A new fast motion estimation algorithm using fast mode decision for high-efficiency video coding standard

High-efficiency video coding is the latest standardization effort of the International Organization for Standardization and the International Telecommunication Union. This new standard adopts an exhaustive algorithm of decision based on a recursive quad-tree structured coding unit, prediction unit, and transform unit. Consequently, an important coding efficiency may be achieved. However, a significant computational complexity is resulted. To speed up the encoding process, efficient algorithms based on fast mode decision and optimized motion estimation were adopted in this paper. The aim was to reduce the complexity of the motion estimation algorithm by modifying its search pattern. Then, it was combined with a new fast mode decision algorithm to further improve the coding efficiency. Experimental results show a significant speedup in terms of encoding time and bit-rate saving with tolerable quality degradation. In fact, the proposed algorithm permits a main reduction that can reach up to 75 % in encoding time. This improvement is accompanied with an average PSNR loss of 0.12 dB and a decrease by 0.5 % in terms of bit-rate.     

A Fuzzy Collaborative Assessment Methodology for Partner Trust Evaluation

Trust level assessment within collaborative networks is an interesting issue in the partner evaluation and partner selection literature. This paper proposes a fuzzy collaborative assessment methodology for partner trust evaluation within horizontal collaborative networks. The proposed approach concerns a group evaluation context where a decision‐making comity associated with a manufacturer needs to evaluate its company's partners for their ranking purposes. Different expertise levels are attributed to the comity members. In this paper, trust level is evaluated based on information‐sharing attributes considered in the literature as critical influencing factors. Different weights are associated with these attributes with respect to their corresponding influence on trust. The semantic fuzzy partitioning method is considered for the collaborative trust assessment based on unbalanced linguistic term sets representing information‐sharing attributes. The developed approach is applied to a real case showing its effectiveness and its objectivity.     

Hot carrier reliability of RF N- LDMOS for S Band radar application

This paper presents an innovative reliability bench specifically dedicated to high RF power device lifetime tests under pulse conditions for radar application. A base-station dedicated LDMOS transistor has been chosen for RF lifetests and a complete device electric characterization has been performed. A whole review of its critical electrical parameters after accelerated ageing tests is proposed and discussed. This study tend to explain the physical degradation mechanisms occurred during RF life-tests by means of 2D ATLAS-SILVACO simulations. Finally, the paper demonstrates that N-LDMOS degradation is linked to hot carriers generated interface states (traps) and trapped electrons, which results in a build up of negative charge at Si/SiO2 interface. More interface states are created at low temperature due to a located maximum impact ionization rate at the gate edge.     

Automatic speech recognition system for Tunisian dialect

Although Modern Standard Arabic is taught in schools and used in written communication and TV/radio broadcasts, all informal communication is typically carried out in dialectal Arabic. In this work, we focus on the design of speech tools and resources required for the development of an Automatic Speech Recognition system for the Tunisian dialect. The development of such a system faces the challenges of the lack of annotated resources and tools, apart from the lack of standardization at all linguistic levels (phonological, morphological, syntactic and lexical) together with the mispronunciation dictionary needed for ASR development. In this paper, we present a historical overview of the Tunisian dialect and its linguistic characteristics. We also describe and evaluate our rule-based phonetic tool. Next, we go deeper into the details of Tunisian dialect corpus creation. This corpus is finally approved and used to build the first ASR system for Tunisian dialect with a Word Error Rate of 22.6%.     

New pulse mode neuro-fuzzy hardware architecture and application to image denoising

This paper focuses on a new digital architecture of pulse mode neuro-fuzzy system (PMNFS) with on-chip learning ability. The main purpose goal is to make use of the outstanding features of neuro-fuzzy in function approximation, and implement a reconfigurable architecture with on-chip learning on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) platform. Details of the whole design with on-chip learning solutions are given. As an application illustrating the efficiency and scalability of the proposed PMNFS, we have considered the approximation of image denoising, which is a very important step in image processing. Experimental results show great efficiency of the proposed method, outperforming other denoising techniques. It was also demonstrated that such a system is strongly adaptive and gives good restored images independently of the kind of noises. Owing to learning, such feature cannot be met with conventional denoising techniques. Design synthesis results on a virtex II PRO FPGA platform are presented. Comparisons with conventional techniques as well as neural ones show higher performances of the designed PMNFS.     

A bipolar implementation of the Beta neuron

The great flexibility of the Beta function and its universal approximation characteristics, make Beta basis function neural networks (BBFNNs) very useful. We present a hardware implementation of the Beta neuron. The proposed circuit was designed by using a standard bipolar technology. PSPICE simulations show the good concordance of the output of our circuit with the analytic Beta function. We also successfully integrated the electronic Beta neuron in the design of a BBFNN that approximates a nonlinear mapping.     

A 5000 h RF life test on 330 W RF-LDMOS transistors for radars applications

A reliability test bench dedicated to RF power devices is used to improve 330 W LDMOS in a radar conditions. The monitoring of RF power, drain, gate voltages and currents under various pulses and temperatures conditions are investigated. Numerous duty cycles are applied in order to stress LDMOS. It shows with tracking all this parameters that only few hot carrier injection phenomenon appear with no incidence on RF figures of merit (P_out or PAE). Robustness and ruggedness are shown for LDMOS with this bench for radar applications in L-band.     

Project scheduling under uncertainty using fuzzy modelling and solving techniques

In the real world, projects are subject to numerous uncertainties at different levels of planning. Fuzzy project scheduling is one of the approaches that deal with uncertainties in project scheduling problem. In this paper, we provide a new technique that keeps uncertainty at all steps of the modelling and solving procedure by considering a fuzzy modelling of the workload inspired from the fuzzy/possibilistic approach. Based on this modelling, two project scheduling techniques, Resource Constrained Scheduling and Resource Leveling, are considered and generalized to handle fuzzy parameters. We refer to these problems as the Fuzzy Resource Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (FRCPSP) and the Fuzzy Resource Leveling Problem (FRLP). A Greedy Algorithm and a Genetic Algorithm are provided to solve FRCPSP and FRLP respectively, and are applied to civil helicopter maintenance within the framework of a French industrial project called Helimaintenance.