In recent years, there has been an increased focus on the mechanics of information transmission in spiking neural networks. Especially the Noise Shaping properties of these networks and their similarity to Delta-Sigma Modulators has received a lot of attention. However, very little of the research done in this area has focused on the effect the weights in these networks have on the Noise Shaping properties and on post-processing of the network output signal. This paper concerns itself with the various modes of network operation and beneficial as well as detrimental effects which the systematic generation of network weights can effect. Also, a method for post-processing of the spiking output signal is introduced, bringing the output signal more in line with conventional Delta-Sigma Modulators. Relevancy of this research to industrial application of neural nets as building blocks of oversampled A/D converters is shown. Also, further points of contention are listed, which must be thoroughly researched to add to the above mentioned applicability of spiking neural nets.

The optimal design of complex infinite impulse response (IIR) two-channel quadrature mirror filter (QMF) banks with equiripple frequency response is considered. The design problem is appropriately formulated to result in a simple optimization problem. Therefore, based on a variant of Karmarkar's algorithm, we can efficiently solve the optimization problem through a frequency sampling and iterative approximation method to find the complex coefficients for the IIR QMFs. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is to form an appropriate Chebyshev approximation of a desired response and then find its solution from a linear subspace in several iterations. Finally, simulation results are presented for illustration and comparison.

This paper proposes an analysis and design methodology for the robust control of affine-in-control nonlinear systems subject to actuator saturation in discrete-time formulation. The robust stability condition is derived for the closed-loop system by the introduction of the fuzzy Kronecker delta. Based on the newly acquired stability condition, a design method is proposed to guarantee the robust H∞ performance. In the design, LMI-based pole placement is employed to use the freedom allowed in the selection of the controller. The validity of the proposed method is asserted by the computer simulation.

R-trees have been traditionally optimized for I/O performance with disk pages as tree nodes. Recently, researchers have proposed cache-conscious variations of R-trees optimized for CPU cache performance in main memory environments, where the node size is several cache lines wide and more entries are packed in a node by compressing MBR keys. However, because there is a big difference between the node sizes of two types of R-trees, disk-optimized R-trees show poor cache performance while cache-optimized R-trees exhibit poor disk performance. In this paper, we propose a cache and disk optimized R-tree, called PR-tree (Prefetching R-tree). For cache performance, the node size of the PR-tree is wider than a cache line, and the prefetch instruction is used to reduce the number of cache misses. For I/O performance, the nodes of the PR-tree are fitted into one disk page. We represent the detailed analysis of cache misses for range queries, and enumerate all the reasonable in-page leaf and nonleaf node sizes, and heights of in-page trees to figure out tree parameters for the best cache and I/O performance. The PR-tree that we propose achieves better cache performance than the disk-optimized R-tree: a factor of 3.5-15.1 improvement for one-by-one insertions, 6.5-15.1 improvement for deletions, 1.3-1.9 improvement for range queries, and 2.7-9.7 improvement for k-nearest neighbor queries. All experimental results do not show notable declines of I/O performance.

The effect of intermediate frequency magnetic fields or, very-low-frequency magnetic fields (VLFMF) on living biological cells was investigated using a highly sensitive mutagenesis assay method. A bacterial gene expression system for mutation repair (umu system) was used for the sensitive evaluation of damage in DNA molecules. Salmonella typhimurium TA1535 (pSK1002) were exposed to VLFMF (20 kHz and 600 µT) in a specially designed magnetic field loading chamber. The experiment results showed the possibility of applying the umu assay for sensitive and effective evaluation of damage in DNA molecules. No effects from exposure to 20 kHz and 600 µT magnetic fields in terms of damage in DNA molecules were observed.

This paper proposes near-field sound-source localization based on crosscorrelation of a signed binary code. The signed binary code eliminates multibit signal processing for simpler implementation. Explicit formulae with near-field assumption are derived for a two microphone scenario and extended to a three microphone case with front-rear discrimination. Adaptive threshold for enabling and disabling source localization is developed for robustness in noisy environment. The proposed sound-source localization algorithm is implemented on a fixed-point DSP. Evaluation results in a robot scenario demonstrate that near-field assumption and front-rear discrimination provides almost 40% improvement in DOA estimation. A correct detection rate of 85% is obtained by a robot in a home environment.

The performance of integrated segmentation and recognition of handwritten numeral strings relies on the classification accuracy and the non-character resistance of the underlying character classifier, which is variable depending on the techniques of pattern normalization, feature extraction, and classifier structure. In this paper, we evaluate the effects of 12 normalization functions and four selected feature types on numeral string recognition. Slant correction (deslant) is combined with the normalization functions and features so as to create 96 feature vectors, which are classified using two classifier structures. In experiments on numeral string images of the NIST Special Database 19, the classifiers have yielded very high string recognition accuracies. We show the superiority of moment normalization with adaptive aspect ratio mapping and the gradient direction feature, and observed that slant correction is beneficial to string recognition when combined with good normalization methods.

This paper presents a survey of elastic matching (EM) techniques employed in handwritten character recognition. EM is often called deformable template, flexible matching, or nonlinear template matching, and defined as the optimization problem of two-dimensional warping (2DW) which specifies the pixel-to-pixel correspondence between two subjected character image patterns. The pattern distance evaluated under optimized 2DW is invariant to a certain range of geometric deformations. Thus, by using the EM distance as a discriminant function, recognition systems robust to the deformations of handwritten characters can be realized. In this paper, EM techniques are classified according to the type of 2DW and the properties of each class are outlined. Several topics around EM, such as the category-dependent deformation tendency of handwritten characters, are also discussed.

In this paper, we briefly describe a fast Jacket transform based on simple matrices factorization. The proposed algorithm needs fewer and simpler computations than that of the existing methods, which are RJ's [2], Lee's [7] and Yang's algorithm [8]. Therefore, it can be easily applied to develop the efficient fast algorithm for signal processing and data communications.

A novel application of fuzzy-neuro approach to protection of double circuit transmission line is demonstrated in this paper. Different system faults on a protected transmission line should be detected and classified rapidly and correctly. Using the proposed approach, fault detection, classification and faulted phase selection could be achieved within a quarter of cycle. Results of performance studies show that the proposed fuzzy-neuro-based module can improve the performance of conventional fault selection algorithms.

This CMOS transceiver IC exploits the superheterodyne architecture to implement a low-cost RF front-end with only 6.25 mm2 die area for IEEE 802.11b standard. The transceiver is implemented in 0.25 µm CMOS process with 2.7 V supply voltage, and achieves a -86 dBm 11 Mb/s receive sensitivity and a 2 dBm transmit output power.

This paper studies dynamics of a delta modulator for PWM control. In order to analyze the circuit dynamics we derive a one-dimensional return map of switching time. The map is equivalent to a circle map in wide parameter region and its nonperiodic behavior corresponds to undesired asynchronous operation of the circuit. We then present a simple stabilization method of the system operations by means of periodic compulsory switching. The mechanism of the stabilization is considered from viewpoints of bifurcation. Using a simple test circuit, typical operations are confirmed experimentally.

This paper proposes a new class of polyphase ZCZ (zero-correlation zone) sequence sets which satisfy a mathematical upper bound. The proposed ZCZ sequence sets are obtained from DFT matrices and unitary matrices. In addition, this paper discusses the cross-correlation property between different ZCZ sequence sets which belong to the proposed class.

Zero-suppressed BDDs (ZBDDs) have been used in the nonenumerative path delay fault (PDF) grading of VLSI circuits. One basic and one cut-based grading algorithm are proposed to grade circuits with polynomial and exponential number of PDFs, respectively. In this article, we present a new ZBDD-based basic PDF grading algorithm to enable grading of some circuits with exponential number of PDFs without using the cut-based algorithm. The algorithm overcomes the memory overflow problems by dynamically pruning the ZBDD at run-time. This new algorithm may give exact or pessimistic coverage depending on the statuses of the pruned nodes. Furthermore, we re-assess the performance of the static variable ordering heuristics in ZBDDs for PDF coverage calculation. The proposed algorithm combined with the efficient static variable ordering heuristics can avoid ZBDD size explosion in many circuits. Experimental results for ISCAS85 benchmarks show that the proposed algorithm efficiently grades circuits.

This paper proposes a cell layout synthesis technique to minimize the sensitivity to wiring faults due to spot defects. We modeled the sensitivity to faults on intra-cell routings with consideration to the spot defects size distribution and the end effect of critical areas. The effect of the sensitivity reduction on the yield is also discussed. By using the model as a cost function, we comprehensively generate the minimum width layout of CMOS logic cells and select the optimal layouts. Experimental results show that our technique reduces about 15% of the fault sensitivities compared with the wire-length-minimum layouts for benchmark CMOS logic circuits which have up to 14 transistors.

The roadside network system for ITS services uses microcells in its access infrastructure. For the roadside network that provides the uninterrupted communication using microcells such as DSRC, an effective communication control scheme must be established so as to manage the communication passes to vehicles in the network. One of the fundamental requirements for the communication control scheme for the roadside network is to assure fault-tolerance, which means in this system that the communication control mechanism needs to be managed even in part of the base stations in the network might be in fault. On the other hand, for the communication control in the roadside network using microcells, issues to be solved are the handover mechanism for taking over connection information to provide uninterrupted communication environment, which causes the degradation of the end-to-end throughput. In order to solve those problems, the authors developed a communication control scheme. We implemented the scheme as the specific 'ADS algorism' to control the communication zone dynamically, which works effectively on the Autonomous Decentralized System (ADS) communication platform. Furthermore, we also developed the specific ADS algorism to assure fault-tolerance for the communication zone control, which can reconfigure the communication zone in case the BSs in the roadside network are in fault and can keep the operations by the reconfigured communication zone. We evaluated the ADS algorism for the communication zone control by computer simulation. The results show the effectiveness of the ADS algorism for the dynamic communication zone control mechanism and for the fault-tolerant mechanism for communication zone reconfiguration on fault.

This paper proposes a simple timing synchronization method in order to design a timing synchronization circuit with low-complex and low-volume digital signal processing (DSP) for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) packet transmission systems. The proposed method utilizes the subtraction process for acquirement of a timing metric of fast Fourier transform (FFT) window, whereas the conventional methods utilize the multiplication process. This paper adopts the proposed method to a standardized OFDM format, IEEE 802.11a, and elucidates that the proposed one shows good transmission performance as well as the conventional one in fast time-variant multi-path Rayleigh fading channels by computer simulation.

This paper presents a study on the blind separation of a convoluted mixture of speech signals using Frequency Domain Independent Component Analysis (FDICA) algorithm based on the negentropy maximization of Time Frequency Series of Speech (TFSS). The comparative studies on the negentropy approximation of TFSS using generalized Higher Order Statistics (HOS) of different nonquadratic, nonlinear functions are presented. A new nonlinear function based on the statistical modeling of TFSS by exponential power functions has also been proposed. The estimation of standard error and bias, obtained using the sequential delete-one jackknifing method, in the approximation of negentropy of TFSS by different nonlinear functions along with their signal separation performance indicate the superlative power of the exponential-power-based nonlinear function. The proposed nonlinear function has been found to speed-up convergence with slight improvement in the separation quality under reverberant conditions.

This paper presents a design method for three-level programmable logic arrays (PLAs), which have input decoders and two-input EXOR gates at the outputs. The PLA realizes an EXOR of two sum-of-products expressions (EX-SOP) for multiple-valued input two-valued output functions. We developed an output phase optimization method for EX-SOPs where some outputs of the function are minimized in the complemented form and presented techniques to minimize EX-SOPs for adders by using an extension of Dubrova-Miller-Muzio's AOXMIN algorithm. The proposed algorithm produces solutions with a half products of AOXMIN-like algorithm in 250 times shorter time for large adders with two-valued inputs. We also proved that an n-bit adder with two-valued inputs requires at most 32n-2+7n-5 products in an EX-SOP while it is known that a sum-of-products expression (SOP) requires 62n-4n-5 products.

This paper compared the approaches concerning the pinball routing problem that occurs in the nested network in network mobility environment and developed the analytic framework to model. Each model was evaluated of transmission latency, memory usage, and BU's occurrence number at routing optimization process. The estimation result showed that the optimization mechanism achievement overhead existed in each model, and the full optimization of the specific model was not attained because of it. Therefore, the most appropriate approach for routing optimization in nested NEMO can be determined only after a careful evaluation, and the proposals must consider using it in combination with other approaches. The modeling framework presented in this paper is intended to quantity the relative merits and demerits of the various approaches.