A method for producing a magnetostrictive torque sensor which detects steering torque applied to a steering shaft. A magnetostrictive film is formed on the steering shaft and then subjected to heat treatment, which decreases a weight ratio of hydrogen included in the magnetostrictive film. Thermal desorption gas analysis is performed on at least a portion of the magnetostrictive film undergoing the heat treatment step. A portion of the magnetostrictive film having a thickness of 40 μm or less is heated at a temperature rise rate of 5° C. per minute. A weight ratio of a total amount of hydrogen desorbed from the portion of the magnetostrictive film due to the heat treatment to a weight before the heat treatment is no more than 3 ppm up to 150° C., wherein the weight ratio is no more than 10 ppm up to 300° C., and no more than 15 ppm up to 400° C.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetostrictive torque sensor which electrically detects a distortion of a magnetostrictive film provided on a surface of a steering shaft, thereby detecting steering torque applied to the steering shaft, and a production method and an evaluation method for the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Magnetostrictive torque sensors are used in electric power steering systems for vehicles, and the electric power steering system is a support system which, when a driver turns the steering wheel while driving the vehicle, has a motor cooperate therewith so as to assist the steering effort. In the electric power steering system, the magnetostrictive torque sensor detects the steering torque caused in the steering shaft coupled to the steering wheel by the driver turning the steering wheel. The electric power steering system controls the auxiliary steering force that is the output from the motor based on the detected steering torque and a vehicle speed signal from a vehicle speed sensor, which detects the speed of the vehicle, thereby reducing the steering effort of the driver.
A magnetostrictive torque sensor has been proposed where two magnetostrictive films of Ni—Fe alloy are provided one above the other on the surface of the steering shaft so as to have opposite directions of magnetic anisotropy (refer to, e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2004-333449). When the steering torque acts on the steering shaft, the steering shaft is twisted, thus distorting the magnetostrictive films, and the alternating-current resistance and the like of coils provided around the magnetostrictive films vary according to an inverse magnetostriction characteristic due to magnetic anisotropy. The magnetostrictive torque sensor detects this change, thereby detecting the steering torque acting on the steering shaft.
As to, e.g., vehicles, forklifts, and the like, ambient temperature of use may be high. Due to, for example, heat from the engine such as a combustion engine or a motor, heat from a factory, and further heat from direct sunlight, ambient temperature of use reaches 80 to 110° C. In, particularly, vehicles used at such use ambient temperature, the auxiliary steering force may differ in magnitude between when turning the steering wheel rightward and when turning it leftward. In particular, after a vehicle is left for a long time at use ambient temperature, when turning the steering wheel while being in a stopped state, i.e., when performing so-called stationary steering, the driver may realize that the auxiliary steering force differs in magnitude between the rightward turning and leftward turning of the steering wheel. The cause for this is thought to be that the magnitude of the steering torque signal detected by the magnetostrictive torque sensor shifts at use ambient temperature to be different between the rightward turning and leftward turning of the steering wheel.

Production method for a magnetostrictive torque sensor


A battery includes a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and an electrolyte. The positive electrode includes LixAl2(OH)7-y.zH2O where 0.9<x<1.1, −0.1<y<0.1, 0≤z<2.1.

The present technology generally relates to a positive electrode material, a positive electrode, a battery, a battery pack, an electronic device, an electric vehicle, an electric storage device, and an electric power system.
There is a possibility that a battery may cause thermal runaway when the positive electrode and the negative electrode are short-circuited, and batteries are thus desired which are excellent in thermal stability.
In addition, the thermal stability of batteries is increasingly important due to the recent increase in single cell (one battery) capacity and the increase in charging voltage for improving the unit cell capacity.

Positive electrode material, positive electrode, battery, battery pack, electronic device, electric vehicle, electric storage device, and electric power system


The present invention provides pharmaceutical compositions for buccal delivery of human growth hormone (hGH) comprising a delivery agent and hGH. The compositions of the present invention provide improved delivery of hGH compared to comparable oral compositions, resulting in increased serum concentrations of hGH. The present invention further provides for methods of stimulating tissue growth in an animal by buccally co-administering hGH and a delivery agent.

Pituitary disorders such as growth hormone deficiency (GHD), also referred to as Somatotropin Deficiency Syndrome, effect the production and secretion of growth hormone often resulting in short stature and other physical ailments. GHD results in lower levels of endogenous growth hormone, which causes numerous adverse affects on body processes. Growth hormone is critical to tissue growth, and is known to stimulate the growth of such tissue as skeletal, skeletal muscle and organ. Human growth hormone has also been implicated in the metabolism of fat, carbohydrates, proteins and minerals such as potassium and phosphorus.
Human growth hormone (hGH) is a naturally occurring human protein secreted by the pituitary gland which consists of 191 amino acids and has a molecular weight of about 22,000 daltons. hGH may isolated from in its natural form from the pituitary gland of human cadavers, or may be produced recombinantly known genetic engineering techniques. Recombinant production of hGH can yield a variety of hGH species, including a 191 amino acid native species (commonly known as Somatropin), as described for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,670,393, 5,424,199, 5,633,352 and 5,795,745 (the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated by reference) or a 192 amino acid species, met-hGH, having N-terminal methionine (met) (commonly known as Somatrem), such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,658,021, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Recombinant hGH (both the 191 and 192 amino acid species) has been approved by the FDA for a number of treatments, including the treatment of children and adults suffering from GHD, and the treatment of wasting in individuals suffering from AIDS. One example of approved hGH is Nutropin®, commercially available from Genentech (South San Francisco, Calif.) which consists of 191 amino acids and has been approved for the treatment of GHD, Turner Syndrome and chronic renal failure in children and for the treatment of adults suffering from GHD. Currently, all FDA approved hGH compositions are administered subcutaneously by injection, three times a week or once daily in order to maintain suitable serum levels of hGH.
Buccal delivery is a more preferable method of administering drugs and offers several advantages over subcutaneous injection. Typically, a buccal dosage form is placed in the buccal cavity between the gum and the cheek, where it dissolves in the patient's saliva, releasing the drug into the buccal cavity in close proximity to the capillary bed of the oral mucosa. The drug then enters the blood in the capillary bed by diffusion through the mucosal tissue and is distributed in the bloodstream to the rest of the body.
Buccal administration is less invasive and results in greater patient compliance compared to subcutaneous injection. Furthermore, unlike oral administration, buccal administration avoids the possibility that the drug will be destroyed in the gastrointestinal tract before it can be absorbed, and eliminates first-pass inactivation in the liver after absorption.
Therefore, there is a need for a human growth hormone formulation which can be buccally administered.

Compositions and methods for buccal delivery of human growth hormone


A grating pulse compressor configuration is introduced for increasing the optical dispersion for a given footprint and to make practical the application for chirped pulse amplification (CPA) to quasi-narrow bandwidth materials, such as Nd:YAG. The grating configurations often use cascaded pairs of gratings to increase angular dispersion an order of magnitude or more. Increased angular dispersion allows for decreased grating separation and a smaller compressor footprint.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention provides ultra-intense laser pulses capable of interacting with matter, and more specifically, it relates to a chirped pulse amplification system and a method that includes lengthening a pulse's duration by often using cascaded pairs of gratings so as to increase the angular dispersion and produce a high power, short pulse.
2. Description of Related Art
The conventional method for circumventing optical damage due to amplification of high intensity pulsed sources is accomplished by chirped pulse amplification (i.e., CPA).
Chirped pulse amplification originated 60 years ago during the development of microwave radar. In the optical case, one avoids intensity-dependent damage by increasing the input temporal pulse duration prior to amplification by passing an input pulse through a frequency-dependent delay line. Such a dispersive delay line often includes prisms or gratings to separate the spectral content of the pulse and in doing so produce an optical path difference for different spectral components and thus stretch the pulses temporally prior to amplification and compress them afterwards. By amplifying a stretched pulse, higher peak intensity can be achieved without reaching the damage threshold of the amplifying material.
The required footprint of CPA pulse compressors and stretchers is approximately inversely proportional to the dispersion of the dispersive element and to the bandwidth of the pulse being stretched. For a given wavelength, however, the dispersion of a grating is a function of the groove density, which cannot be arbitrarily increased and still obtain a solution to the grating equation. Thus the dispersion of the gratings is limited, and the footprint is determined by the bandwidth of the pulses being stretched.
For CPA of pulses with transform-limited pulse widths in the picosecond regime, where the bandwidth of the pulse is low, grating compressors with grating separations of several meters are not uncommon, and prism compressors are impractical due to their even lower dispersion and greater length. Even with grating-based compressors, application of CPA to materials such as Nd;YAG and Nd:YLF, whose bandwidth limits compressed pulse durations to of order of about 5 ps or greater requires impractically large grating separations or extensive folding of the optical path.
Accordingly, a need exists for a configuration that can increase CPA compressor dispersion at high efficiency use angles so as to produce compact configurations. The present invention is directed to such a need.

Hyper dispersion pulse compressor for chirped pulse amplification systems

Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC


A shaft seal comprising a plurality of members which collectively engage the shaft exterior in substantially uninterrupted 360.degree. sealing contact in a plane perpendicular to the axis of the shaft while providing relatively high capacity for wear using nonflexible materials such as graphite. The provision of 360.degree. contact in a single plane enables engagement between the shaft seal and the shaft to be limited to a single ring structure, rather than requiring a pair of rings in side-by-side abutting relation. The seal members comprise a plurality of followers and an equal plurality of drivers, with each of the members being movable inwardly as it wears. Each of the followers is driven inwardly by drivers on each side as it wears. Each follower has a wear surface configured for sealing engagement with the shaft, and a pair of bearing surfaces for engagement with drivers on either side. Each of the drivers has a pair of bearing surfaces for engaging the respective bearing surfaces of the followers on either side, and a central wear surface for engaging the shaft. The bearing surfaces of the drivers and the followers are substantially planar, and the bearing surfaces on each driver are preferably coplanar with one another. In some embodiments of the invention the followers and drivers are each four in number. In other embodiments the drivers and followers are each three in number. The drivers and followers may be made of a graphite ceramic material and used without lubrication, or alternatively may be made of a babbitt material or other conventional material for use in a lubricated environment.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to seals and more particularly to a seal for engaging a moving shaft.
2. Background Information
Many conventional seals and packings have relatively little capacity for wear. A particular problem which arises in certain environments e.g., in jet engine turbines or cryogenic vacuum pumps, is that extremes of temperature and/or pressure may render conventional lubricants impractical as a means of reducing the coefficient of friction between seal members and the shaft exterior. In such environments, flexible seals such as elastomers are unsuitable and therefore the provision of a seal having adequate wear capacity can pose a difficult problem.
Numerous prior patents address the problem of providing seals or packings capable of maintaining sealing contact as they wear. However, the wear capacity of the devices proposed by these patents is typically limited to a relatively small fraction of the shaft diameter, or require flexible components.
U.S. Pat. No. 391,991 describes a six-piece packing in which each piece is provided with a flange and one or more projecting side lips. Each of the side lips is engaged and pressed radially inward by a flange of an adjacent one of the six pieces. Radial gaps between the pieces enable them to move inward as they wear. Inward travel of the pieces is limited by the narrow width of the gaps. Once the pieces shift sufficiently to close the gaps and move into abutting relation with one another, the packing cannot compensate for further wear. Furthermore, the radial dimensions of the six pieces are small with respect to the shaft diameter. Accordingly, the wear capacity of this packing is quite limited.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,350,349 describes another six-piece rod packing which provides a pair of segmented rings. Each ring has radial gaps at its sealing surface. The gaps in the respective rings are offset from one another. As in the above-described U.S. Pat. No. 391,991, the wear life of the packing is limited by the widths of the gaps. It is also noteworthy that this configuration fails to provide 360.degree. sealing contact in any one plane.
Numerous other attempts have been made in the past to provide various improved features for packings. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 588,681 describes a steam packing for a piston rod which is intended to automatically adjust itself to unevenness in the wear of the piston rod or of the packing itself, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,305,241 describes an effort to provide an improved backing ring.
There remains a need for a shaft seal which has a relatively high capacity for wear and which is suitable for use in extreme environments in which lubrication and seal flexibility may be impractical.

Shaft seal having capacity for substantial wear


The present invention relates to a process for preparing trimethylolpropane having a low APHA color number.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for preparing trimethylolpropane having a low APHA (American Public Health Association) colour number.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Trimethylolpropane, referred to hereinbelow as TMP, is a trihydric alcohol of great industrial significance which finds use, for example, in the field of coating resin, powder coating, foam and polyester production.
Customarily, TMP is prepared from n-butyraldehyde and formaldehyde. Base-catalysed aldol reactions initially generate 2,2-dimethylolbutyraldehyde in the 1st reaction step from n-butyraldehyde and two equivalents of formaldehyde. 2,2-Dimethylolbutyraldehyde may then be converted in the 2nd reaction step, for example, by reaction with further formaldehyde and base in a Cannizzaro reaction to TMP-containing reaction mixtures in which the formate of the base used also occurs as a further reaction product.
The reaction steps 1 and 2 may either be carried out separately or in one working step. The bases used both for the base-catalysed reaction step 1 and also for the reaction step 2 which is stoichiometric in relation to the base quantity may optionally each independently be, for example, alkali metal or alkaline earth metal hydroxides or carbonates, or tertiary amines.
When, for example, a tertiary amine is used for the separate 2nd reaction step or the reaction steps 1 and 2 carried out in a single working step, this is known as the organic Cannizzaro process. When inorganic bases, for example alkali metal or alkaline earth metal hydroxides or carbonates, are used, this is accordingly known as an inorganic Cannizzaro process. The different physical and chemical properties of the ammonium formates or inorganic formates occurring as the further reaction products require very different work-up methods for the TMP-containing reaction mixtures.
The inorganic Cannizzaro process has the advantage that the TMP occurs in good purity and when, for example, calcium hydroxide is used as the base, the by-product is calcium formate which in turn may be used, for example, as an additive for animal nutrition, in the building materials industry, as an assistant in the leather industry, as an assistant in producing high-gloss papers, for treating scrubbing water and in smoke desulphurization.
The TMP-containing reaction mixtures obtainable by the Cannizzaro process generally have very strong coloration which is caused by impurities. This coloration, which may customarily be evaluated by a colour number according to APHA (American Public Health Association) or Hazen, interferes in some uses, which is why the work-up customarily consists of cleaning operations, for example acid treatments, extractions and/or multistage distillations. Such multistage distillations generally require expensive, space-consuming and column arrangements which are costly and inconvenient in terms of apparatus and are accordingly quite unattractive in economic terms.
Various techniques are known for the work-up of TMP-containing reaction mixtures from inorganic Cannizzaro processes. For example, DD-P-45 078 describes a process for work-up in which TMP-containing reaction mixtures obtained from inorganic Cannizzaro processes are admixed with secondary cycloaliphatic alcohols which form azeotropes with water. Then water is azeotropically distilled off together with this alcohol, and the precipitated alkali metal or alkaline earth metal formates are removed by filtration. After distilling off the excess alcohol, the crude TMP obtained is distilled for further purification.
DD Patent 287 251 discloses a process for removing high boilers from TMP. Examples of high boilers include subsequent reaction products of TMP, in particular formals, which have a higher boiling point than TMP and accordingly accumulate in the distillation residue when crude TMP is vacuum-distilled. In the process described, the addition of from 0.02 to 0.05 kg of acid/kg at least partially converts many of the high boilers back to TMP, which is intended to lead to a yield increase.
GB 1 290 036 also describes a process for decomposing high boilers in TMP-containing reaction mixtures which have been obtained by the inorganic Cannizzaro process. This involves adding cationic exchange resins and heating to from 50° C. to 140° C. to convert any formals present, which have a similar boiling point to TMP and tend to decompose at the boiling point of TMP, to products having other boiling points which can be easily distilled off.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,097,245 describes a process for preparing TMP having an APHA colour number of from 50 to 200. This colour number is achieved by limiting the reaction time to less than 7 hours, acidifying the reaction mixture to a pH of less than 7 and limiting the concentrations of the starting compounds to from 5 to 20% by weight. The reaction is also followed by treatment of the solution obtained with cationic exchange resins and strongly basic quaternary ammonium anion exchangers.
Common to all the processes mentioned is that chemical treatment methods have to be carried out which worsen both the eco-balance and the economic preparability of the product or entail considerable apparatus, and accordingly financial, costs and inconvenience to generate products having an acceptable colour number.
There is accordingly a need to provide an efficient process which makes it possible to obtain pure TMP in high yield and having a very low APHA colour number, i.e. of 20 or less, from the TMP-containing reaction mixtures prepared by the inorganic Cannizzaro process.


The present invention relates to a transmission interface device capable of calibrating the transmission frequency automatically, which comprises a clock generating unit, a data transmission unit, and a control unit. The clock generating unit is used for generating an operating clock, which determines a transmission frequency. The data transmission unit is used for connecting to a host and transmitting a plurality of data to the host or receiving the plurality of data from the host according to the operating clock. When the host or the data transmission unit detects transmission errors in the plurality of data, the host or the data transmission unit generates an error handling. The control unit generates an adjusting signal according to the error handling and transmits the adjusting signal to the clock generating unit for adjusting the transmission frequency of the operating clock.

Because various current consumer electronic devices, such as communication devices, image extraction devices, storage devices, and Internet devices, have been developing the functions of high resolution, high definition, or high storage capacity, it is required to process huge volume of digital data. In order to enable users to transmit considerable quantities of digital data between hosts and electronic devices, most of the consumer electronic devices include popular transmission frameworks of high-speed serial bus, for example, universe serial bus (USB) or IEEE1394 transmission frameworks.
Take the USB transmission framework for example. In the USB2.0, there is a strict standard on the frequencies of the interface communication protocol between hosts and USB devices in low-speed, full-speed, and high-speed conditions for corresponding to different applications. In the low-speed condition, the data rate specification of the data stream of hosts is 1.5 MHz±1.5% and applicable to keyboards and mice. In the full-speed condition, the data rate specification of the data stream of hosts is 12 MHz±0.25% and applicable to audio and microphones. In the high-speed condition, the data rate specification of the data stream of hosts is 480 MHz±0.05% and applicable to video and imaging.
In addition, because multiple data transmission stages are defined in the USB transmission framework, the allowable ranges of receiving frequency by the hosts for receiving data differ. For example, according to the USB transmission framework, three data transmission stages are defined, including a device identification stage, a device configuration stage, and a data transmission stage. The allowable ranges of the receiving frequency by the hosts in each stage for receiving data are not identical. The allowable error of the receiving frequency in the data transmission stage is the smallest. This is because substantial volumes of data are to be transmitted, the range of the receiving frequency must be accurate for preventing erroneous data transmission. Thereby, the frequency sources for USB devices are mostly quartz oscillators, resonance oscillators, or adding digital phase-lock loops (DPLLs) for generating an accurate frequency signal.
FIG. 1 shows an interface data transmission framework of the USB device according to the prior art, which comprises a host 10 and a USB device 12. The host 10 and the USB device 12 are connected to each other via the USB interface therebetween and perform signal transmission. Nonetheless, the requirement in the accuracy of the transmission signal frequency of USB is strict. Thereby, the USB device according to the prior art adopts a quartz oscillator 121 connected to the control chip of the USB device 12 for generating the clock signal and used as the operating frequency of the USB device 12. Nonetheless, using the external quartz oscillator 121 increases the manufacturing cost. Besides, because the clock frequency of the quartz oscillator 121 is fixed, compared with the signal transmitted by the host 10, there is possibility of producing errors.
For solving the problem described above, manufactures integrate the internal resistors and capacitors of the control chip in the USB device for producing an RC oscillator used as the frequency source of the USB device, enabling the frequency source of the USB device to be included inside the control chip thereof. Nonetheless, due to process variations, there are approximately ±25% errors in the frequency of the RC oscillator, which does not comply with the standard for USB drivers.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a transmission interface device capable of calibrating the transmission frequency automatically and the method thereof. When the frequencies of the transmission interface device and the host are compatible, according to the error handling transmitted by the host or the error handling detected by the device from the received data, the transmission device is reset and its frequency is adjusted until the frequency of the transmission device falls within the frequency range.

Transmission interface device capable of calibrating transmission frequency automatically and method thereof


A wearable apparatus, which includes a positioning module, a local wireless communication module and a processor module, is disclosed. The processor module is adapted to send a request command through the local wireless communication module to the electronic apparatus for inquiring second positioning information generated by the electronic apparatus. In response to the processor module receives a valid request response comprising the second positioning information from the electronic apparatus, the processor module is further adapted to locate the wearable apparatus according to the second positioning information. In response to the processor module receives an invalid request response from the electronic apparatus, the processor module is further adapted to activate the positioning module to receive the first positioning information, and locate the wearable apparatus according to the first positioning information.

1. Field of Invention
The present application relates to a wearable apparatus and a controlling method. More particularly, the present application relates to how to obtain positioning information on the wearable apparatus and the controlling method thereof.
2. Description of Related Art
Recently, wearable devices (smart watches, smart wristbands, smart glasses, etc) are popular due to their mobility and various functions. Wearable devices are utilized for measuring heart rates, tracking running routes, recording motion histories of users, displaying notifications to users, and/or different functions. In order to make the wearable devices more user-friendly, the wearable devices must be compact, light-weighted and easy to carry. In addition, the wearable devices are also required to have good battery durability.
However, due to the size and weight of the wearable device are limited to maintain the mobility, it is hard to implement a battery with high capacity into the wearable device. Therefore, how to achieve more functions on the wearable device with a limited capacity of battery is an important problem.

Wearable apparatus and controlling method thereof


Dry fertilizers of biologically degraded crushed minerals such as limestone, rock, or rock phosphate together with micro-organisms, including one or more selected supplementary trace elements, are described. Minerals, some sawdust, an inoculum, and nutrients or other protein material, including bound selected micro-elements or trace elements are stored under aerobic conditions for some weeks during thermophilic biological degradation. The resolution fertilizer releases the macro-elements and micro-elements over a long period of time. The microelements are include within a biomass of micro-organism (5-6% carbon in the resulting fertilizer) and are more effective in remedying plan or animal deficiencies than if administered as inorganic salts. Furthermore this fertilizer avoids leaching of mineral including phosphate (phosphorus) and microelements into groundwater, streams, rivers or lakes.

Single-purpose fertilisers of the "chemical" type as listed above are relatively pure chemicals, and because of hostility to life such as non-neutral pH, osmotic effects or others, life forms are substantially absent from these fertilisers as sold. There has been no particular reason to modify these fertilisers with micro-organisms. It may follow that application of at least some of these materials to the ground also brings at least short-term hostility to soil micro-organisms as well. The very low pH of superphosphate (rock phosphate treated with sulphuric acid) is one form of hostility.
For many years it has been known that some animals, or some plants, show poor thrift or restricted growth and it has been found in many cases that addition of small amounts of certain elements (many of which are in the group known as "trace elements" to the soil (or sometimes directly to the animals or plants) can overcome the problems. Boron, copper, manganese and zinc deficiencies all reduce plant dry matter and plant vigour.
Examples include: (1) Plants with yellowish leaves. In some cases this is caused by a deficiency of magnesium which is a component of the green photosynthesis protein/enzyme called chlorophyll. (2) Animals (bovines) with poor condition and a particular type of anaemia particularly if living on lands which were covered by ash showers, pumice, etc in recent eruptions in the centre of the North Island of New Zealand. These have been shown to be significantly deficient in cobalt. Similarly, copper deficiency, selenium deficiency, and many other types of deficiency in one or more elements are known. (Occasionally a deficiency to the end-user arises because of antagonism between two elements, such as copper and molybdenum, and occasionally toxic effects occur because of excessive amounts of for example copper or selenium). That such deficiencies may arise is not surprising if the total pool for a given material is limited and farmers consistently ship out plant or animal material that includes some of the pool.
There is therefore a well-developed practice of taking soil, plant or animal samples, subjecting them to appropriate chemical analysis, and providing remedial amounts of specific elements if incorrect amounts are reported, within fertilisers or in other more direct ways.
Sometimes the remedial amounts of elements (such as copper, commonly administered at about 12 kg per hectare as copper sulphate) are in themselves toxic to soil micro-organisms. Copper salts are known as a means to kill algae even at concentrations of 1 part in 40,000. In a test, copper sulphate at an amount corresponding to 1 kg/ha killed the algae in a turbid swimming pool in a few hours.
Use of soluble salts (such as copper; zinc, or cobalt sulphate) has the risk that the salts may be washed away from the sites on which they are broadcast before the micro-organisms can include them in their biomass. Clearly it would be an advantage for a user of fertiliser that any added trace elements are released from the applied fertiliser in a slow manner so that they are present for a long period (such as 12 months), whereas addition of simple salts (such as copper sulphate) that are highly soluble relies on such as adsorbtion effects against soil particles to hold the copper ions in place.
The inventor has previously supplied chelated micro-elements incorporated within a fish nutrient hydrolysate for direct application on to the ground. Although these are an improvement over inorganic salts, it has been noted that these chelates can be leached away fairly easily.
The inventor desires to invent and make fertilisers which can be broadcast without significant harm to the micro-organisms in the soil, wherein the nutrients in the fertiliser can be absorbed by at least some of the soil micro-organisms as part of their nutrients, while the trace elements which are mainly already incorporated within added micro-organisms as part of the cell structure remain in the upper layers as an enrichment, exchanged between micro-organisms, and made available to plants and then to animals.

Bio-processed mineral fertilisers including micro-elements


In accordance with various aspects of the disclosure, a system, a method, and computer readable medium having instructions for processing images is disclosed. For example, the method includes receiving, at an image processor, a set of images corresponding to a scene changing with time, decomposing, at the image processor, the set of images to detect static objects, leaner objects, and mover objects in the scene, the mover objects being objects that change spatial orientation in the scene with time, and compressing, using the image processor, the mover objects in the scene separately at a rate different from that of the static objects and the leaner objects for storage and/or transmission.

This disclosure relates generally to the field of image processing and more particularly to a method and apparatus for decomposition and compression of motion imagery.
In conventional image processing scenarios, sensor data obtained from the image or scene being observed often overwhelms the processing capabilities of the image processing systems. Spatial-temporal compression of images is standardized in MPEG4/H.264 and other MPEG standards that apply the same image compression to the whole image. However, such conventional techniques are geared toward TV/movie type scenes, and are not optimized for airborne/space sensors. As a result, using such conventional techniques creates communications bottlenecks. Some conventional techniques characterize the apparent motion of the background and compress this information iteratively. However, such iterative processes are computationally intensive and require tracking of a large number of changes to identify moving pixels/objects from static image pixels/objects.

Method and apparatus for image processing


Methods and apparatus for connecting relatively small wires to standard size electrical connectors. An enlarged conductive region is formed on an end of the wire, the conductive region having an outer dimension adapted to be securely received in the connector, and the enlarged conductive region is covered with a nonconductive sleeve to electrically isolate the conductive region, the conductive region and nonconductive sleeve together defining an enlarged connector lead. The enlarged conductive region may be a conductive tube through which the wire is inserted and then spot welded, folded and/or crimped, or a multiple folded segment of the wire end, covered by a nonconductive shrink tube. The resulting enlarged connector lead may be received in a standard insulation displacement connector as part of a system for coupling the wire to electrical circuitry, the connector including a blade for piercing the nonconductive sleeve to electrically couple the wire to a terminal on the connector.

Small diameter catheters, such as diagnostic or therapeutic electrophysiology catheters, may be introduced into a patient's body in order to position a plurality of electrodes and/or sensors distally located on the catheter at a selected internal body location. Generally, such catheters have an elongate shape, terminating in a distal end, and having a size to facilitate introduction into the body, for example, through the cardiovascular system to a selected location within a heart chamber.
To couple electrodes carried on the distal end of the catheter to external circuitry, such as a source of energy and/or a processor for receiving or analyzing data from the electrodes, a plurality of respective electrode wires or leads are provided. The electrode wires are connected to respective electrodes on the distal end of the catheter and extend through a lumen inside the catheter to its proximal end. The electrode wires exiting the proximal end of the catheter are typically attached to external connectors, which are adapted for coupling to external circuitry.
Due to the limited space available within the catheters, the electrode wires are generally substantially smaller in diameter than wire used for standard external electrical cables and connectors. For example, an electrophysiology catheter may carry a significant number of electrode wires (e.g. sixty four) in a single relatively small lumen, wherein a wire diameter as small as between about 36 and about 46 gauge is required to fit the respective electrode wires in the lumen. On the other hand, conventional external cable systems are generally adapted for connecting substantially larger wires, for example 24-28 gauge wire.
Ribbon cables, which carry a plurality of discrete wires in a planar arrangement, are often used to connect a variety of standard electrical or electronic components. Ribbon cables, however, are generally incompatible with the small size and shape of the available wire lumen provided in an electrophysiology catheter.
In addition, insulation displacement connectors are a convenient and inexpensive connector often used to mechanically provide an electrical connection between such ribbon cables and other circuitry. These devices typically include a bank of slots for receiving standard size wires, e.g. 24-28 gauge insulated wires, where an individual wire may be mechanically secured within each slot such that a blade in the slot penetrates the insulation to provide an electrical connection.
Such inexpensive commercially available connectors, however, do not have slots that are capable of securely receiving relatively small size wires, e.g., those between about 36 and about 46 gauge, as may be appropriate for the above-described electrode wires in electrophysiology catheters. Instead, to provide a connection between electrode wires and conventional external circuitry, the small size electrode wires must be individually soldered or otherwise individually connected to conventional large wires or connectors. For example, individual electrode wires may be soldered or crimped to 2 mm diameter pins, or they may be placed into "cups" on a connector, such as a "LEMO" style connector, and soldered or adhered with a conductive epoxy.
In addition to the relatively costly procedure of individually connecting the "smaller" electrode wires to the "larger" ribbon cable wires, because of their relatively small size, the electrode wires are often very fragile and/or prone to fatigue. Consequently, the resulting soldered joints tend to be fragile and vulnerable to breaking during the use of the catheters.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved method for connecting small gauge electrode wires to standard size wires and/or external circuitry.

Methods and apparatus for increasing wire diameter to improve connectability


Left- and right-click buttons of a virtual touchpad each have two modes, a “click” mode and an “on/off” mode. In “click” mode, touching a finger to the left- or right-click button triggers a mouse button down event while releasing a finger from the button triggers a mouse button up event. In “on/off” mode, the left- and right-click buttons each have two states, “on” and “off.” If the current state of the left- or right-click button is “off,” then touching the button triggers the mouse button down event, while releasing the button changes the state of the button to “on” but does not trigger any mouse events. Conversely, if the current state of the left- or right-click button is “on,” then touching the button does not trigger any mouse events, but releasing the button thereafter changes the state of the button to “off” and triggers the mouse button up event.

When a user remotely accesses an application configured for mouse-and-keyboard based commands, the user controls a particular server machine remotely from his or her computing device. This type of interaction is commonly referred to as a "remote" session. Throughout a remote session, the video output data generated at the server machine is routed to the user's computing device, where such video data includes a user interface (UI) of an operating system and/or applications executing on the host machine. Conversely, user input data received at the user's computing device is routed to the server machine, where the operating system and/or applications interpret the routed input data as if the input data was received locally at the server machine.
In remote sessions, it is not uncommon for users on mobile devices to use virtual touch pads to perform mouse actions. Virtual touch pads present UIs akin to physical touch pads on laptop computers. Touch gestures (e.g., tapping or dragging a finger) performed on a virtual touch pad are translated to mouse commands and routed to the host machine as such. However, on small devices, operations which typically require two fingers to perform on the virtual touch pad may become difficult, if not impossible, to perform. For example, highlighting and drag operations are typically performed by holding down a left-click button of the virtual touch pad while simultaneously moving a finger across the virtual touch pad's touch area. Such drag operations require two fingers to perform, and become cumbersome on small mobile devices such as mobile phones.
One approach for performing highlighting and drag operations without holding down the left-click button relies on "click lock," in which the left-click button is maintained in a mouse button down state by software in response to a user's button press that lasts for at least a given time duration (e.g., 2 seconds). However, in remote sessions, there is often delay between the client device and the desktop running on the host machine, making it difficult for a user to distinguish whether the left-click button has been pressed for a particular time duration. Moreover, "tap to click," a common feature of virtual touch pads that permits a click to be performed by tapping on a pad's touch area, may break drag operations despite click lock, as the click resulting from such a tap typically ends the continuous button click provided by software.

Virtual touchpad with two-mode buttons for remote desktop client


A modular support structure for a control room work station is disclosed which is capable of being used to support top surfaces of different shapes. The support structure includes a plurality of adjustable posts wherein each post comprises two elongated rectangular post flanges, each having a top edge for supporting the top surface, a bottom edge, an elongated outer edge and an elongated articulating edge opposing said outer edge, and hinge means for articulating said two rectangular post flanges with each other along said articulating edges. The hinged posts permit the attachment of panels at a variety of angles to accommodate the shape of the top surface. Also provided is a control room work station having the modular support structure of the present invention.

Instrument control rooms are provided in a variety of different facilities such as nuclear power stations, oil refineries, and electric or fossil fuel generating plants. In such control rooms, instruments are mounted on the walls and must be monitored by operators sitting at a work station wired for control consoles or computer terminals.
Previous work stations such as that disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,895, require posts of different shapes to accommodate the various shapes of the top surfaces which they support. The posts of U.S. Pat. No. 4,663,895 are either rectangular, to accommodate square angles or straight lines in the work station's top surface, or they have at least five sides to accommodate other angles in the top surface. The disadvantage of this and other prior art work stations is that a different shape of post is required for each different angle in the top surface supported by the posts in order to accommodate adjoining panels that are attached to the posts. The requirement of differently-shaped posts permits less flexibility in the design of work stations because all of the angles formed by the adjoining panels must be preselected so that posts can be made accordingly.
Therefore, there is a need for a solution of the problem of how to design an operator work station for an instrument control room in a manner so that the work station is aesthetically attractive, provides for ease of wiring with ease of access to wiring after installation, and having design versatility which permits ease of future modifications and use with top surfaces of different shapes.

Modular support structure for a control room work station


A weather guard for use with outdoors located enclosures or any structures for housing electronic devices. The enclosures house electronic devices associated with telecommunications equipment (e.g., telephone, television, cable television, satellite), utilities equipment such as gas, water, and electric measurement and communication equipment, and other equipment. The weather guard includes a frame and an impermeable membrane attached to the frame to protect the electronic devices and/or service personnel from environmental conditions including inclement weather such as rain, snow, wind, sleet, and ice, and other environmental conditions such as wind blown sand, dust, and dirt.

In the telecommunication industry, utility industry, and other related industries, it is common practice to locate electrical and electronic hardware devices and equipment outdoors (collectively referred to herein as electronic devices), in electronic enclosures, and in various types of structures such as dwellings and/or equipment shelters. Generally, the electronic devices are located in an enclosure or in a structure for protection against ambient weather and other environmental conditions. These enclosures may be formed of several materials such as metal, polymer, plastic, ceramic, glass, crystal, and/or combinations thereof. Also, the enclosures may be formed in any shape. The structures are small shelters designed to house the electronic devices, which also may be located inside an enclosure, and in some cases the structures are dwellings and/or commercial establishments.
The enclosures and structures are generally installed outdoors. Accordingly, any sensitive electronic devices contained in the enclosures and structures are subjected to the ambient weather and other environmental conditions each time the enclosures and structures are opened to allow service personnel access to the hardware and devices located inside. Enclosures include, for example, cross-boxes, tandem boxes, digital subscriber line access multiplexer (DSLAM) boxes, demarcation network interface devices (NID), splice cases, mesa cabinets, remote terminal sites, SLCC sites, and splice locations are not weatherproof, they generally cannot be accessed during inclement weather. While other protection devices may offer some protection against rain that falls vertically (e.g., perpendicular to the Earth's surface), these devices do not offer adequate lateral protection and do not completely cover the enclosures, openings in the structures being worked in, from the sides. Therefore, both the service personnel, the hardware and/or equipment are subject to laterally driven environmental influences such as rain, snow, hail, and other windblown matter, and any types of inclement weather conditions laterally driven towards the sides of the enclosures and or structures either directly or at some angle thereto.
When it is necessary to perform service on the electronic devices contained in the outdoor enclosures or dwellings, service personnel must provide the service at the site where the enclosure or dwelling is located. When the service is performed during inclement weather conditions, there exists a chance that any electronic devices located inside the enclosure or structure will be affected by the inclement weather. This is true whether there is driving rain, wind, blown sand, dust, and dirt. The service personnel also require protection while servicing the hardware and equipment in such inclement weather conditions. Therefore, while the service personnel are servicing the electronic devices and other equipment contained in the outdoor enclosure during equipment upgrades, testing, maintenance, service outage problems, and other service requirements, the technician and the electrical and/or electronic hardware devices and other equipment must be protected to prevent them from exposure to inclement weather conditions and degrading over time. Telecommunication systems failures due to degraded electronic devices and other equipment cause unnecessary labor costs associated with the replacement of the electronic devices and other equipment. This includes the labor costs associated with sending a technician in the field to perform the repairs, the cost of having customers or users out of service, and any other costs associated with making unnecessary trouble shooting calls.


When the side acceleration acting upon a vehicle body is comparatively small, the roll rigidities of a front wheel suspension device and a rear wheel suspension device are mainly controlled based upon their roll angles; while, when this side acceleration is comparatively large, the roll rigidities of the front wheel suspension device and the rear wheel suspension device are mainly controlled based upon the correlation between the roll rigidity of the front wheel suspension and the roll rigidity of the rear wheel suspension device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a four wheeled vehicle such as an automobile or the like which is endowed with a function of changing roll angle control mode according to the magnitude of the side acceleration acting upon the vehicle body, and to a control method for such a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
With a four wheeled vehicle such as an automobile or the like, when the vehicle is running around a curve, due to lateral force such as centrifugal force acting upon the vehicle body, rolling occurs in which the vehicle body tilts towards the outside of the curve, with a difference in the vertical deflection of the left and right suspension devices of the vehicle being set up. As this rolling increases, an increasing reaction force is generated; and stabilizers are per se known as means for preventing the vehicle body from rolling to an excessive extent. Furthermore, as such a stabilizer, there is a per se known type of active stabilizer which is provided with an actuator, and which is made so that its anti-roll force can be variably adjusted. According to this type of active stabilizer, it is possible to adjust the roll rigidity, which is indicative of the anti-roll characteristic of the vehicle body, in a variable manner according to the magnitude of the lateral force which acts upon the vehicle body, and, furthermore, by doing this, it is possible to control the magnitude of the roll angle to which the vehicle body rolls in a variable manner, according to the magnitude of the lateral force which acts upon the vehicle body.
Furthermore, with regard to variable control of the roll rigidity and the roll angle of the vehicle body, if the vehicle wheel suspension devices are provided with active suspension units, like air springs, which are able to control their spring force in a variable manner, then this type of control operation also becomes available.
On the other hand, with regard to the roll rigidity of the vehicle wheel suspension devices, the larger this roll rigidity is, the smaller is the tilting of the vehicle body to the outside of a curve around which it is running, but, along with the rolling of the vehicle body, the greater is this rolling, the more does the ground contact load upon the vehicle wheels shift to the outside of the curve, and the allotment of the ground contact load between the left and right vehicle wheels becomes more greatly biased towards the outside of the curve. Since, as shown in FIG. 6, the increase of the cornering force upon the vehicle wheels with respect to increase of the ground contact load upon the vehicle wheels exhibits a non linear characteristic which curves towards saturation in an upwardly convex shape, accordingly the total cornering force upon the left and right vehicle wheels becomes smaller along with greater bias of the allotment of the ground contact load between the left and right vehicle wheels from a state of 50:50 equilibrium (in the example shown in the figure, through 40:60, 30:70, 20:80).
With a four wheeled vehicle, the relative magnitude relationship between the magnitude of the cornering force upon the front wheels and the magnitude of the cornering force upon the rear wheels affects the steering responsiveness of the vehicle. In other words, when the cornering force upon the front wheels becomes small as correlated with the cornering force upon the rear wheels, the vehicle exhibits an understeering characteristic; but conversely, when the cornering force upon the rear wheels becomes small as correlated with the cornering force upon the front wheels, the vehicle exhibits an oversteering characteristic. Since, according to the above, the cornering force is affected by the roll rigidity, the relative magnitude relationship between the roll rigidity of the front wheel suspension devices and the roll rigidity of the rear wheel suspension devices affects the steering responsiveness of the vehicle. Various methods have been proposed for controlling this relative magnitude relationship between the roll rigidity of the front wheel suspension devices and the roll rigidity of the rear wheel suspension devices, which may be termed the roll rigidity front/rear allotment ratio, in various ways. For example, in Japanese Patent Publication No. JP-A-2-193749, it is described to perform control by establishing a relationship between the roll rigidity ratio between the front wheels and the rear wheels, and the braking force upon the rear wheels.
In Japanese Patent Publication No. JP-A-2-193749, apart from the gist of that invention, in the description of an embodiment, the concept is included of, in connection with control of the above described roll rigidity ratio, also performing control so as to determine the control amount with reference to a target roll angle. However, the desirable target value for the roll angle and the desirable target value for the roll rigidity front/rear ratio do not necessarily match one another, and, as a general rule, it is difficult to perform control while giving serious consideration to both of them at the same time. Furthermore, if both of these parameters are controlled at the same time, there is a danger that large control errors will occur due to interference taking place between them. On the other hand, roll angle control is particularly effective when the vehicle is running around a curve at comparatively low speed, so that the driver has a margin of attention for considering the inclination of the vehicle body. However, when the vehicle is running around a curve at a speed which is higher than a certain level, what is the matter of most concern from the point of view of the driver is the steering responsiveness of the vehicle, i.e. how the vehicle responds to being steered.

Vehicle with combined roll angle control and roll rigidity front/rear allotment ratio control, and control method for the same


A method of stuffing natural casings with emulsion involves slidably mounting a collar element on the stuffing tube of the machine adjacent an end of the stuffing tube opposite to the discharge end thereof. The collar is slidably advanced towards the discharge end of the tube to telescope the casing into a shirred condition while leaving a non-shirred portion downstream thereof. The non-shirred portion of the casing is progressively advanced while the casing is filled with emulsion from the tube. A sensor is placed in the proximity of the non-shirred portion of the casing to detect whether shirred or non-shirred casing is present. The sensor is connected to a controller so that the collar will be advanced to slide the casing material on the tube when the non-shirred casing is detected, and the advance of the collar is stopped when shirred casing material is detected. A machine includes the foregoing components to accomplish the method.

Sausages have been traditionally made by filling the natural intestines of sheep or other animals, with a sausage product whereupon the filled natural casing was formed into links for cooking. In more modern times, sausages are predominantly made by introducing an emulsion into an artificial casing, which encases the sausage material through linking and preliminary cooking. Machines for making sausages with artificial casings have a high volume capability (up to 30,000 sausages per hour). Efforts have been made to use these high-speed machines with natural casings. However, because of the nature of the natural casings including their relatively shorter and variable length and non-uniform diameter, modern sausage encasing machines have not achieved the volume and capacity with natural casings as they do with artificial casings.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a method and a machine for encasing sausages whereby the position of the casing on the stuffing tube is monitored by a sensor.
A further object of this invention is to provide a method and a machine for encasing sausage which employs a sensor on the stuffing tube to detect the end of the natural casings.
A further object of this invention is to provide a method and machine for encasing sausage which employs a sensor which can detect the diameter difference between the casings in the shirred state and in its non-shirred condition.
A still further object of this invention is to use a plurality of different types of sensors to determine the position and condition of the natural casing.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.

Method and means for stuffing natural casings with sausage emulsion


This invention provides a system and method to determine orientation/pose of a contact lens residing on the transparent bottom of a fluid-filled, typically opaque-sided cuvette. This allows the system to determine whether the subject contact lens is in a concave up or concave down orientation, and whether the lens is everted. An illuminator is aligned on a longitudinal axis of the cuvette through the contact lens at a position over the cuvette, and a vision system camera is aligned beneath the bottom of the cuvette on the axis. In alternate embodiments the axial locations of the camera and the illuminator can be varied. The camera acquires images of the contact lens. The vision system associated finds the appropriate contact lens edges and characteristics of features. These features allow each of the four poses to be distinguished and categorized for either an acceptable/good or unacceptable/bad pose within the cuvette.

The wearing of contact lenses is a popular technique for correcting a variety of vision problems. So-called "soft" contact lenses are particularly popular with wearers because they consist of a high water volume and conform closely to the wearer's eye. This significantly increases the comfort of the wearer, particularly when a contact lens is worn over a long duration.
Like many other medical products, contact lenses are expected to meet high standards for quality and reliability. As part of the quality assurance and quality control (QAQC) procedures in manufacturing contact lenses, specimens from some or all of the manufactured batches are subjected various test processes. This ensures generally that the manufacturing processes are sound and that a stable level of quality is maintained over time. An approach to testing a sample contact lens entails loading it manually or automatically (e.g. robotically) into a fluid-filled (e.g. saline) cuvette, and testing the contact lens. An exemplary cuvette is a glass or polymer tube with a flat transparent bottom. Notably, processes can be properly performed on the subject contact lens if the contact lens rests on the bottom of the cuvette in a concave down orientation, and is not everted (inside out). While the manual or automated loading process makes efforts to ensure the lens is in the desired non-everted, concave-down orientation, there are times when the contact lens is loaded improperly. In fact, there are four possible orientations ("poses") for a soft contact lens resting on the bottom of a fluid-filled cuvette for any given inspection cycle. These four loaded poses are:
1. non-everted concave down (CCD, good)
2. non-everted concave up (CCU, bad)
3. everted concave down (ECCD, bad)
4. everted concave up (ECCU, bad)
If the contact lens has pose 1 (CCD, good), then it can be transferred to one or more further processes. If the contact lens has pose 2 (CCU, bad), it should be flipped into the correct orientation, requiring further physical action before proceeding to further processes. If the contact lens has pose 3 or 4 (ECCD or ECCU, both bad), it is typically discarded, as it has experienced possible plastic deformation that renders it imperfect.
While it may be possible to determine the pose of a contact lens readily based upon a side view image of it in the cuvette, the processes to which the contact lens is subjected employ a cuvette with opaque or diffusive side walls. It is therefore not practical to obtain a side view of the lens. Rather, only a top or bottom view with front or back lighting of the contact lens is attainable, i.e. a "face-on" view. It is more challenging to determine the pose of the contact lens (either manually or using a vision system application) from this view point.
It is therefore desirable to provide a system and method for determining the orientation/pose of a contact lens with respect to a cuvette in a face-on view, using a vision system that can distinguish between various poses based upon such direct, face-on view of the top or bottom surface of the contact lens. This system and method should allow for relatively quick categorization of the pose so that further processes (if desired) can be employed with respect to the contact lens and should enable the use of commercially available illuminators and vision system components.

System and method for determination of contact lens orientation


An idle tone dispersion device includes n FDSM (1) to FDSM (n), a phase adjustment unit which relatively adjusts a phase between a measured signal and a reference signal such that a phase of an idle tone is completely different, and generates and supplies n sets of output measured signals and output reference signals to each of the n FDSM (1) to FDSM (n), and an adder which adds output data of the n FDSM (1) to FDSM (n) and outputs a frequency delta-sigma modulation signal.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an idle tone dispersion device improving the resolution of a frequency digital signal conversion, and a frequency measurement device.
2. Related Art
As a method of converting an analog signal into a digital signal, a delta-sigma modulation method is known. In addition, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,362,769, a frequency measurement device is disclosed in which a frequency of a measured signal is measured by using the delta-sigma modulation method. Further, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,362,769, it is disclosed that a continuous output of a count value of a configuration without having a dead period corresponds to a first delta-sigma modulation signal corresponding to the level of the frequency of the measured signal in the frequency measurement device. In the following description, a converter for specifying the frequency of the measured signal by converting the measured signal by the delta-sigma modulation method using a reference signal is referred to as a Frequency Delta Sigma Modulator (FDSM).
In general, it is known that a cyclic quantization noise referred to as an idle tone occurs in an output of a delta-sigma modulator (for example, refer to Chapter 2.6 in Richartd Schreier, Gabor C. Temes.; Introduction to ΔΣ Type Analog/Digital Converter, pages 34 to 41, 2007). The idle tone is a noise directly connected to a degradation in measurement accuracy in frequency measurement using FDSM.
In Dag T Wisland, et al., ESSCIRC2002, pp. 687-690, 2002, a method is considered in which the measured signal is sequentially delayed and is supplied to a plurality of parallelized FDSMs, and the reference signal is supplied to the entire FDSM, and an output of a plurality of parallelized FDSMs is added, and thus the idle tone is suppressed.
However, when a frequency modulation signal is input into FDSM as the measured signal, a quantization noise component in the output of FDSM is overlapped with a baseband signal component of the measured signal. The frequency measurement device in Dag T Wisland, et al., ESSCIRC2002, pp. 687-690, 2002 is premised on the fact that even when the measured signal which is delayed is input into FDSM, the baseband signal component included in the output is not changed, but the quantization noise component included in the output is not correlated at the time of being compared between parallel outputs. Then, in order to minimize a circuit scale, when a configuration of FDSM is limited to be a bit stream output, and then the frequency of the measured signal is lower than a frequency of the reference signal, an effect of dispersing the quantization noise is maximized by designing each amount of delay to divide a half cycle of the measured signal.
However, in Dag T Wisland, et al., ESSCIRC2002, pp. 687-690, 2002, it is also reported that an expected improvement is not obtained in experiment verification.

Idle tone dispersion device and frequency measurement device


An external scan test module that is adapted to act as an interface between an automated tester and a device under test. The external scan test module includes a scan pattern memory to hold scan patterns for at least one configuration of the device under test. A failure log memory holds failure information for the device under test. A controller sends scan input data to the device under test, receives scan output data from the device under test, and sends and receives signals from the automated tester. An interface receives scan patterns.

One problem encountered in the testing of integrated circuits is that the lower cost testers that could ideally be used for testing lower pin count integrated circuits do not have a sufficient amount of scan test memory to provide the test quality levels desired. As the term is used herein, "integrated circuit" includes devices such as those formed on monolithic semiconducting substrates, such as those formed of group IV materials like silicon or germanium, or group III–V compounds like gallium arsenide, or mixtures of such materials. The term includes all types of devices formed, such as memory and logic, and all designs of such devices, such as MOS and bipolar. The term also comprehends applications such as flat panel displays, solar cells, and charge coupled devices.
While testers such as those described above can be upgraded with additional scan test memory, it is very expensive to do so. A full memory upgrade to a tester could range as high as about $400,000. However, this is currently the only existing solution to the problem. These memory upgrades provide a "transparent" solution to the problem, in that an existing tester only needs to be updated to recognize the additional memory capacity. From a test engineer's perspective, nothing changes with respect to the implementation of the associated scan test patterns.
For some testers, that additional capital expenditure is made for a fully depreciated tester, but in every case the upgrade results in increased test costs. For example, when a test subcontractor upgrades one of their testers with the additional scan memory, the test cost per second for that tester is effectively increased for all products tested on that machine, regardless of whether a given product makes use of the additional memory.
What is needed, therefore, is a system whereby problems such as those described above can be overcome, at least in part.


SAValute is a miniature rose which can be grown quite satisfactorily in a greenhouse, or as a hardy garden perennial. It blooms continually throughout the growing season with buds and flowers of a yellow and apricot blend. Blooms are borne singly and in small sprays on a vigorous, upright and spreading plant up to about 2 feet tall and with a diameter of 30 inches or more.

1. This invention is a rose plant of the miniature rose class which can be grown quite satisfactorily in a greenhouse and as a garden perennial, with protection recommended through the winter in severe climates.
2. The present invention is a new and distinct variety of miniature rose plant (Rosa chinensis `minima`), which was created by crossing the following two rose plants: The seed parent is an unnamed and unpatented seedling, red with a white eye in color, created by F. Harmon Saville in 1975. The pollen parent is Rise 'N Shine (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 4,231, also known as Golden Meillandina and Golden Sunblaze, created by Ralph Moore) a clear yellow medium sized miniature. The varietal denomination of this new rose is SAValute.
3. This present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of hardy, bush type plant of the miniature rose class, whose flower and coloring are similar to those of Party Girl (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 4,598, created by F. Harmon Saville in 1979) having a pale yellow flower with apricot and or pink tones and beginning with a high centered form, and with which it shares the common parent plant Rise 'N Shine (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 4,231 also known as Golden Meillandina and Golden Sunblaze) which has a medium yellow flower.
This new variety is distinguished by:
A. Its pale and medium yellow blooms always flushed with apricot. PA0 B. Miniature flowers of Hybrid Tea form, borne singly and in small sprays. PA0 C. A vigorous, well branched, upright, somewhat compact and spreading habit. PA0 D. Its pleasant fragrance.
Asexual reproduction by cuttings of this new variety as performed in Essex County, Mass. and in San Bernadino County, Calif. shows that all distinguishing characteristics of this rose continually come true to form.


A belt unit is detachably mountable in an image-forming apparatus. The belt unit includes: at least two rollers, each having a roller shaft; an endless belt looped around the two rollers; and an outer frame disposed around the endless belt and having two roller-supporting walls rotatably supporting the rollers therebetween, the roller shafts of the rollers extending in a direction intersecting the roller-supporting walls.

Conventional image-forming apparatuses employ various methods of transferring images, including a direct multi-transfer method, an intermediate transfer method, and a combination thereof. These image-forming apparatuses also employ various belts, including a photosensitive belt, a paper-conveying belt, and an intermediate transfer belt, depending on the system used in the image-forming apparatus.
Japanese unexamined patent application publication No. 2004-109267 has proposed a transfer system that is configured primarily of the paper-conveying belt, a drive roller, a tension roller, and a supporting member for supporting both rollers. The entire assembly including the belt, rollers, and supporting member can be treated as a single unit. Most of the major components, including the supporting member, are arranged within the belt, while half or more of the outer periphery of the belt is exposed.


Provided is a test contactor for testing a semiconductor device which includes a cylinder, a piston which is configured to reciprocate between a first position and a second position according to a change in pressure in the cylinder, and a pressing part which is configured to change its location according to the reciprocating motion of the piston. The pressing part is configured to be in contact with the semiconductor device when the piston is located at the first position, and the pressing part is configured not to be in contact with the semiconductor device when the piston is located at the second position.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a test contactor and a semiconductor test apparatus including the contactor.
2. Description of the Related Art
To ensure the reliability of the test results of a semiconductor device, leads of the semiconductor device may be required to be stably in contact with pins of a socket during the test. To provide leads of the semiconductor device which are stably in contact with the pins of the socket during the test, the leads of the semiconductor device may be pressed by using, for example, a handler having a pushing function, or a socket such as open top QFP (OTQ) having a pushing function.
However, in a case where a plurality of semiconductor devices are simultaneously tested by using one test board, there may be a slight difference in height between the semiconductor devices. In this case, when the semiconductor devices are pressed at the same time by using one handler, each of the semiconductor devices may be pressed differently by the handler. Accordingly, the semiconductor device having a relatively small height may be pressed relatively less by the handler. As a result, during the test, the leads of the semiconductor device may not be stably in contact with the pins of the socket, and thus the reliability of the test results may be reduced.
Further, in the case of using the socket having a pushing function, the socket may perform a pushing function by using a spring, and the elasticity of the spring may be reduced due to repeated use. In this case, since the leads of the semiconductor device may be pressed relatively less by the socket during the test, the leads of the semiconductor device may not be stably in contact with the pins of the socket, and thus the reliability of the test results may be reduced.

Contactor and semiconductor test apparatus comprising the same


A method for protecting from corrosion an element comprised of magnesium or a magnesium alloy comprises applying an adhesion promoter after applying a chromate solution to a surface of the element, whereby the chromate solution creates a corrosion-resistant chromate layer on the surface. The method further includes applying an organic coating, such as a resin seal, over the adhesion promoter so as to provide a seal from water and corrosive elements. The adhesion promoter provides improved adhesion between the chromate layer and the organic coating. Corrosion may be removed from the magnesium element before the application of the chromate solution.

The present invention generally relates to corrosion protection systems and, more particularly, to corrosion protection for magnesium materials using an adhesion promoter.
The use of magnesium and magnesium alloy parts in vehicles is common due to the lightweight qualities of magnesium and the ease of casting the metal. As such, parts such as gearboxes for vehicles such as fighter aircraft and helicopters are often made using magnesium. This metal, however, does not come without its drawbacks. Magnesium corrodes much more easily than other metals used for vehicle parts. Water and salt from rain, salt fog or salt spray can have a negative corrosive affect on parts made of magnesium. As a result, these magnesium parts must be serviced or replaced more often than parts made from other metals. Consequently, vehicles and components that include magnesium parts can experience line shortages or suspensions as the parts are serviced or replaced. Corroded magnesium parts typically go through a repair process wherein corroded areas of the magnesium parts are removed or abraded and the remaining surface is treated with anti-corrosion or corrosion-inhibiting substances.
One approach to the corrosion problem is to use a chromate conversion process to treat the surfaces of magnesium parts that are prone to corrosion. Chromate conversion processes introduce chromium into the outer surface of magnesium parts. Chromium possesses anti-corrosion properties and therefore aids in the purpose of fighting corrosion in magnesium parts. The chromate conversion process does not keep out those elements that cause corrosion; it simply inhibits corrosion along the treated surfaces of the magnesium parts.
Another approach to the problem of corrosion in magnesium parts is to apply a resin seal on those magnesium parts that corrode easily. Resin seals provide an outer shell and waterproof seal that helps to repel and keep out those atmospheric elements that cause corrosion, such as water and salt. Thus, resin seals provide a measure of corrosion resistance to magnesium parts. Resin seals, however, simply keep out those elements that cause corrosion; they do not inhibit corrosion on magnesium surfaces.
Yet another approach to the problem of corrosion in magnesium parts includes the use of both a chromate conversion process and resin seals. In this approach, the affected magnesium parts undergo the chromate conversion process and subsequently a resin seal is applied over the chromate surfaces. Observations, however, show low wet adhesion between the resin seal and the chromate surface coating, leading to peeling or blistering of resin seal and corrosion of the magnesium substrate. Thus making this combination of elements inadequate for corrosion resistance.
As can be seen, there is a need for an improved corrosion protection system that both inhibits corrosion in magnesium parts and denies entry of corrosive materials into magnesium materials. Moreover, there is a need for a method for repairing corroded magnesium parts by removing existing corrosion and restoring corrosion resistance in order to place the parts in a proper form for reuse.

Magnesium corrosion protection with adhesion promoter


An RF transponder includes an input circuit, a read/memory circuit, and a circuit arrangement for holding a control state. The circuit arrangement includes a first storage device (e.g. a D-flip-flop) for storing the control state dependent on received control signals, and a second storage device (e.g. a capacitor and a transistor) for holding the control state during a period of inadequate energy supply to the circuit arrangement, e.g. while the transponder is in a field gap of the electromagnetic field emitted by a base station with which the transponder communicates. In an operating method, the control state is held by the second storage device during a period of inadequate energy supply. Then, when adequate energy is again supplied, the transponder resumes the control state that was held by the second storage device. The transponder continues to operate properly according to an anti-collision procedure in a system of several transponders communicating individually with a base station.

In the present day, remote transponders are used in a broad variety of fields and applications of technology, preferably for example in the context of non-contact or contact-free identification systems, especially using a wireless data transmission via electromagnetic waves in the radio frequency (RF) range between the transponder and a base station. Such radio frequency identification (RFID) is suitable and applicable in all situations in which an automatic identification, characterization, recognition, interrogation, storage or stocking, monitoring, control, or transport of various objects is to be achieved. For example, using such RFID transponders, it is possible to individually mark and identify storage and transport containers, machines, vehicles, products, parts of products, persons, etc.
For individually identifying the object to which the RFID transponder, or so-called "tag" or "label", is attached, the transponder comprises or is associated with a data carrier that stores, contains or embodies the identifying information that is to be interrogated. Thus, the RFID transponder, through its wireless communication with a base station, or so-called "reader" or "interrogator", makes it possible to identify the object that has been tagged or labeled with the transponder, without contact, without a visual sight connection, and independently from the base station "reader". In this regard, the transponder may be located directly on the pertinent object, or in or on an associated transport device such as a container, a pallet, packaging, or the like.
Since even adverse environmental influences or weather conditions do not create any obstacle or problem for the transmission of electromagnetic waves, the wireless communication of data between the transponder and the base station can be carried out reliably, securely, and error-free over relatively large spacing distances of up to 2 m or more.
Another important application of such RFID systems is in the field of motor vehicle technology, and particularly in anti-theft systems and blocking systems to prevent the driving-away of the vehicle, in which the transponder is installed in the motor vehicle ignition key, for example.
As mentioned above, an RFID system generally includes two main components, namely the transponder (tag or label) and the base station (reader or interrogator). The transponder is typically a passive device that does not include its own power supply, but instead extracts its required operating power from the electromagnetic field emitted by the base station and received by the transponder. The transponder is portable and remote, and is arranged on the object to be identified. On the other hand, the base station or reader may be stationary or portable and mobile. The transponder, as the core component of such a system, comprises an integrated circuit (IC) as a data carrier as well as a transmitting and receiving arrangement including a radio antenna. The base station or reader comprises a control unit, a frequency module, and at least one transmitting and receiving arrangement including a radio antenna.
The transponder further provides the possibility of storing data, which may be changed, updated, or replaced as needed simply by reprogramming the IC of the transponder, for example in comparison to the fixed information permanently stored in bar code labels or the like.
The data exchange or communication between the transponder and the base station is carried out via an electromagnetic field in any one or more frequencies in various frequency ranges, preferably in the RF range as mentioned above, and especially in the ultrahigh frequency (UHF) or microwave (MW) ranges.
In many applications, a passive RFID system will include a plurality of transponders that are located in a single common RF field, for example emitted by a single base station or reader, whereby all of these transponders are to be read-out by the single base station. In this context, it is typical to employ so-called anti-collision procedures so as to serially interrogate and read-out the several transponders one at a time, while avoiding collisions, interference and crosstalk caused by several transponders communicating at once. After reading-out a particular data set, for example an identification number (ID) out of the integrated circuit of a particular transponder, this transponder is then switched to an inactive mode, so that it becomes silent or mute and no longer participates in a communication with the base station or reader. Thus, thereafter further transponders can be read-out in succession with as little interference as possible. Such general anti-collision procedures are described, for example, in the Publication "RFID Handbuch" ("RFID Handbook") by Finkenzeller, published by Hanser Publishers of Munich Germany.
In order to ensure the proper intended behavior of each transponder according to the anti-collision procedure or protocol, each transponder must maintain or hold its appropriate control condition or status throughout the entire procedure. Most importantly, this requires at least that a particular transponder, after the successful reading-out of its data set, no longer participates in and does not re-join in the communication with the base station. This aspect also becomes problematic or difficult because the passive transponders must obtain all their operating energy requirements by extracting the energy from the RF field emitted by the base station. In certain situations, so-called field gaps arise in the RF field, which result in an inadequate energy supply for any transponder located in such a field gap.
This aspect becomes especially critical when the carrier frequencies for the communication between the transponder and the base station are in the UHF or MW ranges, and especially if the positions of the transponders in space vary or move relative to the base station. Namely, especially in the UHF and MW ranges, such spatial areas or field gaps in which the energy supply for the transponder from the carrier signal is no longer adequate arise due to the superimposing of reflections of the field, and the like.
Thus, when a particular transponder is located in such a spatial area or field gap, it is necessary that the transponder supplies its ongoing operating energy requirement from an on-board energy storage device located on the transponder, typically comprising a capacitor. Thus, energy stored in the capacitor is used to "bridge over" the energy requirements of the transponder for temporary periods when it is located in such a field gap with an inadequate energy supply from the emitted RF field. Since the time periods for bridging over such field gaps can become rather long, and are typically in the range of several seconds, the on-board storage capacitor (or capacitors) must have a relatively large storage capacity, e.g. on the order of microfarads. Thus, the energy storage arrangement consumes a relatively large surface area on the integrated circuit of the transponder, so that such attempted solutions of the field gap problem have been structurally, practically, and economically unacceptable. For this reason, there have been prior efforts to ensure that such field gaps resulting in a temporary inadequate power supply for the transponder do not have negative influences on the anti-collision procedures.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,963,144 (Kruest) discloses a transponder, a circuit arrangement and a method for controlling such a transponder and circuit arrangement in the general field as discussed above. Particularly, after the transponder is recognized and registered by the base station, the transponder is completely switched off for a time duration t, whereby t amounts to approximately two seconds. After expiration of this time t, the pertinent transponder will automatically rejoin and latch into the ongoing communication with the base station, independently of whether or not the anti-collision procedure has already been completed. According to the cited US patent, the respective transponder is switched off and removed from the communication by adjusting the input impedance of the transponder. This is disadvantageous, however, because the pertinent transponder can thus not be interrogated or communicated with for other reasons, i.e. for any reason or in any manner, during the time period in which it is switched to the inactive mode. Moreover, it becomes problematic that undefined control conditions or states of the transponder can arise as a result of power supply gaps, because there is no way for the transponder to hold or "remember" the particular proper existing control condition throughout such a power supply gap. Thus, after expiration of the off-line or inactive time t, such undefined control conditions could possibly be transmitted to the entire system.
While the basic state of the art underlying the present invention, as generally discussed above, has related to remote or autonomous passive transponders, the same considerations also apply to so-called remote sensors. A remote sensor can be considered as a special type of remote transponder devices that further includes a sensor for sensing the local existing data that are to be transmitted back to the base station. Namely, while the transponders discussed above communicate data that has been stored on-board the transponder (i.e. a stored data or identification transponder), a remote sensor is a transponder further including a sensor, for example for sensing temperature, pressure, motion, gas composition, particles, light intensity, or the like, so that the remote sensor can then wirelessly communicate the sensed data back to the base station. Just like any remote transponder, the remote sensor receives its operating energy as well as control instructions (e.g. sensing or measuring instructions) from the base station.
Throughout this specification, the terms "transponder" or "remote transponder" should be understood to cover both an identification transponder or stored data transponder as well as a remote sensor transponder, unless the specific context indicates that one or the other type of transponder is specifically being addressed.

Method and circuit arrangement for holding a control state during inadequate power supply in an RF transponder or remote sensor