In-situ measurement of photoelectron spectra of polypyrrole during electrochemical undoping/doping cycles has been carried out by using an open-type electrochemical cell. It has been observed that the ionization potential decreases with decreased electrochemical potential. This result seems to be reasonable because the decreased electrochemical potential corresponds to the undoping or recovery of electrons into vacant state of valence band.

Efficient use of information technology (IT) is considered a major determinant of an end-user's business performance and an enterprise's competitiveness. A 16-item tool that can efficiently measure end-user information competency is presented with the measures. The validity and reliability of the tool is confirmed, and the tool's theoretical and practical applications are discussed.

Retinopathy of Prematurity (ROP) is an infant disease characterized by increased dilation and tortuosity of the retinal blood vessels. Automatic tortuosity evaluation from retinal digital images is very useful to facilitate an ophthalmologist in the ROP screening and to prevent childhood blindness. This paper proposes a method to automatically classify the image into tortuous and non-tortuous. The process imitates expert ophthalmologists' screening by searching for clearly tortuous vessel segments. First, a skeleton of the retinal blood vessels is extracted from the original infant retinal image using a series of morphological operators. Next, we propose to partition the blood vessels recursively using an adaptive linear interpolation scheme. Finally, the tortuosity is calculated based on the curvature of the resulting vessel segments. The retinal images are then classified into two classes using segments characterized by the highest tortuosity. For an optimal set of training parameters the prediction is as high as 100%.

In incremental relaying, the destination uses a checking system and requires a retransmission from the relay in case an error happens. After receiving the signal from the relay, the destination combines the signals from the source and the relay and performs detection. However, the combined signal is actually worse because of the erroneous signal from the source. Our scheme eliminates the detrimental signal from the source and uses only the fresh signal from the relay, resulting in a large performance improvement and reduced complexity. The symbol error rate (SER) and its upper bound are established to analyze the power allocation strategy. Simulations verify the rightness of the theoretic studies, and many benefits of cooperative ARQ schemes are revealed.

Current distribution on a 2-layer PCB with lumped circuits is estimated by measuring the near electric field. In this method, the current estimation model is made without considering the electrical parameters of lumped circuits. Experimental results are demonstrated and compared with the numerical results, confirming the validity of this method.

In this paper we show some new look at large deviation theorems from the viewpoint of the information-spectrum (IS) methods, which has been first exploited in information theory, and also demonstrate a new basic formula for the large deviation rate function in general, which is expressed as a pair of the lower and upper IS rate functions. In particular, we are interested in establishing the general large deviation rate functions that are derivable as the Fenchel-Legendre transform of the cumulant generating function. The final goal is to show, under some mild condition, a necessary and sufficient condition for the IS rate function to be derivable as the Fenchel-Legendre transform of the cumulant generating function, i.e., to be a rate function of Gartner-Ellis type.

We consider the mismatched measurements in the BB84 quantum key distribution protocol, in which measuring bases are different from transmitting bases. We give a lower bound on the amount of a secret key that can be extracted from the mismatched measurements. Our lower bound shows that we can extract a secret key from the mismatched measurements with certain quantum channels, such as the channel over which the Hadamard matrix is applied to each qubit with high probability. Moreover, the entropic uncertainty principle implies that one cannot extract the secret key from both matched measurements and mismatched ones simultaneously, when we use the standard information reconciliation and privacy amplification procedure.

This paper presents the near-field to far-field transformation for an outdoor radar cross section (RCS) range. Direct measurement of the large actual target requires quite a long measurement range. The near-field to far-field RCS transformation method achieves the reduction of measurement range. However the non-uniformity of the incident electric field distribution on the target causes some errors in RCS prediction. We propose a novel near-field to far-field RCS transformation method that can be applied to an outdoor RCS measurement. The non-uniformity of the incident electric field distribution is successfully resolved by introducing the correction term of the ground bounce. We investigate the validity of the proposed method by the simulation and measurement.

Remote control scheme for the ROADMs (Reconfigurable Optical Add/Drop Multilplexers) were designed, and 3 sets of the ROADM were manufactured for use in IP-over-CWDM networks. The control performance was examined, and lightpaths could be reconfigured successfully by the control.

Often, the major requisites of short-range communication systems are low power consumption and low cost, rather than high data-transmission speeds. This paper proposes low-cost and extremely low-power radio communication devices that use a basic one-chip microcomputer for short-range transmission and reception. In the proposed transmitter, a rectangular wave is generated at external I/O ports as carrier by the basic one-chip microcomputer and is then filtered and radiated by an antenna circuit. In the proposed receiver, the received signal is detected by a radio IC and is subsequently digitally processed by a microcomputer with a built-in A/D converter. The proposed transmitter and receiver are demonstrated, and the system performance is experimentally evaluated.

We present a tight time-hierarchy theorem for nondeterministic cellular automata by using a recursive padding argument. It is shown that, if t2(n) is a time-constructible function and t2(n) grows faster than t1(n+1), then there exists a language which can be accepted by a t2(n)-time nondeterministic cellular automaton but not by any t1(n)-time nondeterministic cellular automaton.

In this paper, we shall describe about a fuzzy estimation theory based on the concept of set-valued operators, suitable for available operation of extremely complicated large-scale network systems. Fundamental conditions for availability of system behaviors of such network systems are clarified in a form of β-level fixed point theorem for system of fuzzy-set-valued operators. Here, the proof of this theorem is accomplished in a weak topology introduced into the Banach space.

Many Internet services and protocols should guarantee anonymity; for example, an electronic voting system should guarantee to prevent the disclosure of who voted for which candidate. To prove trace anonymity, which is an extension of the formulation of anonymity by Schneider and Sidiropoulos, this paper presents an inductive method based on backward anonymous simulations. We show that the existence of an image-finite backward anonymous simulation implies trace anonymity. We also demonstrate the anonymity verification of an e-voting protocol (the FOO protocol) with our backward anonymous simulation technique. When proving the trace anonymity, this paper employs a computer-assisted verification tool based on a theorem prover.

Broadband access network planning strategies with techno-economic calculations are important topics, when optimal broadband network deployments are considered. This paper analyzes optimal deployment combination of digital subscriber line technologies (xDSL) and fiber to the home technologies (FTTx), following different user bandwidth demand scenarios. For this reason, optimal placement of remote digital subscriber line multiplexer (RDSLAM) is examined. Furthermore, the article also discusses the economy of investments, depending on certain investment threshold and the reach of different xDSL technologies. Finally, the difference between broadband network deployment in a characteristic urban and rural area in Republic of Slovenia, in terms of required optical cable dig length per household is shown. A tree structure network model of a traditional copper access network is introduced. A dynamic programming logic, with recursion as a basis of a tree structure examination and evaluation of optimal network elements placement is used. The tree structure network model considers several real network parameters (e.g.: copper cable lengths, user coordinates, node coordinates). The main input for the optimization is a local loop distance between each user and a candidate node for RDSLAM placement. Modelling of copper access networks with a tree structure makes new extensions in planning optimization of broadband access networks. Optimization of network elements placement has direct influence on efficiency and profitability of broadband access telecommunication networks.

In a D.C.42 V-10A resistive circuit, break arcs are generated between electrical contact pairs. The materials of the contact pairs are Ag, Ag/C 2wt%, Ag/SnO2 12wt%, and Ag/ZnO 12wt%. The arc spectral intensities are measured by a time-resolved spectroscopic temperature measurement system. The arc temperature is calculated from the spectral intensities by using the method of relative intensities of two spectra. The experimental results are as follows. The arc temperature gradually decreases with increase of the gap of electrical contacts. The ranges of arc temperature for Ag, Ag/C 2wt%, Ag/SnO2 12wt%, and Ag/ZnO 12wt% contacts pairs are 4500-11000 K, 4000-6000 K, 4000-7000 K, and 4000-11000 K, respectively.

This paper proposes a three-dimensional (3D) face recognition system using passive stereo vision. So far, the reported 3D face recognition techniques have used active 3D measurement methods to capture high-quality 3D facial information. However, active methods employ structured illumination (structure projection, phase shift, moire topography, etc.) or laser scanning, which is not desirable in many human recognition applications. Addressing this problem, we propose a face recognition system that uses (i) passive stereo vision to capture 3D facial information and (ii) 3D matching using an ICP (Iterative Closest Point) algorithm with its improvement techniques. Experimental evaluation demonstrates efficient recognition performance of the proposed system compared with an active 3D face recognition system and a passive 3D face recognition system employing the original ICP algorithm.

In terms of outage behavior, it has been shown that incremental relaying achieves the best performance among cooperative diversity protocols such as: Amplify-And-Forward (AF), Decode-And-Forward (DF), and Selection Decode-And-Forward (SDF). Exploiting a limited feedback from the destination, incremental relaying lets the relay forward the signal received from the source whenever an error happens at the destination, then, the signals from both the source and the relay are combined to make a decision. Noticing that the signal from the source, indicated by the error, is detrimental, we propose a new scheme not using that signal but only making a decision based on the fresh signal from the relay. Large performance improvement and complexity reduction are attained as we show in the analysis and simulation results. Theoretical results are derived and shown to match with the simulation counterparts.

Spatial filtering is a useful method to suppress undesired reflection from unwanted scatters in Radar Cross Section (RCS) measurements. Actually, it is difficult to prepare an ideal field which satisfies the far-field criterion for RCS measurements of large targets. We applied the filtering method to a bistatic RCS measurement in a near field and investigated the validity of that method by varying the scanning angular span. Electromagnetic simulations show that predicted RCS profiles from near-field data with unwanted scatters closely matched far-field reference data of the test target. In conclusion, the results show that the method is effective for bistatic RCS measurements in practical field enviroments.

In this paper, the impact of display on quality assessment is addressed. Subjective quality assessment experiments have been performed on both LCD and CRT displays. Two sets of still images and two sets of moving pictures have been assessed using either an ACR or a SAMVIQ protocol. Altogether, eight experiments have been led. Results are presented and discussed, some differences are pointed out. Concerning moving pictures, these differences seem to be mainly due to LCD moving artefacts such as motion blur. LCD motion blur has been measured objectively and with psycho-physics experiments. A motion-blur metric based on the temporal characteristics of LCD can be defined. A prediction model have been then designed which predict the differences of perceived quality between CRT and LCD. This motion-blur-based model enables the estimation of perceived quality on LCD with respect to the perceived quality on CRT. Technical solutions to LCD motion blur can thus be evaluated on natural contents by this mean.

Open circuit voltage (OCV) of electrical devices is an issue in various fields, whose numerical evaluation needs careful treatment. The open-circuited structure is ill-conditioned because of the singular electric field at the corners, and the TEM component of the electric field has to be extracted before integrated to give the voltage in the direct method of obtaining the OCV. This paper introduces the indirect methods to calculate the OCV, the admittance matrix method and the Norton theorem method. Both methods are based on the short-circuited structure which is well-conditioned. The explicit expressions of the OCV are derived in terms of the admittance matrix elements in the admittance matrix method, and in terms of the short circuit current and the antenna impedance of the electrical device under consideration in the Norton theorem method. These two methods are equivalent in theory, but the admittance matrix method is suitable for the nearby transmitter cases while the Norton theorem method is suitable for the distant transmitter cases. Several examples are given to show the usefulness of the present theory.