An improved powdered non-phosphate machine dishwashing composition comprising a blend of nonionic surfactants, builders, chlorine or non-chlorine bleach, bleach activators, enzymes and copolymers of alkylene oxides adducts of allyl alcohol and acrylic acid useful in reducing spotting and filming of dishware.

Machine dishwashing formulations generally contain inorganic phosphate salts as builders to sequester calcium and magnesium ions in water to minimize filming of dishware.
Because of environmental considerations associated with the use of phosphates as builders, formulations have been developed without phosphate and chlorine compounds. Non-phosphate formulations generally contain salts of low molecular weight organic acids, such as sodium citrate, as builders. Since citrate is not as effective a builder as phosphate, other additives, known in the art, such as polymers of acrylic acid are used to minimize the increase in spotting and filming that occurs with non-phosphate formulations.
The use of detergent compositions containing copolymers of the alkylene oxide adducts of allyl alcohol and acrylic acid is described in the art.
GB 2,225,589A, filed Dec. 1, 1989 (assigned to Kao), discloses:
An abrasive liquid cleanser composition comprising:
(a) a higher fatty acid alkanol amide or alkylene oxide adduct; PA1 (b) an alkali metal salt of an alkyl benzene sulfonic acid; PA1 (c) 3 to 70% of a water insoluble abrasive; PA1 (d) 0.1 to 5% by weight of one or more of water soluble polymers with a molecular weight of from 200 to 10,000 such as a polyacrylic acid salt, a polymaleic acid salt, a salt of copolymer of acrylic acid and maleic acid, a salt of copolymer of isobutylene and maleic acid, a salt of copolymer of styrene and maleic acid, a salt of copolymer of allyl alcohol and maleic acid and a salt of copolymer of disobutylene and maleic acid. PA1 (a) from about 92 to about 30 percent by weight of one or more C.sub.3 -C.sub.6 monoethylenically unsaturated carboxylic acids, such as acrylic acid; PA1 (b) from about 5 to about 50 percent by weight of one or more aminoacryloyl derivatives such as dimethylamino propylacrylamide (DMAPA); and PA1 (c) from about 3 to about 25 percent by weight of one or more monoethylenically unsaturated monomers such as acrylamide, methacrylamide and allyl alcohol polymerizable with (a) and (b). PA1 (a) polyoxyethylene or polyoxypropylene condensates of aliphatic carboxylic acids, whether linear or branched-chain and unsaturated or saturated, containing from about 8 to about 18 carbon atoms in the aliphatic chain and incorporating from 5 to about 50 ethylene oxide or propylene oxide units. Suitable carboxylic acids include "coconut" fatty acids (derived from coconut oil) which contain an average of about 12 carbon atoms, "tallow fatty acids (derived from tallow-class fats) which contain an average of about 18 carbon atoms, palmitic acid, myristic acid, stearic acid and lauric acid. PA1 (b) polyoxyalkylene (polyoxyethylene or polyoxypropylene) condensates of aliphatic alcohols, whether linear- or branched- chain and unsaturated or saturated, containing from about 8 to about 24 carbon atoms and incorporating from about 5 to about 50 ethylene oxide or propylene oxide units. Suitable alcohols include the "coconut" fatty alcohol, "tallow" fatty alcohol, lauryl alcohol, myristyl alcohol and oleyl alcohol. INDUSTROL.RTM. DW5 surfactant is a preferred condensate of an aliphatic alcohol type surfactant. INDUSTROL.RTM. DW5 surfactant is available from BASF Corporation, Mt. Olive, N.J. PA1 (c) polyoxyalkylene (polyoxyethylene or polyoxypropylene) condensates of alkyl phenols, whether linear- or branched- chain and unsaturated or saturated, containing from about 6 to about 12 carbon atoms and incorporating from about 5 to about 25 moles of ethylene oxide or propylene oxide. PA1 (d) Particularly preferred nonionic surfactants are selected polyalkylene oxide block copolymers. This class can include polyethoxylated polypropoxylated propylene glycol sold under the tradename "PLURONIC.RTM." made by BASF Corporation, Mt. Olive, N.J., or polypropoxylated-polyethoxylated ethylene glycol sold under the tradename "PLURONIC-R.RTM." made by the BASF Corporation, Mt. Olive, N.J. The first group of compounds are formed by condensing ethylene oxide with a hydrophobic base formed by the condensation of propylene oxide with propylene glycol (see U.S. Pat. No. 2,674,619). The hydrophobic portion of the molecule which, of course, exhibits water insolubility, has a molecular weight from about 1500 to 1800. The addition of the polyoxyethylene radicals to this hydrophobic portion tends to increase the water solubility of the molecule as a whole and the liquid character of the product is retained up to the point where the polyoxyethylene content is about 50 percent of the total weight of the condensation product. The latter series of compounds called "PLURONIC-R.RTM." are formed by condensing propylene oxide with the polyethoxylated ethylene glycol condensate. This series of compounds is characterized by having an average molecular weight of about between 2000 and 9000 consisting of, by weight, from about 10 to 80 percent polyoxyethylene, and a polyoxypropylene portion having a molecular weight between about 1000 and 3100. PA1 (i) peroxybenzoic acid and ring-substituted peroxybenzoic acids, e.g. peroxy-alpha-naphthoic acid, and magnesium monoterphtalate. PA1 (ii) aliphatic and substituted aliphatic monoperoxy acids, e.g. peroxylauric acid, peroxystearic acid and 6-(N-phtyalimido) peroxyhexanoic acid. Typical diperoxy acids useful herein include alkyl diperoxy acids and aryldiperoxy acids, such as: PA1 (iii) 1,12-diperoxydodecanedoic acid PA1 (iv) 1,9-diperoxyazelaic acid PA1 (v) diperoxybrassylic acid; diperoxysebacic acid and diperoxysiophthalic acid PA1 (vi) 2-decyldiperoxybutane-1,4-dioic acid.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,308,532, issued May 3, 1994 (assigned to Rohm and Haas), discloses: water soluble terpolymers, useful in automatic dishwashing detergent formulations, containing:
However, none of these references disclose the use of copolymers of the alkylene oxide adducts of allyl alcohol and acrylic acid in nonionic surfactant containing, non-phosphate automatic dishwashing compositions.
Further, the presently available non-phosphate formulations, while environmentally sound, are not as effective in preventing spotting and filming.
It has now been surprisingly discovered that the addition of certain copolymers of the alkylene oxide adducts of allyl alcohol and acrylic acid dramatically minimizes the spotting and filming of non-phosphate machine dishwashing compositions.

Non-phosphate machine dishwashing compositions containing copolymers of alkylene oxide adducts of allyl alcohol and acrylic acid


A switching device is employed in a power supply for driving a magnetron with lower withstand voltage and better controllability. A high frequency heating apparatus comprises a power supply, a leakage transformer connected to the power supply, a first switching device connected in series to a primary coil side of the leakage transformer, a first capacitor, a series circuit of a second capacitor and a second switching device, a driving circuit having an oscillator for driving the first switching device and the second switching device, a rectifier connected to a secondary coil side of the leakage transformer, and a magnetron connected to the rectifier. With this configuration, voltage applied to the first switching device can be clamped, and at the same time, the OFF time can be freely adjustable by the effect of the second capacitor and the second semiconductor switching device.

Power supply units are installed in a range of appliances including high frequency heating equipments for home use. Existing power supply units are generally heavy and large, and there is an increasing demand for smaller and lighter versions. Accordingly, development of smaller, lighter, and more inexpensive power supply units using a switching power supply are now being actively studied for use in a wide range of fields. There is also a demand for smaller and lighter power supply units for driving the magnetron in high frequency heating equipment for cooking food using magnetron-generated microwaves.
A switching power supply converts AC power or DC power to AC power with different frequency and voltage or DC power with different voltage. This is accomplished using semiconductor switching devices such as transistors and thyristors. In other words, the switching power supply is used for electric power conversion. Since the switching power supply operates semiconductor switching devices at high frequency, the reduction of switching loss is of key technological importance. In particular, switching power supply units used in high frequency heating equipment for home use may convert electric power at rates of above 1 kW. Reduction of switching loss is also important with respect to energy conversion.
A resonance circuit system, a configuration advantageous for reducing switching loss, is therefore employed in high frequency heating equipments. This circuit system is called the single switching element voltage resonance circuit, and it is a system designed to moderate voltage incline by applying the voltage in sine waveform to a semiconductor switching device utilizing the effect of a resonance circuit to reduce the switching loss.
However, the single switching element voltage resonance circuit of the prior art has the following weaknesses.
First, the voltage applied to the semiconductor switching device rises due to the effect of the resonance circuit. This may require the semiconductor switching device or related electrical components to be configured to a higher withstand voltage, resulting in a larger and more expensive power supply unit.
Second, although the ON time of the semiconductor switching device is settable, the OFF time is a function of the behavior of the resonance circuit and is not adjustable as required. This reduces the flexibility of control of the single switching element voltage resonance circuit. More disadvantages are caused in this respect, which will be described below while describing the single switching element voltage resonance circuit of the prior art in more detail.
FIG. 21 shows a circuit diagram of a power supply unit for driving a magnetron in high frequency heating equipment of the prior art.
FIG. 21 shows a power supply circuit for driving a magnetron which is powered from the AC power supply. Looking at FIG. 21 from the left, a full wave rectifier converts AC power supply from AC voltage to DC voltage, and the voltage V.sub.DC is applied to a circuit where the semiconductor switching device is connected in series with a parallel circuit comprising a capacitor and leakage transformer (a transformer with magnetic connection lower than 1 between the primary coil and secondary and tertiary coils due to leakage of magnetic flux). This semiconductor switching device operates at high frequencies. Here, an IGBT (Insulated-gate bipolar transistor) is employed as the semiconductor switching device. The leakage transformer and capacitor connected in parallel form a resonance circuit.
If a driving signal V.sub.G is applied to an IGBT gate for turning on the IGBT, a current I flows to the IGBT, passing through the primary coil of the leakage transformer. This is the period T.sub.1 in the waveform shown in FIG. 22A. When the IGBT turns off after the time T.sub.ON, the current starts to flow instead toward the capacitor and resonance is established. This is the period T.sub.2. FIG. 22B shows the waveform of the driving signal for IGBT. The energy W.sub.L of the leakage transformer can be defined: EQU W.sub.L =(LI.sup.2)/2 (Equation 1)
where I is the current and L is the inductance of the leakage transformer.
The current I can be defined: EQU I=V.sub.DC T.sub.ON /L (Equation 2)
where V.sub.DC is the voltage of the capacitor, i.e. the DC supply voltage.
When resonance starts, the above energy is transferred to the capacitor, establishing the following equation: EQU WL=(CV.sup.2)/2+W.sub.MG (Equation 3)
where C is the capacitance of the capacitor, V is the voltage of the capacitor, and W.sub.MG is the energy consumed in the rectifier and magnetron connected to the secondary coil side of the leakage transformer.
After energy is transferred to the capacitor, energy begins to be supplied from the capacitor to the leakage transformer, and resonance continues while attenuating as shown in a period T.sub.3. To sustain stable resonance, it is desirable to replace the energy consumed by the magnetron. Therefore, VG is applied to the IGBT gate to turn the IGBT on again to supply energy to the primary coil in a period T.sub.4. The characteristic of the resonance circuit is to reduce the switching loss by turning on the IGBT again at the point where the voltage V.sub.CE between the IGBT's collector and emitter falls to zero. FIG. 22C shows the resonance waveform of the primary coil voltage waveform V.sub.P.
V.sub.CE of the IGBT can be defined: EQU V.sub.CE =V.sub.DC -V.sub.P (Equation 4)
where V.sub.p is the voltage of the primary coil.
Accordingly, the waveform of V.sub.CE has a high voltage peak as shown in FIG. 22D due to the effect of resonance. The time T.sub.OFF during the resonance period T.sub.2 to T.sub.3 is determined by the capacitor, leakage transformer, rectifier connected to the secondary coil, circuit constant of the magnetron, and the quantity of energy provided to the leakage transformer in the circuit shown in FIG. 21. The period T3 in which V.sub.P .gtoreq.V.sub.DC is desirable for allowing V.sub.CE to fall to zero or below. The IGBT is turned on again in the period T.sub.4 to replace the energy consumed by the magnetron, thus allowing stable resonance to be established.
Energy provided to the leakage transformer is determined by the ON time T.sub.ON of the IGBT, and a shorter ON time T.sub.ON translates into a smaller quantity of power. The driving frequency f of IGBT can be defined: EQU f=1/(T.sub.ON +T.sub.OFF).
Since T.sub.OFF is mostly fixed, f rises as T.sub.ON becomes shorter, i.e. a smaller quantity of power.
V.sub.CE is given by Equation 4, and V.sub.CE does not become zero or below unless the relation V.sub.p .gtoreq.V.sub.DC is satisfied during the period T3. If power is reduced, the energy provided to the leakage transformer, i.e. energy powering the resonance, becomes smaller, and this relation may not be satisfied. This prevents the turning on of the IGBT at zero voltage, resulting in switching loss.
Furthermore, energy for resonance is also determined by the power supply voltage V.sub.DC according to Equations (2) and (3). Smaller voltage means lower energy, resulting in greater difficulty in satisfying the relation V.sub.P .gtoreq.V.sub.DC. This is the third disadvantage of the prior art.
A brief explanation of the magnetron is given next.
The magnetron is a vacuum tube for generating microwaves, and two conditions need to exist for the magnetron to be driven. The first is that the cathode temperature may need to be increased to about 2,100 K. The second condition is the application of a high negative voltage between the anode and cathode. To satisfy the first condition, current is supplied to the cathode from the tertiary coil of the leakage transformer to increase the cathode temperature. To satisfy the second condition, the high voltage output of the secondary coil of the leakage transformer is converted to DC at high voltage by the rectifier, and a high DC voltage is applied between the anode and cathode. The relation between the voltage VAC across the anode and cathode of the magnetron and the anode current IA when the cathode temperature is about 2,100 K is shown in FIG. 23.
VBM in FIG. 23 is called the starting voltage, and VBM of -3.8 kV is commonly used in microwave ovens for home use. The power P.sub.MG of the magnetron can be defined: EQU P.sub.MG =V.sub.AC I.sub.A (Equation 5),
about 70% of which is emitted in microwave form.
The frequency of generated microwaves is 2.45 GHz, but low levels of unwanted radio waves at other frequencies are also generated. To eliminate these, the magnetron may require a noise filter comprising a capacitor and a coil.
In the circuit diagram shown in FIG. 21, the tertiary coil of the leakage transformer is connected to the cathode of the magnetron. Power is controlled by the ON time of IGBT, and the ON time is shortened to reduce the power as described above. This reduces the voltage generated in the tertiary coil, resulting in a decrease in the current passing through the cathode. The frequency f also increases. The impedance Z.sub.L of the coil of the noise filter provided in the magnetron can be defined: EQU Z.sub.L =2 .pi.fL.sub.N (Equation 6)
where L.sub.L is the inductance of the coil of the noise filter.
Since the frequency f also rises, the cathode current is suppressed as the impedance becomes higher, leading to a further decrease in the cathode current. This is the fourth disadvantage of the single switching element voltage resonance circuit of the prior art.
The fifth disadvantage is associated with the starting of the magnetron.
The magnetron is not operable unless the cathode temperature reaches a temperature of around 2,100 K. On starting, a certain time is required for the cathode temperature to rise. Since one of the benefits of microwave ovens is high-speed cooking, it is important for the magnetron in a microwave oven to start up as quickly as possible. For this purpose, as large a current as possible is supplied to the cathode when starting, to generate a rapid increase in temperature. However, if a large current is supplied to the cathode on starting, the voltage of the secondary coil simultaneously increases because the tertiary coil for supplying the current to the cathode and the secondary coil for supplying high voltage to the magnetron are configured using a single leakage transformer. In addition, since the magnetron is started from low power by radically shortening the ON time of the IGBT, the impedance of the coil provided to the cathode of the magnetron rises to a high level, thus increasing the suppression of the cathode current. For supplying sufficient cathode current under these conditions, the voltage of the secondary coil may need to be further increased. FIG. 24 shows the change in characteristics with time of the voltage V.sub.AC between the anode and cathode from the starting point to the steady state in which the magnetron oscillates normally. During the time T.sub.S, the voltage across the secondary coil is high because a large current is supplied to the cathode. Then, after the time T.sub.S, the magnetron starts to operate, and V.sub.AC drops to V.sub.BM. V.sub.BM is about -3.8 kV, and the voltage generated on starting is about -7 kV. Accordingly, the withstand voltage of the diode and capacitor configuring the rectifier are desirably designed with this voltage taken into account. This is the fifth disadvantage.
Performance requirements for the power supply for driving the magnetron are described next. First, a high voltage may be desirable for driving the magnetron. Therefore, if any foreign substance such as dust attaches to the high voltage portion, sparks may be generated. If this happens, the operation of the circuit must be stopped immediately to avoid fire or smoke production by the components forming the power circuit due to continuous sparking.
In addition, since the magnetron is a vacuum tube, gas may be generated from the copper and tungsten of which it is comprised. If such gas is produced in a portion where the electric field is concentrated in the vacuum tube, sparks may occur inside the tube. If sparks occur, the impedance between the anode and cathode of the magnetron rapidly changes, and this may affect the operation of electric components such as the IGBT. Also, in this case, operation without causing failure of electric components may need to be assured. This is the second requirement.

Switching power supply for high frequency heating apparatus


A compactable paintball marker squeegee adapted to compact for carrying on the playing field for paintball games. The squeegee is designed to compact into smaller arrangements while providing the capability of wiping paint out a marker barrel. The present invention is designed such that the system will lock into an elongated position and may be unlocked and flipped closed with a single hand motion for compaction during play of a paintball game. Additional improvements provide for a protective design to provide improved insertion into clothing with a protected cleaning head, and improved cleaning head movements through a pear-shaped connection aperture for the pivoting head.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of elongated projectile barrel cleaning devices in general. In particular, the present invention relates specifically to a cleaning device for provide a squeegee action for cleaning the inside of a paintball marker. Known art in various other types of cleaning devices may be found in U.S. Class 15, Brushing, Scrubbing, and General Cleaning, Subclass 104.05 Inside, Subclass 104.16 Scraper, Cutter, Wiper or Brush, Subclass 104.062 Cleaner Plug Insertion or Removal Device, Subclass 104.68 Scraper Flue Cleaner, Subclass 104.31 Sewer, Subclass 143.1 Particular Handle, Subclass 144.1 Adjustable, Subclass 144.3 Variable Length; and Class 42 Firearms, Subclass 95 For Barrel Cleaning as well as in other classes and subclasses.
2. Description of the Known Art
As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, a solid elongated squeegee or pull through type of squeegee may be used to clean the inside of a market barrel. Details of a typical solid elongated squeegee include an inner solid tube holding a pivotal squeegee head and an outer spring biased tube to release the head and allow it to fold sideways for insertion into the barrel. The outer spring biased tube is then released to contact the inserted head to force the head into a perpendicular relationship for squeegee cleaning during removal from the barrel. Other cleaning devices include a foldable cleaner that uses a fluff or swab head on a split tube using a surgical tube connection to provide a folding action. The fluff head provide a wiping action for the inside of the barrel. However, the wiping action of the fluff head type of cleaner does not provide the level of cleaning associated with a squeegee type of action.
Several United States patents should be considered to understand cleaning devices. These include U.S. Pat. No. Des. 237,678, issued to Spencer on Nov. 18, 1975; U.S. Pat. No. Des. 393,115, issued to Bell et al. Mar. 31, 1998; U.S. Pat. No. 43,573, issued to Crane on Jul. 19, 1864; U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,105, issued to Firman on Dec. 6, 1994; U.S. Pat. No. 57,846, issued to Bausman on Sep. 11, 1866; U.S. Pat. No. 143,139, issued to Gould on Sep. 23, 1873; U.S. Pat. No. 312,206, issued to Jenks on Feb. 10, 1885; U.S. Pat. No. 426,912, issued to Butman on Apr. 29, 1890; U.S. Pat. No. 504,426, issued to Truax on Sep. 5, 1893; U.S. Pat. No. 569,060, issued to Roberts and McCormick on Oct. 6, 1896; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,484,267, issued to Bower on Oct. 11, 1949. Each of these patents are hereby expressly incorporated by reference in their entirety.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 237,678 issued to Spencer on Nov. 18, 1975 describes a firearm chamber lubricating and cleaning device. This is a design patent which discloses the embodiment of the swab or fluff type head. It appears that a central joint or pivot is formed in the handle of this cleaning device.
U.S. Pat. No. Des. 393,115 issued to Bell et al. on Mar. 31, 1998 describes a cleaning device for paintball gun barrels. As this device does not fold, its usefulness is only in the description of the shape of the squeegee portion of the barrel cleaner.
U.S. Pat. No. 43,573 issued to Crane on Jul. 19, 1864 discloses a gun-barrel scraper which describes a compactable and expandable instrument for cleaning the interior of a barrel of a gun.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,105 issued to Firman on Dec. 6, 1994 discloses a squeegee holder. This patent describes the use of a flexible squeegee and swab end cleaner that may be bent and contained within a holder placed around the compressed air tank of a paint or pellet gun.
Thus, it may be seen that these prior art patents are very limited in their teaching and utilization. The prior art fails to disclose an embodiment or apparatus for providing the necessary rigidity for a compactable rod used in a cleaner having a squeegee action. Thus, an improved compactable paintball marker squeegee is needed to overcome these limitations.


The invention relates to a method for producing a cylindrical body comprising at least one stud having a cylindrical base portion projecting from its rotating surface in which a cylindrical body blank is produced comprising a peripheral collar of external diameter equal to that of the stud or studs to be obtained, and of width greater than the diameter of the base of the stud or studs to be obtained. Said stud or studs (13) are produced and the excess material from the collar (24) is removed during a single machining operation using at least one machining cutter (14) comprising a hollow shape (15) and rotating about an axis (R3) perpendicular to the longitudinal axis (R1) of the blank (12), by rotatably driving the blank (12) about its longitudinal axis (R1) and by rotatably driving the milling cutter or cutters (14) in the opposite direction about a second axis (R2) parallel to the longitudinal axis (R1) of the blank (12), said milling cutter or cutters (14) having a substantially spherical peripheral cutting surface in contact with the surface of the blank (12).

The subject of the invention is a method for producing at least one stud on a cylindrical body, a device for implementing this method, and a coaxial bayonet locking connector equipped with at least one stud obtained by said method.
Bayonet systems are known for locking two cylindrical bodies, of which one comprises on its surface a projecting stud and usually two diametrically opposed studs, and the other is equipped with ramps and locking notches in order to receive the stud or studs. These bayonet locking systems are used in particular in coaxial connectors commonly known by the term BNC. In known locking systems, the studs are of cylindrical shape and have an axis perpendicular to that of the cylindrical body on which the studs are produced.
In known methods for producing a cylindrical body comprising cylindrical studs projecting from its external surface, a cylindrical body blank is produced comprising a peripheral collar of external diameter equal to that of the studs to be obtained, and of width greater than the diameter of the base of the studs to be obtained, the studs are produced by milling and the excess material from the collar is removed thereby leaving the studs.
The drawback of the known methods is that their implementation requires several machining operations using various tools, between which the blank to be machined must be taken up.
In particular the methods of the prior art do not allow the stud or studs to be machined during the rotation of the blank in the machining lathe on which it is produced, for example during the boring (drilling) operations on the part.

Method and device for producing a coaxial connector element equipped with at least one stud


A cable includes a line for signal transmission or power source supply, a first metal wire having flexibility and a shape-retaining property, a plurality of yarns extending substantially in the same direction as that of the first metal wire, and a coating material for coating the line, the first metal wire, and the plurality of yarns.

There is known a flexible cable with a shape-retaining function in which a metal wire used in a supporting portion of a desk lamp, a lighting stand or the like is wound in a cable shape. In this sort of cable, the metal wire is formed in a cable shape. Therefore, this sort of cable involves a problem that the cable is expensive, the cable is heavy in weight, and coloring of the cable and the printing on the cable are difficult to carry out, and the cable is also poor in flexibility.
PTL 1 describes a LAN cable, with a shape-retaining function, which includes a cable core and a sheath including a synthetic resin and coating the cable core, and in which a plurality of metal wires for shape memory are disposed in the sheath. The metal wires for shape memory are disposed so as not to be in close contact with the sheath, but so as to be able to be axially displaced.

SONY SEMICONDUCTOR SOLUTIONS CORPORATION


The present invention is directed to a system and method for accurately and efficiently synchronizing and then mapping, or normalizing, processor clocks in a multiprocessor information handling system. The system and method of the present invention provide sufficient granularity for subcycle variations between processors, while taking into account the problem of clock drifts. A plurality of processors are selected for the purpose of synchronization. The clocks located on the processors are synchronized, and then time values between synchronization points are mapped from each secondary processor to an equivalent, or normalized, time value in a primary processor. To accomplish this mapping, three clock differences are calculated. The first clock difference is the time between the first and second synchronization points for the primary processor, and the second clock difference is the time between the first and second synchronization points for the secondary processor. The third clock difference is the time difference between the time value to be mapped in the secondary processor and the first synchronization point in the secondary processor. The third time difference is multiplied by the ratio of the first time difference to the second time difference, and then the result is added to the time value of the primary clock at the first synchronization point. The final result is the mapped, or normalized, time value.

In a multiprocessor information handling system, each processor may have its own independent clock, where each clock is driven by a different oscillator. Although the clocks are designed to run at a specific rate, each may run at a slightly different speed. In addition, external factors, such as room temperature, may affect the accuracy of the oscillators. Therefore, the clocks tend to "drift." In other words, the clocks are running at different and uneven speeds. Over a period of time, such drifts can become large enough to cause problems for applications that depend on consistent clock readings for all processors in the system.
There are many circumstances where processor clocks must be synchronized to perform certain system functions. One example is the sharing of performance information among the multiple processors in the information handling system.
Typically, there is no means provided at the hardware level of an information handling system to provide for clock synchronization. Therefore, the operating system must provide for synchronization for its own processes. In addition to synchronizing the various processor clocks in the system, any clock readings taken must be "normalized," or adjusted, to account for the clock drift problem discussed above.
One prior art synchronization method involves the generation of a general system clock. Although a general system clock may be adequate for limited applications in the information handling system, it is not adequate for performance measurement purposes. For example, the system clock does not provide sufficient granularity for small (subcycle) variations between processors in the system. Further, the system clock requires a considerable amount of system resources which would adversely affect performance of the system if the system clock were continually referred to during performance measurement. This would further skew the performance results.
Some prior art approaches have attempted to solve the clock drift problem at the hardware level. For example, temperature data may be fed back to an oscillator, so that the oscillator can adjust its frequency to reduce or remove variations due to temperature.
Other prior art approaches have focused on clock synchronization in distributed systems, such as networks. Communications among computers connected by networks typically takes much longer than communications among tightly coupled processors in a multiprocessor system. Therefore, the accuracy requirement for clock synchronization in a distributed system is significantly less than the accuracy requirement for a multiprocessor system. The prior art synchronization methods used in distributed systems would not work with the required degree of accuracy for a multiprocessor system, especially if the multiprocessor system is a tightly couple, symmetrical, shared-memory multiprocessor system.
Consequently, it would be desirable to have a system and method of accurately and efficiently synchronizing and then mapping, or normalizing, processor clocks in a multiprocessor information handling system. It would be desirable to have a system and method which provide sufficient granularity for subcycle variations between processors, while taking into account the problem of clock drifts.

System and method for mapping processor clock values in a multiprocessor system

International Business Machines Corporation


In one aspect, the present invention provides a method of interacting with simulated three-dimensional objects, the method including the steps of the identification of three-dimensional objects from volume images; the association of physical properties with identified objects said properties including at least visual and haptic properties of the identified objects; and incorporating said identified objects and associated physical properties into a system including at least one visual interface device and at least one haptic interface device thus enabling the system to simulate visual and haptic properties of the identified objects, or any part thereof, to a human user interacting with the simulated three-dimensional objects, or any part thereof, said interaction including the generation of signals by the system for transmission to the at least one visual interface device in accordance with the physical properties associated with the objects and the reception of signals from the least one haptic interface device in accordance with user requests.

The extraction of three-dimensional images from volume data consisting of a stack of two-dimensional images is attracting significant attention in light of the general recognition of the likely impact that computer integrated surgical systems and technology will have in the future.
Computer assisted surgical planning and computer assisted surgical execution systems accurately perform optimised patient specific treatment plans. The input data to these types of systems are volume data usually obtained from tomographic imaging techniques. The objects and structures embedded in the volume data represent physical structures. In many instances, the medical practitioner is required to feel the patient in the diagnosis process.
An example where systems are used for the extraction and editing of three-dimensional objects from volume images is interventional angiography which has generated significant research and development on the three-dimensional reconstruction of arterial vessels from planar radiology obtained at several angles around the subject. In order to obtain a three-dimensional reconstruction from a C-arm mounted XRII traditionally the trajectory of the source and detectors system is characterized and the pixel size is computed. Various methods have been proposed in the past to compute different sets of characterization parameters.
Different approaches have also been proposed for vascular shape segmentation and structure extraction using mathematical morphology, region growing schemes and shape features in addition to greyscale information. In one particular method to extract a three-dimensional structure of blood vessels in the lung region from chest X-ray CT images, the proposal includes a recursive search method of the cross section of tree structure objects. The reconstruction of a three-dimensional volume of the vessel structure has been demonstrated in less than 10 minutes after the acquisition of a rotational image. In this particular instance, the volume rendered three-dimensional image offers high quality views compared with results of other three-dimensional imaging modalities when applied to high contrast vessel data.
In previous studies, an interactive vessel tracing method has been used to obtain a cerebral model. As volume data sets often lack the resolution to allow automatic network segmentation for blood vessels, this approach provides a free-form curve drawing technique by which human perception is quantitatively passed to the computer, using a "reach-in" environment as provided by a "Virtual Workbench". The "Virtual Workbench" is a virtual reality workstation that provides three-dimensional viewing by use of stereoscopic glasses and time split displays rendered using a computer graphics workstation.
This precise and dexterous environment transforms perception to allow the relatively easy identification of vessels. The tools exploit the reach-in hand-immersion abilities of the Virtual Workbench and allow sustained productive work and the generation of three dimensional texture sub-volumes to allow interactive vessel tracing in real-time. A set of magnetic resonance angiograph (MRA) data of the human brain is used for this purpose and a total of 251 segments of the cerebral vessels have been identified and registered based on the connection with the primary vasculature of the Visible Human male Data (VHD). The VHD represents the effort of the National Institute of Health in the United States to produce a complete, anatomically detailed three-dimensional representation of normal male, and female bodies.
Generally, the traditional Human Computer Interaction (HCI) methodology is considered to be cumbersome. For many intricate or complex functions there are too many buttons to be depressed on the keyboard mouse or other interfacing devices. These interfaces are not natural for human interaction particularly in the field of medical applications: since surgeons do not have the ability to use their hands to operate a computer and often communicate with their assistants even in the process of changing tools.
For many applications there is a need for an improved human machine interface that is better suited to the needs of humans and in particular for tasks such at those performed by surgeons.
The above discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles or the like is included in this specification; solely for the purpose of providing a context for the present invention. It is not suggested or represented that any or all of these matters formed part of the prior art base or were common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present invention as it existed before the priority date of each claim of this application.

Virtual surgery system with force feedback


A digital radio frequency (RF) transmitter including processing circuitry configured to generate first through third pattern signals based on a pattern of an inphase (I)-quadrature (Q) binary data pair and a pattern of an inverted I-Q binary data pair, the first through third pattern signals having a same pattern and different phases, and a switched-capacitor digital-to-analog converter (SC-DAC) configured to remove an n-th harmonic component of an RF analog signal by amplifying the first through third pattern signals to have a certain magnitude ratio and synthesizing the amplified first through third pattern signals into the RF analog signal, where “n” is an integer of at least 3, may be provided.

The inventive concepts relate to digital radio frequency (RF) transmitters for reducing or minimizing an intermodulation distortion component caused by non-linear amplification of an amplifier at the time when an RF analog signal is generated and more particularly, to digital RF transmitters and/or wireless communication devices including the same.
Recently, wireless communication systems have been developed from single mode systems to systems, such as second generation (2G), third generation (3G), fourth generation (4G), and fifth generation (5G) systems, which simultaneously support multiple bands and/or modes. To support multiple bands and/or modes, wireless communication systems need to communicate via a frequency band corresponding to each standard, while attenuating signals in other frequency bands to reduce or minimize an influence on the other frequency bands. According to the related art, a digital RF transmitter of a wireless communication device operates based on a non-linear amplifier, and accordingly an unwanted harmonic component may be generated. Thus, an intermodulation distortion component may be generated due to the non-linearity of a power amplifier when an RF analog signal including the harmonic component passes through the power amplifier.
A filter is provided at the front or back end of the power amplifier to remove the intermodulation distortion component. However, the number of filters exponentially increases because recent wireless communication systems need to cover up to the millimeter-wave band, and accordingly cost and a layout area increase.

Digital radio frequency transmitter and wireless communication device including the same


The present invention provides methods of isolating of leader peptides capable of directing export of heterologous proteins from the bacterial cytoplasm. The methods rely on the screening of libraries of putative leader peptides or of leader peptide mutants for sequences that allow rapid export and thus can rescue a short-lived reporter protein from degradation in the cytoplasm. The mutant leader peptides identified herein are shown to confer significantly higher steady state levels of export not only for short-lived reporter protein but also for other stable, long-lived proteins. These leader peptides can be used to direct or enhance protein secretion. The present invention further discloses methods for the export of cytoplasmically folded protein via the Tat pathway. Proteins having disulfide bonds are first folded within the cytoplasm in suitable oxidizing mutant strains. Such cytoplasmically pre-folded proteins containing disulfide bonds are then exported via the Tat pathway.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the fields of genetic engineering and protein secretion. More specifically, the present invention relates to engineering of leader peptides for the secretion of recombinant proteins in bacteria.
2. Description of the Related Art
Proteins destined for secretion from the cytoplasm are synthesized with an N-terminal peptide extension of generally between 15–30 amino acids known as the leader peptide. The leader peptide is proteolytically removed from the mature protein either concomitant to or immediately following export into an exocytoplasmic location.
Recent findings have established that there are actually four protein export pathways in Gram-negative bacteria (Stuart and Neupert, 2000): the general secretory (Sec) pathway (Danese and Silhavy, 1998; Pugsley, 1993), the signal recognition particle (SRP)-dependent pathway (Meyer et al., 1982), the recently discovered YidC-dependent pathway (Samuelson et al., 2000) and the twin-arginine translocation (Tat) system (Berks, 1996). With the first three of these pathways, polypeptides cross the membrane via a 'threading' mechanism, i.e., the unfolded polypeptides insert into a pore-like structure formed by the proteins SecY, SecE and SecG and are pulled across the membrane via a process that requires the hydrolysis of ATP (Schatz and Dobberstein, 1996).
In contrast, proteins exported through the Tat-pathway transverse the membrane in a partially or perhaps even fully folded conformation. The bacterial Tat system is closely related to the 'ΔpH-dependent' protein import pathway of the plant chloroplast thylakoid membrane (Settles et al., 1997). Export through the Tat pathway does not require ATP hydrolysis and does not involve passage through the SecY/E/G pore. In most instances, the natural substrates for this pathway are proteins that have to fold in the cytoplasm in order to acquire a range of cofactors such as FeS centers or molybdopterin. However, proteins that do not contain cofactors but fold too rapidly or too tightly to be exported via any other pathway can be secreted from the cytoplasm by fusing them to a Tat-specific leader peptide (Berks, 1996; Berks et al., 2000).
The membrane proteins TatA, TatB and TatC are essential components of the Tat translocase in E. coli Sargent et al., 1998; Weiner et al., 1998). In addition, the TatA homologue TatE, although not essential, may also has a role in translocation and the involvement of other factors cannot be ruled out. TatA, TatB and TatE are all integral membrane proteins predicted to span the inner membrane once with their C-terminal domain facing the cytoplasm. The TatA and B proteins are predicted to be single-span proteins, whereas the TatC protein has six transmembrane segments and has been proposed to function as the translocation channel and receptor for preproteins (Berks et al., 2000; Bogsch et al., 1998; Chanal et al., 1998). Mutagenesis of either TatB or C completely abolishes export (Bogsch et al., 1998; Sargent et al., 1998; Weiner et al., 1998). The Tat complex purified from solubilized E. coli membranes contained only TatABC (Bolhuis et al., 2001). In vitro reconstitution of the translocation complex demonstrated a minimal requirement for TatABC and an intact membrane potential (Yahr and Wickner, 2001).
The choice of the leader peptides, and thus the pathway employed in the export of a particular protein, can determine whether correctly folded functional protein will be produced (Bowden and Georgiou, 1990; Thomas et al., 2001). Feilmeier et al. (2000) have shown that fusion of the green fluorescent protein (GFP) to a Sec-specific leader peptide or to the C-terminal of the maltose binding protein (MBP which is also exported via the Sec pathway) resulted in export of green fluorescent protein and MBP-GFP into the periplasm. However, green fluorescent protein in the periplasm was non-fluorescent indicating that the secreted protein was misfolded and thus the chromophore of the green fluorescent protein could not be formed. Since proteins exported via the Sec pathway transverse the membrane in an unfolded form, it was concluded that the environment in the bacterial secretory compartment (the periplasmic space) does not favor the folding of green fluorescent protein Feilmeier et al., 2000). In contrast, fusion of a Tat-specific leader peptide to green fluorescent protein resulted in accumulation of fluorescent green fluorescent protein in the periplasmic space. In this case, the Tat-GFP propeptide was first able to fold in the cytoplasm and then be exported into the periplasmic space as a completely folded protein (Santini et al., 2001; Thomas et al., 2001). However, there has been no evidence that leader peptides other than TorA can be employed to export heterologous proteins into the periplasmic space of E. coli.
The cellular compartment where protein folding takes place can have a dramatic effect on the yield of biological active protein. The bacterial cytoplasm contains a large number of protein folding accessory factors, such as chaperones whose function and ability to facilitate folding of newly synthesized polypeptides is controlled by ATP hydrolysis. In contrast, the bacterial periplasm contains relatively few chaperones and there is no evidence that ATP is present in that compartment. Thus many proteins are unable to fold in the periplasm and can reach their native state only within the cytoplasmic milieu. The only known way to enable the secretion of folded proteins from the cytoplasm is via fusion to a Tat-specific leader peptide. However, the protein flux through the Tat export system is significantly lower than that of the more widely used Sec pathway. Consequently, the accumulation and steady state yield of proteins exported via the Tat pathway is low.
The prior art is thus deficient in methods of directing efficient export of folded proteins from the cytoplasm. The present invention fulfills this long-standing need and desire in the art.

Engineering of leader peptides for the secretion of recombinant proteins in bacteria


In an ultrasonic inspection apparatus, a piezoelectric element having a first resonant frequency is stuck to a complex resonance member having a second resonant frequency. The second resonant frequency is determined with a conversion in terms of half wavelength. A resultant ultrasonic probe transmits/receives ultrasonic waves of the first resonant frequency and a plurality of other frequencies. In constructing an ultrasonic tomographic image of the object to be inspected from a received signal obtained by using the ultrasonic probe, the imaging frequency is changed according to the depth in the object to be inspected.

The present invention relates to an ultrasonic probe of an ultrasonic apparatus for acquiring information from inside of an object to be inspected and discriminating a structure or a tissue included in the object to be inspected on the basis of the acquired information, and relates to an ultrasonic inspection apparatus using such an ultrasonic probe.
Conventionally, it has been conducted in the medical and nondestructive inspection fields to transmit an ultrasonic wave into an object to be inspected, measuring an echo signal reflected within the object to be inspected or an ultrasonic wave transmitted through the object to be inspected, and discriminate a structure or a tissue included in the object to be inspected. In such an ultrasonic apparatus, an ultrasonic probe is used to transmit an ultrasonic wave to the object to be inspected and receive a signal brought about by the object to be inspected.
An ultrasonic wave is generated by applying a voltage of approximately 400 V to electrodes of piezoelectric elements included in the probe. It is known that continuously applying a voltage to the electrodes with a certain specific frequency causes an ultrasonic wave having the resonant frequency to be generated whereas applying a voltage in a pulse form causes an ultrasonic wave having a certain band around a center frequency equivalent to a resonant frequency of the piezoelectric elements to be radiated from the probe.
If an ultrasonic wave transmitted or received by a conventional probe is subjected to frequency analysis, only one signal having the resonant frequency of the piezoelectric elements is obtained as a high gain signal.
In the object to be inspected, the ultrasonic wave is attenuated more strongly as the region to be inspected becomes becomes deeper. And the attenuation ratio becomes greater as the frequency of the ultrasonic wave is made higher. In an apparatus for imaging a signal obtained from the inside of the object to be inspected such as an apparatus used for medical image diagnosis, the spatial resolution of an obtained image becomes better as the frequency of the ultrasonic wave is made higher. In other words, a favorable image of a shallow region of the object to be inspected is obtained by using a probe having a high ultrasonic frequency.
If a probe having a high frequency is used to inspect a deep region, however, the ultrasonic wave is attenuated and a sufficient receiving sensitivity is not obtained. Eventually, a probe having a low ultrasonic frequency must be used for a deep region at the sacrifice of the spatial resolution. It was thus difficult to measure favorable signals from both a deep region and a shallow region of an object to be inspected simultaneously by using a single probe. In an adopted method, therefore, probes are used properly in a deep region and a shallow region of the object to be inspected in order to obtain images respectively. In this case, it is difficult to apply those probes to completely the same position of the object to be inspected and obtain images of the same region. In the case where the object to be inspected is a living body, organs and tissues within the living body move while probes are being exchanged. Even if the probes can be applied to the same region, therefore, it is difficult to obtain temporally the same image and the inspection efficiency is disadvantageously poor. Thus various attempts to widen the bandwidth of the probe have been made. Under the existing conditions, the width expansion as compared with the conventional probe is limited to a slight value.

Ultrasonic probe transmitting/receiving an ultrasonic wave of a plurality of frequencies and ultrasonic wave inspection apparatus using the same


Quantifying the impact of wasteful operations on a database system is provided. One or more operations that are determined to be wasteful are received. The impact of the wasteful operations on performance in a database may then be quantified. The database is monitored to determine when a wasteful operation is being performed. When a wasteful operation is detected, a time value is recorded of the time spent on processing the wasteful operation. The time value is stored and used to quantify an impact of a performance problem in a database. The time value may be stored and associated with other time values that are recorded for the same wasteful operation. Thus, the impact of wasteful operations that are performed and processed in a database may be determined.

The present invention generally relates to databases and more specifically to apparatus and methods for quantifying the impact of wasteful operations on a database system.
Enterprise databases continue to grow in size and number resulting in increased systems management and administrative complexity. As the size and complexity of a database system increases, the likelihood that performance problems may result also increases.
Correction of a problem is often expensive and time-consuming (e.g., some database performance problems are due to improperly written applications that can take many months or years to rewrite); thus, it may not be feasible to correct all the problems that are detected. Eventually, a database administrator may analyze the performance problems and attempt to determine which problems should be corrected first. In some cases, the database administrator may fix what the administrator deems as the most serious problems to the database system. The database administrator may determine that the problems are the most serious from prior experience or by the class of problem that is being experienced. For example, an administrator may deem hard parses to be the most serious. Although a database administrator may think certain problems are the most serious, the problems may not be. Also, some database administrators may fix the problems that are most easily solved. Thus, the problems that impact database system performance the most may not be a high priority for correction or may not be fixed at all.
Accordingly, methods and apparatus are needed to quantify the impact of performance problems on a database system.


A cache-aware Bloom filter system segments a bit vector of a cache-aware Bloom filter into fixed-size blocks. The system hashes an item to be inserted into the cache-aware Bloom filter to identify one of the fixed-size blocks as a selected block for receiving the item and hashes the item k times to generate k hashed values for encoding the item for insertion in the in the selected block. The system sets bits within the selected block with addresses corresponding to the k hashed values such that accessing the item in the cache-aware Bloom filter requires accessing only the selected block to check the k hashed values. The size of the fixed-size block corresponds to a cache-line size of an associated computer architecture on which the cache-aware Bloom filter is installed.

A Bloom filter is a space-efficient probabilistic data structure used to test whether an element is a member of a set. This member test can yield false positives but not false negatives. The more elements that are added to the set contained in the Bloom filter, the larger the probability of false positives. Bloom filters have a strong space advantage over other data structures, such as self-balancing search trees, tries, hash tables, or simple arrays or linked lists of the entries.
A Bloom filter is an approximate encoding of a set of items or keys using a bit vector of b bits. During encoding, the item is hashed to a number between 1 to b and the corresponding bit in the bit vector is set. To check if an item is a member of the set, the item is hashed and the status of the bit is checked. If the bit is not set, then the item is definitely not in the set. If the bit is set, then either the item is in the set or the hash value of this item collided with the hash value of some other item that is in the set. Because of hash collisions, a Bloom filter can produce false positives (the item is reported as in the set, but it is not), but it never produces false negatives (the item is in the set, but not reported).
Conventional approaches improve the effectiveness of a Bloom filter by hashing each item several times with independent hash functions. For example, k hashes are used. To encode an item x, the k bits in the bit vector that correspond to hi(x) for 1≦i≦k are set. (The same bit may be picked any number of times). To check if item y is a member of the set, item y is hashed k times using the same hash functions. The bit corresponding to hi(x) is examined to determine whether it is set for all 1≦i≦k. If any of the k bits are not set, then y cannot be a member of the set; otherwise, all k bits are set and item y is either in the set or a false positive.
Conventional Bloom filters have control points comprising the number of items in the input (n), the amount of memory (b), the number of hash functions (k), and the probability of a false positive (i.e., the false positive rate or fpr). Fixing the size of the input allows the choice of two of the other control point parameters. Memory and the number of hash functions are related. If the number of hashes is fixed and memory is increased, the false positive rate continually decreases. However, if the memory is fixed and the number of hash functions is increased, the false positive rate exhibits a minimum when an expected density (i.e., the percentage of bits set to 1) for the conventional Bloom filter is approximately 50%.
Although conventional Bloom filter technology has proven to be useful, it would be desirable to present additional improvements. A conventional Bloom filter is built and then populated with a set of items or keys. To build a conventional Bloom filter, a user has to know approximately how many keys will populate the conventional Bloom filter to know how much memory to allocate to the conventional Bloom filter. However, in many applications the number of keys is not known prior to building the conventional Bloom filter. Consequently, a user is forced to overestimate the number of keys anticipated for the conventional Bloom filter, leading to inefficient use of memory. Furthermore, inefficient use of memory may lead to a false positive rate that is less than optimum.
However, in a large Bloom filter, the set of bits may be widely distributed throughout the Bloom filter and located on different pages in the memory. Each bit accessed by the query may require a different page; each page accessed requires a cache fault. Cache faults are expensive in terms of processing time.
What is therefore needed is a system, a computer program product, and an associated method for generating a cache-aware Bloom filter that minimizes cache faults by mapping keys to bits such that bits for a key are co-located on the same memory page. The need for such a solution has heretofore remained unsatisfied.

System and method for generating a cache-aware bloom filter

International Business Machines Corporatio


An irrigation system is disclosed for determining that the moisture content of various zones of the soil are irrigated to consistent levels. A moisture sensor has lateral spaced apart antennas which extend within a horizontal plane. The moisture sensor is disposed in the soil within one of the various regions. An irrigation piping branch includes a control valve which controls the flow of water through the irrigation branch. When the control valve is open, an irrigation fluid will pass through the valve and the irrigation branch for distribution to an irrigation region of the soil. Once the moisture within the soil of the irrigation region reaches a preselected level within the horizontal plane proximate to the moisture sensor, the valve will automatically be closed, stopping the flow of the irrigation fluid from the irrigation branch to the irrigation region of the soil. The irrigation system includes an irrigation branch and a moisture sensor may be located proximate to a building foundation for maintaining consistent levels of moisture within the soil beneath the foundation. The irrigation system further includes a piping branch which extends into an irrigation zone having multiple regions. A master valve controls the flow of irrigation fluid into the piping branch, and secondary valves are disposed within separate sections of the piping branch for controlling the flow of irrigation fluids to corresponding ones of the multiple regions. Moisture sensors are disposed in various ones of the multiple regions for separately controlling corresponding ones of the secondary valves.

Irrigation is needed in many arid areas for supplying water to architectural vegetation. Greenery is often planted around homes, commercial buildings and apartment developments to provide an attractive outdoor appearance for them. In order to minimize the manual labor of such irrigation and to avoid loss of plants when irrigation is forgotten, clocks are often used to control electrically actuated valves which supply water to the irrigation system. Such clocks have been developed to a point where one or more days of the week can be selected for sprinkling. Furthermore, the time of day and duration of sprinkling can also be selected. Such clocks sometimes have a plurality of terminals which can be connected to different water control valves for the control thereof Such terminals are often referred to as stations. The clock usually sequentially energizes the stations, and the clock can be adjusted so that each station has its own individual adjustment of on time. In this way, irrigation of a number of different areas, each served by a station and a sprinkler valve, can be employed to deliver water to these areas in accordance with the program determined by the clock and independent of ground moisture. It would be desirable to conserve water by limiting the delivery of irrigation water when the ground moisture is adequate.
Irrigation systems are well-known for applying water to turf areas for maintaining the turf or vegetation growing there. Such systems include sprinklers distributed over the area, valves for controlling the flow of pressurized water to the sprinklers from underground water supply pipes, and an irrigation controller for operating the valves in accordance with a desired irrigation cycle stored in the controller. The controller often includes solid state logic means which allows the user to input and store practically any desired irrigation cycle.
Many known irrigation controllers operate automatically as time elapses to turn the sprinkler valves on and off at designated intervals without taking actual environmental conditions, i.e. actual soil moisture, into account. However, this is wasteful and unduly expensive as it uses water which may not be needed. In some cases, the irrigation controller includes a rain switch to stop an irrigation cycle when it is raining. While useful, this is not an exact measure of soil moisture and can potentially stop an irrigation cycle that may be needed despite the rain.
Interest has grown recently in soil moisture sensing technology in which the soil moisture level is measured directly and is used to control the irrigation process. Various types of soil moisture sensors have been proposed, including some which interface directly with an irrigation controller or valve to apply a control function. Such sensors usually provide a soil moisture reading when an input voltage is applied to them.
Many shrubs and trees have extensive root systems which reach deep into the soil profile, typically one to two feet. Most turf and ground cover have relatively shallow roots and require more frequent application of water to replace evapotranspiration because the soil reservoir available to their root system is relatively small. Existing practice with typical timer control systems is to provide a dual program control which enables two separate groups of valves to be timed independently for a number of days between irrigations and to water for durations which are independent of each other. The problem with that type of control is that it is quite arbitrary and independent of a situation which varies from day to day as the weather changes and it has no tangible relationship with plant water use.
Some systems use Envirotranspiration (ET). ET based systems are inaccurate and inefficient due to the simple fact that they rely on information collected above ground to theorize possible soil conditions to make watering decisions to an over-all-area. ET is only valid in the propagation one species of plan life in one given set of conditions thus on multiple species of plant life in multiple conditions, elevations and soil types, the ET equation is invalid for landscape irrigation. While many "rain check" devices will stop irrigation during and after a downpour, these devices have no way of compensating for evaporation or lack thereof over the 72 hour period immediately following rain and are easily fooled.
Prior art irrigation systems typically comprise multiple piping branches, with each branch being controlled by separate solenoid valves. Each solenoid valve is connected to a master irrigation controller and controls the flow of water from an entire piping branch. The master irrigation controller has a clock which is set to operate the solenoid valves over preselected time intervals, which are usually spaced apart by several days. Each of the piping branches extends in parallel to the other piping branches for distributing water to a defined irrigation zone, with an irrigation zone being herein defined as a region of soil which is serviced by a single piping branch. The piping branches include multiple spray heads having spray patterns which preferably overlap with the spray patterns of adjacent spray heads.
A problem with prior art irrigation systems arises since single irrigation zones will often include different types of vegetation, some of which require more frequent irrigation than other types disposed along the same piping branch. For example, a single piping branch may service an irrigation zone which includes a region of lawn grass, a region of flower beds, and both high spots, from which water will quickly run off, and low spots, where water will pool. Also, different soil types may be encountered within an irrigation zone of a consistent vegetation type. The relative amounts of water to be delivered to separate ones of the regions within a zone may differ depending upon environmental conditions, such that resizing of spray head capacities and spray patterns does not consistently alleviate this problem. Additionally, it is cost prohibitive to reroute piping branches and change spray heads when changes are made to the placement and types of vegetation found in regions services by a particular irrigation system.
Another problem with prior art irrigation system arises in irrigation systems used for preventing damage to building foundations. Where soils having high clay contents are encountered, the soil beneath building foundations are irrigated to assure consistent moisture levels over time. Prior art foundation irrigation systems are typically operated over preselected time intervals, with the irrigation system master clock controlling actuation of a solenoid valve which controls the flow of water from an entire foundation irrigation piping branch. Variations in elevation and the content of soils which extend beneath a foundation often result in varying irrigation requirements. Normally occurring changes in environmental conditions will also cause variations in moisture requirements over time. Irrigation systems which utilize a only master clock and single solenoid control valves to control piping branches, with only one control valve per piping branch to control the delivery of water to a single zone, cannot compensate for such variations.
Some prior art irrigation systems include a moisture sensor to control operation of the irrigation system in conjunction with the master clock. Prior art moisture sensors typically have two probes which extend vertically in the soil, spaced apart by a section in which moisture collects to complete a circuit between the two probes. Such prior art moisture sensors detect an averaged moisture level across a vertical distance within the soil. However, the root systems of a particular type of vegetation will usually extend downward to a particular depth within the soil. Prior art irrigation systems are not able to detect a when a preselected level of moisture content occurs at a particular depth within a soil, such that the depth of the moisture level relative to the root system of vegetation may be determined.

Ground moisture sensor with a lateral plane antenna


A variable length decoding device comprises a CPU, a variable length decoding unit, an encoded data memory, a decoded data memory, and a mass memory. The variable length decoding unit comprises a decoding table memory operable to store decoding table, a standard information storage unit operable to store standard information of encoded data, and a frequency information storage unit operable to store information on frequency of usage of each table element of the decoding table. According to the structure, the decoding table is not necessary to transfer when decoding the encoded data based on the same standard of the previously-decoded encoded data. The decoding table to be stored in the decoding table memory can be composed by table elements of higher frequency of usage, thereby decreasing occurrence of cache error.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a variable length decoding method and device operable to decode variable-length-encoded image data.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a system which performs encoding and decoding for motion picture data using a bandwidth compression technology, there are MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 systems standardized by MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) of ISO, and H.263 system recommended by ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication Standardization Sector).
These systems are based on use of intra-picture correlation and inter-picture correlation of the motion picture. A picture is divided into blocks each of which is composed of several pixels, and data in the blocks are transformed by discrete cosine transformation (abbreviated as DCT), which is one of the orthogonal transformation methods. Then, quantization and variable-length-code encoding (abbreviated as VLC encoding) is performed, thereby, attaining highly-compressed encoding of the picture data.
The VLC encoding performs coding by assigning a unique code to a combination (Last, Run, Level) of the DCT coefficients obtained as a result of DCT, where "Run" means the number of preceding zero coefficients, "Level" means the value of a non-zero coefficient, and "Last" means whether the non-zero coefficient is the last one or not. In assigning codes, shorter codes are assigned to combinations (Last, Run, Level) with high frequency of appearance, thereby coding of a high compressibility is realized. In these coding systems, variable length code tables are specified in order to assign unique codes to all of the combinations (Last, Run, Level).
The VLC encoded data is decoded at high speed using a variable-length-code decoding table which is reversely generated from the variable length code table. What is posed as a problem in the decoding is how to store the variable-length-code decoding table.
Document 1 (Published Japanese patent application No. H09-185548) discloses a memory controlling method including storing a variable-length-code decoding table to a cache memory in variable length decoding processing.
FIG. 21 is a block diagram illustrating the conventional cache memory controller, which the Document 1 discloses. The cache memory controller shown in FIG. 21 comprises a control circuit (CONTROL) 1, an instruction memory (IMEM) 2, CPU 3, a data bus 6, a data memory (DMEM) 7, a first data cache (DCACHE) 8, a second data cache (DCACHE) 9, a selector 10, and a selector 11. CPU 3 includes a part of a register file (REG) 4, an arithmetic-logic circuit (ALU) 5, and a control circuit 1. The first data cache 8 and the second data cache 9 are memories operable to read/write data at high speed, and perform an exchange of data from and to the register file 4 and the arithmetic-logic circuit 5, via the selector 11 and the data bus 6. In the conventional cache memory controller shown in FIG. 21, a variable-length-code decoding table is stored in the first data cache 8 and the second data cache 9, thereby performing the decoding processing.
In the conventional cache memory controller, the decoding processing is performed using the variable-length-code decoding table stored in the cache memories. Therefore, each time when decoding data with different variable length coding standards, it is necessary to replace the contents of the cache memory with the variable-length-code decoding table of the standard concerned. Cache memory is a memory of a small capacity and cannot store all the variable-length-code decoding tables. Therefore, when there are no data needed at the time of decoding on the cache memory, the so-called cache error occurs and replacement processing becomes necessary for newly storing other portions of the variable-length-code decoding table to the cache memory.
Thus, the conventional cache memory controller has to solve subjects such as the increase in the processing amount resulting from the replacement processing of the variable-length-code decoding table, and the accompanying increase in the power consumption thereof.

Variable length decoding method and device


Embodiments of this application disclose a data processing method and an apparatus thereof. The method includes: processing, by a network device, to-be-transmitted data to obtain a data distribution manner, where the processing includes at least one of interleaving processing and mapping processing that is performed in a mapping sequence; the data distribution manner is used to indicate distribution of data from a same code block; and when the processing includes only mapping processing performed in a mapping sequence, the mapping sequence does not include a mapping sequence in which space-domain mapping is first performed, frequency-domain mapping is then performed, and time-domain mapping is finally performed; sending, the to-be-transmitted data distributed in the data distribution manner; receiving, by a terminal device, processed to-be-transmitted data; and determining, a data distribution manner, and performing de-processing on the processed to-be-transmitted data in the data distribution manner, to obtain the to-be-transmitted data.

For a physical downlink channel processing procedure in a long term evolution (LTE) system, refer to FIG. 1. A transmit end performs scrambling and modulation processing on a codeword (CW) to obtain a modulated symbol, performs layer mapping processing on the modulated symbol, performs precoding processing on the modulated symbol obtained after the layer mapping processing, performs resource element (RE) mapping processing on a symbol obtained after the precoding processing, to map the symbol obtained after the precoding processing onto a time-frequency resource, and finally generates an orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM) signal and sends the signal by using an antenna port.
Two modules, namely, a layer mapping module and a resource element mapping module, affect a codeword-to-layer mapping manner. A level of codeword-to-layer mapping may be classified into a bit level, a symbol level, and a code block (CB) level. Bit-level mapping occurs after a rate matching module, and symbol-level mapping and CB-level mapping occur after a modulation module. A codeword-to-layer mapping sequence is mainly a mapping sequence of a resource in three dimensions: a layer, a time domain, and a frequency domain, when the codeword is mapped to the layer. For example, the modulated symbol obtained after modulation processing is first mapped to the layer, then mapped to the frequency domain, and finally mapped to the time domain; or the modulated symbol obtained after modulation processing is first mapped to the layer, then mapped to the time domain, and finally mapped to the frequency domain. A mapping manner includes the codeword-to-layer mapping level, the codeword-to-layer mapping sequence, and interleaving.
In the LTE system, a codeword-to-layer mapping manner in which the mapping level is the symbol level, the mapping sequence is that layer mapping is first performed, frequency-domain mapping is then performed, and time-domain mapping is finally performed, and no interleaving is performed. This can implement a data distribution manner in which data is centrally distributed in time domain, that is, data of a same CB is centrally distributed in time domain. This facilitates fast demodulation. However, the codeword-to-layer mapping manner used in the LTE system can implement only the data distribution manner in which data is centrally distributed in time domain. For a new radio (NR) system having a relatively large quantity of application scenarios, it is very difficult for one data distribution manner to adapt to a plurality of application scenarios.

Data processing method and apparatus thereof


Microwave heating apparatus for heating fluid or tissue includes an elongated catheter for placement adjacent to high/dielectric high loss organic fluid or tissue in a patient. The catheter has a distal end and a proximal end and includes an antenna adjacent to the distal end and a cable having one end connected to the antenna and a second end. A transmitter provides a transmitter signal capable of heating the fluid or tissue and a first receiver receives a first signal indicative of thermal radiation from a first depth in the fluid or tissue, producing a first output signal in response thereto. There is also a second receiver for receiving a second signal indicative of thermal radiation from a second depth in the fluid or tissue, producing a second output signal in and response thereto. The apparatus also includes active and passive diplexers connected in series between the transmitter and the second end of the cable. A controller controls the active diplexer so that when the transmitter is transmitting, the first signal is coupled to the passive diplexer but not to the second receiver and when the transmitter is not transmitting, a second signal from the passive diplexer is coupled to the second receiver but not to the transmitter. During operation of the apparatus, the passive diplexer couples the transmitter signal only to the antenna while coupling a first signal from the antenna only to the first receiver so that the apparatus can heat the fluid or tissue and determine the actual temperatures of the fluid or tissue at two different depths.

This invention relates to microwave heating apparatus. It relates more particularly to microwave apparatus including a catheter capable of being introduced into a patient""s blood vessel or body cavity to provide uniform and controlled heating of fluid or tissue within the patient. The invention has particular application as an intravascular blood warmer for raising the body core temperature of a hypothermic trauma patient and so the invention will be described primarily in that context. It should be understood, however, that aspects of the invention have equal application in other contexts such as benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) ablation and myocardial ablation.
Hypothermia in trauma patients (i.e., body core temperature less than 35xc2x0 C.), has been shown to be associated with high mortality. According to studies, trauma patients having a temperature less than 34xc2x0 C. have a 60% mortality and those patients with a temperature less than 32xc2x0 C. have a 100% mortality. The effects of hypothermia on trauma patients are numerous. For example, a decrease in core temperature results in decreased mental status, decrease heart rate and cardiac output and diminished renal blood flow.
Hypothermia also results in prolonged clotting times and portal sequestration of platelets causing peripheral thrombocytopenia as well as decreased platelet finction. The resultant coagulopathy may make futile all attempts at surgical control of traumatic bleeding.
There are currently several methods of rewarming a trauma patient in general use today. These include use of warm resuscitation fluids, airway rewarming, heating blankets, overhead radiant warmers, body cavity lavage, continuous arteriovenous rewarming (CAVR) and cardiopulmonary bypass. The most effective method of rewarming is currently cardiopulmonary bypass, but this technique is often unavailable and is technically difficult to perform. CAVR has been shown to be,much more efficient than other standard rewarming techniques, but it requires cannulation of both the femoral artery and vein in order to connect the patient to a conventional external heat exchanger and it is somewhat work intensive. Furthermore, it results in loss of blood because a considerable amount of fluid is required in order to fill up or prime the various IV tubes connected to the warmer.
It would be desirable, therefore, to be able to provide a simple, efficient means of rewarming trauma patients, especially soldiers in combat who are significantly injured and therefore at risk for developing hypothermia controlled intracorporeal heating for other reasons is also a desirable objective.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved technique for controlledly heating fluid or tissue in a patient.
Another object of the invention is to provide microwave warming apparatus for efficiently heating or rewarming fluid or tissue in a patient.
A further object of the invention is to provide such apparatus which provides uniform and controlled heating in a hypothermic trauma patient.
Another object is to provide such warming apparatus which requires only a single venous connection to a patient and which minimizes patient blood loss.
An additional object of the invention is to provide an improved intravascular microwave warming catheter which minimizes blockage of, and injury to, the blood vessel in which it is placed.
A further object of the invention is to provide intravascular microwave warming apparatus which simultaneously monitors accurately the temperature of the blood during the warming process.
Another object of the invention is to provide microwave apparatus to controlledly ablate or necrose tissue within a patient.
Other objects will, in part, be obvious and will, in part appear hereinafter.
The invention accordingly comprises the several steps and the relation of one or more of such steps with respect to each of the others, and the apparatus embodying the features of construction, combination of elements and arrangement of parts which are adapted to effect such steps, all is exemplified in the following detailed description, and the scope of the invention would be indicated in the claims.
Briefly, the intravascular blood warming technique specifically disclosed herein is intended to provide uniform and controlled heating in a hypothermic patient using microwave apparatus which safely and efficiently warms the patient""s blood in order to raise the patient""s body core temperature.
The warming apparatus comprises a relatively long, somewhat flexible intravascular catheter capable of being threaded through a conventional introducer to a major blood vessel such as the superior or inferior vena cava. At its distal end, the catheter incorporates an antenna and an expandable stand-off device which prevents the distal end of the catheter, and more particularly the antenna, from contacting the wall of the blood vessel and potentially overheating tissue at that wall. A single cable extending from the proximal end of the catheter is connected to an extracorporeal control and display unit which supplies power to and receives temperature-indicating signals from the catheter.
The control and display unit includes a microwave transmitter which produces a signal having a suitable heating frequency. That signal is applied by way of a diplexer to the cable leading to the antenna in the catheter. This causes the antenna to emit electromagnetic radiation capable of heating high dielectric/high loss organic material such as blood in the vicinity of the catheter.
Also, connected to the diplexer in the control and display unit is a microwave receiver preferably in the form of a radiometer. As is well known, radiometry is a technique for measuring electromagnetic radiation considered as thermal radiation. The single antenna in the catheter is able to detect the microwave radiation emitted by the material surrounding the catheter and that microwave signal is applied by way of the cable and diplexer to the receiver which produces an electrical signal indicative of the temperature of that material. That signal is applied by way of a processor to a display in the control and display unit which thereupon provides a visible indication of that temperature. That temperature-indicating signal can also be used to enable the processor to control the transmitter so as to effect controlled heating of the material surrounding the catheter. As we shall see also, the control and display unit includes means for detecting whether the aforementioned stand-off device in the catheter is open or closed to ensure that the catheter is in the correct position in the blood vessel before the catheter""s antenna is activated.
As will be described in more detail later, the diplexer in the control and display unit allows for the separation of the relatively low heating frequency of the transmitter from the much higher radiometer frequency. Resultantly, the apparatus can use a common antenna and cable connection to the control and display unit to both transmit (heat) and receive (measure temperature). Thus, the diplexer and associated radiometer eliminate the need for thermocouples or thermistors in the catheter thereby minimizing the cost of, and improving the performance and safety record of, the catheter. It should be emphasized in this connection that this cost and performance comparison is not being made between just a radiometer and a thermocouple, but rather with all of the ancillary parts such as wires, connectors and amplifiers that have to support the thermocouple. Elimination of all of these parts enhances the flexibility of the catheter and greatly improves the overall reliability and maintenance record of the apparatus.
Most importantly, since the present apparatus senses temperature using radiometry, the temperature sensed is the actual temperature of the blood surrounding the catheter rather than the catheter tip temperature as would be the case if the catheter incorporated a thermocouple or thermister for temperature detection and control.
Similar devices incorporating the invention can be used in other applications. In tissue ablation, for example, the configuration of the catheter depends upon the body cavity being accessed. Thus, to treat BPH, a transurethral catheter or probe is used which may incorporate a conventional helical antenna and receive sufficient power to raise the patient""s intraprostatic temperature sufficiently and for a sufficient time to selectively necrose the BPH. Such a catheter typically incorporates a cooling circuit adjacent the antenna to ensure that the patient""s urethra is not heated above a safe temperature, and an expandable balloon to properly position the catheter; see my application Ser. No. 09/476,201, filed Jan. 3, 2000, the contents of which is hereby incorporated herein by reference.
Transurethral microwave heating apparatus incorporating this invention would allow a common antenna in the catheter or probe to provide both heating and measurement of temperature, thereby eliminating the requirement of thermocouples and wires and allowing closer control over actual tissue temperature, as well as providing a positive indication of the condition of the catheter""s expandable device. In this case, the expandable device, when open, would seat against the neck of the patient""s bladder to properly locate the catheter or probe.
When used for myocardial ablation, the present apparatus would include a catheter with an antenna and an expandable stand-off device and capable of being threaded into a patient""s heart muscle in order to controlledly heat heart tissue in order to necrose said tissue. In this application, the expandable device is used to center the catheter.
Other applications for the invention may be envisioned.

Dual frequency microwave heating apparatus


An interlocking disk apparatus for preventing disk slip in a disk stack of a magnetic or optical disk drive is provided. A textured region within the inner diameter of the disks in the disk stack is forced in tight contact with a conformable adjacent surface, such as a spacer ring, clamp plate, and/or hub flange. The textures on the disks penetrate into and/or through the conformal coatings on the adjacent surfaces, resulting in mechanical interlock that inhibits in-plane displacements of the disks from shock and generally improving interfacial contact of the surfaces within the disk stack, thus requiring lower clamping pressures to the disk stack and resulting in greater disk flatness and minimizing disk distortion. Electrostatic Discharge within the disk stack is prevented by diffusing conductive materials into the polymer conformal coating to increase its electrical conductivity.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to an improved information storage and retrieval disk drive, and in particular to an improved disk stack in a disk drive having reduced disk slippage.
2. Description of the Related Art
Magnetic and optical disk drives are becoming smaller, higher in capacity, and used in more portable applications where they may be subjected to mechanical shock or force. Such shocks can lead to movement or slippage of the magnetic or optical disk that hold information relative to the hub on which they are mounted, resulting in mis-location of pre-written tracks and servo information and further causing mis-located tracks being written to the disk. This in turn can cause failures or degradation of the performance of the disk drive, since the disk's tracks may not be able to be reliably located, followed, and read by the actuator servo system of the disk drive. As disk drives increase in track density and spindle rotation speed, smaller displacements of individual disks or the entire disk stack due to shock induced disk slip will be tolerable before such reliability problems occur.
Disk slip has previously been controlled through application of large normal forces applied to a center region on the surfaces of the disks by a clamp mechanism that holds the disks tightly in position relative to the spindle/hubs and other disks within the disk stack (in large capacity disk drive systems, information is stored on multiple disks configured in what is called a disk stack). Also, disk spacer rings placed between the disks within the disk stack have been fabricated using materials such as ceramics to increase the coefficient of friction between the disks and the spacer rings, thereby resisting disk slippage. An alternative approach that has been used is to adhesively bond a disk to a spindle hub or a spacer, thereby preventing disk slip.
Unfortunately, these prior methods have several disadvantages. The excessive clap loads required to prevent disk slip, as used in the clamping method, often causes distortion of the disks and stripping of clamp screws. The adhesive method creates multiple problems including problems of dispensing the adhesive during manufacture or assembly of the disk drive, and making the disk stack assembly extremely difficult to disassemble for rework and repair. What is needed is a device for preventing disk slip in disk drives that does not apply excessive forces upon the surface of the disks that may cause distortion, that is easily engaged with the disk stack during manufacture or assembly of the disk drive (i.e. does not require the application of a messy adhesive or the addition of a clamping device during assembly), and that can be easily disengaged to allow disassembly of the disk stack during rework or repair.

Interlocking disk stack that prevents disk slip in a storage disk