A brewing system that includes bicycle-driven generators to offset, or supply, the electricity used in the brewing process. The brewing system includes at least one bicycle, a bicycle generator associated with each bicycle, and electrical components to store the electricity generators and/or feed the electricity back into a power grid. The electricity is then drawn on during the brewing process. There is also provided a data collector for receiving the electricity generated by each bicycle, a computer for monitoring and recording the electricity generated by each bicycle, and a video monitor that displays real-time statistics of the electricity produced by each bicycle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to an electric brewing system. More particularly, the present invention pertains to an electric brewing system powered by human-generated electricity. Even more particularly, the present invention pertains to an electric brewing system powered by electricity created by bicycle-powered generators.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Brewing beer is a process which requires a great deal of energy. Energy is required to (1) heat water for the mash tun, (2) boil the wort in the kettle, (3) cool the wort to a temperature that is suitable for pitching the yeast, and then (4) controlling the temperature of the beer as it ferments. These energy costs represent a considerable share of the total production costs of beer. It is assumed that the share of the energy costs will continue to trend upward due to the shortage of fossil fuels and the associated higher energy costs.
Furthermore, there is a growing movement toward using renewable and green energy sources to reduce the impact on the environment. For example, Uinta Brewing Company, located in Salt Lake City, Utah, adopted this strategy in its brewing process when it became 100% powered by wind turbines in 2001. It has since added solar panels to supplement its growing energy demands.
In addition, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0148556 to Stippler et al. discloses a brewery in which the brewing water is at least partially heated using solar collectors which convert solar radiation from the sun into thermal energy.
The present invention, as detailed hereinbelow, seeks to further improve upon these green energy sources for brewing by providing a cooperative system of powering the brewery that is interactive with its patrons by using electricity actually generated by the patrons, and which also displays the production of green energy in a manner that encourages further participation and production.


A subsurface hydrocarbon reservoir with wells is simulated by simultaneous solution of reservoir and well equations which simulate flow profiles along a well without requiring an unstructured coefficient matrix for reservoir unknowns. An analytical model of the reservoir is formed using the known or measured bottom hole pressure. Where several layers in an interval in the reservoir are present between vertical flow barriers in the reservoir, and communicate vertically with others, the communicating layers are combined for analytical modeling into a single layer for that interval for simulation purposes. The matrix of equations defining the unknown pressures and saturations of the intervals of combined layers in the reservoir are solved in the computer, and a perforation rate determined for each such interval of combined layers. Rates for the intervals in the reservoir are then combined to determine total well rate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to computerized simulation of hydrocarbon reservoirs in the earth, and in particular to simulation of flow profiles along wells in a reservoir.
2. Description of the Related Art
Well models have played an important role in numerical reservoir simulation. Well models have been used to calculate oil, water and gas production rates from wells in an oil and gas reservoirs. If the well production rate is known, they are used to calculate the flow profile along the perforated interval of the well. With the increasing capabilities for measuring flow rates along the perforated intervals of a well, a proper numerical well model is necessary to compute the correct flow profile to match the measurements.
It is well known that simple well models such as explicit or semi implicit models could be adequate if all reservoir layers communicated vertically. For these models, well production rate was allocated to the perforations in proportion to the layer productivity indices (or total mobility). Therefore, the calculations were simple. The resulting coefficient matrix for the unknowns remained unchanged. Specifically, the coefficient matrix maintained a regular sparse structure. Therefore, any such sparse matrix solver could be used to solve the linear system for the grid block pressures and saturations for every time step.
However, for highly heterogeneous reservoirs with some vertically non-communicating layers, the above-mentioned well models did not produce the correct physical solution. Instead, they produced incorrect flow profiles and in some occasions caused simulator convergence problems.
With the increasing sophistication of reservoir models, the number of vertical layers has come to be in the order of hundreds to represent reservoir heterogeneity. Fully implicit, fully coupled well models with simultaneous solution of reservoir and well equations have been necessary to correctly simulate the flow profiles along the well and also necessary for the numerical stability of the reservoir simulation. In order to solve the fully coupled system, generally well equations were eliminated first. This created an unstructured coefficient matrix for the reservoir unknowns to be solved. Solutions of this type of matrices required specialized solvers with specialized preconditioners. For well with many completions and many wells in a simulation model, this method has become computationally expensive in terms of processor time.

Sequential fully implicit well model for reservoir simulation


A data reception device is provided with: a puncture rate detection element to detect the puncture rate of received data, an interpolation element to interpolate bits decimated at the detected puncture rate, a deinterleaving element to restore interleaved data to the original arrangement, and a turbo-decoding element, while variably setting the length of the learning interval according to the puncture rate detected by the puncture rate detection element, to input sliding window data and the data of the above learning interval following the data of the sliding window to the data processed by the interpolation element and deinterleaving element, and to perform recursive operations to decode the data of the sliding window. The valid received signal contained in the learning interval can be maintained approximately constant even if the puncture rate changes.

In prior art, encoding into what are called turbo-codes has been performed to efficiently transmit data. FIG. 1 shows one example of the configuration of a turbo-encoder which performs turbo-encoding on the transmission side. The input data is supplied as systematic bits to a parallel/serial converter 11, and are supplied to a first convolutional encoder 20, as well as to a second convolutional encoder 30 through an interleaver 12. The first convolutional encoder 20 uses adders 21 and 25, and D flip-flops 22, 23, and 24 to perform convolution processing to generate parity bits a, and the generated parity bits a are supplied to the parallel/serial converter 11. The second convolutional encoder 30 uses adders 31 and 35, and D flip-flops 32, 33, and 34 to perform convolution processing to generate parity bits b, and the generated parity bits b are supplied to the parallel/serial converter 11.
The parallel/serial converter 11 converts the supplied systematic bits and parity bits a and b into serial data in a predetermined order, and outputs the result as turbo-encoded data.
On the side receiving a transmitted signal which has been turbo-encoded in this way, decoding is performed using, for example, a turbo-decoder shown in FIG. 2. To explain the configuration of the turbo-decoder shown in FIG. 2, the received signal is supplied to a serial/parallel converter 41, and is separated to be systematic bits and parity bits a and b. Separation by this serial/parallel converter 41 is executed with timing indicated by a timing control circuit 49.
A soft output decoding algorithm unit 42 uses the separated systematic bits, the parity bits a, and the output signal of a memory 46 for deinterleaving to perform decoding processing using a soft output decoding algorithm called a MAP algorithm. Data decoded in the soft output decoding algorithm unit 42 is supplied to a memory 43 for interleaving and is subjected to interleaving processing; and then the interleaved data and parity bits b separated in the serial/parallel converter 41 are supplied to a soft output decoding algorithm unit 44. Decoding processing using the MAP algorithm is also performed by the soft output decoding algorithm unit 44, and the decoded output is supplied, through the deinterleave memory 46, to the soft output decoding algorithm unit 42. Hence the outputs of decoding processing in the soft output decoding algorithm unit 42 and of decoding processing in the soft output decoding algorithm unit 44 are supplied to each other to perform iterative decoding.
Data which has been interleaved in the interleave memory 43 and the decoded output of the soft output decoding algorithm unit 44 are supplied to an adder 45 and added, and the added output is supplied to a hard decision unit 47. The hard decision unit 47 is a circuit which obtains the final decoding result. The result of decision (decoding) in this hard decision unit 47 is supplied to the deinterleave memory 48 and is subjected to deinterleaving, and the deinterleaved data is output as the result of decoding of the turbo-code.
The timing of processing is supplied to each of the soft output decoding algorithm units 42 and 44, and to the interleave memory 43, deinterleave memory 46, and deinterleave memory 48 by the timing control circuit 49.
To explain the decoding processing states of the turbo-decoder shown in FIG. 2, since a turbo-code is a block code, encoding processing and decoding processing are performed in units of blocks including a stipulated number of bits N. These block units are here called code blocks. The required numbers of words held by the interleave memory and deinterleave memory are equal to the number of bits in one code block.
The iterative decoding performed by the two soft output decoding algorithm units 42 and 44 is iterated, for example, from several times to several tens of times. Prior to beginning iterative decoding, the soft output decoding algorithm unit 42 is initialized to an initial value (0). To explain in summary the processing of one cycle of this iterative decoding, in the first half of the first cycle, the soft output decoding algorithm unit 42 operates. The systematic bits, parity bits a, and output of the deinterleave memory 46 are output to the soft output decoding algorithm unit 42. The output of the soft output decoding algorithm unit 42 is accumulated in the interleave memory 43. At the time of the first cycle of iterative processing, no information has yet been accumulated in the deinterleave memory 46, and so the initial value (0) is also used therein.
In the second half of the first cycle, the soft output decoding algorithm unit 44 operates. The parity bits b and output of the interleave memory 43 are supplied to the soft output decoding algorithm unit 44. In this configuration, the systematic bits corresponding to the MAP algorithm b decoded in the soft output decoding algorithm unit 44 are not transmitted, and 0 is input. The decoded output of this soft output decoding algorithm unit 44 is accumulated in the deinterleave memory 46. The above summarizes the first cycle of decoding processing in the iterative decoding processing. Information sent to the soft output decoding algorithm units 44 and 42 from the interleave memory 43 and deinterleave memory 46 is called prior likelihood information.
After this processing cycle is repeated a predetermined number of times, the hard decision result (sign bit) of the output added by the adder 45 is obtained in the hard decision unit 47, this result is supplied to the deinterleave memory 48, and the bit sequence is restored to obtain the final decoding result.
Next, operation of the MAP algorithm used in decoding processing in the soft output decoding algorithm units 42 and 44 is explained, referring to FIG. 3. This MAP algorithm is explained in a paper by L. R. Bahl, J. Cocke, F. Jelinek, and J. Raviv, "Optical Decoding of Linear Codes for Minimizing Symbol Error Rate", IEEE Transactions on Information Theory, Vol. IT-20, March 1974, pp. 284–7.
In a MAP algorithm, soft decision output is obtained for each bit position in a code block. At this time, recursive operations in the forward and inverse directions are necessary to determine the state metric on the trellis. As indicated in FIG. 3, this processing must be executed continuously, in single-block units, from beginning to end. That is, after storing the state metric for each state through recursive operations throughout an N-stage code block, processing must be performed. In order to perform such processing, memory capable of storing large amounts of data is necessary. For example, in the case of processing (code block length N to 5114, number of states M=8) applied to a wireless telephone system called W-CDMA, the required memory capacity is as large as approximately 40 k words.
Therefore, as techniques to reduce the amount of memory required by MAP algorithms, processing using a sliding window has been proposed in reference 1 and reference 2.
[Reference 1] A paper by S. Pietrobon and S. Barbulescu, "A Simplification of the Modified Bahl et al. Decoding Algorithm for Systematic Convolutional Codes", Int. Symp. On Inform. Theory and Its Applications, Sydney, Australia, pp. 1073–7, November 1994, revised Jan. 4, 1996.
[Reference 2] A paper by S. Pietrobon, "Efficient Implementation of Continuous MAP Decoders and a Synchronization Technique for Turbo Decoders", Int. Sym. On Inform Theory and Its Applications, Victoria, B. C., Canada, pp. 586–9, September 1996.
Details of the above-described decoding processing using a sliding window are explained in an embodiment of this invention, however in brief, recursive operations are executed in window units. If the window length is L and the time of a certain window is t, then a inverse-direction recursive operation begins from time t+2L, and the state metric resulting from the inverse-direction recursive operation is stored in memory over the interval from time t+L to time t.
The interval from time t+2L to time t+L is here called a learning interval, because processing is performed to adequately improve the reliability of recursive operations divided in window units. If the length of the learning interval is P, then in the above non-patent reference it is stated that P=L; however this is not necessarily the case. By shortening the length P of the learning interval, increases in the volume of operations can be suppressed, however on the other hand there is degradation of performance; hence the value of P must be decided with care, and it has been necessary to provide a certain margin. Forward-direction recursive operations and output likelihood calculations are executed in the interval from time t to time t+L.
Similar processing is performed for the next window, with the leading position of the window increased by L to t+L. Processing is subsequently continued, increasing (sliding) the leading position of the window by L each time, until the end of the trellis is reached. A learning interval is not provided for recursive operations performed from the end of the trellis.
By performing operations using such a sliding window, the required amount of memory is reduced from N*M words to L*M words. However, with respect to the volume of operations, the volume of inverse-direction recursive operations is increased by a factor of 2.
In this way, the length P of the learning interval is determined taking into account the allowable increase in the volume of operations and the degradation in performance. In order to reduce the volume of operations, the length of the learning interval must be shortened; however, depending on the state of the turbo-codes transmitted, an appropriate learning interval length may not always be set.
The present invention was devised in light of the above considerations, and has as an object of providing a data reception method and device in which, when turbo-codes are received and decoding is performed through operations using a sliding window, the length of the learning interval can be set optimally.

Turbo-code decoding using variably set learning interval and sliding window

Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications Japan, Inc.


A base channel connector clip having a planar resilient body portion with a frangible support leg extending transverse to the body portion that can be easily removed to connect a plurality of duct sizes having different width interior clip positioning channels.

Many different types and configurations of trunking systems have been proposed. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,602,124 to Santucci and U.S. Pat. No. 5,089,667 to Goussin et al. Trunking systems typically include base channels, covers, wire retainers, divider walls, and end caps in various combinations and configurations. One known end cap includes a plastic cap which is secured to a base channel by a metal clamp, constructed of a plurality of metal parts, which is tightened against mounting rails of the base channel by a screw. This end cap requires the manufacture of a plurality of metal parts and assembly of these parts to the plastic end cap which increases the cost of manufacture of the end cap.
A desirable trunking system design includes economically manufactured components that can be easily assembled in one of a number of different desired configurations to position, enclose and protect wires therein. Although many different trunking system designs have been proposed, none yet have provided the best combination of features and the best manufacturing economy and there is still need for improvement in the art.


A variable length code decoding apparatus according to the present invention includes: an extracting unit which extracts a bit string from a beginning of a bit stream; a first storage unit for storing a plurality of code words in which one piece of data has been coded, and decoded data and code lengths respectively corresponding to the code words; a second storage unit for storing a plurality of code words in which two or more pieces of data have been coded, and decoded data and code lengths respectively corresponding to the code words; a first judging unit which judges whether one of the code words stored in the first storage unit is included in the extracted bit string, and, when judged as being included, outputs the decoded data and the code length of the code word; and a second judging unit which judges whether a code word stored in the second storage unit is included in the extracted bit string, and when judged as being included, outputs the decoded data and the code length of the code word, wherein the extracting unit extracts the bit string to be decoded next in the same cycle as a cycle in which the judgment was made by the first judging unit, and extracts the bit string to be decoded next in a cycle following the cycle in which the judgment was made by the second judging unit.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a variable length code decoding apparatus which decodes a bit stream including a code word that is variable-length-coded data.
(2) Description of the Related Art
In recent years, significant progress has been made in the development of moving picture compressing and coding techniques. Such techniques are being practically applied in fields such as broadcasting, communication and storage. Variable length coding is a moving picture compressing and coding technique capable of enhancing coding efficiency by varying code lengths according to the occurrence frequency of a value to be coded. In decoding variable-length-coded data (hereinafter referred to as a "code word"), since the code lengths of code words included in a bit stream differ from each other, the position of a given code word cannot be confirmed. Therefore, it is necessary to decode code words in sequence starting from the beginning of the bit stream.
As a variable length code decoding apparatus which decodes a variable-length-coded code word, for example, the variable length code decoding apparatus described in Japanese Patent No. 3341962 (JP 3341962) is known.
FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a configuration of a conventional variable length code decoding apparatus described in JP 3341962. The variable length code decoding apparatus 80 shown in FIG. 1 includes an input terminal 805, lookup tables 820 and 830, and multiplexers 840 and 841.
An n-bit bit stream (where n is a natural number) is inputted to the input terminal 805. m number of MSBs of the bit stream is inputted to the lookup table 820, while k number of LSBs are inputted to the lookup table 830 (where m and k are natural numbers and 0≦m≦n, 0≦k≦n).
The lookup tables 820 and 830 store tables including code lengths indicating bit lengths of code words respectively corresponding to addresses and code values that are data obtained by decoding code words. It should be noted that the tables stored in the lookup tables 820 and 830 are tables which separate the table of code lengths and code values corresponding to code words in order to prevent overlapping of addresses corresponding to code words, thereby enabling parallel-decoding of code words.
The respective lookup tables 820 and 830 use inputted bits as an address and output a code length indicating a bit length of a code word and a code value that is data obtained by decoding a code word which are stored at the designated address. Furthermore, the lookup table 820 outputs a decode signal indicating whether the lookup table 820 has successfully decoded the code word. A decode signal of "0" indicates that the lookup table 820 has successfully decoded the variable length code. A decode signal of "1" indicates that decoding of the variable length code by the lookup table 820 was not successful.
The code values and the decode signals outputted from the lookup tables 820 and 830 are inputted to the multiplexer 840. When the decode signal is "0", the multiplexer 840 outputs the code value outputted by the lookup table 820, and when the decode signal is "1", the multiplexer 840 outputs the code value outputted by the lookup table 830.
The code lengths and the decode signals outputted from the lookup tables 820 and 830 are inputted to the multiplexer 841. When the decode signal is "0", the multiplexer 841 outputs the code length outputted by the lookup table 820, and when the decode signal is "1", the multiplexer 840 outputs the code length outputted by the lookup table 830.
According to the configuration described above, the two lookup tables 820 and 830 enable the conventional variable length code decoding apparatus 80 to decode variable-length-coded code words in parallel.
In addition, with the conventional variable length code decoding apparatus 80, one code word is decoded per each predetermined cycle. Next, using the code length of a decoded code word, a process for extracting a bit string from the beginning of an undecoded bit stream is performed. In subsequent cycles, code words are sequentially decoded from the beginning of the bit stream by repetitively performing the decoding process and the extraction process.
However, it is desired that variable length code decoding apparatuses perform decoding at higher speeds. In the conventional variable length code decoding apparatus, the time required for decoding one code word is the sum of the time required for collating the code word by the lookup tables 820 and 830 and the time required for extracting a bit string from the beginning of the undecoded bit stream using the code length of the decoded code word.
It should be noted that the object of the variable length code decoding apparatus described in JP 3341962 is to reduce the capacities of the lookup tables 820 and 830 and no significant advantage may be gained with respect to increasing speed. For example, the operation speed of the variable length code decoding apparatus described in JP 3341962 does not significantly differ from a case of a single lookup table with a hard-wired configuration which is operated at an optimized operation speed. (See. e.g., pp. 6-10, FIG. 2, and the like, of JP3341962)

Variable length code decoding apparatus and method with variation in timing of extracting bit string to be decoded depending on code word


An auxiliary handle is provided for manual implements like rakes and brooms. The handle has a lateral arm with one end pivotally connected to the implement handle by a clamp and the opposite end connected to an upright second arm, which is in turn pivotally connected to the implement handle by a clamp. The upright second arm is telescopically adjustable in length to allow the system to be adjusted to suit most any implement configuration and personal stature. The lateral arm is also preferably telescopically adjustable. It carries one or more hand grips.

In the use of such manual implements as push brooms, rakes and others with long, straight handles, it is often necessary for the user to adopt a posture or a hand grip that is uncomfortable and difficult to maintain for any length of time. While several attempts have been made in the past to provide auxiliary handle system on shovels to assist in lifting loads, these handles are not readily adaptable to a range of implements or for use by persons of different statures. They are not especially suited for use with implements where the primary action is not a lifting action but more a sweeping action, as for example with rakes and brooms. There is therefore a need for an apparatus for use with manual implements that is applicable to a wide variety of implements, for example rakes and brooms, for the appropriate manipulation of those implements by most persons.


In order to realize a seal device of a gas turbine interstage portion which is excellent in a sealing ability during regular operation of the gas turbine, a gas turbine interstage portion seal device is constructed comprising a honeycomb seal (2) of a ring shape provided to an inner side of a turbine stationary blade inner ring (1) and a plurality of seal fins (5) of a ring shape provided to an outer side of a turbine disc seal arm portion (4). Also, an inner side surface of the honeycomb seal and outer peripheries of the plurality of seal fins, comprise large diameters and small diameters, and convex and concave portions formed thereby respectively are mated with each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gas turbine interstage portion seal device.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A gas turbine stationary blade inner side interstage portion seal in the prior art is carried out, as shown in FIG. 2, with a labyrinth seal fin 52 provided to a stationary side (that is, a stationary blade inner ring 51) and a step seal 54 provided to a rotary side (that is, a turbine disc seal arm portion 53).
In the gas turbine interstage portion seal system using the labyrinth seal fin 52 and step seal 54, while fluid passes through the labyrinth (throttle) portion, it flows through narrow gaps and wider gaps in turn to be pressure-reduced by the throttle effect, and generally in a rotating shaft of rotary machine, this seal system is used when the fluid for sealing is a compressible gas or steam.
It is to be noted that the labyrinth seal 52 exhibits by nature its effect while the rotary machine is in operation and its sealing ability is not necessarily good in a state out of operation.
In order to minimize gas turbine interstage portion gas leakage, the stage number of the labyrinth seal fin 52 may be increased or the gap between the stationary side and the rotating shaft may be reduced. But if the stage number is increased, it leads to elongation of the rotating shaft, resulting in a problem in the strength of the rotating shaft. If the gap is too small, the rotating shaft will come in contact with the stationary side due to thermal expansion when there is run-out of the rotating shaft.
Therefore, the seal fin 52 is made of a soft material and is worked to form a sharp edge at its end in consideration that if contact occurs, the seal fin 52 wears quickly so that the rotating shaft may not be damaged.
The prior art gas turbine interstage portion seal, as mentioned above, is carried out with the labyrinth seal fin provided on the stationary side and the step seal provided on the rotary side.
In the case of this seal system, considering quickness of thermal expansion on the rotary side when the temperature of the stationary side is low at start-up time, it is necessary to make the gap wider in advance to avoid contact of both these sides. If the gap between both sides is made wider, however, it will cause a lowering of the sealing ability in the regular operation, resulting in increase of loss of leakage, and an this is one of the factors to lower the gas turbine performance.

Gas turbine interstage portion seal device


A method and apparatus are used to support the transmission of data to a user over multiple allocated data channels. Data packets are transmitted in timeslots of the allocated data channels to corresponding target receivers without the need for explicitly assigning particular time-slots to a target user well in advance of transmitting any data packets in the time-slots. Instead, each data packet transmitted in a time-slot includes a header label or preamble indicating to which of multiple possible receivers a data packet is directed. The preamble also preferably includes decoding information indicating how a corresponding data payload of the data packet is to be processed for recapturing transmitted raw data.

Continued growth in the electronics and computer industries, and indeed growth in the economy in general, is increasingly attributed to the demand for access to the Internet and myriad of services and features that it provides. The proliferation in the use of computing equipment, both of the conventional desk top variety as well as of the portable variety, including laptop computers, hand-held Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), Internet enabled cellular telephones and other access devices have resulted in a corresponding increase in demand for network infrastructure.
The access points into the Internet are, however, mostly provided via communication systems that were originally intended for carrying non-data traffic. For example, the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) is still heavily used as a dial-up access point for many home and personal users. Although there various standards are emerging that provide higher speed access points, these technologies, as well as older high speed technologies such as TI and/or fractional TI services still make use of the telephone network. The telephone network was, unfortunately, optimized to carry Voice traffic as opposed to data traffic. In particular, these networks were intended to support continuous analog communications, as compared to the digital communication protocols needed for Internet packet-oriented communications.
For example, Voice grade services typically require access to a communication channel bandwidth of approximately 3 kilohertz (kHz). While techniques do exist for communicating data over such radio channels at a rate of 9.6 kilobits per second (kbps), such low bandwidth channels do not lend themselves directly to efficient transmission of data at the typical rates of 56.6 kbps or higher that are now commonly expected.
In addition, the very nature of Internet traffic itself is different from the nature of voice traffic. Voice communication requires a continuous duplex connection, that is, a user at one end of a connection expects to be able to transmit to and receive data from a user at the other end of a connection continuously, while at the same the user at the other end is also transmitting and receiving.
Usage patterns of the Internet are also quite different from voice communications. For example, consider that access to Web pages over the Internet in general is burst-oriented. Typically, the user of a remote client computer first specifies the address of a Web page to a browser program. The browser program at the client computer then sends the request as a Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/Internet Protocol (IP) message packet, which is typically about 1000 bytes in length, to a network Web server. The Web server then responds by sending the content of the requested Web page, which may include anywhere from approximately 10 kilobytes to several megabytes of text, image, audio or video data. Because of delays inherent in the network, and because the Internet is such a vast interconnected mesh of networks, users can experience delays of several seconds or more for the requested web page to be routed to them. The user may thereafter spend several seconds or even several minutes reading the contents of the page before specifying a next page to be downloaded.
The result is that a typical Internet connection remains idle for a relatively long period of time. However, once a request is made, the user expects the information to be transmitted to the client at a relatively rapid rate. An additional difficulty is provided in wireless access systems in that there are typically many more potential users or subscribers than the available number of physical radio channels. Therefore, making wireless channels available only on an instantaneous "as needed" basis makes sense, and indeed is a requirement if wireless data transfer services are to efficiently operate. Thus, dynamic traffic channel allocation schemes are one way to increase the efficiency of wireless data communication systems in an effort to more efficiently utilize available channel resources.
Some type of demand-based multiple access technique is therefore typically required to make maximum use of the available wireless channels. Multiple access IS often provided in the physical layer, such as by Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) or by schemes that manipulate the radio frequency signal such as Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) or Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). In any event, the nature of the radio spectrum is such that it is a medium that is expected to be shared. This is quite dissimilar to the traditional environment for data transmission, in which a wired medium such as a telephone line or network cable is relatively inexpensive to obtain and to keep open all the time.

Time-slotted data packets with a preamble


This invention relates to a food slicing apparatus, and in particular to an apparatus for slicing bread. The food slicing apparatus of the invention has an enclosure to support the food to be sliced. The enclosure features an access opening through which food can be introduced into the enclosure. A cover for the access opening can be provided, moveable relative to the enclosure from an open position to a closed position. A guide is provided within the enclosure for guiding a blade to slice food supported within the enclosure. A stop is also provided to at least partially obstruct the guide. The cover is connected to at least one of the guide and the stop to displace the guide and the stop relative to one another, so that when the cover is in an open position, the stop at least partially obstructs the guide. In the embodiment disclosed, the stop is connected to the cover and moveable relative to the guide to at least partially obstruct the guide when the cover is in the open position. In this manner, the stop blocks the blade from traveling within the guide when the cover is in an open position.

Food items, such as bread, can be sliced using, for example, a serrated edge or other suitable knife-edge found on a knife. The bread is typically held in place by one hand, usually on a suitable cutting surface, while the other hand wields the knife to slice the bread. It can be appreciated that exposed knife-edges can injure the party slicing the bread. This is of concern in commercial establishments, such as, for example, a diner that serves sandwiches, or submarine sandwich restaurants, where slicing bread has to occur quickly, particularly during peak operation hours, such as, for example, lunch.


According to some embodiments, a bond is issued to an investor in exchange for value. The bond may be, for example, a tax-free municipal bond associated with (i) a spread to a predetermined index, (ii) a nominal maturity date, (iii) an initial mandatory tender date prior to the nominal maturity date, and/or (iv) an option for the investor to extend the initial mandatory tender date during an initial decision period. According to some embodiments an indication is received, during the initial decision period, indicating that the investor will extend the initial mandatory tender date. It may then be arranged for the initial mandatory tender date to be extended such that the bond will be associated with a subsequent option for the investor to extend an extended tender date during a subsequent decision period.

In some cases, an entity may borrow money from an investor and issue a bond to the investor bearing a stated rate or rates of interest (or a formula that can be used to determine a rate of interest) that will mature on a pre-determined date (e.g., five years after the bond was issued). When the maturity date arrives, the entity re-pays the investor (e.g., the principal and interest).
A mutual fund may pool money from many investors and invest the money in stocks, bonds, short-term money-market instruments, and/or other securities. Moreover, a money market fund is a type of mutual fund that may be required by laws or regulations (e.g., regulations of the Securities and Exchange Commission) to invest in relatively low-risk securities. A money market fund may invest in government securities, certificates of deposits, commercial paper of companies, and/or other highly liquid and low-risk securities. By way of example, a money market fund might invest in a tax-exempt municipal bond issued by a highly rated state or local governmental unit.
The requirements imposed on money market funds may limit the types of bonds that the fund can purchase. For example, a fund might be prevented from investing in a bond structure that lacks a guaranteed level of liquidity. The structure of a particular bond may also have tax consequences for a fund or other investors.

Systems and methods for issuing and maintaining a bond


A self-contained, battery operated fishing line tension detector and alarm system that adapts to a conventional fishing rod, reel, and line assembly. The system detects the feeding activity or strike of a fish by detecting the related change in the tension of the line. Engagement and disengagement of the line takes place without the person fishing having to handle the line. The strike alarm holds the line in an offset, unnatural position until the pull of a striking fish straightens the line which rotates a sensing arm until it touches an electrical contact; thus completing an electrical circuit which provides power for audible and visible alarms. Sensitivity to line tension is adjustable. Alarming occurs whenever line tension is above a sensitivity set point. The alarms are independent of each other and can be selectively switched in or out of the circuit. The visible alarm is illuminated for night visibility. The system is adaptable to a wide range of fishing techniques and types and sizes of rods and reels.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention or strike alarm relates to electrical devices, for use with conventional fishing rods and reels, that alert a person fishing of the feeding activity of a fish either nibbling or striking at bait connected to a fishing line.
2. Description of Prior Art
In order to alert the person fishing, most conventional fishing reels have mechanisms that mechanically produce a metallic clicking sound when line is stripped from the reel's spool causing the spool to rotate in a direction opposite to that used during line retrieval. Many reels, notably spin cast and open face spinning reels, require an anti-reverse spool mechanism to be engaged in order to get the clicking sound. Unfortunately, with the anti-reverse engaged a substantially strong fish strike is required to overcome the preset spool drag and achieve the clicking sound. Thus there is a need for more sensitive strike detection. All clicking mechanisms are similar in sound and not substantially loud. Thus there is a need for more distinctive alarm devices.
There have been many patents issued for electrically operated alerting devices with provisions for mounting on a fishing rod. However, they are rarely seen in tackle shops, at trade shows, or in use. This indicates that no one has developed an economical device with the right combination of features.
All devices of the prior art that are based on sensing changes in line tension require handling of the fishing line for engagement of the device with the line following casting. Handling of the line can be a hazardous undertaking if a large game fish rips line from the fishing reel at that moment. Many devices of the prior art require handling of the fishing line to disengage the line from the device before fighting a fish or making a second cast. In addition, prior art devices suffer one or more of the following disadvantages:
(a) The alarms are not self resetting following the detection and signaling of slight feeding activity; a disadvantage because the device's alarms should indicate each nibble but be silent when the stimulus ceases to exist. Additionally, battery power is being consumed until the alarms are reset.
(b) The alarms lack independent isolation switches. Thus the options available to the person fishing are limited.
(c) No detection sensitivity adjustment is provided, thus limiting the use to a specific type of fishing activity and specific fishing conditions.
(d) A fixed attitude or orientation of the fishing rod is required for proper operation, thereby encumbering conventional hand-held use.
(e) Detection of fish feeding activity requires line to be stripped from the reel, or the rod to be vibrated or flexed.
(f) The device is heavy or mounts near the slender end of the rod and changes the feel and action of the fishing rod.
(g) The device will mount on a variety of rods, but is not adaptable to the variable fishing line location of different rod and reel sizes and types. Thus the person fishing must handle the line to relocate it for engagement with the device.
(h) The device was designed for mounting separately from a fishing rod, and provisions for mounting on a fishing rod are lacking in practicality. When put to use on a rod the device would prove to be cumbersome.
(i) The device is mechanically complicated, or has parts that would be uneconomical to manufacture.

Fishing rod electrical audio-visual strike alarm


A near-field ThermoPhotoVoltaic system comprises a hot emitter and a cold absorbing PhotoVoltaic cell separated by a small gap. The emitter emits hot photons and includes a polaritonic material that supports a surface-polaritonic mode. The PhotoVoltaic cell has a metallic back electrode and includes a semiconductor that absorbs the photons and supports guided photonic modes. The surface-polaritonic mode and the first guided photonic mode resonantly couple at a frequency slightly above the semiconductor bandgap. The system material and geometrical parameters are such that the surface-polaritonic mode and the first guided photonic mode are approximately impedance-matched, so that power is transmitted at frequencies just above the semiconductor bandgap, even for relatively large gap widths, while the power transmitted at other frequencies is relatively small, leading to high system efficiency. Also described the PhotoVoltaic cell's front electrode, which may include highly-doped semiconductor regions, thin conducting oxide or silver films, or graphene layers.

ThermoPhotoVoltaics (TPV) is a heat-to-electricity conversion mechanism, wherein Thermal radiation is absorbed by a semiconductor PhotoVoltaic (PV) cell. It is very favorable, as it involves no moving parts, allowing the possibility for compact, light (thus portable), quiet and long-lived generators, powerable from numerous sources, such as high-energy-density hydrocarbon or nuclear fuels, or solar irradiation. Like any heat engine, a TPV system has the Carnot efficiency limit, which can only be achieved with monochromatic radiation matched to the semiconductor electronic bandgap. Absorbed thermal radiation below the bandgap is completely lost and far above it suffers thermalization losses. Reaching this limit in practical implementations has been challenging.
By far the most developed TPV systems use the far-field radiation of the hot emitter to transfer thermal energy across a vacuum gap to a semiconductor PV-cell absorber. To enhance efficiency, systems with emitter emissivity of both a Lorentzian (resonant) shape and a step-function shape above the semiconductor bandgap have been suggested and built. As the emission bandwidth above the bandgap increases, more output power is produced, but the system suffers from thermalization losses. These losses can be reduced, while maintaining large output power, by utilizing tandem PV-cell absorbers, however the cost then increases significantly. Although such selective-emitter TPV systems are designed to suppress photons emitted below the bandgap, unfortunately, at high emitter temperatures, this suppression is not really effective, as the emitter-material losses are so high that both the Lorentzian and step transitions are very broad and a considerable number of photons is still emitted below the bandgap, with a great associated hit in efficiency. This can be inhibited via the use of reflectors on the cold absorber to recycle below-bandgap photons back to the emitter, either via rugate filters on the PV-cell front surface, but again cost increases drastically, or via back reflectors, but only if the substrate has low free-carrier absorption.
There is in recent years a huge interest in near-field TPV systems, primarily because utilization of not only the radiative modes but also the evanescent modes for thermal energy transfer can lead to significantly increased output power.
Systems with emitters employing a Surface Plasmon Polariton resonance tuned above the semiconductor bandgap of a thick PV cell, spaced across an extremely narrow vacuum gap, without and with a metal back-surface, have been analyzed. Indeed, much more useful power is transferred to the PV cell at a given emitter temperature, and therefore the efficiency is also improved. However, as we show, these systems not only experience the same spectrum broadening due to the increased losses of the emitter at high temperatures, but also suffer from large absorption losses in the conducting carriers of the PV-cell electrode. These two mechanisms keep the efficiency away from the ideal Carnot limit.
Systems with semiconductor emitters matched to the semiconductor absorbing PV cell have also been proposed. The case of thick emitter and absorber at nanoscopic vacuum spacings offers a η2 increase in transmitted power over the far-field equivalent, where η is the index of refraction of the semiconductors. The resonant-system case of a thin film emitter and absorber, supporting coupled electromagnetic modes, has also been investigated recently and shown to have better performance at larger gap spacings. The main drawback though of semiconductor-emitter TPV systems is that semiconductors have relatively low melting temperatures compared to metals and therefore a sacrifice is made in both efficiency (from the Carnot limit 1−Ta/Te) and power (from the Stefan-Boltzmann law ˜Te4). The efficiency also suffers from losses due to the thermal carriers in the hot semiconductor emitter and the shift of its bandgap edge at high temperatures.
A TPV system including a polaritonic emitter and a thin-film semiconductor absorber has also been studied in the past (surface-phonon emitter and tungsten emitter). However, those systems were not designed so that the emitter polaritonic mode and the absorber dielectric-waveguide-type mode cross, couple and are impedance-matched just above the bandgap. This is why the reported efficiencies in those studies are significantly lower than those reported here.
In most cases of TPV studied so far, the free-carrier absorption losses associated with the necessary partially-absorbing conducting electrode on the emitter side of the PV cell have been greatly ignored or not sufficiently studied. Using graphene layers on the front of the PV cell has been suggested in R. Messina and P. Ben-Abdallah, "Graphene-based photovoltaic cells for near-field thermal energy conversion," Scientific Reports, vol. 3, p. 1383, 11 Mar. 2013, and in V. B. Svetovoy and G. Palasantzas, "Graphene-on-Silicon Near-Field Thermophotovoltaic Cell," Physical Review Applied, vol. 2, no. 3, p. 034006, 11 Sep. 2014, but, in both cases, the PV cell had a bulk geometry.

Highly-efficient near-field thermophotovoltaics using surface-polariton emitters and thin-film photovoltaic-cell absorbers


A device for loading pellets into reactor tubes includes a portable loading box with a bottom wall defining an opening, a loading tube projecting downwardly from the opening, and a movable dam for dividing said loading box into separate chambers.

The present invention relates to an arrangement for loading pellets into the tubes of a chemical reactor.
Many chemical reactors are essentially large shell and tube heat exchanger vessels, with the reaction occurring inside the tubes and a coolant circulating in the vessel outside the tubes. A chemical reactor vessel also can be a simple tank with a single volume of catalyst inside it, or it may be a single large tube. Some chemical reactions occur in furnace or reformer tubes, which may be a part of a system with from 10 to 5,000 or more such tubes. In any of these reactor vessels, catalyst, typically in the form of pellets, may be loaded into the reactor to facilitate the reaction. Inert pellets also may be loaded into the reactor tubes to certain levels, usually at the bottom portion and top portion of each tube. The pellets are replaced periodically.
The reactor tubes may be quite long, housed in a structure several stories tall. In order to replace the pellets, the old pellets first are removed from the reactor tubes. The inside surface of each tube is then mechanically cleaned to remove any scale formed during the chemical reaction process as this scale impedes or retards the reaction by slowing down the heat transfer rate.
As the pellets are loaded back into the reactor tubes, it is desirable to load pellets to certain levels. Often, inert pellets are loaded in the bottom of the tubes to a first level, then catalyst pellets are loaded on top of the inert pellets to a second level, and then inert pellets are loaded on top of the catalyst pellets to a third level, which may be the top of the tubes. In many cases the height of the column of inert pellets at the top of the tubes is on the order of 2 to 10 times the height of inert pellets at the bottom of the tubes.

Device and method for loading pellets into reactor tubes


A pediatric mattress that includes a sleep surface and a perimeter. The perimeter includes a cavity that is configured to receive the sleep surface. The perimeter also has at least one opening disposed into a chamber positioned within same. The opening is configured such that a gas may flow from the chamber through the opening and over the sleep surface. In addition, the pediatric mattress may include a percussion therapy system. The percussion therapy system includes an audio generator and at least one speaker. The speaker is connected to the audio-signal generator and is configured to produce and direct audio signals to the sleep surface.

The present invention relates to a mattress. More particularly, the present invention relates to a pediatric mattress.
Ventilated mattresses and percussion therapy are known in the art. Ventilating beds typically consist of a multi-chambered inflatable mattress that vents air through holes provided on its top surface. These holes allow air to escape while an air source continually supplies and maintains the desired amount of inflation to the mattress. This escaping air creates an environment that keeps a patient""s skin cool, dry and comfortable.
The present invention provides percussion/audio therapy to a patient in combination with an inflatable air mattress. In addition, the present invention provides a bed that directs a gas and/or audio frequencies to the patient from a variety of directions.
According to the present invention, a mattress includes a sleep surface and a perimeter having a cavity configured to receive the sleep surface and at least one gas outlet located adjacent the cavity. The gas outlet is configured to be coupled to a gas supply to direct gas flow from the gas outlet over the sleep surface.
In the illustrated embodiment, the perimeter includes an inner wall defining the cavity. The perimeter is formed to include an internal chamber having at least one opening extending between the chamber and the inner wall to define the at least one gas outlet. The chamber is configured to be coupled to the gas supply so that the gas is directed through the chamber and the at least one opening and over the sleep surface. Illustratively, the sleep surface is configured to be coupled to the inner wall of the perimeter at a location below the at least one opening.
Also in the illustrated embodiment, a spacer is located within the cavity. The spacer is configured to define first and second bladder cavities. First and second bladders are located in the first and second bladder cavities, respectively, for supporting the sleep surface. The first and second bladders are configured to be selectively inflated and deflated to provide rotational therapy to a patient on the sleep surface.
Also according to the present invention, a mattress includes a sleep surface, a perimeter having a cavity configured to receive the sleep surface, and at least one speaker positioned adjacent the sleep surface. The speaker is configured to direct a desired therapy wave signal to the sleep surface. In the illustrated embodiment, the mattress also includes an audio signal generator coupled to the at least one speaker to supply percussion/vibration therapy to a patient or to play music to be heard by the patient on the sleep surface.
Additional features of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon consideration of the following detailed description exemplifying the best mode of carrying out the invention as presently perceived.


A system for improving the display resolution by the reduction of chromatic aliasing.

The present invention relates to the field of displaying high resolution images on displays with lower resolution.
The most commonly used method for displaying high-resolution images on a lower resolution color mosaic display is to prefilter and re-sample the pixels 2 of the high-resolution image 4 down to the resolution of the low-resolution display 6, as shown in FIG. 1. In the process, the R, G, B values of selected color pixels 8 are mapped to the separate R, G, B elements 10, 12 and 14 of each display pixel 16. These R, G, B elements 10, 12 and 14 of a display pixel are sometimes also referred to as subpixels. Because the display device does not allow overlapping color elements, the subpixels can only take on one of the three R, G, or B colors. The color's amplitude, however, can be varied throughout the entire grey scale range (e.g., 0–255). The subpixels often have a 1:3 aspect ratio (width:height), so that the resulting pixel 16 is square. The aforementioned subsampling/mapping techniques fail to consider the fact that the display's R, G, and B subpixels are spatially displaced; in fact the pixels of the low resolution image are assumed to be overlapping in the same manner as they are in the high-resolution image. This type of sampling may be referred to as sub-sampling, traditional sub-sampling, or ordinary sub-sampling.
The pixels of the high-resolution image 4 are shown as three slightly offset stacked squares 8 to indicate their RGB values are associated for the same spatial position (i.e., pixel), generally referred to as co-sited sub-pixels. One display pixel 16 on a color mosaic display, consisting of one each of the R, G and B subpixels 10, 12 and 14 is shown as part of the lower-resolution triad display 6 in FIG. 1.
In the example shown in FIG. 1, the high-resolution image has 3× more resolution than the display (in both horizontal and vertical dimensions). In the case that filtering is omitted, the subsampling process would cause undesirable aliasing artifacts, and, accordingly, various methods are used, such as averaging the neighboring un-sampled pixels in with the sampled pixel, to reduce the aliasing. In addition, the subsampling technique of FIG. 1 results in mis-registration of the color fields each of which carries a portion of the luminance information. This leads to a loss of luminance resolution attainable at the sub-pixel sampling rate.
It is noted that the technique of weighted averaging of neighboring elements while subsampling is mathematically equivalent to prefiltering the high resolution image. Also, it is noted that techniques of selecting a different pixel than the leftmost (as shown in FIG. 1) can be considered as a prefiltering that affects only phase. Thus, most of the processing associated with reducing aliasing may be viewed as a filtering operation on the high-resolution image, even if the kernel is applied only at the sampled pixel positions, or both.
It has been realized that the aforementioned techniques do not take advantage of potential display resolution. Information regarding potential display resolution is discussed by R. Fiegenblatt (1989), "Full color imaging on amplitude color mosaic displays" Proc. SPIE V. 1075, 199–205; and J. Kranz and L. Silverstein (1990) "Color matrix display image quality: The effects of luminance and spatial sampling," SID Symp. Digest 29–32, incorporated herein by reference.
For example, in the display shown in FIG. 1, while the display pixel 16 resolution is ⅓ that of the pixel resolution of the high resolution image (source image) 4, the subpixels 10, 12 and 14 of the low resolution image are at a resolution equal to that of the high resolution image (in the horizontal dimension). This may be taken advantage of as shown in FIG. 2. In the case that the low resolution display were to be viewed solely by a color blind individual, he would see it as a higher resolution image than if ordinary sub-sampling is used. In essence, a luminance value exists for each pixel of the high resolution image which is mapped to a corresponding sub-pixel of the low resolution image. In this manner, a portion of the high resolution luminance image 4 is preserved in the sub-pixels of the low resolution image. This approach is shown in FIG. 2, where the R, G, and B subpixels 10, 12 and 14 of the low resolution display are taken from the corresponding colors of different pixels 11, 13 and 15 of the high-resolution image. This allows the sub-pixel horizontal resolution of the low resolution display to be at the pixel resolution of the high resolution display. Sampling which comprises mapping of color elements from different image pixels to the subpixels of a display pixel triad may be referred to as sub-pixel sampling.
But what about the viewer of the display who is not color-blind? That is, the majority of viewers. Fortunately for display engineers, even observers with perfect color vision are generally color blind at the highest spatial frequencies. This is indicated in FIG. 3, where idealized spatial frequency responses of the human visual system are shown.
In FIG. 3, luminance Contrast Sensitivity Function (CSF) 17 refers to the achromatic content of the viewed image, and chrominance CSF 19 refers to the color content, which is processed by the visual system as isoluminant modulations from red to green, and from blue to yellow. The color difference signals R-Y and B-Y of typical video are rough approximations to these modulations. For most observers, the bandwidth of the chromatic frequency response is ½ that of the luminance frequency response. Sometimes, the bandwidth of the blue-yellow modulation response is even less, down to about ⅓ of the luminance.
With reference to FIG. 4, in the horizontal direction of the display, there is a range of frequencies that lie between the Nyquist frequency of the display pixels 16 (display pixel=triad pixel, giving a triad Nyquist at 0.5 cycles per triad pixel) and the Nyquist frequency of the sub-pixels 10, 12 and 14 (0.5 cycles per subpixel=1.5 cycles/triad pixels). This region of frequencies is shown as the rectangular region 20 in FIG. 4. The result of convolving the high resolution image with a rect function whose width is equal to the display sample spacing is shown as a dashed-dot curve 22. This is the most common approach taken for modeling the display MTF (modulation transfer function) when the display is a LCD.
The result of convolving the high-res source image with a rect function whose width is equal to the subpixel spacing is shown as a dashed curve 24, which has higher bandwidth. This is the limit imposed by the display considering that the subpixels are rect in ID. In the shown rectangular region 20, the subpixels can display luminance information, but not chromatic information. In fact, any chromatic information in this region is aliased. Thus, in this region, by allowing chromatic aliasing, the display may achieve higher frequency luminance information than allowed by the triad (i.e., display) pixels. This is the "advantage" region afforded by using sub-pixel sampling.
The sub-pixel sampling registers the luminance information in the three color fields of the displayed image. Mis-registration as a result of displaying the image causes loss of luminance resolution while sub-pixel sub-sampling reduces it. The sub-sampling prefilter applied to the image may be sufficiently broad to permit the high resolution luminance information to pass. This additional luminance resolution will not result in significant aliasing of the luminance information because the Nyquist frequency is determined by the sub-pixel sampling period. However, significant chromatic aliasing can occur because the chromatic Nyquist frequency is determined by the display sampling period. The "advantage" region may be thought of as where significant chromatic aliasing occurs and significant luminance aliasing does not occur.
For applications with font display, the black and white fonts are typically preprocessed, as shown in FIG. 5. The standard pre-processing includes hinting, which refers to the centering of the font strokes on the center of the pixel, i.e., a font-stroke specific phase shift. This is usually followed by low-pass filtering, also referred to as grey scale anti-aliasing.
The visual frequency responses (CSFs) shown in FIG. 3 are idealized. In practice, they have a finite falloff slope, more representatively shown in FIG. 6A. The luminance CSF 30 has been mapped from units of cy/deg to the display pixel domain (assuming a viewing distance of 1280 pixels). It is shown as the solid line 30 that has a maximum frequency near 1.5 cy/pixel (display pixel), and is bandpass in shape with a peak near 0.2 cy/pixel triad. The R:G CSF 32 is shown as the dashed line, that is lowpass with a maximum frequency near 0.5 cy/pixel. The B:Y CSF 34 is shown as the long dashed LPF curve with a maximum frequency similar to the R:G CSF, but with lower peak response. The range between the cutoff frequencies of the chroma CSF 32 and 34 and the luminance CSF 30 is the region where one may allow chromatic aliasing in order to improve luminance resolution. The chromatic aliasing will not be visible to the human eye because it falls outside the chromance CSF.
FIG. 6A also shows an idealized image power spectra 36 as a 1/f function, appearing in the figure as a straight line with a slope of −1 (since the figure is using log axes). This spectrum will repeat at the sampling frequency. The pixel repeat 38 is due to the pixel sampling rate, and the repeat 40 is due to the subpixel sampling rate. Note that the shapes of the repeat spectra are different than the 1/f base band spectra 36, because they are plotted on log-log axes. The portions of these repeat spectra 38 and 40 that extend below their respective Nyquist frequencies represent aliasing. The leftmost one is chromatic aliasing 38 since it is due to the pixel sampling rate, while the luminance aliasing 40 occurs at higher frequencies because it is related to the higher sub-pixel sampling rate.
In FIG. 6A, no prefiltering has been applied to the source spectra. Consequently, aliasing, due to the pixel sampling (i.e., chromatic aliasing), extends to very low frequencies 35. Thus even though the chromatic CSF has a lower bandwidth than the luminance CSF, the color artifacts will, in general, still be visible (depending on the noise and contrast of the display).
In FIG. 6B, a prefilter was applied (a rect function in the spatial domain equal to three source image pixels), shown in FIG. 4 as a dashed-dotted line 22, to the source power spectrum, and it affects the baseband spectrum 42 in the region of 0.5 cy/pixel and greater, causing it to have a slope steeper than −1 shown at 44. The steeper slope effectively reduces the effects of the chromatic aliasing. The repeat spectra 38a and 40a also show the effect of this prefilter. For example, the tail 35 (FIG. 6A) is dramatically reduced as tail 46 (FIG. 6B) with this filter. The visible chromatic aliasing, that is aliasing under the two chrominance CSFs 32a and 34a, is reduced. However, it can be observed that this simple luminance prefiltering also removes significant luminance resolution (e.g. the curve 44 (FIG. 6B) relative to curve 45 (FIG. 6A)).
To increase the luminance information a system may use the difference in the human visual system's luminance and chrominance bandwidth. This bandwidth difference in luminance and chrominance (CFSs) in FIG. 6B may be referred to as the "advantage region". One technique to achieve such a boost is to design the prefiltering based on visual system models as described in C. Betrisey, et al (2000), "Displaced filtering for patterned displays," SID Symposium digest, 296–299, incorporated by reference and illustrated in FIG. 7.
The Betrisey, et al. technique ideally uses different prefilters depending on which color layer, and on which color subpixel the image is being sampled for. There are 9 filters designed using a human visual differences model described in Zhang and B. Wandell (1996) "A spatial extension of CIELAB for digital color image reproduction," SID Symp. Digest 731–734, incorporated herein by reference and shown in FIG. 7. This was done offline, assuming the image is always black and white. In the final implementation, three rect functions rather than the resulting nine optimal filters are used in order to save computations. In addition, there is still some residual chromatic error that can be seen because the chromatic aliasing extends down to lower frequencies than the chromatic CSF cutoff (as seen in FIG. 6B).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A micro-optical train manufacturing process includes a step of characterizing the position of optical components on an optical bench, typically using a metrology system. These optical components are then aligned with respect to each other in a passive alignment step based on data from the metrology system and optical system design information. As a result, a subsequent active align process can be avoided in some situations, or if a subsequent active alignment process is performed, the time required for that active alignment process can be reduced because of this initial metrology-based passive alignment step.

Component alignment is of critical importance in microoptical systems and especially semiconductor and/or MOEMS (microoptical electromechanical systems) optical system manufacturing. The basic nature of light requires that light generating, transmitting, and modifying components must be positioned accurately with respect to one another, especially in the context of free-space-interconnect optical systems, in order to function properly and effectively. Scales characteristic of optical semiconductor and MOEMS technologies can necessitate micron to sub-micron alignment accuracy.
Consider the specific example of coupling light from a semiconductor diode laser, such as a pump or transmitter laser, to single mode fiber. Only the power that is coupled into the fiber core is usable, and the coupling efficiency is highly dependent on accurate alignment between the laser output facet and the core; inaccurate alignment can result in partial or complete loss of signal transmission through the optical system. Moreover, if polarization-maintaining fiber is used, there is an added need to rotationally align the fiber relative to the laser to maintain the single polarization characteristic of the output signal.
Other more general examples include optical amplification, receiving and/or processing systems. Some alignment is typically required between an optical signal source, such as the fiber endface, and a detector. In more complex systems including tunable filters, for example, alignment is required not only to preserve signal power, dynamic range, but also to yield high quality systems through the suppression of undesirable optical modes within and without the systems.
In the example of a tunable filter system, light, typically provided by fiber, is supplied to an optical train, including a tunable filter, such as a Fabry-Perot (FP) tunable filter. The launch characteristics of the light into the FP filter cavity determine the side mode suppression ratio (SMSR) of the system. This ratio, in part, dictates the quality of the system. If light is launched into the filter at the wrong position or with the wrong spot size, higher order modes are excited in the filter, degrading the system's SMSR. Typically, filter train alignment is employed to extract the highest possible SMSR.
Generally, there are two types of alignment strategies: active and passive. Typically, in passive alignment of the optical components, registration or alignment features are fabricated directly on the optical components, such as the optical elements or element mounting structures, as well as on the platform to which the components are to be mounted. The components are then mounted and bonded directly to the platform using the alignment features. In active alignment, an optical signal is transmitted through the components and detected. The alignment is performed based on the transmission characteristics to enable the highest possible performance level for the system.
In the context of commercial volume manufacturing, selection between active and passive alignment, or some mix of the two, is determined based on the quality of part needed. Lower cost, lower performance devices are typically manufactured with entirely passive alignment strategies, whereas the manufacture of high performance devices typically involves at least some active alignment.

Optical component installation and train alignment process utilizing metrology and plastic deformation


A circuit, system, and method of generating multiple frequencies from a reduced number of input oscillation frequency signals including an input that receives at least two input oscillation frequency signals, each having a different phase. The circuit includes a combiner that combines that input oscillation frequency signals and at least one calculated signal and outputs a first output oscillation frequency signal having a different frequency than each of the at least two input oscillation frequency signals. The circuit further includes a calculator circuit, responsive to the first output oscillation frequency signal, that outputs the at least one calculated signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed generally to multiple frequency synthesis for wire-line transceivers and similar devices and, more particularly, to multiple frequency synthesis for wire-line transceivers and similar devices using fewer clock sources than the number of frequencies needed.
2. Related Art
Many devices, such as wire line transceivers, may be required to operate in conjunction with multiple operating frequencies or have a requirement for a source of multiple operating frequencies.
Some of these frequencies may be derived by applying coding schemes to the data. However, some of these frequencies may not be able to be synthesized using such techniques. The result is that in order to synthesize a number of frequencies, a similar number of clock sources, such as phase lock loop devices, must be employed in a system. This can result in increases in complexity, cost, and/or chip/circuit size.
More specifically, many network standards, such as Ethernet standards, require at least two different types of encoding of serial data. There are numerous reasons for encoding serial data. For example, data may be encoded to transform an original sequence of data into another stream that is DC balanced. Additionally, encoding the data that is transmitted in a network may facilitate having a minimum number of transitions in each data block. Moreover, encoding may be beneficial in that it allows for implementation of systems having an AC-coupled configuration. Furthermore, this may ease the tasks of clock and data recovery by providing sufficient transitions to facilitate phase blocking.
For example, one such exemplary encoding scheme is a 64 bit–66 bit (64 B/66 B) encoding scheme. The 64 B/66 B encoding scheme includes two redundancy bits that are added to a sequence of data that is 64 bits in length. When the 64 B/66 B encoding scheme is applied to a 10 Gb/s data signal, the result is an effective output rate of 10.3125 Gb/s. Another scheme for encoding data is 8 bit–10 bit (8 B/10 B) encoding scheme in which two bits are added in a sequence of 8 bits. Applying 8 B/10 B encoding scheme to a sequence of data that is operating at 2.5 Gb/s results in an effective output rate of 3.125 Gb/s. However, the requirement for multiple frequencies in turn has resulted in a requirement for multiple clock sources that results in increased complexity, cost and chip/circuit size.
Accordingly, there is a need for a device or source of multiple frequencies in communication devices such as wireline transceivers that provides a cost savings, chip size reduction and/or reduction in complexity.

Device and method for frequency synthesis for wireline transceivers and similar devices


Disclosed is a method for checking the integrity of a reference counter for objects in a file system. A unique identifier can be associated with the reference referring to the object. A reference check can be associated with the object and set to a predefined initial value before any references referring to the object are added. When a new reference referring to the object is added, the reference counter is increased by one and the identifier associated with the new reference is added to the reference check. When an existing reference referring to the object is about to be removed, the reference counter is decreased by one and the identifier associated with the existing reference is subtracted from the reference check. If the reference check is not equal to the initial value when the reference counter is zero, then an error message is sent to the file system.

The approaches described in this section could be pursued but are not necessarily approaches that have previously been conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
In computer systems, data stored in Random Access Memory (RAM), a hard disk drive (HDD), or some other data storage device is usually organized as objects having references referring to these objects. An object may have many references that point to it, and conversely, the object itself may include references that point to other objects.
In order to effectively utilize the resources of a computer memory and hard disk storage devices, it is important to know whether a given object has any references referring to it. If there are no references referring to the object, then it means that the object is no longer used and, therefore, can be removed from the object database and the space in a computer memory or a hard disk storage used by the object can be labeled as unoccupied and used by new data objects.
Some computer systems can use simple reference counting techniques to track how many references are referring to a given object. Each time a new reference is added to an object, the reference counter associated with the object is incremented by one, and correspondingly, each time a reference referring to the given object is removed, the reference counter is decremented by one. If a stored value for the reference counter of an object ever reaches zero, the object can be freed, and if the object is referencing other objects, their reference counters can be decremented in turn. Thus, deletion of one object can cause a recursive cascade of freed objects and widespread decrementing of reference counts. Accordingly, an incorrect count of references can result in massive data loss due to reference counters of objects becoming zero and deletion of the objects.
Several situations can lead to incorrect reference counts (for example, a counter is not properly incremented but subsequently decremented, a counter of the same reference is decremented more than once, a counter of a wrong objected is decremented, or the reference counter is corrupted). These errors can be caused by both data corruptions and software bugs, which are always a possibility. Therefore, additional measures preventing accidental deletion of an object due to an incorrect reference counter should be undertaken.


A new and distinct hybrid of Heuchera plant characterized by medium large, well-veiled, green leaves, numerous deep pink flowers, an extended bloom period, a mounding habit and excellent vigor.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Heuchera and given the cultivar name of 'Paris'. Heuchera is in the family Saxifragaceae. Heuchera 'Paris' originated from a cross between Heuchera 'Hollywood' (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 17,129), as the seed parent, and Heuchera 268-2 (an unpatented, proprietary plant), as the pollen parent. Given its ornamental foliage and flower form, it is probable that Heuchera sanguinea, H. micrantha, H. americana, and H. cylindrica are in its parentage.
This new Heuchera is distinguished by:                1. medium large, round, well-veiled green leaves;        2. numerous deep pink flowers that fade to darker deep pink with age, giving a multi-color flower look as it matures;        3. very long bloom time;        4. mounding habit;        5. excellent vigor.
This new cultivar has been reproduced only by asexual propagation (cuttings and tissue culture). Each of the progeny exhibits identical characteristics to the original plant. Asexual propagation by division and tissue culture using standard micropropagation techniques with terminal and lateral shoots, as done in Canby, Oreg., shows that the foregoing characteristics and distinctions come true to form and are established and transmitted through succeeding propagations. The present invention has not been evaluated under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may change with variations in environment without a change in the genotype of the plant.


Deformation element for the interior of motor vehicles which is constructed as a ledge and is deformable over its length. The deformable element may be mounted in hollow spaces between body parts of the vehicle, such as vehicle columns, and an inner lining. The ledge is adapted to the outer outline configuration of the body parts and has several deformable regions over its length. The deformable regions are formed by strips oriented in a longitudinal direction of the ledge. The strips are curved in a wave-shaped form in the longitudinal direction and each includes at least one wave crest and one wave trough. Adjacent strips are offset in a longitudinal direction relative to one another such that a wave crest on one strip is adjacent a wave trough on an adjacent strip and vice versa.

The invention relates to a deformation element for the interior of motor vehicles.
German Patent Publication No. DE 198 25 040 A1 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 6,145,921) shows a shock-absorbing device which comprises a support, which is essentially L-shaped in plan view, and embraces a car body column and is kept at a distance from the car body column by means of a deformable leaf spring structure. The leaf spring structure is constructed so that it has two mutually intersecting semicircular bridge elements, which are offset from one another by 180xc2x0 and held one above the other, the plane of the semicircles being essentially perpendicular to the plane of the vehicle column. With such a shock-absorbing device, it is possible to counteract only an impact force, which acts essentially in a direction perpendicular to the line of intersection of the two semicircular bridge elements on the device. There is therefore only a pointwise spring system.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improvement thereof.
The inventive deformation element is deformable as a whole over its longitudinal extent so that as a result, it can cover a wide region of the outline configuration of the body part of the car and, in this region, functions as an impact protection device. Several deformable regions are available so that forces introduced at different places on the car body and from different directions can be intercepted and the deformation element provides protection in the case of a frontal accident as well as in the case of a side crash or if the vehicle overturns. In each of these cases, the points of impact and the directions in which the forces are introduced are different.
A high stability of the deformation element is achieved since in the case of an impact, the direction in which the force is introduced would extend essentially in the plane in which the reinforcing skins extend. Even if only one deformable region is constructed from a wave crest opposite a wave trough, a stability, better than that of the state of the art, would be achieved therewith by the stiffening skin even when the forces are introduced from different directions. This embodiment is realized particularly advantageously also within a deformable longitudinal strip which is fitted to the respective car body structure.
Elastically deformable pins are provided as energy absorbers and exhibit a relatively high energy absorption even in the case of obliquely introduced forces and lateral kinking, so that the passenger protection is improved also in this embodiment. In particular, advantages arise also here when several regions carrying such pins are connected with one another and adapted as a whole to the shape of the body.
Further advantages and distinguishing features arise out of the examples of the object of the invention, which are explained in the following and shown in the accompanying drawings.


A zero turn mower steering system including left and right motion control levers independently pivotable between forward, neutral and reverse positions to rotate left and right rear drive wheels respectively at forward, neutral and reverse speeds. Left and right position sensors on the left and right motion control levers provide electronic signals to an electronic controller that provides a left front wheel steering angle signal and a right front wheel steering angle signal. Each steering angle signal is based on a distance the electronic controller calculates from each of the left and right rear drive wheels to an instantaneous center point of a turn.

Grass mowing machines known as zero turning radius ("ZTR") mowers have at least one independently powered rear drive wheel on each side of a frame. Many ZTR mowers have a twin stick control system. A pair of motion control levers or sticks may be provided side-by-side, with each lever or stick controlling one of the rear drive wheels. When both levers or sticks are advanced together forwardly out of their neutral position, both rear drive wheels rotate forwardly to cause the ZTR mower to move forward. A ZTR mower may be steered by advancing one lever or stick more than the other.
Typically, each motion control lever or stick on a ZTR mower maybe linked to a pump arm of one of two separate hydraulic pumps, or of a dual hydraulic pump; i.e., a separate pump for each rear drive wheel. The lever or stick may be used to move a pump swash plate through a direct linkage.
Most ZTR mowers rely on the rear drive wheels for propulsion, steering and braking, while the front wheels are on casters. When a ZTR mower is traversing a slope, the front wheels provide no holding force to the front of the ZTR mower to keep it moving straight across the slope. Instead, to keep the ZTR mower moving straight across the slope, the operator may pull back the motion control lever or stick for the uphill rear drive wheel, so that it acts as a brake and the wheel slides against the ground. As a result, the downhill rear drive wheel may be the only wheel that provides traction. If the downhill rear drive wheel slips, the mower may slide down the hill.
A zero turn mower steering system is needed having front wheels that provide a holding force to the front of the mower to keep it moving straight across a slope and that can enable the mower to maneuver around obstacles located on slopes.