A signal processing circuit includes an ion sensitive field effect transistor, a reference electrode for the ion sensitive field effect transistor, a metal oxide semiconductor transistor having its gate coupled to the reference electrode, and a biasing circuit. The biasing circuit is configured to bias the ion sensitive field effect transistor and the metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistor to operate in a weak inversion region and to provide an output current signal.

The ion-sensitive field effect transistor (ISFET) is based on a MOSFET with a remote gate (or "reference electrode") lying beneath a chemically-sensitive insulator. The surface of the insulator is exposed to an electrolyte upon which measurements are to be made. A typical ISFET use scenario is illustrated in FIG. 1. Field effects from ionic charge interaction at the insulator surface cause shifts in the ISFET drain current vs gate to source voltage (ID-VGS) characteristic as illustrated in FIG. 2. The insulator in contact with the electrolyte is chosen according to its chemical properties and sensitivity to a particular ion.
For ISFETs designed to measure the pH of an electrolyte, i.e. the H+ ion content of the electrolyte, silicon nitride and aluminium oxide membranes are commonly used to insulate the gate. ISFETs can be made sensitive to ions other than H+ through the choice of the ion-sensitive membrane, thus adding an element of ion-selectivity. ISFETs whose membrane is modified to be selective to a particular ionic species are known as ChemFETs, with a further variation, known as EnFETs, using enzymes in close proximity to the membrane surface. It has also been shown that even conventional pH-ISFETs with unmodified Si3N4 membranes exhibit a limited but measurable sensitivity to K+ and Na+ ions. This said, practical and commercial applications of the ISFET for applications other than pH sensing are rare. Nonetheless, in the following discussion, the term ISFET is used both specifically to refer to a pH sensor and generally to refer to all ion and enzyme sensitive FETs operating on similar principles.
The attractiveness of ISFETs and their FET-based counterparts is that they are compatible with the standard fabrication processes used to mass produce computer chips and can therefore be reliably and cost-effectively produced. Importantly, processing circuitry can be integrated onto the same chip as the ISFET device itself. The integration of intelligent circuitry with the sensing device itself is what is required for the development of so-called "smart sensors" which require robustness to non-ideal sensing conditions, as well as to provide electronics to discriminate between chemicals "on-chip".
The normal operating mode of an ISFET is the strong inversion region of the ID-VGS characteristic. In this region, the gate to source voltage exceeds the threshold voltage VTH, resulting in a strong inversion of the channel underlying the gate. For this mode of operation, drain current is related to the gate voltage by a square law or linear relationship.
Referring again to FIG. 1, any voltage applied to the reference electrode of an ISFET is capacitively-coupled via the electrolyte to the insulator surface, where a pH-dependent charge from ions on this interface modulates the channel current, causing the observed shifts in the ISFET transfer characteristic, thereby modulating its threshold voltage Vth. Assuming that the ISFET is operated in the constant drain current mode, with a constant drain-source voltage, the gate to source voltage directly reflects the pH-sensitive interfacial potential at the gate interface, that is:pH=pHcal+Vgs/S,  (1)where pHcal is the pH of a calibration liquid at 37° C. and S is the pH sensitivity of the ISFET. The derivation of this relationship is detailed further in "ISFET, Theory and Practice", P. Bergveld, IEEE Sensor Conference, Toronto, October 2003. However, this approach assumes a constant temperature, and in any practical approach temperature compensation must be applied.
The conventional approach to compensating measurements for temperature effects is to model the temperature dependence of a system, measure the temperature in parallel with the pH, and correct the measured pH on the basis of the model and the measured temperature. Whilst effective, this approach has a number of disadvantages. Firstly, it relies upon the provision of a temperature sensor, typically comprising a temperature sensitive resistor integrated onto the same chip as the ISFET. Secondly, processing power must be provided to perform the correction. Thirdly, the process of correcting the measured pH values takes time. In a typical system, pH and temperature values are converted into their digital equivalents, prior to carrying the further processing with a microprocessor or CPU. If necessary, digital control outputs are converted into analogue equivalents prior to application to a device to be controlled.
It has long been recognised that a key area in which ISFETs can be applied is that of implantable and wearable sensors. The requirements of conventional ISFET design outlined in the previous paragraph do not sit well with such sensors which require to be small, to consume low levels of power, and to be extremely accurate. Especially where the sensors form part of a control loop, e.g. controlling a drug delivery system, they must also be extremely accurate.

Signal processing circuit comprising ion sensitive field effect transistor and method of monitoring a property of a fluid


An internet protocol address converting apparatus has an address acquiring unit for acquiring a first private IP address in a first IP address format by connecting to a DHCP server that dynamically allots the IP address, and also acquiring a second private IP address for the second terminal; a network address providing unit for allotting the second terminal with a network address to generate a global IP address; a storing unit for storing a mapping table, the mapping table saving the second private IP address of the second terminal and the global IP address; an address converting unit for converting the second private IP address into the global IP address; and a control unit for performing an announcing, requesting a registration of the second terminal to a master server.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an apparatus for converting an Internet protocol address for exclusive use in a home network system and a home network system using the same, and more particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus for converting an Internet protocol address for exclusive use in a home network that is capable of providing a service for achieving a communication between an IPv4 terminal using an Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) as a communication protocol and an IPv6 terminal using Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) as a communication protocol, and a home network system using the same. This application claims priority from Korean Patent Application No. 2002-0005227, filed on Jan. 29, 2002, which Korean Application is incorporated herein in full by reference.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Internet Protocol (IP) is one of the most generally known protocols used for the network layer of TCP/IP communication. The IP is the addressing service provided by a network layer of third layer of Open Systems Interconnection model, which designates a plurality of nodes connected to the network as a destination to perform communication. Among the IPs that are currently available, the most popular one is the Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4). The IPv4 uses an IP address of 32 bits.
With the ever-growing number of users, computers are now becoming a necessity in people's daily lives. The number of addresses of Internet users has been exploding, while the IPv4 IP address format of 32 bits hardly satisfies such continuously growing demands. In an attempt to solve this problem, IPv6 has been developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) as the next generation Internet Protocol.
The IPv6 uses the address format of 128 bits. The IPv6 not only extends the number of IP addresses, but also reduces costs for broadband width and processing of a common header, as it is capable of simplifying the common header format. Also, by adopting a concept of 'flow label,' IPv6 enables efficient real-time processing of multimedia data. Moreover, the IPv6 provides much strengthened security functions like verification, faultless data, airtight data, etc.
The Internet communication infrastructure used for the IPv4 is also used for the IPv6. Accordingly, in order to accomplish a communication between the IPv4 terminal and the IPv6 terminal, an IPv4-IPv6 converter that connects the IPv4 net and the IPv6 net is necessary.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing network system using a conventional IPv4-IPv6 converter. Referring to FIG. 1, conventionally, the IPv4 network 20 and the IPv6 network 40 are connected by the IPv4-IPv6 converting device 10. The IPv4 network 20 is connected with an IPv4 terminal 31, a domain name service version 4 server (DNSv4) 33, and a dynamic host configuration protocol version 4 server 35 (DHCPv4). The DNSv4 server 33 manages the domain name information within the IPv4 network 20. The DHCPv4 server 35 dynamically allots the IPv4 address to the IPv4 terminal 31 that is connected to the IPv4 network 20.
The IPv6 network 40 is connected to an IPv6 terminal 51, a DNSv6 server 53 and a DHCPv6 server 55. The DNSv6 server 53 manages the domain name information within the IPv6 network 40. The DHCPv6 server 55 dynamically allots the IPv6 address to the IPv6 terminal 51 that is connected to the IPv6 network 40.
The communication operation between the IPv4 terminal 31 and the IPv6 terminal 51 will be described below.
First, the IPv4 terminal 31 makes a query to the DNSv4 server 33 for an IPv4 address that corresponds to the domain name of the IPv6 terminal 51. The DNSv4 server 33 provides the IPv4-IPv6 converting device 10 with the information about the requested IPv4 address that corresponds to the domain name of the IPv6 terminal 51. The sender address is the IPv4 address of the DNSv4 server 33, while the destination address is the IPv4 address of the IPv4-IPv6 converting device 10. The IPv4-IPv6 converting device 10 converts the IPv4 address of the sender, i.e., of the DNSv4 server 33 into the IPv6 address. At this time, the IPv4-IPv6 converting device 10 converts the IPv4 address of the DNSv4 server 33 into the IPv6 address by adding a prefix to the IPv4 address of the DNSv4 server 33. The IPv4-IPv6 converting device 10 also has the IPv6 address of the DNSv6 server 53 that manages the domain information of the terminal like the IPv6 terminal 51 that is connected to the IPv6 network 40. Accordingly, the IPv4-IPv6 converting device 10 is connected to the DNSv6 server 53 and requests the IPv6 address corresponding to the domain name of the IPv6 terminal 51. The sender address is the IPv6 address of the DNSv4 server 33, while the destination address is the IPv6 address of the DNSv6 server 53.
The IPv6 address corresponding to the domain name of the IPv6 terminal 51 being requested, the DNSv6 server 53 extracts the IPv6 address from a stored table and provides the IPv4-IPv6 converting device 10 with the extracted information. The IPv4-IPv6 converting device 10 converts such received IPv6 address of the IPv6 terminal 51 into the IPv4 address, and provides the DNSv4 server 33 with such converted IPv4 address of the IPv6 terminal 51. The DNSv4 server 33 provides the IPv4 terminal 31 with such received IPv4 address of the IPv6 terminal 51. Accordingly, the IPv4 terminal 31 is enabled to find out the IPv4 address that corresponds to the domain name of the IPv6 terminal 51.
Provided with the IPv4 address corresponding to the domain name of the IPv6 terminal 51, the IPv4 terminal 31 sends a communication request signal with the IPv6 terminal 51 to the IPv4-IPv6 converting device 10. The sender address is the IPv4 address of the IPv4 terminal 31, while the destination address is the IPv4 address of the IPv6 terminal 51. When the IPv4 terminal sends the control information to the terminal in the IPv6 network 40, a mapping table within the converting device 10 is searched. If there is an IPv6 terminal 51 registered for the IPv4 address, i.e., the destination address, there is no need to perform the converting process additionally. With the address of IPv6 system with respect to the IPv4 terminal 31 and the IPv6 terminal 51, the IPv4-IPv6 converting device 10 sends a connection request signal from the IPv4 terminal 31 to the IPv6 terminal 51. With the address conversion by the IPv4-IPv6 converting device 10, the IPv4 terminal 31 and the IPv6 terminal 51 communicates with each other.
FIG. 2 is a view showing one example in which the network system using the IPv4-IPv6 converting device 10 of FIG. 10 is used in the home network system. The IPv4-IPv6 converting device 10 as used in the home network is called a home-only IP address converting device. However, it will be understood by those of ordinary skill in the art that the devices, systems and methods disclosed herein are not restricted to use In a home. Rather, what is intended is any application, including an office, vehicle, school, or other such environment, for which the devices, systems and method herein disclosed are suitable.
Hereinbelow, the communication operation between the IPv4 terminal 31, namely, a personal computer 31a and a refrigerator 31b and the IPv6 terminal 51, namely, a digital television 51a and a laptop computer 51b.
Based on the services provided by the DNSv4 server 33 and the DHCPv4 server 35, the personal computer 31a and the refrigerator 31b perform a communication with the devices within the IPv4 network 20a. Also, based on the services provided by the DNSv6 server 53 and the DHCPv6 server 55, the digital television 51a and the laptop computer 51b perform the communication with the devices within the IPv6 network 40a.
Meanwhile, in order to achieve a home networking among the communicable devices within the home network, the home network system is provided with a master server 37. The master server 37 manages and registers the registration information of the devices of the home network. The registration information may not necessary include additional information about IP address, as it will become known through a FPC communication.
The conventional home network system requires the IPv4-IPv6 converting device 10 that provides a converting service of converting the IP address formats for a communication between the IPv4 terminal 31 and the IPv6 terminal 51. By the services provided by the IPv4-IPv6 converting device 10, communication among the personal computer 31a and the refrigerator 31b, and the digital television 51a and the laptop computer 51b is enabled. In order to apply the IPv4 terminal 31 and the IPv6 terminal 51 in the home network system, the home network requires the DNSv4 server 35 and the DHCPv4 server 35 that provide the IPv4 terminal of the home network with the IP address and the domain name, and also the DNSv6 server 53 and the DHCPv6 server 55 that provide the IPv6 terminal of the home network with the EP address and the domain name, which generates inconvenient jobs such as system establishment, etc.
There is another problem that the services of the DNSv6 server 53 and the DHCPv6 server 55 become redundant with respect to the services of the DNSv4 server 33 and the DHCPv4 server 35. Also, in order for the IPv4 terminal 31 and the IPv6 terminal 51 to communication with each other, the IPv4 terminal 31 and the IPv6 terminal 51 have to use the services of the DNSv4 server 33 and the DHCPv4 server 35 and the DNSv6 server 53 and the DHCPv6 server 55. Accordingly, communication among the IPv4 terminal 31 and the IPv6 terminal 51 sometimes causes overload in the operation of the respective servers 33, 35, 53, 55.
Also, since the conventional home network requires the installation of all of the DNSv4 server 33, the DHCPv4 server 35, the DNSv6 server 53 and the DHCPv6 server 55 therein, a problem of taking too much space arises.

Apparatus for converting internet protocol address and home network system using the same


A directional bridge coupler includes a coaxial balun having a coaxial cable with a plurality of ferrite beads disposed about an outer conductor of the coaxial cable, and a circuit substrate accommodating a directional bridge coupled to an output of the coaxial bridge. A conductive package having an internal cavity houses the circuit substrate and the coaxial balun. A polyiron saddle straddles a portion of the coaxial balun within the internal cavity of the conductive package.

Couplers play an important role in network measurement systems. In addition to providing connections between a network measurement system and a device under test (DUT), couplers provide the important function of separating incident and reflected waves for network measurements. A measure of this separation between incident and reflected waves, referred to as directivity, influences the measurement accuracy of the network measurement system. Higher directivity generally increases measurement accuracy. Directivity is an especially important performance measure of a coupler when measuring DUTs that have impedance-matched ports and attenuation losses that result in reflected waves that have low magnitudes.
One known type of coupler, shown in the schematic diagram of FIG. 1, is a directional bridge. The directional bridge is commonly used in network measurement systems, such as scalar and vector network analyzers. While the directional bridge provides excellent low frequency performance, important performance parameters of the directional bridge such as directivity, coupling, insertion loss, and isolation, degrade above approximately nine gigahertz, as shown in the response plot of FIG. 2. Thus, the directional bridge, which has excellent performance at low operating frequencies, has poor performance at high operating frequencies.
In contrast to the directional bridge, wherein various signal paths have physical connections to each other, a proximity coupler includes coupled transmission lines that are physically separated. Physical separation between the coupled transmission lines causes this type of coupler to have a low-frequency operating limit of approximately ten megahertz. While proximity couplers generally have poor performance at low frequencies, proximity couplers can be designed to have high-frequency operating limits that exceed twenty gigahertz.
In many types of network measurement systems, there is a need for couplers that have high directivity and relatively flat coupling over a wide frequency range. For example, a network analyzer may have an operating frequency range that spans from several hundred kilohertz at the lower operating frequency limit, to twenty gigahertz at the upper operating frequency limit. To achieve such a wide operating frequency range, commercially available network measurement systems typically use a proximity coupler and a directional bridge connected in a parallel, switched arrangement, wherein a switch selects between the two different types of couplers according to the operating frequency of the network measurement system. However, this switched arrangement is cumbersome since it requires the two couplers, the switch, and a control signal to set the position of the switch. The switch also has the disadvantage of introducing power losses at the test ports of the network measurement system, which can reduce the measurement sensitivity of the network measurement system within which the switched coupler arrangement is included.


Disclosed herein are methods, systems, and devices for reducing user effort for sensor provisioning. In one embodiment, a system includes one or more processors and one or more memories including program instructions. The program instructions when executed are configured for receiving and storing initial sensor provisioning instructions from a graphical user interface (GUI) and provisioning a first plurality of sensors using the initial sensor provisioning instructions.

With the recent growth in the Internet of Things (IoT), wireless sensor capabilities continue to improve with reduced costs. For environmental monitoring of large indoor areas, wireless sensor networks provide a cost effective method with minimal cabling infrastructure. Battery powered sensors, such as temperature and/or humidity sensors, may be networked using standardized wireless protocols to a centralized monitoring system. Environmental control systems for these areas may then be optimized using the centralized monitoring system.
However, provisioning these sensors for installation into large and dense sensor networks requires a significant human effort. Current methods are primarily based on manual solutions with a combination of some geographic information system (GIS) program and/or computer aided design (CAD) program to create geometries within the programs. These geometries are then exported and the provisioning data is manually generated. Other solutions include web-based programs that export an indoor map of a facility to be monitored. A user on the backend will manually mark different areas in a CAD program and then represent that imagery on a read-only interface for provisioning. The process involves close interaction with CAD teams and sensor installer teams.
As such; devices, systems and methods are needed to reduce the labor intensive effort of provisioning sensors for large and/or densely populated sensor networks.

Device, system, and method for sensor provisioning


A transmitting apparatus includes multiple antennas between which an antenna interval is variable; and a transmitter that transmits a pilot signal using an antenna selected from among the antennas and based on a correlation value representing correlation between the antennas.

In a synchronous communication system that synchronizes a transmission-side unit and a reception-side unit, the transmission-side unit transmits a pilot signal (reference signal (RS)) from each transmission antenna and the reception-side unit carries out a process of estimating a propagation path based on the RS. In recent years, a method of using multiple antennas, such as Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO), has been proposed for radio communication. According to this method, an RS is transmitted from each transmission antenna to acquire a propagation path for each antenna. In this case, when an RS is transmitted from a given antenna, other antennas are not allowed to transmit signals. As the number of transmission antennas increases, therefore, overhead for transmission of RSs other than data increases, which leads to a decline in transmission efficiency.
To reduce the volume of RS transmissions, a method has been conceived, according to which some antennas among multiple antennas transmit RSs. For example, when transmission-side antennas are close to each other over an extremely small interval, the correlation between propagation paths is large. For this reason, the transmission-side unit transmits RSs from some antennas and the reception-side unit estimates propagation paths for antennas other than the antennas having transmitted the RSs by an interpolating process. This method is known as a method for improving data transmission efficiency (see, e.g., Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2007-089113).
When the transmission-side unit is a small-sized mobile terminal, antennas are installed in a limited space and the interval between the antennas tends to be narrower. In such a case, the above method of culling RSs is considered to be effective. However, for some mobile terminals, a variation in the shape of the terminal results in a variation in the intervals between antennas. For example, in a case of a foldable mobile terminal or slidable mobile terminal, the distance between antennas when the terminal is closed is different from that when the terminal is opened. Consequently, the correlation between the antennas varies depending on whether the terminal is opened or closed. For example, opening the mobile terminal widens the antenna interval, thus reducing the correlation, while closing the terminal narrows the antenna interval, thus increasing the correlation. For this reason, in the case of a mobile terminal whose shape varies, if the number of RS transmissions is fixed at the transmission-side unit, the fixed number of RS transmissions is not the optimal number. Cellular phones, PDA, portable personal computer, etc., are examples of as such mobile terminals.
In the conventional communication system, when the correlation between antennas of the mobile terminal varies, the transmission-side unit cannot perform transmission by the optimal number of RS transmissions corresponding to the correlation variation nor suppress the transmission of unnecessary RSs from unselected antennas. The transmission of unnecessary RSs makes reductions in the transmission power impossible and raises a concern of interference with other reception-side units (base station) or other mobile terminals. When the transmission-side unit is a mobile terminal, a variation in the shape causes the correlation between antennas to vary. The mobile terminal is not able to deal with this correlation variation and is, therefore, not able to transmit/receive main data using the optimal number of RS transmissions. The reception-side unit not knowing the optimal number of RS transmissions is incapable of carrying out accurate antenna interpolation. Hence, transmission efficiency and quality cannot be improved.

Transmitting apparatus, receiving apparatus, radio communication system, and radio communication method


An improved method for orally administering buspirone to a human subject wherein the bioavailability of buspirone is increased and its elimination, metabolite formation, and variability of these pharmacokinetic parameters is decreased, the improvement comprises the concurrent administration of a sufficient amount of nefazodone to effect these pharmacokinetic changes for orally administered buspirone.

Buspirone, chemically: 8-[4-[4-(2-pyrimidinyl)1-piperazinyl]butyl]-8-azaspiro(4,5)-decane,7,9-dio ne, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,717,634 as a pharmaceutically active compound which has been found to be effective for the treatment of anxiety disorders and depression. However, buspirone shows a very high first pass metabolism and only about 4% of the administered dose will reach the systemic circulation unchanged after oral administration (Mayol et al., Clin. Pharmacol. Ther., 37, 210, 1985). Great inter-individual variations in buspirone absorption have also been observed as demonstrated by variations of the maximum plasma concentration of drug by up to ten-fold (Gammans et al., American J. Med., 80, Suppl. 3B, 41-51, 1986). Metabolites have been identified, including several hydroxylated derivatives of buspirone that show low levels of pharmacological activity. The major metabolite, 1-(2-pyrimidinyl)-piperazine, (1-PP), has been found to demonstrate pharmacological activity in certain tests that suggest 1-PP itself possesses weak anxiolytic activity. However, in other tests 1-PP has shown that it antagonizes the desired anxiolytic and/or antidepressant action of buspirone.
The biological half-life of buspirone is very short and variable in man, on an order of 2-11 hours, whereas the major metabolite, 1-PP, has much slower elimination (Mayol et al., Clin. Pharmacol. Ther., 37, 210, 1985). These pharmacokinetic properties necessitate a daily dosing regimen requiring repeat administration which would be expected to have a negative effect on patient compliance. Since buspirone is rapidly absorbed after an oral dose, peak plasma values of unchanged drug occur shortly after drug administration. As buspirone blood levels decline, blood levels of 1-PP increase, giving much higher plasma levels of 1-PP. These high levels of 1-PP have been associated with the occurrence of undesired or adverse events observed during the first days of treatment. Such adverse effects can also seriously impact patient compliance due to resultant deliberate disruption of the drug therapy. Since its clinical introduction, buspirone has suffered from a perceived lack of rapid onset which may be attributable in part to patient compliance and/or variable metabolism.
The physicochemical, pharmacokinetic and pharmacological properties of drugs and their formulations often dictate how a drug should be used in a therapeutic situation. A drug characterized by a short biological half-life should usually be administered in short dosing intervals to maintain the plasma concentration levels that provide the pharmacologic action. As mentioned above, this often reduces patient compliance and as a result leads to underdosing between the dosage intervals. An ideal oral dosage form would be a once-daily formulation able to maintain the therapeutic drug levels in the body for 24 hours, yet without the risk of any adverse reactions.
Among formulations devised to avoid limitations due to a short biological half-life (rapid metabolism/elimination) have been various dosage forms which provide release of the desired drug over an extended period of time, thereby slowing the drug's absorption. Over the past two decades considerable progress has been made in developing controlled/extended release technologies for drug compounds. The design of various controlled/extended release formulations and their technologies are known in the art (L. Krowczynski, Extended Release Dosage Forms, CRC-Press Inc., USA, 1987, ISBN 0-8493-4307-0).
Some important advantages of such delivery systems can be:
reduction of the frequency of dosing (with a concomitant increase in patient compliance); PA1 maintenance of therapeutic plasma drug levels for a longer period of time than would be indicated by the drug's biological half-life; PA1 reduction of undesired adverse reactions/toxicity (by suppression of the initial high plasma concentration peaks of drug/metabolite); and, in some instances, PA1 reduction of the amount of drug required for treatment (by reduction of the initial high concentration spike and rapid elimination of drug).
In order to capture these advantages, controlled/extended release formulations of buspirone and its salts were developed and disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,922. Although the initial objectives for these buspirone extended release formulations were realized; e.g. an improved pharmacokinetic profile for buspirone blood levels, reduction of 1-PP peak blood levels, and increased time intervals between dosing; a high level of variability in the pharmacokinetic parameters, particularly with buspirone and 1-PP blood levels over time, between dosing periods and between patients became problematic. To this point in time, the formulations that were the subject of U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,922 have not been commercialized.
Recently, a method for increasing bioavailability of orally administered hydrophobic pharmaceutical compounds was disclosed in WO 95/20980. The method comprises concurrent administration of a compound that inhibits cytochrome P4503A enzymes or P-glycoprotein-mediated membrane transport. While lists of compounds that can be substrates and compounds that can act as inhibitors were disclosed, neither buspirone nor nefazodone was mentioned. The only inhibitor exemplified was ketoconazole.
Nefazodone has been disclosed as being an inhibitor of cytochrome P4503A4. Recently a letter to the editor in J. Clin. Psychiatry, 57:7, July 1996, referred to nefazodone's reported inhibition of cytochrome P4503A3/4 and its related effect of increasing the concentration and toxicity of alprazolam and triazolam. Further study was recommended in order to determine whether this inhibitory effect on cytochrome by nefazodone might represent a therapeutic asset by increasing/stabilizing plasma concentrations of certain CYP3A3/4 substrates.
Other reports of a differing drug interaction effect have appeared over the past few years. These reports suggest that several agents, one being buspirone, have been effective in augmentation of an antidepressant effect when co-administered with an antidepressant drug regimen such as fluoxetine. A pharmacokinetic study of the co-administration of nefazodone with buspirone was undertaken as a preliminary step to clinically study augmenting effect on the antidepressant drug nefazodone. An striking result was observed: concurrent administration of nefazodone with buspirone demonstrated that nefazodone had a marked effect on buspirone and 1-PP pharmacokinetics.
Nothing in the previous references or prior art has disclosed or suggested the advantageous improvements in oral buspirone's pharmacokinetics and metabolism resulting from concomitant administration of the antidepressant drug nefazodone.

Method for oral administration of buspirone and nefazodone


An endoscope system of the present invention makes it possible to pass a cleaning brush through all conduits, simplify cleaning, and perform disinfection such as sterilization by an autoclave. The system is an endoscope for controlling the opening/closing of various conduits by an solenoid valve unit, in which a conduit unit is removably set to the joint at the rear end of an operating portion and a conduit to be connected to various conduits at the main frame side is set to the conduit unit. Moreover, a second cable which is used separately from a first cable in which an electric-signal transmission line is set is provided for the conduit unit to lead said conduit to the solenoid-valve unit. Thereby, it is possible to separately clean the conduit unit by removing it from the main frame. Therefore, cleaning is simplified and the conduit unit can be sterilized by an autoclave or the like.

This application claims the priority of Japanese Patent Application No. 9-47339 filed on Feb. 14, 1997, which is incorporated herein by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a conduit-separated endoscope system, particularly to the structure of an endoscope system provided with conduits such as a suction tube and an air-feed/water-feed tube and making it possible to easily clean the conduits.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 7 shows the entire structure of the electronic endoscope (scope) of a conventional electronic endoscope system. The electronic endoscope 1 comprises a front end 1A having a CCD (Charge Coupled Device), an inserting portion 1B, an operating portion 1C, and a cable 1D. An end of the cable 1D is provided with a connector 2A for connecting a light guide and various conduits and a connector 2B for connecting an electric signal transmission line. The operating portion 1C is provided with angle dial 3 for bending the front end 1A, a suction button (mechanical control valve) 4A, and an air-feed/water-feed button 4B and moreover, a forceps port 5 for inserting an action tool into the front end side.
An action-tool inserting channel communicated with the forceps port 5, a suction tube for suction, and an air feed tube and a water feed tube for feed air or water are arranged in the endoscope, and a conduit connector 7 for connecting these conduits with external tubes is set to the connector 2A.
According to the above structure, the connector 2A is connected to a light source unit, the connector 2B is connected to a processor unit, and the inside of an object to be observed is picked up and observed by the CCD of the front end 1A in accordance with light irradiation by the light guide. Moreover, air or water can be fed to an observation window or the like from the front end 1A by using the air-feed or water-feed tube and insertion of the action tool and suction of dirt in the object to be observed can be performed by using the suction tube.


A data transmission system includes a transmitter configured to transmit a data signal in the form of a data stream of data bursts in at least two transmission modes to a receiver, in the first mode a reference signal being transmitted by the transmitter in each data burst and being evaluated in the receiver, and in the second mode no reference signal being transmitted by the transmitter in each data burst. In the second mode, in place of the reference signal, additional redundancy data of the data signal are transmitted in each data burst.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data transmission method in which a data signal is transmitted between a transmitter and receiver in the form of a data stream of data bursts in at least two transmission modes, in the first mode a reference signal being transmitted by the transmitter in each data burst, and in the second mode no reference signal being transmitted by the transmitter in each data burst.
Although applicable in principle to any data transmissions, the present invention and the problem underlying it are described with reference to a cellular CDMA data transmission system (CDMA=Code Division Multiple Access), which uses both a transmission mode which requires the transmission of a reference signal as well as one which does not require a reference signal.
2. Description of Related Art
In transmitting data over multipath channels, the transmitted data symbols create interference at the receiver. The interference can be eliminated in the receiver if the pulse response of the channel is known, such as can be inferred from K. D. Kammeyer, "Communication Transmission," Second Edition, Information Technology Series, Teubner, Stuttgart, 1996, and from A. Klein, G. K. Kaleh, and P. W. Baier, "Zero Forcing and Minimum Mean-Square-Error Equalization for Multiuser Detection in Code Division Multiple Access Channels," IEEE Transportation Vehicle Technology, Volume 45 (1996), 276-287. The channel pulse response can be computed, e.g., in the receiver from a received reference signal. However, interference can also be eliminated in the transmitter if the channel pulse responses are known there. Then the channel pulse response no longer needs to be computed in the receiver. In other words, transmission of a reference signal is then not necessary.
It is also possible to combine transmission systems that have interference elimination in the receiver and systems that have elimination in the transmitter, as is known from Bosch, "Mixed Use of Joint Predistortion and Joint Detection in the UTRA TDD mode," ETSI Tdoc SMG2 UMTS-L1 205/98.
Because in data transmission systems that support interference elimination both in the receiver and in the transmitter the transmitted reference signal is superfluous when elimination is performed by the transmitter, the transmitted reference signal then occupies transmission capacity unnecessarily. If, when elimination is performed by the transmitter, an individualized transmission format is used, then the corresponding transmission devices are more complex (e.g., as a result of the channel coding designs that become necessary) and/or the data services of the two transmission modes are different.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A moisture barring device (10), forming a general T-shaped profile, designed for diverting air and ground born water away from, and protection of, a wood member (20), which is a beam or joist of an exterior wood structure. Additionally, there is a top (12), forming a longitudinal relatively horizontal strip with two parallel longitudinal edges. The top including a central strip section, extending along the central region of the top and positioned between the two longitudinal top edges. The top also having a pair of wing strips (32), extending along and coupled to either side of the central strip section respectively along a first wing edge, and each wing strip having a second wing edge that is coextensive with the two respective top edges. The top additionally having a drip edge (18), coupled along the respective second wing edge, forming an angle that is sloped downward with respect to the respective wing strip. The moisture barring device further including a pair of side panel strips (14). Each side panel having a top edge (30) that is coupled to the top where the wing strips is coupled to the central strip so as to extend relatively perpendicular downward from the top. The side panels also including a cavity (28), located between the pair of panel strips. Additionally, the side panels have a panel drip edge (16), coupled to a bottom edge (32) of the panel strips, forming an angle that is sloped outwardly from the cavity.

There are many uses of wood for exterior applications. For example, structures such as decks, benches, handrails, tables, and chairs are often constructed of wood, or similar grade materials. In addition, roofs and overhangs in larger applications, are commonly built using wood.
Typical construction of quality deck flooring for outdoor applications requires use of redwood floor planks as deck surfacing. Redwood provides long term resistance to water damage, as well as an aesthetically appealing rustic appearance. Redwood, howerver, does not offer the degree of load bearing stiffness to provide good floor joist members. Consequently, fir or other more sturdy types of wood are selected for floor joists.


A compact transition structure includes a printed circuit board, wherein there is a rectangular region on one side of the printed circuit board and the rectangular region has a pair of long edges and a pair of short edges; a transition probe on the one side of the printed circuit board, wherein the transition probe extends into the rectangular region through a long edge of the rectangular region and has a terminal near a center of the rectangular region; and a coupler probe on the one side the printed circuit board, wherein the coupler probe extends into the rectangular region through a short edge of the rectangular region and has a terminal before the center of the rectangular region such that the coupler probe is electrically insulated from the transition probe.

Modern microwave transmitter generally requires an accurate control of the radio frequency (RF) transmit power. In the wireless applications, automatic power level control, dynamic power control over various distances and accurate power level control to avoid excessive power to adjacent cells are a few examples of the importance of accurate power controls. At the microwave and millimeter wave bands, the power is also more expensive than the power at lower RF bands. These requirements suggest a need for an optimized design of a transition structure.

Compact low loss transition with an integrated coupler


There is disclosed a method of operating a wireless device in a wireless communication network, the method comprising transmitting feedback signaling including feedback information, the feedback information being encoded with an error coding scheme, wherein an error coding size of the error coding scheme is dependent on a type of the feedback information. The disclosure also pertains to related devices and methods.

For future wireless communication systems, use of higher frequencies is considered, which allows large bandwidths to be used for communication. However, use of such higher frequencies brings new problems, for example regarding physical properties and timing. Ubiquitous or almost ubiquitous use of beamforming, with often comparatively small beams, may provide additional complications that need to be addressed. Of specific interest is the process of switching between beams, e.g. due to movement of a user equipment; such beam switching should be quick and only require low signaling overhead, e.g. to avoid noticeable lags or interruption of communication.

Feedback signaling for wireless communication


This invention relates to a method of producing starch derived shaped articles and in particular, a method of producing films derived from high amylose starch. In the method, a hot melt is prepared by heating under pressure a composition comprising a high amylosic material, or a derivative thereof, and sufficient water to provide a homogeneous melt for subsequent extrusion as a shaped article. The hot melt is subjected to an atmospheric or subatmospheric pressure immediately prior to or during extrusion so as to remove water from the hot melt prior to the formation of the shaped article. Preferably, the high amylosic material is derived from Goodman Fielder Mills Pty. Limited maize hybrids 55/77 or 65/88. The starch derived films produced by the method are particularly suitable for use in oxygen barrier laminates and as biodegradable mulch films.

It has long been known that amylosic films may be cast on a surface from a solution of amylosic materials in a solvent, the resultant film being peeled from the surface. However, that method is unsuitable for mass production of amylosic films or for the production of shapes other than films.
In the 1960's various attempts were made to provide more practical methods of manufacture of amylosic films.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,117,014 describes a method of manufacture of shaped articles by forming a hot melt from a mixture of amylaceous material, plasticizer and water. It was shown that plastic flow increased with water content and that it was necessary to retain moisture during extrusion using an unvented extruder.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,243,308 showed that strong flexible edible films could be made by confining amylosic mixtures at high temperatures and under super atmospheric pressures prior to extrusion.
GB Patent No. 965,349 showed that it was advantageous to add from 10% to 50% by weight of water to the amylosic substance prior to extrusion and subsequently to heat and stretch the extruded film.
Notwithstanding the above developments in the early 1960's, and notwithstanding the low cost of amylosic raw materials, the resulting materials have not found widespread acceptance and the extrusion of starch hot melts has not been adopted commercially to any significant extent.
One reason is that although amylose films prepared by the above methods have some useful properties they lack others, in particular mechanical strength and sufficient ability to stretch. The films tend to be hygroscopic and if desired to have a shelf life require to be dried and then lacquered by brush, spray or dipping which is impractical for mass production.
A second reason is that amylose films produced to date have been unsuitable for lamination with other polymers with the result that amylose films have been unable to compete in terms of versatility, or properties with modern co-extruded laminated plastics films in which a plurality of layers each of different polymeric composition, and each layer selected to contribute specific properties, are purpose designed for particular end uses.
Because the elongation before failure of known amylosic films has typically been from about 4% to 20%, the films have not been suitable for use with techniques such as blow moulding, and have been of limited utility in other applications where a greater capacity for elongation is desired.

Goodman Fielder Wattie Australia Limited


In a projection television receiver, a common switch mode power supply energizes the convergence circuits, and other load circuits of the projection television receiver. In normal operation, a switch couples a supply voltage produces in the common switch mode power supply to the convergence circuits. When, as a result of a fault, a supply current in the convergence circuits is excessive, the common switch mode power supply is decoupled from the convergence circuits and other load circuits remain energized and operative.

The invention relates to a power supply protection arrangement of a video display apparatus, for example, a projection television (TV) receiver.
The displayed image in, for example, a direct view TV receiver or in a projection TV receiver having a cathode ray tube (CRT), may suffer from electron beam landing location errors such as geometrical and convergence errors. It is known to correct such errors for a CRT using a dynamic convergence arrangement. The amount of correction may vary dynamically in a given deflection cycle, in accordance with the location of the beam on the display screen.
In one prior art arrangement, to minimize manufacturing costs of a direct view TV receiver model and a projection TV receiver model, both models shared the same chassis. The main deflection circuits were common. Direct view models used about 90% of the chassis. For economic reasons the main chassis power supply was sized for the direct view model and a projection convergence power supply was added on for a projection TV receiver model.
When, as a result of a fault, a supply current exceeds a predetermined value, a threshold level of a protection detector is exceeded and causes the dedicated convergence switch mode power supply to shut down. Trouble shooting convenience requires that the TV receiver show a picture when the convergence circuits have a fault. Thus, the rest of the TV receiver circuits including the deflection circuits remain energized and operational. The convergence dedicated switch mode supply remains turned off until the projection TV receiver is turned off and then on, again, by a user.
In carrying out an inventive feature, a common switch mode power supply energizes the convergence circuits and the rest of the TV receiver circuits. Instead of using the prior art separate power supplies solution, a fast acting latching power supply voltage disconnect arrangement for the convergence circuits is utilized. Such arrangement provides a cost advantage.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a prior art power amplifier that drives the convergence winding in a CRT of the projection video display, shown in FIG. 3 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,032 in the name of Rodriguez-Cavazos, entitled, Dual Power Source Output Amplifier (the Rodriguez-Cavazos patent). The symbols and reference numerals in FIG. 1 are the same as in FIG. 3 of the Rodriguez-Cavazos patent except that a prime sign (′) is appended to each.
In FIG. 1, an amplifier 50′ comprises a differential amplifier 12′, a buffer 14′ and one output stage 16′. The differential amplifier 12′ is formed by transistors Q1′ and Q2′. An input waveform signal VIN′ is connected to the base of transistor Q1′. The collector of transistor Q1′ is connected to a high voltage supply source of positive polarity voltage +VH′. The emitters of transistors Q1′ and Q2′ are connected together, and through a resistor R1′, to a negative high supply voltage −VH′. A parallel combination of sense resistors R21′ and R22′ are connected to a deflection coil 24′ of a yoke Y1′ and the base of transistor Q2′, for developing the sense voltage VS. A transistor Q11′ converts the output current at the collector of transistor Q2′ into an output voltage across a load resistor R18′. Diodes D8′, D9′, D10′ and D11′ establish a biasing voltage for the buffer stage 14′, which includes transistors Q9′ and Q10′. The emitters of transistors Q9′ and Q10′ of the buffer stage drive the bases of transistors Q4′ and Q5′, respectively, through resistors R13′ and R14′, respectively. Transistors Q4′ and Q5′ form class B output stage 16′. The emitters of transistors Q4′ and Q5′ are connected to resistors R7′ and R8′, respectively. The output voltage signal of the amplifier is generated at the junction of resistors R7′ and R8′, which is connected to the coil 24′ of convergence yoke Y1′.
Output stage 16′ provides high current. It needs to provide a high voltage drive, during horizontal retrace, and a low voltage drive, outside horizontal retrace. Output stage 16′ compares dynamically varying input signal VIN′ to sense voltage VS developed across current sense resistors R21′ and R22′ that are coupled in series with the convergence winding. Output stage 16′ generates the necessary current to minimize any difference between the varying input signal VIN′ and sense voltage VS′.
If positive polarity voltage +VH′ is turned off and, simultaneously, negative voltage supply −VH′ is turned on, during a power-up or start-up interval, transistors Q10′ and Q5′ will turn on at the limit Consequently, a current IY1′ in convergence yoke Y1′ having an excessive magnitude flows also in sense resistors R21′ and R22′ that could damage them. Even a short-term overstress may cause an unacceptable sense resistor value change. A sense resistor value change causes an uncompensated change in convergence correction gain that distorts the picture.
In a power supply embodying an inventive feature, a positive polarity voltage that is analogous to voltage +VH′ is turned on prior to turning on of negative voltage supply that is analogous to voltage −VH′, during the power-up or start-up interval. Furthermore, a power supply circuit breaking protection is employed that prevents excessive current in the sense resistors, as a result of a failure in the feedback loop.


A semiconductor processing station is provided. The semiconductor processing station includes a first platform, a second platform and a vacuum tunnel, wherein the first platform has a first load lock and a first plurality of chambers, and the second platform has a second load lock and a second plurality of chambers, and the vacuum tunnel connects the first and the second load locks.

As the semiconductor manufacturing processes grow in complexity, it becomes increasingly necessary to transfer wafers among a number of different process modules or tools, and those tools are usually separated by significant distances, which may result in increased risk of particle contamination of wafers, when wafers are transferred between separate vacuum tools. Therefore, it usually depends on the vendors to develop or integrate in-situ tool to fulfill the semiconductor manufacturing process requirement, but in this way, it induces the IP leakage and poor flexibility on vendor selection. On the other hand, because the wafer per hour (WPH) of the processing chambers of the platform is unbalanced, the productivity of the platform is very low. Some processing chambers with high WPH need to wait for those with low WPH, which lowers the utilization of the processing chambers. For solving this problem, some traditional methods, such as the linear platform connects extra processing chambers to the platform to increase the chamber quantity of the platform. However, the business model of the chambers' procurement and operations is complicated, and the integration and software development for multi-chamber combination is complicated, either.
Hence, because of the defects in the prior arts, there is a need to solve the above problems.

Semiconductor processing station and method for processing semiconductor wafer

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING COMPANY, LTD.


A method of adjusting Raman gain in an optical amplifier assembly (1a). The method comprises inputting a plurality (N) of optical signals (OS) on different wavelength channels to a backward-pumped Raman active medium (4a) pumped by means of a Raman pump source (5). The proposed method is characterized in that a slope with respect to time in a quantity representative of a respective amplified optical signal (OS′) on at least one existing/surviving channel is determined in case of channel add/drop, and in that the Raman pump source (5) is tuned depending on said change. In this way, fast and reliable Raman pump tuning can be achieved even in an optical amplifier assembly (1a) and an optical transmission system, respectively, which suffer from channel adds/drops.

In optical transmission schemes and systems of the above-mentioned types Raman fibre amplifiers are generally used to amplify the propagated optical signals. The Raman amplifiers are generally designed to operate at a substantially flat spectral gain referred to as "nominal gain". Particularly in cases which lead to a change in the number of wavelength channels operable in the optical transmission system, so-called "channel adds" or "channel drops", e.g. due to fibre break or the like, a change in gain may be encountered.
Due to various interactions between different wavelength channels, in particular in dense wavelength division multiplexing (DWDM) systems such a change in channel number will generally lead to a transfer of optical power between different wavelength channels. However, in order to keep an appropriate bit error ratio (BER) for the surviving channels, their respective Raman gain must be maintained at essentially said nominal value. To this end, the pump powers of individual pump light sources comprised in the Raman pump source are tuned, i.e. adjusted in such a way as to produce roughly nominal valued Raman gain on surviving channels, i.e. a channel operable before and after a channel add/drop.
In prior art document EP 1 130 819 A1, a method for determining a wavelength-dependent gain figure of an optical amplifier is described, including a measurement of the total amplifier gain through measuring total input and output power of the amplifier. A gain tilt of the determined gain figure is compensated for by application of a gain tilt of opposite sign and magnitude in order to generate a flat gain figure over the amplified wavelength band.
This prior art approach suffers from the disadvantage, that in actual optical transmission systems of the above-mentioned type an optical output power on an existing/surviving channel may change abruptly during short periods of time depending on a position of said channels in the optical bandwidth of the transmission system before finally changing in the other direction due to a complex and temporarily diversified combination of signal-signal interactions (SSI) and signal-pump interactions (SPI). Thus, when dealing with channel adds/drops the above-described prior art approach may actually lead to an inadequate Raman gain control which will in turn deteriorate overall system performance.

Method and an optical amplifier assembly for adjusting Raman gain


To provide for temporary storage of freshly printed signatures (6), transported by a continuously moving product transport gripper chain (4, 5), a plurality of pocket structures (12), each of which includes a plurality of connected sheet-like elements (16,17) which, between each other, define pockets (15), are provided. The sheet-like elements are arranged for pivotable movement about an end portion to permit fan-like spreading out of the elements for reception in the pockets of, for example, one product or signature delivered by the transport system. Storage units are provided to store empty pocket structures and to receive pocket structures which are filled with signatures. The storage structures, preferably, are formed of separate sheet-like elements connected together, and engaging the signatures at marginal portions, so that access can be provided to the signature, for example from below, for compressed air or other drying gas, to dry the fresh ink on the signatures, for example when placed within the storage units (26). To space the sheet-like elements, preferably, a small projection or tab is placed on them at facing surfaces, in the region of the margins of the signatures, that is, in non-printed areas thereof.

It is known to remove freshly printed sheets from a printing machine by gripping the sheets with grippers attached to a transport chain, and deliver the freshly printed sheets to a sheet distributing apparatus or system. Numerous such apparatus or systems are known, in which the sheets, removed by the grippers on a transport chain, are then stacked on receiving platforms, pallets, or other reception structures.
Continuous supply of sheets from the printing machine requires intermittent removal of the stacks of printed sheets. When the printing machines operate at high speed, it is difficult to align the stacks, and it has been proposed to provide additional auxiliary stacking platforms--see, for example, the referenced German Patent 33 04 673, Baucke. Auxiliary stacking platforms require a substantial amount of space. Further, as the stack increases in height, and becomes heavier and heavier, the freshly printed sheets may adhere against each other. It has been proposed to insert small intermediate plates from time to time as the stack increases. These intermediate plates are supported with respect to each other. This arrangement, however, substantially decreases the overall operating speed of the printing machine--stacking combination. The stacking system of this type is much slower than the speed of the printing machine.
It has further been proposed to dry the printed sheets by introducing a drying air jet which is so arranged that drying air is blown between adjacent sheets as the sheets are turned over, and pass through an essentially vertical position. It has been found that this does not result in satisfactory drying; loosening of the sheets forming the stack with respect to each other is effective only to a limited extent, or the overall stack will become unstable and difficult to handle.

System for temporarily storing printed products removed from a printing machine


Embodiments include methods for a network device configured to schedule transmission or reception by a terminal device. Such methods include transmitting a semi-persistent scheduling configuration to the terminal device. The semi-persistent scheduling configuration includes a plurality of configurations that define transmission or reception opportunities for the terminal device based on a respective plurality of different time intervals. Such methods include transmitting, to the terminal device, an index indicating a particular one of the configurations that defines transmission or reception opportunities for the terminal device based a particular time interval. Such methods include receiving or transmitting data with the terminal device during at least a portion of the transmission or reception opportunities, for the terminal device, that are defined based on the particular time interval. Other embodiments include complementary methods for a terminal device, as well as network devices and terminal devices configured to perform such methods.

This section introduces aspects that may facilitate better understanding of the present disclosure. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is in the prior art or what is not in the prior art.
Semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) is one important feature to preconfigure granted resources for a terminal device (such as user equipment, UE) so that the UE can transmit data with the granted resources, or a network device can transmit data to the UE in pre-allocated resources.
There are some benefits for SPS, for example, overhead of control channel is saved or decreased. Since resources for multiple transmission opportunities are pre-allocated for the UE, there is no need to transmit physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) to schedule data transmissions after SPS configuration is activated. It can also save physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) resource for scheduling request (SR) transmission since SR transmission is not needed if SPS configuration is activated.
For another example, latency for data transmission in uplink (UL) is reduced or decreased. The considerable delay for SR TX, grant reception and UL data transmission for UL with dynamic scheduling is saved when UL data is transmitted with pre-allocated resources according to the activated SPS configuration.

Method and device for configuring semi-persistent scheduling


The invention relates to the smelting or converting of particulate sulfide material, such as nickel or copper sulfide. A molten seed bath of smelted or converted material is provided in a reaction vessel. Particulate sulfide material is injected into a reaction vessel below the surface of the melt. Top blowing with an oxygen-containing gas generates heat and brings about the oxidation of the sulfides with a significant decrease in the amount of dust generated. Optional bottom stirring with a non-reactive gas such as nitrogen may further increase efficiency.

This invention relates to the pyrometallurgical treatment of non-ferrous sulfide material. More particularly, it relates to the smelting or converting of particulate non-ferrous sulfide material, such as nickel or copper sulfide. In the claimed process, particulate sulfide material is injected into a reaction vessel below the surface of a melt. Top blowing with an oxygen-containing gas generates heat and brings about the oxidation of the sulfides with a significant reduction in the amount of dust generated.
One currently practiced method for treating sulfide ore concentrates is by flash smelting/converting in which the sulfur and iron content of the ore is burned while the concentrate is suspended in the oxidizing medium. This method permits economical treatment of the furnace off-gas to recover a substantial part of the liberated sulfur content.
A serious drawback to flash operations is the generation of substantial amounts of dust, which must be removed in the gas cleaning system prior to further treatment for recovery of sulfur dioxide. In contrast, injection of the sulfide material below the bath surface results in a substantial decrease in the amount of dust produced.
In flash smelting/converting, the heat of combustion is generated in the free board of the furnace and can lead to overheating of the refractory. In the process of the invention, which utilizes top blowing technology, heat is generated on the bath surface away from the walls of the reaction vessel. An additional embodiment of the invention utilizes non-reactive gas sparging as a bottom stirring mechanism. The stirring of the bath created by the gas sparging distributes this heat, causing the bath to reach a uniform temperature. Thus, damage to the refractory is significantly reduced. Furthermore, it is likely that the reactor used for the present process (usually of the Pierce-Smith converter type because of the ease of retrofitting) will have a higher specific capacity than a flash reactor.
The top blowing process alone is not without its disadvantages. Though oxygen efficiency is high, it may be less than the 100% achieved during flash reaction. However, when the top blowing process is utilized in conjunction with particulate injection below the bath surface, it was surprisingly found that the overall economics of this unique process were superior to those of flash reaction. This is particularly true when the problem of dust generation is considered. For example, when treating chalcocite, flash converting results in up to 15% of fed copper ending up as dust. The submerged injection of chalcocite would reduce this amount considerably.
Suggestions have been made in the past to inject solids below the melt surface in combination with submerged blowing with air or oxygen-enriched air. While this prior art method, taught by U.S. Pat. No. 3,281,236 to Meissner, would reduce the dusting caused by flash reaction, there are significant drawbacks. There would be additional fuel requirements due to the lower level of oxygen enrichment and a larger, more costly gas cleaning system to handle the resulting higher off-gas rates. Were tonnage oxygen to be used in such a process, shrouded tuyeres would be required. Furthermore, these processes are known to suffer from excessive refractory and tuyere wear.
The desirability of using "top blowing/bottom stirring" technology in a preferred embodiment, as compared to simply blowing with oxygen-containing gas, was first demonstrated by Marcuson et al with respect to the conversion of white metal copper in U.S. Pat. No. 4,830,667. The additional use of bottom stirring, along with top blowing and submerged particulate injection, would further assist in overcoming the above problems. Bottom stirring increases the circulation of the molten bath to allow for increased contact with the top blown oxygen. Thus, lance and vessel design are simplified and less costly, and reaction efficiency is increased.


A battery charging circuit comprising means to supply a DC output from the mains supply for inter alia recharging a rechargeable battery, switch means in series with the battery across the DC output which are normally closed but which open from time to time to disconnect the battery from the DC output, battery voltage monitoring means for measuring the potential or emf of the battery at the time when the switch means are open, and means for determining a maximum potential and therefore fully charged state for the battery and decreasing the charging current from the DC output to the battery when a fully charged state is determined.

Portable electronic equipment such as laptop computers have storage batteries for powering them when they are used away from a mains supply. The batteries need to be charged, when a mains supply is available, to their maximum so that the maximum computing time is available when the laptop computer is used away from a mains supply.
Care of such batteries is important to ensure a long life and to ensure that they retain a high charge capacity. They should not be overcharged since this can reduce their capacity.
It is possible to monitor the degree of charge for a rechargeable battery by observing the potential of the battery over time as it is charged at a constant current. The potential increases with time up to the point where it becomes fully charged and then starts to reduce. Therefore as soon as the potential reaches a steady value and starts to decline, charging should be stopped. Such an arrangement is described in European Specification No 181112A. 25 A problem arises, however, when recharging batteries in say a laptop computer where the same DC supply generated from the AC mains is used both to power the computer and to provide recharging current. Thus, when the computer is being operated at the same time and the battery is being charged, the output from the charging circuit can be constant but the current drawn by the computer will vary depending upon many factors such as the operation of disc drives. Therefore the remaining current which is available for recharging the batteries will not be constant. Since the potential across the battery varies with the recharging current, one cannot, therefore, avoid the possibility of false conclusions as to whether the battery has reached a maximum potential and so become fully charged if one merely monitors the battery potential without taking into account the charging current.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a battery charging circuit where this problem is avoided.

Improvements in battery charging circuits


Systems and methods are disclosed herein to provide improved channel estimation in a wireless data communication system, including but not limited to Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) communication systems. In accordance with one or more embodiments and aspects thereof, a channel estimation system is disclosed that utilizes data payload portions of received wireless packets to calculate estimates of the radio frequency (RF) channel traversed by these packets, and iteratively refines and improves these estimates by selectively utilizing successive received packets according to the application of certain metrics. Such a system may offer improved capabilities such as: more accurate signal reception, reduced bit error ratio, and better reception of short data packets.

Modern wireless data communications systems may utilize the benefits of multiple transmit and receive antennas to improve both range and data communications bandwidth. In particular, Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) systems can utilize the spatio-temporal properties of the RF channel to transmit parallel but independent streams of data, greatly increasing the amount of data that can be transferred from a transmitter to a receiver. MIMO systems are therefore seeing widespread use in high-speed wireless digital transmission systems.
MIMO systems take advantage of the fact that radio frequency (RF) environments may contain large numbers of reflective and diffractive objects, the effect of which is to impose multiple propagation modes on the RF channel existing between a transmitter and a receiver. The number of available propagation modes is determined by the number of antennas at the transmitter and receiver. Each individual propagation mode may convey an independent, uncorrelated RF signal, which may then be distinguished, identified and extracted at the receiver. A MIMO transmitter may therefore split a single stream of digital data into independent parallel streams and transmit each stream on a different propagation mode as a separate RF signal. Given an adequate number of receive antennas, and knowledge of the channel propagation modes, a MIMO receiver may separate and decode the parallel streams of data and may combine them to regenerate the original stream of digital data. The capacity of a MIMO system is therefore a multiple of the capacity of a conventional Single Input Single Output (SISO) system operating over the same RF channel.
A MIMO RF wireless channel with N transmit and M receive antennas may be represented as an N×M complex matrix, referred to as a H or channel matrix, with each matrix coefficient representing the transfer function between an individual pair of transmit and receive antennas. As the number of available propagation modes is the lesser of the number of transmit and receive antennas, it may be usual to set N=M for an equal number of antennas on both sides, making the maximum number of parallel data streams that may be transmitted equal to N.
An exemplary MIMO RF wireless communication system may contain a transmitter that may accept a stream of digital transmit data which may then be split into parallel streams, processed using a space-time coding method, modulated, and eventually transformed to RF signals that may be transmitted on the N transmit antennas. These signals may then traverse the RF channel represented by the channel matrix, and then may arrive at the N receive antennas of a MIMO receiver. The receiver may then convert and process these signals, and may further use a MIMO equalizer to remove the effects of the channel matrix upon the transmitted signals and may recover the original space-time coded signal. The equalized signal may then be passed to a demodulator and MIMO decoder which may invert the space-time coding to regain the separate streams of data signals, which may then be reconstituted back into the original digital transmit data.
It is apparent that a MIMO equalizer in a wireless receiver may play a key role in reception by compensating for the effects of the RF channel and allowing the extraction of individual signal streams that may have been impressed into the various propagation modes of the channel matrix. As the equalization coefficients utilized by the MIMO equalizer may be dependent on the channel matrix, which may vary significantly by physical location and time, the coefficients of the channel matrix may have to be accurately estimated at the receiver in order to receive the data. This process is known as channel estimation. Once these channel estimates have been determined, they may be used in turn to calculate the coefficients used by the MIMO equalizer. A poor channel estimate may make it difficult or impossible to correctly separate the data streams, leading to a much higher error rate for the recovered data streams at the same signal level. Therefore, accurate channel estimation may be extremely important for MIMO systems.
Estimation of the channel matrix may be accomplished by using special known training sequences (e.g., preamble sequences or pilot signals), which may be extracted from the transmitted signal, which may for instance be an IEEE 802.11 Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) packet stream or a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) frame stream. For example, the MIMO reception function may first determine the value of the channel matrix H using known symbols in preamble and/or pilot signals transmitted by the MIMO transmitter, and may use these to calculate the complex equalization matrix that may then be used to recover the payload. However, the number of these training sequences or pilots may be relatively small compared to the data signals, which may adversely affect the accuracy of channel estimation. As an alternative, channel estimation may be accomplished under certain conditions using the actual packet data payload itself, which may greatly increase the amount of signals available for improving the quality of the estimates. Various approaches to achieve this are discussed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 61/900,973, herein incorporated by reference. As such, it is assumed that the details of different methods of generating a channel estimate, or the coefficients of a channel equalization matrix, or both, are available to a person skilled in the art and need not be discussed further herein. It should also be understood that channel estimation may directly comprise the calculation of the equalization matrix, omitting the calculation of the intermediate H matrix as it may not be strictly necessary for wireless reception.
Different methods of calculating the equalization matrix are known, which may range from simple zero-forcing to more complex systems such as sphere decoding. However, due to distortion in the RF transmitter and noise in the RF channel (as well as signal noise in both RF transmitter and receiver), it may not be possible to exactly calculate the channel matrix H or the equivalent equalization matrix. Unfortunately, inaccuracies in the calculations may increase the probability of errors in the decoded receive data. It may therefore be essential to make the channel estimates as accurate as possible in the face of noise and distortion.
These errors and variations may particularly impact higher-order modulations, such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) with 64 and 256 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) modulations; higher bandwidth transmissions (such as 80 MHz and 160 MHz channel bandwidths) where the channel may not be frequency-flat over its entire range; and may also adversely affect larger packet sizes where the ratio of training signals to data signals is lower. This may make the system more susceptible to inaccuracies in the estimated channel. Another significant issue is that the channel characteristics and therefore the channel estimate may become inaccurate over time due to changing propagation conditions: for example, if the MIMO transmitter and receiver move with respect to each other, or if the RF propagation environment itself changes. This may induce errors in the decoded receive data stream, as the equalization matrix coefficients may no longer be accurate.
As noted in the above-referenced co-pending U.S. patent application, a possible method of reducing the impact of noise and distortion is to use the training fields in the preamble to derive an initial channel estimate and then use the information in the data payload of the packet to refine the estimate. However, this may be primarily applicable to long data packets, as short data packets may not contain enough data symbols to produce a usable channel estimate from the random bit patterns present in the payload. Another possible method, also noted in the above-referenced co-pending application, is to increase accuracy by averaging channel estimates over multiple successive packets. However, this approach may require that the channel be largely invariant over time, and may also require some method of distinguishing between packets from different sources that are received over different RF channels. Again, this latter approach may be principally applicable to long data packets, as the time required to determine where the packet is coming from and the approximate nature of the RF channel may be too long to enable it to be applied to short packets.
In general, if the average packet data payload length is long, then it may be possible to generate a good channel estimate from a few consecutive packets. For a short average payload length, however, a large number of closely spaced packets may need to be processed to obtain a reasonably accurate channel estimate. Thus the initial data packets in a burst of data do not benefit from techniques to improve channel estimation, unless they are buffered for later processing. However, buffering may incur significant latency, which may not be tolerated in the system. Alternative techniques to accumulate channel estimates over a number of short packets may suffer from the issue that it is difficult to determine when the channel has actually changed and the estimates need to be recalculated from scratch. Further, the rapid storage, lookup, matching and retrieval of channel estimates for a large number of RF sources transmitting short packets to a single receiver at high rates may be computationally prohibitive.
It may be apparent from the foregoing discussion that accurate and efficient channel estimation is important for high-bandwidth wireless communication. It may further be apparent that more advanced technologies such as OFDM and MIMO may greatly increase the need for accurate and reliable channel estimation and equalization. However, the initial channel estimates that may be obtained from the short training sequences embedded in the preamble may not be adequate, and averaging estimates over a number of short frames may become inaccurate if the channel changes substantially over time.
There is hence a need for improved MIMO wireless channel estimation and equalization systems and methods. A system that can quickly identify when a stored channel estimate is usable for an incoming packet may be desirable. Further, it may be preferred in such a system to be able to achieve this with little computational overhead, for example to allow its implementation using existing hardware technologies. Such a system may preferably be applicable to communications involving long bursts of short frames received from multiple different wireless transmitters. Finally, it may be desirable for such a system to detect and adapt to changing RF channel conditions.

Systems and methods for improved wireless channel estimation


A method and apparatus 10 for producing ice containing ozone by injecting ozonated water in which ozone is dissolved or suspended into a cylindrical-shaped container 14 provided with an airtight lid 12 at one side of the container 14, and by cooling down the ozonated water injected into the cylindrical-shaped container 14 in a pressurized state to generate finer bubbles containing the ozone by freezing the ozonated water. The method and apparatus make it possible to produce ice containing ozone in which the ozone is sealed in a higher percentage and the ozone bubbles are uniformly dispersed.

Ozone has sterilization, disinfection, and deodorization effects due to its high oxidation power, and also has the property of decomposing into oxygen to become harmless as time passes. Accordingly, ozone is effective for preservation of perishable foods, purification of water, etc. However, since ozone easily decomposes into oxygen, ozone has a drawback that it cannot be stored for a long period of time. Thus, ice containing ozone has been produced by cooling down and freezing ozonated water in which ozone is dissolved in a high concentration.
For example, Publication of Examined Japanese Patent Application No. 08-27111 discloses a method for producing ice containing ozone, wherein ozonated water is sealed in a bag made of synthetic resin unreactive to ozone, and the bag containing the ozonated water is quick-frozen to produce ice containing ozone.
Furthermore, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-39239 discloses an apparatus for producing ice containing ozone. The apparatus includes an ozonated water manufacturing device for producing water containing ozone; an ozonated water packing device for filling vessels made of a resin with the ozonated water produced by the ozonated water manufacturing device through a water filling pipe, and for sealing water supply ports disposed at the vessels; and an ice making device for immersing packages in which the ozonated water is housed and sealed by the ozonated water packing device in liquid refrigerant, and for successively conveying the packages to make ice from the ozonated water in the resin vessels.
Still furthermore, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 09-105570 discloses an apparatus for manufacturing ice containing ozone, wherein ozonated water is injected into a freezing cylinder provided with an auger so as to freeze the ozonated water, and ice containing ozone produced on an inner wall of the freezing cylinder is shaved using the auger.
Yet furthermore, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 10-267476 discloses a method for manufacturing ice containing ozone. In the method, ozonated water is brought into contact with a member having a smooth surface cooled to 0° C. or less to generate ice containing ozone, the ice containing ozone is forcibly scraped off to manufacture cracked or foil-shaped ice, and a mixture of the ice pieces and water or the ice pieces and the ozonated water is cooled down to obtain block-shaped ice containing ozone.
However, the conventional methods for producing ice containing ozone have problems to be solved as follows.
In the arts disclosed in Publication of Examined Japanese Patent Application No. 08-27111 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2000-39239, the ozonated water is fed into the container, and the container is cooled down in the coolant to form ice containing ozone. This brings about problems that the apparatus is complicated in structure and increased in size, and that production of the ice containing ozone requires a great deal of time and work.
In the arts disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication Nos. 09-105570, 10-267476, the ozonated water is cooled down to produce the ice containing ozone, the ice is scraped off into the ice pieces, and furthermore, the ice pieces are formed into the block-shaped ice containing ozone. This causes a problem that it takes time and labor to manufacture the ice containing ozone. Another problem is that ozone bubbles generated in the cooling step are emitted from the ozonated water into the air, and thereby less ozone is enclosed in the ice containing ozone.

Method and apparatus for producing ice containing ozone


A floating point arithmetic unit is provided which effectuates arithmetic operations upon floating point numbers. A comparator unit, which may be implemented using a carry-skip chain, determines the relative magnitudes of the exponents of the floating point numbers to be operated upon. A first ripple carry subtractor unit formed within a first ripple carry shifter subtracts a first value corresponding to the exponent of a first of the floating point numbers from a second value corresponding to the exponent of a second of the floating point numbers. A second ripple carry subtractor unit formed within a second ripple carry shifter subtracts the second value from the first value. When certain lower order bit results of the exponent value subtraction operations of each ripple carry subtractor are obtained, the mantissa of the floating point number with the smaller exponent provided to one of the carry ripple shifters is shifted to the right by a number of positions dependent upon the lower order bit results. Effectuation of this shift operation begins before determining certain intermediate order and high order bit results of the subtraction operation. When certain intermediate bit results of the exponent subtraction operation are obtained, further shifting of the mantissa is effectuated before the highest order bit results of the subtraction operation are determined. A final shift operation is effectuated upon determining the highest order bit results of the ripple carry subtraction operation. An output signal from the comparator unit, which determines the relative magnitudes of the exponents of the two floating point numbers being operated upon, selects the shifted mantissa output from the ripple carry shifter associated with the mantissa of the floating point number with the smaller exponent. This shifted mantissa is provided to an input of an adder/subtractor unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to floating point arithmetic units and, more particularly, to addition and subtraction operations performed upon floating point numbers in a floating point unit of a microprocessor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Microprocessors typically include floating point units to accommodate floating point arithmetic operations. A floating point number consists of two parts: a fraction f and an exponent e. The two parts represent a number that is obtained by multiplying the fraction f times a radix that is raised to the power of e. The fraction f of the floating point number is often referred to as the mantissa.
A 32-bit binary format for a floating point number is shown in FIG. 1. The exemplary floating point number of FIG. 1 includes a 24-bit fractional part, a 7-bit signed (positive or negative) exponent, and a sign bit that indicates the sign of the number.
Addition and subtraction operations associated with floating point numbers are somewhat more complicated than addition and subtraction of integer numbers. Before actually performing an addition or subtraction operation upon the mantissas of the numbers, since the numbers are typically normalized, the relative magnitudes of the exponents must be compared to align the mantissas, if necessary. If the two exponents are equal, thus indicating that the mantissas are already aligned, the arithmetic operation can be effectuated by directly adding (or subtracting) the mantissas according to the desired operation. However, if the exponents are not equal, then the mantissa with the smaller exponent is typically shifted to the right by a number of positions equal to the difference between the exponents. Once the mantissas have been aligned, an arithmetic operation of addition or subtraction may be performed upon the aligned mantissas in accordance with the desired operation. Subsequently, post normalization of the result is carried out. It is noted that subtraction may be carried out by two's complementing the subtrahend and performing an addition operation. For the special case in which one of the operands is equal to zero, other specific operations may be performed.
FIG. 2 illustrates a generalized block diagram of aspects of an exemplary floating point arithmetic unit. As illustrated in FIG. 2, the two floating point numbers A1 and B1 to be added (or subtracted) are compared within a comparator 20 to determine their relative magnitudes. The exponent value of the floating point number with the smaller exponent is subtracted from the exponent value of the floating point number with the larger exponent by subtractor 22. After subtracting the value of the smaller exponent from the value of the larger exponent, the result is provided to a shift unit 24 which shifts the mantissa associated with the floating point number having the smaller exponent by a number of positions to the right which is equal to the difference in the exponent values. Subsequently, the shifted mantissa along with the unshifted mantissa of the floating point number having the larger exponent are operated upon (either added or subtracted) by an adder/subtractor unit 26 depending upon the desired operation (i.e. add or subtract) as well as upon the signs of the floating point numbers. The result conveyed from the adder/subtractor unit 26 may then be normalized by normalization unit 28.
The operation of the circuit of FIG. 2 may be illustrated by the following example. Consider a situation in which two normalized operands are to be added as follows: ##EQU1## The circuit first subtracts the smaller exponent value of 4 (in decimal) from the larger exponent value of 6, which results in a value of 2. The floating point number having the smaller exponent is accordingly right shifted by two positions and operated upon as follows: ##EQU2## As shown above, the exponent of the right shifted value is further increased by 2. The fractional portions or mantissas of the floating point numbers are then added to obtain the result. At this point, the result may or may not require normalization, which is effectuated by normalization unit 28 if appropriate.
Not surprisingly, it is important in high performance microprocessors to effectuate floating point operations quickly. From the foregoing description, however, it is evident that substantial time may be required to finish the subtraction of the exponents to determine the amount by which a particular mantissa must be shifted. It would be desirable to perform this shift operation more expeditiously.

Ripple carry shifter in a floating point arithmetic unit of a microprocessor


Disclosed are fiber optic assemblies for adding additional nodes to a communication network. The fiber optic assemblies include a plurality of optical fibers and a plurality of electrical conductors for transmitting power with a protective sheath covering at least a portion of the same. The fiber optic assembly also includes an optical stub fitting assembly having a rigid housing attached to a optical portion of the composite cable, thereby furcating one or more optical fibers of the fiber optic cable into one or more optical fiber legs. One or more of the optical fiber legs may include one or more optical connector attached thereto. Optionally, the fiber optic assembly may further include a coaxial adapter for transmitting power.

Communications networks are used to transport a variety of signals such as voice, video, data and the like. As communication applications rapidly evolve subscribers require ever increasing bandwidth to receive the desired content. However, most existing communication networks have limits on the bandwidth they can provide to subscribers. This bandwidth limitation is especially true with communication networks still using copper cables. It is possible to install a new communication network that routes optical fibers to the subscriber that dramatically increases the bandwidth that the communication network can provide, but many service providers desire to increase the bandwidth capacity of existing communication networks. Moreover, there are challenges for increasing the bandwidth on existing networks such as planning, deployment, ultimate bandwidth constraints, cost and the like. Additionally, the service provider must balance the cost to upgrade the network with the anticipated lifespan for the upgraded communication network.
For instance, some communication networks use a hybrid network of fiber optic cables and copper cables for delivering content to subscribers. One such hybrid network is typically deployed in cable television communication networks. In these cable television hybrid communication networks, the relatively high bandwidth capacity of optical fibers is used for transmitting signals to a network node, and thereafter copper cables are used for transmitting data from the network node to the subscribers. However, there are still limits on the bandwidth that these hybrid networks can provide along with other restraints that may limit performance. As the demand for bandwidth increases, service providers will need quick, easy and reliable solutions for increasing the bandwidth to subscribers on these hybrid communication networks. The present invention addresses the need for providing increased bandwidth to subscribers by providing fiber optic assemblies that allow a quick, easy, and reliable installation into existing hybrid communication networks.

Fiber optic assemblies suitable for adding nodes to a communication network


Wave soldering method and apparatus for fluxing a substrate in a low oxygen containing atmosphere, preheating the fluxed substrate at least partially in a non-low oxygen containing atmosphere, and soldering the preheated substrate in a low oxygen containing atmosphere.

The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for wave soldering a substrate, such as a printed circuit board, wherein the fluxing step is conducted in a low oxygen containing atmosphere while at least a portion of the preheating step is conducted in a non-low oxygen containing atmosphere, such as air.