We have developed a 200-channel imaging system that enables measurement of changes in oxygenation and blood volume and that covers a wider area (45 cm 15 cm) than that covered by conventional systems. This system consisted of 40 probes of five channels, a light-emitting diode (LED) driver, multiplexers and a personal computer. Each probe was cross-shaped and consisted of an LED, five photo diodes, and a current-to-voltage (I-V) converter. Lighting of the LEDs and acquisition of 200-channel data were time-multiplexed. The minimum data acquisition time for 200 channels, including the time required for calculation of oxygenation and monitoring of a few traces of oxygenation on a computer display, was about 0.2 s. We carried out exercise tests and measured the changes in oxy- and deoxy-hemoglobin concentrations in the thigh. Working muscles in exercises could be clearly imaged, and spatio-temporal changes in muscle oxygenation during exercise and recovery were also shown. These results demonstrated that the 200-channel imaging system enables observation of the distribution of muscle metabolism and localization of muscle function.

Human tissues conduct electricity about as well as semiconductors. However, there are large differences between tissues which have recently been shown to be determined mainly by the structure of the tissue. For example, the impedance spectrum of a layered tissue such as skin is very different to that of the underlying tissues. The way in which the cells are arranged and also the size of the nucleus are both important. Some of the recent developments in measurement and modelling techniques are described and the relationship between tissue structures and impedance spectra is outlined. The illustrations and examples look at the effect of premalignant changes on localised impedance spectra measured from cervical tissues. Electrical Impedance Tomographic measurements on lung tissue are used to show the maturational changes of lung structure in neonates. The conclusion contains some speculation as to what further research outcomes might occur over the next few years.

A technique was developed to reconstruct the cross-sectional image of the absorption distribution in a diffuse medium using backscattered light. In this technique, we illuminate an object with an ultra-short pulse, and measure the time-resolved pulse shape of the light backscattered from the object. The absorption distribution of the scattering object can be estimated using the propagation-path distribution of photons at each detection time and the optical impulse response of backscattered light. In a simulation, the effectiveness of this technique was verified in the cases of a layered absorber and a three dimensional absorber. The nonlinear relationship between the depth of the probing region and the propagation time was clarified. The accuracy of the image reconstruction was significantly improved by the aperiodic sampling of the backscattered impulse response according to the nonlinear relation. The feasibility of the proposed technique was verified in the experiment with a model phantom.

Confocal laser scanning microscope (CLSM) is capable of delivering a high axial resolution, and with this instrument even thin layers of cells can be imaged in good quality. Therefore, intracellular uptake and distribution properties of photosensitizer zinc coproporphyrin III tetrasodium salt (Zn CP-III) in human lung small cell carcinoma (Ms-1) were examined by using CLSM. In particular, the uptake of Zn CP-III in cytoplasm, plasma membrane, and nucleus was individually evaluated for the first time from fluorescence images obtained by CLSM. The results show that the Zn CP-III content in three cellular areas correlates with extracellular Zn CP-III concentration and time of incubation with Zn CP-III. Furthermore, it was found that the cytoplasmic fluorescence was approximately two times higher than that in the nucleus under all uptake conditions. In addition, cellular accumulation of Zn CP-III was compared with photodynamic cytotoxicity. The photocytotoxicity was to a great extent dependent on the uptake of the photosensitizer. The damaged site of Ms-1 cells induced by photodynamic therapy was plasma membrane. However, the content of Zn CP-III accumulated in cytoplasm was the highest among the three areas, implying that, besides the direct damage on plasma membrane, an oxidative damage to cellular component arose from the cytoplasmic Zn CP-III may also play an important role in photocytotoxicity. The quantitative information obtained in this study will be useful for further investigation of the photocytotoxicity as well as the uptake mechanism of photosensitizer.

This study attempts to demonstrate that activated leukocytes are involved in vascular shut down effect (VSD) in photodynamic therapy (PDT). Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), a reactive oxygen specie (ROS) that is found in monocytes, was visualized under a confocal laser scanning microscope, and ROS formation was quantified by fluorescence image analysis. The fluorescence intensity was expressed as a gray level graded from 0 to 255. Only the fluorescence derived from monocytes that had ZnCP-III incorporated and were irradiated with an HeNe laser caused increases in the fluorescence distribution over time, while no change of distribution was observed in three other conditions (only Zn CP-III added, only HeNe laser irradiation, or non-treated). The result indicates that the photochemical reaction induced by excitation of a photosensitizer, and ROS was derived from the reaction-stimulated monocytes. The activated monocytes generated ROS themselves and H2O2 was visualized by the DCFH fluorescence method. In conclusion, the result clearly shows that activated monocytes are involved in the VSD effect.

We applied control theory to nerve-muscle in order to model and systematize the muscle system. The association between nerve stimulation frequencies and electromyogram (EMG) amplitude was studied in rat nerve-muscle under normal and hypokalemic conditions. From these results, we modeled the nerve-muscle and simulated frequency response from the nerve-muscle system which can be expressed as a closed loop transfer function.

This paper describes IP traffic, especially the control of VoIP traffic, on the carrier-scale, and proposes algorithms for it. It examines a case that has already been introduced in the United States and discusses the trend of standardization for this control. Control techniques that will be introduced into the IP network in the future are considered from the viewpoints of both "quality" that users receive and the "control" that carriers perform.

In this paper, we propose an algorithm to calculate the higher moments of the busy period length of a discrete-time M/G/1 type queue with finite buffer. The queueing model has a level-dependent transition probability matrix. Our algorithm is given as a set of recursive formulas which are derived from the relationship among the generating function matrices of the fundamental period. As an example of our algorithm, we provide an approximate analysis of a HOL (Head Of Line) priority control queue.

We present a scalar multiplication algorithm with recovery of the y-coordinate on a Montgomery-form elliptic curve over any non-binary field. The previous algorithms for scalar multiplication on a Montgomery form do not consider how to recover the y-coordinate. So although they can be applicable to certain restricted schemes (e.g. ECDH and ECDSA-S), some schemes (e.g. ECDSA-V and MQV) require scalar multiplication with recovery of the y-coordinate. We compare our proposed scalar multiplication algorithm with the traditional scalar multiplication algorithms (including Window-methods on the Weierstrass form), and discuss the Montgomery form versus the Weierstrass form in the performance of implementation with several techniques of elliptic curve cryptosystems (including ECES, ECDSA, and ECMQV). Our results clarify the advantage of the cryptographic usage of Montgomery-form elliptic curve in constrained environments such as mobile devices and smart cards.

This paper addresses the problem of designing an unconditionally secure conference system that fulfills the requirements of both traceability and dynamic sender. In a so-called conference system, a common key is shared among all authorized users, and messages are encrypted using the shared key. It is known that a straightforward implementation of such a system may present a number of security weaknesses. Our particular concern lies in the possibility that unauthorized users may be able to acquire the shared key by illegal means, say from one or more authorized but dishonest users (called traitors). An unauthorized user who has successfully obtained the shared key can now decrypt scrambled messages without leaving any evidence on who the traitors were. To solve this problem, in this paper we propose a conference system that admits dynamic sender traceability. The new solution can detect traitors, even if the sender of a message is dynamically determined after a shared key is distributed to authorized users. We also prove that this scheme is unconditionally secure.

In this paper, we propose a new digital signature scheme based on a third order linear feedback shift register for signing documents. This signature scheme is different from most of the signature schemes that are based on discrete logarithm problem, elliptic curves discrete logarithm problem, RSA or quadratic residues. An efficient algorithm for computing kth term of a sequence is also presented. The advantage of this scheme is that the computation is efficient than Schnorr scheme. We also show that the security of the proposed signature scheme is equivalent to that of Schnorr signature scheme.

This study is intended to realize an in-situ gas sensor based upon the principle of millimeter/submillimeter wave spectroscopy. In-situ gas sensor will be attractive because of gas selectivity, multiple parametric measurement such as gas temperature, pressure and density, and of the in-situ measurement capability. One of the major technical problem to be solved is to develop an instrument accurate enough to discern the spectrum change due to the variation of parameters such as temperature. In this paper a proposed gas absorption measurement system is investigated, which schematically consists of Fabry-Perot type gas cell for effective long path length, and vector signal processing to reject leak signal coupled between resonator input and output ports so as to achieve precise absorption measurement. Also included is an parametric study of oxygen absorption characteristics, which is served as the predicted value in the evaluation of the instrument. The experiment at 60 GHz and 120 GHz bands using oxygen demonstrates the effectiveness of the current system configuration.

The international telecommunication standards bodies such as ITU-T, ATM Forum, and IETF recommend the dual leaky bucket for the traffic specifications for VBR service. On the other hand, recent studies have demonstrated multiple time-scale burstiness in compressed video traffic. In order to fill this gap between the current standards and real traffic characteristics, we present a standard-compatible traffic parameter selection method based on the notion of a critical time scale (CTS). The defined algorithm is optimal in the sense that it minimizes the required amount of link capacity for a traffic flow under a maximum delay constraint. Simulation results with compressed video traces demonstrate the efficiency of the defined traffic parameter selection algorithm in resource allocation.

The scatterometer is a real aperture radar capable to perform a set of normalized radar cross section measurements under different azimuth angles for each resolution cell. The main field of application of a wind scatterometer regards the sea surface wind field determination. As a matter of fact, once such measurements have been performed it is possible to determine the sea surface wind field by means of an inversion procedure. In this paper we present a novel inversion scheme which is an evolution of the procedure nowday used by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) under the Italian Processing and Archiving Facility (I-PAF). A full comparative study shows that the novel inversion scheme better behaves whenever light wind regimes are in question.

Transmission and distribution systems are investigated for application in future fiber optic super-broadband and super-multi-channel subscriber loops. Gradual upgrading is considered so that future systems can keep compatibility with existing systems. First, time frame and strategies for subscriber loop upgrade are overviewed and assumptions for evolution of broadband multimedia distribution systems are discussed. It is suggested that upgrading to super-high definition (SHD) quality multimedia is desirable. Next, some examples of extra-auxiliary picture (EAP) formats are discussed to show the possibility of improving upgradability and compatibility by using extra-channels. Then multiplexing and channel selecting systems are investigated for economical realization of super-multi-channel distribution and flexible channel selection, and hybrid multiplexing (HMUX) and a trans-selector (T-SEL) are proposed. Finally, the efficiencies of HMUX and T-SEL are discussed by using numerical examples. Although broadband down streams are mainly considered, other streams such as IP traffics can be accommodated in the distribution systems investigated in this paper.

Tree canopies contain various scattering elements such as leaves, branches and trunks, which contribute to complex backscattering, depending on frequency and polarization. In this paper, we propose to use the polarimetric correlation coefficient for classifying trees, forests, and vegetations. The polarimetric correlation coefficient can be derived by the elements of Sinclair scattering matrix. Since the scattering matrix can be defined in any polarization basis, we examined the coefficient in the linear HV, circular LR, and optimum polarization bases. First, the change of correlation coefficient inside trees along the range direction is examined using small trees in a laboratory. The wider the range, the better the index. The coefficient defined in the LR polarization basis showed the largest change within tree canopy, which also contribute to retrieve scattering mechanism. Second, this index for discrimination is applied to polarimetric SAR data sets (San Francisco and Briatia area) acquired by AIRSAR and SIR-C/X-SAR. It is shown that polarimetric correlation coefficient in the LR basis best serves to distinguish tree types.

We suggest the method to recover the 3D shape of an object by using a color image scanner which has three light sources. The photometric stereo is traditional to recover the surface normals of objects using multiple light sources. In this method, it usually assumes distant light sources to make the optical models simple. But the light sources in the image scanner are so close to an object that the illuminant intensity varies with the distance from the light source, therefore these light sources should be modeled as the linear light sources. In this method, by using these models and two step algorithm; the initial estimation by the iterating computation and the optimization by the non-linear least square method, not only the surface normal but also the absolute distance from the light source to the surface can be estimated. By using this method, we can recover the 3D shape more precisely. In the experimental results, the 3D shape of real objects can be recovered and the effectiveness of the proposed method is shown.

A mesh-connected processor array consists of many similar processing elements (PEs), which can be executed in both parallel and pipeline processing. For the implementation of an array of large numbers of processors, it is necessary to consider some fault tolerant issues to enhance the (fabrication-time) yield and the (run-time) reliability. In this paper, we introduce the 1(1/2)-track switch torus array by changing the connections in 1(1/2)-track switch mesh array, and we apply our approximate reconfiguration algorithm to the torus array. We describe the reconfiguration strategy for the 1(1/2)-track switch torus array and its realization using WSI, especially 3-dimensional realization. A hardware realization of the algorithm is proposed and simulation results about the array reliability are shown. These imply that a self-reconfigurable system with no host computer can be realized using our method, hence our method is effective in enhancing the run-time reliability as well as the fabrication-time yield of processor arrays.

Recently a high-resolution image that has more than one million pixels is available easily. However, such an image requires much processing time and memory for an image understanding system. In this paper, we propose an integrated image understanding system of multi-resolution analysis and multi-agent-based architecture for high-resolution images. The system we propose in this paper has capability to treat with a high-resolution image effectively without much extra cost. We implemented an experimental system for images of indoor scenes.

We summarize recent studies on performance improvement in the correlation-based continuous-wave technique for optical fiber distributed strain measurement using Brillouin scattering, that had been proposed previously. The correlation-based technique enables the spatial resolution of 1 cm, which is difficult for conventional sensing techniques using Brillouin scattering to achieve. Though the correlation-based technique left a problem with measurement range, we have proposed methods to overcome it with keeping high spatial resolution. In addition, we verified usefulness of the technique for smart materials by measuring strain distribution along surface of a ring structure.