We analyze the dynamics of self-organizing cortical maps under the influence of external stimuli. We show that if the map is a contraction, then the system has a unique equilibrium which is globally asymptotically stable; consequently the system acts as a stable encoder of external input stimuli. The system converges to a fixed point representing the steady-state of the neural activity which has as an upper bound the superposition of the spatial integrals of the weight function between neighboring neurons and the stimulus autocorrelation function. The proposed theory also includes nontrivial interesting solutions.

We report relations between invariant manifolds of saddle orbits (Lyapunov family) around a saddle-center equilibrium point and lowest periodic orbits on the two degree of freedom swing equation system. The system consists of two generators operating onto an infinite bus. In this system, a stable equilibrium point represents the normal operation state, and to understand its basin structure is important in connection with practical situations. The Lyapunov families appear under conservative conditions and their invariant manifolds constitute separatrices between trapped and divergent motions. These separatrices continuously deform and become basin boundaries, if changing the system to dissipative one, so that to investigate those manifolds is meaningful. While, in the field of two degree of freedom motions, systems with saddle loops to a saddle-center are well studied, and existence of transverse homoclinic structure of separatrix manifolds is reported. However our investigating system has no such loops. It is interesting what separatrix structure exists without trivial saddle loops. In this report, we focus on above invariant manifolds and lowest periodic orbits which are foliated for the Hamiltonian level.

The analysis of the Takens-Bogdanov bifurcation of the equilibrium at the origin in the Chua's equation with a cubic nonlinearity is carried out. The local analysis provides, in first approximation, different bifurcation sets, where the presence of several dynamical behaviours (including periodic, homoclinic and heteroclinic orbits) is predicted. The local results are used as a guide to apply the adequate numerical methods to obtain a global understanding of the bifurcation sets. The study of the normal form of the Takens-Bogdanov bifurcation shows the presence of a degenerate (codimension-three) situation, which is analyzed in both homoclinic and heteroclinic cases.

In this letter, the novel mapping network named self-organizing relationship (SOR) network, which can approximate the desired I/O relationship by employing the modified Kohonen's learning law, is proposed. In the modified Kohonen's learning law, the weight vectors are updated to be attracted to or repulsed from the input vector.

As a means of CDMA network evolution toward future wireless services, a spectral overlay of narrowband CDMA (N-CDMA) and wideband CDMA (W-CDMA) systems is proposed in [8]. In order to justify the overlaying strategy, the reverse link capacity is examined in the same work. Although the capacity of conventional CDMA cellular systems is usually limited by the reverse link, the limit could occur at the forward link depending on the transmission technologies adopted by specific CDMA proposals. Especially, the number of users that can be simultaneously accommodated in the system would be limited by the forward link in future mobile service environments where unequal traffic is offered between two links. In this paper, we first examine the forward link capacity of the spectrally overlaid narrowband and wideband CDMA (N/W CDMA) system. And we compare it with the reverse link capacity to obtain the overall performance. The effects of various parameters on the capacity of N/W CDMA system are numerically evaluated for different mobile environments.

This paper proposes a group synchronization mechanism which synchronizes slave destinations with the master destination for stored media in multicast communications. At the master and slave destinations, an intra-stream and an inter-stream synchronization mechanisms which were previously proposed by the authors are employed to output the master media stream and slave media streams synchronously. We achieve group synchronization by adjusting the output timing of the master media stream at each slave destination to that at the master destination. We also deal with control of joining an in-progress multicast group. The paper presents experimental results using an interconnected ATM-Ethernet LAN, which is a kind of heterogeneous network. In our experimental system, stored voice and video streams are multicast from a source to plural destinations distributed among distinct networks, and then they are synchronized and output. Furthermore, the paper demonstrates the effectiveness of the mechanism.

The world of mobile communications has undergone dramatic changes in recent years. Since the Personal Digital Cellular (PDC) system of digital mobile communications became commercially available in Japan in 1993, the number of subscribers has increased to the extent that almost 30% of the Japanese population are subscribed. Furthermore, the increasing sophistication of communications, such as the growing popularity of the Internet and expansion of our spheres of existence, have led to demand for new applications, such as use on a global scale. Many new technologies are also being introduced, such as the IMT-2000 system and the IN system which are slated to be introduced at the end of 2000. Based on the above and in view of the increasing scale and sophistication of mobile communications networks, the time has come to reexamine the configuration within networks of SCPs, which perform subscriber data management and service control. This paper focuses on the functions of subscriber data management and service control, classifies data necessary for mobile networks and using the signal number of common networks as a guide considers the optimum arrangement of data and control nodes. The paper also examines reliability measures for SCPs to ensure the reliability of increasingly large-scale networks.

This paper discusses the classification of targets buried in the underground by radar polarimetry. The subsurface radar is used for the detection of objects buried beneath the ground surface, such as gas pipes, cables and cavities, or in archeological exploration operation. In addition to target echo, the subsurface radar receives various other echoes, because the underground is inhomogeneous medium. Therefore, the subsurface radar needs to distinguish these echoes. In order to enhance the discrimination capability, we first applied the polarization anisotropy coefficient to distinguish echoes from isotropic targets (plate, sphere) versus anisotropic targets (wire, pipe). It is straightforward to find the man-made target buried in the underground using the polarization anisotropy coefficient. Second, we tried to classify targets using the polarimetric signature approach, in which the characteristic polarization state provides the orientation angle of an anisotropic target. All of these values contribute to the classification of a target. Field experiments using an ultra-wideband (250 MHz to 1 GHz) FM-CW polarimetric radar system were carried out to show the usefulness of radar polarimetry. In this paper, several detection and classification results are demonstrated. It is shown that these techniques improve the detection capability of buried target considerably.

To design and develop user-oriented, flexible and distributed applications which can deal with various users' requirements, new technologies to manage, control and utilize the services of communication networks have to be provided. In this paper, the current challenges faced by large-scale distributed applications are discussed and a framework for the next generation network operation and management is presented on the basis of agent-based computing technologies. Examples of flexible distributed applications are presented to clarify the role of application-centric flexible network operation and management.

The intermediate language (IL) modularizes a compiler into target processor independent and dependent parts, called the front-end and the back-end. By adding a new back-end, it is possible to port existing software from one processor to another. This paper presents a new efficient approach to achieve multiple targeting to quite different architectures using different processors as well, by translating from one IL into other existing ILs. This approach makes it possible to reuse existing back-ends. It has been successfully applied to a commercial-scale project for porting public switching system software. Since the target ILs were not predictable in advance, we provided an abstract syntax tree (AST) with attributes accessible by abstract data type (ADT) interface to convey the source language information from our front-end to back-ends. It was translated into several ILs that were developed independently. These translations made the compiler available in a very short time for different cross-target platforms and on several workstations we needed. The structure of this AST and the mapping to these ILs are presented, and retargeting cost is evaluated.

This paper presents a new method for image interpolation based on truncated projections onto convex sets (POCS). By using the convergence property to properly defined convex sets, the proposed algorithm can restore high frequency details in the original high resolution image. In order to apply the POCS method to the interpolation procedure, we first present a two-dimensional separable image degradation model for a low resolution imaging system. According to the model, we propose a truncated POCS-based spatial interpolation algorithm for image sequences. Experimental results with synthetic and real image sequence show that the proposed algorithm gives indiscernible interpolation performance compared with the conventional POCS-base algorithm, while it significantly reduces computational complexity and is suitable for processing image sequences.

A new concept of "an imperfect singular solution" is defined as an approximate solution which becomes a singular solution by adding a suitable small perturbation to the original equations. A numerical method is presented for proving the existence of imperfect singular solutions of nonlinear equations with guaranteed accuracy. A few numerical examples are also presented for illustration.

The transfer function of IIR all-pass filters is a rational function of ω. However, the optimization of such a rational function using the successive projections method, which has a wider range of application than the Remez algorithm, has not been presented. In this paper, we propose designing IIR all-pass filters using the successive projections method.

We propose an H-plane manifold-type triplexer with closely arranged junctions. Broadband characteristics for each bands are obtained by arranging filters closely near the end of the common waveguide. Three fundamental and sufficient parameters are introduced for numerical optimizations to determine the configuration of the broadband triplexer. The configuration including closely arranged junctions requires an generalized scattering matrix (GS matrix) of an asymmetric cross junction to simulate and design. We expand the mode matching technique (MMT) to be able to analyze this kind of discontinuities by joining two asymmetric steps discontinuities to a symmetric cross junction. This is suitable expressions for numerical calculations. The characteristics of the whole triplexer are obtained by cascading GS matrices of the corresponding discontinuities. The experimental results of the fabricated triplexer were compared with the simulated data, and the results agree well with the simulated one. The characteristics of the fabricated triplexer satisfy the request of the broad band operation and high power-handling capability.

This paper proposes a thresholding based segmentation method aided by Kleene Algebra. For a given image including some regions of interest (ROIs for short) with the coherent intensity level, assume that we can segment each ROI on applying thresholding technique. Three segmented states are then derived for every ROI: Shortage denoted by logic value 0, Correct denoted by 1 and Excess denoted by 2. The segmented states for every ROI in the image can be then expressed on a ternary logic system. Our goal is then set to find "Correct (1)" state for every ROI. First, unate function, which is a model of Kleene Algebra, based procedure is proposed. However, this method is not complete for some cases, that is, correctly segmented ratio is about 70% for three and four ROI segmentation. For the failed cases, Brzozowski operations, which are defined on De Morgan algebra, can accommodate to completely find all "Correct" states. Finally, we apply these procedures to segmentation problems of a human brain MR image and a foot CT image. As the result, we can find all "1" states for the ROIs, i. e. , we can correctly segment the ROIs.

Radio waves propagating through tunnels are strongly attenuated in the presence of discontinuities such as bends and branches. The useful structural modifications are requested to get better circumstances for radio waves in tunnels. In this paper, we propose several modifications arranged in a conventional T-junction of two-dimensional tunnels and analyze the transmission characteristics of radio waves by using the finite volume time domain (FVTD) method.

In universal personal telecommunication (UPT) environments, UPT networks retain information related to incall/outcall registration in UPT user service profiles in order to provide incoming UPT calls for UPT users in any location who have registered at a terminal. As UPT networks support incall registration, terminal users can be different from terminal owners, and several UPT users can register for incoming calls on a single terminal. Therefore, appropriate third-party protection procedures are needed to protect the rights of terminal owners. A terminal profile database can be used to store information regarding terminal states and incall UPT users registered on a terminal in order to enable third-party protection procedures. In order to manage information within both the terminal profile and the service profile, we propose a request-based scheme for incall registration/deregistration of UPT users and incall registration resets of terminal owners. We evaluate the performance of the scheme in terms of; 1) total cost and, 2) the number of terminal profile accesses per unit time for a terminal.

Network applications such as FTP, WWW, Mirroring etc. are presently operated with little or no knowledge about the characteristics of the underlying network. These applications could operate more efficiently if the characteristics of the network are known and/or are made available to the concerned application. But network characteristics are hard to come by. The IP Performance Metrics working group (IETF-IPPM-WG) is working on developing a set of metrics that will characterize Internet data delivery services (networks). Some tools are being developed for measurements of these metrics. These generally involve active measurements or require modificationsin applications. Both techniques have their drawbacks. In this work, we show a new and more practical approach of estimating network characteristics. This involves gathering and analyzing the network's experience. The experience is in the form of traffic statistics, information distilled from management related activities and ubiquitously available logs (squid access logs, mail logs, ftp logs etc. ) of network applications. An analysis of this experience provides an estimate of the characteristics of the underlying network. To evaluate the concept we have developed and experimented with a system wherein the network characteristics are generated by analyzing the logs and traffic statistics. The network characteristics are made available to network clients and administrators by Network Performance Metric (NPM) servers. These servers are accessed using standard network management protocols. Results of the evaluation are presented and a framework for efficient operation of network operations, using the network characteristics is outlined.

Although there are many multimedia presentation systems on the market, they have some shortcomings and most of them only can work on one single computer, and few of them can work on Web. Thus, in the thesis we develop a network multimedia presentation system to let users easily design the multimedia presentation without restriction on technology or presentation time and place. Our system includes 3 main components: User Interface that includes temporal specification editor, spatial specification editor and multimedia object interface, Presentation Interface and Knowledge Base. There is a dynamic homepage generator in our system and we propose a displaying algorithm based on the Allen's theory, that there exist 13 temporal relationships between two intervals, for synchronizing the media objects.

Human faces convey various information, including that is specific to each individual person and that is part of mutual communication among persons. Information exhibited by a "face" is what is called "non-verbal information" and usually verbal media cannot easily describe such information appropriately. Recently, detailed studies on the processing of face images by a computer have been carried out in the engineering field for applications to communication media and human computer interaction as well as automatic identification of human faces. Two main technical topics are the recognition of human faces and the synthesis of face images. The objective of the former is to enable a computer to detect and identify users and further to recognize their facial expressions, while that of the latter is to provide a natural and impressive user interface on a computer in the form of a "face. " These studies have also been found to be useful in various non-engineering fields related to a face, such as psychology, anthropology, cosmetology and dentistry. Most of the studies in these different fields have been carried out independently up to now, although all of them deal with a "face. " Now in virtue of the progress in the above engineering technologies a common study tools and databases for facial information have become available. On the basis of these backgrounds, this paper surveys recent research trends in the processing of face images by a computer and its typical applications. Firstly, the various characteristics of faces are considered. Secondly, recent research activities in the recognition and synthesis of face images are outlined. Thirdly, the applications of digital processing methods of facial information are discussed from several standpoints: intelligent image coding, media handling, human computer interaction, caricature, facial impression, psychological and medical applications. The common tools and databases used in the studies of processing of facial information and some related topics are also described.