Apparatus suitable for transporting and storing nuclear fuel rods comprising a basket having storage cells formed from a honeycomb gridwork of metal plates in a rectilinear configuration, the plates welded to each other at their intersections so that all contiguous corners of the storage cells formed by the gridwork are completely connected so as to allow conduction heat transfer, the metal plates having neutron absorber material positioned in areas which form walls of the storage cells.. Method of making an apparatus suitable for transporting and storing nuclear fuel rods comprising. a) providing metal plates having slots and having neutron absorber material positioned on sides of the metal plates, PA1 b) arranging the plates so that the slots intersect to form a honeycomb gridwork of storage cells having contiguous corners and having the neutron absorbing material on sides of the storage cells, and PA1 c) welding the plates to each other at their intersections so that all contiguous corners of the storage cells formed by the gridwork are completely connected so as to allow conduction heat transfer and to provide a rigid structure.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to containers for storage and transportation of spent nuclear fuel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Spent nuclear fuel (SNF) discharged from reactors emits highly piercing gamma and neutron radiation and thermal energy. SNF is typically stored in deep pools filled with water to dissipate heat and to attenuate the gamma and neutron radiation generated by the fuel. An alternative to storing the SNF in water filled pools (wet storage) consists of the so-called dry storage concept wherein the SNF is stored in a configuration inside a heavy-walled vessel referred to as the "cask." Dry storage systems usually consist of two basic constituents, a multi-purpose canister (MPC) and an overpack. The term MPC refers to a fuel basket within an enclosure vessel. After SNF is placed in a fuel basket, the fuel basked is placed in an enclosure vessel, and the resultant MPC, which is the "fuel confinement system," is then placed into a neutron/gamma isolation device called an "overpack." The MPC within the overpack is referred to as the "dry storage system." There are two types of overpack: storage overpacks and transportation overpacks. The transportation overpack can be used for transportation as well as storage, and is therefore dual purpose.
Lehnert, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,597 assigned to Vectra Technologies, Inc., discloses one MPC in which spent nuclear fuel rods are stored in substantially square shaped sleeves which are maintained in spaced apart axial alignment relative to one another by a plurality of generally circular plates, having a plurality of generally square shaped apertures formed therethrough. The plates are maintained in spaced apart axial alignment relative to one another by eight elongate rectangular plates. The Vectra spacer disk technology fuel basket is stored in a concrete horizontal storage module designed to withstand all normal and abnormal condition loads, such as earthquakes, tornadoes, flooding and other natural phenomena, as well as complete loss of ventilation. The Vectra MPC is designed to be transportable, but the overpack is not.
MPCs have also been proposed by Hinderer, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,406,601 assigned to Babcock & Wilcox Company, in which the basket is formed from multiple layers of rowed plates that cooperate with the cask body to provide the required radiation shielding, thermal, and structural requirements. The plates have complementary shapes and partial hex grooves machined therein, such that complete channels for the fuel cells are formed when the plates are mated for insertion into the cask body. The plates have narrowed diameter sections and are held together by bands around the circumference of the plates at these sections.
Efferding, U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,283 assigned to Westinghouse Electric Corp., disclosed a basket structure having a cell assembly of square cross-sectioned tubes formed from two sets of parallel plates which are slotted approximately one-half the distance of their lengths and interfitted in "egg crate" fashion to define an array of square, elongated cells which are welded along their entire lengths at every intersection in order to rigidify the structure. Disposed in each of the cells defined by the interlocking plates is an elongated container having a square cross-section. The outside walls of each of the elongated containers is clad with neutron-absorbing material such as Boron carbide encased in aluminum. Mounting brackets in the corners of each of the cells serve to mount and uniformly space each of the containers from the interior walls of its respective cell. Former plates of the basket structure having a circular outer edge serve as shock absorbing members which circumscribe the cell assembly and maintain the cell assembly within the cylindrical vessel of the transportation cask. The transportation cask is preferably made of carbon steel and the circular former plates are preferably made of aluminum, which expands when subjected to the heat of the fuel rods and thereby expand within the cylindrical vessel. In fact, the cell assembly and former plates of the basket structure are formed from the same type of aluminum alloy, i.e., aluminum 6061-T45, for reasons which are set forth in the patent.
Sierra Nuclear discloses a dry storage system using a storage-only concrete storage cask, and a dual purpose steel welded basket for both transport and storage of spent nuclear fuel rods. The fuel basket is a welded assembly fabricated from square steel tubes. Structural support in the horizontal direction is provided by curved, horizontal spacer disks located along the length of the basket assembly. The fuel basket is placed in a concrete cask which is accomplished by employing a transfer cask or shielding bell to move a loaded fuel basket to the concrete cask.
In spite of the many attempts by other research and design teams, no one has proposed a multi-purpose canister or fuel basket having the capability to store multiple fuel assemblies and provide axial as well as vertical support, have the capability to transport the heat generated by the fuel assemblies to its outside surface, be sufficiently rugged to enable convenient handling, and capable of withstanding handling accidents.
Furthermore, no one has provided a concrete overpack structure which effectively insulates the outside environment from the gamma and neutron radiation while effectively and efficiently rejecting heat to the atmosphere, while at the same time being sufficiently rugged to withstand an accidental tipover event, as well as earthquakes, tornadoes, and other extreme environmental events.
The thermal problem in a cask consists of rejecting the decay heat produced by the spent nuclear fuel such that the temperature of the fuel cladding remains below the threshold value at which long-term temperature effects would not degrade the cladding. For a given ambient temperature, the temperature of the fuel cladding would rise as the resistance in the path of heat transmission is increased. Recognizing that the resistance to conductive heat transfer offered by a 1-inch gap filled with air is equal to nearly 2,000 inches of steel, it is quite apparent that introducing even a small gap (say, 0.25 inch), would greatly magnify the thermal resistance offered by an overpack wall 12 inches thick. In other words, the gaps exacerbate the thermal problem in cask design in a most direct and significant manner.
In the pre-MPC era, the cask designer was able to persuade himself that the basket-to-cask gap would be closed or greatly diminished by a tight manufacturing tolerance and by the thermal growth of the basket during operation. The only location where a designer had to contend with an undiminished physical gap was the spacing between the stored fuel and the storage cell wall.
The assumed absence of a serious gap barrier elsewhere in the cask enabled the designers to utilize the so-called "box-and-disk" design illustrated in the Lenhert patent, supra. In this design, each storage cell is defined by a box; an array of boxes is arranged in a square grid pattern maintained by a number of transverse disks. Square holes cut in the disks provide lateral support to the boxes; an array of disks reduce the unsupported longitudinal span of the boxes and provide the path of heat transmission to the overpack. The designers often utilized a strong, but poor, heat conductor alloy material such as SA240-304 S/S, and highly conductive, but weak, aluminum disks in an alternating pattern to respectively provide structural support and heat transfer path. The Lehnert patent shows a typical box-and-disk construction.
In NAC International's NAC-STC fuel basket, the box is made from a thin (18 gauge) sheet metal stock. Panels of Boron carbide encased in aluminum are laid on the four sides of the box and secured in place by four 0.019 inch-thick sheathing panels. Welding the sheathing to the box to create a sealed chamber for Boron carbide encased in aluminum leads to excessive heat induced deformation and warpage of the box. For boxes made of low conductivity materials such as austenitic stainless steel, severe welding induced warpage is simply unavoidable.
Disks, made from austenitic stainless steel, would experience deformation as well if the square holes are made by burning and grinding. Heat induced warpage of the disks can be mitigated, however, if the holes are made by broaching.
STC's designers seem to have recognized the potential of warpage of the fabricated composite box and sought to remedy the fit-up problem by making relatively large square holes in the disks.
In summary, the box/disk construction forces the designer to introduce gaps which are most detrimental to the transmission of heat. The manufacturing mandated box-to-disk gaps are the essence of the "thermal problem" in this design. For the MPC construction to be viable, we have found it is necessary that gaps within the basket not essential to its operation, and needed only to enable manufacturing assembly, be eliminated. Otherwise, the heat duty rating of the cask will be severely limited.
Some of the structural frailties of the box and disk design become clear when one considers that the deformation of the boxes and disks in the manufacturing process makes the condition of support at the box-hole interface largely uncertain. A most inimical situation would develop if the deformation of the disk ribs and the box led to a knife edge contact condition, since under such condition the disk may shear the thin (0.019 inches thick) sheathing under a horizontal drop event. Even under the ideal conditions of support, the inherent structural limitations of the box and disk design is easily understood when a horizontal drop event is considered.
Calculations show that stress levels in the boxes for a horizontal drop event typical of transport conditions are too high and raise the concern that under a horizontal drop event, the boxes will bulge, reducing the flux trap gap between them with direct consequence to the package's nuclear criticality characteristics.
Prior closure systems for MPCs use multiple circulator disk-shaped lids, the first being thick to provide radiation shielding for subsequent welding operations. The first lid is welded in place if there are two lids, or not welded in place if there are three lids. The second lid provides an additional seal or in the case of three lids provides spacing and shielding. After each lid is installed, welding machines are set up and the weld must be inspected, causing the operator to receive radiation exposure. Each additional lid requires set up time for the welding machine.

Apparatus suitable for transporting and storing nuclear fuel rods and methods for using the apparatus


A hybrid image gathering and data transmission system is provided. The system includes at least one parabolic reflector to gather, disseminate and direct electromagnetic radiation. A beam splitter using a Fresnel zone plate (FZP) is configured and arranged to receive and/or transmit the electromagnetic radiation from or to the at least one parabolic reflector and separately focus microwave radiation and visual radiation. The beam splitter provides a gain in the microwave radiation and the visual radiation. A radio frequency (RF) receiver/transmitter receives and transmits the microwave radiation from or to the beam splitter and a focal plane array (FPA) receives the visible radiation from the beam splitter. A processor is in communication with the RF receiver and the FPA. The processor processes signals received by the RF receiver and the FPA and provides processed data to be transmitted to a remote location.

Earth observation using low cost, low earth orbit satellites for both military and civilian applications has proliferated rapidly in recent years. Finer resolution is desired while imaging large areas during each pass of a satellite, which results in a large amount of data generation. This data is typically down-linked to a user in the field as soon as possible to be of value. In areas of interest, multiple revisits may be required to gather desired information. However, limited available link time to a ground station can hamper operations. Two types of sensing systems are typically employed to observe an area of interest during different times of day and conditions. An optical system imaging in the visible wave spectrum can be used during the daytime on a clear day. The optical system provides a fine resolution of the area of interest but is ineffective during the night or if clouds, fog, smoke, or dust are present in the atmosphere. A microwave system that images in the radio frequency (RF) spectrum can be used when the conditions are not ideal for the optical system. However, the resolution of the microwave system is not as fine as the optical system. Including an optical system and a microwave system in the same satellite is very cost prohibitive because of the weight and space needed for the separate receiving and processing systems.
For the reasons stated above and for other reasons stated below, which will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification, there is a need in the art for a hybrid optical and microwave system that is effective and efficient and requires a relatively small footprint.

Hybrid image gathering systems, satellite system, and related methods


The present disclosure describes methods, systems, and computer program products for allowing reuse of existing query frameworks to build new on-demand services. One design-time computer-implemented method includes transmitting a request for available reports to a report repository which is transmitted to a generic report provider on a backend enterprise reporting planning (ERP) system, transmitting a request to a report catalog user interface for a selected report returned by the generic report provider, transmitting a request for metadata to the generic report provider. One run-time computer-implemented method includes receiving a data request for bound result set elements provided by on-demand services, checking authorization for access using an authorizations repository, requesting routing information for applicable back-end ERP systems from a report repository, routing requests to a generic report provider of an appropriate backend ERP system, and triggering a report execution using a corresponding adapter for a query framework on the ERP system.

Organizations have invested large amounts of time and money for the definition and implementation of application functionalities, including ad-hoc ("on-the-fly" for a particular purpose) reporting and other functionalities, based on existing query frameworks in on-premise enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The implementations can also include definitions of roles with corresponding user privileges for data access to business data. Today, many business applications are being migrated from an on-premise to an on-demand model requiring existing functionality to be re-implemented in the context of cloud-computing platforms. Advantages of having business applications in a cloud-computing environment include lower maintenance costs and simpler support for new end-consumer devices (e.g., mobile phones, tablets, etc.) when exposing business services allowing access to productive data in an existing on-premise landscape of a customer. Requirements for organizations regarding making existing application functionality available in the "cloud" relate to saving prior investment costs in implementations based on on-premise technologies.

Generic utilization of on-premise query frameworks by new on-demand applications


A graphics processing system arranged to display on a display screen of a display unit a line image produced on the basis of image data stored in a storage and graphics produced on the basis of vector data stored in the storage in an overlapping manner contains a line image delete processing unit for implementing delete processing of the line image in a segment in which a pixel displaying the graphics is displayed so as to overlap with a pixel displaying the line image, wherein the line image delete processing unit is arranged so as to leave only the pixel displaying the graphics undeleted yet to delete the pixel displaying the line image within a range from a range which is broader than a predetermined line width of a distorted line to a line width of the line image.

The present invention relates to a graphics processing system and, more particularly, to a graphics processing system adapted to improve the quality of display on a screen by appropriately deleting a line image in a segment in which the line image is displayed under or overlaps with graphics produced on the basis of vector data.
Heretofore, a graphics processing system as a computer-aided design (CAD) system or the like forms graphics data of vector data from an original image data of a line image of a drawing inputted from an image input device such as an image scanner. In this case, the original image data of a line image is displayed on the display screen of a display device so as to overlap with the graphics data of the vector data, and the graphics data is formed by inputting a line connecting one terminal point (start point) to another terminal point (end point) of the graphics data on the display screen by means of a pointing device such as a mouse from the state of a line, such as a line width, a line length and a line shape of the line image and consequently by forming line vector data. And, the line image to be disposed under the line vector data inputted is processed so as to be deleted on the display screen in order to permit an easy look at the display screen.
In such a graphics processing system, however, the processing of deleting the line image in a segment in which the line image is disposed under or overlap with the display image of the graphics data may be implemented, for example, by setting a constant line width of the pixels of a graphics locus obtainable by an experience value in an orthogonal direction as the object for deletion and deleting the line image within the range of the line width thereof. Therefore, there is the risk that a portion of the line image which is not the object for deletion and which is located in the vicinity of the line image as the object for deletion is to be deleted and that a portion of the line image as the object for deletion, which protrudes from the region of the object for deletion, can be left undeleted.
In the delete processing for the line image displayed under the display image of the graphics data, the range for deletion specified by a line width of the line image is set constant so that a portion of the pixels constituting the line image, which is located outside the range for deletion, is left undeleted or a portion of the pixels which constitutes the line image as the object not to be deleted yet which is located adjacent and within the range for deletion, is deleted. Hence, conventional delete processing allows a portion of the line image to be undeleted or deleted excessively, thereby decreasing the quality of display of a display screen.

Graphics processing system for deleting one of overlapping line and graphics images


An information processing apparatus, a software update method, and an image processing apparatus capable of encrypting and decrypting information using values uniquely calculated from booted primary modules or booted backup modules with less effort are disclosed. The information processing apparatus includes primary modules and the same kinds of backup modules, and includes a value storage unit storing values calculated from the modules, an encryption information storage unit storing information unique to the modules, an information decryption unit decrypting the information unique to the modules using the values in the value storage unit, and an encryption information update unit, when the module is updated, encrypting the information unique to the modules based on a value calculated from the each kind of the primary modules or the backup modules after the update.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, a software update method, and an image processing apparatus, and more specifically to an information processing apparatus or an image processing apparatus having a primary module and a backup module, and a software update method of the information processing apparatus or the image processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
As security becomes increasingly critical, information processing apparatuses such as personal computers and image processing apparatuses such as Multi Function Peripherals (MFP) capable of encrypting information stored in the apparatuses to avoid wiretapping have become available lately. For example, Patent Document 1 describes a PC adopting the specifications of Trusted Computing Platform Alliance (TCPA) in which information is encrypted using a Trusted Platform Module (TPM). The TPM is realized in a chip directly mounted on, for example, a motherboard.
On the other hand, to respond to a failure, for example, a duplexing system has been employed in information processing apparatuses such as personal computers and image processing apparatuses such as MFPs. Furthermore, to respond to a bug, a security hole, addition or modification of functions, the programs have also been updated in information processing apparatuses such as personal computers and image processing apparatuses such as MFPs (see, for example, Patent Document 2).
Herein, a conventional method of encrypting and decrypting information using the TPM, and a program update (hereinafter referred to as "ROM update") are briefly described. FIG. 1 shows an exemplary configuration of a conventional information processing apparatus. The information processing apparatus includes a CPU 1, a BIOS ROM 2, a disk 3, a non-volatile (NV) RAM 4, and a main memory 5 as the hardware configuration. The CPU 1, the BIOS ROM 2, the disk 3, the NVRAM 4, and the main memory 5 are connected to each other via a bus 6.
The BIOS ROM 2 stores a Basic Input/Output System (BIOS) 10 module. The disk 3 stores a loader 11, a kernel 12, and a root file system (Rootfs) 13 modules. The NVRAM 4 stores plain text data 14 that users use.
The root file system 13 manages a boot program 21, a ROM update flag control program 22, a blob decryption section 23, and an application 24 that are stored in the disk 3. It should be noted that each of the BIOS 10, the loader 11, the kernel 12, the root file system 13 modules and the like is loaded into the main memory 5 to be executed. In the following, the BIOS 10, the loader 11, the kernel 12, the root file system 13 modules and the like are described as processing subjects.
A boot sequence of the information processing apparatus in FIG. 1 is described with reference to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram showing the processes of the information processing apparatus being booted. In step S1, the BIOS 10 loads and boots the loader 11. In steps S3 through S5, the loader 11 loads and boots the kernel 12 and the root file system 13.
In step S6, the kernel 12 boots the boot program 21 in the root file system 13. In step S7, the boot program 21 boots the application 24 in the root file system 13. In step S8, the application 24 is now capable of writing data into the NVRAM 4 and reading, for example, plain data 14 in the NVRAM 4.
Next, a mechanism of the TPM is briefly described. In the following, an example where the loader 11 boots the kernel 12 is described.
FIG. 3 is a diagram schematically showing a process of storing a hash value into the TPM 7. In step S11, the loader 11 loads the kernel 12 from the disk 3 into the main memory 5. In step S12, the TPM 7 stores, for example, a hash value into a Platform Configuration Register (PCR), the hash value being calculated based on a method of generating a fixed-length pseudo random number from an original document. In FIG. 3, a hash value "0×3a" is stored in a "PCR3". In step S13, the loader 11 boots the kernel 12.
In this manner, when the TPM 7 boots, for example, the BIOS 10, the loader 11, the kernel 12 and the root file system 13 modules, the TPM 7 stores hash values calculated from the modules in the PCRs.
FIG. 4 is a drawing schematically showing a decrypting process of the information using the TPM 7. In the TPM 7, four hash values calculated from the corresponding modules are stored in "PCR1" through "PCR4". When the information is decrypted using the TPM 7, a Blob A 41 and a Blob B 42 each including at least one of the "PCR1" through "PCR4" data are used.
In the Blob A 41, a value "0×3a" is stored in the "PCR3". In the Blob B 42, values "0×e9", "0×12", "0×3b", and "0×06" are stored in the "PCR1" through the "PCR4", respectively. In the TPM 7, values "0×e9", "0×12", "0×3a", and "0×06" are stored in its "PCR1" through the "PCR4", respectively.
In case of Blob A 41, the same hash value is in the "PCR3" of the Blob A 41 and the "PCR3" of the TPM 7. Therefore, the TPM 7 permits taking the information from the Blob A 41. In case of Blob 3 42, a hash value in the "PCR3" of the Blob A 41 is different from that in the "PCR3" of the TPM 7. Therefore, the TPM 7 does not permit taking the information from the Blob A 41. It should be noted that when "no setting" may be stored in, for example, the "PCR1", the "PCR2", and the "PCR4" in the Blob A 41, the TPM 7 does not use the register to determine whether to permit taking the information.
FIG. 5 shows an exemplary configuration of an information processing apparatus having the TPM. The information processing apparatus in FIG. 5 includes the CPU 1, the BIOS ROM 2, the disk 3, the NVRAM 4, the main memory 5, the TPM 7, and a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) 8 as the hardware configuration. The CPU 1, the BIOS ROM 2, the disk 3, the NVRAM 4, the main memory 5, the TPM 7, and a Hard Disk Drive (HDD) 8 are connected to each other via a bus 6.
The configuration of the information processing apparatus in FIG. 5 is different from that in FIG. 1 in that the information processing apparatus in FIG. 5 further includes the TPM 7 and the HDD 8. Furthermore, the disk 3 stores a Blob 43 in addition to the configuration in FIG. 1. The Blob 43 includes an encrypted encryption key 51 for the NVRAM 4. The Blob 43 stores hash values each calculated from the BIOS 10, the loader 11, the kernel 12, and the root file system 13 in the "PCR1" through "PCR4", respectively.
The NVRAM 4 stores encrypted data 15 in addition to the plain text data 14. The HDD 8 stores encrypted data 16. The same reference numerals are used in the figure to describe those components that are identical to the components of FIG. 1 without repeated description. The description of the Blob having an encrypted encryption key of the HDD 8 is also omitted.
A boot sequence of the information processing apparatus in FIG. 5 is described with reference to FIG. 6. FIG. 6 is a sequence diagram showing exemplary processes of the information processing apparatus being booted. In step S21, the BIOS 10 loads the loader 11. In step S22, a hash value of the loader 11 is stored in a PCR of the TPM 7. In step S23, the BIOS 10 boots the loader 11.
In step S24, the loader 11 loads the kernel 12. In step S25, a hash value of the kernel 12 is stored in a PCR of the TPM 7. In step S26, the loader 11 loads the root file system 13. In step 27, a hash value of the root file system is stored in a PCR of the TPM 7.
In step S28, the loader 11 boots the kernel 12 and the root file system 13. In step S29, the kernel 12 boots the boot program 21 in the root file system 13. In steps 30 and 31, the boot program 21 boots the blob decryption section 23 and the application 24 in the root file system 13.
In step S32, the blob decryption section 23 acquires the encryption key 51 for the NVRAM 4 from inside the Blob 43. In step S33 by using the encryption key, the application is now capable of writing encrypted data into the NVRAM 4 and reading encrypted data 14 stored in the NVRAM 4.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2004-282391
Patent Document 2: Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2005-196745
However, in an information processing apparatus having a configuration as shown in FIG. 5, the following problem may occur during the ROM update. FIG. 7 is a drawing schematically illustrating a problem having occurred during the ROM update. In an information processing apparatus having a configuration as shown in FIG. 5, when the BIOS 10 stored in the BIOS ROM 2 is replaced by a new BIOS 10a, the Blob 43 corresponding to the BIOS 10 is required to be updated to a Blob A 43a that corresponds to the BIOS 10a.
Unfortunately, in a conventional information processing apparatus, when an update process from the Blob A 43 to the Blob A′43a is interrupted due to some reason, the hash value stored in the "PCR1" of the TPM 7 may become different from the hash value stored in the "PCR1" of the Blob A 43a. A problem arises that when the hash value stored in the "PCR1" of the TPM 7 becomes different from the hash value stored in the "PCR1" of the Blob A 43a, in that the encryption key 51 for the NVRAM 4 cannot be taken from the Blob 43a, resulting in that the encrypted data stored in the NVRAM 4 cannot be decrypted.
This problem illustrated in FIG. 7 can be solved when an information processing system has a configuration as shown in FIG. 8. The information processing apparatus in FIG. 8 includes a primary system 81 and a backup system 82, constituting a duplex system. The primary system 81 includes the BIOS 10, the loader 11, the kernel 12, and the root file system 13. The backup system 82 includes the BIOS 10b, a loader 11b, a kernel 12b, and a root file system 13b.
It should be noted that the BIOS 10, the loader 11, the kernel 12, and the root file system 13 are included in primary modules, and the BIOS 10b, the loader 11b, the kernel 12b, and the root file system 13b are included in backup modules.
Typically, an information processing apparatus is booted sequentially in an order of the BIOS 10, the loader 11, the kernel 12, and the root file system 13. Hereinafter, a procedure of booting like this is referred to as a "boot path". In the example of FIG. 8, due to an error having occurred in the loader 11, the booth path becomes: BIOS 10→loader 11b→kernel 12→root file system 13.
That is, in an information processing apparatus having the backup system 82, when a module of the primary system has a problem, the same kind of module in the backup system 82 can usually be booted. A booth path can be changed by, for example, a ROM update flag control program.
Because of this structure, there is a problem that the same number of Blobs which is equal to the number of booth paths defined by the combination of the modules in the primary system 81 and the modules in the backup system 82 are required to be provide. FIG. 9 is a drawing schematically illustrating a problem that may occur when information is encrypted and decrypted using the TPM in an information processing apparatus having a backup system.
Further, there is another problem in an information processing apparatus having a configuration as shown in FIG. 9 that when the BIOS 10 stored in the BIOS ROM 2 is updated to the BIOS 10a, all of the plural Blobs corresponding to the BIOS 10 are required to be updated so as to correspond to the BIOS 10a. FIG. 10 is a drawing schematically illustrating a problem occurring while information is encrypted and decrypted using the TPM, where the ROM update is executed in an information processing apparatus having a backup system.
As described, when a conventional system is arranged to employ a duplex system having both a primary system and a backup system, have a ROM update capability, and improve the security by adding both an encryption and a decryption capability of information by using the TPM 7, it takes a lot of effort to manage the Blobs 73.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Information processing apparatus, software update method, and image processing apparatus


An engine revolution speed control device according to the present invention comprises: a hydraulic pump (1) which is driven by an engine (21); a hydraulic motor (4) for vehicle movement which is driven by oil expelled from the hydraulic pump (1) during vehicle movement; an actuator (52) for working which is driven by the oil expelled from the hydraulic pump (1) during the working state; a vehicle driving pedal (6) which during vehicle movement controls vehicle speed according to its amount of operation; a means (33) for speed reduction decision which makes a decision as to whether the amount by which the vehicle driving pedal (6) is depressed is being reduced; and a means for revolution speed control (33). The means for revolution speed control (33) performs normal control by increasing or decreasing the revolution speed of the engine according to the amount by which the vehicle driving pedal (6) is depressed, and, when it is decided that the amount by which the vehicle driving pedal (6) is depressed is decreasing, performs controlled slowing down by reducing the revolution speed of the engine while delaying its reduction amount. And, when during working the engine revolution speed is being adjusted by the use of the vehicle driving pedal (6), controlled slowing down is prevented even when the amount by which the vehicle driving pedal (6) is depressed is decreasing.

Before the present applicant, for example in Japanese Patent Laying-Open Publication Serial No.3-135844, has proposed the following type of hydraulically driven vehicle has been proposed. With this hydraulically driven vehicle, when the vehicle movement is accelerated, along with increasing the revolution speed of the engine according to the amount by which the vehicle driving pedal (accelerator pedal) is stepped upon, the flow supply of hydraulic fluid to the hydraulic motor for vehicle movement is also increased. Further, when the driving pedal is released so as to initiate deceleration action, from the point of view of preventing cavitation, along with performing controlled slowing down by which the engine revolution speed is gradually dropped according to the passage of time without directly reducing the engine revolution speed to the idling revolution speed even when the driving pedal is released, also slow return control is performed by which the control valve for vehicle movement is gradually returned to its neutral position.
However, if the above described controlled slowing down is always permitted, various problems arise during specific operations.
(1) The present applicant, in the specification of Japanese Patent Application Serial No. 2-185876, has proposed a hydraulically driven vehicle in which the engine revolution speed can be increased and decreased according to the amount by which a vehicle driving pedal is stepped upon, not only during vehicle movement but also while performing work such as excavation or the like. However if during reduction of vehicle moving speed as described above controlled slowing down is performed, then the controlled slowing down will also undesirably always be in operation during working when the engine revolution speed is adjusted by the use of the vehicle driving pedal, and this will give rise to the problem of bad operational feeling. PA0 (2) Sometimes it can happen that the operator, with his foot poised over the vehicle driving pedal although he has no plans to move the vehicle away from rest, may even for only an instant slightly depress the vehicle driving pedal, so that the engine revolution speed is slightly increased, and the control valve for vehicle movement also slightly opens. At this time, if the above described controlled slowing down control and also slow return control are performed, pressurized hydraulic fluid may be supplied from the control valve to the hydraulic motor.

Engine revolution speed control device for a hydraulically driven vehicle

Hitachi Construction Machinery Co., Ltd.


A device for efficient storage, measuring, and dispensing of several powdered and/or particulate materials holds these materials in a side-by-side array of compartments. Each compartment has a storage chamber and a measuring chamber. Dispensing is prompted by gravity and agitation, for orderly flow of each material through its two chambers as their drain gates are selectively opened. Simultaneously with the opening of the gate under either chamber, a dc eccentric motor acts on that chamber to break up any clumps of material that might impede free flow. Each of the two chambers has its own motor. The storage chamber array is structurally separate from the measuring chamber array, so that the two chambers can vibrate separately, further improving free flow.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is an improvement of U.S. Pat. No. 4,776,489, issued in 1988 to Tarlow and Ridgley for an "Automatic Spice and Herb Dispenser", which is hereby incorporated by reference.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Evidently, since the filing of the above 1988 Patent, only one pertinant US Patent has appeared, 5,460,209, a dispenser of baking materials, issued to Jandura et al. Materials are spilled from a storage chamber onto two successive inclined surfaces, as each surface is agitated by a voice coil motor. This is a completely different approach to the problem solved by the present invention, and it does not include a simple measurement capability.
Another U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,967 to King, has a similarity to a feature of the 1988 parent of the present invention, but it is a feature that is eliminated in the present invention. King shows a central agitator (a helical auger) in the output spout of his dispenser. As will be shown below, removal of the central agitator of U.S. Pat. No. 4,776,489 has led to unexpected advantages.


In a digital image processing system, a dedicated inverse discrete cosine transform (IDCT) processor comprising a controller and an array of accumulators is provided for performing n.times.n inverse discrete cosine transforms. The controller controls the computation of the output vector using a forward mapping procedure. The controller causes k unique kernel values of the reconstruction kernel of each non-zero transform domain coefficient to be selectively accumulated by the array of accumulators, where k equals at most (n.sup.2 +2n)/8. The array of accumulators comprises accumulator blocks sharing an input and a control line designed to exploit the symmetry characteristics of the reconstruction kernels. Each accumulator block is designed to perform a limited number of distinct operations. The accumulator blocks are logically grouped. P symmetry selection bits and less than an operation configuration selection bits, where 2.sup.q equals n.sup.4 /2(p-2) are provided on the control line for selecting the appropriate symmetry and operation configuration. As a result, the IDCT can be performed efficiently while keeping the implementation cost of the IDCT processor relatively low.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of digital image processing systems, in particular, unitary transforms performed on these systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to very fast implementation of inverse discrete cosine transform.
2. Related Application
The present application is related to U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,062 filed on Mar. 17, 1992, entitled Method and Apparatus for Fast Implementation of Inverse Discrete Cosine Transform on a Digital Image Processing System Using Optimized Lookup Tables, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, Sun Microsystems, Inc. of Mountain View, Calif.
3. Background
In image processing, an image is typically represented as a continuous mathematical function. The continuous representation is either made deterministically or statistically. In a deterministic representation, the point properties of the image are considered, whereas, in a statistical representation, the average properties of the image are specified.
In a digital image processing system, typically the continuous representation, whether deterministic or statistic, is constructed by spatial sampling of the physical image's intensity, photographic density, or other like measurements. The analog results of spatial sampling in turn are quantized into discrete results that are proportional to the amplitude of the digital system. The image is reconstructed by "inverting" the quantized discrete spatial sampling results.
Additionally, various unitary transforms may be performed before the image is reconstructed by inversion. The transforms are performed to extract features such as brightness from images, reducing bandwidth or reducing dimensionality. Since a sequence of images literally goes through tens of thousands of transforms, the speed in which these transforms can be performed is of critical importance. For example, if a sequence of images is to be displayed at 10 frames per second, each image has a frame size of 320.times.224 pixels divided into 280 macroblocks of 16.times.16 pixels, and each macroblock has 4 (8.times.8) luminance values and 2 (8.times.8) chrominance values, 16,800 inverse transforms (280.times.6.times.10) per second will have to be performed on the transformed image data.
The discrete cosine transform has found widespread application because of its ability to decorrelate highly correlated inputs and the discoveries of efficient implementation techniques. The earliest fast implementation techniques for discrete cosine transform were based on approaches originally developed for fast Fourier transform, in which the periodicity and recursive nature of the underlying basis functions were exploited . Later fast were developed by considering various factorizations of the discrete cosine transform's basis matrix.
The structural similarities of inverse discrete cosine transform to discrete cosine transform has enabled each of the fast implementation techniques for cosine discrete transform to be easily adapted to their dual inverse discrete cosine transform. As a consequence, there has been little concentration on specific formulations of the inverse discrete cosine transform, and the unique statistical properties of the transform domain description of the input sequence has largely been ignored.
Thus it is desirable to develop fast implementation techniques for inverse discrete cosine transform exploiting the unique statistical properties of the input sequence. In the related U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,062 a method and an apparatus for performing inverse discrete cosine transform in image processing that do just that was disclosed. As will be disclosed, the present invention provides a method and an apparatus for performing inverse discrete cosine transform in image processing in an even faster manner.
For further description of image processing, see William K. Pratt, Digital Image Processing, Wiley Interscience, 1978. For further descriptions of fast implementation techniques for discrete cosine transform, see K. R. Rao and P. Yip, Discrete Cosine Transforms: Algorithms, Advantages, Applications, Academic Press, 1990.

Method and apparatus for fast implementation of inverse discrete cosine transform in a digital image processing system using low cost accumulators


A method of content grouping based on a corresponding text includes reading from a content list file for a plurality of content groups, and extracting a key phrase set for each content group. The method includes determining, for each content group, a unique score and a non-unique score, determining a unique threshold and a non-unique threshold, and selecting a content group according to a comparison between the scores and the thresholds.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to multimedia information retrieval and more particularly to automatic news story classification and relevant story grouping.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Video organization is an important step in content-based indexing of video archives. The objective of video organization is to capture the semantic structure of a video in a form which is meaningful to the user.
One proposed method of classifying video content includes manually indexing content in order to achieve a desirable quality of classification and grouping. However, this method can be time consuming and expensive.
Another proposed method of content classification is the Multimedia Video News Organizer, written by Siemens Corporate Research, Inc. The organizer automatically processes video, creating multimedia video summaries, while providing interfaces for verification, correction, and augmentation of the automatically generated story segments and extracted multimedia content. The interface can be provided by various functions, for example, Java scripts including TreeCC.java, ShotTree.java, and TreeOrg.java. These functions are interactive browsing interfaces that allow a user to revise automatically constructed story units. According to the automatic video summary generation method, closed-captioned text often lags behind the corresponding spoken words. Therefore, a method of closed-captioned text alignment is provided.
Closed-captioning is transmitted with a television signal, embedded in the line 21 data area in the vertical blanking interval. Captioning can also be supplied over, for example, the Internet. Closed-captioning has been used in at least three different areas: to aid hearing-impaired television viewers; to convey content in noisy environments; and aid in educational settings, particularly in learning languages.
Presently, no system or method is known to exist using majority voting or likelihood summation methods for classifying content according to a textual signal. Therefore, a need exists for an automatic content classification and relevant content grouping.

Text-based automatic content classification and grouping


Fibrous structures, especially fibrous structures that exhibit softness and strength, sanitary tissue products employing such fibrous structures and methods for making such fibrous structures are provided. More particularly, fibrous structures that have a long fiber furnish that comprises less than 10% by weight of fibers having a coarseness of less than 20 mg/100 m, sanitary tissue products employing such fibrous structures and methods for making such fibrous structures are provided.

Fibrous structures, especially fibrous structures that are incorporated into sanitary tissue products, have contained long fiber furnishes. The long fiber furnishes have included significantly more than 10% by weight of fibers from a furnish having a coarseness of less than 20 mg/100 m. For example, conventionally, such fibrous structures have comprised long fiber furnishes predominantly of Northern Softwood Kraft (NSK) type pulp fibers because they deliver better softness than Southern Softwood Kraft (SSK) or Tropical Softwood Kraft (TSK) pulps. NSK pulp fibers typically exhibit a coarseness of less than 20 mg/100 m. Such NSK pulp fibers are used to provide strength to the fibrous structure since they deliver higher tensiles than coarser pulp fibers, such as coarser NSK fibers and/or SSK pulp fibers and/or TSK fibers, but they provide greater softness properties to the fibrous structures than these furnishes which display coarseness above 20 mg/100 m.
Formulators would continue using low coarseness pulp furnishes, such as NSK, in their fibrous structures. However, the demand for low coarseness NSK pulp fibers has outstripped supply thus resulting in higher prices and less availability for traditional low coarseness NSK pulp fibers, thus resulting in formulators trying to develop fibrous structures that have reduced levels of low coarseness long fibered pulp furnishes (i.e., less than 10% by weight of low coarseness long fibers in a long fiber furnish) while delivering fibrous structures with comparable strength and softness properties as those fibrous structures that comprise greater levels of low coarseness pulp fibers (i.e., greater than 10% by weight of low coarseness pulp fibers in a long fiber furnish).
Accordingly, there is a need for fibrous structures that comprise long fiber furnishes wherein the long fiber furnish comprises less than 10% by weight of fibers having a coarseness of less than 20 mg/100 m (e.g. NSK pulp fibers), sanitary tissue products comprising such fibrous structures and methods for making such fibrous structures.


An oriented, heat-sealable, multilayer polyolefin film comprising a base layer containing polypropylene and a heat-sealable outer layer on each side of the base layer. The heat-sealable outer layers contain a propylene copolymer and/or a propylene terpolymer and a mixture of an antiblocking agent having a mean particle diameter of from about 3 to 5 .mu.m and a further antiblocking agent having a mean particle diameter of from about 1 to 2.5 .mu.m.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an oriented, heat-sealable, multilayer polyolefin film comprising a base layer essentially containing polypropylene, and at least one heat-sealable outer layer. The films are distinguished by excellent heat-sealing properties and excellent running properties on high-speed packaging machines.
2. Description of Related Art
The demands made of the processing properties of films and their smooth passage through automatic machines have increased continually over the years. Modern automatic packaging machines, as used, for example, in the cigarette industry, operate at a rate of 350 to 450 wrappers per minute. Films which run on such machines require properties which are carefully balanced with respect to each other. The problem that frequently-occurs is that optimization of one property unacceptably impairs another property.
Films which have good running properties due to a balanced synergistic formulation are known. EP-A-0,182,463 describes a multilayer heat-sealable film containing from 0.05 to 0.2% by weight of tertiary aliphatic amine in the base layer and a combination of silicone oil and SiO.sub.2 in the heat-sealable outer layer. According to the description, the surprising interaction of SiO.sub.2, silicone oil and amine in combination with a selected outer layer thickness of less than 0.8 .mu.m gives films having a coefficient of friction of 0.3 or less. This film has the disadvantage that the outer layer thickness cannot exceed 0.8 .mu.mg without greatly impairing the running properties.
EP-A-0,143,130 discloses multilayer heat-sealable films containing a carboxamide in the base layer and likewise the combination of silicone oil and SiO.sub.2 in the outer layer. As in EP-A-0,182,463 mentioned above a synergistic effect of the three selected components on the coefficient of friction is described. These films have deficient blocking behavior at elevated temperature in spite of their advantageous surface slip (low coefficient of friction).
EP-A-0,194,588 and EP-A-0,217,598 describe similar films in which silicone oil, if desired in combination with SiO.sub.2, is incorporated only into one outer layer. The second, silicone oil-free outer layer is corona-treated to improve the printability. The transfer of silicone oil onto the surface of this treated second outer layer subsequently takes place by contact with the first, silicone oil-containing outer layer. This feature gives a silicone oil-treated film having good surface-slip characteristics which is simultaneously readily printable on the corona-treated side, but is nevertheless heat-sealable.
The films of the prior art are all unsatisfactory with respect to their running properties, their blocking values at elevated temperature and their heat-sealing properties. There is a general need in the packaging industry to keep the costs for packaging as low as possible. For this reason, it is always attempted to allow the machines to run at maximum speed, since this is associated with greater economic efficiency. An important limiting factor for the maximum speed is the film's properties.

Heat-sealable, oriented, multilayer polyolefin film


Device having a cover to be positioned on a vessel with an interior wall. A shaft extends through a transverse passageway in the cover. A basket for holding a flavoring substance is mounted to the end of the shaft. The basket can thus be raised and lowered within the vessel through action of the shaft. A continuous lip of flexible polymer surrounds the periphery of the basket, for engagement with the interior wall of the vessel. With flavoring substance in the basket, liquid is poured into the vessel in such a way as to retain air in the space between the basket and the bottom of the vessel. The basket is pushed downwards, causing at least part of the air retained in the space between the basket and the bottom portion of the vessel to displace the flavoring substance while the air rises within the vessel, resulting in improved infusion of the flavoring substance.

Infused beverages are highly popular in many parts of the world. In particular, tea and coffee are enjoyed by millions of people on a regular basis. In order to produce a satisfactory cup of tea or coffee, it is typically required to steep a flavoring substance, e.g., ground coffee beans or tea leaves, in hot water. The beans or leaves remain in the brew for a period of time that depends upon the desired strength of the infused beverage, upon which they must be removed lest the infused beverage turn bitter and insipid.
To satisfy avid consumers of infused beverages, the market has seen the emergence of various devices which allow a cup of brewed (as opposed to instant) coffee to be made without the need for electricity or a pressurized source of water. One such device is marketed under the trademark BODUM. This device includes a perforated disk which is attached to a stem at the end of which is a handle. In order to make an infused beverage, a flavoring substance is placed in the bottom of the vessel. Water is then poured into the vessel, following which the disk is inserted into the vessel. In the case of coffee, brewing thus takes place while the coffee grains are in contact with the bottom of the vessel. Once brewing has reached a desired level of completion, the handle is pushed down, bringing the disk towards the bottom of the vessel, hence capturing the coffee grains between the disk and the bottom of the vessel. In order to pour the brewed coffee, the vessel is tilted and the filter helps to block the spent coffee grains.
However, because the coffee grains remain in the vessel at all times, infusion can only be arrested by the act of pouring the coffee out of the vessel into a mug or cup. This is highly inconvenient if a mug or cup is not available. Also, the flavor of the coffee is dramatically altered if the coffee which remains in the vessel is reheated at a later time for delayed consumption. Moreover, for improved flavor, it is recommended that the disk be removed during the infusion process and the coffee grains stirred manually so as to disperse the grains throughout the infused beverage. This results in a loss of heat, with the additional problem of messiness, during the infusion process.
Clearly, therefore, there is a need in the industry for an improved system for making infused beverages.


An arrangement for charging a plurality of molds for processing plastic materials with at least two sources of fluid and for temperature regulating the molds. Each mold of the arrangement is provided with a feed inlet conduit to which a three-way valve is connected. The feed inlet conduit is also connected to the two sources of fluid and each mold further includes an outlet conduit with a thermostat valve. A distribution element is connected to the feed inlet conduit and to the two sources of fluid. The three-way valve is connected to least two sources of fluid. This three-way valve has an outlet which is connected to the distribution element. A heating element is connected in each inlet conduit of each mold. A temperature regulator is mounted in each outlet of each mold for each heating element. This temperature regulator is coacts with the thermostat valve which is mounted downstream of each temperature regulator in each outlet conduit of each mold. A second three-way valve is connected, on the one hand, to the first three-way valve and, on the other hand, to the distribution element.

This invention relates to an arrangement for maintaining a plurality of molds at a predetermined temperature during molding of synthetic materials in said molds which are being pressurized by a common pressure source from which different fluids can be conducted to the molds.
In such known arrangements an operational problem generally exists, namely to maintain certain molds at preselected temperatures independently from each other. This operational problem appears in particular in injection molding, extrusion and blow forming processes. In such processes the molds must generally be maintained at a predetermined temperature which, in the injection molding and blow forming processes, cause solidification as a result of cooling of the plastified materials which have been fed into the molds. In this way the the molded plastic material can be removed from the molds as quickly as possible. The temperature which must be maintained in such processes needs to be sufficiently high so that the viscosity of the plastic material is such that it does not "set" prior to completely filling the mold. During extrusion the extrusion mold must generally be heated to such a degree to permit a continuous introduction of the extrusion strand with a flawless paying out and cooling of the extruded plastic material in a cooling bath.
It is of course general knowledge in the state of the art that molding machines are quite expensive and it is therefore important that such machines operate as efficiently as possible. In order to achieve this object it is necessary that the molds can be exchanged as rapidly as possible so that relatively short down times occur during exchange of different mold parts in a blow forming or injection molding process or exchange of a different extrusion profiled part in an extrusion process.
In order to achieve this object the connections to the molds are generally constructed as rapid couplings which can be easily detached and are constructed in such a way that when detached from the molds no fluid leaks out of the couplings or the molds proper.
Since the molds of the state of the art molding machines are generally water-cooled, water may remain inside the molds for considerable periods of time which can lead to corrosion of the interior of the molds. Moreover such rapid couplings are expensive and frequently malfunction. When rapid couplings are used in such machines which do not automatically seal when detached, fluids will leak out from the molds during detachment of the couplings which can lead to contamination and corrosion of the exterior of the molds and, much more seriously disadvantageous, to corrosion of the hollow interior surfaces of the mold.
It is also considered important in order to achieve an intense utilization of the molding machine to heat the molds to the desired temperature as quickly as possible.

Arrangement for pressurizing a plurality of molds with one or more pressurized fluids for molding synthetic materials and maintaining said materials at a predetermined temperature in the molds


CRF peptide analogs that bind to CRFR2 with an affinity far greater than they bind to CRFR1. These analogs exhibit CRF antagonist activity, and they can be based upon the native structures of sauvagine, CRF, and urocortin.

Ovine CRF (oCRF) was characterized in 1981 as a 41-residue amidated peptide. oCRF lowers blood pressure in mammals when injected peripherally and stimulates the secretion of ACTH and β-endorphin. Rat CRF (rCRF) was later isolated, purified and characterized; it was found to be a homologous, amidated hentetracontapeptide as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,489,163, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. The amino acid sequence of human CRF (hCRF) has now been determined to be the same as that of rCRF.
In about 1981, a 40-residue amidated peptide was isolated from the skin of the South American frog Phyllomedusa sauvagei and referred to as sauvagine. It was characterized by Erspamer et al. and was described in Regulatory Peptides, Vol. 2 (1981), pp. 1–13. When given intravenously (iv), sauvagine and oCRF have been reported to cause vasodilation of the mesenteric arteries so as to lower blood pressure in mammals and also in stimulating the secretion of ACTH and β-endorphin. However, when administered intracerebroventricularly (icv), there is an elevation of heart rate and mean arterial blood pressure, which are secondary to activation of the sympathetic nervous system.
Although originally isolated and characterized on the basis of its role in this hypothalamopituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, CRF has been found to be distributed broadly throughout the central nervous system as well as in extraneural tissues, such as the adrenal glands, placenta and testes, where it may also act as a paracrine regulator or a neurotransmitter. Moreover, the likely involvement of CRF in affective disorders, such as anxiety, depression, alcoholism and anorexia nervosa, and in modulating reproduction and immune responses suggests that changes in CRF expression may have important physiological and pathophysiological consequences. For example, perturbations in the regulatory loops comprising the HPA axis often produce chronically elevated levels of circulating glucocorticoids; such patients display the physical hallmarks of Cushing's syndrome, including truncal obesity, muscle-wasting, and reduced fertility.
In addition to its role in mediating activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal, CRF has also been shown to modulate autonomic and behavioral changes, some of which occur during the stress response. Many of these behavioral changes have been shown to occur independently of HPA activation in that they are not duplicated by dexamethasone treatment and are insensitive to hypophysectomy. In addition, direct infusion of CRF into the CNS mimics autonomic and behavioral responses to a variety of stressors. Because peripheral administration of CRF or a CRF analog fails to affect certain of these changes, it appears that CRF exhibits a direct brain action with respect to such functions, which include appetite suppression, increased arousal and learning ability. However, CRF antagonists given peripherally attenuate stress-mediated increases in ACTH secretion, and when delivered into the cerebral ventricles can mitigate stress-induced changes in autonomic activity and behavior.
As a result of the extensive anatomical distribution and multiple biological actions of CRF, this regulatory peptide is believed to be involved in the regulation of numerous biological processes. CRF has also been implicated in the regulation of inflammatory responses. Although it has been observed that CRF plays a pro-inflammatory role in certain animal models, CRF appears to suppress inflammation in others by reducing injury-induced increases in vascular permeability.
CRF analogs are generally effective in the prophylaxis and/or treatment of stress-related illnesses, mood disorders such as depression, major depressive disorder, single episode depression, recurrent depression, child abuse induced depression, postpartum depression, dysthemia, bipolar disorders and cyclothymia; chronic fatigue syndrome; eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia nervosa; generalized anxiety disorder; panic disorder; phobias; obsessive-compulsive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, pain perception such as fibromyalgia; headache; gastrointestinal diseases; hemorrhagic stress; ulcers; stress-induced psychotic episodes; fever; diarrhea; post-operative ileus, colonic hypersensitivity; irritable bowel syndrome; Crohn's disease; spastic colon; inflammatory disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and osteoarthritis; pain; asthma; psoriasis; allergies; osteoporosis; premature birth; hypertension, congestive heart failure; sleep disorders; neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease, senile dementia of the Alzheimer's type, multiinfarct dementia, Parkinson's disease, and Huntington's disease; head trauma; ischemic neuronal damage; excitotoxic neuronal damage; epilepsy; stroke; spinal cord trauma; psychosocial dwarfism; euthyroid sick syndrome; syndrome of inappropriate antidiarrhetic hormone; obesity; chemical dependencies and addictions; drug and alcohol withdrawal symptoms; cancer; infertility; muscular spasms; urinary incontinence; hypoglycemia and immune dysfunctions including stress induced immune dysfunctions, immune suppression and human immunodeficiency virus infections; and stress-induced infections in humans and animals.
CRF antagonists containing D-isomers of α-amino acids were developed, such as those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,111. Antagonists of CRF are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,642, issued Aug. 12, 1986, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. Cyclic CRF antagonists exhibiting biopotency were later developed as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,493,006, 5,510,458, 5,777,073 and 5,874,227.
Recent clinical data have implicated corticotropin-releasing factor ("CRF") in neuropsychiatric disorders and in neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzeimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease is a neurodegenerative brain disorder which leads to progressive memory loss and dementia. By current estimates, over two million individuals in the United States suffer from this disease. In particular, several lines of evidence have implicated CRF in Alzheimer's disease (AD) (Behan et al., Nature 378(16):284, 1995). First, there are dramatic (greater than 50%) decreases in CRF (Bissette et al., JAMA 254:3067, 1985; DeSouza et al., Brain Research 397:401, 1986; Whitehouse et al., Neurology 37:905, 1987; DeSouza, Hospital Practice 23:59, 1988; Nemeroff et al., Regul. Peptides 25:123, 1989) and reciprocal increases in CRF receptors (DeSouza et al., 1986; DeSouza, 1988) in cerebrocortical areas that are affected in AD, while neither CRF nor CRF receptors are quantitatively changed in non-affected areas of the cortex (DeSouza et al., 1986). Second, chemical affinity crosslinking studies indicate that the increased CRF receptor population in cerebral cortex in AD have normal biochemical properties (Grigoriadis et al., Neuropharmacology 28:761, 1989). Additionally, observations of decreased concentrations of CRF in the cerebrospinal fluid (Mouradian et al., Neural Peptides 8:393, 1986; May et al., Neurology 37:535, 1987) are significantly correlated with the global neuropsychological impairment ratings, suggesting that greater cognitive impairment is associated with lower CRF concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid (Pomara et al., Biological Psychiatry 6:500, 1989).
Available therapies for the treatment of dementia are severely limited. Tacrine™, a recently approved drug, leads to only marginal memory improvement in Alzheimer's patients, and has the undesirable side effect of elevating liver enzymes. Alterations in brain CRF content have also been found in Parkinson's disease and progressive supranuclear palsy, neurological disorders that share certain clinical and pathological features with AD. In cases of Parkinson's disease, CRF content is decreased and shows a staining pattern similar to cases of AD (Whitehouse et al., 1987; DeSouza, 1988). In progressive supranuclear palsy, CRF is decreased to approximately 50% of control values in frontal, temporal, and occipital lobes (Whitehouse et al., 1987; DeSouza, 1988).
Some depressive disorders are also associated with decreased levels of CRF. Patients in the depressive state of seasonal depression and in the period of fatigue in chronic fatigue syndrome demonstrate lower levels of CRF in the cerebrospinal fluid (Vanderpool et al., J. Clin. Endocrinol. Metab. 73:1224, 1991). Although some depressions have a high improvement rate and many are eventually self-limiting, there are major differences in the rate at which patients recover. A major goal of therapy is to decrease the intensity of symptoms and hasten the rate of recovery for this type of depression, as well as preventing relapse and recurrence. Anti-depressants are typically administered, but severe side effects may result (e.g., suicidality with fluoxetine, convulsions with bupropion). (See Klerman et al. in Clinical Evaluation of Psychotropic Drugs: Principles and Guidelines, R. F. Prien and D. S. Robinson (eds.), Raven Press, Ltd. N.Y., 1994, p. 281.)
Hypoactivation of the stress system as manifested by low CRF levels may play a role in other disorders as well. For examples, some forms of obesity are characterized by a hypoactive hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (Kopelman et al., Clin. Endocrinol (Oxford) 28:15, 1988; Bernini et al., Horm. Res. 31:133, 1989), some patients with post-traumatic stress syndrome have low cortisol excretion (Mason et al., J. Neu. Men. Dis. 174:145, 1986), and patients undergoing withdrawal from smoking have decreased excretion of adrenaline and noradrenaline, as well as decreased amounts of cortisol in blood (West et al., Psychopharmacology 84:141, 1984; Puddy et al., Clin. Exp. Pharmacol. Physiol. 11:423, 1984). These manifestations all point to a central role for CRF in these disorders because CRF is the major regulator of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis. Treatments for these disorders have poor efficacy. For example, the most effective approach to treatment of obesity is a behavior-change program. However, few participants reach goal weight and the relapse rate is high (see Halmi et al. in Clinical Evaluation of Psychotropic Drugs: Principles and Guidelines, R. F. Prien and D. S. Robinson (eds.), Raven Press, Ltd. New York, 1994, p. 547).
In view of the deficiencies in treatments for such disorders and diseases, more effective treatments are needed. The present invention exploits the correlation of reduced levels of CRF with various neuro-physiologically based disorders and diseases to effectively treat such diseases by increasing levels of free CRF, and further provides other related advantages. Because these actions are mediated by CRFR2, CRFR2-selective analogs are preferred over non-selective analogs due to the possible side effects resulting from activation of other CRF receptors.
The physiological actions of CRF are mediated through activation of at least two high affinity receptors, CRFR1 and CRFR2, which are members of the seven-transmembrane family of receptors [Chen R., et al, P.N.A.S., 90:8967–8971 (1993), Perrin, M., et al., P.N.A.S, 92:2969–2973 (1995), Lovenberg, T., et al., P.N.A.S., 92:836–840 (1995), K. D. Dieterich et al. Exp. Clin. Endocrinol. Diabetes (1997) 105:65–82 and J. Spiess et al. Trends Endocrinol. Metab. (1998) 9:140–145]. Evidence from transgenic knockouts [A. Contarino et al., Brain Res. (1999) 835:1–9, G. W. Smith et al., Neuron (1998) 20:1093–1102 and P. Timpl et al., Nature Genet. (1998) 19:162–166], antisense oligonucleotide studies [S. C. Heinrichs et al., Regul. Pept. (1997) 71:15–21, G. Liebsch et al., J. Psychiatric Res. (1999) 33:153–163 and T. Skutella et al., Neuroscience (1998) 85: 795–805] and CRFR1 receptor antagonists [K. E. Habib et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (2000) 97:6079–6084., J. Lundkvist et al., Eur. J. Pharmacol. (1996) 309:195–200., R. S. Mansbach et al., Eur. J. Pharmacol. (1997) 323:21–26 and S.C. Weninger et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (1999) 96:8283–8288] provide evidence for the involvement of CRFR1 receptors in mediating the anxiogenic effects of CRF.
A human CRF receptor was the first to be reported, and it was cloned from a human Cushing pituitary tumor as described in Chen R., et al, P.N.A.S., 90, 8967–8971 (October 1993). It is referred to as hCRFR1 or hCRF-RA and has 415 amino acids; a splice variant thereof includes an insert of 29-amino acids. A rat CRF receptor was isolated, approximately contemporaneously, by hybridization from a rat brain cDNA library. It is referred to as rCRFR1; it also has a 415 amino acid sequence and was disclosed in Perrin, M., et al., Endocrinology, 133, 3058–3061 (1993). It was found to be 97% identical at the amino acid level to the human CRFR1, differing by only 12 amino acids. The receptor has since been reported to be widely distributed throughout the brain and the pituitary and to be likely present in the adrenals and spleen. CRF(1) receptors (CRFR1) have been relatively well characterized, and antagonists to this receptor effectively block stress-induced behaviors in rodents.
The CRFR2 receptor was identified more recently [T. Kishimoto et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (1995) 92:1108–1112, W. A. Kostich et al., Mol. Endocrinol. (1998) 12:1077–1085, T. W. Lovenberg et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (1995) 92:836–840. and M. Perrin et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA (1995) 92:2969–2973.] and exists as at least three splice variants. CRFR1 and CRFR2 receptor subtypes are 70% homologous in their amino acid sequences but appear to be pharmacologically [D. P. Behan et al., Mol. Psychiatry (1996) 1:265–277. and K. D. Dieterich et al., Exp. Clin. Endocrinol. Diabetes (1997) 105:65–82.] and anatomically distinct [D. T. Chalmers et al., J. Neurosci. (1995) 15:6340–6350. and D. H. Rominger et al., J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. (1998) 286:459–468]. The CRFR2 isoform is highly expressed in limbic brain regions and in the hypothalamus, suggesting possible roles in anxiety, depression and appetite control. The abundance of CRFR2 protein and mRNA in the lateral septum [D. T. Chalmers et al., J. Neurosci. (1995) 15:6340–6350 and D. H. Rominger et al., J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. (1998) 286:459–468], and the central role of septum in limbic brain circuitry, mediating emotional responses such as fear, anxiety and aggression [J. Menard and D. Treit, Physiol. Behav. (1996) 60:845–853. and E. Yadin et al., Physiol. Behav. (1993) 53:1077–1083].
CRFR1 is distributed throughout the brain and the sensory and motor relay sites, whereas CRFR2 is expressed in regions of the body where there is little or no expression of CRFR1, such as peripheral sites, e.g. the blood vessels, the heart, the GI tract, the lungs and the skin. In addition, while CRFR1 expression is very high in neocortical, cerebellar, and sensory relay structures, CRFR2 expression is generally confined to subcortical structures. The highest levels of CRFR2 mRNA in brain are evident within the lateral septal nucleus, the ventromedial hypothalamic nucleus and the choroid plexus. Moderate levels of CRFR2 expression are also evident in the olfactory bulb, amygdaloid nuclei, the paraventricular and supraoptic nuclei of the hypothalamus, the inferior colliculus and 5-HT-associated raphe nuclei of the midbrain. CRFR2-expressing cells are also evident in the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, the hippocampal formation and anterior and lateral hypothalamic areas. In addition, CRFR2 receptor mRNA is also found in cerebral arterioles throughout the brain. Within the pituitary gland, CRFR2 mRNA is detectable at low levels in scattered cells while CRFR1 mRNA is readily detectable in anterior and intermediate lobes.
This heterogeneous distribution of CRFR1 and CRFR2 mRNA suggests distinctive functional roles for each receptor in CRF-related systems. The CRFR1 may be regarded as the primary neuroendocrine pituitary CRF receptor and important in cortical, cerebellar and sensory roles of CRF. The anatomical distribution of CRFR2 mRNA indicates a role for this novel receptor in hypothalamic neuroendocrine, autonomic and general behavioral actions of central CRF. The location of CRFR2, which are highly expressed in limbic brain regions, supports the involvement of these receptors in fear-conditioning (Ho et al., Brain Res Mol Brain Res (2001) 89(1–2):29–40). Additional studies to determine the effects of simultaneous inhibition of both receptor subtypes show that rats receiving both CRFR2 antisense oligonucleotide and CRFR1 antagonist froze significantly less than animals treated with either agent alone. These results provide additional evidence for the role of CRFR2 in mediating the stress-induced actions of endogenous CRF. CRFR2 is also involved in central autonomic and appetitive control. CRFR2 exists as three splice variants of the same gene and have been designated CRFR2a, CRFR2b and CRFR2g. CRFR2b is used interchangeably with CRFR2β. The pharmacology and localization of all of these proteins in brain has been well established. The CRFR1 subtype is localized primarily to cortical and cerebellar regions while the CRFR2a is localized to subcortical regions including the lateral septum, and paraventricular and ventromedial nuclei of the hypothalamus. The CRFR2b is primarily localized to heart, skeletal muscle and in the brain, to cerebral arterioles and choroid plexus. The CRFR2g has most recently been identified in human amygdala.
Both CRFR1 and CRFR2 were found in the pituitary and throughout the neocortex (especially, in prefrontal, cingulate, striate, and insular cortices), amygdala, and hippocampal formation of primates. In primates, both CRFR1 and CRFR2 may be involved in mediating the effects of CRF on cognition, behavior, and pituitary-adrenal function. The presence of CRFR1 (but not CRFR2) within the locus coeruleus, cerebellar cortex, nucleus of the solitary tract, thalamus, and striatum and of CRFR2 (but not CRFR1) in the choroid plexus, certain hypothalamic nuclei, the nucleus prepositus, and the nucleus of the stria terminalis suggests that each receptor subtype also may have distinct functional roles within the primate central nervous system. See, e.g., Sanchez et al., J. Comp. Neurol. 408:365–377.
CRF has been widely implicated as playing a major role in modulating the endocrine, autonomic, behavioral and immune responses to stress. The recent cloning of multiple receptors for CRF as well as the discovery of non-peptide receptor antagonists for CRF receptors have begun a new era of CRF study. Presently, there are five distinct targets for CRF with unique cDNA sequences, pharmacology and localization. These fall into three distinct classes, encoded by three different genes and have been termed CRFR1 and CRFR2 (belonging to the superfamily of G-protein coupled receptors) and CRF-binding protein. Expression of these receptors in mammalian cell lines has made possible the identification of non-peptide, high affinity, selective receptor antagonists. While the natural mammalian ligands oCRF and r/hCRF have high affinity for the CRFR1 subtype, they have lower affinity for the CRFR2 family making them ineffective labels for CRFR2. [125I]Sauvagine has been characterized as a high affinity ligand for both CRFR1 and the CRFR2 subtypes and has been used in both radioligand binding and receptor autoradiographic studies as a tool to aid in the discovery of selective small molecule receptor antagonists. A number of non-peptide CRFR1 antagonists that can specifically and selectively block the CRFR1 receptor subtype have recently been identified. Compounds such as CP 154,526, NBI 27914 and Antalarmin inhibit CRF-stimulation of cAMP or CRF-stimulated ACTH release from cultured rat anterior pituitary cells. Furthermore, when administered peripherally, these compounds compete for ex vivo [125I]sauvagine binding to CRFR1 in brain sections demonstrating their ability to cross the blood-brain-barrier. In in vivo studies, peripheral administration of these compounds attenuate stress-induced elevations in plasma ACTH levels in rats demonstrating that CRFR1 can be blocked in the periphery. Furthermore, peripherally administered CRFR1 antagonists have also been demonstrated to inhibit CRF-induced seizure activity. These data clearly demonstrate that non-peptide CRFR1 antagonists, when administered systemically, can specifically block central CRFR1 and provide tools that can be used to determine the role of CRFR1 in various neuropsychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders. In addition, these molecules will prove useful in the discovery and development of potential orally active therapeutics for these disorders. McCarthy et al., Curr Pharm Des. (1999) 5(5):289–315.
Because the CRFR1 control different functions than the CRFR2, it would be valuable to be able to regulate one family of receptors without significantly affecting the other family. oCRF and rCRF bind substantially similarly to both CRFR1 and CRFR2 families. A. Ruhmann et al. P.N.A.S., 95, 15264–15269 (December 1998) reported that [D-Phe11, His12]-sauvagine (11–40) was an antagonist that acted selectively with respect to CRFR2β and exhibited competitive antagonism equal to about 30% of that of the then best antagonist for CRFR1 and close to equal antagonism for CRFR2β compared to this previously best reported compound. Thereafter, the search has continued for CRF analogs that will serve as effective competitive antagonists to modulate the activation of CRFR2 while having even less effect upon CRFR1.

The Salk Institute for Biologicial Studies


An apparatus for detecting physical abnormalities in milk which comprises a light source for irradiating milk with light of red or green or blue colors or any combination of such colors. The intensity of light reflected or diffused or transmitted, or any combination thereof, by the milk, or from background light of the milk, is measured by light sensors. A computer processes the measurement data and is programmed to select, based on comparisons of the values derived from the measured light intensities with reference values, a diagnostic basis or diagnostic bases for abnormalities in the milk from a plurality of diagnostic bases of possible abnormalities stored in the memory of the computer.

The invention relates to an apparatus for detecting physical abnormalities in milk by subjecting the milk to irradiation by one or more lights of colors, red, green and blue, measuring the intensity of light reflected or background light from the irradiated light, and processing the measured data with a computer. The invention further relates to a milking robot which is provided with the apparatus.
Such an apparatus is known from Netherlands patent application NL-1004980 (see U.S. Pat. No. 6,038,030). The presence of particular substances in the milk can be detected by means of a known color sensor measuring system. A disadvantage thereof is that a user often has to make a further analysis of the milk condition on the basis of the detected substances. Moreover, the results are not very reliable.
The invention aims at further developing and improving such an apparatus. According to the invention, this is achieved by programming the computer to recognize and identify one or more diagnostic indicators based on a comparison of values derived from the measured light intensities reflected directly and derived from the milk being irradiated by the light source or sources.
The values derived from the measured light intensities may be measured may be said measured values themselves, but preferably values corrected by means of the computer are determined and used. For that purpose the computer is programmed to determine corrected values as said values derived from the measured light intensities, the correction compensating for the influence of the temperature of the light source or of the milk or both on the measured intensities. The fact is that particularly the temperature of the light source, such as a LED, has proved to influence the measured values of the intensities. The measured values may be converted by the computer to measured values related to a temperature of, for example, 25xc2x0 C.
The computer may further be programed to determine corrected values as said values derived from the measured light intensities, the correction compensating for differences between the light sensors used. The fact is that different specimens of a light sensor may have mutually differing measuring characteristics. By means of the correction , undesired temperatures influences or differences between the sensors used or both such factors are thus compensated for. In this manner the reliability of the apparatus is enhanced.
Reference values may be used which are fixed values (such as those of reference milk). However, preferably dynamic values are used, such as average values over the last milkings of a group of animals. Preferably the computer uses information in relation to the identity of the animals that provided the analyzed milk. The diagnostic possibilities stored comprise syndromes for the animal from which the relevant milk has been provided, milk quality indications and the presence of particular substances in the milk.

Implement for detecting physical abnormalities in milk


A spectrum analyzer with a compensation circuitry for prevention of measurement accuracy deterioration due to local oscillators phase noise.

A spectrum analyzer is a device that measures the power density of an input signal and displays that power density in a form convenient to the user. A typical block diagram of a prior art spectrum analyzer is shown in FIG. 1. The spectrum analyzer of FIG. 1 includes a frequency converter 100, a low pass filter (LPF) 101, an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 102, a processor 103, a display 104 and a control unit 105. The frequency spectrum of an applied input signal is measured in a step-by-step process. The control unit 105 controls the frequency converter 100 and, in particular, specifies at each step, a frequency band Fst . . . Fst+ΔF of the input signal spectrum that is to be currently analyzed (Fst is the start frequency of the band to be analyzed, and ΔF is the spacing between adjacent start frequencies). The frequency converter 100 transfers the band Fst . . . Fst+ΔF to the band 0 . . . ΔF. An anti-aliasing low pass filter (LPF) 101 suppresses all components with the frequencies higher than Fs/2 (where Fs is the sampling rate). The analog to digital converter (ADC) 102 transforms an incoming continuous signal into a sequence of digital samples with the sampling rate Fs. The processor 103 carries out a Fast Fourier Transform of the signal that comes from the next frequency band at each next step of the spectrum measurement. Then, processor 103 concatenates the resulting partial spectrum pieces into an aggregate spectrum of the input signal and transfers the resulting spectrum to the display 104, interacting all the time with the control unit 105.
One of the essential conditions that should be met to achieve a high measurement accuracy in a spectrum analyzer, is a requirement for the frequency converter 100 not to create spurious responses, which may substantially distort the final picture. To attain such a purpose, a conventional frequency converter usually contains several conversion stages with an appropriate selection of intermediate frequencies and frequencies of local oscillators. As an example, a prior art spectrum analyzer with a three-stage frequency converter is shown in FIG. 2.
In the spectrum analyzer of FIG. 2, the first stage of the frequency converter 100 is formed by a first mixer 200, a first band pass filter (BPF) 201 and a first local oscillator (LO) 211. The second stage of frequency converter 100 is formed by a second mixer 202, a second band pass filter 203 and a second local oscillator 212. The third stage of frequency converter 100 is formed by a third mixer 205 and a third local oscillator 213.
The first local oscillator 211 is a variable frequency oscillator with a frequency that is controlled by the control unit 105. The second local oscillator 212 and third local oscillator 213 are fixed frequency oscillators. The frequencies F1 of the first local oscillator 211, and F2 of the second local oscillator 212, are substantially higher than the frequency F3 of the third local oscillator 213.
In operation, the input signal of the spectrum analyzer of FIG. 2 is mixed with the first local signal 208 by the first mixer 200, so that signals having both sum and difference frequencies of the first local signal 208 and the input signal are produced. The first band pass filter 201 selects the difference signal creating the first intermediate frequency (IF) signal 205.
The first IF signal 205 is provided to the second mixer 202, where it is mixed with the second local signal 209. The second mixer 202 produces signals having both sum and difference frequencies of the first IF signal 205 and second local signal 209. The second band pass filter 203 selects the difference signal creating the second IF signal 206.
Similarly, the second IF signal 206 is provided to the third mixer 204 where it is mixed with the third local signal 210. The third mixer 204 produces signals having both sum and difference frequencies of the second IF signal 206 and third local signal 210. Low pass filter 101 selects the difference signal, creating ADC input signal 207.
At each next step of spectrum measurement with the start frequency Fst, control unit 105 sets the frequency F1 of the first local oscillator to equal F1=Fst+F2+F3. If the input signal has a frequency Fin, then the first IF signal 205 has a frequency F1−Fin, the second IF signal 206 has a frequency F1−Fin−F2 and the ADC input signal 207 has a frequency F3−(F1−Fin−F2)=F3−F1+Fin+F2=F3−(Fst+F2+F3)+Fin+F2=Fin−Fst. Thus, the frequency band Fst . . . Fst+ΔF of the input signal is transferred by the frequency converter 100 to the frequency band 0 . . . ΔF at the ADC input.
The frequency converter 100, shown in FIG. 2, carries out the necessary frequency transfer without producing harmful spurious components. However, in order to provide the high sensitivity and resolution for the spectrum analyzer that are needed to achieve a desired measurement accuracy, the frequency converter should possess one more quality: any phase noise that is introduced in the processed signal has to be correspondingly small.
The phase noise manifests itself as unwanted random fluctuations in a relative phase of a signal. The phase noise originates in the local oscillators of the frequency converter and finds its way into processed signal during the mixing operations. The phase noise level of a local oscillator grows when the oscillator frequency is relatively high. Therefore, the main sources of the phase noise in the block diagram of FIG. 2 are the first local oscillator 211 (especially when it includes either a yttrium-iron-garnet (YIG) transistor or a gallium-arsenide field effect transistor (GaAs FET) oscillator, as often is the case) and the second local oscillator 212. The third local oscillator 213 is usually a crystal oscillator with high frequency stability and very low level of phase noise. The phase noise of the first local oscillator 211 is θ1(t), the phase noise of the second local oscillator 212 is θ2(t), and the input signal and the third local oscillator are substantially free of phase noise. Then the phase noise of the first IF signal 205 is θ1(t), whereas phase noise of the second IF signal 206 and phase noise of the signal 207 at the ADC input is θ1(t)−θ2(t).
In the prior art, different methods of phase noise suppression are used in communication receivers, measuring devices and so on. One efficient approach consists of impressing the phase noise of a noisy oscillator onto a clean oscillator. Then during the mixing operations, phase noise of the first oscillator is added and phase noise of the second oscillator is subtracted from the processed signal phase. As a result, the output signal is free of the phase noise developed in the first oscillator. Such an approach was employed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,918,748, U.S. Pat. No. 6,313,619 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,600,906. The block diagram described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,600,906 is shown in FIG. 3. In this patent the second local oscillator 210 is supposed to have high level of phase noise. The first local oscillator 209 is taken as having a lower frequency and a small phase noise. The passage of signals in the FIG. 3 is basically the same as in first two stages of frequency converter 100 in the spectrum analyzer of FIG. 2. The distinction is that first local signal 208 is produced in FIG. 3 not by an independent local oscillator 211, but by mixing signals from the first local oscillator 211 and the second local oscillator 212 in the mixer 301 with the subsequent selection of the sum component by BPF 300. Thanks to such device structure the phase noise in the first 208 and the second 209 local signals are essentially the same. In the mixer 200 the phase noise of the first local signal is added to the processed signal and in the mixer 202 the phase noise of the second local signal is subtracted from the processed signal. Thus, in the mixer 202 a mutual cancellation of the phase noise of the IF signal and the phase noise of second local signal occurs. The resulting output signal has a small level of residual phase noise. In an example presented in said patent, the frequency of the input signal lies in the range from 10 MHz to 2.9 GHz, the frequency of the first local oscillator 209 varies from 505 MHz to 3.395 GHz and the frequency of the second local oscillator 210 equals 3.6 GHz. The frequency of the signal at the output of the BPF 300 equals the sum of the frequencies of the first local oscillator 209 and the second local oscillator 210. When the frequency of the first local oscillator 209 varies from 505 MHz to 3.395 GHz, the frequency of the signal at the output of the BPF 300 is changed from 4.105 GHz to 6.995 GHz. The BPF 300 should pass all frequencies from the mentioned range and suppress the frequencies bellow 4.105 GHz. BPF 201 passes frequencies in the neighborhood of 4.095 GHz. The output signal has a frequency 495 MHz.
The most important reason that prevents the use of the outlined method of the phase noise suppression in a spectrum analyzer, is the appearance of numerous spurious components in the processed signal. In the context of previous example let us suppose that the frequency of the first local oscillator 211 is set up equal to 3.0 GHz (see FIG. 4). The frequency of the second local oscillator 212 is fixed and equal to 3.6 GHz. After mixing in mixer 301 and selection in BPF 300, the true first local signal 208 is created with the frequency 3.0 GHz+3.6 GHz=6.6 GHz. However, due to inevitable non-linearity in the mixer 301, a second harmonic of the first local oscillator signal with the frequency 6.0 GHz appears at the output of the mixer 301 as well. After passing through BPF 300, it appears as a false component of the first local signal 208 at the input of the mixer 200 (FIG. 4c). Since the passband of the BPF 300 inevitably embraces the range 4.105–6.995 GHz, the true component 6.6 GHz cannot be separated from the false one 6.0 GHz by filtering. Let the input signal of the spectrum analyzer have frequency components of 1.9 GHz and 2.505 GHz. The frequency component 2.505 GHz passes the first mixer 200 and the BPF 201, appearing in the first intermediate signal 205 as a component with a frequency 6.6 GHz−2.505 GHz=4.095 GHz. The frequency component 1.9 GHz interacts in the mixer 200 with the second harmonic 6.0 GHz and causes the appearance of the component with the frequency 6.0 GHz−1.9 GHz=4.1 GHz (FIG. 4e). After frequency conversion in the mixer 202 and BPF 203 a true component 0.495 GHz and a false component 0.5 GHz are produced (FIG. 4f). In this way, a by-product satellite that is unavailable in the input signal of the spectrum analyzer appears near the true component. The results of the spectrum measurements become contrary to fact and that cannot be tolerated.
As evidenced by forgoing discussion, a spectrum analyzer that carries out suppression of the phase noise of the local oscillators and, at the same time, does not create spurious responses in the processed signal would be an significant improvement in the art.

Spectrum analyzer with phase noise compensation