An electrical shorting block has a molded body with a plurality of side-by-side recesses in which terminal members having first, tapped apertures are secured. A shorting bar supported in the molded body extends across but is spaced from the terminal numbers and has second apertures aligned with the first apertures. For the hot side terminal members, shorting connectors slidable through but captured by the apertures in the shorting bar have threaded ends which can be selectively threaded into the tapped first apertures of those terminal members. Helical compression springs bias the captured shorting connectors away from the terminal members when not used to short the terminal. Common terminal members are connected to the shorting bar by shorting screws which remain threaded into the first apertures. The terminal members preferably have both screw terminations and male fast-on terminations.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to electrical terminations and particularly to shorting blocks for providing a short in an electrical circuit, such as, for instance, in the circuits for current transformers and especially current transformers used in electric power distribution systems.
2. Background Information
There are applications where it is necessary to provide a short in an electrical circuit. One such application is in connection with current transformers in electric power distribution systems. If the load is removed from a current transformer which remains coupled to an active power circuit, the voltage in the secondary winding of the transformer will soar and can result in damage. Accordingly, shorting blocks are used to provide a path for the current in the secondary winding to circulate.
A known type of shorting block has an elongated molded body with a number of flat terminal strips extending transversely with insulating partitions between them. The short, flat terminal strips have screw terminations at each end. A shorting bar extends longitudinally along the molded body across all the terminal strips and is secured as by screws on top of the partitions. Shorting screws are passed through apertures in the shorting block to engage threaded apertures in the terminal strips for those terminals which are to be shorted. When not in use, the shorting screws have to be stored elsewhere. In one version of this known shorting block, a limited number of the shorting screws not being used are stored in blind apertures molded into flanges on the ends of the housing. These flanges also have mounting holes for securing the terminal block to a support. Thus, the termination and the shorting screws all extend 180.degree. from the mounting surface.
There is a need for improved electrical shorting blocks.
There is a special need for improved electrical shorting blocks in which the shorting connectors are not likely to be misplaced when not in use. There is an additional need for such an improved electrical shorting block in which the unused shorting connectors are positively restrained from creating an inadvertent short circuit.

Electrical shorting block with captured spring-biased shorting connectors


An application program interface (API) for a data platform. The API includes a generic data access component that exposes at least one of stores, sessions, transactions, and query services of the data platform, which data platform is associated with a data store. A data classes component of the API provides canonical, application-independent classes that expose types and relationships of a data model of the data platform. The API includes a domain data classes component of application-specific and framework-specific classes that expose domain-specific properties and behaviors of the data platform. The data platform can be a common data platform that interfaces to the data store to provide data services accessible by a plurality of disparate application frameworks, which data services allow a corresponding application of the different frameworks to access the data store.

Data has become an important asset in almost every application, whether it is a Line-of-Business (LOB) application framework utilized for browsing products and generating orders, or a Personal Information Management (PIM) end-user application used for scheduling a meeting between people. Applications perform both data access/manipulation and data management operations on the application data. Typical application operations query a collection of data, fetch the result set, execute some application logic that changes the state of the data, and finally, persists the data to the storage medium.
Traditionally, client/server applications relegated the query and persistence actions to database management systems (DBMS), deployed in the data tier. If there is data-centric logic, it is coded as stored procedures in the database system. The database system operated on data in terms of tables and rows, and the application, in the application tier, operated on the data in terms of programming language objects (e.g., Classes and Structs). The mismatch in data manipulation services (and mechanisms) in the application and the data tiers was tolerable in the client/server systems. However, with the advent of the web technology (and Service Oriented Architectures) and with wider acceptance of application servers, applications are becoming multi-tier, and more importantly, data is now present in every tier.
In such tiered application architectures, data is manipulated in multiple tiers. In addition, with hardware advances in addressability and large memories, more data is becoming memory resident. Applications are also dealing with different types of data such as objects, files, and XML (eXtensible Markup Language) data, for example.
In such hardware and software environments, the need for rich data access and manipulation services, well-integrated with the programming environments, is increasing. One conventional implementation introduced to address the aforementioned problems is a data platform. The data platform provides a collection of services (mechanisms) for applications to access, manipulate, and manage data that is well integrated with the application programming environment. However, such a conventional architecture falls short in many respects. Some key requirements for such a data platform include complex object modeling, rich relationships, the separation of logical and physical data abstractions, query rich data model concepts, active notifications, better integration with middle-tier infrastructure. Thus, there is a substantial unmet need in the art for an improved data platform.


A quick-release printhead mounting assembly and thermal printer incorporating same, including a printing component, a printer housing, and, a component retention feature attached to or molded into the printer housing adapted for receiving and releasably fixing the printing component to the housing. The retention feature holds the printhead in a fixed position relative to the housing and, therefore, also relative to the platen of the printer. The printing component is advantageously a printhead, such as a thermal printhead, or the combination of a thermal printhead and a heat sink.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to printhead assemblies for use in thermal printers. More particularly, the invention relates to the assembly or attachment of thermal printheads within thermal printer housings.
2. Description of Related Art
Thermal printers require that a thermal printhead be oriented and maintained in close proximity to print media during printing so that the printhead may heat a thermal transfer ribbon to cause coloration to be transferred to the print media or, alternatively, to directly heat regions of thermal contact media, thereby causing the contact media to change color. The printheads are typically joined with heat sinks to provide for heat dissipation, and the joined parts are typically positioned within a printer housing such that a print media may be moved within the housing relative to the printhead. Alternatively, the printhead may be movable within the housing with respect to the print media, or both printhead and media may be movable.
The printhead may be fastened within the printer housing in a number of ways. For instance, the printhead may be integrated with mechanical or electronic components within the housing, or the printhead may be fastened to a subframe within the printer housing. Most typically, the printhead is affixed to the printer housing using one or more brackets. For instance, in clamshell-type printer housings (i.e. housings having a base portion and lid portion that are hingably connected to one another), the printhead is affixed by brackets to the lid of the housing and a platen is affixed to the base of the housing such that the printhead and platen are positioned adjacent to one another when the housing is closed. This arrangement is advantageous because the region between the printhead and platen may be easily accessed by opening the housing, facilitating removal of print media or other printer maintenance.
Direct attachment of the printhead to electronic or mechanical components is often problematic due to added process steps required to attach or replace the printhead. Similarly, the use of traditional brackets to attach a printhead to the housing or sub-frame of a printer is problematic because of added complexity and production and assembly costs associated with fixing a printhead within the brackets. Further, replacement of a printhead typically involves removal of screws, brackets, or other hardware used to hold the printhead in place, thereby making it difficult for an end user to replace a printhead.
It would therefore be advantageous to have an improved printhead assembly that would allow the printhead to be more easily installed and replaced within a thermal printer. It would be further advantageous if the improved assembly reduced time and cost associated with installation of the printhead.

Thermal printer with quick-release printhead assembly


A portable heating tent (10) and method are disclosed for testing telecommunications equipment (16). The portable heating tent (100 includes a tent assembly (12) that provides a housing sized to contain telecommunications equipment (16) for testing. The housing has an inlet to receive return air and has an outlet to provide supply air. The portable heating tent (10) also includes a heater/blower assembly (14) that has an inlet (20) coupled to the outlet of the housing and an outlet coupled to the inlet of the housing. The heater/blower assembly (14) processes the supply air and provides the return air such that a temperature within the housing is established at a desired set point for heat testing the telecommunications equipment (16).

This invention relates in general to the field of telecommunications equipment testing, and more particularly to a portable heating tent and method for testing telecommunications equipment.
Testing in the manufacturing environment changed significantly in recent years. Previously, research and development groups would take appropriate steps to provide a proven product to the manufacturing facility for production. However, due to time-to-market constraints, this is no longer acceptable. One key to producing successful products is now being the earliest to market. As a result, research and development departments have been forced to deliver products faster to the manufacturing facility, which in turn introduces risk to quality.
To accommodate this situation, manufacturing facilities have set up different schemes for qualifying new products to ensure high quality. In general, more work is done up-front with the research and development group to ensure enough margin for manufacturing processes as well as the testing philosophy. Further, products are often taken after functionality testing processes have been done and run through a test environment similar to that in which they will be used by customers. This is done to ensure that customers receive a quality product and do not become the evaluation area for the product.
In order to accomplish customer environment testing, changes have been made to ensure that the manufacturing facility is flexible and can handle different issues that may arise. The customer setup is used and tested to ensure that major issues are seen before they are discovered by customers. One important part of this customer environment testing is to qualify new products at temperature extremes. For this reason, telecommunications equipment is often tested at both cold and hot extreme temperatures.
In the past, temperature testing has been accomplished by building a custom chamber for holding the telecommunications equipment. In this scheme, the testing equipment is built as a custom test chamber around each set of equipment which is temperature tested. Generally, such chambers are costly (e.g., in the range of $200,000) to build and install. Once completed, these chambers allow testing at both cold and hot temperature extremes in a process that generally takes 48 hours to complete.
In accordance with the present invention, a portable heating tent and method for testing telecommunications equipment are disclosed that provide substantial advantages over conventional testing equipment and methods.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a portable heating tent is disclosed for testing telecommunications equipment. The portable heating tent includes a tent assembly that provides a housing sized to contain telecommunications equipment for testing. The housing has an inlet to receive return air and has an outlet to provide supply air. The portable heating tent also includes a heater/blower assembly that has an inlet coupled to the outlet of the housing and an outlet coupled to the inlet of the housing. The heater/blower assembly processes the supply air and provides the return air such that a temperature within the housing is established at a desired set point for heat testing the telecommunications equipment.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a method is disclosed for testing telecommunications equipment. The telecommunications equipment is positioned in a housing, formed by a portable heating tent, that has an outlet to provide supply air and an inlet to receive return air. Supply air is received from the outlet of the housing and processed. The return air is then provided through the inlet of the housing such that a temperature within the housing is established at a desired set point for heat testing the telecommunications equipment.
A technical advantage of the present invention is that the portable heating tent is significantly less expensive and much easier to construct than prior testing environments.
Another technical advantage of the present invention is the use of the portable heating tent to accomplish testing at hot temperature extremes in a process that requires much less time to test a particular set of telecommunications equipment (e.g., 18 hours as opposed to 48 hours).
A further technical advantage of the present invention is the flexibility it provides to the manufacturing facility. If the volume of products that need to be tested increases, additional portable heating tents can be constructed and brought on-line within a relatively short time period. For example, a portable heating tent of the present invention may take two weeks to build as opposed to 10 to 16 weeks required for conventional temperature testing chambers. Further, the present portable heating tent allows multiple racks of telecommunications equipment to be connected together to increase testing capacity if needed. The racks can be located in separate heating tents with portholes for cabling to connect the equipment together.

Portable heating tent and method for testing telecommunications equipment


This invention is composed as a printer which receives a print request from a computer, the print request including a request to a peripheral device to acquire print data, and sends the acquisition request to the peripheral device, and performs printing on the basis of the print data sent from the peripheral device in response to the acquisition request. Accordingly, the printer is capable of receiving the print data from the peripheral device instead of receiving the print data from the computer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the technology of printers applicable to networks. More particularly, this invention relates to the technology of printers capable of direct printing without fetching information resources existing at a certain node on a network and sending them into computers.
2. Description of the Related Art
A computer network system is composed of a network and many nodes interconnected through the network. Nodes mean, for example, computers, printers, and other equipment. Nodes connected to a network exchange information with each other by utilizing various communication services.
For example, with a system including a printer connected to a network such as LAN (Local Area Network), a computer sends a print request through the network to the printer and the printer performs printing on the basis of the print request.
With a WWW (World Wide Web) system, a client computer accesses server computers, that is, Web servers or Web sites in accordance with a URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) and acquires information resources such as Web pages. The client computer then displays the acquired information resource through a browser.
With the prior art, when a user attempts to print information resources existing at a certain node on a network, the user accesses the node from a computer to download the information resources and then sends a print request from the computer to the printer based on the information resources. In other words, the user cannot make the printer directly fetch the information resources existing at the node to enable printing. Moreover, since the information resources to be printed is sent from the node to the computer and then from the computer to the printer, heavier load than necessary is applied to the network.

Printer capable of network connection and method for controlling said printer


Described herein are architectures, platforms and methods for providing localized high density plasma sources igniting local gasses during a wafer fabrication process to provide global uniformity. Such plasma sources are resonant structures operating at radio frequencies at or higher than microwave values.

Semiconductor wafer die fabrication processes, including film etching processes during pattern transfer, may be subject to many problems affecting wafer die yield, productivity, reliability, and cost. Such problems can become more prevalent as patterns become smaller and tolerances become more constrained. Such tolerances can relate to line uniformity (e.g., width, depth, straightness) and critical dimensions (CD) of etch patterns. In plasma fabrication processes, issues can arise due to global plasma non-uniformity. More plasma uniformity may be present towards the center of the wafer die than the edge, due to the material/electrical discontinuity at the wafer edge. As an example, the region near the edge of the wafer die can have fluxes of radicals and charged species which differ strongly from fluxes of those species at the wafer die center, since the wafer substrate edge marks a discontinuous electrical and material boundary.

Ultra-localized and plasma uniformity control in a plasma processing system


An adjustable mounting assembly for an electrical outlet box wherein a bracket is secured to a wall stud. One face of the bracket has a tongue having an axially extending threaded bore. A side wall of the outlet box has a longitudinally extending groove which receives the bracket tongue so that the box is slidably mounted on the bracket for movement forwardly and rearwardly relative to the wall stud. An adjustment bolt extends longitudinally of the groove and into a threaded bore in the tongue whereby an unlimited adjustment of the electrical box is obtainable so that the front of the box will be flush with the subsequently applied plaster or dry wall and paneling. The bolt not only functions during the adjustment of the box but also, once the desired adjusted position is obtained, it functions as a stop member to hold the box at the adjusted position.

Adjustable mounting assemblies for electrical outlet boxes have been proposed wherein the outlet box is slidably mounted on a bracket secured to a wall stud, whereby the outlet box is adjustable so that the front of the box will be flush with respect to the subsequently applied dry wall or paneling.
Such an assembly is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,747,506 dated May 31, 1988, which has been satisfactory for its intended purpose; however, the adjustability of the box is limited by stop members provided between the outlet box and bracket which limit the forward and rearward movement of the box relative to the wall stud and associated mounting bracket.
After considerable research and experimentation, the adjustable mounting assembly of the present invention has been devised as an improvement over known adjustable mounting assemblies in that the adjustable mounting assembly is constructed and arranged without stop members to thereby provide an unlimited adjustment of the outlet box.

Adjustable mounting assembly for electrical outlet box


An adapter device with a PTFE gasket that stops vehicle air conditioning system leaks on most R134a refrigerant non-serviceable air conditioning hoses. The adapter device makes the hose serviceable by replacing the damage non-serviceable service port with a new serviceable service port and valve.

Age, heat, and sometimes the tool used to charge a vehicle's air-conditioning system with refrigerant damage the air-conditioning unit's service port valves, which are located inside connecting hoses. When the service port valves are damaged, the unit leaks refrigerant. This reduces or ends the air-conditioning unit's ability to blow cold air; and causes the refrigerant to be released into the atmosphere.
Many of the R134a refrigerant vehicle hoses have non-serviceable valves. Thus, replacing a damaged service port valve requires replacement of the entire hose and completely recharging the air-conditioning system with refrigerant, which is expensive. With the present invention, non-serviceable hose replacement is not required to replace a damaged service port valve nor is a complete system recharge. With the present invention, individuals with a minimum of mechanical skills can repair their R134a refrigerant service port leak without paying a repair shop hundreds of dollars. Likewise, auto repair shops making the repairs will save their customers substantial money because of the cost differential between the invention and new non-serviceable hoses and the cost of refrigerant for a complete recharge.


A Ni-added steel plate includes, by mass %, C: 0.04% to 0.10%, Si: 0.02% to 0.12%, Mn: 0.3% to 1.0%, Ni: more than 7.5% to 10.0%, Al: 0.01% to 0.08%, T.O: 0.0001% to 0.0030%, P: limited to 0.0100% or less, S: limited to 0.0035% or less, N: limited to 0.0070% or less, and the balance consisting of Fe and unavoidable impurities, in which a Ni segregation ratio at an area of ¼ of a plate thickness away from a plate surface in a thickness direction is 1.3 or less, a fraction of austenite after a deep cooling is 0.5% or more, an austenite unevenness index after the deep cooling is 3.0 or less, and an average equivalent circle diameter of the austenite after the deep cooling is 1 μm or less.

Steels used for a liquefied natural gas (LNG) tank need to have fracture-resisting performance at an extremely low temperature of approximately −160° C. For example, so-called 9% Ni steel is used for the inside tank of the LNG tank. The 9% Ni steel is a steel that contains, by mass %, approximately 8.5% to 9.5% of Ni, has a structure mainly including tempered martensite, and is excellent in, particularly, low-temperature toughness (for example, Charpy impact-absorbed energy at −196° C.). With an increasing demand for natural gas in recent years, in order to satisfy an increase in the size of the LNG tank, there is a demand for additional improvement in the fracture resistance of the tank. As one of the fracture-resisting performances, various techniques to improve the toughness of the 9% Ni steel have been disclosed. For example, Patent Documents 1 to 3 disclose techniques in which temper embrittlement sensitivity is reduced by a two-phase region thermal treatment so as to improve the toughness. In addition, Patent Documents 4 to 6 disclose techniques in which Mo that can increase strength without increasing the temper embrittlement sensitivity is added so as to significantly improve the toughness. However, since the manufacturing costs increase in the methods of Patent Documents 1 to 6, it is difficult to use the methods at a low cost for the LNG tank which has a strong demand for fracture-resisting performance. Meanwhile, steel plates having a plate thickness of 4.5 mm to 80 mm are used as the 9% Ni steel for the LNG tanks. Among them, a steel plate having a plate thickness of 6 mm to 50 mm is mainly used.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Ni-added steel plate and method of manufacturing the same

NIPPON STEEL & SUMITOMO METAL CORPORATION


A voltage converting controller, in which when an output current increases from a first current value to a second current value, the voltage converting controller temporarily sets a control frequency to a maximum frequency value; and after a period of time, sets the control frequency to a target control frequency corresponding to the second current value. In addition, when the output current increases from the first current value to the second current value, the voltage converting controller temporarily sets a secondary-side output voltage to an transient output value; and after a period of time, sets a steady state value of the secondary-side output voltage to an output voltage steady state value corresponding to the second current value.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to a voltage converting controller, a voltage converting circuit, and a control method for voltage converting, and in particular, to a voltage converting controller, a voltage converting circuit, and a control method for voltage converting which can mitigate an overshoot and undershoot of an output voltage and may also have desirable power conversion efficiency when a heavy load and a light load frequently appear alternately.
2. Related Art
A switching voltage converting circuit is one of voltage converting circuits, and in a manner of switching a power switch, regulates energy stored on an inductive component (for example, a transformer) to supply the energy to an output load, and converts an input voltage into an output voltage at an output terminal, so as to maintain a fixed output voltage value and provide a load current needed by the output load. Its advantage is that conversion efficiency is high, and therefore unnecessary heat generation can be reduced, thereby lowering complexity of a heat dissipation design.
However, on many electronic application apparatuses, for example, on a mobile phone, a load current supplied by a voltage converting circuit often involves an application scenario in which a heavy load and a light load frequently appear alternately. This is because at present an electronic application apparatus has an increasingly high integration level and increasingly complex functions; however, on the other hand, a requirement for electrical endurance of a system becomes increasingly high. Therefore, many functional blocks in an electronic system often quickly start and perform a function when needed, and switch off its power supply to save power. Therefore, for a system design of an electronic apparatus, a test of frequently switching a heavy load/light load of a power supply unit is more and more important, and becomes an important index for evaluating performance of the power supply unit.
In further description, at present, in designs of many switching voltage converting circuits, a positive correlation relationship exists between an operation frequency and the magnitude of a load current of the switching voltage converting circuit; that is, when the load current increases, an operation current also increases, and when the load current decreases, an operation current of the switching voltage converting circuit also decreases. This is because when the load current decreases and the output voltage is maintained by using a voltage stabilizing capacitor at an output terminal, its power loss speed is low, and therefore a low operation frequency may be used without making the output voltage too low; meanwhile, a switching loss may be reduced, which helps to improve power conversion efficiency of the switching voltage converting circuit, that is, can improve endurance of a battery. However, when the operation frequency is low, and the load current instantaneously changes from a light load to a heavy load, electric charge needed by the load can be instantaneously supplied only by the voltage stabilizing capacitor at the output terminal, until a next operation frequency period starts. Therefore, the output voltage possibly causes a severe undershoot, and even causes abnormal work of a circuit.
Please refer to U.S. Pat. No. 8,259,472 (hereinafter referred to as Prior Art 472). Prior Art 472 discloses a switching voltage converting circuit, of which an operation frequency and the magnitude of a load current are positively correlated. A technical solution of Prior Art 472 further includes a minimum instantaneous frequency, and when the magnitude of the load current changes from a heavy load to a light load, the operation frequency also gradually decreases. However, in a process in which the operation frequency decreases, when a frequency of the operation frequency is already equal to the minimum instantaneous frequency, the switching voltage converting circuit disclosed by Prior Art 472 makes the frequency of the operation frequency fixed at the minimum instantaneous frequency for a certain period of time, during which, if the load current changes from a light load to a heavy load, an undershoot of an output voltage can be made not too severe because the frequency of the operation frequency is high enough. In summary, after the frequency of the operation frequency has been fixed at the minimum instantaneous frequency for a certain period of time, if a condition in which a load current changes from a light load to a heavy load does not occur, the operation frequency is no longer maintained at the minimum instantaneous frequency, and an original mechanism is restored to continue with being corresponding to a frequency change of the light load.
However, in Prior Art 472, when a heavy load and a light load frequently appear alternately, the frequency of the operation frequency is maintained above the minimum instantaneous frequency, resulting in a sacrifice of power conversion efficiency.

Voltage converting controller, voltage converting circuit, and control method for voltage converting


A refrigerant system is provided with a method and a control programmed to perform the method, in which a low charge of refrigerant is identified. The mass flow of refrigerant through the system is calculated utilizing at least two different methods. The two calculated mass flow rates are compared, and if they differ by more than predetermined amount, a determination is made that there is a low charge of refrigerant within the system.

This invention relates to a simple method and control for identifying a low charge of refrigerant in a refrigerant system.
Refrigerant systems are utilized to condition an environment and may include air conditioners or heat pumps. In a traditional refrigerant system, refrigerant is routed between several components through sealed connections. Over time, and for various reasons, some of the refrigerant may escape the sealed system. This can result in there being a lower charge of refrigerant than would be desirable.
When there is a low charge of refrigerant, it becomes more difficult for the system to provide its function such as cooling air being directed into an environment. Additional load is put on the compressor, and the compressor may fail, or the system may not adequately condition the air being directed into the environment.
Thus, various methods have been utilized to identify a low charge of refrigerant. One simple method looks at whether the refrigerant from an evaporator being directed to a compressor, has excessively high super heat. A high super heat value is indicative of a low charge of refrigerant.
However, with modern refrigerant systems, the expansion valves directing the refrigerant to the evaporator are controlled electronically in response to the amount of super heat upon sensing high super heat, the control adjusts the expansion valve to result in the amount of super heat being moved downwardly. Such control can mask the low charge.
Thus, a simplified method of identifying a low charge of refrigerant that would be useful in complex refrigerant systems is desired.

Method and control for determining low refrigerant charge


A method including: dividing a first video frame into a predetermined plurality of regions; assigning a quantization parameter to each of the predetermined plurality of regions in accordance with a first predetermined pattern of quantization parameters, the quantization parameters not being all the same; dividing video frames, subsequent to the first video frame, into the predetermined plurality of regions; and assigning a quantization parameter to each of the predetermined plurality of regions in the video frames subsequent to the first video frame, in accordance with another predetermined pattern, different from the first predetermined pattern.

In the baseline profile of H.264/AVC, two picture coding techniques are available. The first, intra coding, predicts the content of the input video picture (i.e., the picture being coded) using decoded luma and chroma samples from regions in the picture that have been coded earlier (and would therefore be available to a decoder). The second, predictive coding, predicts the content of the input video picture using previously coded pictures called reference pictures.
A traditional videoconference may begin with an intra-coded or I picture followed by predicted or P pictures. Unlike applications requiring random access (e.g., digital video recordings) which insert periodic I pictures, a videoconference typically uses one I picture at the beginning of transmission and never again (IPPP coding), except in special situations (e.g., error recovery). Hierarchical-P picture (HPP) coding includes a prediction structure that does not always reference the picture immediately preceding the input. Rather, the prediction structure in HPP coding is constructed so that the input pictures are decomposed into sets or temporal layers that offer temporal scalability.


A microprocessor capable of renaming a numeric register and a segment register includes a plurality of general registers and a data dependency unit. The data dependency unit is configured to receive instructions to be executed, wherein the instructions include accessing the numeric register and accessing the segment register. The data dependency unit renames the numeric register as one of the plurality of general registers for each of the instructions accessing said numeric register, renames the segment register as one of the plurality of general registers for each of the instructions accessing the segment register, and generates a dependency vector for each of the instructions. The microprocessor may include a scheduler configured to receive the instructions and dependency vector and schedule the instructions for execution based on the dependency vector, and an execution engine adapted to receive the instructions from the scheduler and execute the instructions.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to the field of computing and, more particularly, to a means of increasing data flow in an out-of-order processing system. Specifically, the invention relates to the renaming of segment registers to enhance out-of-order processing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Register renaming is known to those of ordinary skill in the art. To implement register renaming, a processor typically redirects an instruction to store information at a newly allocated register, rather than the original register identified in the instruction. A subsequent instruction that attempts to read the original register is similarly redirected to the newly allocated register. Thus, the hardware renames each original register identifier in each instruction to identify a new register, such that the same original register identifier in several different instructions may access different physical registers.
Since storage conflicts introduce constraints that may not be necessary to produce correct results, register renaming can be particularly helpful when processing instructions out-of-order. FIG. 1 illustrates the value of register renaming in an out-of-order processing system. An application program consists of M separate instructions, which in an in-order processing system could be executed in the sequential order shown without error. However, because of a storage conflict regarding a register X used in the application program, executing the program illustrated in FIG. 1 in an out-of-order processing system may introduce undesirable errors. The first instruction 105 writes data to a register X 110 from a set of N registers. Likewise, the third instruction 115 also writes data to the register X 110. The second instruction (not shown) adds the contents of register X 110 with the contents of a register Z 120. Due to storage conflicts (i.e., instructions one and three require the same register), the third instruction 105 should not be executed until the first two instructions have been performed. Register renaming allows the first instruction 105 to write to the register X 110 and redirects the third instruction 115 to write to a register Y 125, thus allowing the third instruction to be executed before the second instruction if desired. Instructions after the third instruction referencing the register X of instruction three would likewise be redirected to register Y. Out-of-order processing made possible by register renaming enables the removal of storage conflicts by allocating some registers as temporary storage registers.
Segmentation, as used in some computer architectures (e.g., Intel Architecture), is also a technique well known to those of ordinary skill in the art. Information inside a microprocessor is tracked using a logical address rather than a physical address. The memory management unit takes each logical address and translates it into a physical address that corresponds to a particular hardware location in main memory. To effectively do this, the memory management unit employs segmentation, which is a technique that provides each program with a unique address space in main memory known as a segment. Logical addresses are used to keep track of processed information; they are composed of a segment selector and an offset. The segment selector is an index used to locate the appropriate segment descriptor from a descriptor table in main memory. Segment descriptors contain information about the requested segment such as base address, size, and access rights. Once a logical address is sent to the memory management unit, the segment selector is compared with a segment register in the segmentation circuitry. The segment register contains the base address and size for the current segment descriptors so that a logical to physical address translation can be performed.
Instructions accessing segment registers have the same forced conflict limitations as instructions accessing other registers. If two instructions access the same segment register, the second and subsequent instructions cannot be processed until the instructions following the first access to the segment register have retired. Previous microprocessors have renamed segment registers to remove these forced conflicts and enhance out-of-order processing. Segment registers are typically stored in separate register stacks, resulting in the need for separate renaming and alias tracking hardware. This duplicative hardware results in higher circuit complexity and increased microprocessor cost.

Renaming numeric and segment registers using common general register pool


A bottle cap (10) having a top panel (12) and a downwardly depending skirt (14). Skirt (14) includes an angled upper portion (20) and a generally cylindrical lower portion (22) with an exterior bead (24) thereon. Angled upper skirt portion (20) extends from a perimeter bead (23) down to a locking bead (34), which allows upper skirt (20) to transfer an application force from perimeter bead (23) radially to locking bead (34) in order to push the locking bead down around the upper crown (42) of a bottle neck (40).

The present invention relates to caps for water bottles and similar containers of various sizes and, more particularly, to an improved upper cap design for simplifying application of the cap onto a bottle neck.
Current designs for five gallon water bottle closures or caps include a seal bead on the under side of the cap and above a locking bead that biases the seal bead down against the crown of the bottle neck to tightly seal the cap around the crown. The locking bead snaps down and around the upper crown of the bottle neck to concentrate the lower load onto the upper side of the crown and onto a smaller surface region, which raises the surface pressure on the cap and thereby improves the seal. Some caps are provided with foam on the under side of the top panel of the cap, because the foam conforms to irregularities in the crown surface and as a result enhances the effectiveness of the seal.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,979,002 of Faulstich discloses a water bottle cap with no seal bead and which is intended to thread onto a bottle neck. The upper region of the cap has an outwardly angled, somewhat conical shape defined at its lower edge by an external bead that fits around an external upper thread located above the crown. U.S. Pat. No. 3,392,860 also of Faulstich discloses a similar cap design. The design of the upper cap region of the present invention improves upon the cap designs shown in these patents.
Various designs for bottle caps are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,392,862 and 3,840,137 of Faulstich, and 4,884,707 of Crisci, which disclose seal bead designs where the seal bead is located beneath the crown of the bottle neck, which requires the seal bead to be completely pushed down beneath the crown. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,911,316 of Tackles, 5,121,846 of Adams et al., and 5,232,125 of Adams disclose designs where the seal bead engages the top surface of the crown. With these three later designs, the seal bead is generally aligned with the locking bead and, to some extent, increases the frictional resistance generated when pushing the locking bead down over the crown. All of the foregoing patents provide general background information on the state of the art for cap designs.
Briefly described, the improved closure of the present invention includes a top panel for closing off a container neck opening and a skirt depending from the top panel for covering upper side portions of the container neck. A locking bead extends inwardly from the interior side of the skirt at a location spaced from the top panel. The locking bead is adapted to mount underneath the upper crown upon full mounting of the closure on the container neck. The upper portion of the skirt from the locking bead to the top panel is angled inwardly, to direct at least a portion of the application force radially outwardly to assist the locking bead in clearing the upper crown.
According to an aspect of the invention, the locking bead is positioned radially outwardly of the perimeter bead. The upper skirt portion can take on any of a variety of shapes, but preferably is angled in order to efficiently direct the application force to the locking bead. Preferably, the angled upper portion of the skirt is frustoconical.
According to this aspect of the invention, the upper portion of the skirt directs at least a portion of the application force along a path directly outwardly of the upper crown. This assists in pushing the locking bead down around the upper crown of the container neck. The stiffness of the frustoconical upper cap decreases as the angle from vertical increases. An optimum angle can be determined where sufficient stiffness and radially directed force are both achieved.
According to another aspect of the invention, the top panel includes a raised perimeter bead adjacent the periphery of the top panel for receiving an application force to mount the closure onto the neck.
These and other features, objects, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description of the best mode for carrying out the invention, when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and the claims, which are all incorporated herein as part of the disclosure of the invention.


In an electrophotographic recording apparatus, toner images of different colors formed on a photosensitive belt are transferred in overlapping fashion to an intermediate transfer drum to form a color toner image and the color toner image is transferred to a secondary recording medium by means of a transfer unit and then fixed. The intermediate transfer drum includes an electrically conductive drum substrate and a dielectric layer whose resistance is adjusted to a predetermined range, and the drum substrate is connected to earth potential so that setting of an electric field for toner image transfer from the photosensitive belt may not interfere with setting of an electric field for toner image transfer by the transfer unit. Efficiencies of transfer at the two transfer sections can be improved to provide a color image of high quality and the apparatus can be reduced in size.

The present invention relates to electrophotographic recording apparatus such as copiers and laser printers and more particularly to an electrophotographic recording apparatus suitable for color image printing.
In the past, an electrophotographic recording apparatus such as a copier and a laser printer produces a print through an electrophotographic process in which an electrostatic latent image is formed on a primary recording medium such as a photosensitive drum, the latent image is converted into a toner image through development using a developer made of toner or a mixture of toner and carrier, and the toner image is transferred to a secondary recording medium such as a paper or an OHP sheet and is then fixed.
The color electrophotographic recording apparatus for producing a two-color or polychromatic image or a full color image by synthesizing (super-imposing) toner images of different colors formed on the basis of signals obtained by color-separating a copy paper or signals representative of information about components of color of a color image, which signals are obtained by decomposing the color and used to form the color image, uses a photosensitive member, for example, a photosensitive drum or a photosensitive belt as a primary recording medium and is classified into the type wherein toner images of different colors are formed on the photosensitive member in overlapping fashion, the type wherein toner images of different colors formed sequentially on a single photosensitive member are transferred sequentially in overlapping fashion to a secondary recording medium wound round a transfer drum so as to be synthesized, the type wherein toner images of different colors formed sequentially on a single photosensitive member are transferred in overlapping fashion to an intermediate transfer member so as to be synthesized and thereafter transferred to a secondary recording member, and the type wherein toner image forming process means such as photosensitive members and developing units are provided by the same number as that of color separations and toner images of different colors formed on the photosensitive members are transferred sequentially in overlapping fashion to a secondary recording medium so as to be synthesized.
Of them, the type wherein toner images of different colors are formed on the photosensitive member are transferred to the intermediate transfer member in overlapping fashion to provide a color toner image and thus obtained color toner image is transferred to the secondary recording medium such as an OHP sheet is advantageous in that the apparatus can be compact because means for transferring toner images of different colors in overlapping fashion with high accuracies can be constructed relatively easily.
Electrophotographic techniques as above are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. JP-A-1-502062, JP-A-59-50474, JP-A-59-125765, JP-A-1-288870, and JP-A-2-212870.
For example, in a color copier disclosed in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. JP-A-1-502062, toner images of a plurality of different colors sequentially formed on a photosensitive belt are transferred in overlapping fashion to an intermediate transfer drum to produce a color toner image and thus produced color toner image is transferred to a recording paper and then fixed; and in a recording apparatus disclosed in the aforementioned Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. JP-A-59-50474, a toner image formed on a photosensitive drum is transferred electrostatically to an adhesive intermediate transfer member and thereafter press fitted to a recording paper so as to transferred and fixed thereto through heating.
In the color electrophotographic recording apparatus as above, the transfer of toner image is carried out plural times and it is necessary that raising transfer efficiency in each transfer process be contrived. If force necessary for the toner image to be adhered to the intermediate transfer member is increased in order to increase the efficiency of transfer of toner image from the photosensitive member to the intermediate transfer member, then the toner image will hardly separate from the intermediate transfer member, making it difficult to raise the efficiency of transfer of the toner image from the intermediate transfer member to the secondary recording medium.
To increase the transfer efficiency in both the transfer processings, potential gradient at the two transfer sections has to be adjusted but when potential adjustment are carried out locally within the same intermediate transfer member at a time, mutual interference takes place to make achievement of optimum adjustments of the two transfer sections difficult and the construction complicated, thus causing a bottleneck in designing a compact apparatus.
Further, if upon transfer of a toner image from the intermediate transfer member to the secondary recording medium the transfer charge remains on the secondary recording medium then the secondary recording medium will be adsorbed electrostatically to the intermediate transfer member and disadvantageously wound thereround. Generally, discharge means is adapted to prevent this problem but it is affected by the potential of the intermediate transfer member, making it difficult to reduce the electrostatic adsorptive force.
In the apparatus which employs the heating transfer method with a view of improving the efficiency of transfer from the intermediate transfer member to the secondary recording medium, the intermediate transfer member is also heated and heat generated therein is transferred to the photosensitive member and therefore both the members are required to be heat-resisting. Especially, preparation of a heat-resisting photosensitive member faces much difficulties and is unpractical.
In addition, facilitation of developing unit exchange working and toner replenishment working is not taken into account and besides facilitation of working of processing a jam which would take place in the paper feed mechanism for conveying the secondary recording medium and maintenance working for various rollers and fixing unit is not taken into full consideration.


A communication system and method for controlling an antenna pattern is disclosed. The communication system may be situated on a mobile station, a base station, or a combination thereof. The communication system comprises a smart antenna module, a speed sensor, and a beam steering module. The smart antenna module may be situated on the mobile station, the base station, or a combination thereof. The smart antenna module generates at least one initial antenna pattern. The speed sensor is configured to determine a speed of a mobile station. The beam steering module generates an operating antenna pattern that is different from the initial antenna pattern. The operating antenna pattern is affected by changes in the speed of the mobile station.

In mobile communication systems, capacity and performance are usually limited by multipath and co-channel interference. Multipath is a condition which arises when a transmitted signal undergoes reflection from various obstacles in the propagation environment. The multipath signals follow different paths and have different phases when they are arrive at the receiver. The result is degradation in signal quality when they are combined at the receiver due to the phase mismatch.
Smart antennas enable a higher capacity in wireless networks by effectively reducing multipath and co-channel interference. Smart antennas focus the radiation in the preferred direction and adjusts itself to changing traffic conditions or signal environments. The signals from these elements are combined to form a movable or switchable beam pattern. The process of combining the signals and then focusing the radiation in a particular direction is often referred to as digital beamforming.
By way of example and not of limitation, there are two types of smart antennas that dynamically change their antenna pattern to mitigate interference and multipath effects while increasing coverage and range, namely, switched beam and adaptive arrays. The switched beam smart antenna system provides an increase in network capacity with an antenna array that generates beams that cover specific areas. For an illustrative base station, the base station determines the beam that is best aligned in the signal-of-interest direction and then switches to that beam to communicate with the mobile station.
By way of example and not of limitation, the adaptive array smart antenna system tracks the mobile user continuously by steering the main beam towards the mobile station and at the same time forming nulls in the directions of the interfering signal. In the illustrative example, the signal received from each of the spatially distributed antenna elements is multiplied by a weight. The weights are complex in nature and adjust the amplitude and phase. These signals are combined to yield the array output. These complex weights are computed by an adaptive algorithm.
There are a variety of benefits to the use of smart antennas which include the reduction of co-channel interference, range improvement, increase in capacity, reduction in transmitted power, mitigation of multi-path effects and compatibility with TDMA, FDMA and CDMA systems.
However, there are a number of limitations to smart antennas. These include performance degradation when the mobile station is in motion. More particularly, at driving speeds and pedestrian speeds, performance degradation is caused by inadequate beam steering. Beam steering is the changing of the direction of the main lobe of a radiation pattern. In radio systems, beam steering may be accomplished by switching antenna elements or by changing the relative phases of the RF signals.
Performance degradation is caused by the smart antenna's limitations. The smart antenna's beam steering is too focused, and does not easily accommodate movement of the mobile station. As a result the mobile station may drop calls. Solutions such as increasing processor speed fail to solve these smart antenna limitations because the problem revolves around measurements needed to collect the data required for beam steering. The measurements that might be performed for beam steering include power levels, signal to noise ratios, power control and other such measurements that are performed during the beam steering process. Each of these measurements must be made over a period of time to provide sufficient accuracy. However, when the mobile station is in motion, the time needed to make these measurements with the required accuracy is not available. The resulting measurement data is less accurate or is incomplete resulting in performance degradation of the smart antenna. Thus, when the mobile station is moving faster than the rate at which the smart antenna measurements can be completed, performance is degraded.

System and method for controlling antenna pattern


A method for purifying a plant protein comprises: (a) preparing a crude plant extract; (b) passing the crude plant extract with a first buffer solution through a guard column comprising a hydrophobic interaction chromatography medium of hydrophobicity sufficiently high to prevent tannins and polyphenols from eluting from the column in the presence of the buffer solution, but sufficiently low that a protein fraction elutes with the first buffer solution; (c) passing the protein fraction through a capture column coupled in series to the guard column, the capture column comprising a hydrophobic interaction chromatography medium of hydrophobicity sufficiently high to prevent the protein from eluting in the presence of the buffer solution; and (d) eluting the protein from the capture column as a purified fraction. Preferably the plant is miracle fruit, the protein is Miraculin, and the method comprises ion exchange chromatography and gel filtration chromatography of the purified fraction of the protein. Foods and beverages may be sweetened with the purified Miraculin.

This invention relates to plant protein purification. Specifically, the invention achieves the efficient separation of the functionally active plant glycoprotein, Miraculin, from the matrix of other constituents of vegetable matter in the berries of miracle fruits, using tandem hydrophobic interaction chromatography.
The taste-modifying properties of miracle fruits have been known to local people in West Africa for centuries, where the fruits have been used to sweeten sour foods and beverages such as koko and kenkey made from fermented maize and millet, and palm wine. The amazing properties of these fruits were first described in the scientific literature by F. W. Daniel (1) in 1852 who called it the `miraculous berry of West Africa`. The active ingredient in the berries which is responsible for this effect was isolated and identified as a glycoprotein and subsequently named Miraculin by Kurihara and Beidler(2). These researchers extracted the pulp of the berries in sodium carbonate buffer at high pH and subsequently purified the extract by ion-exchange chromatography using DEAE Sephadex A-25 and CM Sephadex C-25 columns. Almost simultaneously, Brouwer et al. (3) also reported an alternate method of isolation of the active ingredient based on extracting the pulp of the berries into solutions of highly basic compounds such as salmine and spermine, followed by ammonium sulfate fractionation and gel filtration chromatography.
These early investigators noted the peculiar difficulties in isolating Miraculin from the berries. According to them, the active ingredient was highly labile and subject to rapid degradation by proteolytic enzymes present in the berries. Secondly, like many plant proteinaceous materials, Miraculin is found together with other components in plant tissues with which it very closely associated particularly polyphenolic coloring agents such that it is extremely difficult to isolate the free glycoprotein. In order to solve the latter problem, Giroux and Henkin (4) proposed grinding the pulp of the berries with insoluble polyvinylpyrollidone (PVP) in order to adsorb the polyphenolic compounds before extraction into sodium carbonate buffer.
A more recent purification protocol for isolating Miraculin was developed by Theerasilp and Kurihara (5) based on extraction of the pulp with 0.5M sodium chloride solution, followed by ammonium sulfate fractionation. Further purification was accomplished by ion-exchange chromatography on CM-Sephadex column and affinity chromatography using concanavalin A-sepharose column. The initial extraction with sodium chloride at neutral pH in lieu of alkaline (high) pH extraction was intended to minimize loss of the active ingredient which is believed to be sensitive to high pH.
A further improvement to this method was proposed by Kamimura et al (6) to include the addition of various acidic buffer media to the extraction solution in order to protect and stabilize Miraculin during isolation. The recommended media include aqueous acidic buffers such as sodium acetate, sodium citrate, sodium phosphate, glycine-HCl, and sodium borate.
In summary, prior approaches suffer from the peculiar problems associated with isolation of Miraculin from the berries. For example, tannins and other polyphenolic compounds which are co-extracted with Miraculin interfere with its isolation. Miraculin is also subject to rapid degradation by proteolytic enzymes present in the berries. Prior methods require use of large quantities of ammonium sulfate for fractionation which has adverse environmental impact during waste disposal. Existing methods require cold room operations during the purification process, which increases the cost of process-scale operations.
The methods developed so far for purifying Miraculin have been limited to laboratory scale operations suitable for obtaining research quantities (milligrams to grams range) of the active ingredient. In order to produce commercial quantities of Miraculin, a robust process is required which can be readily scaled-up to industrial scale. Such a method should also incorporate modem cost-effective protein purification technologies which can be operated in tropical environments where the berries are cultivated and harvested. Advantageously such a method should also be applicable to purification of other plant proteinaceous material.

Purification of miraculin glycoprotein using tandem hydrophobic interaction chromatography


Color signals that have passed through a multilayer film filter and been photoelectrically converted are inputted into an image processing LSI. A color signal processing section of the image processing LSI corrects the color signals on a color matrix. The color matrix is divided into a plurality of regions corresponding to the color signals, and the correction is made for each of the regions.

Conventionally, for enhancing the safety of driving of automobiles, there have been proposed a number of apparatuses in which imaging means such as video cameras are mounted in a vehicle to monitor images of the surroundings of the vehicle and various kinds of information included in the images are retrieved and used.
Such apparatuses include a system of detecting the motion of an automobile nearby from a captured image signal with an optical correlation system and alerting the driver depending on the distance and speed of the automobile, a system of searching for a given position with respect to a "road region" in a recognized image to recognize a traffic sign, a system of displaying the outputs of cameras embedded in door mirrors or side mirrors of a vehicle with an image display device placed near the driver's seat in the vehicle to allow the driver to easily check the status of an oncoming vehicle and the status of an adjacent lane, and vehicle-mounted cameras capable of taking and displaying images of right and left blind spots and vehicle downward images simultaneously.
Such vehicle-mounted cameras are required to be independent of the climate conditions. For example, to attain an imaging device independent of the climate conditions, Patent Document 1 discloses a system in which the mirror portion of each door mirror of a vehicle is composed of a half mirror and a video lens equipped with an optical filter and an imaging device such as a CCD are placed inside the door mirror, and an image signal processed with a camera signal processing circuit placed in the interior of the vehicle is outputted to an image display device.
Patent Document 1 described above argues that the disclosed configuration can solve the problems related to the camera mount position that (1) a camera placed in the interior of a vehicle may disfigure the interior resulting in degrading the comfort and narrow the vision of the driver, (2) a camera placed in an engine compartment may cause a failure because the environment is extremely bad, and (3) a camera placed outside of a vehicle, such as on the side of a door and on the engine compartment, for example, will adversely affect the safety, the design and the performance such as aerodynamic resistance.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 5-294183 (FIG. 1)


The present invention is an integrated computerized system and method of telecommunication user account management. The invention creates, maintains, processes and analyzes data regarding individual users for telecommunication services. Billing for individual users is generated. The user data is analyzed and reports for all or part of the user data are prepared and generated. Ancillary functions are enabled, including word processing, editing, e-mail, and other functions. The invention is applicable to subscriber telecommunication services, and pay-for-use services, and the user may be a subscriber or a non-subscriber. The invention is applicable to multi-channel telecommunication services, or single channel multi-service telecommunications, or single channel single service telecommunications. Such telecommunication services may include cable television, telephone, video, audio, on-line databases, television, radio, music video, video juke box, pay-for-view, video-on-demand, interactive TV, home-shopping, video conferences, telephone conferences, interfacing to imaging systems, automatic telephone call charge-backs ("900" numbers), and other telecommunication services which may not yet be invented at this time. The current preferred embodiment of the invention is for subscriber account management for cable television services.

The advent of cable television systems initiated a system of providing multi-channel subscription telecommunication services. The cable systems required monthly billing to subscribers, and other operations such as maintenance and management. To address these activities, a variety of distinct computerized systems and methods were developed piece-meal over time to individually address one of these topics and functions. Individual subscriber billing systems were developed. Management information systems for monitoring and reporting for an entire system were developed. Various other systems were developed. This activity took place in an environment with other ancillary computer functions and communications, including word processing, e-mail, and other functions.
However, these systems developed piecemeal over time and were not integrated. They involved multiple and incompatible database formats, software, hardware platforms, and communication protocols. Consequently, the data and functions of one system often cannot interact with the data and functions of other systems.
Consequently, a need exists for an integrated system and method to provide all the databases, billing, reports, and ancillary communications and processing functions, for individual subscribers, and for the entire system and subscriber base, in a quick and economic manner.
Additionally, the cable television industry specifically, and telecommunications generally, is in a dynamic technologic and regulatory environment that makes for an evolution of the mix of services provided by telecommunication companies. This has created a need for information management and processing systems that are flexible and adaptable to a changing mix of services supplied to subscribers, with each subscriber picking from a menu of possible services, on a monthly subscription basis, or a one time pay-for-view basis, or otherwise. Furthermore, some services, such as telephone, may be provided on a pay-for-use basis to non-subscribers.

Telecommunication user account management system and method


Device (1) for surface sampling, comprising: a material layer (2) comprising a surface portion (2c) and a circumferential edge portion (2d) defining the boundary of the surface portion (2c), further comprising a sampling volume (2a), wherein the sampling volume (2a) is adapted to comprise a filler device (2b) for filling out the sampling volume (2a), a protective layer (3) arranged on the surface portion (2c) of the material layer (2) by an adhesive (4) arranged on the surface portion (2c) of the material layer (2), wherein the device (1) further comprises a removal device (12), wherein the removal device (12) is fixedly arranged to the material layer (2), wherein the removal device (12) further comprising a removal surface portion (12a), wherein the removal surface portion (12a) is adapted to provide a lower adhesion against a surface compared to the adhesive (4), wherein the removal surface portion (12a) is facing essentially the same direction as the surface portion (2c).

It is known to use adhesive patches for surface sampling comprising a protective sheet to be removed prior to attaching the patch to a surface. Prior art document WO2015/147729 A1 by the applicant describes a device for surface sampling wherein a protective layer extends beyond the boundary of a surface portion of the device for facilitating a removal of the protective layer from the device.
Certain requirements have to be met according to a test described in the relevant ISO-Standard in this technical field in terms of withstanding the increased pressure resulting from filling the sampling compartment without leakage occurring which e.g. could result in an incorrect analysis result. In order to comply with such requirements whereby the device is firmly fixed onto a test surface and a seal against leakage of washing/extracting liquid is prevented, a sufficient adhesion between the device and a test surface is necessary. As a result, since adhesion and adhesive forces between the device and surface is often stronger than cohesion of the material of the device, difficulties arise after use of the same, when the device is to be removed from the surface. A well-known drawback with the known art is thus that residues of the device is often left on the surface and is thereafter difficult to remove. The devices are therefore generally removed within a short time after carrying out a test/sampling to reduce the effect of an increased adhesion between the test surface and the device over time. Often, only one or a few devices are used at the same time for this reason, which reduces the overall efficiency as well as the ability to sufficiently document the tests, e.g by taking photographs and documenting the exact locations of the test surfaces/locations as well as the time the adhesive patches have been attached to a surface. Using, on the other hand, both a strong adhesive and a strong material with high cohesion will give a device that is very difficult to remove from a surface. Usually, the removal of residues requires the use of a knife or scrape followed by application of a solvent or an extra sand blasting procedure. In many instances, however, the use of solvent or blasting procedures are not possible or wanted as they cause damage to certain sensitive surfaces, creates a hazardous working environment or necessitates cleaning afterwards. This is further a time consuming procedure often carried out in industrial environments for example in the ship building industry, wherein the surfaces to be analyzed are difficult and dangerous to reach, for instance vertical ship sides or walls or roofs in ballast tanks or standing on unsafe scaffolds or ladders with falling risks present. To reduce the risk an operator needs to have focus on the work position being secured in a manner preventing a fall, for instance by holding on suitable objects. Further, the work related to surface sampling may be made in areas of very limited lighting conditions. Any additional, unwanted time and extra focus required to remove remains of an adhesive patch increases the exposure to this risk.

Device for surface sampling with removal device


To enable multichannel audio data to be transmitted favorably. Multichannel audio data of a predetermined number of channels is acquired. The multichannel audio data has a sampling frequency corresponding to the predetermined number of channels. Audio data of the respective channels configuring the multichannel audio data are sequentially transmitted to a reception side via a predetermined transmission channel for each unit audio data. Information indicating the sampling frequency is added to the transmission audio data.

For example, Patent Literature 1 includes descriptions on an IEC 60958 standard. In this standard, an LPCM (Linear Pulse Code Modulation) transmission is limited to a maximum of two channels. Specifically, transmissions of two channels are defined in an IEC 60958-1 standard, and a linear PCM is allocated to each of the channels in an IEC 60958-3 standard. It should be noted that a physical layer for a coaxial output and optical output from an RCA pin terminal, and the like are standardized in the IEC 60958-1 standard, and a physical layer equivalent to the coaxial output is standardized in HDMI ARC (High-Definition Multimedia Interface Audio Return Channel).

Transmission apparatus, transmission method, reception apparatus, and reception method


A method of determining the delay between two corresponding noise-like signals comprises determining events at which the level of a first of the signal crosses a predetermined threshold, using each event to sample a second signal, combining the samples to produce an output value and determining the delay from the output value. Preferably, each sample is weighted according to one or more characteristics of the event used to define the sample. The magnitude of the output value could be an indication of the delay, or there could be several output values each for a respective differently-delayed version of the second signal, in which case these could be evaluated to select which corresponds to the actual delay.

In a wide range of industrial control systems, the value of a parameter of interest is maintained within a specified interval by first determining the transit time required for some phenomenon or process to travel a predetermined distance.
One example is shown in FIG. 1, which depicts a block diagram of a feedback system employed to control the flow rate of some substance or medium, such as pulverised coal or cooling fluid. The system comprises two suitable non-invasive sensors SX and SY, placed outside the flow pipe FP, a time-delay discriminator TDD, a control unit CON, and a suitable actuator ACT, such as a signal-controlled valve or pump.
In the case of pulverised coal, the sensors may, for example, detect time-varying changes in the electric charge carried by moving coal particles. In the case of determining the flow rate of coolant in, for example, a pressurised water reactor, the sensors will usually detect a γ-ray emitting element carried by the fluid. In either case, the sensors are responsive to an observed physical phenomenon varying in time in a noise-like fashion, and signals produced by the sensors are representations of that phenomenon.
The time-delay discriminator TDD processes two signals, x(t) and y(t), supplied by the sensors and determines the time delay (the transit time) Δ between those signals. Because the distance D between the sensors SX and SY is known, the required flow rate FR corresponds to some nominal value Δ0 of transit time, where Δ0=D/FR. The time-delay discriminator TDD provides at its output the value of a time-delay error ε=(Δ−Δ0), indicative of the discrepancy between the observed and the required flow rates.
The value of error ε provided by the time-delay discriminator TDD is then converted by the control unit CON into a suitable corrective signal applied to the actuator ACT. The main function of the actuator ACT is to adjust the actual flow rate in such a way as to nullify (or at least significantly reduce) the time-delay error ε, thereby attaining the required flow rate FR.
FIG. 2 shows an example of another feedback control system employed by an industrial robot ROB whose main function is to follow ('shadow') a moving vehicle MOV, while maintaining a specified 'safe' distance D. A similar control system can be used in automotive applications, for example, in collision-avoidance, cruise control or pre-crash vehicle conditioning.
The system comprises a transmitter TX driving a transmit element TE, a receive element RE coupled to a signal receiver RX, a transmit sensor SX, a receive sensor SY, a time-delay discriminator TDD, a control unit CON, and a drive control block ACT.
A wideband noise or chaotic signal generated by the transmitter TX is sent via the transmit element TE toward the preceding vehicle. The time-delay discriminator TDD processes jointly two signals: a copy of the transmitted signal x(t), captured by the transmit sensor SX, and a signal y(t) reflected back by the vehicle and applied to the receive sensor SY. The time-delay discriminator TDD determines the time delay Δ between the signals x(t) and y(t). Because the propagation velocity v of the transmitted and received signals is assumed to be known, the specified distance D will be maintained, if the observed delay time A is equal to its nominal value Δ0=2D/v.
Accordingly, the time-delay discriminator TDD provides at its output the value of a time-delay error ε=(Δ−Δ0), which is converted by the control unit CON into a corrective signal. This signal is then used by the drive control block ACT to adjust the robot's speed in such a way as to nullify (or at least significantly reduce) the time-delay error ε, thereby maintaining the required distance D.
The above two examples of applications involving a time-delay discriminator represent two classes of systems incorporating a delay-locked loop, described extensively in the prior art. In such systems, either the velocity or distance is being adjusted, while the other complementary parameter (distance or velocity) is constant, be it by its nature or by design.
In the prior art, systems employing a time-delay discriminator are also classified as being either passive or active, depending on whether the physical phenomenon detectable by sensors is inherent in the observed process, or is imparted (or at least enhanced) by the use of some auxiliary means, such as suitable markers influencing (or 'modulating') the process, ultrasonic or radio-frequency radiators, visible light or infrared illuminators, etc.
If x(t) denotes one of the two signals applied to the time-delay discriminator TDD, the other signal y(t) can be expressed asy(t)=Ax(t−Δ)+n(t)where A is a scale factor, Δ denotes an unknown time delay and n(t) represents background noise and other interference.
In some practical applications, even in a no-noise case, the signal y(t) will no longer be a scaled and time-shifted replica of the signal x(t), due to flow turbulence, Doppler effect and/or nonlinear sensor characteristics. In such cases, it is assumed that the additive noise waveform n(t) will also include a component representing the respective distortions of the signal shape.
A conventional technique used to determine the value of unknown time delay Δ is based on crosscorrelating the two wideband signals x(t) and y(t), i.e. by performing the operation
            R      xy                  (      τ      )        =            1      T                          ∫        0        T                                    x                                (                          t              -              τ                        )                                            y                                (            t            )                                                                              ⅆ          t                    where the integral is evaluated over the observation interval of duration T and for a range, Δmin<τ<Δmax, of delay values of interest. The value of argument τ that maximises the crosscorrelation function Rxy(τ) provides an estimate of an unknown delay Δ.
In practice, prior to crosscorrelation, the signals x(t) and y(t) may be suitably prefiltered to accentuate frequencies for which the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is highest and to attenuate background noise, thus increasing the resulting overall SNR. A crosscorrelator utilizing signal prefiltering is known in the prior art as a generalized crosscorrelator.
The crosscorrelation process, including prefiltering, can also be implemented digitally, if sufficient sampling and quantising of the signal is used.
FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a conventional system crosscorrelating a received signal y(t) with a reference signal x(t) to determine the value of the unknown delay, and FIG. 4 shows an example of a crosscorrelation function Rxy(τ) between a signal x(t) and its replica y(t) delayed by Δ. In this case, the resulting crosscorrelation function Rxy(τ) is the same as a time-shifted autocorrelation function Rxx(τ) of the signal x(t). Because of the symmetry of Rxy(τ) with respect to its maximum occurring at τ=Δ, a single value of the cross-correlation function can only provide information about the absolute value |Δ−Δ0| of time-delay error. Therefore, when a correlator is to be used in a time-delay discriminator, some additional operations will have to be performed in order to obtain a bipolar output related to the time-delay error (Δ−Δ0).
For a finite time interval T, the crosscorrelation curve determined experimentally will usually contain errors associated with random fluctuations in the signals themselves, as well as errors due to noise and interference. As a result, the task of locating the crosscorrelation peak is rather difficult to perform in practical systems. Even when the peak is well defined, its position is usually found by evaluating the crosscorrelation function at several points and calculating corresponding differences to approximate the derivative of the crosscorrelation function. Those additional operations are computationally intensive and inconvenient, especially when the peak-seeking procedure is to be implemented for wideband signals in real time.
It is known that the derivative R′xy(τ)=dRxy(τ)/dτ of a crosscorrelation function Rxy(τ) can be obtained by crosscorrelating a first signal with the derivative of a second signal. Because the derivative of a crosscorrelation function is an odd function, i.e. R′xy(−τ)=−R′xy(τ), it can provide information about the time-delay error. In some crosscorrelator systems, a similar result is achieved by replacing signal differentiation by Hilbert transformation.
Irrespective of the approach, when there is no noise, and the observation time is sufficiently long, the resulting bipolar curve will cross a zero level exactly at the time instant τ equal to the time delay Δ between two signals being processed. FIG. 5 shows an example of a curve observed at the output of a suitably modified crosscorrelator system processing jointly a signal x(t) and its replica y(t) delayed by Δ. Because of the characteristic bipolar S-shape of the curve, such a system can perform the function of a time-delay discriminator required in a delay-locked loop intended to track a time-varying delay of interest.
In general, wideband signals encountered in practical applications are nonstationary with evidently non-Gaussian statistical characteristics. Therefore, many known crosscorrelation techniques based, explicitly or implicitly, on the assumptions of signal stationarity and Gaussianity are only of limited practical use. Furthermore, most practical implementations have to deal with discrete-time samples, so that the optimisation procedures and performance analyses carried out in the continuous-time framework cannot be fully applicable.
WO-A-00/39643 discloses an improved method for the estimation of the time delay between signals using a technique referred to herein as "crosslation". The contents of WO-A-00/39643 are incorporated herein by reference.
The term "crosslation" as used herein refers to a technique whereby predefined (preferably at least substantially aperiodic) events which occur in one signal are used to define staggered segments of a second signal, and representations of the staggered segments are then combined. The first and second signals may in fact be the same signal, in which case the resulting combined representation will provide information regarding the statistical properties of that signal, and in particular about the average behaviour of the signal before and after the predefined events. Alternatively, the first and second signals may be different signals ("mutual crosslation"), or one signal may be a delayed version of the other, in which case the combined representation will provide information about the relationship between those signals. For example, if the combined representation contains a feature which would be expected from combining segments associated with multiple predefined events, this may indicate that one of the signals is delayed with respect to the other by an amount corresponding to the position within the representation of that feature.
According to WO-A-00/39643, a bipolar signal is subjected to an unknown delay, and the reference (non-delayed) version of the signal is examined to determine the time instants at which its level crosses zero with a positive slope (an upcrossing). The timing of these crossing events is used to obtain respective segments of the delayed signal, the segments having a predetermined duration. The segments are all summed, and a representation of the summed segments is then examined to locate a feature in the form of an S-shaped odd function. The position within the representation of a zero-crossing in the centre of the odd function represents the amount by which the signal has been delayed. Instead of using upcrossings, the reference (non-delayed) version of the signal could be examined to determine when its level crosses zero with a negative slope (downcrossings).
WO-A-00/39643 also suggests improving accuracy by using both upcrossings and downcrossings. In this case, the odd S-shaped function to be examined is obtained by summing segments defined by upcrossings and subtracting those defined by downcrossings.
The crosslation techniques of WO-A-00/39643 are robust and particularly well suited for processing non-Gaussian signals corrupted by non-Gaussian noise. Because only timing instants are extracted from one of the signals, time delay estimators based on crosslation are much less sensitive to nonlinear signal distortions than the many conventional estimators. However, the performance of the crosslation technique in its disclosed form can be degraded in applications involving strongly non-stationary intermittent signals with prominent bursts followed by signal fading.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an improved technique for time delay measurement, for example, for use in a feedback control system incorporating a time-delay discriminator.


A lens stocking apparatus capable of stocking a plurality of lenses, which has a first stage, on which a plurality of trays respectively accommodating lenses are mountable, for transferring a tray, a vertically movable second stage, on which a plurality of trays respectively accommodating lenses are mountable by being vertically stacked, for receiving a tray, a tray movement unit that has a holding portion, which is adapted to hold a tray, and that is configured to move a tray from the first stage to the second stage, and a guide unit adapted to guide a position of at least a topmost one of trays mounted on the second stage.

For example, in the case of eyeglass lenses, the processing of the lenses, which has hitherto been performed by individual optician's shops, has come to be intensively performed at a processing center. The processing center intensively processes many lenses in response to orders from optician's shops. In this intensive processing, it is desired to achieve laborsaving (or automation) of a sequence of processes, which relate to the lens processing, as much as possible. Thus, for instance, JP-A-2004-34166, US-2004-0018801-A1, and EP-1375065-A1 have proposed a lens stocking apparatus and a lens processing system having this lens stocking apparatus, in which an unprocessed lens is taken out of a lens accommodating tray or the like, is conveyed, and is set in a lens processing apparatus, and in which a processed lens is taken out of the processing apparatus, is conveyed, and is put on (or returned to) the tray or the like.
Meanwhile, a lens accommodating tray 1401 used in such a lens processing system is formed at its bottom surface portion with legs 1401b, so that the tray 1401 can be placed on the top surface of another tray 1401 by vertically stacking the trays 1401 on top of each other. These legs 1401b are adapted to be inserted into an open portion 1401a of the lower tray 1401 (see FIG. 9(a)). Further, the inside size IS of the open portion 1401a is set to be slightly larger than the outside size OS of the legs 1401b. However, the difference between these sizes sometimes causes the positional displacement of the tray 1401 when the trays 1401 are stacked or when a stage 1420 on which the trays 1401 are put is vertically moved (see FIG. 9(b)).

Lens stocking apparatus and lens processing system having the same