A high-speed fluid/mechanical Jet erosion system utilizing a high-velocity, spinning jet stream discharged contiguous the surface to be cut. The spinning jet stream is developed from a tangentially driven vortex flow system adapted to merge and enhance the erosive high-speed fluid jet characteristics of fluid and abrasive particle impingement erosion with cavitational collapse erosion in both axial and tangential directions. The system further includes an apertured mechanical cutting element which places the exiting spinning jet immediately against the target formation, providing maximum mechanical and fluid energy transfer to the formation. In this manner, the system induces formation fracturing by assisting mechanically induced fracture propagation with the high-speed jet action while simultaneously exploiting high-speed jet erosion-induced kerfs with the mechanical action of the tool.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to jet cutting systems and, ore particularly, to a method of and apparatus for producing an erosive cutting jet stream for drilling, boring and the like.
2. History of the Prior Art
The prior art is replete with designs for mechanical cutting systems used to break, fracture and/or shear formations for the penetration thereof. Examples of such systems include modern-day drill bits of the type used for drilling deep well bores for the oil and gas industries. The most critical problem associated with the mechanical cutting of formations is untimely stress corrosion or thermal degradation failure of the materials used as the cutting means. Such material failure limits the ability of the operator to transfer high mechanical energy to the mechanical cutters. These problems create financial as well as physical limitations for commercially available drilling systems. In essence, the subterranean formation must be capable of cost effective penetration, which requires efficient energy transfer.
The search for a more efficient energy transfer system has resulted in a number of recent inventions and developments in drilling, boring and cutting systems. For example, the development of hydraulic erosion jetting mechanisms has, over the last 50 years, been the subject of increased interest. This design direction is due to the attributes of hydraulic erosion jetting, which include more efficient energy conversion to the work surface and a potentially ideal working medium, typically water, which is in great abundance and therefore economically expendable. Moreover, the technique is conceptually simple.
Hydraulic erosion of earthen formations is a technology that has been analyzed and reported in numerous publications. The erosion takes place by employing various failure mechanisms of the work surface induced by action of the liquid jet. The types of failure mechanisms that have been reported include; (1) failure of porous rock due to stress induced through liquid filled pore spaces of the rock brought about by impacting the liquid contained in the pore space; (2) formation failure by crack propagation and/or extension due to hydraulic fracture forces occurring when a liquid filled fracture is forced to close after an initial mechanical force is released; (3) liquid jet droplet impingement that erodes the cementation between formation grains thereby loosening and dislodging the harder formation grains. This last stated technique is known as Soft Erosion and is the typical mechanism present when eroding formations where the impinging jet stagnation pressures do not exceed the threshold pressures required to fracture the rock and thereby force large scale permeability in the in situ formation.
Other types of formation failure include (4) droplet impingement, known as Hard Erosion, that fractures the rock grains and the cementation by exceeding the threshold pressures necessary to fracture the formation grains and force large scale permeability by breaking the individual grains away from the formation; and (5) liquid Jet induced pressure reversals that allow the in situ formation pore pressures to force tensile failure of the cementation holding rock grains together.
Prior art investigations and applications of erosive jet cutting have shown that liquid jets can be very effective in eroding rocks. The investigations have covered the broad modes of jet operation classed as continuous jets, interrupted jets, cavitating jets and abrasive particle jets. In each broad category there are a multiplicity of variations of the jets that have been investigated to focus on a predominant operational feature of the j et mode. Examples of these investigations are found in the following articles: "Tests Show Jet Drilling Has Promise", Feenstra, R., et al, The Oil and Gas Journal, Jul. 1, 1974, "The Effects of Porosity on Hydraulic Rock Cutting", Crow, S. C., International Journal of Rock Mechanics, Mining, Science & Geomechanics Abstract, Vol. 11, pp. 103-105. Pergamon Press 1974 and "A Model Study of the Water Pressure Distribution in a Crack when Impacted by a High Pressure Water Jet", Mazurkiewicz, Dr. M. et al, 8th International Symposium on Jet Cutting Technology, Durham, England: 9-11 September, 1986. In addition, references to cavitation and particle abrasion, respectively, may be seen in the following articles: "The Development of Structured Cavitating Jets for Deep-Hole Bits" by Virgil E. Johnson, Jr., Georges L. Cahine, William Lindenmuth, Andrew F. Carr and Gary S. Frederick, Hydronautics, Incorporated and George J. Giacchino, Jr. NL/HYCALOG/NL Industries, Inc. , Society of Petroleum Engineers or AIME Paper 11060, 1982; and "New Gulf Method of Jetted-Particle Drilling Promises Speed and Economy," The Oil and Gas Journal Jun. 21, 1971.
A number of problems are associated with erosive jet cutting systems. One of the problems that limits the optimum performance of the jet has been the inability to provide reliable means for maintaining a specific distance between the jet nozzle and the target formation. In prior art designs, it has been deemed necessary to control the distance between the nozzle and the target formation in order to properly focus the energy of the jet streams. In order to address this problem, most nozzles have been recessed from the cutting surface by several nozzle diameters in order to allow the nozzle to survive the rigors of the cutting environment while others have been recessed to allow maturation of the erosive jet mode to develop. It has been noted, however, that the splash back erosion against the tool caused by the jet action then becomes a serious problem. Additionally, there is typically an exponential energy decay with increased standoff distances. A number of prior art patents have addressed these various concerns, and the teachings of these patents are illustrative of several problems in erosive cutting jet systems.
U. S. Pat. No. 4,787,465, entitled Hydraulic Drilling Apparatus and Method, is a 1988 patent teaching a drilling apparatus producing a whirling mass of pressurized cutting fluid to create a high-velocity cutting jet. The cutting action is enhanced by abrasive material in the drilling fluid. This technology is further discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,852,668, which is a 1989 patent issued to the same inventors. The cutting nozzles disclosed in these patents employ an axial conical spray that predominantly uses the development of a thin sheet of high speed liquid drops that develop within the conical spray and erode through liquid drop impingement of the target formation granule cementation and thereby dislodge formation grains as discussed above. These grains are then carried into a reentry torodial flow motion, which is perpendicular to the axis of the conical spray, that further uses the grains for an in situ abrasive to abrade and dislodge further particles. The stated purpose of this conical jet is to hydraulically drill a hole of a diameter larger than the drill head and its supply/transport tube without rotating the system. This aspect is more fully set out in the article "Conical Water Jet Drilling", Dickenson, W. et al, Proceedings of the Fourth U.S. Water Jet Conference.
Various attempts to combine the positive aspects of mechanical cutting means and hydraulic erosion jetting means have also been reported. Several references may be seen in "Five Wells Test High-Pressure Drilling", Deily, F. H. et al, The Oil and Gas Journal, Jul. 4, 1977; "Laboratory Testing of High Pressure, High Speed PDC Bits"--W. C. Maurer and W. J. McDonald, Maurer Engineering, Inc.; J. H. Cohen, Drilling Research Center, Inc.; J. W. Neudecker Jr., Los Almos National Laboratory; and D. W. Carroll, U.S. Air Force--SPE Paper 15615, "Water-Jet-Assisted Drag Bit Cutting in Medium-Strength Rock", Geier, J. E. et al, United States Department of the Interior Information Circular 9164 and "High Pressure Drilling System Triples ROPS, Stymies Bit Wear" Mike Killalea, Editor--Drilling, March/April 1989.
Additional development efforts in combining mechanical cutting and hydraulic erosion Jetting means are seen in U.S. Pat. No. 3,838,742 issued to Juvkam-Wold and U. S. Pat. No. 4,391,339 issued to Johnson. The Juvkam-Wold patent teaches the use of a fluid/mechanical system incorporating abrasive resistant nozzles recessed in a mechanical drill bit adapted for discharging a high velocity stream of abrasive laden liquid through the nozzles. The Johnson patent teaches an improved technique utilizing recessed nozzles adjacent mechanical cutting surfaces, wherein the nozzles discharge a cavitating liquid jet. This patent, which references the Juvkam-Wold patent, further teaches one technique of maintaining a controlled distance between the cavitating jet nozzles and the surface to be cut by using exposed diamond wear buttons and a pre-select nozzle recess distance wherein maximum cavity collapse is said to occur. The recess also serves an apparent purpose of protecting the nozzle. A further discussion of the use of structured shedding vortex rings created in the shear zone between the jet and the spent liquid in the hole, wherein vapor cavities are formed, may also be seen. The application of vortex ring cavitation has thus been recognized to be effective in such fluid/mechanical cutting systems.
As referenced above, the combination of high speed fluid jet cutting in mechanical drilling systems has clearly been the subject of continued development for cutting systems. This type of combination has been shown to demonstrate superior efficiencies when compared to purely hydraulic erosion drilling means. However, a number of problems still plague the industry, which problems prevent a reliable and efficient high-speed cutting jet. It would be an advantage, therefore, to utilize the positive aspects of high-speed jet cutting in a fluid/mechanical system that is both reliable and devoid of the critical problems of the prior art. The present invention provides such a system by utilizing a high-speed spinning jet stream developed from a tangentially driven vortex flow system which merges the erosive high-speed fluid jet characteristics of fluid impingement erosion, abrasive particle impingement erosion and cavitational collapse erosion in both an axial and tangential direction.


A three-arm-Mach-Zehnder interferometer for splitting/combining a first and a second wavelength band, wherein the optical device includes: a first and second optical splitting/combining element; a differential optical delay device comprising a first, a second and a third optical path; each of the first and second optical splitting/combining elements, is of the (25-50-25%)λx(0-0-100%)λy type, wherein λx is a wavelength with the first optical band and λy is a wavelength with the second optical band, and the first, second and third optical paths of the differential optical delay device are configured to introduce, at a wavelength λz within the first optical band, a phase delay Δφ of 2πm.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical device for splitting/combining a first and a second optical wavelength band.
Moreover, the present invention relates to an apparatus for splitting/combining a first and a second optical wavelength band, comprising at least two of said optical devices optically connected in cascade.
The present invention further relates to an optical unit and an optical network comprising at least one of said optical devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the present description and claims the expression                "transfer function" with reference to an output port and an input port of an optical device is used to indicate the ratio of the output optical power from the output port with respect to the total optical power in input to the input port of the optical device as a function of wavelength;        "passband", with reference to an output port of an optical device, is used to indicate a band of wavelengths (or frequencies), between specified limits, that the output port is capable of transmitting; the limiting wavelengths of the passband are those at which the transmitted power level decreases to a specified level, typically 3 dB below the maximum level, as the wavelength is decreased or increased from that at which the transmitted power is a maximum;        "stopband", with reference to an output port of an optical device, is used to indicate a band of wavelengths (or frequencies), between specified limits, that the output port is not capable of transmitting; the wavelengths of the stopband are those at which the transmitted power level is below a specified level, typically −20 dB below the maximum level of the corresponding passband at the same port;        "in-band loss" is used to indicate the difference (expressed in dB) between the maximum power level and the minimum power level of optical power transmitted by the port of a device within a predetermined optical wavelength (or frequencies) band which may correspond to the passband of the port of the device or to a sub-band thereof;        "isolation of a wavelength λa with respect to a wavelength λb" with reference to a port of a device is used to indicate the difference (expressed in dB) between the optical power transmitted at wavelength λb and the optical power transmitted at wavelength λa, wherein λa is a wavelength within the stopband of the port of the device and λb is a wavelength within the passband of said port;        "isolation of a wavelength band λa with respect to a wavelength band Bb" with reference to a port of a device is used to indicate the difference (expressed in dB) between the minimum level of optical power transmitted within the band Bb and the maximum level of optical power transmitted within the band Ba, wherein the band Ba corresponds to the stopband of the port of the device or to a sub-band thereof and the band Bb corresponds to the passband of the port of the device or to a sub-band thereof;        "through port", in a splitting/combining element having three optical paths and an input port associated with an end of one of the three optical path, is used to indicate the output port of the element which is associated to the opposed end of the optical path with which the input port is associated;        "cross port", in a splitting/combining element having three optical paths and an input port associated with an end of one of the three optical path, is used to indicate the output port of the element which is associated to an end of an optical path other than the one with which the input port is associated;        "power splitting ratio" with reference to a splitting/combining element is used to indicate the ratio of the optical power exiting from each port of the element to the total optical power exiting from the splitting/combining element;        (25-50-25%)λx/(0-0-100%)λy three-optical-path splitting/combining element is used to indicate a device which comprises a first, a second and a third optical path, wherein the first optical path is optically coupled to the second optical path and the second optical path is optically coupled to the third optical path and wherein:                    for a radiation at wavelength λx comprised in a first optical band in input to the first(third) optical path, is configured to let pass, at the output, about 25% of power of the radiation through the first(third) optical path, about 50% of the power from the first(third) optical path to the second optical path and about 25% of the power from the first(third) optical path to the third(first) optical path;            for a radiation at wavelength λy comprised in a second optical band in input to the first(third) optical path, is configured to let pass, at the output, about 100% of power of the radiation from the first(third) optical path to the third(first) optical path; and that            for a radiation at least at a wavelength λw comprised in the first optical band in input to the first(third) optical path, is configured to obtain at the output a phase difference Δφ of about +(π/2)+2K1π [or, −(π/2)+2K1π] between the radiation at the second optical path and the radiation at the first(third) optical path, and +π+2K2π (or, −π+2K2π) between the radiation at the third(first) optical path and the radiation at the first(third) optical path, where K1 and K2 are two integer numbers.
It is pointed out that the above mentioned values of power splitting ratios and phase differences are to be intended to be equal to the cited values with a tolerance of about 20%, preferably 15%, on the power splitting ratio and 10%, preferably 5%, on the phase differences.
Currently, the research is turning towards the possibility of using optics in applications as fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks for broadband delivering of voice, video and high-speed data directly to the home or to a broader community through optical fibers.
Converged voice, video and data services networks are also known as "triple play networks". These networks typically support two signals in downstream direction (from a central station to a user) and one signal in upstream direction (from the user to the central station). Typically, one of the two downstream signals delivers analog television and the other downstream signal delivers digital voice and data services, such as for example telephone and/or Internet. The upstream signal is typically a digital signal delivering voice and data from the user to the central station. The downstream signal delivering analog television is typically transmitted in the wavelength band of 1550±10 nm, the other downstream signal is typically transmitted in the wavelength band of 1490±10 nm, and the upstream signal is typically transmitted in the wavelength band of 1310±50 nm. In order to provide a high-quality analog television service, power requirement in the wavelength band of 1550±10 nm is typically greatly demanding.
Typically, a FTTP network delivers voice, video and data over a passive optical network (PON) using the ITU-T gigabit passive optical network (GPON) standard.
In FTTP networks, as well in many other applications, a key issue is signal splitting and/or combining which allows the downstream and upstream signals to be suitably combined and/or splitted. Typically, the signal splitting/combining is performed in two steps: a first step for splitting/combining the two downstream signals from/with the upstream signal and a second step for splitting/combining the two downstream signals.
The first step requires the splitting/combining of two wide bands widely spaced (centred, for example, at around λ1=1310±50 nm and λ2=1520±40 nm).
This operation requires an optical band splitter/combiner device which, from an input radiation comprising two signals having wavelength within the two widely spaced wide bands, respectively, is capable of separating the two signals in two different ports of the device by optimizing at each port the loss of transmitted signal and the suppression of the other signal.
In particular, each of the two ports is required to have a wide and flat passband, corresponding to or including a respective one of the two widely spaced wide bands, and a wide stopband, corresponding to or including the other one of the two widely spaced wide bands, that provides a high isolation of the suppressed band with respect to the transmitted one.
Devices for splitting/combining two bands centred at 1300 nm and 1550 nm, respectively, have been proposed in the art.
For example, T. Kominato et al. ("Optical multi/demultiplexer with a modified Mach Zehnder interferometer configuration", OEC '94, Technical Digest, July 1994, 14c2-4, pages 174-175) disclose a 1300/1550 nm multi/demultiplexer having a modified Mach-Zehnder (MS) structure in which two 3 dB directional couplers of a conventional MZ are replaced with two MZ interferometers.
However, the Applicant notes that the replacement of the two 3 dB directional couplers with two MZ interferometers is disadvantageous for the compactness of the device.
G. Barbarossa et al. ("Wide rejection band multidemultiplexer at 1.3-1.55 mm by cascading high-silica three-waveguide couplers on Si"; Electronics Letters 24 Oct. 1991, Vol. 27, No. 22, pages 2085-2086) disclose a 1300/1550 nm multi/demultiplexer configuration obtained comprising three cascaded identical three-waveguide couplers connected by the two outer waveguides, wherein the guide separation and interaction length of the three-waveguide couplers are selected to obtain multi-demultiplexing at the two wavelengths 1300 and 1550 mm.

Optical band splitter/combiner device comprising a three-arms interferometer


A manually controlled high pressure valve includes a valve body having an air inlet, an air outlet and a mounting hole; an adjusting device arranged in the mounting hole by hermetically connecting to the inside wall of the mounting hole and having an air inlet hole and an air outlet hole; a limiting block arranged below the adjusting device and matched with the adjusting device and the air inlet for controlling the air intake from the air inlet hole of the adjusting device. The limiting block can be jacked up by the high pressure of the air inlet and block off the air inlet to stop jetting outwardly when the gas is not exhausted from the air outlet of the valve; and the limiting block can be removed to form a gap between the limiting block and the inlet hole when it is required to jet outwardly.

Valves are control components in the fluid delivery system and have functions of shut-off, regulating, diversion, counter-flow prevention, pressure stabilization, shunting or overflow relief.
Valves for fluid control systems range in varieties and sizes from the simplest shut-off valves to the various valves used in extremely complex autonomous systems. Valves can be used for controlling the flow of various types of fluids such as air, water, steam, various corrosive media, mud, oil, liquid metal and radioactive media. According to materials, valves are divided into cast iron valves, cast steel valves, stainless steel valves (201, 304, 316, etc.), chrome-molybdenum steel valves, chrome moly-vanadium steel valves, duplex steel valves, plastic valves, nonstandard customized valves and the like.
However, valves used in the field of dry ice cooling are relatively rare in the market at present, due to the sensitivity of the change between the three-phases of solid, liquid, and gas of dry ice, the pressure requirement of the valve is quite high, and it is quite troublesome to control the valve on and off for the need to intermittent injection of carbon dioxide gas separately, and the technical difficulty is large.
Accordingly, there is a need in the market for a manually controlled high pressure valve that can solve one or more of the above problems and a glass chiller that uses the valve.

Manually controlled high pressure valve and a glass chiller using thereof


A double-headed piston type compressor connected with an external device is provided. The compressor includes a plurality of cylinder bore pairs, double-headed pistons, a first rotary valve, a second rotary valve, first suction passages, and second suction passages. In each cylinder bore pair, a first time period from a first top dead center timing, which is timing when the double-headed piston reaches a top dead center in a first compression chamber, to a first communication start timing, which is timing when a first introduction passage starts to communicate with a first suction passage, is different from a second time period from a second top dead center timing, which is timing when the double-headed piston reaches a top dead center in a second compression chamber, to a second communication start timing, which is timing when the second introduction passage starts to communicate with a second suction passages.

The present invention relates to a double-headed piston type compressor provided with rotary valves on both ends of a rotary shaft.
As a vehicle air-conditioning compressor, a double-headed piston type compressor has been in use, for example. In the compressor of this kind, each of a plurality of double-headed pistons is housed in a pair of front and rear cylinder bores. A housing of the compressor has a swash plate chamber for accommodating a swash plate which rotates with a rotary shaft. Rotation of the swash plate reciprocates the double-headed pistons within the cylinder bores. The double-headed piston defines a compression chambers in the cylinder bore. Along with the reciprocation, the double-headed piston draws refrigerant into the compression chambers via a refrigerant suction system. The double-headed piston also compresses the refrigerant in the compression chambers and then discharges the refrigerant to discharge chambers.
The refrigerant having been discharged into the discharge chambers is delivered to an external refrigerant circuit via piping. The refrigerant having passed through the external refrigerant circuit is sent back to the compressor via piping. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 5-306680 discloses a refrigerant suction system allowing a refrigerant to be drawn from a swash plate chamber to a compression chamber via a rotary valve. Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-222075 discloses a refrigerant suction system allowing a refrigerant to be drawn from a suction chamber formed in a housing of a compressor to a compression chamber via a rotary valve.
In the compressors disclosed in the above-mentioned Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 5-306680 and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-222075, however, pulsations (pressure fluctuations) are caused when the refrigerant is drawn into the compression chambers via the rotary valve. The pulsations resonate an external device such as the piping or the external refrigerant circuit, whereupon noise can be caused in a passenger compartment.


A mobile milling machine includes a cutting rotor disposed along a rotor drum delineating a drum rotation axis and accommodated in a rotor chamber delineated by chamber enclosure. To rotatably support the rotor drum with respect to the chamber enclosure, the rotor drum can include a bearing end and the chamber enclosure can include a bearing bore that are adapted to form a drum bearing assembly. The drum bearing assembly may include a bearing hub and a bushing configured to make a sliding frictional contact along complementary taper surfaces. The floating bushing may be floatingly retained in a chamber door of the chamber enclosure.

Mobile milling machines may be utilized for fragmenting and removing materials such as pavement, asphalt, concrete or the like from a roadway or similar paved surfaces. One example of a mobile milling machine is a cold planer or road planer that moves over the work surface and that is equipped with a cutting rotor or milling rotor that can be made to rotate with respect to and against the work surface. The cutting rotor includes a cylindrical rotor drum and a plurality of cutting tools disposed about the exterior of the rotor drum. The cutting tools can penetrate the work surface to fragment and fracture the material thereon. In a road planer, the fractured materials are directed to a conveyor disposed on the machine for removal of the materials from the work surface, for example, by delivering the materials to a hauling truck operating in cooperation with the road planer. A rotary mixer is another example of a mobile milling machine having a cutting rotor to penetrate and fragment paved materials. In the example of a rotary mixer, the fragmented materials are typically left on the work surface and can be reused as aggregate in a subsequent paving operation.
To contain the fragmented materials created during the milling process and prevent the materials from dispersing about the worksite, the cutting rotor may be accommodated in a rotor chamber defined by a chamber enclosure. The cutting rotor can be mounted within and rotatable with respect to the chamber enclosure by various suitable bearing arrangements and assemblies. Occasionally, it may be desirable to remove the cutting rotor from the rotor chamber and replace it with another cutting rotor, for example, a cutting rotor with a different pitch or arrangement of cutting tools. The bearing arrangements may be designed to facilitate removal and replacement of the cutting rotor.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,714,660 ("the '660 patent, assigned to the assignees of the present disclosure) describes a rotor chamber with a cutting rotor mounted transversely between the side plates of chamber enclosure. The '660 patent also describes a bearing configuration in which the cutting rotor can be journaled with respect to one of the side doors. The '660 patent further describes a bearing support that can removably coupled the cutting rotor to the side door with a plurality of fastening elements. The present disclosure is also directed to bearing configuration adapted to removably mount a cutting rotor within a chamber enclosure to facilitate removal and exchange of different cutting rotors.

Milling machine with drum bearing assembly


A method for filtering a protein-containing liquid containing protein at a concentration of 20 mg/mL or more and 100 mg/mL or less, the method including a prefiltration step of filtering the protein-containing liquid by a prefilter having a pore size of 0.08 μm to 0.25 μm and including a hydrophobic resin, and a virus removal step of filtering the protein-containing liquid by a virus removal membrane including a synthetic polymer, after the prefiltration step, wherein the protein-containing liquid before conducting the prefiltration step includes 0.25 g or more of a trimer or higher multimer of the proteins having an average diameter of less than 100 nm, per 1 m2 of the virus removal membrane.

In recent years, a measure to enhance virus safety has been necessary for not only plasma derivatives derived from human blood, but also bio-pharmaceuticals. Therefore, pharmaceutical manufacturers have studied to introduce a virus removal/inactivation step in a manufacturing process. In particular, a virus removal method by filtration with a virus removal membrane is an effective method that can provide virus reduction without denaturing useful proteins.
Among viruses, in particular, parvovirus has been reported with respect to a case of infection with human parvovirus B19 in the field of plasma derivatives, and a case of contamination of CHO (Chinese Hamster Ovary) cells with mouse parvovirus in the bio-pharmaceutical field. In addition, a case has also been reported where microbacteria such as Leptospira species remain in bio-pharmaceuticals.
Parvovirus, which is a small virus, has no envelope, and it is thus physicochemically stable and is resistant to heating, a low pH and a treatment with a chemical agent which correspond to an inactivation step generally performed during a pharmaceutical manufacturing process. Therefore, there are growing needs for virus removal and bacteria removal by a virus removal membrane, as a virus removal method having a different mechanism from that of an inactivation method.
As filtration membrane for virus removal, membranes including a natural material like cellulose, and virus removal membranes including a synthetic polymer material like polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) or polyether sulfone (PES) have been known (see, for example, Patent Literatures 1 and 2, and Non Patent Literatures 1 to 4.). A virus removal membrane having high virus removal properties with respect to a small virus (for example, parvovirus) having a size close to the size of a useful protein and also having high protein filtration efficiency has been demanded in the pharmaceutical manufacturing site, and the demand for a virus removal membrane has been increasingly severe year by year.

Method for filtering protein-containing liquid


An apparatus for use in parallel reaction of materials. The apparatus includes a base having a plurality of reaction wells formed therein and a sealing device positioned over the reaction wells for individually sealing each of the reaction wells. One of the sealing device and the base having chamfered ridges extending generally around a periphery of each of said plurality of reaction wells. The other of the sealing device and the base having a contact surface formed of a material softer than the material of the chamfered ridges to create a knife-edge seal between the sealing device and the base when the sealing device and the base are forced into contact with one another.

The present invention relates generally to parallel reactors, and more particularly, to a parallel reactor having a knife-edge seal.
The discovery of new materials with novel chemical and physical properties often leads to the development of new and useful technologies. The discovery of new materials depends largely on the ability to synthesize and analyze new compounds. Scientists are thus, always searching for a more efficient, economical and systematic approach for the synthesis of novel materials. Combinatorial technologies are often used to accelerate the speed of research, maximize the opportunity for breakthroughs, and expand the amount of available information. Combinatorial chemistry involves synthesizing microscale quantities of a compound and then testing thousands of compounds quickly.
The use of combinatorial technologies allows high density libraries of very large numbers of materials to be created using parallel synthesis. High throughput screens are then used to test these materials for desired properties to identify potential optimized compounds. Combinatorial technologies may be used to optimize and validate many variations of a material, formulation, or microdevice. Variables such as temperature, pressure, atmosphere, and concentration can be quickly adjusted and tested in a single experiment.
Once a combinatorial library is created, hundreds, or even thousands of compounds must be screened. Existing analytical methods and devices which were originally designed to characterize a relatively small number of compounds are often not well suited to screen combinatorial libraries. For example, in tradition catalyst development, researchers synthesize relatively large amounts of a candidate compound. The compounds are then tested to determine whether they warrant further study. For example, initial testing may involve contacting a compound with one or more fluid phase reactants. If the compound produces some minimal level of reactant conversion to a desired product, the compound undergoes more thorough characterization in a later step.
Because synthesis consumes a large fraction of the development cycle in tradition catalyst studies, researchers have expended little effort to speed up the screening step. Thus, although test reactors have been steadily improved over the years, most were simply automated to reduce labor needed to operate them.


The present invention introduces novel 1-aza-2-silacyclobutane compounds whose nitrogen is substituted by a hydrocarbon group or heteroatom-containing hydrocarbon group, whose N--Si bond remains highly reactive, and which are very effective as silanol endblocking agents and silane coupling agents. The present invention also introduces a method for the preparation of these novel 1-aza-2-silacyclobutanes by the intramolecular hydrosilylation reaction of N,N-disubstituted aminosilane.

The present invention relates to 1-aza-2-silacyclobutane compounds whose nitrogen is substituted by a hydrocarbon group or a hydrocarbon group that contains a heteroatom-containing functional group. The present invention also relates to a method for the preparation of these compounds.
The 1-aza-2-silacyclobutane compounds known to date include 1-aza-2-silacyclobutane compounds in which carbon is bonded to the nitrogen in the 4-membered ring and 1-aza-2-silacyclobutane compounds in which silicon is bonded to this ring nitrogen. N-(1,1-dimethylethyl)-2,2,6-trimethyl-8-phenyl-1-aza-8-silabicyclo[4.2.0]o ctane-8-amine is an example of the former type of compound. This compound contains some very sterically bulky substituents in order to improve the stability of intermediates generated during its synthesis, but this tactic also reduces the reactivity of this azasilacyclobutane. Furthermore, the synthesis of this compound involves the combination of a number of equivalent reactions, and this compound is problematic from an industrial perspective because of the problem of dealing with by-products as well as the number of steps in its production process. Finally, this azasilacyclobutane is very expensive because the starting reagents used in its synthesis cannot be acquired on an industrial basis.
1-Benzyl-2,2,4-triphenyl-3-isopropyl-1-aza-2-silacyclobutane is another 1-aza-2-silacyclobutane in which carbon is bonded at the 1 position. Due to the extensive introduction of bulky substituents for the purpose of precursor stabilization, this 1-aza-2-silacyclobutane has bulky substituents bonded on all the atoms in the 4-membered ring, and this again results in a loss of reactivity. This azasilacyclobutane is also very expensive because the starting compounds for the precursors cannot be acquired on an industrial basis.
With regard to 1-aza-2-silacyclobutanes in which Si is bonded to the nitrogen in the four-membered ring, Japanese Patent Application Laid Open {Kokai or Unexamined} Number Hei 2-235891 [235,891/1990] discloses the following compound ##STR1## where R is a hydrocarbon group or hydrogen atom and R' is a hydrocarbon group, as a point of departure for the facile stereospecific preparation of 2-amino alcohols by desilylation. According to this invention, 2-amino alcohols are synthesized utilizing the facile hydrolyzability of the two Si--N bonds in the above compound and conversion of the Si--C bond into the Si--O bond by oxidation. Because this compound contains two readily hydrolyzable Si--N bonds, it is difficult to orient cleavage to a particular Si--N bond. When this compound is used, for example, as an endblocker for silanol-terminated siloxane, the following two species are produced, thus creating the problem of by-products: ##STR2## Moreover, because the substituent group on the nitrogen has the --SiR'.sub.2 H structure, any functional group introduced in R' is subject to limitations imposed by the behavior of the Si--N bond. For example, even when a group such as the allyl group is introduced as R', this R' substituent will not be retained in the azasilacyclobutane skeleton and thus cannot be effectively utilized as a functional group in practical applications due to the facile cleavability of the Si--N bond by such reactions as hydrolysis.
The present invention introduces novel 1-aza-2-silacyclobutane compounds whose nitrogen is substituted by a hydrocarbon group or heteroatom-containing hydrocarbon group, whose N--Si bond is highly reactive, and which are very effective as silanol endblocking agents and silane coupling agents. The present invention also introduces a method for the preparation of these novel 1-aza-2-silacyclobutanes.
Furthermore, because a wide selection of N-bonded functional groups is possible for the 1-aza-2-silacyclobutane compounds of the present invention, these compounds are very useful as the corresponding silane coupling agents and endblockers for polysiloxanes, for example, as in the case of allyl, phenyl, substituted phenyl, benzyl, substituted benzyl, and so forth.
Finally, the preparative method of the present invention makes possible the direct, high yield, and highly selective production, from the dihydrocarbylsilyl derivatives of secondary allylamines, of 1-aza-2-silacyclobutane compounds having a functional group bonded to the nitrogen through carbon.

1-aza-2-silacyclobutane compounds and method for their preparation


The invention provides arrays for analysis of compromised nucleic acid samples, for example, nucleic acids obtained from formalin fixed paraffin embedded samples and methods to analyzed these compromised samples. Arrays are disclosed in which the probe selection region used to select probes for the array is the 300 bases of the target MRNA that are immediately upstream of the start of the poly(A) tail of the mRNA. The probes selected for the array are more biased toward the 3′ end of the mRNA than other arrays that are currently available.

Many biological functions are carried out by regulating the expression levels of various genes, either through changes in levels of transcription (e.g. through control of initiation, provision of RNA precursors, RNA processing, etc.) of particular genes, through changes in the copy number of the genetic DNA, through changes in RNA processing such as polyadenylation and splicing or RNA stability or through changes in protein synthesis. Changes in the expression levels of particular genes (e.g. oncogenes or tumor suppressors), serve as signposts for the presence and progression of various diseases.
Gene expression analysis using microarrays allows study of entire expressed genomes and has led to insights into the involvement of diverse molecular interactions as well as the pathologies that result from their disruption. Microarrays have been used to distinguish between pathologically similar diseases such as Acute Myeloblastic Leukemia and Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Golub et al. Science, 286 (5439), 531-7 (1999), to provide insight into inflammatory diseases such as psoriasis and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), see for example, Zhou et al. Physiological Genomics, 13(1), 69-78, (2003) and to study diseases such as diabetes, Mootha et al. Nature Genetics, 34, 267-273 (2003).

Methods of analysis of degraded nucleic acid samples


Insulating members are provided for use in nozzles of elevated temperature process vessels employing a structural metal shell (24), an insulating refractory lining (14) and a corrosion-resistant membrane (18) lining between the structural shell and refractory lining. The insulating members comprise pre-formed insulating sleeves and inserts and are made of a thermally insulating material having sufficient thickness and sufficiently low thermal conductivity such that, when the sleeve or insert is heated by the process temperature during operation of the vessel, the thermal energy transmitted through the sleeve or insert to the membrane is insufficient to raise the temperature of the membrane above a target temperature. The most preferred thermally insulating materials are fluoropolymers such as poly(tetrafluoroethylene) flouropolymer resins.

Process vessels operating at elevated temperatures and containing corrosive fluids are used in several industries, including pressure reaction and letdown vessels such as autoclaves, heater vessels and flash vessels in hydrometallurgical processes extracting metal values from ores, concentrates and slags.
These vessels typically employ a structural metal shell, a refractory lining and a corrosion-resistant membrane lining between the structural shell and refractory lining. The membrane protects the structural shell from corrosion by process fluids such as high temperature acid, and the refractory lining protects the membrane from the elevated temperatures inside the vessel. The design of the refractory lining is intended to limit the temperature of the corrosion-resistant membrane to a target temperature, for example to protect the membrane by limiting its temperature to its maximum allowable service temperature. In a typical example, the membrane may be lead and the refractory lining may be insulating brick. A typical membrane may have a maximum allowable service temperature on the order of about 80° C. to 120° C.
This lining system works well for the body of the process vessel, but at the nozzles which connect the vessel to the process piping there can be insufficient space to include a sufficiently insulating thickness of the refractory lining inside the nozzle, which can result in the membrane being subjected to unacceptably high temperatures. If it is discovered that membrane temperatures are unacceptably high, then additional insulation must be retrofit into the nozzle.
Another problem in insulating the corrosion-resistant membrane from elevated process temperatures is that the heat can travel around the refractory lining, by conduction through the cover and nozzle flange, and so to the membrane via the steel shell.
Metallic sleeves and inserts have been used in the past, made of a wide variety of materials, including stainless steel, duplex and super-duplex stainless steels and titanium. These materials, while resistant to corrosive attack under various conditions, are deficient in thermal insulating properties.
There have also been instances where a polymeric resin, typically furan resin, has been poured between a metallic sleeve and the refractory lining of a nozzle to provide insulating value. However, these polymers have a limited service temperature above which they degrade, and it has been found that these insulating layers adhere the sleeve to the underlying refractory layer, making replacement of the sleeve difficult.
Accordingly, the need exists for more effective systems for insulating nozzles of process vessels containing corrosive fluids operating at elevated temperatures. In particular, the developing field of extracting metal values via hydrometallurgical processes requires, for some ore bodies, higher process temperatures than have previously been used. In the past, process temperatures of about 150° C. were typical. In order to process a wider range of ores, it is not uncommon for some currently used processes to operate at considerably higher temperatures and pressures, for example with the operating temperature inside the vessel being up to 300° C. Improved insulation methods are therefore required in order to maintain the membrane temperatures below an upper limiting temperature (such as the maximum allowable service temperature), by insulating it against higher process temperatures.

Insulating inserts for elevated temperature process vessels


A first order phase-locked loop includes a tuning circuit which allows phase lock to be quickly reached, and to be maintained during transient situations such as loss of the data signal. Such an improved circuit has a tuning circuit for the voltage controlled oscillator which utilizes two capacitors. Two signals are used to drive a first, larger, capacitor, and have the same duty cycle when the capacitor voltage is proper and the voltage controlled oscillator is operating at the correct frequency. A second, smaller, capacitor is used to quickly achieve phase lock with the incoming data signal. The use of two oppositional signals to drive the capacitors allows them to more quickly be charged or discharged to the proper voltage level to obtain both frequency and phase lock with the incoming data signal. Thus, the circuit is able to quickly acquire lock during power-up, or reacquire lock under circumstances where the operating condition of the circuit changes suddenly. The circuit always locks to the correct frequency, as opposed to a harmonic thereof.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to electronic circuits, and more specifically to a phase-locked loop circuit having a novel tuning circuit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Phase-locked loop circuits are well known in the industry generally, and are known as circuits highly suitable to integration in monolithic integrated circuits. Typical applications of phase-locked loops include tone decoding, demodulation of AM and FM signals, frequency multiplication, frequency synthesis, and pulse synchronization of signals from noisy sources. For example, in local area networks based on network technology such as ethernet, phase lock loop circuitry can be used to both lock onto the data signal made available over the communication line, and to allow the underlying clock signal to be extracted from the data.
First order phase-locked loop circuits have a phase detector, an amplifier, and a voltage controlled oscillator. The output of the voltage controlled oscillator is fed back into the phase detector, which generates a signal indicative of the phase differential between the signal input and the output of the voltage controlled oscillator. A second order phase-locked loop additionally contains a low-pass filter between the output of the phase detector and the input of the amplifier.
It is well known that first order and second order phase-locked loops have different advantages and drawbacks. One drawback of known first order loops is that they do not have the desirable "flywheel" property, allowing the voltage controlled oscillator to smooth out noise in the input signal and maintain lock even if the input signal is lost for a short period of time. First order phase-lock loops are known to have the advantages of increased capture range and decreased capture time, allowing lock to be obtained much faster than typical second order circuits.
It would be desirable to provide an improved first order phase-locked loop design which allows the advantages of first order circuits to be retained, while overcoming some of the disadvantages. It would be desirable for such a circuit to ensure lock to the correct frequency. It would be desirable for the technology used in such improved circuit to be of a type which can be easily incorporated into standard integrated circuit devices.

First order tuning circuit for a phase-locked loop


A mechanical engagement system such as a seat belt assembly includes a housing and a slider slidably received within the housing, the slider is configured for movement between a first position and a second position within the housing. A single magnet is associated with the slider for slidable movement therewith while a hall effect device is fixed relative to the housing. The hall effect device is fixed relative to the housing and aligned with at the single magnet when the slider is in the second position. The hall effect device is configured to generate an output signal indicative of a latch condition of the mechanical engagement system as applied to the sensor assembly.

Certain latching systems, or any other type of mechanical engagement system, typically require a way to determine when full engagement has been achieved between two mechanical parts. These mechanical parts may both be movable or one can remain stationary relative to the other. One example of such systems requiring accurate and dependable engagement sensing schemes are vehicle restraint systems.
Vehicles are provided with seat restraints systems such as seat belts in order to restrain occupants in the seat. The proper engagement and operation of the seat belt ensures the safety of a driver and his or her occupants.
Seat belts often incorporate sensors that provide data to other vehicle restraint vehicle systems such as airbags. Deployment of an airbag may partially depend on the information supplied by the sensor in the seat belt, such as a sensor may determine the presence of an occupant on the seat. In some applications, it may be desirable to suppress the deployment of an air bag. For example, if an airbag corresponding to an unoccupied seat deploys, an unnecessary repair expense occurs. In addition, such sensors can also be used to indicate that the seat belt is properly tightened and properly engaged or latched for proper reliance thereon. Determination of a latched, or unlatched, condition of the belt may also be used to determine how the airbag should be deployed. A latched condition will deploy the airbag softly, while still protecting against injury due to impact. An unlatched condition will deploy the airbag at a much harder and quicker pace since this is an indication of an occupant not wearing a safety belt.
Most of the sensors employed today as latch engagement detectors are of a mechanical switch type. These mechanical switches involve at least two pieces that are in and out of continuous frictional contact, thus producing wear and misalignment with aging. Wear and misalignment between the mechanical pieces will eventually result in a latch detection failure.
Accordingly, there is a need for a seat belt latch sensor assembly that minimizes or eliminates one or more of the problems set forth above.


An electrical contact (10) using for electrically connecting a chip module to a printed circuit board includes a base portion (101), an arm portion (102) extending from side of the base portion (101), a retaining device (104) extending downwardly from the base portion (101) for retaining a soldering ball (20). The retaining device further comprises a plurality of clipping portions, said clipping portions forming a retaining space (1044) for receiving the soldering ball jointly, and at least one of said clipping portions defining a guiding surface (1046) and a recess (1045). By above way, steady attachment between the soldering ball and the contact is achieved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical contact for connecting a chip module and a printed circuit board.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Electrical contact, which connects with other electric component by soldering art, generally comprises a base portion, a first contacting portion extending from one end of the base portion for engaging with a chip module and a solder portion extending from another end of the base portion for electrically and mechanically connecting with a PCB by the soldering art. The solder portion generally comprises a soldering board of a plate like shape. Before the solder portion is soldered to the PCB, a solder ball is attached to a bottom surface of the solder portion. Then, the electrical contact will be soldered onto the PCB after a reflow process.
US patent application publication No. 2007/0249240 issued to Chiang on Oct. 25, 2007 disclosed an electrical contact, comprising a clipping device and a stopping portion. The clipping device comprises a first clipping portion and a second clipping portion. A containing space is formed between the first clipping portion and the second clipping portion. The stopping portion is connected with the first retaining portion and curved and extended inwardly to the containing space and is vertical to the first clipping portion. Solder balls are clipped reliably in a space surround between a bottom end of the first clipping portion and a bottom end of the second portion and the stopping portion, without reflowing the solder balls to the contacts. Thereby, the cost of the reflow process is reduced.
However, there are some issues existing in the Chiang's art. It is inconveniently for the solder portion to be seated into the containing space and attachment between the solder balls and the first clipping portion, the second clipping portion and the stopping portion are unsteadily.
Thus, there is a need to provide a new electrical contact that overcomes the above-mentioned problem.

Electrical contact with retaining device for clipping solder ball


Some embodiments are directed to a microphone calibration system (100) for multiple microphones (110), said microphones being arranged in an area in which moving objects pass the microphones. The system computes a first and second sound profile from first and second sound measurements, said first and second sound profiles being indicative of a calibration of the first and second microphones, and determines a need to calibrate the first or second microphone.

Lighting is more and more seen as an enabling platform for Internet of Things (IoT) applications enabling sensors to be hosted on this platform, for instance integrated in light poles, luminaires or lamps. Such a lighting based IoT platform could host many different sensors to provide IoT applications, e.g., microphones, particulate matter (PM) sensors, cameras and Wi-Fi sniffers, etc. IoT applications which could be enabled by these sensors could for example be sound monitoring, incident detection, air pollution detection and so forth.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 9,615,066 B1, with title "Smart lighting and city sensor", and included herein by reference, discloses a street light enclosure mounted to a light pole. Amongst others, the street light enclosure comprises a microphone array, and a wireless transceiver. The microphone array can detect sound and direction of sound. This is useful, e.g., to detect gunshots. Moreover, the direction of the sound can be triangulated to pinpoint the position of a shooting. If the light poles are arranged sequential, the microphone arrays have high resolution and a combination of microphone data from an array of light poles on both sides of a street or freeway provides valuable information in detecting sources of sound.
For example, in the known system, the sound source may be a natural or an artificial sound generator. Examples of natural sounds include: human sounds, animal sounds, environmental sounds, etc. In this instance, a natural sound generator may be a human being, an animal, the environment, etc. An example of an artificial sound is a recorded sound, and an artificial sound generator may be a speaker. The sound wave generated from the sound source and propagated toward the sound direction detecting module may have a specific frequency and a certain volume.
However, a problem with the known system is that, in order to provide these applications, the sensor measurements require a high and constant accuracy. A microphone used to locate the origin of sound must be sufficiently accurately calibrated. In order to do so calibration is needed. These calibrations might need to be repeated multiple times to ensure accurate measurements throughout the lifetime of microphone. Calibration of a microphone, especially when installed in out-of-reach light poles is costly. Moreover, there are many light poles in a typically city, which makes regular calibration of the microphone sensor a costly proposition.


A facsimile mail system capable of receiving and printing out a literal message that a caller has left by using a telephone. The facsimile mail system forms a communication path upon detecting a ring signal and generates a first notification tone signal for notifying a start of a mail function to a calling party. Then, the system detects a DTMF signal generated from a telephone of the calling party and converts a literal message corresponding to the DTMF signal into an ASCII code which is to be stored into a memory. Further, the system compares a password received from the telephone of the calling party with a predetermined password, and prints out the stored literal message, if the received password coincides with the predetermined password.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electronic mail system using a facsimile and a a method for controlling the same, and more particularly to a facsimile mail system for printing out a literal message that a user has left on the facsimile using numeric keys and a method for controlling the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Presently, most homes utilize a touch-tone telephone capable of controlling communication equipment attached to the telephone by entry of one or more numerical keys of the touch-tone keypad. Additionally, the touch-tone keypad has been used for aiding the handicapped to communicate over the telephone system such as a telecommunication device for the deaf (TDD). In order for the deaf to utilize a telephone there are known systems which allows a caller to transmit an alphanumeric message by using the touch-tone keypad to transmit characters and a decoder at the receiving telephone decodes the dual tone multi-frequency signal (DTMF) transmitted by depressing the various keys of the touch-tone keypad and the message is then displayed so it can be read. Exemplars of such communication devices are found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,426,555 to Edwin C. Underkoffler entitled Telephone Communications Device For Hearing-Impaired Person; U.S. Pat. No. 4,427,848 to Peter J. Tsakanikas entitled Telephonic Alphanumeric Data Transmission System; U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,721 to Kazuo Hashimoto entitled Push Button Phone Capable Of Sending To The Telephone Line Alphanumeric Characters; U.S. Pat. No. 5,200,988 to Bernard N. Riskin entitled Method And Means For Telecommunications By Deaf Persons Utilizing A Small Hand Held Communications Device; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,561,710 to Ramon E. Helms entitled Interactive Voice Communication Terminal With Alpha And Numeric Keypad.
Additionally, many homes and businesses utilize a facsimile system to transmit and receive facsimile images. Generally, a facsimile prints out image information received from a calling facsimile, and sends image information of a document to a called facsimile. For example, in order to send the image information, a facsimile user should put a document on a document guiding plate and dial a telephone number of the called facsimile to form a communication path. Then, the image information is transferred to the called facsimile via the communication path and printed out on a paper sheet. Accordingly, it has become desirable to utilize these facsimile devices to receive a message from a person having no facsimile device. U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,559 to Shoji Izawa, et al. entitled Facsimile Apparatus With A Mode For Receiving Non-Image Information provides a facsimile terminal having a mode capable of receiving and printing out a message from a caller having no facsimile system as well as a general facsimile mode for receiving and printing transmitted images.
Further communications using the telephone line is in the form of electronic mail (e-mail) transmitted between users of personal computers. One problem that has arisen by the advent of e-mail is the reception of unwanted solicitations or messages (known as spam). Additionally, it well known that facsimile devices receive unsolicited messages/advertisement which causes a waste in printer paper. Many jurisdictions have enacted laws to make such unsolicited communications unlawful, however, prosecution of such cases rests on the ability to prove who transmitted the message. To help in this regard it is required that a transmitting facsimile device transmit header information which is printed at the top of a document at a receiving facsimile device. Accordingly, I have determined that a facsimile device as described above will incur similar problems in that paper becomes wasted when anyone having a touch-tone telephone can transmit unwanted messages, and since there is no means provided in a touch-tone telephone for adding header information to the message generated by activation of the touch-tone keypad, controlling who can transmit a message to the facsimile device was not possible.

Facsimile mail system and method for controlling the same


A controlling and monitoring control application associated with one or more work operations of one or more utility devices is disclosed. The controller is programmed for controlling one or more external work operations associated with one or more utility devices. An I/O board is connected in communication with the primary controller having a module with a plurality of device-specific control applications associated with one or more device-specific work operations. The housing of the controller includes one or more cable access points for plugging a cable into the controller. The cable access points are sealed to prevent water from entering into the housing. A mounting bracket assembly provides flexibility for mounting the controller at various orientations and/or positions. The controller also includes a DC control circuit for controlling backlight luminance over the entire dimming ratio.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to a universal controller for utility devices, and more particularly to a universal controller for controlling and monitoring control applications associated with one or more work operations for one or more utility devices associated with, for example, hospitality, industrial and healthcare markets.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Utility devices are generally controlled and monitored by a device-specific controller. For example, a product dispenser for a ware washing system is controlled and monitored by a dispenser controller whereas the ware washing system is controlled by a separate ware washing controller. Since the dedicated controls and hardware for each controller are also included in the controller enclosure, the controllers are difficult to position in highly accessible locations such as on the front of a utility device. A controller enclosure is often also subjected to interrogation by environmental conditions resulting from the utility device or the operating environment. For example, controller electronics and hardware can degrade and fail over time by exposure to the steam and moisture byproducts of the ware washing process. Thus, controllers often are located a distance from the utility device it controls to prevent damage to the enclosure. Not only are controller degradation and accessibility a concern, but so is communicating data to and from the controller especially via wired connections. Often, user interface points allow conditions within the environment, such as moisture, to enter and degrade the controller and its components.
It is therefore desirable to provide a controller capable of simultaneously monitoring and controlling multiple utility devices, such as those associated with, for example, hospitality, industrial and healthcare markets that can be positioned at any location on or adjacent to a utility device regardless of the environmental conditions.
It is further desirable to provide a controller that is accessible upon need by wired connection regardless of the environmental conditions at the install location.
It is further desirable to provide a controller capable of monitoring user interaction with one or more utility devices, even simultaneously, for purposes of determining compliance and for auditing use and operation of the utility device(s).

Distributed control system for hospitality management


The present disclosure relates to a three-dimensional force recognition sensor, a driving method therefor and a display device. A first conductive layer and a second conductive layer are respectively provided on two sides of a pressure-sensitive conductive layer, wherein the first conductive layer includes multiple first electrode groups arranged side by side, and each first electrode group comprises at least two first electrodes which extend in a first direction and are arranged side by side and insulated from each other; and the second conductive layer comprises multiple second electrode groups arranged side by side, and each second electrode group comprises at least two second electrodes which extend in a second direction and are arranged side by side and insulated from each other.

With the continuous development of touch control technology, application of pressure touch detection has greatly improved user experience. At present, pressure recognition is mainly used to recognize a pressure directed to the bottom of a screen, and there is a lack of application in which a horizontal force is recognized. Application of horizontal force recognition includes, for example, a mobile game. During the game, operations of moving up, down, left, and right are usually performed by sliding on the screen. By recognizing a force in the horizontal direction, a movement trend of a finger in the horizontal direction can be determined to improve the user experience.
Therefore, how to provide a sensor capable of recognizing a three-dimensional force is a technical problem to be solved by those skilled in the art.

Three-dimensional force recognition sensor, driving method therefor and display device


To provide a mobile station and a transmission power control method in the mobile station, which are capable of improving the power saving characteristic associated with the transmission power control in the mobile station under a condition in which the transmit diversity is applied. The transmission power of feedback information (11: FBI) is controlled on the basis of control information (TPC) transmitted through a sub-information downlink channel (21) from a base station (210) as a main branch, only when it is determined by a communication method determining section 103 that a cosed loop transmit diversity can be applied (step S201: Yes), and when it is determined by a communication base station determining section 104 that sub-information downlink channels (21, 22) and sub-information uplink channels (11, 12) are connected to a plurality of base stations (step S202: Yes).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile station and a transmission power control method in the mobile station.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, according to rapid spread of the Internet, and to the space diversity and increasing capacity of information communication, and further according to a trend toward the development of the next generation Internet, the research and development of next generation radio access system for realizing high speed radio transmission in mobile communication have been energetically performed.
In such high speed radio communication, the development of technique for space diversity is a key for realizing more efficient communication in a same radio environment.
In particular, a transmission technique for space diversity, by which signals transmitted from a plurality of antennas on the base station side are received and synthesized by a reception terminal (mobile station), is mandatorily prescribed by the standard in the 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project).
In particular, a closed loop transmit diversity, by which a mobile station determines the phase of a signal transmitted from a base station and feedbacks the phase rotation information to the base station, has a high diversity gain, and hence has been widely used in the present third generation communication.
Further, in the next generation high speed communication transmission, the adaptive modulation and channel coding (AMC) in which the throughput is changed according to the reception environment of a reception terminal, and a hybrid ARQ (Automatic Repeat Request) which performs the packet retransmission and synthesis, are applied. Thus, a system configured to perform communication only with a cell in a best reception environment, is adopted, unlike the conventional W-CDMA technique which simultaneously effects connection with a number of cells.
FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 are conceptual diagrams for explaining phase states in the case of adopting the transmit diversity. FIG. 6 represents an open loop transmit diversity in which feedback information from a mobile station is not used, and FIG. 7 represents a cosed loop transmit diversity in which the phase of a transmission signal, and the like, is controlled on the basis of feedback information transmitted from a mobile station. The both modes are adopted in the W-CDMA system standardized in the 3GPP.
In FIG. 6, when a same signal TS is transmitted as signals TS1 and TS2 from two antennas (not shown) of a base station, the signals reach a mobile station (not shown) as a signal RS1 and a signal RS2 through a radio space which is a propagation path.
A diversity combining gain can be obtained by combining the signal RS1 and the signal RS2 in the mobile station. However, the diversity combining gain may not be obtained because the phase of the signal is rotated in the radio propagation path.
That is, in the case of FIG. 6, the signal TS1 reaches the antenna of the mobile station as the signal RS1 with no phase rotation, while the signal TS2 reaches the antenna of the mobile station as the signal RS2 with a phase rotated by +90 degrees.
Therefore, when the signal RS1 and the signal RS2 are synthesized, the diversity combining gain is deviated, so that a prescribed gain (ideally two times) cannot be obtained.
On the other hand, in the cosed loop transmit diversity shown in FIG. 7, the amount of phase rotation in the radio propagation path is culculated separately for each transmission antenna in the mobile station. Feedback information, which requires the each antenna to transmit a signal with a phase shifted beforehand on the basis of the culculated result, is transmitted from the mobile station to the base station.
That is, when two signals TS1 and TS2 are transmitted from the two antennas through the radio propagation path, the signal TS2 reaches the antenna of the mobile station as the signal RS2 with the phase rotated by +90 degrees, as described above with reference to FIG. 6. However, in the cosed loop transmit diversity, the signal TS2 is transmitted as a signal RS2 with a phase rotated beforehand by −90 degrees with respect to the signal TS1. Thereby, the phases of the signal RS1 and the signal RS2, which reach the mobile station, are made to coincide with each other, so that the prescribed gain can be obtained.
Note that in the 3GPP, the open loop transmit diversity includes the STTD (Space Time block coding based Transmit Diversity) and the TSTD (Time Switched Transmit Diversity), and in the cosed loop transmit diversity, there are specified the mode 1 which controls only the phase, and the mode 2 which controls both the phase and the amplitude.
As will be described below, the present invention relates to a problem caused in the case where the cosed loop transmit diversity is applied, but the present invention can be applied regardless of the difference between the above described mode 1 and mode 2. Thus, in the following description, the above described modes are not specifically distinguished.
FIG. 8 is a conceptual diagram showing a state of communication in which conventional individual channels are used. A plurality of base stations 210 and 220 (for convenience of explanation, two base stations are shown in FIG. 8) and a mobile station 100 are connected to each other by uplink control channels 11 and 12, downlink control channels 21 and 22, and downlink data channels 31 and 32.
The timing, rate, and the like, which relate to data transfer in the downlink data channel 31 are adjusted by control signals of the uplink control channel 11 and the downlink control channel 21. Similarly, the timing, rate, and the like, which relate to data transfer in the downlink data channel 32 are adjusted by control signals of the uplink control channel 12 and the downlink control channel 22.
FIG. 9 is a conceptual diagram showing a state of communication in which data transfer is performed by using a shared channel as in the HSDPA proposed by the 3GPP.
In the HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access), a high-speed physical downlink shared channel 31 (HS-PDSCH) is used as the downlink channel used for information (data) transfer from the base stations 210 and 220 to the mobile station 100.
That is, the HS-PDSCH is used for data transmission from the respective base stations 210 and 220 to the plurality of mobile stations 100 (for convenience of explanation, only one mobile station is shown in FIG. 9).
The base stations 210 and 220 determine a schedule on the basis of which data transmission is performed to each of the plurality of mobile stations 100, and perform data transfer at a different timing to the each mobile station 100.
In the HSDPA, each of the base stations 210 and 220 sets a DPCH (Dedicated Physical Channel), which is an individual channel, between itself and each of the plurality of mobile stations 100.
In the DPCH, there are included the downlink channels 21 and 22 through which the control information is transmitted from the base stations 210 and 220 to the mobile station 100, and the uplink channels 11 and 12 through which the control signal is transmitted from the mobile station 100 to the base stations 210 and 220.
As described above, in the HSDPA, data transmission is performed from the one base station 210 by using the high-speed physical downlink shared channel 31, while the control signal is transmitted and received to and from the plurality of base stations 210 and 220 by using the DPCH (the downlink channels 21 and 22 and the uplink channels 11 and 22).
Next, there will be described the soft handover and the hard handover, which are specified by the 3GPP as handover systems.
The soft handover is a handover system by which the mobile station 100 sets up channels simultaneously with the plurality of base stations 210 and 220. The soft handover system is applied to set up the DPCH in FIG. 8.
Each of the base stations 210 and 220 transmit a common pilot signal at predetermined power. The mobile station 100 sets up the DPCH with the base station (for example, base station 210), the reception power of the common pilot signal from which is largest. However, when the difference in the reception power is small, the mobile station 100 sets up the DPCH with the other base station (for example, base station 220), the reception power of the common pilot signal from which is relatively small.
That is, the mobile station 100 is capable of simultaneously setting up the DPCH with the plurality of base stations 210 and 220. Thereby, the mobile station 100 is capable of starting communication with the other cell (base station 220) while continuing communication with the cell (base station 210 performing the data transfer) with which the mobile station 100 is currently communicating.
On the other hand, the hard handover system is applied to the high-speed physical downlink shared channel 31 relating to the data transfer.
The hard handover is a handover for switching the base station connecting with the mobile station, according to the movement of the mobile station. The hard handover results in the current radio connection being broken between the base station and the mobile station, before a new radio connection established.
Next, there will be described the transmission power control (power control for high-speed cosed loop transmission in HSDPA) in the mobile station 100, which transmission power control is performed on the basis of control signals from the respective base stations 210 and 220 in the state where the above described soft handover is applied and the base stations 210 and 220 are simultaneously connected.
FIGS. 10A and 10B are the conceptual diagrams showing a state of the high-speed cosed loop transmission power control in the HSDPA.
FIG. 10A is a figure showing a state where the DPCH is established by the soft handover between the mobile station 100 and the plurality of base stations 210 and 220, and where the high-speed physical downlink shared channel is established by the hard handover between the base station 210 and the mobile station 100.
FIG. 10B is a figure showing control signals supplied from the base stations 210 and 220 to the mobile station 100 through the downlink channels of DPCH, and showing a state where the transmission power is adjusted in the mobile station 100.
In the transmission power control of the uplink channel of DPCH, the base stations 210 and 220 measure the reception SIR (Signal to Interference Ratio) by using an individual pilot signal included in an uplink signal, and compare the measured value with a predetermined target SIR.
In the case where the measured value is smaller than the target SIR, the TPC (Transmit Power Control) bit instructing to increase the transmission power is notified to the mobile station 100 through the downlink channels (21, 22) of DPCH, and in the other case, the TPC bit instructing to reduce the transmission power is notified to the mobile station 100 through the downlink channels (21, 22) of DPCH.
The mobile station 100 receives the TPC bit, and increases or reduces the transmission power of the uplink channels (11, 12) of DPCH according to the received TPC bit.
The transmission power control of the uplink channel is performed on the basis of the TPC bits supplied from the plurality of base stations 210 and 220 connected by the soft handover.
The respective values of the TPC bits and the increase or reduction of the transmission power in the transmission power control performed in the mobile station 100 at this time are shown in FIG. 10B.
That is, when the TPC bit sent from the base station 210 to the mobile station 100 through the downlink channel 21 of DPCH instructs to increase the transmission power in the uplink channel 11 of DPCH (denoted by "up" in the figure), and when the TPC bit sent from the base station 220 to the mobile station 100 through the downlink channel 22 of DPCH instructs to increase the transmission power in the uplink channel 12 of DPCH, that is, when both the TPC bits from the base stations 210 and 220 instruct "up", the mobile station 100 increases the transmission power in the uplink channels 11 and 12 of DPCH (the transmission power of the mobile station 100 is denoted by "up" on the left end side in the figure).
On the contrary, when both the TPC bits from the base stations 210 and 220 instruct to reduce the transmission power (denoted by "down" in the figure), the mobile station 100 reduces the transmission power in the uplink channels 11 and 12 of DPCH (the transmission power of the mobile station 100 is denoted by "down" on the right end side in the figure).
On the other hand, when the TPC bit from one of the base stations 210 and 220 instructs to reduce the transmission power (denoted by "down" for the TPC bit from one of the base stations 210 and 220 in the figure), the mobile station 100 reduces the transmission power of the uplink channels 11 and 12 of DPCH (down).
As can be easily understood from the above, the mobile station 100 receives the TPC bit from each of the plurality of base stations. In the case where at least one TPC bit instructs to reduce the transmission power, the mobile station 100 reduces the transmission power in the uplink channels of DPCH. In the other case, (that is, when all the TPC bits instruct to increase the transmission power), the mobile station 100 increases the transmission power of the uplink channels of DPCH.
When the above described transmission power control is performed, the uplink channel reception quality satisfies the target SIR in one base station, and at the same time, it is prevented that the uplink channel reception quality deviates from the target SIR in all the base stations and that the interference wave power of the uplink channel is increased.
On the other hand, in the transmission power control of the downlink channels (21, 22) of DPCH, the mobile station 100 measures the reception SIR by using individual pilot signals included in the downlink channels (21, 22), and compares the measured value with a predetermined target SIR.
In the case where it is determined that the measured value is smaller than the target SIR by the comparison, the mobile station 100 transmits the TPC bit instructing to increase the transmission power to the base stations 210 and 220 through the uplink channels of DPCH. In the other case, the mobile station 100 transmits the TPC bit instructing to reduce the transmission power to the base stations 210 and 220 through the uplink channels of DPCH.
The base stations 210 and 220 increase or reduce the transmission power of the downlink channels (21, 22) of DPCH according to the above described values of the TPC bit transmitted through the uplink channels of DPCH.
Here, the DPCH of uplink channel is configured by a DPCCH (Dedicated Physical Control Channel) and a DPDCH (Dedicated Physical Data Channel). The DPCCH includes an individual pilot channel (Pilot), the TPC bit instructing to increase or reduce the transmission power, and an FBI (Feed Back Information) which is feedback information for phase adjustment in the transmit diversity.
Further, the DPDCH is data including user information and control information. The DPCCH and the DPDCH are quadrature modulated and multiplexed with each other, so as to be transmitted.
As described above with reference to FIGS. 10A and 10B, for transmission of data (that is, main information) which is an original object of communication between concerned parties (users) communicating with each other, a main information downlink channel based on the hard handover is connected between the corresponding one base station 210 and the one mobile station 100 by using a high-speed physical downlink shared channel. On the other hand, for transmission of sub-information such as the control signal as described above, downlink and uplink sub-information channels (DPCH) are connected on the basis of the soft handover.
As described with reference to FIG. 10B, in the transmission power control in the mobile station 100, even in the case where the TPC bit from the base station 210, which is a main branch connected to the high-speed physical downlink shared channel, instructs to increase the transmission power (in the figure, the TPC bit from the base station 210 is denoted by "up"), when the TPC bit from the base station 220, which is a sub-branch not connected to the high-speed physical downlink shared channel, instructs to reduce the transmission power (in the figure, the TPC bit from the base station 220 is denoted by "down"), the mobile station 100 preferentially follows the TPC bit (down) from the sub-branch, so as to reduce the transmission power of the uplink channels 11 and 12 of DPCH.
In this case, as for the communication between the mobile station 100 and the data signal transmitting base station (main branch) 210 which are connected with the high-speed physical downlink shared channel, despite the fact that the base station 210 issues a request for increasing the transmission power of the uplink channel 11 of DPCH, which request includes the FBI (feedback signal relating to transmission power control), there is caused an unbalance that an adjusting operation is performed in the direction to reduce the transmission power of the uplink channel of DPCH according to the TPC bit from the base station 220 which is not the main branch but is the sub-branch.
When the unbalance as described above is caused, the transmission is performed in the state where the FBI is transmitted to the base station 210 as the main branch with transmission power lower than the required transmission power, and hence an error is liable to occur (the bit error rate is increased). Thereby, the phase control in the transmit diversity, which is based on the FBI transmitted in this way, is abnormally performed. This eventually lowers the throughput of the transmission of data as the main information which is transmitted through the high-speed physical downlink shared channel.
FIG. 11 is a conceptual diagram showing a state of the transmit diversity in the state where the feedback information (FBI) includes an error.
Also in FIG. 11, similarly to the transmit diversity shown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7, known signals transmitted as the signals TS1 and TS2 from two antennas (not shown) reach the mobile station (not shown) as the signal RS1 and the signal RS2 through the radio space which is the propagation path. The signal RS1 and the signal RS2 are synthesized in the mobile station, so that a prescribed diversity combining gain is (originally) obtained.
As described above, in the open loop transmit diversity, the amount of phase rotation in the radio propagation path is separately culculated in the mobile station for each transmission antenna, and the feedback information requiring that the signals TS1 and TS2 be transmitted as signals with phases shifted beforehand from each antenna on the basis of the culculated result is transmitted from the mobile station to the base station.
However, when the unbalance in the transmission power control is caused as described above, the erroneous feedback information itself is transmitted to the base station. Hence, on the side of the base station which receives the erroneous feedback information, the phase difference between TS1 and TS2 is erroneously set according to the erroneous feedback information.
Thus, the signals TS1 and TS2 having such unsuitable phase difference propagate in the radio space and reach the mobile station as the signal RS1 and the signal RS2. Thereby, the phases of the signal RS1 and the signal RS2 which reach the mobile station are not coincident with each other, so as to cause the diversity combining gain to be deviated.
When the cosed loop transmit diversity is in the state as described with reference to FIG. 11, there is caused, as described above, the problem that the throughput relating to the transmission of data as the main information transmitted through the high-speed physical downlink shared channel is eventually lowered.
In order to solve such problem, it is only necessary to reduce the generation of error in the transmission of feedback information by increasing the transmission power of the uplink channel of DPCH.
However, when the transmission power of the uplink channel of DPCH is unconditionally increased, the transmission power of the uplink channels of DPCH is increased more than needed. This results in a new problem that the power consumption of the mobile station is increased and that the interference wave power of the uplink channels is increased.
There has already been proposed a technique which reduces the generation of error in the transmission of feedback information by controlling the transmission power of the uplink channel of DPCH, while coping with such problem (please refer to JP2004-80235A (please refer to paragraph 0021 to paragraph 0025, and the like, and hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1), JP2004-7030A (please refer to paragraph 0021 to paragraph 0027, paragraph 0021 to paragraph 0028, and the like, and hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 2), and the like).
In Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, there is disclosed a technique in which the transmission power control of an individual uplink channel is performed only on the basis of the transmission power control information included in an individual downlink channel from a packet transmitting base station.
In the technique disclosed in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, in other words, when the data of main information is received from the main branch, the transmission power control is performed only in accordance with the TPC bit transmitted through the downlink control channel from the main branch, and without the influence of the TPC bit transmitted from the base station serving as the sub-branch.
On the other hand, in these days, in order to maintain the communication quality at a high level, the base stations are installed in various places. For this reason, it is not rare that the base station is particularly installed in places, such as an indoor place, and a station yard, where the installation space cannot be sufficiently secured all the time.
In the base station installed in such extremely limited space, it is not necessarily permitted to adopt a relatively large type base station which is provided with a plurality of antennas to perform the transmit diversity, and hence the cosed loop transmit diversity is not necessarily applied.
However, in the case where it is assumed that the technique as disclosed in Patent document 1 and Patent document 2 is simply applied in such actual state, the transmission power control is indiscriminately performed only in accordance with the TPC bit transmitted through the downlink control channel from the main branch at the time when the data of main information is received from the main branch.
However, in the state where the above described cosed loop transmit diversity is not performed, the phase adjustment in the transmit diversity is not principally performed on the basis of the feedback information. Thus, this state is essentially independent of the process in which the error of the feedback information itself is suppressed.
Even in this state, when it is configured such that the transmission power control of the uplink control channel is indiscriminately performed only according to the TPC bit transmitted through the downlink control channel from the main brunch at the time when the data of main information is received from the main brunch, the control on the side of the mobile station is performed such that the transmission power of the uplink control channel is unconditionally increased, as long as the TPC bit transmitted through the downlink control channel instructs to increase the transmission power. This may result in a case where the power is uselessly consumed.
Usually, one of the greatest demands for the mobile station which is driven by a battery and has a limited power supply capacity, is to suppress the power consumption as much as possible, and to thereby secure the continuous operation time after charging as long as possible. Therefore, it is a very important technical problem to suppress the useless power consumption as described above.
However, in Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2, such actual technical problem is not considered in particular, and hence no solution for the problem is naturally disclosed and suggested.
The present invention has been made in view of the above described circumstances. An object of the present invention is to provide a mobile station and a transmission power control method in the mobile station, which make it possible to improve a power saving characteristic associated with transmission power control in the mobile station under a condition in which the transmit diversity is applied.

Mobile station and transmission power control method in mobile station


A moldable linear polyester resin consisting essentially of a polyester having the formula: ##STR1## where R is an alkyl from 1 to 6 carbon atoms and n is greater than about 70, said polyester resin being derived from the transesterification reaction of a starting DMCD and a starting CHDM wherein the trans-cis ratio of repeating units derived from DMCD is preferably greater than about 8 to 1, and the trans-cis ratio of repeating units derived from DMCD is preferable greater than about 1 to 1, said polyester resin having crystalline properties with a preferable viscosity greater than 4500 poise and a melting temperature greater than 216 degrees Centigrade.

Poly(1,4-cyclohexylenedimethylene 1,4-cyclohexanedicarboxylate), PCCD, is a known polyester referred to in U.S. Pat. No. 2,891,930 to Caldwell et al and U.S. Pat. No. 2,901,466 to Kibler et al. Kibler et al discusses poly(1,4-cyclohexylenedimethylene 1,4-cyclohexanedicarboxylate) as one of the sixty-eight examples of linear polyesters and polyesteramides. According to Example 42, an excess amount of the glycol or 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol component is utilized for making poly(1,4-cyclohexylenedimethylene 1,4-cyclohexanedicarboxylate).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,897,453 to Flora et al and U.S. Pat. No. 4,349,469 to Davis et al describe copolyesterethers derived from 1,4-cyclohexanedicarboxylic acid and a polytetramethyleneether glycol. Both patents describe the inclusion of a branching agent having at least three carboxyl or hydroxyl groups and a poly(oxytetramethylene) glycol component. The polyester-ethers are described as suitable for film and packaging where good optical clarity is essential.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,562 describes UV-stable weatherable molding compositions based upon cycloaliphatic diacid derived polyester materials containing impact-modifying elastomeric polymers and filler such as glass fibers, which compositions have enhanced melt flow properties while retaining good impact strength properties. The modulus of these compositions is low and while stiffness can be improved with added filler, like fiberglass, impact strength is reduced.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,399,661 to Borman et al relates to copolyester compositions which comprise the reaction product of at least one straight chain, branched, or cycloaliphatic C2-C10 alkane diol or a chemical equivalent and a mixture of at least two cycloaliphatic diacids. The diacid mixture comprises predominantly a trans isomer and at least one aromatic diacid. As set forth in column 5, lines 41 to 45, "The reaction is generally run with an excess of the diol component and in the presence of a suitable catalyst ***". U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,562 to Borman et al additionally describes an impact strength modifier for compositions of the type set forth in the '661 patent.
Typically, molding compositions based upon blends of thermoplastic resin incorporating 1,4-cyclohexanedicarboxylic acid residues in the polymer chain may have good impact resistance, good processability, and transparency. It is desirable to retain these properties while enhancing properties of solvent resistance and UV stability.

Crystalline polyester resins and process for their preparation