The present invention provides: a protein having a fructosyl amino acid oxidase activity which protein is useful for measurement of a glycosylated protein (particularly, glycosylated hemoglobin); a modified protein thereof; and use of the protein or the modified protein. The protein of the present invention is, for example, a fructosyl valyl histidine oxidase derived from Phaeosphaeria nodorum, the fructosyl valyl histidine oxidase having excellent thermal stability and substrate specificity and also having a small Km value to fructosyl valyl histidine. This allows a glycosylated protein measuring reagent to be stored in a long time and measurement accuracy of the glycosylated protein measuring reagent to be improved.

Hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) and glycoalbumin that are glycosylated proteins included in the blood are often measured as a glycemic control marker for diabetics. These glycosylated proteins are produced by nonenzymatic reaction of D-glucose included in the blood with an amino-acid residue that constitutes a blood protein. Therefore, these glycosylated proteins clearly reflect glucose quantity included in the blood.
Main glycosylated sites of the protein included in the blood are ε-amino group of an internal lysine residue and α-amino group of an amino terminal amino acid (N terminal amino acid). For example, the HbA1c is a glycosylated protein that is generated as a result of binding of D-glucose to α-amino group of valine which is the N terminal amino acid of a hemoglobin β chain.
Recently, there has been developed an enzymatic measurement method (hereinafter referred to as an "enzyme method") that measures the glycosylated protein included in the blood easily and in a short time. The enzyme method has been already commercialized. The use of the enzyme method allows high-throughput measurement of the glycosylated protein. The enzyme method is useful in the clinical examination field.
The enzyme method is conducted as follows. First, a protease hydrolyzes a glycosylated protein into glycosylated amino acids such as fructosyl valine, fructosyl lysine and fructosyl valyl histidine. Subsequently, such glycosylated amino acids are oxidatively hydrolyzed by use of fructosyl amino acid oxidase (FAOD). Thereafter, hydrogen peroxide generated by the oxidase reaction is colorimetrically determined by peroxidase chromogenic reaction system (see Patent Literatures 1 through 11).
In a case where the glycosylated protein is measured by the enzyme method, a substrate specificity of the fructosyl amino acid oxidase that is a main reaction enzyme is an important factor. For example, in a case where the HbA1c is measured, it is preferable to use an enzyme that has an excellent substrate specificity to fructosyl valine.
Further, in order to measure specifically to a β chain of the glycosylated hemoglobin, it is preferable to use an enzyme that acts on fructosyl valyl histidine. This is because N terminal amino acids of an α chain and a β chain of hemoglobin are both valines, and it is therefore necessary to recognize two amino acid residues at N terminal (that is, fructosyl valyl histidine) in order to measure specifically to the β chain (see Patent Literatures 12 and 13).
A bacteria that produces an oxidase that acts on fructosyl valyl histidine has been screened so far (see, for example, Patent Literature 14).
It has been reported to use genetically modified bacteria in order to produce, extract and purify the oxidase that acts on fructosyl valyl histidine. It has been also reported isolating a gene that encodes for the oxidase (see Patent Literatures 15 and 17, and Non-Patent Literatures 1 and 2).

Protein having fructosyl valyl histidine oxidase activity, modified protein, and use of the protein or the modified protein


An end cap has a central coupling for securing it to one end of a core on which a length of flexible material is adapted to be wound. The end cap has a partial coupling formation along one edge so that it can be assembled edge-to-edge with one or more additional end caps of identical construction to form an enlarged end cap unit in which the partial coupling formations combine to form a second coupling for securing the enlarged end cap unit to one end of a core. A locking device is also provided for releasably locking the core to an end cap.

In our prior application Ser. No. 07/592,824, there is disclosed a fabric roll having an elongated core and an end cap releasably attached to each end of the core. A length of fabric or like material can be wound on the core to a diameter usually not exceeding the diameter or radial extent of the end caps. To wind the fabric to a larger diameter requires the substitution of larger end caps. However, to maintain an inventory of end caps of different sizes obviously is very costly.
In accordance with the present invention, a larger end cap can be built up from an assembly of smaller end caps. Thus end caps of a given size may be used singly for the smaller diameter rolls of fabric or the like and may be combined with one or more additional end caps to provide an enlarged end cap unit for larger diameter rolls.
In accordance with the present invention, and as more specifically described hereinafter, an end cap may have a central coupling for securing it to one end of a core. The end cap may also have a partial coupling formation along one edge. The end cap is adapted to be assembled edge-to-edge with one or more additional end caps of identical construction to form an enlarged end cap unit in which the partial coupling formations combine to form a second coupling for securing the end cap unit to one end of the core. Thus the core may be used with a single end cap at each end for small rolls of fabric or it may be used with one or more additional end caps assembled edge-to-edge into an enlarged end cap unit at each end for larger diameter rolls.
It is an object of this invention to provide specially designed end caps having the features referred to above.
Another object of the invention to provide an improved locking device for releasably securing an end cap to the core.
A further object is to provide a fabric roll which is rugged and durable, relatively inexpensive, and easy to manufacture, assemble and disassemble.
Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more apparent as the following description proceeds, especially when considered with the accompanying drawings.

Enlarged end cap assembly made from smaller end caps


A fuel injection control system for an internal combustion engine comprises an ECU which calculates a direct supply ratio and a carry-off ratio, and detects a predetermined operating condition of the engine in which an increased amount of fuel is to be supplied to the engine. When the predetermined operating condition is detected, a plurality of fuel injection amounts to be sequentially injected by at least one fuel injection valve are calculated based on operating conditions of the engine, the direct supply ratio and the carry-off ratio. Then, an amount of fuel adhering to the intake system of the engine is calculated based on the total sum of the calculated plurality of fuel injection amounts, as well as on the calculated direct supply ratio and the calculated carry-off ratio. At least one of the calculated plurality of fuel injection amounts is corrected based on the calculated amount of fuel adhering to the intake system. Then, at least one fuel injection valve is controlled to sequentially carry out a plurality of fuel injections in one operating cycle of the engine, based on the calculated plurality of fuel injection amounts including the at least one thereof corrected.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a fuel injection control system for internal combustion engines, and more particularly to a fuel injection control system of this kind, which controls a fuel injection amount so as to compensate for an amount of fuel adhering to the intake system of the engine.
2. Prior Art
An internal combustion engine of the type that fuel is injected into the intake pipe of the engine has the disadvantage that part of the injected fuel adheres to a wall surface of the intake pipe and hence a desired amount of fuel is not supplied into the combustion chamber of the engine. As one of solutions to overcome the disadvantage, a fuel injection amount control method is conventionally known, for example, from Japanese Patent Publication (Kokoku) No. 3-59255, which calculates a ratio of a fuel amount adhering to the wall surface of the intake pipe (adherent fuel amount ratio) and a ratio of a fuel amount carried off the wall surface of the intake pipe (carried-off fuel amount ratio), according to operating conditions of the engine, and corrects the fuel injection amount by adding an adherent fuel amount calculated from the adherent fuel amount ratio and subtracting a carried-off fuel amount calculated from the carried-off fuel amount ratio to and from the fuel injection amount, respectively, to thereby determine an amount of fuel to be supplied.
In the known fuel injection amount control method, the adherent fuel amount, which is used to calculate the carried-off fuel amount, is calculated based on a fuel amount to be supplied in the present fuel injection. However, in the case of split injection where fuel is injected a plurality of number of times in one cycle of the engine, the adherent fuel amount is calculated only for a fuel amount to be supplied in the first fuel injection but not taken into consideration for fuel amounts supplied in the second injection et seq. As a result, according to the above fuel injection amount control method, when the split injection is carried out, the accuracy of calculation of the adherent fuel amount is degraded.
To carry out adherent fuel amount-based correction even for the split injection, a fuel injection control system has been proposed, for example, by Japanese Provisional Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 3-23339, which calculates an adherent fuel amount for a fuel injection amount to be supplied in each injection of the split injection.
The above proposed fuel injection control system calculates an adherent fuel amount for each fuel injection, and calculates an amount of fuel to be supplied in each fuel injection, based on the thus calculated adherent fuel amount. Therefore, even when the split injection is carried out, the amount of fuel to be supplied in each fuel injection can be corrected by the adherent fuel amount, whereby a desired amount of fuel can be supplied into the combustion chamber of the engine.
However, the above proposed fuel control system calculates the adherent fuel amount for each fuel injection when the split injection is carried out. Therefore, this requires complicated arithmetic processing, which imposes a large burden on the software of the fuel control system.
More specifically, the above proposed fuel injection control system carries out the split injection when the fuel injection amount in the present cycle is larger than a predetermined value, such as during warming-up of the engine and during acceleration of the engine, and controls the fuel injection amount by calculating the adherent fuel amount for each fuel injection during the split injection. That is, in the proposed fuel injection control system, an additional injection is carried out in addition to a main injection to increase the fuel injection amount in the present cycle, during the split injection such as during acceleration of the engine. On this occasion, a calculation of an adherent fuel amount based on a fuel injection period for the main injection and a calculation of an adherent fuel amount based on a fuel injection period for the additional injection are carried out. This requires an increased amount of arithmetic processing as well as complicated arithmetic processing.

Fuel injection control system for internal combustion engines


Orthogonalization techniques are disclosed which can be used, for example, to improve subtration of CDMA signals from a composite spread spectrum signal or to improve detection of CDMA signals from the composite spread spectrum signal. According to exemplary embodiments, a Gram-Schmidt orthogonalization process is used to modify signature sequences which are each associated with a particular CDMA signal in the spread spectrum composite signal. These modified signature sequences can then be used to spread correlations of the original signature sequences in the subtraction process or in the detection process to improve performance. Pre-orthogonalization according to the present invention, eliminates or mitigates multiple access interference.

The present invention generally relates to radio communications systems and more particularly, to minimizing the effects of multiple access interference in a Direct-Sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA) communications system.
Direct-sequence Code Division Multiple Access (DS-CDMA) techniques are being applied to cellular and personal radio communication systems. With such an approach, all signals share the same frequency spectrum at the same time. For example, suppose that user i conveys an information symbol b.sub.i by transmitting b.sub.i s.sub.i (k), the product of the information symbol b.sub.i and the code or signature sequence s.sub.i (k). By using different signature sequences for different users, the information symbol of a particular user may be determined by correlating the received signal with the user's known signature sequence. Because these codes are rarely orthogonal, the separation is not perfect, so that signals interfere with one another, thereby degrading performance.
One method for dealing with interference in CDMA systems is to perform some form of subtractive demodulation, where each signal, starting with the strongest, is demodulated then subtracted from the composite received signal. If the correct amplitude and phase of each signal is known, as well as the information symbol value, then subtraction is perfect, and only the particular signal of interest is subtracted. Such an approach is described in A. J. Viterbi, "Very low rate convolutional codes for maximum theoretical performance of spread-spectrum multiple-access channels," IEEE J. Select. Areas Commun., vol. 8, pp. 641-649, May 1990.
In practice, the amplitude, phase and symbol values are either unknown or must be estimated, giving rise to estimation noise which leads to subtraction error. One way of estimating these values is to correlate the received data with the known signature sequence. When subtraction occurs, this approach effectively nulls out all components of the received signal that are aligned with the signal being removed, including a small amount of all the other signals. This form of subtractive demodulation is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,919 to Dent which disclosure is incorporated here by reference. Parallel as well serial subtraction is possible.
Because the amplitude, phase, and symbol estimation are noisy, subtraction error occurs, which can accumulate to the detriment of performance. In particular, it has been observed that when the second signal is removed, noise appears in the resultant signal that is aligned with the first signal that was removed. Similarly, when the third signal is removed, noise appears that is aligned with the first two signals. Thus, there is a need for a way to eliminate or minimize the noise introduced by the subtraction process.

Method and apparatus for CDMA signal orthogonalization


A vehicle cover that protects a vehicle from hail and other falling objects and is easily installed, removed, and stored in the trunk of the vehicle. The cover is substantially comprised of a sheet of cloth, several foam runners, and several attaching straps. The foam runners, preferably having a rectangular cross section, attach to the underside of the cloth. When placed on a vehicle, the foam runners support the cloth in a spaced apart relationship with the top of the vehicle. The attaching straps securely attach the cover to the vehicle by attaching to the wheel wells and the front and rear bumpers of the vehicle. The attaching straps hold the cloth in a taut condition so that the cloth remains in a spaced apart relationship with the top of the vehicle. Falling objects, such as hail, are repelled by the taut cloth and damage to the vehicle is prevented. The foam runners and straps are adjustable so that the cover fits a variety of vehicles.

This invention relates generally to vehicle covers and more specifically to vehicle covers for protecting a vehicle from hail and other falling objects.
Hail is a precipitation which falls in the form of small balls or lumps consisting of ice and compact snow. Although it is generally small, hail has been reported to be as large as softballs. Almost half of the continental United states, from the rocky mountains to the east coast, is affected by hail.
Hail is very destructive when it is large and falls at a high rate of speed. In 1991, Colorado insurance companies paid a total of $1 billion for hail damage, a great deal of it attributable to automobile damage.
Protective car covers are well known in the art. However, few of the known protective car covers are capable of adequately protecting a vehicle from falling hail. Most car covers are designed to protect a vehicle from the sun, rain, snow, ice or the like. Some of these car covers do provide minimal protection from hail, but they either do not provide adequate protect from severe hail or are deficient in some other regard. Examples of patented protective covers are:
U.S. Pat. No. 5,029,933, entitled "Car Cover" issued to Gillem on Jul. 9, 1991 shows a car cover held tautby straps. This cover is not designed to protect a vehicle from hail. It only protects the front and rear windows from hail. The top of the car, the hood, and the trunk all have little or no protection from hail.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,951,993 entitled "Accordion Pleated Vehicle Cover" issued to Taboda on Aug. 28, 1990 shows a material folded like an accordion which extends over the top of a vehicle. This cover does not provide adequate protection from large hail that hits on the bottom of a crease. It is also large, unwieldy, and may not fit into a car's trunk.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,867,216 entitled "Sun and Snow Vehicle Cover" issued to McKee on Sep. 19, 1989 shows a car cover with raised portions spaced to prevent the rest of the cover from collapsing. Although this cover provides some protection from small hail, it is not designed to protect from hail and is therefore unlikely to adequately protect a vehicle from severe hail.
A car cover has been designed and manufactured by Jim Actor to specifically protect a vehicle from hail. This was reported by Associated Press on or about Jul. 23, 1992. This car cover is made of polymer plastic and UV-deflecting aluminum foil and weights 7 to 10 pounds. It attaches with several straps and forms a taut trampoline over a vehicle. It appears that this cover lays directly on the roof of the vehicle. This cover, however, must be custom made, is expensive, and it is unknown whether it provides adequate protection from severe hail.
Clearly, there exits a need for an improved vehicle cover for protecting vehicles from severe hail that is effective, easy to use, collapsible, foldable, fits in the trunk of a vehicle, and is adjustable to fit different vehicles.


The embodiments of disclosure disclose a method and device for processing information. The method includes that: according to a predefined rule, subframes of a first serving cell are divided into multiple subframe groups; a management mode is configured for each of the subframe groups; and according to the management mode configured for each of the subframe groups, information on the first serving cell is processed. By means of the embodiments of the disclosure, a problem that some downlink subframes in a serving cell cannot be scheduled is solved, and different requirements of all subframes can be met, thereby improving a performance of a system, and ensuring an efficiency of data transmission.

A radio frame in a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system and an LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) system adopts a frame structure of a Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) mode or a Time Division Duplex (TDD) mode. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a frame structure in an existing LTE/LTE-A FDD system. As shown in FIG. 1, a 10 ms radio frame is composed of twenty slots which are 0.5 ms long and numbered from 0 to 19, and a slot 2i and a slot 2i+1 form a subframe i which is 1 ms long. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a frame structure in an existing LTE/LTE-A TDD system. A 10 ms radio frame is composed of two half frames which are 5 ms long. Each half frame includes five subframes which are 1 ms long. A subframe i is defined as a slot 2i and a slot 2i+1 which are 0.5 ms long.
In above-mentioned two frame structures, for a Normal Cyclic Prefix (Normal CP), a time slot contains seven symbols which are 66.7 us long, wherein a CP length of a first symbol is 5.21 us, and CP lengths of the other six symbols are 4.69 us. For an Extended CP, a time slot contains six symbols, and CP lengths of all symbols are 16.67 us. Supported uplink-downlink configurations are shown in Table 1.
TABLE 1Downlink-Uplink-uplink downlinkconversion Subframe numberconfiguration point period012345678905msDSUUUDSUUU15msDSUUDDSUUD25msDSUDDDSUDD310msDSUUUDDDDD410msDSUUDDDDDD510msDSUDDDDDDD65msDSUUUDSUUD
As disclosed above, for each subframe in a radio frame, 'D' represents a subframe dedicated for downlink transmission, 'U' represents a subframe dedicated for uplink transmission, and 'S' represents a special subframe, containing a Downlink Pilot Time Slot (DwPTS), a Guard Period (GP) and an Uplink Pilot Time Slot (UpPTS).
In the LTE system, a Hybrid Automatic Repeat reQuest (HARQ) process refers to that: when data needs to be transmitted at a sending end, a receiving end allocates information needed during transmission via downlink signalling, such as frequency domain resources and packet information. The sending end sends the data according to these pieces of information, and saves the data in a cache of the sending end to facilitate retransmission. When receiving the data, the receiving end detects the data, if the data is correctly received, Acknowledged (ACK) information is sent to the sending end, after receiving the ACK information, the sending end empties the cache used in this transmission, and this transmission is ended. If the data is not correctly received, Non-acknowledged (NACK) information is sent to the sending end, packets which are not correctly received are saved in a cache of the receiving end. After receiving the NACK information, the sending end extracts the data from the cache of the sending end and retransmits the data at a corresponding subframe and a corresponding frequency domain position by using a specific packet format. After receiving retransmitted packets, the receiving end combines the retransmitted packets with packets which are not correctly received, detection is performed again; and then the process is repeated until the data are correctly received or a frequency of transmission of the data exceeds a maximum transmission frequency threshold.
In the LTE/LTE-A system, timing regulations regarding scheduling of a Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH) in a downlink HARQ, namely scheduling of the downlink HARQ, are as follows: an User Equipment (UE) detects a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) on a subframe n, and analyzes a PDSCH of the current subframe according to information of the PDCCH.
In the LTE/LTE-A FDD system, timing rules regarding sending of a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) corresponding to an HARQ-ACK of the PDSCH in the downlink HARQ are as follows, namely a timing relation of the downlink HARQ is regulated as follows: the UE detects the PDCCH for transmitting or indicating downlink Semi-Persistent Scheduling (SPS) release of the PDSCH on the subframe n, and transmits a corresponding HARQ-ACK response on a subframe n+4. In the LTE/LTE-A TDD system, a timing relation of the downlink HARQ is regulated as follows: the UE detects the PDCCH for transmitting or indicating the downlink SPS release of the PDSCH on a subframe n-k, and transmits a corresponding HARQ-ACK response on an uplink subframe n, where k belongs to K, and K is valued as shown in Table 2.
TABLE 2Value of K in Different Uplink-Downlink ConfigurationsUplink-downlinkSubframe number nconfiguration01234567890——6—4——6—41——7, 64———7, 64—2——8, 7, 4, 6————8, 7, 4, 6 ——3——7, 6, 116, 55, 4—————4——12, 8, 6, 5,——————7, 114, 75——13, 12, ———————9, 8, 7, 5, 4, 11, 66——775——77—
In the LTE system, in a FDD system, due to a one-to-one correspondence relation between uplink and downlink subframes, when the PDSCH contains only one transmission block, the UE needs to feed back 1-bit ACK/NACK answer information, and when the PDSCH contains two transmission blocks, the UE needs to feed back 2-bit ACK/NACK answer information. The UE sends ½-bit ACK/NACK answer information by using a PUCCH format1a/1b. In a TDD system, due to no existence of the one-to-one correspondence relation between the uplink and downlink subframes, that is, ACK/NACK answer information corresponding to a plurality of downlink subframes needs to be sent on a PUCCH of an uplink subframe, a downlink subframe set corresponding to the uplink subframe forms a 'bundling window'. There are two sending methods for the ACK/NACK answer information. One sending method is a bundling method, of which a core concept refers to that: spatial bundling operation needs to be performed on the ACK/NACK answer information of at least one transmission block corresponding to each downlink subframe fed back by the uplink subframe, if a downlink subframe has two transmission blocks, the UE needs to feed back the 2-bit ACK/NACK answer information, if each subframe has only one transmission block, the UE needs to feed back the 1-bit ACK/NACK answer information, and the UE sends the ½-bit ACK/NACK answer information by using the PUCCH format1a/1b. Another sending method is a multiplexing (multiplexing with channel selection) method of which a core concept refers to that: different feedback states of downlink subframes needing to be fed back on the uplink subframe are represented by utilizing different PUCCHs and different modulation symbols on each of different PUCCHs, if each downlink subframe has a plurality of transmission blocks, spatial bundling and channel selection are successively performed on ACK/NACK fed back by the transmission blocks of each downlink subframe, and the UE sends an ACK/NACK answer message by using a format 1b with channel selection.
The most significant characteristics of the LTE-A system with respect to the LTE system refer to that: a carrier aggregation technology is introduced to the LTE-A system, that is, bandwidths of the LTE system are aggregated to obtain a larger bandwidth. In a system to which carrier aggregation is introduced, a carrier for aggregation is called a Component Carrier (CC), and is also called a serving cell. Meanwhile, concepts of a Primary Component Carrier/Cell (PCC/PCell) and a Secondary Component Carrier/Cell (SCC/SCell) are also proposed. In a carrier aggregated system, a primary serving cell and a secondary serving cell are included at least, wherein the primary serving cell is under an activated state all the time, and it is regulated that the PUCCH is transmitted only on the PCell.
An existing carrier aggregation technology is only applied to an FDD serving cell or a TDD serving cell. In a subsequent version, the FDD serving cell and the TDD serving cell are considered. When the FDD serving cell and the TDD serving cell are aggregated, if cross-carrier scheduling is enabled, when the TDD serving cell is the primary serving cell, only some downlink subframes are scheduled on the FDD serving cell. As shown in FIG. 3, when the primary serving cell is TDD uplink-downlink configuration #0 and the cross-carrier scheduling is enabled, only downlink subframes #0, #1, #5 and #6 on the FDD serving cell can be scheduled, so as to cause reduction of a downlink throughput. In order to ensure the downlink throughput, it is necessary to solve a problem that some downlink subframes on a scheduled serving cell cannot be scheduled. In addition, the existing LTE system adopts the same management mode including a scheduling mode, a transmission mode, a sequence generation mode, a scrambling mode, signal configuration and power control. However, disturbed conditions of different subframes are different, and receiving nodes or sending nodes are different. If the same management mode is adopted, different requirements of all subframes cannot be met, a performance of the system is influenced, and an efficiency of data transmission cannot be ensured.

Method and device for processing information


A display apparatus is disclosed. The display apparatus includes: at least one LED display unit including a plurality of LED display panels outputting image lights; a light guide unit including a plurality of in-coupling zones where the image lights are received and a single out-coupling zone to which the received image lights are guided; a plurality of in-coupling holographic optical elements (HOEs) arranged in the in-coupling zones to define the propagation path of the image lights through the light guide unit; and a plurality of out-coupling HOEs arranged in the out-coupling zone to define a path through which the image lights guided through the light guide unit are sent outside the light guide unit.

Three-dimensional (3D) display technologies using glasses based on binocular parallax are known. However, such technologies require wearing of polarized glasses, causing inconvenience to users. In an attempt to solve this problem, three-dimensional (3D) display technologies have been proposed, which use parallax barriers (for example, see FIG. 1a) and lenticular films (for example, see FIG. 1b) without having a need for glasses. See also a prior art document such as U.S. Pat. No. 8,325,166 B2. However, the parallax barriers block images and pictures to make them look dark, as illustrated in FIG. 1a. The use of lenticular films as illustrated in FIG. 1b has disadvantages in that interference between adjacent images makes it impossible to obtain clear 3D images. Another disadvantage of this approach is a low production yield. As such, there is still a need for enhanced and advanced technologies for 3D display technology.


A device (100) having an external contact electrical connection (155) for providing an electrical interface to the device includes a housing member (222) having apertures (235, 335), and a flexible film substrate (270) having an electrically conductive pattern (275). Portions of the electrically conductive pattern defines contact areas (255, 355) for presenting the electrical interface of the device (100). These contact areas (255, 355) are rigidly positioned adjacent to the interior surface (324) of the housing (222) about the apertures (235, 335) such that the contact areas (255) are externally exposed through the aperture (235, 335).

There are many applications in which an external electrical interface is required for an electrical device. An external electrical interface is generally required for the provision of power to the device and to provide communications between the device and other electrical devices. Numerous techniques are known in the art for electrically interfacing to a device. One such technique, common to batteries and portable electronic devices, is the use of an electrical contact accessible through the device housing.
Electrical contacts have been traditionally formed using discrete contact elements electrically coupled to circuitry within the device. For example, a portable two-way radio may include a radio portion and a battery portion. The battery portion typically includes discrete electrical contacts for electrically interfacing with a battery charger, in addition to contacts for electrically interfacing with the radio portion. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,006,073, issued to Mennona, Jr. on May 15, 1990, for a Snap Fit Contact Assembly, discloses a device in which discrete electrical contacts are soldered to a flexible film substrate and then positioned within a housing. Electrical connection is provided between the contact and electrical circuitry within the battery, thus completing the external interface. Alternatively, the discrete contacts may be affixed directly to a circuit carrying substrate used in the internal operations of the battery. The contact may be soldered to the substrate, or affixed to the substrate using rivets, and the like, and is made externally accessible through openings within the housing.
However installed, the use of discrete electrical contacts in the design of external electrical interfaces has several drawbacks in product manufacturing. For example, there is significant time and cost involved in the design and development of contacts for a given product. Moreover, tools to produce the contacts must be designed and developed, which adds to the overall cost of the product. Thus, product development cycle time and cost are adversely affected by the use of discrete electrical contacts.
There are also manufacturing issues related to the use of discrete contacts in a product. Specific manufacturing operations must be designed to position the contacts during product assembly, to establish the proper electrical connections between the contacts and circuitry within the product. These operations, which include contact alignment and contact soldering, may require expensive tooling and other equipment, or may be labor intensive, and can be a contributing source of defects in the product. Thus, there is a penalty in manufacturing efficiency for products using discrete contacts.
Additionally, the use of discrete electrical contacts adds weight to a product, increases material costs, increases the number of parts required in a product, and increases inventory as stocks of these contacts are needed to facilitate production. These and other problems become more acute as product designers focus on reductions in costs, size, and weight, in the design of battery packages and other applications.
There are several benefits inherent in the use of electrical contacts to achieve external interfacing between electrical devices. Some of the more obvious benefits include the simplicity and convenience of establishing the interface. However, the costs associated with the above-mentioned problems are undesirable. As such, an improved interface design is needed, which avoids the problems associated with discrete electrical contacts while retaining the benefits of this type of external electrical interfacing.


A vibrating device having tuning fork arms extending in a first direction that are joined to a base portion and are arranged side by side in an second direction. Each of the tuning fork arms has a structure that a silicon oxide layer is laminated on a Si layer made of a degenerate semiconductor, and that an excitation portion is provided on the silicon oxide layer. When a total thickness of the Si layer is denoted by T1, a total thickness of the silicon oxide layer is denoted by T2, and the temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (TCF) when the silicon oxide layer is not provided on the Si layer is denoted by x, a thickness ratio T2/(T1+T2) is within a range of (−0.0002x2−0.0136x+0.0014)±0.05.

An MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) structure is so far known in which an excitation portion including a piezoelectric thin film is constituted on a Si semiconductor layer. Various trials have been made to improve the temperature coefficient of resonant frequency (TCF) in a vibrator with the MEMS structure. Patent Document 1, given below, discloses a method of reducing an absolute value of the TCF by laminating Si and SiO2. Patent Documents 2 and 3, given below, disclose a method of reducing the primary temperature coefficient of resonant frequency of Si itself by doping a p-type or n-type dopant into Si.
Patent Document 4, given below, discloses a method of using a Si/SiO2 combined material and doping Si at a high concentration. Patent Document 4 states that the secondary temperature coefficient of resonant frequency can be reduced.
Patent Document 1: International Publication No. WO2008/043727
Patent Document 2: International Publication No. WO2010/062847
Patent Document 3: International Publication No. WO2012/110708
Patent Document 4: International Publication No. WO2012/156585


A surgery table is provided in which a patient support portion may be tilted about a longitudinal and a lateral axis and in which torso and leg supporting portions of the table may be pivoted relative to a trunk supporting portion. A new headrest locking mechanism is disclosed whereby supporting ball and socket connections for the headrest may be locked in position with a minimum of applied torque force. In addition, a lift mechanism incorporating telescoping members is provided whereby a large variation in table height may be obtained.

The present invention relates to a surgery table and, more particularly, to a plastic surgery table which may be adjusted.
Surgery tables, such as those used by plastic surgeons, must provide for a variety of adjustments whereby patients may be oriented in an optimum position for the particular surgery being performed. For example, during facial reconstruction surgery, the patient must be positioned such that the surgeon can view the patient from a point aligned with the longitudinal axis of the patient in order to permit the surgeon to maintain symmetry between the opposing sides of the patient's face during the operation.
In order to provide the necessary flexibility in positioning the patient, it is preferable to have a patient support table which is capable of movement about at least two rotational axes, provides for a height adjustment and which allows the patient's legs and torso to be adjusted relative to the patient's trunk, and which further provides for flexible adjustment of the patient head support. In addition, such tables require a height adjustment mechanism in order to allow a patient to easily mount the table as well as to position the table at a convenient height for the surgeon.
Prior art patient support tables have typically provided only a few degrees of adjustment and have not taken into consideration the particular needs associated with plastic surgery. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 322,437 to Gaston discloses an adjustable embalming table which may be pivoted about a longitudinal axis and which provides a certain degree of end to end height adjustment as well as an adjustable head rest. The rotational axis of the table disclosed by Gaston is located below the table surface such that if a person were laying on the table they would feel a high degree of instability as the table is rotated, which is unacceptable for a surgery table. Further, Gaston does not disclose any means for preventing the person from displacing laterally other than straps, which straps would be uncomfortable for a patient and undesirable during plastic surgery operations.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,712 Schaefer discloses a patient support including means for supporting a plate for rotation about a longitudinal axis located above the plate wherein the rotational axis moves during rotation of the plate. This device must be formed as a relatively wide structure in order to provide sufficient movement for the guide members which support the plate for movement. Further, a wide base area is required to provide the necessary lateral support for each of the guide members. Such a construction would not be easily adapted to the needs of a plastic surgery table in which a height adjustment mechanism must also be provided.
Accordingly, there is a need for a plastic surgery table which may be pivoted about a longitudinal axis located above the table, and preferably passing through the patient, in order to avoid patient discomfort during rotation of the table and to ensure that the patient is pivoted in such a manner as to not vary the position of the patient in a lateral direction relative to a support base, which may hinder access of a surgeon to the patient.
Further, there is a need for a surgery table in which the table may also be rotated about a lateral axis and in which various components of the patient supporting surface may be adjusted to provide appropriate support for the patient. There is also need for a plastic surgery table in which the base portion of the table below the patient support surface is formed as a compact mechanism providing a wide range of height adjustments for the table.


Human membrane cofactor protein, a protein involved in regulation of complement activity, has been purified to homogeneity. The gene encoding this protein has been retrieved and permits deduction of the entire amino acid sequence and the recombinant production of this material. Pharmaceutical compositions in which MCP is the active ingredient for use in treating antoimmune diseases are also disclosed.

The complement system is capable of tissue and cell destruction and is therefore a major element of the defense system against invasion by foreign tissue. However, control of this system is necessary in order to prevent destruction of autologous cells. A large number of proteins. which are involved in control of the complement cascade have been described.
Most relevant to the present invention is the group which controls the C3 convertase stage of the cascade and binds to fragments of either C3 or C4 or both. This group includes serum proteins such as C4-binding protein and factor H and membrane proteins such as C3b receptor, C3d/Epstein-Barr virus receptor, decay-accelerating factor (DAF), and the protein of the invention, membrane cofactor protein (MCP)(Sequence ID No. 2). Reviews of these various factors and their role in complement cascade regulation can be found in Holers, B. M., et al., Immunol Today (1985) 6:188; Ross, G. D., et al., Adv Immunol (1985) 37:217; Atkinson, J. P., et al., Immunol Today (1987) 8:212.
Much is known concerning these regulatory proteins, except for MCP. They are each composed of multiple repeats of an approximately 60-amino acid consensus sequence composed of conserved cys, pro, gly, trp, leu/ile/val, and tyr/phe residues (Reid, K., et al., Immunol Today (1986) 7:230). The genes encoding these proteins have been localized to the long arm of human chromosome 1, band lq32 and form a multigene family designated the regulator of complement activation (RCA) gene cluster. As will be shown below, MCP is also a member of this family.
A member of this family particularly related to the MCP (Sequence ID No. 2) of the invention is the decay-accelerating factor (DAF) which was identified on human platelets by Yu, G.H., et al., J Clin Invest (1986) 78:494-501. DAF is present on virtually all peripheral blood cells, including erythrocytes, granulocytes, T and B lymphocytes, monocytes, and platelets; in addition, soluble forms of DAF have been found in extracellular fluids and tissue culture supernatants. The gene encoding DAF has been cloned and sequenced (by Medof, M. E., et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (1987) 84:2007-2011; and by Caras, I. W., et al., Science (1987) 238:1280-1283). It has been shown that the membrane and soluble secreted forms of DAF result from differential splicing of the mRNA encoding these proteins with the soluble form having a longer C-terminus, but a C-terminus which lacks the membrane binding region associated with the membrane DAF, as described in PCT application W089/01041.
MCP was initially identified by iC3/C3b affinity chromatography on surface-labeled peripheral blood cells and designated gp45-70 to describe the range of M.sub.r obtained on SDS-PAGE (Cole, J. L., et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA (1985) 82:859). MCP was partially purified from the human mononuclear cell lines and shown to have a cofactor activity but no decay accelerating function (Seya, T. J., et al., J Exp Med (1986) 163:837). MCP is absent from erythrocytes, but present as a membrane-bound protein on human T and B lymphocytes, granulocytes, monocytes, platelets, endothelial cells, epithelial cells, and fibroblasts; on most of these cells it occurs in polymorphic forms of molecular weight 63 kd and 58 kd, as determined by SDS-PAGE. These appear to result from a two allelic system encoding MCP (Ballard, L., et al., J Immunol (1987) 138:3850-3855). The MCP found by immunoprecipitation on the membranes of granulocytes appears, however, not to exhibit this polymorphism (Seya, T., et al., Eur J Immunol (1988) 18:1289-1294). The occurrence of MCP on a wide range of host cells is consistent with a role in protecting host cells from damage by complement (Seya, T. L., et al., Complement (1987) 4:225).
The previously purified MCP has been utilized to prepare a polyclonal rabbit antiserum monospecific for this protein. The antisera were raised in rats by repetitive injections of MCP purified as described by Seya, T., et al., J Exp Med (1986) (supra), in complete Freund's adjuvant. These antisera have been used to identify MCP in extracts from various membranes.
The present invention provides a more highly purified form of this protein and the capacity to produce it recombinantly, thus providing practical quantities for therapeutic use.

DNA sequences encoding human membrane cofactor protein (MCP)


A light detector includes a cooling device between a photomultiplier tube (PMT) device and a heat sink. A thermally conductive shield encloses the PMT device and the cooling device and is in thermal contact with the heat sink such that the heat sink transfers heat to the shield. The light detector may be included in sample analyzing apparatus configured for making optical measurements of a sample.

A light detector may utilize a photomultiplier tube (PMT) to detect light, particularly from weak or dim sources of light. The PMT is a vacuum tube that encloses a photocathode, an electron multiplier, and an anode. In accordance with the photoelectric effect, incident photons striking the photocathode cause the photocathode to emit electrons (photoemission). The electrons are multiplied by the electron multiplier, which comprises a series of dynodes. The dynodes cause successive instances of secondary electron emission, ultimately producing enough electrons to generate a useful current that can be correlated to photon counts or intensity. For many optical-based measurement applications, for example fluorescence and luminescence measurement, the PMT may be considered to be the preferred type of light detector component in view of its relatively low cost, high gain, high frequency response, large numerical aperture, and capability for single photon counting.
Optical-based analytical instruments that often utilize PMTs include optical plate readers commonly employed in the life science industry (e.g., for biochemistry, cell biology, immunology, molecular biology, and microbiology). Such instruments typically take measurements from samples in microplates. Such instruments may be configured to perform a specific type of measurement (e.g., fluorescence, luminescence, absorbance, cell imaging, etc.), or may be capable of performing multiple types of measurements at the selection of the user. The latter type of instrument is often termed a "multimode" analytical instrument or multimode reader. Certain multimode readers are configured to receive application-specific cartridges that enable a user to select the type of experiment to be performed on a sample. The selected cartridge is coupled to the instrument whereby the instrument is properly configured for carrying out the selected experiment. The cartridge may contain optics specific to or optimized for a particular type of application. The internal optics housed within the cartridge may communicate with external optics housed within the instrument through optical ports of the cartridge's housing. Some cartridges may additionally include an internal light source and/or light detector. Some examples of cartridge-based multimode readers are described in, for example, U.S. Patent Application Pub. No. 2014/0191138 and U.S. Pat. No. 8,119,066, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.
An optical-based analytical instrument may utilize two different types of PMT to optimize for both fluorescence and luminescence applications. One example is when the fluorescence detection wavelength range needs to go higher than 700 nanometers (nm). In this case a red-sensitive PMT is needed to support the fluorescence wavelength range, and a visible wavelength-only (VIS-only) PMT is needed for luminescence measurement to avoid the higher dark counts or dark current of red-sensitive PMTs. Measuring luminescence with a red-sensitive PMT can limit performance significantly. However, for reasons of cost and/or other reasons, it would be desirable to provide an optical-based analytical instrument that includes a single PMT capable of performing well in different types of experiments. A solution to this problem is to adequately cool a PMT to reduce dark counts or dark current, thereby avoiding the need for a second PMT. Cooled PMTs are commercially available, but are unacceptably large or bulky for integration into a typical optical-based analytical instrument in which space is already limited and for which overall size or footprint is a concern of the user. Moreover, known cooled PMTs often allow condensation to develop on the PMT, which may contaminate the sample under investigation or the sensitive optics and/or electronics of the instrument. Generally, condensation will occur on any cooled surface exposed to moisture-containing air.
Therefore, there is a need for a cooled PMT or PMT-based light detector that is compact and reduces or prevents condensation, and an apparatus or system that includes such a PMT or PMT-based light detector.

Cooled photomultiplier tube based light detector with reduced condensation, and related apparatuses and methods


A wiring board includes first insulating layers and second insulating layers formed on a core layer in this order; a third insulating layer and a solder resist layer formed on another surface of the core layer in this order, first wiring layers and second wiring layers formed in the first insulating layers and the second insulating layers, respectively, wherein a first end surface of the first via wiring exposes from the first surface of the outermost first insulating layer to be directly connected with an outermost second wiring layer, the first via wiring and the outermost second wiring layer being separately formed, the first surface of the outermost first insulating layer and the first end surface of the first via wiring are polished surfaces, smooth surfaces and are flush with each other, and the wiring density of the second wiring layers is higher than that of the first wiring layers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wiring board.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, a technique is known to provide a high density wiring layer in a wiring board with a built-in passive component. Specifically, a wiring board is known in which a high wiring density layer including stacked insulating layers of photosensitive resin is formed on a low wiring density layer including stacked insulating layers of thermosetting resin. In such a case, a passive component is built-in the low wiring density layer.
It is described that the wiring layer can be made high density by embedding a wiring layer at a surface of a core board in an insulating layer (thermosetting resin) at the surface of the core board, in the low wiring density layer, and forming the high wiring density layer on the low wiring density layer in the above described wiring layer (see Patent Document 1, for example).
However, as the above described wiring board has an asymmetry structure in an up and down direction, there is a problem in that a warp is generated in the wiring board. The warp generated in the wiring board may be a problem when mounting an electronic component on the high wiring density layer.
Further, according to the above method described in Patent Document 1, a fine wiring cannot be formed in the insulating layer (thermosetting resin) at the surface of the core board and the fine wiring needs to be formed on an insulating layer of photosensitive resin formed on the insulating layer (thermosetting resin) at the core board.
In other words, as the fine wiring cannot be directly formed in the insulating layer (thermosetting resin) just by embedding the wiring layer at the surface of the core board in the insulating layer (thermosetting resin), the wiring layer cannot be made at a sufficiently high density.


This disclosure relates to a continuous process for making a dimer from a terminal olefin in the presence of a catalyst system comprising a metallocene compound and alumoxane.

Olefin compounds can be categorized into vinyls, vinylidenes, 1,2-di-substituted olefins and tri-substituted olefins depending on the substitution on the two carbon atoms connected by an ethylenic C═C bond. A vinyl olefin, represented by RCH═CH2, contains one substituent R and three hydrogen atoms; a vinylidene, represented by C(R1R2)═CH2, contains two substituents (R1 and R2) connected to the same carbon atom and two hydrogen atoms connected to the other carbon atom. A 1,2-di-substituted vinylene, represented by CH(R1)═CH(R2), contains two substituents (R1, R2) with one connected to each carbon atom. A tri-substituted vinylene, represented by CH(R1)═C(R2R3), contains three substituents (R1, R2, R3) with only one hydrogen atom left. Vinyls and vinylidenes are terminal olefins, while 1,2-di-substituted vinylenes and tri-substituted vinylenes are internal olefins. Among these four types of olefins, vinylidenes are particularly desirable due to its reactivity and are frequently used to make derivatives of the olefin for use in various applications.
Oligomeric, ethylenically unsaturated molecules made from the polymerization of terminal olefins are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,748,361 B2 discloses a mixture comprising unsaturated polyalpha-olefin ("uPAO") material made from, e.g., oligomerization of terminal olefins in the presence of metallocene catalysts. It was disclosed in this reference that the uPAOs could comprise, among others, vinyls, vinylenes, 1,2-di-substituted vinylenes, and tri-substituted vinylenes.
Recently, however, research and development in various chemical fields reveal that the ethylenically unsaturated PAO materials prepared from oligomerization of linear terminal olefins can be particularly advantageously used as intermediates for making various specialty chemicals because of the reactivity of the C═C double bond present in molecular structure of the oligomer molecules. For example, various chemical functional groups can be bonded to the carbon backbone of the uPAO molecule when a chemical agent reactive with the C═C bond is allowed to contact the uPAO material. The functional group thus introduced onto the PAO structure can bring about unique properties to the functionalized and saturated PAO molecules.
It has been found that the reactivity of the C═C bonds in vinyls, vinylidenes, 1,2-di-substituted vinylenes and tri-substituted vinylenes are different with regard to many chemical functionalization agents. For a specific type of functionalization agent, one or more particular type(s) of olefin(s) may be more desirable than the other(s). In addition, uPAOs having various molecular weight and molecular weight distribution and differing reactivities may be desired for making differing derivatives comprising differing functional groups thereon. For example, dimers of olefins as specific uPAOs can be of higher interest and value over higher oligomers such as trimers and tetramers. Furthermore, it is known that vinylidenes and tri-substituted vinylenes are more reactive than 1,2-di-substituted vinylenes with many common reagents reactive with C═C double bonds. Thus, high-purity vinylidene dimers of terminal olefins and methods for making them are of high interest.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,658,078 discloses a process for making vinylidene dimers from 1-olefins such as propylene, 1-hexene, and 1-octene by using a catalyst system comprising bisCpZrCl2 and methylalumoxane. While impressive selectivity of the terminal olefin toward dimers was achieved in the examples of this patent, the oligomerization step nonetheless resulted in the formation of high quantity of trimers and higher oligomers, rendering the oligomer products from the oligomerization reaction step not directly useable as a high-purity vinylidene dimer. One would need to distill the oligomer products in order to reduce the trimers and higher oligomers to an acceptable level. Moreover, the process illustrated in this patent was a batch process, which is not efficient in producing large quantities of vinylidene dimer products. In addition, there is no teaching in this patent, particularly in the examples, of the selectivity of the 1-olefin monomers toward vinylidenes in the dimer product.
Thus, there remains a need for a process for making vinylidene olefins from terminal olefins. This disclosure satisfies this and other needs.


A mineral mining plough for use in asymmetric ploughing, and movable to and fro alongside a conveyor, has a plough body provided with cutter means at its two ends. A first cutter means is arranged to win material when the plough is on the uphill run (that is to say when the plough moves in the opposite direction as the conveyor). A second cutter means is arranged to win material when the plough is on the downhill run. The second cutter means is mounted on the plough body for vertical movement relative to the plough body. This enables the second cutter means to be swung out of its working position (on the downhill run) to lie in a rest position (on the uphill run) in which it is in the path of travel of the first cutter means. This vertical movement of the second cutter means results in a plough of shorter length than known asymmetric ploughs.

This invention relates to a mineral mining plough for winning material in a mineral mining working. The invention is particularly concerned with a plough for winning different amounts of material on the "uphill" and "downhill" runs, that is to say, a plough utilising the method of asymmetrical ploughing. Throughout this specification, the term "uphill" run should be taken to mean the ploughing run whose direction is opposed to that of the conveyor along which the plough moves, and the term "downhill" run should be taken to mean the ploughing run whose direction is the same as that of the conveyor.
Asymmetrical ploughing has been well known since it was realised that, because of better ploughing techniques on the downhill run, a coal plough can win considerably more coal than the conveyor is capable of removing. Obviously, this depends on the consistency of the coal and other operating conditions. The conveyor can remove only a comparatively small amount of coal on the downhill run because the conveyor and the plough move in the same direction (with identical speeds the conveyor will be completely overloaded at one point, because the downhill moving coal stream would always be discharged at the same place onto the conveyor). The obvious way of getting round this problem is to increase the plough speed to such an extent that it exceeds the speed of the conveyor and so leads to a more favourable loading of the conveyor. Even then, however, it is not possible, during the downhill run, to utilise the optimum depth of cut of the coal plough. On the other hand, on the uphill run, it is possible for the plough to utilise the optimum depth of cut. This is because the plough and conveyor have a very high relative speed (the conveyor moving in the opposite direction to the plough). The consequence of this is that coal, which theoretically could be mined, is abandoned solely because the conveyor is not capable of removing this coal on the downhill run.
A mineral winning plough has been proposed having a first set of cutters arranged to win material lying a first height range, and a second set of cutters arranged to win material lying in a second height range. The plough is driven on the downhill run with the cutters so positioned that material is won to a greater depth over the first height range than over the second height range. The plough is then driven on the uphill run with the cutters so positioned that material is won to a smaller depth over the first height range than over the second height range.
With the plough, it is possible so to work a coal face to the correct profile that not only is the conveyor substantially uniformly loaded, but also the plough drive can be operated using substantially the same power during both uphill and downhill runs. In order to equalise the power requirements for the two runs, as well as to utilise as completely as possible the available drive capacity, the first set of cutters (which is pivotally mounted on the plough body for lateral movement into, and out of, its working position), is adjusted on the downhill run to a depth of cut that is considerably greater than that of the other cutters effective on the downhill run. For example, the first set of cutters may be adjusted to have the same depth of cut on the downhill run as the second (main) set of cutters on the uphill run. Usually, the first set of cutters are floor cutters so that a stress-relief cut is made at floor level on the downhill run, the stress relief cut facilitating the winning of coal in the subsequent uphill run.
The disadvantage of this plough is its length which results from the lateral pivoting of the first set of cutters, prevents the plough winning material at the ends of its two runs. The aim of the invention is, therefore, to provide an efficient plough of the shortest possible length which is suitable for asymmetrical ploughing.


A distribution type fuel injection pump for use in a fuel injection combustion engine comprising a plunger capable of moving reciprocally along its axis and simultaneously rotating about its axis and a couple of members forming a cam mechanism having a first cam member and a second cam member. The first cam member is mounted on the plunger and the second cam member is mounted on a housing rotatably about its axis. The couple of cam members cause the plunger to reciprocally move while the plunger is rotating. The angular position of the second cam member about its axis can be controlled by a fuel injection timing control means in accordance with the engine speed. The second cam member can also turn about its axis so as to be adjusted in its angular position by a fuel injection timing adjustment when a selected operating condition of the engine, for example the engine start, is carried out.

The present invention relates to a distribution type fuel injection pump for use in an internal combustion engine, such as a diesel engine.
In conventional distribution type fuel injection pumps wherein a plunger is mounted on a barrel so as to be capable of reciprocal axial movement to suck and to pressurize a fuel and rotate about its axis to distribute the pressurized fuel to each combustion chamber of the engine, an injection timing apparatus (so called engine speed timer) is disposed. The injection timing apparatus automatically advances the injection timing in accordance with increase of engine revolutions, i.e. engine speed.
On the other hand, in an injection type internal combustion engine, such as a diesel engine, in order to easily start the engine, it is necessary to advance the injection timing at the time of the engine starting operation. That requirement is more important in a cold engine condition. According to the afore-going conventional engine speed timer, however, since the engine speed is very slow at the engine's start, no starting advance of the injection timing can be obtained. Therefore, a required starting advance has heretofore been attained by means of a manual operation mechanism mounted separately from the automatic engine speed timer and hence, this operation is very troublesome.


Novel ionic compounds of the class EQU [Fe{CO(NH.sub.2).sub.2 }.sub.n (H.sub.2 O).sub.6-n ].sup.++ SO.sub.4.sup.--. wherein n is 2, 3, 4 or 5, are produced by solid state reaction between a ferrous sulfate hydrate and urea under extended intensive physical impingement conditions, as for example by ball milling for a period in excess of 2 hours, until particles of an unusual characteristic shape are formed. Uses of the compounds include correcting iron deficiencies in plants.

In most soils iron is abundantly present. Nevertheless, enormous acreages of agricultural land in the U.S. lack an adequate supply of iron in a form that is useful for the growth of the plants that are commonly raised there. In Western states, for example, it is estimated that more than 12 million acres (about 5% of the total cultivated acreage in 22 states west of the Mississippi River) are deficient in available iron.
The deficiency of available iron adversely affects plant growth generally by retarding foliage, flowering and seed production. This is often manifested in the growing plant as a sickly yellow-leaf condition known as "chlorosis."

Ionic compounds formed from iron and urea


Techniques for preserving locality of storage accesses to copies of storage objects in a cluster of appliances. Mapping metadata is created indicating regions in a copy of a storage object that are mapped to local storage allocated from a target appliance. Read and write operations to regions of the copy that are mapped to storage in the target appliance are processed within the target appliance. Write operations to regions that are not mapped to storage in the target appliance cause storage to be allocated to the copy in the target appliance, mapped to the regions indicated by the write operations, and used to store the write data. Read operations to regions that are not mapped to storage in the target appliance are performed on an original storage object located on a source appliance, from which the copy of the storage object was made.

As it is generally known, a hyper-converged infrastructure ("HCI") is an information technology infrastructure framework that integrates storage and virtualization computing. In an HCI environment, storage and processing resources are provided together within individual HCI appliances. Specifically, each HCI appliance combines compute and non-volatile storage resources, together with memory and communication interfaces. Each HCI appliance includes a hypervisor or virtual machine monitor that may also be referred to as a virtualization platform, and that is referred to herein as a virtualization environment. One or more virtual machines are created by and run on the virtualization environment of each HCI appliance. The locality of directly attached storage resources with regard to virtual machines executing on the same HCI appliance can advantageously provide low latency for storage accesses. Multiple HCI appliances are often combined and managed together as a cluster of HCI appliances.
Under various circumstances, a copy must be made of a virtual machine located on one HCI appliance, and then brought up for execution on a different HCI appliance. One example of such circumstances is when new virtual machine copies are made from a primary virtual machine template (sometimes referred to as the "golden image" for a virtual machine), and then distributed across different HCI appliances within a cluster of HCI appliances for purposes of load balancing.

Preserving locality of storage accesses by virtual machine copies in hyper-converged infrastructure appliances


A hand held power tool, particularly a hammer drill has a housing, a drive shaft, a rotatable tool holder, a safety coupling provided between the drive shaft and the tool holder, and a switching member supported with a bearing axis extending substantially parallel to the drive shaft and freely movable about the bearing axis in a plane extending substantially perpendicularly to the drive shaft. The switching member during a rearward rotation of the housing about an axis of the tool holder engages in the safety coupling and releasing the safety coupling.

The present invention relates to a hand held power tool. More particularly it relates to a hand held power tool which is provided with a safety coupling.
Hand held power tools of the above mentioned type for drilling or impact drilling are known. One of such machines is disclosed in the German document DE-C-30 41 099. In this power tool a switching member which is formed as a movably supported mass is deviated from its rest position during clamping or blocking of the drill. The deviated mass actuates an electric switch which in turn interrupts the current supply to the drive motor of the machine. Due to the small switching forces of the mass which acts as an inertia body, the switch can be formed only as a contactless proximity switch which is relatively expensive. The known device also operates only for turning off of the drive force, and it does not provide mechanical decoupling of the drive source from the tool. Therefore due to the subsequently running motor and also high swinging masses, the housing in the event of the blocked tool still rotates relatively significantly further about the tool axis.

Hand held power tool with safety coupling


A fiber reinforced composite structure for slotted type waveguide antenna, comprising at least one layer of conductive material applied over a mandrel by a known method. Radiating element slots are provided during this process and a laminate of low RF loss material is applied in layers of cloth made from aromatic polyamide fibers having a major fiber direction. A binder material, for example, an epoxy resin is applied and cured thereon as the layers are applied. Alternate cloth layers are applied with the major fiber direction rotated 90.degree.. When the laminate is partially completed, two flanged stiffening ribs are typically placed longitudinally on the top and bottom of the waveguide structure along the surfaces other than that containing the slots. Additional layers of the laminate cover the stiffeners and thereby produce integral mounting structures. The waveguide interior is thereby environmentally sealed by the laminated covering, which also provides mechanical strength, and integral radar windows over the slot radiating elements.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to slotted-waveguide microwave antennas generally.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art, waveguide antennas employing slots for radiating elements are of themselves well known. Basic waveguides have been manufactured as rectangular pipes or tubes dimensioned in accordance with the known criteria for the frequency band of interest. Alloys of copper have been extensively used as a waveguide material as has extruded aluminum. In order to manufacture a waveguide, slot-radiator antenna from such a waveguide, the slots must be individually and accurately machined into a wall of the guide. In the form of slotted-waveguide antenna illustrated herewith, a dual-slot configuration is contemplated. It is to be noted that alternate slot pairs are often differently oriented along the waveguide face, that fact further complicating the slotting process according to prior art methods and increasing the cost in terms of skilled labor. The dual-slot, radiating, waveguide antenna per se is known in the prior art and is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,740,751, entitled "Wideband Dual-Slot Waveguide Array," as it might be manufactured according to known prior art techniques.
It is also to be understood that slotted-waveguide antennas are frequently used in planar arrays. It is not unusual for each length of waveguide in such an array to require as many as 164 slots in each of 50 or 100 stacked waveguides. Accordingly, it will be readily perceived that machining expense is very significant in the manufacture of a large planar array for a radar system.
It is well known that slotted waveguide antennas and arrays require environmental protection, that is the array slots must be covered with a dielectric material or radome which acts as a radio frequency window while excluding dust, moisture and other undesired foreign matter. In the prior art extruded metal waveguide arrangement this must be accomplished as a separate operation and structure. Such expedients as hand-applied dielectric tape or individually formed fiberglass radomes for each of the individual slotted waveguides have been employed for that purpose.
Still further, the fact that metallic waveguide, especially aluminum waveguide, even though finished with protective coatings, is ultimately subject to attack from various combinations of environmental conditions and for proper operation periodic refurbishment is required.
Yet again, the prior art extruded aluminum waveguide array is relatively heavy and when the planar array is mounted for rotation (about the vertical axis) a large mechanical drive and pedestal support is required when such arrays are mounted so as to avoid obstacles. This frequently means mounting at substantial elevation, for example at the top of a mast of a naval vessel. In such a situation it will readily be understood that reduction in weight is a matter of great importance.
Yet another consequence of the use of aluminum waveguide, which is extensively employed in slotted-radiator planar arrays currently, is the introduction of distortions to the array radiation pattern caused by the relatively high coefficient of thermal expansion of the metal. Very often, the environmentally imposed temperature differentials impose serious limitations on the performance of large planar arrays exposed to the environment. Even under what may appear to be a relatively uniform temperature condition, differences of several degrees over a large array are not uncommon due to micro-climatic affects of thermal eddies from ground or water and random cooling affects of wind gust. Radiant heat from the sun can also produce relatively severe temperature differentials in the antenna array itself and its backing and support structure. In addition to the foregoing, the prior art all-metal waveguide generally contains no integral provisions for mounting. Attachment methods currently employed include such expedients as clamping the waveguide elements to the backstructure by means of machined aluminum bars notched to accommodate the waveguide, a substantial number of such clamps being required across the face of a completed array each bolted to a similarly machined aluminum member which is a part of the backstructure. Due to the fact that the front clamps infringe into the radiating aperture of the array they cause distortion of the radiation pattern of the overall array in addition to adding significantly to overall weight.
The manner in which the present invention deals with the disadvantages of the prior art as aforementioned will be evident as this description proceeds.

Lightweight composite slotted-waveguide antenna and method of manufacture

International Telephone and Telegraph Corporation


A rotary blade mowing machine having mechanism for washing the inner walls of the blade shroud thereof, wherein the shroud has a top deck and surrounding skirt depending therefrom to provide a blade cavity, wherein one or more drive shafts are provided within the cavity and at least one of which carries a rotary blade, at least one fluid slinger having a body provided with diverters extending generally radially outwardly therefrom, the slinger being affixed at its body to at least one of the shafts within the cavity at a position spaced from the cavity side of the deck, the diverters having surfaces on their cavity side contoured with respect to the general plane of the cavity side of the deck to provide at least one generally vertically oriented vector surface and, at least one chute surface having a fluid throw axis directed generally radially outwardly toward the skirt, the vector surface and the chute surface being adapted to direct, respectively, contacting wash fluid generally toward the deck and generally toward the skirt upon rotation of the at least one shaft, and at least one wash fluid port in the deck adapted to direct wash fluid onto the cavity side of the slinger or slingers.

1. Field of Invention
This invention concerns rotary mowing machines, both riding and walking types, having either single or multiple blades, typically employed to cut grass, weeds, brush or other vegetation, wherein, according to the present invention, washing means is provided to power water streams onto the inner walls of the blade shroud to wash away wet, loose vege wash away clumps of dried grass or dirt, or other such debris which are typically formed on said inner walls and which typically are very difficult and inconvenient to remove, particulary from heavy riding mowers, the undersides of which are practically inaccessible.
2. Description of Related Art
Heretofore, washing devices for rotary mowers have been of the type which injects water into the mower blade cavity onto the blade or into the vicinity of the blade whereby the blade is expected to throw the water against the debris and wash it away. It has been found however, that the mower blade essentially atomizes the water and merely wets down much of the debris, especially where the debris has already hardened onto the underside of the cavity deck. Devices of this type are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,936,563; 2,984,061; 2,992,524; 3,040,990; 3,214,893; 3,535,862; and 3,648,446, the disclosure of which concerning general rotary mower structure and wash water inlet mechanisims to the mower blade cavity, useful in practising the present invention, are incorporated herein by reference.


The disclosure provides methods for resolving an inconclusive cytological assessment of clinically relevant cells in a sample obtained from a patient based on the cytological detection of antibody binding to telomerase in clinically relevant cells in the sample, wherein binding of the antibody to clinically relevant cells indicates the presence of malignant or cancerous cells.

The development and progression of cancer places a significant emotional and financial burden on society.
Bladder cancer is the second most common genitourinary tumour in human populations, with an incidence of approximately 261,000 new cases each year worldwide; about a third of those are likely to be invasive or metastatic disease at the time of diagnosis (Parkin et al., 1999).
As with many other cancers, clinical diagnosis of bladder cancer can be a difficult process, particularly in the early stages of cancer development. At present, cystoscopy and urine cytology are the most important tools in the diagnosis and follow-up of bladder cancer.
At present, cystoscopy with biopsy is generally considered the gold standard for diagnosing bladder cancer. A drawback to using cystoscopy is that it requires an invasive procedure. In addition to being invasive, obtaining a biopsy via cystoscopy can have potential adverse outcomes for the patient. Given these limitations, it is very difficult to obtain patient samples via cystoscopy, repeatedly from a large number of individuals.
Accordingly, clinicians generally rely on routine cytology to identify patients at risk of developing bladder cancer prior to cystoscopy. Routine cytology suffers from two well accepted limitations that reduce its utility as a diagnostic tool for early stage cancer.
First, cytology has poor sensitivity for low grade cancer. Accordingly, routine cytology returns a high level of false-negative results in low-grade cancer samples that completely lack cellular morphological abnormalities. Second, the usefulness of cytology for the detection of low grade disease, or hard to diagnose lesions, is limited. For example, when using cytology for the diagnosis of bladder cancer, a large proportion of cases (20-25%) are reported as atypical, including "atypical urothelial cells of unknown significance" (AUCUS) and "atypical urothelial cells, cannot exclude high-grade urothelial carcinoma (AUHGC)" (Rosenthal et al., 2013). A reported outcome of AUCUS or AUHGC is of little or no diagnostic utility.
A need therefore exists for a method capable of providing a more accurate, early and economically viable diagnosis of cancers. Such a method could provide assistance to clinicians in reaching an early stage diagnosis prior to the portrayal of detectable morphological indicators. Moreover, early diagnosis of cancer, prior to invasion and metastasis, is generally associated with improved prognosis. Accordingly, there is a social and economic imperative to provide a method that can more reliably detect cancer at an early stage, so anti-cancer therapy can be administered at a time when the disease burden is mild.


A linear coverage area antenna system for use within a CDMA communication system is described. In a preferred implementation, two linear coverage area antenna structures are positioned in parallel and coupled to a base station. Within the base station, a transmitter generates remote user directed spread spectrum signals, these signals being provided to the first and second linear coverage area antenna structures through an antenna interface. The antenna interface includes a time delay element for introducing a predetermined time delay between components of the remote user directed spread spectrum signals transmitted by the first and second linear coverage area antenna structures, respectively. The base station also further includes at least a first demodulation element for demodulating an aggregate spread spectrum signal comprised of a plurality of system user directed spread spectrum signals received by the first linear coverage area antenna structure and a second demodulation element for demodulating a second aggregate spread spectrum signal comprised of a plurality of system user directed spread spectrum signals received by the second linear coverage area antenna structure.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communication systems, particularly indoor communication systems including cellular telephones, personal communication services (PCS), wireless private branch exchange (PBX) and wireless local loop telephone systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a novel and improved distributed coaxial antenna for microcellular communication systems to facilitate indoor communications using spread spectrum signals.
II. Description of the Related Art
The use of code division multiple access (CDMA) modulation techniques is one of several techniques for facilitating communications in which a large number of system users are present. Other multiple access communication system techniques, such as frequency hopping spread spectrum, time division multiple access (TDMA), frequency division multiple access (FDMA), and amplitude modulation schemes such as amplitude companded single sideband (ACSSB) are known in the art. However the spread spectrum modulation technique of CDMA has significant advantages over the other modulation techniques for multiple access communication systems. The use of CDMA techniques in a multiple access communication system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,307, issued Feb. 13, 1990, entitled "SPREAD SPECTRUM MULTIPLE ACCESS COMMUNICATION SYSTEM USING SATELLITE OR TERRESTRIAL REPEATERS", assigned to the assignee of the present invention, which is herein incorporated by reference.
In the just mentioned patent, a multiple access technique is disclosed where a large number of mobile telephone system users each having a transceiver communicate through satellite repeaters or terrestrial base stations (also referred to as cell-sites stations, cell-sites, or for short, cells) using CDMA spread spectrum communication signals. In using CDMA communications, the frequency spectrum can be reused multiple times. The use of CDMA results in a much higher spectral efficiency than can be achieved using other multiple access techniques thus permitting an increase in system user capacity.
The terrestrial channel experiences signal fading that is characterized by Rayleigh fading. The Rayleigh fading characteristic in the terrestrial channel signal is caused by the signal being reflected from many different features of the physical environment. As a result, a signal arrives at a mobile unit receiver from many directions with different transmission delays. At the UHF frequency bands usually employed for mobile radio communications, including those of cellular mobile telephone systems, significant phase differences in signals traveling on different paths may occur. The possibility for destructive summation of the signals may result in occasional deep fades.
Terrestrial channel fading is a very strong function of the physical environment of the mobile unit. A small change in position of the mobile unit or in the environment may change the physical delays of all the signal propagation paths, which further results in a different phase for each path. Thus for example, the motion of the mobile unit through the environment can result in a quite rapid fading process. For example, in the 850 MHz cellular radio frequency band, fading can typically occur as fast as one fade per second per mile per hour of vehicle speed. Fading this severe can be extremely disruptive to signals in the terrestrial channel resulting in poor communication quality. Additional transmitter power can be used to overcome the problem of fading. However, such an increase in power adversely effects both the user by excessive power consumption and the system by increased interference.
In a CDMA communication system, the same wideband frequency channel can be used for communication by all base stations. Typically in a FDMA scheme one frequency band is assigned to only one communication link, e.g. from the base station to one mobile unit. However in a CDMA system, the CDMA waveform properties that provide processing gain are also used to discriminate between signals that occupy the same frequency band. Furthermore the high speed pseudorandom noise (PN) modulation allows many different propagation paths of a common signal to be separately demodulated at the receiving unit, provided the difference in path delays exceeds the PN chip duration, i.e. 1/bandwidth. If a PN chip rate of approximately 1 MHz is employed in a CDMA system, the full spread spectrum processing gain, equal to the ratio of the spreading bandwidth to system data rate, can be employed to discriminate against paths that differ by more than one microsecond in path delay from each other. A one microsecond path delay differential corresponds to differential path distance of approximately 1,000 feet. The urban environment typically provides differential path delays in excess of one microsecond, and up to 10-20 microseconds are reported in some areas.
In narrow band modulation systems such as the analog FM modulation employed by conventional telephone systems, the existence of multiple paths results in severe multipath fading. The only solution to fading in an FM system is to increase the transmission power. With wideband CDMA modulation, however, the different paths may be discriminated against in the demodulation process. This discrimination can be used to greatly reduce the severity of multipath fading.
It is desirable in the such communication systems that some form of diversity be provided which would permit a system to further reduce the effects of fading. Diversity is one approach for mitigating the deleterious effects of fading. Three major types of diversity exist: time diversity, frequency diversity, and space diversity.
Time diversity can best be obtained by the use of repetition, time interleaving, and error detection and correction coding which is a form of repetition. The present invention may employ each of these techniques as a form of time diversity. Because CDMA is inherently wideband, CDMA offers a form of frequency diversity because the signal energy is spread over a wide bandwidth. Therefore, frequency selective fading may affect only a small part of the CDMA signal bandwidth.
Space or path diversity is obtained by providing multiple signal paths through simultaneous links between a mobile unit and two or more base stations. Examples of path diversity are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,101,501, issued Mar. 31, 1992, entitled "SOFT HANDOFF IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM", and U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,390, issued Apr. 28, 1992, entitled "DIVERSITY RECEIVER IN A CDMA CELLULAR TELEPHONE SYSTEM", both assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
The deleterious effects of fading can be further controlled to a certain extent by controlling transmitter power. A fade which decreases the power received by the base station from the mobile unit can be compensated for by increasing the power transmitted by the mobile unit. The power control function operates in accordance with a time constant. Depending on the time constant of the power control loop and the duration of a fade, the system may be able to compensate for the fade by increasing transmit power of the mobile unit. A system for base station and mobile unit power control is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,109, issued Oct. 8, 1991, entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONTROLLING TRANSMISSION POWER IN A CDMA CELLULAR MOBILE TELEPHONE SYSTEM", also assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
The existence of a plurality of spatially different paths can provide space diversity to a wideband CDMA system. If two or more spatially different paths (such as provided by two spatially separated antennas) are available with differential path delay greater than one chip duration, two or more demodulation elements within a common receiver can be employed to separately demodulate the signals at a single base station or mobile unit. Because these signals typically exhibit independence in multipath fading, i.e., they usually do not fade together, the outputs of the two demodulation elements can be diversity combined in order to mitigate the adverse effects of fading. Therefore a loss in performance only occurs when both paths experience fades at the same time. Hence, one aspect of the present invention is the provision of two or more demodulation elements in combination with a diversity combiner.
In order to use multiple demodulation elements, it is necessary to utilize a waveform that is not only orthogonal to other signals in the system but is orthogonal with a delayed version of the same signal. A method and system for constructing PN sequences that provide orthogonality between the users so that mutual interference is reduced is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,103,459, issued Apr. 7, 1992, entitled "SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR GENERATING SIGNAL WAVEFORMS IN A CDMA CELLULAR MOBILE TELEPHONE SYSTEM", also assigned to the assignee of the present invention. Using these techniques in reducing mutual interference allows higher system user capacity and better link performance. With orthogonal PN codes, the cross-correlation between the codes is zero over a predetermined time interval, resulting in no interference between the orthogonal codes.
In cellular telephone systems, a large geographic area is provided with mobile telephone service by installing a number of base stations, each positioned to provide service to a corresponding limited base station coverage area. If service demands are great, the base stations may be subdivided or sectorized into smaller coverage areas or more base stations may be added. For example, some major metropolitan areas currently have nearly 400 base stations.
In a further development of a cellular telephone system, it may be desired to provide a number of very small base stations, called microcells, which would provide coverage of a very limited geographic area. Usually, it is considered that such areas are limited to a single floor of an office building and the mobile telephone service can be viewed as a cordless telephone system that may or may not be compatible with the external mobile cellular telephone system. The rationale for providing such a service is similar to the reasoning for use of Private Branch Exchange (PBX) systems in business offices. Such systems provide for low cost phone service for a large number of calls between phones within the business while providing simplified dialing for internal phone numbers. A few lines are also provided to connect the PBX system to the public telephone system, allowing calls to be made and received between telephones in the PBX system and telephones located elsewhere. It is desirable for the microcell system to provide a similar level of service but with the added feature of cordless operation anywhere within the service area of the PBX.
In the indoor environment and other areas bound by large surfaces in close proximity, path delays are typically much shorter in duration than experienced in the outdoor communication system environment. In buildings and other indoor environments where communication systems are used, it may be necessary to provide an additional form of diversity which enables discrimination between multipath signals.
A communication system adapted for indoor environments is described in the above-referenced U.S. Pat. No. 5,280,472 (the '472 patent), which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention, and which is herein incorporated by reference. Among other things, the '472 patent describes an implementation of a distributed antenna system which utilizes a single or dual set of discrete antennas where each discrete antenna on a common strand is separated from its neighbor with a delay element.
Also there are other less confined environments where it is desirable to have a coverage area shape different from the standard circular or cone shape provide by standard base stations. Even a serially connected set of discrete antennas which make up a distributed antenna provides less than ideal coverage over some linearly shaped regions. For example, a busy highway is a high capacity demand area. If discrete antennas are provided along the highway, the signal level must be large next to the antennas to reach the areas between the antennas. The large signal level may cause harmful intermodulation problems close to the base station while providing inadequate signal levels at the boundaries of the coverage area. Another even more problematic example is a subway or highway tunnel. A tunnel provides a unique environment in that the propagation paths are greatly confined. The confined paths result in strong and durationally short multipath propagation paths which result in relatively fast, flat, broadband fading. The fast rate of fading prevents power control from effectively compensating if the time constant of the power control is slower than the rate of the fades. Also the inherent broadband nature of the fast fades prevents the frequency diversity of the broadband CDMA waveform from mitigating the effects of the fast rate fading.
In such environments, it is more desirable to have an antenna system which provides an elongated, constant signal strength coverage area. If a distributed antenna comprised of a set of discrete antennas is thought of as having an antenna pattern resembling the light pattern from a string of Christmas tree lights, a more ideal antenna pattern would be one which has a coverage area similar to that of a neon tube light. The ideal antenna structure would also provide some form of diversity which would survive even the most harsh environment such as the tunnel environment. The present invention provides both a uniform coverage area and a reliable form of diversity.
In the above-referenced copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/112,392, which is also assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference, a technique is disclosed for improving performance of a distributed antenna system using parallel strings of discrete antennas, each antenna on a common string is separated from its neighbors by a delay element. Two antennas one from each parallel string are placed at each node to provide spatial diversity throughout the coverage area. Thus the mobile unit in general has a similar distance, and hence path loss, to pairs of collocated antennas. The discrete antenna elements may include frequency conversion circuitry, thus reducing the cabling path loss between the antenna elements and the base station and allowing the use of readily available SAW devices as delay elements. At each discrete antenna node, circuits may be used to provide gain and duplexing functions.
Unfortunately, the circuitry associated with each antenna node can be relatively expensive and may require DC power to operate. Any cabling path loss occurring between nodes further increases DC power requirements, particularly for distributed antennas of appreciable length. Moreover, the accumulated delay associated with the SAW devices distributed along such lengthy systems may complicate efforts to achieve compliance with accepted telecommunications industry standards (e.g., IS-95).
It is a principal object of the present invention to provide a simple antenna system characterized by high capacity, simple installation, good coverage, and low susceptibility to multipath fading. The antenna system of the present invention advantageously provides these features without requiring DC power, and facilitates compliance with industry standards by creating less accumulated delay for a given length of antenna.

Linear coverage area antenna system for a CDMA communication system