A frequency measuring and control apparatus includes a plurality of synchronized oscillators integrated in parallel into one programmable logic device.

Many technologies employ phase locked loops (PLLs). For example, in scanning probe microscopy, scientists use scanning probe microscopes (SPMs) to reveal data about various properties of materials, like gold or silicon, at very fine resolution down to molecules and atoms of the materials. SPMs are a family of ultra-high magnification instruments that include Scanning Tunneling Microscopes (STMs), Atomic Force Microscopes (AFMs), Near Field Scanning Optical Microscopes (NSOMs), among others. Non-contact SPMs include apertureless NSOMs, and Kelvin Probe Force Microscopes (KPFMs) which are non-contact variants of AFMs.
In one example, an SPM may include a flat support upon which a material specimen is placed, and a cantilever having a free end with a small sharp probe suspended above the specimen probe with a tip so fine it is about the size of a single atom. The SPM also may include a cantilever actuator to oscillate the cantilever in relation to the specimen, and one or more detectors to measure the oscillation of the cantilever. The SPM further may include a digital PLL to receive a cantilever oscillation signal from the oscillation detector(s) and an output reference oscillation signal from a reference oscillator. The digital PLL then determines a phase difference between the oscillation signals to generate a phase difference signal. The digital PLL next filters the phase difference signal, amplifies or attenuates the phase difference signal, and feeds the phase difference signal back as an input to the reference oscillator. The output signal of the reference oscillator is also coupled to a phase shifter to optimize resonance of the cantilever and is mixed with a cantilever excitation signal that is fed downstream to the electromechanical oscillator. As a result, the PLL responds to the oscillation input signals by automatically raising or lowering the frequency of the cantilever oscillator until the cantilever oscillates in fixed relation to the reference oscillator signal.
In non-contact modes of SPM, a cantilever may be oscillated at or close to its fundamental resonance frequency, and the amplitude, phase, and frequency of the oscillating cantilever may vary as a function of probe-sample interaction forces. Such variation in cantilever oscillation with respect to an external reference oscillation provides information about the characteristics of the specimen and is used to discriminate between different types of materials on the surface of the specimen.
In a particular example, digital PLL circuits are now used for non-contact AFM and offer superior stability and accuracy in frequency detection over analog PLL's. In this example, a reference oscillator of the PLL generates the reference signal, which is then mixed with a PLL input signal. Separately, an excitation signal is used to excite the cantilever. For example, the reference oscillator may be a numerically controlled oscillator (NCO) that has a normal output and a quadrature output. These outputs can then be summed to generate a phase shift. But the disadvantage of this configuration is that it is not possible to run cantilever excitation and PLL detection at harmonic frequencies of each other. They must be the same.
In another example, involving KPFM or apertureless NSOM applications, additional lock-in amplifiers are used to analyze the same signals in parallel to the PLL. These applications involve detection of integer or rational multiples of the PLL reference frequency as well as fixed offsets from a fluctuating base cantilever frequency. For instance, two lock-In amplifiers can be run in parallel to a PLL detector. But such a configuration is considerably costly for each additional lock-in, and runs on an external reference. Modern digital lock-ins generate the reference using a PLL with very low time constant and, thus, cannot handle constant changes in frequency very well. In any event, it is not possible with such a configuration to provide a fixed offset from the fluctuating PLL reference frequency or a harmonic thereof.
Frequency generation in digital PLL's is based on the Direct Digital Synthesis (DDS) principle, and hybrid approaches include using analog mixers with digital reference frequency generators. Synchronization between DDS phase accumulators can be achieved by sending synchronization pulses on zero crossings from a master phase accumulator where a synched phase accumulator is held until the master signal crosses zero. In one implementation, two DDS chips are run in parallel on the same clock and on the same data bus. But this design does not permit setting up the two DDS chips with different frequencies as is required for detecting or exciting relatively high harmonics.
Finally, with analog PLL circuits, although it is possible to create integer and fractional multiples of a base frequency with frequency dividers between a VCO and a mixer, it is complicated to build a variable frequency ratio frequency multiplier this way and it is impossible to have the circuit output pure sine waves this way.

Frequency measuring and control apparatus with integrated parallel synchronized oscillators


An optical measuring cell for measuring gas absorption with a light source for introducing light into a measuring volume and a light sensor located approximately opposite the light source in the direction of light propagation and relative to the measuring volume for receiving light that is guided through the measuring volume is provided. The concentration of one or multiple target gases in the measuring volume is detected by an evaluation unit. The measuring volume is constituted by an internal volume of a hollow fiber having an internal diameter less than 1 mm.

In the fields of photometry and optical spectroscopy to determine the concentration of a gas component in a test gas by means of absorption measurement, the problem arises with the measuring sample cell that the transmission of the empty sample cell without any target gas present, and therefore without any absorption due to the target gas, must be known in order to be able to identify the target gas by evaluating the gas-dependent absorption.
A known solution consists in flushing the sample cell with a gas from a reservoir, for example a compressed gas bottle, which does not contain the gas components to be measured and also does not absorb in the wavelength region being used. Nitrogen, for example, is usable for this purpose if ambient air is used as the test gas. Since conventional measuring cells usually have large volumes, depending on their application, being typically >100 cm3 to several liters, and a flushing gas volume which is a multiple of the measuring cell volume is needed for each flushing operation, then for continuously running or large numbers of measuring processes, this results in a substantial consumption of gas.


A flow rate control method for raising a flow rate performed in a flow control device having a first control valve, a second control valve downstream of the first control valve, and a pressure sensor for measuring a pressure between the first and the second control valves, comprises a step (a) of determining a pressure remaining downstream of the first control valve in a state of closing the second control valve, and a step (b) of controlling the pressure remaining downstream of the first control valve by adjusting the opening degree of the second control valve based on the output of the pressure sensor to flow the fluid downstream the second control valve at the first flow rate.

In semiconductor manufacturing equipment and chemical plants, various types of flowmeters and flow rate control devices are utilized to control the flow of fluids such as material gases and etching gases. Among them, the pressure-type flow rate control device is widely used because of its ability to control the flow rate of various fluids with high accuracy by a relatively simple mechanism in which a control valve and a restriction part (for example, an orifice plate) are combined. Further, the pressure-type flow rate control device has an excellent flow rate control characteristic that can perform a stable flow rate control even if the primary-side supply pressure fluctuates greatly. A pressure type flow rate control device is disclosed in, for example, Patent Document 1.
As the control valve of the pressure-type flow rate control device, a piezoelectric element driven valve, in which a metal diaphragm valve element is opened/closed by a piezoelectric element driven device (hereinafter, sometimes referred to as a piezo actuator), is used. Patent Document 2 discloses a normally open type piezoelectric element driven valve used as a control valve.
Pressure-type flow rate control devices are configured to adjust the flow rate by controlling a fluid pressure upstream of the restriction part (hereinafter, sometimes referred to as upstream pressure). The upstream pressure can be controlled by adjusting the opening degree of the control valve provided upstream of the restriction part. By adapting the upstream pressure to a pressure corresponding to a desired flow rate, it is possible to flow the fluid at the desired flow rate.

Flow rate control method and flow rate control device


A disc-like spacer arranged below a first roller bearing rotatably supporting a driven crankshaft that forms an anti-rotation system is formed with a plurality of notches in the circumferential direction. A spot face is provided to face the outer circumferential surface of the spacer, and communication holes and are drilled on the outer circumferential side of the spot face to extend in the axial direction of the scroll. Also formed is a communication hole communicating the communication hole with the first roller bearing via the notches. A grease nipple is mounted to the communication hole. To replenish grease, the fixed scroll is removed from the housing such that the orbiting scroll is exposed, and grease is injected from the grease nipple into the first roller bearing with a grease gun.

A conventional scroll fluid machine is formed by, for example, as shown in FIG. 1, a fixed scroll 10 having a first wrap 14 formed inside a recessed space s enclosed by a peripheral wall 12, and a movable orbiting scroll 20 having a second wrap 24 configured to interleave with the first wrap 14, and is configured to be capable of changing the volume of sealed pockets formed between the wraps 14 and 24 by revolving the orbiting scroll 20 around the fixed scroll 10 without rotating the orbiting scroll 20.
The orbiting scroll 20 is revolved by a revolving mechanism that includes a main drive crankshaft 42 coupled to the orbiting scroll 20 via an integral eccentric shaft 44 made eccentric to the orbiting scroll 20 by an amount corresponding to the orbiting radius, this main drive crankshaft 42 being rotatably supported along a center axis of a housing 40 and rotated, to impart a revolving motion of the orbiting scroll 20. Anti-rotation systems 50 each having a driven crankshaft 52 that undergoes an eccentric rotation with an eccentric amount corresponding to that of the main drive crankshaft 42 are provided at a certain distance in the radial direction from the center axis of the main drive crankshaft 42, symmetrically in the circumferential direction.
This anti-rotation system 50 prevents rotation of the orbiting scroll 20 while allowing it to revolve as the main drive crankshaft 42 rotates. The driven crankshaft 52 is rotatably supported by a first roller bearing 54 secured in the housing 40, and an eccentric shaft 52a integral with the driven crankshaft 52 is rotatably supported by a second roller bearing 56 that is supported by the orbiting scroll 20.
In scroll fluid machines, particularly in compressors, to achieve clean compressed gas, a spiral self-lubricating seal member 30 is fitted in a groove recessed in the end face of the second wrap 24 of the orbiting scroll 20 contacting the fixed scroll 10, and in the end face of the first wrap 14 of the fixed scroll 10 contacting the end plate 22 of the orbiting scroll 20. Thus, while the wraps are maintained oil-free, the inside of the recessed space s is kept tightly sealed from the outside.
In oil-free scroll fluid machines, the orbiting scroll 20 is adjusted to achieve precise parallelism and a clearance relative to the fixed scroll 10 to revolve with adequate interleaving precision. This is for preventing various problems such as leakage from the recessed space s, noise caused by contact between a wrap and the sliding surface of the counterpart, abnormal abrasion, increase in power due to a wrap contacting on one side, and durability loss of bearings, etc. Oil-free scroll fluid machines commonly rely on sealed grease as they do not have means of lubricating the bearings of the main drive crankshaft 42 and driven crankshafts 52. With this sealed grease, however, the grease-sealed part need to be replenished with grease periodically.
Patent Document 1 (Japanese Examined Utility Model Application Publication No. H7-2961) discloses means of replenishing grease for a bearing 46 rotatably supporting an eccentric shaft 44 of the main drive crankshaft 42. This grease replenishing means has an oil supply passage 60 drilled from an outer circumferential surface of a balance weight 48 attached to the eccentric shaft 44 and opens to a shaft end of the eccentric shaft 44, as shown in FIG. 1. The opening of the oil supply passage 60 at the shaft end of the eccentric shaft is brought opposite a bearing plate 26 attached to the orbiting scroll 20 to communicate with the bearing 46 through a gap c formed between the eccentric shaft end and the bearing plate 26.
To replenish grease, the opening of the oil supply passage 60 at the outer circumferential surface of the balance weight is brought opposite a grease gun port formed in the housing 40, and grease is replenished through the oil supply passage 60 from a grease gun inserted into the grease gun port.
Patent Document 2 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-227779) discloses two means of replenishing grease for a first roller bearing 54 and a second roller bearing 56 that form an anti-rotation system 50. This replenishing means will be described with reference to FIG. 1. Referring to FIG. 1, the first replenishing means is an oil supply passage drilled in the driven crankshaft 52 along the axial direction to open to the inside of a bearing holder 70 at one end and to a slit gap c formed between the second roller bearing 56 and the bearing plate 26 at the other end. A grease nipple is mounted to the opening at the bearing holder 70 to supply grease to the first roller bearing 54 and the second roller bearing 56 through the oil supply passage.
The second replenishing means disclosed in Patent Document 2 is a second oil supply passage, in addition to the oil supply passage described above, drilled in the housing 40 that supports the first roller bearing 54 in a direction orthogonal to the scroll axis from a radially outer side of the first roller bearing 54. The second oil supply passage passes through the first roller bearing 54 and communicates with the previously mentioned oil supply passage. A grease nipple is mounted to the second oil supply passage for injecting grease.
The grease replenishing means disclosed in Patent Document 3 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-282496), which will be explained with reference to FIG. 1, is means of injecting grease into the bearing 46 from the fixed scroll side, via a through hole formed in a central portion of the end plate 22 of the orbiting scroll 20. Also disclosed is means of injecting grease into the second roller bearing 56 via a through hole formed in the bearing plate 26 that supports the second roller bearing 56 at a position outside the orbiting scroll 20.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Examined Utility Model Application Publication No. H7-2961
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2002-227779
Patent Document 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-282496
Patent Document 2 discloses means of replenishing grease to the first roller bearing 54. However, with the first replenishing means disclosed in Patent Document 2, the bearing holder 70 needs to be removed, and a grease nipple needs to be mounted to the opening at the bearing holder 70, to replenish grease. Since a pulley 100, a cooling fan 104, and a cooling fan cover 106, etc. are attached at the other end of the main drive crankshaft 42 as shown in FIG. 1, these components need to be removed to set a grease gun on the pulley 100 side.
The second replenishing means disclosed in Patent Document 2 requires extra space on the radially outer side of the housing 40 for installing the grease gun. The second oil supply passage is drilled in a direction orthogonal to the axial direction of the scroll, and oriented at right angle with the oil supply passage drilled in the driven crankshaft 52. Therefore, these oil supply passages cannot be formed at the same time with a cutting machine, and an extra number of process steps is required.
When replacing the self-lubricating seal members 30 mentioned above in scroll fluid machines, it is necessary to remove the fixed scroll 10 from the housing 40. It is desirable if, at this time, grease can also be supplied to the first roller bearing 54.

Scroll fluid machine having a communication hole connecting an oil supply port with a first bearing to open towards a fixed scroll and being on a radially outer side of an orbiting end plate


A method and system for inspecting an object having a planar face with surface variations such as catalytic converters. Light sources are placed above the planar face of the object for lighting the face of the object. At least one obscuration is positioned proximate the planar face of the object to limit the lighting of the planar face of the object to thereby provide a low depth field of lighting. The planar face of the object is imaged to provide an image representation of the planar face of the object. The image representation of the planar face of the object is evaluated to characterize edge chip damage.

The present invention relates to imaging technologies for inspection of devices such as, but not limited to, catalytic converters. More specifically, but not exclusively, the present invention relates to evaluating the presence or absence or edge chip damage for an object such as a catalytic converter. The problems in the art addressed by the present invention are described in terms of catalytic converters. The present invention, however, is not limited to catalytic converters, but can be used in other applications as well.
Catalytic converters are typically fragile ceramic blocks which can easily be damaged. Catalytic converters are comprised of a plurality of parallel tubes to form a honeycomb structured object. Due to the fragility of these ceramic blocks, the catalytic converters can be easily damaged particularly on the edges. This damage may be referred to as edge chips. These edge chips affect the performance and sealing of the catalytic converters into an enclosure. Thus, the presence of edge chips is a significant problem in catalytic converter manufacturing.
There is a need to provide for inspection of catalytic converters. Manufacturers of catalytic converter monoliths and diesel particulate filters (DPF) have been facing increasing demands from a customer base to perform 100 percent inspection of all product produced or processed in the plant. Such inspection would, of course, have to be of a nondestructive type. Therefore, it would be useful if imaging and image processing technologies could be used to improve the inspection process including evaluating for the presence of edge chips.
One of the problems with some inspection processes is their complexity. The complexity can include using multiple cameras, rotating objects or other cumbersome techniques. Therefore, it would be preferred if a practical, less cumbersome and less complex approach could be used.
In an inspection process, it would be preferred if only a single camera needed to be used and the object being inspected need not be rotated. Using multiple cameras to view edges from different angles by rotating the object would be more cumbersome and more complex.

Face lighting for edge location in catalytic converter inspection


The invention is directed to an arrangement for the generation of intensive short-wavelength radiation based on a gas discharge plasma. It is the object of the invention to find a novel possibility for generating intensive short-wavelength radiation, particularly EUV radiation, based on a gas discharge plasma which achieves a long life of the electrode system along with a high total efficiency of the radiation source without substantially increasing the dimensions of the discharge unit. This object is met, according to the invention, in that exclusively suitably shaped vacuum insulation areas which have the shape of an annular gap and which are formed depending on the product of gas pressure (p) and interelectrode distance (d) between the cathode and anode are provided for insulating the cathode and anode from one another in a cylindrically symmetric electrode arrangement for reliable suppression of electron arcing.

a) Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to an arrangement for the generation of intensive short-wavelength radiation based on a gas discharge plasma, preferably as a source of EUV radiation. The invention is applied in particular in high-power radiation sources for ELV lithography which requires radiation sources with electrodes having a long life in the process of industrial fabrication of semiconductor chips.
b) Description of the Related Art
In semiconductor technology, there is a continuing trend toward increasingly smaller structures, and radiation with increasingly shorter wavelengths is required for lithographic generation of these structures. At present, EUV radiation sources, viewed as the most promising lithographic tool, are being developed. Basically, there are two different ways of generating the radiating plasma: by laser (LPP) and by gas discharge (GDPP).
Various arrangements are known from the prior art relating to gas discharge-based EUV radiation sources, namely, Z-pinch, plasma focus, star pinch, hollow-cathode discharge arrangements, and capillary discharge arrangements. Further, there are variations in the above-named discharge types (e.g., hypocycloidal pinch discharge) and arrangements that combine elements of different discharge types. In all of these arrangements, a pulsed high-power discharge of >10 kA is ignited in a gas of determined density, and a very hot (kT>30 eV), dense plasma is formed locally as a result of the magnetic forces and dissipated power in the ionized gas.
However, the radiation sources must satisfy precisely defined requirements for use in EUV lithography under production conditions:
1. wavelength13.5 nm ± 1%2. radiation output in the intermediate focus115 W3. repetition frequency7-10 kHz4. Dose stability (averaged over 50 pulses)0.3%5. life of the collector optics6 months6. life of the electrode system6 months.
It is standard for high-power EUV gas discharge sources of the type mentioned above to have a special ceramic disk or cylinder as an insulator between the electrodes. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,414,438 B1 discloses a method and arrangement by which short-wavelength radiation is generated from a gas-discharge plasma in that a pre-ionization of the work gas takes place between coaxial electrodes as a sliding discharge on ceramic surfaces which emits UV radiation and fast electrons, and the ionized gas is conducted through an axial aperture of one of the electrodes in the gas discharge area, where it ignites the main discharge.
WO 03/087867 A1 discloses another high-energy photon source that generates EUV radiation in the range of 12-14 nm. In order to limit erosion of the electrodes, particularly of the center electrode and, therefore, to increase the lifetime of the electrodes, cylindrical insulators are arranged at the side walls of the center electrode so that the discharge current after pinch ignition is shifted over a larger area to another portion of the electrode. It is described as particularly advantageous that the center electrode is covered on the inner side and outer side with insulating tubing.
DE 101 51 080 C1 describes similar tubular insulator configurations that are also added to the inner wall of the outer electrode. Further, different materials are also indicated for this purpose. It is evident that while all of these insulator tubes limit the erosion of the electrodes to determined surface zones, the lifetime of the insulator/electrode configurations is appreciably shortened through cracking and metallization, particularly with high pulse repetition frequencies of the EUV gas discharge source.
For various reasons, the arrangements mentioned above always only meet the above-mentioned requirements (1-7) in a few respects. This can be explained using the example of star pinch discharge which, in itself, is advantageous. Because of the comparatively large distances between plasma and wall (which represents a severe problem in all of the other arrangements due to the otherwise small dimensions), the star pinch arrangement is characterized by a long electrode lifetime. However, the large dimensions of the star pinch discharges cause a luminous plasma with a length of more than 5 mm. This considerably reduces the efficiency of the collector optics and, therefore, the overall efficiency as a quotient of the output in the intermediate focus and the electric power introduced for the discharge. Electrode configurations which employ additional insulator tubes because of their short distances in order to improve the constant, stable generation of the plasma suffer in principle from premature failure of the insulator.

Arrangement for the generation of intensive short-wavelength radiation based on a gas discharge plasma


A resource upgrade predictor can be operable to receive, from a first network node device, traffic information. Based on the traffic information, the resource upgrade predictor can obtain network utilization data related to other network node devices having a similar interference characteristic (e.g., signal-to-noise ratio) to the first network node device. The resource upgrade predictor can use this network utilization data to determine a demand (e.g., demand level, demand point) at which at least a defined value related to a transmission link capacity associated with transmissions between the first network node device and the user equipment, is attained (e.g., a percentage of physical resource block loading). The resource upgrade predictor can also obtain projected demand data associated with a geographic area serviced by the first network node device, and determine, based upon the demand and the projected demand data, a time at which a network resource upgrade related to the first network node device, is to be performed.

Radio technologies in cellular communications have grown rapidly and evolved since the launch of analog cellular systems in the 1980s, starting from the First Generation (1G) in 1980s, Second Generation (2G) in 1990s, Third Generation (3G) in 2000s, and Fourth Generation (4G) in 2010s (including Long Term Evolution (LTE) and variants of LTE). The amount of traffic in cellular networks has experienced a tremendous amount of growth and expansion, and there are no indications that such growth will decelerate. It is expected that this growth will include use of the network not only by humans, but also by an increasing number of machines that communicate with each other, for example, surveillance cameras, smart electrical grids, sensors, home appliances and other technologies in connected homes, and intelligent transportation systems (e.g., the Internet of Things (IOT)). Additional technological growth includes 4K video, augmented reality, cloud computing, industrial automation, and vehicle to vehicle (V2V).
Consequently, advancement in future networks is driven by the demand to provide and account for massive connectivity and volume, expanded throughput and capacity, and ultra-low latency.
Fifth generation (5G) mobile access networks, which can also be referred to as New Radio (NR) access networks, are currently being developed and expected to handle a very wide range of use cases and requirements, including among others enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB) and machine type communications (e.g., involving IOT devices). 5G wireless communication networks are expected to fulfill the demand of exponentially increasing data traffic and to allow people and machines to enjoy gigabit data rates with very low latency. Compared to existing fourth generation (4G) technologies, such as long-term evolution (LTE) networks and advanced LTE networks, 5G provides better speeds and coverage, targeting much higher throughput with low latency and utilizing higher carrier frequencies (e.g., higher than 6 gigahertz (Ghz)) and wider bandwidths. A 5G network also increases network expandability up to hundreds of thousands of connections.
The above-described background relating to cellular networks and fixed packet networks is merely intended to provide a contextual overview of some current issues, and is not intended to be exhaustive. Other contextual information may become further apparent upon review of the following detailed description.

Machine learning between radio loading and user experience


A securing device comprises a strap having a body with first and second ends, and a fastening system which may comprise a hook-and-loop type fastener. The strap includes first and second fastening strips extending from the body first and second ends. Each fastening strip includes a hook face forming a hook portion of the hook-and-loop fastening system and an adhesive face. The strap body includes an outer material layer forming the loop portion of the fastening system. A method of securing intravenous infusion equipment with the securing device of the present invention is also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a self-attaching strap and in particular to a device and method for securing an intravenous infusion needle and tubing on a patient during an intravenous infusion and for protecting an intervention site.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a variety of medical treatment situations, it is often desirable and at times imperative to initiate an intravenous (or "IV") infusion of medications, blood, electrolytes, and similar fluids. It is often of critical importance to accomplish the task of inserting an intravenous needle or catheter into a patient's vein as quickly as possible to expeditiously administer such fluids. For this reason, peripheral veins of the hands, arms, feet and legs are often employed.
A skilled clinician can normally initiate an intravenous infusion rapidly and without assistance, but the insertion site of the intravenous catheter must be secured to prevent accidental removal. This can be an awkward, time-consuming, frustrating procedure for the nurse, physician, or paramedic who initiated the intravenous treatment and must then see to it that the needle or catheter and any excess tubing are secured. In conventional practice, strips of adhesive tape can be applied to the intravenous catheter hub and the excess tubing to secure these respective parts to the patient's skin. If only one member of the medical team has the duty of initiating the intravenous treatment, he or she can tear such strips of tape before starting the procedure, attempt to hold the intravenous equipment in place while tearing the tape, or ask for assistance.
The aforementioned procedure is even more difficult with gloves on, and many health care professionals routinely wear protective gloves when contact with body fluids is likely. Contact with a patient's body fluids is not unlikely when an intravenous treatment is administered. Adhesive tape can stick to the gloves, making application to the patents' skin difficult. The tape can also tear gloves. If gloves are used to insert a needle or a catheter and then removed prior to a taping procedure, very often a powder from the gloves is left on a clinician's hands which interferes with the adhesive properties of the tape.
Conditions of patients' skin such as excessive hair, hypothermia, increased fragility and the like can interfere with tape adhesion. Furthermore, excessive hair and fragile skin can make removal of tape painful to patients.
In response to such conditions of their patients' skin, it has been a practice of some health care professionals to avoid tape by using strips of gauze for wrapping patients' limbs and thus securing intravenous equipment. This procedure can also be cumbersome to employ and can interfere with inspection of insertion sites for dislodgment or infiltration difficulties.
There are known in the prior art several devices for securing intravenous catheters and tubing to patients. While some prior art securing devices were proposed to alleviate certain of the aforementioned problems, for one reason or another they have generally proven to be unsatisfactory.
In general, these prior art devices appear complicated to use and uncomfortable to the patient. Many involve combinations of fasteners, tube mounting members, bands, or large adhesive areas which could cause application delays, and removing them could be painful or at least difficult. The complicated constructions of some prior art devices tend to make them difficult to manufacture and therefore unduly expensive.
The appearances of some prior art devices are so unsightly and aesthetically undesirable that they may produce emotional distress in sensitive patients. The complicated and sometimes fragmented designs of some prior art devices could render them unrealistic in actual practice, especially in emergency situations, and perhaps explains why tape and dressing techniques are still commonly employed methods for securing intravenous needles or catheters and tubing.


The holding device for containers includes a receptacle member having a capacity which will accommodate a predetermined size range of containers. A selected container is held in the receptacle member by biasing members that are detachably secured to the receptacle member. The biasing members include a flap portion that resiliently bears against the container to detent the container in the receptacle. If a different container is not compatible with the biasing members, a second set of compatible biasing members can be interchanged with the first set. Since the biasing members are detachably secured to the receptacle member, the receptacle member can be formed of a plastic having one Durometer level and the biasing members can be formed of a plastic material having another Durometer level. Each Durometer level is selected to fulfill the optimum desired characteristics of the receptacle and biasing members. The holding device is thus capable of accommodating containers with relatively wide dimensional variations.

This invention relates to holding devices for holding an individual container, while such container is being filled, cleaned or tested for example, and more particularly to a novel holding device and method for accommodating individual containers of different size.
Before a container, such as an aerosol can, is filled and sealed, it is normally subjected to a cleaning process and a pressure or leak test to ensure that the container meets specified requirements for cleanliness, strength and leak resistance. Cleaning, pressure and leak testing are usually accomplished automatically by continuously transporting a succession of containers on a conveyor belt past a series of processing stations.
Since most aerosol containers are formed of non-ferrous materials, a well-known, convenient way of securing each container to a conveyor belt is through the use of a container holding device that releasably grips the container and is magnetically held on the conveyor belt.
One known holding device, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,941,237, comprises a plastic puck with interior fins integrally molded with the wall of the puck. Engagement of the plastic fins with the periphery of a container that is receivable in the puck releasably holds the container in the puck. A magnetic ring secured to the base of the puck retains the puck on a corresponding magnetic portion of a conveyor belt.
It has been found that the puck of U.S. Pat. No. 3,941,237 has a relatively narrow tolerance with respect to the outside diameter of an aerosol container. It has also been found that the relatively narrow tolerance range of the known puck is due to an integral molding of the shell and the fins to given dimensional levels that are compatible with only a single type of container from a single commercial source.
Since there are various different sources for aluminum containers, the outside diameters from source to source usually vary in the range that extends beyond the tolerance range of the known puck. Thus it may be necessary to allocate different sets of pucks for each different source of aerosol containers to ensure compatibility between the puck and the container.
A desirable match between puck and container does not cause excess interference between the fins and the periphery of the container. Since an empty aluminum aerosol container is easily deformed, excess interference between the puck and the container will damage or mar the container upon insertion into the puck. If interference between the puck and container does not exist or is too slight, the container is likely to float in a water bath that is used during the container cleaning process.
Thus, an inventory of pucks which are compatible with the containers of one manufacturer and incompatible with the containers of another manufacturer may limit a processor to a single source of aluminum containers. The alternative is to maintain enormous puck inventories with slight dimensional variations to accomodate dimensional variations in the containers of different manufacturers.
A processor is thus burdened by enormous space demands and cataloguing requirements in order to maintain puck inventories that respond to the dimensional variations of containers that are characteristic of different manufacturers. The expense of acquiring and organizing puck inventories which assure compatibility with containers furnished by various manufacturers increases product costs and ultimately reduces overall sales and profits. Furthermore, there is considerable disruption of a production line when puck changes are required during a production run to accommodate aluminum containers that are obtained from more than one vendor.
It is thus desirable to provide a holding device for containers that is more forgiving of dimensional variations in containers from different sources than the known puck. It is also desirable to provide a holding device that can be adjusted or modified to accomodate containers of different size.


A driver device for driving an LED lighting device includes at least one power switch adapted to operate at a switching frequency of greater than 500 KHz and adapted to control the driving current provided to the LED lighting device. Operating the power switch at such a high frequency allows a substantial reduction in passive devices such as inductors and capacitors.

An operating Light Emitting Diode (LED) lighting device requires an energy efficient and cost effective electronic driver circuit. Currently, the most common solution is to apply pulse width modulation (PWM) to LED lighting devices to generate constant forward current and to control brightness by adjusting PWM duty cycle with a number of available options such as, among others, buck, buck-boost, flyback, and SEPIC (Single Ended Primary Inductor Converter) and other topologies.
While the PWM principle has been well known for decades, an off line LED driver (driver that receive power from a household power line which ranges from 100 volts to 230 volts rms) application presents a particular challenge due to high switching voltages (e.g., 170V-330V peak-to-peak depending on line voltage and driver topology). Regardless of topology, an LED driver utilizes a power switch such as a power FET (Field Emission Transistor) to control the driving current provided to the LED lighting devices. Switching losses for such power FET are proportional to PWM frequency parasitic capacitance and a square of voltage. In addition to FET parasitic capacitance, diode reverse recovery losses increase with high frequency as well. Since a higher switching voltage increases the losses dramatically, a low PWM frequency is typically used with conventional switching components. A typical off line LED driver uses PWM frequency in a range between 50 KHz and 150 KHz.
However, using such a low PWM frequency requires high value passive components, such as capacitors and inductors. High value passive components present a number of drawbacks such as high cost, large size, and high parasitics. In some applications high value/high voltage capacitors can be only of electrolytic type to meet cost requirements. However, electrolytic capacitors are particularly unsuitable for off line retrofit LED lighting because of reduced lifetime at high temperature, which is far shorter than the expected lifetime of 50,000 hours for an LED source.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a high voltage LED driver circuit which provides highly efficient switching and yet has low cost, reduced size, low parasitic resistance and high reliability. It would be also desirable to provide such an LED driver circuit in a compact advanced packaging to further improve LED driver efficiency.

LED driver for driving LED lighting device at high frequency


A system and method for selectively injecting parity errors into instructions of a data processing system when the instructions are copied from a read buffer to a first level cache. The parity errors are selectively injected according to programmable indicators, each programmable indicator being associated with one or more instructions stored in the read buffer. The error-injection system also includes programmable operating modes whereby error injection will occur during, for example, every copy back from the read buffer to the first level cache, or alternatively, during only a selected copy back sequence. The system allows for comprehensive testing of error detection and recovery logic in an instruction processor, and further allows for comprehensive testing of the logic associated with performing a data re-fetch from a second level cache or storage device.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to error injection methods and apparatus used in testing electronic data processing systems, and more particularly, to the selective injection of parity errors into data resident within a data processor or memory for testing error detection and recovery systems.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past, errors have been injected into electronic circuits by probing circuit nodes to force connected circuitry to certain states indicative of errors. This can be done manually, or automatically. U.S. Pat. No. 4,759,019 to Bentley et al. discloses a programmable apparatus that injects errors by automatically short-circuiting voltage nodes within the system under test to ground or to a supply voltage in response to the system obtaining a particular state. U.S. Pat. No. 4,835,459 to Hamlin et al. describes a computer-controllable external device which, like the Bentley system, injects errors by applying voltage levels to pins or external circuit nodes of the unit under test. Error injection is triggered when a predetermined logic state exists on one or more of the externally-available circuit nodes.
Although straight-forward, the process of injecting errors by shorting circuit nodes can cause damage to circuits if voltage levels are not accurately applied. Moreover, this process is often not possible when highly integrated circuits are being tested, since most circuit nodes are not accessible to external probing devices. One common means of injecting errors into nodes that are not readily accessible involves the use of internal xe2x80x9cscan-setxe2x80x9d logic.
Scan-set logic usually includes a group of internal state devices which are interconnected to one another to form a shift register called a xe2x80x9cscan stringxe2x80x9d. Internal circuit nodes can be forced to logic levels by shifting (scanning) data into the scan strings from a device input to simulate an error condition. Generally, this scan will be performed after the system clock has been stopped. After the scan string is initialized to a particular state indicative of an error condition, the system clock is restarted. The injected error condition exercises the error detection and recovery logic.
Several complications exist with using scan strings to inject errors. Prior to injecting most errors using scan strings, the system clock must be halted as discussed above. This must be done at a precise time, so that the circuit is in the same logic state that would exist prior to a particular error occurrence during normal circuit operation. Stopping the clock so that the logic is in an exact state is difficult. Generally, it involves stopping the clock sometime before the logic is in the required state, then issuing single clock pulses until the logic is in the precise state. Calculating the required clock control, then administering that control during circuit test, is time-consuming and error-prone. Moreover, this process must be repeated for every error injected.
The above-described problems are accentuated when testing very complex circuits such as those associated with pipelined instruction processors. More specifically, testing parity-error detection and recovery logic in pipelined instruction processors has been particularly problematic in prior art systems for several reasons. In pipelined instruction processors, several instructions are in various stages of execution within the instruction processor at one time. If a parity error is detected on an instruction within the instruction processor, the instruction processor typically completes execution of all foregoing uncompleted instructions in the instruction stream, that is, the pipelined instruction processor is xe2x80x9cde-pipedxe2x80x9d. After the instruction processor is de-piped, the instruction that was corrupted is re-fetched from memory. Both the de-pipe and re-fetch processes require very complex logic sequences to perform. These sequences are dependent not only on the type of instructions which are resident in the pipeline at the time of the error, but also on the relative memory address of the re-fetched instruction.
The testing sequences may be further complicated when the instruction processor has one or more levels of cache memory. In many instruction processors, instructions are stored in two (or more) levels of cache memory including a second level cache that receives instructions from main memory, and a first level cache that provides the instructions into the instruction pipeline. In some instruction processors, a read buffer is also used. When a read buffer is used, a block of instructions are typically fetched from the second level cache and provided to the read buffer before the block of instructions are written to the first level cache. The read buffer is useful when, for example, the instruction processor uses certain prediction algorithms to predict which instructions will be needed in the future. Accordingly, when an instruction processor makes a request for a particular instruction, the instruction may reside in the main memory, the second level cache, the read buffer or the first level cache. Since it is often difficult to predict in advance where a particular instruction will reside when a request for the instruction is made, it can be difficult to write test procedures to test the error-detection and recovery logic for such instructions.
Instruction pre-fetch can also make it more difficult to test the error-detection and recovery logic of many data processing systems. During instruction pre-fetch, blocks of instructions are typically read up from the second level cache or main memory and stored in the read buffer and/or first level cache, before being supplied to the instruction processor. In some cases, the pre-fetched instructions are stored in an instruction queue in the instruction processor, which is useful in providing ready access to the pre-fetched instructions by the instruction pipeline. However, in such a system, it is often difficult to predict in advance where a particular instruction will reside when a request for the instruction is made. The requested instruction may reside in the instruction queue, the main memory, the second level cache, the read buffer or the first level cache. Accordingly, it is often difficult to write test procedures to test the error-detection and recovery logic for such instructions.
For many prior art data processing systems, such as those described above, completely testing the error-detection and recovery logic can require the execution of hundreds or even thousands of error injection test cases. Performing this testing using the scan-set and associated clock control operations described above is very time-consuming. As a result, many prior art systems required lengthy test schedules that are no longer feasible considering the short design cycles associated with modern-day development efforts.
According to the present invention, a system is provided for automatically injecting parity errors into instruction signals of a data processing system as the instructions are provided from a read buffer to a first level cache. The parity errors are selectively injected according to programmable indicators, each programmable indicator being associated with one or more instructions stored in the read buffer. The error-injection system also may include programmable operating modes whereby error injection will occur during, for example, every copy back from the read buffer to the first level cache, or alternatively, during only a selected copy back sequence. The system allows for comprehensive testing of error detection and recovery logic in an instruction processor, and further allows for comprehensive testing of the logic associated with performing a data re-fetch from the a second level cache or storage device.
In a preferred embodiment, the instruction processor is a pipelined instruction processor, although this is not required. Within the instruction processor, several instructions may be in various stages of execution at any given time. A parity error detection circuit is provided for detecting parity errors in instruction that are provided to the instruction processor. The detection of a parity error causes the instruction processor to complete execution of any other uncompleted instructions resident within the instruction processor pipeline before re-fetching the target instruction from memory. This is called xe2x80x9cde-pipingxe2x80x9d the instruction processor pipeline. The sequences required to de-pipe the instruction processor, and to re-fetch the instruction from memory will vary based on the type of instructions present in the pipeline at the time the error occurred, the relative location of the target instruction within a predetermined block of storage in memory, and other factors.
To increase performance, the instruction processor may have one or more levels of cache memory. In one illustrative embodiment, instructions are stored in two levels of cache memory including a second level cache that receives instructions from a main memory, and a first level cache that provides instructions to the instruction pipeline. A read buffer is also provided. The read buffer receives blocks of instructions from the second level cache, and copies the instructions to the first level cache in an instruction copy back sequence. During operation, a block of instructions are first fetched from the second level cache and provided to the read buffer. The fetched instructions may then be provided to the instruction processor directly from the read buffer. During a subsequent fetch from the second level cache, the instructions stored in the read buffer are xe2x80x9ccopied backxe2x80x9d to the first level cache before another block of instructions are loaded into the read buffer.
The error detection circuits of the instruction processor preferably provide an error signal when a parity error is detected in an instruction. Retry circuits are also provided for causing the instruction processor to discard the corrupted instruction and to again retrieve the discarded instruction from the second level cache or main memory in response to receiving the error signal.
To help test the error detection and retry circuits of the instruction processor, the present invention contemplates providing a parity error injection circuit coupled to the read buffer for selectively injecting parity errors into selected instructions as the instructions are provided from the read buffer to the first level cache during the copy back sequence. The parity error injection mechanism of the present invention may allow errors to be selectively injected into the instruction stream so that the error-recovery sequences of the instruction processor may be fully tested at full system clock speeds.
Preferably, the present invention allows parity errors to be selectively injected into instructions based on indicators which are programmed using, for example, a scanable interface. Selected indicators preferably specify one or more locations or words within the read buffer. The indicators are programmed based on predetermined test criteria. This allows the parity error injection tests to be tailored to obtain specific test coverage.
It is contemplated that the parity error injection system may have several modes of operation. In a first illustrative mode of operation, parity errors may be injected during a single copy back sequence. This is called the xe2x80x9csingle shot modexe2x80x9d. During subsequent copy back sequences, no parity errors are injected. In a second illustrative mode of operation, called the xe2x80x9ccontinuous modexe2x80x9d, parity errors are continuously injected during all copy back sequences. In either of these modes, the programmable indicators may select only certain instructions in the block of instructions that are transferred from the read buffer to the first level cache. In addition, the programmable indicators may select specific parity bits within the selected instructions. The various operating modes of the invention preferably allow for complete test coverage of the many hardware sequences associated with parity error detection and recovery in a pipelined instruction processor.


A washer nozzle device for spraying a washer fluid onto a front window panel is mounted to a vehicle body. The vehicle body includes a front hood disposed in front of the front window panel, and a hood garnish disposed on the front hood. The hood garnish is disposed over an upper surface of the front hood at an interval and extended along a rear end of the front hood in a vehicle width direction. The washer nozzle device is positioned between the upper surface of the front hood and a lower surface of the hood garnish.

Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2 disclose a mounting structure for a vehicle washer nozzle device.
In the vehicle washer nozzle device mounting structure disclosed in Patent Literature 1, a washer nozzle device is mounted to a cowl top panel positioned between a lower edge of a front window panel and a rear edge of a front hood. However, various on-vehicle components are disposed on a lower side of the cowl top panel. The cowl top panel is attached/detached every time when maintenance inspections of the on-vehicle components are carried out. To improve operability of maintenance inspections of the on-vehicle components, the washer nozzle device is preferably mounted to a portion other than a cowl top panel.
Further, a facing wall facing to a panel surface of a front window panel is formed to the cowl top panel. A through-hole directing the panel surface is formed on the facing wall. A rear end of a washer nozzle device is inserted into the through-hole. The washer nozzle device incorporates a nozzle which injects a washer fluid. An opening penetrating a rear end of the nozzle is formed on a rear end surface of the washer nozzle device. A washer fluid injected from the nozzle is sprayed on a panel surface through the opening.
A rear surface of the facing wall is inclined backward. A rear end surface of the washer nozzle device is an inclined surface corresponding to the inclination of the rear surface of the facing wall. Generally, a shape of the rear surface of the facing wall is different for each vehicle type. For example, inclination in a vehicle width direction and inclination in a vertical direction on the rear surface are often different for each vehicle type. In the case where the inclination is changed, displacement on the rear end surface of the washer nozzle device with respect to the facing wall becomes noticeable. This interferes with improvement of an external appearance of a vehicle. Further, the washer nozzle device cannot be commonly used in vehicles of various types.
In a vehicle described in Patent Literature 2, a rear end of a front hood is positioned at an interval above a front end of a cowl top panel. Consequently, a space is formed between the rear end of the front hood and the front end of the cowl top panel. A nozzle in a washer nozzle device is disposed on the cowl top panel and behind the front hood and also mounted at the rear end of the front hood. Members other than the nozzle in the washer nozzle device, such as a washer fluid feeding hose, are disposed in the space. A hood garnish (cover) is provided on an upper surface of the rear end of the front hood. The hood garnish extends backward from a rear edge of the front hood and covers the nozzle from an upper side. The washer nozzle device is not mounted to the cowl top panel. Therefore, maintenance inspections of in-vehicle components disposed on a lower side of the cowl top panel can be easily carried out.
However, when a front hood is opened, a washer nozzle device is visible from outside. This interferes with improvement of an external appearance of a vehicle. Further, since a part of the washer nozzle device is disposed in the space, there is a limit to lower a whole height of the front hood to bring close to an upper side of the cowl top panel. Therefore, there is a room for improvement to expand driver's visibility for seeing a front side of a vehicle. Further, a nozzle is positioned behind a front hood, and therefore a hood garnish covering the nozzle becomes a large size.
Furthermore, in a vehicle washer nozzle device mounting structure described in Patent Literature 2, a facing wall facing to a panel surface of a front window panel s formed at a rear end of a hood garnish. A through-hole directing the panel surface is formed on the facing wall. A nozzle of a washer nozzle device is positioned on a front side of a vehicle body away from the facing wall. A washer fluid injected from the nozzle is sprayed on a panel surface through the through-hole. When a hood garnish is seen from outside, the nozzle is visible in the depth of the through-hole with respect to the hood garnish. This interferes with improvement of an external appearance of a vehicle.

Vehicular washer nozzle device mount structure


A RF relay of a full-duplex generates a conversion matrix to belong to a null space of a channel matrix of an interference channel, generates a transmitting signal by converting a received signal using the conversion matrix, and then outputs the transmitting signal to a transmitting antenna. Therefore, an interference signal of an electromagnetic wave level (EM level) that can be generated while the transmitting signal passes through the interference channel can be canceled.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a RF relay of a full-duplex, and a method of removing interference of an electromagnetic wave level thereof.
(b) Description of the Related Art
In a cellular system, in order to improve spectral efficiency and extend coverage, a repeater is used between a base station and a terminal. An optical repeater and a wireless repeater or radio frequency (RF) relay are used as the repeater.
The optical repeater receives a signal through an optical cable and retransmits the signal, and thus interference does not occur between a transmitter and a receiver. However, much cost is required to install an optical cable, and particularly, when a small number of users exist in a wide area, it is inefficient to construct an optical cable infrastructure.
Recently, research on a RF relay of which installation cost is less than that of an optical repeater and that can freely select an installation area has been actively performed. The RF relay receives a radio frequency (RF) signal with a receiving antenna and retransmits the RF signal with a transmitting antenna. A duplexing method of such a RF relay is classified as a half-duplex method and a full-duplex method. Because the half-duplex RF relay transmits and receives a RF signal using two orthogonal channels in a time domain or a frequency domain, interference of a transmitting signal does not exist in a receiver. On the other hand, because the full-duplex RF relay simultaneously transmits and receives a RF signal, the full-duplex RF relay has very high spectral efficiency, but it is difficult to physically implement the full-duplex RF relay due to interference of a transmitting signal.
Various methods of removing an interference signal in order to implement a full-duplex RF relay have been suggested. Representatively, a method of removing an interference signal by processing a radio frequency signal that is received in the receiving antenna or a method of removing an interference signal through digital signal processing after converting an intermediate frequency signal to a digital signal is used.
According to such interference removing technology, after an interference signal that is generated in the transmitting antenna is received in the receiving antenna, the RF relay processes the interference signal. That is, after an interference signal is received, the interference signal is removed through post-processing and thus there is a limitation in improving performance of the RF relay. Further, because power intensity of an interference signal is much greater than that of a received signal that is received from a base station, a problem of signal distortion due to non-linearity of a low noise amplifier in a receiver of a RF relay and signal distortion due to resolution insufficiency of an analog to digital converter (ADC) when converting to a digital signal cannot be solved. Further, because much time is required for signal processing for removing an interference signal, there is a problem that a delay time is lengthened in the RF relay.
Further, a method of removing interference signal in an electromagnetic wave (EM) level by greatly increasing the distance between a transmitting antenna and a receiving antenna has been proposed, but when installing such a RF relay, the RF relay can only be used in a partial environment due to spatial restrictions. Therefore, a method of removing interference of an EM level is required so that an interference signal that is generated in a transmitting antenna is not received in the receiving antenna without greatly increasing the distance between the transmitting antenna and a receiving antenna of a full-duplex RF relay.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

RF relay of full-duplex and method for removing interference of EM level thereof

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


A method for enabling strong mutual authentication between two computers or devices in a communication system. A user attempting to gain access to a first computer transmits login information to the first computer. The first computer transmits a first message, including a first key encrypted by a second key, to the second computer. The first computer then transmits a second message to a third device. The second message includes the second key needed by the second computer to decrypt the first message. The third device uses the user's login information to obtain the user's private key, which the third device uses to obtain the second key. The third device transmits the second key in a third message to the second computer. The second computer then uses the second key to decrypt the first message and obtain the first key. Once the second computer obtains the first key, the second computer switches the role of the keys from the first message by encrypting the second key with the first key into a fourth message. The second computer transmits the fourth message to the server, and the first computer decrypts the fourth message using its first key. If the received second key is the same as the generated second key, the second computer is authenticated to the first computer.

When dealing with electronic commerce, security of information on a network is a problem faced by individuals and companies alike. For example, the security today between a user's computer and server computer in an electronic transaction does not preclude the user from fraudulently quoting another user's identification information, such as a user's password, credit card number, or social security number. Likewise, a server could similarly be fraudulently represented on the user's computer by someone to obtain the unsuspecting user's information. Therefore, in business transactions occurring over the internet today, full electronic commerce necessitates stronger authentication between the user's computer and the server computer.
For stronger authentication of both users and server computers, encryption and decryption may be used for the transmission of messages. The major barrier to mutual authentication of a user's computer communicating with a server computer is the inability of personal computers to provide tamperproof and confidential storage for these keys, which are vital for security of transmitted information. Smart cards, or credit-card sized devices that have user information embedded within the card, have recently addressed this issue. However, the smart cards are only as useful as the number of smart card readers available, which currently have not been widely adopted.
Therefore, it is desirable to produce an equivalent but unrestricted method to allow strong mutual authentication between devices.


The controller of a digital camera executes copying of image data between memory cards loaded in the digital camera. The controller stores target medium information in a memory. The target medium information indicates, among the loaded memory cards, a memory card in which image data is recorded last or a memory card from which image data is read last. Based on the target medium information, the controller sets a copy direction. The copy direction indicates, among the loaded memory cards, a copy source memory card and a copy destination memory card.

There is known an imaging device having multiple card slots for setting multiple recording media (memory cards or the like) therein as disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H11 (1999)-146328.
There is a need to copy image data between multiple recording media in an imaging device. For example, image data may be copied from one recording medium to another recording medium for the purpose of backing up the image data, changing where to save the image data, or the like. An imaging device therefore sets a copy direction between the multiple recording media. The copy direction is a direction from which recording medium to which recording medium image data is to be copied.
An imaging device can often have only a limited user interface such as a display monitor and an operation unit. If the copy direction between multiple recording media is fixedly set, a user needs to check and change the copy direction every time image data is copied between the multiple recording media. Therefore, there was a problem that the operation for copying image data between recording media tends to be cumbersome.

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.


Disclosed is a stringed instrument with embedded DSP modeling capabilities to model an acoustic stringed instrument. The stringed instrument has a body and a plurality of strings and each of the plurality of strings is respectively coupled to a pickup to detect a vibration signal for each string. An A/D converter converts the detected vibration signal of a string into a digital string vibration signal. A DSP is located within the body of the stringed instrument to process the digital string vibration signal and to implement an acoustic modeling system to process the digital string vibration signal in order to emulate a corresponding string tone of one of a plurality of selectable acoustic stringed instruments. Acoustic modeling includes acoustic string and body modeling, microphone placement modeling, and pick-sound modeling. The emulated acoustic digital tone signal is then converted to analog form for output to an amplification device.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to stringed musical instruments. In particular, the invention relates to a stringed musical instrument with embedded digital signal processing (DSP) modeling capabilities to model an acoustic stringed instrument.
2. Description of Related Art
Stringed instruments utilize vibrating strings to generate tones, and therefore music, since notes of music are merely particular tones. More particularly, a tone or note is a sound that repeats at a certain specific frequency. Throughout the world, various cultures have created a multitude of different stringed instruments such as: guitars, mandolins, banjos, basses, violins, sitars, ukuleles, etc., to create music. Moreover, with the advent of electronics, many of these stringed instruments have now been electrified to operate in conjunction with an amplifier and speaker. One of the most common stringed instruments in use today is the guitar—in both its electric and acoustic forms. The guitar is one of the most popular musical instruments in use today, and it spans a huge range of musical styles—e.g. rock, country, jazz, folk, etc.
As previously discussed, the vibrating string of a stringed instrument generates a musical tone or note, which is in turn a function of: the length of the string; the amount of tension on the string; the weight of the string; the shape and thickness of the body of the stringed instrument, etc. Generally, stringed instruments, and the guitar in particular, include a body having a bridge to which each of the strings are respectively mounted, a neck having frets and a nut or 'zero' fret, and a head having tuning pegs to which each of the strings are also respectively mounted. The length of the string is the distance between the bridge and the nut or 'zero' fret. The amount of tension on the string is determined by the winding of the tuning peg, which tightens and loosens the string (i.e. imparting tension) in order to tune the string to a certain note. In playing a stringed instrument, when a musician presses down on a string at a fret, the length of the string is changed and therefore its frequency is changed as well. The frets are spaced out so that the proper frequencies are produced when a string is held down at a given fret (and therefore the proper note is produced). However, it should be appreciated that not all stringed instruments have frets.
Looking at electrical stringed instruments, and utilizing an electric guitar as a particular example, to produce sound an electric guitar electronically senses the vibration of a string and generates an associated electrical signal and then routes the associated electric signal to an amplifier. The sensing generally occurs by utilizing electromagnetic pickups mounted under each of the strings of the guitar, respectively, in the guitars' body and neck, at different locations. These electromagnetic pickups typically consist of a bar magnet wrapped with a coil of thousands of turns of fine wire. The vibrating steel strings of the electric guitar produce a corresponding vibration in the magnetic field of the electromagnetic pickup and therefore a current in the coil. This current represents the sound of the string at the location of the pickup and can be routed to an amplifier. Many electric guitars have two or three different magnetic pickups located at different points of the body and neck. Each magnetic pickup will have a distinctive sound, and multiple pickups can be paired, either in-phase or out, to produce additional variations. Thus, the electromagnetic pickup locations for particular types of electric guitars are a major factor in determining the "sound" associated with the particular electric guitar along with other factors. For example, classic "sounds" are associated with various types of GIBSON and FENDER brand electric guitars, as well as others.
In order to achieve a diverse array of well-known or classic types of guitar tones, a guitarist has traditionally been required to use many different guitars. Previous attempts have been made to allow a guitarist to obtain many different classic guitar sounds utilizing only one guitar, however, these attempts generally require modification of the guitar, non-standard guitar cabling, and extra equipment. For example, previous attempts have been made to emulate the different sounds of various guitars by processing the individual strings of a guitar by means of a multi-phonic pickup attached to a standard electric guitar that delivers string vibration signals to a separate outboard processing unit that utilizes digital signal processing (DSP) techniques. The processing unit performs DSP algorithms on the string vibration signal to simulate the sound of a particular well-known guitar. Unfortunately, this requires modification to the standard electric guitar, the use of non-standard guitar cables, and the use of a detached processing unit away from the guitar, between the guitar and the amplification system.
Moreover, previous DSP techniques, which are utilized to emulate the locations of the electromagnetic pickups along the string for the desired electric guitar to be emulated, are inadequate. This is because these DSP algorithms only emulate the electromagnetic pickups in one-dimension, in the horizontal 'x' axis along the length of the string utilizing simplistic modeling techniques. Further, the simplistic algorithms utilized completely ignore a critical aspect of the tone produced by an electromagnetic pickup, which is its distance from the string in the vertical or 'y' axis, referred to as the "pickup height". Thus, previous modeling techniques are insufficient to truly emulate the overall tone of the guitar in response to a string vibration signal, and therefore cannot truly emulate the sound of the desired classic electric guitar, or any desired electric string instrument to be emulated for that matter.
Looking at acoustic stringed instruments, and utilizing an acoustic guitar as a particular example, presently, in order to re-create desired acoustic guitar sounds, a guitarist may use an acoustic guitar with a variety of differing microphone set-ups, transducer pickups, preamps, and signal processing equipment in order to provide very rough approximations of desired classic acoustic guitar sounds.
Further, as with electric guitars, previous attempts have been made to emulate the different sounds of various acoustic guitars by processing the individual strings of an acoustic guitar by means of a multi-phonic pickup attached to a standard acoustic guitar that delivers string vibration signals to a separate outboard processing unit that utilizes digital signal processing (DSP) techniques. The processing unit performs DSP algorithms on the string vibration signal to simulate the sound of a particular well-known acoustic guitar. Unfortunately, this requires modification to the standard acoustic guitar, the use of non-standard guitar cables, and the use of a detached processing unit away from the acoustic guitar, between the acoustic guitar and the amplification system.
More particularly, looking at sound creation fundamentals in an acoustic stringed instrument, and utilizing an acoustic guitar as a particular example, generally, an acoustic guitar produces sound by the vibration of a string of an acoustic guitar being naturally amplified acoustically by vibration-reinforcement mechanisms defined by the acoustic guitar's design and construction. Along with other factors, these vibration-reinforcement mechanisms generally include an acoustic guitar's materials, construction, size, shape, sound-board characteristics, and type of strings used. All of these constitute major factors in determining the "sound" associated with a particular acoustic guitar.
When playing an acoustic guitar in a strictly acoustic environment (with no electronics involved) the natural occurrence of the sound produces the desired result for the guitarist. However, in order to record an acoustic guitar, or to amplify an acoustic guitar for live performance, it is typically necessary to utilize an electronic means of capturing and reproducing the acoustic signal.
For recording and/or amplification, a microphone is the most commonly used device that can faithfully capture the output of an acoustic guitar, provided no other ambient noise is present and acoustic reflections from the instrument's surroundings are not sufficient as to alter the desired acoustic result.
In a live performance, the sound captured electronically needs to be amplified and played through loudspeakers for an audience to hear. One of the difficulties in a live acoustic guitar performance is producing sufficient volume without producing "feedback." If sound energy from the loudspeakers appears at the microphone with sufficient volume, then "feedback" from the signal will return to the microphone, which results in an undesirable and annoying audible sound.
Consequently, attempts have been made to capture an acoustic stringed instrument's sound with special microphones or piezoelectric devices that are acoustically coupled to the bridge or body of the acoustic stringed instrument. Although this approach allows for a higher level of amplification before feedback occurs, it fails to capture many of the important acoustic properties of the acoustic stringed instrument, such as an acoustic guitar, thus resulting in an amplified acoustic guitar sound that no longer resembles the actual acoustic guitar's sound.

Stringed instrument with embedded DSP modeling for modeling acoustic stringed instruments


Disclosed is a method and apparatus implanting living cells with a foreign substance with the aid of laser beams. According to this invention living cells are exposed to a laser microbeam of energy sufficient to modify a selected part of the cell to be temporarily transparent to a foreign substance. After the foreign substance gets in the host cell, the selected part of the cell recovers to the original state, thereby confining the foreign substance in the cell.

In the field of analysis of gene expression the behavior of those genes which determine the character of a living thing can be studied by incorporating selected genes into living cells and by examining the transformation of the cells having added genetic material. For example, DNA can be extracted from cancerous cells, and divided into minute fragments of different sizes. These fragments are classified in terms of size, and fragments of different size are incorporated into living cells. As a result of such incorporation, some of the cells are found to be cancerous, presumably as a result of incorporation of the foreign DNA fragments. By this technique, cancer-associated fragments can then be identified in terms of size.
A prior art implantation method comprises the steps of: putting living cells in a solution containing DNA fragments; making a small hole in each living cell with the aid of a fine needle under an optical microscope; allowing DNA fragments to enter the cells through the hole; and confining the fragments in the cell when the hole in the cell heals (See Japanese Patent Application No. 56-171347, disclosed as Public Disclosure Number 58-76091 on May 9, 1983). Another prior art implantation method comprises the steps of: precipitating DNA using calcium phosphate in a culture medium; and making use of the phagocytosis of living cells to incorporate the precipitated DNA into the living cells.
The prior art implantation methods, however, are not entirely satisfactory. The former implantation method requires skilled manipulation of the needle. Otherwise, no holes can be made without injuring the living cells. Also the work is tedious and laborious although the implantation succeeds at a relatively high rate. Furthermore, it is impossible to make holes in certain cells, regardless of the type of needle used.
The latter implantation method is capable of handling a great number of cells at one time. The success rate for incorporation of DNA fragments into host cells by this method, however, is very low, say one in ten thousand (1/10,000) at best. Thus, the rate at which the character of the implanted cells is transformed is very small, and accordingly a very large number of cells need to be implanted with DNA fractions. This demand cannot be met. Also, disadvantageously the method requires addition of calcium phosphate of so high a concentration that the additive tends to injure living cells.

Method of implanting living cells with a foreign substance


A method for obtaining a full thickness biopsy of the wall of a hollow organ, comprising obtaining an apparatus comprising a cannula comprising a proximal cannula end comprising a cutting edge; and a distal cannula end comprising a biased spring, the biased spring being coupled to a needle carrier and a releasable lock; and a needle disposed within the cannula and carried on the needle carrier, the needle comprising: a tip; a flange; a notch portion comprising a notch thickness; and a shaft comprising a shaft thickness; where the shaft thickness is greater than the notch thickness and the releasable lock is configured to hold the cannula in a withdrawn position relative to the needle; obtaining a patient having skin, a first wall, and a second wall; creating an incision through the skin of the patient; inserting the apparatus into the incision; advancing the apparatus through the first wall and the second wall; withdrawing the cannula relative to the needle; locking the cannula with the releasable lock; aligning the notch portion such that the notch portion straddles the second wall; releasing the releasable lock such that the cutting edge of the cannula passes completely through the second wall creating a full-thickness biopsy; and withdrawing the apparatus from the patient.

Current designs for biopsy guns for soft tissue applications use a cutting cannula to collect the tissue sample. The most commonly used method has the cannula sliding over a stable or retracting inner needle which contains a notch for collection of the tissue. The cannula is a hollow cylinder with a sharp leading edge. These designs are oriented toward solid soft tissues (e.g., liver, prostate) and tumors that arise from them.
Current methods and devices for obtaining soft tissue samples from hollow organs (e.g., stomach, intestines) require laparoscopy or laparotomy. These methods and devices often fail to collect the portions of interest in the target organ. In addition, these methods and devices have a high perforation rate, leading to patient injury and increased healing time. The following are incorporated by reference:    "Percutaneous endoscopically assisted transenteric full-thickness gastric biopsy: initial experience in humans." Andrews C N, Mintchev P, Neshev E, Fraser H F, Storr M, Bathe O F, Urbanski S J. Gastrointest Endosc. 2011 May; 73(5):949-54. Epub 2011 Mar. 9.    "The London Classification of gastrointestinal neuromuscular pathology: report on behalf of the Gastro 2009 International Working Group." Knowles C H, De Giorgio R, Kapur R P, Bruder E, Farrugia G, Geboes K, Lindberg G, Martin J E, Meier-Ruge W A, Milla P J, Smith V V, Vandervinden J M, Veress B, Wedel T. Gut. 2010 July; 59(7):882-7    "Absence of the interstitial cells of Cajal in patients with gastroparesis and correlation with clinical findings," J Gastrointest Surg, 2005; 9(1):102-8, Forster J, Damjanov I, Lin Z, Sarosiek I, Wetzel P, McCallum R W.    "A deficiency of gastric interstitial cells of Cajal accompanied by decreased expression of neuronal nitric oxide synthase and substance P in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus," J Gastroenterol, 2006; 41(11):1076-87, Iwasaki H, Kajimura M, Osawa S, Kanaoka S, Furuta T, Ikuma M, Hishida A.    "Distribution of interstitial cells of Cajal and nitrergic neurons in normal and diabetic human appendix," Neurogastroenterol Motil, 2008; 20(4):349-57, Miller S M, Narasimhan R A, Schmalz P F, Soffer E E, Walsh R M, Krishnamurthi V, Pasricha P J, Szurszewski J H, Farrugia G.    "Remodeling of networks of interstitial cells of Cajal in a murine model of diabetic gastroparesis," Diabetes, 2000; 49(10):1731-9, Ordog T, Takayama I, Cheung W K, Ward S M, Sanders K M.    "Diabetic gastroparesis," N Engl J Med, 2007; 356(8):820-9, Camilleri M.    "Evaluation of endoscopic approaches for deep gastric-muscle-wall biopsies: what works?" Gastrointest Endosc, 2008; 67:297-303, Rajan E, Gostout C J, Lurken M S, et al.    "Endoscopic 'no hole' full-thickness biopsy of the stomach to detect myenteric ganglia," Gastrointest Endosc, 2008; 68:301-7, Rajan E, Gostout C J, Lurken M S, et al.

Methods and apparatuses for full-thickness hollow organ biopsy


Rectangular pistons are driven in a circular orbit by two spaced eccentrics on a common crankshaft. The displacement chambers reciprocate with a lateral motion parallel with the crankshaft. The radial forces created by the fluid pressure in the displacement chambers are balanced by a connection to the crankshaft through rotatable and slidable antifriction bearings. During the reciprocating lateral motion of the chambers, port openings located in the outer ends of the chambers are connected alternately to matching intake and exhaust port openings in the adjacent surfaces of the casing to provide a reversible valveless control of the fluid to and from the chambers. The apparatus can be used either as a pump or motor without internal modifications. The pistons are secured together as one piece and follow identical orbital paths. Each pair of opposing displacement chambers are secured as one piece and radially connected to the crankshaft. The displacement of the apparatus is continuously variable from zero to its maximum. The apparatus is dynamically balanced by two counterweights, with adjustable eccentricities.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to positive fluid displacement apparatus of the general type used as superchargers on internal combustion engines and in other applications. More particularly, the invention relates to such apparatus in which two or more pistons are each disposed within a displacement chamber capable of lateral motion to accommodate the circular motion of the piston, that is, each piston chamber is free to move in a direction perpendicular to the direction of travel of the piston.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional positive displacement apparatus includes an arrangement in which a stationary displacement chamber contains a piston movable within the chamber. There are many such arrangements developed over many years for application in many different fields and almost all make use of a stationary displacement chamber. Generally the pistons are round in cross section and in almost all cases are driven from a crankshaft through a single connecting rod.

Variable positive fluid displacement apparatus with movable chambers


Provided are a developing roller for non-magnetic single component development and a developing method employing the developing, by which toner can be stably conveyed in any external environment, and the stable toner conveyance and charging amount can also be acquired. Also disclosed is a developing roller possessing a spindle and provided around an outer circumference of the spindle, at least an elastic layer (innermost layer), a resistance adjusting layer (intermediate layer) formed on the elastic layer and a surface layer (outermost layer) formed on the resistance adjusting layer, wherein the intermediate layer possesses a layer containing carbon black in a resin, a content of a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon in the carbon black is at most 10 ppm, and a volume resistance (Rv) of all the layers provided around the outer circumference of the spindle is 1.0×107−1.0×1013 Ω·cm.

In the case of the non-magnetic single component development method, the structure of a developing device is simple, since the consumption volume of a developer is reduced because of using no carrier and the like, but toner only as a developer, and a mechanism of charging via friction between toner and a developing roller or a thin layer formation plate is employed. Accordingly, the non-magnetic single component development method is suitable for color image formation, since a compact size developing device is possible to be produced, and no magnetic material is further contained in toner in comparison to the case of a magnetic single component development method.
However, only a part has been turned into actual utilization in view of practical application of the electrographic image formation apparatus as a whole, despite the fact that many trials to put into practical application have been attempted so far.
This was attributed to the fact that a developing roller to play a major role for charge and development of toner was difficult to be produced, resulting in unstable performance of the developing roller.
One of the desired properties of the developing roller is to form a thin layer of toner and transport it in good condition, and needless to say, this is to be an important factor to obtain high image quality by charging the toner evenly.
Even though excellent results in toner conveyance performance of the developing roller are obtained at ambient temperature and normal humidity, however, the toner tends to be excessively conveyed at low-temperature and humidity since the amount of residual charge is increased, whereby the toner adhesion to the developing roller is also increased.
As to non-magnetic single component development, problems such as toner leakage, generation of fog on an image and toner fused onto a sleeve are produced both in contact development and in non-contact development, once the toner is excessively conveyed. In the case of the contact non-magnetic single component development, a problem such that the toner is fused onto a sleeve is particularly easy to be produced, and in the case of the non-contact non-magnetic single component development, a toner leakage problem tends to be produced.
(Patent Document 1) Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 2002-357949
(Patent Document 2) Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 2001-356587
(Patent Document 3) Japanese Patent O.P.I. Publication No. 8-190263

Developing roller and developing method thereof

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


A process for preparing polycarbonate is composed of the steps of transesterifying a dialkyl oxalate and a phenolic compound to give a diaryl oxalate; decarbonylating the diaryl oxalate to give a diaryl carbonate; reacting the diaryl carbonate with a polyvalent hydroxyl compound in the presence of a catalyst containing an amine compound or an ammonium compound to give the polycarbonate, removing a phenolic by-product/amine by-product mixture; collecting the mixture; purifying the mixture so that the amount of the amine by-product in the mixture is reduced to give a phenolic by-product mixture not containing the amine by-product in an amount of more than 600 ppm; and, utilizing thus purified phenolic mixture as a whole or a part of the phenolic compound in the first step.

The present invention relates to a process for preparing a polycarbonate from a dialkyl oxalate and a phenolic compound.
A process for preparing a polycarbonate from a dialkyl oxalate and a phenolic compound which comprises a first step of transesterifying the starting compound to produce a diaryl oxalate, a second step of decarbonylating the resulting diaryl oxalate to produce a diaryl carbonate, and a third step of subjecting the diaryl carbonate to condensation-polymerization reaction with a polyvalent hydroxyl compound to produce a polycarbonate is described in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 10-152552. The Publication 10-152552 further describes such procedure that a phenolic by-product produced in the condensation-polymerization reaction is recovered and recycled to employ as the phenolic compound in the first step.
In the above-mentioned process, the diaryl carbonate of a high purity can be produced using no troublesome phosgene. Therefore, the diaryl carbonate produced from a dialkyl oxalate and a phenolic compound is favorably employed to react with a polyvalent hydroxyl compound to give a polycarbonate having high quality such as high transparency through condensation-polymerization reaction.
It is also known that a catalyst containing tetramethylammonium hydroxide, tetrabutylammnium hydroxide, or tributylamine is employed as a catalyst for performing a condensation-polymerization reaction for the preparation of a polycarbonate from a diaryl carbonate such as diphenyl carbonate and a polyvalent hydroxyl compound such as bisphenol A.
It has been discovered that a portion of the above-mentioned condensation-polymerization catalyst decomposes at an elevated temperature to produce an amine compound (by-product) such as trimethylamine or tributylamine. The amine by-product is migrated into the recovered phenolic by-product.
According to the further study of the investors, in the case that the phenolic by-product is employed as the phenolic compound in the preparation of the diaryl oxalate, the amine by-product in the phenolic by-product gives adverse effects (e.g., deactivation of the catalyst employed) to the reactions in the steps of transesterification and decarbonylation if the amount of the amine by-product in the phenolic by-product increases.
It has been further discovered that the phenolic by-product recovered in the condensation polymerization reaction is sometimes contaminated with an ethereal real by-product. The ethereal by-product in the phenolic by-product sometimes gives such disadvantageous effects as to disturb recovery of reactants and/or reaction product from the reaction system, if the amount of the ethereal by-product in the phenolic by-product increases.
The present invention resides in a process for preparing paring polycarbonate which comprises the steps of:
subjecting a dialkyl oxalate and a phenolic compound to transesterification to give a diaryl oxalate;
subjecting the diaryl oxalate to decarbonylation to give a diaryl carbonate;
reacting the diaryl carbonate with a polyvalent hydroxyl compound in the presence of a catalyst containing an amine compound or an ammonium compound to give the polycarbonate, removing a mixture containing a phenolic by-product and an amine by-product;
collecting the mixture;
purifying the mixture so that the amount of the amine by-product in the mixture is reduced to give a phenolic by-product mixture not containing the amine by-product in an amount of more than 600 ppm; and
utilizing thus purified phenolic by-product mixture as a whole fir a part of the phenolic compound give the first step.
In the above-mentioned process, if the collected mixture further contains an ethereal by-product, the mixture is preferably purified to reduce its ethereal by-product content to a level of not more than 600 ppm.
The invention further resides in a process for preparing polycarbonate which comprises the steps of:
subjecting a dialkyl oxalate and a phenolic by-product mixture not containing an amine by-product in an amount of more than 600 ppm to transesterification to give a diaryl oxalate, said phenolic by-product mixture having beer obtained by purifying a mixture containing a phenolic by-product and an amine by-product which was collected in a condensation polymerization reaction for preparing polycarbonate from a dialkyl oxalate and a phenolic compound;
subjecting the diaryl oxalate to decarbonylation to give a diaryl carbonate; and
reacting the diaryl carbonate with a polyvalent hydroxyl compound in the presence of a catalyst containing an amine compound or an ammonium compound to give the polycarbonate.
In the above-mentioned process, if the phenolic by-product mixture further contains an ethereal by-product, the mixture is preferably purified in advance to reduce its ethereal by-product content to a level of not more than 600 ppm.
FIGURE is a schematic flow chart to show a process for preparing a polycarbonate according to the present invention.