Compressed Blind Signal Reconstruction Model and Algorithm

The model of inherent connection between underdetermined blind signal separation and compressed sensing (CS) is analyzed first; then, the mathematical model of underdetermined blind signal reconstruction is built using CS. More specifically, the mixing matrix is estimated by exploiting the wavelet packet transform and k-means clustering methods up to permutation and scaling indeterminacy, and then, the measurement matrix and the measurement equation are obtained. To reconstruct the underdetermined sparse source signals, the proposed semi-blind compressed reconstruction algorithm is derived based on the blind signal reconstruction model and compressive sampling matching pursuit (CoSaMP) method. Our simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme is effective, irrespective of artificial data or real data. Moreover, the proposed scheme can be adjusted for different applications by modifying the mixing matrix estimation method and CoSaMP method with respect to the correspondence conditions.     

Application of underdetermined blind source separation in ultra-wideband communication signals

Aiming to the estimation of source numbers, mixing matrix and separation of mixing signals under underdetermined case, the article puts forward a method of underdetermined blind source separation （UBSS） with an application in ultra-wideband （UWB） communication signals. The method is based on the sparse characteristic of UWB communication signals in the time domain. Firstly, finding the single source area by calculating the ratio of observed sampling points. Then an algorithm called hough-windowed method was introduced to estimate the number of sources and mixing matrix. Finally the separation of mixing signals using a method based on amended subspace projection. The simulation results indicate that the proposed method can separate UWB communication signals successfully, estimate the mixing matrix with higher accuracy and separate the mixing signals with higher gain compared with other conventional algorithms. At the same time, the method reflects the higher stability and the better noise immunity.     

Underdetermined mixing matrix estimation bycomprehensive application of cluster validity indexes

To solve the problem of mixing matrix estimation for underdetermined blind source separation (UBSS) when thenumber of sources is unknown, this paper proposed a novel mixing matrix estimation method based on averageinformation entropy and cluster validity index (CVI). Firstly, the initial cluster center is selected by using fuzzy C-means (FCM) algorithm and the corresponding membership matrix is obtained, and then the number of clusters isobtained by using the joint decision of CVI and average information entropy index of membership matrix, thenmultiple cluster number estimation results can be obtained by using multiple CVIs. Then, according to the results ofthe number of multiple clusters estimation, the number of radiation sources is determined according to the principleof the subordination of the minority to the majority. The cluster center vectors obtained from the clustering operationof the estimated number of radiation sources are fused, that is the mixing matrix is estimated based on the degree ofsimilarity of the cluster center vectors. When the source signal is not sufficiently sparse, the time-frequency singlesource detection processing can be combined with the proposed method to estimate the mixing matrix. Theeffectiveness of the proposed method is validated by experiments.     

Audio-Visual Underdetermined Blind Source Separation Algorithm Based on Gaussian Potential Function

Most existing algorithms for the underdetermined blind source separation （UBSS） problem are two-stage algorithm, i.e., mixing parameters estimation and sources estimation. In the mixing parameters estimation, the previously proposed traditional clustering algorithms are sensitive to the initializations of the mixing parameters. To reduce the sensitiveness to the initialization, we propose a new algorithm for the UBSS problem based on anechoic speech mixtures by employing the visual information, i.e., the interaural time difference （ITD） and the interaural level difference （ILD）, as the initializations of the mixing parameters. In our algorithm, the video signals are utilized to estimate the distances between microphones and sources, and then the estimations of the ITD and ILD can be obtained. With the sparsity assumption in the time-frequency domain, the Gaussian potential function algorithm is utilized to estimate the mixing parameters by using the ITDs and ILDs as the initializations of the mixing parameters. And the time-frequency masking is used to recover the sources by evaluating the various ITDs and ILDs. Experimental results demonstrate the competitive performance of the proposed algorithm compared with the baseline algorithms.     

Adaptive Lattice Filters for Systems of Space-Time Processing of Non-Stationary Gaussian Processes

Adaptive systems protecting pulse radars from non-stationary in time (range) clutter echoes are usually tuned using training vectors composed of complex amplitudes of input signals and comprising a finite-length “sliding window” of data. From any current range gate to a subsequent one, a training sample is partially updated (or modified) by means of excluding the “old” training vectors (correspond to the current range gate) and including the “new” ones (correspond to the next range gate). As a consequence, respective estimates of adaptive system parameters are corrected according to a modified sample correlation matrix (CM), which is typically a sum of an initialCMand a modifying matrix of rank K ≥ 1. In this case it is possible to avoid re-computing these parameters based on a new training sample of full size and, instead of this, we correct them in an “economical” way employing K-rank modification of a matrix inverse to the CM estimate.This paper is devoted to comparative analysis of various (K ≥ 1)-rank modification algorithms that correct the parameters of adaptive lattice filters (ALF). Main attention is paid to synthesis as well as theoretical and experimental study of algorithms of direct (K > 1)-rank modification of the ALF parameters. These algorithms attain the said objective omitting the K-fold application of known rank-one (K = 1) modification algorithms. We also synthesize a combined algorithm (CA) of (K ≥ 1)-rank modification of the ALF parameters that is more computationally simple and more numerically robust compared to known algorithms. The ALF employing the CA can serve as an effective tool for solving various tasks of space-time adaptive signal processing in pulse radars of different purpose.     

A novel optimized neutrosophic <Emphasis Type="Italic">k</Emphasis>-means using genetic algorithm for skin lesion detection in dermoscopy images

This paper implemented a new skin lesion detection method based on the genetic algorithm (GA) for optimizing the neutrosophic set (NS) operation to reduce the indeterminacy on the dermoscopy images. Then, k-means clustering is applied to segment the skin lesion regions. Therefore, the proposed method is called optimized neutrosophic k-means (ONKM). On the training images set, an initial value of \(\alpha \) in the \(\alpha \)-mean operation of the NS is used with the GA to determine the optimized \(\alpha \) value. The Jaccard index is used as the fitness function during the optimization process. The GA found the optimal \(\alpha \) in the \(\alpha \)-mean operation as \(\alpha _{\mathrm{optimal}} =0.0014\) in the NS, which achieved the best performance using five fold cross-validation. Afterward, the dermoscopy images are transformed into the neutrosophic domain via three memberships, namely true, indeterminate, and false, using \(\alpha _{\mathrm{optimal}}\). The proposed ONKM method is carried out to segment the dermoscopy images. Different random subsets of 50 images from the ISIC 2016 challenge dataset are used from the training dataset during the fivefold cross-validation to train the proposed system and determine \(\alpha _{\mathrm{optimal}}\). Several evaluation metrics, namely the Dice coefficient, specificity, sensitivity, and accuracy, are measured for performance evaluation of the test images using the proposed ONKM method with \(\alpha _{\mathrm{optimal}} =0.0014\) compared to the k-means, and the \(\gamma \)–k-means methods. The results depicted the dominance of the ONKM method with \(99.29\pm 1.61\%\) average accuracy compared with k-means and \(\gamma \)–k-means methods.     

基于ICA的雷达信号欠定盲分离算法

该文针对源信号时域和频域不充分稀疏的情况,提出了欠定盲源分离中估计混合矩阵的一种新方法。该方法对等间隔分段的观测信号应用独立分量分析(ICA)的盲分离算法获得多个子混合矩阵,然后对其分选剔除了不属于原混合矩阵的元素,最后利用C均值聚类的学习算法获得对混合矩阵的精确估计,解决了源信号在时域和频域不充分稀疏的情况下准确估计混合矩阵的问题。在估计出混合矩阵的基础上,利用基于稀疏分解的统计量算法分离出源信号。由仿真结果,以及与传统的K均值聚类,时域检索平均算法对比的实验结果说明了该文算法的有效性和鲁棒性。     

Parallel framework for dense disparity map estimation using Hamming distance

A novel framework for sparse and dense disparity estimation was designed, and the proposed framework has been implemented in CPU and GPU for a parallel processing capability. The Census transform is applied in the first stage, and then, the Hamming distance is later used as similarity measure in the stereo matching stage followed by a matching consistency check. Next, a disparity refinement is performed on the sparse disparity map via weighted median filtering and color K-means segmentation, in addition to clustered median filtering to obtain the dense disparity map. The results are compared with state-of-the-art frameworks, demonstrating this process to be competitive and robust. The quality criteria used are structural similarity index measure and percentage of bad pixels (B) for objective results and subjective perception via human visual system demonstrating better performance in maintaining fine features in disparity maps. The comparisons include processing times and running environments, to place each process into context.     

Ce@Au<Subscript>14</Subscript>: A Bimetallic Superatom Cluster with 18-Electron Rule

Doping of gold clusters and nanoparticles has received substantial attention due to their ability to encapsulate atoms and molecules. Here, the geometric and electronic properties of the cerium-encapsulated nanocage Ce@Au₁₄ are reported using density functional theory. Calculated results show that its ground electronic state is a singlet state and conforms to the superatomic 18-electron configuration of 1S ²1P ⁶1D ¹⁰ jellium state, both primarily involving the bonding interaction between s- and d-shell atomic orbitals of the Ce atom and superatomic orbitals of the hollow polyhedral Au₁₄ cage. In addition, it should be noted that f electrons in rare earth atoms trend to retain their localized state, and their doping in gold clusters could easily lead to clusters with large magnetic moments. However, in the case of superatom clusters, the f-shell electrons will be the preferential arrangement at the unfilled d-shell to satisfy the superatomic electron structure. Further analysis of the electronic structure also proves that the unoccupied 1F superatomic orbitals mainly originate from the contribution of the 4f-shell. As a consequence, this work provides a theoretical basis for the future design and synthesis of f-elements-encapsulated gold nanoclusters.     

弱稀疏语音信号的欠定盲分离

为解决弱稀疏语音信号的欠定盲分离问题,根据语音信号的部分W-分离正交性,提出一种基于单源主导区间的混合矩阵盲估计方法。该方法根据单源主导区间的性质,通过二元行矢量提取单源观测样本,对单源观测样本进行K均值聚类和主成分分析来估计混合矩阵。仿真结果表明,提出的方法可有效提高分离语音的性能,与直接利用K-PCA方法相比,分离语音的平均信噪比提高了10 dB左右。     

基于比率矩阵聚类的欠定盲分离算法

利用稀疏分量的直线聚类性,提出了欠定盲源分离中估计混合矩阵的一种方法。该方法通过构造比率矩阵对观测信号进行分选,剔除了源信号频谱重叠的部分,然后利用鲁棒竞争的聚类学习算法获得对混合矩阵的精确估计,解决了源信号在频域不充分稀疏的条件下准确估计混合矩阵的问题。在估计出混合矩阵的基础上,利用最短路径法分离出源信号。由仿真结果可以看出,与传统的K均值估计混合矩阵的方法相比,方法具有更好的鲁棒性。     

Migration energy of vacancies in <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-type silicon crystals

p-Si:B samples were irradiated with 8-MeV electrons. The values of the activation energy of annealing for K centers and for (V + B) complexes obtained from the curves of isochronous annealing of these centers are found to be equal to 0.915 and 1.6 eV, respectively. The volumetric measurements of photovoltage over the irradiated region make it possible to estimate the values of the migration energy of vacancies. The migration energy is found to be \(E_{V^{ + + } }^M \approx 0.6 eV\) for positively charged vacancies and \(E_{V^0 }^M \approx 0.345 eV\) for neutral vacancies.     

Bright MM-Wave and THz Luminescence by Down-Conversion of Near-IR Amplified-Spontaneous-Emission

We report the measurement of exceptionally bright, incoherent radiation in the THz region by frequency down-conversion of amplified spontaneous emission around 775-nm wavelength. The down-conversion technique is optical mixing in an interdigital photoconductive capacitor made from ultra fast ErAs:GaAs. The brightness temperature into a single spatial mode is approximately 1.1×10⁵ K, making the new radiation at least 70 times more intense than common incandescent sources in the THz region.     

Electronic Processes in CdIn<Subscript>2</Subscript>Te<Subscript>4</Subscript> Crystals

The results of investigations of electrical, optical, and photoelectric properties of CdIn₂Te⁴ crystals, which were grown by the Bridgman method are presented. It is shown that electrical conductivity is determined mainly by electrons with the effective mass m_n = 0.44m₀ and the mobility 120–140 cm²/(V s), which weakly depends on temperature. CdIn₂Te₄ behaves as a partially compensated semiconductor with the donor-center ionization energy E_d = 0.38 eV and the compensation level K = N_a/N_d = 0.36. The absorption-coefficient spectra at the energy hν < E_g = 1.27 eV are subject to the Urbach rule with a typical energy of 18–25 meV. The photoconductivity depends on the sample thickness. The diffusion length, the charge-carrier lifetime, and the surface-recombination rate are determined from the photoconductivity spectra.     

Improvement in the accuracy of determining impurity compensation in pure weakly compensated germanium from breakdown-field strength

It is shown that measurement of the electric-breakdown field E _br in a classically high magnetic field (H) at T = 4.2 K makes it possible to determine the value of the degree of compensation K in pure germanium with K < 50% much more precisely than at H = 0. The parameter S = E _br/H is introduced and its dependence S = f(K) is calculated; the obtained curve makes it possible to determine K if H and E _br are known. To decrease the resistance of the samples, it is recommended that measurements be carried out under “impurity” illumination. It is shown that the value of E _br is invariable at low intensities of such excitation.     

Electrical Breakdown in Pure <Emphasis Type="Italic">n</Emphasis>- and <Emphasis Type="Italic">p</Emphasis>-Si

The results of calculations of the dependences of the kinetic coefficients of impact ionization and thermal recombination on an electric field in pure silicon are presented. By analogy with germanium, the dependences of the breakdown field Е_br on the material compensation ratio K are calculated. The validity of such calculation is justified in detail. The Е_br(K) curves are presented and compared with experimental data in the weak-compensation region. Matching with experimental results at which satisfactory agreement between theory and experiment is observed is performed.     

Specific features of electron spin resonance in 4<Emphasis Type="Italic">H</Emphasis>-SiC in the vicinity of the insulator-metal phase transition: II. Analysis of the width and shape of lines

The variation in the width and shape of the ESR line of nitrogen in 4H-SiC in the concentration range corresponding to the insulator-metal phase transition was investigated. It is shown that the spin relaxation in the region of hopping and metal conduction occurs at electrical multipoles (clusters) whose sizes decrease from rather large to small (characteristic of interimpurity distances) as the concentration of impurity centers increases. Analysis of the temperature dependences of the resistance made it possible to estimate the critical concentration for the insulator-metal phase transition (N _D -N _A )_c≈1.5×10¹⁹ cm^?3. The values of other characteristic concentrations that determine the effects of electron-electron interaction in the system under study were also found.     

Dielectric Properties of (Bi<Subscript>0.5</Subscript>K<Subscript>0.5</Subscript>)ZrO<Subscript>3</Subscript> Modified (K<Subscript>0.5</Subscript>Na<Subscript>0.5</Subscript>)NbO<Subscript>3</Subscript> Ceramics as High-Temperature Ceramic Capacitors

(1???x)K_0.5Na_0.5NbO₃-x(Bi_0.5K_0.5)ZrO₃ [abbreviated as (1???x)KNN-xBKZ, 0?≤?x?≤?0.08] lead-free ceramics have been fabricated by a solid-state processing route. Based on the x-ray diffraction data and temperature-dependent dielectric characteristics, an orthorhombic phase for x?≤?0.03 and single rhombohedral one for x?≥?0.05 at room temperature were determined. The cell volume firstly increases, then decreases and finally increases with increasing BKZ, depending on ionic size and crystallographic structure. For the sample of x?=?0.05, a temperature-stable high permittivity (~?1736?±?15%) along with low dielectric loss tangent (≤?5%) is recorded from 158°C to 407°C. In addition, the activation energies of dielectric relaxation and dc conductivity at high temperatures were characterized by impedance spectroscopy. A combined effect of lattice distortion and oxygen vacancies on the magnitude of activation energies was discussed.     

Thermoelectric Properties for a Suspended Microribbon of Quasi-One-Dimensional TiS<Subscript>3</Subscript>

Transition-metal trichalcogenides MX₃ (M = Ti, Zr, Nb, Ta; X = S, Se) are well-known inorganic quasi-one-dimensional conductors. Among them, we have investigated the thermoelectric properties of titanium trisulfide TiS₃ microribbon. The electrical resistivity ρ, thermal conductivity κ, and thermoelectric power S were measured using 3ω method. The weight mean values were found to be ρ = 5 mω m and κ = 10 W K^?1 m^?1 along the one-dimensional direction (b-axis) of the TiS₃ microribbon. Combined with the thermoelectric power S = ?530 μV K^?1, the figure of merit was calculated as ZT = 0.0023. This efficiency is the same as that of randomly oriented bulk TiS₃. We also estimated the anisotropy of σ and κ using the present results and those for randomly oriented bulk material. The obtained weak anisotropy for TiS₃ is attributable to strong coupling between triangular columns consisting of TiS₃ units. These experimental results are consistent with theoretical results obtained using density functional theory (DFT) calculations.     

High-voltage (900 V) 4 <Emphasis Type="Italic">H</Emphasis>-SiC Schottky diodes with a boron-implanted guard <Emphasis Type="Italic">p-n</Emphasis> junction

High-voltage (900 V) 4H-SiC Schottky diodes terminated with a guard p-n junction were fabricated and studied. The guard p-n junction was formed by room-temperature boron implantation with subsequent high-temperature annealing. Due to transient enhanced boron diffusion during annealing, the depth of the guard p-n junction was equal to about 1.7 μm, which is larger by approximately 1 μm than the projected range of 11 B ions in 4H-SiC. The maximum reverse voltage of fabricated 4H-SiC Schottky diodes is found to be limited by avalanche breakdown of the planar p-n junction; the value of the breakdown voltage (910 V) is close to theoretical estimate in the case of the impurity concentration N = 2.5 × 10¹⁵ cm^?3 in the n-type layer, thickness of the n-type layer d = 12.5 μm, and depth of the p-n junction r _j = 1.7 μm. The on-state diode resistance (3.7 mΩ cm²) is controlled by the resistance of the epitaxial n-type layer. The recovery charge of about 1.3 nC is equal to the charge of majority charge carriers that are swept out of an epitaxial n-type layer under the effect of a reverse voltage.