A method for treating spent nuclear fuel, which includes first decontaminating the uranium, plutonium and neptunium found in a nitric aqueous phase resulting from dissolving the nuclear fuel in HNO3. The uranium, plutonium and neptunium found in the solvent phase is then split in a first aqueous phase and a second aqueous phase. Next, the first aqueous phase is stored. Following, the plutonium or other mixtures found in the first aqueous phase is purified relative to the fission products still found in said phase, in order to obtain, at the end of said purification, an aqueous solution containing a mixture of Pu and U or Pu, U and Np. Finally the resulting mixture of Pu and U or the mixture of Pu, U and Np is co-converted into a mixed oxide.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for processing used nuclear fuels, which has, among other advantages, that of avoiding on the site where these fuels are processed, storage of purified plutonium (i.e. totally decontaminated from fission products), even mixed with uranium or uranium and neptunium.
This method notably finds application in the processing of uranium oxide fuels and of mixed uranium and plutonium oxide fuels.
2. Description of the Related Art
Factories for processing used nuclear fuels today use the PUREX (for Plutonium Uranium Refining by EXtraction) method for recovering uranium and plutonium present in these fuels.
This is obtained by applying several purification cycles by liquid-liquid extraction. The extractant used is tri-n-butyl phosphate which has particularly affinity for uranium and plutonium.
The PUREX method, as it is applied in the factory UP2-800 of La Hague in France, schematically comprises three cycles, i.e.:                a first cycle which aims at decontaminating together uranium and plutonium from two actinides(III), americium and curium, as well as from the major portion of fission products, and at achieving a partition of the uranium and of the plutonium into two flows; and        two complementary cycles, designated as <<second uranium cycle>> and <<second plutonium cycle>> respectively and which aim at separately purifying the uranium and plutonium after their partition.
Recently an important development of the PUREX method, designated as COEX™ (for COEXtraction) method, was proposed in the PCT international application published under the number WO 2007/135178 [1].
Indeed, this development while ensuring uranium and plutonium recovery and purification comparable with those obtained in the PUREX method, gives the possibility of considerably reducing the risks of misappropriation of plutonium for military purposes.
It also allows production of a flow containing a mixture of plutonium, uranium and possibly neptunium totally decontaminated from fission products and the use of this flow for supplying a workshop, a so-called <<co-conversion>> workshop, the function of which is to prepare by oxalic precipitation, a mixed oxide (U,Pu)O2 or (U,Pu,Np)O2 which may be directly used for making nuclear fuels of the MOX (Mixed OXide fuel) type.
To do this, the COEX™ method after operations for decontaminating the uranium and the plutonium similar to the ones applied in the first cycle of the PUREX method, intends to achieve partition of uranium and of plutonium so as to obtain a first flow containing plutonium, uranium and, possibly neptunium, and a second flow containing uranium and possibly neptunium but not containing any plutonium.
It also intends to maintain, in all the operations located downstream from this partition, the plutonium in the presence of uranium and possibly of neptunium until a mixed oxide (U,Pu)O2 or (U,Pu,Np)O2 is obtained.
Thus, in the COEX™ method, the <<second plutonium cycle>> of the PUREX method is replaced with a cycle which aims at purifying the plutonium and uranium and if necessary the neptunium present in the first flow stemming from the partition, from fission products which may still be present in this flow.
In order to ensure decoupling between the operation of the workshops responsible for the processing of used nuclear fuels and that of workshops responsible for making MOX nuclear fuels and to thereby avoid that the production of MOX nuclear fuels is subject to processing of the used nuclear fuels, the COEX™ method comprises a storage step.
This storage is located either between the cycle aiming at purifying the plutonium and uranium and if necessary the neptunium present in the first flow stemming from the partition and the co-conversion, i.e. just after co-conversion.
In the first case, this is a mixture of plutonium, uranium and possibly neptunium purified in an aqueous solution which is stored, while in the second case, this is a mixture of plutonium, uranium and possibly neptunium purified in a solid form which is stored.
With the perspective of making misappropriation of plutonium for military purposes even more difficult during the processing of used nuclear fuels, the Inventors set the goal of providing a method which, while having the same advantages of the COEX™ method, i.e.:                never leaving plutonium alone,        producing a flow containing a mixture of plutonium, uranium and possibly neptunium free of fission products, capable of being converted into a mixed oxide (U,Pu)O2 or (U,Pu,Np)O2 by oxalic co-precipitation, and        ensuring functional decoupling between the processing of used nuclear fuels and the making of new nuclear fuels,further has the advantage of avoiding that purified plutonium, even mixed with uranium or with uranium and neptunium, be stored on the site where the used nuclear fuels are processed.
They also set the goal that accumulation of these advantages leads to a method, the industrial exploitation of which is not more any complex than that of the COEX™ method and even gives the possibility of obtaining, if possible, a simpler method to be applied industrially than the latter.

Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives


In a vehicle wherein the output of an engine is transmitted to an output shaft via a torque converter and clutches, for forward/reverse change-over, a control device is provided which can control a creep phenomenon.

This invention relates to a vehicle-running control device which changes speed and transmits engine power by a torque converter.
In a vehicle where speed is changed and engine power is transmitted by a torque converter, when a shift lever is in a forward position or reverse position, a creep phenomenon occurs wherein the vehicle moves at a very low speed even if the accelerator pedal is not depressed. This phenomenon occurs because the torque converter transfers power according to the output of the idle rotation of the engine. In an industrial vehicle, especially a fork lift truck provided with a torque converter, when the vehicle is running very slowly for picking up or discharging a load, workability is improved by making use of this creep phenomenon. However, when an operator familiar with industrial vehicles without a torque converter operates a vehicle with a torque converter, the vehicle may move unintended by the operator.
Tokkai-Hei 11-166617 published by the Japanese Patent Office in 1999 discloses a vehicle-running control device for eliminating the disadvantages due to creep. For example, in the state where the accelerator pedal is not depressed even if the shift lever is in the forward position (or reverse position), this vehicle-running control device prevents supply of oil pressure for engaging the forward clutch (or reverse clutch), and thereby prevents the vehicle from creeping.
However, if the creep phenomenon specific to a vehicle with a torque converter is merely suppressed, the easy operability inherent in such a vehicle is impaired. In particular, the operability of an operator who attempts to use creep effectively is impaired. Thus, it is difficult for the vehicle-running control device of the prior art to satisfy all operators.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a vehicle-running control device which can control the creep of a vehicle equipped with a torque converter.
In order to achieve above object, this invention provides a vehicle-running control device having a torque converter connected to an engine, and a forward clutch and reverse clutch for transmitting the torque from the torque converter to an output shaft.
The vehicle-running control device comprises a hydraulic circuit for operating one of the forward clutch and reverse clutch, the hydraulic circuit having a change-over valve which can be prevented from supplying the pressurized fluid to both the forward clutch and reverse clutch, and a pressure control valve which adjusts the pressure of the pressurized fluid supplied to the operating clutch; a first sensor for detecting that the change-over valve supplies the pressurized fluid to the forward clutch or the reverse clutch; a second sensor for detecting that the accelerator pedal is released; a sensor for detecting a vehicle speed; and a controller.
The controller functions to compare a predetermined target speed range with the vehicle speed, when the change-over valve supplies the pressurized fluid to one of the forward clutch and reverse clutch and the accelerator pedal is not depressed, and to command the pressure control valve to control the torque transmitted by the operating clutch according to the comparison result so that the vehicle speed is within the predetermined target speed range.
The details as well as other features and advantages of this invention are set forth in the remainder of the specification and are shown in the accompanying drawings.

Abstract: The control device comprises a change-over valve provided in a circuit for supplying the pressurized fluid to the clutches, and the pressure control valve which controls the fluid pressure to the clutches.

Abstract: When the accelerator pedal is not depressed, the pressure control valve is controlled to make the vehicle speed lie within a predetermined target speed range.


A training model for malware detection is developed using common substrings extracted from known malware samples. The probability of each substring occurring within a malware family is determined and a decision tree is constructed using the substrings. An enterprise server receives indications from client machines that a particular file is suspected of being malware. The suspect file is retrieved and the decision tree is walked using the suspect file. A leaf node is reached that identifies a particular common substring, a byte offset within the suspect file at which it is likely that the common substring begins, and a probability distribution that the common substring appears in a number of malware families. A hash value of the common substring is compared (exact or approximate) against the corresponding substring in the suspect file. If positive, a result is returned to the enterprise server indicating the probability that the suspect file is a member of a particular malware family.

Traditional malware scanning methods depend on knowing malware signatures beforehand. After collecting all known malware samples, a backend system generates a malware pattern using the known instance-based malware signatures and distributes the pattern to customers. This is called the "virus dictionary approach." This approach is considered to be reliable and only causes a marginal number of false positives. Because of its accuracy in detecting malware, this approach is extensively used by the industry. The open source virus scanner "ClamAV" is one example.
The use of a virus dictionary, however, has some disadvantages. Such a scanner will not identify unknown malware. This disadvantage causes systems protected by this approach to be exposed to new threats between the time the malware is released to the field and the backend system delivers a new pattern to the customer site. Another disadvantage occurs when new variants of existing malware are released. If the virus dictionary uses techniques such as an SHA-1 hash, then the new variants will not be in the virus dictionary. Also, the number of malware programs has grown dramatically in the past couple years. The hash-based malware patterns bloat the size of the dictionary accordingly. Identifying malware using large malware dictionaries can consume too much memory and use a lot of CPU cycles.
Due to the inadequacy of current techniques in detecting unknown malware and preventing zero-day attacks, some systems are based on behavior monitoring. In the paper titled Learning and Classification of Malware Behavior, the tool CWSandbox is used for extracting features and an SVM is used for performing learning and classification. But, the use of run-time behavior monitoring has a number of disadvantages: it requires more computational power from the defending machines which in turn drags down the performance of all other programs on the same platform; and some malware does not exhibit its malware behavior if it can determine that it is being monitored (for example, while it is in a sandbox).
The following issues also need to be addressed: it may be necessary to identify previously unknown malware variants in an organization; an organization may not want to report malware to anti-virus companies due to privacy; and it is important to minimize the computational burden on the client machines within an organization, both in terms of memory usage, and in terms of CPU cycles. Regarding privacy, the organization may not want to divulge the raw file to the virus researcher, which makes virus detection and signature generation difficult.
Thus, it is desirable to speed up virus scanning and to reduce the memory footprint without relying on instance-based malware patterns or behavior monitoring.


A system, computer-readable medium, and method of operating a dual-mode WiMAX and CDMA communications device capable of operating in a CDMA mode or a WiMAX mode includes receiving a first base station (BS) location message from the BS and storing the received location as a current BS location. The BS location is compared to stored region coordinates for the different regions, and the comparison is used to determine a particular region in which the dual-mode device is currently located. Analysis determines whether a WiMAX market is located within the particular region. If no WiMAX markets are located, the dual-mode device is operated in the CDMA mode. If one or more WiMAX markets are located within the particular region, a determination is made as to whether the BS location is within a WiMAX market and, if so, the dual-mode device is placed in a WiMAX mode of operation. Battery power is conserved by avoiding WiMAX transmission when WiMAX service is not available at the current BS location.

This disclosure is generally related to Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access ("WiMAX") technologies. In one or more embodiments, this disclosure is directed to a system and method useful for improving the utilization of WiMAX systems that operate with dual-mode WiMAX/CDMA devices, in particular, dual-mode WiMAX/CDMA devices operating in an Evolution-Data Optimized or Evolution-Data only ("EV-DO")/CDMA and WiMAX overlay networks.
EVDO, or Evolution Data Only/Evolution Data Optimized, is a 3G mobile broadband technology used by various wireless carriers such as Verizon, Sprint, and Alltel that provides typical speeds of 600-1400 kbps download (with bursts up to 2000 kbps) and 500-800 kbps upload by wireless transmission. EVDO is a telecommunications standard for the wireless transmission of data through radio signals, typically for broadband Internet access. The resulting Internet connection may be shared with multiple computers using a 3G router, similar to a conventional broadband connection. It is standardized by 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) as part of the CDMA2000 family of standards, and has been adopted by many mobile phone service providers around the world—particularly those previously employing CDMA networks.
WiMAX networks are not yet as widespread as CDMA and EDVO networks, however several conventional dual-mode WiMAX/CDMA devices exist. For such conventional WiMAX/CDMA dual-mode devices, the priority is always to look for the WiMAX system first. If a WiMAX system is not available, then the device looks for the EVDO system. If the EVDO system is not available, then the device looks for the CDMA system. Furthermore, such conventional dual-mode devices are required to return to the WiMAX system as soon as possible, if it is not currently served by a WiMAX system. As a result, some conventional dual-mode devices are required to constantly scan for a WiMAX system even if the device is receiving service from the EVDO or CDMA systems. Since current WiMAX coverage is minimal compared to currently available CDMA and EVDO coverage, there presently is a high likelihood that the device will waste processor time and battery drain to scan for the WiMAX system, which does not yet exist in most regions. Consequently, other conventional dual-mode devices are designed in such that the device must stay in the EVDO system and/or CDMA system once it moves outside WiMAX coverage, and does not allow return to the WiMAX system even if WiMAX becomes available thereafter. As a result, the device cannot take full advantage of the benefit that WiMAX networks have to offer in terms of data throughput and latency. Further, concern for battery life greatly limits the usability of the WiMAX system in conventional dual-mode devices, and therefore adversely impacts system performance and the user's experience.
What is needed is an apparatus and method that seamlessly allow a dual-mode CDMA/WiMAX device to transition between CDMA and WiMAX modes of operation. What is even further needed is an apparatus and method that allow a dual-mode CDMA/WiMAX device to seamlessly transition back and forth between CDMA and WiMAX modes of operation while reducing battery drain as compared to conventional dual-mode devices.

Apparatus and method for dual-mode operation


A vehicle is equipped with at least one environment detection system, a communication system which transmits information by remote transmission to receivers external to the vehicle, and at least one electronic control unit for both systems. The electronic control unit is designed to realize a standby mode which can be activated automatically or manually. The control device is configured such that when the vehicle is parked and the standby mode is activated, both the environment detection system and the communication system can be switched-on at least to a limited extent to predefined functions in regard to the transmission of information to receivers external to the vehicle.

The invention relates to a vehicle with at least one environment detection system, a communication system which transmits information via remote transmission to receivers external to the vehicle, and at least one electronic control unit for both systems.
Vehicles with a variety of environment detection systems are already widely distributed. For example, systems of this type include those equipped with GPS sensors, with distance sensors of a variety of types, and/or with cameras in order to avoid collisions while driving. Among these, environment detection systems for driving functions such as distance-related speed control, lane-departure warning, lane change assistance, or parking aid can be used.
From DE 10 2006 059 257 A1, for example, a collision avoidance system is known, which system issues acoustic or optical warning information if, while in standby mode, an alien vehicle approaching the parked vehicle (ego vehicle) is detected by use of distance sensors.
Furthermore, various communication systems are known, such as, for example, so-called vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems, through which information can be transmitted remotely to receivers external to the vehicle.
It is an object of the invention to also use a vehicle (ego vehicle) of the above-mentioned type in the parked state to a greater extent for the use of other persons.
This and other objects are achieved according to the invention by providing a vehicle equipped with at least one environment detection system, a communication system which transmits information to receivers external to the vehicle (for example, vehicle-to-vehicle, or to a central traffic monitoring station) by remote transmission, and at least one electronic control unit for both systems. The electronic control unit is operatively configured through appropriate circuitry to provide a standby mode which can be activated automatically or manually. Furthermore, through appropriate programming and networking, the control device is designed such that when the vehicle is parked, and in given cases also abandoned, and the standby mode is activated, the environment detection system as well as the communication system can be switched on, at least to a limited extent, to perform predefined functions in regard to the transmission of information to receivers external to the vehicle.
Preferably, the environment detection system is first switched on in standby mode. On recognition of signals for executing predefined functions, the environment detection system switches the communication system on.
In one aspect of the invention the predefined functions are divided into different environment categories with defined reactions adapted by category. Possible environment categories can, for example, be related to the length of the standing time and/or the parking location of the vehicle.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of one or more preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Vehicle with at least one environment detection system

Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft


The present invention relates to a normal incidence ellipsometer and a method for measuring the optical properties of a sample by using same. The purpose of the present invention is to provide: a normal incidence ellipsometer in which a wavelength-dependent compensator is replaced with a wavelength-independent linear polarizer such that equipment calibration procedures are simplified while a measurement wavelength range expansion can be easily implemented; and a method for measuring the optical properties of a sample by using same.

With a rapid development of various industrial fields related to semiconductor devices, flat panel displays, thin-film solar cells, nanoimprint, nanobio, thin-film optics, etc., the thickness of thin films have gradually decreased to reach a level of several atomic layers and shapes of nano-patterns have been complicated from the existing two-dimensional (2D) structure to a three-dimensional (3D) structure. Accordingly, a need for a measurement technology for a process to accurately analyze a shape and physical properties of nano-scale samples such as a thickness of a thin film and a shape of a nano pattern, while adopting a non-contact manner not to damage nano-samples during a manufacturing process of products, has increased. Among these non-contact nanoscale measurement technologies, an ellipsometer and a method using the same have widely been used in line with a development of light sources, photodetectors, and computers.
Types of the ellipsometer may be classified into a normal incidence type and an oblique incidence type. The normal incidence type is a type of measuring a change in a polarization state of light vertically reflected by a sample when a measurement beam is incident perpendicular to a surface of the sample (i.e., an incident angle is)0°, and the oblique incidence type is a type of performing measurement by allowing an incident angle of a measurement beam to have a value arbitrarily selected from within a range of 0° to 90°. Among them, the normal incidence type has the advantage of reducing a measurement device to be smaller in size and reducing a measurement beam to be smaller so that an internal region of a smaller area may be measured in a sample. Various patent documents such as U.S. Pat. No. 7,355,708 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,889,340 and other papers disclose a basic construction and principle of such a normal incidence ellipsometer.
[Basic Configuration of Normal Incidence Ellipsometer]
An optical element-rotation type ellipsometer may basically include a light source (LS), a polarization state generator (PSG), a sample (SP), a polarization state analyzer, a detection optic system (DOS), and a photodetector element (PDE), and a brief description of each part is as follows. The light source serves to convert light emitted from a lamp into a collimated beam using an optical system. The polarization state generator is a polarization optical system that serves to make the collimated beam emitted from the light source into a specific polarization state. The sample is placed on a traveling path of the modulated incident collimated beam. The polarization state analyzer is a polarization optical system that serves to analyze a polarization state of the reflected collimated beam on a traveling path of a reflected collimated beam reflected by the sample. The photodetector element serves to measure the amount of light of the reflected collimated beam of a designated wavelength band that have passed through the polarization state analyzer as a value such as voltage or current, and an optical property value of the sample may be calculated from the voltage or current values measured in this way using a processor and stored or displayed on a screen. The detection optic system is arranged on an axial line of the reflected collimated beam between the polarization state analyzer (PSA) and the photodetector element (PDE), which may be a virtual polarization optical system having the same effects as those of optical elements that may change a polarization state of the reflected collimated beam and include a reflective mirror, a grating, and the like, installed in a beam splitter and a spectrometer.
As described above, the polarization state generator or the polarization state analyzer is formed of a polarization optical system in which a plurality of rotatable polarization optical elements are appropriately arranged so as to perform their respective roles. Here, at least one rotatable polarization optical element selected from among the rotatable polarization optical elements rotates at a constant speed, and the other rotatable polarization optical elements excluding the constant speed polarization optical elements are fixed polarization optical elements which have moved to a previously designated azimuthal angle for measurement so as to be stopped during measurement.
A type or arrangement of these rotatable polarization optical elements may be appropriately varied depending on the type of the ellipsometer, and specifically, the rotatable polarization optical element may include linear polarizers and compensators. In addition, the linear polarizer disposed in the polarization state generator is referred to as a polarizer, and the linear polarizer disposed in the polarization state analyzer is classified and referred to as an analyzer. The compensator disposed in the polarization state generator is referred to as an incident axis compensator, and the compensator disposed in the polarization state analyzer is classified and referred to as a reflection axis compensator.
The optical element rotation type ellipsometer of the related art may be classified into an oblique incidence type and a normal incidence type based on an angle of incidence (or incident angle). As for the incident angle, among several planes perpendicular to a plane of the sample, a plane including paths of the incident collimated beam and the reflected collimated beam is defined as an incident plane, and when an axis perpendicular to the plane of the sample from the incident plane is a reference axis, an internal angle between the incident collimated beam or the reflected collimated beam and the reference axis is defined as the angle of incidence and designated by φ. The normal incidence type is a type adopting an optical structure in which an incident angle is 0°, and the oblique incidence type is a type adopting an optical structure in which an incident angle is not 0°. The advantage of the normal incidence type compared to the oblique incidence type is that the measuring device may be made smaller and an area of a beam incident on the sample may be reduced to be smaller, enabling measurement of the inside of a fine area.
The principle of the oblique incidence or normal incidence optical element rotation type ellipsometer is described as follows. In the oblique incidence or normal incidence optical element rotation type ellipsometer, the incident collimated beam emitted from a light source is incident on the polarization state generator, the incident collimated beam is changed to a specific polarization state that may be controlled by the polarization state generator, the sample is irradiated with the incident collimated beam modulated into the polarization state, the polarization state of the incident collimated beam is changed by the sample to become reflected collimated beam having physical property information of the sample, the reflected collimated beam is incident on the polarization state analyzer and changed to a specific polarization state that can be controlled once again, the reflected collimated beam which has undergone the series of change are measured as an electrical signal such as voltage or current using the photodetector element, and optical property information of the sample is finally obtained from the electrical signals measured by the processor.
In implementing the polarization state generator and the polarization state analyzer in the normal incidence ellipsometer of the related art, a single compensator-rotation type normal incidence ellipsometer configured by arranging one linear polarizer and one constantly rotating compensator and a dual compensator-rotation type normal incidence ellipsometer configured by arranging one linear polarizer and two constantly rotating compensators are disclosed.
[Configuration of Normal Incidence Ellipsometer of Related Art]
Referring to FIG. 1, a single compensator-rotation type normal incidence ellipsometer 10, which is an exemplary embodiment of the normal incidence ellipsometer of the related art, includes a light source 11, a beam splitter 12, a linear polarizer 13, a constantly rotating compensator 14, a spectrometer 15, and a processor 16.
The single compensator-rotation type normal incidence ellipsometer 10 of FIG. 1 will be described in terms of a basic structure of a measurement principle as follows. An incident collimated beam L10a emitted from the light source 11 travels in a direction perpendicular to a surface of the sample 1000 by the beam splitter 12 and is incident on a fixed polarizer (implemented as the linear polarizer 13). The incident collimated beam L10a incident on the fixed polarizer is modulated in a polarization state, while sequentially passing through the fixed polarizer and a constantly rotating incidence axis compensator (implemented as the constantly rotating compensator 14), and is incident on the sample 1000 (L10b). A reflected collimated beam L10c reflected by the sample 1000 is incident on the constantly rotating reflection axis compensator (also implemented as the constantly rotating compensator 14), and the reflected collimated beam L10c incident on the constantly rotating reflection axis compensator is modulated again in the polarization state, while sequentially passing through the constantly rotating reflection axis compensator (also implemented as the linear polarizer 13) and the fixed analyzer, and incident on the spectroscope 15 by the beam splitter 12 (L10d). The reflected collimated beam L10d incident on the spectrometer is divided by each wavelength and converted into an electrical digital signal value by a photodetector element embedded in the spectrometer 15, and the measured digital signal values are used for optical property analysis of the sample 1000 by the processor 16.
In the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 1, a detection optic system includes a beam splitter 12, a reflective mirror and a grating embedded in the spectrometer 15. In addition, in the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 1, the linear polarizer 13 serves as a fixed analyzer as well as a fixed polarizer, and the constantly rotating compensator 14 serves as a constantly rotating reflection axis compensator as well as a constantly rotating incident axis compensator. Therefore, there is an advantage in that a size of the measuring device may be reduced to be smaller than the oblique incidence type.
The linear polarizer is mainly configured by processing and assembling a crystal having a birefringence characteristic such as MgF2, CaCO3, and SiO2 in a prism shape. Among the electric field components of light incident on the linear polarizer, a component in a direction of a transmission axis of the linear polarizer may be transmitted and a component perpendicular to the transmission axis cannot be transmitted, so that the transmitted light is in a linearly polarized state. In the case of a prismatic linear polarizer without optical activity, a linear polarization state of transmitted light is not affected according to a type of wavelength, and a Rochon type linear polarizer formed of MgF2 may be used for a broadband wavelength range of 150 to 6,500 nm.
Meanwhile, it is most ideal to provide a λ/4 waveplate to form 90° as a difference between an electric field component passed in a fast axis direction and electric field components passed in a slow axis direction perpendicular to the fast axis direction, among electric field components of light incident on the compensator when light having an arbitrary polarization characteristic passes through the compensator. However, in the case of using a plurality of wavelengths, there are difficulties in manufacturing a compensator as described above. Specifically, in order to make a spectroscopic ellipsometer with a compensator capable of performing real-time measurement on a plurality of wavelengths, a compensator suitable for a measurement wavelength region should be made but is difficult to manufacture. In addition, since phase retardation values of the compensator are different for each wavelength, the phase retardation values should be found through a calibration process before being used for measurement, but a calibration method is very complex, having a problem of occurrence of an error during a calibration process.
Referring to FIG. 2, a dual compensator-rotation-type normal incidence ellipsometer 20, which is another exemplary embodiment of the normal incidence ellipsometer of the related art, includes a light source 21, a beam splitter 22, a linear polarizer 23, a first constantly rotating compensator 24a, a first waveplate 24aw, a first constantly rotating hollow shaft motor 24am, a second constantly rotating compensator 24b, a second waveplate 24bw, a second constantly rotating hollow shaft motor 24bm, a spectroscope 25, a processor 26, a shielding booth 27, and a gas supply device 28. Unlike the single compensator-rotation type normal incidence ellipsometer 10, the dual compensator-rotation-type normal incidence ellipsometer 20 further includes a second constantly rotating compensator 24b, the first waveplate 24aw, and the second waveplate 24bw in order to further widen a measurement wavelength region. In addition, since light having a wavelength smaller than a wavelength range of deep UV is easily absorbed by oxygen, moisture, etc. in a path of a measurement beam, and thus in order to prevent this, the measurement optical system is shielded with the shielding booth 27 and a purging system for filling the measurement beam path with gas such as high-purity nitrogen or high-purity argon using the gas supply device 28 is further provided.
The dual compensator-rotation-type normal incidence ellipsometer 20 of FIG. 2 in terms of a basic structure of a measurement principle will be described as follows. An incident collimated beam L20a emitted from the light source 21 is incident on the fixed polarizer (implemented as a linear polarizer 23) in a direction perpendicular to a surface of a sample 1000 by the beam splitter 22. The incident collimated beam L20a incident on the fixed polarizer is modulated in a polarization state of the incident collimated beam, while sequentially passing through the fixed polarizer, a first constantly rotating incidence axis compensator (implemented as the first constantly rotating compensator 24a), and a second constantly rotating incidence axis compensator (implemented as the second constantly rotating compensator 24b) on the incident light axis, and is incident on the sample 1000 (L20b). A reflected collimated beam L20c reflected by the sample 1000 is modulated in the polarization state of the reflected collimated beam, while sequentially passing through the first constantly rotating reflection axis compensator (also implemented as the second constantly rotating compensator 24b), the second constantly rotating reflection axis compensator (also implemented as the first constantly rotating compensator 24a), and the fixed analyzer (also implemented as the linear polarizer 23) on the reflected light axis, and is incident on the spectrometer 25 by the beam splitter 22 (L20d). The reflected collimated beam L20d incident on the spectrometer 25 is divided by each wavelength L20d and converted into an electrical digital signal value by a photodetector element embedded in the spectrometer 25, and the measured digital signal values are used for the optical property analysis of the sample 1000 by the processor 26.
In the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 2, the linear polarizer 23 serves as a fixed analyzer as well as a fixed polarizer. In addition, in the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 2, the first constantly rotating compensator 24a and the first waveplate 24aw serve not only as the first constantly rotating incidence axis compensator but also as the second constantly rotating reflection axis compensator, and the second constantly rotating compensator 24b and the second wavelength plate 24bw of FIG. 2 serve not only as the second constantly rotating incident axis compensator but also as the first constantly rotating reflection axis compensator. This configuration has the advantage of reducing the size of the measuring device to be smaller than the oblique incidence type.
However, the dual compensator-rotation-type normal incidence ellipsometer 20 also involves the complexity of manufacturing and calibration occurring due to the wavelength dependence of the compensators and the waveplates, like the single compensator-rotation-type normal incidence ellipsometer 10.
To sum up, the ellipsometer basically includes a polarization state generator (PSG) and a polarization state analyzer (PSA). In the case of the normal incidence ellipsometer of the related art, one fixed linear polarizer and one or two constantly rotating compensators are used as components specifically realizing the PSG and the PSA. However, since such a compensator has a wavelength dependence in which relative phase retardation has a different value depending on a wavelength, equipment calibration is essential, and here, there is a problem that an error may occur in the process of performing a complicated calibration procedure. In addition, if it is intended to increase a measurement wavelength region to be wider to enhance reliability of measurement, a compensator suitable therefor needs to be newly developed.

Normal incidence ellipsometer and method for measuring optical properties of sample by using same

Korea Research Institute of Standards and Science


A transmitter used in a transmission system in which a first network is connected, via a second network, to a third network, the transmitter being arranged between the first network and the second network, the transmitter includes: a generator configured to specify an identifier of data area in which communication data affected by a failure occurred in the first network are stored, in a frame transmitted from the second network, and to generate failure information associated with the identifier specified; and a transmitter configured to transmit the failure information generated by the generator, via the second network, to another transmitter arranged between the second network and the third network.

In recent years, network traffics have been rapidly increased with the wide spread of the Internet and mobile networks. Therefore, in carrier core networks, there is an urgent need to expand transmission capacity and the introduction of the OTN (Optical Transport Network) which realizes the transmission capacity of 100 Gbps is underway. Moreover, expansion of transmission capacity of access networks using Ethernet® technology and IP (Internet Protocol) technology is progressing as well.
In addition, there have been known techniques for informing each device in a network of an alarm when a failure occurs in the network. There have been also known techniques in which two Ethernets are connected to an SDH (Synchronous Digital Hierarchy) network and, if a failure occurs in the Ethernet of one side, the Ethernet of one side is switched to the Ethernet of the other side.
Related technologies are disclosed in, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 05-30075 and International Publication Pamphlet No. WO2005-079015.


A method for processing silver halide color photographic material is disclosed which comprises processing a silver halide color photographic material with a color developer containing substantially no sulfite ion and then processing the color photographic material with a solution having bleaching capability containing an aminopolycarboxylic acid having a molecular weight of at least 300.

After color development, silver halide color photographic material is subjected to a desilvering step. Recently, to shorten the delivery time of finished products and decrease laboratory work, it has been desired to shorten the processing time for color photographic materials and, in this case, shortening of the desilvering step is particularly important.
To shorten the desilvering step, the act has investigated shortening not only the two bath type bleaching and fixing steps but also the monobath type blixing (bleach-fixing) step and further the combination of a fixing step and a blixing step or a bleaching step and blixing step. These techniques are generally called bleaching acceleration techniques and fixing acceleration techniques but investigations on the former technique have been a major focus in the art. In particular, investigations have been made on bleaching accelerators.
Practical examples of these bleaching accelerators are compounds having a mercapto group or a disulfide group as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,893,858, West German Patents 1,290,812 and 2,059,988, Japanese Patent Applications (OPI) 32736/78, 57831/78, 37418/78, 65732/78, 72623/78, 95630/78, 95631/78, 104232/78, 124424/78, 141623/78, and 28426/78 (the term "OPI" as used herein means an "unexamined published Japanese Patent application"), Research Disclosure, RD No. 17129 (July, 1978), etc.; thiazoline derivatives as described in Japanese Patent Application (OPI) No. 140129/75; thiourea derivatives as described in Japanese Patent Publication 8506/70, Japanese Patent Applications (OPI) 20832/77 and 32735/78, U.S. Pat. No. 3,706,516, etc.; iodides as described in West German Patent No. 1,127,715 Japanese Patent Application (OPI) 16235/83; polyethylene oxides as described in West German Patent Nos. 966,410 and 2,748,430; polyamine compounds as described in Japanese Patent Publication 8836/70; and other compounds as described in Japanese Patent Applications(OPI) 42434/74, 59644/74, 94927/78, 35727/79, 26506/80, and 163940/83.
Compounds having a high accelerating effect are rather rare among the aforesaid compounds and, in particular, compounds having a mercapto group or a disulfide group are preferred from the view point of showing a high accelerating effect and, particularly, the compounds described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,893,858, West German Patent No. 1,290,812, and Japanese Patent Application (OPI) 95630/78 are preferred.
However, since these compounds have the disadvantages that they are liable to be air oxidized and further are liable to cause poor fixing, techniques using these compounds are not yet satisfactory.
Techniques using iron (III) complexes of various aminopolycarboxylic acids having a molecular weight of 300 or more as bleaching agents to accelerate bleaching are described in Research Disclosure, RD No. 24023, (April, 1984), Japanese Patent Applications (OPI) 5335/74, 67657/75, 149358/84, 47959/86, 50146/86, 50147/86, etc.
However, when such an iron(III) complex of an aminopolycarboxylic acid having a molecular weight of 300 or more is used as a bleaching agent, the bleaching rate is increased similar to using a bleaching agent having a molecular weight of less than 300, but the effect is still insufficient.
An object of this invention is, therefore, to provide a processing technique for silver halide color photographic materials where the desilvering time is greatly shortened.

Method for processing silver halide color photographic materials comprising the use of specific bleaching agents and hydroxylamines


A three-dimensional model of a scene is reconstructed from images of the scene. The three-dimensional model comprises parameters describing points of the scene and cameras that captured the scene. The parameters are iteratively modified by adding a correction to the parameters in each iteration. A preconditioner matrix is determined for solving the linear system of equations. To determine the preconditioner matrix, cameras that observed the scene are clustered, each cluster including cameras that observed a portion of the scene. The preconditioner matrix is determined by selectively eliminating terms of the linear system of equations that correspond to interactions across clusters of cameras. The linear system of equations is preconditioned using the preconditioner matrix. The preconditioned linear system of equations is solved to obtain the corrections to the parameters.

Given a set of images of a scene, numerical techniques can be used to reconstruct the three-dimensional structure of the scene and parameters describing the cameras that captured the images. The three-dimensional structure can be represented as three-dimensional positions of points in the scene. The parameters describing the cameras that captured the images include the positions, orientations, and focal lengths of the cameras. The problem of reconstructing the three-dimensional structure and parameters describing cameras of a scene from images of the scene is called the "bundle adjustment problem." The bundle adjustment problem can be formulated as a non-linear least squares minimization problem.
The images used for three-dimensional structure reconstruction can be sequences of images captured from a moving camera, for example, a camera mounted on a car, a low flying aircraft, or a hand-pushed trolley in a building. For several applications, the number of photos processed for three-dimensional reconstruction can be tens of thousands or more. Furthermore, the number of points processed in the scene can be hundreds or thousands or more. As a result, the size of the matrices that are processed during the three-dimensional reconstruction process can be very large. Therefore, conventional techniques for three-dimensional reconstruction from images can be inefficient.

Preconditioner for solving linear equations for reconstructing three-dimensional structure of a scene


Lubricating oils containing an additive formulation including at least one sulphonate, saligenin and salixarate detergent provide improved wear performance and decreased sulphur and phosphorus emissions.

It is well known for lubricating oils to contain a number of additives used to protect the engine from wear, soot deposits and acidity build up. Common additives for engine lubricating oils include zinc dialkyldithiophosphate (ZDDP) an antiwear additive, and overbased calcium sulphonate and calcium phenate detergents. It is believed that ZDDP antiwear additives protect the engine by forming a protective film on metal surfaces. Detergents such as overbased calcium sulphonate help keep the engine parts clean of soot and other deposits, and offer an alkalinity reserve. Typical treatment quantities of ZDDP range from 1 to 2 weight percent based on the total weight of the lubricant. Typical treatment quantities of overbased calcium sulphonate range from 0.05 to 5 weight percent based on the total weight of the lubricant.
In recent years phosphorus compounds and sulphur (from sulphonates, sulphur-containing phenates, and other materials such as metal-containing dithiophosphates) derived from engine lubricants have been shown to contribute in part to particulate emissions. Also, sulphur and phosphorus tend to poison the catalysts used in catalytic converters, resulting in a reduction in performance of said catalysts.
However, any reduction in the amount of ZDDP or overbased calcium sulphonates or phenates will reduce the antiwear, detergent, and reserve alkalinity properties of the lubricant. Therefore there is a need for an additive package that will reduce sulphur and phosphorus content without having an adverse effect on these properties of lubricant oil.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,310,009, Kocsis et al., Oct. 30, 2001, relates to the use of saligenin derivatives used in lubricating compositions. The formulations contain borated or non-borated magnesium saligenin derivatives. These compositions exhibit improved seal compatibility and reduced copper and lead corrosion.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,200,936, Moreton, Mar. 13, 2001, relates to the use of salixarate compounds as an additive for finished lubricating oils. The compositions disclosed are particularly suitable for medium or low speed diesel engines, especially four-stroke trunk piston engines.
PCT publication WO 01/56968, Aug. 9, 2001, relates to the use of salixarate type compounds used in lubricating oils. The compositions disclosed are particularly suitable as thermal stabilisers for medium or low speed diesel engines.
The present invention provides an additive formulation for lubricating oils capable of decreasing sulphur and phosphorus containing emissions. It further can lead to decreased engine wear and decreased corrosion. The invention further provides an additive formulation for lubricating oils with low phosphorus and sulphur content capable of meeting or exceeding current requirements of engine cleanliness, wear protection, and alkalinity. It further provides an additive formulation for lubricating oils capable of producing reduced amounts of ash and capable of improving seal compatibility.

Additive formulation for lubricating oils


Objects of the invention are to minimize power consumption while maintaining the required information processing capabilities of an LSI chip by supplying multiple voltages to the LSI chip such that its circuit blocks receive necessary voltages and to prevent an increase in the chip area of the LSI chip and performance degradation of signal wires, which may result from the supply of the multiple voltages, by reducing the number of power supply wires.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus formed by mounting an integrated semiconductor circuit on a board. The invention relates particularly to structures of the apparatus that optimize power consumption by the integrated circuit and the amount of information processed by a semiconductor chip, and minimize the size of the integrated circuit.
2. Description of the Related Arts
Recent years have seen increases in power consumption by information processing apparatuses due to increased amounts of information to be processed by the apparatuses. It is particularly difficult for large-scale integrated (LSI) circuits to reduce power consumption while increasing the amount of information to be processed. The information processing circuits on an LSI chip can enhance their performance when a high voltage is applied thereto, but at the same time consume much power. In contrast, when a low voltage is applied, power consumption can be suppressed, but this reduces the amount of information that can be processed. Patent Document 1 (JP-A-2004-111659) and Patent Document 2 (JP-A-2007-194456) disclose multi-voltage designs for an LSI chip in which voltages are selectively applied to circuit blocks.

Semiconductor device and information processing apparatus using the same

Abstract: In an LSI chip to which two voltages are supplied, high voltage wires are more densely spaced than low voltage wires. By selectively applying voltages based on circuit block performance, it is possible to reduce power consumption while maintaining the amount of information processed by the LSI chip.


A voltage-current conversion circuit for automatic test equipment (ATE) or a tester converts a low voltage, low current output from a power supply of the tester to a high voltage and/or high current output to be coupled to a device under test (DUT) while maintaining the sense capability of the tester power supply. In some embodiments, the voltage-current conversion circuit is implemented as a current only conversion circuit.

Semiconductor automatic test equipment (ATE) is used in semiconductor manufacturing processes to perform electrical testing and/or characterization of semiconductor devices. The semiconductor device being tested is usually referred to as the Device Under Test (DUT). FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional semiconductor ATE. Referring to FIG. 1, an ATE 10, or a "tester," generally includes multiple programmable power supplies, such as Supply-1 to Supply-N, under the control of a controller 15. The controller 15 directs one or more power supplies to apply certain stimuli to the device under test (DUT) 20 and also to measure or detect responses from the DUT 20. In particular, each power supply is configured to provide a driving voltage and a driving current within a given specified range, such as up to 20V and 20 mA. Each power supply has an output terminal 18 coupled to a pin of the DUT 20. The pin can be an input pin, an output pin, or an input-output pin.
Some semiconductor devices require high current or high voltage in certain modes of operation. One limitation of low cost ATE is the lack of sufficient programmable high power (>20 mA) voltage sources which limits the tester's ability to test semiconductor devices that operate at high voltage and/or high current level. Commercially available ATEs that include one or more high voltage or high current power supplies are typically very costly. Furthermore, these expensive ATEs typically include only a limited number of high voltage/high current power supplies, which is often not sufficient for testing some semiconductor devices or for testing multiple devices simultaneously. Some attempts to provide a high current/voltage power supply in a tester include using an amplifier to amplify the voltage and current at the output terminal of the low voltage power supply. However, insertion of such amplifier into the connection between the power supply and the DUT breaks the sense connection of the tester and prevents the tester from sensing or detecting the signal level at the DUT pin.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of the force/sense connection between a power supply on a tester and a pin of the DUT. Referring to FIG. 2, the output terminal of a power supply Supply-K in a tester includes a force line (node 28) and a sense line (node 29) that are Kelvin connected to a pin in the DUT 20. The force line and sense line are sometimes referred to as a force-and-sense pair. The force and sense lines are connected together at the DUT pin to form a Kelvin connection. In a Kelvin connection, the power supply Supply-K supplies current via the force line (node 28) and the voltage at the DUT pin is sensed by the sense line (node 29) while no current flows in the sense line. The power supply Supply-K forces a programmed voltage VSK (e.g., 5V) onto the force line at a given current level and senses the voltage at the DUT pin from the sense line to determine if the desired voltage is provided at the DUT. Here, assuming the force line (node 28) has a 1 ohm resistance and the power supply current IS is 1 A. The voltage VS at the DUT pin is actually only 4V due to the voltage drop on the force line. The sensed voltage VS is fed back to the power supply Supply-K and the power supply, such as through amplifier 25, drives the force line until the sensed voltage VS at the DUT is the same as the programmed voltage VSK. To ensure driving and sensing operation at the tester, the force-and-sense pair connection between the tester and the DUT should not be broken or the tester will not be able to measure the voltage at the DUT correctly.

Programmable high current voltage supply for automatic test equipment


The present invention provides novel bisphosphonate conjugates, pharmaceutical compositions comprising bisphosphonate conjugates and methods of using such analogs in the treatment of bone cancer, bone-related diseases, bone infection, bone inflammation, and diseases of the soft tissues surrounding bones.

Bone degeneration diseases, including Paget's Disease and osteoporosis have proven difficult to treat because the mechanisms involved in the development and progression of these diseases are not well understood. Bisphosphonates are synthetic analogs of pyrophosphates characterized by a phosphorus-carbon-phosphorus backbone that renders them resistant to hydrolysis and are known to be useful in the treatment of these degenerative bone disorders. The chemical properties of the bisphosphonates vary based on different substitutions at the carbon atom of the phosphorus-carbon-phosphorus backbone.
Bisphosphonates bind strongly to hydroxyapatite on the bone surface and act to reduce and inhibit the activity of osteoclasts; cells functioning in the absorption and removal of osseous tissue. The anti-resorptive effect of bisphosphonates is also mediated through effects on osteoblasts; cells that function in the production of bone. Thus, biophosphonates are used clinically to inhibit bone resorption in disease states such as Paget's disease, osteoporosis, metastatic bone diseases, and malignant and nonmalignant hypercalcemia. Bisphosphonates are also used to mediate anti-cancer effects by modifying the bone surface, altering the bone microenvironment, inhibiting specific enzymatic pathways and inducing apoptosis in osteoclast and tumor cells.
Bisphosphonates that are currently used therapeutically include alendronate, clodronate, etidronate, pamidronate, tiludronate, ibandronate, zoledronate, olpadronate, residronate and neridronate. Additionally, bone scanning agents based on the use of bisphosphonic acid compounds have been used in the past to produce high definition bone scans (see e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,810,486 to Kelly et. al). Bisphosphonate derivatives have been used as therapeutic agents for bone diseases such as osteoporosis, rheumatoid arthritis, and osteoarthritis (see e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,181 to Sugioka et. al). In the past, however, bisphosphonate therapies have frequently been accompanied by severe side effects such as retardation of bone development and somatic growth.
Therefore, a need exists for novel bisphosphonate compounds that act as delivery vehicles to target and deliver therapeutic agents to bone and the surrounding soft tissue, allowing selective treatment of these tissues while eliminating or minimizing the severe side effects previously seen with bisphosphonate therapies.

Bone targeted therapeutics and methods of making and using the same


Changing operational backup parameters on a storage system includes a first actor generating a request to change operational backup parameters, providing the request from the first actor to a second actor, the second actor authorizing the request, and modifying the operational backup parameters in response to the second actor authorizing the request. The first actor may be assigned a role that allows the first actor to generate the request to change operational backup parameters of the storage system and the second actor may be assigned a role that allows the second actor to authorize the request to change operational backup parameters of the storage system. The request may include a time window provided by the first actor. Authorizing a request to change operational backup parameters of the storage system may create a token and an authorization key. The token may be indicative of the request provided by the first actor.

Host processor systems may store and retrieve data using a storage system containing a plurality of host interface units (I/O modules), disk drives, and disk interface units (disk adapters). The host systems access the storage systems through a plurality of channels provided therewith. Host systems provide data and access control information through the channels to the storage system and the storage system provides data to the host systems also through the channels. The host systems do not address the disk drives of the storage system directly, but rather, access what appears to the host systems as a plurality of logical disk units. The logical disk units may or may not correspond to any one of the actual disk drives. Allowing multiple host systems to access the single storage system allows the host systems to share data stored therein.
A difficulty facing many organizations is the possibility of destruction/corruption of data, either through errors in the software that accesses the data or intentional destruction/corruption of the data by malicious actors, which may be from outside the organization or internal to the organization. Data may be protected by data backups where backup data sets are maintained in order to be able to restore the data to a state that existed at a particular point in time prior to the data destruction. To be able to accomplish this, there must be a significant number of backup data sets where the amount of time between the sets is sufficiently small to provide reasonable granularity and where the earliest backup set is sufficiently long ago to allow for discovery and correction of data destruction/corruption. For example, the z Data Protector system (zDP) provided by Dell EMC allows for 144 separate backup data sets (snapshots) in 24 hours, with each backup data set being ten minutes apart from a previous and subsequent backup data set.
A drawback to relying on products like zDP or similar backup data systems is that a malicious actor that is internal to the affected organization could intentionally destroy/corrupt the data of the organization and, at the same time, sabotage the backup system. For example, if an internal malicious actor with sufficient system access were to decrease the interval between backup data sets to two seconds, then the configured 144 backup data sets would only cover an interval of about five minutes rather than the expected 24 hours. In such a case, by the time the data destruction/corruption is discovered, none of the backup data sets may contain a version of the data that has not been affected by the destruction/corruption.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide a system that reduces the likelihood that an internal actor can sabotage data backup sets for a storage system.


A pile driver provided with a housing and at least one body connected with the housing so as to be moved back and forth over a predetermined path, the pile driver being further provided with a drive for moving the body back and forth over the path for the purpose of pile-driving, the pile driver comprising at least two parts movable relative to each other, respectively having at least a first type of sliding surface and at least a second type of sliding surface which during pile-driving slide along each other and between which there is a lubricant, wherein the first type of sliding surface is provided with polyether ether ketone.

Such a pile driver is known per se and is suitable for driving a pile into a surface. To this end, the body is placed on the pile. Next, using the drive, the body is lifted relative to the pile along the predetermined path and then lowered onto the pile using the drive and/or gravity. By repeating this method, the pile is driven into the ground. Such piles can for instance form a foundation for constructions on land or at sea.
When pile-driving is done to form a foundation at sea, it may be necessary to perform pile-driving underwater, for instance when building oil rigs. To adapt the pile driver for use under water, the lubricant can comprise water or even seawater, which provides the advantage that lubricant leaking from between the sliding surfaces to surrounding water, or surrounding water penetrating between the sliding surfaces, does not have any significant influence on the movable parts' sliding along each other.
A drawback of the known pile driver is that, for instance if water is used as lubricant, the parts are highly susceptible to corrosion and wear.


A system incorporating a pair of Mach-Zehnder modulators (164,166) for performing amplitude modulation of an optical carrier is disclosed. Each of the modulators is designed to suppress even order distortion products and develop third order distortion products of opposite sign and equal magnitude. The outputs of the two modulators are combined in a directional coupler (155) resulting in substantially suppressing second through fourth order distortion products.

Prior to the development of optical communication systems, substantially all information transmission was accomplished through the use of electrical cable systems, radio frequency transmission and, more recently, point-to-point microwave links. For certain applications, cable systems represent the optimal solution, in view of their capacity to carry large numbers of channels and their immunity to interference, as well as because of the fact that they do not occupy the limited on-the-air radio frequency spectrum.
Thus, over the years, extensive cable systems carrying telephone calls, data, telex and television have been developed. With the increasing development of optical communication systems, many of these cable networks are being replaced and/or upgraded with optical fiber cable systems. Optical systems are particularly desirable in view of their ability to carry greater numbers of channels, their relatively low failure rates, and their ability to eliminate the need for large numbers of repeaters in cascade, which, in principle, should result in reduced distortion. Today, the primary use of such systems is in digital voice and data transmission systems.
Despite the above advantages, the application of fiber optic techniques presents several challenges to certain major end-users. While transmission over the fiber optic line is often vastly superior both in terms of span length between repeaters and the number of independent channels which may be carried by a single fiber, the generation of a highly linearly amplitude-modulated (AM) light signal presents substantial obstacles. These problems may be particularly serious where it is desired to integrate a fiber optic span into an existing cable system. If the existing system is a digital system, the quality of the modulation of the system is of relatively minor importance in view of the fact that such systems function well in relatively high noise and high distortion environments. Similarly, in the case of frequency modulated (FM) systems, the wide bandwidth of the signal, the redundancy of the sidebands and the resultant natural immunity of FM systems to noise again results in generally acceptable performance. However, in the case of high fidelity amplitude modulated systems, substantial problems are presented.
One particular application in which it is desired to maintain large parts of an existing network is in the cable television industry. Here, the large number of individual subscriber connections and extensive local area cables makes complete replacement of the system undesirable. Moreover, the large number of existing television sets and the necessity of the system to accommodate equipment marketed for off-the-air television reception necessitates that at least some portion of local signal distribution be in a conventional AM radio frequency format.
Despite the advantages, as yet, there has been little penetration of the cable television industry by fiber optic systems due to the difficulty of meeting minimum standards which the industry has proposed, despite substantial research efforts aimed at providing high quality optical amplitude modulation.
In the event that one wishes to put amplitude modulation onto a carrier, be it an optical carrier or otherwise, it is necessary to modulate the intensity of the carrier linearly in proportion to the information which one wishes to transmit. Generally, such linear modulation may be defined as multiplication by a constant scaling factor and/or the addition of a DC bias level. Such operations are linear, and any device which performs such operations will have an output with frequency components identical to its input frequency components. However, in the event that there are non-linearities in the system, the output will also include components which represent multiple sums and differences of the input frequency components.
In principle, there are a number of ways of obtaining a modulated laser light beam. In the case of semiconductor diode lasers, the most direct modulation method is to apply a constant electrical input current to bias the diode above its lasing threshold and then to add a variable current proportional to the desired information signal. If the light output were to vary linearly with the input current above threshold, then the optical signal would be a high-fidelity replica of the original information. Unfortunately for many end-uses, it is very rare to find a semiconductor laser that possesses a degree of linearity that is sufficient. As reported recently in the Proceedings of the 1989 Annual Meeting National Cable Television Association.sup.1 the cost of these carefully selected lasers prohibits their widespread use at present.
1 James A. Chiddix, "Fiber Backbone--Multi-Channel AM Video Trunking", pp 246-253, May 1989.
Other alternatives include modulating the intensity of a constant source, for example, through the use of a Kerr or Pockels cell. Unfortunately, such modulation techniques are inherently nonlinear and exhibit relatively good linearity only when the amplitude of the modulation is impractically small. Moreover, in the event of such relatively small dynamic range in modulation, other factors such as source and receiver noise and the like act to effectively overcome any gains in fidelity achieved as a result of using a very small part of the device characteristic, albeit relatively linear.
In a paper prepared for the Air Force Office of Scientific Research entitled Use of Predistortion to Reduce Intermodulation Distortion in Optical Fiber Communication Sources.sup.2, Larson and Smith proposed compensating for the nonlinearity of a diode by predistorting the signal input to the light-emitting diode. In accordance with this technique, an optical receiver and a light-emitting diode transmitter are constructed to measure the intensity of light output by the light-emitting diode a against its input current.
2 Report AFOSR-TR-79-0904 May 1979.
A polynomial describing the dynamic characteristic is then developed and used to predict the intermodulation distortion as a function of the percentage of modulation. A compensating network is then developed. Reduction of intermodulation distortion products in the range of 6-15 decibels has been noted using this technique. While such improvements certainly are significant, they do not nearly approach the degree of suppression necessary to achieve a high quality amplitude-modulated optical cable network.
Furthermore, such precompensation is possible only in cases where the non-linearities of the light emitting source are well-defined, predictable and non-varying. This is not generally the case for high power semiconductor devices.
A more effective approach was proposed in an article entitled Linear Interferometric Modulators in Ti: Li Nb O.sub.3 by Bulmer and Burns in the Journal of Lightwave Technology, Volume LT-2, No. 4, of August, 1984. In accordance with this system, a Mach-Zehnder interferometric modulator with asymmetric arms is used to achieve greater linearity. Generally, the device described in this article comprised a two-armed device in which one of the arms is given a DC bias which results in an intrinsic phase bias between coherent light from a single source which exits the two arms, of approximately 90 degrees. While such an arrangement does have the effect of substantially suppressing second and fourth intermodulation distortion products, the substantially unaffected third order distortion products do not render the system adequate for high quality, relatively high power and high capacity optical cable information distribution systems.
In a paper entitled Reduction of Intermodulation Distortion in Interferometric Optical Modulators presented by Johnson and Roussell at the IEEE/LEOS Meeting, held at Santa Clara, Calif. in November of 1988, a dual polarization technique was proposed for reducing intermodulation distortion in waveguide interferometric modulators. Here, an interferometric modulator supporting single transverse electric and transverse magnetic modes was driven by a modulating signal. Because there is a three-fold difference in the voltage sensitivity between the TE and TM modes, an input light polarization angle could be found that would suppress selectively the dominant cubic term of intermodulation distortion.
However, such an approach suffers from additional problems such as the simultaneous processing of two different polarization components which would impose additional problems in manufacture and operation of the device. In addition, interference effects arising from interactions between scattered portions of the two polarization components within the optical fiber transmission line will give rise to unwanted intermodulation products and/or compression-expansion terms in the output TV signal.

Cable system incorporating highly linear optical modulator


An amplifier comprises: an input stage, a pulse width modulation stage, and a switched output stage. During operation, the input stage receives an input signal (such as an audio signal). The input stage adjusts the input signal based on feedback from the switched output stage of the amplifier. According to one configuration, the feedback from the switched output stage is a voltage across a flying capacitor disposed in the switched output stage. The pulse width modulation stage uses the adjusted input signal or signals to produce respective pulse width modulation signals that are subsequently used to drive (control) switches in the switched output stage. The switches in the switched output stage generate an output voltage to drive a load based on states of the pulse width modulation signals. Adjustments applied to the input signal based on the feedback maintains the magnitude of the flying capacitor voltage at a desired setpoint.

Conventional audio amplifiers sometimes include a so-called flying capacitor disposed in a respective switched output stage to drive a load. Typically, the flying capacitor stores an intermediate voltage value whose magnitude is a fraction of a magnitude of a main voltage rail powering the switched output stage. Presence of the flying capacitor enables a controller to apply the voltage of the flying capacitor to a load in addition to being able to apply standard voltage rails such as main power source voltage and ground to the load.
As a more specific example, a main voltage rail of a switched output stage of an amplifier may be 5 volts DC; the voltage on the flying capacitor may be set to ½ the main voltage rail or 2.5 volts DC. When present in an amplifier circuit, the so-called flying capacitor is electrically coupled across multiple switches in a switched output stage (such a sequence of series connected switches configured as a bridge circuit).
As is known, the switches in the switched output stage can be independently controlled to produce an output voltage to drive the load. For example, the switches in the output stage can be controlled (switched ON and OFF at appropriate time) to drive the load with a maximum voltage (main voltage rail) or ground reference voltage at different times.
As mentioned, in addition to having an ability to drive a load with a main voltage rail or a ground reference value, presence of one or more the flying capacitors in a respective drive circuit enables the output stage to drive the load with voltages of the one or more flying capacitors at different times. Thus, via activation of different combination of switches in the switched output stage, a respective controller is able to software between driving a load with voltages of different voltage magnitudes such as a main rail voltage, one or more intermediate or fractional voltages (stored in the one or more flying capacitors), and a ground reference voltage to produce an output voltage to power a respective load.

Flying capacitor voltage control in an amplifier


A system for continuous High Internal Phase Emulsion (HIPE) foam production. A (HIPE) is produced then extruded onto a carrier sheet positioned on a belt surface.

An emulsion is a dispersion of one liquid in another liquid and generally is in the form of a water-in-oil mixture having an aqueous or water phase dispersed within a substantially immiscible continuous oil phase. Water-in-oil (or oil in water) emulsions having a high ratio of dispersed phase to continuous phase are known in the art as High Internal Phase Emulsions, also referred to as "HIPE" or HIPEs. At relatively high dispersed aqueous phase to continuous oil phase ratios the continuous oil phase becomes essentially a thin film separating and coating the droplet-like structures of the internal, dispersed aqueous phase. In certain HIPEs continuous oil phase comprises one or more polymerizable monomers. These monomers can be polymerized, forming a cellular structure, for example a foam, having a cell size distribution defined by the size distribution of the dispersed, aqueous phase droplets.
HIPE foams can be formed in a continuous process, wherein a HIPE is formed and then moved through the various stages used to produce a HIPE foam. A movable support member, such as a belt, will typically be used to move a HIPE from one stage to the next. Following the formation of the HIPE the next stage involves the polymerization of the monomers present in the oil phase to produce a HIPE foam. Initiator, which is used to start polymerization, is generally added during HIPE formation either to the separate aqueous and continuous oil phases or to the HIPE during the emulsion making process. In addition to the presence of initiator heat can be used to accelerate the polymerization reaction, for example the individual aqueous and oil phases may be heated to accelerate the polymerization reaction.
The environmental conditions used to polymerize a HIPE into a HIPE foam can be very harmful to equipment, such as belts. For instance polymerization of a HIPE often involves the use of high temperatures. Further, to minimize fluid loss in HIPEs during the polymerization process and to provide a more equalized temperature distribution, steam may be used as the heat source. The steam can penetrate the materials in the belt and cause the belt to swell. Further, HIPEs are often produced using one or more types of corrosive salts, which can migrate, enter the belt and degrade it. In addition to the use of heat to polymerize HIPEs other methods can be used that are harmful to belts, such as the use of actinic radiation supplied by an ultraviolet source.
These harsh environments while beneficial to the polymerization of HIPEs can be harmful to the belts upon which HIPEs are extruded and transported on. These environments are not only directly harmful to the belts and facilitate their deterioration; they can also affect the quality of the HIPE foam produced from such belts. HIPEs in a continuous process are often extruded onto the surface of a belt as a thin sheet. If the belt has imperfections on its surface these imperfections can negatively influence the HIPE extruded thereon. For example, if the belt has bulges or bumps on its surface these imperfections can result in uneven HIPE foam sheets, or sheets having holes, which cannot be used. Further if the HIPE foam requires an open celled structure on its surface, for the absorption of liquids, a damaged belt surface could cause the HIPE foam surface to have a closed cell structure, and therefore inhibit the intended function of the HIPE foam. Additionally, at some point in the HIPE foam process, the HIPE foam will need to be detached from the belt, and if the belt surface is uneven or damaged the HIPE foam might be damaged during the removal step as the HIPE foam will adhere to the belt surface.
One potential solution to providing a suitable belt surface has been to use various methods to strengthen or enhance a belt surface, for example, by laminating or impregnating a belt surface with materials that will provide a smooth belt surface, such as Teflon or resins. These materials have a number of technical drawbacks, such as successfully adhering the materials to a belt surface, and while potentially lengthening the life of a belt are very costly, and will eventually fail. Another method has involved the use of a film layer which resides on and moves along with the surface of a belt and unto which a HIPE is extruded. However, there also have been drawbacks to this approach. A HIPE is transported in a continuous process through the use of endless belts, which at their ends have pulleys. The pulleys stretch the outer surface of a belt, but once the belt passes the pulley the belt contracts back to its original shape. These changes in the outer surface of the belt cause the film residing on the belt surface to fold back upon itself forming ripple across the film surface, as the belt contracts. The ripples produced cause deformations in the HIPE extruded on them.
A further problem of using belts in the HIPE foam making process relates to the static nature of the belts used to transport the HIPEs through the HIPE foam making process, and therefore also any films resting on the belts. When starting the process by extruding a HIPE onto a belt surface, the HIPE that is first extruded is often not usable to produce a HIPE foam. One attempted solution has been to try and make the extruding devices mobile. This has proved problematic for several reasons, the first of which relates to the size of the extruding device required, in that to produce HIPE foams at a high rate a relatively large extruding device is needed to extrude large quantities of HIPE onto a belt, such size makes the extruding devices bulky and difficult to move. Another factor is the quality of the HIPE extruded onto the belt, in that movement of the extruding device could cause the HIPE being extruded to be extruded unevenly—leading to non-usable HIPE foam. A further consideration is the extruding devices are substantially fixed in place by the HIPE feed lines that supply them. Another attempt to solve the problem has been to try and make the belt that the HIPE is extruded on mobile. This has not proven usable as moving the belt slackens the tension in the belt leading to HIPE that is once again unevenly extruded; and as with the extruding device, causing extra movement of the belt creates an unstable surface for the HIPE, once again resulting in uneven extrusion of the HIPE. Further, long belts require high tension in order to be driven to overcome drag forces, and wider systems provide economies of scale, hence the support structures and the pulleys themselves have to be substantial, making the movement of said structures more difficult, especially more difficult to do accurately time after time.
Therefore there exists a need for a way to protect a belt surface for HIPE foam formation in a continuous process, and while doing so also provide a system that allows for the selection of which HIPE is used to produce HIPE foam.

System for producing high internal phase emulsion foam


A method for imaging with low frequency electromagnetic fields, and for interpreting the electromagnetic data using ray tomography, in order to determine the earth conductivity with high accuracy and resolution. The imaging method includes the steps of placing one or more transmitters, at various positions in a plurality of transmitter holes, and placing a plurality of receivers in a plurality of receiver holes. The transmitters generate electromagnetic signals which diffuse through a medium, such as earth, toward the receivers. The measured diffusion field data H is then transformed into wavefield data U. The traveltimes corresponding to the wavefield data U, are then obtained, by charting the wavefield data U, using a different regularization parameter .alpha. for each transform. The desired property of the medium, such as conductivity, is then derived from the velocity, which in turn is constructed from the wavefield data U using ray tomography.

The present invention relates in general to imaging methods, and more particularly to a new method for imaging with low frequency electromagnetic fields, for interpreting the electromagnetic data using ray tomography, and for determining the earth conductivity with high accuracy and resolution.
Electrical conductivity of the earth is a very important factor in underground explorations, such as explorations for minerals, hydrocarbons and groundwater, and in analyzing environmental and crustal problems. Conventional methods approximate the electrical conductivity by using low frequency (less than 1 MHz) electromagnetic fields. The differential equation that describes the behavior of such electromagnetic fields is a diffusion equation, such that the inversion solution of the fields satisfying this equation is relatively difficult, particularly for complex models. There has been several attempts to resolve such diffusion equation.
Some of these attempts include earlier studies by G. Kunetz, "Processing and interpretation of magnetotelluric soundings", Geophysics, volume 37, pages 1005-1021 (1972); P. Weidelt, "The inverse problem of geomagnetic induction", Zeitung for Geophysiks, volume 38, pages 257-298 (1972); and S. Levy et al., "Subsurface imaging using magnetotelluric data", Geophysics, volume 53, pages 104-117 (1988). These studies nave shown a relationship between diffusion equations and wave equations, but have been limited to magnetotelluric problems in a layered earth.
Using equations for scalar fields, M. Lavrent'ev, V. G. Romanov and S. P. Shishatski, in "Ill posed problems of mathematical physics and analysis", Nauka, volume 64, pages 250-252 (1980), presented a mathematical transform. between fields satisfying the diffusion equation and its corresponding wave equation. Subsequently, G. A. Isaev, and V. V. Filatov, in "Physicomathematical principles of visualization of nonstationary electromagnetic fields", Geol. i Geofiz., volume 22, pages 89-95 (1981), and V. V. Filatov in "Construction of focusing transformation of transient electromagnetic fields", Soviet Geology and Geophysics, volume 25, No. 5, pages 87-93 (1984), tested the imaging concept, using controlled-source electromagnetic data, with limited success.
In yet another attempted solution, K. H. Lee, Gan Quan Xie, and H. F. Morrison, in an article entitled "A new approach to modeling the electromagnetic response of conductive media" Geophysics, volume 54, pages 1180-1192 (1989), generalized the transform to include vector electromagnetic fields and arbitrary sources.
Yet another study by K. H. Lee, in an article entitled "A new approach to interpreting electromagnetic-sounding data", Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, Annual Report 1988, LBL-26362, pages 24-27, showed that the construction of the wavefield with reasonable resolution would require approximately four decades of time-domain, or frequency-domain data, with a maximum allowable noise in the power spectrum of about three percent (3%). However, useful information, such as the traveltime, would remain in the transformed wavefield, even if the time window is substantially reduced.
The foregoing attempts have met with varying degrees of success, in obtaining high resolution earth electrical conductivity distribution useful for underground explorations and environmental studies. However, no practically useful method has been proposed for high-resolution imaging of electrical conductivity using the wavefield transform technique.
Therefore, it would be highly desirable to have a new method for imaging with low frequency electromagnetic fields, via a wavefield transform and for determining the earth conductivity with high accuracy and resolution.

Method for imaging with low frequency electromagnetic fields


A nonaqueous electrolyte battery includes: a positive electrode containing a positive electrode active material made of a compound represented by a compositional formula of LiMn1-x-yFexAyPO4 (wherein A is at least one selected from the group consisting of Mg, Ca, Al, Ti, Zn and Zr, 0≤x≤0.3, and 0≤y≤0.1); a negative electrode containing a negative electrode active material made from a titanium composite oxide; and a nonaqueous electrolyte, wherein a ratio (IP—F/IP—O) of a peak intensity (IP—F) of a P—F bond to a peak intensity (IP—O) of a P—O bond on the surface of the positive electrode, which are measured by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic analysis, is 0.4 or more and 0.8 or less.

The active development has been carried out on a nonaqueous electrolyte battery, in which charge/discharge is carried out through the movement of lithium ions between a negative electrode and a positive electrode, as a high-energy density battery.
This type of nonaqueous electrolyte battery has been used as an electric power source for a small electronic device, and is also expected to be used as a medium-size or large-size power source for an in-vehicle application or a stationary application.
Examples of the nonaqueous electrolyte battery having excellent battery life performance and high safety includes a nonaqueous electrolyte battery using spinel type lithium titanate in a negative electrode.
In a nonaqueous electrolyte battery including a lithium manganese phosphate-containing positive electrode and a titanium oxide-containing negative electrode, large capacity deterioration is caused by a deviation in the state of charge (SOC) of the battery, and side reactions are easily caused by functional groups and adsorbed water existing on the surface of the titanium oxide.
It is known that, in a nonaqueous electrolyte battery, a life of a lithium manganese phosphate-containing positive electrode is improved by the coating component formed by the decomposition of a carbonate-based electrolyte solvent.
However, the coating component formed by the decomposition of a carbonate-based electrolytic solution solvent has low stability to an organic solvent, and the coating component sometimes dissolves in an electrolytic solution under the high-temperature condition or through the repetition of charge/discharge.
It is also known that side reactions are suppressed by increasing a phosphorus concentration in the vicinity of a surface of a lithium iron phosphate-containing positive electrode.
However, in this method, it is necessary to wash the surface of a positive electrode with an acid and to refire the positive electrode.

Nonaqueous electrolyte battery, battery pack and vehicle