A method and apparatus for dynamically providing a path through a network of nodes or granules may use a limited, advanced look at potential steps along a plurality of available paths. Given an initial position, at an initial node or granule within a network, and some destination node or granule in the network, all nodes or granules may be represented in a connected graph. An apparatus and method may evaluate current potential paths, or edges between nodes still considered to lie in potential paths, according to some cost or distance function associated therewith. Each next edge may lie ahead across the advancing "partial" wavefront, toward a new candidate node being considered for the path. With each advancement of the wavefront, one or more potential paths, previously considered, may be dropped from consideration. Thus, a "partial" wavefront, limited in size (number of nodes and connecting edges) continues to evaluate some number of the best paths "so far." The method deletes worst paths, backs out of cul-de-sacs, and penalizes turning around. The method and apparatus may be implemented to manage a computer network, a computer internetwork, parallel processors, parallel processes in a multi-processing operating system, a smart scissor for a drawing application, and other systems of nodes.

1. Related Applications
This application is a continuation of a co-pending provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/012/614, filed on Mar. 1, 1996 for a Near Optimal Path Apparatus and Method.
2. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to computer applications for controlling path dependent apparatus and processes such as networks and, more particularly, to novel systems and methods for providing a near optimal path, or a "pretty good" path through a process of such a network, even in the possible absence of a global knowledge of the system.
3. The Background Art
Many apparatus, machines, devices, and processes use a series of steps. Many times these may execute steps toward a destination or objective, while lacking global knowledge. That is, information is not available to assure that the next step executed is the "best" according to some criterion, or even that the next step will ever bring the process to the desired destination or result in an ultimate solution at all.
For example, directing messages or data packets is a serious traffic control question in many computer-controlled systems and environments. Some of these hardware systems may include individual processors using multiprocessing operating systems running parallel threads depending on various data queues. Also included are parallel processors, whether symmetric or non-symmetric, computer networks (networks or nets) such as a local area network (LAN), wide area network (WAN), or a network of networks (internetwork) depending on routers between networks.
Moreover, processes, processors, networks, and the components of each are not static. At a moment in time, a snapshot may be available to identify some portion of the current state of any process or apparatus. The snapshot may be thought of as an instantaneous view or description of the state or loading of a system at an instant of time. The loaded state may be characterized with reference to a ground, unloaded, base, or vacuum state. Typically a ground, base, or vacuum state of a system may be thought of as the configuration and capacity of the system with no loading. Thus, for example, a base or vacuum state may represent the capacities of components in a system having no activity or data messaging of the applications, processes, threads, data structures, lines, or components (or all of the above) in a system.
To obtain a true global view of all knowledge necessary to define the state of a system, the system would need to be static, or in instant communication. That is, messages take time to arrive, conditions change with time, and only a past state of the system can be completely defined. In an operating apparatus or process, a true global view is unavailable. Thus, a path through the apparatus (system) or process is not actually known, let alone an optimal path.
An instant after any snapshot in a dynamic system is recorded, the snapshot may be invalid. A process may have stopped, a data bit, word, or file may have changed or been deleted from a memory location, a router may go down, a processor may have crashed, an application may be hung or otherwise terminated, any hardware may have been taken off line, and the list goes on.
What is needed is an apparatus and method that can still route message traffic in a way that accommodates the changing and ambiguous nature of a dynamic system. Such a system needs to provide a better view than the static, vacuum, or ground state of the system. At the same time, a system needs to provide this view and provide a path without insisting that the path be perfect or the optimal path. A "pretty good path" or a "near optimal path" using the best "available" information in a dynamic system could be faster and more accurate than one using the ground or vacuum state information. At the same time, such a system could be faster than one that attempts to provide the optimal path. What is needed is an apparatus and method for eliminating part of the domain of choices in order to assure improved performance in the remaining portion of the domain.
Similarly, in individual applications, finding a best path through a process comprising parallel threads is often desirable. A user may need to allocate resources, or a processor may need to do so. Hard and fast rules as to operations may provide several unnecessary bottlenecks to a process during actual operation.
Optimization methods often require too much advance knowledge of a system, more than can be known. Moreover, optimal solutions to the efficient operation of a system may require extensive processing time to achieve. Again, in a dynamic system, the state of all the elements is not static anyway, so an optimal system may be impossible to find, especially in a useful time period.
In general, one may often enter a process not knowing all the upcoming options, let alone the ultimate outcome of each. Many decisions are over the horizon. The information to make them will be available later in the process. That is, certain decisions may be unknown to exist, may be made at intermediate destinations, and may rely on data available only at or shortly before presentation of the decision. Partial decisions can be made in anticipation of future information becoming available.
Like a rambling summer vacation through Europe, or the historic Atlantic seaboard of the United States, decisions may be based on where one is in a process, the cost and time required to advance to the next immediate step or location, whether or not a location, or even the path to it, is currently available at all, and the like. One may even find that an open path has become a cul-de-sac that must be backtracked to continue in a process or path.
What is needed is a generalized method to eliminate some choices, paths, etc., especially obvious choices, like options, destinations, paths, threads, or the like that are logjammed or out of service. Thus, simply improving the domain of possible choices may provide some substantial benefit, a near-optimal path.
In one particular example, such as a drawing package (application), finding a best path along a boundary of a visual feature evident to a user in a visual image is often critical. The human eye can detect features which a drawing or painting application needs to be able to recognize by some other method. For speed and utility, dependence on a user is often inefficient, impossible, time consuming, or inaccurate, requiring extensive editing or re-drawing. For example, to cut a portion of a feature out of an image in order to designate an object comprised of that single feature is a very valuable ability. Presently, no satisfactory tool exists in any drawing package to rapidly, even automatically, and accurately complete this process with a reasonable processing time on the processor accomplishing the function and in a reasonable wait time for a user. The need exists for automatic bounding of a feature recognizable by a human viewer, clipping the feature, and saving it as an individual object for multiple re-use. Defining a near-optimal path around the boundary of the feature in the image would need an automatic pathfinding process that is not available. The current software art requires much user involvement or complex processing algorithms, and often both.
In summary, what is needed is a near-optimal path finding method and apparatus applicable to a dynamic system. The near-optimal path finder should decrease the requirements on user involvement. Path finding is needed that can acknowledge the probable lack of utility of certain paths or portions of paths, and systematically delete them from consideration in a search of possible paths through a dynamic system. Such narrowing of options, leaving a suitable working population of "better" choices of intermediate path segments is needed, to ultimately provide a "pretty good" path. Thus, the term "near-optimal," as used here, need not be as rigorously construed as the terms "optimal" or "near-optimal" would be in the mathematical theory of optimization.


A measuring and simulation system for a machine-tool or production machine is described. Measurement results and simulation results are visualized simultaneously side-by-side on a common monitor display screen. A user can then easily set and optimize the control parameters of the machine-tool or production machine by a straightforward comparison between the measurement results and the simulation results.

The present invention relates to a measuring and simulation system for machine-tools or production machines.
The control parameters of machine tools or production machines can be optimally adjusted with the help of measuring and simulation systems. In the context of this application, the term "production machine" is used in a generic sense and also includes robots which generally follow the concepts outlined here. The parameters are first determined with the help of a simulation system, wherein the simulation system computes, for example, the transfer function and/or of the step response of a rotation speed and/or position control circuit of the machine and visualizes the results to a user on a display screen. The control parameters can then be optimized based on the visualized a data. Simulation systems of this type are typically implemented external to the machine on an external computing device, such as a personal computer or a workstation.
Subsequently, the simulation results are checked with the help of a measuring system that is independent of the simulation system. The measuring system computes the actual transfer function or step response of the rotation speed and/or position control circuits from the actual measurement signals obtained from the sensors and transducers. In modern systems, such measurement systems tend to be implemented as a system component that is integrated in the machine, or as a separate external computing device, such as a personal computer or a workstation.
The fact that the measuring systems and the simulation systems are executed on different computing devices or system components, each of which have a corresponding display screen, and that the results are also displayed on different display screens, makes it difficult for a user to compare the simulated results with the results obtained from the actual measurement.
It would therefore be desirable and advantageous to provide an improved measuring and simulation system for machine tools or production machines, which obviates prior art shortcomings and is able to specifically allow a simple and clear comparison between the measurement results and the simulation results.

Measuring and simulation system for machine-tools or production machines


A method of synchronizing stations without broadcasting a synchronization signal. Presetting an environmental variable into each station prior to deploying the stations. Presetting an interval of time into each station prior to deployment. Deploying the stations. Waiting the interval of time. Measuring the environmental variable at each station. Returning to the fourth step if the measurement is not within a first user-definable range. Returning to the fifth step if the measurement is not within a second user-definable range. Synchronizing a clock within the station to the time that a synchronization event is measured, and returning to the fourth step.

Synchronization of individual stations within a distributed network is an important issue for the wireless networking community. Synchronization is where individual stations within a network share the same concept of time. Synchronization is important in applications such as time-stamping and coordinating activities. Typically, the time kept by one station is broadcast to the other stations. Such broadcasts expend energy and make the network prone to error and susceptible to manipulation by unauthorized persons. Furthermore, clocks are imperfect and transmission delays only add to the problem. Therefore, there is a need for a method of synchronization that does not require broadcasts.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,665,541, entitled "METHODS AND APPARATUSES FOR USING MOBILE GPS RECEIVERS TO SYNCHRONIZE BASESTATIONS IN CELLULAR NETWORKS," discloses a device for and method of synchronization that relies on broadcasts from the Global Positioning System (GPS). The present invention does not require a broadcast from the GPS for synchronization as does U.S. Pat. No. 6,665,541. U.S. Pat. No. 6,665,541 is hereby incorporated by reference into the specification of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,813,324, entitled "SYNCHRONIZED COMMUNICATION SYSTEM," discloses a device that includes a transmitter for transmitting a low frequency synchronization signal. The present invention does not transmit a low frequency signal to achieve synchronization as does U.S. Pat. No. 6,813,324. U.S. Pat. No. 6,813,324 is hereby incorporated by reference into the specification of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,836,851, entitled "TWO-STEP SYNCHRONIZATION METHOD IN WHICH TWO MODULES ARE SYNCHRONIZED FIRST BY FREQUENCY FOLLOWED BY A SYNCHRONIZATION IN PHASE," discloses a method of synchronization that requires two transmissions, one from a first station to a second station of the first station's clock signal, and one from the second station to the first station of its clock signal which was generated using the clock signal received from the first station. The present invention does not require two transmissions between two stations as does U.S. Pat. No. 6,836,851. U.S. Pat. No. 6,836,851 is hereby incorporated by reference into the specification of the present invention.

Method of synchronization without broadcasting synchronization signal

The United States of America as represented by the National Security Agency


A new and distinct grapevine variety characterized by possessing elliptic shaped, medium sized green-yellowish seedless grapes having a crisp flesh texture. The grapes have a mild neutral flavor, medium sugar content, and excellent eating quality. The new variety possesses exceptional late-ripening characteristics. Additionally, the bunches have the ability to stay on the vine for a month or more, while maintaining commercial harvest quality.

This invention relates to the discovery and asexual propagation of a new variety of grapevine as herein described and illustrated. The new variety was first hybridized by David. W. Cain and Michael J. Striem in Wasco, Kern County, Calif., the variety being originated by controlled hybridization and subsequent culture of seed traces and embryo rescue procedures.
The new variety 'Sugrathirtyone' is characterized by possessing medium sized green-yellowish seedless grapes having a mild neutral flavor. The grapes have an elliptic shape, a crisp flesh texture, medium sugar content and excellent eating quality. The new variety 'Sugrathirtyone' is exceptional with its late ripening, as the grapes ripen after any other seedless grape cultivars grown and marketed commercially in California. Further, the bunches are able to stay on the vine for a month or more, while still maintaining commercial harvest quality.
The new variety 'Sugrathirtyone' was created by hybridization of two "seedless" grapes possessing small, abortive, vestigial ovules. From the initial population of hybrid ovules, embryo rescue methods were used to produce a population from which the present variety was selected. The seed parent is '92147-050-238' (unpatented) and the pollen parent is '92187-055-030' (unpatented). The parent varieties were first crossed in May 1999, with the date of first sowing being August 1999, and the date first flowering being May 2001.
The new 'Sugrathirtyone' variety was first asexually propagated by Dr. Michael Striem in December 2001 in Wasco, Kern County, Calif. using hardwood cuttings.
The new variety 'Sugrathirtyone' resembles its seed parent '92147-050-238' in berry color and shape. However, 'Sugrathirtyone' has a much larger natural berry size of approximately 4.55 grams, compared to the seed parent's natural berry size of approximately 3.35 grams. Additionally, the seed parent has a noticeable, dark and hard seed-trace while the seed-trace of 'Sugrathirtyone' is very small and soft.
The new variety 'Sugrathirtyone' resembles its pollen parent '92187-055-030' in berry color and shape. However, 'Sugrathirtyone' has a much larger natural berry size of 4.55 grams, compared to the pollen parent's natural berry size of 4.26 grams. Further, while the berries of the pollen parent turn brown when exposed to direct sunshine, the berries of the new variety 'Sugrathirtyone' stay light-green with a milky-creamy/opaque look, turning slightly yellowish at the end of the harvest season.
The new variety 'Sugrathirtyone' is similar to the comparable variety 'Sugraone' (U.S. Pat. No. 3,106) in its appearance, bunch structure and berry shape. However, the new variety ripens about 6-8 weeks later than 'Sugraone.' The new variety 'Sugrathirtyone' also develops higher sugar levels than 'Sugraone' at harvest.
It is to be understood that variations of the usual magnitude from the described above may occur with changes in growing conditions, irrigation, fertilization, pruning, management and climatic variations.
The new 'Sugrathirtyone' variety has been shown to maintain its distinguishing characteristics through successive asexual propagations by, for example, cuttings.


A device is designed to anchor a tissue to a bone. The device comprises a contractible implant, one or more sutures attached to the implant, and a pasty medicine capable of solidification. The implant is made of a flexible wall and provided with a holding portion and an injection port. The flexible wall is provided with a plurality of pores, each having a diameter smaller than 0.1 millimeter. The pasty medicine is injected into the holding portion of the implant upon completion of insertion of the contracted implant into the bone, thereby resulting in expansion of the contracted implant. The implant is thus securely lodged in the bone upon solidification of the pasty medicine to facilitate the anchoring of the tissue to the bone by suturing.

The U.S. Pat. No. 6,007,566 discloses a system for anchoring tissue to bone. The system comprises an anchorlike implant which is provided with two flukes opposite to each other. The implant is fixed with a bone by means of the two flukes. The anchorlike implant of the prior art system often fails to bring about a good anchoring effect. In another words, the anchorlike implant is vulnerable to being pulled out of the bone in which it is implanted, due to the fact that the pointed flukes are apt to penetrate the bone at the time when the flukes are exerted on by a stress. The stress is bound to concentrate at the pointed end of the flukes of the anchorlike implant as the suturing threads are pulled by the tissue.

Device and system for anchoring tissue to bone


A method for controlling forward power utilizing 13K erasure indicator bit in a CDMA system improves the call quality and subscriber capacity by setting a nominal_gain, a maximum traffic channel gain (max_tx_gain), a minimum traffic channel gain (min_tx_gain), and a reduction rate in an optimal combination, wherein the nominal_gain is initial gain of primary traffic channel, the max_tx_gain is maximum gain of traffic channel, the min_tx_gain is minimum gain of traffic channel, and the reduction rate represents a cycle rate to decrease the digital gain by 1 for the received frames. The nominal_gain satisfies                     E        b                    N        o              =                            E          c                          I          o                    +              P        .        G            +              10                          xe2x80x83                                  log                                [                                                            (                                      G                    T                                    )                                2                                                              (                                      G                    P                                    )                                2                                      ]                                ,

This application makes reference to, incorporates the same herein, and claims all benefits accruing under 35 U.S.C. xc2xa7119 arising from an application entitled, METHOD FOR CONTROLLING FORWARD POWER UTILIZING AN ERASURE INDICATOR BIT INA CDMA SYSTEM, earlier filed in the Korean Industrial Property Office on Jul. 29, 1998, and there duly assigned Serial No. 1998-30483.
The present invention relates to a method used in a mobile communication system for controlling base station forward transmission power utilizing erasure indicator bit (EIB) message, and in particularly to a forward power control method for improving call quality and subscriber capacity of the system using EIB message to adjust the gain of the base station forward transmission power and the rate of the reducing the digital gain of its forward transmission power based on a newly predetermined power control parameter messages stored in the base station.
As it is well known, a near-far problem arises in the channel quality between a base station and a faraway mobile station. In view of this, a forward power control has been studied to overcome the near-far problem. The forward power control is performed when a frame error at a base station exceeds a predetermined threshold level, in which case the transmission power of the base station to the mobile station is adjusted. The power control on the forward link increases or decreases the transmit power level of base station so that all channels can maintain good call quality when fading or interference occurs, especially in the boundary of a cell where the noise interference is high.
The power control is used to adjust the transmit power of the base station for each traffic channel. When the mobile station is affected by the signals traveling through propagation paths or other multi-path characteristic interference, the transmission power control is performed such that the received power levels of signals transmitted from the mobile stations and receive by the base station, or the SIR (Signal-to-interference power ratio) associated with the received power levels are kept constant at the base station.
Without the power control, the distance of the mobile station located in a neighboring area between base stations is so faraway from the corresponding base station that the transmit power from the base station is weakened. Consequently, a call set-up rate is low and even if the call set-up is successful, the voice quality is poor due to the severe interference in the neighboring base stations.
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the relevant art based on the detailed description provided herein that in a typical forward power control known in the art include a mobile station unit for measuring the quality of a communication signal received by the mobile station from a base station and a unit for producing a base station transmission power control data/forward power control signal, and the base station include a unit for measuring a receiving the forward power control signal, a unit for calculating a power level command based on the received forward power control signal based on control parameters stored in the base station, and a unit for producing a mobile station transmission power control data specifying a mobile station transmission power in accordance with the received.
In power control technique, the mobile station measures the frame error rate (FER) of the forward link by 20 milliseconds (ms) and transmits a forward power control signal to the base station. The base station compares the forward power control signal to a predetermined FER threshold value, and based on such comparison changes the transmission power level by increasing/decreasing the power level allocated to the traffic channel at an increment/decrement rate.
They are different types of forward control signal that is used depending on the system employed. There are power measurement report message (PMRM) used as a forward power control signal in the digital cellular system and erasure indicate bit (EIB) used in the personal communication system (PCS). The PCS makes it possible to report the status of the forward link every frame by adding a bit of EIB to the front of the reverse traffic channel. EIB indicates whether the received frame from the base station to mobile station contains an erasure. For an example, an EIB binary value of xe2x80x9c0xe2x80x9d can indicate a properly received frame, while a value of xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d can indicates an erased frame or bad frames. That is, in the event that mobile station is unable to successfully decode in response to forward frames, mobile station generates EIB messages having a value of xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d for each erased frame, and transmits these messages back to base station over the reverse link signal.
Base station processes the EIB and determines the gain of its forward link signal based on the EIB messages it receives on the reverse link signal from the mobile station. Base station transmits the forward link signal at a decreasing transmission gain or at an increased gain whenever an EIB message indicating an error is received, and increases or decreases the forward transmission power level transmitted by base station in the subsequent forward frame. By producing the power control signal in such away, it is possible to keep track of the change in the traffic channel more quickly than employing the PMRM method used in the PCS system. The base station receives these forward power control signal from the mobile station via reverse link and extracts the transmission power control bit, and determines its transmission power in accordance with the transmission power control bit.
As described in the above, the forward power control employing the EIB, the base station forward transmission power is depended on power control parameters messages stored in the base station, that is characteristic of the distance between the base station and the mobile station so that the power of the transmitted radio signals as received by the mobile station is not interfering with other cells. The related power control parameters are as follows: xe2x80x98Step_til_downxe2x80x99 for decreasing the digital gain by one per frame if the current traffic channel gain is greater than or equal to a xe2x80x98slow_down_level,xe2x80x99 and for decreasing the digital gain by one per every two frames if the current traffic channel gain is less than the xe2x80x98slow_down_level,xe2x80x99 xe2x80x98Down_deltaxe2x80x99 for decreasing the digital gain, xe2x80x98Nominal_gainxe2x80x99 refers to an initial gain of the primary traffic channel when a call is established between the mobile station and the base station, xe2x80x98Max_tx_gainxe2x80x99 refers to a maximum gain of traffic channel, xe2x80x98min_tx_gainxe2x80x99 refers to a minimum gain of traffic channel, xe2x80x98Big_up_deltaxe2x80x99 for increasing the digital gain, xe2x80x98small_up_deltaxe2x80x99 for increasing the digital gain that is smaller than the digital gain for the xe2x80x98Big_up_delta,xe2x80x99 and, xe2x80x98Slow_down_levelxe2x80x99 refers to a value at the level that is bottom one-third down between levels of the max_tx_gain and min_tx_gain.
In operation of the forward power control using the above power control parameters, FIG. 1 illustrates the digital gain increment of the traffic channel in which the PCS increases the digital gain of the traffic channel in case where the value of EIB is 1. Whenever a frame generating EIB message of xe2x80x981xe2x80x99 is received, it adjusts the gain value to either the xe2x80x98small_up_deltaxe2x80x99 and the xe2x80x98big_up_deltaxe2x80x99 depending on the sequence of received EIB messages. For an example, when twelve frames having a string of EIB messages of xe2x80x981xe2x80x99 or xe2x80x980xe2x80x99 are received as illustrated in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2, the gain is increased as high as xe2x80x985xe2x80x99 initially when EIB message of the first frame corresponds to xe2x80x981,xe2x80x99 and then the subsequently received EIB message of xe2x80x981xe2x80x99 increases the digital gain to as high as xe2x80x982xe2x80x99 three times. That is, the gain is increased with a specific pattern, xe2x80x985, 2, 2, 2xe2x80x99 in sequence. After that, if subsequent repetitive receptions of the EIB message of xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d is received, the value of the subsequent digital gain is adjusted according to the pattern shown in FIG. 2.
Referring to FIG. 3 that is a view of digital gain decrement of the traffic channel according to a conventional method. Whenever the repetitive receptions of a string of EIB messages of xe2x80x980xe2x80x99 (zero) have been continuously received for each 60 frames, the traffic channel gain is decreased by xe2x80x981xe2x80x99 for each 60 frames in sequence if the traffic channel is greater than or equal to xe2x80x98slow_down_level.xe2x80x99 However, if the traffic channel is less than xe2x80x98slow_down_level,xe2x80x99 the traffic channel gain is decreased by xe2x80x981xe2x80x99 for each 120 frames when a string of the EIB messages of xe2x80x980xe2x80x99 (zero) have been repetitively received.
The forward power control based on a predetermined control parameters of forward transmission power of the base station and a string of the EIB messages has help to improve the call quality. In the conventional method of establishing the parameters of the forward power control, the parameters are set only to address to improve the call quality, and not pertained to the subscriber capacity. Thus, there is need for establish the parameters to improve both the subscriber capacity as well as to the call quality. In order to achieve such improvements, the present invention provides a set of control parameters contrary to technologies known in the prior art, which produces an expected improvement in both the call quality and the subscriber capacity. This is done by setting the control parameter for the base station forward transmission power in an optimal way to adjust the digital gain of the base station forward link signal at a specific gain reduction rate, which results in an improvement in the call quality and a higher subscriber capacity compare to the current scheme of the forward power control known in the CDMA system.
The present invention is intended to provide a method for controlling forward transmission power utilizing erasure indicator bit (EIB) in accordance with a newly set control parameters to yield better call quality and higher subscriber capacity, by re-adjusting the control parameter in a conventional CDMA system.
A preferable embodiment of forward power control method using 13K erasure indicator bit (EIB) in a CDMA system according to the present invention improves the call quality and subscriber capacity by adjusting power control parameter messages which include a nominal_gain, a max_tx_gin, a min_tx_gain, and a periodic_frame_count, wherein the nominal_gain represents an initial gain of the primary traffic channel, the max_tx_gain represents a maximum gain of the traffic channel, min_tx_gain represents a minimum gain of the traffic channel, and a periodic_frame_count represents the rate of decreasing the digital gain by xe2x80x9c1.xe2x80x9d
According to the preferable embodiment of the present invention, it is preferable that the nominal_gain satisfies the following condition:                     E        b                    N        o              =                            E          c                          I          o                    +              P        .        G            +              10                          xe2x80x83                                  log                                [                                                            (                                      G                    T                                    )                                2                                                              (                                      G                    P                                    )                                2                                      ]                                ,
where       E    b        N    o
is signal strength of traffic channel,       E    c        I    o
is pilot signal strength, P.G is power gain, GP is pilot signal gain, and GT is the nominal gain, and the nominal_gain is adjusted so that a mobile station can have signal strength of traffic channel about 5 dB which is required to satisfy the minimum call quality or more, but keeping the pilot signal strength at about xe2x88x9214 dB.
According to the preferable embodiment of the present invention, it is preferable that the variable value of the nominal_gain is set to 100 compare to 70 as used in the prior art.
According to the preferable embodiment of the present invention, it is preferable that the reduction rate is adjusted to decrease the digital gain by xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d whenever the number of properly received frames are received for 20 counts if the level of a traffic channel gain (tc_gain) is greater than or equal to a slow-down level, wherein the slow-down level indicates a gain level being at the bottom one-third between the max_tx_gain and min_tx_gain, and to decrease the digital gain by xe2x80x9c1xe2x80x9d whenever the number of properly received frames are received as much as 40 counts if the level of traffic channel gain (tc_gain) is less than the slow-down level.
According to the preferable embodiment of the present invention, it is preferable that the value for maximum gain of the traffic channel is set to 127, wherein the value of 90 was used for the maximum gain in a known art.
According to the preferable embodiment of the present invention, it is preferable that the value for a minimum gain of the traffic channel is set to 35, wherein the value of 40 was used for the minimum gain in a known art.
According to the preferable embodiment of the present invention, it is preferable that the value of a maximum gain of the traffic channel is set to 127 and the minimum gain of the traffic channel is set to 35.

Method for controlling forward power control utilizing an erasure indicator bit in a CDMA system

Abstract: where       E    b        N    o

Abstract: is pilot signal strength, P.G is power gain, GP is pilot signal gain, and GT is traffic signal gain, and the nominal_gain is adjusted so that a mobile station can have signal strength of traffic channel as 5 dB or more on condition that the pilot signal strength is xe2x88x9214 dB.


A method of collecting data to indicate certain internal conditions during the function of a glass container forming machine, and apparatus for the practice of the method including sensing devices within a plunger cycling mechanism of the machine for transmitting information from the mechanism during the operation of the machine.

In the art of glass container manufacture, it is typical standard practice to utilize an individual section machine in which a number of machine sections are mounted side-by-side on a single machine bed to operate in synchronization with each other while being independently adjustable. In the utilization of a press and blow method of glass container production in an individual section machine, discrete molten glass gobs are fed into an upwardly-open blank mold after which the mold is closed at the top by a baffle. Although a single gob mold may be utilized, it is more common to have a plurality of molds in a section, such as double gob or triple gob arrangements. Then, separate molten glass gobs are fed simultaneously to each mold in the section.
For each mold, a vertically-elongated pressing plunger is driven upwardly to press the molten glass into the blank mold and into an adjacent neck ring mold, forming a parison from the glass gob. The plunger is then downwardly retracted and the blank mold and the baffle are temporarily removed so that the parison can be removed and inverted by the neck ring mold from the blank to a laterally adjacent blow mold station where the final formation of the glass container occurs by a blowing operation.
For each blank mold, there is a separate mechanism for supporting and driving a pressing plunger for initially forming the parison in cooperation with the mold, and this mechanism includes a vertically-elongated cylinder mounted to support an axially-oriented piston rod within the cylinder's longitudinal bore. The pressing plunger is removably mounted by means of an adapter to the upper end of the piston rod whereby the plunger can be cycled through its pressing operation.
The piston and piston rod are an integral structure driven to cycle linearly by pressurized air fed into the cylinder's chamber. The plunger is cooled during its gob pressing operation by a relatively high-pressure air flow directed through the cylinder's bottom end structure and upwardly through a rigid air tube on which the hollow piston vertically slides. The air stream directed upwardly through the air tube and into the piston bore enters an elongated distributor projecting internally within the hollow plunger. The air flow is dispersed by the distributor within the plunger and returned downwardly through an array of exhaust passages or ports circumferentially arranged, usually in the bottom flange of the distributor. The exhaust air then passes through communicating openings in component structure of the adapter utilized to retain the plunger in its operative position on the piston rod.
The upper end of the cylinder casing serves as a collecting chamber for the exhaust air which may then be emitted outwardly through a laterally mounted exhaust manifold. The exhaust manifold in a plural gob section may be a unitary structure extending across a bank of aligned cylinders with a sidewall opening in each upper cylinder casing in sealed air flow communication with the exhaust manifold. Vertically-extending exhaust conduits may be utilized to direct the exhaust air flow downwardly for emission into the section box beneath the cylinders.
In the type of glass container forming machine heretofore generally described, a continuing problem is the control of machine performance to obtain consistent quality in the glass containers produced at a high production rate. Variance of conditions associated with the machine's operation will significantly affect the finished product. The failure to hold within a proper range such parameters as gob temperature, plunger dwell, rate of heat removal from the plunger by the cooling air flow, air pressure within the cylinder, and gob size or weight can result in the formation of rejected or inferior containers.
There have been many approaches to controlling one or more of the conditions associated with the machine's operation, none of which have been entirely satisfactory. One common method involves the operator of the machine making manual adjustments to various controls in accordance with his prior experience and the results of his visual inspection of the quality of glass containers delivered from the machine, the object being to correct, through trial and error, those conditions contributing to the noticed defects whereby subsequently produced containers will be of higher quality. Another method utilized, particularly addressing the control of gob weight for the purpose of having each gob contain sufficient glass to form an acceptable container, has been to weigh the finished product and utilize this after-attained information to adjust incoming gob weight in accordance with the findings in the weighing operation.
A recent development and significant advancement in controlling gob weight recognizes the direct relationship between the extent of advancement of the plunger into the gob and the size of the gob being pressed. This requires knowing the position of the plunger and the extent of its penetration into the gob as it occurs, whereby plunger position can be correlated with gob weight and gob weight can be continuously adjusted through the use of appropriate control station means of interpreting the received data and automatically controlling the timing of gob shearing, etc. To accomplish the foregoing, a proximity sensor has been mounted on the cylinder of a plunger mechanism to detect vertical movement of an angled surface on the plunger assembly and, by the variance in proximity of the angled surface, the position of the plunger has been extrapolated.
The foregoing method, while a significant move toward a worth objective, fails to take into account other parameters or conditions subject to fluctuation within the equipment during its operation which, unless they are also monitored and controlled, prevent accurate control of gob weight by simply monitoring plunger position at full penetration.

Method for monitoring the performance of a glass container forming machine


The present invention relates to a system for monitoring properties of a medium by fiber optics. The present invention particularly relates to a system of fiber optics for monitoring layer thickness of immiscible liquids for industrial applications and a method thereof.

The layer thickness of immiscible liquids is being measured by manual techniques which involve either knowing the layer thickness from the known volume of liquids and the diameter of the container or visually reading the layer thickness using a scale or graduations provided on the container wall. It may be mentioned that the optical techniques based on using optical fibers and lasers for this application are mostly under research and development stage at present.
The conventional techniques are based on human observation and their accuracy shall depend on the person to person while the present technique is based on the principle of Fresnel reflection, which is quite sensitive to changes in refractive index of the medium making contact with the fiber end face. The layer thickness monitoring of immiscible liquids is a very natural and novel application of this technique because, every liquid is identified by its optical parameter which is refractive index. In this technique, the changes in refractive index are read photometrically in term of optical power variations using sensitive photodetectors. This technique based on instrumentation besides being more accurate is also more reliable, efficient and fast as compared to those based on direct human observation. In addition, this technique is more suitable for an industrial application where speed, efficiency and automatic remote monitoring are the highly desirable features.
This technique is useful for remote layer thickness monitoring of immiscible liquids in an industrial process. It is particularly useful for monitoring layer thickness of immiscible liquids in hostile, inflammable, corrosive and electro-magnetically noisy environments as encountered in petrochemical and process control industry.
The novelty aspect of the present invention is the application of the principle of Fresnel reflection in optical fibers that depends on the difference of refractive indices of the fiber core and the surrounding medium. This technique overcomes the above-mentioned problems effectively and provides the added advantage of remote and in-situ monitoring. There is no electrical signal being guided and it is only the light signal which is transmitted through optical fibers and is unaffected by the presence of electrical signals.
A research paper based on this technique for measurement of temperature, contamination and layer thickness of immiscible liquids has been published in Experimental Techniques (USA), 36–38, March/April 2002 printed by the Society for Experimental Mechanics (SEM), Inc., 7 School Street, Bethel, Conn. 06801, (203) 790–6373, www.sem.org.

System and method for monitoring properties of a medium by fiber optics

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research


A rotor having permanent magnets for a brushless electromotor includes a yoke formed from a plurality of silicon steel sheets laminated together and provided along its outer periphery with even number of, at least four magnetic poles. The magnetic poles are alternately provided substantially at equal distances from a rotational axis with slots to receive the respective permanent magnets such that the sides of the permanent magnets facing a rotary shaft have the same polarity. As a result, a compact and efficient rotor is obtained, and damage to or flying off of the permanent magnets is prevented.

The brushless electromotors generally have a cylindrical rotor provided on the outer peripheral surface thereof with permanent magnets made of ferrite or the like.
FIG. 28 shows a conventional brushless electromotor. The brushless electromotor 1 includes a motor casing (i.e. stator) 2 which consists of a cylindrical side wall 3, and a front face plate 4 and a rear face plate 5, both of which are employed to close opposite ends of the side wall 3. Inside the side wall 3, there are provided a plurality of driving coils 6 arranged in a cylindrical form and fixed to the inner surface of the side wall 3. A rotary shaft 8 is fixed concentrically to a rotor 7. The rotary shaft 8 projects from opposite ends of the rotor 7 so that it is supported at one end in a bearing 10 held in an opening 9 of the rear face plate 5 and at the other end in a bearing 12 held in an opening 11 of the front face plate 4. An annular member 13 is provided inside the side wall 3 of the motor casing 2 to support a plurality of magnetic pole sensors 14 closely adjacent to one end surface of the rotor 7.
In FIG. 29, the rotary shaft 8 is inserted into and integrated with a cylindrical yoke 70. The cylindrical yoke 70 carries on its outer peripheral surface a pair of arcuate permanent magnets 71 magnetized to have N-poles on their outer sides and S-poles on their inner sides and another pair of arcuate permanent magnets 72 magnetized to have S-poles on their outer sides and N-poles on their inner sides. The respective pairs of permanent magnets 71 and 72 are alternately arranged around the yoke 70 and bonded thereto.
In this brushless electromotor 1, the magnetic pole sensors 14 detect positions of the magnetic poles of the rotor 7 and, in response thereto, a control circuit (not shown) supplies the corresponding driving coils 6 with electric current so that an interaction of electric current and magnetic flux causes the rotor 7 to be rotated. As it has been rotated in this manner, the rotor 7 now presents new magnetic pole positions to be detected by the magnetic pole sensors 14 again, and the control circuit supplies the other driving coils 6 with electric current, causing the rotor 7 to be rotated again. Such operation is repeated and thereby the rotor 7 is continuously rotated. The rotary force thus generated is taken out as a motive power from the electric motor by way of the rotatable shaft 8.
FIG. 30 shows another rotor 7, in which the permanent magnets 71 and 72 are covered with a protective member 73 of nonmagnetic metal to prevent these permanent magnets 71 and 72 from flying off due to centrifugal force as the electromotor 1 is rotated at high speeds.
However, the maximum energy product and the residual flux density in the brushless electromotor utilizing the ferrite magnets are 3.3 MGOe and 2.8 KG, respectively, which are so low that it is necessary to increase the permeance of the magnetic circuit to develop a sufficient torque to drive the electromotor. As a result, it is necessary to use a large amount of magnets, making the electromotor disadvantageously bulky.
When the electromotor is used in the scroll type compressor or the like for high speed rotations, the permanent magnets can be destroyed or flying off because the stress generated by the centrifugal force becomes greater than the material strength of the permanent magnets and the adhesion of the magnets to the rotor.
Furthermore, covering the rotor with the protective member to avoid the flying-off of the permanent magnets not only complicates the manufacturing process of the rotor but also increases the gap between the rotor and the stator by the thickness of the protective member, and correspondingly increases the magnetic resistance. In a consequence, the magnet density decreases and the efficiency is significantly lowered.
The present invention has been developed to solve such problems as described above with respect to the conventional brushless electromotor.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide a compact rotor for use in the brushless electromotor, which can be manufactured efficiently and rotate at high speeds without the danger that the permanent magnets are destroyed or fly off during high speed rotations.

Rotor for brushless electromotor and method for making same


Disclosed is a blood flow measurement apparatus using Doppler ultrasound. The apparatus includes a two-dimensional transducer array in which a plurality of transducers are two-dimensionally arranged, an acoustic window detection portion configured to transmit and receive ultrasonic signals by driving some of the plurality of transducers, to detect Doppler signals, and to confirm a transducer corresponding to a Doppler signal having high intensity among the detected Doppler signals, a blood flow detection portion configured to detect Doppler signals with respect to a plurality of steering vectors through beam steering using a plurality of adjacent transducers including the confirmed transducer and configured to confirm a steering vector corresponding to a Doppler signal having highest intensity among the detected Doppler signals, and a Doppler processing portion configured to detect a Doppler signal by performing beam steering using the confirmed steering vector and to obtain blood flow information from the detected Doppler signal.

Generally, measurement of a blood flow rate in a blood vessel is generally utilized to diagnose a disease. Ultrasonic diagnosis systems using Doppler effect are generally used.
A method of measuring a blood flow using Doppler effect of ultrasonic waves has a feature capable of noninvasively measuring a speed of a blood flow in real time and is generally utilized in diagnosis of modern medicine.
In an ultrasonic diagnosis system using Doppler effect, a speed of an object is determined by transmitting an ultrasonic signal to a target such as a red blood cell, receiving the signal reflected from the object, and then detecting frequency deviation of the received signal caused by movement of the object.
That is, an ultrasonic wave having a particular frequency is incident on a human body and the ultrasonic wave reflected by a red blood cell flowing through a blood vessel is detected. Here, since a frequency of the detected ultrasonic wave is different from the frequency of the incident ultrasonic wave, a blood flow rate is measured by detecting such variations of frequency.
In a brief description of a principle of measuring a blood flow rate using an ultrasonic signal, an ultrasonic signal is transmitted to a target through an ultrasonic probe and the ultrasonic signal reflected by the target is obtained through the ultrasonic probe.
Here, when the target moves, a center frequency of the reflected signal changes from a center frequency of the transmitted signal. A movement speed of the target may be calculated from variations of the center frequency of the reflected signal. Here, the movement speed of the target is proportional to Doppler shift of the signal reflected by the target.
In the case of a patient of a cardiovascular disease such as a stroke and the like, it is necessary to monitor a state of a disease by measuring a blood flow rate of a blood vessel. To this end, the blood flow rate is measured using Doppler ultrasound. For example, a transcranial Doppler (TCD) ultrasonography is a method of measuring a blood flow rate and Doppler spectrum waveforms in a blood vessel in a cranial cavity using ultrasonic waves of a low frequency of 2 MHz. In TCD, an ultrasonic wave is launched into a cranium, an echo reflected by a red blood cell of a blood vessel is analyzed, and Doppler shift is converted into a velocity and shown as Doppler spectrum.
However, since it is generally difficult for an ultrasonic signal to pass through a cranium, it is necessary to measure a blood flow through an acoustic window which is a thin part of the cranium (for example, a vicinity of a temple of temporal lobe) in TCD. Since the acoustic window is a relatively thin part of the cranium through which an ultrasonic signal easily passes anatomically and includes a temporal window, an orbital window, a suboccipital window, a submandibula window, a retromandibular window, and the like.
However, since the acoustic window has a narrow area and an anatomical position slightly differs for each person and is not seen with naked eyes, it is necessary to detect the position depending on user's experiences and generally accompanies trial and error. Also, even when an ultrasonic probe is located in the acoustic window, in order to obtain a precise Doppler signal, it is necessary that a user who anatomically well understands a direction in which a blood vessel is present and allows a direction of the ultrasonic probe to face the direction in which the blood vessel is present.
Accordingly, blood flow measurement of TCD and the like can be performed by only skilled experts and it is necessary to perform correction in real time according to movement or posture of a patient such that a lot of time and efforts are necessary for measurement.

Blood flow measurement apparatus using doppler ultrasound and method of operating the same


An apparatus for driving a displaceably mounted component of an injection molding machine has at least one rotatably mounted crank which is driven by a motor. The crank drives the displaceably mounted component by way of a bar pivotably connected to the crank, the bar engaging a tiltably mounted intermediate lever which, in turn, is connected to the displaceably mounted component. The intermediate lever is mounted tiltably by way of an additional bar. The additional bar is pivotably mounted to be fixed with respect to the frame of the injection molding machine and is pivotably connected to the intermediate lever.

An apparatus for driving a displaceably mounted component of an injection molding machine having at least one rotatably mounted crank which is driven by a motor and which drives the displaceably mounted component by way of a bar pivotably connected to the crank. In injection molding machines, crank drives having a rotatably mounted crank and a bar pivotably connected thereto are already known for converting rotary movements, in particular from the drive of an electric motor, into a linear movement.

Means for driving a displaceably mounted component of an injection moulding machine


A differential reflection bridge is provided for a 100 Ohm load, the bridge not being compromised by a translation to a 50 Ohm system. The reflection bridge uses two transmission line baluns. The first traditional balun T1 connects the input signal source to a resistor bridge. The second balun T2 connects between a central node of the resistor bridge and an output OUT as well as a second test port that eliminates a path to ground. With no ground path the bridge is immune to common mode impedance disturbances.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to making differential impedance measurements of a resistive device using a reflection bridge. More particularly, the present invention relates to a reflection bridge providing for differential measurements of both 50 Ohm and 100 Ohm complex impedances.
2. Related Art
Conventional differential measurement systems for measuring 100 Ohm components included balanced 100 Ohm transmission lines. Characterization of components was provided using multiple single port measurements. The balanced parameters were extracted from at least two single ended measurements.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional differential bridge used to make differential measurements by obtaining two single ended measurements. The test system includes a signal source 2 connected through a 50 Ohm line 4 to provide an input. A resistive load 8, labeled R1, and resistive load 9, labeled R2, are each connected to one of two test ports TEST PORT 1 and TEST PORT 2 to be measured. A measurement output OUT is provided from one terminal of a resistor 6, with a second end of resistor 6 connected to ground. Two couplers 10 and 12 individually connect the test ports with the signal source 2 to one of the test ports, and return a reflected signal to the output OUT. The couplers 10 and 12 are individually connected with switches, the first coupler 10 being connected with the switches in the "1" position, and the second coupler 12 being connected with the switches in the "2" position.
The two separate measurements at the output OUT determine θ1 and θ2. The values for θ1 and θ2 are in turn used to provide a combined differential measurement θDIFF. The measurements of θ1 and θ2 are made using two single ended 50 Ohm S11 measurements between two test ports TEST PORT 1 and TEST PORT 2. With RL=R1+R2, and RL=100 Ohms, a 100 Ohm differential S11 measurement is effectively obtained. Complex math is needed to determine the differential measurement value θDIFF using the equations shown to follow.
                                                                                θ              =                                                R                  -                  50                                                  R                  +                  50                                                      ,                          R              =                              50                                                  (                                                            1                      +                      θ                                                              1                      -                      θ                                                        )                                                                                R              DIFF                        =                          R1              +              R2                                                                                R              DIFF                        =                                          50                                                  (                                                            1                      +                      θ1                                                              1                      -                      θ1                                                        )                                            +                              50                                                  (                                                            1                      +                      θ2                                                              1                      -                      θ2                                                        )                                                                                θ              DIFF                        =                                                            R                  DIFF                                -                100                                                              R                  DIFF                                +                100                                                                                θ              DIFF                        =                                                            50                                                        (                                                                  1                        +                        θ1                                                                    1                        -                        θ1                                                              )                                                  +                                  50                                                        (                                                                  1                        +                        θ2                                                                    1                        -                        θ2                                                              )                                                  -                100                                                              50                                                        (                                                                  1                        +                        θ1                                                                    1                        -                        θ1                                                              )                                                  +                                  50                                                        (                                                                  1                        +                        θ2                                                                    1                        -                        θ2                                                              )                                                  +                100
More recently a 50 Ohm to 100 Ohm balanced transformer was introduced to alleviate some of the problems encountered using the two measurement extraction approach. The balanced transformer approach, however, has limitations due to the need of a broad band 1:√2 turns ratio. The turns ration is provided by a balanced transformer, which is the heart of the converter.
FIG. 2 shows components of a differential bridge used such a balanced transformer 20. The differential bridge uses the signal source 2 and resistor 4 as provided through a coupler 10, as in FIG. 1. Unlike in FIG. 1, the balanced transformer 20 is used to connect the coupler 10 output to both test ports TEST PORT 1 and TEST PORT 2 in FIG. 2 so that an additional coupler and switches as in FIG. 1 are not needed. The output θ is provided from the coupler 10 through a resistor 6 connected to ground. The common mode current does not appear due to the "floating" secondary TEST PORT 2 replacing ground connections. Components carried over from FIG. 1 to FIG. 2 are similarly labeled, as will be components carried over in subsequent drawings.
The transformer 20 transforms from 50 Ohms to 100 Ohms with a turns ratio of 1:√2 turns ratio, or √(100/50)=1.4142. The transformer 20 is difficult to construct because of the non-integer or half-integer value of the turns ratio. A practical transformer typically requires a turns ratio ranging from 1 to 1.5. The RL to RP value would be 1.52 or 2.25. Using the specially constructed transformer to provide the turn ratio shown, a single test measurement of θ can be used to determine the resistance RL using the following formulas:
                                              RP          =                                    RL                              N                2                                      =                                          RL                                                      2                                    2                                            =                              RL                2                                                                                θ          =                                                    RL                2                            -              50                                                      RL                2                            +              50                                                                                θ          =                                    RL              -              100                                      RL              +              100
The 50 Ohm bridge would be balanced with 50 Ohms at its input and 50*2.25=112.5 Ohms between the differential test port outputs TEST PORT 1 and TEST PORT 2. Because the RL typically cannot be 112.5, post processing can correct for this error after an open-short-load (OSL) calibration.
FIG. 3 shows components of a conventional basic measurement bridge. The bridge is balanced when the load resistor 8, labeled RL, is 50 Ohms and the output OUT is at 0 Volts. The bridge of FIG. 3 uses resistors 31–33 as opposed to one of couplers 10 or 12 of FIG. 1 to provide reflected test signals from the test port to the output OUT for measurement. A transformer 30 (labeled T1) connects the signal source 2 and resistor 4 to the bridge formed by resistors 31–33. The T1 transformer 30 has a first winding connecting the resistor 4 to ground. A second winding of he T1 transformer 30 connects the TEST PORT and one end of resistor 31 to a common node 25. The common node 25 is provided between resistors 32 and 33. The common connection of resistors 31 and 32 form the output port OUT. The output port OUT is where test measurements are obtained, and is connected from the resistor 51 through a resistor 6 to ground.
Only a single ended measurement of the load resistor RL is available from TEST PORT 1, so multiple measurements must be made to obtain a differential measurement, similar to that described with respect to FIG. 1. Further, with a ground path through resistor 6, the bridge is subject to common mode impedance disturbances.
FIG. 4 shows modification of FIG. 3 to provide a transmission line balun 30A. A first winding of T1 balun 30A connects from the input IN to the TEST PORT. A second winding of the T1 balun 30A connects from the common node 25 to ground. The transmission line balun 30A can be provided using a standard 50 Ohm transmission line with ferrite beads placed over it. The ferrite beads extend of the balun characteristics to low frequencies. This allows operation of the transformer T1 from the low megahertz to the tens of gigahertz.
It would be desirable to provide a device to measure 100 Ohm components using a standard 50 Ohm system without requiring a two measurement process, and without requiring use of a balanced transformer.

Precision wideband 50 Ohm input and 50 Ohm output or 100 Ohm output differential reflection bridge


A retractable rotisserie driver which is used in connection with a barbecue grill is described and shown herein. In one embodiment, a retractable motor support apparatus is pivotably connected to a side shelf assembly of a barbecue grill, and is movable between a storage position, where the rotisserie motor is substantially enclosed by the side shelf assembly, and a usage position, where the motor is generally aligned for engagement with a rotisserie spit. The support apparatus includes a first wall and a second wall which are adjacent and generally transverse to one another. The first wall is configured to be aligned generally flush with an upper surface of the side shelf assembly when the support apparatus is moved to the storage position to increase the usable work area on the shelf. The second wall is provided with a power cord holder for compactly holding the motor's power cord when the apparatus is moved to the storage position. The side shelf assembly and support apparatus are also provided with corresponding latch mechanisms which are adapted to engage when the support apparatus is moved to the usage position.

Rotisserie accessories for barbecue grills are well known in the art. Most incorporate rotisserie motors which are fixed to a side of the firebox of a barbecue grill, generally above a barbecue grill side table or shelf. Many manufacturers include pre-drilled holes and slots in the side of the firebox. The pre-drilled holes serve to accommodate a motor mounting bracket while the slots are configured to support the rotisserie spit above the heat source. The Weber® publication no. 96810, "Gas Barbecue Rotisserie Instructions," dated September 1998, provides an exemplary rotisserie accessory which is configured to be mounted in such a manner, and is incorporated herein by reference. This publication is currently available over the internet at www.weber.com.
The previously mentioned rotisserie configuration presents some problems. For example, since the mounting bracket is bolted to the side of the firebox, one can appreciate that it is difficult and/or inconvenient to remove the bracket from the firebox when the rotisserie is not being used. It is believed that most consumers do not put forth the effort to unbolt the accessory when using the grill in a conventional manner and instead leave the motor and/or the mounting bracket permanently in place. The motor and mounting bracket, therefore, unnecessarily block space on the barbecue grill side table, which would otherwise be usable if the motor and bracket were removed.
Other prior art rotisseries are disclosed in U.S. Patent Application Publication 2005/0092188, application Ser. No. 10/966,053 ("Huegerich") and U.S. Patent Application Publication 2006/0266228, application Ser. No. 11/388,617 ("Ritterling"). These prior art designs incorporate a rotisserie motor into the base of the grill, wherein the rotisserie motor is operably connected to the rotisserie spit by means of a chain or pulley system.
The rotisseries disclosed in these two application suffer from several problems. For example, since many of the rotisserie components are disposed within the base and the cooking chamber, valuable cooking surface area is lost. For this reason, it may be preferable to place the rotisserie driver outside of the cooking chamber to free up the cooking surface. This is true whether the rotisserie driver takes form as the motor itself (direct drive configuration) or some extension thereof (indirect drive configuration, where the motor is operably connected to the driver by means of chains, pulleys, or the like). Also, the rotisserie design disclosed by these references are quite complex; as such, it may be difficult to replace failed components. Moreover, the complex configuration is believed to be much more expensive to manufacture and more difficult to assemble than other prior art designs. Under certain circumstances, a direct drive configuration would be preferable since such a configuration uses fewer moving parts. Even further, the design of Ritterling's rotisserie may present some safety hazards. For example, because the rotisserie arms of Ritterling are disposed within the cooking chamber, they will most likely become extremely hot during use of the grill. It is possible that a consumer, who forgets to deploy the rotisserie arm before starting the grill or who decides the rotisserie is no longer needed, could burn himself if he attempted to grasp the arm's handle.


A method for expelling air out of mailpieces includes the steps of creating a stack of the mailpieces; cutting an opening in at least some of the mailpieces; jogging the stack of mailpieces; and subjecting the stack of mailpieces to at least one compression/decompression cycle during the jogging step thereby expelling air out of the at least some of the mailpieces through their corresponding openings.

The instant invention relates to systems for expelling powder materials from mailpieces. More particularly, the instant invention pertains to a cutting system that cuts openings in mailpieces to permit the expulsion of air and powder from the mailpieces while maintaining the privacy of the contents of the mailpieces.
Recent events have led to the realization that unscrupulous individuals may attempt to use the postal delivery system as a vehicle for spreading terrorism. These individuals have, for example, contaminated mailpieces with biological agents (such as anthrax) and distributed such mailpieces to targeted locations via the postal service. While the extent of damage that may occur by using mailpieces as a carrier of biological agents has yet to be determined, the potential for significant health risks is clear. Accordingly, increased efforts have been set forth toward the development of systems and processes that may be effective in detecting contaminated mailpieces within the postal delivery system prior to delivery to their final destination.
One such proposed system involves snipping the corner off every mailpiece (to create an opening at the corner of the envelope), placing the snipped mailpieces in a jogger system, operating the jogger system for approximately 3 minutes, pulling ambient air through the jogger system, monitoring the pulled air with two systems (one to test particle size and one to capture powder in a filter for subsequent lab testing of the material captured), then banding the mailpieces in a conventional banding machine to squeeze air out of the mailpieces (compression step), and finally sampling the air from the banding operation with the above two air-monitoring systems to determine the presence and nature of any powder materials prsent in the airflow. The air pulled through the individual workstations in this process is moved through a HEPA filter and vented outside the work area. Operation of this system is a time consuming process, with manual steps taken between each operation.
In the proposed system, once the air-monitoring filter has been tested for the presence of a biological agent, the mailpieces are unbanded and moved to a separate area for sorting and final distribution if the results of testing are negative. If a biological agent is detected however, the facility is shut down until decontamination can be performed.
One of the problems of the proposed system is that the corner snipper only creates one small opening at the corner of the mailpiece. Thus, in order to ensure that some of the powder material that may be present in the mailpiece gets expelled during the compression step, the jogging step must be sufficiently long enough to ensure that the powder is moved across the mailpiece to the opened corner. Therefore a more efficient method of cutting open mailpieces is desired that enhances the probability of ensuring that powder is expelled from the mailpiece during the jogging and/or compression steps and which reduces the overall processing time of the system.


In a method of atomic electrometry, EIT spectroscopy is performed on host atoms of an alkali metal in a vapor cell. The EIT spectroscopy indicates a resonant energy of a probed Rydberg state of the host atoms. The vapor cell is exposed to an ambient electric field. A shift in the resonant energy as indicated by the EIT spectroscopy is observed and interpreted as a measurement of the ambient field. During the measurement of the ambient field, a bias electric field is generated inside the vapor cell by shining light into the vapor cell from a light source situated outside of the cell. The bias field is useful for increasing the sensitivity of the measurement.

Electrometers for sensing electric fields have many important uses. Numerous technologies underlie the operation of electrometers of different kinds. One such technology, which has been of interest for the past several decades, is atomic electrometry based on field-induced shifts in high-lying Rydberg states of atoms.
Rydberg states of high principal quantum number n are associated with relatively high electric dipole moments. Because of that, their energy can be relatively easily perturbed by an applied electric field. Hence, sensitive Rydberg-assisted atomic electrometry is theoretically achievable by performing Rydberg spectroscopy to measure electric field ("E-field") dependent frequency shifts of high-n Rydberg resonances.
Atomic electrometry can be highly sensitive. Theoretically, the fundamental limit of the E-field sensitivity by using Rydberg-assisted atomic electrometry is better than 1 μV/m per Hz1/2 with a detection volume of 1 mm3. No other existing technology can provide such performance.
Atomic electrometry can also be highly accurate, because the E-field driven frequency shifts of Rydberg resonances are determined solely by fundamental constants. Moreover, because the same atoms are indistinguishable at different places, atomic electrometry is suitable for use as a calibration standard.
Rydberg-assisted atomic electrometry has been demonstrated and is known in the art. However, atomic electrometers have been limited in the past to the sensing of electric fields at high radio frequencies. This high-frequency limitation is the result of electromagnetic screening by the film that can form on the inner surface of the envelope that contains the host atoms, when the film has non-zero conductivity. This screening effect becomes more severe, the lower the frequency of the electric field that is to be measured. As a consequence of the screening, atomic electrometers of the prior art are impractical for measuring electric fields of frequencies substantially less than 10 kHz if they are applied from outside the envelope. This is especially true for frequencies of 1 kHz or less.
However, there are many important low-frequency applications for electrometry, particularly in the range from DC to one kilohertz. These applications include remote diagnostics of the charge and voltage states of electronics, proximity detection, surveillance of remote activities, ultra-low frequency communication, geoscience research, and bio-neural signal detection. Rydberg-assisted electrometry has a theoretical sensitivity limit better than 1 μV/m per Hz1/2 with a detection volume of 1 mm3. These applications, and others, would benefit greatly if such a high sensitivity of detection could be applied using Rydberg-assisted electrometry at low frequencies.

National Technology & Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC


A contactless information storage device for use in an information access system includes a receiver unit and a transmitter unit. The receiver unit is operable to sense a carrier at a first frequency in a slave mode and be continuously ready to receive an RF signal at a second frequency different from the first frequency in a master mode. In the slave mode, the transmitter unit transmits a response signal at the second frequency in response to reception of an information request signal. In the master mode, the transmitter unit cyclically transmits an information request signal at the first frequency in a transmission period and goes into an inactive state in a sleep period. In the slave mode, the transmitter unit and the receiver unit are caused to go into the master mode, when the receiver unit receives no information request signal in a time period longer than given periods.

An RF ID tag with a battery power supply or of an active type, which is attached to a merchandise article or the like, or carried by a person, transmits an RF signal at a predetermined frequency that carries an ID and other information related to the article or the person, so that the RF signal is received and the information is read out by a reader device. The read-out information is further processed by a computer or the like, so that the distribution of the article or the motion of the person is monitored and managed. The active-type RF ID tag with battery power supply has a larger communication range than a passive-type RF ID tag that receives power from a reader/writer device in a contactless manner, and hence the active-type RF ID tag is practical in use. However, the active-type RF ID tag transmits an RF signal in a fixed cycle, has a risk of being tracked by a third party, and hence has a problem in the security. To address this security problem, there has been developed an improved active-type RF ID tag that responds only to a tag ID request transmitted by the reader/writer device.
PCT International Publication WO 97/43740 published on Nov. 20, 1997 describes radio frequencies identification device which includes an integrated circuit including a receiver, a transmitter and a microprocessor. The receiver and transmitter together form an active transponder. The integrated circuit is preferably a monolithic single die integrated circuit including the receiver, the transmitter and the microprocessor. Because the device includes an active transponder, instead of a transponder which relies on magnetic coupling for power, the device has a much larger range.
Japanese Patent Application Publication JP 2000-113130-A published on Apr. 21, 2000 describes an IC tag detection system with low power consumption. This system includes a plurality of IC tags provided with different set times of day. Each IC tag includes a communication circuit, a control unit, a power source unit for supplying power from a battery to them, and time measuring means. Each IC tag performs transmission at each prescribed set time of day. This system also includes a detector for detecting the presence or absence of the IC tags based on the communication with them. The detector has a communication circuit, and determines the presence or absence of reception from them successively at the respective set times of day of the respective IC tags. Since the IC tag receives no inquiry from the detector, the IC tag can avoid useless reaction and battery consumption.
Japanese Patent Application Publication JP 2001-251210-A published on Sep. 14, 2001 describes a method of locking a frequency in a transmitter at each of two nodes in a full duplex link, without using a separate reference oscillator in each node. The method provides locking of transmission frequencies of both nodes in a full duplex link at the same time by utilizing information of a received frequency to tune carrier frequencies of the transmitters. The offset of the carrier frequency of the first transmitter is detected as the offset of a second corresponding receiver. The second receiver shifts the carrier frequency of the second transmitter, in response to the detected offset, to inform the first transmitter about the detected offset. The first receiver uses the detected offset to correct the carrier frequency of the first transmitter.
Japanese Patent Application Publication JP HEI 10-187898-A published on Jul. 21, 1998 describes an IC card. This IC card transmits and receives data to and from another IC card via an information processing apparatus, to which the IC card may be attached. The IC card has a status setting means for determining the mode identification information from the transmitting data and setting its own operating state in an operation mode that is set by the opposite party, and a mode information transmitting means for selecting the mode information out of a mode information table and adds it to the transmitting data. Then the mode information added by the means is transmitted as the mode identification information together with the transmitting data in a command column or a response column of a transmission mode when the master/slave relation is set or changed. Thus data can be transferred mainly on an IC card and various processing functions can be added to the IC card.
PCT International Publication WO 2004/036482 published on Apr. 29, 2004 describes a system and a method for minimizing the unwanted re-negotiation of passive RF ID tags. Each RF ID tag stores a confirmed read flag to indicate whether that RF ID tag has been previously read. During subsequent interrogations of the tag population, a reader has capability to address all RF ID tags in a tag population or to address only unread RF ID tags. When addressing all RF ID tags, the reader sends a symbol causing all RF ID tags to ignore their confirmed read flag value. Each RF ID tag may also clear its confirmed read flag when this symbol is received. When addressing only unread RF ID tags, the reader sends a symbol causing each RF ID tag to evaluate its confirmed read flag value. Those RF ID tags that have a confirmed read flag value indicating "read" will enter dormant state and will not be re-negotiated. Those RF ID tags that have a confirmed read flag value indicating "not read" will continue to communicate with the reader.
Japanese Patent Application Publication JP 2006-23962-A published on Jan. 26, 2006 describes a contactless IC tag system. In this system, a plurality of IC tags are classified into a master IC tag and slave IC tags. A memory configuration management area in a memory of the master IC tag stores memory configuration information (identification information, a memory head address and a memory byte number of each the IC tag) of the master IC tag itself and the slave IC tags. A reader/writer specifies the master IC tag and handles a group of the IC tags. Thus, large data can be handled efficiently, using a mass-produced low-cost non-contact IC tag having small memory capacity.

Information access system and active-type contactless information storage device


Brassica juncea having greater than about 55% oleic acid per weight of total fatty acid and methods of producing same are provided. The new Brassica juncea lines produce oil having the typical canola fatty acid profile. Methods for producing progeny Brassica juncea plants produced by crossing the high oleic acid Brassica juncea line with itself or with other canola plants, and hybrid canola seeds and plants produced by crossing the Brassica juncea high oleic acid line with another canola line or plant, are provided.

Brassica juncea has worldwide adaptation. It is grown as a leaf and stem vegetable and as a salad crop in the Far East and Southeast Asia. B. juncea is cultivated in Western Canada as a spice crop and traded as oriental or brown mustard. Due to its relatively high oil content, B. juncea is also grown as an oilseed crop in India, China and in south-western areas of the former Soviet Union. Most of the vegetable, spice and oilseed B. juncea types grown in the world are known as mustard quality as they contain high levels of glucosinolates in the meal and high levels of erucic acid in the oil fraction.
Brassica napus and Brassica rapa are two other species of Brassica commonly grown worldwide. Certain forms of B. napus and B. rapa are known as canola. Canola is an improved form of B. napus and B. rapa. Oilseed breeders developed low glucosinolate and low erucic acid forms of B. napus and B. rapa to improve oil and meal quality. Canola is defined by the Canola Council of Canada as containing less than 2% erucic acid content by weight and less than 30 μmoles of total glucosinolates per gram of defatted meal.
B. juncea has agronomic advantages over B. napus and B. rapa. B. juncea shows greater drought and heat tolerance than B. napus and B. rapa and has the potential to allow for the expansion of canola production into drier areas such as the southern Canadian prairies, upper Midwest of the United States and in Eastern and Western Australia (Woods, et al., 1991). B. juncea appears to have greater pod shattering resistance than B. napus and B. rapa which may allow for direct cutting. B. juncea also has different genes for blackleg (Leptosphaeria maculans) resistance than B. napus and B. rapa which may provide some additional resistance.
Until recently, all forms of B. juncea were mustard quality and could not be traded as canola. During the past twenty-five years there has been significant activity to introduce canola quality traits into B. juncea in an effort to change the grain quality while retaining many of the agronomic benefits of B. juncea.
Three distinct changes in key quality traits were required before B. juncea could be considered canola quality. The first change was the development of low erucic acid B. juncea (Kirk and Oram, 1981). The second change was the development of a low glucosinolate form of B. juncea. Love, et al., (1991) reported the development of a low glucosinolate form of B. juncea derived from an interspecific cross between B. rapa and B. juncea. Both of these publicly available sources were the first steps toward introducing canola quality traits to B. juncea.
The third change in quality traits required another change in fatty acid composition. While the development of zero erucic acid B. juncea changed the C18 fatty acid complex somewhat (Table 1), there were not enough changes to produce a B. juncea plant with a canola fatty acid profile. The zero erucic acid forms had too low a level of oleic acid (C18:1) and too high of levels of linoleic acid (C18:2) and linolenic acid (C18:3) to be considered comparable to canola.
TABLE 1Comparison of fatty acid profiles of key fattyacids in various B. napus and B. juncea types- data from 2000 Canadian field trialsC18:0C18:1C18:2C18:3C22:1StearicOleicLinoleicLinolenicErucicBrassica typeacidacidacidacidacidCanola - B. napus1.4164.7218.599.530.00Canola - B. rapa1.4259.9220.8612.450.00Mustard B. juncea0.9216.3720.089.8538.01Zero erucic B. juncea2.6744.6333.9211.530.00
Several groups began the task of changing the canola fatty acid profile in B. juncea. The first group based in Agriculture Canada Saskatoon has attempted the task by crossing B. napus to B. juncea in hopes of recovering a stable canola quality fatty acid profile from B. napus. Raney, et al., (1995) reported the transfer of the B. napus fatty acid profile from B. napus to B. juncea using B. napus, however, the authors noted that there was poor female fertility and genetic instability present in their B. juncea breeding lines.
Agnihotri, et al., (1995) produced crosses of Eruca sativa×B. juncea and reported an oleic acid content of 61.9%, but the glucosinolate content was approximately 104 μmoles of glucosinolates per g of meal which would be unacceptable as canola quality. This material was derived directly from a direct F1 cross, so the genetic stability was not demonstrated and there has been no subsequent published work on this project. Given the distant genetic relationship between E. sativa and B. juncea, it would be expected that there would be genetic instability and that the canola profile would be difficult to stabilize.
Applicants have also conducted interspecific crossing to transfer the canola fatty acid profile from B. napus and B. rapa to B. juncea. Several rounds of interspecific crossing were undertaken in an attempt to develop a canola quality fatty acid profile. Although canola fatty acid profile materials were developed, they were not stable across generations and were not repeatable across greenhouse and field environments. The plants showed effects of interspecific crossing as described by Raney, et al., (1995), including poor fertility and variation in leaf, flower and pod morphology.
Saskatchewan Wheat Pool has developed high oleic acid, low linoleic and low α-linolenic acid B. juncea genotypes by crossing two parental B. juncea lines (Potts, et al., 2001). The parental lines were not high in oleic acid or low in linoleic and linolenic acids and the authors could not provide a scientific explanation as to how the variation arose. The derived material produced an oleic acid content of greater than 55%, a linoleic acid of less than 25% and a linolenic acid content of less than 14% by weight. The source material was developed in a background of less than 30 μmoles of total glucosinolates. Potts, et al., (2001) attempted to use ethyl methane sulfonate (EMS) microspore mutagenesis to alter the C18 fatty acid complex and were not able to significantly change the fatty acid variation within the C18 complex.
The claimed source of the canola fatty acid profile was developed in a low glucosinolate B. juncea breeding population. Some segregants produced the canola fatty acid profile, but contained glucosinolate levels beyond the canola definition. Seed EMS mutagenesis was used in a targeted effort to alter the C18 fatty acid complex without affecting the other plant characteristics. This application discloses the development of a stable, easily identifiable source of canola fatty acid profile in B. juncea in either a canola or non-canola glucosinolate quality background.


A semiconductor electronic device comprises a substrate; a buffer layer formed on the substrate, the buffer layer including not less than two layers of composite layer in which a first semiconductor layer formed of a nitride-based compound semiconductor layer having a lattice constant smaller than a lattice constant of the substrate and a thermal expansion coefficient larger than a thermal expansion coefficient of the substrate and a second semiconductor layer formed of a nitride-based compound semiconductor having a lattice constant smaller than a lattice constant of the first semiconductor layer and a thermal expansion coefficient larger than a thermal expansion coefficient of the substrate are alternately laminated; an intermediate layer provided between the substrate and the buffer layer, the intermediate layer being formed of a nitride-based compound semiconductor having a lattice constant smaller than a lattice constant of the first semiconductor layer and a thermal expansion coefficient larger than a thermal expansion coefficient of the substrate; and a semiconductor active layer formed on the buffer layer, the semiconductor active layer being formed of a nitride-based compound semiconductor, wherein: thicknesses of the first semiconductor layers in the buffer layer are non-uniform thereamong, and at least one of the first semiconductor layer has a thickness greater than a critical thickness, the critical thickness being a thickness above which a direction of warp caused by the first semiconductor layer to the substrate is inverted.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor electronic device made of a nitride-based compound semiconductor.
2. Description of the Related Art
The electronic devices such as the field effect transistor or the like using a nitride based compound semiconductor expressed by a formula AlxInyGa1-x-yAsuPvN1-u-v (where 0≦x≦1, 0≦y≦1, x+y≦1, 0≦u≦1, 0≦v≦1, u+v<1), such as a GAN-based compound semiconductor, has attracted a significant attention as a solid state device capable of operating in a high temperature environment close to 400° C. Unlike Si or GaAs, it is difficult to manufacture a large diameter single crystal substrate of GaN-based compound semiconductor. Therefore, the electronic device using a GaN-based compound semiconductor is fabricated on a substrate formed of silicon carbide (SiC), sapphire, ZnO or Si. Especially, Si substrate is very useful because a large diameter wafer is available at a low price.
However, there are large differences in lattice constant and thermal expansion coefficient between Si and GaN. Therefore, when a GaN layer is grown directly on a Si substrate, a large tensile strain is created in the GaN layer, which is a cause of a concave warp of the epitaxial wafer and/or a degradation of a crystal quality. Further, when the immanent strain is too large, cracks are generated in the GaN layer. Therefore, a buffer layer is normally provided between the Si substrate and the GaN layer as a strain relaxing layer. A lamination structure constituted by GaN layers and AlN layers is effective as the buffer layer (see Patent Reference 1 and 2).
A manufacturing method of a GaN-based field effect transistor described in the Patent Reference 1 is as follows. First, an AlN layer is formed on a single crystal Si substrate of 4 inches (101.6 mm) in diameter using an epitaxial crystal growth method such as MOCVD method at a substrate temperature of about 1000 to 1100° C. Then, a buffer layer is formed by growing composite layers in which a GaN layer and an AlN layer are laminated at the same temperature. Thereafter, an electron drift layer, an electron supplying layer and a contact layer are sequentially grown on the buffer layer to form a semiconductor active layer, and a source electrode, a drain electrode, and a gate electrode are formed. Then, the wafer is separated into each device. In this way, by forming the buffer layer constituted by composite layers of GaN layer and AlN layer, it is possible to epitaxially grow a GaN layer with no crack included and of superior crystal quality on the Si substrate. Further, a warp of the epitaxial wafer can be reduced. Note that the buffer layer is not limited to the composite layers of GaN layer and AlN layer, but may be composite layers of AlGaN layers having different compositions each other and appropriate amount of strain therebetween.    Patent Reference 1 Japanese patent publication No. 2003-59948    Patent Reference 2 Japanese patent publication No. 2007-88426
In order to realize an electric power source device employing an electronic device that includes epitaxial layers of a GaN-based compound semiconductor, it is important to increase a breakdown voltage of the electronic device. A Si substrate has relatively a low resistance as compared with a sapphire substrate, for example. Accordingly, in order to increase a breakdown voltage of the electronic devices using a Si substrate, it is necessary to increase a total layer thickness of the epitaxial layers formed on the Si substrate. However, when increasing the total layer thickness of the epitaxial layers, an amount of strain included also increases. Therefore, in order to prevent an adverse effect of the strain, it is necessary to increase the number of composite layers of the buffer layer according to the increase in the total layer thickness of the epitaxial layer.
However, the increase in the number of composite layers will cause convex warp of the epitaxial wafer to a large degree. Therefore, it is difficult to increase a breakdown voltage while restraining the warp of the epitaxial wafer.