A network management apparatus is described which includes a port for connecting to a network for receiving management data from network devices on the network. The network management apparatus includes a processor for processing the received management data and for determining substantially a complete topology of the network and providing image data representative of the network topology. The apparatus further includes a display for receiving the image data and displaying a graphical representation of the network. The processor is adapted to process the received management data to obtain object data for each network object (i.e. device or link) on the network. The object data is provided to the display, for display in graphical form by means of an object tip or tool tip, when the user points to a predetermined part of the graphical representation of the corresponding network object on the display.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for the management of a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
The following description is concerned with a data communications network such as a local area network (LAN) but has more widespread applicability to other managed networks including wide area networks (WANs) and wireless communications systems.
Networks typically comprise a plurality of computer systems, peripherals and other electronic devices capable of communicating with each other by sending and receiving data packets in accordance with a predefined protocol. Each computer or other device on the network is connected by a port to the network media, which in the of case an Ethernet or LAN network may be coaxial or twisted pair cable or fibre optic cable. Each device on the network typically has hardware for media access control (MAC) with its own unique MAC address. Data packets are sent and received in accordance with the MAC protocol whereby the data packets identify the source MAC address (i.e. the MAC address of the device sending the data packet) and the destination MAC address (i.e. the MAC address of the device for which the data packet is destined) in the header of the data packet.
A network is generally configured with devices having a plurality of ports which can be used to interconnect a plurality of media links on the network. Such devices include hubs, routers and switches which pass data packets received at one port to one or more of its other ports, depending upon the type of device. Such devices can either be managed or unmanaged. Managed devices have processing capability including the capability of leaning the MAC addresses of the devices connected to their ports by monitoring the source address of data packets passing through the respective ports. Identified source addresses transmitted from a port of a managed network device, such as a router, hub or switch, are stored in a respective address table associated with the port. Managed devices additionally have the capability of communicating data, such as that stored in their port address tables, to other managed devices. This data is transmitted in accordance with a predetermined protocol in accordance with the network management system (for example the SNMP protocol). Unmanaged network devices do not have these capabilities.
It is becoming increasingly commonplace for an individual to be responsible for network management, and his or her computer system or workstation is typically designated the network management station. The network management station incorporates the necessary application hardware and software to retrieve data from the managed devices on the network in order to determine factors about the operation of the network. The data retrieved from the managed network devices is typically compiled and graphically displayed on the visual display unit of the network management station for the network manager or administrator to interpret.
In known network management systems, the manner in which the relevant data is retrieved from the managed devices, compiled and displayed has been problematic in several respects. Firstly, the data received from each of the managed devices is simply compiled and displayed as a list of data for the user to interpret. Secondly, the data does not provide information about unmanaged devices. Thirdly, information about a given network device, such as the type of device, location of the device on the network and operating speed of the device, may be contained in different sections of the compiled data. Consequently, conventional systems are cumbersome and difficult to use. Previous methods of improving the display of network management data has required users to invoke dialogs (separate windows of text) containing more information about the object or device on the network. The difficulty in using such dialogs is that they are slow, and require more user interaction to open and close them. These disadvantages are exacerbated if the user wishes to view the details of several devices either simultaneously or in turn. In addition, the use of extra windows and text to display detailed information about a device may utilise a large proportion of the screen of the visual display unit and thus obscure information about other devices on the network.
Accordingly, the present invention aims to provide a more convenient and user-friendly way of retrieving, compiling and displaying complete and understandable information about devices on the network and the network topology.
In accordance with a first aspect, the present invention provides a network management apparatus comprising:
a port for connecting to a network and for receiving management data from network devices on a network;
a processor for processing the received management data to determine substantially the complete topology of the network and provide image data representative thereof; and
a display for receiving the image data and displaying a graphical representation of the network;
wherein the processor is configured to process the received management data to obtain object data for each network object, and to provide said object data for each network object to the display for display in graphical form by means of an object tip or tool tip when the user points to a predetermined part of the graphical representation of the corresponding network object on the display.
In accordance with a second aspect the present invention provides a method for operating a network management apparatus, the method comprising:
receiving management data from network devices on the network at a management port;
processing the management data to determine substantially the complete network topology and to obtain image data representative of the network topology;
displaying the image data on a display in the form of a graphical representation of the network; the method further including
processing the received management data to obtain object data representing information about each network object on the network; and
in response to a pointer pointing to a predetermined part of the graphical representation of a network object on the display, providing said object data to the display for display, in the form of an object tip or tool tip, of the object data, representing the corresponding network object, on the display.
In accordance with a third aspect, the present invention provides a computer program for performing the method of the second aspect of the present invention, embodied on a computer readable medium or embodied in a carrier wave.
The present invention, by utilising object tips (or tool tips) which may be activated by the user simply by placing the pointer at an appropriate position on the screen (e.g. by using a mouse) the network manager can more quickly view more detailed information about a given device or its link without positive interaction with the network management station to open and close dialogs. Furthermore, since the detailed information is normally hidden from the user, the information does not clutter the graphical display of information on the screen. Thus, the present invention is quicker and simpler to use and can provide detailed information which may be required by the network manager without obscuring the display screen.

Network management apparatus and method employing xe2x80x9cobject tipsxe2x80x9d for the display of detailed data


A leg retainer for use with a half of a body of eviscerated poultry having a leg with a hock. The leg retainer comprises a unitary substantially coplanar thin plastic member which includes a first hook portion adapted for attachment to the body and a second hook portion adapted for hooking the leg. A connector joins the first hook to the second hook. The plastic member serves to pull the leg close to the body.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to a new leg retainer or truss for poultry or fowl and pertains, more specifically, to a retainer for securing a leg of a small fowl during processing, shipping and cooking.
2. Prior Art
Halves of eviscerated poultry such as chicken are being made available for cooking. Since chicken legs tend to loosen during cooking, it is often the practice to secure the leg of the chicken close to the body to provide uniformity amongst the chicken halves and facilitate packaging and cooking. The current practice is to secure the chicken leg with string. Unfortunately, the installation of the string is labor intensive. In addition, the string is often difficult to detect after the chicken half has been cooked and, as a result, is eaten by the consumer.
Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is to provide a retainer for use with half of a body of eviscerated poultry to secure a leg to the half body during shipping and cooking.
Another object of the invention is to provide a retainer of the above character which is suitable for use with small poultry such as chicken.
Another object of the invention is to provide a retainer of the above character which can be easily attached to the chicken body.
Another object of the invention is to provide a retainer of the above character which attaches to the chicken leg behind the hock.
Another object of the invention is to provide a retainer of the above character which can attach to either the meat or bone structure of the chicken.


An electromagnetic valve circuit used in a fluid line security device is disclosed. The circuit is adapted to open and close a fuel supply pipe. The circuit includes an attracting circuit and a holding circuit connected to one side of a power source. The attracting circuit including an attracting switch is in parallel with the attraction holding circuit. The attracting switch is closed only when the attraction phase of value opening is to be accomplished. In one modification the series circuit of the attracting switch and the electromagnetic valve circuit is coupled in parallel to a circuit formed by a hazard detecting switch, and a relay switch operating coil. In another modification a time limit current control is connected in series with the valve coil to control the supply of current to the coil for a predetermined time limit.

This invention relates to an electromagnetic valve in a security device for fuel, such as natural gas, propane or the like, in which an electromagnetic valve circuit is used to open and close a pipe through which fuel flows. The circuit is made up of an attracting circuit and an attraction holding circuit.
The performance of an electromagnetic valve is as shown in FIG. 1; that is, when the electromagnetic valve carries out the attraction phase, it requires a large attracting current I.sub.O according to the valve stroke; however, after being attracted, the electromagnetic valve can be maintained attracted with a small attraction holding current I.sub.M. In a conventional electromagnetic valve operating method, current for attraction is allowed to flow in the electromagnetic valve at all times. Therefore, the conventional electromagnetic valve operating technique is disadvantageous in that current is consumed wastefully where the electromagnetic valve is placed in the attraction state for a long period of time.
Accordingly, in view of the above-described difficulties accompanying the conventional method, an object of this invention is to provide an electromagnetic valve in a security device for fuel, in which no wasteful current consumption is caused when the electromagnetic valve is maintained open by applying current thereto for a long period of time.
Another object of this invention is to provide an electromagnetic valve circuit in a security device for fuel that eliminates the generation of heat when the reset switch is closed erroneously such that the electromagnetic valve coil draws a large attracting current.
Still another object of this invention is to provide for a valve circuit that minimizes power consumption.
An important aspect of this invention resides in a circuit for an electrogmagnetic valve that is made up of an attracting circuit and an attraction holding circuit. The attracting circuit is connected in parallel to the attraction holding circuit through an attracting switch which is closed only when the attraction is effectuated.

Electromagnetic valve security device for fuel supplies


Disclosed in this patent document are synthetic, biologically active molecules referred to as fused pyrrolo[2,3-c]carbazole-6-ones. These molecules are represented by the following general formulae: ##STR1## Methods for making and using the fused pyrrolo[2,3-c]carbazole-6-ones are also disclosed.

Human interferon-gamma (IFN-.gamma.) is a natural human immunoregulatory protein. It has been established as an agent effective in the treatment of tumors and virus infections in humans. The precise mechanisms by which IFN-.gamma. inhibits virus and tumor growth in vivo remain unknown. There is evidence that IFN-.gamma. works by at least one of two mechanisms: (1) by acting directly on the virus infected cell and the tumor cell and/or (2) by first activating cells of the immune system which then destroy the virus-infected cell or tumor cell [Interferons and other Regulatory Cytokines, E. De Maeyer and J. De Maeyer-Guignard, John Wiley & Sons, New York (1988)].
One manifestation of a stimulated immune system is the enhanced expression on the surface of immune cells of the proteins of the Major Histocompability Complex (MHC). The MHC is made of class I, II, and III genes that code for the respective class I, II, and III proteins. Class I and II proteins reside on the cell surface and are involved in controlling the immune response, whereas the class III proteins appear in the serum and are not involved in controlling the immune response. Class I and II proteins on antigen presenting cells e.g. monocytes, B lymphocytes, dendritic cells, present foreign antigens to T lymphocytes with subsequent destruction of the cell containing the foreign antigen. The enhanced expression of the class I and II proteins is essential for the immune system to rid an animal of virus-infected cells and enhance specific antibody production. IFN-.gamma. is one of the major regulators of the immune response due to its ability to enhance the expression of MHC class I and II proteins. An example of the benefit of MHC I enhancement by IFN-.gamma. is the enhancement of class I proteins on virus-infected cells. The virus infected cell presents synthesized viral antigens on its cell surface to the T cell receptor on cytotoxic T cells (CD4 cells) with the subsequent destruction of the virus infected cell by the cytotoxic T cell. An example of the benefit of MHC II enhancement by IFN-.gamma. is the enhancement of class II proteins on monocytes. Monocytes can ingest invading microorganisms and the class II proteins on the monocyte surface present peptides derived from the invading microorganism. These peptides held by the class II proteins are presented to the T cell receptor on helper T cells (CD8) with subsequent secretion of lymphokines by the CD8 cell. The secreted lymphokines cause proliferation of the antibody synthesizing B lymphocytes which synthesize large amounts of antibody against the invading microorganism.
It can be seem from the above examples that a compound that enhances the IFN-.gamma. induction of MHC molecules would be useful in combination with IFN-.gamma. for the treatment of infections by microorganisms. Such a compound might permit a reduction in the dose of IFN-.gamma., thereby advantageously giving the same therapeutic effect as with IFN-.gamma. alone but with fewer of the IFN-.gamma. related side effects.
There are at least three reports of compounds that potentiate the IFN-.gamma.-induced MHC expression [Coutinho, G. C., Dudrieu-Trautmann, O., Strosberg, A. D., and Couraud, P. O., Catecholamines Stimulate the IFN-.gamma.-induced Class II MHC Expression on Bovine Brain Capillary Endothelial Cells, J. Immunol., 147, 2525-2529 (1991); Zhu, J., Mix, E., Olsson, T., and Link, H., "Influence of Ion Channel Modulation of in Vitro Interferon-.gamma. Induced MHC Class I and II Expression on Macrophages", Immunopharmacology and Immunotoxicology, 17, 109-136 (1995); Mothes, T., Bendix, U.,, Pfannschmidt, C.,, and Lehmann, I., "Effect of Gliadin and Other Food Peptides on Expression of MHC Class II Molecules by HT-29 Cells", Gut, 36, 548-552 (1995)].


The present invention provides a simplified method of controlling power among the various sources and loads in a power system. Power generating sources are each connected to a common DC bus through a converter designed to optimize power flow to the DC bus. A DC storage device is connected to the common DC bus through a power regulator designed to maintain a constant voltage on the DC bus. Further, an inverter may be provided to convert the DC voltage to an AC voltage for a customer load or for connection to the utility grid. Each power conversion device is independently controlled to provide a modular and simplified power control system.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method and apparatus of controlling a hybrid power system. Specifically, this invention manages energy and power flow among one or more power generating sources, storage devices, loads, and the utility grid or an off grid power system, each of which is coupled to a common DC bus.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In recent years, increased demands for energy and increased concerns about supplies of fossil fuels and their corresponding pollution have led to an increased interest in renewable energy sources. Two of the most common and best developed renewable energy sources are photovoltaic energy and wind energy. Other renewable energy sources may include fuel cells, hydroelectric energy, tidal energy, and biofuel or biomass generators. However, using renewable energy sources to generate electrical energy presents a new set of challenges.
One of the biggest challenges for connecting renewable energy sources to existing AC grids, whether the utility grid or an off-grid system, is that renewable energy sources provide a variable supply of energy. The supply may vary, for example, according to the amount of wind, cloud cover, or time of day. Further, different energy sources provide different types of electrical energy. A wind turbine, for example, is better suited to provide Alternating Current (AC) energy while a photovoltaic cell is better suited to provide Direct Current (DC) energy. As a result, combining multiple sources of renewable energy with other generating systems, such as the utility grid or independent micro turbines and generators, into a single system with an AC output requires integrating each of these different energy sources. Due to the variable nature of the energy supplied by renewable sources, it may be desirable to integrate a storage device in the power system. The energy storage device may be charged during periods of peak production by the renewable source or, alternately, by the utility grid or other generating source. The energy storage device may then supply energy back to the grid when the renewable source is generating less energy than is required by the loads in a grid-independent system or less than is commanded by the utility in a grid-tied system.
Prior attempts to integrate multiple sources of renewable energy typically require individually connecting each energy source as well as the storage device to a grid, where the grid may be either a stand-alone grid or the utility grid. Each manufacturer of a generating source, for example the wind turbine or the photovoltaic array, or load provides a power converter to connect the source or load to the grid. This approach typically results in an undesirable double power conversion, first converting the generating source to an AC voltage compatible with the utility grid and then back to a DC voltage compatible with the storage device.
Other attempts to integrate multiple sources have utilized a high-level controller managing energy flow by each of the devices. For example, multiple AC sources operating in parallel in a grid-independent system typically require transfer switches and a control scheme to select desired generating sources. Such integration systems typically require complex software customized for each system. Addition of other generating sources or loads to the system requires subsequent modification of the integration software and connection hardware. Consequently, this complex control scheme limits the flexibility of integrating future generating sources or other modifications into a power system.

Method and apparatus for controlling a hybrid power system


A self-loading apparatus for picking up and moving a large bale of material, such as large, cylindrical shaped bales of hay having diameters up to about 3 or 4 feet and longitudinal lengths up to about 5 or 6 feet. The apparatus includes a main frame member supported on wheels mounted near the end of the main frame. A hitch frame has one end pivotally connected to the front end portion of the main frame, with the other end of the hitch frame adapted for attachment to a tow vehicle. The main frame is adapted to be tilted upwardly about the support wheels when braking means on the wheels are activated and the tow vehicle is backed up. A pair of load engaging and clamping swing arms are pivotally attached to the respective sides of the main frame. Means are provided with the main frame and hitch frame for pivotally moving the swing arms away from each other when the main frame is tilted upwardly and, conversely, for pivotally moving the swing arms toward each other when the main frame is lowered by moving the tow vehicle forward while braking means on the wheels of the main frame is activated.

1. Field:
The invention relates to picking up and transporting large bales of material, such as large, cylindrically shaped bales of hay, and to apparatus for accomplishing same.
2. State of the Art:
Numerous apparatus have been proposed and used for handling large bales of material. Generally, the apparatus is used in combination with fork lift trucks or the like, and have been used mainly in warehouses. Representative devices are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,334,762; 3,876,093; and 3,929,366.
With the recent development of farm equipment for producing large, cylindrical shaped bales of hay, various apparatus have been designed for transporting and handling the large bales of hay. In an earlier patent issued to me, i.e., U.S. Pat. No. 4,053,069, I disclosed apparatus having a tilt frame and a pair of rearward extending bale clamping members pivotally attached to the tilt frame. Means was provided for swinging the bale clamping means into engagement with the ends of a bale of hay and then tilting the otherwise vertical tilt frame forward so as to lift the bale of hay from the ground. Other devices for handling large bales of hay are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,877,595; 3,944,095; 4,072,241; 4,089,425; 4,113,116; and 4,138,159.

Self-loading apparatus for transporting large bales of material


A external body of a kitchen fume extractor comprising a top sheet member having left and right edges extending downwardly to form a short plate portion extending inwardly to form a first fixing portion, two side sheet members individually having a second fixing portion extending inwardly from the upper edge of the side sheet member and secured to the first fixing portion, and a rear sheet member attached to the top sheet member and the side sheet members.

The present invention retates generally to a kitchen smoke or fume extractor or hood, and more particularly relates to an external body for such an extractor.
FIGS. 1-3 of the accompanying drawings illustrate the external body of a conventional kitchen fume extractor. The body 10 comprises a top sheet 11, a left sheet 12, a right sheet 13 and a rear sheet 14. Both the left and right sheets 12, 13 are provided with projecting flanges 121, 131 around their edges. In the process of assembling the various sheets to form the body 10, both the left and right sheets 12, 13 are united with the top sheet 11 by fitting the projecting flanges 121, 131 over the left and right edges 111, 112 of the top sheet 11. The left and right sheets 12, 13 are fastened securely to the top sheet 11 by spot welding.
The body of such a kitchen extractor suffers from the following disadvantages, that is, because the sheets 11, 12, 13 and 14 are made of thin stainless steel sheet by means of punching and pressing, both the external edges 122, 132 of the projecting flanges 121, 131 of the left and right sheets 12, 13 are very sharp, rather like a blade, which is often a potential hazard. Hence, when a person is transporting or cleaning the body 10, his hand may be injured by the edges 122, 133.


An apparatus for controlling an EGR valve, includes: a measurement unit to measure at least one operation condition of an engine system; a fresh air amount setting unit to set a target amount of fresh air based on the operation condition; a fresh air amount sensor to measure a current amount of fresh air introduced through an intake line; a control calculation unit to set a signal for controlling an opening degree of the EGR valve so that the current amount of fresh air follows the target amount of fresh air; and an identifier to simulate an input and an output of the engine system, and output engine system input-output sensitivity which is a ratio of a change rate of the current amount of fresh air to a change rate of the opening degree of the EGR valve.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and do not constitute prior art.
Exhaust gas discharged from an engine contains a large amount of hazardous substances such as CO, HC, and NOx. Focus on the serious problem of air pollution caused by the exhaust gas discharged from the engine has become urgent, and thus exhaust gas emission regulations have become stricter in many countries. To meet the exhaust gas emission regulations in each country, many methods and apparatuses for purifying exhaust gas have been proposed, and particularly, many efforts have been made in order to remove NOx which is known as a substance that greatly affects the air pollution among the substances contained in the exhaust gas discharged from a vehicle. As one method, recently, exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) is widely used. The EGR recirculates a part of the exhaust gas into a combustion chamber of the engine and lowers a combustion temperature of the engine, thereby reducing the occurrence of NOx. An EGR apparatus includes an EGR line that extends from an exhaust line of the engine to an intake line of the engine, and an EGR valve is provided in the EGR line in order to adjust the amount of exhaust gas recirculated and introduced into the intake line in accordance with an operation condition. The EGR valve adjusts the amount of exhaust gas recirculated into the intake line by adjusting an opening degree of the EGR line.
In general, as a control algorithm of the EGR valve, PI control or PID control is used to adjust the opening degree of the EGR line by controlling an operation of the EGR valve by combining proportional control, integral control, and differential control. These kinds of control may be expressed as a control function, and the control function includes control parameters such as a proportional gain Kp, an integral gain Ki, and a differential gain Kd. Optimized gains, which are adjusted in accordance with various operation conditions, are required to improve responsiveness of the engine and ensure stable behavior of the engine. However, in the related art, there is a need for engineers trained to tune the EGR valve and control tests need to be performed under many operation conditions, and as a result, there is a problem in that efficiency deteriorates. In addition, the gains are generally used only for the designated engine, and as a result, there is a problem in that a lot of effort needs to be made to set a new gain and adapt the new gain to an operation condition even though the engine is slightly changed.

Apparatus and method for controlling EGR valve


There is provided a forming mold 40 made on the basis of a standard more reliable than an average roughness of a surface of a metal film that generates surface plasmon resonance, the forming mold being capable of improving an S/N ratio of an optical element 20. A forming mold 40 for a substrate 21 of an optical element 20 used for measurements utilizing surface plasmon, wherein an Spc value of a molding surface 51t for transferring a shape onto a surface 21a of the substrate 21 on a side facing an object to be measured is equal to or less than 100 [1/mm].

In recent years, in the fields of a biosensor etc., various sensors using surface plasmon resonance have been put in practical use. The examples of a sensor using Surface Plasmon-field enhanced Fluorescence Spectroscopy (SPFS) include one, wherein a metal film is formed via a thin substrate on an inclined plane of a prism, and the metal thin film is irradiated with a laser beam from a back side, which is the inner side of the prism, to generate surface plasmon resonance and an enhanced electric field at the surface of the metal thin film (see Patent Literature 1). Note that this Patent Literature 1 describes that the average roughness Ra of the surface of the metal film is set to be equal to or less than 4 nm.
Moreover, the examples of a scanning near-field optical microscope utilizing surface plasmon resonance include the one, wherein a metal thin film is formed via a thin substrate on an inclined plane of a prism, and the metal thin film is irradiated with a laser beam from a back side, which is the inner side of the prism, to generate surface plasmon resonance at the surface of the metal thin film, thereby detecting a proximity light with an opposed probe (see Patent Literature 2). Note that this Patent Literature 2 describes that the average roughness of the surface of the metal thin film is desirably set to be equal to or less than 0.1 nm.
Other than the above, the examples of a surface plasmon resonance apparatus, which causes a light beam to enter the opposite side of a sample of a metal film and detects an attenuation state of a totally reflected light thereof, include the one having an incident face and emitting face provided in the bottom portion of a container-like chip to be measured and having a metal film formed in the upper face of the bottom portion (see Patent Literature 3). Note that this Patent Literature 3 does not describe the surface roughness of a metal film.
In an apparatuses utilizing the surface plasmon resonance phenomena as described above, the metal thin film of a sensor might be desirably smooth, but according to the study of the present inventor, it turned out that a reduction of the average roughness of the metal thin film does not necessarily result in an improvement of the S/N ratio.

Forming mold, optical element, and method for producing optical element


A musical instrument training system for a stringed musical instrument having a body, a fingerboard, a plurality of strings, and an electric pickup. A fingering display (left hand) and a playing display (right hand) are mounted on the fingerboard. A control circuit, mounted on the body, receives input signals from one channel of a stereo for controlling the fingering and playing displays. The fingering and playing displays comprise an array of LEDs and LCDs that indicate the strings to finger, the fingers to use, the strings to play and the direction of play. A freeze control permits the user to "freeze" a section of the input signals in a buffer for repetitive practice. A tuning circuit permits the user to compare the tone of a string with a stored tone via a tuning display to help tune the instrument.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to musical instrument training systems. More specifically, the invention relates to systems for facilitating instruction of musicians in playing a stringed musical instrument such as a guitar and in learning related styles, techniques and theory.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the past, it has been the general practice to employ a variety of automated training aids designed to help students of stringed musical instruments learn particular execution skills such as fingering, strumming, plucking, etc. For example, visual training aids that diagrammatically show a guitar student particular fingering patterns and the corresponding musical staff diagrams have been available for a number of years. Special visual/audio training systems have also been used in the past. These systems permit a student to see a display of fingering diagrams and, simultaneously, to hear related prerecorded instructions, notes or cords.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,286,495, granted Sep. 1, 1981 to Roof, discloses a prior art visual guitar training device. The Roof guitar has a first array of lights embedded in its fingerboard and a second array of lights mounted near the sounding hole. Each of the fingerboard lights is located near different finger positions. When energized, the fingerboard lights act as visual fingering indicators by displaying predetermined left-hand fingering patterns directly on the fingerboard. The lights in the second array indicate the proper strings to be strummed, plucked, picked or otherwise played with the right hand. A manual chord-select switch that is also mounted on the Roof guitar permits the student musician to select predetermined musical chords from a limited set of chords. The manual switches are used to control the light arrays so that visual fingering patterns and right-hand instructions of the selected chord are indicated by the lights. Although this and similar systems have served the purpose they have not proved entirely satisfactory primarily because the information provided to the student is only visual and the number of different fingering patterns is limited to a small number of switch positions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,915,005, granted Apr. 10, 1990 to Shaffer et al., is another visual guitar training device. The Shaffer et al. patent discloses a fingering display that also includes an array of lights embedded in a guitar fingerboard. A number of electrical switches are manually operable by the musician to select a desired note. For each of the notes selected, a light display is activated that shows all of the possible fingering positions for that note. If a scale or chord is selected, then all of the fingering positions for all of the notes of the entire scale or chord are displayed. Like the Roof device, the Shaffer et al. training device provides only visual information to the user. Although the amount of information available in this device is greater than what is available in the Roof device, the amount of information is still quite limited.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,791,848, granted Dec. 20, 1988 to Blum, Jr., shows a prior art visual/audio guitar training system. This system is made up of an electric guitar and a number of electronic components. The guitar includes a fingerboard having an array of lights imbedded therein. The lights are electrically connected to a processing circuit contained in one of the electronic components. A two-track cassette containing audio signals on one track and light-control signals on the other track is played by another component that includes a conventional two-channel cassette player. The audio signals from the player are outputted by one channel output to a loudspeaker component to play music and/or instructions. Simultaneously, the light-control signals are transmitted via the other channel output to the processing circuit where they are processed and transmitted to the guitar fingerboard. The light-control signals selectively energize the lights to display particular fingering patterns of notes, chords, etc. corresponding to the music and/or instructions being played by the loudspeaker. Additionally, a conventional electric guitar output is transmitted from the guitar pickup to the loudspeaker so that the musical results of the student's playing may also be heard. In this system, the student can hear audio information while viewing corresponding visual fingering information and listening to the guitar output.
From these prior art examples, it can be seen that there has been a long recognized need for improved stringed-instrument training systems. Ideally, such systems would be capable of providing the student musician with instructional information that is both visual and audio and corresponds to a wide variety of musical styles and techniques that are presented via musical notes, scales, chords, melodies, compositions, etc.; would have the capability of providing the musician with extensive visual left-hand and right-hand information in substantially a single viewing area; would be compatible with conventional electronic musical storage and playback devices; would permit the student to easily select small musical segments from larger pieces for concentrated training; would be simple in construction and would be dependable in operation. The present invention fulfills this need.

Musical instrument training system having displays to identify fingering, playing and instructional information


A lawn care device (10) may include an articulated frame (40), a cutting deck (50, 100), a collection container (12) and a chute (82). The articulated frame (40) may include a front frame portion (42) to which front wheels (34) are operably coupled and a rear frame portion (44) to which rear wheels (32) are operably coupled, the front frame portion (42) and rear frame portions (44) being operably coupled by an articulated joint. The cutting deck (100) may house at least one blade (110, 112, 114) and the cutting deck (100) may be mounted to the front frame portion (42), forward of the front wheels (34). The collection container (12) may collect material from the cutting deck (50, 100) and may be affixed to the front frame portion (42) and suspended over the rear wheels (32). The chute (82) may be operably coupling the cutting deck (50, 100) and the collection container (12) to pass the material from the cutting deck (50, 100) to the collection container (12).

Lawn care tasks are commonly performed using various tools and/or machines that are configured for the performance of corresponding specific tasks. Certain tasks, like grass cutting, are typically performed by lawn mowers. Lawn mowers themselves may have many different configurations to support the needs and budgets of consumers. Walk-behind lawn mowers are typically compact, have comparatively small engines and are relatively inexpensive. Meanwhile, at the other end of the spectrum, riding lawn mowers, such as lawn tractors, can be quite large. Riding lawn mowers can sometimes also be configured with various functional accessories (e.g., trailers, tillers and/or the like) in addition to grass cutting components. Riding lawn mowers provide the convenience of a riding vehicle as well as a typically larger cutting deck as compared to a walk-behind model.
Given that riding lawn mowers have the ability to provide a platform capable of hosting functional accessories, they can be very popular devices. However, the larger platform provided by a riding lawn mower may require sacrifices in maneuverability. Accordingly, it is desirable to develop riding lawn mower configurations that effectively balance considerations like size and corresponding functional capability that can therefore be supported with maneuverability.


A method and apparatus for data collision detection and resolution in a multi-processor communication system. The system includes a plurality of processors coupled via a common bus. When it is required that one processor communicate with another processor, the first processor determines whether a data collision flag is set. The processor then checks a number of indicators to determine whether the identity of the transmitting processor is what it is expected to be. If a data collision is found, the processor waits a selective time before transmitting a message. The processor then repeats the data collision checking and transmitting the message to the other processor when no data collision is found. The time to wait is dependent upon the identity of the processor and is table driven.

The present invention pertains to inter-processor communication and more particularly to data collision detection and recovery in multi-processor communication systems.
In distributed control systems, a number of processors perform portions of the overall operation of a functional unit, such as a telephone, for example. Modern telephones are sophisticated devices which provide for a number of features such as security. In addition, such phones provide for interfacing with facsimile machines, copying machines and other telecommunication devices. The processors which control these different functions must communicate with one another. Typically, these processors are interconnected by a bus. This bus may be a serial bus and employ a CARRIER SENSE MULTIPLE ACCESS WITH COLLISION DETECTION (CSMA/CD) bus protocol.
These multi-processor communication systems do not detect data collisions on the bus under all conditions. Further, such systems do not provide an efficient arrangement for settling conflicts between processors involved in a data collision.
Accordingly, it is highly desirable to provide a multiple processor communication system which detects data collisions under all conditions and resolves the collisions by efficiently permitting processors to communicate in a prioritized fashion.

Method and apparatus for data collision detection in a multi-processor communication system


Embodiments of a gas turbine engine lifecycle decision assistant apply a probabilistic-based process founded on a Bayesian mathematical framework to intelligently combine analytical models, expert judgment, and data during the development and field management of gas turbine engines. The process integrates physics-based and high-fidelity models with data and expert judgment that evolves over the course of the gas turbine engine lifecycle. Among other things, embodiments of the gas turbine engine lifecycle decision assistant can improve future predictive models and understanding while at the same time reducing risk and uncertainty in the service management of existing products.

Information needed to make a critical decision regarding the design or field management of one or more manufactured components, such as a gas turbine engine component, can be developed during any phase of the component's lifecycle. A decision can be improved by reducing uncertainty in the data used as the basis for the decision. In the gas turbine engine industry, there are many different potential sources of uncertainty, and the sources of uncertainty may change over the course of a component's lifecycle.
Due to the complex nature of gas turbine engine systems and the associated mathematical predictions, existing decision tools do not provide a closed-form mathematical solution for the gas turbine engine industry. Existing empirical models and system architectures attempt to approximate system behavior based on extensive testing and analysis. However, for representative testing and analysis to be applied, existing systems need to assume certain environmental and operational boundary conditions. These assumptions constrain the relevant design domain that may satisfy a particular belief about the empirical parameter estimates or system interactions. Extrapolation of models with empirical parameter estimates or assumed system influence bounded by the boundary condition assumptions has often resulted in inaccurate determinations of real-world component behavior in service. The resultant implications include increased costs due to overly conservative design practices and inaccurate predictions leading to component failure in operation.
A probabilistic model, such as a Bayesian network, can be used to depict relationships between random variables and their conditional dependencies as a graph in which the random variables are represented as nodes, the conditional dependencies are designated by the edges between the nodes, and the lack of an edge between two nodes indicates that the random variables represented by the unconnected nodes are conditionally independent of one another. A probability distribution is associated with each of the nodes in the model.

Integrating design and field management of gas turbine engine components with a probabilistic model


A system utilizes one or more programmable logic arrays or gate arrays for regulating the commands available to a microprocessor, and intercepting certain of those commands according to predetermined citeria. The system selects and processes designated commands relating to the FORCE-A20 signal and CPU-RESET signal for a keyboard controller functionally attached to an INTEL 80286 or 80386 microprocessor. The system includes one or more programmable logic arrays or gate arrays for allowing all input commands to pass directly through to the keyboard controller except the command sequence relating to the FORCE-A20 signal or the CPU-RESET signal.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to regulating the operations of a microprocessor by the use of one or more programmable logic arrays or gate arrays for filtering of certain commands to the microprocessor. More particularly, it relates to the use of programmable logic arrays or gate arrays for monitoring commands to a keyboard controller in a personal computer based on either the INTEL 80286 or 80386 microprocessor, and intercepting certain of those commands relating to the FORCE-A20 and CPU-RESET signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many popular personal computers based on the INTEL 80286 or 80386 microprocessor, there is a need for utilizing both real-address mode ("real mode") and protected mode. Real mode is used for initialization when first powered up, and mimicking of older 16-bit microprocessors, such as the INTEL 8086 family of microprocessors. In real mode, the 80286 or 80386 microprocessor uses segment and offset registers in the same way as the 8086 family to access the same one megabyte of memory. In real mode, the 16-bit instruction set, the segmented programming model, addressing mechanism, and one megabyte physical memory limitations are identical to those provided by the 8086. Thus the 80286 and 80386 microprocessors are compatible with the addressing scheme of the 8086 family.
In protected mode, the 80286 or 80386 microprocessor adds a series of features that allow it to safely and reliably expand the number of programs the computer can be working on at one time. This is accomplished through four main facilities: protection, extended memory, virtual memory, and multi-tasking. Protection allows the operating system to erect barriers to prevent a program from interfering with the operation of other programs or of the operating system itself. Extended memory greatly increases the amount of working memory beyond the 640 KB actually available to the software. Virtual memory allows the computer to go further beyond the installed physical memory limitations by shifting data to and from remote memory, such as hard disk. Finally, with multi-tasking supported by the hardware, the 80286 or 80386 can swiftly and reliably switch among several programs that are running at the same time.
A basic difference between protected mode and real mode is that the protected mode segment register is no longer a real (i.e., physical) address. Instead, in protected mode, the 80286 or 80386 uses the upper (most significant) 14 bits of the segment register to look up a 24-bit base address (with the 80286) or a 32-bit base address (with the 80386) stored in a descriptor table in memory.
Additionally, with protected mode, segment registers define the way that memory is organized between tasks. Each task has its own descriptor table describing the segments for that task. Since physical addresses are stored in the descriptor table rather than in the segment registers, the operating system can move memory around without application programs being affected.
Protected mode is so named because segments belonging to one task are protected from being corrupted by another task. Tasks are organized in privilege levels, and certain machine-code instructions are prohibited to lower privilege levels. In a well-designed protected mode operating system, a single program can neither crash the whole system nor get itself into an unrecoverable state.
Many personal computers based on the 80286 or 80386 microprocessors implement the "FORCE-A20" function. This function is necessary to maintain compatibility with software designed for systems based on the 8086 family of microprocessors.
The compatibility issue arises from the different memory address sizes available on the 8086, 80286, and 80386 chips. The 8086 had a one megabyte address range, with twenty address lines (A0-A19) driven by the microprocessor. The total range was 2 raised to the 20th power, or 1,048,576 possible addresses (one megabyte). In contrast, the 80286 has 24 address lines, giving 16 megabytes of address range (2 raised to the 24th power); the 80386 has 32 address lines, giving 4096 megabytes of address range (2 raised to the 32nd power).
The 8086 microprocessor uses a segmented memory addressing scheme. The effect of this scheme is to allow a software program to access only a 64 KB "window" out of the one megabyte total range. To access memory outside this window, the window's location must change, and this operation takes time.
To access memory near the top of the one megabyte address space as well as memory near the bottom of the 8086's one megabyte address space, without moving the window, some software takes advantage of "memory wraparound". This feature on the 8086 may be used when the base of the 64 KB window is less than 64 KB from the top of the one megabyte address range, so the top of the window would extend beyond the highest possible address location. When the window is in such a position, these impossibly high addresses are simply "wrapped around" to low addresses, much in the same way that an odometer goes from 99,999 to 00,000 miles. Thus, software could access very high as well as very low addresses in the same window.
Since the 80286 and 80386 microprocessors have more than one megabyte of address range, these microprocessors do not wrap around memory addresses at one megabyte. Instead, accesses to the part of the window above one megabyte are put out as actual addresses greater than one megabyte.
The difference between the old 8086 "wrapped around" low addresses and the new 80286/80386 high addresses is that the new 80286/80386 microprocessors have extra address lines beyond A19 (much like having extra digits on an odometer, so it doesn't wrap around after 99,999 miles). The first of these address lines on the 80286 or 80386 is A20, and it is set high for all addresses in the range from one megabyte to two megabytes (in the absence of the FORCE-A20 command). The A20 line is set low for addresses below one megabyte.
In real mode, the 80286 and 80386 microprocessors behave as much as possible like the 8086 microprocessors. Thus, in real mode the 80286 and 80386 cannot access memory above one megabyte. Because the 80286 or 80386 have more than one megabyte address range, the wrap-around feature of the 8086 family of microprocessors does not work on the 80286 or 80386 (in real mode) unless the A20 line is low. When the A20 line is low, the 80286 or 80386 can simulate the wrap-around feature.
To allow software with wrap-around windows to operate on the 80286 or 80386 microprocessors, the prior art has employed various techniques to intercept the A20 line from the microprocessor and force it low. Forcing the A20 line low makes addresses put out by the microprocessor in the range of between one and two megabytes result in an address one megabyte lower. The signal that causes the A20 line to stay low is called "FORCE-A20".
When the 80286 or 80386 microprocessor returns from real mode back to protected mode, the FORCE-A20 signal must be turned off, so that the software has the ability to use the full address range (beyond one megabyte) available to the microprocessor.
The FORCE-A20 signal does not actually cause the microprocessor to switch between protected and real mode. The actual switching of modes is accomplished either by executing special instructions in the microprocessor or by resetting the microprocessor. Setting the FORCE-A20 signal is simply something that must be done by the software program to insure the wrap-around feature will not prevent proper functioning of the program.
In the prior art, the FORCE-A20 signal was controlled by an extra output pin on the 8042 keyboard controller. This prior art solution was chosen because the extra output pin was not otherwise needed, and because at the time nobody foresaw any need to switch between real and protected mode more than occasionally. The problem, however, of putting the FORCE-A20 signal under the control of the 8042 keyboard controller was that access to the signal was possible only by sending a command to the 8042, which then executed a routine to alter the state of the output pin. This process typically takes approximately 200 microseconds. The delay was found to be undesirable in many applications.
Many of the protected mode software programs utilizing the 80286 or 80386 microprocessors must disable the FORCE-A20 signal before switching to protected mode, and then enable it after returning to real mode. The prior art has controlled the FORCE-A20 signal by sending commands to the 8042 keyboard controller. Some of the newer software has needed to switch between protected and real mode very frequently, so that the delay for switching (approximately 200 microseconds) caused by the 8042 keyboard controller became a significant part of the program's execution time.
The present invention solves the delay problem resulting from utilizing the 8042 to control the FORCE-A20 signal, so that all existing software that calls on the 8042 to change the FORCE-A20 signal is not obsolete and the delay caused by the 8042 is reduced substantially.
The prior art has attempted to solve this delay problem by installing an additional, separate hardware port for the FORCE-A20 signals. This attempted solution, however, is incompatible with much of the existing software which utilizes the existing port on the 8042. Therefore, a need exists for implementing the FORCE-A20 command without delay by the 8042 keyboard controller, in a system compatible with existing software.
Many personal computers based on the 80286 or 80386 microprocessors also implement the "RESET-CPU" function. The RESET-CPU command activates the RESET-CPU signal, which addresses the 80286 or 80386 microprocessor reset input. When the signal is activated, it causes the microprocessor to stop whatever it is doing and start its initialization sequence.
One use for the RESET-CPU command is to switch from protected mode to real mode in a system based on the 80286. When the 80286 microprocessor is reset, it defaults to real mode. The RESET-CPU command, however, is not generally used by application software because it may cause the system to reboot. The system does provide that control can be returned to a program already residing in memory even after the CPU has been reset. Thus, if a protected mode program wishes to switch to real mode on an 80286 microprocessor, the program must reset the CPU, then regain control after the reset occurs.
It should be noted that the 80386 microprocessor, unlike the 80286, provides a specific instruction to switch from protected to real mode. However, software developed for the 80286 does not utilize this 80386-specific instruction.
If a software program switches from protected to real mode frequently, then it must reset the CPU frequently. The RESET function is a strobe or pulse typically controlled by the 8042 keyboard controller. In the prior art, the command to change the CPU-RESET signal has utilized yet another extra pin on the 8042, just as the FORCE-A20 signal utilized an extra pin. In the prior art, the 8042 RESET-CPU command holds that signal active for a short period of time; i.e., about five microseconds. The RESET-CPU signal resets the CPU, and then allows it to restart. However, since the 8042 hardware controls this function, the software program must wait for the relatively slow 8042 to respond during every RESET. Because the signal utilizes an extra pin on the 8042, there is typically a delay of approximately 200 microseconds for the 8042 to respond to the command., i.e., from the time that the CPU-RESET strobe command is sent to the 8042 until the time the 8042 starts the strobe. This additional 200 microsecond delay was found to be undesirable in many applications.
Attempted solutions to this delay problem include installing an additional, separate hardware port for the CPU-RESET signal, but this attempted solution is incompatible with much of the existing software. Another alternative method is to cause a CPU-RESET from software without using the 8042. This alternative is called a "triple fault". The triple fault is done by intentionally causing an execution error while in protected mode. When this happens, the CPU will automatically begin executing an error handling routine. If there is also an error in the first routine, the CPU goes to a second error handling routine. If there is an error in the second error handling routine, the CPU resets itself. Although this triple fault sequence is faster than the 8042 hardware reset, this approach has not been utilized by existing software applications. Therefore, the need exists for implementing the CPU-RESET signal, compatible with existing software and without delay inherent in the 8042 keyboard controller.

Programmable logic system for filtering commands to a microprocessor


An apparatus for mixing a gas and a liquid is disclosed. The apparatus is comprised of a hollow outer tube and a hollow inner tube received coaxially within the outer tube. The inner tube is mounted for rotary motion within the hollow interior of the outer tube. A motor is attached to the outer tube adjacent a first end thereof and is drivingly coupled to a first end of the inner tube. The inner tube has a section which extends beyond the second end of the outer tube. A propeller is attached to this section of the inner tube for rotation therewith. The propeller is adapted to be placed in a liquid and to propel the liquid in which the propeller rotates. An inlet is formed in the inner tube for admitting a gas to the hollow interior of the inner tube. A diffusion tube forms a portion of the inner tube and extends beyond the propeller. The diffusion tube has a hollow interior which forms a portion of the hollow interior of the inner tube. The diffusion tube also has an open end for injecting a gas passing through the hollow interior of the inner tube into a liquid in which the propeller is placed. The diffusion tube has a length which is at least fifty percent of the transverse dimension of the propeller.

The present invention relates broadly to apparatus for mixing a gas with a liquid. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus for aerating water in a water treatment process.
Aeration apparatus are utilized in the treatment of water for the purpose of increasing the dissolved oxygen (DO) content of the water. A certain amount of dissolved oxygen is required for the life of fish and other aquatic organisms. Dissolved oxygen is also required to prevent the formation of offensive odors and to break down organic matter in water. The biochemical oxygen demand (BOD) is the measure of the amount of oxygen consumed in the biological processes which break down organic matter in water. A high BOD indicates that large amounts of organic waste are present and will use up large amounts of dissolved oxygen. Aeration apparatus are especially useful in increasing the amount of dissolved oxygen and, hence, are useful in high-BOD situations.
Aerators utilized in waste water treatment can be broadly classified into two types: a diffused air type, and a mechanical type. A diffused air type aerator introduces air or pure oxygen into water via submerged porous diffusers or nozzles. Mechanical type aerators agitate the water so as to promote solution of air from the atmosphere.
Mechanical type aerators are further classified as either surface aerators or turbine aerators. A surface aerator utilizes a submerged or partially submerged impeller which agitates the water vigorously to thereby entrain air in the water and cause a rapid change in the air-water interface. Turbine aerators generally utilize a rotating impeller which is disposed a certain distance below the surface of the water being treated. A draft tube is supported generally coaxial with the axis of rotation of the impeller and is utilized to supply air to the liquid adjacent the impeller.


An apparatus comprising a plurality of lenses and a frame. The plurality of lenses may be arranged to provide coverage for a spherical field of view of a scene surrounding the apparatus and each have an optical axis directed to provide coverage for a respective area of the spherical field of view. The frame may be configured to hold a first subset of the plurality of lenses and a second subset of the plurality of lenses. At least one of the lenses in the first subset and at least one of the lenses in the second subset are neighboring lenses. An orientation of at least two of the neighboring lenses is configured to reduce parallax effects when the spherical field of view is recorded using the plurality of lenses. The parallax effects are reduced by configuring the optical axes of the neighboring lenses to not intersect.

Conventional omnidirectional cameras (also known as virtual reality cameras, spherical cameras, panorama cameras, immersive video cameras, or 360 cameras) present design challenges. The purpose of omnidirectional cameras is to capture video in all directions surrounding the camera (i.e., 360 degrees in each axis). The video captured represents a complete view of a scene surrounding the person watching the video. A user typically uses a head-mounted display or an interactive video player to view the captured video on playback. The video orientation can be changed in any direction during playback.
The video provides the user with a spherical field of view of the scene surrounding the omnidirectional camera. A single lens cannot capture an entire spherical field of view. Conventional solutions include placing a convex mirror in front of the lens or capturing images from multiple lenses for several separate video signals. Using a mirror only provides a 360 degree horizontal coverage, while losing the top and bottom of the spherical field of view. When using multiple lenses, the multiple images are stitched together into a 360 degree intermediate representation. The multiple images need to have sufficient overlap so that overlapping areas can be blended together to offer a continuous and smooth representation of the scene surrounding the camera.
When multiple images are stitched together, the parallax of objects viewed by different cameras can create artifacts on the blended/overlapping areas. The parallax occurs because the objects are viewed differently (i.e., at different relative positions) by each camera. Blending artifacts are visible when viewing the spherical field of view and create a distraction from the user experience.
To avoid parallax related artifacts, two theoretical alternative conditions may be implemented. In one theoretical implementation for reducing parallax related artifacts, all objects are viewed (e.g., captured images) at a sufficient distance (e.g., theoretically an infinite distance). Viewing the objects at the sufficient distance may nullify the parallax related artifacts. However, an infinite viewing distance is not realistic in real camera implementations. In another theoretical implementation, a center of projection (e.g., a focal point, an optical center and/or convergence point) of all cameras share the same physical location. The center of projection may be a point at which initially collimated rays of light meet after passing through a convex lens. Generally, multiple cameras sharing the same location for the centers of projection may not be physically possible, because the center of projection of each camera is located somewhere between a lens and a sensor of the camera inside each camera module. The volume of space physically occupied by the cameras should intersect so that the respective focal points coincide (or at least be close to one another).
It would be desirable to implement an omnidirectional camera to minimize parallax effects.


The invention is directed to a process for preparation of a silver halide emulsion comprising providing an unsensitized emulsion, heating to carry out chemical sensitization of said emulsion, cooling said emulsion, heating said emulsion a second time to complete heat treatment.

In the formation of silver halide emulsions for use in photographic materials, a desirable characteristic is to have photographic materials that are capable of being rapidly processed. It is known that silver halide emulsions having high levels of chloride content (greater than 90 mole % chloride) are especially useful in achieving rapid processability due to their higher solubility compared to emulsions having greater than some minimum levels of other halides (for example, emulsions having greater than 10 mole % bromide or more than 3-5 mole % iodide or both).
Silver halide emulsions including those high in chloride content are also known to require some form of chemical sensitization in order to increase their photographic efficiency. Chemical sensitization of an emulsion involves the addition of one or more chemical sensitizing agents where the sensitizing agent is capable of undergoing a chemical reaction on the silver halide grain surface during the application of thermal energy for some time period. The chemical sensitization involving adding chemical sensitizer to an emulsion and heating is often referred to as chemical digestion of the silver halide emulsion. Emulsions, especially high chloride content emulsions, also require spectral sensitization involving the addition of surface adsorbing sensitizing dyes to the emulsion grains which make the grains sensitive to specific wavelengths of light. In addition, silver halide emulsion grains are often treated with other photographically useful chemical compounds such as salts of other halides which can cause surface conversion of the host emulsion grains to a mixed halide composition. Other known photographically useful compounds which can be added are antifoggants, stabilizers, metal dopants, silver halide solvents, ripeners, supersensitizers, coating aids, and surfactants. These photographically useful compounds can be added prior to, during, or after the chemical sensitization or the spectral sensitization steps.
It is also known that silver halide emulsions, especially those high in chloride content, can be caused to fog or to exhibit high D.sub.min density as a result of the application of heat during the chemical sensitization (digestion) step. The onset of this undesirable fog or high D.sub.min is often the limiting factor in the performance of photographic materials composed of silver halide emulsions, and there is a continuing need to improve the speed/fog performance of these sensitized silver halide emulsions, especially emulsions containing high levels of chloride. The terms "speed" and photographic "sensitivity" are used interchangeably herein.

Process for preparation of silver halide emulsion employing a double heat-cycle during finishing


The invention described herein relates generally to the field of signal processing for signal reception and parameter estimation. The invention has many applications such as frequency estimation and filtering, and array data processing, etc. For convenience, only applications of this invention to sensor array processing are described herein. The array processing problem addressed is that of signal parameter and waveform estimation utilizing data collected by an array of sensors. Unique to this invention is that the sensor array geometry and individual sensor characteristics need not be known. Also, the invention provides substantial advantages in computations and storage over prior methods. However, the sensors must occur in pairs such that the paired elements are identical except for a displacement which is the same for all pairs. These element pairs define two subarrays which are identical except for a fixed known displacement. The signals must also have a particular structure which in direction-of-arrival estimation applications manifests itself in the requirement that the wavefronts impinging on the sensor array be planar. Once the number of signals and their parameters are estimated, the array configurations can be determined and the signals individually extracted. The invention is applicable in the context of array data processing to a number of areas including cellular mobile communications, space antennas, sonobuoys, towed arrays of acoustic sensors, and structural analysis.

The invention described in this patent application relates to the problem of estimation of constant parameters of multiple signals received by an array of sensors in the presence of additive noise. There are many physical problems of this type including direction finding (DF) wherein the signal parameters of interest are the directions-of-arrival (DOA's) of wavefronts impinging on an antenna array (cf. FIG. 1), and harmonic analysis in which the parameters of interest are the temporal frequencies of sinusoids contained in a signal (waveform) which is known to be composed of a sum of multiple sinusoids and possibly additive measurement noise. In most situations, the signals are characterized by several unknown parameters all of which need to be estimated simultaneously (e.g., azimuthal angle, elevation angle and temporal frequency) and this leads to a multidimensional parameter estimation problem.
High resolution parameter estimation is important in many applications including electromagnetic and acoustic sensor systems (e.g., radar, sonar, electronic surveillance systems, and radio astronomy), vibration analysis, medical imaging, geophysics, well-logging, etc. In such applications, accurate estimates of the parameters of interest are required with a minimum of computation and storage requirements. The value of any technique for obtaining parameter estimates is strongly dependent upon the accuracy of the estimates. The invention described herein yields accurate estimates while overcoming the practical difficulties encountered by present methods such as the need for detailed a priori knowledge of the sensor array geometry and element characteristics. The technique also yields a dramatic decrease in the computational and storage requirements.
The history of estimation of signal parameters can be traced back at least two centuries to Gaspard Riche, Baron de Prony, (R. Prony, Essai experimental et analytic, etc.L'Ecole Polytechnique, 1:24-76, 1795) who was interested in fitting multiple sinusoids (exponentials) to data. Interest in the problem increased rapidly after World War II due to its applications to the fast emerging technologies of radar, sonar and seismology. Over the years, numerous papers and books addressing this subject have been published, especially in the context of direction finding in passive sensor arrays.
One of the earliest approaches to the problem of direction finding is now commonly referred to as the conventional beamforming technique. It uses a type of matched filtering to generate spectral plots whose peaks provide the parameter estimates. In the presence of multiple sources, conventional beamforming can lead to signal suppression, poor resolution, and biased parameter (DOA) estimates.
The first high resolution method to improve upon conventional beamforming was presented by Burg (J. P. Burg, Maximum entropy spectral analysis, In Proceedings of the 37th Annual International SEG Meeting, Oklahoma City, Okla., 1967). He proposed to extrapolate the array covariance function beyond the few measured lags, selecting that extrapolation for which the entropy of the signal is maximized. The Burg technique gives good resolution but suffers from parameter bias and the phenomenon referred to as line splitting wherein a single source manifests itself as a pair of closely spaced peaks in the spectrum. These problems are attributable to the mismodeling inherent in this method.
A different approach aimed at providing increased parameter resolution was introduced by Capon (J. Capon, High resolution frequency wave number spectrum analysis, Proc. IEEE, 57:1408-1418, 1969). His approach was to find a weight vector for combining the outputs of all the sensor elements that minimizes output power for each look direction while maintaining a unit response to signals arriving from this direction. Capon's method has difficulty in multipath environments and offers only limited improvements in resolution.
A new genre of methods were introduced by Pisarenko (V. F. Pisarenko, The retrieval of harmonics from a covariance function, Geophys. J. Royal Astronomical Soc., 33:347-366, 1973) for a somewhat restricted formulation of the problem. These methods exploit the eigenstructure of the array covariance matrix. Schmidt made important generalizations of Pisarenko's ideas to arbitrary array/wavefront geometries and source correlations in his Ph.D. thesis titled A Signal Subspace Approach to Multiple Emitter Location and Spectral Estimation, Standford University, 1981. Schmidt's MUltiple SIgnal Classification (MUSIC) algorithm correctly modeled the underlying problem and therefore generated superior estimates. In the ideal situation where measurement noise is absent (or equivalently when an infinite amount of measurements are available), MUSIC yields exact estimates of the parameters and also offers infinite resolution in that multiple signals can be resolved regardless of the proximity of the signal parameters. In the presence of noise and where only a finite number of measurements are available, MUSIC estimates are very nearly unbiased and efficient, and can resolve closely spaced signal parameters.
The MUSIC algorithm, often referred to as the eigenstructure approach, is currently the most promising high resolution parameter estimation method. However, MUSIC and the earlier methods of Burg and Capon which are applicable to arbitrary sensor array configurations suffer from certain shortcomings that have restricted their applicability in several problems. Some of these are:
Array Geometry and Calibration--A complete characterization of the array in terms of the sensor geometry and element characteristics is required. In practice, for complex arrays, this characterization is obtained by a series of experiments known as array calibration to determine the so called array manifold. The cost of array calibration can be quite high and the procedure is sometimes impractical. Also, the associated storage required for the array manifold is 2 ml.sup.g words (m is the number of sensors, l is the number of search (grid) points in each dimension, and g is the number of dimensions) and can become large even for simple applications. For example, a sensor array containing 20 elements, searching over a hemisphere with a 1 millirad resolution in azimuth and elevation and using 16 bit words (2 bytes each) requires approximately 100 megabytes of storage! This number increases exponentially as another search dimension such as temporal frequency is included. Furthermore, in certain applications the array geometry may be slowly changing such as in light weight spaceborne antenna structures, sonobuoy and towed arrays used in sonar etc., and a complete characterization of the array is never available.
Computational Load--In the prior methods of Burg, Capon, Schmidt and others, the main computational burden lies in generating a spectral plot whose peaks correspond to the parameter estimates. For example, the number of operations required in the MUSIC algorithm in order to compute the entire spectrum, is approximately 4 m.sup.2 l.sup.g. An operation is herein considered to be a floating point multiplication and an addition. In the example above, the number of operations needed is approximately 4.times.10.sup.9 which is prohibitive for most applications. A powerful 10 MIP (10 million floating point instructions per second) machine requires about 7 minutes to perform these computations! Moreover, the computation requirement grows exponentially with dimension of the parameter vector. Augmenting the dimension of the parameter vector further would make such problems completely intractable.
The technique described herein is hereafter referred to as Estimation of Signal Parameters using Rotational Invariance Techniques (ESPRIT). ESPRIT obviates the need for array calibration and dramatically reduces the computational requirements of previous approaches. Furthermore, since the array manifold is not required, the storage requirements are eliminated altogether.

Methods and arrangements for signal reception and parameter estimation

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


An ignition coil for an internal combustion engine has a housing composed of an insulating material and having an insertion opening, at least one ring-shaped core composed of a soft magnetic material and having a portion insertable in the housing, a primary coil body and a secondary coil body, a primary coil and a secondary coil wound on the primary coil body and the secondary coil body and arranged coaxially to one another on the portion of the core, the housing being provided with a high voltage dome extending substantially perpendicularly to a central axis of the coil bodies, a connecting pin insertable along a longitudinal axis of the high voltage dome and connected via a diode with a high voltage winding end of the secondary coil. The connecting pin, the diode and the coil bodies with the coils together form an operationally premounted assembly insertable through the insertion opening in the housing. A spacer connected with one of the coil bodies. The housing completely surrounds the core. The connecting pin and the diode is received in the spacer, the diode is arranged coaxially to the longitudinal axis of the high voltage dome.

The present invention relates to an ignition coil for internal combustion engines.
More particularly, it relates to an ignition coil which has a housing composed of an insulating material, a ring-shaped core insertable into the housing and composed of soft magnetic material and primary and secondary windings wound on the core.
Ignition coils of the above mentioned general type are known in the art. One of such ignition coils is disclosed for example in the German document DE 39 37 828 C1. The ignition coil disclosed in this reference has a housing provided with a lateral insertion opening and a coil body provided with a primary coil and a secondary coil and insertable through the insertion opening into the housing. The mounting of this ignition coil is performed so that the coil body is first finally wound outside of the housing and premounted functionally with connection plug for primary and secondary connections. After the operational testing this structural assembly is inserted through the insertion opening into the housing and fixed there with testing resin.
In the known embodiment, during the premounting of the secondary connection it is necessary in a first manufacturing step to insert a diode between a connecting pin of the secondary connection at the high voltage winding end of the secondary coil and to provide electrical contacting. In a second manufacturing step then the connecting pin is mounted on the coil body of the secondary coil.
During performing the second manufacturing step the mounting forces on the connecting pin are transferred in disadvantageous manner to the diode which is connected with its one end with the secondary coil so that there is a danger that the diode or its contact is damaged. Furthermore, after performing the second manufacturing step the diode is arranged relative to the coil body of the secondary coil so that it is transverse to the chambers which locally receive the secondary coil and is immediately adjacent to several chambers. Since the voltage level increases from chamber to chamber for high voltage winding and of the secondary coil, there is a danger that along the diode a shunt for a voltage equalization forms between the individual chambers. For preventing this, in the known ignition coils the ribs which form the chambers and extend outwardly project substantially over the clamped level from the coil winding. This leads to a great structural volume of the ignition coil which is of course undesirable.

Ignition coil for internal combustion engines


A method for measuring internal defects of a specimen, comprising the steps of allowing a finely focused laser beam to be incident into a specimen from its surface and observing the scattered light of the said laser beam from inside the said specimen from the surface of the specimen and in a different direction to the optical axis of incidence of the laser beam.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method and apparatus for measuring internal defects, particularly to a method and apparatus which can measure internal defects of a specimen by allowing a laser beam to be incident into a specimen from its surface and then observing the scattered light of the laser beam from inside the specimen from a different direction to the optical axis of incidence of the laser beam on the surface side of the specimen.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Method and apparatus for measuring internal defects by irradiating a laser beam or the like into an object to be inspected, acquiring its scattered light to obtain data on internal defects of the object and visualizing the defects has been known.
FIG. 16 is a sectional view showing a schematic structure of an internal defect measuring apparatus of this kind. The apparatus shown in the drawing irradiates a laser beam into the object to be inspected, measures the scattered light from a direction substantially orthogonal to the laser irradiating direction and hence visualizes the defects inside the object. This equipment has been disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 151243/1989.
In the apparatus shown in the drawing, a laser beam within the wavelength range of infrared rays (e.g. about 1 .mu.m) is allowed to be incident into a specimen (crystal) 191, such as a silicon wafer, from its side surface 192 as indicated by an arrow 194. The laser beam 194 is scattered by the defects 193 inside the specimen 191. The outcoming scattered light from the specimen 191 as indicated by arrows 195, is detected and magnified by a microscope 196 that is fixed at right angles to the direction of the laser beam 194. The detected and magnified image is converted to an electric signal by a TV camera 197. In this manner the internal defects of the specimen 191 are detected and visualized.
Incidentally, the defects 193 inside the object 191 are depicted on a relatively large scale for the purpose of description in FIG. 16, however, the defects to be detected by internal defect measuring apparatus of this kind are actually very small defects of approx. 20-50 .mu.m in diameter. This also holds true of the defects shown in later drawings.
In the internal defect measuring method or apparatus described above, however, the apparatus is generally in a 90.degree. scattering arrangement such that the direction of the incident laser beam is at 90.degree. to the observation direction of the scattered light as shown in FIG. 16. This is because this arrangement is the one which minimizes distortion of the image and stray light during observation.
In accordance with the conventional system for measuring the internal defects of the object by use of 90.degree. scattering, however, the laser beam is allowed to be incident from the side surface of the object. Therefore, the side surface must be smooth enough that the laser beam can be incident into the object. The side surface of a semiconductor wafer (side surface 192 in FIG. 16), for example, is not generally flat and it is not possible to introduce the laser beam to the inside from the side surface in accordance with the internal defect measuring method (apparatus) shown in FIG. 16. It is therefore necessary to cut or cleave the side surface and to polish it. There is thus the drawback that the specimen must be destroyed in some cases.
Even when defects near the center of a flat sheet-like object such as a semiconductor wafer are measured, the measurement portion must be cut and in this sense, the specimen must be partially destroyed, as well.

Method and apparatus for measuring internal defects for position and depth


A wire winding apparatus for connecting a plurality of fine wires and a surface-insulated solid wire such as an enamel coated wire. Clamp members clamp an end of the solid wire. Then a winding mechanism pinches an end of the plurality of fine wires with a predetermined force and rotate around the clamped solid wire. During the winding operations, a moving mechanism moves the winding mechanism in a direction of the clamped end of the solid wire. Prior to winding, any excess of the solid wire and plurality of fine wires is trimmed away. After the winding, the solid wire and plurality of fine wires are mechanically and electrically connected.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wire connecting apparatus for connecting one type of wire to another type of wire, and especially relates to an apparatus for connecting plural fine wires to a coil wire of surface-insulated solid wire which is used as a coil of electric apparatus.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A surface-insulated solid wire which is to be used as a coil of electric apparatus is generally connected to plural fine wires by soldering or using a crimp-style terminal.
In the case of soldering, as shown in FIG. 8, a non-insulated part 62a of a surface-insulated solid wire 62, with its insulation coat such as enamel or the like removed previously, is wound around a conductive part 61a of plural fine wires 61. And the conductive part 61a and the wound non-insulated part 62a are soldered with each other. The soldered part is designated by numeral 63 in the figure.
For obtaining a reliable contact, it is necessary to visually observe the winding of the non-insulated part 62a of the surface-insulated solid wire 62 around the conductive part 61a of the plural fine wires 61 for electrically contacting thereto.
In another case of using a terminal member 64, as shown in FIG. 9, the conductive part 61a of the plural fine wires 61 and an end part 62b of the surface-insulated solid wire 62 with its insulation coat retained are put into an inner space of the terminal member 64 which has saw-tooth shaped protrusions on its inner edges. The terminal member 64 is pressed deformed to grasp the plural fine wires 61 therein for making a firm contact of the end part 62b of the surface-insulated solid wire 62. At this time, the saw-tooth shaped protrusions scratches and removes the surface insulation coat of the end part 62b.
In this method, it is necessary to observe the way of deformation of the terminal member 64.
Neither of the above-mentioned methods of connecting of the surface-insulated solid wire 62 and the plural fine wires 61 have been operated in an automated manner.
There have been further proposals for improving the above-mentioned conventional methods. In FIG. 10, a conductive part 72a of the plural fine wires 72 is wound around a surface-insulated solid wire 71 with the insulation coat. The wound conductive part 72a is pinched between upper and lower pinching members 73 and 74 as shown in FIG. 10(b). The conductive part 72a is pressed by the pinching members 73 and 74. After that, when an electric power is supplied to the pinching members 73 and 74, the pinching members are heated, and the insulation coat on the surface-insulated solid wire 71 is melted to be removed by the heat of the pinching members 73 and 74. Thereby, the plural fine wires 72 and the surface-insulated solid wire 71 are electrically connected.
In the above-mentioned method shown in FIGS. 10(a) and 10(b), the winding operation of the plural fine wires 72 around the surface-insulated solid wire 71 is executed relatively easily and automatically, since it is not necessary to remove the insulation coat on the surface-insulated solid wire 71 as a preliminary matter. Full automation of the connection of the wires 71 and 72, however, could not easily be achieved, because both of the wires 71 and 72 have considerable flexibility, and thereby a delicate manual operation has been necessary.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Methods of and apparatus for generating high purity oxygen. Employed for this purpose is a "membrane cell" comprised of a praseodymia-modified, yttria-stabilized zirconia film that is fabricated onto a porous support, typically a tube of calcia-stabilized zirconia. This cell has the capability of "pumping" oxygen. As a consequence, oxygen in a pressurized fluid stream on the outer face of the membrane can be extracted from that stream and pumped as oxygen ions through the membrane without parasitic electric power and then released on the opposite side of the porous support tube as pure (electrolytic grade) oxygen. Extraction of pure oxygen continues as long as an oxygen partial pressure differential is maintained across the mixed conduction, "shorted" membrane. Oxygen thus produced can be used in industrial processes--for example, in coal gasification--or for other purposes.

The addition of environmentally clean electrical generation capacity has been targeted by the electrical utility industry as a goal for the 1990's and beyond.
Integrated gasification, combined cycle (IGCC) electric power plants have been identified as an one option for reaching this goal. Such plants or systems integrate clean coal gasification plants with combustion gas turbines and steam turbine/generators (combined cycle).
In one 100 megawatt electric power generating facility of this character, an entrained flow gasification unit is used to produce the clean coal gas needed by the gas turbine. This gasification process requires that large quantities of oxygen be delivered to the gasifier (.about.18.times.10.sup.6 ft.sup.3 /oxygen per day, .about.95% purity). This oxygen is produced by conventional liquefaction.
The oxygen-producing facility, with its air and oxygen compressors and heat exchangers, is complex and is sited over a considerable area. It requires a large capital investment; and it imposes a significant, parasitic electrical demand on the facility.
Electrochemical techniques for producing oxygen by extracting that compound from air have also been proposed. U.S. Pat. No. 4,908,113 issued 13 Mar. 1990 to Marianowski et al. and the prior art cited in that patent disclosure processes of that character which employ a molten electrolyte to effect the separation. Among other drawbacks of this process is that of safely employing molten electrolytes in the quantities needed for the large-scale generation of oxygen.

Composition for extracting oxygen from fluid streams


A microprocessor-based system (18) for weighing large objects, such as aircraft, at a number of points is disclosed. A plurality of load sensing units (10) each contain a strain gauges (50), analog amplification and calibration circuits (54), filtering circuits (56, 58), and analog-to-digital conversion circuitry (60). Each of the load sensing units (10) couple through serial data communication channels (14) to a controller (12), which contains a microprocessor (20), a keyboard (46), and a display (36). A microprocessor (20) executes a program which monitors all load sensing units (10), calculates weight based on data obtained from the load sensing units (10) and several compensation factors, and displays weight of a selected load sensing unit (10). Various foreground (200) and keyboard service (300) software routines are discussed.

Aircraft and other large objects must occasionally be weighed. The weighing procedure typically utilizes a plurality of load cells upon which the entire weight of an object collectively rests. The load cells couple to transducers which provide electrical signals. These electrical signals may be measured, and the electrical measurements may be converted into a weight. The sum of weights resulting from outputs measured at each of the plurality of load cells equals the total weight of the object. In addition, the individual weights are useful in calculating center of gravity parameters.
Conventional systems particularly designed to weigh large objects, such as aircraft, are known to those skilled in the art. Such conventional systems suitably perform this task so long as system accuracy need not be high, so long as skilled personnel conduct the measurements, and so long as down-time of the weighing system does not lead to excessive inconvenience. However, in the aircraft related industries and other industries, safety and cost cutting efforts dictate the performance of highly accurate weight measurements upon demand and without delay. Moreover, lesser skilled personnel than may have been available for such measurements in the past must now successfully perform such measurements.
Conventional weighing systems fail to provide adequate solutions for these needs. Conventional electric circuits which measure transducer outputs have typically been so influenced by noise, the environment, or other factors that they fail to achieve acceptable accuracies. Moreover, prior art weighing systems require complicated initializing procedures before an accurate measurement results. Only highly skilled personnel can reliably perform such procedures without error. In addition, post-measurement calculations or conversion procedures provide another source of potential errors. Furthermore, the failure of a single component in a conventional system often causes the entire system to require factory repair and recalibration. Consequently, users of such a conventional system face the expensive prospect of purchasing an entire substitute system for use only as a backup or the inconvenient prospect of tolerating extensive down-times. In either situation the transportation costs associated with sending an entire system to a factory for repair and recalibration are excessive.
Thus, a need exists for an improved weighing system which produces highly accurate measurements, which can be successfully operated by lesser skilled personnel, and which minimizes the expense of maintaining the system in an operable condition.