A method of operating a gas turbine power plant comprising of a first gas turbine group, consisting of a compressor and a turbine which are connected mechanically with one another, and a second gas turbine group, including a combustion device, which is placed in the gas flow stream between the first group's compressor and turbine, whereby the second gas turbine group consists of a compressor, a fuel injection device, a combustion chamber and a turbine, whereby the second gas turbine group's compressor and turbine are mechanically coupled to one another and at least one of the gas turbine groups having a device for the extraction of work, whereby the fact that a first flow of water and/or steam is heated with heat from the flue gas from the first group's turbine, that further amounts of water and/or steam are heated with heat from a gas stream that is compressed by the first group's compressor, and the produced water and/or steam is injected into the gas stream in such amounts that at least 60% of the oxygen content of the air in the stream is consumed through combustion in the combustion device, and in that the combustion gas that is fed into the turbine of the second gas turbine group has a pressure in the range 50-300 bar.

This invention concerns a method for the operation of a gas turbine cycle whose art is presented in the introduction of the first claim.
It is already known that the same operational conditions are, in certain cases, reached by a gas turbine cycle of the art described in claim 1, whereby water and/or steam is heated with flue gases from the expander of the said gas turbine cycle during operation.
In traditional gas turbines, air is used as the working fluid. The intake air is compressed to high pressure after which fuel is mixed with the compressed air. This mixture is then combusted in a combustion chamber and expanded through a turbine. This turbine produces work, a part of which is used to drive the compressor, while the excess is extracted as useful work. The efficiency of this process can be described as the ratio between the useful work and the energy content of the fuel utilised. In traditional gas turbine cycles, the combustion process occurs with a large amount of excess air; consequently, a majority of the intake air passes through the cycle without its oxygen content being utilised.
It is already known that gas turbine power plants may be designed as a so-called humidified cycle. In a humidified cycle, water is mixed with the working fluid. This water may be injected as steam and/or hot water may be used to humidify a part of, or the entire compressed air flow. Steam is usually generated in a heat recovery steam generator that utilises the heat contained in the flue gases from the turbine.
However, in practice, a traditional "dry" gas turbine, which is optimised for operation with dry air as the working fluid, exhibits unacceptable operational characteristics if large amounts of water are injected into the working fluid. This is because the gas flow through the turbine expander is significantly greater then the flow rate for which it is dimensioned for.
Traditional gas turbines can, therefore, not be operated as humidified cycles. Of those few gas turbines that do utilise steam injection, the amount of steam that may be injected into the working fluid is limited, and consequently not all the steam available from the heat recovery steam generator may be utilised.
If humidified cycles are to be realised, a large and costly re-design of the gas turbine machinery is necessary to accommodate the changed flow distribution and imbalance between the volume capacity of the compressor and turbine.
In addition, traditional gas turbines often cool the hot temperature regions of the turbine by utilising cold cooling air from the compressor; thus, the compressor has a certain over-capacity in the form of this cooling air. In humidified cycles, however, it is significantly advantageous to utilise steam for cooling instead of compressed air. This further increases the degree to which the gas turbine must be re-designed, as the imbalance between the volume capacity of the compressor and turbine becomes even larger when steam cooling is introduced. Thereby, extra measures must be implemented to adapt existing, air-cooled gas turbines to ones with more effective steam cooling.
While it is already known that gas turbine cycles may be utilised and operated as described in the introduction of claim 1, one further goal with the current invention is to remove the above-mentioned re-design problems associated with humidified cycles and to propose configurations that offer especially high efficiencies and favourable operating conditions.
An additional goal of the invention is to introduce a method that enables the effective operation of the second gas turbine group in such a way that a near-optimal operation of the first gas turbine group in a humidified cycle is obtained, despite the fact that the first gas turbine group has a design which in essence is optimised for a dry cycle.

Method for operation of a gas turbine group


A system for generating a network analysis model is provided. The system comprises a text-based model definition file representing analysis flow and a hierarchical analysis tree; an analysis function block library comprising a plurality of analysis nodes in an analysis model definition, wherein each of the analysis nodes comprises at least one reusable analysis block; and a code generator that automatically generates code to implement the analysis model from the analysis function block library by parsing the model definition file.

Operations Support Systems (OSS) and similar computer systems have been developed to analyze networks such as telecommunications networks and internet protocol (IP) networks. The analysis may involve the monitoring of network traffic, the configuration of network components, the discovery and management of faults in the network, and similar activities. Numerous automated network analysis tools are available for performing such activities, such as packet analyzers, port scanners, hardware scanners, and similar equipment.

Distributed internet protocol network analysis model with real time response performance


Systems and methods are provided for detecting changes in a monitored environment. One aspect of the invention relates to a system that comprises a plurality of radio frequency (RF) sensors distributed about the monitored environment, such that each RF sensor configured to respond to an interrogation signal with a unique identifier and a radio frequency (RF) interrogator that transmits interrogation sequences of interrogations signals over a plurality of different frequency bands at one or more power levels. The system also includes a response pattern analyzer that determines response patterns for each of the plurality of RF sensors to the interrogation sequences and transmits a change detection indicator if at least one of the determined response patterns vary outside a predetermined background baseline.

Security systems are employed to detect changes in a monitored environment due to the intrusion of an entity, such as an unwanted human, animal or inanimate object. However, many security systems find it difficult to perform proper motion and change detection without being subjected to false alarms. Some of these alarms are due to normal changes to the setting, like moving curtains, changing airflow, automatic light switching, pests or other non-harmful entities entering the monitored background. Routinely, these events are made part of the background to minimize false alarms, but unfortunately, such action at the same time lowers the probability of detecting small changes like for example the placement of an electronic bug in the monitored environment.
Additionally, many security systems are easy to spoof. For example, systems that detect heat generated from a human body can be spoofed by a person wearing a large coat and moving slowly through a room. Also, these systems may not detect the entrance of an electronic robot, or other inanimate object entering the room. Laser beam type security systems can be spoofed using mirrors, or by avoiding the laser beams when moving through the room. Security systems that employ cameras can be spoofed by moving outside of the field of view of the cameras, or moving between objects blocking the field of view of the cameras.

System and methods for detecting change in a monitored environment


A disk drive is disclosed comprising a disk surface having a plurality of servo sectors for defining a plurality of servo tracks, and a head actuated radially over the disk surface. A first servo sector defines a first servo track comprising a first track address having a first width, and a second servo sector defines a second servo track comprising a second track address having a second width substantially less than the first width. In one embodiment the servo sectors are written using an external servo writer or media writer, and in another embodiment the servo sectors are self-servo written by the disk drive.

Disk drives comprise a disk and a head connected to a distal end of an actuator arm which is rotated about a pivot by a voice coil motor (VCM) to position the head radially over the disk. The disk comprises a plurality of radially spaced, concentric tracks for recording user data sectors and servo sectors. The servo sectors comprise head positioning information (e.g., a track address) which is read by the head and processed by a servo control system to control the velocity of the actuator arm as it seeks from track to track.
Because the disk is rotated at a constant angular velocity, the data rate is typically increased toward the outer diameter tracks (where the surface of the disk is spinning faster) in order to achieve a more constant linear bit density across the radius of the disk. To simplify design considerations, the data tracks are typically banded together into a number of physical zones, wherein the data rate is constant across a zone, and increased from the inner diameter zones to the outer diameter zones. This is illustrated in FIG. 1, which shows a prior art disk format 2 comprising a number of data tracks 4, wherein the data tracks are banded together in this example to form three physical zones from the inner diameter of the disk (ZONE 1) to the outer diameter of the disk (ZONE 3). The prior art disk format of FIG. 1 also comprises a number of servo sectors 60-6N recorded around the circumference of each data track. Each servo sector 6i comprises a preamble 8 for storing a periodic pattern, which allows proper gain adjustment and timing synchronization of the read signal, and a sync mark 10 for storing a special pattern used to symbol synchronize to a servo data field 12. The servo data field 12 stores coarse head positioning information, such as a track address, used to position the head over a target data track during a seek operation. Each servo sector 6i further comprises groups of servo bursts 14 (e.g., A, B, C and D bursts), which comprise a number of consecutive transitions recorded at precise intervals and offsets with respect to a data track centerline. The groups of servo bursts 14 provide fine head position information used for centerline tracking while accessing a data track during write/read operations.
The servo sectors 60-6N may be written to the disk using any suitable technique, such as an external servo writer which writes the servo sectors on the disk after the disk is inserted into the head disk assembly (HDA), or using a media writer or stamping technique which writes (or stamps) the servo sectors on the disk prior to being inserted into the HDA. Alternatively, the disk drive may self-servo write the servo sectors using circuitry internal to the disk drive.
Regardless of the technique used to write the servo sectors, each track address is typically written over multiple passes. This is illustrated in the example servo pattern shown in FIG. 1B wherein each track address (TKID) is written over two passes (and trimmed during a third pass). For example, when writing the track address TKID 1, the write element is positioned so as to write the upper half of the track address TKID 11 during a first revolution. The write element is then moved one half a track in order to write the lower half of the track address TKID 12 during a second revolution. The write element is then moved another half track in order to trim the lower half the track address TKID 12 while writing the first half of track address TKID 21. As can be seen in FIG. 1B, this servo track writing process results in four seams (e.g., seams X1, X2, X3, and X4) for every two servo tracks written. At each seam an erase band manifests due to the fringe field emanating from the write element which degrades the quality of the written servo data.
There is, therefore, a need to ameliorate the undesirable effect of erase bands in the servo data of a disk drive.

Disk drive comprising a disk surface having track addresses of varying width


One embodiment of the present invention is a seal apparatus (16) for an improved front-end to body-side joint (10) of a vehicle. The seal apparatus (16) includes a ring portion (36), a gate portion (38), and an intermediate portion (40) extending between the ring portion (36) and the gate portion (38). The ring portion (36) is utilized for receiving an open-ended tubular front-end structure (12) of the improved front-end to body-side joint (10). Additionally, the ring portion (36) is utilized for sealing an interface between the front-end structure (12) and a body-side structure (14). Further, the gate portion (38) is sized for insertion into an interior cavity (42) of the front-end structure (12) and for blocking communication through the interior. Also, the ring portion (36) and/or the intermediate portion (40) have a self-locating construction for positioning the seal apparatus (16) in a predetermined location (50) on the front-end structure (12).

Typical vehicle body construction includes a front end and a body, which are both mounted to a vehicle frame. The front end typically is coupled to the body for forming a front-end to body-side joint.
Specifically, the body typically includes an A-pillar section having an exterior side with a longitudinally-extending member, e.g. a stub shotgun, of the front end coupled thereto. In addition, the A-pillar section typically further includes an interior side with one or more reinforcement plates mounted thereon. These reinforcement plates typically are utilized for reinforcing the A-pillar section and supporting one or more door hinges that are disposed at or adjacent to the A-pillar section.
It would be desirable to provide a seal apparatus for an improved front-end to body-side joint that insulates the interior cab from noise typically produced external thereto, increases the rigidity of the vehicle body, decreases the number of the vehicle components, minimizes the manufacturing cycle time, and decreases the costs associated therewith.

Seal apparatus for an improved front-end to body-side joint of a vehicle


A multichannel communication processing system having line control apparatus means for analyzing receiving frames and channel-controlling transmitting frames, DMA control apparatus for transferring the data not via a host processor but directly to a main memory, a memory for storing a variety of data and a communication protocol processing program, a CPU for controlling the communication processing system as a whole and line correspondence apparatus including line correspondence units provided between the lines and the line control apparatus whereby serial interfaces with channels of the plurality of lines are effected.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed generally to a multichannel communication processing system, and more particularly, to frame processing means for processing a plurality of frames by use of a set of a CPU, a DMA control module and so on.
2. Description of Background
A conventional system for processing a communication protocol is disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 144839/1989. FIG. 2 illustrates a construction of this conventional system.
A communication processing system 2 comprises a line control module 21, a transmitting/receiving FIFO (first-in first-out) memory 22, a DMA control module 23, a memory 24, a CPU 25 and an internal bus 26. The line control module 21 effects a serial interface with a remote station through transmitting/receiving lines. The memory 22 temporarily stores the transmitting/receiving data. The DMA control module 23 transfers the data directly to a main memory 3 on the side of a host processor 4. The memory 24 stores a communication processing program and the data. The CPU 25 controls the communication processing system 2 as a whole. The bus 26 connects circuits thereof.
The communication processing system 2 is formed on a single semiconductor substrate such as a silicon substrate by a known semiconductor integrated circuit processing technology to provide LSI.
The communication processing system LSI 2 is employed for processing a link access procedure-on D channel LAPD serving as a communication protocol of, e.g., an integrated services digital network ISDN. In this case, a transmitting/receiving line rate is 16 or 64 kbps, while an operating system clock of the internal CPU 25 is, for instance, 6 MHz.
The conventional technology described above is limited to a case where only one transmitting/receiving line is prepared. No consideration is given to an application to a system having a plurality of lines. Hence, when constructing the system which, as in a station exchange or a private branch exchange, accommodates a plurality, particularly, a multiplicity of lines, it is required that the communication processing systems LSI2 be used one by one for every line. This results in a scale-up of the whole system and an increase in costs as well.
The transmitting/receiving line rate of 16 kbps or 64 kbps amounts to approximately 1/380 and 1/100, of the system clock of 6 MHz. Thus the transmitting/receiving line rate of 16 kbps or 64 kbps is very low speed as compared with the operating system clock of 6 MHz of the built-in CPU 25. Hence, the time for waiting for an interruption from the line control module 21 or the DMA control module 23 is much longer than in a state where the built-in CPU 25 works to control the single transmitting/receiving line. The communication processing system LSI2 is therefore inefficient.

Multichannel communication processing system


Each of the bit lines of a semiconductor memory has an intermediate section with low electrical resistance and low electromigration resistance. If the bit line is shorted to a word line, during burn-in the electrical resistance of the intermediate section increases because of electromigration, thereby preventing excess current from leaking through the shorted bit line during subsequent use.

This invention relates to the bit lines of a semiconductor memory such as a dynamic random-access memory (DRAM) or static random-access memory (SRAM).
Large-scale semiconductor memories are often designed with a certain amount of redundancy, so that if a fault is detected when the memory is tested during manufacture, the faulty part can be replaced by a redundant part and the memory can still be used. One fault that tends to occur is a short circuit between a bit line and a word line. In this case the shorted bit line is replaced by a redundant bit line.
Since the faulty bit line remains shorted to the word line, however, if the bit line is precharged to a different potential from the word line in the standby state, as is commonly the case, current leaks through the short circuit, degrading the current dissipation characteristics of the memory. Not infrequently, the memory exceeds its standby current leakage tolerance and has to be discarded even though the faulty bit line has been replaced.
Proposed methods of solving this problem include holding both bit and word lines at the ground potential in the standby state, and increasing the resistance of the bit-line or word-line material. These proposed solutions are unsatisfactory because they reduce the memory access speed. Another unsatisfactory solution is to add circuit elements to disable the precharging of faulty bit lines; the drawback of this approach is that it requires extra circuit area.

Semiconductor memory with leak-resistant bit lines


An exhaust purification device has a NOx catalyst that occludes NOx contained in exhaust gas at a lean air fuel ratio and that purifies (reduces) and discharges the occluded NOx at a rich air fuel ratio. The device performs full purge for discharging substantially an entirety of the occluded NOx at once based on establishment of an execution condition of the full purge to recover exhaust purification performance of the NOx catalyst. The device has a program for performing partial purge for discharging only part of the occluded NOx before the execution of the full purge. The device consecutively and repeatedly performs the partial purge except for the period in which the full purge is performed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an exhaust purification device for an internal combustion engine.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, in a diesel engine for a vehicle or the like, combustion (lean combustion) is performed in a state of a lean air fuel ratio (air fuel ratio corresponding to fuel ratio lower than that of stoichiometric air fuel ratio). Accordingly, a quantity of NOx (nitrogen oxides) contained in exhaust gas increases. Therefore, reduction of a NOx emission quantity is required from the viewpoint of environmental protection.
In recent years, a device using a NOx occlusion reduction catalyst, i.e., a NOx catalyst, has been gathering attention as one of exhaust purification devices for purifying the NOx contained in the exhaust gas. The NOx catalyst used for the device consists of an alkaline earth material (occlusion material) and platinum, for example. The NOx catalyst has characteristics of occluding the NOx in the exhaust gas when the atmosphere of the exhaust gas is the lean air fuel ratio and of reducing and eliminating the occluded NOx with the use of reduction components such as HC and CO contained in the exhaust gas when the air fuel ratio becomes rich (air fuel ratio corresponding to fuel ratio higher than that of stoichiometric air fuel ratio). This device uses such the characteristic of the catalyst. The device repeats the occlusion and the reduction (discharge) of the NOx with the catalyst to purify the NOx in the exhaust gas and to reduce the NOx emission quantity.
However, also in such the device, there is limitation in the occlusion capacity of the NOx catalyst. Therefore, if the catalyst is continuously used in the environment where the NOx reduction quantity (NOx discharge quantity) exceeds the NOx occlusion quantity and the NOx occlusion quantity approximates to the occlusion limit, the NOx purification capacity of the catalyst declines significantly. Therefore, conventionally, a known exhaust emission purification device periodically reduces and removes the NOx occluded by the NOx catalyst as processing (catalyst recovery processing) for recovering from the fall of the NOx purification capacity (temporary performance degradation corresponding to NOx occlusion quantity) (for example, as described in JP-A-2000-34946 or Japanese Patent Gazette No. 2692380).
Next, with reference to FIGS. 9A and 9B, an outline of the NOx catalyst recovery processing currently performed by conventional and general devices including the above-described device will be explained. As an example, an exhaust gas purification system for a vehicular diesel engine performing usual operation by the lean combustion will be explained. The lean combustion is performed in the engine as the object of the exhaust gas purification. Therefore, after the NOx occlusion with the NOx catalyst is started, the NOx occlusion quantity Qnox increases with time as shown by a solid line L5a in FIG. 9A. The NOx purifying performance (calculated as NOx purifying rate Rnox in this example) of the NOx catalyst decreases as shown by a solid line L5b in FIG. 9B as the NOx occlusion quantity Qnox increases.
The device serially performs recovery processing to discharge substantially an entirety of the NOx occluded in the NOx catalyst (entirety or large quantity close to entirety) once every time an execution condition for the processing is satisfied (for example, at each elapse of a predetermined time). Specifically, the device performs oversupply of the fuel (i.e., rich purge), for example, at timing t50 at which the execution condition is satisfied, to make the air fuel ratio in the NOx catalyst rich temporarily. Thus, the occluded NOx is reduced by the HC, the CO and the like contained in the exhaust gas and removed. The device periodically performs the rich purge to reduce and remove substantially the entirety of the occluded NOx to periodically recover the purifying performance (exhaust purification performance) of the NOx catalyst.
In such a device, by appropriately setting the execution condition (for example, by setting an appropriate execution interval), the recovery processing (rich purge) is performed before the purifying rate falls below a required value TR (required purifying rate). The purifying capacity of the NOx catalyst is recovered every time the recovery processing is performed. As a result, the NOx catalyst can be used continuously. Thus, each of the conventional devices including the above-described device provides the system (i.e., LNT system: Lean NOx Trap system) that reduces the NOx by making the air fuel ratio rich temporarily through oversupply of the fuel. The system repeatedly performs the recovery processing as shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B based on the appropriate execution condition to continuously purify the exhaust gas (NOx) to thereafter operate at a high purifying rate.
However, the exhaust gas purification performance of the NOx catalyst does not necessarily depend only on the NOx occlusion quantity. Rather, in some cases, performance degradation of the catalyst can be caused by other factors than the NOx occlusion quantity. For example, since a sulfur component is contained in the engine fuel, SOx (sulfur oxides) as oxides of sulfur are generated during combustion and is also occluded by the NOx catalyst like the NOx. Since SOx is a chemically stable substance, it is difficult to release SOx from the NOx catalyst even by making the air fuel ratio rich. Therefore, if a state of increased SOx occlusion quantity (sulfur poisoning) is reached, the NOx purifying capacity will decline by SOx occlusion quantity. In the state where sulfur poisoning has arisen, in a graph (time chart) showing the purification characteristic of the NOx catalyst at the time of applying the recovery processing shown in FIGS. 9A and 9B to the NOx catalyst, the NOx purifying rate falls as a whole, for example, as shown by broken lines L6a, L6b in FIGS. 9A and 9B respectively, compared to the graph shown by the solid lines L5a and L5b. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 9B, there is a concern that the purifying rate Rnox of the NOx catalyst becomes less than the demanded purifying rate TR, for example, at timing t51 before the timing t50 at which the recovery processing is applied to the catalyst.
That is, with the above-described conventional device, even if the execution condition is once set appropriately, the adequacy of the condition will be lost if degradation (for example, sulfur poisoning) arises in the NOx catalyst in connection with the elapse of time. Accordingly, there occurs a concern that the purifying rate (exhaust gas purification performance) of the catalyst falls below the demanded purifying rate.


A permanent electronic serial number unit for use with a network electronic device that includes a member having a machine readable pattern of unique identification information, a mechanism for propagating a read signal onto the member and a mechanism for detecting the read signal after it has been propagated to the member. The unit is preferable coupled to the processor of an electronic device connected to a network such that the electronic device may be identified by the network administrator. The unit may be positioned in the structural frame of an electronic device such that the same unique identification information is visible in a human readable form on the exterior of the frame.

The data storage and processing industry has experience a significant increase in the use of network computers at all levels. Each computer in such a network usually receives a printed serial number at the time of its manufacture. This serial number is important for service, warranty and auditing purposes, amongst other reasons.
Traditionally, serial numbers were imprinted on plates affixed to an exterior wall of a computer, normally on the back. For purposes of the description herein, these serial numbers will be termed physical serial numbers. More recently, electronic serial numbers have been developed in which a circuit board inside the computer has a memory location in which the electronic serial number is stored. This electronic serial number, which may or may not conform with the physical serial number, can be read over a network by a network administrating computer. The network administrating computer may also read and log status information for each computer.
Though beneficial, a problem with this type of electronic serial number is that each board or "card" within a computer is subject to a certain failure rate and boards within a computer are switched upon the occurrence of a failure and also in response to scheduled maintenance. When the board containing an electronic serial number is switched out of the computer, the unique serial number is lost. Accordingly, a need exists for providing a permanent electronic serial number.
Furthermore, during company audits and similar asset management activities, auditors are often required to crawl behind and below desks and other office equipment to read physical serial numbers. If the permanent electronic serial number is configured in such a manner as to conform with the physical serial number, then these types of audits and related investigations could be done through the network administrating computer.

Self reading permanent electronic label for a computing device


Described is a system and method for displaying flight track data. The system and method include a data feed arrangement to receive target data points from a first data source and a second data source, a data receiving arrangement correlating target data points from the first data source with corresponding target data points received from the second data source, the correlation being based on location and time information in the target data points, a data analyzing arrangement to analyze the target data points and correlated data points and store each target data point and correlating data point in a target flight record, the target flight record corresponding to a target aircraft, a data generation arrangement to generate a flight track for the target aircraft using the data stored in the target flight record, wherein the flight track includes a first portion generated from the first data source and a second portion generated from the correlated target data points and a data distribution arrangement to organize the flight track into a displayable file and distribute the file to users of the system, wherein the displayable file is displayed on a graphical user interface including the flight track information.

There may be multiple reasons for individuals to desire to know the flight paths of aircraft. For example, an individual may notice a plane that is flying a path that is not recognized by the individual (e.g., normally a plane on approach to the airport does not fly directly over the house, etc.). A particular plane may be flying low and causing a noise nuisance and/or the plane may be at or near the normal altitude, but is still causing an excessive amount of noise. A particular plane may make a maneuver that is questioned by the individual. A person may be looking to buy a house in a certain neighborhood and wants to research the flight paths over that neighborhood. These are only a few examples of the usefulness of flight path information and there are many other reasons why the flight paths of planes need to be known to private individuals. In addition, it is difficult to visually ascertain the true altitude and flight path of an aircraft.
However, it is very difficult for individuals to determine information associated with these flight paths even though most of the information associated with the flights is publically available information based on Federal Aviation Administration ("FAA") and airport records. For example, if an individual wanted to make a complaint about noise because of an airplane, the individual generally would like to be able to give some specifics about the airplane such as the general vicinity of the airplane, the altitude, the type of airplane, the airline, etc. But the average person who is not intimately familiar with airplanes and flight information cannot tell this information by looking up at the plane. The individual could go to the airport, the airport authority or the local FAA office and request the records, but this is difficult and time consuming. A simplified manner of tracking flights and flight paths that is available to the general public is needed to address issues such as described above.

Flight track display system using data from a plurality of sources


In an optical recording medium, 4,8-diamino-2-(4-hexyloxyphenyl)-1,5-dihydroxyanthraquinone is used as guest molecules, for an optical recording layer, and a compound expressed by a general formula (1): ##STR1## (where R.sub.1 denotes H or CH.sub.3, R.sub.2 denotes C.sub.2 H.sub.4, C.sub.3 H.sub.6 or C.sub.4 H.sub.8, and n denotes an integer) is used for the host molecules. Since holes are caused in the wavelength region of the semiconductor laser, optical recording can be performed efficiently by using a semiconductor laser.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical recording medium. More particularly, the present invention relates to an optical recording medium for multiple-recording by using photochemical hole burning.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, it is known that information can be recorded in an optical recording medium by using photochemical hole burning (hereinafter referred to as PHB).
An optical recording medium, which has an optical recording layer, employing this PHB method, is used in which host molecules, such as a high polymer, such as polymethyl methacrylate (hereinafter referred to as PMMA), are dissolved in a solvent, such as alcohol, and guest molecules, such as phthalocyanine (hereinafter referred to as H.sub.2 PC) or quinizarin (hereinafter referred to as DAQ), are diffused in a diluted condition, this solvent then being applied to glass or a high polymer film and dried [IBM Journal Research Development (J. RES. DEVLOP.), Vol.26, No. 2, pp.198-207, (March, 1982)].
When the recording medium is maintained at an extremely low temperature, for example, a liquefied helium temperature (4.2 K.), the energy of specific guest molecules is frozen to a specific energy state determined by an interaction with the host molecules specific to the guest molecules, thus permitting their energy state to be distinguished from the energy state of the other guest molecules. As a result, the wavelength position of an absorption spectrum of the specific guest molecules is fixed at a specific position. In this condition, if a light beam of a specific wavelength (.lambda.n) is spread on the recording medium, only the guest molecules having absorption at that wavelength position absorb light and move to another energy state. As a result, the absorbance of the recording layer in the specific wavelength (.lambda.n) is decreased, causing a hole at the position of (.lambda.n) in the spectrum. The use of the presence and absence of this hole as binary coded signals of 0 and 1 permits optical recording (see FIG. 6). If two or more kinds of wavelengths (.lambda.n) of a light beam used for recording are used, recording at each wavelength, that is, what is called multiplerecording in terms of wavelength dimensions, can be performed (see FIG. 7).
However, in the above-described conventional optical recording medium, that is, an optical recording medium in which DAQ or the like is used for guest molecules and PMMA or the like is used for host molecules, the wavelength region of a laser for causing holes does not match a semiconductor laser wavelength region (see FIG. 8). Therefore, a dye laser cannot choose but be used at present. A dye laser is generally large in construction and is not easy to use, and maintenance thereof is not simple.
Therefore, when an optical recording system is constructed, a laser, such as a semiconductor laser which can be easily systemized, should preferably be used.


An automatic ion concentration analyzing apparatus including a plurality of ion concentration measuring cells each having an ion selective electrode and a reference electrode; a single pair of sample suction nozzle and nozzle driving device for picking up the sample to be measured; a sample supplying device for selectively supplying the sample sucked in the nozzle to the ion concentration measuring cells; and calculation and display section, which is commonly used for calculating the ion concentration concerning samples to be measured by comparing the measurement results of electric potentials induced on the ion selective electrode and the reference electrode. In the apparatus according to the invention, although the apparatus can be made small in size, the ion concentration of the samples to be measured can be analyzed in an effective manner.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automatic ion concentration analyzing apparatus for use in quantitative analysis of ion concentration in a sample liquid such as blood and urea. In the apparatus according to the invention, the quantitative analysis of ion concentration is performed with the aid of ion selective electrodes.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a conventional automatic ion concentration analyzing apparatus using ion selective electrodes as an ion concentration measuring element, a single ion selective electrode is used for measuring a concentration of a single kind of ion included in the sample. But, this apparatus has a drawback that an analyzing speed cannot be made fast due to the responding speed of the ion selective electrode. In order to increase the analyzing speed of the ion concentration, an improvement of the apparatus is suggested, in which a plurality of ion selective electrodes are used for measuring the concentration of a single kind of ion included in the sample to be measured. However, since a number of ion concentration measuring systems are required in the improvement of the apparatus, the size of the analyzing apparatus as a whole becomes great.
In Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 62-8523, such an ion concentration analyzing apparatus is disclosed that a plurality of ion concentration measuring cells each comprising an ion selective electrode are provided, but a calculating section for calculating the measuring results measured in the ion concentration measuring cells and a displaying section for displaying the measuring results are commonly used for the plurality of ion concentration measuring systems. That is to say, electric signals supplied from the plurality of ion concentration measuring cells are commonly processed in the commonly used calculating and displaying sections. In the apparatus disclosed in this Japanese Utility Model Publication, although a plurality of ion selective electrodes are used for measuring the concentration of the single kind of ion included in the sample to be measured, it is attempted to make the apparatus as a whole, small in size. However, in the ion concentration analyzing apparatus, the ion concentration measuring section occupies a large capacity and the mechanism is rather more complex than the calculating and displaying sections. That is to say, in the ion concentration measuring section of the apparatus, there are provided not only a plurality of sample suction nozzles but also a plurality of nozzle driving systems for moving the plurality of sample suction nozzles to sample pick up positions, where sample cups each containing a sample to be measured are fed to, and to a nozzle washing section. Further, it is necessary to provide a plurality of sample cup feeding systems for feeding the sample cups to the sample pick up positions. Therefore, the ion concentration analyzing apparatus using a plurality of ion selective electrodes could not help being large in size.

Automatic ion concentration analyzing apparatus


The present invention relates to a microprocessor arrangement for use in a vehicle control system which includes a plurality of microprocessor systems that are linked by bus systems and perform at least anti-lock control (ABS) and/or traction slip control (ASR) and at least one other high-computation control function, such as yaw torque control (GMR), and monitoring functions. The microprocessor arrangement includes three microprocessor systems to which the individual functions are allocated so that the first microprocessor system along with the second microprocessor system performs the ABS and ASR functions, including the monitoring of these functions, and that the third microprocessor system along with the second microprocessor system performs the other control function (GMR), including its monitoring.

The present invention relates to a microprocessor arrangement for use in a complex vehicle control system which includes a plurality of microprocessor systems that are linked by bus systems and perform at least anti-lock control (ABS) and/or traction slip control (ASR) and at least one other high-computation control function, such as yaw torque control (GMR), and monitoring functions, the microprocessor systems including the conditioning of input signals.
Electronic control systems for automotive vehicles become more and more important which relieve the work of the driver and enhance safety and driving stability. This applies, above all, to anti-lock systems (ABS), traction slip control systems (ASR), systems for the electronic control of brake force distribution (EBV), etc. Most recent developments include yaw torque control and driving stability control (GMR and FSR). These are only some examples. Combining a plurality of control systems in a compound unit is also known in the art.
To achieve complex control objectives, microprocessor structures of most different types are employed nowadays. For example, German patent No. 32 34 637 discloses an ABS system with a controller which has two (or more) parallel operating microcontrollers to produce braking pressure control signals. These microcontrollers process like input signals pursuant to an identical computer program. The output signals and, if necessary, also internal signals of the microcontrollers are monitored for coincidence to detect malfunctions in any one of the two controllers. In the event of non-coincidence of the signals which are redundantly processed in the microcontrollers, the electronic control is disconnected to ensure that at least braking without control remains possible.
Further, German patent application No. 41 37 124 discloses a circuit arrangement of this type which has a so-called asymmetrical redundance. The input signals, i.e. the signals produced by wheel sensors and representing the rotational behavior of the wheels, are sent to two parallel microcontrollers, as in the above-mentioned case. However, only one of the two microcontrollers performs the complete control program, while the second microcontroller reproduces the control philosophy in a simplified form or, rather, processes the input signals by way of simplified algorithms, as compared to the main microcontroller. Comparison of the output signals of both microcontrollers will then permit identifying, despite the simplified processing in one of the two microcontrollers, whether data processing is faulty or correct.
When an automotive vehicle control system, for example an ABS/ASR system, is extended by a high-computation driving stability control system (FSR or GMR), it is principally possible to additionally install a complete control system which also includes safety functions. The advantage is that the individual components, i.e., both the previous ABS/ASR system and the driving stability control system, are independent of each other, and that only the affected component will fail when defects or malfunctions occur.
It would, principally, also be possible in a basic structure (ABS/ASR) that is extended by driving stability control to include the additional calculating operations, including the monitoring functions, in the processor structure when microprocessor systems of a sufficient capacity are provided. However, there is the shortcoming that the overall system would have to be disconnected when a defect occurs in one component. Because an overall system of this type is comparatively complex and sophisticated, the occurrence of malfunctions is relatively likely.

Microprocessor arrangement for a vehicle control system


A pulverizing device includes: a housing; a pulverization table configured to rotate inside the housing; and a throat, disposed inside the housing on a radially outer side of the pulverization table, for forming an upward air flow. The throat includes: an inner ring extending along an outer periphery of the pulverization table; an outer ring, disposed on a radially outer side of the inner ring so as to form an annular flow passage between the inner ring and the outer ring; and a plurality of throat vanes disposed between the inner ring and the outer ring. The following expressions are satisfied: 2.0≤L/d≤4.0; and 0.5≤H/d≤1.5, where H is a gap between the inner ring and the outer ring with respect to a radial direction, L is a length of the throat vanes, and ‘d’ is a distance between adjacent two of the throat vanes.

A known pulverizing device pulverizes a to-be-pulverized material, such as a solid fuel, into particles on a pulverization table.
For instance, Patent Documents 1 and 2 disclose a pulverizing device which pulverizes a to-be-pulverized material on a pulverization table with a pulverization roller into pulverized particles, which are then moved upward by primary air (carrier gas) supplied from a throat disposed around the pulverization table to be sent to a classifying part. The classifying part classifies the pulverized particles into coarse particles and micro-particles, and the micro-particles are sent to a consumer.
Patent Document 2 discloses a configuration of a throat for adjusting the flow velocity of carrier gas that blows upward from the throat, to suppress fall of pulverized particles from the throat.

Pulverizing device, throat for pulverizing device, and pulverized-coal fired boiler


An early boot debug system includes a first memory subsystem that includes boot instructions and a processing system that is coupled to the first memory subsystem. The processing system includes a primary processing subsystem, and a secondary processing subsystem that is coupled to the primary processing subsystem and a second memory subsystem. The secondary processing subsystem copies the boot instructions from the first memory subsystem to the second memory subsystem and executes the boot instructions from the second memory subsystem during a boot operation. The secondary processing subsystem then detects a first event during the execution of the boot instructions and, in response, generates a first event information. The secondary processing subsystem stores the first event information in the second memory subsystem to be retrieved on-demand by an administrator.

The present disclosure relates generally to information handling systems, and more particularly to logging early boot event in an information handling system.
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Information handling systems such as, for example, server devices, include boot systems that operate to perform the boot operations that initialize the server device. For example, the boot system in some server devices utilizes a Central Processing Unit (CPU), a Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI) flash memory that is coupled to the CPU via a SPI interface and that stores firmware volumes that may be utilized to provide a Basic Input Output System (BIOS), and a host memory that is coupled to the CPU via a host memory interface. Such boot systems typically perform early boot operations that include the CPU retrieving the firmware volumes from the SPI flash memory via the SPI interface, providing those firmware volumes on the host memory via the host memory interface, and utilizing those firmware volumes to provide a BIOS that is configured to complete the boot operations and initialize the server device so that the server device may enter a runtime state.
Often, prior to the BIOS being provided, the CPU uses a secondary processing system such as, for example, a Secure Processor™ (e.g., a Platform Security Processor™ (PSP)) available from AMD®, a Management Engine™ (ME) manufactured by Intel® Corp. of Santa Clara, Calif., and/or other secure processing systems known in the art to perform the early boot operations before the BIOS is provided by a primary processing system that is configured with the x86 architecture to complete the boot process. These early boot operations include training and initializing memory, identifying and initializing inter-socket links, and/or other security functionality known in the art. Many of the early boot operations may result in events that are performed by the secondary processing system and that may include errors, milestones, and/or other status/event information that may be useful to an administrator. However, it is difficult to capture and/or communicate to an administrator those early boot events that occur during the early boot operations because a very limited number of the server device's resources are available to store and communicate those events.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an early boot event logging system.


A DRAM cell having a bit line constituted by a semiconductor layer. The DRAM cell comprises a semiconductor substrate of a first conductivity type having a main surface, an insulating film formed on the main surface, an opening formed in the insulating film to communicate with the substrate, and a bit line formed by a semiconductor layer of a second conductivity type formed on the insulating film and that portion of the substrate which is exposed through the opening.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device. More particularly, this invention pertains to a semiconductor memory device in which a bit line formed in a memory cell is constituted by a semiconductor layer.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following has been presented as a semiconductor memory device having memory cells with a bit line formed by a semiconductor layer:
A TRENCH TRANSISTOR CROSS-POINT DRAM CELL W. F. RICHARDSON ET AL. IEDM85. p714-p717.
The disclosed DRAM cell has a trench on a silicon substrate, with a storage node formed in the trench. A storage dielectric is formed between the storage node and the substrate. Part of the storage node is connected to the substrate. An insulating film is formed on the exposed face of the storage node to isolate the storage node from a word line. The word line, which is so formed as to come into the trench, serves as a gate to a channel in the substrate along the side wall of the trench. Further, an n.sup.+ type diffused bit line is formed in the direction normal to the plane containing the word line.
With the above structure, as each memory cell is formed at the cross point between the word line and bit line, it is easy to provide high integration of memory cells.
Because of the bit line formed by the n.sup.+ type diffusion layer, however, the following problems would arise:
(1) As the bit line is isolated from the substrate by a pn junction, the capacity of the bit line is large or the capacity of the pn junction is large. This results particularly in a reduction in the speed of an electrical signal traveling through the bit line, slowing the operational speed. Further, the large bit line capacity drops the potential of a minute electric signal flowing across the bit line. This conventional DRAM is not suitable for larger scale integration (16M, 64M, 256M, 1G, . . . ).
(2) Since the isolation of the bit line from the substrate is realized by the pn junction, there is a large junction leak current flowing from the bit line to the substrate. That is, the pn junction reverse current is large. Accordingly, the potential of a minute electric signal flowing across the bit line is likely to change, reducing the reliability, and the conventional DRAM is not suitable for larger scale integration which will surely be realized.
(3) Due to the isolation of the bit line from the substrate by the pn junction, this DRAM has a low resistiveness to a soft error. There is a high probability of .alpha. rays or the like entering particularly the bit line or a high probability of catching carriers ionized by .alpha. rays or the like, so that noise is likely to appear the bit line. In addition, the carriers entering the bit line may easily cause a malfunction (soft error), thus reducing the operational reliability.

Semiconductor memory device having a bit line constituted by a semiconductor layer


A service manager intended to be positioned in a telecommunications network implementing a satellite and one or more user networks, the communication protocol relying on the 3G standard or implementing TFT and PDP rules, comprises at least the following modules: a link configuration module which contains one or more static configurations that can be modified by a user, an external-events manager module, a traffic detector module, a configured-TFTs traffic detector plugin, a TFTs management module, a Secondary PDP context management module.

In telecommunication networks using a satellite, two types of category of services are proposed:                A service of best effort type where the user pays by the Mega byte consumed, but he has no guarantee of quality of service. That is to say if there are many simultaneous uses on the satellite link, quality is greatly degraded. For telephone services over IP (Internet Protocol) or for videoconferencing, this is unacceptable.        A service of streaming type for which the user pays by the duration of connection (very high price), but which, on the other hand, has a guarantee of service which allows it to ensure real-time services, such as voice or video or else priority use of the satellite resource.
These services are currently opened manually as a function of a user's requirement.
A session in the Best Effort mode is initialized for transmissions with no bandwidth guarantee and if a bandwidth guarantee requirement is necessary, then the Best Effort session is stopped in favour of the opening of a "streaming" session. This mode of operation is constraining, in fact imposing that, for reasons of simplicity, the users remain in the Best Effort mode.
Adding to this, it is necessary to choose the size of the streaming that one wishes to open. In the case of Services which may fluctuate (such as telephony for example for which it is difficult to foretell how many people will call, when and for what duration), the resource must remain open almost permanently. This gives rise to unacceptable communication costs (for example, 128-kbps streaming possesses a very high operating cost).
The solutions proposed on the market are:                Either very expensive, since the streaming resource is overdimensioned with respect to the requirement (in terms of connection time and streaming size), therefore with a very high usage cost,        Or of poor quality, by using Best Effort, there is no quality of service; after a few communications, the quality deteriorates significantly.
Moreover, these procedures do not solve, notably, the identification of requirements for implementing the opening and closing of the resources in a dynamic manner.

System for managing the allocation of the resources of a satellite link in a telecommunication network


A road paver includes a screed for applying a material layer to a foundation and a layer thickness detecting device for detecting the thickness of the applied material layer. The layer thickness detecting device includes a first sensor for detecting a first distance from the applied material layer and a second sensor for detecting a second distance from the foundation. The layer thickness detecting device is securely attached to the screed.

In general a road paver on a tracked drive runs on a prepared foundation (road bed) onto which a street surface to be produced or road pavement to be produced is to be applied. As a rule the road pavement is a bituminous material, wherein however layers with sand or stone or concrete layers may also be added in. Provided behind the road paver, in the direction of travel, is a height-adjustable screed, and piled on its front side is a supply of the road paving material that is supplied and distributed by a conveyor device that makes sure that the amount of road paving material kept on the front side of the screed is adequate but is not too much. The height of the rear edge of the screed relative to the surface of the prepared foundation, which may also be formed by an old road pavement covering, establishes the thickness of the street surface produced prior to its subsequent further consolidation by rollers. The screed is held on a tow arm that is borne rotatably movable about a tow point arranged in the center area of the road paver, the height of the screed being determined by a hydraulic adjusting device.
FIG. 1 depicts a known road paver as is described for instance in EP 0 542 297 A1. The road paver overall is labeled 10 and includes a tracked drive 12 with which the road paver 10 travels on the prepared foundation 14. Arranged on the back end of the road paver 10, as seen in the direction of travel, is a height-adjustable screed 16 that is linked to the road paver 10 at a tow point 20 by means of a tow arm 18. Disposed in front of the screed 16 is a supply 22 of the asphalt material, this supply being kept constant essentially across the entire width of the screed 16 using corresponding control, known per se, of the speed of a screw-like conveyor device 24. The screed 16 floats on the asphalt of the road surface to be produced. The thickness of the road surface to be produced prior to its final consolidation by road rollers is adjusted by adjusting the height of the rear edge 26 of the screed 16. This height adjustment is initiated by changing the setting angle of the screed 16, and is typically accomplished by actuating adjusting cylinders that engage at the front ends of the tow arms 18. The road paver includes three ultrasound sensors 28, 30, 32 that are attached to a mount 34. The mount 34 is attached to the tow arm 18. The three ultrasound sensors 28, 30, 32 scan a reference surface that may be formed for instance by an old path of the road cover or by a path of the road cover that has already been produced.
When building a road, it is desirable to measure the produced layer as continuously and in real time as possible. Determining the layer thickness is desired for instance to check the quality of the newly applied road pavement. If the calculated thickness of, for instance, a bituminous layer is too low, there is the risk that the road pavement will break up prematurely, which results in expensive repairs to the road pavement. On the other hand, the layer thickness may be checked with respect to the quantity of material used so that the quantity of material used is not too high, which would lead to increased costs.
Known systems for determining the layer thickness of newly applied road pavement are described for instance in EP 2 535 456 A1, EP 2 535 457 A1, and EP 2 535 458 A1. It is a drawback of these known systems that they are mechanically complex and complicated in terms of signal processing and yet still do not have adequate accuracy when determining the layer thickness.

Road paver having layer thickness detecting device and method


A bus switch is connected among an input buffer memory, a data memory, and an encoding unit, to select between a first bus connection of the input buffer memory and the data memory and a second bus connection of the data memory and the encoding unit. A data transfer control unit controls the bus switch to select the first bus connection in response to a data request signal from the encoding unit, controls the process of reading from the input buffer memory and the process of writing into the data memory, controls the bus switch to select the second bus connection upon completion of the transfer of one unit of image data, and sends a transfer completion signal in order of causing the encoding unit to start performing encoding processing. This makes it possible to transfer image data from the input buffer memory to the data memory at high speed.

This invention relates to an image processor which encodes image data.
In videotelephone, video conference system, or the like over communication line, encoding is an indispensable technology for the transmission of enormous amounts of image data, for communication lines are slow in data transmission. H.261 and H.263, recommendations by ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union--Telecommunication Standardization Sector), have been known as employable encoding systems. Also, other encoding systems named after the experts groups of ISO (International Organization for Standardization) have been known, such as JPEG (Joint Photographic Coding Experts Group) and MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group). JPEG is the international standard for color still picture compression, and MPEG is the international standard for multimedia moving picture compression.
A typical image processor has an input buffer memory formed of an FIFO (first-in first-out) memory for temporarily holding input image data, a data memory formed of a static RAM (SRAM) for storing the image data transferred from the input buffer memory, and an encoding unit for encoding the image data stored in the data memory. For the realization of various encoding systems with a single image processor, the encoding unit is formed of a program-controllable processor and a change in the encoding program executed in the processor is made. The encoding unit repeats an operation of reading image data from the input buffer memory, inputting the image data, and writing the image data to the data memory, whereby the transfer of one unit (for example, one frame) of image data from the input buffer memory to the data memory is carried out. Thereafter, the encoding unit starts encoding the image data stored in the data memory.
It is difficult for the above-described image processor to transfer, at high speed, image data from the input buffer memory to the data memory because such transfer is made by way of the encoding unit.

Image processor capable of transferring image data from an input buffer to memory at a high rate of speed

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A gas turbine stator includes a vane assembly, and a platform that is configured to receive the vane assembly. The vane assembly includes a vane and a cap. The vane extends radially from the cap. The vane includes a pressure side shell and a separate suction side shell.

This invention relates generally to gas turbine engines and more particularly, to apparatus and methods for assembling a vane and platform system.
At least some known combustion turbine engines ignite a fuel-air mixture in a combustor assembly and generate a combustion gas stream that is channeled to a turbine assembly via a hot gas path. Compressed air is channeled to the combustor assembly by a compressor assembly. Combustor assemblies typically include fuel vane assemblies that facilitate fuel and air delivery to a combustion region of the combustor assembly. The turbine assembly converts the thermal energy of the combustion gas stream to mechanical energy that rotates a turbine assembly shaft. The output of the turbine assembly may be used to power a machine, for example, an electric generator or a pump.
Known vane assemblies include a plurality of components manufactured from various materials that are difficult to fabricate. One such material is a laminated ceramic matrix composite. Typically, the laminated ceramic matrix composite has variant laminate thicknesses. Consistent laminate thickness provides for efficient fuel vane assembly operation. In addition, the laminated ceramic matrix composite has a limited ability to attain a relatively small bend radius without cracking. Furthermore, coupling the airfoil slope portion of the vane to the vane platform is a difficult process. A ceramic matrix composite vane can also be difficult to inspect once the vane is installed.
Many known turbine vane assemblies include a variety of components manufactured to interface with the platforms of the gas turbine engine. A laminated ceramic matrix composite vane can be difficult to structurally attach to the platforms of the gas turbine engine if non-integral platforms are used. Interlaminar tension stresses in the fillets exist when transitioning the vane to the platforms if integral platforms are used. Furthermore, a laminated ceramic matrix composite makes controlling resonant frequencies difficult. It is important to minimize the interlaminar stresses by maintaining inplane loading wherever possible.

Apparatus and method for assembling a gas turbine stator


The invention provides a process for the production of charcoal, fuel gas, and potassium from a biomass gassifier.

This invention relates generally to the art of producing charcoal, and secondarily fuel gas, from organic material, and more particularly concerns an apparatus and method in such art which is self-sustaining in operation.
The use, per se, of a pyrolysis process to convert organic material, such as wood chips, to charcoal and fuel gas is well known, and a wide variety of devices have been designed to accomplish such a result. A primary disadvantage of such devices, including those generally referred to as gasifiers, is that a substantial produced charcoal is substantially consumed. A recognized by-product of the pyrolysis process is tar, which affects both the operation of a gasifier and the end use apparatus of the produced fuel gas, such as an internal combustion engine or other burner. The production of tar is discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,268,275 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,421,524 both to Chittick and U.S. Pat. No. 4,530,702 to Fetters et al. The solution regarding tar, disclosed in these patents, included a reaction chamber having a pyrolysis zone followed by a reaction zone comprising a bed of charcoal heated to a high temperature. The high temperature of the charcoal and the catalytic effect of the ash residue on the surface of the hot charcoal break down the tars from the pyrolysis zone into carbon monoxide and hydrogen. The heat for the pyrolysis zone and the reaction zone was provided externally. The issue of minimizing the consumption of charcoal is not addressed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,530,702 to Fetters et al additionally disclose the introduction of steam for increased fuel gas production. The introduction of steam is counterproductive vis-a-vis the production of charcoal increasing the production of carbon fines and production of ash, both having little or no value.
Also noted herein are U.S. Patents to Brioni et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,725,738; to Koslow, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,946,342 and 6,061,384; and Nagle et al, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,051,096 and 6,124,028.
The patents referred to herein are provided herewith in an Information Disclosure Statement in accordance with 37 CFR 1.97.

Method of producing charcoal, conditioned fuel gas and potassium from biomass


Disclosed herein is a method for eliminating the reception interference signal of a Space-Time Block Coded Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (STBC-OFDM) system in a high-speed mobile channel. The method includes the following steps. At the first step, the gain of a channel combined at a receiving end is estimated in the case of using the STBC-OFDM system on a time-varying channel. At the second step, first temporary decision symbols are obtained by performing comparison on the estimated gain. At the third step, second temporary decision symbols are obtained using the first temporary decision symbols. At the fourth step, self-channel interference (SCI) terms are eliminated using the second temporary decision symbols and third temporary decision symbols are obtained. At the fifth step, final data symbols are obtained using the third temporary decision symbols.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method for eliminating a reception interference signal of a space-time block coded orthogonal frequency division-multiplexing system in a high-speed mobile channel and, more particularly, to receiving end and transmitting end technologies that can compensate for self-channel interference that occurs simultaneously with inter-channel interference on a receiver due to the time-varying characteristics of a channel in the case of using space-time block coded orthogonal frequency division-multiplexing in a high-speed mobile environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) is a frequency multiplexing method in which data is split into a plurality of sub-carriers and is transmitted on the sub-carriers. OFDM refers to a frequency multiplexing communication method that is capable of separating sub-carriers on a receiver regardless of the overlap of spectra by imposing a specific orthogonal condition between the frequencies of the sub-carriers.
Meanwhile, in a Space-Time Block Coded Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (STBC-OFDM) system, Inter-Channel Interference (ICI) and Self-Channel Interference (SCI) simultaneously occur due to the time-varying characteristics of channels, so that the magnitude of noise increases, thus increasing a decision-error probability.
The prior art, U.S. Pat. No. 6,442,130, discloses a method for eliminating interference generated in an OFDM system, in which, using a grating array and a Viterbi decoder, a channel is acquired and data symbols are obtained, and then interference is eliminated using the data symbols. However, the prior art requires many devices, including a plurality of signal generation devices and measurement devices, to evaluate the performance of systems using array antennas, which have interference elimination functionality, as receiving antennas, so that the prior art is disadvantageous in that the cost and complexity of equipment increase.
Furthermore, the prior art, U.S. Pat. No. 6,549,581 discloses a method for eliminating interference generated in an OFDM system, in which the interference between channels is eliminated by a multiplication of the data of a single block using a matrix. However, this prior art is a method of eliminating the ICI other than the SCI. In a time-varying channel, the SCI rather than the ICI produces more important distortion in STBC-OFDM, so that this prior art is disadvantageous in that a technique of reducing the SCI rather than the ICI is required to improve the performance of an STBC-OFDM system.

Method for eliminating reception interference signal of space-time block coded orthogonal frequency division-multiplexing system in high-speed mobile channel


A method and system for quantifying the performance of a component adapted to function as a node in a communications network where the component is represented by a virtual distance (x) according to the following formula:

Network technology is spreading rapidly and the amount of systems acting as nodes in a communications network are increasing. The users of these nodes are changing from skilled technicians to computer users in small companies or private users in their homes.
There is an increasing need to provide users with possibilities to evaluate and compare network components without advanced knowledge in network communications.
Manufacturers of components used as nodes in a communications network, such as switches, routers, servers or access points and the like, usually measure performance variables that are considered relevant and list these in data sheets. The variables measured and presented vary from manufacturer to manufacturer, and it is often very hard to compare performance of two components from different manufacturers.
Various benchmarking techniques through which certain aspects of the performance of a network component can be evaluated are known.
Patent publication WO 02 51181 A1 shows a benchmark testing a network node in a radio communication network. The testing of the node pertains to load and stress testing.
Patent publication EP 0 849 911 A2 shows a method of monitoring a communications network comprising a plurality of node equipment.
The publication "Wireless LAN Access Points as Queuing Systems: Performance Analysis and Service Time", by A1 Khatib et al, published 18 Dec. 2002, shows a way to measure various parameters of an access point in a communications network.

Method and system for quantifying the performance of network component

Abstract: x  =                    S                  i          +          1                    -              S        i              IS  where the virtual distance x is a representation of a metric that relates to intrinsic properties of the component.


An electrophotographic apparatus using a liquid developer of the present invention includes a photosensitive member which holds an electrostatic latent image, a plurality of developing unit which supply liquid developers including toner particles and carrier liquid to the photosensitive member to form a visible image, a visible image stabilizing unit which enhances adsorption among toners constituting the visible image on the photosensitive member and between the toners and the photosensitive member by an electric field, a drying unit which dries the visible image formed on the photosensitive member, a periphery of the visible image, or the carrier liquids included in the visible image by an air current, and a shielding unit which is disposed between the drying unit and the visible image stabilizing unit and which prevents deposits attached to the photosensitive member surface together with liquid droplets of the carrier liquid existing on the photosensitive member surface from reaching the visible image stabilizing mechanism.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrophotographic apparatus using a liquid developer, a carrier liquid removal mechanism which removes a carrier liquid especially from an image before transfer, and an image forming method.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electrophotographic apparatus using a liquid developer has advantages which cannot be realized by a dry electrophotographic apparatus, and has been evaluated again in recent years. For example, major advantages of liquid process electrophotography in contrast to the dry process are as follows. Since an extremely fine toner having a sub-micron size is usable, high image quality can be realized. Since a sufficient image density is obtained by a small amount of toner, the apparatus is economical, and a quality equivalent to that of printing (e.g., offset printing) can be realized. Furthermore, since the toner can be fixed to a sheet at a comparatively low temperature, energy saving can be realized.
In the liquid process electrophotographic apparatus using a pressure transfer, it is necessary to remove an excess carrier liquid (solvent) from the inside and the vicinity of the visible image formed on a photosensitive member. For example, in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2002-278302, a drying device has been proposed which has two or more nozzles capable of blowing air, along the surface of the photosensitive member and which blows the air onto the surface of the photosensitive member at a predetermined speed to thereby dry excess carrier liquid.
However, in the drying device proposed in the Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2002-278302, which blows the air along the surface of the photosensitive member to dry the excess carrier liquid, problems occur in many cases that the carrier liquid conveyed together along the surface of the photosensitive member drip and generate image dirt on output images or pollute other elements disposed around the photosensitive member and the inside of the apparatus.

Image forming apparatus using a liquid developer in which carrier liquid backflow is inhibited


An interactive exercise apparatus engages a user's mind and body. The apparatus comprises an exercise mechanism, a steering mechanism, and a control mechanism for manipulation by the user to achieve exercise, to indicate a direction of motion, and to interact with virtual objects in a simulated environment. The exercise mechanism can be, for example, the steps of a stair climbing simulator or the pedals of a bicycle, preferably a recumbent bicycle. A simulated environment (e.g., an interactive simulated three-dimensional environment or an interactive simulated three-dimensional fluid environment) is generated by a computer and displayed on a display system for the user. In one embodiment, the simulated environment comprises an enclosed space representing a game field. In this embodiment, an interactive competitive ball game is played using networked exercise apparatus. The user manipulates the exercise mechanism, the steering mechanism, and the control mechanism to travel throughout the game field and interact with virtual objects to score points. The computer controls the exercise mechanism and monitors the exercise mechanism, the steering mechanism, and the control mechanism to determine user position and the position of virtual objects in the simulated environment. The display provides a visual display of the user's position and the position of virtual objects in the simulated environment. A plurality of the interactive exercise apparatus can be networked together to allow group participation and competition in the simulated game.

It is known that physical fitness is of prime importance to many people. Historically, people have been able to maintain an acceptable level of fitness simply due to their everyday lives. As lifestyles have become progressively more sedentary, people have been forced to seek exercise in other ways.
A portion of society keeps in shape by participating in group exercise events such as tennis, hockey, or basketball games. Such games are forms of "fun exercise" in that participants often take part in such events because they simply enjoy the games or the competition and not solely for the purpose of fitness. However, it is often difficult to coordinate the people and facilities required for many recreational and team sports. Individual sports such as bicycling, running, and swimming are viable alternatives in that they allow for flexible schedules. Some of the disadvantages to these sports are that they are location and weather dependent.
A large segment of society finds it easier and more convenient to go to health clubs or to use home exercise equipment to exercise. Health clubs have extended hours and a wide range of fitness equipment that allows workout schedules to be flexible and workouts to be quick. Current exercise equipment unfortunately makes working out a chore that is tolerated due to the importance of cardiovascular (aerobic) fitness.
Exercise equipment generally falls into two categories: strength and aerobic. Strength equipment includes traditional free weights as well as machines on which the weight is not directly attached to the lifting bars. The user lifts the weights in different ways to strengthen various muscle groups. Aerobic machines improve the user's cardiovascular system and tone muscles rather than building muscles and strength. Aerobic equipment includes exercise cycles, treadmills, and stair climbers. Typically, the required speed or resistance can be varied during a workout A control panel equipped with a set of light emitting diodes (LEDs) may be provided to depict the routine as a histogram. An average workout lasts approximately 20 minutes. Biomechanical feedback such as calories burned may also be displayed on the control panel.
Most conventional ways of exercising generally are not fun or engaging. A need exists for exercise equipment which makes workouts more enjoyable and fun and which entices more people to exercise.


A method is provided for customizing the speaking style of a speech synthesizer. The method includes: receiving input text; determining semantic information for the input text; determining a speaking style for rendering the input text based on the semantic information; and customizing the audible speech output of the speech synthesizer based on the identified speaking style.

The present invention relates generally to text-to-speech synthesis, and more particularly, to a method for customizing the speaking style of a speech synthesizer based on semantic analysis of the input text.
Text-to-speech synthesizer systems convert character-based text into synthesized audible speech. Text-to-speech synthesizer systems are used in a variety of commercial applications and consumer products, including telephone and voicemail prompting systems, vehicular navigation systems, automated radio broadcast systems, and the like.
Prosody refers to the rhythmic and intonational aspects of a spoken language. When a human speaker utters a phrase or sentence, the speaker will usually, and quite naturally, place accents on certain words or phrases, to emphasize what is meant by the utterance. In contrast, text-to-speech synthesizer systems can have great difficulty simulating the natural flow and inflection of the human-spoken phrase or sentence. Consequently, text-to-speech synthesizer systems incorporate prosodic analysis into the process of rendering synthesizer speech. Although prosodic analysis typically involves syntax assessments of the input text at a very granular level (e.g., at a word or sentence level), it does not involve a semantic assessment of the input text.
Therefore, it is desirable to provide a method for customizing the speaking style of a speech synthesizer based on semantic analysis of the input text.

Customizing the speaking style of a speech synthesizer based on semantic analysis

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


The present invention relates to an inspection system for transparently taking an image of inside of a semiconductor device to analyze anomalous occurrence. First, image data obtained under infrared ray illumination are converted into a first left-to-right reversed image data in which the obtained image data are reversed left to right and the first left-to-right reversed image data are stored. Next, very weak light emitted from an anomalous portion when the semiconductor device is biased is picked up under no illumination. Then, image data of very weak light is converted into a second left-to-right reversed image data in which the image data of weak light are reversed left to right. The first and second left-to-right image data are superimposed to superimpose the image specifying the anomalous location on an image of chip patterns in the semiconductor device and the superimposed image is displayed. Further, in the infrared-ray epi-irradiation means, an optical filter made of the same material as that of the semiconductor device to be measured is used to form infrared rays for illumination, so that when the back surface of the semiconductor device is irradiated with infrared rays produced by the optical filter, light having a short wavelength which is easily reflected on the surface of the semiconductor device is interrupted and infrared rays having high transmittance against the semiconductor device can be obtined.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device inspection system for analyzing anomalous occurrences inside a semiconductor device and for evaluating reliability of a semiconductor device, and more particularly to a semiconductor device inspection system for transparently taking an image of inside of a semiconductor device.
2. Related Background Art
As a semiconductor device is highly integrated, e.g., VLSI, difficulty of anomaly analysis and reliability evaluation of internal circuits of the semiconductor device is increased.
In such present condition, much attention is focused on the analysis technology to track down the location of an anomalous portion by detecting very weak light emitted from the anomalous portion in semiconductor device. An emission microscope is known as a semiconductor device inspection apparatus utilizing such analysis technology.
The emission microscope picks up very weak light caused by hot carriers, which are produced when an electric field is concentrated on an anomalous portion in semiconductor device, or very weak light in the infrared region caused by latchup. Therefore, the emission microscope can measure a semiconductor device to be checked without contact and with high accuracy.
However, the emission microscope has such a problem that since it detects emitted light in the visible to infrared region, it could become incapable of measuring emitted light if there would exist some shielding object between an anomalous portion emitting very weak light and the emission microscope.
In particular, in order to make a semiconductor device being highly integrated, semiconductor devices tend to employ the chip structure in which interconnection between numerous elements such as transistors is made by multilayer wiring located on the top surface. The multilayer wiring interrupts the very weak light caused by an anomaly of an element underneath the multilayer wiring, which caused a problem of inability of measurement or not permitting high-accuracy measurement. In semiconductor devices to which the so-called Lead On Chip packaging structure is applied, a lead frame covers the top surface of the semiconductor chip. For such devices, similarly to the case of the multilayer wiring, the lead frame will be a shielding object and interrupt the very weak light, resulting in inability of measurement or not permitting high-accuracy measurement.
Further, there is another problem in applications of the emission microscope. For example, it is known as an observing method that a top surface of a plastic mold is chemically removed, e.g., by fuming nitric acid to expose the surface of semiconductor chip and when a predetermined bias power source is connected to a lead frame to supply power to internal circuits of the semiconductor chip, very weak light is emitted from an anomalous portion, which is observed from the top surface of the semiconductor chip. However, when the plastic mold is chemically removed, e.g., by fuming nitric acid, the circuit patterns or others inside the semiconductor chip could be damaged, which could hinder observation of an anomalous portion to be observed originally.
To solve these problems of emission microscopes, a semiconductor device inspection system (Japanese Patent Application No. HEI 5-177957 (177957/1993)) was developed. This inspection system is to illuminate the back surface of a semiconductor device, that is, the back surface where shielding objects such as multilayer wiring of the semiconductor chip are not formed, by an infrared-ray epi-illumination means and to take an optical image reflected and transmitted through the semiconductor chip. Therefore, an observed image specifying an anomalous location in the semiconductor chip can be obtained. However, even with this semiconductor device inspection system, still there were problems to be solved, e.g., large noise components, in order to obtain a clearer image.


A system or method for granular application data lifecycle sourcing from a single backup is disclosed. In one embodiment of the method, a computer system periodically creates a primary backup copy of data stored on a storage system in order to create a plurality of primary backup copies. The computer system also periodically creates a secondary backup copy of data stored on the storage system in order to create a first plurality of secondary backup copies, wherein each of the secondary backup copies of the first plurality is created in part by copying data from a respective one of the primary backup copies. The periodicity of creating the primary backup copies, however, is distinct from the periodicity of creating the secondary backup copies of the first plurality.

Businesses and other entities store data objects (e.g., image files, text files, databases, directories, etc.) on memory media such as hard disks. The present invention will be described with reference to files, it being understood that the term data object should not be limited thereto. Files, however, are subject to hardware failures, software errors, or human errors. Hardware failures can range from the failure of a single hard disk to the destruction of an entire data center, making some or all data objects unrecoverable. Software failures are bugs or procedural errors in, for example, an application that corrupts the contents of its data. User errors include errors such as inadvertent deletion or overwriting of files that are later required. These failures and errors has motivated the concept of creating backups of files on separate memory media (e.g. magnetic tapes).
Mirroring and replication technology can be configured to provide good protection against failures and errors. But these technologies will also write data corrupted by software or human errors every bit as reliably as they write correct data, and they faithfully record, for example, the file system or database metadata updates that result from a user's mistaken deletion of an important file on all mirrors or replicas. Because they are optimized to serve different purposes, mirroring and replication technologies have different goals than backup. Mirroring and replication attempt to preserve the bit-for-bit state of files as they change, while backup attempts to preserve the state of the files as of some past point-in-time at which the files were known to be consistent. Mirrors or replicas keep the contents of all replicated devices or files identical to each other. Backup however, does something quite different: it captures an image of files at an instant in the past, so that if need be, everything that has happened to the files since that instant can be forgotten, and the state of operations can be restored to that instant.

Granular application data lifecycle sourcing from a single backup


The disclosed cleaning device has a suction unit that can be used to take in liquid, a tank that can be used to hold the liquid, a mouth that can be used to pour liquid from the tank, and wheels that form a base. It also has a pivot that can be used to rotate the tank between a normal use position and a pouring position. The pivot is arranged so that in the pouring position, the center of gravity of the unit remains within the horizontal range of the base, even as the mouth of the tank falls outside the horizontal range of the base. As shown, the pivot is 12 inches above the floor and within the horizontal range of the base. In this position, it remains laterally between the center of gravity of the tank and the edge of the base when the tank is emptied.

The present invention relates generally to cleaning devices, and more particularly to cleaning devices that can take in liquid; devices such as wet/dry vacuums. Wet/dry vacuums include a tank that can be used to hold the liquid, and often have a mouth that can be used to pour liquid from the tank.
When filled with liquid, the tank in a wet/dry vacuum can be heavy. For large units, such as those for heavy-duty use in commercial or industrial settings, the weight can make it difficult to unload the tank.
Heavy-duty wet-dry vacuums are sometimes mounted on carts. For ease of emptying, tilt bars are sometimes provided on the cart. The tilt bar provides a support that can be used to help tilt the tank for emptying.
The use of a tilt bar can be awkward. Generally, when emptying a tank, it is desirable to position the mouth of the tank outside the base of the unit so that the liquid pours into another receptacle, rather than onto the base of unit itself. When using conventional tilt bars, the tank can sometimes flip over the tilt bar, or the cart itself can tip over. Both are usually undesirable.


An image display device includes a display panel module, a middle frame which places the display panel module thereon, and an upper frame which is engaged with a side face of the middle frame in a state where the upper frame covers a periphery of the display panel module, wherein the engaging portion includes projecting portions on a side face of the middle frame, each projecting portion being smoothly raised in the direction opposite to the display panel module and forming a sharp stepped portion which follows a raised portion, and pawl portions which are formed on portions of the upper frame which face the projecting portions, the pawl portions being bent along side faces of the stepped portions of the projecting portions and, thereafter, being bent such that the pawl portions extend while having arcuate face which has a center thereof in the vicinity of bent portions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image display device, and more particularly to an image display device which forms an image display panel and the like into a module using a frame.
2. Description of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display device is, for example, configured such that a backlight unit is arranged on a back face of a liquid crystal display panel and these components are formed into a module using an upper frame, a lower frame and the like.
The upper frame constitutes a frame which covers a periphery of the liquid crystal display panel while exposing a liquid crystal display part of the liquid crystal display panel and engages with the lower frame (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 2001-33764, FIG. 2).
Further, the lower frame usually constitutes a portion of the backlight unit, wherein a plurality of fine line-shaped lamps and a reflector which reflects light from these lamps to the liquid crystal display panel side are provided in the inside of the lower frame which is formed in a box shape (for example, see Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication 2002-55329, FIG. 1 and FIG. 3).