bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Negativity-bias in forming beliefs about own abilities
Authors: Müller-Pinzler Laura , Czekalla Nora , Mayer Annalina V. , Stolz David S. , Gazzola Valeria , Keysers Christian , Paulus Frieder M. , Krach Sören
Published: October 2019

During everyday interactions people constantly receive feedback on their behavior, which shapes their beliefs about themselves. While classic studies in the field of social learning suggest that people have a tendency to learn better from good news (positivity bias) when they perceive little opportunities to immediately improve their own performance, we show updating is biased towards negative information when participants perceive the opportunity to adapt their performance during learning. In three consecutive experiments we applied a computational modeling approach on the subjects’ learning behavior and reveal the negativity bias was specific for learning about own compared to others’ performances and was modulated by prior beliefs about the self, i.e. stronger negativity bias in individuals lower in self-esteem. Social anxiety affected self-related negativity biases only when individuals were exposed to a judging audience thereby potentially explaining the persistence of negative self-images in socially anxious individuals which commonly surfaces in social settings. Self-related belief formation is therefore surprisingly negatively biased in situations suggesting opportunities to improve and this bias is shaped by trait differences in self-esteem and social anxiety.
Publisher Correction: A humanized mouse model identifies key amino acids for low immunogenicity of H7N9 vaccines
Authors: Wada Yamato , Nithichanon Arnone , Nobusawa Eri , Moise Leonard , Martin William D. , Yamamoto Norio , Terahara Kazutaka , Hagiwara Haruhisa , Odagiri Takato , Tashiro Masato , Lertmemongkolchai Ganjana , Takeyama Haruko , De Groot Anne S. , Ato Manabu , Takahashi Yoshimasa
Published: October 2019

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.
QTL mapping and genome-wide prediction of heat tolerance in multiple connected populations of temperate maize
Authors: Inghelandt Delphine Van , Frey Felix P. , Ries David , Stich Benjamin
Published: October 2019

Climate change will lead to increasing heat stress in the temperate regions of the world. The objectives of this study were the following: (I) to assess the phenotypic and genotypic diversity of traits related to heat tolerance of maize seedlings and dissect their genetic architecture by quantitative trait locus (QTL) mapping, (II) to compare the prediction ability of genome-wide prediction models using various numbers of KASP (Kompetitive Allele Specific PCR genotyping) single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and RAD (restriction site-associated DNA sequencing) SNPs, and (III) to examine the prediction ability of intra-, inter-, and mixed-pool calibrations. For the heat susceptibility index of five of the nine studied traits, we identified a total of six QTL, each explaining individually between 7 and 9% of the phenotypic variance. The prediction abilities observed for the genome-wide prediction models were high, especially for the within-population calibrations, and thus, the use of such approaches to select for heat tolerance at seedling stage is recommended. Furthermore, we have shown that for the traits examined in our study, populations created from inter-pool crosses are suitable training sets to predict populations derived from intra-pool crosses.
Association between high-density lipoprotein cholesterol and all-cause mortality in the general population of northern China
Authors: Li Xintao , Guan Bo , Wang Yanjun , Tse Gary , Zou Fuquan , Khalid Bin Waleed , Xia Yunlong , Wu Shouling , Sun Jianhui
Published: October 2019

Recent studies proposed reasonable doubts about the good prognosis of very high levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-c). We aimed to investigate the association between HDL-c levels and all-cause mortality using data from an observational cohort study in northern China from 2006 to 2015. The study population was stratified into six groups by HDL-c levels in mg/dl (<40, 40–49, 50–59, 60–69, 70–79, ≥80). Cox hazards regression models were used to estimate the association between HDL-c levels and all-cause mortality. In total, 100,070 participants (aged 51.9 ± 12.7 years) were included in the current analysis. During a mean follow-up of 8.76 years, 7,362 deaths were identified (mortality rate, 8.40 per 1000 person-years). There was a significant interaction effect between age and HDL-c levels (P for interaction < 0.001). Among individuals aged 65 and older, no significant association was found between HDL-c levels and total mortality. In contrast, HDL-c levels showed a U-shaped relationship with all-cause mortality in younger participants (<65 years old), and very high HDL-c levels (≥80 mg/dl) were independently associated with increased total mortality risk compared with the reference level (60 to 69 mg/dl). These findings suggest that very high HDL-c levels may not represent a good prognosis, especially in younger individuals.
E. coli primase and DNA polymerase III holoenzyme are able to bind concurrently to a primed template during DNA replication
Authors: Bogutzki Andrea , Naue Natalie , Litz Lidia , Pich Andreas , Curth Ute
Published: October 2019

During DNA replication in E. coli, a switch between DnaG primase and DNA polymerase III holoenzyme (pol III) activities has to occur every time when the synthesis of a new Okazaki fragment starts. As both primase and the χ subunit of pol III interact with the highly conserved C-terminus of single-stranded DNA-binding protein (SSB), it had been proposed that the binding of both proteins to SSB is mutually exclusive. Using a replication system containing the origin of replication of the single-stranded DNA phage G4 (G4ori) saturated with SSB, we tested whether DnaG and pol III can bind concurrently to the primed template. We found that the addition of pol III does not lead to a displacement of primase, but to the formation of higher complexes. Even pol III-mediated primer elongation by one or several DNA nucleotides does not result in the dissociation of DnaG. About 10 nucleotides have to be added in order to displace one of the two primase molecules bound to SSB-saturated G4ori. The concurrent binding of primase and pol III is highly plausible, since even the SSB tetramer situated directly next to the 3′-terminus of the primer provides four C-termini for protein-protein interactions.
Metabolic output defines Escherichia coli as a health-promoting microbe against intestinal Pseudomonas aeruginosa
Authors: Christofi Theodoulakis , Panayidou Stavria , Dieronitou Irini , Michael Christina , Apidianakis Yiorgos
Published: October 2019

Gut microbiota acts as a barrier against intestinal pathogens, but species-specific protection of the host from infection remains relatively unexplored. Although lactobacilli and bifidobacteria produce beneficial lactic and short-chain fatty acids in the mammalian gut, the significance of intestinal Escherichia coli producing these acids is debatable. Taking a Koch’s postulates approach in reverse, we define Escherichia coli as health-promoting for naturally colonizing the gut of healthy mice and protecting them against intestinal colonization and concomitant mortality by Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Reintroduction of faecal bacteria and E. coli in antibiotic-treated mice establishes a high titre of E. coli in the host intestine and increases defence against P. aeruginosa colonization and mortality. Strikingly, high sugar concentration favours E. coli fermentation to lactic and acetic acid and inhibits P. aeruginosa growth and virulence in aerobic cultures and in a model of aerobic metabolism in flies, while dietary vegetable fats - not carbohydrates or proteins - favour E. coli fermentation and protect the host in the anaerobic mouse gut. Thus E. coli metabolic output is an important indicator of resistance to infection. Our work may also suggest that the lack of antimicrobial bacterial metabolites in mammalian lungs and wounds allows P. aeruginosa to be a formidable microbe at these sites.
Source apportionment of micronutrients in the diets of Kilimanjaro,Tanzania and Counties of Western Kenya
Authors: Watts Michael J. , Middleton Daniel R. S. , Marriott Andrew L. , Humphrey Olivier S. , Hamilton Elliott M. , Gardner Amanda , Smith Martin , McCormack Valerie A. , Menya Diana , Munishi Michael O. , Mmbaga Blandina T. , Osano Odipo
Published: October 2019

Soil, water and food supply composition data have been combined to primarily estimate micronutrient intakes and subsequent risk of deficiencies in each of the regions studied by generating new data to supplement and update existing food balance sheets. These data capture environmental influences, such as soil chemistry and the drinking water sources to provide spatially resolved crop and drinking water composition data, where combined information is currently limited, to better inform intervention strategies to target micronutrient deficiencies. Approximately 1500 crop samples were analysed, representing 86 food items across 50 sites in Tanzania in 2013 and >230 sites in Western Kenya between 2014 and 2018. Samples were analysed by ICP-MS for 58 elements, with this paper focussing on calcium (Ca), copper (Cu), iron (Fe), magnesium (Mg), selenium (Se), iodine (I), zinc (Zn) and molybdenum (Mo). In general, micronutrient supply from food groups was higher from Kilimanjaro,Tanzania than Counties in Western Kenya, albeit from a smaller sample. For both countries leafy vegetable and vegetable food groups consistently contained higher median micronutrient concentrations compared to other plant based food groups. Overall, calculated deficiency rates were <1% for Cu and Mo and close to or >90% for Ca, Zn and I in both countries. For Mg, a slightly lower risk of deficiency was calculated for Tanzania at 0 to 1% across simplified soil classifications and for female/males, compared to 3 to 20% for Kenya. A significant difference was observed for Se, where a 3 to 28% risk of deficiency was calculated for Tanzania compared to 93 to 100% in Kenya. Overall, 11 soil predictor variables, including pH and organic matter accounted for a small proportion of the variance in the elemental concentration of food. Tanzanian drinking water presented several opportunities for delivering greater than 10% of the estimated average requirement (EAR) for micronutrients. For example, 1 to 56% of the EAR for I and up to 10% for Se or 37% for Zn could be contributed via drinking water.
An Atlantic-driven rapid circulation change in the North Pacific Ocean during the late 1990s
Authors: Wu Chau-Ron , Lin Yong-Fu , Wang You-Lin , Keenlyside Noel , Yu Jin-Yi
Published: October 2019

Interbasin interactions have been increasingly emphasized in recent years due to their roles in shaping climate trends and the global warming hiatus in the northern hemisphere. The profound influence from the North Atlantic on the Tropical Pacific has been a primary focus. In this study, we conducted observational analyses and numerical modeling experiments to show that the North Atlantic has also strongly influenced the Extratropical North Pacific. A rapid and synchronous change in the atmospheric and oceanic circulations was observed in the North Pacific during the late 1990s. The change was driven by the transbasin influence from the Atlantic Ocean. During the positive phase of the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) since the 1990s, the anomalously warm North Atlantic triggers a series of zonally symmetric and asymmetric transbasin teleconnections involving the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ), Walker and Hadley circulations, and Rossby wave propagation that lead to a decrease in wind stress curls over the Pacific subtropics, resulting in an abrupt weakening in the North Pacific subtropical gyre (NPSG) and the Kuroshio Current.
Glass eels (Anguilla anguilla) imprint the magnetic direction of tidal currents from their juvenile estuaries
Authors: Cresci Alessandro , Durif Caroline M. , Paris Claire B. , Shema Steven D. , Skiftesvik Anne Berit , Browman Howard I.
Published: October 2019

The European eel (Anguilla anguilla) hatches in the Sargasso Sea and migrates to European and North African freshwater. As glass eels, they reach estuaries where they become pigmented. Glass eels use a tidal phase-dependent magnetic compass for orientation, but whether their magnetic direction is innate or imprinted during migration is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that glass eels imprint their tidal-dependent magnetic compass direction at the estuaries where they recruit. We collected 222 glass eels from estuaries flowing in different cardinal directions in Austevoll, Norway. We observed the orientation of the glass eels in a magnetic laboratory where the magnetic North was rotated. Glass eels oriented towards the magnetic direction of the prevailing tidal current occurring at their recruitment estuary. Glass eels use their magnetic compass to memorize the magnetic direction of tidal flows. This mechanism could help them to maintain their position in an estuary and to migrate upstream.
Heparan sulfate proteoglycan promotes fibroblast growth factor-2 function for ischemic heart repair
Authors: Shi Jiajia , Fan Caixia , Zhuang Yan , Sun Jie , Hou Xianglin , Chen Bing , Xiao Zhifeng , Chen Yanyan , Zhan Zixuan , Zhao Yannan , Dai Jianwu
Published: October 2019

HSPG is a bio-scaffold promoting the myocardial binding and bioactivity of bFGF for MI repair.
The dilemma between acid and base catalysis in the synthesis of benzimidazole from o-phenylenediamine and carbon dioxide
Authors: Hulla Martin , Nussbaum Simon , Bonnin Alexy R. , Dyson Paul J.
Published: October 2019

Synthesis of azoles from ortho-substituted anilines and CO2 is limited by the cyclization reaction and not by CO2 reduction.
Super electron donor-mediated reductive desulfurization reactions
Authors: Nozawa-Kumada Kanako , Ito Shungo , Noguchi Koto , Shigeno Masanori , Kondo Yoshinori
Published: October 2019

The desulfurization of thioacetals and thioethers by a pyridine-derived electron donor is described.
Pd-Catalyzed regio- and enantioselective allylic substitution with 2-pyridones
Authors: Khan Sardaraz , Shah Babar Hussain , Khan Ijaz , Li Meiqi , Zhang Yong Jian
Published: October 2019

An efficient method for the asymmetric synthesis of N-substituted 2-pyridones via a Pd-catalyzed regio- and enantioselective allylic substitution of hydroxyl-containing allylic carbonates with 2-pyridones has been developed.
Tuning molecular fluctuation to boost the conductance in DNA based molecular wires
Authors: Bag Saientan , Maiti Prabal K.
Published: October 2019

The electrical conductance of DNA and G4-Quad is enhanced by tuning their molecular fluctuation using the temperature of the DNA and number of ions inside the pore of G4-Quads.
First principles analysis of surface dependent segregation in bimetallic alloys
Authors: Farsi Lida , Deskins N. Aaron
Published: October 2019

Metal alloy stability was studied for several surfaces using density functional theory and statistical modeling. The work allows better prediction of segregation at surfaces, which is relevant, for instance, when synthesizing alloy nanoparticles.
High energy Rydberg and ion-pair states, state mixing and excitation dynamics of HI
Authors: Hafliðason Arnar , Jiang Meng-Xu , Kvaran Ágúst
Published: October 2019

High energy Rydberg and ion-pair states, state interactions, mixing and effects on multiphoton-fragmentation processes determined from mass-resolved-multiphoton-ionization (MR-MPI) studies of HI.
Production of highly concentrated and hyperpolarized metabolites within seconds in high and low magnetic fields
Authors: Korchak Sergey , Emondts Meike , Mamone Salvatore , Blümich Bernhard , Glöggler Stefan
Published: October 2019

We introduce two experiments that allow for the rapid production of hyperpolarized metabolites. More than 50%13C polarization in 50 mM concentrations is achieved. This can be translated to portable low field NMR devices.
Novel metallic electrically heated monolithic catalysts towards VOC combustion
Authors: Zhu Qiulian , Li Hao , Wang Yue , Zhou Ying , Zhu Anming , Chen Xiao , Li Xiaonian , Chen Yinfei , Lu Hanfeng
Published: October 2019

Metallic electrically heated monolithic catalysts with dual-function, high activity, fast response, small volume, changeable shape and energy conservation properties.
Novel reference-free methods for the determination of the instrumental response of Laue-type bent crystal spectrometers
Authors: Szlachetko Monika , Hoszowska Joanna , Szlachetko Jakub , Dousse Jean-Claude
Published: October 2019

This paper presents two novel reference-free methods for the determination of the instrumental resolution of Laue-type crystal spectrometers.
The next frontier in single cell analysis: multimodal studies and clinical translation
Authors: Chattopadhyay Pratip K. , Chiu Daniel T.
Published: October 2019

Thought leaders Pratip Chattopadhyay and Daniel Chiu introduce theLab on a Chipsingle cell analysis thematic collection.
Independent spectral characteristics of functionalized silver nanoparticles for colorimetric assay of arginine and spermine in biofluids
Authors: Kailasa Suresh Kumar , Desai Mittal L. , Baek Seung Hoon , Phan Le Minh Tu , Nguyen Thang Phan , Rafique Rafia , Park Tae Jung
Published: October 2019

A colorimetric assay for selective and sensitive detection of arginine and spermine using 6-ATT-AgNPs as a probe.
Superoleophobic micro-nanostructure surface formation of PVDF membranes by tannin and a condensed silane coupling agent
Authors: Feng Shuman , Li Mu , Zhang Songfeng , Zhang Yaowen , Wang Bing , Wu Lili
Published: October 2019

A tannin-based hybrid coating was coated on the PVDF membrane surface through a simple one-step co-deposition of tannin and KH550.
Materials with the CrVO4 structure type as candidate superprotonic conductors
Authors: Wisesa Pandu , Li Chenyang , Wang Chuhong , Mueller Tim
Published: October 2019

A computational screen reveals that materials with the CrVO4 structure type may have very low migration barriers for proton conduction.
Mesoporous cerium oxide for fast degradation of aryl organophosphate flame retardant triphenyl phosphate
Authors: Ederer Jakub , Šťastný Martin , Došek Marek , Henych Jiří , Janoš Pavel
Published: October 2019

Cerium oxide nanoparticles were prepared by calcination of basic cerous carbonate (as a precursor) obtained by precipitation from an aqueous solution and subsequent tested for catalytic activity.
Oxadiazole derivatives as bipolar host materials for high-performance blue and green phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes
Authors: Wang Yanming , Duan Keke , Li Guoxiang , Yu Gewen
Published: October 2019

A high performance blue OLED has been realized by adjusting the ratio of n-type groups of the molecule and obtaining more balanced charge transport.
Impact of cation redox chemistry on continuous hydrothermal synthesis of 2D-Ni(Co/Fe) hydroxides
Authors: Rosa Massimo , Marani Debora , Perin Giovanni , Simonsen Søren Bredmose , Zielke Philipp , Glisenti Antonella , Kiebach Ragnar , Lesch Andreas , Esposito Vincenzo
Published: October 2019

We challenge the transition from brucite-like to hydrotalcite-like phases for NiCo and NiFe hydroxidesviacontinuous hydrothermal flow synthesis.
Isomer dependent molecular packing and carrier mobility of N-phenylcarbazole–phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole based materials as hosts for efficient electrophosphorescence devices
Authors: Li Zhiqiang , Cheng Zong , Lin Jianyan , Xie Ning , Li Chenglong , Yang Guochun , Wang Yue
Published: October 2019

A phenanthro[9,10-d]imidazole derivative with enhanced carrier mobility was developed for high brightness and low efficiency roll-off phosphorescent organic light-emitting diodes.
Recent advances in surface‐functionalised photosensitive antibacterials with synergistic effects
Authors: Liao Peizi , Hu Jiahao , Wang Huagao , Li Jinyang , Zhou Zuowan
Published: October 2019

The alarm has been ringing over the gradually increasing drug‐resistant bacteria, which calls for the development of safer antibacterial materials. Photosensitive antibacterials are considered as a promising alternative solution due to their unique light‐activated antimicrobial mechanism, which in‐situ produces highly reactive oxygen species on the multiple and variable active sites for the inactivation of various microbes. However, there are some factors, including phototoxicity, oxygen consumption and the risk of microbial contamination, greatly limit the efficiency and application of photosensitisers (PSs) in practical biomedical applications. Some studies have explored the synergistic effects of PSs by antibiotics, photothermal agents, antibacterial nanoparticles and biofilm‐disrupting enzymes. Moreover, novel synergistic methods for improving the antibacterial ability of PSs under low‐energy irradiation, hypoxia conditions and dull conditions, have been rarely reviewed yet. Herein, the authors summarised some synergistic methods and related applications of surface‐functionalised photosensitive antimicrobials, which were prepared with organic antimicrobial materials, superhydrophobic surfaces, upconversion nanoparticles and energy storage structures in recent years. Finally, the authors presented the advantages and challenges of these synergistic mechanisms, and further analysed the development trend and application prospects of the surface‐functionalised photosensitive antibacterials in biomedical fields.
Improved softmax loss for deep learning‐based face and expression recognition
Authors: Zhou Jiancan , Jia Xi , Shen Linlin , Wen Zhenkun , Ming Zhong
Published: October 2019

In recent years, deep convolutional neural networks (CNN) have been widely used in computer vision and significantly improved the performance of image recognition tasks. Most works use softmax loss to supervise the training of CNN and then adopt the output of last layer as features. However, the discriminative capability of the softmax loss is limited. Here, the authors analyse and improve the softmax loss by manipulating the cosine value and input feature length. As the approach does not change the principle of the softmax loss, the network can easily be optimised by typical stochastic gradient descent. The MNIST handwritten digits dataset is employed to visualise the features learned by the improved softmax loss. The CASIA‐WebFace and FER2013 training set are adopted to train deep CNN for face and expression recognition, respectively. Results on both the LFW dataset and FER2013 test set show that the proposed softmax loss can learn more discriminative features and achieve better performance.
Secure memristor replicator architecture with physical uncloneability
Authors: Yang X. , Khandelwal S. , Jabir A.
Published: October 2019

A lightweight and highly versatile architecture for replicating the resistance of a source memristor into a destination memristor is presented. This can be useful for storing or backing up sensed analogue information, e.g. sensed resistance, voltage, etc. in a single memristor. The architecture, which is simple and power efficient, is also able to produce non‐linear digital codes during the replication process for added security by taking advantage of the non‐linear behaviour of memristors. The generated codes can also be used to retrieve the analogue value within acceptable conversion errors, with circuit elements already built into the replicator. The authors also show that the architecture demonstrates physical uncloneable properties.
Fingerprinting light emitting diodes using spectrometer
Authors: Toh A. , Yang L. , Sakiyama K. , Sugawara T.
Published: October 2019

Fingerprinting refers to a class of techniques to distinguish products using their unique features originated during production. Fingerprinting has a wide range of applications including supply‐chain integrity and device authentication. The authors propose the first fingerprinting technique of light‐emitting diode (LED), which is pervasively used in electronics products. The key idea is to use spectral features of LEDs obtained by a spectrometer. Combined with a machine‐learning classifier, the proposed method successfully distinguishes ten individual LED samples from the same lot at 99% accuracy.
Ant colony optimisation algorithm for multiobjective subset selection problems
Authors: Liu Yi , Zhou Hao , Wang Yanzhen , Ren Xiaoguang , Diao Xingchun
Published: October 2019

Multiobjective subset selection problems widely exist in many real‐world applications. Multiobjective ant colony optimisation (MOACO) is a strong and kind instrument for settling those issues. However, it still has two shortages which the authors must resolve. One, its solution construction process is inconsistent with the disorder characteristics of solutions, which prevent it from getting better solutions. Two, conventional MOACOs which most deal with biobjective optimisation problems are difficult to figure out high‐dimensional objectives optimisation problems. In this study, the authors propose a new MOACO to resolve those two disadvantages. They give its detailed descriptions and an exhaust experiment. And the results on C measure, spacing measure and inverted generational distance (IGD) show that the proposed algorithm has a powerful convergence ability and gets a better balance between convergence and diversity compared with other state of art approaches.
SiGe/Si hetero nanotube JLFET for improved performance: proposal and investigation
Authors: Thakur A. , Dhiman R.
Published: October 2019

The authors report, for the first time, a novel SiGe/Si n‐type hetero nanotube (HNT) junctionless field‐effect transistor (JLFET), which leads to a remarkably enhanced performance below the sub‐10 nm gate length. It is shown that valence band discontinuity in the HNT JLFET causes tunnelling width of the channel–drain interface to increase and therefore diminishes the lateral tunnelling of electrons in the OFF state. The impact of high‐κ spacers and core gate diameter on the dynamic performance of HNT JLFET has also been studied. They show that the inclusion of high‐κ spacers does not affect the dynamic performance of the HNT JLFET. It is demonstrated using calibrated 2D simulations that the proposed device exhibits a smaller value of DIBL 4 mV/V, sub‐threshold slope almost 60 mV/decade, and an improved ION/IOFF ratio of ∼1012 even for sub‐10 nm gate lengths.
Efficient harmonic regeneration noise reduction‐based Wiener filter for acoustic emission signal detection
Authors: Prajna K. , Mukhopadhyay C.K.
Published: October 2019

In this Letter, the authors propose to apply the harmonic regeneration noise reduction (HRNR)‐based Wiener filter (W‐HRNR) to detect acoustic emission (AE) signal from the noisy environment. HRNR technique can regenerate the harmonics to overcome the distortion which occurs with overestimation of conventional Wiener filter and to preserve the essential signal content for accurate detection of AE signal. W‐HRNR is implemented in short‐time Fourier transform domain. Decision direct method is employed to estimate the spectral gain and signal‐to‐noise ratio (SNR) of the signal in each frame. Evaluation of the algorithm is carried out using peak‐SNR (PSNR) and mean square error (MSE). The performance of the proposed algorithm has been demonstrated using a simulated AE burst signal and AE signals acquired from compression test and drilling test. Results have proven the remarkable performance of W‐HRNR over existing conventional Wiener filter for AE with accurate detection by preserving the useful signal information even under high noise conditions at low frequencies. Moreover, W‐HRNR also achieved a significant improvement in PSNR and MSE over the conventional filter.
Anisotropy‐based image smoothing via deep neural network training
Authors: Chen Qun , Liu Bozhi , Zhou Fei
Published: October 2019

An anisotropy‐based image smoothing method is proposed to remove image details from various images. Image details appear as the textures in the image. After removing them, the remaining part is known as image structure. To effectively distinguish image structures and textures, the authors present an anisotropy‐based measurement which depicts the anisotropy degree of local gradients for each edge pixel. The pixels with larger anisotropy are more likely to be the ones on structural edges. Then, the anisotropy‐based measurement is embedded in a regularised objective function. To achieve the image smoothing, the objective function is finally optimised by training a deep network. Visual results demonstrate that the proposed method is powerful to keep the edges in the smoothed images sharp and eliminate trivial details simultaneously.
SIW filter with broadband stopband by suppressing the coupling of higher‐order resonant modes
Authors: Cheng Fei , Li Xuan‐Tan , Lu Ping , Huang Kama
Published: October 2019

This Letter presents a third‐order multilayer substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) filter with broadband stopband. The filter is composed of three vertically stacked square SIW cavities. The input/output feeding structure and the coupling slot in the middle metal layer of two cavities are properly designed to just allow the fundamental resonant mode to a couple while other higher spurious resonant modes are isolated. The fabricated filter is at a centre frequency of 6.96 GHz with a stopband suppression of 24 dB up to 2.77f0.
Synthetic aperture radar automatic target classification processing concept
Authors: Woollard M. , Bannon A. , Ritchie M. , Griffiths H.
Published: October 2019

A new simulation and processing methodology based on open source tools to produce high fidelity synthetic aperture radar (SAR) simulations of ground vehicles of varying types, as well as analysis of an applied automatic target recognition (ATR) technique is presented in this Letter. This work is based around the RaySAR open‐source model and the outputs have been configured for both monostatic and bistatic geometries. Input CAD models of various military and civilian vehicles are used to produce the SAR imagery. This output imagery was then used to train a tiny you only look once convolutional neural network (CNN) classifier. The classification success of the CNN applied was showed to produce significantly accurate results and the whole pipeline of processing enabled rapid evaluation of potential ATR methods against targets of choice.
Optimal regenerative PN code tracking based on non‐commensurate sampling and double‐loop structure
Authors: Jin Xiaojun , Zhang Wei , Mo Shiming , Xu Zhaobin , Zhang Chaojie , Jin Zhonghe
Published: October 2019

Gold codes are widely used for pseudo‐noise (PN) ranging, and non‐commensurate sampling is an effective solution to improving the tracking performance of digital code tracking loops. However, the sequence transition density of gold codes is low, which limits the achievable ranging accuracy. Here, the authors present a non‐commensurate sampling and double‐loop‐based regenerative PN code tracking approach. With this approach, the tracking of the original regenerative code is equivalent to that of its clock component, and the sequence transition density is maximised. Thus, the tracking error is apparently reduced and optimal tracking performance is achieved. In the double‐loop structure, a unified tracking loop is employed to facilitate performance comparison. Simulation results demonstrate the performance improvement of the proposed approach over the traditional gold code tracking scheme, and the relationship between the non‐commensurate sampling parameters and the achievable tracking accuracy. The approach is especially suitable for precision ranging applications, and can be extended to other applications involving accurate signal tracking in digital equipment.
Probability density function of notch depth for dominant mode rejection beamformer
Authors: Hu Enlong , Ge Hongya
Published: October 2019

In this Letter, the authors present a closed‐form derivation of the probability density function (PDF) for the notch depth (ND) of the dominant mode rejection adaptive beamformer (ABF). Their PDF expression closely approximates the true PDF for the case of single interferer at reasonable levels of interference‐to‐noise ratio. Their simulation results illustrate the close approximation between proposed distribution function and the ND histogram over a wide range of snapshots for fixed number of sensors.
Low‐complexity encoder for LDPC codes in space applications
Authors: Chen Weigang , Han Changcai , Yang Jinsheng
Published: October 2019

A low complexity encoding method and encoder architecture are proposed for the low‐density parity‐check (LDPC) codes in space applications recommended by Consultant Committee for Space Data Systems. This method uses the generator matrix partition and decomposition to obtain a much smaller dense core matrix. Thus, only one quarter of dense block matrices need to be implemented using the traditional circulant encoding structure. Therefore, the encoder can be implemented with lower computation and storage complexity.
Detection of multi‐people micro‐motions based on range–velocity–time points
Authors: Du Hao , Jin Tian , Li Meng , Song Yongping , Dai Yongpeng
Published: October 2019

The micro‐Doppler effect is a useful signature for classifying various human behaviours. However, most micro‐Doppler researches assume that only a single moving target exists during the observation. Their works lack in separating micro‐motion features from multi‐movers. When more than one target is present, their performance will deteriorate heavily. To address this issue, the authors design a new 3D (three‐dimensional) model, range–velocity–time points, to separate and describe multi‐mover micro‐motions measured by the ultra‐wideband radar. These 3D points contain the range–velocity–time information simultaneously. By dividing points in the 3D space instead of single Doppler domain, micro‐Doppler signatures of each target can be separated effectively. Multi‐people motion simulation results verify the effectiveness of the authors' method.
Focused transmitarray antenna using I‐shaped slot elements for microwave measurements
Authors: Zhang Zheng , Li Xiaoping , Huang He , Ouyang Wenchong , Zhao Chengwei , Sun Chao
Published: October 2019

A focused transmitarray antenna is presented in this Letter. To appraise the antenna, a quad‐metallic‐layer focused transmitarray antenna using I‐shaped all‐metal slot elements with an air gap between every two layers has been analysed, simulated and measured. It is illustrated that the electric field strength value at a distance of 3.1λ0 from the transmitarray antenna reaches a maximum at 9.3 GHz operating frequency. It is the first time that a focal plane of approximately one wavelength has been achieved with a focused transmitarray antenna consisting of all‐metal elements. Simulated and measured results show that the proposed antenna has good concordance, making it possible for microwave measurements.
Boosting the efficacy of power attacks on cryptographic circuits with autoencoder
Authors: Wen Yiming , Yu Weize
Published: October 2019

Power attacks are able to leak the secret key of protected cryptographic circuits as long as the number of sampled power data is sufficient to filter the injected noise. However, in this Letter, a novel power attack is proposed to break protected cryptographic circuits when the number of available power data is inadequate for filtering the injected noise. To achieve this goal, a state‐of‐the‐art machine learning technique: autoencoder is utilised for generating a certain number of new power data that are similar to the original power data to assist the noise filtering. Within the proposed autoencoder neural networks, the input and output layers are set with arrays. Furthermore, two convolution layers are used in the encoder block and decoder block, respectively, to achieve similar features between the input layer and the output layer. Under the assistance of autoencoder, the novel power attack reveals the secret key of a protected cryptographic circuit with 300,000 power data. In contrast, the regular power attacks fail to break the cryptographic circuit under the same number of power data.
Balanced sampling switch for high linearity and a wide temperature range in low power SAR ADCs
Authors: Kim J.E. , Yoo T. , Baek K.‐H. , Kim T.T.‐H.
Published: October 2019

This Letter proposes a balanced sampling switch technique for achieving high linearity and a wide temperature range. The proposed technique reduces the VDS of the NMOS sampling switch for reducing the leakage current through the switch during the hold mode. This operation is implemented by a mini capacitive digital‐to‐analogue converter (C‐DAC) that mimics the main C‐DAC used for main SAR conversion. The proposed sampling switch is applied to a 10‐bit, 0.5 V SAR ADC with 5 Msample/s and verified by comprehensive simulation. Compared to the conventional sampling switch without the mini C‐DAC, the proposed switch improves SFDR and SNDR by 27.52 dBc and 11.8 dB, respectively, at the FF corner and 120°C.
Stretched tunnelling body contact structure for suppressing the FBE in a vertical cell DRAM
Authors: Cho Y.S. , Choi P.H. , Kim K.H. , Park J.M. , Hwang Y.S. , Hong H.S. , Lee K.P. , Choi B.D.
Published: October 2019

Vertical cell transistor is necessary to drastically reduce the chip size of the dynamic random access memory. This structure has a great advantage in terms of shrinkage, but it also has the disadvantage of increasing the OFF‐state current by causing floating body effect (FBE). For the first time, it is demonstrated that a stretched tunnelling diode, which consists of a p+ layer next to the n+ active layer in the buried body, leads to a drastically suppressed FBE. The OFF‐state current is sharply reduced by about seven orders compared with a conventional structure. Furthermore, the decrease in the OFF‐state current is at minimum when the length of the stretched p + region is approximately half the channel length (Lp/L=1/2).
HAD fabricated on UTB AlGaN/GaN heterostructure for high‐sensitivity zero‐bias microwave detection
Authors: Yun Yu , Xiong Wei , Shi Yu , Chen Kuangli , Zhou Qi
Published: October 2019

A novel technology based on aluminium gallium nitride (AlGaN)/GaN hybrid‐anode diode (HAD) for precise modulation of turn‐on voltage is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. By delicately tailoring the as‐grown barrier thickness, the turn‐on voltage of the HAD and yet the non‐linearity at zero bias (i.e. 0 V) for efficient microwave detection can be flexibly modulated. An AlGaN/GaN ultra‐thin‐barrier HAD (UTB‐HAD) was designed and fabricated for zero‐bias microwave detection. The AlGaN‐barrier thickness was optimised to be 5 nm by TCAD simulation, which yields a strong non‐linearity at zero bias featuring a high‐curvature coefficient (γ) of 27 V−1 in the fabricated UTB‐HAD. The first‐order voltage sensitivity βV is projected to be as high as 2.7 mV/μW. The proposed approach of precise sensitivity modulation is of great interests for high‐efficient zero‐bias microwave detection applications.
Advanced SSVEP stimulator for brain–computer interface and signal classification with using convolutional neural network
Authors: Oralhan Z.
Published: October 2019

Steady‐state visual evoked potential, type of electroencephalography (EEG) signal, that is used for brain–computer interface systems are considered in this Letter. Steady‐state visual evoked potential stimulator is needed for realising the signal on the scalp. Besides, information transfer rate is the most significant parameter to evaluate overall performance of a brain–computer interface. EEG signal classification methods, task completion time, and signal stimulator structure affect information transfer rate values. In this Letter, the authors aimed to reach a high information transfer rate by using the proposed signal stimulator and classification method that has new architectures. Eight flickering objects that provide 36 different characters to spell were used. This stimuli optimisation prevented the effect of eye fatigue on signal. Therefore, steady‐state visual evoked potential was elicited dominantly. Moreover, 1D convolutional neural network for signal classification was proposed in this Letter. Online experimental data was also classified with canonical correlation analysis that is most commonly used in brain–computer interface systems. The authors compared results according to both of the classification methods. They have reached average value of information transfer rate as 50.67 bit/min with the proposed classification method. This result is significantly higher than similar studies.
Detection of presentation attacks using imaging and liveness attributes
Authors: Schardosim Lucas Royes , Ruschel dos Santos Raphael , Scharcanski Jacob
Published: October 2019

Face biometry is a popular user authentication scheme that is easy to use and tends to be less invasive than other user authentication approaches. Despite the success achieved by face biometrics, face spoofing attacks (or presentation attacks) still pose a challenge to researchers. In practice, fraudsters may deceive a face authentication system by displaying fake copies of an authorised user face, such as photos or videos, and gain unauthorised access to the system. This work proposes a method for detecting unauthorised access attempts using misrepresentations of the identity of an authorised user. The proposed methodology for presentation attack detection relies on the observation of imaging and liveness attributes, such as the detection of liveness using the face deformation energy, and imaging attributes usually found in authentic accesses such as facial and background textures, and steganalysis features. Based on the experimental results, the proposed approach potentially can detect face spoofing attacks at each frame of video sequences with error rates of half total error rate (HTER), and also in full video sequences with , for the CASIA and Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics databases, respectively.
Dynamic power splitting scheme for DF relaying‐based SWIPT networks with direct link
Authors: Liu Yingting , Ye Yinghui , Ding Haiyang
Published: October 2019

A dynamic power splitting (DPS) scheme for decode‐and‐forward (DF) relaying based simultaneous wireless information and power transfer (SWIPT) networks with a direct link (DL) is considered. The optimal DPS factor can maximise the received signal‐to‐noise ratio at the destination node. If the DPS factor is equal to zero, the proposed model will degenerate into a non‐cooperative network which only utilises the DL to accomplish the transmission. The authors first derive the optimal DPS factor, and then derive analytical expressions for outage probability and ergodic capacity. Moreover, to obtain the diversity order, the asymptotic expression for outage probability is also derived. Numerical results show that the performance of the proposed scheme is the best compared to the other competitive schemes, especially in terms of the ergodic capacity.
Novel electromagnetic bandgap structure for wideband suppression of simultaneous switching noise
Authors: Zhang Yuan‐Yuan , Zhao Wen‐Sheng , Liu Qi , Wang Gaofeng
Published: October 2019

A novel electromagnetic bandgap (EBG) structure is proposed to suppress the simultaneous switching noise in high‐speed circuits. The proposed EBG pattern is etched on the power plane while the ground plane remains intact. The unit is composed of an S‐bridge EBG embedded with a coplanar EBG. The proposed EBG structure possesses an ultrawide bandgap extending from 0.28 to 25 GHz when the suppression depth is −45 dB. A prototype of the proposed EBG power plane is fabricated and tested, and good agreement is achieved between the simulation and the measurement.
Short‐channel MOSFET for terahertz wave detection fabricated in 55 nm silicon CMOS process technology
Authors: Shang Dechun , Xing Yingying , Sun Penglin
Published: October 2019

Terahertz (THz) detectors imaging is an attractive technology that has been widely adopted in various imaging applications, but the low response has always been a critical problem for THz detectors. Here, the authors present some antenna‐coupled 2.58 THz detectors fabricated using 55 nm CMOS process technology for the terahertz wave detection well beyond the device cut‐off frequency, each detector consists of a patch antenna and one or few short‐channel metal–oxide–semiconductor field‐effect‐transistors (MOSFETs). The authors demonstrated two drain‐driven detectors different from the commonly used configurations, and proved that this structure can effectively improve the response to the quantum cascade laser. The output signal is extracted with a lock‐in amplifier under room temperature.
Design of MIMO‐PDMA in 5G mobile communication system
Authors: Tang Wanwei , Kang Shaoli , Zhao Jinlong , Zhang Yinpu , Zhang Xiurong , Zhang Zhenyu
Published: October 2019

As a novel non‐orthogonal multiple access scheme for fifth generation mobile networks, pattern division multiple access (PDMA) can support more connectivity and significantly improve spectral efficiency compared with conventional orthogonal multiple access (OMA). In order to further to improve the system transmission reliability and spectrum efficiency for PDMA, a novel PDMA framework combined with multiple‐input multiple‐output (MIMO) technology by using space–frequency block coding scheme for downlink transmission is proposed in this study. The performance analysis expressions of system capacity for MIMO‐PDMA and MIMO‐OMA are derived. The detailed MIMO‐PDMA design diagrams for transmitting and receiving end are presented and the equivalent space and frequency channel matrix for each user are derived to facilitate the performance evaluation of the proposed framework. The simulation results are provided to demonstrate that the integration of the two technologies can achieve better performance compared with traditional PDMA and MIMO‐OMA.
Secure transmission in large‐scale cooperative millimetre‐wave systems with passive eavesdroppers
Authors: Ragheb Mohammad , Safavi Hemami Seyed Mostafa
Published: October 2019

By considering millimetre wave (mmWave) transmission as an effective solution for the fifth‐generation (5G) wireless communication systems, the authors propose a new optimal power allocation (OPA) scheme to maximise the instantaneous secrecy rate of a cooperative wireless network. The communication network under study is comprised of a multiple‐antennas source, a multiple‐antennas destination, a single antenna untrusted relay and single antenna passive eavesdroppers (Eves). To prevent the untrusted relay and passive Eves from overhearing the source message, a new secure transmission scheme is proposed. Based on this scheme, the destination sends an artificial noise (AN) towards the untrusted relay, and concurrently, the source is forced to dedicate part of its power to transmit AN to keep the information confidential from the Eves. For such a communication network, two cases of non‐colluding Eves (NCE) and colluding Eves (CE) are taken into account. Based on the proposed OPA, a novel closed‐form expression is presented for the ergodic secrecy rate (ESR) performance over mmWave channels. Next, the authors derive the high signal‐to‐noise ratio slope and power offset of the ESR to evaluate the effects of network parameters on the ESR performance. Numerical examples depict that the proposed optimised systems for both NCE and CE present superior ESR compared to other transmission policies.