Communication signal symbol timing error detection and recovery apparatus and techniques are disclosed. A communication signal that includes symbols is sampled according to receive symbol timing. The samples are band-edge filtered to provide a filtered output signal including band edges of the samples. The filtered output signal is converted to baseband, and a phase error of the receive symbol timing is calculated based on the down converted baseband signal. The communication signal may include symbols associated with quadrature channels, in which case a respective filtered output signal that includes band edges of samples associated with each quadrature channel may be down converted. The down converted baseband signals may then be separated into upper and lower band-edge signals, which are used to calculate a phase error of the receive symbol timing. The upper and lower band-edge signals may also be used for other purposes, such as slope equalization and/or carrier synchronization.

Some conventional schemes for communication signal symbol timing recovery require 4 samples per symbol to implement. This in turn limits the data rates that can be processed at a communication signal receiver. Digital implementations of such schemes can be particularly problematic for high data rates, since high-speed digital components would be required to support the sampling rate.
Thus, there remains a need for improved symbol timing recovery techniques.


A new Personal Hygenic Washing System for douching the external pelvic area as well as for use internally. The inventive device includes a contoured cleaning member having a plurality of irrigation holes, a squeezable bottle and means for attaching the cleaning member to the squeezable bottle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to douching devices and more particularly pertains to a new Personal Hygenic Washing System for douching the external pelvic area as well as for use internally.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of douching devices is known in the prior art. More specifically, douching devices heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
Known prior art douching devices include U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,013,297; 3,916,896; 4,287,888; and 4,405,321.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not disclose a new Personal Hygenic Washing System. The inventive device includes a contoured cleaning member having a plurality of irrigation holes, a squeezable bottle and means for attaching the cleaning member to the squeezable bottle.
In these respects, the Personal Hygenic Washing System according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of douching the external pelvic area as well as for use internally.


A sintered body which includes at least indium oxide and gallium oxide and comprises voids each having a volume of 14000 μm3 or more in an amount of 0.03 vol % or less.

In order to realize a large-area and highly-precise next-generation display, a transistor having a high mobility is required. For use in a transistor, an oxide semiconductor has attracted attention. As a candidate material of an oxide semiconductor, a thin film of amorphous indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) is promising. This thin film can be obtained by sputtering a target formed of a sintered body having the same composition.
In a sputtering method, generally, glow discharge is allowed to occur between a substrate as the anode and a target as the cathode in an argon gas pressure of about 10 Pa or less, thereby to generate argon plasma. Argon positive ions in this plasma collide with the target as the cathode to cause the particles of the target components to fly off, and these particles are then deposited on the substrate to form a film.
A sputtering method is divided into several methods according to the manner of argon plasma generation. A method which uses high-frequency plasma is called high-frequency sputtering method, and a method which uses direct current plasma is called direct current sputtering method. Further, a method in which magnets are arranged on the rear side of the target to allow argon plasma to concentrate on just above the target, whereby collision efficiency of argon ions is increased to enable film formation at a low pressure is called "magnetron sputtering method".
An IGZO sintered body is generally used as an oxide semiconductor target. An IGZO sintered body is produced by a powder sintering method in which, substantially, an indium oxide, a gallium oxide and a zinc oxide are compounded to have a desired composition, and the resulting mixture is subjected to press shaping, and the shaped body is then sintered at a temperature of 1400° C. or higher (Patent Document 1).
Further, in order to improve transistor performance, development of a sintered body for obtaining a crystalline oxide semiconductor such as indium oxide gallium (IGO) has been studied (Patent Document 2). As for the method for sintering an IGO target, by conducting sintering at 1200° C. to 1600° C. for 2 hours or more, gallium is solid dissolved in an indium site, whereby a high-density target can be obtained.
However, it has been found that if sputtering is conducted at a large power of 3 W/cm2 or more by using a middle- to large-sized target in which a longer side or one side has a length exceeding 5 inches (i.e. a target having an area exceeding 25000 mm2) that is produced under these conditions, particles may generate.
Also, it has been confirmed that such a phenomenon hardly occurs in a small-sized target having a size of 4 inches or less. An oxide semiconductor is originally a material that meets requirements for an increase in area of a display. Of these oxide semiconductors, a material comprising both indium and gallium such as IGO has a problem that particles may generate. Therefore, there is a demand for solving this problem.

Sintered material, and process for producing same


A wireless communication device includes a metal frame, a mechanical part on which a ground is formed for providing grounding, and at least one antenna, wherein each one of the at least one antenna includes a radiator, a feed terminal electrically connected to the radiator, disposed adjacent to the metal frame and for feeding a radio-frequency signal, a first ground terminal disposed at a first side of the feed terminal for electrically connecting the metal frame with the ground of the mechanical part, and a second ground terminal disposed at a second side of the feed terminal for electrically connecting the metal frame with the ground of the mechanical part, wherein an area enclosed by the metal frame, the mechanical part and the first and second ground terminals forms a first slot.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless communication device, and more particularly, to a wireless communication device having a feed terminal disposed adjacent to a metal frame and two ground terminals disposed at different sides of the feed terminal to adapt to mechanical design.
2. Description of the Prior Art
An antenna is used for transmitting or receiving radio waves, to communicate or exchange wireless signals. An electronic product with a wireless communication function, such as a laptop, a personal digital assistant (PDA), etc., usually accesses a wireless network through a built-in antenna. Therefore, for facilitating a user to access the wireless communication network, an ideal antenna should have a wide bandwidth and a small size to meet the trend of compact electronic products, so as to integrate the antenna into a portable wireless communication device. In addition, an ideal antenna should cover different frequency bands required for different wireless communication networks.
Most of the portable wireless communication devices utilize a metal housing or a metal frame for decoration and robustness, which may cause decreased antenna gain, narrowed bandwidth or unstable antenna performance due to the metal housing or frame when the antenna is integrated in the portable wireless communication device. In such a situation, a designer not only faces a challenge of the antenna performance but also takes integration between antenna and the metal frame into consideration when integrating the antenna into the portable wireless communication device.
Therefore, how to design a wideband antenna to adapt to a mechanical design of the wireless communication device when integrating the antenna into the portable wireless communication device has become a goal in the industry.


A vehicle communication system installed in a vehicle includes: a lamp for illumination, a display or signal; a display that is configured by a planar light emitter and has an information display function; and a control unit that is capable of controlling turning-on of the lamp and of the display. The control unit is configured to control the lamp and the display in a linked manner, and present vehicle information indicating a condition of the vehicle by combining light emission of the lamp with information display of the display.

Currently, research on automated driving technology of automobiles has been actively conducted in many countries, and legislation for enabling a vehicle to travel on a public road in an automated driving mode has been studied in the countries. Here, the automated driving mode refers to a mode in which traveling of a vehicle is automatically controlled. On the other hand, a manual driving mode refers to a mode in which the traveling of the vehicle is controlled by a driver. In an automated driving vehicle, traveling of the vehicle is automatically controlled by a computer.
Patent Literature 2, Patent Literature 3 and the like have proposed a rear module that integrally includes a vehicle lamp, a rear window, and the like.
Patent Literature 4 and the like have proposed a vehicle headlamp that emits light toward the outside of a vehicle.

Vehicle communication system, vehicle module, front composite module, and vehicle lamp


An information processing apparatus includes a housing with a top surface, a keyboard placed on the top surface of the housing, a display unit with a front surface and a rear surface, supported by the housing and rotated between a closed position in which the keyboard is covered and an open position in which the keyboard is exposed, a sensor which senses an angle formed between the front surface of the display unit and the top surface of the housing, and a display device provided in the display unit to display a screen image in one of a first orientation in which a bottom-end portion of the screen image is located toward the housing and a second orientation in which a top-end portion of the screen image is located toward the housing in accordance with the angle sensed by the sensor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus such as a portable computer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various portable computers, such as notebook personal computers and hand-held personal computers, have recently been developed. This type of portable computer has a housing with a keyboard on its top surface and a display unit rotatably attached to the housing. While the display unit is open, a user can input information using a keyboard while seeing a display screen of the display unit.
If, however, the user orients the portable computer to the partner who faces the user to let the partner see the display screen, the user cannot operate the keyboard.
Pen-based computers with no keyboards, such as PDA (Personal Digital Assistants), have also recently been developed. Most of the pen-based computers include a housing and a flat panel display built in the housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,566,098 discloses a pen-based computer having a function of varying an orientation of a screen image displayed on a display. In this pen-based computer, the orientation of the screen image is varied in response to user's operations of mercury switches or sensing results of the mercury switches.
The technology of the above U.S. Patent is however directed to a pen-based computer including a display unit and a housing that are formed integrally as one component. It does not take into consideration the control of the orientation of a screen image in a portable computer having a housing with a keyboard on its top surface and a display unit rotatably attached to the housing.

Information processing apparatus having function of changing orientation of screen image


A knitted textile articles and a preform forming a panty, pantyhose or similar article such as a footie. The preform includes a tubular knit body and a longitudinal segment extending the length of the tubular body. The longitudinal segment includes partially omitted courses which produces a unique shape suitable as a preform for subsequently forming other useful textile articles. In the preferred embodiment, the longitudinal segment further includes elastic yarn, which aids in forming the shape of the preform. Also, in the preferred embodiment, elastic end bands are formed during knitting to each end of, the knitted article. These end bands then become a part of the final textile article.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to knitted textile articles and, more particularly, to a knitted preform for forming a panty, pantyhose or similar article such as a footie.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Typically, panty fabric is knit as a tube of fabric with an elastic band for the waist at one end. The end of the tube opposite of the waistband includes some lines formed by the machine during knitting to guide the cut out for the legs. This fabric is cut away and wasted. Then elastic is sewn to make the leg opening. The tube is then closed with a seam in the bottom. Likewise, a footie is knit as a tube, cut and then one end sewn to form the toe. However, reciprocation is normally needed.
Thus, there remains a need for a new and improved knitted preform for making a panty without a seam in the bottom while, at the same time, having the elastic for the legs already in place. In addition, the preform may be used for making a footie without a seam in the bottom and not use a machine with reciprocation.
The present invention is directed to knitted textile articles and a preform forming a panty, pantyhose or similar article such as a footie. The preform includes a tubular knit body and a longitudinal segment extending the length of the tubular body. The longitudinal segment includes partially omitted courses, which produces a unique shape suitable as a preform for subsequently forming other useful textile articles. In the preferred embodiment, the longitudinal segment further includes elastic yarn, which aids in forming the shape of the preform. Also, in the preferred embodiment, elastic end bands are formed during knitting to each end of the knitted article. These end bands then become a part of the final textile article.
In one embodiment, a substantially longitudinal cut is made through the tubular knit body opposite from the longitudinal segment, thereby forming a panty. A waistband may then be attached to the substantially longitudinal cut through the tubular knit body. Also, a pair of hose may be attached to the end bands, thereby forming a pair of pantyhose.
In another embodiment, a substantially longitudinal cut is made through the longitudinal segment opposite from the tubular knit body, thereby forming a footie. Stitching may then be added to connect the cut ends of the elastic end bands.
Accordingly, one aspect of the present invention is to provide a knitted article. The article includes a tubular knit body; and a longitudinal segment extending the length of the tubular body, the longitudinal segment including partially omitted courses.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a knitted article. The article includes a tubular knit body; and a longitudinal segment extending the length of the tubular body, the longitudinal segment including partially omitted courses, the longitudinal segment further including elastic yarn.
Still another aspect of the present invention is to provide a knitted article. The article includes: a tubular knit body; a longitudinal segment extending the length of the tubular body, the longitudinal segment including partially omitted courses, the longitudinal segment further including elastic yarn; and at least one end band attached to one end of the knitted article.
These and other aspects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art after a reading of the following description of the preferred embodiment when considered with the drawings.


A plastic beverage container attachment of the present invention having a curved or beveled section is releasably attachable at its base to the top of a metal or aluminum beverage can, or to the top of a plastic or Styrofoam drink cup or container. The interior of the beveled portion of the attachment comprises an internal concave portion or reservoir, and curved funneled surfaces, that hold and regulate the volume and rate of flow of the beverage and thus inhibit its sudden rush from the container to the drinker's mouth, thus permitting the consumer to enjoy a more gentle beverage flow. An edge is molded around the interior of the base of the container to enable the attachment to firmly snap on and off the top of the container or can. A series of posts or projections are placed around the interior of the base, just above the edge, so as to aid in the support of the attachment on the can or container. A lip or lever is molded to the outside of the base of the attachment to facilitate the removal of the attachment from the top of the can or container by the user. In addition, a conventional aluminum beverage can is modified to provide similar ergonomic and liquid flow control features.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of the present invention relates to tops that can be attached to beverage containers including, but not limited to, beverage cans and plastic cups that are used to contain soda, juices, fruit drinks, beer, and the like. In particular, the beverage can and container tops of this invention employ a beveled design with an internal reservoir and curved funnel surfaces that provide the consumer with a means for drinking from the container on the go, without having to unduly tilt her head, together with a smooth and controlled flow of the beverage.
2. Description of the Prior Art.
Most beverages, other liquids, and non-liquid materials capable of being poured, such as detergents, are stored and/or sold in containers such as the familiar aluminum soda and beer cans, and plastic cups found on the shelves of supermarkets and convenience stores and at sports stadiums and amusement parks. In the case of beverage cans, these containers are constructed in the form of a straight cylinder having a flat or concave base and a substantially flat top parallel to the base with a small frangible area that can be pulled off or folded into the interior of the container so that the contents thereof can be emptied into a glass and consumed or drunk with a straw. The large and small plastic cup containers that contain soda and beer sold in fast food restaurants, ball parks, gas stations, and other public places, are also of a straight or "V" cylindrical shape and must utilize a substantially flat top or lid in order to take the beverage on the go. In some instances, such lids contain a simple and somewhat inconvenient "tear-off" portion that allows the beverage to be drunk in the car or while walking.
In today's fast pace society, it is desirable to be able to drink beverages directly from the container, without first pouring them into a drinking glass, cup or other vessel. This is especially the case when a beverage is drunk "on-the-go", i.e., in a car, outdoors, or in places where a drinking glass is not available. At the same time, it is also necessary to have the beverage well-contained such that it does not jump out and spill over the user.
However, a problem exists with the ergonomics of conventional beverage can and flat top containers. When the conventional beverage can or container is placed at the lips and tipped upwards for drinking, the drinker must maneuver or tilt her head backwards in order to consume the entire beverage. This is because the degree of upward tipping of the straight can that must be achieved in order to pour the beverage into the drinker's mouth has been blocked by the direct contact of the can's flat top with the drinker's nose. One often sees, for example in a soft drink television commercial, the subject drawing her head backwards in order to sip or chug her favorite soft drink directly from its can or cup. Thus, the shape and configuration of existing beverage can technology restricts the degree to which a conventional beverage can, when placed at one's lips, can be tipped backwards, and requires that a drinker compensate for this restriction by tilting her head backwards (or otherwise maneuvering it) to allow all of the beverage to enter her mouth. This difficulty in drinking directly from the conventional beverage can is heightened by the fact that tipping the can back too far results in too much beverage at the can's opening and thus inhibits the entry of air into the can's interior, which must occur in order to facilitate the emptying of the beverage. In addition, when the drinker tilts her head back too far, the beverage has a tendency to rush towards her lips, spilling onto the chin and possibly soiling her clothes.
Attempts to solve the "ergonomic" problems of the conventional straight cylindrical beverage cans and containers have not been very successful. U.S. Pat. No 4,728,002 to Ybanez discloses a straight cylindrical beverage can having a sharp angled top which is claimed to make it unnecessary for one drinking from the can to tilt her head back. However, the Ybanez can suffers from many disadvantages. First, Ybanez does not completely solve the aforementioned problem presented by the beverage cans of the prior art because it only permits the can to be tipped to a 90 degree angle relative to the drinker's face before contacting the drinker's nose. See Ybanez FIG. 3. This is not enough to easily discharge all of the beverage into the drinker's mouth and the drinker must still tilt her head back to compensate for this restriction Second, the Ybanez can presents a sharp or pointed edge to the drinker's lips which makes the can potentially unsafe for drinking directly therefrom. For example, drinking a beverage from the Ybanez can would subject the drinker to injury from the can's sharp edge if the drinker were jostled in a moving car or nudged in a crowded room. Third, Ybanez's sharp-angled top permits the exiting beverage to drip over the side of the can as Ybanez does not disclose or teach a lip or reservoir in the can to prevent the beverage from spilling before it enters into the drinker's mouth.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,773,291 to Weaver discloses a tapered glass bottle. Weaver is similar to Ybanez in that it utilizes angled flat top portion of a one-piece bottle which is claimed to make it unnecessary for one drinking from the bottle to tilt her head back. Weaver appears to have modified then-existing bottle design to shorten one side portion of the bottle neck, while leaving the other substantially intact, so as to form an angled top. However, while the outside of Weaver neck is a solid bulge, Weaver does not teach or disclose an internal curvature within the bottle so as to form a reservoir. The interior of Weaver was designed to remain straight. See Weaver FIGS. 5, 7, 8 and 9.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,071,042 to Esposito, discloses a bottle-like tapered adapter for a beverage can having a top portion that is parallel to the base portion, and which is said to provide a sanitary mouthpiece as an alternative to drinking directly from the top of unclean cans. The Esposito adapter claims to achieve this by using a plate and gasket assembly that prevents the beverage from contacting the top of the can. Esposito does not, however, disclose a reusable top that is beveled in relation to the base, nor an attachment which employs an internal reservoir and curved funnel surfaces for controlling the flow of beverage during drinking. Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 828,817 to Harrington discloses a straight conical cap for bottles whose top surface is parallel to its base, and does not teach or suggest the novel features of the present invention.
French Pat. No. 1,437,341 to Turnwald discloses a metal infant goblet assembled from three separate parts: a first part for holding the liquid and providing a base, a second part consisting of a gasket, i.e., a garniture, having a series of holes that regulate the rate of flow of liquid leaving the first portion, and a third part that fits over the gasket and apparently from which the infant is fed. The third Turnwald part has an opening for drinking at the end of an angle top that is substantially parallel to the side of the base portion. However, while Turnwald discloses a angled spout, it does not disclose or suggest an internal reservoir for controlling the flow of liquid to the mouth opening. Instead, Tumnwald utilizes a gasket having holes therein to control the rate of flow of liquid during drinking. See Turnwald page 1, last sentence running to top of page 2.
Additional prior art also fails to the novel features of the Applicant's invention. U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,131 to Phillips et. al. discloses a drinking lid for a disposable coffee cup with a domed cover and a "flexible spout" made of accordion-like pleats or folds. The pleats or folds of Phillips et al. apparently enable the spout to be bent like a conventional drinking straw so that the end of the spout can engage with the mouth of the individual. (Phillips et al. Col. 2, lines 23-24). Unlike the present invention, Phillips et al. does not teach or suggest to one of ordinary skill a beverage container attachment with a substantially rigid, beveled shaped portion having a an internal reservoir therein, which is made of one smooth curved piece, instead of pleats and folds.
In sum, the prior art fails to disclose a removable and reusable top having an interior reservoir and funneled surfaces in a beveled section that holds the beverage and regulates its volume and flow, inhibits its sudden rush from the container to the drinker's mouth, and thereby permits the drinker to employ a more gentle sipping action during drinking.

Ergonomic reusable top for beverage containers


Provided are a printed circuit board and a method of manufacturing the same, the printed circuit board according to the present invention, the printed circuit board, including: an insulating substrate having a plurality of circuit pattern grooves formed on a surface thereof; and a plurality of circuit patterns formed by burying the circuit pattern grooves, wherein the circuit patterns protrude as much as a predetermined thickness from an upper surface of the insulating substrate.

A printed circuit board (PCB) is formed by printing a circuit line pattern on an electric insulating substrate with a conductive material such as Cu, and is called a board just before electronic components are mounted. That is, the printed circuit board means a circuit board which is configured such that to closely mount many kinds of electronic devices on a flat board, positions for mounting each component are determined, and a circuit pattern for connecting the components is printed on and is fixed to a surface of the flat board.
Meanwhile, to cope with the recent trend of high performance and small-sized electronic components, a buried pattern capable of making a surface of the board even at the same time as reducing a thickness of the printed circuit board has been used.
FIG. 1 illustrates a general buried-type printed circuit board.
As shown in FIG. 1, a buried-type printed circuit board 10 is configured such that a buried pattern groove 2 is formed on a surface of an insulating substrate 1, and a circuit pattern 3 is formed by burying the buried pattern groove 2 using plating.
In the printed circuit board 10 on which the circuit pattern 3 is formed, due to a formation structure of the base circuit pattern and the contact part, a bonding force with the insulating member becomes very high, and pitches of the base circuit pattern and the contact part are uniformly and minutely formed.
However, in the case of forming the buried circuit pattern 3 using plating, a deviation in plating between an area in which the pattern groove 2 is formed, and a remaining area is generated. Thus, upon etching after plating, the etching is not uniformly performed. Accordingly, like FIG. 1, since the etching is not performed at one area of the circuit pattern 3, a short between the adjacent circuit patterns occurs, and since the etching is excessively performed at another area, an error in signal transmission occurs.

Printed circuit board and method of manufacturing the same


Disclosed is an improved floating electric connector comprising male and female counterparts each having a housing and a metal shell. The male housing has a plurality of electric signal transmission male terminals fitted therein whereas the female terminals fitted therein. Each metal shell has a blade contact integrally connected thereto for inserting an associated female terminal. The metal shell-and-blade contact integral structure permits the simultaneous grounding and destaticizing.

As is well known, the male counterpart or plug of an electric connector is attached to an electric apparatus and the female counterpart or receptacle of the electric connector is attached to another electric apparatus to permit transmission of electric signals from one to the other when the plug and receptacle are mated together. A variety of such electric connectors are widely used.
As a matter of necessity, many such electric apparatuses require grounded electric connectors. At the same time, the static electricity can be discharged from a person handling the electric connector to an appropriate conductive object, thereby shielding the terminals of the electric connector.
A conventional electric connector often has some extra grounding terminals other than electric signal transmission terminal pins, and the electric connector has a metal shield attached to its terminal housing for permitting the discharging of the static electricity from a person handling the electric connector at the time of coupling the plug to the receptacle of the electric connector.
As described, the conventional electric connector has different and separate elements allotted to grounding and destaticizing respectively. This leads to the following disadvantages: an increase in the number of parts to be assembled because of the elements used for grounding and destaticizing are duplicated; the increased number of parts each of the plug and receptacle limits reduction of the connector size; and the increased number of parts makes it difficult to improve the efficiency of manufacturing the connector.
Such structure becomes further complicated when the connector is intended to be mounted to an apparatus in a floating manner.


A gas chromatographic system for analyzing gas components includes an analyzer, a constant temperature oven, an analyzer case, an indicator, an integrated sample conditioner, and a coupler. The analyzer includes a sample valve having a detector and a heater built therein and first and second columns wound around the periphery of the sample valve. The constant temperature oven accommodates the analyzer unit therein. The analyzer case accommodates the constant temperature oven. The indicator is protruded from the analyzer case to display analysis processes and results. The integrated sample conditioner provides an optimal condition for analysis. The coupler couples the analyzer unit with the sample conditioner so as to supply a sample gas and one of a carrier gas and a reference gas from the sample conditioner to the analyzer unit.

The present invention relates to a process gas chromatographic system for analyzing a gas of interest by utilizing the difference in absorption between the gas and a filler filled in a column as a stationary phase.
In industrial processes such as a petrochemical process and an iron and steel production process, a process gas chromatographic system for analyzing components of process gases is employed to provide a sample gas extracted from a process line with an optimal condition required for analysis by means of a sample conditioner unit, supply this sample gas to an analyzer unit to separate the same into respective gas components for detection, and monitor process steps and perform various control operations based on the analysis results. FIG. 9 shows a conventional gas chromatographic system of this type. Reference numerals 1A and 1B denote process lines; 2, a sample conditioner unit; and 3, an analyzer unit. The process lines 1A and 1B, the sample conditioner unit 2, and the analyzer unit 3 constitute the gas chromatographic system. The sample conditioner unit 2 includes a vaporizer (not shown) for perfectly vaporizing heavy components of a sample gas SG to prevent its condensation, a filter (not shown) for removing dust from the sample gas SG, a rotor meter (not shown) for measuring the flow rates of the sample gas SG and a reference gas HG, needle valves (not shown) for adjusting the flow rates of the reference gas HG and the sample gas SG, and a selector switch (not shown) for selecting an appropriate flow path. These components in the sample conditioner unit 2 are built in a housing 4 and are connected to each other through piping. The analyzer unit 3 includes first and second series-connected columns 5 and 6, a sample valve 7, a back-flush valve 8, a detector 9, a pressure reducing valve (not shown), an electric unit 10, a constant temperature oven 11, and a heater 12. The constant temperature oven 11 accommodates the first and second columns 5 and 6, the sample valve 7, the back-flush valve 8, the detector 9, and the like such that they are kept at an optimal temperature for separation analysis of the sample gas SG by circulating air heated by the heater 12. The first column 5 consists of a packed column which has an inner diameter of about 1 mm to 4 mm and a length of about 0.5 m to 3 m and in which a stationary phase is filled. The first column 5 can efficiently separate low-boiling point components containing small amounts of carbon (C) at high speed. The second column 6 consists of a capillary column which has an inner diameter of about 0.1 mm to 4 mm and a length of about 0.5 m to 3 m and which has the inner wall surface coated with a liquid phase. The second column 6 cannot easily separate low-boiling point components containing small amounts of carbon but can efficiently separate high-boiling point components having large amounts of carbon at high speed. In an actual analysis, heavy components having large amounts of carbon (i.e., high-boiling point components) in the sample gas SG are discharged by the back-flush valve 8 and are not subjected to measurement to shorten the analysis cycle and protect the column from deterioration. The low-boiling point components having small amounts of carbon alone are separated by the first column 5 at high speed. When a range of gas components having large amounts of carbon is to be measured, the second column 6 separates gas components (light components) having small amounts of carbon within this range. The gas components separated by the first and second columns 5 and 6 are converted into electrical signals by the detector 9. These electrical signals are proportional to the concentrations of the respective gas components.
In the conventional gas chromatographic system having the above structure, however, the temperature distribution in the constant temperature oven 11 cannot be made perfectly uniform due to the number of spray ports of the sample gas SG and a carrier gas CG and the layout of components of the system. In addition, variations in temperature also occur. For these reasons, the components such as the columns 5 and 6 cannot be maintained under optimal temperature conditions, whereby the detected concentrations of components do not often coincide with the sample concentrations, which results in difficulties in achieving accurate measurements. For example, with the sample gas SG susceptible to liquefaction, the sample valve 7 and the back-flush valve 8 are preferably maintained at high temperatures, and the second column 6 is preferably free from variations in temperature so as to improve the separation performance.
In the conventional apparatus, a sample inlet portion between the sample conditioner unit 2 and the analyzer unit 3 is connected by a sample pipe 13. To prevent a sample gas from being cooled down during the transportation through the sample pipe 13, the sample pipe 13 is double structured and heated with steam or the like. For this reason, the piping structure is complicated, and a large number of parts are required. If the sample conditioner unit 2 is placed close to the analyzer unit 3, a piping operation becomes difficult. On the contrary, the sample conditioner unit 2 placed far from the analyzer unit 3 will cause a large temperature drop of the sample gas, which results in requiring more energy to maintain a constant temperature.
The electric unit 10 including an amplifier and a temperature controller, since located generally above the thermostat together with the heater 12, is adversely affected by heat from the constant temperature oven 11 and the heater 12, thus degrading reliability of the apparatus. Further, the structure, in which the sample valve 7, the first and second columns 5 and 6, the detector 9, and the like are connected to each other through piping and couplings inside the constant temperature oven 11, may cause problems such as a difficult maintenance operation of these components.


A passenger compartment which has a first connection device, by which the passenger compartment can be coupled to an aircraft, and a second connection device, by which the passenger compartment can be coupled to a land vehicle. The passenger compartment has an electrical circuit with an electrical energy storage. The electrical circuit of the passenger compartment has a coupling device by which electrical energy can be input from the electrical energy storage into an electrical circuit of the aircraft. The electrical circuit of the passenger compartment has a further coupling device by which electrical energy can be input from the electrical energy storage into an electrical circuit of the land vehicle.

Mobility in particular in cities is at a crossroads. In the metropolises of this world, new mobility concepts are therefore being sought. In particular in very large cities or megacities, there are sufficient possibilities of public transport, for example, in the form of subways, tramways and the like, which to some extent represent an effective way of travelling. On the other hand, there is a need for individual transport which is in many times desirable due to the increased convenience. However, individual transport is made exceedingly difficult due to the enormously high number of vehicles and the resulting traffic congestion.
In order to provide a remedy for this, concepts have been envisaged in which an occupant of a passenger compartment or of a chassis can travel either through the air or on the ground by means of a drivable sub-frame. In the latter case, the passenger compartment is coupled to the drivable sub-frame, resulting in the formation of a passenger car consisting of the passenger compartment and the drivable sub-frame. However, the chassis or the passenger compartment together with the occupant can also be uncoupled from the drivable sub-frame and docked to an aircraft, for example, in the form of a helicopter, in particular a quadrocopter.
This results in new degrees of freedom of locomotion and thus of individual transport. However, it must be ensured that the availability is sufficiently high for such concepts so that, in the case of failure of the locomotion of the sub-frame, no breakdown occurs and, in the case of failure of the locomotion of the helicopter, no crash occurs.
When the chassis or the passenger compartment which can be coupled to the quadrocopter has no battery that can assist the battery of the quadrocopter, the battery of the quadrocopter must be designed so that it can move the quadrocopter coupled to the passenger compartment over a desired route or maximum distance. Accordingly, the battery has to be designed to be relatively large and heavy. But the quadrocopter must then transport the entire weight of the battery even in the state in which it is not loaded with the passenger compartment. Based on the energy density of current batteries, it must therefore be assumed that the battery contributes considerably to the empty weight of the quadrocopter. Empty flights of the quadrocopter thus entail considerable energy expenditure and it would be desirable for the quadrocopter to be able to use a smaller and lighter battery.
In this connection, DE 10 2016 011 656 A1 describes a transport capsule for exchangeable connection to a drone or to a land vehicle. The transport capsule has a battery which assists in the transport work of the drone. Here, the battery of the transport capsule and a battery of the drone are used for driving rotor blades of the drone. The land vehicle also has a storable energy source for the execution of a driving function.

Passenger compartment for coupling to an aircraft or to a land vehicle


A plurality of insulation supports are provided around a zinc oxide component, and the zinc oxide component and a plurality of insulation supports are integrally molded into an insulation casing. The insulation casing has corrugations on its outer surface. A thin-thickness portion is provided between the corrugations. The thin-thickness portion is provided between the insulation supports.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lightning arrestor used to protect an electronic device from an abnormal voltage generated in a power supply system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typically, a polymer type lightning arrestor used in an electric power station or a transformer substation includes internal components including a stack of zinc oxide components, terminal electrodes disposed on both ends of the stack of zinc oxide components, and a plurality of insulation supports made of glass fiber-reinforced plastic (FRP) or the like for connecting the terminal electrodes to each other. A polymer type lightning arrestor is formed by directly molding an insulation material such as a polymer into an insulation casing around these internal components.
In a short circuit test of the above-detailed lightning arrestor according to the IEC standard 60099-4, the zinc oxide component is failed by injecting an amount of energy that is larger than the zinc oxide component can tolerate. In this state, when a short-circuit current is flown through the lightning arrestor, a high-pressure high-temperature arc gas is generated in the lightning arrestor. As the inner pressure of the lightning arrestor increases due to the arc gas, the internal components may be explode and scatter within the lightning arrestor. However, the arc gas can be released outside of the lightning arrestor instantaneously if the insulation casing is opened before the inner pressure increases.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H10-162927 discloses a current-limiting unit as an exemplary technique for instantaneously releasing the arc gas generated in the lightning arrestor that has been short-circuited due to an excessive lightning surge. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H10-162927 (see FIGS. 3 and 5), a thin-thickness portion having a smooth curvilinear surface such as a circular surface or an elliptical surface having a large curvature radius is provided on a part of the outer circumferential surface between the corrugations of a cylindrical insulation casing of a current-limiting unit. The thin-thickness portion is opened instantaneously and serves as a pressure-releasing portion to discharge the arc gas when the lightning arrestor receives an excessive lightning surge. In addition, the thin-thickness portion is provided to face a different direction from any neighboring cable support insulators in order to avoid the cable support insulators being damaged by the released arc gas.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-92205 discloses a lightning arrestor having improved mechanical strength by supporting internal components with an insulation support such as fiber reinforced plastic (FRP). In this lightning arrestor, because the insulation material and the insulation support are integrally molded into an insulation casing, the freedom of the shape of the insulation casing is limited. In other words, it is difficult to provide a thin-thickness portion such as a circular surface or an elliptical surface having a large curvature radius as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H10-162927.
The current-limiting unit disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H10-162927 (see FIGS. 1 and 4) is used in a place where no load is applied in the lightning arrestor, as shown in FIG. 7 of the same document. In other words, it fails to provide any mechanical strength to support the zinc oxide component with an insulation casing made of polymer or the like by bonding the terminal electrode and the zinc oxide component. Moreover, this current-limiting unit has a structure similar to a distributor type lightning arrestor having a low current level. Therefore, the existing current-limiting unit also fails to satisfy the mechanical strength required in the support structure described above when it is used in, for example, a transformer substation.
In addition, the support structure disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H10-162927 (see FIGS. 1 and 4) does not have a structure for preventing scattering of shattered portions that may be generated when the zinc oxide component is failed by the short-circuited lightning arrestor. Therefore, the shattered portions may be scattered away from the opening of the insulation casing as soon as the arc gas is released.
On the other hand, in the structure shown in FIG. 3(c) of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2003-92205, a part of or all of the spaces between the insulation supports of the insulation casing are opened in order to release pressure when an arc gas is generated by a short-circuit current flowing through the lightning arrestor. In this case, because there is no thin-thickness portion, it is difficult to control the pressure-releasing direction, and thus, the arc gas is released in an arbitrary direction. As a result, neighboring devices may be damaged by the released arc gas depending on the direction of release of the arc gas.


A manufacturing method of a SiC ingot includes a crystal growth step of growing a crystal on a principal plane having an offset angle with respect to a {0001} plane, in which, at least in a latter half growth step of the crystal growth step, after the crystal in the crystal growth step grows 7 mm or more from the principal plane, and in which, the crystal is grown by setting an acute angle, between the {0001} plane and an inclined plane which is perpendicular to a cut section cut along an offset direction and passes through both a center of a crystal growth surface and an offset downstream end portion of the crystal growth surface, to be equal to or more than an angle smaller than an offset angle by 2° and equal to or less than 8.6°.

Silicon carbide (SiC) has a dielectric breakdown field larger by one order of magnitude and a band gap three times larger than those of silicon (Si). In addition, silicon carbide (SiC) has characteristics such that the thermal conductivity is approximately three times higher than that of silicon (Si). Application of silicon carbide (SiC) to power devices, high-frequency devices, high-temperature operation devices, and the like is expected.
In a device such as a semiconductor, a SiC epitaxial wafer having an epitaxial film formed on a SiC wafer is used. The epitaxial film provided on the SiC wafer by a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) method becomes an active region of the SiC semiconductor device.
For this reason, high-quality SiC wafers with no breaking such as cracking and few defects are required. In this specification, the SiC epitaxial wafer means a wafer after forming the epitaxial film, and the SiC wafer means a wafer before forming the epitaxial film.
For example, Patent Document 1 describes that breaking of a SiC wafer, incorporation of polycrystalline and polymorphic forms, and generation of micropipe defects are reduced by crystal growth performed so that (H/D)≥0.1 is satisfied when it is assumed that the major axis of the bottom plane of a grown SiC single crystal is D and the length of a perpendicular line connecting the bottom plane to the apex of the grown SiC single crystal is H.
In addition, Patent Document 2 describes that cracking and strain of a SiC ingot can be reduced by performing concave growth in which a center portion is recessed more than an outer edge portion after convex growth in which the center portion protrudes more than the outer edge portion. Since a SiC wafer is obtained by slicing a SiC ingot, the SiC ingot is a pre-stage of the SiC wafer.


An ultrasonic imaging system includes a receive beamformer that generates analog receive signals and a scan converter. A receive signal processing path interconnects the receive beamformer and the scan converter, and this processing path includes both an A/D converter characterized by a selectable sampling rate and at least one filter characterized by at least one filter parameter. The filter parameter is selected as a function of the sampling rate to provide enhanced image quality.

The present invention relates to ultrasound diagnostic imaging systems, and in particular to methods and systems for controlling the acoustic signal bandwidth in such systems.
Hedberg U.S. Pat. No. 5,396,285, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, discloses an improved receive signal processing path for a ultrasound diagnostic imaging system. This improved processing path utilizes programmable linear or nonlinear filters to provide an enhanced image for display.
The present invention is directed to improved systems for controlling one or more programmable filters included in the receive signal processing path of such an imaging system.

Method and apparatus for controlling acoustic signal bandwidth in an ultrasonic diagnostic imaging system


Fore and aft movement of a lever pivots first and second shafts of a cross shaped member while left and right movement of the lever causes a yoke of the lever to pivot on third and fourth shafts of the cross shaped member. The pivotal movement of the first shaft causes a pair of end portions of a torsion spring to generate forces on a force sensor resulting in the output of electrical signals proportional to the fore and aft movement of the lever. Similarly, left and right pivotal movement of the yoke causes a pair of end portions of another torsion spring to generate forces on another force sensor resulting in the output of electrical signals proportional to the left and right movement of the lever. Selectively energizing a coil device fixed relative to a mounting base pulls a washer anchored to the second shaft into mechanical engagement with the coil device to hold the lever at a fore or aft operational position. Similarly, selectively energizing a coil device fixed relative to the yoke pulls a washer anchored to the forth shaft into mechanical engagement with another coil device to hold the lever at a left or right aft operational position.

Electrical joysticks or single axis levers are commonly used to convert operator input commands into electrical signals for controlling electrohydraulic valves of mobile machines. Heretofore, such devices designed to withstand the harsh environment of mobile machines have been expensive while the life of the less expensive devices is somewhat limited. Thus it would be desirable to provide an operator controlled electrical output signal device that is competitive with the known less expensive devices but has the same life and accuracy as the more expensive devices. It would also be desirable for the electrical output device having a variable operator feedback feel combined with a variable position hold feature.

Operator controlled electrical output signal device


The present disclosure discloses a camera lens assembly, the camera lens assembly having a total effective focal length f and an entrance pupil diameter EPD, and including sequentially, from an object side to an image side along an optical axis, a first lens, a second lens, a third lens, a fourth lens, a fifth lens, a sixth lens and a seventh lens. Each of the first lens and the sixth lens has a positive refractive power; each of the second lens, the third lens, the fifth lens and the seventh lens has a positive refractive power or a negative refractive power; and the fourth lens has a negative refractive power, an object-side surface of the fourth lens is a concave surface, and an image-side surface of the fourth lens is a convex surface. The total effective focal length f and the entrance pupil diameter EPD satisfy: f/EPD≤1.7.

In recent years, with the development of science and technology, portable electronic products are gradually emerging, and portable electronic products having camera functions are increasingly liked by people. Therefore, there is an increasing market demand for camera lens assemblies suitable for the portable electronic products. Since the portable electronic products tend to be miniaturized, a total length of a lens assembly is limited, thereby increasing the difficulty in designing the lens assembly. Currently, an often used photosensitive element in a camera lens assembly is generally a CCD (charge-coupled device) or CMOS (complementary metal-oxide semiconductor). As the CCD and CMOS elements are having higher performances and smaller sizes, higher requirements for the high image quality and miniaturization of the camera lens assemblies matching with the portable electronic products have been brought forward.
To satisfy the miniaturization requirement, a typical configuration of an existing lens assembly has an F-number (effective focal length of a lens assembly/entrance pupil diameter of a lens assembly) of 2.0 or above, to possess a good optical performance while the reduction of the size of the lens assembly is achieved. However, with the constant development of smart phones and other portable electronic products, higher requirements for camera lens assemblies are brought forward, especially in the situations such as lack of light (e.g., cloudy and rainy days, dusk, etc.) and hand trembling, thus the F-number of 2.0 or above has been unable to meet higher-order imaging requirements.
Therefore, there is a need for a camera lens assembly applicable to the portable electronic products and having a large ultra-thin aperture, an excellent image quality and a low sensitivity.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Guest-to-host virtual networking can include linking a virtual entity proxy to a network adapter of a host machine through a virtual bridge. In response to a request that starts a guest running on the host machine, the guest can be configured to point to the virtual entity proxy and to communicatively couple to a network through the virtual entity proxy linked to the network adapter of the host machine. The virtual entity proxy can be bound to the network, such that the virtual entity proxy intermediates communications between the guest and one or more other guests running on one or more different host machines that are also communicatively coupled to the network.

This disclosure relates to computer virtualization, and more particularly, to networking virtual entities such as virtual machines and containers.
Virtualization enables a single computer to host multiple virtual machines, each potentially running a different operating system. One advantage of virtualization is that a failure in one virtual machine does not automatically bring down any other virtual machines. Another advantage is reducing the need for physical machines, thus economizing on hardware, power usage, and physical space. Virtualization also facilitates checkpointing and other system-related functions of a computer. For example, virtualization makes the migration of virtual machines for purposes of load balancing across multiple servers easier than migrating processes running on an ordinary operating system since migrating a virtual machine can be accomplished merely by moving the memory image. Moreover, because virtual machines can provide complete process isolation for applications, a problem in the host operating system is less likely to affect software running on the virtual machine (using a guest operating system) and vice versa. Another advantage is the ability of virtual machines to run legacy applications on operating systems or versions of such that are no longer supported or run on current computer hardware. With virtualization, legacy applications can run on the same hardware and at the same time as current applications.
A container typically includes processor-executable instructions as well as system tools, libraries, and settings. A container is not installed on a computer, in contrast with more traditional computer programs, and thus can be isolated from the other software and the operating system of a computer. A container includes the elements needed to execute in a single software package. A container runs on top of a container platform (e.g., Docker®), which is installed on an operating system. A container is considered to be "lightweight" in the sense that the container tends to require far less disk space than a virtual machine. Multiple containers can run side-by-side on a single container platform.
Virtual machines and containers can operate as complements with respect to one another. For example, multiple containers can run within a single virtual machine.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A digital image processor generates a digital signal responsive to an image signal representing a predetermined font demarcated by an outline, by which digital signal a digital image corresponding to the predetermined font is expressed on picture elements by using the luminance of each picture element, the digital image processor using a matrix having matrix elements corresponding to the picture elements, on which matrix the predetermined font can be expressed. The digital image processor digitalizes the image signal to determine the luminance of each picture element by using the matrix and an antialiasing process. The digital image processor compares first luminance of a first matrix element traversing the outline of the predetermined font with second luminance of a second matrix element completely inside the outline of the predetermined font and third luminance of a third matrix element outside the predetermined font, and corrects the first luminance, if the first luminance is the highest among the first, second and third luminance, so that the first luminance is not the highest among the first, second and third luminance.

The present invention relates generally to digital image processors which digitalize an image signal representing a predetermined font to express a digital image corresponding to the predetermined font on matrically-arranged picture elements by using the luminance of each picture element (abbreviated pixel hereinafter), and more particularly to a digital image processor which determines the luminance of each pixel based on an antialiasing process by using a matrix having matrix elements corresponding to the picture elements, on which matrix the predetermined font is expressed. Therefore, the luminance of each picture element is determined by calculating the luminance of a corresponding matrix element, and the luminance of each matrix element is calculated in accordance with an antialiasing process. The term "antialiasing process", as used herein, means a process which proportions the luminance of each matrix element to an area ratio of an area to be covered by the predetermined font in a corresponding matrix element for an area of the corresponding matrix element in order to smooth jagged edges of the digital image. Hereupon, the predetermined font is generally referred to as an outline vector font according to the Outline Vector Format. In the Outline Vector Format, an outline of a font is relatively numerically expressed, and thus the inside demarcated by the outline is drawn with straight and curved lines, as described in "PIXEL", No.16, January, 1984, Scan-line Conversion (2) concerning Polygons, pp.136-141, published by the Information Center. The antialiasing process is generally used for Disk Top Publishing (called DTP for short).
With the recent spread of DTP, as described in "The Journal of the Institute of Image Electronics Engineers of Japan", Vol.18, No.3, June 1989, the use of an outline vector font as a font for the DTP has also spread. The outline vector font represents uniquely designed letters and figures expressed by straight and curved lines representing the outline thereof instead of by dot patterns. The outline vector font originally includes little aliasing when expressed on pixels as a digital image. The term, "aliasing", as used herein, means that an edge of the font is jagged. But if an antialiasing process is further performed on the digital image, it includes less aliasing. The term "an antialiasing process", as used herein, means a process to removing aliasing, that is, smoothing a jagged edge of the digital image. There are at least two kinds of antialiasing process, as described in "Practice Computer Graphics Basis and Application" edited by Fujio Yamaguchi and translated by SEIKO Electroengineering Inc. Electronic Division. One kind thereof infinitesimally reduces each pixel. But there is a limit how much a pixel can be reduced. Accordingly, a description will now be given of another kind of antialiasing process, with reference to FIGS. 1(A), 1(B), 2, 3(A), 3(B), 3(C) and 3(D).
The antialiasing process, to which the present invention is to be applied, is a process to shade the jagged edges off by means of proportioning the luminance of each pixel to an area ratio of area to be covered by the predetermined font in a pixel for the pixel area, as shown in FIGS. 1(A) and 1(B). FIG. 1(A) shows jagged edges, which look like four tiers, and FIG. 1(B) shows corresponding smoothed edges, thus look like a parallelogram, after the antialiasing process is performed to the jagged edges. To be concrete, as shown in FIG. 2, a luminance value E representing the luminance of a pixel R is defined as follows: ##EQU1## hereupon, A.sub.1 ; area of an image part R.sub.1, A.sub.2 ; area of a non-image part R.sub.2, E.sub.1 ; a luminance value of the pixel R before drawing the image, E.sub.2 ; a luminance value of the image part R.sub.1, k; A.sub.2 /(A.sub.1 +A.sub.2), an area ratio of the area of the non-image part for the area of the pixel R The term "an image part", as used herein, means a group of pixels which include a part of a digital image, and the term "a non-image part" means another group thereof exclusive of the image part. In addition, pixels which belong to the image part and are to be traversed by an outline of a font are classified as "an image edge part", hereinafter.
However, the above antialiasing process has the following disadvantage in that the image edge part is emphasized. Hereupon, the term "the image edge part is emphasized", as used herein, means that the luminance of the image edge part is the highest among that of the image part, the non-image part, and the image edge part, so that the jagged edge is not successfully smoothed. Basically, the image edge part is not emphasized when the luminance of the image edge part is lower than that of the image part. But, even when the luminance of the image edge part is higher than that of the image part, if the luminance of the image edge part is lower than that of the non-image part, it may be considered that the image part is not emphasized. When expressing an outline vector font on sixteen pixels, the outline of the font seem to divide the pixels into two kinds of parts; an image part and a non-image part, as shown in FIG. 3(A). But, since a pixel cannot be divided into two kinds of parts, each of the pixels are actually partitioned into three kinds of parts; an image part, an image edge part, and a non-image part, as shown in FIG. 3(B). When it is assumed that a luminance value E.sub.2 is 100 and a luminance value E.sub.1 is 0, a luminance value of the image part is 100, because A.sub.2 is 0 in the quotation (X), and a luminance value of the non-image part is 0. On the other hand, a luminance value E of the image edge part is calculated from the quotation (X) as follows, since k is found to be 1/2 from FIG. 3(B): EQU E=(1/2)*0+(1/2)*100=50
However, since the antialiasing process fixes the luminance value of each pixel on the basis of the previous luminance value E.sub.1, there is a case where the luminance of the image edge part is the highest of the three kinds of parts of the pixels. For example, if a font having a luminance value 10 and shaped the same as FIG. 3(B) is superimposed on that in FIG. 3(B), it is expected that the luminance value of the image edge part will not be the highest of the above three kinds of parts, for example, 5, as shown in FIG. 3(C). But, actually, the luminance value of the image part is 10 and the luminance value of the non-image part is 0, whereas the luminance value E of the image edge part is calculated by E.sub.1 is 50, E.sub.2 is 10, k is 1/2: EQU E=(1/2)*50+(1/2)*10=30
Thus, contrary to the above expectation, the luminance value of the image edge part becomes the highest of the above three kinds of parts so that the image edge part is emphasized. This disadvantage may occur when deleting a previously-drawn image by means of a luminance value 0.

Digital image processor including correction for undesirable edge emphasis in outline-demarcated fonts


Embodiments of low profile distractor apparatuses are disclosed. The distractor apparatuses generally comprise a mounting body, a tensioning mechanism coupled to the mounting body and a distractor arm coupled to the tensioning mechanism and pivotally coupled to the mounting body for rotation relative to the mounting body. The tensioning axis of the tensioning mechanism is non-coaxial with an effector axis of the distractor arm and a distraction force applied with the distractor arm is translated to the effector axis. This enables the distractor apparatus to be positioned relative to a patient such that the tensioning mechanism is offset from the long axis of the limb of the patient thereby facilitating improved access to the distal portions of the limb.

Surgical procedures performed on a joint, such as an ankle, often require distraction or spreading of the joint to facilitate the insertion and manipulation of surgical implements in the joint. Conventional distractor apparatuses are generally axially aligned with the limb in which the joint resides such that tension can be applied to the limb thereby spreading or decompressing the joint. The distractor apparatus may exert the tension on the limb via a strap which is attached to both the distractor and the limb. For instance, where surgery is being performed on an ankle, the distractor apparatus is aligned with the long axis of the lower leg and a strap is attached to the foot and/or ankle. Tension may be applied to the leg and ankle by rotating a worm screw of the distractor apparatus which is attached to the strap. In such apparatuses the long axis of the worm screw is generally aligned with the long axis of the lower leg such that the worm screw and the lower leg are substantially coaxial.
Such conventional distractor apparatus designs have several drawbacks. For instance, achieving the magnitude of tension necessary to adequately decompress the joint may be difficult for an operator to obtain by manual manipulation of the worm screw. Moreover, because the distractor apparatus must be axially aligned with the long axis of the limb to facilitate application of the distraction force, the distractor apparatus takes up a significant amount of space distal to the foot thereby hindering access to the joint of interest and increasing the difficulty of performing the surgical operation.
Accordingly, a need exists for alternative distractor apparatuses which facilitate improved access to the extremities of a distracted limb.


In a passive pixel data handling system, pixel data may be transferred to a transfer function, at a given address range. The transfer function may perform a transformation and readdress the pixel data. For example, the data may be received through a media port target which transfers the pixel data to a transfer function located at an address range in virtual memory. Each transfer function may readdress the pixel data and forward it to a media port write back engine or to the memory address range of another transfer function.

This invention relates generally to graphics or video engines commonly used in computer systems.
A graphics or video engine is responsible for processing or manipulating data received from a pixel source such as a processor, a graphics controller or other devices. The graphics/video engine takes the pixel data and operates on that pixel data in a variety of well known ways. For example, the color space of the pixel data may be converted using routine algorithms. Alternatively, the pixel data may be scaled to change the size of the displayed information, again using well known algorithms. Similarly, the pixel data may be subjected to composition effects such as blurring, contrasting or other distortions.
In the conventional process, pixels are generated and deposited into memory as a result of a drawing operation such as three dimensional or video based rendering. To impose additional transformations like color space conversion or scaling, these pixels are then typically fetched from memory by a "fetch" engine. The operation is imposed and the pixels are then written back to the same memory location. The imposition of the transformation is termed "active" because it requires an explicit fetch engine to be set up with the parameters of the operation.
Thus, when a number of transformations are involved with given pixel data, many fetch engines may be needed that have the redundant functionality of generating pixel addresses. The use of these fetch engines complicates the memory controller that must operate with all of the fetch engines contending for memory bandwidth.
The need to use the fetch engines may also reduce the available memory bandwidth because of the need for read-modify-write cycles when imposing filtering operations after rendering. Moreover, when multiple transformations are needed, the programmer must awkwardly impose the transformations by causing the fetch engine to manipulate the data between a memory location and the various transformation engines. In addition, there is no easy way to cause multiple transformations to occur in a serial fashion.
Thus, there is a need for better ways to impose transformations on pixel data in graphic/video engines.


An optical module includes a package, which accommodates an optical system. A package main body has an opening. A lid is attached to the main body to close the opening of the main body. The lid seals the package. An anti-deterioration agent for preventing deterioration of the optical system is located inside the package at a position out of a light path of the optical system. The anti-deterioration agent includes at least one of desiccant and deoxidant.

The present invention relates to an optical module that accommodates an optical system inside a package. For example, the present invention pertains to an optical module, such as a demultiplexer for a wavelength division multiplexing transmission system.
A wavelength division multiplexing transmission technology is a system for multiplexing multichannel optical transmission signals into one optical fiber and is suitable for a high-capacity long-distance transmission system. The optical transmission signal of each channel is, for example, a light beam having different wavelength at a predetermined interval (for example, 0.4 nm) within 1550 nm band. That is, light beams (wavelength λ1 to λn) having different wavelengths, the number of which is n, are used for the optical transmission signals of channels (ch), the number of which is n, that are multiplexed into one optical fiber are.
The wavelength division multiplexing transmission requires light sources for several channels, a multiplexer for combining light signals of several channels into one optical fiber, an optical fiber amplifier, and a demultiplexer for separating the light signals of several channels into each wavelength.
A typical demultiplexer 10 is shown in FIG. 5. The demultiplexer 10 includes a package 11, which accommodates an optical system. The optical system includes a collimator lens 12 and a diffraction grating 13. Optical signals having different wavelengths are multiplexed and transmitted to the package 11 as incident light. The collimator lens 12 converts the incident light into parallel light. The diffraction grating 13 separates the parallel light into each wavelength. A fiber chip 15 for retaining an input optical fiber 14 and a photodetector array 16, which has photodetectors, are secured to the outer surface of the package 11. Output terminals 17 are each connected to one of the photodetectors of the photodetector array 16. A polarized wave compensating filter 18 is accommodated inside the package 11. The polarized wave compensating filter 18 compensates for the direction of travel of each light beam (polarized light) separated into each wavelength by the diffraction grating 13 and returns the light into unpolarized light.
In a module that has an optical system inside the package 11 as the demultiplexer 10, dew formation on the surface of each optical device and deterioration of each optical device must be prevented. For example, if any moisture is included inside the package 11, the moisture forms dew on the surface of the optical device at low temperature, and deteriorates the optical characteristic. Thus, the inside of the package 11 needs to be dried. To prevent due formation during usage or storing under low temperature, the amount of moisture inside the package 11 needs to be less than the moisture calculated from the saturated vapor pressure under that temperature. As shown in FIG. 6, the diffraction grating 13 consists of a retainer 19; a resin molded layer 20, which is formed on the surface of the retainer 19; and an aluminum layer 21, which is formed on the resin molded layer 20 to increase reflection coefficient. If the aluminum layer 21 deteriorates by oxidization, the reflection coefficient of the aluminum layer 21 decreases. Thus, oxidization of the aluminum layer 21 must be prevented.
An inner surface 22 of the package 11 is a surface through which incident light from an input optical fiber 14 passes and also a surface through which light beams separated by the diffraction grating 13 passes toward each photodetector of the photodetector array 16. Therefore, an antireflection dielectric multilayer film is formed on the inner surface 22. Thus, deterioration of the dielectric multilayer film needs to be prevented. The dielectric multilayer film includes three films each formed of magnesium fluoride, silicon dioxide, or titanium oxide. The single-component films are overlapped on the inner surface 22 in this order from the side close to the inner surface 22. Further, a magnesium fluoride film and a lanthanum titanate film (made of composite material of TiO2 and La2O3) are overlapped on the surface of the collimator lens 12 in this order from the side close to the collimator lens 12 to prevent reflection.
To prevent dew formation on the surface of each optical device and deterioration of each optical device, the package 11 may be sealed after being filled with dry nitrogen gas or other inert gas, or the package 11 may be sealed after being decompressed. In this method, gas is filled inside the package, exchanged, and sealed during the manufacturing procedure of the module.
However, hermetically sealing the package increases the restrictions on material and structure, which increases the cost. This is because trapping nitrogen gas inside the package or keeping the inside of the package decompressed requires completely sealed package made of material such as ceramics.
Further, to trap nitrogen gas or other inert gas inside the package, a dedicated device and procedure are required and a procedure for trapping nitrogen gas is required. This decreases working efficiency and complicates the manufacturing procedure, which results in the increase of the manufacturing cost. That is, to perform a procedure for trapping the nitrogen gas under the environment filled with nitrogen gas, a tool such as a glove box filled with nitrogen gas is required. Since nitrogen gas is trapped using such tool, the working efficiency is decreased. Also, when replacing air inside the package with nitrogen gas after assembling the module, a structure that permits gas exchange, such as a hose, needs to be provided on the package. In addition, the replacing procedure needs to be performed. This complicates the manufacturing procedure.
Further, to decompress the inside of the package, a device for decompression such as a glove box and a decompression procedure are required. This decreases the working efficiency and complicates the manufacturing procedure, which results in the increase of the manufacturing cost.


Pharmaceutical compositions comprising as active ingredient a synthetic random copolymer of average molecular weight of about 4,000-12,000, preferably 6,000-8,000, said copolymer consisting of glutamic acid (Glu), lysine (Lys), alanine (Ala) and tyrosine (Tyr) residues in a relative molar ratio of 1.4-2.1 parts of Glu to 3.2-4.4 parts of Lys to 4.0-6.0 parts of Ala to 1.0 parts of Tyr (herein GLAT copolymers), can be used in a method for prevention and treatment of graft-versus-host disease in patients in the course of bone marrow and organ transplantation.

Bone marrow transplantation (BMT) is increasingly used in humans for treatment of many life-threatening hematologic disorders, especially leukemia and certain immune deficiency diseases. However, graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) remains the major barrier for effective allogeneic bone marrow transplantation. This complication occurs in approximately 30% of bone marrow recipients. Up to half of those patients who develop GVHD may succumb to this process. This high morbidity and mortality has led to continuous interest in the possibility of controlling or preventing GVHD.
Current available approaches for prevention of GVHD include the use of non-specific immunosuppressive drugs, such as cyclosporine, methotrexate and/or prednisone. However, this treatment induces severe side effects, including nephrotoxicity, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetogenic effects, neurotoxicity, hirsutism and gengival hyperplasia. Moreover, the unselective depression of the entire immune system renders patients vulnerable to infections. In addition to the chronic administration of toxic, immunosuppressive agents, successful human allogeneic bone marrow transplantation depends, at the moment, on the availability of a suitable histocompatibility donor.
Clinicopathologically, two forms of GVHD have been recognized. Acute GVHD develops within the first 3 months after BMT and features disorders of skin, liver and gastrointestinal tract. Chronic GVHD is a multiorgan autoimmune-like disease, emerging from 3-month up to 3 years post-transplantation and shares features common to naturally occurring autoimmune disorders, like systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and scleroderma.
GVHD is caused by the competent donor T cells reacting against minor histocompatibility antigens of the recipient. The donor T cells are sensitized to such alloantigens and then directly, or through secondary signals, attack the host cells.
One approach for prevention of GVHD in murine models was recenty described by the inventors (Schlegel et al., 1994). The data reported therein show for the first time that GVHD can be prevented by administration of small peptides with high affinity for class II MHC molecules, and that the mechanism of prevention is MHC-associated. The precise mechanism of how these peptides prevent GVHD has still to be determined. However, the treatment with blocking peptides is limited by the specificity of the tested peptide to specific murine (or human) haplotype. Other disadvantages of using small peptides is the rapid clearance and the relatively short binding half-life to the MHC molecule.
The present invention relates to the use of a synthetic random copolymer consisting of glutamic acid (Glu), lysine (Lys), alanine (Ala) and tyrosine (Tyr) residues, in a relative molar ratio of 1.4-2.1 parts of Glu, 3.2-4.2 parts of Lys, and 4.0-6.0 parts of Ala to 1 part Tyr, with average molecular weight of 4,000-12,000, herein referred to as GLAT copolymer. The Glu, Lys, Ala and Tyr residues in the GLAT copolymer may all have the L (L-GLAT) or the D (D-GLAT) configuration, or some of the amino acid residues will have
A high molecular weight synthetic basic random copolymer consisting of L-Ala, L-Glu, L-Lys and L-Tyr residues in the molar ratio of about 6 parts Ala to 2 parts Glu to 4.5 parts Lys to 1 part Tyr, and having a molecular weight of 15,000-25,000, was first described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,849,550 as an agent for treatment or prevention of experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE), a disease resembling multiple sclerosis (MS) that can be induced in susceptible animals. Batches of this copolymer of average molecular weight 23,000, designated Copolymer 1 or Cop 1, were shown to be highly effective in protecting and suppressing EAE in several animal species (Teitelbaum et al., 1971, 1974a, 1974b). Later, Cop 1 was found to significantly reduce the number of relapses in patients with the exacerbating-remitting form of MS (Bornstein et al., 1990; Sela et al., 1990; Johnson et al., 1994).
The mechanism underlying the therapeutic activity of Cop 1 in MS has been extensively studied. Cop 1 was found to be immunologically cross-reactive with myelin basic protein (MBP), the main autoantigen in EAE and MS. Its suppressive effect results from several mechanisms, such as inhibition of the autoreactive pathogenic T-cells on one hand (Teitelbaum et al., 1988), and stimulation of suppressor cells on the other hand (Aharoni et al., 1993). The first step essential for the activation of these specific processes is the binding of Cop 1 to the histo-compatibility molecules. Indeed, it has been shown that Cop 1-two different batches of molecular weight 5,550 and 8,600, and relative molar ratio of L-Ala (4.1-5.8 residues), L-Glu (1.4-1.8 residues), L-Lys (3.2-4.2 residues) and L-Tyr (1 residue)--binds very efficiently to a variety of MHC class II molecules of mouse and human origin, and furthermore competes with MBP and its major epitope p84-102 for MHC binding and can even displace such antigens that had already been bound to the MHC molecule (Fridkis-Hareli et al., 1994).
None of the prior art publications describes or suggests that Cop 1 may be used to prevent or to treat GVHD.

Pharmaceutical compositions comprising synthetic peptide copolymer for prevention of GVHD

Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


A mobile radio telephone having a simplified architecture including a reduced number of integrated circuits and a reduced number of RF connections. A dual band, dual mode mobile phone can be constructed using either a single crystal reference oscillator or two crystals such that alternative symbol rates, channel spacings, or transmit/receive duplex spacings can be achieved.

The invention relates to mobile communications using a selected pair of transmit and receive frequencies and relates to the derivation of transmit and receive frequency steps and digital clock rates from a common crystal reference oscillator.
It is well known in the art of mobile radiotelephones to employ a receiver for receiving a receive frequency signal while a transmitter simultaneously transmits a transmit frequency signal in the other direction, the transmit frequency being separated from the receive frequency by a constant offset known as the duplex spacing.
Although the duplex spacing is nominally a constant, it can be a different constant depending on the frequency band in which the mobile phone is operating. Complications can then arise in constructing mobile phones that operate in more than one frequency band.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/795,930 entitled xe2x80x9cTransmit Signal Generation with the Aid of Receiverxe2x80x9d (Dolman) describes the use of the second local oscillator of the receiver as a reference frequency against which a transmit frequency is controlled relative to a receive frequency to achieve either a first or a second duplex spacing. The Dolman application is hereby incorporated by reference.
It is also known in the prior art, when packaging two synthesizer PLL circuits into a common integrated circuit, to synchronize or otherwise relate the reference dividers of the two PLLs so that their phase comparators do not mutually interfere. The Philips UM1005 and 8026 dual synthesizer integrated circuits available on the open market use this technique. These circuits include the use of fractional-N dividers and programmable loop bandwidth, such as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,095,288 and 5,180,993 which are hereby incorporated by reference. Novel ways to employ such synthesizers in dual mode satellite/cellular telephones in order to achieve different tuning step sizes in different frequency bands are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,535,432 and 5,610,559 which are also hereby incorporated by reference.
Continuous advances in electronics allow for smaller mobile phones complying with a variety of national and international protocols. The international mobile phone standard known as GSM in Europe and as PCS 1900 in the USA operates with a transmit/receive duplex spacing of 45 MHz in the European 900 MHz band; 95 MHz in the European 1800 MHz band, and 80 MHz in the U.S. 1900 MHz PCS band. The channel spacing is 200 KHz (13 MHz/65) and the transmitted symbol rate is 13 MHz/48. All timing in this standard is related to a 13 MHz clock, as is well known. The U.S. IS 136 system known as DAMPS operates with a 45 MHz duplex spacing in the US 800 MHz cellular band, and with an 80.4 MHz duplex spacing in the U.S. 1900 MHz PCS band, with a tuning step size of 30 KHz and a transmitted symbol rate of 24.3 Kilosymbols/sec. In IS 136, as is well known, the tuning step sizes and symbol rates and internal timing are all derivable from a 19.44 MHz clock. Yet another U.S. standard known as IS95 uses Code Division Multiple Access at a transmitted chip rate of 1228.8 MHz, with a duplex spacing of 45 MHz combined with tuning steps of 30 KHz in the 800 MHz band, alternatively 50 KHz steps combined with 80 MHz duplex spacing in the 1900 MHz band. In IS95, the chip rate and frequency step sizes are not easily derivable from the same crystal oscillator. It may be easily understood that combining two or more of the abovementioned protocols in the same handheld unit is hindered by the variety of tuning step sizes, duplex spacings and symbol rates that must be synthesized. Consequently, there exists a need for an improved radio architecture to facilitate such combination.
A mobile phone receiver according to the invention comprises a first superheterodyne downconversion means using a first local oscillator frequency which can be tuned in frequency steps by a programmable digital frequency synthesizer phase lock loop (PLL). The first downconversion means converts received signals to a first intermediate frequency (IF) for filtering. A second downconversion means using a second local oscillator converts first IF signals to a second IF or to the complex baseband for further filtering and processing. The second local oscillator is generated using a second digital frequency synthesizer PLL which locks the second oscillator to a crystal reference oscillator. The crystal reference oscillator provides a buffered clock output signal from which digital logic derives transmit symbol rates and receiver processing sampling rates.
According to a first aspect of the invention, the second local oscillator provides a buffered output signal at the second local oscillator frequency. The buffered output signal is used as the reference frequency for the first local oscillator""s synthesizer PLL, thus eliminating the need to distribute the crystal oscillator signal to the first oscillator""s PLL circuit. According to a second aspect of the invention, the first oscillator PLL comprises a phase comparator to compare the divided down first local oscillator signal with the divided down reference frequency signal from the second local oscillator, the divided down frequencies being equal to the desired receiver frequency tuning steps or a multiple thereof. It should be appreciated that this frequency would not have been available by dividing down the crystal frequency in an integral ratio without practicing this aspect of the invention.
According to a third aspect of the invention, a third digital frequency synthesizer PLL controls the transmitter frequency to be equal to the first local oscillator frequency plus or minus a transmit offset frequency. The transmit frequency can for example be heterodyned with the first local oscillator frequency to produce a transmit offset frequency signal; the transmit offset frequency signal is then divided down in a digital divider and compared with a phase reference frequency which is also derived by dividing the second local oscillator frequency by an integer factor.
Since according to the third aspect of the invention, the transmit offset synthesizer PLL and the first local oscillator PLL both utilize the second local oscillator as a common frequency reference, they can furthermore be packaged in a common integrated circuit and can share at least part of the reference divider which divides the second local oscillator frequency to produce a first and second phase comparator reference frequency signal for the two PLLs respectively. The two PLLs"" respective phase comparators are arranged to respond to opposite polarities of a signal at a lowest common multiple frequency of their respective first and second phase comparator reference signals in order to minimize mutual interference between the two PLLs.

Method and apparatus for generating a plurality of reference frequencies in a mobile phone using a common crystal reference oscillator


A method and a device for descaling a metal strip, in which the metal strip is guided in a direction of conveyance through at least one plasma descaling unit in which it is subjected to a plasma descaling. The metal strip is subjected to an automatically controlled cooling process in a cooling unit following the plasma descaling in the one or more plasma descaling units in such a way that it has a well-defined temperature downstream of the cooling unit.

The invention concerns a method for descaling a metal strip, especially a hot-rolled strip of normal steel or a hot-rolled or cold-rolled strip of austenitic or ferritic stainless steel, in which the metal strip is guided in a direction of conveyance through at least one plasma descaling unit, in which it is subjected to a plasma descaling. The invention also concerns a device for descaling a metal strip.
Steel strip must have a scale-free surface before it can be further processed, e.g., by cold rolling, by the application of a metallic coating, or by direct working into a finished product. Therefore, the scale that forms, for example, during hot rolling and the subsequent cooling phase must be completely removed. In previously known methods, this is accomplished by a pickling process, in which, depending on the grade of steel, the scale, which consists of various iron oxides (FeO, Fe3O4, Fe2O3) or, in the case of stainless steels, of chromium-rich iron oxides, is dissolved by means of various acids (e.g., hydrochloric acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, or mixed acid) at elevated temperatures by chemical reaction with the acid. Before the pickling operation, an additional mechanical treatment by stretcher-and-roller leveling is necessary in the case of normal steel to break up the scale to allow faster penetration of the acid into the layer of scale. In the case of stainless, austenitic, and ferritic steels, which are much more difficult to pickle, an annealing operation and a preliminary mechanical scaling operation must be performed on the strip before the pickling process is carried out in order to produce a strip surface that can be pickled as well as possible. After the pickling operation, to prevent oxidation, the steel strip must be rinsed, dried, and, depending on requirements, oiled. The pickling of steel strip is carried out in continuous lines, whose process section can be very long, depending on the strip speed. Therefore, installations of this type require very large investments. In addition, the pickling process uses a tremendous amount of power and entails great expense for the elimination of wastewater and the regeneration of the hydrochloric acid, which is the type of acid usually used for normal steel.
Due to these disadvantages, the prior art also includes various approaches for accomplishing the descaling of metal strands without the use of acids. Previous developments along these lines are generally based on mechanical removal of the scale (e.g., the Ishiclean method, the APO method). However, with respect to their economy and the quality of the descaled surface, methods of these types are not suitable for the industrial descaling of wide steel strip. Therefore, acids continue to be used for descaling this type of strip.
Consequently, so far it has been necessary to accept the disadvantages with respect to economy and environmental pollution.
Recent approaches to the descaling of metal strands have been based on plasma technology. Methods and devices of the aforementioned type for descaling metal strands with different geometries, for example, metal strip or metal wire, are already well known in various forms in the prior art. Reference is made, for example, to WO 2004/044257 A1, WO 2000/056949 A1 and RU 2 145 912 C1. In the plasma descaling technology disclosed in the cited documents, the material to be descaled runs between special electrodes located in a vacuum chamber. The descaling is effected by the plasma produced between the steel strip and the electrodes, and the result is a bare metallic surface with no residue. Plasma technology thus represents an economical, qualitatively satisfactory and environmentally friendly possibility for descaling and cleaning steel surfaces. It can be used for normal steel as well as for stainless, austenitic, and ferritic steels. No special pretreatment is necessary.
In plasma descaling, the strip thus runs through a vacuum chamber between electrodes arranged above and below the strip. The plasma is located between the electrodes and the surface of the strip on both sides of the strip. The action of the plasma on the scale results in the removal of the oxides on the surface of the strip, and this is associated with an increase in the temperature of the strip, which can be a serious disadvantage. The temperature increase can result in the formation of an oxide film on the surface of the strip when the descaled strip emerges from the vacuum and enters the air. An oxide film is unacceptable for further processing steps, such as cold rolling or the direct working of hot strip.
Various proposals have been made to improve this situation by cooling the metal strip following the plasma descaling. Methods of this type are disclosed, for example, in JP 07132316 A, JP 06279842 A, JP 06248355 A, JP 0312034, JP 2001140051 A, and JP 05105941 A. However, the concepts disclosed in this literature are aimed at cooling measures that are associated with considerable disadvantages in some cases or are relatively inefficient. For example, a cooling medium is sprayed, which makes it necessary to carry out a subsequent drying of the metal strip. If the metal strip is treated with a cooling gas, the cooling rate is very low, and, in addition, a solution of this type is not possible in a vacuum. The other proposed solutions offer almost no possibility of realizing a specific temperature program for the metal strip.
For most applications, controlled cooling of the metal strip during or after the descaling is necessary before the strip comes into contact with air. Systematic cooling of this type is not possible with the prior-art solutions.

Method and device for descaling metal strip