Abstract: An expert system for evaluating the criteria of environmental labels on consumer products is presented. The system employs a special purpose computer for receiving information about environmental labels, obtaining the criteria used these environmental labels, and sending information to teams of experts who independently evaluate each criteria section against the ISO standards for environmental labels. The system then stores the criteria and the expert evaluations of the criteria and calculates an overall rating for a product based on its environmental labels. The experts work independently on different aspects of rating criteria before a final to assure a reliable final rating. Users may access information about an environmental label, for example, through a mobile device with a camera and interact access. The present invention allows consumers to purchase products based on an impartial rating and avoid being misled by unreliable environmental labels.

Abstract: A cooling system for a machine is provided. The machine has an operator compartment, a front end, and an engine cooled by a first heat exchanger and mounted within an engine compartment. The engine compartment is positioned behind the operator compartment in relation to the front end. A fan is mounted within the engine compartment and has an inlet and a first and a second outlet. A second heat exchanger is fluidically coupled to the fan and the engine and mounted within the engine compartment. A first fluid flow path extends from ambient to the inlet. A second fluid flow path extends from the first outlet to ambient and extends through the second heat exchanger. A third fluid flow path extends from the second outlet to ambient and extends through the first heat exchanger, and is thermally isolated from the second fluid flow path.

Abstract: A frequency synthesizer using a fixed oscillator driving a comb line generator to generate a spectrum of comb lines, one of which is selected by a switched array of fixed-tuned, YIG passband filters. The selected comb line is combined in a mixer with a signal from a local oscillator, which, preferably, is a direct digital synthesizer. The output of the mixer is fed to another switched array of fixed-tuned YIG passband filters where only the desired sideband is selected and the comb line and the other sideband is filtered out. In various alternative embodiments, tunable YIG filters are substituted for each array. Some embodiments also use a reverse slope equalizer to break up the coherent energy in the comb line spectrum at the output of the comb line generator to allow RF amplification to be applied without saturating the amplifier.

Abstract: A nonreciprocally coupled ferrimagnetic band reject and bandpass filter having passbands from 2-18 GHz and 6-18 GHz respectively. The band reject filter comprises one or more ferrimagnetic spheres shielded from each other by placement in nonmagnetic, electrically conductive cavities in a block placed in the flux gap of a tuning magnet. Nonreciprocal coupling is achieved by using full RF coupling loops and establishing all factors that affect the transmission line delay for travel of signals from one point in the filter to another such as loop length and size, cavity size, sphere size and spacing, dielectric constant, RF coupling loop wire size and spacing etc. such that the effective electrical length from the center of one full RF coupling loop to the centerline of the neighboring RF coupling loop is 1/4 wavelength, i.e.

Abstract: A YIG notch filter using full RF coupling loops and having a notch filter center frequency tunable as high as 18 GHz comprising a plurality of undoped YIG spheres of much smaller volume than used in the prior art and linearly arranged in a air gap. The spheres are suspended in cavities in a nonmagnetic block which are spaced much more closely than in the prior art. The 50 ohm stripline impedance inverters formed on a substrate and connecting the RF coupling loops of the spheres used in the prior art are eliminated. The quarter-wavelength impedance inverter function necessary to fabricate a notch filter is implemented by using the RF coupling loops themselves and measuring the distance from centerline to centerline of adjacent RF coupling loops. Twin insulated wires with up to one diameter separation for the RF coupling loops are preferred with the wires soldered together between the spheres.

Abstract: A frequency discriminator having at least one ferrimagnetic resonator in a band pass or band reject configuration, the frequency of which is swept over a frequency band of interest, a detector receives the filter output, and the timing relationship between the detector output and the swept frequency is compared to generate the discriminator output. The discriminator has a bandwidth variable from a relatively narrow range to a very wide range in which the center frequency is simultaneously tunable over an extremely wide frequency range. The discriminator is insensitive to amplitude variations of the input signal and is capable of demodulating low level signals. The frequency discriminator is particularly useful for microwave frequency applications, for example, as a discriminator in a simple microwave FM receiver.

Abstract: Compact, simple, ferromagnetic-filter coupling structures which provide a very high, effective-quality factor Q in the VHF, UHF, and microwave frequency ranges achieved by means of offsetting the ferromagnetic element from the plane of the coupling loops and by phase shifting the current in one of the coupling loops to produce an orthogonal field in the vicinity of the ferromagnetic element.

Abstract: Compact, simple, ferromagnetic-filter coupling structures which provide a very high, effective-quality factor Q in the VHF, UHF, and microwave frequency ranges.

Abstract: A frequency discriminator having a bandwidth variable from a relatively narrow range to a very wide range in which the center frequency is simultaneously tunable over an extremely wide frequency range. The discriminator is insensitive to amplitude variations of the input signal and is capable of demodulating low level signals. The frequency discriminator is particularly useful for microwave frequency applications wherein the basic discriminator element is a ferrimagnetic resonator. The frequency discriminator forms a portion of several preferred embodiments including devices for the frequency control of signal sources, frequency measurement of signal sources, demodulation of frequency modulated signals and frequency tracking control for other ferrimagnetic devices.