This paper investigates properties of space-bounded "two-dimensional Turing machines (2-tm's)," whose input tapes are restricted to square ones, with bounded input head reversals in vertical direction. We first investigate a relationship between determinism and nondeterminism for space-bounded and input head reversal-bounded 2-tm's. We then investigate how the number of input head reversals affects the accepting power of sublinearly space-bounded 2-tm's. Finally, we investigate necessary and sufficient spaces for three-way 2-tm's to simulate four-way two-dimensional finite automata with constant input head reversals.

This paper describes a method for assessing the structural integrity of International America's Cup Class (IACC) yachts using a fiber optic distributed strain sensor. IACC yachts are made of advanced composite materials designed for high stiffness and lightness, however, a number of critical accidents have occurred during sailing. So we developed a health monitoring system and applied it to two Japanese IACC yachts to measure the distributed strain by using an optical fiber sensor installed in their hulls. We then estimated the three-dimensional distributed strain and compared the results with simulated data obtained by finite element analysis (FEA) to confirm the designed strength of these yachts.

It is known that all minimum cuts in an edge-weighted undirected graph with n vertices and m edges can be represented by a cactus with O(n) vertices and edges, a connected graph in which each edge is contained in an exactly one cycle. In this paper, we show that such a cactus representation can be computed in O(mn+n2log n) time and O(m) space. This improves the previously best complexity of deterministic cactus construction algorithms, and matches with the time bound of the fastest deterministic algorithm for computing a single minimum cut.

This paper describes a highly-portable multilingual question answering system on multiple relational databases. We apply techniques which were verified on open-domain text-based question answering, such as semantic category and pattern-based grammars, into natural language interfaces to relational databases. Lexico-semantic pattern (LSP) and multi-level grammars achieve portability of languages, domains, and DB management systems. The LSP-based linguistic processing does not require deep analysis that sacrifices robustness and flexibility, but can handle delicate natural language questions. To maximize portability, we drive three dependency factors into the following two parts: language-dependent part into front linguistic analysis, and domain-dependent and database-dependent parts into backend SQL query generation. We also support session-based dialog by preserving SQL queries created from previous user's question, and then re-generating new SQL query for the successive questions. Experiments with 779 queries generate only constraint-missing errors, which can be easily corrected by adding new terms, of 2.25% for English and 5.67% for Korean.

As use of the Internet continues to spread rapidly, Traffic Engineering (TE) is needed to optimize IP network resource utilization. In particular, load balancing with TE can prevent traffic concentration on a single path between ingress and egress routers. To apply TE, we have constructed an MPLS (Multi-Protocol Label Switching) network with TE capability in the JGN (Japan Gigabit Network), and evaluated dynamic load balancing behavior in it from the viewpoint of control stability. We confirmed that with this method, setting appropriate control parameter values enables traffic to be equally distributed over two or more routes in an actual large-scale network. In addition, we verified the method's effectiveness by using a digital cinema application as input traffic.

Assume that each edge e of a graph G is assigned a list (set) L(e) of colors. Then an edge-coloring of G is called an L-edge-coloring if each edge e of G is colored with a color contained in L(e). It is known that any series-parallel simple graph G has an L-edge-coloring if either (i) |L(e)| max{4,d(v),d(w)} for each edge e=vw or (ii) the maximum degree of G is at most three and |L(e)| 3 for each edge e, where d(v) and d(w) are the degrees of the ends v and w of e, respectively. In this paper we give a linear-time algorithm for finding such an L-edge-coloring of a series-parallel graph G.

This paper presents a miniaturized reverse-phase hybrid ring by the use of shunt capacitors, and successfully designs a very miniature hybrid ring of a 0.28-wavelength circumference with a wide bandwidth comparable to the regular reverse-phase hybrid ring based on the equivalent admittance approach. Moreover, a method of broadening the bandwidth with adding a matching network consisting of a very short transmission line and two shunt capacitors at each port is also described. The validity of the proposed design is demonstrated by electromagnetic simulator (Sonnet em) for a uniplanar hybrid ring.

This paper presents a model called PECM (process environment coordination model) to coordinate heterogeneous PSEEs. A PSEE coordinated by PECM is associated with a standard-interfaced PECM coordinator, which provides primitive coordination functions. PECM uses shared product status to coordinate PSEEs. It is expected to offer several features. First, multiple PSEEs can be used in the same project. Second, PECM manages products and product relationships across PSEEs. Third, PECM coordinator is standard- interfaced, which is easy to use.

A 3D display using super high-density multi-view images should enable reproduction of natural stereoscopic views. In the super multi-view display system, viewpoints are sampled at an interval narrower than the diameter of the pupil of a person's eye. With the parallax produced by a single eye, this system can pull out the accommodation of an eye to an object image. We are now working on a real-time view-interpolation system for the super multi-view 3D display. A multi-view camera using convergence capturing to prevent resolution degradation captures multi-view images of an object. Most of the data processing is used for view interpolation and rectification. View interpolation is done using a high-speed image-processing board with digital-signal-processor (DSP) chips or single instruction stream and multiple data streams (SIMD) parallel processor chips. Adaptive filtering of the epipolar plane images (EPIs) is used for the view-interpolation algorithm. The multi-view images are adaptively interpolated using the most suitable filters for the EPIs. Rectification, a preprocess, converts the multi-view images in convergence capturing into the ones in parallel capturing. The use of rectified multi-view images improves the processing speed by limiting the interpolation processing in EPI.

In this paper, we propose a novel 2D plenoptic function called "acentric panorama view (APV)." This novel 2D plenoptic function samples the panorama scenes without oversampling or undersampling. A single APV can be accelerated by view culling and list-priority rendering algorithm. Multiple APVs with special fields of view, 45, 60, 90, and 120, can be integrated into a larger configuration called augmented APVs, which can augment the walking area in a planar walkthrough environment to form a 4D plenoptic function. In augmented APVs, the acceleration schemes of a single APV can still be applied successfully.

A new optical access system based on the synchronous transfer mode - passive double star system has been developed to provide high-speed LAN-like access. It uses a shared-band method that enables multiple users to efficiently share a single bandwidth of up to 10 Mb/s and a grouping function that divides the access network into several logical networks, each of which can provide a virtual LAN to users. This paper describes an information model and a framework for configuration management and fault management and discusses the requirements for element management, which involves data-link establishment, logical group management, and testing. Element management mainly requires appropriate remote handling on data cards installed in each optical network unit on user premises. A method is proposed that satisfies these requirements. With this method, the element operations system can provide the required operational functionality.

In this letter we propose a new visual secret sharing scheme (VSSS) applicable to color images containing many colors such as photographs. In the proposed VSSS we can perceive a concealed secret image appearing on a reproduced image, which is obtained by stacking certain shares, according to the principle called the meanvalue-color mixing (MCM). First, we mathematically formulate the MCM and define a new parameter that determines the minimum quality of the reproduced secret image. Then, we explicitly construct the VSSS based on the MCM under general access structures. The construction is proved to be realistic by experiment under the (2,2)-threshold access structure.

A postprocessing algorithm is presented for blocking artifact reduction in block-coded images using the adaptive filters along the pattern of neighborhood blocks. Blocking artifacts appear as irregular high-frequency components at block boundaries, thereby reducing the noncorrelation between blocks due to the independent quantization process of each block. Accordingly, block-adaptive filtering is proposed to remove such components and enable similar frequency distributions within two neighborhood blocks and a high correlation between blocks. This type of filtering consists of inter-block filtering to remove blocking artifacts at the block boundaries and intra-block filtering to remove ringing noises within a block. First, each block is classified into one of seven classes based on the characteristics of the DCT coefficient and MV (motion vector) received in the decoder. Thereafter, adaptive intra-block filters, approximated to the normalized frequency distributions of each class, are applied adaptively according to the various patterns and frequency distributions of each block as well as the filtering directions in order to reduce the blocking artifacts. Finally, intra-block filtering is performed on those blocks classified as complex to reduce any ringing noise without blurring the edges. Experimental tests confirmed the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.

OPKFDDs (Ordered Pseudo-Kronecker Functional Decision Diagrams) are a data structure that provides compact representation of Boolean functions. The size of OPKFDDs depends on a variable ordering and on decomposition type choices. Finding an optimal representation is very hard and the size of the search space is n! 32n-1, where n is the number of input variables. To overcome the huge search space of the problem, a genetic algorithm is proposed for the generation of OPKFDDs with minimal number of nodes.

This paper presents a rough sets-based method for clustering nominal and numerical data. This clustering result is independent of a sequence of handling object because this method lies its basis on a concept of classification of objects. This method defines knowledge as sets that contain similar or dissimilar objects to every object. A number of knowledge are defined for a data set. Combining similar knowledge yields a new set of knowledge as a clustering result. Cluster validity selects the best result from various sets of combined knowledge. In experiments, this method was applied to nominal databases and numerical databases. The results showed that this method could produce good clustering results for both types of data. Moreover, ambiguity of a boundary of clusters is defined using roughness of the clustering result.

Near-fields of electromagnetic waves scattered by slightly rough metal surfaces which support the surface plasmon mode at optical frequencies were studied theoretically by using the stochastic functional approach. Fidelity of near-field intensity images, defined by the correlation coefficient between the surface profile and the intensity of the scattered wave field, was investigated in order to discuss field distributions of the surface plasmon on complicated structures. We show that the fidelity strongly depends on the incident wavenumber and polarization when the incident wave corresponds to the surface plasmon mode.

We calculated linear and nonlinear responses of a Kerr nonlinear microsphere sandwiched by two prisms using the excitation of whispering gallery modes due to near-field coupling. As numerical calculations, the finite-difference time-domain method that takes into account the Kerr nonlinear effect was used. We dealt with two types of spheres, i.e., the Kerr-material sphere and the dielectric sphere coated by the Kerr material. It was found that the optical switching phenomena are induced in such spheres. The switching results from the fact that the variations of the refractive index of the nonlinear spheres affect the excitation condition of the whispering gallery modes.

We introduce a clock schedule algorithm to obtain a clock schedule that achieves a shorter clock period and that can be realized by a light clock tree. A shorter clock period can be achieved by controlling the clock input timing of each register, but the required wire length and power consumption of a clock tree tends to be large if clock input timings are determined without considering the locations of registers. To overcome the drawback, our algorithm constructs a cluster that consists of registers with the same clock input timing located in a close area. The registers in each cluster are driven by a buffer and a shorter wire length can be achieved. In our algorithm, first registers are partitioned into clusters by their locations, and clusters are modified to improve the clock period while maintaining the radius of each cluster small. In our experiments, the clock period achieved in average is about 13% shorter than that achieved by a zero-skew clock tree, and about 4% longer than the theoretical minimum. The wire length and power consumption of a clock tree according to an obtained clock schedule is comparable to these of a zero skew tree.

In this paper, a new method is proposed for supervised classification of ground cover types by using polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. The concept of similarity parameter between two scattering matrices is introduced for characterizing target scattering mechanism. Four similarity parameters of each pixel in image are used for classification. They are the similarity parameters between a pixel and a plane, a dihedral, a helix and a wire. The total received power of each pixel is also used since the similarity parameter is independent of the spans of target scattering matrices. The supervised classification is carried out based on the principal component analysis. This analysis is applied to each data set in image in the feature space for getting the corresponding feature transform vector. The inner product of two vectors is used as a distance measure in classification. The classification result of the new scheme is shown and it is compared to the results of principal component analysis with other decomposition coefficients, to demonstrate the effectiveness of the similarity parameters.

2-Factor covering designs, a type of combinatorial designs, have recently received attention since they have industrial applications including software testing. For these applications, even a small reduction on the size of a design is significant, because it directly leads to the reduction of testing cost. In this letter, we report ten new designs that we constructed, which improve on the previously best known results.