In a cooled component system, a heat exchanger mounted on a surface of the industrial component is housed in an isolated access compartment adjacent to but separated from the primary compartment containing the industrial component. Housing the heat exchanger in a separately accessible compartment permits access to the heat exchanger for cleaning or other purposes without having to shut down the industrial component being cooled. A means for moving a cooling media over the surface a the heat exchanger might also be included to maximize heat exchange.

Embodiments of the invention provides a decoder for decoding a signal received through a transmission channel in a communication system, said signal carrying information symbols selected from a given alphabet and being associated with a signal vector, said transmission channel being represented by a channel matrix, wherein said decoder comprises: a sub-block division unit (301) configured to divide the received signal vector into a set of sub-vectors in correspondence with a division of a matrix related to said channel matrix;a candidate set estimation unit (305) for recursively determining candidate estimates of sub-blocks of the transmitted signal corresponding to said sub-vectors, each estimate of a given sub-block being determined from at least one candidate estimate of the previously processed sub-blocks,wherein said candidate set estimation unit is configured to determine a set of candidate estimates for at least one sub-block of the transmitted signal by applying at least one iteration of a decoding algorithm using the estimates determined for the previously processed sub-blocks, the number of candidate estimates determined for said sub-block being strictly inferior to the cardinal of the alphabet and superior or equal to two, the decoder further comprising a signal estimation unit (306) for calculating an estimate of the transmitted signal from said candidate estimates determined for said sub-blocks.

An ultrasound device including an asynchronous successive approximation analog-to-digital converter and method are provided. The device includes at least one ultrasonic transducer, a plurality of asynchronous successive-approximation-register (SAR) analog-to-digital converters (ADC) coupled to the at least one ultrasonic transducer, at least one asynchronous SAR in the plurality having a sample and hold stage, a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), a comparator, and control circuitry, wherein a DAC update event following at least one bit conversion is synchronized to a corresponding DAC update event of at least one other ADC in the plurality of ADCs.

A current source device having a current source array includes a plurality of current source units, a plurality of least significant bits, and a plurality of most significant bits. The current source units are arranged along a plurality rows and columns of a current source array. Each of the least significant bits includes a first amount of current source units is placed at the geometric center of the current source array. Each of the most significant bits includes a second amount of current source units. The second amount is the first amount multiplied by a positive integer. The two adjacent bits in the most significant bits are centrally symmetrical to the geometric center.

A probabilistic digitizer for extracting information from a Josephson comparator is disclosed. The digitizer uses statistical methods to aggregate over a set of comparator readouts, effectively increasing the sensitivity of the comparator even when an input signal falls within the comparator's gray zone. Among other uses, such a digitizer may be used to discriminate between states of a qubit.

A system of systems to monitor data for carbon flux, for example, at scales capable of managing regional net carbon flux and pricing carbon financial instruments is disclosed. The system of systems can monitor carbon flux in forests, soils, agricultural areas, body of waters, flue gases, and the like. The system includes a means to identify and quantify sources of carbon based on simultaneous measurement of isotopologues of carbon dioxide, for example, industrial, agricultural or natural sources, offering integration of same in time and space. Carbon standards are employed at multiple scales to ensure harmonization of data and carbon financial instruments.

A process is provided for recovering sodium chloride crystals and sodium carbonate decahydrate crystals from a concentrated brine that results from a gas mining operation where gas and produced water is recovered and the produced water constitutes a brine. An initial pre-concentration process is carried out where the brine is concentrated and in the process carbon dioxide is removed from the brine and at least some sodium bicarbonate is converted to sodium carbonate. In one process, the concentrated brine is directed to a sodium chloride crystallizer where the brine is heated and further concentrated to form sodium chloride crystals which are separated from the brine to yield a product and wherein the resulting brine is termed a first mother liquor. The first mother liquor is then directed to a sodium carbonate decahydrate crystallizer where the first mother liquor is cooled and concentrated resulting in the formation of sodium carbonate decahydrate crystals and a second mother liquor. The second mother liquor is split into two streams where one stream is directed back to the sodium chloride crystallizer while the other stream is wasted or further treated.

This invention refers to a novel process to obtain magnesium hydroxide and sodium sulfate from a solid raw material, which contains sodium and magnesium soluble salts, preferably in the form of sulfates, coming from a natural source or as a byproduct of an industrial process. The process consisting in the conditioning of the raw material to guarantee the correct concentrations of sodium and magnesium sulfates that is subjected to a salting-out crystallization when mixed with sodium sulfate obtaining sodium sulfate; the resulting solution is subjected to an alkali treatment to precipitate the magnesium hydroxide and the mother liquor is fed to a regeneration stage of the alkali used in the precipitation of the magnesium hydroxide as well in the sodium sulfate solution for the crystallization. The crystallization can be performed as a multistage process countercurrent to increase the purity of sodium sulfate.

A method of producing a titanium dioxide pigment is provided. Also provided is a method of improving the processability of titanium dioxide particles without adversely affecting the rheological properties of the titanium dioxide particles.

A process for producing granules containing one or more complexing agent salts of the general formula from an aqueous starting solution, containing the one or more complexing agent salts in a concentration of from 10 to 80% by weight, based on the total weight of the aqueous starting solution, in a jet apparatus.

Titanium dioxide which includes particles having a large major-axis length in a large proportion and comprises columnar particles having a satisfactory particle size distribution. A titanium compound, an alkali metal compound, and an oxyphosphorus compound are heated/fired in the presence of titanium dioxide nucleus crystals having an aspect ratio of 2 or higher to grow the titanium dioxide nucleus crystals. Subsequently, a titanium compound, an alkali metal compound, and an oxyphosphorus compound are further added and heated/fired in the presence of the grown titanium dioxide nucleus crystals. Thus, titanium dioxide is produced which comprises columnar particles having a weight-average major-axis length of 7.0-15.0 μm and in which particles having a major-axis length of 10 μm or longer account for 15 wt. % or more of all the particles.

The present invention relates to a zinc oxide-based piezoelectric device, utilisable both as a sensor and as an actuator. More in particular, the present invention relates to a piezoelectric device (1, 101) comprising at least two carbon fibre crossed yarns (2a, 2b; 102a, 102b), at the intersection of which a zinc oxide layer (3, 103) in nanorod form is arranged, wherein an end (4a, 4b) of each of said yarns (2a, 2b; 102a, 102b) is connected to an operative unit (5).

The present invention ensures reliability while reducing the size of an axial air gap rotating electric machine. An axial air gap rotating electric machine has: a stator comprising a plurality of core members arranged in a ring shape, said core members each having an iron core, a coil wound in an iron core outer periphery direction, and a bobbin disposed between the iron core and the coil; and a rotor plane-facing an end surface of the iron core via an air gap in a rotating shaft radial direction. The bobbin has: a tubular portion facing the outer peripheral side surface of the iron core and shorter than the length of the iron core; flange portions extending in the vicinity of both ends of the tubular portion from the outer periphery of the tubular portion toward the vertical direction outside by a predetermined length; and a projection portion being on the outside surface of at least one of the flange portions and near the inner edge of the tubular portion, having an inner peripheral surface facing the end outer peripheral side surface of the inserted iron core, and further projecting in an extending direction of the tubular portion.

The invention is a sound modification device used for a percussion instrument. It is comprised of a rigid clip that is spring-based to a closed position and an integrated dampening material, leather or plastic etc., that comes in contact with the vibrating surface. Once the clip is pulled apart it can be released to firmly attach over the hoop of any drum. The musician can choose the size or material of the dampening component to eliminate unwanted ring and or change the resonant note of the drum. The thickness of the dampening component can also be chosen by the drummer to increase or decrease the dampening characteristics.

A method for converting textual messages to musical messages comprising receiving a text input and receiving a musical input selection. The method includes analyzing the text input to determine text characteristics and analyzing a musical input corresponding to the musical input selection to determine musical characteristics. Based on the text characteristic and the musical characteristic, the method includes correlating the text input with the musical input to generate a synthesizer input, and sending the synthesizer input to a voice synthesizer. The method includes receiving a vocal rendering of the text input from the voice synthesizer and generating a musical message from the vocal rendering and the musical input. The method includes generating a video element based on a video input, incorporating the video element into the musical message, and outputting the musical message including the video element.

A system for remotely generating sound from a musical instrument includes a linear exciter which may be configured as a brace for a sound board of the musical instrument. In one embodiment, the system includes an input configured to receive a signal representative of the sound of a first musical instrument, a linear exciter for converting the signal to mechanical vibrations, and a calibration system for altering the signal sent to the exciter.

A surface covering kit is disclosed, comprising a plurality of generally rectangular panels (100). Each panel is provided with grooves (301, 302, 301', 302') forming an insertion channel (303) when two panels (100) are laid next to each other along their transverse sides (105, 105') in a common laying plane (101). An extraneous locking element (210) is received by the insertion channel (303), the extraneous locking element (210) having a longitudinal dimension and a cross-section perpendicular to said longitudinal dimension which forms a cross with at least four cross arms. The corresponding cross arms of the insertion channel have two parallel flank surfaces (1603, 1604) each, and each of the cross arms is oriented diagonally in a plane perpendicular to the panel plane (102).

The invention relates to a paint mixing room (1) comprising a base portion (2), four walls (3), a top portion (4) and at least one door (5) located in one the walls (3); at least one shelf (6), particularly for water-borne products, solvent-borne products and/or color tools; at least one workbench (7); a color station (8) comprising e.g. a personal computer, a spectrophotometer, and a barcode reader; a connector for an electrical power supply; and a ventilation system (11); wherein the paint mixing room (1) is portable.

A composite shield comprises a panel including an outer thin metallic strike surface layer, a highly strain rate hardening polymer layer and an inner structural armor plate layer. The structural armor plate layer has a multiplicity of traversing ports. The traversing ports have sufficient lateral area to allow deformation of the thin metallic strike surface layer and highly strain rate hardening polymer layer through the structural armor plate layer on the occurrence of explosive blast.

The utility model discloses a monolithic reinforced concrete piece for the construction of buildings which is characterized for having six columns arrange in a hexagonal distribution, a continuous beam with variable depth supported by the columns making six spans and forming a hexagonal perimeter viewed from top, a corbel fixed along the beam's external face, and a roof which has a hexagonal shape with a circular hole in the center in plan view and cambered in the elevation view which rest on the continuous beam. In use the reinforced concrete hexahedral module can be cast-in-place or pre-cast and transported to its final position on the construction site and used as part of a building defining the space and ambience of said building. This invention has the advantage of being safe, strong and reliable, providing a fast new method of construction for different kinds of buildings.

An incremental forming machine binder is provided that has a blank holding opening that may be subdivided into smaller blank holding openings. The opening is subdivided by one or more clamping modules that are connected by connecting modules to each other and the frame. Clamps are attached to the clamping modules to clamp blanks in the blank holding openings. Multiple blanks may be secured to the binder for incremental forming.

An ambulatory surgical center can include a hybrid operating room. The hybrid operating room can include at least four lead-shielded walls, a floor, and a ceiling. The ambulatory surgical center can also include an imaging device disposed in a central area of the hybrid operating room. The ambulatory surgical center can further include an operating table disposed in the central area of the hybrid operating room. The ambulatory surgical center can additionally include a power room adjacent to the operating room. The power room can include a power supply for the imaging device. The ambulatory surgical center can also include a conduit from the power room to the imaging device configured to deliver power to the imaging device. The ambulatory surgical center can further include an emergency power source for the imaging device configured to permit continuity of surgery in the hybrid operating room during a power outage.

A method of modulating oxygen saturation levels can include measuring oxygen saturation levels in a patient, administering inhaled nitric oxide, adjusting the dose of oxygen in real time to a second dose based on the inhaled nitric oxide.

The present invention relates to the administration of warm humidified oxygen to patients suffering with breathing problems. The present invention more specifically relates to the high flow of warm humidified oxygen to patients suffering with breathing problems or suffering with asthma.

A positive exhalation pressure device (1) is described. The device (1) comprises a housing (2) having an annular chamber (5), a chamber inlet (6) configured to permit air into the chamber, a chamber outlet (7) configured to permit air out of the chamber, and a mouthpiece (8) in fluid communication with the chamber inlet. A movable body such as a ball (3) is disposed in the housing within the annular chamber and configured to revolve around the annular chamber in response to flow of air through the chamber from the chamber inlet to the chamber outlet. The movable body is configured to at least partially block the chamber outlet as it revolves around the annular chamber causing cyclical fluctuations in airflow resistance.

An intelligent bionic expectoration system and a three-way device thereof. The intelligent bionic expectoration system includes a negative pressure suction module, a central processing module, a patient interface unit and a respiratory muscle synchronous motion module. The central processing module controls two valves to open or close, closing one valve while opening another valve, and controls the respiratory muscle synchronous motion module. The patient interface unit is connected to the positive pressure ventilation module and the negative pressure suction module, allowing positive or negative pressure airflow to flow by, depending on which valve is open, so as to allow airflow to flow in or out of the lung. The respiratory muscle synchronous motion module can employ nerve stimulation and mechanical pushing, and acts synchronously as the airflow moves, thereby simulating human coughing and achieves bionic expectoration.

Provided herein are fire safety face masks and systems comprising the same for displacing excessive oxygen away from a surgical area. The face mask comprises a body portion, an exhalation conduit fluidly connected to the body portion and an in-flow tubing in a fluidly connecting relationship with the body portion. The fire safety face mask may further comprise a gas sampling port disposed on the body portion to facilitate monitoring of inspired and exhaled gases via a multi-gas analyzer. Also provided are methods for preventing fires in an operating theater during a surgical procedure utilizing the fire safety masks and systems disclosed herein.

An example method for detecting respiratory disturbances experienced by a subject can include receiving an airflow signal and at least one of an acoustic or vibration signal, where the airflow, acoustic, and/or vibration signals are associated with the subjects breathing. At least one feature can be extracted from the airflow signal and at least one feature can be extracted from at least one of the acoustic or vibration signal. Based on the extracted features, at least one respiratory disturbance can be detected. The respiratory disturbance can be flow limited breath or inspiratory flow limitation (“IFL”).

This disclosure describes systems and methods for controlling pressure and/or flow during exhalation. The disclosure describes novel exhalation modes for ventilating a patient.

A patient monitoring system is configured to monitor oxygen saturation and/or oxygenation of a patient's blood. The system is configured to re-oxygenate the patient in response to a determination that the patient's oxygen saturation and/or oxygenation has fallen below a threshold (e.g., if the patient is experiencing hypoxemia). A re-oxygenation routine may include an initial step of rapidly oxygenating the patient, followed by a reduction of oxygenation to make the oxygenation process more gradual. For instance, after the initial step of rapid oxygenation, the patient may be oxygenated with oxygen at an atmospheric level. The system may dynamically adjust the ratio of delivered oxygen versus delivered air, the duration of oxygenation, and the incidence of oxygenation. The system may also adjust the automated delivery of one or more drugs to the patient based on the patient's condition and/or the state of re-oxygenation.

Methods, systems, and apparatuses are described that indicate an amount at which various gas flow rates should be manually adjusted in order to achieve targeted total flow rates and concentration levels.

A supplemental oxygen delivery system is described in which Aerosol is delivered into a housing 10, 20, which sits in the circuit from the supplemental oxygen supply and optional humidifier. The supplemental oxygen passes through this chamber 10, 20 in which the aerosol is located, and collects the aerosol transporting it to a patient via a nasal cannula 3 or a face mask 4. An aerosol generator 9 is mounted to the housing 10, 20 and delivers aerosol into an oxygen stream 13 flowing between an inlet 14 and an outlet 15 of the housing 10. The housing 10 also has a removable plug 16 in the base 17 thereof for draining any liquid that accumulates in the housing 10. There is no disruption of oxygen delivery to patients using nasal cannulas who currently have to use a separate face-mask when receiving nebulized medication.

Systems, methods, and devices are disclosed for humidifying a breathing gas that reduces and/or eliminates the dangers and discomforts experienced by a patient. In one aspect, a system for humidifying gases includes a body, extending along a first axis from a first face to a second face, a first lumen at the first face, through which fluid enters the body, a second lumen at the first face through which fluid exits the body and a nonporous membrane located inside the body and extending from the first face to the second face wherein gas moving through the nonporous membrane is humidified by the fluid.

A 2×2 MIMO array antenna is provided which includes two separate radiating elements mounted to an antenna reflector. Each element is linear polarized with two orthogonal polarizations, one polarization excited by a transmit port and the other polarization receiving radiated signals destined for a receive port. The two elements are aligned that the polarizations excited by the transmit ports of the two elements are along a common axis, or the polarizations received by the receive ports of the two elements are along a common axis.

A multiplexer structure includes a passive substrate. The multiplexer structure may also include a high band filter on the passive substrate. The high band filter may include a 2D planar spiral inductor(s) on the passive substrate. The multiplexer structure may further include a low band filter on the passive substrate. The low band filter may include a 3D through-substrate inductor and a first capacitor(s) on the passive substrate. The multiplexer structure may also include a through substrate via(s) coupling the high band filter and the low band filter.

A fixture for preventing deformation of a glass panel of a display module, for receiving and fixing a light guide plate and a glass panel. It comprises an array cell and a color filter cell. The array cell is provided with a metal routing layer. The color filter cell is provided with a color resist layer. The fixture consists and a lower fixing end, with upper ends, the array cell and the color filter cell received in the upper fixing end, while lower ends thereof received in the lower fixing end, so the color resist layer in the color filter cell and the metal routing layer in the array cell are aligned in parallel. By a gap between the glass panel and the inner side face and bottom surface, the glass panel fine tunes properly for quick recovery by virtue of its gravity when deformation occurs.

Methods and apparatus for treating an exhaust gas in a foreline of a substrate processing system are provided herein. In some embodiments, a method for treating an exhaust gas in an exhaust conduit of a substrate processing system includes: flowing an exhaust gas and a reagent gas into an exhaust conduit of a substrate processing system; injecting a non-reactive gas into the exhaust conduit to maintain a desired pressure in the exhaust conduit for conversion of the exhaust gas; and forming a plasma from the exhaust gas and reagent gas, subsequent to injecting the non-reactive gas, to convert the exhaust gas to abatable byproduct gases.

The invention discloses a composite material used for catalyzing and degrading nitrogen oxide and its preparation method and application thereof. The invention of the hollow g-C3N4 nanospheres/reduced graphene oxide composite-polymer carbonized nanofiber material is prepared as follow: 1) the preparation of silica nanospheres; 2) the preparation of hollow g-C3N4 nanospheres; 3) the preparation of graphene oxide; 4) the preparation of surface modified hollow g-C3N4 nanoparticles preparation; 5) the preparation of composites; 6) the preparation of composite-polymer carbon nanofiber material. The raw materials used in the process is low cost and easy to get; the operation of the invention is simple and convenient without the use of expensive equipment in the whole process; the composite has high adsorption efficiency of ppb level nitrogen oxide with good repeatability.

A film is sputter-deposited on an essentially plane, extended surface of a substrate which has recesses therein, namely at least one of grooves, of holes, of bores, of vias, of trenches. So as to establish on one hand a homogeneous thickness distribution of the film along the addressed surface of the substrate and, on the other hand, a thick film deposition within the recesses, sputter deposition is performed first at a large distance between a sputter surface of a target and the addressed surface of the substrate and then at a reduced distance between the addressed surfaces.

A method and device are provided for simultaneously or near-simultaneously diagnosing and treating tension pneumothorax and/or hemothoraxA Veress-type needle portion includes a hollow needle for puncturing the chest wall over a blunt hollow probe biased by one or more springs to extend distally into the pleural cavity. Openings in the blunt hollow probe connect via a pathway to an automatic check valve, which permits the flow of air and/or fluid only in a proximal direction. Pressure from within the pleural cavity is transmitted to the interior surface of a pressure documenter. If pressure greater than atmospheric pressure is present in the pleural cavity, the pressure documenter will be automatically urged proximally to simultaneously allow air and/or fluid to escape from the pleural space through the device, thus treating the tension pneumothorax and/or hemothorax, as well as providing a stable indicator to positively document the diagnosis of increased pressure.

In one example embodiment, a system for treating a tissue site is disclosed comprising a dressing adapted to contact the tissue site and provide a fluid seal between a therapeutic environment and a local external environment, and a solution source fluidly coupled to the dressing and adapted to deliver an antimicrobial solution comprising a peroxy α-keto carboxylic acid, such as peroxy pyruvic acid, to the tissue interface. The system may further comprise a negative-pressure source fluidly coupled to the dressing and adapted to provide negative pressure to the therapeutic environment after delivery of the antimicrobial fluid to the therapeutic environment. In another example embodiment, a method for treating a tissue site is disclosed comprising positioning a tissue interface to contact the tissue site, covering the tissue interface and the tissue site with a drape to provide a fluid seal between the therapeutic environment and the local external environment, and delivering an antimicrobial solution comprising peroxy α-keto carboxylic acid to the therapeutic environment before providing negative pressure to the therapeutic environment.

An expanding plunger rod for a syringe is configured to transition from a packaged configuration to an expanded configuration for operation. The rod includes a substantially cylindrical outer sleeve having a closed-off bottom end and an open upper end, and an inner rod having a lower end and an upper end. The inner rod is slidably disposed coaxially within the outer sleeve. In the packaged configuration, the inner rod is nested within the outer sleeve. In the expanded configuration, the inner rod is disposed substantially axially above the outer sleeve, and the inner rod locks axially in place to prevent transition from the expanded to the packaged configuration.

A closed loop catheter useable for heat exchange is manufactured by forming a plurality of generally transverse bore holes though a flexible, multilumen catheter body, lacing a tube trough the bore holes so that loops of the tube protrude from the catheter body, connecting one end of the tube to an inflow lumen of the catheter and connecting the other end of the tube to an outflow lumen of the catheter. A heated or cooled heat exchange medium may then be circulated through the tube while the catheter is inserted in the vasculature of a subject, thereby resulting in heat exchange between the subject's flowing blood and the heat exchange medium being circulated through the tube.

A catheter includes a catheter body having a proximal end, a beveled distal end, and a lumen therethrough. The beveled distal end defines an elliptical port for releasing contrast or other media through the lumen and from the elliptical port. The catheter may also be used delivering devices or for aspirating or extracting materials from the vasculature or other body lumens. A fixed guidewire extends distally from the distal end of the catheter body, typically from the distal-most edge of the elliptical port. The fixed wire is typically malleable so that it can be manually formed into a desired shape. The elliptical port may be flat or concave.

Provided is a method for simply evaluating defects caused in interface states in oxide semiconductor thin films and protective films in TFTs having protective films formed on the surface of oxide semiconductor thin films without actually measuring the characteristics of the same. This evaluation method evaluates defects caused in the interface states by measuring electron states in the oxide semiconductor thin film by a contact method or noncontact method. The defects caused in the interface states are any of the following (1)-(3). (1) Threshold value voltage (Vth,) when a positive bias is applied to the thin-film transistor(2) Difference in threshold value voltage (ΔVth) before and after applying the positive bias to the thin-film transistor(3) Threshold value during the first measurement when a plurality of measurements is made of the threshold value voltage when a positive bias is applied to the thin-film transistor.

A universal, modular, temperature controlled MRI phantom for calibration and validation for anisotropic and isotropic imaging comprises an outer insulating shell configured to be received within an MRI chamber; an inner shell received within the outer insulating shell; a fluid conduits adjacent the inner shell for receiving temperature controlling fluid or gas cycling there-through; and a series of stacked layers of frames containing test points for the MRI phantom, each layer including at least one fiducial and including at least some anisotropic imaging test points in at least one frame and at least one isotropic imaging test point in at least one frame. The anisotropic imaging comprises hollow tubular textile fibers, wherein each hollow tubular fiber has an outer diameter of less than 50 microns and an inner diameter of less than 20 microns, wherein at least some hollow tubular fibers are filled with a fluid.

Disclosed is a piezoelectric material including stereocomplex crystals of poly(D-lactic acid) (PDLA) and poly(L-lactic acid) (PLLA), wherein poly(D-lactic acid) and poly(L-lactic acid) are crystallized into a stereocomplex, thus exhibiting superior heat resistance and piezoelectric properties. This piezoelectric material, which is obtained using poly(lactic acid), can be produced at very low cost compared to when using PVDF, and is configured to include stereocomplex crystals of PDLA and PLLA and can thus manifest high thermal stability and piezoelectric properties, compared to when using conventional PLLA alone. Such a piezoelectric material can be efficiently utilized in a variety of fields in which low production cost, high processing temperature in the manufacturing process, or high-temperature stability of piezoelectric material products is required.

A photo acoustic non-destructive measurement apparatus and method for quantitatively measuring texture of a liquid. The apparatus includes a laser generating tool, an acoustic capturing device, and a data processing unit. The laser generating tool directs a laser towards a surface of a liquid contained in a container and creates pressure waves that propagate through the air and produce an acoustic signal. The acoustic capturing device records and forwards the signal to a data processing unit. The data processing unit further comprises a digital signal processing module that processes the received acoustic signal. A statistical processing module further filters the acoustic signal from the data processing unit and generates a quantitative acoustic model for texture attributes such as hardness and fracturability. The quantitative model is correlated with a qualitative texture measurement from a descriptive expert panel. Textures of liquids are quantitatively measured with the quantitative acoustic model.

A method and system for a sensor system of a device is disclosed. The sensor system includes a first MEMS sensor (FMEMS), a second MEMS sensor (SMEMS) and a signal processor (SP). An excitation is imparted to the device along a first axis (FA). The FMEMS has a first primary sense axis (FPSA), moves in response to a component of the excitation along the FA aligned with the FPSA and outputs a first signal proportional to an excitation along the FPSA. The SMEMS has a second primary sense axis (SPSA), moves in response to a component of the excitation along the FA aligned with the SPSA and outputs a second signal proportional to an excitation along the SPSA. The SP combines the first signal and the second signal to output a third signal proportional to the excitation along the FA. The FA, the FPSA and the SPSA have different orientations.

A sensing device includes an array of sensing elements. Each sensing element includes a photodiode, including a p-n junction, and a local biasing circuit, coupled to reverse-bias the p-n junction at a bias voltage greater than a breakdown voltage of the p-n junction by a margin sufficient so that a single photon incident on the p-n junction triggers an avalanche pulse output from the sensing element. A bias control circuit is coupled to set the bias voltage in different ones of the sensing elements to different, respective values that are greater than the breakdown voltage.