A wind turbine blade having a transition between two reinforcement fiber types is described. A gradual transition is provided by a combined double-tapered thickness section with a first type of reinforcement fibers sandwiched between a second type of reinforcement fibers or vice versa. The double-tapering is provided during layup and the reinforcement material is impregnated with a polymer resin and then cured or hardened so that the two types of reinforcement fibers are embedded in a common polymer matrix.

Wind turbine blades are often manufactured according to one of two constructional designs, namely a design where a thin aerodynamic shell is glued onto a spar beam, or a design where spar caps, also called main laminates, are integrated into the aerodynamic shell.
In the first design, the spar beam constitutes the load bearing structure of the blade. The spar beam as well as the aerodynamic shell or shell parts are manufactured separately. The aerodynamic shell is often manufactured as two shell parts, typically as a pressure side shell part and a suction side shell part. The two shell parts are glued or otherwise connected to the spar beam and are further glued to each other along a leading edge and trailing edge of the shell parts. This design has the advantage that the critical load carrying structure may be manufactured separately and therefore easier to control. Further, this design allows for various different manufacturing methods for producing the beam, such as moulding and filament winding.
In the second design, the spar caps or main laminates are integrated into the shell and are moulded together with the aerodynamic shell. The main laminates typically comprise a high number of fibre layers compared to the remainder of the blade and may form a local thickening of the wind turbine shell, at least with respect to the number of fibre layers. Thus, the main laminate may form a fibre insertion in the blade. In this design, the main laminates constitute the load carrying structure. The blade shells are typically designed with a first main laminate integrated in the pressure side shell part and a second main laminate integrated in the suction side shell part. The first main laminate and the second main laminate are typically connected via one or more shear webs, which for instance may be C-shaped or I-shaped. For very long blades, the blade shells further along at least a part of the longitudinal extent comprise an additional first main laminate in the pressure side shell, and an additional second main laminate in the suction side shell. These additional main laminates may also be connected via one or more shear webs. This design has the advantage that it is easier to control the aerodynamic shape of the blade via the moulding of the blade shell part.
Vacuum infusion or VARTM (vacuum assisted resin transfer moulding) is one method, which is typically employed for manufacturing composite structures, such as wind turbine blades comprising a fibre reinforced matrix material.
During the process of filling the mould, a vacuum, said vacuum in this connection being understood as an under-pressure or negative pressure, is generated via vacuum outlets in the mould cavity, whereby liquid polymer is drawn into the mould cavity via the inlet channels in order to fill said mould cavity. From the inlet channels the polymer disperses in all directions in the mould cavity due to the negative pressure as a flow front moves towards the vacuum channels. Thus, it is important to position the inlet channels and vacuum channels optimally in order to obtain a complete filling of the mould cavity. Ensuring a complete distribution of the polymer in the entire mould cavity is, however, often difficult, and accordingly this often results in so-called dry spots, i.e. areas with fibre material not being sufficiently impregnated with resin. Thus dry spots are areas where the fibre material is not impregnated, and where there can be air pockets, which are difficult or impossible to remove by controlling the vacuum pressure and a possible overpressure at the inlet side. In vacuum infusion techniques employing a rigid mould part and a resilient mould part in the form of a vacuum bag, the dry spots can be repaired after the process of filling the mould by puncturing the bag in the respective location and by drawing out air for example by means of a syringe needle. Liquid polymer can optionally be injected in the respective location, and this can for example be done by means of a syringe needle as well. This is a time-consuming and tiresome process. In the case of large mould parts, staff have to stand on the vacuum bag. This is not desirable, especially not when the polymer has not hardened, as it can result in deformations in the inserted fibre material and thus in a local weakening of the structure, which can cause for instance buckling effects.
In most cases the polymer or resin applied is polyester, vinyl ester or epoxy, but may also be PUR or pDCPD, and the fibre reinforcement is most often based on glass fibres or carbon fibres. Epoxies have advantages with respect to various properties, such as shrinkage during curing (which in some circumstances may lead to less wrinkles in the laminate), electrical properties and mechanical and fatigue strengths. Polyester and vinyl esters have the advantage that they provide better bonding properties to gelcoats. Thereby, a gelcoat may be applied to the outer surface of the shell during the manufacturing of the shell by applying a gelcoat to the mould before fibre-reinforcement material is arranged in the mould. Thus, various post-moulding operations, such as painting the blade, may be avoided. Further, polyesters and vinyl esters are cheaper than epoxies. Consequently, the manufacturing process may be simplified and costs may be lowered.
Often the composite structures comprise a core material covered with a fibre reinforced material, such as one or more fibre reinforced polymer layers. The core material can be used as a spacer between such layers to form a sandwich structure and is typically made of a rigid, lightweight material in order to reduce the weight of the composite structure. In order to ensure an efficient distribution of the liquid resin during the impregnation process, the core material may be provided with a resin distribution network, for instance by providing channels or grooves in the surface of the core material.
As for instance blades for wind turbines have become bigger and bigger in the course of time and may now be more than 70 meters long, the impregnation time in connection with manufacturing such blades has increased, as more fibre material has to be impregnated with polymer. Furthermore the infusion process has become more complicated, as the impregnation of large shell members, such as blades, requires control of the flow fronts to avoid dry spots, said control may e.g. include a time-related control of inlet channels and vacuum channels. This increases the time required for drawing in or injecting polymer. As a result the polymer has to stay liquid for a longer time, normally also resulting in an increase in the curing time.
Resin transfer moulding (RTM) is a manufacturing method, which is similar to VARTM. In RTM the liquid resin is not drawn into the mould cavity due to a vacuum generated in the mould cavity. Instead the liquid resin is forced into the mould cavity via an overpressure at the inlet side.
Prepreg moulding is a method in which reinforcement fibres are pre-impregnated with a pre-catalysed resin. The resin is typically solid or near-solid at room temperature. The prepregs are arranged by hand or machine onto a mould surface, vacuum bagged and then heated to a temperature, where the resin is allowed to reflow and is eventually cured. This method has the main advantage that the resin content in the fibre material is accurately set beforehand. The prepregs are easy and clean to work with and make automation and labour saving feasible. The disadvantage with prepregs is that the material cost is higher than for non-impregnated fibres. Further, the core material needs to be made of a material that is able to withstand the process temperatures needed for bringing the resin to reflow. Prepreg moulding may be used both in connection with a RTM and a VARTM process.
Further, it is possible to manufacture hollow mouldings in one piece by use of outer mould parts and a mould core. Such a method is for instance described in EP 1 310 351 and may readily be combined with RTM, VARTM and prepreg moulding.
Further, it is known to manufacture blades with two or more different types of fibre material. WO 2003/078832 discloses a wind turbine blade of fibre-reinforced polymer including a first type of fibres, such as glass fibres, of a first stiffness and a second type of fibres, such as carbon fibres, of a different stiffness. In a transition region between the two types of fibres the quantitative ratio of the two types of fibres varies continuously in the longitudinal direction of the blade. In a described preferred embodiment, the laminate comprises a plurality of layers, and the boundaries between layers having the first types of fibres and layers having the second types of fibres are mutually shifted in the longitudinal direction of the blade so that a step tapered transition is achieved. However, it has been found that such a transition is not mechanically strong. In order to compensate for stress concentrations when using reinforcement fibres with differing E modulus in composites, it is possible to provide a local thickening in the transition area between the two different fibres and thereby limit the risk of failure due to stress concentrations. One drawback of such a solution is, however, increased weight due to the increased use of fibres, e.g. glass fibres, in the transition area between glass fibres and carbon fibres.
US 2012/0009070 discloses a method of preparing a wind turbine blade shell member by use of pre-cured fibre-reinforced sheet material. In one embodiment, a step infusion process is described, where individual layers are infused in sequence.
WO 2012/149939 discloses a method of preparing a hybrid composite laminate of layers of fibre reinforced material of different resin viscosities, where first layers are pre-impregnated with a first resin having a first viscosity, and second layers are impregnated with a resin of a second viscosity.
WO 2013/010979 discloses a wind turbine blade having different types of fibres with a scarf-like transition between the different fibre types.
US 2012/0082558 discloses a modular wind turbine blade, where parts are bonded to each other along bond lines. In one embodiment, bond lines are formed as double scarf joints.
Additionally, it is known from WO 2013/113817 to manufacture a blade shell part in a mould system and transfer the cured blade shell parts to a post-moulding station comprising cradles for carrying the cured shell parts for additional treatment, such as gluing the shell parts together to form the aerodynamic shell of a finished wind turbine blade. The method ensures that the mould cycle time is kept as short as possible allowing for maximum effective mould usage. The method is particularly suitable for blades having a length of 40 to 50 meters, since the layup process for such length blades approximately takes one-third of the total production time, which comprises layup, infusion, and post-moulding assembly and other post-moulding operations. This allows for a continuous manufacturing process, where the mould system and post-moulding system are is utilised at all times. However, for longer blades, such as blades having a length of 60 to 80 meters or even more, the layup time takes up a much larger part of the total production time, whereby the post-moulding system has a lot of idle time.
It is an object of the invention to obtain partly a new blade design and intermediary products of this design as well as a new method for manufacturing such wind turbine blades and intermediary products, and which overcomes or ameliorates at least one of the disadvantages of the prior art or which provides a useful alternative.

Wind turbine blade with improved fibre transition


A method is provided for producing a substrate arrangement. The process includes the preparation of a substrate and bringing connecting surfaces of the substrate into contact with inner contacts of a wiring layer, the application of contact material to outer contacts of the wiring layer defining an outer connecting surface arrangement to form base contact bumps (31) and the application of joining material to the base contact bumps to form contact bump tops joined to the base contact bumps, wherein the joining material is applied as joining material moldings (35) and the contact bump tops are formed by at least partial melting of the joining material moldings by the action of laser energy.

A method of the type specified initially is known from DE 197 54 372 A1 wherein the raised contact bumps are formed by first producing the base contact bumps on the outer contacts of the wiring layer in a reflow method, then embedding the base contact bumps in a matrix material applied to the wiring layer and hardening the matrix material. Matrix material is then removed from the surface to expose or produce an arrangement of contact surfaces of the base contact bumps flush in the matrix material. Finally contact bump tops are formed by applying joining material to the plane contact surfaces of the base contact bumps and then melting the joining material in the reflow method.
In the method known from DE 197 54 372 A1 it is thus necessary to remove material from the surface between the formation of the base contact bumps and the formation of the contact bump tops on the base contact bumps in order to form the contact surfaces on the base contact bumps. In addition, regardless of the type of subsequent contacting of the chip arrangement with a substrate, because the contact bump tops are formed using the reflow method, it is necessary to prepare a support matrix which mechanically supports the base contact bumps to stabilize their shape by means of the hardened matrix material.

Method for producing a substrate arrangement


An amplification arrangement comprises an electrical circuit that includes a voltage divider having a plurality of resistors connected in series between a signal output and a reference potential source, and a plurality of parallel branches each extending between a common main input and a different one of a plurality of voltage divider nodes situated between the resistors. A multiplier is interposed in each of the branches and has a multiplication factor that is connected through a switching device with an electrical signal source. The switching device routes the electrical signals from the source to the different multipliers in dependence on the magnitude of a gain control signal supplied to its control input and indicative of the area of the gain range in which the arrangement is to operate at that time to obtain the desired signal amplification.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to amplifying arrangements in general, and more particularly to radio frequency amplifying arrangements operative over a relatively wide gain range.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are already known various arrangements for amplifying electrical signals, including arrangements that have been designed for use or are particularly suited to be used for amplifying alternating current signals at frequencies as high as in the :radio frequency (RF) range. While such previously known amplifying arrangements have been found to satisfy most if not all performance criteria put on them, a perennially problematical area has been the gain range within which an amplifying arrangement of a reasonably simple and commensurately inexpensive construction is able to accomplish the required level of amplification without incurring unacceptable signal distortion.
With the increasing demand for services involving the utilization of the broadcast spectrum, which demand has become even more pronounced since the advent of such relatively recent telecommunications service offerings as radio paging, cellular telephony and other voice and/or data broadcasting techniques, it has become apparent that approaches that may have worked to satisfaction in the past are no longer suitable for such uses. This is so, if for no other reason, then because the equipment used by the ultimate user or subscriber, besides operating at relatively low transmitted signal power levels, is often being used in a mobile manner, that is, the subscriber transmitter and/or receiver equipment accompanies the subscriber as he or she travels from place to place, frequently while the equipment is being used. This, in turn, means that the power of the transmitted signal as received at any particular receiving location or station varies within a relatively wide range and often quite abruptly, be it because the respective subscriber transmitter or receiver has moved behind, or emerged from behind, a signal attenuating obstruction, because of changing distance between the transmitter and receiver, as a result of changing atmospheric or other relevant environmental conditions. or for other similar reasons.


A rapper plunger displacement indicator for an electrostatic rapper control system of the type which supplies a pulse of controlled energy to the rapper coils. Means are provided for sensing current supplied to each rapper coil during the controlled energy pulse. The resultant sensed current is integrated with respect to time over the period of the pulse of controlled energy, and the result of the integration indicates plunger displacement. In a system where a short boost pulse of full lift energy is supplied immediately prior to the lift pulse of controlled energy for enhanced control accuracy, the integration is performed only during the controlled energy pulse, thus ignoring the boost pulse.

The present invention relates generally to a control system for electrostatic precipitator rappers. More particularly, the invention relates to such a system which includes means for accurately indicating rapper plunger lift and therefore rapping intensity.
Electrostatic precititators are widely employed, particularly among industrial users, for removing particulate from gases. A typical large electrostatic precipitator includes a housing in which banks of vertically-extending collecting electrode plates or curtains are disposed, with particulate-laden gas passing through the housing parallel to the the plates. The particulate carried by the gas stream is charged to one polarity by means of a corona discharge, and the collecting electrode plates are oppositely charged. The charged particles are therefore electrostatically attracted to the collecting electrodes.
In order to remove the collected particulate from the collection electrodes, rapping or vibrating devices are commonly employed. In a large precipator, there are a plurality of individually controlled rappers, each rapper vibrating an electrode group comprising one or more electrode plates. Collected particulate is dislodged by the vibration and falls by gravity to a sump or the like for removal. In such a system, to prevent noticeable re-entrainment of collected particulate, it is desirable to operate only one rapper at a time. Further, it is known to be highly desirable to be able to control the rapping intensity of each individual rapper in the system. Various sections of a large precipitator tend to collect particulate at different rates. If rapping intensity higher than necessary for the actual level of particulate buildup in a particular section is employed, unnecessary stress is applied to the mechanical elements of the precipitator, leading potentially to premature failure.
To provide more meaningful and repeatable control over rapping intensity, it would also be desirable to provide an accurate indication of the rapping intensity.
A typical electrochemical rapper comprises a vertically movable plunger biased downwardly, for example by gravity, towards an impact and resting position. Preferably, the plunger rests upon an anvil rigidly connected to a group of collection electrode plates. For displacing the plunger, an electromagnetic coil is provided, which, when energized, lifts the plunger to a desired height. When the electromagnetic coil is subsequently de-energized, the plunger falls, striking the anvil and imparting vibration to the connected collection electrode plates. Rapping intensity accordingly depends upon the plunger displacement or lift before release. Plunger lift, and therefore rapping intensity, may generally be controlled by controlling the energy applied to the rapper coil.
One example of an electrostatic precipator rapper control system is disclosed in a commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. No. 3,504,480--Copcutt et al. The Copcutt et al control system generally addresses the concerns mentioned above. Power is sequentially fed to a plurality of rappers by a distribution switch. In order that the rappers may operate at different controlled intensities, power is supplied to the rappers through conduction-angle-controlled SCR's. In the Copcutt et al system, the intensity of each rapper is separately controlled.
Another electrostatic precipitor rapper control system is disclosed in the above-mentioned commonly assigned Andrews application Ser. no. 043,030. The Andrews control system, among other things, applies a short boost pulse to the rapper coil immediately prior to a lift pulse or controlled energy. During the boost pulse, full lift energy is applied for a short period of time. This boost pulse reliably gets the plunger moving, but displaces it only a relatively short distance. With the initial plunger sticking forces overcome as a result of the boost pulse, the total plunger lift or displacement accurately reflects the electrical energy applied during the subsequent lift pulse of controlled energy.
The rapper lift indicator or rapping intensity indicator of the present invention has particular advantages when employed in combination with the Andrews enhanced accuracy control system described briefly above. However, it will be appreciated that the present rapper plunger lift indicator may be employed in combination with other rapper control systems, for example, that of the Copcutt et al Pat. No. 3,504,480, with reduced accuracy if the entire energization pulse is sensed.

Electrostatic precipitator rapper control system rapper plunger lift indicator


The present invention enables a computer system to store from register files to memory, and restore from memory back to the register files, data from programs designed to operate in accordance with a first word size, as well as programs designed to operate in accordance with a second word size. This is accomplished without an increase in hardware and without requiring modification of existing software. In particular, an indication is utilized at the procedure level to designate whether a particular procedure is using words of a first or second word size. Preferably, this indication is placed in a first predetermined bit position in the stack pointer of the procedure. When a save occurs, certain contents from the register file are saved to memory along with the stack pointer. Under certain circumstances, the word size indication is moved to a second predetermined bit position within the stack pointer which is stored in a predesignated stack pointer address in the save area. When the contents are restored from memory, back to the register file, the indication is reviewed in the stack pointer address and serves to determine the word size of the procedure being restored.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer systems and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus for extending computer architecture from thirty-two to sixty-four bits.
2. History of the Prior Art
As computers have improved in speed and ability, there has been a constant demand for more addressable memory. The size of the address directly controls the size of memory which may be addressed. Each additional bit in an address doubles the amount of addressable memory. Thus, a system using sixty-four bit addresses provides two to the thirty-second power more addresses than does a system using thirty-two bit addresses. Consequently, researchers are today attempting to develop computer systems based on sixty-four bit architectures. On the other hand, very powerful computers exist today which use thirty-two bit addresses. A very large amount of very effective software exists for such systems. Most companies have more invested in their computer software than they do in their hardware. These thirty-two bit systems could effectively handle larger and larger problems if there were an easy way to simply address more memory. Presuming that the only effective way to obtain more memory is to design systems using larger (sixty-four bit) addresses, it would be very foolish and economically disastrous to simply discard all of the effort presently invested in the design of thirty-two bit systems and their software. For this reason, it is an a priori requirement that any new computer system based on a new memory size must be able to use the old programs on the new architecture. A primary question in the design of such a system is, therefore, how to change memory address size and still be able to use the old programs on the new architecture.
Two different tacks have been taken in resolving this problem so that a new system can run both old and new programs. One way to do this is to essentially provide two different architectures within the same machine for handling programs based on the different memory sizes and give the machine the ability to select one or the other architecture. This allows a machine to implement two different instruction sets. This is generally referred to as mode selection. One problem with this solution is that the need for two independent architectures must be perpetuated with each new series of machines; the manufacturer must continue to build systems including both thirty-two and sixty-four bit architectures for so long as the thirty-two bit programs are to be used. Another problem with this solution is that old and new procedures cannot communicate easily since they operate on different portions of the system. Digital Equipment Company (DEC) attempted this type of solution in changing from its PDP11 series of computers to its VAX series of computers. DEC set up microcode for operating both the PDP11 and the VAX instruction sets in its new VAX computers and used a mode switch which allowed selection between the two instruction sets in the machine.
A second solution to the problem is to design the new system so that the same hardware is able to handle both old and new processes using the same circuitry. This is a much more desirable solution. However, the prior art attempts to reach this solution have not, in fact, accomplished their purpose of eliminating hardware directed specifically to the different architectures. For example, Intel has followed this path in designing and improving its 80.times.86 line of computers. In general, Intel has continued the memory-handling hardware mechanisms for programs based on the old architecture and has added additional memory-handling hardware for programs based on the new architecture. The commands available to the old programs are essentially a subset of the entire set of commands available in the new machine. Although this solution allows the use of both old and new software by the same processor, it has provided no easy way to utilize old and new processes together. This method has also required the inclusion of the additional memory-handling hardware with each more advanced step, often to the detriment of the more advanced architecture. For example, the advanced Intel processors are still unable to deal with the larger address space except through the use of memory mapping hardware provided in the older machines.
Thus, there have been at least two different solutions to the problem. Each solution has not resolved the problem in a manner in which the new system is simply able to run either old or new programs using the new address space apparently without any great amount of new hardware except that necessary to allow the larger addresses to be utilized and without any rewriting of old software to fit the new hardware.
One especially difficult problem associated with providing such a system is caused by the manner in which an older system maintains its register files and stores the contents of those registers to memory and restores those contents during certain operations. Since a new system using a memory address size twice as large as an old system must necessarily use different space than the old system to store this information, some way must be found to allow the system to handle information for programs of both sizes correctly.

Extending computer architecture from 32-bits to 64-bits by using the most significant bit of the stack pointer register to indicate word size


A central access control system (10) includes a plurality of doors (44), a plurality of door locks (20) respectively mounted to the doors (44), a control device (33) connected to the door locks (20), and an unlocking device (40) for setting the control device (33) to be in an enabling state or a forbidding state. When the control device (33) is set to be in the forbidding state, the control device (33) outputs a forbidding signal to all of the door locks (20) to set the door locks (20) in a locking state. When the control device (33) is set to be in the enabling mode, the control module (33) outputs an enabling signal to all of the door locks (20), and a locking state or an unlocked state of a locking mechanism (24) of each door lock (20) remains unchanged.

The present invention relates to a central access control system and, more particularly, to a central access control system using a single control device to rapidly control locking of a plurality of door locks while permitting each door lock to be locked or unlocked individually.
There are various types of door locks available in the market, including mechanical locks and electronic locks incorporating motors, electromagnetic valves, and electronic parts. These door locks can be locked or unlocked separately. When the door locks are operated to be in a locking state while the door is closed, the door cannot move from the closed position to the open position, achieving an anti-burglar function.
When the door locks are used in a unit having many rooms, there is no guarantee that the door locks can reliably prevent burglars from breaking into the rooms. For example, in a school having a plurality of classrooms each having its own door and its own door lock, it is difficult to make sure the door of every classroom is locked after class. Furthermore, it is impossible to lock the door of every classroom in the school immediately after a security event occurs. In another example of a large company having a plurality of offices each having a door and a door lock, it is difficult to lock all of the offices at the same time. As a result, the school or the large company has to hire a person to check whether every door is locked.


The object of the present invention is to provide a method for producing a micro-plasma with biocompatibility. The produced micro-plasma is a low temperature, adjustable micro-plasma with low energy consumption. The method provides a device comprising a first gas storage unit, a second gas storage unit, a unit for producing the micro-plasma, and a power supply unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for producing micro-plasma with biocompatibility, and more particularly, to a low temperature, adjustable micro-plasma with low energy consumption.
2. Description of Related Art
Micro-plasma refers to a reactive state in which gases are partially dissociated by the application of energy, to generate heat, light, charged particles, neutral active species, etc. Currently, micro-plasma technology for skin tissue applications is limited to thermal effects produced by the energy of plasma.
Almost everyone has been subjected to wounding due to trauma on skin in daily life. In 24 to 48 hours after formation of wounds, coagulation and inflammation are the first phase, and then cell proliferation phase lasts for 2-10 days; and finally, remodeling phase progresses for 1 to 12 months.
Since the thermal effect of laser will make skin temporarily dehydrated, hydropenia, the most important postoperative course would care, is to preserve moisture and apply sun-proof clothing such as masks or dressing etc., to promote repair of damaged tissue. It will take about 4-12 weeks to recover wounds caused by invasive laser vaporization to a normal state; however, the longer the period of wound healing, the higher the probability that the postoperative complication such as pigmentation after infection and inflammation will occur.
Moreover, masks or dressings used during wound healing contain antimicrobial or antibiotic ingredients, and excessive use of antibiotics is detrimental, rather than conducive to wound healing. So far, there is no standard data to regulate the appropriate dose of antibiotics and sun-proof ingredients after a skin laser treatment. The published scientific journals disclosed that after the skin receives a laser treatment, the applied antibiotics and sun-proof ingredients may easily reside in the wounds due to the incompleteness of the skin, thereby causing sensitive skin and even toxicity phenomenon due to excessive absorption.
The effect of skin laser surgery often fails to comply with the patient's expectation, and thus how to achieve the optimal effect after surgery and minimal damage, has always been the ultimate goal of medical care. In recent years, the issue relating to wounds recovery and tissue regeneration draws attention of global research and development teams, and the applications of micro-plasma medicine on healing of infectious wound or improvement of dressing material has become the hottest topic. It is an ultimate aim of medical care to achieve skin repair after laser surgery with optimal effect, minimal damage and reduced complication.
Therefore, there is an urgent need for a method or system with low-temperature, no accumulation of thermal effect, to shorten the recovery time of sensitive wounds after laser therapy.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for producing micro plasma with biocompatibility


An image shake correction apparatus includes: a fixed member; a pair of guide shafts; an intermediate member; a movable member; a movement restraining section; and a restrained section.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a technical field of an image shake correction apparatus and an image pickup apparatus. More specifically, the present invention relates to a technical field for achieving, in an image shake correction apparatus and an image pickup apparatus which include a fixed member, an intermediate member and a movable member, prevention of unnecessary rotational movement of the movable member in a plane perpendicular to the direction of an optical axis upon image shake correction and assurance of a smooth moving operation of the movable member.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some image pickup apparatus of video cameras, still cameras and so forth include an image shake correction apparatus which moves a lens or an image pickup device in a direction perpendicular to the direction of the optical axis of the lens or the image pickup device to carry out image shake correction.
One of such image shake correction apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-64844 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1) which includes a base member or fixed member and a holding member or movable member having a lens or an image pickup device held thereon and movable in two directions perpendicular to the direction of the optical axis of the lens or the image pickup device with respect to the base member.
In the image shake correction apparatus disclosed in Patent Document 1, a guide shaft is attached to the fixed member and extends in a first direction perpendicular to the direction of the optical axis. A pair of supporting pieces are provided on the holding member and have elongated holes elongated in a second direction perpendicular to both of the direction of the optical axis and the first direction. The supporting pieces are supported for sliding movement on the guide shaft. An annular rolling preventing member is supported on the guide shaft and engages for sliding movement with a sliding groove which is formed on the holding member and extends in the second direction.
In the image shake correction apparatus, the holding member is moved in the first direction integrally with the rolling preventing member with respect to the base member under the guidance of the guide shaft. Further, the rolling preventing member is slidably moved along the sliding groove to move the holding member in the second direction with respect to the base member.
Since the rolling preventing member remains in a state wherein it is always inserted in the sliding groove, rotation of the holding member in a plane perpendicular to the direction of the optical axis is prevented upon movement of the holding member in the first direction and the second direction.

Image shake correction apparatus and image pickup apparatus


An apparatus for translating oracle-bone scripture style characters into formal style characters, and for translating formal style characters into oracle-bone scripture style characters includes a scanner for scanning printed characters and for providing a digital representation of the thus scanned printer characters. The printed characters are one of either the oracle-bone scripture style characters or the formal style characters. An oracle-bone scripture style and formal style character stroke feature analysis and learning unit is provided for extracting a feature of each scanned printed character, and for storing into an oracle-bone scripture style and formal style feature space storage device the thus extracted features of each scanned printed character according to a learning and analysis process. An oracle-bone scripture style and formal style character translation subsystem is provided for translating the scanned printed characters in accordance with the extracted features stored in the oracle-bone scripture style and formal style feature space storage device. A character output generator is provided having incorporated therein a character compressor, the character output generator for generating output characters and said character compressor for reducing a required memory space for storage of said characters. A processor is provided for controlling the scanner, the oracle-bone scripture style and formal style character stroke feature analysis and learning subsystem, the oracle-bone scripture style and formal style feature space storage device, the oracle-bone scripture style and formal style character translation subsystem, and the character compressor.

Since oracle-bone scripture is one of the oldest written languages in China, few people other than experts can understand and interpret such scripture. As the famous scholar in the field of oracle-bone scripture, Dr. Tung Tso-Pin once said, "it is not only [required] to study the characters of oracle-bone scripture but also to research the history three thousand years before in the Shan Dynasty from the scripture left that was engraved after writing by those great historians (Chen People) in ancient China". It is a major object of the present invention to use advanced technology to enable people to discover the historical secrets of pre-historic China and to learn the roots of ancient Chinese culture.

Apparatus for translating oracle-bone scripture into a more formal language

Telecommunication Laboratories, Directorate General of Telecommunications , Ministry of Communications


A tire balance measurement device includes a rotation drive portion, an eccentric force measurement unit, a calculation unit, and an evaluation unit. The eccentric force measurement unit measures an eccentric force generated in a main shaft. The calculation unit calculates an eccentric amount of the main shaft based on the eccentric force measured by the eccentric force measurement unit. The evaluation unit evaluates the eccentric amount of the main shaft based on a correlation between the eccentric force measured by the eccentric force measurement unit when the main shaft is rotated at a predetermined rotation speed, and the rotation speed.

In a manufacturing process of a tire, various inspections are performed on a manufactured tire for quality control. As one of the inspections, a dynamic balance when the tire is rotated (hereinafter, referred to as a dynamic balance) is measured.
A tire balance measurement device which inspects the dynamic balance of a tire includes a lower rim and an upper rim which interposes a tire therebetween, a main shaft which is integrally provided with the lower rim, a rotation drive mechanism which rotationally drives the main shaft, and an eccentric amount detection sensor which detects an eccentric amount generated in the main shaft. The tire balance measurement device rotates the main shaft by the rotation drive mechanism in a state where the tire interposed between the lower rim and the upper rim is filled with air. The tire interposed between the lower rim and the upper rim integrally rotates with the main shaft by the rotation of the main shaft. The tire balance measurement device detects the eccentric amount generated in the main shaft when the tire is rotated, and thereby, measures the dynamic balance (unbalance amount) of the tire.
In the tire balance measurement device, in order to secure measurement accuracy, it is necessary to calibrate a balance of the lower rim, the upper rim, and the main shaft. PTL 1 discloses a calibration method of a tire balance measurement device using a sinker whose weight is known. In this method, in each of a case where the sinker is mounted on only the lower rim, a case where the sinker is mounted on only the upper rim, a case where the sinker is mounted on the lower rim and the upper rim, and a case where the sinker is not mounted, the lower rim, the upper rim, and the main shaft are rotated and an eccentric force of the main shaft is detected. The tire balance measurement device is calibrated from a measurement result of the eccentric force when the sinkers whose weights are known are mounted and the lower rim, the upper rim, and the main shaft are rotated.

Tire balance measurement device, evaluation method of tire balance measurement device, calibration method of tire balance measurement device, and calibration program of tire balance measurement device

MITSUBISHI HEAVY INDUSTRIES MACHINERY SYSTEMS, LTD.


A MOSFET random access memory having an extremely low current load memory cell is disclosed. The memory cell comprises a cross-coupled binary stage in which one or more paths to ground can be selectively switched on or off through true and complement data nodes. Impedance means connect a power supply node to the data nodes for charging the data nodes to predetermined voltage levels. The impedance means comprise an intrinsic-extrinsic junction of a substantially pure, intrinsic semiconductor material and a diffusion of extrinsic conductivity impurities disposed within a region of the intrinsic semiconductor material. The impedance means is formed by an isoplanar silicon gate process as an integral portion of a polycrystalline silicon strip which interconnects the power supply node to a data node. A portion of the polycrystalline silicon strip is extended from the data node to form the gate of the transistor to which it is cross-coupled.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is concerned with random access memories of the type fabricated on a monolithic semiconductor chip using insulated gate semiconductor field effect transistor technology, and more particularly relates to an impedance device for conducting extremely low currents from a drain supply node through the channel of an insulated gate field effect transistor in a memory cell.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A digital memory must contain a discrete physical storage cell which is capable of being set by an external signal into one of two distinct states for each bit of the computer word to be stored. The cell must remain in this set state indefinitely or unitl it is changed to the other state by another external signal. The two distinct states of a storage cell can be naturally occurring states which require no external energy source to be maintained. It is also possible to use storage elements of the volatile type which require external energization to maintain the stored state. A well-known example of such storage elements is the bistable circuit which employs semiconductor devices. These devices require a continual or permanent application of power in order to prevent deterioration or a complete loss of the stored information.
Large scale integration (LSI) techniques have brought about the construction of large arrays of such storage elements on a single chip of silicon. These storage cells, typically using MOS technology, consist of multicomponent circuits in a conventional bistable configuration. Storage of this type is inherently volatile since the semiconductor bistable elements require a constant source of power to maintain the stored information. In some applications, it is essential that the data should not be irretrievably lost due to an interruption of power. In those applications, standby power is provided by means of batteries which are operably connected to power supply nodes of the memory system to supply power in the event of an inadvertent interruption of essential d.c. power, and to supply power during operation of the memory in the standby mode.
The immediate advantages of semiconductor storage devices are the high packing density and low power requirements. The insulated gate MOS transistor has been particularly exploited in this application area since it requires less substrate area (thereby increasing the packing density) and operates at very low power levels. A well known memory cell circuit arrangement which utilizes insulated gate MOS field effect transistors is the cross-coupled inverter stage as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,252. In that circuit the gates of a pair of MOSFET transistors are cross coupled to a true data node and a complementary data node. Information stored within the cell is maintained by impedance means which are connected to the data nodes to maintain the potential at the gate of the transistors at a predetermined level which corresponds to the logic content of the cell. Each inverter of the cell consists of a driver transistor and a load impedance means. In the circuit shown in that reference, the load impedance means comprises a MOSFET transistor. In earlier circuits, impedance means comprising diffused resistors typically exhibiting 10 to 20 ohms per square were utilized. However, use of the MOSFET transistor has been preferred since it is capable of providing 20,000 ohms per square, giving practical resistance values of the order of 100,000 to 200,000 ohms.
By using less surface area than a conventional diffused resistor, MOS technology allows more complex circuitry on a single monolithic chip than would otherwise be possible. For low current load device applications, the depletion MOSFET transistor having its gate tied to its source occupies less substrate area. However, for very low current load applications, the depletion transistor with gate tied to source occupies several square mils of area in the microampere load range.
In the static random access memory cells shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,252, there are two cross-coupled inverters and two transfer resistors, i.e., two load devices and four transistors. In a 1K static RAM, the 1024 memory cells take up approximately 40 percent of the total chip area, while in the 4K static RAM the 4096 memory cells occupy slightly more percentage of the chip. In order to keep the chip area as small as possible and the power consumption as low as possible, the two load devices in the static cell of each inverter should be relatively small in area and provide extremely low current. One drawback to the use of the depletion transistor for the load device is that its body effect due to back gate bias generally increases as the physical size of the active area is reduced. A further drawback to the use of the MOS device as the load resistor is that the resistance exhibited by the device is inherently limited by its body effect associated with the source-to-substrate reverse-bias voltage. Although this arrangement will provide practical resistance values on the order of 100,000 to 200,000 ohms, in some extremely low power consumption applications it is desirable to provide load devices exhibiting a resistance in the one megohm to 100 megohm range.

Extremely low current load device for integrated circuit


Novel photovoltaic cell systems, particularly silicon cells, for converting electromagnetic radiation into electric energy, wherein a luminescent medium or reagent which will absorb radiation at the shorter wavelengths, e.g. the UV, and emit it at longer wavelengths is disposed between the light source and the cell to increase its efficiency, the essence of the invention being the use of a class of anthracene dimer derivatives known in the literature as lepidopterenes as the luminescent medium or reagent. The structural formula for the lepidopterenes is shown in FIG. 1.

In recent years much attention has focused on the use of photovoltaic cells to convert electromagnetic radiation into electric energy. Of particular interest are the various potential usages of solar energy as the source of electricity.
While various forms of photovoltaic cells (often called solar cells) are known, in general they can be described as semiconductor devices which are capable of converting sunlight directly into electricity. Photovoltaic installations will generally consist of small, individual generating units--the photovoltaic cell.
In their early inception they found numerous uses in electronic and aerospace applications. It is surprising that such a large variety of these cells are available today or in advanced development when one considers that it has only been since about 1972 that serious attention has been given to designing cells for use in anything other than spacecraft. Devices are available with a large range of efficiencies and voltages. Some cells are designed to withstand high solar intensities and high operating temperatures, while others are designed to minimize manufacturing costs.
With photovoltaic cells, the energy in light is transferred to electrons in a semiconductor material when a light photon collides with an atom in the material with enough energy to dislodge an electron from a fixed position in the material (i.e. from the valence band), giving it enough energy to move freely in the material (i.e. into the conduction band). A vacant electron position or "hole" is left behind at the site of this collision. Such holes can move if a neighboring electron leaves its site to fill the former hole site. A current is created if these pairs of electrons and holes (which act as positive charges) are separated by an intrinsic voltage in the cell material.
Creating and controlling this intrinsic voltage is the trick which has made semiconductor electronics possible. The most common technique for producing such a voltage is to create an abrupt discontinuity in the conductivity of the cell material (typically silicon in contemporary solid state components) by adding small amounts of impurities or dopants to the pure material. This is called a homojunction cell. An intrinsic voltage can also be created by joining two dissimilar semiconductor materials creating a heterojunction, or by joining semiconductor to metal (e.g. amorphous silicon to palladium), creating a Schottky barrier junction.
A fundamental limit on the performance of all of these devices results from the fact that: (1) light photons lacking the energy required to lift electrons from the valence to the conduction bands (the band gap energy) cannot contribute to photovoltaic current; and (2) the energy given to electrons which exceeds the minimum excitation threshold cannot be recovered as useful electrical current. Most of the unrecovered photon energy is dissipated by heating the cell.
The bulk of the solar energy reaching the earth's surface falls in the visible spectrum where photon energies vary from 1.8 eV (deep red) to 3 eV (violet). In silicon, only about 1.1 eV is required to produce a photovoltaic electron. Choosing a material with a higher energy threshold results in capturing a larger fraction of the energy in higher energy photons but losing a larger fraction of lower energy photons. The theoretical efficiency peaks at approximately 1.5 eV, but the theoretical efficiency remains within 80% of this maximum for materials with band gap energies between 1 and 2.2 eV.
In the evolution of photovoltaic cells, e.g. since the early '70's, the art has been confronted with various problems affecting the efficiency of the cells, all of which need not be discussed herein.
The present invention relates to one of these problems, namely that the usual photovoltaic cells have a sensitivity curve which is limited in a spectrum zone of longer wavelengths. For instance, it is well established in the art that among existing photovoltaic devices, a single crystal silicon photovoltaic cell (sometimes referred to simply as a "silicon cell") provides the highest conversion efficiency of solar energy radiation into electrical energy. However, the problem with the silicon cell in the past has been its relatively low conversion efficiency of 10 to 15 percent in direct sunlight. One of the reasons for this low conversion efficiency is that the specific spectral energy of solar radiation does not provide a good spectral match with the response of a silicon cell.
In attempts to solve this problem, efforts have focused on the fact that it would be advantageous to make use of spectrum regions other than those of high wavelengths and which are endowed with greater energy, e.g. violet, near ultraviolet and remote ultraviolet. Accordingly, efforts have been made in the past to increase the overall efficiency of solar energy collectors and photovoltaic cells, specifically, by disposing between the source of actinic radiation and the cell a luminescent medium or reagent which will absorb radiation at the shorter wavelengths, e.g. the UV, and emit it at longer wavelengths to which the cell is responsive to conversion to electrical energy.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,912,931 issued to Gravisse et al on Oct. 14, 1975 relates to a photovoltaic device having a large surface for receiving radiation having a coating containing at least one luminescent substance so chosen that the response to spectral excitation of the substance is, on the average, situated lower, on the scale of the wavelengths, than the zone of spectral sensitivity of the photovoltaic cell alone. More specifically, the patent discloses a type of solar cell construction which contains a series of thin luminescent layers of different compositions, which are laid over the surface of the photovoltaic cell, the order of succession and the composition of these layers being selected in such manner that the light energy, in a spectrum zone, falling upon the outermost thin layer is transferred in cascade, through the intermediary of the interposed individual layers, to the spectral sensitivity zone of the photovoltaic cell itself.
As examples of other patents relating to improving the conversion efficiency of solar radiation, mention may be made of the following patents which represent but a cursory search and accordingly should not be taken as a complete survey of the art pertaining thereto.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,426,212 issued to Klaas on Feb. 4, 1969 discloses a radiation converter comprising at least two substantially parallel layers each comprising (a) solid polymeric material that is substantially transparent at least in the near ultraviolet and visible regions of the spectrum, and (b) fluorescent substance, the layers containing different fluorescent substances and disposed in optical relationship and adjacent to each other. One object of the invention is said to be to convert radiant energy into chemical energy or into electrical energy by a process involving the production of fluorescence (stokes and/or anti-stokes), generally in a cascade system involving a plurality of fluorescent materials, and passage of the fluorescence into a chemical system or into a photocell or other radiation converter.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,929,510 issued to Kittl on Dec. 30, 1975 discloses a solar radiation conversion system having a silicon cell and solar radiation conversion means comprising ytterbium oxide and at least one other specified rare earth oxide. A specific object is said to be to provide a system having solar energy conversion means characterized by a band-emission spectrum that provides a good spectral match with the spectral response of a silicon cell.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,140,544 issued to Sill on Feb. 20, 1979 pertains to a luminescent photovoltaic device for converting solar or other light radiation to electrical energy, having a luminescent collector member with divergent upper and lower surfaces. These surfaces are divergent in at least that part or area of the collector where solar radiation enters the collector, the direction of divergence being selected to direct the internal surface angle of reflection of collected light energy toward one or more photovoltaic cells mounted on or coupled to one or more edge surfaces of the collector.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,155,371 issued to Wohlmut et al, on May 22, 1979 has as its objective to provide a new and improved luminescent solar collector which employs a plurality of different types of photovoltaic cells. The luminescent solar collector has a luminescent member with at least two types of photovoltaic cells, each type of cell operating efficiently for the generation of electricity over a wavelength range which is different from the efficient wavelength range of the other types of photovoltaic cells present on the luminescent member, each type of photovoltaic cell carrying intermediate to it and the luminescent member a filter means which allows only light within the efficient wavelength range for that type of photovoltaic cell to pass from the luminescent member into the photovoltaic cell.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,166,919 issued to Carlson on Sept. 4, 1979 discloses an amorphous silicon solar cell with a layer of high index of refraction material or a series of layers having high and low indices of refraction material deposited upon a transparent substrate to reflect light of energies greater than the bandgap energy of the amorphous silicon back into the solar cell and transmit solar radiation having an energy less than the bandgap energy of the amorphous silicon. The patent is directed to the problem caused by absorption of infrared radiation by the solar cell degrading the performance and shortening the useful life of the solar cell.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,465 issued to Boling on Feb. 26, 1980 discloses a luminescent solar collector comprising a relatively thick layer with a photocell coupled to a face surface thereof and at least one thin luminescent layer optically coupled to said thick layer, the thick layer having an index of refraction of at least 0.04 more than each of the luminescent layers and being at least 10 times as thick as the sum of all other layers of the collector. The invention is said to be an improvement in luminescent solar collectors and concentrators of a previously disclosed type.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,238,247 issued to Oster on Dec. 9, 1980 is concerned with the problem that photovoltaic cells actually utilize a very small portion of the solar energy incident thereon to produce electricity. One object of the patent is to provide a structure for the simultaneous conversion of solar energy to electricity and to thermal energy. This is said to be accomplished by means of a structure which in one apparatus converts a part of incident solar energy to electrical energy by the use of photocells mounted on a luminescent solar collector of tubular design while another portion of such incident energy is converted to thermal energy.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,395,582 issued to Damsker on July 26, 1983 relates to a combined solar converter which has a photovoltaic cell for converting the energy of solar radiation of a particular range of wavelengths to electricity and which has a thermal heat absorber spaced from the cell which converts solar radiation of longer wavelengths passing from the cell to useful heat. In the discussion of the Background Art, mention is made of the relatively narrow range of sensitivity which effectively converts only a small part of the energy to electricity. Consequently, it has previously been proposed to combine solar cells which are sensitive to different parts of the solar spectrum to increase the effective amount of the solar spectrum converted; or to utilize more of the solar spectrum for conversion purposes by shifting radiation of shorter wavelengths to longer wavelengths in order to come within the particular range of sensitivity for a particular cell.
Recently, luminescent solar concentrators (LSC) that make silicon photovoltaic cells more economical to use have been reported in the literature. Basically, an LSC consists of a sheet of transparent plastic permeated with several fluorescent dyes. The plate uses a combination of dyes to deliver reddish light to photovoltaic cells at its edge. When sunlight shines onto the plate, one group of dye molecules absorbs a much wider range of wavelengths of light than would normally be utilized by the photovoltaic silicon cells. These "donor" dyes transfer the energy to"acceptor" dyes within the plate which re-emit the light at the narrow wavelength band that photovoltaic cells use most efficiently. However, it is believed that the dyes need to be stable for 10-20 years if luminescent collectors are to be practical. (See, for example, "Chemical Week", Aug. 25, 1982, page 66, McGraw-Hill, Inc.)
While not intended to be a complete prior art survey, the above citations will illustrate the various approaches that have been or may be taken to increase the efficiency of photovoltaic devices, particularly silicon solar cells. While progress has been made since the early '70's, there is still a great need for modifying the spectral match of the electromagnetic radiation, e.g. solar energy, to the response of the cell, particularly so that the energy at the lower end of the spectrum, e.g. UV, may be utilized.
It is to the latter problem that this invention is directed.
Thus, broadly speaking, the task of the invention can be said to be to provide luminescent materials which can be employed to absorb radiation at the lower wavelength end of the spectrum which cannot be utilized by the photovoltaic cell, but which then emit light at a longer wavelength to which the cell is responsive for conversion to electrical energy. However, since the solution to this task, broadly speaking, is old, the task may be said to be to provide for this purpose luminescent materials which, because of their properties, are particularly suited for this conversion of radiation, e.g. do not have an overlap between absorption and emission which can lower efficiency, have a strong emission at the desired wavelength, are highly stable, and can be synthesized easily and inexpensively.


The invention provides a process for the separation of a heavier hydrocarbon fraction from a gaseous feed comprising a mixture of hydrocarbons, which process comprises subjecting the feed to a first fractionation to form a condensed product; subjecting the condensed product to a second fractionation, at a lower pressure than the first fractionation pressure, to provide the heavier hydrocarbon fraction and distillate fraction; and withdrawing the produced heavier fraction wherein the distillate from the second fractionation is partially condensed to provide reflux streams for both the first and second fractionations. Running the second fractionation at a lower pressure than the first means that there is phased let-down of pressure in two stages, leading to an increased pressure at the suction of the residue gas compressor and reduces power consumption. It also allows more efficient performance of the heat exchanger used to partially condense the reflux streams and simplifies the process, affording opportunities to better integrate process cooling and warming streams so increasing process efficiency. Increasing process efficiency reduces process power requirements or increases recovery of the desired heavier hydrocarbons or realizes both of these effects.

This is the U.S. national phase of International Application No. PCT/GB99/04117 filed Dec. 8, 1999, the entire disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
This invention relates to processes, and to apparatus for effecting such processes, for the cryogenic fractionation of gaseous feeds comprising mixtures of hydrocarbons.
Conventional processes which seek to effect very high recovery of propane and heavier components from natural gas typically utilise a combination of heat exchange, turbo-expansion and phase separation steps. The use of turbo-expansion produces work which can be used to improve overall process performance and, by removing energy from the feed gas, lowers its temperature. The feed gas is partially condensed to give a liquid stream, enriched in the valuable, heavier components being recovered and a vapour stream which may undergo further partial condensation steps. These partial condensation steps result finally in one or more liquid streams and a first residue vapour stream. The liquid streams are fed to a deethaniser column which removes the majority of the ethane and lighter components, producing a stable liquid stream and a second residue vapour stream.
Traditionally, to provide deethaniser column reflux, the top feed to the column has been the stream resulting from work expansion of the vapour remaining after partial condensation. The liquid fraction of this stream acts as a reflux.
In these conventional processes, recovery of the valuable propane and heavier components is reduced by the losses of such components in the first residue vapour stream formed after partial condensation of the feed, and losses in the second residue vapour stream from the deethaniser. Increasing liquids recovery requires increased condensation of the feed, and/or improved deethaniser column performance, generally by reducing column pressure and expander exhaust pressure to reduce overheads temperature. Increasing the condensation of heavier components upstream of the deethaniser also increases the amount of lighter components condensed and passed to the deethaniser for removal. Very high liquids recoveries can result in uneconomically high power requirements in either recompression of the residual vapours to required product pressure or external refrigeration to increase liquids condensation or in feed gas compression which also increases liquids condensation. As high power results in high plant capital and operating costs, methods to reduce power requirement whilst maintaining low temperatures have previously been proposed.
It is known that the introduction of an absorption column, enabling contact of the vapour phase of the partially condensed feed with a light hydrocarbon reflux stream in a multistage operation, can selectively increase the recovery of heavy components, and give an advantage over a simple separator. For a given recovery, the liquid passed to the deethaniser will contain less light components, reducing the duty on the deethaniser and reducing vapour compression to required product pressure.
In the invention of U.S. Pat. No. 4,617,039, deethaniser column overhead vapours are partially condensed and the liquid formed is used to absorb heavy components from the expander outlet vapour in an absorption column. The liquid bottoms from this column are then pumped to the top of the deethaniser column to act as a reflux stream. By virtue of this arrangement, unless the deethaniser column overheads are boosted in pressure, the deethaniser column must operate at a higher pressure than the absorption column.
The use of absorption column bottoms gives a reflux stream which is subcooled and relatively rich in heavy components. Whilst this results in improved performance, the subcooled stream entering the deethaniser increases markedly in temperature upon entering the column which indicates reduced process efficiency.
In the invention of U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,702, a method is described for the cryogenic fractionation of a gaseous feed into a residual gas containing the most volatile compounds of the feed and into a liquid product containing the heaviest compounds of the feed. This method includes the use of a xe2x80x9cpurifying-refrigeratingxe2x80x9d column in which the vapour from the partial condensation of the gas is contacted with a liquid formed from the partial condensation of the overhead vapour stream from the deethaniser column, and/or by the liquid distillate. In this process, the liquid from the base of the xe2x80x9cpurifying-refrigeratingxe2x80x9d column is pumped to the deethaniser column to act as a feed. The deethaniser column must run at a higher pressure than the xe2x80x9cpurifying-refrigeratingxe2x80x9d column in order to produce a refrigeration effect on letting down in pressure the partially condensed distillate stream. By contacting the residual gas directly with cold liquid in the xe2x80x9cpurifying-refrigeratingxe2x80x9d column, refrigeration is transferred very effectively.
This invention seeks to provide an improved process in which heavier hydrocarbon fractions are more effectively separated from a gaseous feed comprising a mixture of hydrocarbons wherein overall process power requirements are reduced; or recovery of the desired heavier hydrocarbon fraction is increased to a high level; or both of these effects are realised.
According, therefore, to one aspect of this invention, there is provided a process for the separation of a heavier hydrocarbon fraction from a gaseous feed comprising a mixture of hydrocarbons, which process comprises subjecting the feed to a first fractionation to form a condensed product; subjecting the condensed product to a second fractionation, at a lower pressure than the first fractionation pressure, to provide the heavier hydrocarbon fraction and a distillate fraction; and withdrawing the produced heavier fraction wherein the distillate from the second fractionation is partially condensed to provide reflux streams for both the first and the second fractionations.
The present invention is described below with particular reference to the recovery of propane and heavier components from gaseous feeds comprising a mixture of hydrocarbons. However, the invention is also applicable to the recovery of components which may be heavier than propane. Furthermore, the invention is not limited to the recovery of paraffinic compounds but is also applicable to the recovery of olefinic compounds such as propylene.
Gaseous feeds from which valuable, heavier hydrocarbon fractions can be produced include natural gas, gases associated with petroleum refining and gases associated with petrochemical manufacture.
In the process of the present invention the gaseous feed comprising a mixture of hydrocarbons undergoes one or more heat exchange and work expansion, for example turbo-expansion, operations which lead to one or more partially condensed hydrocarbon streams which are subjected to one or more phase separation operations.
Thus, prior to the first fractionation, the gaseous feed may be cooled (for example, by mechanical refrigeration and/or by integrated multistream heat exchange) to form a partially condensed fluid feed. This may then suitably be subject to one or more first phase separations. Part of the feed gas cooling duty may be effected in an intermediate reboiler located at an intermediate position up the second, lower pressure fractionator. Again prior to the first fractionation, the so separated vapour phase may be subjected to an operation (for example, expansion through one or more turbo-expanders) which results in the phase becoming a two phase feed. Likewise, the so separated liquid phase may be subjected to an operation (for example, expansion across one or more valves) which results in it also becoming a two-phase feed. The two feeds may be recombined prior to being fed to the first fractionation (for example, in a high pressure wash column). In the alternative, a portion of a two-phase feed may, optionally after heat exchange, be fed directly to the second fractionation or the individual streams may be fed to separate points of the first fractionation.
The liquid produced in the first fractionation may then be subjected to one or more operations (for example, expansion across a valve and/or warming by one or a plurality of integrated multistream heat exchanges) to produce a two phase stream which is then subject to the second fractionation at lower pressure (for example, in a deethaniser). In the alternative, the liquid produced in the first fractionation may be fed directly to the second fractionation.
The overhead vapour from the deethaniser is at least partially condensed, and a portion of the liquid formed provides reflux to the top of the deethaniser column.
A further portion of the condensed deethaniser overheads may be subcooled in a well integrated heat exchange operation and pumped to an absorption column, here termed the wash column. This wash column, containing fractionation trays or packing, allows intimate contact of the reflux liquid with the vapours form the partial condensation of feed gas. Propane and heavier components which would otherwise remain uncovered in the residue vapour are absorbed into the liquid and overall recovery of the desired components and is therefore increased. The wash column operates at a higher pressure than the deethaniser column.
Thus, in accordance with an important aspect of this invention, the second fractionation is carried out at a lower pressure than the first fractionation. This phased let-down of pressure in two stages leads to an increased pressure at the suction of the residue gas compressor and reduces power consumption. It also allows more efficient performance of the heat exchanger used to partially condense the reflux streams.
This also simplifies the process and affords opportunities to better integrate process cooling and warming streams so increasing process efficiency. Increasing process efficiency reduces process power requirements or increases recovery of the desired heavier hydrocarbons or realises both of these effects.
The cooling duty for the described deethaniser overheads condenser, which provides reflux to both the deethaniser column and wash column, may generally be provided by efficient multistream heat exchange by evaporating all or part of the cold liquid leaving the wash column, and rewarming residue vapours from the wash column and the deethaniser reflux drum.
The rewarmed liquid from the wash column may then be fed to the deethaniser column at a midpoint, as a two phase stream. The location of the feed point is optimised to maximise process efficiency.
In accordance with an important aspect of this invention, the distillate from the second fractionation at a lower pressure than the first fractionation may be subjected to phase separation, the separated liquid phase exiting as a plurality of streams one or more of which is conveyed, suitably with pumping, to reflux the first fractionation, optionally after cooling, while the other is conveyed, suitably with pumping to reflux the second fractionation.
Thus a single condensed stream may be used to reflux both the first and second fractionation columns. According to an advantageous feature of the invention, the vapour stream resulting from the phase separation is not used as a reflux stream and is compressed and rewarmed to provide a residual gas product.
The vapour stream from the first, higher pressure fractionation may be compressed and cooled (for example, by cooling water or air at essentially ambient temperature) to give a valuable residue gas product. One or more of the turbo-expanders may drive at least one compressor for example a sales gas compressor, to reduce overall power consumption.
It is desirable that the heat exchangers may be combined in a fully integrated heat exchange system. Furthermore, the second fractionation may utilise one or more side heat exchangers.
This invention also provides apparatus for the separation of a heavier hydrocarbon fraction from a gaseous feed comprising a mixture of hydrocarbons, which apparatus comprises:
a first fractionator;
a second fractionator operable at a lower pressure than the first fractionator;
means for veying condensed product from the first fractionator to the second fractionator;
means for withdrawing distillate from the second fractionator, partially condensing the distillate and veying it, as a reflux stream, to both the first and second fractionators.

Low temperature separation of hydrocarbon gas


The present invention provides a method of producing a skeletal muscle cell from a pluripotent stem cell, which includes a step of expressing one or more exogenous factors selected from MyoD, Myf5 and nucleic acids encoding them on a pluripotent stem cell.

While muscle diseases include very many diseases, most of the symptoms thereof are muscle atrophy and muscle weakness associated therewith. The etiology of the muscle atrophy includes abnormality in the muscle itself and abnormality in the nerve that moves the muscle, where the former is called a muscle myogenic disease (myopathy), and the latter is called a neurogenic disease. The representative myopathy includes muscular dystrophy, muscular atrophy and the like. In Duchenne muscular dystrophy with the highest number of patients from among muscular dystrophies, one codon changes, by point mutation, to a stop codon meaning the termination of protein synthesis, due to which dystrophin protein is not synthesized. It is a disease developed only in boys by sex chromosome recessive inheritance, and said to be developed by 3 to 5 per 100,000 boys, and one per 2000-3000 newborn boys. There is not any good treatment method for muscular dystrophy, and the development of a treatment method has been desired. Miyoshi myopathy (MM) is one of the congenital distal myopathy (Miyoshi, K. et al. Brain 109 (Pt 1), 31-54, 1986), and caused by defective muscle membrane repair due to mutated Dysferlin (Liu, J. et al. Nat Genet. 20, 31-36, 1998, and Bansal, D., et al. Nature 423, 168-172, 2003).
For the development of a therapeutic drug, a model reflecting the human pathology in vitro is required. With the development of an induced pluripotent stem cell by reprogramming a somatic cell in recent years, utilization of a cell generated from patient's own cell as a pathology model is expected. While there are some reports on the method of inducing skeletal muscle cells from human pluripotent stem cells (Zheng, J. K. et al., Cell Res., 16: 713-22, 2006, Barberi, T. et al., Nat. Med., 13: 642-8, 2007), a method of efficiently inducing a cell in the number necessary for the development of a therapeutic drug has not been reported yet.
Directed differentiation by driving master transcriptional factor, MyoD1, from adult somatic cells was initially established for myogenic differentiation in 1988 (Tapscott, S. J., et al. Science 242, 405-411, 1988). Various types of cells can give rise to myocytes driven by forced expression of MyoD1 (Mizuno, H., et al. Plastic and reconstructive surgery 109, 199-209, 2002, and Gianakopoulos, P. J., et al. The Journal of biological chemistry 286, 2517-2525, 2011). In pluripotent stem cells, mouse embryonic stem cells can differentiate to myocytes by Tetracycline (Tet)-inducible MyoD1 expression (Ozasa, S., et al. Biochemical and biophysical research communications 357, 957-963, 2007), and hiPSC-derived fibroblasts can also differentiate to myocytes by MyoD1 mRNA treatment after differentiation under the condition without FGF for 4 weeks (Warren, L., et al. Cell stem cell 7, 618-630, 2010).

Method of inducing differentiation from pluripotent stem cells to skeletal muscle cells


An optimized gateway selection process of the present invention is based on a universal mobility manager (UMM), a component for inter-technology location management. The UMM is capable of holding location information for diverse cellular networks, as well as for Internet telephony systems. For cellular networks, UMM acts as a traditional HLR; for an Internet telephony network, it acts as the entities that are responsible for user/terminal registration (registrar in SIP, gatekeeper in H.323) and address resolution (proxy server in SIP, gatekeeper in H.323). An optimal gateway selection is possible based on location related information provided by the UMM which had not previously been available. Utilizing the newly available information enables a gateway to be selected which may, for example, enable the circuit switched portion of a call to now be minimized.

Inter-working between a circuit-switched network and Internet telephony requires that the call be routed via an appropriate signaling and media gateway. This gateway, which appears as an end device to both involved technologies, translates the signaling messages and the media streams between the two involved signaling protocols and media formats. Optimization of the selection of one particular gateway for a call essentially means to best meet the selection policies of the involved parties, i.e., caller, callee, network and gateway providers. These policies are typically based on criteria such as: minimizing triangle routing; minimizing the circuit-switched call leg (e.g. to minimize cost); and maximizing the provisioned Quality of Service (which can be viewed to mean to minimize the Internet call leg); and gateway capacity and load balancing.
For inter-working calls from an Internet telephony user agent to a fixed-wire PSTN network the originating technology, i.e. the originating Internet telephony network, knows the location of the party to be called by the structure of its E.164 phone number. Consequently, the gateway selection process can be based on knowledge about the entire resulting call path, and can thus be optimized towards the selection criteria mentioned above.
When the location of the called party is not reflected by its address—because the terminating technology supports device mobility (cellular phone networks) or user mobility (e.g., SIP—Session Initiation Protocol)—the originating technology must perform the gateway selection without knowledge of the called party's location, and thus without knowledge of the resulting call path. This is sub-optimal as many of the above mentioned selection criteria require prior knowledge of the resulting call path. As an example, assume a SIP user calls a GSM phone and the gateway selection criterion is 'minimize the PSTN call leg'. This criterion is best met by selecting a gateway that is close to the GSM callee; but as the actual location of the callee is not known to the originating SIP network, this selection cannot be made.
The above scenarios cannot be dealt with by means of existing gateway selection techniques. Instead, there is a need for a more comprehensive concept of mobility management.

Apparatus and method for enabling optimized gateway selection for inter-working between circuit-switched and internet telephony


A device for positioning a mask relative to the surface of a wafer with a view to the exposure of the wafer, which includes (i) first positioning structure suitable for holding and moving the mask and the wafer in relation to each other; (ii) imaging structure suitable for producing at least one image of the mask and of the surface of the wafer according to at least one field of view, so as to image positioning marks of the mask and of the wafer simultaneously in the field of view; and (iii) at least one optical distance sensor suitable for producing a distance measurement between the surface of the wafer and the mask in the field(s) of view, with a measurement beam which passes at least partially through the imaging structure.

The present invention relates to a device for positioning a photolithography mask with respect to the surface of a wafer, in order to carry out operations of exposure of the wafer or substrate, in contact/proximity mode photolithography in particular.
It also relates to an appliance comprising such a device, and a method implemented in this device or this appliance.
The field of the invention is more particularly, but non-limitatively, that of steppers and exposure systems in photolithography.
Photolithography techniques require operations for the exposure of the wafers being processed.
The wafer to be processed comprises a layer to be etched, covered with a photosensitive layer called the "resist" layer. A mask with transparent portions and opaque portions is positioned above the surface of the wafer. Then the surface of the wafer is illuminated or exposed through the mask with a light generally within the ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths. In the transparent portions of the mask, the light reaches the wafer and changes the properties of the photosensitive layer. After a step of chemical treatment, the portions of the resist layer situated in the exposed areas or in the protected areas according to the process (positive or negative resin), are removed in order to allow the selective etching of the uncovered portions of the layer to be etched.
These operations may be repeated many times during a process. The mask must therefore be positioned with great accuracy with respect to the surface of the wafer, so that the optical path of the exposure rays is perpendicular and equal over the entire wafer or substrate, which generally comprises already-existing structures.
The positioning in the plane X-Y (parallel to the plane of the wafer) is generally carried out by superimposing patterns (reticles, crosses, etc.) present on the mask with patterns already etched on the surface of the wafer. The mask must be positioned at a distance that allows this alignment to be carried out without affecting the photosensitive resin layer by contact.
The mask must then also be positioned at a distance Z that is constant and very accurate with respect to the surface of the wafer, and this must be done over its entire surface. This makes it possible to control the diffraction of the light which passes through the mask. In fact this diffraction directly determines the accuracy and the resolution with which the patterns of the mask can be reproduced on the wafer. Controlling this distance Z is even more important when short wavelengths (UV or Deep UV or Extreme UV EUV) are utilized in order to limit with precision the effects of diffraction and maximize the spatial resolution of the etching.
The mask must not be in contact with the wafer. It is generally positioned at a distance Z of the order of 20 micrometers or less.
In the known contact/proximity exposure systems, the positioning of the masks is carried out with microbeads or cylinders, made from ceramic material, with a calibrated diameter, which serve as shims. These microbeads or shims are firmly fixed to mobile elements making it possible to insert them between the mask and the wafer, after which the assembly is pressed.
This technique has a certain number of drawbacks:                it leads to complex systems;        the mechanical contact may degrade the contact surfaces;        controlling the positioning of the mask in the plane X-Y and over distance Z is complex, because the surfaces must not be pressed on either side of the spacers until the positioning X-Y has been carried out;        the accuracy of the thickness control is not always sufficient;        it is not possible to reduce the distance Z below a certain limit, which is however desirable for limiting the diffraction.
A subject of the present invention is to propose a device and a method for positioning a mask with respect to a wafer to be exposed which allows the drawbacks of the prior art to be overcome.
Another subject of the present invention is to propose a device and a method for positioning a mask with respect to a wafer or a substrate to be exposed which allows positioning without mechanical contact with the surface of the wafer.
Finally a subject of the present invention is to propose a device and a method for positioning a mask with respect to a wafer or a substrate to be exposed which allows accurate positioning of the mask at a very short distance from the wafer.

Device and method for positioning a photolithography mask by a contactless optical method


The present disclosure provides ex vivo-derived mineralized three-dimensional bone constructs. The bone constructs are obtained by culturing osteoblasts and osteoclast precursors under randomized gravity vector conditions. Preferably, the randomized gravity vector conditions are obtained using a low shear stress rotating bioreactor, such as a High Aspect Ratio Vessel (HARV) culture system. The bone constructs of the disclosure have utility in physiological studies of bone formation and bone function, in drug discovery, and in orthopedics.

One of the central problems associated with studying both the normal and pathophysiology of bone is that as an organ system it is slow growing and the time to show an observable response to a particular stimulus is relatively long. The nature of the mineralized tissue matrix of bone in vivo and its complex architecture also presents several technical problems associated with how experimental observations can be made. At present, truly informative studies designed to understand bone physiology have relied primarily on the removal of samples of bone tissue from normal or diseased tissue either in a clinical setting or from experimental animal models.
To date, there is no three dimensional tissue culture model of bone, either of animal or human origin. The prior art has relied primarily on the use of monotype cell type cultures of osteoblasts or osteoclast cells grown on planar, two dimensional tissue culture surfaces. Such cultures have also been grown in three dimensional collagen support gels and some investigators have utilized culture systems that allow types of mechanical strain to be applied to the cells in order to study the effects of mechanical loading. However, these cultures have been primarily focused on the responses of a single cell type, such as osteoblasts, to various environmental stimuli.
Existing planar monotype tissue culture models of bone do not allow the study of the interactions between the different cell types present in normal bone responsible for normal bone remodeling. The developmentally inactive osteocyte cell type present in the mineralized matrix of normal bone in vivo (from which osteoblasts are derived) have yet to be fully characterized in any tissue culture model due to their supposed transformation into osteoblasts once they have been removed from the bone matrix and placed into culture.
Moreover, the process of mineralization, which is essential to the formation of new bone, has previously only been studied in monotype cultures of osteoblasts. The mineralization process has been studied in such models in the absence of the major cell type involved in the removal of mineralized material, namely the osteoclast. However, the complex interplay between both of these cell types is essential for normal bone remodeling (i.e. bone formation and bone loss). Without both cell types being present, a true in vitro/ex vivo representation of the normal or indeed pathological processes involved in the bone remodeling process is impossible. As such, the use of such monotype culture models to investigate the effects of manipulations, such as anti-osteoporetic drugs or mechanical load interventions, have limited utility due to the lack of similarity to the true physiological state existing within bone tissue in vivo.

Mineralized three-dimensional bone constructs

The United States of America as represented by the United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration


Example apparatus and methods for generating context-aware artificial intelligence characters are disclosed. An example apparatus to animate an artificial intelligence character includes a data tagger to tag data in a media data stream to generate a plurality of data files of tagged data, the data files corresponding to different time periods in a storyline, the tagged data associated with a first character in the media data stream, the artificial intelligence character to portray the first character. The example apparatus includes a trainer to generate a response model of the first character based on the data file corresponding to a current data time period and one or more data files corresponding to one or more earlier time periods of the storyline and a response generator to apply the response model based on a stimulus input to animate the artificial intelligence character.

Artificial intelligence (AI) characters can be used as part of an interactive user experience involving virtual reality or augmented reality. AI characters are artificial personalities that facilitate communication between a human and a computer. For example, interactive video experiences can include AI characters that respond to user inputs as part of an immersive storytelling experience. In another context, AI characters can serve as personal virtual assistants (e.g., Siri® by Apple®, Inc., Cortana® by Microsoft® Corp.) that provide on-demand responses to user inputs, such as questions about location, world history, etc.
The figures are not to scale. In general, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawing(s) and accompanying written description to refer to the same or like parts.

Apparatus and methods for generating context-aware artificial intelligence characters