Approximate channel identification via δ‐signed correlation

A method of approximate channel identification is proposed that is based on a simplification of the correlation estimator. Despite the numerical simplification (no multiplications or additions are required, only comparisons and an accumulator), the performance of the proposed estimator is not significantly worse than that of the standard correlation estimator. A free (user selectable) parameter moves ‘smoothly’ from a situation with small sum‐squared channel estimation error but hard‐to‐identify channel peaks, to one with a larger sum‐squared estimation error but easy‐to‐identify channel peaks. The proposed estimator is shown to be biased and its behaviour is analysed in a number of situations. Applications of the proposed estimator to sparsity detection, symbol timing recovery and to the initialization of blind equalizers are suggested. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Influence of initial conditions in 2\times 2 symmetric games

It is known that quantum game is characterized by the payoff matrix as well as initial states of the quantum objects used as carriers of information in a game. Further, the initial conditions of the quantum states influence the strategies adopted by the quantum players. In this paper, we identify the necessary condition on the initial states of quantum objects for converting symmetric games into potential games, in which the players acquire the same payoff matrix. The necessary condition to preserve the symmetric type and potential type of the game is found to be the same. The present work emphasizes the influence of the initial states in the quantization of games.     

Nonparametric inference based on panel count data

Panel count data usually refer to data arising from studies on recurrent events in which the subjects under study are followed or observed only periodically rather than continuously. In such situations, an objective of interest is about the occurrence of some events that can occur multiple times or repeatedly and the studies resulting in this type of information are often referred to as event history studies. There are many fields such as medical studies, reliability experiments and social sciences wherein panel count data are encountered commonly. This article reviews basic concepts about panel count data, some common issues and questions of interest regarding them as well as the corresponding statistical procedures that are suitable for their analysis. In particular, we will discuss an estimation of the mean function of the underlying counting process characterizing the occurrence of the events, comparison of several processes and analysis of multiple state panel count data. Some discussion is also presented of situations involving dependent or informative observation processes.     

Thermal stability of CeO<Subscript>2</Subscript>/ZrO<Subscript>2</Subscript> multilayer thin films prepared by pulsed laser deposition

Multilayers of CeO₂/ZrO₂ thin films were deposited on Si (100) substrates using pulsed laser deposition at an optimized oxygen partial pressure of 3×10⁻² mbar and at room temperature. The CeO₂ layer thickness was 10 nm, while the ZrO₂ layer thickness was varied as 10, 20 and 30 nm. CeO₂ and ZrO₂ layers were deposited alternately to obtain 25 bilayers. High temperature x-ray diffraction (HTXRD) results showed that the multilayer films had cubic ceria and tetragonal ZrO₂. Thermal expansion coefficients were calculated for CeO₂ and t-ZrO₂ and found to increase with the decrease of ZrO₂ layer thickness. The cross sectional transmission electron microscopy (XTEM) of CeO₂/ZrO₂ multilayer also indicated that ceria was found to be in cubic phase while zirconia contained predominantly tetragonal phase along with cubic phase in thermally annealed specimen.     

Implications of Autonomy for the Expressiveness of Policy Routing

Thousands of competing autonomous systems must cooperate with each other to provide global Internet connectivity. Each autonomous system (AS) encodes various economic, business, and performance decisions in its routing policy. The current interdomain routing system enables each AS to express policy using rankings that determine how each router in the AS chooses among different routes to a destination, and filters that determine which routes are hidden from each neighboring AS. Because the Internet is composed of many independent, competing networks, the interdomain routing system should provide autonomy, allowing network operators to set their rankings independently, and to have no constraints on allowed filters. This paper studies routing protocol stability under these conditions. We first demonstrate that ldquonext-hop rankings,rdquo commonly used in practice, may not ensure routing stability. We then prove that, when providers can set rankings and filters autonomously, guaranteeing that the routing system will converge to a stable path assignment imposes strong restrictions on the rankings ASes are allowed to choose. We discuss the implications of these results for the future of interdomain routing.     

T-Ray Sensing and Imaging

T-ray wavelengths are long enough to pass through dry, nonpolar objects opaque at visible wavelengths, but short enough to be manipulated by optical components to form an image. Sensing in this band potentially provides advantages in a number of areas of interest to security and defense such as screening of personnel for hidden objects and the retection of chemical and biological agents. Several private companies are developing smaller, reliable cheaper systems allowing for commercialization and this motivates us to review a number of promising applications within this paper. While there are a number of challenges to be overcome there is little doubt that T-ray technology will play a significant role in the near future for advancement of security, public health, and defense.     

Approximate MLEs for the location and scale parameters of thehalf-logistic distribution with type-II right-censoring

For the half-logistic distribution the maximum likelihood method does not provide an explicit estimator for the scale parameter based on either complete or right-censored samples. The authors provide a simple method of deriving an explicit estimator by approximating the likelihood function. The bias and variance of this estimator are studied, and it is shown that this estimator is as efficient as the best linear unbiased estimator. An example to illustrate the method is presented     

Effect of manuring and frequency of cutting on the yield of leaf protein from some fodder grasses

A study to find out the effect of manuring and the frequency of cutting on the yield of leaf protein was conducted with four fodder grasses. The study revealed that Cenchrus glaucus was superior to the other grasses tried and it gave the maximum yield of dry matter and extractable protein. Farm yard manure at 10 tons/ha along with ammonium sulphate at 33 kg N/ha proved to be the best in giving the highest yield of dry matter and leaf protein. For all the grasses the maximum yield was found to range within the first three cuttings.     

Transmission Electron Microscopy-Based Analysis of Electrically Conductive Surface Defects in Large Area GaSb Homoepitaxial Diodes Grown Using Molecular Beam Epitaxy

We investigate a mechanism causing shorting of large area GaSb diodes grown on GaSb substrates using molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The source of these shorts is determined to be large crystallographic defects on the surface of the diodes that are formed around droplets of gallium ejected from the gallium Knudsen cells during MBE. The gallium droplets cause defects in the crystal structure, and, as the epitaxy continues, the gallium is incorporated into the surrounding material. The shape of the defects is pyramidal with a central void extending from the epi-surface to the gallium core. Processing a GaSb diode with these surface defects results in the top-side contact metal migrating into the defect and shorting the diode. This prevents realization of large area diodes that are critical to applications such as photovoltaics and detectors. The diodes in this study are electrically characterized and the defect formation mechanism is investigated using cross-section transmission electron microscopy and electron dispersive spectroscopy.     

Compact SCSRR-based quad-band antenna for Bluetooth,WiMAX, WLAN,and fixed-satellite services

This research describes the detailed analysis and design of the compact complex-free structural metamaterial quad band radiating element applicable for Bluetooth, WiMAX, WLAN, and fixed-satellite service. The radiating element designed is composed of an inner angle-rotated circular Split Ring Resonator (SRR) placed within the outer square-shaped SRR interlinked by a strip to design the multiband operational characteristics and is fed by a coplanar waveguide. Suggested radiating element is imprinted over the FR4 substrate material with the electrical dimension of 28 × 31.26 × 0.8 mm³. The initial outer-closed square ring offers dual-band operation by resonating at 2.8 and 8.5 GHz frequencies, and the incorporation of a circular SRR offers quad-band operation. The unique negative permeability feature of the proposed Square and Circular Split Ring Resonator (SCSRR) structure is extracted, and its band characteristics are analyzed. Results obtained from the simulated radiating element are validated with the fabricated antenna. The measured E plane pattern resembles a numeric eight shape, and the H plane pattern is omnidirectional. Suggested SCSRR antenna offers a gain of above 3.2 dBi in all the operating bands.