Electrical life is an important parameter to estimate the reliability of a relay, and it is greatly affected by load current. In order to shorten the time of life test, load current stress accelerated life tests were carried out by using a life test system designed for relay in this paper. During the life test, many parameters such as the contact resistance, the closing time and the over-travel time of relay were measured for each operation to identify the failure modes. After the life test, the failure mechanisms under each current stress, which cause the same failure mode, were analyzed by investigating the variations of parameters and observing the morphology of contact surface. In addition, for the purpose of further studying the consistency of failure mechanisms between different current stress, a Weibull statistical analysis was adopted to estimate the shape parameter of Weibull distribution because the same shape parameter means the same failure mechanism. Finally, a statistical model for estimating the lifetime under load current stress was built. The research methods and conclusions mentioned in this paper are meaningful to perform the accelerated life tests for other types of relays.

This paper proposes a scheme to select an appropriate gateway based on multiple metrics such as remaining energy, mobility or speed, and number of hops in Mobile Ad Hoc Network (MANET) and the infrastructure network integration. The Multiple Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) method called Simple Additive Weighting (SAW) is used to rank and to select the gateway node. SAW method calculates the weights of gateway node candidates by considering these three metrics. The node with the highest weight will be selected as the gateway. Simulation results show that our scheme can reduce the average energy consumption of MANET nodes, and improve throughput performance, gateway lifetime, Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) of the MANET and the infrastructure network.

Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) transmission is robust to frequency-selective channels but sensitive to time-selective channels. Time variations of channels generate inter-carrier interference (ICI), which degrades system performance. In this paper, we develop frequency-domain Viterbi-type algorithm to effectively suppress the ICI, by exploiting the property of ICI terms in OFDM symbols. Null subcarriers, which are embedded in OFDM symbols for the reduction of interferences from/to adjacent bands, are exploited to reduce the complexity of the algorithm. Then, an approximate BER expression of Viterbi-type equalizer is derived. Simulations are provided to show the Viterbi-type equalizer works well in time- and frequency-selective (doubly selective) channel with affordable complexity.

In this letter we give a lower bound on the worst-case time complexity of Dijkstra's three-state mutual exclusion algorithm by specifying a concrete behavior of the algorithm. We also show that our result is more accurate than the known best bound.

In this paper, an ER (Error-Reduction) algorithm-based method for removal of adherent water drops from images obtained by a rear view camera mounted on a vehicle in rainy conditions is proposed. Since Fourier-domain and object-domain constraints are needed for any ER algorithm-based method, the proposed method introduces the following two novel constraints for the removal of adherent water drops. The first one is the Fourier-domain constraint that utilizes the Fourier transform magnitude of the previous frame in the obtained images as that of the target frame. Noting that images obtained by the rear view camera have the unique characteristics of objects moving like ripples because the rear view camera is generally composed of a fish-eye lens for a wide view angle, the proposed method assumes that the Fourier transform magnitudes of the target frame and the previous frame are the same in the polar coordinate system. The second constraint is the object-domain constraint that utilizes intensities in an area of the target frame to which water drops have adhered. Specifically, the proposed method models a deterioration process of intensities that are corrupted by the water drop adhering to the rear view camera lens. By utilizing these novel constraints, the proposed ER algorithm can remove adherent water drops from images obtained by the rear view camera. Experimental results that verify the performance of the proposed method are represented.

Dual-band chip antennas usually have a narrow bandwidth in the first resonance frequency band due to an inter-coupling capacitance. In order to analyze the effect of the inter-coupling capacitance, an equivalent circuit of an antenna with a branch radiator is considered in this paper. Based on the equivalent circuit model, it is found that the inter-coupling capacitance reduces impedance bandwidth. This paper proposes a gap feeding method to alleviate the effect of the inter-coupling capacitance and explains it using an equivalent circuit.

This study analyzes the absolute stability in P and PD type fuzzy logic control systems with both certain and uncertain linear plants. Stability analysis includes the reference input, actuator gain and interval plant parameters. For certain linear plants, the stability (i.e. the stable equilibriums of error) in P and PD types is analyzed with the Popov or linearization methods under various reference inputs and actuator gains. The steady state errors of fuzzy control systems are also addressed in the parameter plane. The parametric robust Popov criterion for parametric absolute stability based on Lur'e systems is also applied to the stability analysis of P type fuzzy control systems with uncertain plants. The PD type fuzzy logic controller in our approach is a single-input fuzzy logic controller and is transformed into the P type for analysis. In our work, the absolute stability analysis of fuzzy control systems is given with respect to a non-zero reference input and an uncertain linear plant with the parametric robust Popov criterion unlike previous works. Moreover, a fuzzy current controlled RC circuit is designed with PSPICE models. Both numerical and PSPICE simulations are provided to verify the analytical results. Furthermore, the oscillation mechanism in fuzzy control systems is specified with various equilibrium points of view in the simulation example. Finally, the comparisons are also given to show the effectiveness of the analysis method.

Multicarrier code division multiple access (MC-CDMA) systems are well suited for high data rate wireless multimedia services, due to their ability to convert frequency-selective fading channels to distinct flat fading channels with low complexity fast Fourier transform (FFT) devices. However, when multiple users are present, the performance of MC-CDMA systems is degraded by the multiuser interference (MUI) when the channel is frequency-selective. In order to mitigate MUI, we present a joint algorithm that combines transmit power control, antenna array processing and multiuser detection at the receiver. Interestingly, the frequency-selectivity that entails the MUI also provides multipath diversity which can help suppress the MUI. Performance of the algorithm in a number of MC-CDMA system models is evaluated in terms of the average transmit power to achieve the target signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR). Simulations confirm the outstanding performance of this algorithm compared with the existing ones in MC-CDMA systems.

A switching type-II hybrid ARQ scheme with rate compatible punctured turbo (RCPT) codes is proposed in this letter. The proposed scheme combines three retransmission schemes by minimizing a cost function that yields a compromise between throughput and delay time. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by computer simulations. Compared with conventional hybrid ARQ algorithms, the proposed algorithm can offer almost the same throughput performance with smaller time delay.

Conventional radar imaging systems use Fourier transform for image formation, but due to the target's complicated motion the Doppler spectrum is time-varying and thus the reconstructed image becomes blurred even after applying standard motion compensation algorithms. Therefore, sophisticated algorithms such as polar reformatting are usually employed to produce clear images. Alternatively, Joint Time-Frequency (JTF) analysis can be used for image formation which produces clear image without using polar reformatting algorithm. In this paper, a new JTF-based method is proposed for image formation in inverse synthetic aperture radars (ISAR). This method uses minimum entropy criterion for optimum parameter adjustment of JTF algorithms. Short Time Fourier Transform (STFT) and Fractional Fourier Transform (FrFT) are applied as JTF for time-varying Doppler spectrum analysis. Both the width of Gaussian window of STFT and the order of FrFT, α, are adjusted using minimum entropy as local and total measures. Furthermore, a new statistical parameter, called normalized correlation, is defined for comparison of images reconstructed by different methods. Simulation results show that α-order FrFT with local adjustment has much better performance than the other methods in this category even in low SNR.

Frequent Itemsets(FI) mining is a popular and important first step in analyzing datasets across a broad range of applications. There are two main problems with the traditional approach for finding frequent itemsets. Firstly, it may often derive an undesirably huge set of frequent itemsets and association rules. Secondly, it is vulnerable to noise. There are two approaches which have been proposed to address these problems individually. The first problem is addressed by the approach Frequent Closed Itemsets(FCI), FCI removes all the redundant information from the result and makes sure there is no information loss. The second problem is addressed by the approach Approximate Frequent Itemsets(AFI), AFI could identify and fix the noises in the datasets. Each of these two concepts has its own limitations, however, the authors find that if FCI and AFI are put together, they could help each other to overcome the limitations and amplify the advantages. The new integrated approach is termed Noise-tolerant Frequent Closed Itemset(NFCI). The results of the experiments demonstrate the advantages of the new approach: (1) It is noise tolerant. (2) The number of itemsets generated would be dramatically reduced with almost no information loss except for the noise and the infrequent patterns. (3) Hence, it is both time and space efficient. (4) No redundant information is in the result.

The rapid growth of the Internet provides people with tremendous opportunities for data collection, knowledge discovery and cooperative computation. However, it also brings the problem of sensitive information leakage. Both individuals and enterprises may suffer from the massive data collection and the information retrieval by distrusted parties. In this paper, we propose a privacy-preserving protocol for the distributed kernel density estimation-based clustering. Our scheme applies random data perturbation (RDP) technique and the verifiable secret sharing to solve the security problem of distributed kernel density estimation in [4] which assumed a mediate party to help in the computation.

This letter proposes a type of mutually cooperative relaying (MCR) scheme based on a spatially coordinate-interleaved orthogonal design (SCID), in which two cooperative users are spatially multiplexed without bandwidth expansion. It provides not only diversity gain (with order of two) as in the existing MCR scheme, but also additional coding gain. Our simulation results demonstrate that the proposed SCID scheme is useful for improving the uplink performance as long as one user can find another active user as a close neighbor that is simultaneously communicating with the same destination, e.g., a base station in the cellular network.

The purpose of this paper is to study sender authenticated key agreements by a third party, which uses the received parameters to verify the fact that a sender of a message knows his long-term private key. In particular, we propose a standard model for the protocol among three entities for the first time. The security of this protocol depends on the difficulty of solving two new problems related to one-way isomorphisms and the decision co-bilinear Diffie-Hellman problem on multiplicative cyclic groups. It is the first time that the security of a key agreement has been formally proven by using negligible probability. We believe that our contribution gives many applications in the cryptographic community.

A novel method for tailoring the beam profile of laser diodes that employs Lloyd's mirror interference is investigated. The beam profile in the vertical direction is controlled by inserting a GaAs mirror below the active layer. The experimentally obtained trends are successfully modeled by numerical calculations using Huygens' integral.

This paper presents the analysis of multiconductor striplines with a finite strip thickness using the Fourier transform and mode-matching technique. The formulations, based on quasi-static approach, are developed to obtain simultaneous equations for the modal coefficients of the potential distributions between striplines. The residue calculus is applied to represent the potential distributions in convergent series form. The closed-form expressions for the self and mutual capacitances are developed analytically. Numerical computations are performed and their results show a good agreement with those of other methods.

The cooperative characteristics of electromagnetic relay's attraction torque and reaction torque are the key property to ensure its reliability, and it is important to attain better cooperative characteristics by analyzing and optimizing relay's electromagnetic system and mechanical system. From the standpoint of changing reaction torque of mechanical system, in this paper, adjusted parameters (armature's maximum angular displacement αarm_max, initial return spring's force Finiti_return_spring, normally closed (NC) contacts' force FNC_contacts, contacts' gap δgap, and normally opened (NO) contacts' over travel δNO_contacts) were adopted as design variables, and objective function was provided for with the purpose of increasing breaking velocities of both NC contacts and NO contacts. Finally, genetic algorithm (GA) was used to attain optimization of the objective function. Accuracy of calculation for the relay's dynamic characteristics was verified by experiment.

A spectrum sharing method is proposed for systems that share the same frequency band or adjacent bands with services that have different priorities. The proposed method adaptively controls transmission power according to information provided by the high-priority system receivers. We give the theoretical capacities achieved by low-priority systems when the proposed method and a conventional method (constant transmit power) are applied. Numerical results confirm that the proposed method attains 1.5-2 times larger capacity than the conventional method.

Coding complexity is a crucial parameter in rate control scheme. Traditional measures for coding complexity are based on statistic and estimation. This way may cause the imprecise coding complexity and finally bring inaccurate output bit rate more or less. To resolve this problem, we propose a hypothetical virtual coding complexity to imitate the real coding complexity. Based on the proposed coding complexity measure, a novel rate control algorithm is proposed either. Experimental results and analysis show that the proposed mearsure for coding complexity is effective, and our scheme outperforms the JVT-W042 solution by providing more accurate QP prediction, reducing frame skipping, and improving visual quality.

In this letter, we propose an efficient method to improve the performance of voiced/unvoiced (V/UV) sounds decision for the selectable mode vocoder (SMV) of 3GPP2 using the Gaussian mixture model (GMM). We first present an effective analysis of the features and the classification method adopted in the SMV. And feature vectors which are applied to the GMM are then selected from relevant parameters of the SMV for the efficient V/UV classification. The performance of the proposed algorithm are evaluated under various conditions and yield better results compared to the conventional method of the SMV.