A 2-dimensional cylindrical k-within-consecutive-(r, s)-out-of-(m, n):F system consists of m n components arranged on a cylindrical grid. Each of m circles has n components, and this system fails if and only if there exists a grid of size r s within which at least k components are failed. This system may be used into reliability models of "Feelers for measuring temperature on reaction chamber," "TFT Liquid Crystal Display system with 360 degree wide area" and others. In this paper, first, we propose an efficient algorithm for the reliability of a 2-dimensional cylindrical k-within-consecutive-(r, s)-out-of-(m, n):F system. The feature of this algorithm is calculating their system reliabilities with shorter computing time and smaller memory size than Akiba and Yamamoto. Next, we show some numerical examples so that our proposed algorithm is more effective than Akiba and Yamamoto for systems with large n.

This paper presents recursive algorithms for the least mean-squared error linear filtering and fixed-interval smoothing estimators, from uncertain observations for the case of white and white plus coloured observation noises. The estimators are obtained by an innovation approach and do not use the state-space model, but only covariance information about the signal and the observation noises, as well as the probability that the signal exists in the observed values. Therefore the algorithms are applicable not only to signal processes that can be estimated by the conventional formulation using the state-space model but also to those for which a realization of the state-space model is not available. It is assumed that both the signal and the coloured noise autocovariance functions are expressed in a semi-degenerate kernel form. Since the semi-degenerate kernel is suitable for expressing autocovariance functions of non-stationary or stationary signal processes, the proposed estimators provide estimates of general signal processes.

In order to benefit from the advantages of soft handoff (SHO), it is important that the SHO parameters (the SHO thresholds; T_ADD and T_DROP are well assigned. T_ADD is the threshold used for triggering a pilot with high strength to be added to the Active Set (AS) list. The AS means the pilots associated with the forward traffic channels assigned to mobile station. In contrast, T_DROP is the threshold used for triggering a pilot with low strength to be dropped from the AS list. This paper analyzes the effects of varying SHO thresholds in a cellular code division multiple access (CDMA) system on the blocking probability based on traffic load and geometrical distances in hexagonal layout of base stations (BSs). In addition, the previously proposed traffic load equation is applied to the proposed SHO model for balancing the numbers of new and handoff calls on the forward link capacity in case of uniform traffic load. The results show that the blocking probability is more sensitive to T_DROP than to T_ADD variations.

Cuprous Oxide Cu2O films were deposited by reactive DC magnetron sputtering. The substrate temperature and oxygen partial pressure were found to be important parameters in controlling the film property. The single-phase Cu2O films were successfully obtained by carefully controlling the oxygen partial pressure with suppression of CuO formation. The (100)-oriented epitaxial Cu2O film was grown on the (102) surface of single-crystal Al2O3. The fundamental absorption edge of the Cu2O film was determined to be about 2 eV by photo-transmission measurement. The resistivity of the film was of the order of 105 Ωcm.

In order to improve the critical current density (Jc) of c-axis-oriented EuBa2Cu3O7 (c-EBCO) thin films deposited on R-plane sapphires (R-Al2O3) with a CeO2 buffer layer, insertion of an Sm2O3 buffer layer and optimization of its deposition condition were attempted. The effects of substrate temperature and film thickness of an Sm2O3 buffer layer on the orientation, crystallinity, surface morphology and superconducting properties of EBCO thin films were examined. As a result, EBCO thin films with Jc = 5.7 MA/cm2 at 77.3 K were obtained on a sapphire with a CeO2(80 )Sm2O3(200 ) buffer layer. Epitaxial relations of sputter-deposited films were clarified.

High-quality Fe3O4 thin films have been fabricated onto metallic underlayers of Cr/Cu and Al by rf-magnetron sputtering at low substrate temperatures (<573 K). The measured saturation magnetizations Ms are 462 emu/cm3 for Al (50 nm)/Fe3O4 (200 nm) and 422 emu/cm3 for Cr (45 nm)/Cu (300 nm)/Fe3O4 (200 nm), which are markedly enhanced compared with that for the reference sample deposited directly on a glass substrate, and practically comparable to the bulk value of 477 emu/cm3. Highly conductive transport with an order-disorder change of the Verwey transition was observed in the current-perpendicular-to-plane geometry. The order of decrease in coercive field was achieved by exchange coupling with an overlaid NiFe layer.

This letter proposes a millimeter-wave band transformer to connect a standard waveguide to a very thin post-wall waveguide. The post-wall waveguide height is the same as a microstrip or coplanar line. A dielectric substrate with slits etched on both edges is inserted in the standard waveguide for matching. A 22 GHz transformer gives 3.6% bandwidth for a 0.5 mm-height post-wall waveguide. The effects of various mechanical misalignments upon the frequency characteristics of the reflection are also estimated by analysis and measurements.

Solution space smoothing allows a local search heuristic to escape from a poor, local minimum. In this paper, we propose a technique that can smooth the rugged terrain surface of the solution space of a placement problem. We test the smoothing heuristics for MCNC benchmarks, and for VLSI placement with pre-placed modules and placement with consideration of congestion. Experiment results demonstrated that solution space smoothing is very efficient for VLSI module placement, and it can be applied to all floorplanning representations proposed so far.

Co-containing ferrite thin-film/Mn-Zn ferrite thin-film double-layered perpendicular media were prepared using reactive ECR sputtering and magnetron sputtering methods, and their magnetic and structural properties and recording characteristics were studied. The Mn-Zn ferrite thin-film backlayer had saturation magnetization of 3.5 kG and coercivity of 60 Oe. Reproduced voltage for the Co-containing ferrite thin-film/Mn-Zn ferrite thin-film double-layered medium was about twice of that for the Co-containing ferrite single-layer medium.

A reactive sputtering method using an Electron-Cyclotron-Resonance (ECR) microwave plasma was used to deposit Ni-Zn ferrite thin-films for a soft magnetic backlayer of Co-containing spinel ferrite thin-film perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) media. The Ni-Zn spinel ferrite thin-films with a preferential orientation of (100) and a relatively low coercivity of 15 Oe were obtained at a high deposition rate of 14 nm/min and at a temperature below 200 degrees C. Although post-annealing treatment in air at 200 degrees C was effective to decrease the coercivity of the Ni-Zn ferrite thin-films, the saturation magnetization and initial permeability decreased and the surface smoothness was deteriorated simultaneously. The Ni-Zn ferrite thin-films prepared by ECR sputtering are promising as the backlayer of the perpendicular magnetic recording medium, but further improvement is required in terms of the soft magnetic properties, the grain size and the surface roughness.

In this paper, we consider the problem of estimating the time-varying directions-of-arrival (DOAs) of coherent narrowband cyclostationary signals impinging on a uniform linear array (ULA). By exploiting the cyclostationarity of most communication signals, we investigate a new computationally efficient subspace-based direction estimation method without eigendecomposition and spatial smoothing (SS) processes. The proposed method uses the inherently temporal property of incident signals and a subarray scheme to decorrelate the signal coherency and to suppress the noise and interfering signals, while the null subspace is obtained from the resulting cyclic correlation matrix through a linear operation. Then an on-line implementation of this method is presented for tracking the DOAs of slowly moving coherent signals. The proposed algorithm is computationally simple and has a good tracking performance. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified through numerical examples.

With the aim of enabling concatenative synthesis of expressive speech, we herein report progress towards developing robust and automatic algorithms for paralinguistic annotation of very large recorded-speech corpora. In particular, we describe a method of combining robust acoustic-prosodic and cepstral analyses to locate centres of acoustic-phonetic reliability in the speech stream, wherein physiologically meaningful parameters related to voice quality can be estimated more reliably. We then report some evaluations of a specific voice-quality parameter known as the glottal Amplitude Quotient (AQ), which was proposed in [2],[6] and is here measured automatically at centres of reliability in continuous speech. Analyses of a large, single-speaker corpus of emotional speech first validate the perceptual importance of the AQ parameter in quantifying the mode of phonation along the pressed-modal-breathy continuum, then reveal some of its phonetic, prosodic, and paralinguistic dependencies.

A numerical model of thin-film transistors for circuit simulation has been developed. This model utilizes three schemes. First, the spline interpolation with transformation by y=x+log(x) achieves excellent preciseness for both on-current and off-current simultaneously. Second, the square polynomial supplement solves an anomaly near the points where drain voltage equal to zero. Third, the linear extrapolation achieves continuities of the current and its derivatives as a function of voltages out of the area where the spline interpolation is performed, and improves convergence during circuit simulation.

Thin-film electroluminescent (TFEL) devices have been newly developed using Y2GeO5 oxide phosphor thin films prepared by r.f. magnetron sputtering. Multicolor emissions were observed in TFEL devices fabricated using various impurity-activated Y2GeO5 phosphor thin films. A high-luminance TFEL device was fabricated using a Y2GeO5:Mn thin film prepared with a Mn content of 2 at.% and postannealed at 1020: luminances of 414 and 3020 cd/m2 and luminous efficiencies of 6.7 and 0.93 lm/W for yellow emission when driven at 60 Hz and 1 kHz, respectively. Newly developed oxide Y2GeO5:Mn phosphors are very promising for use as the thin-film emitting layer of TFEL devices.

A simplified model is set up to study the high frequency response in a thin film head, where two pieces of Fe-Al-N films are placed parallel to each other with opposite alternating external magnetic field applied. In this model, the frequency response of magnetic clusters is calculated by a micromagnetic model based on the Landau-Lifshitz-Gilbert equations, and the initial permeability of mesoscopic Fe-Al-N thin films is analyzed in a wide frequency region from 10 to 5000 MHz. The model of a soft magnetic thin film is built up on the ripple structure of the anisotropy field of magnetic clusters. The magnetization interaction between the two Fe-Al-N films is carefully computed to find its effect on the frequency response. The frequency response in a single mesoscopic Fe-Al-N thin film is carefully studied in advance.

The effect of a nonmagnetic hcp-underlayer on the epitaxial growth of CoCr19Pt10 magnetic layers on substrates of Al2O3(0001) single-crystal has been investigated. Thin films of (0001)-oriented single-crystal CoCr19Pt10 were obtained by employing non-magnetic underlayers of CoCr25Ru25 and CoCr25Ru25/Ti, while thin films of polycrystalline CoCr19Pt10 were grown after the deposition of underlayers of TiCr10 and CoCr40. The growth of thin film CoCr19Pt10 on a Ti(0001) underlayer was interpreted as quasi-hetero-epitaxial where the continuity of the lattice across the interface is disturbed while the overall crystallographic relationship between the two layers is maintained. A thin film of epitaxially grown CoCr19Pt10 has a compositional variation of a few percent across the film plane in terms of elements that forms the alloy.

Co-containing ferrite thin-film media deposited by a reactive-ECR-sputtering at a low substrate temperature of 150 degree Celsius were oxidized by ECR plasma. The magnetic properties and recording characteristics of the media were improved by the oxidation with maintaining a smooth surface. The media showed high D50 of 203 kFRPI in MIG head recording and reproduction. The Co-containing ferrite thin-film is feasible to be used as a protective overcoat layer.

Write linear density limit is defined to analyze the magnetic recording process in computer hard disk drives at extremely high recording densities. The digital data with pseudo random sequences are recorded numerically in longitudinal media at different densities by a micromagnetic simulation model. A thin film write head and an ideal GMR read head are utilized in the record and read-back process, respectively. A novel method has been utilized to study the write linear density limit: the simulated read back voltage and the respected linear superposed pulses are compared to find the distortion in the record process. When a severe distortion shows up, the corresponding linear density is considered as the write linear density limit. By the novel method, the write linear density limit is analyzed with different parameters of the recording media.

The effect of subarray size (equal to the order of the prediction model plus one) on the estimation performance of a previously proposed forward-backward linear prediction (FBLP) based cyclic method is investigated. This method incorporates an overdetermined FBLP model with a subarray scheme and is used to estimate the directions-of-arrival (DOAs) of coherent cyclostationary signals impinging on a uniform linear array (ULA) from the corresponding polynomial or spectrum formed by the prediction coefficients. However, the decorrelation is obtained at the expense of a reduced working array aperture, as it is with the spatial smoothing (SS) technique. In this paper, an analytical expression of the mean-squared-error (MSE) of the spectral peak position is derived using the linear approximation for higher signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Then the subarray size that minimizes this approximate MSE is identified. The effect of subarray size on the DOA estimation is demonstrated and the theoretical analysis is substantiated through numerical examples.

Since the penetration of VSAT services is rapidly increasing, more earth stations will operate around airports than is currently true. This makes it essential to evaluate accurately and efficiently the impairment of received signals due to blockage by aircraft. This paper proposes developing an aircraft model using a thin, planar polygon to represent the aircraft projection and to apply GTD with corner diffraction terms. The effectiveness and applicability of the method is then examined numerically. It is demonstrated that the results measured in the Ku-band around two airports are a good match with the numerical simulations even when the distance between the aircraft and the stations is small.