A multimodal hand-based verification system with an aliveness-detection module

This paper presents a multimodal biometrie verification system based on the following hand features: palmprint, four digitprints and four fingerprints. The features are obtained using the Karhunen-Loève transform based approach, and information fusion at the matching-score level was applied. We experimented with different resolutions of the regions of interest, different numbers of features and several normalization and fusion techniques at the matching-score level. To increase the reliability of the system to spoof attacks we included an aliveness-detection module based on thermal images of the hand dor sa. The verification performance when using a system configuration with optimum parameters, i.e., resolution, number of features, normalization and fusion technique, showed an equal error rate (EER) of 0.0020%, which makes the system appropriate for the implementation of high-security biometric systems.     

Characterization and Optimization of a Resonant Cavity Enhanced P-i-N Photodiode Response

This paper presents linear pulse response of a Resonant Cavity Enhanced (RCE) P-i-N fotodiode. The RCE P-i-N photodiode designed for high-speed aplication is analysed for various submicron thicknesses of absorption layer, bias voltages, active areas and incident pulse optical excitations. The results are obtained by numerical simulation of the complete phenomenological model for two valley semiconductor. Great enhancement of the quantum efficiency and the product bandwidth-quantum efficiency, is obvious from obtained results for this photodiode type.     

Explicit form of new class of extremal filter functions with mini-max behaviour of summed sensitivity function

In this article, the all-pole low-pass filter function with mini-max for the summed sensitivity function in the pass-band is considered. With the application of Chebyshev polynomials of the first kind, the proposed filter function is obtained in an explicit form with a maximum number of oscillations of the summed sensitivity function in the pass-band. The calculation of the filter function is derived by using the summed sensitivity function as a starting point. New original approximation function is derived in order to achieve a mini-max summed sensitivity function in the filter pass-band. Sensitivity analysis is carried out and a comparison of the summed sensitivity and the group delay of the proposed and classical all-pole filters is given. Minimisation of the summed sensitivity function is important for reduction of the deviation of the magnitude response caused by temperature changes of the continuous-time active filters implemented into the analogue front end or as programmable chips.     

BPC – A binary priority countdown protocol

In modern wireless ad hoc networks, with a high speed PHY, every collision means a significant loss of useful bandwidth. In the last few years different binary contention protocols have been introduced to address this problem. In this work we propose a novel binary contention protocol called binary priority countdown (BPC) protocol, whose goal is to reduce collisions as well as contention time. BPC uses a new priority countdown mechanism which exploits the efficiency of binary countdown, but the priority countdown process is not constrained to a single binary countdown round. This way, the priority space is not defined by the length of binary countdown round, like in other binary countdown protocols proposed in the literature, and arbitrary medium access priorities can be decremented through multiple binary countdown rounds if necessary. The ability of a new priority countdown mechanism to count down any priority number without changing the length of a binary countdown round, allows independent management of priority space. This “independence” of priority space introduces new optimization and adaptation possibilities. Collision memory effect is recognized and described. BPC protocol reveals connection between unary, binary and digit contention protocols. All three groups of protocols can now be seen as members of the same class of contention algorithms. Preliminary simulation results are shown.     

Analysis of blocking probability in optical burst switched networks

In this article, we study the blocking probability in a wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) based asynchronous bufferless optical burst switched (OBS) network, equipped with a bank of wavelength converters. Our analysis encloses two wavelength reservation schemes JIT (just-in-time) and JET (just-enough-time), and two-class data rate. The contribution of our work includes: (i) derivation of an accurate model for blocking probability of lower priority bursts in case of a non-preempted model; (ii) provision of the analytical model for blocking probability calculation in the OBS network, which includes these variables: two signaling schemes, partial wavelength conversion, two-class data, traffic intensity, cross-connect speed, number of wavelengths in WDM fiber, number of fibers in the node, number of wavelength converters, and number of nodes in the path; (iii) simulation results, which show that partial wavelength conversion provide quite satisfactory quality of service. We compare performance in a single OBS node, under various sets of parameter values. The OBS network shows great flexibility in terms of used multiclass data, and there is no dependence on the used higher layer protocol.     

Progressive Compression of 3D Mesh Geometry Using Sparse Approximations from Redundant Frame Dictionaries

In this paper, we present a new approach for the progressive compression of three‐dimensional (3D) mesh geometry using redundant frame dictionaries and sparse approximation techniques. We construct the proposed frames from redundant linear combinations of the eigenvectors of a combinatorial mesh Laplacian matrix. We achieve a sparse synthesis of the mesh geometry by selecting atoms from a frame using matching pursuit. Experimental results show that the resulting rate‐distortion performance compares favorably with other progressive mesh compression algorithms in the same category, even when a very simple, sub‐optimal encoding strategy is used for the transmitted data. The proposed frames also have the desirable property of being able to be applied directly to a manifold mesh having arbitrary topology and connectivity types; thus, no initial remeshing is required and the original mesh connectivity is preserved.     

A new peak detector based on usage of second-generation current conveyors

A new precision peak detector (full-wave rectifier) of input sinusoidal signals, which employs four two second-generation current conveyors and five metal-oxide-semiconductor transistors, is presented in this paper. The circuit gives a dc output voltage that is the peak input voltage over a wide frequency range, with a very low ripple voltage and low harmonic distortion. The proposed circuits use an all-pass filter as a 90° phase shifter of the processed input signal. The results of the calculations are verified using SPICE simulations.     

Detection of Structural Features in Biological Signals

In this article structures in biological signals are treated. The simpler—directly visible in the signals, which still demand serious methods and algorithms in the feature detection, similarity investigation and classification. The major actions in this domain are of geometric, thus simpler sort, though there are still hard problems related to simple situations. The other large class of less simple signals unsuitable for direct geometric or statistic approach, are signals with interesting frequency components and behavior, those suitable for spectroscopic analysis. Semantics of spectroscopy, spectroscopic structures and research demanded operations and transformations on spectra and time spectra are presented. The both classes of structures and related analysis methods and tools share a large common set of algorithms, all of which aiming to the full automatization. Some of the signal features present in the brain signal patterns are demonstrated, with the contexts relevant in BCI, brain computer interfaces. Mathematical representations, invariants and complete characterization of structures in broad variety of biological signals are in the central focus.     

β-Glucan administration to diabetic rats reestablishes redox balance and stimulates cellular pro-survival mechanisms

The mechanisms underlying the beneficial effect observed in diabetic rats after treatment with a commercially available β-glucan-enriched extract (BGEE) were examined. Multiple low-dose streptozotocin (STZ) diabetes was used (40 mg STZ/kg) as a model for type 1 diabetes. BGEE was administered daily (80 mg/kg) for 4 weeks, starting from the last day of the STZ treatment. In vitro and in vivo experiments suggest that significant free radical scavenging and antioxidant activities of BGEE were responsible for a systemic adjustment of the redox disturbance and reduction of DNA damage in the liver and kidney of diabetic rats. BGEE-treated diabetic rats also displayed increased Akt kinase activity and decreased pro-caspase-3 degradation, implying that BGEE mediates its beneficial effects through activation of the cellular pro-survival pathway. We conclude that β-glucan administration under diabetic conditions promotes a systemic improvement that can be expected to increase the organism’s resistance to the onset of diabetic complications.