A Fast Intra Skip Detection Algorithm for H.264/AVC Video Encoding

A fast intra skip detection algorithm based on the rate‐distortion (RD) cost for an inter frame (P‐slices) is proposed for H.264/AVC video encoding. In the H.264/AVC coding standard, a robust rate‐distortion optimization technique is used to select the best coding mode and reference frame for each macroblock (MB). There are three types of intra predictions according to profiles. These are 16×16 and 4×4 intra predictions for luminance and an 8×8 intra prediction for chroma. For the high profile, an 8×8 intra prediction has been added for luminance. The 4×4 prediction mode has 9 prediction directions with 4 directions for 16×16 and 8×8 luma, and 8×8 chrominance. In addition to the inter mode search procedure, an intra mode search causes a significant increase in the complexity and computational load for an inter frame. To reduce the computational load of the intra mode search at the inter frame, the RD costs of the neighborhood MBs for the current MB are used and we propose an adaptive thresholding scheme for the intra skip extraction. We verified the performance of the proposed scheme through comparative analysis of experimental results using joint model reference software. The overall encoding time was reduced up to 32% for the IPPP sequence type and 35% for the IBBPBBP sequence type.     

Hierarchical Self‐Assembly of Peptide‐Coated Carbon Nanotubes

Numerous applications, from molecular electronics to super‐strong composites, have been suggested for carbon nanotubes. Despite this promise, difficulty in assembling raw carbon nanotubes into functional structures is a deterrent for applications. In contrast, biological materials have evolved to self‐assemble, and the lessons of their self‐assembly can be applied to synthetic materials such as carbon nanotubes. Here we show that single‐walled carbon nanotubes, coated with a designed amphiphilic peptide, can be assembled into ordered hierarchical structures. This novel methodology offers a new route for controlling the physical properties of nanotube systems at all length scales from the nano‐ to the macroscale. Moreover, this technique is not limited to assembling carbon nanotubes, and could be modified to serve as a general procedure for controllably assembling other nanostructures into functional materials.     

Hydrogen‐Bonded Organic Semiconductors as Stable Photoelectrocatalysts for Efficient Hydrogen Peroxide Photosynthesis

Research on semiconductor photocatalysts for the conversion of solar energy into chemical fuels has been at the forefront of renewable energy technologies. Water splitting to produce H₂ and CO₂ reduction to hydrocarbons are the two prominent approaches. A lesser‐known process, the conversion of solar energy into the versatile high‐energy product H₂O₂ via reduction of O₂ has been proposed as an alternative concept. Semiconductor photoelectrodes for the direct photosynthesis of H₂O₂ from O₂ have not been applied up to now. Photoelectrocatalytic oxygen reduction to peroxides in aqueous electrolytes by hydrogen‐bonded organic semiconductor is observed photoelectrodes. These materials have been found to be remarkably stable operating in a photoelectrochemical cell converting light into H₂O₂ under constant illumination for at least several days, functioning in a pH range from 1 to 12. This is the first report of a semiconductor photoelectrode for H₂O₂ production, with catalytic performance exceeding prior reports on photocatalysts by one to two orders of magnitude in terms of peroxide yield/catalyst amount/time. The combination of a strongly reducing conduction band energy level with stability in aqueous electrolytes opens new avenues for this widely available materials class in the field of photo(electro) catalysis.     

Systematic Study of Widely Applicable N‐Doping Strategy for High‐Performance Solution‐Processed Field‐Effect Transistors

A specific design for solution‐processed doping of active semiconducting materials would be a powerful strategy in order to improve device performance in flexible and/or printed electronics. Tetrabutylammonium fluoride and tetrabutylammonium hydroxide contain Lewis base anions, F^? and OH^?, respectively, which are considered as organic dopants for efficient and cost‐effective n‐doping processes both in n‐type organic and nanocarbon‐based semiconductors, such as poly[[N,N′‐bis(2‐octyldodecyl)‐naphthalene‐1,4,5,8‐bis(dicarboximide)‐2,6‐diyl]‐alt‐5,5′‐(2,2′‐bithiophene)] (P(NDI2OD‐T2)) and selectively dispersed semiconducting single‐walled carbon nanotubes by π‐conjugated polymers. The dramatic enhancement of electron transport properties in field‐effect transistors is confirmed by the effective electron transfer from the dopants to the semiconductors as well as controllable onset and threshold voltages, convertible charge‐transport polarity, and simultaneously showing excellent device stabilities under ambient air and bias stress conditions. This simple solution‐processed chemical doping approach could facilitate the understanding of both intrinsic and extrinsic charge transport characteristics in organic semiconductors and nanocarbon‐based materials, and is thus widely applicable for developing high‐performance organic and printed electronics and optoelectronics devices.     

Inter‐cell interference mitigation based on joint beamforming

In cellular networks, global channel state information (CSI) shall be shared among neighboring cells to mitigate various inter‐cell interference (ICI). In this paper, we propose that comparable ICI is mitigated while weak ICI is treated as noise. The amount of shared CSI is highly reduced, because of that only the CSI corresponding to comparable ICI is shared among neighboring cells. In the case of single user equipment in each cell, a joint singular value decomposition and interference alignment method is proposed along with the analysis of its approximate sum rate. Some nodes select singular value decomposition method, while others choose interference alignment method. The method at each node is determined by global selection principle or user classification principle. In the case of multiple UEs in each cell, all nodes utilize minimum mean square error method, but ICI is neglected at cell center users. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A variable step‐size diffusion affine projection algorithm

This paper presents a new variable step‐size diffusion affine projection algorithm (VSS‐DAPA) to advance the filter performance of the diffusion affine projection algorithm (DAPA). The proposed VSS strategy is developed for the DAPA, which can solve the distributed estimation problem over diffusion networks well. To obtain the optimal step size reasonably, we seek the update recursion of mean‐square deviation (MSD) that is suitable for the DAPA. The step size is optimally given through the minimization for the MSD of the DAPA at each iteration. The derived step size through the MSD minimization improves the filter performance with respect to the convergence and the estimation error in steady state. The results based on simulations demonstrate that the proposed VSS‐DAPA performs better than the existing algorithms with a system‐identification scenario in diffusion network. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Iterative nonlinear detection for SFBC SC–FDMA uplink MIMO transmission systems

Single‐carrier frequency division multiple access (SC‐FDMA) systems with space frequency block coding (SFBC) transmissions achieve both spatial and frequency diversity gains in wireless communications. However, SFBC SC‐FDMA schemes using linear detectors suffer from severe performance deterioration because of noise enhancement propagation and additive noise presence in the detected output. Both issues are similar to inter‐symbol‐interference (ISI). Traditionally, SC‐FDMA system decision feedback equalizer (DFE) is often used to eliminate ISI caused by multipath propagation. This article proposes frequency domain turbo equalization based on nonlinear multiuser detection for uplink SFBC SC‐FDMA transmission systems. The presented iterative receiver performs equalization with soft decisions feedback for ISI mitigation. Its coefficients are derived using minimum mean squared error criteria. The receiver configuration study is Alamouti's SFBC with two transmit and two receive antennas. New receiver approach is compared with the recently proposed suboptimal linear detector for SFBC SC‐FDMA systems. Simulation results confirm that the performance of the proposed iterative detection outperforms conventional detection techniques. After a few iterations, bit‐error‐rate performance of the proposed receiver design is closely to the matched filter bound. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic multicast link selections for buffer‐aided relaying networks

The management of small cell is considered a key point in next‐generation cellular networks for providing higher data rates, and the relay nodes are expected to be useful to improve the coverage area. Moreover, multicast services have gained importance to disseminate common data to subscribers. The use of buffer‐aided relay for multicast communications is analysed in the paper, and different policies to perform the optimal link selections are compared. These policies are based on the knowledge of the instantaneous link quality indicators as well as the status of the relay buffer and dynamically select the better link according to a suitable probabilistic criterion by improving the aggregate multicast flows. The parameters of these multicast policies are optimized via a Markov chain theoretical framework. The performance for all the proposed methods is analytically derived and validated through computer simulations conducted in different multicast scenarios. The advantages of the proposed schemes are pointed out in terms of multicast throughput, buffer occupancy for different buffer and multicast group size. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Theoretical Limits Analysis of Indoor Positioning System Using Visible Light and Image Sensor

To solve the problem of parameter optimization in image sensor‐based visible light positioning systems, theoretical limits for both the location and the azimuth angle of the image sensor receiver (ISR) are calculated. In the case of a typical indoor scenario, maximum likelihood estimations for both the location and the azimuth angle of the ISR are first deduced. The Cramer‐Rao Lower Bound (CRLB) is then derived, under the condition that the observation values of the image points are affected by white Gaussian noise. For typical parameters of LEDs and image sensors, simulation results show that accurate estimates for both the location and azimuth angle can be achieved, with positioning errors usually on the order of centimeters and azimuth angle errors being less than 1°. The estimation accuracy depends on the focal length of the lens and on the pixel size and frame rate of the ISR, as well as on the number of transmitters used.