Zero-Sum Stochastic Games with Partial Information and Average Payoff

We consider a discrete time partially observable zero-sum stochastic game with average payoff criterion. We study the game using an equivalent completely observable game. We show that the game has a value and also we present a pair of optimal strategies for both the players.

Zero miss distance guidance using feedforward and periodic control

There have been attempts at obtaining robust guidance laws to ensure zero miss distance (ZMD) for interceptors with parametric uncertainties. All these laws require the plant to be of minimum phase type to enable the overall guidance loop transfer function to satisfy strict positive realness (SPR). The SPR property implies absolute stability of the closed loop system, and has been shown in the literature to lead to ZMD because it avoids saturation of lateral acceleration. In these works higher order interceptors are reduced to lower order equivalent models for which control laws are designed to ensure ZMD. However, it has also been shown that when the original system with right half plane (RHP) zeros is considered, the resulting miss distances, using such strategies, can be quite high. In this paper, an alternative approach using the circle criterion establishes the conditions for absolute stability of the guidance loop and relaxes the conservative nature of some earlier results arising from assumption of in�nite engagement time. Further, a feedforward scheme in conjunction with a lead-lag compensator is used as one control strategy while a generalized sampled hold function is used as a second strategy, to shift the RHP transmission zeros, thereby achieving ZMD. It is observed that merely shifting the RHP zero(s) to the left half plane reduces miss distances signi�cantly even when no additional controllers are used to ensure SPR conditions.

Negative hyperconjugation and red-, blue- or zero-shift in X-Z center dot center dot center dot Y complexes

A generalized explanation is provided for the existence of the red-and blue-shifting nature of X-Z bonds (Z = H, halogens, chalcogens, pnicogens, etc.) in X-Z center dot center dot center dot Y complexes based on computational studies on a selected set of weakly bonded complexes and analysis of existing literature data. The additional electrons and orbitals available on Z in comparison to H make for dramatic differences between the H-bond and the rest of the Z-bonds. The nature of the X-group and its influence on the X-Z bond length in the parent X-Z molecule largely controls the change in the X-Z bond length on X-Z center dot center dot center dot Y bond formation; the Y-group usually influences only the magnitude of the effects controlled by X. The major factors which control the X-Z bond length change are: (a) negative hyperconjugative donation of electron density from X-group to X-Z sigma* antibonding molecular orbital (ABMO) in the parent X-Z, (b) induced negative hyperconjugation from the lone pair of electrons on Z to the antibonding orbitals of the X-group, and (c) charge transfer (CT) from the Y-group to the X-Z sigma* orbital. The exchange repulsion from the Y-group that shifts partial electron density at the X-Z sigma* ABMO back to X leads to blue-shifting and the CT from the Y-group to the sigma* ABMO of X-Z leads to red-shifting. The balance between these two opposing forces decides red-, zero- or blue-shifting. A continuum of behaviour of X-Z bond length variation is inevitable in X-Z center dot center dot center dot Y complexes.

Spectral Zero-Crossings: Localization Properties and Applications

We present an analysis of the rate of sign changes in the discrete Fourier spectrum of a sequence. The sign changes of either the real or imaginary parts of the spectrum are considered, and the rate of sign changes is termed as the spectral zero-crossing rate (SZCR). We show that SZCR carries information pertaining to the locations of transients within the temporal observation window. We show duality with temporal zero-crossing rate analysis by expressing the spectrum of a signal as a sum of sinusoids with random phases. This extension leads to spectral-domain iterative filtering approaches to stabilize the spectral zero-crossing rate and to improve upon the location estimates. The localization properties are compared with group-delay-based localization metrics in a stylized signal setting well-known in speech processing literature. We show applications to epoch estimation in voiced speech signals using the SZCR on the integrated linear prediction residue. The performance of the SZCR-based epoch localization technique is competitive with the state-of-the-art epoch estimation techniques that are based on average pitch period.

A zero charge-pump mismatch current tracking loop for reference spur reduction in PLLs

The charge-pump (CP) mismatch current is a dominant source of static phase error and reference spur in the nano-meter CMOS PLL implementations due to its worsened channel length modulation effect. This paper presents a charge-pump (CP) mismatch current reduction technique utilizing an adaptive body bias tuning of CP transistors and a zero CP mismatch current tracking PLL architecture for reference spur suppression. A chip prototype of the proposed circuit was implemented in 0.13 mu m CMOS technology. The frequency synthesizer consumes 8.2 mA current from a 13 V supply voltage and achieves a phase noise of -96.01 dBc/Hz @ 1 MHz offset from a 2.4 GHz RF carrier. The charge-pump measurements using the proposed calibration technique exhibited a mismatch current of less than 0.3 mu A (0.55%) over the VCO control voltage range of 0.3-1.0 V. The closed loop measurements show a minimized static phase error of within +/- 70 ps and a similar or equal to 9 dB reduction in reference spur level across the PLL output frequency range 2.4-2.5 GHz. The presented CP calibration technique compensates for the DC current mismatch and the mismatch due to channel length modulation effect and therefore improves the performance of CP-PLLs in nano-meter CMOS implementations. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Zero-Crossings Based Spectrum Sensing Under Noise Uncertainties

In this work, the hypothesis testing problem of spectrum sensing in a cognitive radio is formulated as a Goodness-of-fit test against the general class of noise distributions used in most communications-related applications. A simple, general, and powerful spectrum sensing technique based on the number of weighted zero-crossings in the observations is proposed. For the cases of uniform and exponential weights, an expression for computing the near-optimal detection threshold that meets a given false alarm probability constraint is obtained. The proposed detector is shown to be robust to two commonly encountered types of noise uncertainties, namely, the noise model uncertainty, where the PDF of the noise process is not completely known, and the noise parameter uncertainty, where the parameters associated with the noise PDF are either partially or completely unknown. Simulation results validate our analysis, and illustrate the performance benefits of the proposed technique relative to existing methods, especially in the low SNR regime and in the presence of noise uncertainties.

Trap modulated photoresponse of InGaN/Si isotype heterojunction at zero-bias

n-n isotype heterojunction of InGaN and bare Si (111) was formed by plasma assisted molecular beam epitaxy without nitridation steps or buffer layers. High resolution X-ray diffraction studies were carried out to confirm the formation of epilayers on Si (111). X-ray rocking curves revealed the presence of large number of edge threading dislocations at the interface. Room temperature photoluminescence studies were carried out to confirm the bandgap and the presence of defects. Temperature dependent I-V measurements of Al/InGaN/Si (111)/Al taken in dark confirm the rectifying nature of the device. I-V characteristics under UV illumination, showed modest rectification and was operated at zero bias making it a self-powered device. A band diagram of the heterojunction is proposed to understand the transport mechanism for self-powered functioning of the device. (c) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.

Spatial Modulation Aided Zero-Padded Single Carrier Transmission for Dispersive Channels

In this paper, we consider spatial modulation (SM) operating in a frequency-selective single-carrier (SC) communication scenario and propose zero-padding instead of the cyclic-prefix considered in the existing literature. We show that the zero-padded single-carrier (ZP-SC) SM system offers full multipath diversity under maximum-likelihood (ML) detection, unlike the cyclic-prefix based SM system. Furthermore, we show that the order of ML detection complexity in our proposed ZP-SC SM system is independent of the frame length and depends only on the number of multipath links between the transmitter and the receiver. Thus, we show that the zero-padding applied in the SC SM system has two advantages over the cyclic prefix: 1) achieves full multipath diversity, and 2) imposes a relatively low ML detection complexity. Furthermore, we extend the partial interference cancellation receiver (PIC-R) proposed by Guo and Xia for the detection of space-time block codes (STBCs) in order to convert the ZP-SC system into a set of narrowband subsystems experiencing flat-fading. We show that full rank STBC transmissions over these subsystems achieves full transmit, receive as well as multipath diversity for the PIC-R. Furthermore, we show that the ZP-SC SM system achieves receive and multipath diversity for the PIC-R at a detection complexity order which is the same as that of the SM system in flat-fading scenario. Our simulation results demonstrate that the symbol error ratio performance of the proposed linear receiver for the ZP-SC SM system is significantly better than that of the SM in cyclic prefix based orthogonal frequency division multiplexing as well as of the SM in the cyclic-prefixed and zero-padded single carrier systems relying on zero-forcing/minimum mean-squared error equalizer based receivers.

A Zero-Crossing Rate Property of Power Complementary Analysis Filterbank Outputs

We establish zero-crossing rate (ZCR) relations between the input and the subbands of a maximally decimated M-channel power complementary analysis filterbank when the input is a stationary Gaussian process. The ZCR at lag is defined as the number of sign changes between the samples of a sequence and its 1-sample shifted version, normalized by the sequence length. We derive the relationship between the ZCR of the Gaussian process at lags that are integer multiples of Al and the subband ZCRs. Based on this result, we propose a robust iterative autocorrelation estimator for a signal consisting of a sum of sinusoids of fixed amplitudes and uniformly distributed random phases. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed estimator is better than the sample autocorrelation over the SNR range of -6 to 15 dB. Validation on a segment of a trumpet signal showed similar performance gains.

Fusing the Navigation Information of Dual Foot-Mounted Zero-Velocity-Update-Aided Inertial Navigation Systems

A range constraint method viz. centroid method is proposed to fuse the navigation information of dual (right and left) foot-mounted Zero-velocity-UPdaTe (ZUPT)-aided Inertial Navigation Systems (INSs). Here, the range constraint means that the distance of separation between the position estimates of right and left foot ZUPT-aided INSs cannot be greater than a quantity known as foot-to-foot maximum separation. We present the experimental results which illustrate the applicability of the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method significantly enhances the accuracy of the navigation solution when compared to using two uncoupled foot-mounted ZUPT-aided INSs. Also, we compare the performance of the proposed method with the existing data fusion methods.

Prospects of zero Schottky barrier height in a graphene-inserted MoS2-metal interface

A low Schottky barrier height (SBH) at source/drain contact is essential for achieving high drive current in atomic layer MoS(2-)channel-based field effect transistors. Approaches such as choosing metals with appropriate work functions and chemical doping are employed previously to improve the carrier injection from the contact electrodes to the channel and to mitigate the SBH between the MoS2 and metal. Recent experiments demonstrate significant SBH reduction when graphene layer is inserted between metal slab (Ti and Ni) and MoS2. However, the physical or chemical origin of this phenomenon is not yet clearly understood. In this work, density functional theory simulations are performed, employing pseudopotentials with very high basis sets to get insights of the charge transfer between metal and monolayer MoS2 through the inserted graphene layer. Our atomistic simulations on 16 different interfaces involving five different metals (Ti, Ag, Ru, Au, and Pt) reveal that (i) such a decrease in SBH is not consistent among various metals, rather an increase in SBH is observed in case of Au and Pt; (ii) unlike MoS2-metal interface, the projected dispersion of MoS2 remains preserved in any MoS2-graphene- metal system with shift in the bands on the energy axis. (iii) A proper choice of metal (e.g., Ru) may exhibit ohmic nature in a graphene-inserted MoS2-metal contact. These understandings would provide a direction in developing high-performance transistors involving heteroatomic layers as contact electrodes. (c) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC.

Analysis of sine-triangle and zero-sequence injection modulation schemes for split-phase induction motor drive

A split-phase induction motor is fed from two three-phase voltage source inverters for speed control. This study analyses carrier-comparison based pulse width modulation (PWM) schemes for a split-phase motor drive, from a space-vector perspective. Sine-triangle PWM, one zero-sequence injection PWM where the same zero-sequence signal is used for both the inverters, and another zero-sequence injection PWM where different zero-sequence signals are employed for the two inverters are considered. The set of voltage vectors applied, the sequence in which the voltage vectors are applied, and the resulting current ripple vector are analysed for all the PWM methods. Besides all the PWM methods are compared in terms of dc bus utilisation. For the same three-phase sine reference, the PWM method with different zero-sequence signals for the two inverters is found to employ a set of vectors different from the other methods. Both analysis and experimental results show that this method results in lower total harmonic distortion and higher dc bus utilisation than the other two PWM methods.

Counting zero kernel pairs over a finite field

Helmke et al. have recently given a formula for the number of reachable pairs of matrices over a finite field. We give a new and elementary proof of the same formula by solving the equivalent problem of determining the number of so called zero kernel pairs over a finite field. We show that the problem is, equivalent to certain other enumeration problems and outline a connection with some recent results of Guo and Yang on the natural density of rectangular unimodular matrices over F-qx]. We also propose a new conjecture on the density of unimodular matrix polynomials. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.