This paper proposes a scalable multiecho cancellation system based on multiple autonomic and distributed echo canceler units. The proposed system does not have any common control section. Distributed control sections are equipped with in multiple echo cancelers operating autonomically. Necessary information is transferred from one unit to the next one. When the number of echoes to be canceled is changed, the necessary number of echo canceler units, each of which may be realized on a single chip, are simply plugged in or unplugged. The proposed system also provides fast convergence thanks to the novel coefficient location algorithm which consists of flat-delay estimation and constrained tap-position control. The input signal is evaluated at each tap to determine when to terminate flat-delay estimation. The number of exchanged taps is selected larger in flat-delay estimation than in constrained tap-position control. The convergence time with a colored-signal input is reduced by approximately 50% over STWQ, and 80% over full-tap NLMS algorithm. With a real speech input, the proposed system cancels the echo by about 20 dB. Tap-positions have been shown to be controlled correctly.

A homeotropic liquid crystal display utilizing a liquid crystal with positive dielectric anisotropy, 13. 3" XGA TFT-LCD, has been fabricated. The rubbing-free device, appears black in the absence of electric field. When an electric field generated by interdigital electrodes is applied, a bend deformation of molecular director to the direction of the field occurs and thus the cell transmits light, showing brightness uniformity in all directions owing to the dual domainlike director configuration. With an addition of negative-birefringent film, this device shows excellent viewing angle characteristics.

Initial leveling of strapdown inertial navigation system is a prerequisite work for distinguishing between gravity and acceleration effects in the accelerometer sensing's. This study presents an on-line methodology to resolve the initial leveling problem of a vehicle, which is subject to a large, long duration, and abrupt disturbance input with a deterministic nature under noisy circumstances. The developed method herein is the Kalman filter based scheme with a robust input estimator, generalized M estimator, and a testing criterion. The generalized M estimator identifies the unexpected disturbance inputs in real time. In addition, hypothetical testing based on the least-squares estimator is devised to detect the input's onset and presence. A required regression equation between the observed value of the residual sequence with an unknown input and theoretical residual sequence of the Kalman filter with no input is formulated. Input estimation and detection are then provided on the basis of the derived regression equation. Moreover, Monte Carlo simulations are performed to assess the superior capabilities of the proposed method in term of rapid responses, accuracy, and robustness. The efficient initial leveling can facilitate the entire alignment of the inertial system.

This paper investigates the lossless video aggregation and transport, a concept of transmitting a group of video sessions as a bundle over a communication network. We focus on the design of optimal transmission plan with minimum receiver buffer requirement for stored variable bit-rate (VBR) videos over a constant bit-rate (CBR) channel without incurring buffer underflow and overflow. For a single video, an efficient algorithm is proposed to calculate the optimal transmission plan in only O(N) time, a significant improvement of the previous result with time complexity of O(N2log N). For multiple video sessions, we propose an aggregation scheme to calculate the changes of optimal transmission plans at the joints or separations, where a session bundled in the aggregated video stream begins or stops. The experimental results show that our algorithms stand out in terms of simplicity and efficiency.

Many object-oriented database systems have used the notion of implicit authorization to avoid the overhead caused by explicitly storing all authorizations for each object. In implicit authorization, it is very important to detect efficiently conflicts between existing authorizations and new authorizations to be added. In this article we propose a conflict detection mechanism in the OODBMSs using implicit authorization with the notion of intention type authorization. When we grant an authorization on a node n in the database granularity hierarchy, the existing method is inefficient in determining the conflicts since it needs to examine all authorizations on the descendants of the node n. In contrast, our mechanism has the advantage of detecting the conflicts at the node n where an explicit authorization is to be granted without examining any authorizations below the node n. Thus, the proposed mechanism can detect a conflict with the average time complexity of O(d), which is smaller than O(md) of existing methods, where m is the number of children nodes at an arbitrary level and d is the difference of levels between the node with an existing explicit authorization and the higher node where an explicit authorization is to be granted. We also show that the additional storage overhead of storing all authorizations is negligible when compared with the total number of all explicit authorizations.

This paper introduces a probabilistic rebound automaton (pra), and investigates its accepting power and closure property. We show that (1) the class of languages recognized by pra's with error probability less than 1/2, PRA, is incomparable with the class of context-free languages, (2) there is a language accepted by a two-way nondeterministic one counter automaton, but not in PRA, and (3) there is a language accepted by a deterministic one-marker rebound automaton, but not in PRA. We also show that PRA is not closed under concatenation and Kleene + .

Mechanism of UHF radiowave propagation into multistory office buildings are explored by using ray-tracing based models, which include a three-dimensional (3-D) ray-tracing model and a direct-transmitted ray (DTR) model. Prediction accuracy of the models is ascertained by many measured data and the measurements are carried out at many specific sites with different propagation scenarios. Their measured results also demonstrate some important propagation phenomena. It is found that (1) the direct transmitted wave may be the dominant mode; (2) the path loss neither increases nor decreases monotonically as a function of increasing floor level; and (3) there is not much difference of the average path loss among the receiving positions in the same room.

Millimeter- and submillimeter-wave low-noise superconducting receivers, such as superconductor-insulator-superconductor (SIS) mixers, hot-electron bolometer (HEB) mixers, and superconducting direct detectors, are addressed in this paper. Some general topics on the development of SIS mixers, including SIS junction and integrated tuning circuitry, mixing circuitry, and mixer-performance simulation, are extensively discussed. A tuneless waveguide SIS mixer developed at Nobeyama Radio Observatory (NRO) and its performance are presented. The fundamental mechanisms of diffusion- and phonon-cooled HEB mixers and recent advances in HEB mixers are briefly reviewed. Finally, incoherent detectors with superconducting tunnel junctions are discussed. Results for a direct detecting experiment at 500 GHz are given.

A GeSi avalanche photodetector grown on a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) passive waveguide is demonstrated. The absorption layer of the detector consisits of alternating layers of 66 Ge0. 44Si0. 56 and 480 Si on SOI substrate. The thick SOI waveguide couples the light from an optical fiber into the GeSi/Si strain-limited thin absorption region. The detector exhibits low dark current, sharp breakdown and an external responsivity of 0. 2 A/W at 1. 3 µm wavelength.

The stability of slotted ALOHA systems with various types of capture phenomena and multiple packet reception capability is discussed in conjunction with the cusp catastrophe. The slotted ALOHA systems considered are classified into; 1) single packet reception with geometric capture, 2) independent multiple packet reception with geometric capture, 3) single packet reception with M-out-of-N capture (M N), 4) multiple packet reception with M-out-of-N capture, and 5) single packet reception with perfect capture. First, general expressions for the cusp points and the bifurcation sets are derived. Then, we present explicit formula for the stability of slotted ALOHA systems for the five types of capture and multi-packet reception capability and demonstrate how the bistable behavior is mitigated due to capture effect and multi-packet reception capability.

Large-area high-temperature superconducting films and damage-free processing techniques have been developed to fabricate low insertion loss and sharp skirt filters for mobile telecommunication. An off-axis-type dc sputtering method was employed to deposit Y-Ba-Cu-O films on both sides of the substrate. The surface resistance of the films was about 0. 35 mΩ(at 70 K and 10 GHz). An 11-pole bandpass receiving filter for the IS-95 telecommunication system was designed and fabricated using 60 mm 50 mm YBCO films on a 0. 5-mm-thick MgO substrate. The passband insertion loss at 70 K was about 0. 1 dB with 0. 1 dB ripple. The third-order intercept point of the filter was 49. 5 dBm. We have assembled the filter and a low-noise amplifier in a dewar with a cryocooler. Ultralow-noise performance (noise figure: 0. 5 dB at 70 K) was presented by the cryogenic filter subsystem.

In this paper, we present a method for evaluating the minimum free Chernov distance of trellis-codes for a discrete memoryless channels (DMC). In order to design an efficient trellis-code for the DMC, we need to evaluate the minimum free Chernov distance of the target code. However, the lack of the additive property of the Chernov distance prevents a conventional branch-and-bound search for evaluating the minimum distance. To overcome the difficulty, we present a lower bound on the Chernov distance with an additive property. The lower bound plays a key role in the minimum distance evaluation algorithm presented here. By using the proposed algorithm, we have derived the minimum free Chernov distance of some binary linear convolutional codes over Z-channel.

We describe several properties of very thin stacks of 10 to 20 intrinsic Josephson junctions fabricated on the surface of Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ single crystals. We show that the Joule heating is significantly reduced in these stacks and that the gap structure is clearly observable in the quasiparticle current-voltage (I-V) characteristics. The I-V curves are characterized by a large subgap conductance and a significant gap suppression due to the injection of quasiparticle current. It is found that the IcRn product of these intrinsic Josephson junction stacks is significantly small compared with that expected from the BCS theory. It is also found that there is a tendency that IcRn decreases with increasing c-axis resistivity. Both Ic and the gap voltage exhibit unsaturated temperature dependence at low temperatures. The behavior presents a sharp contrast to that of Josephson junctions made of conventional superconductors. The characteristics are discussed in relation to the d-wave symmetry of the order parameter.

We have studied an in situ edge preparation process and the effect of a substrate rotation during the edge preparation in order to improve the uniformity and electrical characteristics of high-Tc edge-type Josephson junctions. The improved YBa2Cu3Ox/PrBa2Cu3Ox/YBa2Cu3Ox edge junctions showed small 1σ-critical current spreads as low as 10% for 12 junctions. We have confirmed that the spreads do not increase significantly by adding groundplane over the junctions. In this paper, we will describe these processes developed for the fabrication of high-Tc superconducting integrated circuits.

A multicarrier modulation called orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) is attracting attention as a transmission scheme which is robust against multipath propagation. A major disadvantage of OFDM is that it is sensitive to nonlinear distortion due to its wide transmission amplitude range. The scope of this study is to cope with the nonlinear problem. We propose a nonlinear distortion compensation scheme using an iterative method which has been applied to an image signal restoration.

We discuss the security of the improved knapsack cryptosystem that Kobayashi and Kimura have proposed. Two attacking methods for their cryptosystem are proposed; one is the method for obtaining secret keys from public keys by using the continued fraction, and the other is for decrypting the ciphertext without knowing secret keys. We show that their cryptosystem is not secure against these attacks.

An efficient finite element-integral equation method is presented for calculating scattered fields from conducting objects. By combining the integral equation solution with the finite element method, this formulation allows a finite element computational domain terminated very closely to the scatterer and thus results in the decrease of the resultant matrix size. Furthermore, we employ a new integral approach to establish the boundary condition on the finite element terminating surface. The expansion of the fields on the integration contour is not related to the fields on the terminating surface, hence we obtain an explicit expression of the boundary condition on the terminating surface. Using this explicit boundary condition with the finite element solution, our method substantially improves the computational efficiency and relaxes the computer memory requirements. Only one matrix inversion is needed through our formulation and the generation and storing of a full matrix is not necessary as compared with the conventional hybrid finite element methods. The validity and accuracy of the formulation are checked by some numerical solutions of scattering from two-dimensional metallic cylinders, which are compared with the results of other methods and/or measured data.

Video on demand is regarded as one of the most important applications in future broadband networks. Although several trial runs in various parts of the world do not bring instant success, its inherent requirements for bandwidth and bounded delay make it a suitable candidate for studying various networks and protocols in real-time applications. Recently, the Hybrid Fiber Coaxial (HFC) networks emerged as network architecture for bringing broadband services to the home. The co-axial cable network uses a tree-like architecture and requires complex protocols for synchronizing and sharing uplink communications among many users. This paper proposes that a dual bus network may be a simpler and cost effective alternative. We implement an interactive VOD (IVOD) system as an example to demonstrate its simplicity and suitability as a community network. The system uses client/server architecture with guaranteed bandwidth and bounded delays. Simulations are conducted to test the network load and response time for different number of users. The results indicate its feasibility and the delay time can be further reduced by releasing bandwidth during the pause operation.

In the commonsense reasoning, priorities among rules are often required to be found out in order to derive the desired conclusion as a theorem of the reasoning. In this paper, first we present the bottom-up and top-down abduction procedures to compute skeptical explanations and secondly show that priorities of circumscription to infer a desired theorem can be abduced as a skeptical explanation in abduction. In our approach, the required priorities can be computed based on the procedure to compute skeptical explanations provided in this paper as well as Wakaki and Satoh's method of compiling circumscription into extended logic programs. The method, for example, enables us to automatically find the adequate priority w. r. t. the Yale Shooting Problem to express a human natural reasoning in the framework of circumscription.

A fuzzy Kohonen clustering network was proposed which integrates the Fuzzy c-means (FCM) model into the learning rate and updating strategies of the Kohonen network. This yields an optimization problem related to FCM, and the numerical results show improved convergence as well as reduced labeling error. However, the clusters may be either hyperspherical-shaped or hyperellipsoidal-shaped, we use a generalized objective function involving a collection of linear varieties. In this way the model is distributed and consists of a series of `local' linear-type models (based on the revealed clusters). We propose a method to generalize the fuzzy Kohonen clustering networks. Anderson's IRIS data and the artificial data set are used to illustrate this method; and results are compared with the standard Kohonen approach and the fuzzy Kohonen clustering networks.