This very useful optical sampling system uses a passively mode-locked fiber laser as an optical sampling pulse source and is based on sum-frequency generation. The optical pulse had a sufficiently short pulse width, and its peak power was very high. In addition, it had a very low timing jitter. We could observe optical signals that were jitter-free in terms of single scanning. The sum-frequency generation conversion efficiency was 1.0 10-4 W-1, and the temporal resolution was 700 fs, when we used a 5-mm-thick KTP crystal. A 320-Gbit/s optical signal could be clearly observed. We have also developed a polarization-insensitive optical sampling system with a two-path configuration based on sum-frequency generation using the type-II phase matching condition in a KTP crystal. The polarization dependency was less than 3.5% (0.15 dB) in the wavelength range from 1520 to 1620 nm.

Analog Hopfield neural networks (HNNs) have so far been used to solve many kinds of optimization problems, in particular, combinatorial problems such as the TSP, which can be described by an objective function and some equality constraints. When we solve a minimization problem with equality constraints by using HNNs, however, the constraints are satisfied only approximately. In this paper we propose a circuit which rigorously realizes the equality constraints and whose energy function corresponds to the prescribed objective function. We use the SPICE program to solve circuit equations corresponding to the above circuits. The proposed method is applied to several kinds of optimization problems and the results are very satisfactory.

This paper describes a practical Japanese natural language Question Answering system adopting effective selection of dynamic passages, Lexico-Semantic Patterns (LSP), and Predictive Answer Indexing. By analyzing the previous TREC QA data, we defined a dynamic passage unit and developed a passage selection method suitable for Question Answering. Using LSP, we identify the answer type of a question and detect answer candidates without any deep linguistic analyses of the texts. To guarantee a short response time, Predictive Answer Indexing is combined into our overall system architecture. As a result of the three engineering techniques, our system showed excellent performance when evaluated by mean reciprocal rank (MRR) in NTCIR-3 QAC-1.

In wireless mobile environments, data requests based on the location of mobile clients (MCs) have increased. The requested data, called location-dependent data (LDD), may be uncertain if MCs use terms of general distance like "near". Fuzzy theory allows us to represent uncertainty without sharp boundaries. In this paper we quantify the fuzziness and propose a method for constructing the data region of LDD by the degree of the distance between LDDs' and MCs' locations. In simulation studies, we evaluate the LDD regions (LDRs) in various situations: MCs' extensive and intensive queried pattern in data regions of two "near" senses and civilized regions with regional features. Our performance evaluation shows that the number of database accesses in proposed LDRs can be reduced in each case.

In a question-answering (QA) task, "real" information retrieval, rather than document retrieval is required. Effective QA thus involves complicated and time-consuming processing, such as natural language processing and named-entity processing. To reduce the amount of processing needed, the quantity of documents in a database can be narrowed down during an initial stage of the answering procedure. This paper proposes a new evaluation measurement and compares the retrieval accuracy of initial-stage searching that uses "overall" document retrieval and "partial" passage retrieval with the TREC QA data set. The initial search and final result accuracy for various cutoff points defined according to the number of documents or words that are output is evaluated. A variety of experiments demonstrate that middle-length passage-retrieval is effective for QA, and short-length passage-retrieval could improve the accuracy of the final result for a specific question type.

The array-enhanced coherence resonance (AECR) in the diffusively coupled active rotators is investigated and its analysis with the nonlinear Fokker-Planck equation is presented. By considering the nonlinear Fokker-Planck equation of the rotators, it is found that the time-periodic solution exists in some parameter range. By solving the equation of a rotator and the Fokker-Planck equation simultaneously, the behavior of a rotator in the system with infinite number of rotators is considered, and it is found that AECR also takes place in this infinite system. Thus it is concluded that AECR is caused by the time-periodic solution of the probability density induced by noise.

The radio wave intensity time series of the quasar is observed with the radio wave interferometer on the earth. External noise may superimpose with the radio wave on the path of wave propagation over the cosmological distance. In this paper, the effects of the superimposed noise on the radio wave intensity time series are discussed assuming nonlinear dynamics to apply on the time series. A convolution method is applied to the original observed radio wave intensity time series. Both the original and the convolution time series are analyzed by the Grassberger-Procaccia (GP) method with correlation integration and compared the results to estimate the presence and the effects of superimposed subtle noise. In addition, surrogate and Judd methods are applied to the radio wave intensity time series to increase the credibility of the results of the GP method. The effects of added random noise in Lorenz model are also analyzed with the GP method to estimate the above results.

This letter investigates the peak-to-average power ratio (PAR) reduction scheme employing a simple symbol transform in OFDM-CDMA systems. This approach is very simple because of no additional complexity and works with arbitrary numbers of subcarriers and without restriction on the allocation of spreading code, maintaining an original transmission efficiency. Simulation results show that the investigated scheme gives the PAR reduction gain of 2-3 dB compared to the original OFDM and OFDM-CDMA signals, and can provide the further PAR reduction by combing the partial transmit sequence (PTS) scheme, which is less complex compared to the ordinary PTS approach.

We propose an interference-canceller-aided (ICA) code timing acquisition scheme, code acquisition in short subsequently, for initial synchronization of direct sequence-code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) systems with interference cancellation (IC). The scheme removes completely or partially multiple access interference (MAI) due to the already-synchronized users from the received signal prior to code acquisition of a desired user. Code acquisition is then performed using the MAI-reduced signal. We compare the ICA code acquisition scheme with the conventional non-ICA scheme in terms of the probability of correct acquisition and the code timing accuracy. Simulation results shows that the proposed scheme can accommodate many more users than the conventional one and provide reliable code timing estimates even under many more interfering users.

Let us introduce n ( 2) nonlinear mappings fi (i = 1,2,,n) defined on complete linear metric spaces (Xi-1,ρ) (i = 1,2,,n), respectively, and let fi: Xi-1 Xi be completely continuous on bounded convex closed subsets Xi-1,(i = 1,2,,n 0), such that fi() . Moreover, let us introduce n fuzzy-set-valued nonlinear mappings Fi: Xi-1 Xi {a family of all non-empty closed compact fuzzy subsets of Xi}. Here, we have a fixed point theorem on the recurrent system of β-level fuzzy-set-valued mapping equations: xi Fiβ(xi-1,fi(xi-1)), (i = 1,2,,n 0), where the fuzzy set Fi is characterized by a membership function µFi(xi): Xi [0,1], and the β-level set Fiβ of the fuzzy set Fi is defined as Fiβ {ξi Xi | µFi(ξi) β}, for any constant β (0,1]. This theorem can be applied immediately to discussion for characteristics of ring nonlinear network systems disturbed by undesirable uncertain fluctuations and to fine estimation of available behaviors of those disturbed systems. In this paper, its mathematical situation and proof are discussed, in detail.

This study describes the feasibility of using the penalty-function nonlinear programming neural network method to find the optimal power generating output which minimizes both the costs of generating power and power transmission losses. This method depends on neural network technology in acquiring exterior penalty function. Employing nonlinear function in equality and inequality constraints, the model is established using a neural network and additional objective functions; these additional objective functions expand cost function by using an appropriate penalty function. In this study, a 26-busbar including six generators was used to test the penalty function nonlinear programming neural network method. A comparison with the sequential unconstrained minimization technique (SUMT) demonstrates the reliability and precision of the optimal solution obtained using the new method.

We expect that most cellular phones and notebook computers will have Bluetooth in the near future. Many convenient applications will flourish. An example is exchanging multi-media electronic name cards using cellular phones. Today, most people carry a cellular phone. If the user interface can be made as simple as handing out a printed business card, the electronic cards exchanged over Bluetooth would make printed ones obsolete. However the current Bluetooth specification is not adquate to support short peer-to-peer transactions requiring symmectric user interface and fast response time. Connection establishment can take more than 10 s and two devices must start in an asymmetric manner. In this paper, we propose a random inquiry procedure tailored for name card exchange. It allows a symmectric user interface, and device discovery completes within 280 ms with probability 0.999. With this performance, it then becomes practical to provide a hot button on cellular phones that users will simply press to exchange electronic name cards.

In order to investigate the sensitivity of fast frequency hopping-multiple access (FFH-MA) systems due to the frequency offset under Rician fading, we evaluate the bit error rate (BER) performance of the FFH-MA system using noncoherent M-ary frequency shift keying (FSK) with the hard decision decoding and the majority logic decision. Numerical results show that for satisfying the BER performance of 10-5 at a given normalized frequency offset of 0.2, the additional signal to noise ratio (SNR) of about 4 dB is required with the 8-ary FSK signaling compared to the case of the perfect frequency synchronization. While the frequency offset increases at a given SNR, the BER is more severely degraded, and subsequently, the BER performance is saturated at the normalized frequency offset of 0.5 regardless of fading environments. For the SNRs of more than 15 dB, the threshold level of the receiver suffering from normalized frequency offsets of less than 0.4 should be larger than that of the perfectly frequency synchronized receiver.

We present the channel capacity, specifically the mutual information, of an additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel in the presence of phase noise, and investigate the effect of phase noise impairment on powerful error-correcting codes (ECCs) that normally operate in low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regions. This channel-induced impairment is common in digital coherent transmission systems and is caused by imperfect carrier tracking of the phase error detector for coherent demodulation. It is shown through semi-analytical derivation that decreasing the information rate from its ideal capacity to an information rate lower than its inherent capacity significantly mitigates the impairment caused by phase noise, and that operating systems in the low SNR region also lessen the phase noise impairment by transforming typical phase noise behavior into Gaussian-like behavior. We also demonstrate by computer simulation using turbo-trellis coded modulation (TTCM) with high-order quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) signals that the use of capacity-approaching codes (CACs) makes transmission systems invulnerable to phase noise. To verify the effect of CACs on phase noise, simulation results of TTCM are also compared to that of trellis-coded modulation (TCM), which is used as an example of a conventional ECC operating at a relatively high SNR.

In generating Frequency-Hopping (FH) sequences for Frequency Hopping Spread Spectrum Multiple Access (FH-SSMA) applications, binary maximal-length sequences (m-sequences) over GF(2m) have been preferred because of their characteristics of good Hamming correlation property, long period capability and high speed generation in association with simple hardware implementation based on Feedback Shift Registers (FSR). In practice, however, one difficulty of applying such sequences into the FH-SSMA communication systems with a wide bandwidth such as Military Satellite Communication (MilSatCom) is that the number of hopping frequency slots available may be far from a power of 2 in proportion to the spreading bandwidth. In that case, we can not make good use of the spreading bandwidth. In this paper, we propose a construction of some favorable FH sequences which deals effectively with the above difficulty using FSR and some nonlinear logic by introducing a re-mapping method. We show that the resulting sequences satisfy the (almost) uniform symbol distribution in one period and preserve a reasonably good Hamming correlation property so that they are appropriate for FH-SSMA applications.

Frequency-domain representation of the well-known time-domain rake combining for the antenna diversity reception of DS-CDMA signals is derived. Two receiver structures using frequency-domain rake combining are presented. Frequency-domain rake combining can alleviate the complexity problem of the time-domain rake arising from too many paths in a severe frequency selective fading channel at the cost of guard interval insertion. The results shown in this paper show a possibility that a DS-CDMA approach still remain to be promising for broadband wireless access technique.

This letter addresses the performance degradation due to carrier frequency offset in an orthogonal frequency and code division multiplexing (OFCDM) systems with multiple transmit antennas. For the performance evaluation, the average bit error rate (BER) expression is derived taking account of the effect of a carrier frequency offset. Derived results show that the BER performance of the space-time coded OFCDM system is less sensitive to a frequency offset, compared to the normal OFCDM system.

In this paper color image compression using a fuzzy Hopfield-model net based on rough-set reasoning is created to generate optimal codebook based on Vector Quantization (VQ) in Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT). The main purpose is to embed rough-set learning scheme into the fuzzy Hopfield network to construct a compression system named Rough Fuzzy Hopfield Net (RFHN). First a color image is decomposed into 3-D pyramid structure with various frequency bands. Then the RFHN is used to create different codebooks for various bands. The energy function of RFHN is defined as the upper- and lower-bound fuzzy membership grades between training samples and codevectors. Finally, near global-minimum codebooks in frequency domain can be obtained when the energy function converges to a stable state. Therefore, only 32/N pixels are selected as the training samples if a 3N-dimensional color image was used. In the simulation results, the proposed network not only reduces the consuming time but also preserves the compression performance.

Treating an averaged multiple-trials data or non-averaged single-trial data is a main approach in recent topics on applying independent component analysis (ICA) to neurobiological signal processing. By taking an average, the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is increased but some important information such as the strength of an evoked response and its dynamics will be lost. The single-trial data analysis, on the other hand, can avoid this problem but the SNR is very poor. In this study, we apply ICA to both non-averaged single-trial data and averaged multiple-trials data to determine the properties and advantages of both. Our results show that the analysis of averaged data is effective for seeking the response and dipole location of evoked fields. The non-averaged single-trial data analysis efficiently identifies the strength and dynamic component such as α-wave. For determining both the range of evoked strength and dipole location, an analysis of averaged limited-trials data is better option.

To develop ultra high density magnetic recording systems, a quasi-static system with a reciprocating medium motion against a stand still head was developed for a read/write tester. Double-layered perpendicular recording media and merged GMR heads assembled on a conventional head-gimbal assembly (HGA) were applied to evaluate the read/write performances. A smooth sliding contact motion was achieved, however, the head-to-medium spacing was varied depending on the head motion direction. The spacing in the reverse running direction of the conventional head slider seems to be smaller than that of the flying height in a high-speed spin stand. A merged ring head was suitable for perpendicular magnetic recording in the case of the reverse direction sliding.