A pressure sensing module for sensing a pressure applied to a circuit board is disclosed. The pressure sensing module includes a conductive pad, an elastic cover, a pushing part and a conductive unit. The conductive pad is connected to the circuit board. The elastic cover is connected to the circuit board and located on the conductive pad. The elastic cover includes a top end. The pushing part is connected to the top end. The conductive unit is located above the conductive pad. When the pushing part is not under pressure, the conductive unit does not move to touch the conductive pad. When the pushing part is under pressure, the pushing part causes the conductive unit to move toward the conductive pad such that the conductive unit touches the conductive pad.

A high-throughput system for processing biological material that comprises: a tray that supports a functionally-closed fluid path subsystem comprising, a vessel for containing and enabling the biological material to separate into two or more distinct submaterials; one or more receptacles to receive one or more of the submaterials from the vessel; a filtration device; a conduit through which one or more submaterials are transported between at least the vessel and the filtration device; and a first engagement structure; a processing unit comprising, a pumping device for moving one or more of the submaterials between at least the vessel and the filtration device via the conduit; a second engagement structure corresponding to the first engagement structure; a locking mechanism for at least temporarily holding the tray in a fixed position relative to the processing unit; a control device that automatically starts and stops the pumping device in response to one or more commands.

A load sensor and load detector for detecting the weight of tiny substances such as viruses or bacteria and includes a resonance generator causing a vibrating unit to resonate, a load sensor, and a voltage detector that detects change in induced electromotive force in a pick-up. The load sensor includes the vibrating unit, pick-up, and a substance adsorbent. The vibrating unit includes a magnetostrictive element capable of resonating. The pick-up generates an induced current using inverse magnetostrictive effect of the magnetostrictive element resulting from the vibrating unit vibrations. The substance adsorbent is provided at the vibrating unit, is composed of an antibody to viruses or bacteria and at least partially covers the vibrating unit. The pick-up is composed of a coil with the vibrating unit arranged inside the coil. The vibrating unit is formed by bonding the magnetostrictive element and a soft magnetic body to each other.

A non-contact strain and/or displacement measurement system for use with structural objects having an optical device, a data store and an image arrangement that is fixed relative to the structural object to be tested, the optical device including an image receiving device for receiving visual images and the data store being configured to record the received visual images, the image receiving device being spaced from the image arrangement by an optical spacing such that the image receiving device has a visual range that includes a portion of the structural object and the image arrangement being within the portion, the image arrangement having at least one image element wherein movement of the at least one image element during a measurement period provides image data to calculate structural object strain and/or structural object displacement.

Hundreds of thousands of concrete bridges, buildings etc. and hundreds of billions of tons of concrete require characterization throughout the process from manufacture to pouring and curing and on throughout service life. The characterization may relate to initial concrete properties, projected concrete properties, framework removal, corrosion, failure etc. Accordingly, a variety of measurements such as water content, electrical resistivity, and half-cell corrosion potential for example would be beneficially implemented as easy to use field test equipment or embedded sensors allowing lifetime monitoring to be performed rather than discrete assessments when issues become evident.

The present invention discloses a cable force identification algorithm considering semi-rigid constraints on both ends. The present invention only needs the basic parameters such as length and mass per unit length of a cable and then adopts a modal identification algorithm such as stochastic subspace method and frequency domain decomposition method to process signals collected by the acceleration sensor, and thus obtains the corresponding first natural frequency and mode shapes, and the cable force can be solved without obtaining any other data in advance. The present invention simplifies the cable to an equivalent single-degree-of-freedom system, modifies the first natural frequency of the cable through the mode shape of modal identification, avoids the cable force identification error caused by the change of the boundary mechanical characteristics of the cable, improves the efficiency and accuracy of cable force monitoring, has good application prospect in real-time monitoring of cable force of cable-stayed structure.

The present invention discloses a cable force identification algorithm considering semi-rigid constraints on both ends. The present invention only needs the basic parameters such as length and mass per unit length of a cable and then adopts a modal identification algorithm such as stochastic subspace method and frequency domain decomposition method to process signals collected by the acceleration sensor, and thus obtains the corresponding first natural frequency and mode shapes, and the cable force can be solved without obtaining any other data in advance. The present invention simplifies the cable to an equivalent single-degree-of-freedom system, modifies the first natural frequency of the cable through the mode shape of modal identification, avoids the cable force identification error caused by the change of the boundary mechanical characteristics of the cable, improves the efficiency and accuracy of cable force monitoring, has good application prospect in real-time monitoring of cable force of cable-stayed structure.

Disclosed is a method for estimating the tension of a tension member (1), the method comprising the steps of exciting the tension member (1) such as to induce vibration of the tension member (1), sampling the vibration to obtain a first vibration signal (VS1), modifying the mass and/or the rotational inertia of the tension member (1) such as to provide a modified tension member (1a), exciting the modified tension member (1a) such as to induce vibration of the modified tension member (1a), sampling the vibration of the modified tension member to obtain a second vibration signal (VS2), and estimating the tension of the tension member based on a comparison of the first vibration signal (VS1) and the second vibration signal (VS2). Disclosed is also a system for estimating the tension of a tension member.

Disclosed is a method for estimating the tension of a tension member (1), the method comprising the steps of exciting the tension member (1) such as to induce vibration of the tension member (1), sampling the vibration to obtain a first vibration signal (VS1), modifying the mass and/or the rotational inertia of the tension member (1) such as to provide a modified tension member (1a), exciting the modified tension member (1a) such as to induce vibration of the modified tension member (1a), sampling the vibration of the modified tension member to obtain a second vibration signal (VS2), and estimating the tension of the tension member based on a comparison of the first vibration signal (VS1) and the second vibration signal (VS2). Disclosed is also a system for estimating the tension of a tension member.

A physical quantity sensor includes: a base portion; a first arm portion, a second arm portion, and a third arm portion that are coupled to the base portion and that are provided with fixing portions; a movable portion disposed between the first arm portion and the second arm portion and between the first arm portion and the third arm portion in a plan view; a constricted portion that is disposed between the base portion and the movable portion, and that couples the base portion and the movable portion; and a physical quantity detection element that is disposed across the constricted portion in the plan view and that is attached to the base portion and the movable portion. Thin portions are formed at least at two positions in at least one of the second arm portion and the third arm portion.