Biocontrol agents are provided, which protect plant and plant material from pests and pathogens, and promote the growth of plants. Also provided are compositions comprising the same, methods for protecting plant and plant material and promoting growth in plants, and uses of said biocontrol agent in the preparation of a pesticidal composition and a growth-promoting composition.

All publications mentioned throughout this application are fully incorporated herein by reference, including all references cited therein.
Plant pathogens challenge efforts to maximize crop production through their ability to rapidly develop resistance to pesticides, which can result in immense yield losses on an annual basis. One of the main research goals today involves the development of new tools to control pathogens.
Fungal biocontrol agents have become an important alternative to the use of chemicals due to environmental concerns. Biological control can be achieved by one or a combination of mechanisms: antibiosis, mycoparasitism, competition and induced resistance in the host plant. These mechanisms can hinder growth and development of the pathogen, thereby reducing disease. The complex mode of action of biocontrol agents reduces the ability of the pathogens to develop resistance. The development of a biocontrol agent starts with the discovery of antagonists, followed by isolation and characterization of their potential biocontrol activity.
A few biofungicidal products are commercially available in some countries, for example AQ10, which contains conidia of Ampelomyces quisqualis, and Sporodex, which is based on conidia of the yeast Pseudozyma flocculosa, both used for the control of powdery mildew. There are also some products based on Trichoderma spp., such as Throcodex and Thrichopel, which are used against gray mold, root rot and root wilt. However, the use of biological control is still only moderate relative to that of chemical fungicides [Paulitz, T. C. and Belanger, R. R. (2001) Annu Rev. Phytopathol. 39:103-133].
Epiphytic yeasts colonizing different plant surfaces are thought to have biocontrol activity and to provide a natural barrier against some plant pathogens [Avis, T. J. and Belanger, R. R. (2001) Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 67(2):956-960; Urquhart, E. J. and Punja, Z. K. (2002) Can. J. Microbiol. 48(3):219-229]. Biocontrol activity of yeasts and yeast-like fungi has been demonstrated for postharvest diseases [Spadaro, D., and Gullino, M. L. (2004) International Journal of Food Microbiology 91:185-194] and diseases in the greenhouse [Paulitz, T. C. and Belanger, R. R. (2001) Annu Rev. Phytopathol. 39(103-133)]. Pseudozyma spp. are a small group of yeast related to the Ustilaginales [Boekhout, T. (1995) General and Applied Microbiology 41(359-366)]. They are mostly epiphytic (derive moisture and nutrients from the air and rain) or saprophytic (grow on and derive their nourishment from dead or decaying organic matter), and they are non-pathogenic to plants and animals [Avis, T. J. and Belanger, R. R. (2002) FEMS Yeast Res 2(1):5-8]. Pseudozyma rugulosa and P. flocculosa have recently been found to exhibit biological activity against the different powdery mildews with which they are associated [Dik, A. J., et al. (1998) Eur. J. Plant Pathol. 104(413-423]. P. flocculosa has been found to secrete an unusual fatty acid that displays antibiotic activity against several pathogens [Avis, T. J. and Belanger, R. R. (2001) Appl Environ Microbiol 67(2):956-960; Avis, T. J., et al., (2001) Phytopathology 91(3):249-254;]. On the other hand, Avis et al. [Avis, T. J., et al., (2001) Phytopathology 91(3):249-254] found no colony collapse of powdery mildew (Sphaerotheca fuliginea (Schlechtend.:Fr.) Pollacci) and no production of antifungal fatty acids by Pseudozyma aphidis isolated from aphid secretions (isolate CBS 517.83). P. aphidis is a close relative of P. rugulosa [Begerow, D. and Bauer, R. (2000) Mycol. Res. 104(53-60)], which was first isolated from aphid secretions [Henninger, W. and Windisch, S. (1975) Arch. Microbiol. 105(1):47-48] but has also been found on plant surfaces [Allen, T. W., et al., (2004) Can. J. Microbiol. 50(10):853-860].
The inventors recently isolated the epiphytic yeast Pseudozyma aphidis (isolate L12) from strawberry leaves. Isolate L12 was associated with the collapse of powder mildew colonies. Data presented herein demonstrates that L12 secretes extracellular metabolites which inhibit several fungal and bacterial pathogens in vitro. In addition, application of L12 spores on detached tomato leaves or whole tomato plants in the greenhouse significantly reduced Botrytis cinerea infection. The inventors therefore further characterize the L12 isolate of P. aphidis, developing it as an efficient biocontrol agent against plant pathogens. The conditions needed for mass production of active culture are characterized by testing various temperatures and media and monitoring spore concentration and activity by B. cinerea bioassays. The establishment and spread of P. aphidis on the host plant using microscopy is assayed. The inventors also assay the secreted fraction of L12 against various pathogens in vitro. In addition, P. aphidis L12 spores are applied on tomato plants in the greenhouse and their ability to control fungal and bacterial pathogens in vivo is verified. The new and efficient biocontrol agents provided by the invention may thus contribute to reducing the amount of chemicals required for pathogen control, and as such can genuinely benefit farmers, consumers and the environment.
The inventors herein develop the practical application of P. aphidis L12 as a biocontrol agent based on naturally-occurring fungi that increase plant resistance to fungal, viral, bacterial, and insect infestations as well as enhancing growth. The presented results demonstrate the high potential of P. aphidis L12 for the control of fungal and bacterial plant pathogens that cause major damage to crop plants. Furthermore, the novelty of the isolate is that it is easy to produce, very stable and effective in low concentration. Chemicals that have traditionally been used to control food plant pathogens are being banned or are no longer effective and organic farmers are not allowed to use them. Other control strategies are either unavailable or impracticable. Driven by environmental concerns and the growing demand for organic products, there is a pressing need for the development of new biological defense strategies.
Thus, one object of the invention is the provision of a composition comprising Pseudozyma aphidis cells, components or products, providing improved plant resistance to pathogenic infection. Moreover, the invention further provides compositions for the treatment, amelioration, inhibition or elimination of an established infection or infestation.
Another object of the invention is the provision of a composition comprising Pseudozyma aphidis cells, components or products, for the induction of plant immune response.
Yet another object of the invention is the provision of a composition comprising Pseudozyma aphidis cells, components or products, for improving plant growth and yield.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.

Pseudozyma aphidis as a biocontrol agent against various plant pathogens

Yissum Research Development Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Ltd.


The present disclosure is directed to a method for reporting uplink buffer status of a relay station to a base station in a wireless network. The method includes monitoring an uplink buffer of the relay station communicating with the base station, where the uplink buffer comprises data to be transmitted from one or more user terminals to the base station. The method further includes sending an uplink buffer status report from the relay station to the base station, where the uplink buffer status report includes occupancy status information of the monitored uplink buffer and a number of user terminals having data queued up at the relay station to be transmitted to the base station.

With the proliferation of wireless networks, today, it is possible to extend network coverage to wider areas and even reach remote locations wirelessly. The 4th Generation (4G) of cellular wireless standards such as LTE-Advanced (Long Term Evolution) and IEEE 802.16j aims at significantly improving the wireless communication further. The introduction of relay stations in such wireless networks is directed to improve cell edge user throughput and enhance coverage of the eNodeBs (base stations). Relay stations serve smaller coverage area than eNodeBs. An eNodeB transfers data to and from one or more relay stations, which in turn serve user terminals (UTs) located in their coverage area.
For transmitting data from the UTs to an eNodeB in the uplink, a UT sends the data via a relay station. In such a scenario, the relay station ensures the delivery of user data from the UT to the base station. In other words, the user data from the UT to be transmitted to the base station is buffered at the relay station serving the UT. Since, the base station is unaware of the number of UTs that have uplink data buffered at the relay station, it may not be able to reserve sufficient uplink resources for all the UTs as per their requirements. This can result in degraded quality of service.
In existing cellular systems, uplink buffer status reporting by UTs is quite prevalent. For example, in LTE, each UT transmits an uplink buffer status report to its serving eNodeB indicating a quantized amount of uplink data pending in the UTs' buffer for different logical channel groups. The purpose of this technique is to enable the eNodeB to give the requisite amount of uplink resources to the UTs.
Further, IEEE 802.16j/D5 (2008-05-30) describes that the exact single user information and the bandwidth requested need to be sent by the relay to the base station to enable the base station to schedule the user on the relay-user access link.
None of the foregoing techniques address issues related to uplink transmission from UTs to a base station using a relay station in a way that ensures optimal quality of service to the UTs with reduced overhead. Therefore, there exists a need for a method to uplink user data from user terminals to a base station via a relay station without the need to send the detailed information of the UTs yet ensuring that all the user terminals get acceptable quality of service.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.

Uplink buffer status reporting of relay stations in wireless networks


A receiver circuit includes a first circuit having two modes of operation controlled by a feedback loop. The feedback loop is connected to an output of the first circuit, and the modes of operation include a first mode having a quicker response to an input falling signal edge than a second mode and a second mode with a quicker response to an input rising signal edge than the first mode. A driver stage is integrated into the first circuit to favor the rising edge or the falling edge in accordance with a control signal provided by the feedback loop.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to receiver circuits, and more particularly, to a receiver circuit adapted to both receive and drive signals which is immune from noise superimposed to a signal during or after a signal transition.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital circuits may be subject to noisy signals. Noisy signals may result in bit errors when converting the analog waveforms to digital signals. Noise suppression can reduce noise. For example, in receiver circuits that convert (noisy) analog input signals to digital on-chip signals, hysteresis is one means to suppress noise. Instances of slope reversal caused by reflections on ill terminated signal traces and extremely slow transitions (e.g., in burn-in test setups for semiconductor device tests) superimposed with random noise can cause incomplete pulses and spikes of the on-chip digital signals. This can cause malfunction of circuitry that assumes certain minimum and maximum pulse widths.
A structure of a differential amplifier-based receiver is shown in FIG. 1. A first stage 10 includes an N-channel differential pair 11 with a P-channel current mirror 13. A second stage 12 is realized by an inverter 14. One advantage of this configuration is that a switch-point is very well defined by the reference voltage VREF. The switch-point is the input voltage level (VIN) at which the output switches. For good system performance, a hysteresis of about 5-10% of the input voltage (VIN) swing is desirable. For stub series terminated logic (SSTL-2, for example), this would be a few tens of mV""s.
In a conventional clock path, a clock signal is first converted to CMOS levels by receiver circuit 10. The CMOS levels are fed into a driving stage 20 which is capable of driving a large capacitive internal load of several pF""s (e.g., (Cload)
Driver stage 20 shapes the pulses to fine tune them for use by other circuits. Driver stage 20 may include an inverter driver stage, a self-reset skewed one-shot pulse shaper or a dual skewed driver stage (e.g. as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,128,555). Driver stage 20 requires a noise-free CMOS signal at its input to function properly.
Therefore, a need exists for a circuit which incorporates both receiver and driver functions in a single unit to reduce the overall delay and power consumption over prior art solutions.
A receiver circuit includes a first circuit having two modes of operation controlled by a feedback loop. The feedback loop is connected to an output of the first circuit, and the modes of operation include a first mode having a quicker response to an input falling signal edge than a second mode and a second mode with a quicker response to an input rising signal edge than the first mode. A driver stage is integrated into the first circuit to favor the rising edge or the falling edge in accordance with a control signal provided by the feedback loop.
In other embodiments, the driver stage may include an inverter chain. The inverter chain preferably includes NMOS and PMOS transistors, the NMOS and the PMOS transistors having skewed strengths to favor one of the rising and falling edges. The driver stage is preferably capable of driving digital and analog signals input thereto. At least one current source is preferably coupled to the driver stage to provide driving current to the output in accordance with the control signal. The first circuit may include a switching circuit having switching elements switched by the control signal to alternately select circuit elements which favor a rising edge and a falling edge. The first circuit may include a differential amplifier. The feedback loop may include delay elements such that noise after a transition in the input signals is suppressed for a delay period provided by the delay elements. The feedback loop may be programmable to adjust the delay period provided by the delay elements. The feedback loop may be controlled by a control circuit to adjust the delay period provided by the delay elements. The delay period may be controlled in accordance with an input signal input to the receiver circuit.
Another receiver circuit includes a first stage having an input for receiving input signals and an output node, the first stage including an amplifier. A second stage has an input coupled to the output of the first stage. The second stage includes a switching circuit coupled to the output node of the first stage for driving the input signals by favoring one of a rising edge or a falling edge in accordance with a control signal. A feedback loop is coupled to an output of the second stage, the feedback loop providing the control signal for switching the switching circuit to favor the rising edge or falling edge. At least one driver stage is integrated into the second stage and coupled to the switching circuit for favoring the rising edge or the falling edge in accordance with the control signal.
In other embodiments, the second stage may include an inverter coupled to the output of the first stage, the inverter having an output representing the output of the receiver circuit. The second stage may include a first transistor coupled between the output of the inverter and a supply voltage and a second transistor coupled between the output of the inverter and a ground, wherein the first and second transistors have different strengths relative to transistors of the inverter to provide skewed driver strength for driving the input signals to the output of the second stage. The at least one driver stage may include a first driver stage coupled to a gate of the first transistor and coupled to the switching circuit. The at least one driver stage may include a second driver stage coupled to a gate of the second transistor and coupled to the switching circuit. The second stage may include at least one current source coupled to the at least one driver stage to provide driving current to a gate of one of the first and second transistors through the at least one driver stage in accordance with the control signal.
In still other embodiments, the switching circuit may include switching elements switched by the control signal to alternately select circuit elements which favor a rising edge and a falling edge. The switching elements may include CMOS transfer gates. The amplifier may include a differential amplifier. The amplifier may include a transconductance amplifier. The input signals may include analog signals and the receiver circuit preferably suppresses noise of the analog signals. The output preferably represents a digital logic state. The feedback loop may include delay elements such that noise after a transition in the input signals is suppressed for a delay period provided by the delay elements provided by the delay elements. The feedback loop may be programmable to adjust the delay period provided by the delay elements. The feedback loop may be controlled by a control circuit to adjust the delay period provided by the delay elements. The delay period may be controlled in accordance with an input signal input to the receiver circuit. A delay value of the delay elements may be less than half a clock period of the input signal. The at least one driver stage may include an inverter chain. The inverters of the inverter chain may include transistors, the inverters of the inverter chain having transistor strengths skewed relative to another inverter of the inverter chain to amplify one of the rising edge and the falling edge.
Another receiver circuit includes a first stage having an input for receiving input signals and an output node, the first stage including an amplifier. A second stage has an input coupled to the output of the first stage. The second stage includes an inverter coupled to the output of the first stage, the inverter having an output representing the output of the receiver circuit and including transistors, a first transistor coupled between the output of the inverter and a supply voltage, a second transistor coupled between the output of the inverter and a ground, wherein the first and second transistors have different strengths relative to the transistors of the inverter to favor a transition edge being driven to suppress noise after the transition edge. A feedback loop is coupled from the output of the inverter for enabling switching elements, the switching elements being switched in accordance with the output of the inverter to favor the transition edge being driven at the output of the inverter. A first driver stage is integrated into the second stage and coupled to the switching elements for favoring the falling edge in accordance with the control signal. A second driver stage is integrated into the second stage and coupled to the switching elements for favoring the rising edge in accordance with the control signal, the first and second driver stages for shaping and driving pulses output from the second stage.
In other embodiments, the first transistor may include a P-channel transistor, and the inverter may include an N-channel transistor and a relative strength ratio between the P-channel transistor and the N-channel transistor is between about 3:1 to about 10:1. The second transistor may include an N-channel transistor, and the inverter may include a P-channel transistor and a relative strength ratio between the N-channel transistor and the P-channel transistor is between about 3:1 to about 10:1. The circuit may include at least one current source coupled to each or the first driver stage and the second driver stage to provide driving current to a gate of one of the first and second transistors through the respective driver stage in accordance with the control signal. The amplifier may include a differential amplifier or a differential transconductance amplifier. The feedback loop may include delay elements such that noise after a transition in the input signals is suppressed for a delay period provided by the delay elements provided by the delay elements. Each of the first driver stage and the second driver stage may include an inverter chain. The inverters of each inverter chain may include transistors, the inverters of each inverter chain having transistor strengths skewed relative to another inverter of the same inverter chain to amplify one of the rising edge and the falling edge.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments thereof, which is to be read in connection with the accompanying drawings.

Circuit for receiving and driving a clock-signal


An electron beam apparatus is provided in which a sample is scanned with a plurality of primary electron beams respectively emitted from a plurality of electron guns. Each of the electron guns comprises a mechanism for adjusting a relative position between a cathode and anode. The adjusting mechanism of each of the electron guns comprises an insulator for supporting the cathode and a plurality of piezo elements for supporting the insulator. The piezo element varies its length in response to a voltage applied thereto. Therefore, the position of the cathode is adjustable relative to the anode position, by controlling voltages applied to the piezo elements.

The present invention relates to an electron beam apparatus for inspecting a pattern or the like formed on a surface of a sample, and more particularly to an electron beam apparatus for reliably inspecting a wafer or a mask having a pattern with a minimum line width of 0.1 μm or less at a high throughput.
Conventionally, an electron gun using a Schottky cathode has been employed for inspecting a sample for defects on a pattern having a size of 0.1 μm or less. For example, Hiroyuki Shinada et al. "High-Speed Large-Current SEM Optical System for Inspecting Wafers," Proceedings of LSI testing symposium/2000 (Nov. 9-10, 2000), pp. 151-156 discloses a SEM using a Schottky cathode electron source, which is capable of effectively inspecting a wafer for defects even if the wafer has electric defects such as circuit-short, circuit opening and the like occurring during a forming step and a wiring step in underlying layers of the wafer.
An apparatus and method for inspecting a sample for defects is known in which a plurality of primary electron beams (or charged particle beams) are generated around a single optical axis. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,892,224 discloses an apparatus for inspecting a sample such as a mask, reticle or the like, in which the sample is simultaneously irradiated with a plurality of primary electron beams around one optical axis and a plurality of secondary electrons emitted from the sample are detected. Another apparatus for inspecting a sample has been proposed in which a plurality of electron guns are employed to irradiate a plurality of electron beams that are guided to the sample through a plurality of optical systems associated therewith.
It is to be noted that the entire contents of Hiroyuki Shinada et al. and U.S. Pat. No. 5,892,225 are incorporated herein by this description.
As described above, the SEM optical system in Shinada et al. employs a Schottky cathode as an electron gun. However, such a Schottky cathode based electron gun is a problematic in that it generates a large noise. To overcome this problem of providing a signal with a high S/N ratio, a sample must be irradiated with an electron beam of high irradiation, which could however damage the sample.
The electron beam apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,892,224 can reduce an inspection time by virtue of the use of a plurality of primary electron beams. However, this apparatus has only one optical axis and, as a result, the primary electron beams are formed at respective positions away from the optical axis, resulting in a relatively large aberration. For this reason, when the respective electron beams are narrowed down to a certain size, resulting beam currents are smaller than a beam current of an electron beam which lies on the optical axis. Also, the electron beam apparatus requires a relatively complicated optical system for guiding and detecting secondary electrons, and which makes it difficult to detect the secondary electrons at a rate approaching 100%. Further, difficulties are experienced in using the apparatus to adjust the primary electron beams independently of one another, and as a consequence, it is difficult to match the magnitudes of the primary electron beams.
In an electron beam apparatus which comprises a plurality of electron guns for simultaneously emitting a plurality of primary electron beams, the use of thermal electron emission cathodes for the electron guns could lead to excessive heat being generated by the electron guns. If the electron guns are thermaled to such an extent to damage the stability of a system, each unit comprising primary and secondary optical systems encounters a problem of a lower degree of vacuum. Further, a thermaled or hotted electron emission cathode gives rise to a problem of a change in relative position between the thermal electron emission cathode and an anode.
A conventional exemplary electron beam apparatus forms an image comprised of pixels, each of which has dimensions or sizes equal to or smaller than the sizes of intended defects, and detects any defects from the formed image. For example, in detecting defects having a size of 0.05 μm or more on a pattern having a line width of 0.1 μm, the pixel size must be set to 0.05 μm or less. Also, in this event, if a clock frequency of 100 MHz (a scanning speed) is utilized to detect defects, a detection time period per cm2 is calculated as follows:102/{(5×10−5)2×100×106}=400 seconds≈0.111 hoursTherefore, in inspecting an area of 100 cm2 to detect defects thereon, 11.1 hours will be required even a simple calculation is employed.
While the foregoing example employs a clock frequency of 100 MHz, this clock frequency can be employed only in an electron beam apparatus which comprises a secondary electron beam detector having a response frequency sufficiently higher than 100 MHz.
For detecting defects of similar sizes to those of pixels, Shinada et al. teaches that an electron beam apparatus must provide an S/N ratio of 15 or higher where the noise is 3 s value. However, scanning is generally impossible at a clock frequency of 100 MHz or higher in a secondary electron beam detector, for example, when implemented by a combination of a scintillator and PMT, which does not provide a very high response frequency. Thus, an electron beam apparatus using such a secondary electron beam detector suffers from a problem in that it requires a long inspection time period and achieves a lower throughput, because it must scan a sample at a clock frequency lower than 100 MHz.


An apparatus for encasing material in continuous roll stock netting is described. The apparatus has a product horn axially aligned with and diametrically opposed to a mandrel over which continuous roll stock netting has been placed. The mandrel is movable into a passageway between two gates and the netting is engaged by a set of claws, after which the mandrel retracts. A set of claws holds the netting open as a ram pushes the material through the product horn into the open netting. The first gate gathers the open end of the netting for closure by a clipper. The second gate gathers the netting and a set of adjustable clamps retracts the netting, pulling the netting tightly over the material. A second clipper clips and severs the gathered netting to enclose the material in the netting.

This invention relates to the field of preparing products in netting. The invention is directed to preparation of food products in netting, such as hams or turkeys, and will be described specifically as used for hams. The invention is also directed to preparation of food products in casing. The invention can also be used for other food products such as chickens, sausages, cheeses, or vegetarian products. Additionally, the invention can be used to encase and/or net products other than foods.
Traditionally, meat products were enclosed in netting prior to processing. Removal of the netting after processing, whether it be cooking, smoking, curing, aging, or otherwise, often resulted in some of the meat products sticking to the netting and being pulled off during the removal process, leaving an unsightly appearance unpleasant to consumers.
The use of edible collagen films solved this problem. Meat products, including hams, turkeys, sausages, and whole-muscle products, are now conventionally enveloped in an edible collagen film. In the prior art, flat sheets of collagen film were turned over plows to form a tubular casing. More recently, meat products have been extruded through a tube or horn through a shir housing on which a tubular edible collagen film has been shirred. This method is described in, for example, copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/695,115, Apparatus And Method To Net Food Products In Shirred Tubular Casing, and its continuation-in-part, copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/867,977, Apparatus And Method To Net Food Products In Shirred Tubular Casing.
The encased meat product is then wrapped in a net and the product is further processed, such as cooking, aging, or smoking, as also described in, for example, the '115 and '977 applications described above.
The netting allows the processor to hang the meat product, whether it is a ham, turkey, or sausage, in a processing compartment. The processing step, whether it is smoking, steaming, cooking, curing, or otherwise, causes the meat to expand, pushing the meat against the netting and creating a dimpled appearance on the meat product. This dimpled appearance is considered pleasing to consumers. After the meat has been processed, the netting is removed easily, as it does not stick to the collagen film.
Various collagen films can be used, including flavored and colored films, to create various taste sensations or appearances. Additionally, some netting is treated prior to use. For example, smoke flavoring can be impregnated into the netting, which then seeps into the meat during processing to enhance the flavor of the meat. Also, the netting can be treated with a chemical that enables easy stripping of the netting from the meat after processing, so that the netting can be removed without pulling off chunks of meat. The product then is often wrapped in a clear film for sale.
Some food products, such as hams and turkeys, are wrapped in nets for final sale to consumers. For example, large fowl, particularly turkeys, are encased in a plastic, see-through wrapper, for sanitary reasons, and then enclosed in netting for package integrity and ease of handling. The netting provides a strong structure to hold the turkey and allows the consumer to see the packaged material. It is important that the netting be tight around the package, to provide a pleasing appearance to consumers. There is a marketing advantage to having tightly-netted packages.
In many cases, a handle or a hook is also applied to the package. Sausages and hams are often enclosed in netting prior to cooking or smoking. The use of a handle or hook is mandated in this situation, as there must be some way to handle the product in the cooking or smoking apparatus. The handles on these products are generally discarded after processing.
A handle is also useful to workers and customers in retail establishments, especially when the product is frozen, to make it easier to grab the product. A handle facilitates maneuvering the products, such as moving the products in and out of display cases, through checkout lanes, or in and out of the consumer's own refrigerator or freezer. Additionally, some consumers prefer to use a handle in order to avoid touching the package itself. Accordingly, there is a marketing advantage to having a handle on the product. In the case of turkeys or other poultry, it is important that the handle be applied at the rear-most point of the birds, which is where the legs point, to provide a pleasing appearance to purchasers.
Most of the same products also have a label of some type applied to the product. The label displays such data as weight, price per unit of weight, and total price. Other data, such as lot numbers, batch identification, product identification, or expiration date, are also common. The label can also contain identification information such as brand names or logos.
The netting process was traditionally done manually. Netting is manufactured in a long, continuous tube, usually of a plastic material but also from natural fibers. In the prior art, the tube of netting was rucked onto a product horn. (As used in this specification, the term "ruck" refers to the process of gathering a continuous tube of netting material over a tube or horn.) The netting was clipped at a first end of the product horn and the ham or a turkey in netting was placed in the second end of the product horn and pushed through. The ham or turkey contacted the clipped end of the netting and, as the ham or turkey was pushed through the product horn, was encased in the netting. A worker gathered the netting around the turkey or ham and clipped it to close the netting. The worker gathered the netting into a loop if a handle was to be applied. Sometimes precut netting is used, but the ham or turkey was still manually placed in the netting tube.
This prior art method was labor intensive. Additionally, it was difficult to obtain uniform tightness of netting. Additionally, the method required quite a bit of manual pulling and wrapping, making hand fatigue and injuries common. Moreover, the use of precut netting added a step in the manufacturing process and often resulted in wasted, excess netting.
Accordingly, automated or partially automated processes have been developed to net products such as hams and turkeys. These processes generally involve pushing the product into the proximal end of a product horn, which is inside and coaxial to a netting tube on which netting has been rucked. The distal end of the netting tube is clipped, the ham or turkey is pushed through the product horn, abutting against the clipped end of the netting tube, and as the ham or turkey exits the distal end of the tube, it pulls the rucked netting of the netting tube. The netting is then gathered around the product and clipped and severed. Clippers (which have integral cutters for severing the netting) are well-known in the art. An automated process for netting is disclosed in, for example, copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/787,988, Automated Netter, filed Feb. 26, 2004.
The netting used in these processes usually arrives from the manufacturers in a flattened state and wrapped in a roll. Sometimes the netting is supplied loosely draped in a box. Typically, the netting is sold in a continuous roll stock, 1,200 to 1,500 feet long. In order to be used in an automated or partially-automated process as described above, the roll of netting has to be rucked onto a temporary netting tube. This rucking involves placing the netting coaxially onto the netting tube. Once the netting has been rucked onto the netting tube, the tube is placed coaxially over the product horn as described above. A typical netting tube will hold far less than the 1,200 to 1,500-foot lengths sold by netting manufacturers.
Various methods to ruck netting onto a netting tube are known in the art. All such methods, however, involve a separate netting tube that, once the netting has been rucked onto it, is placed over the product horn. Thus, disruptions and inefficiencies result. An extra employee is needed to ruck the netting onto the netting tube at a separate station from the netting machine. Once enough netted product has been created to deplete the supply of netting on the netting tube, the netting process must stop while the empty netting tube is removed. The process must await a new supply of netting, either for the time it takes to ruck new netting onto the sole netting tube or at least for the time it takes to unload the empty tube and attach a spare tube with rucked netting. Thus, the expenses of at least one extra netting tube is often required, as well as the expense of a separate rucking apparatus and the expense to operate that separate apparatus. Under any of the prior art methods, downtime and increased labor costs result.
Accordingly, a need exists for an apparatus and method to produce netted products, such as hams and turkeys, in a more continuous process. The present invention fulfills this need.


Past applications have found that a joint becomes damaged due to the high loading and vibration loads in which it encounters during operation. The counterbored joint utilizes the flexible shim that is larger than the body receiving bore. A undercut is machined into the body receiving bore which allows for the flexible shim to be placed within the body receiving bore between the first and second step surfaces. The first step surface is parallel to the second step surface which distributes stresses uniformly and helps in sealing. The principal use is for a cylinder liner joint, however any joint that is highly loaded or encounters vibrational loads will benefit from this invention. For example, a hydraulic joint that utilizes a piston in operation may be remanufactured with this invention.

It has been found difficult to manufacture a cast cylinder block where the working surfaces of the cylinders are free from fretting and wear. As typical in the art, the cylinder block is counterbored and a cylinder liner is inserted. Over time the cylinder block becomes damaged due to the high loading and component relative motion which is encountered during operation of the internal combustion engine. As a result the joint that holds the cylinder liner in place requires remanufacture. One method of remanufacturing the joint includes re-machining an undercut in the joint of the cylinder block to a pre-determined depth and inserting a ring or shim generally equal to the depth of the undercut. It is critically important that the joint allows the cylinder liner shim to be centrally located and parallel with the cylinder liner bore. One potential source of damage is due to the undercut being rounded at its outer surface and not allowing the ring to sit flat on the joint of the cylinder block. The rounded undercut and ring generally weakens the cylinder block with a non uniform stress concentration. Another potential problem, the rounded surface of the counterbore or undercut generally causes problems with sealing between the cylinder block and cylinder liner.
Various rings have been developed in an attempt to improve the stress distribution of the joint in a counterbored cylinder block. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,389,693 to Herschmann discloses a ring that has a cross section whose width to length ratio is at least a 1:1 which supposedly provides a more rigid joint. However, the ring disclosed requires a large undercut to be machined into the cylinder block. In many applications this may not be feasible.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.


An educational system including a set of characters comprising foam numbers, operational symbols, and advanced problem solving activities each of which includes touch sensitive fasteners which can be applied to a collapsible, touch sensitive board. The set of math manipulatives permits a student to carry out all pre-algebraic calculations upon a vertical surface by using the touch fasteners to fasten the characters onto the collapsible touch sensitive board.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to a teaching aid, in general, and to an easy-to-use teaching aid for teaching mathematics to elementary school children, in particular.
2. Prior Art
There are many well known teaching aids available in the prior art. These include blackboards (with chalk), white boards (with magic markers), flannel cloths (with stick-on components), wood blocks, plastic blocks, magnetic blocks and foam-like blocks and/or shapes among many such products. Each of these teaching aids has advantages and disadvantages including cost, size, availability to teachers (or students) and the like. Some of these teaching aids are intimidating to students because of the size thereof (i.e. extremely large) and/or location thereof (i.e. in the front of the classroom). Some of these aids include heavy, difficult to use components.
It is always a desire by educators to be able to obtain and use teaching aids which are readily and easily used by students. It has been discovered that use of devices which are easily handled and manipulated by the teacher and the students enhances learning by, inter alia, encouraging participatory learning processes by the students.
Based upon this premise, it is highly desirable to utilize easily manipulatable, light weight, low cost teaching aids to increase learning traits of students--especially early elementary grade levels. The invention described herein is a highly successful example of such a teaching aid.


A logic circuit family implements self-resetting CMOS logic array macros (SLAMs) which include a plurality of inputs to which a plurality of data input signals can be applied; a plurality of input buffers coupled to receive the input signals from the inputs; a NOR circuit coupled to receive the outputs of the input buffers and a pulsed logic timing signal synchronized within a predefined window with the arrival of the data input signals; an output buffer coupled to receive the output of the NOR circuit; and an output at which a data output signal is produced, with the output signal being a logical NOR of the data input signals; and with each of the NOR circuit, the plurality of input buffers, and the output buffer optionally having a separate reset input to reset it to a standby state. The SLAMs address the very high pressure on the performance of both control logic and control logic design systems. The distinguishing features of SLAMs are uniquely combined to allow the automated design, from a logic description and interface specifications, of a complete macro satisfying predetermined design guidelines.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates generally to logic circuits, and more particularly to a logic circuit family implementing self-resetting CMOS logic array macros for control logic.
2. Description of the Related Art
In fabricating microprocessor circuits, nearly all of the circuitry in current-generation microprocessors may be divided into dataflow devices, including execution units and their components, such as adders; into caches; and into control logic.
In particular, dataflow elements and caches share a number of characteristics:
1) Their logical descriptions are usually compact, with a ratio of logic statements to total transistors typically being under about 1:10,000 for an adder. PA1 2) Their regular logical structure allows repeated use of physical structures, which keeps the ratio of designed transistors to total transistors to a low value. PA1 3) The number of macros is limited; i.e. there are typically a few dozen macros with a size being of the same order of magnitude as a fixed-point unit adder. PA1 4) Dataflow and cache logical descriptions are established and fixed early in the project. PA1 1) Minimize the number of delay stages and parasitic loading on critical paths. PA1 2) Tune transistor widths to match their loads and required noise margins. PA1 3) Limit the number of global nodes in uncontrolled noise environments, requiring higher noise margins. PA1 4) Establish for local nodes a controlled low-noise environment, allowing lower noise margins. PA1 5) Use the best circuit techniques known, appropriate to the noise environment at each stage.
Because of these features, it is possible to hand-craft custom designs for dataflow and cache macros which are highly optimized at the level of individual transistors.
Control logic, on the other hand, generally has a much larger logical description which is typically random in nature, and is subject to revision by designers until the last possible moment in the schedule of the project. Control logic, therefore, requires a mostly automated design system with a rapid turn-around to provide a completely verified design for an individual macro, for example, in a matter of hours. At the same time, and partly due to the limitations of available automated design systems, control logic is an important limiting factor in the performance of processors heretofore known in the art, in which performance is measured, for example, by the multiplicative product of the clock frequency and the number of functions per clock cycle.
If one were to design a custom complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) circuit to perform a given function at high speed and at a reasonable cost in area and power, the following examples of general guidelines are to be adhered to:
Heretofore, control circuits have not been implementable by sufficiently rapid automated design techniques, and so any relatively quick turn-around has often resulted in excessive parasitics as well as noise figures exceeding specified noise margins.

Compiled self-resetting CMOS logic array macros

International Business Machines Corporation


A method and apparatus configured to perform fast acquisition in multi-subscription multi-active devices are described. The apparatus may establish a first traffic call associated with a first subscription using a first radio frequency chain and a second traffic call associated with a second subscription using a second radio frequency chain. A subscription corresponding to a third subscription may enter an out-of-service mode when the first and second traffic calls are established. A first network may be acquired for the first subscription using the first RF chain after the first traffic call is terminated. The third subscription may be transitioned from out-of-service mode to idle mode using acquisition information inherited from the subscription corresponding to the first SIM after the first network is acquired. The third subscription and the first network may be associated with a same radio access technology and a same network operator.

1. Field
Aspects of the present disclosure relate generally to wireless communication systems, and more particularly to wireless terminals that support multiple subscriptions using multiple transceivers.
2. Background
Wireless communication networks are widely deployed to provide various communication services such as telephony, video, data, messaging, broadcasts, and so on. Such networks, which are usually multiple access networks, support communications for multiple users by sharing the available network resources. Examples of such networks may be based on the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), a third generation (3G) mobile phone technology supported by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). One example is the UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN), which is the successor to Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) technologies, currently supports various air interface standards, including Time Division-Synchronous Code Division Multiple Access (TD-SCDMA), and code division multiple access (CDMA) or one of its variants such as Wideband-Code Division Multiple Access (W-CDMA). UMTS also supports enhanced 3G data communications protocols, such as High Speed Packet Access (HSPA), which provides higher data transfer speeds and capacity to associated UMTS networks.
Certain wireless networks identify subscribed users by means of a subscriber identity module (SIM). Some wireless devices support multiple concurrently installed SIMs and may provide a plurality of transceivers to support concurrent active connects. In one example, a dual active device (two transceivers) may support three or more SIMs and it is possible that two traffic calls (carrier-switched and/or packet-switched) can be active at the same time. For example, a tri-SIM device may maintain GSM+W-CDMA+W-CDMA, CDMA+W-CDMA+W-CDMA or another combination of connections. In another example, a quad-SIM device may maintain CDMA+W-CDMA+W-CDMA+GSM, W-CDMA+W-CDMA+GSM+GSM or another combination of connections.
If two SIMs are active on traffic calls in a dual-active device, the remaining SIMs generally enter an out-of-service (OOS) state. After ending the traffic calls, all SIMs will try to acquire a network and then enter an idle state on the acquired networks. The redundancy associated with this method can consume a substantial amount of power for acquisition of networks for multiple SIMs, and may require significant amounts of time to enter the idle state.

Fast acquisition in multi-subscriber identity module (SIM) devices


A sequence program editing apparatus according to the present invention includes: program storing means for storing an application program including the sequence program; information storing means for storing symbol information and/or comment information used in the sequence program; selecting means for, in a state in which a plurality of application programs including at least first and second application programs runs, selecting at least a part of a sequence program displayed on an application screen run by the first application program; extracting means for extracting the symbol information and/or the comment information included in at least the selected part of the sequence program from the information storing means; and copy means for copying at least the selected part of the sequence program on the sequence program displayed on the application screen run by the second application program and copying the extracted symbol information and/or the extracted comment information on the information storing means of the second application.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an editing apparatus which exchanges data between a plurality of windows on which a plurality of application programs for processing data of a sequence program operates to edit the sequence program.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a control device such as a programmable controller, a sequence program is executed by a microprocessor to perform sequence control. The sequence program loads an application for editing a sequence program on a general-purpose personal computer to design a sequence program on the personal computer. The designed sequence program simulates a sequence operation of the program on the personal computer. A simulation result is verified, and the verification result is returned to the sequence program and debugged, thereby completing a sequence program. The completed sequence program is transferred to the programmable controller.
The sequence program is popularly designed by a ladder graphic language obtained by applying a ladder graphic. The ladder graphic expresses contents and procedures of control by sequentially arranging symbols of a relay, a coil, and the like, graphics expressing functions, and data and labels related to the symbols and the graphics along a sequence between power lines.
On the other hand, a general data processing device including a multi-window or a multi-task environment can use a function called a "cut-and-paste" function or a "copy-and-paste" function. This function is a function of fetching data processed by an application operated on another window in an application operated on one window, so that the data can be exchanged between the windows.
In this function, although a data exchange between a plurality of windows is performed through a temporary storage area called a "clip board", a data format which can be handled through the "clip board" is limited to a character code or bitmap data. For this reason, the data format cannot be handled by a ladder program described in the ladder graphic language, so that it is disadvantageously impossible to use a function such as the "cut-and-paste" function in editing of a sequence program of a ladder graphic. A solution for the problem is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-319416.
In this patent document, when data of a sequence program used in a programmable controller such as a ladder graphic is exchanged between a plurality of windows, a shared data area for storing data to be given to another window is provided. The data passes through the shared data area to make it possible to exchange ladder graphic data or the like between the plurality of windows.
According to data processing disclosed in the patent document, a plurality of applications runs to make it possible to copy, paste, and edit a sequence program between the applications. However, a symbol or comment information cannot be disadvantageously edited by copy.
When the sequence program is edited on a screen by the data processing described above, editing is performed such that the sequence program is copied and then pasted on another program to make it easy to edit the sequence program on a ladder graphic. However, this editing cannot cope with a symbol or comment information.
In a general sequence program, not only a ladder program described in a ladder graphic language, but also a description of symbol/comment, or the like used in the sequence program are described.
The sequence program itself can be subjected to an editing operation such as copy and paste. However, with respect to the symbol or the comment information, address regions of respective sequence programs and available instruction words are arbitrarily described by a designer. For this reason, address regions in which symbols and comment information can be used in units of sequence programs, available instruction words, and the like are uniquely set and are not shared. When the type of a programmable controller in a copy source is different from the type of a programmable controller in a destination where the sequence program is pasted, address regions in which the symbols and comment information can be used, available instruction words, and the like are different from each other.
For this reason, information about symbols or comments of the sequence program cannot be edited on an editing screen of the program, and the information must be manually input on a symbol/comment editing screen. For this reason, a long period of time is required for an editing operation.


This invention focuses specifically on the use of epipolar lines and the use of matrix transformations to coordinate cameras. This invention organizes cameras in a manner which is intuitive and effective in perceiving perspectives which are not normally possible; to calculate range precisely; to allow redundancy; to corroborate feature recognition; and to allow perspectives from angles from which no cameras exist. By enabling remote scene reconstruction with a limited set of images, transmission bandwidth is greatly conserved.

The ability to coordinate detectors accurately, and the increasing power of computers, allows for the accumulation and organization of image data in a manner not formerly possible, at very high speeds and at a relatively low cost. The many applications include quality control in production lines, examination of internal organs, facial recognition and missile tracking.
To focus on the last problem, or opportunity, we know that the recent availability of ultra-high-speed processors allows the computation of highly complex data in speeds approaching real-time. With fast image recognition algorithms and high-speed software, 3D ranging can be done in milliseconds. This allows equally fast (and automated) response to incoming aircraft or missiles threatening a military asset—a tank, a radar station, a navy ship—all the while the missiles being unaware that they are being tracked and therefore less capable of taking evasive or jamming action.
A missile approaching at 600 mph will take six seconds to cover a mile. Its identity and vectors of range, bearing, velocity, etc. must be grasped instantly for evasive or defensive action to be taken.
Ranging relates to perception in three dimensions in that an object needs to be seen from two or more points of view in order to calculate its range and properly determine its character.
As the Navy puts it: "Three-dimensional imaging technology, using image data collected from multiple offset cameras, may be able to passively provide the automated ranging capabilities to the war fighter that were previously only available through active systems that risked the possibility of counter-detection in their use."
This invention focuses specifically on the use of epipolar lines and the use of matrix transformations to coordinate detectors: to organize them in a manner which is intuitive and effective in perceiving perspectives which are not otherwise possible; to make detectors effective over long and short ranges; to calculate range precisely; to allow redundancy; and even to allow perspectives from angles from which no detectors exist. Until recently the possibility of doing all these things virtually simultaneously did not even exist.

Multiple coordinated detectors for examination and ranging


A gas turbine engine having a turbine section cooling system is disclosed which is able to cool the turbine section of the gas turbine engine to an optimal operating temperature range, while at the same time not substantially degrading engine performance. The disclosure provides a number of different structures for doing so including the provision of turning foils, turning holes, and turning grooves within a secondary air flow cavity which turns or directs cooling and parasitic leakage air into the turbine section in a direction in substantial alignment with a gas flow path through the turbine section.

Gas turbine engines are widely applied machines for generating power or thrust. Most typically, they are employed on modern aircraft to provide the propulsion necessary for flight. They may also be used on board such aircraft for power generations or in an APU (Auxiliary Power Unit) capacity to provide for onboard heating, cooling, and ventilation, as well as the operational power and lighting systems onboard the aircraft within the cockpit, passenger cabin, and the like. They may also be used in land-based applications for generation of electrical power or mechanical horsepower in myriad vehicles and pieces of machinery.
In a typical gas turbine engine, three main sections are provided, namely, a compressor section, a combustion section, and a turbine section. Within the compressor section, ambient air is ingested, highly compressed, and directed through a downstream diffuser into the combustion section. Within the combustion section, the highly compressed air is mixed with fuel within an annular combustion chamber and burned at extremely high temperatures generating massive levels of heat energy. Moreover, as opposed to internal combustion engines, wherein the ignition of the fuel is intermittent every two or four strokes of the engine, ignition within a gas turbine engine is continuous, thereby increasing the high power levels attainable by the engine.
From the combustion section, the extremely hot combustion gases are directed to the turbine section downstream of the combustion chamber. As both the turbine section and the compressor section are mounted on the same shaft assembly, rotation of the turbine blades, upon contact with the rapidly expanding and hot combustion gases, causes the shaft to which they are mounted to rotate and in turn causes the compressor blades, also mounted to the shaft, to rotate and thus complete the engine cycle. The discharge of the rapidly expanding hot gases at high velocities from the turbine causes the engine to generate the aforementioned thrust needed for aircraft operation.
While effective, difficulties encountered in the design and operation of gas turbine engines result from the extreme temperatures to which the engine components, particularly the turbine blades, are exposed. Prior art devices have therefore devised schemes for directing cooling air into the turbine section of the gas turbine engine. One example is disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. U.S. 2002/0159880 A1 which teaches a plurality of orifices within the turbine section for directing cooling air axially through the gas turbine engine and then radially outwardly into the turbine section. Additionally, some cooling air is required to keep the rotor section and static parts of the turbine at acceptable temperatures. This cooling air, referred to as parasitic leakage air, is also injected radially outward into the turbine section.
While such devices are effective in directing cooling or parasitic leakage air into the turbine section, it is not without detrimental effect. More specifically, with such devices the cooling air or parasitic leakage is directed into the turbine section in a direction transverse to the gas flow path of the hot combustion gases moving through the turbine section. As the turbines are driven by this axial gas flow path of the combustion gases, any influx of air in a direction transverse to that flow necessarily detracts from the efficiency of the engine.
Accordingly, one of ordinary skill in the art can readily see that a need exists in the industry for a mechanism by which cooling air can be introduced into the turbine section of a gas turbine engine without significant detrimental effect to the operating efficiency of the engine.

Cavity on-board injection for leakage flows


A wireless conference microphone has a conical base housing with a downward-mounted microphone. A single circuit board is mounted above the microphone, and its circuits transmit the microphone output using infrared diodes on the circuit board, positioned around the periphery of the housing. A battery pack is mounted above the circuit board, and a decorative octagonal cover is provided over the battery pack. A three-position power switch selects either of two transmitting frequencies, and a multi-functional connector selectively interfaces the microphone with external devices, including a mute switch, audio level inputs and outputs, and slave modulators. The microphone can be connected to a like microphone for master-slave operation for use in larger conference rooms.

Users of wireless systems for hearing assistance and conference recording presently must choose between radio frequency (RF) systems that emit transmissions that can be monitored by unauthorized listeners, hard-wired large area infrared systems which are not easily transported, or portable infrared systems that do not provide adequate transmission coverage for larger rooms.
A variety of prior systems were developed in the wireless microphone field. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,359,448 to Laszlo and Geyer shows a battery powered infrared transmitting device with removable and multiple LED configurations. Other prior systems are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,229,829 to Grunwald, 5,118,309 to Ford, 5,197,098 to Drapeau, 5,164,984 to Suhami et al., 5,319,805 to Holcomb et al., 4,633,498 to Warnke, and German publication DE 28 20 096 of Weidmann.
RF systems, while readily portable, emit radio waves which can easily be received by unauthorized listeners outside the room in which the transmitter is located. This poses a potentially serious security problem in situations such as legal proceedings and high-level business negotiations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,656 to Southern and Treni, and assigned to the assignee of the present application, describes a wireless conference microphone for use with amplification systems for the hearing impaired which is a predecessor of the present invention. An infrared version of this product has been manufactured by Suffridge & Treni under the trademark Conference-Mate.RTM., most recently as model CM3-95/250. An early version of this model was introduced in April, 1994. It included a jack for attaching an external device with a mute switch and an external output for a modulated audio signal. In November, 1994 an enhanced version of the CM3-95/220 was introduced, which incorporates features of the present invention, providing audio in and audio out lines as well as the mute and external output functions in a multi-functional connector, as will be described in more detail below.
While the April 1994 release of the Conference-Mate.RTM. CM3-95/250 provided improved performance and includes many desirable features, it was constructed using a wooden enclosure and a large number of separate electronic components. The battery was located at the bottom of the unit, so that removal of the circuits was required to change the battery. Further, infrared versions of this device proved difficult to assemble due to the manner in which the LEDs, required for IR transmission, had to be mounted on the sides of the octagonal housing. The LEDs were mounted separately, wired in series, with the string connected by wire to the transmitter printed circuit board mounted on the top surface of the cone. Thus, the bottom portion and the top portion of the enclosure each carried circuit components and were electrically interconnected, making the device difficult to assemble, disassemble, and repair.
Infrared systems offer a secure transmission medium because the lightwave carrier does not pass through opaque surfaces such as walls. However, a problem with currently available infrared systems is that they are either AC-powered hard-wired types which must be permanently installed in a room, or small battery powered units that do not provide adequate coverage for rooms larger than a typical conference room of approximately 1,000 square feet.
Another problem with currently available infrared systems is that many such systems transmit on fixed modulating frequencies or are not readily changeable between frequencies. While 95 kHz has for years been regarded as a world-wide industry standard for infrared hearing assistance systems, the recent introduction of high efficiency fluorescent lighting which causes interference at 95 kHz has prompted some manufacturers to begin offering 250 kHz systems which are not affected by the new lighting systems. This creates a compatibility problem between older 95 kHz equipment and newer 250 kHz systems.
A more ideal wireless system would be configured for easy assembly and service, emit a secure infrared signal, be battery powered for portable operation, be capable of transmitting in a selectable range of frequencies, and be capable of driving secondary infrared emitters so as to provide additional infrared coverage for larger rooms.

Portable, multi-functional, multi-channel wireless conference microphone


A bearing unit having a radially outer ring provided with at least one raceway, a radially inner ring provided with at least one raceway, at least one row of rolling elements interposed between the radially outer ring and the radially inner ring, at least one containment cage for keeping the rolling elements of the rolling element row in position, and a seal interposed between the radially inner ring and the radially outer ring. An anchoring element mechanically locks the seal in a first seat of the radially inner ring, and the anchoring element is housed in a second seat of the radially outer ring.

There are known bearing units provided with rolling elements which, as is also known, are used to allow the relative movement of a component or assembly with respect to another component or assembly. As a rule, a bearing unit has a first component, for example a radially inner ring, which is fixed to a first component, for example a rotating shaft, and a second component, for example a radially outer ring, which is fixed to a second component, for example a stationary housing. Typically, as in the aforementioned examples, the radially inner ring is rotatable, while the radially outer ring is stationary, but in many applications the outer element rotates and the inner element is stationary. In any case, in rolling bearing units, the rotation of one ring with respect to the other is allowed by a plurality of rolling elements that are positioned between the cylindrical surface of one component and the cylindrical surface of the second component, these surfaces usually being called raceways. The rolling elements may be balls, cylindrical or tapered rollers, needle rollers, or similar rolling elements.

Bearing unit with optimized sealing system


The present invention discloses a single unified decoder for performing both convolutional decoding and turbo decoding in the one architecture. The unified decoder can be partitioned dynamically to perform required decoding operations on varying numbers of data streams at different throughput rates. It also supports simultaneous decoding of voice (convolutional decoding) and data (turbo decoding) streams. This invention forms the basis of a decoder that can decode all of the standards for TDMA, IS-95, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, and CDMA2000. Processors are stacked together and interconnected so that they can perform separately as separate decoders or in harmony as a single high speed decoder. The unified decoder architecture can support multiple data streams and multiple voice streams simultaneously. Furthermore, the decoder can be dynamically partitioned as required to decode voice streams for different standards.

Communication systems deal with the transmission of information from a transmitter to a receiver. The transmission medium through which the information passes often contains many sources of noise, including cosmic radiation, Additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN), Rayleigh scattering (multipath propagation) and electromagnetic noise. The presence of these noise sources corrupts or prevents the transmission of the desired information, thus limiting the ability to communicate.
It is well known in the art that coding of the information to be transmitted, through the addition of redundant information calculated from the source information, improves the ability to successfully receive the transmitted information. Decoding uses the redundant information to detect the presence of errors or estimate the most probable emitted bits, given those received. Errors are detected when the transmitted redundancy is different from that subsequently calculated with the received data.
The weight of a codeword is a measure of the capacity to recover data from the codeword. A codeword with a high number of bits has a high weight. A low weight codeword exhibits a low ability to recover data, whereas, conversely, a high weight codeword exhibits improved recovery of data.
Automatic-repeat-request (ARQ) coding schemes employ an error-detection code. If the presence of an error is detected in the information received, a message requesting retransmission of the relevant information is sent from the receiver to the transmitter. ARQ coding schemes are relatively simple, but require the use of a feedback channel and deliver variable and comparatively slow throughput.
Forward error correction (FEC) coding schemes are used to encode information in systems in which propagation delays and latency are of concern. The receiver is able to detect and correct errors, without requiring a feedback channel.
Coding schemes can be broadly categorised into block codes and convolutional codes.
Block codes map a message of k information bits into a structured sequence of n bits, where n>k. The code is referred to as a (n,k) code. The ratio (n−k)/k is called the redundancy of the code and the ratio of information bits to the total number of bits, k/n, is called the code rate. The extra bits inserted provide redundancy and are used by the decoder to provide error detection and correction. The redundant bits added during encoding are only dependent on the k information bits in the message block. Block codes are often used to detect errors when ARQ is implemented.
Convolutional encoding generates a block of n code bits in a given period of time from k information bits, where n and k are typically small. The block of n bits generated by the encoder is dependent not only on the k information bits of the time period, but also on the message blocks generated during a predefined number of preceding time periods. The memory thus imparted on the coding enables errors to be corrected based on allowable sequences of codes. Convolutional decoding may be performed using either a Viterbi algorithm or LogMAP algorithm.
Convolutional codes are preferred for wireless voice communications systems in which the retransmission of data and its associated delay is intolerable. Block codes are capable of delivering higher throughput and are preferred for the transmission of data where latency is less of a concern.
Turbo codes, also known as parallel concatenated codes, are a class of codes whose performance is very close to the Shannon capacity limit. Turbo coders are implemented by connecting convolutional encoders either in parallel or series to produce concatenated outputs. Bit sequences passing from one encoder to another are permuted by an interleaver. In this manner, low-weight code words produced by a single encoder are transformed into high-weight code words. Turbo decoding thus takes two low weight codewords and obtains the effect of a much higher weight codeword.
At present, consumer wireless communication systems are primarily concerned with the transmission of voice. Such wireless communication systems include Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS), Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). These represent the first (1G) and second (2G) generation systems. With the convergence of data and voice communication systems, the second-and-a-half generation (2.5G) and third generation (3G) systems are emerging in which the transmission of data is becoming a more important concern. In order to achieve superior error performance at higher transmission rates, turbo block encoding is preferred. The latency endemic to block coding is not as significant an issue as it is with the transmission of voice. New, third generation mobile wireless standards, like Universal Mobile Telecommunication Service (UMTS) and CDMA2000 require turbo encoding for data streams and convolutional encoding for voice streams. These systems require a complex turbo decoder for data and a Viterbi decoder for voice. Furthermore, backward compatibility requires that second generation standards are also supported.
The transmission of voice and data provides conflicting requirements of transmission rate versus latency and propagation delay. The current mode of addressing these problems is to provide separate encoding systems: turbo encoding for data streams and convolutional encoding for voice streams. Consequently, different decoders are also required, resulting in a multiplicity of hardware platforms and thus increased costs for telecommunications operators.

Reconfigurable architecture for decoding telecommunications signals


An inter-dental brush is provided with a handle that accepts a cartridge housing continuous inter-dental brush feedstock. Used, worn out brush is cut off by a slidable cutter provided on an angled portion of the handle. Fresh inter-dental brush is fed out from the continuous inter-dental feedstock by turning a knob on the handle. The protrusion length of the inter-dental brush is controlled by the number of turns. The knob is connected to a gear that pushes against the feedstock, driving the brush through an aperture in the angled portion of the handle. Within the cartridge, the feedstock is removably attached to one swivel and is wrapped around a second swivel. The swivels have a brake that produces a taut feedstock as the brush is fed out. The cartridge may contain a single roll with a brake instead of a pair of swivels.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a brush for improving dental hygiene; and, more particularly, to a device wherein a continuous feed of inter-dental brush is swiveled around a pair of swivels housed within a handle to provide a mechanism for continuous feed of inter-dental brush that enables excision of used inter-dental brush and the production of fresh inter-dental brush upon demand.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Devices for cleaning teeth and removing plaque that is accumulated between teeth are well known in the art. Most commonly used devices include electrically powered toothbrushes, dental floss and inter-dental tooth cleaning brushes. These inter-dental toothbrushes are more effective when the gaps between teeth are adequate for the insertion of the inter-dental brush, and the gaps between teeth are readily accessible. In these cases, where the gaps between the teeth are large, use of dental floss in removing plaque is generally ineffective since the floss fails to contact the entire root surface of the teeth. Inter-dental brushes have become popular in recent times, since they effectively remove plaque that has accumulated between teeth and around the entire tooth-gum interface, which is not readily removed using dental floss.
Numerous patents disclose dental floss holders having means to feed new floss, collect used floss and adjust tension in the dental floss. Very few patents relate to inter-dental brushes. These patents require discrete brushes attached to metallic wire designed for insertion into a slot carried by the brush handle. In this manner, replacement is effected for discrete inter-dental brushes that have become worn. None of the patents envision the use of a cutter to cut off a used, worn out inter-dental brush and/or the replacement of a used inter-dental brush with a fresh inter-dental brush from a continuous feed stock.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,886,956 to Cash discloses a dental floss holder. This floss holder has a cavity that holds a spool of dental floss and delivers it to the floss head through a pair of pincers that grip the dental floss. The pincers are opened by application of finger pressure to a button provided on the handle of the floss holder. The '956 patent does not disclose delivery of fresh inter-dental brush; it does not disclose means for cutting used inter-dental brush prior to exposing fresh inter-dental brush.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,005,721 to Yasumoto discloses a dental floss holder. The interior of the dental floss holder has a cavity for retaining the dental floss spool. The dental floss is connected to a bifurcated tip, which may be sideways mounted for accessing front teeth, and a bottom-mounting tip for cleaning back teeth. The '721 patent contains no disclosure regarding delivery of inter-dental brush. No means are provided for cutting used inter-dental brush prior to exposing fresh dental brush.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,512,354 to Loubier et al. discloses a dental floss applicator with improved floss severing and anchoring. This dental floss applicator has a capstan controllable by the user for tensioning the floss and for periodically substituting a fresh floss strand segment for a previously used segment. An improved arrangement is provided, whereby floss is severed, and a floss strand end is anchored to the capstan by continuous movement of the strand. Such disclosure of a dental floss applicator handle having means for cutting the floss does not suggest delivery of inter-dental brush from a continuous feed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,681 to Westbrook et al. discloses a dental flossing device. This device uses a continuous dental floss that is fed from a spool to a dental floss head. Used floss is returned to an adjacent spool and both spools are located in the handle. When the supply of fresh floss on the bobbin is exhausted, the device is discarded. The dental flossing device does not deliver inter-dental brush.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,085,236 to Odneal et al. discloses a dental floss machine. This dental floss machine attaches to a standard electric toothbrush to provide oscillatory motion of the floss. The floss spool is contained within the handle of the machine and the used floss is collected in a separate spool that is on the same shaft as the dental floss supply spool. This dental floss machine does not deliver inter-dental brush. It does not have means for cutting used inter-dental brush prior to exposure of fresh dental brush.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,176,157 to Mazza discloses a device for supporting and operation a dental floss. The dental floss is contained within the handle. A motor drive is provided to drive the dental floss into a flossing fork and the used floss is collected within the handle. The motor, in addition to providing drive for the dental floss, also provides a vibratory motion imparted by an RF coil. This dental floss device does not deliver inter-dental brush. It does not have means for cutting used inter-dental brush prior to exposing fresh dental brush.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,217,031 to Santoro discloses a motor-driven apparatus for cleaning spaces between teeth by dental floss. This motor-driven apparatus is operative to clean spaces between teeth with dental floss. A motor drive feeds fresh dental floss, collects used dental floss in the pulley and also provides oscillation to the taut dental floss. This device does not deliver inter-dental brush. No means are provided for cutting used inter-dental brush and exposing a fresh inter-dental brush segment.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,331 to Tanriverdi discloses an automatic locking and adjustable tension controlled dental flosser. This self-contained dental flosser has an adjustable tension control. An auto-tension locking mechanism allows the flosser to operate and advance the floss continuously in one direction by rotating a spool wherein spool gears extend out of the main frame. This flosser uses dental floss and delivers fresh floss, while at the same time removing used floss into two separate spools contained within the handle of the flosser. This flosser does not provide for delivery of inter-dental brush. It does not have means for cutting used inter-dental brush and exposing a fresh inter-dental brush segment.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,495,863 and 7,011,099 to Bergman disclose a flossing device with advancing and tensioning mechanisms. U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2005/0000539 to Bergman discloses a hand held flossing device. The floss is delivered using a one-way ratchet gear from a dental floss spool contained within the handle. After delivery, the used floss is returned back to a shaft that carries the advancing gear, where the used floss is stored. A separate mechanism adjusts the tension of the taut dental floss. This flossing device does not provide for delivery of inter-dental brush. It contains no means for cutting used inter-dental brush and exposing fresh inter-dental brush.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,642,741 to Choi discloses a toothpick. A spiral wound wire toothpick is coated with a resin. It is attached to a main body for easy grasping of the toothpick. The '741 patent does not disclose delivery of inter-dental brush. No disclosure is contained therein concerning means for cutting and exposing a fresh inter-dental brush.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,657,780 to Giacopuzzi discloses a dental floss holder having a wedge actuated brake assembly. The handle of the dental floss holder has a supply real that delivers the dental floss to the holding sections, while used dental floss is returned to a take up reel. A brake assembly adjusts the tension of the dental floss. No disclosure is contained by the '780 patent concerning delivery inter-dental brush and/or means for cutting and exposing a fresh inter-dental brush.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,718,667 to Sugimoto et al. discloses an oral hygiene instrument. An oral hygiene tool is removably attached to a holder member with a vibration generating means that vibrates the instrument by way of the holder member. This oral hygiene instrument uses an inter-dental cleaning brush or instruments such as tooth brush, a nipple-type gum massaging tool, a gum massaging tool or a floss unit attached to one end of the instrument through a plurality of slits. The instrument has a central cavity that houses a battery and a vibrating generating means. The cavity is closed by a screwed-on end cap with a watertight seal. An inter-dental cleaning brush or other oral hygiene instruments are vibrated. They have to be attached one at a time using the plurality of slots provided. No disclosure is contained within the '667 patent concerning a dedicated instrument for an inter-dental cleaning brush. The hygiene instrument does not provide new brush elements that may be advanced from a continuous feed stock, with the worn out portion of the inter-dental cleaning brush being clipped and discarded.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,722,440 to Urso discloses a bite device for driving floss through tight inter-dental gaps. A flossing aid drives a spanned dental floss between the fork of a flossing device. A leaf spring loaded bitable button drives the floss between teeth with small inter-dental space. When the bite is released, the leaf spring pushes the biting element away, permitting flossing operation. No disclosure is contained with the '440 patent concerning an inter-dental brush.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,868,149 to Yang discloses a retractable toothpick. An expanding bi-toothpick has dual controls for pushing and extracting. The retractable toothpick is a slender flexible rod inserted into a curved tube attached to a spring-like V shaped element. Moving the V shaped element pushes the inner toothpick rod in and out between the interstices of the teeth, removing occluded food particles. This retractable toothpick is structurally and functionally distinct from an inter-dental brush that may be refreshed from a continuous brush feed stock.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,079,424 to Lillbacka discloses a method and arrangement for tensioning dental floss, and a device for cleaning teeth. This device and method is operative to hold and tension dental floss. A tensioning element rotates within the device body; a tensioning passage and a guide passage are located at opposite ends of the tensioning element. The tensioning passage and the guide passage are offset by an angle, which allows the floss to be secured when the tensioning element is rotated, without introducing excessive tension in the strand. This device uses a dental floss which may be withdrawn from a spool and tightened. There is no disclosure in the '424 patent concerning an inter-dental brush that may be renewed from a continuous inter-dental brush feedstock.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,363,949 to Brown discloses a dental care device. This dental care device combines a flossing tool for dispensing dental floss and holding a length of the floss under tension with a double-edged tongue scraper. The dental care device includes an ergonomic handle. The handle includes a tool storage compartment, which may be used to contain dental hygiene tools such as a microbrush and a pick. The tongue scraper is attached to the end of the handle opposite the floss fork and includes a semicircular blade having opposing edges which are formed so that one of the edges is sharper than the other. This dental care device includes a flossing element on one side and a tongue scraper on the other side. Such a device does not operate to suggest an inter-dental brush. The microbrush provided in the tool storage section of the device does not provide the functionality of an inter-dental brush. No disclosure is contained by the '949 patent concerning a replaceable inter-dental brush that is fed out from a continuous inter-dental brush feed stock.
U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2005/0144747 to Juan discloses an inter-dental brush structure. This inter-dental brush structure comprises a brush shaft installation opening installed on the curved end of the brush handle. A fitting bulge and a joined clip lid are installed on the top surface of the curved end. The joined clip lid has a fitting fillster installed, matching the fitting bulge. The fitting fillister of the joined clip lid can fit the fitting bulge and fix the brush shaft inserted in the brush shaft installation opening by pushing back the rear of the brush shaft and clipping it tight to fix, and in turn enable, the installation and replacement of the brush shaft. The brush handle in formed of two parts connected by an axis so that it can revolve. The connecting surface has several indents and bulges arranged in a circle to fix the location of the revolving handle. The characteristic of this inter-dental brush structure comprises an adjustment to the angle, which is needed for brushing the rear teeth crevices, thereby increasing the convenience of usage. This inter-dental brush accepts new brush elements, which are held in place by a joining clip connected to the rim of the curved surface of the handle. The handle can be rotated to various orientations for inter-dental brushing of hard to reach teeth. The inter-dental brushes are separate elements that are crimped by the joining clip. This structure does not replace inter-dental brushes from a continuous inter-dental brush feed stock.
U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2005/0247328 to Shen et al. discloses a dental floss holder. This dental floss holder has a spool of dental floss contained within the handle body, so that the dental floss head can be moved up and down. This dental floss holder does not dispense inter-dental brush.
U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2006/0011211 to Landry discloses a dental floss dispensing and tensioning device. A hand-held dental floss holder, dispenser, floss tensioning, and floss advancing device are disclosed. The handle of the device carries a dental floss spool. Dental floss passes through the fork of the dental flosser and is collected in a collection spool. The floss tension is adjusted by a clutch gear. This '211 device does not does not disclose or suggest use of an inter-dental brush.
U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2006/0011212 to Achepohl et al. discloses a manual advance dental floss holder. This holder has a spool of dental floss, which is fed to the flossing head. Used floss is collected in a spool within the handle. The dental floss is manually advanced and its tension is manually adjusted. The '212 patent does not use an inter-dental brush.
Foreign Patent Application No. JP 08-056749 to Kageyama et al. discloses a sanitary article holding device. A holding device is provided wherein a sanitary article can be replaced cleanly, and which provides favorable usage operation. The sanitary article is a toothbrush; not an inter-dental brush. The brush is ejected from a holder, as opposed to being cut. Each brush is an individual piece; the brush is not made available from a continuous feedstock of inter-dental brush.
Foreign Patent Application No. JP 2004-313446 to Ikemoto discloses an inter-dental cleaning implement. A brush is attached to a metallic rod and slides through a storage device. The storage device has a slot through which a projecting end of the metallic rod can slide to move the inter-dental brush through an opening in the teeth. The brush is not said to be removable from the metallic rod. It is not delivered from a continuous feedstock of inter-dental brush.
Notwithstanding the efforts of prior art workers to construct a dental hygiene device, and particularly an inter-dental cleaning brush device, there exists a need in the art for facile removal of a worn inter-dental brush and rapid replacement thereof with a fresh inter-dental brush without having to stick metallic wires and rods carrying discrete brush segments into slots within the device handle. Ready replacement of worn inter-dental brushes would encourage use of the device, thereby promoting improved oral hygiene even in cases where inter-tooth gaps exist.

Continuous feed inter-dental brush and device