A method and apparatus implementing the method, of selecting a bit load b for a channel in a carrier system. The carrier system encodes data based on a constellation of points. Each point represents a tuple of data. The constellation has a self-similarity property. The bit load for the channel is selected based on the self-similarity property of the constellation. In an alternate embodiment, the method and apparatus are used to determine the bit load of the sub-channels in a multi-carrier system.

Demand for digital subscriber line (DSL) service across existing twisted pair copper wires between a central office and a remote location is increasing. Typically, DSL services operate in accordance with DSL standards recommended by the Telecommunication Standardization Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). A family of DSL Recommendations from the ITU includes: G.992.1, G.992.2, G.991.1, G.996.1, G.994.1, G.997.1 and G.995.1. Recommendation G.995.1 provides an overview of these standards. Recommendations G.991.1, G.992.1, G.992.2 have developed techniques for transmitting a range of bit rates over the copper wires of the local network including high bit rates at relatively short distances, and lower bit rates at longer distances. In particular, the G.992.1 and G.992.2 recommendations are based on asymmetric digital subscriber line technology that has different data rates in each direction of transmission. The G.992.1 recommendation is referred to as G.dmt and uses a splitter to filter the voicegrade signals at the remote location. The G.992.2 recommendation is referred to as G.lite and does not use a splitter. Recommendations G.994.1, G.996.1 and G.997.1 support the G.992.1 and G.992.2 recommendations by providing common handshake, management and testing procedures. These standards allow substantial flexibility in implementation.
DSL services typically use a discrete multi-tone (DMT) signal to transmit data. A DMT signal has multiple sub-channels, each of which is assigned a frequency, also referred to as a carrier frequency or a tone, belonging to a discrete frequency band. Because individual sub-channels operate at different frequencies, the sub-channels may have different operating characteristics. For instance, more power may be used at higher frequencies. In addition, different numbers of bits may be loaded on different sub-channels in accordance with their capacity, which depends on frequency, power, signal-to-noise ratio and transmission line characteristics. Sub-channels that do not meet or exceed a minimum signal-to-noise ratio are not used. When initiating a DSL communication session, in the DSL modem, an initialization procedure at the receiver determines a number of bits to be grouped into a symbol for each sub-channel, that is, a number of bits per sub-channel, and exchanges that information with the transmitting DSL modem.
Quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) is a technique to encode multiple bits into a QAM symbol. Each QAM symbol represents a distinct combination of bit values using a distinct combination of amplitude and phase of the carrier waveform. Each QAM symbol is represented by a QAM waveform.
Referring to FIG. 1, a signal space diagram depicts a constellation 14 of a group of distinct QAM symbols 18 that represents combinations of a group of bits. FIG. 1 depicts a 16-point G.992.2 constellation in which the number of bits b is equal to 4. In QAM, the amplitudes of two quadrature carriers are modulated and the carriers are combined. The x-axis 15 represents the amplitude of a first carrier, and the y-axis 16 represents the amplitude of a second carrier that is shifted in phase by 90° with respect to the first carrier. For example, the first carrier is a sine wave, while the second carrier is a cosine wave. Each point 19 represents a distinct combination of the modulated carriers and thus a distinct QAM symbol.
A constellation encoder encodes groups of bits into QAM symbols. For example, for QAM symbols that represent four bits, the constellation will have sixteen distinct QAM symbols and map each of the sixteen possible combinations of the four bits to a distinct one of the QAM symbols.
In DMT systems, the digital information is transformed by a modem into an analog form that is essentially a sequence of DMT symbol waveforms. Each DMT symbol bears information in an array of zeroes and ones, which has several bi-sized sub-arrays. Each sub-array corresponds to a QAM waveform representing a 2bi-point constellation. In other words, bi represents a number of bits per sub-channel i. A DMT symbol waveform is the superposition of these QAM waveforms. The channel itself is characterized by a signal-to-noise ratio γi, where γi represents the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at the ith carrier frequency.
In DMT systems, each sub-channel has a constellation encoder. Typically, in DMT systems, equal error protection is applied, and the number of bits per sub-channel bi is determined as follows: for each sub-channel, the bit error rate should not exceed a target bit error rate prior to decoding and retransmission pb. One conventional QAM error determination procedure as described by John G. Proakis, in Digital Communications, (Proakis) 1995, on p. 280 yields the QAM symbol error rate rather than the target bit error rate. Evaluating the equivalent bit error rate is known to be a complicated problem (See Proakis, p. 441). Therefore, it is typically assumed that the QAM symbol error rate is approximately equal to the bit error rate. However, this assumption is not precise and, for large QAM constellations, may misevaluate the bit error rate by a factor of ˜10.
The assumption of an equally probable constellation decoding error yields an average fraction of erroneous bits that approach ½ at large values of b. In other words, approximately half of the bits will be in error when a QAM symbol error occurs. This approach was earlier used in Proakis, p. 262 for 2b-ary orthogonal signals. However, this approach is not precise either. Because this assumption is used when determining the number of bits bi per sub-channel, an improved method and apparatus are needed to select the number of bits per sub-channel. Furthermore, this assumption does not accommodate for fluctuations in the bit error rate. The method and apparatus should also accommodate for fluctuations in the bit error rate.
Reed-Solomon encoding is a method of forward error correction used in DSL communications to detect and correct transmission errors, effectively increasing the signal-to-noise ratio of the communications channel. By encoding information, errors may be reduced without decreasing the data rate. In Reed-Solomon encoding, redundant symbols are added to information symbols to allow errors to be detected and corrected. As the number of redundant symbols increases, a greater level of noise may be tolerated. Among the transmission parameters to be selected in DSL communications are forward error correction (FEC) parameters for Reed-Solomon encoding. The FEC parameters determine the amount of information data in an information field, and a number of redundancy symbols that are associated with the information field of an information frame. Reed-Solomon encoding parameters for forward error correction are selected while executing the initialization procedure. During initialization, the channel is analyzed and FEC parameters are determined and exchanged. The ITU recommendations set a bit error rate (BER) standard of 10−7. The Reed-Solomon encoding parameters for forward error correction are selected based on, at least in part, the bit error rate standard and an average number of erroneous bits per QAM symbol. However, there is a need for selecting FEC parameters based on a more precise determination of the average number of erroneous bits per QAM symbol. In addition, there is a need to select FEC parameters based on a target bit error rate that accommodates for fluctuations in the average number of erroneous bits per QAM symbol.

Method and apparatus for evaluating error control parameters of self-similar constellations


A method of growing a thin film comprises growing a thin film by conformally forming at least one layer over a substrate having structures extending from a surface of the substrate, whereby the or each layer is formed over the surface of the substrate and over the structures extending from the surface. The thickness of the conformal layer, or the sum of the thicknesses of the conformal layers, is at least half the average spacing of the structures, and; at least one of the height of the structures, the average spacing of the structures and the size of the smallest dimension of the structures is set so as to provide an enhanced growth rate for the or each conformal layer (compared to the growth rate over a planar substrate).

The growth of thin films is a core process in the production of many electronic and optoelectronic devices. It is also often the most costly and time consuming step and any increase in the efficiency of thin film deposition would almost certainly lead to a reduction of the production costs.
Thin films are deposited onto a substrate material which carries them. Substrates can be made up of virtually any solid material. One of the main criteria for a substrate is that it has to withstand the process conditions during the thin film deposition and subsequent processing, especially with respect to the temperature.
Thin films can be deposited in a variety of ways including chemical vapour deposition (CVD), molecular beam epitaxy (MBE), Vapour Phase Epitaxy (VPE), Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD), sputtering, electro-deposition, thermal evaporation etc. This is by no means an exhaustive list and new techniques for thin film deposition are constantly being developed. For the purpose of this patent, these techniques are split into two categories: directional and conformal techniques. In directional techniques the mean free path of the particles deposited is larger than the distance between the source of the material and the substrate (e.g. sputtering, thermal evaporation, MBE). This means that deposition on some parts of the substrate can be limited, e.g. by putting obstacle into the path between the source and the substrate surface or by structuring surface structure itself (i.e. no film will be deposited onto parts of the surface which are parallel to the path between the source and the substrate.
In conformal techniques the thin film is deposited everywhere on the substrate surface. The mean free path is shorter than the distance between the source and the substrate. In fact, the path a particle takes can often be described by Brownian Motion.
For many techniques the process conditions can be varied so that the deposition is either conformal, directional or somewhere in-between.

Method of growing a thin film, a method of forming a structure and a device


A hose support includes: a body defining at least one concave surface configured to receive a concrete slurry hose, the body including at least one support surface configured to rest on pavement; where the at least one concave surface is displaced from the at least one support surface to support the concrete slurry hose above the pavement; and where: the at least one concave surface is configured to slidably receive the concrete slurry hose; or the at least one support surface is configured to slidably rest on the pavement while the body receives the concrete slurry hose; or a combination thereof.

It is often desirable to deliver a liquid or a slurry, e.g., a concrete slurry, from one location to another. For example, it is often desirable to deliver a concrete slurry to a site that is not accessible by a concrete mixer truck and/or in a volume that does not warrant use of a concrete mixer truck. For such applications, a line pump (a.k.a., a trailer-mounted concrete pump or truck-mounted concrete pump) is typically used. For example, referring to FIG. 1, a concrete slurry delivery system 10 includes a line pump 12, a hose 14, and a truck 16. The line pump 12 is connected to the hose 14 and is configured to pump concrete slurry from a reservoir 18 of the line pump 12 through the hose 14 for delivery to a desired location, e.g., behind a house 20. The hose 14 is made of a durable material such as high tensile synthetic textile and/or wire (e.g., helix wire) reinforced rubber or fabric reinforced rubber. Other hose constructions may be used, and numerous manufacturers exist that produce hoses of various constructions. The hose 14 may have a configurable length, being made of multiple sections 22, 24, 26 that are joined together by flanges 28. The flanges 28 are typically made of steel, and extend outside a perimeter of the hose sections 22, 24, 26. While the line pump 12 is pumping the concrete slurry, the hose 14 typically moves in a back-and-forth motion along a length of the hose 14 due to the line pump 12 pushing the concrete slurry into the hose 14 in pulses.


An inspection apparatus (1) has an image pickup part (2) for performing an image pickup of a substrate (9), an operation part (4) to which an image signal is inputted from said image pickup part (2) and a computer (5), and the operation part (4) specifies an inspection image and a reference image from an object image acquired by the image pickup part (2). In the operation part (4), a region class to which each pixel of the specified inspection image belongs is specified on the basis of a corresponding pixel value of the reference image. In a comparator circuit of the operation part (4), a differential absolute value between each pixel of the inspection image and a corresponding pixel of the reference image is calculated and the differential absolute value is compared with a defect check threshold value in accordance with the specified region class, to perform defect check. The inspection apparatus (1) can thereby appropriately detect a defect in accordance with the region class to which each pixel belongs.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for inspecting pattern on an object.
2. Description of the Background Art
In the field of inspection of pattern formed on a semiconductor substrate, a color filter, a shadow mask, a printed circuit board or the like, conventionally, a comparison check method has been mainly performed with gray-scale images. For example, a differential image which indicates absolute values of the difference between an inspection image (an image to be inspected) and a reference image is obtained and a region in the differential image which has pixel values larger than a predetermined threshold value is detected as a defect. In a case of inspection of pattern having periodicity, a plurality of inspection images are sequentially acquired and a comparison check is performed by using an inspection image other than the image under inspection as a reference image.
Such a comparison check has a problem that a threshold value to be determined is changed by variation in graininess of an image due to variation in sharpness. FIGS. 1A and 1B are graphs each showing a histogram of an absolute value of difference (hereinafter, referred to as "differential absolute value") between pixels of the inspection image and corresponding pixels of the reference image (in other words, a histogram of differential image). FIG. 1A shows a histogram 91a in a case where the graininess of image is large and FIG. 1B shows a histogram 91b in a case where the graininess of image is small. FIGS. 1A and 1B show the histograms of the differential images which are obtained on the same pattern, but the distributions of differential absolute values in the histograms are different due to the difference in graininess of pickup images.
Therefore, for example, when a threshold value T1b is determined in accordance with the histogram 91b of FIG. 1B, if the graininess of the inspection image temporarily becomes large and the distribution of the differential absolute values comes into a state of FIG. 1A, a normal pixel (a pixel corresponding to a normal region) whose differential absolute value is larger than the threshold value T1b and smaller than the threshold value T1a is detected as a false defect. On the other hand, when the threshold value T1a is determined in accordance with the histogram 91a of FIG. 1A, if the graininess of the inspection image temporarily becomes small and the distribution of the differential absolute values comes into a state of FIG. 1B, a defective pixel (a pixel corresponding to a defective region) whose differential absolute value is larger than the threshold value T1b and smaller than the threshold value T1a is not detected.
Then, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Gazette No. 2002-22421 proposes a method for removing an effect of variation in sharpness of image (in other words, variation in graininess) by calculating a standard deviation of pixel values of the differential image and normalizing the histogram of the differential image on the basis of the standard deviation.
In a case of inspection of pattern in which an aluminum wiring whose surface has coarse grain is formed in a relatively flat region (hereinafter, referred to as "background region") on a semiconductor substrate, if a histogram 92 of a differential image on a differential absolute value as shown in FIG. 2A is obtained, an appropriate defect detection can not always be performed even if a threshold value T2a is determined on the basis of the histogram 92.
The reason is that the histogram 92 of FIG. 2A is obtained by synthesizing a histogram 921 of a differential image on an interconnection region and a histogram 922 of a differential image on a background region as shown in FIG. 2B and the differential absolute value of a defective portion 922a in the histogram 922 on the background region becomes smaller than the threshold value T2a due to an effect of the histogram 921 on the interconnection region. As a result, even if the method disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Gazette No. 2002-22421 is used, it is impossible to determine an appropriate threshold value in a case of the histogram 92 of FIG. 2A.

Apparatus and method for inspecting pattern


In a binding machine for binding bundles of elongate articles, a switchover device for switching between a one-loop mode and a two-loop mode is provided. The switchover device is moved fore and aft relative to the twisting head of the binding machine so as to place the switchover device into a first position and a second position. In the first position, a binding wire is guided through a guide way into first and second annular passages therein, thereby making two loops around the elongate articles. In the second position, the binding wire is guided through the guide way into only the first annular passage therein, thereby making a single loop around the elongate articles.

(1) Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a binding machine which is adapted to bind elongate articles by means of a wire.
(2) Description of Prior Art
There are known some types of binding machines, examples thereof being those which are disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 3,234,870; ibid. 3,470,813; ibid. 3,557,684; and ibid. 4,252,157; the Japanese Patent Kokai No. 58-171316; the Japanese Patent Kokoku No. 51-30513; and ibid. 55-29851. The known binding machines generally comprise a pair of semicircular shells which form an annular wire guide. A binding wire travels along the wire guide and around a bundle of elongate articles which are to be bound.
The known binding machines also comprise means for feeding the binding wire, means for detecting a leading end of the binding wire, means for stretching said wire, and means for cutting and simultaneously twisting said wire.
The U.S. Pat. No. 3,234,870 to J. Missioux discloses such a machine that has a continuous helical passageway of two continuous loops guiding the wire around the articles which are to be bound. This machine, however, does not comprise any simple mechanism for switchover of a state of the passageway from two-loop mode to one-loop mode, or vice versa.
On the other hand, there is a demand for such a switchover mechanism because there are many kinds of articles which are lighter in their weight and can securely be bound by a single loop of binding wire.


A cylinder head in a cylinder head assembly includes an upper deck, a fire deck, gas exchange conduits, and a coolant cavity extending peripherally around the gas exchange conduits. The cylinder head also includes an igniter socket having an igniter post, and a radially outward sleeve step continuously circumferential of an igniter bore center axis. A cooling moat is formed between the igniter post and the sleeve step. The coolant cavity includes a valve bridge through-channel and a valve bridge part-way channel each fluidly connected to the igniter socket to provide coolant flow into and out of the cooling moat passively.

Internal combustion engines are applied for diverse purposes throughout the world, in applications ranging from vehicle propulsion to electrical power generation to operation of gas and liquid compressors and pumps. Burning a combustible fuel with air in combustion cylinders in the engine produces a rapid pressure and temperature rise exploited to produce power but also subjecting components of the engine to mechanical and thermal stresses and strains. In most instances active cooling by way of a liquid coolant conveyed through parts of the engine is required.
A great many different water jacket and related coolant plumbing structures have been proposed over the years in an effort to optimally manage engine temperatures. In many engines an igniter such as a sparkplug, or a prechamber ignition device, is supported in a cylinder head. These igniters tend to be sensitive to excessive temperatures. Engine head configurations can nevertheless create challenges in optimally cooling an igniter with liquid coolant. Ignition problems, structural failures, and thermal fatigue cracks and the like are common signs of inadequate cooling.
Increased engineering resources have been directed at optimizing cooling of igniters in an engine head in recent years. Optimized coolant flow and geometric arrangements of coolant passages can provide operating benefits as well as increased engine power density. U.S. Pat. No. 10,385,800 employs cross-drilled coolant passages to feed coolant directly to a cooling moat, enabling a pumped positive flow of coolant to dissipate heat of components of an igniter. While the concept disclosed in the '800 patent may have various advantages, there is always room for improvement and development of alternative strategies in relation to igniter cooling and manufacturability of the various components.

Passive igniter cooling in cylinder head assembly


In a support structure of a power system, the power system includes: an electrical motor; a transmission; and a housing supported by a frame member of the vehicle via a mount arm. The transmission includes a first planetary mechanism having first to third rotating elements, the electrical motor is connected to the first rotating element of the first planetary mechanism, the left and right wheels are connected to the second rotating element of the first planetary mechanism, and the housing is connected to the third rotating element of the first planetary mechanism. A fastening member that fastens the housing and the mount arm is disposed so as to overlap in the axial direction with a connecting portion that connects the third rotating element of the first planetary mechanism and the housing.

A power system is known which includes an electrical motor for driving a left wheel and a right wheel of a vehicle, a transmission that is disposed on a power transmission path between the electrical motor and the left and right wheels, and a housing accommodating the electrical motor and the transmission. This type of power system is provided in an electrical motor vehicle such as a hybrid vehicle or an electrical vehicle, as a front wheel drive system or a rear wheel drive system, and the housing of the power system is generally supported by a frame member of the electrical motor vehicle via mount arms (for example, see JP-A-2008-81010 and JP-A-2013-112181).
In this type of power system, however, when the distance between a torque reaction acting position of the housing and a mount arm attaching position is great, a large moment is generated at the mount arm attaching position, and thus there is a possibility that a stable support becomes difficult. Therefore, in the power system according to the related art, the above problem is solved by increasing rigidity of the housing, but when the rigidity of the housing is increased, the weight and manufacturing costs of the power system increase, and thus there is room for improvement.


A method for making a bipolar integrated circuit structure in a semiconductor substrate. A layer of insulating material having an implantation opening is formed on the upper surface of the semiconductor substrate. A polysilicon layer is formed in the implantation opening. A doping material is implanted into the polysilicon-filled opening. The doping material is diffused into the substrate material from the polysilicon-filled opening.

In forming bipolar integrated circuits, the goals include high yield, high reliability, small size, and low manufacturing costs. Existing methods of fabricating bipolar integrated circuits frequently involve steps which cause the upper surface of the circuit to be substantially non-planar. As a result, efforts at stacking integrated circuit components vertically result in a greater number of discontinuities and faults. Thus, it is desirable for stacking purposes to manufacture circuits having substantially planar upper surfaces. Such a feature would improve yield and reduce the cost of fabricating such circuits.
In making smaller circuits, the contacts for the circuit components, such as the base, collector, and emitter contacts of a transistor, become more difficult to accurately align. Limits on the tolerance of the alignment equipment make alignment difficult.
Existing methods of fabricating bipolar integrated circuits use a number of masking steps to define each region of the circuit element as well as the contact areas for each contact of the element. Each additional masking step creates a further opportunity for reducing yield and reliability and further increases the cost of fabricating the circuits.
Finally, it is desirable to fabricate bipolar transistors having relatively low collector-substrate junction capacitances, low collector, base, and emitter resistances, low emitter sidewall capacitances, and improved speed.

Method of making planarized, self-aligned bipolar integrated circuits


A method for use in a peer-to-peer communication system to ensure valid connections are made in a secure manner includes the steps of receiving an address record for a peer node which includes an ID certificate. The ID certificate is validated and checked to verify that the ID certificate has not expired. Further, the method determines if the node from whom the address record was received is to be trusted, and the number of instances of the IP address included in the certificate is already stored in cache. When the foregoing are completed successfully, i.e. the certificate is valid, not expired, has been supplied by a trusted neighbor, and does not point to an IP address that already exists for different ID's multiple times, the method opportunistically verifies ownership of the ID certificate at the peer node's IP address. That is, the verification of ownership only occurs when the advertiser of the ID is the owner of that ID (or when the ID is to be used). If any of the above cannot be completed successfully, the address record is discarded.

Peer-to-peer communication, and in fact all types of communication, depend on the possibility of establishing valid connections between selected entities. However, entities may have one or several addresses that may vary because the entities move in the network, because the topology changes, or because an address lease cannot be renewed. A classic architectural solution to this addressing problem is thus to assign to each entity a stable name, and to "resolve" this name to a current address when a connection is needed. This name to address translation must be very robust, and it must also allow for easy and fast updates.
To increase the likelihood that an entity's address may be found by those seeking to connect to it, many peer-to-peer protocols allow entities to publish their address through various mechanisms. Some protocols also allow a client to acquire knowledge of other entities' addresses through the processing of requests from others in the network. Indeed, it is this acquisition of address knowledge that enables successful operation of these peer-to-peer networks. That is, the better the information about other peers in the network, the greater the likelihood that a search for a particular resource will converge.
However, without a robust security infrastructure underlying the peer-to-peer protocol, malicious entities can easily disrupt the ability for such peer-to-peer systems to converge. Such disruptions may be caused, for example, by an entity that engages in identity theft. In such an identity theft attack on the peer-to-peer network, a malicious node publishes address information for IDs with which it does not have an authorized relationship, i.e. it is neither the owner nor a group member, etc. A malicious entity could also flood the network with bad information so that other entities in the network would tend to forward requests to non-existent nodes (which would adversely affect the convergence of searches), or to nodes controlled by the attacker.
While validation of an address certificate may prevent the identity theft problem, such is ineffective against this second type of attack. An attacker can continue to generate verifiable address certificates (or have them pre-generated) and flood the corresponding IDs in the peer-to-peer cloud. If any of the nodes attempts to verify ownership of the ID, the attacker would be able to verify that it is the owner for the flooded IDs because, in fact, it is. However, if the attacker manages to generate enough IDs it can bring most of the peer-to-peer searches to one of the nodes controlled by him. At this point the attacker can fairly well control and direct the operation of the network.
If the peer-to-peer protocol requires that all new address information first be verified to prevent the identity theft problem discussed above, a third type of attack becomes available to malicious entities. This attack to which these types of peer-to-peer networks are susceptible is a form of a denial of service (DoS) attack. If all the nodes that learn about new records try to perform the ID ownership check, a storm of network activity against the advertised ID owner will occur. Exploiting this weakness, an attacker could mount an IP DoS attack against a certain target. For example, if a malicious entity advertises Microsoft's Web IP address as the ID's IP, all the nodes in the peer-to-peer network that receive this advertised IP will try to connect to that IP (Microsoft's Web server's IP) to verify the authenticity of the record. Of course Microsoft's server will not be able to verify ownership of the ID because the attacker generated this information. However, the damage has already been done. That is, the attacker just managed to convince a good part of the peer-to-peer community to attack Microsoft.
A malicious entity could also attempt to disrupt the operation of the peer-to-peer network by trying to ensure that searches will not converge. Specifically, an attacker could attempt to affect the effectiveness of the search algorithm used by the peer-to-peer protocol to implement a sort of DoS attack for searches. For example, instead of forwarding the search to a node in its cache that is closer to the ID to aid in the convergence of the search, it could forward the search to a node that is further away from the requested ID. Alternatively, the malicious entity could simply not respond to the search request at all.

Peer-to-peer name resolution protocol (PNRP) security infrastructure and method


A non-contact glass shearing device and a method are described herein that vertically scribes or cuts a downward moving glass sheet to remove outer edges (beads) from the downward moving glass sheet. In addition, the non-contact glass shearing device and method can horizontally scribe or cut the downward moving glass sheet (without the outer edges) so that it can be separated into distinct glass sheets.

Referring to FIG. 1 (PRIOR ART), there is shown a schematic view of an exemplary glass manufacturing system 100 which utilizes a fusion process to make a glass sheet 138. The fusion process is described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,338,696 and 3,682,609, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference. As shown, the exemplary glass manufacturing system 100 includes a melting vessel 102, a fining vessel 104, a mixing vessel 106 (e.g., stir chamber 106), a delivery vessel 108 (e.g., bowl 108), a fusion draw machine (FDM) 110, and a traveling anvil machine (TAM) 112. Typically, the components 104, 106 and 108 are made from platinum or platinum-containing metals such as platinum-rhodium, platinum-iridium and combinations thereof, but they may also comprise other refractory metals such as molybdenum, palladium, rhenium, tantalum, titanium, tungsten, or alloys thereof.
The melting vessel 102 is where the glass batch materials are introduced as shown by arrow 114 and melted to form molten glass 116. The melting vessel 102 is connected to the fining vessel 104 (e.g., finer tube 104) by a melting to fining vessel connecting tube 113. The fining vessel 104 has a high temperature processing area that receives the molten glass 116 (not shown at this point) from the melting vessel 102 and in which bubbles are removed from the molten glass 116. The fining vessel 104 is connected to the mixing vessel 106 (e.g., stir chamber 106) by a finer to stir chamber connecting tube 118. And, the mixing vessel 106 is connected to the delivery vessel 108 by a stir chamber to bowl connecting tube 120. The delivery vessel 108 delivers the molten glass 116 through a downcomer 122 into the FDM 110 which includes an inlet 124, a forming vessel 126 (e.g., isopipe 126), and a pull roll assembly 128.
As shown, the molten glass 116 flows from the downcomer 122 into the inlet 124 which leads to the forming vessel 126 (e.g., isopipe 126) which is typically made from a ceramic or a glass-ceramic refractory material. The forming vessel 126 includes an opening 130 that receives the molten glass 116 which flows into a trough 132 and then overflows and runs down two lengthwise sides 134 (only one side shown) before fusing together at what is known as a root 136. The root 136 is where the two lengthwise sides sides 134 come together and where the two overflow walls of molten glass 116 rejoin (e.g., re-fuse) to form the glass sheet 138 which is then drawn downward by the pull roll assembly 128. The TAM 112 has a mechanical scoring device 146a (e.g., scoring wheel 146a) which mechanically scores and separates the drawn glass sheet 138 into distinct pieces of glass sheets 142. Thereafter, additional mechanical scoring and separation devices 146b and 146c (e.g., scoring wheels 146b and 146c) remove the outer edges 140a and 140b from the glass sheets 142 in subsequent processing steps. The removed outer edges 140a and 140b could be broken and collected within a pair of cullet bins 144a and 144b.
Unfortunately, the application of a mechanical scoring device 146a, 146b or 146c typically results in the formation of problematical chips due to the mechanical impact on the glass sheets 138 and 142. The chips could potentially contaminate the glass sheets 138 and 142. Likewise, the mechanical scoring devices 146a, 146b, or 146c or the mechanical separation process could produce stress concentrating defects along the formed edged and reduce the edge strength of final glass sheets 142. Furthermore, in the glass industry the glass sheets 138 and 142 will likely over time be getting thinner and thinner, which if this occurs then the physical impact of the mechanical scoring device 146a, 146b or 146c on the glass sheets 138 and 142 could shatter or significantly lower the strength of the glass sheets 138 and 142, resulting in the undesirable loss of material and lowered mechanical reliability. Thus, there is a need to address these problems and other problems which are associated with the use of mechanical devices 146a, 146b or 146c to scribe or cut glass sheets 138 and 142. These problems and other problems are solved by the present invention.

Non-contact glass shearing device and method for scribing or cutting a moving glass sheet


An optical receiving apparatus includes a combining unit that combines signal light and reference light; a optoelectric converting unit that converts, into electrical signals, two or more optical signals that enable reconstruction of a complex electric field signal of the signal light obtained by the combining unit; and a sampling clock generating unit that generates a sampling clock that has a frequency preset based on a symbol rate of the signal light and is asynchronous with the signal light. The optical receiving apparatus further includes a digital converting unit that samples at the frequency of the sampling clock signal, an electrical signal obtained by the optoelectric converting unit and converts the electrical signal into a digital signal; and a digital signal processing unit that demodulates a received signal based on a complex digital signal obtained from the digital signal obtained by the digital converting unit.

In conventional optical communication, a direct detection scheme that utilizes ON/OFF of a light intensity to perform communication is generally used. However, with the recent spread of the Internet, a communication scheme having a larger transmission capacity is demanded in a backbone optical communication system in particular, and a digital coherent reception scheme having a combination of an optical coherent reception scheme with a higher reception sensitivity than the direct detection scheme and a digital signal processing technology has gained attention (see, e.g., Liu, Xiang, "DSP-Enhanced Differential Direct-Detection for DQPSK and m-ary DPSK", European Conference on Optical Communication (ECOC) 2007, 7.2.1; and Ly-Gagnon, Dany-Sebastien; Tsukamoto, Satoshi; Katoh, Kazuhiro; and Kikuchi, Kazuro, Member, IEEE, Member, OSA, "Coherent Detection of Optical Quadrature Phase-Shift Keying Signals With Carrier Phase Estimation", JOURNAL OF LIGHTWAVE TECHNOLOGY, Vol. 24, No. 1, January 2006, pp. 12-21).
The digital coherent reception scheme is a scheme that combines a received optical signal with reference light to convert intensity and phase information of the received optical signal into an extractable signal, converts this signal into a digital signal by an analog/digital converter (ADC), extracts the intensity and phase information of the optical signal from the converted digital signal, and performs digital signal processing with respect to the extracted signal, thereby demodulating the received signal. As the reference light, a received signal delayed for one symbol time may be used, or light (local light) output from another laser provided on a reception side may be used.
Digital coherent reception is characterized in that highly accurate phase control of the reference light is not required as compared with a conventional coherent reception scheme because digital signal processing technology is used to compensate phase difference of the received signal and the reference light without performing optical phase synchronization of the received optical signal and the reference light. Further, highly accurate waveform distortion compensation can be performed by an electrical equalizing filter since information indicative of both amplitude and phase of an optical electric field of the received optical signal can be acquired as an electrical signal.
As a modulation scheme when using digital coherent light reception, not only a binary modulation scheme as typified by intensity modulation but also multi-ary phase shift keying (MPSK), e.g., differential quadrature phase shift keying (DQPSK) or quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) can be realized by the same receiver configuration.
As a general method for recovering a clock in a digital signal processing circuit, two methods can be considered. When a clock recovery unit is provided on an upstream side of a waveform distortion compensator in the digital signal processing circuit, because a signal on the upstream side of the waveform distortion compensator has a distorted waveform, occasionally a sampling clock signal cannot be recovered when waveform distortion is severe. Thus, the ADC cannot perform digital conversion.
Even if the clock signal can be recovered, since the quality of the recovered clock signal is poor, accuracy of digital conversion in the ADC is reduced. Conversely, provision of the clock recovery unit on a downstream side of the waveform distortion compensator of the digital signal processing circuit can be considered; however, loop delay of the recovered clock signal to the ADC increases. Hence, there is a problem in that the quality of the clock signal is poor and accuracy of digital conversion is reduced.

Optical receiving apparatus and digital receiving circuit


The present invention relates to methods for removing antiplatelet agents and anticoagulants from a platelet preparation. In one embodiment, the method includes the step of flowing the platelet preparation through a filtering tube comprising a filtering membrane and separating the antiplatelet agents and anticoagulants from the platelet preparation by tangential flow filtration. In another embodiment, the method includes the step of passing the platelet preparation through porous material that specifically binds to the antiplatelet agents and anticoagulants.

When blood vessels are damaged, cell fragments released from the bone marrow, called platelets, adhere to the walls of blood vessels and form clots to prevent blood loss. It is important to have adequate numbers of normally functioning platelets to maintain effective clotting, or coagulation, of the blood. Occasionally, when the body undergoes trauma, or when the platelets are unable to function properly, it is necessary to replace or transfer platelet components of blood into a patient. Most commonly, platelets are obtained from volunteer donors either as a component of a whole blood unit, or via plateletpheresis (withdrawing only platelets from a donor and re-infusing the remaining of the blood back into the donor). The platelets then are transferred to a patient as needed, a process referred to as "platelet transfusion".
Platelet transfusion is indicated under several different scenarios. For example, an acute blood loss, either during an operation or as a result of trauma, can cause the loss of a large amount of platelets in a short period of time. Platelet transfusion is necessary to restore a normal ability to control blood flow, or haemostasis. In a medical setting, an individual can develop a condition of decreased number of platelets, a condition known as thrombocytopenia. The condition can occur as a result of chemotherapy, and requires platelet transfusion to restore normal blood clotting.
Unlike red blood cells, which can be stored for forty-five (45) days, platelets can be stored for only five to seven days. The short storage term, or shelf-life, of the platelets severely limits the useful span for a platelet supply. A consequence of this short shelf-life is that platelets must be collected close to their time of use, which makes it extremely difficult to coordinate platelet collection and platelet supply.
One reason that platelets have such a short shelf-life is because they become activated during the process of collection. The activation process leads to externalization of platelet canalicular surfaces exposing receptor sites, such as GPIIb/IIIa. Phosphatidylserine residues on activated platelets tend to cause platelet aggregation, which results in cell death (i.e., apoptosis) upon re-infusion into patients. Thus, a platelet functional half-life is significantly reduced.
Another reason that platelets have a short shelf-life is because an inadequate oxygen supply alters the metabolic activity of the platelets. In an environment lacking a sufficient oxygen supply, the platelets undergo an anaerobic mechanism leading to accumulation of lactic acid. The increased concentration of lactic acid causes a drop in pH, and results in cell death. Although platelets can be stored in gas permeable bags using a shaker bath under a stream of air to help overcome this problem, such storage methods are costly and extremely inefficient and inadequate in meeting the oxygen requirements of the stored platelets.
Platelet sterility is difficult to maintain because platelets cannot be stored at low temperatures, for example −80° C. to 40° C. As previously mentioned, a low storage temperature for the platelets initiates an activation process within the platelets that leads to aggregation and cell death. Nonetheless, bacterial growth in the platelet medium at suitable storage temperatures, e.g., room temperature, can lead to an unacceptable occurrence of bacterial contamination in platelets used for transfusion. As a result, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) limits the storage time of platelets to five days, thereby safeguarding the transfusion supply from bacterial contamination.
Antiplatelet agents and/or anticoagulants have been utilized for the preservation of platelets. These preservative agents, when added to freshly collected platelets, either by the huffy coat method or by aphaeresis, permit extended storage of platelets in a temperature range of −80° C. to 40° C., while maintaining the stability of platelets as well as their functionality when transfused.
The antiplatelet agents and anticoagulants, however, need to be removed from the platelets storage bags prior to transfusion into the patient, thereby eliminating any concerns of adverse effects of the preservative agents.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method of filtering platelets to remove antiplatelet and anticoagulant agents


A Solid State Drive (SSD) is disclosed. The SSD may include a flash memory to store data and support for a number of device streams. The SSD may also include an SSD controller to manage reading data from and writing data to the flash memory. The SSD may also include a host interface logic, which may include a receiver to receive the commands associated with software streams from a host, a timer to time a window, a statistics collector to determine values for at least one criterion for the software streams from the commands, a ranker to rank the software streams according to the values, and a mapper to establish a mapping between the software streams and device streams.

Multi-streaming Solid State Drives (SSDs) allow smart placement of incoming data to minimize the effect of internal garbage collection (GC) and to reduce write amplification. Multi-streaming may be achieved by adding a simple tag (a stream ID) to each of the write requests sent from the host to the SSD. Based on this tag, the SSD may group data into common blocks.
In large computer systems, applications may open many files simultaneously. Ideally, each file type should have its own stream ID assigned when performing stream writes. However, SSDs only support a limited number of active write streams to be available at one time, which often it is not enough to cover all files opened by the system.
A need remains for a way to manage mapping streams from the host machine to the SSD.

Method of consolidate data streams for multi-stream enabled SSDs


A fusing unit and a fusing apparatus using the fusing unit are provided. The fusing unit includes a pipe-shaped fusing roller having a heat generating unit and electrode members at both ends thereof. A power supply unit contacts the electrode members and supplies current thereto. A blocking member is disposed between the electrode members and the power supply units to block current by separating the power supply unit from the electrode members when a temperature of the heat generating unit rapidly increases.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a fusing apparatus having current blocking means blocking current applied to a heating roller to substantially prevent overheating of the heating roller, and an image forming apparatus using the fusing apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, a color image forming apparatus using an electrophotography scheme is an apparatus for forming a color image by irradiating light on a photosensitive medium charged with a predetermined electric potential to form an electrostatic latent image corresponding to an image. The electrostatic latent image is developed with predetermined color toners. The developed image is transferred and fused on a print medium.
FIG. 1 is a longitudinal cross sectional view schematically showing a construction of a conventional fusing apparatus.
Referring to FIG. 1, a fusing apparatus 10 includes a fusing unit 11 and a pressing roller 15 facing the fusing unit 11.
The fusing unit 11 is a unit applying heat to a toner image transferred on a print medium 17 and includes a pipe-shaped cylindrical fusing roller 12 and a heat generating unit 14 generating heat by using current transmitted from an external power supply (not shown) provided to an inner side of the fusing roller 12.
A release layer 13, which is preferably made of an elastic material to improve releasability to the toner image, is provided on a circumferential surface of the fusing roller 12.
Radiation energy (heat) generated by the heat generating unit 14 is transmitted to the fusing roller 12 through air charged in an inner portion of the fusing roller 12 and converted to thermal energy by an opto-thermal conversion layer (not shown) coated on an inner side surface of the fusing roller 12 to heat the fusing roller 12, and then the release layer 13 is heated up to a predetermined fusing temperature due to thermal conduction.
A pressing roller 15 facing the fusing unit 10 through a print medium 17 is disposed under the fusing unit 11. The pressing roller 15 is elastically supported by a spring member 16 to press the print medium 17 passing between the fusing unit 10 and the pressing roller 15 toward the fusing unit 11.
At this time, the powder-state toner image 18 transferred on the print medium 17 is pressed and heated with predetermined pressure and heat while the print medium 17 passes between the fusing unit 11 and the pressing roller 15. The toner image 18 is fused on the print medium 17 with predetermined temperature heat and pressure by the fusing unit 11 and the pressing roller 15.
A thermostat 20 is disposed over the fusing unit 11 for stopping power supply to prevent overheating of the surface temperature of the release layer 13 when the surface temperature rapidly increases. A thermistor 30 is disposed over the fusing unit 11 for measuring the surface temperatures of the fusing roller 12 and the release layer 13.
However, the thermostat 20 is located at a position separated from the fusing unit 11 by a distance of about 1 mm to 2 mm, and a temperature of a surface of the release layer 13 is not directly sensed. Instead, the thermostat 20 measures a temperature of air heated around the release layer 13.
Therefore, due to the separation of the thermostat 20 and the fusing unit 11, response capability is deteriorated, and the power supply cannot be instantaneously blocked when an abnormal state occurs due to actual overheating. Thus, a problem exists that an emergency, such as a fire, may occur.
Therefore, a need exists for an image forming apparatus having an improved fusing unit adapted to substantially block current transfer when a temperature of the fusing roller rapidly increases.

Fusing unit and fusing apparatus using the same


Human Interaction Proofs (“HIPs”, sometimes referred to as “captchas”), may be generated automatically. An captcha specification language may be defined, which allows a captcha scheme to be defined in terms of how symbols are to be chosen and drawn, and how those symbols are obscured. The language may provide mechanisms to specify the various ways in which to obscure symbols. New captcha schemes may be generated from existing specifications, by using genetic algorithms that combine features from existing captcha schemes that have been successful. Moreover, the likelihood that a captcha scheme has been broken by attackers may be estimated by collecting data on the time that it takes existing captcha schemes to be broken, and using regression to estimate the time to breakage as a function of either the captcha's features or its measured quality.

A human interaction proof (HIP), which is sometimes referred to as a "captcha," is a mechanism that is used to distinguish human users from robots. Many services that are available on the web—e.g., e-mail, blogs, social networks, access to patent databases, etc.—are gated by captchas. In a typical captcha scheme, letters and numbers are displayed on a screen as graphics in some way that is designed to obscure the letters and numbers. A user has to type the letters and numbers into a box as a form of proof that the user is human. The theory behind captchas is that recognizing symbols that intentionally have been obscured is a hard problem that demands the flexibility of the human brain. Thus, captchas are something akin to an applied Turing test.
A problem that arises with captchas is that they can be broken in various ways. Once a particular captcha scheme has been in use for some amount of time, the obscured symbols become recognizable in the sense that optical character recognition (OCR) systems can be trained to recognize them. OCR is thus an automated way of breaking captchas, and it can work as long as there is enough data on which to train the OCR. The training data can be generated by human captcha solvers, or can even be generated just by guessing solutions and analyzing which guesses succeed and which ones fail. Since captchas themselves can be used as training data, for as long as a captcha scheme is in use it continues to generate training data that can be used to break the scheme. Thus, captcha schemes generally have a limited shelf life, after which they are likely to have been broken. In addition to OCR, another way to break a captcha scheme is to use inexpensive human labor to solve captchas. Captchas can be transmitted electronically anywhere in the world (including places where labor is inexpensive), and teams of people can be employed to solve captchas. The solved captchas can be used in real-time, or the solutions can be stored and used as training data for OCR systems, thereby allowing human breaking to feed the process of automated breaking.
Since captchas are used to ensure, probabilistically, that services are being used by humans rather than machines, in order for captchas to continue to serve their intended purpose, the captcha schemes often have to be changed. But changing the captcha scheme involves designing and testing a new scheme, which can be labor intensive. Thus, new captcha schemes generally are not designed and deployed as frequently as they could be.

Automatic construction of human interaction proof engines


A bait bag and hook combination is provided for use in fishing. The bait bag and hook combination includes a bag that is fixedly mounted on the hook in such a way that the bag does not hinder the hooks ability to impale game fish. The bag includes an easy-opening and re-closing apparatus for efficient refilling of the bag. In addition, the bag is made up of material that is durable enough to withstand the underwater environment, but is also permeable enough to release the scent of the bait contained inside.

In fishing, there are many methods of attracting game fish, including live bait, artificial lures, and a combination of both. Often, artificial lures are used to imitate live prey and are designed to be drawn through the water. Other times, live bait is impaled on a hook and plunged into the water with hopes that its movement will attract predators. The use of live bait has proven to be more effective with certain types of game fish, such as catfish, because of its genuine smell and taste. A modification of this method has seen that it is advantageous to attach minced bait to the hook to minimize the chance that the bait will be lost to weeds or predators, while accentuating the authentic taste and smell.
When a fisherman desires to use live bait, the bait is typically impaled on a hook. However, by forcing the hook through the bait, the bait is thereby injured and will die relatively quickly. Once dead, the bait in incapable of independent movement and will not exhibit the distress signals that attract fish. Forcing a hook through the bait also weakens the tissue of the bait which makes the bait susceptible to falling off the hook.
In addition to the visual attraction of the bait, the scent and also the distress signals given off by small animals or insects are used by fish to locate food sources, and hence can be used to attract fish to a baited hook. A wide variety of pellets, which contain various scents intended to attract different fish are now available to fishermen. However, this bait is relatively expensive and difficult to retain on a conventional hook.
The present inventor has recognized the need to provide a fishing lure in which the bait is securely retained, and which improves the attractiveness of the bait to the fish.
If a bait animal or insect can be retained alive then it will continue to emit distress signals, e.g. vibrations of various frequencies which may or may not be audible to the human ear, that attract appropriate game fish. The present inventor has recognized the need to provide a fishing lure or bait holder in which live bait remains alive and intact for a lengthy period.
It is known to use an attachment apparatus, such as a permeable bag or basket, near the hook to secure the bait while releasing the desired attractants. Such apparatuses are described for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 856,867; 2,780,021; and 5,319,875.
One problem with prior known bait devices is with the manual dexterity associated with placing the bait on the hook or in the cage or cavity while in a boat or standing in a stream in weather that is less than perfect. A fisherman's hands can get cold, wet and slippery from repeated dunking in the water or in releasing fish from the hook. Making snapping and unsnapping the parts of a lure a difficult and a time-consuming operation.
Lures can undergo much stress during casting of the lure, reeling it through the water, and fighting a captured fish. In each of these situations, great stress is placed on the lure, especially on the assembled parts. The present inventor has recognized the need for a rugged and reusable bit device or lure.
The present inventor has recognized the desirability for a bait attachment bag that does not interfere or obstruct the effectiveness of the hook in prior known bait bags, such as in U.S. Patents 856,867 and 2,780,021, the bag engulfs the hook and may, on occasion, reduce the hook's likelihood of snaring the desired game fish.
The present inventor has recognized the desirability for providing a bait attachment bag that is easy to repeatedly open, refill and close, or open to clean. In prior known bait bags, the bag needs to be untied and retied in order to change the bait or to clean the bag. This is not an effortless task, especially when doing so after the bait has been dipped in cold water and exposed to muck and weeds.
The present inventor has recognized the desirability for a bait attachment bag that has significant longevity regardless of getting caught in weeds and being submerged in water for extended periods of time. Prior art bait bags, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,319,875 that are made of metal or contain metal parts may have reduced usability if extended exposure to water has caused rusted parts.
The present inventor has also recognized the desirability for a bait bag that is easily opened, filled and closed by a fisherman with limited manual dexterity, such as an elderly fisherman or one who has lost the use of a hand.


Cryostat systems comprise first and second liquid interconnected helium baths, and a magnet structure which is immersed in one of the baths. The liquid helium is cooled by means of a pumped refrigeration means. The pumped refrigeration means is replaced with a pulse tube refrigerator which can be located directly within the two baths. The pulse tube refrigerator has a "cold finger" having cold and warm ends. The cold end extracts into the bath housing the coil structure and has heat exchange connected thereto. The pulse tube refrigerator can also serve to cool the radiation shields.

The present invention relates to cryostat systems in the field of NMR spectroscopy and related experimental fields of application but not limited thereto, and in particular to high-field NMR systems having pulse tube coolers operating in the sub-helium temperature range.
This type of spectroscopy is presently one of the most exact analytic methods when looking at highly complex chemical and biological molecules and makes it possible to reveal a variety of findings which have not been possible up to now.
More specifically, the present invention relates to the cryostat of NMR systems, and in particular aims directly at high-field NMR applications. The most recent commercially available high-field magnet systems show a proton resonance frequency V.sub.R of about 750 MHz, which corresponds to a field of about 17.63 Tesla. For certain applications higher fields are required, e.g. 900 MHz which corresponds to 21.1 T and even higher fields to reach the GigaHertz region. Spectroscopy requires high field strength and low field drift, usually in the region of 10.sup.-8 per hour or less of the central field strength. Both of these may be achieved by using present-day standard Nb.sub.3 Sn or NbTi wires or tapes, in combination with HTC wire technology for 20 Tesla systems, as proposed by Komarek in Hochstromanwendung der Supraleitung, High-power applications in Superconductivity, Teubner Studienbucher, page 93 and 94, and by sub-cooling the helium bath in which the magnet is immersed. This sub-cooling of the helium bath is done by external means, most often by pumping the bath down to the required temperature by means of a pump assembly. The definition used herein for sub-cooling, actually refers to temperatures in the range below 4.2 K, in particular around the lambda transition point and down to 1.8 K in case large pumps are being used. Because of the low vapour pressure and film flow of helium any further reduction in temperature is difficult to achieve. At a saturated vapour pressure of about 50 mbar a transition occurs at T.lambda.=2.172 K which is termed the lambda point. At this point, liquid helium I and liquid helium II are separated by the common boundary phase, called the lambda line. It is also a well known fact that when pumping the system down to 2.172 K helium creep may be detected in the vicinity of the heat exchanging surface due to the change in physical properties of liquid helium as a result of reducing the vapour pressure.
It is well known in high-field NMR systems that pumping down a helium bath uses both open and closed loop control systems technology attached to the cryostat. Pumping down means reducing the overall pressure of the helium bath down to 60 mbar or lower.
A typical high-field system is described in GB patent number 2286450A.
In order to run the system unattended, the control of the pump assembly maintaining the sub-cooled temperature in the helium bath as well as the feedback control of the flow rate of the pumped helium gas controlling the helium bath temperature must be monitored continuously, which in turn means additional costs for investment and maintenance. If the pumping system fails, the helium bath and magnet will begin warming towards 4.2 K, and the magnet will quench. In order to prevent this happening, and ensure continuous operation, equipment redundancy is required which also means additional costs. A further shortcoming of such a pumped system could be the pipe work of the pumping system connected to the cryostat, as this could be a permanent source of vibration transmitted to the internal components of the cryostat, e.g. the radiation shields and other parts receptive of vibration. A further shortcoming of such a pumped system could be the increased penetration of ice into the system due to the under pressure. This could cause severe problems as ice could gradually build up within the turrets, e.g. starting to build up at electrical connections routed from the coil up to the tube inlet and into the neck tube, and virtually block the neck tubes without the user's knowledge. Thus, a pumped system also needs permanent inspection, electronic monitoring and maintenance.
Reducing the gas pressure in the vessel housing the magnet sections also means that a control mechanism has to be introduced to the 2.2 K stage. This control mechanism usually is a special valve, probably a needle valve with which extremely low flow rates can be achieved. Because of the small flow rate, which in fact is termed `leakage flow rate`, this leakage flow has to be controlled by setting it from the accessible warm end of the valve spindle. Care has to be taken so that ice will not penetrate into the system. Due to the under pressure, i.e. suction process within the valve system, provision has to be made to safeguard against particles penetrating the valve seat which would make it impossible to set the desired flow rate. Also as has been mentioned above, this system could be subject to icing problems which are most likely to occur during warm-up and cool-down or when ice would enter from the top vessel, which in turn makes it difficult, if not impossible to adjust the flow rate. Furthermore, this type of precision control elements are expensive and add to the overall costs of the NMR system.
In order to achieve a stable temperature at the lambda temperature level, approximately 40% of the enthalpy of the liquid helium has to be withdrawn out of the low helium reservoir and has to be added to the total boil-off in a pumped system. Hence, a pumped system inherently shows an increased boil-off of liquid helium and added overall running and maintenance costs which are higher than with 4.2 K dewars of comparable size.
In summary, a sub-cooled system presents a challenge in that the overall structure and layout is more complicated and subject to failure than cryostats operating at the normal boiling point of liquid helium.
It has not previously been feasible to introduce a piston-driven cryo-cooler into a NMR system, because of the induced vibration to the overall system, to the magnet which makes it impossible to attain a good NMR signal without distortion and also because of the non-availability of low-temperature cryo-coolers in general for this temperature region.
Meanwhile, the current technology in cryo-coolers has considerably advanced and it is possible to achieve temperatures as low as 2.13 K even with piston-less systems. This would mean, as has been emphasised above, that this temperature region could be achieved without pumping and the bath actually behaves just like any other 4.2 K system.
A cooler which gives a cooling capacity at lambda temperatures will be called a lambda cooler in the following description.
Therefore, the aim of the present invention is to provide a non-pumped mechanical cooling system to a high-field NMR system.
According to the present invention there is provided a cryostat system comprising means defining first and second volumes of cooling liquid, a superconducting magnetic coil structure immersed within one of said volumes of cooling liquid, and cooling means for maintaining an operating temperature of the coil structure in the sub-helium temperature range, characterised in that said cooling means is a pulse tube refrigerator which extends into said first and second volumes of cooling liquid.
The pulse tube refrigerator includes a cold end and a heat exchanger connected thereto which extends into the volume of liquid in which the coil structure is immersed.
The pulse tube refrigerator can conveniently be incorporated in an existing neck tube to reduce the boil-off of cooling liquid.
The warm end of the pulse tube refrigerator may be pre-cooled by either a further pulse tube refrigerator operating at 80 K, or by being directly thermally linked to the liquid nitrogen temperature level and/or at the lower temperature of the radiation shields at the internal linking position in the turnet.
The pulse tube refrigerator may also be used to support and cool the radiation shields.
The pulse tube refrigerator, if it is designed to be rigid, may also be used both to support and cool the radiation shields in the case of a multistage cooler, and simultaneously to support the neck tube, thus suspending the magnet system.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.


A magnetic field therapy apparatus includes a first wire coil, a second wire coil and an electrically conductive member connecting the coils in series. The coils are wound in the same direction. In a preferred embodiment the coils are wrapped around a single bobbin, with the first coil forming a bottom layer and the second coil wrapped around the first coil and forming a top layer. AC power coupled to the coils energizes the coils and generates a magnetic field within the bobbin interior region. When current enters one coil it induces current in the other coil, thereby creating a scalar effect, producing energy in the form of a helix. The waves are identical, but out of phase temporally, that is, physically identical, but 180 degrees out of phase in terms of time. In an alternate embodiment, the coils may be on separate bobbins. A trigger may be applied to the part of a body undergoing therapy.

The use of electromagnetic energy as a therapeutic aid for various types of ailments is documented in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,518,495, issued May 21, 1996 to Kolt discloses a magnetic field therapy apparatus wherein a single coil is connected to a source of commercially available AC power, illustratively, 120 volts at 60 Hertz, for applying the resulting magnetic field to an appendage of a human being as well as body portions thereof.
Such a configuration, however, generates an electromagnetic field with a comparatively lower frequency and energy while using a comparatively higher current or power to operate. In many circumstances, the prior art is generally related to non-portable devices and thus require an individual to travel to a doctor's or therapist's office since the patient is unable to utilize the equipment from home. Typically, a DC source is utilized to create the resulting magnetic field instead of a commercially available AC power source. Even where a commercially available AC power source is used, the magnetic field strength at a desired point is limited to the 60 Hertz cycle. The source of AC current may further be connected to a transformer to vary the resulting voltage, but it will still exhibit the 60 Hertz cycle. Such devices are often complicated to operate and expensive to manufacture. Accordingly, the prior art has not taken into account the beneficial effects of a lightweight portable apparatus that is reliable, inexpensive and suitable for treating or at least giving relief to biological subjects who suffer from tumors, arthritis and other ailments utilizing an AC power source to create a magnetic field derived from a frequency greater than 60 Hertz.
These and other deficiencies were solved by increasing the number of coils from a singular coil to two concentric electrically connected coils. Two concentrically electrically connected coils have the benefit of substantially doubling the frequency, nearly halving the requisite amperage with a minimal increase in voltage. Further, a somewhat rigid non-conductive material such as epoxy, or the like, may be placed between the two concentric coils to maintain a substantially constant distance between them to assist in creating a more uniform electromagnetic field. Additionally, a trigger at least partially constructed of a magnet, electrically conductive material, or the like, may be worn by a biological subject brought within proximity of or near the two-coils to influence the generated electromagnet field to the trigger area.

K-Ring electromagnetic treatment apparatus, system and method for tumors, arthritis and other ailments


A method for preparing a friction element from rod-like particles of friction ingredients includes preheating the particles, which have a diameter of about 3/32" to about 1/4", to a temperature between 150.degree. F. and 375.degree. F., introducing a predetermined amount of the preheated rod-like particles into a friction element mold, and compressing the preheated rod-like particles under heat and pressure to form the friction element. Compositions for forming the rod-like particles are disclosed.

Currently, molded friction elements as installed in vehicle brake systems are molded from a blended mixture of friction ingredients that are loose, bulky and dusty blends of resinous binders, reinforcing fibers, friction and wear controlling agents and inexpensive fillers. The mix is loose, bulky and dusty because the ingredients are in the form of fine powders, small and larger granules and fibers.
Powdered phenolic thermosetting resins are the binder of choice for a variety of braking applications. These heat resistant resins serve to bond the other ingredients into a solid, infusible mass when molded to final shape under the effects of heat and pressure. The reinforcing fibers are used to impart physical strength, heat stability and, to a limited extent, friction properties to the finished element. The friction and wear controlling agents are typically granules and powders of carbonaceous materials which impart and maintain the friction level and wear resistance. The inexpensive fillers are generally powdered minerals used to fill space and enhance some properties.
The formulas of the compositions used to make friction elements for specific applications are usually developed experimentally, confirmed by testing and, to a considerable extent, are held confidential. However, generally accepted volume ranges for the various friction ingredients in the compositions are as follows:
______________________________________ % Volume Friction Ingredient general preferred ______________________________________ Binders 10-35 20-30 Reinforcing Fibers 0-50 5-25 Friction & Wear Controlling Agents 20-80 35-45 Fillers 20-70 20-30 ______________________________________
As a general rule, the binder content of a friction element is kept to a minimum. No more binder resin is used than is necessary to sufficiently bond the other ingredients into a solid, infusible mass when molded under heat and pressure. The minimum binder volume required will be determined by the types of friction ingredients used and, to a large extent, by the processes used to manufacture the final friction element.
Binder content is minimized because the organic resins used may be subjected to temperatures above their decomposition points. Partial decomposition of the binder at high service temperatures results in the formation of gases at the friction interface which lowers the element's braking effectiveness. This loss in effectiveness at elevated temperatures is referred to as brake "fade". The greater the element's binder content, the greater the effects of brake fade. Also, binders traditionally comprise a large percentage of the friction element's cost which provides an additional incentive to reduce its content.
The general process for the production of friction elements is described as follows: the desired amounts of the powdered binder resin, fibers, fillers and other ingredients are dry mixed. The bulk density of the resulting dry mix, which is a loose, bulky, dusty mass of powder, is less than half that of the molded element's final density. The mix must be carefully handled to avoid settling and separation of its powdered, granular, and fibrous ingredients.
It is current industry practice to first produce from the loose, bulky, dusty dry mix, prior to molding and at room temperature, a fragile preform in the near net shape of the final friction element. The preforms are made to the near net shape of the final element because, as a minimum amount of binder is used in friction elements to avoid brake fade, the dry mix has a very low propensity to flow and uniformly fill the mold cavity when heat and pressure is applied. The low resin content also results in weak and easily broken preforms which must be specially and carefully handled when transferred to a heated mold cavity for forming into final shape. The hot, pressurized molding step causes the resinous binder to melt, flow and coat the material's fillers. The thermosetting resin then crosslinks and cures to an infusible state. After ejection from the hot mold, the element may be cured further in an oven. When cool, the friction element is machined to final size, catalogued and packaged for market.
Preforming the dry mix prior to hot press molding helps eliminate some, but not all, of the unwanted air that can otherwise be trapped within the friction element. As the thermosetting resin crosslinks and cures during the molding step, gaseous byproducts such as water vapor and ammonia are produced. These vapors, along with the trapped air in the preform, will, if retained within the molding, result in unacceptable defects in the form of blisters, voids and delaminations in the final friction element.
In an effort to avoid such defects, it is current industry practice to frequently open the hot mold cavity during molding to allow the entrapped vapors to escape. The mold cavity is then closed and pressure reapplied so the fissures and delaminations created by the escaping vapors are sealed. This repeated opening and closing of the mold cavity is termed "breathing" or "bumping" the press. Press "bumping" cycles are continued until the binder has hardened so that the described defects will not result when the element is ejected from the mold.
Press bumping must be carefully and correctly timed so the resin has enough flow and reactivity to completely seal the voids and delaminations created by the escaping vapors. These delaminations and unsealed fissures will diminish the physical integrity of the element. Also, partially sealed fissures may delaminate when the element experiences rapid frictional heating during service. This problem has led to recalls of friction elements. Thus, press breathing, while employed to reduce defects, is time consuming, lowers productivity, and also causes product quality uncertainty.
The negative factors involved with the current methods of manufacturing friction elements can be circumvented by transforming the loose, bulky, dusty mix into a dense, regular geometry that lends itself to preheating prior to mold charging. As preheating starts the binder's curing reaction before the mixture is placed in the mold much less time is required to cure the mass of material to an infusible state. Thus, preheating the mixture is highly desirable because preheating enables more rapid molding cycles. In addition, the number of required press "bumps" may be reduced or even eliminated by preheating the charge of friction ingredients.
While high frequency radio waves, or oscillating magnetic fields, may be used to preheat specific friction material compositions, hot pressurized gas preheat systems appear to be the most economical and universally available method for preheating friction ingredients of all types. The inability to uniformly preheat conventional preforms of dry mixed friction ingredients with hot gas systems results from the mix's low density and subsequent low thermoconductivity. As heat transfer from the surface to the center is poor, simple convection or forced air ovens quickly heat and cure the binder on a preform's surface while its interior remains cool. Thus, no advantage is realized by hot gas preheating materials produced by the currently practiced dry mix preform method.
Preheating with hot, pressurized gas, requires that the friction material mix be densified in some way to improve its thermoconductivity. However, the densified particles must not be manufactured in a way that reduces the binder's plasticity to a point where the material will not flow and fuse during hot press molding. Also, as the goal is to manufacture friction elements as efficiently as possible, extra manufacturing steps such as filtering, drying, pressing, grinding or classification, which add cost and complexity to the process, should be avoided. In addition, the size and shape of the densified mix must be such that open channels are formed within a material charge to allow the hot gas to freely flow throughout all parts of the charge to assure uniform preheat.
In using hot gas preheat systems, it must be noted that while very hot air would quickly heat the friction material charge prior to molding, the preheat air must not precure the binder on the surface of a densified particle before adequately heating the interior. Therefore, while the initial thermal gradient from the particle's surface to its center must be relatively low, fast efficient preheat may be obtained by minimizing that distance. However, the particles must not be so small that they are carried away by the gas stream creating dust, or pack in a way to minimize the size of the open channels or cause large channels to form through which most of the preheat air preferentially flows.
A number of methods have been proposed for densifying a mix of friction ingredients. These methods include adding liquid solvents or cements, subjecting the mix to agglomeration techniques, or by extruding or pressing the mix followed by pulverization into a granular material. However, when put into practice these densification methods have been found to be ineffective, mainly because they add costly and complicated drying, recovery, pressing, grinding or screening steps to the manufacturing process. In addition, the densified particles obtained by these methods vary in size from inches in diameter down to small grains. The large particle size distribution results in dust generation and hinders uniform preheating with hot gas because the smaller particles quickly heat while the larger particles remain much cooler.
Thus, the problem lies in how to prepare the friction material mixtures in a way to make preheating with pressurized gas viable. We find that uncured friction material compositions formed into dense, cylindrical rod-like particles satisfies the requirements needed for efficient preheating with pressurized gas. The unique shape of the rod-like particles allows the diameter of the particle to be minimized while the length allows for the formation of a homogeneous matrix of air channels within a charge of particles. These rod-like particles are made to regular and uniform diameters on the order of 3/32" to 1/4". If the densified particles are not of the same approximate size, smaller particles will quickly heat and precure while larger particles remain unaffected resulting in a nonuniform preheat which is undesirable. The length of the rod-like particle may vary as length is more critical to particle integrity than to preheat uniformity. We have found lengths of 1/8" to 3/4" to be ideal for this purpose.

Preparation of friction elements and compositions therefor


A method of making a stent includes a three-dimensional printer receiving a dataset corresponding to a three-dimensional precursor stent. The three-dimensional printer forms a precursor stent. The precursor stent comprises a plurality of bands disposed adjacent to each other, wherein each band comprises a plurality of struts connected by a plurality of crowns, and a plurality of connectors connecting each band to an adjacent band. The precursor stent is processed to remove a selected number of the plurality of connectors between adjacent bands such that at least one connector between each set of adjacent bands is removed. In an embodiment, only one connector remains between each adjacent band after the selected number of connectors have been removed.

A wide range of medical treatments exist that utilize stents or endoluminal prostheses. As used herein, the term "stent" is intended to cover medical devices that are adapted for temporary or permanent implantation within a body lumen, including both naturally occurring and artificially made lumens, such as without limitation: arteries, whether located within the coronary, mesentery, peripheral, or cerebral vasculature; veins; gastrointestinal tract; biliary tract; urethra; trachea; hepatic shunts; and fallopian tubes.
Accordingly, different stents have been developed, each providing a uniquely beneficial structure to modify the mechanics of the targeted lumen wall. For example, stent prostheses are known for implantation within body lumens to provide artificial radial support to the wall tissue, which forms the various lumens within the body, and often more specifically, for implantation within the blood vessels of the body.
Stents have been made by a variety of methods, including forming a wire into waveform and helically wrapping the waveform around a mandrel, removing material from a tubular cylinder such as by a laser to leave a stent (sometimes referred to as a tubular slotted stent or laser cut stent), and forming individual cylindrical components and attaching adjacent cylindrical components to each other to form a tube. Such methods can be laborious, expensive, and time-consuming. It would be desirable to use rapid prototyping methods, such as three-dimensional printing, to make stents. However, rapid prototyping methods, when making stents with conventional shapes described below, do not allow for gaps between crowns of adjacent cylindrical elements or bands. In many applications, such as coronary arteries, stents need to be very flexible. Stents with all of the crowns of adjacent bands attached to each other are not sufficiently flexible for coronary applications.


An example power supply for supplying electrical power to an electronic device includes an AC to DC converter, power factor correction (PFC) circuitry, and a controller. The AC to DC converter is configured to convert an input AC power signal into a DC power signal. The PFC circuitry is configured to correct a power factor of the DC power signal. The controller is configured to monitor an amount of correction (φ) being applied to the DC power signal by the PFC circuitry and to shut down supply of power to the electronic device in response to φ being within a first threshold of zero degrees for a second threshold amount of time.

A power supply is a device that can provide power to an electronic device, such as a server. For example, a power supply may convert power from a form that is not suitable for the electronic device (such as an alternating current (AC) power signal) into a form that is suitable for the electronic device (such as direct current (DC) power signal having a specific voltage).
Some power supplies include power factor correction (PFC) circuits that correct the power factor of the power drawn by the power supply. In particular, active PFC circuits work to ensure that the waveforms of the current drawn by the power supply and the voltage of the input AC power signal are congruent and in-phase—that is, that the phase difference between the current and voltage waveforms is as close to zero as possible and both waveforms have similar shapes (i.e., both are sinusoidal). For example, a PFC circuit may correct the power factor by using active circuitry to change the waveform of the current that is drawn to make it sinusoidal and reduce the phase difference.

Fault detection based on amount of PFC correction

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP


A catalytic thruster includes a reaction chamber that extends between first and second opposed chamber ends. The first chamber end includes a thermal standoff cup. There is a catalyst bed in the reaction chamber, and a feed tube extends into the reaction chamber through the thermal standoff cup.

Catalytic thrusters are used on satellites and other space vehicles for adjusting vehicle position, for example. Such thrusters can include a chamber that holds a catalyst, and a feed tube for delivering propellant into the chamber. The propellant reacts in the presence of the catalyst to generate a gas that is expelled through a nozzle to generate thrust. Such vehicles may be utilized for many years, and over the life of the vehicle the thruster may be operated through many thousands of firing cycles and accumulate in excess of a million pulses.


A highly efficient flash lamp simmer current circuit utilizes a fifty percent duty cycle square wave pulse generator to pass a current over a current limiting inductor to a full wave rectifier. The DC output of the rectifier is then passed over a voltage smoothing capacitor through a reverse current blocking diode to a flash lamp tube to sustain ionization in the tube between discharges via a small simmer current. An alternate embodiment of the circuit combines the pulse generator and inductor in the form of an FET off line square wave generator with an impedance limited step up output transformer which is then applied to the full wave rectifier as before to yield a similar simmer current.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention lies in the field of electronics and in particular relates to electrical circuits for producing a simmer current to high output flash lamps such as those made of Xenon and other ionization tubes where a certain population or degree of ionization is desired to be maintained. More specifically, the invention relates to electrical circuits for supplying a low and steady current to maintain ionization in a flash lamp load that customarily has a negative resistance at that level of current.
2. Description of Related Art
Pulsed lasers are commonly pumped to a population inversion with a high intensity light source. To provide this light, most pulsed lasers use flash lamps such as the standard Xenon flash lamp. In operation, the gas in the flash lamp tube must first be ionized with a high voltage before a current can be initiated. For Xenon, a voltage of about 40,000 volts is required to initiate a current. After current initiation, the voltage drop across the tube decreases rapidly to a few hundred volts. Thereafter, with a small, steady current through the flash lamp tube of approximately 100 milliamps, ionization will be maintained in a Xenon tube. This small, steady current is termed a "simmer current." When a high intensity flash pulse is desired, a high power electrical pulse is applied to the flash lamp, which in turn reliably produces the high intensity flash which then pumps the laser gain material.
Electrical characteristics of a flash lamp are illustrated in the FIG. 1 graph of voltage vs. current where three independent curves are drawn. In FIG. 1, the straight line curve labeled PS indicates the load line of a Power Supply for a simmer current to a flash lamp. PS indicates that at maximum voltage the power supply delivers minimum current, and at minimum voltage the supply would yield maximum current. Straight line curve RL is indicative of a typical Resistor Load that one might expect in any circuit. As the voltage increases so to does the current flow; at maximum voltage, we get maximum current and at minimum voltage, we get minimum current. On the other hand the unconventional or unusual Flash Lamp voltage vs. current load line is indicated in curve FL. It will be observed that a large voltage must be applied to initiate the current. Following current initiation, voltage decreases rapidly while current increases, resulting in a negative slope. For maximum operational efficiency, it is suggested to simmer a flash lamp at a voltage and current at an Optimum Point indicated as OP in FIG. 1.
Maintaining this operational point, however, creates a stability problem due to the negative resistance of the flash lamp. To address the stability problem, prior art teaches that a large resistor R need be coupled in series with a voltage source VS as illustrated in FIG. 2 to limit essentially infinite current flow at low voltage past the OP. The result is a circuit that works, but the power efficiency of such a prior art circuit is only 5 to 10%. A large amount of waste heat is produced in the resistor R, and a relatively large and bulky package is required for the physically large high power components.
The invention disclosed herein resolves the foregoing long standing limitations and prior art problems with a simmer current circuit in a unique and novel manner. The invention discloses an electrical circuit that provides a steady current to a negative resistance load such as a flash lamp that pumps a pulsed laser. Such a steady current can simmer the flash lamp so that it remains ionized throughout a series of pulses, while at the same time performing at a substantially higher efficiency (70 to 80%) in converting electrical energy to current through the flash lamp. By such means, the invention offers less heat generation, less loss of energy, less expense, longer life, as well as a much smaller, lighter and compact package of components.

The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy


A multiprocessor data processing system is described in which the function of coordinating the actions of all of the processors of the multiprocessor system can be assigned to any one of the processors of the system. In order to ensure assignment of the coordinator function to one, and only one, of the processors, particularly in the presence of failures, a standard multiprocessor resource assignment procedure is used. To this end, the right to the assignment of the coordinator function is treated as an exclusively used system resource. Each CPU requests the coordinator function and the already available resource assignment procedure assigns the coordinator function to the requester at the top of a requestor queue. Exclusive assignment of the coordinator function is thereby accomplished regardless of the number, order or timing of component failures, and without the necessity of providing a separate coordination assignment facility.

Distributed processing systems are computer data processing systems which use a plurality of digital processing units, whether geographically co-located or not, to perform complex data processing functions. When a single, or a plurality of related, data processing tasks are distributed among a plurality of hardware processing units, it is necessary to coordinate the data processing tasks to insure that intermediate results are available before initiating subsequent tasks using those results. It is also necessary to redo tasks the results of which are lost due to processor failure, to isolate failed hardware units and to recover from software errors and hardware faults.
In some distributed processing systems, the job of coordinating the plurality of processors is distributed or decentralized. In these decentralized systems, all processors perform identical functions and coordinate with the other processors by means of messages exchanged with these other processors. Such decentralized control systems are difficult to design and susceptible to failures in any one of the processors. This problem is overcome in centrally-controlled distributed processing systems, where one of the processors, under program control, is used to coordinate the activities of all of the other processors. However, since a failure of the coordinating processor renders the entire multiprocessing system unavailable, it is desirable to duplicate the coordinating capability in all of the processors. It is then necessary to assign the coordinating responsibility to an operative one of the processors at start-up or upon failure of the current coordinating processor.
It is therefore necessary in distributed processing systems with centralized control to provide a dynamic protocol or strategy for designating one, and only one, of the processors as the coordinating processor. Moreover, this strategy, and the mechanisms embodying the strategy, must be capable of assigning, at any time, one and only one processor as the coordinating processor, even in the presence of multiple, concurrent errors or failures.
Unfortunately, presently available systems for assigning the coordinating processor are complex, expensive and subject to multiple error failures. Such algorithms are described in "Auditor: A Framework for High Availability of DB/DC Systems" by W. Kim, IEEE 1982, and "Elections in a Distributed Computing System" by H. Garcia-Monina, IEEE Trans. on Computers, Vol. C-31, No. 1, January, 1982.

Methods and apparatus for efficient resource allocation