Abstract: Apparatus for drying a gas comprises an elongate housing having an inlet port and an outlet port for the gas. The housing comprises at least two axially separable parts which can be separated to allow access to the interior of the housing. A cartridge contains an adsorbent material through which gas can flow axially from an inlet end which is in fluid communication with the inlet port to the housing towards an outlet end which is in fluid communication with the outlet port from the housing. The cartridge has a plurality of flexible vanes at the inlet end which, when the cartridge is located within the housing, are twisted so that gas flowing over the vanes has a circumferential flow imparted to it around the axis of the cartridge.

Abstract: An optical amplifier is disclosed comprising a signal semiconductor optical amplifier having a waveguide, forming at least part of a signal path between an input and an output, extending along a signal active region for amplification of a signal. The amplifier also includes a control active region of semiconductor material having a gain which is controllable independently from the gain of the signal active region. The amplifier also includes a laser cavity containing both the signal active region and the control active region and being capable of clamping the gain of the signal active region, and the control active region is arranged not to amplify a signal in the signal path within a predetermined signal band.

Abstract: A sample rate conversion system developed to implement a rate change of M/N using a very efficient design implementation. The sample rate conversion system of the present invention is implemented as a CIC-based interpolating sample rate converter with noise-shaped control of the N value. For a decimator, noise-shaped control of the M value is utilized. In the interpolator, the N value is the correct value on average, but demonstrates instantaneous errors (“non-uniform” resampling) that are corrected through noise-shaping. The CIC SRC implementation capitalizes on the fact that the outputs of the CIC that are discarded during downsampling need not be calculated by the CIC in the first instance. The combination of the computational simplicity of CIC SRC with noise-shaped, non-uniform resampling performs the sample rate conversion very economically and facilitates conversion between a plethora of sample rates at the input and output without requiring the various filters to be explicitly formulated.

Abstract: Provided are a system and method for supporting communication between application programs and the processing of messages by those programs. A table driven approach is used to select appropriate components of modular application programs to process received messages. The selection is carried out in dependence on associations between message types (e.g. request, inform, reply) and other characteristics of the message (e.g. whether the message is an expected reply (as identified by an identifier value). Also used in said selection are dynamic characteristics of the message or the system (e.g. possibly expiry of a timeout, or the state of an application). Rules combine these criteria and determine the conditions for invoking an application program component.Also provided is a mechanism for differentiating between reply messages which are received out of serial sequence but are still current and messages which are invalid.

Abstract: A dispensing apparatus for dispensing contents from a container. The container rests upon a support in the apparatus and has an outlet at one end from which contents are directly dispersed and cover at its other end. The apparatus has a ram with a ram member engageable against the cover to move the cover between a first position adjacent the other end to a position adjacent the outlet to dispense contents from the container. The pressure exerted on the cover by the ram member is released after a dispensing operation.