In one embodiment, the invention is to a method for producing a vinyl acetate composition. The method comprises the step of contacting acetic acid, oxygen, and ethylene under conditions effective to form a crude vinyl acetate composition comprising vinyl acetate, acetic acid, residual oxygen, and water. The method further comprises the step of contacting the crude vinyl acetate composition or a derivative thereof with at least one scavenger to form a treated crude vinyl acetate composition.

Vinyl acetate is an important monomer in the production of polyvinyl acetate and polyvinyl alcohol products. Vinyl acetate is conventionally prepared by contacting acetic acid and ethylene with molecular oxygen to form a crude vinyl acetate composition. The reaction is typically conducted in the presence of a suitable catalyst, which may comprise palladium, an alkali metal acetate promoter, and, optionally, a co-promoter, e.g., gold or cadmium, on a catalyst support. U.S. Pat. No. 6,696,596, for example, indicates that it is well known to manufacture vinyl acetate in a reaction in the gas phase with acetic acid and oxygen or oxygen containing gasses over fixed-bed catalysts. U.S. Pat. No. 6,040,474, as another example, describes the manufacture of acetic acid and/or vinyl acetate using two reaction zones wherein the first reaction zone comprises ethylene and/or ethane for oxidation to acetic acid with the second reaction zone comprising acetic acid and ethylene with the product streams being subsequently separated thereby producing vinyl acetate. Also, U.S. Pat. No. 6,476,261 describes an oxidation process for the production of alkenes and carboxylic acids such as ethylene and acetic acid, which are reacted to form vinyl acetate, demonstrating that more than one reaction zone can be used to form the vinyl acetate.
This vinyl acetate reaction, however, lends itself to the production of several unwanted impurities, including, for example, non-volatile residues such as polymerized vinyl acetate, polymerized ethylene, and heavy ends, such as acetoxyacetic acid. The formation of these by-products is detrimental in many respects. For example, the formation of these by-products reduces vinyl acetate yield and may lead to fouling of vinyl acetate production equipment, e.g., purification towers and vaporizers.
Conventionally, a heavy ends tower is utilized to remove these by-products. The heavy ends tower, however, is expensive. Also, the level of purification achieved by the heavy ends tower leaves much to be desired. Thus, the need exists for methods for producing a vinyl acetate composition wherein the formation of impurities is inhibited or wherein the impurity content is reduced.
The disclosures of all of the references mentioned above are hereby incorporated by reference.

Methods for producing a vinyl acetate composition having a low impurity content


A portable transportation assembly 10 having a pair of wheels 40, 42 which may be selectively raised and lowered and which is adapted to transport a bathroom assembly 200 in an easy and efficient manner. The assembly 10 includes a selectively movable assembly 202 which allows an item 200 to be easily placed within and removed from the assembly 10, and a selectively movable back bumper assembly 202.

A portable bathroom is used in many environments, such as upon a golf course or other generally outdoor location which has limited or no bathroom facilities. One difficulty in the use of such portable bathrooms lies in the transport of such assemblies to these localities. That is, access to these locations is often very difficult to obtain, and transportation of these relatively large and bulky portable bathroom assemblies generally requires a relatively large vehicle which has difficulty in accessing and/or easily maneuvering around/within the required location or which undesirably damages the ground or other aspects of these locations (e.g., a farm field having no road or a remote golf course location). Such damage is particularly troublesome within golf courses or other areas in which it is important to keep it "pristine".
There is therefore a need for a new and improved assembly which allows a portable bathroom to be easily and efficiently transported to a desired location and which may be later stored when not in use. The present invention provides such an assembly and may be thought of as "portable" since it has wheels which selectively retract for easy storage and since it may be quickly and easily transported to a desired location by a conventional and relatively small motorized vehicle.


A method and apparatus for determining camber and caster of a vehicle wheel in which the camber angle is determined in a manner that accounts for the influence of any existing toe angle. This is accomplished by detecting the displacement of one or more points located fore or aft of the wheel's vertical measurement plane and then making a correction to these displacements to account for influence of the toe angle. The apparatus includes a laser that projects shaped light onto the sidewall of the tire at a location offset from the normal upper measurement position. The shaped light illuminates an offset measurement point on the tire sidewall and an optical sensor detects the reflected image. A computer then determines the location of the measurement point within the two-dimensional image space of the optical sensor. Trigonometric equations utilizing the toe angle are then used to determine the horizontal displacement within the vertical measurement plane of this offset measurement point from the tire center or other reference point. Once this horizontal displacement is known, the camber can be determined mathematically using a known trigonometric relationship. By determining the camber angle at left and right steered toe angle, the caster angle of the wheel can the be determined.

As is known by those skilled in the art, the camber of a vehicle wheel can determined using a sensor that determines the position of a measurement point at an upper, center location on the tire sidewall. Camber can then be calculated based upon known trigonometric relationships between that measurement point and at least one other point (such as the tire center). As is also known, the caster of a steerable vehicle wheel can be determined based upon the measured camber values at each of two steered positions. This technique is described by D. B. January in "Steering Axis Geometry and Caster Measurement," SAE Publication No. 850219.
In many wheel alignment machines, camber is calculated using the horizontal distance between the upper measurement point and the tire center or other such measurement point. This camber calculation assumes that these two measurement points both lie within a vertical plane that is perpendicular to the rotational plane of the wheel (i.e., perpendicular to the plane in which any arbitrary point on the wheel moves when the wheel is rotating). This vertical plane will hereinafter be referred to as the "vertical measurement plane."
Given this assumption, it is commonly accepted that the actual upper measurement point must be as close as possible to this vertical measurement plane. Otherwise, the position of the measurement point will be influenced by the toe of the wheel and the calculated camber will be incorrect. Thus, the measurement sensors used in wheel alignment machines are typically designed and are often even calibrated so that, for a wheel set at zero toe, the upper measurement point will be as close as possible to the upper, center position on the wheel (i.e., as close as possible to the vertical measurement plane).
One problem with determining caster based upon camber values is that the measured displacements are small and are typically not much larger than the resolution of measurement. Moreover, the influence of the toe angle on the displacements of the measurement points is increased due to the intentional introduction of specific toe angles during the measurement process. Consequently, the caster measurements are less accurate and less repeatable than is considered desirable.
In many non-contact type measurement sensors, this problem is further aggravated by the fact that the shaped light is projected in a predetermined direction that does not change when the wheel is steered left and right. Thus, when camber is being determined for purposes of caster measurement, the point of impingement of the shaped light (i.e., the measurement point) will vary as the wheel is steered between the two left and right positions. This leads to further inaccuracies in the camber (and, thus, caster) measurement.

Non-contact method and apparatus for determining camber and caster of a vehicle wheel


A high output power amplifier with change of voltage transformation ratio of a transformer is disclosed. The high output power amplifier using a transformer installed to output leads thereof, which can increase dynamic range and efficiency thereof as voltage transformation ratio of the transformer is adjusted and load resistance is adjusted so as not to generate signal distortion phenomenon and not to decrease its efficiency.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power amplifier, and more particularly to a high output power amplifier with adjustable voltage transformation ratio of a transformer which is installed to output leads thereof, which can increase dynamic range and efficiency thereof as a voltage transformation ratio of the transformer is adjusted and load resistance is adjusted so as not to generate signal distortion phenomenon and not to decrease its efficiency.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, saturation power showing output power Pout of an amplifier can be expressed as following equation (1).Pout=Vsuppy2/Rload  (1)
Here, Pout, Vsuppy and Rload denote output power, source voltage and load resistance.
As shown in equation (1), when Vsuppy is adjusted, the output power Pout is controlled.
With reference to FIG. 1 of a circuit diagram illustrating a prior art high output power amplifier, a source voltage controller 113 performs conversion of input voltage 112 to adjust source voltage 114 inputted to the amplifier 115, using a DC-DC converter or a low dropout voltage regulator (LDO), for example.
However, since the source voltage controller 113 has limited control of the range of output power Pout 118, as shown in FIG. 1, as the load resistance Rload 119 is changed, the dynamic range of the output power Pout 118 can be more highly controlled.
Therefore, as load resistance 116 with respect to output of the amplifier 115 is adjusted using a variable load unit 117, the dynamic range and efficiency of the high output power amplifier of the prior art can be increased.
FIG. 2a to FIG. 2c are graphs describing changes of efficiency of a prior art high output power amplifier as load resistance is changed.
More specifically, FIG. 2a is a graph illustrating a voltage, current, and consumption power (a rectangular area which is indicated by slant lines) at the maximum output. FIG. 2b is a graph in a state wherein the efficiency of the high output power amplifier is decreased, compared at the maximum output power, because the consumption power is not reduced, when the output power is decreased to a half thereof, if the load resistance is not change. FIG. 2b is a graph in a state wherein the efficiency of the high output power amplifier is maintained, because the consumption power (a rectangular area which is indicated by slant lines) is decreased, when the load resistance is doubled, if the output power is reduced to a half thereof.
Therefore, with reference to FIG. 3a and FIG. 3b showing circuits for changing load resistance of a prior art high output power amplifier, a method for changing the load resistance of the amplifier is described as follows.
As shown in FIG. 3a, the load resistance is changed using varactor diodes 127 and 130. Also, the load resistance is changed by switching transistors 134 and 135, as shown in FIG. 3b.
Here, the method using the varactor diodes 127 and 130 controls the load resistance such that, when voltage of the varactor diodes 127 and 130 is varied through control terminals 128 and 31, capacitance of the varactor diodes 127 and 130 is changed.
However, such a method has a disadvantage in that output voltage is clamped by turn-on voltage (approximately 0.7V) of the varactor diodes 127 and 130 and thus output power waveform is distorted.
In FIG. 3a, reference number 120 denotes a high output power transistor, reference number 121 denotes an input lead, reference numbers 122, 126, and 129 denote inductors, reference number 123 denotes a voltage source, reference numbers 124 and 125 denote capacitors, reference number 132 denotes an output lead, and reference number 133 denotes a load resister.
Also, as shown in FIG. 3b, the load resistance can be changed as switching transistors 134 and 135 are turned on/off.
However, the method using the switching transistors has drawbacks in that efficiency is relatively small since size of the switching transistor is relatively large and turn-on resistance of the switching transistors exsists.

High output power amplifier with adjustable voltage transformation ratio of transformer

Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology


A method for manufacturing a nano pattern writer includes forming one or more grooves on a first layer, depositing a substance on the first layer to form a film on the first layer, polishing the film on the first layer to thereby form a patterned film that fills the one or more grooves on the first layer, placing a second layer over the patterned film to thereby form a layered structure interposing the patterned film between the first layer and the second layer, and removing a part of the first layer and the second layer to thereby expose portions of the patterned film.

Recent developments in nano technology have broadened the application area of nano structures due to the superior properties achievable from nano patterns of nano structures. Nano patterns (e.g., size, shape) formed on a plate may determine the properties (e.g., antifouling, antireflective, reflective, sticking, non-sticking, bio-compatible, etc.) of the plate. Such nano patterns may also facilitate the implementation of nano-scale devices, e.g., having a nano-patterned conducting line therein. Conventional techniques for forming nano patterns involve complex processes such as optical lithography, plasma etching, e-beam lithography or the like, but fail to achieve sufficiently fine patterns of a nano structure.

Korea University Research and Business Foundation


A cutting machine which includes a hitching structure supporting, via a suspension arm, an elongated cutting mechanism connected to the suspension arm by one articulation of horizontal longitudinal axis pointing in the direction of travel during work, and a locking device intended in the transport position to lock automatically this one articulation. The locking device includes a connecting member connected on the one hand to the cutting mechanism by another articulation of geometric axis substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the one articulation, and on the other hand to the hitching structure by a connection allowing, in the work position, a movement of the connecting member with respect to the hitching structure, and preventing, in the transport position, a movement of the connecting member with respect to the hitching structure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a machine for cutting plants including:
a hitching structure intended to be connected to a motor vehicle; PA1 a cutting mechanism extending, during work, transversely to the direction of travel during work (work position) and, during transport, at least substantially in the direction of travel during work (transport position); PA1 a suspension arm connected on the one hand to the hitching structure by means of a first articulation of upward-pointing longitudinal axis and on the other hand to the cutting mechanism by means of a second articulation of longitudinal axis pointing at least substantially in the direction of travel during work when said cutting mechanism is in the work position; PA1 a locking device which in the transport position allows the pivoting of the cutting mechanism about the longitudinal axis of the second articulation to be locked and which includes a connecting member connected on the one hand directly or indirectly to the cutting mechanism and on the other hand to the hitching structure. PA1 allowing, in the work position, a movement of the connecting member with respect to the hitching structure, and PA1 preventing, in the transport position, a movement of the connecting member with respect to the hitching structure. PA1 the connecting member is connected to the hitching structure by means of the connecting means which: PA1 the connecting means connecting the connecting member to the hitching structure includes a fourth articulation having an upward-pointing geometric axis; PA1 in the normal work position (cutting mechanism extending horizontally), the geometric axis of the fourth articulation is at least substantially coincident with the longitudinal axis of the first articulation; such an arrangement makes it possible to pivot the cutting mechanism and the suspension arm from the work position into the transport position or vice versa about the longitudinal axis of the first articulation without altering the relative position of the connecting member with respect to the suspension arm and also without altering the relative position of the cutting mechanism with respect to said suspension arm; in particular, such an arrangement makes it possible to keep the cutting mechanism in a substantially horizontal position in the transport position and this has the advantage, when transporting the cutting machine, of keeping substantially the same ground clearance in the wind rowing position (cutting mechanism extending transversely to the direction of travel during work and above the ground); PA1 the connecting means connecting the connecting member to the hitching structure includes a journal connected to the connecting member and extending through a guide device connected to the hitching structure; PA1 the guide device includes a slot extending transversely to the direction of travel during work; PA1 the slot is at least substantially rectilinear; PA1 the longitudinal axis of the slot extends at least substantially at right angles to the direction of travel during work and at least substantially horizontally; such a positioning of the slot makes it possible, in the work position, for the connecting member to move transversely to the direction of travel during work and in the transport position prevents said connecting member from moving significantly; PA1 the longitudinal axis of the slot intersects the longitudinal axis of the first articulation; PA1 the longitudinal axis of the slot intersects the longitudinal axis of the first articulation at least substantially at right angles; PA1 the pivoting of the cutting mechanism about the longitudinal axis of the second articulation is limited in each direction by a stop; PA1 the stops are situated close to the connecting means connecting the connecting member to the hitching structure; PA1 the stops are formed by the two ends of the slot; PA1 a lever mechanism is provided, this being situated between the cutting mechanism and the suspension arm, the connecting member being connected to said lever mechanism; PA1 the lever mechanism includes a pivoting lever with two branches: PA1 the lever mechanism additionally includes a link rod situated between the pivoting lever and the cutting mechanism, said link rod being connected on the one hand to the pivoting lever by means of a sixth articulation and on the other hand to the cutting mechanism by means of a seventh articulation, the longitudinal axes of said sixth and seventh articulations being at least substantially parallel to the longitudinal axis of the second articulation; PA1 the seventh articulation is an elastic articulation; PA1 the machine for cutting plants includes a stabilizer device intended to return the cutting mechanism to a predetermined position when said cutting mechanism is in the work position; such a stabilizer device additionally makes it possible, when maneuvering at the end of the field, when the cutting mechanism is suspended transversely to the direction of travel during work above the ground by means of the suspension arm, to keep said cutting mechanism in the predetermined position; PA1 the predetermined position is the normal work position, that is to say the one in which the cutting mechanism extends at least substantially horizontally; PA1 the stabilizer device includes two elastic elements acting in opposite directions; PA1 each elastic element is situated between the connecting member and the suspension arm; PA1 the intensity of the action provided by the stabilizer device is adjustable; PA1 the connecting member extends above the suspension arm; such a position of said connecting member advantageously allows it to be kept away from the plants in order not to compromise the correct operation of the locking device; PA1 the connecting member consists of a rod extending at least substantially parallel to the suspension arm.
2. Discussion of the Background
Such a machine for cutting plants is disclosed in document EP-A-0 655 186.
This known cutting machine, broadly speaking, includes a hitching structure, a cutting mechanism, a suspension arm and a locking device.
The suspension arm is connected to the hitching structure by means of a first articulation of upward-pointing longitudinal axis so that it can be pivoted into a work position and into a transport position about said longitudinal axis.
The suspension arm is also connected to the cutting mechanism by means of a second articulation of substantially horizontal longitudinal axis so that said cutting mechanism can pivot about said longitudinal axis so as to be able to follow the lie of the land during work.
The locking device for its part is intended to lock, in the transport position, the pivoting of the cutting mechanism about the longitudinal axis of the second articulation and to allow said pivoting in the work position. For this, the locking device includes a pivoting plate connected on the one hand to the cutting mechanism by means of an additional articulation of longitudinal axis parallel to the longitudinal axis of the second articulation and, on the other hand, to the suspension arm by means of a connection. This connection is composed of a slot having a first part which is substantially vertical and a second part which is substantially horizontal and at right angles to the first part. This connection additionally includes a guide shaft fixed on the suspension arm, which guide shaft extends into the slot in such a way that in the work position the first part of said slot can move over said guide shaft to allow pivoting of the cutting mechanism about the longitudinal axis of the second articulation.
The locking device is also provided with an actuating means connected on the one hand to the pivoting plate and on the other hand to the hitching structure in such a way that when the suspension arm and the cutting mechanism are pivoted into the transport position about the longitudinal axis of the first articulation, said actuating means acts on the pivoting plate to make it pivot about the longitudinal axis of the additional articulation. For this, the second part of the slot becomes housed over the guide shaft allowing the cutting mechanism to be fixed to the suspension arm.
When the suspension arm and the cutting mechanism are pivoted into the work position, the actuating means stops acting on the pivoting plate, which is returned to its work position where the first part of the slot can move over the guide shaft, by means of an elastic element.
Most of the locking device, especially the pivoting plate and the guide shaft, is situated just above the cutting mechanism, between the latter and the suspension arm.
It is well known by those skilled in the art that the upper part of the cutting mechanism is particularly exposed to the plants, which means that there is a risk of the correct operation of the locking device being compromised.
Furthermore, the means of actuating the locking device of this known cutting machine consists of a string which becomes slack when it stops acting on the pivoting plate in the work position. When the string is slack it dangles down toward the ground along the suspension arm, and risks hampering correct operation. This is because there is a risk of this string becoming caught up in the fodder or in a moving part such as, for example, the wheel of the motor vehicle to which the cutting machine is hitched. In addition, when the cutting machine is transported, the string is subjected to fairly high stresses, especially when the motor vehicle to which the cutting machine is hitched runs over ruts, and there is a risk of said string breaking.
The design of this known locking device is relatively weak, and there is the risk that this will lead to fairly steep costs.

Cutting machine with a device for locking the cutting mechanism


Methods and apparatus are provided for QoS-based admission control (QBAC). The disclosed QoS-based admission control techniques use QoS parameter measurements. An admission control request for a call on a path in a packet network is processed by obtaining performance data for the path; and predicting a performance of the call on the path using performance data for the path. In one implementation, the predicted performance is based on one or more derivatives of the performance data. Typically, the performance data includes historical performance data and is based on at least one quality of service metric.

Generally, the Internet Protocol (IP) protocol and IP networks have been designed to support a single, best-effort class of service. IP networks have successfully transported TCP-mediated data traffic. As a result, there is a convergence effort to migrate all networked applications, such as voice and videoconferencing applications, to use IP networks as the common transport medium. Best-effort service, however, is not sufficient to meet the Quality-of-Service (QoS) needs of these next-generation applications, especially in an enterprise environment.
A challenging problem for IP networks is efficient admission control (AC). Admission control is required, for example, to support QoS for many inelastic applications. A number of techniques have been proposed or suggested for admission control in packet-switched networks. For example, resource-based admission control (RBAC) methods reserve sufficient network resources for an application on a per-flow basis to handle specified peak bandwidth needs. While generally providing guaranteed QoS, RBAC techniques ignore statistical multiplexing and are therefore inefficient in the sense that additional flows could typically be admitted without experiencing QoS degradation.
More recently, measurement-based admission control (MBAC) methods have been proposed that learn the statistics of network traffic by making on-line measurements. In addition to improving the number of calls supported within a given bandwidth, when compared to RBAC methods, MBAC methods require simpler traffic specifications and are simpler to analyze and design. MBAC methods may be categorized as passive, active, or hybrid techniques. Passive MBAC techniques measure statistics of actual bearer (non-synthetic) traffic. Active MBAC techniques probe the network with synthetic traffic. Hybrid methods combine passive and active methods to improve accuracy and reduce active traffic loads.
While existing MBAC techniques exhibit improved efficiency, by admitting a greater number of calls before unnecessary blocking is experienced, they suffer from a number of limitations, which if overcome, could further improve the utility and efficiency of admission control techniques in packet networks, such as IP networks. For example, such MBAC techniques are based on bandwidth measurements. In addition, they often require unavailable or expensive router functionality and do not address end-to-end considerations, focusing on enforcing admission control on a single link instead of on paths between endpoints.
A need therefore exists for methods and apparatus for admission control that determine whether sufficient bandwidth exists, in a statistical sense, across a path to admit the next flow without exceeding a statistically computed bandwidth limit. A further need exists for methods and apparatus for admission control that can map bandwidth loads to QoS values. Existing methods for mapping bandwidth measures to QoS, as described, for example, in L. Yao, "Queuing Analysis and Control of Long Range Dependent Traffic: Applications to Internet Traffic Engineering," Ph.D. Dissertation, George Washington University, apply only to highly aggregated traffic over high-speed links, and are therefore not appropriate for typical admission control scenarios or customer environments.

Method and apparatus for quality-of-service-based admission control


A heating disk is located inside a vacuum chamber between a substrate holder inside the chamber and a lamp outside the chamber. The lamp emits radiation in a wavelength range which passes through a glass plate in the chamber wall but is absorbed by the heating disk, which may consist of graphite. When the disk is heated to 1000.degree. K. it emits radiation in a wavelength range which can be absorbed by a transparent substrate in the holder.

The invention relates to an apparatus for heating a substrate disposed on a substrate holder in a chamber behind a glass plate by the radiation from a lamp disposed outside of the chamber behind the glass plate.
An apparatus of this kind is described for example in U.S. Pat. No. 5,047,611. With it a transparent insulating coating on an integrated circuit is said to be hardened from the inside out because the light first heats the conductor plate and the heat then flows outward from it through the insulating coating. The lamp in this apparatus is disposed at the focal point of a parabolic mirror, so that a parallel beam passes from the lamp through the glass plate to the substrate. In ordinary incandescent lamps the temperature of incandescence of the filament is more than 2000.degree. K. The maximum light emission then has a wavelength of about 1.1 to 1.4 .mu.m. Such short-wavelength light is hardly absorbed by the glass plate, so that the light is able to arrive at the substrate with minor absorption losses.
If transparent substrates instead of opaque substrates are to be warmed in a chamber by externally disposed light sources, it is then necessary to select the wavelength of the radiation so as to obtain maximum absorption of the radiation by the substrate. If, for example, the substrate absorbs at longer wavelengths, the temperature of incandescence of the lamp can be lowered, thereby resulting in a shift of the peak emission toward greater wavelengths. This lowering of the incandescence temperature, however, is bound up with a great decrease of the emission, so that the desired effect of raising the warming rate of the substrate is not achieved. In addition, the shift toward greater wavelengths results in the long-wavelength light also being absorbed to a great extent in the glass plate defining the chamber, so that a greater heat loss occurs at that point. Consequently, in high-vacuum coating apparatus in which transparent substrates are to be coated, the lamps appropriate for this purpose are disposed inside of the vacuum chamber, thereby undesirably increasing the volume of the vacuum chamber.
The problem on which the invention is based is to construct an apparatus of the kind described above such that both opaque and transparent substrates can be warmed therein with the lowest possible energy demand by a lamp disposed externally behind a glass plate.

Apparatus for heating a transparent substrate utilizing an incandescent lamp and a heating disk emitting infrared wavelengths

Balzers und Leybold Deutschland Holding Aktiengesellscaft


Provided are an optical transmission apparatus and an optical access network for a wavelength-division multiplexing optical network with sub-carrier multiplex and sub-carrier multiple access schemes. The optical transmission apparatus includes: a multiplexer and/or demultiplexer demultiplexing M forward A band optical signals having wavelengths each comprising a plurality of sub-carriers and multiplexing M backward B band optical signals having wavelengths each comprising a plurality of sub-carriers; a plurality of optical power splitters splitting each of the M forward A band optical signals into N optical signals; a plurality of optical receivers receiving backward optical signals belonging to a C band; and M optical transmitters converting the backward optical signals in the C band into the M backward B band optical signals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wavelength-division multiplexing optical access network, and more particularly, to an optical transmission apparatus and an optical access network for a wavelength-division multiplexing optical network with both sub-carrier multiplex and sub-carrier multiple access schemes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital subscriber line (xDSL) technologies have been developed to provide data services to subscribers using existing telephone lines. Also, data service schemes have been suggested to provide data services through cable networks using coaxial cables.
Such existing data service technologies do not have problems in terms of supporting telephone traffic and Internet traffic. If ultrahigh speed services such as remote video conferences, high definition television (HDTV) services, remote education, remote diagnoses and treatments are generally available to subscribers, the existing data service technologies are limited by bandwidth and distance, and thus are not able to provide sufficient wideband, high quality services.
Optical access network technologies have been suggested in order to provide wideband, high quality services to users. In particular, wavelength-division multiplexing optical networks have been recently studied as optical access network technologies.
The wavelength-division multiplexing optical access networks are attractive as next generation access networks since the wavelength-division multiplexing optical access networks can provide a large amount of information to subscribers, and are highly secure.
However, the wavelength-division multiplexing optical access networks are costly in terms of installation and maintenance.
Different from Back-Bone networks having a small number of channels and high transmission speeds, in general the access networks require relatively low transmission speeds and include a large number of channels. Thus, new networks are required to be capable of accommodating a large number of subscribers using a small amount of communication resources, i.e., maximizing the number of subscribers per a single optical fiber, which as a result solves the cost reduction issue.
The schemes, each wavelength optical channel of wavelength division multiplexing optical access network joined with TDM or TDMA, sub-carrier multiplex and sub-carrier multiple access networks using a large number of sub-carriers to accommodate a large number of subscribers are considered as alternative options.
The advantages and disadvantages of time-division multiplex and time-division multiple access schemes and sub-carrier multiplex and sub-carrier multiple access schemes will now be described in more detail.
In the time-division multiplex and time-division multiple access schemes, data of a large number of subscribers is statistically multiplexed in order to efficiently use resources.
However, accurate synchronization is required, and the states and requests from subscribers affect the access of other subscribers, and packet overheads increase due to periodical polling and ranging.
In the sub-carrier multiplex and sub-carrier multiple access schemes, different sub-carriers are allocated to subscribers sharing an optical fiber, the information are transmitted through the allocated sub-carriers to each of subscribers, and at the receivers the information are filtered through sub-carrier band pass filters assigned to each of the subscribers.
Optical access networks using sub-carrier multiple access schemes do not suffer from the increase in overhead as in those using time division multiple access caused by timing synchronization, periodical polling, and ranging. However, optical beat interferences (OBIs) may occur in signal bands when receivers in the central base stations simultaneously receive a plurality of light sources. As a result, the OBIs lower a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).

Optical transmission apparatus and optical access network for wavelength-division multiplexing optical network with both sub-carrier multiplex and sub-carrier multiple access schemes

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


A mobile communication device generates a respective discovery request (probe request) in a wireless network. The mobile communication device generates the probe request to learn of available access points providing access to a network such as the Internet. Any access points within range of the mobile communication device receive the discovery request generated by the mobile communication device. In lieu of each of the access points immediately generating a respective probe response to the mobile communication device, each of the access points receiving the discovery request provides notification of the receipt of the discovery request to a wireless network controller controlling communications in the wireless network. The wireless network controller controls which of the multiple access points in the network responds to the discovery request, reducing a number of probe responses collectively generated by the wireless access points to the mobile communication device.

Conventional RF (Radio Frequency) technology has been used for many years to connect wireless devices such as phones, laptops, etc., to landline networks and/or other wireless networks. Today, RF technology supports many different types of connection services such as cellular voice and data communications, high-speed data services, etc.
One type of RF technology is known as Wi-Fi™. This more recently implemented short-range wireless technology includes large-scale installation of WiFi™ base stations (access points). In comparison to the conventional long-range cellular network technology, WiFi™ technology supports short-range communications such as 200-300 meters as opposed to 1500 or more meters provided by cellular telephone base stations. In comparison to installation of each cellular telephone tower, installation of a respective WiFi™ base station is substantially less expensive.
Wi-Fi™ technology is defined by specifications from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 standards. In general, Wi-Fi™ technology enables computerized devices such as laptop computers, mobile phones, tablet computers, etc., to wirelessly connect to a corresponding computer network. Via a respective wireless link, computer devices can retrieve data over a network such as the Internet.
Conventional computer devices typically have the ability to identify a presence of WiFi™ access points in a corresponding network environment. For example, according to current Wi-Fi™ technology, and a passive scanning technique, each of the access points in a network environment transmits a beacon signal indicating its presence. The mobile computer devices monitor the region for beacons (i.e., wireless signals as generated by the access points) to determine which, if any, access points are present in the region. The mobile computer device selects a suitable access point amongst the multiple access points to establish a WiFi™ connection.
WiFi™ technology also can support an active scanning technique. In accordance with the active scanning technique, to learn of one or more access points in a region, a computer device can broadcast a wireless probe request signal in the network environment. In response to receiving the wireless probe request signal, any of one or more active WiFi™ network access points within range of the computer device will respond with information indicating their identities. The querying computer device receives and processes the responses. Via the response information from the access points, the operator of the computer can identify which, if any, WiFi™ access points are present in the region.
In certain instances, after identifying one or more publicly available WiFi™ networks, the computer device can be configured to initiate display of the identities of the different WiFi™ networks on a display screen for viewing by a respective user of the computer device. If desired, the user of the computer can manually select from a listing of the available WiFi™ networks in which to connect. Alternatively, the computer can be configured to automatically select an available WiFi access point from the listing.

Wireless spectrum usage and control of access point probe responses


Cosmetic or pharmaceutical compositions are described herein for application to skin, hair and/or a nail of a subject, as well as methods utilizing same for administering hydrogen peroxide to skin, hair and/or a nail, and kits for applying same. The compositions comprise a hydrogen peroxide-producing enzyme, and a substrate of the hydrogen peroxide-producing enzyme. Further described herein are cosmetic compositions and kits for lightening skin and/or hair, which further comprise a lignin peroxidase, as well as cosmetic methods utilizing same.

The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to novel cosmetic compositions, kits and methods and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to cosmetic compositions, kits and methods, which utilize an enzymatic system for producing hydrogen peroxide in situ, and to uses thereof in, for example, lightening skin and/or hair.
The color of human skin is governed by the quantity, quality, and distribution of melanin, a pigment which is also present in plants and microorganisms.
The synthesis of melanin initiates from the precursor L-tyrosine, which is transformed into a second precursor dopaquinone via the action of tyrosinase. Synthesis of melanin takes place in melanosomes, which are present in melanocyte cells present in the epidermal basal layer; synthesis of melanin in these cells is induced by ultraviolet (UV) light. Following synthesis, melanin migrates to epidermal cells and is dispersed therein, where melanin is decolored following dermal metabolism and then scaled off in the form of dirt at the time of skin renewal. Melanin has a clinical importance since it protects the skin from adverse effects caused by UV light. However, high levels of melanin can result in unwanted skin darkening, while the heterogeneous distribution thereof can lead to chloasma and freckling which can be aesthetically displeasing.
Skin lightening products have become increasingly popular in the past few years. The main purpose of skin lightening products is to lighten or whiten the skin or to treat pigmentation disorders such as chloasma, freckles, pregnancy marks and age spots. Several types of skin lightening products are presently available.
Products based on the degeneration and death of pigment cells typically include harsh chemicals, such as hydroquinone, 4-isopropylcatechol, and hydroquinone monobenzyl ether, that promote skin whitening, lightening or fade out skin pigmentation. Other agents which are commonly-available for skin-whitening include kojic acid and derivatives thereof, which inhibits melanin production, and a variety of extracts such as licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra) which include glabridin that decreases oxidization activity of the melanin creating cells in the skin in similar way as Kojic acid does.
Other lightening products are based on the inhibition of tyrosinase, the enzyme that transforms the precursor L-tyrosine into a second precursor dopaquinone. This group of products includes arbutin, a glucose hydroquinone compound, which is capable of inhibiting tyrosinase by chelating copper ions thereby suppressing the tautomerization from dopachrome to 5,6-dihydroxyindole (DHI) and 5,6-dihydroxyindole-2-carboxylic acid (DHICA). Melanostat is another lightening product that acts through tyrosinase. Melanostat is a synthetic peptide that functions in deactivating melanogenesis in melanocytes.
Several antioxidant compounds that can inhibit the production of melanin are also utilized in lightening products. Since the synthesis of melanin involves an oxidation reaction, blocking the oxidation at various points from tyrosine/DOPA to melanin ultimately inhibits the synthesis of melanin. For example, L-ascorbic acid (vitamin C) acts as a reducing agent on melanin intermediates and blocks oxidative reactions; other antioxidants utilized by lightening products include bioflavonoids, which are typically extracted from mulberry or licorice.
However, the currently available skin whitening products are typically inefficient and may be harmful to the skin since a continuous external application of these products can lead to permanent leucoderma and side effects such as dyschromatosis and rash.
Consumers frequently use cosmetic products to care for their skin. Rough and/or broken skin and hyperpigmentations (such as age spots, freckles, and brown patches associated with sunlight exposure, skin aging or environmental damage to the human skin) are areas consumers typically seek to treat. Skin whitening is of particular interest in certain Asian populations.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20050013784 discloses a treatment mask comprising a water insoluble substrate and a liquid composition comprising a skin tone changing agent and a water-soluble thickening agent.
Treatment masks, which include hydrogen peroxide, are currently available from Reviva Labs (e.g., Oxygen Mask, Green Papaya & Hydrogen Peroxide Oxygen Mask, REV-11305).
International Patent Application Publication WO 2004/052275 discloses methods of producing lignin peroxidase, and methods and cosmetic compositions suitable for skin and hair lightening as well as kits and an article-of-manufacturing including active ingredients for skin and hair lightening.
International Patent Application Publication WO 2012/153336 discloses kits and methods for lightening a skin of a subject, using a mask comprising an oxidizing activator such as hydrogen peroxide, and a cosmetic composition comprising a lignin peroxidase; or a mask comprising a lignin peroxidase and a cosmetic composition comprising the oxidizing activator.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,426,158 describes methods for increasing hydrolysis of a cellulosic material by hydrolyzing the cellulosic material with an enzyme composition in the presence of a polypeptide having peroxidase activity, the peroxidase activity being for reducing the inhibition of hydrolysis by peroxides generated during fermentation.
Hydrogen peroxide is formed in saliva by oxidation of glucose by glucose oxidase. The hydrogen peroxide serves as a substrate for lactoperoxidase in the saliva, which forms bactericidal oxidized intermediates such as hypothiocyanate, hypobromite and hypoiodite from thiocyanate, bromide and iodide, respectively.
International Patent Application Publication WO 88/002600 describes a bactericidal composition comprising a hydrogen peroxide-forming enzyme such as glucose oxidase, a peroxidase such as lactoperoxidase, a thiocyanate and lysozyme. Hydrogen peroxide generated during use is intended, in combination with the peroxidase, to convert the thiocyanate into hypothiocyanate, thereby attenuating bacteria such that they are lysed by the lysozyme.
Midda & Cooksey [J Clin Periodontol 1986, 13:950-956] describe mouthrinses and dentrifices which contain amyloglucosidase and glucose oxidase for producing hydrogen peroxide from dietary fermentable carbohydrates, which in turn converts thiocyanate to hypothiocyanate in the presence of salivary lactoperoxidase, thereby inhibiting bacteria.
Enzycal™ toothpaste (Curaprox) contains lactoperoxidase, glucose oxidase and amyloglucosidase, for strengthening the antibacterial effect of saliva [Br Dent J 2008, 205:681].
Biotene™ toothpaste and mouthwash (GlaxoSmithKline) contain glucose oxidase, lactoferrin, lactoperoxidase, lysozyme.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,607,681 describes anti-microbial compositions containing iodide, thiocyanate, glucose oxidase, D-glucose and optionally also a peroxidase such as lactoperoxidase. The compositions are for use as preservatives or as active agents in oral hygiene, deodorant and anti-dandruff products. The compositions may be provided as non-reacting dry powders and non-aqueous solutions which may be diluted in order to obtain anti-microbial activity.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,214,339 describes treatment of otitis externa in dogs and cats by administering to the outer ear of a non-aqueous composition containing an oxidizable substrate such as glucose and an oxidoreductase enzyme such as glucose oxidase, for producing hydrogen peroxide upon encountering the environment of the outer ear. The composition further contains an iodide salt and a peroxidase such as lactoperoxidase for producing hypioiodite from the hydrogen peroxide.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,833,290 describes a method of dyeing keratinous fibers by treatment with a compound such as hematoxylin, hematein, brazilin and brazilein; a metal salt; a bicarbonate; and hydrogen peroxide or a system which generates hydrogen peroxide, such as urea peroxide, metal peroxides, perborates, percarborates and oxidases in the presence of a suitable substrate.
Additional background art includes Hugoson et al. [Odontol Rev 1974, 25:69-80]; U.S. Pat. No. 7,981,166; and U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 20040161435 and 20090130040.

Enzymatic system-containing cosmetic compositions


A breakable-stem blind rivet (5) is having a mandrel (10) with an enlarged head (12) which is positioned in a shell (20). Before the beginning of the setting operation, the shell (20) is having an exterior diameter which at all points is smaller than the interior diameter of the hole (4) in which the breakable-stem blind rivet is to be set. The breakable-stem blind rivet therefore without any preformed set head has basically the form of a hollow cylinder. Preferably the shell (20) on both sides of a central section (21) is provided with areas (23, 25) in which the shell (20) is more easily deformable than in the central section (21). An apparatus for setting the breakable-stem blind rivets of this kind is provided with a workpiece pressing means (32) surrounding a mouth piece (30) which with respect to the mouth piece (30) is relatively movable and is exerting a force onto the front side of the workpiece.

The breakable-stem blind rivets presently on the market in general are consisting of a shell having a closing head which is inserted on the side of the workpieces facing the setting tool, wherein from the side of the future blind side a mandrel is inserted into the shell, the head of which generally is corresponding to the exterior diameter of the shell. During the setting operation, the rivet is inserted into an opening through both workpieces to be connected until the closing head is contacting the front workpiece. Thereafter, the mandrel is pulled, whereby behind the workpieces to be connected a so-called blind head or closing head is formed.
Such breakable-stem blind rivets according to the prior art unfortunately only have a rather limited grip range. This means, with such a breakable-stem blind rivet of a given size only workpieces with a relatively small difference in their entire thickness can be connected. Further, the shells for the breakable-stem blind rivets according to the prior art are rather complicated to produce because each the closing head has to be formed. In addition with the usual breakable-stem blind rivets, the workpieces to be connected before the beginning of the setting operation have to be compressed.
It is therefore the task to be solved by the present invention to provide for a breakable-stem blind rivet having a larger grip range, wherein preferably in addition it should be achieved that the shell of the rivet is more simple to produce and that workpieces can be connected which not directly contacting each other before the setting operation and which are pressed together by the setting operation.
According to the invention, this task is solved by the feature that the shell before the beginning of the setting operation has an external diameter which at all points is smaller than the internal diameter of the hole in which the breakable-stem blind rivet is set. By this according to the invention a blind rivet is proposed having no closing head. Only when setting the blind rivet according to the invention on both ends of the shell of the blind rivet closing heads are formed. This has the advantage that the production of the corresponding shells is far more simple (these are consisting basically only of a continous small tube), and when using a suitable setting apparatus, the workpieces can be riveted together even if they still are having a certain distance to each other before the setting operation and are only pulled together by the setting operation.
To achieve an extremely good formation of the closing heads, an especially preferred embodiment according to the invention it is provided that the shell on both sides of a central section is having areas, in which the shell is more easily deformable than in the central section.
The axial length of the central section herein is corresponding the minimal grip range of the breakable-stem blind rivet.
Such areas, which are more easily deformable, can be achieved in that the shell on both ends has a conically tapering shape.
In this connection it is further preferred to limit the central section by two circumferential grooves, the distance of which to each other is corresponding to the minimal grip range. By this feature, too, the formation of the closing heads is improved.
In an alternative embodiment according to the invention, in an especially preferred mode, the sections being more easily deformable could be formed by a microstructural change of the material of the shell. This has the special advantage, that merely a microstructural change in limited areas on both sides of the central section has to be performed such, that any additional working of the shell can be dispensed with which means that the shell can be produced with parallel exterior walls in a smoothed shape which simplyfies additionally the method of production substantially.
For performing the microstructural change, in an advantageous way, the more easily deformable areas can be produced by induction annealing of corresponding sections of the shell or alternatively by laser annealing.
In an advantageous improvement according to the invention, it is provided that in the central section there is provided a section having a smaller interior diameter and therefore increasing the wall thickness of the shell, the diameter corresponding to the diameter of the mandrel and, that the mandrel in a section adjacent to his head is having a larger diameter, wherein at the transition between the section of the mandrel having the larger diameter and the remainder of the mandrel, there is provided a groove. By this, the advantage is achieved that the central section, which is more difficult to deform, on the one hand, is defined even clearer and, that, on the other hand, after setting the part of the mandrel remaining in the breakable-stem blind rivet securely is fastened by the fact that by means of the section of the mandrel having the larger diameter during the setting of the rivet material from the section with the increased wall thickness is deformed into the groove.
According to the invention, there further is proposed an apparatus for setting breakable-stem blind rivet having the above features, the apparatus having a mouth piece receiving one end of the mandrel in a gripping apparatus by the means of which the mandrel can be pulled with respect to anvil for the shell contained in the mouth piece in the direction of the front side of the workpieces. According to the invention, here it is proposed that the mouth piece is surrounded by a workpiece pressing means, that the workpiece pressing means is relatively movable with respect to the mouth piece and, that by the means of the workpiece pressing means a force acting on the front side of the workpiece can be created. By this apparatus, it is achieved that with the corresponding size of the force, which can act on the near side of the workpiece, given, firstly, the closing head on the blind side is formed while simultaneously the workpiece on the blind side is pulled onto the workpiece on the near side in case the two workpieces before the setting operation were not directly contacting each other. After finishing the formation of the closing head on the blind side and the possibly occurring movement of the workpiece on the blind side, the force created by the gripping means becomes larger than the force acting on the front side of the workpiece by the workpiece pressing means such, that thereafter the closing head on the front side is formed.
With regard to the construction, it is especially preferred in this connection that the mouth piece on the exterior is having a cylindrical shape and is coaxially surrounded by the workpiece pressing means.
In one embodiment of the apparatus according to the invention, the workpiece pressing means is in a controlled manner advancable against the front side of the workpiece and is retractable up the height of the mouth piece. To set a breakable-stem blind rivet with an apparatus according to this embodiment, the workpiece pressing means firstly is advanced such, that the workpiece is contacting the same and thereafter the mandrel is pulled by the gripping means. During this action, the pressing means is relieving the front end of the shell such, that firstly the closing head on the blind side is formed and thereafter the workpiece on the blind side is pulled onto the workpiece on the front side. Thereafter the workpiece pressing means slowly is retracted in the direction of the mouth piece such, that the anvil of the mouth piece is exerting an increasing pressure on the shell of the breakable-stem blind rivet, whereby thereafter the closing head on the front side is formed.
In alternative embodiments of the apparatus according to the invention, the workpiece pressing means is consisting of an elasticly resilient member pressing against the front side of the workpiece, the pressing force of which is chosen such, that corresponding to the resistance of deformation of the ends of the shell, firstly, the closing head on the blind side and only thereafter the closing head on the front side is formed.
In these embodiments, the workpiece pressing means can be consisting of an elastic body of rubber, hard rubber or the like, or can be prestressed in the direction of the front side of the workpiece by a saucer spring or coil spring.

Breakable-stem blind rivet and apparatus for setting the same


A capacitance gauge for measuring changes in the thickness of dielectric film, such as plastic film, is automatically temperature and humidity compensated by utilizing a primary measurement sensor and a reference sensor which monitors changes in perceived capacitance caused by ambient temperature and humidity changes or other environmentally induced interferences. The reference sensor counterbalances in an equal an opposite fashion, and thereby automatically cancels, any imbalance in the primary sensor caused by temperature, humidity, or other, fluctuations. An improved film transport assembly for serially examining plastic film material which eliminates errors in thickness measurement location and eliminates variation in distance between individual sensor readings, while at the same time allowing the user of the invention to select from a full variable range of distances between individual sensor readings and also allows accurate positioning of the film in the sensor.

In the field with which our invention is concerned, the use of capacitive measuring systems for measuring film thickness is known in the art.
One form known in the art is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,764,899, issued Oct. 9, 1973. This patent measures film thickness by passing the film through a capacitance sensor, wherein variations in film thickness are sensed as dielectric thickness variations between the capacitance members, and are detected as variations in a signal which is applied to the capacitance members. The dimensions and configuration of the "electrodes" or capacitor plates claimed improved characterization of variations in thickness. The patent further claimed a transport for serially examining film material which eliminates errors resulting from tension on the film sample.
Another form of capacitance measuring device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,952,882, issued Aug. 28, 1990, which was submitted as an improvement in the construction of the capacitance sensor disclosed in the foregoing United States patent. This capacitance sensor assembly also measures changes in thickness of a dielectric film, such as plastic film, where the sensor components are constructed from materials having low coefficients of linear temperature expansion, resulting in a claimed measurement device which provides low measurement errors resulting from temperature effects on material expansion and dielectric changes. The design concept was to minimize, not eliminate, the errors caused by temperature effects on the sensor assembly.
Another form of capacitance measuring device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,471,780, issued Oct. 7, 1969. This capacitance sensor assembly also measures changes in thickness of a dielectric film, such as plastic film, where the sensor design was a single capacitive cell with three capacitor plates, which utilized materials of construction and component dimensions which were claimed to minimize the effects of temperature variations and their related changes in dimensional and dielectric properties of the cell. Moisture effects were claimed to be negated by manually adjusting a micrometer which would move the secondary capacitive plate (center plate of three plates) in the cell to counterbalance the effects of moisture in the atmosphere or film sample. However, there was no allowance to monitor the effects of environmental changes (alone) nor an automatic method to eliminate them from the thickness readings.

Apparatus for measuring variations in thickness of elongated samples of thin plastic film


A gas heater is provided with a combustion status sensor that provides heater performance data to a controller that controls the heater according to the sensor data and stored calibration parameters optimized for the particular heater.

The present invention relates to a gas heating appliance and in particular to an electronically controlled gas heater.
The invention has been developed primarily for use in domestic gas space heaters and will be described hereinafter with reference to this application. However, it will be appreciated that the invention is not limited to this particular field of use.
Gas heaters are popular due to their low costs, both capital and on-going, and their high heating capacity. However, increasing awareness of the dangers of emissions of oxides of nitrogen (NOx), particularly in flueless heaters, has seen a corresponding increase in the amount of regulation surrounding such heaters.
One way to reduce NOx emission from a gas heater has been to optimize the combustion chamber and burner designs, and air injection systems. However, in the past such optimization has generally occurred in the physical size and layout of the chamber, and crude pre-setting of a minimum of a heater's many possible operating parameters.
Another major concern, with flueless gas heaters in particular, is the depletion of oxygen which takes place in a poorly ventilated room. As oxygen (O.sub.2) is consumed, carbon dioxide (CO.sub.2) builds up and can provide a health risk for the persons in the room.
Flashback is a condition where the flame is inside of the burner rather than on top of the combustion surface. To prevent destruction of the burner under flashback conditions, the typical heater has required a burner that is substantially more rugged, heavy and expensive than otherwise needed.
Also, the ability to change the operating parameters of such a device during manufacture and after installation has been severely limited in scope. Reliance has been placed upon test equipment external to the device or rudimentary electronic controls.


A transmission and reception apparatus, system for transmitting and receiving signals, and method for transmitting and receiving signals are disclosed. In one example, a transmitting part produces an output signal including a first digitally modulated signal. A receiving part includes a mixer circuit and receives an input signal including a second digitally modulated signal. A folding signal may be present as a function of the first digitally modulated signal and a clock signal used to produce the first digitally modulated signal. The mixer circuit performs frequency down conversion on the input signal, and may also be configured to perform a harmonic wave removal function on the input signal that reduces the presence of the folding signal from the input signal. The receiving part may further include a filter circuit that receives the frequency-down-converted input signal from the mixer circuit and selects a predetermined reception signal from the frequency-down-converted input signal.

This disclosure relates to a transmission and reception apparatus and a transmission and reception system.
A transmission and reception system wherein an image is transmitted in the form of an analog signal using a coaxial cable or the like is used widely, for example, as a monitoring camera system.
In a transmission and reception system wherein an analog signal is transmitted using a coaxial cable or the like, as the frequency of a signal to be transmitted increases, and as the transmission distance increases, attenuation of the signal increases. Accordingly, transmission of image data or the like in the form of an analog signal is limited in terms of the length of the transmission distance from a point of view of degradation of the image caused by attenuation of the signal.
Therefore, there is a demand to use a digitally modulated signal by use of quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM) or quadrature phase shift keying (QPSK) or the like in transmission and reception systems adopted in a monitoring camera system and other systems as well, so as to achieve transmission of data such as image data which suffers less degradation. In transmission wherein a digitally modulated signal is used, even if the transmission distance is long, if the strength of the signal exceeds a certain threshold level, then an image which is not degraded significantly can be received by the reception side by carrying out digital signal processing such as error correction.
In order to generate a signal digitally modulated by QAM, QPSK or the like, usually a signal based on a carrier, a data rate and a modulation method is first generated by a digital signal processing circuit. The generated signal is inputted to a D/A converter, and thus a digitally modulated signal is obtained.
In general, a D/A converter carries out sampling based on a predetermined clock signal. The D/A converter therefore outputs a carrier to be generated and a folded signal which is the difference between the clock signal and the carrier. Since the folded signal causes folding distortion, usually an anti-aliasing filter is disposed on the output side of the D/A converter to attenuate the folded signal included in the transmission signal. The technique just described is disclosed, for example, on page 3 of a document searched Nov. 24, 2011 on the Internet (URL: http://www.analog.com/static/imported-files/jp/overviews/ADI_Data_Conversion_Poster_F.pdf).

Transmission and reception apparatus and transmission and reception system


A client-server semiconductor verification system is described. The system comprises a client device storing a test job having test vectors and configuration data for programmable logic for testing a design of a logic circuit. A server is coupled to the client device and receives the test job from the client device. Finally, a system under test coupled to the server and has programmable logic which is reconfigured. The system under test receives the test vectors and outputs result vectors to the client device by way of the server. Corresponding methods are also disclosed.

Circuit design verification can require significant time and costly equipment, including both software and hardware. Currently, a behavioral description and test bench in hardware description language (HDL) are created for a design of a semiconductor device. Even if a behavioral description is not created, the design is coded in register transfer level (RTL) and simulated using a testbench. When the design is implemented in a target architecture, lengthy simulations using timing and functional models of the target architecture are run. As designs and technology are becoming more complex, the time required to run these simulations is becoming increasingly long. Although hardware accelerators and hardware emulators are helpful in verifying the design of a semiconductor device, these systems are typically quite expensive. In particular, licenses for software simulators and accompanying hardware peripherals can be prohibitively expensive.
Some of the high cost of these systems comes from the complexity of mapping designs onto the target architecture, especially for emulation systems. Although hardware accelerators are cheaper than emulators because they carry out simulation loading in vendor specific implementation models including timing information, their functionality is limited. That is, the format of the input data is limited to a format specific to the vendor.
Similarly, hardware prototype systems also have a number of drawbacks. Hardware prototype systems are usually in the form of logic analysis tools, from which it is possible to generate, apply and sample stimuli with any semiconductor system having digital inputs and outputs via test probes. However, these systems are not well suited for functional verification.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system and method for verifying a semiconductor design.

Client-server semiconductor verification system


A method for monitoring a tire fitted to a vehicle includes detecting data from the tire, sending the data to a central processing unit using a predetermined telecommunications protocol, causing automatic processing of the data by the central processing unit to obtain at least one value for an index characterizing the tire during use of the tire, and sending the at least one value to a receiving unit. The data from the tire includes a code identifying the tire and at least one item of data regarding a state of the tire. A system for monitoring a tire includes a device for detecting data from the tire and a central processing unit. The central processing unit causes automatic processing of the detected data and generates at least one value for an index characterizing the tire during use of the tire.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a system for monitoring tyres fitted to vehicles, during use thereof. This monitoring is performed by processing data detected on the tyre so as to obtain behavioural indices which can be associated with the working life of said tyre.
2. Description of the Related Art
The patent U.S. Pat. No. 5,737,215 describes a method and an apparatus for comparing with each other vehicles forming part of a fleet, whereby an apparatus compares various characteristics of the vehicles in a fleet so as to produce a signal indicating a deviation from a predefined reference value. This signal is designed to determine which components of the vehicles are not functioning or do not comply with the normal operating specifications. A predefined database is used as a device for comparing the parameters representing said vehicle characteristics. Said parameters consist of three types: values detected by sensors, values calculated by means of functions and values indicating a deviation from values detected by sensors.
The patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,773,011 describes a method for monitoring, selecting and evaluating vehicle tyres. In particular, this patent describes a method for monitoring the state of tyres fitted to vehicles in order to manage in an optimum manner tyres used by fleets of vehicles, for example lorries. A computer analyses information relating to the tyres of each vehicle in the fleet in order to check for example the wear thereof. In this patent, this information consists of the inflation pressure and the depth of the grooves in the tread band. The data may be processed in a microcomputer, one of which is present in each vehicle, or processed in a central computer. Among the various functions the system also calculates the cost per kilometer of the tyres.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,862,486 describes a revolution counter associated with a tyre. In particular, the patent describes a piezoelectric sensor associated with the tyre, able to emit an electric signal during each revolution of the tyre when the latter makes contact with the ground. This signal is processed and sent to a counter which determines the number of rotations performed by the tyre. The sensor is designed to determine the number of kilometers travelled by the tyre during its working life.
A tyre basically consists of a torus-shaped carcass generally comprising at least one reinforcing ply provided with textile or metallic cords lying in the radial planes, i.e. containing the axis of rotation of the tyre. The ends of the carcass ply are preferably folded back, axially outwards from the inside, around two metal annular cores—usually called "bead wires" —which form the reinforcement for the beads, namely the radially internal ends of said tyre. The beads allow assembly of the tyre on a corresponding mounting rim.
A tread band is positioned on the peripheral rim of said carcass and has, formed in it, a tread pattern by means of which the tyre makes contact with the ground. The tread band has a thickness of predetermined value and is defined between an outer surface, intended to make contact with the ground, and an inner surface, preferably lined with a thin fixing layer ("liner") designed to ensure the necessary adhesion between the material of the tread band and that of a belt assembly. The abovementioned belt assembly is an annular reinforcing structure which is circumferentially unextendable and arranged between the carcass and the tread band. Generally the belt structure comprises at least two radially superimposed layers of rubberized fabric provided with metal reinforcing cords. In each layer said cords are arranged parallel to each other and intersecting with respect to the cords of the adjacent layers; preferably, the cords in said layers are also arranged symmetrically inclined with respect to the equatorial plane of the tyre. Preferably, the belt structure also comprises a further, radially external, layer of cords oriented circumferentially with respect to the tyre, usually known as 0° cords.
A tyre of this type is described in the patent application EP 613 794 in the name of the same Applicants.
Tyres for heavy vehicles, such as road haulage vehicles, vehicles used for quarry and construction work, coaches for transporting persons, etc., constitute a significant proportion of the vehicle management costs, with the result that it is currently the practice to replace the totally worn tread band with a new tread band by means of a process which is generally called "remoulding". Preferably, this process envisages the removal of the remainder of a worn tread band and, after a visual analysis of the tyre carcass in order to check its condition, the deposition of a new tread band. If the new tread band consists of unprocessed material, the carcass thus lined is inserted into a vulcanization mould where moulding of the tread band and vulcanization of the new band on the old carcass is performed. Alternatively, tread bands which are pre-moulded with a suitable tread pattern and pre-vulcanized may be used and in this case are bonded to the old carcass using suitable adhesives.
In the case of the abovementioned vehicles the new tyres are generally mounted on the front steering axles, whereas the remould tyres are mounted on the driving or driven rear axles and the trailer axles.
For example, in the case of a heavy vehicle comprising an engine cab with a front steering axle, a first rear driving axle, a second rear idle axle and a trailer, the tyres are arranged as follows:                new tyres are mounted on the front steering axle;        tyres which have been remoulded once are mounted on the rear axles;        tyres which have been remoulded more than once are mounted on the trailer axles.
On the basis of this type of use of the tyres, the costs per kilometer of the tyre and the probable residual working life may vary considerably from tyre to tyre: monitoring this situation constitutes a problem for a vehicle fleet manager which becomes increasingly complex with an increase in the number of vehicles in the fleet and which requires, among other things, the management of a suitable stock of spare tyres.


The present disclosure relates to a method and an apparatus for representation of a sparse matrix in a neural network. In some embodiments, an exemplary operation unit includes a buffer for storing a representation of a sparse matrix in a neural network, a sparse engine communicatively coupled with the buffer, and a processing array communicatively coupled with the sparse engine. The sparse engine includes circuitry to: read the representation of the sparse matrix from the buffer, the representation comprising a first level bitmap, a second level bitmap, and an element array; decompress the first level bitmap to determine whether a block of the sparse matrix comprises a non-zero element; and in response to the block comprising a non-zero element, decompress the second level bitmap using the element array to obtain the block of the sparse matrix. The processing array includes circuitry to execute the neural network with the sparse matrix.

Modern neural networks (NNs) often include many nodes and many layers. However, this reduces efficiency in execution and increases latency. Accordingly, input sparsity, output sparsity, and weight sparsity have all been proposed, individual or in combination, to increase efficiency and reduce latency. Indeed, sparsity in an artificial neural network more accurately reflects how neurons in a human brain process information. But sparse matrices in neural networks may lead to significant inefficiencies in both storage and computation. For example, they require an unnecessarily large amount of storage space, which is largely occupied by zeros. In addition, computation on sparse matrices involves a large number of unnecessary operations (such as additions and multiplications) on zero elements.

Apparatus and method for representation of a sparse matrix in a neural network


The present invention relates to foldable polyolefin film compositions, comprising a blend of high density polyethylene, linear low density polyethylene, a magnesium silicate and an alkaline or alkaline earth metal carbonate, to foldable polyolefin films made from such compositions and to a method for producing such.

Polyolefin films are well known for their ability to return at least partially to their original structure when folded. However there are many applications in the packaging industry where it is desirable to provide a film that can be folded and that retains its structure once folded as can be done with paper products. It is of course desirable in such applications that the polyolefin film retains its strength, water resistance and also has the texture and rigidity of paper. Although paper-like products have been manufactured from polyolefins heretofore such products have failed either in the strength or the foldability of the film. In particular the films of the prior art have failed at the fold.
It is an object of this invention to provide polyolefin compositions that can be extruded by blown film technology into films that have little if any elastic recovery or memory and thus are able to retain any fold applied to the film. It is a further object of this invention to provide film that exhibit sufficient strength at the fold so that when they are folded they do not fail or split at the fold. It is further desirable to provide a film that has rigidity adequate to allow wrapping products using commercial wrapping machines. An additional object is to provide a paper-like packaging material that can easily and rapidly sealed.
The foldable products of the present invention are useful in all packaging applications that paper products can be used. They are particularly useful in the tobacco, food and beverage industries. The products of the present invention provide the additional properties characteristic of polyolefin and in particular barrier resistance to water and air, and furthermore are heat sealable. Additives known to improve UV light resistance can be incorporated in the films of the present invention as well as other additives known in the industry to improve desired properties. The product of the present invention can be readily laminated to others polyolefin films or to paper products and can also be coextruded with other thermoplastic materials. The mechanical properties of the films of the present invention are similarly improved over paper products in their tear resistance and tensile strength.


A lighting system includes a first lighting unit for generating output light according to a first current, a second lighting unit for generating output light according to a second current, a third lighting unit for generating output light according to a third current, a fourth lighting unit for generating output light according to a fourth current, a first power driving unit electrically connected to the first and third lighting units, and a second power driving unit electrically connected to the second and fourth lighting units. The second lighting unit is disposed between the first and third lighting units. The third lighting unit is disposed between the second and fourth lighting units. The first power driving unit is employed to drive the first and third currents. The second power driving unit is employed to drive the second and fourth currents.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a lighting system, especially to a lighting system having interlaced driving mechanism.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Flat panel displays (FPDs) are widely used displays nowadays. Because FPDs have slim shapes, low power dissipation and low radiation, FPDs are widely applied on mobile electronic devices as monitors, cell phones, notebooks, televisions and PDAs (personal digital assistants). When operating an FPD, the transmittances of the pixels are adjusted by utilizing a backlight module, so that the FPD can display images accordingly. Thus, the backlight module is a key element for operating an FPD. Please refer to FIG. 1, FIG. 1 shows a related art lighting system 100 operated as a backlight module. As depicted in FIG. 1, the lighting system 100 includes a plurality of power driving units 111-112, a plurality of lighting units 121-124, a circuit board 170 and a plurality of current control units 191-194. For reducing the length of wires and simplifying the circuit layout of the lighting system 100, the lighting units 121-124 are configured sequentially on the circuit board 170. That is, the lighting unit 122 is configured between the lighting units 121 and 123, and the lighting unit 123 is configured between the lighting units 122 and 124. The first power driving unit 111 is electrically connected to the neighboring lighting units 121 and 122, and the second power driving unit 112 is electrically connected to the neighboring lighting units 123 and 124. The first power driving unit 111 is used to provide the first sub-current Id1 to the first lighting unit 121 and provide the second sub-current Id2 to the second lighting unit 122. The first current Ip1 is the combined current of the first sub-current Id1 and the second sub-current Id2. The second power driving unit 112 is used to provide the third sub-current Id3 to the third lighting unit 123 and provide the fourth sub-current Id4 to the fourth lighting unit 124. The second current Ip2 is the combined current of the third sub-current Id3 and the fourth sub-current Id4. The first to fourth current control units 191-194 are electrically connected to the first to fourth lighting units 121-124 to control the first to fourth sub-currents Id1-Id4 respectively.
Please refer to FIG. 2, FIG. 2 shows the waveforms of signals for operating the lighting system 100 of FIG. 1. The horizontal axis represents time. In FIG. 2, waveforms of the first sub-current Id1, the second sub-current Id2, the third sub-current Id3, the fourth sub-current Id4, the first current Ip1 and the second current Ip2 are shown from top to bottom. As depicted in FIG. 2, the phase difference of two successive currents of the first sub-current Id1 to the fourth sub-current Id4 is 90 degrees. During period T11, because the levels of the first sub-current Id1 and the second sub-current Id2 are both at a turn-on level Ion, the level of the first current Ip1 equals to 2Ion. Thus, the output power of the first power driving unit 111 equals to the first power voltage Vp1 multiplied by 2Ion. Similarly, during period T12, because the levels of the third sub-current Id3 and the fourth sub-current Id4 are both at the turn-on level Ion, the level of the second current Ip2 equals to 2Ion. Thus, the output power of the second power driving unit 112 equals to the second power voltage Vp2 multiplied by 2Ion. Therefore, the rated power of the first power driving unit 111 must exceed 2Ion×Vp1, and the rated power of the second power driving unit 112 must exceed 2Ion×Vp2. Besides, when operating a stereoscopic display device to perform three-dimensional (3D) images for each eye of a user to receive different images, in order to avoid reducing the brightness of images, the brightness of the light outputted from a backlight module is usually doubled. Please refer to FIG. 3, FIG. 3 shows the waveforms of signals for operating the lighting system of FIG. 1 to drive a stereoscopic display device. The horizontal axis represents time. As depicted in FIG. 3, when the variation range of levels of the first sub-current Id1 and the second sub-current Id2 are both doubled to 2Ion, the variation range of the level of the first current will reach 4Ion, thus the output power of the first power driving unit 111 must exceed 4Ion×Vp1. Similarly, the output power of the second power driving unit 112 must exceed 4Ion×Vp2. Therefore, the manufacturing cost is raised and the design complexity is heightened.
Please refer to FIG. 4, FIG. 4 shows another related art lighting system 200 operated as a backlight module. As shown in FIG. 4, the lighting system 200 includes a plurality of power driving units 211-212, a plurality of lighting units 221-226, a circuit board 270 and a plurality of current control units 291-296. The lighting units 221-226 are configured on the circuit board 270 sequentially. For reducing the length of traces and simplifying the circuit layout of the lighting system 200, the first power driving unit 211 is electrically connected to the first to third lighting units 221-223. The second power driving unit 212 is electrically connected to the fourth to sixth lighting units 224-226. The first power driving unit 211 is used to provide the first sub-current Id1 to the first lighting unit 221, the second sub-current Id2 to the second lighting unit 222 and the third sub-current Id3 to the third lighting unit 223. The first current Ip1 is the combined current of the first sub-current Id1, the second sub-current Id2 and the third sub-current Id3. The second power driving unit 212 is used to provide the fourth sub-current Id4 to the fourth lighting unit 224, the fifth sub-current Id5 to the fifth lighting unit 225 and the sixth sub-current Id6 to the sixth lighting unit 226. The second current Ip2 is the combined current of the fourth sub-current Id4, the fifth sub-current Id5 and the sixth sub-current Id6. The first to sixth current control units 291-296 are electrically connected to the first to sixth lighting units 221-226 to control the first to sixth sub-currents Id1-Id6 respectively.
Please refer to FIG. 5, FIG. 5 shows the waveforms of signals for operating the lighting system 200 of FIG. 1. The horizontal axis represents time. In FIG. 5, waveforms of the first sub-current Id1, the second sub-current Id2, the third sub-current Id3, the fourth sub-current Id4, the fifth sub-current Id5, the sixth sub-current Id6, the first current Ip1 and the second current Ip2 are shown from top to bottom. As depicted in FIG. 5, the phase difference between two successive currents of the first sub-current Id1 to the sixth sub-current Id6 is 60 degree. During period T21, because the levels of the first sub-current Id1, the second sub-current Id2 and the third sub-current Id3 are all at a turn-on level Ion, the level of the first current Ip1 equals to 3Ion. Thus, the output power of the first power driving unit 211 equals to the first power voltage Vp1 multiplied by 3Ion. Similarly, during period T22, because the levels of the fourth sub-current Id4, the fifth sub-current Id5 and the sixth sub-current Id6 are all at the turn-on level Ion, the level of the second current Ip2 equals to 3Ion. Thus, the output power of the second power driving unit 212 equals to the second power voltage Vp2 multiplied by 3Ion. Therefore, the rated power of the first power driving unit 211 must exceed 3Ion×Vp1, and the rated power of the second power driving unit 212 must exceed 3Ion×Vp2. Besides, when operating a stereoscopic display device to perform three-dimensional (3D) images for each eye of a user to receive different images, in order to avoid reducing the brightness of images, the brightness of the light outputted from a backlight module is usually doubled. When the variation range of levels of the first sub-current Id1, the second sub-current Id2 and the third sub-current Id3 are all doubled to 2Ion, the variation range of the level of the first current will reach 6Ion, thus the output power of the first power driving unit 211 must exceed 6Ion×Vp1. Similarly, the output power of the second power driving unit 112 must exceed 6Ion×Vp2. Therefore, the manufacturing cost is raised and the design complexity is heightened.

Lighting system having interlaced driving mechanism


A convex fan shroud for use with an automotive engine cooling system having a fan and a fan-cooled, liquid-to-air radiator is disclosed. The convex fan shroud has an optimized shape that leads to high air flow rates through the radiator. The convex fan shroud includes a front frame that defines an air-intake opening, a convex top wall connected to the frame, a convex bottom wall connected to the frame, and a pair of opposed convex side walls connected to the frame and to the top and bottom walls. The interior surfaces of the walls are smooth. The convex walls define a barrel-shaped shroud body that includes a round engine-facing opening to accommodate the fan. In addition to generating a higher flow rate, the disclosed inventive concept for a smooth convex fan shroud is relatively low cost to produce and has a relatively high degree of rigidity.

The conventional liquid-cooled internal combustion engine relies primarily on axial flow fans to draw cooling air from outside of the vehicle through the liquid-to-air heat exchanger or radiator for cooling. Various efforts have been made to improve cooling, including increasing the liquid capacity of the radiator, increasing the size or number of fan blades, and changing the pitch of the fan blades.
Complicating the challenge of efficiently cooling the liquid-cooled internal combustion engine is the fact that engine undergoes air flow and temperature changes during operation. When the vehicle is moving, particularly at highway speed, air cooling is elevated and the coolant temperature is lowered. However, when the vehicle is operating in stop-and-go conditions or when the vehicle is standing still, the effectiveness of air cooling drops considerably because the volume of air passing through the radiator is diminished.
In some instances vehicle designers have introduced fan shrouds to assure that there is sufficient cooling air passing through the radiator to reduce the temperature of the radiator coolant to thereby improve cooling efficiency in idle or near-idle conditions. A shroud directed to this purpose is intended to improve the air suction generated by the fan.
The shapes of known fan shrouds have traditionally been determined only by packaging demands that are themselves determined by increasingly restrictive engine compartments. Given such limitations and the lack of understanding about the dynamics of air flow, the influence of known shrouds on the airflow has been negligible.
As in so many areas of vehicle technology, there is always room for improvement related to the cooling arrangements for liquid-cooled internal combustion engines.


An LED lamp includes at least one light source and at least one translucent plastic element disposed in the beam path of the at least one lighting means. The plastic element includes at least two plastic layers made of different translucent materials, the translucency of each one of the two plastic layers having a different wavelength dependence such that the overall transmission function of the at least one plastic member is a desired value.

The backlighting of translucent plastic elements, such as push-button caps with backlit icons, with narrow light sources, such as color LEDs, is easy to control the light transmitted to the eye of a viewer because the color varies only minimally with the wall thickness of the push-button caps. Therefore, the brightness of an LED can be adjusted by varying the wall thickness of the push-button caps.
With a broadband light source such as a white LED, however, it is more complicated. With a broadband light source, both brightness and light color may vary with the wall thickness of the material covering the light source. Varying the wall thickness of the material covering the light source to produce a homogeneous illumination of the symbol on the covering can vary the color that reaches a viewer's eye. Often move to warmer white translucent materials white light through the material back shades.
FIG. 7 shows an example of the prior art. A conventional lamp 41 comprises a white LED 42 with a white translucent plastic element 43 with constant wall thickness. The plastic element 43 is in the path of the emitted white light 44 of the LED 42. During the passage of the white light 44 by the white plastic element 43, the white light 44 is shifted towards yellow as shown by the arrow 45.
FIG. 8 shows another example of a prior art lamp 51. The lamp 51 comprises a white LED light 52 and white translucent plastic element 53 having a varying thickness (in this figure, wedge-shaped). The plastic element 53 is disposed in the beam path of the emitted white light 54 of the LED 52. The LED 52 is positioned approximately equidistant from the right and left ends of the plastic element 53, such that the intensity of the emitted white light 54 is approximately the same at each end of the plastic element 53. When the emitted white light 54 passes through the white translucent plastic element 53, the white light 54 is shifted towards yellow, and does so more the thicker the wall thickness of the white translucent plastic element 53. As indicated by the different gray arrows 55a and 55b, the light (indicated by arrow 55a) emitted through the plastic element 53 at the tip of the wedge is brighter and whiter than the dimmer, yellower light (indicated by arrow 55b) emitted through the plastic element at the stump of the wedge formed by the white translucent plastic element 53, as indicated by the magnitude and shading of the arrows 55a and 55b. Due to the wedge shape, as light passes through the wedge stump more light is absorbed than light passing through the thinner wedge tip, such that the result of the light passing through has different intensities on the wedge stump and wedge tip, as indicated by the different lengths of arrows 55a and 55b.

LED lamp with layered light modifying element


Apparatus and methods are shown for holding a plurality of wires of a cable in fixed positions relative to each other for assisting in the termination of the cable with a connector having plurality of contacts possibly of the insulation displacement type.

Insulation displacement connection (IDC) cable termination, where the cable contains a plurality of wires, with a connector containing a plurality of terminals, can be difficult to perform, particularly if the cable contains a number of small diameter wires such as the type typically used for telecommunications applications.
Tools for such termination in the prior art typically are impact tools that require inserting wires one at a time into connector terminals, or terminate a number of wires at once. One wire at a time termination is a time consuming operation, and multiple wire termination may cause operator discomfort, because of the stress imposed by impact on those wires. Moreover, since connectors often break, a field replacement operation is often necessary, complicating the termination efforts.
Termination may often also require cutting and/or stripping the wires and/or cable. Using prior art tools to perform the cutting may leave less than a flush cut, leaving wire ends exposed which may touch a shielding or electrically conductive member.
Accordingly, apparatus and methods are needed that improves upon these disadvantages in the prior art.