Simple expressions for constriction resistance of multitude conducting spots were analytically formulated by Greenwood. These expressions, however, include some approximations. Nakamura presented that the constriction resistance of one circular spot computed using the BEM is closed to Maxwell's exact value. This relative error is only e=0. 00162 [%]. In this study, the constriction resistances of two, five and ten conducting spots are computed using the boundary element method (BEM), and compared with those obtained using Greenwood's expressions. As the conducting spots move close to each other, the numerical deviations between constriction resistances computed using Greenwood's expressions and the BEM increase. As a result, mutual resistance computed by the BEM is larger than that obtained from Greenwood's expressions. The numerical deviations between the total resistances computed by Greenwood's expressions and that by the BEM are small. Hence, Greenwood's expressions are valid for the total constriction resistance calculation and can be applied to problems where only the total resistance of two contact surfaces, such as a relay and a switch, is required. However, the numerical deviations between the partial resistances computed by Greenwood's expression and that by the BEM are very large. The partial resistance calculations of multitude conducting spots are beyond the applicable range of Greenwood's expression, since Greenwood's expression for constriction resistance of two conducting spots is obtained by assuming that the conducting spots are equal size. In particular, the deviation between resistances of conducting spots, which are close to each other, is very large. In the case of partial resistances which are significant in semiconductor devices, Greenwood's expressions cannot be used with high precision.

Adaptive maximum likelihood differential detection implemented by a reduced state-transition Viterbi algorithm (called adaptive 3-state RSTVDD) is presented for adaptive reception of M-ary differential phase shift keying (DPSK) signals transmitted over additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and frequency-nonselective Rayleigh fading channels. The adaptive 3-state RSTVDD comprises 1DD, a differential encoder, and reverse modulator, followed by reduced-state (3-state) Viterbi DD (RSVDD) with adaptive phase reference estimation. The adaptive 3-state RSVDD detector estimates the sequence of phase errors of the 1DD output. The phase reference estimator is an adaptive least mean square (LMS) filter with a step-size that adapts to changing channel conditions. The final detected symbol sequence is the modulo-2π sum of the 1DD output phase sequence and the detected phase error sequence. The bit error rate (BER) performance of M-ary DPSK, M=4, 8, and 16, in the AWGN and Rayleigh fading channels is evaluated by computer simulation to show that adaptive 3-state RSTVDD can achieve almost the same BER performance as the previously developed adaptive M-state RSVDD. Since the number of trellis states is reduced to three irrespective of M, the adaptive 3-state RSTVDD has lower computation complexity and it is particularly useful for M-ary DPSK with M8.

This study presents a method that can be used to manage individual pieces of information in large scale distributed geographic information systems (GIS). In a distributed GIS, ordinary users usually cannot alter any of the contents on the server. The method in this study can be used to alter the content or add individual datums onto these types of non-write-permitted data sets. The authors have called it a 'Geographic Differential Script File' (GDSF). A client creates a GDSF, which contains private information that is to be added onto the served data. The client keeps this file on a local disk. When the user employs the data, he applies the differential script sequence onto the downloaded data in order to retrieve the information. GDSF is a collection of graphic operation commands which insert and delete objects as well as modify operations. GDSF also contains modifications of the attribute information of geographic entities. This method can also be used to revise information that is published on ROM media, e. g. CD-ROM or DVD-ROM, as well as in a distributed environment. In this paper, the method and results of applying it are presented.

The disk allocation problem examined in this paper is finding a method to distribute a Binary Cartesian Product File on multiple disks to maximize parallel disk I/O accesses for partial match retrieval. This problem is known to be NP-hard, and heuristic approaches have been applied to obtain suboptimal solutions. Recently, efficient methods such as Binary Disk Modulo (BDM) and Error Correcting Code (ECC) methods have been proposed along with the restrictions that the number of disks in which files are stored should be a power of 2. In this paper, a new Disk Allocation method based on Genetic Algorithm (DAGA) is proposed. The DAGA does not place restrictions on the number of disks to be applied and it can allocate the disks adaptively by taking into account the data access patterns. Using the schema theory, it is proven that the DAGA can realize a near-optimal solution with high probability. Comparing the quality of solution derived by the DAGA with the General Disk Modulo (GDM), BDM, and ECC methods through the simulation, shows that 1) the DAGA is superior to the GDM method in all the cases and 2) with the restrictions being placed on the number of disks, the average response time of the DAGA is always less than that of the BDM method and greater than that of the ECC method in the absence of data skew and 3) when data skew is considered, the DAGA performs better than or equal to both BDM and ECC methods, even when restrictions on the number of disks are enforced.

This paper proposes a new framework of managing virtual spaces based on spatial databases as an extension of VRML-based systems. The framework is suitable for treating continuous virtual spaces and for managing the quality of service (QoS) of the virtual spaces depending on user's operations and situations of computer resources. Levels of detail (LoD) of 3D objects is the most important rule for rendering scenes dynamically while managing the QoS. This paper describes a method of managing the QoS depending on the LoD in the form of spatial queries. An advantage of the framework is that spatial databases can incrementally construct virtual spaces in clients using differential descriptions based on VRML, that is, DVRML, proposed in this paper. Dynamic spatial data such as avatar's movement and real-time multimedia data such as videos should be shared by all participants in a virtual space in real time. Our framework can also handle dynamic spatial data by means of real-time updating of some spatial objects in spatial databases as well as static spatial data. We developed some experimental applications based on the framework in order to prove that it is feasible for networked virtual spaces with video components.

In this paper, we propose a method for querying heterogeneous molecular biology databases. Since molecular biology data are distributed into multiple databases that represent different biological domains, it is highly desirable to integrate data together with the correlations between the domains. However, since the total amount of such databases is very large and the data contained are frequently updated, it is difficult to maintain the integration of the entire contents of the databases. Thus, we propose a method for dynamic integration based on user demand, which is expressed with an OQL-based query language. By restricting search space according to user demand, the cost of integration can be reduced considerably. Multiple databases also exhibit much heterogeneity, such as semantic mismatching between the database schemas. For example, many databases employ their own independent terminology. For this reason, it is usually required that the task for integrating data based on a user demand should be carried out transitively; first search each database for data that satisfy the demand, then repeatedly retrieve other data that match the previously found data across every database. To cope with this issue, we introduce two types of agents; a database agent and a user agent, which reside at each database and at a user, respectively. The integration task is performed by the agents; user agents generate demands for retrieving data based on the previous search results by database agents, and database agents search their databases for data that satisfy the demands received from the user agents. We have developed a prototype system on a network of workstations. The system integrates four databases; GenBank (a DNA nucleotide database), SWISS-PROT, PIR (protein amino-acid sequence databases), and PDB (a protein three-dimensional structure database). Although the sizes of GenBank and PDB are each over one billion bytes, the system achieved good performance in searching such very large heterogeneous databases.

We introduce a new methodology for designing block ciphers with provable security against differential and linear cryptanalysis. It is based on three new principles: change of the location of round functions, round functions with recursive structure, and substitution boxes of different sizes. The first realizes parallel computation of the round functions without losing provable security, and the second reduces the size of substitution boxes; moreover, the last is expected to make algebraic attacks difficult. This structure gives us a simple and effective method for designing secure and fast block ciphers in hardware as well as in software implementation. Block encryption algorithm MISTY was designed on the basis of this methodology.

This letter examines outline measures of strength against the differential and linear cryptanalysis. These measures are useful to estimate the number of rounds giving an immune iterated cipher. This letter reports that the outline measures of strength are useful to relatively estimate the strength of generalized feistel ciphers.

In the spatial network method (SNM) for the vector potential, both the current continuity law including polarization vector and the conservation law of generalized momentum including vector potential field can introduce simpler expressions for dispersive property than that by the electromagnetic field variables. But for the anisotropic medium conditions, the conventional expanded node expression has some difficulties in treating the coupling mechanism among field variables. On the other hand, in the condensed node expression, in which all field components exist at each node, every connections among field components can be simply formulated. In this paper, after proposing the condensed node spatial network method for the vector potential, the advantage of the method such as performing the simplified formulation by utilization of both the vector potential and the condensed node expressions is presented for the magnetized plasma which has the gyro-anisotropy. The validity of the computation is shown by some examples such as Faraday rotation.

In this paper, we discuss the initial acquisition of the code division multiplexed DS/SS down-link signals at a user terminal of multiple LEO mobile satellite communication systems. In LEO systems, a receiver generally receives signals from plural satellites for soft hand-off and for satellite diversity as a countermeasure to shadowing. In this situation, the signal from each satellite becomes the interference to the signals from other satellites. In addition to this inter-satellite interference, we have to consider the intra-satellite interference from user channels to a pilot channel because of the loss of orthogonality of channels at initial acquisition stage especially under frequency offsets due to Doppler effect. Thus in this paper, we analytically evaluate the performance of an initial acquisition scheme, taking the intra/inter-satellite interference under Doppler shift into account.

A partial buffer sharing scheme is proposed as loss-priority control for a finite buffer with batch inputs. A partial batch acceptance strategy is used for a batch arriving at a finite buffer. Customer loss probabilities for high- and low-priority customers are derived under this batch acceptance strategy, using a supplementary variable method that is a standard tool for queueing analysis. A comparison of the partial buffer sharing scheme and a system without loss-priority control is made in terms of admissible offered load.

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.

In this paper, Orthogonal Multicode OFDM-DS/CDMA system using Partial Bandwidth Transmission is proposed. By using the flexible carrier allocation of OFDM, Partial Bandwidth Transmission is considered for high quality communication. Furthermore, multicode packet data transmission is presented. Multicode packet data transmission is very effective to handle variable data. Since the proposed system can detect the header information without complex control, it is also suitable for packet data transmission. The computer simulation results show that the BER performance of the proposed system with the ideal channel estimation is improved compared with the case of the conventional Orthogonal Multicode DS/CDMA system with ideal RAKE receivers. Moreover the proposed system with the channel estimation by MLS algorithm also shows the good BER performance. In packet data transmission, the delay and throughput performances are also improved in the proposed system.

Recently, Garcia and Stichtenoth proposed sequences of algebraic function fields with finite constant fields such that their sequences attain the Drinfeld-Vl bound. In the sequences, the third algebraic function fields are Artin-Schreier extensions of Hermitian function fields. On the other hand, Miura presented powerful tools to construct one-point algebraic geometric (AG) codes from algebraic function fields. In this paper, we clarify rational functions of the third algebraic function fields which correspond to generators of semigroup of nongaps at a specific place of degree one. Consequently, we show generator matrices of the one-point AG codes with respect to the third algebraic function fields for any dimension by using rational functions of monomial type and rational points.

In general, the performance of partial response maximum-likelihood (PRML) system is degraded by nonlinear distortion and high frequency noise in high-density digital magnetic recording. Conventional PRML system for single-track recording improves the performance when high order PRML systems and high rate codes are adopted. But, in general it is difficult to realize LSI circuits for high order PRML system and high rate code. In this paper, a trellis coded class four partial response maximum-likelihood (TC-PR4ML) system for high density two-track digital magnetic recording is proposed. Our two-track recording method can increase the coding rate over 1, which contributes to a decrease in both degradation effects from partial erasure, one of nonlinear distortions, and high frequency noise in high density recording. The error rate performance of the proposed system is obtained by computer simulation taking account of the partial erasure and it is compared with that of a conventional NRZ coded class four partial response maximum-likelihood (NRZ-PR4ML) system. The results show that the proposed system is hardly affected by partial erasure and keeps good performance in high density recording.

Optical frequency division multiplexing (FDM) technique has the advantage of fully orthogonal transmissions. However, FDM system permits only a small number of FDM channels despite of a great effort, such as frequency stabilization. On the other hand, frequency-domain encoding code-division multiple-access (FE-CDMA) has been widely studied as a type of optical CDMA. In this system, encoding is done in the frequency domain of an ultrashort light pulse spread by optically Fourier transform. However, FE-CDMA accommodates very limited number of simultaneous users, though this scheme uses a vast optical bandwidth. It is attractive to consider the combination of both advantages of FDM and FE-CDMA. We propose FE-CDMA enhancement of FDM (FDM/FE-CDMA). Since in FDM/FE-CDMA the total bandwidth is partitioned into M optical bands and each band is encoded by the code with code length of Nc, we expect nearly perfect orthogonal transmissions. In addition, since the creation of FDM bands is realized by a passive filter, the optical frequency is precisely controlled and the optical frequency allocation is flexible. We derive the bit error rate (BER) as a function of the number of simultaneous users, bit rate, and the utilization efficiency of total bandwidth. We compare the performance of FDM/FE-CDMA with that of the conventional FE-CDMA in terms of the number of simultaneous users on condition that each chip width is constant. As a result, we show that FDM/FE-CDMA can support the larger number of simultaneous users than the conventional FE-CDMA at a given bit error rate under the same total bandwidth.

In this work, we give a true concurrency semantics for FIFO-nets, that are Petri nets in which places behave as queues, tokens take values in a finite alphabet and the firing of a transition depends on sequences on the alphabet. We introduce fn-processes to represent the concurrent behavior of a FIFO-net N during a sequence of transition firings. Fn-processes are modeled by a mapping from a simple FIFO-net without queue sharing and cycles, named FIFO-occurrence net, to N. Moreover, the relation among the firings expressed by the FIFO-occurrence net has been enriched by an ordering relation among the elements of the FIFO-occurrence net representing values entered into a same queue of N. We give a way to build fn-processes step by step in correspondance with a sequence of transition firings and the fn-processes operationally built are all those abstractly defined. The FIFO-occurrence nets of fn-processes have some interesting properties; for example, such nets are always discrete and, consequently, there is at least a transition sequence corresponding to each fn-process.

In a variety of communication systems, the multipath propagation due to various reflections is often encountered. In this paper, the directions-of-arrival (DOA) estimation of the cyclostationary coherent signals is investigated. A new approach is proposed for estimating the DOA of the coherent signals impinging on a uniform linear array (ULA) by utilizing the spatial smoothing (SS) technique. In order to improve the robustness of the DOA estimation by exploiting the cyclic statistical information sufficiently and handling the coherence effectively, we give a cyclic algorithm with multiple lag parameters and the optimal subarray size. The performance of the presented method is verified and compared with the conventional methods through numerical examples.

We will present a partial scan design method based on n-fold line-up structures in order to achieve high fault efficiency and reduce test pattern generation time for practical LSIs. We will also present a partial scan design method based on the state justification of pure load/hold FFs in order to achieve high fault efficiency and reduce the number of scan FFs for practical LSIs with lots of load/hold FFs. Experimental results for practical LSIs show that our presented methods can achieve high fault efficiency (more than 99%) and reduce the number of scan FFs for the LSI with lots of load/hold FFs.

We present a high-level synthesis scheme that considers weak testability of generated register-transfer level (RTL) data paths, as well as their area and performance. The weak testability, proposed in our previous work, is a testability measure of RTL data paths for non-scan design. In our scheme, we first extract a condition on resource sharing sufficient for weak testability from a data flow graph before synthesis, and treat the condition as design objectives in the following synthesis tasks. We propose heuristic synthesis algorithms which optimize area and the design objectives under the performance constraint.