An ink jet printing apparatus is provided which can produce an image in good condition without contaminating the interior of the printing apparatus or the back of the print medium if the “marginless printing” using an ink that tends to coagulate is performed. To that end, a step is provided which applies to the ink absorber the coagulation inhibiting liquid that inhibits a colorant contained in the ink from coagulating. This suppresses the coagulation of the colorant on the surface of the absorber, allowing the colorant to quickly soak into the absorber. Therefore, the colorant is prevented from depositing on the absorber surface, alleviating the problems associated with the colorant deposit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet printing apparatus which forms an image by applying to a print medium a coloring material that coagulates under a predetermined condition. More specifically, the present invention relates to an ink jet printing method and printing apparatus that realizes a "marginless printing" by which a print medium is printed with an image without blank edges.
2. Description of the Related Art
As office equipment such as computers, word processors and copying machines advance, a growing number of printing apparatuses for outputting information from these equipment has become available on the market. The printing apparatus employing an ink jet printing system in particular has an advantage of being able to reduce the size of a print head easily, print an image at high resolution and high speed and print on plain paper without requiring special processing on the paper. Other advantages include low running cost, low noise and a relative ease with which a full color printing can be realized using multiple color inks. It has therefore found a wide range of applications, including personal users.
Such a widespread use can lead to the user making new demands on the ink jet printing apparatus. In recent years in particular, there are growing calls for increased image fastness such as waterfastness and lightfastness while maintaining a high color saturation. One method of enhancing the image fastness is to make some improvements on the print medium as dedicated paper. However, to stably maintain a high image fastness of various kinds of print mediums including plain paper, it is more effective to provide an ink itself with some features to achieve the above objective. For this reason, recent years have seen many novel inks developed and their applications proposed.
For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 11-227229 (1999) discloses, in addition to the conventionally used dye inks, the development of inks containing pigments as coloants materials and a variety of printing methods using such inks. The inks containing pigments tend to stay on the surface of a print medium with the colorants in a coagulated state, when compared with inks containing dyes as colorants. Thus, the pigment colorants have features of a high color saturation which is not easily faded by sunlight and ozone. To take advantage of both the superiority of the pigment ink and the superiority of the dye ink, the above-cited reference discloses a method that selectively uses these different kinds of inks according to the kind of print medium used and the kind of image to be output. For example, the above document describes that a pigment-based black ink with low penetrability and dye-based color inks with high penetrability are prepared and that a black image may be printed with the black ink or with a combination of different color inks, depending on the kind of print medium and the kind of image to be printed. The cited reference also describes printing color inks first, followed by a black ink overlapping the first printed color inks.
Other methods for enhancing the color saturation and the image fastness propose using a reaction liquid that reacts with color inks containing colorants to make the colorants insoluble or coagulate. For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 56-89595 (1981) discloses a method which applies a polymer solution, such as carboxymethyl cellulose, polyvinyl alcohol and polyvinyl acetate, to the print medium before printing and then prints coloring inks. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 63-29971 (1988) discloses a method that involves applying to a print medium a liquid containing an organic compound having two or more cationic groups in one molecule and then printing coloring inks containing anionic dye. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 64-9279 (1989) discloses a method that first applies an acidic liquid containing succinic acid to a print medium and then prints coloring inks. Japanese Patent Disclosure No. 64-63185 describes a method that applies to a print medium a liquid that makes a dye insoluble, before printing coloring inks containing the dye. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 5-202328 (1993) describes a method which applies a reaction liquid containing polyvalent metal ion before printing coloring inks.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 6-106841 (1994), 9-11850 (1997), 11-334101 (1999) and 11-343441 (1999), and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,428,383, 5,488,402 and 5,976,230 disclose a set of a black ink and coloring inks in which at least one of the color inks exhibits a mutual reactivity with the black ink, with other inks showing no reactivity with the black ink.
All these methods listed above that use a reaction liquid are characterized in that the reaction liquid chemically reacts with the coloring inks containing colorants to coagulate the coloring inks. That is, many ink jet printing apparatus of recent years, whether they use pigments or dyes or whether they require a reaction liquid to induce coagulation, have the colorants coagulate, remain and settle on the surface of a print medium, thereby realizing a satisfactory color saturation and image fastness.
There are also growing calls for a high image quality and a handling that match those of silver salt pictures. In recent years, an increasing number of printing apparatus are appearing on the market which can perform the so-called "marginless printing" by which an image is printed to the edges of the print medium.
In the conventional ink jet printing apparatus, forming an image to the edges of the print medium poses many problems to the apparatus. One of the problems is that ink that has overrun the edges of the print medium may contaminate the interior of the printing apparatus, further contaminating sheets of print medium as they are fed into the printing apparatus. Since the ink is absorbed also at the edges of the print medium, the accuracy with which the print medium is transported degrades, which is likely to result in the print medium being jammed in the apparatus.
However, a construction and method to solve the above problems accompanying the "marginless printing" have already been proposed, for example, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Nos. 10-128964 (1998) and 2000-351205. As a construction to realize the "marginless printing" on side edges of a print medium, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 10-128964 (1998) discloses an "ink jet printing apparatus which comprises: a guide means set movable, according to the size of the print medium, in a direction perpendicular to the direction of transport of the print medium and installed inside of the side edges of the print medium; and an ink receiving means installed outside of and adjacent to the guide means in a direction perpendicular to the print medium transport direction to receive ink from the print head." That is, when the "marginless printing" is performed on print mediums of various widths, ink ejected outside of the side edges of the print medium can be received by the ink receiving means, thereby minimizing the contamination of the interior of the printing apparatus.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-351205 discloses a construction to realize the "marginless printing" with respect to front and rear ends of a print medium. In this construction, a platen surface that restricts the position of the print medium during printing is formed with a hole and ink ejected outside the front or rear ends of the print medium during the printing operation is led into the hole, in which an absorbent is installed to absorb wasted ink. The mechanism to collect ink ejected outside the edges of the print medium without contaminating the interior of the apparatus is one of the important factors in realizing the "marginless printing."
In the ink jet printing apparatus, however, it is found that executing the "marginless printing" by using the above-described ink that accelerates coagulation of colorants can cause another problem. This is explained in the following.
When a coagulating ink is used, a quick absorption of ink as with common dye inks becomes difficult to achieve. Such an ink has colorants not dissolved in water and ionized as with dyes but dispersed in a liquid, so when it adheres to the absorbent, it is not absorbed as quickly as water. The phenomenon and problems that the inventors of this invention have found in the process of executing the "marginless printing" using pigment inks as an example of coagulating inks and also dye inks will be explained as follows.
FIG. 13 shows a dye ink as it is ejected onto an ink absorber. In the figure, denoted by 1 is a print head. Ink ejected from the print head 1 is a conventionally known water-based dye ink for use in ink jet printing. The dye used may include water-soluble dyes such as a direct dye, an acid dye and a basic dye. Denoted by 2 is an ink absorber which may use any type of commonly known porous material. The ink absorber may be formed, for example, by using fibers of cellulose, rayon, acrylic, polyurethane or polyester singly or in combination and forming these fibers into fibrils or by subjecting the fibers to a hydrophilic treatment and laminating them in layers. The ink absorber may also be formed of porous polyethylene and melamine foam. If such an ink absorber 2 is used in combination with the dye ink, the ink will quickly be absorbed in the ink absorber, with the ink soaking into the interior of the ink absorber 2 as shown shaded in the figure.
FIG. 14 shows a pigment ink as it is ejected onto an ink absorber similar to the above. Any conventionally known pigment ink for use in ink jet printing may be used. In a combination of such a pigment ink and the ink absorber, a part of ink components such as liquid medium penetrates into the ink absorber 2. However, the pigment particles remain on the ink absorber 2 forming a deposit as an ink component left unabsorbed. That is, as shown shaded in the figure, the ink separates into a portion that penetrates into the absorber and a portion that deposits on the ink absorber and settles there.
While in the above explanation a pigment ink has been taken for example, such an ink behavior in the absorber can similarly be observed in any ink with a coagulating colorant. For example, the same also applies even to an ink composed of a mixture of dye and pigment in which the pigment constitutes a main colorant with another colorant such as a highly soluble dye mixed with it for color adjustment. The similar effect can also be produced even when a dye is used as a colorant, by using a reaction liquid that reacts with the dye to accelerate the coagulation of the colorant.
In the absorber during the execution of the "marginless printing", the ink deposit on the surface of the absorber progressively increases as the number of printed sheets and the power-on time increase. Once the surface of the absorber is covered with the deposit, ink droplets landing on the absorber thereafter fail to be received in the absorber. As a result, ink bounced off the absorber surface will contaminate the interior of the printing apparatus. Further, when a large number of sheets are "marginless-printed", it is found that the ink deposit reaches the print medium transport path, contaminating the back of the print medium. Furthermore, it is also found that the ink deposit may protrude even into the print medium transport path, touching the end of the print medium, which in turn may result in a transport failure.
Because of various problems described above, a satisfactory "marginless printing" is difficult to achieve in the ink jet printing apparatus that uses inks with a coagulating property.

Ink jet printing method and ink jet printing apparatus


A clock circuit includes an oscillator for generating a reference frequency signal, and a spread spectrum clock generator cooperating with the oscillator, generating a spread spectrum clock output signal having a fundamental frequency and reduced amplitude EMI spectral components at harmonics of the fundamental frequency. The spread spectrum clock generator preferably includes a clock pulse generator for generating a series of clock pulses, and a spread spectrum modulator for frequency modulating the clock pulse generator to broaden and flatten amplitudes of EMI spectral components which would otherwise be produced by the clock pulse generator. The spread spectrum modulator frequency modulated the clock pulses with specific profiles of frequency deviation versus the period of the profile. The clock generator circuits are digital and may be reset to a starting condition to synchronize the spread spectrum clock. For a laser printhead, the clock is synchronized with the start-of-sweep signal, so that printing is not degraded.

Many electronic devices employ microprocessors or other digital circuits which require one or more clock signals for synchronization. A clock signal permits the precise timing of events in the microprocessor, for example. Typical microprocessors may be supervised or synchronized by a free-running oscillator, such as driven by a crystal, an LC-tuned circuit, or an external clock source. Clocking rates up to and beyond 40 MHz are common in personal computers. The parameters of a clock signal are typically specified for a microprocessor and may include minimum and maximum allowable clock frequencies, tolerances on the high and low voltage levels, maximum rise and fall times on the waveform edges, pulse-width tolerance if the waveform is not a square wave, and the timing relationship between clock phases if two-clock phase signals are needed. (See Electronics Engineers' Handbook, by Fink et al., p. 8-111, 1989.)
Unfortunately, high performance, microprocessor-based devices using leading edge, high speed circuits are particularly susceptible to generating and radiating electromagnetic interference (EMI). The spectral components of the EMI emissions typically have peak amplitudes at harmonics of the fundamental frequency of the clock circuit. Accordingly, many regulatory agencies, such as the FCC in the United States, have established testing procedures and maximum allowable emissions for such products. For example, the Commission Electrotechnique International (Comite International Special Des Perturbations Radioelectriques (C.I.S.P.R.)) has guidelines establishing measurement equipment and techniques for determining compliance with regulations. More particularly, for the frequency band of interest to clock circuits, the measured 6 dB bandwidth is a relatively wide 120 KHz.
In order to comply with such government limits on EMI emissions, costly suppression measures or extensive shielding may be required. Other approaches for reducing EMI include careful routing of signal traces on printed circuit boards to minimize loops and other potentially radiating structures. Unfortunately, such an approach often leads to more expensive multilayer circuit boards with internal ground planes. In addition, greater engineering effort must go into reducing EMI emissions. The difficulties caused by EMI emissions are made worse at higher processor and clock speeds.
In certain applications it is necessary to precisely synchronizes the period of one clock with that of another. Accordingly, precise control of the modulation of a clock signal can be significant. In this invention digital spread spectrum modulation circuits are preferably used. These circuits are synchronized by resetting a counter which controls the circuit. Spread spectrum clock implementations employing a voltage controlled oscillator but not digital control are disclosed in U.S Pat. No. 4,507,796 to Stumfall. Digital control circuits of some similarity, not for spread spectrum clock control, are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,764,933 to Fletcher et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,962,653 to Basset, 4,943,786 to Cordwell et al, and 5,028,887 to Gilmore. Digital FM communication circuits of some similarity are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,272,454 to Ikai et al, 5,301,367 to Heinonen, and 5,329,253 to Ichihara.
A digital implementation mentioned beginning at page 19, line 21 in the foregoing parent application, but not shown in the drawing, is now prior art with respect to the filing date of this application. That has data digitally stored which is applied to an adder and accumulated. The output of the accumulator is one input to a phase detector of a phase locked loop, the other input being a divided feedback from the output of the voltage controlled oscillator of the phase locked loop. The output of that oscillator is divided and used as the spread spectrum clock signal.--No disclosed embodiment of this invention employs such an adder or accumulator.


A method of performing vertebral facet fusion by lateral approach and related devices. The lateral approach to facet fusion involves identifying the lateral mass and introducing any of the fixation methods known or described herein laterally at one or more facets through the use of a Kirschner wire guide, a cannulated bone drill and cooperatively cannulated staple guide. A surgical bone staple have a perforated bridge is used across the lateral facet joint where fixation is required. Where fusion is desired, a bone screw have lateral perforations of the shank is inserted through the cannulated staple guide and bridge perforation at the joint to promote fusion. A staple cap and graft container for overlay grafting may be utilized for additional fusion. The method involves less surgical time, reduced blood loss and discomfort for the patient as compared to the posterior approach.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of approach to the lateral cervical facet for the purposes of spondylosyndesis or arthoplasty techniques as well as related devices.
2. Description of the Background
Human spinal degeneration is a natural result of aging and may lead to a medical condition known as spinal stenosis in which the spinal canal narrows and compresses the spinal cord and neural structures. Spinal stenosis is often accompanied or even caused by a herniated intervertebral disk. Patients suffering from the condition often experience significant pain and limited range of motion and mobility. Laminectomy is a surgical procedure for treating spinal stenosis in which one or both lamina are removed, often along with the spinous process, in order to relieve the pressure on the spinal cord and the related pain. Unfortunately, this procedure suffers from one major drawback, namely that it can compromise the stability of the spine, particularly when performed in the cervical region of the spine but also in the lumbar and thoracic regions as well.
Cervical facet fusion is a procedure in which the facet joints between two or more vertebra are joined together to stabilize the spine and eliminate motion which may contribute to spondylosis, or continued degeneration, and prevent progressive deformity. Cervical facet fusion is commonly performed in conjunction with laminectomy. The standard approach for decompressive laminectomy and/or facet fusion is the posterior approach which may be performed through variety of methods. The classic method involves passing wires through drill holes in the articular processes and binding two longitudinal struts of bone to the posterior columns of the articular processes. Another technique uses lateral mass screws that are connected via a metal rod. However, regardless of the method used, the posterior approach for posterolateral cervical facet fusion is time-consuming, results in resection of important connective tissue and musculature, involves moderate blood loss and often results in the patient suffering from shoulder pain for a significant period after surgery. Posterior approach patients also usually require inpatient hospital care for 2 to 3 days, require drains and experience high incidence of surgical site infection.
A variety of devices from different manufacturers have been developed for utilization in spinal surgeries such as facet fusion. Many of these devices are intended for fusion or fixation of the vertebra in the cervical region and elsewhere. These devices commonly consists of one or more plates and screws, pegs, or rods with fixating connectors that may be joined to the bone in order to stabilize the spine. Other devices take the form of a staple. Considerable effort has been expended on preventing the counter-rotation and withdrawal of screws as well as the ability of the devices to secure adjacent vertebra. Considerably less effort has been expended on making such devices less intrusive and quicker to implant (while still maintaining efficacy).
Although the noted spinal fixation devices as well as others have furthered technological development, none are done through lateral cervical approach and none provide a small profile of fixation or arthroplasty. It would thus be advantageous to provide a cervical staple, screw fusion fixation or arthroplasty for lateral cervical facet joint that: (1) allows for a more precise and a much smaller profile of fixation than prior art devices, (2) imposes less blood loss, (3) minimizes surgical time (4) avoids traction on the esophagus and trachea as in the anterior approach, (5) is minimally invasive, (6) is lightweight, and (7) is inexpensive to manufacture and sell to provide for widespread use. It would further be advantageous to provide the tools necessary to perform such a procedure such as a staple delivery guide device that is accurate, precise, and quick to load and deploy.
A novel lateral approach is herein proposed for facet fixation and fusion or arthroplasty that avoids many of the drawbacks of the known approaches. The lateral approach is done through a minimally invasive method, offers direct access to the facet joint, provides secure stabilization, and permits early mobilization of the patient.

Method of lateral facet approach, decompression and fusion using screws and staples as well as arthroplasty


An infant's toy with a hollow ball having openings disposed about its surface and having a freely movable insert trapped within the hollow ball, said insert provided with a pair of pivotally connected stems with a cage structure disposed at the end of each stem, each cage structure containing at least one loosely confined ball. The cage structures are readily movable in and out of the openings of the hollow ball but the insert is restrained from being removed from the hollow ball.

Various combinations of rattles and balls are known in the art, In U.S. Pat. No. 3,633,587 there is shown an infant's toy which is a ball-like structure in cage form which contains another ball or noise-producing member confined within the structure. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,081,972 there is disclosed a cage-like member of varying configurations which has loosely confined within that cage-like member smaller members of varying configurations.
Also, there are other patents on various types of toy rattles, as for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,226,806 and U.S. Pat. No. 2,247,873 as well as patents on various ball-shaped configurations which are hollow and may be grasped such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,008,526.
Of course, many sizes and types of toys have been made in the vast field of entertainment especially for small children, and it is a field that is never completely filled and one in which we are always looking for something new. Children tend to tire quickly of a toy, or in many instances, the toy may be easily broken or the toy may be too advanced for the child. Our new toy provides lengthy enjoyment for the child, is not easily broken, and is especially suitable for the youngest infant. The improved toy of the present invention provides in a single structure means of satisfying the principal interests of an infant or young child. These include sound, visual excitement, both color and motion, and manipulative experience through reaching, grasping, pulling and tucking.

Infant's toy--rattle and peek-a-boo ball


The process for configuring or reconfiguring a sulfur removal plant having a plurality of Claus units that is greater than the number of downstream tail gas treating units (TGTUs) allows for the regeneration of one of the Claus units without shutting down any of the downstream TGTUs or the other Claus units. Specifically, the regeneration tail gas can be diverted to the reaction furnace of an in-service Claus unit, thereby allowing excess oxygen to be used to regenerate the Claus unit more efficiently, and without exceeding environmental SO2 emission requirements.

The present invention relates to a novel process and system for eliminating high SO2 emissions associated with Claus unit shutdowns, and the potential environmental regulatory violations associated therewith.
The Claus process is a catalytic chemical process that is used for converting gaseous hydrogen sulfide (H2S) into elemental sulfur (S). This process is widely used to produce sulfur from H2S found in raw natural gas and from by-product sour gas streams derived from petroleum crude oil refinery processes such as amine gas treating and sour water stripping.
Claus unit feed gases have a wide range of compositions, ranging from less than 25 mol % H2S (from a sour water stripper and natural gas treatment facilities) to greater than 80 mol % H2S (from a refinery amine regenerator). The Claus technology can be divided into two process steps, thermal and catalytic. In the thermal step, the feed is combusted to convert H2S into SO2 as follows:2 H2S+3 O2→2 SO2+2 H2O  (1)
In the catalytic step, using activated aluminum (III) or titanium (IV) oxide, H2S reacts with the SO2 formed during the thermal step to form elemental sulfur:2 H2S+SO2→3 S+2 H2O  (2)
The overall process reaction can thus be expressed as:2 H2S+O2→2 S+2 H2O  (3)
The tail gas from the Claus process still contains combustible components and sulfur compounds, and is either burned in an incineration unit or further desulfurized in a downstream tail gas treating unit (TGTU), such as, for example, the Shell Claus Off-gas Treatment (SCOT) technology that uses a Co—Mo catalyst bed followed by an amine treatment section.
It is typically necessary to shut down a Claus unit for inspection or repairs. Because it is common for large sulfur removal complexes to employ a number of parallel Claus units, it would be ideal to allow a single Claus train shutdown without the need to shut down the other parallel Claus trains or common TGTUs. This however has proven to be problematic.
As an example, a sulfur removal plant consists of two Claus units flowing into a single TGTU. It is desired to shut down one of the Claus units while the other Claus unit is processing refinery acid gas, thus preventing the entire shutdown of the sulfur removal complex and altering refinery operations. During the shutdown operation, natural gas is combusted in the Claus reaction furnace to strip sulfur from the Claus reactors. The tail gas from this shutdown operation consists therefore of natural gas combustion products (CO2, H2O, N2), residual sulfur species (S, H2S, SO2, SO3, COS, CS2), with excess O2 concentrations ranging from 0% (stoichiometric natural gas firing at the beginning of the shutdown sequence) up to 21% (pure air at the end of the shutdown sequence).
Referring generally to FIG. 1, a flow diagram is shown illustrating the problems associated with prior art methods for implementing the single Claus unit shutdown described above. While natural gas firing remains at stoichiometric O2 concentrations (i.e., less than 0.5% excess O2), the resultant tail gas is sent to the TGTU for processing. This occurs until sulfur production stops, at which time the tail gas is diverted from the operating TGTU directly to the incinerator and excess O2 concentrations are introduced to the system. One of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that excess air/O2 can never be present in tail gas sent directly to the TGTU as this would damage the catalyst in the TGTU. As O2 concentrations are increased in the furnace, the SO2 concentration in the tail gas also increases as more sulfur species are removed. In order for the incinerator exhaust gas to remain below environmental regulations (e.g., 250 vppm), the tail gas must then be diverted back to the TGTU (to avoid an environmental exceedance). The process of diverting the shutdown tail gas back and forth between the TGTU and the incinerator is time consuming, and often results in the need to completely shut down the entire sulfur removal plant.
What is still needed is a reliable process improvement that allows the shutdown of one Claus unit while other parallel Claus units remain online processing refinery acid gas.

Claus unit treatment of shutdown tail gas

EXXONMOBIL RESEARCH AND ENGINEERING COMPANY


Provided by the invention is a compound containing an imido group that is obtained by partial hydrolysis of a polyimide molded article, in which the compound has an absorption peak derived from an imido group at wave number of 1375 cm−1, an absorption peak derived from an amide group at wave number of 1600 cm−1, and an absorption peak derived from a carboxyl group at wave number of 1413 cm−1 in the IR spectrum chart obtained by IR spectroscopic measurement.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a compound containing an imido group, a solution of the compound containing an imido group, and a method for producing of the compound containing an imido group.
In particular, it relates to a compound containing an imido group having a good low temperature curability, a good solubility, a good adhesion to a substrate, and the like in which the compound is obtained by partial hydrolysis of a polyimide molded article as industrial waste, a solution of the compound containing an imido group, and a method for producing of the compound containing an imido group.
2. Description of Related Art
Since a polyimide molded article represented by a polyimide film has an excellent chemical resistance, it is insoluble in various solvents and has high boiling point. As such thermoplastic plastics such as polystyrene, recycling after melting is conventionally difficult to achieve.
For such reasons, when a polyimide molded article needs to be discarded as waste, it is generally buried in the ground or incinerated in spite of high cost. Thus, a problem remains in that it is unsatisfactory in terms of a recycling property or environmental characteristics.
Under these circumstances, various methods have been suggested to chemically hydrolyze and recycle a polyimide molded article to be discarded.
For example, a method including complete hydrolysis of an aromatic polyimide molded article under a pre-determined temperature condition in the presence of alkali at a pre-determined concentration to give aromatic tetracarboxylic acid dianhydride and aromatic diamine as raw materials is known (see, the patent document 1).
More specifically, it is a method of treating polyimide which includes that the polyimide is hydrolyzed at 150 to 230° C. in the presence of 4 to 4.8 times the amount of alkali relative to the polyimide unit to give aromatic tetracarboxylic acid dianhydride and aromatic diamine as raw materials, an aqueous alkaline solution and an acidic solution of them are treated with activated charcoal, a large amount of acid and alkali are added to the mixture, and the aromatic tetracarboxylic acid dianhydride and aromatic diamine are precipitated, separated, and recovered.
Further, a method of hydrolyzing polyimide with a pre-determined structure under high temperature and high pressure condition in the presence of water or alcohol and obtaining it as a low molecular weight product, which is a raw material for polyimide, is suggested (see, the patent document 2).
More specifically, it is a method of dissociating polyimide including hydrolyzing polyimide or a polyamide acid as a precursor thereof under a supercritical condition including, for example, 250 to 350° C. and 10 to 100 MPa in the presence of water or alcohol and obtaining it as a low molecular weight product of aromatic tetracarboxylic acid dianhydride or aromatic diamine, which is a raw material for polyimide.
Further, a method of dissociating polyimide or the like from a polymer-containing solid which contains a metal compound and polyimide and recovering the metal component is suggested (see, the patent document 3).
More specifically, it is a method of contacting, at the temperature of 200° C. or higher, a polymer-containing solid such as polyimide with a polymer-dissociating material containing a solvent which has solubility parameter of 18 (MJ/m3)1/2 or more to dissociate and remove the polymer-containing solid and efficiently recovering the remaining metal component (copper).
Still further, a method of hydrolyzing polyimide as industrial waste by using a large amount of a basic material under low temperature and atmospheric pressure and recovering a pre-determined raw material for polyimide as a recycling material is suggested (see, the patent document 4).
More specifically, it is a method including adding a basic material (e.g., alkali metal hydroxide) capable of producing a hydroxide ion (OH) 20 to 80 molar times the theoretical dissociation amount to the polyimide, hydrolyzing the mixture under atmospheric pressure at a pre-determined temperature (40 to 95° C.), neutralizing the product with an acidic material, and recovering a raw material for polyamide such as pyromellitic acid or aromatic amine.

Compound containing imido group, solution of compound containing imido group and method for producing of compound containing imido group


A method of operating a motor vehicle includes detecting at least one motor vehicle driver response, producing a perception model based on the detected motor vehicle driver response, and analyzing the perception model to at avoid least one motor vehicle driver response by adjusting a parameter of the motor vehicle. Analysis of the perception model can also be carried out to predict a motor vehicle driver response, in particular during the generation of new control software for the vehicle.

Motor vehicle drivers have different expectations regarding the driving behavior of their motor vehicle. Driver expectations can depend on a use of the motor vehicle, on a personality, a sensitivity or an experience of the driver of the motor vehicle.
A primary expectation of motor vehicle drivers concerns, for example, fuel consumption and harmful emissions. Also, some motor vehicle drivers prefer a rather conservative driving style, whereas others prefer a sporty manner of driving.
Some motor vehicle drivers regard their motor vehicles as a means of transport in urban traffic at comparatively low speeds, while others drive on freeways at high speeds. Finally, some motor vehicle drivers are interested in sporty driving of the motor vehicle.
Finally, some motor vehicle drivers are more sensitive to noise, vibrations and acceleration response than others.
Because the perception of motor vehicle drivers is highly subjective, it is very difficult to adjust the behavior of software and calibrations so that they meet the expectations of all motor vehicle drivers.


A monitoring region for monitoring entry of an obstacle is set around a machine main body. A plurality of obstacle sensing sensors sense an obstacle in the monitoring region and sense an obstacle in different directions with respect to the machine main body. A construction machine accumulatively stores approach information indicating that an obstacle has been sensed by any of the plurality of obstacle sensing sensors in a specific period, and outputs the approach information to be displayed on a display device.

There has been conventionally proposed a monitoring movable body (e.g. JP2005-275723A) equipped with a foreign matter sensing sensor which senses an obstacle on a road surface, and the like and capable of detecting position information of a foreign matter in order to manage road safety. Specifically, the monitoring movable body includes a positioning device which outputs travelling position information of a movable body, a foreign matter sensing sensor which monitors a foreign matter on a road surface to obtain foreign matter sensing information, and a foreign matter position computing device which detects foreign matter position information from the travelling position information and the foreign matter sensing information.
In JP2005-275723A, a foreign matter on a runway surface is detected by a foreign matter sensing sensor. By contrast, a construction machine may approach various structures by slewing or travelling or a worker may work in proximity to the construction machine. In such a case, if it is possible to sense various structures or a worker approaching closer and check approach information by those concerned such as a site supervisor and the like, a condition at that time can be confirmed with an operator based on the information, or the like to serve for safety of subsequent work.

Obstacle monitoring system, construction machine, and obstacle monitoring method

KOBELCO CONSTRUCTION MACHINERY CO., LTD.


Provided is a light-emitting device that is able to adjust a color temperature by power supplied from a single power source. The light-emitting device includes an anode electrode land, a cathode electrode land, and three or more wires that are provided in parallel and are connected to the anode electrode land and the cathode electrode land, in which at least three wires among the three or more wires have different forward current-forward voltage characteristics and are connected to different light emitting portions, and the color temperature of light emitted from the whole of the light-emitting portions is able to be adjusted.

A halogen lamp is very approximate in energy distribution to a full radiator and therefore exhibits excellent color rending properties. Furthermore, a color temperature of light emitted from the halogen lamp is able to be changed in accordance with a magnitude of power supplied to the halogen lamp and thus the halogen lamp is used as a visible light source. However, since the halogen lamp emits infrared rays, there are problems, for example, that the halogen lamp becomes extremely high in temperature, needs a reflector to prevent infrared radiation, has a shorter operating time than an LED, and requires large power consumption. Then, a white light-emitting device that uses a light-emitting diode (LED) which generates less heat and has a longer operating time has been developed.
PTL 1 (Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2014-194858) describes an inexpensive and useful LED lighting device that includes a semiconductor light-emitting device having three or more different color temperatures, in which a color temperature is controlled in a relatively wide range and a natural change in the color temperature is achieved along a blackbody radiation, and desired chromaticity adjustment is allowed by a simple method without requiring complicated control.


An image motion compensation arrangement for a TV sensor system having an image intensifier section and a camera tube section, and which moves at a velocity V over a target area at an altitude H. An electron image of the viewed scene is accelerated between electrodes in the image intensifier section and a deflection coil is added to deflect this electron image. The coil is provided with a signal such that the deflection velocity is proportional to the ratio of V/H. With automatic light control provided, the deflection signal is also made a function of a control signal which controls a high voltage power supply to the accelerating electrodes.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention in general relates to TV sensor systems which move relative to a scene to be viewed, and particularly to a compensation arrangement therefore for systems wherein the ratio of velocity to distance to the scene is relatively high.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In survey and reconnaissance operations use is made of a TV sensor system for viewing a target area under investigation. The system is mounted on a carrier vehicle which moves over the area at a certain velocity V and at a certain altitude H.
For those applications where the V/H ratios are relatively high, there is an objectionable loss of resolution of the video picture displayed. The resolution loss due to motion has two primary causes. One is the actual smearing of the picture that occurs between TV frame readouts and the other is tube lag, an unavoidable property of the TV camera tube wherein residual signals remain on the tube's target element from frame to frame.
Moving mirrors, or a moving film is used in airborne photo-recconnaissance applications to maintain a point in the center of the scene motionless at the image plane. The arrangement prevents smearing during camera exposure time, however, the use of a mirror or TV camera motion for image motion compensation is difficult for TV use because of the fast deflection required at conventional TV rates.
In image intensifier hand-held directly viewed night vision devices, a magnetic field has been used for motion compensation. The arrangement, however, uses a plurality of gyroscopic pickoffs for supplying feedback signals, to compensate for the user's hand movement.
The present invention accomplishes image motion compensation electronically in a television sensor system wherein the V/H ratio is relatively high.

Image motion compensation for a TV sensor system


Here is disclosed an improved nonwoven fabric wiper obtained by a method comprising steps of forming a laminate from a web of thermally shrinkable hydrophobic synthetic fibers and a web of hydrophilic fibers put one upon another, jetting high pressure water onto the laminate supported on a supporting roll provided on its peripheral surface with a plurality of fine projections as well as a plurality of drainage apertures, causing the fibers to be entangled or intertwined and rearranged and thereby forming a nonwoven fabric having uneven fiber distribution densities, and heating the nonwoven fabric to crimp the synthetic fibers so that only portions of relatively high fiber density may bulge.

The present invention relates to a nonwoven fabric wiper used to wipe stains off from an object to be cleaned and a method for making it.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,616,175 discloses a method for a nonwoven fabric for wipers wherein high pressure water is jetted onto a web of rayon fibers placed on a wire mesh from nozzles with fine orifices arranged above the web to entangle the fibers and thereby to obtain the nonwoven fabric wipers. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 1985-11148, on the other hand, discloses a method for making a nonwoven fabric for wipers wherein a web of thermoplastic polymer filaments is laminated with a mat of thermoplastic polymer microfibers and these components of the laminate are bonded together by intermittently heating them under a pressure to obtain the nonwoven fabric which is excellent in the surface friction characteristic. According to the first-mentioned method, the wire mesh leaves its pattern on the surface of the finished nonwoven fabric which has been in contact with the wire mesh and the high pressure water jets form recesses on the other surface of the finished nonwoven fabric so that the mesh pattern and the recesses form together relatively fine undulations on the respective surfaces. The fibers are mechanically entangled and the nonwoven fabric is generally soft to the touch. In the nonwoven fabric obtained by the second-mentioned method, the spots intermittently heated under a pressure are heat sealed and thinned relative to the remainder so as to form relatively noticeable undulations on the surfaces which well contribute to scrape stains off from an object to be cleaned.
Of the products obtained by the above-mentioned prior art, the nonwoven fabric formed by entangling the fibers under the effect of high pressure water certainly has the undulations on the surfaces, but these undulations are too fine and soft to achieve the desired function of scraping stains off from an object to be cleaned. On the other hand, the nonwoven fabric obtained by partially or intermittently heating the thermoplastic polymer under a pressure is effective to scrape stains off from an object to be cleaned, since the tissue of each heat sealed spot is appropriately rigid and the undulations are relatively noticeable. However, the heat sealed spots lose a fibrous configuration and is solidified, making it difficult to achieve a desired soft touch.
Accordingly, it is a principal object of the invention to overcome the above-mentioned problems of prior art by jetting high pressure water onto a fibrous web containing therein thermally shrinkable fibers to form a nonwoven fabric of uneven fiber distribution density which is then heated to crimp the thermally shrinkable fibers and thereby surface-finishing a wiper with relatively noticeable undulations.

Nonwoven fabric wiper and method for making it


A mixer system includes a mixing chamber with a drive panel, open top, discharge opening in a side of the mixing chamber, and door configured to open and close the discharge opening. A first mixing auger is disposed inside the mixing chamber, and a first auger drive is disposed on another side of the drive panel and connected to the first auger through the drive panel and connected to a driveline. A second mixing auger is disposed inside the mixing chamber on the first side of the drive panel, and another auger drive is connected to the second auger through the drive panel. A clutch is connected between the second auger drive and the driveline and configured to mechanically connect and disconnect the second auger drive from the driveline based on an input. A method of sequentially starting different augers within a mixing chamber is provided.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a clutch system configured to reduce a load on a power transmission device upon activation. One application of the device relates to a sequential start clutch system applied to a mixing machine such as a feed mixer, manure spreader, or aggregate mixer.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various types of equipment for mixing, chopping, liquefying, or distributing material are available. Some use two or more components configured to rotate. In one agricultural application, a mixing machine uses two or more augers disposed inside a container configured to rotate around separate axes. The augers are typically powered by a common power source such as a power-take-off (PTO) connected to a motor.
It can take a tremendous amount of power to start a multiple auger device when the machine is filled with material, and especially if the device holds a heavy material such as manure, aggregate gravel, cement, or baled hay. Conventional mixers address this issue by providing multi-speed transmissions, 2-speed gearboxes, or speed-up kits to be able to start the augers at a lower rotational speed and then speed up the augers once they are rotating.
The above-noted methods may result in excessive wear of the machine, and torque protection devices such as shear bolts, torque disconnects, and slip clutches have been incorporated into some mixing machines to help protect expensive planetary gearboxes from torque overload. The running loads on some mixers can be very high, and thus can demand very large and expensive torque limiting devices to adequately protect the drive systems from overload.

Sequential start clutch for a material mixing machine


A golf club support includes a main frame and an auxiliary frame for attachment to a golf bag. The main frame has a plurality of dividers defining therebetween spaces for retaining golf clubs therein. The dividers have relatively thin curved sidewall portions which provide elastic resilience for firmly retaining golf clubs in place. The auxiliary frame also includes dividers defining spaces for retaining golf clubs. The auxiliary frame is rotatable from a position inside the golf bag to a position disposed outside of the bag.

Golf is one of the most popular recreational sports in the world. When playing a round of golf, different golf clubs are utilized for making different types of shots. Caddies are often employed for carrying the golf bag and selecting the proper club for a particular shot. However, many golfers do not employ caddies, and are required to make their own club selection. Most golf bags are of very simple construction such that the golf clubs are not arranged in an orderly manner and, furthermore, the clubs are constantly colliding with one another thereby causing damage to the golf clubs.
It is therefore, the main object of the present invention to provide a golf club support for a golf bag to enable different golf clubs to be properly arranged in a golf bag for easy identification and selection.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a golf club support for a golf bag which protects the golf clubs form damage due to collision with each other.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a golf club support for a golf bag which is inexpensive to manufacture, easy to assemble, and durable and practical in use.


A method for blind source separation of sources detects the sources using sensors to obtain representative data. The data is then represented by two mixtures having estimates of amplitude and delay mixing parameters. The estimates are updated, including: calculating error measures, each indicating a closeness of the estimates for a given source to a given time-frequency point in the mixtures; and revising the estimates, based on the error measures. The mixtures are filtered to obtain estimates of the sources, including: selecting one error measure having a smallest value in relation to any other error measures, for each time-frequency point in the mixtures; and leaving unaltered any time-frequency points for which a given error measure has the smallest value, while setting to zero any other time-frequency points for which the given error measure does not have the smallest value, for each error measure. The estimates of the sources are output.

1. Technical Field
The present invention generally relates to separating signal sources and, in particular, to online blind separation of multiple sources.
2. Background Description
The separation of independent sources from an array of sensors is a classic but difficult problem in signal processing. Generally, the signal sources as well as their mixture characteristics are unknown. Without knowledge of the signal sources, other than a general assumption that the sources are independent, the signal processing is commonly known in the art as the "blind separation of sources". The separation is "blind" because nothing is assumed about the independent source signals, nor about the mixing process.
A typical example of the blind separation of source signals is where the source signals are sounds generated by two independent sources, such as two (or more) separate speakers. An equal number of microphones (two in this example) are used to produce mixed signals, each composed as a weighted sum of the source signals. Each of the source signals is delayed and attenuated in some unknown amount during passage from the speaker to a microphone, where it is mixed with the delayed and attenuated components of the other source signals. Multi-path signals, generated by multiple reflections of the source signals, are further mixed with direct source signals. This is generally known as the "cocktail party" problem, since a person generally wishes to listen to a single sound source while filtering out other interfering sources, including multi-path signals.
According to the prior art, a blind source separation technique that allows the separation of an arbitrary number of sources from just two mixtures provided the time-frequency representations of sources do not overlap is described by Jourjine et al., in "Blind Separation of Disjoint Orthogonal Signals: Demixing N Sources from 2 Mixtures", in Proceedings of the 2000 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, Istanbul, Turkey, June 2000, vol. 5, pp. 2985-88, June 2000. This technique is hereinafter referred to as the "original DUET algorithm". The key observation in the technique is that, for mixtures of such sources, each time-frequency point depends on at most one source and its associated mixing parameters. In anechoic environments, it is possible to extract the estimates of the mixing parameters from the ratio of the time-frequency representations of the mixtures. These estimates cluster around the true mixing parameters and, identifying the clusters, one can partition the time-frequency representation of the mixtures to provide the time-frequency representations of the original sources.
The original DUET algorithm involved creating a two-dimensional (weighted) histogram of the relative amplitude and delay estimates, finding the peaks in the histogram, and then associating each time-frequency point in the mixture with one peak. The original implementation of the method was offline and passed through the data twice; one time to create the histogram and a second time to demix.
Accordingly, it would be desirable and highly advantageous to have an online method for performing blind source separation of multiple sources. Moreover, it would be further desirable and highly advantageous to have such a method that does not require the creation and updating of a histogram or the locating of peaks in the histogram.


Aspects described herein provide quality assurance checks for improving the construction of natural language understanding grammars. An annotation module may obtain a set of annotations for a set of text samples based, at least in part, on an ontology and a grammar. A quality assurance module may automatically perform one or more quality assurance checks on the set of annotations, the ontology, the grammar, or combinations thereof. The quality assurance module may generate a list of flagged annotations during performance of a quality assurance check. The list of flagged annotations may be presented at an annotation review interface displayed at a display device. One of the flagged annotations may be selected and presented at an annotation interface displayed at the display device. Responsive to presentation of the flagged annotation, the ontology, the grammar, the flagged annotation selected, or combinations thereof may be updated based on user input received.

Building speech recognition applications can be a time consuming process. Development of natural language understanding (NLU) systems, in particular, can be one of the most challenging aspects of developing speech applications. Such development may involve the use of special linguistic and software development skills. Development of natural language understanding systems may also rely on grammars written manually and statistical models that are trained on large quantities of manually-annotated text. Manual annotations may be time-consuming and error-prone that can increase development time and affect the quality of the grammars and statistical models produced.
Various approaches to enhance the development of grammars and statistical models have been attempted. With respect to grammar development, for example, some conventional approaches might utilize unsupervised grammar induction techniques, integrated development environments (IDEs) for authoring grammars, or graphical user interface, i.e., GUI-based interactive tools as alternatives to manual grammar creation.
Unsupervised grammar induction techniques, however, do not provide meaningful grammar rules that are readable to humans and also require further manual tuning. Although IDEs may be useful in testing grammars, debugging grammars, and visualizing parsing results, such IDEs do not provide suggestions regarding the target grammar structure, grammar rules, or the ordering of such rules. Instead IDEs delegate these tasks to the user. While GUI-based interactive tools may be helpful in guiding a user through an annotation process, such tools use complicated statistical and lexicalization models (e.g., hidden Markov models and context-free grammars). As a result, such GUI-based tools require significant amounts of effort to properly define slot fillers based on regular expressions.
Improved approaches to developing natural language understanding systems and annotating text samples have been described. The disclosures set forth in further detail below describe additional improvements to the development of natural language understanding system and text annotation processes.

Automated quality assurance checks for improving the construction of natural language understanding systems


A system and method is introduced for flexible user equipment (“UE”) identification. In one embodiment, the method includes providing a first message from a user equipment (110) to a radio access node (120) to resume a passive user equipment context. The message includes a UE identifier (400) having a flag (410) indicating if the user equipment (110) is resuming connectivity to the radio access node (120) and a first local UE identifier (420) for the radio access node (120).

The Third Generation Partnership Program ("3GPP"), Release ("Rel")-13 (which is incorporated herein by reference along with all other Releases set forth herein) includes features to suspend and resume radio resource control ("RRC") context. The general idea is that when a user equipment ("UE") session ends and the UE goes to an RRC idle state, both the UE and the radio access network ("RAN") keep a passive UE context. This passive UE context can be re-activated with a slim resume procedure. The use of the resume procedure leads to a fast setup of radio communication resources, which means low latency for the communication system including the UE, and efficient execution of the procedure therein.
When the UE requests re-activation (resume) of a passive UE context, the UE signals an identifier to the RAN so that RAN can find the passive UE context to re-use and re-activate this context. Since the new access can be done in another communication node (e.g., another base station) of the RAN than where the passive UE context is stored (i.e., an initial communication node or initial base station), the identifier should include an identity of the initial communication node. Consequently, the another communication node can locate the initial communication node that holds the passive UE context.
In a 3GPP Long Term Evolution ("LTE") communication system, the mechanism for establishing or re-activating a connection may be sent on a common control channel ("CCCH"). The CCCH is associated with logical channel identifier ("LCID") 0 in the media access control ("MAC") layer. In the 3GPP LTE communication system, a unique base station identifier (or in short "eNBId") within a public land mobile network ("PLMN") is built up from 20 bits.
As mentioned above, the request from the UE to re-activate the passive UE context should include a unique identifier for the initial communication node holding the passive UE context. Typically in the 3GPP LTE communication system, a UE is identified with a system architecture evolution ("SAE") temporary mobile subscriber identity ("TMSI") including 40 bits, but this does not fit the "message 3" together with the unique base station identifier (eNBId). Thus, the length of the identifier may exceed the frame size for the messaging within some communication systems.
The identifier should be large enough to cover the expected large number of passive UE contexts for a base station where the 3GPP LTE communication system is operating with the suspend and resume functionality. Therefore, support for a larger identifier would be beneficial, but still keeping in mind flexibility to enhance (or optimize) latency and performance in normal cases.
The RRC message in the 3GPP LTE communication system that may carry this information (resume id among other things) is an RRC message in the resume procedure (typically called a "message 3"). In legacy procedures, this is called an RRC connection request. The "message 3" refers to a signal in an LTE random access procedure and may contain more than just the RRC connection/connection resume request, e.g., MAC control element(s) or service data units ("SDUs") from other logical channels depending on the use case. An RRC connection request is an RRC message sent in the message 3 in the legacy LTE during attempts to establish an RRC connection. In other situations, the message 3 may include other information. The message 3 in the LTE may include 56 bits. The radio access node can choose to provide resources for a larger message 3, albeit at the expense of coverage and/or expanded delay. The message 3 can carry 72 bits in existing technologies and there are reasons to maintain the message size to allow the resume procedure to work with legacy procedures and performance. While the 72 bits can accommodate the 40 bits for the S-TMSI of the UE, it cannot incorporate the unique base station identifier, which may be on the order of 20 bits. It would be beneficial, therefore, to incorporate a flexible UE identification that, for instance, can accommodate a unique base station identifier for the resume procedure.

System and method for flexible user equipment identification


A method of centering an electrode in the nozzle of a plasma arc torch head is disclosed. The method involves complementing the external wall of the swirl to the internal taper of the nozzle; complementing the internal wall of the swirl to the external taper of the electrode; fitting the hollow tapered swirl so formed in the hollow nozzle to abut the inner taper of the nozzle; and fitting the electrode in the hollow swirl to abut the inner taper of the swirl to center the electrode within the nozzle. Also disclosed is a head for a plasma arc cutting torch which includes a a swirl located between the nozzle and the electrode, through which plasma fuel gas is introduced into the nozzle, characterized in that the plasma fuel gas is introduced directly into the plasma formation zone or plenum beyond the junction between the nozzle body and cone end thereby avoiding change in direction within the conical end of the nozzle before the plasma formation zone.

A plasma arc torch is defined by a cylindrical torch body and a head extending from the body. The head is constituted by an electrode positioned carefully in a cone-ended nozzle behind a nozzle orifice and a nozzle throat. The cone end may be straight walled or curvaceous. The electrode and a work piece, towards which the nozzle throat is directed, are maintained at opposite electrical polarities. Ionizable pressurized gas, typically one or more, selected from oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, air and argon, is constricted between the electrode and the nozzle orifice.
A power source initiates a spark between the electrode and the nozzle when the nozzle is temporarily brought in opposite polarity with the electrode. The head is then positioned towards a work piece. High-pressure gas is led into a zone between the operative front end face of the electrode, bearing an emissive insert, and the nozzle orifice. This is the plasma formation zone or the plenum. The spark ionizes a portion of the gas in this zone to, at first, enable a pilot low current arc to be formed between the emissive insert and the nozzle. The nozzle is then disconnected from the power circuit and the work piece is brought into circuit and a sustained high velocity high current plasma arc column is projected through the nozzle orifice and focussed by the nozzle throat on a selected location on the work piece. The arc melts and cuts the work piece. The accurate formation of the plasma cutting arc is dependant among other factors upon proper attachment of the arc to the center of the electrode and the careful positioning of the electrode face spaced apart from the nozzle orifice.
An accurate arc attachment point on the electrode is achieved by ensuring that the plasma arc is perfectly centered for high performance cutting. This means that the plasma beam or arc column should attach to the center of the electrode front face at the emissive insert and pass through the center of the nozzle orifice and axially through the nozzle throat. This will ensure that the cut edge has as minimum a taper as possible, there is optimum cut accuracy at optimum cut speeds and the life of the consumables like the electrode and the nozzle is maintained as long as possible.
Conventional torches use diametric location as the centering method. In conventional torches, the electrode's outer diameter is located in the swirl's inner diameter and the swirl's outer diameter is located in the nozzle's inner diameter. Since these three parts have to fit into each other and there is a clearance required between them, it is inevitable that there will be a certain amount of misalignment between the electrode face and the nozzle orifice disturbing the centering to the extent of the play.
The accurate arc attachment point on the electrode is also achieved by maintaining a strong vortex of gas around the electrode. A swirl having a plurality of passages drilled there through is provided and directs gas into the annular space between the electrode and the nozzle, which spins around the electrode vortex like and eventually arrives in the plasma formation zone or plenum between the front end face of the electrode having an emissive insert and the nozzle orifice. The vortex creates an axial suction force, which forces the arc to be centered axially through the vortex train. The vortex train further focuses the arc axially through the nozzle throat. The vortex train of gas is however confronted along its path before entering the plenum with the taper of the conical end of the nozzle. This tapered region causes the gas vortex to change direction resulting in disturbance in the alignment of the vortex axis and therefore turbulence. This turbulence is directly proportional to the speed of gas flow and its pressure. This turbulence affects the centering of the arc, which in turn affects the cutting quality and cutting speed of the plasma torch.


A device for use in cleaning underwater surfaces has a body with an inlet and an outlet for connection to a flexible suction hose; a flexible foot member adapted to at least partially surround the inlet; means for interrupting the flow between the inlet and the outlet and guide means projecting from the body in the direction of movement thereof. The guide means preferably comprising an arm adapted to extend from the body and terminating in a rotatable wheel lying transversely to the axis of the inlet of the body.

One common type of device includes a planar member of flexible material which is adapted to move across the surface to be cleaned. The flexible member surrounds a suction orifice which is connected via a mechanism to move the device and a flexible hose to the inlet of a filter system for the pool. These features are well known and will not be described in any greater detail.
As the device moves across a surface it may become lodged in a corner or against a step for example and be unable to move. Unless the device is guided out of such situations it will remain in that position and not be able to fulfil its designed function.
An object of this invention is to provide a device of the type described including means for guiding the device.


An improved method and circuitry for processing high-impedance (current mode) input signals for use in translinear and other mode circuits in a manner that avoids the signal dependent bandwidth variations that occur in the prior art. A non-linear feedback structure using a transconductance gain element is employed to extend the bandwidth and/or suppress bandwidth variations encountered in the prior art. One application of this invention is the extension of Gilbert amplifier topologies, with their attendant normalization and integrated circuit implementation advantages, for operation with very low input signal levels to high bandwidth applications. A further extension in this invention allow this transconductance to be electrically adjusted to allow active bandwidth control or to compensate for signal sources with different input capacitances. The invention is particularly suitable for use as a preamplifier for pairs of sensed photodetector current signals.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and apparatus for providing an input preprocessor function to realize the input current to voltage nonlinearity for translinear circuits (such as Gilbert amplifiers and multipliers) and other non-translinear circuits with a fixed bandwidth independent of signal level or temperature. Additionally, there is disclosed methods and apparatus for electrically adjusting the transconductance of an amplifier to allow the bandwidth of the invention to be electrically adjusted.
2. Background Art
A Gilbert amplifier is a special circuit technique that provides desirable attributes such as operation in a current gain mode with a wide bandwidth response for handling of current input signals such as photodetector signals.
FIG. 1 shows a prior art Gilbert amplifier model as disclosed in "Current-mode Circuits From A Translinear Viewpoint: A Tutorial" by B. Gilbert, pp. 11-19 and 55-64 of Ch. 2 of Analogue IC Design: the current-mode approach, C. Toumazou, F. J. Lidgey & D. G. Haigh, eds., published by Peter Peregrinus Ltd., London (1990). The photodetector pair is modeled as current sources 10 and 12 with a parallel capacitances 14 and 14'. The output current difference is proportional to the difference of the input photocurrents, with a gain factor proportional to the control current.
Ignoring second-order effects, the overall gain of this can be calculated as: ##EQU1## where: I.sub.out(differential) is the difference in output currents;
I.sub.ina and I.sub.inb are input currents; and PA1 I.sub.ctrl is the tail current.
The features of the prior art Gilbert amplifier are wideband normalization, fast overload recovery, good accuracy for DC and wideband signals, simple implementation of automatic gain control, and stability for any input condition.
The problem with the prior art Gilbert amplifier is that the bandwidth is a function of a) DC input current level; b) temperature; and c) input capacitance. ##EQU2##
Thus, bandwidth and group delay (time delay through the circuit) is dependent on the source characteristics and temperature.
Optical disk drives have a number of input signals in the form of differential input currents, for example, photodiodes. These include focus error signals, magneto optic (MO) read channel signals and actuator position signals. A normalized amplifier is typically used for noise and servo compensation reasons. Prior normalized amplifier implementations, i.e., Gilbert amplifiers, do not provide adequate bandwidth at the lower input signal levels associated with MO (erasable) drives.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,396,891 to Johansson et al. describes a gain control circuit that is related to a Gilbert multiplier, but does not address high impedance input signals or bandwidth.
U. S. Pat. No. 4,492,931 to Deweck discloses an infrared receiver front end which includes a transimpedance amplifier as opposed to a translinear amplifier (Gilbert). Deweck discloses a preamplifier for interference rejection and does not deal with bandwidth.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,502,017 to Van de Plassche et al. discloses an operational amplifier, however, it is not usable with translinear circuits.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,542 to Siegel, like Deweck, describes a bandwidth control of transimpedance amplifiers, however, it is not usable with translinear amplifiers.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,902,982 to Moore et al. describes a nonlinear noninverting transimpedance amplifier that uses a nonlinear feedback structure to prevent overload of high dynamic range signals. This circuit is not translinear and the device does not deal with bandwidth controls.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,254,957 to Lauffenburger is the most analogous reference. The present invention overcomes shortcomings of Lauffenburger which are bandwidth variations with temperature and signal level.
In accordance with the present invention there is provided an apparatus for amplifying and processing high-impedance current mode input signals that provides input normalization, DC accuracy and wide band signal handling.
The preferred input preprocessor provides nonlinear transformation of a current mode input signal for a single input Gilbert amplifier. The processor reduces bandwidth dependency on the input current. The preprocessor is comprised of a common base transistor which acts as a feedback element for nonlinear conversion of the input current to a voltage. A transconductance element is applied to the transistor for setting a bandwidth for the input preprocessor.
The apparatus can also comprise multiple preprocessors with multiple current inputs. In this embodiment, the preferred translinear circuit is a differential Gilbert amplifier. The apparatus may further comprise at least one replicating transistor for replicating a current through the input preprocessor. The replicating current mirror comprises transistors with common emitters and common bases with the common base transistor.
The method is also disclosed for reducing bandwidth dependency on an input current for nonlinear current to voltage transformations. The steps comprise first providing a common base transistor as a feedback element for nonlinearly converting an input current to a voltage. A transconductance element is then applied to the feed back element for forward gain.
The method may also include the step of providing multiple preprocessors for multiple current inputs. In these steps, a multiple input differential Gilbert Amplifier is provided.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide all the advantages of a Gilbert amplifier for a low-current source.
A primary advantage of the present invention is that it provides a simple circuit implementation that achieves the desired goals of: a) operating with a low input bias current; b) wideband normalization of the input signal; c) fast overload recovery; d) good accuracy for DC and wideband signals; e) simple implementation of automatic gain control; and f) stability for a wide range of input conditions.
Other objects, advantages and novel features, and further scope of applicability of the present invention will be set forth in part in the detailed description to follow, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.

Fixed and adjustable bandwidth translinear input amplifier


An apparatus and method for separating components of a fluid mixture of materials uses an acoustic or sonic generator attached to one end of a hollow tube, or column having a uniform internal diameter, to produce standing sonic waves within the column. The sonic waves act as so-called chromatographic plates with the plate height being equivalent to the wavelength, and the plate number in the column being equal to the total number of nodes in the column. The effective column length can be controlled by the use of moving sonic waves which by changing the direction of wave motion can enhance or attentuate the separation process to produce a variation in the apparent column length without changing the physical length of the ultrasonic column. A sample to be separated and a carrier fluid are introduced into the end of the column adjacent to the sonic generator while a fluid exit is provided in the other end of the column. The apparatus can also be used with the separation of components of atomized liquids and components of finely powdered solids. In this application the column could be upright to take advantage of gravity in addition to the sample sweeping action of the carrier fluid. Pressure detectors penetrating the column are used to detect any shifting of the sonic wave position and either the sonic generator is adjusted by a sonic controller responsive to output signals from the detectors so that a desired equilibrium is restored or the detector output signals are analyzed to identify the separated sample components.

1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for separating a multi-component fluid mixture into its components. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a method and apparatus using sonic energy for separating a multi-component fluid mixture.
2. Description Of The Prior Art
The use of so-called chromatographic columns to produce separation of components of fluid mixtures as a result of the components variable passage time through the chromatographic column in response to the application of carrier gas is well-known. However, such columns have fixed parameters and operate very slowly as a result of the need to pass the fluid mixture through a column tightly packed with fluid components separating particles having a large surface area. Attempts to produce a so-called open column to improve mobility time resulted in several prior art devices such as a column having only a coated interior wall and a so-called ion mobility spectrograph or plasma chromatograph. In such a latter device an electric field is applied to an open column to produce a separation of a previously ionized gas mixture which is swept through the column by a carrier gas. A demonstration of sonic energy by the so-called Kundt-tube experiment uses an open glass column with audio frequency acoustic signals and a light powder, e.g., finely ground cork powder, within the column to demonstrate the nodes and anti-nodes of the acoustic signal within the glass column. The fine powder will concentrate in the sonic nodes upon the application of the sonic energy to the interior of the column. No separation of different materials or fluid mixtures is achieved by this experimental apparatus. In order to overcome the deficiencies of the prior art, it would be desirable to provide a separator capable of separating components of a fluid mixture by using sonic energy without the disadvantages of the prior art fluid separators and providing data suitable for analyzing the separated components.

Method and apparatus for sonic separation and analysis of components of a fluid mixture


An adsorbent for peptidoglycan which comprises an water-insoluble porous material having an amino group and having a molecular weight of exclusion limit of at least 50,000, and a method for removing peptidoglycan by adsorption, which comprises a step of contacting the adsorbent to a liquid containing peptidoglycan.

Peptidoglycan is a component of the cell wall of bacteria, occupies 40 to 95% of the cell wall in case of Gram-positive bacteria and occupies 10 to 20% of the cell wall in case of Gram-negative bacteria. Peptidoglycan has a various biological activity by itself and causes, for example, shock disease or arthritis. It is also reported that a minimum biological activity unit of peptidoglycan is N-acetylmuramyl-L-alanyl-D-isoglutamine (muramyldipeptide, MDP) and by itself has a biological activity such as increasing a production of cytokines. Therefore, when the peptidoglycane invades into the blood by an infection of bacteria, whereby a severe condition of shock disease or arthritis as mentioned above may be caused. Furthermore, it is suggested that when peptidoglycan coexists with endotoxin, it may causes more severe condition due to a synergistic effect between the two.
In the field of an artificial dialysis of the blood, it is suggested that when peptidoglycan gets mixed in a dialysis solution, it invades into the blood of a patient during the dialysis, and then the same problem may be caused. Although a filter membrane is often used for removing peptidoglycan from the dialysis solution, small peptidoglycan having low morecular weight among all peptidoglycans can filter out though the filter membrane and can not be removed. Because the filter membrane screens based on a molecular weight. Additionally, when the peptidoglycan exists into the body fluid, the filter membrane can not be used substantially, because it removes other components such as protein. Against this background, it is desirable to develop dsorbents capable of efficiently removing peptidoglycan having low molecular weight and furthermore, capable of removing peptidoglycan present in body fluids.
The present invention is made in view of the above-mentioned background, and provides adsorbents capable of efficiently removing peptidoglycan present in a liquid, and a method for removing peptidoglycan present in the liquid and an adsorber for peptidoglycan using thereof.

Adsorbent for peptidoglycan and method and apparatus for adsorptively removing peptidoglycan


The present solution relates to a method in a source serving gateway (207a) for triggering relocation of at least one user equipment bearer resource from the source serving gateway (207a) to at least one target serving gateway (207b) in a communication network (200). The source serving gateway (207a) serves the user equipment (203) by providing bearer resources to the user equipment (203). The source serving gateway (207a) detects (501) an event indicating relocation of the at least one user equipment bearer resource from the source serving gateway (207a) to the at least one target serving gateway (207b). Furthermore, the source serving gateway (207a) sends (502) a message to a mobility management node (205, 209). The message comprises a trigger to relocate the at least one user equipment bearer resource from the source serving gateway (207a) to the at least one target serving gateway (207b).

A Serving GateWay (serving GW) is a network node in an Evolved Packet System (EPS) network which tunnels user plane data between a Packet Data Network GateWay (PDN GW) and a base station, i.e. eNodeB (eNB).
If the upper load limit in a serving GW is reached or an operator wants to move a specific subscriber, i.e. user equipment, away from a serving GW, e.g. due to monitoring reasons, then there are no suitable ways to perform that.
Another scenario might be the case when for any reason the operator wants to empty the serving GW from subscribers, i.e. user equipments, in a smooth manor, e.g. at upgrade/update of for instance the serving GW.
A Tracking Area Update (TAU) procedure is performed when a User Equipment (UE) moves outside its Tracking Area (TA) list, i.e. the user equipment detects a change to a new tracking area by discovering that its current TA is not in the list of TAs that the user equipment registered with a Mobility Management Entity (MME). FIG. 1 shows the Tracking Area Update procedure with MME and serving GW change. The steps 108-111 and 117-118 are related to creating, updating and deleting bearer requests, and will be described in detail. The remaining steps will not be described. However a person skilled in the art will understand how they are performed.
Step 108
A target MME sends a create bearer requests to a target serving GW. The target MME determines whether to relocate the serving GW or not. The serving GW is relocated when the source serving GW cannot continue to serve the UE. The target MME may also decide to relocate the serving GW in case a target serving GW is expected to serve the UE longer and/or with a more optimal UE to PDN GW path, or in case a target serving GW and, in some cases, the source serving GW, may be co-located with the PDN GW. If the target MME selected a target serving GW it sends a Create Bearer Request message, comprising e.g. International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), bearer contexts, to the selected target serving GW. The PDN GW address is indicated in the bearer contexts. The case of selecting one target serving GW is described here, however several target serving GWs may be selected.
Step 109
The target serving GW sends the message Update Bearer Request, comprising e.g. serving GW Address, serving GW Tunnel Endpoint Identifier (TEID), to the PDN GW concerned.
Step 110
The PDN GW updates its bearer contexts and returns an Update Bearer Response message, comprising e.g. PDN GW address and TEID(s), to the target serving GW.
Step 111
The serving GW returns a Create Bearer Response message, comprising e.g. serving GW address and TEID for user plane, serving GW Context ID, to the target MME.
The serving GW updates its bearer context. This allows the serving GW to route Bearer Protocol Data Units (PDUs) to the PDN GW when received from eNodeB.
Step 117
The source MME deletes/frees the EPS bearer resources by sending Delete Bearer Request messages, comprising e.g. TEID, to the source serving GW. The EPS bearer resources may in some cases also be called user equipment bearer resources. It indicates to the source serving GW that the source serving GW shall not initiate a delete procedure towards the PDN GW. If the serving GW has not changed, the serving GW does not delete/free the bearers. If the MME has not changed, step 111 triggers the release of EPS bearer resources, step 117, when a target serving GW is allocated.
As known for a person skilled in the art, an EPS bearer provides PDN connectivity service to a user equipment via EPS access, i.e. it is a "virtual" connection between for example the user equipment and a PDN GW in an Evolved Packet System. An EPS bearer provides a "bearer service", i.e. a transport service with specific Quality of Service (QoS) parameters. All traffic through an EPS bearer has to use the same set of QoS parameters.
Step 118
The serving GW acknowledges by sending a Delete Bearer Response message, comprising e.g. TEID, to the source MME
The above described tracking area update procedure changes from a source serving GW to a target serving GW, and from a source MME to a target MME when the user equipment changes to a new tracking area.
If the upper load limit in a serving GW is reached or an operator wants to move a specific subscriber, i.e. user equipment, away from a serving GW, then there are no possible ways to perform that.
Another scenario might also be the case when for any reason the operator wants to empty the serving GW from subscribers in a smooth manor, i.e. upgrade/update.
A problem today is that the serving GW node has no means to initiate this move of subscribers which in turn may cause massive rejections during Bearer Setup Procedures, risk of overloading, or causing even worse problems.


In one aspect of the present disclosure, an electric working machine includes a three-phase brushless motor, a first switching element, a second switching element, a third switching element, a fourth switching element, a fifth switching element, a sixth switching element, a rotation detector, a brake controller. The brake controller executes a two-phase short-circuit brake. The two-phase short-circuit brake is executed so as to switch any of the fourth switching element, the fifth switching element, and the sixth switching element to a corresponding ON-state or an OFF-state in response a detection signal from the rotation detector that occurs prior to a switching time.

The present disclosure relates to an electric working machine that includes a three-phase brushless motor.
An electric working machine including a three-phase brushless motor as a driving source is configured to reduce or stop rotation of the three-phase brushless motor by using a so-called short-circuit brake. The short-circuit brake is achieved through three terminals of the three-phase brushless motor to be shorted, which generates a braking force on the three-phase brushless motor.
The short-circuit brake in general use is a three-phase short-circuit control, where a brake current flows into all phases of the three-phase brushless motor. Such a three-phase short-circuit control generates an excessive braking force, which results in increase in force that is applied to an electric apparatus due to the braking force and thus a failure may occur in the electric apparatus.
In respective electric working machines disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2013-243824 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2017-070102, a two-phase short-circuit control is executed to thereby generate a desired braking force. In the two-phase short-circuit control, only two current paths are completed among three current paths between respective three terminals of a three-phase brushless motor and a positive electrode of a direct-current power source. Alternatively, only two current paths are completed among three current paths between the respective three terminals and a negative electrode of the direct-current power source.
In the two-phase short-circuit control, as shown in FIG. 7, for example, three high-side switches are tuned off. The high-side switches are switching elements that are provided on the three current paths between the respective three terminals corresponding to a U-phase, a V-phase, and a W-phase of the three-phase brushless motor and the positive electrode (H-side) of the direct-current power source.
On the other hand, three low-side switches are tuned on and off in accordance with rotation of the three-phase brushless motor. The low-side switches are switching elements that are provided on the three current paths between the respective terminals of the three-phase brushless motor and the negative electrode (L-side) of the direct-current power source.
To execute the two-phase short-circuit control, used is a rotation sensor that provides detection signals (Hall signals shown in FIG. 7) every time the motor rotates by a specific angle (every 60-degree in electrical angle, in FIG. 7).
In the two-phase short-circuit control, a delay time is set in a timer every time the motor rotates by the specific angle (at every time periods indicated by arrows in FIG. 7) that corresponds to the detection signals from the rotation sensor, and then measurement by the timer is started (a time point t1). The delay time corresponds to a time (a time corresponding to 30 degrees in electrical angle, in FIG. 7) until any of the low-side switches is next switched to an ON-state or an OFF-state.
In response to elapse of the delay time and an end of the measurement by the timer (a time point t2), any of the low-side switches is switched to the ON-state or the OFF-state in accordance with a specific switching pattern.

Electric working machine and method for braking three-phase brushless motor of electric working machine