The present invention relates to resealing data. More specifically, the present invention relates to updating reduction ratios used for rescaling data sequences. Still more specifically, the present invention provides techniques for determining reduction ratios for modifying transform coefficients associated with an input data sequence (e.g. an audio segment or a video sequence) to provide modified transform coefficients associated with a modified output data sequence.
Video data is one particularly relevant form of data that can benefit from improved techniques for resealing. Generally, compressing data or further compressing compressed data is referred to herein as resealing data. Video rescaling schemes allow digitized video frames to be represented digitally in an efficient manner. Rescaling digital video makes it practical to transmit the compressed signal by digital channels at a fraction of the bandwidth required to transmit the original signal without compression. International standards have been created on video compression schemes. The standards include MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, H.261, H.262, H.263, H.263+, etc. The standardized compression schemes mostly rely on several key algorithm schemes: motion compensated transform coding (for example, DCT transforms or wavelet/sub-band transforms), quantization of the transform coefficients, and variable length coding (VLC).
The motion compensated encoding removes the temporally redundant information inherent in video sequences. The transform coding enables orthogonal spatial frequency representation of spatial domain video signals. Quantization of the transformed coefficients reduces the number of levels required to represent a given digitized video sample and reduces bit usage in the compression output stream. The other factor contributing to rescaling is variable length coding (VLC) that represents frequently used symbols using code words. In general, the number of bits used to represent a given image determines the quality of the decoded picture. The more bits used to represent a given image, the better the image quality. The system that is used to compress digitized video sequence using the above described schemes is called an encoder or encoding system.
More specifically, motion compensation performs differential encoding of frames. Certain frames, such as I-frames in MPEG-2, continue to store the entire image, and are independent of other frames. Intracoded frames, such as B-frames or P-frames in MPEG-2, store motion vectors associated with the movement of particular objects. The pixel-wise difference between objects is called the error term, which can be stored in P-frames and B-frames. In MPEG-2, P-frames reference a single frame while B-frames reference two different frames. Although this allows fairly high reduction ratios, motion compensation is limited when significant changes occur between frames. This precludes high reduction ratios. Furthermore, motion compensation can be computationally expensive.
Each frame can be converted to luminance and chrominance components. As will be appreciated by one of skill in the art, the human eye is more sensitive to the luminance than to the chrominance of an image. In MPEG-2, luminance and chrominance frames are divided into 8×8 pixel blocks. The 8×8 pixel blocks are transformed using a discrete cosine transform (DCT) and scanned to create a DCT coefficient vector. Quantization involves dividing the DCT coefficients by a scaling factor. The divided coefficients can be rounded to the nearest integer. After quantization, some of the quantized elements become zero. The many levels represented by the transform coefficients are reduced to a smaller number of levels after quantization. With fewer levels represented, more sequences of numbers are similar. For example, the sequence 4.9 4.1 2.2 1.9 after division by two and rounding becomes 2 2 1 1. As will be described below, a sequence with more similar numbers can more easily be encoded using VLC encoding. However, quantization is an irreversible process and hence introduces significant loss of information associated with the original frame or image.
VLC encoding takes the most common long sequences of numbers of bits and replaces them with a shorter sequence of numbers or bits. Again, VLC encoding is limited by common sequences of numbers or bits. Data containing fewer common sequences take more bits to encode.
Currently available compression techniques for rescaling data (e.g. video or audio) are limited in their ability to effectively compress data sequences for transmission across networks or storage on computer readable media. The available techniques also have significant limitations with respect to loss, computational expense, and delay. Various techniques for reducing the bit rate of compressed data sequences including audio and video streams are being developed. Some of the more promising approaches are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,181,711 titled System And Method For Transporting A Compressed Video And Data Bitstream Over A Communication Channel. Other approaches are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/608,128 Methods And Apparatus For Bandwidth Scalable Transmission Of Compressed Video Data Through Resolution Conversion and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/766,020 titled Methods For Efficient Bandwidth and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/985,377 titled System And Method For Spatial Temporal-Filtering For Improving Compressed Digital Video Scaling Of Compressed Video Data. Each of these references is assigned to the assignee of this invention and is incorporated herein by reference for all purposes. It is still desirable to provide additional techniques for rescaling data that improve upon the limitations of the prior art.


Existing multi-frequency wireless devices (e.g., radios) use an antenna structure that attempts to radiate at optimum efficiency over the entire frequency range of operation, but can really only do so over a subset of the frequencies. Due to size constraints, and aesthetic design reasons, the antenna designer is forced to compromise the performance in some of the frequency bands. An example of such a wireless device could be a mobile telephone that operates over a range of different frequencies, such as 800 MHz to 2200 MHz. The antenna will not radiate efficiently at all frequencies due to the nature of the design, and the power transfer between the antenna, the power amplifier, and the receiver in the radio will vary significantly.
Additionally, an antenna's performance is impacted by its operating environment. For example, multiple use cases exist for radio handsets, which include such conditions as the placement of the handset's antenna next to a user's head, or in the user's pocket or the covering of an antenna with a hand, can significantly impair wireless device efficiency. Further, many existing radios use a simple circuit composed of fixed value components that are aimed at improving the power transfer from power amplifier to antenna, or from the antenna to the receiver, but since the components used are fixed in value there is always a compromise when attempting to cover multiple frequency bands and multiple use cases.


Granular media filters are commonly used to remove particulate solids from water in water and wastewater treatment plants. These filters typically employ sand, crushed coal, granular activated carbon (GAC), crushed garnet or a combination of these or similar granular materials as filter media. The water to be filtered is passed through the filter media and the particulate solids are trapped at the surface of the filter media and in the interstitial spaces within the filter media. The entrapped particulate solids are removed from the filter media by a periodic washing operation called backwashing in which water or a water/air combination is passed upwardly through the filter media at sufficient velocities to carry the particulate solids upwardly. The backwash water and entrained particulate solids are intercepted by a backwash water collector typically consisting of a pipe or trough. Because of turbulence caused by the backwashing process, grains of the filter media can become entrained in the backwash water stream and are carried over the overflow weir edge of the backwash trough and are removed or lost from the filter. The media loss is particularly severe when using low density media such as crushed coal or when using air to assist in scouring the entrapped particulate solids from the filter.
One prior art granular media filter is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,076,625 and includes means intended to reduce media loss and consisting of baffles placed adjacent to or surrounding the backwash trough to intercept and deflect the air used in the backwash process. The baffles reduce the velocity and turbulence of water currents near the overflow weir edge of the backwash trough to thereby reduce media loss.


For example, it is known that a machine structural component usable for a power transmission part, such as a gear for car transmission, may develop pitching damage, i.e., peel failure of a metal contact portion due to increased pressure of contacted surface during use thereof. Thus, a steel component for use in such an application includes a component prepared in such a manner that one of various types of case-hardening steel such as SCr, SCM, and SNCM is subjected to forming through hot forging and cutting, and is then subjected to surface hardening treatment such as carburizing treatment or carbonitriding treatment, and furthermore a solid lubrication film such as a molybdenum disulfide film is provided on a surface of the component.
In recent years, however, a machine structural part is increasingly demanded to have higher output power, smaller size, and lighter weight, and thus the machine structural element for use in such a power transmission part tends to increasingly receive a higher load. As a result, it is becoming difficult to achieve the required pitching resistance not only by the component including one of various types of case-hardening steel such as SCr, SCM, and SNCM subjected to surface hardening treatment, but also by the component on which the solid lubrication film is further provided.
In an electric car, which is recently increasingly produced in light of reduction in environmental load, since rotation of a motor is directly transmitted to a reduction gear, such components are subjected to higher rotation than in a gasoline-powered vehicle. Furthermore, since a lubricating oil for use in the electric car has a kinematic viscosity in use environment lower than that for use in the gasoline-powered vehicle, a thin oil film is formed on a surface of each of such steel components configuring the power transmission part. In such environment, a site having almost no oil film thereon may be locally formed. In particular, along with increase in rotation and/or slippage, oil temperature increases, and kinematic viscosity of the lubricating oil tends to be lowered, and the sites each having almost no oil film thereon further increases. In such environment, therefore, steel components easily wear due to metal contact therebetween, and each steel component is easily softened through temperature rise due to friction heat; hence, seizing is likely to occur in an early stage.
Various technologies have been proposed on steel members usable in the environment as described above. For example, PTL 1 discloses a component having high resistance to pressure of contacted surface, which is composed of steel that contains C: 0.15 to 0.40%, Si: 0.50 to 1.50%, Mn: 0.20 to 1.50%, Cr: 0.50 to 1.50%, Mo: 0.05 to 0.50%, at least one element selected from the group consisting of Ni: 0.50 to 3.50%, Ti: 0.03 to 0.20%, Nb: 0.03 to 0.15%, and Al: 0.01 to 0.10%, and P: 0.010% or less, with the remainder consisting of Fe and inevitable impurities, wherein a rolling site of a surface of the component has a carbon content of 0.8 to 1.2%.
However, in this technology, the carbon content is provided through carburizing or carbonitriding treatment without nitriding treatment. Hence, the nitrogen amount of a surface layer is small, less than 1%. Consequently, if this component is used in an environment where seizing more easily occurs, the component cannot maintain excellent seizing resistance.
PTL 2 discloses a method of manufacturing a machine structural component having excellent fatigue strength, particularly surface fatigue strength, the method being characterized in that steel is used as a material, the steel containing C: 0.4 to 0.7%, Si: 0.3% or less, Mn: 0.2 to 1%, Cr: 0.2 to 3%, Mo: 0.1 to 1%, V: 0.1 to 1%, Al: 0.01 to 0.05%, N: 0.003 to 0.02%, S: 0.07% or less, and Ti: 0.002% or less, with the remainder consisting of Fe and inevitable impurities including P and O that are controlled, respectively, to be 0.02% or less and 0.002% or less, the material is formed into a predetermined component shape, and is then subjected to nitriding treatment or nitrocarburizing treatment and successively subjected to induction hardening treatment so that nitrogen is diffused from a surface of the component, and a surface-hardened layer having a nitrogen content of 0.05% or more is formed at a depth position of at least 0.2 mm from a top surface of the component.
However, since this technology includes the diffusion treatment of surface nitrogen, the surface layer cannot maintain high nitrogen content. In addition, since carbide is not dispersed in a surface layer of the component, the component cannot exhibit good seizing resistance in a high slippage environment.
PTL 3 discloses a method of manufacturing a rotary hook of a sewing machine, the method being characterized in that case-hardening steel such as carbon case-hardening steel and chromium-molybdenum case-hardening steel is subjected to carburizing-and-quenching and tempering, and further subjected to nitrocarburizing treatment. In this technology, however, only typical carburizing treatment is performed, and carbide does not dispersedly exist in a surface layer of a component. Hence, the component cannot exhibit excellent seizing resistance in a high slippage environment.


Today's corporate computing environments maintain huge amounts of data pertaining to business information. Business information may be virtually any kind of data needed to maintain a business and to comply with regulations regarding a regulated business. In the area of import and export, large amounts of data must be maintained for long periods of time. This data must remain accessible for: compliance screening, auditing, transaction tracking, and other business reasons.
Some of the complexities associated with maintaining and using vast amounts of data stored for long periods of time include, but are not limited to, data table structures and databases changing over time, hard-coded user interface screens which are non-flexible, limited pre-defined “customization” options in a user interface, etc. User interface screens are typically designed by a software developer at a user-interface design time. User-interface design time typically occurs long before actual end-user usage. Different methods for allowing end-user customization are utilized by designers and can be intended to predict a user's future needs. However, over time, screens may become outdated and show data not of interest or may not allow required user controls over certain fields. Some possible side effects of an outdated information screen may be that the screen requires excessive panning and scrolling by an end-user or there may be limited filtering capability for data on a screen (as well as many other inconveniences).
These and other problems largely arise because a developer at design time (well ahead of actual end-user usage) is attempting to implement a “one-size fits all” capability. Also, the designer is typically forced to base designs on requirements of “typical” rather than individual users. Additionally, desires of an end-user performing a particular function may change over time as the responsibilities associated with their job change. In a corporate environment, requests to update a user interface are typically provided by an end-user filling out a change request and providing that change request to a development team. The end-user is then stuck with using the old and potentially cumbersome outdated interface while the development team prioritizes multiple change requests and produces a new version of the user-interface for a potentially large number of users.
Another example of how user interfaces to data may become obsolete can occur when the structure of the data storage changes over time. Historical data may be migrated in some form or fashion to the new structure (possibly without all fields of information) or maintained in two different data sources (e.g., old database/tables for old data and new database/tables for new data). User interfaces of the prior art may not be flexible enough to adapt to changing locations of data sources.
In summary, users accessing this vast amount of data may have different requirements and preferences as to how a user desires to interact with the data. Prior art techniques exist to provide limited end-user customization for applications and screens used to access and view data. Because of these concerns and other limitations a more general method and system for an end-user to customize how their particular interface functions may be desirable. Customization may include an ability to customize what data is shown on the screen and what capabilities are available on each screen to interact with that data. Also, a user may wish to customize what is shown to limit it to data of interest without necessarily being subjected to data fields not pertaining to a task at hand. Capabilities to provide these and other customization options to an end-user are disclosed below in a non-limiting embodiment of an import export trade transaction storage and retrieval system.


Free space optical switching systems and photonic computing systems utilize macroscopic optical elements such as holograms, gratings, lenses, mirrors, and fiber optic arrays as basic building blocks. In such systems information is carried by arrays of light beams that are collimated, manipulated, and focused onto spatial light modulators in a stage by stage fashion. Fiber optic arrays may serve as input terminals, output terminals and interstage couplers for such systems. Precision fiber optic arrays are important support components of such systems.
Examples of known optical switching systems and photonic computing systems are known from: "An All Optical Shift Register Using Symmetric Self Electro-optic Effect Devices," published in OSA Proceedings on Photonic Switching, Vol. 3, pp. 192-195, 1989, edited by J. E. Midwinter and H. S. Hinton, "An All Optical Realization of a 2.times.1 Free Space Switching Node," published in Photonics Technology Letters, No. 8, 1990, pp. 600-602 by E. Kerbis, T. J. Cloonan, and F. B. McCormick; "An All Optical Implementation of a 3D Crossover Switching Network," published in Photonics Technology Letters, No. 6, 1990, pp. 438-440 by T. J. Cloonan, M. J. Herron, F. A. P. Tooley, G. W. Richards, F. B. McCormick, E. Kerbis, J. L. Brubaker, and A. L. Lentine; "Module for Optical Logic Circuits using Symmetric Self Electro-Optic Effect Devices," published in Applied Optics, No. 14, 1990, pp. 2164-2170 by M. E. Prise, N. C. Craft, R. E. LaMarche, M. M. Downs, S. J. Walker, L. A. D'Asaro, and L. M. F. Chirovsky; "Parallel Interconnection of Two 64.times.32 Symmetric Self Electro-optic Effect Device Arrays," published in Electronics Letters, No. 20, 1991, pp. 1869-1871 by F. B. McCormick, F. A. P. Tooley, J. M. Sasian, J. L. Brubaker, A. L. Lentine, T. J. Cloonan, R. L. Morrison, S. L. Walker, and R. J. Crisci; "Optomechanics of a Free Space Switch: The System," published in Optomechanics and Dimensional Stability, Proceedings of SPIE, No. 1533, 1991, pp. 97-114 by F. B. McCormick, F. A. P. Tooley, J. L. Brubaker, J. M. Sasian, T. J. Cloonan, A. L. Lentine, S. J. Hinterlong, and M. J. Herron; "Experimental Investigation of a Free Space Optical Switching Network Using S-SEEDs," published in Applied Optics, Vol. 31, No. 26, 1992, pp. 5431-5446 by F. B. McCormick, F. A. P. Tooley, T. J. Cloonan, J. L. Brubaker, A. L. Lentine, R. L. Morrison, S. J. Hinterlong, M. J. Herron, S. L. Walker, and J. M. Sasian; and "A Six-Stage Digital Free-Space Optical Switching Network Using S-SEEDs," published in Applied Optics, Oct. (1992) by F. B. McCormick, T. J. Cloonan, F. A. P. Tooley, A. L. Lentine, J. M. Sasian, J. L. Brubaker, R. L. Morrison, S. L. Walker, R. J. Crisci, R. A. Novotny, S. J. Hinterlong, H. S. Hinton, and E. Kerbis. These articles chronical the progress of optical and photonic system technology as it grows in complexity and functionality.
The potential of free space optical switching systems to interconnect a larger number of communication channels at high bit rates has spurred the development of such systems. The potential of photonic computing systems for increased processing rates and bit transfer rates through the use of optical and photonic components has spurred similar photonic computing system development. These potential benefits have motivated the development of high precision fiber optic arrays to communicate light beam borne data to and from free space optical switching systems and photonic computing systems. High precision fiber optic arrays have been easy to specify, but difficult to physically realize, especially if high precision positioning of the optical fibers is required. Several fabrication techniques have been reported in various publications. For example, Miller describes a 2-D array of optical fibers that was made by stacking a number of linear arrays of optical fibers that were supported by grooved spacers in "A Fiber Optic Cable Connector," The Bell Technical Journal, Vol. 54, No. 9, 1547-1555, 1975. These spacers were manufactured by the precise etching of grooves in both sides of a silicon wafer, potting all the optical fibers in place and polishing the resulting assembly. This technique has been used to assemble a fiber array with a maximum positioning error of 10 micrometers as reported by U. Danzer, P. Kipfer, K. Zufi, J. Lindolf, and J. Schwider, in "High Precision Two Dimensional Fibre Array in Silicon V-Groove Technique," Angewandte Optik, Physikalisches Institut der Universitat Erlangen, Annual Report 1992.
In another effort, an alignment-free assembly technique has been developed where fiber end positioning to within plus or minus 8 micrometers was achieved. This technique is described by A. Sasaki, T. Baba, and K. Iga in "Put-in Microconnectors for Alignment-free Coupling of an Optical Fiber Array," IEEE Photonics Technology Letters, Vol. 4 No. 5, pp. 908-910, 1992. In this known technique, an array of sockets with centering plugs for optical fibers were micro-fabricated to achieve self-centering of each optical fiber upon insertion and to expedite assembly also.
G. A. Koepf and B. J. Markey describe another technique involving arrays of precision holes in substrates to insert and locate optical fibers with a standard deviation of 12.6 micrometers in, "Fabrication and Characterization of a 2-D Fiber Array," Applied Optics Vol. 23, No. 2, pp. 3515-3516, 1984. Fiber optical arrays using precision holes to position the optical fibers have also been described by Basavanhally in "Opto-mechanical Alignment and Assembly of 2-D Array Components," Technical Digest of the IEEE Princeton Section Sarnoff Symposium, Mar. 26, 1992. G. M. Proudley, C. Stace, H. White also describe their fiber optic array fabrication technique in their article "Fabrication of 2-D Fibre-Optic Arrays for an Optical Crossbar Switch," submitted to Optical Engineering.
Koyabu, F. Ohira, T. Yamamoto, and S. Matsuo have realized a 2-D fiber optic array with a mean fiber positioning error of 3 micrometers by inserting the optical fibers into microferrules and stacking the fiber optic and microferrule assembly to create the array. This technique is described in their article "Novel High Density Collimator Module," Technical Digest, Conference on Optical fiber Communication/International Conference on Integrated Optics and Optical Fiber Communication, 1993 Technical Digest Series, Vol. 4, (Optical Society of America, Washington, D.C., 1993), pp. 2-3.
A common feature of these known techniques is that the final positioning of each optical fiber is accomplished by referencing each optical fiber to a mechanical jig or support through which the fibers pass. Thus, the precision of this mechanical jig or support limits the ultimate precision attainable. These known techniques, with their inherent mechanical limitations, are not precise enough to meet the requirements of the developing optical switching systems and the photonic computing systems. Thus, there is a need in the art to provide a high precision fiber optic array and a process for producing such an array.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a fiber optic array that is not limited by the precision of the mechanical support through which the optical fibers pass.
It is another object of the invention to provide a process for producing a high precision optical fiber array.


Another important feature of the invention is the use of injected compressors. Especially useful in heat pump systems according to the present invention is the type of injected compressor disclosed and claimed in the copending U.S. patent application of William H. Wilkinson, the present inventor, and James H. Saunders, Ser. No. 07/161,189, filed Feb. 26, 1988, for Crossed Piston Compressor with Vernier Offset Port Means, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,936,111, issued June 26, 1990. This copending patent relates to systems and apparatus for compressing gaseous fluids, especially refrigerant gas vapors operating in refrigeration cycles, combining reciprocating pistons in a rotating cylinder member that is mounted for rotation in a stationary frame and is driven by an external source of rotative power. The cylinder block rotates in an encircling port ring member which contains inlet, interstage, and outlet port sets. The number of port sets is greater or less than the number of cylinders, to provide a vernier effect in the timing of connections between the port sets and the cylinders.
The above mentioned copending patent is assigned to the assignee of the present invention. It is hereby incorporated herein by reference, and made a part hereof the same as if fully set forth herein, for purposes of indicating the background of the invention and illustrating the state of the art.
The term injected compression is used herein to mean the injection of high pressure vapor into the compression space of a compressor after the inlet suction of vapor from an evaporator is at least substantially complete. U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,144, Shaw, discusses the advantages of utilizing a scavenge vapor as a means of increasing the coefficient of performance of a refrigeration device and/or to increase the refrigeration (heat pumping) capacity of a given compressor displacement.
The copending patent cited above provides improved injection capability and also offers the option of providing two stages of compression in which the discharge of one stage of compression is fed to the second stage of compression with either or both of the stages capable of injected operation. So typical compressors according to the copending patent can be designed to have as many as four vapor inlets; the lowest pressure inlet being the output from the evaporator, the next higher pressure being the injection to the first stage of compression, the third pressure level being the interstage pressure, and the fourth being the injection to the second stage of compression.
Various advantages of such compressors are explained in the copending patent relative to refrigeration in general, but the patent does not specifically describe the advantages that an injected compressor of that type can have with NARB's as working fluids. The present invention includes additional novel system arrangements based on the general characteristics of that type of compressor. It also employs a novel type of control arrangement that provides a significant improvement over current heat pumps that extract heat from the ambient air for heating a dwelling. Improvement is shown with this system using a single refrigerant; and further improvement is shown for the slightly more complex system using a NARB as the working fluid.
The novel control arrangement for the single-stage heat pump compressor has direct application as the lower stage of a two-stage compressor system for low temperature freezer applications. One version of the system uses a single refrigerant as the working fluid; while a slightly more complex version uses NARB as the working fluid and is useful for reaching lower temperatures than the single-refrigerant system.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a processor for processing an FM signal such as an FM stereo signal.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a block diagram of the entire arrangement of an FM stereo radio receiver. Reference numeral 331 represents an antenna. Reference numeral 332 represents an RF amplifier. Reference numeral 333 represents an mixer for mixing an oscillation signal of a local oscillation circuit 334 and an RF signal from the RF amplifier 332 to output an IF signal. Reference numeral 335 represents an IF filter. Reference numeral 336 represents an IF amplifying circuit. Reference numeral 337 represents a limiter. Reference numeral 339 represents a 90.degree. phase shifting circuit. Reference numeral 340 represents a multiplier serving as an FM detector. Reference numeral 341 represents a multiplexer. Reference numeral 342 represents a power amplifying circuit. Reference numerals 343 and 344 represent left and right speakers.
The IF amplifier 336, the limiter 337, the 90.degree. phase shifting circuit 339, the multiplier 340 and the multiplexer 341 are formed in a one-chip IC device 338. To the 90.degree. phase shifting circuit 339, an resonance circuit 345 including a coil L and a capacitor C is externally attached, and to the multiplexer 341, a circuit 347 constituting a part of a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) 346 is externally attached. The circuit includes a resistor and a capacitor.
In this FM radio receiver, the frequency of a received FM radio signal is converted into an intermediate frequency (IF) by the IF circuit 336, and the amplitude thereof is made constant by the limiter 337. Thereafter, the signal is transmitted through a line a directly to the multiplier 340 and is also transmitted through a line b to the multiplier 340 by way of the phase shifting circuit 330 where its phase is shifted by 90.degree.. These two signals are multiplied at the multiplier 340. The phase shifting circuit 339 shifts the phase by the capacitor C and the coil L. The VCO 346 used in the multiplexer 341 is designed to regulate a free-running oscillation frequency by a CR time constant of a circuit externally attached to the IC device 338.
Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown another conventional FM radio receiver where ceramic resonators 350 and 351 are externally attached instead of the resonance circuit 345 and the circuit 347 of FIG. 1. In a phase shifting circuit 339 using the ceramic resonator 350, as shown in FIG. 3, three resistors R and the ceramic resonator 350 form a Wheatstone bridge, and the phase of the signal is shifted by using a reactance component of the ceramic resonator 350. The oscillation frequency of the VCO 346 depends on the ceramic resonator 351.
However, in the phase shifting circuit 339 of FIG. 1, it is necessary to adjust a free-running oscillation frequency by the capacitor or the coil, and the regulation which is a mechanical regulation is liable to deterioration with age. In addition, since the coil cannot be formed in an integrated circuit (IC) device, more number of terminal pins are required and an externally-connected part is required. The VCO 346 has similar disadvantages since the free-running oscillation frequency is regulated by a CR time constant of a circuit externally attached to the IC device.
When the ceramic resonators 350 and 351 are externally attached as shown in FIG. 2, not only an externally-attached part is required but also the part (ceramic resonator) is not available in some countries since it is a special part. In addition, the ceramic resonator is inferior to the former method in property, and difficult to match with an IC device. Further, since the free-running frequency of the VCO 346 depends on only the property of the resonator 351, to obtain a comparatively low frequency such as 19 kHz and 38 kHz necessary to process a composite signal, a number of frequency dividers are required for dividing (into 24 and into 12) 456 kHz of the ceramic resonator 351. This increases the chip area of the IC device.


Parallel processing algorithms take advantage of multi-processing computer architectures by distributing portions of the data among a plurality of processing elements. Algorithmic processing takes place until the system state reaches a point in which the necessary data becomes non-local to the processing elements. Hence, a re-distribution of data must be carried out prior to the next stage of algorithmic computation. Depending on the required state of data re-distribution, this operation can be very challenging to the communication system that ties the processing elements together.
Data re-distribution in system memory can pose additional challenges. System memory access is typically defined for a fixed set of increments and optimized for particular access patterns. As an example, a memory interface may only permit accesses of 64 or 128 bytes, and though system memory permits random access, it is understood by those skilled in the art that accessing contiguous address space is most efficient. Depending on the distribution of data within the multi-processor, and the required staging for the next phase of computation, a given processing element may require a large number of non-contiguous data accesses which are smaller than the allowable memory access sizes.
Current multi-processor performance suffers under the scenario where a small amount of data is scattered among several processing or storage elements. An example of a challenging data re-distribution occurs when a large number of unique data values must be distributed among a plurality of processing or memory elements for real time processing. A reverse situation occurs when many processing or memory elements must each individually send a small amount of data to a single location on the multi-processor.


This invention generally relates to sleeves, and, more particularly, to sleeves used to wrap flower pots containing floral groupings and/or mediums containing floral groupings, and methods of using same.


Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a crop cart and more specifically it relates to a crop cart unloading system for efficiently unloading a harvested crop from a crop cart.
Description of the Related Art
Any discussion of the related art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such related art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
Crop carts are used to receive a crop from a harvester directly in the field during harvest. Crop carts can also be used to transport seed to a planter. Crop carts are typically used to receive, transport and unload various types of field crops such as, but not limited to, sugar beets, carrots, potatoes, onions, tomatoes, cucumbers, corn silage and the like. Conventional crop carts are comprised of a trailer that is pulled by a tractor through the field next to the harvester. Conventional crop carts include an open topped hopper that receives various volumes of harvested crop from the harvester in real-time. When the hopper of the crop shuttle is full, the crop cart is transported to a location in the field to unload to a truck or other transport device using an unloading conveyor at the front of the hopper. The hopper includes a floor conveyor that moves the crop forwardly towards the unloading conveyor where the unloading conveyor is angled upwardly to lift the crop upwardly from the crop shuttle into the transport vehicle.
One problem with conventional crop carts is that the unloading conveyor extends upwardly at a relatively steep angle thereby resulting in the crop falling downwardly on the unloading conveyor during the unloading procedure. When the crop falls downwardly on the unloading conveyor, crops such as sugar beets can become damaged. Another problem with conventional crop carts is that the front unloading conveyor extends upwardly above the upper edge of the container when in the storage position thereby creating potential problems of hitting the harvester during loading of the crop. Another problem with conventional crop carts is that they require a significant volume of pressurized hydraulic fluid from the tractor pulling the crop cart to unload the crop which some older tractors are unable to handle.
Because of the inherent problems with the related art, there is a need for a new and improved crop cart unloading system for efficiently unloading a harvested crop from a crop cart.


1. Field
A cooling apparatus for a machine room of a refrigerator using a nacelle-shaped duct is disclosed herein.
2. Background
Cooling apparatuses are known. However, they suffer from various disadvantages.


This invention relates to the fields of drilling and producing hydrocarbon wells, and to the measuring of downhole formation characteristics, and to drill string telemetry for bidirectional communication of measurement and control information between dowhhole and surface equipment, and to a surface communication system for bidirectional communication between drill string telemetry and a surface processor.
The advent of measurement while drilling (MWD) and logging while drilling (LWD), as well as development of surface control of special drilling processes, such as directional drilling, have been important advances in the art of drilling and producing hydrocarbon wells. These processes require communication, in both directions, between the surface and the downhole measuring and drilling equipment. At present, mud pulse telemetry is the only technique in widespread commercial use for communication while drilling, between downhole equipment and the surface. [Unless otherwise indicated, references, throughout, to “while drilling,” or the like, are intended to mean that the drill string is in the borehole or partially in the borehole as part of an overall drilling operation including drilling, pausing, and or tripping, and not necessarily that a drill bit is rotating.] In mud pulse telemetry, data is transmitted as pressure pulses in the drilling fluid. However, mud pulse telemetry has well known limitations, including relatively slow communication, low data rates, and marginal reliability. Current mud pulse technology is capable of sending MWD/LWD data at only about 12 bits per second. In many cases, this rate is insufficient to send all the data that is gathered by an LWD tool string, or is limiting on the configuration of a desired tool string. Also, mud pulse technology does not work well in extended reach boreholes. Signaling from uphole to downhole, by regulating mud pump flow, in order to control processes such as directional drilling and tool functions, is also slow, and has a very low information rate. Also, under certain circumstances, for example underbalanced drilling employing gases or foamed drilling fluid, current mud pulse telemetry cannot function.
There have been various attempts over the years to develop alternatives to mud pulse telemetry that are faster, have higher data rates, and do not require the presence of a particular type of drilling fluid. For example, acoustic telemetry has been proposed, which transmits acoustic waves through the drill string. Data rates are estimated to be about an order of magnitude higher than mud pulse telemetry, but still limiting, and noise is a problem. Acoustic telemetry has not yet become commercially available. Another example is electromagnetic telemetry through the earth. This technique is considered to have limited range, depends on characteristics, especially resistivity, of the formations surrounding the borehole, and also has limited data rates.
The placement of wires in drill pipes for carrying signals has long been proposed. Some early approaches to a wired drill string are disclosed in: U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,848, U.S. Pat. No. 3,957,118 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,807,502, and the publication “Four Different Systems Used for MWD,” W. J. McDonald, The Oil and Gas Journal, pages 115-124, Apr. 3, 1978.
The idea of using inductive couplers, such as at the pipe joints, has also been proposed. The following disclose use of inductive couplers in a drill string: U.S. Pat. No. 4,605,268, Russian Federation published patent application 2140527, filed Dec. 18, 1997, Russian Federation published patent application 2040691, filed Feb. 14, 1992, and WO Publication 90/14497A2, Also see: U.S. Pat. No. 5,052,941, U.S. Pat. No. 4,806,928, U.S. Pat. No. 4,901,069, U.S. Pat. No. 5,531,592, U.S. Pat. No. 5,278,550, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,971,072.
The U.S. Pat. No. 6,641,434 describes a wired drill pipe joint that was a significant advance in the wired drill pipe art for reliably transmitting measurement data in high-data rates, bidirectionally, between a surface station and locations in the borehole. The '434 Patent discloses a low-loss wired pipe joint in which conductive layers reduce signal energy losses over the length of the drill string by reducing resistive losses and flux losses at each inductive coupler. The wired pipe joint is robust in that it remains operational in the presence of gaps in the conductive layer. The performance attendant these and other advances in the drill string telemetry art provides opportunity for innovation where prior shortcomings of range, speed, and data rate have previously been limiting on system performance.
When a wired drill pipe system is used, it is necessary to have a communication link between the topmost wired drill pipe and a surface processor (which, inter alia, typically performs one or more of the following functions: receiving and/or sending data, logging information, and/or control information to and/or from downhole and surface equipment, performing computations and analyses, and communicating with operators and with remote locations). Various approaches have been suggested, some of which are summarized in U.S. Pat. No. 7,040,415, including use of a slip ring device, and use of rotary electric couplings based on induction or so-called transformer action. A slip ring (also known as brush contact surfaces) is a well known electrical connector designed to carry current or signals from a stationary wire into a rotating device. Typically, it is comprised of a stationary graphite or metal contact (a brush) carried in a non-rotating component which rubs on the outside diameter of a rotating metal ring (e.g., carried on the upper portion of a kelly joint). As the metal ring turns, the electrical current or signal is conducted through the stationary brush to the metal ring making the connection.
Rotary electrical couplings based on induction (transformer action), known, as rotary transformers, provide an alternative to slip rings and contact brushes based upon conduction between rotating and stationary circuitry, so no direct contact is necessary. The transformer windings comprise a stationary coil and a rotating coil, both concentric with the axis of rotation. Either coil can serve as the primary winding with the other serving as the secondary winding.
These types of approaches for surface communication have certain limitations and drawbacks attendant the use of complex electromechanical structures, and it is among the objects of the present invention to provide a system for bidirectional communication of signals between the topmost wired drill pipe and a surface processor, with improved efficiency and reliability.
A further aspect of the drilling and measurement art that is addressed herein relates to safety at the wellsite, and the problem of powering a rotating assembly, at a location that may be classified as a hazardous area, without the use of power carrying wires. Existing techniques have certain limitations. For example, mud turbines, which are powered by the moving drilling fluid, are relatively complex and expensive to build and to maintain. The use of ordinary batteries can be problematic when the drilling operation must be interrupted for battery replacement. It is accordingly among the further objects hereof to provide a safe, efficient, and reliable source of electric power in conjunction with the rotating drill string.


The present disclosure relates to an image processing device, an image forming apparatus, and a computer-readable non-transitory storage medium with an image processing program stored thereon and, more particularly, to image processing in which an amount of toner used in printing is reduced.
In image forming apparatuses such as a copier and a printer, technology for performing image processing in which image data serving as a printing target is reduced for the purpose of n-up printing in which printing is performed on one sheet of recording paper on which multiple pages of a document are collected is used. When copies of the multiple pages are printed by the n-up printing, recording paper can be saved. Further, in the image forming apparatuses, technology for performing toner-saving printing by performing image processing in which image data is masked using a preset mask pattern to reduce an amount of toner used when an image of a printing target is printed is also used.


This disclosure generally relates to online digital content streaming, and particularly to an adaptive streaming system that generates enhanced media manifest files for identifying and streaming a live or on-demand media file (e.g., a video file) representations with various video qualities to clients having varying delivery bandwidth and computing processing power.
An online system allows its users to connect to and communicate with other online system users. For example, an online system allows a user to encode media files, such as images or videos, and share the media files with other online system users. An online system user may also request to view media files (e.g., stream a video on demand) encoded by the online system user, or by other online system users, encouraging user engagement with the online system. However, this user engagement is decreased with increased platform latency as online system users attempt to stream a media file outside of available bandwidth or view a popular media file.
To enable adaptive streaming of multimedia content over HTTP, when an input media file (e.g., a video) is encoded, multiple levels of compression can be applied to the input file producing a plurality of compressed versions (e.g., resolution of 360p, 480p, 720p, 1080p, etc.), or “representations,” of the input file for streaming on a client device. This allows an online system user to select the representation of a media file for streaming that is within the online system user's available bandwidth. However, if the online system user attempts to stream a media file at a representation that requires greater bandwidth than a client device or network connection will allow, the online system user experiences platform latency.
Existing solutions of adaptive streaming over HTPP divide a media file into segments according to a fixed duration (e.g., 10 second segments) and cache links to these segments (e.g., universal resource locators (URLs)) across computer servers within a given content delivery network (CDN). Each URL containing a segment of the media file is listed on the manifest file of its corresponding media file, in addition to the segment's start points and end points. This allows an online system user to dynamically switch between representations to accommodate available bandwidth. However, creating a manifest file entry for each segment of a media file causes its manifest file to increase in size. Increased manifest file size complicates file administration and decreases manifest file storage efficiency for streaming service, especially live video streaming. In addition, larger manifest files increase platform latency as the manifest file must be downloaded to a client device before the media file may be streamed by an online system user.
The latency for fetching the proper media file and/or segments can be compounded by network congestion due to user traffic directed to popular media within a CDN. When a computer server within a CDN has a popular (e.g., trending) media, it is very likely that a large number of user requests for the popular media will be directed to the computer server. This can cause a delay in the delivery of various representations of a requested media file and delay stream traffic.
Furthermore, for existing solutions, the delay in stream traffic is due, in part, to the initialization process that a streaming system must complete before a client device can commence streaming a media file, such as properly initializing a manifest file associated with a representation of a media file. For example, a manifest file associated with a representation of a media file generally contains information describing an initialization segment (init), which contains data that does not change between segments, a segment index (sidx), which describes byte ranges within a segment, and media segment information. However, using (init+sidx) format in a manifest file to guide a client device on the amount of data to fetch from a storage device is inefficient as it requires the client device to perform a series of fetches in order to locate the first segment of the media file.


The present invention relates generally to immunogenic agents and to agents which enhance the immune response to a selected antigen. In particular, the invention pertains to the use of protein particles as antigens to elicit cellular immune responses.
Numerous vaccine formulations which include attenuated pathogens or subunit protein antigens, have been developed. Conventional vaccine compositions often include immunological adjuvants to enhance cell-mediated and humoral immune responses. For example, depot adjuvants are frequently used which adsorb and/or precipitate administered antigens and which can retain the antigen at the injection site. Typical depot adjuvants include aluminum compounds and water-in-oil emulsions. However, depot adjuvants, although increasing antigenicity, often provoke severe persistent local reactions, such as granulomas, abscesses and scarring, when injected subcutaneously or intramuscularly. Other adjuvants, such as lipopolysacharrides, can elicit pyrogenic responses upon injection and/or Reiter""s symptoms (influenza-like symptoms, generalized joint discomfort and sometimes anterior uveitis, arthritis and urethritis). Saponins, such as Quillaja saponaria, have also been used as immunological adjuvants in vaccine compositions against a variety of diseases.
More particularly, Complete Freund""s adjuvant (CFA) is a powerful immunostimulatory agent that has been successfully used with many antigens on an experimental basis. CFA includes three components: a mineral oil, an emulsifying agent, and killed mycobacteria, such as Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Although effective as an adjuvant, CFA causes severe side effects primarily due to the presence of the mycobacterial component, including pain, abscess formation and fever. CFA, therefore, is not used in human and veterinary vaccines.
Incomplete Freund""s adjuvant (IFA) is similar to CFA but does not include the bacterial component. IFA, while not approved for use in the United States, has been used elsewhere in human vaccines for influenza and polio and in veterinary vaccines for rabies, canine distemper and foot-and-mouth disease. However, evidence indicates that both the oil and emulsifier used in IFA can cause tumors in mice.
Despite the presence of such adjuvants, conventional vaccines often fail to provide adequate protection against the targeted pathogen. In this regard, there is growing evidence that vaccination against intracellular pathogens, such as a number of viruses, should target both the cellular and humoral arms of the immune system. More particularly, cytotoxic T-lymphocytes (CTLs) play an important role in cell-mediated immune defense against intracellular pathogens such as viruses and tumor-specific antigens produced by malignant cells. CTLs mediate cytotoxicity of virally infected cells by recognizing viral determinants in conjunction with class I MHC molecules displayed by the infected cells. Cytoplasmic expression of proteins is a prerequisite for class I MHC processing and presentation of antigenic peptides to CTLs. However, immunization with killed or attenuated viruses often fails to produce the CTLs necessary to curb intracellular infection. Furthermore, conventional vaccination techniques against viruses displaying marked genetic heterogeneity and/or rapid mutation rates that facilitate selection of immune escape variants, such as HIV or influenza, are problematic. Accordingly, alternative techniques for vaccination have been developed.
Particulate carriers with adsorbed or entrapped antigens have been used in an attempt to circumvent these problems and in attempts to elicit adequate immune responses. Such carriers present multiple copies of a selected antigen to the immune system and promote trapping and retention of antigens in local lymph nodes. The particles can be phagocytosed by macrophages and can enhance antigen presentation through cytokine release. Examples of particulate carriers include those derived from polymethyl methacrylate polymers, as well as polymer particles derived from poly(lactides) and poly(lactide-co-glycolides), known as PLG. While offering significant advantages over other more toxic systems, antigen-containing PLG particles suffer from some drawbacks. For example, large scale production and manufacturing of particulate carriers may be problematic due to the high cost of the polymers used in the manufacture the particulate carriers.
Liposomes have also been employed in an effort to overcome these problems. Liposomes are microscopic vesicles formed from lipid constituents such as phospholipids which are used to entrap pharmaceutical agents. Although the use of liposomes as a drug delivery system alleviates some of the problems described above, liposomes exhibit poor stability during storage and use, and large scale production and manufacturing of liposomes is problematic.
International Publication No. WO 98/50071 describes the use of viral-like particles (VLPs) as adjuvants to enhance immune responses of antigens administered with the VLPs. St. Clair et al. describe the use of protein crystals to enhance humoral and cellular responses. (St. Clair, N. et al, Applied Biol. Sci., 96:9469-9474, 1999).
Despite the above described adjuvant and antigen-presentation systems, there is a continued need for effective, safe and cost-efficient vaccines with improved purity, stability and immunogenicity.
The inventors herein have found, surprisingly, that protein particles are self-sustaining immunogenic agents which produce cellular immune responses. In particular, the active ingredient is also the delivery system, i.e., the protein particles serve as the antigen and the delivery system. Additionally, the inventors have discovered that the protein particles have several advantages (i) the ease of manufacture, (ii) they are more cost-effective to manufacture than existing agents, (iii) they provide for superior immune responses, and (iv) they have reduced toxicity and eliminate the undesirable side-effects observed with other vaccine formulations. Accordingly, then, the invention is primarily directed to the use of such protein particles as antigens.
In one embodiment, the invention is directed to an immunogenic composition comprising selected first antigen and a pharmaceutically acceptable excipient, wherein the selected first antigen is a protein particle, and further wherein the protein particle antigen is capable of producing a cellular immune response. In preferred embodiments, the protein particle is formed from a protein selected from the group consisting of a viral, a fungal, a bacteria, an avian or a mammalian protein. In more preferred embodiments, the protein is herpes simplex virus type 2 glycoprotein B (HSV gB2), hepatitis C virus (HCV) or a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) protein.
In another embodiment, the immunogenic composition further comprising an adjuvant, wherein the adjuvant is encapsulated within, adsorbed or conjugated on to, or mixed with the protein particle.
In an additional embodiment, the immunogenic composition further comprises a second antigen, wherein the second antigen is distinct from the first antigen, i.e. the protein particle. The second antigen may be a soluble or neutralizing antigen, it may be conjugated on to the protein particle, or it may be associated with a carrier (for example, the second antigen may be encapsulated within, adsorbed or conjugated on to, or mixed with the carrier). In certain preferred embodiments, the carriers include, but are not limited to proteins, polysaccharides, polylactic acids, polyglycollic acids, polymeric amino acids, amino acid copolymers, lipid aggregates (such as oil droplets or liposomes), polymeric particulate carriers, and inactive virus particles. In more preferred embodiments, the carriers comprise a poylmeric particle, wherein the polymeric particle comprises a polymer selected from the group consisting of a poly(xcex1-hydroxy acid), a polyhydroxy butyric acid, a polycaprolactone, a polyorthoester, and a polyanhydride.
In an alternative embodiment, the invention is directed to an immunogenic composition comprising a selected first antigen and a pharmaceutically acceptable excipient, wherein the selected first antigen is a protein particle, and further wherein the protein particle is produced by a process comprising the steps of:
(a) providing an aqueous solution of a protein;
(b) adding a precipitation agent to the aqueous solution of the protein and stirring the resulting mixture to form the protein particle;
(c) stabilizing said protein particle by a stabilizing treatment; and
(d) recovering the protein particles from the aqueous solution.
In an alternative embodiment, the aqueous solution is step (a) further comprises an acid, wherein the acid is acetic acid, glycolic acid, hydroxybutyric acid, hydrochloric acid or lactic acid. In preferred embodiments, the precipitation agent comprises oils, hydrocarbons or coacervation agents. In additional preferred embodiments, the stabilizing treatment comprises heat treatment or by treatment with a chemical cross-linking agent.
In preferred embodiments, the protein particle is capable of producing a cellular immune response; and is formed from a protein selected from the group consisting of a viral, a fungal, a bacterial, an avian or a mammalian protein. In more preferred embodiments, the protein is herpes simplex virus type 2 glycoprotein B (HSV gB2), hepatitis C virus (HCV) or a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) protein. In certain preferred embodiments, the cellular immune response can be a cytotoxic-T lymphocyte (CTL) response. In another embodiment, the immunogenic or vaccine composition further comprises an adjuvant and/or a second antigen as described above, wherein the protein particle is capable of functioning as an antigen and/or an adjuvant.
In another embodiment, the subject invention is directed to a method for producing a cytotoxic-T lymphocyte (CTL) response in a vertebrate subject comprising administering to the vertebrate subject an immunogenic or vaccine composition comprising the protein particle as described above. The protein particle is administered in an amount effective for eliciting a cytotoxic-T lymphocyte (CTL) response in the vertebrate subject. The protein particles can be co-administered to the subject prior or subsequent to, or concurrent with, an adjuvant and/or a second antigen.
In another embodiment, the invention is directed to a method of immunization which comprises administering to a vertebrate subject a therapeutically effective amount of the immunogenic or vaccine composition comprising the protein particle as discussed above.
These and other embodiments of the present invention will readily occur to those of ordinary skill in the art in view of the disclosure herein.


A cooling arrangement for a CPU is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,549,408 B2, BERCHOWITZ. Disposed on this arrangement is an evaporator, and coolant in this evaporator is evaporated by the heat of the CPU and thereby flows upward in a riser conduit to a condenser that is arranged at a higher geodetic level. The vapor is cooled and liquefied there, and flows in response to gravity through a downpipe back to the evaporator, where it is evaporated again.
The advantage of such an arrangement is that it operates quietly; a disadvantage, however, is that, according to the second law of thermodynamics, it is impossible in this case to achieve a coolant temperature lower than the ambient temperature, since heat flows only from a higher-temperature medium to a lower-temperature medium. What is obtained instead is a coolant temperature that, because of the temperature gradient necessary for heat transfer, is at least 7 to 10° K (=Kelvin) above ambient temperature; this limits heat dissipation from the CPU, especially on hot days. The overall efficiency of such a system is moreover not good.


LED based luminaires are rapidly replacing both incandescent and fluorescent luminaires for both general lighting and backlighting applications. In large liquid crystal based monitors, and in large solid state lighting applications, such as street lighting and signage, typically the LEDs are supplied in one or more strings of serially connected LEDs, which thus share a common current. A plurality of parallel strings may also be supplied.
The power supply which is to drive the LEDs preferably also supplies power to the operating circuitry of the device, thus reducing cost. Typically a single power supply comprising a power transformer with a plurality of secondary windings is utilized, the primary stage of which is controlled by a feedback circuit to provide a fixed direct current (DC) voltage for the operating circuitry of the device through a particular one of the secondary windings.
A resonant converter is a switching converter that comprises a tank circuit actively participating in determining input to output power flow. Power flow in a resonant converter is typically controlled either by changing the switching frequency, or the duty cycle, or both. In one embodiment two reactive elements, i.e. a capacitor and an inductor form the tank circuit, and such a resonant inverter is known as an LC inverter. A resonant converter comprises a resonant inverter, which has a switching network and a resonant tank circuit, and a rectifier circuit.
A resonant converter having two inductive elements, and a single capacitor in the tank circuit, where one of the inductive elements is arranged in parallel with the load, and another inductive element is in series with the load and the capacitor, is known as an LLC converter. Advantageously, an LLC converter exhibits a pair of resonant peaks, each associated with a particular one of the inductors. When properly designed, an LLC converter can be simply controlled by adjusting the frequency responsive to an output feedback, as long as the operating frequency is kept between the two resonant peak frequencies. Typically, a drop in output is compensated for by decreasing the operating frequency, and an increase in output is compensated for by increasing the operating frequency.
In a typical embodiment, the two inductors are implemented in an integrated transformer having a leakage inductance where the inductance of the primary winding acts as the parallel inductive element and the leakage inductance acts as the series inductive element. The transformer further enables scaling of the design output voltage based on the turns ratio of the primary and secondary windings of the integrated transformer.
In order to reduce cost, it is desired to have a single converter provide drive for both the LEDs and for the operating circuits of the device. Since the voltage for the operating circuits of the device must be well regulated, the LED drive voltage is not well regulated. One solution of a circuit 10 for driving at least one LED luminaire offered by the prior art is illustrated in FIG. 1. Circuit 10 comprises: a power source 20; a resonant mode controller 30, optionally comprising an LLC controller; a converter 40 comprising a bridge circuit 50, a primary side capacitance element CP and a transformer 60; a pair of unidirectional electronic valves D1; a unidirectional electronic valve D2; an inductance element 70; a capacitance element C1; a capacitance element C2; an electronically controlled switch SS; a plurality of LED luminaires, denoted respectively L1, L2 and L3; a plurality of electronically controlled switches SL; a plurality of sense resistive elements RS; an LED controller 80; a pair of unidirectional electronic valves D3; a voltage divider 110; and a reference voltage source 120. Bridge circuit 50 comprises a pair of electronically controlled switches, denoted respectively SB1 and SB2. Transformer 60 comprises: a primary winding 130; and a plurality of secondary windings, denoted respectively 140, 150 and 160.
In one embodiment, primary side capacitance element CP, capacitance element C1 and capacitance element C2 are each implemented as a capacitor, and are described herein as such. In another embodiment, unidirectional electronic valves D1, D2 and D3 are each implemented as a diode, and are described herein as such. In one embodiment, inductance element 70 is implemented as an inductor, and is described herein as such. In another embodiment, each sense resistive element RS is implemented as a resistor, and is described herein as such. In one embodiment, electronically controlled switches SB1, SB2, SS and SL are each implemented as an n-channel metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect-transistor (NFET), and are described herein as such.
The output of power source 20 is coupled to the drain of NFET SB1 and the return of power source 20 is coupled to the source of NFET SB2. The gates of NFETs SB1, SB2 are each coupled to a respective output of resonant mode controller 30. The source of NFET SB1 is coupled to the drain of NFET SB2 and a first end of primary side capacitor CP. A second end of primary side capacitor CP is coupled to a first end of primary winding 130 of transformer 60 of converter 40. A second end of primary winding 130 is coupled to the return of power source 20. A first and second end of secondary winding 140 of transformer 60 are each coupled to the anode of a respective one of pair of diodes D1 and the center tap of secondary winding 140 is coupled to a common potential.
The cathodes of diodes D1 are each coupled to a first end of inductor 70 and to a first end of capacitor C1. The second end of capacitor C1 is coupled to the common potential. The second end of inductor 70 is coupled to the drain of NFET SS and the anode of diode D2. The source of NFET SS is coupled to the common potential and the gate of NFET SS is coupled to an output of LED controller 80. The cathode of diode D2 is coupled to a first end of capacitor C2 and the anode end of each of LED luminaires L1, L2, L3. The second end of capacitor C2 is coupled to the common potential. The cathode end of each of LED luminaires is coupled to the drain of a respective NFET SL and to a respective input of LED controller 80. The source of each NFET SL is coupled to a first end of a respective sense resistor RS and a respective input of LED controller 80. The second end of each sense resistor RS is coupled to the common potential and the gate of each NFET SL is coupled to a respective output of LED controller 80.
Secondary winding 150 is coupled to a respective load (not shown). Each end of secondary winding 160 is coupled to the anode of a respective diode D3 and the center tap of second winding 160 is coupled to the common potential. The cathode of each diode D3 is coupled to a load (not shown) and a first end of voltage divider 110. A second end of voltage divider 110 is coupled to the common potential and a division junction of voltage divider 110 is coupled to a respective input of resonant mode controller 30. The output of reference voltage source 120 is coupled to a respective input of resonant mode controller 30 and the return of reference voltage source 120 is coupled to the common potential.
In operation, resonant mode controller 30 is arranged to alternately open and close NFETs SB1 and SB2 such that primary winding 130 is charged when NFET SB1 is closed and discharged when NFET SB2 is closed. Resonant mode controller 30 typically operates at a fixed duty cycle of near 50%, with a variable frequency, as will be described further. The power supplied to transformer 60 is controlled via secondary winding 160 and voltage divider 110. Particularly, when NFET SB1 is closed and primary winding 130 is charging, power is output from secondary winding 160 via a first diode D3. When NFET SB2 is closed and primary winding 130 is discharging, power is output from secondary winding 160 via the second diode D3. The rectified voltage at the cathodes of diodes D3 is supplied to the load and is additionally divided by voltage divider 110. The divided voltage is compared to the reference voltage output by reference voltage source 120. In the event that the divided voltage is higher than the output of reference voltage source 120, resonant mode controller 30 is arranged to increase the switching frequency of bridge circuit 50 thereby reducing the amount of power supplied to secondary winding 160. In the event that the divided voltage is lower than the output of voltage source 120, resonant mode controller 30 is arranged to reduce the switching frequency of bridge circuit 50 thereby increasing the amount of power supplied to secondary winding 160.
Secondary winding 140 is similarly influenced by the control of resonant mode controller 30. Since the voltage across secondary winding 140 is not independently controlled, the voltage appearing across capacitor C2 needs to be controlled so as to provide an appropriate operating voltage for LED luminaires L1, L2, L3. The operation of inductor 70, NFET SS and diode D2 act as a boost converter to increase the output voltage of secondary winding 140, stored across capacitor C1. Particularly, when NFET SS is closed, inductor 70 is charged by secondary winding 140. When NFET SS is open, capacitor C2 is charged and LED luminaires L1, L2, L3 are powered by the combination of the power supplied by secondary winding 140 and the power stored on inductor 70. LED luminaires L1, L2, L3 are thus powered at a voltage greater than the voltage provided by secondary winding 140. LED controller 80 is arranged to detect the voltage at the cathode end of each LED luminaire L1, L2, L3 and compare the detected voltages to a predetermined reference voltage. In the event that one or more of the detected voltages are lower than the predetermined reference voltage, i.e. the voltage across capacitor C2 is less than the optimal operating voltages of at least one of LED luminaires L1, L2, L3, LED controller 80 is arranged to increase the duty cycle of the boost converter, i.e. increase the percentage of time that NFET SS is closed. The voltage across capacitor C2 thus increases.
The current flowing through each of LED luminaires L1, L2, L3 generates a voltage across the respective sense resistor RS, which is detected by LED controller 80. In one embodiment, LED controller 80 is arranged to adjust the pulse width modulation (PWM) duty cycle of each NFET SL to control the current flowing through each LED luminaire L1, L2, L3. In another embodiment, LED controller 80 is arranged to adjust the gate voltage of each NFET SL to thereby adjust the current flowing through the respective one of LED luminaires L1, L2, L3, by increasing the effective voltage drop across the respective NFET SL. Any excess power is dissipated across the NFET SL. LED controller 80 may be a single unit controlling both NFET SS and the respective NFET SLs, or may be separate control units without exceeding the scope.
Another solution of a circuit 200 for driving at least one LED luminaire offered by the prior art is illustrated in FIG. 2. Circuit 200 comprises: power source 20; resonant mode controller 30; converter 40 comprising bridge circuit 50, primary side capacitor CP and transformer 60; capacitor C1; diode D2; inductor 70; capacitor C2; LED luminaire L1; NFET SL; sense resistor RS; LED controller 80; voltage divider 110; reference voltage source 120; and a pair of rectifier bridges, denoted respectively 210 and 220. A single LED luminaire is illustrated, however this is not meant to be limiting in any way and any number of LED luminaires may be provided. Bridge circuit 50 comprises NFETs SB1 and SB2. Transformer 60 comprises: primary winding 130; and plurality of secondary windings 140, 150 and 160. In one embodiment, rectifier bridges 210 and 220 are each implemented as a diode bridge, and are described herein as such.
The output of power source 20 is coupled to the drain of NFET SB1 and the return of power source 20 is coupled to the source of NFET SB2. The gates of NFETs SB1, SB2 are each coupled to a respective output of resonant mode controller 30. The source of NFET SB1 is coupled to the drain of NFET SB2 and a first end of primary side capacitor CP. A second end of primary side capacitor CP is coupled to a first end of primary winding 130 of transformer 60 of converter 40. A second end of primary winding 130 is coupled to the return of power source 20.
Each end of secondary winding 140 of transformer 60 is coupled to a respective input of diode bridge 210 and the return of diode bridge 210 is coupled to a common potential. The output of diode bridge 210 is coupled to a first end of capacitor C1, the cathode of diode D2 and a first end of inductor 70. The second end of capacitor C1 is coupled to the common potential. The second end of inductor 70 is coupled to a first end of capacitor C2 and the anode end of LED luminaire L1. The second end of capacitor C2 is coupled to the anode of diode D2, the cathode end of LED luminaire L1 and the drain of NFET SL. The source of NFET SL is coupled to a first end of sense resistor RS and an input of LED controller 80. The second end of sense resistor RS is coupled to the common potential and the gate of NFET SL is coupled to an output of LED controller 80.
Secondary winding 150 is coupled to a respective load (not shown), or alternatively not provided. Each end of second winding 160 is coupled to a respective input of diode bridge 220 and the return of diode bridge 220 is coupled to the common potential. The output of diode bridge 220 is coupled to a load (not shown) and a first end of voltage divider 110. A second end of voltage divider 110 is coupled to the common potential and a division junction of voltage divider 110 is coupled to a respective input of resonant mode controller 30. The output of reference voltage source 120 is coupled to a respective input of resonant mode controller 30 and the return of reference voltage source 120 is coupled to the common potential.
In operation, resonant mode controller 30 is arranged to alternately open and close NFETs SB1 and SB2, typically at a predetermined duty cycle near 50%. Primary winding 130 is charged when NFET SB1 is closed and discharged when NFET SB2 is closed. The voltage output across diode bridge 200 is controlled by resonant mode controller 30, as described above. Particularly, the voltage across secondary winding 160, rectified by diode bridge 220, is supplied to the load, typically across an output capacitor (not shown) and is additionally divided by voltage divider 110. The divided voltage is compared to the voltage output by reference voltage source 120. In the event that the divided voltage is higher than the output of reference voltage source 120, resonant mode controller 30 is arranged to increase the switching frequency of bridge circuit 50 thereby reducing the amount of power supplied to secondary winding 160. In the event that the divided voltage is lower than the output of voltage source 120, resonant mode controller 30 is arranged to reduce the switching frequency of bridge circuit 50 thereby increasing the amount of power supplied to secondary winding 160.
The output by secondary winding 140 is similarly impacted by the operation of resonance mode controller 30, and thus the voltage across capacitor C1 changes responsive to changes in the load of secondary winding 160. The operation of inductor 70, diode D2 and NFET SL act as a buck converter to reduce the output voltage of secondary winding 140, stored across capacitor C1 to the appropriate voltage for LED luminaire L1. Particularly, when NFET SL is closed, power is provided to LED luminaire L1 by secondary winding 140 and inductor 70 is charged by secondary winding 140. When NFET SL is open, LED luminaire L1 is powered by the power stored on inductor 70. LED luminaire L1 is thus powered at a voltage less than the voltage provided by secondary winding 140 responsive to the duty cycle of NFET SL as controlled by LED controller 80.
The current flowing through LED luminaire L1 generates a voltage across the respective sense resistor RS, which is detected by LED controller 80. LED controller 80 is arranged to adjust the pulse width modulation (PWM) duty cycle of NFET SL to control the current flowing through LED luminaire L1. Additionally, the PWM adjustment of NFET SL adjusts the duty cycle of the buck converter of inductor 70, diode D2 and NFET SL, thus adjusting the voltage provided to LED luminaire L1 accordingly.
Advantageously, a resonant LED luminaire driving circuit, such as the above described LLC converter circuits 10 and 200, automatically provides for zero voltage switching for the LLC switching elements. However, the above converter circuits 10, 200 require an additional inductor 70. Additionally, NFETs SS and SL are operated in hard switching mode. What is desired, and not provided by the prior art, is an integrated converter which provides both a regulated voltage for use by operating circuits, and a regulated LED drive voltage, without requiring the additional inductors, dissipative regulators, or hard switching of the prior art.


1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a magnetic linear scale unit for precisely measuring a relative motion stroke between relatively displaceable two mechanical components. More specifically, the invention relates to a structure for conveniently and efficiently mounting the magnetic linear scale unit onto the relative displaceable components, which mounting structure allows precise adjustment of the magnetic scale position when the scale is installed between relatively displaceable components.
2. Description of the Background Art
As is well known, a magnetic linear scale unit is used for monitoring displacement of one mechanical component relative to the other mechanical component in precise manner. In general, such magnetic linear scale requires a substantially high accuracy in measurement of the stroke of displacement between two mechanical components in an order of micron or ten microns. This requires strict accuracy in mounting the magnetic linear scale unit between the mechanical components. Especially, in mounting of an elongated magnetic scale in a form of a rod or ribbon, for example, substantial precision is required so that the axis of the magnetic scale is arranged precisely parallel to the axis of movement of the mechanical components.
Conventionally, the magnetic scale is rigidly mounted in a scale channel which serves not only as a support for the magnetic scale but also as a magnetic shield. Both ends of the scale channel are so designed as to be rigidly fixed onto one of the relatively displaceable two mechanical components. This means that, since the magnetic scale is mounted rigidly in the scale channel, the accuracy of mount of the scale channel directly reflects on the mounting accuracy of the magnetic scale. On the other hand, the mounting surface, on which an assembly of the scale channel and the magnetic scale is to be mounted is not always precisely flat and accurately parallel to the axis of the movement of the mechanical component or components. When the mounting surface is not precisely parallel to the axis of the movement of the mechanical component or components, additional difficulty has arisen in assuring holding precise parallelism of the magnetic scale relative to the moving axis. It has been a usual technique to compensate the obliquity of the mounting surface to insert a kind of spacer between one end of the scale channel and the corresponding section of the mounting surface. This requires substantially high skill in mounting the assembly of the scale channel and the magnetic scale. Further to say, even for the skilled engineer, it is still a difficult job for mounting the scale assembly with satisfactorily high accuracy.
In order to solve this problem in the prior art, an improved mounting structure for the magnetic linear scale unit has been proposed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,649,648, issued on Mar. 17, 1987, to Kazuo NAGAOKA et al, which has been assigned to the common assignee to the present invention. The invention disclosed in the aforementioned United States Patent was also disclosed in the German Patent First Publication (DE-OS) No. 35 30 776. The prior proposed invention, set forth above, is successful in providing satisfactory adjusting ability for the magnetic linear scale unit for providing accuracy of mounting of the magnetic scale precisely parallel to the moving axis of the movable member.


Information technological devices such as personal computers, handheld devices such as mobile phones and portable media players, and processors embedded in various kinds of equipment are becoming ubiquitous in our everyday environment. At the same time, these devices and their associated software are continually increasing in complexity, leading to an increased need for resolution of complex support issues.
Most computer support today is provided through telephone support. Telephone support is very labor intensive, and the cost per support call is unavoidably high. As a consequence the purchase price of a personal computer is only a small fraction of the total cost of ownership for most organizations.
Also, support incidents not only generate direct costs—they also cause indirect cost, both because of the productive time lost for the user with a computer problem, and because other employees may need to spend their time in helping out. Thus there are very significant economic gains to be made if the process of computer support could be automated to a larger extent within companies. Since many users encounter similar problems, in particular in more homogenous software environments such as those often found within large corporations, such automated solutions could be advantageous even if they handle only a subset of all possible problems.
Furthermore, telephone support is a less than ideal solution from a working environment perspective. Telephone support is often carried out at large call centers which mostly handle simple repetitive tasks, since many users encounter identical problems. Organizations can thus gain an advantage by providing more rewarding tasks for their employees and letting common repetitive tasks be solved by an automated system.
Several systems have been proposed where both problem diagnosis and problem resolution is automated in computer systems. Such systems have often been based on well-known methods from artificial intelligence, such as expert systems or case-based reasoning. Some examples are U.S. Pat. No. 5,107,500, U.S. Pat. No. 5,944,839, U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,002, U.S. Pat. No. 5,983,364, U.S. Pat. No. 6,742,141 B1, U.S. Pat. No. 6,145,096, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,785,834.
Another approach towards more cost-effective computer support is to let the end user take an active role in the diagnosis and resolution of problems, so called self-help. Self-help may for take the form of web-based support databases, where the user is provided with a large number of alternative diagnoses and solutions to a technical problem, and has to choose between these himself.
Self-help could also involve communicating with a computer program which attempts to interpret information provided by the user, and also analyzes the state of the user's system, in order to guide the user to a solution of the problem. The user may also automatically be connected to a human support technician in cases where the system fails to resolve the problem at hand. Such systems have previously been described, e.g., in U.S. Pat. No. 6,615,240.
However, it can be very difficult for an ordinary computer user to find relevant technical information in a large database, even with the assistance of a self-help system. A large database of computer support information could today consist of 105 to 106 technical articles (an example is Microsoft Technet, which currently contains at least 150,000 articles). This number is likely to increase significantly in the future as systems become more complex, making the task of navigating a comprehensive support database even more difficult.
It is therefore essential to minimize the number of questions asked of the user and the number of alternatives presented in a self-help system. This will serve to increase user acceptance of self-help systems, and increase productivity in the support process.
One way of addressing this need is to use information from automated diagnosis tools that determine various aspects of the state of the user's system. This information can be used to guide the search process and to reduce information overload by filtering out alternatives that are irrelevant to the current support context. Such systems have been described, e.g., in U.S. Pat. No. 6,658,598.
However, the amount of support information remaining after filtering may still be very large, making search difficult for the user. This is particularly likely to occur when the support interaction involves limited knowledge of the system on the user's part rather than an actual system fault that could be detected automatically. In these cases, an understanding of typical user behavior is also needed to provide an effective guided search process.
It would therefore be beneficial to provide a system and a method for assisting the user in the search process so that the effort in finding a solution to a support problem is minimized.


1. Fieid of the Invention
The present invention relates to a free form machining tool having a spherical surface machining section on a lower end for machining a freely curved surface.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1A shows a conventional free form machining tool. FIG. 1B typically shows a freely curved surface to be machined by this machining tool. A conventional free form machining tool 1 is, for example, a ball nose grinder or a ball end mill. The machining tool 1 has a spherical machining surface (such as a grinder or a cutting blade) on the lower end thereof (in this drawing). The machining tool 1 is rotated around an axis z. A freely curved surface 2 is, for example, a pressing mold, an aspherical lens or the like. The free form machining tool 1 is rotated around the axis z at high speed, while the lower end is moved along the freely curved surface 2 so as to work (grind or cut) the freely curved surface 2. A repetition of such a work allows the freely curved surface such as a mold or aspherical lens to be freely machined by the machining tool 1.
The aforementioned free form machining tool 1 is rotated around the axis z. Thus, the surface to be machined has a peripheral speed of zero (0) on the axis (radius: 0). Therefore, even if a triaxial (X-Y-Z) NC machining apparatus is used, the position of the axis (radius: 0) is a dead spot. Disadvantageously, this position cannot be excellently machined. Thus, the free form machining tool 1 has been heretofore mounted to a multi-axial NC machining apparatus having four or five axes. For machining a portion (for example, a portion A) where the freely curved surface is perpendicular to the z-axis, a program is made so that the axis z of the machining tool 1 may be appropriately angled with respect to the z-axis. However, such programming is complicated and difficult. Furthermore, the multi-axial NC machining apparatus having four or more axes is expensive. Accordingly, there is a problem that this has little general-purpose properties.


Atherosclerotic plaque is known to build up on the walls of arteries in the human body. Such plaque build-up restricts circulation and often causes cardiovascular problems, especially when the build-up occurs in coronary arteries. Other body passages such as the esophagus, ureter and bile ducts, for example, are subject to blockage by tumorous tissue. Accordingly, it is desirable to remove or otherwise reduce plaque build-up and other tissue obstructions from such body passages.
Known catheters use laser energy to remove plaque build-up on artery walls. One such known catheter has a laser source and a catheter body. The catheter body has a proximal end and a distal end, or head, and multiple optical fibers extending between the proximal and distal ends. The laser source is coupled to the optical fibers at the proximal end of the catheter body and is configured to transmit laser energy through the optical fibers.
To remove an obstruction from a body passage, such as atherosclerotic plaque in an artery, the catheter is positioned in the artery so that the distal end of the catheter is adjacent to the plaque. The laser source is then energized so that laser energy travels through the optical fibers and photoablates the plaque adjacent the distal end of the catheter. The catheter is then advanced further through the artery to photoablate the next region of plaque build-up.
While known laser catheters are generally acceptable for removing small obstructions, such catheters are limited to opening a path the size of the catheter head on each pass through the body passage. The multiple passes which are required for removing larger areas of obstruction increase the possibility of damaging the passage inner wall. In addition, multiple passes increase the possibility that a piece of the obstruction will break free, enter the blood stream and result in vessel blockage. Other known laser catheters are limited by the relative inflexibility of the catheter distal end which may inflict damage to body passage inner walls as the catheter is advanced.
Accordingly it would be desirable to provide a laser catheter which can remove substantial portions of an obstruction in a single pass. It would also be desirable to provide a laser catheter having a flexible, adjustable distal end which can substantially conform to the inner dimensions of the body passageway to minimize damage to the inner wall. It would be further desirable to provide a laser catheter which can expand and contract during photoablation to increase the area of obstruction which may be photoablated in a single pass through a body passage.


The zona pellucida is an extracellular matrix that is composed of three glycoproteins, which is a major secretory product of growing oocytes and can also be found on ovulated eggs and early embryos. The fertilized ovum is surrounded by this matrix of mucoproteins, which separates the egg from a layer of follicle cells that provide nourishment to the egg.
Three components of the mouse zona pellucida have been identified (ZP1, ZP2, and ZP3) and contain a signal sequence that directs the protein into a secretory pathway and is cleaved from the mature protein, and a transmembrane domain. In mice these three genes are expressed in a coordinate, oocyte-specific manner during the growth of oogenesis. See, for example, Epifano, O. et al., Development 121: 1947-1956, 1995.
In the mouse model of fertilization, the ZP3 protein first binds the sperm, followed by the binding of ZP2. ZP1 then crosslinks ZP3 and ZP2 dimers. The interaction of these three proteins with the sperm result in the induction of the acrosome reaction (Bork, P. et al., FEBS 300:237-240, 1992). Thus the zona pellucida plays a critical role in fertilization and the post-fertilization block to polyspermy.
Thus genes of the zona pellucida (ZP) family and their encoded proteins are critical in understanding the process of fertilization. The identification of additional members of this family is needed to study this process and to develop methods to modulate it. The present invention provides a novel member of the zona pellucida proteins and related compositions whose uses will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the teachings herein.


Presently, the railroad cars used for containing bulk material are large container cars in which the container compartment is the full size of the car. Special equipment is required to fill the container car with the bulk material and remove the bulk material from the car, generally through doors in the bottom of the car. However, many businesses which desire to ship bulk material are not located near the railroad tracks and do not have easy access to the special equipment needed to transfer the bulk material from trucks to the railroad container car. Also, the business receiving the bulk material may likewise not be near the railroad tracks or have easy access to the special equipment required to transfer the bulk material from the railroad container cars to trucks. There are presently on the market trucks for handling bulk material, such as refuse, having a container which can be easily and quickly slid off of or on to a hoist at the back of the truck. One of such trucks is a Dempster Dumpster with a Dinosaur container made by the Dempster Dumpster systems division of Carrier Corporation of Knoxville, Tenn. Another such truck is made by Accurate division of Western Capital Corporation of Williamstown, N.J. Since these trucks can transfer bulk material in containers which can be easily removed from and replaced on the trucks, it would be desirable to have a railroad flatcar which can easily receive one or more of the containers from such tracks and allow the containers to be transferred back to the trucks. This would allow the delivering business to transfer bulk material in the containers by truck to a railroad siding where the containers could be easily and quickly transferred to the flat car. At the other end of the delivery, the containers could be transferred from the flatcar to a similar truck for delivery to the receiving business.