In this paper, we propose a method to introduce an A* search control into sentential matching mechanism for question-answering systems, in order to reduce the response time while the accuracy of the answer is preserved. The question answering is a new technology to retrieve not relevant documents but the answer(s) directly by combining several methodology including IR and IE. One of the essential processes is the sentential matching between the user's query and each sentence in documents. In general, in order to obtain matching score precisely in higher resolution, we need some processes with higher computational costs. We therefore introduce an A* search in which both the processing cost and the resolution of matching score are took into account simultaneously. According to the experiments in NTCIR3 QAC1 Task1, the system with the controlled search is 3.4-8.5 times faster than the system with no control.

In this paper the method of least squares is employed to design an axially symmetric contradirectional multisection coupled - line coupler together with the impedance matching of real generator and load impedances. An error function is constructed for the required coupling (C) based on the squared magnitude of the ratio of the coupler voltage to that at the incident port. Another algorithm based on the reflected and transmitted wave amplitudes is developed by the method of least squares for the design of a coupled - line coupler with impedance matching of different input and output complex impedances and arbitrary coupling and length. The error functions are minimized to determine the coupler geometry, namely the normalized strip conductor widths (u=w/h) and separation (g=s/h) and the coupler length, where h is the substrate thickness. A procedure is presented to provide the initial values of u and g. The computer implementation of the proposed method shows that a proper coupler design is possible for any given coupler length. This is particularly interesting where space limitations impose contraints on the coupler length. The results are favorably compared with available computer simulation softwares.

A combined theory of the micromagnetic and Monte Carlo simulations is established to analyze the thermal property of a nano-sized magnetic grain. The Langevin equation of a grain's magnetic moment is the Landau-Lifshitz equation augmented by a "random-field" term representing the thermal-agitated force. The angular distribution of the magnetic moment of the grain is studied via its time evolution process. The switching of the magnetic moment vector between two energy-minimum states is observed. A simple analytical expression is obtained for the simulated attempt frequency f0, which is related to the magnetic constant of the nano-grain, and agrees well with the phenomenological value.

In this letter, we present a normalized least-mean-square algorithm of blind estimator for carrier frequency offset estimation of orthogonal frequency division multiplexing systems. In conjunction with the closed-loop estimate structure, the proposed efficient algorithm eliminates the inter-carrier interference for time varying carrier frequency offset. The proposed algorithm offers faster convergence speed and more accuracy to the carrier frequency offset estimate. Several computer simulation examples are presented for illustrating and effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

In this letter, we propose a robust IFDD scheme employing an interference canceller, which is used for mitigating interferences from the transmitting signal instead of complex filter bank to reduce the complexity, for the OFDM system using feedback information. According to simulation results, the proposed IFDD OFDM system does not show significant performance degradation but maintains the robustness against the fast time-varying multipath channel, while the TDD OFDM system estimating feedback information from receiving block makes serious performance degradation.

A reduced complexity multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) equalizer with ordered successive interference cancellation (OSIC) is proposed for combating intersymbol interference (ISI) and cochannel interference (CCI) over frequency-selective multipath channels. It is developed as a reduced-rank realization of the conventional MMSE decision feedback equalizer (DFE). In particular, the MMSE weight vectors at each stage of OSIC are computed based on the generalized sidelobe canceller (GSC) technique and reduced-rank processing is incorporated by using the conjugate gradient (CG) algorithm for reduced complexity implementation. The CG algorithm leads to a best low-rank representation of the GSC blocking matrix via an iterative procedure, which in turn gives a reduced-rank equalizer weight vector achieving the best compromise between ISI and CCI suppression. With the dominating interference successfully cancelled at each stage of OSIC, the number of iterations required for the convergence of the CG algorithm decreases accordingly for the desired signal. Computer simulations demonstrate that the proposed reduced-rank MIMO DFE can achieve nearly the same performance as the full-rank MIMO MMSE DFE with an effective rank much lower than the dimension of the signal-plus-interference subspace.

Complete complementary codes have the property that the sum of correlation functions of several sequences satisfies both ideal autocorrelation and cross-correlation values. Modulatable complete complementary codes (MCC codes), which is a type of periodic complete complementary codes, are suitable for spreading sequences of M-ary CDMA systems. In the present paper, we propose a new method for constructing MCC codes. Using this method, we can easily generate various MCC codes.

A new method for blind watermarking based on quantization is proposed. The proposed scheme embeds a watermark on the lowest wavelet subband in order to be robust. Experimental results demonstrate the robustness of the algorithm against compression and other image processing attacks.

This paper presents an advanced quad-band multi-chip power amplifier module with unique linear output power dependency to the control voltage. It was developed for GSM850/900 MHz and DCS1800/PCS1900 MHz handset applications. The module was made on 10 mm by 10 mm substrate, which combined an InGaP HBT GSM, and DCS power amplifier ICs, two integrated couplers, a dual-band logarithmic RF power detector and some additional passive components. The logarithmic RF power detector was implemented in the module using state-of-the-art Si technology to accomplish the linear power dependency. With the logarithmic RF power detector approach we achieved more than 50 dB linear output power control range. The output power in dBm is a linear function of a control voltage; therefore there is no need for the Original Equipment Manufacture to design a power control circuitry. This is a very desirable feature to many handset designers who want to significantly reduce the handset board size, design cost, and time-to-market. The approach allows the handset manufacturer to calibrate the output power at two points with error of less than 0.3 dB, thus significantly reducing test time in mass production. Under a low single supply voltage of 3.2 V the module provides 35 dBm output power, 55% PAE in GSM900 band and 33 dBm, 50% PAE in DCS1800 band.

We have developed a 2 GHz band superconducting 8-pole tunable quasi-elliptic function filter on sapphire substrate. The tunable filter has a sharp skirt characteristic by transmission zeros. And the tunable filter uses a low-cost substrate of sapphire. An adjustment of center frequency for the filter is realized by a tunable technique with a piezoelectric bending actuator. The tunable filter realized center frequency shift of 7.62 MHz with conditions of bandwidth change of 0.5% and ripple change of 0.25 dB. Center frequency of the 8-pole quasi-elliptic function filter agreed with the designed value. Given these features, a superconducting filter with a sharp skirt characteristic for next-generation mobile RF applications is expected to be realized by applying these filters.

So far, a lot of analyses have been performed on the edge-guide mode isolator with one short edge. However, the detailed characteristics such as the influence of shape of a metal strip and the thickness of a ferrite substrate have not been revealed. This paper clarifies the influence of the structure on the frequency response both experimentally and numerically. The numerical analysis is performed by the FDTD method. The numerical results indicate that the frequency response does not depend on the thickness of ferrite substrate but does on the shape of the metal strip. Furthermore, based on the numerical results, the experiment is carried out on the prototype isolator. All the results provide a theory of the optimum design on the isolator.

A microwave variable delay line using a membrane impregnated with liquid crystal was newly fabricated. By employing the membrane impregnated with liquid crystal to the liquid crystal layer of the delay line, the phase-shift response becomes fast independently of the liquid crystal thickness. Experimental results show that the phase-shift response time of 33 ms, which is two orders of magnitude faster than that of a conventional one, is obtained. The new delay line also exhibits a 270-degree phase-shift and non-dispersive delay characteristics over a wide microwave-frequency range, although a higher control voltage is needed. It is also clarified that the phase-shift characteristics to the control voltage depend on the pore size of the membrane. This membrane impregnated with liquid crystal also enables us to make the variable delay line thin and flexible.

The frequency dependence of surface resistance Rs of high temperature superconductor (HTS) films are measured by a novel measurement method using four TE0mp modes in a sapphire rod resonator. At first, a loss tangent tan δ of the sapphire rod and Rs of the HTS films are evaluated separately from the results measured for the TE021 and TE012 modes with close resonant frequencies. Secondly, Rs values at two different resonant frequencies for the TE011 and TE022 modes are measured using a well-known relation for sapphire tan δ/f = constant, where f is a frequency. Rs values of HoBa2Cu3O7-x thin films were measured in the frequency range of 10 to 43 GHz by using four sapphire rod resonators with different sizes. As a result, it is found that these measured results of Rs have a characteristic of frequency square.

We present a design and implementation of a QoS control mechanism in an Adaptive Multimedia Communication System (AMCS) using multiagent-based computing technology. In this paper, we first define functional requirements for AMCS. Subsequently we describe the design and implementation of AMCS with a knowledge-based multiagent framework to fulfill the functional requirements. Moreover we evaluate the adaptability of the prototype systems of AMCS with the operational situations observed in its experiments. From the result of the experiments, we conclude that the multiagent-based design and implementation is reasonable for construction of AMCS.

Recent years have witnessed a growing interest in employing animated agents for tasks that are typically performed by humans. They serve as communicative partners in a variety of applications, such as tutoring systems, sales, or entertainment. This paper first discusses design principles for animated agents to enhance their effectiveness as tutors, sales persons, or actors, among other roles. It is argued that agents should support their perception as social actors by displaying human-like social cues such as affect and gestures. An architecture for emotion-based agents will be described and a simplified version of the model will be illustrated by two interaction scenarios that feature cartoon-style characters and can be run in a web browser. The second focus of this paper is an empirical evaluation of the effect of an affective agent on users' emotional state which is derived from physiological signals of the user. Our findings suggest that an agent with affective behavior may significantly decrease user frustration.

The existing methods for the reconstruction of a super-resolution image from a sequence of undersampled and subpixel shifted images have to solve a large ill-condition equation group by approximately finding the pseudo-inverse matrix or performing many iterations to approach the solution. The former leads to a big burden of computation, and the latter causes the artifacts or noise to be stressed. In order to solve these problems, in this paper, we consider applying pyramid structure to the super-resolution of the image sequence and present a suitable pyramid framework, called Super-Resolution Image Pyramid (SRIP). Based on the imaging process of the image sequence, the proposed method divides a big back-projection into a series of different levels of small back-projections, thereby avoiding the above problems. As an example, the Iterative Back-Projection (IBP) suggested by Peleg is included in this pyramid framework. Computer simulations and error analyses are conducted and the effectiveness of the proposed framework is demonstrated. The image resolution can be improved better even in the case of severely undersampled images. In addition, the other general super-resolution methods can be easily included in this framework and done in parallel so as to meet the need of real-time processing.

Recently, diverse multimedia applications with stringent multiple Quality of Service (QoS) requirements have been increasing. In particular, multicast communication has become more popular because of its availability and for efficient use of network resources. Most multicasts are point-to-multipoint, in which a source delivers data to multiple designated recipients, such as for video or audio distribution. In the near future, multipoint-to-multipoint communication services, including multimedia collaborations such as video conferencing and distant-learning, will be developed. However, when a conventional multicast routing algorithm is applied to a multipoint-to-multipoint communication service, it might result in excessive traffic concentration on some links. Therefore, we propose a new multipoint-to-multipoint routing method. It utilizes the Fallback+ algorithm to perform multicast routing for the purpose of satisfying multiple QoS requirements and alleviating traffic concentrations. Simulation experiments show that our method improves traffic load balance and achieves efficient use of network resources.

There have been numerous studies on the enhancement of the noisy speech signal. In this paper, we propose a completely new speech enhancement method, that is, a filtering of a dissonant frequency based on improved fundamental frequency estimation which is developed in frequency domain. The subjective test results indicate that the proposed method provides a significant gain in audible improvement especially for speech contaminated by colored noise and a husky voice. Therefore if the filter is employed as a pre-filter for speech enhancement, the output speech quality and intelligibility should be greatly enhanced.

For suppressing inter symbol interference, the support vector machine mutliuser detector (SVM-MUD) was adopted as a nonlinear method in direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) signals transmitted through multipath channels. To solve the problems of the complexity of SVM-MUD model and the number of support vectors, based on recursive least squares support vector machine (RLS-SVM) and Riemannian geometry, a new algorithm for nonlinear multiuser detector is proposed. The algorithm introduces the forgetting factor to get the support vectors at the first training samples, then, uses Riemannian geometry to train the support vectors again and gets less improved support vectors. Simulation results illustrated that the algorithm simplifies SVM-MUD model at the cost of only a little more bit error rate and decreases the computational complexity. At the same time, the algorithm has an excellent effect on suppressing multipath interference.

In this paper a digital frequency domain RFI (Radio Frequency Interference) cancellation scheme for DMT (Discrete Multitone) based VDSL (Very high speed Digital Subscriber Line) systems is presented. The proposed algorithm has been optimized and characterized in terms of complexity and performance. Optimizations were also performed from an implementation point of view by deducing key dependencies among our RFI model coefficients that let us drastically reduce the size of the memories involved. System simulations showed the effectiveness of the canceller: in terms of VDSL performance parameters such as bit rate, the optimized cancellation scheme recovers almost totally the performance degradation due to RFI.