An optical fiber cable including a plurality of optical fibers, each optical fiber having a characteristic value in a middle field which is larger than characteristic values in fields other than the middle field of the optical fiber. The characteristic value in a respective field is a nonlinear refractive index of the optical fiber in the field divided by an effective cross section of the optical fiber in the field. The middle field and the characteristic value in the middle field are set as a combination to suppress a nonlinear phase shift generated in light transmitted through the plurality of optical fibers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a distributed optical amplifying apparatus which can serve both as an optical transmission line and an optical amplifying medium, and more particularly, to a distributed optical amplifying apparatus which can compensate transmission loss, prevent a nonlinear optical effect, and improve an optical signal-to-noise ratio. Moreover, the present invention relates to an optical fiber cable suitable for the distributed optical amplifying apparatus, an optical communication station including the distributed optical amplifying apparatus, and an optical communication system including the distributed optical amplifying apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical communication systems will be used in future multimedia networks, as advances in optical communication technology should enable the high bandwidth, high capacity, ultra long distance transmission required by such future multimedia networks. Wavelength division multiplexing (hereinafter abbreviated to 'WDM') is a significant optical communication technology being developed for this purpose, as WDM effectively utilizes the broadband characteristics and large capacity of an optical fiber.
More specifically, in WDM optical communication systems, a plurality of optical signals at different wavelengths are multiplexed together into a WDM optical signal. This WDM optical signal is then transmitted through a single optical fiber as an optical transmission line. A WDM optical communication system can provide extremely high bandwidth, high capacity, long distance transmission.
In a long distance optical communication system, since a WDM optical signal attenuates while being transmitted through an optical transmission line, the WDM optical signal must be amplified after being transmitted a certain distance. For this reason, optical amplifying apparatuses for amplifying the WDM optical signal are currently in use, and further research and development of such apparatuses is occurring.
Therefore, in a conventional WDM optical communication system, an optical transmitting station uses wavelength division multiplexing to multiplex together a plurality of optical signals at different wavelengths into a WDM optical signal. The WDM optical signal is then transmitted through an optical transmission line. An optical receiving station receives the transmitted WDM optical signal from the optical transmission line. One or more optical repeater stations are positioned along the optical transmission line to amplify the WDM optical signal. The number of optical repeater stations is typically determined in accordance with system design parameters to provide a sufficient amount of amplification.
While being transmitted through the optical transmission line, the WDM optical signal deteriorates in its waveform due to wavelength dispersion, transmission loss, and a nonlinear optical effect. Therefore, various countermeasures have been devised.
For example, various conventional methods have been devised for providing wavelength dispersion compensation. In one such method, a dispersion-managed fiber (hereinafter abbreviated to 'DMF') combines optical fibers with different wavelength dispersion from each other.
FIGS. 1A and 1B are diagrams showing the structures of conventional dispersion-managed fibers.
More specifically, FIG. 1A shows a partial structure between two stations in an optical communication system, where an optical repeater station 1004-A and an optical repeater station 1004-B are connected by an optical transmission line 1002. The optical transmission line 1002 is composed of an optical transmission line 1002-L1 whose wavelength dispersion is positive and an optical transmission line 1002-L2 whose wavelength dispersion is negative. An optical signal is transmitted to the optical repeater station 1004-B from the optical repeater station 1004-A via the optical transmission line 1002-L1 and the optical transmission line 1002-L2. While being transmitted, the optical signal undergoes a positive wavelength dispersion in the optical transmission line 1002-L1 and undergoes a negative wavelength dispersion in the optical transmission line 1002-L2 to be compensated in a manner that accumulated wavelength dispersion becomes almost zero. The DMF as described above is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,191,631, and Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 9-318824. A symmetrical DMF in which the wavelength dispersion is made symmetrical is also disclosed.
FIG. 1B shows a partial structure of two stations in an optical communication system. An optical repeater station 1004-C and an optical repeater station 1004-D are connected by the optical transmission line 1002. The optical transmission line 1002 is composed of an optical transmission line 1002-L3 whose wavelength dispersion is positive, an optical transmission line 1002-L4 whose wavelength dispersion is negative, and an optical transmission line 1002-L5 whose wavelength dispersion is positive. An optical signal which is sent out from the optical repeater station 1004-C undergoes the positive wavelength dispersion in the optical transmission line 1002-L3, undergoes the negative wavelength dispersion in the optical transmission line 1002-L4, and undergoes the positive wavelength dispersion in the optical transmission line 1002-L5. Therefore, the optical signal is transmitted to the optical repeater station 1004-D in a manner so that compensation causes accumulated wavelength dispersion to become almost zero. Meanwhile, an optical signal sent out from the optical repeater station 1004-D undergoes the positive wavelength dispersion in the optical transmission line 1002-L5, undergoes the negative wavelength dispersion in the optical transmission line 1002-L4, and undergoes the positive wavelength dispersion in the optical transmission line 1002-L3. Therefore, the optical signal is transmitted to the optical repeater station 1004-C in a manner so that compensation causes accumulated wavelength dispersion to become almost zero. Such a DMF is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,128, a paper; "Enhanced power solitons in optical fibers with periodic dispersion management" (N. J. Smith, F. M. Knox, N. J. Doran, K. J. Blow and I. Bennion: Electronics Letters, Vol. 31, No. 1, p54–p55, 4th Jan. 1996), a paper, "Energy-scaling characteristics of solitons in strongly dispersion-managed fibers" (N. J. Smith, N. J. Doran, F. M. Knox and W. Forysak: Optics Letters, Vol. 21, No. 24, p1981–p1983, 15th Dec. 1966), and a paper, "40 Gbit/s×16 WDM transmission over 2000 km using dispersion managed low-nonlinear fiber span" (Itsuro Morita, Keiji Tanaka, Noboru Edagawa and Masatoshi Suzuki: ECOC 2000, Vol. 4, p25–p26, 2000).
These conventional technologies are devised from the viewpoint of wavelength dispersion compensation. Such technologies were not devised in consideration of a system in which an optical transmission line also serves as an optical amplifying medium for distributed optical amplification.
Meanwhile, various methods for compensating the transmission loss have also been conventionally devised, and a distributed optical amplifying apparatus, especially a distributed Raman amplifier, is one of them.
FIGS. 2A and 2B are diagrams showing the structures of conventional loss compensated/distributed Raman amplifiers.
FIG. 2A shows a partial structure between two stations in the optical communication system described above, where the optical repeater station 1004-A and an optical repeater station 1004-E are connected with the optical transmission line 1002. In the optical repeater station 1004-E, a pump light source 1005-E for supplying pump light used for Raman amplification is provided. The optical transmission line 1002 is composed of an optical transmission line 1002-L6 which has a large effective cross section and an optical transmission line 1002-L7 which has a small effective cross section compared with that of the optical transmission line 1002-L6, and it is supplied with the pump light from the pump light source 1005-E. An optical signal is transmitted from the optical repeater station 1004-A to the optical repeater station 1004-E via the optical transmission line 1002-L6 and the optical transmission line 1007-L7, and is Raman-amplified by the pump light in the optical transmission line 1002 while being transmitted to be compensated in such a manner that transmission loss becomes almost zero. In other words, the optical signal is Raman-amplified so that an output optical level of the optical repeater station 1004-A and an input optical level of the optical repeater station 1004-E are substantially equal to each other. The effective cross section is a part of a cross section of the optical transmission line in which the optical signal and the pump light interact with each other to cause sufficient Raman amplification. Such a DMF is disclosed, for example, in a paper, "40 Gbit/s×8 NZR WDM transmission experiment over 80 km×5-span using distributed Raman amplification in RDF" (R. Ohhira, Y. Yano, A. Noda, Y. Suzuki, C. Kurioka, M. Tachigori, S. Moribayashi, K Fukuchi, T. Ono and T. Suzaki: ECOC '99, 26–30, p176–p177, September 1999, Nice, France).
Here, a size of the effective cross section correlates with a scale of the nonlinear optical effect. When the effective cross section is large, the nonlinear optical effect is small. On the other hand, when the effective cross section is small, the nonlinear optical effect is large. Therefore, from the viewpoint of a choice of whether optical power in the optical repeater station 1004-A from which the optical signal is sent out is increased or optical power in the optical repeater station 1004-E from which the pump light is supplied is increased, a structure as shown in FIG. 2B in also possible. In FIG. 2B, the optical transmission line 1002 is composed of an optical transmission line 1002-L8 which has a small effective cross section and an optical transmission line 1002-L9 which has a large effective cross section compared with the optical transmission line 1002-L8. The optical transmission line 1002-L8 is connected to the optical repeater station 1004-A. Such a structure is disclosed, for example, in a paper, "A proposal of a transmission line without any loss in a longitudinal direction utilizing distributed Raman amplification" (Toshiaki Okuno, Tetsufumi Tsuzaki and Masayuki Nishimura: B-10-116, the 2000 Society Conference of the Institute of Electronics, Information and Communication Engineers).
These conventional technologies as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B are technologies which are devised from the viewpoint of compensating the transmission loss and no consideration is made for the wavelength dispersion compensation, an optical signal-to-noise ratio (hereinafter abbreviated to 'optical SNR'), and so on.
Furthermore, in the conventional arts as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B and FIGS. 2A and 2B, the nonlinear optical effect, especially a nonlinear phase shift, is not taken into consideration.
It is noteworthy that the wavelength dispersion and the effective cross section have such a correlation that an optical fiber with the positive wavelength dispersion usually has a small effective cross section and an optical fiber with the negative wavelength dispersion usually has a large effective cross section.
In realizing long distance transmission of an optical signal with less error ratio, there is a problem that the wavelength dispersion, the transmission loss, and the nonlinear optical effect need to be compensated in a well-balanced manner as a whole instead of compensating only one physical quantity.


A skeleton triangular tower frame structure comprising a series of vertical, horizontal and diagonal tubular members with flattened ends, joined together by means of threaded rods or studs, washers and nuts. Every three (3) vertical tubular members joined to three (3) horizontals and to three (3) diagonals, make a section which is connected to a similar section placed on a top level. There are as many sections as the tower require as per specific design. The length, diameter and thickness of the tubular members are determined by structural calculations for a given tower design loads and height. The three (3) horizontal tubular members conform an equilateral triangle of bigger section at the bottom portion of the tower and is reduced as the tower gets higher in a tapered manner. The first section of the tower is supported by a wider base formed by a tetrahedral frame for additional stability. The tubular tower members are delivered to the job site in separate short pre-manufactured members with studs, washers and nuts for easy transportation.

The invention resides in an in-situ erected self-supporting communication tower constructed by means of interconnecting short tubular members through their flattened and pierced ends with studs washers and nuts that conform a node which is connected to other nodes in such a manner, that, as a whole, forms a tower of a desired height, capable of holding the necessary communication equipment. The invention utilizes short members capable of being hand-held by operators during the construction and erection process.
Prior-art towers are generally constructed with structural steel angles or tubular members welded or bolted together into several sections of about 20 feet long each, which are hot-dipped galvanized after fabrication and are transported to the tower's chosen location where they are connected and put in place with the help of a crane or other elevating apparatus.
In the communication industry, the service providers must maintain a network of towers spread across their coverage area. The location of towers could be in remote places with hilled terrain of difficult access by regular transportation means to move the voluminous pre-fabricated tower section.
The present invention greatly facilitates fabrication, transportation, erection, service and maintenance reducing overall cost, making the invention a good product to be used by the increasing worldwide communication industry.

Abstract: In constructing the tower, a removable platform is placed on top of the three horizontal members that form the equilateral layer, where the erection crew can stand up to interconnect the upper sections. This procedure continues until the self-supporting tower reaches its total height, making the use of cranes or any other elevating equipment unnecessary.


A microfluidic method and device for focusing and/or forming discontinuous sections of similar or dissimilar size in a fluid is provided. The device can be fabricated simply from readily-available, inexpensive material using simple techniques.

The manipulation of fluids to form fluid streams of desired configuration, discontinuous fluid streams, particles, dispersions, etc., for purposes of fluid delivery, product manufacture, analysis, and the like, is a relatively well-studied art. For example, highly monodisperse gas bubbles, less than 100 microns in diameter, have been produced using a technique referred to as capillary flow focusing. In this technique, gas is forced out of a capillary tube into a bath of liquid, the tube is positioned above a small orifice, and the contraction flow of the external liquid through this orifice focuses the gas into a thin jet which subsequently breaks into equal-sized bubbles via a capillary instability. In a related technique, a similar arrangement was used to produce liquid droplets in air
Microfluidics is an area of technology involving the control of fluid flow at a very small scale. Microfluidic devices typically include very small channels, within which fluid flows, which can be branched or otherwise arranged to allow fluids to be combined with each other, to divert fluids to different locations, to cause laminar flow between fluids, to dilute fluids, and the like. Significant effort has been directed toward "lab-on-a-chip" microfluidic technology, in which researchers seek to carry out known chemical or biological reactions on a very small scale on a "chip," or microfluidic device. Additionally, new techniques, not necessarily known on the macro scale, are being developed using microfluidics. Examples of techniques being investigated or developed at the microfluidic scale include high-throughput screening, drug delivery, chemical kinetics measurements, combinatorial chemistry (where rapid testing of chemical reactions, chemical affinity, and micro structure formation are desired), as well as the study of fundamental questions in the fields of physics, chemistry, and engineering.
The field of dispersions is well-studied. A dispersion (or emulsion) is a mixture of two materials, typically fluids, defined by a mixture of at least two incompatible (immiscible) materials, one dispersed within the other. That is, one material is broken up into small, isolated regions, or droplets, surrounded by another phase (dispersant, or constant phase), within which the first phase is carried. Examples of dispersions can be found in many industries including the food and cosmetic industry. For example, lotions tend to be oils dispersed within a water-based dispersant. In dispersions, control of the size of droplets of dispersed phase can effect overall product properties, for example, the "feel" of a lotion.
Formation of dispersions typically is carried out in equipment including moving parts (e.g., a blender or device similarly designed to break up material), which can be prone to failure and, in many cases, is not suitable for control of very small dispersed phase droplets. Specifically, traditional industrial processes typically involve manufacturing equipment built to operate on size scales generally unsuitable for precise, small dispersion control. Membrane emulsification is one small scale technique using micron-sized pores to form emulsions. However, polydispersity of the dispersed phase can in some cases be limited by the pore sizes of the membrane.
While many techniques involving control of multi-phase systems exists, there is a need for improvement in control of size of dispersed phase, size range (polydispersity), and other factors.
An article entitled "Generation of Steady Liquid Microthreads and Micron-Sized Monodisperse Sprays and Gas Streams," Phys. Rev. Lett., 80:2, Jan. 12, 1998, 285-288 (Ganan-Calvo) describes formation of a microscopic liquid thread by a laminar accelerating gas stream, giving rise to a fine spray.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,666, issued Sep. 19, 2000, describes a micofabricated device having a fluid focusing chamber for spatially confining first and second sample fluid streams for analyzing microscopic particles in a fluid medium, for example in biological fluid analysis.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,116,516, issued Sep. 12, 2000, describes formation of a capillary microjet, and formation of a monodisperse aerosol via disassociation of the microjet.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,187,214, issued Feb. 13, 2001, describes atomized particles in a size range of from about 1 to about 5 microns, produced by the interaction of two immiscible fluids.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,248,378, issued Jun. 19, 2001, describes production of particles for introduction into food using a microjet and a monodisperse aerosol formed when the microjet dissociates.
An articled entitled "Dynamic Pattern Formation in a Vesicle-Generating Microfluidic Device," Phys. Rev. Lett., 86:18, Apr. 30, 2001 (Thorsen, et al.) describes formation of a discontinuous water phase in a continuous oil phase via microfluidic cross-flow, specifically, by introducing water, at a "T" junction between two microfluidic channels, into flowing oil.
Microfluidic systems have been described in a variety of contexts, typically in the context of miniaturized laboratory (e.g., clinical) analysis. Other uses have been described as well. For example, International Patent Publication No. WO 01/89789, published Nov. 29, 2001 by Anderson, et al., describes multi-level microfluidic systems that can be used to provide patterns of materials, such as biological materials and cells, on surfaces. Other publications describe microfluidic systems including valves, switches, and other components.
While the production of discontinuous fluids, aerosols, and the like are known, very little is known about discontinuous fluid production in microfluidic systems, i.e. the production of liquid-liquid and gas-liquid dispersions and emulsions. This may be due to the fact that precise control of fluid flow in microfluidic systems can be challenging.

Method and apparatus for fluid dispersion

President and Fellows of Harvard College

Governing Council of the Univ. of Toronto


A fixation system (10) includes a device having a nail portion (12) and a plate portion (14), preferably horizontally and vertically offset relative to the nail portion by a neck portion (16). The nail portion (12) includes preferably threaded screw holes (24, 26), and the plate portion (14) includes longitudinally displaced peg holes (50, 52, 54), each of which is adapted to orient a peg (56, 58, 60) in a different orientation from the others. The system (10) also includes unicortical screws (28) having a reasonably large head (36) adapted to seat against the outer surface of the bone and a threaded shaft (32) adapted to engage in the screw holes (24, 26), and pegs (56, 58, 60) adapted to engage in the peg holes (50, 52, 54). Where threaded screw holes (24, 26) are used, bone is clamped between the nail portion (12) and the head (36) of the unicortical screws (28, 30). The pegs (56, 58, 60) provide stabilization and support for subchondral fragments. Moreover, as the pegs (56, 58, 60) preferably enter the subchondral fragments from a plurality of directions, additional fixation of the device (10) into the bone is provided.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates broadly to surgical devices. More particularly, this invention relates to cross-fastened intramedullary implants for the fixation of bone fractures.
2. State of the Art
Severe long bone fractures are often treated with plating. In plating, a relatively large incision is made at the location of the fracture, musculature and tendons are displaced from the bone to expose the bone surface, and a bone plate is fixedly attached to one or more pieces of the fractured bone in a manner which, ideally, supports and stabilizes the fracture for healing. Due to the relatively invasive nature of the procedure required to implant the plate, plating is generally reserved for fractures which cannot be treated with a less invasive method of immobilization.
Less complicated fractures are often treated with casting or wires. However, such conservative treatment may not provide the stabilization and support necessary for desirable recovery. Yet, the operative procedure of plating is often too invasive for the relative non-severity of the fracture. Moreover, conventional plating can result in tendon irritation and skin necrosis, and may require extensive periosteal stripping in order to apply the plate on the bone surface. As such, many of the less displaced fractures, and particularly metaphyseal fractures (fractures at the end of the long bones), remain undertreated.
By way of example, a Colles' fracture, which results from compressive forces being placed on the distal radius bone, and which causes backward displacement of the distal fragment and radial deviation of the hand at the wrist, is treated with a dorsal plate when there is a significant degree of displacement. However, a less-displaced Colles' fracture is commonly undertreated due to the hesitancy of physicians to prescribe operative and invasive treatment. If not properly treated, such a fracture results in permanent wrist deformity. It is therefore important to align the fracture and fixate the bones relative to each other so that proper healing may occur.
In addition, there is no relatively minimally invasive procedure to treat fractures occurring at the metaphysis and that also provides the desired reduction and immobilization for such fractures.
Furthermore, there is no relatively minimally invasive procedure to treat distal radius fractures that provides the stability generally obtained by more invasive procedures, such as open reduction and internal fixation.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Intramedullary fixation device for metaphyseal long bone fractures


A friction testing machine and method for measuring friction characteristics between a test sample and a friction surface. The machine and method are particularly suited for measuring the coefficient of friction between a rubber specimen or a tread element and different friction surfaces at different sliding velocities, contact pressures and orientations. A preferred embodiment of machine is self-contained and portable, configured for easy and quick changing of the friction surface, and provides for rotating the test sample about an axis normal to the sliding surface and the direction of movement of the sample relative to the friction surface. In general, a friction test machine according to the invention comprises a sample holder configured to hold a sample in frictional engagement with a friction surface, and a motion device for effecting relative movement between the friction surface and sample holder in a first direction. Also provided is a variable weight loading device on the sample holder for loading the sample holder such that a selected load can be applied to the sample normal to the friction surface, and a force measurement device for obtaining a measurement indicative of the frictional force resisting such relative movement between the sample holder and the friction surface effected by the motion device.

When developing new compounds for tires, a prior practice was to build a tire and subject the tire to various traction tests. Because of the cost and time needed to build test tires for the purpose of optimizing traction properties, small samples of tread compounds have instead been used to determine the traction characteristics of the compounds. By using small samples for testing, a large number of different tread compounds can be made in small batches for screening to determine which compound has the best properties. The small samples could also be tested with different friction test surfaces representing different road surfaces and different conditions, whereby the traction properties of the compounds may be observed to determine which compound has the best traction on a specific road surface under specific conditions.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,113,688 there is disclosed an apparatus and method for predicting tire traction characteristics of tread compounds using small test samples. The apparatus causes a rotating relationship between the sample and friction surface. The peak torque between the sample and friction surface is measured and a torque versus time curve is established for the sample. Such apparatus, however, does not appear to be easily movable as may be desired for testing at different locations, nor is such apparatus suitable for evaluating the performance of different tread patterns. It would be advantageous to have a portable friction testing apparatus that not only can measure the coefficient of friction of plain tread elements, but also can measure the coefficient of friction of tread blocks, shoulders, etc., of existing tires. A further desirable advantage would be an apparatus that permits one to view the interaction between the friction surface and the specimen in the same way as the present invention.

Portable universal friction testing machine and method


An electrophoretic display device includes; a first substrate having a plurality of pixel electrodes in a display region thereof; and an electrophoretic sheet that includes a second substrate on which a common electrode, an electrophoretic layer, and an adhesive layer are laminated. The electrophoretic sheet is bonded to the display region of the first substrate via the adhesive layer. The distance between neighboring pixel electrodes among the plurality of pixel electrodes is 5 μm or more.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electrophoretic display device and an electronic apparatus.
2. Related Art
In recent years, electrophoretic display devices have come to be used as display devices for electronic paper, dial plates of watches, etc. An electrophoretic display device is provided with an electrophoretic dispersion liquid that contains a liquid-phase dispersion medium and electrophoretic particles, and forms visible images by changing the optical characteristics of the electrophoretic dispersion liquid by rearranging the electrophoretic particles using an applied electric field (see JP-A-2006-150755, for example). An electrophoretic display device has a wide viewing angle, high contrast, and in addition, a capability of maintaining display of images (memory function), allowing minimum power consumption. Therefore, an electrophoretic display device has drawn attention as a next-generation display device.
Examples of typical specific structures of electrophoretic display devices include a structure in which an electrophoretic sheet is bonded onto a display region of an element substrate on which a plurality of pixel electrodes and elements are formed, and a protection substrate is bonded onto the electrophoretic sheet. The electrophoretic sheet has a structure in which an electrophoretic layer and an adhesive layer are laminated onto a common substrate, and is bonded onto the element substrate via the adhesive layer. In such an electrophoretic display device, the electrophoretic particles are rearranged by an applied electric field between pixel electrodes and a common electrode. In recent years, the distance between neighboring pixel electrodes has been gradually narrowed to realize high-resolution display. Advances in technology in recent years have even made it possible to form neighboring pixel electrodes spaced with a distance of 1 μm or less.
However, decreasing the distance between neighboring pixel electrodes may cause a problem in that an electric field which leaks from a certain pixel electrode is applied to the neighboring pixel electrodes. The leakage electric field, though weak, may cause the displayed information of the neighboring pixel electrodes to change, when applied for a certain amount of time. This is known as a so-called cross-talk phenomenon.
In the case of a structure in which an electric potential is applied to a pixel electrode (segment electrode, for example) from the back side via a through hole, there is a problem in that an electric field having insufficient strength is applied to a portion of the display region corresponding to the through hole, causing a dot or circle of uneven contrast.
The known electrophoretic display device thus has a problem in that display quality is deteriorated by a cross-talk phenomenon, among others.

Electrophoretic display device and electronic apparatus


Round and spherical titanium dioxide scouring media and a method for producing the media are disclosed. The scouring media is effective in removing titanium dioxide buildup on the walls of a titanium dioxide reaction vessel. The method consists of forming green titanium dioxide pellets in a high intensity mixer by mixing commercially available titanium dioxide dust, water and a surfactant. The high intensity mixer produces substantially round, and spherical green pellets which are subsequently sized and sintered in a kiln to form round and spherical titanium dioxide sintered pellets that are suitable as a scouring media. The high intensity mixer allows the operator to closely control the size and shape of the pellets during the forming process to produce substantially round and spherical green pellets. Because the sintered titanium dioxide pellets are substantially round and spherical in shape, they are much less abrasive to the walls of the reaction vessel. Furthermore, as the pellets themselves abrade away, they do not contaminate the titanium dioxide product, and they can even be reprocessed into round and spherical scouring media.

The present invention relates to methods for preparation of substantially round and spherical pellets comprising sintered titanium dioxide. The pellets are useful as a scouring media.
Methods disclosed herein involve mixing titanium dioxide dust, water and at least one surfactant, forming a pellet from the mixture and sintering the pellet to form the titanium dioxide scouring media.
The production of titanium dioxide through the vapor phase oxidation of titanium tetrachloride has become a commonly used process in the production of titanium dioxide pigment. During this process, titanium tetrachloride vapors react with oxygen or air or both at high temperatures in an oxidation reactor. The resultant stream of hot oxidation products exiting the reactor contains titanium dioxide in a finely distributed form suspended in gaseous constituents. The freshly formed titanium dioxide particles, which are present at first as very reactive particles, grow together to form small aggregates having a diameter of less than 0.15 mm. Some of these small aggregates grow larger in size and partly sinter to form larger, hard and unshapely aggregates having a dimension greater than 0.15 mm. These larger aggregates tend to form in a layer and deposit on the surfaces of the hot reaction zone of the oxidation reactor. Continued use of the oxidation reactor and the hot reaction products which pass over it constantly regenerate this layer. Not only does this layer regenerate with continued use of the reactor, but often pieces of this layer break off and are carried away in the reaction mixture. These large particles are not suitable for pigment production and serve to contaminate the reaction mixture.
To prevent the formation of this layer of titanium dioxide particles, scouring media consisting of chemically inert scrubbing solids have been added to the reaction mixture at appropriate locations. Numerous substances have been used as scouring media such as aluminum oxide, zirconium silicate, and silica sand. One of the most commonly used scouring media is silica sand. However, there are disadvantages to the use of silica sand as a scouring media in an oxidation reactor.
Silica sand is somewhat angular in shape. While the angular shape is effective in scouring the walls of the reactor, it also severely wears the inner walls of the reactor. Eventually, the silica sand generates holes in the reactor, which requires repair to, or in some cases replacement of, the reactor. The replacement time could be a matter of weeks, thus severely hampering production.
Furthermore, silica sand particles are easily crushed. The crushed silica sand contaminates the reactor mixture and must be removed from the mixture. If not removed, the silica sand will reduce the quality of the resultant product. Therefore, there exists a need for a scouring media that will be strong and dense enough to effectively scour the titanium dioxide reactor walls but is round and spherical and less abrasive to reduce or eliminate reactor wear. There is also a need for a scouring media that is sized properly to provide adequate separation and recycle and would reduce the potential for contamination of the reactor mixture.
Titanium dioxide has been used as a scouring media to address the disadvantages associated with the use of conventional scouring media. However, the titanium dioxide previously produced for use as scouring media has not eliminated all of the problems associated with other scouring media. For instance, in the process described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,784,841, titanium dioxide scouring particles are produced by vapor phase oxidation of titanium tetrachloride. The particle aggregates initially formed which have a dimension larger than 0.15 mm are separated, admixed with alkaline hydroxides, calcined and returned to the process. This process produces particle aggregates of sizes between 0.2 to 2.0 mm for use as scouring aggregates for the prevention of deposit formation on a heat exchanger. The process disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,784,841, however, fails to control the size and shape of the aggregates formed, and thus fails to reduce the possibility of damage to the reactor walls and fails to maximize separation and recycle/reuse efficiency.
In the process described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,721,626, coarse scouring solids having a dimension ranging from 0.15 to 6.35 mm are admixed with a hot reaction mixture and after cooling separated from the reaction products and used again as scouring solids. The dry separation of the coarse scouring titanium dioxide particles from the finely particulate titanium dioxide is inefficient. Thus, there is always a percentage of coarse scouring solids remaining in the final product thereby reducing the overall efficiency of the process.

Titanium dioxide scouring media and method of production


An interleaver for a turbo encoder and decoder comprising a first table populated with a first set of parameters to allow intra-row permutation of data within an array in accordance with a first wireless communication standard when operation in the first wireless communication standard is required and a second table populated with a second set of parameters to allow inter-row permutation of the data in accordance with the first wireless communication standard when operation in the first wireless communication standard is required wherein the first table is populated with a third set of parameters to allow intra-row permutation of data within an array in accordance with a second wireless communication standard when operation in the second wireless communication standard is required and to populate the second table with a fourth set of parameters to allow inter-row permutation of the data in accordance with the second wireless communication standard when operation in the second wireless communication standard is required.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an interleaver for a turbo encoder and decoder.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communications such as voice and data. One such system is wide band code division multiple access WCDMA, which has been adopted in various competing wireless communication standards, for example 3rd generation partnership project 3GPP and 3GPP2.
To overcome data corruption that can occur during RF transmission the different wireless communication standards typically include some form of channel coding, where one common channel coding technique is turbo coding.
Turbo coding involves the use of a turbo encoder for encoding a code segment (i.e. a data packet) and a turbo decoder for the decoding of the encoded code segment.
As shown in FIG. 1, a turbo encoder 100 includes two convolutional encoders 101, 102 and an interleaver 103, where the interleaver 103 shuffles (i.e. interleaves) the information bits in the packet in accordance with a specified interleaving scheme.
The turbo encoder 100 uses a first convolutional encoder 101 to encode information bits (i.e. systematic bits) within a code block to generate a first sequence of parity bits (i.e. parity 1 bits) in parallel to the interleaver 103 shuffling the information bits, where the shuffled information bits are encoded by a second encoder 102 to generate a second sequence of parity bits (i.e. parity 2 bits). The information bits and the parity bits in the first and second sequence are then modulated and transmitted to a receiver.
The information bits and the first and second sequence of parity bits are received by a receiver and decoded by a turbo decoder.
With reference to FIG. 2, the turbo decoder 200 initially stores the received information bits and the parity bits in the first and second sequence in a buffer (not shown). Initially, the information bits and the first sequence of parity bits from the first convolutional encoder are retrieved from the buffer and decoded by a first decoder 201 (i.e. a first soft in soft out SISO decoder) to provide 'extrinsic' information (i.e. a-posteriori data) indicative of adjustments in the confidence in the detected values for the information bits. In one embodiment, intermediate results (i.e. a-priori) that include the extrinsic information from the first decoder 201 are then stored in the buffer in an interleaved order matching the code interleaving used at the transmitter. Alternatively, embodiment the extrinsic information from the first decoder (i.e. first SISO decoder) can be stored in the buffer in a non-interleaved order and read from the buffer in an interleaved order.
The intermediate results, the information and the second sequence of parity bits from the second encoder are retrieved from the buffer and decoded by a second decoder 202 (i.e. a second SISO decoder) to provide extrinsic information indicative of further adjustments in the confidence in the detected values for the information bits. Intermediate results that comprise the extrinsic information from the second decoder 202 (i.e. a second SISO decoder) are then stored in the buffer in a deinterleaved order complementary to the code interleaving performed at the transmitter. Alternatively, the extrinsic information can be stored in an interleaved order and read from the buffer in a deinterleaved order. The intermediate results are used in a next decoding iteration performed by the turbo decoder 200. The turbo decoder 200 performs a predetermined number of decoding iterations before producing a decision on the value of the decoded information bit.
Accordingly, the interleaving and deinterleaving of data is an important aspect of turbo encoding and decoding.
However, the interleaving and deinterleaving specifications that form part of the turbo coding/decoding process can be different for the different wireless communication standards. As such, dual standard wireless communication devices, for example a 3GPP and 3GPP2 compliant radiotelephone, typically require multiple interleavers and deinterleavers to accommodate the different standards, which can result in increased die size, power consumption and cost.
It is desirable to improve this situation.

Multi-standard turbo interleaver using tables


A fiber optic sensor system includes an optical source to output a first optical signal to launch into an optical fiber, and a coherent detector to mix a coherent Rayleigh backscatter signal generated by the optical fiber in response to the first optical signal with a second optical signal output by the optical source and to generate a mixed output signal. A phase detection and acquisition system determines a phase difference between first and second locations along the optical fiber based on phase information extracted from the mixed output signal and combines the phase information extracted from multiple acquisitions to detect strain on the optical fiber sensor.

Hydrocarbon fluids such as oil and natural gas are obtained from a subterranean geologic formation, referred to as a reservoir, by drilling a well that penetrates the hydrocarbon-bearing formation. Once a wellbore is drilled, various forms of well completion components may be installed in order to control and enhance the efficiency of producing the various fluids from the reservoir. One piece of equipment which may be installed is a sensing system, such as a fiber optic based distributed sensing system.
To measure vibration or strain, distributed fiber optic sensing systems typically measure the amplitude of Rayleigh backscatter returned from the fiber optic sensor when excited by a narrow band optical source. This signal, while useful for detecting events, has a strain-optical signal transfer function that is both highly non-linear and unpredictable. Although useful results can be achieved using this technique, including tracking the movement of certain events and classifying various types of disturbances, the non-linear and unpredictable characteristics of the system can impede accurate classification of events and the use of the system for quantitative measurements.

Distributed fiber optic sensor system with improved linearity


A system and methods are shown for traffic shaping and congestion avoidance in a computer network such as a data-over-cable network. A headend of the data-over-cable system includes a traffic shaper configured to calculate a packet arrival rate from a cable modem and a traffic conditioner configured to calculate an average queue size on an output interface to an external network. For example, the traffic shaper compares the packet arrival rate to three packet arrival thresholds including a committed rate threshold, a control rate threshold and a peak rate threshold. If the calculated packet arrival rate falls between the committed threshold and control rate threshold, the traffic shaper applies a link layer mechanism, such as a MAP bandwidth allocation mechanism, to lower the transmission rate from the cable modem.

In high-speed networks, routers are required to meet certain quality-of-service requirements associated with communicating network entities. As is known in the art, the quality-of-service is a communication network attribute that exists between two network entities requiring a predetermined network service level. The basic network parameters typically affecting network performance are bandwidth and delays since the application traffic between two network entities in a computer network may require a certain minimum bandwidth or may be sensitive to delays. Thus, in the simplest terms, the quality-of-service means providing consistent and predictable data delivery services to communicating network entities requiring a predetermined level of network service. Further, the quality-of-service is the ability of a network element, such as an application process, host or router to have some level of assurance that its traffic and service requirements can be satisfied.
In general, the quality-of-service elements manage network resources according to application demands and network management settings and, thus, cannot provide certainty that resource sharing occurs. Therefore, quality-of-service with a guaranteed service level requires resource allocation to individual data streams through the network. In current implementations, a priority for quality-of-service developers has been to ensure that resources allocated to the best-effort traffic are not limited after reservations are made. However, equally important is that the high-priority applications do not disable low-priority Internet applications.
The key mechanisms for providing a predetermined level of quality-of-service include an admission control, traffic shaping, packet classification, packet marking and packet scheduling. In quality-of-service enabled Internet Protocol ("IP") networks, it is necessary to specify a traffic profile for a connection or a set of connections. Traffic shaping or traffic conditioning is typically used, for example, to control the rate of data transmitted out of an interface so that it matches the speed of the remote target interface and, further, to ensure that the traffic conforms to a predetermined policy level. Thus, traffic shaping is primarily used to control the access to available bandwidth, to ensure that traffic conforms to a predetermined set of policies, and to regulate the flow of traffic in order to avoid congestion that can occur if the transmitted traffic exceeds the access speed of its remote, target interface.
Traffic shaping is typically implemented on an edge router or core router and provides a mechanism to control the amount and volume of data being sent into the network as well as the rate at which the data is being sent. The predominant methods for traffic shaping include a leaky bucket method and a token bucket method. The leaky bucket is typically used to control the rate at which data is sent into the network and provides a mechanism by which bursty data can be shaped into a steady data stream. The leaky bucket implementation is typically employed for shaping traffic into flows with a fixed rate of admission into the network and is generally ineffective in providing a mechanism for shaping traffic into flows with variable rates of admission.
The token bucket provides a method for traffic shaping and ingress rate control. The token bucket provides a control mechanism that dictates when data can be transmitted based on the presence of tokens in a bucket and uses network resources by allowing flows to burst up to configurable burst threshold levels. In the token bucket implementation, tokens are "put" into the bucket at a certain rate, and the bucket has a predetermined capacity. In such an implementation, if the bucket fills up to its top capacity, newly arriving tokens are discarded. Similarly, if the bucket is full of tokens, incoming tokens overflow and are not available for future packets. Thus, at any time, the largest burst of data a source can send into a network is roughly proportional to the size of the bucket. In the token burst implementation, a system administrator may configure a token generation rate and a depth of the burst.
In addition to traffic shaping, the token bucket methods may be employed for congestion avoidance. As is known in the art, congestion avoidance refers to methods of controlling an average queue size on an outgoing interface of a router such as an edge router. The primary mechanism used by the token bucket and leaky bucket for shaping the traffic includes dropping the incoming data packets to the network. Some routers handle dropping the packets using a technique typically referred to as tail dropping. Using tail dropping, a router simply drops packets indiscriminately, i.e., without regard to priority or class of service, for example. Other methods that have been used to avoid congestion more effectively than tail dropping include a Random Early Detection ("RED"), a Flow-based Random Early Detection ("FRED"), or a Weighted Random Early Detection ("WRED").
When RED is not configured, output buffers fill during periods of congestion. When the buffers are full, tail drop occurs, and all additional packets are dropped. Since the packets are dropped all at once, global synchronization of Transmission Control Protocol hosts can occur as multiple hosts reduce their transmission rates. As the congestion clears, the Transmission Control Protocol sources increase their data transmission rates, resulting in waves of congestion followed by periods where the transmission link is not fully used.
The Random Early Detection mechanism controls the data congestion by dropping or marking packets with a drop probability. Typically, an algorithm used by the Random Early Detection mechanism may sample a queue length on a router and compare it to two threshold levels, a low threshold level and a high threshold level. For example, if the queue length is less than the low threshold level, no packets are dropped and packets are forwarded to a destination address. If the queue length is between the low threshold level and the high threshold level, incoming packets are dropped with a probability that is directly proportional to the queue length, and, if the queue length is greater than the high threshold level, all incoming packets are dropped.
The Random Early Detection mechanism reduces the chances of tail dropping by selectively dropping packets when, for example, an output interface begins to show signs of congestion. By dropping some packets early rather than waiting until the buffer is full, Random Early Detection avoids dropping large numbers of packets at once and minimizes the chances of global synchronization.
The Weighted Random Early Detection generally drops packets selectively based on IP precedence so that packets with a higher IP precedence are less likely to be dropped than packets with a lower precedence. In such an implementation, higher priority traffic is delivered with a higher probability than lower priority traffic. The Weighted Random Early Detection is more useful in the core routers of a network, rather than at the edge routers that assign IP precedence to packets as they enter the network.
While the Random Early Detection mechanism and the variation thereof have been widely studied and employed in the existing computer networks, they suffer from a number of disadvantages. The Random Early Detection mechanism as well as the Weighted Random Early Detection mechanism signal the source about the congestion by dropping the packets and have the ability to control only a predetermined type of data, specifically, Transmission Control Protocol data.
Thus, the need remains for a system and method for traffic shaping in computer networks.

System and method for traffic shaping based on generalized congestion and flow control


A method is provided for attack detection and protection of a set of virtual machines in a system, which includes at least one first host server hosting said set of virtual machines. The method includes: receiving an attack detection message regarding a virtual machine, triggering a first migration of the virtual machine from the first host server toward a security system, and receiving an attack treatment message regarding the migrated virtual machine.

The concept of cloud computing has appeared recently to denote computing architectures in which computing processes traditionally located on user client stations of a company, or on servers of the company, are offloaded to remote servers. Remote hardware resources, distributed across the world, are thus accessed on demand via the Internet to create services accessible on-line by users. The applications and the data are no longer situated on the user's local computer, or on the server situated in this user's company, but in a cloud composed of a certain number of interconnected remote servers. With cloud computing, a company therefore no longer needs to set up its physical network infrastructure by itself. On the contrary, it can call upon a service provider that offers turnkey capabilities such as these. This same provider can thus offer a plurality of dematerialized infrastructures to a plurality of different clients on the basis of a same physical architecture of interconnected servers.
A cloud computing architecture generally relies on a dematerialization based on a virtualization of resources. Virtualization consists in running several operating systems on a single computer, as if they ran on separate computers. Virtualization makes it possible to increase the performance of an infrastructure by maximally optimizing the use of the resources of the infrastructure. Furthermore, it generates substantial savings by pooling resources and activities.
Cloud computing architectures are proposed to clients with service and availability guarantees negotiated by contract and subject to a pricing system adapted to the resources allocated (the term commonly used is "provisioning".) In order to guarantee this availability to clients at all times, systems make it possible to balance the resources in real time over a set of host servers. Thus, in the event of a load increase in a virtual machine hosted by a host server, which reaches its capacity limit when this load increase occurs, the system evaluates the priority of this virtual machine with respect to other co-tenant virtual machines hosted by the same host server in order to allocate additional resources to it. This allocation of additional resources consists in moving the virtual machine in question toward another host server which possesses sufficient resources, or in moving virtual machines that are co-tenants of this virtual machine so that it possesses more resources, or again in duplicating the virtual machine over several host servers so as to meet the increased resource requirements. To move a virtual machine in this way, use is made of a system of hot migration of virtual machines from a source host server toward a target host server. This system is known by the name of dynamic load balancing. Dynamic load balancing functionality thus makes it possible to automatically manage intermittent requests for additional resources within a cloud architecture in order to ensure that the virtual machine is continuously available. When a virtual machine is migrated toward another host server, it retains the same identifying characteristics, namely the same IP address, the same MAC address, etc. When this functionality is active and an upward variation in the consumption of resources (e.g. the processor, memory, or storage) is observed on a virtual machine in a cluster, and this variation causes the host server to reach its capacity limit, then one or more migrations of virtual machines toward one or more host servers can be effected so as to balance the load distribution between the host servers as well as possible. Thus, the virtual machine in question may be migrated, or virtual machines that are co-tenants of the virtual machine in question may be migrated. However, an upward variation of resource consumption or an attack caused for malicious purposes cannot be stopped by the migration of virtual machines. The resources required for the affected virtual machine continue to increase. More migrations of the virtual machine or machines can then occur and once the possibilities are exhausted, there is a risk that the last server will be unavailable, leading to interruption of access to other virtual machines present on the host server, and perhaps dedicated to other clients. Whatever the situation, all the servers through which a virtual machine has passed during successive migrations will have been affected.
Generally, a migration of a virtual machine is not harmless. It has effects on the network. In fact, all information relating to the state of the machine in the process of migrating transits through the network. When several virtual machines are migrated, it is obvious that these effects may penalize the performance of the network as a whole. On the other hand, migration is restrictive: the target host server must have access to the same sub-network as the source server, be based on the same type of CPU (Central Processing Unit), have access to the same storage medium, etc. These restrictions reduce the possibilities of migrations that risk always affecting the same host servers, and in the same way, the co-tenant virtual machines. Moreover, once the possibilities of migration have been exhausted, there is a risk that the last host server affected or the co-tenant machines will be unavailable.
Thus, an attack against a virtual machine in a cloud computing architecture where the dynamic load balancing functionality is active may have a dangerous effect on the host server, the co-tenant virtual machines, or even the whole architecture, by causing uncontrolled migrations. This is penalizing in an architecture intended to offer turnkey network services, the availability of which is guaranteed by contract, to a plurality of clients.

Method for detecting attacks and for protection


A method and system for conveying an arbitrary mixture of high and low latency traffic streams across a common switch fabric implements a multi-dimensional traffic classification scheme, in which multiple orthogonal traffic classification methods are successively implemented for each traffic stream traversing the system. At least two diverse paths are mapped through the switch fabric, each path being optimized to satisfy respective different latency requirements. A latency classifier is adapted to route each traffic stream to a selected path optimized to satisfy latency requirements most closely matching a respective latency requirement of the traffic stream. A prioritization classifier independently prioritizes traffic streams in each path. A fairness classifier at an egress of each path can be used to enforce fairness between responsive and non-responsive traffic streams in each path. This arrangement enables traffic streams having similar latency requirements to traverse the system through a path optimized for those latency requirements.

In broadband packet network nodes (e.g., Internet protocol—IP routers), the majority of packet processing normally occurs as each packet enters the node (referred to as ingress processing). Such ingress processing typically includes forwarding table look-up to selecting an appropriate output interface, and loading each packet into a queue for transport through a switch fabric to the selected output interface. A minimal amount of egress processing is typically performed (within the output interface) as each packet leaves the node.
As is known in the art, traffic flows with differing latency requirements can be handled using a prioritization scheme as part of the ingress processing. The purpose of any prioritization scheme is to minimize delays experienced by high priority traffic being transported through the node. In general, prioritization schemes may be broadly classified as either preemptive, or non-preemptive. In a preemptive scheme, a high priority packet can preempt a lower priority packet already loaded into the queue for transport through the switch core. If transport of that low priority packet has already begun, then it is terminated so that the higher priority packet can be sent without delay. In contrast, in a non-preemptive scheme, if transport of a lower priority packet through the switch core has already begun, then it is allowed to continue uninterrupted. However, the higher priority packet must then be sent before the next lower priority packet is loaded into the queue.
Both of these schemes have disadvantages. In particular, the pre-emptive scheme requires comparatively complex input processing and leads to an inefficient utilization of network resources. For example, preemption of a partially transmitted (lower priority) packet means that the "sent" portion of the packet is discarded. This results in lowered efficiency, as network resources have been utilized to transport a partial packet that is subsequently discarded. Furthermore, in order to permit re-sending of the packet, it must be retained in memory (in the input interface) until it has been successfully transported through the switch fabric to the output interface. In addition, even when lower priority traffic is preempted, the additional processing required to implement this scheme imposes its own delays on the high priority traffic. As may be appreciated, the non-preemptive scheme avoids many of these difficulties, but at the expense of increasing latency of the high priority traffic, which is delayed until transmission of an already partially sent packet has completed.
In practice, conventional prioritization schemes can result in the high priority traffic incurring a delay well in excess of 100 μSec at the input interface. For most Internet Protocol (IP) traffic, such delays are acceptable. However, many traffic types have very stringent latency requirements. For example, under the Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) protocol, frame latency within a node (not just within the input interface) is restricted to a few tens of micro-seconds. Voice over IP (VoIP) and multimedia traffic are also latency-sensitive. While it would be desirable to transport a wide variety of traffic types across common network infrastructure, current prioritization schemes cannot reliably satisfy the stringent latency requirements of SONET traffic.
Accordingly, a system that enables traffic flows with differing latency requirements to be efficiently transported across a common network infrastructure remains highly desirable.

Traffic switching using multi-dimensional packet classification


A music score display device has a storage device for storing music score data, a display device for displaying the music score data for each specified section, and a comparator for comparing the musical playing data supplied from a player with the music score data. The music score display device further has a retrieval device for retrieving a playing position according to the compared result of the comparator, and a display controller for controlling display section of the display device based on the retrieval result of the retrieval device.

1. Related Art
The present invention relates to a display device such as Liquid Crystal Display device, particularly to a musical score display device for successively and automatically displaying a musical score according to a progress of musical playing.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a player plays a musical instrument with a musical score. However, since general instruments need the player's both hands to be played, the playing may be interrupted when the score is turned over to the next page. To avoid that situation, another person is required to turn over the page.
A device is proposed to resolve such problems. That is, the device is equipped with a personal computer having a display in which musical score data is inputted in advance and the data is displayed successively according to a progress of the real playing.
The above mentioned device can follow the actual played music only when the coincident playing with the score is performed. Therefore, if the player makes a mistake of playing or skips the score, the corresponding part of the score isn't displayed in the display.


An apparatus and a method are described, in which a plurality of signals is received via plurality of receiver units of a receiver, signal quality and/or power related measurements are performed, and a signal quality and/or power related measurement result is generated based on a combination of signals received by the receiver units.

The following meanings for the abbreviations used in this specification apply:    3GPP 3rd generation partnership project    CDF Cumulative distribution function    CSG Closed subscriber group    EGC Equal gain combining    eNB enhanced Node-B    HeNB Home enhanced Node-B    HetNet Heterogeneous network    IRC Interference rejection combining    LTE Long term evolution    LTE-A LTE-Advanced    MRC Maximum ratio combining    RRM Radio resource management    RSSI Received signal strength indicator    RSRP Reference signal received power    RSRQ Reference signal received quality    SC Selection combining    SINR Signal to interference plus noise ratio    TS Technical specification    UE User equipment (same as terminal)
Embodiments of the present invention relate to LTE UE RRM measurements to facilitate efficient mobility decisions. According to 3GPP TS 36.214, the following RRM measurements are supported by an LTE UE:                1) Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), which is the linear average over the power contribution (in [W]) of the resource elements that carry cell-specific reference signals within the considered measurement frequency bandwidth.        2) Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), which comprises the linear average of the total received power (in [W]) observed only in OFDM symbols containing reference symbols for antenna port 0, in the measurement bandwidth, over N number of resource blocks from all sources, including co-channel serving and non-serving cells, adjacent channel interference, thermal noise etc.        3) Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), which is defined as N×RSRP/RSSI, where N is the number of resource blocks for the RSSI measurement.
Based on these measurements, handover between cells, assignment of component carriers, etc. could be performed accordingly.
However, for certain receiver configurations, for example when interference rejection combining (IRC) is applied at the receiver side, a mismatch between the actual SINR condition and the RSRP/RSSI/RSRQ measurements may occur due to the specific advantages achieved by applying IRC. Hence, there is a need to overcome this problem.

RRM measurements for UEs with interference suppression receiver


Described herein is an integrated data center that provides for efficient cooling, as well as efficient wire routing, and in particular a support for a thermal shield, distribution wiring, as well as cabinet cluster wiring.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic equipment data center or co-location facility designs and methods of making and using the same in an environmentally aware manner. In particular, the present invention is directed to an integrated wiring system and thermal shield support apparatus for a data center.
2. Background of the Invention
Data centers and server co-location facilities are well-known. In such facilities, rows of electronics equipment, such as servers, typically owned by different entities, are stored. In many facilities, cabinets are used in which different electronics equipment is stored, so that only the owners of that equipment, and potentially the facility operator, have access therein. In many instances, the owner of the facilities manages the installation and removal of servers within the facility, and is responsible for maintaining utility services that are needed for the servers to operate properly. These utility services typically include providing electrical power for operation of the servers, providing telecommunications ports that allow the servers to connect to transmission grids that are typically owned by telecommunication carriers, and providing air-conditioning services that maintain temperatures in the facility at sufficiently low levels in order for the
There are some well-known common aspects to the designs of these facilities. For example, it is known to have the electronic equipment placed into rows, and further to have parallel rows of equipment configured back-to back so that each row of equipment generally forces the heat from the electronic equipment toward a similar area, known as a hot aisle, as that aisle generally contains warmer air that results from the forced heat from the electronics equipment. In the front of the equipment is thus established a cold aisle.
In conventional facilities, wiring for electrical power and cabling for data is typically routed in an ad-hoc manner. More recently, systems for a more uniform system of wiring have been proposed. Nonetheless, there is still needed an apparatus that can provide for local wiring within a cabinet cluster, as well as for wiring that must be routed to different clusters from a distribution area. Still furthermore, there is the need for an apparatus that can provide for the wiring referred to above, as well as the support for a thermal shield that can create a physical partition to assist with thermal gradients that are desirable within a cabinet cluster.

Integrated wiring system and thermal shield support apparatus for a data center


A method of conveying products, whereby a product is fed by a conveying device along a path to a pickup station, through which is fed a gripping member for picking up the product; the product is secured to the conveying device, and a position of the product is detected to regulate the conveying device and feed the product to the pickup station in time with the gripping member.

The present invention relates to a product conveying method.
More specifically, the present invention relates to a method of conveying food products such as chocolates or similar, to which the following description refers purely by way of example.
In the packaging of food products, each product is fed along a conveying line comprising a conveying device for receiving a product from a feed device and feeding the product to a pickup station, and a pickup device substantially located at the pickup station, and in turn comprising a gripping member for picking up the product at the pickup station and in turn supplying the product to a machine, such as a wrapping machine.
A drawback of known conveying lines of the above type, in which the feed device feeds the product in purely random manner to the conveying device, is that, in most cases, subsequent supply of the product to the pickup station is out of time with respect to passage of the gripping member through the station, so that the product may be gripped badly, if not altogether missed, by the gripping member.

Azionaria Costruzioni Macchine Automatiche A.C.M.A. S.p.A


An image forming apparatus comprising: a cathode; a gate; an anode; an electron emitting element arranged on the cathode; an image forming member that is arranged opposite to the electron emitting element; a deflection electrode that deflects the orbit of the electron emitted from the electron emitting element and headed toward the anode; and a driver,

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus that irradiates an image forming member with electrons emitted from an electron emitting element to form an image and in particular, to an image forming apparatus provided with an electron emitting element having such a threshold voltage to be applied to an anode that starts to cause electron emission.
2. Description of the Related Art
A field emission type (hereinafter referred to as "FE type") electron emitting device has been known as an electron emitting device. The application examples of this FE type electron emitting device include an electron source constructed of many FE type electron emitting devices arranged on a board and an image forming apparatus such as a flat panel display using the electron source. To realize an image forming apparatus like this, a board having an electron source formed thereon, a phosphor, and an anode are arranged in such a way that the phosphor and the anode are opposite to the board and electrons emitted from the electron emitting device are collided to the phosphor on the anode side to make the phosphor emit light.
A carbon base material that has a small work function for emitting electrons and a small threshold voltage receives attention as a material especially suitable for the electron emitting element of the electron emitting device. Examples using a carbon base material for an electron emitting element are disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2000-243218 (specification of U.S. Pat. No. 6,437,503), JP-A Nos. 2000-251783, 2000-268706 (specification of U.S. Pat. No. 6,400,091), JP-A Nos. 2002-100279, and 2003-031166.
In these patent documents, fullerene, diamond, diamond like carbon (DLC), and carbon nano tube (CNT) are used as an electron emitting element.
One example of a method for driving an electron emitting device like this will be briefly described in the following.
FIG. 27A is a schematic view to show an electric potential distribution in a drive state where electrons are emitted and FIG. 27B is a schematic view to show an electric potential distribution in a state where electron emission is stopped. Here, FIG. 27 is a schematic view only to describe the content of the invention and the ratio of sizes of parts are not necessarily correct.
FIG. 27A shows a drive state where a voltage is applied to an anode 906 so as to make an electron emitting element 905 on a cathode 902 generate an electric field larger than a threshold electric field to start emitting electrons, thereby causing electron emission.
On the other hand, FIG. 27(b) shows a state where a negative voltage is applied to a gate 904 to make an electric field intensity in the vicinity of the electron emitting element 905 smaller than a threshold electric field required to emit electrons, thereby stopping the electron emission.
In this example, when the electron emission is stopped, as shown in FIG. 27(b), the electric potentials of the cathode 902 and the electron emitting element 905 are brought to 0 V and the electric potential of the gate 904 is brought to a negative value, so that it is clear that the gap between equipotential surfaces in the vicinity of the electron emitting element 905 becomes wide and that the electric field becomes small.
In this regard, the voltage applied to the gate 904 so as to stop the electron emission is determined by the threshold electric field of the electron emitting element 905, the electric field intensity by anode voltage, and designs such as the size of the electron emitting element 905, the distance between gate and cathode, and a gate size.
In a method for driving the electron emitting device described above, the electron emission is caused only by applying a voltage to the anode and a voltage of stopping electron emission is applied between the cathode and the gate to intercept the electron emission to control the electron emission. Hence, it is possible to drive and control the electron emitting device with ease and at low voltage.
By the way, in the case of a display to which the structure of the electron emitting device and the drive method described above are applied, an emitted electron is headed to the anode nearly directly above the electron emitting element. For this reason, there are cases where positive ions ionized by the electron beam fall onto the electron emitting element to have an effect on the life of the electron emitting device. Further, at the time of power being turned off, including an accidental power failure, there are cases where the entire surface of a display screen emits light until electric charges accumulated in the anode are discharged, which causes a user to feel abnormal.
Further at the time of power being turned on or off or power failure, there is easily brought an unstable state where a voltage sufficient large enough to stop electron emission from the electron emitting element can not be applied between the cathode and the gate. As a result, there are cases where a predetermined voltage is applied only between the cathode and the anode to cause the unintended light emission of the display screen, as described above. Hence, it is required to take measures against these problems.

Image forming apparatus and method for driving and controlling the same

Abstract: wherein assuming that an electric field required to start electron emission from the electron emitting element is Ee, that an electric field applied to the electron emitting element by applying voltage to the anode is Ea and that an electric field applied to the electron emitting element by applying voltage to the gate is Eg, the driver applies voltages to the cathode, the gate, and the anode in such a way that (i) Ea>Ee or (ii) Ea+Eg>Ee and Ea>Eg is satisfied.


A wet type air cleaner includes a cylindrical housing provided with an air inlet at a top surface thereof and at least one of air outlets at a lateral surface thereof, for storing cleaning water in a bottom portion thereof, a blower unit including a fan having a spray unit incorporated thereon, for sending indoor air introduced through the air inlet downward while dispersing the cleaning water, and a water supply unit for supplying the cleaning water contained in the housing to the fan, to thereby allow the cleaning water to be sprayed to contact the air introduced through the air inlet, while adsorbing foreign substances contained in the air.

In general, an air cleaner is an apparatus for discharging clean air after removing contaminants from indoor air containing fine dusts, various noxious gases, various germs, molds, viruses, etc., by using a purification medium. Such an air cleaner can be used through all seasons because it has various functions of removing unpleasant odors and small particles such as ticks, pollen and furs of pets, preventing an outbreak of disease due to an aerial infection, and so forth as well as its principal function of maintaining indoor air clean and pleasant.
Air cleaners can be largely classified into two types: dry type and wet type. Dry type air cleaners can be divided again into a filter type and an electric dust collection type.
Here, the dust collection type air cleaner employs no filter, so it has a merit in that there is no need to replace filters. However, if dusts are accumulated on an electric dust collecting plate, purifying efficiency of the air cleaner will be deteriorated, and dust removing capacity thereof will also be undermined.
As for the filter type air cleaner, on the other hand, since various fine particles are captured while air passes through filters, the filter type air cleaner exhibits a high purifying efficiency, and thus is adequate for use in a season in which yellow dust comes. However, since the filters need to be replaced periodically, maintenance cost is high.
Meanwhile, a wet type air cleaner employs a method for making floating particles in suctioned air deposited in water by allowing the suctioned air to contact water. Though the wet type air cleaner has not been commonly utilized yet, it has many advantages in that it does not requires a replacement of filters and generates little noise, while providing a humidifying function as well. Thus, for children, its use is preferred. However, when using the dry type air cleaner, water should be replaced or replenished, which would be rather troublesome.
FIG. 1 shows an exemple of a conventional wet type air cleaner, which is disclosed in Korean Patent No. 10-0205566 entitled "Air cleaner".
As shown in FIG. 1, a water filter 12 is installed at an air suction inlet 11. The water filter 12 discharges water to wash away dusts or germs in air, while releasing minerals. A water tank 19 circulates water through the water filter 12. Also, a water tray 13 is disposed at an upper side of the water filter 12 and is connected to a water pump 22 via a water supply line 23. The water pump 22 is connected to the water tank 19 or a water supply unit 24 via a connection line 21 to pump up water into the water tray 13 of the water filter 12. A water supply valve 25 is installed on the connection line 21, and a controller 29 controls the water supply valve 25 to be opened or closed.
Moreover, a float switch 26 is provided in the water tank 19, and a water waste valve 27 is installed on a waste water exhaust line 28. The float switch 26 and the water waste valve 27 are also connected to the controller 29 electrically.
An air blowing fan 18 is installed on the side of a rear discharge port 16 of the water filter 12, and the fan 28 is rotated by a motor 17 to suck in air through the air inlet. The motor 17 is coupled to a motor driving circuit 30 connected with the controller 29.
Also, the water tray 13 and a collection tray 14 are disposed at upper and lower sides of the water filter 12, respectively, and a number of water plates 15 are slantingly laminated between the water tray 18 and the collection tray 14 at a preset interval.
The conventional air cleaner configured as described above removes noxious substances such as dusts or gems from the air by means of a water filter, and discharges minerals beneficial for human body.
However, in the conventional air cleaners, an air passage is formed such that air is made to pass through the filter into which flowing water is introduced. Therefore, the time period for the air to contact cleaning water is limited to a time period for the air to pass through the filter. As a result, the time during which the cleaning water adsorbs noxious substances from the air is not enough, so that the efficiency for purifying the air cannot be improved over a certain level.
Besides, since the conventional air cleaners has a complicated structure and a great number of components, time and costs for the fabrication of the air cleaner cannot be reduced, which is a limiting factor in reducing the price of the air cleaner.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, there is suggested a wet type air cleaner having a simple structure in which cleaning water is stored in a certain space, and a blower unit and a water spray unit are installed in a same space. One of such wet type air cleaners is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2000-334240, entitled "WET TYPE AIR CLEANER".
The wet type air cleaner includes an air circulation passage through which air is introduced into the inside of the air cleaner and then is outputted to the outside after being purified. The air cleaner further includes a blower unit for allowing the air to be circulated through the air circulation passage and a spray unit for spraying the liquid into a spray space in the reservoir.
The blower unit includes a fan for suctioning the air into the spray space and a motor for driving the fan. The spray unit includes a pump for pumping up the liquid from the air cleaner and a nozzle for spraying the liquid into the spray space.
Further, the air supplied into the air circulation passage typically flows downward after being introduced into the air cleaner from upside, whereas the liquid is sprayed upward from downside. Therefore, the air introduced into the air cleaner is brought into contact with fine liquid particles sprayed by the nozzle, thereby allowing noxious substances in the air to be adsorbed by the liquid.
In the conventional wet type air cleaners as described above, however, the blower unit for circulating the indoor air and the spray unit for spraying the liquid are installed individually. Therefore, the number of components of the air cleaner cannot be reduced below a certain level.
Besides, in the conventional wet type air cleaner, droplets adsorbing fine dust are discharged outside together with the air, thereby resulting in poor purification efficiency and an unexpected high humidity. Moreover, the contact between the cleaning water and the air is insufficient, so that the purification ability thereof is deteriorated.


A bank for defining the regions in which pixels are formed has a stacked structure including: a base layer on the low level which also serves as an interlayer insulating film between the pixel forming regions; a middle bank layer on the middle level which serves to improve the fixation of an organic compound material (i.e., improve the uniformity of the film thickness of a positive hole transporting layer and an electron-transporting light emitting layer) in forming an organic EL layer; and a bank metal layer on the upper level which is made of a conductive material and serves also as a common voltage line (cathode line).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device and a manufacturing method thereof, and particularly, to a display device having a display panel on which a plurality of display pixels each having a light emitting element whose light emitting function layer is formed by coating a liquid material including a light emitting function material, are arrayed in two dimensions, and a manufacturing method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, as a display device of an electronic apparatus such as a portable telephone, a portable music player, etc., there is known a display device on which mounted is a display panel (organic EL display panel), on which organic electroluminescence elements (hereinafter abbreviated as "organic EL elements") are arrayed in two dimensions. Particularly, an organic EL display panel adapted to an active matrix drive system has extremely superior characteristics to liquid crystal display devices widely spread, in that the display response speed is high, there is no dependency on view angles, high luminance, high contrast, and high preciseness of the display quality, etc. are available, and a compact and light body can be obtained because no backlight or light guide plate is needed unlike a liquid crystal display device.
As well known, an organic EL element has an element structure formed of an anode (positive) electrode, an organic EL layer (light emitting function layer), and a cathode (negative) electrode which are sequentially stacked on one surface of a glass substrate or the like, and emits light (excitation light) based on the energy that is produced when holes and electrons injected into the organic EL layer are recombined in this layer, when a positive voltage is applied to the anode electrode and a negative voltage is applied to the cathode electrode in a manner that the organic EL layer exceeds a light emitting threshold. Organic EL elements are roughly classified into a low molecular type and a high molecular type, according to organic materials (positive hole transporting materials and electron-transporting light emitting materials) for forming a positive hole transporting layer (positive hole injecting layer) and an electron-transporting light emitting layer (light emitting layer), which make up the organic EL layer.
In a case where a low-molecular organic material is used, the manufacturing process of the organic EL element generally requires vapor deposition and therefore needs a mask in some case to prevent the low molecular material from being vapor-deposited on other areas than the anode electrode because it is necessary to selectively form a thin organic film of this low molecular type only on the anode electrode in a pixel forming region. Consequently, the low molecular material inevitably is deposited also on the surface of the mask, producing a great loss of material in the manufacturing process, making the manufacturing process inefficient.
On the other hand, in a case where a high-molecular organic material is used for the organic EL element, since an ink jetting method (liquid drop jetting method), a nozzle printing method (liquid flow jetting method), or the like can be used as a wet film forming method, the solution of the organic material can selectively be coated only on the anode electrode or a specific region including the anode electrode, providing a merit that a thin organic EL layer (a positive hole transporting layer and an electron-transporting light emitting layer) can be formed through an efficient manufacturing process with little material loss.
Further, some organic EL display panels of the high molecular type are known to have a panel structure with a continuous partitioning wall, which is formed to project upward from an insulating substrate such as a glass substrate or the like on which display pixels are arrayed and which is formed between pixel forming regions in which these display pixels are formed respectively, in order to define these pixel forming regions, and to prevent a phenomenon that light emitting colors are mixed beyond the respective display pixels with light emitting materials of different colors from adjoining pixel forming regions mixing into other regions when liquid materials made of high-molecular organic materials are coated. An organic EL display panel with such a partitioning wall is explained in, for example, Unexamined Japanese Patent Application KOKAI Publication No. 2001-76881.

Display device and manufacturing method thereof


In an apparatus and method of noninvasively measuring a concentration of a blood component, the method includes (a) varying a thickness of a body part of a subject, measuring absorption spectrums at different thicknesses of the body part, obtaining a first differential absorption spectrum between the absorption spectrums measured at different thicknesses, actually measuring concentrations of the blood component, and establishing a statistical model using the first differential absorption spectrum and the actually measured concentrations; and (b) estimating the concentration of the blood component using a second differential absorption spectrum obtained with respect to the body part based on the statistical model.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a noninvasive measurement of a concentration of a blood component. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for noninvasively measuring a concentration of a blood component using a differential absorption spectrum corresponding to a variation of amounts of blood and interstitial fluid in a blood vessel, the variation being generated by varying a thickness of a particular soft tissue of a subject.
2. Description of the Related Art
With overall improvements in quality of life and living conditions, interest in personal health has increased. As a result, a wide array of home medical equipment that allows people to easily monitor their personal health has been researched and developed. In a normal human body, bodily fluid is organically circulated and adjusted so that an amount of bodily fluid is maintained within a predetermined range. Bodily fluids include blood, urine, interstitial fluid, sweat, and saliva. In particular, concentrations of blood and urine (glucose and protein) are essential parameters in determining a person's state of health. In addition, concentrations of blood components, such as glucose, hemoglobin, bilirubin, cholesterol, albumin, creatinine, protein, and urea, play an important role in assessing a person's state of health.
When a human body is infected with a disease, a composition or amount of a component of a bodily fluid changes, which may result in death. For example, a normal person's blood glucose concentration is about 80 mg/dl before meal and about 120 mg/dl after meal. In order to maintain such a normal glucose concentration, a human pancreas secretes an appropriate amount of insulin before or after the meal so that glucose can be absorbed into the liver and skeletal muscle cells. However, when the pancreas does not secrete an appropriate amount of insulin to maintain a normal blood glucose concentration due to a disease or other causes, an excessive amount of glucose exists in the blood, which causes a disease of the heart or the liver, arteriosclerosis, hypertension, cataract, retinal bleeding, nerve damage, hearing loss, or visual disturbance, all of which may cause serious problems including death. Accordingly, a technique of measuring a change in a bodily fluid of a human body is considered very important.
Methods of measuring a concentration of a component of a bodily fluid include invasive methods of directly collecting a sample of a target matter and performing measurement on the collected sample of the target matter and noninvasive methods of performing measurement without directly collecting a target matter. Since invasive methods have many problems, techniques of easily analyzing components of a bodily fluid using a noninvasive method have been continuously researched and developed. Conventionally, when measuring a component of a bodily fluid, for example, blood glucose, blood is extracted, reacted with a reagent, and then analyzed by using a clinical analysis system or quantifying a change in color of a test strip. When such a blood glucose test is performed every day, a patient suffers pain resulting from the direct blood collection and is susceptible to infection. Moreover, since it is difficult to continuously monitor the blood glucose level, it is difficult to properly treat a patient in an emergency situation. In addition, use of disposable strips and reagents may be a financial burden on the patient. Furthermore, these disposable strips and reagents cause environmental contamination, and as such, require special treatment. Accordingly, development of a technique of measuring a blood glucose concentration without extracting blood is desired for monitoring and adjusting a blood glucose level of a diabetic or diagnosing a person's state of health. Many methods of noninvasively measuring blood glucose have been researched, but instruments using these methods have not been commercialized.
In most conventional, spectroscopic methods for measuring a concentration of a blood component in a human body, light within a visible ray and near infrared ray (NIR) wavelength range is radiated onto a part of the body. Then, light reflected from or transmitted through the body is detected. In such spectroscopic methods, a spectrum is usually measured to measure the concentration of a blood component. Here, a reference light source having a wavelength that best responds to a blood component to be measured and a bandwidth that effectively counterbalances an influence of an interference substance is required. In addition, since a concentration of a component to be measured may be very low in blood and a light diffusion effect is greater than a light absorption effect in living tissue and blood, a detected signal is very weak. Thus, a method of amplifying the signal is required. Moreover, since organic substances in the body flow continuously, a component concentration can be accurately measured only when the measurement is quickly performed. In addition, it must be noted that an average energy radiated onto a human body should not go beyond a limit that may damage the human body. In particular, in an NIR wavelength range of about 700 through 2500 nm, a glucose absorption band is widely distributed, and glucose absorption is small as compared to a large aqueous background spectrum. Resultantly, a signal to noise ratio (SNR) is small, which makes accurate measurement very difficult.

Method and apparatus for noninvasively measuring a concentration of a blood component