Full-rate cooperative communications with spatial diversity for half-duplex uplink relay channels

This paper proposes a full-rate cooperative communication technique with spatial diversity for single-carrier transmissions. In order to achieve both the spatial diversity and the full-rate, data streams are simultaneously transmitted through all direct and relay channels with different phase rotation and cyclic delay patterns. The phase rotation and cyclic delay patterns are derived in the sense of minimizing interlayer interference and a corresponding destination structure is presented for decoupling each layer at the destination. Simulation results show that the proposed technique achieves spatial diversity without sacrificing spectral efficiency and outperforms conventional full-rate cooperative communication techniques.     

Roughness coefficient and its uncertainty in gravel-bed river

Manning's roughness coefficient was estimated for a gravel-bed river reach using field measurements of water level and discharge,and the applicability of various methods used for estimation of the roughness coefficient was evaluated.Results show that the roughness coefficient tends to decrease with increasing discharge and water depth,and over a certain range it appears to remain constant.Comparison of roughness coefficients calculated by field measurement data with those estimated by other methods shows that,although the field-measured values provide approximate roughness coefficients for relatively large discharge,there seems to be rather high uncertainty due to the difference in resultant values.For this reason,uncertainty related to the roughness coefficient was analyzed in terms of change in computed variables.On average,a 20%increase of the roughness coefficient causes a 7% increase in the water depth and an 8% decrease in velocity,but there may be about a 15% increase in the water depth and an equivalent decrease in velocity for certain cross-sections in the study reach.Finally,the validity of estimated roughness coefficient based on field measurements was examined.A 10% error in discharge measurement may lead to more than 10% uncertainty in roughness coefficient estimation,but corresponding uncertainty in computed water depth and velocity is reduced to approximately 5%.Conversely,the necessity for roughness coefficient estimation by field measurement is confirmed.     

Reverse‐Conducting IGBT Using MEMS Technology on the Wafer Back Side

In this paper, we present a 600‐V reverse conducting insulated gate bipolar transistor (RC‐IGBT) for soft and hard switching applications, such as general purpose inverters. The newly developed RC‐IGBT uses the deep reactive‐ion etching trench technology without the thin wafer process technology. Therefore, a freewheeling diode (FWD) is monolithically integrated in an IGBT chip. The proposed RC‐IGBT operates as an IGBT in forward conducting mode and as an FWD in reverse conducting mode. Also, to avoid the destructive failure of the gate oxide under the surge current and abnormal conditions, a protective Zener diode is successfully integrated in the gate electrode without compromising the operation performance of the IGBT.     

Feasibility Study of Submerged Floating Tunnels Moored by an Inclined Tendon System

Concepts of submerged floating tunnels (SFTs) for land connection have been continuously suggested and developed by several researchers and institutes. To maintain their predefined positions under various dynamic environmental loading conditions, the submerged floating tunnels should be effectively moored by reasonable mooring systems. With rational mooring systems, the design of SFTs should be confirmed to satisfy the structural safety, fatigue, and operability design criteria related to tunnel motion, internal forces, structural stresses, and the fatigue life of the main structural members. This paper presents a feasibility study of a submerged floating tunnel moored by an inclined tendon system. The basic structural concept was developed based on the concept of conventional cable-stayed bridges to minimize the seabed excavation, penetration, and anchoring work by applying tower-inclined tendon systems instead of conventional tendons with individual seabed anchors. To evaluate the structural performance of the new type of SFT, a hydrodynamic analysis was performed in the time domain using the commercial nonlinear finite element code ABAQUS–AQUA. For the main dynamic environmental loading condition, an irregular wave load was examined. A JONSWAP wave spectrum was used to generate a time-series wave-induced hydrodynamic load considering the specific significant wave height and peak period for predetermined wave conditions. By performing a time-domain hydrodynamic analysis on the submerged floating structure under irregular waves, the motional characteristics, structural stresses, and fatigue damage of the floating tunnel and mooring members were analyzed to evaluate the structural safety and fatigue performance. According to the analytical study, the suggested conceptual model for SFTs shows very good hydrodynamic structural performance. It can be concluded that the concept can be considered as a reasonable structural type of SFT.     

Dreamware: edutainment system for children with developmental disability

We designed and implemented an edutainment platform, Dreamware. It effectively helps education, sensibility treatment and intelligence training for children with developmental disability. We developed special toy-like hardware and software tools: a content authoring tool that makes a variety of multimedia content operating on the hardware, a management tool that provides training results to instructors, and a real-time monitoring tool to observe the current state of learning. The hardware is designed to consider the characteristics of children with developmental disability. It can provide sensibility training, such as visual, auditory, and tactile senses to them. The easy-to-use authoring tool enables teachers and non-specialists to make educational content conveniently. In addition, the real-time monitoring tool helps observe the user’s status, even outside the classroom. The management tool stores training results and provides the result for further steps. Efficient repetitive training is possible without restriction of time and location using this platform. We can recognize that our system is effective in improving their concentration and learning.     

Feature Detection and Simplification of 3D Face Data with Facial Expressions

We propose an efficient framework to realistically render 3D faces with a reduced set of points. First, a robust active appearance model is presented to detect facial features in the projected faces under different illumination conditions. Then, an adaptive simplification of 3D faces is proposed to reduce the number of points, yet preserve the detected facial features. Finally, the point model is rendered directly, without such additional processing as parameterization of skin texture. This fully automatic framework is very effective in rendering massive facial data on mobile devices.     

Thin ferroelectric poly(vinylidene fluoride-chlorotrifluoro ethylene) films for thermal history independent non-volatile polymer memory

In this study, we investigated the molecular and microstructures of thin poly(vinylidene fluoride-chlorotrifluoro ethylene) (PVDF-CTFE) copolymer films with three different CTFE compositions of 10, 15, 20 wt% with respect to PVDF in relation with their ferroelectric properties. All PVDF-CTFE annealed at 130 °C showed consecutive TTTT trans conformation with β type crystals while films molten and re-crystallized from a temperature above their melting points exhibited α type crystals with characteristic TGTG conformation. Microstructures of the films treated with the two different thermal histories also supported the formation of β and α type crystals with hundreds of nanometer scale sphere caps and micron level spherulites, respectively. Interestingly, PVDF-CTFE films with both α and β type crystals gave rise to relatively high remnant polarization of approximately 4 μC/cm² in metal/ferroelectric/metal capacitors regardless of the composition of CTFE. The ferroelectric polarization of a PVDF-CTFE film independent of thermal processing history allowed a wide processing window and easy fabrication protocol, resulting in a non-volatile ferroelectric field effect transistor memory which exhibited saturated hysteresis loops with the current ON/OFF ratio of approximately 10³ at ±60 V sweep and reliable data retention.