A terminal apparatus and retransmission control method reduces overhead of the uplink control channel in cases when ARQ is applied in communication that uses an uplink unit band and a plurality of downlink unit bands associated with the uplink unit band. A first condition is set in which downlink assignment control information is transmitted from a base station by a unit band group which comprises a basic unit band, which is the downlink unit band on which a broadcast channel signal including information relating to the uplink unit band is transmitted, and a second downlink unit band other than the basic unit band. A bundling unit will not transmit a response signal to the base station in certain cases.

3GPP LTE adopts OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) as a downlink communication scheme. In a radio communication system to which 3GPP LTE is applied, a base station transmits a synchronization signal (Synchronization Channel: SCH) and a broadcast signal (Broadcast Channel: BCH) using predetermined communication resources. A terminal secures synchronization with the base station by catching the SCH first. The terminal then reads BCH information and thereby acquires parameters (e.g. frequency bandwidth) peculiar to the base station (see Non-Patent Literatures 1, 2, 3).
Furthermore, after completing the acquisition of the parameters peculiar to the base station, the terminal requests the base station for a connection and thereby establishes communication with the base station. The base station transmits control information to the terminal with which communication is established via a PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control CHannel) as required.
The terminal then makes a "blind detection" on a plurality of pieces of control information included in the received PDCCH signal. That is, the control information includes a CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check) portion and this CRC part is masked with a terminal ID of the destination terminal in the base station. Therefore, the terminal cannot decide whether the control information is directed to the terminal or not until the terminal demasks the CRC part of the received control information using the terminal ID of the terminal. In this blind detection, when the demasking result shows that the CRC calculation results in OK, the control information is decided to be directed to the terminal.
Furthermore, 3GPP LTE applies ARQ (Automatic Repeat Request) to downlink data from the base station to the terminal. That is, the terminal feeds back a response signal indicating an error detection result of the downlink data to the base station. The terminal performs a CRC on the downlink data and feeds back ACK (Acknowledgment) when CRC=OK (no error) or NACK (Negative Acknowledgment) when CRC=NG (error present) to the base station as a response signal. An uplink control channel such as a PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) is used to feed back this response signal (that is, ACK/NACK signal).
Here, the above-described control information transmitted from the base station includes resource assignment information including resource information or the like assigned to the terminal by the base station. The above-described PDCCH is used to transmit the control information. The PDCCH is constructed of one or a plurality of L1/L2 CCHs (L1/L2 Control Channel). Each L1/L2 CCH is constructed of one or a plurality of CCEs (Control Channel Elements). That is, the CCE is a base unit when control information is mapped to the PDCCH. Furthermore, when one L1/L2 CCH is constructed of a plurality of CCEs, a plurality of continuous CCEs are assigned to the L1/L2 CCH. The base station assigns an L1/L2 CCH to a resource assignment target terminal according to the number of CCEs necessary to report control information to the resource assignment target terminal. The base station then transmits the control information mapped to physical resources corresponding to the CCEs of the L1/L2 CCH.
Furthermore, here, the CCEs are associated with component resources of a PUCCH in a one-to-one correspondence. Therefore, the terminal that receives the L1/L2 CCH identifies component resources of the PUCCH corresponding to CCEs making up the L1/L2 CCH and transmits a response signal to the base station using the resources. Downlink communication resources are thereby efficiently used.
A plurality of response signals transmitted from a plurality of terminals are spread on the time axis by a ZAC (Zero Auto-correlation) sequence having Zero Auto-correlation characteristics, Walsh sequence and DFT (Discrete Fourier Transform) sequence and code-multiplexed within a PUCCH as shown in FIG. 1. In FIG. 1, (W0, W1, W2, W3) represents a Walsh sequence having a sequence length of 4 and (F0, F1, F2) represents a DFT sequence having a sequence length of 3. As shown in FIG. 1, in the terminal, a response signal of ACK or NACK is primary-spread within 1 SC-FDMA symbol by a ZAC sequence (sequence length 12) on the frequency axis first. Next, the primary-spread response signals are associated with W0 to W3, F0 to F3 respectively and subjected to IFFT (Inverse Fast Fourier Transform). The response signal spread by the ZAC sequence having a sequence length of 12 on the frequency axis is transformed into the ZAC sequence having a sequence length of 12 on the time axis through IFFT. The signal after the IFFT is further secondary-spread using a Walsh sequence (sequence length 4) and DFT sequence (sequence length 3).
Furthermore, standardization of 3GPP LTE-advanced has been started which realizes still faster communication than 3GPP LTE. A 3GPP LTE-advanced system (hereinafter also referred to as "LTE-A system") follows the 3GPP LTE system (hereinafter also referred to as "LTE system"). In order to realize a downlink transmission rate of maximum 1 Gbps or above, 3GPP LTE-advanced is expected to introduce base stations and terminals capable of communicating at a wideband frequency of 40 MHz or above.
In an LTE-A system, to realize communication at an ultra-high speed several times as fast as the transmission rate in an LTE system and backward compatibility with the LTE system simultaneously, a band assigned to the LTE-A system is divided into "unit bands" of 20 MHz or less which is a support bandwidth of the LTE system. That is, the "unit band" is a band having a width of maximum 20 MHz and defined as a base unit of a communication band. Furthermore, the "unit band" (hereinafter referred to as "downlink unit band") in a downlink may be defined as a band divided by downlink frequency band information in a BCH broadcast from the base station or by a spreading width when the downlink control channel (PDCCH) is arranged by being spread in the frequency domain. Furthermore, the "unit band" (hereinafter referred to as "uplink unit band") in an uplink may be defined as a band divided by uplink frequency band information in a BCH broadcast from the base station or as a base unit of a communication band of 20 MHz or less including a PUSCH (Physical Uplink Shared CHannel) field near the center and PUCCHs for LTE at both ends. Furthermore, in 3GPP LTE-Advanced, the "unit band" may also be expressed as "component carrier(s)" in English.
The LTE-A system supports communication using a band that bundles several unit bands, so-called "carrier aggregation." Since throughput requirements for uplinks and throughput requirements for downlinks are generally different, in the LTE-A system, studies are being carried out on carrier aggregation in which the number of unit bands set for an arbitrary LTE-A system compatible terminal (hereinafter referred to as "LTE-A terminal") differs between the uplink and downlink, so-called "asymmetric carrier aggregation." Furthermore, cases are also supported where the numbers of unit bands are asymmetric between the uplink and downlink, and the frequency bandwidth differs from one unit band to another.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating asymmetric carrier aggregation and a control sequence applicable to individual terminals. FIG. 2 shows an example where bandwidths and the number of unit bands are symmetric between the uplink and downlink of the base station.
In FIG. 2, a setting (configuration) is made for terminal 1 so as to perform carrier aggregation using two downlink unit bands and one uplink unit band on the left side, whereas although a setting is made for terminal 2 so as to use two downlink unit bands identical to those of terminal 1, a setting is made in uplink communication so as to use the uplink unit band on the right side.
Focusing attention on terminal 1, signals are transmitted/received between an LTE-A base station and an LTE-A terminal making up an LTE-A system according to the sequence diagram shown in FIG. 2A. As shown in FIG. 2A, (1) terminal 1 establishes synchronization with the downlink unit band on the left side at a start of communication with the base station and reads information of the uplink unit band which forms a pair with the downlink unit band on the left side from a broadcast signal called "SIB 2 (System Information Block Type 2)." (2) Using this uplink unit band, terminal 1 starts communication with the base station by transmitting, for example, a connection request to the base station. (3) Upon deciding that a plurality of downlink unit bands need to be assigned to the terminal, the base station commands the terminal to add downlink unit bands. In this case, however, the number of uplink unit bands does not increase and terminal 1 which is an individual terminal starts asymmetric carrier aggregation.

Terminal apparatus and retransmission control method


A multi-media storage tray with at least one uni-directional partition member provided to store and organize different combinations of media. The bottom of the try is provided with a plurality of positioning slots each surrounded by detents having substantially the same shape as the partition members. The partition members will fit in the detents only when the partitions are oriented in a single direction.

The present invention relates to a multi-media tray or container useful for storing and organizing different types of media material, preferably, media for use with computers. At the present, there exists several types of commonly used media material for use at home and at the office, particularly with personal computers. For example, the following types of media are prevalent: 51/4 inch computer diskettes also known as "floppy disks," mini data cartridges, CD-ROM optical disks and compact disks which can be stored in a container that is slightly wider and thicker than a floppy disk, 31/2 inch computer diskettes, data cartridges and VHS tapes. The designation of each computer diskette relates to its width.
Due to the growing trend of small businesses and home offices, there exists a need for storage trays that can accommodate a wide variety of media material within a single storage tray. For example, some computers presently available may require 51/4 inch computer diskettes, 31/2 inch computer diskettes, and magnetic tape cartridges. Accordingly, there is a need for a tray that is able to store and organize these different types of media, among others. In addition, such trays should also have the capability of being vertically stacked so that the trays themselves can be organized.
Trays that are capable of storing and organizing different types of media exist. At least some of these trays have dividers or partition members to divide the trays into sections. A particular problem with these trays is that the placement of the partition members is confusing for the consumer leading to frustration and dissatisfaction with the tray. The multi-media tray of the present invention solves this problem by providing uni-directional partition members. Thus, a multi-media tray is provided that is simple and easy to assemble and use by the consumer.

Multi-media tray having uni-directional partition members


A depth buffer compression scheme uses bilinear patches as a predictor for depth. The scheme targets compression of scenes rendered with stochastic blur rasterization. A tile of fragments may be split into two or more regions and a higher-degree function may be fit to each region. The residuals are then stored as delta corrections.

This relates generally to compression of depth buffers.
Previous depth buffer compression schemes compress the depth obtained by rasterizing static triangles. This provides generous bandwidth usage savings, and so is of great importance to graphics processors. However, stochastic rasterization for both motion blur and depth of field is becoming a reality even for real-time graphics, and previous depth buffer compression algorithms fail due to the irregularity of the positions and depth of the rendered fragments.

Depth buffer compression for stochastic motion blur rasterization


Systems and methods for digitally controlling sensors. In one embodiment, a digital controller for a capacitance diaphragm gauge is embedded in a digital signal processor (DSP). The controller receives digitized input from a sensor AFE via a variable gain module, a zero offset module and an analog-to-digital converter. The controller automatically calibrates the received input by adjusting the variable gain and zero offset modules. The controller also monitors and adjusts a heater assembly to maintain an appropriate temperature at the sensor. The controller utilizes a kernel module that allocates processing resources to the various tasks of a gauge controller module. The kernel module repetitively executes iterations of a loop, wherein in each iteration, all of a set of high priority tasks are performed and one of a set of lower priority tasks are performed. The controller module thereby provides sensor measurement output at precisely periodic intervals, while performing ancillary functions as well.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the systems and methods for operation of sensors and more particularly to embedded control systems for a digital capacitance diaphragm gauge using an advanced digital signal processor, including kernel and gauge control algorithms to process internal gauge functions.
2. Background of the Invention
Many manufacturing processes require accurate and repeatable pressure measurements during critical process steps. These processes may rely on capacitance diaphragm gauges to achieve an accurate determination of process chamber pressure. Capacitance diaphragm gauges (or capacitance manometers) are widely used in the semiconductor industry. In part, this is because they are typically well suited to the corrosive services of this industry. They are also favored because of their high accuracy and immunity to contamination.
A capacitance manometer is a type of sensor which may be used to measure parameters such as the pressure within a process chamber. A capacitance manometer has a housing containing two chambers separated by a diaphragm. One of the chambers is in fluid communication with the process chamber or conduit in which the pressure is to be measured. The other chamber of the manometer is a typically (although not necessarily) evacuated. It is a pressure reference chamber. Plates are located on the manometer housing and on the diaphragm. These plates have a capacitance that can be measured. When the process gas enters the first chamber, it exerts a pressure against the diaphragm and causes the diaphragm to move. The capacitive plate connected to the diaphragm is consequently moved toward the plate connected to the manometer housing, changing the capacitance between the plates. The change in capacitance corresponds to the increase in pressure and can be used as a measurement of the pressure.
Capacitance manometers typically operate by measuring the change in electrical capacitance that results from the relative movement of the sensing electrodes. The change in capacitance can be measured using various different types of electrical interfaces, such as balanced diode bridge interfaces, guarded secondary transformer-based bridge interfaces, and matched reference capacitor bridge interfaces. These interfaces measure changes in capacitance, using circuitry coupled to the capacitive plates of the manometer in order to determine changes in their capacitance and corresponding changes in the measured parameter.
One of the major advantages of a capacitance diaphragm gauge is its ability to detect extremely small diaphragm movements, hence extremely small changes in the measured process parameter. The accuracy of these sensors is typically 0.25 to 0.5% of the generated reading. For example, in a typical capacitance diaphragm pressure sensor, a thin diaphragm can measure down to 10−5 Torr. Thicker, but more rugged diaphragms can measure in the low vacuum to atmospheric range. To cover a wide vacuum range, two or more capacitance sensing heads can be connected into a multi-range package.
Systems that utilize differential capacitance manometers generally have stringent requirements for the repeatability of pressure readings, with offset drift typically limited to 0.02% of full scale per day. Full scale deflection for a differential capacitance manometer typically causes capacitance changes of 0.2 2.0 pF (10−12 F). Thus, the electronic interface ("Analog Front End" or "AFE") to the sensing element may not experience drift in excess of 0.04 femtoFarad (10−15 F) per day.
In addition to stringent performance requirements, customers are increasingly requiring features that allow differential capacitance manometer based systems to take advantage of advancements in other process equipment. For example, digital communications, embedded diagnostics and lower temperature sensitivity are now required by some of the latest process technologies. Legacy capacitance diaphragm gauges often cannot meet these requirements.


A method and apparatus for treating an exhaust or waste gas stream to remove pollutants from the gas stream using gas stabilization to allow the cleaned gas stream to be discharged directly to atmosphere. The apparatus includes at least three treatment stations for treating the gas stream in sequence, in which one of the treatment stations is a wet reactor containing a nucleating or precipitating liquids for removing the unwanted material as a solid and for oxygenating the gas stream to remove any residual unwanted material, and another of the treatment stations is a gas compressing stage for compressing the gas stream. The advantage of the method and apparatus is that the treated gas steam can be discharged directly to atmosphere with reduced amounts of pollutants.

Many people believe that the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere contributes to anthropogenic global warming. Scientific modelling of the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere tends to confirm the view that increased amounts of carbon dioxide are to be avoided if the earth is able to better manage climate change. Carbon dioxide gas is one component of exhaust gases, particularly exhaust gases from processes involving the combustion of fossil fuels which have a high carbon content that, when combined with oxygen during combustion processes, produce carbon dioxide together with other materials, which are then discharged directly to atmosphere. Thus, there is a need to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide discharged into the atmosphere through combustion of fossil fuels.
One of the leading causes of the increased amount of carbon dioxide is through the exhaust gases of motor vehicles being discharged to atmosphere without adequate treatment. Although there have been attempts to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being emitted by motor vehicles, not all attempts have been successful.
Additionally, many other polluting materials which are either noxious or toxic are emitted in the combustion process through the exhaust gases and discharged to the atmosphere. The other polluting materials include other oxides of carbon, oxides of nitrogen and sulphur, hydrocarbon materials, and very small sized particulate matter to name but some of the offending materials. The other polluting materials contribute to unacceptable climate change and may even hasten the rate of climate change. Thus, there is a need to remove carbon dioxide and other pollutants, such as toxic substances, from exhaust gas streams which are produced from motor vehicles and industrial processes and which are being discharged directly to atmosphere.
Furthermore, increasingly stringent legislation requires that reduced amount of carbon dioxide and other pollutants including nitrogen containing oxides, sulphur containing oxides, hydrocarbons, and particulate matter not be emitted with the exhaust gas for discharge directly to atmosphere. In an idealised situation, it is preferable that none of these pollutants be discharged directly to atmosphere.
Accordingly, it is an aim of the present invention to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide being emitted to atmosphere from combustion processes and apparatus.
Accordingly, it is an aim of the present invention to provide a process for treating exhaust gas emissions so as to reduce the polluting effect of the gas stream.
Accordingly, it is an aim of the present invention to provide an apparatus for treating exhaust gases to remove unwanted materials so that the treated exhaust gas is less polluting and more able to be directly discharged to the atmosphere.
Accordingly, it is an aim of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus for cleaning exhaust or waste gases by removing certain polluting materials from the gases being treated.


A diagnostic marker containing (a) a detection system such as an antibody and (b) a fluorescent functional group that is bound to the detection system and represented by the following formula: ##STR1## wherein R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 independently represent hydrogen atom, an alkyl group or the like; R.sup.3 represents an alkyl group, a sulfonic acid-alkyl group or the like; X.sup.- represents an anion species, if required; Y represents a C.sub.1 -C.sub.10 alkylene group or a C.sub.1 -C.sub.10 alkylene group containing one or more atoms selected from the group consisting of oxygen atom, nitrogen atom and sulfur atom. The diagnostic marker emits fluorescence having a wavelength of 780 nm or more when irradiated with near or far infrared rays, and thus useful for infrared endoscopic diagnosis or identification of a focus in surgical operation.

In recent years, endoscopic diagnosis has easily been conducted with the spread of electronic endoscopes, and it becomes possible to infallibly find stomach cancer or large bowel cancer as initial cancers. However, as far as the diagnosis of microcarcinoma is concerned, almost the same levels of diagnostic performance are achieved by an electronic endoscope and an ordinary endoscope. The fact means that new diagnostic methods that can efficiently function electronic endoscopes have not yet been established. If microlesions can be marked with a labeling antibody that is detectable under electronic endoscopy, it may be possible to easily detect microlesions, such as those not recognizable by an ordinary endoscope, with imaging through a computerized process. However, such method has not yet been practically used.
In order to establish a method utilizing an electronic endoscope such as described above, it is necessary to directly stain a living tissue by means of an immuno-histochemical staining method. Staining methods for fixed specimens are established techniques. However, a staining method for non-fixed specimens has not yet become a technique available to those skilled in the art. For example, although an immuno-staining method for non-fixed specimens was reported [Shikoku Acta Medica, Vol. 29, No. 2, pp. 180-188, 1973], no immuno-staining method for an excised fresh specimen or a living tissue, per se, that utilizes near infrared ray has been reported in this field of the art.
In addition, a diagnostic marker that is detectable under electronic endoscopy, e.g., a labeled antibody, is also required for the aforementioned diagnostic method. Diagnostic markers are known which characterized in that a labeling compound, that emits fluorescence as ultraviolet and visible light when excited with ultraviolet rays, is bound to an antibody, and they have been commonly used for the detection of cancer cells or cancer tissues that exist in tissues isolated from living bodies. However, methods utilizing fluorescent diagnostic markers that needs excitation with ultraviolet rays cannot be applied to living bodies, because ultraviolet rays may cause damages on living tissues and DNAs. No diagnostic marker that can be directly applied to a living body has been known so far.
It is known that indocyanine green (ICG) exhibits unique absorption properties and emits fluorescence under infrared ray endoscopy. Clinical cases were reported in which indocyanine green was applied when an infrared ray endoscope was used (Gastroenterological Endoscopy, 34, pp.2287-2296, 1992; and Gastrointestinal Endoscopy, 40, pp.621-2; 628, 1994). However, in these cases, ICG was intravascularly administered. Furthermore, fluorescent dyes, including indocyanine green as a typical example, have generally high hydrophobicity and are absorbed rapidly when they, per se, are administered into intestinal tract. For this reason, attempts have been made to increase their water-solubility by introducing hydrophilic groups, e.g., sulfonyl group, into ring structures or side chain moieties, and thereby improve measurement efficiency and eliminate the problem of toxicity after absorption. However, any water-soluble labeling compound has not yet been known that can emit fluorescence comparable to that of indocyanine green.
An object of the present invention is to provide a diagnostic marker useful for directly staining a living tissue by an immuno-histochemical staining method. Another object of the present invention is to provide a diagnostic marker which emits fluorescence when irradiated with near infrared rays or far infrared rays that rarely cause histological disorders, and can be directly applied to a living body. In other word, the object of the present invention is to provide a diagnostic marker which is free from problems of damages on living tissues and DNAs due to ultraviolet excitation, and can be applied to living bodies. It is also an object of the present invention to provide a diagnostic marker which has excellent water solubility as well as the features as mentioned above.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a diagnostic marker applicable to living bodies which is useful for a quasi-internal early diagnosis of malignant neoplasms in epithelial tissues, e.g., esophagus cancer, stomach cancer, or large bowel cancer, or infectious diseases by means of an infrared endoscope or other, or useful for the identification or diagnosis of a focus in a surgical operation. A still further object of the present invention is to provide a method for directly staining a living tissue by an immuno-histochemical method using a diagnostic marker as mentioned above.


A method and system for operating an ultrasound system is provided. The method comprising estimating a relative motion between a transducer and an imaging subject and controlling an adaptive beamformer system in response to to an estimation of the relative motion.

The invention relates generally to ultrasound systems and more specifically to a system and method to control an adaptive beamformer system used in the ultrasound system.
Ultrasound systems comprise an array of transducer elements used for transmitting ultrasound energy into an imaging subject. The transducer array transmits ultrasound energy and receives backscattered ultrasound signals from the imaging subject to create and display an image. The backscattered signals are processed to create and display an image.
Typically, an ultrasound system comprises a transmit beamformer to transmit a beam of ultrasound energy. The ultrasound system further comprises a control processor that sends command data to beamformer system to create a beam of a desired shape. Similarly, a receive beamformer system performs time delaying and focusing operations according to the instructions from the control processor to create received beam signals. The received beam signals are then processed to generate the ultrasound image.
The ultrasonic imaging system described above assumes that there is a known, constant speed of sound in the medium through which the ultrasonic pulses are conveyed. If the sound speed is not constant, sound pulses transmitted from certain elements in the array can arrive earlier or later than expected at the desired focal point and will not properly combine with the other pulses. As a result, the net transmitted wave will not be optimally focused. Similarly, on reception, the signals on each element in the array will not be delayed optimally before summing so that the receive focusing will be degraded. If the deviations from the assumed propagation times could be measured or estimated, the ultrasound image could be improved by correcting the applied time delays for the deviations. Such an imaging system is said to contain an "adaptive" beamformer system to distinguish it from a beamformer system in which the time delays are fixed and predetermined.
One way to correct the erroneous received beam signals is by measuring the arrival time errors measured for an acoustic line in one frame and applying the measured error on the same acoustic line in the next frame. Such a method may not be entirely accurate when the transducer is moving rapidly, since in general the arrival time errors will vary with the position of the transducer with respect to the imaging subject. In addition, any adaptive beamformer system may produce image artifacts or degrade the image in other ways in some circumstances.
It is therefore desirable to design an adaptive beamformer system for use in an ultrasound system where the adaptive beamformer system may be disabled or enabled accordingly. It is further desirable to indicate to a user using the ultrasound system the state of the beamformer system and also to allow the operator to reset the beamformer system to default time delays when desirable


An airbag module with a gas generator, a blow diffuser, and a gas bag has at least one blow diffuser extending into a fold of the folded gas bag. The blow diffuser extends as far as the region of the gas bag cover and the folded gas bag is fitted essentially beside the blow diffuser and is arranged around it. With this airbag module, the gas bag is drawn from the housing and not pushed in the usual manner.

The invention relates to an airbag module and more specifically to an airbag module which controls the rate and direction of expansion of an associated gas bag.
Passenger airbag modules are disposed in the dashboard in front of the passenger seat and have a housing in which a tubular generator is disposed. Above this tubular generator a gas bag extends in the direction of the passenger over the entire length of the tubular generator, as is known, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 4,191,392 and from European Patent No. A-0 602 785. In a housing cover located between the tubular generator and the gas bag, openings are located on either side of the tubular generator over its entire length, through which openings the gases escaping from the generator enter the gas bag through its inflation port upon firing of the generator in the event of a crash. In a self-contained airbag arrangement, wherein the tubular generator is disposed inside the airbag with a supporting housing and is enclosed by it, the openings are on the sides of the tubular generator and extend over its entire length. As a result of the side position of the openings, the gas bag is thus inflated over its entire length first on its sides before it opens completely.
This prior art arrangement of the passenger airbag module has the disadvantage that the side sections of the gas bag, where it is attached, are particularly heavily stressed upon inflation. These stresses may result in the tearing off of the gas bag from its anchoring. Consequently, in prior art passenger airbag modules, the edge of the inflation opening is reinforced and stitched several times, resulting in additional production time and costs.
The danger also exists that the split cover which covers the gas bag relative to the passenger compartment does not tear, as desired, in the center, but on the side instead.
The aforementioned disadvantages also exist, although to a lesser extent, in a driver airbag module in which a prior art gas generator which has the shape of a shallow can is used.
It is further known from European Patent No. A-0 620 140 to place a diffuser between the gas generator and the gas bag. The diffuser has, on the entire length of the gas generator, numerous openings through which the gas may flow into the gas bag in the event of a crash. Further known, from EP 0 607 671, is a hybrid gas generator which has a centrally disposed diffuser with side flow openings.
Even these arrangements of the diffuser have the aforementioned disadvantages since the gas bag is bombarded with gas in all cases upon deployment virtually simultaneously over its entire surface above the diffuser and is explosively pushed out of the housing. Thus, the gas bag pack as a whole is greatly accelerated and pushed out of the module housing, whereby the surface stressing of the module cover is great and high bursting forces thus occur.
From U. S. Pat. No. 4,332,398, an inflatable restraint system is known which has a tubular gas generator, a cylindrical diffuser, and a flow control arrangement connected to these. This arrangement terminates in a nozzle which extends, in the inactivated state of the restraint system, into the partially deployed gas bag, whereby most of the gas bag is folded next to the gas generator. The cylindrical diffuser is positioned at the rear of the nozzle and has openings for the discharge of the gas. In additional to the control arrangement with the nozzle, retarders are present which press the gas bag against the walls of the control arrangement. These additional structural elements are claimed to prevent the conventional explosive inflation of the gas bag. As a result of the friction between the gas bag on the one hand and the control arrangement and the retarders on the other, the inflation is decelerated, particularly at the beginning of the inflation process.
This restraint system has the disadvantage that additional components are necessary to achieve a delayed opening of the gas bag.


A pushrod-type tent frame includes a base, a frame linkage and a controlling mechanism. The frame linkage has two support sets arranged in parallel, each having a supporting pole, an upper supporting pole and a lower supporting pole pivotally connected in sequence. The supporting pole has an outer end pivotally connected to a front edge of the base, and the lower supporting pole has an outer end pivotally connected to a rear edge of the base. The controlling mechanism has two rod-pushing mechanisms pivotally connected to the two support sets, respectively. Each of the rod-pushing mechanisms has a driving device for driving a telescopic rod assembly to change its reach and thereby prop up or release the frame linkage, so as to expand the tent frame or allow the tent frame to be retracted.

1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to tents, and more particularly to a pushrod-type tent frame.
2. Description of Related Art
The increasing popularization of private cars has made self-drive tours an emerging type of tourism. Given this trend, the relevant manufacturers are increasingly competing to develop vehicle accessories for accommodating people who love self-drive tours. In this context, various rooftop tents have been developed among others.
A rooftop tent refers to a tent designed to be put up on a car roof and is considered more comfortable than traditional tents that are built directly on the ground and tend to be invaded by the cold, damp air from the ground. The conventional rooftop tents typically have a tent frame composed of multiple interconnected poles that are pivotally connected to each other via joints. To hold the tent at its expanded position, fixing members are deployed around the joints. Thus, when putting up and taking down the conventional rooftop tents, people have to perform operation at each of the joints and fixing members, making the process quite inconvenient and time-consuming.
For improving the conventional rooftop tents, semi-automatic and fully-automatic rooftop tents have been introduced, such as the automatic tent frame of China Patent No. 201120240226.0 invented by the same inventor as the present invention. Referring to FIG. 1, the very prior-art tent frame has an intermediate supporting pole 23′ that is controllable to slide along its base, and implements a traction rope 31′ with a free end thereof connected to the lower end of the intermediate supporting pole 23′, so that when a driving device drives a rope windlass 32′ to release or roll up the traction rope 31′, the tent frame can be expanded or retracted. However, in this known tent frame, the traction rope 31′ has a relatively long path, leaving the exposed traction rope 31′ highly risky to malfunction. Thus, the existing automatic tent frame still needs to be improved.


139 sync blocks, each having 111 bytes, are disposed on each track of a magnetic tape. Among the 139 sync blocks, 121 sync blocks each consist of a two-byte detection pattern for detecting the sync block, three-byte identification information for identifying the sync block, 96-byte main data, and 10-byte inner error correcting code added to the identification information and the main data. In the remaining 18 sync blocks, instead of the main data, 96-byte outer error correcting code is included. The outer error correcting code is provided for each group of the 139 sync blocks. Such a group of 139 sync blocks is obtained by dividing 2224 sync blocks contained in sixteen tracks by sixteen planes, 1668 sync blocks contained in twelve tracks by twelve planes, or 1112 sync blocks contained in eight tracks by eight planes. The sync blocks are arranged on the magnetic tape so that the distance between the sync blocks belonging to the identical plane is constant among the planes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to magnetic tape recording apparatuses and methods and magnetic tape formats, and to recording media therefor. More specifically, the invention relates to a magnetic tape recording apparatus and method for recording or reading high-quality video data on or from magnetic tape. The invention also relates to a magnetic tape format for use in the above-described magnetic tape recording apparatus and method and to a recording medium for storing a program implementing the above-described method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Along with advanced compression techniques, video data can be compressed and recorded on magnetic tape according to the digital video (DV) system. The format for use in the DV system is defined as a DV format of consumer digital video cassette recorders.
FIG. 1 illustrates the configuration of one track of a related DV format. In the DV format, video data is recorded after being subjected to 24-25 conversion. The numbers of bits shown in FIG. 1 represent numbers after 24-25 conversion has been performed on the video data.
The length of one track is substantially equal to a portion of magnetic tape up to a winding angle of 174 degrees. Outside the one-track portion, a 1250-bit overwrite margin is formed for preventing data from remaining recorded.
The length of one track is 134975 bits when a rotary head is rotated in synchronization with a frequency of 60×1000/1001 Hz, and is 134850 bits when the rotary head is rotated in synchronization with a frequency of 60 Hz.
In the one-track portion, an insert and track information (ITI) sector, an audio sector, a video sector, and a subcode sector are sequentially disposed in the tracing direction of the rotary head (from the left to right in FIG. 1). A gap G1 is formed between the ITI sector and the audio sector, a gap G2 is formed between the audio sector and the video sector, and a gap G3 is formed between the video sector and the subcode sector.
The length of the ITI sector is 3600 bits. In the ITI sector, a 1400-bit preamble for generating a clock, a start sync area (SSA), and a track information area (TIA) (1920 bits in total are assigned to the SSA and the TIA) are sequentially disposed. In the SSA, the bit string (sync number) required for detecting the position of the TIA is indicated. In the TIA, information indicating whether the format is a consumer DV format and whether the format is an SP mode or an LP mode, and information concerning the pattern of a one-frame pilot signal is recorded. After the TIA, a 280-bit postamble is disposed. The length of the gap G1 is 625 bits.
The length of the audio sector is 11550 bits. The first 400 bits and the last 500 bits serve as a preamble and a postamble, respectively, and the remaining 10650 bits between the preamble and the postamble is used as audio data. The length of the gap G2 is 700 bits.
The length of the video sector is 113225 bits. The first 400 bits and the last 925 bits serve as a preamble and a postamble, respectively, and the remaining 111900 bits between the preamble and the postamble are used as video data. The length of the gap G3 is 1550 bits.
The length of the subcode sector is 3725 bits when the rotary head is rotated at a frequency of 60×1000/1001 Hz, and is 3600 bits when the rotary head is rotated at a frequency of 60 Hz. The first 1200 bits and the last 1325 bits or 1200 bits (depending on the frequency of the rotary head as discussed above) serve as a preamble and a postamble, respectively, and the remaining 1200 bits between the preamble and the postamble are used as subcode data.
FIG. 2 illustrates the configuration of the video sector shown in FIG. 1. The video sector is formed of 149 90-byte sync blocks, as shown in FIG. 2. Among the 149 sync blocks, 138 sync blocks are formed of a two-byte sync, a three-byte ID, 77-byte video data, and parity C1 (inner error correcting code). In the remaining 11 sync blocks, 77-byte parity C2 (outer error correcting code) is substituted for the video data.
In the DV format, not only the provision of the gaps G1, G2, and G3, but also a preamble and a postamble are formed for each sector. That is, the so-called "overhead" is large, and a sufficient recording rate cannot be obtained for the real data.
About 25 Mbps are required for recording high-quality video data (hereinafter referred to as "high definition (HD) video data"). In the above-described recording format, however, only 24 Mbps are ensured for the data compressed by the main profile/high level (MP@HL) method in the MPEG system, except for search image data. As a result, although standard-quality video data (hereinafter referred to as the "standard definition (SD) video data") can be recorded, HD video data cannot be recorded after being compressed with the MP@HL or MP@H-14 method.
Additionally, the MPEG method is becoming mainstream for compressing video data. The unit of transport stream (TS) packets of the MPEG-compressed video data is 188 bytes. To dispose such a transport packet in the synch blocks of the video sector shown in FIG. 2, three sync blocks are required, since each sync block is 77 bytes, (231 bytes (=77 bytes×three sync blocks)), thereby causing a redundancy of 43 bytes. Thus, each sync block has about 14 redundancy bytes.
In this manner, according to the DV format, transport packets cannot be efficiently recorded.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Magnetic tape recording apparatus and method, magnetic tape format, and recording medium therefor


This invention relates to making nonwoven fabrics which are durable for machine washing and durable for other wet and hard use or abusive applications. The inventive fabrics comprise two layers of fabric sheet bonded together at closely spaced locations where the bonding includes fibers from both fabrics thoroughly involved with the binder. The inventive fabrics retain the qualities of a spunlaced nonwoven fabric which include low cost, comfort, drapability, softness, absorbency, breathability and others while having the durability comparable to traditional knitted or woven fabrics.

E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company (DuPont) has been making and selling Sontara.RTM. spunlaced fabrics for a number of years. Such spunlaced fabrics have a multitude of uses such as medical gowns and drapes, absorbent wipers and durables such as window shades and interlinings for apparel. Sontara.RTM. spunlaced fabrics are successfully marketed because of their low cost in use and valuable attributes such as texture, softness, comfort, drapability and absorbency.
Spunlaced fabrics are made by hydroentangling webs of fibers with high energy water jets as basically described in Evans et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,485,706. The webs may be made of a variety of fibers such as polyester, rayon, cellulose (cotton and wood pulp), acrylic, and other fibers as well as some blends of fibers. The fabrics may be further modified to include antistatic and antimicrobial properties, etc. by incorporation of appropriate additive materials into the fiber or fiber webs. However, one limitation of spunlaced fabrics and nonwovens in general is durability through multiple launderings. Thus, spunlaced fabrics have not been acceptable for most uses in apparel and garments except for single use garments such as medical gowns and limited use protective apparel.
Hydroentangling creates an impressively strong fabric at much lower cost than weaving and knitting. Unfortunately, the cyclic working in a typical washer ravages the entangled fibers and effectively destroys the fabric for its intended purpose as fibers are disentangled. After a single laundering, the fabric may tend to have a noticeably poorer appearance such as a pilling or "worn" look or possibly may be destroyed. Within a few launderings, ordinary spunlaced fabrics are almost always useless for their intended purpose. The fabric has the appearance that it has been shredded.
In one approach to create durability in spunlaced fabrics, DuPont has addressed this problem by a stitch pattern introducing thread into the fabric forming a stitchbond structure. The filament or staple yarns are "knit" in a dense pattern into the fabrics and are quite resistant to the cyclic tensioning or working of the fabric. Thus, the laundered stitchbond fabric does not suffer as much of the damages seen with the ordinary un-reinforced spunlaced fabrics. The stitched structure has proven to be reasonably satisfactory in performance for durable and reusable mattress covers and withstands many hundreds of launderings. However, there are aesthetic and cost considerations of the stitched appearance that could make such a solution unattractive.
Others have attempted to create a durable nonwoven by adding bonding agents to the fabrics. The bonding agents tend to make the resulting fabrics quite stiff. Actually, it seems to take more bonding agent to make the fabrics durable than it does to make them stiff. Clearly, stiffness is not a desirable quality for a number of uses such as for apparel and home furnishings. A second problem with binders is that they often extend to the surface which creates a couple of undesirable consequences. The binders tend to be very hard after they are cured and any place that it extends through to the surface will be noticeable to the touch. It will feel like a pebble or similar structure which would be quite irritating. The second problem is that the binders often do not respond to dyes and printing like the fibers in the fabric. As such, the binder becomes noticeable and unsightly.
Clearly, it would be very desirable to be able to make and use nonwoven fabrics that are durable to withstand numerous launderings or similar abuse while having the qualities available from spunlaced fabrics.


A coil component includes: an insulating resin layer provided between a first planar spiral conductor formed on a back surface of a first substrate and a second planer spiral conductor formed on a back surface of a second substrate; an upper core covering a third second planer spiral conductor formed on a front surface of the first substrate on which the insulating resin layer is formed; and a lower core covering a fourth planer spiral conductor formed on a front surface of the second substrate on which the insulating resin layer is formed. One of the upper and lower cores is formed of a metal-magnetic-powder-containing resin. The coil component includes connecting portions disposed respectively at center and outside portions of each of the first and second substrates so as to physically connect the upper and lower cores.

A surface-mounting type coil component is now widely used in consumer or industrial electronic equipment. Particularly, in small mobile equipment, there has occurred, along with its enhancement of functionality, a need to obtain a plurality of voltages from a single power supply in order to drive various devices provided therein. Such a coil component for power supply use is demanded to be small/thin, excellent in insulating performance and electrical reliability, and to be manufactured at low cost.
As a structure of a coil component that meets the above requirement, a planar coil structure based on a printed circuit board technology is known. The coil component of such a type has a structure in which planar coil patterns are formed respectively on both top and back surfaces of a printed circuit board and the printed circuit board is sandwiched between, e.g., EE type or EI type of sintered ferrite cores. With this configuration, a closed magnetic path is formed around the planar coil patterns.
The coil component for power supply use is required not to exhibit a decrease in inductance thereof due to magnetic saturation even when a certain high direct bias current is applied thereto. To meet the above requirement, a coil component described in Patent Document 1 has first and second magnetic layers covering upper and lower surfaces of an insulating substrate on each of which a planar spiral conductor is formed, and these two magnetic layers each have a gap in a thickness direction at an outer edge area of the coil pattern. This can suppress magnetic saturation in a magnetic circuit to increase an inductance of the magnetic circuit.
Patent Document 2 discloses a coil component having a structure in which an air-core coil is embedded in a packaging resin to be integrated therewith. This coil component includes a resin containing metal magnetic powder. In particular, by using a compound material in which two or more types of amorphous metal magnetic powder having different average particle diameters and an insulating binder are mixed with each other, it is possible to obtain high density, high magnetic permeability, and low core loss even under low pressure molding conditions.
In a field of commercial or industrial electronic equipment, the surface-mounting type coil component has come to be used frequently as a power supply inductor. This is because the surface-mounting type coil component is small/thin, excellent in insulating performance, and capable of being manufactured at low cost.
A planar coil structure using a printed circuit board technology is known as one of a specific structure of the surface-mounting type coil component. The following briefly describes the planar coil structure in terms of a manufacturing process thereof. First, a seed layer (base film) having a planar spiral conductor shape is formed on a printed circuit board. Then, the resultant circuit board is immersed in plating solution, and DC current (hereinafter, referred to as "plating current") is applied to the seed layer to cause metal ions in the plating solution to be electrodeposited onto the seed layer. As a result, a planar spiral conductor is formed and, thereafter, an insulating resin layer covering the formed planar spiral conductor and a metal-magnetic-powder-containing resin layer serving as both of a protective layer and a magnetic path are sequentially formed, whereby manufacturing of the coil component is completed. This structure allows high dimensional and positional accuracy to be maintained, as well as, a reduction in size and thickness. Patent Document 1 discloses a planar coil element having such a planar coil structure.

Coil component and method for producing same


Process for preparing a powder comprising the steps of providing at least one first component in liquid form at ambient temperature, providing at least one second component having a melting point or melting range in the range from above ambient temperature to below the degradation temperature of said first component, forming a homogenous liquid mixture comprising the at least one first component and the at least one second component by stirring and heating the mixture to or keeping the mixture at a temperature in the range from above the melting point or melting range of the second component and below the degradation temperature of the first component, transferring the liquid mixture to at least one spray congealing unit, spray congealing the mixture, and isolating the powder obtained upon spray congealing.

Usually, with solid oral dosage forms all excipients have to be homogenously distributed therein. Whereas typically solid excipients, irrespective of their relative amounts, can be homogenously mixed without facing any significant problems, it is rather critical to homogenously distribute liquids, more in particular relatively small amounts of an oil, in a solid mixture. For some solid formulations it might even be desirable to homogenously incorporate therein less than 1%, even less than 0.5 wt-% of an oil, e.g. vitamin E. However, it is not always feasible to melt the entire formulation in order to achieve homogenous mixing.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 4,603,143 a free-flowing vitamin E or vitamin E acetate containing powder is obtained by adding a liquid form of a vitamin E or vitamin E acetate in an amount sufficient to yield a content of about 40 to about 60 wt-% to a silicon-containing adsorbent in the form of substantially discrete non-amorphous agglomerates. At least 50% of said agglomerates have to have a minimum length, width, or both of 300 microns. This process does not require any spray-drying technique. It has been observed that the mixing process as such generates some heat while the liquid vitamin is adsorbed on the surface of the adsorbent powder thereby improving the absorption process.
In GB 1,147,210 problems associated with spray-drying processes in the preparation of dry, finely divided, solid, fat-soluble, vitamin-active products shall be overcome by first preparing a colloidal solution from cold water dispersible, non-gelling colloidal material and water, dispersing therein a water-insoluble, fat-soluble, vitamin-active composition to form a first dispersion, then dispersing said first dispersion in a water immiscible dispersing medium whereby a second dispersion is formed. In the following water is extracted at a temperature in the range from −10 to 0° C. by use of a water extracting agent until said colloidal material solidifies, whereby finely divided, solid particles, containing said water-insoluble, fat-soluble vitamin-active composition dispersed therein is formed. Then, at a temperature in the range from −10 to 0° C. solid particles are separated from said dispersing medium. Finally, substantially all residual moisture is removed from said solid particles. According to GB 1,147,210 with vitamin E as the fat-soluble vitamin-active component a finely divided product is obtained having a particle size distribution such that 91.5 wt-% of a product is in the range from −30 mesh to +120 mesh (US screen sizes).
In EP 229 652 B1 it is disclosed that dry potency stabilized, particulate, free-flowing tocopherol compositions which contain 20 to 60 wt-% of tocopherol in its free tocopherol form and 40 to 80 wt-% of a carrier, based on the total weight of carrier and tocopherol, can be obtained by forming an emulsion or slurry therefrom which in addition has to contain a potency stabilizer in an amount from 2 to 50 wt-% based on the total weight of stabilizer and tocopherol. This emulsion or slurry is subjected to spray-drying. Suitable potency stabilizers are reported to be ascorbic acid, a mixture of ascorbic acid and cysteine and a mixture of citric acid and cysteine. The preferred particle size of the spray-dried product lies in the range from 200 to 500 μm.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 4,892,889 a spray-dried vitamin powder suitable for the preparation of direct-compression vitamin tablets is obtained by spray-drying in a conventional spray-dryer a mixture comprising a fat-soluble vitamin, gelatin having a bloom number between 30 and 300, a water-soluble carbohydrate, and an effective amount of water to permit spray-drying. The final powder shall contain from 20 to 60 wt-% of the fat-soluble vitamin, from 6 to 46 wt-% of the gelatin, and an effective amount of said carbohydrate to prevent extrusion.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,017 a process for the preparation of a vitamin E dry powder having a high content of vitamin E is disclosed which requires dissolving sodium or potassium caseinate in a very specific residual liquor from the production of lactose. The obtained solution has to be mixed with oily vitamin E acetate in a pressure homogenizer to form a dispersion which is subjected to spray-drying to form a powder containing lactose, sodium or potassium caseinate and vitamin E acetate. The final powder product has to contain from 10 to 60 wt-% of vitamin E acetate.
In WO 96/03979 A1 solid dosage forms exhibiting controlled release of an active ingredient can be obtained by spray drying or spray congealing if an atomizing device is employed which uses mechanical vibrations of resonant metal elements or nozzles. According to a preferred embodiment, the resonant metal element comprises an appropriately shaped sonotrode. With the method according to WO 96/03979 A1 the overall dimension of the equipment necessary to obtain solid dosage forms with controlled release can be minimized.
Document WO 98/35655 A2 discloses a process for incorporating at least two incompatible active ingredients into a solid dosage form in such a manner that these ingredients are not in contact with each other. This is accomplished by first distributing the first active ingredient into a lipid or lipoid component having a higher melting point and subsequently mixing the second active ingredient with said granulated higher melting lipid which contains the first active ingredient and with another lipid or lipoid component having a lower melting point. The weight ratio of the higher melting lipid and the lower melting lipid has to be in the range from 1:5 to 5:1. It is described that the first active ingredient can be incorporated into the higher melting lipid or lipoid component by way of spray congealing.
According to WO 99/12864 A2 stearic acid wax, glyceryl fatty acid esters, glyceryl monostearate and lauric acid wax after having been mixed with an active pharmaceutical agent can be subjected to spray congealing. Similarly, in WO 95/17174 A1 it is disclosed to spray congeal a mixture comprising a material selected from the group consisting of C14-18 fats, C16-20 fatty acids, and C14-18 waxes, and dioctylsulfosuccinate.
With the aforementioned established procedures generally only large amounts of vitamin E or derivatives thereof can be employed. It, thus, would have been desirable to be also in the position to homogenously incorporate oily compounds such as vitamin E in rather small amounts into solid excipients used for the manufacture of tablets.
Therefore, it has been an object of the present invention to provide a process for homogenously incorporating a component being in liquid form at ambient temperature or having a waxy consistency, in particular small amounts of such a component, such as for example a waxy or, in particular, oily substance, into a solid component, in particular relatively large amounts of a solid component. The process for homogenously incorporating a liquid into a solid component is preferably also a continuous process enabling the processing of larger amount on an industrial scale. The thus obtained powder with a good, an acceptable blend uniformity (uniform distribution, preferably a relative standard deviation up to 6% (see below in example 5), of the component being in liquid form at ambient temperature or having a waxy consistency in the obtained powder) can then be used for the manufacture of a solid dosage form, in particular a solid dosage form for pharmaceutical use, such as a tablet, capsule, bead, pellet. Further, it has been an object of the present invention to provide a method for manufacturing a solid dosage form, such as for example a tablet, which comprises a component being in liquid form at ambient temperature or having a waxy consistency, in particular relatively small amounts of such a component, e.g. an oily substance, being homogeneously distributed within said solid dosage form. The thus obtained solid dosage form, in particular the tablet, has a good, an acceptable content uniformity for the said component. It has been another object of the present invention to provide a versatile basis for the production of a solid dosage form while keeping various pathways open to arrive at a final solid dosage form thereby furnishing a greater flexibility.

Process for the preparation of a solid dosage form, in particular a tablet, for pharmaceutical use and process for the preparation of a precursor for a solid dosage form, in particular a tablet


A feedback element for a two beam smart pixel receiver having at least one pair of electron devices of opposite electrical conductivity type, such as an NFET and a PFET, with input electrodes electrically connected and output electrodes electrically connected. The devices of a pair have opposing differential resistance characteristics in response to the same input signal so that the resistances of the devices of the pair add to become more linear.

"Smart Pixel" is a term applied to a device that includes one or more input optical receivers, one or more output optical modulators (or lasers), and electronic logic circuitry. Smart pixels are used in the field of optical interconnection within and between digital computing systems, such as switching systems and parallel processors. In one implementation of this concept, large numbers of optical receivers and transmitters are directly integrated with semiconductor electronic processing elements directly on the semiconductor chips that form the transmitter and/or receiver circuits. This has a number of potential advantages for switching and computing systems as detailed in the literature. See J. W. Goodman, F. I. Leonberger, Sun-Yuan Athale, R. A. Kung, Proceedings of the IEEE, 72,850 (Jul. 1984), and F. B. McCormick, et al, Applied Optics, 33, pp. 1601-1618, 1994.
The local nature of a smart pixel system may permit it to employ a receiver that operates more than one beam. A two-beam receiver provides advantages, such as increased noise immunity, because of the use of relative referencing, that is, using a signal corresponding to the difference between the signals from the two beams as the one to be processed. Optical receivers designed to operate with more than one optical beam are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,389,776 to Woodward, granted Feb. 14, 1995 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,077 to Chirovsky, Novotny and Woodward, granted Dec. 3, 1996, both of which are assigned to the assignee of this application.
A common optical receiver design uses a trans-impedance amplifier. The feedback element of the trans-impedance amplifier stage is critical to the operation of the receiver. Use of a micro-FET (field effect transistor device) has been proposed as a feedback element in a trans-impedance amplifier, for example, as described in Gareth F. Williams, "Lightwave Receivers", in Topics in Lightwave Systems, ed. Tingye Li. (Academic Press, 1991), pp. 79-149. ISBN 0-12-447302-4. The micro-FET has the advantage of permitting a high-value resistance to be obtained without the penalty of high parasitic capacitance, as would occur with a conventional resistor. A trans-impedance amplifier using a single PFET device, or a PFET in combination with a diode-connected NFET, also has been used as a feedback element as described in Woodward, et al., IEEE Photo. Tec. Lett., Vol. 8, pp. 422-424, Mar. 1996.
A difficulty arises, however, when using a single FET as the resistance feedback element in an amplifier stage of a two-beam optical receiver. With an amplifier that has a quiescent output voltage state Ve in a two-beam receiver, the amplifier output signal swings both positively and negatively with respect to Ve. This is in contrast to a single beam receiver in which the output swings in only one polarity with respect to Ve. Since the resistance of a single FET used as the feedback element is not symmetric with respect to positive and negative signal swings, the amplifier will experience different closed loop gain for positive and negative excursions of the output signal about Ve, depending on whether the feedback element is an N or P type FET. It will be appreciated that such an asymmetric response is undesirable in a two-beam receiver configuration.
The asymmetric response is shown referring to FIG. 1 and FIGS. 2A and 2B. FIG. 1 shows a basic representation of a FET device with typical operating voltages Vg (gate), Vd (drain), Vs (source) and Vb (body terminal). FIG. 1 illustratively represents either an N conductivity type FET (NFET) or a P conductivity type FET (PFET). FIGS. 2A and 2B illustratively shows NFET and PFET current-voltage (I-V) characteristics and differential resistance for the case where there is a fixed gate bias Vg and a fixed body terminal bias Vb.
Since an amplifier of a typical optical receiver may have an output voltage that varies either above or below a quiescent bias point (Ve), and a feedback element is connected between the amplifier output and input, of interest is the current voltage (I-V) behavior of an FET in which one of the source and drain is held at a relatively fixed voltage while the other terminal is varied through the power supply range. The gate voltage is also held fixed typically at either the corresponding positive or negative supply voltage, although dedicated bias levels are also possible.
Referring to FIG. 2A, for an NFET device of FIG. 1, consider that Vg=5.2V, Vb=0V and source voltage Vs is held fixed at 2.2V. The drain terminal voltage Vd is varied from 0 to 5V. As seen in FIG. 2A, in one bias direction of Vd at about 3V, the NFET device enters saturation, that is, the 3V curve (solid line) flattens out, while in the other bias direction it does not. Thus, the differential resistance curve is not uniform, as shown by the dotted line, for values positive and negative from Vd=2.5V over the range 0 to 5 volts.
In FIG. 2B, for a PFET device, consider that Vg=0.2V and Vb=5V. As seen, the I-V curve flattens at a Vd of below about 2V and the differential resistance is not equal above and below Vd=2.5 as shown by the dotted line. The curves of FIGS. 2A and 2B are for FETs having a gate length of 0.8 .mu.m and a gate width of 1 .mu.m, but the basic device behavior is independent of these choices.
Since the resistance of the amplifier feedback element affects the smart pixel receiver overall operation, and the resistance of a single FET used as a feedback element is not symmetrical, for operation of a two beam optical receiver it is advantageous to provide a feedback element that has a more linear and symmetrical differential resistance characteristic.

Linearized feedback element for two-beam smart pixel receivers


Therapeutic and diagnostic applications by the manipulation of a unique protein produced by trophoblasts and defined by the monoclonal antibody FDC-6 are provided by this invention.

In the field of mammalian reproduction, many diagnostic procedures exist to aid the reproduction practitioner in making a diagnosis and choosing an appropriate course of action.
Currently, infertility in humans is defined as one year of unprotected coitus without conception. Approximately 10-15% of couples are affected by infertility. The risk of infertility is doubled for women between the ages of 35 to 44 as compared to women between the ages of 30 and 34. Approximately 600,000 couples sought professional help during the year 1968. However, in the early 1980's this number increased to over 2 million visits per year for infertility. Changes in fertility patterns will have a significant impact on the make-up of populations. It has been calculated that by the middle of the next century, the population in the United States will decline without immigration. Furthermore, the percent of people over the age of 65 will increase to over 23% in the next 100 years, resulting in an older and smaller work force.
In the United States, the majority of infertility can be accounted for by problems in the female. Evaluating a female for infertility can be complex. Examination of the fallopian tubes is an important early step in mammalian fertility evaluation due to the increased evidence of pelvic inflammatory disease. Currently, a hysterosalpingogram (HSG) is the procedure of choice to examine the patency of the fallopian tubes. In addition to HSG, hysteroscopy which is the direct examination of the uterus by a fiber optic device, is important to determine the presence of endometrial polyps, submucous leiomyomas, and other abnormalities within the uterus itself.
Another category of diagnostic procedures includes examination of ovarian function including ovulation and the secretion of progesterone during the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. Ovarian function can be crudely assessed by measuring basal body temperatures during the menstrual cycle and cervical mucous testing around the time of ovulation. More accurate testing can be performed by measuring luteinizing hormone, a pituitary hormone which induces ovulation after a mid-cycle surge. Finally, serum progesterone levels can be measured to assess for normal luteal phase of the menstrual cycle.
The endometrium itself can be directly assessed by performing an endometrial biopsy three days before the suspected onset of menses. In assessing a mammalian endometrium, current gynecology and infertility physicians depend on pathologists to examine endometrial biopsies by hematoxylin and eosin staining of paraffin embedded specimens. For infertility patients, the reading of these biopsies provides information about the day of the cycle following ovulation, the adequacy of the luteal phase, and other potential data, such as infection, inflammation, or neoplasia of the endometrium. However, in most cases there is no evaluation of the functional and biochemical quality of the endometrium, and often no histologic reading to explain a patient's infertility problem.
Finally, the infertility patient could undergo endoscopic examination through an incision in the abdomen to directly visualize the external surfaces of the ovary, fallopian tubes and uterus to visualize any gross pathology which was not detected by previous examinations.
A high percentage of women who are unable to carry a pregnancy to full term undergo spontaneous abortion generally within the first six weeks. Pregnancy loss during the first six weeks has been shown to be as high as between 15 and 20%. Furthermore, the chance of a successful live birth after consecutive abortions without a live birth is only 40-50%.
Localization of trophoblast tissue, e.g., ectopic pregnancies and metastatic gestational trophoblastic disease are particularly challenging. The manifestations of tubal pregnancy are multiple. Amenorrhea, vaginal spotting or bleeding, abdominal or pelvic pain, presence of a pelvic mass and an increased body temperature may be present in a variety of combinations in the presence of ectopic pregnancy. Laboratory testing for suspected ectopic pregnancy includes hemoglobin and hematocrit, white blood cell count, urine and serum .beta.-HCG pregnancy test, ultrasound including vaginal probe ultrasound, culdocentesis (a diagnostic procedure to detect blood in the peritoneum), curettage of the endometrium to rule out the presence of products of conception within the uterus, laparoscopy and finally in emergency cases, laparotomy. Given the wide variability of patient presentation and the course of ectopic pregnancy, the accurate diagnosis of this disorder is the most difficult one to make in obstetrics and gynecology. In one study of three hundred women, approximately a third were seen more than once, and 11% were seen more than twice before the correct diagnosis was made. In addition, in a recent study of deaths from ectopic pregnancy, more than half of the cases were misdiagnosed leading to fatal maternal outcome. Clearly, accurate and rapid diagnosis and treatment of an ectopic pregnancy would be an important advance for the field of obstetrics and gynecology.
The current modalities for detecting metastatic gestational trophoblastic disease include serum hCG level determination, chest x-ray, pelvic ultrasound, CT scan of the abdomen pelvis and head. Like in other solid tumors, small metastases can be missed by these procedures. The knowledge of the presence of metastases is critical for the successful treatment of this and other tumors. Therefore, a method which can localize and detect small quantities of trophoblast would be very helpful for the treatment of this disease.
A teratogen is any agent which induces alteration in form or function of a fetus when administered during pregnancy. In considering the effects of drugs during pregnancy, gestation is generally divided into three periods: (1) the ovum and fertilization to implantation; (2) the embryonic period from the second to the eighth week; and (3) the fetal period, from after eight completed weeks until term.
Given the wide variety of drugs available as well as many complex factors during gestation, it has been concluded by many people in the field of mammalian reproduction that there is a severe lack of information regarding the majority of drugs, and the potential detrimental effects of these drugs during pregnancy. The Food and Drug Administration in 1979 established five categories for medications with regard to possible adverse fetal effects. Category A includes drugs which in controlled studies in humans have demonstrated no fetal risk. There are very few drugs in this category and they include multi-vitamins and pre-natal vitamins. Category B are drugs in which animal or human studies have not demonstrated a significant risk. These drugs have been shown to have no animal fetal risk but no evidence is available in humans. Penicillins fall into this category. Category C are drugs in which no adequate studies in either animals or humans have been performed. Many drugs taken during pregnancy fall into this category. Category D are drugs in which there is evidence of fetal risk but certain clinical benefits outweigh the risks. An example are the anti-convulsants. Category X are drugs with proven fetal risk which are not outweighed by any benefits.
Contragestion, or post-coital contraception is currently practiced by two basic methods: surgical and medical. In the 1970's the "morning after pill" (diethylstilbestrol) was popular as a post-coital contraceptive method. More recently, the use of the anti-progesterone RU-486 has gained wide acceptance in Europe to terminate pregnancy soon after fertilization and implantation. During the first trimester, the most common technique to end a pregnancy is by surgical abortion. Surgical abortions generally involve cervical dilation and curettage or vacuum aspiration. Finally, after the first trimester, labor inducing medications such as oxytocin and prostaglandins can be utilized to induce premature delivery and thus the termination of pregnancy. The medical techniques described above are known to have a number of adverse reactions and potential complications. The surgical technique can lead to uterine rupture, hemorrhage, and infection.
In the United States, the commonly employed contraceptive techniques include oral steroidal contraceptives, injected or implanted steroidal contraceptives, intra-uterine devices, physical, chemical, or physicochemical barrier techniques, withdrawal, sexual abstinence around the time of ovulation, breast feeding, and permanent sterilization. In addition to the high failure rates of some of these methods, a number of these methods have serious potential complications for the users. For example, in addition to metabolic changes induced by oral contraceptives, there is possibly an increased risk of neoplasia, nutritional disorders, cardiovascular effects, thromboembolism and even death.
In vitro fertilization (IVF) requires the removal of ova from a mammalian ovary, and exposure of these ova to sperm outside the body. Fertilization of each ovum requires that at least one living sperm penetrates the zona pellucida (outer covering) of the ovum and fuses with the pronucleus. Once this has occurred and the ova are fertilized, they can be transferred to a uterus where they can become implanted on the uterine wall. If implantation occurs, the pregnancy can proceed as if fertilization had occurred within the body. In vitro fertilization has gained widespread professional and public acceptance. However, despite the ever increasing frequency and refinement of this procedure, in vitro fertilization attempts most often do not result in pregnancy. In vitro pregnancy rates are currently only about 15 to 20 percent. For a variety of reasons, exposing the ova to sperm does not necessarily result in fertilization. Furthermore, even where the ova is fertilized, the placement of the ova in a uterus usually does not result in normal implantation. The low success rate of IVF often leads to an excessive financial and psychological burden for the infertile couple.
Other assisted reproductive technologies include two modifications of the IVF technique. The first is gamete intra-fallopian transfer (GIFT), the second is zygote intra-fallopian transfer (ZIFT). In the GIFT procedure, the retrieved oocyte and sperm are mixed together and placed back into the fallopian tube where fertilization takes place. The fertilized zygote then travels down through the fallopian tube into the endometrial cavity, where implantation may or may not take place. The ZIFT procedure allows for fertilization to take place in vitro as in standard IVF, and then the fertilized zygote is placed back in the fallopian tube where it then travels down into the uterus to implant. Finally, it is becoming realized that the hyper-stimulation protocols necessary to retrieve many oocytes from the donor woman may have deleterious effects on the endometrium itself and decrease the rates of implantation. Two basic procedures have been utilized to help overcome this problem. The first is considered non-stimulated oocyte retrieval. A single egg is retrieved, allowed to be fertilized and placed back into the fallopian tube or uterus for implantation. The other technique involves the hyper-stimulation portion of the IVF procedure to retrieve the eggs and allow for fertilization in vitro. The zygotes are then frozen to be placed back into the patient after several normal cycles, with the hope that the endometrium will be more receptive to implantation. All of these techniques attempt to maximize the quality of the eggs, zygotes produced after fertilization and the receptivity of the endometrium. Any procedure which would enhance the implantation rate above the standard 15 to 20% would have a marked positive effect on any of these technologies.
Notwithstanding the work reported in this field, a need still exists for improved diagnostic and therapeutic applications in the field of mammalian reproduction.

Therapeutic and diagnostic applications of tropho-uteronectin (TUN) manipulation

Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania


An integral automatic system for the protection and rescue of occupants in crashed automobiles comprising an aggregate of mechanical and electrical elements connected to an electronic central control unit, incorporated within the vehicle. The control unit is in turn connected to an impact-operated battery disconnector of high breaking power which will initiate the cycle of partial disconnection of circuits and initiate timed commands, such as the activation of an electrovalve for shutting off the fuel, locking of the ignition coil contact and others, including electric opening of the windows, centralized opening of the doors, and disengagement of the seat belts from their anchors. The system is intended to prevent risks that may arise after an accident takes place and also facilitates the extraction of the occupants from the crashed vehicle.

This invention relates to an integral automatic system for protection and rescue of occupants in crashed automobiles.
Although automotive technology constitutes a complex and very widely developed field in which revolutionizing novelties rarely occur, there are numerous advances that are made gradually, because, among other reasons, the manufacturing volumes and the investments required to introduce said changes do not permit doing it in any other way. One of the outstanding trends in today's automotive industry aims to diminish the severity of traffic accidents caused by collisions of any kind, overturning, etc.
The current state of technology has adopted various solutions intended to reduce the damage caused by the collision and by the projection of the occupants against the structure of the cabin. It is known that it is beneficial to place masses in front of the seats, such as the engine of the vehicle. Proven also is the effectiveness of the use of safety belts which, combined with the use of automatically inflating balloons, constitute means proven to be useful in a considerable percentage of accidents, including those caused by lateral shocks. Also, the new safety requirements take into account the risk created by skidding of the wheels when braking, making use of the principle of measuring the angular deceleration of the wheels to moderate the braking torque so that the wheel will not block.
All these methods, in which the present state of the art can be encompassed generally, are aimed specifically at reducing the intensity of the accident and protecting the driver and occupants from the immediate damage produced by the shock and by the series of impacts set off by it. In the present state of the art there are no means aimed at preventing risks that may arise after the accident is fully over or means that facilitate extraction of the occupants. It is this gap that the system of the present invention seeks to bridge, the novelty of which resides in providing means designed to bring about the activation or joint and progressive cancellation of a series of functions by inclusion of new devices, such as an impact sensor which is actuated at high impact levels, an electronic central control unit, a device for releasing the belts from their anchor, upon actuation by an electrical signal and the incorporation of an electrovalve with an interlock for shutting of the passage of fuel from the tank to the fuel pump upon actuation by an electrical signal.
Besides these devices, other conventional ones can be utilized, such as the electrically actuated centralized locking and unlocking of doors and the electrically operated window lift system.

Integral automatic system for protection and rescue of occupants in crashed automobiles


A near-eye display system includes a polarization waveguide having an in-coupling interface disposed proximate to a first end and an out-coupling interface disposed proximate to an opposite second end. The polarization waveguide is configured to convey light incident at the in-coupling interface to the out-coupling interface by inducing multiple changes in a polarization state of the light as the light traverses the polarization waveguide. At least a subset of the changes in polarization state induce the light to reflect within the polarization waveguide without relying on total internal reflection (TIR).

Near-eye display systems typically employ a waveguide (also frequently referred to as a "lightguide") to convey light emitted by a display to a user's eye. In conventional implementations, the waveguide relies on total internal reflection (TIR) to convey light received from the display via in-coupling optics at one end of the waveguide to out-coupling optics facing the user's eye on the other end of the waveguide. To achieve TIR, such waveguides must be composed of material with a high index of refraction. However, implementation of such materials can be problematic. For one, the field of view (FOV) provided by a conventional TIR-based waveguide is inversely proportional to the index of refraction of the material of the waveguide, and thus the high index of refraction needed to achieve TIR impedes the FOV that can be provided by the waveguide, which typically is no more than 50 degrees. Moreover, waveguide materials with higher indices of refraction tend to be both heavier and more expensive than materials with lower indexes of refraction, and consequently conventional TIR-based waveguides tend to be more expensive and heavier. Additionally, systems employing TIR-based waveguides often must be sealed in order to reduce the risk of contamination of the surface of the waveguide, which can break the TIR condition and lead to light leakage. The mechanisms used to provide this seal often increase the cost, weight, and complexity of the system and are prone to failure.

Near-eye system having polarization waveguide


The present invention generally relates to a method of recycling and producing fibers from sewage sludge, such as streams of municipal, agricultural and industrial flowing wastes to be further processed. The present invention also relates to industrial means adapted for recycling the same. The present invention discloses environmentally friendly processes and means for recovering valuable fibers and especially cellulose fibers and the like from agricultural and/or urban sewage sludge, waste and/or industrial effluents to decrease its volume especially BOD and TSS, obtaining valuable raw materials and decreasing environmental damages.

Cellulose is a complex carbohydrate consisting of thousands of glucose units in a linear chain structure. This polysaccharide is pack into fibers. Hemicelluloses, such as xylans, uronic acid and arabinose are complex carbohydrates that, with other carbohydrates (e.g., pectins), surround the cellulose fibers of plant cells.
Those valuable materials, as other fibrous materials, are currently consisted as a significant ingredient of urban sewage sludge. Reference is made to table 1, presenting cellulose and hemicellulose content, as was sampled and analyzed (triplet test) in Israeli municipal sludge before processing. Crude sludge comprising about 11% (dry weight) cellulose fibers and 14% hemicellulose, wherein dry dense sludge comprising 10% hemicellulose and 2% cellulose. Before digestion the dry dense sludge comprising similar contents. Screening crude sludge by a means of 50 mesh comprising almost equal content of hemicellulose and cellulose (i.e., about 7%). By screening the same in a 130 mesh screens, 12% hemicellulose and 15% cellulose content is obtained.
The sources of sewage fibers are selected from toilet paper; non-digest fruit and vegetable fibers (i.e., new fibers); and cotton, synthetic fibers etc provided from cloths and laundry.
In spite of the fact that the fibers are comprised as a cost effective portion of the municipal effluents, those fibers are traditionally wasted, i.e., burned, digested, disposed or disposed as an effluent towards the sea, or the rivers, causing environment problems else ware. Moreover, today, sewage sludge is massively concealed in the ground and hence regarded as one a main environmental problem. So far no one has recycled or produced organic fibers from these sources.
Few attempts for treating fibers (especially paper and paper products) have been made. Hence, US patent application 2003/0141225 to Liddle et al. discloses a method and system for separating and sorting recyclable materials from mixed waste streams. This system comprising a low surface current bath adapted to separate materials having differential wet densities. U.S. Pat. No. 3,670,968 to Galeano discloses a system and process for recovering the cellulosic fibrous material containing municipal refuse, and converting it into reusable pulp. Nevertheless, a cost-effective industrial-oriented recycling process of sewage sludge's fibers thus meets a long felt need and focuses to target environmental acute problems.

Method of recycling fibers from sewage sludge and means thereof


A chair with improved waist bearing power by self-weight is provided. A chair includes a supporting portion connected to a leg portion, a seat portion with one side connected to the supporting portion, a backrest post with other end installed to the supporting portion fixedly, a backrest frame with the one side connected to a top end of the backrest post, a backrest link having a top end portion inserted into a inserting groove formed in a lower-central rear surface of the backrest frame and a bottom end engaging the seat portion rotatingly, a link fixer connected to the backrest link rotatingly by a connecting axle and installed to the backrest post fixedly, and a backrest installed so as to be connected to the backrest frame and a top end portion of the backrest link and having flexibility.

In general, a chair, which is used at houses, offices, working environments, etc. for a very long time, includes a chair frame and a seat member, a backrest member, and an armrest disposed at the chair frame.
Recently, as the sitting time increases, it becomes necessary to provide chairs that provide the best sitting feeling and convenience so that the sitter feels reduced fatigue even though he or she sits for a long while.
Especially, since the posture of the sitter gets disordered in cases of long-term working or studying thereon and such disordered postures have the backbone under stresses causing disc problem or bending of backbone, it is very important to guide the sitter to sit on the chair in right postures or to support the waist portion of the sitter.
Chairs with backrests bendable backwards in order to relieve fatigues of the sitter are being used widely, but in such chairs with backrests bendable backwards the portion for supporting the waist disappears when the backrest bends backwards so as to make the sitter's waist portion more uncomfortable, so that the sitter has to use such chairs with a separate cushion put between the backrest and his or her waist, such a cushion may be lost or flattened by long-term usage, which incurs the cost to replace the cushion with a new one.


Focusing on the criterion of “Energy save” or “Quiet noise” or other suitable operating parameter and considering the existing limitation of the operation of the electro-dynamic shaker system, apparatus for optimizing the operating condition of the vibration test system is proposed. The apparatus 100 measures the field current and drive current under the state that the desired vibration is fed to the specimen 20, and calculates the necessary force the shaker 1 should supply. Field current is supposed to be varied, and the necessary drive current is calculated based on the necessary force data. Further, the blower rotation is supposed to be varied, and the total power consumption at the coils and the blower is calculated. Also the temperatures of the field coil 4 and of the drive coil 10 is estimated and checked whether within the limitation. Then the optimal operating condition for the focused criterion is selected.

The inner structure of an electro-dynamic shaker is shown in FIG. 1. The field coil 4 is built in the magnetic circuit 2. The armature 6 is supported by the air suspension 8 so that it can move along the centre line of the shaker. Specimen of the vibration test can be attached at the head of the armature 6. The drive coil 10 is wound at the bottom of the armature 6.
When DC current is fed to the field coil 4, a static magnetic field is generated at the gap 12. The drive coil 10 is set in this gap 12, and AC current fed to the drive coil 10 yields a vibratory movement of the armature 6, and this motion is fed to the specimen attached on the armature 6 as the vibration for testing.
The air duct 14 is attached at the bottom of the magnetic circuit 2, and the other end of the duct 14 is connected to the blower 16. With rotating the blower 16, air-flow from the air-intake 18 at the top of the magnetic circuit 2 to inside is generated, and this air-flow cools the field coil 4 and the drive coil 10.
Although an air-cooled system is used for explanation here, this invention can be applied also to water-cooled systems by focusing attention to the power consumption or noise generation of the cooling apparatus.
A block diagram of a vibration test system using the electro-dynamic shaker in the FIG. 1 is shown in FIG. 2. Specimen 20 is attached on the top of the armature 6. Field current is fed to the field coil 4 by the field power supply 25. The blower power supply 27 feeds the power to the blower 16. Frequency spectrum of the desired vibration to be applied to the specimen is defined as the control reference spectrum for the vibration controller 22. The drive signal from the vibration controller 22 is amplified by the amplifier 24 and fed to the drive coil 10. Yielded vibration is measured by the acceleration sensor 30 attached on the armature 6, and this response signal is returned to the vibration controller 22. The spectral analysis of the response signal is carried out by the vibration controller 22, and the spectrum of the drive signal is modified so that the matching of the response spectrum to the reference spectrum will be improved in the next control loop. And the drive waveform signal is generated based on the new drive spectrum, and the drive signal is outputted to the amplifier 24. In such a way, generation of the desired vibration for the specimen to be tested is accomplished.
In addition to the above explained case of Random vibration test (random vibration having a required power spectral density is given to the specimen), Sine vibration test at a fixed frequency, Swept-sine vibration test that gives sinusoidal vibration of which frequency varies with time, and SOR (Sine-On-Random) or ROR (Random-On-Random) tests that are based on a combination of the former tests, Shock test that gives a pulse-shaped acceleration change described as a short time waveform, or Waveform replication test that regenerates the recorded vibration waveform for testing the specimen just as it was, are popularly conducted using the electro-dynamic shaker systems.
In the conventional electro-dynamic shaker systems, the value of the field coil current fed by the field power supply 26 is decided based on the maximum rating force of the corresponding system and fixed at the moment of the shipping at the manufacturer and could not be changed by the operator. So, it was impossible for the operator to carry out a test with reducing the field current value in case of only small excitation force is required to reduce the total power consumption. Even when it was allowed for the operator to change the field current by himself by some means, it was not easy to use appropriately, because professional knowledge and skill were required to predict the influence of the change of the field current setting correctly.
For instance, when the field current is reduced, then the drive current must be increased to keep the excitation force constant. So, reduction of the field current does not directly mean the reduction of total power consumption. A good balance between the field current and the drive current must be taken to achieve energy-saving.
In the Japanese laid-open patent application JP-A-200113033, there is disclosed a method to reduce the field current and its power consumption in the field coil when the required force is small. But when the increase of the drive power (caused by the drive current increase) as the result of the field current reduction is larger, then energy-saving of the total system cannot be achieved.
In addition, the Japanese laid-open patent application JP-A-200113033 discloses a method to reduce the blower rotation for the purpose of quiet operating when the required force is small. But just the same as above, it intends to solve the heat problem with focusing on the field current only. So, even if the purpose of quiet operating is looked as if it has been solved, the increase of heat generation by the drive current is not solved at all.
This invention provides apparatus that can calculate the optimal operating condition of the electro-dynamic shaker system in respect of the criteria such as energy-saving or quiet operating with regard to the performance limitations of the system and with solving the above mentioned problems.

Apparatus for optimizing system performance and related control methods