Spectral characterisation and frame synchronisation of optical fibre digital PPM

The discrete time decoding of data in pulse position modulation calls for accurate timing synchronisation, particularly at the frame rate. The spectral properties of optical fibre digital PPM are considered. An original expression is presented for predicting the spectrum and it is shown that, unlike satellite PPM, a component exists at the frame rate which may be used for timing extraction purposes. Further, it is illustrated that the modulation index can be used to enhance this component by up to 19 dB. This has been verified practically, with the results agreeing to within 1 dB of those predicted from the original expression presented.<>     

Microstrip reflectarray antenna with offset feed

The authors derive and verify the concept of antenna focusing by a planar 'microstrip reflectarray' antenna. Experimental results from schematically distributed patch radiators with microstrip delay lines are consistent with the simulation results. The advantages and disadvantages of such an antenna are described. The measured overall antenna efficiency is approximately 48% at scan angles up to 30 degrees . These results demonstrate the feasibility of such an antenna.<>     

Analysis of slots in nonradiating dielectric waveguide using the modal expansion method

A modal expansion method is used with the reciprocity and Poynting theorems to derive the admittance of inclined slots cut in the metal wall of a nonradiating dielectric (NRD) waveguide. Theoretical values of normalised conductance and susceptance are compared with previously reported experimental results and are found to be in good agreement.<>     

Adaptive nonlinear cancellation for high-speed fiber-optic systems

The authors propose techniques for adaptive nonlinear cancellation of intersymbol interference (ISI) in the electrical signal at the receiver in Gb/s lightwave systems and describe several demonstrations of these techniques. Techniques for adjustable nonlinear cancellations are discussed and demonstrations of these techniques using commercially available integrated circuits (ICs) at data rates as high as 1.7 Gb/s are described. Techniques for automatic adjustment are discussed, and a demonstration of adaptive nonlinear cancellation at 450 Mb/s is described. The authors discuss how these techniques can be integrated onto the detector IC for operations at 2.5 Gb/s and higher data rates. These techniques allow a single IC detector with adaptive nonlinear cancellation to be used in long-haul and undersea lightwave systems to optimize the detector threshold and compensate for the ISI     

Theoretical and experimental investigation of the linear optical response of YBa2Cu4O8 The relevance of LDA calculations

We report results of ellipsometric measurements of the dielectric tensor of YBa₂Cu₄O₈ as well as calculations employing density functional theory in the local density approximation (LDA). For the computation of the one-electron eigenvalues and states the linear-muffin-tin-orbital method (LMTO) was used. Measured and calculated results show good agreement. In particular, the calculation predicts different band structures for YBa₂Cu₃O₇ and YBa₂Cu₄O₈ in the vicinity of the Fermi energy which lead to significant differences in the optical spectra. One such difference is a region of small ε₂ in the near infrared which is a fingerprint of the high (relative to the top of the highest fully occupied band) Fermi energy as compared to the situation in YBa₂Cu₃O₇. Our experimental results confirm the theoretical findings.     

Equalization of a hard-limited slowly-fading multipath signal usinga phase equalizer with time-reversal structure

Describes a low-complexity equalization technique for improving the reliability of portable radio links in the presence of multipath time delay spread. A technique that operates on hard-limited received signals, with only the phase information available, is presented. Suboptimum receivers based on a maximum likelihood estimation criterion are discussed, including a sequence estimator and a decision feedback phase detector. A low-complexity adaptive phase equalizer structure using decision-directed phase tracking is proposed. The equalizer does not require the multiplication operations required in most conventional equalization algorithms. The author also proposes a receiver that includes a time-reversal structure and a joint estimator for optimum timing recovery and equalizer training. The time-reversal structure plays a crucial role in maximizing the compensation capability of the phase equalizer. The combined use of phase equalization and diversity reception is also considered     

Face recognition: combining cognitive psychology and imageengineering

Many cognitive tasks that are easy for humans to perform are proving difficult to emulate in computer systems. Combining the disciplines of psychology and engineering may offer a solution to some of these problems. A connectionist or neural network model of face recognition by humans which incorporates aspects of a model proposed by cognitive psychologists is presented. A comparative set of experiments has been performed using this simulation and human subjects for familiar face recognition. By employing the same stimuli for both humans and the computer model, it is possible to advance not only our understanding of human cognition but also to develop improved automated systems for face recognition     

Metric marginal problems for set-valued or non-measurable variables

Summary In a separable metric space, if two Borel probability measures (laws) are nearby in a suitable metric, then there exist random variables with those laws which are nearby in probability. Specifically, by a well-known theorem of Strassen, the Prohorov distance between two laws is the infimum of Ky Fan distances of random variables with those laws. The present paper considers possible extensions of Strassen's theorem to two random elements one of which may be (compact) set-valued and/or non-measurable. There are positive results in finite-dimensional spaces, but with factors depending on the dimension. Examples show that such factors cannot entirely be avoided, so that the extension of Strassen's theorem to the present situation fails in infinite dimensions.This research was partially supported by a Guggenheim Fellowship, by National Science Foundation grant DMS 8505550 at MSRI-Berkeley, and other NSF grants