A microscope system is for sequential observation of different fluorescent dyes that are accumulated in a tissue in an object plane. An illumination system and an observation system have at least two operating states. In one operating state, illumination radiation has a spectrum that includes an excitation band of a first fluorescent dye and is partly free from an excitation band of another fluorescent dye. In one operating state of the observation system, observation radiation guided in the first observation optical path has a spectrum in sections of the first observation optical path, which includes a first fluorescence band of the first fluorescent dye, while in another operating state observation radiation has a spectrum in at least some sections which is partly free from the first fluorescence band. A controller is configured to selectively switch the illumination system and the observation system into the first and second operating states.

1. Field
The disclosed technology relates to a microscope system. More precisely, the disclosed technology relates to a microscope system which is configured for a sequential observation of an observed object by using different fluorescent dyes. The microscope system can be a stereoscopic microscope such as a surgical microscope, for example.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fluorescent dyes radiating electromagnetic fluorescence radiation in response to an illumination with electromagnetic excitation radiation of a first wavelength range (in the following referred to as excitation band), said fluorescence radiation being of a second wavelength range (in the following referred to as fluorescence band) different from the first wavelength range (and thus the excitation band), are used in the medical field for various purposes. Examples are the visualization of specific types of tissues, tissue structures, tissue functions etc. For this purpose, a fluorescent dye or a precursor of such a fluorescent dye is administered to a patient to be examined. The fluorescent dye accumulates in specific types of tissues or tissue structures, respectively, of the patient, and, by observing the fluorescence radiation, these tissues or tissue structures but also the process of accumulation can be visualized and localized by an observer. To this end, special optical auxiliary means (such as, for example, infrared or UV cameras and optical amplifiers) are used, since the fluorescence radiation might be very weak and/or outside the visible spectrum (approx. 380-780 nm).
An example for a suitable fluorescent dye is Indocyanine Green (ICG). The excitation band of fluorescence of this fluorescent dye ranges from 400 nm to 780 nm and the fluorescence band lies at approx. 830 nm (and thus lies outside of the visible range in the near-infrared). In order to microscopically examine an ICG-loaded tissue by means of a microscope system, an illumination bandpass filter is arranged in an illumination optical path in front of a light source (such as a laser light source or a xenon lamp or a halogen lamp), the filter characteristic of said illumination bandpass filter is selected such that illumination radiation of the excitation band for ICG (400 nm to 780 nm) is allowed to pass to the tissue. The tissue is imaged by a microscope optics via a first observation optical path to an infrared camera (IR camera), wherein in the first observation optical path an observation bandpass filter is arranged in front of the IR camera to allow electromagnetic radiation of the fluorescence band of ICG (approx. 830 nm) to pass through, but not to allow the observation radiation to pass through. Image data generated by the IR camera can be displayed in the visible range via a monitor by applying electronic image processing techniques, such that the first observation optical path allows an observation of the fluorescence radiation. At the same time, the tissue is imaged by the microscope optics via a second observation optical path without an observation filter to an observation camera (for example a 3-chip CCD camera) and/or an ocular, wherein an infrared barrier filter (IR barrier filter) which does not transmit wavelengths above approx. 700 nm is provided in front of the observation camera to avoid color aberrations caused by the infrared portion of the fluorescence radiation. Consequently, the second observation optical path allows the tissue to be observed under illumination radiation. In this respect, it is known to electronically superimpose and equivalently display the image data generated by the IR camera and the observation camera of the first and second observation optical paths, respectively.
A corresponding structure is known, for example, from German patent application DE 103 39 784 A1 laid open for public inspection, the full content of which is incorporated herein by reference.
The above-described simultaneous observation of the object under examination by using illumination radiation and of the fluorescence radiation facilitates an orientation with respect to the object under examination. This is important, for example, during surgery.
Further, use of Protoporphyrin IX as fluorescent dye is known. The excitation band of the fluorescence of this fluorescent dye is at approx. 400 nm and the fluorescence band ranges between approx. 630 and 730 nm. Accordingly, in a microscope system an illumination filter composed of two bandpass filters is used for illumination which only transmits illumination radiation in the wavelength band from 400 to 430 nm to tissue loaded with Protoporphyrin IX. An observation filter is arranged in a first observation optical path which transmits the fluorescence radiation, but not the illumination radiation. Since the fluorescence band is mainly in the visible range and overlaps only partly with the near-infrared range, observation can be performed by using a conventional observation camera. In case a conventional observation camera is used for observation, no IR barrier filter should be arranged in front of the observation camera, as otherwise a part of the fluorescence radiation would not reach the camera.
Further fluorescent dyes are known to the skilled person and/or are easily found by the skilled person. Moreover, for the examination of living organisms a good agreeableness and biodegradability of the fluorescent dye in the observed organism is desirable in addition to a maximum intensity of the fluorescence radiation and a sufficient distance between the respective excitation band and the fluorescence band.
It follows from the above examples that each fluorescent dye requires the microscope system employed to be adapted to the excitation band and fluorescence band. This is especially evident when use is made of the IR barrier filter in front of the observation camera, which IR barrier filter must be provided in front of the observation camera when ICG is applied as fluorescent dye, but must not be provided when Protoporphyrin IX is applied as fluorescent dye.
Due to the large and to some extent varying number of filters necessary for a fluorescence observation, the refitting of a microscope system for the observation of different fluorescent dyes is very elaborate. This results in that, e.g., during surgery only one fluorescent dye is used, because a time-consuming refitting of the microscope system during surgery is not tolerable. Moreover, such a refitting of the microscope system is frequently not possible either for reasons of hygiene.
Furthermore, there is a risk that filters for different fluorescent dyes are accidentally mixed up during the refitting procedure, and thus the adjustment between the individual filters gets lost. If a different number of filters is used for different fluorescent dyes, there is an additional risk that filters erroneously remain in the microscope system or are not inserted when refitting the microscope system for the fluorescent dyes by changing the filters.
There is a high risk that the use of filters that are not adjusted to a fluorescent dye applied remains unnoticed, since the absence of fluorescence radiation may also be caused by the absence of accumulation of the fluorescent dye in the object under examination (i.e., due to the absence of tumor tissue, etc.). With surgical microscopes, such a mistake may have severe consequences for the health of a patient, because tumor tissue may then remain in the body and a further surgery may become necessary. Furthermore, when trying to make fluorescence radiation nevertheless visible, there is a risk that an unnecessarily large amount of fluorescent dye is administered to a patient, which may cause allergic reactions.
In light of the above, it is the object of the present invention to provide a microscope and in particular a surgical microscope which allows sequential observation of fluorescence radiation of different fluorescent dyes in an object plane in an especially easy and reliable way.


This application discloses novel vacuum break devices useful in automatic vacuum flushing systems. The vacuum break devices are capable of rapidly breaking the vacuum in a storage tank of a sewer line, thus enabling efficient flushing of sediments and cleaning of the sewer system. The invention also provides automatic vacuum flushing systems comprising these novel rapid vacuum break devices and methods thereof for sewer or storage tank sediment cleaning in urban drainage systems.

Currently, in many old cities of the United States, the sewer network systems consist of combined sewer systems, separated sanitary sewer systems, and storm water sewer systems. A combined sewer is designed to collect the combined sewage of domestic and industrial wastewater, and storm water runoff in the same pipe. A separated sanitary sewer is designed to collect domestic and industrial wastewater. However, a storm water sewer is used to collect storm water runoff only. During the periods of dry weather or light rainfall, the urban sewer network transports all of the collected combined sewage from combined sewer systems and wastewater from sanitary sewer systems to a treatment plant to receive full treatment before discharging to a nearby water body. However, during heavy storm events, the quantity (flow rate and volume) of the collected sewage and storm water runoff in a combined sewer system may surpass the designed capacity of the sewer system or the treatment plant. When this situation occurs, the excess flows will inevitably overflow to a nearby water body. These overflows are known as combined sewer overflows (CSOs). With increasing frequency super storms in recent years, for example, Hurricanes Katrina, Irene and Sandy, have caused flood and overflow of urban sewer systems and devastating damages to both properties and humans.
Combined sewer overflows can cause serious water pollution problem. The deposition of sewage solids during dry weather in combined sewer systems has long been recognized as a major source of receiving water pollution. One of the underlying reasons for considerable sewage solids deposition is the combined sewer hydraulic design. Dry-weather flow velocities are typically inadequate to maintain settleable solids in suspension, and a substantial amount of solids tend to accumulate in the sewer systems. During rain storms, the accumulated solids may re-suspend, and overflow to receiving waters due to the limited hydraulic capacity of the interceptor. Suspended solids concentrations of several thousand parts per million are not uncommon for CSOs. This can produce shock loadings detrimental to receiving water. Development of a means to control or remove sedimentary deposits is required to prevent their undesirable effects.
The control of CSOs employing structural measures such as sewer separation, storage and treatment has been used in a number of major cities in the United States. Nationwide application of these techniques for the control of CSOs would require expenditures over 100 billion dollars. New strategies are needed to reduce these costs to tolerable limits. Sewer sediment flushing can significantly reduce overall costs when integrated with other upstream management practices and downstream storage tanks. Engineered sewer sediment flushing systems are low-cost control alternatives which can be viewed as an added measure for structural control and treatment. In some cases, the CSO storage-sedimentation facility may be more cost effective for controlling suspended solids and associated pollutants; however, it requires efficient flushing systems for removing tank bottom sediments.
Concern over sewer flushing can be dated back to the Romans. In the U.S., early historical efforts for sewer sediment cleaning occurred in Syracuse, N.Y. at the turn of the century. The method for sewer cleaning is to create a flushing wave to scour and transport the deposited sediments to a storage sump by rapidly adding external water or by quickly opening a flushing gate.
Currently significant work has been invested to achieve a cost effective means to purge the sediment deposited in combined sewers, CSO storage tanks, and storm water conveyance systems via a variety of flushing techniques. Existing flushing technologies include Hydrass®, Hydroself®, Biogest®, Huber Power Flush®. All of these flushing systems require either an external sources of water and/or energy or complex control mechanism. Therefore, United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) further developed a sediment flushing system as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,655,402 to C.-Y. Fan, which is hereby incorporated by reference. The USEPA's system can be installed either in a CSO storage tank or in a combined sewer. Notably, the invention creates effective hydraulic waves without the use of an outside energy source, but uses water from the storm event itself. However, a major limitation of USEPA's flushing system is that when the water level outside the flushing tank drops slowly (near the opening of the vacuum break pipe), the flushing wave is weak. This is caused by a direct relationship between the completed vacuum break time and the speed at which water is released from the flushing tank.
Therefore, to effectively remove sewer solids from urban drainage systems between storms, a flushing system with high efficiency and cost effectiveness, yet without need of external sources of water and energy and complex control instrumentation, is still urgently needed.

Automatic vacuum sewerage solids cleaning systems and methods


Tilting Bowl Toilet comprises a frame, a toilet basin, and a tilting bowl. The tilting bowl is supported below the toilet basin to receive and hold water/waste delivered from the toilet basin. The tilting bowl tilts to discharge its content to drainage. The tilting bowl at standby is sustained to stay in a horizontal position by forces applied to the tilting bowl creating a resultant sustaining turning moment about its support axis. When the turning moment produced by the tilting bowl with its content becomes larger than the sustaining turning moment, the tilting bowl moves to a tilted position to discharge its content. The effective support axis shifts with respect to the tilting bowl as guided by a motion guide.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is a new version of tilting-bowl toilet that replaces siphon and zigzag water trap in tank toilets with a tilting bowl, thus annihilating most deficiencies associated with traditional tank toilets, including siphon noise and blocking. With optional sequential water ejection, optimum cleaning can be easily achieved even from low water pressure, resulting in significant saving of water and elimination of water tank.
2. Brief Description of Prior Arts
Major drawbacks of conventional toilets include necessity for a water tank or water pump to create high-pressured water to force water and waste through a zigzag water trap by siphon action, thus consuming big volume of water and making big siphon noise. Low-flow toilets available are often complained about high noise and insufficient cleaning, often necessitating double-flushing.
Other prior arts include those with a small flappable stopper at discharge hole or hand-driven through complicated mechanism, are generally only used as vehicle toilets.
Applicant's inventions of Tilting-bowl toilets have been granted U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,802,627 and 6,070,276 and 6,076,200. With improved tilting bowl movement, this new version further improves operation efficiency and minimizes toilet size.


Beam scanning system that incorporates an actively-controlled optical head, wherein a light beam source and collimating optics are mounted in an active, thermally-compensated assembly. A collimating optics mount preferably in the form of a flexure plate having a three-point elastic hinge is supported on a base plate by a respective number of equally-spaced actuators. The motion of the flexure plate is thereby over constrained and allows the operation of the elastic hinge to benefit from elastic averaging such that motion of the flexure plate may be effected by the actuators individually or in combination. Controlled flexure plate motion may be implemented to compensate for thermal shifts in system focal length, while maintaining radial and angular alignment of the collimating optics relative to the beam source, according to the influence of the individual actuators. Active control of the actuators also allows controlled movement of the collimating lens in two degrees of lateral motion (x and y motions), in addition to a piston or z motion, and tilting or tipping motions. Active control of the actuators is effected according to a control system that uses an influence matrix derived from one or more transfer function matrices to relate the position control signals to the control of desired beam scanning optical performance parameters, such as beam position or beam focus.

Light beam scanners used for input or output of a high resolution image require a dimensionally-stable beam source and beam collimating assembly, sometimes termed an "optical head". Such an assembly typically includes a light beam source, a collimating lens, and a means for maintaining a constant beam focal distance over the operating temperature range. In order to achieve adequate optical performance, the optical head must maintain a predetermined beam quality over a wide ambient temperature range.
In conventional apparatus, the beam source and collimating lens are mounted in a mechanical structure that attempts to maintain the beam focal length while the apparatus undergoes temperature-induced structural changes. Such athermalization (i.e., thermal compensation) is effected either passively or actively. Passive systems rely on the differences in the coefficients of thermal expansion of various movable elements in the optical system such that there is net focal shift over temperature. Active systems compensate in the same manner, but employ actuators to effect movement of the optical elements. However, the foregoing approaches have been found to be more costly and complex, and offer less precision and less range of adjustment, than is desired for certain beam scanning applications.
Additionally, some conventional optical head assemblies are supported by an orthogonal four-point mechanical system, whereby the collimating optical components are located on a solid yoke that is separated from the beam source by four motor devices. All motion of the yoke is constrained by the action of four respective pin hinges. Any movement of the yoke requires a push-pull operation of at least two opposing motors and hinges in tandem (e.g., one upward, and one downward) to achieve a particular, albeit limited, amount of repositioning of the collimating optical components. An optical head assembly that offers more freedom of motion of the collimating optics, and a simpler control apparatus for effecting such motion, would be advantageous.

Beam scanning system including actively-controlled optical head


Systems and methods that implement communication of error information on a bus, including a bus having a small number of pins are disclosed. In one embodiment, an apparatus includes an interface circuit configured to couple to a bus and one or more sideband signals. The sideband signals may be used to communicate error information such as parity information for a bus that does not otherwise have this capability. In some embodiments, parity information may be driven on the bus during a portion of a bus transaction corresponding to unused address bits.

Technical Field
This disclosure relates generally to the communication of error information on a bus.
Description of the Related Art
Communication of information over buses is ubiquitous within computer systems. Accordingly, there are a very large number of computer bus standards. These buses can have a wide variety of footprints. Some buses, for example, may have a large number of signal lines, which may provide throughput for a correspondingly large amount of data (e.g., for a front-side processor bus). A PCI bus is one example of such a bus. On the other hand, certain buses may have a much smaller footprint—for example, an I2C bus, embodiments of which may have two lines, can be used to interface to low-speed peripherals.
Various types of circuits may be coupled to computer buses, including processing elements, memory controllers, peripherals, etc. Such devices pass information including address, data, and control to one another over these buses. From time to time, information being transmitted on a computer system bus may be corrupted. Such unintended changes may occur in a variety of manners—for example, during writing, reading, storage, transmission or processing of data. Data that is "silently" corrupted—that is, without being detected by the computer system—may cause catastrophic failures.


A working machine comprising a ground engaging structure and a propulsion system for moving the working machine via the ground engaging structure. A body is supported on the ground engaging structure, and a working arm is connected to the body and has a carriage at one end for receiving an attachment. A control system is provided for selectively and variably oscillating the carriage.

When operating a working machine of the type having a working arm and an attachment connected thereto (e.g. a materials handling vehicle such as a telescopic handler, an excavator, a backhoe loader, etc, with a shovel, bucket or forks, etc connected thereto) it is sometimes desirable to shake the attachment. The attachment may be shaken to dislodge stuck material, level material in an attachment, evenly distribute material from the attachment, or to break bales, feed cake, bundles or the like.
In hydraulically operated and manually controlled systems with a mechanical or pilot hydraulic connection between the input (e.g. joystick) and a control valve, the attachment is shaken using back and forth movement of the joystick to selectively supply fluid to a hydraulic actuator(s) that controls the movement of the attachment.
However, in electro-hydraulic systems it is not possible to use this method, because there is no direct linkage to the hydraulic control valve, which means there is a degree of latency in the system. The latency means that an operator cannot easily find a desired frequency and/or amplitude of oscillation to achieve a required shake.


An example method comprises receiving one or more published events by an event hook application program interface (API) from one or more client applications, passing a model to a web server configured to generate web containers in concurrent threads, receiving, by any number of worker nodes, each web container, each of the worker nodes including a system agent program for dynamically assigned functions, the web containers being provided to the any number of worker nodes for logical isolation of system agent execution in memory, and performing the dynamically assigned functions by the system agent program in a blackboard memory, the blackboard memory being a shared memory with non-blocking reads and writes and performing functionality, the dynamically assigned functions being executed in parallel and at least two of the dynamically assigned functions sharing context between inter-dependent processes.

In our modern era, globalization and rapidly evolving technology have enabled decentralized organizations with distributed partner eco-systems and supply-chains. These decentralized organizations have become increasingly fragmented, depending on their IT estate more than ever to impose transparency, interoperability, and management across their environments. Unfortunately, decomposition into modular service-based architectures has not been balanced with a higher-level event-driven programming model to coordinate activity. This presents a roadblock to transformation into real-time digital businesses.
There are many modern software architectures, deployment technologies, languages, and tools which serve different use-cases. Ideally, these assets would be composable to flexibly address constantly evolving business requirements. However, the absence of a unified programming model results in business and technical silos, which constrain interoperability, prevent meaningful re-use and composability, and limit transparency. As a further result of the absence of the unified programming model, application development and DevOps automation is constrained. With the exception of giant web-companies that are "digital natives," for most organizations, testing and debugging software is difficult and change is time-consuming as well as expensive. Despite evolution of modern software architectures, long promised agility remains elusive, which impedes transformation to real-time, highly-connected and adaptable digital businesses.
Organizations want to be agile so they may seize opportunities, respond to threats, and generally self-improve. The ability to adapt behavior for a current context is a fundamental optimization and survival strategy. Organizations that fail to evolve with their environment are not sustainable over time.
A challenge for many organizations is that their existing information, communication and automation systems, in and of themselves, do not support this new mode of operations. While there exist innumerable software languages and technologies that satisfy a wide variety of requirements, a significant challenge is how to flexibly and dynamically connect people, information, systems and devices for a new class of 'smart' processes.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Event-driven programming model based on asynchronous, massively parallel dataflow processes for highly-scalable distributed applications


A method and system for controlling the temperature of the single mode fiber connectors and single mode, polarization maintaining fiber connectors, which that are used in the semiconductor source spectroscopy systems, is described to stabilize the system against baseline drift. Research and modeling has identified the source of thermally induced shifting to the single mode fiber connectors and single mode, polarization maintaining fiber connectors that are used to assemble the semiconductor source spectroscopy systems.

Most spectroscopy systems fall into one of two categories. They can be tunable source systems that generate a wavelength tunable optical signal that is scanned over a wavelength scan band. A detector is then used to detect the tunable optical signal after interaction with the sample. The time response of the detector corresponds to the spectral response of the sample. Such systems are typically referred to as pre-dispersive. Alternatively, a tunable detector system can be used. In this case, a broadband optical signal is used to illuminate the sample. Then, signal from the sample is passed through an optical bandpass filter or grating, which is tuned over the scan band such that a detector time response detector array response is used to resolve the sample's spectrum. Such systems are typically referred to as post-dispersive.
Between tunable source and tunable detector systems, tunable source systems have some advantages. They can have a better response for the same optical power transmitted to the sample. That is, tunable detector systems must illuminate the sample with a broadband signal that covers the entire scan band. Sometimes, this can result in excessive sample heating and power consumption at the source, making the systems inefficient. In contrast, at any given instant, tunable source systems only generate and illuminate the sample with a very narrow band within the scan band.
Further, tunable source systems have advantages associated with detection efficiency. Relatively large detectors can be used to capture a larger fraction of the light that may have been scattered by or transmitted through the sample, since there is no need to capture light and then collimate the light for transmission through a tunable filter or to a grating, for example.
A number of general configurations are used for tunable source spectroscopy systems. The lasers have advantages in that very intense tunable optical signals can be generated. A different configuration uses the combination of a broadband source and a tunable passband filter, which generates the narrowband signal that illuminates the sample.
Historically, most tunable lasers were based on solid state or liquid dye gain media. While often powerful, these systems also have high power consumptions. Tunable semiconductor laser systems have the advantage of relying on small, efficient, and robust semiconductor sources. One configuration uses semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOAs) and microelectromechanical system (MEMS) Fabry-Perot tunable filters, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,339,603, by Flanders, et al., which is incorporated herein by this reference in its entirety. In other examples, intra cavity gratings are used to tune the laser emission.
In commercial examples of the broadband source/tunable filter source configuration, the tunable filter is an acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF) and the broadband signal is generated by a diode array or tungsten-halogen bulb, for example. More recently, some of the present inventors have proposed a tunable source that combines edge-emitting, superluminescent light emitting diodes (SLEDs) and MEMS Fabry-Perot tunable filters to generate the tunable optical signal. See U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/688,690, entitled Integrated Spectroscopy System, filed on Oct. 17, 2003, by Atia, et al., which is incorporated herein by this reference in its entirety. The MEMS device is highly stable, can handle high optical powers, and can further be much smaller and more energy-efficient than typically large and expensive AOTFs. Moreover, the SLEDS can generate very intense broadband optical signals over large bandwidths, having a much greater spectral brightness than tungsten-halogen sources, for example.
Moving from standard diode arrays and tungsten-halogen bulbs to edge-emitting devices such as superluminescent light emitting diodes (SLED), other edge emitting diodes including lasers, and semiconductor optical amplifiers (SOA) has the advantage that higher optical powers can be achieved.
One characteristic of these edge-emitting semiconductor devices such as SLEDs, diode lasers, and SOAs is that they usually emit single spatial mode light that is highly polarized. This is due to the nature of the semiconductor gain medium. The waveguide ridges are narrow preventing gain in higher order spatial modes. Also, current is usually injected from a top electrode through a quantum well structure to the bottom electrode. Thus, the gain medium is not circularly symmetric around the optical axis and thus light from these devices is usually highly polarized. Most often, it emits light in only a single polarization.
Even vertical surface emitting laser (VCEL) devices, where the gain region is more symmetric, tend to be highly polarized. This is because invariably one of the polarization modes encounters more loss so that the device runs in the other mode. In fact, it is common to fabricate the devices so that there is a strong preference for one of the modes to remove uncertainly as to in which mode the device operates.
Thus, in these systems, the broadband signal or the tunable signal that is transmitted to the sample is usually highly polarized and usually has only a single spatial mode.
For applications requiring a high signal-to-noise operation, when the source is highly polarized, polarization dependent loss is often a significant problem. The optical link between the tunable signal or broadband signal source and the sample and between the sample and the detector will have PDL. Moreover, this PDL may be dynamic over time especially in response to mechanical vibration or other changes to the fiber links or other optical elements in the path between the source and sample and from the sample to the detector. This PDL, in view of the highly polarized nature of the light from these semiconductor sources, can introduce spectral distortion in the measured signal and can detrimentally impact the signal-to-noise ratio and thus spectral performance of these systems.
To address the PDL problems U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/018,687, filed Dec. 21, 2004, Polarization Controlling Fiber Probe for Semiconductor Source Spectroscopy System, by Flanders, et al., which is incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference, describes a semiconductor source spectroscopy system. It relies on using polarization control between the source and the sample and/or the sample and the detector.

Temperature stabilized single mode fiber connectors in semiconductor source spectroscopy system


A method and test instrument for validating MPEG content in a CATV network, particularly one having a Remote PHY architecture.

The cable space is rapidly embracing the Remote PHY (also known as R-PHY, R PHY, and RPHY) network architecture. Remote PHY is popular among cable television (CATV) network service providers because it does an effective job of alleviating the rack space, power, and cooling constraints in the hub of the network. Remote PHY does this by separating out the PHY layer and redistributing it out to the fiber node. Remote PHY specifications exist and have become the standard for the industry.
Remote PHY is part of a larger family of technologies known as distributed access architectures (DAA), which alleviate congestion in the hub. In general, DAA technologies such as Remote PHY virtualize and move certain aspects of a network out of the hub and closer to subscribers. Hubs are evolving from housing row after row of specialized equipment and RF splitting/combining networks, into potentially little more than a small collection of optical switches and routers.
In addition to reducing space, power and cooling requirements in the hub, Remote PHY also eliminates the analog optical link and replaces it with a commodity digital 10G Ethernet link. This provides distinct advantages such as e.g., 1) a digital link is easier to set up, taking less time to deploy; 2) the link is more reliable, requiring less maintenance and manpower in the future; and 3) significant signal to noise ratio (SNR) gains may be achieved using digital optical links versus the old amplitude modulated links, potentially enabling higher modulation orders for DOCSIS (Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification) 3.1 downstreams. Technologies such as Remote PHY and DOCSIS 3.1 are extending the life of the hybrid fiber coax (HFC) plant by leveraging much of the existing infrastructure to deliver Gigabit speeds.
In the traditional network architecture, all of the RF is generated or received in a headend or hubsite. This provides a centralized place where tests can be performed. If the content of the signals is ensured in the headend/hubsite then the measurements out in the field really only need to validate the physical layer integrity to ensure that the appropriate content is reaching the end user. The Remote PHY network architecture changes this. In this environment, the RF signals are no longer generated in a centralized place, but rather the creation is distributed out closer to the network edge; typically at the node. This requires that the testing is also performed out at the node to ensure that the signals are correct.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example CATV network 10 having a Remote PHY architecture. Specifically, the network 10 includes a converged cable access platform (CCAP) device 12, switch/router 14, Remote PHY device (RPD) 16 and a set-top box 18. In the illustrated example, a user's television 20 is connected to the set-top box 18 to display video 30 that may include broadcast audio and video 32 (e.g., programs) and a user guide based on guide data 34. In the illustrated example, configuration data 22 is used to configure the CCAP device 12, switch/router 14, and RPD 16. Data 28, which may include Internet Protocol (IP) data 26 and or voice over IP (VoIP) data 28 may be received by the CCAP device 12.
In the illustrated example, the network 10 may utilize QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) and MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) transport streams to deliver the data 24 and video 30 to the RPD 16 through one or more Ethernet connections E1-E5 and deliver the data 24 and video 30 to the set-top box 18 from the RPD 16 through e.g., a coaxial connection C1. It should be appreciated that the switch/router 14 may not be required, meaning that the CCAP device 12 could be connected directly to the RPD 16, if desired.
As can be seen, there are many components in the network 10 that need to be configured properly for the network 10 to work. Further complicating matters is that the guide data 34 and video content 32 come from separate sources and possibly take a separate path to the RPD 16. Moreover, there is a need and desire for the network to output correct information. Currently, the traditional consumers of MPEG data in a CATV network (e.g., modems, set-top boxes, some measurement equipment) need to collect the guide data 34 (also referred to as the "logical channel plan") first because these consumers are typically program driven. For example, when a user turns on its television, he/she may know that it wants to watch a certain program. The user may either type in the "channel" (e.g., 1304), or he/she may navigate to the program using the on screen programming guide. The user may hit "enter," causing the set-top box to tune to the required channel and start displaying the program. All of this requires that the guide data 34/logical channel plan be present up front on the user's device (e.g., set-top box 18). The guide data 34 is used to populate the on screen guide and to instruct the set-top box 18 how to physically tune into the program since the channel number (e.g., 1304) is just a logical construct and provides no useful information as to where the program can be found in the frequency domain. The guide data 34 is therefore used to determine which of the programs (and therefore the elementary streams that comprise the programs) that are present in the MPEG transport streams on this channel correspond to the desired program.
The conventional testing of this network 10 typically requires running a drop from the RPD 16 to a truck, which adds time to the testing. The testing also requires an expensive rack of legacy set-top boxes and a display, which adds cost to the testing. These two consequences are undesirable. Moreover, the conventional testing requires the technician to first capture the logical channel plan. This typically takes between 2.5 to 3 minutes to complete. Then, the technician needs to manually step through each channel and use an MPEG analyzer (or MPEG analyzer feature of a test instrument) to determine the content on each channel and manually compare that content to the logical channel plan. This could take 20 minutes or more, which is undesirable.
Accordingly, there is a need and desire for a better method to analyze and validate MPEG content in a CATV network, particularly one having a Remote PHY network architecture.

Method and apparatus providing optimized MPEG validation in a cable TV network


Provided herein is a method for assisting a driver with driving a motor vehicle. The method includes ascertaining a permissible driving speed in a route section by evaluating environmental data describing the motor vehicle environment. The method further includes calculating a target maximum speed, which is lower than the permissible driving speed, by subtracting a predefined reduction amount from the permissible driving speed and/or by multiplying the permissible driving speed by a predefined scaling factor. The method further includes controlling at least one alert device for outputting an alert to the driver when a present driving speed of the motor vehicle exceeds the target maximum speed and/or controlling the driving speed of the motor vehicle by a longitudinally guiding driver assistance system, wherein the target maximum speed is used as a maximum speed or as a target speed.

High efficiency is an essential feature of modern motor vehicles. Moreover, electric motors, which are supplied with energy by on-board batteries, are increasingly used in motor vehicles in addition to an internal combustion engine, or as an alternative thereto. Frequently, multiple operating modes of the motor vehicle are provided, in particular in the case of hybrid or electric vehicles, allowing a selection between high driving power and high energy efficiency. This is relevant, in particular, with purely electrically operated motor vehicles, since selecting an accordingly efficient driving mode can significantly increase the range of the motor vehicle until the next charging process is needed.
The vehicle speed and the acceleration profile when changing between different speeds have the greatest influence on energy consumption. It has therefore been known to reduce a provided power or provided torque in efficiency mode, and thereby achieve energy savings. Additionally, a settable or fixedly predefined speed is provided in some motor vehicles, which cannot be exceeded or can only be exceeded after separate action by a driver, for example when a kickdown is carried out.
Proceeding therefrom, it is the object of the present disclosure to provide an improved method to assist a driver with energy-efficient driving, without excessively limiting driving comfort or driving performance.

Method for assisting a driver in the driving of a motor vehicle


A method for producing a multi-layer thick-film RF package includes forming conductive layer(s) including one or more source portions, one or more gate portions, and/or one or more drain portions on a ceramic substrate. The conductive layer(s) and the ceramic substrate are fired or otherwise heated in a furnace until sintered. Thereafter, a dielectric pattern is formed on the conductive layer(s) and fired or otherwise heated in the furnace until sintered. Then, a conductive bridge is formed on the dielectric pattern, over the one or more drain portions and between the one or more source portions, which is then fired until sintered in the furnace. As a result, a monolithic, single-piece, sintered, high-frequency RF power transistor package having circuit features including a highly conductive and low capacitive bridge is produced.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to RF power transistors, and more particularly to power transistor packages.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Conventional high frequency power transistor packages use of a variety of mechanical components to provide RF signal stability and integrity.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,555,375 entitled High Frequency Power Transistor Having Crossing Input and Output Leads describes a technique in which compensation for stray inductive feedback coupling is achieved by crossing input and output leads. Specifically, a high frequency transistor is described having input, output, and common leads. In order to reduce the unwanted feedback effect of a stray series inductance in the common lead, the output leads are arranged so as to cross one another in such close proximity as to inductively couple them together, thereby providing a feedback opposite to that of the stray inductance in order to compensate for the stray inductance.
FIGS. 1-3 show an example of a prior art RF package in which a flanged base has arranged thereon various circuit and mechanical components such as a lead frame, a MOSFET die, source, drain, and gate leads, wire bonds, and so forth. The various parts and interconnects are distinct from the substrate and generally distinct from each other. In other words, the parts and interconnects are manufactured separately and are later mechanically assembled to form the package. While the arrangement of such components can improve signal stability and integrity to some degree, producing such packages is costly. Moreover, frequency stability and conductivity of the prior art parts is not necessarily optimal.
The mechanical construction and assembly of the separate components of the package result in higher manufacturing and labor costs, which is of critical importance when producing the packages in high quantities. Moreover, lower electrical conductivity of the parts themselves inhibits the performance of the circuit components, leads, and other electrical parts associated with the package. It would be desirable to have a sintered, monolithic package having circuit features and electrical components integrated thereon to reduce the cost associated with producing the packages, and to enhance operational characteristics and capabilities. Accordingly, a need remains for an improved RF package and method for producing the same.


A microgyroscope having a suspended vertical post uses the Coriolis force to detect the rotation rate. The microgyroscope consists of a single vertical post which is the rotation rate sensing element. The vertical post is formed from the same silicon wafers as the rest of the microgyroscope. A first portion of the vertical post and the clover-leaf structure are made from a first silicon wafer. A second portion of the vertical post and the baseplate are made from a second silicon wafer. The two portions are then bonded together to from the clover-leaf gyroscope with an integrated post structure.

This invention relates to vibratory gyroscopes, and more particularly to silicon micromachined vibratory gyroscopes.
Multi-axis sensors are highly desirable for inertial sensing of motion in three dimensions. Previously, such sensors were constructed of relatively large and expensive electromagnetic and optical devices. More recently, micromechanical sensors have been fabricated using semiconductor processing techniques. Microelectrical mechanical or xe2x80x9cMEMSxe2x80x9d systems allow formation of physical features using semiconductor materials and processing techniques. These techniques enable the physical features to have relatively small sizes and be precise. Specifically, micromechanical accelerometers and gyroscopes have been formed from silicon wafers by using photolithographic and etching techniques. Such microfabricated sensors hold the promise of large scale production and therefore low cost.
The integration of three gyroscopic sensors to measure the rotation rates about the three separate axes coupled with three accelerometric sensors to measure the acceleration along the three axes on a single chip would provide a monolithic, six degree-of-freedom inertial measurement system capable of measuring all possible translations and orientations of the chip. There has been some difficulty in constructing a high-performance, or sensitive vibratory rate gyroscope to measure the rotation about the axis normal to the plane of the silicon chip, i.e., the Z-axis.
In a vibratory gyroscope, the Coriolis effect induces energy transfer from the driver input vibratory mode to another mode which is sensed or output during rotation of the gyroscope. Silicon micromachined vibratory gyroscopes are integratable with silicon electronics. These devices are capable of achieving high Q factors, can withstand high g shocks due to their small masses, are insensitive to linear vibration and consume little power. However, most of these micromachined gyroscopes have a very small rotation response, since their input and output vibration modes have different mode shapes and resonant frequencies. The use of different resonant modes also makes these devices very temperature sensitive due to the different temperature dependency of each of the modes. These devices usually have very high resonant frequencies resulting in low responsitivity, since the Coriolis induced response is inversely proportional to the resonant frequency of the structure. Finally, due to the small mass of the structure, thermal noise limits the ultimate performance and use of microgyroscopes. For these reasons, micromachined vibratory gyroscopes have not been used for precision navigation and attitude control applications, but have been employed primarily for automotive applications in which extreme low cost is a major driving factor and performance is set at a lower premium.
Previous microgyroscope designs require manual assembly of the rotation rate sensing element (the vertical post) onto the clover-leaf structure. This process induced asymmetrical stresses in the clover-leaf structure and changes in the mechanical resonant frequencies and model shapes. These changes in the mechanical resonant frequencies and model shapes result in performance variations from device to device under either constant or varying temperature conditions.
The present invention is a microgyroscope which uses the Coriolis force to detect the rotation rate. The microgyroscope consists of a single vertical post which is the rotation rate sensing element. The vertical post is formed from the same silicon wafers as the rest of the microgyroscope. A first portion of the vertical post and the clover-leaf structure are made from a first silicon wafer. A second portion of the vertical post and the baseplate are made from a second silicon wafer. The two portions are then bonded together to from the clover-leaf gyroscope with an integrated post structure.

Microgyroscope with integrated vibratory element


Methods and apparatus for a sensor include a signal generation module including a first magnetic sensor to generate a first waveform in the form of a sine wave and a second magnetic sensor to generate a second waveform in the form of a cosine wave, the first and second waveforms containing angular position information of a magnet in relation to the first and second magnetic sensors, and an analog signal processing module for providing an algebraic manipulation of the first waveform and the second waveform to generate a linear position output voltage signal.

As is known in the art, there are a variety of rotational sensors for determining angular position. In one type of sensor, Hall effect modules are used to generate sine and cosine signals from which angular position can be determined. Such sensors use digital processing to process the sine and cosine signals generated from the Hall cells. Due to analog to digital signal conversion and other factors, such digital processing imposes limitations on the speed and accuracy of angular position determination.
For example, part number AS5043 from Austria Microsystems is an angular position sensor that digitally processes information from a Hall array using a coordinate rotational digital computer (CORDIC) that implements an iterative calculation for complex math with a lookup table. Other sensors use similar digital processing to implement various processing algorithms for computing position information.

Methods and apparatus for an analog rotational sensor having magnetic sensor elements


A toner is constituted by at least a binder resin, a colorant and a wax. The binder resin has been formed from monomers including a vinyl monomer and polyester-forming monomers containing at least a polybasic carboxylic acid having three or more carboxyl groups or its anhydride, and comprises at least a hybrid resin comprising a vinyl polymer unit and a polyester unit.

The present invention relates to a toner used in an image forming method utilizing electrophotography, electrostatic recording, electrostatic printing or a recording method utilizing toner jet recording, and a resin composition for the toner.
Hitherto, a large number of electrophoto-graphic processes have been known, inclusive of those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,297,691; 3,666,363; and 4,071,361. In these processes, in general, an electrostatic latent image is formed on a photosensitive member comprising a photoconductive material by various means, then the latent image is developed with a toner, and the resultant toner image is, after being transferred onto a transfer material such as paper etc., via or without via an intermediate transfer member, as desired, fixed by heating, pressing, or heating and pressing, or with solvent vapor to obtain a copy or print carrying a fixed toner image.
As for the step of fixing the toner image onto a sheet material such as paper which is the final step in the above process, the most popular fixing method is a heating and pressing fixation system using hot rollers.
In the heating and pressing system, a sheet carrying a toner image to be fixed (hereinafter called xe2x80x9cfixation sheetxe2x80x9d) is passed through hot rollers, while a surface of a hot roller having a releasability with the toner is caused to contact the toner image surface of the fixation sheet under pressure, to fix the toner image. In this method, as the hot roller surface and the toner image on the fixation sheet contact each other under a pressure, a very good heat efficiency is attained for melt-fixing the toner image onto the fixation sheet to afford quick fixation.
In the fixing step, however, a hot roller surface and a toner image contact each other in a melted state and under a pressure, so that a part of the toner is transferred and attached to the fixing roller surface and then re-transferred to a subsequent fixation sheet to soil the fixation sheet. This is called an offset phenomenon.
Hitherto, as toner binder resins, polyester resins, and vinyl copolymers, such as styrene copolymers, have been principally used.
A polyester resin provides an excellent low-temperature fixability but is accompanied with a difficulty that it is liable to cause the high-temperature offset. For alleviating the difficulty, it has been tried to increase the viscosity of a polyester resin by increasing the molecular weight. In this case, however, the low-temperature fixability is liable to be impaired, and the pulverizability during toner production can also be impaired, thus providing a binder resin not suitable for production of smaller particle size toners.
A vinyl copolymer, such as a styrene copolymer, has excellent pulverizability suitable for toner production, and provides excellent anti-high-temperature offset performance because the molecular weight thereof can be increased easily. However, if the molecular weight is lowered in order to provide an improved low-temperature fixability, the anti-blocking property and developing performance are liable to be impaired.
In order to effectively utilize the advantages and compensate for the difficulties of the above two types of resins, several proposals have been made regarding the use of mixtures of these resins.
For example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application (JP-A) 54-114245 discloses a toner containing a mixture of a polyester resin and a vinyl copolymer. However, since a polyester resin and a vinyl copolymer essentially have poor mutual solubility, it is difficult to provide a toner satisfying low-temperature fixability, anti-high-temperature offset performance and anti-blocking property in combination unless a suitable mixing ratio of the resin is set.
Further, it is difficult to sufficiently improve a dispersibility of internal additives, such as a colorant and a wax, added for toner production, thus being liable to result in a problem in developing performance of the resultant toner. This difficulty is liable to be noticeable especially in production of smaller-particle size toners which are preferred in recent years.
JP-A 56-116043 and JP-A 58-159546 disclose a toner containing a polymer obtained by polymerizing a vinyl monomer in the presence of a polyester resin.
JP-A 58-102246 and JP-A 1-156759 disclose a toner containing a polymer obtained by polymerizing vinyl monomers in the presence of an unsaturated polyester.
JP-A 2-881 discloses a toner containing a polymer obtained by esterifying a polyester resin and a styrene-based resin having a specific acid value.
In the above-mentioned toners, the polyester resin and the vinyl copolymer can have an improved mutual solubility. However, it is difficult to uniformly disperse a wax added for toner production. The resultant toner still has room for improvement with respect to not only low-temperature fixability but also developing performance.
JP-A 4-338973 discloses a toner containing two species of polyester resins different in softening point and JP-A 8-166688 discloses a toner containing two species of polyester resins different in molecular weight.
Both of these toners, however, an anti-high-temperature offset performance of the resultant toner is at a level within that in the case of using an ordinary polyester resin, thus still having room for improvement.
JP-A 8-54754 discloses a toner containing a resin obtained by mixing a polyester with a specific resin prepared through addition polymerization of a vinyl monomer and polycondensation of monomers for a polyester resin performed in parallel with each other.
JP-A 8-44108 discloses a toner containing two species of specific resins different in softening point each prepared through addition polymerization of a vinyl monomer and polycondensation of monomers for a polyester resin performed in parallel with each other.
However, these toners fails to control a balance of crosslinking degree between a lower-molecular weight component and a higher-molecular weight component, thus still leaving room for improvement with respect to low-temperature fixability, dispersibility of wax, and developing performance for a long period.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,976,752 discloses a toner containing at least a binder resin, a colorant and a wax and the binder resin comprises a polyester resin, a vinyl resin, and a hybrid resin component comprising a polyester unit and a vinyl polymer unit. This toner is specified in term of THF (tetrahydrofuran) soluble and insoluble contents, ethyl acetate-soluble and -insoluble contents, chroloform-soluble and -insoluble contents, and a GPC (gel permeation chromatography) molecular weight distribution for a THF-soluble content. This toner exhibits a good low-temperature fixability and excellent anti-offset characteristic, anti-blocking characteristic and continuous image forming performance on a large number of sheets.
However, in order to further improve the low-temperature fixability while retaining the anti-offset characteristic, the anti-blocking characteristic and the continuous image forming performance, the toner has room for further improvement.
A generic object of the present invention is to provide a toner for developing electrostatic images having solved the above-mentioned problems.
A more specific object of the present invention is to provide a toner capable of exhibiting excellent low-temperature fixability and anti-high-temperature offset property and providing a good developing performance for a long period.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a toner wherein a wax is uniformly dispersed in a binder resin.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a resin composition for a toner as described above.
According to the present invention, there is provided a toner, comprising: at least a binder resin, a colorant and a wax, wherein
the binder resin has been formed from monomers including a vinyl monomer and polyester-forming monomers containing at least a polybasic carboxylic acid having three or more carboxyl groups or its anhydride, and comprises at least a hybrid resin comprising a vinyl polymer unit and a polyester unit,
the toner contains a THF (tetrahydrofuran)-soluble content which includes a first component having molecular weights of below 1xc3x97104 containing W1 (mol. %) of the polybasic carboxylic acid and its anhydride based on the polyester-forming monomers contained in the first component and a second component having molecular weight of at least 1xc3x97104 containing W2 (mol. %) of the polybasic carboxylic acid and its anhydride based on the polyester-forming monomers contained in the second component, W1 and W2 satisfying the following relationship:
0xe2x89xa6W1 less than 30,
0 less than W2 less than 50, and
W2 greater than W1,
the THF-soluble content provides a GPC (gel permeation chromatography) chromatogram including 40-70 wt. % (M1) of a component having molecular weights of below 1xc3x97104, 25-50 wt. % (M2) of a component having molecular weights of 1xc3x97104-5xc3x97104, 2-25 wt. % (M3) of a component having molecular weights of above 5xc3x97104, and below 10 wt. % (M4) of a component having molecular weights of at least 10xc3x97104, M1, M2 and M3 satisfying the following relationship:
M1xe2x89xa7M2 greater than M3.
According to the present invention, there is also provided a resin composition for a toner, comprising:
at least a hybrid resin comprising a vinyl polymer unit and a polyester unit,
wherein the resin composition has been formed from monomers including a vinyl monomer and polyester-forming monomers containing at least a polybasic carboxylic acid having three or more carboxyl groups or its anhydride,
the resin composition contains a THF (tetrahydrofuran)-soluble content which includes a first component having molecular weights of below 1xc3x97104 containing w1 (mol. %) of the polybasic carboxylic acid and its anhydride based on the polyester-forming monomers contained in the first component and a second component having molecular weight of at least 1xc3x97104 containing w2 (mol. %) of the polybasic carboxylic acid and its anhydride based on the polyester-forming monomers contained in the second component, w1 and w2 satisfying the following relationship:
0xe2x89xa6w1 less than 30,
0 less than w2 less than 50, and
w2 greater than w1,
the THF-soluble content provides a GPC (gel permeation chromatography) chromatogram including 40-75 wt. % (m1) of a component having molecular weights of below 1xc3x97104, 23-45 wt. % (m2) of a component having molecular weights of 1xc3x97104-5xc3x97104, 2-25 wt. % (m3) of a component having molecular weights of above 5xc3x97104, and below 13 wt. % (m4) of a component having molecular weights of at least 10xc3x97104, m1, m2, and m3 satisfying the following relationship:
m1xe2x89xa6m2 greater than m3.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent upon a consideration of the following description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention.

Toner and resin composition for the toner


A plurality of characters including a player character appears in a video game. An arrangement position of at least one of characters is specified in a virtual space in accordance with progress of the video game. A battle mode is set up to any one of a first battle mode and a second battle mode. A battle control is carried out in the first battle mode in which a photographed image of the virtual space photographed by a virtual camera is displayed on a battle screen or the second battle mode in which an arrangement image is displayed on the battle screen. Each of the plurality of characters is arranged at a predetermined position in the arrangement image with no relationship with the arrangement position of the corresponding character in the virtual space. The battle control is carried out in the battle mode thus set up.

1. Field of the Invention
At least one of embodiments according to the present invention relates to a video game processing program and a video game processing system for controlling progress of a video game in which a plurality of characters including a player character operated by a user appears.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, it is known a system for providing game experience to a user by moving an avatar in a three-dimensional virtual space and displaying an image photographed by a virtual camera on a display device. In techniques related to such a system, for example, there is one in which a user is allowed to select a cloth model that the user wants to put on an avatar in a common virtual space, whereby the user creates a user-specific model readily (see Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2010-61477, for example).
Processings carried out in such a system includes: a modeling process to move the avatar in the three-dimensional virtual space; and a rendering process to cause the display device to display the image photographed by the virtual camera. The processings gives a considerable load onto a GPU and the like of the system (for example, a user terminal). For that reason, in the conventional system, a method of reducing a processing load by reducing a pixel number of the image or the like has been adopted.
However, the user who is required to reduce a processing load views or browses an image deteriorated from original display (that is, an original image quality). For this reason, there has been a problem that this specification of the system may lose interest in the system (video game and the like) of the user.

Video game processing program and video game processing method


A technique with which air blast cooling can be used to produce a high-strength steel wire material that achieves uniform high strength and high ductility, even when cold drawn; a high-strength steel wire produced from this high-strength steel wire material; and a zinc-plated high-strength steel wire. This high-strength steel wire material includes 0.80-1.3% of C, 0.1-1.5% of Si, 0.1-1.5% of Mn, more than 0% but not more than 0.03% of P, more than 0% but not more than 0.03% of S, 0.0005-0.01% of B, 0.01-0.10% of Al, and 0.001-0.006% of N, the remainder being iron and unavoidable impurities. The area ratio of pearlite in the structure of the high-strength steel wire material is at least 90%. The average grain size number (Pave) of pearlite nodules and the standard deviation (Pσ) thereof respectively satisfy formula (1), namely 7.0≦Pave≦10.0, and formula (2), namely Pσ≦0.6.

A steel wire subjected to hot-dip galvanization for higher corrosion resistance, or a galvanized steel wire strand as a strand of such steel wires is used as a rope for use in a bridge. As a material for such a steel wire, for example, JIS G 3548 describes a steel wire having a wire diameter of 5 mm and a tensile strength TS of about 1500 to 1700 MPa. A carbon steel described in JIS G 3506 is mainly used as a material steel for the steel wire.
A steel wire as a material for the hot-dip galvanized steel wire is required to be reduced in manufacturing cost and to have higher strength. Higher strength advantageously reduces steel usage and improves the degree of freedom of bridge design.
The galvanized steel wire is typically manufactured in the following manner. First, a wire rod (steel wire rod) fabricated through hot rolling is placed in a ring shape on a cooling conveyer for pearlite transformation, and is then wound up into a coil to yield a wire rod coil. Subsequently, the wire rod coil is subjected to patenting treatment so as to have higher strength and a homogenous microstructure. The patenting treatment is a type of heat treatment, in which a wire rod is typically heated to about 950° C. using a continuous furnace and austenized, and is then dipped in a refrigerant such as a lead bath maintained at about 500° C. to produce a fine and homogeneous pearlite phase.
Subsequently, the wire rod is subjected to cold wire-drawing, so that a steel wire having a predetermined strength is produced by the effect of a work hardening function of pearlite steel. Subsequently, the steel wire is dipped in a galvanizing bath maintained at about 450° C. for galvanization, so that a galvanized steel wire is produced. The galvanized steel wire may be further subjected to finish drawing. A parallel wire strand (PWS) as a bundle of galvanized steel wires produced in such a way or a galvanized steel wire strand as a strand of such steel wires is used to produce a cable for a bridge.
In such a series of manufacturing steps, the patenting treatment causes an increase in manufacturing cost. Although the patenting treatment is effective in increasing strength of a wire rod and homogenizing quality thereof, the patenting treatment increases manufacturing cost, and has environmental problems such as CO2 emission and use of an environment-load substance. The hot-rolled wire rod could be advantageously drawn to be formed into a steel wire product without heat treatment such as the patenting treatment. Drawing the hot-rolled wire rod without heat treatment is generally called "rod drawing".
A variation in strength in a longitudinal direction of the rod-drawn wire rod is an issue in achieving a high-strength rod-drawn wire rod. In a typical manufacturing process of a wire rod with air blast cooling, the wire rod is cooled while being placed in a ring shape on a cooling conveyer. FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a state of the ring-shaped wire rod on the cooling conveyer. Cooling the wire rod in such a state causes a portion of a dense part 10 in which portions of the wire rod lie relatively dense, and a portion of a sparse part 11 in which portions of the wire rod lie relatively sparsely.
As a result, cooling rate varies between the dense part 10 and the sparse part 11, and the precipitating pearlite phase has a periodic variation corresponding to a circumference of a ring; hence, the mechanical properties of the wire rod also have a periodic variation. When a wire rod has a variation in strength, product strength is designed with reference to the lower limit of the strength of the wire rod on the safety grounds. Hence, decreasing a variation in strength of the wire rod enables design of a product having higher strength. A rod-drawn wire rod does not get the benefit of homogenizing a microstructure by patenting treatment. Hence, the microstructure of such a wire rod must be homogenized through microstructure control after hot rolling to decrease the variation in strength.
There have been provided various techniques for improving wire-drawability. For example, PTL 1 provides a technique for improving wire-drawability through cooling in a molten salt bath after hot rolling. Such a technique is called direct patenting treatment.
PTL 2 discloses a technique for increasing strength of a wire rod by controlling a cooling condition after hot rolling so that the patenting treatment is omitted.
PTL 3 discloses a technique for improving wire-drawability of a spring-steel wire rod by decreasing a variation in pearlite phase depending on coil density.

High-strength steel wire material exhibiting excellent cold-drawing properties, and high-strength steel wire


An epicycling device with improved sealing. A housing is provided with adjacent walls spaced apart to allow a substantially planar partition to pass. A piston is linked eccentrically to a drive shaft and positioned within the housing, has a cross sectional shape for mating with the housing walls and includes a circular recessed surface at its corners. Seal housings with a hollow cylindrical cross sectional shape are provided at each corner of the piston housing. An inner seal element is positioned within each of the recessed surfaces with the inner seal element including an elongate cylindrical body with a slot therethrough. An outer seal element is positioned within the seal housings with the outer seal element including an elongate cylindrical body with a slot. A partition is positioned between each pair of the inner and outer seal elements and slidably engaged with the slots in the seal elements.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to power generation and conversion, to cryogenic systems, and to improvements in heat engines and systems, and more particularly, to energy conversion systems and methods that utilizes a working fluid, such as a biatomic gas, that is recirculated within a high pressure tank that contains a compressor and is exposed to a heat exchange surface to enhance existing heat engine efficiencies and that further utilizes a cold reservoir to capture additional energy from the working fluid.
2. Relevant Background
Modem society has an insatiable and growing thirst for energy and for devices and systems that consume large quantities of energy. Presently, the largest sources of energy are non-renewable including the fossil fuels of coal, oil, and gas. Renewable energy sources are only a small portion of the global energy supply and include wind, solar, and geothermal sources. Energy sources are generally converted by conversion systems using heat engines and other devices into other forms of energy such as thermal energy (or heat) and mechanical energy. It is estimated that in the not too distant future non-renewable energy sources will become depleted or that the costs associated with converting these sources to heat and other useful energy will significantly increase causing many of these sources to be inaccessible to large parts of the population. Hence, there is an ongoing societal need for more efficient methods and systems for converting energy from non-renewable and renewable energy sources into clean, useful energy.
Common energy conversion systems employ heat engines to convert heat energy from renewable or non-renewable energy sources to mechanical energy. The examples of heat engines are numerous including steam engines, steam and gas turbines, spark-ignition and diesel engines, or external combustion and the Stirling engine. Each of these heat engines or systems can be used to provide the motive power or mechanical energy for transportation, for operating machinery, for producing electricity, and for other uses. Heat engines typically operate in a cycle of repeated sequences of heating and pressurizing a working fluid, performing mechanical work, and rejecting unused or waste heat. At the beginning of each cycle, energy in the form of heat and/or pressure is added to the working fluid forcing it to expand under high pressure so that the fluid performs mechanical work. In this manner, the thermal energy contained in the pressurized fluid is converted to kinetic energy. The fluid then loses pressure, and after unused energy in the form of heat is rejected, the fluid is reheated or recompressed to restore it to high pressure.
Unfortunately, existing heat engines do not convert all the input energy to useful mechanical energy in the same cycle as generally some amount often in the form of heat is not available or utilized for the immediate performance of mechanical work. The fraction of thermal energy that is converted to net mechanical work is called the thermal efficiency of the heat engine. The maximum possible efficiency of a heat engine is that of a hypothetical or ideal cycle, called the Carnot Cycle (based on absolute zero as the starting point). Existing heat engines generally operate on much less efficient cycles, such as the Otto, Diesel, Brayton, or Stirling Cycles, with the highest thermal efficiency achieved when the input temperature is as high as possible and the sink temperature is as low as possible. The "waste" or rejected heat is sometimes used for other purposes, including heating a different working fluid, which operates a different heat-engine cycle or simply for space heating but most often the rejected heat is released to the environment. Another common efficiency problem is that when compressors are used to compress incoming air or working fluid and are driven by a shaft driven by the device creating the mechanical power, e.g., a turbine using the Brayton cycle, and the compressor consumes a large portion of the created shaft power, e.g., up to two-thirds of the power.
Other problems often accompanying the use of heat engines is how to achieve proper timing along with appropriate intake and outlet valving and how to achieve adequate sealing of such devices. Standard timing valves with camshafts and common valves are useful for standard piston expanders and compressors but are not as desirable and useful for timing the input of high pressure gases when nutating or eccentric shafts are used in expanders and/or compressors used in heat engines. The concepts of precession and nutation of bodies with energy being transferred from the rotational motion of a nutating body, such as in an internal combustion engine, have been tried, but generally it has proven very difficult to valve such devices and even more difficult to design such nutating and/or eccentric devices for proper sealing of working gases or fluids. Often, these non-standard devices are not adopted because high precision and relatively expensive materials and machining has been required to obtain useful valving and sealing systems for these devices or sealing has simply been done through the use of flat sealing strips.
Hence, there remains a need for improved devices and techniques for converting energy in a working fluid with increased efficiencies. Preferably, such devices and techniques are selected to facilitate the use of non-standard compressors and/or expanders that incorporate nutation, eccentric drives, or epicycling (e.g., the use of an eccentric drive limited to motion in a single plane rather than the "wobbling" of a nutating device) by providing improved inlet and outlet valves and sealing systems.

Seal and valve systems and methods for use in expanders and compressors of energy conversion systems


A ligating band according to the present invention comprises an elastomeric layer and an inner drug releasing layer. The inner drug releasing layer includes a therapeutic agent, for example a chemotherapeutic agent for treating a mucosa, polyp or other growth. A ligating band according to the present invention also may include an inner diffusion barrier disposed between the elastomeric layer and the inner drug releasing layer, with the elastomeric layer and the inner drug releasing layer each contacting the inner diffusion barrier.

Endoscopic ligation is often used to treat polyps or other growths inside the body. For example, pre-malignant gastrointestinal mucosa are often removed using an endoscopic snare, and endoscopic ligation may be employed to remove surrounding residual or base tissue, particularly when biopsy of the earlier-removed tissue indicates a foci of cancer. In other cases, mucosa may be removed by delivering a ligating band to the base of the mucosa. The ligating band restricts blood flow to the ligated tissue, leading to eventual necrosis.
One problem with treating pre-malignant or malignant mucosa endoscopically is that the base of the malignancy may not undergo necrosis. If some malignant or pre-malignant cells are left surviving, there is a risk that the residual cancer cells will spread further. For this reason, many physicians opt for surgical treatment of such mucosa. However, surgical resection is not desirable or even possible for some patients, and surgical recision is a much more invasive and complicated procedure, even for more healthy patients.


Provided is a combustion chamber for producing a pressurized gas containing: a wall structure defining an interior chamber; a first reflecting surface for reflecting a pressure wave within the interior chamber; a second reflecting surface for reflecting the pressure wave within the interior chamber, wherein the first and second reflecting surfaces are constructed and arranged to resonate the pressure wave in the interior chamber; at least one first inlet for introducing a first gas into the interior chamber; and at least one outlet from the interior chamber for drawing off a pressurized gas from the interior chamber. Also provided is a turbine engine containing the combustion chamber, and an electrical generating power plant containing the turbine engine.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a high pressure gas cycle for use in an engine. The invention also relates to an electrical power generating plant.
2. Background of Related Art
The Otto cycle shown diagrammatically in FIG. 1 [Prior Art], with pressure as the ordinate and volume as the abscissa, is a cycle that closely represents the explosion and compression stages of a gasoline automobile engine. In the Otto cycle, the air is drawn in at atmospheric pressure, shown at 1, then compressed isentropically to a high pressure with fuel mixed in the air, shown at 2. The fuel air mixture explodes at a theoretically constant volume to form a combustion gas having an increased pressure, shown at 3. The combustion gas expands isentropically back to the original inlet volume, shown at 4, where the combustion gas is then discharged. As shown in FIG. 1, the combustion gas discharges at a pressure above atmosphere, shown at 4, and then the pressure drops to atmosphere as it exhausts from the engine, not shown. The energy that could be available by expanding from exhaust pressure to atmospheric pressure, represented by the difference between 4 and 1 shown in FIG. 1, is wasted.
The theoretical efficiency of the Otto Cycle is defined by the relationship 1-(V.sub.2 /V.sub.1).sup.(K-1) where V.sub.1 /V.sub.2 is the ratio of the volume before compression to the volume after compression, commonly called the compression ratio. K=ratio of specific heat at constant pressure to specific heat at constant volume=C.sub.p /C.sub.v.
Another cycle commonly used in automobile engines is the Diesel cycle. The pressure vs. volume diagram for a Diesel cycle is shown in FIG. 2 [Prior Art]. In a Diesel cycle, air is drawn in at atmospheric pressure, shown at 5, and then the air is compressed, shown at 6. The fuel is injected after the air is compressed and burns at somewhere near constant pressure to form a combustion gas, shown at 7. The combustion gas expands isentropically back to the original inlet volume, shown at 8, where the combustion gas is then discharged. As shown in FIG. 2, the combustion gas discharges at a pressure above atmosphere, shown at 8, and then the pressure drops to atmosphere as it exhausts from the engine, not shown. The energy that could be available by expanding from exhaust pressure to atmospheric pressure, represented by the difference between 8 and 5 shown in FIG. 5, is wasted.
The advantage of the Diesel cycle compared to the Otto cycle is that the compression ratio can be made much higher than that for the Otto Cycle, because the fuel is not mixed in the air, and therefore the rise during compression in temperature will not ignite the fuel until after the fuel is injected at the high pressure. In general, this increase in compression ratio for the Diesel Cycle enables the Diesel cycle to achieve higher efficiencies than are possible with the Otto Cycle.
The compression ratio for the Otto Cycle is usually limited to about 10 to 1, corresponding to a pressure ratio of about 25 to 1. The reason for this is that at higher ratios the fuel air mixture becomes so hot that the explosion occurs before the mixture is fully compressed. This preignition or detonation actually decreases the power output.
In the Diesel engine the fuel injection occurs after compression, and only air is being compressed during the compression cycle. Therefore, typical compression ratios are 23 to 1, corresponding to pressure ratios of 82 to 1. This is the basic reason why the Diesel cycle is more efficient than the Otto cycle.
A further cycle is the Brayton or Joule cycle, as shown in FIG. 3 [Prior Art]. In the Brayton cycle, air is drawn into a compressor at atmospheric pressure, shown at 9, and then compressed to a high pressure, shown at 10. Fuel is injected into the compressed air in the combustor, where it burns at nearly a constant pressure (except for friction losses in the combustor) to form a combustion gas, shown at 11. The combustion gas expands isentropically back to atmospheric pressure, shown at 12. In this case, the expansion to atmospheric pressure is advantageous, and the theoretical efficiency is like the Otto cycle above in that the theoretical efficiency is equal to 1-(V.sub.2 /V.sub.1).sup.(K-1) where V.sub.1 /V.sub.2 is again the volume ratio of specific volume at atmospheric pressure divided by the specific volume at the pressure at which burning starts. The Brayton cycle is the cycle commonly used in gas turbines, and is limited in efficiency by the fact that the temperature of the gas entering the turbine is nearly the same as the combustion temperature. Therefore the combustion temperatures possible in a gas turbine system are usually limited to approximately 2300 to 2600.degree. F. However, the Brayton cycle does have an advantage over the Otto cycle in that complete expansion back to essentially atmosphere is achieved.
A disadvantage of the Brayton cycle is that as pressure ratios or compression ratios are increased the temperature leaving the compressor and entering the combustor becomes higher. Therefore, less fuel energy can be added because of the temperature limit of the turbine. For this reason, although efficiency can be increased by increasing the pressure ratio in a gas turbine cycle, the output gradually decreases as higher pressure ratios are used. Therefore, it is common practice to limit the pressure ratio in industrial gas turbines to about 10 to 20 atmospheres.
Table 1 shows typical theoretical performance calculations for the Brayton cycle, based on air standard data and constant mass flow through the cycle.
TABLE 1 __________________________________________________________________________ A B C D E F G H I __________________________________________________________________________ 1 P2/P1 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 2 T1 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 3 T3 2810 2810 2810 2810 2810 2810 2810 2810 4 P1/J 2.7201 2.7201 2.7201 2.7201 2.7201 2.7201 2.7201 2.7201 5 V1 13.089 13.089 13.089 13.089 13.089 13.089 13.089 13.089 6 EFF COMP 1 0.9 0.85 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 7 COOL FACT 1 1 1 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 0.5 8 N/(N - 1) CO 3.463 3.1167 2.94355 3.463 3.895875 4.452429 5.1945 6.2334 9 (N - 1)/N CO 0.288767 0.320852 0.339726 0.288767 0.256682 0.224597 0.192511 0.160426 10 N COMP 1.406009 1.472434 1.514522 1.406009 1.345319 1.289651 1.238407 1.19108 11 EFF TURB 1 0.9 0.85 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 12 N/(N - 1) TU 3.463 3.847778 4.074118 3.847778 3.847778 3.847778 3.847778 3.847778 13 (N - 1)N TU 0.288767 0.25989 0.245452 0.25989 0.25989 0.25989 0.25989 0.25989 14 N TURB 1.406009 1.351151 1.325297 1.351151 1.351151 1.351151 1.351151 1.351151 15 W IN 212.1196 251.5701 276.9102 235.6885 221.0261 207.4814 194.9616 183.3819 16 V1/V2 11.76285 10.52493 9.858518 11.76285 13.14636 14.6926 16.4207 18.35205 17 T2/T1 2.72043 3.0404 3.245924 2.72043 2.434134 2.177968 1.94876 1.743674 18 T2 1414.624 1581.008 1687.88 1414.624 1265.75 1132.543 1013.355 906.7106 19 HEAT IN 330.8437 291.3941 266.0545 330.8437 366.1417 397.725 425.9845 451.2699 20 V3 2.210342 2.210342 2.210342 2.210342 2.210342 2.210342 2.210342 2.210342 21 W EXPAN 421.3532 395.5742 381.6844 395.5742 395.5742 395.5742 395.5742 395.5742 22 NET WORK 209.2335 144.0041 104.7742 159.8857 174.5481 188.0928 200.6127 212.1923 23 EFF 0.632424 0.49419 0.393807 0.483267 0.476723 0.472922 0.470939 0.470212 __________________________________________________________________________ J K L M N O P __________________________________________________________________________ 1 32 32 32 32 32 32 32 2 520 520 520 520 520 520 520 3 2810 2810 2810 2810 2810 2810 2810 4 2.7201 2.7201 2.7201 2.7201 2.7201 2.7201 2.7201 5 13.089 13.089 13.089 13.089 13.089 13.089 13.089 6 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 7 0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.05 0.04 0.03 8 7.79175 10.389 15.5835 31.167 62.334 77.9175 103.89 9 0.128341 0.096256 0.06417 0.032085 0.016043 0.012834 0.009626 10 1.147237 1.106508 1.068571 1.033149 1.016304 1.013001 1.009712 11 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 0.9 12 3.847778 3.847778 3.847778 3.847778 3.847778 3.847778 3.847778 13 0.25989 0.25989 0.25989 0.25989 0.25989 0.25989 0.25989 14 1.351151 1.351151 1.351151 1.351151 1.351151 1.351151 1.351151 15 172.6651 162.7406 153.5437 145.0155 140.9852 140.197 139.4146 16 20.51057 22.92296 25.6191 28.63234 30.26937 30.60784 30.9501 17 1.560171 1.39598 1.249068 1.117617 1.057174 1.045484 1.033922 18 811.289 725.9096 649.5154 581.1609 549.7306 543.6515 537.6396 19 473.8944 494.1378 512.2509 528.4577 535.9099 537.3512 538.7766 20 2.210342 2.210342 2.210342 2.210342 2.210342 2.210342 2.210342 21 395.5742 395.5742 395.5742 395.5742 395.5742 395.5742 395.5742 22 222.9091 232.8337 242.0305 250.5587 254.589 255.3772 256.1596 23 0.470377 0.471192 0.472484 0.474132 0.475059 0.475252 0.475447 __________________________________________________________________________
In Table 1 the following definitions are used:
P.sub.2 /P.sub.1 is the pressure ratio PA1 T1=air inlet temperature in .degree. R (degrees Rankin) PA1 T3=combustion temperature in .degree. R PA1 P1/J=inlet pressure in lbs/ft.sup.2 /778.2 PA1 V1=inlet specific volume in ft.sup.3 /lb. PA1 EFF COMP is polytropic compression efficiency PA1 a wall structure defining an interior chamber; PA1 a first reflecting surface for reflecting a pressure wave within said interior chamber; PA1 a second reflecting surface for reflecting said pressure wave within said interior chamber, wherein said first and second reflecting surfaces being constructed and arranged to resonate said pressure wave in said interior chamber; PA1 at least one first inlet for introducing a first gas into said interior chamber; and PA1 at least one outlet from said interior chamber for drawing off a pressurized gas from said interior chamber. PA1 at least one combustion chamber; PA1 at least one compressor constructed and arranged to provide a compressed gas to said at least one combustion chamber; and PA1 at least one turbine blade constructed and arranged to be driven by a pressurized gas formed in said combustion chamber; wherein said combustion chamber comprises: PA1 a wall structure defining an interior chamber; PA1 a first reflecting surface for reflecting a pressure wave within said interior chamber; PA1 a second reflecting surface for reflecting said pressure wave within said interior chamber, wherein said first and second reflecting surfaces being constructed and arranged to resonate said pressure wave in said interior chamber; PA1 at least one first inlet for introducing a first gas into said interior chamber; PA1 at least one second inlet for introducing said compressed gas into said interior chamber, said second inlet being connected to said at least one compressor; and PA1 at least one outlet from said interior chamber for drawing off said pressurized gas from said chamber and being constructed and arranged to supply said pressurized gas to said at least one turbine blade. PA1 at least one turbine engine; PA1 at least one electrical generator connected to said turbine engine; wherein said turbine engine comprises: PA1 at least one combustion chamber; PA1 at least one compressor constructed and arranged to provide a compressed gas to said at least one combustion chamber; and PA1 at least one turbine blade constructed and arranged to be driven by a pressurized gas formed in said combustion chamber; wherein said combustion chamber comprises: PA1 a wall structure defining an interior chamber; PA1 a first reflecting surface for reflecting a pressure wave within said interior chamber; PA1 a second reflecting surface for reflecting said pressure wave within said interior chamber, wherein said first and second reflecting surfaces being constructed and arranged to resonate said pressure wave in said interior chamber; PA1 at least one first inlet for introducing a first gas into said interior chamber; PA1 at least one second inlet for introducing said compressed gas into said interior chamber, said second inlet being connected to said at least one compressor; and PA1 at least one outlet from said interior chamber for drawing off said pressurized gas from said chamber and being constructed and arranged to supply said pressurized gas to said turbine blade. PA1 introducing a combustible gas into a combustion chamber having first and second reflecting surfaces that are constructed and arranged to provide a resonating pressure wave reflecting between said first and second reflecting surfaces, said combustible gas being introduced into said combustible chamber at a frequency such that said resonating pressure wave ignites said combustible gas to thereby form a resonating pressure wave; PA1 introducing a second gas into said combustion chamber at a location and frequency such that said pressure wave compresses and combines with said second gas to form a pressurized gas having a temperature lower than a combustion temperature of said combustible gas; and PA1 withdrawing said pressurized gas from said combustion chamber.
COOL FACT is a factor that is multiplied by (N-1)/N, where (N-1)/N=(k-1)/K/comp EFF., and (K-1)/K=0.2888. This factor shows a new value of (N-1)/N that simulates continuous intercooling during the compression process. Actual intercooling is a step-by-step process, but this simulation shows the approximate effect of intercooling.
(N-1)/N CO=(K-1)/K/EFF COMP.times.COOL FACT
N Comp. is the polytropic exponent used in the equation for work
EFF TURB is the polytropic efficiency of the turbine
(N-1)/N TU=(k-1)/K.times.EFF TURB
WIN=Compressor work in Btu/lb
V1/V2=Compression ratio
T2/T1=Ratio compressor discharge temperature/inlet temperature
T2=Compressor discharge temperature .degree. R
Heat IN=Heat Input from T2 to T3, assuming specific heat=0.2371 Btu/lb.degree. F.
V3=Specific volume at turbine inlet in cu.ft./lb
W EXPAN=Turbine work output in Btu/lb
NET WORK=W EXPAN-WIN
EFF=NETWORK/HEAT IN=cycle efficiency
In column C, the Brayton cycle efficiency is listed as 0.494. This is higher than the actual efficiency of a gas turbine because leakage losses, cooling air losses, pressure drop in the combustor, and losses due to kinetic energy of the gases leaving the turbine column D, where efficiencies of 85% are used for compressor and turbine, were excluded.
It would be advantageous if one could combine the constant volume or explosion cycle as shown in the Otto cycle at the high pressure end, and at the same time expand the volume all the way to atmospheric pressure at the exhaust end, as shown FIG. 4. FIG. 4 is a theoretical complete expansion cycle.
An almost complete expansion cycle was made by Sargent, in which the air inlet to the engine is throttled to take in less air volume and thereby allow for an increase in volume in the exhaust. However, this Sargent cycle was not a success in a reciprocating engine because of the high mechanical friction losses.
Thus, there is a need for a complete expansion cycle that is suitable for use in a reciprocating engine, which substantially avoids wasting energy due to exhaust pressures that are greater than atmospheric pressure.
There is also a need for an improved combustion chamber that is capable of supplying compressed gas to a turbine blade at temperatures significantly below the combustion temperature of the fuel being burned.
There is a further need for an improved apparatus for supplying a compressed gas having significantly reduced friction losses.
Electrical power plants utilizing turbine engines to drive electrical generators produce large amounts of combustion gasses which contain carbon dioxide and byproducts such as nitrogen oxides. Furthermore, the exhaust gas from conventional turbine engines usually has a temperature of about 700.degree. F. to about 1240.degree. F. Typically a Rankine cycle system is used to recover valuable energy from the exhaust gas. However, efficient low temperature vapor turbines usually cannot be used because the exhaust temperature from a conventional turbine engine is too high. Exhaust temperatures from conventional turbine engines usually require the use of an expensive steam turbine to recover the energy.
Thus, there is a need for an electrical generating power plant comprising more efficient turbines to reduce the quantity of combustion gasses produced, and for turbine engines having exhaust temperature suitable for use in driving low temperature vapor turbines.

Power plant having a U-shaped combustion chamber with first and second reflecting surfaces