A computer-readable medium is encoded with a computer program for operating a computer to control a radiation detector and a display apparatus. The computer is operated to derive a processed image by subtraction processing of a first image derived by a first energy radiation having a first energy and transmitting through an object and a second image derived successively to the first image by a second energy radiation having a second energy different from the first energy and transmitting through the same object, among a plurality of images of successive frames detected by the radiation detector detecting as an electric signal the radiation transmitted through the object. The display is operated to display on the display apparatus successively a plurality of the processed images derived thereby.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radiation imaging apparatus suitable to be used for a medical diagnosis, an industrial non-destructive inspection, and more particularly to a radiation imaging apparatus and a radiation imaging system suitable for radiography for obtaining a dynamic image. Hereupon, the radiation is not limited to X-rays, but includes α-rays, β-rays, γ-rays and the like.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventional X-ray imaging systems include a film radiographing system and a digital radiographing system. The film radiographing system irradiates a patient with X-rays to expose a film with the X-rays which have penetrated the patient. The digital radiographing system converts the X-rays which have penetrated the patient into electric signals, and detects the electric signals as digital values with an AD converter to take the digital values into a memory. The present main current of the latter system is a system for performing digitalization by accumulating X-ray images in photostimulable phosphor called as an imaging plate (hereinafter referred to as an "IP"), the representative material of which is BaFBr:Eu, and after that by scanning the IP with laser beams to obtain visible rays from the IP. The system, then, converts the obtained visible rays from the IP into electric signals with a photomultiplier tube or the like to digitize the electric signals.
Another digitalization system has lately been put to practical use. In the digitalization system, X-rays irradiate X-ray visible conversion phosphor using Gd2O2S:Tb or CsI:Tl as the representative material thereof, and visible rays are emitted in proportion to the dosage of the X-rays. The emitted visible rays are converted into electric signals by an amorphous silicon photosensor to be digitized. An element for implementing the digitization system is called as a flat panel detector (hereinafter referred to as a "FPD"). A type of the FPD does not use the X-ray visible conversion phosphor, but uses Se or PbI2 as a material to absorb X-rays directly and to convert the absorbed X-rays into electric signals.
In addition, there is a further apparatus. The apparatus irradiates a primary phosphor with X-rays, and accelerates and focuses photoelectrons emitted from the fluorescent screen of the primary phosphor with an electron lens onto a secondary fluorescent screen. Then, the apparatus converts a fluorescent image (an X-ray image) on the secondary fluorescent screen into electric signals with an image pickup tube or charge coupled elements (CCD's). The apparatus is called an image intensifier (I.I.), and is generally used for fluorography. Also by this apparatus, electric signals can be detected as digital values, and the system adopted by this apparatus is one of the digital radiographing systems.
As described above, a variety of apparatus for digitalizing X-ray images exist. The demands for digitalization at medical scenes have recently been increasing more and more. The digitalization of image data could bring about the advantage of the easiness of the recording, the displaying, the printing and the holding of radiographed data. Moreover, the image processing of radiographed data using a computer enables a doctor to be aided at the time of a diagnosis by the interpretation of a radiogram. Moreover, it is said that an automatic diagnosis only by a computer without any doctors for the interpretation of a radiogram will be able to be realized in the near future.
Even at current medical scenes in which the radiation imaging apparatus are shifting from the film radiographing system, the so-called analogy radiographing system, to the aforesaid digital radiographing system, simple X-ray radiography is performed as a first step of X-ray photography. For example, in case of a chest region, the X-ray radiography is called as chest simple X-ray radiography. The chest simple X-ray radiography performs the X-ray radiography of the front face (or the side face) of the chest region of a human body. It is said that a radiographing area of the so-called half size (35 cm×43 cm) or more, possibly the size of 43 cm×43 cm or more, is generally necessary for covering the whole area of the chest region (the upper half) of a human body. For the chest simple X-ray radiography, the digital radiographing system using the FPD is more expected in the future than the one using the I.I., which is considered to have a problem of distortion at peripheral parts of an image.
The chest simple X-ray radiography can expose the information of a body in the vicinity of the lung field of the upper half of the body, such as the information of an esophagus, a trachea, pulmonary blood vessels, alveoli, a heart, heart blood vessels, a diaphragm, costae and clavicles, by X-ray radiography for a radiograph at one time. Accordingly, the chest simple X-ray radiography is frequently performed as the radiography effective for the screening of foci. However, penetrated images are observed on the principle thereof in the radiography. Consequently, when a focus exists behind such a tissue as a costa, heart blood vessels, or a diaphragm, the focus doubly overlaps the tissue in a penetrated image. Hence, there are some cases where it is difficult to find (or discover) the shadow of the focus. Thereby, the chest simple X-ray radiography has the problems that the efficiency of the screening of foci decreases, and that the discovery of the foci is retarded.
As means for solving the problems, a method has been realized. In the method, two imaging plates (IP's) are used for radiography at two times under different tube voltages, and the shadow of a bone part is removed by performing a subtraction process between X-ray images obtained from the two IP's. The method is called as an energy subtraction process (ES process). The method is the radiography using the phenomenon such that, when the energy of X-rays is changed, the absorption degrees of the energy by bone tissues are different from those by soft tissues such as blood vessels, lymphatic vessels and nerves.
As an example of the ES process, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H2-273873 discloses the radiography, in which the subtraction of images radiographed with radiation rays irradiated from a plurality of radiation sources having different radiation energy from one another is performed after the distortion of the images has been corrected on the image signals of the images. Moreover, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H3-106343 discloses the configuration in which a dual energy generation mechanism is formed on the X-ray irradiation port of an X-ray tube to generate X-rays having different energy from one another at the timing of image collection. Moreover, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H3-133276 discloses a method of displaying energy subtraction images by obtaining only the images of affected tissues as difference signals to perform display with the images of the affected tissues being added as the depth information at the third dimension. Moreover, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H5-260382 discloses a configuration for performing a subtraction by recording images radiographed with X-rays having different energy at different parts on a fluorescent sheet.
However, although the ES process is effective in the point of view of the removal of bone shadows, but the bone shadows are not always removed completely. The ES process particularly has the problem that the bone shadows remain to some figures and physiques of patients and to some kinds of foci. Moreover, foci do not always exist, for example, behind costae. When a focus exists behind a diaphragm or a heart, there is the remaining problem that the ES process for the removal of bone shadows is insufficient to some patient's conditions (physiques, foci) when the ES process is used as the only removal method. Moreover, there is room for further examination of suitable combination methods of the subtraction process and dynamic image display.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Radiation imaging apparatus, radiation imaging system and radiation imaging method


There is provided a bacteriophage capable of lysing a P. acnes bacterium and incapable of lysing a bacterium which is not P. acnes, and which is incapable of sustaining lysogeny in a bacterium. There is also provided a pharmaceutical composition comprising such a bacteriophage.

Acne vulgaris is one of the most common diseases of the skin and in cases of extreme disfigurement can sometimes have severe consequences for the personality development of young people with ensuing social and economic problems. Adolescents suffering from acne show higher levels of anxiety, greater social inhibition and increased aggression compared to non-acne individuals. Amongst skin diseases, acne is the second highest cause of suicides.
Acne is an exclusively human disease and a unique condition of human sebaceous follicles of the face, chest and back. Spontaneous regression is common, taking about 15 years to complete. However, in about 5 percent of cases, acne persists beyond the age of 25 years and extends into the fourth and fifth decades of life. The earlier the symptoms start, the more severe is the course of the disease. The prevalence of the disease does not reflect any preference for male or female but usually the course is more severe in males.
The onset of the disease in an individual coincides with entry into puberty and is associated with an androgen-driven rise in sebum excretion rate and an increased colonisation of the sebaceous follicles with Propionibacterium acnes (P. acnes). Recent data indicates that the initiation of individual lesions is primarily inflammatory rather than via keratinocyte hyperproliferation.
Contrary to popular opinion, hygiene and diet have little or no effect on the aetiology of acne. Acne can be exacerbated by external factors such as friction (acne mechanica) (Shalita AR (1983) Cosmetics and Toiletries 98: 57-60) and pore-clogging cosmetics (acne cosmetica) (Mills O. H. & Kilgman A.M. (1988) Dermatol. Clin. 1: 365-370). The bacterium P. acnes is an inhabitant of the human skin and forms a major part of the natural skin flora. There is a wealth of circumstantial evidence implicating P. acnes as a major factor in the disease: increased colonisation of the skin by P. acnes is associated with the onset of the disease; patients with severe acne are significantly more sensitised to P. acnes than normal individuals; the overall immunological status of patients is elevated compared to acne-free individuals of the same age; successful antibiotic treatment reduces the density of P. acnes on the skin; and antibiotic therapeutic failure is associated with the presence of antibiotic resistant P. acnes on the skin of the patient.
Current treatments for acne focus on various factors contributing to the disease. In summary, anti-comedonal treatments include retinoids and azelaic acid (topical treatments) and isotretinoin (oral treatments); anti-P.acnes treatments include benzoyl peroxide, azelaic acid, erythromycin, tetracycline and clindamycin (topical treatments) and tetracycline, erythromycin, minocycline and trimethoprim (oral treatments); anti-inflammatory treatments include tetracycline, erythromycin, clindamycin and nicotinamide (topical treatments) and tetracycline, minocycline, trimethoprim and isotretinoin (oral treatments); and anti-seborrhoeic treatments include spironolactone (topical treatments) and Dianette™ and isotretinoin (oral treatments).
The more common mild and moderate cases of acne are treated with antibiotics, usually topically. There are increasing concerns emerging over the use of antibiotics for acne, where treatments last for long periods of time, up to 2-3 years in some cases. The concerns are two fold. First, the emergence of antibiotic resistant P. acnes world-wide with the consequence of reducing their efficacy for acne therapy. Second and possibly more importantly, there is the selection of an increasing pool of antibiotic resistant genes in the commensal microflora, mainly coagulase-negative staphylococci and corynebacteria, on patients' skin. These resistance genes may be horizontally transferred to related species, e.g. Staphylococcus aureus, which is a major opportunistic pathogen in the hospital and community environments. Therefore all efforts are required to restrict the use of antibiotics over extended treatment periods as used in the treatment of acne. Obtaining licences to market antibiotic therapies for acne is becoming especially difficult.
Side effects from these treatments are commonplace. Mild irritant dermatitis is associated with virtually all topical therapies (Cunliffe W. J., (2001) Pharnaceut. J. 267 749-752). Oral courses of antibiotics have side effects regardless of the condition for which they are prescribed and these often result from their lack of specificity, unbalancing (in due course) much of the bacterial flora in many sites in the body. This leaves room for resistant flora to flourish, resulting in, for example, vaginal candidiasis in women. Retinoid treatment has many side effects: it is a teratogen; causes cheilitis, facial dermatitis and conjunctivitis; leads to secondary skin infections; and has been associated with mood swings and depression. Therefore, there is a need to develop new approaches for acne therapy which specifically target P. acnes.
The idea of employing bacteriophage (naturally occurring bacterial viruses) for the treatment or prevention of bacterial diseases was realised relatively soon after the discovery of phage (the words "bacteriophage" and "phage" are used interchangeably throughout this specification) by Felix d'Herelle in 1917. The fact that bacteriophage can specifically infect a bacterial host and rapidly kill it suggested to d'Herelle that this was potentially a very effective way of controlling bacterial infection in man (for review, see "Felix d'Herelle and the Origins of Molecular Biology" William C. Summers (Yale University Press, ISBN 0-300-07127-2)). This potential was never fully realised because of the advent of the antibiotic era, but phage therapy has been pursued since then, in many cases successfully, in former states of the USSR and Eastern Europe.
The emergence of drug resistance and the difficulty in developing novel antibiotics and vaccines has highlighted a growing need to find alternative methods of treatment.
W003/080823 discloses a method for generating candidate bacteriophage for use in therapy by mutating temperate bacteriophage and producing a cocktail of phages. This disclosure specifically selects lysogenic phage, observing that for some bacteria they are more numerous and, therefore, easier to isolate than lytic phage. The phage then have to be mutated to produce lytic vir mutants, in order to avoid the problems associated with lysogenic phage as a therapy, as discussed further below. Treatment of P. acnes is mentioned.
EP0414304 relates to the use of bacteriophage to kill bacteria, including P. acnes. There is no disclosure of a bacteriophage capable of lysing multiple strains of P. acnes bacteria and yet which is incapable of lysing a bacterium which is not P. acnes and incapable of sustaining lysogeny in a bacterium.
Jong et al (Med. Microbiol. Immunol. 161 (1975) 263-271) describes isolation of P. acnes phage. The paper focuses on the classification of the phage and does not disclose a bacteriophage capable of lysing multiple strains of P. acnes bacteria and yet which is incapable of lysing a bacterium which is not P. acnes and incapable of sustaining lysogeny in a bacterium.
Puhvel & Reisner (Amer. Soc. Microbiol. 72 (1972) V201) is an abstract relating to the generation of lysogenic phage-resistant strains of P. acnes.
WO01/51066 relates to the use of bacteriophage to reduce risk of infection or sepsis, particularly in immunocompromised patients. The disclosed methodology aims to achieve the numerical reduction or elimination of various members of the body's natural bacterial flora, in order to reduce the chance of them causing disease in immunocompromised patients. This is specifically risk reduction rather than cure and is concerned in particular with infections which complicate conditions such as certain cancers, AIDS and cystic fibrosis and which complicate the condition of transplant patients. No mention is made of treatment of P. acnes.
U.S. Pat No. 6,121,036 relates to a purified, host specific, non-toxic, wide host range bacteriophage preparation containing at least two phage. The document describes some of the features of an effective phage therapy—that it should be safe, have broad host range and kill a large proportion of bacteria strains—and indicates that such a preparation of appropriate phage could be used to treat P. acnes infections. However, no disclosure is made about which phage are suitable for this purpose or that such safe, lytic, broad host range phage exist for P. acnes. WO02/07742 purports to disclose a method for potentiating a wider host range for a phage by cloning tail protein-encoding genes from another phage with different host specificity. The document indicates that wide specificity is desirable from a phage therapy point of view but, rather than selecting from naturally occurring phage variants, describes the synthetic construction of a hybrid bacteriophage with dual tail fibre types, therefore having corresponding dual host specificity. This specificity is hypothetically extended to apply the invention in the engineering of a phage which can infect not only different species strains but different bacteria within a species and even within different genera. However, there is no evidence for this potential beyond results showing that a hybrid phage had been created having the ability to infect two different strains of Escherichia coli. The application of a suitably modified phage for gene therapy in humans is also contemplated. Specific phage, modified or unmodified, for the treatment of acne are not disclosed. There is no mention of a P. acnes bacteriophage with a single host species specificity but with multiple strain specificity.
US2005/0032036 describes a method for sorting through a phage collection and determining the composition of a phage cocktail in order to optimise broad host range infection and lysis, particularly in reference to Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus strains. No disclosures are made in relation to the field of acne phage therapy.
WO02005/009451 relates in particular to the use of bacteriophage as a part of a combination therapy with traditional, chemical antibiotics, particularly in the treatment of Pseudomonas aeruginosa infections and particularly in the treatment of bacteria within biofilms. It describes the difficulty in finding phage with sufficiently broad host specificity to be of therapeutic value for treatment of any given infection and advocates the use of multiple bacteriophage types for therapy, whether simultaneously, separately or sequentially. It also indicates that greater virulence in a phage can be induced artificially by genetic manipulation methods to produce phage with broader specificity or greater infection potential. There is no mention of P. acnes, which is not characterised by biofilm formation.
US2004/0241825 discloses several methods for genetically labelling bacteriophage (with a non-functional stretch of DNA that can be detected by, for example, PCR, enabling identification of the phage), identifying non-cross reacting bacteriophage (a multi-step process to isolate phage against the target host and, from these, isolating bacteriophage which do not infect more than 5% of non-pathogenic, non-target hosts) and, finally, a method for selecting phage that are resistant to genetic modification by host bacteria (which involves infecting bacteria with a sample of bacteriophage, isolating progeny phage and comparing the restriction digest patterns of the original bacteriophage and the progeny to identify any differences that would be indicative of genetic modification). Implicit in this disclosure is the difficulty in identifying suitable candidate bacteriophage for use in a therapy. The application of this methodology to P. acnes is not described.
Several conference presentations by the research group of Michael Davis at Central Connecticut State University have outlined plans to identify lytic phage having broad host range specificity (Vieira T. and Davis M. A. (1999) Viruses as Therapeutic Agents for Treating Bacterial Infections. Poster presentation on Apr. 24, 1999 at the 53rd Annual Eastern Colleges Science Conference, Sacred Heart University, Fairfield CT; Jedrzkiewicz B. and Davis M. A. (2000) Combating the Antibiotic Resistance Crisis: Therapeutic Use of Bacteriophages (Viruses) for Treating Acne, A Bacterial Disease. Poster presentation on Apr. 1, 2000 at the 54th Annual Eastern Colleges Science Conference, Wagner College, Staten Island N.Y.; Hany C. et al., (2001) The Use of Bacteriophage to Treat Acne, A Bacterial Disease. Poster presentation on Mar. 31, 2001 at the 55th Annual Eastern Colleges Science Conference, Wilkes University, Wilkes-Barre PA; Armack S. et al. (2002) Bacteriophage Therapy For The Treatment Of The Bacterial Disease Acne. Poster presentation on Apr. 27, 2002 at the 56th Annual Eastern Colleges Science Conference, Niagara University, Niagara N.Y.; Aminti K. et al. (2003) Bacteriophage Therapy For The Disease Acne: Identification And Purification Of Candidate Bacteriophage. Poster presentation on Apr. 12, 2003 at the 57th Annual Eastern Colleges Science Conference, Ithaca College, Ithaca N.Y.; Geronimo J. et al (2004) Bacteriophage Therapy For the Skin Disease Acne. Poster presentation on Apr. 2, 2004 at the 58th Annual Eastern Colleges Science Conference, Manhattan College, Riverdale N.Y.). No disclosures have been made in relation to the specific properties of such phage or to specific phage isolates.


Surfactants in an aqueous solution is recovered from polychlorinated biphenyls and other aromatic organic compounds contaminating the solution. An electrical current is passed through a surfactant-containing aqueous solution contaminated with a colloidal dispersion of organic compounds at a voltage sufficient to electrochemically breakup the dispersion without polymerizing the surfactant. The contaminating aromatic organic compounds are then separated from the surfactant-containing aqueous solution. The separated surfactant-containing aqueous solution may be recirculated to a waste treatment process for cleaning additional organic compounds from contaminated equipment.

The present invention relates to a process for recovering surfactants in an aqueous solution from organic compounds contaminating the solution.
The present invention is particularly useful for recovering surfactants in aqueous waste streams generated by hazardous waste treatment processes. For example, organic compounds such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other phenyl compounds, non-vinyl compounds such as imidazole and pyrrole and other hazardous organic compounds must be removed from equipment contaminated therewith by hazardous waste treatments in accordance with governmental regulations before the equipment may be reused or scrapped. Such contaminated equipment is commonly cleaned by circulating a surfactant-containing (or detergent-containing) aqueous solution therethrough to wash the organic compounds from the contaminated areas and surfaces. Similar applications include the use of surfactants to remove contaminating organic compounds from soils, ashes and other solids. Surfactants employed to remove residual amounts of PCBs and like organic compounds include ethoxylated aromatics such as HYONIC NP-90 acid esters from Henkel Chemical Corporation or polyoxyalkylated fatty acid esters such as ADSEE 799 acid esters from Witco Chemical Co. Other surfactants may include carboxylic acid salts, sulfonic acid salts, sulfuric acid ester salts, phosphoric acid esters, long-chain amines, quaternary ammonium salts, polyoxyethylenated alkylphenols, polyoxyethylenated polyoxypropylene glycols, polyoxyethylenated mercaptans, polyoxyethylenated silicones and alkylpolyglycosides.
After cleaning the equipment, the contaminated surfactant-containing aqueous solutions must then be treated as hazardous wastes before they can be reused or discharged. Undesirably, in the present state of the art, aqueous solutions contaminated with PCBs and the like are treated by coprecipitating or by coadsorbing both the contaminants and the surfactants from the aqueous solutions. Thus, the surfactants are only used on a once through basis, and therefore, additional surfactants must be added to the solutions before they can be reused. Also, the additional volume and weight of the coprecipitates due to the coprecipitated surfactant or the contaminant loaded adsorbents results in additional material costs to remediate the contaminants.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,901 to Field discusses a method for purifying waste water wherein phenolic compounds are polymerized by an oxidative technique to form extractable polyphenols while avoiding their precipitation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,745 to Nash et al. discloses a process employing the use of solvents to remove residual PCBs from electrical transformers and the like. Undesirably, this type of process does not separate the PCBs from the solvents, and the solvents must be disposed of as waste streams.


An integrated feed horn device including three sets of integrally formed feed horn devices is provided. The integrated feed horn device may receive satellite signals reflected by a single parabolic reflector antenna, wherein the satellite signals are transmitted by three satellites separated by small angles. The integrated feed horn device may comprise a first waveguide, a second waveguide and a third waveguide, wherein the first waveguide, the second waveguide and the third waveguide may be adopted for receiving a first satellite signal, a second satellite signal, and a third satellite signal. Each of the satellite signals described above is transmitted by different satellites.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a feed horn device. More particularly, the present invention relates to an integrated feed horn device for receiving satellite signals transmitted from three satellites separated by small angles.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, as the space technology advances, satellites are adopted for signal transmission. Since the coverage area for signal transmission via the satellite is very broad and the propagation path thereof is not easily influenced by the topography of the receiver, the satellite communication technology has gradually become the main stream of the communication technology. In general, the purpose of satellite is very broad and may be applied in, for example, military, meteorology, direct broadcast program and internet, wherein satellite direct broadcast system and internet are very suitable for household requirement. Therefore, the development of domestic satellite antenna has become more important and popular.
In general, synchronous satellite orbits the earth synchronously with the rotation of the earth. Therefore, the satellite may be provided as a relay station for signal transmission when the transmitters on the ground transmit signals between each other via the satellite. The signal is carried by radio wave transmitted from the transmitter to the satellite, and then the satellite transmits the signal which is carried by another radio wave, which is received by a parabolic reflector antenna of a receiver device on the ground.
For example, in the United States of America, the image signal of the satellite direct broadcast program carried by a circular polarization wave is transmitted to the viewer via the DBS satellite in longitude 119° W recently. In addition, the two-way transmission of the internet signal is performed via the FSS satellite in longitude 116.8° W, wherein the radio wave used to carry the internet signal is a linear polarization wave. Thus, the angle between these two satellites is very small (about 2.2°). Therefore, the feed angle of the two signals is very close. Generally, the satellite direct broadcast program and internet are the most popular household communication source of external information. Conventionally, an integrated feed horn device that can receive two radio waves from two satellites separated with a small angle has been developed, wherein two sets of feed horn devices are integrated in a single parabolic reflector antenna. Therefore, two conventional parabolic reflector antennas may be instead with a feed horn device to receive two signals from two satellites.
However, as the requirement of information communication advances, the amount of the satellites increased rapidly, therefore, the angle between every satellites are reduced rapidly. In addition, the receiver device is required to simultaneously receive a plurality of signals of every satellite. Presently, a receiver device is not capable of receiving three signals from three satellites separated by small angles since the angles between every satellites are small so that the intervals between every feed horn devices for each satellite is small. Therefore, three sets of conventional feed horn devices can not be integrated in a single parabolic reflector antenna to simultaneously receive three signals, and thus three parabolic reflector antennas are required for simultaneously receiving three signals from three satellites respectively. Thus, the conventional technology is not only expensive but also the plurality of parabolic reflector antennas occupies a large space.


A method and apparatus for storing a value in a non-volatile memory device is disclosed. The non-volatile memory device includes a plurality of address pins for concurrently receiving the respective bits of an address value while the non-volatile memory device is in a parallel interface mode. In response to one or more signals, the non-volatile memory device is transitioned to a serial interface mode to enable a serial input. A sequence of bits is received in the non-volatile memory device via the serial input. The first portion of the sequence of bits represents a store command and a second portion of the sequence of bits represents a data value. The data value represented by the second portion of the sequence of bits is then stored in the non-volatile memory device in response to the store command represented by the first portion of the sequence of bits.

Virtually all processor-controlled devices include a non-volatile memory device to hold a program called a boot program. The boot program contains the set of instructions executed by the processor on device power-up. In many consumer electronics devices, such as electronic pagers, cellular telephones, personal data organizers, home appliances, etc., the boot program constitutes the complete program for the device. In other more software-intensive devices, such as general purpose computer systems and more sophisticated consumer electronics items, the boot program is usually executed to load other, more extensive programs. In either case, some sort of boot program must be present for the processor-controlled device to function.
Storing the boot program in a non-volatile memory device is referred to as "programming the device" and is typically accomplished with an apparatus called a "device programmer". To program a non-volatile memory device, signal generation circuitry within the device programmer is coupled to the memory device's address, data and control pins. The signal generation circuitry then generates the sequence of address, data and control signals necessary to store a user-supplied boot program in the memory device, often starting at a user-specified address. After the non-volatile memory device has been programmed, it is soldered or socket-mounted to a circuit card along with a processor such as a microprocessor or microcontroller. The circuit card is then mounted in the end product.
To appreciate the overhead required to program a non-volatile memory device, it is helpful to consider the prior-art flash memory device 12 shown in FIG. 1. Flash memory device 12 has twenty four address inputs A23-0, sixteen data inputs D15-0, output enable OE#, write enable WE#, chip enable CE#, program voltage input Vpp, supply voltage input Vcc and reference voltage input GND. Flash memory device 12 also includes a flash memory array 9, device state machine 4, command register 7, data register 5, address register 6 and status register 3.
To store a data value in flash memory device 12, two or more successive write operations must typically be performed. In the first write operation, a program command is written to command register 7 indicating that a data value is to be stored in the flash memory array 9. In the second write operation, an address value and a data value are written to address register 6 and data register 5, respectively. The device state machine 4 then stores the data value from data register 5 in the flash memory array 9 at the address indicated by the address value in address register 6.
A device programmer must assert signals at the flash memory device's address, data and control inputs in a particular sequence in order to cause the flash memory device 12 to carry out the above-described write operations. Specifically, to write the program command to command register 7 as described above, the device programmer must assert sixteen distinct signals representing the program command at data inputs D15-0, and also assert chip enable CE# and write enable WE#. The program command then latched within command register 7 within a specified time, after which the chip enable signal CE# or the write enable signal WE# must be deasserted in preparation for writing the data and address value in the second of the two write operations. To write the data value and address value into data register 5 and address register 6, respectively, the device programmer must assert twenty four distinct signals representing the address value at address inputs A23-0, sixteen distinct signals representing the data value at data inputs D15-0 chip enable CE# and write enable WE#. Of course, the number of signals that must be asserted by the device programmer increases with the number of data and address pins of the flash memory device 12.
There are a number of disadvantages to the above-described technique for programming a non-volatile memory device. First, device programmers themselves are usually implemented by a programmed processor and consequently require a relatively long time to generate the address, data and control signals necessary to program each data value. For example, while modern flash memory devices are capable of storing a new data value every 6 microseconds, device programmers typically require 40 to 190 microseconds to complete the sequence of signal transitions necessary to program a byte or word. In other words, the bottleneck in device programming is the signal setup time required by the device programmer, not the flash memory device itself. Also, while there are machines capable of generating data, address and control signals at the maximum rate permitted by the memory device, such machines are typically used to simulate real-time testing environments and are too expensive to dedicate to device programming.
Another disadvantage of the above-described programming technique is that the large number of connections required between the memory device and the device programmer usually make it impractical to erase and re-program the device after it has been soldered to a circuit card. This significantly limits the ability to modify or upgrade a boot program after the programmed memory device has been installed in-circuit. Because device programmers are often too expensive to be provided to field personnel, even socketed, potentially removable memory devices are usually not field upgradable.

Serial programming mode for non-volatile memory


A dashboard centered around arrhythmia or atrial fibrillation tracking is provided. The dashboard includes a heart or cardiac health score that can be calculated in response to data from the user such as their ECG and other personal information and cardiac health influencing factors. The dashboard also provides to the user recommendations or goals, such as daily goals, for the user to meet and thereby improve their heart or cardiac health score. These goals and recommendations may be set by the user or a medical professional and routinely updated as his or her heart or cardiac health score improves or otherwise changes. The dashboard is generally displayed from an application provided on a smartphone or tablet computer of the user.

The present disclosure relates to medical devices, systems, and methods. In particular, the present disclosure relates to methods and systems for managing health and disease such as cardiac diseases including arrhythmia and atrial fibrillation.
Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the world. In 2008, 30% of all global death can be attributed to cardiovascular diseases. It is also estimated that by 2030, over 23 million people will die from cardiovascular diseases annually. Cardiovascular diseases are prevalent in the populations of high-income and low-income countries alike.
Arrhythmia is a cardiac condition in which the electrical activity of the heart is irregular or is faster (tachycardia) or slower (bradycardia) than normal. Although many arrhythmias are not life-threatening, some can cause cardiac arrest and even sudden cardiac death. Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia. In atrial fibrillation, electrical conduction through the ventricles of heart is irregular and disorganized. While atrial fibrillation may cause no symptoms, it is often associated with palpitations, shortness of breath, fainting, chest, pain or congestive heart failure. Atrial fibrillation is also associated with atrial clot formation, which is associated with clot migration and stroke.
Atrial fibrillation is typically diagnosed by taking an electrocardiogram (ECG) of a subject, which shows a characteristic atrial fibrillation waveform
To treat atrial fibrillation, a patient may take medications to slow heart rate or modify the rhythm of the heart. Patients may also take anticoagulants to prevent atrial clot formation and stroke. Patients may even undergo surgical intervention including cardiac ablation to treat atrial fibrillation.
Often, a patient with arrhythmia or atrial fibrillation is monitored for extended periods of time to manage the disease. For example, a patient may be provided with a Holter monitor or other ambulatory electrocardiography device to continuously monitor a patient's heart rate and rhythm for at least 24 hours.
Current ambulatory electrocardiography devices such as Holter monitors, however, are typically bulky and difficult for subjects to administer without the aid of a medical professional. For example, the use of Holter monitors requires a patient to wear a bulky device on their chest and precisely place a plurality of electrode leads on precise locations on their chest. These requirements can impede the activities of the subject, including their natural movement, bathing, and showering. Once an ECG is generated, the ECG is sent to the patient's physician who may analyze the ECG and provide a diagnosis and other recommendations. Currently, this process often must be performed through hospital administrators and health management organizations and many patients do not receive feedback in an expedient manner.

Methods and systems for arrhythmia tracking and scoring


A light emitting diode (LED) light bulb configured to replicate the light output of a conventional incandescent light bulb is provided. The LED light bulb includes a base for coupling the bulb to a power source having at least one side wall defining a cavity; a generally rectangular substrate having a first end and a second end, the second end disposed in the cavity and electrically coupled to the base; a plurality of LEDs electrically coupled and disposed on the first end of the substrate, the plurality of LEDS arranged on a front face, back face and top edge of the first end of the substrate to emit light in a spherical output; and a light transmissive cover configured to enclose the plurality of LEDs, the cover being coupled to the base.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates generally to light bulb and lamp assemblies, and more particularly, to a light emitting diode (LED) light bulb configured to replicate the light output of a conventional incandescent light bulb.
2. Description of the Related Art
Incandescent light bulbs are used in a large variety of lighting products. Although inexpensive to purchase, incandescent light bulbs have several drawbacks. First, incandescent light bulbs use a relatively large amount of power compared to other lighting products which increase energy costs. Second, incandescent light bulbs have a short life causing repetitive replacement costs. Furthermore, since theses bulbs have a short life, labor costs will subsequently be effected by having maintenance personnel constantly replace the bulbs.
Thus, a need exists for a lighting product having low power consumption and long life. Furthermore, a need exists for the lighting product to produce the same light output as a conventional incandescent bulb.


A transfer layer of an ATM type used between a switch (216) and a number N of communication channels (218). Each communication channel (218) has second storage arrangement B.sub.0, . . . , B.sub.N-1 for storing cell queues having a length of up to P cells each, one of the second storage arrangements being in a busy condition if a minimum number M of cells is stored therein, where M is lesser of equal P. Each communication channel is assigned to one of the switch queues. The transfer layer (217) has third storage arrangement T for storage of a cell queue having a length of up to L cells. Furthermore the transfer layer (217) selectively disables the input of a cell from one of the switch queues into the third storage arrangement if the second storage arrangement is in a busy condition.

Transfer switches are mainly used for communication networks. There are several types of communication networks such as the ethernet, the token ring and the FDDI. Some networks use the asynchronous transfer mode telecommunications concept. This concept is particularly advantageous in the emerging field of high speed virtual networking.
The asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) has been chosen by standards committees as an underlying transport technology within many broadband integrated services digital network protocol stacks. In this context, "transport" refers to the use of ATM switching and multiplexing techniques at the data link layer to convey end--user traffic from source to destination within a network. A description of the standardised ATM telecommunications concept can be found in a publication of the ATM forum entitled "ATM user--network interface specification", 1993, published by PTR Prentice Hall.
FIG. 1 shows an example of an asynchronous transfer mode network. The ATM network itself is schematically depicted within the network region 1. The network region 1 contains the ATM switches 2, 3 and 4. The network region 1 might contain a high number of further transfer switches which are not depicted in the drawing. The transfer switches 2, 3 and 4 are interconnected via communication links 5, 6 and 7. Each of the communication links 5, 6 and 7 contains one or more transfer switches. Thereby a network is established.
By way of example it is shown in FIG. 1 that the private networks 11, 12 and 13 are connected via the communication links 8, 9 and 10 to the ATM network in the network region 1. Information is interchanged on such a network by means of so called cells. FIG. 2 shows the structure of such a cell according to the ATM standard. The cell carries a payload 14 which contains a piece of information to be transmitted via a virtual connection of the network. Furthermore the cell contains a cell header 15 which carries control information. According to the ATM standard the GFC field of the cell carries general flow control data, the VCI field contains a virtual connection identifier, the VPI field contains a virtual path identifier and the field PT identifies the payload type.
Further control fields are the CLP field which optionally indicates the explicit loss priority of the cell and the HEC field which is used for error correction purposes.
FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a transfer switch of a type which could be used for the standardised ATM network. Transfer switches of the type as shown in FIG. 3 are well known in the prior art and are widely used for switching in networks. Transfer switches are used for transferring data cells which belong to virtual connections over physical links.
The transfer switch comprises a switch 16, a transfer layer 17 and communication channels 18. The switches themselves of switch 16 are not depicted in the drawing, but only the FIFOs S.sub.0 to S.sub.N-1. The N FIFOs S.sub.0, S.sub.1, S.sub.2, . . . , S.sub.N-1 of the switch 16 are storage means for storage of a number N of switch queues. The switch queues serve to buffer the outputs of the switch 16
The FIFO S.sub.0 contains the storage locations, C.sub.01, C.sub.02, . . . C.sub.06. Each of these storage locations has the capacity to hold a complete ATM cell (cf. FIG. 2). The same applies for the other FIFOs S.sub.1, S.sub.2, . . . S.sub.N-1 of the switch 16, especially for the storage cells C.sub.N-1,0 and C.sub.N-1,6. Each of the FIFOs S.sub.0 to S.sub.N-1 has the capacity to buffer 6 ATM cells. Hence a number N of switch queues each having a length of up to 6 cells can be stored in the FIFOs of the switch 16.
The output of each of the FIFOs S.sub.0 to S.sub.N-1 is connected via the cell bus 19 to the transfer layer 17. The transfer layer 17, comprises a FIFO 20 for storage of a cell queue having a length of up to L=6 ATM cells. The FIFO 20 receives ATM cells via the bus 19 from the switch queues which are realised in the FIFOs S of the switch 16 to perform ATM layer functions on these cells and feed them into the communication channels 18 according to the originating switch queue.
The FIFO 20 of the transfer layer 17 comprises the L=6 storage locations 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26. Each of the storage locations 21-26 has the capacity to hold a complete ATM cell.
The output of the FIFO 20 is connected via the cell bus 27 to the communication channels 18. The cell bus can be of the type of an UTOPIA cell bus, as defined in "UTOPIA, an ATM-PHY interface specification", level 2, version 0.8, Apr. 10, 1995, published by the ATM forum. The transfer layer 17 can be realised by means of a micro processor, such as Motorola MC 92500.
The communication channels 18 comprise a number of N of physical lines L.sub.0 to L.sub.N-1. The lines L.sub.0 to L.sub.N-1 serve to establish so called physical layer (PHY) connections. Examples for such physical connections are the communication links 5, 6, 7 and 8, 9, 10 as shown in FIG. 1.
Each of the physical lines L.sub.0 to L.sub.N-1 is connected to an output buffer. In the example shown in FIG. 3 the output buffers B.sub.0, B.sub.1, . . . B.sub.N-1 are FIFOs. Each of the FIFOs B.sub.0 to B.sub.N-1 has 10 storage locations each of which having a storage capacity sufficient to hold a complete ATM cell. The output buffer B.sub.0 has the storage locations D.sub.01, D.sub.02, . . . D.sub.0,10 whereas the FIFO B.sub.N-1 has the storage locations D.sub.N-1,0, D.sub.N-1, . . . , D.sub.N-1,10. Hence, the storage means of the communication channels 18, which in this case are realised by means of FIFOs--can each hold an output cell queue having a length of up to P=10 cells. The cells are inputted to the FIFOs of the communication channels 18 via the cell bus 27 from the transfer layer 17.
Typically, in an ATM switching system there is a one to one relationship between the FIFOs S.sub.0 to S.sub.N-1 of the switch 16 and the FIFOs B.sub.0 to B.sub.N-1 of the communication channels 18: a cell which originates from FIFO S.sub.x, where 0.gtoreq.x >N, is transferred via the bus 19, the FIFO 20 and the bus 27 to its corresponding FIFO B.sub.x. In other words each of the physical lines L.sub.0 to L.sub.N-1 is unambiguously assigned to one of the FIFOs S.sub.0 to S.sub.N-1 of the switch 16 and vice versa.
The numbers indicated in the storage locations 21-26 of the FIFO 20 symbolise the origin of the cell which is at present stored in a specific storage location of the FIFO 20. For example the cell stored on storage location 21 originates from the FIFO S.sub.0, the cell stored on storage location 22 originates from the FIFO S.sub.5 (which is not shown in the drawing) and the cell stored on storage location 26 also originates from the FIFO S.sub.0. Hence, FIG. 3 depicts a snap shoot of the operation of the transfer switch.
The invention seeks to provide an improved transfer layer and an improved transfer switch, such as an ATM switch, which allow a higher data transmission rate. Furthermore the invention seeks to provide an improved method for operating of a transfer switch.

Transfer layer of the ATM type and method for operating a transfer switch


A support for chairlifts includes bracketing for easily and simply retrofitting the support to an existing chairlift for providing support for snowboards on a chairlift which is easy to mount and provides a rugged, secure support. By changing orientation of the support on this chairlift, it may be utilized to support a mountain bike or skateboard.

The present invention relates to ski chairlifts. More particularly, the invention relates to a novel support which may be simply and rapidly mounted to existing chairlifts providing a rugged, reliable support for snowboards and/or mountain bikes.
Ski resorts have long provided chairlifts for skiers. Recently, however there has been an upsurge in the number of snowboarders to the extent that ski resorts, which originally did not permit snowboarders at ski resorts, now welcome snowboarders. Although snowboarders are now welcome at ski resorts, conventional chairlifts presently in use are not "user friendly" to snowboarders. Skiers and snowboarders typically ride chairlifts wearing their respective skis and snowboards. Skis are worn in such a manner that the skis face in the same direction as the feet of the user. However, a snowboard extends in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction in which the users feet point.
Conventional chairlifts, while providing a support for resting skis, lack a support for snowboards. As a result, a snowboarder is inconvenienced when riding a chairlift due to this lack of support.

Chair lift accessory for accommodating snowboarders and mountain bikers


The method includes disposing semiconductor chips on a package substrate having sawing lines, forming an encapsulant to cover the semiconductor chips on the package substrate, forming a package assembly by a first curing of the encapsulant, forming first grooves by cutting the encapsulant along the sawing lines, performing a second curing of the encapsulant, and dividing the package assembly into unit semiconductor packages by cutting the package substrate along the sawing lines and forming second grooves to overlap the first grooves.

Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method of fabricating a semiconductor package.
Description of Related Art
Conventionally, a semiconductor package can form a package assembly covering semiconductor chips on a printed circuit board (PCB) with an encapsulant, and obtain by dividing the package assembly into unit packages by performing sawing process. At this moment, depending on the difference in coefficient of thermal expansion between the PCB and the encapsulant, a warpage may appear in the package assembly due to a heat applied during a process. Recently, as a thickness of the PCB and a thickness of the encapsulant have become smaller, a level of the warpage occurrence has been increased.

Method of fabricating semiconductor device


A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for interactive mail management of physical mail. Physical mail is received in a mailbox. An identifier is read in response to receiving the physical mail in the mailbox. The physical mail contains the identifier. Information contained in the identifier is sent to the mail recipient. The mail recipient is able to identify instructions for communicating with a sender associated with the physical mail based on the information from the identifier.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to data processing systems and more particularly, to a computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer usable program code for interactive physical mail content management.
2. Description of the Related Art
Despite the transition of many forms of communication to electronic mail, most individuals, companies, and other groups or organizations are still dependent on mail in the form of physical mail. Many people use mail for personal and business communications and transactions. In many cases, mail provides a communication service that is both necessary and important to the mail recipient. Mail is physical mail, such as postal mail, and may be delivered by the postal service or other similar contracting or delivery services.
In many cases, mail recipients receive mail in a remote mailbox. Checking the remote mailbox may require time and effort regardless of whether there is actually mail in the mailbox. For example, in many cities, an individual may have a mailbox in the nearest mail facility. The mail facility may be miles away from the location of the mail recipient. In other cases, the individual may live in a rural area with a distant mailbox.
Different pieces of mail are of different importance to the mail recipient. For example, bills may be considered of high importance to the mail recipient while so called junk mail for a sweepstakes may be of low importance. In some cases, a mail recipient may spend time and effort to check the contents of the mailbox without knowing whether any of the information of the delivered mail provides value to the recipient. In many cases, the mail recipient may feel that time is wasted checking the mailbox to retrieve low importance mail. Using current technology, a mail recipient is only able to interact with received mail by physically retrieving the mail, opening the mail, and visually determining the mail contents.

Interactive physical mail content management

International Business Machines Corporation


An aqueous storage-stable composition comprises from about 10 to about 35% by weight hydrogen cyanamide, from about 3 to about 25% by weight propionic acid, potassium propionate or ammonium propionate, and water, and has a pH of from about 2.5 to about 4, wherein the concentration of hydrogen cyanamide is greater than the concentration of propionic acid.

This invention relates to storage-stable aqueous compositions containing hydrogen cyanamide and propionic acid.
As described in U.S. published patent applications 2007/92581 and 2007/116781 of Rodrigo Rodriguez-Kabana, combinations of hydrogen cyanamide and lower alkanoic acids such as propionic acid provide protection of crops against nematode and insect infections, and weed control, by applying such combinations of ingredients to the soil. That patent application describes tests of combinations of varying amounts of hydrogen cyanamide and propionic acid applied at various application rates.
The working examples in US patent applications 2007/92581 and 2007/116781 were carried out by preparing and relatively quickly applying aqueous solutions containing hydrogen cyanamide and a carboxylic acid (usually propionic acid) to soil. Those patent applications also state that the most economical results will generally be achieved when the hydrogen cyanamide concentration is within the range of from about 0.1% to about 10% by weight, preferably from about 0.3% to about 3% by weight and when the concentration of the monocarboxylic acid is within the range of from about 0.1% to about 20% by weight, and preferably from about 1% to about 10% by weight.
When work was carried out to prepare a formulated product comprising combined solutions of hydrogen cyanamide and propionic acid that would be storage stable for lengthy periods of time, it was found that achieving good storage stability required working outside the above proportions of the two ingredients, as well as maintaining pH within a certain range. Otherwise, adverse effects were found to occur, including production of undesirable impurities and/or precipitation of polymers formed in the decomposition of hydrogen cyanamide through reactions to form dimeric imides or propionates.

Storage-stable compositions containing hydrogen cyanamide and propionic acid


Apparatus for use within a radio access network of a cellular communications network, where the cellular communications network belongs to an operator domain. The apparatus comprises a radio control unit for controlling radio channels within one or more cells of the radio access network, and a data source for maintaining or accessing data content, the data source being allocated in use an IP address that is unique at least within said operator domain. The apparatus further comprises an IP packet classifier configurable to inspect packets received from a client and to identify packets addressed to said IP address, and to redirect such identified packets to said data source. The apparatus also comprises an IP packet route selector configured to react to the establishment of a connection between a client and said data source by routing data content packets from said data source to the client via a radio channel or channels controlled by said radio control unit. The IP packet route selector is further able to react to a handover of the client to a peer apparatus responsible for a different set of radio channels by routing data content packets from said data source to the client via an IP backbone network.

In 3G cellular communication architectures, data services are provided to subscribers using the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). A GPRS core network routes data between a UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network, UTRAN, to which a client (User Equipment or UE) is attached and an IP backbone of the network operator. A so-called GPRS Gateway Support Node (GGSN) provides an interconnection between the GPRS core network and the IP backbone. The IP backbone provides client access to "internal" packet services of the network operator as well as access to the Internet and the various "external" services available over the Internet. The interface between the GGSN and the IP backbone is referred to in the relevant standards as the Gi interface. In the case of SAE/LTE network architectures, that is the so-called 4G networks, the Packet Data Network Gateway (PDN Gateway) within the Evolved Packet Core (EPC) network performs a role broadly similar to that of the GGSN, connecting the EPC to the operator's IP backbone.
Network operators are currently experiencing rapid growth in demand for data services, due in large part to the growing use of streaming media services. These services tend to be centralised "above" the GGSN/PDN Gateway anchor point in the sense that subscribers connect to common servers (hosting the services) regardless of geographical location. In order to reduce the burden placed on networks by this increased demand, it is desirable to allow for the local breakout of data connections such that data traffic does not have to flow unnecessarily through mobility tunnels, e.g. via a subscriber's home network to a visited network. It is further desirable to introduce where possible local data sources, i.e. local streaming servers and local caching, to reduce the path length between data source and subscriber.
FIG. 1 illustrates schematically an example streaming media architecture with deployed caches used to offload the central server. The caches may be located within the Internet, within the IP backbone network, and/or within the operator's network. Considering the latter, in the case of a 3G network, caches could be located within the GPRS core network, for example co-located with or connected to the GGSN, or could be located within the RAN, for example co-located or connected to the Radio Network Controller (RNC). Similarly, in the case of a 4G network, caches may be located in the packet core network (co-located with or coupled to the PDN Gateway) or within the radio access network (co-located with or coupled to the enhanced Node B (eNB)).
Caching data beneath the GGSN/PDN Gateway attachment point, whilst efficient in terms of reducing network traffic, does raise issues regarding subscriber mobility. Subscriber mobility is a requirement for the introduction and acceptance of any data traffic handling solution. Operators and subscribers will not accept a solution which results in the loss of service connections when a subscriber moves from one location to another or is otherwise handed over between network access points. There is an inherent conflict between moving the cache as close as possible to the subscriber equipment in order to reduce network traffic on the one hand, and facilitating subscriber mobility on the other.

Efficient data delivery in cellular networks


An adjustable chair construction is described which is particular in that the backrest is linked to the seat by means of at least one hinge construction, where said hinge construction on the seat comprises at least one first projecting member (23) having a curved or linear top section on which top section teeth are arranged, and on the back rest at least one second projecting member (82) having a curved or linear top section on which top section teeth are arranged, such that the teeth on one section mesh with the teeth on the other section, and that at least one connecting member (100) being pivotable fastened to the first and second projecting members (23, 82) maintains the teeth of the curved sections in meshed relationship.

In the art, a number of adjustable seat constructions exist which makes it possible to adjust the backrest in relation to the seat, the height of the backrest in relation to the level of the seating surface, and in some instances also the width of the seat and/or backrest in relation to the user.
A number of these prior art chair constructions only makes it possible to adjust one or a few of the features of the chair construction. For people of normal built, this is usually not a problem, but especially for handicapped users there is a need to be able to adjust the chair perfectly in order to provide the most comfortable seating position for the user. This even more so as handicapped persons often will be forced to spend longer periods of time in a chair than normal persons, who can leave the chair for a while and then return.
Especially for chair constructions in wheelchairs suitable for persons having handicaps which necessitate the provision of further supports such as leg supports on the sides as well as back supports, chest supports, shoulder supports and the like, the requirements relating to the adjustability of the chair construction are greatly increased. Usually, this has been addressed in the art by providing one-off special constructions, especially suited for the user in question. This in turn is a very costly and resource-demanding process. In particular, when the one-off construction is made for children, a further problem arises as the child grows, in that the one-off especially produced chair for the child at one size will, as the child grows, become more and more of a compromise, and at a certain time it is necessary to have a further chair built in order to address the needs of the child having outgrown the original chair.
An additional problem especially relating to chair constructions for the handicapped is that they usually have one or more extra supports mounted, for example on the backrest, in order to provide relief for the user during use. By reclining the backrest in relation to the seat in a traditional wheelchair, or in chair constructions as for example suggested in NL 7115696, the additional supports arranged either on the backrest or the seat construction are displaced due to the fact that the pivot point of the backrest in relation to the seat does not follow the actual movement of the back in relation to the seat of the user.
Consequently, there is a need for providing an adjustable chair construction which alleviates at least the problems described above.


Provided is a data read circuit that can execute data reading under a proper reference voltage in the event that element characteristics have been changed due to aged deterioration. When a sample memory cell (10a) is selected, a memory transistor (26a) in which no electrons are injected into its floating gate, enters ON state. At this time, a voltage (V.sub.22) is inputted to an input terminal (22) of a sense amplification (18), and a control circuit (13) detects the voltage (V.sub.22) to store it as a digital signal. On the other hand, when a sample memory cell (10b) is selected, a memory transistor (26b) in which electrons are injected into its floating gate, does not enter ON state. As a result, a voltage (V.sub.11) is inputted as it is, to the input terminal (22). The control circuit (13) detects the voltage (V.sub.11) to store it as a digital signal. Based on the two digital signals, the control circuit (13) sets a reference voltage (V.sub.REF), and a reference voltage generating circuit (14) generates this reference voltage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data read circuits for reading data stored in memories of semiconductor integrated circuits, and more particularly, to a method of setting a reference voltage inputted to a sense amplifier.
2. Description of the Background Art
FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram showing the configuration of a general memory. An address bus 101 transmits the address data sent from an exterior (e.g., a CPU) to a memory 100. An address buffer 102 distributes the address data sent from the address bus 101, to a word decoder 104 and a bit decoder 105. A memory cell array 103 has a plurality of data memory cells (not shown) for storing data of "1" or "0", which are arranged in the form of a matrix. A word line 106 and a bit line 107 are connected to each data memory cell constituting the memory cell array 103. The word decoder 104 selects a desired word line designated by the address data, from a plurality of word lines 106. The bit decoder 105 selects a desired bit line designated by the address data, from a plurality of bit lines 107. A sense amplifier 108 detects and amplifies the data stored in a data memory cell that resides in the intersection of the word line 106 and the bit line 107 which have been selected by the word decoder 104 and the bit decoder 105, respectively. A data bus 109 transmits the data outputted from the sense amplifier 108 to the exterior of the memory 100 (e.g., a CPU).
FIG. 6 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a conventional data read circuit. That is, FIG. 6 shows a data read circuit per bit in the memory 100 of FIG. 5. A memory cell 110 corresponds to one of a plurality of data memory cells constituting the memory cell array 103 of FIG. 5. The memory cell 110 comprises a memory transistor 111 having a floating gate, and constitutes an EPROM (electrically programmable read only memory). A gate (G), a drain (D) and a source (S) of the memory transistor 111 are connected to a word line 106a, a bit line 107a and a ground, respectively. Here, the word line 106a and the bit line 107a correspond to one of a plurality of word lines 106 and bit lines 107 in FIG. 5, respectively. The bit line 107a is connected to a selector 105a. The selector 105a corresponds to part of the bit decoder 105 in FIG. 5, and connects a wire 113 and the bit line 107a. A pull-up circuit 112 applies a specified voltage to the bit line 107a through the wire 113 and the selector 105a. A sense amplifier 108a has two input terminals 114, 115. To the input terminal 114, the voltage of the wire 113 is inputted through a node ND.sub.1.
A reference voltage generating circuit 122 mainly comprises a memory transistor 116, a selector 119, and a pull-up circuit 121. Like the memory transistor 111, the memory transistor 116 comprises an EPROM cell having a floating gate. The source, drain, and gate of the memory transistor 116 are connected to a ground, a wire 118, and a wire 117, respectively. The wire 118 is connected to the selector 119, which is connected to a pull-up circuit 121 through a wire 120 having a node ND.sub.2. To the input terminal 115 of the sense amplifier 108a, the voltage of the wire 120 is inputted as a reference voltage V.sub.REF, through the node ND.sub.2.
Hereafter, the operation of reading data stored in a memory cell 110 will be described. Firstly, a word line 106a applies a voltage to the gate of a memory transistor 111. According to the storage content of the memory cell 110, the memory transistor 111 enters ON or OFF state, so that two types of, i.e., high and low, voltages V.sub.1, V.sub.2 are inputted to an input terminal 114 of a sense amplifier 108a .
To other input terminal 115 of the sense amplifier 108a, for example, an intermediate voltage of the voltages V.sub.1, V.sub.2 is inputted as a reference voltage V.sub.REF. At this time, the pull-up circuit 121, the selector 119 and the memory transistor 116 are properly selected so as to set a desired value of the reference voltage V.sub.REF.
The sense amplifier 108a compares a voltage V.sub.1 or V.sub.2 inputted to the input terminal 114 with a reference voltage V.sub.REF inputted to the input terminal 115, and amplifies its result and then outputs it.
In the conventional data read circuits so configured, however, in order to set a proper reference voltage V.sub.REF, a reference voltage generating circuit 122 must be organized by complicated selections. That is, a pull-up circuit 121 for applying a desired voltage, and a memory transistor 116 and a selector 119 that cause a desired voltage drop, are selected depending on the characteristics of a memory transistor 111 and a pull-up circuit 112, and on the load of a selector 105a.
Meanwhile, even if a reference voltage generating circuit 122 can be organized by a proper selection of elements, aged deterioration may change the characteristics of the elements to alter a reference voltage V.sub.REF. It is, however, impossible to reset a reference voltage V.sub.REF, resulting in a short product-life cycle.


A radio frequency (RF) directional coupler (100) can include a first transmission line element (102) having a first end and a second end, and a second transmission line element (104) having a first end and a second end. The first and second transmission line elements (102, 104) can be disposed in a first plane, where at least a portion of said first and said second transmission line elements (102, 104) are adjacent along a path. The RF coupler (100) can also include a first series of conductive coupling elements (116) disposed along said path in a second plane parallel to the first plane and separated from said first and said second transmission line elements (102, 104) by a first dielectric element (114). The first and second plane can be separated by a pre-determined distance (t2) to increase a capacitive coupling between the first and second transmission line elements (102, 104).

1. Statement of the Technical Field
The present invention is directed to the field of directional couplers, and more particularly, to directional couplers having a miniaturized design.
2. Description of the Related Art
Directional couplers are four-port circuits typically used for sampling of the input power for use in signal monitoring circuits. The sampled signal is typically measured to determine the power level, frequency, and/or signal shape (modulation) of the input signal. One typical directional coupler configuration is referred to as a hybrid coupler, a 3 dB coupler, a 3 dB hybrid coupler, a quadrature coupler, or a quadrature hybrid coupler, amongst other names. Regardless of how it is referred to, the quadrature hybrid coupler generally has the characteristics of dividing the input signal into two signals having equal powers and separated in phase by 90° when the four ports are properly terminated.
Typically, quadrature hybrid couplers are implemented by using two edge coupled transmission lines. However, planar circuit fabrication technologies, such as integrated circuit technologies, stripline technologies, and printed circuit board technologies, typically require a gap or spacing between the two coupled lines that is generally too small to be practically and reliably fabricated using conventional processes. Furthermore, the transmission lines typically used to provide proper coupling generally have large dimensions wide and long in order to achieve the impedance ranges typically used in radio frequency (RF) applications. One proposed solution has been the use of Lange couplers with two or more pairs of lines. However, even though Lange couplers alleviate the gap problem for planar processing technologies, the resulting size of Lange couplers is still problematic, as a quarter wavelength electrical length is still required for the coupler, resulting in couplers with a size typically exceeding that of any associated circuitry.


A process for the preparation of 2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene (HFO-1234yf). HFO-1234yf is a refrigerant with low global warming potential. A process comprises a) reacting chlorotrifluoroethylene with a methyl halide to form an intermediate product stream; and b) reacting the intermediate product stream with hydrogen fluoride to thereby produce a result comprising 2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to processes for the preparation of a tetrafluorinated propene. More specifically, this invention concerns processes for the preparation of the hydrofluoroolefin 2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene (HFO-1234yf). HFO-1234yf is a refrigerant with low global warming potential.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fluorocarbon based fluids have found widespread use in industry in a number of applications, including as refrigerants, aerosol propellants, blowing agents, heat transfer media, and gaseous dielectrics. Because of the suspected environmental problems associated with the use of some of these fluids, including the relatively high global warming potentials associated therewith, it is desirable to use fluids having the lowest possible greenhouse warming potential in addition to zero ozone depletion potential. Thus there is considerable interest in developing environmentally friendlier materials for the applications mentioned above. Tetrafluoropropenes, having zero ozone depletion and low global warming potential, have been identified as potentially filling this need. However, the toxicity, boiling point, and other physical properties in this class of chemicals vary greatly from isomer to isomer. One tetrafluoropropene having valuable properties is 2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene (HFO-1234yf). Thus, there is a need for new manufacturing processes for the production of tetrafluoropropenes and in particular 2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,819,731 and 3,446,859 disclose the reaction of methyl chloride with either trichloroethylene or tetrachloroethylene in a hot tube reactor to form CCl2═CHCH2Cl or CCl2═CClCH2Cl, respectively. The reaction is believed to occur via a radical process. Tetrafluoroethylene was reacted with methylene produced by photolysis of ketene, resulting in tetrafluorocyclopropane which isomerizes in part to give a tetrafluoropropene believed to be HCF2CH═CF2, and not CF3CF═CH2 (J. Chem. Soc., 1963, 746). Methyl chloride has been pyrolyzed along with CF2HCl at 800° C. to give a product stream that contained about 15% of CF3CF═CH2 (U.S. Pat. No. 2,931,840). HFO-1234yf has also been made by the dehydrofluorination of CF3CHFCH2F with KOH in butyl ether (Chem. Abstr. 1961:349f), and by the reaction of CF3CF2CH2OH with hydrogen (U.S. Pat. No. 4,900,874).
In would be advantageous to have a process for the manufacture of HFO-1234yf that is continuous, vapor phase, and which uses readily available raw materials. As the prior art processes fail in one or more of these desirable features, more advantageous routes are desired, especially those amenable to large scale manufacture.
In general, the process of this invention involves feeding together into a reactor at elevated temperature, a mixture of chlorotrifluoroethylene (CTFE) with a methyl halide to form an intermediate product stream. This step produces HFO-1234yf precursors, such as CF2═CFCH2Cl, that are then fed into a second reactor along with HF, which converts the precursors into HFO-1234yf.

Process for the preparation of 2,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene (HFO-1234yf)


A ventilated brake rotor includes two spaced apart annular disks each having an inner diameter and an outer diameter with a locus radius defined radially between the inner diameter and the outer diameter. A series of alternating longer and shorter vanes is distributed around the rotor between the annular disks defining a series of flow passages between each adjacent pair of vanes. Each vane is defined about a curved line with a curvature that is measured from the locus radius, wherein the curved line's curvature is defined by the incoming air flow angle at the flow passage, and wherein the vane profile varies along the curved line so that a non-uniformly curved profile results that maximizes the flow rate through the flow passage. The vane angle and the vane profile result in minimized incidence, viscous and profile flow losses.

To brake a traveling vehicle to a slower speed or to a stop, a significant amount of energy must be dissipated. A large part of this energy is converted into heat that tends to raise the temperature of the brake rotor. In order to prevent brake overheating and to reduce brake wear which increases with higher temperatures, an adequate provision is typically made for transferring away the heat load generated in vehicle rotors. Often, brake rotors are assembled in applications where external surface heat transfer is sufficient and internal ventilation is not required. Other applications require ventilation air flow through the rotor itself.
Conventional ventilated brake rotors generally include a pair of mutually spaced-apart annular disks that present two opposed external surfaces for engaging brake pads under the clamping operation of a braking actuator. The space between the disks typically includes a number of vanes with flow passages defied between each pair of adjacent vanes that extend between the disks from their inner diameter to their outer diameter. Rotation of the rotor causes the vanes to induce air flow through the flow passages from the inner diameter to the outer diameter of the disks, providing increased convective heat transfer from the rotor.
It is known that brake rotor design plays an important role in brake cooling. U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,205 discloses a rotor utilizing a vane configuration that accommodates the rotor's air flow regime, includes an optimal vane number for a given rotor design resulting in high flow efficiency, and provides a flow passage profile that results in reduced flow restriction and improved cooling air flow. That patent describes a rotor with a straight vane profile.
A brake rotor is generally designed for use within a particular application where surrounding structures impact the rotor's size. Constraints exist on the outer and inner diameters of the rotor's air flow area, and on the total rotor thickness between braking surfaces. Additionally, manufacturing requirements limit the amount that the cross sectional area of the rotor structure can vary. Therefore, the convective heat transfer surface area of the rotor is limited by design constraints that are imposed by the application into which the rotor is integrated.
The vent section of the rotor however, does allow for design flexibility. The vent section, particularly the vane surface, affects the heat transfer rate. Proper design of the vent section can have a favorable impact on the rotor's overall cooling performance. It is generally believed that a curved vane profile is inherently more efficient than a straight vane profile for cooling air flow purposes. However, the use of curved vanes is often undesirable because it entails the use of oppositely curved vanes on opposite sides of the vehicle leading to a proliferation of component part numbers. Therefore, a majority of ventilated brake rotors have straight vanes so that they are adaptable to use on both sides of a vehicle. Accordingly, the development of curved vane rotors has been intermittent, leading to a present need for an aerodynamically efficient design that achieves minimum incident and viscous losses. In order to provide an improved air flow rate for an increased brake rotor cooling effect, a brake rotor with an optimized curved vane configuration is sought that provides a low restriction air flow passage, in a configuration that is adapted to increase flow rate resulting in an enhanced heat transfer mechanism.


A digital filter receives a sequence of input signal values. A filtering block performs a filtering operation on sequence of input signal values that is controlled by filter coefficients. A control block also receives the sequence of input signal values. The control block evaluates detected changes over time with respect to the sequence of input signal values and selects values for the filter coefficients based on the detected changes. The detected change over time provides an indication of the whether the sequence of input signal values is changing signal state. If so, the filter coefficients are selected to emphasize signal response time over signal noise filtering for the filtering operation. Otherwise, the filter coefficients are selected to emphasize signal noise filtering over signal response time for the filtering operation.

Reference is now made to FIG. 1 which illustrates an implementation architecture for a first order digital infinite impulse response (IIR) filter 10. The sequence X of (input) signal values received at input 12 of filter 10 is processed by multipliers, adders and delays to produce a sequence Y of (output) signal values at output 14. A first multiplier 16 has an input coupled to receive the sequence X of signal values received at input 12 and an output which produces a weighted sequence X of signal values formed by multiplying the sequence X of signal values received at input 12 by a first coefficient (weight or gain parameter) W0. An adder 18 combines a feed forward path from the output of the first multiplier 16 with a feedback path. An output of the adder 18 produces the sequence Y of signal values at the output 14. The feedback path is formed by a delay block 20 coupled in series with a second multiplier 22. The delay block 20 has an input coupled to receive the sequence Y of signal values and output a delayed sequence Y of signal values. The second multiplier 22 has an input coupled to receive the delayed sequence Y of signal values and an output which produces a weighted delayed sequence Y of signal values formed by multiplying the delayed sequence Y of signal values at output 14 by a second coefficient (weight or gain parameter) W1. The adder 18 sums the weighted sequence X of signal values (output from the first multiplier 16 in the feed forward path) with the weighted delayed sequence Y of signal values (output from the second multiplier 22 in the feedback path) to produce the sequence Y of signal values at output 14.
The time-domain expression for the filter 10 representing the output in terms of the input is given by the following:Yn=Xn*W0+Yn−1*W1
Where: the subscript n denotes a time index for the sequence of signal values.
The first and second coefficients W0 and W1 have fixed values satisfying the following relationship:W0+W1=a constant, for example equal to 1
Those skilled in the art understand that the response of the filter 10 is very dependent on the values of the first and second coefficients W0 and W1. For example, with a relatively larger first coefficient W0 and a relatively smaller second coefficient W1, i.e., W0>W1, the filter has a fast signal response time but a poor signal noise filtering characteristic (see, FIG. 2A which illustrates very little filtering of the noise in sequence X has been accomplished in the sequence Y but the filter does exhibit a fast response time at the data state change 100). Conversely, with a relatively larger second coefficient W1 and a relatively smaller first coefficient W0, i.e., W1 >W0, the filter has a slow signal response time but a good signal noise filtering characteristic (see, FIG. 2B which illustrates significant filtering of the noise in sequence X has been accomplished in the sequence Y at expense of a poor response time at the data state change 100). Because the filter weights through the first and second coefficients are fixed in filter 10, the designer must choose and be satisfied with a certain filter performance relationship between response time and filtering characteristic. This may lead to a compromised or sub-optimal filter design and operation.
Additionally, it is noted that the filter 10 configuration lacks the ability to enhance signal strength.
There accordingly exists a need in the art address the foregoing problems.

Digital IIR filter with adjustable filter weights based on measured changes in the processed data


A method of manufacturing a cylinder block using a die apparatus wherein a columnar hole includes a bore in the cylinder block. The method includes the steps of abutting first and second split cores against an upper surface of a distal end core, the upper surface being located opposite the inner core, and introducing a molten metal into a cavity. An inner core is withdrawn to move the first and second split cores toward an axis. The first and second split cores are released from a formed product made of solidified molten metal. The split cores are removed from the formed product to form the bore, and an inner surface of the bore is cut.

For manufacturing a cast product having a columnar hole such as a bore in an engine cylinder block, it is customary to insert a core into a cavity of a casting die, cast a molten metal into the cavity, remove the core after the molten metal is solidified, and release the casting from the die, so that the casting with a columnar hole defined therein is produced. In order to remove the core smoothly, the core needs to have a certain draft angle for removal. However, since the bore has to be of a gradient-free cylindrical shape, it is necessary to cut the casting depending on the draft angle. If the draft angle is large or the columnar hole is deep, then the amount of material machined off the casting is large when the casting is cut, the time required to cut the casting is long, and many chips are produced, resulting in a reduction in the rate of utilization of the material. Generally, castings tend to contain more blowholes in deeper regions from the surface. Therefore, if a large amount of material is machined off the casting, then many blowholes are liable to appear in the cut surface of the casting.
The amount of material machined off the casting should preferably be small, and the draft angle of the core should desirably be zero. To meet these demands, there has been proposed a die apparatus having a core which comprises an inner member and an outer member whose tapered surfaces are slidably supported on opposite side surfaces of the inner member (see, for example, Patent No. 3406266 (Japan)).
The proposed die apparatus allows the core to be removed smoothly while being kept out of interference with the bottom wall of a space in the product. Only a side core member of the core is movable radially inwardly for removal of the core. Therefore, the side core member does not require a draft angle on its outer circumferential surface. However, if the columnar hole is deep, then though the side core member is releasable, another core member may not be releasable and needs to have a draft angle.
For using a casting as an engine cylinder block, the casting should preferably be processed by a hard coating process in view of sliding movement of pistons. However, if the casting has a draft angle, then after the inner surface of the casting is cut, blowholes appear on the cut inner surface and may possibly prevent a hard coating process from being properly performed on the inner surface. When a casting is heated, the surface of the casting may possibly be unduly deformed due to blowholes that are present on or near the surface of the casting.

Mold device and method of manufacturing cylinder block


A system and method for relocating a subnet to a remote location includes a tether router coupled to an anchor router via a link. The tether router is coupled to a plurality of nodes, each node corresponding to a network address of a plurality of network addresses allocated to a user. The plurality of network addresses is allocated to the user by a lease broker. The link may include a private tunnel for traversing a mechanism that otherwise hinders communication from the tether router to the anchor router, such as a network address translation (NAT) mechanism.

1. Field
The present invention concerns relocating network subnets, i.e., portions of a network to a location remote from the original network.
2. Background
Often it is desirable to run applications on a network or device in a location remote from the location where such applications are ordinarily run. For example, a programmer may wish to run an application at a location remote from a usual "home" network in which sites containing services necessary for that application are available. The programmer in this instance may face a quandary. Services necessary for the proper execution of the application at the remote location or device are available from the programmer's "home" network, but, for whatever reason, may be unavailable for the application. That is, the programmer running the application on the remote location can not take advantage of necessary services that are available from the "home" network. Such services may either be located on the "home" network, or if located elsewhere, accessible from the "home" network.
The connection failure may result from a wide variety of obstacles. In the most simple scenario, the "home" network and remote device or network may not be connected together. As another illustration, communications between the networks may not be routable due to incompatible network protocols, unfulfilled encryption requirements, or intervening devices in the network link, such as firewalls or network translation devices, etc. that tend to prevent or obstruct the routing of data between the networks. Alternatively, the network infrastructure may in some way be inadequate for delivery of such services to the remote network or the coordination of services between networks. Another scenario is that the remote location may not have enough network addresses to support all the devices necessary to run the applications. The programmer faces inherent obstacles and potentially significant network and service configuration problems.
A common infrastructure where such problems abound is the Internet. As a simple illustration, a programmer may wish to run a presentation at a remote site on the internet, such as a corporate or governmental intranet. A seamless execution of the demonstration may require that the applications that are the subject of the demonstration have access to other services on the Internet, such as a file server, DNS server, or the like, wherein the latter services are located at remote sites. Just as well, various services on the Internet may require access to these remote programs being run at the remote location on the exemplary intranet. The programmer in this situation would ideally like to have "true" Internet services at the remote location, meaning seamless access to necessary Internet sites (and vice versa) for the purposes of running the presentation.
Ordinarily, communications occur on the Internet through the routing of IP packets with a transport protocol like TCP or UDP. However, the corporate intranet may reside behind one or more devices that make such communication impractical or impossible. Such devices may include a firewall, a network address translation (NAT) box, or another device that otherwise obfuscates services or hinders communication between the Internet and the corporate intranet.
A NAT box is a mechanism that, among other functions, runs an algorithm that enables a network to use one set of IP addresses for internal traffic and another set for external traffic. In many cases, the NAT box itself has only one IP address known to components on the Internet. External sites on the Internet thus cannot identify, or associate with a routable IP address, components located behind the NAT box. Accordingly, these external sites can not initiate communicate with the internal sites or components behind the NAT box using standard IP routing. When running an application or site on the corporate intranet, necessary or desirable services residing on the Internet therefore can not route data between components on the corporate intranet or aid in the execution of the application. Likewise, depending on the network configuration, the application being run on the corporate intranet may have problems initiating communications with sites on the Internet for needed services. Communication may be desirable for many reasons, such as to transmit results of an application to a local site, to resolve or obtain network addresses, to send or receive e-mails, to use remote databases or libraries, to call remote code or libraries for local execution, etc.
Virtual private networks ("VPNs") can often take advantage of the principles of encapsulation to provide users on a remote network with secure access to another network. Encapsulation is the process of inserting the components of a first network protocol within the packets of a second network protocol. Unfortunately, traditional VPNs only provide for the allocation of a single network address. As such, a remote subnet cannot be established. Moreover, VPNs lack continuous connectivity properties; that is, VPN connections need to be re-established whenever, for example, an address parameter changes. As an illustration of this fact, in accessing a VPN through a cable modem, the VPN may need to be torn down and re-established when the IP address at the cable modem interface changes.
Accordingly, a need exists in the art to configure and allocate a remote network such that the remote network has access to necessary services and sites without being obscured by firewalls and other devices that hinder communication, and such that communications on the remote network can remain independent of underlying networks.

Routable network subnet relocation systems and methods


An example technique may include controlling receiving a first block of time domain symbols and a second block of time domain symbols, converting the blocks of time domain symbols to the frequency domain to create a first pre-equalized block of frequency domain symbols and a second pre-equalized block of frequency domain symbols, respectively, applying, a linear phase shift to the frequency domain symbols to compensate for a conjugating and time-reversing of corresponding pre-spread domain symbols being performed at a transmitter before spreading of the pre-spread domain symbols, and creating a first equalized block of frequency domain symbols and a second equalized block of frequency domain symbols as a function of the first and second pre-equalized blocks of frequency domain symbols wherein at least one of the first and second pre-equalized blocks of frequency domain symbols has the linear phase shift applied.

A communication system may be a facility that enables communication between two or more nodes or devices, such as fixed or mobile communication devices. Signals can be carried on wired or wireless carriers.
An example of a cellular communication system is an architecture that is being standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). A recent development in this field is often referred to as the long-term evolution (LTE) of the Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) radio-access technology. S-UTRA (evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access) is the air interface of 3GPP's Long Term Evolution (LTE) upgrade path for mobile networks. In LTE, base stations, which are referred to as enhanced Node Bs (eNBs), provide wireless access within a coverage area or cell. In LTE, mobile devices, or mobile stations are referred to as user equipments (UE). LTE has included a number of improvements or developments.
In addition, many problems exist for 5G wireless networks. For example, some problems involve the use of antenna arrays, and the operation of space-time coding and modulation methods to be used for 5G wireless networks.

Space-time coding for zero-tail spread OFDM system in a wireless network