A node includes a time difference measurement unit and a time setting unit. The time difference measurement unit measures a time difference between a first time based on latest received time information and a second time based on second-latest received time information. The time setting unit calculates an adjustment time difference when the time difference exceeds an allowable range of error that is smaller than an allowable range of maintainable communication, sets a time obtained by adding the adjustment time difference and the second time to the time of the node when the adjustment time difference is within the allowable range of maintainable communication, and sets a time obtained by adding a time difference corresponding to the allowable range of maintainable communication and the second time to the time of the node when the adjustment time difference exceeds the allowable range of maintainable communication.

In recent years, a study of an ad hoc network has been progressed in which a plurality of communication apparatuses each referred to as a node are connected with each other in an autonomous distributed manner. In the ad hoc network, a time synchronization source that is a node holding a reference time used for time synchronization between nodes is provided, and times are synchronized among nodes using the time synchronization source as a center.
The time synchronization source is, for example, a node that receives a time from a time calibration server (NTP server) provided on the network, or a node that is directly connected with a handy terminal (HT) used for the meter-reading of data and sets a time of the present node. When a node that is directly connected with the HT serves as a time synchronization source, the node acquires and holds the time of the HT as a reference time. Furthermore, each node on the ad hoc network sets the time of the present node based on a reference time included in time information propagated sequentially from a node that is the time synchronization source. In this manner, in a network formed in conjunction with ad hoc communication, a node group including a plurality of nodes synchronized with one node that is the time synchronization source for each network formed is formed. That is, in the network formed in conjunction with the ad hoc communication, an independent node group is formed with respect to a node that is the independent time synchronization source.
Here, in the network formed in conjunction with the ad hoc communication, when a plurality of ad hoc networks are brought into contact with each other, communication is performed across the boundary of each ad hoc network. However, when nodes belonging to the respective ad hoc networks have the respective times different from each other, the nodes are incapable of communicating with each other. For example, to consider a case where each of a plurality of ad hoc networks has a node that is a time synchronization source based on a time acquired from an HT, when a time acquired from an HT and a time acquired from the other HT are different from each other, reference times of the nodes each of which is a time synchronization source that acquires a time from an HT are different from each other and hence, node groups connected with different time synchronization sources are incapable of communicating with each other. Therefore, in order for a plurality of ad hoc networks to communicate with each other, synchronizing times among a plurality of node groups is performed.
As a technique that synchronizes in terms of times among a plurality of node groups connected with different time synchronization sources, there has been proposed a technique that sets priorities to the node groups, and synchronizes a node positioned at the boundary among the node groups in terms of a time with the highest priority node group (see Japanese Patent No. 3865223). In this technique, a node synchronized in terms of a time with the other highest priority node group also transmits the time after synchronization to a node adjacent thereto in the node group thereof. Accordingly, synchronization in terms of times among a plurality of node groups can be achieved with the highest priority node group.
In the above-mentioned conventional technique, a node is synchronized in terms of a time with one of the time synchronization sources and hence, times among nodes with the identical time synchronization source can be synchronized with each other and the nodes can communicate with each other. However, there arises a difference in time between a node that changes the time synchronization source thereof and each node belonging to the node group synchronized in terms of a time with a time synchronization source before the change depending on the difference in time between the time synchronization sources and hence, there has been a drawback that the communication with a node previously capable of communicating becomes impossible by changing the time synchronization source.

Node and method for communication control


Systems and methods for recognizing congestion in a mobile network to make intelligent decisions regarding connecting to an operator network is disclosed. A mobile device having a local proxy equipped with congestion recognition capabilities can use time elapsed to establish connection with a mobile base station in the mobile network to recognize congestion at the mobile base station. Further, in response to recognizing congestion at the mobile base station, the local proxy can selectively block traffic from the mobile device from traversing the mobile network to reduce signaling overload on the mobile network.

Applications on smartphones, tablets and other always on devices constantly signal the mobile network for updates and other data requests. The constant polling from mobile devices puts a burden on the mobile network, causing mobile network congestion. Solutions that involve upgrading operator hardware to Long Term Evolution (LTE) and other technologies has only limited effect on reducing mobile network congestion because of the exponential increase in data traffic from mobile devices.

Mobile device equipped with mobile network congestion recognition to make intelligent decisions regarding connecting to an operator network


A method of making a multi-layer coating on a substrate is provided and involves applying a mirror coating to a substrate then spraying a silicate topcoat onto the mirror coating. Applying the mirror coating can involve applying a reflective material to the substrate to form a reflective layer and applying an oxide layer to the reflective layer to form the mirror coating. The oxide layer can be made of one or more oxide layers, and each of the one or more oxide layers can include aluminum oxide, silicon oxide, or a combination thereof. The multi-layer coating provides increased IR emittance and decreased solar absorptance relative to conventional thermal control coatings.

Coatings that exhibit high performance, stable optical radiative properties, such as low solar absorptance and high IR emittance, have been the focus of much developmental effort. Currently, the highest performing systems are optical solar reflector (OSR) mirrors that are made from a 75 micron or greater glass pane, coated with silver. These systems are costly, fragile, and must be bonded to flat/planar surfaces. They are challenging to cut and customize to curved surfaces and are heavy. Their maximum IR emittances are typically less than 0.80. Other radiative coating options include sprayable white coatings which can have higher IR emittances than the OSR technology and can be applied to complex geometries; however, their pigment constituents are not normally as stable as OSR systems and can degrade to solar absorptances as high as 0.40 in UV and radiation environments. Additionally, white sprayable coatings that have low surface resistivity, less than 1E6 ohm/square (i.e., less than 1×106 ohm/square) have neither low solar absorptances or optically stable in charging environments. Silver backed Teflon (Ag/FEP) systems have similar optical properties as the proposed system; however, the material is not stable in radiation environments, can be easily damaged during application, and are significantly heavier. Ag/FEP with a conductive layer is extremely prone to damage and loss of conductivity due to mere contact.
Historically, thin oxide film coatings have been limited to an upper bound emittance value of 0.70 using a combination of aluminum oxide and silicon oxide. Increased thicknesses of the oxide layers did not increase emittance but did decrease the structural stability and coating surface stresses.

Methods for increasing IR emittance of thin film second surface mirrored thermal control coatings

United States of America as represented by the Administrator of NASA


A water-repellent woven fabric having excellent water repellency, which is friendly to the environment, and a garment made of the water-repellent woven fabric are provided. A composite yarn containing a false-twist crimped textured yarn having an S-direction torque and a false-twist crimped textured yarn having a Z-direction torque is arranged for a warp or a weft to obtain a fabric, and a fluorine-based water repellent having a total concentration of perfluorooctanoic acid and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid of 0 to 5 ng/g is then adhered to the woven fabric.

Hitherto, cloths having water repellency have been demanded in the fields of sports garment, casual garment, umbrella cloth, and the like, and it is performed to adhere a fluorine-based water repellent or the like to a cloth (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2).
In addition, in recent years, for the purpose of taking the environment into consideration, it has been proposed to adhere a fluorine-based water repellent with a low content of a compound having possibility to affect living things (for example, perfluorooctanoic acid, perfluorooctanesulfonic acid, etc.) to a cloth (see, for example, Patent Document 3).
Patent Document 1: JP-A-60-94645
Patent Document 2: JP-A-61-70043
Patent Document 3: JP-A-2007-247089

Water-repellent woven fabric and garment


A pre-filter kit and related method of use with an air filter associated with an intake of a machine is provided. The kit can include a sheet of pre-filter material, an adhesive component, such as an adhesive on a release liner, and one or more optional bands. The method can include: measuring a height of the air filter, cutting the sheet of pre-filter material so that the sheet includes a top edge and a bottom edge separated from one another by the height, as well as a first end and an opposing, second end; applying adhesive to the first end; and wrapping the sheet around the air filter so that the first end overlaps the second end to secure the first end to the overlapped portion of the sheet. The pre-filter is secured to the air filter so as to impair dirt, dust and debris from entering the air filter.

The present invention relates to filters for machines that intake air, and more particularly, to a pre-filter kit that is installable on a variety of different sized air filters.
There is a variety of machines that include air intakes adapted to pull ambient air or gases into the machines and their components, such as an internal combustion engines, generators and industrial tools. Frequently, air filters are joined with the air intakes to prevent particles of dirt, dust, sand and other debris from entering those intakes and potentially causing damage to the machine and its components.
Some manufacturers, such as Outerwears Performance Products, of Schoolcraft, Mich., provide fitted pre-filters that are engineered and precisely pre-sized for installation around specific air filters of certain machines to further filter out unwanted materials, preventing them from reaching the intake. These pre-filters usually are fully constructed using intricate sewing techniques and include multiple assembled components, such as seams and the like. With the sewing and additional components, sometimes the pre-filters can be cost prohibitive to manufacture and sell at a price point that is alluring to consumers.
Accordingly, there remains room for improvement in the construction, supply and use of pre-filters in conjunction with air filters for machines.

Pre-filter kit and related method of use


A tool for both plunging and cleaning plumbing fixtures and drains includes a handle and a plunger and a cleaning brush both coupled to the same end of the handle. The plunger is moveable between an extended position in which it covers a majority of the brush, and a retracted position in which it exposes a majority of the brush. The tool may be used for cleaning with the plunger retracted and for plunging with the plunger extended. Exemplary embodiments are particularly useful for cleaning and plunging toilets using a combination toilet plunger and toilet brush.

1. Technical Field
This invention generally relates to tools for cleaning plumbing drains and more specifically to a combination toilet plunger and brush tool in which the brush and plunger are coupled to the same end of a handle.
2. State of the Art
Toilet plungers and toilet brushes have been used for many years. Their general structure, methods of manufacture, function and usefulness are well known. A conventional plunger is generally made of some form of resilient rubber material that includes a concave region. When the plunger is pressed against a surface or into an opening, the space of the concave region is depressed and a suction is created as the concave region is moved back to its original shape. Plungers are commonly used for forcing water into and suctioning matter out of drains and other plumbing fixtures. For convenience in manipulating the plunging end of the plunger, toilet plungers include a long, straight, rounded handle rod that the user grasps when moving the plunger up and down.
Conventional toilet brushes include a plurality of flexible bristles extending from a center rod or a bristle surface. The rod or surface is generally coupled to a handle for easy manipulation. The handle for a toilet brush is generally much shorter than the handle of a plunger (⅓ to ⅔ the length). Methods and materials for making and using toilet brushes, like plungers, are well known in the art.
Both toilet brushes and toilet plungers generally come into contact with things found in a toilet and often become covered with toilet paper, excrement, or at least germ-laden toilet water. Unless the user actually uses fingers to pluck the material clinging to the brush or plunger, users generally shake the plunger or brush, or tap the plunger or brush on the side of the toilet to remove the contaminated materials before storage. Each of these movements, however, because of the restricted area available within the toilet bowl, frequently results in the toilet water and related toilet germs splattering outside of the toilet bowl.
Storage of toilet brushes and toilet plungers is conventionally maintained somewhere in the bathroom and is generally very unsightly. Toilet brushes and plungers are generally stored separately, each having an elongated handle that requires tall or wide storage space. In recent years, short plastic cases have been used to enclose and store the bristle portion of the brush on the floor next to the toilet.
Others have created combination brush and plunger tools that are not designed, intended or practical for many uses, including use with a toilet. In U.S. Design Pat. No. D274,273 to Auerbach (Jun. 12, 1984), Auerbach discloses a design for a garbage disposal thrust plunger and related brush. Different from a toilet plunger which creates suction to draw clogged materials from a drain, however, the plunger of Auerbach is a thrust stick to push items into a garbage disposal with short, rigid bristles on the end for scrubbing the disposal fixtures. The Auerbach tool could not be used to unclog a toilet by suction and is different from most conventional toilet brushes.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,617,605 to Hoemer et al. (Apr. 8, 1997) discloses a sink drain cleaning tool including a cleaning brush and plunger handle at one end, a plunger plate in the middle, and a brush handle at the other end. Apart from the shape of the plunger being designed specifically for a sink shape rather than a toilet shape, it is clear from the positioning of the two handles that the inventor did not contemplate its use for cleaning toilets. Use of this tool requires the user to grasp the brush end of the tool to plunge and the plunger end to brush. It is likely that the user's hand will come in contact with contaminated tool surfaces during use.
It would be advantageous in the cleaning industry to have an attractive combination cleaning and plunging tool to use in cleaning toilets. It would also be advantageous if that tool required less storage space than the two tools separately, and included a convenient way to remove some of the contaminants from the tool after it has been in the toilet, without splattering those contaminants outside of the toilet bowl.


A network enables remote users to communicate with, and to control a variety of devices whose only electrical connection is to a power line network. In hybrid networks, communications between different network domains is only available if proper message mapping is done. Message mapping leads to the determination of correct frame conversion based on the specifications of protocols identifying different networks. This invention comprises a method that does bi-directional conversion between application level information entered into the remote access device by the user and related physical layer power line communications frames.

This invention relates generally to devices connected to AC power lines, and more particularly to communication information between wireless telephone devices, Internet devices, and home appliances.
There is a great interest in communicating information with devices connected to AC power lines. More particularly, users would like to control and sense home appliances remotely. Currently, it is possible to transmit and receive computer, television, and telephone signals on AC power lines. In the future, users would also like to be able to monitor and control thermostats, refrigerators, stoves, lighting fixtures, heating and cooling systems, and the like, while away from their homes.
In such arrangements, one or more appliances, e.g., PCs, televisions, telephones, stereos, would be connected to the AC power line for receiving power, and a power line communication (PLC) adapter could be used for receiving and transmitting the information signals. The PLC adapter can be embedded in the appliances to extract information signals from the AC power line.
Most prior art literature describing power line communication networks has mainly been concerned with the physical layer specification of power line communication (PLC) protocols. For example, the art has focused on modulators, demodulators, converters, filters, signal detectors, synchronizers, and the like.
In addition, most prior art systems only permit communication between like devices, or communicating to a specific class of devices, for example, only between telephone, only between audio monitors, only to NTSC type devices, and so forth.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,777,545 xe2x80x9cRemote control apparatus for power line communications system,xe2x80x9d issued to Patel, et al. on Jul. 7, 1998, describes a remote control device for a power line communications system that uses pulse code modulation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,805,053 xe2x80x9cAppliance adapted for power line communications,xe2x80x9d issued to Patel, et al on Sep. 8, 1998, describes electrical appliances receiving and transmitting information to each other over a power line. The arrangement uses a transformer, bandpass filter, and amplifier and shaper.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,084,758 xe2x80x9cPower distribution system with circuit breakers remotely resettable by signals transmitted over the power lines,xe2x80x9d issued to Clarey et al. on Jul. 4, 2000, describes a power distribution system where circuit breakers at a load center are remotely reset by reclosers using a power line communication system, such as an X10 or CEBus system. A remote master unit, which generates reset signals, is connected to an unaffected branch circuit, preferably by plugging into an accessible location remote from the affected load center. The reclosers may be addressed individually or globally by the master unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,218,931, xe2x80x9cHome-appliance network with nodes identified by direct-sequence spreading codes,xe2x80x9d issued to Asghar et al. on Apr. 17, 2001, describes a network interface that couples residential appliances into a code-division multiple access (CDMA) network to convey appliance control and status signals. A spreading-code generator generates the codes, and a spread mixer modulates a narrowband transmit signal with the spreading code that is then coupled into the physical medium of the network.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,246,868 xe2x80x9cConversion and distribution of incoming wireless telephone signals using the power line,xe2x80x9d issued to Bullock et al., on Jun. 12, 2001 describes a system where wireless signals are received, converted, and distributed over AC power lines to one or more telephone communication devices within a building, office or complex is disclosed. That system provides for the reception of PCS, cellular and/or satellite communication signals, and provides an interface to standard generally available telephone equipment. By making use of a power line carrier channel, telephone equipment located remote from standard telephone wiring can be accessed. Moreover, by distributing such received wireless signals over the power line a number of telephone devices can be used to receive the distributed signals. In addition, the system allows previously installed telephones to communicate over and with wireless communication devices. As a limitation, that system is only concerned with distributing telephony signals, and does not address the general problem of controlling and communicating with a variety of non-telephonic home appliances, and the problem of acquiring status information about the appliances.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,288,632 xe2x80x9cApparatus and method for power line communication (PLC),xe2x80x9d issued to Hoctor, et al. on Sep. 11, 2001, provides a transmitter that broadcasts a signal for communicating information over a power line. The signal includes a superset, and the superset includes tone sets. Specifically, the signals of the tone sets are characterized by a spectral shape exhibiting main lobes within a harmonic interval. There is a main lobe for each different tone set.
Recently, IBM has described a software toolkit called the Service Management Framework(trademark), which is designed to be fully compliant with the OSGI (Open Service Gateway Initiative). The OSGI specification is an open industry standard for connecting xe2x80x9csmart devicesxe2x80x9d to the Internet, including everything from home appliances and set-top boxes to game machines and medical devices. Thus, the connected devices can be operated remotely. Unfortunately, that tool kit does not address the general problem of devices that only have a connection with a power line.
Therefore, there is a need for a system, method and network that enables remote users to communicate with and to control a variety of devices whose only electrical connection is to a power line network.
A network enables remote users to communicate with, and to control a variety of devices whose only electrical connection is to a power line network. In hybrid networks, communication between different network domains is only available if proper message mapping is done. Message mapping leads to the determination of correct frame conversion based on the specifications of protocols identifying different networks. This invention comprises a method that does bi-directional conversion between application level information entered into the remote access device by the user and related physical layer power line communications frames.

Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.


A coaxial cable termination device includes a barrel having opposed front and rear ends and a circumferential channel. A collet is at the front end of the barrel, and a sleeve is mounted over the barrel for reciprocal movement between a retracted position, in which the sleeve allows expansion and compression of the collet, and an advanced position, in which the sleeve prevents expansion of the collet. A locking mechanism is formed integrally in the sleeve and includes an arm mounted at a living hinge for movement between an unlocked position and a locked position in which a tooth on the arm is disposed within the circumferential channel. A lever is opposite the tooth from the living hinge and releases the arm from the locked position thereof.

Coaxial cables transmit radio frequency ("RF") signals between transmitters and receivers and are used to interconnect televisions, cable boxes, DVD players, satellite receivers, modems, and other electrical devices and electronic components. Typical coaxial cables include an inner conductor surrounded by a flexible dielectric insulator, a foil layer, a conductive metallic tubular sheath or shield, and a polyvinyl chloride jacket. The RF signal is transmitted through the inner conductor. The conductive tubular shield provides a ground and inhibits electrical and magnetic interference with the RF signal in the inner conductor.
Coaxial cables must be terminated with cable connectors to be coupled to mating posts of electrical devices. Connectors typically have a connector body, a threaded fitting mounted for rotation on an end of the connector body, a bore extending into the connector body from an opposed end to receive the coaxial cable, and an inner post within the bore coupled in electrical communication with the fitting. Generally, connectors are crimped onto a prepared end of a coaxial cable to secure the connector to the coaxial cable. The connectors must maintain electrical connection and signal shielding with the cable despite rotation, tugging, bending, or other movement of the cable and the connector.
Further, the connectors must mitigate the introduction of interference or ingress noise into the connector and signal pathway. Ingress noise causes a variety of problems, including not just reduced signal quality to the home, but large aggregated return path noise issues at the plant. Without properly seating a connector on a female connector or post, ingress noise can leak into the connector. However, it is difficult to know whether a connector is properly seated on a post; without a tool, some ingress noise is nearly guaranteed. An improved connector that mitigates the introduction of ingress noise is needed.


A process for manufacturing continuous ceramic tape includes steps of heating a ceramic feedstock to a molten state and spraying molten droplets of the feedstock onto a deposition surface. The method further includes forming a ceramic coating on the deposition surface by accumulating the droplets, which solidify and are directly bonded to one another. The deposition surface is non-stick with respect to the ceramic coating such that the coating may be peeled off of the deposition surface as a continuous ceramic tape, without fracture. Additionally, in embodiments, the deposition surface is removed by running the deposition over a bending edge, chemically stripping or dissolving the deposition surface, or burning the deposition surface.

Coatings are typically applied to articles with intent that the coatings bond and become integrated with the articles to provide additional attributes to the articles, such as surface hardness, increased surface gloss, hermetic sealing, aesthetic features, etc. Techniques have been developed to improve bonding and adhesion of the coatings to underlying materials.


A vehicle control apparatus includes an accelerator-manipulated-amount detecting section configured to detect a manipulated amount of accelerator; a braking-force generating section configured to generate a braking force of the vehicle; a driving-force generating section configured to generate a driving force of the vehicle; a control unit including a vehicle-body speed calculating section configured to calculate an actual vehicle-body speed. The control unit is configured to perform a normal control mode which generates a driving force corresponding to the accelerator manipulated amount, and to perform a speed control mode which calculates a target vehicle-body speed based on the accelerator manipulated amount and which controls the braking-force generating section and the driving-force generating section so as to bring the actual vehicle-body speed closer to the target vehicle-body speed. The vehicle control apparatus further includes a selecting switch configured to select between the normal control mode and the speed control mode. The control unit is configured to control the vehicle by one selected between the normal control mode and the speed control mode by the selecting switch.

The present invention relates to a vehicle control apparatus for controlling a running state of vehicle.
Previously, at a vehicle running in traffic jam, start, acceleration and stop of the vehicle have been conducted by accelerator and brake manipulations of a driver. Hence, there has been a problem that frequent changeovers between the both manipulations (changeover between brake-pedal depression and accelerator-pedal depression) are burdensome to the driver. Moreover, in a scene where a vehicle runs over a bump such as a step formed at an entrance of parking space when the vehicle is parked, the driver needs to switch between the accelerator manipulation and the brake manipulation more rapidly, resulting in a burden to the driver. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-329684 discloses a previously-proposed technique. In this technique, a predetermined braking force based on a vehicle-body speed and a manipulated amount of accelerator pedal is outputted.


A spatial light communication equipment being capable of providing compatibility between two communication equipments placed opposite to each other and of providing, with simplified configurations, highly accurate seizure and tracking capability and excellent beam directivity for ultra-long-distance communication. Angular error in a receiving beam is detected by an angle detector disposed on an optical axis of light reflected by a first reflecting plane of a beam deflector and, based on detected results, an angle deflected by the beam deflector is corrected. The deflected angle of a transmitting beam is controlled by using a second reflecting plane which is a back-surface of the first reflecting plane of the beam deflector and an error being equivalent to angular error occurring in the receiving beam is accurately corrected to obtain correct direction of emittance of the transmitting beam by using a signal transmitting optical antenna having same magnification as signal receiving optical antenna has and having polarity being opposite to the signal receiving optical antenna.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spatial light communication equipment for spatially transmitting optical signals and more particularly to the spatial light communication equipment which can be used suitably for ultra-long-distance spatial optical communications such as intersatellite optical communications.
The present application claims priority of Japanese Patent Application No.2000-011338 filed on Jan. 20, 2000, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
An information transmitting system using optical signals includes, in addition to a wired transmission system through an optical fiber being featured by non-inductive, low-loss and wide-band optical transmission, a spatial transmitting system using spatial light such as infrared rays. The spatial transmitting system, though it is of lower quality of transmission than the wired transmission system, can provide low-cost and highly practical communication simply by installing a spatial light communication equipment enabling communication by spatial light on transmitting side and receiving side within an unobstructed spatial range. The spatial transmission system is very advantageous in ultra-long-distance communication which costs much to install wired transmission lines such as optical fibers and/or in intersatellite optical communications in which installation of wired transmission lines is impossible, in particular.
To carry out communications using spatial light, the spatial light communication equipment installed on a transmitting side is placed opposite to one installed on a receiving side and a spatial light receiving communication equipment (hereinafter may be referred to as a receiver) receives spatial light emitted by a spatial light transmitting communication equipment (hereinafter may be referred to as a transmitter). In the case of intersatellite optical communications being ultra-long-distance communication, since the spatial light to be emitted is a light beam having directivity as sharp as about 10xcexc rad, seizure/tracking capability and beam directivity with accuracy of about 1 xcexcrad are required to receive the emitted beams of light.
FIG. 8 is a schematic block diagram for showing configurations of a conventional spatial light communication equipment. In this spatial light communication equipment, communications are carried out by using transmitting and receiving beams which are transmitted or received on a same optical axis between the transmitter and the receiver. A beam emitted from the transmitter (not shown) is received by an optical antenna 10 of the receiver. The beam received by the optical antenna 10 is transmitted to a beam deflector 11. The beam deflector 11 totally reflects only the beam received through the optical antenna 10 and guides it toward a beam splitter 12. On an optical axis of the beam totally reflected by the beam deflector 11 are placed the beam splitter 12, a beam splitter 13 and an angle detector 14. The beam splitter 12 allows the beam totally reflected by the beam deflector 11 to pass through itself. The beam splitter 13 allows the beam transmitted through the beam splitter 12 to pass through itself and then outputs the beam to the angle detector 14 and, at a same time, guides the beam toward an optical receiver 15. The angle detector 14 detects an angle of deviation, relative to an optical axis of the beam totally reflected by the beam deflector 11, of the beam transmitted through the beam splitter 13. The optical receiver 15 converts the beam guided by the beam splitter 13 to an electrical signal and performs predetermined signal receiving processing.
On the other hand, since direction in which the optical antenna 10 is directed to the spatial light communication equipment (not shown) installed on the opposite side is displaced by an angle of deviation detected by the angle detector 14, a transmitting signal to be transmitted to the receiver is emitted with the angle of deviation being corrected. At this point, transmitting signal to be transmitted by an optical transmitter 16 is converted to an transmitting beam as an optical signal and is output to the beam splitter 12. The beam splitter 12 guides the transmitting beam fed by the optical transmitter 16 toward the beam deflector 11. The beam deflector 11, by using a control section (not shown), is adapted to improve signal receiving sensitivity of the optical receiver 15. The beam deflector 11 also controls a deflected angle depending on angle of deviation detected by the angle detector 14 so that a direction of the transmitting beam fed by the optical antenna 10 directed to the receiver is corrected by the angle of deviation. The beam deflector 11 totally reflects the beam fed from the beam splitter 12 and guides it toward the optical antenna 10. The optical antenna 10 transmits the beam from the beam deflector 11 to the receiver.
Thus, in the spatial light communication equipment by which communication is carried out by transmitting and receiving the beam on the same optical axis between the transmitter and receiver, by controlling an angle of the beam deflected by the beam deflector 11, the corrected angle detected at a time of tracking the receiving beam is applied to adjustment of directions of the transmitting beam. This enables sharp directivity of beam light in the spatial light communication equipment to be implemented, with simplified configurations.
FIG. 9 is a schematic block diagram showing configurations of a conventional spatial light communication equipment in which communication is carried out using signal transmitting and receiving beams being transmitted on different optical axes. The spatial light communication equipment of this type is provided with one optical antenna for transmitting beams and another optical antenna for receiving beams to carry out communication using beams to be transmitted and received on the different optical axes between the transmitter and receiver. Therefore, a receiving beam transmitted from the transmitter is received by a signal receiving optical antenna 20. The receiving beam received by the signal receiving optical antenna 20 is output to a beam deflector 21. The beam deflector 21 totally reflects only the receiving beam fed from the signal receiving optical antenna 20 and guides them toward a beam splitter 22. On an optical axis of the receiving beam totally reflected by the beam deflector 21 are placed the beam splitter 22 and an angle detector 23. The beam splitter 22 allows the receiving beam totally reflected by the beam deflector 21 to pass through itself to output to the angle detector 23 and, at a same time, guides the beam toward an optical receiver 24. The angle detector 23 detects an angle of deviation, relative to an optical axis of the beam totally reflected by the beam deflector 21, of the beam transmitted through the beam splitter 22. The optical receiver 24 converts the beam guided by the beam splitter 22 to an electrical signal and performs predetermined signal receiving processing The spatial light communication equipment shown in FIG. 9 is provided with a control section (not shown) adapted to change the angle deflected by the beam deflector 21 depending on the angle of deviation of the transmitted light beam detected by the angle detector 23 in order to improve signal receiving sensitivity of the optical receiver 24. An amount of the corrected angle changed by the control section is monitored by an angle transferring circuit 25 and is transferred, with high accuracy, to a beam deflector 26.
A transmitting signal to be transmitted from the spatial light communication equipment is converted to an optical signal by an optical transmitter 27 and is output to the beam deflector 26. The beam deflector 26 totally reflects only specified beam component in the transmitting beams and guides them to a mirror 28. The mirror 28 guides the transmitting beam totally reflected by the beam deflector 26 toward a signal transmitting optical antenna 29. The signal transmitting optical antenna 29 transmits out the transmitting beam totally reflected by the mirror 28 to a receiver (not shown).
Thus, in the spatial light communication equipment by which communication is carried out by transmitting the signal transmitting and receiving beams on the different optical axes between the transmitter and receiver, by controlling the angle of the beam deflected by the beam deflector on the beam receiving side based on the corrected angle corresponding to results from tracking of receiving beams, the controlled amount of the corrected angle is applied, with high accuracy, to adjustment of directions of the transmitting beam by the beam deflector. This enables highly accurate tracking capability of the receiving beam and sharp directivity of the transmitting beam to be implemented.
However, in the conventional spatial light communication equipment shown in FIG. 8, since communication is carried out by transmitting and receiving beams on the same optical axis, identification between the transmitting beam and receiving beam is generally made by a wavelength or a direction of a polarized wave. Therefore, when the identification is made by the wavelength, if, in one spatial light communication equipment, a beam of light having a wavelength of xcex1 is used as the transmitting spatial light to be transmitted and a beam of light having a wavelength of xcex2 as the receiving spatial light to be received, in the other spatial light communication equipment, the beam of light having a wavelength of xcex2 and the beam of light having a wavelength of xcex1 must be used as the transmitting spatial light and as the receiving spatial light respectively. That is, since one spatial light communication equipment cannot be used as a substitute for the other, it is impossible to maintain compatibility.
Moreover, to implement the compatibility between the two spatial light communication equipments disposed opposite to each other, since the transmitting beam and receiving beam use a beam of light having same wavelength or same polarized wave, a filter to separate a wavelength component and a polarized wave component contained in the light same wavelength and polarized wave has to be additionally installed. To carry out ultra-long-distance spatial light communications, a dynamic range between a transmitting spatial light level and a receiving spatial light level of the spatial light communication equipment has to be widened. However, when the filter for separation of the wavelength component and polarized wave component is mounted, since a crosstalk of the transmitting spatial light in the spatial light communication equipment cannot be removed due to unavoidable factors such as feedback light, it becomes impossible to widen the dynamic range.
On the other hand, in the conventional spatial light communication equipment shown in FIG. 9, since communication is carried out by transmitting and receiving beams on different optical axes, it is possible to ensure compatibility between two spatial light communication equipments disposed opposite to each other. However, a beam deflector for a receiving beam and a beam deflector for a transmitting beam have to be installed separately and, after having detected an amount of corrected angle in tracking of the receiving beam, control has to be made so as to transfer, with high accuracy, the amount of the corrected angle to the beam deflector for the transmitting beam, thus causing complicated control configurations and an increased size of the conventional spatial light communication equipment.
In view of the above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a spatial light communication equipment being capable of providing compatibility between two spatial light communication equipments placed opposite to each other and of providing, with simplified configurations, highly accurate seizure and tracking capability and excellent beam directivity for ultra-long-distance communication.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a spatial light communication equipment including:
a first optical antenna to receive receiving spatial light from a spatial light communication equipment installed on an opposite side;
a angle detector for detecting an angular error from a specified signal receiving optical axis from the receiving spatial light received by the first optical antenna;
a controller (correcting means) for correcting, based on the angular error detected by the angle detector, the angular error of the receiving spatial light from the specified signal receiving optical axis and angular error of transmitting spatial light to be emitted to the spatial light communication equipment installed on the opposite side; and
a second optical antenna to transmit the transmitting spatial light whose angular error has been corrected by the controller (correcting means).
In the above configuration, the angular error of the receiving spatial light emitted from the spatial light communication equipment installed on the opposite side and received by the first optical antenna, from the specified signal receiving optical axis, is detected and the angular error of the receiving spatial light and the angular error of the transmitting spatial light to be emitted to the spatial light communication equipment installed on the opposite side are corrected by the controller (correcting means). Polarity of the transmitting spatial light whose angular error has been corrected is reversed by the second optical antenna and is transmitted to the spatial light communication equipment installed on the opposite side.
With the above configuration, since an amount of the angular error of the receiving spatial light is used for controlling direction of the transmitting spatial light, the spatial light communication equipment in which both tracking and seizure of the receiving spatial light and the control on the direction of the transmitting spatial light are made possible, with simplified structures, can be implemented.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a spatial light communication equipment including:
a first optical antenna to receive receiving spatial light from a spatial light communication equipment installed on an opposite side;
a beam deflector having a first reflecting plane to deflect the receiving spatial light received by the first optical antenna on a specified optical axis;
an angle detector for detecting an angular error of the receiving spatial light deflected on the specified optical axis;
a controller for correcting, based on the angular error detected by the angle detector, an angle deflected by the beam deflector;
a reflector for guiding transmitting spatial light toward the specified optical axis of the receiving spatial light to be emitted to the spatial light communication equipment installed on the opposite side, corrected by the controller and reflected by a second reflecting plane being positioned on a back-surface of the first reflecting plane of the beam deflector; and
a second optical antenna to reverse a polarity of the transmitting spatial light reflected by the reflector and to transmit the transmitting spatial light to the spatial light communication equipment installed on the opposite side.
In the above configuration, the angular error of the receiving spatial light fed from the spatial light communication equipment installed on the opposite side and received by the first optical antenna is detected after having been deflected on the specified optical axis by the first reflecting plane of the beam deflector and then the deflected direction is corrected by the controller. The transmitting spatial light to be emitted to the spatial light communication equipment installed on the opposite side is reflected by the second reflecting plane of the reflector which is positioned on the back-surface of the first reflecting plane of the beam deflector whose deflecting direction has been corrected by the controller and is then guided toward the specified optical axis of the receiving spatial light by the reflector and is transmitted, with its polarity reversed by the second optical antenna, to the spatial light communication equipment installed on the opposite side.
With the above configuration, a spatial separation between the signal transmitting and receiving beams within the spatial light communication equipment and complete blocking of invasion of crosstalk of the transmitting beam into the signal receiving system can be achieved, with very simplified configurations, thus implementing a spatial light optical communication system requiring no considerations about allotment of wavelength component and/or polarized wave component. Also, by transmitting the signal transmitting and receiving beams on different optical axes, light having a same wavelength and same polarized component can be used between the transmitter and receiver, thus ensuring compatibility of the spatial light communication equipment.
Furthermore, by using both the surface reflecting plane and rear reflecting plane of the beam deflector, the deflected angle to be corrected can be transferred under a well controlled condition, enabling highly accurate tracking and seizure capability and controlled directivity of the signal light. Therefore, the spatial light communication equipment can be used for ultra-long-distance spatial optical communications requiring highly accurate tracking and seizure capability and controlled directivity of the signal light such as the intersatellite optical communications. By incorporating a light source having a high signal transmitting level and an optical receiver having high signal receiving sensitivity into the spatial light communication equipment, very excellent intersatellite optical communication system can be constructed.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, there is provided a spatial light communication equipment including:
a first optical antenna to receive receiving spatial light from a spatial light communication equipment installed on an opposite side;
a beam deflector having a first reflecting plane to deflect the receiving spatial light received by the first optical antenna on a specified optical axis;
an angle detector for detecting an angular error of the receiving spatial light deflected on the specified optical axis;
a controller for correcting, based on the angular error detected by the angle detector, an angle deflected by the beam deflector; and
a second optical antenna having a polarity being opposite to that of the first optical an antenna including a concave lens to expand a diameter of the transmitting spatial light to be emitted to the spatial light communication equipment installed on the opposite side, corrected by the con-roller and reflected by a second reflecting plane being positioned on a back-surface of the first reflecting plane of the beam deflector, a reflector to guide the transmitting spatial light whose diameter has been expanded by the concave lens toward the specified optical axis of the receiving spatial light and a convex lens to collimate the transmitting spatial light reflected by the reflector and to transmit out the transmitting spatial light.
In the above configuration, the second optical antenna is so configured that the reflector to guide the transmitting spatial light toward the specified optical axis of the receiving spatial light is disposed between a Galileian-type concave lens used to reverse polarity of the transmitting spatial light and to expand beam diameter and the convex lens to collimate the transmitting spatial light.
With the above configuration, since the concave lens making up the second optical antenna is disposed as near to the second reflecting plane of the beam deflector as possible, the reflected light can be handled in vicinity of a center area where aberration of the concave lens is small and further its lens diameter can be made smaller. Therefore, transmitting accuracy of the transmitting spatial light can be improved and size of the spatial light communication equipment itself can be made smaller.
According to a fourth aspect of the present invention, there is provided a spatial light communication equipment including:
a first optical antenna to receive receiving spatial light from a spatial light communication equipment installed on an opposite side;
a beam deflector having a first reflecting plane to deflect the receiving spatial light received by the first optical antenna on a specified optical axis;
an angle detector for detecting an angular error of the receiving spatial light deflected on the specified optical axis;
a controller for correcting, based on the angular error detected by the angle detector, an angle deflected by the beam deflector;
a second optical antenna to reverse a polarity of transmitting spatial light to be emitted to the spatial light communication equipment installed on the opposite side, corrected by the controller and reflected by a second reflecting plane being positioned on a back-surface of the first reflecting plane of the beam deflector, and
a reflector to guide the transmitting spatial light transmitted by the second optical antenna toward the specified optical axis of the receiving spatial light.
In the above configuration, the angular error of the receiving spatial light fed from the spatial light communication equipment installed on the opposite side and received by the first optical antenna is detected after the receiving spatial light has been deflected on the specified optical axis by the first reflecting plane of the beam deflector and deflected direction is corrected by the controller. Then, the transmitting spatial light to be transmitted to the spatial light communication equipment installed on the opposite side is reflected by the second reflecting plane being the back-surface of the first reflecting plane of the beam deflector whose deflecting direction has been corrected by the controller and, after its polarity is reversed by the second optical antenna and is emitted, is guided to the specified optical axis of the receiving spatial light by the reflector.
With the above configuration, since the lens making up the second optical antenna is disposed as near to the second reflecting plane of the beam deflector as possible, the reflected light can be handled in vicinity of a center area where aberration of the lens is small and further its lens diameter can be made smaller. Moreover, since commercially available signal transmitting optical antenna can be appropriated, costs for the spatial light communication equipment can be reduced.
In the foregoing, a preferable mode is one wherein the first optical antenna and the beam deflector are so disposed that an exit pupil of the receiving spatial light received by the first optical antenna is positioned on the first reflecting plane of the beam deflector.
In the above configuration, since the exit pupil of the receiving spatial light received by the first optical antenna is disposed on the first reflecting plane of the beam deflector, the specified optical axis deflected by the beam deflector can be held in a constant position.
With the above configuration, very highly accurate control on the spatial light can be achieved.
Furthermore, a preferable mode is one wherein the first and second optical antennas are operated under a same magnification and they receive and transmit spatial light having a same diameter.
In the above configuration, since the diameter of the spatial light transmitted and received by each of the first and second optical antennas is the same, compatibility between the transmitter and receiver can be further improved.

Spatial light communication equipment comprising angle error detection and alignment units


A method of determining a direction of arrival of a signal at a device comprising an antenna with multiple antenna elements, in a processor of the device configured to calculate an average signal for each antenna element based on the signal received at the antenna element over N time slots, determine respective phases of the average signals and determine at least one of an azimuth and elevation angle of the signal using the determined phases and information of the location of the antenna elements.

A feature of interest in the development of the low energy Bluetooth standard is direction finding, where a Bluetooth device equipped with multiple antenna elements can identify the direction of arrival of a received signal. Algorithms for the estimation of signal arrival angles or direction have previously been proposed. For Bluetooth low energy (BLE) devices, it is however necessary that the algorithm be computationally efficient.
Direction finding (DF) methods enable a device to determine the angle of arrival (AoA) or angle of departure (AoD) of signals by exploiting the differences in the received signal across different antenna elements. These methods can be classified as either spectral-based algorithm such as Bartlett, MUSIC and Capon or parametric-based algorithms such as Maximum Likelihood (ML). The techniques differ in performance and computational complexity.
While the complexity of DF schemes is manageable for a number of scenarios, for future low energy, low complexity devices with limited processing capabilities, the existing methods may not be feasible. This problem is exacerbated in 3D DF where the elevation angles also need to be computed.
Most of the conventional AoA/AoD algorithms in the array processing literature do not exploit the waveforms of the transmit signal. From the received signals at multiple antennas across several samples the sample covariance matrix may be derived. This covariance matrix is then used to derive a 'spectrum' wherein peaks correspond to the angles of interest.

3D direction finding method and device therefore


The present invention relates to an optical fiber composite cable. The optical fiber composite cable includes at least one power line to transmit power and an optical cable to monitor a state of the power lines, and the optical cable comprises optical fibers, tubes to accommodate the optical fibers, and a protection member to surround the tubes.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The present invention relates to an optical fiber composite cable and, more particularly, to an optical fiber composite cable capable of protecting optical cables when various types of external force, such as bending and tension, works in the optical fiber composite cable including optical cables.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Recently, the quantity of export goods transported over harbors, such as industrial products including energy resources and vehicles, continues to increase. As measures for an increase in the quantity of export goods transported, a demand for the investment of home and foreign harbor crane equipment and the construction of new harbors continues to increase. In operating this harbor crane equipment, a cable for transferring power and/or electric signals plays the most important role. The cable is continuously used and consumed in the movement of a harbor crane and loading and unloading tasks. In terms of the characteristics of a harbor crane, a high-quality/high-durability cable capable of being used relatively in the long period is necessary because the cable continues to be consumed and needs to be maintained. Furthermore, there is an increasing need for a cheap cable in order to reduce a loss due to occasional damage attributable to an unskilled worker or other reasons.
A harbor cable used in a harbor crane can be basically classified into three types depending on the type. The three types of cables include a reel type cable for supplying power to the entire crane according to a movement of the entire crane, a Festoon type cable hung in a parabola form in such a way as to perform horizontal and straight-line motions according to freight that moves between a ship at anchor and a dock, and a spreader type cable coupled with a part that moves up and down in order to fix freight.
In particular, the reel type cable needs not to be damaged or broken must have high durability enough to supply power although a reel installed in a crane body is repeatedly wound and released. Furthermore, the reel type cable must have an excellent bending characteristic in which the reel type cable can withstand bending stress, such as forward bending/reverse bending, when the reel type cable is wound on the reel or depending on the position of a guide roller, an excellent characteristic related to torsion occurring because the traveling direction of a crane and the angle of a wheel is a right angle, and an excellent characteristic regarding flexibility that is common to cables classified as movable cable. The reel type cable must be designed to satisfy the characteristics stably in the long term.
The reel type cable can be basically divided into an optical fiber composite cable including optical cables and a cable for only supplying power without a optical cable. Here, the optical fiber composite cable requires a high level of structural design technology because a reduction in the performance of a optical cable that may occur from the structural design stage of the optical fiber composite cable to a process of manufacturing the optical fiber composite cable must be minimized, unlike a cable for supplying power without a optical cable. An optical cable applied to an existing optical fiber composite cable uses a relatively expensive optical fiber composite cable because it is relatively weak in design technology. Furthermore, the optical cable is broken in a short period of time, or the optical cable frequently does not use a state monitoring function using an optical cable, that is, the original object of the optical fiber composite cable.
The biggest obstacles to the cable structure design and the selection of materials for improving the above-described problems include tension continuously applied to the entire cable manufacturing process, frequent bending inevitably occurring in the manufacturing process, bending stress applied to the cable due to the radius of curvature, the damage and breakdown of a optical cable attributable to relatively high pressure or heat, and an optical loss resulting from the tension, frequent bending, bending stress, and damage and breakdown. In order to prevent this optical loss, process conditions need to be optimized, but more importantly, it is necessary to secure structural design technology in which an optical loss can be minimized even in severe process conditions.


Embodiments include a near-memory acceleration method for offloading data traversal operations from a processing element. The method is implemented at a near-memory accelerator configured to interact with each of the processing element and a memory used by the processing element. The accelerator performs the data traversal operations to chase pointers, in order to identify a pointer to data to be processed by the processing element. The data traversal operations are performed based on indications from the processing element. In addition, data needed to perform the data traversal operations are fetched by the near-memory accelerator, from the memory. The present invention is further directed to a near-memory accelerator and a computerized system comprising such an accelerator, as well as a computer program product.

The present invention relates to information processing apparatus, an information processing method and program. The invention relates in general to the field of near-memory accelerators. In particular, it relates to pointer chasing operations performed by a processing element.
The concept of pointer chasing is known. A pointer is an object (data, variable), whose value refers to another value that is stored elsewhere in the memory, using the address of this other value. In other words, a pointer is a link that references a location in memory. A pointer may notably point to another pointer, and so on, such that multiple dereference operations may be required to retrieve the original value. Each level of indirection adds a performance cost.
Data structures of modern, e.g., object-oriented programming languages (such as Java, Python or C++) employ deep indirection for abstraction purposes (e.g., inheritance, containers such as lists or graphs). In addition to a program's data accesses, garbage collection (GC) frequently traverses all data structures in a program. Abstraction and GC make programmers more productive. However, for processors, the indirections translate to frequent pointer chasing, requiring it to pass through many different memory regions before arriving at the actual data to be processed.
As it may be realized, pointer chasing operations consume substantial bandwidth and cause memory cache pollution. Besides, one knows hardware accelerators, i.e., computer hardware that is capable of performing some specific functions faster than a general-purpose CPU.

Near-memory accelerator for offloading pointer chasing operations from a processing element

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


The present invention relates to a composition, preferably a cosmetic composition, comprising: (a) at least one oil; (b) at least one polyglyceryl fatty acid ester, preferably with a polyglyceryl moiety derived from 2 to 6 glycerins; (c) at least one compound selected from the group consisting of resorcinol and resorcinol derivatives; and (d) water. The composition according to the present invention can be in the form of a nano- or micro-emulsion, or can have a lamellar structure or a lamellar phase, with better transparency and stability.

Oil-in-water (O/W) or Water-in-oil (W/O) emulsions are well known in the field of cosmetics and dermatology, in particular for the preparation of cosmetic products, such as milks, creams, tonics, serums or toilet waters.
It is known practice, in the cosmetics or dermatological field, to use oil-in-water (O/W) emulsions. These emulsions, that consist of an oil phase (or lipophilic phase) dispersed in an aqueous phase, have an external aqueous phase and are therefore products that are more pleasant to use because of the feeling of freshness that they provide.
In particular, a fine emulsion such as an O/W nano- or micro-emulsion is particularly interesting in cosmetic products due to its transparent or translucent aspect. For example, JP-A-2006-117643 discloses a micro emulsion which is formed by using a combination of specific nonionic surfactants.
On the other hand, compositions which have a lamellar structure or a lamellar phase are also well known in the field of cosmetics and dermatology. The term "lamellar structure" or "lamellar phase" means a liquid crystal structure or phase with plane symmetry, comprising several amphiphilic bilayers arranged in parallel and separated by a liquid medium which is generally water. For example JP-A-2006-249011 and JP-A-2009-298748 disclose cosmetic compositions with a lamellar structure with specific surfactants to form the amphiphilic bilayers.
Compositions with a lamellar structure or a lamellar phase can show optical effects, due to light interference by the lamellar structure or lamellar phase, such as rainbow color. Thus, the aesthetic aspect caused by the optical effects of the compositions with a lamellar structure or a lamellar phase can be in particular useful for cosmetic applications. In order to maximize the optical effects, transparency of the composition is required.

Composition in the form of nano or micro emulsion or with lamellar structure


Lavatory systems that include lavatory modules are provided. In one embodiment, each lavatory module includes a first wall, a second wall coupled to the first wall, a sink, and a urinal. The first wall of a first one of the lavatory modules is attached to the first wall of a second one of the lavatory modules and the first wall of a third one of the lavatory modules is attached to the first wall of a fourth one of the lavatory modules. The second walls are attached to each other. The lavatory modules include an amenities cabinet and a trash bin. The sinks and urinals may be coupled to a common plumbing system. The lavatory modules are manufactured separately and attached once loaded and placed into position on board a vehicle, such as an aircraft.

Current airplane, train, and bus lavatories are typically single, small units that include a commode and a sink. When a passenger uses the lavatory unit, all the amenities of the unit are unavailable for use by another passenger. This can result in people waiting in the aisle for an available lavatory.
In order to reduce waiting times for lavatories, the number of lavatories has been increased. However, installing more lavatories also reduces the available space for passenger seats. This results in a decrease in the ability to generate revenue.
Examples of prior art aircraft lavatories include Japanese Patent Application 03350235 to Futoshi et al., which presents a men's restroom for an aircraft. The men's restroom includes a urinal, a sink, and other amenities. Similarly, in Japanese Patent Application 03350234, Futoshi et al. disclose a single lavatory unit that is combined with a toilet room and a room with a sink. Because this configuration is linear, however, it is not an effective use of space.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide more access to lavatory facilities with reduced wait times for passengers without adversely impacting revenue generation. However, there is an unmet need to improve the efficiency of and use of space of lavatories.


Panchromatic photosensitizers having a Formula of ML1L2X were synthesized, wherein M represents ruthenium atom; X represents a monodentate anion; L1 is heterocyclic bidentate ligand having one of formulae listed below:

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to panchromatic photosensitizers and dye-sensitized solar cell using the same, and more particularly to panchromatic photosensitizers and dye-sensitized solar cell using the same with better photoelectric conversion efficiency.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Petrochemical fuel contains nonrenewable energy, which will possibly run out very soon. In addition, burning petrochemical fuel results in excessive CO2 exhausts which not only pollute the air, but also become one of the primary causes of global warming. Therefore, searching for alternative energy supplies to reduce reliance on petrochemical fuels is a subject of great urgency. During the development of green energy, it is found that solar energy is the cleanest, most abundant and requires neither mining nor refinement. Solar energy, therefore, becomes the most notable field among the current development and search for new energy.
The manufacture of a dye-sensitized solar cell (DSSC) is simple and the manufacturing cost is also lower than that of a silicon-based solar cell of prior arts. Therefore, DSSC has been regarded as one of the most promising solar cell technologies following silicon-based solar cells. Because the intrinsic property of photosensitizers directly affects the photoelectric conversion efficiency of a DSSC, the photosensitizers then becomes one of key focus while conducting research on DSSCs.
A N3 dye is a photosensitizer commonly used at present, which comprises the structure shown in Formula (I). However, the absorption spectrum of N3 dye is not well matched to the solar spectrum, which makes N3 dye to respond sluggishly to solar irradiations with wavelengths greater than 600 nm, and cannot be used in this region efficiently.

Another photosensitizer of prior art is the black dye, which comprises the structure shown in Formula (II). Although black dye somewhat overcomes the drawback of N3 dye, and exhibits spectrum response up to the region of 920 nm, the process involving its synthesis is complicated, the absorption extinction coefficient in the visible region is inferior to those of the typical organic sensitizers, and not to mention of the poor synthetic yield.

To sum up the foregoing descriptions, the photoelectric conversion efficiency of a DSSC directly depends on the property of a photosensitizer; therefore, developing photosensitizers with decent photoelectric conversion efficiency is an important goal to be achieved.

Panchromatic photosensitizers and dye-sensitized solar cell using the same

Abstract: wherein G2 has one of formulae listed below:

Abstract: and L2 is a tridentate ligand having a formula listed below:

Abstract: Substituents R1, R2, R3 and R4 of L1 are the same or different and are selected from the group consisting of hydrogen, halogen, amino-group alkyl, alkoxy, alkylthio, alkylamino, halogenated alkyl, phenyl and substituted phenyl group. Substituents R5, R6 and R7 of L2 are the same or different and are selected from the group consisting of carboxylic, carboxylate, sulfonic acid, sulfonate, phosphoric acid and phosphate. The above-mentioned photosensitizers are suitable to use as sensitizers for fabrication of high efficiency dye-sensitized solar cell.


A method and an apparatus for determining validity of a mobile subscriber identifier in a mobile communication terminal are provided. In the method, a temporary identifier assigned from a network is stored in a memory and a SIM card of the terminal. When a network authentication event occurs, the temporary identifier stored in the memory is compared with the temporary identifier stored in the SIM card. An identifier to be transmitted to the network is determined among an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI) and the temporary identifier stored in the SIM card depending on a result of the comparison.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for determining the validity of a mobile subscriber identifier of a mobile communication terminal. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for determining the validity of a Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (TMSI) and a Packet Temporary Mobile Subscriber Identity (PTMSI) recorded in a Subscriber Identification Module (SIM) card.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, in a mobile communication network which uses a Global System for Mobile communication (GSM) and a Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) system, a terminal may receive service from the network after passing through an authentication procedure. For example, when power is turned on, a terminal using a GSM scheme transmits user authentication data stored in a SIM card to the network in order to perform the authentication procedure, and the network determines whether the terminal is eligible to receive service by checking the user authentication data transmitted from the terminal. Examples of the user authentication data stored in the SIM card include an International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), TMSI, and PTMSI. Here, the IMSI is a unique value corresponding to a subscriber that is assigned when a subscriber subscribes to a service. The IMSI does not change after being initially assigned, and includes a Mobile Country Code (MCC), a Mobile Network Code (MNC), and a mobile subscriber identifier number. The TMSI and the PTMSI are temporary values identifying the terminal, are arbitrarily changed by the network, and may be used instead of the IMSI for security purposes.
When a valid TMSI or PTMSI exists inside the SIM card, a conventional terminal attempts to obtain a service from a network by preferentially transmitting the TMSI or PTMSI, rather than the IMSI, to the network. However, when a service is provided by authenticating a terminal using only the TMSI or PTMSI of the terminal, even users who have no authority to use the service may still receive the service.
For example, to prevent some terminals from being used outside a specific network, a mobile service provider provides a network lock function of checking an MCC and an MNC from the IMSI recorded in the SIM card of the terminal, and, when an unauthorized MCC and MNC are received, preventing the terminal from performing a basic operation. However, in the conventional art, it has been reported that a terminal may pass through such a network lock by replacing the MCC and MNC by specific values, and then authenticate using a TMSI obtained from a different terminal during communication with the network, thereby obtaining a normal service for a relevant terminal.
Therefore, a technique of performing a network authentication procedure having higher security needs to be provided.

Method and apparatus for determining validity of mobile subscriber identifier in mobile communication terminal


An image processing apparatus has a sheet feeding unit that feeds sheets for printing, an image forming section that forms a developer image, including a developer supply section for supplying a developer a identification element that stores image forming information containing information about whether the accommodated developer is an erasable developer and arranged in the developer supply section, a identification element detecting unit that reads the image forming information from the identification element, and a control section that forms the image on the basis of the image forming information read from the identification element.

There exists an image processing apparatus wherein, in order to realize resource conservation, an erasable developer is used to form an image on a sheet, and, after use of the sheet, the image on the sheet is erased by an erasing device. However, an issue arises when using an erasable developer, in that different lots of developer may have different appropriate values for the fixing temperature and the voltage applied on the photosensitive drum, as well as a different threshold temperature for erasing the image.
To address these variables, there has been proposed using correction values stored in a memory in the toner cartridge, and, when the image is formed, the correction values are read and applied to correct the fixing temperature, the voltage applied on the photosensitive drum, etc.
However, with this technology, no consideration is made for the erasable developer, and it is impossible to modify the erasing temperature.
Consequently, there is a need for an image processing apparatus, a developer cartridge, and an image forming method that can correct the image forming conditions and the image erasing conditions related to the use of erasable developer.

Image processing apparatus, developer cartridge, and image forming method


A security bin formed from a commercially available rectangular plastic bin having removable lids that are secured to the bin to prevent unauthorized access to the items placed therein. The lids are locked with a tamperproof flap and latching hook to prevent access to the bin contents. Plexiglass windows allow viewing of materials placed within the bin. Spring pins allow ease of lid movement for access to the bin contents, or allow removal of the windows to allow stacking for storage and shipping. An optional scanner can be mounted to one of the lids for recording and tracking of storage media placed within the bin.

As technology evolves, sensitive media in the form of digital data is stored on hard drives, disks and the like devices that can be easily copied, thereby exposing the media to misuse. Electronically stored media can contain extremely confidential information. For this reason, it is critical that sensitive information stored on a disk is disposed of in a manner where the information is absolutely unrecoverable. Various mechanisms exist wherein the digital data stored on a disk or like media is electronically or physically destroyed; the goal being to assure that any sensitive material on the disk has been rendered unusable, and proof of the destroyed disk exists.
Data destroying devices are described in Applicant's prior patents, including U.S. Pat. No. 7,324,321 for a Degaussing Apparatus; U.S. Pat. No. 7,852,590 for a Solid State Memory Decommissioner; U.S. Pat. No. 8,064,183 for a Capacitor Based Bi-Directional Degaussing Apparatus; U.S. Pat. No. 8,794,559 for a Solid State Storage Device Crusher; U.S. Pat. No. 9,776,192 for a Comminuting Apparatus; U.S. Pat. No. 10,071,382 for a Solid State Drive Disintegrator; U.S. Pat. No. 10,242,699 for a Single Pulse Degaussing Device; and U.S. Pat. No. 10,657,345 for a Media Destruction Verification Apparatus.
This invention is directed to either storage of media pending destruction or electronic waste for recycling/disposal. While it would be advantageous and beneficial to immediately destroy all media material the moment it is removed from use, in reality, most media is removed from use and transferred to another location for destruction. This transfer may or may not be on the premises and is typically accomplished in batches. An individual assigned to the task will typically wait until a quantity of media disks is received before initiating the destruction process.
What is lacking in the art is a low cost security bin for securely storing and transporting media disks before their destruction or electronic waste for recycling/disposal.


The present invention relates to methods and compositions for the treatment and/or the prevention of conditions related to high levels of expression and/or activity of the transient receptor potential vanilloid-1 (TRPV1). Amongst others, the conditions to be treated are eye conditions such as discomfort and altered sensitivity of the cornea following refractive surgery, use of contact lenses, dry eyes and diabetic retinopathy.

RNA interference refers to the process of sequence-specific post-transcriptional gene silencing mediated by short interfering RNAs (siRNA). After the discovery of the phenomenon in plants in the early 1990s, Andy Fire and Craig Mello demonstrated that double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) specifically and selectively inhibited gene expression in an extremely efficient manner in Caenorhabditis elegans (Fire et al., 1998, Potent and specific genetic interference by double stranded RNA in Caenorhabditis elegans. Nature, 391:806). The sequence of the first strand (sense RNA) coincided with that of the corresponding region of the target messenger RNA (mRNA). The second strand (antisense RNA) was complementary to the mRNA. The resulting dsRNA turned out to be several orders of magnitude more efficient than the corresponding single-stranded RNA molecules (in particular, antisense RNA).
The process of RNAi begins when the enzyme, DICER, encounters dsRNA and chops it into pieces called small-interfering RNAs (siRNA). This protein belongs to the RNase III nuclease family. A complex of proteins gathers up these RNA remains and uses their code as a guide to search out and destroy any RNAs in the cell with a matching sequence, such as target mRNA (see Bosher & Labouesse, 2000, RNA interference: genetic wand and genetic watchdog. Nat Cell Biol, 2000, 2 (2):E31, and Akashi et al., 2001, Suppression of gene expression by RNA interference in cultured plant cells. Antisense Nucleic Acid Drug Dev, 11 (6):359).
In attempting to utilize RNAi for gene knockdown, it was recognized that mammalian cells have developed various protective mechanisms against viral infections that could impede the use of this approach Indeed, the presence of extremely low levels of viral dsRNA triggers an interferon response, resulting in a global non-specific suppression of translation, which in turn triggers apoptosis (Williams, 1997, Role of the double-stranded RNA-activated protein kinase (PKR) in cell regulation. Biochem Soc Trans, 25 (2):509; Gil & Esteban, 2000, Induction of apoptosis by the dsRNA-dependent protein kinase (PKR): mechanism of action. Apoptosis, 5 (2):107-14).
In 2000 dsRNA was reported to specifically inhibit 3 genes in the mouse oocyte and early embryo. Translational arrest, and thus a PKR response, was not observed as the embryos continued to develop (Wianny & Zernicka-Goetz, 2000, Specific interference with gene function by double-stranded RNA in early mouse development. Nat Cell Biol, 2 (2):70). Research at Ribopharma AG (Kulmbach, Germany) demonstrated the functionality of RNAi in mammalian cells, using short (20-24 base pairs) dsRNA to switch off genes in human cells without initiating the acute-phase response. Similar experiments carried out by other research groups confirmed these results. (Elbashir et al., 2001, RNA interference is mediated by 21- and 22-nucleotide RNAs. Genes Dev, 15 (2):188; Caplen et al., 2001, Specific inhibition of gene expression by small double stranded RNAs in invertebrate and vertebrate systems. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 98: 9742). Tested in a variety of normal and cancer human and mouse cell lines, it was determined that short hairpin RNAs (shRNA) can silence genes as efficiently as their siRNA counterparts (Paddison et al, 2002, Short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) induce sequence-specific silencing in mammalian cells. Genes Dev, 16 (8):948). Recently, another group of small RNAs (21-25 base pairs) was shown to mediate downregulation of gene expression. These RNAs, small temporally regulated RNAs (stRNA), regulate timing of gene expression during development in Caenorhabditis elegans (for review see Banerjee & Slack, Control of developmental timing by small temporal RNAs: a paradigm for RNA-mediated regulation of gene expression. Bioessays, 2002, 24 (2):119-29 and Grosshans & Slack, 2002, Micro-RNAs: small is plentiful. J Cell Biol, 156 (1):17).
Scientists have used RNAi in several systems, including Caenorhabditis elegans, Drosophila, trypanosomes, and other invertebrates. Several groups have recently presented the specific suppression of protein biosynthesis in different mammalian cell lines (specifically in HeLa cells) demonstrating that RNAi is a broadly applicable method for gene silencing in vitro. Based on these results, RNAi has rapidly become a well recognized tool for validating (identifying and assigning) gene function. RNAi employing short dsRNA oligonucleotides will yield an understanding of the function of genes that are only partially sequenced.
The transient receptor potential vanilloid-1 (TRPV1), also called Vanilloid receptor 1 (VR-1), is a capsaicin-responsive ligand-gated cation channel, that was first discovered in 1997 (Caterina et al. The capsaicin receptor: a heat-activated ion channel in the pain pathway. Nature. 1997 Oct. 23; 389 (6653):816-24). TRPV1 is mainly expressed on sensory neurons and serves as a molecular detector for heat, capsaicin, protons, and endovanilloids (Caterina M J & Julius D. The vanilloid receptor: a molecular gateway to the pain pathway. Annu Rev Neurosci., 2001; 24:487-517; Montell et al. Short hairpin RNAs (shRNAs) induce sequence-specific silencing in mammalian cells. Genes Dev., 2002, 16 (8):948-58; Baumann T K & Martenson M E. Extracellular protons both increase the activity and reduce the conductance of capsaicin-gated channels. J Neurosci. 2000; 20:RC80).
When TRPV1 is activated by agonists such as capsaicin and other factors such as heat, acidosis, lipoxygenase products or anandamide, calcium enters the cell and pain signals are initiated. Activation of the channel induces neuropeptide release from central and peripheral sensory nerve terminals, resulting in the sensation of pain, neurogenic inflammation, and sometimes, in smooth muscle contraction and cough. Recent evidence suggests a role of TRPV1 in pain, cough, asthma and urinary incontinence (Jia et al., TRPV1 receptor: a target for the treatment of pain, cough, airway disease and urinary incontinence. Drug News Perspect. 2005 April; 18 (3):165-71).
Due to the fact that both the sensitivity and the density of expression of TRPV1 are enhanced during inflammatory conditions (Di Marzo et al., Endovanilloid signaling in pain. Curr Opin Neurobiol. 2002 August; 12 (4):372-9), downregulation of TRPV1 expression and/or activity is a promising therapeutic strategy for novel analgesic drugs. As a matter of fact, intraperitoneal administration of selective TRPV1 blockers into mice proved to attenuate chemical and thermal nociception and hyperalgesia (Garcia-Martinez et al., Attenuation of thermal nociception and hyperalgesia by VR1 blockers. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA. 2002 Feb. 19; 99 (4):2374-9).
TRPV1 channel function is upregulated by several endogenous mediators present in inflammatory conditions, which decrease the threshold for activation of the channel. Thus, it has recently been demonstrated that acute pain-related behaviour evoked by elevated ionic strength is abolished in TRPV1-null mice and inhibited by iodoresiniferatoxin, a potent TRPV1 antagonist (Ahern et al., Extracellular cations sensitize and gate capsaicin receptor TRPV1 modulating pain signaling. J Neurosci. 2005 May 25; 25 (21):5109-16). Further, Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) and Prostaglandin I2 (PGI2) have proven to increase or sensitize TRPV1 responses through their respective receptors EP1 or IP (Moriyama et al., Sensitization of TRPV1 by EP1 and IP reveals peripheral nociceptive mechanism of prostaglandins. Mol Pain. 2005 Jan 17; 1 (1):3), suggesting for the first time that sensitisation of TRPV1 activity through EP1 or IP activation might be one important mechanism underlying the peripheral nociceptive actions of PGE2 or PGI2. WO 2004/042046 shows that siRNA targeted against VR1 can be used in the treatment of chronic pain, sensitivity disfunctions linked to the VR1 receptor and VR associated inflammation, tumours urinary incontinence and pruritus.
Polymodal nociceptors are the most abundant nociceptor type found in the cornea. There exists pharmacological evidence that these receptor fibers express the TRPV1 receptor because they respond to capsaicin, heat and acid. Moreover, high doses of capsaicin inactivate the activation of corneal polymodal nociceptors to heat and acid whereas mechanical responsiveness remains unaffected. This suggests that TRPV1 receptors present in corneal polymodal nerve endings were selectively inactivated. Therefore, it is likely that an important part of the acute nociceptive response to corneal injury and the sustained pain sensations that accompany inflammatory and irritative processes in this tissue are mediated by TRPV1 activation.
Recent evidence also demonstrates that both insulin and IGF-I enhance TRPV1-mediated membrane currents in heterologous expression systems and cultured dorsal root ganglion neurons (Van Buren et al., Sensitization and translocation of TRPV1 by insulin and IGF-I. Mol Pain. 2005 Apr. 27; 1 (1):17). Enhancement of membrane currents results from both increased sensitivity of the receptor and translocation of TRPV1 from cytosol to plasma membrane. An increase of IGF-1 has been found in the serum (Merimee et al., Insulin-like growth factors. Studies in diabetics with and without retinopathy. N. Engl. J. Med., 1983; 309:527-530; Grant et al., Insulin-like growth factors in vitreous. Studies in control and diabetic subjects with neovascularization. Diabetes, 1986; 35:416-420) and the vitreous body and intraocular fluid (Grant et al., 1986; Inokuchi et al., Vitreous levels of insulin-like growth factor-I in patients with proliferative diabetic retinopathy. Curr. Eye Res., 2001; 23:368-371) of patients with diabetic retinopathy. Further, vitreous IGF-I levels correlate with the presence and severity of ischemia-associated diabetic retinal neovascularization (Meyer-Schwickerath et al., Vitreous levels of the insulin-like growth factors I and II, and the insulin-like growth factor binding proteins 2 and 3, increase in neovascular eye disease. Studies in nondiabetic and diabetic subjects. J Clin Invest., 1993; 92 (6):2620-5). However, the source of increased ocular IGF-1 in retinopathy is controversial, and the relative contribution of either endogenous IGF-1 or serum IGF-1 is unknown (Ruberte et al., Increased ocular levels of IGF-1 in transgenic mice lead to diabetes-like eye disease. J Clin Invest. 2004 April; 113 (8):1149-57). Modulation of TRPV1 levels could aid in the control of diabetic retinopathy mediated by IGF-I.
Although originally described on sensory neurons, TRPV1 has now been detected in several human skin cell populations and epithelial compartments of the human hair follicle (HF), mainly the outer root sheath (ORS) and hair matrix (Bodo et al., A hot new twist to hair biology: involvement of vanilloid receptor-1 (VR1/TRPV1) signaling in human hair growth control. Am J Pathol. 2005 April; 166 (4):985-98). Stimulation of TRPV1 in organ culture and cultured human ORS keratinocytes inhibits proliferation, induces apoptosis, elevates intracellular calcium concentration, up-regulates known endogenous hair growth inhibitors, and down-regulates known hair growth promoters, thus supporting TRPV1 as a significant novel player in human hair growth control (Bodo et al., 2005).
The above-mentioned evidence points to inhibition of TRPV1 as an efficient treatment for eye conditions that mediate with an excess of expression and/or activity of TRPV1, such as discomfort and altered sensitivity of the cornea following refractive surgery, use of contact lenses and dry eyes. The functional relationship between TRPV1 and IGF-I highlights the importance of downregulation of TRPV1 for the treatment of diabetic retinopathy mediated by high levels of IGF-I. The role played by TRPV1 in human hair follicle growth and keratinocytes targets TRPV1 as a good candidate to be inhibited for the treatment of hair follicle and skin abnormal conditions such as alopecia.


Systems and methods for detecting supported small form-factor pluggable (SFP) devices in an adapter are provided. One system includes multiple ports, each port configured to be coupled to a SFP device, a tracking device configured to store data representing a list of supported SFP devices for the adapter, and a processor coupled to each of the plurality of ports and the tracking device. The processor is configured to scan each port at start-up, determine if any of the ports is coupled to a non-supported SFP device, and disable any ports that are coupled to a non-supported SFP device. One method includes scanning each port at start-up, determining if any of the ports is coupled to a non-supported SFP device, and disabling any ports that are coupled to a non-supported SFP device. Also provided are computer storage mediums including computer code for performing the above method.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general storage systems, and particularly to, systems and methods for detecting supported small form-factor pluggable (SFP) devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
In, for example, a Fibre Channel storage device, there is a host adapter card that handles all Fibre Channel protocol interactions. It is common practice to have a small form-factor pluggable (SFP) device that can be hot-plugged into a port of the host adapter card. The SFP device interfaces the host adapter firmware with a Fibre Channel cable.
Each SFP device typically includes one of two different types of optical lasers, a long-wave SFP laser or a short-wave SFP laser. Long-wave lasers support distances in the kilometer range while short-wave lasers support distances in the hundreds of meters range. The host adapter card is also frequently designed to support either a long-wave SFP laser or a short-wave SFP laser.
With the ability to interchange and hot-plug SFP devices into a host adapter card, several issues have been noticed. The first issue involves using unsupported SFP devices. There are many different vendors that manufacture SFP devices. In theory, all SFP devices should all operate in an identical manner, but this is not always the case. Since SFP devices are "hot-pluggable," an unsupported SFP device may be plugged into the host adapter card, which typically affects the performance of the host adapter card.
The second issue involves compatibility between a host adapter card and a SFP device. Specifically, it is a mistake to combine a long-wave laser SFP device with a short-wave laser host adapter card or vice versa. Because the physical connections of short-wave laser devices and long-wave laser devices are identical, it is possible to connect incompatible host adapter cards and SFP devices.
Using an unsupported SFP device or mixed wave types can lead to unpredictable results, which are frequently hard to diagnose without physical inspection and/or additional instrumentation. One potential negative impact is corrupted data being received or sent by the SFP device, which requires frequent data re-driving and congestion. Another potential negative impact is the failure to bring the Fibre Channel link up, which would render the link useless since access to the machine would be prevented.
One known solution is to physically label the SFP device and the host adapter card. This label could include a serial number or part number, which would have to be cross referenced to determine the SFP manufacturer and/or wave type. The label might also directly include the manufacturer name and/or wave type. The drawback of this solution is that it requires a user to physically look at the two devices and the labels have the potential of being removed, intentionally or inadvertently. Also, once the host adapter card is installed into a machine, it might not be possible to visually inspect the label of the SFP device. Furthermore, there is also the possibility that a batch of SFP devices is mislabeled or that a hostile user will knowingly install an unsupported SFP and, as a result, potentially cause harmful side affects in the computing environment.

International Business Machines Corporation