A strain amplification sensor having a first base portion being coupled to a first member to be strain measured, a second base portion being coupled to a second member to be strain measured, and an amplifying lever system pivotally coupled between the first base portion and the second base portion. The amplifying lever system includes attachment locations that induce opposing relative motion resulting in detectable deflection of the amplifying lever system in response to application of strain between the first base portion and the second base portion.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art. This section provides a general summary of the disclosure, and is not a comprehensive disclosure of its full scope or all of its features.
Passive Strain Sensor 10s are capable of recording strain without any data or power cable tether and can be manufactured and deployed for a fraction of the cost of alternative strain gauges. Commercially available strain gauges have significant limitations when used to monitor a marine structure.
The most common strain gauge uses piezo-electric circuits applied to the material in consideration. To support these circuits, the sensor requires power and data cables which pass changes in resistance through to an amplifier that, using a transfer function, provides the experienced strain. These sensors provide real time strain information and sample on the order of kilohertz. Other monitoring methods employ variations of this conventional piezo-electric strain gauge.
Application of energy harvesting techniques and wireless data transmission allows strain gauges to be deployed without a power or data cable. Both of these options have limitations. Energy harvesting techniques heavily rely on solar energy for implementation on civil structures. Many locations on structures and infrastructures do not, however, provide direct sunlight. There are strain gauges which claim to be operable solely using energy harvested from the structure they are monitoring through capturing the energy associated with strain. These sensors have been shown to be unreliable; if the material does not experience significant strain for an extended period of time the sensor will deplete its stored energy and cease to function.
Additionally, the complexity of these sensors makes them quite costly. Data transmission has been achieved using cellular networks and local wireless networks. Sensors have been deployed on marine structures with wireless data transmission using local networks; however, without strain energy harvesting, these sensors still require a power cable. In the case of marine applications, an additional wireless signal onboard a military vessel is unwelcome and it is difficult to justify wireless implementation of data transfer when a power cable will already be required at every monitoring location—considering it is possible to simply bundle the data and power cable with negligible additional volume. Thus, leading back to the conventional piezo-electric strain sensor as the most viable option, which requires a central amplifier, and power and data transmission cables. Conventional strain sensing systems require tens of thousands of dollars per sensor to implement on civil structures where the monitoring locations are easily accessible.
The alternative strain sensors provided herein can record the experienced strain without requiring a power or data cable, or energy harvesting technique. In some embodiments, these alternative strain sensors are capable of being 3D printed, laser cut, CNC'd, or manufactured using conventional techniques and thus can be manufactured for a fraction of the cost of all alternative sensing methods.
The sensors are capable of recording maximum strain from tensile and compressive loads and can be extended to do so in multiple directions, a limitation of all other available sensing options.
Conventional strain gauges provide a wealth of data that needs to be interpreted to yield relevant information to decision makers. Presently, structural health monitoring (SHM) researchers are swimming in a sea of data producing little information. This is largely because the strain gauges and other sensors provide data that needs to be condensed, stored, and analyzed by methods such as rain flow counting which removes time history indexing in order to make the large amount of data manageable and ultimately interpretable. Analyzing the plethora of data produced by strain sensors is tedious and much of the data is superfluous. Ultimately, using this data to produce relevant and accurate structural health information for decisions is difficult.
Research is being conducted using Bayesian networks (BN) and other modeling techniques to update design-stage engineering assumptions to more closely match the current condition of a structure. Information provided to the BN in the present model is minimal in comparison with many of the SHM updating schemes. The network is presently only updated with information observed from physical inspections such as fatigue crack initiation and permanent set and has shown promising updating power. Additional updating power can be achieved by providing the network with the stress experienced at relevant encoded fatigue-prone details. It is expected that the addition of this data imposed as evidence to the network would increase its prognosis accuracy for structural health and reliability. Extending a BN capable of accurate structural reliability prognosis to a decision support tool would be the next step. This could provide decision makers with accurate, structural health information necessary to make decisions related to the structure's safety and reliability.
In some embodiments, the sensor system of the present teachings can comprise an additional appendage or component can be used to record the maximum experienced strain. In some embodiments, multi-axial strain measurement can be obtained using the same device through additional lever systems. These embodiments, like the aforementioned embodiments, can record strain measurements as a standalone unit without requiring a power or data cable, or energy harvesting technique. Furthermore, the sensor can be fabricated using additive manufacturing techniques and thus can be made for a fraction of the cost of all alternative sensing methods.
Further areas of applicability will become apparent from the description provided herein. The description and specific examples in this summary are intended for purposes of illustration only and are not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.
Corresponding reference numerals indicate corresponding parts throughout the several views of the drawings.

The Regents of The University Of Michigan


Embodiments of the present invention relate to a musical instrument having a plurality of strings, wherein a global fundamental tone produces a sympathetic resonance in one or more of the plurality of strings. In accordance with one embodiment of the present invention, a stringed musical instrument comprises a plurality of strings, and a vibration inducing device configured to create a global fundamental tone upon demand by a user, wherein at least a first string of the plurality of strings controllably produces a sympathetic resonance in response to the global fundamental tone.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to a musical instrument utilizing sympathetic vibrations to create a unique sound. More specifically, embodiments of the present invention relate to a musical instrument having a plurality of strings, wherein a global fundamental tone produces a sympathetic resonance in one or more of the plurality of strings.
2. Description of the Related Art
The world of musical technology is constantly evolving and adapting to meet the changing styles and tastes of the music industry. From rock to rap, hip-hop and R&B to classical, different genres attract different people with different tastes, and as such, call for different musical sounds.
A sympathetic resonance phenomenon occurs occasionally with stringed instruments. Generally, when a string is free, it is liable to vibrate according to one of its vibration modes, often corresponding to a harmonic resonance. When a free string of a musical instrument is in the vicinity of a vibrating string, the free string may vibrate through harmonic sympathy with the excited string. This phenomenon, known as "sympathetic resonance," does occur naturally during the playing of some other instruments. However, the phenomenon is almost always considered to be undesirable, contaminating a pure tone and constituting cacophonous undertones. As such, these other instruments make attempts to limit or restrict the intensity and effect of sympathetic vibrations using damping mechanisms or the like.
Thus, there is a need for a stringed instrument utilizing controlled and emphasized sympathetic vibrations.

Stringed instrument utilizing sympathetic vibrations


An arithmetic and logic processor includes a register file structure wherein each procedure to be processed has assigned thereto a predetermined number of registers referred to as register window. The processor further includes circuitry for comparing a predetermined constant LENGTH with the difference between the register window currently utilized by a procedure under execution and the base address of the register file, and circuitry responsive to the comparing circuitry output to detect when data should be transferred on a window basis to or from the register file from or to a stack memory for saving the register file contents, and circuitry responsive to the decision circuitry output to perform data transfer between the register file and the stack memory. According to such circuitry, overflow and underflow of the register file can be greatly suppressed to improve processing speed of the processor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an arithmetic and logic processor such as a computer, and more particularly to a reduced instruction set computer.
2. Description of the Background Art
As one architecture of a VLSI (very large scale integrated circuit) processor, there is a scheme called reduced instruction set computer (hereinafter referred to as "RISC"). The RISC is a computer where among an instruction set of a computer in prior art, only basic instructions being high in frequency use are prepared through hardware implementation for high speed of the data processing. Various features of the RISC can be mentioned, and according to D. A. Patterson et al. in the article of "A VLSI RISC COMPUTER", IEEE, Computer, Vol. 15, No. 9, Sept. 1982, pp. 8 to 22, the features are as follows:
(1) one-cycle instruction PA1 (2) fixed length instruction format PA1 (3) load/store architecture PA1 (4) wired logic control PA1 (5) overlap register window PA1 (6) optimization of a pipeline by a compiler
The specific architecture of the RISC is described in detail in the above-mentioned reference. Now, the architecture of the RISC will be briefly explained.
In the RISC, in order to realize high speed processing, arithmetic or logic operation is limited between registers and the execution thereof is done within one cycle basically. In the RISC, since only the basic instructions being high in frequency use are prepared, constitution of internal control circuitry is simplified and margin is provided in the chip area. A register file is installed on the chip having the margin. A general-purpose register of the register file is used as the register for the operation. Only the load/store instruction is related to accessing to a memory. The instruction format is shown in FIGS. 1A through 1E.
Referring to FIG. 1A, the instruction format of standard type will be described. Any of the instruction format of standard type is set to have a constant bit length (for example, 32 bits), and includes an instruction code (7 bits) designating an operation content, SCC bit indicating whether a condition code (overflow, carry bit, zero bit, negative bit, extension bit or the like) is set or not, destination (5 bits) indicating the data transfer destination, a source 1 region (5 bits) designating the register being the data transfer source, an immediate instruction (constant or the like) IMM, and a source 2 region (13 bits) specifying any of a source register, an immediate and an offset.
When the IMM bit is "0", the instruction format is for an inter-register instruction, as shown in FIG. 1B. In this case, destination Rd selects one of the registers assigned to a procedure under execution as the transfer destination of the result of an operation executed in the registers specified by the sources Rs and S2. In the case that IMM is "0", the lower 5 bits of the source 2 region, S2, gives the information specifying a register.
When the IMM is "1", the instruction format is for an immediate instruction as shown in FIG. 1C. In this case, the source S2 represents a signed constant.
For an instruction requiring a memory access (memory access instruction ) as shown in FIG. 1D, the bits S1 of the source 1, i.e., Rx specify an index register, and the bits S2 of the source 2 specify an offset. In this case, the destination register Rd or the source register Rm during storage operation is specified as the destination. Consequently, as the addressing mode the register indirect mode is mainly employed.
In the case of the relative jump instruction as shown in FIG. 1E, bits of the source 1, the IMM and the source 2 are combined, and specify the branch destination by using the combination as Y bits to specify a relative address of 19 bits, for example, of a program counter.
In the RISC as above described, only necessary basic instructions being high in frequency use are prepared, and each instruction word as shown in FIGS. 1A through 1E is unified to a fixed length of 32 bits for example, and each instruction is executed in one cycle. Consequently, constitution of the control system is simplified and the chip occupied area is significantly decreased.
An advanced control is adopted in the RISC, wherein prefetch of an instruction and execution of an instruction are overlapped in every cycle. In the advanced control of the RISC, the execution cycle of loading of two operands from general-purpose registers, the execution of operation and the store of an operation result in a general-purpose register is realized by a wired logic.
The RISC assumes programming by a high-level language. Since a structured programming with a high-level language is popularly used, the number of modules for constituting a program becomes large. As a result, times of the execution of a procedure read instruction increase. Since a complicated instruction is excluded in the RISC, when the same function as that of such complicated instruction is required, a subroutine is used. Such method causes increase of the number of procedure call.
The procedure call is performed usually by the steps as shown in FIG. 2. When some procedure calls a subroutine (SUB), if a parameter PARA must be transferred to the called procedure (SUB), memory access is necessary. In this case, the storage address of a parameter to be delivered to the called procedure (SUB) is designated by an instruction DCA (PARA), and the parameter PARA is stored in the locations starting at the storage address. A memory access requires a longer time than that of an access to a register. In order to decrease the overhead, constitution of overlap register window is generally employed in the RISC. The overlap register window will now be described.
In the RISC, a number of general-purpose registers are installed, and a prescribed number of registers among the general-purpose registers are assigned to each procedure. A register group assigned to a procedure is called a register window.
FIG. 3A shows a constitution example of a register window which can be accessed by one procedure. The register window includes global registers at logic register numbers R0-R7, low registers at logic register numbers R8-R15, local registers at logic register numbers R16-R23, and high registers at logic register numbers R24-R31. The global registers store global variables used commonly in all procedures. The low registers and the high registers are regions where parameters are transmitted and received between procedures. The local registers are registers which an associated procedure uses dedicatedly. Now, operation will be described in the case that procedure A is executed and calls procedure B, and subsequently the procedure B calls procedure C as shown in FIG. 3B.
FIG. 4A shows specific constitution of a register file. As shown in FIG. 4A, the register file is constituted by global register regions of physical register numbers 0-7 and local register regions of physical register numbers 8-119. The local register regions of physical register numbers 8-119 are divided into unit regions (window) each comprising low register region, local register region and high register region, and a divided region unit is assigned to a procedure. Now assume that procedure A shown in FIG. 3B is under execution and uses the register file in the regions of the physical addresses (physical register number) 0-7 as global registers and the physical addresses 8-31 as local registers. When the procedure A calls procedure B, the procedure A stores arguments (parameter p1, . . . p6) to the register file (high a) of the addresses 24-31 and then calls the procedure B. The called procedure B uses the register file in the addresses 0-7 as global registers and the addresses 24-47 as local registers. Subsequently when the procedure B calls procedure C, the procedure B stores arguments (q1, . . . Q6) to the registers of the numbers (address) 40-47 and then calls the procedure C. The called procedure C uses the register file in the addresses 0-7 as global registers and the addresses 40-63 as local registers. That is, explaining the procedure B as an example, as shown in FIG. 4B, the high registers R24-R31 used by the procedure B are physically the same as the local registers R8-R15 used by the procedure C. Also the low registers R8-R15 used by the procedure B are physically the same as the high registers R24-R31 used by the procedure A. The transfer of parameters between the procedures can be performed on the registers being made physically the same. Consequently, the parameters need not be transferred to the memory, and the procedure can be called at high speed.
In the RISC as described above, when a procedure call occurs, save of a calling environment using a stack formed on the memory is not performed, but processing of the call is performed merely by moving of the register window. Moreover since the register window is partially overlapped, the overlapped part is used as registers for arguments to be delivered between procedures. In the example shown in FIG. 4B, the addresses 24-31 are commonly used by the procedure A and the procedure B, and a calling procedure stores the argument therein.
Return from a procedure is performed similarly, and the arguments for the return are stored in the overlapped part at the lower side of the register window, and subsequently the register window is moved towards the lower address. That is, for example, in the case of return from the procedure B to the procedure A, the argument for the return is stored in the low registers R8-R15 of the procedure B, and subsequently the register window is moved to regions of the addresses 8-31 of the register file. Thereby the return to the procedure A is performed.
As described above, in the call/return of the procedure, the transmission/reception of the parameters can be performed without accessing to the memory so that the call/return of a procedure can be performed at high speed. In the RISC, such call/return processing is supported by hardware, providing higher speed processing.
In the RISC also, the advanced control for processing the execution of instructions in pipeline is used often. Since the instruction word length or the instruction cycle is made uniform, the advanced control as shown in FIG. 5 is realized using a simple circuit constitution. That is, the prefetch of instruction, the instruction decode and the instruction execution are performed in an overlapping fashion. In general, a write cycle is performed after an execute cycle, and the operation result is stored in a register. However, the write cycle is omitted in the figure. In the advanced control, an execution cycle such as the load of two operands from the general-purpose registers, the execution of operation thereon and the store of the operation result in a general-purpose register is realized in a wired logic.
In the register file constitution shown in FIG. 4A, 120 general-purpose registers are prepared, and therefore six window registers can be installed. Consequently the overhead in saving a calling environment to the stack is not produced in the computer before the sixth procedure call. However, if the procedure call is produced six times or more, since an empty file does not exist in the register file, any save operation becomes necessary. When the call of the procedure becomes deep and is beyond the register file, a trap is usually generated. Data overflowing from the register file is saved to the memory by an OS (operating system). That is, in the RISC, when the register file is filled up and the register windows cannot be further produced (this state is called overflow of the register file), the trap routine for saving the oldest register window to the memory is started.
Even when the procedure return is produced, the case may occur that corresponding window does not exist in the register file (this state is called underflow of the register file), due to the saving of the register window to the memory. Also in this case, the trap routine for restoring the register window from the memory is started. In the starting of the trap, for example, a register monitoring the usage condition of the register windows is installed in a dedicated register. When the bit in that register is "1" indicating that the register window to be used next is being used, the routine of overflow trap or underflow trap is started and the save/load of the contents of the registers is performed.
In general, a memory has a slow operation speed in comparison to a CPU (central processing unit) of a computer. Consequently, in the RISC, when the overflow or the underflow of the register file occurs, the performance comparative to that of a conventional computer can be merely obtained due to the save of the variables (arguments) and the restore processing. That is, the high speed operationability as one feature of the RISC is deteriorated. In general, the RISC is made on VLSI. In the case of VLSI, decrease of the chip size contributes to reduction of the cost. On the other hand, in order to prevent the overflow or the underflow of the register file, as many registers as possible must be installed on the chip. That is, the reduction of the cost and the improvement of the performance are in the relation of trade-off.

Arithmetic and logic processor and operating method therefor


The invention relates to a method for ranging a radio frequency tag, comprising measuring the modulated backscattering response of the tag at a plurality of frequencies using reader and determining the dispersive properties of the tag from the amplitude of the measured backscattering response. Further, the method comprises determining a position parameter of the tag from the measured modulated backscattering response and the determined dispersive properties of the tag.

Advanced RFID technology based on integrated circuits (IC) provides very sophisticated tags with non-volatile rewritable memory and anti-collision protocols. The cost of tags is low due to their high manufacturing volumes and the RFID technology is widely adapted to applications where identification is required.
Despite of the several advances of the RFID technology, it still suffers from a few limitations, such as a possibility to precisely locate a tag spatially. So far, a few solutions are proposed for solving this problem. First, a tag could be spatially localized by using several, spatially distributed antennas with phase-shifters in the reader device and scanning a volume with the antenna beam or spot. The spatial resolution of the antenna array depends on its electrical size, and is typically low at relatively low UHF-frequencies. At those frequencies, high resolution would necessitate impractically large antenna arrays to the reader.
One tag ranging technique is based on amplitude measurement of backscattered signal. In this technique, the reader device uses the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) to calculate the distance of the tag. This method, however, assumes that the tag properties are known in terms of its modulation index, antenna gain, and antenna impedance match. As a consequence, several unknown effects, such as tag antenna impedance mismatch due to proximity of metal or dielectric material or tag position, cause a large error to the measured distance of the tag.
The third proposed technique for ranging RFID tags is based on exploitation of the reader device as a stepped-frequency CW radar [D. Arnitz, K. Witrisal, and U. Muehlmann, "Multifrequency continuous-wave radar approach to ranging in passive UHF RFID," IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, Vol. 57, No. 5, pp. 1398-1405, May 2009]. In this method, the tags response is measured at several different frequencies and its distance is solved taking the inverse Fourier-transform of the measured frequency response. A drawback of the method is that it requires the frequency response of the tags modulated reflection coefficient. Therefore, the method can only be used with previously characterized tags. Also US 2009/0309780 discloses a method for distance measurement and data transmission in a continuous wave radar system, which suffers from the same disadvantage.

Method, system and computer program product for ranging RFID tags


A reinforced flexible pipe having a tubular core member and a plurality of reinforcing tape members wrapped on the core member; the innermost tape member includes a plurality of openings that communicate with the external surface of the core member; and a polymer material embedded in the openings in the tape such that the polymer material contacts the core member and the tape to improve the hoop strength and the collapse resistance of the pipe. The polymer layer may also be bonded to the outer reinforcing tape to provide abrasion resistance to the reinforced flexible pipe.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of the invention is reinforced tapes used with tubing or flexible pipe for conducting petroleum or other fluids subsea or on land and the method of manufacture.
2. Description of the Related Art
This is an improvement on the invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,491,779. When the pipe disclosed therein is used to transport compressed gas, some gas can permeate through the inner core or the pipe over time and gather between the inner core and extrusions causing a steady rising inward pressure on the core. Although not in itself a problem under normal circumstances, this can cause a problem if the pressure in the bore of the pipe is released more quickly than the pressure between the layers. When that happens, the inner core can collapse due to the adverse pressure differential and its poor hoop strength. Some degree of protection can be provided to pipes by relieving the pressure between the two extrusions through a valve or valves in the end fittings but this is insufficient for all circumstances and collapse of the inner core may still occur.
Pipe collapse has happened in the past with prior art pipes that have steel based flexible pipes and therefore prior art pipes used for gas transmission are normally constructed using a central interlocking metallic carcass under the inner core. The metallic carcass provides sufficient radial strength to withstand any collapse forces generated by the scenario described above but the overall diameter of the pipe necessarily requires an increase of twice the thickness of the carcass. Furthermore, the inclusion of a carcass increases each reinforcement layer for the same performance because the reinforcement layers have to be wound on larger diameters.

Anti-collapse system and method of manufacture


An improved cassette loading/unloading device for use with magnetic tape machines is disclosed. It contains a connection member, which includes a first stopper portion extending from a drive plate toward a sliding plate; a second stopper portion mounted on a rear side of the first stopper portion; a connection sheet extending from the sliding plate into a space between the first and second stopper portions; a connection pin penetrating through the first, and second stopper portions and the connection sheet along the path of insertion of the cassette into the magnetic tape unit for relative sliding with the connection sheet; and a buffer spring provided on the connection pin between the second stopper portion and the connection sheet for buffering an impact force when the drive plate pushes the sliding plate.

The present invention relates to a cassette load/unload device, and particularly to the cassette load/unload device of DAT magnetic tape machine for front load.
The conventional cassette load/unload devices most are divided into cam link transmission and gear transmission for driving cassette load/unload device by means of cam link, and normally it may apply force only to one point on the cassette loader while not to distribute force evenly to the each side of the cassette loader so that the movement of cassette loader is not steady to result in high error rate; and gear transmission cassette load/unload device is to accomplish horizontal and vertical movement track by means of special arrangement of gears, and its complicated mechanism has caused large increase of die casting cost; further it should require a larger room for receiving gears not good for downsizing development. For the conventional cassette load/unload device, when the cassette tape is sent into the tape machine through the movable door, the movable door remains movable to cause the user sending another cassette tape or other foreign article into the machine to cause machine failure.

Cassette load/unload device of magnetic tape machine

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A reception circuit can receive a plurality of standard time signals and has a reception means for selectively receiving and demodulating any one of the plural standard time signals, and a control means for outputting a control signal that controls the reception means. The reception means includes a signal amplifier unit for amplifying a reception signal representing the received standard time signal; a signal extraction unit for extracting a signal of a specific frequency from the amplified reception signal; a rectifier unit for rectifying the extracted signal of the specific frequency; and a demodulation unit for demodulating the rectified signal of the specific frequency. The signal extraction unit includes a plurality of crystal filters corresponding to the frequencies of the plural standard time signals; a plurality of parallel capacitances corresponding to the plural crystal filters and parallel connected to the plural crystal filters; a filter switching unit for switching the plural crystal filters based on the control signal; and a parallel capacitance switching unit for switching the plural parallel capacitances based on the control signal. The control means outputs to the filter switching unit and the parallel capacitance switching unit a control signal denoting the switch states enabling the reception means to receive the standard time signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reception circuit, a radio-controlled timepiece having the reception circuit, and a control method for the reception circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
Radio-controlled timepieces that automatically correct the internally kept time to display the current time based on timecode information contained in a long-wave standard time signal are known from the literature. This type of radio-controlled timepiece has an internal reception circuit for receiving the long-wave standard time signal and outputting the time code. Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2003-60520 (FIG. 2), for example, teaches a reception circuit that amplifies, detects, and demodulates a reception signal for the long-wave standard time signal received by the antenna.
The reception circuit (receiver) taught in JP-A-2003-60520 passes the long-wave standard time signal received by the antenna through an AGC amplifier and a crystal filter for filtering and tuning, then through a wave detection/rectification circuit and a wave-shaping circuit to input the timecode contained in the long-wave standard time signal to a control means. By switching a tuning switch so that a first coil bobbin is active, the inductance is adjusted to the 40-kHz reception frequency and long-wave standard time signals that are transmitted at 40 kHz can be received. If the tuning switch is set so that a second coil bobbin is active, the inductance is adjusted to the 60-kHz reception frequency and long-wave standard time signals that are transmitted at 60 kHz can be received. The receiver can thus receive long-wave standard time signals at different transmission frequencies.
The crystal filter in the reception circuit taught in JP-A-2003-60520 has two crystal oscillators, one operating at the 40-kHz oscillation frequency and the other at the 60-kHz oscillation frequency. By using the crystal oscillator tuned to the 40-kHz oscillation frequency to receive long-wave standard time signals transmitted at 40 kHz, and using the oscillator tuned to the 60-kHz oscillation frequency to receive long-wave standard time signals transmitted at 60 kHz, signals containing the desired frequency component can be extracted from the received standard time signal.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Appl. Pub. JP-A-2006-60849 teaches a reception circuit that uses a comparator as the wave detector for detecting the signal filtered by the crystal filter. This comparator compares the reception signal extracted from the received long-wave standard time signal with a specified reference voltage and outputs a binary signal.
The comparator used in the reception circuit (RF reception unit) taught in JP-A-2006-60849 outputs a HIGH level signal if the reception signal voltage is greater than the reference voltage, and outputs a LOW level signal if the reception signal voltage is lower than the reference voltage. The signal derived from the received long-wave standard time signal can thus be demodulated.
A problem with the reception circuit taught in JP-A-2003-60520 is that the filtered reception signal output from the crystal filter contains noise resulting from high frequency signal components, for example.
More specifically, a signal of the oscillation frequency of the crystal filter can be extracted from the reception signal by passing the reception signal through the crystal filter in the reception circuit taught in JP-A-2003-60520, but the extracted signal may also contain signal components at frequencies other than the oscillation frequency of the crystal filter. To handle such cases, a capacitor or other parallel capacitance could be disposed parallel to the crystal filter to cancel high frequency noise. However, if a crystal filter operating at the frequency of the received long-wave standard time signal and a parallel capacitance adjusted to the crystal filter are not provided in parallel, high frequency noise cannot be sufficiently cancelled and the extracted signal will contain noise.
A problem with the reception circuit taught in JP-A-2006-60849 is that the received long-wave standard time signal cannot be correctly demodulated if any deviation in the reference voltage input to the comparator is introduced when manufacturing the reception circuit.
More specifically, if noise caused by some other high frequency component is contained in the reception signal input to the comparator, the voltage may shift at the peak (high voltage level) and the bottom (low voltage level) of the reception signal. If the reference voltage is set to the median voltage between the peak voltage and the bottom voltage, noise will cause the reception signal to go above or below the reference voltage less frequently and the error rate of the binary signal will therefore drop. However, if the reference voltage is offset from the median between the top and bottom voltages of the reception signal, the effects of noise may cause a binary signal that is different from the signal that is actually carried by the standard time signal to be output. When this happens the standard time signal cannot be correctly demodulated.
This problem is exacerbated when the reception circuit can receive different long-wave standard time signals.
For example, if the peak voltage is 100%, the bottom voltage is set to 10% to receive the TCO signal of the Japanese standard time signal, but the bottom voltage is set to 25% to receive the TCO signal of the German standard time signal. As a result, if the reference voltage of the reception circuit is set according to the standard time signal used in Japan and the reception circuit is used to receive the German standard time signal, the voltage at the signal bottom cannot be correctly detected and the standard time signal cannot be correctly demodulated.

Reception circuit, radio-controlled timepiece, and reception circuit control method


Apparatus for packaging and organizing elongated articles such as tools wherein a body (3) is receivable in a sheathing (2). Body (3) has a bottom mounting surface (4) with a longitudinal extension, a support element (5) parallel thereto, and a mounting surface that is vertical to these members and that holds them spaced apart from one another. The support element has boreholes (6) aligned in a line. A longitudinal wall (8) between mounting surface (4) and support element (5) is provided with projections (9) that extend into the free space between mounting surface (4) and support element (5). Projections (9) narrow the originally designed diameters of the boreholes in the free space, so that as a result of these projections, a clamping effect is exerted on articles (1) mounted standing upright on mounting surface (4).

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to containers for receiving and holding elongated articles, such as a package for elongated articles, especially articles having a small diameter, as well as for conveniently organizing such articles for use.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art, containers are known wherein a body that is at least partially held in a sheathing incorporates a closed bottom bearing surface having a certain longitudinal extension or dimension and also having a vertical spacing or dimension. Such container bodies have also included a similarly dimensioned longitudinal support element that is parallel to the base and have had a plurality of boreholes arranged in at least one line to receive and hold articles.
In prior art containers with bodies of this type, the body that includes the bottom bearing surface includes two articulated cover halves that, when joined together, form a closed container for the articles. In such containers, a border is mounted on the interior surface of each cover half, parallel to the line of boreholes. Each border includes cutouts that are semi-circular in shape and that are aligned with the boreholes. When the cover halves are closed, the cutouts surround the articles and secure their position as, for example, during transport. When the cover halves are opened, the articles are displayed ready for use.
Such known devices or containers are costly to manufacture due to the articulated cover halves and the corresponding and identical holding strips therein, associated with one another for holding the articles. Another disadvantage has been that, at times when it is opened, the container requires considerable space. Furthermore, the container design is not adapted to automated packaging procedures wherein the articles are to be received and held therein. Also, when the container is closed, the articles are not adequately secured against axial movement, which, particularly in the case of sensitive articles, such as small or fragile and costly articles (borers, drill bits, milling cutters or tools and so forth with or without diamond fittings, for example for precision engineering, dental technology, ICE manufacture or the like), can lead to exceptional damages and costs.
Accordingly, there was a need in the prior art for improved apparatus for elongated article packaging that could also conveniently organize such articles for ready use, such that the articles are secured against undesired movements. Preferably, the container would require comparably little space even during use. Most preferably, the container would also be suitable for use in automated packaging procedures.


A hair dryer and vacuum device includes a housing having a nozzle, a handle, and a body portion situated between the handle and nozzle, the nozzle including a first channel extending from the body portion to an outlet port and a second channel extending from the body portion to an inlet port. A heating coil is mounted in the body portion for heating air and a dryer fan is positioned adjacent the heating coil that is configured to blow the heated air through the outlet port when energized. A vacuum fan is mounted in the second channel and configured to draw air into the second channel through the inlet port when energized. The device includes a collection chamber situated between the vacuum fan and the body portion and in communication with the second channel such that fallen hair is collected therein.

This invention relates generally to a hair care accessory and, more particularly, to a hair dryer having a vacuum suction assembly for selectively collecting fallen hair.
Hot air blowing devices are commonly used by beauticians and barbers in the process of cutting and styling a person's hair. A natural consequence and inconvenience following the cutting of hair is collecting it for disposal. Picking up fallen hair typically requires the use of a broom and dust pan and then stooping over to pick up the dust pan to dump it in a trash receptacle. Unfortunately, the act of repetitively stooping to pick up collected hair may be painful back soreness and frustration.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a hair dryer and vacuum device for selectively blowing wet hair dry or vacuuming fallen hair. Further, it would be desirable to have a hair dryer and vacuum device that can blow hot air through one channel of a nozzle or suction air through another channel of the nozzle.


Disclosed are various embodiments providing selecting various schemes for combining antenna signals for synchronization. For example, processing circuitry determines a first weight for a first antenna based on a signal strength metric of the first antenna and a second weight for a second antenna based on a signal strength metric of the second antenna. The processing circuitry receives a synchronization signal via the first antenna and the second antenna. Then the processing circuitry may weight the synchronization signal received via the first antenna according to the first weight to generate a first weighted synchronization signal and weight the synchronization signal received via the second antenna according to the second weight to generate a second weighted synchronization signal. The processing circuitry further combines the first weighted synchronization signal and the second weighted synchronization signal to generate a combined synchronization signal.

Wireless mobile devices may connect to various base stations within a cellular network to facilitate data communication over the cellular network. Prior to data communication, a wireless mobile device must first attach or connect to the cellular network. The attachment process requires the wireless mobile device to perform a cell search to identify a base station within the cell. Performing a cell search may take a substantial amount of time.

Mobile device searching using multiple antennas


A backhoe-loader with a undercarriage resting on wheels and comprising at its front end a loader structure with a loader arm and a loading bucket and at the other end a superstructure revolving 360.degree. , a driver cab is mounted to one side of the superstructure and on the other side next to the driver cab there are provided power units and a mounting pad pivotable about a vertical shaft for the horizontal pivot shaft of an excavator boom. The boom is positionable in a raised state with the dipper arm collapsed and the implement in a forward-pointing rest position above the undercarriage and outside the field of view of the driver cab. A front mudguard is present in front of the mounting pad and functions as a rest for the implement, the loader structure is mounted asymmetrically relatively to the longitudinal center axis of the undercarriage on the cab side of the undercarriage, and the rest for the implement on the front mudguard is widened toward the middle of the undercarriage.

A backhoe-loader of the above kind is known from German Offenlegungsschrift 39 32 555, where the corresponding revolving superstructure is combined with a conventional loader at the front of the undercarriage on a mobile excavator. When excavating, the superstructure together with the boom assembly is pivoted rearward so that depending upon the superstructure's angle of rotation, excavation can proceed either in the extension of the longitudinal center axis of the undercarriage or in a lateral offset from it. Moreover excavation on the side is possible. When loading and when traveling on roadways, the superstructure together with the boom resting to the side of the driver cabin remain pivoted forward in the rest position providing the driver cab an unobstructed viewing of the loading bucket since the raised boom and the downward collapsed bucket arm remain sideways outside the field of view. The implement is seated on the mudguard laterally opposite the driver cab.
When in the rest position and pivoted forward, the boom assembly of prior art equipment, causes the implement to project beyond the lateral limits of the vehicle. Because safety regulations demand that during roadway travel no component may project beyond the lateral vehicle limits, substantially wide implements must be removed from the bucket arm and transported separately. This required assembly and dis-assembly of the implement that, even when using quick-disconnect means, is cumbersome and time-consuming. Moreover special care is required to pivot the boom assembly into the rest position, to prevent the implement from hitting the loader structure, and to remain inside the lateral limits of the vehicle.


A stacked ceramic capacitor that includes a ceramic body formed by stacking dielectric ceramic layers and internal electrodes mainly composed of Ni; and an external electrode formed on an outer surface of ceramic body. The dielectric ceramic layers are formed by using a dielectric ceramic composition that includes a main ingredient expressed by (KaNabLicM2d)(NbwTaxMgyM4z)O3, where M2 is at least one of Ca, Sr and Ba, M4 is at least one of Zr, Hf and Sn, and a, b, c, d, w, x, y, and z satisfy predetermined relationships; and includes 2 to 15 molar parts of Mn with respect to 100 molar parts of a total content of Nb, Ta, Mg, and M4.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view showing a stacked ceramic capacitor as the background art of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an illustration diagram showing an internal structure thereof. A stacked ceramic capacitor 10 includes a ceramic body 12 having, for example, a rectangular parallelepiped shape. Ceramic body 12 includes a plurality of stacked dielectric ceramic layers 14. An internal electrode 16 is formed at an interface between these dielectric ceramic layers 14. Internal electrodes 16 face and overlap with each other at a central portion of ceramic body 12, and adjacent internal electrodes 16 are alternately led out to two end surfaces of ceramic body 12 that face in the longitudinal direction. An external electrode 18 is formed at the end surface of ceramic body 12 to which internal electrodes 16 are led out. Internal electrodes 16 led out to the respective end surfaces of ceramic body 12 are connected to two external electrodes 18. Therefore, adjacent internal electrodes 16 are alternately connected to two external electrodes 18 and a capacitance is formed between these external electrodes 18.
In order to fabricate stacked ceramic capacitor 10 described above, a ceramic slurry is formed by using a dielectric ceramic composition. This ceramic slurry is formed into a sheet shape, thereby forming a ceramic green sheet 20. As shown in FIG. 3, a plurality of internal electrode patterns 22 are formed on ceramic green sheet 20 by using a conductive paste. Ceramic green sheets 20 each having internal electrode patterns 22 are stacked, and on both sides thereof, ceramic green sheets 20 each having no internal electrode patterns are stacked as needed. Stacked ceramic green sheets 20 are pressure-bonded and a mother stacked body 24 is formed.
Mother stacked body 24 is cut and a crude stacked body chip having adjacent internal electrode patterns 22 exposed alternately to both end surfaces is formed. This stacked body chip is fired, thereby forming ceramic body 12 having dielectric ceramic layers 14 and internal electrodes 16. An electrode paste is applied and baked onto the end surface of ceramic body 12 to which internal electrodes 16 are exposed, thereby forming external electrode 18. External electrode 18 is plated as needed.
When such stacked ceramic capacitor 10 is used in, for example, a vehicle-mounted application, stacked ceramic capacitor 10 may sometimes be arranged near an engine. In such a case, the temperature around stacked ceramic capacitor 10 changes greatly, and a dielectric constant of dielectric ceramic layers 14 changes in accordance with the aforementioned temperature change, and a capacitance of stacked ceramic capacitor 10 changes in accordance therewith. However, needless to say, stacked ceramic capacitor 10 having a small rate of change in capacitance with respect to the temperature change is preferable.
Thus, disclosed is a dielectric material in which a capacitance-temperature change rate in a range of −55° C. to 250° C. becomes ±15% by adding BaO, MgO and Nb2O5 to an alkali niobium-based material (K, Na, Li)(Nb, Ta)O3 (refer to PTD 1).
PTD 1: Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2009-249244

Dielectric ceramic composition, stacked ceramic capacitor using the same, and method of manufacturing the same


Disclosed is a lighting apparatus having a complex sensor. The apparatus includes a short distance motion sensor to sense an object at a short distance, a long distance motion sensor to sense an object at a long distance, a signal amplifier to amplify signals from the sensors, a lamp to be adjustable in brightness in multiple stages, a timer to count a dark adaptation time, and a controller. The controller controls the lamp to a first brightness upon receiving a signal from the long distance motion sensor and to a second brightness higher than the first brightness upon receiving a signal from the short distance motion sensor and controls the timer to count the dark adaptation time at the second brightness, thereby reducing the brightness of the lamp by an illuminance within a dark adaptation threshold value set in the controller whenever the timer generates a counting signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to lighting apparatuses for use in indoor or outdoor installation places, which are adapted to be installed in wide spaces, such as offices or basement garages, or in elongated spaces, such as corridors or tunnels, or adapted to be used as streetlights or security lamps. More particularly, the present invention relates to lighting apparatuses, which provide preset minimum illumination upon sensing no object in order to relieve anxiety that people may feel when passing through a dark and long space, which provide efficiently bright illumination upon sensing an object through use of a complex sensor by efficiently controlling the brightness of a lamp based on movement of the object, and which provide illumination in consideration of physiological reactions of humans with respect to the brightness of a lamp, thereby achieving an additional advantage of reduction in energy consumption.
2. Description of the Related Art
Current lighting apparatuses are configured to sense motion of people at night so that lighting apparatuses present at positions where motion of people is sensed are turned on and then turned off when people move out of a sensing range thereof.
A conventional lighting apparatus is comprised of a sensor unit consisting of a plurality of motion sensors each having a characteristic code, a single processor to process a signal from the sensor unit, a controller to control a lamp unit in response to the signal from the signal processor, and the lamp unit to drive a lamp located at any position in response to a control signal from the controller. With regard to the lighting apparatus installed in any area, through use of the motion sensors to sense whether a person who requires illumination is present, the corresponding lighting apparatus is turned on upon sensing the presence of the person and then turned off when the person moves out of the corresponding area. Then, another lighting apparatus, which is installed in an area where the person is newly sensed, is turned on.
In use of the conventional lighting apparatus as described above, in the case in which a person moves out of a particular sensing area, but is not immediately sensed in a new sensing area, all lighting apparatuses temporarily become a power-off state, which may cause the person who passes through an elongated space to feel anxiety. In addition, note that the sensors of the lighting apparatus do not immediately sense an object, such as a person, car, or the like, when the object initially enters a particular space. Thus, the person who suddenly enters a dark space is liable to feel anxiety. In addition, since a lighting apparatus, installed in an area where a person is sensed, is turned on, but other lighting apparatuses installed in other areas are in a power-off state and, thus, only a particular area is illuminated and the other areas are in a dark state, a person who passes through a wide and long space cannot know whether any dangerous object is present in a dark area and thus may feel anxiety and be exposed to danger of accidents.
There is also proposed a method for installing a plurality of lighting apparatuses, rather than a single product, so that the lighting apparatuses interwork with one another in a wired or wireless manner. However, executing interworking of the lighting apparatuses in a wired manner requires installation of cables, causing inconvenient construction and high construction costs. On the other hand, executing interworking of the lighting apparatuses in a wireless manner is likely to cause communication errors under the influence of a surrounding environment and requires a complicated configuration including a communication unit, and the like.

Lighting apparatus having complex sensor and interworking type lighting system


A carrier for storing a plurality of memory devices therein and a method of manufacture for the carrier are provided. The carrier includes a jacket having a plurality of interconnected panels. A hinge member is applied to a hinge edge of containers. One of the panels of the jacket is then secured to the hinge member to mount a stack of containers within the jacket. The stack may also be secured to a second panel of the jacket.

The distribution for sale to consumers of memory media for example CD's and DVD's is popular and demand is growing. Until recently, most memory media was sold and distributed in singles i.e., a single media device in a package. Such memory media typically contained movies or music. Recently, however, multi packs of memory media have grown in popularity. For example, for some long movies, multiple DVD discs were needed to contain the entire movie. Additionally, many television series are now sold on memory media having an entire season sold in a single package requiring multiple discs. Many devices have been provided for the sale of multi-pack memory media. One example of such a package is a sleeve assembly with each of the memory media being stored in a respective tray or other holder and the trays are not connected together but individually inserted into the sleeve for storage. In order to extract an appropriate memory media, the entirety of the stack is removed to determine which individual tray contains the desired memory media. A package for holding a plurality of memory media is disclosed in U.S. Patent Publication No. U.S. 2003/0106814 published Jun. 12, 2003. This patent discloses a package having a jacket comprised of a plurality of interconnected panels including a front panel, rear panel and spine panel. A stack of trays is hingedly connected together by an adhesive sided hinge member which is applied to the trays when the trays are positioned in an elongated stack or row with the strip of adhesive material being applied across the hinge edges of the trays. The joined trays are then being separated into smaller stacks by a suitable cutter. This requires an indexing mechanism to ensure that the appropriate number of and the correct trays, if the trays already contain the memory media. Each stack of trays is then secured to a single panel of a respective jacket. Each of the trays may then be individually hingedly moved about the hinge member. The hinge member is connected only to the hinge edges of the trays. This is necessitated by the method of manufacture and the associated cutting device for separating the hinge strip into segmented sections each segment securing a respective stack of trays together. One problem with the device is that the hinge member tends to fatigue over time and break rendering the package incapable of performing its organizing and exposure function of keeping a set of memory media together as a set attached in a single package. While effective for a while, the failure of the hinge member causes long term problems with the package.
There is thus a need for an improved carrier for releasably mounting individual memory media in a single package containing a plurality of media elements.

Memory media carrier and method of manufacture


A multimode front stage amplifier and method of amplifying a signal having an optimum signal output for weak signals as well as for strong signals provided for TV tuners. A product having a multimode front stage amplifier and provisions for selecting different modes of processing the signal.

Amplifiers are used for amplifying input RF signals to receivers such as TV tuners, multimedia tuners, and tuners for PCs.
Presently in a TV tuner (TV set), for example, there exist different types of amplifiers, for example, a low-noise amplifier (LNA) type amplifier with a bypass, or a power splitter type amplifier.
These two concepts have been used until today by most of the TV set manufacturers, but both concepts have disadvantages. An LNA, for example, with a high gain and low noise, is not able to handle normal cable TV signals, and a power splitter amplifier that is able to handle such signals has relatively high noise. These two drawbacks cause problems, for example, when a TV set should be connectable to both a cable TV system and a conventional antenna and at the same time provide a high quality.
JP-A-10084500 describes a LNA for improved sensitivity especially for low-level signals with a sensor for a certain threshold. The LNA can not be used as a splitter for strong cable signals, for example, since the bypass suffers from implementation loss.

Front stage amplifier with different modes


Exemplary embodiments include a socket interposer having a first plurality of connectors, at least one of on-board memory socket and a memory. The first plurality of connectors is configured to fit with a first form factor of a memory socket on a server board. The at least one on-board memory socket includes at least a second plurality of connectors and has a second form factor configured for a memory module having a first memory type. The memory has a second memory type different from the first memory type of the memory module.

Modern server applications, such as data centers and server rack environments, typically use multiple server nodes that cooperate together to provide services to clients. Conventional server motherboards are typically used in such server nodes. A server motherboard includes at least a circuit board having a number of sockets configured to fit various components, one or more processors (e.g. CPUs), and an interface for performing external communication. The CPUs include connectors having a form factor that mates with CPU sockets on the circuit board. Other components may also be used. Some of these may be incorporated into the circuit board or may fit dedicated socket(s) on the circuit board. For example, memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM) is also provided for the server boards. The DRAM may be a module having a dual in line memory module (DIMM) form factor. The DRAM modules may thus be plugged into DIMM memory sockets on the circuit board. This memory is accessible through the CPU.
In operation, each server board performs calculations using at least its internal CPUs. DIMM modules including DRAM for each CPU may provide faster access to items in the dedicated memory. For external communication data are routed to/from their locations in memory from/to the Ethernet interface. Similarly, CPU commands, requests, and other information are routed from/to the CPU to/from the Ethernet interface. Thus, server boards may operate individually or together to provide the desired operations.
Conventional server boards may use DRAM mounted in DIMM sockets in order to provide low latency memory accesses. However, some server applications may perform better with different types of memory. For example, a particular application may be optimized for use with flash memory or a combination of DRAM and flash. However, conventional DRAM DIMM memory modules as well as other memory modules are limited in the types and amounts of memory that can be provided.
Accordingly, a server board having improved functionality and flexibility is desired.

Socket interposer and computer system using the socket


A plasma generation antenna and a plasma processing apparatus can supply a gas and an electromagnetic wave effectively. A plasma processing apparatus 10 includes a processing chamber 100 in which a plasma process is performed; a wavelength shortening plate 480 configured to transmit an electromagnetic wave; and a plasma generation antenna 200 having a shower head 210 provided adjacent to the wavelength shortening plate 480. The shower head 210 is made of a conductor, and has a multiple number of gas holes 215 and a multiple number of slots 220 through which the electromagnetic wave passes. The slots 220 are provided at positions isolated from the gas holes 215.

A plasma process is an essential technique for manufacturing a semiconductor device. To meet a recent requirement for high integration and high speed of LSI, semiconductor devices forming the LSI are required to be further miniaturized.
In a capacitively coupled plasma processing apparatus and an inductively coupled plasma processing apparatus, however, electron temperature of generated plasma is high and a region having high plasma density is limited. For these reasons, it has been difficult to perform a plasma process capable of satisfying the requirement for further miniaturization of the semiconductor devices.
In this regard, in order to achieve high level of miniaturization, it is necessary to generate plasma having low electron density and high plasma density. To meet such a requirement, there has been proposed a plasma processing apparatus configured to generate surface wave plasma in a processing chamber by microwave and to perform a plasma process on a semiconductor wafer (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2).
In Patent Documents 1 and 2, there is described a plasma processing apparatus configured to radiate a microwave into a processing chamber through a coaxial tube and generate surface wave plasma having low electron temperature and high plasma density by exciting a gas by electric field energy of the surface wave of the microwave.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2003-188103
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2003-234327
In the plasma processing apparatus of Patent 1, however, in order to radiate the microwave into the processing chamber through the coaxial tube, a ceiling plate of the processing chamber has a structure in which a dielectric plate such as quartz is provided between the surface wave plasma and slots, and the gas is supplied into the processing chamber from a sidewall of the processing chamber. Since the gas is supplied from an outside of the ceiling plate, a gas flow may not be controlled, which makes it difficult to control the plasma effectively. Further, although it is described that the ceiling plate may be made of a conductor, a structure capable of radiating an electromagnetic wave into the processing chamber is not mentioned.

Plasma processing apparatus and plasma generation antenna


A processing system (100) implements a translator (102) and a compiler (106) for compiling a machine readable language. When a source file (104) is provided, the system performs a line-by-line compare to determine if the file contains extended grammar constructs (e.g., X.68x, where x is greater than or equal to 1) of the language, such as an ASN.1 standard language. If not, then the source file (104) is complied. If so, however, then the source file (104) is input to the translator (102) to translate into basic grammar constructs (e.g., X.680).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to data coding and, in particular, to an improved method for compiling grammar extensions to data codes.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Abstract Syntax Notation One (ASN.1) is a notation for specifying data structures at a relatively high level of abstraction. In particular, ASN.1 defines a data structure protocol for describing messages to be exchanged between distributed computer systems. ASN.1 is used to generate programming language code that forms the core of a wide variety of massaging systems applications. For example, H.323 based systems use ASN.1 coded messages for signaling between H.323 endpoints, servers, gateways, and gatekeepers.
The ASN.1 language has evolved over time to include the ITU-T standards X.680 (Specification of Basic Notation), X.681 (Information Object Specifications), X.682 (Constraint Specification), and X.683 (Parameterization of ASN.1 Specifications), all of which are hereby incorporated by reference in their entireties as if fully set forth herein.
The basic ASN.1 compiler supports only X.680 grammar constructs. Typically, each extension has been supported through the development of an entirely new compiler. However, writing a compiler is relatively expensive and time consuming. Moreover, in certain instances, it is not possible because the code generated is proprietary. When new extensions of the grammar are defined, but the available compiler does not support them, the user cannot take advantage of the new features.
Typically, this has required the user to purchase a new compiler which, again, is relatively expensive. Alternatively, the user can manually convert the new grammar constructs into those that are supported by the old compiler.

Method for adding extensions to the grammar for ASN.1 without modifying the basic compiler and code generator


A hand held, battery powered vacuum cleaner has a sealed light compartment over the vacuum opening with a lens that directs a light beam onto the plane of the surface being cleaned at least as close to the nozzle as one inch. The light chamber is smoothly integrated into the top of the nozzle so that the nozzle may illuminate and clean in spaces having low vertical clearance.

This invention relates to cordless vacuum cleaners, and more particularly to a light in the detachable nozzle of such a hand-held vacuum cleaner that illuminates an area directly forward of the nozzle.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,207,498 issued May. 4, 1993 to Lawrence teaches a vacuum cleaner with a lamp located well back of the nozzle opening, using a fan shape light pipe to direct the light forward and out a broad, front aperture to reduce the height of the front end of the cleaner. U.S. Pat. Des. No. 259,618 issued Jan. 23, 1981 to Tack, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,983,443 disclose a hand-held vacuum cleaner with a headlight well behind the nozzle opening. U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,697 issued Nov. 23, 1999 to Song teaches a wide lamp housed in a chamber lined with reflective material to disperse the light into a wide flat beam. The lamp is within the airflow path to cool the lamp.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a hand held, battery or cigarette lighter powered vacuum cleaner having a headlamp in an isolated compartment over the nozzle that illuminates an area directly forward of the surface being cleaned by the nozzle. It is another object that the isolated compartment be closed at its forward end by a lens to direct the emitted light. It is yet another object that the overall height of the forward portion of the cleaner be low so as to enable it to be used under items that have little vertical clearance such as beneath automobile seats. It is yet another object that these items not block the light. This is achieved by having the lens in a straight line with the downwardly sloping top to direct the light down onto the plane of the nozzle opening as close to one inch forward of the nozzle.
These and other objects, features, and advantages of the invention will become more apparent when the detailed description is studied in conjunction with the drawings in which like elements are designated by like reference characters in the various drawing figures.


An aqueous formula is disclosed that combines a relatively low concentration of glutaraldehyde with very low concentrations of alcohol in a stabilizing alkaline buffer system. This formula is sporicidal within 10 hrs. at 20.degree. C., and bactericidal, fungicidal, tuberculocidal, and virucidal within 20 min. at 20.degree. C.

Medical, dental and other instruments are often made of high quality stainless steel that can be cleaned and sterilized between uses for different patients by high temperature steam under pressure. This sterilization procedure is quick, reliable, odorless, non-toxic and inexpensive. In contrast to this situation, more and more instruments are now made of heat-sensitive plastic, rubber, glass lenses and electronic components. These flexible, flexible-lensed, and rigid-lensed instruments allow relatively non-invasive diagnostic and treatment procedures within the body.
The non-invasive procedures allowed by these heat-sensitive instruments are responsible for great advances in medical practice. During use, these instruments can be contaminated with deadly pathogens such as the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), hepatitis viruses, and antibiotic drug-resistant tuberculosis and other bacteria. For these reasons, it is imperative that these heat-sensitive instruments be sterilized of all microbes prior to each use.
One of the problems associated with sterilizing medical instruments is that since many contain plastic and rubber materials, and/or contain lenses positioned with glue, or electrical or other materials, they cannot withstand sterilization by the heat of a steam sterilizer or dry heat oven. One method for sterilizing these devices includes low temperature ethylene oxide gas sterilization systems. However, these systems are very slow and require 24 or more hours of turn-around time.
Aqueous solutions of about 2.5% alkaline glutaraldehyde have been used to disinfect heat-sensitive medical devices since the 1960's. However, these glutaraldehyde solutions have many problems. First, while glutaraldehyde is far more antimicrobial especially against bacterial spores, at alkaline pH values than at acid pH values, in some compositions the glutaraldehyde becomes unstable when the pH value is increased from about 4.0 to about 8.5. Forty percent (40%) of the original glutaraldehyde concentration can be lost within two weeks at pH 8.5. To compensate for this loss of glutaraldehyde, the concentration of glutaraldehyde is originally set at twice the concentration needed for antimicrobial activity. Further, glutaraldehyde is a sensitizing, irritating, and toxic chemical. Thus, when the concentration of glutaraldehyde is doubled to compensate for instability, the toxicity is also increased.
Furthermore, the sporicidal activity of glutaraldehyde is relatively slow requiring an exposure time of ten (10) hours at 25.degree. C. Current compositions of glutaraldehyde may contain salts of acetic acid and glutaraldehyde concentrations of 3.5% to maximize sporicidal activity. This high concentration of glutaraldehyde in combination with the acrid fumes of acetic acid cause still further problems of chemical irritation and toxicity.
Slow tuberculocidal activity is another disadvantage of current glutaraldehyde compositions. They require 45 minutes of exposure at 25.degree. C. for 100% kill of populations of mycobacteria (TB). The increased temperature of 25.degree. C. as compared to 20.degree. C. has been used as an effort to increase the sporicidal and tuberculocidal properties of current glutaraldehyde compositions. Consequences of the increased temperature of 25.degree. C. is that users must provide heating devices, and the toxic glutaraldehyde fumes are further increased.
It can therefore be seen that there is a continuing need for an effective, practical, safe, affordable sterilant for heat-sensitive instruments, as well as for all applications that are beyond the scope of steam sterilization. This invention has as its primary objective the fulfillment of this need.
The inventor has now discovered that small concentrations (5% to 20%) of alcohol improve the tuberculocidal activity of glutaraldehyde. By improving the tuberculocidal activity of a glutaraldehyde composition, it is then possible to lower the concentration of glutaraldehyde and the recommended use temperature. The lower glutaraldehyde concentration and the lower use temperature decrease the toxicity of glutaraldehyde and eliminate the inconvenience of a heating device.
A buffer system can be selected that increases the pH value of the composition to about 7.2 without causing the loss of glutaraldehyde. The effect of selecting an alkaline buffer system that is compatible with glutaraldehyde is that the original or starting concentration of glutaraldehyde can be lowered. This in turn decreases the toxicity of the formula.
No acetate salts are added to the glutaraldehyde composition of the present invention, which decreases the acrid fumes and again lowers the overall toxicity of the formula.
It is therefore a primary objective of the present invention to provide an effective chemical disinfectant/sterilant for heat-sensitive medical, dental, and veterinary reusable devices which is stable at alkaline pH values without high concentrations of glutaraldehyde.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a chemical disinfectant/sterilant which is free of acetate salts.
It is still a further objective of the present invention to provide a chemical disinfectant/sterilant which does not require an outside source of heat to be tuberculocidal and/or sporicidal.
It is still a further objective of the present invention to provide a chemical disinfectant/sterilant which kills mycobacteria (TB) faster than currently available glutaraldehyde formulations.
It is yet a further objective of the present invention to provide a chemical disinfectant/sterilant which is economical to manufacture and safe to use.
These and other objectives will become apparent from the following description of the invention.


The present invention provides a method of performing a competitive assay for the detection and quantification of an analyte over an extended dynamic range. This is achieved by a multi-step sample addition method whereby different concentrations of sample are added at different times during the assay that produces a dose-response curve with multiple windows of detection. This multi-step sample addition method causes the dose-response curve of the composite assay to broaden, dramatically increasing the assay dynamic range.

Affinity-based immunoassays, due to their sensitivity, are routinely used to detect and measure the presence and the concentration of an analyte in a sample. The analyte may be any of the wide variety of materials, such as drugs, pollutants, chemicals, contaminants, or the like. The most common approach for performing detection and quantification of analytes with low molecular mass (<1000) is the competitive immunoassay. This assay, which exists in multiple formats, involves a target analyte, a specific receptor that binds to the analyte, and a corresponding analyte-conjugate, which consists of a target analyte (or a derivative of the target analyte) conjugated to a detectable label such as an enzyme.
Competitive assays are known to exhibit a nonlinear dose-response curve, the shape of which is dictated by the mass-action principle and the affinity of the receptor for the analyte and analyte-conjugate. The dynamic range offered by such assays is often limited to approximately one order of magnitude when using monoclonal antibodies as receptors. Unfortunately, the clinically relevant range of concentrations of a large number of important analytes can be much larger than an order of magnitude, thereby exceeding the measurable range of most competitive assays.
The most straightforward technique to extend the dynamic range of an assay is to dilute the sample and rerun the assay. This method preserves the accuracy of the assay and increases the dynamic range. Such a strategy might be reasonable for clinical settings that perform screening, in which analyte concentrations are usually distributed over a very limited range of concentrations. In such cases, the probability of needing dilution is very low and therefore infrequent. Clinics that perform high-throughput screening are particularly suited towards dilution as a means of extending the assay dynamic range since the time and cost associated with sample dilution is relatively inconsequential.
However, there are many other non-screening clinical settings in which samples can exist with a very broad distribution of analyte concentrations, making it necessary to dilute samples frequently. For example, methadone maintenance clinics (that monitor the compliance of drug addicts under therapy for their addiction) require the frequent and accurate testing of a population of patients with wide range of drug concentrations. If dilution is used to provide the needed assay dynamic range, considerable cost can result; both in terms of the cost of additional reagents and also as a result of the longer time interval before a result is obtained. Smaller clinics are particularly sensitive to the increased cost associated with dilution since they cannot benefit from the same economies of scale that the high throughput clinics enjoy.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,585,241 and WO8911101 describe assay techniques that utilize high and low affinity receptors, respectively, coated onto different types of monodisperse particles. However, these methods require the production of two different types of receptors for the analyte, a task that requires long development times. Furthermore, it is difficult to satisfy the requirement for highly controlled receptor affinity over multiple batches of reagents. U.S. Pat. No. 6,551,788 provides assays having a wide dynamic range by simultaneously incubating a sample with two or more independently determinable classes of a receptor coated particles differing from each other in size. Again, this method requires the costly and onerous task of preparing dedicated reagents with a high degree of control.
What is therefore needed is an assay method that offers an extended dynamic range in a simple, cost-effective and practical method without requiring a separate assay and the consumption of additional reagents.


To provide a lathing method capable of realizing lathing of a bar member made of a hard cutting material and lathing a stock made of a hard cutting material by a lathe including an NC automatic lathe, although lathing of the hard cutting material is impossible in a conventional case, a round bar is rotatably held to be fed along the longitudinal direction of the round bar by a guide bush fixed on the main body side of the lathing apparatus, and the round bar is sequentially fed from the guide bush to a machining tool arranged on the main body side, thereby lathing the round bar in a cantilevered state. For this purpose, a round bar having a solid lubricant layer having a predetermined thickness on the outer surface of the round bar in advance, thereby lathing the round bar so as to reduce friction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lathing method and apparatus, a round bar, and a lathed product and, more particularly, to a technique suitable for a so-called CNC automatic lathe (e.g., a guide bush type lathe, and a Swiss-type CNC lathe) for lathing, e.g., a round bar by sequentially feeding the round bar while cantilevering it to be rotatable and fed, unlike lathing in a conventional lathing apparatus in which one end of the round bar is rotatably supported by a lathing chuck and the other end of the round bar is rotatably supported by a tailstock.
2. Description of the Related Art
To normally lathe a round bar called an elongated stock, the intermediate portion of the round bar is rotatably supported by a chuck on the lathing apparatus side, and the other end face of the round bar is centered by a center drill. The machined center is rotatably supported using the tailstock of the lathing apparatus, thereby supporting the two ends of the round bar. After this preparatory process, an apron mounted with a cutting tool is moved along the longitudinal direction of the round bar to cut the round bar. This is general cutting.
On the other hand, a CNC automatic lathe cantilevers a round bar or pipe having a relatively small diameter to be rotatable and fed, and sequentially feeds the round bar with respect to a cutting tool or the like. The above center machining can be omitted, and at the same time parts having small diameters can be centered. For this reasons, the CNC automatic lathe is used properly.
According to this CNC automatic lathe, in a continuous unmanned automatic operation, to improve machining precision of the round bar supported to be rotatable and fed in a cantilevered state, a fixing bush (guide bush) is used to eliminate an off-axis error. For example, a rotary bush type CNC automatic lathe using a rotary bush rotated in interlocking with the round bar is used in practice in a limited field. A lathe of this type is more expensive than a fixing bush type CNC automatic lathe and causes an off-axis error as compared with the fixing bush type CNC automatic lathe. Therefore, machining precision of the rotary bush type CNC automatic lathe is poorer than that of the fixing bush type CNC automatic lathe.
Under the above circumstances, the fixing bush type CNC automatic lathes are currently more popular.
The fixing bush of the fixing bush type CNC automatic lathe will be described with reference to the accompanying drawing. FIG. 1 is a front view of the fixing bush illustrated together with a round bar 1.
Referring to FIG. 1, four expanding slots 3a in a substantially cross shape as shown in FIG. 1 are formed in a fixing bush 3. A hole 3n machined concentric with the outer-diameter portion of the fixing bush 3 is formed in a direction perpendicular to the drawing surface. The hole 3n is formed continuously with the expanding slots 3a.
The hole 3n is formed by a carbide material such as tungsten carbide 3c to sufficiently assure the wear resistance. The hole 3n holds the round bar 1 so that the fixing bush 3 can feed the round bar 1 along the longitudinal direction of the round bar 1. At the same time, the round bar 1 rotated at a high speed in a direction indicated by an arrow in FIG. 1 is sequentially fed to a cutting tool 12 indicated by a broken line, thereby lathing the round bar 1 in the cantilevered state while eliminating an off-axis error.
More specifically, the gap between the hole 3n of the fixing bush 3 and the outer surface of the round bar 1 must be minimized in lathing, and high-precision lathing with a very small off-axis error can be realized.
As described above, lathing using the fixing bush is limited to a metal material or any other industrial material capable of maintaining a sufficient sliding state even if the outer surface of the metal material such as free cutting steel containing a sulfur component, or copper is brought into direct contact with the hole 3n and rotated at a high speed to generate a large amount of heat. In other words, the manufacturer of the fixing bush type CNC automatic lathe does not guarantee use of a material excluding a free cutting metal material such as free cutting steel or copper.
For example, for metal titanium which makes it very difficult to lathe, a dedicated cutting tool whose rake angle is set to about 20.degree. is prepared, the peripheral velocity of the round bar 1 is accurately managed, a cutting liquid set in a state of almost water is sufficiently supplied to cool metal titanium, thereby allowing lathing metal titanium, as is known well.
In such a hard cutting material, however, when the fixing bush 3 is directly used, scoring K occurs, as shown in FIG. 1.
When this scoring K occurs, a workpiece to be cut becomes defective, and scoring K acceleratedly grows. For this reason, in an unmanned automatic operation, the operation must be forcibly interrupted. In the worst case, the apparatus may be undesirably broken, thus posing the decisive problem.
It is said that a hard cutting material cannot be lathed in a fixing bush type CNC automatic lathe.
In order to lathe a stock called an elongated stock into a desired shape, the outer surface of one end portion of the stock is gripped by the chuck of the lathe, and the end face of the stock is cut with an end face tool. Subsequently, the end face of the other end of the stock is centered by a center drill or the like, the chuck is loosened, the stock is fed from the chuck by a machining length, and the machined center hole portion of the stock is rotatably supported by the tailstock of the lathe, thereby supporting the two ends of the stock. After these preparatory operations, an apron mounted with a cutting tool is moved along the longitudinal direction of the stock, thereby cutting the desired portion with the tool. This is general cutting.
To prevent an off-axis error in machining, off-axis error prevention devices each incorporating at least three rotary bearings may be fixed to the lathe in place of the tailstock. The intermediate portion of the stock is rotatably supported to lathe the stock, as needed.
To lathe a metal product, a stock is prepared in advance using a predetermined casting mold so as to obtain a so-called near-net shape similar to the shape of a final product because cutting of a solid material as a specification material into a desired shape results in high cost. Minimum machining and finishing are performed for the above stock using predetermined machine tools, thereby positively reducing the cost. This greatly contributes not only to energy saving in factories and the manufacture of uniform, lightweight products but also to social needs for preservation of terrestrial environment.
FIG. 2 is a front view showing machining on a product having the near-net shape. FIG. 2 exemplifies machining on the shaft mounting hole of a golf club head W as a product. The golf club head W in FIG. 2 is molded to be hollow by a metal casting mold or forging mold (not shown) using metal titanium.
A drilling machine is conventionally used to form the shaft mounting hole in the club head W having the above shape. More specifically, a jig 21 is used such that the machining surface faces upward on a table 20 of the drilling machine. The golf club head W is then fixed in a stationary state. A drill 22 is rotated and moved downward while properly supplying a cutting oil to the machining surface, thereby drilling the head W to a predetermined depth and hence forming a prepared hole. A thread cutting tap 23 having cutting teeth at a desired thread pitch of about M10 is then rotated at a constant speed and moved forward into the prepared hole, thereby performing thread cutting. The tap 23 is then rotated in the reverse direction and moved upward to complete thread cutting.
On the other hand, among the products having near-net shapes, a product which can be directly lathed is set on the chuck of the lathe, thereby lathing the product.
In machining using the above drilling machine, it is difficult to cut a product of a near-net shape made of metal titanium as one of the hard cutting materials which are very difficult to cut. To cope with this, as the drill 22, a dedicated drill having a cutting blade set at a rake angle of about 20.degree. is required. A dedicated tap is also required as the tap 23. As is known well, the hard cutting material can be cut only under the conditions that the peripheral velocity of the spindle of the drilling machine is accurately managed, and the cutting liquid is set in the form of almost water and sufficiently supplied to cool the cutting surface.
In other words, machining is far from continuous cutting represented by NC lathing and must be performed by a machining center or a skilled worker who machines a single item.
Among the products having near-net shapes, a product which can be lathed but is made of metal titanium as one of the hard cutting materials causes scoring due to heat generated between the vibration prevention device and the center hole supported by the tailstock when the product is set on the chuck of the lathe and lathed. When this scoring occurs, the workpiece becomes defective, and scoring acceleratedly grows. For this reason, for example, in an unmanned automatic operation, the operation must be forcibly interrupted. In the worst case, the lathing apparatus is broken, thus posing a decisive problem. Therefore, it is commonly impossible to automatically lathe a hard cutting material.
The present inventors have made extensive studies and examinations on the cause of this scoring K and found the following.
A hard machining material such as the above-mentioned metal titanium, pure titanium, a titanium alloy, and stainless steel has a thermal conductivity of 22 (W/m.multidot. K) or less. This value is smaller than that of a free machining material such as free cutting steel or copper by one or more orders of magnitude.
Frictional heat generated upon rotation between the contact surfaces of the outer surface of the round bar 1 made of, e.g., a titanium bar and the hole 3n of the fixing bush 3, and frictional heat generated upon rotation between the contact surfaces of the outer surface of a stock made of, e.g., metal titanium, the tailstock, and the contact prevention device are gradually accumulated in the round bar 1 (stock). As a result, the round bar 1 thermally expands to increase the diameter of the round bar 1 (stock) and is fused and partially fixed to the hole 3n. This is the cause of the scoring K according to the findings of the present inventors.
Bars and pipes containing hard machining materials are usually wound by antitarnish paper or specialty paper and shipped or managed at the time of shipment or in long-term storage to prevent contamination, damage, and rust. These operations require an extra number of steps to result in high cost.
A large number of lathed products made from round bars and pipes and having solid lubricant layers having predetermined thicknesses on the outer and inner surfaces are commercially available. To obtain these products, predetermined machining operations including lathing are performed, a portion except a prospective solid lubricant film formation portion is masked, and a solid lubricant film is then formed and dried, thereby obtaining a finished product.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 54-137569 discloses a composition for drawing a steel material using the mold release characteristics of TFE (low-molecular weight tetrafluoroethylene) as a fluorine polymer. This composition is effective to assure surface gloss after drawing, but does not positively contribute to formation of the solid lubricant layer. A separate step is required to form a solid lubricant layer having a predetermined thickness on the inner or outer surface of the product in this proposal.
As described above, formation of the solid lubricant layer results in an increase in the number of steps, and extra labor is required in management of semi-finished parts. This increases the cost.