Abstract-An automated knowledge-based vision system for skeletal growth estimation in children is reported in this paper. Images were obtained from hand radiographs of 32 male and 25 female children of age 1-16 yr. Phalanx bones were automatically localized and segmented using hierarchical inferences and active shape models, respectively. A number of shape descriptors were obtained from the segmented bone contour to quantify skeletal growth. From these descriptors, a feature vector was selected for a regression model and a Bayesian estimator. The estimation accuracy was 84% for females and 82% for males. This level of accuracy is comparable to that of expert pediatric radiologists, which suggests that the proposed approach has a potential application in pediatric medicine.

List decoding is a novel method for decoding Reed-Solomon (RS) codes that generates a list of candidate transmitted messages instead of one unique message as with conventional algebraic decoding, making it possible to correct more errors. The Guruswami-Sudan (GS) algorithm is the most efficient list decoding algorithm for RS codes. Until recently only a few papers in the literature suggested practical methods to implement the key steps (interpolation and factorisation) of the GS algorithm that make the list decoding of RS codes feasible. However, the algorithm's high decoding complexity is unsolved and a novel complexity-reduced modification to improve its efficiency is presented. A detailed explanation of the GS algorithm with the complexity-reduced modification is given with simulation results of RS codes for different list decoding parameters over the AWGN and Rayleigh fading channels. A complexity analysis is presented comparing the GS algorithm with our modified GS algorithm, showing the modification can reduce complexity significantly in low error weight situations. Simulation results using the modified GS algorithm show larger coding gains for RS codes with lower code rates, with more significant gains being achieved over the Rayleigh fading channels.

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Experimental evidence is given for boron (B) enhanced diffusion of nitrogen (N) in ion-implanted 4H silicon carbide (4H-SiC), when a nitrogen implant is co-doped within an existing boron p-type well. The co-implanted nitrogen is shown to diffuse continuously with time when samples are annealed at 1600 °C—with little movement of the boron p-well implant profile. An effective nitrogen in boron diffusivity at 1600 °C is determined to be at least 60 times larger than that of a mono-doped nitrogen implant.

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