Various embodiments are described herein for measuring the impedance properties of a load using load analysis signals. In one example embodiment, a transformer is provided which includes at least one primary winding, and at least one secondary winding. The at least one primary winding is coupled in series between a direct-current (DC) power supply and the load. A variable alternating-current (AC) voltage generator is coupled in-series to the at least one secondary winding, and is configured generate at least one load analysis signal for injection into the load. The impedance properties of the load may be determined for different frequencies in the load analysis signals.

In recent years, impedance spectroscopy has found increasing wide-spread application as a non-invasive, and non-intrusive technique for monitoring state and health properties of electrical, electrochemical, and biological loads.
In impedance spectroscopy, a load is injected (e.g., interrogated or perturbed or excited) with one or more alternating-current (AC) signals characterized by different frequencies, or having different frequency components. A load impedance spectrum may then be generated by plotting the impedance response of the load as a function of the applied frequencies. In various cases, the impedance spectrum is then analyzed to determine electrical, physical, chemical, and biological properties of the interrogated load.

System and method for determining the impedance properties of a load using load analysis signals


An adjustable eyeglass holder to be mounted in an automotive vehicle, boat, airplane, office, room, or other location for holding conventional prescription eyeglasses and sun glasses, as well as clip-on eyeglasses attachable to conventional eyeglasses, and having a range of sizes and nose bridge configurations.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to eyeglass accessories and more particularly to a novel eyeglass holder to be mounted in an automotive vehicle, boat, airplane, office, room, or other location for holding eyeglasses when not in use, and in such a way that glasses may be conveniently placed in and removed from the holder.
2. Prior Art
Eyeglasses are made in two basic types, referred to herein as conventional glasses and clip-on glasses. Conventional glasses may be normal prescription glasses, sun glasses, or prescription sunglasses and have a nose bridge and hinged temples which are foldable into crossing or endwise overlapping relation behind the nose bridge to place the glasses in a compact folded configuration in which the glasses may be placed in a pocket or other receptacle. Clip-on glasses are usually sunglasses and have clips rather than temples for releasable attachment to conventional glasses.
Eyeglass holders are useful in those situations in which eyeglasses are worn intermittently in one particular location and/or are always left at that location when the wearer leaves the location. In these situations, it is convenient to have an eyeglass holder available into which the eyeglasses may be easily placed when not in use and from which the glasses may be easily removed when needed. This eliminates the neccessity of looking for the glasses when needed and avoids damage to the glasses when not in use.
Some of the places where the above situation arises are automotive vehicles, boats, airplanes, offices, rooms, and the like. Thus, persons operating vehicles, such as automotive vehicles, airplanes, and boats, generally wear sun glasses in bright daylight or sunlight and remove the sunglasses when the light dims. Some vehicle operators wear prescription glasses when operating a vehicle. In each case, the glasses are often left in the vehicle at all times. Unless the glasses are placed in a holder when not in use, they are easily misplaced, lost, or damaged, and are especially difficult for the operator to locate when driving. Searching for glasses when driving also creates an additional driving risk. Other places where this situation arises is in an office or in a room of a home in which glasses are worn intermittently and/or left when the wearer leaves.
One common type of existing eyeglass holder is a pouch or hinged-cover holder of the kind which are often provided with eyeglasses when purchased. These holders may be placed in the pocket or on a support. While satisfactory for some purposes, these holders are undesirable or unsuitable for use in the situations mentioned above. In the first place, these holders are just as prone to being misplaced or lost as eyeglasses themselves. Further, two hands are required to place glasses in and remove glasses from such holders. Accordingly, these holders are not suitable for use by operators of moving vehicles.
The best eyeglass holder for the situations mentioned above is one which is fixed to a relatively stationary support of some kind, such as a sun visor, rear view mirror, or dash of a vehicle, an office or room wall, a desk, shelve, or the like. The prior art is replete with a number of patents disclosing eyeglass holders of this kind. Among these patents are the following: U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,468,437, 2,826,387, 2,884,220, 3,195,731, 3,817,392, 4,695,026, 4,715,575, 4,946,125, 5,046,696, 5,137,242.


A method of spatial transformation, such as scan conversion, uses a packed data table. The raw data and the data table are read sequentially, and the resulting image is computed.

[Note: All reference numerals begin with the Figure number; i.e. numeral 1022 refers to FIG. 10, numeral 701 refers to FIG. 7]
In many electronic imaging applications, such as ultrasound and radar, information about the objects being imaged is acquired in a non-Cartesian coordinate system. FIG. 1A shows a radar or ultrasound system 100, which sends out radial scans 104, 106, in order to build an image of an object 102. The resulting echoes form the raw data (FIG. 1B), which are usually in polar coordinates, relative to an origin 107. Referring to FIG. 1C, an image 110 of the object 102 must be displayed on a display terminal 108, such as a CRT or LCD monitor. In order for the object 102 to be displayed on the display device 108, the data must be converted into the coordinate system of the display device 108, which is often different from the coordinate system of the raw data (FIG. 1B).
A 'scan converter' is the name given to a system which converts raw data from one coordinate system into another.
Scan conversion systems face three challenges: Speed, accuracy, and cost.
In the most common case, the imaging system must run in real-time, and display an image thirty or more times per second. One scan conversion must be performed for each image, so thirty or more scan conversions must be performed each second. The speed of a scan conversion system is defined by the number of images which it can scan convert per second, or, equivalently, the time it takes to scan convert a single image.
Because the raw image data (FIG. 1B) is acquired in a different coordinate system, and very often with a different resolution than the display monitor 108, there is not a simple one-to-one mapping between the raw data points (FIG. 1B) and the points on the display 108. In some areas of the display image, multiple raw data points may map to a single display point; in other areas of the display image, no raw data point will directly map to a display point, leaving 'holes' in the image. These two phenomena can lead to 'artifacts', speckle or blemishes in the resulting image. Further, certain scan converters use various approximations in an attempt to minimize processing and speed up scan conversion. These approximations can further degrade the resultant image. There is usually a trade-off between speed and accuracy.
The most advanced systems achieve real-time speed and also excellent accuracy, at the expense of cost. Such systems are usually unacceptably expensive, due to the enormous computing power they require. Further, existing systems are often inflexible, because either they require custom hardware, or they use a dedicated general purpose CPU or a dedicated DSP processor. If a more efficient method of scan conversion existed, not only would the cost of the required hardware be reduced, but the flexibility of the systems would be increased, because the scan conversion algorithm would use only a fraction of the available computing resources.
As is shown infra, existing systems do not make efficient use of their computing resources. There is a need for a scan conversion algorithm which makes more efficient use of computing resources, thus lowering the cost of the system, and increasing flexibility.

Optimized method of performing spatial transformation


A video and sound signal recorded on an optical disk is reproduced and when a read error of the video and sound signal occurs during the reproduction of the optical disk, reading of the video and sound signal is retried and when a read error of the video and sound signal occurs during the retry of the reading of the video and sound signal, a rotational speed of the optical disk is increased to retry reading of the video and sound signal and when the video and sound signal can be read by the retry of the reading of the video and sound signal, the rotational speed of the optical disk is returned to the original rotational speed and the video and sound signal recorded on the optical disk is reproduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a disk reproducing apparatus for reproducing a video and sound signal recorded on an optical disk such as a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) or a CD (Compact Disc), and more specifically relates to a disk reproducing apparatus capable of reducing noise associated with rotation of an optical disk to reproduce the optical disk and reproducing the optical disk without discontinuity in video and sound in reproduction even when a read error of a video and sound signal occurs during reproduction of the optical disk.
2. Description of the Related Art
A disk reproducing apparatus for reproducing an optical disk such as a DVD or a CD is constructed so that an error of a video and sound signal read from the optical disk can be corrected based on an error-correcting code added to the video and sound signal to reproduce the video and sound signal even when small dirt or flaw, etc. is present on a signal record surface of the optical disk. However, in case that a read error of a video and sound signal occurs and the error of the video and sound signal cannot be corrected due to external factors such as shock or vibration or internal factors such as dirt or flaw on the signal record surface of the optical disk, there was a problem that reading of the video and sound signal must be retried and when retries of the video and sound signal are repeated frequently, data of buffer memory in which the video and sound signal reproduced is temporarily stored is lost and the video and sound signal cannot be outputted at a constant transfer rate and video and sound in reproduction discontinue. Also, when an optical disk is rotated at high speed and a video and sound signal recorded on the optical disk is reproduced in a high-speed mode, a reproduction speed of the video and sound signal improves, but there was a problem that mass buffer memory is required in order to temporarily store the video and sound signal reproduced and noise such as rotation noise of the optical disk, vibration noise due to side runout or eccentricity of the optical disk or wind noise due to rotation of the optical disk increases as compared with the case of rotating the optical disk at low speed. Also, when an optical disk is rotated at low speed and a video and sound signal recorded on the optical disk is reproduced in a low-speed mode, capacity of buffer memory in which data of the video and sound signal reproduced is temporarily stored can be decreased and noise such as rotation noise of the optical disk, vibration noise due to side runout or eccentricity of the optical disk or wind noise due to rotation of the optical disk can be reduced, but there was a problem that when a read error of the video and sound signal occurs, a rotational speed of the optical disk is low and so the number of retries of reading of the video and sound signal of a sector in which the read error of the video and sound signal occurs decreases and data of the buffer memory in which the video and sound signal reproduced is temporarily stored is lost and the video and sound signal cannot be outputted at a constant transfer rate and video and sound in reproduction discontinue.
As a related art, there was means constructed so that when a read error of a video and sound signal occurs in the case of reproducing information recorded on a record medium, by retries of reading of the video and sound signal, a rotational speed of the record medium is decelerated to perform reproduction and it is checked whether or not there is a mechanism for correcting the read error of the video and sound signal in a minimum unit block of information about the record medium and time for deciding whether or not the rotational speed of the record medium is returned is determined based on the check result and the rotational speed of the record medium is returned to the original rotational speed before the deceleration when subsequent information can be reproduced without further decelerating the rotational speed of the record medium by retries of the reading of the video and sound signal during the time determined (for example, see JP-A-2002-251818).

Disk reproducing apparatus and reproducing method thereof


The disclosure provides a method, an electronic apparatus, and a computer readable medium of constructing a classifier for disease detection. The method includes the following steps. A codebook of representative features is constructed based on a plurality of disease-irrelevant data. Transfer-learned disease features are extracted from disease-relevant bio-signals according to the codebook without any medical domain knowledge, where both the disease-irrelevant data and the disease-relevant bio-signals are time-series data. Supervised learning is performed based on the transfer-learned disease features to train the classifier for disease detection.

A bio-signal refers to any infoimative time-series signal in living beings and is usually continually measured in electrical voltage levels. Some well-known medical applications of bio-signals include Electrocardiogram (ECG), Electroencephalogram (EEG), Electromyogram (EMG), Electrooculography (EOG) and Photoplethysmogram (PPG). In clinical practice, cardiologists are able to make diagnoses in heart diseases using ECG. Some helpful features to discriminate the cardiac abnormalities include the presence, duration and the location of the PQRST waves.
FIG. 1A shows the ECG of a healthy normal heart. It is noted that three deflections, P-QRS-T complexes, follow in this order and are easily differentiable. The beat rhythm is paced between 60 and 100 per minute at rest. In contrast, atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most common heart diseases and is characterized by the irregular fluctuation in the ECG baseline. Although the ECG baseline fluctuation is rapid and irregular, the QRS complex is usually normal. FIG. 1B illustrates this disease. Atrial flutter (AFL) is another example of abnormal heart rhythm activities. This disease is often characterized by the disappearance of the interval between the end of T-wave and beginning of P-wave. The flutter wave frequency is between 220 and 300 beats per minute and the heart beat rate is usually over 100 per minute. FIG. 1C depicts this type of heart rhythm behavior.
In practice, electroencephalogram can provide support for and help the epilepsy diagnosis and underlying epilepsy syndrome classification. There are four main types of waves in EEG: alpha, beta, theta and delta. These four waves are shown in FIG. 2A. For a normal awake person, the EEG consists of mainly alpha and some beta activities. In epileptiform activity, sharp and spike waves are observed. FIG. 2B and FIG. 2C illustrate the EEG waves in normal condition and in epileptiform activity, respectively.
Specifying aforementioned abnormalities involves ingenious heuristics and domain expertise. Unfortunately, even an expert cannot comprehensively enumerate all fundamental features (or representation) of all abnormalities. Thus, the model-based approach, which attempts to encode all knowledge in a model, cannot work effectively. In contrast to the model-based approach, the data-driven approach learns fundamental features from a large volume of data. Unfortunately, developing a good bio-signal analyzer or disease-diagnosis classifier requires a substantial amount of labeled training data. It is both laborious and expensive to obtain many labeled medical examples of any given tasks in medical analysis. For instance, a typical labeled ECG dataset is in the order of hundreds, far from the desired volume of millions or even tens of millions. Under such constraint, even the data-driven approach may fail to learn succinct feature representations.

Method, electronic apparatus, and computer readable medium of constructing classifier for disease detection


According to the present invention, firstly, since the cleaning liquid is deposited onto the nozzle surface by the nozzle surface cleaning liquid deposition device, then it is possible to raise the dissolving effect, which is a chemical effect of dissolving adhering material which is adhering to the nozzle surface. Consequently, it is possible to remove the adhering material readily by subsequently wiping the nozzle surface with the wiping member, and hence the physical effects can also be improved. Furthermore, since the cleaning liquid is deposited so as to wet the wiping member, then it is possible to suppress the drawing out of liquid from the nozzles due to the absorbing characteristics of the wiping member, and therefore ejection defects due to solidification of drawn out liquid can be prevented. Consequently, it is possible to improve ejection stability of the droplet ejection head.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nozzle surface cleaning apparatus and an image recording apparatus, and more particularly, to a nozzle surface cleaning apparatus which wipes a nozzle surface by abutting and pressing a traveling wiping member against the nozzle surface, and to an image recording apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
With use, foreign matter of various types, such as ink residue, paper dust, or the like, adheres to the nozzle surface of an inkjet head which is used in an image recording apparatus, for example, an inkjet recording apparatus. If foreign matter adheres to the nozzle surface, ink droplets ejected from the nozzles are affected, variation occurs in the ejection direction of the ink droplets, it becomes difficult to deposit the ink droplets at the prescribed positions on the recording medium, and this becomes a cause of decline in the image quality. Therefore, in an inkjet recording apparatus, it is important to remove foreign matter periodically by means of a maintenance method, such as wiping, or the like.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-195908 describes controlling a wiping sheet which wipes a droplet ejection head, by a winding motor which forms a conveyance mechanism, and wiping the droplet ejection head with the wiping sheet after supplying cleaning liquid to the wiping sheet by a cleaning liquid ejection head. Furthermore, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-188707 describes a cleaning apparatus having a cleaning liquid supply device which supplies cleaning liquid by a non-contact method onto a nozzle surface of a droplet ejection head, and a wiping device which wipes a nozzle surface.
However, the cleaning apparatus which is described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-195908 has a short contact time between the cleaning liquid and the adhering material on the ejection surface of the droplet ejection head, and therefore has not been able to display sufficient cleaning effects by the cleaning liquid. Therefore, it has been necessary to use physical force to remove the adhering material, by applying a high pressure to the droplet ejection head or increasing the relative speed differential between the droplet ejection head and the wiping sheet. However, if excessive force is applied to the ejection surface of a droplet ejection head, then there is a problem in that decline in the properties of the lyophobic film formed on the ejection surface becomes greater.
Moreover, the method of depositing cleaning liquid onto the nozzle surface of the liquid ejection head described in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-188707 induces ink to be drawn out from the nozzles due to contact with the meniscus in the nozzles, when the nozzle surface is wiped with a wiping member. For instance, if a rubber blade made or silicone, or the like, is used for the wiping member, then drawing out of ink from the nozzles is observed when the relative speed differential becomes large. Moreover, if cloth having fine fibers is used as a wiping member in order to improve the wiping properties, then the drawing out of ink becomes greater due to the absorption characteristics of the wiping member. The ink which is drawn out dries and solidifies, and is pushed inside the nozzle orifices during the next wiping action, thus creating an adverse effect on the directionality of the ejection.

Nozzle surface cleaning apparatus and image recording apparatus


An exhaust gas system is provided for an internal combustion engine having at least a first and a second cylinder. A first exhaust gas pipe is associated with the first cylinder and a second exhaust gas pipe is associated with the second cylinder. A first muffler is associated with the first exhaust gas pipe and a second muffler is associated with the second exhaust gas pipe. A first muffling pipe branches off from the first exhaust gas pipe upstream of a first shut-off element, and is fed through the first muffler and leads into the second exhaust gas pipe downstream of a second shut-off element. A second muffling pipe branches off from the second exhaust gas pipe upstream of the second shut-off element, and is fed through the second muffler and leads into the first exhaust gas pipe downstream of the first shut-off element.

The invention relates to an exhaust gas system for an internal combustion engine and to methods for operating the exhaust gas system.
German laid-open specification DE 10 2009 032 213 A1, for example, discloses an exhaust gas system of an internal combustion engine, with a first exhaust tract assigned to a first group of cylinders of the internal combustion engine and with a second exhaust tract assigned to a second group of cylinders of the internal combustion engine. Each exhaust tract has a respective exhaust gas purification device and a first muffler arranged downstream of the respective exhaust gas purification device and also a second muffler arranged downstream of the respective first muffler, and an exhaust tailpipe arranged downstream of the respective second muffler.
A disadvantage of this known prior art is that the muffling resonator of the muffler is not variably adjustable.
Furthermore, the prior art has in general disclosed mufflers for exhaust gas systems which operate according to the absorption and/or reflection principle. The development of such a muffler generally means finding the best possible compromise between outlet noise (loudness downstream of the exhaust gas system tailpipe), exhaust gas backpressure and required muffler volume. In order to bypass such a compromise solution, mufflers are frequently designed with one or more movable closure elements or shut-off members, such as, for example, an exhaust gas flap, in order to permit different flow paths in the exhaust pipe of the muffler system. In the case of muffler systems for internal combustion engines, two, three or even four exhaust gas system tailpipes are frequently provided. In the muffler embodiments known from the prior art, the arrangement of the closure elements disadvantageously leads to exhaust gas no longer flowing through all of the exhaust gas system tailpipes or tailpipe branching elements, depending on the position of the closure element.
However, this prior art has the following disadvantages:
1) Customer irritation since exhaust gas does not emerge from all of the exhaust gas system tailpipes (visible at a lower outside temperature and by way of the different degree of soiling of the visible tailpipes);
2) High exhaust gas backpressure by means of a bottleneck in the exhaust gas system tailpipe;
3) Flow noises because of a bottleneck in the exhaust gas system tailpipe;
4) Thermal stress between cold and hot exhaust gas system tailpipe (risk of cracking);
5) Complicated routing of the muffling pipes in the muffler system;
6) High weight of the muffler system;
7) High production costs of the muffler system;
8) Flaps customarily can be switched separately or offset in time only to a limited extent; this results in a significant rise in exhaust gas backpressure in an exhaust tract.
It is the object of the present invention to avoid the abovementioned disadvantages and at the same time to introduce variability in the muffling properties of the muffler system.
This and other objects are achieved by providing an exhaust gas system, and method of operating same, for an internal combustion engine having at least one first and one second cylinder, wherein the first cylinder is assigned a first exhaust pipe and the second cylinder is assigned a second exhaust pipe, and wherein the first exhaust pipe is assigned a first muffler and the second exhaust pipe is assigned a second muffler. A first muffling pipe branches off from the first exhaust pipe upstream of a first shut-off member. The muffling pipe is guided through the first muffler and leads into the second exhaust pipe downstream of a second shut-off member. A second muffling pipe branches off from the second exhaust pipe upstream of the second shut-off member. The muffling pipe is guided through the second muffler and leads into the first exhaust pipe downstream of the first shut-off member.
All of the abovementioned problems are avoided by the configuration according to the invention of the exhaust gas system. The exhaust gas system has an advantageous construction with regard to the exhaust gas backpressure. By way of the construction according to the invention, one or both shut-off members can be closed, even simultaneously, without a substantial increase in the exhaust gas backpressure. In comparison to conventional exhaust gas systems, when shut-off members, such as, for example, exhaust gas flaps, are open, throttling (raising of the exhaust gas backpressure) is minimal or scarcely measurable since the entire volume of the exhaust pipe and muffling pipe as far as the end of the exhaust gas system is used. By way of a somewhat changed construction, the shut-off members can also be switched in a temporarily offset manner in order to improve a subjective audible impression during the switching phase. By way of the offset switching over of the two shut-off members, conspicuous acoustic jumps in level can be reduced in an advantageous manner.
With regard to power and dynamics (response behavior of the internal combustion engine), the exhaust gas backpressure, which is very low because of the configuration according to the invention, of the exhaust gas system has a highly positive effect. For slight acoustic adaptations, the volumes of the first muffler and of the second muffler can also be changed retrospectively. In addition, one or more possibly required resonators can be integrated in a simple manner into the exhaust gas system without a great outlay and while maintaining the symmetry.
Furthermore, the muffler can be constructed in a highly favorable manner by way of the symmetrical construction of the exhaust gas system.
A multiplicity of components of the exhaust gas system can be manufactured or used as favorable identical parts.
The muffler housing can be realized, for example, as a cost-effective wound muffler or in a shell construction. In the event of a realization as a wound muffler, the two side parts can be designed as identical parts. In the shell construction, the upper shell and the lower shell can each be designed as an identical part.
The exhaust pipes (FIG. 1, region a) can be produced and installed as identical components.
The Y branching elements from the exhaust pipes to the muffling pipes (FIG. 1, region b as far as/after the shut-off member) can be realized, for example, as a part molded by hydroforming. The latter can therefore be used as an identical part upstream and downstream of the shut-off member and on both sides of the mufflers.
The tailpipe branching elements are likewise to be as per the pipe branching (FIG. 1, region c). The tailpipe branching elements can likewise be designed as an identical part for both sides.
The muffling pipes with perforations and which are guided through the muffler (FIG. 1, region d) can likewise be realized as identical parts.
Should a resonator be required, the required partitions for both sides can likewise be realized as an identical part.
For the production, it is also possible to save on assembly tools because of the identical parts for the exhaust gas system. Depending on how the production of a manufacturer or supplier is realized, the identical assembly apparatus can be used for the preassembly of the Y branching elements and the shut-off members for both sides of the exhaust gas system.
All of the abovementined points lead to a significant reduction in the tool and production costs for the exhaust gas system according to the invention.
In addition, a possibly desirable lightweight construction can be realized significantly more simply by use of the large portion of identical parts and the reduction in variants of individual parts.
In a further development, the first and second mufflers may be arranged in a common housing. Further, the first muffling pipe may be assigned a first resonator chamber and the second muffling pipe may be assigned a second resonator chamber. Moreover, the first and second resonator chambers may be integrated into the common housing.
With the method for operating an exhaust gas system for an internal combustion engine according to the invention, minimum muffling is achieved by opening the first and second shut-off members.
With the method for operating an exhaust gas system for an internal combustion engine according to the invention, medium muffling is achieved by opening the first shut-off member and closing the second shut-off member.
With the method for operating an exhaust gas system for an internal combustion engine according to the invention, maximum muffling is achieved by closing the first and second shut-off members.
An exhaust gas system according to the invention and three methods for operating the exhaust gas system according to the invention are explained in more detail below in four figures.
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.

Exhaust gas system for an internal combustion engine and method for operating the exhaust gas system

Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft


Material engineered with outer flat and inner cushioned layers for fabricating shipping and gift boxes of various sizes to handle items of diverse dimensions. Thin, strong sheet that will remember a right angle bend after scoring or hand-flexing, molded or bonded to inner surface grid of right-angle, equal-sized pyramid shapes covering the entire surface that will serve to cushion fragile items placed inside a variable sized box made from the subject material. The material will be available in different size sheets and pyramid sizes, depending the dimensions and weight of the items to be boxed. The right angle pyramids will allow easy scoring and bending of the material, and each right angle formed for the box under construction will have one right angle pyramid abut another, forming a larger right angle pyramid that along with the bend in the material sheet will afford great rigidity to the finished box.

A vast multitude of items have been sold via eBay auctions on a daily basis. Everything from toy soldiers, to chairs to Star Wars cookie jars to Barbie dolls to music boxes. These items tend to differ greatly in size and weight, and necessitate a panicked search on many occasions for not only a cardboard box of suitable size, but also packing/cushioning materials (bubble wrap, foam noodles, cardboard, shredded paper, etc.) that would safeguard box contents.
FIG. 1 shows a prior art cardboard box along with many of the available cushioning materials—frequently more costly than the cardboard box itself—that are utilized to pad a boxed object.
A vast segment of the shipping industry utilizes cardboard boxes, and the new material described herein is not meant to replace all of them. Whenever a manufacturer of DVD players, for example, needs to ship 50,000 identical units, it is known beforehand what the dimensions will be for a suitable shipping box, and there is economy in ordering huge numbers of boxes of identical size. It should be noted that in the industry segment that ships electronic components, that the custom foam or other internal structures frequently rival the cost of the box itself.
Alternatively, the unique material shown in the illustrative embodiment provide a viable alternative due to economy of scale that can be employed in its manufacture: It can be molded in one piece (bonding 2 pieces would be a viable alternative), in contrast to the larger number of packaging components found in the referenced example of a DVD player shipping box, which at a minimum would consist of the box and custom foam forms. Other components—even toys—commonly use not only foam but additional cardboard inner boxes and braces.
The illustrative embodiments described herein permit packaging, protecting, and quickly shipping dozens of variably sized items to various customers that were winners of my eBay auctions. The illustrative embodiments allow creation of self-cushioned, variable sized boxes that are believed to be an improvement for not only my own shipping needs, but for many other people's preparation of packages for gifts and various other items. FIG. 2 illustrates some of the diverse items that have been laboriously packaged and shipped as part of eBay auction activities.
The illustrative embodiments offer a dramatic improvement in the way internet merchants and many other purveyors of variable size and weight items can conveniently package and simultaneously protect even fragile items, and also may indeed offer a viable alternative to industries that ship many identical items.
The illustrative embodiments described herein may comprise a material with outer flat and inner cushioned layers for fabricating shipping and gift boxes of various sizes, to handle items of diverse dimensions and weights. The material may be of variable density foam or a bonded material that, for example, includes: A flat outer surface—thin, strong sheet that will remember a right angle bend after scoring or hand-flexing; and molded or bonded to the sheet's inner surface, a grid of right-angle pyramid shapes that will consist of plastic closed cell, other foam or alternative material soft enough to cushion fragile items placed inside a variable sized box made from the subject material. The base of each pyramidal form may be the same dimensions for a given piece or run of the material, but the material may be available in different size sheets and pyramid sizes, depending the dimensions and weight of the items to be boxed. Because in this implementation all of the pyramidal shapes are right angle pyramids at their peaks, the larger their base dimensions, the taller the pyramid. Hence, thicker cushioning will be provided for larger, heavier, or more fragile items by pyramids with larger bases. The right angle pyramids will allow easy scoring and bending of the material, and each right angle formed for the box under construction will have one right angle pyramid abut another, forming a larger right angle pyramid that along with the bend in the material sheet will afford great rigidity to the finished box. Excess material will be easily scored and trimmed away for future use or utilized as additional box padding, especially if multiple items are packed in one box. Transparent, strong tapes either provided with a "kit" including the subject material sheet, or a generally available packaging tape, will be used to seal the outer, flat box surfaces in the same way that a conventional cardboard box is sealed.

Packaging/construction material to make variable sized structures with intrinsic cushioning


A jewelry closure device includes an outer element and a central element which are adapted to be assembled to form a pendant-like structure. The outer element includes a frame portion having a central aperture of noncircular configuration therein and the central element includes a body portion and a peripheral rim portion on the body portion. The body portion is of substantially the same dimension and configuration as the aperture in the frame portion and the body and rim portions are receivable through the aperture in the frame portion from the rear side thereof in order to position the body portion in a substantially aligned assembled position in the aperture wherein the rim portion engages the frame portion to prevent rearward movement of the body and rim portions through the aperture.

The instant invention relates to ornamental jewelry and more particularly to a closure device which is adapted for use as a jewelry pendant.
While a wide variety of different types of closure devices have been heretofore available for use in connection with various jewelry items, such as necklaces, bracelets, and other chain-like jewelry items, most of the previously known closure devices have included clasp or hook type elements which have not been readily adapted for ornamental constructions. As a result, most of the heretofore available jewelry closure devices have been made in miniaturized constructions so that they are as inconspicuous as possible during use.
The instant invention provides an effective closure device which is adapted to be assembled to form a jewelry pendant and which can be effectively embodied in a wide variety of attractive ornamental configurations. Specifically, the closure device of the instant invention comprises an outer element which includes a frame portion having a central aperture of noncircular configuration therein and a central element which is adapted to be received in assembled relation with the outer element so that it cooperates therewith to define a pendant. The central element includes a body portion having a dimension and a configuration which are substantially the same as the dimension and configuration of the aperture in the outer element and a rim portion which projects outwardly from the peripheral edge of the body portion adjacent the front side thereof. The aperture in the frame portion and the body portion of the central element are dimensioned and configured so that the central element can be passed forwardly through the aperture in the frame portion from the rear side thereof and so that the central element can then be assembled in an aligned position in the aperture with the rim portion of the central element engaging the front side of the frame portion to prevent the central element from passing rearwardly through the aperture. The rim portion preferably extends substantially entirely around the perimeter of the body portion. Further, the frame portion preferably has an outwardly extending slot formed in the rear side thereof and the central element preferably includes a leg portion which is receivable in the slot in the frame portion in order to further retain the central element in assembled relation with the outer element. Still further, the central element preferably includes an engagement member on the leg portion thereof which is engageable with the peripheral edge of the frame portion to further retain the central element in assembled relation with the main element.
It has been found that the closure device of the instant invention can be effectively embodied in a wide variety of attractive configurations to provide an ornamental pendant. In this regard, the central element is receivable in the frame portion of the outer element so that the front side of the frame portion and the front side of the central element cooperate to define an outwardly facing front face on the pendant. Further, when the central element is assembled with the outer element in this manner, the central element and the outer element have the appearance of a single one-piece jewelry pendant which is not adapted to be disassembled. Still further, when the central element is constructed so that it includes a leg on the rear side thereof which is receivable in a slot in the rear side of the frame portion and so that it further includes an engagement member which is engagable with the peripheral edge of the frame portion, the central element is adapted to be effectively and positively retained in assembled relation so that it is highly resistant to being inadvertently disassembled. Still further, because the closure device of the instant invention is adapted to be embodied as a jewelry pendant, the outer element and the central element can be assembled on opposite ends of a chain-like jewelry item and a further clasp or closure device for the jewelry item is unnecessary.
Devices representing the closest prior art to the subject invention of which the applicant is aware are disclosed in the Bangs, U.S. Pat. No. 2,233,071 and Winkler, U.S. Pat. No. 2,346,887. However, while these references are broadly suggestive of the concept of forming a jewelry closure device from first and second elements which are receivable in interfitting engagement without the use of latch or hook type elements, they fail to suggest a closure device which is adapted to be readily and easily assembled and disassembled in the manner of the closure device of the subject invention. They also clearly fail to suggest a closure device which includes a central element having a peripheral rim portion which is engagable with the front side of a frame portion in the manner of the closure device of the instant invention and as a result, the above references are believed to be of only general interest with respect to the subject invention.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the instant invention to provide an effective jewelry closure device which is adapted to be assembled to form a jewelry pendant.
Another object of the instant invention is to provide a jewelry closure device including outer and central elements which are adapted to be quickly and easily assembled to form a pendant.
An even further object of the instant invention is to provide a jewelry closure device which includes an outer element including a frame portion having an aperture therein and a central element which is receivable in assembled relation in the aperture.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention shall become apparent as the description thereof proceeds when considered in connection with the accompanying illustrative drawings.


The invention relates to memory processing in a microprocessor. The microprocessor comprises a memory indicated by means of alignment boundaries for storing data, at least one register for storing data used during calculation, memory addressing means for indicating the memory by means of the alignment boundaries and for transferring data between the memory and the register, and a hardware shift register, which can be shifted with the accuracy of one bit, and which comprises a data loading zone and a guard zone. The memory addressing means transfer data including a memory addressing which cannot be fitted into the alignment boundary between the memory and the register through the data loading zone in the hardware shift register, and the hardware shift register is arranged to process data using shifts and utilizing the guard zone.

The invention relates to memory processing in a microprocessor.
A microprocessor comprises an external and/or internal memory indicated by means of alignment boundaries for storing data. An arithmetic-logic unit (ALU) carrying out calculations in the microprocessor employs registers to temporarily store the data to be processed in the calculations. Data is transferred according to need between the memory and the register. Alignment problems are associated with memory processing. An alignment problem means that it is more difficult to process a memory addressing, which cannot be fitted within the alignment boundaries, in the memory addressing sense than such data that accurately starts from one alignment boundary and ends at another alignment boundary. Processing the data that cannot be fitted into the alignment boundaries can be referred to as unaligned data access. Current microprocessors generally employ either byte addresses (8 bits) or word addresses (16 bits) for addressing the memory, but larger alignment boundaries also exist, such as 32 bits. An alignment boundary determines from which part of the memory data can be read and how data is stored in the memory.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,061,779 discloses a solution in which a separate data alignment buffer is used for unaligned data access. The solution is not very flexible as it employs a multiplexer, to which alternatives for reading data from various parts in the memory are fixedly determined.
In FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C commands in a microprocessor instruction set are used to describe prior art methods for processing memory in a microprocessor. The contents of the registers in each cycle are described using comments, which are separated from the actual commands with a semicolon. The contents of the memory employed are described below in more detail in a memory 100 shown in FIG. 1, the 64-bit contents at the beginning thereof is indicated as a hexadecimal figure xe2x80x9c10 08 08 07 07 05 05 10xe2x80x9d. Section xe2x80x9c08 08 07 07xe2x80x9d is to be retrieved from the memory.
In FIG. 2A a general purpose processor that is capable of addressing memory by 32-bit alignment boundaries, carries out a memory search using five processor cycles in such a manner that 32 bits are at first loaded from a memory address ADDRESS indicating the beginning of the 64-bit contents to register R0. Then register R0 is shifted eight bits to the left. After this 32 bits are loaded from a memory address ADDRESS+1, or from the middle of the 64-bit contents, to register R1. Next, register R1 is shifted 24 bits to the right. Finally a logical OR operation is carried out between registers R0 and R1, and the result thereof is placed into register R0. The solution thus requires the use of two registers, two memory searches, two register shifts and one logical OR operation.
In FIG. 2B the Texas Instruments(copyright) TMS320C55x processor is employed that addresses the memory in 16-bit mode. The memory search can generally be carried out using three cycles in such a manner that a 40-bit accumulator AC0 is at first loaded with the first 16 bits from the 64-bit contents and the contents of the accumulator are shifted 24 bits to the left. Then the following 16 bits from the 64-bit contents are loaded into the accumulator and shifted 8 bits to the left. Finally the accumulator is loaded with the following 16 bits from the 64-bit contents, which are shifted 8 bits to the right. The solution thus requires three memory searches and three shifts.
In FIG. 2C the Texas Instruments(copyright)TMS320C64x processor that is able to address memory in 8-bit mode can be used to carry out the memory search in a single cycle. Using a particular command LDNW (Load Non-Aligned Word) the second, third, fourth and fifth byte of the 64-bit contents are read into register A0. The solution is efficient as regards the use of cycles but it requires an 8-bit memory addressing. The search of unaligned data still remains a problem if said data cannot be fitted into the 8-bit alignment boundary.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved microprocessor. According to an aspect of the present invention there is provided a microprocessor comprising a memory indicated by means of alignment boundaries for storing data, at least one register for storing data used during calculation, memory addressing means for indicating the memory by means of the alignment boundaries and for transferring data between the memory and the register, and a hardware shift register, which can be shifted with the accuracy of one bit, and which comprises a data loading zone and a guard zone, and the memory addressing means transfer data including a memory addressing which cannot be fitted into the alignment boundary between the memory and the register through the data loading zone in the hardware shift register, and the hardware shift register is arranged to process data using shifts and utilizing the guard zone.
The invention is based on the idea that a hardware shift register, which can be shifted with the accuracy of one bit, can be used to solve the problem associated with the search of unaligned data. A hardware shift register comprises both a data loading zone and a guard zone. The solution is adaptable and allows to efficiently process memory.


A reagent feeder which can to be used in both a finger-push system and a slide system by only attaching and detaching a simple auxiliary component to and from a case body depending on the state of operation or a preference of the operator. The feeder includes a case body, a sphere discharge port and a discharge device, so as to discharge a sphere one by one by pushing down the discharge device. The discharge device is provided with an operation lever which extends out of the case body and can be pushed down by a finger. A slide cover surrounding an outer periphery of the case body is attached to the case body in such a way that it can be moved freely in a vertical direction and can be detached from the case body. The slide cover is engaged with the operation lever of the discharge device so that it can be moved integrally with the discharge device.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a reagent feeder for charging a fixed quantity of reagent into a specimen such as blood or urine collected in a test tube etc., and particularly to a reagent feeder appropriate for charging a fixed quantity of reagent into a number of specimens in order respectively.
2. Discussion of Prior Art
In the case when reagents are charged into a number of specimens of fixed quantity and inspected respectively, it is required that the quantity of reagent in each test tube must be uniform in order to get exact inspection results. It is extremely difficult to supply a very small and fixed quantity of reagent in every test tube by using a pipet etc., so that exact inspection results can not be expected.
In order to cope with the above-mentioned requirement, there have been developed various reagent feeders accomplishing the exact feeding of a fixed quantity of reagent, in which the fixed quantity of reagent is forced to adhere to a sphere made of synthetic resin etc. having a definite standard. Many of the spheres are housed in a case, so that the sphere is charged in each specimen one by one. For example, there are disclosed Published Patent Application (KOKAI) No 62-24147 and Japanese Examined Utility Model Application (KOKOKU) No. 61-6446 etc.
Operation is simple in the finger-push system disclosed in the first noted prior art. In the case of a great number of specimens, however, the operator's fingers become extremely fatigued so that continuous operation becomes impossible, because the operation load is concentrated on his fingers. In the case-slide system disclosed in the later noted prior art, the operator's fingers will be less fatigued and the system is apt to be well-adapted to operation of the great many number of specimens because the entire case is gripped by his hand. However, since the lower end discharge port is pushed upon a port of a test tube etc., the operation will sometimes become difficult when the test tube etc. is installed in an unstable position.
Which system is excellent can not be decided unconditionally as described above, because the suitability of each discharge system differs depending on the number of specimens or the state of the test tube etc. in which the specimen is put, or a preference of operator. Therefore, it is preferable to prepare all of the above reagent feeders and select a most suited reagent feeder from them as occasion demands. However, this way is uneconomical because of the great waste in cost and control.
An object of the invention is to provide a reagent feeder which can be used as both a finger-push system and a slide system by only attaching and detaching a simple auxiliary component to and from a case body depending on a state of operation or an operator preference.


One or more optical fibers (20, 20A, 20B, 20C, 20D), each with a second end (21) with a phosphor (26) disposed in a substrate (32) at a given depth (Dn) below a wear surface (34). A first photonic energy (52) is injected into a first end (19) of the optical fibers. The phosphor (26) emits a second photonic energy (54) into the fiber in response to the first photonic energy (52) incident on the phosphor from the fiber. When wear removes the phosphor (26) from one or more fibers, a detector (48, 49) detects a proportional reduction of the second photonic energy, indicating that wear has reached the given depth. A band-pass optical filter (46) may block wavelengths of the first photonic energy (52) from reflecting into the detector. The substrate temperature may be determined using a temperature-dependent emission of the phosphor.

Surface-reducing wear occurs in machines by frictional contact of adjacent parts and by other forms of erosion. For example, turbine engines have bearings, shroud liners, combustor liner spring clips, and other areas where reduction wear occurs. Detecting such wear can be critical to safe operation of the machine.
Sensors have been designed to detect wear without disassembly of components. For example, electrical conductors may be embedded in a wear surface. A detector connected to these conductors senses an open circuit caused by wear through a conductor, and determines a wear depth. An example is U.S. Pat. No. 7,270,890.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,884,434 describes loops of optical fibers embedded in a wear surface. Each loop forms an optical circuit with a light source at one end and a detector at the other end. Reduction wear breaks one or more loops in succession, which is detected by respective losses of signal. This design requires enough sensor area for the embedded fibers to form loops, and requires both a source leg and a detector leg of each fiber loop to pass through the sensor block to the source and detector.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,440,395 describes a conical depression in the backside of a shroud liner on the inner surface of a turbine casing. As the shroud is abraded by the rotating turbine blades, the conical depression forms a progressively larger hole in the liner. Light is reflected backward off the conical depression into a detector. Reduction in the reflected light is interpreted via a formula as respective wear depth. However, this device requires a hole in the shroud liner. Entry of combustion gas and particles must be blocked by purge air, which is not needed in the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,111,643 describes an optical fiber in a wear surface. Light injected into the fiber reflects off the opposed abrading surface and returns through the same fiber. The fiber tip wears along with the wear surface, and the light circuit length is reduced. This length is measured by interferometry to determine a wear depth. The present invention does not analyze reflection from the abrading surface, which requires signal analysis that deals with variable reflectivity, and the present invention does not require interferometry, thus eliminating elements such as reference beam optics.

Fiber optic sensor system for detecting surface wear


A semiconductor device including a PLD which can increase the execution speed of an application with low power consumption is provided. The semiconductor device includes a programmable logic device and a processor which is not dynamically reconfigured. A memory element of the programmable logic device stores a plurality of pieces of configuration data determined to have high frequency of use by a memory module among configuration data corresponding to a thread. The memory element includes a storage element and a switch in each of a plurality of memory cells. The switch is used for supplying charge whose amount is determined by the plurality of pieces of stored configuration data to the storage element, retaining the charge in the storage element, and discharging the charge from the storage element.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device including a programmable logic device which can change a configuration of hardware.
2. Description of the Related Art
Smaller and lighter mobile information terminals such as PDAs and smartphones are highly required by users; thus, the scale of hardware that can be built in the limited space in a housing is limited. However, the mobile information terminals are required to have a number of functions, for example, functions of playing moving images, supporting online games, recognizing voice, and capturing images using a miniature camera, so that a plurality of application programs (hereinafter, referred to as applications) needs to be executed using the hardware. The larger the number of applications to be executed is and the smaller the scale of the hardware is, the smaller the storage area which can be secured in a buffer storage device is. This causes the data transfer speed to be a bottleneck; thus, it becomes difficult to reduce the time required to execute a thread and execute an application.
In view of the above, a technique in which a programmable logic device (PLD) is used as part of hardware and some of a plurality of threads executed in an application are executed by hardware in the PLD has been devised as one solution. In a PLD, functions of logic elements (basic blocks) with adequate scale and a connection structure between the logic elements can be changed after manufacture to configure a desired logic circuit. With such a technique, the number of threads executed in an application can be reduced and the execution speed of an application can be increased even when the scale of hardware is limited.
Patent Document 1 below discloses an information processing system in which processing time is reduced in such a manner that a plurality of hardware modules performing the same processing is stored in a storage unit and a hardware module that fits a region where a programmable logic circuit can be configured is preferentially used when data is partly rewritten.

Semiconductor Energy Laboratory Co., Ltd.


Disclosed herein is an improved method for making and obtaining para-xylene from a mixture of xylene isomers, and various embodiments of the method. The method generally includes contacting a mixture comprising xylene isomers and ethylbenzene with a para-xylene selective adsorbent to obtain a para-xylene depleted raffinate, and a desorption effluent comprising a para-xylene enriched product. The method also includes isomerizing the para-xylene depleted raffinate. The contacting step is carried out in a manner such that the raffinate need not be pressurized prior to isomerization, thus advantageously obviating expensive compression steps.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a method of obtaining para-xylene from a feed of C8 aromatics comprising xylene isomers.
2. Brief Description of Related Technology
Hydrocarbon mixtures containing C8+ aromatics are by-products of certain oil refinery processes including, but not limited to, catalytic reforming processes. These hydrocarbon mixtures typically contain up to about 30 weight percent (wt. %) C9+ aromatics, up to about 10 wt. % non-aromatics, up to about 50 wt. % ethylbenzene, the balance (e.g., up to about 100 wt. %) being a mixture of xylene isomers. Most commonly present among the C8 aromatics are ethylbenzene ("EB"), and xylene isomers, including meta-xylene ("mX"), ortho-xylene ("oX"), and para-xylene ("pX"). Typically, when present among the C8 aromatics, ethylbenzene is present in a concentration of up to about 20 wt. % based on the total weight of the C8 aromatics. The three xylene isomers typically comprise the remainder of the C8 aromatics, and are present at an equilibrium weight ratio of about 1:2:1 (oX:mX:pX). Thus, as used herein, the term "equilibrated mixture of xylene isomers" refers to a mixture containing the isomers in the weight ratio of about 1:2:1 (oX:mX:pX).
Ethylbenzene is useful in making styrene. Meta-xylene is useful in making isophthalic acid, which itself is useful to make specialty polyester fibers, paints, and resins. Ortho-xylene is useful in making phthalic anhydride, which itself is useful to make phthalate-based plasticizers. While meta-xylene and ortho-xylene are useful raw materials, demands for these isomers and materials made therefrom are not as great as the demand for para-xylene and the materials made from para-xylene. Para-xylene is a raw material useful in making terephthalic acids and esters, which are used to make polymers, such as poly(butene terephthalate), poly(ethylene terephthalate), and poly(propylene terephthalate).
Because of their usefulness, efficient separation of ethylbenzene and the various xylene isomers from each other is of particular and continuing interest. Depending upon the concentrations in which each is present in a C8 aromatics mixture, and depending upon the demand of a particular isomer over the others or ethylbenzene or a material made therefrom, separation alone may not be sufficient to obtain adequate quantities of any particular isomer. For example, because there is generally a higher demand for para-xylene compared to its other isomers or ethylbenzene, it is usually more desirable to increase or even maximize para-xylene production from a particular C8 aromatics mixture. Thus, separation of para-xylene oftentimes is coupled with isomerization of meta- and ortho-xylene isomers to the desired para-xylene and, optionally, conversion of the ethylbenzene.
The separation step of para-xylene production processes generally falls into two categories, one of which is crystallization and the other of which is liquid-phase adsorption chromatography. Crystallization was initially developed by Amoco Corporation with subsequent improvements and modifications by Institut Francais du Petrole ("IFP"), Mobil Corporation ("Mobil"), UOP Inc. ("UOP"), and others. As described in more detail below, crystallization has its limits and can be very expensive since crystallization of the various xylene isomers occurs at very low temperatures (e.g., about −70° C. to 0° C.), typically requiring multi-stage refrigeration systems with large gas compressors. Liquid-phase adsorption chromatography, also referred to as simulated moving bed adsorption chromatography ("SiMBAC"), was commercially developed by IFP and UOP. SiMBAC also has its limits and is expensive to operate because it requires a large-volume internal recycle of various hydrocarbon desorbent materials. Additionally, the effluent streams from the adsorption step must be separated from the desirable products in downstream distillation steps. Thus, the foregoing conventional crystallization and liquid-phase adsorption chromatography processes are disadvantageous because of significant capital and energy costs associated with each.
One method of producing para-xylene from a C8+ hydrocarbon mixture includes passing the mixture through a separation column to remove heavies, such as C9+ hydrocarbons. A lighter, overhead stream from the column, predominantly containing a C8 hydrocarbon mixture comprising the xylene isomers and ethylbenzene, can be resolved in a separation unit. Because ethylbenzene, meta-, ortho-, and para-xylenes have identical molecular weights and have similar boiling points (of about 136° C., about 139° C., about 138° C., and about 144° C., respectively), separation by way of fractional distillation is impractical. An alternative to fractional distillation includes low-temperature crystallization, which exploits the differences in freezing or crystallization temperatures of the various components—para-xylene crystallizes (at about 13.3° C.) before the other xylene isomers (ortho-xylene and meta-xylene crystallize at about −25.2° C. and about −47.9° C., respectively). In the physical system of the three xylene isomers, there are two binary eutectics of importance: the para-xylene/meta-xylene binary eutectic and the para-xylene/ortho-xylene binary eutectic. As para-xylene crystallizes from the mixture, the remaining mixture approaches one of these binary eutectics, depending upon the starting composition of the mixture. Therefore, in commercial-scale processes, para-xylene is crystallized such that the binary eutectics are approached—but not reached—to avoid co-crystallization of the other xylene isomers, which would lower the purity of the obtained para-xylene. Because of these binary eutectics, the amount of para-xylene recoverable per pass through a crystallization process typically is no greater than about 65% of the amount of para-xylene present in the stream fed to the crystallization unit.
Alternatively, certain components of the C8 hydrocarbon mixture may be separated from the mixture prior to any crystallization such as, for example, by liquid phase adsorption (e.g., UOP's PAREX™ process and IFP's ELUXYL™ process) utilizing a faujasite (zeolite) to chromatographically separate para-xylene from C8 mixtures containing para-xylene. The para-xylene lean stream exiting the separation unit typically is pressurized and reacted in the presence of a catalyst to obtain an equilibrated mixture of xylene isomers, which is then recycled to the liquid adsorber. By separating para-xylene from the C8 hydrocarbon mixture prior to crystallization, para-xylene recovery in the crystallization unit can be increased from no greater than about 65% to about 85%, overcoming some of the problems posed by the binary eutectics. See generally Swift (UOP) U.S. Pat. No. 5,329,060.
Another method of producing para-xylene from a C8 hydrocarbon mixture includes passing the mixture, in a gaseous phase, through an adsorption bed containing an adsorbent that is selective for adsorbing para-xylene and ethylbenzene to obtain, after suitable desorption, separate streams, one of which contains predominantly meta- and ortho-xylenes and the other of which contains para-xylene, ethylbenzene, and desorbed feed present in void spaces of the adsorbent. The adsorption is carried out at a temperature between 140° C. and 370° C., a pressure between atmospheric pressure and 300 kilopascals (absolute) (kPa) (about 65 pounds per square inch absolute (psia)), and with the aid of Mobil-5 (MFI) type zeolite molecular sieves, including ZSM-5 (Zeolite Socony Mobil zeolite molecular sieves are commercially available from ExxonMobil Chemicals), ferrierite, and silicalite-1 zeolite molecular sieves, including binder free silicalite-1 zeolite molecular sieves. The desorption of the para-xylene and ethylbenzene can be carried out with a gaseous desorbent containing water at a temperature within the same range of the adsorption, and at a pressure between atmospheric and 1000 kPa (about 145 psia). Alternatively, the desorption can be carried out without a desorbent, by mere depressurization at a pressure between 1 kPa and 4 kPa (about 0.15 psia to about 0.58 psia). In such a method, a substantial amount of feed remains in the voids of the adsorbent, which eventually is removed during the desorption step, but disadvantageously contaminates the desorbed stream containing para-xylene and ethylbenzene. See generally Long et al. (China Petrochemical Company and Fudan University) Chinese Patent Publication No. 1,136,549 A. Others have used ZSM-8 and ZSM-5 (each optionally reacted with silanes) to separate aromatics like xylene isomers and ethylbenzene such as disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,699,182, 3,729,523, and 4,705, 909, and British Patent No. 1,420,796.
The foregoing crystallization and SiMBAC steps can be made more attractive if the feedstocks to those steps were re-formulated to contain a higher-than-equilibrium concentration of para-xylene. Such a re-formulation can be carried out by selective toluene disproportionation as described in, for example, International (PCT) Publication Nos. WO 00/69796 and WO 93/17987. Both crystallization and SiMBAC steps also can be designed and operated by those skilled in the art to concentrate para-xylene streams for subsequent purification steps. However, even these steps suffer from many (or all) of the disadvantages discussed above. Another method to produce feedstocks with higher-than-equilibrium para-xylene concentration is by pressure swing adsorption ("PSA") processes. Such processes have been widely practiced for separation of gases such as air into nitrogen and oxygen, water removal from air, and hydrogen purification, and are generally described in Ralph T. Yang, "Gas Separation by Adsorption Processes," pp. 237-274 (Butterworth Publishers, Boston, 1987) (TP242.Y36).
Fewer applications of PSA have been realized for hydrocarbon purifications, particularly purification of hydrocarbons that are liquid under ambient conditions, however. One notable exception is the ISOSIV™ process, developed by the Union Carbide Corporation, which is useful for the separation of straight-chain or normal paraffinic hydrocarbons from branched or iso-paraffinic hydrocarbons. The ISOSIV™ process operates at substantially constant adsorption pressure (i.e., constant total pressure in the adsorption unit during the adsorption step) and uses an inert gas (e.g., hydrogen) to purge, sweep, or otherwise achieve desorption of the adsorbed hydrocarbons from the adsorbent. See U.S. Pat. No. 3,700,589. Over time, the ISOSIV™ process was improved by adding additional adsorption units in the adsorption step, thus permitting recycle of feed to improve the overall purity and recovery of the desired iso-paraffin. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,176,053. The use of multiple adsorption units during the adsorption step, however, has its limits as diminishing returns are realized when too many units are used. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,476,345 and 4,595,490 (disclosing the benefits of fewer units and staggered adsorption/desorption cycles). The ISOSIV™ process can be made more attractive if the paraffin mixture fed to the adsorption unit has a higher-than-equilibrium concentration of n-paraffins. Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 4,210,771 discloses an isomerization unit upstream of the adsorption unit to convert iso-paraffins to n-paraffins. In the ISOSIV™ processes utilizing a downstream isomerization reactor (downstream relative to the adsorption unit), it is the adsorbed material that is desorbed and ultimately isomerized—the raffinate from the adsorber bed is not isomerized. Other improvements have been made to the ISOSIV™ process in general. See e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,372,022 and 4,709,117. Notably, however, no provisions are made in the ISOSIV™ process to separate hydrocarbons other than paraffins.
Clearly ISOSIV™ process effluent streams require capital- and energy-intensive downstream equipment and processing. Moreover, application of the ISOSIV™ process and the associated teachings to the production of para-xylene would present its own problems not adequately addressed in the art. For example, the para-xylene-lean effluent will require expensive pressurization (or re-pressurization) as it is fed to a downstream isomerization unit. As noted above, separation of xylene isomers oftentimes is coupled with isomerization of meta- and ortho-xylenes to the desired para-xylene. Such isomerization is carried out in a high pressure reactor. Even with an understanding of the ISOSIV™ process and an attempted application of the process to produce para-xylene, there is no guidance as to how to introduce the para-xylene depleted raffinate to the isomerization reactor without an expensive pressurization (or repressurization) step between the adsorption unit and the isomerization reactor.
Deckman et al. (Exxon Chemical Company) U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2002/0065444 A1, for example, discloses a method of making para-xylene from mixed xylenes specifying a PSA or temperature-swing adsorption ("TSA") unit and at least one isomerization reactor. The Deckman publication teaches an isomerization reactor immediately upstream of the PSA unit and no compression step between the reactor and the PSA unit. See FIGS. 1 and 2 of the Deckman publication. Such a teaching implies to one skilled in the art that the reactor operates and reactor effluents exit the reactor at a pressure exceeding the inlet pressure of the PSA unit. The raffinate exits the PSA unit at a high temperature, but reduced pressure (due to depressurization to accomplish desorption), requiring a compressor (or blower) to pressurize the stream before it is recycled to the isomerization reactor. Though not expressly described in the Deckman publication, the raffinate exits the PSA at temperatures too high to make compression practical in a compressor. Thus, the raffinate must be cooled to a suitable temperature before it can be compressed. In cooling the raffinate, certain constituents therein (e.g., xylene isomers) will condense. All of the condensable material must be separated from the uncondensable gas. The condensed material then is heated and pumped into the isomerization reactor, while the now-cooled, uncondensable gas is compressed in a compressor and then sent into the isomerization reactor. Thus, the disclosure in the Deckman publication is somewhat incomplete in that it lacks a specific disclosure of the necessary heat exchanger (condenser), gas/liquid separator, and liquids pump required to pass the PSA raffinate into the isomerization reactor at the appropriate pressure. Notwithstanding, the disclosed method requires a blower or compressor on each of the swing adsorption process effluent streams. As readily understood by those skilled in the art, such blowers and compressors typically are very expensive to purchase and operate, and should be avoided whenever possible.
One might consider operating the swing adsorption unit disclosed in the Deckman publication at a pressure high enough such that the reduced pressure to accomplish desorption remains sufficiently high so as not to require additional pressurization prior to feeding to downstream processing units such as an isomerization reactor. In practice, however, operating the adsorption unit at such a high desorption pressure will disadvantageously and dramatically lower the productivity of the adsorbent.
Thus, while there are various methods of obtaining para-xylene from a C8 aromatic mixtures, these methods are very complex and include necessary and expensive upstream and downstream processing steps.


A water stream is treated to remove oxygen before injecting the water into an underground hydrocarbon reservoir. The water-oxygen mixture is separated by centrifugal action using fixed spin blades (20). Oxygen is removed from the center of the conduit through a gas pipe (30) coupled to a vacuum pump (50). Nitrogen may be introduced upstream of the centrifuge to dilute the water-gas solution to improve the efficiency of the gas-liquid separation.

When hydrocarbons are produced from underground hydrocarbon reservoirs (which may also lie under a sea), the pressure and production rate tends to fall unless a fluid such as water is injected into the reservoir. Sea water is probably the most common injected fluid used in the production of hydrocarbons from undersea reservoirs, although water produced along with hydrocarbons from a reservoir may be reinjected. Sea water generally has about 10 ppm (parts per million) of dissolved oxygen. Once the water is pumped to high pressurize for reservoir injection, oxygen in the water can cause rapid corrosion of many of the steels commonly used in the construction of the system. The oxygen also feeds undesirable biological activity in the reservoir. As a result, it is common to reduce the amount of oxygen before it is pressurized and injected.
One way to remove the oxygen is to reduce the pressure of the water so that dissolved gases break out of solution, and to then separate these two phases under normal gravity separation in a vertical tower filled with packing. This equipment is comparatively large. An apparatus and method that reduces the overall size and weight of the necessary equipment would be of value for the offshore oil industry where provisions for space and weight have a significant cost.

Gas/liquid separation in water injection into hydrocarbon reservoir


A mounting device for tubular elements includes a base having a curved surface and a slot for connecting to and being mounted on an existing tubular structural element. The base has a plurality of radially extending fingers forming semi-circular recesses between them. Projections within the recesses having a width less than the width of the mounting device deform a multiplicity of tubular elements such as hydraulic air or water lines to be removably inserted and held within the semi-circular recesses.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mounting devices, and, more specifically, to mounting devices for tubular elements.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the industrial, and particularly agricultural field, each agricultural machine has a multiplicity of hydraulic, air, electrical and fluid lines. These lines are routed along frame members in the agricultural machine. The most basic bundle of lines integrated into agricultural machines are the electrical conductors in a wiring harness. Such wiring harnesses extend to the important elements of the device throughout the equipment. As such, the wiring harness for the electrical system has become a spine onto which various hydraulic, fluid and air lines are secured. The lines are typically secured with cable tie or zip tie fasteners wrapped around the wiring harness and the individual lines. Both in production and in service, the various lines are not necessarily mounted at the same time. Consequently, subsequent zip ties are used for each added individual line. In the manufacturing process, the multiplicity of zip ties increases both the component cost and time involved. In terms of maintenance, there is an additional complexity and cost of undoing the zip tie, discarding it and securing the replacement line to the harness. This adds time and component cost to the maintenance procedure.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a simple, flexible and effective way to mount tubular elements for ready installation and removal.


Improved identification of a computer configured with an operating system (OS), a web browser and one or more applications is disclosed. An identifying code for advertisers (IFA) may be obtained via the operating system (OS) of the computer. A first application configuring the computer may include instructions to initiate an ad call comprising a request including the IFA to cause the first application to render an advertisement received by the computing device from a first web resource in response to the ad call. The web browser may execute the script to configure the web browser with a durable id (DID). The web browser may also communicate the DID to associate the IFA with the computing device.

The present disclosure is directed toward a system and method of identifying mobile devices, such as cell phones, and other computer devices that communicate over a network.
It is often desirable for websites or other web resources to be able to identify a computing device requesting access to the website. Identification of the computing device by the website may be used for a variety of purposes, such as maintaining user specific data (e.g., associating shopping cart contents with the computing device), web advertisement selection, fraud detection, etc.
However, consistent and secure identification of an accessing computing device can be difficult. For example, when separate applications on the same computing device are used to access a web resource, the web resource may not be able to identify that these accesses are by the same computing device. Even though these applications may operate in conjunction with the same operating system of the computing device, full resources of such operating system may not be made available to applications. Further, the variety of applications provided on a variety of computing devices configured by a variety of different operating systems make industry coordination of computing device identification difficult. A simplified system for identification of a computing device requesting access to a web resource that may avoid modification of existing operating systems would be beneficial.

System, devices and methods for identifying mobile devices and other computer devices


A piezoeletric resonator includes: a substrate; a lower electrode formed on or above the substrate; a piezoeletric body formed on or above the lower electrode; an upper electrode formed on or above the piezoeletric body; and a cavity under a vibrating portion formed by the lower electrode, the piezoeletric body, and the upper electrode. Where a resonant frequency of vibration with a thickness of the vibrating portion being a half of a wavelength is taken as fr, an average of ultrasonic velocity in a material forming the cavity is taken as Vc, and a value determined based on the resonant frequency fr and the average of ultrasonic velocity Vc is taken as λc (=Vc/fr), a depth of the cavity is set so as to be equal to or larger than n×λc/2−λc/8 and equal to or smaller than n×λc/2+λc/8.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a piezoelectric resonator, a method of manufacturing such a piezoelectric resonator, and a filter, a duplexer, and a communication device using such a piezoelectric resonator. More specifically, the present invention relates to a piezoelectric resonator improved so as to be able to remove spurious components, a method of manufacturing such a piezoelectric resonator, and a filter, a duplexer, and a communication device using such a piezoelectric resonator.
2. Description of the Background Art
Components incorporated in electronic devices such as cellular phones are required to be small in size and weight. For example, a filter for use in a cellular phone is required to be small in size and be precisely adjusted in frequency characteristic.
One of known filters satisfying such requirements is a filter using a piezoelectric resonator (for example, refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 60-68711, pp. 2-4, FIGS. 3 and 4).
FIG. 14A is a section view of a basic structure of a conventional piezoelectric resonator. In FIG. 14A, a piezoelectric resonator 710 is provided on a substrate 705. On the substrate 705, a cavity 704 is formed by partially etching from the underside of the substrate 705 through a fine processing scheme. The piezoeletric resonator 710 includes a piezoeletric body 701, which is a main component of the resonator, and an upper electrode 702 and a lower electrode 703 that are provided above and below, respectively, the piezoelectric body 701.
The hollow cavity 704 is provided in the substrate 705 in order to ensure vibrations of the piezoeletric resonator 710.
The piezoeletric resonator 710 is applied with an electric field in a thickness direction via the upper electrode 702 and the lower electrode 703 that are provided above and below, respectively, the piezoelectric body 701. With this, the piezoeletric resonator 710 vibrates in the thickness direction.
The operation of the piezoeletric resonator 710 is described below by using vertical vibrations in the thickness direction on an infinite plane. FIG. 14B is a schematic perspective view for describing the operation of the piezoeletric resonator 710. As shown in FIG. 14B, when an electric field is applied to the upper electrode 702 and the lower electrode 703, electric energy is transformed to mechanical energy at the piezoeletric body 701. The excited mechanical vibrations are vibrations expanding in the thickness direction, and therefore the piezoeletric body 701 expands in a direction of the electric field.
When the thickness of the piezoeletric resonator 710 is t, the piezoeletric resonator 710 uses resonant vibrations in the thickness of the piezoeletric body 701 to produce resonance at a resonant frequency of fr1 (=v/λ) corresponding to a wavelength λ satisfying t=λ/2. Here, v is an average of ultrasonic velocity in the material forming the piezoeletric resonator 710.
In the structure of the piezoeletric resonator 710 shown in FIG. 14, with the cavity 704 being formed, vertical vibrations in the thickness direction of the piezoeletric body 701 are ensured.
FIG. 14C is a diagram of an equivalent circuit of the piezoeletric resonator 710. As shown in FIG. 14C, the equivalent circuit of the piezoeletric resonator 710 includes a serial resonant circuit and a parallel resonant circuit. That is, the equivalent circuit includes a serial resonant circuit formed of a capacitor (C1), an inductor (L1), and a resistor (R1), and a parallel resonant circuit formed of a capacitor (C0) connected in parallel to the serial resonant circuit. Therefore, the piezoeletric resonator 710 has a resonant frequency and an anti-resonant frequency. FIG. 14D is a graph showing a frequency characteristic of admittance in the equivalent circuit shown in FIG. 14C. As shown in FIG. 14D, admittance is maximum at a resonant frequency of fr1 and minimum at an anti-resonant frequency of fa1. Here, fr1 and fa1 have the following relation.
            fr                                      1        =          1              2                                                  π                                      L                                                                                1              ·              C                                                                                1                                          f                                      a                                      1        =          fr                              1          +                                    C                                                                                1                                      C                                                                                0
When the piezoelectric resonator 710 is applied to a filter by using the frequency characteristic of the admittance, a small-sized filter with low loss using resonant vibration of the piezoelectric body can be achieved.
In practice, since the piezoelectric resonator is partially fixed to the substrate, the entire piezoelectric resonator does not make free vertical vibrations. The vibrating portion is divided, as shown in FIG. 14A, into a vibrating region fixed to a peripheral portion of the cavity 704 and a vibrating region with its both ends vibrating as free ends, such as an upper portion of the cavity.
In the vibrating portion, vibration defined by the thickness of the vibrating portion is exited as main resonant vibration. The vibrating portion is fixed to the periphery of the cavity, and the fixed portion is actually not completely fixed as fixed end. Therefore, the main resonant vibration having a frequency of f1 is propagated to the substrate via the fixed portion. As a result, depending on how the vibrating portion is supported and fixed, in addition of desired vertical vibration in the thickness direction in a fundamental mode (hereinafter referred to as a ½ wavelength mode with its frequency of f1), spurious vibration having a frequency near the frequency f1 of the main resonant frequency occurs.
The reason for occurrence of such spurious vibration is that spurious vibration is excited by a leak of vibration of the fixed portion to the substrate. Here, it is assumed that a resonant frequency of the spurious vibration is near the main resonant frequency of the main resonant vibration. With the main resonant vibration leaked to the substrate, spurious vibration occurs. Since it is assumed that the resonant frequency of the spurious vibration is near the main resonant frequency, the spurious vibration causes a spurious resonant frequency to occur near the main resonant frequency. FIG. 15A is a graph showing a frequency characteristic of admittance when spurious vibration is present. As shown in FIG. 15A, spurious vibration, that is, a spurious resonant frequency 713, is present between the resonant frequency fr1 and the anti-resonant frequency fa1.
FIG. 15B is a circuit diagram showing the structure of a filter using a piezoelectric resonator. FIG. 15C is a diagram showing a frequency passing characteristic when the piezoelectric resonator with the spurious resonant frequency 713 is used for the filter as shown in FIG. 15B.
As shown in FIG. 15B, when piezoelectric resonators having the spurious resonant frequency 713 are connected to each other in parallel and to another resonator in series to form a filter, a frequency passing characteristic (skirt characteristic) having two abrupt attenuation poles can be achieved. However, due to the spurious resonant frequency 713, unevenness 714 occurs in a pass-band. If such a filter having the unevenness 714 is used, a signal passing the evenness 714 becomes at a signal larger or smaller than a designed level. As a result, quality degradation in communications occurs.
In general, what is important for the filter is that no spurious resonant frequency is present in a desired band. Therefore, it is required for the serial resonator and the parallel resonator forming a filter not to generate a spurious resonant frequency in the desired band.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Piezoelectric resonator, method of manufacturing piezoelectric resonator, and filter, duplexer, and communication device using piezoelectric resonator


A golf putter having a shaft and a head. The head has a main body with a ball-striking face that has a negative loft. The main body also has a weight distribution such that a majority of weight of the main body is located above a prime striking area on the ball-striking face.

1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates to golf clubs and, more particularly, to a golf putter.
2. Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 3,497,220 discloses a golf club for putting with a weight attached to an upper portion of an S-shaped hosel which connects the rear of the heel to the shaft. U.S. Pat. No. 3,387,844 discloses various golf club head shapes with chambers. U.S. Pat. No. 4,314,701 discloses a putter club with a cylindrical mid portion. U.S. Pat. No. Des. 196,734; U.S. Pat. No. Des. 305,629; 5,100,146; 4,852,879; and 4,325,553 appear to show vertical ball striking faces. U.S. Pat. Des. 209,215; Des. 232,252; 4,240,636; 4,913,438; 5,014,992; and 5,016,882 appear to show inclined ball-striking faces with positive loft.


A tractor according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a first exhaust gas treatment unit, a second exhaust gas treatment unit, a urea water tank, and a urea water pump. The first exhaust gas treatment unit is provided above an engine inside a hood. The second exhaust gas treatment unit is provided laterally outside one of right and left sides of the hood, and uses urea water to further treat exhaust gas purified by the first exhaust gas treatment unit. The urea water tank is provided laterally outside another of right and left sides of the hood, and stores therein the urea water. The urea water pump is provided behind the second exhaust gas treatment unit, and supplies the urea water stored in the urea water tank to the second exhaust gas treatment unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The embodiment discussed herein is directed to a tractor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, work vehicles, such as agricultural tractors, include each an exhaust gas treatment mechanism for purifying exhaust gas from an engine by sequentially passing the exhaust gas through two exhaust gas treatment units. For example, one (first exhaust gas treatment unit) of the two exhaust gas treatment units is placed above the engine inside a hood, and the other (second exhaust gas treatment unit) thereof is placed outside the right or left side of the hood.
Some of the work vehicles described above have a supporting structure of the second exhaust gas treatment unit in which, for example, the circular cylindrical second exhaust gas treatment unit is horizontally placed in a supporting part provided in a recessed manner (refer to U.S. Pat. No. 7,937,936, for example).


An apparatus and method for transmitting and receiving signals includes an analyzer, for decomposing an input signal into a plurality of signals with each one of the plurality of signals occupying one of a corresponding plurality of channels and a synthesizer, having a plurality of channels with each channel adapted to receive one of the plurality of analyzer signals, for combining the plurality of signals to reconstruct the input signal.

As is known in the art, a modulator-demodulator (modem) is an electronic device that modulates transmitted signals and demodulates received signals. The modem generally provides an interface between an analog communications system and digital devices to thus make possible analog transmission of digital information between two terminals or stations. Such transmissions may be over a transmission line, such as a telephone or other communication line for example, coupled between the two stations. Such transmission lines are generally band-limited. That is, the information may be transmitted over the transmission lines only over a predetermined range of frequencies. For example, telephone transmission lines are generally provided having a bandwidth of 3 kilohertz (kHz). Thus, the speed with which the modem may transmit and receive data is limited, in part, due to bandwidth limitations of the transmission medium.
As is also known, an analog signal representing, e.g. a voice signal, may be represented as a stream of bits (i.e. a digital signal). The digitized signal, which may be converted back to an analog representation of the digital data for the purpose of transmission over a telephone lines, is less susceptible to noise on the telephone line, is capable of multiplexed channel operation in the telephone bandwidth, reduces crosstalk and enables relatively easy digital encryption for secure transmission.
The digitized voice signal, which typically is at, e.g., 64,000 bits-per-second (bps), may not be readily sent by modem within the available approximately 3,000 Hz bandwidth of the telephone lines or be readily sent at that bit rate within the available telephone line bandwidth. To enable more convenient transmission and/or multiplexed transmission, compression of the 64,000 bps digitized voice signal is generally employed. For example, with compression from 64,000 bps to 2,400 bps, four simultaneous channels of 2,400 bps each may be multiplexed via a modem onto a 9,600 bps data stream transmitted over the bandwidth of the analog telephone lines.
As is also known in the art, encryption of analog signals such as voice signals, for example, may be accomplished via analog or digital techniques. Analog techniques include frequency inversion and other operations (e.g. modulation) on the amplitude, frequency or phase of the time varying analog signal. Such operations may or may not be accomplished with a digital computer.
Digital voice encryption techniques, including the American National Standard Institute's (ANSI) data encryption standard (DES) algorithm, perform bit stream operations on digitized samples of the analog signal and then transmit the digital result to a receiver. Such transmission may be accomplished through a modem for example. To use a modem for transmission of a speech signal, the speech signal is compressed. That is, some of the input information (i.e. the input speech signal) is discarded such that the signal may be transmitted at a rate at which the modem operates. This results in a loss of information which may manifest itself as a degradation in voice sound quality.
The processing required to perform the compression and expansion of digitized voice results in an undesirable delay and consequently in a two line transmission system, for example, objectionable echo signals result. Furthermore, the inefficiency of modems limits the rate at which a modem may transmit and receive signals fed thereto. Thus it would be desirable to provide a system which minimizes such processing time and thus minimizes the echo signal and also maximizes the rate at which a modem may transmit and receive data over a transmission link.
Thus, at least several problems have tended to impair the effectiveness of conventional limited bandwidth, e.g., telephone bandwidth, analog and digital voice transmission apparatus.

Method and apparatus for signal transmission and reception