Nuclear power plants require in-vessel inspections for soundness checks and preventive maintenance. One inspection procedure is visual testing (VT), which is based on video images of an underwater camera in a nuclear reactor. However, a lot of noise is superimposed on VT images due to radiation exposure. We propose a technique for improving the quality of those images by image processing that reduces radiation noise and enhances signals. Real-time video processing was achieved by applying the proposed technique with a parallel processing unit. Improving the clarity of VT images will lead to reducing the burden on inspectors.

The concept of Gaussian integer sequence pair is generalized from a single Gaussian integer sequence. In this letter, by adopting cyclic difference set pairs, a new construction method for perfect Gaussian integer sequence pairs is presented. Furthermore, the necessary and sufficient conditions for constructing perfect Gaussian integer sequence pairs are given. Through the research in this paper, a large number of perfect Gaussian integer sequence pairs can be obtained, which can greatly extend the existence of perfect sequence pairs.

This letter considers a legitimate proactive eavesdropping scenario, where a half-duplex legitimate monitor hires a third-party jammer for jamming the suspicious communication to improve the eavesdropping performance. The interaction between the third-party jammer and the monitor is modeled as a Stackelberg game, where the jammer moves first and sets the price for jamming the suspicious communication, and then the legitimate monitor moves subsequently and determines the requested transmit power of the jamming signals. We derive the optimal jamming price and the optimal jamming transmit power. It is shown that the proposed price-based proactive eavesdropping scheme is effective in improving the successful eavesdropping probability compared to the case without jamming. It is also shown that the proposed scheme outperforms the existing full-duplex scheme when the residual self-interference cannot be neglected.

In this letter, a novel transmission scheme is proposed to eliminate the polarization dependent loss (PDL) effect in dual-polarized satellite systems. In fact, the PDL effect is the key problem that limits the performance of the systems based on the PM technique, while it is naturally eliminated in the proposed scheme since we transmit the two components of the polarized signal in turn in two symbol periods. Moreover, a simple and effective detection method based on the signal's power is proposed to distinguish the polarization characteristic of the transmit antenna. In addition, there is no requirement on the channel state information at the transmitter, which is popular in satellite systems. Finally, superiorities are validated by the theoretical analysis and simulation results in the dual-polarized satellite systems.

Video surveillance from airborne platforms can suffer from many sources of blur, like vibration, low-end optics, uneven lighting conditions, etc. Many different algorithms have been developed in the past that aim to recover the deblurred image but often incur substantial CPU-time, which is not always available on-board. This paper shows how a “strap-on” quasi-Newton method can accelerate the convergence of existing iterative methods with little extra overhead while keeping the performance of the original algorithm, thus paving the way for (near) real-time applications using on-board processing.

Focusing on the defects of famous defogging algorithms for fog images based on the atmosphere scattering model, we find that it is necessary to obtain accurate transmission map that can reflect the real depths both in large depth and close range. And it is hard to tackle this with just one prior because of the differences between the large depth and close range in foggy images. Hence, we propose a novel prior that simplifies the solution of transmission map by transferring coefficient, called saturation prior. Then, under the Random Walk model, we constrain the transferring coefficient with the color attenuation prior that can obtain good transmission map in large depth regions. More importantly, we design a regularization weight to balance the influences of saturation prior and color attenuation prior to the transferring coefficient. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed defogging method outperforms the state-of-art image defogging methods based on single prior in terms of details restoring and color preserving.

In social networks, predicting user behavior under social hotspots can aid in understanding the development trend of a topic. In this paper, we propose a retweeting prediction method for social hotspots based on tensor decomposition, using user information, relationship and behavioral data. The method can be used to predict the behavior of users and analyze the evolvement of topics. Firstly, we propose a tensor-based mechanism for mining user interaction, and then we propose that the tensor be used to solve the problem of inaccuracy that arises when interactively calculating intensity for sparse user interaction data. At the same time, we can analyze the influence of the following relationship on the interaction between users based on characteristics of the tensor in data space conversion and projection. Secondly, time decay function is introduced for the tensor to quantify further the evolution of user behavior in current social hotspots. That function can be fit to the behavior of a user dynamically, and can also solve the problem of interaction between users with time decay. Finally, we invoke time slices and discretization of the topic life cycle and construct a user retweeting prediction model based on logistic regression. In this way, we can both explore the temporal characteristics of user behavior in social hotspots and also solve the problem of uneven interaction behavior between users. Experiments show that the proposed method can improve the accuracy of user behavior prediction effectively and aid in understanding the development trend of a topic.

Bel-T is the national block cipher encryption standard of the Republic of Belarus. It operates on 128-bit blocks and uses either 128, 192 or 256-bit keys. Bel-T combines a Feistel network with a Lai-Massey scheme and it has a complex round function with 7 S-box layers. In this work, we use a Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) approach to find a a related-key differential characteristic that extends for 4 rounds and 5 S-box layers ($4 rac{5}{7}$ rounds) with probability higher than 2-128. To build an MILP model of Bel-T that a solver can practically handle, we use a partial Difference Distribution Table (DDT) based on the Hamming weight of the input and output differences. The identified differential characteristic is used to mount a key recovery attack on 5 rounds and 6 S-box layers ($5 rac{6}{7}$ out of 8 rounds) of Bel-T-256 with 2123.28 chosen plaintexts and 2228.4 encryptions. According to the best of our knowledge, this is the first public cryptanalysis of Bel-T in the black-box attack model.

The isomorphism of polynomials with two secret (IP2S) problem is one candidate of computational assumptions for post-quantum cryptography. The idea of identification scheme based on IP2S is firstly introduced in 1996 by Patarin. However, the scheme was not described concretely enough and no more details are provided on how to transcribe the idea into a real-world implementation. Moreover, the security of the scheme has not been formally proven and the originally proposed security parameters are no longer secure based on the most recent research. In this paper, we propose a concrete identification scheme based on IP2S with the idea of Patarin as the starting point. We provide formal security proof of the proposed scheme against impersonation under passive attack, sequential active attack, and concurrent active attack. We also propose techniques to reduce the implementation cost such that we are able to cut the storage cost and average communication cost to an extent that under parameters for the standard 80-bit security, the scheme is implementable even on the lightweight devices in the current market.

A rich and robust representation for scene characters plays a significant role in automatically understanding the text in images. In this letter, we focus on the issue of feature representation, and propose a novel encoding method named bilateral convolutional activations encoded with Fisher vectors (BCA-FV) for scene character recognition. Concretely, we first extract convolutional activation descriptors from convolutional maps and then build a bilateral convolutional activation map (BCAM) to capture the relationship between the convolutional activation response and the spatial structure information. Finally, in order to obtain the global feature representation, the BCAM is injected into FV to encode convolutional activation descriptors. Hence, the BCA-FV can effectively integrate the prominent features and spatial structure information for character representation. We verify our method on two widely used databases (ICDAR2003 and Chars74K), and the experimental results demonstrate that our method achieves better results than the state-of-the-art methods. In addition, we further validate the proposed BCA-FV on the “Pan+ChiPhoto” database for Chinese scene character recognition, and the experimental results show the good generalization ability of the proposed BCA-FV.

In this paper, we present self-interference (SI) cancellation techniques in the digital domain for in-band full-duplex systems employing orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) in the downlink (DL) and single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) in the uplink (UL), as in the long-term evolution (LTE) system. The proposed techniques use UL subcarrier nulling to accurately estimate SI channels without any UL interference. In addition, by exploiting the structures of the transmitter imperfection and the known or estimated parameters associated with the imperfection, the techniques can further improve the accuracy of SI channel estimation. We also analytically derive the lower bound of the mean square error (MSE) performance and the upper bound of the signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) performance for the techniques, and show that the performance of the techniques are close to the bounds. Furthermore, by utilizing the SI channel estimates and the nonlinear signal components of the SI caused by the imperfection to effectively eliminate the SI, the proposed techniques can achieve SINR performance very close to the one in perfect SI cancellation. Finally, because the SI channel estimation of the proposed techniques is performed in the time domain, the techniques do not require symbol time alignment between SI and UL symbols.

The correlation filter-based trackers with an appearance model established by single feature have poor robustness to challenging video environment which includes factors such as occlusion, fast motion and out-of-view. In this paper, a long-term tracking algorithm based on multi-feature adaptive fusion for video target is presented. We design a robust appearance model by fusing powerful features including histogram of gradient, local binary pattern and color-naming at response map level to conquer the interference in the video. In addition, a random fern classifier is trained as re-detector to detect target when tracking failure occurs, so that long-term tracking is implemented. We evaluate our algorithm on large-scale benchmark datasets and the results show that the proposed algorithm have more accurate and more robust performance in complex video environment.

Our previous work proposed a semi-blind single antenna interference cancellation scheme to cope with severe inter-cell interference in heterogeneous networks. This paper extends the scheme to allow multiple-receive-antenna implementation. It does not require knowledge of the training sequences of interfering signals and can cancel multiple interfering signals irrespective of the number of receive antennas. The proposed scheme applies an enhanced version of the quantized channel approach to suboptimal joint channel estimation and signal detection (JCESD) during the training period in order to blindly estimate channels of the interfering signals, while reducing the computational complexity of optimum JCESD drastically. Different from the previous work, the proposed scheme applies the quantized channel generation and local search at each individual receive antenna so as to estimate transmitted symbol matrices during the training period. Then, joint estimation is newly introduced in order to estimate a channel matrix from the estimated symbol matrices, which operates in the same manner as the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm and considers signals received at all receive antennas. Using the estimated channels, the proposed scheme performs multiuser detection (MUD) during the data period under the maximum likelihood (ML) criterion in order to cancel the interference. Computer simulations with two receive antennas under two-interfering-stream conditions show that the proposed scheme outperforms interference rejection combining (IRC) with perfect channel state information (CSI) and MUD with channels estimated by a conventional scheme based on the generalized Viterbi algorithm, and can achieve almost the same average bit error rate (BER) performance as MUD with channels estimated from sufficiently long training sequences of both the desired stream(s) and the interfering streams, while reducing the computational complexity significantly compared with full search involving all interfering signal candidates during the training period.

We consider device-to-device (D2D) direct communication underlying cellular networks where the D2D link reuses the frequency resources of the cellular downlink. In this paper, we propose a linear precoder design scheme for a base station (BS) and D2D transmitter using the weighted sum-rate of the cellular downlink and D2D link as a cost function. Because the weighted sum-rate maximization problem is not convex on the precoding matrices of BS and D2D transmitters, an equivalent mean-squared error (MSE) minimization problem which is convex on the precoding matrices is proposed by introducing auxiliary matrices. We show that the two optimization problems have the same optimal solution for the precoding matrices. Then, an iterative algorithm for solving the equivalent MSE minimization problem is presented. Through a computer simulation, we show that the proposed scheme offers better weighted sum-rate performance that a conventional scheme.

In this paper, a dual-polarized phased array based polarization state modulation method is proposed to enhance the physical-layer security in millimeter-wave (mm-wave) communication systems. Indeed, we utilize two polarized beams to transmit the two components of the polarized signal, respectively. By randomly selecting the transmitting antennas, both the amplitude and the phase of two beams vary randomly in undesired directions, which lead to the PM constellation structure distortion in side lobes, thus the transmission security is enhanced since the symbol error rate increases at the eavesdropper side. To enhance the security performance when the eavesdropper is close to the legitimate receiver and located in main beam, the artificial noise based on the orthogonal vector approach is inserted randomly between two polarized beams, which can further distort the constellation structure in undesired directions and improve the secrecy capacity in main beam as well. Finally, theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate the proposed method can improve the transmission security in mm-wave communication systems.

Numerical inverse Laplace transform (NILT) methods are potential methods for time domain simulations, for instance the analysis of the transient phenomena in systems with lumped and/or distributed parameters. This paper proposes a numerical inverse Laplace transform method based originally on hyperbolic relations. The method is further enhanced by properly adapting several convergence acceleration techniques, namely, the epsilon algorithm of Wynn, the quotient-difference algorithm of Rutishauser and the Euler transform. The resulting accelerated models are compared as for their accuracy and computational efficiency. Moreover, an expansion to two dimensions is presented for the first time in the context of the accelerated hyperbolic NILT method, followed by the error analysis. The expansion is done by repeated application of one-dimensional partial numerical inverse Laplace transforms. A detailed static error analysis of the resulting 2D NILT is performed to prove the effectivness of the method. The work is followed by a practical application of the 2D NILT method to simulate voltage/current distributions along a transmission line. The method and application are programmed using the Matlab language.

We report the characterization of hysteresis in SOI-based super-steep subthreshold slope FETs, which are conventional floating body and body-tied, and newly proposed PN-body-tied structures. We found that the hysteresis widths of the PN-body-tied structures are smaller than that of the conventional floating body and body-tied structures; this means that they are feasible for switching devices. Detailed characterizations of the hysteresis widths of each device are also reported in the study, such as dependency on the gate length and the impurity concentration.

Motivated by the observation that certain convolutional channels of a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) exhibit object specific responses, we seek to discover and exploit the convolutional channels of a CNN in which neurons are activated by the presence of specific objects in the input image. A method for explicitly fine-tuning a pre-trained CNN to induce object specific channel (OSC) and systematically identifying it for the human faces has been developed. In this paper, we introduce a multi-scale approach to constructing robust face heatmaps based on OSC features for rapidly filtering out non-face regions thus significantly improving search efficiency for face detection. We show that multi-scale OSC can be used to develop simple and compact face detectors in unconstrained settings with state of the art performance.

In this paper, we provide a novel solution to mitigate pilot contamination in massive MIMO technology. In the proposed approach, we consider seven copilot cells of the first layer of interfering cells of a cellular network. We derive and formulate the worst-case signal-to-interference power ratio (SIR) of a typical user in both downlink and uplink of a pilot contaminated cell. Based on the formulated SIR and other considerations of the system, the total pilot sequence length, the reliability of channel estimation within the cell, the spectral and energy efficiencies are derived and formulated in downlink. The user's transmit power and the achievable sum rate are also derived and formulated in uplink. Our results show that when the cell size is reduced the pilot contamination is significantly mitigated and hence the system performance is improved.

We have measured the Seebeck coefficient of a carbon fabric (CAF) using a homemade measurement system for flexible thermoelectric materials to evaluate Seebeck coefficient along the thickness direction. Our equipment consists of a thermocouple (TC) electrode contacted with a resistive heater and another TC electrode attached to a heat sink. A flexible sample is sandwiched with these TC electrodes and pressed by weights. The equipment is set on a weighing machine in order to confirm and hold the pressing force at the contact between the electrodes and the soft sample. Cu and Pb plates were measured as a reference material to calibrate and clarify the accuracy of our measurement system, and its validity was confirmed. The Seebeck coefficient of a single CAF layer ranged 4.3-5.1 µV/K, independent of extra weight. This fact indicates that the weight of heat sink is enough for stable contact at the TC-electrode/CAF interface. It was found that the Seebeck coefficient of layered CAF increases with an increase in the number of layers, which suggests the influence of the air between the CAF layers even though the heavy weight is used.