The present invention includes a cellular pilot signal detector or searcher for use in a cellular mobile communications unit. The signal detector uses a matched filter to detect a pilot signal transmitted from a cellular base station. The matched filter includes a plurality of taps and a plurality of delays located between adjacent taps. The signal components of a received digital signal are held on the taps of the matched filter by the delays. The matched filter compares the signal components of the received signal to an expected or searched for digital pattern. The matched filter puts out a relatively large signal if the received digital signal matches the expected digital pattern. The matched filter can also be used in parallel with a correlator.

1. Field
The present invention is related to detection of pilot signals by a digital cellular communications mobile unit. Specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus of using a matched filter in a digital cellular communications mobile unit to search for and detect pilot signals generated by cellular base stations.
2. Background
In a code division multiple access (CDMA) spread spectrum communication system, a shared frequency band is used for communication with all base stations within that system. An example of such a system is described in the TIA/EIA Standard TIA/EIA-95-B entitled "Mobile Station-Base Station Compatibility Standard for Dual Mode Wideband Spread Spectrum Cellular System," incorporated herein by reference. The generation and receipt of CDMA signals is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,307 entitled "SPREAD SPECTRUM MULTIPLE ACCESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEMS USING SATELLITES OR TERRESTRIAL REPEATERS" and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,459 entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING WAVEFORMS IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM," both of which are assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference.
Radio Frequency (RF) signals are exchanged between a respective mobile unit and one or more base stations. Mobile units do not communicate directly with one another. Base stations communicate with a base station cellular or personal communication system controller, referred to herein as a base station controller (BSC) using various media such as ground based wires or a microwave link, for example. The BSC can route calls to a public switching telephone network (PSTN) or can route packets to a packet switched network, such as the Internet. The base station also coordinates the operation of base stations within the system during soft handoff for example.
TIA/EIA-95 is one example of a CDMA communication system. Communication from a mobile unit to one or more base stations in a TIA/EIA-95 CDMA system takes place over shared frequency channels each of which occupies approximately 1.25 MHz of radio frequency bandwidth. More specifically, communication signals occupying a given frequency band are discriminated at a receiving station through the spread spectrum CDMA waveform properties based on the use of a high rate pseudonoise (PN) code. A PN code is used to modulate signals transmitted from the base stations and mobile units. Signals from different base stations can be separately received at a given mobile unit either by the discrimination of different PN codes, and/or by the discrimination of shifted versions of the same PN code. The high rate PN spreading also allows a receiving station to receive a signal from a single transmission station where the signal has traveled over distinct propagation paths. Demodulation of multiple signals is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,490,165 entitled "DEMODULATION ELEMENT ASSIGNMENT IN A SYSTEM CAPABLE OF RECEIVING MULTIPLE SIGNALS" and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,390 entitled "DIVERSITY RECEIVER IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM," both of which are assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference.
The various channels within a given "forward" (base station to mobile unit) TIA/EIA-95 CDMA channel include data channels, a synchronization channel, a pilot channel, and a set of paging channels, all transmitted from the base station to mobile units. The pilot channel carries a reference signal, commonly known as the pilot signal. The pilot signal is a regularly repeated digital pattern of "chips," wherein each chip is represented by a single binary digit. In the exemplary embodiment, the pilot signal is a pattern that is 32,768 "chips" in length, which repeats at a chip rate of 1.2288 MHz. Thus, the pattern repeats itself every 26.6 milliseconds (ms).
The pilot provides for time reference and for amplitude and phase tracking. The pilot signal allows mobile units to identify and become synchronized with the relative phase of a base station that is within range of the mobile units' communication capability. Synchronization with a base station allows the mobile unit to further refine its timing and receive data signals from the base station.
However, as the mobile unit moves, the base stations with which it is synchronized may become more distant or become blocked, and the signal from various stations may become too weak for continued reception. Further, as the mobile unit moves, a closer base station that was previously blocked may become unblocked. The more powerful signal from the closer base station may then suppress the reception of the weaker signal from the more distant, synchronized base station.
Accordingly, a mobile unit must periodically perform searches for pilot signals transmitted from other, alternative base stations in order to identify a base station with a stronger or higher power pilot signal with which to synchronize. In general, in order to facilitate these searches, the synchronized base station sends signals to the mobile unit that identify phase offsets of pilot channels for base stations neighboring the synchronized base station. Typically, to avoid pilot signal overlap, the pilot signals of neighboring base stations are phase shifted by at least 64 chips from each other. Thus, if a mobile unit is synchronized with a base station transmitting a pilot signal at a relative phase shift of 128 chips, the synchronized base station could have neighboring base stations broadcasting at relative phase shifts of 64 chips, 192 chips and, perhaps, 256 chips, for example. The mobile unit can then search for neighboring base station pilot signals around the specific phase offsets identified by the currently synchronized base station (e.g. 64, 172 and 256) on a periodic basis to determine whether to synchronize with another base station.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an earlier signal detection circuit or "searcher"10 that can be used in a mobile unit to check the power of pilot signals at certain given phase offsets or to search for received pilot signals over an entire sequence of phase offsets. Searcher 10 includes a despreader 12, a correlator 14, an energy storage and sorting module 16, and a processing control 18.
The base station creates a pilot signal having two components: an in-phase, or "I" component; and a quadrature, or "Q" component. Using these two components, the base station modulates or "spreads" the pilot signal. Most often, the specific protocol used in spreading a CDMA signal is referred to as Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) spreading. QPSK spreading is discussed in detail, for example, in R. Prasad, CDMA for Wireless Personal Communications, (Artech House, 1996). After receiving a signal and passing the signal through an analog to digital converter (not shown), despreader 12 performs a mathematical algorithm on the I- and Q-components of a signal to ensure that the correct signal magnitude is detected. The mathematical algorithm used for PN despreading involves the exclusive-oring (XORing) of expected I- and Q-components with the I and Q components received. The specifics of the mathematical algorithm, as well as the specific components used in a typical despreader are well known in the art.
Correlator 14 compares an input despread signal from despreader 12 and compares it with a reference signal, commonly termed an expected signal. The expected signal can include a portion of the 32,768 chip pattern of the PN pilot signal provided to the correlator at a certain phase offset. Correlator 14 produces an energy output indicative of the level of correlation between the input despread signal and the reference signal. For example, while an exact match of all compared chips will yield a high energy output, and a match of 50% or less of all compared chips will yield a low energy output, various energy outputs between the high and low range will be yielded in accordance with a match that falls between these levels.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a greatly simplified correlator 14. A detected signal is input into a comparator 112 at input 114 and an expected signal is input into comparator 112 at input 116. For purposes of the present application, it is convenient to discuss the signal transmitted by a base station as a digital signal composed of 1's and −1's. The comparator 112 can perform, for example, a multiplying function such that if the digital components of the signals at inputs 114 and 116 match (e.g. 1,1 or −1,−1), the output 118 is 1, or high, and if the digital components of the signals at inputs 114 and 116 do not match (e.g. −1,1 or 1,−1) the output 118 of comparator 112 is −1, or low.
Output 118 is then fed into integrator 120 which sums the outputs of comparator 112 over the total period of the portion of the PN signal used as the expected signal. For example, if the expected signal is 1024 chips in length, then the integration time will be (1024)(0.81 microseconds)=829 microseconds, because a chip arrives every 0.81 microseconds in the preferred embodiment. In this way, the output 14 of the correlator will have a relatively large magnitude when the detected signal matches the expected signal.
Additionally, even when there is a match of the pilot signal with the expected signal, the magnitude of the correlator output will be larger for a stronger signal. This is because as a signal becomes weaker, that is, if it is transmitted over a relatively long distance or reflected off various objects, it degrades. This degradation results in changes of the individual chip values of the pattern of the transmitted pilot signal. Thus, for a weaker signal, even though the pilot signal is being transmitted at a phase offset that is being searched for, it is likely that fewer chip values will result in matches, and the integrator of the correlator will therefore not sum as many positive values as would be summed were the signal stronger. Thus, the output of the integrator is a relative representation of the strength or energy of a given phase pilot signal that was searched for. The larger the magnitude of the correlator output 14, the stronger or higher energy of the detected pilot signal.
The output of the correlator 14 is fed into energy storage and sorting module 16. Energy storage and sorting module 16 can perform a number of functions. It can place in memory output energies from correlator 14 that are above a certain threshold. It can also place in memory the corresponding phase offset of the pilot signal that generated the stored energies. Alternatively, it can place in predetermined memory locations corresponding to given pilot phase offsets (such as offsets corresponding to neighbors of the synchronized base stations) the energy output of the correlator 14 at that phase offset. Specific components used for, and the operation of, typical energy storage and sorting modules are well known in the art and generally include RAM for storing energy levels and phase offsets, and logic for sorting the different energy levels.
Processing control 18 provides general control for the mobile unit and makes determinations concerning with which pilot signal, and therefore which base station, the mobile unit should synchronize. It can access the energy information in energy storage and sorting module 16 for data on which to base such determinations. Processing controls such as processing control 18 typically include a microprocessor, memory, and busses, the configuration of which is well known in the art.
Because processing control 18 provides general control for the mobile unit, it may only be able to allocate a small amount of time to checking the energy storage and sorting module 16 to determine if the mobile unit should be re-synchronized with another base-station. Additionally, the sequential collection of information concerning magnitudes of pilot signals having phase offsets other than that of the currently synchronized pilot signal can be time consuming. Thus, from time to time, the mobile unit may remain synchronized with a pilot signal of a given base station even though it could synchronize with the pilot signal of another closer, or otherwise more suitable, base station instead. This can undesirably lead to the signal jamming or weak signal difficulties described above.
Additionally, due to reflections off of buildings, hills or other obstacles and/or atmospheric conditions, the neighboring base stations may not appear to be phase shifted by exactly 64 chips from the synchronized base station. And, depending on the location of the synchronized base station, there may be other base stations in the area for which phase offsets were not provided by the synchronized base station. Thus, it may be desirable to search the full sequence of 32,768 phase offsets for pilot channels, not just pilot channels that are phase shifted by predetermined multiples of 64 chips from the currently synchronized base station. The searching, sorting, storing and processor control checking associated with such full sequence searches can consume considerable processing control resources.
Methods and apparatus are also known for determining when to handoff a signal from one base station to another as a mobile unit moves. One such method using a matched filter is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,864,578, to Yuen, et al., for a "MATCHED FILTER BASED HANDOFF METHOD AND APPARATUS." However, the matched filter disclosed by Yuen must be programmable. Such a programmable matched filter can be relatively expensive to manufacture and can require a relatively large amount of power to operate and require extra circuitry. This can be disadvantageous as mobile cellular units typically operate with a limited power supply battery and have limited space for circuitry.
Accordingly, cellular pilot searching improvements are desired. In particular, such searching should be able to be performed relatively quickly while still encompassing a broad portion of the full PN pilot sequence. A searcher should also allow for relatively high frequency checks of high priority pilot phase offsets, such as those of base stations that neighbor the synchronized base station. Additionally, such searching should require a relatively small amount of processing control time to monitor. Also, the searcher should be relatively low cost to manufacture, consume relatively low power, and be relatively compact.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for a pilot search using a matched filter


A data storage system includes a disk drive assembly having a plurality of disk drives, a first processor for controlling access to the disk drive assembly, a second processor for controlling access to the disk drive assembly, a first power supply for supplying power to the first processor and to the disk drive assembly and a second power supply for supplying power to the second processor and to the disk drive assembly.

To provide consistent, high-performance client support, many businesses rely on high-availability data storage systems. High-availability data storage systems are designed with a level of redundancy in order to provide fault tolerance for single points of failure. Two components that are typically replicated in high-availability designs are the storage processors and the power supply. In the event that one of the processors or the power supply fails, the back-up component of the redundant pair is utilized to continue the operation of the data storage system.
Such redundancy of the power sources in high-availability systems typically relies on full N+1 redundancy of all of the power supply outputs which are shared between all of the attached loads, such as the processors and disk drive arrays. However, the disadvantage of such redundancy is that the power system, when not redundant, must power the entire load. The N+1 redundancy arrangement requires N+1 times the power capacity from the power system than that which would be necessary to power a non-redundant system. The additional power requirements of the N+1 redundant system adds cost and complexity to the data storage system and increases the space requirements of the power supply system within the data storage system.

Method and system for providing redundant power to a disk drive system


A method and apparatus for removing sulfur from gas streams, utilizing liquid redox, including an improved method for preventing build-up of elemental sulfur in a sulfur absorber. Ultrasonic irradiation of one or more portions of the structure of the absorber prevents sulfur build-up. In combination with monitoring of the pressure across the absorber, the freeing of sulfur from surfaces in an absorber can be automatically actuated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to liquid redox processes for the removal of sulfur from gases, such as natural gas, or from tail gases from a sulfur plant.
2. The Prior Art
Hydrogen sulfide (H.sub.2 S) is often encountered in gas streams, such as natural gas being extracted from the ground, or in gases being produced, either intentionally or unintentionally in various industrial processes, such as the tail gas from Claus sulfur plants. In the presence of oxygen, hydrogen sulfide can form various oxides which are not only pollutants (which can contribute to acid rain formation), but also which can be corrosive or otherwise damaging to equipment, such as pipelines and other machinery.
Processes for the removal of hydrogen sulfide from gas streams are known. A basic agent such as an amine absorbent, may be employed, in which case the amine is regenerated for reuse as an absorbent by heat, for example, by steam. A variety of non-regenerable processes using iron-based solids, liquid-based processes using caustic triazine have also been employed. For economic reasons, the regenerable processes such as those that employ amines and liquid oxidation-reduction (redox) solutions are more attractive as the total amount of sulfur that must be removed increases, to the range of 50-100 pounds per day. When conversion to elemental sulfur is desired for environmental or regulatory reasons, liquid redox processes are preferred when total sulfur that must be removed from the gas stream is on the order of 10 tons per day.
Generally, in a typical liquid redox process, an oxidation-reduction system is used in which the hydrogen sulfide-laden gas ("sour" gas) is exposed to a sulfide precipitation catalyst material (for example, a metal oxide, in which the metal cation changes from a higher valence state to a lower state, upon reaction with the hydrogen sulfide), and the gas, now with a substantially reduced level of hydrogen sulfide ("sweet" gas) is then piped onward to its intended destination.
After passing through the absorber, at least a portion of the sulfur will have precipitated out of the precipitation catalyst solution as elemental sulfur. The precipitation catalyst solution is then sent to some form of regeneration apparatus, such as an oxidizer, for restoration of the metal cation in the precipitation catalyst solution to the desired higher valence state, so that the solution may be returned to the absorber to absorb more hydrogen sulfide from the gas stream.
Such liquid redox processes are favored since they operate at ambient temperatures and have high selectivity for hydrogen sulfide. While one of the major attributes of liquid redox processes for removing hydrogen sulfide from sub-quality natural gas is the rapid reaction rate of the hydrogen sulfide with the liquid redox solution and the subsequent precipitation of elemental sulfur, the process is marred by the tendency of the elemental sulfur to deposit on internal surfaces of the absorber such as walls, static mixers, packing and so on. The tendency for sulfur deposition primarily emanates from the fact that there is always a zone of stagnant fluid associated with a fixed surface. That is, a thin "boundary layer" of non-moving liquid is present on non-moving surfaces. As a result, the sulfur precipitating from the liquid onto the non-moving surfaces is essentially continuous and eventually clogs the absorber. The absorber must then be taken out of service and cleaned, resulting in plant downtime and economic penalty to the user. One method which has been considered to keep such surfaces free of sulfur deposits would be to maintain a large flow of recirculated liquid through the absorber with turbulence to ensure continuous scrubbing of the stagnant zones within the absorber. Such a method would not have a high degree of certainty in achieving uniform turbulence throughout the absorber. In addition, such a method could be costly in terms of the additional amounts of absorbent which must be maintained in the circulation loop, and the energy and equipment costs associated with constant circulation and turbulence.
It would therefore be desirable to provide a method for assuring the prevention of buildup of elemental sulfur on non-moving surfaces within an absorber, without having to resort to continuous circulation of absorbent within the absorber.

Ultrasound-assisted liquid redox absorber

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In a method for extracting texture features from a multichannel image, which comprises a plurality of pixels, information of at least two channels of the image is combined for each of the plurality of pixels, and one or several texture features are determined from the combined pixel information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for extracting texture features from a multichannel image, and here particularly to a method for extracting color texture features for automatic classification and segmentation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, more and more color cameras are used in industrial and medical image processing for generating/capturing the images to be examined.
Typical medical applications of such color cameras are, e.g. classification and segmentation of skin melanomas, classification of dysplastic and cancerous cells, e.g. cervix or sputum cells, in microscopy, or the differentiation of healthy, dysplastic or diseased tissue or mucous membrane in endoscopic examinations of oral cavity, throat, larynx, oesophagus, stomach and intestines. Examples for an industrial application of such cameras are classification and examination of wood trunks based on their bark or the cut surface, automatic identification and separation of garbage types on a conveyor belt or support in cartography by satellite pictures.
In the different named fields of application, such colored images captured by color cameras can serve as a base for classification as well as segmentation of the image content. Depending on the application case and specific boundary conditions, either viewing of the whole image or merely one or several image portions, the so-called region of interest (ROI) is performed. In this context, classification means the assignment of one or several object represented in the image to a specific class. In this context, however, segmentation is seen as the determination of such objects by useful integration of individual pixels to larger (object) units, which means a classification and assignment, respectively, of pixels to so-called object classes.
So-called features, which can be calculated from color and the gray value intensities, respectively, of pixels or small groups of pixels serve as a base for such an object and pixel classification, respectively. The calculation of such features from gray level images is thereby based on a skilful integration of the gray levels of the pixels of the viewed image portion. Examples of such simple features are, for example, first order statistics, such as frequency of gray levels (histograms), mean values and variances of the viewed gray levels in such an image portion. More complex features, by which, for example, so-called textures and textured surfaces, respectively, can be described and analyzed, are based, e.g. on higher order statistics, so-called Fourier or Gabor features, run length encodings, geometrical statistical features and the like. Examples of such higher order statistics for describing textured surfaces are, for example, described by R. M. Haralick, et al. in "Texture Features for Image Classification", IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics, Vol. SMC-3, No. 6, pages 610–621, November 1973, by M. Unser in "Sum and Difference Histograms for Texture Analysis", IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, Vol. 8, No. 1, pages 118–125, 1986 and by Y. Q. Chen et al. in "Statistical Geometrical Features for Texture Classification", Pattern Recognition, Vol. 28, No. 4, pages 537–552, September 1995.
The disadvantage of these known solutions is that they are limited to the evaluation of intensities gathered from a single channel recording of the image and thus merely enable the determination of texture features in such images. Based on the texture features acquired that way, a classification can conventionally be performed.
In contrast to gray level images, however, it has been determined that color images and particularly information with regard to the statistical distribution of colors are a very powerful and useful classification tool, so that utilization of color information contained in a color image is desirable.
In the prior art, several solutions are known by which the above-mentioned solutions for extracting texture features from gray level images can be converted to multichannel images, such as spectral images with two or more levels. These solutions work such that the analysis steps known from the solutions with regard to the examination of gray level images are applied separately to every channel of the image, which means every image level, and that the resulting texture features are finally integrated to one overall texture feature.
This solution is disadvantageous in that every image level is examined individually, so that the information contained in the actual distribution of the colors of a pixel across the levels are not used for texture feature analysis, but that merely a combination of pixel information contained in all colored channels is performed by a final integration of the separately generated texture features. Thus, no actual combining of the information associated to the individual pixels in the different levels takes place, so that this solution has only slight improvements compared to the conventional "gray level approach", which, however, do not justify the increased computing effort.

Method for extracting texture features from a multichannel image

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V


A method is provided for operating an internal combustion engine in whose exhaust-gas region an exhaust-gas treatment device is situated, and in which a reagent is introduced into the exhaust-gas region of the internal combustion engine. in addition, a device is provided for implementing the method. The reagent pressure occurring between a reagent safety valve and a reagent dosing valve, disposed directly in the exhaust-gas region is recorded during different states of the reagent safety valve and/or the reagent dosing valve and compared to at least one threshold value. If the threshold is exceeded, a fault signal is provided. This may offer high safety which may be of particular importance when fuel is used as reagent.

In German Patent Application No. DE 10 2004 018 221 A1, a method and a device are described in which a pressurized reagent is sprayed into the exhaust gas of an internal combustion engine in front of an SCR catalyst. The reagent pressure is specified to a predefined reagent setpoint pressure as a function of a characteristic quantity. A performance quantity of the internal combustion engine and/or a characteristic quantity of the exhaust gas of the internal combustion engine can be utilized as characteristic quantity. The predefined reagent setpoint pressure is regulated within the framework of a closed-loop control in which the actual reagent pressure is detected by a reagent pressure sensor. It is possible to admix pressurized air to the reagent. The compressed air pressure may also be regulated within the framework of a closed-loop control, to a predefined setpoint compressed air pressure as a function of a characteristic quantity, the actual compressed air pressure being detected by a compressed air pressure sensor. A defect of at least one of the pressure sensors may cause reduced performance of the SCR catalyst with the result that non-purified exhaust gas may reach the environment.
In German Patent Application No. DE 10 2004 044 506 A1, a method and a device are described in which a pressurized reagent is sprayed into the exhaust gas of an internal combustion engine in front of an SCR catalyst. The compressed air is guided via a non-return valve having an opening pressure. Provision is made for a diagnosis of the compressed air pressure, which begins at a starting instant with the closing of a compressed air regulation valve. At least at a second point in time it is checked whether the compressed air pressure corresponds to at least one lower threshold value, which at least approximately corresponds to the opening pressure, added to the ambient air pressure, of the non-return valve. A fault signal will be supplied if the condition is not satisfied.
In German Patent Application No. DE 101 59 849 A1, another method and device are described in which a pressurized reagent is sprayed into the exhaust gas of an internal combustion engine in front of an SCR catalyst. Fuel is provided as reagent, which acts as reducing agent for the NO2 portion in the exhaust gas, in particular.

Method for operating an internal combustion engine and device for implementing the method


Centrifigal washing machine is disclosed, in which a small sized detergent solution spray pump can be used for reducing power, water and detergent consumptions, including an outer tub supported in a body of the washing machine, an inner tub rotatably held in the outer tub, a spray device rotatably held at a center of the inner tub and having a detergent solution spray hole with a narrow width and a long length and an end bent to one side, a detergent solution supply tube connected between an under side of the outer tub and one end of the spray device for guiding a detergent solution filled in the outer tub to the spray device, a pump fitted in the detergent solution supply tube for pumping the detergent solution, a first valve and a second valve fitted at an inlet and an outlet of the detergent solution supply tube respectively for opening and closing the detergent solution supply tube selectively, and a foam eliminating means for eliminating foam produced as the detergent solution is circulated when the pump is operated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a washing machine, and more particularly, to a centrifugal washing machine in which a detergent solution is passed through a laundry for washing the laundry.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A washing machine strips contaminants from between fibers in general by applying energy such as impact and the like to the laundry. Depending on the type of energy applied to the laundry, there are pulsator washing machines, drum washing machines, agitator washing machines, and the like. That is, washing is done either by giving impacts to the laundry by means of the pulsator or a washing rod, or by the impact given to the laundry when the laundry tumbled, in addition to an action of the detergent added thereto. However, conventional washing machines have problems in that the laundry can be damaged from the impact or tangled during the rotation. Accordingly, in order to solve the aforementioned problems, research on washing laundries without rubbing or giving impacts to the laundries is underway, with fruitful results in which washing machines employing a low frequency wave, washing machines employing centrifugal force and the like are developed to a stage of commercial production.
The washing machine employing centrifugal force carries out washing by passing a detergent solution through fibers of the laundry under the following principle.
In principle, the action of washing is a stripping of contaminants from the laundry in the course of the detergent passing through the laundry. It is known from an experiment that the washing can be done when a flow speed of the detergent solution passing through the fibers of the laundry relative to the laundry is more than 1 m/s. Thus, when the detergent solution is passed through a laundry higher than a certain speed, the washing can be done even if the laundry is neither rubbed nor squeezed, namely, the principle employed in the centrifugal washing machine. One example of the centrifugal washing machine is disclosed in Korean Patent Laid Open No. 94-9417. This prior art centrifugal washing machine has problems in that it has great power, water and detergent consumptions because it requires both a high flow rate of detergent solution for spraying the detergent solution through detergent solution spraying holes formed all over a spray device provided on a central portion of a washing tub and a large sized pump for exerting a great spraying power required for the washing. And, this prior art centrifugal washing machine has problems in that it has a complicated construction because a difference of rotational speeds required for the washing tub and the spray device requires an additional device which can convert a rotational speed of a motor into two rotational speeds that are different from each other and transmit the rotational speeds to the washing tub and the spray device, respectively.


A gray-scale voltage generating circuit includes: a ladder resistor circuit including a plurality of resistors connected in series to one another, and configured to output a plurality of gray-scale voltages with different voltage values from ends of the respective resistors; and a constant current source configured to be connected in series to the ladder resistor circuit, in which the constant current source includes a current source transistor configured to be connected in series to the ladder resistor circuit, and a voltage setting section configured to select one voltage from the plurality of voltages and set the selected voltage as a voltage determining a current that is to flow through the current source transistor.

The present disclosure relates to a gray-scale voltage generating circuit and a display unit.
A display unit using a digital image signal as an input includes a digital-analog conversion circuit that converts an input digital image signal into an analog image signal. Types of digital-analog conversion circuit include a gray-scale voltage selecting type digital-analog conversion circuit in which a digital image signal is converted into an analog image signal by selecting one gray-scale voltage corresponding to the digital image signal from a plurality of gray-scale voltages corresponding in number to bits of the digital image signal. As a gray-scale voltage generating circuit that generates a plurality of gray-scale voltages, there is known a gray-scale voltage generating circuit using a ladder resistor circuit that includes a plurality of resistors connected in series to one another and outputs a plurality of gray-scale voltages with different voltage values from ends (nodes) of the respective resistors (for example, refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-233109).

Gray-scale voltage generating circuit to control luminance of the display unit


A method for adjusting a display area and an electronic device are provided. The method may include, detecting a gesture for setting an inactive area in an active area of a display, identifying a size and a location of an inactive area to set, and designating part of the active area as the inactive area based on the identified size and location of the virtual inactive area.

Based on rapid development of electronic devices, an electronic device allowing wireless voice communication and information exchange becomes convenient. In the early supply of the electronic device, the electronic device is a portable terminal allowing wireless communication. As electronic device technologies advance and wireless Internet is adopted, applications of the electronic device include a simple phone call, schedule management, a game, remote control using short-range communication, and image capturing using an embedded digital camera, to thus satisfy user's needs.
As the electronic device provides a multimedia service, information to process and to display multimedia also increases. Accordingly, an electronic device including a touch screen for expanding a display size by enhancing spatial utilization is drawing more attention.
The touch screen is an input and display device for inputting and displaying information on a single screen. Hence, by use of the touch screen, the electronic device can increase the display area by removing a separate input device such as keypad. For example, an electronic device that uses the entire screen as the touch screen, the front side of the electronic device can be used as the screen to thereby increase the screen size.
The display of the electronic device is divided into an active area for displaying an actual image, and an inactive area excluding the active area.
The active area can display status information of the electronic device, and detect a user's gesture (touch input). The inactive area is a boundary between a frame of the electronic device and the active area and is generally used to process wiring of the touch panel.
Recent electronic devices reduce the inactive area of the display to increase the active area.
The inactive area of the display can be referred to as a bezel. As the bezel reduces, the user can obtain a wider display area. However, when the user grabs the display, the active area may be covered by the user's hand.
In the electronic device with the small inactive area, the finger that is placed in the active area when the user's grips the device may be recognized as an unnecessary touch.
FIGS. 1A and 1B are diagrams illustrating the unnecessary touch input in an electronic device according to the related art.
Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, the electronic device supports a multi-screen function for displaying a plurality of application execution screens and concurrently displays a video play screen and a messaging screen as shown in FIG. 1A.
The area displaying the video play screen and the messaging screen is the active area, and the user can hold the electronic device as shown in FIG. 1B.
Typically, the user holds the electronic device by closely contacting a side of the electronic device with the user's palm and securing the inactive area with a thumb to prevent the fingers from touching the active area.
However, when the user grips the recent electronic device including the inactive area, the user's finger is placed in the active area as shown in FIG. 1B.
In this case, data corresponding to the user's finger is inadvertently selected to thus input of unnecessary data. In FIGS. 1A and 1B, a video file "2012 12 . . . " is selected by the user's finger holding the electronic device.
Such a shortcoming is not present only in the multi-screen function, but can also be found in the single application execution screen.
To address the shortcoming, a method and an apparatus for dynamically adjusting the inactive area according to the user's grip are desired.
The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the present disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with regard to the present disclosure.

Method for adjusting display area and electronic device thereof


A semiautomatic or fully automatic firearm that includes a barrel, the rear barrel end whereof is in the form of a cartridge chamber into which a cartridge can be inserted, a breech body which is arranged such that it can move in the longitudinal direction between an open position, which releases the cartridge chamber for the reloading of a cartridge, and a closed position which closes the cartridge chamber, wherein the breech body closes the cartridge chamber at the rear in the closed position and is used as a support for the cartridge case of the cartridge, wherein the firearm has a mass simulation body which is in force-fitting engagement with the breech body, in particular a mass simulation body which is rigidly connected to the breech body, the mass simulation body being formed at least in part from a magnetizable or a magnetic material.

DE 10 2004 021 952 B3 discloses an example of a self-loading handheld firearm.
Firearms of this kind, or similar, use the recoil produced when the weapon is fired to move a breech body from a closed position into an open position for reloading. However this movement of the breech body cannot take place too early while the shot is being fired, or after it has been fired, as the resulting pressure is intended to be used first to accelerate the fired projectile. Only when the projectile has reached a given speed should the breech body be moved from its closed position into its open position. In order to guarantee this, many weapons have a breech lock which locks the breech body in the closed position until a predefined point in time has been reached.
Other automatic firearms do not have a breech lock. The breech body in this case should have a high mass (and therefore a high mass inertia), in order to withstand the recoil force of the projectile and the recoil forces of the hot gases from the propellant charge of the projectile for a desired period of time. A high material mass makes the firearm heavy. For reasons associated with the movability of the parts and the comparatively high mass of the breech, the aiming accuracy of automatic firearms is normally not as good as that of repeater rifles.
In order to solve this problem, DE 10 2007 063 292 B3 discloses a semiautomatic or fully automatic firearm in which two or more permanent magnets, or a permanent magnet and a material accumulation corresponding thereto made up of ferromagnetic or ferromagnetic material are provided, the magnetic field whereof forces the breech body at least in the closed position, and in positions close to the closed position, into the closed position so that the magnetic force of the permanent magnets simulates a higher mass, referred to below as an effective mass, of the breech body, which acts as an opposing bearing or counter support or support during the firing of a projectile. The permanent magnets disposed for mutual attraction are arranged so as to be rotatable relative to one another about a center axis which is aligned with the axial bore axis of the barrel, so that the mutually attracting permanent magnets are rotatable relative to one another between a first rotation angle position in which a north pole is aligned with a south pole and a second rotation angle position in which the north pole is not aligned, or is less aligned, with the south pole, so that the magnetic attractional force between the poles can be reduced by rotation. This allows a relatively low-force opening of the breech body.
However, this design requires an increase in the number of components inside the weapon compared with a traditional weapon, and also a high degree of precision in the production of the weapon.

Semiautomatic or fully automatic firearm


A pen-based computer in which the lines drawn by a user are anti-aliased incrementally by applying a smoothing filter to the relatively high resolution pen sensor image and subsampling the result to provide a relatively low resolution image which is displayed using greyscale.

Capturing handwriting on an LCD using some form of pen sensor has previously been performed by calculating the pen position and drawing a vector or spline from the last known pen position. The algorithm for drawing the vector or spline typically involves simply turning pixels on the curve on or off as appropriate. The resultant effect of such drawing is aliasing, i.e., a rather jagged line at the LCD screen resolutions of 90 dpi (dots per inch) which are commonly used today.
Greyscale, which is the use of levels of grey rather than simply black and white, makes an image appear to be of higher resolution than it actually is and can help to create the appearance of smoother lines in a pen-based computer. In this specification the term `n-level greyscale` means the actual number of greyscale levels, not the number of bits needed to store each greyscale value. For example, 4-level greyscale would require 2 bits of storage.
One known approach utilizing greyscale to achieve anti-aliasing of lines drawn on computer screens is the `partial inking` approach and a useful reference is a book titled `Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice` published by Addison Wesley, 1990. Partial inking involves calculating the ink level for pixels according to what fraction of the pixel would be covered by the (theoretical) line being drawn. This is a relatively crude approach which has the advantage of being low in cost but which is rather limited in the quality of result which can be achieved.
Another approach utilizing greyscale, and the one that is relevant to the present invention, involves digital sampling and filtering.
Generally, to render an image on a computer screen, the image must be sampled, i.e., digitized. The aliasing is the direct effect of sampling a continuous image which includes frequencies above the Nyquist limit. For a sampling frequency of f, the maximum frequency of the continuous image must be less than f/2. If this condition is not met, the sampling of higher frequencies causes extra, low frequency, components to be created which distort the resultant image. To prevent this problem, the continuous image needs to be passed though a low pass filter that cuts off at f/2 before sampling.
The article by Blinn entitled "What we need around here is more aliasing" in the IEEE Computer Graphics and Applications, 9(1): 75-79, January 1989 is helpful background reference material on the general topic of anti-aliasing.
Considering the problem of rendering freehand input onto a computer screen, it is desirable to render at the finest possible resolution, i.e., line widths of one pixel. However, this is the worst case for digitization distortions because then the freehand lines jump between full width and negligible width along their length.

Apparatus and method for smoothing the lines drawn by a user at a computer


A front cowl stay is enabled to be attached to the vehicle body side without making its structure complicated while sufficiently ensuring the capacity of a member such as an air cleaner and the like disposed in the peripheries of a head pipe and the front portion of main frames and desired to ensure its capacity.

1. Field
The present invention relates to a front cowl stay attachment structure for a saddle-ride type vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent No. 3375468) discloses a motorcycle configured such that a front cowl stay used to attach a front cowl thereto is attached at three points. A front portion of a head pipe can be one point, and left and right outer wall portions of a pair of left and right main frames extending rearward from the head pipe, can be the second and third points.
Motorcycles with a large displacement engine are provided with a fuel tank and an air cleaner at the peripheries of a head pipe and a front portion of main frames extending rearward from the head pipe. The motorcycles require ensuring the sufficient capacities of the fuel tank and the air cleaner.
However, if it is intended to ensure the sufficient capacities of the fuel tank and the air cleaner at the peripheries of the head pipe and the front portion of the main frames, the restriction of space may probably lead to difficulty in the installation of the front cowl stay as in Patent Document 1.
Even if it is possible to install the front cowl stay, a situation may arise in which the size of the front cowl stay has to be increased more than necessary. This may make the structure of the front cowl stay complicated.

Front cowl stay attachment structure for saddle-ride type vehicle


An insert for mounting in the corner of a door or window frame opening includes two mounting flanges bonded along two edges of a glass panel. The flanges define an L-shape. Mounting within the frame is by fasteners which extend through apertures through the flanges.

Decorative windows composed of contoured and textured glass have been made for many generations, reaching a peak in popularity as architectural elements in the last century. Such windows are currently enjoying a revival in popularity, being used particularly as central elements in front doors and as adjacent elements above and beside such doors. Such windows are also being used increasingly in commercial applications for decorative purposes and to form portions of partitions.
Similarly, inserts for mounting at the corners of window of door openings are attaining popularity. Decorative windows and decorative corner inserts are not normally included in the same window opening but their use is a part of the same phenomenon and, indeed the manufacturing techniques also have some similarities.
In the traditional process, such windows and inserts are made from relatively thick plate glass, having various sorts of grooves and other contours ground therein and polished to restore smooth surfaces with desirable optical properties. Certain portions of glass surfaces may be textured using sand blasting, acid etching, or a process called "glue chipping" in which an adhesive applied to a sand blasted surface is stripped to leave a specific pattern. Such windows can also be made as composites of a number of glass panels having deeply beveled edges joined by lead strips contoured for this purpose. Leaded glass windows are quite expensive due to labor costs and breakage during cutting, beveling and assembly.
A number of attempts have been made to simulate traditional decorative windows using various manufacturing processes having lower associated costs. For example, windows with decorative designs and surfaces have been injection molded using clear thermoplastic materials, such as certain types of polycarbonate. However, injection molding has a serious disadvantage in the high cost of the tooling required. The high cost of the dies required in this application is particularly significant, since suppliers of such types of window, corner inserts and associated architectural elements generally need to have an inventory including a large number of window sizes and design patterns. A large number of dies are required and the expense is not practical. Further, injection molded elements have not generally met with commercial success as fine architectural units because they do not look and feel like real glass. Rather, thermoplastic panels are much too flexible compared to glass and transmit and reflect light differently than real glass. In addition, limitations in the ability of the die casting process to produce certain features, such as sharp internal and external edges, detract from the appearance of plastic substitutes for decorative glass panels.
A method for making a solid, continuous plastic part with a textured surface simulating stained glass is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,848,046. In accordance with this method, a mold is first made by pouring a gel substance into a mold to form a gel layer. Before this layer hardens, an absorbent, such as dry powdered gelatin, is sprinkled on its surface. This powder absorbs moisture, swells, and merges into the gel surface while causing shrinkage of the surface, thereby forming a nodular surface texture. After the gelatin has hardened, a stained glass simulating material, such as polyester resin prepared in a liquid form with a catalyst added, is poured on the textured surface. After the resin hardens, the gelatin mold is dissolved in water and washed off the resin part, which is left as a finished article. In a modification of this process, a hardened plastic framework, including a number of openings, is dropped into the gelatin after the absorbent is added but before the gelatine hardens. Textured resin material is thus allowed to harden in the openings within the framework, simulating a window with multiple panes. While the gelatin mold produced in this process is certainly less expensive than the steel molds required for use in the injection molding process, it is only capable of producing a single finished article. Also, this process produces only a random nodular surface texture; it does not produce pictorial, sculptured designs within the surface of the finished article.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,546,051 describes a method for simulating the overall appearance of a stained glass window by providing a glass pane behind an injection molded plastic framework including a pattern of ribs forming pictorial fields. Various pictorial fields in the pane are colored using stencils. The framework is metallized by the application of metal foil under heat and pressure, by vacuum deposition, or by spraying. While this patent is directed at making a realistic framework, nothing is done about the glass except for coloring.
A method for making simulations of decorative glass panels using thermoplastic films and thin layers of resins adhered to glass panes is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,713,958. A structure in which a coating of a substantially clear resin, such as an epoxy, vinyl, acrylic, or polyester type, is applied to one side of a glass pane, while light-transmissive glass tint is applied to the opposite side to simulate stained glass. For the resin, a copolymer of N-butyl methacrylate and methyl methacrylate in aromatic solvents was found to be compatible with glass.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,335,170 describes a method of simulating stained and leaded glass panels in which a very thin polyester film is attached to a sheet of glass using an adhesive. Individual film segments are cut to correspond with design segments having different colors. After the adhesive is applied to the film, a soap solution is applied thereon to neutralize the effect of the adhesive during the process of positioning the film on the glass. After the film is positioned on the glass, the soap solution is forced outward by pressure with a squeegee so that adhesion occurs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,791,010 describes the application of a unique liquid mixture of ink and varnish to a glass pane in order to produce a simulated etched glass appearance. A framework of spacers is then placed atop the glass, adjacent to its edges, surrounding the ink and varnish image, and another glass pane is placed atop the spacers. These items are then formed into a permanent assembly, with the image protected on the inside surface of the first glass pane, as sealing materials are applied around outer surfaces of the spacers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,154,880 describes a window pane with a decorative molding attached to one surface by an adhesive strip. The molding includes flanges which mechanically lock with the adhesive strip. This patent indicates that areas of the glass adjacent to the molding sections can be of different colors or can have different surface treatments, such as sandblasting.
The methods described in the above paragraphs have the disadvantage of providing only very thin coatings on the glass surfaces. U.S. Pat. No. 3,713,958, discussed above, describes the texturing of the resin with a rod or other tool to provide an irregular or wavy surface but none of the approaches discussed are capable of providing the deeply contoured or sculptured appearance, including recognizable pictorial elements, associated with historically structured decorative windows. Furthermore, none of these techniques can provide the wide variety of surface finishes associated with decorative glass at a reasonable cost.
A method for making a different sort of decorative panel is proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,516,893 which provides for printed acetate fabric adhesively attached on one side to a sheet of tempered glass. On the opposite side is a backing sheet, which is preferably methacrylate ester polymer. The adhesive is of a type, such as a mixture of acetone and butyl acetate, which totally or partially dissolves the acetate fibers of the fabric without destroying the color and pattern of the printed design. After the adhesive is cured, the tempered glass is shattered, creating a mosaic effect while retaining its panel form.
A number of patents describe methods for the simulation of multi-pane windows in structures having a continuous pane of glass to which other elements of substantial thickness are attached. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,495,739 and 4,518,446 describe a decorative window and a method for manufacturing, wherein ornamental lead strips are attached around the edges of one or more glass segments having an edge thickness of about one eighth of an inch, where each glass segment is bonded to an underlying glass pane, and where the strip is held in place by a polysulfide adhesive carried in its channel and mechanically locked by inwardly directed flanges at its edges. U.S. Pat. No. 4,904,513 describes a plurality of plates with beveled edges being adhesively attached to a single backing pane of glass, preferably through the use of a layer of polyvinyl butyrate under conditions of heat and pressure. In one variation, decorative strips are also glued in place between the beveled plates.
Some prior art patents describe either modifying a single glass pane to look like a multi-pane window, or alternately and additionally, attaching one or more additional pieces of glass to a backing pane. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,488,919 describes methods for making a simulated multi-pane beveled and leaded glass window by forming beveled groves to subdivide a glass or plastic plate, with smooth surfaces on both sides, into design segments of unrelieved panels. Lead strips are subsequently attached to the flat bottom walls of these grooves, which are preferably formed by machining. In an alternate method, the panel can be formed by injection molding. In another alternative construction, segments having a substantial thickness, such as sheets of glass, polycarbonate, or poly(methylacrylate) up to about one quarter inch in thickness, may be laminated to a base pane.
Certain design segments can be provided with a jeweled glass appearance by securing transparent shapes, having flat inner surface and faceted or smoothly curved outer surfaces, in place using a pressure-sensitive adhesive. U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,850 describes the attachment of a die cast lead component to each side of a sheet of glass, thereby simulating lead strips holding individual pieces of glass. Surface treatments, such as coloring, sand blasting, or "glue chipping" conventionally applied to decorative glass windows may be applied if desired to various zones of the glass. In a modified version, a bevelled glass layer is adhesively bonded to a zone within the lead components.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,709,267; 3,580,192; and 4,283,894 illustrate decorative corner structure to be mounted in a window frame, door frame or simply at the intersection of two wall structures. Mounting techniques used in these three patents are diverse and indeed they are quite different from the mounting structures of the panels described above because they are concerned with generally triangular shaped elements not extending completely across the opening within a framework. Uniformly the mounting techniques are difficult to the extent that they often become problems to provide stability to the corner insert.
One method of replicating an article such as a surface configuration is to form a mold over the surface of the original article using liquid silicone. The formed mold may thereafter be filled with a resin, which is allowed to cure within the mold before it is removed as a replica. Traditional mold release agents, such as Teflon or silicone sprays have been used to prevent adhesion between the mold material and the cured resin replica articles. Such agents have also been used to facilitate the removal of molds poured around original objects. Such mild release agents are applied to the surface of the original object before the mold is made, and/or to the mold itself before the addition of material to be molded into a replica.
The removal of a silicone mold from a glass master such as used in this invention poses particular problems. The adhesive forces between the silicone and the glass are so great that as few as one in twenty molds is successfully removed from the master without serious damage using conventional prior art mold release agents. Furthermore, the use of traditional mold release agents, applied to the master before pouring the mold, renders the mold unacceptable for producing replicas of adequate quality since the release agents leave impressions in the mold which are subsequently transferred to the replicas as roughened surfaces. Due to the intended use of replicas to transmit light and to produce aesthetic effects similar to those produced by cut and polished glass surfaces, the production of plastic decorative glass replicas is much more sensitive to blemishes than is the production of virtually all other plastic parts by molding processes.
One potential solution to the prior art problems of using the decorative glass replica in architectural applications is to form the plastic decorative layer on a conventional glass pane, which then acts as a backing for the decorative plastic layer. A technical problem still requiring resolution is the adhesion between a cured resin plastic layer and the glass pane used as the backing plate. Excellent adhesion is required, so that the resulting decorative windows can be used in exterior architectural applications without delamination occurring due to large amount of thermal expansion which occurs between hot summer days and cold winter nights. A solution to this problem is disclosed in pending application Ser. No. 807,236 and to the extent necessary for a full understanding of this invention it is incorporated herein by reference.

Decorative corner insert for window or door openings with contoured plastic resin laminated to glass forming the insert


The present invention is a metallized shrinkable label and a method for producing the same. The label of the invention is composed of a shrinkable film base and a graphic. The graphic is created by combining pigmented inks, a metallic coating and a shrink-resistant coating which is printed in a predetermined pattern with gaps so that upon exposure of the label to heat, the gaps close thereby forming a continuous graphic layer. Advantageously, the shrink-resistant coating minimizes discoloration and pleating of the metallic coating.

In displaying and selling packaged goods, it is generally important to apply visible markings such as product identifiers, instructional material, corporate logos, trademarks and the like to the visible portions of a container for commercial purposes such as sales promotion of the goods packaged in the container. Such visible markings are generally applied directly to the visible portions of a container by various techniques including printing, embossing, etching and the like either directly onto the side walls of the container or by attaching to the container a film or wrapper having the visible markings thereon.
Various types of printed films and methods for labeling packaged goods are used throughout the packaging industry. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,908,687 teaches oriented or hot-blown shrink films containing a modifier component such as a plastomer and/or metallocene catalyzed ethylene-propylene copolymer, wherein the label can be coated or metallized.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,190,609 discloses a stable pressure sensitive shrink label. The heat shrink labels are formed from a polyolefin, such as a polypropylene, and have a permanent acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive on one side. A metallized layer and open style graphics are disclosed, wherein the graphics may be protected by varnish or a second layer of heat shrinkable polyolefin material.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,303,233 discloses an uniaxially heat-shrinkable, biaxially oriented, multilayer film having a polypropylene-containing core layer, wherein metal coatings can be deposited on the multilayer film structure without the development of any noticeable crazing of the metal upon shrinking.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,127,024 discloses a battery label having a single heat-shrinkable polymeric layer, a graphic layer composed of a printed metallized layer or an ink layer, and a UV cured, heat, electron beam, or polymerized varnish layer having geometric patterns on the two linearly extending edges that correspond to the portion of the label that extends beyond and wraps around the rims of the battery.
EP 0122495 discloses films of biaxially oriented polypropylene laminated to an olefin polymeric film. The films are used as decorative wrapping paper having a metallized surface laminated thereon.


A method of capturing human immunoglobulin Fc domains in a biofluid sample is provided. The method includes providing an affinity capture device. The affinity capture device includes a surface having an aptamer that is at least 80% identical to SEQ ID NO 1 immobilized onto the surface of the affinity capture device. The biofluid sample is diluted with a binding buffer. The binding buffer includes (A) tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane (Tris), trimethylamine (TES), 2-ethanesulfonic acid (MES), or 4-(2-hydroxyethyl)-1-piperazineethanesulfonic acid (HEPES); (B) a magnesium cation at a concentration between about 10 μM to about 20 mM; and (C) a total monovalent cation concentration from 0 to no greater than 100 mM. The human immunoglobulin Fc domains in the biofluid sample are adsorbed to the aptamer with the binding buffer.

Over the past couple of decades, the market of immunotherapy has grown exponentially. Until 2018, over 80 antibody therapeutics have been approved by the FDA, and hundreds of candidates are undergoing clinical trials. Human monoclonal antibodies (mAb) represent one of the most popular antibody therapeutic modalities and offer significantly reduced immunogenicity risks. About 80% of the FDA approved antibody drugs are either fully human or humanized antibodies with more than 90% human sequence origin. To keep up with this rapid growth in demand for human antibody therapeutics, there is a requirement for high-throughput, selective purification of target proteins from cell culture and biofluid samples.

Aptamer based affinity capture methods for the selective enrichment of human immunoglobulin Fc domains


A digital camera that captures object light by a CCD to create an image signal includes a read controller that controls reading of light signals from at least two fields of the CCD, in which a field, from which a light signal received by an R-sensor sensitive to red light is read, is separated from a field from which a light signal received by a B-sensor sensitive to blue light is read. The read controller includes: a color temperature discriminating section that discriminates a color temperature based on the light signals received from the CCD; and a read sequence controller that causes a light signal to be read first from the R-sensor when a color temperature is low and causes a light signal to be read first from the B-sensor when the color temperature is high according to a result of discrimination of the color temperature discriminating section.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a read controller for an image pick-up device that controls reading of light signals from an image pick-up device employing an interlace reading system and to an image pick-up apparatus that creates an image signal by capturing object light by the image pick-up device.
2. Description of the Related Art
A charge coupled device (hereinafter, abbreviated as "CCD") is widely used as an image pick-up device in a digital camera as one of image pick-up apparatuses. The CCD includes a multiplicity of photoelectric transducers disposed in a matrix and color filter arrays are disposed on the multiplicity of photoelectric transducers. Note that the color filter arrays are disposed by a Bayer disposition system, a G-stripe disposition system, an R/G checkered pattern disposition system, a RGB perfect stripe disposition system, and the like. Further, in many cases, the CCD is provided with micro lenses disposed on the color filter arrays in correspondence to the respective photoelectric transducers to increase the amount of light incident on the photoelectric transducers. An R-sensor sensitive to red (R), a G-sensor sensitive to green (G), and a B-sensor sensitive to blue (B) are arranged from the photoelectric transducers, the color filter arrays, and the micro lenses.
There is known a digital camera having a mechanical shutter, a CCD acting as an image pick-up device, and a read controller for the image pick-up device. The CCD reads out (interlace reads) light signals from at least two fields, in which a field for reading a light signal received by an R-sensor sensitive to red light is separated from a field for reading a light signal received by a B-sensor sensitive to blue light, and the read controller controls reading of the light signals from the CCD. In the digital camera, light signals are read from the at least two fields in the state that the mechanical shutter is closed and no light is incident on the camera when exposure is finished. In this case, while charges are being read out by reading a light signal from an initial field (first field), the amount of charges read out by reading a light signal from a next field (second field) is kept by photoelectric transducers. Accordingly, a problem arises in that the charges read out by reading the light signal from the second field leak to an overflow drain, which is disposed to a semiconductor substrate of the CCD to discard excessive charges, in the period during which the charges are being read out by reading the light signal from the first field, and an amount of signal charges accumulated during an exposure period is reduced.
To cope with the above problem, there is proposed a technique for preventing the signal charges, which are read out by reading the light signal from the second field, from leaking to the overflow drain in the period during which the light signal is being read from the first field by setting a potential barrier between a light receiving element and the overflow drain higher in the period during which the first field is read than in the period during which exposure is executed by the light receiving element (refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 11-331708).
Incidentally, there is a phenomenon that the amount of signal charges, which are read out by reading the signal light from the second field, is reduced by the influence of thermal diffusion while the light signal is being read from the first field. Accordingly, it is difficult to keep the amount of signal charges (which is called an amount of saturation charges) read out by reading the light signal from the second field in an maximum possible amount. As a result, the amount of saturation charges reduced by the influence of the thermal diffusion is read, thereby an image signal output from the CCD has a narrow dynamic range, and thus it is difficult to obtain an image of high quality by the digital camera. To cope with the above problem, there is a countermeasure of changing the profile of the CCD, and the like, from which a problem also arises in that a circuit arrangement becomes complex.

Read controller for image pick-up device, and image pick-up apparatus


Devices, systems, and methods using Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) are disclosed. A device for generating Raman scattered radiation comprises a laser source and a SERS-active structure. The laser source may be configured for emanating radiation from an emanating surface or by forming a depression in the laser source, which creates a region of increased evanescent field from the laser source. SERS systems and methods include a device for generating Raman scattered radiation with a detector configured to receive the Raman scattered radiation.

Raman Spectroscopy is a well-known spectroscopic technique for performing chemical analysis. In conventional Raman Spectroscopy, high intensity monochromatic light from a light source, such as a laser, is directed onto an analyte to be chemically analyzed. The analyte may contain a single species of molecules or mixtures of different molecules. Furthermore, Raman Spectroscopy may be performed on a number of different molecular configurations, such as organic and inorganic molecules in crystalline or amorphous states.
The majority of the incident photons of the light are elastically scattered by the analyte molecule. In other words, the scattered photons have the same frequency, and thus the same energy, as the photons that were incident on the analyte. However, a small fraction of the photons (i.e., 1 in 107 photons) are inelastically scattered by the analyte molecule at a different optical frequency than the incident photons. The inelastically scattered photons are termed the "Raman effect" and may be scattered at frequencies greater than, but most are usually scattered at a frequency lower than, the frequency of the incident photons. When the incident photons collide with the molecules and give up some of their energy, the Raman scattered photons (also referred to as Raman scattered radiation) emerge with a lower energy. The lower energy Raman scattered photons are commonly referred to in Raman spectroscopy as the "Stokes radiation." A small fraction of the molecules are already in an energetically excited state and when the incident photons collide with the molecules, the Raman scattered photons emerge at a higher energy. The higher energy Raman scattered photons are commonly referred to in Raman spectroscopy as the "anti-Stokes radiation." The Stokes and the anti-Stokes Raman scattered photons are detected by a detector, such as a photomultiplier, resulting in a spectral graph of intensity at a corresponding frequency (i.e., proportional to energy) for the Raman scattered photons. By plotting the frequency of the inelastically scattered Raman photons against intensity, a unique Raman spectrum, which corresponds to the particular analyte molecules, is obtained. This Raman spectrum may be used to identify chemical species, as well as other physical properties of the analyte. While conventional Raman Spectroscopy is suitable for bulk chemical analysis, it is not effective for surface studies because the signal from the bulk Raman scattered photons overwhelms any signal from Raman scattered photons near the surface.
Due to the deficiencies with performing surface studies using conventional Raman Spectroscopy, another Raman Spectroscopy technique called Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS), which is effective for performing surface studies, has been developed. In SERS, a monolayer of the molecules to be analyzed is adsorbed onto a specially roughened metal surface. Typically, the metal surface is made from gold, silver, copper, lithium, sodium, or potassium. SERS has also been used employing metallic nanoparticles or nanowires for the metal surface, as opposed to a roughened metallic surface. The intensity of the Raman scattered photons from a molecule adsorbed on such a metal surface is typically about 104–106 greater than conventional Raman Spectroscopy and can be as high as 108–1014. Although not thoroughly understood, the selectivity of the surface Raman signal results from the presence of surface enhancement mechanisms and is mainly attributed to two primary mechanisms: electromagnetic enhancement and chemical enhancement, with the electromagnetic enhancement being the dominant mechanism. The enhanced electromagnetic field is highly dependent on the surface roughness features of the metal surface. The chemical enhancement is believed to be dependent on the altered electronic structure of the metal surface due to adsorption of the analyte. The enhanced electromagnetic field of the metallic surface, which is adjacent to the analyte, irradiates the analyte producing an enhanced Raman signal because the strength of the Raman signal is, in part, proportional to the square of the enhanced electromagnetic field. Thus, SERS may be used to study monolayers of materials adsorbed on metals.
Conventionally, lasers have been used as light sources for SERS because of the intensity and narrow wavelength of generated light. However, providing the laser light source and a separate SERS analysis platform create a large and bulky SERS analysis environment. Thus, a device incorporating a laser light source and a SERS analysis surface would be much smaller and allow deposition of the analyte directly on or near the light source. Additionally, it may be beneficial to incorporate the SERS analysis surface on a variety of laser light sources.

In situ excitation for Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


Both a system and a method for converting two AGTAW welders into a AGMAW welder is provided. The system generally comprises a MIG weldhead for replacing the TIG weldhead of one of the AGTAW welders, a pulser multiplier circuit for increasing the frequency of the power supply output current from 10 to between 300 and 800 pulses per second, and a wire feed motor and motor control circuit capable of feeding weld wire at a rate compatible with a AGMAW welding operation. In the method of the invention, the control circuit assembly of one of the AGTAW welders is connected in parallel to the power supplies of both of the two AGTAW welders, and the outputs of these power supplies are likewise connected in parallel. The TIG weldhead of one of the AGTAW welders is replaced with the MIG weldhead, and the pulser multiplier circuit is selectively connected to the current pulser of the single control circuit assembly which controls both power supplies. Next, the existing wire feed motor and motor control circuit of one of the AGTAW welders is replaced with the high-feed rate motor and control circuit of the system. Finally, the upslope and downslope circuit and the arc voltage response circuit which are normally present in the programmer of the control circuit assembly of one of the AGTAW welders is converted into a AGMAW burnback circuit in order to prevent weld wire from the wire feeder from fusing into the weld puddle.

This invention relates to both a system and a method for converting an AGTAW welder into an AGMAW welder.
Many companies having a need for performing welding operations have invested in automatic tungsten inert gas welders known in the art as AGTAW welding systems. However, as will be set forth in more detail hereinafter, such AGTAW welders are limited in the amount of metal they can deposit, and hence are too slow to effectively implement certain kinds of welds requiring large amounts of metal deposition. AGMAW (automatic gas metal arc) welding systems are also known in the prior art that are capable of depositing metal at rates an order of magnitude faster than AGTAW welders. Unfortunately, it is frequently not cost-effective for a company to own both an AGTAW and an AGMAW system as there is a much less frequent need for the high deposition welds that the latter can implement. Accordingly, the principal purpose of this invention is to provide a method for easily and temporarily converting an AGTAW welder into a AGMAW welder. But to fully appreciate the utility of the invention, some background as to the structure of AGTAW and AGMAW welders is necessary.
AGTAW welders typically comprise a weldhead including a tungsten electrode which is automatically movable around a workpiece by means of one or more servomotors, a power supply for supplying up to 300 amps of current to the tungsten electrode in the weldhead, a water cooling system for circulating water through the weldhead in order to cool it during a welding operation, and a control circuit assembly including a programmer for controlling the electrical characteristics of the output of the power supply connected to the tungsten electrode. Such AGTAW welders further include a source of inert gas connected to the weldhead for displacing corrosive atmospheric oxygen away from the molten puddle created during a welding operation, as well as a feeding mechanism for feeding weld wire to the working end of the tungsten electrode. The wire feeding mechanism in turn includes a motor for driving the wire at a selected speed (which may be as high as 100 inches per minute), and a motor control circuit which receives commands from the control circuit assembly of the welder.
While the control circuit assembly coordinates the various servomotors which move the weldhead and feed the weld wire to the working end of the tungsten electrode, its most important function for the purposes of this application is to control of the electrical characteristics of the output of the power supply.
Generally speaking, such control circuit assemblies regulate the output of a power supply by maintaining the current of the output at a desired level, while allowing the voltage to vary. To effect such current level control, the output of the power supply includes a shunt resistor across which are the connected the leads of an ammeter which forms part of the control circuit assembly. While the shunt resistor is characterized by a low level of resistance to minimize its interference with the output of the power supply, the voltage drop across it, which is typically only one millivolt per 100 amps, is still readily measurable by the ammeter of the control circuit assembly. In operation, the combination of the shunt resistor and the ammeter form a closed feedback loop which cooperates with various switching transistors in the control circuit assembly to maintain the amperage of the output of the power supply at a level which is set by a thumbwheel switch located in the programmer.
To control the characteristics of the current output, the control circuit assembly further includes a current pulser for pulsing the output current between a relatively low "background" current and a relatively higher "working" current. In a typical AGTAW welding operation, the background current may be 90 amps, while the working current might be 180 amps. The switching frequency between the background and working currents may be adjusted by the programmer to a maximum frequency of about ten cycles per second. The periodic use of a low background current between pulses of a working current maintains the molten puddle created by the electric arc in a semi-solid condition so that molten metal will not flow out of the situs of the weld from gravity if the weld site is tilted or inverted.
Finally, the programmer of a control circuit assembly of a typical AGTAW welder includes an upslope and downslope circuit for linearly ramping the current level of the arc over a time period which is typically between about four and ten seconds. In addition to helping the operator of the welder "get started" in producing the desired weld, the downsloping characteristics of this circuit prevent cracks from occurring in the molten puddle at the termination of the welding operation by shutting off the current in a gradual (as opposed to abrupt) manner.
In contrast to AGTAW welders, AGMAW welders use the weld wire itself as the electrode in the weldhead. Such direct melting of the weld wire itself, in combination with the higher outputs associated with AGMAW power supplies, allows AGMAW welders to deposit far more metal in a shorter period of time than AGTAW welders. While a AGTAW welder may be able to deposit 100 inches of weld wire per minute, a AGMAW welder is capable of depositing up to 1,000 inches of such weld wire per minute. Because most industrial welding operations do not require such quick and large depositions of metal, AGTAW welders are far more common in the industrial marketplace than AGMAW welders. This fact, coupled with the need for higher capacity (and hence more costly) power supplies in AGMAW welders, renders AGMAW welders substantially more expensive than AGTAW welders. Yet there are some welding operations which, in order to be performed in a practical and cost efficient way, necessarily require the high deposition rate which can only be achieved with a AGMAW welder. While combined AGTAW/AGMAW welders are known in the prior art, such welders are at least as costly as AGMAW welders since they incorporate all of the components of an ordinary AGMAW welder. While it has been proposed to avoid the high cost of purchasing commercially available AGMAW welders by modifying an existing AGTAW welder so that it has AGMAW capabilities, thus far there has been no known way to effect such a conversion easily, inexpensively, and reversibly so that the AGTAW capabilities of the welder may be reclaimed. The difficulties of converting a AGTAW welder into a AGMAW welder go far beyond the provision of a higher capacity power supply and a faster wire feed motor. For example, to accommodate the high rate of weld wire deposition, the current pulser of a AGMAW welder must be capable of operating at frequencies of up to 900 cycles per second which is much higher than the 9.9 cycles per second capacity of AGTAW welder current pulsers. Additionally, n order to prevent the weld wire from being frozen in the weld puddle at the termination of the welding operation, a burnback circuit must be provided that burns the weld wire back from the puddle at this juncture.
Clearly there is a need for a welding system which is capable of inexpensively and easily converting readily available and low-cost AGTAW welders into AGMAW welders. Ideally, such a system would allow the converted AGMAW welder to be converted back into a AGTAW welder so that the AGTAW capabilities of the welder are not lost.

System and method for converting an AGTAW welder into an AGMAW welder


A comparator device comprising a offset-compensating comparator and a positive-feedback comparator. A reference voltage and an input voltage are applied to the input terminals of the offset-compensating comparator. The non-inverting and inverting output terminals of the offset-compensating comparator are connected to the inverting and non-inverting input terminals of the positive-feedback comparator, respectively. The positive-feedback comparator starts comparing the input voltage with the reference voltage before the offset-compensating comparator finishes comparing the input voltage with the reference voltage. Hence, the comparator device operates at high speed and has a great gain. In addition, the offset voltage can be reduced. A transistor is connected between the differential input terminals of the positive-feedback comparator, for setting both differential input terminals at the same potential at the time the comparator starts comparing the input voltage with the reference voltage. Therefore, the differential inputs to the positive-feedback comparator have no noise.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a comparator device for use in an A/D converter, and adapted to compare analog voltages.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 17 shows the conventional comparator which is disclosed in A. G. F. Dingwall et al. "An 8 MHz CMOS Sub ranging 8 Bit A/D Converter," IEEE Journal Solid-State Circuits, Vol. SC-20, No. 6, December 1985, pp. 1138-1143. The comparator comprises a two inverter circuits which are connected in cascade, thereby to attain a gain greater than in the case where only one inverter circuit is used. More specifically, a reference voltage Vref is applied to the input of a switch S1, and an input voltage Vin is supplied to the input of another switch S2. The outputs of these switches S1 and S2 are connected by a capacitor C1 to the input of the first inverter circuit IV1. A switch S3 is connected between the input and output of the first inverter circuit IV1. The output of the inverter circuit IV1 is connected by a capacitor C2 to the input of the second inverter circuit IV2. A switch S4 is connected between the input and output of the second inverter circuit IV2. A control signal .phi.AZ controls the switches S1, S3, and S4. A control signal .phi.AMP controls the switch S2.
First, the control signal .phi.AZ turns on the switches S1, S3, and S4. The potentials across the capacitors C1 and C2 are then Vc1 - Vref and Vc2-Vc1, respectively, where Vc1 is the operation voltage of the inverter circuit IV1, and Vc2 is that of the inverter circuit IV2.
Next, the control signal .phi.AZ turns off the switches S1, S3, and S4, and the control signal .phi.AMP turns on the switch S2. Then, the input voltage V1i and output voltage V1o of the inverter circuit IV1, and the input voltage V2i and output voltage V2o of the the inverter circuit IV2 will be: ##EQU1## where -A1 is the gain of the first inverter circuit IV1, and -A2 is the gain of the second inverter circuit IV2.
Obviously, the inverter circuit IV2 outputs a voltage which has been generated by amplifying the input voltage by the product of the gains of the inverter circuits IV1 and IV2, and has an offset voltage of "0." To enhance the gain of the comparator, more inverter circuits are coupled in cascade.
The time tAMP which the comparator shown in FIG. 17 needs to compare the input voltage Vin with the reference voltage Vref is substantially as long as tAMP1 +tAMP2, where tAMP1 is the time which lapses until the output voltage of the inverter circuit IV1 is determined after the input voltage thereof has been detected, and tAMP2 is the time which lapses until the output voltage of the inverter circuit IV2 is determined after the input voltage thereof has been detected. The time tAMP is about twice as long as the comparator should need to compare the input voltage Vin with the reference voltage Vref if it had only one inverter circuit. If the comparator comprised three or more inverter circuits to acquire a greater gain, the time tAMP would be inevitably longer. The same holds true of a comparator which comprises differential amplifiers.
FIG. 18 shows the positive-feedback comparator which is disclosed in ITEJ Technical Report, Vol. 14, NO. 32, pp. 7-12. The positive-feedback comparator has a gain which is theoretically infinite, and can compare an input voltage with a reference voltage within a short time. This comparator, however, has its offset not compensated for. Hence, if the metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors (MOSFETs) Q42 and Q43 have no identical characteristic, or if the MOSFETs Q44 and Q45 have no identical characteristic, there will be generated an offset voltage. Although the positive-feedback comparator operates at high speed, its offset voltage can hardly be minimized.

Comparator device for comparing analog voltages


Carbon-containing carbon bonded refractory mixes and products made therefrom in which the refractory is a magnesite or high alumina aggregate and containing a silica-free elemental boron containing B-Mg-O alloy powder containing at least 95% B-Mg-O. and shapes made therefrom. The invention also involves the method of increasing the lining life of a metallurgical vessel utilizing unburned brick made from the above-noted mixes.

The present invention relates to carbon-containing refractories and, in particular, magnesite-carbon refractory brick suitable for use in metal processing equipment, especially basic oxygen furnaces (BOF) and other metallurgical vessels wherein the principal mode of wear of the refractory brick lining is slag attack and where hot strength and high slag resistance of refractory linings are required. Furthermore, this invention is applicable to unburned alumina-carbon refractories such as those used in slide gates and shroud tubes which control the flow of molten steel in the continuous casting process in which properties comparable to shapes containing B.sub.4 C are desired.
There is abundant prior art dealing with the use of metals in carbon-containing refractories. Essentially, the purpose of these metals is to act as oxygen "getters" which combine with free oxygen before the oxygen can consume carbon in the refractory. Another purpose of the powdered metals is to form, under certain conditions, stable carbide phases which decrease the permeability of the refractory and increase its strength. U.S. Pat. No. 4,306,030 discloses the use of aluminum, silicon, and magnesium metal powders. These metals increase the oxidation resistance of the refractory and have the effect of lowering the permeability of the brick which makes the entrance of oxidizing gases into the refractory more difficult. It is also known that these metals can be effective if used individually or in combination or as alloys in various combinations.
Prior art also discloses the use of various carbides and nitrides either used individually or in combination with the three primary metals, silicon, aluminum, or magnesium. The purpose of these carbides (such as B.sub.4 C or SiC) or nitrides (such as BN or Si.sub.3 N.sub.4) is to increase the hot strength or corrosion resistance. U.S. Pat. No. 4,471,059, for example, teaches the addition of 0.3 to 5% B.sub.4 C to a carbon-containing refractory which contains metal additions such as Al, Si, Cr, or Ni. U.S. Pat. No. 4,540,675 teaches the use of 1-10 wt. % B.sub.4 C as an anti-oxidant. B.sub.4 C is effective because it has a relatively high affinity for oxygen and oxidizes to an oxide. This oxide then in turn reacts with magnesia, silica or a silicate to produce a viscous glass film in the refractory which further decreases the permeability of the refractory. U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,635 shows the use in carbon-containing refractories of SiB.sub.6. The boron portion oxidizes to B.sub.2 O.sub.3, which then reacts with magnesia, the silicon portion which also oxidizes to a silicate and reacts with magnesium borate to form a lower melting liquid. While the carbonaceous material is better protected against oxidation, the presence of the silicate results in low and undesirable hot strengths due to reaction thereof with lime or calcium silicate impurities in the refractory resulting in very low melting fluid lime-magnesia-borosilicates. This low strength causes the refractories to be prone to accelerated wear.

Carbon-containing carbon bonded refractories with improved physical properties