This disclosed technology includes a cathodic protection system for protection of metal components. The cathodic protection system can include a non-solid anodic composition, such as an anodic paste. The non-solid anodic composition can include zinc and/or magnesium. The cathodic protection system can include a barrier protection system that can include one or more layers. The barrier protection system can include an outer moisture barrier.

Metal components exposed in an outdoor environment can be susceptible to corrosion and other degradations. For example, metal structures, such as electrical grid transmission structures (e.g., lattice towers, steel poles), cellular network towers, radio masts, and bridges, can have one or more portions of the metal structure that is buried or otherwise exposed to conditions conducive to deterioration such as corrosion. These concerns can be relevant in situations in which metal components are buried in the ground. For example, steel may also be susceptible to damage by microorganisms, and this damage may be referred to as microbial induced corrosion (MIC). Over time, however, the metal components can corrode or otherwise degrade, which can result in the metal components weakening in strength and reducing the useful life of the metal components and/or the systems incorporating the metal components. Accordingly, there is a need to prevent corrosion and other degradations to metal components, which can extend the useful life of the metal components and/or systems incorporating the metal components.

Reactive corrosion protection systems and methods for making and using the same


An optical waveguide type photodiode has a plurality of semiconductor layers formed one upon another on a semiconductor substrate and including an optical absorption layer sandwiched between a pair of optical confinement layers for guiding incident light in parallel with the semiconductor layers, wherein a light absorption quantity per unit length of an optical waveguide area constituted by the optical absorption layer is substantially constant throughout the entire area thereof. Specifically, the optical confinement factor .GAMMA.(x) of the optical waveguide area is set so as to increase with guided distance x of light. Preferably, a device structure is employed in which the thickness d(x) of the optical absorption layer increases with the guided distance x of light. Also, the optical absorption layer is formed by selective area growth with the use of a pair of selective area growth masks, and these masks have a mask pattern such that the mask width thereof gradually decreases/increases in the light guiding direction, whereby a photodiode with the above device structure can be fabricated with ease.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical waveguide type photodiode having a plurality of semiconductor layers which are formed one upon another on a semiconductor substrate and which include an optical absorption layer sandwiched between a pair of optical confinement layers for guiding light in parallel with the semiconductor layers. More particularly, the present invention relates to a photodiode which is quick in responsivity, ensures low modulation distortion with respect to incident light and thus is suited for large-capacity optical communications, and to a process of producing such a photodiode.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of optical communications using a long wavelength region, pin photodiodes of surface-incident type are widely used. The surface-incident photodiode absorbs light at the surface of a semiconductor layer (optical absorption layer), so that many photo carriers are locally generated in the vicinity of the surface of the optical absorption layer. With the surface-incident photodiode, therefore, modulation distortion with respect to incident light is liable to occur. Also, in surface-incident photodiodes in general, GaInAs semiconductor is used for the optical absorption layer. Since GaInAs semiconductor has a large absorption coefficient with respect to light with a wavelength of 1.3 .mu.m or 1.55 .mu.m, the modulation distortion mentioned above poses a serious problem.
Optical waveguide type photodiodes, on the other hand, have a basic device structure shown in FIG. 1, wherein a plurality of semiconductor layers including an n-type cladding layer 2, an n-type optical confinement layer 3, an optical absorption layer 4, a p-type optical confinement layer 5, and p-type cladding layer 6 are successively formed on a emiconductor substrate 1. The optical confinement layers 3 and 5 are each made of a conductive semiconductor having a refractive index lower than that of the optical absorption layer 4.
In the optical waveguide type photodiode with the above device structure, as light incident on the front facet of the semiconductor layers is guided in parallel with these layers, its light energy is absorbed by the optical absorption layer 4, and carriers excited by the thus-absorbed energy are detected as a photocurrent. Compared with the surface-incident type photodiode, the optical waveguide type photodiode has a thinner optical absorption layer 4, and thus the transit time of photo carriers is short, permitting high-speed operation.
Generally, the thickness (film thickness) of the optical absorption layer 4 of the optical waveguide type photodiode is set to 2 .mu.m or more in order to enhance the light sensitivity. Accordingly, light introduced into the optical absorption layer 4 is absorbed in large part in a region near the front facet while being guided for only a relatively short distance. As a result, a large number of photo carriers are generated locally in the vicinity of the front facet of the optical absorption layer 4, and such local generation of photo carriers causes modulation distortion.

Optical waveguide type photodiode and a process of producing the same


Cyclic peptides comprising, as a constituent chain or chains, one or two amino acid sequences selected from the groups consisting of the amino acid sequence Glu-Ala-Asp-Asp-Arg and the amino acid sequence Ser-Gln-Lys-Glu-Gly, and AIDS vaccines containing the cyclic peptide as an active ingredient. Preferably a cyclic dodecapeptide represented by the formula given below and an AIDS vaccine containing the cyclic dodecapeptide as an active ingredient. From the in vivo absorption and antibody formation viewpoint, active groups selected from among the carboxyl, amino and hydroxyl groups contained in the cyclic peptide is preferably bound to substituent groups. The cyclic dodecapeptide can neutralize the second receptors in the infection of human with HIV-1 virus

Second receptors which the pathogenic virus causative of AIDS (HIV-1 virus) utilizes in infecting human were identified in 1996 (Yu Feng et al., Science, 272, 872-877, 1996). These two receptors are called CXCR4 and CCR5. It has been revealed that the HIV-1 virus utilizes one of the receptors for adsorption onto and entry into lymphocytes, macrophages and dendritic cells to achieve infection.
On the other hand, about 1 to 2% of Caucasians reportedly have resistance to HIV-1 virus infection and it has been revealed that this is due to a genetic defect or genetic incompleteness of the second receptors (CXCR4 and CCR5), which are chemokine receptors (Rong Liu et al., 86, 367-377, 1996).
These findings have called researchers attention to the importance of neutralization of the second receptors in the prevention of HIV-1 virus infection and, in recent years, attempts have been made to produce a neutralizing antibody capable of neutralizing the second receptors. There is no report, however, of the successful creation of such a neutralizing antibody.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide three-dimensional antigens capable of producing, in vivo, a neutralizing antibody capable of neutralizing the second receptors from the stereoscopic viewpoint by paying attention to the loop structures of the second receptor proteins without following the conventional methods which interpret the peptides constituting the second receptors two-dimensionally. Another object is to provide AIDS vaccines which comprise such antigens as active ingredients.


A method and system for deinterlacing an interlaced video stream is presented. The method and system determines whether an interlaced video stream is a normal mode video stream or a converted mode video stream. Converted mode video streams, which are interlaced video streams created from an original progressive video stream, are deinterlaced using converted mode deinterlacing, which involves merging two fields to form a frame. Normal mode interlaced video streams are deinterlaced using normal mode deinterlacing, which involves converting a field into a frame using line repeating or some form of interpolation to generate the missing scan lines.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to digital image and video processing. More specifically, the present invention relates to methods of converting interlaced video streams into progressive (i.e., non-interlaced) video streams.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Due to advancing semiconductor processing technology, integrated circuits (ICs) have greatly increased in functionality and complexity. With increasing processing and memory capabilities, many formerly analog tasks are being performed digitally. For example, images, audio and even full motion video can now be produced, distributed, and used in digital formats.
FIG. 1 is an illustrative diagram of a portion of interlaced digital video stream 100 most often used in television systems. Interlaced digital video stream 100 comprises a series of individual fields 100_1 to 100_N, of which the first ten fields are shown. Even fields contain even numbered rows while odd fields contain odd numbered rows. For example if a frame has 400 rows of 640 pixels, the even field would contains rows 2, 4, . . . 400 and the odd field would contains rows 1, 3, 5, . . . 399 of the frame. In general for an interlaced video stream each field is formed at a different time. For example, an interlaced video capture device (e.g. a video camera) captures and stores the odd scan lines of a scene at time T as field 100_1, then the video capture device stores the even scan lines of a scene at time T+1 as field 100_2. The process continues for each field. Two main interlaced video standards are used. The PAL (Phase Alternating Line) standard, which is used in Europe, displays 50 fields per seconds and the NTSC (National Television System Committee) standard, which is used in the United States, displays 60 fields per seconds.
Interlaced video systems were designed when bandwidth limitations precluded progressive (i.e., non-interlaced) video systems with adequate frame rates. Specifically, interlacing two 25 fps fields achieved an effective 50 frame per second frame rate because the phosphors used in television sets would remain "lit" while the second field is drawn. Progressive video streams use complete frames, including both the even and odd scan lines instead of fields. Because progressive scan provides better display quality, computer systems, which were developed much later than the original television systems, use progressive scan display systems. Furthermore, many modern televisions and television equipment are being developed to use progressive video streams. To maintain compatibility with existing interlaced video systems, modern progressive systems use deinterlacing techniques to convert interlaced video streams into progressive video streams.
FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b) illustrate a typical method of generating a progressive video stream 200 from an interlaced video stream 100. Specifically each field 100_X of interlaced video stream 100 is converted to a frame 200_X of progressive video stream 200. The conversion of a field to a frame is accomplished by generating the missing scan lines in each frame by copying or interpolating from the scan lines in the field. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 2(b) field 100_1 having odd scan lines 100_1_1, 100_1_3, 100_1_5, . . . 100_1_N, is converted into 200_1 by copying scan lines 100_1_X as odd scan lines 200_1_X, where X is an odd number and creating even scan lines 200_1_Y, where Y is an even number. Even scan lines 200_1_Y can be created by copying the preceding odd scan line 200_1_Y-1. This technique is commonly known as line repeat. Better results can be obtained using various interpolation schemes to generate the missing scan lines. For example, one interpolation scheme simply averages odd scan line 200_1_Y−1 with odd scan line 200_1_Y+1 to generate even scan line 200_1_Y. Other interpolation schemes may use weighted averages or other more complicated ways to combine data from the existing scan lines to generate the missing scan lines. Another normal mode deinterlacing technique known as 3D deinterlacing involves generating the missing scan lines by interpolating the missing pixels using data from adjacent fields. Deinterlacing by interpolation is not an integral part of the present invention. The principles of the present invention can easily be adapted to use any form of interpolation. However, many types of video streams are initially created as progressive video streams and then converted into interlaced video streams. For example, conventional motion pictures are captured and displayed using 24 frames per seconds. To display motion pictures on a PAL (interlaced 50 fields/second) display, each frame is separated into an odd field and an even field. Furthermore, PAL video devices are configured to slightly increase the field rate of the output interlaced video stream to achieve 50 fields/seconds. FIG. 3 illustrates this process. Specifically, FIG. 3 shows the first five frames M_1 to M_5 of a motion picture video stream MPVS being converted to 10 fields of an interlaced video stream 300. Field 300_1 includes the odd scan lines of frame M_1. Field 300_2 includes the even scan lines of frame M_1. Field 300_3 includes the odd scan lines of frame M_2 and Field 300_4 includes the even scan lines of frame M_2. In general a frame M_X is divided into an odd field 300_(X−1)*2+1 containing the odd lines of frame M_X and an even field 300_(X−1)*2+2 containing the even lines of frame M_X. For clarity, portions of interlaced video streams formed from an initial progressive video stream are said to be in "converted mode".
While displaying interlaced video stream 300 on interlaced video systems provide adequate picture quality. Conventional deinterlacing techniques as described above and illustrated in FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b) can be used by a progressive scan display system to view interlaced video stream 300. However, the picture quality of a de-interlaced video stream formed from interlaced video stream 300 is much lower than the picture quality of the original progressive video stream that was used to create interlaced video stream 300.
Hence, there is a need for a deinterlacing method or system that can determine whether portions of an interlaced video stream are in normal mode (e.g. like a normal television signal) or in a converted mode (e.g. formed from an original progressive video stream). The method or system must then deinterlace the given interlaced video stream appropriately.

Conversion of interlaced video streams into progressive video streams


Provided herein are filtration-based purification methods for amyloid fibers, such as curli fibers, directly from microbial culture, and their fabrication into free-standing thin films. Additionally, methods for recycling amyloid fibers thing films by, for example, disassembly and re-assembly, are disclosed herein.

The unique self-assembling properties of amyloid proteins make them attractive nanofibrous materials for a variety of applications. They readily form high surface area networks with nanoscale pore sizes, are highly resistant to harsh environments, and can be used under various stages of assembly (monomeric proteins, oligomers, fiber or large aggregates). Furthermore, their proteinaceous structure lends itself to structural customization, whereby the amyloid fibers serve as a scaffold for the display of protein and peptide domains with various functions. Mankar et al., Nanomaterials: amyloids reflect their brighter side, Nano Reviews 2, 10 (2011); Chen et al., Synthesis and patterning of tunable multiscale materials with engineered cells. Nat Mater 13(5):515-523 (2014); Rudra et al., Self-assembled peptide nanofibers raising durable antibody responses against a malaria epitope. Biomaterials 33(27):6476-6484 (2012).
Recently, attempts at controlling the morphology, size and shape of amyloid proteins has been achieved by varying assembly conditions, and they are beginning to be used for various applications including, water purification, vaccine scaffolds, tissue engineering scaffolds, drug delivery, templates for polymerization, environmental carbon capture, self-assembling catalysts for nanomaterial assembly or components of composite films, among others. Andersson et al., Modulation of Curli Assembly and Pellicle Biofilm Formation by Chemical and Protein Chaperones. Chemistry & biology 20(10):1245-1254 (2013); Schreck & Yuan, A Kinetic Study of Amyloid Formation: Fibril Growth and Length Distributions. The Journal of Physical Chemistry B 117(21):6574-6583 (2013); Knowles et al, Nanostructured films from hierarchical self-assembly of amyloidogenic proteins. Nat Nano 5(3):204-207 (2010); Bolisetty & Mezzenga, Amyloid-carbon hybrid membranes for universal water purification. Nat Nano 11(4): 365-371 (2016); Knowles & Mezzenga, Amyloid Fibrils as Building Blocks for Natural and Artificial Functional Materials. Advanced Materials (2016); Meier et al., Conducting Core-Shell Nanowires by Amyloid Nanofiber Templated Polymerization. Biomacromolecules 16(2):558-563 (2015).
Most reports of amyloid-based materials use either short synthetic peptides or proteins isolated from natural sources as starting components. Naturally occurring proteins are attractive because they can be abundant and readily available. Indeed, many proteins that have no known amyloidogenicity in their natural environment can easily be induced to self-assemble into amyloids by various denaturing treatments. Meier & Welland, Wet-Spinning of Amyloid Protein Nanofibers into Multifunctional High-Performance Biofibers. Biomacromolecules 12(10):3453-3459 (2011); Jung et al., Structure of Heat-Induced β-Lactoglobulin Aggregates and their Complexes with Sodium-Dodecyl Sulfate. Biomacromolecules 9(9):2477-2486 (2008).
However, in addition to easily inducing amyloid formation, it would also be advantageous to control over the sequence of the self-assembling unit in order to tailor the material for specific applications. One approach to this is to use solid phase techniques to chemically synthesize the desired sequences. While this works for short (<40 amino acid) sequences, it comes at the expense of scalability and lacks the self-propagating ability of biological entities for the production of living materials. Alternatively, larger amyloidogenic proteins with customized sequences can be produced recombinantly. In fact, the ability to tune the sequences of amyloid proteins can lead to enhancements of their self-assembling properties, increased stability, better processability, and easily accessible modifications with functional pendant domains. Peralta et al., Engineering Amyloid Fibrils from β-Solenoid Proteins for Biomaterials Applications. ACS Nano 9(1):449-463 (2015); Woolfson & Mahmoud, More than just bare scaffolds: towards multi-component and decorated fibrous biomaterials. Chemical Society Reviews 39(9):3464-3479 (2010).
Of particular interest are curli nanofibers, a class of functional amyloid that is naturally produced by Escherichia coli for the purposes of surface adhesion and biofilm formation. Chapman et al., Role of Escherichia coli Curli Operons in Directing Amyloid Fiber Formation. Science 295(5556):851-855 (2002); Evans & Chapman, Curli Biogenesis: Order out of Disorder. Biochimica et biophysica acta 1843(8):1551-1558 (2014). Given the ease with which E. coli can be engineered to produce recombinant proteins, these curli nanofibers are of great interest for producing genetically engineered materials. Indeed, engineered curli fibers displaying fused protein and peptide domains have been used to imbue bacterial biofilms with a variety of functions, including specific binding to metallic surfaces, antibody and enzyme display, and the ability to template inorganic nanoparticle growth. This makes curli-based materials potentially useful for applications in custom fabricated surface coatings, biocatalysts, and electronically conductive materials. Chen et al., Synthesis and patterning of tunable multiscale materials with engineered cells. Nat Mater 13(5):515-523 (2014); Van Gerven et al., Secretion and functional display of fusion proteins through the curli biogenesis pathway. Molecular Microbiology 91(5):1022-1035 (2014); Chen et al., Engineering Living Functional Materials. ACS Synthetic Biology 4(1):8-11 (2015); Zhong et al., Strong underwater adhesives made by self-assembling multi-protein nanofibres. Nat Nano 9(10):858-866 (2014).
A significant hurdle to widespread implementation, however, is the large-scale production of genetically engineered amyloid materials. Most purification protocols for curli fibers were developed to study their biological and self-assembly properties, and consequently are not optimized to achieve high yields. They have generally employed one of three methods. First, poly-histidine-tagged curli nanofibers are often used as affinity tags and combined with centrifugation, lysis and column chromatography, but this process is time consuming. Second, pure curli fibers have also been obtained by performing SDS-PAGE on cell lysate for several hours, a tedious process which also requires several centrifugation, rinsing and boiling steps. Chapman et al., Role of Escherichia coli Curli Operons in Directing Amyloid Fiber Formation. Science, 295(5556):851-855 (2002); Zhou et al., Experimental Manipulation of the Microbial Functional Amyloid Called Curli. In Bacterial Cell Surfaces: Methods and Protocols, Delcour, H. A., Ed. Humana Press: Totowa, N.J., 2013; pp 53-75; Collinson et al., Purification and characterization of thin, aggregative fimbriae from Salmonella enteritidis. Journal of Bacteriology 173(15):4773-4781 (1991). Third, curli nanofibers can also be purified from cell lysate via salt precipitation and sequential differential centrifugation. Chapman et al., Role of Escherichia coli Curli Operons in Directing Amyloid Fiber Formation. Science, 295(5556):851-855 (2002). Yields of purified curli fibers for such techniques are likely in the low milligram or sub-milligram range. Additionally, the procedures require expensive reagents or instrumentation. Reports also include the sequential combination of these three methods, resulting in fibers with a higher purity but a lower yield. Apart from the small quantities of materials obtained from these labor-intensive processes, the requirement for an affinity tag can also interfere with some end-goal applications.
As interest in using proteins to assemble functional, biocompatible and environmentally-friendly materials increases, developing scalable protocols for producing recombinant proteins coupled to straightforward fabrication processes is becoming crucial. Accordingly, in order to produce enough curli nanofibers to construct films, gels or other functional materials, a tag-less, simpler, faster and higher yielding method is needed.

Scalable production of genetically engineered nanofibrous macroscopic materials via filtration

President and Fellows of Harvard College


A method of producing microcapsules of the type having a core and a coating encapsulating the core comprises the steps of providing a core-forming fluid stream and a coating-forming fluid stream, providing a two spray nozzle arrangement having a core nozzle disposed concentrically about a second nozzle, spraying the core-forming fluid stream from the core nozzle and the coat-forming fluid stream from the concentric nozzle to produce microcapsules, and solidifying the microcapsules upon formation in a suitable gas. Spray drying or spray chilling may be employed as the means of solidifying the microcapsules. Microcapsules having a core and a solid coat are also described.

Microencapsulation is a widely utilised process in the pharmaceutical industry for applications in delayed release, sustained release and targeting of administered drugs to their optimum site of absorption and/or action. In addition microencapsulation can be used to mask unpleasant taste and to protect drug from environmental influences such as oxidation or from contact with other incompatible material/actives. A range of techniques exist for microencapsulation, including coacervation, solvent evaporation from emulsions, and fluid bed coating.
Spray drying is among the most efficient and widely used technique for the drying of liquids and slurries. It is reliable, reproducible and is a one-step continuous procedure offering easy scale-up. Spray drying is a technique where a liquid stream is sprayed through a nozzle into a chamber with hot circulating gas such as air, nitrogen or argon. Droplets formed at the nozzle are dried in the hot gas resulting in the formation of particles. The resulting dried material usually is microparticles consisting of a uniform mix of the various components of the spray dried solution as shown in FIG. 1.


A method, database system, and computer program for collecting statistics about a table are disclosed. The table includes one or more rows and each row includes a respective value. The method includes creating zero or more histogram buckets. Each histogram bucket includes a width representing a respective range of values and a height representing a count of rows having values in the range of values. The method further includes creating one or more high-bias buckets, each high-bias bucket represents one or more values that appear in a minimum percentage of rows.

Collecting statistics on the data stored in a database system is useful for predicting the cost to access the data. Statistics are useful for choosing between competing access methods, for example, if the database system can predict a cost of using each of the competing methods based on the statistics. Data in some databases is skewed toward certain values making a statistical representation of the data challenging.

Statistical representation of skewed data


This invention relates to a system and method of processing print order requests in a print system comprising a central print controller, a plurality of remote print customers and a plurality of remote print suppliers, the central print controller being connected to the plurality of remote print customers and the plurality of remote print suppliers by way of a communications network. Print customers transmit their print order requests to one central print controller. The central print controller will have information relating to a number of print suppliers stored in the central print controller database and can ascertain which of the print suppliers is the most suitable print supplier for executing a particular order. The central print controller is able to obtain the different protocols and data formats used in the proprietary database systems of the print supplier from its own central print controller database and may then format the print order request into a format suitable for receipt by the print supplier.

When undertaking any substantial print order request, such as the printing of business cards for all the partners of a particular firm, or printing leaflets for a promotional campaign run by a fast food restaurant chain, or indeed the printing of training manuals for a large number of employees, one of the most important aspects is sourcing a suitable printer, otherwise known as a print supplier, to carry out the print order request. It is imperative that a reputable print supplier is employed to undertake the print order request within the desired specifications of the print customer. Although integral to the fulfillment of any print order request, this is also seen as an extremely time consuming and laborious task to carry out. Very often, with limited budgets available, it is imperative to obtain the best value for the print customer whilst at the same time ensuring that the content of the print order request arrives in a timely manner. In other circumstances it may be imperative that the print order request is received as a matter of urgency and cost is a less important factor. In order to choose the most appropriate print supplier, the print customer must contact numerous print suppliers to compare and contrast the service levels, capacity, capability and pricing structures of each of the print suppliers before making a choice of print supplier to carry out a particular job.
In many cases, print customers develop a pool of reliable print suppliers that are able to carry out their printing requirements for them. However this is not always satisfactory as in many instances the print customers will have a print order request which has not been fulfilled by a particular print supplier previously and may not be within the suite of services provided by that particular print supplier. In these circumstances significant time may be lost by the print customer in transmitting an order to their print supplier only to find that the print supplier cannot successfully complete the order in the time frame provided or in certain circumstances would not be able to provide the service at all. The print customer must then look to other print suppliers to complete the job. In certain circumstances the print supplier may be able to carry out the job but it may be beyond their normal capacity and therefore they would be unable to carry out the job within the specified time limit. The selection of a suitable print supplier therefore becomes an iterative process which can waste valuable time and resources of the print customer.
Various methods and systems have been proposed to facilitate fulfillment of printing requirements. One such method and system is that described in European Patent Application EP 1,197,841 in the name of Hewlett-Packard Company. EP1,197,841 describes a method and system of brokering print services over the internet. The method provides a print brokering system that unites customers having specific printing needs with print providers that can fulfill those printing needs. Data files of the print job are stored in a print brokering system controller for subsequent downloading to a print provider. The data files are downloaded to the print provider once a print provider has been selected from a list of print providers by the customer.
US2004/0039647, in the name of Roche, describes an online marketplace for print services that attempts to balance the interests of a plurality of users of print services with the interests of a plurality of print service providers. Print orders are placed through the internet and are routed through a print merchant. U.S. Pat. No. 7,027,175, in the name of Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P., relates to a method and system in which the reprocessing of print orders is simplified. The method allows for print orders to be periodically reviewed and reprocessed at the request of the customer.
Although very useful, there is a need for a method and system that simplifies the process for the customer. It is an object therefore of the present invention to overcome at least some of these problems and provide a method of processing print order requests in a print system as well as a system for processing those print order requests that is efficient and simple to operate to satisfy print order requests in accordance with the requirements of print customers.

System and method of processing print order requests


An echo canceler having an FIR filter for removing an echo from a transmission input signal, the echo resulting from a reflection of a received signal through an echo path, and thereby outputting an output signal with the echo cancelled. The echo canceler includes an impulse response estimating system for estimating the impulse response of the echo path at a time t as a function of the received signal, the echo-cancelled output signal, and an estimated impulse response signal, and thereby outputting the estimated impulse response as the estimated impulse response signal; an echo signal estimating system for generating a predicted signal as a function of the estimated impulse response signal and the received signal, and outputting the predicted signal as an estimated echo signal; and a subtractor for subtracting the estimated echo signal from the transmission signal so as to produce the echo-cancelled output signal. The impulse response estimating system estimates the impulse response of the echo path as a function of the received signal and the echo-cancelled signal at the time t, and the received signal and echo-cancelled signal at a time (t-M), M being a natural number.

The present invention relates to an echo canceller using an FIR filter and, more particularly, to an echo canceller which increases the converging speed of an FIR filter.
A typical application of an echo canceller is to a hybrid transformer which implements the 2-wire/4-wire conversion of a telephone line or satellite communication line and generates an echo due to impedance mismatching between the 2-wire path and the 4-wire path. Another typical application is to a TV conference system or a voice conference system in which a loudspeaker and a microphone are acoustically coupled to generate an echo. In an echo canceller, an FIR filter estimates the impulse response of an echo path from a received input signal and then generates an estimated echo signal. The estimation of an impulse response requires multiplication and addition steps to be repeated a number of times within a short period of time. The number of such arithmetic operations increases with the duration of the impulse response. For example, the multiplication and addition steps have to be repeated several hundred times within about 100 milliseconds in the case of the estimation of an echo ascribable to the hybrid transformer of a telephone line or even several thousand times when it comes to the estimation of an echo ascribable to the turn-around of a speaker output to a microphone. To promote efficient echo estimation, there have been proposed various kinds of methods such as a normalized LMS (Least Mean Square) method and an RLS (Recursive Least Square) method.
The normalized LMS method may be denoted as follows: EQU y(j)=H(j).sup.t X(j) (1) EQU e(j)=y(j)-y(j) (2) EQU H(j+1)=H(j)+.alpha.e(j)X(j)/(X(j).sup.t X(j) (3)
where y(j), y(j), e(j) and x(j) are respectively the estimated echo signal, transmission input signal, transmission output signal (difference output signal), difference between y(k) and y(k)) and received input signal at a particular time j.
A received input vector X(j) and an estimated impulse response vector H(j) at a time j are defined as: EQU X(j)=[x(j), x(j-1), . . . , x(j-N+1)].sup.t EQU H(j)=[h0(j), h1(j), . . . , hN-1(j)].sup.t
where hi(j) is the estimated impulse response at a tap position i and at a time j. Further, .alpha. is a constant which is greater than zero and smaller than 2; the converging speed is highest when .alpha. is 1.
An echo canceller of the type which estimates an echo by the normalized LMS method is disclosed by, for example, YING G. TAO in "A Cascadable VLSI Echo Canceller", IEEE JOURNAL ON SELECTED AREAS IN COMMUNICATIONS, VOL. SAC-2, March 1984, pp. 297-303. Since the normalized LMS method is based on a statistical procedure, convergence occurs most rapidly with an input signal having no correlation, i.e., white noise. The maximum converging speed depends on the estimation order of the filter, and the convergence is completed after a number of repetitions which is about twenty times as great as the estimation order (about 30 dB in terms of the amount of echo cancellation). Assuming an acoustic echo canceller, the estimation order (number of taps) of the filter should be at least about 2,000 even when the sampling frequency is as high as 8 kilohertz, i.e., even then, more than five seconds is necessary for convergence. It follows that when the initial convergence of the path is changed, the echo is noticeably increased, which degrades the conversation quality in the communication system.
In light of the above, an echo canceller using the RLS method has also been proposed, which solves simultaneous equations to thereby produce an impulse response sequence H(j) uniformly. However, the RLS method is not practicable since it requires a prohibitive number of arithmetic operations, although it promotes rapid convergence and copes with changes of the initial convergence and path change, by comparison with the normalized LMS method.

Echo canceller using impulse response estimating method


The invention in one embodiment utilizes a pair of identical high energy permanent magnet dipoles mounted on parallel rotatable shafts. The magnetic dipoles lie in a plane perpendicular to the rotatable shafts, and the shafts are coupled to a drive motor for rotation in opposite directions. The magnetic dipoles gives rise to a resultant field which is the sum of the fields due to the individual dipole magnetic moments. With the dipoles aligned, a field having only a longitudinal component is generated, "longitudinal" being defined as being along the direction of initial alignment. The longitudinal components of the two dipoles add, being in the same direction, while the transverse (i.e. perpendicular to the longitudinal direction) components of the dipole cancel, as they point in opposite directions. In the region of space adjacent to the longitudinally defined direction, the longitudinal oriented field components still add, and the transverse components substantially, if not completely, cancel. As the magnetic dipoles counter rotate, the longitudinal components of the dipoles continue to add while the transverse components continue to subtract, giving rise to a uniaxial, sinusoidally varying magnetic field with a frequency equal to the rotational frequency of the dipoles. A second embodiment discloses the use of two pairs of counter rotating dipoles configured to generate a uniaxial, sinusoidally varying magnetic field. Also disclosed is the use of this alternating uniaxial magnetic field source in a system for the detection of currency or other magnetic material.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a magnetic field source for use in a currency detector, and more particularly to an alternating magnetic field source.
2. Description Relative to the Prior Art
The sensing of the magnetic ink used in currency for the detection of counterfeit bills is known in the art. Examples may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,458,143 issued in the name of Gitlis, U.S. Pat. No. 4,114,804 issued in the names of Jones and Sherman, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,764,725 in the name of Bryce. Similarly, apparatus for reading magnetic ink characters on checks has also previously been disclosed, as may be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,668,913 issued in the name of Vinal.
The above prior art is characterized by a single bill or check passing in close proximity or in actual contact with a magnetic ink detection apparatus. There exists the need, however, for a magnetic ink detector that is neither in contact with a detector nor immediately adjacent to it but that is responsive to the magnetic field associated with a stack of currency. This need to respond to the magnetic field of currency arises for purposes such as detection of stacked currency hidden in luggage or in sealed opaque packages. The requirement mandates a detector that is responsive to magnetic material yet may be as far as 4 to 5 inches away from the package containing currency.
In detecting the presence of a stack of unobservable currency, it is necessary that the detector distinguish the money from other magnetic objects that may be in the package. A unique signature for a stack of currency may be deduced from the coercivity of the magnetic material comprising the magnetic ink. The detection of this unique signature necessitates measuring the hysteresis loop of the magnetic media of the currency. This measurement then allows the determination of the coercivity of the magnetic media.
As is known in the art, measurement of the hysteresis loop of a magnetic material requires the application of a uniaxial alternating magnetic field to the material. Such fields may be generated by means of an AC current through a coil, as taught for example in U.S. Pat. No. 3,359,495. In practice, the magnitude of the field necessary for measuring the coercivity of a stack of currency not in contact with the coil would generally require a large, heavy coil consuming a large amount of ac power. Such a heavy, high power coil would be inconvenient and burdensome to use as a hand held unit. However, the need has been felt to make available a magnetic field generating apparatus as well as a currency field detector which can be implemented as a hand held unit.

Rotating source for generating a magnetic field for use with a currency detector


An adjustable surgical instrument is provided in which adjustment of curvature may be provided during the surgical procedure while the instrument is within a body cavity. The adjustment of curvature may be made from no curvature, that is, straight, to ninety degrees or more. A surgical instrument is provided with an outer, intermediate and inner hollow member. The hollow intermediate member is mounted within the outer hollow member, and is provided with a preformed curvature, preferably in its distal region. The intermediate member is provided with a preformed curvature, preferably in its distal region, which curvature may be reduced or eliminated by longitudinally moving the outer hollow member over the curvature in the hollow intermediate member. The intermediate member has memory such that the initial curvature is recovered upon removal of the hollow outer member from the area of curvature of the intermediate hollow member. An inner member having flexibility at least in the area of curvature is provided with a cutting implement on its distal end. A drive is provided for displacing the hollow outer member with respect to the hollow intermediate member in a longitudinal direction.

This invention relates to a surgical instrument, and in particular to adjustable arthroscopic surgical instruments.
Arthroscopic surgical instruments typically include a rigid outer tube within which a rigid inner tube is rotated by a motor. A cutting implement, such as a blade or abrading burr, is disposed on the distal end of the inner tube. Tissue or bone is exposed to the cutting implement through an opening in the distal end of the outer tube, and tissue or bone fragments cut by the rotating blade or burr are drawn through the interior of the inner tube along with irrigating fluid by the use of suction applied at the proximal end of the instrument. Examples of such surgical instruments are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,203,444--Bonnell et al.; U.S. Pat. No. 4,274,414--Johnson et al.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,842,578--Johnson et al.
The aforesaid typical arthroscopic surgical instruments are linear, or in other words, straight between their proximal and distal ends. Such linear or straight instruments have limitations and disadvantages in many surgical operations, as most body parts and cavities of humans and animals are not straight, but have curved and/or irregular surfaces. It has been recognized that it is sometimes useful for such instruments to be curved to facilitate positioning the cutting implement against the tissue, bone or cartilage to be cut.
Accordingly, more recently, arthroscopic surgical instruments have been developed which have a fixed bend or curve placed in the rigid outer tube at the time of fabrication of the instrument. Examples of such instruments with such fixed bends or curves in the rigid outer tube are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,646,738--Trott and U.S. Pat. No. 5,152,744--Krause et al. Both of these patents disclose a rigid outer tube with a predetermined bend therein which is placed and fixed in the instrument at the time of fabrication of the instrument. At least a portion of the inner tube for transmitting torque to the cutting blade is made flexible such that it freely rotates within the bend in the outer rigid tube.


Provided is a terminal device with which deterioration in hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) retransmission performance can be inhibited by continuing a downlink (DL) HARQ process for DL data before and after changing the uplink link-DL configuration. In this device, a decoder (210) stores, in a retransmission buffer, DL data transmitted from a base station, and decodes the DL data, and a wireless transmitter (222) transmits a response signal generated using a DL-data-error detection result. A soft buffer is partitioned into a plurality of regions for each retransmission process on the basis of the highest values among retransmission process numbers respectively stated in a plurality of configuration patterns which can be set in the terminal (200).

3GPP LTE employs Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) as a downlink communication scheme. In radio communication systems to which 3GPP LTE is applied, base stations transmit synchronization signals (i.e., Synchronization Channel: SCH) and broadcast signals (i.e., Broadcast Channel: BCH) using predetermined communication resources. Meanwhile, each terminal finds an SCH first and thereby ensures synchronization with the base station. Subsequently, the terminal reads BCH information to acquire base station-specific parameters (e.g., frequency bandwidth) (see, Non-Patent Literature (hereinafter, abbreviated as NPL) 1, 2 and 3).
In addition, upon completion of the acquisition of the base station-specific parameters, each terminal sends a connection request to the base station to thereby establish a communication link with the base station. The base station transmits control information via Physical Downlink Control CHannel (PDCCH) as appropriate to the terminal with which a communication link has been established via a downlink control channel or the like.
The terminal performs "blind-determination" on each of a plurality of pieces of control information included in the received PDCCH signal (i.e., Downlink (DL) Assignment Control Information: also referred to as Downlink Control Information (DCI)). To put it more specifically, each piece of the control information includes a Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC) part and the base station masks this CRC part using the terminal ID of the transmission target terminal. Accordingly, until the terminal demasks the CRC part of the received piece of control information with its own terminal ID, the terminal cannot determine whether or not the piece of control information is intended for the terminal. In this blind-determination, if the result of demasking the CRC part indicates that the CRC operation is OK, the piece of control information is determined as being intended for the terminal.
Moreover, in 3GPP LTE, Automatic Repeat Request (ARQ) is applied to downlink data to terminals from a base station. To put it more specifically, each terminal feeds back a response signal indicating the result of error detection on the downlink data to the base station. Each terminal performs a CRC on the downlink data and feeds back Acknowledgment (ACK) when CRC=OK (no error) or Negative Acknowledgment (HACK) when CRC=Not OK (error) to the base station as a response signal. An uplink control channel such as Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) is used to feed back the response signals (i.e., ACK/NACK signals (hereinafter, may be referred to as "A/N," simply)).
The control information to be transmitted from a base station herein includes resource assignment information including information on resources assigned to the terminal by the base station. As described above, PDCCH is used to transmit this control information. This PDCCH includes one or more L1/L2 control channels (L1/L2 CCH). Each L1/L2 CCH consists of one or more Control Channel Elements (CCE). To put it more specifically, a CCE is the basic unit used to map the control information to PDCCH. Moreover, when a single L1/L2 CCH consists of a plurality of CCEs (2, 4 or 8), a plurality of contiguous CCEs starting from a CCE having an even index are assigned to the L1/L2 CCH. The base station assigns the L1/L2 CCH to the resource assignment target terminal in accordance with the number of CCEs required for indicating the control information to the resource assignment target terminal. The base station maps the control information to physical resources corresponding to the CCEs of the L1/L2 CCH and transmits the mapped control information.
In addition, CCEs are associated with component resources of PUCCH (hereinafter, may be referred to as "PUCCH resource") in a one-to-one correspondence. Accordingly, a terminal that has received an L1/L2 CCH identifies the component resources of PUCCH that correspond to the CCEs forming the L1/L2 CCH and transmits a response signal to the base station using the identified resources. However, when the L1/L2 CCH occupies a plurality of contiguous CCEs, the terminal transmits the response signal to the base station using a PUCCH component resource corresponding to a CCE having a smallest index among the plurality of PUCCH component resources respectively corresponding to the plurality of CCEs (i.e., PUCCH component resource associated with a CCE having an even numbered CCE index). In this manner, the downlink communication resources are efficiently used.
As illustrated in FIG. 1, a plurality of response signals transmitted from a plurality of terminals are spread using a Zero Auto-correlation (ZAC) sequence having the characteristic of zero autocorrelation in time-domain, a Walsh sequence and a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) sequence, and are code-multiplexed in a PUCCH. In FIG. 1, (W0, W1, W2, W3) represent a length-4 Walsh sequence and (F0, F1, F2) represent a length-3 DFT sequence. As illustrated in FIG. 1, ACK or NACK response signals are primary-spread over frequency components corresponding to 1 SC-FDMA symbol by a ZAC sequence (length-12) in frequency-domain. To put it more specifically, the length-12 ZAC sequence is multiplied by a response signal component represented by a complex number. Subsequently, the ZAC sequence serving as the response signals and reference signals after the primary-spread is secondary-spread in association with each of a Walsh sequence (length-4: W0-W3 (may be referred to as Walsh Code Sequence)) and a DFT sequence (length-3: F0-F2). To put it more specifically, each component of the signals of length-12 (i.e., response signals after primary-spread or ZAC sequence serving as reference signals (i.e., Reference Signal Sequence) is multiplied by each component of an orthogonal code sequence (i.e., orthogonal sequence: Walsh sequence or DFT sequence). Moreover, the secondary-spread signals are transformed into signals of length-12 in the time-domain by inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT). A CP is added to each signal obtained by IFFT processing, and the signals of one slot consisting of seven SC-FDMA symbols are thus formed.
The response signals from different terminals are spread using ZAC sequences each corresponding to a different cyclic shift value (i.e., index) or orthogonal code sequences each corresponding to a different sequence number (i.e., orthogonal cover index (OC index)). An orthogonal code sequence is a combination of a Walsh sequence and a DFT sequence. In addition, an orthogonal code sequence is referred to as a block-wise spreading code in some cases. Thus, base stations can demultiplex the code-multiplexed plurality of response signals using the related art despreading and correlation processing (see, NPL 4).
However, it is not necessarily true that each terminal succeeds in receiving downlink assignment control signals because the terminal performs blind-determination in each subframe to find downlink assignment control signals intended for the terminal. When the terminal fails to receive the downlink assignment control signals intended for the terminal on a certain downlink component carrier, the terminal would not even know whether or not there is downlink data intended for the terminal on the downlink component carrier. Accordingly, when a terminal fails to receive the downlink assignment control signals intended for the terminal on a certain downlink component carrier, the terminal generates no response signals for the downlink data on the downlink component carrier. This error case is defined as discontinuous transmission of ACK/NACK signals (DTX of response signals) in the sense that the terminal transmits no response signals.
In 3GPP LTE systems (may be referred to as "LTE system," hereinafter), base stations assign resources to uplink data and downlink data, independently. For this reason, in the 3GPP LTE system, terminals (i.e., terminals compliant with LTE system (hereinafter, referred to as "LTE terminal")) encounter a situation where the terminals need to transmit uplink data and response signals for downlink data simultaneously in the uplink. In this situation, the response signals and uplink data from the terminals are transmitted using time-division multiplexing (TDM). As described above, the single carrier properties of transmission waveforms of the terminals are maintained by the simultaneous transmission of response signals and uplink data using TDM.
In addition, as illustrated in FIG. 2, the response signals (i.e., "A/N") transmitted from each terminal partially occupy the resources assigned to uplink data (i.e., Physical Uplink Shared CHannel (PUSCH) resources) (i.e., response signals occupy some SC-FDMA symbols adjacent to SC-FDMA symbols to which reference signals (RS) are mapped) and are thereby transmitted to a base station in time-division multiplexing (TDM). However, "subcarriers" in the vertical axis in FIG. 2 are also termed as "virtual subcarriers" or "time contiguous signals," and "time contiguous signals" that are collectively inputted to a discrete Fourier transform (DFT) circuit in a SC-FDMA transmitter are represented as "subcarriers" for convenience. To put it more specifically, optional data of the uplink data is punctured due to the response signals in the PUSCH resources. Accordingly, the quality of uplink data (e.g., coding gain) is significantly reduced due to the punctured bits of the coded uplink data. For this reason, base stations instruct the terminals to use a very low coding rate and/or to use very large transmission power so as to compensate for the reduced quality of the uplink data due to the puncturing.
Meanwhile, the standardization of 3GPP LTE-Advanced for realizing faster communication than 3GPP LTE is in progress. 3GPP LTE-Advanced systems (may be referred to as "LTE-A system," hereinafter) follow LTE systems. 3GPP LTE-Advanced will introduce base stations and terminals capable of communicating with each other using a wideband frequency of 40 MHz or greater to realize a downlink transmission rate of up to 1 Gbps or above.
In the LTE-A system, in order to simultaneously achieve backward compatibility with the LTE system and ultra-high-speed communication several times faster than transmission rates in the LTE system, the LTE-A system band is divided into "component carriers" of 20 MHz or below, which is the bandwidth supported by the LTE system. In other words, the "component carrier" is defined herein as a band having a maximum width of 20 MHz and as the basic unit of communication band. In the Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system, moreover, "component carrier" in downlink (hereinafter, referred to as "downlink component carrier") is defined as a band obtained by dividing a band according to downlink frequency bandwidth information in a BCH broadcasted from a base station or as a band defined by a distribution width when a downlink control channel (PDCCH) is distributed in the frequency domain. In addition, "component carrier" in uplink (hereinafter, referred to as "uplink component carrier") may be defined as a band obtained by dividing a band according to uplink frequency band information in a BCH broadcasted from a base station or as the basic unit of a communication band of 20 MHz or below including a Physical Uplink Shared CHannel (PUSCH) in the vicinity of the center of the bandwidth and PUCCHs for LTE on both ends of the band. In addition, the term "component carrier" may be also referred to as "cell" in English in 3GPP LTE-Advanced. Furthermore, "component carrier" may also be abbreviated as CC(s).
In the Time Division Duplex (TDD) system, a downlink component carrier and an uplink component carrier have the same frequency band, and downlink communication and uplink communication are realized by switching between the downlink and uplink on a time division basis. For this reason, in the case of the TDD system, the downlink component carrier can also be expressed as "downlink communication timing in a component carrier." The uplink component carrier can also be expressed as "uplink communication timing in a component carrier." The downlink component carrier and the uplink component carrier are switched based on a UL-DL configuration as shown in FIG. 3. The UL-DL configuration is indicated to a terminal by a broadcast signal called System Information Block Type 1 (SIB 1) and the value thereof is the same throughout the entire system and it is assumed that the value is not frequently changed. In the UL-DL configuration shown in FIG. 3, timings are configured in subframe units (that is, 1 msec units) for downlink communication (DL) and uplink communication (UL) per frame (10 msec). The UL-DL configuration can construct a communication system capable of flexibly meeting a downlink communication throughput requirement and an uplink communication throughput requirement by changing a subframe ratio between downlink communication and uplink communication. For example, FIG. 3 illustrates UL-DL configurations (Config 0 to 6) having different subframe ratios between downlink communication and uplink communication. In addition, in FIG. 3, a downlink communication subframe is represented by "D," an uplink communication subframe is represented by "U" and a special subframe is represented by "S." Here, the special subframe is a subframe at the time of switchover from a downlink communication subframe to an uplink communication subframe. In the special subframe, downlink data communication may be performed as in the case of the downlink communication subframe. In each UL-DL configuration shown in FIG. 3, subframes (20 subframes) corresponding to 2 frames are expressed in two stages: subframes ("D" and "S" in the upper row) used for downlink communication and subframes ("U" in the lower row) used for uplink communication. Furthermore, as shown in FIG. 3, an error detection result corresponding to downlink data (ACK/NACK) is indicated in the fourth uplink communication subframe or an uplink communication subframe after the fourth subframe after the subframe to which the downlink data is assigned.
In the LTE-A system, studies are being carried out on a possibility of changing UL-DL configurations (hereinafter may be referred to as "TDD eIMTA (enhancement for DL-UL Interference Management and Traffic Adaptation)." Examples of objects of TDD eIMTA include provision of a service that meets the needs of users by a flexible change of a UL/DL ratio, a reduction of power consumption in a base station by increasing a UL ratio in a time zone with a low traffic load or the like. As a method of changing a UL-DL configuration, studies are being carried out on (1) a method by indicating an SI (System Information) signaling base, (2) a method by indicating an RRC (higher layer) signaling base and (3) a method by indicating an L1 (Physical Layer) signaling base.
Method (1) corresponds to a change of a UL-DL configuration with the lowest frequency. Method (1) is suitable for cases where an objective is to reduce power consumption in a base station by increasing a UL ratio, for example, in a time zone with a low traffic load (e.g., midnight or early morning). Method (3) corresponds to a change of a UL-DL configuration with the highest frequency. A small cell such as a pico cell has fewer terminals to be connected than a large cell such as a macro cell. In a pico cell, UL/DL traffic of the entire pico cell is determined depending on the amount of UL/DL traffic in a small number of terminals connected to the pico cell. For this reason, a violent time fluctuation in UL/DL traffic occurs in the pico cell. Therefore, method (3) is suitable for a case where a UL-DL configuration is changed in accordance with a time fluctuation in UL/DL traffic in a small cell like a pico cell. Method (2) may be positioned between method (1) and method (3) and is suitable for a case where a UL-DL configuration is changed with a medium degree of frequency.
The LTE system and LTE-A system support HARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest) (hereinafter, referred to as "DL HARQ") of downlink data. In DL HARQ, the LTE terminal and LTE-A terminal store an LLR (Log Likelihood Ratio) (or may also be called "soft bit") for downlink data in which an error is detected in a soft buffer. The LLR stored in the soft buffer is combined with an LLR corresponding to downlink data to be retransmitted (retransmission data). As shown in FIG. 4 and following equation 1, the soft buffer (buffer capacity: Nsoft) is divided into equal portions based on the number of downlink component carriers (KC) supported by a terminal, the number of multiplexed layers (KMIMO) supported by the terminal, and the maximum number of DL HARQ processes (MDL_HARQ) defined in the UL-DL configuration set in the terminal, and an IR (Incremental Redundancy) buffer size (NIR) per transport block (or TB) is calculated. The maximum number of DL HARQ processes represents the number of retransmission processes (the number of DL HARQ processes) set based on a maximum value of a retransmission interval (may also be called "RTT (Round Trip Time)") after transmission of downlink data in DL HARQ in each UL-DL configuration (Config#0 to #6) until retransmission of the downlink data (see FIG. 5).
                              (                      Equation                                                                          1                    )                                                                                N          IR                =                  ⌊                                    N              soft                                                      K                C                            ·                              K                MIMO                            ·                              min                                                  (                                                            M                                              DL                                                _                                                HARQ                                                              ,                                          M                      limit                                                        )                                                                                                  [        1        ]
As shown in FIG. 5, values of the maximum number of DL HARQ processes vary from one UL-DL configuration to another.
The terminal stores the LLR corresponding to the downlink data in which an error has been detected in an IR buffer corresponding to each DL HARQ process within a range of IR buffer size per TB calculated according to equation 1. Here, Mlimit shown in equation 1 is an allowable value of the number of DL HARQ processes that can be supported by the terminal, stored in the soft buffer and the value of Mlimit is, for example, 8. To reduce the total capacity of the soft buffer (soft buffer capacity), the IR buffer per TB cannot always store all systematic bits (LLR) per TB and all parity bits (LLR). Therefore, increasing the IR buffer size per TB as much as possible within the soft buffer capacity leads to an increase in the total amount of LLR that can be stored in the IR buffer and consequently leads to an improvement of HARQ retransmission performance.

Terminal device, and buffer partitioning method


Apparatus and method of factory or post-manufacture installation of at least two exercise equipment units in tractor-trailer vehicles with sleepers. The exercise equipment units are stored initially in storage compartments located under beds behind the driver and passenger seats. The exercise equipment units are securely held within the storage compartments by storage locking mechanisms. Each exercise equipment unit is movable manually or electronically from the storage compartment to an operational or use position within the tractor-trailer walking space or sleeping area. In the operational position, the selected exercise equipment unit is secured by an operation locking mechanism in the operational position; adjusted and setup for use by multiple users. The exercise equipment units are connected to a computer for sensing, remote monitoring and displaying of vital signs of at least two users. The selected exercise equipment unit may be returned manually or electronically to either the first or said second storage compartment and re-secured in the storage compartment.

For good economic considerations, it is important to have transportation systems that work well. Today, most products are delivered by truck. Truck drivers deliver goods from the producers of goods to the person who buys the products. Heavy truck drivers operate gasoline and diesel powered tractor-trailers that weigh from 600 pounds up to 20,000 pounds per axle. In the case of some tractor-trailers, the equipment can be no more than 75 feet long. Drivers of tractor-trailer vehicles with sleepers may work for common carrier companies that deliver goods to the general public. Tractor-trailer drivers may work for contract carrier companies that delivery of goods for a specific group of shippers, or they work for private carrier firms and some individuals that drive their own tractor-trailer vehicles.
Long distance drivers spend many hours driving behind the wheel of a truck, mostly at night. Many drivers of tractor-trailer vehicles with sleepers sometime spend as much as 100 or more hours straight on the road. It is recognized that truck drivers are responsible for driving big, expensive trucks and adhere to schedules that make for timely delivery of their cargo. To meet these demands, drivers frequently work the most number of hours that are allowed by state laws and federal regulations. Many of the trips keep drivers away from home several days at a time. Improvements have been made on the trucks so that truck drivers can drive safely and smart. There have been many changes made in vehicle such as seating, circulation of fresh air and equipment for seeing, to make for safer driving conditions.
However, vibration, noise, poor weather conditions and the need to stay sharp and alert in heavy traffic or on long stretches of isolated roads can still cause physical and mental stress for the driver. While truck divers who drive in the local area work more regular hours than long distance drivers, they sometimes work overtime. They are also faced with stop-and-go local traffic, and the risk of safely driving such big trucks through narrow streets and alleys and backing into loading docks.
Because of tight schedules and other demands, the drivers do not have ample opportunity to exercise their bodies and as a result are at risk for developing many health problems. The prevalence of working factors that may adversely affect health of truck drivers include irregular shift work, working environment, working posture, handling heavy materials, job stress due to overloading and long working time and limited time off. Consequently, it can be expected that there is significant potential for development of minor health conditions (ringing in the ears, neck pain and low back pain) and significant health illnesses among truck drivers such as hypertension, ulcers in the digestive tract, back injuries, whiplash injuries and hemorrhoids.
In order to cope with the health problems poised to truck drivers, it is an object of this invention to provide apparatus and methods for reducing job stress and improving the working conditions and working environment for truck drivers as described above.

Exercise equipment apparatus and method of use in tractor-trailers with sleepers


A user equipment (UE) may receive an OFDM signal having control channel elements (CCEs). The CCEs may be arranged in levels where a first level aggregates less CCEs than a second level. A processor may search for a control channel from control channel candidates that is comprised of the CCEs. A limited number of CCEs may be searched on the first level.

The method described below relates to control channels in communication network systems, and in particular to control channel allocation and decoding e.g. in 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) LTE (Long Term Evolution) network systems.
LTE technology, for example, defines a packet radio system, where all channel allocations are expected to happen in short periods of sub-frames. This is contrary to the older 3G systems, where dedicated signalling channels are necessary to be set up even for packet traffic. It is also different from WLAN (Wireless Local Area Network) type of allocations, where each IP (Internet Protocol) packet transmission contains a transport header.
According to LTE technology, all allocations are signalled in Shared Control Channels, which are present in first multi-carrier symbols of a sub-frame preceding multi-carrier symbols of data channels. The control channels are separately coded. That is, a downlink (or uplink) channel is divided into two separate parts, one for control and one for data. The data part (PDSCH) carries downlink (or uplink) data for simultaneously scheduled users, while the control part (PDCCH) carries (among others) allocation information for the scheduled users.

Searching for control channels in a wireless network


[Problem] To provide a novel compound that exhibits an agonistic effect on dopamine D2 receptors.

Parkinson's disease is a progressive neurodegenerating disease which usually affects elderly patients, and the number of parkinsonian patients is growing with progressive aging of society. Parkinson's disease pathogenesis is characterized by impairment in coordinated motor function such as rest tremor, rigidity, akinesia, postural instability and the like. It is thought that Parkinson's disease results from deficiency of dopamine in the striatum, which is caused by degeneration of dopamine neuron in the substantia nigra. For that reasons, L-dopa or dopamine D2 receptor agonists are used for the treatment of Parkinson's disease.
L-dopa is a precursor of dopamine, and is metabolized to dopamine which exerts its efficacy in the brain. Since L-dopa has a very short serum half-life, L-dopa is administered usually in combination with a peripheral aromatic L-amino acid decarboxylase inhibitor and/or a catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitor, which are the metabolizing enzyme inhibitors of L-dopa.
Dopamine D2 receptor agonists exert an anti-Parkinson's effect by directly stimulating dopamine D2 receptors of the striatum. And, it is known that the dopamine D2 receptor agonists are useful for treating restless legs syndrome, hyperprolactinemia or the like (for example, see Non-patent literature 1 or 2).
Various ergot or non-ergot dopamine D2 receptor agonists are known as dopamine D2 receptor agonist (for example, see Patent literatures 1 to 3 about ergot dopamine D2 receptor agonist, and see Patent literatures 4 to 6 about non-ergot dopamine D2 receptor agonist).
The non-ergot dopamine D2 receptor agonists have the disadvantage of a duration of action is shorter than the ergot dopamine D2 receptor agonists, since the serum half-life of them is shorter than the ergot dopamine D2 receptor agonists (for example, see Non-patent literature 3). And more, the non-ergot dopamine D2 receptor agonists have problems of side effects such as sudden onset of sleep, somnolence or the like.
The ergot dopamine D2 agonists show the long-term effectiveness compared to the non-ergot dopamine D2 receptor agonists. However, recently it has been reported that the risk of onset of cardiac valvular disease increases when taken long-term and high dose of pergolide which is a typical ergot dopamine D2 receptor agonist. So, the periodic monitoring of echocardiography and the like are required during administering the ergot dopamine D2 receptor agonists. Since it is reported that cardiac valvular disease is caused by the growth stimulation of the cardiac valvular cells by the stimulation activity of 5-HT2B receptor as pathogenesis of cardiac valvular disease, the relevance of cardiac valvular diseases and the stimulation activity of 5-HT2B receptor is strongly suggested (for example, see Non-patent literature 4).
Accordingly, it has been expected for novel dopamine D2 receptor agonists exhibiting potent and lasting dopamine D2 receptor agonistic activities with less 5-HT2B receptor stimulating activities.
As octahydropyridoquinazoline derivatives, the following compounds are known (see Patent literature 7).
in which RA is CH2OH, CH2OCH3 or CH2SCH3.
However, anything is neither described nor suggested about the compounds substituted with an ureido group as RA in the Patent reference 7. And more, dopamine D2 receptor stimulation activity of the compounds of Patent literature 7 are not insufficient as shown in the following test example.

Substituted pyrido[2,3-g]quinazolines as dopamine D

Abstract: [Solution] The present invention provides a compound represented by the general formula (I):

Abstract: in which R1 is C1-6 alkyl or the like; R2 is hydrogen or the like; R3 and R4 are each hydrogen, C1-6 alkyl, R10R11N—C1-6 alkyl, aralkyl, or the like; R5 and R6 are hydrogen or the like; and R7 is hydrogen or the like, or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, a pharmaceutical compositions containing same and uses for said compound/salt and composition. The compounds of the present invention exhibit potent dopamine D2 receptor simulating activities and thus are useful as a treating or preventing agent for Parkinson's disease and the like.


In order to realize initializing sequences with high accuracy and high reproducibility, a positioning device according includes an XY slider movable in directions X and Y, an object position measuring device for measuring the position of the XY slider, an X beam guiding the XY slider in the direction Y and movable in the direction X, a Y beam guiding the XY slider in the direction X and movable in the direction Y, electromagnet units having at least two pairs of electromagnets provided on the XY slider in such a manner as to embrace side faces of the X beam and the Y beam, and a rotation regulating portion provided on the X beam for regulating the rotation of the X beam.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a positioning device and a method of initializing a positioning device, preferably, to be used for semiconductor exposure devices, various kinds of machine tools, various kinds of precision measuring devices, and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 17 is a view illustrating a wafer stage 100 for a semiconductor exposure device (not shown) as an example of the prior art. FIG. 18 is a view illustrating part of the construction shown in FIG. 17, for ease of understanding.
As shown in FIG. 18, wafer stage 100 includes a stage surface plate 1, an X beam 2, a Y beam 4 and an XY slider 13 (see FIG. 17). The X beam 2, the Y beam 4 and the XY slider 13 are movably guided on the stage surface plate 1 by means of gas bearings (not shown), respectively The X beam 2 is movably guided along a side face of an X yaw guide 3 in a direction X by means of gas bearings (not shown). Similarly, the Y beam 4 is movably guided along a side face of a yaw guide 5 in a direction Y by means of gas bearings (not shown).
The X beam 2 and the Y beam 4 are provided at each of their both ends with a coarse linear motor moving part using permanent magnets. FIG. 17 shows that sets of X coarse linear motor stationary parts 8 and Y coarse linear motor stationary parts 9 are also provided in such a manner as to embrace the respective coarse linear motor moving parts from above and below. The coarse linear motor stationary parts 8 and 9 each comprise iron cores made of laminated silicon steel plates arranged in the form of comb teeth, and coils wound around the teeth. Although a magnetic attraction force may be exerted between the iron cores and the coarse linear motor moving parts, this magnetic attraction force is canceled by the arrangement of the stationary parts 8 and 9, embracing the moving parts with the same clearances from above and below. By suitably causing current to flow through the coils of the coarse linear motor stationary parts 8 and 9, a thrust force can be generated between the coarse linear motor stationary parts 8 and 9 and the coarse linear motor moving parts.
Positions of the X beam 2 and the Y beam 4 in their moving directions are measured by means of laser interferometers 83 and 84. The X beam 2 and the Y beam 4 are provided with corner cube reflecting surfaces (not shown), which reflect laser beams or radiation beams X1, X2, Y1 and Y2 irradiated from the laser interferometers 83 and 84. The X beam 2 and the Y beam 4 are positioned by driving and controlling the coarse linear motors on the basis of the values measured by the respective laser interferometers 83 and 84.
The XY slider 13 (FIG. 17) has an upper plate 15 (FIG. 18) and a bottom plate 14 (FIG. 18) and is arranged in such a manner as to surround the coarse motion X beam 2 and the Y beam 4. The self-weight of the XY slider 13 is supported by the stage surface plate 1 through gas bearings (not shown) provided on the bottom plate 14. Gas bearings 18 are provided between the XY slider 13 and the X and Y beams 2 and 4. The XY slider 13 is movably guided by the X beam 2 in the direction X and by the Y beam 4 in the direction Y, as a result of which, the XY slider 13 is moved in both the directions X and Y. FIG. 18 illustrates the stage with the X beam 2, the Y beam 4 and the upper plate 15 shifted in the direction Z (i.e., in the vertical direction).
Provided on the upper plate 15 (FIG. 18) are fine linear motors and a fine movement stage 16 (FIG. 17) through a self-weight supporting portion. The self-weight supporting portion includes gas bearings and magnets so that the fine movement stage 16 is insulated from vibration which would otherwise be transmitted thereto. The fine linear motor includes a linear motor stationary part provided on the XY slider 13 and a linear motor moving part provided on the fine movement stage 16. A single phase coil is provided as the linear motor stationary part, and a permanent magnet is provided as the linear motor moving part. The fine movement stage 16 is movable relative to the XY slider in the directions X, Y and Z, and directions ωx, ωy and θz, which are rotational directions about the axes X, Y and Z, by means of the fine linear motors.
The fine movement stage 16 is provided with a mirror having a reflecting surface (not shown). Positions (displacement) of the fine movement stage 16 having six freedoms of movement can be measured by reflecting a laser beam or a radiation beam at the reflecting surface of the stage 16 from a laser interferometer (not shown). The fine movement stage 16 is positioned by driving and controlling the fine linear motor on the basis of values measured by the respective laser interferometers.
In a case in which positions of an object are measured by the use of the laser interferometers, as described above, there is a need to initialize (to calibrate) positional data of the laser interferometers. This is because the interferometer measures relative positions of an object, but not absolute positions.
In general, the initialization may be carried out when turning on a power source. In a commonly-used method for initializing positional data, an object is moved to a reference position, whereupon the measured value is changed to a desired value. In this case, for example, a mechanical abutment or a shading switch may be used as a reference position.
In an initialization sequence, it is required to move an object to the reference position. The coarse linear motors may be operated in a system that selects polyphase coils to be energized. Methods for selecting coils to be energized are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 64,487/1993 and 316,607/1999.
In order to move an object to a reference position, moreover, the object must be guided. In a case in which the XY slider 13, the X beam 2 and the Y beam 4 are guided with the aid of gas bearings, as described above, the guiding function can be given to the gas bearings by supplying gas to them when turning on the power source. In a case in which the XY slider 13, the X beam 2 and the Y beam 4 are guided by the use of electro-magnetic guidance, however, there is no guiding function when turning on the power source.

Positioning device and method of initializing a positioning device


A lockable propeller guard apparatus 10 including a shroud member 20 having a distal end 22 dimensioned to encircle the propeller 102, a collar member 30 engageable in the distal end 22 of the shroud member 20 and a cover plate member 40 hingedly connected to the collar member 30 and provided with a locking mechanism 45 for securing the cover plate member 40 to the collar member 30.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of marine safety devices in general, and in particular to lockable propeller guard apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
As can be seen by reference to the following U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,680,017; 4,957,459; 5,389,021; and 5,501,622, the prior art is replete with myriad and diverse propeller guard devices.
While all of the aforementioned prior art constructions are more than adequate for the basic purpose and function for which they have been specifically designed, they are uniformly deficient with respect to their failure to provide a simple, efficient, and practical lockable propeller guard apparatus that will prevent access to the propeller when the lock mechanism is engaged and which has a removable cover plate member that can be detached from the apparatus when the propeller is in use.
While most cage style propeller guards do an adequate job of eliminating the possibility that the propeller blades will come into direct contact with swimmers, mammals such as manatees, or the like, and other objects, they suffer a major drawback in that the cage structure located downstream of the propeller blades reduces power and also produces unwanted cavitation.
Therefore, the ideal propeller guard apparatus should provide a secure lockable generally solid enclosure that surrounds the propeller when the motor is not in use and which also has a lockable cover element which is removable from the remainder of the apparatus to eliminate any backwash effect from water that has passed through the propeller.
As a consequence of the foregoing situation, there has existed a longstanding need for a new and improved lockable propeller guard apparatus having a removable cover plate member, and the provision of such a construction is a stated objective of the present invention.


The invention relates to a method for documenting subjects using hash chains. The method includes receiving a subject data write request including one or more subject attribute values, generating a fingerprint from a current last block of a hash chain, and generating a payload from the subject data, the payload including the one or more subject attribute values and one or more keys identifying the one or more subject attribute values. The method further includes appending a block to the hash chain. The appended block includes the payload and the fingerprint.

Journals and ledgers may be used to record a history of changes over time associated with a subject. A subject documented in this manner may be a property, an inventory, a scientific experiment, a business, a set of accounts, a machine, a process, a human, an ownership, an access control, or any other tangible or non-tangible item or entity that may experience change over time. The established history of changes may enable reconstruction of a state in time, for the subject.

Method and system for secure digital documentation of subjects using hash chains


This disclosure describes systems and methods for profiling user behavior through biometric identifiers. A first biometric identifier associated with a first user of a user device may be captured. The first user may be identified based at least in part on the first biometric identifier. The first request for content and first information retrieved from the user profile may be transmitted. First data that corresponds to the first request for content may be received. A second biometric identifier associated with a second user of the user device may be captured during an active session associated with the first user profile. The second user may be identified based at least in part on the second biometric identifier. A second request for content and second information retrieved from the second user profile may be transmitted. A second data corresponding to the second request for content may be received.

User devices, such as phones and tablets, have become increasingly mobile and have an increased capability to be connected to the Internet from many different places. Applications and websites make it easy for people to create user accounts and store payment information in association with the user accounts. In many instances, users are able to remain signed into the user accounts from different websites and/or applications without the need to sign in every time. In such scenarios, users are vulnerable to having their personal information and/or financial information exposed to unauthorized third parties.

Profiling user behavior through biometric identifiers


An adjustable matrix wheelchair seat can be mounted on a pair of rods such as are provided on the seat rails of a typical wheelchair or on any pair of rods adapted to be rigidly fixed to and aligned in a longitudinal direction relative to the frame of the wheelchair. A lateral array of spaced apart substantially inelastic straps is extended between and engaged on the rods. A longitudinal array of spaced apart substantially inelastic straps is engaged on the forwardmost and rearwardmost straps of the lateral array. The longitudinal array traverses the lateral array to define a horizontal matrix of ventilating interstices. The length of any or all of the straps of the lateral and horizontal arrays is independently adjustable to permit alteration of the pressure pattern imposed on the arrays by the patient occupying the seat.

This invention relates generally to wheelchairs and more particularly concerns wheelchair seats.
Pressure sores are a major problem for many wheelchair patients. According to David Springer in Home Health Care Dealer Provider Magazine, "Pressure ulcers and related co-morbidities constitute the greatest impairment in quality of life, increase in expenses for care, and extended hospital stay for those requiring wheelchairs as their primary mode of locomotion." Pressure sores can develop quickly. The Merck Manual of Diagnosis and Therapy states, "In an immobilized patient, severe pressure can impair local circulation in less than three hours, causing local tissue anoxia that, if unrelieved, progresses to necrosis of the skin and subcutaneous tissues. Moisture (e.g., from perspiration or incontinence) leads to tissue maceration and predisposes to pressure sores." Moisture and pressure are the two most significant factors in the occurrence of pressure sores. In Drugs Aging, J. B. Young says, "It has been estimated that the United States spends five billion dollars annually on the treatment of pressure sores."
One major strategy for preventing pressure sores in wheelchair occupants is to distribute pressure as evenly as possible over the entire interface area between the seated individual and the wheelchair. In order to determine the most effective distribution of pressure, an industry accepted mapping system uses a 36 by 36 cell matrix of 1,296 pressure sensing transducer to determine the pressure pattern imposed on a seat by a wheelchair occupant. The test gives a computer screen visual of the cells to which pressure is applied and the magnitude of the pressure applied to each cell. Common areas where pressure sores develop include the soft tissue overlying the ischial tuberosities and coccyx, the former being the most common. These bony prominences cause acute areas of pressure in almost every seated individual, but this problem is exacerbated for wheelchair patients, and especially elderly wheelchair occupants. Because wheelchair patients are seated for extended periods of time, and do not tend to move around or shift in their seats often, the risk of pressure sores caused by unrelieved constant pressure and the buildup of moisture from perspiration is great. Circulation difficulties and poor seating posture further increase the risk of pressure sores. Furthermore, a wheelchair seat with perforations allows moisture and the heat which precedes moisture vapor to be exchanged with surrounding air. However, simple perforated seats do not provide suitable pressure distribution and do not fold, so the wheelchair is not as easily portable as a standard wheelchair.
One common method of reducing acute pressure areas for wheelchair patients is the use of seat cushions, which compress under bony prominences and/or offer more firm support in regions at less risk for developing pressure sores, such as the posterior thighs. While cushions of this type do lessen the load on sensitive areas of the skin, they do not always relieve enough pressure to encourage adequate circulation, nor do they always encourage good seating posture in wheelchair patients. Further, most cushions facilitate rather than minimize the occurrence and retention of moisture from perspiration at the seat interface because they use fabrics which do not breathe and because they increase the surface area in contact with the wheelchair patient. Seat cushions also have other incidental negatives such as adding weight to the chair and making transport of the chair more inconvenient. Added weight makes mobility more difficult for persons with impaired upper body strength. For active wheelchair users who are in and out of vehicles often, it is not always convenient to transport and handle a seat cushion in addition to the wheelchair itself.
Furthermore, seat cushions are not always available or practical. In many nursing homes and long term care facilities, wheelchairs are provided, but cushions are not provided. Most wheelchairs fold for ease of transport, but the cushion must be removed when the wheelchair is folded. Some cushions are contoured to predispose the pressure load to specific regions, usually the posterior thighs. When cushions are removed and then returned to wheelchair seats, they are sometimes inadvertently rotated so the orientation is improper and the pressure problem is actually aggravated for the wheelchair patient.
Another method of reducing acute pressure areas for wheelchair patients is the use of active pneumatic or hydraulic systems to control cushion pressure. Such systems, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 6,092,249 to Kamen et al, require fluid reservoirs, pressure sources and regulators and pneumatically or hydraulically discrete chambers, all of which contribute to higher cost, greater weight, less convenience and burdensome maintenance while offering no relief for ventilation problems.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a wheelchair seat which helps prevent pressure sores from occurring. Another object of this invention is to provide a wheelchair seat which allows pressure to be more evenly distributed over its surface. A further object of this invention is to provide a wheelchair seat which reduces acute pressure areas for wheelchair patients. Yet another object of this invention is to provide a wheelchair seat which facilitates the exchange of moisture and moisture vapor with the surrounding air. It is also an object of this invention to provide a wheelchair seat which encourages adequate circulation in wheelchair patients. Still another object of this invention is to provide a wheelchair seat which provides good seating posture in wheelchair patients. An additional object of this invention is to provide a wheelchair seat which does not significantly increase the weight of a wheelchair. Another object of this invention is to provide a wheelchair seat which does not exacerbate the inconvenience associated with transporting a wheelchair. A further object of this invention is to provide a wheelchair seat which is easily adjusted in the event of a change of occupants. Yet another object of this invention is to provide a wheelchair seat which requires no pneumatic or hydraulic systems. It is also an object of this invention to provide a wheelchair seat which requires little maintenance.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.