An electrical connector includes a connector body and a wire shroud secured to the connector body. A mating assist lever is pivotally mounted on the body to be pivotable between an inoperative position and a latched position. A connector position assurance (CPA) member is slidably mounted on the mating assist lever to be slidable between an inoperative position and a locked position. Complementary interengaging locks are provided between the CPA member and the wire shroud to lock the mating assist lever in its latched position when the CPA member is moved to its locked position.

With some electrical connectors, large forces are required to mate and unmate a connector with an associated connector because the connectors have a large number of terminals. Consequently, low-insertion-force connectors have been developed which enable mating and unmating with small forces by means of an operating lever. A typical lever-type electrical connector includes a first connector which has an actuating lever rotatably or pivotally mounted thereon for connecting and disconnecting the connector with a complementary mating second connector. The actuating lever and the second connector typically operate through some form of cam groove/cam follower arrangement for drawing the second connector into mating condition with the first connector in response to rotation of the lever. One type of structure for a lever-type electrical connector is to provide a generally U-shaped lever structure which has a pair of lever arms that are disposed on opposite sides of the first ("actuator") connector.
In the above-mentioned lever-type connector, it often is difficult if at all possible to confirm whether or not the connector is fully mated with the second or complementary mating connector. Even if initially connected, in some applications such as vehicular or automotive applications, the connectors may become detached from each other by severe vibrations or the like. The present invention is directed to solving these problems in a lever-type electrical connector by employing a connector position assurance (CPA) member slidably mounted directly on the lever structure, the CPA member not only detecting a fully mated condition of the connector, but the CPA member also locks the lever structure in its mated position.

Lever type electrical connector with CPA member


Disclosed herein are an electrode connector including a conductive wire and a plurality of plates mounted on the wire such that the plates can be electrically connected to electrodes of cells, wherein the plates are electrically connected to the wire in a structure in which the plates are coupled to the wire by clamping, and a surface (A) of each plate contacting the wire is plated with the same metal (a) as the wire while a surface (B) of each plate connected to the corresponding electrode of each cell is plated with the same metal (b) as the corresponding electrode of each cell, and a battery module constructed with the electrode connector.

As mobile devices have been increasingly developed, and the demand of such mobile devices has increased, the demand of secondary batteries has also sharply increased as a power source for the mobile devices. One of the secondary batteries is a lithium secondary battery having high energy density and discharge voltage, into which much research has been carried out and which is now commercially and widely used.
Based on kinds of external devices in which the secondary battery is used, the secondary battery may be used in the form of a single unit cell or in the form of a battery pack including a plurality of unit cells electrically connected with each other. For example, small-sized devices, such as a mobile phone, can be operated for a predetermined period of time from the output and the capacity of a single unit cell. On the other hand, large-sized devices, such as lap-top computers or electric vehicles, require use of a medium- or large-sized battery pack because a high output and a large capacity are necessary.
The battery pack is a battery structure including a plurality of unit cells electrically connected in series and/or parallel with each other. A wire, a plate, and a flexible printed circuit board (FPCB) are used in the battery pack so as to accomplish the electrical connection between electrodes of the unit cells.
The wire is a linear conductive member. Generally, an insulating resin is covered on the outer surface of the wire, and therefore, the wire has advantages in that the linear conductive member is easily deformed, and the costs of the liner conductive member are inexpensive. However, the wire has problems in that it is difficult to accomplish the electrical connection between the electrodes of the cells by a welding process, such as spot welding, ultrasonic welding, or laser welding, and a large amount of heat is transferred to the cells during the welding process, which causes damage to the cells.
The plate, which is a plate-shaped conductive member, has an advantage in that the electrical connection between the electrodes of the cells can be easily accomplished by the above-mentioned welding process. However, the plate has a problem in that it is difficult to accomplish the electrical connection between the electrodes of the cells even with only a slight-degree error.
The FPCB, which is widely used in recent years, has advantages in that the electrical connection between the electrodes of the cells can be easily accomplished like the plate, and it is suitable for the electrical connection in a complicated structure. However, the FPCB has problems in that the FPCB is very expensive, the formability is lowered, and the assembly operation is difficult.
Processes for constituting a battery module through the electrical connection between electrodes of a plurality of cells using an FPCB are partially shown in FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 illustrates a normal assembly process of the battery module in which the connection between the electrodes is normally accomplished, and FIG. 2 illustrates an abnormal assembly process of the battery module in which the connection between the electrodes is abnormally accomplished.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, an FPCB 10 includes a flexible board 12, on which a circuit 14 is formed. To the circuit 14 are connected electrodes 22 of cells 20. When the connection circuit 14 of the FPCB 10 is properly arranged on the electrodes 22 of the cells 20, which are disposed regularly, as shown in FIG. 1, normal electrical connection between the electrodes is accomplished. When an error occurs at the first connection process as shown in FIG. 2, on the other hand, it is difficult to accomplish subsequent electrical connections between the electrodes. Consequently, the assembly operation is inaccurately carried out.
For a high-output, large-capacity battery module used in large-sized devices, such as electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles, high current flows during the charge and discharge of the battery module. Consequently, it is difficult to provide a desired output when the resistance at the electrically connected regions, for example, between the electrodes of the cells and the connector is high. According to circumstances, the electrode connector may be excessively heated, which considerably deteriorates the safety of the electrode connector.

Electrode connector containing plate and battery module employed with the same


A web page providing method for providing a web page responsive to a request from a browser, including the steps of preparing a plurality of types of web pages responsive to a display request from the browser for each display request, selecting a web page based on specification information from among the plurality of types of web pages, and providing the selected web page for the browser.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a web page providing method and apparatus and program and in particular to a web page providing method and apparatus and program capable of providing a web page of appropriate type upon reception of a display request from a browser.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the Internet users have increased rapidly and various pieces of information have been provided by various methods accordingly. For example, in some of web services most frequently used among the services using the Internet, a web page displayed when the user accesses with a web browser is changed dynamically matching each user.
A dynamic web page generally is provided by web application; it is used when a web page in the language matched with the environment of the browser used by the user is provided, etc., for example.
FIG. 7 is a block diagram to show a server configuration in a related art for providing a dynamic web page. As shown in the figure, a server 500 comprises a request processing section 501, a language information extraction section 502, a resource processing section 503, a page processing section 504, and a resource storage section 505.
In the configuration, when the user enters a URL with a browser 600, presses a form button, or clicks on a link, the browser 600 transmits a request to the server 500. This request also contains language information set in the browser 600.
In the server 500, when the request processing section 501 accepts the request, the language information extraction section 502 extracts the language information contained in the request and sends the extracted language information through the request processing section 501 to the resource processing section 503.
Next, to generate a page returned to the browser 600, the request processing section 501 executes processing of a dynamic page stored in the page processing section 504. The dynamic page is a format in which a program is embedded in a page described in HTML, etc. As the program is processed, the page returned to the browser 600 is completed. This means that the dynamic page acts as a template to generate a page.
FIG. 8 shows a description example of a dynamic page. In the figure, programs are denoted by numerals 701 and 702 and others are described in HTML. The processing result of the dynamic page is displayed as a page as shown in FIG. 9. However, Japanese character strings are described on the dynamic page shown in FIG. 8 and thus the page displayed in the browser 600 also becomes Japanese.
To avoid this and return a page responsive to the language information set in the browser 600, the character strings described in the page are stored in the resource storage section 505 as external files, and the external file corresponding to the language information is acquired through the resource processing section 503. The external files are described as shown in FIGS. 10A and 10B, for example.
By the way, most of the browsers 600 enable the user to specify a plurality of desired languages to which the priority is given. In contrast, when a resource is acquired from the resource storage section 505, only one language can be specified.
Thus, if the resource corresponding to the specified one language does not exist in the server 500 in the related art, a page described in the language fitted for setting in the browser 600 cannot be returned. A response cannot be returned.
To return a page based on the language information set in the browser 600 as a response, all character strings depending on the language in the page must be acquired from the resource storage section 505. On the other hand, generally most of dynamic page include language-dependent character strings. Describing a dynamic page containing such a program to acquire all the character strings from the resource storage section 505 becomes a burden of web application construction.
One of the advantages of a dynamic page is that a program to generate a dynamic message, etc., is entered in a part of the displayed page and the page design can be understood by seeing the description of the dynamic page like description in HTML. However, if character strings other than the dynamic message are also acquired externally, the advantage is spoiled.

Apparatus and method for providing dynamic multilingual web pages


A member for an electrostatic capacitance-type sensor which suppresses a decrease in the variation amount of the electrostatic capacitance caused between an input body and the electrode through a proximate operation or a touch operation by the input body and has a metallic luster appearance which does not degrade with time, and is economical, and an electrostatic capacitance-type sensor using the same. The disclosed member includes a sheet member having an operation surface S on which a proximate operation or a touch operation by an input body is carried out and an electrode which is disposed on the opposite side of the operation surface of the sheet member, in which the sheet member includes a decorative layer having a metallic luster, and the decorative layer is a continuous film made of silicon or an alloy of silicon and a metal.

Input apparatuses which detect a proximate operation or a touch operation (including a slide operation) by an input body, such as a user's finger, with a sensor and input the operation-based information to an electronic device and the like (for example, a transparent touch panel provided on the front surface of a display panel such as a liquid crystal display panel or the like, and an operation panel in which buttons, switches, keys, pads and the like for operating a variety of apparatuses such as home appliances, mobile phones, personal computers, automobiles and the like are disposed) are known.
As a sensor that detects a proximate operation or a touch operation by an input body, an electrostatic capacitance-type sensor which has a substrate, an electrode provided on the surface of the substrate, a protective layer that protects the electrode, and an external control unit that is connected to the electrode, and detects a variation in the electrostatic capacitance generated between the input body and the electrode, which is caused by a proximate operation or a touch operation by an input body made of a conductor (a user's finger, a movable electrode or the like), with the control unit is known (PTL 1).
Meanwhile, in an ordinary operation panel in which mechanical buttons, switches and the like are disposed, there is a case in which a decorative layer, which is visible from the surface, is provided in order to provide design properties. Examples of the decorative layer include a metal plate and the like.
However, in an operation panel having an electrostatic capacitance-type sensor, in a case in which a decorative layer made of a metal plate is provided in the electrostatic capacitance-type sensor, due to the conductivity of the decorative layer, the variation amount of the electrostatic capacitance between an input body and the electrode decreases, and the detection accuracy of a proximate operation or a touch operation degrades.
Therefore, it is proposed to configure the decorative layer using a fine metal, such as indium, tin or aluminum, in a discontinuous island structure (PTL 2). Since the conductivity of the decorative layer is decreased by configuring the decorative layer in a discontinuous island structure, a decrease in the variation amount of the electrostatic capacitance caused between an input body and the electrode through a proximate operation or a touch operation by the input body is suppressed.
However, in a decorative layer configured in a discontinuous island structure, due to abrasion, compressive stress and the like caused by handling in a manufacturing process, some islands are connected to each other, and form a network which serves as a favorable conductor such that the conductivity is liable to increase. Therefore, it is necessary to confirm the bridging action of all islands, which requires efforts. In addition, tin or aluminum is liable to become an oxide or a chloride, and loses the metal luster over time. Meanwhile, indium is not stably supplied and is expensive.

Member for electrostatic capacitance-type sensor and electrostatic capacitance-type sensor using the same


A method for controlling the display of a screen which allows the user to discriminate the scanned image and the recognition result intuitively and easily. The display control method for allowing the user to verify the recognition result of a character on a verification screen form is implemented as follows. First of all, the standard pattern of a specific character stored in a memory and a plurality of character images recognized as the specific character are read, upon an operation of the user. And the read standard pattern is displayed in a recognition result character display portion within the verification screen form and a plurality of the read character image are displayed sequentially in a character image display portion adjacent or proximal to the recognition result character display portion and at a predetermined position of a character image list display portion. A plurality of character images are listed in the character image list display portion, in which the already displayed character images are shifted one position from the predetermined position and displayed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for controlling the display of a screen displayed on a display device of a computer, for example and, more particularly, to a method for verifying a read image on a screen by recognizing a character.
2. Background Art
One of the methods for reading a character or figure is an optical character recognition (hereinafter referred to as OCR). An OCR apparatus or a computer having the OCR function recognizes (specifies) a character or figure as a predetermined pattern by reading optically an image of the character or figure, and comparing it with the reference pattern. The OCR apparatus or computer of this type handles a large amount of different kinds of patterns, and may make an error recognition result. Therefore, the recognition result is checked through the visual inspection of the operator, and if mis-recognized, the recognition result must be corrected.
A typical user interface for use in comparing the character image and the recognition result character involves a combination of a display area of read character image and a display area of recognition result character (standard pattern).
FIG. 19 is a view showing an example of a verification screen for verifying the character image and the recognition result. As shown in FIG. 19, the verification screen is designed by arranging various display areas in a predetermined form. The character image read (hereinafter referred to as scanned) in accordance with a format of document and the recognition result of this character image are output to a predetermined area of this verification screen. In the illustrated example, a character image display area 2110 and a recognition result display area 2120 for displaying the recognition result of this character image are arranged in two rows in the verification screen.
Problems to be Solved by the Invention
In employing a business application for recognizing a character, outputting the recognition result and verifying the output result, the arrangement of GUI parts on the verification screen as the user interface greatly affects the efficiency of operator's verification operation. In the conventional verification screen, the operator had to compare the character image read from each field of the document and the recognition result for each character for verification. For each document, the user needed to read the character image and the recognition result and repeat the verification operation for each character. In this manner, a complex operation was required for verifying the recognition result. Namely, the verification operation by the operator was bad in the operation efficiency, and not expected to have high throughput.
To verify the character images arranged for each field and the recognition result, the operator must always move the line of sight up or down and left or right, so that the operator's eyes are very tired by repeating this movement for a long time.
A user interface may be provided in which a plurality of character images having the same recognition result can be arranged and compared with the recognition result character for verification. In this case, when the operator makes visual inspection, it is unnecessary to move the line of sight to the recognition result character for each character, whereby the burden is relieved. However, in the case of employing such a method, it is a burden for the operator to move the line of sight to all the character images, and there is a risk of the column skip or line skip during verification, resulting in a check error (missing check).
Thus, it is an object of the present invention to design a screen with the user interface in which the scanned character can be verified at higher productivity and with less burden and fatigue of the operator.
Also, it is another object of the invention to provide a method for controlling the display of a screen in which a difference between a scanned image and the recognition result can be discriminated intuitively and easily.

Display control method, and program, information processing apparatus and optical character recognizer

International Business Machines Corporation


A data coding system is arranged such that character font data is compressed in a unit of 4-bit in a form of a bit string with a compression width of 4-bit in the Huffman coding system. The data coding system employs a code structure in the Huffman coding system for respectively converting three bit strings selected in order from that of the highest appearance frequency in a unit of 4-bit in the character font data into the compressed codes expressed using not more than 3 bits. The described system permits a significantly improved compression rate of the character font data into respective compressed codes.

Conventionally, the Huffman coding system is known as a data coding system of a file composed of data such as character data, etc., to be adopted in an information processing apparatus for processing a digital signal, such as a personal computer, etc.
In the Huffman coding system, a compression table of a coding system in which compressed codes are given to character data from the shortest bit string to the longest bit string in order from the highest appearance frequency (probability) is adopted. Referring to the compression table, the character data in the file is converted into the compressed codes to form a compressed file. Then, the compressed codes of the compressed file are restored to the original character data referring to the compression table.
Specifically, in the Huffman coding system, by expressing each data such as characters, etc., in the file of the document, etc., in such a manner that the character data which appears frequently is expressed using compressed codes of, for example, four bits, and the character data which appears less frequently is expressed using compressed codes of, for example, around 10 bits, the size of the compressed file can be significantly reduced.
However, in the described Huffman coding system, as the compression table is fixed, in the case of compressing the data in the file, composed of character data including many special characters, the data compression efficiency greatly drops.
To eliminate the described problem, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 232626/1988 (Tokukaisho 63-232626) discloses a hardware based data compression/restoring system wherein an adaptive coding system in which a compression table varies according to the appearance frequency of each character data is adopted in replacement of the conventional static Huffman coding system using the fixed compression table.
According to the described conventional Huffman coding system, as the compression is carried out based on a unit of 8 bits, which is advantageous in processing data in the microprocessor, in the case of converting a minimum unit of 8-bit into the compressed code, the compression table would contain 256 kinds of compressed codes.
As described, in the conventional coding system, in the case of compressing character font data by the described Huffman coding system, if the compression is performed in the unit of 8-bit, the kinds of the compressed codes would be expanded to 256 kinds. However, the described coding system has such a drawback that the appearance frequency of each code would be broadly distributed (scattered), thereby presenting the problem that there is a limit in improving an efficiency in compressing the character font data.
When the described coding system of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application No. 232626/1988 (Tokukaisho 63-232626) is applied to the character font data, the compression rate can be improved only within the known range, and an optimization of the data compression cannot be attained, thereby presenting the problem that there is a limit in improving the compression rate of the character font data.

Data coding system and decoding circuit of compressed code


A facial tracking method for detecting and tracking at least one face image in a region during a time period. The facial tracking method includes a step of performing an image acquiring operation, a step of performing a facial detecting operation to detect whether there is any face image in the entire of a current photo image, and at least one step of performing a facial tracking operation. For performing the facial tracking operation, plural tracking frames are located around a face image of the current photo image, and a similarity between the face image of the current photo image and the image included in each tracking frame in order to judge whether the face image exists in the next photo image. By the facial tracking method of the present invention, the time period of tracking face images is largely reduced.

Generally, the beneficial results of playing television commercials or television series may be realized by gathering statistics about audience ratings. Recently, a variety of digital signages are widely used. However, no unified and efficient system has been developed to gather statistics about the beneficial results of playing advertisements. It is very important for the advertisers to select and play different advertisements and assess the audience concerns on the advertisements according to the audience feedback. Consequently, many researchers make efforts in the development of the technology of counting the number of persons in front of the digital signage. A known method of counting the number of persons will be described in more details as follows.
FIG. 1 is a flowchart illustrating a conventional method of counting and tracking the number of persons. Firstly, in the step 110, a database is provided. At least one personage message is recorded in the database. In addition, each personage message indicates the position, the physical feature and the residence time of a corresponding tracked person at the tracking time. Then, in the step 120, a personage region for detecting a person is acquired from an input image. After the input image is obtained, any computer vision technology such as an open source computer vision library (OpenCV) may be utilized to search the input image to detect whether there is any feature of a rectangular frame (e.g. a Haar-like feature). In addition, any applicable algorithm (e.g. an Adaboost algorithm) may be utilized to obtain candidate regions for detecting a person. After the improper candidate regions are deleted, the colors of all candidate regions are obtained. By judging whether the colors are skin color, the personage region is acquired. Then, in the step 130, the current position and the current physical feature of the personage region are extracted. Then, in the step 140, the current position and the current physical feature of the detected person corresponding to the personage region are compared with each personage message of the database in order to judge whether the detected person is any tracked person.
Hereinafter, a method of judging whether the detected person is any tracked person according to the similarity will be illustrated in more details. Firstly, a personage message is acquired from the database. Then, a facial texture similarity and a body texture similarity of the current physical feature of the detected person relative to the acquired personage message are calculated. In addition, the displacement amount of the current position of the detected person relative to the acquired personage message should be calculated. Afterwards, the similarity between the detected person and the acquired personage message is calculated according to the facial texture similarity, the body texture similarity and the displacement amount. After each personage message is acquired from the database, the above steps may be repeatedly performed to calculate plural similarities between all personage messages and the detected person.
If the value of the highest similarity among the plural similarities is higher than a first threshold value, the detected person may be considered as the tracked person with the highest similarity. Then, in the step 150, the personage message of the tracked person in the database is updated according to the current position and the current physical feature of the detected person.
On other hand, if all of the calculated similarities are lower than a second threshold value in the step 140, it is considered that the detected person does not comply with all tracked persons. Then, the step 160 is performed. Consequently, a new personage message corresponding to the detected person is added to the database in order to record the detected person as a new tracked person.
If the capacity of the database reaches a critical capacity when the personage message is added to the database, the latest update time of each personage message in the database is firstly acquired, and then the personage message which has not been updated for the longest time is deleted from the database.
Afterwards, the number of persons is calculated according to the residence time of each tracked person in the database (Step 170).
From the above discussions about the conventional method of calculating and tracking the number of persons, a personage region for detecting a person is firstly acquired from an input image, and then each detected person is successively compared with all tracked persons in the database in order to judge whether the detected person is any tracked person. Consequently, the purpose of calculating and tracking the number of persons is achieved.
However, the conventional method still has some drawbacks. For example, it is time-consuming to detect the face image from each input image. After the detected person is acquired from each input image, each detected person is successively compared with all tracked persons in the database. If there are abundant personage messages contained in the database, the overall processing time is increased. In other words, the processing time of the conventional method is very long. Under this circumstance, since a high performance processing device is needed to implement the lengthy and massive computing process, the conventional method fails to meet the requirement of many users.
Moreover, according to the conventional method, if the capacity of the database reaches the critical capacity, the personage message which has not been updated for the longest time is deleted from the database. In other words, some personage messages are lost after the tracking process is ended. Consequently, the accuracy of the tracking result is impaired. For overcoming these problems, the data may be processed in batches in order to avoid losing the personage messages because of too many personage messages. However, the processing time is extended, and the processing complexity is increased.
Therefore, there is a need of providing an improved facial tracking method for calculating and tracking the number of persons in order to overcome the above drawbacks.


A fuel injection valve includes a nozzle body and a plate. The nozzle body includes an injection orifice, through which fuel is injected, a needle that controls the injection through the injection orifice, and a needle-receiving bore that receives the needle. The plate is adjacently provided to the nozzle body for defining a fuel passage therein, through which fuel is supplied to the needle-receiving bore. The plate has an annular groove, which connects the fuel passage with the needle-receiving bore, at an end surface of the plate toward the nozzle body.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel injection valve.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, there has been known a fuel injection valve, which includes a nozzle body and a plate. Here, the nozzle body includes an injection orifice, through which fuel is injected, and a needle-receiving bore, which receives a needle controlling the injection through the injection orifice. Also, the plate is adjacently provided to the nozzle body for defining a fuel passage, through which fuel is supplied to the needle-receiving bore (see DE Patent Application Publication No. 10023952, which corresponds to US Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0060998, DE Patent Application Publication No. 10024703, and DE Patent Application Publication No. 10029297).
In the above fuel passage of the fuel injection valve disclosed in the above publications, fuel is required to be supplied to an outer periphery of a needle, which is received in a needle-receiving bore along an axial center thereof. Therefore, the fuel passage is formed in the plate, and is displaced from the needle-receiving bore. Also, the needle-receiving bore is provided with a cut, which connects the needle-receiving bore and the fuel passage.
However, because the above fuel injection valve includes the cut, when the injection pressure for injection becomes high, a stress is concentrated on the cut portion, thereby, a pressure resistance performance of the nozzle body may disadvantageously decrease. In contrast, in order to avoid formation of the cut, an inner diameter of the needle-receiving bore may be enlarged instead. However, if a magnitude of an outer diameter of the nozzle body is kept as it is in this case (i.e., if the magnitude of the outer diameter of the nozzle body is not changed even when the inner diameter of the needle-receiving bore is enlarged), a thickness of the nozzle body is decreased, thus the pressure resistance performance being reduced.


Tomographic/tomosynthetic image reconstruction systems and methods in the framework of machine learning, such as deep learning, are provided. A machine learning algorithm can be used to obtain an improved tomographic image from raw data, processed data, or a preliminarily reconstructed intermediate image for biomedical imaging or any other imaging purpose. In certain cases, a single, conventional, non-deep-learning algorithm can be used on raw imaging data to obtain an initial image, and then a deep learning algorithm can be used on the initial image to obtain a final reconstructed image. All machine learning methods and systems for tomographic image reconstruction are covered, except for use of a single shallow network (three layers or less) for image reconstruction.

Medical imaging includes two major components: (1) image formation and reconstruction, from data to images; and (2) image processing and analysis, from images to images (e.g., de-noising and artifact reduction, among other tasks) and from images to features (e.g., recognition, among other tasks). While many methods exist for image processing and analysis, there is a relative dearth when it comes to image formation and reconstruction, and existing systems and methods in this area still exhibit many drawbacks.

Tomographic image reconstruction via machine learning


A process/method is provided for the next generation of electricity market systems that support competitive trading of electric energy and ancillary services within day-ahead and real-time market operation frameworks. The invention comprises the systems and methods related to advances in electricity market architecture, functionality, and performance. The systems and methods of the invention ensure system operation reliability and maximize market economic efficiency of energy and ancillary services trading in competitive market environment. A process/method comprising optimal clearing and competitive price formation for a variety of market commodities that are supplied and consumed by a numerous market entities of a variety of types. The solution process is arranged and facilitated in controllable and efficient manner.

The electricity industry has been undergoing restructuring processes for more than two decades. Current systems used by electricity markets were designed many decades ago, prior to the profound changes that have been ongoing in the industry since their adoption. The paradigm of vertically integrated monopolistic electric utilities has been transformed into decentralized electricity market environments where electric energy and ancillary services are traded in a competitive manner. The forces of competitive market economy are the main factors improving economic efficiency of overall electric power system operation.
The design, implementation and operation of electricity market systems have been facing policy, interest groups, and information technology challenges. These factors impact market design, business models and operation procedures and limit market system efficiency, quality and performance. Most profound has been the impact presented by SmartGrid technologies and the inclusion of distribution-level grid assets into the composite offerings at the wholesale level by energy industry participants. The systems currently being used were not designed to incorporate such variable resource assets, real-time data updates, Big Data level analytics and representations such as geo-spatial representations and the like, as well as the ongoing complex structure of physical and cyber security protocols, standards, and requirements. As a consequence, the expected effects of electricity market restructuring are not achieved and numerous unintended operational and business issues are created.
The addition of multiple types and sources and complexity of some generating facilities and the extreme number of participating entities could not be considered in an appropriate manner. For instance, it was inconceivable twenty years ago to anticipate that a battery could be considered as a generation resource that could impact reliability of the electric grid or that could be bid into an electricity market as an available resource, spinning or non-spinning Because of this expansion and the inability of current systems to incorporate such additional resources as actual data inputs, approximations and aggregations are currently used to be able to facilitate and optimize market operation. There are obviously errors with the use of such approximations and aggregations. These modelling deviations impact market outcomes for all market participants due to electric power system physical interdependencies.
The limited capabilities of information technology available in current market systems enforce reduction of information flows and storage volumes. Even if the final outcomes of electricity market operation may not be impacted, the situation awareness, execution controllability and operation analysis are limited. The needs of a variety of market operation groups (policy makers, designers, operators, supervisors, monitors, auditors) can only be fulfilled in a degraded manner below the critical level. As a result, there are actual needs of these stakeholders that are not being met by the currently available systems.
The development of smart grid technologies has impacted the energy industry in fundamental ways. Not only are increasing numbers of decentralized grid assets becoming available to be incorporated into models, the impact on the energy markets has not been understood. Increasing levels of smart grid technologies, generation resources and demand responses require additional policies, market rules and pricing mechanisms to facilitate appropriate market participation. The granularity and high number of these devices create information issues as well. The existing business models and market operation capabilities are not capable to support smart technology deployment in a reliable and efficient manner.
The experiences and learned lessons over last several decades in the electricity industry restructuring allow further advances in policies, concepts and methodologies of electricity market design and implementation. The advances in information and computation technology open the space for additional market features, accurate presentations, advanced usability, and improved performances.
The experience in electricity market design and operation established the confidence in competitive electricity markets. At the same time, the ways for addressing existing issues and further improvements of market participant benefits are also possible. The alignment of market clearing and pricing outcomes with business objectives of market participants is a remaining task for the next generation market systems as well. As a consequence, the quality of market commodity awards and pricing signals represent motivational incentives for market participants toward efficient operation of overall electricity markets.

Next-generation energy market design and implementation

OPEN ACCESS TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL, INC.


The invention relates to a method for operating a first access node (100) of a first cellular network in which a first user entity (200) uses a first access technology with at least one first carrier frequency to access a first cell (110) of the first cellular network, the at least one first carrier frequency having a bandwidth. It comprises:                determining that a second user entity (400) or a second access node (300) using a second access technology different from the first access technology may operate in the first cell (110) within the bandwidth of the at least one first carrier frequency in order to access a second cellular network,        transmitting information to the first user entity (200) by which the first user entity is informed about the fact that the second user entity (400) or second access node may operate in the first cell within the bandwidth of the at least one first carrier frequency using the second access technology.

Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT):
In GERAN #62, a study item on "Cellular System Support for Ultra Low Complexity and Low Throughput Internet of Things" was approved. The aim was to study both the possibility of evolving current GERAN system and the design of a new access system towards low complexity and low throughput radio access technology to address the requirements of cellular internet of things. The objectives of the study were: improved indoor coverage, support for massive number of low throughput devices, low delay sensitivity, ultra-low device cost, low device power consumption and (optimized) network architecture. As per the PCG #34 decisions, it was agreed to move the normative phase of a single "clean-slate solution" to 3GPP LTE. This feature is called NarrowBand Internet of Things (NB-IOT).
3GPP LTE represents the project within the third generation partnership project, with an aim to improve the UMTS standard. 3GPP LTE radio interface offers high peak data rates, low delays and increase in spectral efficiencies. LTE ecosystem supports both Frequency division duplex (FDD) and Time division duplex (TDD). This enables the operators to exploit both the paired and unpaired spectrum since LTE has flexibility in bandwidth as it supports 6 bandwidths 1.4 MHz, 3 MHz, 5 MHz, 10 MHz, 15 MHz and 20 MHz.
The objective of this new work item on NB-IOT is to specify a radio access for cellular internet of things, based to a great extent on a non-backward-compatible variant of E-UTRA, that addresses improved indoor coverage, support for massive number of low throughput devices, low delay sensitivity, ultra low device cost, low device power consumption and (optimized) network architecture.
NB-IoT should support 3 different modes of operation:                1. 'Stand-alone operation' utilizing for example the spectrum currently being used by GERAN systems as a replacement of one or more GSM carriers. In principle it operates on any carrier frequency which is neither within the carrier of another system nor within the guard band of another system's operating carrier. The other system can be another NB-IOT operation or any other RAT e.g. LTE.        2. 'Guard band operation' utilizing the unused resource blocks within a LTE carrier's guard-band. The term guard band may also interchangeably called as guard bandwidth.        3. 'In-band operation' utilizing resource blocks within a normal LTE carrier. The in-band operation may also interchangeably called as in-bandwidth operation.
In NB-IOT the downlink transmission is based on OFDM with 15 kHz subcarrier spacing for all the scenarios: standalone, guard-band, and in-band. For UL transmission, both multi-tone transmissions based on SC-FDMA, and single tone transmission is supported. This means that the physical waveforms for NB-IoT in downlink and also partly in uplink is similar to legacy LTE.
In the downlink design, NB-IOT supports both master information broadcast and system information broadcast which are carried by different physical channels. For in-band operation, it is possible for NB-IOT UE to decode NB-PBCH without knowing the legacy PRB index. NB-IOT supports both downlink physical control channel (NB-PDCCH) and downlink physical shared channel (PDSCH). The operation mode of NB-IOT must be indicated to the UE and currently 3GPP consider indication by means of NB-SSS, NB-MIB or perhaps other downlink signals.
At the moment, reference signals used in NB-IOT has not been decided by 3GPP, however it is expected that the general design principle will follow that of legacy LTE. Downlink synchronization signal will most likely consists of primary synchronization signal (NB-PSS) and secondary synchronization signal (NB-SSS).
In the following we briefly describe reference signals in LTE that might be the basis for the NB-IOT reference signal designs.
Downlink Reference Signals in LTE:
Downlink reference signals are predefined signals occupying specific resource elements within the downlink time-frequency grid. The LTE specification includes several types of downlink reference signals that are transmitted in different ways and used for different purposes by the receiving terminal:                Cell-specific reference signals (CRS): These reference signals are transmitted in every downlink subframe and in every resource block in the frequency domain, thus covering the entire cell bandwidth. The cell-specific reference signals can be used by the terminal for channel estimation for coherent demodulation of any downlink physical channel except for PMCH and for PDSCH in the case of transmission modes 7, 8, or 9 [see 3GPP TS 36.104]. The cell-specific reference signals can also be used by the terminal to acquire channel-state information (CSI). Finally, terminal measurements on cell-specific reference signals are used as the basis for cell-selection and handover decisions.        Demodulation reference signals (DM-RS): These reference signals also sometimes referred to as UE-specific reference signals, are specifically intended to be used by terminals for channel estimation for PDSCH in the case of transmission modes 7, 8, 9 or 10. The label "UE-specific" relates to the fact that each demodulation reference signal is intended for channel estimation by a single terminal. That specific reference signal is then only transmitted within the resource blocks assigned for PDSCH transmission to that terminal.        CSI reference signals (CSI-RS): These reference signals are specifically intended to be used by terminals to acquire channel-state information (CSI) in the case when demodulation reference signals are used for channel estimation. CSI-RS have a significantly lower time/frequency density, thus implying less overhead, compared to the cell-specific reference signals.        Positioning reference signals (PRS): Positioning reference signals are used to improve positioning performance, and are transmitted by the base station in a number of consecutive downlink subframes, where this number is configured at the UE by higher layers.        Multicast/Broadcast single frequency network (MBSFN) reference signals: MBSFN reference signals are used for channel estimation by a UE in an MBSFN subframe, where all cells in the MBSFN area transmits the same reference symbols.        Discovery reference signals (DRS): The DRS may comprise of any combination of CRS, CSI-RS, PSS and SS. The DRS are typically transmitted in specific subframes with some periodicity e.g. 40 ms, 80 ms and 160 ms.        Sidelink reference signals: The sidelink in a cell contains radio resources which are used for D2D operation aka proximity services (ProSe) operation where UEs directly communicate with each other over wireless link i.e. sidelink (SL). Specific examples of ProSe operation are ProSe direct communication, ProSe direct discovery etc. Examples of SL reference signals are primary sidelink synchronization signal (PSSS), secondary sidelink synchronization signal (SSSS), sidelink demodulation reference signals (S-DMRS) etc.
Two of the above reference signals that are more relevant to this invention are explained in more details in the following.
Positioning Reference Signal:
In LTE Release 9, special positioning subframes are devised to improve OTDOA positioning performance. These positioning subframes typically do not contain any data and only carry positioning reference signals together with CRS. However data transmission may also take place in these subframes. Positioning reference signals are transmitted by the base station in a number of consecutive downlink subframes, where this number is configured at the UE by higher layers. The PRS transmission takes place over antenna port #6 (aka R6) and is shown in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 shows an embodiment with a PRS transmission in a subframe when one or two antennas are used for PBCH under normal CP.
A set of consecutive DL subframes containing PRS is also called as positioning occasion or simply PRS occasion. The DL subframe containing PRS is also interchangeably called as PRS subframe. Within a positioning occasion any number of PRS subframes ranging from 1 to 6 can be configured. There are 4 different PRS periodicities or more specifically PRS occasion periodicity. They are 160 ms, 320 ms, 640 ms, and 1280 ms.
The PRS periodicity is also interchangeably called as positioning configuration period, PRS period or PRS configuration period. In frequency domain the PRS are transmitted over the BW equal to or less than the BW of the cell. The PRS BW (aka PRS transmission BW) can be any of: 6, 15, 25, 50, 75 and 100 RBs. In order to reduce interference at the UE for receiving PRS from another cell (e.g. cell2), the PRS in one or more PRS occasions in a cell (e.g. cell1) can be muted (i.e. not transmitted or transmitted with low or reduced power). For example all PRS subframes in every 4th PRS occasion can be muted or 2 out of 8 PRS occasions can be muted; the corresponding muting pattern is signaled to the UE by the positioning node.
These parameters (aka PRS configuration parameters) are illustrated in FIG. 2 where an example of PRS occasion containing 2 PRS subframes occurring with certain periodicity is shown.
MBSFN Reference Signals:
MBSFN subframes are defined from Rel-8 in LTE with the intention to support multicast/broadcast transmission. Each MBSFN subframe contains a control region at the beginning of the subframe and a data region. An MBSFN area can comprise one or more cells which transmit the same MBSFN signals. Since the UE needs an estimation of the combined radio channel for coherent detection of the multicast channel (MCH), normal cell specific reference signals cannot be used. For that purpose, special MBSFN reference signals are transmitted over the set of cells in one MBSFN area. The reference symbols that are transmitted from all eNBs in the MBSFN area, are the same sequences and they use the same time and frequency resources. Therefore the channel estimation reflects the overall aggregated channel between all eNBs in the same MBSFN area and the UE.
Measurements:
RRM Measurement:
Several radio related measurements are used by the UE or the radio network node to establish and keep the connection, as well as ensuring the quality of a radio link.
The UE has to first detect a cell and therefore cell identification e.g. acquisition of a physical cell identity (PCI), is also a signal measurement. The UE may also have to acquire the cell global ID (CGI) of a cell.
The UE reads the SI of the target cell (e.g. intra-, inter-frequency or inter-RAT cell) upon receiving an explicit request from the serving network node via RRC signaling e.g. from RNC in HSPA or eNode B in case of LTE. The acquired SI is then reported to the serving cell. The signaling messages are defined in the relevant HSPA and LTE specifications.
In order to acquire the SI which contains the CGI of the target cell, the UE has to read at least part of the system information (SI) including master information block (MIB) and the relevant system information block (SIB) as described later. The terms SI reading/decoding/acquisition, CGI/ECGI reading/decoding/acquisition, CSG SI reading/decoding/acquisition are interchangeably used but have the same or similar meaning.
The RSRP and RSRQ are the two existing measurements used for at least RRM such as for mobility, which include mobility in RRC connected state as well as in RRC idle state. The RSRP and RSRQ are also used for other purposes such as for enhanced cell ID positioning, minimization of drive test etc. Other examples of UE measurements are UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement, reference signal time difference (RSTD) etc.
Examples of MBSFN related measurements are MBSFN MCH BLER, MBSFN RSRP, MBSFN RSRQ etc.
Examples of ProSe related measurements are SL RSRP (S-RSRP), SL-RSRQ (S-RSRQ) etc.
In RRC connected state the UE can perform intra-frequency measurements without measurement gaps. However as a general rule the UE performs inter-frequency and inter-RAT measurements in measurement gaps unless it is capable of performing them without gaps. Two periodic measurement gap patterns both with a measurement gap length of 6 ms are defined for LTE:                Measurement gap pattern #0 with repetition period 40 ms        Measurement gap pattern #1 with repetition period 80 ms
The measurements performed by the UE are then reported to the network, which may use them for various tasks.
The radio network node (e.g. base station or access node) may also perform signal measurements. Examples of radio network node measurements in LTE are propagation delay between UE and itself, UL SINR, UL SNR, UL signal strength, Received Interference Power (RIP), timing advance (TA), eNode Rx-Tx time difference measurement etc. The eNB may also perform positioning measurements which are described in a later section.
The UE also performs measurements on the serving cell (aka primary cell) in order to monitor the serving cell performance. This is called as radio link monitoring (RLM) or RLM related measurements in LTE.
For RLM the UE monitors the downlink link quality based on the cell-specific reference signal in order to detect the downlink radio link quality of the serving or PCell.
In order to detect out of sync and in sync the UE compares the estimated quality with the thresholds Qout and Qin respectively. The threshold Qout and Qin are defined as the level at which the downlink radio link cannot be reliably received and corresponds to 10% and 2% block error rate of a hypothetical PDCCH transmissions respectively.
When an NB-IoT is deployed as part of existing LTE system and inside the LTE channel bandwidth (in-band or guard-band), some of the LTE resources are used by the new RAT i.e. NB-IoT. The resources used by the new RAT may collide with some legacy reference symbols, etc., in which case can cause problem in the legacy RAT to perform its normal operation. As an example the resource block (RBI) used for in-band NB-IOT operation within the legacy RAT carrier bandwidth (e.g. LTE carrier bandwidth) is expected to carry PRS but will not contain PRS in reality. A legacy UE (i.e. LTE UE) using such radio resource for PRS based measurements (e.g. RSTD) will not be able to perform its normal positioning operation based on PRS. As a result even the positioning may fail. The problem is not restricted to LTE as the same problem can occur when different user entities using different access technologies act in the same frequency band or at least in the same bandwidth.

Operation in an environment with two different radio access technologies


A birdfeeder and method for deterring animals includes a pair of bird perches having an electric potential therebetween, the perches being vertically separated and positioned on a container for food so that an animal such as a squirrel attempting to feed from the birdfeeder will likely contact the two electrified perches and receive a mild shock, whereas robin-sized birds or smaller feeding at the bird feeder are too small to simultaneously contact the two perches and do not receive an electric shock.

The is a birdfeeder and method for deterring feeding at a birdfeeder by wild animals such as squirrels. More particularly, the invention relates to a birdfeeder having perches for birds that provide a mild electric shock to squirrels attempting to feed from the birdfeeder, but not to birds.
Wild animals such as raccoons, opossums, and especially squirrels, can be most troublesome when they appear on birdfeeders. They disrupt the normal eating habits of the birds and consume food intended for the birds. Various types of "squirrel proof" birdfeeders have been introduced with varying degrees of success. Such birdfeeders have typically relied upon mechanical traps or physical barriers to prevent the squirrels from gaining access to the food. Squirrels are almost always able to overcome such traps and physical barriers through their acrobatic ability, ingenuity and/or lack of fear of harm, and the inability of even allegedly "squirrel proof" birdfeeders to consistently deter squirrels from feeding presents a continuing problem.
The present invention uses a mild electric shock to deter animals such as squirrels from feeding at the birdfeeder. It is desirable that the shock not be strong enough to permanently harm animals such as squirrels, but that it be strong enough to deter feeding at the protected birdfeeder.
The use of electricity to train or control animals is well known, but such uses generally do not discriminate between the types of animals affected by the electricity. Traditional physical barriers, even when electrified, are often inappropriate for wily animals such as squirrels. See, for example, the electrified rail fences shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,118,752 to Iguchi and U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,941 to Sherdan.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel animal deterring birdfeeder and method that provides an electric shock to animals attempting to feed from the birdfeeder while not affecting birds feeding therefrom.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a novel animal deterring birdfeeder and method having electrified bird perches that are vertically separated so that a squirrel attempting to feed from the birdfeeder will likely contact two of the perches and receive an electric shock.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a novel electrified animal deterring birdfeeder and method which is inexpensive to build and operate and which deters animals with a mild and intermittent shock.
These and many other objects and advantages will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from a perusal of the claims and the following detailed description of preferred embodiments when read in conjunction with the appended drawings.


A method for cleaning the interior of a boiler wherein a cleaning solution reservoir is mounted within an appliance in which the boiler is housed, and a flow conduit circuit interconnects the reservoir to the boiler and has an eductor operative to draw cleaning solution from the reservoir and pass it to the interior of the associated boiler when water under pressure is introduced into the eductor. The method finds particular application is de-scaling boilers employed in steam cooking ovens and the like wherein the boilers are relatively inaccessible.

The present invention relates generally to cleaning of boiler interiors, and more particularly to a novel system and method for cleaning boilers which finds particular application in de-scaling boilers of apparatus having boilers that are difficult or inconvenient to access.
A major problem with any device which heats or boils water is scale buildup in the boiler. Dissolved solids in the water precipitate and bond to surfaces in contact with the water. This scale can build up to levels which cause blockage of drains, damage valves, cause heater failure in electric boilers, and greatly reduce efficiency in gas-fired units.
One technique to reduce scale buildup in boilers is to employ a water conditioner which removes solids from the water being introduced into the boiler. However, such water conditioners are relatively expensive and require regular maintenance. A more common practice is to periodically de-scale the boilers. This is generally done by introducing a strong acid, such as phosphoric acid, into the boiler. The acid is allowed to stand and dissolve the scale, after which the boiler is flushed and drained to remove the acid and dissolved scale. This technique has been found quite satisfactory but presents a significant safety problem when introducing the acid into the boiler.
The safety problems inherent in introducing acid de-scaling solutions into boilers are particularly acute when cleaning gas-fired boilers or combination steam and dry air cooking ovens and the like wherein the boilers are housed within the oven cabinets rearwardly of associated cooking compartments. Such boilers are commonly accessed from the top rear of the oven cabinet generally through a pressure relief port or fill port at the top of the boiler. This often makes it necessary to climb on top of the cabinet which may be hot from use, slippery from cooking grease, or located close to other equipment. Moreover, since such access is carried out while holding strong acids, the safety problems are magnified. Also, since commercial oven units are often double stacked, additional problems are presented by the height of the access port in the upper boiler, and the increased difficulty in reaching the access port in the lower boiler. In addition to overcoming safety problems, boiler cleaning systems should be simple in operation and not require service calls or the use of specialized tools.


Circuits, systems, methods and software for controlling a power conversion and/or correcting and/or controlling a power factor in such conversion(s). The present invention generally takes a computational approach to reducing or minimizing zero current periods in the critical mode of power converter operation, and advantageously reduces zero current periods in the critical mode of power converter operation, thereby maximizing the power factor of the power converter in the critical mode and reducing noise that may be injected back into AC power lines. The present power factor controller allows for greater design flexibility, reduced design complexity, and reduced resolution and greater tolerance for error in certain parameter measurements useful in power factor correction and/or control.

An electrical load may appear to a power supply as a resistive impedance, an inductive impedance, a capacitive impedance, or a combination thereof. Ideally, when the current passing to the load is in phase with the voltage applied to or crossing the load, the power factor approaches one. Due to the nature of alternating current, the power factor of AC power can easily be less than one in certain situations (e.g., when the voltage is close to zero). In such situations, transmitted power/energy can be wasted (due to phase mismatch between current and voltage) and/or noise may be introduced into the power line. To reduce the noise to the power line caused by electrical loads and to improve the efficiency of power transmission, power supplies generally have power factor correction (PFC) circuitry to shape the input current waveform to follow the input voltage waveform. The closer the phase of the input current waveform follows the phase of the input voltage waveform, the more efficient the power conversion and the less noise is returned to the AC power line. The power factor, or PF, is a measure of this power conversion efficiency, and ideally, the PF for a given power converter should approach 1 under all conditions. When the PF does not approach 1, even under limited conditions, some portion of the transmitted energy is wasted, and current that should be passed onto a load may be returned, thereby introducing noise onto the power line.
FIG. 1 is a diagram of a conventional boost converter 10, in which an alternating current power supply AC is received at four-way rectifier 15. Input current Iin passes through inductor 20, and under certain operational conditions, a part of input current Iin passes through diode 50 (having a capacitor/filter 60 at its output) before being applied to load 70. Power factor controller 30 effectively controls the current flowing through inductor 20 by turning switch 40 on and off in response to an AC voltage-sensing input 12, a DC output voltage 72, a sensed power conversion current from a current detection inductor 25, and a feedback current 34. When switch 40 is on, a current 22 generally flows through inductor 20 (thereby storing some energy in inductor 20), then through switch 40 to ground. When switch 40 is off, a current 52 may flow through diode 50 and some charge may collect at capacitor 60, but generally, current flow 22 through inductor 20 is significantly reduced or even prevented.
FIG. 2 is a graph showing an AC voltage V into AC-DC converter 10. Input voltage V is the rectified half-sine wave of the AC waveform input. However, due to the on/off cycles of switch 40 (controlled by controller 30; see FIG. 1), the current waveform I in FIG. 2 has a sawtooth pattern. After passing such a sawtooth waveform I through a low-pass filter (e.g., high frequency bypass capacitor 17 in FIG. 1), the input current waveform resembles the input voltage AC at the input of rectifier 15, and the PF for the conversion approaches 1 under most conditions, particularly those conditions where the loading power is sufficiently high to allow an appreciable average input current to continuously pass through inductor 20. This is, in fact, known as the "average current mode" or "continuous mode" of operation for boost power converter 10.
The PFC for a given boost converter generally has two parameters defined by a specification: (1) PF, and (2) total harmonic distortion (or THD). THD refers to distortion caused generally by higher order harmonics (e.g., for a 60 Hz AC signal, distortion in the converted power signal caused by AC signals having a frequency of 120 Hz, 180 Hz, or other n*60 Hz value, where n is an integer of 2 or more). Generally, the higher the THD, the lower the efficiency. Such harmonics can saturate the transformer coils in boost converter 10 (e.g., in inductor 20). Moreover, if the THD is sufficiently high, noise can be fed back onto the AC power lines 12-14, a highly undesirable result from the perspective of a systems designer (e.g., of a power line network).
FIG. 3A shows a low-power and/or low-voltage portion 120 of the voltage and current waveforms of FIG. 2. The voltage waveform V is the voltage at the output of rectifier 15 (see FIG. 1), and the current waveform I is the input current Iin passing through inductor 20. When switch 40 in FIG. 1 is turned on at time t0, current I increases in a substantially linear manner, as shown by slope 122. Switch 40 is on for a period of time determined by controller 30, and at the end of this time (point 124 on the current waveform I in FIG. 2), switch 40 turns off and current I decreases in a substantially linear manner. Switch 40 then is turned on again by controller 30 (see FIG. 1) after a period of time ts−t0, also determined by controller 30.
When current I=0 (i.e., I0, the current value during "zero current period" 126 in FIG. 3A), the average current or continuous mode of operation has a potential distortion issue. The THD, no matter how low, cannot be controlled during the zero current period 126 of waveform portion 120 because there is no current flowing through inductor 20 of FIG. 1. This lack of THD control can have a dramatic effect on the THD specification number. The discontinuous mode of operation of boost power converter 10 occurs during those periods of time where switch 40 is turned on and off for lengths of time sufficient for zero current periods to appear, and the critical mode of operation occurs when current waveform I (see FIG. 3A) is at or near zero (I0). Those skilled in the art generally wish to maximize the amount of time that the inductor current Iin is above zero (see FIG. 1) and minimize the zero current periods (e.g., zero current period 126 of FIG. 3A).
As a result, the need in the art to turn switch 40 on as soon as possible when current I=0 has been long felt. Referring now to FIG. 3B, ideally, ts would be at the point in time when current I crosses I0 (the "I=0" axis), zero current period 126 would have a length as close to 0 units of time as possible, switch 40 (see FIG. 1) would be turned on essentially immediately by controller 30 (see FIG. 1) after current waveform portion 134 intersects I0 (see FIG. 3B), thereby causing current waveform portion 136 to increase essentially immediately after current waveform portion 134 intersects I0 and enabling current to flow through inductor 20 (see FIG. 1) substantially continuously. One generally avoids turning switch 40 on too soon (i.e., before current waveform portion 134 in FIG. 3B intersects I0), in order to avoid causing the average input current from increasing at too high a rate, which could cause the input current waveform phase to move out of alignment with the input voltage waveform phase.
There have been several approaches attempting to achieve results as close as possible to the ideal results shown in FIG. 3B. One such approach involves trying to detect directly the input current Iin flowing through inductor 20 (see FIG. 1). One widely used technique employs a second inductor coil 25 to sense the current Iin flowing through inductor 20 in a manner similar to the function of a transformer. However, this approach suffers from the inevitable latency that all transformer coils experience when sensing a current in another coil, necessarily introducing some positive length of time in the zero current period 126 (see FIG. 3A) and introducing some noise back into the AC power line 12-14. Also, the second inductor coil 25 adds some expense to manufacturing controller 30 and necessitates at least one dedicated differential pin on controller 30 to receive information from second inductor coil 25.
Alternatively, one could try to sense the current at node 34 in FIG. 1. However, the current and voltage values at node 34 are relatively low in the critical mode of operation, thereby increasing the relative error in current determinations at node 34 to a level where such determinations may not be sufficiently accurate for commercially successful applications. Also, determining the current at node 34 would require controller 30 to have a relatively high sampling rate (i.e., >>1 sample taken every 1/[ts−t0] seconds) in the critical mode, and the sampling resolution should be relatively high to avoid turning switch 40 on too fast or too slow.

Circuits, systems, methods, and software for power factor correction and/or control


Methods and apparatus for direct detection of chemical reactions are provided. Electric charge perturbations of the local environment during enzyme-catalyzed reactions are sensed by an electrode system with an immobilized target molecule. The charge perturbation caused by the polymerase reaction can uniquely identify a DNA sequence. The polymerization process generates local perturbations of charge in the solution near the electrode surface and induces a charge in a polarazible gold electrode. This event is detected as a transient current by a voltage clamp amplifier. Detection of single nucleotides in a sequence can be determined by dispensing individual dNTPs to the electrode solution and detecting the charge perturbations. Alternatively, multiple bases can be determined at the same time using a mix of all dNTPs with subsequent analysis of the resulting signal. This technique may be adapted to other reaction determinations, such as enzymatic reactions, other electrode configurations, and other amplifying circuits.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of electrochemical molecular detection, such as the detection of nucleic acid polymerization, by detection of a charged particle (e.g. proton) by means of a sensitive electrical circuit. The present invention has particular application to nucleic acid sequence detection and enzyme substrate modification detection.
2. Related Art
Rapid, sequence-specific DNA detection is essential for applications in medical diagnostics and genetic screening. Electrochemical biosensors that use immobilized nucleic acids are especially promising in these applications because of their potential for miniaturization and automation. Current DNA detection methods based on hybridization rely on various optical, electrochemical or mass readouts. (Refs. 1, 2) However, direct, label-free electrochemical detection methods are not available.
A variety of electrochemical methods have been described, all of which detect direct electronic signals using various electrochemical reactions during DNA hybridization at the electrode surface. (Refs. 1, 2, 6) In contrast, current detection and sequencing-by-synthesis technique requires the use of several enzymatic and photochemical steps. (Refs.7, 8) Thus a direct electrochemical detection method for this technique would greatly simplify the detection process and accelerate its implementation for rapid DNA sequencing and diagnostics. Described below is a label-free electrochemical detection method, Charge Perturbation Detection (CPD), applied to sequencing-by-synthesis.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Charge perturbation detection system for DNA and other molecules

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


A scrambling method for generating recording data onto a disc includes vertically scrambling main data, which is stored in DRAM, to generate PO, wherein the scrambled data due to generate PO is not stored in DRAM; then scrambling data again to generate PI; the scrambled data due to generating PI adds with ID, IED, RSV, EDC, PI, and PO, arranging in orders and recording onto a disc.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to an optical recording method. In particular, the present invention relates to a method for recording data onto optical discs.
2. Description of the Related Art
Formatting of data onto optical discs and error correcting process thereof are explained in FIGS. 1 and 2. The error correcting process for the DVD and an ECC block are firstly explained in FIGS. 1A and 1B.
As shown in FIG. 1A, information recorded to the DVD has a physical structure including a plurality of data sectors 20. One data sector 20 comprises, in order from the head position thereof, Identification Data (ID) 21 of a start position of the data sector 20, ID Error Detection code (IED) 22 correcting errors in ID 21, reserve data (RSV) 23, main data 24, the constituent data to be recorded, and an Error Detection Code (EDC) 25 for detecting errors in ID 21, IED 22, RSV 23, and main data 24. A plurality of data sectors arrange in sequence and constitute recording data.
Next, a process in an encoder, described subsequently, for creating an ECC block 30 by a plurality data sectors is explained in FIG. 1B. As shown, an EGG block is formed by 16 data sectors is explained in FIG. 1B. To forming the EGG format, each data sector 20 including ID 21, IED 22, RSV 23, main data 24, and EDC, each data sector having 2064 bytes arranged in an array of 12 data rows each containing 172 bytes. The first data row should start with three fields: ID, IED, and RSV, followed by 160 bytes main data. The next 10 data rows should each contain 172 bytes main data, and the last data row should contain 168 bytes main data followed by 4 bytes EDC.
For each data row, an ECC inner-code Parity (PI) 31 having 10 bytes is generated and attached to the end of the each corresponding data row to constitute one correction block 34 as shown on the right side of FIG. 1B. At this stage, correction blocks 34 with PI 31 attached are arranged in 12 lines along with the y-axis orientation. After that, the process is repeated with respect to 16 data sectors (for an ECC block). Accordingly, correction blocks 34 of 192 (=12×16) lines are obtained.
Next, 16 ECC outer-code parity (PO) 32 is respectively generated and attached to each corresponding data columns. It is noted that PO 32 also attaches to a portion of PI 31 within the correction block 34.
From the above mentioned process, one ECC block 30 including 16 data sectors is produced as shown in FIG. 1B (the right side). At this time, the total amount of the information included within one ECC block 30 is expressed by:(172+10)bytes×(192+16)lines=37856 bytes
The main data 24 (i.e., other than parity codes and data information) in it is expressed by:2048 bytes×16=32768 bytes
An ECC block 30 shown in FIG. 1B is formed by arranging 16 data sectors in an array of 192 rows of 172 bytes each. To each of the 192 rows 10 bytes of PI are added, then, to each resulting 182 columns, 16 bytes PO are added. Thus a complete ECC block has 208 rows of 208 bytes each. The bytes of this array are identified as Bi,j as shown in FIG. 1B, where I is the row number and j is the column number. For example, B1,0 indicates the first line and column zero, and B190,170 indicates the line 190 and column 170. Thus, Bi,j for i=0 to 207 and j=172 to 181 are bytes of PI 31; Bi,j for i=192 to 207 and j=0 to 171 are bytes of PO 32. Correction blocks 34 are consecutively recorded to the optical disc.
ECC block 30 comprises both PI 31 and PO 32, as shown in the right side of FIG. 1B, in order that data arranged along an x-axis orientation in FIG. 1B can be corrected by PI 31 and the data arranged along the y-axis orientation by PO 32. It is thus possible to perform error correction along both axes within the ECC block 30 shown in FIG. 1B.
More concretely, for example, if a certain correction block 34, as mentioned above, consecutively recorded to a disc, each having 182 bytes in total including PI 31, is entirely destroyed by physical damage to the disc, merely the one-byte data is lost with respect to PO 32 in one column, as viewed along the y-axis orientation. Thus, by carrying out error correction using PO 32 at each column, it is possible to accurately reproduce original information from the damaged location, even though one correction block 34 may be entirely destroyed.
The manner of actually recording a data sector included in the ECC block 30 shown in FIG. 1B is explained in FIG. 2. In FIG. 2, the bytes indicated as Bi;j corresponds to the data shown on the right side of FIG. 1B. Processes at the time of recording the data sector 20 in FIG. 2 (i.e. an interleave process and an 8-to-16 modulation process) are performed by the encoder, described subsequently.
When recording the ECC block 30 to the disc, the plurality of data rows of the ECC block 30 are firstly aligned along the x-axis orientation for each correction block 34, as shown in a top stage of FIG. 2, and are then are interleaved for division into 16 recording sectors 40 (as shown in a second top stage of FIG. 2). At this time, one recording sector 40 includes 2366 bytes (=37856 bytes/16), with a data sector 20, PI 31 and PO 32 intermingled and included in each recording sector 40. However, ID 21 (refer to FIG. 1A) in the data sector 20 positions a head portion of each recording sector 40.
The recording sector 40 is divided into a plurality of segments 41 each comprising data and having 91 bytes, with a header H appended to each (as shown in a third top stage of FIG. 2). Then, one sync frame 42 is produced from one segment 41 by 8-to-16 modulating the recording sector 40 including the paired headers H and segments 41. At this time, one sync frame 42 is composed of a header H′ and segment 43 (as shown in a bottom stage of FIG. 2). Further, data size in one sync frame 42 is expressed by:91 bytes×8×( 16/8)=1456 bytes
Then, data is written to a disc in continuous sync frames 42. At this time, one recording sector 40 includes 26 sync frames 42.
Using the disclosed physical format and recording to the disc, the 8-to-16 demodulation and de-interleaving (refer to FIG. 2) are performed when reproducing the data to thereby reproduce the original ECC block 30 while performing the effective error correction to accurately reproduce the data.
As shown in FIG. 3, U.S. Pat. No. 5,815,472 discloses an information recording apparatus that records to a DVD-R as explained previously. The following assumptions are made in the embodiment described; pre-pits or the like are formed in advance on the information tracks, to which data will be recorded. Then, at the time of recording, address information of the disc 1 is obtained by detecting the pre-pits. Thus, a record position for the disc is detected. The conventional information recording apparatus S comprises a pick-up 2, a reproduction amplifier (AMP) 3, a decoder 4, a pre-pit signal decoder 5, a spindle motor 6, a servo circuit 7, a processor (CPU) 8, an encoder 9, a power control circuit 11, a laser drive circuit 12, and an interface 13, such as an IDE bus. A data record signal SR is input through the interface 13 from an external host computer 14 to the recording apparatus S. In addition, the encoder 9 is provided with a DRAM 10.
FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing conventional DVD disc encoding. First, main data is read from the host computer 14 through the interface (IDE Bus) 13 shown in FIG. 3 and written to the DRAM 10 (S1). Next, main data restored in the DRAM 10 is read (S2). Next, the 2-byte ID Error Detection code (IED) is generated to correct errors in the 4-byte ID information (S3). Next, 6 bytes of reserve data (RSV) denoting copyright is generated (S4). Next, 4 bytes of error detection code (EDC) is generated for detecting errors (S5). Next, the data including main data. ID, EC. RSV. and EDC is scrambled (S6). Thus, a data sector is obtained. Next, 10 bytes PI is generated according to the scrambled data, and is attached to the 16 data sectors are (S7). Next, the scrambled data, ID, IED, RSV, EDC and P1 are stored to the DRAM (S8). The data stored in the DRAM is read again to generate 16 bytes PO and interleave the data sectors and PO (S9). Next, the 16 data sectors interleaving the 16 bytes PO are stored in the DRAM (S10). Thus, the data stored in the DRAM is read to be written to the disc (S11).
However, in steps S1, S2, S8, S9, S10 and S11, much data is transmitted between the optical drive IC and the memory buffer (DRAM). After reading main data from the host computer, main data (33024 (172×192) bytes) are written to DRAM (Step S1). Next, the main data (33024 bytes) is read from the DRAM (Step S2) to generate PI (1920 (10×192) bytes). Next, the main data (33024 bytes) and PI (1920 bytes) are written to the DRAM (Step S8). Next, the main data (33024 bytes) and PI (1920 bytes) are read from the DRAM to generate PO of the main data (2752 (172×16) bytes) and of the PI (160 (10×16) bytes) (Step S9). The PO (2912 (2752+160) bytes) is then written to the DRAM (Step S10), and the total data (37856 (33024+1920+2752+160) bytes) stored in the DRAM are read out for recording to the disc (S11). Therefore, a total of 176704 bytes are accessed between the drive IC and the DRAM.
Also, it is noticed that in order to generate PI (in step S7 and PO (in step S9), main data must be scrambled in advance (in step S6), the scrambled data would be stored in DRAM; as a result if there is a block that needs the same main data to record on to the same disc, thus the scrambled data in DRAM should be read out and descrambled to the original main data and then scrambled again due to the ID information being changed.
Thus, the recording speed of the optical disc is limited by the bandwidth of the memory buffer. The recording speed of the optical disc can be increased by increasing the clock rate of the memory bus, however, this increases power consumption.


A dispersion-compensating system and a dispersion-compensating fiber have an improved figure of merit and effective area. The dispersion-compensating system comprises a bulk dispersion-compensating module for providing optical-domain bulk dispersion compensation for an optical signal transmission. Additionally, the system may further comprise residual dispersion compensation, which can be performed in the electrical domain following coherent detection of both amplitude and phase of an optical signal. The dispersion-compensating fiber comprises an up-doped core region; a down-doped trench; an up-doped ring; and an outer cladding, and is configured to have a high figure of merit (FOM).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to optical fiber devices and related methods, and in particular to an improved dispersion-compensating system and a dispersion-compensating fiber with an improved figure of merit and effective area.
2. Background Art
Coherent detection followed by digital signal processing in the electrical domain is currently being investigated as an enabling technology for transmission systems with increased transmission rates. When both optical amplitude and phase are detected, linear impairments such as dispersion and polarization-mode dispersion (PMD) can be fully compensated in the electrical domain. This approach eliminates the need for optical dispersion compensation using dispersion-compensating fibers (DCFs), or like devices.
However, there are known disadvantages of an electrical domain approach to dispersion compensation. One disadvantage is that, when providing compensation for large amounts of dispersion, an electrical domain dispersion-compensating system requires large and expensive digital signal processing integrated circuits (DSPs), as well as high electrical power consumption. Thus, there exists a need for an improved approach for managing dispersion compensation in such systems.
Another issue is the "figure of merit" (FOM), a metric that is commonly used in the fiber optics industry to quantify the amount of loss added to an optical transmission system by a given fiber or fiber module. Generally speaking, the FOM for an optical fiber module is the ratio formed by dividing the numerical value of the dispersion of the optical fiber by the attenuation of that fiber at a particular wavelength. A high figure of merit signifies that a dispersion-compensating fiber module add less loss to the system.
Further, an optical transmission fiber with a large dispersion typically has a large effective area, Aeff. The effective area Aeff is inversely proportional to FOM. Thus, optical fibers with large effective areas tend to have low FOMs.
Thus, an ongoing challenge for fiber designers is the balancing of the effective area needed to achieve a given dispersion characteristic against the need for a sufficiently high FOM. Prior designs have provided fibers that display the following values for FOM and Aeff:
FOM=460 ps/(nm·dB); Aeff=21 μm2: M. Wandel et al., Proceedings of ECOC '2001, PD.A.1.4, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,490,398;
FOM=450 ps/(nm·dB); Aeff=17 μm2: M. Hirano et al., Proceedings of OFC/NFOEC '2009, OWN5; and
FOM=477 ps/(nm·dB); Aeff=70 μm2: S. Ramachandran, Journal of LightWave Technology, pp 3425, 2005.

Dispersion-compensating system and dispersion-compensating fiber with improved figure of merit


The present invention concerns the methods and compositions involving endopeptidase enzymes, especially PepO2 and PepO3 from L. helveticus, and their use in reducing bitterness by cleaving bitter peptides. In particular embodiments of the invention, these methods and compositions apply to the cheesemaking process. The invention also concerns the use of PepO2 and/or PepO3 polypeptides in the treatment or prevention of celiac sprue or as a food additive.

This application claims the benefit of priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/480,536 filed Jun. 20, 2003, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
This invention was made with government support under grant number 99-CRHF-0-6055 awarded by the United States Department of Agriculture/CREES. The government has certain rights in the invention.
The present invention relates generally to the fields of microbiology and enzymology. More particularly, it concerns methods and compositions involving endopeptidase enzymes from bacteria that cleave peptides, particularly bitter peptides and peptides involved in gluten inflammation. In some embodiments, methods and compositions concern PepO2 and/or PepO3, and their use in reducing bitterness in foods, such as cheese, or treating or preventing celiac sprue.
2. Description of Related Art
Lactobacillus helveticus belongs to a group of organisms known as lactic acid bacteria (LAB), which are defined by the production of lactic acid as a major product of carbohydrate fermentation. Lb. helveticus has multiple amino acid (AA) auxotrophies and thus is dependent on transport of AA and/or transport and hydrolysis of exogenous peptides to satisfy these nutritional requirements. In AA defined media, Lb. helveticus CNRZ32 can grow without Ala, Asn, Cys, Gln, Gly, and Ser when they are absent individually (Christensen, 2000). The fermentation of Bos taurus milk is a common system to study the proteolytic system and physiology of Lb. helveticus, providing a relatively consistent environment and well characterized set of proteins as a starting point, as well as having adaptive significance for dairy related LAB. Since all of the identified peptidases of L. helveticus are believed to be intracellular, the acquisition of AA is also likely to be dependent on the activity of at least one extracellular proteinase capable of hydrolyzing caseins into transportable peptides (Kunji et al., 1996). Therefore, obtaining AA through the hydrolysis of caseins (the preferentially hydrolyzed milk proteins) requires a complex proteolytic system comprised of proteinase(s), endopeptidase(s), aminopeptidase(s), tripeptidase(s), dipeptidase(s), and peptide transport systems (Christensen et al., 1999; Kunji et al., 1996; Pritchard and Coolbear, 1993).
The proteolytic systems of dairy LAB have received extensive research attention due to their importance in the physiology of these organisms and cheese flavor development. Because LAB are fastidious microorganisms with multiple amino acid auxotrophies (Kok and De Vos, 1994), during growth in milk, LAB rely on their proteolytic systems to obtain essential amino acids from caseins (CNs), the most abundant proteins in milk (Christensen et al., 1999; Kunji et al., 1996). In many cheese varieties, enzymatic conversion of large, casein (CN)-derived peptides into small peptides and free amino acids by LAB has pronounced effects on cheese flavor development as well as cheese functional properties. Additionally, proteolytic enzymes from LAB produce flavor compounds and precursors that are essential for cheese flavor development (Christensen et al, 1999; Mulholland, 1997).
Proteolytic systems of LAB can be functionally divided into three components: (i) cell envelope-associated proteinases which hydrolyze caseins to oligopeptides; (ii) peptide transport systems, of which the oligopeptide transport system is of greatest importance in milk and cheese; (iii) and numerous intracellular peptidases (Christensen et al., 1999; Kunji et al., 1996). The intracellular peptidases of LAB consist of both endopeptidases and aminopeptidases. Endopeptidases, due to their ability to hydrolyze peptide bonds within a peptide, are of particular interest in targeting peptides for rapid hydrolysis. Both the peptides αS1-CN(f1-9) and β-CN(f193-209), as well as other related hydrophobic peptide derivatives, are known to accumulate and have been associated with bitter defects in ripened cheeses (Broadbent et al., 2002; Broadbent et al., 1998; Exterkate and Alting, 1995; Kaminogawa et al., 1986; Lee et al., 1996; Lemieux and Simard, 1991). The peptide β-CN(f193-209) is produced by the activity of chymosin on β-CN.
Interest in the proteolytic system of L. helveticus CNRZ32 is related to the organism's ability to reduce bitterness and accelerate cheese flavor development when used as an adjunct culture in Gouda cheese production (Bartels et al., 1987a; Bartels et al., 1987b). The ability of Lb. helveticus CNRZ32 to accelerate cheese ripening and reduce bitterness when used as an adjunct culture is well documented (Bartels et al., 1987a; Bartels et al., 1987b; Madkor et al., 2000). Lb. helveticus CNRZ32 has been demonstrated to efficiently hydrolyze casein, and comparison with the peptidolytic activities of Lb. helveticus ATCC 10797 and Lactobacillus delbrueckii ssp. bulgaricus ATCC 12278 demonstrated that Lb. helveticus CNRZ32 had higher general aminopeptidase and dipeptidase activities (Khalid et al., 1991).
The reduction of bitterness in cheese is believed to be the result of preferential hydrolysis of low molecular weight hydrophobic peptides known to cause bitterness, rather than lack of formation of bitter peptides from high molecular weight non-bitter casein derived peptides (Broadbent et al., 1998; Gomez et al., 1996; Lee et al., 1996; Lemieux and Simard, 1991). These bitter peptides contain the amino acid proline, which forms an imino, not amino bond, making these peptides more difficult to cleave. While numerous enzymes of the proteolytic system of Lb. helveticus have been identified (Christensen et al., 1999), the understanding of the specific enzymes responsible for this strain's ability to reduce of bitterness in cheese is incomplete. Thus, identification and characterization of these enzymes are needed.
Moreover, endopeptidases in other contexts have also been explored. A prolyl endopeptidase was used to reduce the antigencity of a peptide involved in celiac sprue, an inflammation of the small intestine (Shan et al. 2002; Vader et al., 2002). Celiac sprue involves gluten peptides that survive the digestion process and reach the small intestine because they contain proline (see Schuppan et al., 2002). The use of other prolyl endopeptidases could provide therapeutic benefits for patients with celiac sprue.

Methods and compositions involving endopeptidases PepO2 and PepO3