We propose a 180-degree branch line coupler composed of two types of iris-loaded waveguides. The proposed coupler consists of two main transmission lines and branch lines with different electrical lengths. Based on optimal electrical lengths, a 180-degree output phase difference can be achieved without additional phase shifters. The two main lines with different electrical lengths are realized by capacitive and inductive iris-loaded waveguides. The size of the proposed coupler is nearly half that of the conventional 180-degree branch line coupler with additional phase shifters. Thus, the proposed coupler is of advantage with respect to the conventional one. We designed a proposed coupler in the K-band for satellite communication systems. The measurement results demonstrate a reflection of -20 dB, isolation of -20 dB, coupling response of -3.1+0.1 dB/-0.1 dB, and phase differences of 0+0.1 deg/-1.4 deg and -180+0.5 deg/-2.3 deg at a bandwidth of 8% in the K-band.

Software copyright claims an exclusive right for the software copyright owner to determine whether and under what conditions others can modify, reuse, or redistribute this software. For Free and Open Source Software (FOSS), it is very important to identify the copyright owner who can control those activities with license compliance. Copyright notice is a few sentences mostly placed in the header part of a source file as a comment or in a license document in a FOSS project, and it is an important clue to establish the ownership of a FOSS project. Repositories of FOSS projects contain rich and varied information on the development including the source code contributors who are also an important clue to establish the ownership. In this paper, as a first step of understanding copyright owner, we will explore the situation of the software copyright in the Linux kernel, a typical example of FOSS, by analyzing and comparing two kinds of datasets, copyright notices in source files and source code contributors in the software repositories. The discrepancy between two kinds of analysis results is defined as copyright inconsistency. The analysis result has indicated that copyright inconsistencies are prevalent in the Linux kernel. We have also found that code reuse, affiliation change, refactoring, support function, and others' contributions potentially have impacts on the occurrence of the copyright inconsistencies in the Linux kernel. This study exposes the difficulty in managing software copyright in FOSS, highlighting the usefulness of future work to address software copyright problems.

Sound event detection (SED) and acoustic scene classification (ASC) are important research topics in environmental sound analysis. Many research groups have addressed SED and ASC using neural-network-based methods, such as the convolutional neural network (CNN), recurrent neural network (RNN), and convolutional recurrent neural network (CRNN). The conventional methods address SED and ASC separately even though sound events and acoustic scenes are closely related to each other. For example, in the acoustic scene “office,” the sound events “mouse clicking” and “keyboard typing” are likely to occur. Therefore, it is expected that information on sound events and acoustic scenes will be of mutual aid for SED and ASC. In this paper, we propose multitask learning for joint analysis of sound events and acoustic scenes, in which the parts of the networks holding information on sound events and acoustic scenes in common are shared. Experimental results obtained using the TUT Sound Events 2016/2017 and TUT Acoustic Scenes 2016 datasets indicate that the proposed method improves the performance of SED and ASC by 1.31 and 1.80 percentage points in terms of the F-score, respectively, compared with the conventional CRNN-based method.

We propose a system time synchronization method between ARM-based embedded Linux systems. The master Linux with reference clock sends its own system time to the slave Linux via Transmission Control Protocol communication along with a general-purpose input/output (GPIO) signal, and then the slave Linux corrects its own system time by the difference between its own system time at receiving the GPIO signal and the received reference time. The synchronization performance is significantly improved by compensating for the GPIO signal detection latency and the system time acquisition and setting latencies in Linux. These latencies are precisely measured by exploiting the function of Cycle Counter register in ARM coprocessor. Extensive experiments are performed with two ARM-based embedded Linux systems, and the results demonstrate the validity and performance of the proposed synchronization method.

Various software fault prediction models have been proposed in the past twenty years. Many studies have compared and evaluated existing prediction approaches in order to identify the most effective ones. However, in most cases, such models and techniques provide varying results, and their outcomes do not result in best possible performance across different datasets. This is mainly due to the diverse nature of software development projects, and therefore, there is a risk that the selected models lead to inconsistent results across multiple datasets. In this work, we propose the use of bandit algorithms in cases where the accuracy of the models are inconsistent across multiple datasets. In the experiment discussed in this work, we used four conventional prediction models, tested on three different dataset, and then selected the best possible model dynamically by applying bandit algorithms. We then compared our results with those obtained using majority voting. As a result, Epsilon-greedy with ϵ=0.3 showed the best or second-best prediction performance compared with using only one prediction model and majority voting. Our results showed that bandit algorithms can provide promising outcomes when used in fault prediction.

This study compared two extended concept mapping approaches and investigated the distribution of students' understanding and knowledge structure. The students in the experimental group used Extended Kit-Build (EKB), where a learner extends a concept map built by kit-building, and those in the control group utilized the Extended Scratch-Build (ESB), where a learner extends a concept map made by scratch-building. The results suggested that the experimental group had better achievements in both the original material and the additional material.

A blockchain, which is well known as one of the distributed ledgers, has attracted in many research fields. In this paper, we discuss the effectiveness and limitation of a blockchain in distributed optimization. In distributed optimization, the original problem is decomposed, and the local problems are solved by multiple agents. In this paper, ADMM (Alternating Direction Method of Multipliers) is utilized as one of the powerful methods in distributed optimization. In ADMM, an aggregator is basically required for collecting the computation result in each agent. Using blockchains, the function of an aggregator can be contained in a distributed ledger, and an aggregator may not be required. As a result, tampering from attackers can be prevented. As an application, we consider energy management systems (EMSs). By numerical experiments, the effectiveness and limitation of blockchain-based distributed optimization are clarified.

Event-triggered control is a method that the control input is updated only when a certain condition is satisfied (i.e., an event occurs). In this paper, event-triggered control over a sensor network is studied based on the notion of uniformly ultimate boundedness. Since sensors are located in a distributed way, we consider multiple event-triggering conditions. In uniformly ultimate boundedness, it is guaranteed that if the state reaches a certain set containing the origin, the state stays within this set. Using this notion, the occurrence of events in the neighborhood of the origin is inhibited. First, the simultaneous design problem of a controller and event-triggering conditions is formulated. Next, this problem is reduced to an LMI (linear matrix inequality) optimization problem. Finally, the proposed method is demonstrated by a numerical example.

The relationships between producers and consumers have changed radically by the recent growth of sharing economy. Promoting resource sharing can contribute to finding a solution to environmental issues (e.g. reducing food waste, consuming surplus electricity, and so on). Although prosumers have both roles as consumers and suppliers, matching between suppliers and consumers should be determined when the prosumers share resources. Especially, it is important to achieve envy-freeness that is a metric indicating how the number of prosumers feeling unfairness is kept small since the capacity of prosumers to supply resources is limited. Changing resource capacity and demand will make the situation more complex. This paper proposes a resource sharing model based on a temporal network and flows to realize envy-free resource sharing among prosumers. Experimental results demonstrate the deviation of envy among prosumers can be reduced by setting appropriate weights in a flow network.

This paper studies a novel approach to analysis of switched dynamical systems in perspective of bifurcation and multiobjective optimization. As a first step, we analyze a simple switched dynamical system based on a boost converter with photovoltaic input. First, in a bifurcation phenomenon perspective, we consider period doubling bifurcation sets in the parameter space. Second, in a multiobjective optimization perspective, we consider a trade-off between maximum input power and stability. The trade-off is represented by a Pareto front in the objective space. Performing numerical experiments, relationship between the bifurcation sets and the Pareto front is investigated.

C-C successive approximation register analog-to-digital converter (C-C SAR-ADC) is space-saving architecture compared to SAR-ADC with binary weighted capacitive digital-to-analog converter (CDAC). However, the accuracy of C-C SAR-ADC is degraded due to parasitic capacitance of floating nodes. This paper proposes an algorithm calibrating the non-linearity by γ-estimation to accurately estimate radix greater than 2 required to realize C-C SAR-ADC. Behavioral analyses show that the radix γ-estimation error become within 1.5, 0.4 and 0.1% in case of 8-, 10- and 12-bit resolution ADC, respectively. SPICE simulations show that the γ-estimation satisfies the requirement of 10-bit resolution C-C SAR-ADC. The C-C SAR-ADC using γ-estimation achieves 9.72bit of ENOB, 0.8/-0.5LSB and 0.5/-0.4LSB of DNL/INL.

This paper proposes a route calculation method for a bicycle navigation system that complies with traffic regulations. The extension of the node map and three kinds of route calculation methods are constructed and evaluated on the basis of travel times and system acceptability survey results. Our findings reveal the effectiveness of the proposed route calculation method and the acceptability of the bicycle navigation system that included the method.

Input devices based on direct touch have replaced traditional ones and become the mainstream interactive technology for handheld devices. Although direct touch interaction proves to be easy to use, its problems, e.g. the occlusion problem and the fat finger problem, lower user experience. Camera-based mobile interaction is one of the solutions to overcome the problems. There are two typical interaction styles to generate camera-based pointing interaction for handheld devices: move the device or move an object before the camera. In the first interaction style, there are two approaches to move a cursor's position across the handheld display: move it towards the same direction or the opposite direction which the device moves to. In this paper, the results of a comparison research, which compared the pointing performances of three camera-based pointing techniques, are presented. All pointing techniques utilized input from the rear-facing camera. The results indicate that the interaction style of moving a finger before the camera outperforms the other one in efficiency, accuracy, and throughput. The results also indicate that within the interaction style of moving the device, the cursor positioning style of moving the cursor to the opposite direction is slightly better than the other one in efficiency and throughput. Based on the findings, we suggest giving priority to the interaction style of moving a finger when deploying camera-based pointing techniques on handheld devices. Given that the interaction style of moving the device supports one-handed manipulation, it also worth deploying when one-handed interaction is needed. According to the results, the cursor positioning style of moving the cursor towards the opposite direction which the device moves to may be a better choice.

This letter presents an image quality assessment (IQA) metric for scanning electron microscopy (SEM) images based on texture inpainting. Inspired by the observation that the texture information of SEM images is quite sensitive to distortions, a texture inpainting network is first trained to extract texture features. Then the weights of the trained texture inpainting network are transferred to the IQA network to help it learn an effective texture representation of the distorted image. Finally, supervised fine-tuning is conducted on the IQA network to predict the image quality score. Experimental results on the SEM image quality dataset demonstrate the advantages of the presented method.

Universal filtered multicarrier (UFMC) systems offer a flexibility of filtering sub-bands with arbitrary bandwidth to suppress out-of-band (OoB) emission, while keeping the orthogonality between subcarriers in one sub-band. Oscillator discrepancies between the transmitter and receiver induce carrier frequency offset (CFO) in practical systems. In this paper, we propose a novel CFO estimation method for UFMC systems that has very low computational complexity and can then be used in practical systems. In order to fully exploit the coherence bandwidth of the channel, the training symbols are designed to have several identical segments in the frequency domain. As a result, the integral part of CFO can be estimated by simply determining the correlation between received signal and the training symbol. Simulation results show that the proposed method can achieve almost the same performance as an existing method and even a better performance in channels that have small decay parameter values. The proposed method can also be used in other multicarrier systems, such as orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM).

Image deformations caused by different steganographic methods are typically extremely small and highly similar, which makes their detection and identification to be a difficult task. Although recent steganalytic methods using deep learning have achieved high accuracy, they have been made to detect stego images to which specific steganographic methods have been applied. In this letter, a staganalytic method is proposed that uses hierarchical residual neural networks (ResNet), allowing detection (i.e. classification between stego and cover images) and identification of four spatial steganographic methods (i.e. LSB, PVD, WOW and S-UNIWARD). Experimental results show that using hierarchical ResNets achieves a classification rate of 79.71% in quinary classification, which is approximately 23% higher compared to using a plain convolutional neural network (CNN).

This letter proposes the use of a novel time-modulated array structure to estimate the direction of arrival (DOA). Such a time-modulated coprime array (TMCA) is obtained by exchanging a coprime array's phase shifter for a radio frequency (RF) switch. Compared with a traditional coprime array, the TMCA's structure is much simpler, and it has a higher degree of freedom and resolution compared with a time-modulated uniform linear array (TMULA) due to its exploitation of the virtual array's equivalent signals. Theoretical analysis and experimental results have validated the effectiveness of the proposed structure and method and have confirmed that a TMCA's DOA performance is better than that of a TMULA using the same number of antennas.

A differential on chip oscillator (OCO) is proposed in this paper for low supply voltage, high frequency accuracy and fast startup. The differential architecture helps the OCO achieve a good power supply rejection ratio (PSRR) without using a regulator so as to make the OCO suitable for a low power supply voltage of 1.38V. A reference voltage generator is also developed to generate two output voltages lower than Vbe for low supply voltage operation. The output frequency is locked to 48MHz by a frequency-locked loop (FLL) and a 3.3-ppm/°C temperature coefficient of frequency is realized by the differential voltage ratio adjusting (differential VRA) technique. The startup time is only 1.47μs because the differential OCO is not necessary to charge a big capacitor for ripple reduction.

In this paper, we present a novel method for vehicle detection based on the Faster R-CNN frame. We integrate MobileNet into Faster R-CNN structure. First, the MobileNet is used as the base network to generate the feature map. In order to retain the more information of vehicle objects, a fusion strategy is applied to multi-layer features to generate a fused feature map. The fused feature map is then shared by region proposal network (RPN) and Fast R-CNN. In the RPN system, we employ a novel dimension cluster method to predict the anchor sizes, instead of choosing the properties of anchors manually. Our detection method improves the detection accuracy and saves computation resources. The results show that our proposed method respectively achieves 85.21% and 91.16% on the mean average precision (mAP) for DIOR dataset and UA-DETRAC dataset, which are respectively 1.32% and 1.49% improvement than Faster R-CNN (ResNet152). Also, since less operations and parameters are required in the base network, our method costs the storage size of 42.52MB, which is far less than 214.89MB of Faster R-CNN(ResNet50).

This paper considers a distributed subgradient method for online optimization with event-triggered communication over multi-agent networks. At each step, each agent obtains a time-varying private convex cost function. To cooperatively minimize the global cost function, these agents need to communicate each other. The communication with neighbor agents is conducted by the event-triggered method that can reduce the number of communications. We demonstrate that the proposed online algorithm achieves a sublinear regret bound in a dynamic environment with slow dynamics.