Abstract: A method for training a speech-emotion recognition classifier under a continuously updatable and re-trainable ASER machine learning model. The quantified training data is generated by first processing the utterances of a human speech source and the associated texts in an emotion evaluation and rating process with normalization; then, extracting the features of the utterance; quantifying the feature attributes of the extracted features by labelling, tagging, and weighting the feature attributes, with their values assigned under measurable scales. The quantified training data comprises the normalized results of the emotion evaluation and rating process, the extracted features, the quantified emotional feature attributes, and the hash values of the quantified emotional feature attributes.

Abstract: A computer-implement method for exchanging data between a blockchain system and a non-blockchain system is provided. The method includes: adding, by endorser nodes, periodically a plurality of status information of the endorser nodes to a smart contract of a blockchain ledger; receiving, by a first peer node, a transaction from an application; sending, by the first peer node, the received transaction to all endorser nodes; processing, by the endorser nodes, the transaction via the smart contract to obtain a plurality of endorsements; electing, by the endorser nodes, one of the endorser nodes as a target endorser node according to the status information of the endorser nodes; and transferring, by the target endorser node, the endorsed transaction to the non-blockchain system via an API corresponding to the non-blockchain system.

Abstract: A power-converter module has a switching Printed Circuit Board (PCB) with power transistors that generate heat. Ground, an input power supply, and an output power supply to the power transistors connect through metal traces on the switching PCB directly to interposer heat sinks that are soldered between the switching PCB and a system PCB. The metal traces and interposer heat sinks carry both supply or ground currents and heat away from the power transistors. These power and ground currents continue from the interposer heat sinks to the system PCB through direct solder joints between the system PCB and the interposer heat sinks. An interposer PCB has a same thickness as the interposer heat sinks and carries control signals from the system PCB to the switching PCB, bypassing the interposer heat sinks. The interposer heat sinks have an interposer portion soldered between the PCBs and fins beyond the switching PCB footprint.

Abstract: A method for image-capturing of an internal organ by a miniature imaging device, comprising: generating a light at a first light intensity on to a subject area of an internal organ and capturing an image of the subject area by a miniature imaging device configured under default exposure parameter values; computing a second light intensity and optimized exposure parameter values based on brightness of the captured image, an orientation, a position, and a motion of the miniature imaging device; and generating a light at the second light intensity on to the subject area and recapturing the image of the subject area by the miniature imaging device configured under the optimized exposure parameter values. The second light intensity and optimized exposure parameter values are derived by an ex vivo processing unit in wireless data communication with the miniature imaging device.

Abstract: A mass spectrometer system (10) is provided in which the voltage controller (12) can have separate first and second high-voltage control circuits (34, 40) which are physically disconnected from and at different ground planes to one another. Communication between the first and second high-voltage control circuits (34, 40) is enabled via an interface circuit (30) and one or more wireless, preferably radio-frequency, communicators (38, 44, 46, 48).

Abstract: A Battery Management System (BMS) inspects a battery pack using AC impedance. A controller on the BMS drives a Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) output signal to an on-board excitation regulator such as a synchronous buck converter that modulates a limited energy unit such as a capacitor with a swept frequency of a PWM input signal. The capacitor modulations are applied to a terminal of the battery pack as an AC excitation signal. Synchronous sampling of the battery pack provides responses to the AC excitation signal. An AC excitation signal current and a battery response voltage are processed and Fourier-transformed to generate a Nyquist plot of the excitation-response data. Curve shifts can indicate worn battery cells. The capacitor generating the AC excitation signal draws little energy from the battery pack so AC impedance inspection can occur during all modes: charging, discharging, and idle modes without an external power supply.

Abstract: A start-up routine for a Switched-Mode Power Supply (SMPS) gradually increases the duty cycle while reducing an initial dead time to a final optimal dead time for normal operation. Reliability is improved by the larger initial dead time that reduces ringing in switching transistors during low-voltage conditions early in the start-up sequence. Efficiency is improved by reducing the optimal dead time as voltages approach operating levels. The initial dead time is pre-calculated as a function of the input voltage and initial duty cycle. Optimal dead times are pre-calculated as a function of output voltage and output current. The optimal dead time is adjusted for each iteration of a second loop that also increases duty cycle until the target operating output voltage is reached. Pre-calculated dead times are based on the time required to fully charge and discharge parasitic drain-to-source capacitances in the switching transistors in the SMPS circuit.

Abstract: A level-shifting output buffer has cascode transistors with varying rather than fixed gate bias voltages. An adaptive regulator bypasses the I/O pad voltage to a regulator output when the I/O begins switching, but later clamps the regulator output to a middle bias voltage. The regulator output can be applied to a supply terminal of a buffer that drives the gate of the cascode transistor. Since the adaptive regulator follows the I/O pad voltage as switching begins, a voltage boost is provided to the gates of the cascode transistors, allowing for higher currents or smaller cascode transistors and preventing over-voltage stress. The adaptive regulator has an n-channel bypass transistor between the I/O pad and the regulator output, and an n-channel clamp transistor between the regulator output and the middle bias, with a gate driven from the I/O pad by either a p-channel gate-biasing transistor or an n-channel gate-biasing transistor.

Abstract: Described is a method of calibrating a camera. The method comprises obtaining geographical coordinates of a selected physical point location within an image view of the camera and measuring an angle between an x-axis of a real-world coordinate system passing through said selected point location with respect to true north. The method includes using said obtained geographical coordinates, said measured angle, and projection data derived from characteristics of the camera to derive modified projection data for transforming a two-dimensional pixel coordinate system of the camera image view into a three-dimensional geographical coordinate system for point locations within the image view of the camera.

Abstract: Described is a method and device for detecting a discontinuous transmission (DTX) state or a partial DTX state at an uplink control information (UCI) receiver in a wireless communication system. The method comprises receiving a linear block encoded signal on an uplink (UL) at said UCI receiver and processing said signal after resource element (RE) demapping to obtain a soft bit sequence. The soft bit sequence is then transformed into multiple sub-sequences. Correlation metrics are determined for two or more of the multiple sub-sequences or two or more sub-sequence groups derived from the multiple sub-sequences or sequence segments derived from the sub-sequence groups. Then, a determination is made if a DTX state has occurred by evaluating the determined correlation metrics.

Abstract: An implementation cost of a line-scan optical coherence tomography (OCT) apparatus is reduced by miniaturizing a scanning mirror and using a light source with relaxed requirement in intensity uniformity. The mirror reflects a probe light beam to different parts of a sample for line-scanning the sample. A line-compressing lens compresses the probe light beam's cross-sectional length before the beam reaches the mirror, allowing the mirror to be miniaturized to reflect only the compressed beam. In generating a linear light beam that gives the probe light beam, a cascade of collimating lens, Powell lens and focusing lens generates the linear light beam from a raw light beam of a point source. A slit further filters the linear light beam to remove a peripheral portion thereof such that the linear light beam is substantially uniform in intensity even if an asymmetrical divergent light source is used.

Abstract: Systems and methods which provide parallel processing of multiple message bundles for a codeword undergoing a decoding process are described. Embodiments provide low-latency segmented quasi-cyclic low-density parity-check (QC-LDDC) decoder configurations in which decoding process tasks are allocated to different segments of the low-latency segmented QC-LDPC decoder for processing multiple bundles of messages in parallel. A segmented shifter of a low-latency segmented QC-LDPC decoder implementation may be configured to process multiple bundles of a plurality of edge paths in parallel. Multiple bundles of messages of a same check node cluster (CNC) are processed in parallel. Additionally, multiple bundles of messages of a plurality of CNCs are processed in parallel.

Abstract: Described is a bandpass filter comprising a multi-layered body, a first resonator conductor formed on a first layer of the body and a second resonator conductor formed on a second, tower layer of the body. The first resonator conductor and the second resonator conductor comprise a first coupling area formed by only a partial overlap of the first resonator conductor and the second resonator conductor. A length of each said resonator conductor is in the range of ?g/3 to ?g/5, where ?g. is a center wavelength of the bandpass filter passband.

Abstract: A method for a protocol in digital asset trading includes step as follow. Trading information is exchanged between the first and the second nodes, in which a first digital currency belonging to the first node and a second digital currency belonging to the second node are expected to be exchanged, and prices of the first and second digital currencies are time-dependent. An atomic swap script and a smart contract are generated. A compensation fee to be paid to the second node by the first node is computed. A redeeming or refunding event is performed in response to the atomic swap script and the smart contract with paying the compensation fee to the second node, in which the compensation fee is dependent on the prices of the first and second digital currencies such that is time-dependent.

Abstract: A hardware accelerator for accelerating the zero knowledge succinct non-interactive argument of knowledge (zk-SNARK) protocol by reducing the computation time of the cryptographic verification is disclosed. The accelerator includes a zk-SNARK engine having one or more processing units running in parallel. The processing unit can include one or more multiply-accumulate operation (MAC) units, one or more fast Fourier transform (FFT) units; and one or more elliptic curve processor (ECP) units. The one or more ECP units are configured to reduce a bit-length of a scalar di in an ECP algorithm used for generating a proof, thereby the cryptographic verification requires less computation power.

Abstract: An apparatus for managing data messages comprises: one or more producers generating data streams containing data messages of varying sizes that required processing; one or more consumers for processing the data messages; a multi-message queues sub-system for queuing data messages having different processing time durations; a rate limiter for discriminating data messages based on processing speed for queuing the data messages in one or the other message queue of the multi-message queues sub-system; a fair dispatcher for dispatching the data messages to one or more consumers according to their processing statuses to maximize the processing capacity of the apparatus; and a task splitter for splitting data messages that are deemed too large.

Abstract: The present disclosure describes methods, devices, and non-transitory computer readable storage medium for managing lifecycle of a knowledge base (KB) in chatbot systems. The method includes receiving an update request and updating a current-version KB as a new current-version KB. The method also includes receiving a first test request from a knowledge point (KP) operator and determining whether the new current-version KB passes a first test; and in response to the determination that the new current-version KB passes the first test, submitting the new current-version KB as a new submit-version KB. The method further includes receiving a second test request from a KP manager and determining whether the new submit-version KB passes a second test; and in response to the determination that the new submit-version KB passes the second test, storing an original production-version KB as a pervious-version KB and submitting the new submit-version KB as a new production-version KB.

Abstract: A method of high dimensional data analysis in real-time comprising executing dimension-reducing an input historical data set under a t-SNE model and determining from the resulting dimension-reduced data set a recent; further dimension-reducing the recent group data set under a PCA model; statistical analyzing the further dimension-reduced data set to determine a threshold group for distinguishing abnormal data from normal ones in a real-time data stream. The method may further include training a classifier using the abnormal or normal data set for predicting anomaly in the real-time data source system. Alternatively, a discrepancy training data set is computed from one of the normal and abnormal data sets and be used to train one of independent normal and abnormal data regression models; with the other one trained by transfer learning based on the trained one. The trained regression models are then used to predict discrepancy values.

Abstract: A dynamic-tile neural network accelerator allows for the number and size of computational tiles to be re-configured. Each sub-array of computational cells has edge cells on the left-most column that have an added vector mux that feeds the cell output back to an adder-comparator to allow Rectified Linear Unit (ReLU) and pooling operations that combine outputs shifted in from other cells. The edge cells drive external output registers and receive external weights. The weights and outputs are shifted in opposite directions horizontally between cells while control and input data are shifted in a same direction vertically between cells. A column of row data selectors is inserted between sub-arrays to bypass weights and output data around sub-arrays, while a row of column data selectors are inserted between sub-arrays to bypass control and input data. Larger tiles are configured by passing data directly through these selectors without bypassing.

Abstract: A module has electronic components mounted to a Printed Circuit Board (PCB) with multiple patterned conductive layers connecting to conductive slot metal around a conductive slot. A groove is cut through a top molding encapsulant above and into the conductive slot but does not cut through a bottom molding encapsulant. A terminal pin is inserted into the groove and pushed down into the conductive slot. When heated, embedded solder previously applied to the conductive slot metal flows between the end of the terminal pin and the conductive slot metal to form a solder bond. An end of the PCB past the conductive slot has no metal traces, preventing shorts. Epoxy can be placed into the groove around the terminal pin or a hole formed in the terminal pin to increase strength of the anchored terminal pin. The molding around the groove protects terminal pins from shorting from the side.