CMA-based code acquisition scheme for DS-CDMA systems

In direct-sequence code-division multiple access, a code synchronization must take place before the multiuser detector. As the initial synchronization stage, a code acquisition scheme is used to estimate the relative timing phase for the desired transmission within one chip interval. In this paper, a blind code acquisition scheme using adaptive linear filtering based on a linearly constrained constant modulus algorithm (CMA) is proposed. The uncertainty of a desired user's delay is initially discretized and translated into a number of hypotheses. The lock convergence property of CMA is exploited, where the filter at the steady state can lock onto the desired user while nulling all other interfering users (i.e., a decorrelator). For each delay hypothesis, the filter is initialized as the corresponding shifted spreading sequence of the desired user. It is shown that lock convergence always occurs for the correct hypothesis, while all incorrect hypotheses will be hovered around some saddle regions, given sufficiently small step sizes. Then, the correct hypothesis is the one which has the converged filter to yield the maximum lock onto the desired user, or a maximum output energy     

Identities and approximations for the weight distribution of q-ary codes

An explicit formula is derived that enumerates the complete weight distribution of an (n, k, d) linear code using a partially known weight distribution. An approximation formula for the weight distribution of q-ary linear (n, k , d) codes is also derived. It is shown that, for a given q-ary linear (n, k, d) code, the ratio of the number of codewords of weight u to the number of words of weight u approaches the constant Q=q ^-(n-k) as u becomes large. The error term is a decreasing function of the minimum weight of the dual. The results are also valid for nonlinear (n, M, d) codes with the minimum weight of the dual replaced by the dual distance     

A 5-V front-end chip for a universal voice-band modem

A circuit that, combined with one or two commercially available digital signal processing (DSP) chips, may implement all voice-band modem standards from 300 b/s to 14.4 kb/s, in full or half duplex operation including echo-cancelling standards, is presented. All analog functions and all non-DSP digital functions are performed by the circuit. Good dynamic range with low distortion in the analog circuitry is maintained while designing for a high-density digital process with high-quality capacitors. Such a process can be used to achieve an area-efficient circuit. The circuit has been implemented in a 1.2-μm CMOS double-poly, double-metal process, operates off a single 5-V supply, and measures only 63 kmil² (40.7 mm²)     

Automatic construction of online catalog topologies

A good online catalog is crucial to the success of an e-commerce web site. Traditionally, an online catalog is mainly built by hand. To what extent this can be automated is a challenging problem. Recently, there have been investigations on how to reorganize an existing online catalog based on some criteria, but none of them has addressed the problem of organizing an online catalog automatically from scratch. This paper attempts to tackle this problem. We model an online catalog organization as a decision tree structure and propose a metric, based on the popularity of products and the relative importance of product attribute values, to evaluate the quality of a catalog organization. The problem is then formulated as a decision tree construction problem. Although traditional decision tree algorithms, such as C4.5, can be used to generate online catalog organization, the catalog constructed is generally not good based on our metric. An efficient greedy algorithm (GENCAT) is thus developed, and the experimental results show that GENCAT produces better catalog organizations based on our metric.     

Video Streaming with Network Coding

Recent years have witnessed an explosive growth in multimedia streaming applications over the Internet. Notably, Content Delivery Networks (CDN) and Peer-to-Peer (P2P) networks have emerged as two effective paradigms for delivering multimedia contents over the Internet. One salient feature shared between these two networks is the inherent support for path diversity streaming where a receiver receives multiple streams simultaneously on different network paths as a result of having multiple senders. In this paper, we propose a network coding framework for efficient video streaming in CDNs and P2P networks in which, multiple servers/peers are employed to simultaneously stream a video to a single receiver. We show that network coding techniques can (a) eliminate the need for tight synchronization between the senders, (b) be integrated easily with TCP, and (c) reduce server’s storage in CDN settings. Importantly, we propose the Hierarchical Network Coding (HNC) technique to be used with scalable video bit stream to combat bandwidth fluctuation on the Internet. Simulations demonstrate that under certain scenarios, our proposed network coding techniques can result in bandwidth saving up to 60% over the traditional schemes.     

An 18-bit high performance audio Σ-△ D/A converter

A multi-bit quantized high performance sigma-delta (Σ-△) audio DAC is presented.Compared to its singlebit counterpart,the multi-bit quantization offers many advantages,such as simpler Σ-△ modulator circuit,lower clock frequency and smaller spurious tones.With the data weighted average (DWA) mismatch shaping algorithm,element mismatch errors induced by multi-bit quantization can be pushed out of the signal band,hence the noise floor inside the signal band is greatly lowered.To cope with the crosstalk between digital and analog circuits,every analog component is surrounded by a guard ring,which is an innovative attempt.The 18-bit DAC with the above techniques,which is implemented in a 0.18μm mixed-signal CMOS process,occupies a core area of 1.86 mm2.The measured dynamic range (DR) and peak SNDR are 96 dB and 88 dB,respectively.     

柴油机气缸内局部瞬态碳粒浓度、火焰温度改进双色法测量系统

介绍了一套新的改进双色法柴油机气缸内局部瞬态火焰温度和碳粒浓度测试系统,其测试原理利用了颗粒的衍射理论,细致地考虑了柴油机缸内碳粒云的光学参数。测试系统中采用了分叉光纤从而省去了一套复杂的光学分光系统。新型的探头设计较好地解决了蓝宝石窗面的积炭问题,对测试系统进行了标定。在缸盖火力面上布置两个具有代表性的测点来测量火焰温度和碳粒浓度,测试结果表明：活塞凹坑部位火焰温度和碳粒浓度均较高;在活塞挤流区,循环变动很大。在活塞凹坑部位和活塞挤流区所测火焰温度和碳粒浓度均有一定相位差。     

Angiotensin-I-converting enzyme inhibitory activity and bitterness of enzymatically-produced hydrolysates of shrimp (Pandalopsis dispar) processing byproducts investigated by Taguchi design

The importance of water-to-substrate ratio, protease type, percent enzyme and incubation time on hydrolysates produced from shrimp processing byproducts was investigated using Taguchi’s L₁₆ (4⁵) experimental design. Protease type significantly (p < 0.05) influenced soluble yield, degree of hydrolysis (DH), angiotensin-I-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory activity and bitterness of hydrolysates, while percent enzyme only affected the DH. Hydrolysates produced by Alcalase and Protamex possessed strong ACE inhibitory activity (IC₅₀ = 100–200 μg/ml and 70 μg/ml, respectively), accompanied by high yield, high DH and strong bitterness. Furthermore, ACE inhibition was positively correlated (r² = 0.87) with bitterness of the hydrolysates. Fractionation by size-exclusion chromatography revealed that the bitter substances, which also showed strong ACE inhibition, were <3 kDa in size and contained many hydrophobic residues, including Tyr, Phe, Leu, Ile, Val and Lys. Despite the bitterness, these hydrolysates may have potential health benefits, arising from their potent ACE inhibitory activity.     

Interaction of short chain and long chain fatty acid phosphoglycerides and bile salts with prothrombin

An equimolar mixture of phosphatidylserine and (dioleoyl) phosphatidyl-ethanolamine could substitute for brain cephalin preparations in the single stage prothrombin assay. However, no clot promoting activity was observed on the addition of any of the individual long chain fatty acid-containing phospholipids. Short chain fatty acid-containing phospholipids, such as diheptanoylphosphatidylcholine, diheptanoylphosphatidylethanolamine, diheptanoylphosphatidic acid, and dihexanoylphosphatidylcholine, or dihexanoylphosphatidylethanolamine were inhibitory under all conditions studied. Similar effects of these two general classes of phospholipids were observed in a two-stage thrombin generation system, in which a mixture of bovine Factor Xa, Factor Va, and Ca2+ were interacted with prothrombin. In the presence of 25 mM Ca2+, dioleoylphosphatidic acid or brain phosphatidylserine alone, and with other long chain phospholipids, formed complexes with bovine plasma prothrombin. On the other hand, dioleoyl-, diheptanoyl- or dihexanoylphosphatidylcholine under comparable conditions showed no binding to prothrombin. There appeared to be a small degree of binding of diheptanoylphosphatidic acid to prothrombin, but it was insufficient to cause any significant change in apparent molecular weight of prothrombin. A mixture of prothrombin, Factor V, diheptanoylphosphatidic acid/diheptanoylphosphatidylcholine and Ca2+ eluted in the void volume of Sephadex G-200, but showed a much reduced coagulant activity. Though a net negative charge on the phospholipid surface is required for phospholipid-protein interactions, this does not necessarily promote coagulant activity. Bile acids and bile salts, such as cholic acid, deoxycholic acid, taurocholic acid, glycocholic acid, lithocholic acid and dehydrocholic acid, exerted varying levels of stimulation on the prothrombin assay and thrombin generation system, but were not as effective as the phospholipids. Interestingly, no interaction of these bile acids or salts with prothrombin was noted in the presence of Ca2+. The results of these experiments suggest that negatively charged micelles per se are not sufficient for binding alone and that other chemical and physical characteristics of phospholipids are of prime importance.