristics.

The relay channel is the common approach to cooperative communication. Quasi-cyclic low-density parity-check (QC-LDPC) code design for the relay channel is important to cooperative communication. This paper proposes a bilayer QC-LDPC code design scheme for the relay channel. Combined with the bilayer graphical code structure, an improved Chinese remainder theorem (CRT) method, the Biff-CRT method is presented. For the proposed method we introduce a finite field approach. The good performance of the finite field based QC-LDPC code can improve the performance of its corresponding objective QC-LDPC code in the proposed scheme. We construct the FF code and the FA code by the Biff-CRT method. The FF code and the FA code are both named as their two component codes. For the FF code, the two component code are both finite field based QC-LDPC codes. For the FA code, one of the component codes is the finite field based QC-LDPC code and the other is the array code. For the existing CRT method, the shortened array code and the array code are usually used as the component codes to construct the SA code. The exponent matrices of FF code, FA code and SA code are given both for the overall graph and the lower graph. Bit error rate (BER) simulation results indicate that the proposed FF code and FA code are superior to the SA code both at the relay node and the destination node. In addition, the theoretical limit and the BER of the bilayer irregular LDPC code are also given to compare with the BER of the proposed QC-LDPC codes. Moreover, the proposed Biff-CRT method is flexible, easy to implement and effective for constructing the QC-LDPC codes for the relay channel, and it is attractive for being used in the future cooperative communication systems.

A build system converts source code, libraries and other data into executable programs by orchestrating the execution of compilers and other tools. The whole building process is managed by a software build system, such as Make, Ant, CMake, Maven, Scons, and QMake. Many studies have investigated bugs and fixes in several systems, but to our best knowledge, none focused on bugs in build systems. One significant feature of software build systems is that they should work on various platforms, i.e., various operating systems (e.g., Windows, Linux), various development environments (e.g., Eclipse, Visual Studio), and various programming languages (e.g., C, C++, Java, C#), so the study of software build systems deserves special consideration. In this paper, we perform an empirical study on bugs in software build systems. We analyze four software build systems, Ant, Maven, CMake and QMake, which are four typical and widely-used software build systems, and can be used to build Java, C, C++ systems. We investigate their bug database and code repositories, randomly sample a set of bug reports and their fixes (800 bugs reports totally, and 199, 250, 200, and 151 bug reports for Ant, Maven, CMake and QMake, respectively), and manually assign them into various categories. We find that 21.35% of the bugs belong to the external interface category, 18.23% of the bugs belong to the logic category, and 12.86% of the bugs belong to the configuration category. We also investigate the relationship between bug categories and bug severities, bug fixing time, and number of bug comments.

In this paper, a novel hybrid technique for analyzing complex antennas around the coated object is proposed, which is termed as “iterative vector fields with Physical Optics (PO)”. A closed box is used to enclose the antennas and the complex field vectors on the box' surfaces can then be obtained using Huygens principle. The equivalent electromagnetic currents on Huygens surfaces are computed by Higher-order Method of Moments (HOB-MoM) and the fields scattered from the coated object are calculated by PO method. In addition, the parallel technique based on Message Passing Interface (MPI) and Scalable Linear Algebra Package (ScaLAPACK) is employed so as to accelerate the computation. Numerical examples are presented to validate and to show the effectiveness of the proposed method on solving the practical engineering problem.

In this paper, we propose a new encoding method applicable to any linear codes over arbitrary finite field whose computational complexity is O(δ*n) where δ* and n denote the maximum column weight of a parity check matrix of a code and the code length, respectively. This means that if a code has a parity check matrix with the constant maximum column weight, such as LDPC codes, it can be encoded with O(n) computation. We also clarify the relation between the proposed method and conventional methods, and compare the computational complexity of those methods. Then we show that the proposed encoding method is much more efficient than the conventional ones.