An optical sensor includes a light receiving device disposed in a housing, an exterior filter rotatably mounted to an attachment surface of the housing, and a light intercepting member which rotates along with a rotation of the exterior filter to adjust an amount of light incident on a light receiving surface of the light receiving device. In this optical sensor, the light intercepting member has a rotary shaft fixed at its center, and has a light adjusting mechanism for adjusting the amount of light incident on the light receiving surface of the light receiving device in a range in a direction of rotation around the rotary shaft. Accordingly, the sensitivity of the optical sensor can be arbitrarily adjusted with a high accuracy.

An optical senor described in, for example, JP-A-11-72354 has been known as this kind of conventional optical sensor. The general outline of the optical senor described in JP-A-11-72354 will be described with reference to FIG. 14 to FIG. 16B.
As shown in FIG. 14, this optical sensor is constructed of a rectangular sensor housing 110 and an exterior filter 150 formed of, for example, transparent synthetic resin and fixed on the top of the sensor housing 110. An internal structure when the inside of this exterior filter 150 is viewed from the direction of a plane is shown in FIG. 15.
As shown in FIG. 15, this optical sensor is basically constructed of: a light receiving device 20 mounted in the center of the top surface of the sensor housing 110 (refer to FIG. 14) and for outputting an electric signal responsive to the amount of light received; and a light intercepting plate 140 for intercepting light, which is transmitted by the exterior filter 150 and is incident on the light receiving device 20, from above the light receiving device 20 to thereby adjust the amount of light incident on the light receiving device 20. In the light intercepting plate 140 of them, a slit 142a, 142b, 142c whose width is expanded stepwise is formed in a portion that intercepts light incident on the receiving surface of the light receiving device 20. The light intercepting plate 140 has an arm 144a extended from a portion, where these slit 142a to 142c is formed, to the left in the drawing and having a rotary shaft 141 on its tip. Moreover, the light intercepting plate 140 has an arm 144b which is extended from a portion where the slit 142a to 142c is formed to the right in the drawing and whose tip is sandwiched by a protrusion 150 formed on the inside wall of the exterior filter 150.
When the amount of light detected by the light receiving device 20 is adjusted, that is, when sensitivity is adjusted in this optical sensor, first, the exterior filter 150 is rotated, for example, 15 degrees clockwise. At this time, as shown in FIG. 16A and described above, the arm 144b of the light intercepting plate 140 is sandwiched by the protrusion 150a and hence the light intercepting plate 140 is also rotated 15 degrees around the rotary shaft 141 along with the rotation of the exterior filter 150. Hence, at this time, the light intercepting plate 140 is changed from a state where the light intercepting plate 140 having the slit width 142b shown in FIG. 15 intercepts light incident on the light receiving surface of the light receiving device 20 to a state where the light intercepting plate 140 having the slit width 142a intercepts light incident on the light receiving surface of the light receiving device 20, thereby a width passing the light incident on the light receiving surface of the light receiving device 20 is relatively narrowed. That is, the amount of light detected by the light receiving device 20 is made smaller than that before the rotation of the exterior filter 150, which results in decreasing sensitivity as the optical sensor. In contrast to this, when the exterior filter 150 is rotated 15 degrees counterclockwise, the light intercepting plate 140 is changed from a state where the light intercepting plate 140 having the slit width 142b shown in FIG. 15 intercepts light incident on the light receiving surface of the light receiving device 20 to a state where the light intercepting plate 140 having the slit width 142c intercepts light incident on the light receiving surface of the light receiving device 20, thereby a width passing the light incident on the light receiving surface of the light receiving device 20 is relatively expanded. That is, the amount of light detected by the light receiving device 20 is made larger than that before the rotation of the exterior filter 150, which results in increasing the sensitivity as the optical sensor.
In this manner, according to the above-mentioned conventional optical sensor, by rotating the exterior filter 150 clockwise or counterclockwise, the amount of light incident on the light receiving surface of the light receiving device 20, that is, the sensitivity of the optical sensor can be adjusted. However, although the total range of rotation in the clockwise and counterclockwise directions of the exterior filter 150 is as narrow as 30 degrees at a maximum as described above, the range of adjustment of the sensitivity of the optical sensor is wide. Hence, the degree of change in the sensitivity of the optical sensor with respect to the amount of rotation of the exterior filter 150 becomes large as a natural result.
Hence, in the case where such optical sensor is mounted in a vehicle, when the relative angle of the exterior filter 150 is changed even a little by the vibrations of the vehicle or the like, the sensitivity of the optical sensor may be excessively changed.
Moreover, even when the user rotates the exterior filter 150 a little at the time of setting sensitivity, the sensitivity of the optical sensor is changed by a large amount. Hence, it is difficult for the user to make the fine setting of sensitivity of the optical sensor.

Optical sensor with rotary shaft-driven light intercepting member


A wristop heart rate monitor comprising a dial, which comprises a current heart rate indicator, which is responsive to a heart rate signal measured from a user of the wristop heart rate monitor and functionally connected to a heart rate scale, and a reference indicator defining a visually identifiable reference heart rate range. At least one of the indicators is rotatably adjustable relative to the dial, and the heart rate scale and the reference heart rate range are adjustable relative to each other. A method is also described for monitoring the heart rate of a sportsman. The wristop heart rate monitor provides a quickly perceivable and adjustable heart rate monitor structure.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a performance-monitoring device used in sports. In particular, the invention concerns a wristop device, which can be used for monitoring the intensity of training. Such a device monitors the physiological state of a sportsman and provides training-related data to the sportsman. The invention also concerns a method of carrying out exercise monitoring.
2. Description of Related Art
EP 1245184 discloses a heart rate monitor having a digital display, which comprises panels for showing a lower and higher limit of the heart rate in numbers. A highlighted section of a slide bar is moved between the higher and lower limit to show the current heart rate of the user of the device. The heart rate is also shown in number format in a corner of the display. The device is restricted to showing in an illustrative way only the heart rates between the lower and upper limits. If no section of the slide bar is highlighted, the user has to refer to the number representation of the heart rate. If the linear scale of the slide bar is extended, the resolution degrades to an unusable level due to a limited resolution and size of digital displays.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,876,346 discloses an artery locating device, which has a function of showing heart rate in a linear graphical slide bar.
In EP 0761163, and EP 0842 635 another display method for a heart rate monitor is disclosed. The display has a graphical heart rate bar and a numerical representation of the heart rate.
WO 90/00366 discloses a numerical display having a lower limit of heart rate, a higher limit of heart rate and the actual heart rate shown in numbers.
In many prior art devices, setting of the lower and higher limits for heart rate is very difficult to carry out. In order to be able to set the limits, the user often has to navigate to a correct menu of the device and to tap the setting in by using "increase/decrease value" buttons of the device. The procedure is therefore often left undone in the beginning of an exercise, whereby the useful heart rate limiting function of the device remains unused.
In addition, the prior art solutions related to heart rate monitor displays are such that it is difficult for the user to quickly see the present heart rate and the heart rate limits. When jogging, for example, the device unavoidably shakes, whereby perceiving of the heart rate with respect to the limits takes a long while.


A chaff distributor for a combine harvester or similar for the distribution of chaff, the chaff distributor (6) possesses a trough (8) with a conveyor screw (9) supported drivably therein.

The invention relates to a chaff distributor for a combine harvester or similar for the distribution of chaff. The invention further relates to a combine harvester having such a chaff distributor.
In a combine harvester, there is usually a straw-walker under which a sieve shoe is located. The cleaning wind from the combine harvester blows the chaff falling through the cleaning shoe towards the back. The chaff coming from the cleaning system of the combine harvester is only insufficiently taken up by the chaff distributors known up to now. This applies in particular to heavy parts such as weed seeds and similar. In the known chaff distributors, these parts fall in an undistributed manner onto the bottom over the width of the cleaning system. Furthermore, in the known chaff distributors, the distribution width is very small andxe2x80x94relative to the combine harvester cutter bar widthxe2x80x94in a very non-uniform manner.
It is the object of the invention to propose an enhanced chaff distributor for a combine harvester or similar.
This object is solved in accordance with the invention by a trough having a conveyor screw supported in a drivable manner therein. The trough is open to the top. It can be designed in the form of a barrel. It can be a semi-cylindrically shaped trough. The conveyor screw supported in a drivable manner therein has a clockwise and counter-clockwise motion and is driven in such a way that the chaff is transported outwards in each case. The conveyor screw accordingly has clockwise motion on one side and counter-clockwise motion on the other. It transports the chaff into the relevant external regions of the trough. The chaff distributor is preferably attached directly behind the cleaning system of the combine harvester.
Advantageous embodiments are described herein.
Preferably, a chaff separation plate pointing upwards is provided behind the chaff distributor or behind the trough. This chaff separation plate has an essentially vertical course. It extends preferably closely to the lower side of the sieve shoe or the rear end of the sieve shoe. The chaff separation plate is located in the direction of travel of the combine harvester behind the chaff distributor or the trough. It runs in a direction transversely to the direction of travel of the combine harvester. By means of the chaff separation plate, it is ensured that the chaff is not blown further beyond the chaff distributor.
Another advantageous embodiment is characterized in that the chaff distributor or the trough can be travelled backwards. It can therefore be moved in the direction of travel of the combine harvester backwards in the direction of a straw-cutting machine possibly existing at the rear end of the combine harvester. Preferably, the chaff distributor can be travelled so far to the back until its front end is in the region of the chaff separation plate pointing upwards. The chaff separation plate pointing upwards then lies in the region of the front side of the chaff distributor. In this way, it is no longer the chaff which is supplied to the chaff distributor, but the long straw which falls down from the sieve shoe or the rear end of the sieve shoe. This is particularly of advantage in the processing of maize. When threshing maize, it is often desirable that the long straw is not cut, but only distributed. To achieve this, the straw-cutting machine usually provided behind the chaff distributor can be covered by a plate, preferably by a swivellable plate. The plate can be disposed in such a way, in particular inclined in such a way, that the long straw is supplied to the chaff distributor. In this way, it is possible to distribute the straw in an energy-saving manner.
In accordance with another advantageous embodiment, the chaff distributor or the trough possesses in its external regions one opening each in its bottom. Preferably, said openings are located at the ends of the chaff distributor or trough. The chaff conveyed to the ends of the chaff distributor or trough falls downwards through the openings or holes.
Preferably, one blower each is provided in the external regions of the chaff distributor or trough. This is preferably a radial-flow blower. The blowers are preferably disposed below the described openings in the end regions of the chaff distributor or trough. The chaff falling through the openings or holes is distributed evenly by the blowers. The radial-flow blowers can possess vertically running rotor axes.
In accordance with another advantageous embodiment, one directional throw blower each is provided in the external regions of the chaff distributor or trough. These can be radial-flow blowers. The directional throw blowers can possess horizontally running rotor axes. The rotor axes of the directional throw blowers are preferably flush with the axis of the chaff distributor or the axis of rotation of the conveyor screw.
It is advantageous if the blowers or directional throw blowers are journalled. In this way, the angle of throw can be changed in a simple manner. Another advantageous embodiment is characterized in that at the blower ejector, that is at the ejector of the blower or directional throw blower, one or more impellers and/or guide plates and/or fingers are provided. The impellers or guide plates or fingers are preferably adjustable. By the measures mentioned (journalling of the blowers or directional throw blowers and/or preferably adjustable impellers, etc.), a uniform scattering pattern and an exact scattering widthxe2x80x94relative to the relevant cutter bar widthxe2x80x94can be achieved. It is possible by the measures mentioned to have an effect on the direction of ejection and on the angle of radiation and quantity of the chaff which leaves the blowers or directional throw blowers in the corresponding angle region.
In accordance with another advantageous embodiment, a disposition can be provided in which the directional throw blowers convey the chaff into one further blower each which is preferably mounted on a straw-cutting machine and which preferably blows the chaff into the distribution shoe of the straw-cutting machine.
Furthermore, a disposition can be provided in which the directional throw blowers are provided with one chaff channel each. The chaff channel can blow the chaff into the straw hood so that it is distributed over the straw-cutting machine. The chaff channel can, however, also be disposed in such a way that the chaff is blown into the external region of the straw-cutting machine distributor shoe so that the chaff is distributed in this way.
Another advantageous embodiment is characterized in that one screw conveyor each is provided in the external regions of the chaff distributor or trough. The screw conveyor can be disposed in such a way that is conveys the chaff into the straw hood of the combine harvester. In accordance with another advantageous embodiment, one further blower each exists at the ends of the screw conveyors.
The object forming the basis of the invention is further solved in a chaff distributor for a combine harvester or similar for the distribution of chaff in that behind the chaff distributor a chaff separation plate pointing upwards is provided and that the chaff distributor can be travelled backwards. By means of the chaff separation plate, it is ensured in the manner already described above that the chaff is not blown further beyond the chaff distributor. The chaff separation plate runs essentially vertically and in a direction transversely to the direction of travel of the combine harvester. The chaff distributor can be travelled backwards in the direction of travel of the combine harvester, that is in the direction of a straw-cutting machine possibly existing behind the chaff distributor. This disposition is, in the manner already described above, particularly of advantage in the processing of maize. Reference is made to the corresponding descriptions above.
The invention relates further to a combine harvester which is characterized in accordance with the invention by a chaff distributor in accordance with the invention. Preferably, the combine harvester possesses a straw-cutting machine. The straw-cutting machine can be coverable, preferably by a plate, preferably by a swivellable plate. This is particularly of advantage if a chaff separation plate pointing upwards exists and if the chaff distributor is travellable backwards in the direction of travel of the combine harvester. Then the chaff distributor can be used in a simple and advantageous manner for the distribution of long straw, which is particularly advantageous in the processing of maize. The straw-cutting machine is covered by the preferably swivellable plate so that the long straw falling down from the rear end of the straw-walker is distributed by the chaff distributor.
Further blowers can be provided on the straw-cutting machine.
Another advantageous embodiment is characterized in that the chaff distributor possesses a blower or directional throw blower having a chaff channel pointing into the straw hood of the combine harvester or into the external region of the straw-cutting machine distributor shoe. The chaff distributor can possess a screw conveyor which conveys the chaff into the straw hood of the combine harvester.

Chaff distributor for a combine harvester


A process for preventing dye redeposition during the washing of a dyed fabric or garment made from natural fibers, which process incorporates as a dye redeposition inhibiting agent, a water-soluble or water-dispersible polyester resin composition comprising a reaction product of 20%-50% by weight of terephthalate polymer or waste terephthalate polymer, 10-40% by weight of at least one glycol and 5-25% by weight of at least one oxyalkylated polyol.

It is known that the clothing made from cellulosic fabrics such as cotton, in particular, indigo dyed denim can be treated by fabric finishing processes such as prewashing or stonewashing to release dye from the fabric. Such treatment can accomplish a preworn and softer effects that have been preferred by consumers for many years. Indigo blue is the most common dye that is released in the fabric finishing process. Other dyes such as sulfur black are also used to color denim and could also be released in a stonewashing or prewashing process.
In a stonewashing process, fabric, usually denim, is treated to intentionally release dye from the fabric to nonuniformly fade the fabric. This process may also soften the fabric and make the fabric surface appear fuzzy and worn.
In a prewashing process, excess dye is removed from the fabric uniformly to fade the fabric. This process may also be used to soften the fabric by removing the sizing agent present in the fabric, to remove stiffening agent or to preshrink the fabric. Compared to the prewashing process, stonewashing process produces a more preworn look.
A common problem in both stonewashing and prewashing processes is that the released dyes can redeposit back on the same or different fabric. For example, when stone washing blue jeans, the released dye tends to redeposit onto the denim and white pocket liners. Because of the deposition, the pocket liners become undesirably colored and the denim has a darker appearance on the seams of the clothing. The problem of dye redeposition in stonewashing and prewashing is more severe because the concentration of dye in the wash bath of both processes is at least 100 percent higher than in a typical household laundry process.
Consequently, efforts have been made to seek a fabric washing process and a dye deposition inhibiting agent that can be effective in preventing dye from redepositing on fabrics during the washing process.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,444,561 to Denzinger et al. issued Apr. 24, 1984, discloses a process for washing and after-treating textile goods containing synthetic fibers, which utilizes a copolymer as an antiredeposition agent to inhibit the resoiling of the wash with the dirt particles and fats, particularly in the case of fabrics containing synthetic fibers. The copolymer being employed comprises: (a) from 50 to 90% by weight of one or more vinyl esters of C.sub.1, to C.sub.4 aliphatic carboxylic acids, (b) from 5 to 35% by weight of one or more N-vinyl lactams, (c) from 1 to 20% by weight of one or more monomers containing basic groups, or of salts or quaternization products of these monomers, and (d) from 0 to 20% by weight of one or more further monomers which are copolymerizable with monomers (a), (b) and (c) and are free from carboxyl and basic groups.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,925,588 to Berrod et al. issued on May 15, 1990, discloses an antisoiling and anti-redeposition agent which is useful for the aqueous washing of textile articles to avoid the redeposition of the soiling removed during washing on the textile fibers. The antisoiling and anti-redeposition agent comprises a vinyl copolymer of at least one (meth)acrylic ester and at least one unsaturated carboxylic acid grafted with at least 1% polyester sulfonate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,760 to Kirk et al. issued on Mar. 24, 1998, provides a fabric washing composition and aqueous treatment solution for inhibiting deposition of dye, comprising at least one dye deposition inhibiting polymer. The dye deposition inhibiting polymer comprises, as polymerized units, from 5 to 100 weight percent of at least one vinyl amide monomer and from 0 to 95 weight percent of one or more vinyl ester monomers.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a fabric or garment washing composition containing one or more dye deposition inhibiting agents which can be added during fabric finishing processes to effectively inhibit the deposition of dye during these processes.
A further aspect of this invention is to provide a process for washing dyed fabric or garments consisting of natural fibers to inhibit the deposition of released dyes onto the fabric during prewashing or stonewashing.
We have surprisingly found that these objects are achieved by the use of at least one water-soluble or water-dispersible polyester resin disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,977,191 in a wash liquor as a dye deposition inhibiting agent.

Prevention of dye redeposition in fabric washing processes


Various method and apparatus embodiments for selecting tunable operating parameters in an integrated circuit (IC) are disclosed. In one embodiment, an IC includes a number of various functional blocks each having a local management circuit. The IC also includes a global management unit coupled to each of the functional blocks having a local management circuit. The management unit is configured to determine the operational state of the IC based on the respective operating states of each of the functional blocks. Responsive to determining the operational state of the IC, the management unit may provide indications of the same to the local management circuit of each of the functional blocks. The local management circuit for each of the functional blocks may select one or more tunable parameters based on the operational state determined by the management unit.

1. Technical Field
This disclosure is directed to integrated circuits, and more particularly, to determine parameters for power and performance management in integrated circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, power management has become an increasingly important factor in the design of integrated circuits (ICs), in part due to increasing levels of integration on a single IC die. The advent of the mobile/portable electronic devices (e.g., smart phones, tablets, etc.) has further driven the demand for more power efficient ICs in order to preserve the battery life of such devices.
Responsive to the demand for more efficient power management on ICs, numerous schemes have been developed. In many ICs, various functional units implemented thereon may be clock gated or power gated. Clock gating may be defined as inhibiting a clock signal from being provided to a functional unit when that unit is idle. Similarly, power gating may be defined as inhibiting power from being provided to a functional unit when it is idle.
Although power management is an important factor in the design of ICs, obtaining optimal performance is another important factor. In many IC designs, there is a tradeoff that exists between power savings and performance. Some IC designs may emphasize higher performance at the expense of greater power consumption. Other IC designs may emphasize reduced power consumption, at the expense of performance.

Method and apparatus for determining tunable parameters to use in power and performance management


The invention disclosed an improved structure for combination type fusible plugs, comprising a shell and two individual plug seats that can respectively combine with conductor copper blades, fuses, and electrical wires and then be housed inside the shell to form a complete fusible plug. With an effective separation of electrical wires, conductor copper blades, and fuses from each other, the plug structure of the invention can provide more safety in use.

A fusible plug can provide safety in use. When current exceeds a specified value, the fuse will melt away so that current will be interrupted, preventing the occurrence of accidents. A prior fusible plug typically contains a shell, a plug seat, and a plurality of partitions in the shell for accommodating conductor copper blades, fuses, and conductor wires and terminals. Such structures are known in U.S. Pat. No. 5,281,943 and 5,482,478. Because that the interior of those prior fusible plug structures is still communicable, it is possible to have shorting between those conductor components when moisture infiltration, resulting in injury to human or damage to properties. Hence, a prior fusible plug has the concerns with safety.
In view of the above problem, the primary object of the invention is to provide an improved structure of combination type fusible plugs that comprises two independent plug seats each having a set of electrical wires, fuses, and conductor copper blades and jointly seated inside a shell. Thus the structure according to the invention can effectively eliminate the shortcoming of prior plugs. Now the structure and features of a fusible plug of the invention will be described in more detail with reference to accompanying drawings.

Structure of combination type fusible plugs


The multiplexer device comprises a multiplexing means for multiplexing a plurality types of media information and outputting a multiplexed bit stream, a priority deciding means for deciding priority corresponding to each of the media information, and a multiplexing controller for controlling multiplexing of each of the media information according to the multiplexing means based on the priority decided by the priority deciding means. In addition the priority in each information is multiplexed.

The present invention relates to a multiplexer device for multiplexing multimedia data (media information) such as digitalized video signals, acoustical signals, and other data or the like. Multiplexed data is encoded to be transmitted or to be accumulated or for other purposes, and is applicable, as a concrete example of application, to a digital broadcasting system using satellites, ground waves, cables, or optical fibers, video on demand (VOD), and a teleconference system or the like.
FIG. 8 is a functional block diagram showing, as an example, a conventional type of multiplexing transmitting system described in the report of the Telecommunications Council in the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, Consultation No. 74:
xe2x80x9cTechnological conditions in a satellite digital broadcasting system (which uses a 27 MHz band width), said satellite using a band width in a range from 12.2 to 12.75 GHz in xe2x80x9cTechnological conditions according to a digital broadcasting systemxe2x80x9dxe2x80x2 (July, 1995).
In FIG. 8, designated at the reference numeral at 1 is a video encoding section, at 2 a sound encoding section, at 3 a data encoding section, at 4 a multiplexing section, at 5 a transmission scramble section, at 6 an error correction encoding section, and at 7 modulating section.
Next description is made for operations of the multiplexing transmitting system based on the conventional technology.
In the video encoding section 1, sound encoding section 2, and data encoding section 3, a video signal 11, an acoustic signal 12, and various types of data signal 13 are subjected to information-source encoding respectively.
The multiplexing section 4 multiplexes a video encoded bit stream 14, a sound encoded bit stream 15, and data encoded bit stream 16 each generated according to the information-source encoding for each packet and generates a multiplexed bit stream 17.
The transmission scramble section 3 performs energy dispersal to the multiplexed bit stream 17. The error correction encoding section 6 subjects a multiplexed bit stream 18 after the energy dispersal to error correction encoding. The modulating section 7 subjects a multiplexed bit stream 19 after the error correction encoding to modulation suitable for a transmission line and generates a transmission signal 20 in a specified frequency band.
Description is made for the multiplexing section 4 with reference to FIG. 9. In FIG. 9, the reference numeral 8 indicates a multiplexed additional information generating section for generating information indicating multiplexing and arrangement conditions or the like when each of the encoded bit streams 14 to 16 are multiplexed. Multiplexed additional information 21 such as PSI (Program Specific Information) specified in the ISO/IEC 13818-1 publication or SI (Service Information) specified in the European DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) is generated by the multiplexed additional information generating section 8.
The packet multiplexing section 9 multiplexes the video encoded bit stream 14, sound encoded bit stream 15, data encoded bit stream 16 and multiplexed additional information 21 for each packet according to the multiplexed additional information 21 from the multiplexed additional information generating section 8 and generates a multiplexed bit stream 17.
The conventional type of multimedia multiplexing/transmitting system has the configuration as described above, which makes it difficult to multiplex information by flexibly using any band according to the priority in the information, for instance, by deciding the priority for each type of video and speech or the like and deciding the priority to any object appearing in the video and speech or the like, namely, a comparatively more amount of information is allocated to the information with the higher priority to be multiplexed while a comparatively less amount thereof is allocated to that with lower priority to be multiplexed.
Also, in the side where the multiplexed bit stream is received, it is difficult to edit and process the received information according to the priority or for each object.
Further, since information is not hierarchically classified into important information and not-important information to be transmitted, it is difficult to provide a function of stepped degradation; so called the function of graceful degradation in received information according to the quality of a transmission line.
It is an object of the present invention to enable multiplexing of information flexibly and efficiently by multiplexing the information according to the priority therein. It is another object of the present invention to realize multiplexer which has sufficient resistance to an error of transmission line and also has a function of graceful degradation.
A multiplexer device according to the present invention comprises a multiplexing means for multiplexing a plurality stream, a priority deciding means for deciding priority corresponding to each of the media information, and a multiplexing controller for controlling multiplexing of each of the media information according to the priority decided by the priority deciding means.
In the multiplexer device, the multiplexing means comprises a media multiplexer for multiplexing the plurality types of media information and generating a media multiplexed bit stream for each program, and a program multiplexer for multiplexing a plurality of the media multiplexed bit streams outputted from this media multiplexer and generating a program multiplexed bit stream, the priority deciding means decides priority for each of the media information as well as for each of the programs, and the multiplexing controller controls multiplexing of each of the media information by the media multiplexer according to the priority for the media information and also controls multiplexing of each of the media multiplexed bit streams by the media multiplexer according to the priority for the program.
The multiplexer device comprises a channel coder for subjecting the multiplexed bit stream outputted from the multiplexing means to channel coding according to the priority from the priority deciding means and transmitting the subjected multiplexed bit stream.
In the multiplexer device, the priority deciding means decides priority in each media information according to contents information corresponding to each of the media information, or decides priority in each program according to contents information corresponding to each of the programs.
The multiplexer device comprises a priority correlation table information generating means for generating both or one of information indicating association and priority between media information or between programs, and the multiplexing means multiplexes the priority correlation table information.
In the multiplexer device, the priority correlation table information comprises a packet identifying information for discretely identifying the media information multiplexed for each packet, program identifying information for identifying each program, group identifying information indicating association between programs, and priority information indicating the priority.
In the multiplexer device, further, the priority information comprises priority information for each program and priority information for each media information constituting each program.
A multiplexing/transmitting method according to the present invention comprises the steps of deciding priority corresponding to a plurality types of media information, controlling multiplexing of each media information according to the decided priority, and outputting a multiplexed bit stream.
Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.

Content-based multiplexer device and multiplexing method


A catadioptric projection optical system is provided, which can use a beam splitting optical system smaller in size than a conventional polarizing beam splitter, can set a long optical path from a concave reflecting mirror to an image plane, allows easy adjustment of the optical system, and has excellent imaging performance. A light beam from an object surface forms a first intermediate image through a refracting lens group. A light beam from the first intermediate image passes through a polarizing beam splitter and is reflected by a concave reflecting mirror to form a second intermediate image in the polarizing beam splitter. A light beam from the second intermediate image is reflected by the polarizing beam splitter means to form a final image on the image plane via a refracting lens group. The polarizing beam splitter means is arranged near the positions at which the intermediate images are formed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a catadioptric reduction optical system suitably applied to a projection optical system for reduction projection in a projection exposure apparatus of a one-shot exposure method or a scanning exposure method, used to manufacture a semiconductor element or a liquid crystal display element in a photolithographic process and, more particularly, to a catadioptric reduction projection optical system having a magnification of about 1/4 to 1/5 with a resolution on the submicron order in the ultraviolet wavelength range.
2. Related Background Art
In fabricating semiconductor devices or liquid crystal display devices, etc. by photolithography process, the projection exposure apparatus is used for demagnifying through a projection optical system a pattern image on a reticle (or photomask, etc.) for example at a ratio of about 1/4 to 1/5 to effect exposure of the image on a wafer (or glass plate, etc.) coated with a photoresist and the like.
With the recent increase in the integration degree of semiconductor elements and the like, a higher resolution is required for a projection optical system used in a projection exposure apparatus. In order to meet this requirement, the wavelength of illumination light (exposure wavelength) for exposure must be shortened, or the numerical aperture (NA) of the projection optical system must be increased. If, however, the exposure wavelength is shortened, the types of optical glass which can be used in practice are limited because of the absorption of illumination light. In particular, as the exposure wavelength becomes 300 nm or less, only synthetic quartz and fluorite can be used in practice as glass materials.
The difference between the Abbe constants of the synthetic quartz and the fluorite is not large enough to correct chromatic aberration. For this reason, if the exposure wavelength becomes 300 nm or less, and a projection optical system is constituted by only a refracting optical system, chromatic aberration correction is very difficult to perform. In addition, since fluorite undergoes a considerable change in refractive index with a change in temperature, i.e., has poor temperature characteristics, and involves many problems in a lens polishing process, fluorite cannot be used for many portions. It is, therefore, very difficult to form a projection optical system having a required solution by using only a refracting system.
In contrast to this, attempts have been made to form a projection optical system by using only a reflecting system. In this case, however, the projection optical system increases in size and requires aspherical reflecting surfaces. It is very difficult to manufacture large, high-precision, aspherical surfaces
Under the circumstances, various techniques have been proposed to form a reduction projection optical system by using a so-called catadioptric optical system constituted by a combination of a reflecting system and a refracting system consisting of optical glass usable in relating to the exposure wavelength to be used. As an example, a reduction projection exposure apparatus including a catadioptric projection optical system having a beam splitter constituted by a cubic prism and serving to project a reticle image entirely by using a light beam near the optical axis is disclosed in, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,953,960, 5,220,454, 5,089,913, or 5,402,267.

Catadioptric reduction projection optical system and exposure apparatus having the same


A laminate of nonwoven materials having fine particulate matter attached thereto is made with a lamination process capable of supplying up to about 60 gsm of particulate matter to a substrate. The particulate matter may be applied to the substrate using a powder coating apparatus. The laminate may be used in personal absorbent articles such as diapers, feminine pads, bandages, bed pads, and the like.

Certain personal or health articles, regardless of whether they are absorbent, can develop undesirable odors or even skin irritation. For example, a diaper with urine absorbed into the diaper's absorbent member can create an environment that is moist relative to an unused diaper. This moisture can provide an environment conducive to bacterial growth. Bacteria residing on the skin can create odor and irritation. The same problem is associated with disposable articles such as adult incontinence pads/underwear, menstrual pads, bed pads, bandages, sweat bands and the like. Really, any situation where a nonwoven or film is used against wetted or moist skin has the potential problem of creating odor, discomfort, bacterial overgrowth and/or skin irritation.
To alleviate this problem, health-benefit agents such as lotions, powders, particulates or other substances have been applied to the outermost body-facing surface of the liner material that has direct contact with the skin including mucus membranes. While somewhat effective, when the lotion or powders and/or particulates are wetted, they can flow to non-beneficial areas on the article. For instance, a diaper may have lotion applied to the crotch region of a diaper. When wetted, the lotion can flow away from the crotch region to sections that are not in direct contact with the skin or intimate areas that could benefit from the health-benefit agent.
As such, there is a need for an article that can provide a health-benefit agent to a person when it is in direct or even indirect bodily contact. Such benefits include reduction or eradication of: odor, bacteria, viruses, discomfort, irritation, wet sensation, and/or the like. There is also a need for an article that can be used to apply a health benefit agent to the skin or other intimate areas of the body, be it a natural supplement or a drug. Further, it is desired that the solution to the problems noted above is desirably cost efficient as compared to current single layer nonwovens or films used to make absorbent articles. Desirably, the article will not require a change in the manufacturing processes where it is used, such as the processes for making absorbent articles such as diapers etc.

Method of manufacture of article for delivering health-benefit agent


A titanium aluminide based alloy consisting of 42-48 at % aluminium, 2-5 at % niobium, 3-8 at % zirconium, 0-1 at % boron, 0-0.4 at % silicon and the balance, apart from incidental impurities, is titanium. The titanium aluminize alloy composition has a satisfactory combination of high tensile strength, acceptable ductility at room temperature and low secondary creep rate at elevated temperature, so as to be suitable for use in high temperature applications for example aero-engines and automobile engines. It is suitable for compressor discs and compressor blades of aero-engines.

Titanium aluminide alloys, particularly gamma titanium aluminide (TiAl) based alloys, possess a low density combined with high strength and are resistant to oxidation. Gamma titanium aluminide alloys offer a 200.degree. C. temperature advantage over conventional titanium alloys for use as, for example, compressor discs and blades in aero-engines and are only about 50% of the density of nickel-based superalloys. Many aerospace and automobile engine components operate at high temperatures and so a measurement of the strength of the alloy at room temperature, although important, may not be the best indication of how a component will perform at its operating temperature. A more useful test involves loading the alloy at an elevated temperature and observing its creep rate. In particular, the secondary (steady-state) creep rate is an important guide as to how the alloy will perform at elevated temperatures. In addition, the alloy should not be too brittle at room temperature in order to reduce the possibility of fracture.


A method for detecting and determining a presence of at least one object in at least one storage location without a special reflection surface includes providing a bar code reading device which is connected to a control unit configured to manage an allocation of the at least one object to the at least one storage location. The bar code reader is used in an attempt to detect a bar code in the at least one storage location. Using information from which a grey value is derivable, it is determined whether the at least one object is in the at least one storage location upon the bar code reader being unsuccessful in detecting the bar code. A result is provided to the control unit.

In the context of automatic stock-keeping and stock management of objects, bar codes are often used for identifying the objects, since they are cost-effective to print and can be applied using printed labels. A major component of automatic systems for stock-keeping and stock management of objects is taking inventory after power-up, after manual interventions and in the context of special handling etc. For this purpose, in the above-mentioned systems, all storage locations required for taking inventory are automatically approached, for example using a robot which comprises a bar code reading device, and it is subsequently attempted to read the respective bar code of an object. Initially, it needs to be distinguished whether or not there is an object at the corresponding storage location. If there is an object of which the bar code can be identified, the corresponding object is linked, by way of the bar code thereof, to the corresponding storage location in the stock management system. Often, the stock management system is a control unit of the robot or is connected to said unit. Generally, it is a memory area in which the detected bar codes are stored in connection with a storage location. There are basically the following possible situations:    a) the object in the storage location is provided with a bar code which can be identified, and subsequently this bar code is stored in the stock management system;    b) there is an object in the storage location without a bar code, or the bar code cannot be detected, for example because it is incompatible or damaged etc.; and    c) there is no object in the storage location.
If at the corresponding storage location there is an object of which the bar code cannot be detected or which does not have a bar code, the aim is to detect whether the corresponding storage location is occupied by an unknown object.
If there is no object at the corresponding storage location, this storage location should be linked as a free storage location in the management system. Since the storage is often dark and the objects are uniform articles, an illumination unit of the bar code reading device is required. This is often provided with a laser light or an IR or LED light source to illuminate the objects. Bar code reading devices based on photosensitive media, such as CCD-based or CMOS-based cameras or line scan cameras, are constructed in a correspondingly simple manner for detecting bar codes. There is no image recognition in the conventional sense. For reasons of cost, a unit should be used which is basically only targeted at detecting bar codes. Because of the very high packing density in a storage location, in some applications the free storage locations match the uniform objects virtually exactly. Also, the objects are provided in the same physical format, although the colours thereof may vary. A specific field of use are memory robots or tape robots which have one or more memory drives in which the storage media are to be transported, and when they have been written with data, the tapes have to be transported back to the storage location thereof again. Memory robots of this type are disclosed in greater detail in DE 10 2005 057 673, in DE 10 2005 054 560 B3, and in U.S. Pat. No. 7,184,242 B1, for example.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,450,385 A discloses a system which provides storage locations or information memory elements with machine-readable markings, for example a special bar code, which is located at a position inside the storage location which would be covered by an object if the storage location were occupied by an object.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,814,171 A likewise discloses a system which provides storage locations/receiving devices for storage with optically readable markings or imprints in the receiving device, which can only be read if the receiving device is empty, since they would be covered by a stored object.
DE 600 29 668 T2 discloses a method and a device, by way of which it can be determined using an optical detection system whether there are objects at predetermined positions. For this purpose, the storage locations which represent the positions are provided on the rear faces thereof with reference surfaces, which produce a contrast with the rest of the surface of the rear wall of a receiving device in terms of light reflection.
Drawbacks of the aforementioned systems and methods recognized in an embodiment of the present invention are that they:                i) absolutely require reflection even for empty storage locations, meaning that they are unsuitable for open shelf systems for example, since these reflections are provided by markings on the rear wall of the storage location or by the rear wall itself.        ii) require more complex method steps in the production of the systems, since corresponding empty marks have to be applied to the rear walls of the systems.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,637,854 A discloses a device and a method for reading bar codes on test tubes. The presence of elements is detected on the basis of evaluating the spectrum of the reflected light. This system is provided for use in open systems without a rear wall, but is based on coherent light sources such as lasers. However, for automated use, laser-based bar code reading devices have the drawback that they cannot read omnidirectionally. This would accordingly make it necessary always to have bar codes applied in the correct orientation, or to track the bar code reading device in a plurality of directions. Further, bar code reading devices of this type do not have the option of interpreting multi-dimensional bar codes, and this is increasingly disadvantageous for many applications. The size of these devices can also only be miniaturised under some circumstances, and so laser-based bar code reading devices sometimes cannot meet the necessary requirements.

Method and device for detecting and determining the presence of objects in storage locations by means of a bar code reading device


A touch control method, adapted for an electronic device with a touch screen is provided. The method includes the step of displaying a touch cursor on the touch screen, wherein the touch cursor includes a positioning point; detecting whether a dragging object exists around the positioning point; and moving the dragging object to be associated with the positioning point of the touch cursor and moving the dragging object according to a movement of the positioning point when determined that the dragging object exists around the positioning point and an operating signal corresponding to a dragging action of the touch cursor is received from the touch screen.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electronic device, and more particularly, to a touch control method and an electronic device using the same.
2. Description of Related Art
With continuous development of the technology, mobile electronic devices such as a smart phone or a tablet computer gradually become an indispensable role in daily lives of people. In most cases, a touch screen is disposed in a mobile electronic device or even in an AIO (All-In-One) computer to facilitate users in intuitive operations thereby improving user experience.
However, in case a display interface with higher resolution is provided in the electronic devices such as said tablet computer or the AIO computer, or in case smaller icons or objects are included in a display interface configured by an operating system, for a user who touches the touch screen with fingers for operating the electronic device, such touch control with fingers is not precise enough. Accordingly, operations may not be controlled normally or smoothly, resulting in low user experience of the electronic device.

Touch control method and electronic device using the same


In a ceiling grid framework, at least one of a main beam and front and rear cross beams is configured to have a beam module which includes a lighting element therein. Thus, the ceiling grid framework can be used for supporting ceiling panels and for illumination.

A suspended ceiling is normally used in commercial and industrial buildings, and includes a ceiling grid framework configured to have a plurality of grids which can be used to support ceiling panels, lighting fixtures, or other devices (such as air conditioning vent/intake covers, etc.). Sometimes, the mounting of lighting fixtures on the grids is restricted by other devices or the building structure, e.g., concrete beams of the building. Thus, in a room space under the ceiling grid framework, there might be relatively dark areas.

Dual-purpose lighting and ceiling grid framework


Methods and systems for balancing data communications loads among data communications ports in systems for automated trading of securities. Embodiments typically include receiving acknowledgments of orders previously sent through a port from a broker-dealer system to a market, sending acknowledgments to the broker-dealer system, and determining that port are not overloaded. Various embodiments make determinations of overload on the basis of latency, net order count, or order count compared with acknowledgment count. Alternative embodiments send orders only through least-loaded ports. Least-loaded ports are identified on the basis of latency, net order count, or a combination of the two.

Broker-dealer systems for automated trading of securities need to be fast. Broker-dealer systems receive orders from customers, send the orders to markets, receive responses from markets, and communicate order status to customers. Orders are sent to markets through data communications ports. Responses are received from markets through data communications ports. Ports are dedicated to particular markets. Data communications ports have limitations upon the number of orders that can be sent through them in a particular period of time or the number of orders without acknowledgments that can be sent through them. If more orders arrive than can be sent through a port in a particular period of time, the broker-dealer system is slowed. If a port partially fails or is slowed for mechanical or electrical reasons, the broker-dealer system is slowed. If a port fails completely, the broker-dealer system is disabled with regard to the market served by that port.
Broker-dealers often add additional ports to their systems, so that more than one port is dedicated to a particular market. Adding ports improves overall throughput of orders to markets and reduces the risk of being completely disabled with respect to a market if a port fails. System performance can still vary widely, however, from the point of view of a customer whose order is sent through a port that is slowed or stopped by overload or mechanical failure. Such a customer experiences the harmful effect of a lack of balance in the communications load among the ports for the market to which the customer's order was intended. Methods and systems are needed for balancing the communications loads among ports for markets in support of the overall quality of data communications in broker-dealer systems.

Apparatus and method for load balancing among data communications ports in automated securities trading systems


This invention relates to a method of producing a softer asphalt product with improved low temperature properties and reduced solids buildup from an asphalt feed which comprises measuring the penetration and Penetration Index of the asphalt feed and heat soaking the asphalt feed in the presence of at least one C.sub.1 to C.sub.5 halogenated aliphatic hydrocarbon as dehydrogenation agent wherein from about 0.05 to about 10 wt. % of the dehydrogenation agent, based on weight of the asphalt, is present during heat soaking, at a temperature ranging between about 300.degree. C. and about 400.degree. C., said temperature being sufficient to increase the penetration and Penetration Index over that of the asphalt feed provided that the temperature should not exceed the temperature at which onset of coking occurs and further provided that the asphalt product has a trichloroethylene solubles content of at least about 99.5 wt. %, based on asphalt.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention concerns a method for improving the low temperature properties and solids buildup of an asphalt by heat soaking the asphalt in the presence of a dehydrogenation agent.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Asphalt is a bituminous material resulting from the distillation of crude oil. Typically, asphalt is derived from the bottoms of a vacuum distillation tower and has an atmospheric boiling point of at least 380.degree. C. Because it is hydrophobic and has good adhesiveness and weatherability, asphalt has been used widely as a binder in paving materials and as a coating for roofing shingles.
Shingle coating and some saturants require that the vacuum distilled asphalt be air blown at 200.degree.-300.degree. C. to polymerize the asphalt by the known process of oxidative dehydrogenation in which hydrogen is removed as water vapor in the off-gas. This improves the creep (or flow) resistance and weatherability of the asphalt as well as reduces its sensitivity to temperature changes. Oxidative dehydrogenation can also be effected by using sulfur or sulfur-oxygen gases such as sulfur dioxide, chlorine gas, etc., which result in hydrogen sulfide and hydrochloride off-gases instead of water vapor. However, the common practice is to use air blowing.
Conventional paving asphalt binders, by comparison, are not usually air-blown but are vacuum residues which are manufactured to meet certain control specifications such as flash (ASTM D 92), penetration at 25.degree. C. (ASTM D 5), apparent viscosity at 60.degree. C. (ASTM D 2171), and kinematic viscosity at 135.degree. C. (ASTM D 2170). In addition to the control specifications, a paving asphalt should also meet certain performance specifications such as ductility (ASTM D 113), solubility in trichloroethylene (ASTM D 2042), and thin film oven aging (ASTM D 1754).
General refinery practice is to distill crudes deep enough to maximize the recovery of preferred distillate molecules and minimize asphalt pitch production. However, this approach has the disadvantage of producing pitch that is too hard for commercial asphalt application.
This invention overcomes this problem by providing a method to maintain pitch reduction as the refinery objective while concurrently giving the refiner the capability of producing the full range of softer asphalt grades with the added benefit of producing asphalts with reduced solids buildup and improved low temperature performance as measured by an increased penetration and Penetration Index.

Method of producing asphalt having an increased penetration and penetration index


An apparatus for machining a workpiece with a tool has a columnar housing having an upright front face and a pair of upright and parallel side walls extending horizontally rearward from the front face, a carriage movable at least vertically on the front face carries a first holder for the workpiece or the tool. A U-shaped frame juxtaposed with the housing front face has two rigid arms each extending rearward adjacent the housing side walls with interfitting guides between each of the arms and the respective side wall enabling horizontal movement of the frame toward and away from the front face. A second holder on the frame and in front of the front wall holds the tool or the workpiece and is engageable with the workpiece or the tool, respectively, in the first holder.

A machining apparatus for machining rotationally driven workpieces with Y-axis movement are known in the prior art. US 2010/0202847 shows a machining apparatus having a vertical main spindle, tool turret, and a hobber. The machining units are mounted on the front vertical wall of the machine frame. The tool turret and the hobber can be moved vertically and horizontally on a compound slide. In addition, the hobbing spindle includes a swivel axis (B axis) and a shift axis, and can furthermore be moved in a third axis (Y axis). Guides in the direction of the Y axis are mounted in front of the vertical wall of the machine frame. This necessarily results in a relatively large distance between the rotation axes and the frame wall, which distance negatively affects the flow of power and machine rigidity.


An exercise apparatus has a force receiving member movably interconnected between a crank and a frame with a degree of freedom for variable length exercise strokes as a function of user applied force.

Exercise equipment has been designed to facilitate a variety of exercise motions. For example, treadmills allow a person to walk or run in place; stepper machines allow a person to climb in place; bicycle machines allow a person to pedal in place; and other machines allow a person to skate and/or stride in place. Yet another type of exercise equipment has been designed to facilitate relatively more complicated exercise motions and/or to better simulate real life activity. Such equipment typically uses some sort of linkage assembly to convert a relatively simple motion, such as circular, into a relatively more complex motion, such as elliptical.


The present invention relates to a method and system for facilitating dedicated communication between specific users relating to a travel transaction, the system including a travel resource mobile application. The mobile application may be installed on a mobile device, wherein the user of the mobile application and other users are included in a group which participates in the travel transaction, and each such user is assigned a role. The mobile application may also provide travel information and secure communication to each user of the group of users, wherein the group of users may be restricted based on the travel transaction. The mobile application may retrieve user contact information from the mobile device to facilitate communication between the group of users while masking the contact information of each user. The mobile application may also determine a location of at least one user from a group of users.

In a situation where a user has previously engaged a service entity for a service, it would be advantageous for the user to remain updated as to the status of the service. For example, if the service is a car service, the user would most likely want to know if the vehicle was running late or early. It would also be helpful if the user could quickly communicate with the driver of the vehicle that he was running late. The driver could take a longer route, go around the block, etc. It would be advantageous for the driver or user to simply make a gesture with a mobile communications device that provides a message or notification quickly to another party. The user or driver may also want to quickly communicate with the service entity to provide or receive updated information. Also, people who travel sometimes travel in groups or a group of people are associated with a particular travel transaction. For example, a travel transaction might include a driver, one or more passengers, a pilot, a booker, etc. It would be advantageous for each of these users to be able to easily and quickly communicate information between the individuals.
A system and method is needed to facilitate dedicated communication between a specific group of users relating to a travel transaction.

Mobile application using facilitating dedicated communication between specific users


A method for optimizing a set of equalizer parameters of an equalizer to be used to equalize a multicarrier data signal that has been transmitted through a distorting channel, comprised of the steps of initializing the parameters, repeatedly sending a training sequence through the channel to the receiver, using the equalizer parameters, the received sequence, and a local replica of the training sequence to update a set of channel target response parameters, windowing the channel target response parameters, using the channel target response parameters, the received sequence and the local replica to update the equalizer parameters, and windowing the equalizer parameters. This training process is repeated until a predetermined convergence condition is detected.

A basic multicarrier transmitter is shown in FIG. 1. Serial input data at a rate Mf.sub.s bit/s are grouped into blocks of M bits at a symbol rate of f.sub.s. The M bits are used to modulate N.sub.c carriers (m.sub.n bits for carrier n) which are spaced .DELTA.f.sub.c apart across any usable frequency band. The preferred method of modulation is to use an Inverse Fast Fourier Transform (IFFT), which generates N.sub.samp (preferably equal to an integer power of 2) samples of a transmit signal for each block of M bits.
In the receiver the received signal is demodulated by each of the N.sub.c carriers, and the m.sub.n bits are recovered from each carrier. Again, the preferred method of demodulation is to sample the received signal, group the samples into blocks (preferably comprising a number of samples that is an integer power of 2), and perform a Fast Fourier Transform (FFT).
In such a transmitter the data symbol rate, the signal symbol rate, and the carrier frequency separation, .DELTA.f.sub.c, are all equal, and the receiver uses all N.sub.samp samples to retrieve the data.
A more detailed discussion of the principles of multicarrier transmission and reception is given in J.A.C. Bingham, "Multicarrier Modulation For Data Transmission: An Idea Whose Time has Come", IEEE Commun. Mag., pp 5-14, May, 1990.
FIG. 2(a) shows the connection of a multicarrier transmitter 100 and a basic receiver 1000 through a channel 200. Input serial data are grouped into blocks, converted to a parallel form and encoded by an encoder 120, and modulated by an IFFT operation 130. The digital samples are then converted to analog by a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), low-pass filtered, and sent through a d.c-isolating transformer 140 to produce a transmitted signal which is input to the channel 200. In the receiver, a d.c. isolating transformer, low-pass filter, and analog-to-digital converter 1100 perform complementary operations to produce a digital received signal, followed by an FFT 1010 to produce a frequency-domain signal.
If the amplitude/frequency and delay/frequency responses of the channel are not constant across the whole of the used frequency band (that is, either is distorted), then the received signal will differ from the transmitted signal, and the signals presented to the decoder 1030 will differ from those output from the encoder 120. If the distortion is severe then the data on one carrier (i.e., in one sub-channel) will affect both the signals detected on other carriers (inter-channel interference, or ICI), and the signals detected in that sub-channel in the previous and subsequent symbol periods (inter-symbol interference, or ISI); the decoding device will make incorrect decisions, and data errors will occur. Even if the distortion is insufficient to cause errors by itself, it will reduce the immunity of the signal to any noise o interference that may be added in the channel. Therefore, some form of equalization of the received signal is nearly always necessary.
The most basic form of equalization is performed by the frequency-domain equalize (FEQ) 1020. This compensates individually for the attenuation and delay of each of the sub-channels; if the symbols are very long compared to the duration of the impulse response of the channel this is the only form of equalization that is required. Very long symbols, however, require large memories in both transmitter and receiver, and large amounts of computation in the receiver; they also cause a large delay between input of data to the transmitter and output from the receiver ("latency").
Such memory and computation requirements and such a delay are usually unacceptable, and therefore it is desirable to reduce the symbol length and, equivalently, increase the bandwidth of each of the sub-channels. Then, however, the attenuation and delay of the channel would no longer be constant across the band occupied by each sub-channel, and both ISI and ICI would result. Three methods of reducing this ISI and ICI have been used: (1) staggered modulation, (2) pre-equalization, and (3) use of a waiting, or guard, period before collecting samples for input to the FFT. We will briefly describe each of these, and then introduce the present invention, which uses a combination of the latter two.
1. Staggered Modulation: A form of staggered modulation was first described by B. R. Saltzberg, "Performance of an Efficient Parallel Data Transmission System", IEEE Trans. Commun. Tech., vol. COM-16, pp. 805-811, Dec. 1967. D. Chaffee and M. Mallory improved upon this by encoding and shaping the signals in each of the sub-channels so as to reduce the ICI. Modems manufactured by IMC Corporation used a combination of this method with pre-equalization. The amount of signal processing required in both transmitter and receiver is, however, very large.
2. Pre-equalization: A pre-equalizer 1040 can be inserted before the FFT as shown in FIG. 2(b) in order to compensate, either partially or fully, for the channel distortion. To avoid all ISI and ICI this pre-equalizer would have to perform the same function as the equalizer in a single-carrier modem (e.g., J.A.C. Bingham, The Theory and Practice of Modem Design, John Wilkey & Sons, New York, May 1988.); that is, it would have to make both the attenuation and the delay almost constant. Full pre-equalization has been widely used in single-carrier modems for use on the general switched telephone network (GSTN), where the channel distortion is moderate. For severely distorted channels, however, the amount of signal processing required in the receiver would be prohibitively large. The present inventors know of no multicarrier modems that use only pre-equalization.
3. Waiting period, guard period, or cyclic prefix: If it is judged that the distorted transient response of the channel lasts for less than L sample periods, then the signal symbol length can be increased from N to N+L samples by inserting L extra samples, known as a cyclic prefix, as shown in FIG. 2(c) at 150. If these extra samples are appropriately chosen and if the receiver discards the first L samples of each received symbol, as shown in the figure at 1050, then both ISI and ICI are greatly reduced.
This method was originally described by S. B. Weinstein and P. M. Ebert, "Data Transmission by Frequency-Division Multiplexing Using the Discrete Fourier Transform", IEEE Trans. Commun. Tech., vol. COM-19, pp. 628-634, Oct. 1971., and has been used in modems manufactured by Telebit Corporation for use on the GSTN. It can be seen that because only N of each block of N+L samples carry data information, the data throughput efficiency of the method is proportional to N/(N+L). If, because of severe distortion, L is large, then, in order to maintain an acceptable efficiency, N would have to be very large; this would cause a very large (and probably unacceptable) latency.
The most common way of implementing the cyclic prefix is to duplicate the last L samples of the block of N data samples, and add them to the front of the block. Because all of the many (multi) carriers that are used have an integral number of cycles in the N samples, the sum of all the carriers, which comprises the data signal, would have a period of N samples, and there is continuity of signal between the prefix and the data signal.
An equivalent effect could be achieved by adding the extra L samples at the end of the block of N (a cyclic suffix), and using, as with the more conventional cyclic prefix, the last N samples of the composite block for the input to the FFT in the receiver.
4. A guard period combined with adaptive pre-equalization: If the channel distortion is very large, then a good compromise between minimizing the latency and the amount of signal processing and memory required, and maximizing the data throughput efficiency can be achieved by using a short guard period and a short adaptive equalizer (i.e., one with a small number of taps) in the receiver. This combination was proposed in J. S. Chow, J. C. Tu, and J. M. Cioffi, "A Discrete Multitone Transceiver System for HDSL Applications", IEEE JSAC, vol. 9, pp. 895-908, Aug. 1991.

Method for equalizing a multicarrier signal in a multicarrier communication system

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford, Junior University


The invention relates to a method and installation for the dry fractionation of edible oils and fats and related products, said method comprising the steps of:    a) solidifying the product in a crystallizer comprising at least one cooling chamber that is provided with at least one wall permitting heat transfer, to form a solid block of crystallized material;    b) discharging the chambers and collecting the block;    c) crushing the block so that a pumpable paste is obtained;    d) pumping this paste into a filter press;    e) separating this paste into an olein fraction and a stearin fraction by filtration and collecting both fractions.

The invention relates to a process and an installation for the dry fractionation of edible oils, fats and related products.
Dry fractionation of edible oils and fats is practiced industrially on a large scale and a number of different processes is used for this purpose. Commonly, the oil to be fractionated is fed to a crystallizer where it is cooled so that fat crystals are formed. These crystallizers can be large vessels provided with cooling coils and an agitator to assist heat transfer and prevent the crystals from settling, but other types of crystallizers such as scraped surface heat exchangers and other dynamic crystallizers, are also being used.
The resulting crystal slurry is then subjected to a filtration process to separate these crystals from their mother liquor. The filter cake is referred to as the stearin fraction and the filtrate, the mother liquor, is referred to as the olein fraction. Various filtration systems are used, ranging from a simple band or drum filter to high pressure, fully automated membrane filter presses.
This process works well for oils and fats that form separate, individual crystals on cooling such as palm oil and its fractions, anhydrous milkfat, edible tallow, cottonseed oil, hydrogenated vegetable oils etc.
However, certain oils and fats, notably lard, palm kernel oil and coconut oil tend to form a network of fine crystals rather than separate crystals on cooling, so that a solid mass instead of a pumpable slurry results.
Therefore, other types of fractionation processes are used for such materials. Solvent fractionation is one of these processes, but this is an expensive process. Because of the inflammable nature of the solvent, the plant has to be explosion proof and this greatly increases the investment required. In addition, the evaporation and rectification of the solvent are energy intensive processes.
Therefore, the most commonly used fractionation process for oils like palm kernel oil comprises the solidification of the oil in trays or pans to form blocks, wrapping these blocks individually in a filter cloth and loading the blocks into a hydraulic press to squeeze the olein from between the crystals. The investment required for this process may be fairly low but wrapping the blocks and the subsequent unwrapping of the filter cake make it very labour intensive.
Accordingly, attempts have been made to develop processes that require less labour and that use for instance an automated membrane filter press. U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,569 to Higuchi et al. describes such a process in which the oil is introduced into a filter chamber and allowed to crystallize inside that chamber by circulating a coolant such as water through the space between the membrane and a filter frame.
However, this process requires the filter cloth to be sealed first with a coagula of the material to be treated. This makes it a lengthy process that makes inefficient use of the expensive membrane press.
Accordingly, an improvement has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,045,243 to Kuwabara et al. in which the oil or fat to be fractionated is first of all solidified in trays to form solid blocks which are then crushed to yield a pumpable paste that is then introduced into a membrane press to separate this paste into an olein fraction and a stearin fraction. The solidification process is commonly carried out in cooling tunnels. However, these have the disadvantage that the oil is exposed to the air while being cooled and that it is virtually impossible to control the rate of cooling inside the individual trays.
Therefore, an apparatus has been described in European Patent Application 1.028.159 by Yoneda et al. that permits stationary crystallization. In this apparatus, the oil or fat to be fractionated is not solidified into a solid block, but the crystallization process is halted when the partially crystallized mass is still sufficiently fluid to be pumped into the membrane filter press. However, this means that the material to be fractionated has to be diluted with olein before being cooled. This recycling of olein greatly reduces the actual capacity of the apparatus.

Process and installation for the dry fractionation


A kinetic energy converter for converting linear motion into electrical energy has an outer body and an inner cylindrical body. The outer body and the inner body define a common central axis wherein the outer body is movable along the central axis with respect to the inner cylindrical body. A stator winding of a plurality of turns of at least one electrically conductive wire is disposed about an inner periphery of the inner body. A rotor having a central shaft and a plurality of magnets radially extending therefrom is rotatably disposed within the inner body and rotatable about the central axis. A helically twisted blade extends from one end of the outer body to the rotor and is interengaged with the rotor wherein axial translation of the blade rotates the rotor about the central axis.

With a growing awareness that dependency upon carbon based fuels is a worldwide factor in ecological, political, and economic instability, increasing numbers of consumers are turning their attention to alternative fuel automobile and electric vehicle technologies with additional attention being directed to reducing such dependencies with respect to other energy consuming activities in everyday life. The automotive markets are showing a shift away from fossil fuel technologies and in response to this market demand. As the consumer demand increases in a free market economy, the product supply will grow and evolve to meet the demand for green technologies.
While some green technologies completely eliminate the use of fossil fuels for propulsive power, such as totally electric cars, other technologies attempt to improve the energy efficiency of fossil fueled vehicles through the use of hybrid and other technologies. The burning of fossil fuels in vehicles such as in internal combustion engines has long been recognized as being relatively inefficient with a significant portion of the energy released during combustion being wasted. One method of improving energy efficiency is utilizing fossil fuel to generate electricity for powering a vehicles drive trail. In this manner, the energy of the fossil fuel can be generated at an optimum level, translated to electrical energy for storage in batteries, wherein the cyclical demands of driving are drawn from the batteries rather than cycling an internal combustion engine between efficient and inefficient modes of operation.
In other areas of everyday life, one witnesses natural motions that if harnessed can contribute to the energy demands of society. Air mass movements such as the wind can be transformed to mechanical motions to drive machines, the rising and falling of the tides or cyclical wave movement are other forms of motion with the potential to be harnessed to capture the kinetic energy expended during the movements of those phenomena. Even the cyclical movement generated by a person while breathing offers the potential for capture and transformation for use in powering implanted life sustaining medical devices.
Therefore, a technology is needed whereby everyday motion, such as linear motion or rotational motion, can be captured, harnessed, and transformed into a storable form of energy such as electrical power for later use.

Kinetic energy to electric power converter


An object of the present invention is to provide a material for non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery negative electrodes containing a graphitic material and a non-graphitizable carbonaceous material, the material having excellent resistance against deterioration due to moisture absorption and excellent charge/discharge cycle resistance; a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery negative electrode using the same; and a non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery using these, that has low resistance and excellent cycle durability.

In recent years, the notion of mounting large lithium-ion secondary batteries, having high energy density and excellent output characteristics, in electric vehicles has been investigated in response to increasing concern over environmental issues. In small mobile device applications such as mobile telephones or laptop computers, the capacity per unit volume is important, so graphitic materials with a large density have primarily been used as negative electrode active materials. However, since lithium-ion secondary batteries for vehicles are large and expensive and thus it is difficult to replace the lithium-ion secondary batteries while using the vehicle, the lithium-ion secondary batteries for vehicles are required to have at least the same durability as that of vehicles and demanded to have a product life of 10 years or longer (high durability).
When graphitic materials or carbonaceous materials with a developed graphite structure are used, there is a tendency for damage to occur due to crystal expansion and contraction caused by repeated lithium doping and de-doping, which diminishes the charge/discharge repetition performance. Therefore, such materials are not suitable as negative electrode materials for lithium-ion secondary batteries for vehicles which require high cycle durability.
In contrast, non-graphitizable carbon is suitable for use in automobile applications from the perspective of involving little particle expansion and contraction due to lithium doping and de-doping and having high cycle durability (Patent Document 1). Therefore, there has been an attempt to use graphitic material and non-graphitizable carbon by mixing as negative electrode active materials, and lithium-ion secondary batteries having excellent cycle durability has been obtained (Patent Document 2).

Material for non-aqueous electrolyte secondary battery negative electrode

Abstract: The present invention comprises a carbonaceous material obtained by carbonizing a plant-derived organic material having a potassium content of 0.5% by mass or less, an average particle size Dv50 of 2 μm to 50 μm, an average interlayer spacing of (002) plane determined by powder X-ray diffraction of 0.365 nm to 0.400 nm, an atomic ratio (H/C) of hydrogen atoms to carbon atoms determined by elemental analysis of 0.1 or less, and a true density determined by a pycnometer method using butanol of 1.51 g/cm3 or greater but 1.65 g/cm3 or less; and a graphitic material having an average interlayer spacing determined by powder X-ray diffraction of 0.345 nm or less, and a true density determined by a pycnometer method using butanol of 1.9 g/cm3 or greater.


There is provided a battery state detecting method that detects states by evaluating depletion caused by reaction processes whose speeds are different. Voltage Vmes, current Imes and temperature Tmes of a battery are measured and inputted in Step S1 and it is judged whether or not an absolute value of the measured current Imes is smaller than a current threshold value Ithre in Step S2. OCV20 hr is estimated from SOCn-1 and SOHn-1 after the previous discharge/charge based on a stable OCV estimating equation in Step S4 and a difference between the voltage measured value Vmes and the OCV20 hr is calculated and stored in Step S5. A relaxation function Fn(t) is updated corresponding to time t in processes in Steps S6 through S19. SOHn is calculated by using the updated Fn (t) in Step S17 and SOCn is calculated in Step S19.

Since a vehicle has come to employ many electric devices for travelling lately, an importance of an in-vehicle power source is increasing more and more. Needs on the in-vehicle power source have been limited to perform such functions of starting an engine, operating an air-conditioner and lighting lamps in the past 20 to 30 years. In contrary to that, bi-wiring has spread and even parts of a safety system typified by an electronic parking brake (EPB) have come to be controlled by electricity. Still more, as a measure for improving gas mileage in an effort of saving energy and controlling emission of CO2, it is demanded to provide an idling stop function in stopping for a short period of time at an intersection and the like and to assure its restarting capability. Thus, a variety of functions is demanded on the power source and the battery and corresponding to that, it is desired to improve battery state detecting accuracy.
In such a circumstance, it is an important technology to accurately detect a residual capacity (SOC: state of charge) of the battery in particular for safe and comfortable driving of the vehicle and for realizing an automobile society In which an environment is taken into account, because it is linked with stable operations of the electric devices such as the EPB.
Under a battery stable condition, open circuit voltage (OCV) and the SOC thereof have a relationship of correspondence of one-to-one in general (a reference numeral 81 in FIG. 12). However, after discharging and charging electricity, the battery is affected respectively by ion generating and annihilating reactions on a surface of a polar plate due to electro-chemical reactions and by moves of ions due to diffusion and convection of electrolytic solution. Therefore, it takes a time, e.g., around 20 hours, to converge to the stable OCV and the OCV does not correspond one-to-one with the SOC when there is such temporal change. FIGS. 13 and 14 are graphs showing examples of temporal change of the OCV when the SOC and temperature of the battery are constant. FIG. 13 shows that it takes a time until when the OCV (reference numeral 82) is stabilized to a constant value even if the SOC is constant. While FIG. 14 shows changes of the OCVs (reference numerals 83, 84, 85) of batteries whose states of health (SOH) are different, it indicates that the OCVs do not converge to the identical OCV if the SOHs are different even if the SOC and temperature are adjusted so as to fall under the same condition and even if the latest discharge/charge conditions are kept same.
As described above, the influence of the SOH is not reflected in finding the SOC from the OCV by using the state detecting method just by utilizing the latest discharge/charge history. Then, there is a problem that accuracy of state detection drops if the SOC is found from the OVC without reflecting the battery depletion condition.
Patent Document 1 (Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. Hei.2005-106615 gazette) is known as one exemplary prior art. The Document 1 uses transient response corresponding to discharge/charge history to compensate the OCV as a method for detecting the OCV and SOC of a secondary battery. The Document 1 also refers to the transient response changes corresponding to discharge/charge time and to a resistant component, a polarization component corresponding to internal reaction of the battery and diffusion speed of electrolytic solution.
According to the detection method described in Patent Document 1, it is possible to find depletion corresponding to a fast reaction speed within the battery by measuring a short-period transient response by discharging and charging for a short period of time. However it is unable to measure a long-term transient response, so that it is unable to detect depletion caused by slow reaction speed. Although it is necessary to discharge and charge for a long period of time to measure the long-term transient response, the SOC changes as the discharge/charge time becomes longer and hence the short-term transient response thereafter also changes. Thus, it is unable to detect the depletion corresponding to the different reaction speeds within the battery and to detect the states of the battery such as the residual capacity by the detecting method described in Patent Document 1.
Not only the ion generating and annihilating reactions (fast reaction speed) caused in the vicinity of the polar plate but also ion diffusion speed within the electrolytic solution (slow reaction speed) affects in a series of reaction processes called an electrical-chemical reaction within the battery. The reaction processes whose speeds are different significantly affect the accuracy of the state detection as a factor of error in such reaction system.

Method for estimating a quantity of a state of a battery


An apparatus (10) and a method for controlling adjustment devices (12) which are operable to adjust an object such as a seat (14). Each of the adjustment devices (12) adjusts an adjustable aspect of the seat (14). A touch pad (22) has an array of manually touchable areas (24) and provides signals indicative of manual touches to the areas (24). A guide (44) is adjacent to the touch pad (22) and has surfaces (56, 60) which define a representation of the seat (14). The areas (24) of the touch pad (22) within the representation of the seat correspond to adjustment aspects of the seat (14). A matrix controller (28) receives the signals provided by the touch pad (22) and provides a touch indicating signal to a process controller (30). The process controller (30) processes information contained within the signal from the matrix controller (28) and generates control signals for controlling operation of the adjustment devices (12) responsive to manual touches to the areas (24) of the touch pad (22).

Vehicle seat adjustment systems are known in the art.
A typical vehicle seat has many adjustable aspects such as seat back inclination, lumbar support, seat tilt, and vertical and horizontal seat position. Each of these adjustable aspects requires one or more devices, such as stepper motors, to carry out the desired adjustment operation.
One known system includes the use of numerous, separate, manually actuatable switches for controlling the numerous adjustment devices. These switches are mounted either on an armrest of the vehicle or on the side of the seat. This known system is not intuitive because the switches are often not seen by the user and the function of each switch may not be obvious until the switch is activated.
Another known system for controlling seat adjustment devices includes a metaphoric switch assembly. The switches for controlling the adjustment devices are located in close proximity to one another and only a few tactile actuators are used to operate the switches. The actuators are shaped like the seat back and the seat bottom, and are a representation, or a metaphor, of the seat. However, because the numerous switches are operated by only a few actuators, the switch assembly is relatively complex, with multiple contacts and many moving parts.

Method and apparatus for controlling an adjustable device