A high-power grid-compatible converter-controlled, voltage-injecting phase-shifting transformer, includes a converter, an energizer transformer connected the converter, and a booster transformer which has at least one phase connected to the converter. The converter has an excitation-side power converter with at least one phase intercoupled by a DC intermediate circuit to an output-side power converter with at least one phase. Each of the excitation-side power converter and the output-side power converter have turnoff power semiconductors. Each phase of the excitation-side power converter has n double cascades electrically connected in series. Each of the double cascades have a capacitive energy store with a terminal and two switching devices which include the turnoff power semiconductors connected electrically in parallel with the capacitive energy store. Each phase of the output-side power converter has n four-quadrant controllers with AC voltage terminals and DC voltage terminals. The booster transformer has n two-winding transformers per phase, a secondary side and a primary side. The n two-winding transformers are connected electrically in series on the secondary side and coupled in each case on the primary side to the AC voltage terminals of the four-quadrant controllers. The DC voltage terminals of each of the four-quadrant controllers are connected to the terminal of the capacitive energy store of a corresponding one of the double cascades.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a high-power grid-compatible converter-controlled, voltage-injecting phase-shifting transformer. The transformer includes a converter having an input side and an output side, an energizer transformer connected to the input side of said converter, and a booster transformer having at least one phase connected to the output side of said converter. The converter has an excitation-side power converter with at least one phase intercoupled by a DC intermediate circuit to an output-side power converter with at least one phase. Each of the excitation-side power converter and the output-side power converter has turnoff power semiconductors.
Because of pronounced intermeshing of the high-voltage grids, it is necessary to be able to control the power flow and its direction at will or as required on selected transmission lines. As a rule, use is made for this purpose of so-called phase-shifting transformer arrangements. They generally are formed of a three-phase energizer transformer and a three-phase booster transformer. The input winding of the energizer transformer draws electric power from the grid. The output winding is usually provided with a step switch. The winding supplies the electric power to the input winding of the booster transformer, whose output winding is connected in series to the transmission line and through which the entire line current flows. As a result, there is produced in the booster transformer an additional voltage whose absolute magnitude depends on the position of the step switch. Its phase angle is determined by the vector groups of the energizer transformer and booster transformer. The voltage across the output winding of the booster transformer is termed a phase-shifted voltage.
The functional principle of a power-flow controller is now described. A controllable voltage source is inserted in series into a transmission line. The power flow through the transmission line is influenced by specifically varying the absolute value and the phase angle of the series voltage. The phase angle of the series voltage relative to the current flowing in the line produces the effective power and the reactive power, which the voltage source exchanges with a grid. The effective power can either be fed to large energy stores or be drawn. If it is drawn, it is usually drawn from the grid and fed to the grid again via a second voltage source having a different voltage and connected in parallel with the grid. The use of a parallel voltage source is advantageous, since in addition to the effective power required in conjunction with the series connection, it is also possible to exchange reactive power with the grid. The reactive power exchange of the parallel connection is independent of that of the series connection.
The power-flux controllers can be constructed using voltage inverters. The power-flux controllers usually include as main components: a first transformer in a quadrature-axis branch, also denoted as an energizer transformer; a first inverter in the quadrature-axis branch, also termed an excitation-side power converter; a capacitive energy store; a second inverter in a direct-axis branch, also denoted as an output-side power converter; and a second transformer in the direct-axis branch, also denoted as a booster transformer.
The first and second inverters invert the DC voltage of the capacitive energy store into a stepped AC voltage. The AC voltage is matched via the transformation ratios of the energizer and booster transformers and to the grid voltages provided. Such a circuit is denoted as a Unified Power Flow Controller (UPFC). The article "The Unified Power Flow Controller: A New Approach to Power Transmission Control", published in IEEE Transactions on Power Delivery, Vol. 10, No. 2, April 1995, pages 1085 to 1093 discloses a UPFC circuit. The circuit includes an excitation-side inverter which is connected in parallel with the grid via an energizer transformer, an output-side inverter which is connected in series with the grid via a booster transformer, and a capacitor via which the two inverters are connected to one another on their DC voltage sides. As FIG. 1 of this article shows, each of the two power converters is configured as a 6-pulse three-phase bridge circuit with six turn-off power semiconductors, in particular gate turn-off (GTO) thyristor, a freewheeling diode being connected in anti-parallel to each GTO thyristor. In the discussions, the circuit is to be denoted as a two-point circuit, because it is possible by driving the GTO thyristors for the positive or the negative terminal of the energy store to be connected to the terminal of one phase of the three-phase system.
The achievable power of the two-point circuit is determined by the voltage endurance and the turn-off current of the GTO thyristor used. This holds when the GTO thyristor is sufficiently cooled. It may be assumed that this is presently capable of being implemented.
Since the invention relates to a power-flow controller of high power, the known options which can be used to increase the power of the overall system are set forth below. According to the prior art, two approaches may be adopted to provide a solution in this case. One approach leads via increasing the power of an inverter, the other approach utilizes the interconnection of a plurality of inverters.
If the required power of the UPFC circuits is higher than achievable with a GTO thyristor, a direct series connection of the GTO thyristor can be used. The higher power is achieved in this case by a higher voltage across the capacitive energy store.
The direct series connection has numerous advantages. First, the power of the two-point circuit can be raised in fine steps. Second, redundancy can be achieved by inserting additional GTO thyristors into the series connection.
On the other hand, the direct series connection of GTO thyristors has some disadvantages. For instance, when driving the GTO thyristors, it has to be ensured that all GTO thyristors connected in series switch exactly simultaneously, so that erroneous voltage distributions are avoided between the series-connected GTO thyristors. The coarse stair-step shape of the AC voltage of the power converter is not improved by an increase in the power. Generally, these circuits therefore cannot be used without additional filters for reducing the distortions in the grid voltage. The known damping circuits for the GTO thyristors in a direct series connection have substantially higher losses than those which can be used for individual GTO thyristors. The voltage utilization of the GTO thyristors drops with increasing number of series connections. This leads to a disproportionate increase in the number of series connections by comparison with the increase in the capacitor voltage, and this entails higher procurement costs and specific losses and thus higher operating costs for the circuit. To date, no number of series connections in excess of six has become known, and therefore the maximum achievable power of an inverter unit must be regarded as limited.
A further approach to increasing the power of an inverter is the indirect series connection of two GTO thyristors in the three-point circuit. In this circuit, the terminal of the phase of the three-phase transformer can be connected to the positive, negative or center terminal of the energy store. An example for the use of such a circuit is described in the article "Statischer Umrichter Muldenstein", ("Muldenstein Static Converter"), published in the German journal "eb-Elektrische Bahnen", Volume 93 (1995), Issue 1/2, pages 43 to 48. FIG. 4 of the article shows a four-quadrant controller in which two three-point phase modules are used. The extension of the three-point circuit to form an n-point circuit is described in the article entitled "Advanced Static Compensation Using a Multi-Level GTO Thyristor Inverter", IEEE 94 SM 396-2 PWRD, pages 1 to 7. The article sets forth advantages of the n-point circuit. First, the voltage of the inverter can be increased without a direct series connection of GTO thyristors, thus circumventing the need to switch the GTO thyristors exactly simultaneously. Second, the time-offset connection of the individual voltage stages permits a better approximation of the stepped AC voltage to the sinusoidal shape and thus a smaller proportion of higher harmonics in the output current. As a result, the GTO thyristors used can be better utilized and the fundamental power of the inverter can be increased. Third, it is possible using the n-point circuit for the power to be increased without additional inductive components (transformers or three-phase balance coils). Inductive components are more expensive to procure and have higher losses than comparable capacitive components. Fourth, the n-point circuit can be connected to the grid via a standard transformer. Fifth, the stepped AC voltage can be approximated to the sinusoidal shape without departing from the fundamental frequency modulation of the GTO thyristor drive. Fundamental frequency modulation means that each GTO thyristor is turned on or off only once per period. A higher-frequency GTO thyristor drive (pulse width modulation) is limited in practice to frequencies of up to 250 Hz because of the turn-off times and hold-off intervals of the components. Although this does permit a reduction in the low harmonics (mode numbers 5 to 17), it leads to an increase in the next higher harmonics (from 19th). This can entail an additional outlay on filters. A further important disadvantage of a higher-frequency GTO thyristor drive are the switching losses in the inverter, which rise in proportion to the switching rate.
The concept of the n-point circuit also has disadvantages. First, different requisite inverter powers require different numbers of points and, consequently, different structural configurations of an n-point phase module. Second, starting from n>3, a higher voltage endurance is required in part than in the case of the diodes which lead to the intermediate terminals of the energy store. Third, the individual n-1 capacitor voltages must be controlled to the same level. This is difficult to achieve from a practical viewpoint. Fourth, a complicated drive logic of the GTO thyristors is required in order to exclude forbidden circuit states. A forbidden circuit state is understood to be the case where more than n-1 GTO thyristors arranged in series are turned on simultaneously.
It may be assumed that these disadvantages have so far prevented the implementation of numbers of points of n>3.
Inverter systems which achieve a higher total power can be produced by interconnecting a plurality of inverters. Apart from increasing the power, the aim in this case is also to reduce the voltage distortions and to achieve a sinusoidal current.
Various possibilities for interconnecting inverters are known from the article entitled "A Comparison of Different Circuit Configurations for an Advanced Static Var Compensator (ASVC)", published in "PESC'92 Record", 23rd Annual IEEE Power Electronics Specialists Conference Toledo, Spain, 1992, pages 521 to 529. Either a two-point or a three-point inverter is used as inverter in the article. The GTO thyristors are controlled by fundamental frequency modulation, which results in each GTO thyristor being turned on and off only once per period.
Various possibilities for interconnecting two power converters are represented in FIG. 8 on page 524 of the article. As shown by the comparison of these alternatives carried out in the article, the highest fundamental power can be achieved with the circuit variants n and o. In these variants, use is made of two three-point circuits each, which are connected in series on the three-phase side via the primary windings of the transformers. The two transformers are configured in different vector groups (Yy and Yd), the result being a 12-pulse grid perturbation. As a result of the series connection of the inverters on the three-phase side, the inverter current contains no harmonics of mode numbers 5, 7, 17, 19 etc. The GTO thyristors used can thereby be utilized more effectively. The difference between the two variants n and o consists in the wiring of the DC voltage side, and this exerts no essential influence on the achievable power.
An SVG (Static Var Compensator) with a power of 80 MVA is known from the publication entitled "Development of a Large Static Var Generator Using Self-Commutated Inverters for Improving Power System Stability", printed in IEEE Transactions on Power Systems, Vol. 8, No. 1, February 1993, pages 371 to 377. In the case of this system, high power is achieved by using a series connection of six GTO thyristors per valve and a series connection of eight inverters via a special multi-winding transformer. As in the case of the variants n and o of the previously cited article, the increase in the fundamental power is achieved by turning the individual secondary windings of the transformer. The eight secondary windings of the transformer are turned relative to one another by 7.5.degree. el., and this leads to a 48-pulse grid perturbation.
In general, the advantages of increasing the power by series connections on the three-phase side are numerous. First, with the increase in the power, the grid distortions can be reduced by suitable transformer circuits. Second, the phase current of each individual inverter can be rendered more sinusoidal by the series connection, on the three-phase side, of the inverters via transformers, and the switching power of the GTO thyristor used can be utilized more efficiently thereby.
On the other hand, the circuit has disadvantages. First, the power can be stepped only coarsely by adding and omitting complete inverters. In the case of a direct series connection of GTO thyristors, a finer stepping can be performed by the number of GTO thyristors. Second, there is a need for highly specialized and therefore expensive transformers (special manufacture). Third, when a connection is made to the high-voltage grid, there is a need for an additional transformer in order to transform the supply voltage to an intermediate voltage for which the special transformer can be designed on the primary side. Fourth, the transformers are attended by relatively high operating losses.
German Utility Model Application G 94 16 048.1 discloses a static compensator (GTO-SVC) in which the power is increased by cascading power converter modules. A three-point phase module is used in this case as a power converter module, it is also possible to use two-point or, in general, n-point modules. A plurality of capacitors can be turned on or turned off in one phase one after another owing to the cascaded arrangement of the phase modules. The selection of the turn-on and turn-off instants can be made in such a way that the output voltage of the cascade inverter is approximated as well as possible to the sinusoidal shape. As a result, the proportion of higher harmonics in the current is reduced, and the utilization of the GTO thyristors is thus increased.
The advantages of this solution are numerous. First, the advantages of the n-point circuit come fully to bear. Second, the power is increased by multiple use of the same inverter module and the special development of different modules for different numbers of points is eliminated. Third, the individual capacitor voltages can be controlled independently of one another. Fourth, each inverter module represents a self-sufficient unit. No additional, prohibited circuit states can occur.
On the other hand, there are disadvantages. First, the separation of the three phases in conjunction with the cascading produces a higher outlay on capacitors. Second, the power can be stepped by adding or omitting individual cascades. Finer stepping can be achieved by the number of GTO thyristors in the case of direct series connection of GTO thyristors.

High-power grid-compatible converter-controlled, voltage-injecting phase-shifting transformer


An improved absorbent hygiene article, such as a tampon, has a detachably connected saturation indicator. The saturation indicator is calibrated, and preferably indicates the degree of saturation of the corresponding article by staining or swelling. One may check saturation of the hygiene article through various means including visual or tactile inspection of the indicator after it has been pulled out of the article. In this manner it is possible, without having to remove the article, to determine whether or not it is advisable to change the article. In one embodiment, the saturation indicator is detachably connected to the underlying article by an adhesive that releases when it becomes moist. In this manner the inability to easily remove the indicator is, in itself, an indication of lack of saturation beyond a predetermined threshold.

The present invention relates to personal hygiene items, and more specifically, to an improved article such as a tampon having at least one saturation indicator.
Conventional tampons generally include an absorbent material with a permanently attached withdrawal string. A tampon is inserted with or without the aid of an applicator into a woman, with the distal end of the withdrawal string extending outside her vagina. While in use, the tampon prevents leakage of menses. After a period of use, the woman removes the tampon by pulling "downward" on the withdrawal string and replaces the used tampon with a new one, if needed. The "downward" direction is defined herein as the direction opposite to the insertion direction, irrespective of whether the woman is standing, sitting, or prone, i.e. it is the direction that results in extraction of the tampon. Withdrawal strings are intended to be substantially permanently attached to the absorbent material, typically by sewing, hot welding, bonding, and/or adhesively gluing, although they are known to occasionally fail and undesirably detach from the absorbent material.
The FDA regulates tampons, with very strict requirements for the calibration of their absorbency. It moreover requires that women be advised to use the smallest absorbency necessary and to limit the time that a tampon is worn. Improper use of tampons can be a health hazard for a variety of reasons: A too-high absorbency tampon may be kept in place without leakage for an extended length of time, which can lead to toxic shock syndrome. Also, a too-high absorbency tampon may be removed while dry, causing abrasions that increase the likelihood of toxic shock syndrome, since skin wounds are a risk factor. Also, a too-high absorbency tampon is more easily lodged in the vagina. In addition to causing abrasions while attempts are made to remove it, a lodged or stuck tampon is more likely to result in withdrawal cord failure due to the absence of lubricating vaginal fluids that enable removal. In these circumstances, a tampon is more likely to stay in the vagina for an extended length of time before removal, which can lead to toxic shock syndrome.
The proper time for removing a tampon varies by factors such as rate of flow, and absorbency of the tampon. However, since saturation is determined by removal and visual inspection, and reinsertion of a removed tampon is not reasonably accomplished, women can merely guess whether their tampon is nearly dry or alternatively near saturation and in need of removal. As a practical matter they must often decide between removing an unsaturated tampon, or else waiting too long and then suffering the embarrassment and mess associated with leaking menses.
As can be seen, there is a need for an absorbent hygiene article having a saturation indicator. It is desirable that this saturation indicator allows checking the saturation level of an article without removing the article from the wearer. It is desirable that the saturation indicator is calibrated, thereby allowing the user to know when it is too dry to be readily removed, is reaching saturation, or some increment there between. It is desirable that the saturation indicator does not interfere with using the article in the regular manner. It is desirable that this saturation indicator is easy to use, yields an unambiguous reading in a variety of lighting conditions, is easily incorporated into the manufacturing of pre-existing articles, and is economical.


Upon receiving a request from a communications terminal, a server apparatus performs some processes and returns processing results to the communications terminal. Before returning the processing results, the server apparatus sends the communications terminal a response containing an address needed to acquire the processing results to prevent communications from being cut off due to a communications timeout which occurs, for example, if the processing on the server takes time.

Generally, a user terminal can acquire content by accessing a Web application server on a network such as the Internet. The Web application server performs a sequence of operations: accepts a request from the user terminal, carries out some processes in response to the request, and returns processing results to the user terminal as a response to the request. Upon receiving the response to the request, the user terminal outputs it to a display or the like.
However, if it takes time for the Web application server to perform the processes, the Web application server cannot return a response to the user terminal right away. Communications between a user terminal and server apparatus are cut off if no response is received within a limited time between transmission of a request and a communications timeout. In the case of cell phone communications and the like via a wireless communications network, timeout intervals are very short. Also, it takes a great deal of time for a server apparatus to process large volumes of image data or high-resolution image data. Thus, if a user terminal (cell phone) requests the server apparatus to process image data, communications will be cut off frequently, lowering operability for the user greatly.

Server apparatus, communications method, program for making computer execute the communications method, and computer-readable storage medium containing the program


A data processing apparatus includes address generation circuit, an address translation circuit, a selection circuit, a memory, a shifter, an ALU and a mixing circuit. The address generation circuit generates a logical address for data including 10 bit imaginary part, 10 bit real part and 12 bit reserved part. The address translation circuit translates the logical address into a physical address for data including 16 successive bits of the imaginary part and the real part. The selection circuit generates a selection signal in response to the logical address. The memory for storing 16 bits of data in accordance with the physical address. The shifter shifts the received data from the memory in response to the selection signal. The ALU processes an arithmetic operation in response to the shifter output. The mixing circuit mixes the data received from the memory and the ALU and outputs the mixed data to the memory.

The present invention relates to a data processing apparatus for executing the arithmetic processing of data in which the bit width of one word is not standard 2n bits.
Some of apparatuses for outputting or processing images, voices etc. employ data in which the bit width of one word is not standard 2n bits, in order to enhance the qualities of the images and the voices or to affix additional information to the images and voices. Such apparatuses include, for example, a so-called "third-generation portable telephone", and an information processing apparatus which generates image data having a plurality of gradations. A digital signal processor (hereinbelow, termed "DSP") or any other data processing apparatus is installed in such an apparatus, whereby various items of arithmetic processing are executed by converting the bit width of one word into standard 2n bits.
Now, a presented data processing apparatus will be described by taking as an example the DSP which is installed in the third-generation portable telephone.
Using the DSP, the third-generation portable telephone extracts the signals of several specified bandwidths from within a broad frequency bandwidth in order to favorably communicate at all times. Besides, from among the specified bandwidths, one of high reception sensitivity is especially selected for the communications. Incidentally, on this occasion, the DSP usually extracts the signals of the specified bandwidths by employing a technique called "digital matched filter (hereinbelow, termed "DMF") algorithm", but the technique itself is not pertinent to the subject matter of the present invention and shall be omitted from detailed description here.
In the presented data processing apparatus, data of 16 bits are outputted from a memory to an ALU atone time. However, data for use in arithmetic processing correspond only to 10 of the 16 bits. Therefore, the presented data processing apparatus wastefully outputs the data of 6 bits to the ALU at one time.
Moreover, the ALU has a built-in arithmetic unit of 32-bit width, but it uses only 10 bits in the 32-bit width. Therefore, the presented data processing apparatus wastes the arithmetic unit in correspondence with a 22-bit width.
With the intention of solving the drawbacks, there has been proposed a technique wherein the width of a bus is doubled (to 32 bits) so as to output data of 32 bits from the memory to the ALU, and the arithmetic unit is divided into higher-order 16 bits and lower-order 16 bits so as to arithmetically process the data in parallel. Even with this technique, however, the memory is used in correspondence with only 10 bits in spite of the 16-bit width thereof. Therefore, the presented data processing apparatus wastes 6 bits in the use of the memory.
In this manner, in the case where the arithmetic processing is done using the data of which one word does not have the standard bit width, the presented data processing apparatus has the problem that, since a reserved part (free area) is arranged between I-part data and R-part data, the built-in arithmetic unit of the ALU and the memory are wastefully used, so the processability of the arithmetic unit and the capacity of the memory cannot be effectively utilized.


Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method, system, and computer program product for generating one or more in-memory data structures for data access. According to the method, target data associated with a database is identified. Further, the method determines at least one data structure for the target data based on at least one access pattern of the target data in a plurality of historical queries against the database, wherein the target data is accessed in execution of the plurality of historical queries. The method further implements the at least one data structure in a memory to store the target data. The at least one data structure is used for further access to the target data in execution of a further query against the database.

The present disclosure generally relates to database query techniques and more particularly, to a method, system, and computer program product for implementing one or more in-memory data structures for data access in execution of queries against a database.
Databases are computerized information storage and retrieval systems. The most prevalent type of database is the relational database, a tabular database in which data is defined so that it can be reorganized and accessed in a number of different ways. Another type of database is a distributed database that can be dispersed or replicated among different points in a network. Regardless of the particular architecture, a requesting entity (e.g., an application or a client system) demands access to a specified database by issuing a query. The query may be made in a high-level query language such as the Structured Query Language (SQL) in the case of a relational database. Queries are executed to select, insert, update, find out the location of data in a database, and so forth. Queries and, consequently, query workload can consume significant system resources, particularly processor resources. The performance of query execution is critical in the database system.

In-memory data structure for data access

International Business Machines Corporation


A novel system for manufacturing a variety of fiber optic connectors which are compatible with existing connector formats, including FC, SC and ST push-pull connectors. The system includes a connector subassembly which is constructed of components common to each of the novel connector designs. The connector subassembly includes a ferrule and ferrule collar contained in a connector body, a spring biasing the collar toward the ferrule, a crimp ring for securing the strength members of the fiber optic cable to the connector body, and a boot for strain relief at the crimp location. Several different connector shells are provided for each of the connector formats, and the interior of the shells are adapted to be attached to the single connector body. In an alternative system, separate body/shells are provided which merge the common body with the different connector shells.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to connectors, and more particularly to connectors for optical fibers which terminate in ferrules, and a system for manufacturing such connectors, which includes several parts common to each connector.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of optical fibers for high speed communication and data transmission via optical signals has become well established. There are already hundreds of thousands of miles of optical fiber in use today. It has, therefore, become imperative to provide compatible optical fiber connectors which may easily be coupled and uncoupled, and a substantial development effort has been directed toward designing such connectors. As used herein, the term "connector" means an article which allows connection, disconnection and reconnection of two optical fibers, as opposed to a "splice," which normally connotes a permanent connection between the fibers.
One of the earliest connector designs to become standardized is the ST fiber optic connector ("ST" is a trademark of American Telephone & Telegraph Co.); see U.S Pat. No. 4,634,214. This design incorporates a bayonet-style fastener. In its simplest form, this type of fastener includes a coupling having one or more outwardly extending projections or lugs, and a rotatable, female socket having a spiral slot therein for receiving the lugs. The coupling may include an integral mounting plate for affixing the connector to a connection module, or the coupling may comprise a double-ended receptacle which mates with two male connector plugs (one on each end of the fiber). A further improvement relates to the manner in which the female socket is rotated about the coupling. It was found that such rotation could result in undesirable grinding of the fiber end faces during the connection operation. To prevent such grinding, the connector body (ferrule) may be provided with means for aligning the ferrule with the connector receptacle. An improved version of the ST connector, shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,812,009, provides a boot/cap extender which imparts strain relief to the connector assembly.
Another variation, illustrated in FIG. 1, comprises a "push-pull" connector 1 which is compatible with existing ST receptacles. The connector of FIG. 1 generally includes a ferrule 2 held by a ferrule collar 3 which in turn is secured within a connector body or backbone 4. A spring 5 surrounds a portion of the ferrule collar within body 4. A bushing 6 assists in the insertion of the optical fiber into collar 3. The entire assembly is further located in a slidable housing or shell 7 which serves to actuate the latch members s integrally formed with body 4. A crimp ring 9 is used to attach the strength members (Kevlar strands) of the fiber optic cable to body 4. A boot 10 is also provided for strain relief. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,463.
A similar push-pull fiber optic connector which is in wide use today is known as the "SC" connector, first manufactured by Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Co. An exemplary embodiment of this connector is shown in FIG. 2. A more detailed description may be found in "Japanese Industrial Standard JIS C 5973 for FO4-Type Optical Fiber Connectors," published by the Japanese Standards Association. This design also utilizes a double-ended receptacle, but both the receptacle and the plug 11 have a rectangular cross-section. Plug 11 has many components similar to those of ST push-pull connector 1, including a ferrule 12, collar 13, spring 14, crimp ring 15 and boot 16. While all of these components are different in construction from those of connector 1, the most notable difference is in the body 17, shell 18 and slidable housing 19 of SC connector 11. As with connector 1, pulling on the fiber optic cable attached to SC connector 11 will not disengage the elements, since the cable is directly attached to body 17 which is not directly coupled to ferrule collar 13.
Another popular connector style is the FC connector, which is similar to the ST connector in that it includes a circular shell, but does not provide for bayonet-style fastening. The first FC connector 20 (FC-PC2) is illustrated in FIG. 3. As with the other two connectors detailed, FC-PC2 connector 20 includes a ferrule 21, a ferrule collar 22, a spring 23, a backbone 24, a shell 25, a crimp ring 26, boot 27 and outer housing 28. This design is both pull-proof and side-pull resistant, but it has many parts and is relatively difficult to install. A later version of the FC connector (FC-PC1) has a low part count and is easily installed, but it is not pull-proof or side-pull resistant.
Due to the dissimilarities in the myriad connector styles, it has become difficult to service areas where several different styles are used; there are already several million of each of these types of connectors in use. Although each of the foregoing designs has unique advantages, the designs are totally incompatible. Each design requires different connector components, installation tools and procedures. Special adaptor kits may be necessary to achieve compatibility, and it is similarly more trouble to obtain jumpers which have different connector designs at each end. The multiplicity of styles also needlessly increases the overall cost of producing a variety of connector designs; there are a total of 24 different components in the three illustrated connectors. It would, therefore, be desirable and advantageous to devise a ferrule connector design which is easily adapted to existing connector styles, but has a simplified construction to facilitate assembly and reduce manufacturing costs, and yet is pull-proof and side-pull resistant.

Pull-proof, modular fiber optic connector system

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company


Embodiments of the present invention relate to the field of communications technologies, disclose a method, an apparatus and a system for an access point (AP) to manage a wireless repeater, and include: receiving an internet protocol (IP) address request message that includes a domain name of a repeater to be managed and that is sent by a management console; parsing the IP address request message to obtain the domain name of the repeater to be managed; obtaining, from a domain name management list, an IP address of the repeater that corresponds to the domain name of the repeater to be managed, where correspondence between an IP address of a repeater and domain name information of the repeater is recorded in the domain name management list; and sending, to the management console, the IP address of the repeater that corresponds to the domain name of the repeater to be managed.

A repeater (RP) may be used for work of bidirectional forwarding of signals between two network nodes. By replicating, adjusting, amplifying, resending or forwarding a data signal, a transmission distance of a network signal is extended.
With the development of a home broadband service, a wireless access terminal (e.g., a home gateway and an AP) has become an indispensable part of a home network. However, due to presence of factors such as room layout or wall thickness, a coverage area of a wireless signal is small.
Currently, a coverage area of a wireless signal of a home wireless network may be enlarged through wireless repeater technology, thereby solving a problem that the coverage area of the wireless signal is small.
In an existing home wireless network, for a wireless network formed of an AP and a repeater device connected to the AP, the following method is adopted to manage the repeater. A different internet protocol (IP) address is manually configured for each repeater device, a management console records correspondence between each repeater device and an IP address, and a user manages each repeater through the management console.
In the foregoing method, a configuration manner between the repeater device and the IP address is complicated, so operability is poor.

Method, apparatus and system for AP to manage wireless repeater


A time-interleaved analog-to-digital converter for conversion of an analog input signal to a digital output signal having a sample rate R comprises an array of N constituent analog-to-digital converters that operate based on an analog-to-digital converter operation clock to provide the digital output signal, N sample-and-hold units connected to the input of a respective constituent analog-to-digital converter that operate based on a respective one of M of timing signals, wherein no timing signal is used to clock two or more of the sample-and-hold units, one or more digital output processing units that provide a sample of the digital output of a constituent analog-to-digital converter as a sample of the digital output signal based on the respective one of the M timing signals, and a timing circuit that generates the analog-to-digital converter operation clock signal, each timing signal having a period of M/R, wherein M is less or equal to N.

Electronic equipment (such as, for example, television sets and other audio/video equipments) are commonly implemented using digital technology instead of analog technology. Typically, the more advanced the digital technology gets the more demanding the task of converting an analog signal to a digital signal suitable for the digital technology implementation becomes.
Conceptually, an analog-to-digital converter (also denoted ADC or A/D converter) is very well know in the art as well as its basic functionality (sample-and-hold, quantization) and will not be elaborated on further herein.
For high sampling frequencies it may be necessary or at least beneficial to use ADC structures comprising several constituent ADC:s to be able to accommodate the high sampling frequency. Such structures alleviate the processing speed requirements on each constituent ADC. Examples of such ADC structures are pipe-lined ADC:s and time-interleaved ADC:s (e.g. parallel successive ADC:s). US 2011/0304489 A1, WO 2007/093478 A1, EP 0624289 B1 and WO 2010/042051 A1 describe various example time-interleaved ADC structures.
In a typical implementation of a time-interleaved ADC (TI ADC) it is desirable to be able to accommodate various sampling frequencies of the digital output signal. On the other hand, it may be very cumbersome to design and verify a constituent ADC design for operation at different clock frequencies. Thus, it would be desirable to be able to use a constituent ADC implementation designed for a particular fixed clock frequency in a TI ADC structure and still enable provision of various sampling frequencies of the digital output signal.
Therefore, there is a need for flexible digital output signal sampling frequency time-interleaved analog-to-digital converters comprising constituent analog-to-digital converters designed for a particular fixed clock frequency.

Efficient time-interleaved analog-to-digital converter


The invention provides the use in combination of a heparin containing composition that has anticoagulant activity when used alone, such as an unfractionated heparin or low molecular weight heparin, in combination with an inhibitor of the anticoagulation activity/effect or effect of heparin, for the inhibition of metastasis.

Heparin is a mixture of glycosaminoglycan chains generally ranging in molecular weight from approximately 3,000 to 30,000 Daltons. Both unfractionated and low molecular weight heparins are utilized in medicine for their anticoagulant activity. Many studies have also now documented that unfractionated and low molecular weight heparins inhibit cancer cell metastasis. However, the use of heparins in the prevention or treatment of cancer metastasis is severely limited by the anticoagulant activity.
What is needed and provided by the present invention are compositions and related methods that permit the anti-metastatic activity of heparin to be used in the treatment of cancer by reducing or eliminating the anticoagulant activity of heparin.

Heparin-based compositions and methods for the inhibition of metastasis


A probe station for probing a test device has a chuck element for supporting the test device. An electrically conductive outer shield enclosure at least partially encloses such chuck element to provide EMI shielding therefor. An electrically conductive inner shield enclosure is interposed between and insulated from the outer shield enclosure and the chuck element, and at least partially encloses the chuck element.

The present invention relates to probe stations, commonly known as package or wafer probers, used manually, semiautomatically or fully automatically to test semiconductor devices. More particularly, the invention relates to such probe stations having EMI shielded enclosures for substantially enclosing the test devices, such as those probe stations shown in commonly-owned U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,266,889 and 5,457,398 which are hereby incorporated by reference.
The probe stations shown in the foregoing patents are capable of performing both low-current and high-frequency measurements within a single shielded enclosure. However, as electrical test currents decrease, or as electrical test frequencies increase, the use of merely a single EMI shielding enclosure becomes less adequate. In the most sensitive of measurements, and particularly (although not necessarily) when guarding is employed for low current measurements as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,457,398, the choice of the shield potential is critical. Reflecting such criticality, the single shield enclosures shown in the foregoing patents have in the past been equipped with selective connectors enabling the shield potential to match that of the measurement instrumentation ground while being isolated from other connectors, or alternatively to be biased by another connector, or to be connected to AC earth ground. Usually the measurement instrumentation ground is preferred since it provides a "quiet" shield ideally having no electrical noise relative to the measurement instrument. However, if the shielding enclosure is exposed to EMI (such as electrostatic noise currents from its external environment), its ideal "quiet" condition is not achieved, resulting in unwanted spurious currents in the chuck assembly guard element and/or the supporting element for the test device. The effect of such currents is particularly harmful to the operation of the guard element, where the spurious currents result in guard potential errors causing leakage currents and resultant signal errors in the chuck element which supports the test device.
For high-frequency measurements, guarding is typically not employed. However, for the most sensitive of measurements, the "quietness" of the shield is still critical. For this reason, it is common practice to construct a fully shielded room, commonly known as a screen room, large enough to contain a probe station with its own separate shield enclosure, test equipment, and several operators. However, screen rooms take up a large amount of space, are expensive to build, and are ineffective with respect to noise sources within the room.
The environmental influences which ordinarily compromise the desired quiet condition of a shield are the motion of external objects at constant potential which cause spurious shield currents due to varying capacitance, and external AC voltages which cause spurious shield currents via constant capacitance. For sensitive measurements, what is needed is a truly quiet shield unaffected by such environmental influences.
Also, to reduce the need for a screen room, and provide a shield unaffected by closely adjacent environmental influences, such quiet shield structure should be compact.

Probe station having multiple enclosures


A differential transimpedance amplifier with reduced input impedance and increased bandwidth having a pair of input contacts, a pair of summing transistors, a pair of feedback transistors, a pair of output resistors, a pair of feedback resistors, a first and a second node and a pair of output contacts. The input contacts each being connected to one or more sources of current that are to be summed and are connected to the pair of summing transistors. The pair of feedback transistors are connected to the pair of input contacts, the pair of feedback resistors and to the first node for differentially reducing the input impedance of the pair of summing transistors and to overcome voltage excursions at the pair of input contacts to increase the operational bandwidth of the transimpedance amplifier. The pair of output resistors are connected to the pair of summing transistors for converting the current sum for each input contact into a voltage level that is transmitted differentially by the pair of output contacts that are connected to the pair of summing transistors.

This invention pertains to a differential transimpedance amplifier. More particularly, it pertains to a high frequency low impedance differential transimpedance amplifier.
Transimpedance amplifiers convert a current level to a voltage level and are effective in various types of circuits providing easier circuit integration, more precise control and increased accuracy in performance. A typical use of a transimpedance amplifier is to sum currents as part of a frequency impulse response filter.
An ideal transimpedance amplifier has zero input impedance and infinite output impedance. This ensures that the entire current flows only across a load, or output resistor, to convert the current to a voltage level. By approaching zero input impedance and infinite output impedance, the performance of a transimpedance amplifier is improved.
Use of a transistor to function as the transimpedance amplifier to sum a number of currents is known in the art. The currents to be summed are generally connected together at the emitter of the transistor so that the total current flows across the load or output resistor connected to the collector of the transistor when the base of the transistor is properly biased. The load or output resistor is sized appropriately to effectively diminish any effect the output impedance of the transistor would have on the load or output resistor.
Use of a transistor in this configuration for summing a number of currents creates an input impedance equal to at least the base spreading resistance (r.sub.b) divided by the transistors current gain and the incremental resistance of the emitter-base (r.sub.e) for its bias condition. The resistance r.sub.e is usually much larger than r.sub.b /Beta and therefore the input impedance is approximately equal to the resistance r.sub.e of the transistor. However, although small, the resistance r.sub.e will interact with parasitic capacitance which exists at the emitter of the summing transistor as a result of connecting together the current supplies to be summed as well as the capacitance that exists in the line. This interaction generates a voltage excursion or voltage level at the emitter node of the transistor as the parasitic capacitance charges or discharges in response to the interaction. The time constant associated with the parasitic capacitance charging and discharging creates a time delay to the circuit as not all of the current to be summed flows across the load or the output resistance located at the collector. This time constant decreases the frequency rate at which the circuit can accurately operate and thus decreases the bandwidth of the circuit.
To avoid this decrease in bandwidth and improve the accuracy of a transimpedance amplifier, the input impedance must be minimized to approximate ideal conditions (i.e. zero input impedance).


The present invention is a device and method for simultaneously spacing and bracing adjacent framing components. The disclosed device is an elongate U-shaped spacing member having a pivot tongue extending from one end of the spacing member and a free tongue extending from the other end. The pivot tongue incorporates a pivot plate with a pivotable connection means, and a hinge. The free tongue incorporates an attachment means. Optionally, both or either tongue may incorporate a locking tab. The steps of the disclosed method of the invention include affixing the device to the edge of an incoming framing component; pivotally connecting the pivot tongue to the incoming framing component; positioning the components into their approximate positions relative to one another; lifting the free tongue away from the incoming framing component; rotating the device so that the sides of the spacing member face a fastened component; lowering the free tongue until it contacts the fastened component; finally adjusting the positions of the framing components; engaging the attachment means; tightening the pivotable connection; and, optionally, engaging the locking tabs.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to devices and methods for spacing and bracing framing components during the framing of buildings and other structures.
2. Statement of the Problems Solved by the Invention
Typically, buildings are constructed by initially assembling a frame from a plurality of framing components. The elemental framing components that constitute a building frame are typically elongated pieces of wood or metal. Examples of such basic framing components include studs, rafters, and joists. Other types of framing components include metal or wood "I"-beams and complex components, such as trusses, which are often preassembled from basic wood or metal elements. Once the frame is complete, internal and external sheathing is attached, thereby adding to the strength and rigidity of the structure, as well as providing the flat surfaces that constitute interior and exterior walls, floors, ceilings and roofs.
Design specifications and building codes require inter alia that 1) proper spacing distances must be maintained between adjacent framing components, and 2) the framing components be properly oriented and aligned; i.e., square and plumb. Quality construction requires that these spacing distances and component orientations be accurate and uniform. For instance, in America it is standard for a distance of 16 inches to be maintained between wall studs, and for a distance of 24 inches to be maintained between trusses. (Although the distance between framing components is generally designated as "on-center" distances in plans, specifications, and building codes, unless the context requires otherwise, the term "spacing distance" when used herein refers specifically to the distance between facing sides of adjacent framing components, which is typically the on-center distance minus the thickness of one framing component.)
Having to maintain a consistent spacing distance along the length of framing members creates a problem during construction because it is necessary to measure repeatedly the distance between the components over their entire length. One common solution to this problem is to tack temporary spacers of the proper length between the components and then remove the spacers once the components are tied together permanently. Another technique is to mark the on-center distances on boards and tack those boards to the framing components as they are put into position. Obviously, these spacing tasks slow down the framing process very significantly and easily introduce inaccuracies into the process. They can also subject construction workers to risk of injury. For instance, when working considerable distances off the ground installing trusses, workers have to lean out from the secured truss to measure the correct spacing distance for the incoming truss, thereby increasing the chances of suffering a fall.
A second problem that must be resolved in constructing a frame is that the framing components must often be braced against one another during the construction process. Sometimes this bracing is temporary until the components are fixed or fastened into their final position; sometimes the bracing is permanent. Returning to the example of trusses, when an incoming truss is lifted into place, until it can be braced against a framing component that has already been secured, the incoming truss has a potential for toppling over and injuring workers handling the truss as well as those on the ground. Even if no one is injured, the cost of a damaged truss is significant. Like the spacing problem, this bracing problem is often resolved by tacking temporary braces between the unstable components and the components already secured. Of course, such temporary braces increase construction costs by virtue of the time it takes to nail the braces into position and then remove them, and by virtue of the wasted materials.
Devices and methods that allow adjacent framing components to be spaced and braced quickly, easily, and simultaneously can resolve both of the foregoing problems and, hence, can greatly facilitate the process of building structures while reducing the potential of accidents and material costs.
3. Related Art
A number of solutions to the foregoing problems have been proposed and patented. For instance, two such patents have issued to Pellock—U.S. Pat. No. 5,884,448 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,899,042. These patents disclose elongate truss braces having a U-shaped channel member and end-tongues that extend from the channel member. The U-shaped channel provides stiffness and strength and the end-tongues provide means of attaching the braces to the trusses. In addition, the sides of the channels form side-tabs with integrated nails for further securing the braces to the trusses.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,244,010 issued to Suliter discloses a truss bracing system comprising clips that attach to the trusses and secure the braces thereto. U.S. Pat. No. 4,604,845 issued to Brinker discloses a collapsible spacing device comprised of a plurality of spacer segments attached together end-to-end so that the device can be easily extended and laid across the chords of adjacent framing components to brace them until sheathing is applied to stabilize them. Then the device is removed and folded into its storage configuration.
One of the major disadvantages of the foregoing examples of spacing and bracing devices is that the framers must carry the braces, clips, and other paraphernalia to the point at which they are to be attached to the framing components. For instance, framers installing trusses must carry dozens of braces with them up into the roof area. When incoming trusses are raised into place, the framers must then cast around to find the braces and then attach the braces to the trusses. If such braces are attached to the framing components before the components are placed into position, then the braces stick out from the framing components at right angles and complicate handling and moving the components.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,959,945 to Allen discloses a partial solution to this problem. The truss spacer of Allen comprises an L-shaped spacing member with connecting means at its ends. The spacing member can be attached to prefabricated trusses at the point of manufacture by rotatably securing one end of the L-shaped member to a truss. When the truss is in its final position, the free end of the member is swung out to engage the adjacent truss. While Allen solves the problem of having to store bracing elements at the work site and carry them around, the L-shaped spacing member Allen discloses does not provide sufficient frictional contact with the truss to keep the member from coming loose. When transporting and handling numbers of prefabricated trusses to and around a job site—each truss having a plurality of bracing units attached—obvious problems arise when the units come free and flap around. Also, because Allen discloses only one vertical side wall in his L-shaped member, the device is not self-squaring and obtaining and maintaining the desired 900 angle between the brace and the longitudinal axis of the framing component is problematic. In addition, the single pivot connection of Allen does not provide a very substantial connection between the brace and the framing component.
There would be a significant advantage to spacing and bracing devices combining the U-shaped channel of Pellock with the rotatable connection disclosed by Allen. Judicious choice of the width of the U-shaped channel so that the unit fits snugly onto the edge of the framing component would provide a superior means of frictionally holding the device to the framing component during handling and transport. Consequently, the framers would not have to be bothered with carrying braces around the work area and attaching them to the trusses. If such a U-shaped device could be rotatably attached at one end to the framing component so that other end swings out to connect to the adjacent component, the device could be easily and safely deployed when and where it is needed.

Device and method for spacing and bracing framing components


A method of monitoring cardiac output. The method uses a blood pressure waveform as input. The waveform is digitized and various blood pressure features are extracted. The features are used as inputs to a fuzzy logic model, where each input is fuzzified by determining its degree of confidence as a member of one or more fuzzy membership regions. A rule base is applied to the defuzzified inputs to obtain a fuzzy stroke volume index. This output is defuzzied and used to calculate cardiac output.

Cardiac output is the measure of average blood flow through the heart. It is the product of the heart rate times the stroke volume. For a healthy adult in rest, a normal cardiac output is about 5 liters per minute. A healthy human body attempts to maintain a normal cardiac output by increasing or decreasing the heart rate or stroke volume. If the body cannot adequately compensate heart rate or stroke volume, adverse physiological conditions occur.
The measurement of cardiac output is an important part of health care. One method of measuring cardiac output is based on the principle of thermodilution. A catheter is inserted into a peripheral vein and the catheter tip is threaded into the pulmonary artery. Cold saline is injected through the catheter into the blood approximately three inches from the catheter tip. As the blood carries the saline past the catheter tip, a thermistor detects the decrease in temperature of the blood/saline mix. The measured temperature dilution is used to estimate cardiac output.
Another method of measuring cardiac output is based on the arterial blood pressure waveform. An advantage of this method is that the waveform can be obtained from non-invasive or minimally invasive devices.
The principle of obtaining cardiac output from blood pressure is analogous to the principle of electrical circuit analysis. Cardiac output can be derived from blood pressure if cardiovascular impedance is known, in a manner analogous to deriving electrical current from voltage if circuit impedance is known.
Various approaches have been used to provide a model for obtaining cardiac output from blood pressure. A well-known electrical analog model is known as the Windkessal model, developed in the 1930's. Linear and non-linear variations of this model have been developed.
More recently developed blood pressure models depart from analog models. For example, one approach uses pattern recognition to obtain a continuous cardiac output measurement from arterial pressure waveforms. U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,679, to Martin, entitled "Continuous Cardiac Output derived from the Arterial Pressure Waveform Using Pattern Recognition", describes this approach.

Cardiac output monitor using fuzzy logic blood pressure analysis


An analysis device for analyzing components contained in an object includes a light emitting unit that irradiates the object with light, a transmissive spectral filter, a light detector including a plurality of light receiving elements, an analysis unit. The spectral filter includes a substrate having light transmissivity and being disposed on a light path of the light after being reflected by the object or the light after passing through the object, a plurality of raised portions formed with a metal material on one surface of the substrate, and a metal oxide film including a metal oxide material having a higher refractive index than the metal material, so as to cover the plurality of raised portions and the one surface of the substrate.

Conventionally, an optical analysis method has been proposed in order to perform non-destructive analysis of components contained in an object. With the optical analysis method, first the object is irradiated with light. Next, a spectral filter is used to extract light of a wavelength corresponding to a target component from transmitted light that has passed through the object or reflected light that has been reflected by the object, and the extracted light is received by a light receiving element. Absorbance is then derived, based on an output signal from the light receiving element, and the percentage of target component is furthermore calculated from the absorbance (e.g., see Patent Literatures 1 and 2).
Specifically, Patent Literature 1 discloses an analysis device that performs optical analysis with glucose contained in fruit and vegetables as the target component. With the analysis device disclosed in Patent Literature 1, since the target component is glucose, light containing wavelengths in the near-infrared region is irradiated from a light source. As for the spectral filter, a reflective spectral filter using a diffraction grating is used. This spectral filter is formed so that only light of wavelengths in a range of 700 nm to 1000 nm is guided to the light receiving element.
Patent Literature 2 also discloses an analysis device that takes glucose contained in fruit and vegetables as the target component. With the analysis device disclosed in Patent Literature 2, however, a plurality of transmissive spectral filters that transmit only light of set wavelengths are used, different from the analysis device disclosed in Patent Literature 1. The spectral filters are disposed in the same plane within the beam irradiation range. As a result of this configuration, only light from the object being measured that conforms to the set wavelength of one of the spectral filters passes through the spectral filters and is received by the light receiving element.
Incidentally, with the abovementioned optical analysis method, in the case where the target component differs, the wavelengths (selected wavelengths) of light to be extracted using a spectral filter will also differ. Consequently, with the analysis devices disclosed in Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2, the spectral filter needs to be exchanged in the case of targeting components other than glucose, making it practically impossible to target components other than glucose.
On the other hand, Patent Literature 3 discloses a reflective spectral filter that enables the selected wavelength to be changed. The spectral filter disclosed in Patent Literature 3 is provided with a resonance grating, a substrate disposed such that a gap is formed therebetween, and a configuration for applying a voltage between the resonance grating and the substrate. When the magnitude of the voltage applied between the resonance grating and the substrate is changed in this spectral filter, the distance therebetween changes, resulting in reflectance relative to incident light also changing. If the spectral filter disclosed in Patent Literature 3 is used, the selected wavelength can thus be changed, and an analysis device capable of handling a wide variety of target components can conceivably be obtained.


A method of optical phase detection, in which a signal light polarized linearly and a local light emitted from a local light laser light source are combined with each other so that an in-phase component and a quadrature component, which is 90 degrees behind the local light in phase and is combined with the signal light, are taken out; and the in-phase component is demodulated while the phase of the signal light and that of the local light are synchronized with each other through the use of the in-phase component and the quadrature component, in which the signal light and the local light are separated into mutually-perpendicular P-polarized and S-polarized components by first and second polarization beam splitters; the phases of the P-polarized or S-polarized components are regulated by first and second optical phase compensation plates so that the polarized components of the signal light are kept in phase with each other, but the polarized components of the local light have a phase difference of 90 degrees between themselves; and the polarized components of the signal light and those of the local light are combined with each other by a first and a second combiner so that the in-phase component and the quadrature component are obtained. Therefore, a method having a low demodulation error can be easily provided to be widely used for high-capacity coherent optical communication.

The present invention relates to an optical phase detection method, more particularly to a method of performing optical phase detection through the use of a quadrature component and an in-phase component.
In optical phase shift keying homodyne transmission, it is necessary to perform control to synchronize the phase .theta.l of a local light with the phase .theta.s of a signal light in order to demodulate the phase-modulated signal light. The control can be performed by using a Costas-type optical phase locked loop having an optical 90-degree hybrid unit, as mentioned by A. Schopflin et al. in Electron. Lett. 26,395, 1990.
For the description of an optical phase detection method disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application No. 2-47313 (having a filing date of Mar. 1, 1990, and a publication date of Nov. 11, 1991) made by the two present inventors plus a third inventor, FIG. 4 shows the constitution of a Costas-type optical phase locked loop having a conventional optical 90-degree hybrid unit 1, and FIG. 5 shows the constitution of the unit. The signs .largecircle., , and in FIGS. 4 and 5 denote an S-polarized light component, a P-polarized light component, linear polarization of light, the plane of vibration of which has an angle of 45 degrees to the optical axis of a polarization beam splitter, and circular polarization of light, respectively. The arrows shown by dotted in FIGS. 4 and 5 denote the direction propagation of light. A signal light S1 linearly polarized to have a plane of vibration at an angle of 45 degrees to the optical axis of a polarization beam splitter 1a is entered into it. The splitter 1a splits the signal light S1 into signal lights S2 and S3. A local light L0 emitted from a local light laser light source 2 and linearly polarized is changed into a circularly polarized light L1 by a quarter-wavelength plate 1e. The circularly polarized light L1 is entered into another polarization beam splitter 1c which splits the light into local lights L2 and L3. The P-polarized component S3 of the signal light S1 and the P-polarized component L3 of the local light L1 are combined with each other by a half mirror 1b which is an optical combiner. The S-polarized component S2 of the signal light S1 and the S-polarized component L2 of the local light L1 are combined with each other by another half mirror 1d which is another optical combiner. Lights S4 and L5 and lights S5 and L4, which are obtained through the combining by the half mirror 1b, are received by a balanced receiver 3 so that an output Vb1 is obtained therefrom. Lights S6 and L7 and lights S7 and L6, which are obtained through the combining by the other half mirror 1d, are received by another balanced receiver 4 so that an output light Vb2 is obtained therefrom. As for the hybrid unit 1 shown in FIG. 5, the output light Vb1 is a quadrature component, and the other output light Vb2 is an in-phase component. If the circular polarization of the local light L1 is clockwise with regard to being seen from the quarter-wavelength plate 1e, the phase of the P-polarized component L3 is 90 degrees behind that of the S-polarized component L2 so that the output light Vb1 is the quadrature component proportional to sin (.theta.s-.theta.l), and the other output light Vb2 is the in-phase component proportional to cos(.theta.s-.theta.l) wherein .theta.s and .theta.l denote the phases of the signal light and the local light, respectively. If the circular polarization of the local light L1 is counterclockwise with regard to being seen from the quarter-wavelength plate 1e, the phase of the P-polarized component L3 is 90 degrees ahead of that of the S-polarized component L2 so that the output light Vb1 is the in-phase component proportional to cos(.theta.s-.theta.l), and the other output light Vb2 is the quadrature component proportional to sin (.theta.s-.theta.l).
The optical 90-degree hybrid unit 1 operates so that the polarization of the signal light S1 and that of the local light L1 are made the same as each other by the polarization beam splitters 1a and 1c, and the polarized components of the signal light and the local light are thereafter combined with each other by the half mirrors 1b and 1d, as described above. For that reason, the difference between the phases of the local lights L2 and L3 can be prevented from being affected by the polarization characteristics of the half mirrors 1b and 1d, and are therefore stably kept at 90 degrees.
The signal light S4 and the local light L5, which are outputs from the half mirror 1b, are herein referred to as Q+ component signals. The signal light S5 and the local light L4, which are the other outputs from the half mirror 1b, are herein referred to as Q- component signals different by a phase angle of 180 degrees from the Q+ component signals. The signal light S6 and the local light L7, which are outputs from the other half mirror 1d, are herein referred to as I+ component signals. The signal light S7 and the local light L6, which are the other outputs from the latter half mirror 1d, are herein referred to as I- component signals different by a phase angle of 180 degrees from the I+ component signals.
Since the phase locked loop shown in FIG. 4 employs the balanced receivers 3 and 4 which differentially combine the likewise polarized signals with each other, the half mirrors 1b and 1d which are the output members of the hybrid unit 1 operate as .pi.-hybrid units.
The outputs Vb1 and Vb2(VQ and VI) from the balanced receivers 3 and 4, which are suppressed of intensity noise, are multiplied together by a mixer 5 so as to cancel phase-modulated components by each other to obtain an output V3. The output V3 is applied to a control circuit 6 to obtain an output Vc therefrom. The output Vc is applied as a local light phase control signal to the laser light source 2 to perform feedback control to keep phase synchronization. The signal component of the output Vb2 (VI), which is modulated by the phase .theta.s of the signal light, is demodulated by a code judgment device 7 so that a demodulated signal SO is taken out. Since the local light intensity noises of the outputs Vb1 and Vb2 obtained from the balanced receivers 3 and 4 are suppressed enough by using the optical 90-degree hybrid unit 1 and the differential-synthesis-type balanced receivers in combination, phase detection good in signal-to-noise ratio is enabled.
In the optical 90-degree hybrid unit 1 shown in FIG. 5, the polarized components S2 and S3 of the separated signal light S1 are required to have the same phase as each other in the half mirrors 1b and 1d, and the polarized components L2 and L3 of the separated local light L1 are required to be kept at the phase difference of 90 degrees (which is made by the quarter-wavelength plate 1e) between themselves in the half mirrors. To meet these requirements equations (1-1) and (1-2) wherein lab, 1ad, 1bc, 1cd, .lambda., N1 and N2 denote the optical path length between the polarization beam splitter 1a and the half mirror 1b, that between the splitter and the other half mirror 1d, that between the other polarization beam splitter 1c and the former mirror, that between the latter splitter and the latter mirror, the wavelength of the light, and integers, respectively, need to exist as follows: EQU 1ab=1bc+.lambda..times.N1 (1-1) EQU 1ad=1cd+.lambda..times.N2 (1-2)
However, since errors are made in mounting the polarize tion beam splitters 1a and 1c and the half mirrors 1b and 1d, the equations (1-1) and (1-2) should be replaced with others (2-1) and (2-2) below. EQU 1ab=1bc+.lambda..times.N1+.DELTA.1 (2-1) EQU 1ad=1cd+.lambda..times.N2+.DELTA.2 (2-2)
In these equations, .DELTA.1 and .DELTA.2 denote remainders in dividing the difference 1ab-1bc between the optical path lengths 1ab and 1bc by the wavelength .lambda., and that 1ab-1cd between the optical path lengths 1ad and 1cd by the wavelength, respectively. The remainders determine the relationship between the phases of the signal light and the local light in the optical 90-degree hybrid unit 1, and mean the errors which result in causing a residual phase difference .delta..OMEGA. between the signal light and the local light in synchronous detection as follows: EQU 2.pi.(.DELTA.1+.DELTA.2)/.lambda.=.delta..OMEGA. (3)
It depends on the existence or inexistence of the residual phase difference .delta..OMEGA. whether the polarized components L2 and L3 of the separated local light L1 have the phase difference of 90 degrees between themselves in the half mirrors 1b and 1d. In order to make the quality of optical phase shift keying homodyne transmission good enough to keep the error ratio thereof not higher than 10.sup.-9, the residual phase difference between the signal light and the local light is required to be 0.173 rad or less throughout a phase synchronization system, as mentioned in J. Lightwave Technology, Vol. LT-5, No. 4, Pages 592 to 597, 1987. For that reason, the residual phase difference .delta..OMEGA. which occurs in the optical 90-degree hybrid unit 1 is required to be as follows: EQU .delta..OMEGA.<0.173 (rad) (4)
If the wavelength .lambda. in the equation (3) and the inequality (4) is 1.55 .mu.m, the errors .DELTA.1 and .DELTA.2 in the mounting are required to be as follows: EQU .DELTA.1.times..DELTA.2<0.021 (.mu.m) (5)
Although it is not impossible to mount the polarization beam splitters 1a and 1c and the half mirrors 1b and 1c so as to establish the inequality (5), a highly accurate technique of processing is needed for the mounting and results in a problem of higher cost.
When the phase of the local light is synchronized with that of the signal light through control in the conventional optical phase detection method employing the optical 90-degree hybrid unit 1, the residual phase difference occurs due to the errors in the mounting of the members of the hybrid unit.

Optical phase detection method with orthogonal polarization and phase compensation arrangement


An electronic device is provided. The electronic device includes a housing, an audio output device, and a radio frequency (RF) device. The housing includes at least a conductive first portion made of a conductive material, and the conductive first portion has an opening. The audio output device is disposed in the housing and corresponding to the opening to output an audio, a space exists between the audio output device and the housing, and the audio passes through the opening to be perceived by a listener outside the housing. The radio frequency (RF) device is disposed in the space for radiating a wireless signal under a coupling effect of the opening of the conductive first portion of the housing.

With the evolution of technology, for the wireless transmission part, the required data throughput is getting higher and higher. Whether it is Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) or Wireless Wide Area Network (WWAN), it has entered the transmission speed level of Gbps (Gigabits per second), and the traditional two-channel input and output has been increasingly unable to meet the needs of many products. Moreover, combined with the trend of product design, an all-metal narrow frame is more and more popular due to its beautiful appearance and good texture. But, this poses a huge challenge to antenna design. On the one hand, due to the compressed space for the antenna, and that the all-metal casing shields the wireless signals, the antenna bandwidth and efficiency can be affected. On the other hand, the number of antennas is increasing, and there are fewer and fewer spaces to place antennas. This presents a great challenge to the hardware design.
The disclosed methods and systems are directed to solve one or more problems set forth above and other problems.


A restaurant service management system, for facilitating efficient communication between a customer and service staff in an establishment such as a restaurant. The service staff is equipped with a communication station having a display, and each customer is equipped with a signaling device in communication with the communication station. The signaling device has a service button, numbered pushbuttons, a red colored LED, and a green colored LED. To request service, the customer presses the service button, signaling the communication station, and causing the red colored LED to flash. When the alert is acknowledged by service staff at the communication station, an acknowledgment signal extinguishes the red colored LED and causes the green LED to illuminate. When service personnel reach the customer, a code is entered using the numbered pushbuttons, the green LED is extinguished, and the system is reset.

The invention relates to a restaurant service management system. More particularly, the invention relates to a system that facilitates communication between restaurant patrons and service staff.
In most cases restaurant patrons are in agreement about how service should be. In particular, customers want good service and are willing to tip well, and service staff (servers or waiters) want to provide good service and earn good tips. Unfortunately, what often stands in the way of realizing this common goal is poor communication.
When a customer's need arises, there is no telling what task the server might be currently engaged in. Whatever legitimate task the server is engaged in—whether taking the order of another table, bringing food or drink, or preparing an order in the kitchen—it simply feels to the customer that the server is being inattentive. While the customer is seeking the attention of the service staff, the customer is distracted from the meal and conversation with his or her companions. The busier the restaurant, the more likely the customer is to feel neglected. Unfortunately, even in the busiest of circumstances, the customer's need can likely to be attended to, if that need could simply be communicated to the server.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,821,707 to Peters discloses a waitress call system. U.S. Pat. No. 4,777,488 to Carlman, Jr. et al discloses a restaurant service request communication system. U.S. Pat. No. 6,366,196 to Green et al. discloses a restaurant waiter paging system.
While these units may be suitable for the particular purpose employed, or for general use, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as disclosed hereafter.


A method and apparatus provides network management data in a manner that can be more efficient than data provided using conventional SNMP. A requested data description is received containing the names of the data requested, and this requested data is provided. Tables are provided by providing a table name, a list of columns, and for each row in the table, the name of the row and the data for the row in the order the column names were provided. Rows may be provided in the order stored, or numerically by row name. All columns of every row of a table may be provided or just columns specified in the requested data description.

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The present invention is related to computer software and more specifically to computer software for computer network equipment.
Computer networks are made up of network devices, such as switches, routers, bridges and the like. Network devices are managed by one or more network manager devices. Management of a network device includes monitoring the activity of the network device and controlling certain aspects of its operation.
To communicate information used to manage a network device, the network device and network manager communicate using a protocol. Many communication devices use the xe2x80x9cSimple Network Management Protocolxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cSNMPxe2x80x9d to communicate this information. SNMP is currently described in Sean Harnedy, Total SNMP, 2d. ed. (Prentice Hall. PTR 1998). Three versions of SNMP exist, versions 1, 2 and 3. SNMP may also be used to communicate network management information for purposes other than network management. Network management information is any information that can be communicated using SNMP or any similar information.
Information stored by a device using the SNMP protocol is made up of data elements. A data element may be a single piece of data, known as an object, or a table of objects. A table is an array of data, with each object in the table corresponding to a row and column name. Each object or table has a distinct, individual name. These objects make up a Management Information Base (MIB).
To obtain large amounts of data from a network device using the SNMP protocol, a list of MIB object names, referred to as a MIB object, may be provided to the network device to indicate the data desired. The content of the MIB object indicates the data desired. A command is sent to the network device indicating that the network device should return the data indicated by the list of MIB object names. The conventional SNMP xe2x80x9cGetbulkxe2x80x9d command can be used for such a purpose.
The conventional Getbulk command has several drawbacks, however. First, when the Getbulk command returns a table data element, if data for a row and column is not stored, the SNMP simply omits providing the unstored data. This requires a programmer to anticipate the possibility that any piece of data in the table can be missing from the result of the Getbulk command. The programmer must detect the missing data and adjust accordingly, complicating the programming of the device receiving such result of the Getbulk command. In order to allow the device receiving the result to detect the missing data from the table, the value of every piece of data from the table is returned with the row name and column name of the piece of data. Because the names are sent with the data, the time required to transmit and receive the result increases beyond that required to transmit the data alone, tying up both the network used to transmit the information, the network device providing the data and the network manager device receiving the data.
Additionally, SNMP requires table rows and columns to be returned in numerical order, but the data may not be stored by the network device in that order. To achieve this requirement, the network device may have to search the entire table to find the next row in numerical order. This process takes additional time and can slow down the network device that provides the data. If there are many rows in tables to be provided, this performance degradation on the network device that must search the table data can be significant.
Because SNMP data may contain billing information, it is desirable to retrieve SNMP data often in order to ensure the data is not lost if the network device crashes. The amount of data retrieved can be quite large, causing the performance problems described above. This can result in the owner of the network causing the data to be retrieved less often than is otherwise optimal.
What is needed is a method and apparatus that can provide network management data elements in a more efficient manner than that provided by SNMP while reducing the programming complexity to receive omitted table data elements.
A method and apparatus provides network management data in a manner similar to that of the conventional SNMP Getbulk command, with the exceptions noted below. Tables are provided by providing a table name, then a row of column names in the order columns are provided. For each row in the table, a row name is provided with all the data for that row, with omitted data in each row filled with a null character or other special identifier. The rows and data within each row may optionally be provided in the order stored, not necessarily numerically. The method and apparatus can provide only specified columns of a table instead of providing all the columns of the table. Because the column and row names of a table are provided only once and the rows and data within each row may not be rearranged from the order in which it is stored, the method and apparatus is more efficient than conventional SNMP. Because omitted data is filled, programming complexity is reduced.

Method and apparatus for providing network management data


The present invention extracts information related to rendering from structured scenario description 101 that describes information related to objects and the rendering, extracts a rendering setup corresponding to information related to the extracted rendering from rendering knowledge base 109, extracts a moving picture corresponding to the objects described in structured scenario description 101 from moving picture component database 106 and produces rendering on the extracted moving picture using the extracted rendering setup, and can thereby create a moving picture subjected to effective rendering.

Conventionally, there is a proposal of a method for automatically creating moving picture corresponding to characters included in character strings (e.g., see Unexamined Japanese Patent Publication No. 2002-366964).
According to this method, a character string is analyzed first and a concept contained in the characters included in the character string is determined. Next, components of moving picture such as story, props (gadgets), background and music and so forth are selected. Then, a series of animation is created using the selected moving picture components.
However, the conventional method only creates a series of animation using the moving picture components related to the objects included in the character string and pays little attention to rendering (here "rendering" has a broad meaning containing both direction which means character animation, camera animation and rendering which means drawing polygon per second) such as the method of taking moving picture (i.e. camera work).
Thus, the conventional method simply arranges moving picture components which produce premeditated actions, which results in similar rendering irrespective of themes of moving pictures. For example, similar camera work applies to all types of moving pictures such as a moving picture related to landscape and a moving picture related to human action. For this reason, the moving pictures created become monotonous pictures unable to emphasize their themes.

Apparatus and method for creating moving picture

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A wood screw is proposed for use with a material made mainly of plastic waste and wood chips. The wood screw includes a shank which has leading threads extending from the tip of the tapered portion to an intermediate point of the straight portion and have a first lead angle and a first thread angle. Trailing threads extend from the intermediate point toward a head and have a second lead angle and a second thread angle. The first lead angle is greater than the second lead angle, and the first thread angle is smaller than the second thread angle.

This invention relates to a wood screw to be driven into a molding made mainly of plastic wastes with wood chips mixed therein.
Polyvinyl chloride has various desirable characteristics and is still cheap, and thus it is widely used for various building parts such as pipes and siding, and various food packages such as films and bottles. However when polyvinyl chloride is burned, dioxin is produced. Thus, it is desired to recycle polyvinyl chloride products instead of burning them to protect the environment.
There is known a method of recycling such plastic wastes. In this method, plastic wastes are melted or pulverized, and wood chips are mixed into the molten or pulverized plastic waste. The mixture thus made is molded and used as plate members such as backings of building interior members and balcony steps.
These plate members, made from a mixture of thermoplastics and wood chips, are soft. Thus, when a wood screw 10 is driven into such a plate member A1, its surface tends to bulge around the screw 10 as shown in FIG. 5A. The deeper the screw 10 is driven in, the higher the bulge 15 gets. When the screw 10 is completely driven in, the bulge 15 covers the head 11 of the screw as shown in FIG. 5B. The surface of the plate member A1 thus looks extremely unpresentable.
Thus, after the screw 10 has been driven in, it is necessary to flatten the bulge by striking it. This is extremely troublesome.
It is not exactly known how such a bulge forms. But our guess is as follows. The conventional wood screw 10 has a shank 12 with a tapered tip 13 having a rather large taper angle, i.e. about 40-45.degree. and thus short in the axial length. The threads 14 have a rather small lead angle. Thus, the tapered tip 13 cannot be smoothly driven into the plate. Rather, the tapered tip is driven in while breaking the inner texture of the plate member with its threads. Thus, wood chips separate from the plate member and rise along the thread groove.
An object of this invention is to provide a wood screw which can suppress bulging on the surface of a material molded from a mixture of plastic waste and wood chips.


A method for authentication between a smart car and a smart home includes: sending, by a telematics terminal of the smart car, a request for authentication of the telematics terminal to a telematics service center using a position of the smart car and a telephone number of the telematics terminal, wherein a car number of the smart car corresponds to the telephone number of the telematics terminal; checking, by a telematics service center, registration information about whether a smart home near the position of the smart car is registered in a smart home center; and authenticating, by the telematics terminal, the registration information received from the telematics service center through the telematics service center to the smart home center.

(a) Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to an authentication-related technique between a smart car and a smart home, and more particularly, to authentication between a smart car and a smart home, and a telematics service center therefor.
(b) Description of the Related Art
"Telematics" refers to a vehicular wireless Internet service in which a vehicle and wireless communication are combined together. Telematics is a compound word made of "telecommunication" and "informatics." It can be referred to as "automotive telematics" in that it uses an automotive Personal Computer (PC) to enable various Internet-based functionality in the vehicle, such as email and Internet searching.
Generally, telematics services are provided through collaboration between a car maker and a mobile communication service provider. Depending on the type of service, various functions are enabled, such as reception of news, investment in stocks, e-commerce, financial transactions, hotel reservations, transmission and reception of facsimiles, games, car accident reporting, and car theft reporting.
Using telematics communication, a car may be controlled using wireless communication between the car and a separate server. New service and control can be realized in such a way that a smart card can be installed in a car and store information about the car. In this regard, the smart card may be in communication with a server, and controller area network (CAN) communication for enabling respective parts of the car to operate in conjunction with one another can be combined with the former communication.
A telematics system for a vehicle provides various safety- and convenience-related functions, such as detecting the occurrence of a vehicle accident or theft, guiding a vehicle driving path, and tracking the vehicle's position, as well as providing a vehicle driver with a range of useful information using mobile communication techniques. Furthermore, a telematics system often provides information through a vehicle based on a global positioning system (GPS) using a mobile communication system and a GPS satellite. Accordingly, a telematics system can provide the vehicle driver with location-based services, such as traffic information, countermeasures to an emergency situation, remote vehicle diagnosis, use of the Internet (e.g., financial transaction, provision of news, and transmission and reception of e-mail) using the GPS, a wireless communication network, and/or an Internet network.
Additionally, telematics systems have been combined with various conventional systems. For instance, a home telematics system is essentially a telematics system combined with a home network system. The home network system is capable of remotely checking or controlling status of a light, a gas valve, a door, and a heater/air conditioner within a home, using a mobile communication network.
The above information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the disclosure and therefore it may contain information that does not form the related art that is already known in this country to a person of ordinary skill in the art.

Method for authentication between smart car and smart home and telematics service center therefor