A decimation or interpolation filter is selectively used for decimation or interpolation of pixel data of a chrominance component of a video signal, In general, the chrominance signal and the luminance signal are closely related to each other and their edge pattern data coincide with each other when reproduced on a picture screen. A filter device for decimation or interpolation of the chrominance signal is arranged to perform a number of filtering actions depending on the presence or absence and location of edge pattern data. The present, absence, and location of the edge pattern data is detected using a luminance signal which is neither decimated nor interpolated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a chroma signal decimation filter device for removing sampled data from the chrominance component of a digital video signal and a chroma signal interpolation filter device for interpolating the sampled data using their adjacent data.
2. Description the Prior Art
For reducing the data of a video signal to a desired size for ease of recording or transmission, a method of decimation of horizontal or vertical sample data of the signal is commonly employed. While the amount of data of a signal for recording or transmission is decreased its frequency band to be reproduced is less than a particular (or Nyquist) frequency which has a wavelength which is two times the sampling period. If the frequency band before sampling exceeds the Nyquist frequency, aliasing distortion will appear thereby reducing the quality of a reproduced image. The Nyquist theorem suggests that the sampled data dropped by decimation will be restored through filtering them to pass only a Nyquist bandwidth portion.
The aliasing distortion is undesired in visual reproduction and must be eliminated by reducing, prior to data decimation, the bandwidth of a signal to less than the Nyquist frequency with a lowpass filter in a conventional signal decimation device. For interpolation of a data portion below the Nyquist frequency, the same lowpass filter for limiting a bandwidth to less than the Nyquist frequency can be used. More specifically, all the frequency components below the Nyquist frequency can be decoded with the LPF which is thus desirable for use as an interpolation device.
It is known that the visual sensitivity of human eyes is not high to a chrominance signal as compared with a luminance signal and also, high frequency components are less sensitive than low frequency components. Accordingly, the technique of decimating the chrominance components is preferred for reducing the amount of data of a video signal. Such devices for limiting the band of the chrominance components to a suitable width for decimation and interpolation are known as a chroma signal decimation filter device and a chroma signal interpolation filter device.
However, known chroma signal decimation and interpolation filter devices are not capable, never in theory, of reproducing a frequency band more than the Nyquist frequency. For example, an image data which contains an elaborate picture pattern of colors can be processed by the known chroma signal decimation and interpolation filter devices with the development of undesired color fringing.

Filter device for decimation and interpolation of chrominance components of a video signal


A phase locked loop having reduced inherent noise is provided. The phase locked loop comprises a controlled oscillator for outputting a periodic output signal as a result of a control signal; a feedback unit for providing at least two periodic feedback signals having a constant phase shift to each other and each depending on the output signal; a phase/frequency detector for providing difference signals each depending on a periodic input signal and at least one of the feedback signals; and a control circuit for providing the control signal to the controlled oscillator depending on the difference signals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to phase locked loops for providing an output signal depending on a periodic input signal. The present invention is further related to phase locked loops having analog or digital phase control loops.
2. Description of the Related Art
An analog phase locked loop circuit usually includes a frequency/phase detector, a charge pump, a loop filter and a voltage controlled oscillator as well as a feedback unit for feeding back the output signal to the frequency/phase detector. The frequency/phase detector is usually provided to compare the input signal with a feedback signal supplied by the feedback unit such that a leading/lagging information is obtained. If the feedback signal is lagging with respect to the input signal, the leading/lagging information results in an increased voltage supplied to the voltage controlled oscillator in such a way that the output signal is increased in its frequency. If the feedback signal is leading with respect to the input signal, the frequency of the output signal is reduced. Thereby, the frequency of the output signal is controlled to be constant at the frequency of the input signal or, if the feedback unit comprises a feedback divider, determined by a multiplication of the division value given by the feedback divider and the input frequency.
As the discrimination of the frequency/phase detector is poor due to the mere detection of a leading and lagging of the feedback signal, a phase locked loop according to the prior art produces an inherent noise as a result of a frequency toggling around the nominal output frequency.
The same is true for a digital phase locked loop circuit as the frequency/phase detector is designed similarly and therefore also has a discrimination which merely provides a leading/lagging information which substantially results in an increase or decrease of the output frequency. This also results in an inherent noise of the output frequency depending on the poor discrimination of the frequency/phase detection.

Phase locked loop having reduced inherent noise


An apparatus and method for facilitating plasma processing and in particular chemical plasma enhanced vapor deposition, plasma polymerization or plasma treatment of barrier materials onto the interior surface of containers barrier materials are useful for providing an effective barrier against gas and/or water permeability in containers and for extending shelf-life of containers, especially plastic evacuated blood collection devices.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus and method for facilitating plasma processing and in particular chemical plasma enhanced vapor deposition, plasma polymerization or plasma treatment of barrier materials onto the interior surface of containers for providing an effective barrier against gas and/or water permeability
2. Description of the Related Art
Plastic containers frequently do not have the chemical and physical attributes for proper storage and/or handling of their intended contents, and so the plastic surface may be chemically modified or coated with a film that corrects these deficiencies and thereby adds value to the original plastic container. Examples of container attributes include barrier to gas and/or water vapor permeation and reactivity of surface with contents.
Of particular interest is plastic medical products such as evacuated blood collection tubes, syringes or specimen collection containers.
Evacuated plastic tubes are permeable to atmospheric gases and water vapor, and substantially lose vacuum over time. A consequence of lost vacuum is reduced draw volume and blood-to-additive ratio. Thus, there is need to improve the barrier properties of plastic tubes wherein certain performance standards would be met.
Methods for improving barrier properties of plastic containers include deposition of metals and metal oxide thin films from a vacuum deposition source such as plasma chemical vapor deposition, plasma polymerization, plasma sputtering, etc. The usual method of applying plasma deposition coatings or modifications to plastic containers has been to place the container or containers in a vacuum chamber containing low pressure process gases and electrodes for energizing a plasma. In most cases these processes apply the coating to the outside surfaces of the containers.
Therefore, a need exists for an improved method and apparatus for imparting a coating inside the surfaces of containers.

Apparatus and method for plasma processing


A method of and an apparatus for performing electrophysiological mapping of myocardial tissue. An electrode at a distal portion of a sensing catheter electrically contacts the tissue permitting the catheter to conduct a sensed signal to analysis and display equipment. The electrode is formed of a biocompatible metal. This basic structure is coated with a material with micro texturizes the electrode surface to increase the effective surface area without significantly increasing the electrode footprint.

None.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to medical devices, and more particularly relates to devices for diagnosing various cardiac conditions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well known in the prior art to design and build apparatus for the diagnosis of various cardiac disorders. Certain symptomatic chronic conditions are quite easily identified and diagnosed. However, various intermittent conduction disorders may require substantial diagnostic testing and analysis.
Some of the most difficult diagnoses are associated with intermittent conduction conditions. Typically, such disorders may cause tachycardia ( i.e.,too fast heart beat), as well as bradycardia (i.e., too slow heart beat), and potentially even cardiac arrest (i.e., no heart beat) and fibrillation (i.e., uncontrolled super fast heat activity). These conditions range from extremely serious to fatal. Therefore, it is important to diagnose and treat the underlying pathology before any of these symptoms appear in environments not having emergency treatment resources.
One current approach, which is particularly useful in the diagnosis of these intermittent cardiac conduction disorders, is electrophysiological (EP) mapping. In accordance with this technique, the patient is taken to a catheter laboratory in which catheters are passed into the interior of the heart. These electrically conductive catheters permit instruments to analyze and record the electrical activity at points within the myocardium which are in contact with one or more electrodes of the catheter. In a typical diagnostic catheter, a single electrode is positioned at the distal end of the catheter. Each repositioning of the distal end of the catheter permits measurement of electrical activity at another myocardial location. In another version, multiple electrodes are located in a basket-like arrangement that expands inside the heart to bring the electrodes into contact with the myocardium. The electrical activity of the myocardium is xe2x80x9cmappedxe2x80x9d by the recording of electrical activity as a function of electrode position in contact with the myocardium.
Electrophysiological mapping permits the diagnostician to view each physical location within the myocardium exhibiting improper and suspect electrical activity. Following diagnosis, typical treatments include: management with medication; ablation of improperly functioning myocardial tissue; implantation of a medical device to treat conduction deficiencies (e.g., pacemaker, cardioverter, etc.); more invasive surgical procedure; or a combination of these procedures.
Typically, sensing electrodes are made from metal rings or cylindrical plugs made from biocompatible grade metal alloys like platinum and stainless steel. Some designs use a sintered metal made from micron sized metal particles which are hydraulically pressed together and then fired to obtain the requisite strength.
A particular problem with electrophysiological mapping catheters arises because of the low level of the electrical signals derived from the contact between the myocardium and a relative small geometry electrode. One solution to low electrical signals from a sensing electrode that is used for long-term, chronic sensing and stimulation is to increase the size of the electrode in contact with the myocardium. However, increasing the size of the electrode for an electrophysiological mapping catheter creates a greater sensing footprint on the myocardial surface, which decreases the resolution of the mapping process.
The present invention overcomes many of the disadvantages found in the prior art by providing a method of and apparatus for an electrophysiological catheter that increases the signal strength derived during the mapping process without increasing the electrode footprint in contact with the myocardial tissue. The technique is useful with both ring type and cylindrical plug type electrode constructions. It may be utilized with virtually any suitable electrode material or electrode configuration.
In accordance with the preferred mode of the present invention, a coating is applied to the exterior surface of the electrode structure to greatly increase the effective surface contact area without appreciably changing the contact footprint. However, unlike electrodes for chronic sensing and stimulation, this coating is selected to optimize acute sensing, rather than enhance chronic positional stability via tissue ingrowth or improved stimulation current densities.
Preferably, the coating is of a different material from the electrode structure. Titanium nitride (TiN) is the preferred material. The coating is applied at a thickness of from several angstroms to several millimeters. The coated surface may be continuous or discrete.
This coated surface layer creates a micro texturing which substantially increases the effective surface area in direct proximity to the tissue. The enhanced surface contact produces a sharper sensed signal due to decreased polarization thereby reducing the amount of capacitive coupling and increasing the signal-to-noise ratio. However, this larger effective surface contact area retains essentially the same footprint as the uncoated electrode. Therefore, the resolution of the mapping process is not adversely effected.

Method and apparatus for electrophysiology catheter with enhanced sensing


A manufacturing method for a large-scale diamond substrate and the produced substrate that is suitable for semiconductor lithography processing and large-scale optical parts, semiconductor materials, thermal-release substrate, semiconductor wafer processing, back-feed devices, and others. The manufacturing method of the present invention includes: preparing a substrate having a main face including a first region which is a concave and a second region which surrounds the first region, and mounting, on the first region, a single crystalline diamond seed substrate having a plate thickness thicker than the concave depth of the first region; forming a CVD diamond layer from the single crystalline diamond seed substrate using a chemical vapor deposition, and mutually connecting by forming a CVD diamond layer on the second region at the same time; and polishing to substantially flatten both the CVD diamond layers and on the second region by mechanically polishing.

Diamond provides numerous superior characteristics such as high thermal conductivity, high electron/hole mobility, high dielectric breakdown field, low dielectric loss and wide band gap, and nothing else is similar as a semiconductor material. Specifically, electric field transistors with high frequency characteristics have recently been developed, and are expected to be used as power device semiconductors. Diamond has a negative electron affinity, and research on practical use as an electron emitter element is in progress. Regarding optical characteristics, diamond also has high transmissivity in the ultraviolet region (225 to 400 nm) and a high refractive index. For these reasons, it is anticipated that diamonds will be used as pick up lens materials that can accommodate the increasingly shorter wavelengths in conjunction with the increasingly high density of optical disks, etc.
It is necessary to have large-scale single crystal substrate equal to that of other semiconductor materials in order to use diamond as a semiconductor or an optical material. This is because semiconductor wafer processing and the equipment thereof, which are required for manufacturing devices, have been designed with assuming wafers with a diameter of several inches. Currently, high-temperature, high-pressure synthesis and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) are being industrially developed as methods to obtain large-scale diamond single crystals, and a large-scale substrate having a diameter of about 10 mm in a (100) surface can be obtained. However, at the current point in time this does not reach the goal of achieving a large diameter of not less than 1 inch. Specifically, a diamond substrate having a (111) face orientation, which can be doped with phosphorus and easily obtains n-type conductivity, is a several mm angle size in a mass-production commercial product manufactured by high-temperature high-pressure synthesis, and is difficult to make large-scale and maintain satisfactory crystallinity quality during chemical vapor deposition. In contrast, the heteroepitaxial growth that allows diamond single crystal to grow on a comparatively large-scale heterogeneous substrate does not currently have sufficient crystallinity, and practical applications in semiconductors and in optical uses are limited.
In order to resolve these problems, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. H8-208387 disclosed an example of a diamond component that combined the advantages of both single crystalline diamond with satisfactory crystallinity and polycrystalline diamond for obtaining a large surface area by surrounding single crystalline diamond having a surface of 1 mm2 or more with polycrystalline diamond.
The diamond part of Japanese Patent Publication No. H8-208387 is mainly intended for sensors and optical windows, etc., and it is necessary to grow high quality single crystals on single crystal substrate. Because (100) single crystal is used as seed crystal in order to grow high quality single crystals, it is difficult to form an n-type layer on this substrate by phosphorus doping. Moreover, in the example of arranging single crystal substrate on a flat silicon substrate, the film formation time in order to achieve sufficient bonding required 220 hours, and this is a disadvantage for productivity. Further, in an example in which a silicon substrate was processed to form a concave and a single crystalline diamond substrate is embedded into the recess processed, the heights of the silicon substrate main face and of the single crystalline diamond substrate main face coincide. Because the heights of both surfaces coincide, it is not possible to completely remove the chemical vapor deposition single crystalline diamond layer on the single crystalline diamond substrate by polishing, etc., and it is not possible to expose and utilize a single crystalline diamond substrate part with satisfactory crystallinity, either.
Moreover, single crystalline diamond substrates indicated in Japanese Patent Publication No. H8-208387 are insulative type IIa and type Ib diamonds at room temperature, are undoped single crystalline diamonds, and cannot be used as semiconductor devices as is. Because the silicon substrate exemplifying the diamond part substructure is also insulative at room temperature, it is not possible to use in a sensor, etc. unless the silicon substrate is removed and electrodes and conductive diamond films are formed again. The insulative diamonds, as explained in Japanese Patent Publication No. H8-208387, are processed by a laser cutting, but the processing speed poses difficulties. Further, in order to arrange a single crystalline diamond substrate on a silicon substrate and to cover over this with polycrystalline diamond, it is necessary to form sufficiently thick polycrystalline diamond, and the throughput has difficulties.

Diamond substrate and manufacturing method thereof


The present invention relates to a for determining the presence, absence or amount of biologically active or inactive HGF in a sample, comprising the steps: bringing the sample in contact with a gel comprising a HGF binding component of the extracellular matrix or cell membrane, adding toluidine blue to the gel, correlating the color of the gel and/or a liquid in contact with the gel with the presence, absence or amount of biologically active HGF in the sample. It also relates to a kit of parts comprising toluidine blue and a gel comprising at least one HGF-binding component of the extracellular matrix or cell membrane, such as a proteoaminoglycan or a glucosaminoglycan, and optionally buffers, vials and sampling instruments and to a gel comprising at least one HGF-binding component of the extracellular matrix or cell membrane, such as a proteoaminoglycan or a glucosaminoglycan, toluidine blue and HGF.

Hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) is a unique growth factor, which is unrelated to other well-known polypeptide mitogens. It is a protein expressed in the mesenchymal cells such as lung macrophages and fibroblasts, Kupffer cells in the liver and leukocytes. HGF is secreted in response to cell damage and appears to be important for the regeneration of certain organs and healing of wounds. It is a heterodimer, having disulphide bonded heavy and light chains of approximately 60 and 30 kDa respectively, first synthesized as an inactive precursor. The precursor is cleaved to an active protein in the damaged organ by a specific activator. HGF acts paracrinally, i.e. it affects adjacent cells, as well as endocrinally, i.e. it has a long-distance. The target cells of HGF are fully developed epithelial cells. HGF is produced and is present in high concentrations at sites of organ damage.
The systemic and local production of HGF in various infectious diseases has been studied and high serum HGF concentrations have been observed during acute infectious diseases such as gastroenteritis, sepsis, pneumonia, skin and soft tissue infections and pyelonephritis. Simultaneous with enhanced systemic production of HGF, high HGF concentrations have been found in cerebrospinal fluid during meningitis. Raised HGF concentrations in exhaled breath condensate in patients with pneumonia, which had no correlation to serum levels of HGF, indicated a local production of HGF during pneumonia. Furthermore the stability of HGF in serum has been studied and HGF was found to be very stable in diluted feces samples and several freeze-thaw cycles, different buffers or several years of storage at −20° C. did not affect feces HGF concentrations significantly. High amounts of HGF in feces during diarrhea have been shown to possibly indicate that patient suffers from a transmittable gastroenteritis. Further, monitoring of HGF levels before and after treatment during infectious diseases has been shown to possibly reveal therapeutic failure at an early stage.
Recognizing the clinical importance and differences between recommended therapies, differential diagnosis between inflammatory disorders in the body has been the subject of several investigations. One major clinical problem is determining whether infection or other inflammatory disorders cause the disease. There are several markers that typically are used by physician to establish the right diagnosis such as microscopic analysis and culture of body fluids, white blood cell count, C-reactive protein, plasma procalcitonin and lactate. However, there are still no golden standards to be used. Problems in establishing correct diagnosis occurs daily while treating inflammatory disorders in bowel, ulcers, joint diseases, CNS disorders, peritoneal, pleural and pericardial effusions, among others. The amounts of routine markers such as CRP and WBC might be high in several disorders and cultures are not always positive in spite of an infection. High amounts of HGF and its application in diagnosis and prognosis of infectious diseases are discussed in PCT application PCT/SE2001/001831. Yet in these studies, the whole amount of HGF in the body fluids was determined by ELISA method. Various studies about HGF have been reported. Some studies have used determination of HGF in plasma/serum and urine for diagnosis and screening of diseases such as acute renal deficiency, myocardial infarction, carcinoma of bladder, acute pancreatitis and acute and chronic lung diseases. For this reason, previously described methods such as ELISA and Western blotting have been used. Detection of high amounts of cytokines during inflammatory diseases is not a unique finding. However, in some cases, determination of HGF has been found to be a sensitive method that could detect specific clinical problems much easier than the routine methods (PCT application PCT/SE2001/001831).
The previous described methods such as ELISA and Western blotting are based on an interaction between HGF in the samples and an antibody that binds specifically to HGF. In ELISA, the amount of HGF single-chain and double-chain is determined. By Western-blotting the quality of HGF in the body fluid is determined by detection of apparent molecular masses present in the sample. However the methods are cumbersome and laborious.
The innovative use of biosensors is useful, inexpensive and rapid in this area of analysis. Surface plasmon resonance (BIACORE®) method can be used for the detection of HGF in feces (WO2005/031365). The technique is able to detect HGF levels and quality in a single run.
In the case of infection: In different organs, the levels of HGF are increased locally at the site of infection. The whole amount of protein might be detected by ELISA. Using Biacore® technology, detection of the level of interaction (signals) to monoclonal, polyclonal antibodies to HGF as well as heparan sulphate proteoglycan (HSPG) immobilized to the chip, is high and it correlates positively to the results obtained by ELISA.
In the case of chronic inflammation: In spite of high amounts of HGF in samples that might be found by ELISA, non-significant correlation between ELISA and the results obtained by Biacore® is observed. It might be no or very low signals detected by Biacore® that shows a weak interaction to the ligands. The interaction to c-met protooncogene receptor might be high and the signals correlate positively to the level of immobilization. There is low signal rate at the HSPG channel. Adding HSPG or dextran sulphate to the samples at least 10 minutes prior to analysis might not diminish the signal at the HSPG channel. The protein might be biologically inactive.
The growth factors and cytokines such as Hepatocyte growth factor produced during injuries are released endocrinally and produced locally by the neighbor mesenchymal cells. The protein interacts with the high affinity cell binding specific receptor and sends signal into the cell resulting in regeneration of injured organ. In the case of HGF a non-specific receptor on the cell membrane and extracellular matrix (ECM) is needed to capture the cytokine and make it available to the specific receptor (c-Met receptor). Therefore the variants of HGF which show no affinity to HSPG or other proteoaminoglycans are not captured by ECM after release and might not interact with the specific receptor. Thus the protein might act as inactive in spite of high affinity to c-Met receptor.
In our previous works we have studied HGF by SDS-page, Western blot, ELISA and SPR and shown that the HGF protein (endogenous or recombinant) which did not bind to proteoaminoglycan (HSPG, heparan sulphate) or dextran sulphate, had no biological effect in the in-vivo (hair growth mice) or in-vitro biological activity methods (CCL-53.1 cells) used in our group. We have seen differences in patients with acute infection compared to chronic inflammation in binding affinity to HSPG in SPR method. Our primary conclusion is that in patients with chronic inflammation the high hierarchy cytokines such as HGF are inactivated and therefore they might need exogenous biologically active HGF to stimulate regeneration. As an example treatment with exogenic HGF has been shown to be beneficial in treatment of some cases of chronic leg ulcers (PCT application PCT/SE2001/001831). HGF has been found to enhance migration of healthy neighbor skin epithelial cells towards the damaged area by changing the cytoskletal structure of cells in vitro. An enhanced expression of met proto-oncogene receptor (c-met) in the ulcer area of patients with chronic ulcers is seen. Treatment with exogenous HGF decreased c-met expression significantly. There was a negative correlation between biologically active endogenous HGF concentration in the ulcer secrete and met proto-oncogene receptor (c-met) expression. Treatments with exogenous HGF in the patients with a low amount of endogenous HGF and high met proto-oncogene receptor (c-met) expression caused vascular proliferation and ulcer area reduction. This model of organ injury in the skin and the related events might be true in other organ tissues as well.

Method for determining biologically active HGF


The present invention discloses a defrost operating method for a refrigerator which performs a defrost operation by controlling operations of a compressor and a fan on the basis of a continuous operation time of the compressor and surface temperatures of evaporators to prevent frost from being formed on the evaporators, when cool air is generated in a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber by circulating refrigerants through a refrigeration cycle built in a refrigerator main body and forcibly circulated bX rotating the fan. The defrost operating method for the refrigerator can omit a general defrosting heater by performing the defrost operation by using the compressor and the fan. In addition, the defrost operating method for the refrigerator improves heat exchange efficiency and reduces power consumption by efficiently performing the defrost operation.

In general, a refrigerator prevents deterioration and reduction of freshness of foods, by generating cool air by exchanging heat with cold refrigerants passing through a refrigeration cycle, and freezing or maintaining the foods at a low temperature by circulating the cool air in a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber. Therefore, the refrigerator stores various kinds of foods for an extended period of time.
Normally, the refrigerators are classified into direct cooling type refrigerators and indirect cooling type refrigerators. In the direct cooling type refrigerator, evaporators are installed on inner walls of a freezing chamber and a refrigerating chamber, and cool air generated at the adjacent parts to the evaporators in the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber is naturally convected to cool the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber. Conversely, in the indirect cooling type refrigerator, an evaporator is installed on an inner wall of a freezing chamber, a fan is installed on a cool air circulation passage, and cool air generated on the cool air circulation passage on which the evaporator has been installed is forcibly blown by the fan to cool the freezing chamber and the refrigerating chamber.
Moisture generated from foods stored in the refrigerator inside or moisture of the open air sucked into the refrigerator inside due to opening of doors generates frost on the surfaces of the evaporators. The frost formed on the surfaces of the evaporators reduces heat exchange efficiency between the air inside the refrigerator and the evaporators. A temperature deviation seriously increases in each position of the refrigerating chamber having a relatively higher temperature than the freezing chamber. Therefore, a defrost operation is essential in the refrigerating chamber.
The compressor is stopped for a predetermined standstill time to defrost the conventional direct cooling type refrigerator. As the using time of the refrigerator increases, the frost formed in the refrigerator inside is grown to cover the whole surface of the refrigerator inside. Accordingly, the user must manually defrost the refrigerator.
In addition, a defrosting heater mounted at the lower portion of the evaporator is operated to defrost the conventional indirect cooling type refrigerator, thereby rapidly performing the defrost operation. However, the defrosting heater increases manufacturing and production expenses and power consumption. Also, the defrosting heater sharply increases a temperature of the adjacent parts. As a result, the refrigerator inside temperatures are not uniformly maintained, and cooling performance is deteriorated.

Defrost operating method for refrigerator


A resistor circuit includes n-stage unit circuits, each of which includes a first resistor element provided between first and second terminals, a first disconnection element provided between the second and third terminals, and a second disconnection element and a second resistor element provided in series between the second and fourth terminals. The first terminal of each of the n-stage unit circuits is connected with a first interconnect, the fourth terminal of each of the n-stage unit circuits is connected with a second interconnect, the third terminal of the first-stage unit circuit is connected with a third interconnect, and the third terminal of the mth-stage unit circuit is connected with the second terminal of the (m−1)th-stage unit circuit.

The present invention relates to a resistor circuit, an interface circuit including a resistor circuit, and an electronic instrument.
JP-A-2003-270299 discloses related-art technology in which a terminating resistor for impedance matching is provided in a receiver circuit, for example. Such a terminating resistor is generally provided as an external part of an integrated circuit (IC) device on a circuit board or the like on which the integrated circuit device is mounted.
However, when incorporating a high-speed serial interface circuit in a driver IC or the like, it is difficult to externally provide such a terminating resistor due to limitations on mounting of the driver IC.
A serial interface circuit conforming to Universal Serial Bus (USB), IEEE1394, or the like is known as a high-speed serial interface circuit. Such a serial interface circuit may include a terminating resistor, but is not designed taking into account the effects of interconnect parasitic resistance and the like. A method may be considered in which a terminating resistor is accurately adjusted using a fuse element in order to substantially disregard the effects of such a parasitic resistance.
However, this method has a problem in that the number of fuse blowing steps increases along with an increase in the number of resistor stages, whereby it takes time to adjust the resistance value.

Resistor circuit, interface circuit including resistor circuit, and electronic instrument


A method for preparing a polyester polyurethane flexible slabstock foam by reacting an organic polyisocyanate with a polyester polyol in the presence of urethane catalyst, water as a blowing agent and a silicone surfactant characterized in that the silicone surfactant comprises the reaction product of 1,1,1,3,5,5,5-hepta(hydrocarbyl)trisiloxane coupled with polyalkyleneoxide mono allyl ether and capped with a succinic anhydride.

Polyester polyrethane foam requires surfactant stabilizers to manufacture foam with good cell structure and an open cell structure to prevent shrinkage but enough stability to prevent form collapse. The surfactants also act as emulsifiers. More and more, the industry is driving to reduced emissions for additives including reduced emissions of silicone surfactants. It is also desirable to move toward higher levels of water in the polyester formulations, but high levels of water make processing difficult often resulting in poor quality foam.
Several companies offer surfactants for polyester polyurethane foam manufacture including Byk Chemie GmbH, Th. Goldschmidt AG and Witco (Europe) SA. As stated in E. Silma et al, "Recent Developments in Stabilizers for Flexible Polyester Polyurethane Foam" (Spring Technical Conference of the PFA, May 17, 1996), p 3, "Silicone surfactants For flexible polyester polyurethane foam are organo-modified polydimethylsiloxanes". This paper also describes a new low fogging silicone surfactant named B8324. Surfactants for polyester polyurethane foam can also be organic in nature and not contain any silicone.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,331,555 discloses a method for making low density flexible polyester polyurethane foam using as a foam stabilizer certain low molecular weight organosiloxane compositions. This patent explicitly covers polydimethylsiloxanes since the backbones contain (Me2SiO)x groups where x is at least one.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,560,544 discloses triorganosiloxy endblocked polyoxyalkylene siloxane polymers with suggested utility as surfactants, wetting agents, detergents, emulsifying agents, fiber lubricants and foam stabilizers for urethane foams.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,751,251 discloses a surfactant composition for rigid urethane foams comprising an organic surfactant. A siloxane-polyoxyalkylene surfactant and water or an alcohol, or both. An organomodified polydimethylsiloxane copolymer which has been capped with dodecyl succinic anhydride is suggested for use in rigid polyurethane foam.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,296,625 discloses silicone alkoxylated esters which contain terminal carboxyl groups as solubilizers.

Polyester polyurethane flexible slabstock foam made using reduced emission surfactant


Representative implementations of devices and techniques provide care-of-address handover. In one implementation, a message is sent to a server in a point-to-point communication session. The message includes a care-of-address of a first network interface (e.g., wireless network interface) and a care-of-address of a second network interface (e.g., wireline network interface). The care-of-address of the first network interface is a current care-of-address being used in the communication session and the care-of-address of the second network interface is a new care-of-address that a device (e.g., a mobile node) is going to transition to (e.g., handover). The message may also include the server's IP address and TCP (Transfer Control Protocol) port. Furthermore, the message may include the mobile node's TCP port.

Today's mobile computing environment requires the ability to seamlessly route communication content associated with nodes that routinely connect to a data network at different points of attachment, e.g., via air and wireline interfaces. Such nodes include cellular telephones, Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), laptop computers, and other mobile wireless communication equipment.
In one example, a mobile node may wirelessly and continuously be connected to a network infrastructure using the same Internet Protocol (IP) address regardless of the mobile node's physical location. The mobile node may be identified by a home address associated with the mobile node's home network. When the mobile node connects to the network infrastructure, the mobile node is identified by the home address and by at least one care-of-address.
Information sent across the network infrastructure to the mobile node's home address is transparently routed to the mobile node's care-of-address. The information destined for the mobile node's home address is received at the home link by a home gateway or router that tunnels the information to the mobile node's care-of address via an IP tunnel.
As the mobile node changes its physical location or connects to a different network interface (e.g., wireline or wireless) and switches to a different foreign gateway or router to maintain connectivity to the network infrastructure, the mobile node updates the home gateway or router with its new care-of address. In this way, the mobile node can relocate, connect to various foreign gateways or routers, and maintain a constant IP address presence without interruptions or disturbances in network connectivity.
However, when the mobile node switches between two different network interfaces while an IP application is running, the IP connection is interrupted at the moment the mobile node leaves the old network link. This connection is interrupted at least until at the mobile node the new link to the network has been made and until the new location, i.e. the new care-of-address, is known and has been updated in the home gateway. If the interruption time for the change exceeds the time-out delays specified e.g. in the TCP (Transfer Control Protocol) for dead times, the IP connection is interrupted. Even when the interruption time lies within the time-out delays specified in the TCP, however, the IP applications are not able to maintain the connection if a network interface is not permanently available and uninterrupted. This leads to the IP applications having to be restarted normally when a mobile node switches between two different network interfaces in order to be able to access a particular IP data tunnel.
Another problem is that, on the side of the mobile node, the data packets get lost in downtime between the connections since no physical network device is assigned anymore. This is particularly problematic in point-to-point connections, such a VoIP, that require uninterrupted data transfer.


A method for preparing an in-vehicle device includes monitoring a communication bus for one or more messages. The method also includes determining if at least one of the one or more messages corresponds with a message in a list of messages indicative of a change in vehicle state. Data is extracted from the at least one message that corresponds with the message in the list of messages. A signal is transmitted to the in-vehicle device based on the extracted data. A vehicle system that implements the method is also disclosed herein.

Portable electronic equipment is often provided with "locking" devices that lock certain internal components, such as hard drives, in the event that the equipment is dropped. The internal component, when locked, is placed in a state in which data on the device and the mechanism of the component may be more likely to survive the dropping event. A sensor within the internal component may be used to trigger the locked state.
As more electronic components are added to vehicles, it is desirable to control those devices within the automobile that may benefit from having a "locked" state during certain vehicle events.

Vehicle system and method for preparing an in-vehicle device


A tool for measuring seal slot position includes a tool shaft having a longitudinal axis, a pin eccentrically disposed at one end of the tool shaft relative to the longitudinal axis, and a disk member disposed at an opposite end of the tool shaft that facilitates rotation of the tool shaft and pin in the seal slot. The tool provides for increased accuracy in measuring seal slot position such as turbine nozzle seal slot position.

The present invention relates to a nozzle seal slot tool and method and, more particularly, to a nozzle seal slot tool including a continuous measurement pin capable of providing continuous measurement data and having a readable scale.
It is desirable to control the position of seal slots within drawing dimensions because the seals fit within the slots of adjacent nozzle segments. If the seal slot positions are not aligned between adjacent segments, it will not be possible to install the seals. Service run nozzles in a gas turbine may have distorted sidewalls as a result of previous weld repairs or due to stress relief during service. Creep strain due to applied loads at operating temperatures may also contribute to distortion. This movement of the sidewalls will cause the seal slots that are contained within the sidewalls to be out of position relative to engine center.
The operator needs to know how far out of position the slots are to press the walls, and therefore slots, back into position. If the sidewalls are not pressed back into position, the seal slots between adjacent segments would not be aligned with each other, and it may prove impossible to fit the seals in place. Alternatively, it may be possible to force the seals into the slots but this would lock the nozzle segments together such that they could not move or "float" relative to each other. This float is necessary to allow for thermal expansion and to ensure the segments load up against the sealing faces (hook fit and chordal hinge) during operation. If they are locked together, it is likely they will be skewed and will not load against their sealing faces. This will result in compressor discharge air leaking directly into the hot gas path and will reduce the amount of air available for combustion and for cooling of the nozzle. The result of reduced air for combustion will be lower performance of the turbine and increased emissions. A reduction in available cooling air will result in increased oxidation of the nozzle due to a resultant higher metal temperature and the lack of cooling will also cause changes to thermal gradients within the nozzle leading to increased cracking of the part. This will increase subsequent repair costs and may reduce the life of the parts.
Misaligned sidewalls may also result in flow path steps. The hot gas will not have a smooth path but will be tripped by the mismatch between adjacent nozzle segments, resulting in turbulent flow and reduced energy of the gas stream, thereby reducing engine performance. Turbulent flow also increases thermal transfer to the nozzle and so will raise the metal temperature, leading to increased oxidation and cracking.
Seal slot position measurement is currently conducted by means of a "go/no-go" gauge, typically having two flats mounted on a precision ground shaft. To perform the measurement, a pedestal assembly is positioned adjacent the turbine. The pedestal assembly includes a series of bushings that are precisely positioned for slot measurement. The gauge is inserted into the seal slots via the bushings to determine whether the opening is smaller or larger than a fixed amount, which is defined by the tool. The gauge thus only allows for crude measurement within set limits.

Nozzle seal slot measuring tool and method


Time course MRI data is acquired from the hippocampal region of the brain and processed to produce an index which is a measure of the functional connectivity between locations therein. The MRI data is acquired while the brain is substantially at rest and the spontaneous low frequency component of the time course data at each location in the hippocampus is extracted and compared in a cross-correlation process.

The field of the invention is the detection of brain disorders using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) techniques, and particularly the detection of Alzheimer""s disease.
Alzheimer""s disease is a devastating disease of the brain which results in progressive dementia, physical disability and death over a relatively long period of time. With the aging population in the United States and other countries, the number of Alzheimer""s patients is rapidly rising and can accurately be characterized as a silent epidemic. Much research is being conducted to develop drugs that will slow or halt the progression of the disease, and there is hope that a vaccine or inhibitors of secretase may ultimately be developed.
One of the difficulties in managing this disease is the lack of means for its early detection and means for measuring its progression. Such means are needed to identify persons who should receive treatment and to measure the effectiveness of the treatment. An immediate problem is the need for a method which measures the progression of the disease in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the many drugs being developed.
Many techniques have been proposed for detecting and measuring the progress of Alzheimer""s disease. These include cognitive tests which attempt to measure brain functions by having the patient perform different tasks. The problem with this approach is that it does not distinguish between dementia caused by Alzheimer""s disease and dementia caused by other factors. In addition, the ability to measure the progression of the disease using cognitive tests is very limited.
Neurofibrillary tangles (NFTs) and neuritic plaques (NPs) are the classical neuropathological hallmarks of Alzheimer""s disease. Numerous neuropathological studies indicate that the first appearance of NFTs and NPs in the hippocampal region of the brain marks the beginning of the degenerative process. Many studies have been done in which the structure of the brain has been imaged to determine structural changes that are linked to the presence and the progression of Alzheimer""s disease. These include: 2-D estimates of size; measures of medial temporal lobe gray matter volume; the qualitative rating of the amount of CSF accumulating in the hippocampal fissures, the size of the suprasellar cistern; and the increased distance between the right and left uncus. None have been particularly successful, and in fact, it has been found that profound structural changes can occur in the brain of some individuals with no cognitive impairment or other symptoms of the disease being evident.
It has been suggested that with progression of Alzheimer""s disease, the increased presence of NFTs and NPs in the hippocampus disrupt the perforant pathway and affect functional connectivity. A number of methods have been proposed to assess the functional connectivity in the hippocampal region. The concept of functional connectivity is widely applied to electroencephalogram (EEG) coherence, where it is a measure of the synchronization between two signals across distinct regions of the human brain and is interpreted as an expression of their functional interaction. In positron emission tomography studies, functional connectivity is defined as a spatiotemporal correlation between spatially distinct regions of cerebral cortex. Positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) can be used to monitor regional cerebral glucose metabolism (rCMRgIc) and regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF). It has been found that significant hypoperfusion and hypometablism occur in the region of temporal and parietal association cortices in probable Alzheimer""s patients. Many studies have demonstrated the correlation between regional localized hypoperfusion and hypometablism with cognitive deficits seen on behavioral testing. Despite frequent reports of abnormal function in Alzheimer""s patients observed by PET and SPECT, however, the clinical utility of these methods is still controversial.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology provides a new approach to study neuronal activity. Conventional FMRI detects changes in cerebral blood volume, flow, and oxygenation that locally occur in association with increased neuronal activity induced by functional paradigms. As described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,603,322, an MRI system is used to acquire signals from the brain over a period of time. As the brain performs a task, these signals are modulated synchronously with task performance to reveal which regions of the brain are involved in performing the task. Much research has been done to find tasks which can be performed by patients, and which reveal in an fMRI image acquired at the same time, regions in the brain that function differently when Alzheimer""s disease is present. These efforts have to date been unsuccessful.
The present invention is a method and system for producing an indication of the presence and the progress of a brain disease in a patient by measuring the functional connectivity at different locations therein while the brain is substantially at rest. More particularly, the method includes acquiring a series of NMR image data arrays over a period of time to form a time course NMR image data set, the time course NMR image data set forming a set of time domain voxel vectors in which each time domain voxel vector indicates the NMR signal from a different location in the patient""s brain; selecting voxel vectors from locations in the brain affected by the brain disease (e.g. Alzheimer""s disease); and producing a connectivity index by cross-correlating the selected time domain voxel vectors. The magnitude of this connectivity index is a good indicator of the presence of Alzheimer""s disease and is a quantitative measure of the progress of the disease.
A general object of the invention is to produce a quantitative indication of the presence and progress of Alzheimer""s disease in a patient. When the selected region of the brain is the hippocampus, the magnitude of the connectivity index has been found to significantly correlate with the presence of Alzheimer""s disease. The lower the connectivity index, the more advanced the disease has progressed.
Another object of the invention is to measure the efficacy of memory enhancing drugs. By providing a quantitative measure of connectivity between selected regions of the brain, the present invention may enable the effect of drugs on memory and other brain functions to be quantitatively measured.
The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description. In the description, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which there is shown by way of illustration a preferred embodiment of the invention. Such embodiment does not necessarily represent the full scope of the invention, however, and reference is made therefore to the claims herein for interpreting the scope of the invention.

MRI system and method for producing an index indicative of alzheimer""s disease


A multiplying apparatus includes a Booth decoder for performing a second-order Booth decode on a multiplier, a Booth selector for generating a partial product except the two high-order digits from the output of the decoder and a multiplicand, a partial product corrector for correcting the two high-order digits of the partial product based on the multiplier and the multiplicand and outputting the corrected result, for cancelling a sign corrected portion of the negative partial product, and a carry save adder for being inputted with the outputs of the Booth selector and the outputs of the corrector and adding them.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multiplying method and apparatus, and more particularly to the methods and the apparatuses for adding a partial product and for performing a floating point multiplication.
2. Description of the Related Art
The description will be oriented to (1) addition of partial products, (2) detection of the most significant digit, and (3) normalizing shift implementation in the prior art.
At first, the conventional addition of partial products will be described below. The addition of partial products executed in a sum of products or a multiplication may take a Booth decoding operation for the purpose of reducing the number of partial products and thereby speeding up the addition of partial products. The Booth decoding operation has been discussed in :David A. Patterson, John L. Hennessy, "Computer Architecture A Quantitative Approach", A42 to A44, for example. Later, as an example, consider a multiplication of fractions of a double-precision format defined in ANSI/IEEE Std 754. The fraction is represented in binary notation.
Concretely, with reference to FIGS. 6 to 8, the description will be expanded on the assumption that a 53-digit multiplicand is X, a 53-digit multiplier is Y, and Y is decoded with X. FIG. 6 shows inputs to a Booth decoder. As shown, the operation is executed to range the 53-digit Y (implicit `1` (the most significant digit of the fraction which is omitted), Y1, Y2, . . . , Y52) from the left digit, decode each three digits of the Y (termed second order decode), and multiply the decoded result by the multiplicand X for producing one partial product. Finally, 27 partial products from the partial products 0 to 26 are produced. The sorts of the partial products are determined by the three-digit pattern of the multiplier Y as shown in FIG. 7. FIG. 7 shows the relation among the inputs to the Booth decoder, the sorts of the partial products, and the bit sequences. For example, when the three digits of the multiplier is 011, the partial product is a double of the multiplicand, that is, the multiplicand shifted by one to left. When the three digits of the multiplier is 100, the partial product is the multiplicand multiplied by -2, that is, the multiplicand that is represented in two's complement and shifted by one to left.
Each sort of partial product is represented by a 53-digit X (implicit `1`, X1, X2, . . . , X52 ranged in sequence from the leftmost position). As noted above, since the partial product is represented in two's complement, the two sorts of partial products, the multiplicand multiplied by -1 and the multiplicand multiplied by -2, are represented by the negatives of X bits and `1` to be added to the least significant bit. Each partial product is a 54-digit bit sequence. The digits having the same weight contained in the bit sequence, that is, the digits at the same position from the floating point are added to each other for obtaining the result.
However, when adding a number having a greater digits upper than the most significant digit of a negative partial product to the negative partial product such as the multiplicand multiplied by -0, -1, or -2 (hereafter termed in mathematical expression like -0 times multiplicand, -1 times multiplicand, -2 times multiplicand), a sign correction is executed for the digits upper than the most significant digit of the negative partial product. (For example, when the negative partial product consists of four bits and is 1101 (-3), the four-bit sign correction is executed for the upper significant digits for deriving the resulting 8-bit value, concretely, 11111101). Then, the addition is executed for all digits containing the sign correction digits. Hence, when adding the partial products, as shown in FIG. 8, the addition is required to perform for the portion including the sign correction portion.
As means for adding the partial products shown in FIG. 8, a carry save addition is used. As shown in FIG. 10, the carry save adder gives rise to two kinds of outputs, sum and carry. As to the output of the carry, the carry may be negative, that is, the carry may contain digits left of the most significant digit of the partial product. Then, consider the carry propagate addition of two outputs from the carry save adder and a third number. In case that the third number has digits upper than the most significant digit of the carry save adder and the carry is negative, the sign correction is executed to fill with `1` the left digits of the most significant digit of the carry. The addition has to be done for all digits containing the sign correction digits. Hence, it is necessary to apply the carry propagate adder to all digits as shown in FIG. 10.
The conventional partial product adder is shown in FIG. 34. A multiplier 3210 is applied to a Booth decoder 3201 and a least significant digit generator 3203. The multiplicand 3211 is applied to a Booth selector 3202. The Booth decoder 3201 generates a Booth decode signal 3212 from the multiplier 3210. The Booth selector 3202 generates a signal 3214 for representing a partial product from the Booth decode multiplicand 3211 and the signal 3212. The least significant digit generator 3203 generates a signal for representing the least significant digit to be added for generating a two's complement.
A numeral 3204 denotes a sign correction generator 3204, which generates a signal 3215 for representing the sign correction portion shown in FIG. 8 from the Booth decode signal 3212. A numeral 3205 denotes a carry save adder, which performs a carry save addition of the digits having the same weights contained in the signals 3213, 3214 and 3215, for generating a sum 3216 and a carry 3217 of the partial product addition.
The conventional floating point multiplying apparatus is shown in FIG. 33. In this multiplying apparatus, a Booth decoder 3201, a Booth selector 3202, a least significant digit generator 3203, a sign correction generator 3204, and a carry save adder 3205 are the same as those described with reference to FIG. 34. A numeral 3306 denotes a carry propagate adder, which performs a carry propagate addition of the signals 3216 and 3217 and outputs a signal 3318. A numeral 3307 denotes a normalizing and rounding unit, which normalizes and rounds the signal 3318 and outputs the resulting signal 3319 of the multiplying apparatus.
The conventional floating point operating unit for sum of products is shown in FIG. 32. In the summing unit, a Booth decoder 3201, a Booth selector 3202, a least significant digit generator 3203, a sign correction generator 3204, and a carry propagate adder 3205 are the same as the foregoing components. The carry propagate adder 3206 performs a carry propagate addition o the signals 3216 and 3217 and a third number 3218 containing the sign correction digits shown in FIG. 10 for generating a signal 3219. Then, a normalizing and rounding unit 3207 normalizes and rounds the signal 3219 and output the resulting signal 3220 of the operating unit for a sum of products.
In turn, the description will be oriented to the conventional detection of the most significant digit (leftmost digit).
Consider a rounding unit commonly used for a multiplying apparatus for treating a number of an IEEE double-precision format and a number of an IEEE single-precision format. The match of a rounding position between the single-precision number and the double-precision number results in making the positions of the most significant digits different from each other. In overcoming this drawback, it is necessary to provide a step of determining the most significant digit. An example of the method for detecting the most significant digit is disclosed in JP-A 5-265714. As to the different precision floating point numbers, the respective most significant digits are positioned differently after the addition of the partial products. Hence, a circuit for selecting the most significant digit is added for overcoming the drawback resulted from the variety of the precisions.
FIG. 35 shows the conventional floating point multiplying apparatus additionally provided with the circuit for selecting the most significant digit. A partial product generator 3501 generates a signal 3512 for representing a partial product from a multiplicand 3511 and a multiplier 3510. A carry save adder 3502 performs a carry save addition of the signal 3512 for deriving two output signals 3513 and 3514. A carry propagate adder 3503 performs a carry save addition of the signals 3513 and 3514 and generates the signal 3515 for representing a double-precision most significant digit and a single-precision most significant digit and the added result signal 3516.
A selector 3504 receives a signal 3517 for representing execution of the single-precision multiplication, its inverted signal 3518, and the double-precision and single-precision most significant digit signal 3515 and outputs a signal 3519 representing the single-precision most significant digit if the single-precision multiplication is currently executed or the double-precision most significant digit if the double-precision multiplication is currently executed. A normalizing and rounding unit 3505 receives the added result signal 3516 and the signal 3519, normalizes and rounds the signals, and then outputs the multiplied result (fraction) signal 3520.
Next, the conventional normalizing shift will be described below.
Consider the following carry propagate addition of the fraction. The carry propagate addition is executed after dividing the fraction into upper half digits and lower half digits. Two addition of the upper half digits are performed according to the carry from the lower half digits, concretely, one addition of the upper half digits for the case that a carry from the lower half digits exists and the other addition for the case that no carry from the lower half digits exists. One of the addition results is selected based on the actual carry. In this case, the normalizing shift is controlled using the the most significant digit of the addition result selected based on the carry from the lower half digits.
FIG. 36 shows this sort of floating point multiplying apparatus of the prior art. A numeral 3601 denotes a partial product generator and carry save adder, both of which operate to generate a partial product from a multiplier 3612 and a multiplicand 3612 and perform a carry save addition about the partial products for feeding a sum signal 3613 and a carry signal 3614. An upper half digit adder (A+B) 3602 adds the upper digits A of the signal 3613 to the upper digits B of the signal 3614 and feed a signal 3615 that corresponds to a carry propagate addition if no carry from the lower half digits exists. An upper half digit adder (A+B+1) 3603 adds the upper digits A of the signal 3613 to the upper digits B of the signal 3614 and `1` and feeds a signal 3616 that corresponds to a carry propagate addition if any carry from the lower half digit exists. A lower half digit adder 3604 adds the lower digits of the signal 3613 to the lower digits of the signal 3614 for generating a carry signal 3617.
An added result selector 3605 selects the signal 3515 or 3616 based on a carry signal 3617 and feeds the most significant digit signal 3618 and the signal 3619. A normalizing unit 3606 performs a normalizing shift on the signal 3619 using the most significant digit signal 3618 as a control signal and feeds a multiplied result (fraction) signal 3620.
As described above, the use of the Booth algorithm for the addition of partial products advantageously results in reducing the hardware amount used for the addition of partial products because of the reduction of the partial products in number. Disadvantageously, however, the hardware needs to have an additional sign correction section. Hence, the additional hardware of the sign correction section offsets the effective reduction of the hardware to some extent.
As to the sum of productions, since the sign correction portion of the partial product needs to be added, it is necessary to execute the sign correction for the most significant digit of the carry outputted from the carry save adder and perform addition including the sign correction digits.
As mentioned above, the most significant digit is obtained after the carry is propagated from the least significant digit. Hence, the propagation may make the delaying time longer and thereby is a critical path of the multiplying apparatus. As in the prior art, if the most significant digit detector is used for detecting the most significant digit in the multiplying apparatus that treats the floating point numbers whose precisions are variable to each other, this arrangement may disadvantageously increase the delaying time further and needs a more time for the critical path of the multiplying apparatus.
The normalizing shift control signal used for the conventional normalizing shift is the most significant digit selected according to the carry from the lower half digits. Hence, the most significant digit that needs longer delaying time due to the relevant fan-out in scale, thereby extending the delaying time of the path passing through the most significant digit.


A communication system adapted to use wavelength (frequency) division multiplexing for quantum-key distribution (QKD) and having a transmitter coupled to a receiver via a transmission link. In one embodiment, the receiver is adapted to (i) phase-shift a local oscillator (LO) signal generated at the receiver, (ii) combine the LO signal with a quantum-information (QI) signal received via the transmission link from the transmitter to produce interference signals, (iii) measure an intensity difference for these interference signals, and (iv) phase-lock the LO signal to the QI signal based on the measurement result. In one configuration, the QI signal has a plurality of pilot frequency components, each carrying a training signal, and a plurality of QKD frequency components, each carrying quantum key data. Advantageously, the system can maintain a phase lock for the QKD frequency components of the QI and LO signals, while the QKD frequency components of the QI signal continuously carry quantum key data.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to optical communication equipment and, more specifically, to equipment for transmission of encrypted data using quantum cryptography.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cryptography is often used to exchange messages between two or more nodes (users, stations) in enhanced or even perfect privacy. A typical cryptographic method employs a publicly announced encrypting/decrypting algorithm, with the confidentiality of transmitted information provided by a secret key used in conjunction with that algorithm. Usually, a secret key is a randomly chosen, sufficiently long sequence of bits known only to the transmitting and receiving parties. For example, in a symmetric ciphering scheme, the transmitting station encrypts information using the secret key and sends the encrypted data over a public channel to the receiving station. The receiving station then uses the same key to undo the encryption and recover the original information.
It is well known that the longer the key, the more secure the system. For example, one widely used encryption system, the Data Encryption Standard (DES), has a key length of 56 bits. No method substantially more efficient than trying all 256 possible values of the key is known for breaking the DES. However, it is still possible that, if an eavesdropper has substantial computational power, the DES can be defeated. Therefore, to achieve higher security, a one-time pad (i.e., a key that is as long as the transmitted message) can be used. Although a communication system employing one-time pads is theoretically secure against attacks based on sheer computational power, nevertheless, such a system has to deal with what is known as the key-distribution problem, i.e., the problem of securely furnishing keys to the transmitting/receiving stations.
With conventional (classical) key transmission methods, which can be subject to passive monitoring by an eavesdropper, it is relatively difficult to transmit a certifiably secret key, and cumbersome physical security measures are usually required. However, secure key distribution is possible with quantum techniques. More specifically, in quantum cryptography, a secret key is transmitted through a special quantum channel whose security is based on the principles of quantum mechanics. More specifically, it is known that any measurement of a suitably chosen quantum system inevitably modifies the quantum state of that system. Therefore, when an eavesdropper attempts to get information out of the quantum channel by performing a measurement, the fact that the measurement has been performed can be detected by legitimate users, who will then discard all compromised keys.
In practice, a quantum channel can be established using, e.g., (i) a train of single photons propagating through an optical fiber, with key bits encoded by the photon's polarization or phase, or (ii) a train of coherent optical pulses, each containing a small number (e.g., less than a few hundred) of photons, with key bits encoded by quadrature values of selected variables characterizing each pulse. More details on the establishment and use of representative quantum channels can be found, e.g., in a review article by N. Gisin, G. Ribordy, W. Tittel, and H. Zbinden, entitled "Quantum Cryptography," published in Reviews of Modern Physics, 2002, vol. 74, pp. 145-195, the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference.
Although some progress has been made in developing equipment for quantum channels, this equipment is still not up to the performance targets, e.g., in quantum-key distribution (QKD) rate and transmission distance. For example, a current commercially available QKD system offers a QKD rate of about 1.5 kb/s over a single-mode optical fiber having a length of about 25 km. For comparison, a representative classical communication system offers a data transmission rate of about 10 Gb/s over an optical fiber having a length of about 1000 km. Given these parameters for the QKD and classical systems, one finds that significant improvements in QKD rate and/or transmission distance are desirable.

Phase locking in a multi-channel quantum communication system


A mechanism which makes it possible to unlock a cartridge compartment cover manually from a body of a camera, when an electric source is short of power, the cover of which is normally unlocked electrically therefrom. An opening is formed in a wall, forming the battery compartment, which is usually shut up from outside by a battery compartment cover that can be opened manually if necessary. One end of a locking nail, the other end of which locks/unlocks a cartridge compartment cover which is unlocked electrically from the camera body at normal use, extends inside the opening. When the battery is short of electric power, the cartridge compartment cover can be opened to take the cartridge out, by opening the battery compartment cover manually first, by taking the battery out of the battery compartment, and by operating the locking nail from inside of the battery compartment manually.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a film housing device which is provided with a mechanism for unlocking a cover of a cartridge compartment, and particularly relates to the unlocking mechanism, provided in a type of a camera in which the cover of the cartridge compartment is electrically unlocked from a body of the camera, which makes it possible to take the film out from the cartridge compartment when an electric source of the camera gets short of an electric power.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, such a type of a camera has been proposed as one in which a cover of a cartridge compartment keeps locked with respect to a body of the camera till all the frames of the film housed inside a film cartridge are exposed to light in photo-takings, and in which the cover of the cartridge compartment is electrically unlocked from the body, at time of taking the cartridge out from the cartridge compartment after all the frames thereof are exposed.
According to the mechanism of the camera, however, it is impossible to take the cartridge out from the cartridge compartment, when a battery as an electric source of the camera dies out.
If such a situation occurs after the film with all the frames of which are exposed to light is rewound inside the cartridge set inside the compartment, a user troublesomely must replace the old battery with a new one in order to unlock the cover of the cartridge compartment from the camera body for taking the film therefrom. In other words, the user can not take the film cartridge out from the cartridge compartment without the new battery.
Neither can the user take the film cartridge out therefrom without the new battery, if such a situation occurs as the battery wastes away to stop a film-rewinding mechanism of the camera before a completion of the film-rewinding operation.

Mechanism for locking and unlocking cover of cartridge compartment


A heat protective device includes a sheet having a first edge opposite a second edge. The sheet is comprised of a plurality of intertwined links that are movable with respect to each other. A strip is positioned between the first edge of the sheet and the second edge of the sheet. A fastener couples the first edge of the sheet and the second edge of the sheet to the strip to form a tubular shape. The fastener is configured to adjust a diameter of the tubular shape to releasably fix the heat protective device about an object. A method for manufacturing a heat protective device is also disclosed.

Firearms generate a high amount of heat when projectiles are discharged. Firearms include a barrel, which is a tube through which the projectile travels, and may also include a sound suppressor attached to the firing end of the barrel (i.e., the muzzle). Sound suppressors, which are also known as silencers, increase the volume available for propellant gases to disperse, above the volume that is provided by the cartridge and barrel of the firearm. Both the barrel and sound suppressor can become dangerous for a human to touch after use, reaching temperatures on the order of several hundred degrees. Consequently, an operator must often wait several minutes before removing a suppressor. It is also common for users to have burns on their legs due to contact with a hot barrel and/or suppressor, while a firearm is slung around their body on a gun sling.
A miraging phenomenon or optical refraction phenomenon effect known as "heat haze" impacts weapon systems with attached optics. This is due to the radiant heat rising from the barrel of the firearm and any barrel attachment, such as suppressors, muzzle brakes, and flash hiders during operation. As the intense heat rises upward from the firearm or barrel attachment, the optics can produce distorted sight pictures, leading to the operator and firearm pairing to become less accurate.


An object of one embodiment of the present invention is to provide a polishing slurry which can reduce dishing and erosion of a to-be-polished semiconductor wafer. The polishing slurry contains an oxidizing agent and two or more kinds of abrasive grains for polishing, i.e., fumed silica and colloidal silica. A ratio (selectivity ratio) between a polishing rate of a metal film such as a tungsten film and a polishing rate of an insulating film (oxide film) such as a SiO2 film can be adjusted by changing a mixing ratio between fumed silica and colloidal silica, and dishing and erosion of the semiconductor wafer can be thus reduced.

Today, the CMP is becoming an indispensable technique for planarization of an interlayer dielectric film, formation of a plug inside a via hole, formation of an embedded metal wiring, and so forth (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication JP-A 2004-193495, for example).
Formation of an embedded metal wiring involving a CMP process will be described with reference to FIG. 14.
As shown in FIG. 14A, a concave groove for forming a wiring is formed in a dielectric film 10 such as an oxide film formed on a semiconductor substrate, and a barrier metal film 11 made of titanium nitride (TiN), etc. is then deposited over an entire surface of the dielectric film 10, thereafter depositing on the barrier metal film 11 a metal film 12 for forming a wiring made of tungsten (W), etc. over the entire surface so as to fill the groove.
Next, as shown in FIG. 14B, the CMP is applied to the metal film 12 for forming a wiring so that the metal film 12 for forming a wiring in an unnecessary region and the barrier metal film 11 lying thereunder are polished to be thereby removed, thus leaving the metal film 12 for forming a wiring only inside the groove. The metal wiring is thus formed.
In adopting such CMP to form the metal wiring however, the polishing is conducted using, as a polishing slurry, a slurry which is high in a polishing speed (polishing rate) for the metal film for forming a wiring, for example, a slurry containing fumed silica as abrasive grains for polishing, in order to shorten a length of polishing time to enhance the throughput, thus causing so-called dishing that a central part of the wide embedded wiring 12 is polished in a region where the groove is wide, and so-called erosion that the narrow embedded wiring 12 and the dielectric film 10 therearound are simultaneously polished in a region where the grooves densely exist, as shown in FIG. 15.
An uneven surface formed by such dishing and erosion easily causes a difference in level of a dielectric film in an upper layer of a multilayered wiring, thus posing a problem such as electrical short circuit due to a metal film for forming a wiring which remains after the polishing, when the wiring film on the upper layer is formed.


A new data sensor for industrial lead-acid batteries monitors current, voltage, and battery temperature. It comes in a compact, easy-to-install, lost-cost mechanical clamping package with minimal firmware and low cost of ownership. It includes a cable guide configured to restrict the movement of a cable positioned within the cable guide, an electrical power pin configured to pierce the cable positioned within the cable guide to provide an electrical connection to the cable, a tri-axis Hall Effect sensor configured to sense a current flowing through the cable positioned within the cable guide, and a clamping structure configured to clamp the cable positioned within the cable guide and prevent movement of the cable relative to the tri-axis Hall Effect sensor.

Technical Field
Exemplary embodiment(s) of the present disclosure relate to industrial lead-acid battery data monitoring apparatus and, more particularly, to a low-cost clamp-on sensor that monitors current, voltage, and battery temperature.
Background of the Invention
A Battery Data Module, hereinafter "BDM", is a system for measuring analog signal parameters continuously from a battery, taking setup configuration information, and storing battery event and data records (e.g., battery current, battery voltage, mid cell battery voltage, battery temperature, electrolyte level, etc.). The BDM will calculate various battery usage parameters and store said values in nonvolatile memory (e.g., read-only memory, flash memory, ferroelectric RAM, magnetic computer storage, etc.) upon the collection of such values.
BDM data can be divided into the following categories: 1) Configuration Data; 2) Summary Data; and 3) Event Data. Configuration Data includes data necessary to manage the operation of the BDM (i.e., battery serial numbers, truck serial numbers, battery configuration, service date, alarm thresholds, conditions). Summary Data is comprised of a plurality of data collected over the operating life of the BDM and optionally over user configurable time intervals. Event Data is a record of operation of the battery to which the BDM is attached. Events are recorded for each operating state of the battery (i.e., battery charge, discharge, idle), BDM start and stop, and event thresholds. Furthermore, event data is used to compile an accurate record of battery use.
The BDM is responsible for collecting data and using the configuration parameters to form these records and store them in nonvolatile memory.
Typical industry software configuration is done locally (i.e., by a direct wired linked connection, by a wireless linked connection) allowing a service technician to configure customer parameters which ultimately provide the configuration and setup of the BDM customized to the battery application. This process is dated and highlights a major weakness in existing BDMs, the necessity to be on-site to configure BDMs for a particular application. The service tech must physically be present in order to properly configure the BDM, so that they can properly enter the pertinent information. When human errors occur in the configuration process, the previously collected data under the erroneous configuration is corrupt and lost. The new configuration must be corrected on the BDM and the newly collected data with the corrected configuration can be tracked moving forward. In essence, configuration needs to be programmed into the BDM before it can properly calculate and form meaningful summary and event data records for the battery on which it resides. Moreover, configuration must be performed locally on-site with proper tools and trained service technicians.
Typical summary and event records are stored locally on the BDM in nonvolatile memory. As mentioned previously, there is a strong relationship between configuration and event and summary records. Embedded in the configuration are various parameters that allow calculating and forming summary and event records. Summary and event data records can then be calculated and formed from these typical parameters. Summary data is a collection of values recorded while the BDM is in operation. Three collections of data are as follows: 1) Total; 2) Interval 1; 3) Interval 2. Total data is a summary of all data recorded since BDM installation. The total data may only be reset by a hard reset of the BDM. Interval 1 and Interval 2 are two sets of data which can be reset by user control. These summary collections can be used to accumulate data over specific time periods of for certain operating conditions.
The BDM event log is a record of all battery activity. A record is entered into the log on each change of operating state (e.g., idle, charging, and discharging). In addition, an event record is generated when the BDM operation is started or stopped. A BDM start event would occur on power-up when the BDM is properly configured and when the BDM is commanded to start via the communications protocol. A stop event occurs when the BDM is commanded to stop via the communications protocol. Loss of power to the BDM will not generate a stop event, however. The BDM can record alarm, status and error events according to the configuration of the device. A plurality of event records is stored in the log in chronological order. When the log is full, the oldest record is overwritten.
The BDM must be a configured intelligent machine in order to calculate and formulate accurate records. Calculated values such as Amper Hours (AHRs), State of Charge (SOC), and time stamped data must be accurate and maintained locally. If the date is not configured properly, the data collected becomes corrupted, and as a result, the BDM's time setting must be corrected to ensure that future data has the proper time stamp. The corrupted data is no longer usable nor salvageable. Likewise, any SOC calculations must possess an accurate battery capacity configuration. Furthermore, any new calculations proposed (i.e., lifetime predictors) must be custom programmed on end devices and added to the protocol.
Exception reporting is primarily the preferred method for existing systems as it only notifies users when there is a warranty-threatening or application issue. Most customers do not want to review records to determine whether there is an issue worth noting. Typically exception reporting will be automated and push alerts via email or text messages. If any records are changed or added, the BDM will require reprogramming. Unfortunately, all devices deployed need to be upgraded individually, which creates service issues and possible loss of data in the module. This does provide a reduction in the amount of data stored, but requires the BDM to perform calculation and event detection methods. Coincidently, this increases the complexity of the embedded controller on the BDM, leading to more potential firmware bugs.
Typical industry hardware is comprised of BDMs that utilize external current sensors and wiring attachments to electrically power the unit from the battery. Typically, the BDM is powered by attaching wires to the positive and negative terminals of the battery or cables attaching to these terminals. These connections are usually light gauge wires and care must be taken when handling batteries, as they can be caught and torn on heavier components of the battery and/or a vehicle (e.g. forklift or pallet truck for material handling) in which the battery is installed when removal and installation on the vehicle occur. Depending on the connection method of these wires, dissimilar metal and acid corrosion can occur on the connectors used. The two methods employed for current sensing are Hall Effects and current shunts.
Hall Effect sensors incorporate a ferrite C-core and need to be electrically powered and sensed via a wiring harness from the BDM. In addition, battery power cables need to be removed from connectors to insert into the C-core of the Hall Effect and then reattached to the connector. Current shunts come in two different varieties: 1) Purchased Calibrated Shunts and 2) Field Calibrated Battery Straps. Purchase calibrated shunts require cutting power cables, applying lugs and attaching to the shunt. Furthermore, wires need to be run back to the BDM for sensing and the shunt needs to be packaged to electrically isolate. Field calibrated shunts eliminate these issues by utilizing existing battery straps that interconnect battery cells and by performing a field calibration procedure to calibrate. Calibration must be done on each install and requires a trained technician, test instruments and setup. The strap cannot be arbitrarily closed and wired to the BDM due to voltage potentials of the BDM sensing circuits. Additionally, the battery may be manufactured with a purchased calibrated shunt, but the shunt must be sized to the BDM used, and therefore becomes custom build with a nonstandard battery strap.
There are other reliability issues related to this special/custom production sequence including shunt dissimilar material, acid corrosion, and heating issues. Consequently, this has not been standardized and due to issues related to this implementation probably will not materialize in the future. Because of these issues and the need for field installs, trained technicians are required to properly install these BDMs. This does not promote nor enable high volume installations and scalability. The cost of ownership is not just the BDM purchase price, but also the cost of installation and resolution of associated human errors that require on-site rectification.
Needs exist for improved systems for monitoring and reporting batter usage.

Clamp-on easy-install wireless battery data sensor and associated use thereof


In the electric lamp with a base in which a bulb capsule including a pinch seal portion 3 in one end portion of a glass bulb connects with a hold plate in such a manner that the pinch seal portion is held by and between hold pieces respectively provided in the hold plate, a section of the pinch seal portion side end portion of the glass bulb,with which the glass bulb side hold pieces of the hold plate are to be engaged, is formed larger in thickness than the remaining sections of the pinch seal portion side end portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric lamp with a base including a bulb capsule and a hold plate for holding the bulb capsule, in which the bulb capsule includes a pinch seal portion formed in one end portion of a glass bulb provided in the bulb capsule, and the hold plate includes two or more hold pieces, while the pinch seal portion of the bulb capsule can be connected with and held by the hold plate in such a manner that the pinch seal portion of the glass bulb of the bulb capsule is held by and between the hold pieces of the hold plate, and, in particular, to a technology which prevents the glass bulb of the bulb capsule against damage when or after the bulb capsule is held by the hold plate.
2. Related Art
FIGS. 6 and 7 show an example of a conventional electric lamp with a base.
In these figures, reference character a designates a bulb capsule of a halogen lamp. Reference character b stands for a glass bulb which is sealed in such a manner that one end of which is closed by a pinch seal portion c, with the other end thereof closed by an air exhaust portion d. Reference numeral e designates lead wires which are inserted through the pinch seal portion c, while the intermediate portions of the lead wires e are held by the pinch seal portion c. Here, filaments f are provided between the suitable leading ends of the lead wires e.
The pinch seal portion c is formed in a substantially flat shape and, on the two sides in the width direction of the pinch seal portion c, there are provided projecting strips g on the two side surfaces of the pinch seal portion c, so that the pinch seal portion c has a section of a substantially I shape. Further, in the substantially central portions of the two side surfaces of the pinch seal portion c, there are provided engaging projection sections h.
A hold plate i formed of a metal plate having spring elasticity has a substantially circular shape when it is viewed from top, and includes a peripheral edge which is bent stepwise.
The hold plate i includes a hold surface i. On the hold surface i, there are provided two pairs of intermediate hold pieces k and two pairs of side hold pieces l which are respectively formed by cutting and raising the corresponding portions of the hold surface i. The intermediate hold pieces k are formed opposed to each other, are respectively bent downwardly (in FIGS. 6 and 7, toward the lower edge side of the present drawing sheet) from the hold surface i, and are inclined in such a manner that the leading ends m of the mutually opposed hold pieces k are allowed to approach each other. On-the other hand, the side hold pieces l are similarly formed opposed to each other, are respectively bent upwardly from the hold surface i, and are inclined in such a manner that the leading ends n of the mutually opposed hold pieces l are allowed to approach each other.
Thus, the bulb capsule a is inserted into the hold plate i in such a manner that the pinch seal portion c of the bulb capsule a is inserted from above between the hold pieces k and l until, as can be seen in FIG. 7, the leading ends n of the hold pieces l contact the lower end portion of the glass bulb b, that is, the end portion o thereof on the pinch seal side. In this state (which is shown in FIG. 7), the intermediate hold pieces k are arranged in such a manner that the leading ends thereof m are located below the hold surface i and are elastically contacted with the side surface of the intermediate portion of the pinch seal portion c from both sides, while the leading ends thereof m are also engaged with the upper surfaces of the engaging projection sections h provided on the side surfaces of the pinch seal portion c.
On the other hand, the side hold pieces l are arranged in such a manner that the leading ends thereof n are located above the hold surface i, and are elastically contacted with the side surface of the intermediate portion of the pinch seal portion c from both sides and engaged with the pinch seal portion side end portion o of the glass bulb b, thereby preventing the bulb capsule a from being removed from the hold plate i.
However, in the above-mentioned conventional electric lamp with a base, when the bulb capsule a is held by the hold plate i, the sharp edges p of the leading ends n of the side hold pieces l are engaged with the pinch seal portion side end portion o of the glass bulb b, which causes the glass bulb b and pinch seal portion c to be damaged or cracked, thereby increasing the rate of production of poor products in an electric lamp manufacturing process.


An electronic test node (1) for a safety chain (22) in a passenger conveyor system includes an electrical connection (2) for an associated safety switch (4). A processor (6) is configured to monitor a signal carried by the electrical connection (2) so as to detect whether the associated safety switch (4) is open or closed. The electronic test node (1) further includes a test switch (8) connected in series with the electrical connection (2), wherein the processor (6) is configured to run a test by selectively opening the test switch (8) and monitoring for a change in the signal carried by the electrical connection (2).

The safety system of a passenger conveyor system needs to be tested for correct functioning at installation and at regular time periods during its lifetime. Most of the tests are performed by manual intervention of a service person activating different safety devices in different locations of the passenger conveyor system. For example, a service person may need to physically access multiple safety devices at different locations in the hoistway of an elevator system. This is time consuming and a 100% check depends on human interaction.
It would be desirable to provide for an automatic check of the safety devices in a safety chain without requiring manual activation.

Electronic test nodes for automatic check of a safety chain