A sample carrier comprising a frame and one or more sample tube receiving structures pivotally connected to the frame. Each sample tube receiving structure includes a bottom member adapted to receive a plurality of sample tubes and a top member having a plurality of aligned apertures sized to receive sample tubes therethrough. The sample tube receiving structures can be releasably locked relative to a support wall of the frame, thereby substantially immobilizing sample tubes that are held by the sample carrier.

Procedures for determining the presence or absence of specific organisms or viruses in a test sample commonly rely upon nucleic acid-based probe testing. To increase the sensitivity of these tests, an amplification step is often included to increase the number of potential nucleic acid target sequences present in the test sample. There are many procedures for amplifying nucleic acids which are well known in the art, including, but not limited to, the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), (see, e.g., Mullis, "Process for Amplifying, Detecting, and/or Cloning Nucleic Acid Sequences," U.S. Pat. No. 4,683,195), transcription-mediated amplification (TMA), (see, e.g., Kacian et al., "Nucleic Acid Sequence Amplification Methods," U.S. Pat. No. 5,399,491), ligase chain reaction (LCR), (see, e.g., Birkenmeyer, "Amplification of Target Nucleic Acids Using Gap Filling Ligase Chain Reaction," U.S. Pat. No. 5,427,930), and strand displacement amplification (SDA), (see, e.g., Walker, "Strand Displacement Amplification," U.S. Pat. No. 5,455,166). A review of several amplification procedures currently in use, including PCR and TMA, is provided in HELEN H. LEE ET AL., NUCLEIC ACID AMPLIFICATION TECHNOLOGIES (1997).
Amplification, however, raises concerns about cross-contamination, since transferring even a minute amount of target-containing sample to a target-negative sample could lead to the production of billions of target sequences in the "negative" sample, possibly resulting in a false-positive that might otherwise have been negative in the absence of an amplification step. The source of a contaminating sample transfer may be an aerosol or bubbles released from the sample tube of a sample collection kit when a cap component of the sample tube is removed by a practitioner. To minimize such sources of contamination, it would be desirable to have a sample carrier capable of substantially immobilizing sample tubes having penetrable caps which are designed and constructed to limit the release of an aerosol or bubbles when penetrated by a standard positive displacement pipette tip. Penetrable caps designed and constructed to limit the release of potentially contaminating material are disclosed by Anderson et al., "Collection Device and Method for Removing a Fluid Substance from the Same," U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2001-0041336 A1, and Kacian et al., "Penetrable Cap," U.S. Application Publication No. US 2002-0127147 A1.
By securely immobilizing sample tubes in a sample carrier, the sample tubes can be centered in an automated sampling system so that sample tubes can be sequentially penetrated by distinct pipette tips and air from within the sample tubes can be vented and filtered as the pipette tips enter the sample tubes. Moreover, if properly centered, the aerosol and bubble barriers of these penetrable caps can also function to remove sample residue from the outside of these pipette tips as they are being withdrawn from the sample tubes.
To secure sample tubes outfitted with penetrable caps in a sample carrier, the sample carrier must exert sufficient force against the sample tubes to prevent them from being extracted from the sample carrier during sampling, especially in automated sampling procedures where manual restraint of the sample tubes is not possible. The force exerted against the sample tubes, known as the "retaining force," may be supplied by leaf springs, for example, which are oriented so that the springs are biased against the sample tubes as they are inserted into the sample carrier. Sample carriers incorporating leaf springs are disclosed by, for example, Dale et al., "Sample Carrier and Drip Shield for Use Therewith," U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2003-0017084 A1. The force required to retain any given sample tube in a sample carrier during sampling will largely depend upon the withdrawal force. The "withdrawal force" is the upward force required to fully remove a fluid transfer device (e.g., pipette tip) from the sample tube after the cap component has been penetrated. As the withdrawal force increases, the retaining force must likewise increase. And the greater the retaining force, the more force practitioners must exert to insert sample tubes into conventional sample carriers, making the sample carriers more difficult to control and exposing practitioners to possible repetitive motion injuries, such as carpal tunnel syndrome.
Thus, a need exists for a sample carrier which provides an adequate retaining force for maintaining sample tubes in the sample carrier during sampling, while at the same time minimizing the force required to insert sample tubes into the sample carrier. Ideally, the sample carrier would be configured for use with an automated sampling device and would include means for centering the cap component under the sampling device. Secondary or failsafe means for retaining sample tubes in the sample carrier would also be desirable.

Sample carrier having releasable locking mechanism


A method for producing a contact zone for a chip card has the following steps. A sheet having a first surface and a second surface opposite the first surface. Forming at least one insulating trench, which extends from the first surface to the second surface. A cluster layer is applied to the first surface. The second surface is connected to a carrier element after the cluster layer has been applied to the first surface.

Chip cards have been known for a long time and are increasingly being used, for example, as telephone cards, identification cards or the like. There are standards which define the dimensions and technical details of such chip cards. These standards are, for example, ISO 7810 and ISO 7816.
Chip cards are currently divided into three categories, the contactless chip cards, the chip cards with contacts and the so-called combination cards. Both the chip cards with contacts and the combination cards have a contact zone that provides contacts in accordance with the above standards. The contacts are connected to a circuit that is integrated in the chip card. The arrangement of these contact areas on the chip card is clearly defined by the standards. The contact zones of the card contacts currently include a suitable metallic surface which is produced, for example, from gold, NiPdAg or similar materials. The individual contact areas are separated from one another in an insulating manner by means of separating channels.
The increasing importance of the chip cards is likewise associated with an increasing interest in preventing manipulation of the cards.
A conventional chip card module, for example, may include a carrier which has contact areas. Arranged opposite the contact areas on the carrier is a semiconductor chip having an integrated circuit which has connecting contacts on one surface of the chip, the connecting contacts being connected to associated contact areas in an electrically conductive manner. The contact areas may have a first conductive layer and a second conductive layer, cluster elements comprising metallic clusters being embedded in the second conductive layer. The random distribution of these cluster elements makes it possible to individualize the chip card, and detecting and storing the significant physical properties, which result from the cluster elements, in the chip make it possible to authenticate the module as such even before it is installed in a card.

Method for producing a chip card contact zone


There are provided a substrate drying method and apparatus by which an attachment amount of particles to surfaces of substrates can be reduced when the substrates are exposed from pure water, and occurrence of non-uniform drying can be prevented by improving drying efficiency of the substrates. Air or an inert gas, and gaseous or droplet-like isopropyl alcohol (hereinafter, referred to as IPA) are supplied into a space on a liquid level of the pure water in a drying chamber, and pure water on a liquid level side is drained from the liquid level or the vicinity of the liquid level of the pure water, while raising the pure water in which the substrates are immersed together with the substrates, the substrates are exposed from the pure water above the liquid level in the drying chamber, and, at the same time, the pure water held on the exposed surfaces of the substrates is replaced by IPA, whereby the substrates are dried.

The present invention relates to a substrate drying method and apparatus in which surfaces of substrates are dried by removing the substrates, immersed in pure water, from the pure water.
Conventionally, in such a drying apparatus as disclosed in Japanese examined Patent Publication No. 6-103686, IPA (Isopropyl Alcohol) is supplied as vapor, by using nitrogen gas as a carrier, into an upper space in a treatment tank of wafers, which are one example of substrates, treated with an etching solution and then washed with pure water. Then, the wafer surfaces are dried by draining the pure water in the treatment tank from a bottom portion of the treatment tank to expose the wafers in the treatment tank, and replace water droplets attached to surfaces of the exposed wafers with IPA vapor supplied into the upper space of the treatment tank.
Furthermore, there is also a drying apparatus in which, instead of exposing wafers in a treatment tank by draining pure water in the treatment tank from a bottom portion of the treatment tank, the wafers are dried by exposing the wafers in the treatment tank by raising the wafers from the treatment tank, and replacing water droplets attached to surfaces of these exposed wafers with IPA vapor supplied into an upper space of the treatment tank.
However, in the apparatus having the above structure, particles generated when the wafers are washed with pure water float in a vicinity of a liquid level of the pure water in the treatment tank. Since the wafers are exposed in the treatment tank by draining the pure water in the treatment tank from the bottom portion of the treatment tank, this drainage is successively performed from the pure water in the vicinity of the bottom portion of the treatment tank, and the pure water in the vicinity of the liquid level, in which the particles float, is finally drained. Therefore, a problem arises in that these floating particles are attached to wafer surfaces when the wafers are exposed from the liquid level.
Furthermore, in the apparatus having the above structure, since the wafers are exposed by draining the pure water from the bottom portion of the treatment tank, the pure water at the liquid level in the treatment tank is only finally drained, and hence a dissolution amount of IPA is increased at the liquid level with time. Therefore, an IPA concentration in the pure water at the liquid level and a thickness of a layer in which IPA is dissolved are increased, thereby degrading replacement efficiency. Thus, a problem arises in that drying efficiency is degraded, and non-uniform drying of the wafer surfaces occurs.
Furthermore, even when the wafers are exposed by raising them from the liquid level of the pure water in the treatment tank, a problem arises in that particles are similarly attached to wafer surfaces. Furthermore, there is a problem in that non-uniform drying of the wafer surfaces occurs because a wave is produced at the liquid level of the pure water upon raising of the wafers.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a substrate drying method and apparatus in which, upon exposure of substrates from pure water, an amount of particles attached to surfaces of the substrates can be reduced, increases in a concentration of IPA dissolved in the pure water at a liquid level and a thickness of a pure water layer in which IPA is dissolved can be prevented, and drying efficiency of substrates can be improved to prevent non-uniform drying, and thus solve the above problems.


A graphical user interface and method of use thereof that allows users to interact with an entity relationship model. The user interface includes zones that allow users to navigate among the entities, roles and fields to create queries that are run against the model. Clicking on an entity in the shows the available fields for the entity. Users can drag and drop entities and fields onto a design surface to quickly and easily build queries. Rules are applied when either an entity or a field is dropped onto the design surface based upon the item being dropped (either an entity or a field), the position of the drop and also the properties that are associated with the item. Entities may be grouped and filtered to sort and limit the results of the query. After query is run, the results may be displayed in a separate area to the user.

An entity relationship (ER) diagram is a graphical representation of an organization's data storage requirements. Entity relationship diagrams are abstractions of the real world which simplify a problem to be solved while retaining its essential features. Entity relationship diagrams have three different components: entities, attributes and relationships. Entities are the people, places, things, events and concepts of interest. Entities may represent collections of things, for example, an employee entity might represent a collection of all the employees that work for an organization. Individual members (employees) of the collection are called occurrences of the employee entity.
Entities are further described by their attributes or data elements. These are the smallest units of data that can be described in a meaningful manner. For example, an employee entity may have the following attributes: employee number, last name, first name, date of birth, telephone number, department, etc. Frequently, a meaningful relationship exists between two different types of entity. For example: employees work in a department, lawyers advise clients, equipment is allocated to projects, truck is a type of vehicle, etc.
There are potentially three types of relationships which can exist between two different entities: one-to-one, one-to-many and many-to-many relationships. A one-to-one relationship is when a single occurrence of an entity is related to just one occurrence of a second entity. For example, a roof covers one building; a building is covered by one roof. One-to-many relationships are when a single occurrence of an entity is related to many occurrences of a second entity. For example, an employee works in one department; a department has many employees. Many-to-many relationships are when many occurrences of an entity are related to many occurrences of a second entity. For example, equipment is allocated to many projects; a project is allocated many items of equipment.
Another problem is that while building queries or asking questions against an ER model is difficult. there is a desire to maintain power and flexibility in the questions that may be asked. ER models are extremely flexible in the ways that entities can be related to other entities. With this flexibility comes complexity especially when trying to formulate queries or questions against this model. The problem is magnified when the individual trying to formulate the query is not familiar with relational design.

User interface mechanism to formulate complex query against an entity relationship model


A new and distinct of Hybrid Tea rose plant is provided having double flowers of original yellow blend with outer edge of bloom petals tinged with reddish splotches. The average stem length is 15 to 18 inches. The new variety is particularly suited for use in the beautification of parks and gardens.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of rose plant of the hybrid tea class which is distinguished from already known varieties in this class and color range. The new variety of rose plant was originated by me by crossing the variety Summer Sunshine U.S. Plant Pat. No. 2,078 with the variety Georgia U.S. Plant Pat. No. 4,712 to produce the female parent (seed parent). The male or pollen parent is an unnamed proprietary seedling maintained under my direction. The new variety is the product of the pollination of the above-noted seed-parent and pollen parent.
Among the novel characteristics possessed by this new variety are the double flower of Medium Yellow blend tinged at its outer edge with reddish splotches. The flower is even in its yellow color and fade resistant. The plant has an erect growth habit which is well organized and balanced. In addition, the plant tolerates heat conditions very well. Because of the above-mentioned characteristics, the present invention responds to the needs of the horticultural industry for all uses and, particularly, for park and garden decoration.
This new variety of rose plant owes its origin to an artificial pollination made between the two parents by me in a greenhouse in Chino, Calif. and is expressed as follows: (Summer Sunshine.times.Georgia).times.unnamed seedling. The seeds resulting from the above-noted pollination were sown and small plants were obtained. These plants were both physically and biologically distinct one from the other. After eliminating all of the deficient or abnormal subjects whose characteristics deviated from those which were the object of my research, propagation of the remaining plants was undertaken. In the course of this study, all the varieties were systematically eliminated save one, the one closest to the desired goal.
Technical tests including propagation by budding, grafting and cuttage were then undertaken in a greenhouse in Chino, Calif. with the aim of verifying the behavior and the productiveness of the created variety. The results were conclusive and stressed the importance of this variety with a view to its exploitation for all use and, most particularly, for park and garden decoration.
The characteristics and properties of the new variety obtained are stable and are tranmissible by budding, grafting and cuttage through succeeding propagations. This new variety is called the Paul Harris variety of hybrid tea rose plant.

Hybrid Tea rose plant named `Paul Harris`


When a picture image recorded by a digital camera is reproduced, a high quality picture image is immediately reproduced without repetitive test prints for enhancing a picture quality or repetitive minor adjustments based on a confirmation via a monitor. Recording is carried out by a digital camera having a function of adding recording information representing a recording condition (a recording information adding unit) to digital image data obtained by the recording. A set-up processing unit in an image reproducing apparatus carries out image processing on the image data obtained by the recording for enhancing a picture quality using the recording information added to the image data, and the image reproducing apparatus reproduces the image data in the form of a print or a display on a monitor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for reproducing images, using a printer or a monitor, from digital image data obtained by a digital camera, and also to a digital camera used for implementing the method.
2. Description of the Related Arts
The quality of a picture, especially the finish of a color picture, generally varies greatly depending on exposure conditions. Therefore, a camera has an AE mechanism for setting an appropriate exposure in response to how bright it is when a picture is recorded and luminance distribution on a target object. However, even an AE mechanism has a limit, and performance of the mechanism varies from camera to camera. Therefore, it is not necessarily guaranteed that a picture having a sufficient quality can always be recorded.
For this reason, at a photo shop or the like, processing for correcting overexposure or underexposure, and a bias in color is carried out by adjusting an exposure condition when a picture image is printed so that a picture print having as high a quality as possible is provided to a customer. In this case, image processing to be carried out obviously varies depending on a picture to be processed. Therefore, an optimal processing condition has been found by repetitive adjustments of an image processing condition based on a slight difference judged by experience in images shown on a monitor, or by confirming finish after a plurality of test prints have been created. Based on the image processing condition having been found, image processing is carried out to create a print which will finally be provided to a customer.
When an electronic camera using an electronic image pickup device (hereinafter called a digital camera) is used, the camera can often not carry out highly sophisticated processing due to restrictions on cost and processing time. In the case of a digital camera, an image obtained thereby may often be used as it is without a photo shop's involvement. Therefore, an AE mechanism having high performance may often not be incorporated with a digital camera, since picture quality is meant to be sufficient as long as an image displayed on a monitor having a comparatively generous tolerance in picture quality, such as an image displayed on a CRT monitor or on a liquid crystal display monitor attached to the digital camera, is not too blurry. As a result, when digital image data recorded by a digital camera are reproduced as a print, it is not easy to obtain optimal finish of a printed image having a strict picture quality tolerance, and a time consuming operation such as repeated test prints as described above is necessary.
However, correction by trial and error as described above is not only time consuming but also costly due to the test prints. It is also problematic that finish varies depending on experience or the skill of an operator who carries out the adjustment.

Method and apparatus for reproducing image from data obtained by digital camera and digital camera used thereof


This invention is an adaptive neuron for use in neural network processors. The adaptive neuron participates in the supervised learning phase of operation on a coequal basis with the synapse matrix elements by adaptively changing its gain in a similar manner to the change of weights in the synapse io elements. In this manner, training time is decreased by as much as three orders of magnitude.

In the field of neural network processors, there is currently much interest as the ability to create large processors in a small space using VLSI techniques has suddenly made these analog techniques viable for purposes such as solving complex problems in real time. Problems such as best path location are quickly solved using the analog approach of a neural network whereas the same problem would be both hardware and time intensive if approached using digital computation facilities in a parallel processing manner.
While a neural network processor does its computations rapidly, it does have one drawback relative to the digital approach. With a digital computer, the problem to be solved is described as a series of precise logical steps to be accomplished. These steps are programmed into a series of computer instructions which are then loaded into the computer or computers which are to perform the calculations. At run-time, the input parameters for the problem to be solved are provided to the computer(s) and the problem instructions are executed to provide an answer to the problem. There are no possible variation; that is, a digital computer operates as a brute force automaton executing the sequence of instructions provided. If anything happens which is not provided for in the instruction sequence, the program fails and no meaningful results are provided.
The neural network, on the other hand, is patterned after the human brain and must be taught by a learning process. A typical prior art neural network can appear in basic form as depicted in FIG. 1 where it is generally indicated as 10. The network 10 comprises a matrix of conductors 12 to which a number of neurons 14 are connected to provide inputs. The conductors 12 are interconnected by a number of synapses 16 defining the general rules of the problem to be solved. The neurons 14 are generally non-linear elements having an input 18 to which an analog signal representing a variable of the problem to be solved can be connected. The outputs 20 of the neurons 14 are connected to the conductors 12 on one side of the synapses 16. The conductors 12 of the other side of the synapses 16 provide the outputs 22 of the network 10 representing the solution (in analog form) to the problem being solved.
A complex problem may take the form of a multi-layer neural network such as that generally indicated as 10' in FIG. 2. In such a multi-layer neural network 10', the analog inputs defining the problem are input as a first set of neurons 14. The outputs from the first layer of the network 10' are input to a second set of neurons 14 at the input to the second layer of the network 10' and the outputs representing the solution to the problem are found at the outputs 22 from the second layer of the network 10'.
A neural network (single layer 10 or multi-layer 10') "learns" by experience. A first set of variables for the problem to be solved are input to the network 10, 10' and the outputs 22 representing the solution to the problem for the given parameters are inspected. Each of the synapses 16 is then adjusted as to its performance factors (weight) in the total problem. As a result of the "answer" provided, the weights of the synapses 16 are adjusted slightly, as necessary, in a manner which will tend to move the answer to the problem closer to the correct answer. This process is repeated over and over with a second, third, etc. set of variables until the synapses 16 have all been adjusted to the point where the proper answer to the problem is given for any set of variables which are input. At that point, the network 10,10' has learned by experience how to solve the particular problem.
One of the current issues in the theory of supervised learning concerns the scaling properties of neural networks. While low-order neural computations are easily handled on sequential or parallel processors, the treatment of high-order problems proves to be intractable. The computational burden involved in implementing supervised learning algorithms, such as back propagation, on networks with large connectivity or lo training sets is immense and impractical. Until the development of fully parallel hardware, the treatment of such applications as image recognition or pattern classification prove unwieldy to handle current algorithms. It is clear, therefore, that a more computationally efficient learning rule is required to deal with such applications.
Current neuromorphic models regard the neuron as a strictly passive non-linear element and the synapse, on the other hand, as the primary source of information processing insofar as "learning" is concerned. In these standard prior art models, information processing is performed by propagating within a network synaptically weighted neuronal contributions in either a feed-forward, feed-backward, or fully recurrent fashion. Information is contained in the synaptic weights and their rapid evaluation form the goal of these algorithms. Prior art artificial neural networks take the point of view that the neuron can be modeled by a simple non-linear "wire" type of device. The only prior art implementation of any adjustability to the neurons is depicted in FIG. 3. As depicted therein, the neurons 14 (i.e. implemented as non-linear elements as described above) can be manually adjusted en masse (as indicated by the dashed box 24) by means of a manual input device 26 under the control of a human operator. The neurons 14 each have an adjustable gain which is referred to in the art as the "temperature" of the neuron. Typically, the learning process begins with the temperature (i.e. the gain) of the neurons 14 at a high level. As the learning process proceeds, the operator may periodically and randomly begin to lower the temperature of all the neurons 14 simultaneously by means of the manual input device 26. This results in some measurable and meaningful improvement in the learning process of the network; that is, there is some decrease in learning time when the operator adjusts the temperature of the neurons 14.
Substantial evidence is beginning to emerge and be reported that information processing apparently occurs in biological neural networks (e.g. the human brain) at the neuronal level. If this is true, one can suppose that by providing a dynamically adaptable neuron element for use in artificial neural networks which adapts as part of the learning process along with the synapses, the learning process can be improved and the time therefor decreased significantly.

Neural network with dynamically adaptable neurons

The United States of America as represented by the Administrator, National Aeronautics and Space Administration


A wall of an inner loop taker includes a guiding surface, a first vertical surface which extends continuously to an inward end of the guiding surface in a radial direction of the inner loop taker and is parallel to an axial line of a needle, and a second vertical surface which is formed on the inward side of the first vertical surface in the radial direction of the inner loop taker but closer to the axial line of the needle than the first vertical surface and which is parallel to the axial line of the needle. A first angle .theta. between a straight line which links the inward end and an outward end of the second vertical surface in the radial direction of the inner loop taker and the axial line is smaller than a second angle between a needle tip guiding surface of the needle and the axial line, while a first length of the first vertical surface is equal to or smaller than a distance along the axial line between a bottom end portion of an inner peripheral surface of an eye of the needle and a needle tip of the needle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vertically fully rotating hook of a sewing machine, and more particularly, to a vertically fully rotating hook which is preferably used in a sewing machine for zigzag sewing and a sewing machine for embroidery sewing.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is an expanded cross sectional view showing a needle location hole 109 and a portion around the same of an inner loop taker 100 according to a conventional technique. A needle thread 101 passes through a thread hole 104 which is formed in the vicinity of a tip portion 108 of a needle 103 which moves up and down reciprocally. When the needle thread 101 is supplied by the needle 103 immediately in front of a blade tip 102, the blade tip 102 catches the needle thread 101 and forms a needle thread loop, so that the needle thread loop is meshed with a bobbin thread not shown and a stitch is formed.
During displacement of the needle 103 downwardly, since cloth which is penetrated by the needle is moved by means of a feeding operation of the sewing machine, the needle 103 may be slightly warped in the direction in which the cloth is moved and contact a flange 105 of the inner loop taker 100. To prevent the contact from breaking the needle 103, a slanted surface 107 is formed in the vicinity of a top portion of the flange 105 to face the needle location hole 109 in the conventional technique.
In the conventional technique described above, the effect of preventing damage to the needle 103 is insufficient. Although there is not a big problem with an ordinary sewing machine in which the direction of feeding a cloth which is sewn is constant, in a zigzag sewing machine or an embroidery sewing machine, the needle 103 collides with the slanted surface 107 when a cloth is fed continuously or even during double fabric sewing of a thick cloth which is fed intermittently. When this occurs, the needle 103 is subjected to great impact, and the great impact breaks the needle 103 or damages the tip portion 108 of the needle 103.
Further, in the conventional technique described above, when the needle 103 is warped while in the needle location hole 109, the needle thread 101 is led out as it is held between a wall 106 and the needle 103. Since the needle thread 101 is formed by twisting a plurality of single threads, contact of the needle thread 101 and the wall 106 damages the single threads, whereby the thread is cut or tangled in the form of a ball.

Vertically fully rotating hook with needle guiding surface


A leaf spring suspension is provided with an air spring to absorb a percentage of the load.

The invention relates to heavy duty vehicle suspensions and, more particularly, to improvements to a slipper spring type mechanical leaf spring suspension system that is optimized with an air ride.
Such suspension systems typically include a control arm, which control arm is variously referred to by other names such as torque arm or torque rod.
As an aside, when a tire hits a bump in the road, the suspension moves upward, and this is called compression or "jounce." When the suspension returns to its original position, this is called "rebound." Again, "jounce" is the upward movement or compression of suspension components. "Rebound" is the downward movement or extension of the suspension components.
Mechanical leaf spring suspension systems have been commonplace in the trailer industry for a long time. Nowadays, Air-ride axle suspension systems have become popular in heavy-duty tractor trailer industry in the last twenty years because of their improved ride characteristics, driver comfort and maneuverability over obstacles. The drawback to air ride suspension systems are their complexity of design and increased service parts when compared to a slipper spring type mechanical leaf spring suspension system.
The largest segment of the domestic heavy duty van trailer Market uses mechanical suspension on a sliding subframe design.
With reference to FIGS. 1 through 2c show an example Slipper Spring Mechanical Suspension System 20a in accordance with the prior art, and these are taken from U.S. Pat. No. 3,123,377—Hutchens. In FIG. 1, the torque arm 22a is pivoted at its front end where line II-II cuts through it, and FIG. 2a shows a torque arm pivot bushing 24a likewise in accordance with the prior art.
Slipper spring suspension systems 20a perform well to Vertical load inputs when the vehicle 30 is loaded but do not when the slipper Springs 26a are lightly loaded. Also, a classical slipper spring suspension 20a in accordance with the prior art uses a spring 26a that has two unrestrained ends 28a that slip on vehicle frame 32 hangers 34a with wear pads 36a. The spring 26a is held in place by suspension control arms 22a, which as said above, can also be referred to as torque rods 22a.
With reference to FIGS. 3 and 4, these show a mechanical suspension 20b in accordance with the prior art and provided with a jounce bumper 42. So in addition to standard leaf springs 26a (see, eg., FIGS. 1 through 2c), a mechanical suspension 20b can accommodate steel or composite style leaf springs 26b with a jounce bumper 40. The configuration with the jounce bumper 40 allows for lighter-weight springs 26b. The jounce bumper 40 is a rubber bumper anchored on a leaf spring 26b but unattached at the top and provides an "Up" or "jounce" stop due to the resiliency of the rubber.
When the tire 44 (see, eg., FIG. 1 for tire 44) hits a bump in the road, the jounce bumper 40 is compressed into the vehicle frame 32 or, as more modernly preferred, the sliding subframe 46 which hangs the suspension 20b. When the suspension 20b "rebounds," the jounce bumper 40 separates from the sliding subframe 46 because it is unattached, and creates a gap. When the gap is closed, there is a slap or a slam. The slap or slam of the jounce bumper 40 into the sliding subframe 46 is not so destructive to the suspension overall. But it does contribute to a rough ride, and it may be destructive to delicate cargo or freight.
So for example, a tandem axle 48 semi trailer (eg., vehicle 30) might have a load rating of 17,000 lbs. per axle. As the tires 44 (again, see FIG. 1 for tire 44) ride over a curb, all or substantially all of the load might be transferred to one axle 48, while the other axle 48 goes substantially unloaded. One of the four jounce bumpers 40 might separate and form a gap, and hence it is not doing its job.
Other prior art mechanical leaf spring and air-ride units include these.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,714,067, entitled "vehicle spring," shows a combination of an eyed leaf spring and a rolled-lobe style (eg., piston bag style) air spring.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,638, entitled "truck steering stabilizer," shows a fixed tandem steering axle configuration using a leaf spring and air spring in combination.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,850,195, entitled "tandem suspension for steerable axles," has a fixed tandem steering axle configuration using a leaf spring and air spring in combination.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,991,223, entitled "composite leaf spring having an arcuate attachment arrangement for vehicle mounting," shows a composite leaf spring and stop combination.
US Pub App No. 2014/0,117,639, entitled "mechanical spring axle suspension system for a heavy duty vehicle," shows a tandem configuration using a leaf spring suspension on a sliding subframe.

Mechanical slider suspension optimized with air ride


The invention concerns an artificial heart driving device having at least one blood chamber which is disposed in a pump housing and draws in and expels blood cyclically by means of a plurality of pressure plates which can be driven by a motor. The motor is directly connected to a drive gear or cam component. A movement component actuating the plurality of pressure plates engages with the drive gear or cam component and performs a reciprocating movement as the drive gear or cam component rotates.

The invention relates to a drive device for an artificial heart according to the preamble of the main claim.
There is known from European Patent Application 0 531 856 a blood pump which operates in a pulsating manner, and in which there is disposed in the blood pump housing at least one piston driven from a coupling point on a triangular enclosed hypocycloid path, which periodically compresses a blood chamber and again releases it. One corner of the closed triangular hypocycloid path is aligned in the direction of the piston, piston movements arising which consist of a pre-stroke phase, a return stroke phase and a stationary stroke phase. This known blood pump is extremely complex in structure and comprises a large number of individual parts. The movement must be transmitted via a large number of bearings, so that many losses arise. Due to the complex structure, the lifespan of the drive of this pump is unsatisfactory.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,718,903 describes an artificial heart in which there is used as a drive a movable member, upon which pressure plates are secured, and which executes a rolling movement. The movable member has a bidirectional motor with motor housing and an epicycloid gear arrangement, the latter being disposed between the motor and one of two closure parts closing off the housing and rotating relative thereto, in such a way that the motor with housing executes the rolling movement led by guide means and the closure parts, which carry the pressure plates, execute a sliding movement. A reciprocating movement is achieved by reversing the polarity of the motor. Such an artificial heart is complex because of the epicycloid gear arrangement and has a large number of rotating parts. In addition, dead points are present because of the reversal of movement, and the end positions must be recognized for control of the motor.


A multi-level buck converter is provided with seamless transitions back and forth from synchronous to asynchronous low dropout modes of operation.

The ratio of the output voltage to the input voltage defines the duty cycle for buck converters. As the duty cycle approaches one, it is conventional for a buck converter (whether multi-level or single-level) to transition from a synchronous mode of operation to an asynchronous mode of operation. In a synchronous mode of operation, the cycling on of the power switch(es) is synchronous with a system clock signal. But the on-time for a switching state is followed by a minimum off-time for that switching state. During low dropout operation in which the input voltage is only slightly higher than the output voltage, synchronous operation is constrained by the minimum off-time from pushing the duty cycle towards 100%. The maximum switching state on-time established by the system clock signal minus the minimum off-time limits the achievable duty cycle during synchronous operation.
To increase the duty cycle for low dropout operation, it is conventional to transition the buck converter into an asynchronous mode of operation in which the switching states are not switched on synchronously with the system clock signal. The on-time for a switching state may thus increase as it is no longer tethered to the system clock signal period. The achievable duty cycle can thus be increased through asynchronous operation.
Although asynchronous operation is thus advantageous, the buck converter must transition back into synchronous operation as the duty cycle lowers. Conventional transition into synchronous operation from asynchronous operation causes a relatively large perturbation in the output voltage and in the inductor current. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for buck converters with improved transitions between asynchronous and synchronous operation.

Asynchronous dropout transition for multi-level and single-level buck converters


A process for the aerobic biological break-down of substances having low water solubility in an aqueous medium, and a microorganism, Bacillus thermoleovorans strain DSM 10561 and an enzyme obtained therefrom are disclosed. The microorganism is suitable for use in the disclosed process wherein the bioavailability of the substances to be broken down is raised by setting the temperature of the aqueous medium to 45 degrees Celisus and higher. The microorganism is used to break-down the substances having low water solubility.

The invention concerns a process for the aerobic biological break-down of substances having low water-solubility in an aqueous medium, and a new microorganism.
Processes for the aerobic break-down are generally known. For example, in wastewater purification, biological break-down of various substances occurs under aerobic conditions, whereby most of the soluble substances are adequately converted. In the case of substances having low water-solubility, however, there is the problem that in order to be broken down biologically, these must first be transferred into the aqueous phase before they can be absorbed and converted by organisms such as bacteria.
Solvents that enable break-down can be employed in order to improve the solubility of the substances to be broken down. These solvents are frequently organic compounds, which may under certain circumstances represent a significant source of environmental pollution. Thus the solvents must also be able to be broken down without leaving toxic residues and increasing the overall pollution effect.

Aerobic biodegradation of aromatic compounds having low water solubility using Bacillus thermoleovorans strain DSM 10561


A rotor and device for the comminution of input material is provided. The rotor includes a drive shaft on which a predetermined number of rotor discs are provided and over the circumference of which grinding tools are arranged. In accordance with an embodiment, it is provided that frictional connection elements are arranged between the rotor discs forming axial ends of the rotor and the shaft for transferring a torque, and that power transmission elements are arranged in a contact surface of two adjacent rotor discs and that the rotor discs can be clamped together with axially acting clamping elements.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a rotor for the comminution of input materials and a device with such a rotor.
2. Description of the Background Art
In the comminution of materials, devices with a grinding unit comprising a rotor have proven to be useful. The rotor is essentially made up of a shaft and rotor discs arranged on it, with the grinding tools distributed over the circumference of the discs. The grinding tools can be made from knives, rigid or swinging suspended hammers, cutting tools or the like. As a rule, the rotor has assigned to it a stator, which is equipped with counter-knives, impact surfaces or screening surfaces, or an additional rotor, the rotor discs of which interact with the rotor discs of the first rotor. The input material is supplied radially to the rotor, where it is picked up by the grinding tools and ground in conjunction with the stator tools or the second rotor.
The materials that can be input into such a generic device are of many types and range from, for example, all types of plastics to sheet metals, textiles and electronic wastes, through composite materials and used tires. Depending on the nature of the input material in terms of size, shape and material properties, the rotor is exposed to high mechanical resistance during the grinding operation, so that the power transmission from the drive shaft to the rotor disc is of great significance.
A modular rotor design with a certain number of rotor discs fastened removably on the shaft plays a great role from the view point of rotor assembly, but also during the replacement of damaged or worn rotor discs, since if necessary the rotor can be disassembled into smaller components, which on one hand are easier to handle and on the other hand can be systematically replaced. Such a rotor design, however, especially in conjunction with a force-locking frictional connection between the drive shaft and the end-positioned rotor discs, requires that the drive force can be transmitted reliably and without slippage from one rotor disc to the next.
From WO 2006/064483 A2, a device for grinding elastomers is known, the grinding unit is formed by two rotors that are provided with corrugations over their circumference. The rotors essentially are each formed from a hollow cylinder, the axial ends of which are screwed together with coaxial supporting discs, which in turn are positioned in a rotationally fixed manner on a driven truncated shaft. The rotor thus has no continuous drive shaft.
A rotor of similar design is known from DE 199 28 034 A1, which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 6,237,865, and in which instead of a continuous shaft, likewise only truncated shafts are attached on the front faces of the rotor. Otherwise the rotor is formed from coaxially joined discs which are connected with one another axially over longitudinal bars.
These design types of rotors always prove disadvantageous if an axially compressed design is important because of space conditions. The attachment of the supporting discs to the face of the rotor increases the rotor length without achieving an increase in the effective working area for grinding. In addition, such a design is relatively expensive to manufacture and assemble and in the case of manufacturing and assembly inaccuracies, rapidly leads to imbalance of the rotor and losses of round. Furthermore in the case of overload on the rotor, for example if it is blocked because of unintended foreign body input, considerable damage to the grinding unit takes place, since absolute force locking is produced between the drive side and rotor.
An alternative solution for transmitting the driving power from the shaft to the disc is disclosed in DE 39 30 041 A1. There a continuous drive shaft is formed in the area of the seat of the rotor disc with a hexagonal cross-section. The discs have a centric opening complementary to this, so that power transmission from the shaft to the rotor disc is guaranteed by the form locking. A different type of form locking for power transmission is known from DE 94 22 104 U1. The embodiment described there has a drive shaft with axial grooves on its external circumference, which together with corresponding axial grooves on the inner circumference of the individual discs results in a composite cross-section, into which an adjusting spring is placed.
These two solutions also result in absolute force locking between the drive shaft and the rotor disc, so that in the case of overload on the device, damage to the grinding unit is to be feared. Furthermore, the formation of accurately fitting grooves on the shaft and rotor discs implies a considerable increase in costs for manufacturing and assembly.
Furthermore it is known that the drive force can be transferred from the drive shaft to the rotor disc by frictional connection. Both EP 0 019 542 A1 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,973 disclose friction or clamping devices for this purpose, which in each case are arranged in an annular recess on the outside of the front face of the rotor disc and surround the drive shaft, producing a frictional connection. For further power transmission of the torque to the inner rotor discs, both documents disclose that adjacent rotor discs are welded together, in other words all rotor discs are permanently bound to one another and thus form a rigid rotor unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,381,973 additionally discloses axial centering pins in the contact area of two adjacent rotor discs, which ensure that the individual rotor discs sit in the exactly identical position to one another on the drive shaft. This is significant when assembling the rotor in that the through holes provided in the outer circumferential area must fit exactly in the axial direction so that later the shafts can be slid in without problems for a swinging suspension of hammers. Furthermore it is suggested that the centering pin be replaced by temporary longitudinal rods until the rotor discs are finally connected together by weld seams.
Although the welding together of the rotor discs results in reliable power transmission of the driving torque into all rotor discs, it has the drawback that all rotor discs form a rigid, non-removable rotor unit which is difficult to handle in the case of disassembly or repairs.

Rotor and device for the comminution of input material


A method and system for recognizing chemical names in a Chinese document. The method includes: receiving a Chinese document including chemical names; recognizing chemical name segments in the document; recognizing non-chemical name segments in the document; and combining the chemical name segments to get chemical names based on the recognized chemical name segments and non-chemical name segments. Specific embodiments of the present invention can effectively recognize chemical names from a chemical document.

Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of information processing technology, and more particularly, to a method and system for recognizing chemical names in a Chinese document.
Description of the Related Art
Currently, with the development of scientific technology in chemistry, the amount of scientific literatures relating to chemistry is increasing, e.g., scientific papers and disclosed patent documents relating to chemistry, among which the number of Chinese documents is also increasing. Chemical name recognition technology proves to be important in the in-depth computer processing of these documents. Those skilled in the art will appreciate that chemical names refer to the names that appear in professional chemistry documents and can uniquely specify the corresponding chemical molecular structures. Chinese chemical names evolve from the IUPAC nomenclature and Chinese common names. The objective of chemical name recognition technology is to automatically detect and identify chemical names from natural language documents, and it is very useful for various data mining in chemical or biochemical fields.
Currently, research has been carried out in English chemical name recognition, which may be mainly divided into two types: one is to use a machine learning model to learn training data to form annotators, and use the annotators to recognize chemical names from plain text documents. Machine learning models mainly include Hidden Markov Model (HMM) (Freitag and McCallum, 1999), Maximum Entropy Markov Model (MeMM) (McCallum et al., 2000) or Conditional Random Fields (CRF) (Lafferty et al., 2001). The other is to carry out chemical name recognition based on rules designed by experts and dictionaries.
There is little Chinese chemical name recognition technology up to now. The reasons for this lie in the following: First, Chinese is much more complex in linguistic structures when compared with English, e.g., there is no explicit word boundary in Chinese (while English words are separated by spaces), and Chinese does not have capitalized information that can be utilized. The distinctive linguistic characteristics prevent applying English chemical name recognition technology to a Chinese environment. Second, current Chinese chemical nomenclature does not precisely coincide with the English chemical nomenclature system; rather, it is a mixture of Chinese traditional nomenclature and IUPAC standard. Therefore, if the manner of model learning is used, at least both the Chinese traditional nomenclature and the IUPAC standard should be taken into consideration. Third, compared to English, there are not many Chinese chemical name resources available, thus it is difficult to carry out Chinese chemical name recognition by means of model learning.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and system for recognizing chemical names in a Chinese document currently.

Recognizing chemical names in a chinese document

International Business Machines Corporation


A powder mixture for powder metallurgy comprising a starting powder for powder metallurgy containing a metal powder, a powder of physical property improving ingredients and a lubricant and, blended therewith as a binder, a synthetic styrenic rubber copolymer comprising:. 5 to 75 parts by weight of styrene and PA1 95 to 25 parts by weight of butadiene and/or isoprene,. as the monomer ingredient or a hydrogenation product thereof. The binder can suppress the segregation of the physical property improver and the lubricant, as well as dusting upon handling the powder.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a powder mixture for powder metallurgy and a binder used therefor. A starting powder for powder metallurgy comprising a metal powder such as an iron powder or a steel powder as a basic component and, blended therewith, a powder of physical property improving ingredients such as alloying elements and graphite and a lubricant powder is incorporated with a copolymer ingredient of a predetermined composition ratio, so that segregation of the powder of physical property improving ingredient and the lubricant powder is suppressed without deteriorating the physical property of the metal powder as the base component and dusting of the powder upon handling is suppressed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In powder metallurgy using a metal powder such as an iron powder or a steel powder as the main starting material, alloying elements such as copper, nickel, chromium and molybdenum, a powder of physical property improving ingredients such as graphite, phosphorus and sulfur and a lubricant powder such as zinc stearate are sometimes blended in order to improve the physical property (such as strength characteristics or workability) of sintering products. Usually, particle size, specific gravity, etc. of the powder of physical property improving ingredients and the lubricant powder vary considerably. For instance, since each specific gravity differs in a case where the base metal powder is an iron powder or a steel powder (hereinafter collectively referred to as an iron-steel powder, and the powder of physical property improving ingredients is graphite, phosphorous or the like, the difference of the specific gravity tends to cause segregation in the course of handling after mixing up to molding to worsen the characteristics and the homogeneity of sintering products. Further, if the lubricant powder used for extending the die life causes segregation, it sometimes results in increase of the drawing pressure upon taking out a molding product from the die or causes fluctuation in the powder characteristics.
As a means for preventing such segregation, methods of depositing, for example, a graphite powder to an iron/steel powder or the like by using a organic binder have been proposed as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid Open Sho 56-136901 and Sho 63-103001.
However, since the organic binders as disclosed in the above-mentioned literatures are hydrophilic, they involve a problem of absorbing moisture to lower the flowability during storage or promoting rusting of the base metal powder, which may rather worsen the quality of powder metallurgy products. Further, since the organic binder has a greater effect of increasing the bonding strength between the iron/steel powders each other rather than increasing the bonding strength between the iron/steel powder and the powder of physical property improving ingredients or the lubricant powder, the effect of preventing segregation of graphite or the like is insufficient and a great amount of the binder has to be blended in order to obtain the more excellent effect. As a result, since the bonding (agglomeration) between each of the iron/steel powders become remarkable, steps of repulverization or sieving after mixing and drying are indispensable.

Powder mixture for powder metallurgy and binder therefor


A coupling is provided for joining the ends of relatively soft plastic conduit. Hinged shell halves contain gripping teeth that penetrate and secure the conduit ends together. Penetration of the gripping teeth into the plastic conduit is accomplished by toggle clamps that supply the necessary embedding force. A seal is provided that prevents leakage into or out of the joint between the conduit ends.

High-density polypropylene and polyethylene conduit are often laid underground in long lengths. Splices are required to join one length of conduit to the next. Fiber optic cables, or the like, are then installed in the length of conduit. Relatively smooth interior surfaces are required throughout the conduit length, including the splices, in order to facilitate the installation of the cable. The joints or splices need to be relatively airtight since air pressure is often used to install (blow) the cable through the conduit. Therefore, the coupling must provide a smooth interior surface and a relatively airtight joint.
A brochure from Cabletec®, with a title "Two-Piece PLASTIC REMOVABLE COUPLINGS:", describes a series of different size couplings currently used in this field. The essence of Cabletec® part number PE1.900-2 is shown in FIG. 1. This prior art utilizes two half shells that are bolted together in such a way as to clamp the abutting ends of the conduits. Circumferential gripper rings in the half shells are utilized to bite into the conduit in order to resist axial separation forces. A seal is provided to prevent leakage in or out of the conduit joint. Tools are required to install the coupling.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,947,532 issued to Lorenz shows prior art of a "stab" type coupling. The conduit ends are inserted ("stabbed") into a structure that contains a flexible collet. The collet is supported by an inclined surface in the structure in such a way as to permit insertion of the conduit into the structure, but prevents retraction. No tools are required for installation. However, after the conduit is inserted, it must be retracted some finite distance in order to activate the bite of the collet into the conduit. This is an obstacle in certain installations. Further, this coupling cannot be removed from the conduit without destroying the coupling or damaging the conduit.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,913,262 issued to De Cenzo et al, 4,008,937 issued to Filippi, 4,346,428 issued to Gale, and 5,380,052 issued to Hendrickson are all examples of couplings that utilize a toggle clamp to couple conduits. All of these examples require preparing the conduit ends with beads, threaded adaptors, grooves and the like. Therefore, the noted techniques would not be desirable or accepted in the field of the present invention.


A method and system for measuring the alignment between a substrate and a platform upon which it is disposed by using image processing algorithms are described herein. These algorithms automate the detection of edges of a microscope slide and the platform in a digital image. A reference line pattern in an image of the platform can be used to detect platform edges based on a computed location of the reference line pattern in the image.

Inconsistent placement of a substrate onto a platform for automated treatment can lead to inconsistent processing of the substrate, particularly where application of reagents to the substrate depends upon the position of the substrate in order to ensure that reagents are applied to the correct location(s), and that they remain there or are conveyed away appropriately. For example, when microscope slides bearing biological samples are treated for microscopic analysis, improper positioning of the microscope slide on or in a slide staining platform (such as a heating element or a treatment chamber) may lead to fluid dispense and removal errors, or movement of fluid away from the sample (such as by wicking). If reagents are not properly removed between the steps of a staining protocol, or reagent is not in contact with the sample during a particular step, the entire staining protocol may be altered and render the slide unreadable by a pathologist. Another context where substrate placement is important is where microscope slides are placed on a platform (such as a stage) for imaging of the stained biological samples thereon. In either case, improper positioning can lead to inconsistent or invalid analysis results.

Method and system to detect substrate placement accuracy


An input bit stream is phase rotated by reversing bit pairs and inverting bits. The manipulated bit stream is mapped to a symbol and the mapped symbol is converted to the time domain such that an output of the time domain conversion is an ordered set of N samples that allow efficient cyclic prefix insertion without rotation at the symbol level. A first portion of the set of samples is stored in a buffer, and the complete set of samples is output followed by the buffered first portion of the set of samples for transmission. The set of samples can be NIFFT samples of an OFDM symbol and the first portion can be NCP samples that make up the cyclic prefix CP. Re-ordering the bits can be done by swapping bit pairs and inverting one of the swapped pairs, or by trivial (1, −1, −j) phase rotation. The buffer is ¼ the length of prior art OFDM buffers and CP-related processing delays are significantly reduced.

Various abbreviations that appear in the specification and/or in the drawing figures are defined as follows:
3GPP3rd Generation Partnership ProjectCPcyclic prefixDACdigital to analog converterDFTdiscrete Fourier transformFFTfast Fourier transformEUTRANevolved universal terrestrial radio access network(also LTE or 3.9G)IEEEinstitute of electrical and electronics engineersIFFTinverse Fast Fourier transformLTElong term evolution (3.9G)MSmobile stationOFDMorthogonal frequency division multiplexingOFDMAorthogonal frequency division multiple accessRFradio frequencyWiMAXworldwide interoperability for microwave accessUMTSuniversal mobile telecommunications systemUTRANUMTS terrestrial radio access network
OFDM is a multi-carrier data transmission technique that is advantageously used in radio-frequency based transmitter-receiver systems, such as for example 3GPP EUTRAN/LTE/3.9G and to IEEE 802.16d/e/WiMAX, IEEE 802.11a/WiFi, fixed wireless access (FWA), HiperLAN2, digital audio and digital video broadcast (DAB and DVB), and others. OFDM systems typically divide available radio spectrum into many carriers. Each of the many carriers has a narrow bandwidth and is modulated with a low rate data stream. The carriers are closely spaced and orthogonal separation of the carriers controls inter-carrier interference (ICI).
When generating an OFDM signal, each carrier is assigned a data stream and the data streams are converted to symbols based on a modulation scheme such as for example Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM and its variants 16QAM, 64QAM etc), Quadrature Phase Shift Key (QPSK), and the like. Once the phase and amplitude are determined, they must be converted to time domain signals for transmission. Typically, OFDM systems use an IFFT to perform this conversion. The IFFT is an efficient way of mapping the data onto the orthogonal carriers. The time domain signal is then up converted to RF of the appropriate carrier and transmitted.
Delay in processing that signal in the transmitter is a concern for several reasons. First, for the case where the user equipment UE/mobile station MS is transmitting the signal, the symbols must be received at the receiver/BS/NodeB within a certain window, which the BS assures by sending a timing advance to the various MSs in its cell. Second and relatedly, multi-path delay interference in the transmitted symbols causes inter-symbol interference (ISI) between the reflected radio signal and the direct radio signal. A cyclic prefix CP, of which the time it occupies is referred to as a guard interval GI, is inserted to separate the symbols and avoid ISI, but inserting the CP must be done so that the transmitted signal is sent with the proper timing advance. To achieve a reasonable throughput, the OFDM symbol duration may be at least five times the GI, and to avoid ICI the OFDM symbol is cyclically extended in the GI.
CP insertion may be achieved as follows. An IFFT has an associated "length" corresponding to a number of coefficients for the transform. The CP is generated by placing the last few IFFT output coefficients at the beginning of the symbol to form the CP. The size of the CP varies in different applications, and a common CP length is ¼ the length of the IFFT (e.g., for an IFFT with a length of 64, the output corresponding to the last 16 coefficients may be transmitted first as the cyclic prefix, and then the output corresponding to the 64 coefficients of the entire IFFT is output in regular order).
For the addition of this CP in known systems, the IFFT output requires relatively large buffers. If the output of the IFFT is in bit-reversed time order, then two buffers of size N (N is length of IFFT) are required. If the output of the IFFT is in time order, then a single buffer of the length of the IFFT (N) is required. Buffers add expense to the system.
So at the transmitter side of an OFDM system, a CP is introduced into the transmitter signal after the IFFT. As noted above, typically this CP consists of some few last samples of an OFDM symbol which follows the cycle prefix as is shown in FIG. 1, where NIFFT indicates the number of samples of the symbol and NCP indicates the number of samples in the portion corresponding to the CP. Because of that CP insertion, an additional memory is needed to store the first large part of the OFDM symbol until the beginning of the CP sequence.
Especially for long OFDM symbols as used in LTE systems (2048 FFT or 2048 IFFT) the memory consumption and delay is remarkable and should be reduced. Some approaches have used a combination of interleaving and FFT to reduce the latency and complexity of the OFDM based system, but while this strategy may be successfully used at the receiver, they are not seen to reduce latency at the OFDM transmitter. At the transmitter side, CP insertion significantly degrades this latency gain. Since the last part of the IFFT symbol is used for the CP, all or almost of the overall symbol (NIFFT samples) has to be stored after the IFFT process block. This buffering adds an unwanted and unnecessary delay to the output of the IFFT output.
Since the IFFT output has an unusable order, the input symbol stream of the IFFT has to be modified to get the wanted IFFT output order. Mathematically, this problem can be solved by a frequency dependent phase shift of the sub-carrier symbols as shown in equation 1 below:
                                          ⅇ                                          -                j                                                                            2                                    π                                                  N                  IFFT                                                                          kn                τ                                                                    X                                      (              k              )                                      =                                            ρ                                            (                                  kn                  τ                                )                                                    ︸              Phaserotation                                                                                X                                            (                k                )                                                                ⟶              IFFT                                                  x                                            (                                  n                  -                                      n                    τ                                                  )                                                                        [        1        ]
In this equation, n denotes the time domain index and k denotes the frequency domain index. The IFFT output can be shifted by nτ time samples. For our purpose, nτ is equal to the number of IFFT samples (length NIFFT) minus the number of cyclic prefix samples Ncp(nτ=NIFFT−Ncp).
There has been some prior art research into the above problem of CP insertion and latency at the transmitter. For example, US Pat. Publ. No. US 2004/0120413 A1 entitled Multi-carrier transmission systems and methods using subcarrier relocation and guard interval insertion describes a multi-carrier transmission system which includes an encoder for converting a data sequence into encoded symbols corresponding to respective sub-carriers; a first shifter for rearranging the encoded symbols to define a guard interval length; an inverse fast Fourier transform (IFFT) unit for inverse fast Fourier transforming the rearranged encoded symbols; a second shifter for processing the transformed symbols to effect a frequency shift to compensate for a frequency shift effected by the IFFT unit; and a guard interval inserter for interleaving symbol replicas with the processed symbols according to the guard interval length.
Another reference relevant to the problem at hand is International Publication No. WO 2007/123340 A2, entitled Method and apparatus for inserting guard interval in a mobile communication system. This reference describes rotating a phase of each symbol for a stream, converting the phase rotated symbol stream into a time domain symbol stream, and copying a rear part of the time domain stream to a front part of the time domain stream and/or vice versa.
Another somewhat similar approach is seen as US Pat. Publ. No. US 2005/0047325 A1, entitled: Combined inverse fast Fourier transform and guard interval processing for efficient implementation of OFDM based systems. This document details an IFFT circuit that receives input data of length N coefficients and generates output data of length N coefficients that are circularly shifted by m coefficients. A CP insertion circuit inserts a CP of length m and includes a first switch connected to the IFFT circuit, a buffer of length m having an input connected to the first switch and an output, and a second switch, coupled to the first switch and to the buffer. The first and second switches selectively couple the output of the buffer and the IFFT circuit to an output of the second switch.

Frequency dependent phase rotation prior to mapping in an OFDM transmitter


A magnetoresistive effect element includes a nonmagnetic layer having mutually facing first and second surfaces. A reference layer is provided on the first surface and has a fixed magnetization direction. A magnetization variable layer is provided on the second surface, has variable magnetization direction, and has a planer shape including a rectangular part, a first projected part, and a second projected part. The rectangular part has mutually facing first and second longer sides and mutually facing first and second shorter sides. The first projected part projects from the first longer side at a position shifted from the center toward the first shorter side. The second projected part projects from the second longer side at a position shifted from the center toward the second shorter side.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetoresistive effect element, and to a magnetic memory. For example, the present invention relates to the shape of a ferromagnetic tunnel junction element.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been a magnetic memory using a ferromagnetic tunnel junction (MTJ) element as a memory cell. The MTJ element is mainly composed of ferromagnetic layer/insulating layer/ferromagnetic layer, which are successively stacked. A junction resistance to current tunneling the insulating layer to flow is minimum when the magnetization directions of two ferromagnetic layers are parallel to each other and is maximum when the magnetization directions of two ferromagnetic layers are anti-parallel to each other. This is called tunnel magnetoresistive effect.
One ferromagnetic layer is called a reference layer whose magnetization direction is fixed. The other ferromagnetic layer is called a recording layer whose magnetization direction changes. Parallel or anti-parallel state of the magnetization direction of the reference and storage layers is made to correspond to binary information, and thereby, information is stored. Write current flowing a write line that is provided around a memory cell generates a magnetic field to switch the magnetization of the recording layer to write information.
An advance in the scale-down of memory cell in order to improve the integration of magnetic memories reduces a ferromagnetic material forming the memory cell. Smaller ferromagnetic material generally has larger coercivity. Larger coercivity requires greater switching magnetic filed for switching the magnetization direction of a recording layer. Thus, a write current required for generating a switching magnetic filed becomes large; as a result, power consumption is increased. Therefore, in order to realize lower power consumption, it is important to reduce the coercivity of the small magnetic material.
Meanwhile, a parameter called a thermal fluctuation constant exists as an index of memory cell stably holding information for long term. The thermal fluctuation appears to be proportional to volume and coercivity in general. Therefore, high thermal stability is required to hold information for long term; nevertheless, reduced power consumption degrades the thermal stability.
Moreover, an edge domain gives an influence to a switching magnetic field. The edge domain is a special magnetic domain and appears around an edge of a rectangular micro ferromagnetic material whose width of the shorter axis is, for example, less than sub-micron from several microns. The edge domain is disclosed in the document, J. App. Phys. 81, 5471 (1997)(J. App. Phys. 81, 5471 (1997)), for example.
The edge domain is generated because the magnetization is given along the shorter side of rectangle and form a spirally rotating pattern in order to reduce anti-magnetic energy in the shorter side. The magnetization is generated in the direction different from the middle portion in both edge portions of the magnetic material although it is generated in the direction according to magnetic anisotropy in the middle portion of the magnetic material. During spin switching in the rectangular ferromagnetic material, the edge domain is known to grow its size. Thus, the edge domain serves to increase a switching magnetic filed.
The edge domain is sensitive to the shape of the ferromagnetic material. For this reason, the use of an elliptic ferromagnetic material is proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,757,695.
Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 5,748,524 and JPN. PAT. APPLN. KOKAI Publication No. 2000-100153 disclose that the edge domain is fixed to prevent a complicate change of magnetic structure from occurring in spin switching as much as possible. The technique can control magnetization behavior in spin switching but cannot reduce a switching magnetic filed. Moreover, another structure must be added to fix the edge domain; therefore, this is not suitable for achieving high density.

Magnetoresistive effect element and magnetic memory


A floating runway is provided for use at sea having a horizontal, top surface whereupon aircraft may operate during landing and take-off. A number of floating, releasably interconnected supporting section are connected to a number of bridge sections mounted alternately and consecutively in a longitudinal direction of the runway. The number of supporting sections and the number of bridge sections include ends, as viewed in the logitudinal direction of the runway having respective abutment portions adapted for mutual abutment for interconnection of the section. The abutment portions including cantilevered beam portions projecting away from mid portions of the respective sections as reviewed in the longitudinal direction thereof. The beam portions of the bridge sections include a lower surface and an upper surface of the beam portions of the supporting sections arranged the same distance from the top surface. The beam portions of the bridge sections are supported by the beam portions of the supporting sections via the beam portions of the bridge sections and carry only a portion of the weight of the bridge sections when the bridge sections are connected with the supporting sections, so that the weight portion provides an abutment force for ensuring the mutual fixation of the sections.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a floating runway at sea with a substantially horizontal upper surface, on which aircraft can be operated during landing and takeoff.
2. Description of Background Art
From the prior art there are known aircraft carriers which comprise a runway at sea for aircraft.
This runway, however, is so short that only relatively small planes can take off and land even though aids are employed for acceleration and retardation of the planes when they take off and land respectively.
As a result of growing resistance to the building of large airports on land, due, amongst other reasons, to the strains on the environment which are involved, the difficulties of finding areas which are suitable for the purpose, e.g. close to centers of population etc., airports have been built on islands, which have been levelled, possibly raising the ground around the islands by filling with stones etc. This, however, depends on the existence of suitable islands or shallow waters in the area where an airport is required.
Aircraft carriers on the other hand can be more easily positioned and orientated. Even though at present very large ships can be built, it would appear, however, that the operation of an aircraft carrier with a runway which is large enough to be used by, e.g. large transport planes, may be problematic.
In order to obtain an acceptable length and price for such a ship, separate take-off and landing aids would probably have to be employed, which can entail limitations with regard to types of cargo. Thus it is possible that the transport of animals and the simple transport of other delicate cargo could be difficult. Moreover it appears to be doubtful whether the routine use of such ships and aids will be accepted for large passenger planes.


A wireless communication terminal comprising antennas 4, 5 for receiving signals based on first and second wireless LAN standards, RF circuits 10, 13 for receiving the signals from the antennas 4, 5, a switch 16 for switching the standards of the signals received by the RF circuits to each other, reception level judging portions 12, 15 for judging the reception level of the signals in the RF circuits 10, 13 in the priority order from the highest standard to the lowest standard, and a controller 17 for judging on the basis of the judgment result of the reception level by the reception level judging portions whether it is possible to carry out the communications based on the first or second standard and control the switching operation of the switch so that the communications based on the standard having a higher priority can be carried out.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wireless communication terminal for automatic matching for wireless network standards, a wireless base station, a wireless communication network system and an automatic matching method for wireless network standards and particularly, to a wireless communication terminal, a wireless base station, a wireless communication network system and an automatic matching method for wireless network standards, wherein signals based on plural wireless network standards are received and automatic matching is carried out on the signals thus received.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, JP-A-8-8992 is known as a technique relating to this invention in a wireless communication network system. JP-A-8-8992 discloses that plural stages are set for the rate matching, and a rate matching function is dispersed to a mobile station side and a base station side for wireless communications like a mobile station is equipped with first rate matching means for converting information having an information transfer rate of 64 Kbit/s or less from a non-ISDN terminal to information having an information transfer rate of 2n×8 Kbit/s (n=0, 1, 2, . . . ) and also a base station of wireless communications is equipped with second rate matching means for matching the information of 2n×8 Kbit/s with the information transfer rate of the ISDN line which is equal to 64 Kbbit/s.

Wireless communication terminal for automatic matching for wireless network standards


The present invention relates to a crusher capable of efficiently crushing chunks of concrete or masonry waste, which crusher is attached to a crusher body such as a bucket which is disposed at a distal end of a movable arm or other predetermined place of a civil engineering machine, into small pieces. A pair of toothed crushing plates each having a plurality of radially extending teeth are attached to eccentric shafts mounted on the crusher body.

In civil engineering machines, there is one having a movable arm removably attached to a distal end thereof with a bucket or other attachments which can be selectively used in accordance with necessity. An operator sitting in a cabin operates the movable arm in operation.
The present invention uses a crusher, as the above-mentioned attachment, capable of crushing a large piece of concrete waste, etc. into a prescribed size or smaller so as to be suitable for transportation. Particularly, the present invention relates to a unique idea of crushing toothed wheel (toothed gear) of the crusher.
Conventional toothed wheels perform a primary crushing and a secondary crushing separately. First, a large chunk of concrete is primarily crushed with a pair of rotational members each having teeth capable of crushing an object roughly and then sent to another pair of rotational members each having teeth capable of secondarily crushing an object into small pieces. This means that the object is required to be crushed twice according to the conventional technique.

Crusher of chunks of concrete or masonry


In general, in one aspect, the invention features a method, apparatus, and computer program product for use within a voltage regulator. It includes deactivating the voltage regulator; and periodically activating the voltage regulator to monitor and selectively refresh the output of the voltage regulator.

This invention relates generally to voltage regulators and, in particular, to methods of reducing the quiescent current of voltage regulators. Voltage regulators, such as DC-to-DC converters, are used to provide stable voltage sources for electronic systems. Efficient DC-to-DC converters are particularly needed to extend battery run-time in low-power devices, such as mobile phones and hand-held computers.
Such devices impose a wide range of load current requirements upon voltage regulators. For example, the current requirements of a digital baseband or embedded processor load may reach several hundred milliamperes during an active state, such as a talk mode or compute mode, only to be throttled down to tens or units of microamperes during an idle mode. An important fraction of the device""s energy may be consumed during this idle mode.
In general, in one aspect, the invention features a method, apparatus, and computer program product for use within a voltage regulator. It includes deactivating the voltage regulator; and periodically activating the voltage regulator to monitor and selectively refresh the output of the voltage regulator.
Particular implementations can include one or more of the following features. The voltage regulator includes active elements and inactive elements, and deactivating includes eliminating quiescent current in at least one of the active elements. Periodically activating includes periodically restoring quiescent current in at least one of the active elements. Restoring includes restoring quiescent current in an output monitor configured to monitor the output level of the voltage regulator. The output monitor asserts a refresh signal when the level of the output of the voltage regulator deviates from a predetermined range, and the invention further includes restoring quiescent current in a pulse generator when the monitor asserts the refresh signal, thereby refreshing the output of the voltage regulator. The output monitor receives a predetermined reference voltage from a reference voltage generator, and restoring further includes restoring quiescent current in the reference voltage generator. Deactivating includes deactivating the voltage regulator when an ultra-low-power mode input signal is detected. Periodically activating includes repeatedly activating the voltage regulator based on a periodic signal. Periodically activating further includes receiving the periodic signal; waiting for a predetermined number of cycles of the periodic signal; and activating the voltage regulator after waiting.
In general, in another aspect, the invention features a controller for use within a voltage regulator. It includes a timer configured to assert a periodic check signal; and a logic module configured to deactivate the voltage regulator and to thereafter periodically activate the voltage regulator to monitor and selectively refresh the output of the voltage regulator in response to the check signal.
Particular implementations can include one or more of the following features. It includes an output monitor configured to monitor the output level of the voltage regulator when the logic module asserts a monitor enable signal, and to shut down when the logic module does not assert the monitor enable signal. The output monitor is configured to assert a refresh signal when the level of the output of the voltage regulator deviates from a predetermined range and the monitor enable signal is asserted; and the logic module is configured to assert a pulse enable signal when the refresh signal is asserted. The invention includes a pulse generator configured to cause the voltage regulator to refresh the output of the voltage regulator when the refresh signal and pulse enable signals are asserted. The invention includes a reference voltage generator configured to supply a predetermined reference voltage to the output monitor. The timer includes a counter configured to assert the check signal every n cycles of a clock signal, where n is programmable. The timer is configured to assert the check signal when an ultra-low-power mode signal is asserted. The clock signal is external to the controller. The invention includes a clock generator configured to provide the clock signal. The voltage regulator has a buck topology and the counter is powered by the output of the regulator. The voltage regulator has a boost topology and the counter is powered by the input to the regulator.
In general, in yet another aspect, the invention features a voltage regulator. It includes a timer configured to assert a periodic check signal; and a logic module configured to deactivate the voltage regulator and to thereafter periodically activate the voltage regulator to monitor and selectively refresh the output of the voltage regulator in response to the check signal.
Particular implementations can include one or more of the following features. The invention includes an output monitor configured to monitor the output level of the voltage regulator when the logic module asserts a monitor enable signal, and to shut down when the logic module does not assert the monitor enable signal. The output monitor is configured to assert a refresh signal when the level of the output of the voltage regulator deviates from a predetermined range and the monitor enable signal is asserted; and the logic module is configured to assert a pulse enable signal when the refresh signal is asserted. The invention includes a pulse generator configured to cause the voltage regulator to refresh the output of the voltage regulator when the refresh signal and pulse enable signals are asserted.
Advantages that can be seen in implementations of the invention include the following. Use of embodiments of the present invention can result in a reduction in the quiescent current of the switching regulator and a significant increase in battery standby time for portable devices.

Ultra-low-power mode for a voltage regulator