This paper presents a destributed algorithm that uses weak copy consistency to create mutual exclusion in a distributed computer system. The weak copy consistency is deduced from the uncertainty of state which occurs due to the finite and unpredictable communication delays in a distributed environment. Also the method correlates outdated state information to current state. The average number of messages to enter critical section in the algorithm is n/2 to n messages where n is the number of sites. We show that the algorithm achieves mutual exclusion and the fairness and liveness of the algorithm is proven. We study the performance of the algorithm by simulation technique.

Resolving ambiguities in interpreting the user's utterances is one of the most fundamental problems in the development of a question-answering system. The process of disambiguating interpretations requires knowledge and inference functions on an objective task field. This paper describes a framework for understanding conversational language, using the multi-paradigm knowledge representation (frames" and rules") which represents concept hierarchy and causal relationships for an objective field. Knowledge of the objective field is used in the process to interpret input sentences as a model for the objective world. In interpreting sentences, a procedure judges preferences for interpretation candidates by identifying causal relationship with messages in the preceding context, where the causal relationship is used to supplement some shortage of information and to give either an affirmative or a negative explanation to the interpretation. The procedure has been implemented in an experimental question-answering system, whose current task is consultation in operating an electronic device. The experimental results are shown for a concrete problem involving resolving anaphoric references, and characteristics of the knowledge processing system are discussed.

This paper deals with the problem of assigning tasks to the processors of a multiprocessor system such that the sum of execution and communication costs is minimized. If the number of processors is two, this problem can be solved efficiently using the network flow approach pioneered by Stone. This problem is, however, known to be NP-complete in the general case, and thus intractable for systems with a large number of processors. In this paper, we propose a network flow approach for the task assignment problem in homogeneous hypercube networks, i.e., hypercube networks with functionally identical processors. The task assignment problem for an n-dimensional homogeneous hypercube network of N (=2n) processors and M tasks is first transformed into n two-terminal network flow problems, and then solved in time no worse than O(M3 log N) by applying the Goldberg-Tarjan's maximum flow algorithm on each two-terminal network flow problem.

Splice Loss of LP modes in multimode graded-index optical fibers is investigated. It becomes clear that splice loss of particular mode and the excitation rate of the other modes by mode conversion is predicted from the factor, e.g. fiber axis misalignment, fiber and face gap, end fiber end face inclination.

First, a number of issues pertaining to analog VLSI implementation of Backpropagation (BP) and Deterministic Boltzmann Machine (DBM) learning algorithms are clarified. According to the results from software simulation, a mismatch between the activation function and derivative generated by independent circuits degrades the BP learning performance. The perfomance can be improved, however, by adjusting the gain of the activation function used to obtain the derivative, irrespective of the original activation function. Calculation errors embedded in the circuits also degrade the learning preformance. BP learning is sensitive to offset errors in multiplication in the learning process, and DBM learning is sensitive to asymmetry between the weight increment and decrement processes. Next, an analog VLSI architecture for implementing the algorithms using common building block circuits is proposed. The evaluation results of test chips confirm that synaptic weights can be updated up to 1 MHz and that a resolution exceeding 14 bits can be attained. The test chips successfully perform XOR learning using each algorithm.

For the efficient circuit simulation by the direct method, network tearing and latency techniques have been studied. This letter describes a circuit simulator SPLIT with hierarchical decomposition and latency. The block size of the latent subcircuit can be determined dynamically in SPLIT. We apply SPLIT to the MOS circuit simulation and verify its availability.

H control theory provides a systematic frequency shaping method of control systems. The existence condition of the solution for so called standard H control problem and the form of the H controller are derived in 1989. One of the most important feature of the controller is that it has many free parameters which can be chosen independently of the H control. On the other hand there is a criticism that the time response of prototypal H control systems is slow. Therefore in this paper we introduce an H2 control optimization by taking advantage of the free parameters to expect the improvement of the time response of the H control system. In this paper we consider state feedback case. The free parameters of state feedback H controller are not directly obtained from well known results since this problem is a kind of non-standard problem. Therefore, in the first place, we will get them via reviewing the FI (ful information) case. Then the free parameters of the state feedback H controller are shown based on the corrected FI solution. These parameters are next used to optimize an H2 control objective in the H control system.

Serious failures of the latest electronic equipments occur easily due to electrostatic discharge (ESD) , which can be caused frequently by the electrification phenomena of human-body walking on the floor. The number of the above damaging incidents has significantly been increasing with an increased use of integrated semiconductor elements with lower operation power. The most effective measures against the ESD consist in preventive ones, which are to obtain dynamic behaviors of the electric charge before the ESD happens, thereby preventing the charge accumulation. From this point of view, this paper describes new approaches for measurement of the static electricity directed toward preventing the ESD. First, a two-dimensional measurement method for visualizing charge distributions is described. This principle is based on visualizing the potential distribution induced in the array electrodes from the electrostatic fields. For showing usefulness of the visualization measurement, a prototype was built and attempts were made on the visualizations for the static electricity distributions of charged bodies. Second, a potential calculation of the human body charged by walking on the floor is described. A model was shown for analyzing the human-body potential on the floor, and the theoretical equation for describing the potential attenuation process was derived in the closed form in the Laplacian transformation domain. In order to obtain the typical half-life of the human-body potential, numerical computations were performed using a reverse Laplacian transformation. The experiments were also conducted for confirming the validity of the computed results. Finally, a new method is described for estimating dynamic behaviors of the occurrence charges of the human body electrified by walking-motions. Statistical measurements of the charges and potentials were made for the fundamental walking-motions specified here. The pace transitions of the potentials due to continuous walking and stepping were also measured and their results were explained from the electrification properties for the fundamental walking-motions.

By close analogy of annealing for solids, we devise a new algorithm, called APS, for the time evolution of both the state and the synapses of the Hopfield's neural network. Through constrainedly random perturbation of the synapses of the network, the evolution of the state will ignore the tremendous number of small minima and reach a good minimum. The synapses resemble the microstructure of a network. This new algorithm anneals the microstructure of the network through a thermal controlled process. And the algorithm allows us to obtain a good minimum of the Hopfield's model efficiently. We show the potential of this approach for optimization problems by applying it to the will-known traveling salesman problem. The performance of this new algorithm has been supported by many computer simulations.

New methods are needed for accessing very large information services. This paper proposes the use of a user model neural network to allow better access to a news service. The network is constructed on the basis of articles read, and articles marked as rejected. It adapts over time to better represent the user's interests and rank the articles supplied by the news service. Using an augmented keyword search we can also search for articles using keywords in conjunction with the user model neural network. Trials of the system in a USENET news environment show promising results for the use of this approach in information retrieval.

ATM cross-connect systems, which will be used for provisioning virtual paths (i.e. logical direct connections between exchanges) in future broadband transport networks, simplify network configuration and yield increased routing and capacity allocating flexibility. This paper describes the design of a large capacity ATM cross-connect system that has a multi-stage network structure which requires only one type of switch module. The capacity of the proposed system can be easily increased without service interruptions. To realize cell sequence integrity, a time stamp is added to the self-routing tag. Required time stamp length and efficient module size are discussed.

A layout system for mixed analog/digital standard cell LSI's is described. The system includes interactive floorplan and placement features and automatic global and channel router. In mixed analog/digital circuits, crosstalk noise causes chip performance degradation. Thus, the proposed global routing algorithm routes analog nets in areas that are free of digital nets as much as possible. The number of line crossovers, especially for analog nets, is minimized by both global and detailed routers, because these crossovers are the dominant factors in the crosstalk noise. Double width lines can be used to avoid unexpected voltage drops caused by parasitic resistances. A postprocess automatically puts up shield lines for very noise sensitive wirings to improve the S/N ratio. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithms are effective in reducing the number of crossovers and redundant vias.

It is important to develop methods of measuring radiated electromagnetic interference level that will produce identical results at all measuring locations. We have considered a number of problems which prevent the achievement of identical results, and proposed some solutions. However, agreement of measurement values adequate for practical purposes has not been achieved. After our successive studies, we finally became aware that there is a causal relationship with changes in the line-to-ground impedance of the power supply. It is presumed that power cables of AC-powered devices operate as antenna elements that produce emission. Thus changes in the power line-to-ground impedance cause variations in the radiation efficiency to produce a different EMI level. We therefore made plans to measure the values of line-to-ground impedance at the AC power outlet for the frequency range of 100kHz to 500MHz at various locations where measurements are made of EMI from EUT (Equipment Under Test). The impedance varies greatly between 6ohms and 2 k-ohm, not only according to the frequency, but also according to the measurement location. In such cases, the EMI level shows a different value even with the same EUT, and it usually increases-especially for vertical polarization. We have developed a new type of LISN (Line Impedance Stabilization Network or Artificial Mains Network) to stabilize the power line-to-ground impedance to get consistent measurement conditions. The LISN consists of feed-through capacitors and an disk type RF resistor. The measurements confirm the consistency in the impedance value which is maintained at 50 ohms in the frequency range from 1MHz to 500MHz. Thus the newly developed LISN improves consistency of measurement values at all locations, while it was difficult to obtain good correlation before employing the LISN. We feel confident that incorporation of the method discussed here in the pertinent technical standards of EMI measurements, such as CISPR, would lead to a major improvement in getting consistent measurements values.

This paper presents a survey on bicriteria network optimization problems. When there are two conflicting criteria that evaluate the solution, the bicriteria optimization is to find a solution for which these criteria are both acceptably satisfied. Standard approaches to these problems are to combine these two criteria into an aggregated single criterion. Among such problems, this paper first deals with the case in which the aggregated objective function, denoted h(f1(x), f2(x)), is convex in original two objectives f1(x) and f2(x), and, as its special case, it reviews a strongly polynomial algorithm for the bicriteria minimum-cost circulation problem. It then discusses the case in which h is concave and demonstrates that a parametric approach is effective for this case. Several interesting applications in network optimization that belong to this class are also introduced. Finally we deal with the minimum range problems which seek to find a solution such that weights of the components used in the solution are most uniform. We shall present efficient algorithms for solving these problems arised in network optimization.

In general, dynamic channel assignment has a better performance than fixed channel assignment in a cellular mobile communication system. However, it is complex to control the system and a lot of equipments are required in each cell when dynamic channel assignment is applied to a large service area. Therefore, it is effective to limit the size of the service area in order to correct the defects of dynamic channel assignment. So, we propose an application of dynamic channel assignment to a part of a service area when fixed channel assignment is applied to the remaining part of the area. In the system, the efficiency of channel usage in some cells sometimes becomes terribly low. The system has such a problem to be improved. We show that the rearrangement of the channel allocation is effective on the problem.

The groupware for new idea generation system, GUNGEN, has been developed. GUNGEN consists of a distributed and cooperative KJ method support system and an intelligent productive work card support system. The system was implemented on a network consisting of a number of personal computers. The distributed and cooperative KJ method is carried out on computers. The ideas proposed by participants are classified into several groups on the basis of similarity and then a conclusion is derived. The intelligent productive work card support system can be used as a multimedia database to refer to the previous data of the distributed and cooperative KJ method.

We present schemes for disseminating information in the n-dimensional hypercube with some faulty nodes/edges. If each processor can send a message to t neighbors at each round, and if the number of faulty nodes/edges is k(kn), then this scheme will broadcast information from any source to all destinations within any consecutive n+[(k+l)/t] rounds. We also discuss the case where the number of faulty nodes is not less than n.

One performance limitation of the "Leaky Bucket algorithm" for usage parameter control and traffic management in Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) networks is analyzed. Simulation results show that the conventional statistical bandwidth allocation method, which uses the most bursty pattern permitted by the Leaky Bucket algorithm, can not guarantee the QOS of established Virtual Channels/Paths (VC/VP). As a result, the VC/VP bandwidth allocation method based on the Leaky Bucket algorithm is proven to be unsatisfactory.

Binaural effects in two measures are studied. One measure is the detectable limen of click sounds under lateralization of diotic or dichotic noise signals, and the other is phoneme articulation score under localization or lateralization of speech and noise signals. The experiments use a headphones system with listener's own head related transfer function (HRTF) filters. The HRTF filter coefficients are calculated individually from the impulse responses due to the listener's HRTF measured in a slightly sound reflective booth. The frequency response of the headphone is compensated for using an inverse filter calculated from the response at the subject's own ear canal entrance point. Considering the speech frequency band in tele-communication systems is not sufficiently wide, the bandwidth of the HRTF filter is limited below 6.2 kHz. However, the experiments of the localization simulation in the horizontal plane show that the sound image is mostly perceived outside the head in the simulated direction. Under simulation of localization or lateralization of speech and noise signals, the phoneme articulation score increases when the simulation spatially separates the phonemes from the noise signals while the total signal to noise ratio for both ears is maintained constant. This result shows the binaural effect in speech intelligibility under the noise disturbance condition, which is regarded as a part of the cocktail party effect.

The new notion of "multiuser interface", an interface for groups working together in a shared workspace, originated from the expansion of CSCW research and the spread of the groupware concept. This paper introduces a new multiuser interface design approach based on the translucent video overlay technique. This approach was realized in the multimedia desktop conference system Team WorkStation. Team WorkStation demonstrates that this translucent video overlay technique can achieve two different goals: (1) fused overlay for realizing the open shared workspace, and (2) selective overlay for effectively using limited screen space. This paper first describes the concept of open shared workspace and its implementation based on the fused overlay technique. The shared work window of Team-WorkStation is created by overlaying translucent individual workspace images. Each video layer is originally physically separated. However, because of the spatial relationships among marks on each layer, the set of overlaid layers provides users with sufficient semantics to fuse them into one image. The usefulness of this cognitive fusion was demonstrated through actual usage in design sessions. Second, the problem of screen space limitation is described. To solve this problem, the idea of ClearFace based on selective overlay is introduced. The ClearFace idea is to lay translucent live face video windows over a shared work window. Through the informal observations of experimental use in design sessions, little difficulty was experienced in switching the focus of attention between the face images and the drawing objects. The theory of selective looking accounts for this flexible perception mechanism. Although users can see drawn objects behind a face without difficulty, we found that users hesitate to draw figures or write text over face images. Because of this behavior, we devised the "movable" face window strategy.