General expression for pdf of a sum of independent exponential random variables

In order to evaluate exactly the performance of some diversity schemes, the probability density function (pdf) of a sum of independent exponential random variables (r.v.'s) must be known. This paper proposes a simple method to find it by using characteristic function., The resultant pdf is successfully applied to formulate the closed-form BER expression of 2 Tx-J Rx transmit diversity as well as the outage probability of repetition coding.     

Extended adaptive RBF equaliser for overcoming co-channelinterference

The authors investigate the problem of nonlinear adaptive equalisation in the presence of intersymbol interference, additive white Gaussian noise and co-channel interference. An extended radial basis function (RBF) network is proposed, in which regression weights are used in the output layer and the hidden unit is defined to have the Gaussian formula with the Mahalanobis distance. It is shown by simulation that the proposed structure gives reduced computational complexity without performance degradation, compared to that of the conventional RBF equaliser     

Fast locking delay-locked loop using initial delay measurement

A delay-locked loop (DLL) architecture capable of incorporating fast locking and low jitter features simultaneously is reported. A test chip was fabricated in a 0.6 μm CMOS process to prove its functionality. The proposed DLL can align the internal clock to the external reference clock within two cycles and maintain its locking state with the aid of feedback operation     

CMV colitis masquerading as colon cancer--an unusual presentation of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome

To determine whether there is any correlation between sudden decrease in barometric pressure and onset of labor, a non-experimental, retrospective study at a 948-bed tertiary care hospital was done. Pregnant patients of 36 weeks gestation or more who presented with spontaneous onset of labor during the 48 hours surrounding the 12 occurrences of significant drop in barometric pressure in 1992 were included in the study. Significantly more occurrences of onset of labor were identified in the 24 hours after a drop in barometric pressure than were identified in the 24 hours prior to the drop in barometric pressure (P < 0.05). Therefore, the overall number of labor onsets increased in the 24 hours following a significant drop in barometric pressure.     

Large-scale simulation studies in image pattern recognition

Many obstacles to progress in image pattern recognition result from the fact that per-class distributions are often too irregular to be well-approximated by simple analytical functions. Simulation studies offer one way to circumvent these obstacles. We present three closely related studies of machine-printed character recognition that rely on synthetic data generated pseudo-randomly in accordance with an explicit stochastic model of document image degradations. The unusually large scale of experiments - involving several million samples that makes this methodology possible have allowed us to compute sharp estimates of the intrinsic difficulty (Bayes risk) of concrete image recognition problems, as well as the asymptotic accuracy and domain of competency of classifiers     

Current IMT-2000 R&D status and views in Korea

In this article Korean development of IMT-2000 is considered. It includes the second-generation digital mobile communications, R&D and standardization activities related to IMT-2000, and the authors' perspectives on IMT-2000 in Korea. In Korea, there are many activities for development of IMT-2000 radio transmission technologies, and the results of these activities will be the submission of technologies to the ITU. However, the Korean telecommunications standardization body (TTA) will make every effort to make a common global standard for IMT-2000. Therefore, the TTA will make a domestic standard for IMT-2000 after the ITU finalizes the related Recommendations. It seems to the authors that difficulties in harmonization in the TTA are very similar to difficulties in harmonization worldwide. The only way of reaching the harmonization of IMT-2000 in Korea is that the key players should have the view from the end users' seat     

Neural network impedance force control of robot manipulator

The performance of an impedance controller for robot force tracking is affected by the uncertainties in both the robot dynamic model and environment stiffness. The purpose of this paper is to improve the controller robustness by applying the neural network (NN) technique to compensate for the uncertainties in the robot model. NN control techniques are applied to two impedance control methods: torque-based and position-based impedance control, which are distinguished by the way of the impedance functions being implemented. A novel error signal is proposed for the NN training. In addition, a trajectory modification algorithm is developed to determine the reference trajectory when the environment stiffness is unknown. The robustness analysis of this algorithm to force sensor noise and inaccurate environment position measurement is also presented. The performances of the two NN impedance control schemes are compared by computer simulations. Simulation results based on a three-degrees-of-freedom robot show that highly robust position/force tracking can be achieved in the presence of large uncertainties and force sensor noise     

An expectation-driven response understanding paradigm

This paper describes a model that can account for ad hoc user-responses to argument interrogative type of system-initiated questions. Successful implementation of the model can provide an alternative solution that is more effective than the menu-driven approach that has been proposed as a meager solution to enable the system to ask a question to the user. The proposed model assumes that when the system asks a question, it maintains an expectation of the potential answers. The system then uses the expectation as the focus to perform the most likely interpretation of the user's response. Without using such a focus the interpretation process could be unbounded. The interpretation process is mapped into a heuristic search problem. The interpretation process results in identifying a particular expectation-response relationship type, which the system can use to tailor its response strategy with respect to the given user-response. A prototype has been constructed to demonstrate the soundness of the proposed model     

Biochemical identification of transmembrane segments of the Ca(2+)-ATPase of sarcoplasmic reticulum

The transmembrane segments of sarcoplasmic reticulum Ca(2+)-ATPase were determined by trypsinization of cytoplasmic side-out intact sarcoplasmic reticulum vesicles. The membrane portion of tryptic digest comprising the transmembrane fragments, joined by the intravesicular segments, was separated by sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis after labeling with fluorescein 5-maleimide in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate. In this way, seven fluorescent bands of tryptic fragments below 11 kDa were observed which were derived from 4 pairs of membrane spanning segments and one hydrophobic sequence at the C-terminal end. Two peptides of 10.8 and 10.6 kDa had the identical N-terminal sequence beginning at Glu826, representing the transmembrane segments M7 and M8 and their connecting loop. A band at 8.1 kDa contained one peptide beginning at Tyr36 (M1/loop/M2). A 7.7-kDa peptide starting at Leu253 (M3/loop/M4) and a 7.3-kDa peptide beginning at Ala752 (M5/loop/M6) were also observed. A band at 6.7 kDa contained two peptides, one beginning at Ser48 (M1/loop/M2) and another beginning at Tyr763 (M5/loop/M6). In addition, a 4-kDa peptide beginning at Met925 was observed. The size of this peptide did not allow for a complete pair of transmembrane segments, but this peptide could have been derived from trypsinolysis between the last pair of membrane spanning segments. These data therefore provide biochemical evidence for at least 8 transmembrane segments and perhaps two more at the C-terminal end of the enzyme.