Performing carrier aggregation with narrow bandwidth carriers includes determining that a spectrum block allocated to a sector has a bandwidth that is narrower than a threshold bandwidth, wherein the threshold bandwidth is based on a size of a synchronization signal block (SSB), configuring the spectrum block as a narrow bandwidth carrier, performing carrier aggregation with the narrow bandwidth carrier as a secondary component carrier aggregated with the primary component carrier, and scheduling the SSB within the primary component carrier.

In order to allow for greater wireless network throughput and efficiency, wireless network operators can implement carrier aggregation, i.e. enabling wireless devices and access nodes to communicate using a combination of carriers known as component carriers. Component carriers utilize air-interface resources (such as time-frequency resource blocks) spanning different sets of frequencies within one or more frequency bands available to use within a wireless sector. For example, a primary component carrier may utilize a first set of frequencies, and a secondary component carrier may utilize a second set of frequencies. When two or more component carriers are in the same frequency band, it is referred to as "intra-band carrier aggregation" whereas when the component carriers are parts of different frequency bands, it is referred to as "inter-band carrier aggregation." Further, synchronization signals may be used to synchronize transmissions between the network and the wireless devices. For example, in 5G New Radio (NR) wireless networks, a synchronization signal block utilizes a portion of the air-interface resources of one or more component carriers to synchronize the transmissions. Wireless devices attached to the sector using carrier aggregation can refer to the synchronization signal block to be able to receive transmissions via two or more component carriers.
There may be situations where differently-sized portions of an available spectrum of air interface resources are allocated to a sector. Some portions may have a bandwidth (i.e. range of available frequencies) that is too narrow to fit synchronization signals. Thus, the sector may be configured with a minimum possible bandwidth to be able to utilize a carrier for carrier aggregation. For instance, in 5G NR, there is a minimum channel bandwidth that is determined by the ability to fit a synchronization signal block. However, there may be certain spectrum allocations that have a bandwidth narrower than the size of the synchronization signal block. Thus, these narrow portions of available resources cannot currently be used for NR. While these narrow portions are available for other narrowband transmissions (such as internet of things, etc.), they may otherwise be wasted due to their inability to be used for NR.

Carrier aggregation with narrow bandwidth carriers


A damper and method for tuning a damper utilizing a surface contact reducing resilient member is disclosed. A damper for dampening torsional and bending vibrations in a rotating shaft includes a hub member, an inertia member spaced radially outwardly from the hub member, and a resilient member positioned under compression between the hub member and the inertia member. The resilient member has at least one protrusion extending axially thereon to reduce the amount of surface contact between the resilient member and the hub member or the inertia member. A method for tuning dampers is also disclosed wherein reducing the amount of surface contact between the resilient member and the hub member and inertia member allows the damper to achieve lower part frequency based primarily on the geometry of the resilient member.

Rotary shafts such as rotary driveshafts, propeller shafts, and crankshafts are often used in the power train and engine designs of modern automotive vehicles. Rotary driveshafts are used to drive the front wheels of front wheel driven vehicles, propeller shafts are used to drive the rear drive system in rear wheel driven vehicles, and crankshafts are used to transmit power from the engine to the power train. In studying the rotational movement of such rotary shafts, it is known that certain unbalanced rotation may occur at certain rotational speeds or due to uneven power input thereby causing undesirable vibrations. These undesirable vibrations often present themselves as bending and torsional forces within the shaft during rotation.
For many years, this problem has been recognized and a variety of devices have been constructed and used to lessen or dampen the resultant vibrations. One common form of a damper comprises an inner metal hub attached to a rotary shaft, an outer metal annular member or "inertia member", and an elastomer member positioned under compression between the hub and outer member. The hub directly executes the vibrations created by the shaft due to its rigid coupling thereto. The inertia member is coupled to the hub by the elastomer member and accordingly causes a phase lag between the oscillations of the hub and the corresponding oscillations of the inertia member thereby reducing or eliminating vibrations in the shaft.
Such dampers are designed or "tuned" to generate a prescribed vibrational frequency adjusted to the dominant frequency of the excited harmful vibrations. The damper converts or transfers the vibrational energy of the rotary driveshaft to the damper by resonance, and eventually absorbs the vibrational energy of the rotary driveshaft. In short, the damper attempts to cancel or negate vibrations that are induced onto or caused by the rotary driveshaft in normal operation of the drive train of the vehicle.
Elastomer members used in such known dampers exhibit a set part frequency based upon their rubber hardness and thickness. In the manufacture of such dampers, sometimes the part frequency needs to be lower than what can be achieved with the typical softest rubber compounds used in a typical sheet-like geometry. Therefore, there is a need in the art to develop an elastomer element that achieves lower part frequency independent of its composition or based primarily on its part geometry.

Damper and method for tuning a damper utilizing a surface contact reducing resilient member


A arithmetic teaching device for teaching a child mathematics. The arithmetic teaching device includes a housing that has a bottom and a peripheral sidewall upwardly extending from the bottom. A counting box has an open upper face and a plurality of compartments therein. The counting box is removably disposed in the housing. A plurality of counting objects are disposed in the housing. The counting objects are positionable in the compartments of the counting box.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to teaching devices and more particularly pertains to a new arithmetic teaching device for teaching a child mathematics.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of teaching devices is known in the prior art. More specifically, teaching devices heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
Known prior art includes U.S. Pat. No. 5,688,126; U.S. Pat. No. 3,597,854; U.S. Pat. No. 4,993,952; U.S. Pat. No. Des. 214,054; U.S. Pat. No. 2,584,601; and U.S. Pat. No. 2,702,423.
While these devices fulfill their respective, particular objectives and requirements, the aforementioned patents do not disclose a new arithmetic teaching device. The inventive device includes a housing that has a bottom and a peripheral sidewall upwardly extending from the bottom. A counting box has an open upper face and a plurality of compartments therein. The counting box is removably disposed in the housing. A plurality of counting objects are disposed in the housing. The counting objects are positionable in the compartments of the counting box.
In these respects, the arithmetic teaching device according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of teaching a child mathematics.


A developing apparatus includes a developer carrying member, a regulating member configured to regulate developer carried on the developer carrying member, and a partition wall separating a first chamber and a second chamber. A first conveying screw conveys the developer in the first chamber, and a second conveying screw conveys the developer in the second chamber. The first conveying screw is at a position overlapping with a vertical line passing through a portion of the regulating member, and a periphery of the first conveying screw moves in the same direction as a peripheral surface of the developer carrying member that is faces. The vertical line overlaps with a part of a rotation region of the first conveying screw in which the periphery of the first conveying screw is moved in a downward direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a developing apparatus to be used in an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine and a laser beam printer using an electrostatic recording process or an electrophotographic process, and configured to develop an electrostatic image formed on an image bearing member with developer including toner and carrier.
2. Description of the Related Art
Hitherto, in image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, an electrostatic latent image formed on a photosensitive drum serving as an image bearing member is developed into a visible image by a developing apparatus.
The developing apparatus is configured to supply toner to the photosensitive drum so as to visualize the latent image as a toner image. A developing apparatus using single-component developer containing magnetic toner as developer has been employed, and a developing apparatus using two-component developer which is a mixture of non-magnetic toner and magnetic carrier has also been employed in many cases. Development of the latent image with the two-component developer is excellent in stability of a toner charge amount, and hence color images can be formed with excellent color tone. For this reason, the two-component developer is suited to use in color-image forming apparatus.
In the developing apparatus, the developer reduced in density as a result of the development may be re-supplied to a developing sleeve without being sufficiently agitated. In this case, troubles such as image density unevenness may occur. Therefore, as a configuration for suppressing the image density unevenness, a developing process of a so-called separate function type has been employed as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-10336 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-133212. In the developing process of the separate function type, a developing chamber configured to supply developer to a developing sleeve and a collecting chamber (agitating chamber) configured to collect the developer from the developing sleeve after the development are separately formed so as to perform circulation agitation. With this, the rotation of the developer reduced in density together with the developing sleeve can be suppressed.
Further, the developing apparatus includes a regulating blade configured to regulate an amount of developer to be coated onto the developing sleeve serving as a developer carrying member of the developing apparatus. The developing sleeve is provided so as to face a part of a photosensitive member in a circumferential direction, and is generally arranged side by side with the photosensitive drum due to the restriction on the arrangement of other process units. Thus, the regulating blade is mostly arranged above or below the developing sleeve.
As described above, in the separate function type, when the regulating blade is positioned below the developing sleeve in the gravity direction, the following problem arises.
The developer to be regulated with the regulating blade and accumulated in a developing container is liable to be accumulated in the developing container after falling downward due to the gravity. The accumulated developer becomes immovable while being pressurized by developer conveyed successively to a position facing the regulating blade, resulting in an immobile layer. The developer accumulated into the immobile layer is rubbed by the developer that is being conveyed and moved, thereby raising a problem in that the life of the developer is shortened.

Developing apparatus having aligned regulating member


The present invention relates to a fuse-relay including a first pole (1, 11, 21, 31, 81) and a second pole (2, 12, 22, 32, 82). According to the invention the fuse-relay includes a resilient device (5, 18, 27, 37, 87) that is held in an elastically deformed position by a fuse (6, 16, 26, 36, 86) when the fuse (6, 16, 26, 36, 86) is whole; and in that the resilient device (5, 18, 27, 37, 87) is arranged to make or break a connection between the first pole (1, 11, 21, 31, 81) and the second pole (2, 12, 22, 32, 82) when the fuse (6, 16, 26, 36, 86) is blown. The invention also relates to a cross-connect with such fuse-relays, to a telecommunication system with such cross-connects and to a connection method.

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) is a technology that dramatically increases the digital capacity of ordinary telephone lines into a home or office. The different versions of DSL include for example ADSL (Asymmetrical DSL), HDSL (High bit rate DSL) and VDSL (Very high bit rate DSL), which are commonly denoted as xDSL.
Now, not all subscribers may want to have xDSL, therefore in some subscriber line equipment, the total number of subscriber lines are higher than the number of xDSL modems. When a new subscriber order a xDSL subscription, then a manual installation procedure is required, wherein an unused xDSL modem is connected to the subscriber's line. This is a costly operation.
A way of reducing the manual intervention is to use a cross-connect in the form of a switch-matrix or similar. This is done in e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 5,905,781 wherein mechanical or electrical relays are used, WO 01/45431 wherein mechanical or solid-state relays are used, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,262,991 wherein switches are mentioned. The switches/relays are then digitally controlled to enable a subscriber to be connected to one of the xDSL modems.


Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to a leadframe package with recesses formed in outer surface of the leads. The recesses are filled with a filler material, such as solder. The filler material in the recesses provides a wetable surface for filler material, such as solder, to adhere to during mounting of the package to another device, such as a printed circuit board (PCB). This enables strong solder joints between the leads of the package and the PCB. It also enables improved visual inspection of the solder joints after the package has been mounted.

Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to leadframe strips and leadless packages, as well as methods of manufacturing leadframe strips and assembling leadless packages.
Description of the Related Art
Leadless (or no lead) packages are often utilized in applications in which small sized packages are desired. In general, flat leadless packages provide a near chip scale encapsulated package that includes a planar leadframe. Lands (also referred to as leads) located on a bottom surface of the package and, in many cases, side surfaces of the package provide electrical connection to a substrate, such as a printed circuit board (PCB). The packages are mounted directly on the surface of the PCB using surface mount technology (SMT).
Although SMT allows for smaller packages, it also creates some disadvantages. In particular, the solder joints between the package and the PCB can be weakened due to the PCB and the package having different coefficients of thermal expansions (CTE). Thus, the reliability of the package may, in some cases, depend on the integrity of the solder joints.
As packages reduce in size, the available space for solder joints is further limited. Thus, strong solder bonds between the lands of the package and the pads of the board are desired.

Leadframe package with pre-applied filler material


A busbar module includes a case to be attached to a battery assembly, busbars and electric wires having a connection end to be connected to the busbars. The case includes busbar accommodation portions to accommodate the busbars and an electric wire routing groove portion to accommodate the electric wires. The electric wire routing groove portion includes a connection end accommodation portion to accommodate the connection end, an accommodation portion cover and an electric wire lead-out portion configured such that the electric wires are drawn out from the connection end accommodation portion toward a direction. An outer surface of the accommodation portion cover is to form a bottom surface of a routing path configured such that the electric wires drawn out from the connection end accommodation portion extend in the routing path.

A power supply device mounted on various vehicles such as an electric automobile that travels using an electric motor and a hybrid automobile that travels using an engine and an electric motor in combination includes a busbar module having a plurality of busbars to be connected to electrodes of a plurality of single batteries.
A related art busbar module includes a plurality of electric wires for voltage detection electrically connected to the busbars in order to detect voltages of the single batteries, and these electric wires are accommodated and routed in electric wire routing groove portions arranged along an arrangement direction of a plurality of busbar accommodation portions in which the busbars are accommodated (for example, see JP2018-97987A). In the related art busbar module (conductive module), an accommodation portion of a connection end of an electric wire (wire-shaped conductor) with each of the busbars is provided between a busbar accommodation portion (accommodation space portion) and an electric wire routing groove portion (wiring space portion), and the electric wire on a downstream is disposed so as not to interfere with the connection end of the electric wire on an upstream.
In the above busbar module, when the electric wires for the voltage detection are routed, a complicated bending operation is required in which the electric wire connected to the busbar is bent, guided into the electric wire routing groove portion, and accommodated along the electric wire routing groove portion. Therefore, it takes time and effort to perform a routing operation of the electric wire.
In addition, in the above busbar module, in a plan view, since the accommodation portion of the connection end of the electric wire with each of the busbars is provided between the busbar accommodation portion and the electric wire routing groove portion, and the electric wire on the downstream is disposed so as not to interfere with the connection end of the electric wire on the upstream, a width dimension of the busbar module is increased.


A rapid transition floating vessel that is able to follow the yaw motions of a turret moored floating vessel is provided. The rapid transition floating vessel includes a system and processes for dynamically positioning the floating vessel alongside a turret moored floating vessel whereby the floating vessel remains at a safe distance while being connected to the turret moored floating vessel. This is achieved by the floating vessel following the yaw motions of the turret moored floating vessel as the turret moored floating vessel weathervanes about a center of the turret moorings.

Floating vessels such as floating production platforms have been widely used in oil and gas exploration/production as these mobile platforms may be moved easily from one site to another. There are more than 200 ageing floating platforms operating worldwide. These platforms are commonly deployed at offshore sites off Brazil, West Africa and Australasia. In the Brazil offshore market alone; there are a total of 29 floating platforms that are currently being deployed. Of these, more than 65% of these floating platforms employ turret mooring systems. Turret mooring systems allows a platform to freely weather vane around, adopting the direction of the least resistance against waves, wind and currents. For drilling operations, this is advantageous as the platform is able to automatically adopt a heading that provides the least resistance against the raging elements.
As these platforms age, maintenance and upgrading works need to be carried out on these platforms. Furthermore, platform operators are also constantly trying to extend the sea-life of the deployed platforms. This can be achieved by replacing worn out equipment and machinery with newer models or upgrading existing models thereby extending the lifespan of the platforms. The difficulty faced by the platform operators is that these maintenance and upgrading works must be carried out while the platforms are still out at sea, with minimal disruptions to the operations of these platforms. If the platforms were to be disconnected or taken offline for maintenance works, the loss of earnings cause by the down time of the platforms would be insurmountable.
A solution to the above issues is to use vessels equipped with the necessary machines and tools to carry out the necessary upgrading and maintenance works out at sea. However, most vessels are not able to withstand the rough seas and harsh environmental conditions in which floating platforms operate in. One type of floating vessel that is able to operate under such harsh and unpredictable operating conditions is a floating vessel designed for offshore work such as a semi-submersible.
The present market trend is to build semi-submersibles with displacements between 30,000 Metric Tonnes to 55,000 Metric Tonnes. Semi-submersibles are getting heavier and bigger in size as more semi-submersible operators are inclined to load the semi-submersibles with as many features as possible, such as accommodation units, emergency relief centres, helicopter landing pads, storage areas and such other space consuming activities. As the semi-submersibles become larger and heavier, more power is required to move these semi-submersibles. As such, the size of the power thrusters or the size of the engines increases as well. Due to the imbalance in weight and available power, semi-submersibles that are presently available are not able to react fast enough to the yaw motions of the turret moored platform as the platform weather vanes. This is because presently available semi-submersibles are either too heavy to react to the yaw motions or the thrust power of the semi-submersibles engines are fully utilized for station keeping, that is keeping the semi-submersible stationary in the harshest weather conditions. Therefore, it is a challenge to design a semi-submersible that is able to operate safely alongside a turret moored floating platform.

System and method for dynamically positioning a floating vessel alongside a turret moored floating vessel

Keppel Offshore & Marine Technology Centre Pte. Ltd.


A system and method for smart registration of wireless power receivers within a wireless power network is disclosed. Each wireless power device may include a universally unique identifier (UUID). Each wireless power device bought by a customer may be registered, at the time of purchase or later. The registry may be stored in an energy domain service, where energy domain service may be one or more cloud-based servers. The method for smart registration may include the steps of detecting a customer device; establishing a connection with a wireless power receiver to read its UUID; sending wireless power transmitter manager's UUID and wireless power receiver's UUID to energy domain service; inspecting wireless power transmitter manager registry; verifying wireless power receiver registry; authorizing power transfer to wireless power receiver; and reporting energy consumption for subsequent billing of customer depending on billing policy of wireless power transmitter manager specified within registry.

Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates in general to wireless power transmission, and more specifically to systems and methods for smart registration of wireless power receivers within a wireless power network.
Background Information
Electronic devices such as laptop computers, smartphones, portable gaming devices, tablets, and so forth may need power for performing their intended functions. This may require having to charge electronic equipment at least once a day, or in high-demand electronic devices more than once a day. Such an activity may be tedious and may represent a burden to users. For example, a user may be required to carry chargers in case his electronic equipment is lacking power. In addition, users may have to find available power sources to connect to. Lastly, users must plugin to an electric outlet or other power supply to be able to charge his or her electronic device. However, such an activity may render electronic devices inoperable during charging. Current solutions to this problem may include inductive pads which may employ magnetic induction or resonating coils. Nevertheless, such a solution may still require that electronic devices may have to be placed in a specific place for powering. Thus, electronic devices during charging may not be portable.
Other solutions to this problem may include using controlled Radio RF waves which may converge in 3-D space for charging or powering electronic devices. This option may provide wireless power using one or more wireless power transmitters and one or more wireless power receivers, while eliminating the use of wires or pads for charging devices.
The ability to charge electronic devices wirelessly has great benefits. However, it may be necessary to manage the access of users to the network to prevent the abuse of the system resources. For example if many devices are connected to a wireless power network, different failures can affect the network, therefore interrupting the power transfer. Failures may include a loss of power, a failure in the hardware or software of a wireless power transmitter manager, overload of the wireless power transmitter manager, and malfunctioning in a wireless power transmitter manager, among others.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a system and method that may allow the smart registration of wireless power receivers within a wireless power network so as to prevent the abuse of the system resources which may eventually result in a breakdown of the system.

System and method for smart registration of wireless power receivers in a wireless power network


A radar transceiver is disclosed. The radar transceiver includes a computing unit, a sweep control unit, a set of transmitters for transmitting radar chirps to targets, a set of receivers for receiving reflected chirps from the targets, and a timing engine processor coupled to the set of transmitters and to the set of receivers and configured to transmit a first set of control signals. The timing engine processor receives a second set of control signals generated by the computing unit. The sweep control unit receives a first control signal and a second control signal from the timing engine processor. The first control signal indicating a start time of a chirp and the second control signal indicating a reset time for resetting the chirp. A controlled phased lock loop (PLL) generates a local oscillator signal which is inputted to transmitters and receivers.

Radar sensors featuring high angular resolution normally rely on large antenna apertures. This can be achieved with the use of a dielectric lens in front of a small number of antenna elements, or with a large number of receiving (RX) elements in a phased array configuration as e.g. Bosch LRR3. Lens-antenna based techniques have the disadvantage of a small angular field-of-view of +10 degrees, making this approach less suitable for short- and middle-range radar applications where a larger field of view is required i.e. larger than ±60° degrees. In the following description the term RX is used to indicate a receiver and the term TX is used to indicate a transmitter, together with their plural forms RXs and TXs, respectively.
The large RX antenna array, on the other hand, leads to a large sensor physical size which is a drawback in many practical circumstances e.g. placement behind the bumper, etc.
It has been shown that the application of Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) techniques that combines a relatively small number of RXs e.g. 4 with a small number of TXs e.g. 4 [Feger-2009 'A 77-GHz FMCW MIMO Radar Based on an SiGe Single-Chip Transceiver', Reinhard Feger et al., IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MICROWAVE THEORY AND TECHNIQUES, MAY 2009, pp. 1020-1035] provides a larger "effective" receiving aperture, effectively the aperture of 16 receiving antennas, without the drawbacks mentioned above, meaning that the field of view is kept relatively large and the physical size is comparable to a small array of 4 RXs. The MIMO technique described above works by sequentially switching the TXs while the RXs acquire and store data, so that a set of measurements for all combinations of TX and RX antennas is obtained after the data acquisition cycle completes [TX1, RX1, RX2, . . . ], [TX2, RX1, RX2, . . . ]. The radar processing is then completed by post-processing the set of measured results for the different TX1, . . . , TXn possibilities.
An alternative technique for MIMO radar signal acquisition and processing is described in US2012/0001791 and it is shown in FIG. 1. In this application the phase of a TX path TX0 is binary toggled from chirp to chirp, whereas the phase of the second TX path TX1 is kept constant from chirp to chirp. The data acquisition process is simultaneous for TX0 and TX1, instead of sequential as in the method proposed by Feger. The phase toggling in path TX0 allows the signal from the two TXs antennas to be separated in subsequent signal processing steps.
Throughout this disclosure, a chirp is considered to be the sweep signal generated by the radar.
In FIG. 2 a generic MIMO radar system is shown. The system comprises a radar IC on the left hand side and a microcontroller/Digital Signal Processing (uC/DSP). The radar IC is able to perform MIMO data acquisition according to the above-mentioned techniques. The radar IC contains three independently-controlled transmitters TX1, . . . , TX3, four receivers RX1, . . . , RX4 and a waveform generator 8 providing for a flexible chirp control. Each receiver includes a 12 bit Successive Approximation (SAR) ADC and a data serializer for transferring data to an external DSP chip for further processing either in real time operation mode, or into a data capturing mode for offline processing.
The interface to the uC/DSP consists of
                four high-speed serial lines (ADC1, . . . , ADC4) containing the ADC data;        an SPI communication bus; and        two additional control lines Window active and Ready INT indicating the state of the data acquisition cycle to the micro-controller.
The Window active signal and the Ready INT signal are generated by a timing engine 1. Furthermore, the Data Received Via the SPI Communication Bus is Stored in an SPI Register 7.
In FIG. 3, a typical data acquisition cycle is presented. Before the chirp sequence starts, the RXs and TXs are in an Idle state, meaning that the system is in a power-down mode in order to save the power consumption. After starting the chirp sequence, the front-end elements are activated i.e. enabled, using a specific set of control signals values for the TX1, . . . , TXn stages. One may observe that there are two levels of on/off control for the TX sections. It is an enable function to control full-power down of the active circuitry, in addition to an on-off switch that effectively suppresses the output signal when the power amplifiers are in active state. The reason for this double control is to avoid large supply voltage transient states during the data acquisition cycle. Supply voltage disturbances created by the on-off switch are reasonable small because the DC current flowing in the TX sections is kept almost constant.
The signals controlling each TX consist of the state of the on-off switch i.e. 1/0 bits, and the state of the binary phase shifter. In FIG. 3, it is indicated that the states of the TXs sections change for the second chirp in the sequence, and so on until the data acquisition cycle is completed. Typical data acquisition cycles consist of 128, 256, 512, up to 1024 chirps.
In FIG. 3, control parameters for the frequency chirp itself, are shown too. They are the start and stop frequencies, dwell time and settle time parameters, a time allocated for collecting of valid ADC samples Window active, a time for indicating to local oscillator to return to the start frequency, and finally an overall parameter Tchirp indicating the overall time length of each acquisition chirp.
In general, a Frequency Modulated Continuous Wave (FMCW) radar data acquisition cycle in the context of this application consists of a sequence of frequency chirps with precise timing, as depicted in FIG. 3. Additionally, for MIMO data acquisition systems, the settings for the TXs active states and/or the state of the phase shifters in each TX can change from chirp to chirp, as described e.g. in Feger-2009 and US2012/0001791.
Without a dedicated control block within the radar front-end chip, the timing of the frequency chirps as well as chirp-to-chirp changes need to be controlled via SPI transactions from the uC towards the radar IC. This is undesirable, because:                SPI communications are in general not suitable for precise timing of functional operations, because the generation of control strings relies on software routines running inside the micro-controller;        SPI response may have a relatively large latency due to message header overhead,        and        SPI bus activity during communication can disturb sensitive portions of the radar IC during the data acquisition cycle.
For a precise and reliable data acquisition cycle, it is therefore important that the process of complete acquisition sequence does not depend on SPI communications.


A pressure management system that balances pressure between first and second fluid circuits of a fuel cell system includes a first fluid reservoir associated with the first fluid circuit and a second fluid reservoir associated with the second fluid circuit. The second fluid reservoir is in fluid communication with the first fluid reservoir. A fluid is transferred from the first fluid reservoir to the second fluid reservoir during an over-pressure condition within the first fluid circuit.

Fuel cell systems include a fuel cell stack that produces electrical energy based on a reaction between a hydrogen-based feed gas (e.g., pure hydrogen or a hydrogen reformate) and an oxidant feed gas (e.g., pure oxygen or oxygen-containing air). The hydrogen-based feed gas and oxidant feed gas are supplied to the fuel cell stack at appropriate operating conditions (i.e., temperature and pressure) for reacting therein. The proper conditioning of the feed gases is achieved by other components of the fuel cell stack to provide the proper operating conditions.
The fuel cell system includes multiple cooling circuits for cooling various components. At least one cooling circuit is in fluid communication with the fuel cell stack to regulate the temperature of the fuel cell stack at a desired operating temperature. Gaskets within the fuel cell stack seal the cooling circuits from the feed gases flowing through the fuel cell stack. It is conceivable that the hydrogen-based feed gas could leak into one of the cooling circuits.

System architecture for managing hydrogen leaks into fluid circuits of fuel cell systems


The present invention comprises a system for ordering vehicles through the internet for addition to a vehicle fleet. The system includes a first portion of the invention for use by a fleet manager to price and configure vehicles, for reporting, for checking the status of orders, and for managing the driver accessible portion of the present invention. A second portion of the present invention allows the fleet manager to set up the specifications of the system, to set up notifications to the drivers, to set up driver profiles, to approve and submit orders, as well as other options. The third portion of the present invention system allows an individual driver to order and re-order leased vehicles within the environment set up by the fleet manager and to dispose of old vehicles.

When a company has an employee who requires a vehicle to perform certain duties, the company will often provide a leased vehicle for the employee's use. To obtain the vehicle, the company may utilize an internal system or may take advantage of different systems provided by different leasing companies. Internal systems may require too much maintenance time from company employees and so may not be an efficient manner of managing a vehicle fleet. External systems may not provide for enough customizable options and fleet manager input to fit the system to a specific company's needs. A continuing need exists, therefore, for a method and system which reduces the cost of maintaining a vehicle fleet and which makes vehicle acquisition simple and cost efficient.
In order to lease a vehicle, a lessee typically visits a dealer and arranges for the terms of the lease. The dealer, who typically is not the actual lessor of the equipment, may then arrange for the lease. A company leasing a vehicle for an employee may arrange for the lease or may allow the driver to negotiate directly with the dealer. In other cases, a fleet manager may have to work with the driver in order to obtain the desired car with the desired characteristics. Any of these vehicle acquisition routes may increase the cost, in time and money, for each lease. If the company desires to have several different types of vehicles, and to provide the drivers with the ability to choose available vehicle options, it may make the ordering of the leased vehicle prohibitively expensive and complicated.
Systems for ordering vehicles run by a service provider may also present problems. These provider run systems may be designed for a certain size company and only provide features suited for that size company. A need exists, therefore, for a method and system of ordering vehicles that can be customized for the needs of each company using the system. Allowing the fleet manager to change the availability of vehicles, options, upfits, and other information may allow the system and method of ordering vehicles to become more versatile and so better meet the needs of each company using the system.
An additional problem with prior systems for ordering vehicles may occur when the company does business in several different states. Each state may have different emissions controls that require different types of emission control devices. If the company orders the vehicles through one central system, a method must be in place to insure that vehicles sent to different states have the correct emissions controls. A need therefore exists for a method and system that automatically checks and insures that the correct emissions controls are fitted onto the ordered vehicle.
A need exists for an automated method and system for the ordering of leased vehicles, whether by an individual driver or by a fleet manager. This system should allow the custom ordering of vehicles with desired options and may be automated so that vehicles are automatically fitted with the correct emissions controls. The method and system should allow a fleet manager to select parameters to control which vehicles are available in addition to what vehicle options are available. The system should further allow the fleet manager, or the driver, to directly order vehicles through the internet after the parameters have been set. This system should be simple to use and should ameliorate the entire leasing process so as to provide a tool by which a cheaper lease may result


The present invention provides a jig and a method for it use. The jig is interchangeable with a variety of power tools for reproducibly and accurately positioning a work piece on the power tool. A universal memory stick is slidably attached to a primary fence. A follower assembly is mounted to the primary fence for maintaining a predetermined relative position of the primary fence to the universal memory stick. The universal memory stick includes a universal stick template which enables the user to make, program, store and recall required stop positions used on the power tool to cut work pieces to required dimensions for a given project.

The present invention relates generally to power machine tools and more particularly to a power tool jig capable of storing various predetermined stop positions to reproducibly and accurately position a work piece on a power tool. The jig is programmable to store multiple stop positions required for an entire project and is transferable to a variety of different power machine tools.
Precision woodworking, for example, cabinet making, often utilizes several different power tools for each project, requiring setting up each power tool and changing stop positions for a given work piece. For both the professional cabinet-maker and the home craftsman this can be a time consuming and expensive annoyance.
Woodworking operations require precise measurements for the cutting of wood stock to insure proper fit of assembled pieces. To insure proper fit, positioning jigs are used to position the work piece relative to a power tool cutting surface. Current practice utilizes positioning jigs for a wide variety of power tools such as a table saw, router table and drill press.
Although the advent of power machine tools has made woodworking both more efficient and easier, many of the techniques used today are virtually identical to techniques used centuries ago. However, positioning processes and devices used to determine the stop position for a cutting operation on the work piece are still evolving.
One such device used to position a work piece on a power machine tool is a fence, most commonly used on a table saw or router. Typically, the operator feeds the work piece by hand through the cutting tool by sliding one edge of the work piece along the fence, optionally, until the work piece contacts a stop block. The optional stop block located a predetermined distance from the cutting tool, placed to prevent further machining of the work piece.
Both the fence and optional stop block must be positioned to a new location each time a work piece cut is made to a different predetermined criteria. For this reason, multiple work pieces of identical shape are generally cut at the predetermined fence and optional stop block position prior to moving the fence and/or stop. Once the fence and/or optional stop has been moved, the fence and/or optional stop must be reset to a prior position to duplicate a previously cut piece. It is difficult and time consuming to accurately reposition the fence and optional stop in the original position, often resulting in inaccuracies in the final fit of the work pieces.
One shortcoming of the current practice of positioning devices is that they are typically made of heavy steel and permanently mounted to each woodworking power tool. Thus, they are quite cumbersome and time consuming to remove and reinstall. Additionally, it is quite expensive to equip each power tool with its own stop block and guide.
Accurate placement of each work piece cut is dependent upon the operator""s experience and skill. This is particularly important when cutting multiple work pieces of identical dimensions. One current method of aiding the operator in achieving this accurate cut placement is to mechanically position the fence through the use of a lead screw and a rotating knob. The rotating knob turns the lead screw, which augurs and positions the fence. The fence is adjusted prior to each cutting operation to a predetermined distance from the cutting tool according to the desired location of the cut. Typically, the operator feeds the work piece by hand through the cutting tool by sliding one edge of the work piece along the fence.
A wide range of positioning jigs have been designed in an attempt to improve the accuracy and reproducibility of the positioning process. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,793,604 and 5,716,045 include a fixed lower body member and a moveable upper body member. After the fence has been positioned, racks are meshed together by tightening a knob threaded through the middle of the upper and lower body members to prohibit further movement.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,296 discloses a positioning jig using a blade and a movable carriage mounted thereon. The carriage rides on tubular rails mounted to a base. Movement to a desired position is facilitated by two sets of rollers mounted to the carriage and contacting the top and bottom of the tubular rails.
Current practice positioning jigs have a single unit fixed measurement spacing and are limited in maximum measurement length. They must be repositioned after each change in desired work piece shape, with resultant inherent inaccuracy. Additional problems inherent in current practice positioning jigs are the inability to attach varied additional apparatus to the jig, and the limited capacity to accommodate work pieces of longer lengths. Current practice jigs are designed for a specific dedicated power machine tool, with limited cross tool interchangeability.
Accordingly, there remains a need for an inexpensive simple jig that is interchangeable with different power machine tools, able to accurately perform multiple operations, and capable of easily and accurately reproducing prior measurement settings while not being limited to a single unit of measurement.
The present invention provides a jig for reproducibly and accurately positioning a work piece on a power tool that is interchangeable with a variety of woodworking power tools. The invention has a built in memory that enables the user to make, program and store many, if not all, of the required stop positions used on the power tool to cut work pieces to required dimensions for a woodworking project.
Once the jig is installed on the appropriate power tool, a memory stick is slid to the desired position for that operation and the work piece is held against a fence for drilling, sawing, or routing, as needed. The jig comprises a primary fence having a first end, an opposing second end, a first side, an opposing second side and a top and opposing bottom, wherein the first and second sides are interposed between the first and second ends and the top and opposing bottom are supported by the first end, second end, first side and second side.
A universal memory stick is slidably attached to the primary fence, the memory stick having a first end, an opposing face end, a first side, an opposing second side and a top, wherein the first and second sides are interposed between the first and face ends and the top is supported by the first end, face end, first side and second side and includes a universal memory stick template. A follower assembly is mounted to the primary fence for maintaining a relative position of the primary fence to the universal memory stick.
One advantage of the present invention is that the jig is interchangeable with a variety of power tools. Because differing power tools may require their own positioning jig, the cost savings are multiplied by the number of power tools required for a given project.
Another advantage of the present invention is the ability to permanently store predetermined stop positions for duplication and use at a later time. In this manner, work pieces may be repeatedly cut to reproducibly precise dimensions, even after the jig has been repositioned. Because the stop positions are customized by the operator, the number of predetermined stops may range from an unlimited number to the exact amount required by a particular project.
Yet another advantage is the operator""s ability to alternate between varied units of incremental spacing. In this manner, the operator is not limited to a single measurement unit, as in current practice.
Still another advantage is the operator""s unlimited ability to increase the linear range of stop positions. In this manner, work pieces of infinite length may be easily and accurately measured.
Another advantage of the present invention is the ability to easily fasten other attachments, such as additional jigs and templates, a changeable zero clearance cut off block or the work piece to the jig for use with differing power tools, without disturbing any jig adjustments.
Another advantage of the present invention is the ability to easily compensate for varying power tool cutter widths.
Continuing and often interrelated improvements in processes and materials, such as the improvements of the present invention, can provide cost reductions and major increases in the performance of devices such as table saws, router tables, drill presses and other power woodworking tools.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following more detailed description of the preferred embodiment, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of the invention.

Method and device for reproducibly and accurately positioning a work piece on a power tool


Observation of transient phenomena in an oversampled regime is implemented with a time correction obtained by prepending one or more pseudo datums to the oversampled data to constitute an effective negative delay for the oversampled data set including the pseudo datums. For an oversampling factor N and oversampling rate .omega..sub.s, a digital filter furnishes downsampled data uniformly spaced in time by N/.omega..sub.s and positioned at n (N/.omega..sub.s) where n is the discrete downsampled time coordinate.

Progressively higher resolution NMR measurement demands higher signal to noise performance and a baseline free-of artifact and distortion. A known methodology for obtaining improved signal to noise performance involves the sampling of time domain waveforms at a rate in excess of twice the rate corresponding to the highest frequency component of interest in the waveform. This higher than required (oversampling) rate .omega..sub.s increases the spectral width proportionately and causes the uncorrellated noise, or noise from broadband sources to be spread over a wider bandwidth. Only a relatively narrow portion of this expanded bandwidth contains the data of interest. Were the expanded bandwidth to be directly accomodated, the requirement for both memory and time for effecting the Fourier transformation would become impractical or prohibitive. Alternately, and preferably, the oversampled data is subject to a digital filter which returns a single datum from a plurality of oversampled data through convolution of the oversampled data with a selected filter function. Digital filter theory and practice are well known to the artisan.
In the prior art, the use of digital filters commonly introduces artifact and/or distortion to the spectral baseline. An origin for this effect is recognized in the time delays associated with filters which operate upon the time domain waveform. For example, a digital filter fuctions initially without the requisite history of oversampled data upon which to operate. U.S. Pat. No. 5,652,518, commonly assigned and incorporated herein by reference, treats this initial lack of data with use of pseudodata derived from the filter function to achieve a real-time digital filter exhibiting reduced baseline distortion.
It is known in the prior art to reduce baseline distortion arising from the transient ringing response of the filter. The analog filter also exhibits a finite response time. In the prior art baseline distortion was reduced by arranging the time of acquisition of data (specifically, the second datum acquired) in the vicinity of such transient response so as to avoid the transient filter response and acquire all data commencing with the second point on the flat (unity gain) portion of the filter characteristic, and by commencing data acquisition with the first sampling point representing the true time origin of the impulse, which has, in fact, been delayed by the receiver and analog filters therein.

Time correction for digital filters in transient measurments


A mixture designed to be heated by microwave energy and a container that can inwardly contain the mixture. The mixture is in a dry form and includes a quantity of salt that functions as a heat storage medium. The mixture further includes a quantity of starch material that functions to rapidly absorb microwave energy when it is subjected to microwaves in a conventional microwave oven. The starch material is in powder form and preferably coats the salt to thereby maximize the speed and efficiency of heat transfer between the two materials. The mixture may also include a powder lubricant that functions to improve the mixture's flowability. The container used to receive the microwaveable mixture is preferably flexible and may be manufactured from a fabric, plastic or rubber material. The container may be in the form of a pad or ball and includes a least one inner cavity that contains a quantity of the microwaveable mixture. When a ball-shaped container is employed, the container is preferably sized to enable it to be handheld and squeezed.

Heating pads are commonly used by people to alleviate back pain and other similar pains that may result from pulled muscles and/or arthritis. There are a number of different forms of heating pads that are readily available, including electric heating pads and hot water bottles.
In recent years, microwaveable heating pads containing a sealed quantity of gel-type material or specially-designed beads have become available. When compared to an electric heating pad, these pads do not require the user to stay near an electrical outlet. The non-electrical pads also avoid the necessity of continually subjecting a user to low-level EMF exposure from the internal wiring used in an electric heating pad. When compared to a hot water bottle, the microwaveable pads are more convenient since they do not require the user to frequently fill, drain and then refill the bag with water.
While the gel-filled and bead-filled microwaveable pads provide the above-noted advantages over the prior art, each of these types of heating pads suffer certain disadvantages. A gel-filled heating pad is subject to leakage and can be overheated with detrimental results. In addition, if leakage should occur, the gel material may stain adjacent upholstery or clothing. In a bead-filled heating pad, the beads are relatively expensive and must occupy a significant volume to be effective. As a result of the latter condition, even when the beads are tightly packed, they still cause the heating pad to be quite thick. As a result, the pad may cause discomfort to the user.


Methods and compositions are provided for corrosion inhibition treatment of aqueous systems such as cooling water systems. The methods include conjoint use of a polyvalent metal ion, such as Al or Mn and a corrosion inhibitor/deposit control agent (DCA) to the water system. The corrosion inhibitor DCA agent may be an organic compound such as a hydroxyacid, phosphonocarboxylic acid, polyhydroxysuccinic acid, or polymaleic acid or anhydride.

The problems of corrosion and attendant effects such as pitting have troubled water systems for years. For instance, scale tends to accumulate on internal walls of various water systems, and thereby materially lessens the operational efficiency of the system. In this manner, heat transfer functions of the particular system are severely impeded.
Corrosion is a degradative electrochemical reaction of a metal with its environment. It is the reversion of refined metals to their natural state. For example, iron ore is iron oxide. Iron oxide is refined into steel. When the steel corrodes, it forms iron oxide which, if unattended, may result in failure or destruction of the metal, causing the particular water system to be shut down until the necessary repairs can be made.
Typically, in cooling water systems, corrosion along with pitting has proven deleterious to the overall efficiency of the system. Many cooling water systems employ orthophosphate in the system treatment to promote passivation of the metal surfaces in contact with the system water. However, current costs of phosphorus based inhibitors have skyrocketed due to increased demand of P2O5 ores for agricultural fertilizers. Also, environmental regulations in the United States and Europe have increased restriction on phosphate discharge into local rivers and streams.
Accordingly, low or no phosphate treatment programs have seen increasing use with a concurrent emphasis on all or predominantly organic treatment programs that typically require relatively higher treatment dosages (i.e., >50 ppm) to be effective. Unfortunately, these high level organic treatment dosages increase the biological food in the system (carbon footprint) and increase the need for feed of toxic biocidal compounds to the system.
The benefit of carbon footprint reduction can be viewed from two different perspectives. First, carbon footprint reduction can be viewed in terms of savings in energy consumption that otherwise would be needed to synthesize the organic inhibitor. Here, the lesser amount of organic material that need be generated results in less waste, fewer emissions, etc.
Secondly, the reduction in the generation of food for biological growth results in reduction in the feed levels of biocide needed to control microbial activity.

Compositions and methods for inhibiting corrosion in aqueous media


A pharmaceutical composition comprising licarbazepine acetate, especially eslicarbazepine acetate, in combination with suitable excipients, in particular a binder, and a disintegrant. Also disclosed is a granulation process, especially a wet granulation process, for making the pharmaceutical composition.

This invention relates to pharmaceutical compositions and methods of making them. More specifically the invention relates to pharmaceutical compositions containing licarbazepine acetate, especially eslicarbazepine acetate.
Eslicarbazepine acetate is a voltage-gated sodium channel (VGSC) blocker suitable for use as an anticonvulsant for example in treating epilepsy, affective disorders and neuropathic pain.

This molecule is structurally related to carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine, but has been specifically designed to reduce the production of toxic metabolites (such as epoxides) and to avoid enantiomeric impurity, and the unnecessary production of enantiomers or diastereoisomers of metabolites and conjugates, without losing pharmacological activity. It shares with carbamazepine and oxcarbazepine the dibenzazepine nucleus bearing the 5-carboxamide substitute but is differs at the 10,11-position. This molecular variation results in differences in metabolism, preventing the formation of toxic epoxide metabolites, such as carbamazepine-10,11 epoxide.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Pharmaceutical composition comprising licarbazepine acetate


A torsional vibration measuring instrument has a plurality of reflecting means (6, 7) arranged with stipulated intervals along surface of a rotator (5) of which torsional vibration is to be measured; a pulse light irradiating means (1, 2) for irradiating a repetitive pulse light beam to the reflecting means; and an outgoing-transmitting means (3, 4) for transmitting the irradiated pulse light beam. The torsional vibration measuring instrument also has a plurality of transmitting-receiving means (8, 9) for irradiating the transmitted pulse light beam to the reflecting means, and for receiving reflected pulse light beams which have been reflected by the reflecting means; and an incoming-transmitting means (3, 4) for transmitting the reflected pulse light beams which have been received. The torsional vibration measuring instrument also has a plurality of detecting means (12, 13) for detecting the reflected pulse light beams which have been transmitted by the incoming-transmitting means; and a signal processing means (14) for processing pulse output signals which have been outputted from the detecting means and for calculating torsional vibration frequency of the rotator to be measured.

A prior-art technique of measuring torsional vibration of a rotator is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication Tokkai Hei-7-5056 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,438,882, for example. This system includes a pair of optical detectors with convergence lenses, a controller for converting the output of the optical detectors into digital data, an oscilloscope for displaying the output wave shapes of the optical detectors, a computer for analyzing the digital data, a display device for displaying the analyzed results and reflective mark bands attached on the rotator.
The reflective mark bands are wound around the rotator to be measured. The reflective mark bands have a plurality of lines or marks parallel to the axial direction, which are arranged along the peripheral direction with equal pitches "d". The lines and the marks are reflective, and the other portion of the mark bands is non-reflective. Each of the pair of optical detectors with the convergence lenses are aligned with corresponding reflective mark bands of the pair of reflective mark bands.
In operation of this prior-art system, when a rotator of radius of R which is rotating with an angular velocity of Ω, the light reflected on the reflective mark band is converged by the convergence lenses and detected by the optical detectors. As a result, pulse signals with time intervals of τ=d/(RΩ) are detected by the oscilloscope which displays the output wave shape of the optical detectors.
When there is no torsional vibration, the phase difference of the pulse signals is constant. On the other hand, when there is a torsional vibration, the phase difference of the pulse signals is not constant, and the phase difference vibrates. The pulse signals are digitized in order to determine the fluctuation of the phase difference. Then, the fluctuation of the phase difference is determined by digital analysis using a computer. The torsional vibration frequency is derived from the fluctuation of the phase difference, and the torsional vibration frequency is shown on the display device.
In the prior-art system described above, when the rotator to be measured has axial vibration or non-torsional vibration, the rising and dropping times and the signal amplitude of the pulse signal change due to the axial vibration. Therefore, idealistic pulse signals can hardly be obtained, and then, torsional vibration and rotational speed cannot be accurately measured.
The present invention is to solve the problem described above. An object of the present invention is to present a torsional vibration measuring instrument which can measure torsional vibration of a rotator with high precision even when the rotational axis of the rotator to be measured has an axial vibration.

Torsional vibration measuring instrument


The present invention is directed to the remote control of locomotives, and more particularly to various methods and apparatus employed in implementing systems for such remote control. Contemplated in the present invention are systems and methods for not only reliable remote-control communications, but also the use of repeaters and communications servers to assure reliable, centralized communication between locomotives and operator control units. In another embodiment, there is described a reliable distributed communication mode using an uncorrelated time sequence that does not interfere with a time division multiple access network. Differentiation between the centralized mode and the distributed mode is accomplished by assessing whether a locomotive and control unit is within a rail yard's infrastructure. Moreover, reliability is assured using a coordination server that dynamically routes packets between multiple satellite RCL repeaters based on received signal strength. Lastly, the present invention further contemplates the use of an out-of-band transmission to upgrade and test operator control units, thereby allowing for field maintenance and software upgrades.

The following U.S. patent publications are also noted and hereby incorporated by reference for their teachings: US 20040114631 by Aiken et al., published Jun. 17, 2004, and 20040100938 by Aiken et al., and published May 27, 2004, both of which are directed to the wireless remote control of locomotives; and 20030151520 by Kraeling et al., published Aug. 14, 2003, and teaching a rail yard remote control system for locomotives.
The railroad industry, through the Association of American Railroads (AAR) has obtained the right to use radio spectrum in the 220 MHz band for remote locomotive control. The frequency allocation consists of at least two two-way radio channels. These channels are cleared nationwide and will be used for the Remote Control Locomotive (RCL) application. Additional channel pairs in the 220 MHz band may be used at specific locations where individual licenses have been obtained.
Coexistence of RCL systems within the same block of spectrum will require a coordinated, standard method for accessing the channel(s) within the spectrum block. This is paramount to implementations in the 220 MHz band because of the very limited availability of expensive, licensed spectrum. Due to this limited number of radio channels, railroads operating in the same area may be forced to use common channels and share the repeater infrastructure. Therefore, a prime motivator for an open protocol is interoperability among user railroads and among vendors. These two dimensions of interoperability are required to maximize efficient use of limited spectrum available for this application. Vendor interoperability in this context extends down to the system level. As used herein, the term system is intended to reflect at least a single controlled locomotive (locomotive control unit; LCU) and its associated controlling devices (operating control units; OCUs). In other words, it is not anticipated that a locomotive unit would be required to operate with a controller unit from a different vendor. By ruling out this level of interoperability, the open protocol need not define message content or other details of the interactions between locomotive and controller units. This not only simplifies the specification, but also leaves room for vendor differentiation and innovation.
Contemplated in the present invention are systems and methods for not only reliable remote-control communications, but use of repeaters and communications servers to assure reliable, centralized communication between locomotives and operator control units. In another embodiment, there is described a reliable distributed communication mode using an uncorrelated time sequence that does not interfere with a time division multiple access network. Differentiation between the centralized mode and the distributed mode is accomplished by assessing whether a locomotive and control unit is within a rail yard's infrastructure. Moreover, reliability is assured by using a coordination server that dynamically routes packets between multiple satellite RCL repeaters based on received signal strength. Lastly, the present invention further contemplates the use of an out-of-band transmission to upgrade and test operator control units, thereby allowing for field maintenance and software upgrades.
All RCL systems deployed by a railroad, regardless of supplier, should be able to utilize a common, shared wireless infrastructure. Currently envisioned components of this infrastructure include repeaters and coordination servers. Shared use of a repeater will require use of a Common Air Interface (CAI), common system functions, and a standard message set for communication with a local configuration server.
The Common Air Interface (CAI) defines a reference point at which communications between radios can take place. In one embodiment of the present invention, this assumes that communications through the reference point are done at a gross bit rate of 9600 bps in a 12.5 kHz channel. In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, communication within an RCL system is based on the LCU and each OCU transmitting once a second at the proper time on a specific assigned frequency in the 220 MHz band. Listeners receive the transmitted message by receiving at the same time each message is transmitted.
In order to achieve reliable shared use of the assigned frequency, disclosed in embodiments herein there is described a scheme whereby each device using the frequency will know exactly when to transmit. This type of scheme is known as Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA). TDMA requires that a fixed period of time be divided into time intervals reserved specifically for transmissions from individual devices (e.g. OCUs or LCUs). For example, the time division multiple access proposed for RCL communications protocol provides multiple access to a radio frequency (RF) channel in the time domain.
In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, and as illustrated in detail below relative to FIG. 6, a repeating one second frame is divided into multiple time slots, with slots assigned to individual systems—one for the locomotive controller unit (LCU), and one for each of two operator control unit (OCUs). The basic TDMA frame for the RCL CAI repeats every second. This frame is divided into sub-slots that will be used by individual devices for their transmitted packet.
An RCL repeater, where used, is generally intended to include a fixed radio device that serves to increase the reliable range of operation of RCL Systems. The RCL repeater does this by re-transmitting radio transmissions it receives from LCUs and OCUs. Advantages achieved as a result of the use of a repeater include optimum antenna placement and elevation, extended coverage area, and avoidance of obstacles in the direct RF path between OCU and LCU. In the AAR specification, each unit must specifically direct its message to either a repeater or a peer device. Furthermore, the frequency pair is considered a channel. It consists of the repeater transmit frequency (the B frequency), and the LCU/OCU receive/transmit frequency (the M frequency). The basic function of an RCL Repeater is to receive transmissions on the M frequency of the channel, and, retransmit them on the B frequency of the channel. The RCL repeater will also process messages as an Repeater Coordination Server (RCS) when multiple repeaters are used in a yard.
A Repeater Coordination Server (RCS), where used, is a process/system that implements the logic necessary to coordinate the communications of multiple repeaters and RCL Systems in an RCL operation. Embodiments of the present invention contemplate multiple RCL Systems using repeaters controlled by an RCS. The RCS coordinates the operation of multiple repeaters by dynamically routing repeater transmissions. The physical configuration of some yards may make it necessary to install multiple repeaters. In this situation the RCS will provide message routing and slot synchronization among the repeaters.
There are two modes in which channel and time slot usage is coordinated between RCL systems utilizing the RCL common air interface, Distributed and Centralized. Each mode utilizes the TDMA frame structure described above.
As will be further described relative to FIG. 2 below, an RCL system operates in Distributed Coordination Mode (DCM) when it is not in coverage of available repeater infrastructure. This mode is generally applicable where RCL demand is light or OCUs and LCUs are capable of reliable communications without repeaters. Typical locations for DCM operation are in small yards or industries along the railroad line. In DCM, individual RCL system devices contend for and self-regulate shared usage of available radio channels.
An RCL system operates in Centralized Coordination Mode (CCM) when its LCU and OCU devices communicate directly or via Repeaters in slots coordinated by the Repeater infrastructure. This is the default mode of operation when infrastructure is available. The Repeater infrastructure provides expanded communications coverage as well as broadcast information about channel and time slot availability for use by initializing RCL systems. By monitoring the repeater's broadcast transmissions during initialization, an RCL system can intelligently choose a channel and time slot that will be free of interference from other operating RCL systems.
In situations where the concentration or frequency of RCL activity does not justify coordinated repeater infrastructure, RCL systems will operate in Distributed Coordination Mode (DCM). DCM operation can be used anywhere and should therefore be restricted to the two nationwide channels. In DCM, the LCU and OCUs communicate directly with one another.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided, a system and method for remote control of locomotives, comprising: a highly reliable time division multiple access network; at least one locomotive equipped so as to be operatively controlled by a locomotive control unit (LCU) suitable for transmitting and receiving information via the network; at least one operator control unit (OCU) suitable for transmitting and receiving information via the network, wherein the LCU and OCU each device will only transmit in a defined period of time; and said network employing both spatial and frequency diversity for remote control using repeater infrastructure, wherein said network further comprises an Repeater Coordination Server (RCS) to implement logic to coordinate the communications of multiple repeaters and RCL Systems and where said RCS will include at least one repeater to provide spatial diversity in that the path to any mobile or portable unit (LCU or OCU) is different for each repeater, and each time the repeater receives a message from an LCU or OCU, it calculates a rating for the message integrity (Received Signal Strength Indication; RSSI) and sends the message and rating to the RCS using an Inter-Access Point Protocol (IAPP) over an off-channel backhaul link where the message is stored, the RCS using the stored message information to determine which repeater has a best path to the destination unit for the current message, and forwards the message to this repeater for retransmission.
The present invention will be described in connection with a preferred embodiment, however, it will be understood that there is no intent to limit the invention to the embodiment described. On the contrary, the intent is to cover all alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the spirit and scope of the invention as defined by the appended claims.

System and method for remote control of locomotives


The present invention relates to a nonvolatile memory such as, for example a ROM or an EPROM, in which the information density of the memory is increased relative to a conventional nonvolatile memory that includes two logic state devices. Specifically, the nonvolatile memory of the present invention includes a SiN/TaN/SiN thin film resistor embedded within a material having a thermal conductivity of about 1 W/m-K or less; and a non-linear Si-containing device coupled to the resistor. Read and write circuits and operations are also provided in the present application.

A nonvolatile memory is a solid-state device that does not need to have its memory contents periodically refreshed. Nonvolatile type memory devices are used in various applications in which logic instructions must be stored for later recall, including, for example, computers, calculators, personal digital assistances (PDA), mobile cell phones, and appliances as well as automotive, aerospace, medical, military and industrial equipment.
Such memory differs from volatile memory that does not maintain its contents without electrical power, which is made up of dynamic random access memory (DRAM) or static random access memory (SRAM) chips. In volatile memory, the data stored is lost when the power of the device is tuned off. Applications for volatile memory include any in which logic instructions must be stored and changed as needed by a user.
Various types of nonvolatile memory are known including all forms of read-only memory (ROM) such as programmable read-only memory (PROM), electrical programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable read-only memory (EPROM), all types of flash random access memory (RAM), and hard-wired logics such as application-specific IC (ASIC), programmable logic devices (PLD), programmable array logic (PAL) ICs, programmable logic array (PLA), mask-programmable gate array chips (MPGA) and filed-programmable gate arrays (FPGA).
In earlier semiconductor devices, ROM was used in storing data. A ROM IC is a nonvolatile memory that is programmed directly during the IC manufacturing process. ROM is a type of memory that normally can only be read, as opposed to RAM which can be both read and written. The reasons that ROM is used are permanence and security of information storage for certain applications. ROM has been replaced with EPROM (electrical programmable read-only memory). EPROM is a memory device in which the data can be electrically programmed in the field without having to remove it from a circuit broad. As such, EPROM provides a more convenient memory for storing data than a conventional ROM.
Conventional nonvolatile memory such as ROM or EPROM usually is a two logic state device, which limits the information density of the memory. As such, a simple nonvolatile memory is needed which can increase the information density of the memory beyond that of a conventional nonvolatile memory device but still with simple integration scheme and low manufacturing cost.

Phase-change TaN resistor based triple-state/multi-state read only memory

International Business Machines Corporation


A method of making a vehicle seat in which the strength member of the back has a first upright connected to the strength member of the seat proper by a hinge mechanism, a second upright that is not as strong as the first and that is hinged to the strength member of the seat proper, and two horizontal cross-members, the two cross-members and the top portion of the second upright being constituted by a tube folded into a general U-shape and of section that varies along its length. The method includes a step which consists in imparting the final shape to the tube by hydroforming, starting from an initial tube of substantially constant section.

Such a vehicle seat is disclosed in document U.S. Pat. No. 4,192,545.
The strength member of the seat back described in that document comprises a generally U-shaped tube of constant circular section along its length, such that the mechanical performance of said back strength member is limited.
In particular, given the draconian safety standards presently in force for vehicle seats, a seat back strength member made in accordance with the teaching of the above-mentioned document and complying with the standards:
That would give rise to a seat back strength member that is relatively heavy and expensive.

Method of making a vehicle seat, and a vehicle seat made by the method


One object of the present invention is to provide a lead-free piezoelectric material excellent in piezoelectric characteristics and superior from the viewpoints of prevention of environmental pollution, protection of environments and ecology. To achieve the object, a piezoelectric ceramic composition is constructed from a piezoelectric ceramic composition within a region in case of being represented by the formula: EQU x[Bi.sub.1/2 Na.sub.1/2 ]TiO.sub.3 -y[MeNbO.sub.3 ]-(z/2)[Bi.sub.2 O.sub.3.Sc.sub.2 O.sub.3 ]. (wherein Me is K or Na). wherein X, y and z satisfy the following conditions:. x+y+z=1, 0<x<1, 0.ltoreq.y<1, 0<z<0.5.

The present invention relates to a piezoelectric material extensively used in the fields of actuator, sensor, resonator, etc.
A piezoelectric material is a material having an effect of generating strain when an electric field is applied from outside (conversion of electrical energy to mechanical energy) and an effect of generating an electrical charge on the surface thereof when a stress is applied thereto from outside, and extensively in use in the fields of actuator, sensor and the like. For instance, a piezoelectric material of PZT type (lead zirconate titanate) generates a strain roughly proportional to the input voltage at order of 10.sup.-10 m/V, and therefore is successfully applicable to microscopic adjustment of position, etc. and utilized in the fine adjustment of optical systems. Also, since it generates electrical charge of which magnitude is proportional to the applied stress or deformation of piezoelectric material itself, it is utilizable as a sensor for reading out a minute force or deformation. Further, since a piezoelectric material is excellent in responsibility, it is also possible to excite a piezoelectric material itself or an elastic material in a conjunctive relation with a piezoelectric material and thereby to cause a resonance by applying an alternating electric field.
Most of the piezoelectric materials practically in use today belong to a solid solution system (a PZT system) consisting of PbZrO.sub.3 (PZ)--PbTiO.sub.3 (PT). This is for the reason that a material of excellent piezoelectric characteristics can be obtained by using a composition close to the crystallographic morphotropic phase boundary (M.P.B.) between trigonal PZ system and tetragonal PT system. In the field of PZT, products of wide composition range capable of replying the various needs have been developed by adding various additives or subsidiary components to M.P.B. composition. The products thus developed cover a wide variety of ones ranging from those used in position-adjusting actuator capable of indicating a large displacement when used in a direct current because of small mechanical quality factor (Qm) and great piezoelectric constant (d33) to those suitable for use in alternating current such as ultrasonic wave-emitting element or ultrasonic motor or the like because of small piezoelectric constant (d33) and large mechanical quality factor (Qm).
In addition to the above, most of the piezoelectric and electrically strainable materials practically used currently have a solid solution composition of which main component is lead type perovskite composition such as PZT, PMN (lead magnesium-niobate) or others.
Now, these lead type piezoelectric materials contain so large an amount of lead oxide (PbO) as about 60-70% by weight, showing a high volatility even at low temperatures, as main component. For instance, in PZT and PMN, about 2/3 by weight of the total weight is occupied by lead oxide. In the manufacture of ceramics or single crystal of these piezoelectric materials, heat treatments such as firing, fusion, etc. are indispensable processes. When these heat-treatments are carried out on an industrial scale, a large quantity of the volatile lead oxide is lost by vaporization or diffusion into atmospheric air. Although the lead oxide released in the process of manufacture can be recovered, the lead oxide present in the industrial piezoelectric materials released into the market can hardly be recovered at the present time. If such a large quantity of lead oxide is released into environments, it unavoidably causes pollution of environment in the form of, for instance, acidic rain, etc. In view of the enlargement of application field of piezoelectric ceramics and single crystals and increased consumption thereof, the problem of development of pollution-free or lead-free piezoelectric material is very important.
As piezoelectric materials entirely free from lead, there are known BaTiO.sub.3 and Bi-layer ferroelectric substances. However, the former has so low a Curie temperature as 120.degree. C. above which its piezoelectricity disappears, so that this type of piezoelectric material is not practical for uses in cars or/and the like. The latter usually has a Curie temperature of above 400.degree. C., and is superior in heat stability. However, it is high in crystalline anisotropy and its spontaneous polarization has to be oriented by the method of hot forging or the like, which is undesirable from the viewpoint of productivity. Further, if the content of lead is made to zero, a high piezoelectricity is difficult to obtain.


The present invention provides dense silica particles with reduced metal impurities. Specifically, the present invention provides a colloidal silica produced by using an alkyl silicate as a starting material, wherein, with respect to a sample prepared by adding, as an internal standard, 1 wt. % of polydimethylsilane to a dried product of the colloidal silica, a peak area value calculated using a formula of a colloidal silica peak area/a polydimethylsilane peak area is 15 or less, the peak areas being determined by an obtained solid-state 29Si-CP/MAS-NMR spectrum. The present invention further provides a method for producing the colloidal silica.

A colloidal silica is a dispersion of silica fine particles in media such as water etc., and are used not only as a property-improving agent in the fields of papers, fibers, steel, and the like, but also as a polishing material for electronic materials, such as semiconductor wafers, etc.
Mainly, two methods, i.e., a water glass method and an alkoxide method, have been known as production methods of a colloidal silica.
The water glass method is a method for growing particles by subjecting a sodium silicate to an ion exchange so as to prepare active silicic acid, and adding, with heating, the obtained active silicic acid to a seed particle-containing aqueous solution, in which the pH was adjusted with NaOH (Patent Document 1). According to this method, particles with a relatively dense structure can be obtained.
The alkoxide method, otherwise known as the Stöber method, comprises subjecting an alkyl silicate (tetraalkoxysilane) to hydrolyzation and condensation in the presence of a basic catalyst to grow particles, thereby producing silica particles. This method enables the preparation of colloidal particles having particle sizes ranging from nano- to microscale. For example, Patent Document 2 suggests a method for producing a cocoon-shaped colloidal silica, comprising adding methyl silicate (tetramethoxysilane) or a mixture of methyl silicate and methanol dropwise to a mixed solvent comprising water, methanol and ammonia, or to a mixed solvent comprising ammonia and ammonium salt under stirring for 10 to 40 minutes so as to allow the methyl silicate to react with water; and thereby producing a colloidal silica having a minor axis diameter of 10 to 200 nm and a major-axis/minor-axis ratio of 1.4 to 2.2. Further, Patent Document 3 discloses a method for producing a cocoon-shaped colloidal silica, comprising hydrolyzing a tetramethoxysilane tetramer while adding the tetramethoxysilane tetramer dropwise to a mixed liquid comprising methanol, water and ammonia.
In addition to the above, many methods, such as a production method of silica particles utilizing the alkoxide method, etc. have been proposed (for example, Patent Documents 4 to 10).
Further, Patent Document 11 discloses a production method of a silica sol in which elongate-shaped amorphous silica particles are dispersed in a liquid dispersion. This method comprises hydrolyzing tetraethyl silicate and an ethyl silicate oligomer with an acid catalyst; adding an alkali catalyst thereto to adjust the pH to 7 or more; and heating the resulting product to allow it to polymerize.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 61-158810    Patent Document 2: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 11-60232    Patent Document 3: WO2004/074180    Patent Document 4: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-91220    Patent Document 5: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-50594    Patent Document 6: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-162533    Patent Document 7: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-60219    Patent Document 8: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-45681    Patent Document 9: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-312197    Patent Document 10: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2005-60217    Patent Document 11: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2001-48520

Colloidal silica, and method for production thereof


A circuit tracks the total amount of time that a host device has spent in its high power “activated” state (and optionally idle and hibernate states) and thereby can estimate the total power consumed by the host device. A remote device can query the state of a counter storing a value representing this time to accurately determine how much of the energy has been consumed by the host device and how much time is left and/or how many more operations can be performed before the host device's battery is exhausted.

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology employs a radio frequency ("RF") wireless link and ultra-small embedded computer circuitry. RFID technology allows physical objects to be identified and tracked via these wireless "tags". It functions like a bar code that communicates to the reader automatically without requiring manual line-of-sight scanning or singulation of the objects. RFID promises to radically transform the retail, pharmaceutical, military, and transportation industries.
Several advantages of RFID technology are summarized in Table 1:
TABLE 1Identification without visual contactAble to read/writeAble to store information in tagInformation can be renewed anytimeUnique item identificationCan withstand harsh environmentReusableHigh Flexibility/Value
As shown in FIG. 1, a basic RFID system 100 includes a tag 102, a reader 104, and an optional server 106. The tag 102 includes an integrated circuit (IC) chip and an antenna. The IC chip includes a digital decoder needed to execute the computer commands the tag 102 receives from the tag reader 104. The IC chip also includes a power supply circuit to extract and regulate power from the RF reader; a detector to decode signals from the reader; a back-scattering modulator to send data back to the reader; anti-collision protocol circuits; and at least enough EEPROM memory to store its EPC code.
Communication begins with a reader 104 sending out signals to find the tag 102. When the radio wave hits the tag 102 and the tag 102 recognizes the reader's signal, the reader 104 decodes the data programmed into the tag 102. The information can then be passed to a server 106 for processing, storage, and/or propagation to another computing device. By tagging a variety of items, information about the nature and location of goods can be known instantly and automatically.
The system uses reflected or "backscattered" radio frequency (RF) waves to transmit information from the tag 102 to the reader 104. Since passive (Class-1 and Class-2) tags get all of their power from the reader signal, the tags are only powered when in the beam of the reader 104.
The Auto ID Center EPC-Compliant tag classes are set forth below:
Class-1                Identity tags (RF user programmable, maximum range ˜3 m)
Class-2                Memory tags (8 bits to 128 Mbits programmable at maximum ˜3 m range)        Security & privacy protection
Class-3                Battery tags (256 bits to 64 Kb)        Self-Powered Backscatter (internal clock, sensor interface support)        ˜100 meter range
Class-4                Active tags        Active transmission (permits tag-speaks-first operating modes)        Up to 30,000 meter range
In RFID systems where passive receivers (i.e., Class-1 tags) are able to capture enough energy from the transmitted RF to power the device, no batteries are necessary. In systems where distance prevents powering a device in this manner, an alternative power source must be used. For these "alternate" systems (also known as active or semi-passive), batteries are the most common form of power. This greatly increases read range, and the reliability of tag reads, because the tag doesn't need power from the reader. Class-3 tags only need a 10 mV signal from the reader in comparison to the 500 mV that a Class-1 tag needs to operate. This 2,500:1 reduction in power requirement permits Class-3 tags to operate out to a distance of 100 meters or more compared with a Class-1 range of only about 3 meters.
One concern with powered tags is the life of the battery. Battery-powered RFID tags draw very little power when silent, but draw orders of magnitude more power when active. If the tag has been forced into activated states many times, the battery will be used up more quickly than a tag activated less. Because certain tags are active more often than others, it is hard to estimate the battery life of a tag. The current method is to replace all tags when the battery on one of the tags dies, as it is likely others will die soon as well. However, many other tags may still have a long life remaining. Thus it would be desirable to estimate the remaining life of a battery in an RFID tag.


There is provided a seismic imaging technology for imaging a subsurface structure by processing measured data reflected from the subsurface structure after a wave from a source wave has been propagated to the subsurface structure. According to an aspect, there is provided a seismic imaging method for obtaining imaging data of a subsurface structure through waveform inversion using a macro-velocity model as an initial value, wherein the macro-velocity model which is used as the initial value for the waveform inversion is calculated by: calculating a velocity difference function which is a difference between a real velocity and an initial velocity model, wherein the velocity difference function is a ratio of measured seismic scattered energy and modeled scattered energy based on the initial velocity model; and calculating the macro-velocity model by updating the initial velocity model with the velocity difference function.

1. Field
The following description relates to a seismic imaging technology for imaging a subsurface structure by processing measured data reflected from the subsurface structure after a wave from a source wave has been propagated to the subsurface structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
Geophysicists study subsurface structures using information recorded at the surface in various ways, one of which is a full waveform inversion. However, recovering an accurate velocity model from field data or even synthetic data can be difficult due to local minima in the objective functions and the absence of low-frequency components in the data. These difficulties lead to the use of a two-step inversion process. In the first step, a largescale velocity model is recovered, and in the second step, inversion is performed to improve the resolution of the velocity model. There are several methods that can be used to obtain a reliable macro-velocity model, such as traveltime tomography disclosed in "Luo, Y. and Schuster, G. T. 1991. Wave-equation traveltime inversion. Geophysics 56, 645-653", and inversion algorithms in the Laplace domain disclosed in "Shin, C. and Cha, Y. H.2008. Waveform inversion in the Laplace domain. Geophysical Journal International 173, 922-931. 2008." Traveltime tomography reconstructs the subsurface velocity model by minimizing the residuals between the modeled and observed traveltimes. However, its penetration depth can be prohibitively shallow, and the method relies on the arrival times chosen. The macro-velocity model can also be estimated by an inversion in the Laplace domain. The Laplace-domain inversion scheme has been shown to be successful in recovering reliable macro-velocity models from field data containing a small amount of low-frequency components. However, the Laplace-domain inversion suffers from noise appearing before the first arrival. Muting is therefore mandatory in Laplace-domain inversion.

Seismic imaging apparatus utilizing macro-velocity model and method for the same

Seoul National University R&DB Foundation


A method is provided for providing protection for connectionless signals in a telecommunications network comprising a plurality of nodes. A first protection path is generated from each of the nodes to a destination node. A second protection path is generated from each of the nodes to the destination node. The second protection path is distinct from the first protection path. Protection traffic is routed along one of the protection paths to the destination node.

Telecommunications systems generally operate in either a connection-oriented mode or a connectionless mode. In a connectionless mode of operation, signals are communicated with less regard for the particular path traversed between source and destination and network elements than in a connection-oriented mode. Connectionless signaling typically focuses on the destination address, or other identification, rather than any particular path between source and destination network elements. Internet Protocol (IP), IPx, and SNA packet switching are examples of connectionless signal transport.
When a failure occurs along the working path being traversed by signals in connectionless communication, the signals must be re-routed to the destination network element along another available path. In conventional telecommunications systems, this re-routing is done by each individual network element with no pre-defined protection paths existing for the connectionless signals. Thus, these systems are inefficient. In addition, bandwidth is wasted by these systems due to inefficient bandwidth reservation schemes.

Method and system for providing a protection path for connectionless signals in a telecommunications network