Radial basis function networks with quantized parameters

A RBFN implemented with quantized parameters is proposed and the relative or limited approximation property is presented. Simulation results for sinusoidal function approximation with various quantization levels are shown. The results indicate that the network presents good approximation capability even with severe quantization. The parameter quantization decreases the memory size and circuit complexity required to store the network parameters leading to compact mixed-signal circuits proper for low-power applications. ©2008 IEEE.

Sequential split vector quantization of LSF parameters using conditional PDF

A better performing product code vector quantization (VQ) method is proposed for coding the line spectrum frequency (LSF) parameters; the method is referred to as sequential split vector quantization (SeSVQ). The split sub-vectors of the full LSF vector are quantized in sequence and thus uses conditional distribution derived from the previous quantized sub-vectors. Unlike the traditional split vector quantization (SVQ) method, SeSVQ exploits the inter sub-vector correlation and thus provides improved rate-distortion performance, but at the expense of higher memory. We investigate the quantization performance of SeSVQ over traditional SVQ and transform domain split VQ (TrSVQ) methods. Compared to SVQ, SeSVQ saves 1 bit and nearly 3 bits, for telephone-band and wide-band speech coding applications respectively.

Impact of HPA nonlinearity on MIMO systems with quantized equal gain transmission

In this paper, we investigate the performance of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) transmit beamforming (TB) systems in the presence of nonlinear high-power amplifiers (HPAs). Due to the suboptimality of maximal ratio transmission/maximal ratio combining (MRT/MRC) under HPA nonlinearity, quantized equal gain transmission (QEGT) is suggested as a feasible TB scheme. The effect of HPA nonlinearity on the performance of MIMO QEGT/MRC is evaluated in terms of the average symbol error probability (SEP) and system capacity, considering transmission over uncorrelated quasi-static frequency-flat Rayleigh fading channels. Numerical results are provided and show the effects of several system parameters, such as the parameters of nonlinear HPA, cardinality of the beamforming weight vector codebook, and modulation order of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM), on performance.

Airborne particulate matter at a bus station : concentration levels and governing parameters

Traffic emissions are an important contributor to ambient air pollution, especially in large cities featuring extensive and high density traffic networks. Bus fleets represent a significant part of inner city traffic causing an increase in exposure to general public, passengers and drivers along bus routes and at bus stations. Limited information is available on quantification of the levels, and governing parameters affecting the air pollution exposure at bus stations. The presented study investigated the bus emissions-dominated ambient air in a large, inner city bus station, with a specific focus on submicrometer particles. The study’s objectives were (i) quantification of the concentration levels; (ii) characterisation of the spatio-temporal variation; (iii) identification of the parameters governing the emissions levels at the bus station and (iv) assessment of the relationship between particle concentrations measured at the street level (background) and within the bus station. The results show that up to 90% of the emissions at the station are ultrafine particles (smaller than 100 nm), with the concentration levels up to 10 times the value of urban ambient air background (annual) and up to 4 times the local ambient air background. The governing parameters affecting particle concentration at the station were bus flow rate and meteorological conditions (wind velocity). Particle concentration followed a diurnal trend, with an increase in the morning and evening, associated with traffic rush hours. Passengers’ exposure could be significant compared to the average outdoor and indoor exposure levels.