A lubricating oil composition comprising a zinc dithiocarbamate fraction, for use in a gasoline or diesel engine equipped with fluoroelastomer seals, wherein said zinc dithiocarbamate fraction consists essentially of zinc dithiocarbamate molecules per Formula I:                having alkyl groups R1, R2, R3, and R4, wherein the weighted total average for carbon chain lengths for all molecules together is 9 or more:

Zinc dithiocarbamate-containing lubricant oil compositions are generally not used in modern gasoline and diesel engines containing fluoroelastomer seals despite their good antioxidant, sludge preventing, antiwear and extreme pressure properties due to their generally poor seal compatibility. Seal compatibility is of high importance in the lubricant industry, and the new GF-5 standard for lubricating oils established in October 2010 by the International Lubricants Standardization and Approval Committee (ILSAC) includes seal compatibility standards utilizing the ASTM D7216 test. The test involves immersion of a sample of the fluoroelastomer in the lubricating oil and heating at 150° C. for 336 hours. The aged fluoroelastomer sample is then tested for elongation at break, hardness, and retained tensile strength, and compared with the properties of a fresh fluoroelastomer sample.
Zinc dithiocarbamates are reaction products of a primary and/or secondary amine with carbon disulfide and a zinc source, a zinc salt to give compounds of the following structure (I):
wherein R1, R2, R3 and R4 are independently hydrogen, alkyl or arylalkyl groups. Typically zinc dithiocarbamates exist as monomers or dimers, i.e. n is 1 or 2. Typically smaller alkyl groups where R1, R2, R3 and R4 have 3 to 8 carbon atoms apiece are enough to impart oil solubility in a lubricating composition.
Fluoroelastomers (also known as Viton® a registered trademark of Dupont) are elastomers containing fluorine. They were introduced in 1957 to meet the needs of the aerospace industry for a high-performance seal elastomer. Since then, the use of Viton has expanded to many other industries, especially in the automotive, fluid power, appliance, and chemical fields.
Standard types of Viton products are designated as A, B, or F according to their relative resistance to attack by fluids and chemicals. The differences in chemical resistance are the result of different levels of fluorine in the elastomer, which is determined by the types and relative amounts of copolymerized monomers that comprise the elastomer. Typically Viton A contains 66% fluorine, Viton B 68% fluorine, and Viton F 70% fluorine.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,723,685 teaches nitrogen-containing lubricant additives are suspected, over time contributing to the deterioration of Viton seals.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,121,211 teaches a lubricating oil composition containing a metal thiocarbamate as a sludge preventive, and a Viton seal protecting amount of at least one aldehyde or epoxide or a mixture thereof. The metal thiocarbamate can be a zinc dithiocarbamate, preferably where the alkyl chain lengths R1 and R2 ranges between 3 and 5 carbon atoms. It is necessary however to have a seal protecting amount of an aldehyde and/or epoxide in the formulation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,364,545 teaches a lubricating oil composition of a lubricating oil basestock, an organomolybdenum compound, and one or a combination of organozinc compounds consisting of zinc dithiophosphate and/or zinc dithiocarbamate along with an organic amide. However, nothing is taught about seal compatibility of these compositions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,479,883 teaches a lubricating oil composition having particularly improved friction reducing properties which comprises an ester of a polycarboxylic acid with a glycol or glycercol and a selected metal dithiocarbamate and contains a relatively low level of phosphorus. The metal dithiocarbamate can be a zinc dithiocarbamate. Nothing is taught about seal compatibility.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,612,129 teaches sulfur-containing, oil-soluble compositions which are useful as lubricating oil additives, particularly in lubricants containing little or no phosphorus. Some of the compositions of the invention include at least one zinc dithiocarbamate wherein the alkyl groups range from between 2 and 8 carbon atoms. These lubricating compositions exhibit good nitrile seal compatibility, but no mention of fluoroelastomer seal compatibility.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,265,851 teaches metal dithiocarbamates in a lubricating oil composition in which the alkyl groups R1 and R2 together contain 8 or less carbon atoms and the metal could be zinc.
Because of the ability of zinc dithiocarbamates to perform as good antioxidants, sludge preventers, antifriction additives, and extreme pressure additives in a lubricating oil composition, it would be highly desirable to improve their fluoroelastomer seal performance.

Zinc dithiocarbamate lubricating oil additives


A coupling structure for connecting an impeller to a motor shaft of a liquid pump, includes a carrier rod sleeved on the shaft, and a seal assembly connecting the carrier rod to a housing of the pump. The carrier rod is fixed to the shaft by way of a screw thread structure. The seal assembly includes a rotating seal sealingly fixed on an outer surface of the carrier rod and fixed to the carrier rod for rotation there with by an interlocking structure.

For a liquid pump driven by an electric motor, a water tight seal is required between the motor and the pump to prevent water from leaking into the motor from the pump. The seal may be provided in conjunction with the coupling structure between the motor and the pump, where the shaft of the motor is also isolated from the liquid of the pump, as in the case where the liquid being pumped is caustic or otherwise likely to damage the shaft. A prior art pump, shown in FIGS. 6 & 7, is driven by an electric motor and includes an impeller 10, a carrier rod 31, a macerator 20 and a seal assembly. The seal assembly includes a rotating seal 32, a stationary seal 33, a rotating ring 34 and a stationary ring 35. In this design, an axial straight line knurl 43 is formed on the shaft 40. The carrier rod 31 is pressed onto the shaft 40 and held fast by the knurl so as to rotate with the shaft 40. The rotating seal 32 is press-fitted on the carrier rod 31 and is rotatable relative to the stationary seal 33 fixed to a bracket of the motor. The above construction can avoid rotational movement between the shaft 40 and the carrier rod 31. However, axial movement or separation between the shaft 40 and the carrier rod 31 may occur. Such movement of the carrier rod affects the alignment of the impeller and leads to failure of the pump. Furthermore, movement between the rotating seal 32 and the carrier rod 31 may occur, which may allow water to enter into the motor via the space between the rotating seal 32 and the carrier rod 31.
The present invention aims to provide a new coupling structure which can solve the problem of axial movement between the carrier rod and the motor shaft. In addition or alternatively, certain embodiments of the invention address the problem of movement between the rotating seal and the carrier rod.


A nonwoven fabric comprising extendable fiber and elastic fiber, wherein the nonwoven fabric comprises a first side having a plurality of protrusions and a plurality of recesses and a second side on the side opposite the first side, the proportion of extendable fiber in the protrusions on the first side is higher than the proportion of extendable fiber in the recesses on the first side, and the nonwoven fabric is coated with a hydrophilic agent, or the extendable fiber and elastic fiber comprise a hydrophilic agent, the nonwoven fabric has a water absorbing property represented by a water absorption height of at least 10 mm in a water absorption test, and a quick-drying property represented by a transpiration rate of at least 20 mass % in a transpiration test.

Nonwoven fabrics are used in absorbent articles, such as sanitary products and disposable diapers, cleaning products, such as wipers, and medical goods, such as masks, and such products employ nonwoven fabrics with performance suitable for the purpose of the products and their intended location of use.
With absorbent articles, for example, it is necessary to employ nonwoven fabrics that expand and contract in response to bodily movement during wear or use, without creating an uncomfortable feeling for the user. Disposable diapers require nonwoven fabrics with high elasticity and strength sufficient to prevent tearing during extension, as well as satisfactory feel on the skin and air permeability.
PTL 1 discloses, as a nonwoven fabric with excellent air permeability, a three-dimensional sheet material comprising a material having a first layer and a second layer adjacent thereto, the first layer and second layer being partially bonded by joining sections in a prescribed pattern, the first layer forming a three-dimensional spatial shape between the joining sections, the second layer being composed of a material exhibiting elastomeric behavior, and the entire sheet also exhibiting elastomeric behavior as well as having air permeability. In the spatial sheet material described in PTL 1, the fibers composing the second layer are heat treated above the temperature at which heat shrinkage begins to cause shrinkage of the second layer, thereby creating a spatial structure.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Nonwoven fabric, and method for producing nonwoven fabric


A method for placing various types of catheters into the pericardial space takes advantage of the fact that the right auricle is a thin-walled, low-pressure structure which can be readily penetrated without damaging the pericardium or the epicardium. A guide catheter is passed through a selected peripheral vein to establish a transvenous route to the right auricle of the heart. A needle catheter is then passed through the guide catheter and into the right auricle so that a distal end of the needle catheter is positioned against a wall of the right auricle. The wall of the right auricle is then pierced with the needle catheter. A guide wire is advanced through the needle catheter and into the pericardial space. Once in position, the guide wire can be used as a conduit over which a desired catheter may be introduced for performing a specific medical procedure.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of cardiology. More specifically, the invention relates to a method for diagnosing and treating the heart by facilitating access to the pericardial space.
2. Background Art
An important problem in cardiology is the provision of a safe method for diagnosing and treating the heart selectively and without thoracotomy (open chest surgery). Diagnosis or treatment may be pharmacologic or electrophysiologic. For example, in order to deliver electrical stimuli directly to the heart for the purpose of cardioversion or defibrillation, patients often undergo a thoracotomy under general anesthesia for attachment of a "patch" electrode to the epicardial surface. This procedure requires an extensive incision of the pericardium. The "patch" electrode provides a large electrode surface area in contact with the heart so that a sufficient mass of cardiac tissue may be depolarized. Thoracotomy creates the additional complication of wound healing.
It is desirable to provide a method for placing the defibrillation/cardioversion electrodes in contact with the heart muscle without thoracotomy. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,181,562 and 4,319,562 to Crosby, and 5,033,477 to Chin et al. disclose methods for placing electrodes in contact with the heart muscles from within the pericardial space without the need for thoracotomy. Access to the pericardial space is gained via a sub-xiphoid route.
This involves penetrating the chest wall below the xiphoid process.
The sub-xiphoid route has several disadvantages. First, because the pericardial sac which surrounds the heart is a tight-fitting fibrous membrane, the pericardial space is so small that it is difficult to penetrate the sac without also puncturing, and thereby, damaging the heart itself. Second, accessing the heart via the sub-xiphoid route entails a high risk of infection. These are likely to account for its failure to be adopted into common clinical practice.
In fact, the sub-xiphoid route is presently used almost solely for pericardiocentesis, a process for the aspiration of excess fluid from the pericardial sac. Pericardiocentesis is normally performed to treat cardiac tamponade, a build-up of excess fluid in the pericardial sac. The excess fluid distends the pericardial sac away from the heart such that the risk of puncturing the heart is reduced, but the risk of infection remains high.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,884,567 to Elliott et al., 4,946,457 to Elliott, and 4,998,975 to Cohen et al. disclose methods for transvenous implantation of electrodes into the pericardial space. A catheter is introduced through a vein to the atrium where the lateral atrial wall is penetrated in order to introduce electrodes into the pericardial space. A major problem encountered by these methods is how to penetrate the lateral atrial wall without also puncturing the tight-fitting pericardium.
The methods of these patents attempt to solve this problem through several elaborate schemes. One scheme involves using complex catheters to attach to the lateral atrial wall and to pull it back away from the pericardium prior to penetrating the wall in order to avoid puncturing the pericardium. Another approach involves injecting a fluid into the pericardial space to distend the pericardium away from the lateral atrial wall prior to penetrating the wall.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,578 to Cohen discloses a method for implanting epicardial defibrillation electrodes into the pericardial space. The method involves entering the pericardial space via the sub-xiphoid route. As discussed above, it is difficult to penetrate the pericardial sac via the sub-xiphoid route without also puncturing, and thereby damaging, the heart itself. Like the method discussed directly above, the '578 patent discloses injecting a fluid into the pericardial space or attaching and pulling on a catheter to distend the pericardial sac away from the heart.
Because each of these known methods is intrinsically cumbersome and hazardous, they have not gained widespread use. What is needed is a simpler, safer, and more effective way of accessing the pericardial space for delivery of electricity directly to the heart muscle.
In addition to providing a convenient location for placement of electrodes, the confines of the pericardial sac provide an excellent opportunity to isolate the heart for treatment and diagnosis. By introducing pharmacologic agents directly into the pericardial sac, high cardiac drug concentrations can be achieved without spillage or systemic distribution to other organs or tissues.
The pericardial sac has been used for containment of pharmacologic agents for a number of years in experimental settings, but delivery has heretofore required open chest surgery to access the pericardial space. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,003,379 and 4,146,029 to Ellinwood disclose an implantable medication dispensing apparatus which is adapted to dispense drugs to the pericardial sac over a long period of time, for example, to prevent arrhythmias. The Ellinwood patents, however, do not teach a method for routing the drugs into the pericardial sac.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,326 to Richard L. Verrier discloses a method for transvenously accessing the pericardial space via the right auricle. The full text of the Verrier '326 patent is incorporated herein by reference as if reproduced in full below. The transvenous method described by Verrier overcomes the limitations noted above with prior methods by providing a method for safely and reliably introducing a catheter and/or electrodes into the pericardial space. The present invention improves upon the Verrier '326 patent by providing a specific method for exploiting the route discovered by Verrier.

Method for transvenously accessing the pericardial space via the right atrium

Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Inc.


A loudspeaker includes a diaphragm that vibrates back and forth to emit a sound, a magnetic circuit that is provided on a rear side of the diaphragm and has a magnetic gap on a diaphragm side, and a voice coil that is directly or indirectly joined to the diaphragm and disposed within the magnetic gap. A magnetic fluid is loaded within the magnetic gap. Also, a plurality of first edge pieces are provided at different positions in an outer circumferential portion of the diaphragm for vibratably supporting the diaphragm, each of the first edge pieces having a non-linear cross-sectional shape.

Recently, particularly in mobile phones among portable information processing apparatuses, sets are being downsized and thinned with multi-functionalization such as installation of cameras, stereo reproduction of ringtone melodies, and the like, and with size increase of liquid crystal screens. This makes it difficult to obtain a space for placing a loudspeaker within a mobile phone set, and there is a demand for downsizing a receiver which is a loudspeaker for reproducing a reception sound of a mobile phone and downsizing a micro loudspeaker for reproducing a ringtone and/or a music signal.
In addition, not only mobile phones but also video devices, such as flat-screen televisions, including PDPs (Plasma Display Panels), liquid crystal panels, or the like are desired to be further thinned and frame-narrowed by narrowing outer frames enclosing the PDPs or the liquid crystal panels to a maximum extent in order to make screens appear larger according to a design demand. Therefore, loudspeakers installed in the flat-screen televisions are also desired to have small and slim shapes with narrow widths.
Further, in a receiver of a mobile phone, for example, as a mobile phone system advances from the third generation to the fourth generation, expansion of a low frequency range for a wider reproduction range is also desired.
As described above, downsizing and widening of a reproduction range are demanded in loudspeakers of mobile phones and flat-screen televisions.
In a conventional loudspeaker structure, however, downsizing causes a support (an edge, a damper, and the like) which vibratably supports a diaphragm to be reduced in width and accordingly to be increased in stiffness. As a result, the lowest resonance frequency of the loudspeaker becomes higher to fail to expand a low frequency range, which makes it difficult to widen a reproduction range. Thus, in the conventional loudspeaker structure, it is difficult to realize both downsizing and widening of a reproduction range.
As one of prior arts for solving this problem, a loudspeaker disclosed in Patent Document 1 has been proposed. FIG. 15 is a structure section of a conventional loudspeaker disclosed in Patent Document 1. In FIG. 15, a loudspeaker includes a yoke 1, a magnet 2, a plate 3, a voice coil 4, a diaphragm 5, a butterfly damper 6, a magnet 7, and a magnetic fluid 8.
The magnet 2 is fixed to an inner bottom surface of the yoke 1 which has a box-like shape with an upper surface thereof opened. The plate 3 is fixed to an upper surface of the magnet 2. A magnetic gap G1 is formed between the yoke 1 and the plate 3. Thus, the yoke 1, the magnet 2, and the plate 3 constitute a magnetic circuit having the magnetic gap G1. The voice coil 4 is provided on the outer circumference of the diaphragm 5 and positioned within the magnetic gap G1. The butterfly damper 6 is a support that vibratably supports the diaphragm 5, and provided on the outer circumference of the diaphragm 5. The magnet 7 is provided on the outer circumference of the diaphragm 5. The magnetic fluid 8, which is held by magnetic force of the magnet 7, vibrates the diaphragm 5 in a stable manner because of its viscosity.
Operations and effects of the loudspeaker shown in FIG. 15 and configured as above will be described. When a music signal is applied to the voice coil 4, the diaphragm 5 vibrates and a sound is emitted from the diaphragm 5. Here, the stiffness of the butterfly damper 6 is, because of a structure thereof, smaller than the stiffness of an ordinary support (an edge, a damper, and the like). Therefore, in the loudspeaker shown in FIG. 15, even when the loudspeaker is downsized, the lowest resonance frequency of the loudspeaker can be lowered to enable a reproduction range to be widened.
Further, even when the loudspeaker is downsized so that the width of the butterfly damper 6 is reduced, the butterfly damper 6 can show high stroke performance by increasing a length of a joint portion of the butterfly damper 6. Therefore, in the loudspeaker shown in FIG. 15, non-linear distortion by the support, which is caused in the case of large amplitude of the diaphragm 5, can be reduced.
As described above, the loudspeaker shown in FIG. 15 realizes both of downsizing of the loudspeaker and widening of a reproduction range, and moreover reduces non-linear distortion by the support.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-274206

Loudspeaker, video device, and portable information processing apparatus

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


The present invention refers to an optimized and defined method for isolation and preservation of precursor cells from human umbilical cord. Besides being reproducible and 100% reliable, in terms of the number of samples processed, the method results in a high and defined number of precursor cells, being the majority obtained after a single adhesion and expansion/multiplication phase ex vivo (thus granting cell phenotype), in a shorter time frame than what was previously described in the state-of-the-art. With this method, it is possible to obtain, in 9 days, after direct freezing of a cell fraction, and after one expansion/multiplication phase ex vivo (end of P0) of the majority of the cells, about 8.6(±0.1)×105 cells/gram of processed umbilical cord. In turn, the characteristics of the cells allow, for example, after 35 days, obtaining an average of 7.7×1015 cells, with precursor phenotype, from 100% of processed umbilical cord samples. The method, because it is simple, robust and 100% reliable, can be performed under good manufacturing practices (GMP) in laboratories dedicated to cell therapy in humans. Furthermore, the method has applications in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic and biotechnology areas.

A precursor cell (stem, germinal, undifferentiated, or primitive) is a type of cell with self-renewal capacity for a significant time period and, above all, with the capacity of either partial or terminal differentiation into other types of more specialized cells.
Despite the enormous differentiation potential of embryonic precursor cells, their utilization for research or/and therapy is controversial and has raised serious ethical and safety issues. Thus, research in this area has been focusing on the identification and evaluation of alternative non-embryonic stem cells, such as those obtained from bone marrow, periostium, trabecular bone, adipose tissue, sinovial region, skeletal muscle, deciduous and definitive teeth pulp, and olfactory mucosa (Barry and Murphy, 2004; Roisen et al., 2001). It has already been demonstrated that cells isolated from these tissues have the capacity of differentiation inter alia into chondrocytes, adipocytes, osteoblasts, myoblasts, cardiomyocytes, astrocytes and tenocytes, both in vitro and in vivo (Carvalhal et al., 2007; Majumdar et al., 1998 e Pittenger et al., 1999). Such precursor cells, isolated from non-embryonic sources, and capable of differentiating into non-haematopoietic specialized cells, derived from the three germ layers (endoderm, mesoderm, and ectoderm), are denominated mesenchymal stem cells.
The major limitations to the utilization of mesenchymal precursor cells arise during clinical practice, namely during cell harvesting. Collection of mesenchymal cells invariably involves invasive methodologies to the donor, such as surgical procedures that (like collection of stem cells from bone marrow, for example) might even involve general anaesthesia. Furthermore, because mesenchymal stem cells are rare, the final number of cells obtained is generally low.
As an alternative, the umbilical cord tissues have been described as possible sources for adult precursor cells (Romanov et al., 2003). The umbilical cord blood, for example, is known to be a rich source for precursor cells but mainly of haematopoietic nature (blood lineage). Since mesenchymal stem cells are present in umbilical cord blood in limited numbers, attempts to isolate these cells from this tissue have resulted in some frustration, and even the most successful attempts, using very high amounts of blood, have not surpassed the 60% success rate, relative to the total number of tissue samples processed. And in the end, doubts still persisted about the origin of the isolated cells; that is, would the origin of cells have really been blood, or other foetal tissue (Chul-Wan et al., 2003; Bieback et al., 2004).
Other reports describe isolation of mesenchymal stem cells from other umbilical cord constituent tissues, considerably richer in mesenchymal nature than umbilical blood. Some examples of these procedures are based on umbilical cord matrix, also known by Wharton's jelly (Purchio et al., 1998; Mitchell et al., 2003; Davies et al., 2004; Wang et al., 2006); umbilical cord vein (Romanov et al., 2003; Auger et al., 2005), arterial tissues (Kadner et al., 2004); or other lining tissues, such as the amniotic membrane (Phan et al., 2004).
A detailed analysis reveals that the protocols described are, in one way or the other, restrictive in terms of the nature of the cells obtained, or rather vague in terms of success rate and efficiency in the number of cells isolated. In fact, the restrictive nature of these protocols invariably resulted in loss of phenotypic diversity of the cell populations isolated, mainly due to unnecessary focus on specific tissues or geographic locations within the umbilical cord structure. Furthermore, uncertainly invariably remained about the actual number of stem cells that could be obtained in the end.
Thus, for example, the Cell Research Corporation protocol that is based solely on the amniotic membrane as source of mesenchymal stem cells, originates cells already pre-disposed to the endothelial lineage (Phan et al., 2004).
Additionally, none of the methods described so far has demonstrated efficacy in terms of number of successful tissue samples processed in order to be reliable enough so as to be applied in cell therapy protocols. In other words, although the success rate for mesenchymal cell isolation from umbilical matrix is higher than from umbilical cord blood, or even bone marrow, there is no method up to now that guarantees 100% success rate for isolation, in terms of number of tissue samples processed, so that the final result is robust enough for cell therapy applications (Deryl e Weiss, 2008).
Furthermore, the introduction of unnecessary steps of structural manipulation, such as extraction of umbilical vessels (Purchio et al., 1998; Mitchell et al., 2003; Davies et al., 2004; Wang et al., 2006), or mechanical maceration (Seyda et al., 2006), makes existing protocols hard to standardize and reproduce, never assuring enough cell numbers for cell therapy application.
Furthermore, excessive tissue manipulation induces cell differentiation which is undesirable if one wants to maintain precursor cell phenotype (Gardner et al., 2000; Claes et al., 2002; Cullinane et al., 2003).
Also showing limitations are the protocols based on the umbilical vessels themselves. These protocols involve complex extractions of the arteries or the umbilical vein and limit the differentiation potential of mesenchymal stem cells to the sub-endothelial and endothelial lineages (Romanov et al., 2003; Auger et al., 2005; Kadner et al., 2004; Sarugaser et al., 2005).
Finally, no less complex, are the protocols that base themselves on the Wharton's jelly (WJ) as source for mesenchymal stem cells. These reports are not consistent, also contributing to the lack of definition and criteria of the applied methodologies. Thus, while Purchio et al., 1998; Mitchell et al., 2003; and Wang et al., 2006, perform a complex and hardly reproducible initial vessel extraction, processing the remaining tissue for cell isolation, Davies et al., 2004, also remove the umbilical vessels but, instead of using the remaining tissue, they process the tissue still coupled around the vessels for cell isolation, discarding the first. Nonetheless, all authors are unanimous in affirming that their protocols are based on WJ exclusively (Purchio et al., 1998; Mitchell et al., 2003; Davies et al., 2004; Wang et al., 2006). The discrepancy between these approaches is unjustified and the excess tissue manipulation of the existing tissues in either of these two protocols undermines desirable effects on precursor phenotype maintenance, and consequently endangers the utilization of the isolated precursor cells in isolation and cryopreservation services for the population in general.
The state-of-the-art is clearly missing a method based on a simple, robust, and defined protocol, so that it can be reproduced with guarantees of efficacy and efficiency. Once mesenchymal stem cells become applicable in cell therapy, it is necessary to assure to the patient that the method used for cell isolation will provide both the necessary quality and quantity of the therapeutic agent. Given the lack of guarantees presented by the protocols so far described in the state-of-the-art, it is foreseen that the present invention will suppress the need for a method with the above characteristics.

Optimized and defined method for isolation and preservation of precursor cells from human umbilical cord

Laboratorio Medinfar-Produtos Farmaceuticos, S.A.


A decorative tank includes a main body and an air-introducing means. The main body, which has a bed portion and a wall portion, defines a water reservoir therein. The wall portion of the main body has a substantially upright-sloping surface formed thereon. The wall portion defines a passage therein which extends substantially upwardly from a lower end to an upper end. The passage communicates with the bottom portion of the water reservoir at the lower end. The water reservoir contains a quantity of particles therein which have a specific weight greater than water. The wall portion of the main body has a window portion through which the view within said main body can be clearly seen from outside. The air-introducing means can introduce air to the lower end of the passage, so that the particles, such as sand, can be carried upwardly together with water by air to flow along the passage and to finally exit from the upper end of the passage, to allow the sand to fall along the substantially upright-sloping surface of the wall portion of the main body to give the appearance of a waterfall.

The present invention relates to a decorative tank, and more particularly to a decorative tank in which a waterfall is simulated by means of a sand flow. In particular, the decorative tank can be ornamented with artificial contents such as rocks, pet tropical fishes or aquatic plants therein to constitute a vivid natural scene as exists in the nature.


Magnetic particles comprising a group shown by the following formula (1):

The present invention relates to magnetic particles exhibiting high sensitivity and low noise when a probe bonded with a biotin is bonded thereto.
Magnetic particles are used as a reaction solid phase of a diagnostic agent using an antigen-antibody reaction in order to detect substances to be examined such as infections, cancer markers, and hormones. In such a diagnostic agent, a probe (primary probe) for inspecting an antibody or an antigen is immobilized on particles. A substance to be inspected in a sample reacts with a second inspection probe after having been caught by the particles via the primary probe. The second inspection probe (secondary probe) is labeled with a fluorescent substance or an enzyme, whereby the target substance is detected by fluorescence or by an enzyme reaction. In recent years, due to a demand for an increase in the inspection sensitivity for early detection of diseases, an increase in sensitivity of a diagnostic agent has been an important subject. In order to increase sensitivity of diagnosis, a method of using enzyme coloring as a detecting means is being replaced by a method of using fluorescence or chemiluminescence, both of which ensure higher sensitivity.
Development of these detection techniques are said to have reached a level in which a one molecule-detection target can be theoretically detected. In practice, however, sensitivity is still insufficient. Generation of noise is given as the cause. Noise is generated by non-specific adsorption of secondary probes and impurities onto the surface of particles. For example, even if a technique that can theoretically detect a one molecule-detection target is used, detection of the one molecule is impossible if several molecules of a secondary probe are non-specifically adsorbed onto the surface of the particles. For this reason, a technique for lowering noise in order to reduce non-specific adsorption of a substance used for inspection onto the particle surface is strongly demanded.
Conventionally, a blocking method has been used for reducing such non-specific adsorption. In the blocking method, after immobilizing a primary probe on the particles, the particle surface is covered with a blocking agent such as albumin or skim milk with minimal adsorptivity of a secondary probe, impurities, and the like. However, some blocking agents may not exhibit a sufficient covering effect. Other blocking agents, which are biological substances, exhibit only poor quality stability. In these cases, even after complete blocking, the blocking effect may reduce over time and non-specific adsorption may occur due to denaturing of the blocking agent and the like. For these reasons, noise reduction by reducing non-specific adsorption has not been sufficiently attained.
In order to solve the problem of non-specific adsorption, a method of introducing a hydrophilic polymer onto the surface of a substrate for immunoassay represented by a 96-well plate has been proposed (JP-A-11-174057, JP-A-2000-304749, and JP-A-2001-272406). However, because the area available for immobilizing a primary probe is limited and the reaction of a primary probe with the target substance to be detected is a solid-liquid reaction, such an immunoassay substrate utilizing a flat surface has problems of poor efficiency of an antigen-antibody reaction, a long period of time required for inspection, and the like.
Furthermore, as countermeasures for decreasing non-specific adsorption, microspheres made from organic polymer particles of a styrene-glycidyl methacrylate copolymer and the like and a physiological active substance bonded to the organic polymer particles via a spacer (JP-A-10-195099, JP-A-2000-300283, WO 04/025297), organic polymer particles with a hydrophilic spacer introduced onto the particle surface (JP-A-2004-331953, WO 04/040305), and the like have been proposed. These organic polymer particles, however, exhibited neither a sufficient effect of reducing noise by reduction of non-specific adsorption nor sufficient immunoassay sensitivity.
The inventors have proposed magnetic particles for immunoassay exhibiting almost no non-specific adsorption, the particles having hydrophilic monomers such as a hydroxyalkyl(meth)acrylate, an alkoxyalkyl(meth)acrylate, a polyoxyalkylene (C2-C4) group-containing (meth)acrylate, an epoxy group-containing (meth)acrylate, and phosphorylcholine-analogous group-containing monomers copolymerized on the surface (JP-A-2005-69926). However, development of particles for immunoassay exhibiting higher sensitivity has been desired.

Magnetic particles comprising an organic polymer layer and method for producing the same

Abstract: wherein R1 and R2 individually represent a hydroxyl group, a group shown by the following formula (2), or a group shown by the following formula (3), provided that R1 and R2 are not both hydrogen atoms,

Abstract: wherein R3 represents an a linear, branched, or cyclic alkylene group having 2 to 6 carbon atoms or an arylene group, and

Abstract: wherein R4 is a hydrogen atom or an alkyl group.


A cord-lock mechanism to take up or expand slats of Venetian blind, comprising a fixed hollow drum with an end cover secured to window frame or door frame; a pulley block fixed in the hollow drum, a pulley at the pulley block, a brake wheel reciprocally movable between a braking position and a release position in a guide channel formed on the pulley block; and a lift cord made of soft material, wound around the brake wheel and the pulley, having its both ends extended to the respective ends of the headrail, passed through the middle cord outlets, turned downwards and tied to the respective ends of the foot rail so that all or part of the slats and the tubular foot rail can be raised and the slats can be taken up by pulling of the lift cord.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lifter for Venetian blind, particularly a cord-lock mechanism to support the slats, and, take up or release a lift cord to raise or lower the slats.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Each Venetian blind is composed of a plurality of vertical or horizontal slats running in parallel, the tilting of which can adjust indoor darkness and preserve confidence in personal living. It is being extensively used in offices and homes. The conventional horizontal Venetian blind being used can have its slats tilted and lifted, and comprises mainly a rectangular sectioned and non-rotary headrail, a foot rail, two or more ladders each including an outer ladder and an inner ladder suspending from the headrail to the foot rail to support a plurality of slats with a plurality of connecting tapes located between the outer and inner ladders, a tilter within the headrail and a transmission device therefor to tilt the slats, and a lifter to raise and lower the slats. The lifter is incorporated with a lift cord, at least two wires extending from the headrail to the foot rail and connected to the lift cord, and a pulley set. When the lift cord is pulled upwards, the pulley set causes the wires tied to the foot rail to displace upward simultaneously to raise the foot rail as well as all or part of the slats, and consequently cause the lower slats to close to the upper slats.
The conventional lifter for a Venetian blind is quite complicated in structure. Hence, its production cost is high. Moreover, it is hardly to implement mass production with automatic assembly process, and it indeed has the following defects:
(1) Such sophisticated lifter required assembly at factory, and its installation position can not be changed after it is assembled to satisfy the user's habit or environmental requirements. Production and use of which are hence inconvenient.
(2) In general the conventional lifter can not rotate the headrail directly, and to tilt the slats, the conventional tilter must includes worm drive, transmission shaft, bearings and gears to drive some ladder drums to rotate, and hence the structure of the conventional Venetian blind is very complicated and heavy, production cost of which is thus relatively high.
(3) In association with the conventional tilter, the conventional lifter requires a lot of sophisticated components and long transmission, and therefore in the cause of raising or lowering, the slats and the foot rail may become higher at one end and lower at the other end due to unbalanced force applied to the lift cord and extra long transmission, and in the most serious case the slats and the foot rail may be seized and can't be raised or lowered.


A connector for an electrical box having a base that has an opening. A cavity is formed by a wall extending from the base. The cavity is aligned with the opening to form a passageway through the connector to receive electrical cable. At least two fingers extend inwardly and toward the base from an inner surface of the wall. At least two tabs extend outwardly and toward the base from an outer surface of the wall to retain the junction box between the at least two tabs and the base.

Snap-in electrical connectors are used to secure electrical cables to electrical outlet boxes. Existing connectors snap into openings in the electrical boxes from the outside of the electrical box. Generally, existing snap-in connectors have tabs that provide the snap-in connection between the connectors and the electrical boxes. Once the connectors are inserted, the tabs rest against inner walls of the electrical boxes.
Snap-in cable connectors are frequently used in electrical boxes having multistage knockouts. A multistage knockout has a plurality of knockouts of increasing size. A two-stage knockout has one larger knockout, i.e., the outer knockout, surrounding a smaller, inner knockout. Per industry standard, the inner knockout is punched into the box. The outer knockout is punched outwardly. The metal around the knockout is displaced during the punching process so that the knockout cannot go back through the opening around which it is punched. Thus, the outer knockout in a two-stage knockout cannot be pushed back in through the electrical box, but the outer knockout can be pulled out of the box.
One problem with existing snap-in cable connectors arises when those connectors are used in electrical boxes having multi-stage knockouts. The connector is snapped into the box from outside through the removed inner knockout, so that the tabs rest against the outer knockout. A cable or multiple cables are then inserted into the electrical box through the snap-in connector. Forces exerted on the cables are then transferred to the connector. Thus, a strong pull on a cable frequently pulls the connector and outer knockout out of the electrical box. A need exists for a snap-in cable connector usable with a multistage knockout that prevents the occurrence of accidental outer knockout removal.
Another problem with existing snap-in cable connectors is that a major portion of the connector resides within the electrical box, thereby taking u
valuable space within the electrical box. This results in an electrical box lacking adequate clearance between the cables and devices in the box. Furthermore, fasteners often come into contact with the connector body within the electrical box, thereby requiring a shorter fastener to be used. A need exists for a snap-in cable connector in which a major portion of the connector is outside of the electrical box to provide a less cramped electrical box.
A need exists for an improved electrical connector.


An image-based method and corresponding apparatus for measuring, in scientifically basic terms, the complete fiber length distribution from a tapered beard. The method may be referred to as length by image analysis (Li). A calibration method is also disclosed.

Fiber length measurements from tapered beards were disclosed by Hertel in the 1940's. Hertel employed the term "amount" (A) to refer to the amount (that is, number or linear density) of fibers in tapered beards and developed what he termed "fibrograms," which are plots of "amount" as a function of distance from a needle sampler. Hertel worked out the theory for analyzing fibrograms and developed apparatus and methods for length measurements from the 1930s to the 1950s. In particular, Hertel disclosed the determination of a length-distribution curve based on optical analysis. See, as examples, Hertel U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,299,983, 2,404,708 and 3,057,019. For convenience, we refer herein to the result of this measurement method, as well as the method itself, as Lo, meaning length by optical analysis.
A needle sampler for forming tapered beards and employing rotary motions is disclosed in Shofner et al U.S. Pat. No. 6,598,267, titled "Fiber Length and Strength Measurement System," the entire disclosure of which is hereby expressly incorporated by reference. The disclosed apparatus uses optical extinction, and may also be referred to as an Lo method. In addition, the apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,598,267 employs air flow resistance to measure the amount versus distance response. We refer herein to length measured by air flow resistance, as well as the method, as La.
The terminologies complete fiber length distribution, fiber length histogram, and fiber length probability density function (PDF) are interchangeably used herein and in the literature on fiber length measurements.
Cotton fiber length measurements (Classer's Staple, 2.5% Span, Upper Half Mean, etc., and Short Fiber Content, etc.) are among the most important descriptors of fiber quality. They strongly correlate with spinning process costs and yarn and fabric qualities. Accordingly, these and related data products strongly impact commercial market values of cotton. It is important that the measurement, or classification, of the qualities be correct, widely understood, and accepted for commercial trading by all parties concerned.
The market has historically caused producers to favor varieties having greater Long Fiber Content (LFC) when all other things, notably pounds per acre yield, are comparable. Reasonably satisfactory LFC measurements are available and widely used in commerce. On the other hand, satisfactory Short Fiber Content (SFC) measurements are not available, despite numerous complaints, primarily from parties in the mill, merchandizing and research segments, which refer to the "rising short fiber content" problem. Current market forces are increasingly causing producers and ginners to favor processing equipment and methods which minimize damage and preserve the length qualities of the fibers, thus minimizing SFC. Accordingly, correct measures of SFC are needed.
The best measure of fiber damage, both in the gins and in the mills, and of spinning performance in the mills, is SFC, either by number or by weight. Only with correct and widely accepted SFC data can producers and designers and operators of processing machinery evaluate the quality of their work and, thereby, realize the financial incentives to improve.
Commercial market forces which are driving all parties concerned to higher (or at least stable) LFCs and lower SFCs are thus also driving the needs for correct, commercially-useful measurements. This means scientifically basic, accurate, precise, rapid and cost-effective measurement of both long fiber content LFC and short fiber content SFC. It follows further that the most basic and best methods provide direct measurement of the complete fiber length distribution, or probability density function (PDF), since all fiber length data products can be derived therefrom.
Current High Volume Instruments (HVI) provide LFC data products, such as Upper Half Mean Length (UHM) or Mean Length (ML), satisfactorily for commercial purposes, along with other fiber quality measurements such as strength (or tenacity), micronaire, color and trash. Such instruments are manufactured by Uster Technologies, Knoxville, Tenn.; Premier Technologies, Coimbatore, India; Lintronics, Haifa, Israel; and Schaffner Technologies, Knoxville, Tenn., with which the present inventors are associated. Current HVI methods however do not provide adequate measurements of the shortest fibers, for several fundamental reasons relating to both sample preparation and tapered beard "amount" (A) measurement. Consequently, current HVI does not provide the complete fiber length distribution and only provides inferential measures of SFC.
The Advanced Fiber Information System (AFIS) also manufactured by Uster Technologies (for an example see the disclosure of Shofner et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,270,787 titled "Electro-Optical Methods and Apparatus for High Speed, Multivariate Measurement Of Individual Entities In Fiber Or Other Samples"), and Suter-Webb array, methods can provide complete fiber length distributions or PDFs. These methods are known to be too expensive, imprecise, or slow for high volume testing. It is also known that AFIS, as a consequence of its rather aggressive opening to produce single fibers, breaks fibers, thus leading to increased SFC and decreased LFC, thus biasing the length data products.
Since new length methods are needed, primarily for commercial trade, it follows that the most preferable methods would be also be compatible with next generation HVI, along with improvements in other fiber quality measurements, such as strength, micronaire, color and trash.

Image-based fiber length measurements from tapered beards


The present invention provides a method for inspecting packaging effectiveness of an OLED panel, including: (1) in a manufacture process of an OLED component, forming a test block on a substrate, wherein the test block is made of an active metal, and then forming a plurality of test electrodes, wherein each of the test electrodes has an end connected to the test block and an opposite end extending to the outside for connection with a measurement device; (2) packaging an OLED panel so that said opposite ends of the test electrodes extend out of an enclosing frame; (3) electrically connecting the measurement device to the test electrodes to measure an actual conductivity of the test block; and (4) determining packaging effectiveness according to the actual conductivity. The method of the present invention makes use of conductivity differential of a test block made of an active metal in environments having different water/oxygen content to detect, in a more precise manner, the water/oxygen content in a packaged OLED panel so as to correctly determine the effectiveness of packaging.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of flat panel display, and in particular to a method for inspecting packaging effectiveness of an OLED panel.
2. The Related Arts
A flat panel display has a variety of advantages, including thin device body, reduced power consumption, and being free of radiation and is widely used. Flat panel displays that are currently available generally include liquid crystal displays (LCDs) and organic light emitting displays (OLEDs).
The OLEDs, which show the characteristics of self-illumination, high brightness, wide view angle, high contrast, flexibility, and low energy consumption, attract wide attention to serve as the next-generation display measure that gradually substitute the conventional liquid crystal display devices for applications in mobile phone screens, computer monitors, and full-color television. The OLED displaying, which is different from the conventional way of displaying with LED, requires no backlight and adopts extremely thin layers of organic coatings and glass substrates. These organic materials become luminous when electricity is conducted therethrough. However, the organic materials can get readily oxidized with water and consequently, an OLED display panel, which is a display device manufactured based on the organic materials, must be subjected to extremely severe standard of packaging. For commercial applications, an OLED component must be capable of providing a lifetime exceeding or equal to 10,000 hours and meeting the packaging requirements of water permeability less than or equal to 10−6 g/m2/day and oxygen permeability less than or equal to 10−5 cc/m2/day (1 atm). This infers that packaging is the most important step of the entire process for manufacturing an OLED display panel and is the key factor that affects the product yield rate.
However, only a few methods are currently available to monitor packaging effectiveness achieved in most of the known OLED panel manufacture processes. One of the known processes is one that uses a desiccant to monitor the packaging effectiveness, of which the operation principle is that the desiccant, when absorbing humidity, gets expanded and photographing is applied to identify the surface areas of the desiccant at a preceding and a subsequent time point, whereby the sizes of the surface areas of the desiccant can be used to determine if the desiccant has been expanded and thus if there is any moisture invasion resulting from poor packaging of the OLED panel. The process is simple in principle bur suffers reliability issue. For example, when the desiccant absorbs moisture and gets expanded, the photographing measure only reflects the variation of the surface area thereof, but comparing the images obtained through photographing cannot reflect a minor volume change caused by the desiccant absorbing moisture. Thus, using the measure of desiccant absorbing moisture and getting expanded to inspect the effectiveness of packaging still needs further improvement.
In view of the above shortcomings, as shown in FIG. 1, a method for inspecting packaging effectiveness of an organic light-emitting diode has been proposed, in which a test strip 4 is included in an enclosed chamber 11 collectively formed by a substrate 1, a lid 2, and a sealing layer 3. The enclosed chamber 11 also receives therein a light-emitting chip 9 mounted on the substrate 1. The test strip 4 is attached to the lid 2 to oppose the light-emitting chip 9. Two ends of the test strip 4 are respectively provided with test electrodes 5. An end of the test electrode 5 is connected to the test strip 4 and another end extends to the outside of the enclosed chamber 11. The test strip 4 is generally made of a metallic material that is readily subject to oxidation, such as calcium and barium. The effectiveness of sealing of the enclosed chamber can be determined according to the variation of resistivity caused by oxidation of the test strip 4. The greater the variation of the resistivity is, the better the result of inspection will be.
This method, although effective in identifying the effectiveness of packaging of the organic light-emitting diode, is of a complicated process and a relatively high cost. Further, since the test strip is arranged opposing the light-emitting chip, certain issues, such as contamination of the light-emitting chip and conductivity of the light-emitting chip, may arise from bulging of the test strip.

Method for inspecting packaging effectiveness of OLED panel

Shenzhen China Star Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd


The hearing aid of the present invention comprises a main body case (1), a battery case (7), a control device (14), a microphone (4), a speaker (3), switching part (12, 16), and a lid portion (11a). The battery case (7) is provided so that it can be pulled from inside the main body case (1) to the outside of the main body case (1). The control device (14) is actuated by the electromotive force of the air battery (8) held in the battery case (7). The microphone (4) and the speaker (3) are electrically connected to the control device (14). The switching part (12, 16) cuts off the supply of power from the air battery (8) to the control device (14) when the at least part of the battery case (7) is pulled out of the main body case (1). The lid portion (11a) is provided either inside the main body case (1) or inside the battery case (7), and air holes (10) in the air battery (8) are opened and closed in conjunction with the operation of pulling at least part of the battery case (7) out of the main body case (1).

A conventional hearing aid comprised a main body case, a battery case that is provided so that it can be pulled from inside the main body case to the outside of the main body case, a control device that is actuated by the electromotive force of the air battery held in the battery case, a microphone and a speaker that are electrically connected to the control device, and switching part for cutting off the supply of power from the air battery to the control device when the battery case is pulled out of the main body case. For example, in a so-called storage state, in which the hearing aid is removed from the ear, such as when the user is sleeping, the battery case is pulled out of the main body case when the hearing aid is removed from the ear, whereupon a switching part cuts off the supply of power from the air battery to the control device. Consequently, a conventional constitution suppressed a decrease in the capacity of the air battery.
However, even when the supply of power from the air battery to the control device has been cut off by the switching part, the air battery is still open at its air holes, so the chemical reaction with oxygen continues, and the battery capacity gradually decreases.
For example, Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique in which a switching part is opened and closed by a manipulation member provided to the outer face of the main body case, and the air holes in the air battery are opened and closed with a lid portion.


An organism is irradiated with therapeutic radiation from a radiation irradiation device. A pair of two-dimensional radiation detectors are arranged so as to face one another with the irradiated therapeutic radiation passing therebetween, and detect the two-dimensional positions irradiated by a pair of annihilation γ rays produced when a positron emitted from a positron-emitting radionuclide is annihilated. On the basis of a pair of positions detected by the pair of two-dimensional radiation detectors, a radionuclide position detecting unit detects the position of the positron-emitting radionuclide, and the radiation irradiation device irradiates the position of the positron-emitting radionuclide with therapeutic radiation.

In recent years, tumor localization by means of molecular imaging such as positron emission tomography (PET) or the like is being performed in radiation therapy. Specifically, PET imaging is performed before starting the radiation therapy, and tomographic images thus obtained are used for developing a treatment plan. It is, however, difficult for PET imaging to track the movement of a tumor in real time.
In real-time tumor tracking radiation therapy apparatuses capable of tracking the movement of a tumor in real time, on the other hand, a metal marker inserted in the patient body near the tumor is detected by a pair of X-ray fluoroscopic apparatuses and the three-dimensional position of the metal marker is calculated for controlling irradiation based on the obtained position of the metal marker.

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY CORPORATION HOKKAIDO UNIVERSITY


To appropriately control UL transmission such as a CSI reporting when performing communication by applying a different configuration from those of legacy LTE systems, a user terminal according to one aspect of the present disclosure includes: a transmission section that transmits one or more UL signals by using an uplink shared channel based on an instruction from a base station; and a control section that controls the transmission assuming that transmission durations of a plurality of UL signals do not overlap in a same symbol, or, when at least part of the transmission durations of the plurality of UL signals overlap in the same symbol, performs control to select and transmit the part of the UL signals.

In Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) networks, for the purpose of higher data rates and lower latency, Long Term Evolution (LTE) has been specified (Non-Patent Literature 1). Furthermore, for the purpose of a larger capacity and higher sophistication than those of LTE (LTE Rel. 8 and 9), LTE-Advanced (LTE-A and LTE Rel. 10, 11, 12 and 13) has been specified.
LTE successor systems (also referred to as, for example, Future Radio Access (FRA), the 5th generation mobile communication system (5G), 5G+ (plus), New Radio (NR), New Radio Access (NX), Future generation radio access (FX) and LTE Rel. 14, 15 or subsequent releases) are also studied.
In legacy LTE systems (e.g., LTE Rel. 8 to 13), a user terminal (UE: User Equipment) periodically and/or aperiodically transmits Channel State Information (CSI) to a base station. The UE transmits the CSI by using an uplink control channel (PUCCH: Physical Uplink Control Channel) and/or an uplink shared channel (PUSCH: Physical Uplink Shared Channel).

User terminal and radio communication method


The present invention discloses a method for searching multipaths of a mobile communication system, which includes the steps of: performing a coherent detection on a reversed I and Q channel signals of a DPCCH transmitted form a mobile station, multiplying the detected signal by a pilot pattern to accumulate a pilot symbol section in a corresponding section, and performing a coherent accumulation on the other symbol section in a symbol basis; calculating energy value for each coherently accumulated I and Q channel signals; multiplying the calculated energy values by a weight that has been multiplied by the pilot symbol section and another weight that has been multiplied by the other symbol section, respectively; noncoherently accumulating the energy values multiplied by variable weights, and saving the energy values; comparing the saved energy values with a periodically designated threshold; and searching timing information as many as a number of fingers in order of highest energy value according to the comparison result.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mobile communication systems. In particular, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for searching multipaths of a mobile communication system at a higher speed by applying different weights to different pilot symbol numbers, using a dedicated physical control channel (hereinafter, it is referred to as DPCCH) in which data is received in a reverse link of asynchronous international mobile telecommunication for the 2000s (IMT-2000).
More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for searching multipaths of a mobile communication system at a higher speed by multiplying different channel weights on different DPCCH energies in accordance with a spreading factor of the reverse dedicated physical data channel (hereinafter, it is referred to as DPDCH), given that a base station is aware of the spreading factor.
In general, a reverse link dedicated physical channel (hereinafter, it is referred to as DPCH) in the mobile communication system is divided into the DPDCH for transmitting data and DPCCH for transmitting control information. The channels are multiplexed into I/Q code, respectively, in a separate wireless frame before they are received.
Since a transmission signal in the wireless communication system is sent out to a receiver via multipaths, it is susceptible to many scattering objects, such as buildings, trees, or other moving objects. In addition, having compared an electromagnetic wave that travels through a direct path between a transmitter and a receiver with a radio path influenced by a number of scattering objects, the inventors learned that the field intensity at a receiving site varies on an hourly basis due to the attenuated signals and time delay en route. Therefore, by way of overcoming such problems, a new method to acquire faster multipaths in the mobile communication system has been studied.
Specifically, according to an aspect of the present invention, in case of searching the multipaths using an up-link DPCH without knowing the spreading factor of the reverse DPDCH, a variable weight is multiplied to a pilot section of the DPCCH land the other control symbol sections in order to find a total energy.
Another embodiment of the present invention finds the total energy by using the DPCCH and DPDCH, given that the spreading factor of the DPDCH is known, and obtains the total energy by multiplying a corresponding channel weight. On the top of that, the DPCCH and DPDCH can be selectively used for helping the base station to find multipaths of a mobile station a lot faster.
2. Description of the Related Art
The standards of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) in the asynchronous IMT-2000 system suggest that the base station transmit a pilot channel or a pilot symbol not only in a forward link but also receive one in a reverse link. Therefore, a receiver of the CDMA communication system based on the new standard should be able to conduct the search using the energy of the pilot signal both in the forward link and the reverse link.
Because the mobile communication system is usually l-to-N communication, the pilot channel of the forward link is a common element of all mobile stations within a cell zone of the corresponding base station, and it takes a lot of power to transmit the pilot channel. In contrast, the dedicated pilot channel of the reverse link is dedicated to an individual mobile station so that it can be transmitted at a low power. Of course, the intensity of the power (i.e., energy) of the dedicated pilot channel in the reverse link can be varied a little, depending on the standards or data transmission rates.
In order to find reverse multipaths in the asynchronous IMT-2000 system, the reverse DPCH shown in FIG. 1 is generally used. The DPCH is constituted of a time slot having 15 radio frames with a fixed or constant frequency (Tf=10 ms), and it includes the DPDCH and the DPCCH.
Normally, a time slot is constituted of 2560 chips. Especially the 2650 chips of the DPCCH includes a pilot symbol section (Npilot bits), and a transport format combination indicator, TFCI (NTFCI bits) as a control symbol, and feedback information, FBI (NFBI bits), and transmit power control information, TPC (NTPC bits).
According to one of traditional CDMA methods of searching multipaths, the dedicated channel in the communication system was coherently accumulated on a symbol basis for calculating energy. And, the calculated energy value was then noncoherently accumulated to a certain number, which was eventually used for calculating the energy value of the multipaths.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating a configuration of a receiver for a CDMA communication system in the related art.
Referring to FIG. 2, a first multiplier 101 in the receiver for the traditional CDMA communication system separates an inputted signal through an antenna into I channel and Q channel, respectively, and the separated signal is filtered out at a Filter 102. Then a second multiplier 104 multiplies the filtered signal by a pseudo noise (PN) code generated by a pseudo noise code generator 108 of a searcher 103, and outputs the result. On the other hand, a complex output signal is synchronized and accumulated in a coherent accumulator 105. And, an energy detector 106 detects energy, and the detected energy is later accumulated in a noncoherent accumulator 107. Here, the accumulation procedure and the energy detection procedure are carried out in a branch to measure the intensity of power (energy) of the pilot channel.
In addition, a threshold comparer 110 in a controller 109 compares the accumulated signal in the noncoherent accumulator 107 of the searcher 103 with a threshold, and assigns a finger to an optimum signal path. Each finger 111 & 112 assigned to the optimum signal path by the controller 109 performs a demodulation process.
In short, the receiver in the traditional CDMA communication system searches multipaths using a branch only to measure the intensity of power of the pilot channel. However, it is known that the branch is good only for the forward link having high power for the pilot channel, while the overall performance of the branch is deteriorated in the reverse link having low power for the pilot channel.
Besides, if the data rate of a DPDCH signal is high, the signal intensity of the DPDCH is high. In contrast, if the data rate of the DPDCH signal is relatively low, the signal intensity of the DPDCH gets weak. That is, the signal intensity is proportional to the data rate. Meanwhile, the receiver can find out the data rate only when the TFCI is duly received to 1 frame, which also means that if the data rate is not properly received to the frame, there is no way for the receiver to know the data rate.
Unlike the traditional systems like AMPS or CDMA, the IMT-2000, known as the third generation mobile communication, introduces a new method for searching multipaths, which is not even founded in the current CDMA standards.

Method and apparatus for searching multipaths of mobile communication system


A front end module for wireless network system is disclosed. The front end module includes a transmitting/receiving switch, a bandpass filter, a balun, a lowpass filter, and a power amplifier. The front end module is characterized in that the bandpass filter, the balun and the lowpass filter are formed inside a plurality of low-temperature-cofired-ceramic (LTCC) substrates by a patterning process while the transmitting/receiving switch, and the power amplifier are formed on a surface layer of the LTCC substrates by the surface mounting technology (SMT).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a front end module, and more particularly, to a front end module for wireless network system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Up to the present, the technology of wireless network is divided into two categories. One utilizes a radio wave to make a transmission while another one utilizes light to make a transmission. Examples of the latter are the infrared light and laser served as carrier for data transmission. Since a radio wave has better transmittance than light, it is more flexible in application.
With regard to the wireless network utilizing the radio wave, there are two aspects in the development. One is the blue-tooth technology applied for circumstance of short distance (10 meter), low power consuming (100 mW), and low cost while another one is the IEEE802.11 technology applied for the office (data transmission rate is up to 54 Mbps and the distance can be lengthen to be 100 meter around).
In general, a wireless network system based on the IEEE802.11 technology includes a front end module, a base-band processor (defined as PHY), and a media access controller (MAC).
Since an included front end module always comprises a lot of passive components such as capacitors, resistors, filters, and impedance converters, there are problems of low reliability, high cost, and large volume. Therefore, an attempt to modularize and miniaturize these components in order to solve these problems would be raised.

Front end module for wireless network system


An ion beam device is described. The ion beam device includes an ion beam source for generating an ion beam, the ion beam being emitted along a first axis, an aperture unit adapted to shape the ion beam, and an achromatic deflection unit adapted to deflect ions of the ion beam having a predetermined mass by a deflecting angle. The achromatic deflection unit includes: an electric field generating component for generating an electric field, and a magnetic field generating component for generating a magnetic field substantially perpendicular to the electric field. The device further includes a mass separation aperture adapted for blocking ions with a mass different from the predetermined mass and for allowing ions having the predetermined mass to trespass the mass separator, and an objective lens having a second optical axis, wherein the second optical axis is inclined with regard to the first axis.

Technologies such as microelectronics, micromechanics and biotechnology have created a high demand for structuring and probing specimens within the nanometer scale. Micrometer and nanometer scale process control, inspection or structuring, is often done with charged particle beams, e.g., probing or structuring is often performed with charged particle beams which are generated and focused in charged particle beam devices. Examples of charged particle beam devices are ion beam implanters, electron microscopes, electron beam pattern generators, ion microscopes as well as ion beam pattern generators. Charged particle beams offer superior spatial resolution compared to photon beams, due to their short wave lengths at comparable particle energy.
Ion beam devices can be used for a plurality of applications. Examples include the preparation of cross sections of semiconductor devices by ion milling, the production of microstructures by ion milling, the writing of structures like quantum dots, quantum wires, magnetic nano-dots etc. by ion implantation, sputtering, inspection or other applications. Thereby, different milling rates, sputtering rates or other characteristics, which may require different beam currents can be desirable. The beam current may, for example, be adjusted by the amount of collimation of a condenser lens.
However, applying different beam paths and, at the same time, providing mass separation by Wien filters, sectors, and the like is difficult to obtain. In light thereof, e.g., Teicher and Tiunov ("Design of an achromatic mass separator for a focused ion beam," SPIE Vol. 2014 Charged Particle Optics (1993)/85) propose the use of two ExB filters, whereby the pivot point of such a system can be moved along the optical axis. However, such a system is complicated to align, expensive, and difficult to calibrate for different beam paths.

ICT, Integrated Circuit Testing Gesellschaft fur Halbleiterpruftechnik MBH


A random access memory circuit and a method for configuring the same. The circuit includes a first array of memory cells including a first plurality of ports and a second plurality of ports, and a second array of memory cells including a third plurality of ports and a fourth plurality of ports. Additionally, the circuit includes a plurality of switches connected to the first plurality of ports and the third plurality of ports respectively or connected to the second plurality of ports and the fourth plurality of ports respectively. Moreover, the circuit includes a plurality of sense amplifiers and a plurality of write drivers.

The present invention relates generally to memory systems. More specifically, the invention provides a divisible true dual port (TDP) memory system supporting simple dual port (SDP) memory subsystems. Merely by way of example, the invention has been applied to field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), but it would be recognized that the invention has a much broader range of applicability.
An FPGA system often includes an embedded memory system. The embedded memory system can be used to provide various types of memory functions. The memory functions include, for example, those of first-in-first-out memory (FIFO), read-only memory (ROM), and random-access memory (RAM). As RAM, the embedded memory system can be configured to support different types of operation modes. The operation modes may include true dual port (TDP), simple dual port (SDP), and single port (SP). A TDP memory system can support two writes, one read and one write, or two reads at one time. Besides having two independent in/out (IO) data paths and address decoders, the TDP memory system includes two independent write bit-lines drivers and sense amplifiers to support two writes or two reads simultaneously. In contrast, a SDP memory system can support one read and one write at the same time. The SDP memory system can be built from a TDP memory system by using one particular port to write and the other to read.
For example, a conventional 8K TDP SRAM memory includes 256 rows and 32 columns of dual port RAM cells. Each column of the RAM cells is accessible through Port A and Port B differential bit-lines with their respective Port A and Port B write drivers, sense amplifiers, and column and row decoder circuitry. For TDP operation, two-read, one-read and one-write, or two-write operations can be performed simultaneously. For SDP operation, one read and one write can be performed simultaneously. Port A is used as write port, and port B is used as read port.
The conventional SRAM system usually cannot be divided effectively into several SRAM sub-systems. Hence it is desirable to improve techniques for memory systems.

Divisible true dual port memory system supporting simple dual port memory subsystems


An apparatus for determining the length and swing weight of a golf club having a shaft and a head, the head having a sole, there being a top at the end of the shaft remote from the head comprising a longitudinally lengthwise elongated frame; first structure on the frame for supporting the club shaft to extend generally longitudinally; second structure on the frame to contact the shaft top at a first locus and to contact the head sole at a second locus, whereby the club length "1" can be measured between the first and second loci; and third structure adjustably movable relative to the frame to support the shaft at a third locus proximate the determinate center of gravity of the golf club.

This invention relates generally to golf club measurement, and particularly to simple, effective apparatus by which shaft length and swing weight can be determined. Swing weight is an apparent weight related to the centrifugal force felt by the hands of the golfer swinging the club.
For a golf club, besides its total weight, there are two important and considerable properties, i.e., the length and swing weight. The traditional standard for measuring the length of a club is the distance from the back heel portion of the sole radius to the top of the cap at the end of the shaft. But the best and most accurate method for measuring a golf club is the distance from the top of the cap, along the central line or the axis of the shaft, to the intersection with the sole surface, as at the horizontal ground plane at address position. The latter method eliminates the effect of sole heel radius. Because the length of a club influences its swing weight, the method of measuring length of a club becomes critical.
The common, non-technical definition of swing weight is the measure of a golf club's weight distribution about a fulcrum point, which is established at a specified distance from the grip end of the club. This still does not provide an exact definition. For an exact and meaningful definition, swing weight is an apparent weight or the centrifugal force felt by the golfer's hands who swings it.
There is need for apparatus by which a golf club can be measured, to enable easy determination of swing weight and length.

Golf club measuring apparatus and method


A process for producing metallocene procatalysts useful in a catalyst system for the polymerization of olefins, particularly to make stereospecific polymers, and more particularly polymerization to make isotactic polypropylene in which the product of a reaction between a suitable ligand and an alkali-alkyl is reacted with a transition metal salt in the presence of an accelerant that has at least one lone pair of electrons in its outer valence shell. When the metallocene procatalyst produced is used in a catalyst system for the production of isotactic polymers, specifically isotactic polypropylene, the metallocene procatalyst can be used without isolating and separating the racemic modification from the meso form.

Metallocene olefin polymerization catalysts generally use cyclopentadienyl (Cp), indenyl and fluorenyl groups .pi.-bonded to Group III to VI metals as procatalysts and cocatalysts comprising primarily alumoxanes and boranes. These metallocene catalysts can be used to produce stereospecific polymers from olefins, which is complicated by the structure of these compounds. From the nature of their structure, some compounds of the metallocenes exist as two stereoisomers: a racemic modification and a meso form. The racemic modification includes a pair of enantiomers which is simply a pair of stereoisomers that are nonsuperimposable mirror images. The meso form is a stereoisomer which can be superimposed on its mirror image. Polymerization employing the meso form has traditionally resulted in the production of primarily atactic polymer. See e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,455,366; 5,329,033; and 5,145,819. See also, Wolfgang A. Herrmann, et al., The First Example of an Ethylene-Selective Soluble Ziegler Catalyst of the Zirconocene Class, 28 Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl., 1511 (No. 11, 1989). Production of polymer primarily of the isotactic form has necessitated use of a catalyst consisting almost exclusively of the racemic modification.
Preparation of metallocene procatalysts has traditionally been conducted in polar solvent systems. See, for example, in European Patent Publication 0 351 392 A. However, due to the aggressive nature of these solvent systems, metallocene procatalysts produced in polar solvents are impure, sensitive to air and moisture, and are susceptible to the decomposition of reaction intermediates, particularly the lithiated ligand, which is generally indicated by a dark colored reaction solution. Additionally, procatalyst yields are also generally low for processes involving a polar solvent system.
Metallocene procatalysts prepared in a polar solvent suffer another difficulty if their intended use is as a catalyst for the production of substantially isotactic polyolefins because the use of these metallocene procatalysts in the polymerization to make stereospecific polymers has typically dictated an additional step in which the racemic modification is separated from the meso form. See e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,455,366; 5,329,033; and 5,145,819. See also, Herrmann, et al., 28 Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl., 1511 (No. 11, 1989). Additionally, separation of the two isomers is inefficient because of the low yield of procatalyst, as well as the additional purification step required. Alternatively, processes have been described in which the meso form is defeated by substituting various groups onto the Cp groups. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,032.
To avoid the difficulty associated with the use of polar solvents, a process which employs non-polar solvent has been used, but this process is relatively slow and does not address those specific instances in which it is intended that the metallocene procatalyst be used in stereospecific polymerizations. See e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,117,020.
A more desirable process would allow for the production of metallocene procatalysts at high yields but in relatively short reaction times. Additionally, such a process would allow for the production of metallocene procatalysts that could be used for the stereospecific polymerization but would not entail preparative steps in which various stereoisomers of the procatalyst are separated and would not be restricted to procatalyst that, due to substitutions, do not have a meso form as a stereoisomer.

Process for preparing metallocene procatalysts

Union Carbide Chemicals & Plsatics Technology Corporation


The present technology proposes techniques for ensuring globally consistent transactions. This technology may allow distributed systems to ensure the causal order of read and write transactions across different partitions of a distributed database. By assigning causally generated timestamps to the transactions based on one or more globally coherent time services, the timestamps can be used to preserve and represent the causal order of the transactions in the distributed system. In this regard, certain transactions may wait for a period of time after choosing a timestamp in order to delay the start of any second transaction that might depend on it. The wait may ensure that the effects of the first transaction are not made visible until its timestamp is guaranteed to be in the past. This may ensure that a consistent snapshot of the distributed database can be determined for any past timestamp.

In a distributed database, one way of improving performance is by horizontally partitioning database tables into smaller components. For example, by distributing selected rows from the database tables across multiple database servers, the number of rows in each partition may be reduced. This may decrease the size of database indexes, which may improve search performance. Each horizontal partition can form part of a "shard" that in turn can be housed on different host machines located in one or more geographic locations. Typically, a client can access and update a current state of the shards by requesting a series of read/write transactions. However, causal inconsistencies in executing the transactions can occur.

Ensuring globally consistent transactions


An organic field-effect transistor is disclosed in which an insulating layer having a thickness of 0.3 m or less is provided on a substantially planar electrode layer. This transistor has a channel length down to 2 m, satisfying the condition for voltage amplification well below 10V, and has an on/off ratio of about 25.

The invention relates to a method of manufacturing a field-effect transistor substantially consisting of organic materials.
The invention also relates to a field-effect transistor substantially consisting of organic materials.
The invention further relates to an integrated circuit (IC) comprising such a field-effect transistor (FET).
An integrated circuit comprising field-effect transistors substantially consisting of organic materials, in short organic field-effect transistors, is well suited for those electronic applications where using an integrated circuit manufactured using silicon technology would be prohibitively expensive. Examples include electronic bar codes.
As is well known by those skilled in the art, if an IC is to perform its task, it is imperative that the integrated logic gates, such as invertors, NOR and NAND gates, attain voltage amplification at the operating voltage. In order to attain voltage amplification, each individual field-effect transistor must be operated in a saturated regime, which is the regime where the channel transconductance exceeds the channel conductance.
A method of the type mentioned in the opening paragraph, which provides an organic FET satisfying said condition for voltage amplification is known from an article by Garnier et al. published in Science, vol. 265 (1994), pp. 1684-1686. In said known method a 1.5 μm thick polyester film is framed and is printed on both sides with a graphite-filled polymer ink, so as to form a 10 μm thick gate electrode on the one side and a source and drain electrode on the other side. Between the source and drain a 40 nm semiconducting sexithiophene layer is then deposited using flash evaporation.
A disadvantage of the known method is that the organic FETs provided by the method satisfy the condition for voltage amplification only at rather high (negative) source drain voltages. Typically, the difference is 30 V or higher. For many electronic applications, such as battery operated applications, such a voltage is too high. Also, the method is not very practical, not least because it involves framing and printing on a layer of only 1.5 μm. Such a thin film is very fragile and easily ruptures while being handled, leading to a defective device.

Field-effect transistor substantially consisting of organic materials


A hard disk drive with a controller that controls a movement of a head relative to a disk. The controller causes the head to avoid a defect on the disk during a seek routine. The location of the defect is previously identified and stored in the drive. The drive may create a “no-fly” zone about the defect to insure no contact with the head. The no-fly zone can be avoided by delaying the start of a seek routine, varying the displacement profile of the head or other techniques.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a seek routine in a hard disk drive.
2. Background Information
Hard disk drives contain a plurality of magnetic heads that are coupled to rotating disks. The heads can magnetize and sense the magnetic fields of the disks to write and read data, respectively. The heads each have an air bearing surface that cooperates with a flow of air generated by the rotating disk to create an air bearing. The air bearing prevents mechanical wear between the head and the disk.
The data is typically stored on annular tracks that extend radially across each disk surface. To access data in different tracks the drive moves the heads across the disk surfaces in accordance with a seek routine. The seek routine is typically performed in accordance with a program performed by the controller of the disk drive.
The surface of the disk may have protrusions caused by disk defects or contaminants embedded into the disk surface. Impact between the head and the protrusion may create heat that degrades the read back signal. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as a thermal asperity. Additionally, impact may create instability in the air bearing and cause an erroneous reading or writing of data. For this reason most disk drives identify such protrusions and avoid reading or writing in the protruded areas.
During a seek routine the heads are moved across the disk surfaces without regard to whether a protrusion(s) is in the seek path. Impact or multiple impacts with a protrusion during a seek routine could scratch the head or disk. The scratch could be extended over a larger area of the disk if a particle is dragged across the disk surface by the head. Additionally, impact can also produce head instability and cause an erroneous reading or writing of data. It would be desirable to provide a seek routine that avoids protrusions in the disk surfaces.

Method to avoid contact between the head and disk protrusions


Methods for displaying improved user interfaces are disclosed. The method includes receiving a user interface request to display a user interface of an issue tracking system from a user device. The user interface displays a plurality of objects and the user interface request includes a user identifier of a user of the user device and a user identifier of the requested user interface. The method further includes determining a time since the user last viewed the user interface, retrieving object data for the requested user interface based on the user interface identifier, retrieving activity data for the requested user interface based on the time since the user last viewed the user interface, and communicating the object data and activity data to the user device for displaying on the user device, the user device displaying the object data and displaying one or more activity indicators based on the received activity data.

Oftentimes, users view summary user interfaces that display a plurality of items and data associated with these items. For example, user may view a dashboard that shows all the intellectual property assets owned by a company at different stages in their lives. In other examples, a user working in a service helpdesk may wish to view a list of pending issues/tickets that the user and/his or her team has to handle. In still another example, a user may wish to view a user interface that displays a list of software bugs identified in a given software product. Similarly, a user may wish to view a planner dashboard showing a plurality of tasks to be performed in different stages of completion.
Although such user interfaces typically display the data the user wishes to view, they do not do so in an efficient manner. The data may be displayed in a cluttered manner and/or in a manner that increases the cognitive burden on users and increases the time required to perform actions. Accordingly, it is desirable to have more efficient and improved graphical user interfaces that reduce the cognitive burden on users and/or reduce the time taken to perform tasks.

Displaying queue information in a graphical user interface of an issue tracking system


Disclosed are a wireless power transmitter and a wireless power transmission method thereof. The wireless power transmitter, which wirelessly transmits power to a wireless power receiver, includes a power source to generate AC power, a transmission coil receiving power from the power source to generate a magnetic field, a transmission resonance coil coupled with the transmission coil to transmit power generated by the magnetic field to the wireless power receiver using resonance, and a detector detecting an existence state of the wireless power receiver by detecting power transmitted through the transmission resonance coil.

A wireless power transmission or a wireless energy transfer refers to a technology of wirelessly transferring electric energy to desired devices. In the 1800's, an electric motor or a transformer employing the principle of electromagnetic induction has been extensively used and then a method for transmitting electrical energy by irradiating electromagnetic waves, such as radio waves or lasers, has been suggested. Actually, electrical toothbrushes or electrical razors, which are frequently used in daily life, are charged based on the principle of electromagnetic induction. Until now, the long-distance transmission using the magnetic induction, the resonance and the short-wavelength radio frequency has been used as the wireless energy transfer scheme.
The wireless power transmission system includes a transmitter and a receiver. The transmitter wirelessly transmits power to the receiver, and the receiver receives the power from the transmitter and performs the operation according to the reception of the power.
In this case, since the transmitter cannot recognize the operating state of the receiver, the transmitter continuously transmits power to the receiver so that the receiver can normally operate always.
However, the transmitter always transmits the power to the receiver regardless of the operating state of the receiver as described above, so that high voltage is applied to the coil of the transmitter. Accordingly, when power is transmitted to the receiver thereafter, the erroneous operation or the breakage of the transmitter may occur. In addition, since the transmitter transmits the predetermined quantity of power to the receiver regardless of the quantity of power required by the load of the receiver, remaining power except for the power used in the load of the receiver may be wasted.

Wireless power transmitter and wireless power transmission method


The present disclosure relates to a system and method for image processing. In some embodiments, an exemplary image processing method includes: receiving an image; compressing, with a compression neural network, the image into a compressed representation; and performing, with a processing neural network, a machine learning task on the compressed representation to generate a learning result. The compression neural network and the processing neural network are jointly trained.

Machine learning (ML) or deep learning (DL) has been growing exponentially in the last decade. ML and DL use neural networks (NN), which are mechanisms that basically mimic how a human brain learns. Advances in ML or DL have significantly boosted the performance of automatic image processing, e.g., image segmentation. However, many images require large data volume to represent high resolution and graphical fidelity. Transmission of the images (e.g., from local to cloud) may bring large latency overhead.

System and method for compressing images for remote processing


A method of controlling frequency of a power system by a frequency control system includes: obtaining a frequency control command to keep frequency fluctuation of the power system within a predetermined range; obtaining information on electric power to be received or supplied by m second apparatuses, and determining n first command values for controlling electric power to be received or supplied by n first apparatuses, based on the frequency control command obtained in the obtaining of a frequency control command and the obtained information on electric power to be received or supplied by the m second apparatuses; and transmitting each of the n first command values determined in the determining to a corresponding one of the first apparatuses.

In a power system, electric generators supply electricity to loads via a network of transmission lines and distribution lines. In the supplying of electricity, all the electric generators synchronously operate; frequency of the power system decreases when the load on the power system is above electricity supplied from the electric generators, and increases when the load on the power system is below the electricity. Each electric generator, by use of a governor, therefore increases output when the frequency decreases, and decreases output when the frequency increases (governor-free operation).
Furthermore, when fluctuation in the load cannot be absorbed fully by the governor-free operation, the electric generators perform load frequency control to adjust its output according to an output adjustment signal received from an electricity supply control center. However, because of their slow response, the electric generators have a problem of low following capability to output adjustment signals.
As an exemplary solution to the problem, Patent Literature (PTL) 1 discloses a technique for performing load frequency control by utilizing a dispersed power system, in which high responsiveness of secondary batteries is principally leveraged. With this, according to PTL 1, responsiveness of load frequency control is increased and thereby frequency stability is improved.

Method of controlling frequency, frequency control system, frequency control apparatus, and program