A high lift tag axle for a concrete mixer truck or the like is pivotally attached to the rear of the truck through a pair of tag arms each having a lever arm, with a linkage arrangement interconnecting each lever arm to the truck frame, and a hydraulic cylinder connected to said linkage arrangement to align the linkage arrangement in a plane sufficient to lock the lift axle in a downward position where the wheels engage the road surface, and whereby the hydraulic cylinder can pivot as the linkage arrangement sufficient to pivot the tag axle into a position whereby the wheels are raised off of the road surface.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to vehicular trucks, and more to a new and improved high lift tag axle for transit mixers, i.e. concrete mixer trucks and the like, which will not only permit an increase in the legal payload of the truck or mixer unit, but does not rely on a complicated hydraulic system to hold the tag axle in either the lowered or raised position. Rather, the tag axle of this invention utilizes a mechanical lock-down arrangement so that all ground forces are transmitted through the physical structure thereof and not the hydraulic system. In addition, the tag axle of this invention can be raised to an exceptionally high position so that it is not obstructive to complete access to the rear of the truck for the purpose of discharging concrete and the like.
2. The Prior Art
It is well known that most federal, state and local highways have load limits which limit the weight of vehicles traveling thereon. While there are total over-all weight limits per vehicle, many highways regulations also provide for load limits per vehicle axle. This is particularly true in the case of bridges where in addition to overall weight limits per vehicle, there are also weight limits to prevent localized weight concentrations. In this regard, the Federal Highway Administration has issued a "Bridge Gross Weight Formula", commonly referred to as the "bridge formula", which specifies load limits on the basis of bridge load carrying classifications, and provides formulas for determining load limits based not only on the basis of weight per axle, but also on the basis of distances between axles and the total over-all span between the front axle and the rearmost axle. The essence of the bridge formula is to prevent heavy loads from being concentrated on few closely spaced axles. Therefore, the total overall weight limit for many truck designs can be increased, to a limit, if the weight is spread over more axles spread further apart. While the federal bridge formula is applicable only to federal highway, many states have adopted the bridge formula into their own highway load limit regulations.
The use of auxiliary axles on trucks for providing additional load-bearing wheels is well known in the art. Particularly on tandem and tri-axle trucks, it is common practice to provide a hydraulic or spring actuated lift for one of the rear axles, so that it can or will be lifted from the road surface when the load is light and the additional load-bearing wheels are not needed.
In the case of transit mixers, i.e. concrete mixer trucks, there has been considerable interest and development in the art of "lift axles" or "tag axles", which are separate axle assemblies added to the rear of the truck. Such tag axles include a mechanism for lowering the unit so that the wheels will engage the road surface at some point behind the rearmost tandem axle, so that the legal load carrying capacity of the transit mixer can be significantly increased and yet satisfy the bridge formula. This increased load carrying capacity is effected not only by virtue of the fact that the load is spread over more axles, but also because the distance between the front and rearmost axles is significantly increased. Utilization of such a tag axle can permit a conventional tandem axle transit mixer, having a legal load limit of about seven cubic yard of concrete, to be legally increased to nine or even ten cubic yards.
Ideally, the tag axle is utilized to carry such heavy loads only when the transit mixer is traveling on public roadways and needed for the purpose satisfying the bridge formula or other load limits. In off-the-road use, however, such tag axles are not beneficial, and are therefore provided with means for lifting the tag axle from the roadway surface. In lifting the tag axle off the roadway, the load on the front axle is reduced to permit easier steering, the load is increased on the drive axles to increase traction, the truck's maneuverability is increased by reducing its overall wheel base, and the truck can be positioned closer to forms and other unloading sites to facilitate the discharge of concrete.
One disadvantage of some tag axles in current use, is that they cannot be raised sufficiently to get them out of the way to facilitate access to the discharge end of the truck. These tag axle units are based on folding linkage which hydraulically pulls the tag axle up under the discharge chute only inches from the road surface, so that the operator must work around the tag axle in discharging the concrete from the mixer. Other designs are known, however, which do raise the tag axle well above the discharge chute and above the head of the operator so that it is not an obstruction to the operator's discharge activities.
All the tag axles in current use utilize a hydraulic system for activating the tag axle from one position to the other, and in addition rely on the hydraulic system for maintaining the tag axle in contact with the road surface, if not also for maintaining the tag axle in its lifted, off the road position. In fact, many of the tag axle units available commercially, rely on the hydraulic system to provide a "spring" suspension or shock absorbing feature to the tag axle, so that the ground loads are transmitted to, and borne entirely by, the hydraulic system. These hydraulic systems must therefore be adapted to very heavy duty use, and typically include pressure regulating controls so that the "hold down" pressure applied to the tag axle is adjustable for controlling that pressure in proportion to the load weight on the truck. It is readily apparent that the demands on the hydraulic system are significant, as the system is constantly active and under excessive pressure while the tag axle is being utilized, if not also while the tag axle is in the raised, off the road position. Accordingly, such tag axles tend to be rather expensive, and subject to frequent hydraulic system difficulties, failure and repairs.


A device for preventing logging of client input data in a computer system, characterized in that it includes a first transmission interface used to connect the smart electronic device, a second transmission interface used to connect the computer system, and a data encryption chip for encryption of the input data. The data encryption chip is set between the first and second transmission interfaces and is used to encrypt data input from the first transmission interface, and then transmit the encrypted data to the computer system via the second transmission interface. The device allows for the use of a smart electronic device as a real keyboard, and the computer system permits the data encryption chip to encrypt the data input by the smart electronic device, which are then sent to the computer system, helping to prevent logging of keying data with higher efficacy and applicability.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a device designed to prevent logging of clients' input data in a computer system.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98
The keyboard data of a personal computer (PC) is implemented by IO instructions of CPU and keyboard controller IO ports 60h,64h (h represents hex digits).
Given the primitive framework of a PC, any type of software could be used to acquire the keying data without being noticed by the client. The keylogger or spy software may illegally steal personal accounts and passwords using such a characteristic.
INTEL, the world's biggest CPU manufacturer, developed and marketed TMKBC (Trusted Mobile Keyboard Controller) a few years ago. TMKBC is mainly introduced into high-level notebook computers, but its framework must be loaded with a complete set of specific computer chips (LaGrande Platform), comprising: Trusted CPU, Trusted Chipset, Trusted Memory, Trusted Graphics, Trusted Platform Module (TPM) and TMKBC. As it is hard to compatibly incorporate such a complex system into an existing software/hardware system with higher production cost, this system is no longer promoted by Intel. The objective of TMKBC is to prevent hijacking against the clients' keyboard, but no encryption/decryption technologies or methods are contained in the specifications. Besides, the anti-logging technology is established based on the trustworthy platform (LaGrande Platform) without allowing reading or modifying of the keyboard data by any program.
In the absence of encrypted keyboards in the previous market, the on-line treasures or scores of game players are often stolen, or these players may face loss of money due to logging of accounts and passwords of Internet banks.
Though some encryption keyboards with anti-logging functions have already been developed, such encryption keyboards are designed in a manner that the encryption function is limited to the keyboard structure. Namely, when said encryption keyboard is not set in the operating environment, the encryption function cannot be implemented. Hence, a breakthrough progress is urgently required to develop anti-logging computer system of other patterns, and deliver multiple options for the clients to meet their diversified operating demands and pertinence.

Device for preventing logging of clients input data in a computer system


A lightweight seat suitable for applications such as those in which the seat and occupant must withstand extreme amounts of applied force during use, e.g., encountering high waves in boats of seven meters (23 feet) or greater at speeds of at least 20 knots (37 km/h (or 10.3 m/s)).

High-performance vehicles subject their occupants to substantial random and/or sudden dynamic forces, and therefore the seats in which such occupants sit during motion must be extremely rugged in design and performance. An example is the seats suitable for high-speed, rugged marine craft such as rotationally molded boats in very large dimensions (e.g., seven meters (23 feet) or greater). The occupants of such seats must withstand extreme amounts of applied force during use, e.g., encountering high waves in boats of seven meters (23 feet) or greater at speeds of at least 20 knots (37 km/h (or 10.3 m/s)). At the same time, weight is always a concern in high-performance vehicles and, of course, the seat must be comfortable.


An improved disk drive unit is provided for use in microcomputers such as personal computers and the like. The disk drive unit includes a substantially sealed disk drive housing and related circuit board with drive electronics carried by a common rigid chassis. A power connector plug is securely mounted onto the chassis at a rear margin thereof and cooperates with one or more interface connectors to permit simple slide fit installation of the disk drive unit into a computer system cabinet, such as a central processor unit for a computer. In addition, the disk drive unit includes improved shock mounts for supporting the sealed disk drive housing from the rigid chassis. The disk drive unit further includes a floating bushing arrangement for interconnecting the circuit board to the disk drive housing in a manner substantially isolating thermal expansion characteristics of the circuit board from the remainder of the disk drive unit.

This invention relates generally to improvements in disk drive units of the general type used in modern microcomputers such as personal computers and the like. More particularly, this invention relates to an improved mechanical mounting configuration for a power connector plug in a disk drive unit. In addition, this invention relates to improvements in shock mounts for isolating portions of the disk drive unit from undesired shock and vibration, and to improvements in thermal isolation of the circuit board carrying the drive electronics from other portions of the disk drive unit.
Disk drive units in general are known in the art for use in modern microcomputers such as personal and desk top computers and the like. In one popular form, such disk drive units comprise a so-called Winchester disk drive having one or more rotatably driven memory storage disks mounted within a substantially sealed disk drive housing along with one or more related electromagnetic heads for reading and writing data on appropriately prepared disk surfaces. A disk drive unit of this type, sometimes referred to as a "fixed" disk, is normally available as a compact package with the sealed housing mounted onto a rigid frame or chassis together with a circuit board carrying the necessary drive electronics for interfacing with other components of a computer system. In this regard, the disk drive unit requires a power connector plug for supplying electrical power to the drive electronics as well as to a suitable drive motor for rotating the disks. In addition, the disk drive unit requires one or more interface connectors for coupling the drive electronics to the computer system, such as a main system controller which supplies appropriate commands to the disk drive unit for reading and/or writing data.
In the past, installation of a fixed disk drive unit into a modern microcomputer has been a relatively difficult task. More particularly, in a typical installation, it has been necessary to open the cabinet of the computer such as the housing of a main central processor unit to permit installation of the disk drive unit. The installation procedure has required careful and proper placement of the disk drive unit, together with correct coupling of the power connector plug and interface connector with mating fittings located within the processor unit housing. To avoid errors in installation and potential damage to fragile computer components, many individuals have preferred that the disk drive installation task be performed by a skilled technician.
In addition, disk drive units for modern microcomputers commonly include resilient shock mounts for supporting the sealed disk drive housing from the rigid chassis. Such shock mounts are intended to isolate the disks and associated heads from undesired shocks or vibrations which could otherwise cause tracking errors in the course of reading and writing data. In the past, disk drive shock mounts have included a resilient buffer member secured by an adhesive or the like between support blocks which are fastened in turn typically with screws to facing surfaces of the disk drive housing and the chassis. However, these shock mounts are difficult to construct and install without applying a torque to the resilient buffer member, wherein such torque frequently causes the adhesive connection of the buffer member to fail.
Still further, in currently available disk drive units, problems have been encountered with respect to differential thermal expansion of the disk drive housing and the related circuit board during normal operation. That is, the sealed disk drive housing and the circuit board are constructed from different materials which experience different thermal growth when subjected to variations in temperature during normal operation of the disk drive unit. The circuit board is particularly subject to complex thermal growth characteristics due in part to localized hot spots attributable to heating of electronic components carried thereon. It is necessary to isolate the thermal size changes of the circuit board from the disk drive housing to prevent the imposition of structural stresses upon the housing, since such stresses potentially can cause minor shift between the heads and the related memory storage disks to result in read and/or write errors.
There exists, therefore, a significant need for improvements in fixed disk drive units for computers, particularly with respect to simplifying disk drive unit installation into a central processor unit or the like of a computer system. Moreover, there exists a need for improvements in disk drive shock mounts, and in circuit board mounting arrangements for thermally isolating the board from remaining components of the disk drive unit. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides further related advantages.


Methods and compositions for the production of monocot plants with increased starch content in stems are provided. In accordance with the invention, novel promoters and regulatory elements with specific temporal and spatial expression patterns are disclosed together with methods for the production of plants having desirable stem composition at harvest.

The stems of bioenergy sorghum and other C4 grasses represent more than 75% of plant shoot biomass when plants are harvested at the end of the season. The composition of stems affects the efficiency of conversion of stem biomass to biofuels, biopower, and its utility as a source of forage or feed for animals. Stem composition at harvest is therefore critically important for bioenergy crops. While grasses with various desirable properties have been selected, there remains a need in the art for producing varieties with improved starch accumulation in stems. Starch is a compact and energy dense polymer of hexose units derived from glucose, fructose and sucrose. Increased accumulation of starch in stems when stem sugar content reaches high levels could improve crop biomass yield by minimizing feedback inhibition of leaf photosynthesis and by increasing the capacity of stems to accumulate non structural carbohydrates (i.e., starch) and 'sink' strength. Efforts to identify sorghum lines exhibiting desirable stem composition have been complicated by the many factors which contribute to starch biosynthesis and breakdown, including the stage of plant development, signals from the photoperiod, temperature, and growing location. Without increased knowledge and availability of the regulatory elements driving expression of genes involved in starch biosynthesis or breakdown at various stages of plant development, it may not be practical to attempt to produce certain new genotypes of crop plants due to such challenges.


A lung ventilator system has a demand valve to provide for spontaneous breathing with modification of the ventilator action to complement the spontaneous breathing and to synchronize restored forced ventilation with a last spontaneous breath. The system includes means to detect gas flow in the supply to the demand valve and to output a signal to the oscillator to modify or inhibit its operation in relation to the volume of gas drawn from the demand valve to vary the duration of the exhalation phase of the ventilation cycle. The system preferably uses a pneumatic oscillator with a feedback circuit connected to be influenced by the pressure drop across a restriction in the supply to the demand valve, signalled by the operation of selected ones of a plurality of inhibitor valves responding to different pressure drop levels.

1. Field of the Invention
THIS INVENTION concerns ventilators for inducing or assisting lung function in human patients.
2. Background Discussion and the Prior Art
For certain applications there is a requirement for a resuscitator/ventilator system that is sensitive to any spontaneous breathing efforts by the patient so as to respond to such efforts by modifying or inhibiting the operation of the system so that it does not hamper or conflict with the patient's attempt to breathe spontaneously. There are several known systems having this characteristic and two of the more well known are, the so-called Synchronised Intermittent Mandatory Ventilation (SIMV) and Mandatory Minute Ventilation (MMV) systems.
For practical utility, any such system should provide high flows with low levels of patient inspiratory effort ("demand pressure"). One arrangement for supplying breathable gas to a patient in response to a spontaneous breathing effort is to use a conventional demand valve such as used in airmen's breathing apparatus and diving equipment, this being connected in parallel with a conventional ventilator and so arranged that during the exhalation phase of the ventilator cycle, the patient can demand an inhalation volume as required.
The other required function of such a system is to modify or inhibit the ventilator action if a patient inhalation demand at the correct level occurs. However, when a demand valve is used to provide the flow for spontaneous breathing the use of a further demand detector to generate a signal to modify or inhibit the ventilator action would decrease its sensitivity.


A test image has a black bias on a white background. The black bias is a line set at about 45 degrees to the scan lines of a scanner. Boundary points of the scanned bias are found. A regression line is calculated from the positions of the boundary points. Differences in the positions of adjacent boundary points, together with the slope reciprocal of the regression line, are used to determine error values. The error values are compared with a gate value to determine if there are any occurrences of scan line misalignment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention provides a method for determining if an image from a scanner has occurrences of scan line misalignments. More particularly, a software method enabling a program to determine if an image from a scanner has occurrences of scan line misalignments is disclosed.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Scanners are popular computer peripherals that are used to digitize documents or pictures so that they may be stored on a computer. To ensure a high quality of these scanned images, manufacturers strive to increase the resolution of the images, and to make their colors more brilliant. But a key factor affecting the quality of scanned images is the stability of the scanning module. If the stability of the scanning module is insufficient, the images from a scanner may have misalignments or entire deletions of scan lines in the image.
Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a prior art method to determine if there are any occurrences of scan line deletions in an image 10. The test is performed after the scanner has been completely manufactured, and involves the scanning of the test image 10. Testing personnel then analyze the results. As shown in FIG. 1, if a missed scan line 12 is observed by the testing personnel, the scanner is returned to the factory for adjustments. This visual method to determine if a scanner misses scan lines is both time consuming and relatively inaccurate.
Please refer to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of another prior art method that uses a scanned test image 20 to determine if a scanner misses scan lines. The test image 20 is produced by the scanner to be tested by scanning a test picture. Each grid element, such as 24 or 26 in FIG. 2, represents a gray-scale value of a scanned test image pixel from the scanner after scanning the test picture, which has an axis of symmetry at 45 degrees. The range of the gray-scale values are from 0 to 255. The smaller the gray-scale values are, the darker the corresponding image pixels are. The larger the gray-scale values are, the brighter the corresponding image pixels are. The region 28 represents an image region after scanning the test picture, and its pixel values are almost all less than 30.
In this prior art, a search is performed within the scanned test image 20 to find the positions of the boundary points of the test image 20, and then pixel values within the boundary points are tested against diagonally adjacent pixel values. For example, I(X,Y) represents the pixel value of the test image 20 at the Xth column and the Yth line. A simple program is used to compare the pixel value I(i) of a point (X,Y) and the pixel value I(i+1) of another point (Xxe2x88x921, Y+1). If the difference between I(i) and I(i+1) is too large, then it is assumed that a scan line 22 is missing between the lines (Y) and (Y+1).
Hence, the prior art compares two adjacent lines and determines if the scanned test image 20 conforms to the expected 45 degree symmetry of the test picture. The minimum unit required to determine if a scan line has been skipped is one pixel. This is not accurate enough to satisfy the requirements of a high-end scanner.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to provide a method for determining scan line misalignments of a scanner.
Briefly, the present invention scans a test image that has a black bias on a white background. The black bias is a line set at about 45 degrees to the scan lines of the scanner. The method involves finding boundary points of the scanned bias, calculating a regression line from the positions of the boundary points, using differences in the position of adjacent boundary points together with the slope reciprocal of the regression line to determine error values, and comparing the error values with a gate value to determine if there are any occurrences of scan line misalignment.
It is an advantage that the present invention can detect scan line misalignments with sub-pixel accuracy, thus fulfilling the more rigid requirements for high-level scanners.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to these of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment, which is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.

Method for determining scan line misalignments


A method comprising a preliminary automated analysis of at least one corpus of natural language text is disclosed. For each sentence of a corpus, the method includes performing a syntactic analysis using linguistic descriptions to generate at least one syntactic structure for the sentence, building a semantic structure for the sentence, associating each generated syntactic and semantic structure with the sentence, and saving each structure. For each corpus text that was preliminary analyzed, performing an indexing operation to index lexical meanings and values of linguistic parameters of each syntactic structure and each semantic structure associated with sentences in the corpus text. A semantic search includes at least one automatic preliminary analyzed corpus of sentences comprising searched values of linguistic, syntactic and semantic parameters. Due to a deep semantic analysis of a corpus, the search may be executed in various languages, in resources of various languages, and in the text of corpora of various languages regardless of the language of the query.

1. Field
Implementations of the present invention relate to search technology. In particular, implementations of the present invention relate to searching of electronic content available, for example, on the Internet and in other electronic resources, such as text corpora, dictionaries, glossaries, encyclopedias, etc.
2. Related Art
The inventors are aware of search technology that generates search results based on keywords entered by a user as part of a search query.
However, due to homonymy and homography in natural languages, a search result based on a keyword search may include a substantial amount of non-relevant or marginally relevant information. For example, if the user searches for texts with the word "page" in the sense of "a man or boy employed as the personal attendant to a queen," the user may receive a large number of non-relevant information where "page" refers to an Internet page, a page of a newspaper or magazine, a section of stored data, etc. This is likely to happen because those other senses of the word "page" are substantially more frequent than the one referring to a man or boy.
Existing search systems make it possible to use simple query languages to find documents that either contain or do not contain the words or word combinations specified by the user. However, the user cannot specify whether the search words should occur within one sentence or not. Also, the user cannot formulate a query for a set of words that belong to a certain class. And finally, existing search systems do not allow users to find sentences based on their syntactic or semantic properties, e.g., examples illustrating a certain syntactic relationship, examples illustrating a semantic relationship, they do not allow to make queries based on grammatical meanings, deep or surface slots, syntactic models, style and/or semantic features, etc. These types of searches may be of use to lexicographers, philologists, linguists, and students and teachers of native or foreign languages, and many other users.

Method and system for semantic searching


Disclosed is a use of ethyl p-methoxycinnamate and derivatives thereof in preparing drugs, culture media, regulating agents or cosmetic and skin caring products for maintaining self-renewal and pluripotency of stem cells. The stem cells comprise adult stem cells, embryonic stem cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Also disclosed is a use of ethyl p-methoxycinnamate and the derivatives thereof in in-vitro amplification of stem cells and preparation of induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells and a use of ethyl p-methoxycinnamate and the derivatives thereof in preparing drugs for treating cell deletion or injury diseases.

Stem cells are a class of primitive cells with self-renewal capacity and multi-directional differentiation potential, including embryonic stem cells, adult stem cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Stem cells have a very important theoretical research significance and clinical application value. Using the embryonic stem cells to establish in vitro differentiation systems of a variety of cell types enables people to study the development process of mammals at the levels of cells and molecules; comparing gene transcription and expression of the embryonic stem cells with the stem cells and differentiated cells at different developmental stages can determine the molecular mechanism of embryo development and cell differentiation, meanwhile new genes can be discovered; the research of stem cells provides a new research means for the pharmacology, pharmacodynamics, toxicology, pharmacokinetics and the like of new drugs, overcoming the difficulty that the above experiments cannot be carried out directly in human body, meanwhile improving the effectiveness and safety of drug uses. Stem cells also have important applications in regenerative medicine, and the application of stem cells in the regenerative medicine involve all tissues and organs of human body, and also relate to most of medical problems faced by the mankind, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, Parkinson's disease, cancer, Alzheimer's disease, autoimmune diseases, severe burns, spinal cord injury, hereditary diseases, osteoporosis, aging and so on.
In regenerative medicine, stem cell transplantation therapy has become an important means for the treatment of diseases, such as cell transplantation, organ transplantation and so on. Cell transplantation therapy is to transplant healthy stem cells into a patient's body, to repair or replace injured cells or tissues, so as to achieve the purpose of cure. Organ transplantation therapy takes stem cells as "seeds" to be subjected to directional induced differentiation in vitro to form desired tissues and organs, so as to replace the diseased tissues and organs. To use the stem cells in clinical treatment, first of all there must be sufficient sources, for example, the stem cells are generally required to be 1-4×106/kg body weight for adult transfusion, while the content of the stem cells in each part of cord blood is only 1×107 or so, therefore the current treatment is merely limited to children. The clinical application shows that the greater the input amount, the more the successful homing after transplantation, and the greater the probability of long-term rooting and reproduction. However, the stem cells in mammals have a very small number and tend to spontaneously differentiate, thus it is quite difficult to culture them in vitro for a long period of time in a large number. If the obtained rate of the stem cells can be tried to be improved during the process of in vitro isolation and culture, it will undoubtedly open up broad prospects for clinical applications of the stem cells.
Although growth factors and bioactive proteins can act as regulating drugs of stem cells, growth factors and bioactive proteins as macromolecular active substances, can intervene in the crisscross physiological processes in body, exhibit extremely complex multiple regulating functions, and are expensive and hard to have medicinal and clinical therapeutic value. Therefore, the potential of small molecule compounds as stem cell regulating drugs has been increasingly attached significance to by people. The small molecule compounds as drugs or culture medium additives have their unique advantages: the small molecule compounds are easy to administrate, and also easy to withdraw after physiological functions are recovered; the small molecule compounds are easy to artificially synthesize and achieve industrialized production, and have a good prospect of medicinal use; the small molecule compounds, especially natural small molecule compounds, having undergone biological metabolic processes, possess good biocompatibility, especially fewer toxic and side effects. Therefore, to search for small molecule compound regulating agents for stem cells has become a research focus of stem cell drugs.

Application of ethyl p-methoxycinnamate and derivatives thereof in maintaining self-renewal and pluripotency of stem cells


Methods and systems for implementing high-performance data converters remove analog technology bottlenecks and provide higher converter resolution and higher speed using lower-performance converters and processing in the frequency domain. The method comprises transforming a time domain input signal into a frequency domain signal in a digital form, processing the frequency domain signal and the input signal using at least two lower-performance data converters in order to obtain at least two processed signals, and recombining the at least two processed signals to obtain a final output signal from the high-performance converter. The processing may include dividing the frequency domain into at least two frequency domain parts, one related to a low-resolution signal to noise ratio (SNR) and the other related to a high-resolution SNR, and using frequency information resulting from the division to obtain the at least two processed signals.

Data conversion is a critical technology in many applications. Analog-to-digital converter (ADC) technology is progressing much slower (˜1.5 Bits in 9 years, see e.g. R. H. Walden, "Performance trend for analog-to-digital converters," IEEE Comm. Magazine, February 1999 pp. 96-101) than digital signal processing (DSP) technology (which follows Moore's law). The main reasons for the slow advance are the bottlenecks of high-resolution/high-speed analog circuits. Many commercial analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) today use a Pipeline/Subranging (P/S) architecture (see FIG. 1) to combine two or more low-resolution, high-speed ADCs in order to achieve high-resolution while maintaining wideband operation.
Analog-to-digital conversion is a critical technology in many fields (communications, measurements, military/defence, medical equipment, etc.). Among others, it enables use of the advanced digital and computer technology in digital processing of signals. One example is SDR (Software Defined Radio) base station (BS) applications, were the analog-to-digital conversion is one of the enabling technologies. One identified analog-to-digital conversion bottleneck represents the difference between the required and achievable number of ADC bits for multicarrier/multi-standard BS. About 17 bits are needed, while the state of the art ADC commercial technology, (usually a P/S architecture) is only 14 bit (about 12 effective bits). In addition, ADCs are important for the new generations of Mobile/Handset, Asynchronized Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) receivers (where 14 effective bits are required to reduce the distance limitation of ADSL) and other home and consumer applications. The fastest ADC architecture is the Flash architecture, but its resolution is limited to about 8 bits by the number of comparators used. Full Flash requires 256 comparators for 8 bit resolutions.
A popular prior art high-speed and high-resolution ADC architecture is the P/S architecture 100 shown in FIG. 1. Typically, an architecture 100 comprises an input sample and hold (S/H) circuit 102, a first stage 104, a digital correction and time alignment block 106, optional S/P additional stages 108 and a final low-resolution ADC 110, interconnected as shown. A typical stage 104 includes a low-resolution ADC 112, a high accuracy digital-to-analog converter (DAC) 114, a subtractor 116, and an optional second S/H unit 118, interconnected as shown.
In use, the voltage of an incoming time domain analog signal 111 is first sampled with S/H circuit 102 which must have the final accuracy of the converter, and then measured with low-resolution ADC 112. The voltage of the measured digital signal is reconstructed in the time domain with high DAC 114 into a reconstructed output voltage 128, which is input to subtractor 116. Subtractor 116 subtracts output voltage 128 from a low-resolution replica 130 of the sampled input voltage that goes through second, optional S/H 118, and creates an error voltage 132. Error voltage 132 is then amplified in a Gain unit 120 and measured with final low-resolution ADC 110. The process can be repeated with optional additional S/P stages 108 inserted between the "final" ADC and the first ADC stage.
The level of the error voltage is amplified to a required level at an output 140 of any additional or final ADC. Extra bits of low-resolution ADCs from all stages are used for digital correction using block 106.
A main disadvantage of this architecture is that it requires an accurate analog path that includes S/H units, subtractors and amplifiers. AU these components have to settle to the final accuracy of the voltage within the short sampling pulse period of the entire system. This requirement is a serious "analog" bottleneck in terms of both accuracy and maximum speed of the converter.
Other ADC architectures such as Folding/Interpolating are also used at higher sampling rates, but they do not provide the resolution of the S/P architectures. Use of parallel converters (time or frequency interleaving methods) increases the sampling rate, but comes at a cost of a linear increase in the number of converters in parallel. Moreover, in addition to increased cost and matching difficulties, these architectures do not improve the basic converter resolution and/or dynamic range (DR).
When a proper linear ADC with enough resolution/DR is not available (for a given sampling speed/bandwidth) or is beyond the state of the art, DR reduction techniques are sometimes proposed in order to reduce the DR of the strong signals (usually interfering signals) at the input to the lower resolution ADC to avoid saturation of the ADC. Examples are given in K. Huang, Q. S. Quek, S. N. A. Ahmed, B. Jin, and M. A. Kumar, "Techniques for reducing dynamic-range requirements for a software radio receiver", Proceedings of Software Defined Radio Technical Conference 2002, November 2002; and K. Huang and Q. S. Quek, "Method for Dynamic Range Reduction in Wideband Receiver", PCT/SG02/00196 filed 28, Aug. 2002, and references therein, specifically U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,195,537, 5,694,395 and 5,826,181.
In Huang's paper and patent applications, the wideband input signal from the receiver is split into two (first and second) signals with respective paths. The second signal is digitized and the filter of the communication channel frequency (which is assumed known) is used to suppress the desired signal in the second signal path. The resulting signal is used to suppress the strong interferers by subtracting them from the first signal.
The main disadvantage in Huang's method is that it operates only in a known communication channel and results in a relatively small improvement, which is also strongly dependent on the strong interferers characteristics. The main disadvantage of all prior art DR reduction methods and systems is that they do not provide linear analog to digital conversion over the entire input DR. Most of these methods and systems are also limited to specific applications.
There is therefore a widely recognized need for, and it would be highly advantageous to have, data converter methods and systems (or architectures) that do not require accurate analog circuits such as S/H, precision amplifiers and subtractors, yet provide higher final output resolution and conversion speed than existing state of the art methods and systems.
It would be also advantageous to have ADCs with an optional digital output in the frequency domain, which can be used for digital filtering, channelization, and spectrum analysis applications in areas such as communication, measurement and test equipment, medical equipment and military/defense systems.


A process of producing a rubber article which is economical and environmentally beneficial in that it provides for the recycling of ground cured rubber into uncured rubber compositions which need only be molded or shaped into their final form.

It has been known since the mid 1800's of the benefits of recycling rubber. Much work has been done to devise methods of recycling rubber through reclaiming and the use of various chemical additives to revulcanize the recycled rubber. See, for example, the references cited in U.S. Pat. No. 4,244,841. Furthermore, there is produced each year vast quantities of ground cured rubber from operations such as the grinding of used tires and the grinding and buffing of various rubber articles such as transmission belts, conveyor belts and tire carcasses in recapping operations.
With the proliferation of the health and fitness industry, there has been a great increase in products for the health and fitness enthusiasts to be used not only at home, but also at fitness clubs, gymnasiums, resorts, hotels and schools. Most of these products have handlebars and/or pads of some type to either provide a surer grip or to absorb impacts. Of late, the handlebar grips used on this fitness equipment have been made from foamed thermoplastics and thermosets which, unfortunately, act as a sponge to absorb perspiration which can lead to the emanation of the familiar "gymnasium" odor. This is undesirable especially for units used in the home. In addition, the foamed articles present a sanitation problem of not being readily washable to prevent the transference of residual perspiration between individual users.

Process for making rubber articles and rubber articles made thereby


In a data storage system in which a first storage array and a second storage array maintain first and second replicas of a production volume, the replicas are made discoverable and accessible while inconsistent. Each storage array maintains an invalid track list of inconsistencies. Initially, all tracks are marked as invalid. While background synchronization is eliminating inconsistencies, accesses to invalid tracks are resolved by exchanging data associated with IOs and updating the invalid track lists based on IO bias and other factors.

The subject matter of this disclosure is generally related to computer networks in which two or more storage arrays maintain a replicated logical production volume. Production volumes may be referred to as production devices or production LUNs, where LUN (Logical Unit Number) is a number used to identify the logical storage volume in accordance with the SCSI (Small Computer System Interface) protocol. When the storage arrays are in an active-passive mode the replica maintained on the primary (active) side, typically referred to as R1 (replica 1), is used to service IOs. Updates to the production volume are asynchronously made to the replica maintained on the secondary (passive) side, which is typically referred to as R2 (replica 2). Consequently, R1 and R2 are usually at least partly inconsistent at any point in time. In order to transition into an active-active mode R2 is first made fully consistent with R1. The characteristics of R1 and R2 are also converged, e.g. states, reservations, storage capacity, LBAs (logical block addresses), volume identifiers (e.g. SCSI ID), etc., so that R1 and R2 are not distinguishable as distinct replicas from the perspective of a host that uses the replicated volume to maintain host application data. Procedures are implemented to synchronize updates to both R1 and R2 in order to maintain consistency. Both R1 and R2 are then declared ready for discovery by hosts, and active-active mode commences. The process of transitioning to active-active mode may take minutes, hours or days to complete depending on the data set to copy to R2 and the bandwidth available.

Instant-ready active-active storage nodes


A system for generating an inert gas. An embodiment of the system comprises a turbine engine, a compressor and a blower. Additional elements may be provided to condition the air so that it is satisfactory for use in the fuel tank. Such elements include filters, catalytic converters, air pressure regulators, and heat exchangers, as well as elements to monitor the oxygen content and temperature of the air flow. An embodiment of a method for generating an inert gas is also provided. The method comprises combusting fuel to generate engine exhaust, compressing the engine exhaust to generate compressed exhaust, and directing said compressed exhaust into the fuel tank.

It is desirable to provide protection for aircraft fuel tanks, which contain fuel and volatile gasses. Fuel tanks can be protected by providing inert gas to the fuel tank ullage, to reduce the oxygen content, and thus combustibility of the tank components. Ullage is the space within the fuel tank which is unfilled by fuel. The goal of these methods is to reduce oxygen content to below a threshold of flammability. For military operations, this threshold is generally 9%, while for commercial operations, this threshold is generally 12%. Maintaining oxygen below the threshold level ensures that combustion is not possible within the tank. Supplying inert gas to fuel tank ullage will be referred to herein as "inerting fuel tank."
A variety of inert gasses and methods of inerting fuel tanks are known. Inert gasses which have been previously considered, or which are currently in use include nitrogen, nitrogen enriched air, carbon dioxide, exhaust gas and flame suppressing agents such as Halon 1301.
Prior methods of inerting a fuel tank typically utilize air with a high nitrogen content as the inert gas. In a first prior method, stored liquid nitrogen, which can be converted to a gaseous form, is supplied to a fuel tank as needed or desired. In a second prior method, compressed atmospheric air drawn from a main engine is fed through diffusion elements within a diffusion system, which filter oxygen out of the atmospheric air. The filtered air, which is nitrogen enriched and oxygen depleted and thus sufficiently inert, is compressed and cooled, and utilized to inert the fuel tank.
In the second prior method, compressed atmospheric air may be drawn as"bleed air" directly from a main engine. Bleed air is typically drawn from within the engine, where the engine turbines have already compressed incoming air. This is a convenient source of compressed air. However, removal of bleed air from the engine reduces engine efficiency. Thus, it would be desirable to provide a system that does not use bleed air.
Further, the diffusion elements which filter oxygen out of the compressed air have a maximum flow capacity. Thus, bleed air systems which enrich atmospheric air through the use of nitrogen diffusion elements have a maximum capacity for providing inert gas to fuel tanks. This maximum capacity means that such filtering systems may not be able to provide sufficient inert gas during all flight phases. For example, during a quick descent, oxygen may flow into the fuel tanks faster than it can be replaced by the inert gas system.
The capacity of a bleed air filtering system may be increased by increasing the number of diffusion elements. This allows inert gas throughput capacity to increase linearly with the number of diffusion elements. However, this adds bulk and weight to the aircraft. Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a system which has a widely varying throughput capacity.
Efforts have been made to utilize hybrid systems combining bleed air powered systems with systems utilizing stored liquid nitrogen. However, such hybrid systems may require more space than either system individually and thus may increase the weight of the aircraft and decrease the amount of space available for other purposes. Further, servicing systems, such as systems for refilling liquid nitrogen tanks, are not generally available at airports.
A system is thus needed having a widely variable capacity to provide inert gas to fuel tanks, and which does not decrease engine efficiency by utilizing bleed air.


An overload prevention system and method for an electric circuit having a plurality of components is disclosed, where each component has a set of pre-computed parameters. For each component, monitored parameters are observed; a limited value is computed using the pre-computed and monitored parameters; and it is determined if the limited value reached a limit. If the limited value reaches the limit; the system limits one of the monitored parameters. Pre-computed parameters can include time constant and rated current; monitored parameters can include current; and limited value can be component temperature. A time constant, rated current and rated temperature can be pre-computed such that the temperature stays at or below the rated temperature when the current is substantially equal to the rated current. Per unit values can also be used such that per unit temperature stays at or below unity when per unit current is substantially equal to unity.

Overheating can be a problem for machinery when it is run aggressively for an extended period of time. An overload prevention system can be used to monitor operations and protect the machinery from overheating. For example, the current load in the motor of a loader can jump to greater than 1.5 times its rated value when the operator digs aggressively in a pile. This aggressive digging can be a necessary feature of the loader, so the overload prevention system can be designed to allow the aggressive operation for a limited time and then begin to decrease the torque or other output of the loader to prevent the motor or other components from overheating.
An overload prevention system can monitor and control parameters such as current, torque, time constants, etc. for the system to prevent overheating. When controlling these parameters for the entire circuit, the overload prevention system must use the weakest parameters for the circuit to ensure that no component of the circuit overheats. However, the various components of the circuit may have different parameters describing their heating profiles and potential overheating. For example, a motor may have a higher rated current and a lower time constant while cables connecting the motor to other components of the circuit may have a lower rated current and a higher time constant. To protect the entire circuit without risking overheating of either the motor or the cables, an overload prevention system would use the lower current rating of the cables and the lower time constant of the motor. This will protect the entire circuit from overheating but will limit the circuit in performing operations due to limits activated by the overload prevention system. Of course, the circuit may have a plurality of components, not just two, with different heating parameters that can be protected separately.
It would be desirable to have an overload prevention system for preventing overheating of the various components of a circuit that protects the entire circuit from overheating while also allowing the circuit to perform operations with fewer limitations due to the overheating protection.

Overload prevention system to improve intermittent load capacity of electric drive applications


A hydrophobic fumed silica treated with a cyclic dimethylsiloxane, the hydrophobic fumed silica having an M-value representing an oleophilic degree in a range of 48 to 65, a tapping bulk density of not smaller than 80 g/L but not larger than 130 g/L, and an n-value representing the dispersion of 3.0 to 3.5 as measured in toluene. The hydrophobic fumed silica features a high bulk density while exhibiting a high hydrophobic property, the powder thereof capable of being favorably handled, being easily mixed in a matrix such as of a resin within short periods of time, and, further, being dispersed in the matrix to a high degree.

A fumed silica obtained by hydrolyzing a silane halogenide such as silicon tetrachloride in an oxygen-hydrogen flame (a so-called dry method) has been widely used as a filler for resins such as silicone resins and painting materials.
However, the above fumed silica has a low bulk density (tapping bulk density of about 25 g/L as will be described later) and is poorly handled when it is used as a filler. In order to heighten the affinity to the matrix such as of resin, further it has been attempted to treat the surfaces of the fumed silica with a hydrophobic property-imparting agent such as a cyclic dimethylsiloxane to impart a high degree of hydrophobic property thereto. However, the hydrophobic fumed silica obtained through the above-mentioned hydrophobic property-imparting treatment tends to be handled less favorably, tends to become powdery to an excess degree when being handled, and is poorly kneaded together with the matrix.
Further, the treatment for increasing the bulk density has heretofore been carried out by using a ball mill. For example, the hydrophobic fumed silica is treated by using the ball mill to increase its bulk density (see Prior Arts A and B).
Prior Art A: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 87609/1994
Prior Art B: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 256008/2000).
The hydrophobic fumed silica treated by the ball mill exhibits a tapping bulk density which is increased to its upper limit of about 180 g/L but involves a problem of low dispersion in the resins.


To provide a voltage detection circuit in which the influence on a detection voltage by semiconductor manufacturing variations is small and which is small in current consumption. A voltage detection circuit is provided which detects a voltage, based on an output signal of a detection circuit and outputs a detection signal. The detection circuit includes a first MOS transistor unit which allows a first current to flow, a second MOS transistor unit which allows a second current to flow, and a current voltage conversion unit which converts each of the first current and the second current into a voltage and outputs the same as the detection signal. A voltage characteristic of the first current and a voltage characteristic of the second current are configured so as to be crossed with each other at a predetermined voltage.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a voltage detection circuit, and more specifically to a reduction in the influence of manufacturing variations thereof.
Background Art
FIG. 7 is a circuit diagram illustrating one example of a related art voltage detection circuit.
NMOS transistors Q1 and Q2, NMOS transistors Q11 and Q12, and PMOS transistors Q3 and Q13 are respectively assumed to be the same size. A resistor R1 is made by, for example, a diffusion resistance or a gate POLY resistance. A voltage to be applied and a generated current indicate a proportional relation. A depletion type NMOS transistor R2 has a gate and a source connected to each other. When a drain-source voltage to be applied reaches a predetermined voltage or higher, the current becomes constant.
A current I1 which flows through the resistor R1 flows in the NMOS transistor Q2 as a drain current Is1 by a mirror circuit configured by the NMOS transistors Q1 and Q2. A current generated in the resistor R1 becomes small when a power supply voltage is small, and the current generated therein becomes large when the power supply voltage is large.
On the other hand, a current I2 which flows through a depletion type NMOS transistor R2 flows as a drain current Is2 of the PMOS transistor Q3 by mirror circuits respectively configured by the NMOS transistors Q11 and Q12 and the PMOS transistors Q3 and Q13. Since the depletion type NMOS transistor R2 hardly has drain voltage dependence in a saturation region, the drain current Is2 of the PMOS transistor Q3 does not change even when the power supply voltage changes.
The related art voltage detection circuit detects the power supply voltage using the relationship between the drain currents of the NMOS transistor Q2 and the PMOS transistor Q3 and the power supply voltage.


A system and method for distributed exchange and transformation of structured data with reproducibility and complete provenance are described. Data enters the system through the plurality of data publishers that share data in the form of append-only historical logs of events. Plurality of parties can then collaborate on improving and enriching data by defining the transformation rules, forming a potentially distributed computational graph. Data from any stage of such graph can be accessed by plurality of consumers. Stream processing techniques are used to minimize the propagation latency of data through the graph. Bitemporal data modelling and determinism of transformations enable reproducibility and verifiability of the results. Every event that influences how data looks like is tracked in the temporal metadata which enables provenance and dataset evolution.

The modern data space consists of an increasingly large amount of data publishers that collect and share data generated by the systems under their control (e.g. healthcare and financial data) or captured as a result of various observations (e.g. census, weather, and experiment data). Such raw data is rarely useful in its original form, so it undergoes a long series of transformations (filtering, re-shaping, aggregation, and enrichment) before some useful insights can be obtained from it, before it can be presented to decision-makers, used to train machine learning models, or used in process automation. This process currently has several significant problems.
At present, data is transformed mostly through a series of batch processing tasks where data is collected for a certain time period and then analyzed in bulk. This creates a significant delay between the moment when new data is published and when it is factored into the data used by decision-makers. Great examples of this are US GDP reports and employment situation reports which are released so infrequently that they always shake up the stock market and may prompt over-corrective actions from the government. The frequency with which data is presented to consumers is currently being dictated by limitations of our data supply chains rather than being optimized for consumer experience.
If one party (e.g. a researcher) performs some computations on input data and shares their method and results, another unrelated party later should be able to follow their method and achieve the same results. This process is called reproducibility, and it's the foundation of the scientific method. The majority of modern data publishers, however, share data destructively—they upload new data while destroying data they shared previously, making it impossible for two independent parties to obtain the same exact input data. The lack of such guarantees completely compromises the reproducibility of most research based on open data.
Every data science project involves thousands of moving parts: from hardware and operating system it runs on, to libraries and frameworks it depends on, and dependencies of those dependencies etc. Each of these components can affect the result of a data transformation. In order to ensure reproducibility of the data projects, every single component of the execution environment needs to be recorded and versioned so that the other party could replicate it later, and all sources of non-deterministic behavior should be eliminated. This is a very time consuming process which requires a deep expertise, so it's not a surprise that such undertaking is often left out completely to meet the project timelines. As the result, modern data science is currently in a state of reproducibility crisis.
Data provenance—an ability to understand where a certain piece of data came from and which transformations it underwent—is currently a very manual and error-prone process. Even in fields like medical sciences, frequent failures to establish the provenance of data result in alarming retraction rates of publications, sometimes derailing and potentially misleading other studies. State of the art data pipelines implement provenance only on dataset level (lineage), which is too coarse grained to effectively reason about trustworthiness of data.
Overall the current state of the art does not provide people with a mechanism to collaborate on data. The lack of reproducibility results in the absence of verifiable trust between different parties and discourages the reuse of data since it's impossible to verify whether the results of transformations have not been accidentally or maliciously altered. While every respectable data project starts with data from a trusted source, it always ends up producing data the provenance of which cannot be established.
Thus, a need exists for a technology that would allow us to exchange and make improvements to data on the global scale with minimal latency, while also maintaining guarantees of reproducibility and verifiability.

Distributed data processing method with complete provenance and reproducibility


A multi-beam scanning optical system configured to scan a plurality of laser beams on a scanned surface in a predetermined scanning direction includes a light source emitting a plurality of laser beams from respective laser emitters spaced from each other in the predetermined scanning direction, a diverging property changing element changing a diverging property of each of the emitted laser beams, a deflector configured to be sine-functionally oscillated and to deflect each of the laser beams with the diverging property thereof as changed so as to scan each of the laser beams on the scanned surface in the predetermined scanning direction, and a scanning speed controlling element configured to control a scanning speed at which each of the laser beams deflected by the deflector is scanned on the scanned surface. The multi-beam scanning optical system is configured to satisfy a predetermined condition.

The following description relates to one or more multi-beam scanning optical systems configured to be incorporated in an image forming device.
Recently, in an image forming device such as a laser copy machine and a laser printer, there has been used for a copying operation or drawing operation, a so-called multi-beam scanning optical system. The multi-beam scanning optical system is configured to deflect a plurality of laser beams emitted by a light source with a deflector so as to scan the laser beams on a drawn surface in a predetermined direction (hereinafter referred to as a main scanning direction), taking on-off control to be synchronized with a modulated signal generated based on drawing data. In such an image forming device, a copying operation or drawing operation for forming a desired image is performed by translating the drawn surface exposed by the multi-beam scanning optical system in a direction perpendicular to the main scanning direction of each laser beam (hereinafter referred to as an auxiliary scanning direction).
In a conventional multi-beam scanning optical system, a polygon mirror provided with a plurality of mirror surfaces is generally employed as a deflector. However, in the multi-beam scanning optical system, the polygon mirror and a motor unit for rotating the polygon mirror occupy a very large space and cause a high cost of the system.
Thus, there has been proposed a multi-beam scanning optical system which employs a micro-mirror device, instead of the polygon mirror, as a deflector. The micro-mirror is fabricated based on a MEMS (Micro Electro Mechanical Systems) Technology that is recently coming into practical use, and is capable of quick response. The multi-beam scanning optical system with the micro-mirror device employed as a deflector can be more downsized at lower cost than the configuration with the polygon mirror employed as a deflector. Such a multi-beam scanning optical system is proposed, for example, in a paragraph 0138 of Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. 2001-4942 (hereinafter referred to as '942 Publication).
However, in '942 Publication, there is only a general abstract description that a micro-mirror device may be used as substitute for the polygon mirror. Namely, in '942 Publication, there is no disclosure regarding a specific configuration of the multi-beam scanning optical system which provides favorable optical performances in case where the micro-mirror device is actually be used as a deflector.


The present invention relates to an artificial turf suitable for sports fields including a substrate to which first artificial grass fibers are attached and a granular infill, which is provided between the first artificial grass fibers and which is made of a recyclable synthetic material. The invention also relates to an improved granular infill for use in an artificial turf suitable for sports fields.

An artificial grass sports field as generally referred to above is known, for example, see EP 1 158 099.
Many sports, such as field hockey, tennis, American football, etc. are now played on artificial grass sports fields, which fields are made up of an artificial turf as referred to above. Although athletes sustain fewer injuries on a natural grass sports field when falling or making a sliding tackle, on account of the softer surface thereof, such sports fields are often severely damaged when the above sports are played thereon, precisely because they are used intensively and because of the varying influence of the weather conditions.
Artificial grass sports fields, on the other hand, require less maintenance and can be played on much more intensively than natural grass sports fields. To provide artificial grass sports fields with playing characteristics that resemble those of natural grass as much as possible, a granular material such as sand or grains of a synthetic material is spread between the artificial grass fibers. These infilled grains not only provide a softer, shock-absorbing playing surface on which players are less prone to injury, but they also provide improved playing characteristics.
However, the use of an infill in an artificial grass sports field has a number of drawbacks. Not only is the construction of such an artificial grass sports field more labor-intensive than the construction of a natural grass sports field, but an artificial grass sports field provided with an infill requires subsequent maintenance as well. The initially uniform distribution of the granular infill can be disturbed by intensive usage. As a result, areas containing hardly any infill may form in places where the field is played on very intensively, for example in the goal area, which has an adverse effect on the quality of play, but which above all leads to an increased risk of injury. The distribution and the amount of the granular material of an artificial grass sports field provided with an infill must be verified at regular intervals and repairs must be carried out, if necessary.
Furthermore, it has become apparent that the weather influences the properties of the infill with the passage of time, which has a negative effect on the quality of the infill and thus on the playing characteristics of the artificial grass sports field. A negative factor, for example, is the strong compaction of the infill, as a result of which the artificial grass sports field will feel increasingly hard during play, with an increased risk of injury. Furthermore, the synthetic infill may change (harden or become brittle) under the influence of the weather conditions (sunlight, for example). Generally, the currently known artificial grass sports fields that make use of a granular infill are characterized by playing characteristics that deteriorate with the passage of time.

Artificial grass turf and infill for sports fields


A control device of a switching circuit of a resonant apparatus is described. The switching circuit comprises at least one half-bridge having a high-side transistor and a low-side transistor connected between an input voltage and a reference voltage; the resonant apparatus comprises a resonant load. The control device is configured to determine the on time period and the off time period of the transistors alternatively and a dead time of both the transistors so that a periodic square-wave voltage is applied to the resonant load. The control device comprises a detector adapted to detect the current sign flowing through the resonant load and a correction circuit configured to extend the current operating time period of said two transistors in response to at least the current sign detected from the detection means.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a control device for a resonant apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
A resonant apparatus as a resonant converter is known in the state of the art, using a half-bridge or a full-bridge as a switching circuit. In the case of half-bridge resonant converter, the switching circuit comprises a high-side transistor and a low-side transistor connected in series between an input voltage and ground. A square wave having a high value corresponding to the power supply voltage and a low value corresponding to ground may be generated by conveniently switching the two transistors. A small time interval Td called "dead time", during which the transistors are off, is typically added immediately after each of them is switched off.
In resonant converters, the square wave generated by the half-bridge is applied to the primary winding of a transformer by means of a resonant network which comprises at least one capacitor and one inductor; the secondary winding of the transformer is connected with a rectifier circuit and a filter to provide an output constant voltage. The value of the output voltage depends on the frequency of the square wave.
The so-called LLC resonant converter is often used among the several types of resonant converters, especially the half-bridge LLC resonant converter (the designation comes from the resonant circuit employing two inductors (L) and a capacitor (C)); a schematic circuit of an LLC resonant converter is shown in FIG. 1. The resonant converter 1 in FIG. 1 comprises a half-bridge of transistors Q1 and Q2, with respective body diodes Dbl and Db2, driven by a control device 3 by means of the signals HSGD and LSGD. The common terminal HB between transistors Q1 and Q2 is connected to a resonant circuit 2 comprising a series of a capacitor Cr, an inductance Ls, and a parallel circuit that includes another inductance Lp, connected in parallel to a primary winding of a transformer 10 with a center-tap secondary. The inductance Lp is connected to a sense resistance Rs connected to ground GND and the voltage Vs across the resistance Rs is sensed by the control device 3. The two windings of the center-tap secondary of transformer 10 are connected to the anodes of two diodes D1 and D2, the cathodes of which are both connected to the parallel of a capacitor Cout and a resistance Rout. The output voltage Vout of the resonant converter is the voltage across said parallel, while the output current Tout flows through the resistance Rout. The resonant converter 1 comprises a feedback circuit including an error operational amplifier 6 frequency compensated by means of the circuit element 5 and having an inverting input terminal that receives the voltage Vr=Vout*R2/(R1+R2) and a non-inverting terminal that receives a reference voltage Vref. The output voltage of the operational amplifier 6 is at the input of an optocoupler 4 adapted to provide the voltage Vc to the control device 3.
Resonant converters offer considerable advantages as compared to traditional switching converters (non-resonant, typically PWM-controlled (Pulse Width Modulation)): waveforms without steep edges, low switching losses in the power switches due to "soft" switching thereof, high conversion efficiency (>95% is easily reachable), ability to operate at high frequencies, low EMI (electro-magnetic interference) generation and, finally, high power density (i.e. enabling to build conversion systems capable of handling considerable powers levels in a relatively small space).
However, the same resonant converters are affected by certain disadvantages during the start-up step. In said step, when the high-side transistor Q1 is switched on the first time, the voltage seen by the primary winding is substantially equal to the power supply voltage. In the successive semi-period of the square wave, when the low-side transistor Q2 is switched on, the voltage seen by the primary winding is substantially equal to the voltage across the capacitor Cr; therefore, the current flowing through the resonant network increases more quickly during the on state of the high-side transistor, while decreases less quickly during the on state of the low-side transistor. Thereby, with a 50% duty cycle, when the low-side transistor is switched off again, the current flows through the body diode Db2 thereof When the high-side transistor is switched on again, a reverse voltage is developed across the body diode Db2 of the low-side transistor, while the diode Db2 is still conducting. Under said conditions, the high-side transistor is switched on under hard switching conditions and the diode Db2 is stressed in reverse recovery. Therefore, both the high-side transistor and the low-side transistor are conductive in the same time period by short-circuiting the supply terminal with the ground terminal until the body diode Db2 is recovered. Under such conditions, the voltage at the terminals of the transistor may vary so quickly that the intrinsic, parasitic bipolar transistor of the transistor MOSFET structure may be triggered thus causing a condition of shoot-through which may cause the destruction of the transistor in few microseconds.
A solution to the hard switching problem is known from U.S. Pat. No. 8,212,591 which discloses an apparatus and a method for controlling a resonant switching system that includes a first switch and a second switch in a half-bridge configuration for driving a resonant load. A control system includes a driver for switching on and switching off the switches alternatively according to a working frequency of the switching system. The control system includes a detector for detecting a zeroing of the working current supplied by the switching system to the resonant load in a temporal observation window. The observation window follows each switching off of at least one of the switches, and has a length equal to a fraction of a working period of the switching system. A correction circuit is provided for modifying the working frequency in response to each detection of the zeroing in the observation window.
A further mechanism can be used for the apparatus of U.S. Pat. No. 8,212,591 to prevent hard switching during the start-up step, that is to prevent the hard switching of the high side transistor that occurs during the start-up step at the end of the on time period of the low side transistor.
This mechanism, that consists in synchronizing the oscillator to the zero crossing of the current, modifies the working frequency of the switching system and therefore must be deactivated after the start-up step.


A method is provided for extracting a sequence of pilot symbols enabling to estimate the transfer function of a transmission channel. At least a radiocommunication device communicates through the channel with a remote station, the latter regularly delivering to the radiocommunication device a reference pattern. The structure of the reference pattern is variable, depending on at least one characteristic of the transmission channel.

In conventional digital communication systems, a sequence of reference symbols called reference symbols or pilot symbols, known to the receiver, is frequently used in the data stream sent by the transmitter. These reference symbols enable a receiver to suitably estimate the transmission channel and thus guarantee that received signals are suitably demodulated.
For communication systems involving transmission channels variable with time, it has been envisaged to distribute reference symbols in different positions within an exchanged data stream.
In these various communication systems, the structure and characteristics of reference symbols of a radio communication device are determined as a function of the worst propagation case. This type of constraint is essential in order to make a correct channel estimate, regardless of propagation conditions.
When the initial synchronisation phase is complete, a dedicated resource will be allocated to the radio communication terminal, and it will then implement a synchronisation holding phase if necessary, and make an estimate of the transmission channel.
According to this prior art technique, the reference structure is chosen so as to enable a correct channel estimate in all cases, and even in the worst communication case, in other words for a maximum multipath level and the maximum speed of the communication terminal considered.
In other words, the reference structure is sized to be adapted to the worst Doppler case and the worst delay spread.
A disadvantage of sizing the reference structure for the worst case is that it induces a statistical loss of useful transmission capacity and/or protection against errors, in cases in which the characteristics of the transmission channel are good.
The inventors have detected and analysed this problem. They have deduced that a disadvantage of this technique according to prior art is that the reference structure is frozen once and for all, for a given physical transmission channel.
Consequently, another disadvantage of this technique according to prior art is that the selected sequence of reference symbols does not depend on the characteristics of the transmission channel that depend partly on the environment of the communication terminal considered, and also on the displacement speed of this terminal.
Note that simply stating this problem is new and inventive to one skilled in the art, since the latest has always considered that the reference structure should be fixed and unique in order to produce a good channel estimate, since it is adapted to the worst signal propagation case.

Method for extracting a variable reference pattern


The variable capacitance device includes one or more of directional elements inserted between the third and fourth terminals that allow current to pass only in prescribed directions, such that a diagram formed of current paths from the third terminal to the fourth terminal for the plurality of third-terminal side resistors and the plurality of fourth-terminal side resistors when the third terminal is biased higher than the fourth terminal is line-symmetric to a diagram formed of current paths from the fourth terminal to the third terminal for the plurality of third-terminal side resistors and the plurality of fourth-terminal side resistors when the fourth terminal is biased higher than the third terminal, with respect to the serial chain of variable capacitance elements between the first and second terminals.

Technical Field
The present invention relates to a variable capacitance device and an antenna device that utilizes the variable capacitance device.
Background Art
In NFC (near field communication) modules used for mobile FeliCa, a phenomenon has been known to occur in which reception sensitivity decreases as a result of the resonant frequency shifting away from 13.56 MHz due to variations in the antenna coil, for example. To correct these shifts in the resonant frequency, frequency adjustment circuits that include capacitors are placed inside the modules, all parts are inspected before the modules are shipped, and the capacitance of the capacitors is minutely adjusted.
Conventionally, switched capacitors, in which FET (field effect transistor) switches are connected in series in a fixed capacitance element, have been used. Switchover settings are then written onto a control IC (integrated circuit) during the pre-shipping inspection, and when NFC is being used, the module switches over to the FET mode and adjusts the capacitance of the capacitor.
However, general-purpose ceramic capacitors, which have become cheaper than FET switches in recent years and which can handle high voltages, have been considered as a possible replacement for FET switches. Ceramic capacitor materials have a property that has been actively utilized: the capacitance decreases as a DC bias voltage is applied.
The capacitance of ceramic capacitors changes over time, however, which is a problem. This has led to consideration of using variable capacitance devices that utilize a plurality of variable capacitance elements that include a dielectric formed via a thin film instead of by sintering.
Since conventional variable capacitance devices have directionality due to their structure, however, there is the possibility that if the capacitor is mounted incorrectly, an adequate change in capacitance will not be achieved when voltage is applied.
FIGS. 1A and 1B show an example configuration of a conventional variable capacitance device. In the conventional variable capacitance device, capacitors C101 to C104 are connected in series between the input terminal IN and the output terminal OUT, and terminals X and Y, which are used for applying bias voltage, are provided respectively on the left side and the right side of the device, for example. As shown in FIG. 1A, the correct configuration (also referred to as a "positive connection") is to connect the terminal X, which is connected to the variable capacitance elements C101 to C104 via three resistors, to the ground GND and to then apply a prescribed voltage DC+ to the terminal Y, which is connected to the variable capacitance elements C101 to C104 via two resistors. Current flows from the terminal Y to the terminal X, as shown by the arrows.
FIG. 1B, on the other hand, shows an incorrect configuration (known as a "reverse connection") in which the terminal Y is connected to the ground GND, and the prescribed voltage DC+ is applied to the terminal X. In such a case, current flows from the terminal X to the terminal Y, as shown by the arrows, which means that current does not flow to the variable capacitance elements C101 and C104 and there is no change in the applied voltage.
As shown in FIG. 2, in a positive connection, the capacitance of each of the variable capacitance elements C101 to C104 is 400 nF when DC+=0V, and the capacitance of each of the capacitance elements decreases by 33% to 268 nF when DC+=+3V, for example. This means that the overall capacitance is 100 nF when DC+=0V and 67 nF when DC+=+3V, which means that the overall capacitance also changes by 33%.
In a reverse connection, on the other hand, the capacitance of the variable capacitance elements C102 and C103 decreases by 33% to 268 nF when DC+=+3V, but the capacitance of the variable capacitance elements C101 and C104 does not change. Therefore, the overall capacitance is 100 nF when DC+=0V and 80 nF when DC+=+3V, which means that the overall capacitance only changes by 20%.
This means that there will be instances in which the capacitance of the capacitor cannot be properly adjusted and variations in the resonant frequency cannot be fully corrected.

Variable capacitance device and antenna device


A focused ultrasound system includes an ultrasound transducer configured to emit focused ultrasound energy toward a subject and a positioning system configured to position the ultrasound transducer to localize the focused ultrasound energy within a target location. The positioning system includes a drive apparatus to translate the ultrasound transducer along at least one axis of motion and a motor controller to control the drive apparatus. The focused ultrasound system also includes a control system connected to the motor controller that is programmed to receive imaging/location data from an imaging system, determine positional coordinates of the target location based on the imaging/location data, and register the positional coordinates of the target location with the positioning system. The positional coordinates are sent to the motor controller via an input signal to cause the motor controller to control the drive apparatus so as to translate the ultrasound transducer.

The present invention relates generally to a system and method of focused ultrasound application and, more particularly, to a focused ultrasound system that provides precise spatial positioning under the guidance of a medical imaging system to deliver focused ultrasound to a target location.
Focused ultrasound therapy involves delivering ultrasound energy to localized regions of tissue from externally (non-invasive) or internally (minimally-invasive) located transducers. The amount of ultrasound energy delivered to tissue dictates the nature of the biologic effect produced at that location. At high intensities with continuous exposure, ultrasound energy can generate enough heat to cause irreversible thermal damage through coagulation. As the exposure is reduced in duty cycle to short pulses, the mechanical energy associated with ultrasound dominates and can be used to generate a range of bio-effects, including: vascular occlusion or hemorrhage, permeation of cells, and tissue-homogenization.
Although the concept of using focused ultrasound energy for therapeutic purposes has been known for many decades, it is desirable to develop further precise control and steering of the acoustic field in the body so as to allow for the use of focused ultrasound in a clinical setting. The integration of therapeutic ultrasound with medical imaging technologies has served to further accelerate the translation of this technology into clinical use. For example, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)-guided focused ultrasound therapy has gained use as a non-invasive method for thermal tissue coagulation with significant promise for the potentiation of biologic therapies, local delivery of drugs, and targeted heating of tissue for enhanced drug delivery and activation. MRI enables precise targeting of structures for treatment planning, on-line temperature mapping and imaging for monitoring and control of therapy, and results in excellent visualization of the biological response to treatment. That is, an MRI system may be used to plan a focused ultrasound procedure, by performing an initial scan to locate a target tissue region and/or to plan a trajectory between an entry point and the tissue region in preparation for a procedure. Once the target tissue region has been identified, MRI may be used during the procedure, for example, to image the tissue region and/or to guide the trajectory of an external ultrasound beam to a target tissue region being treated. In addition, an MRI system may be used to monitor the temperature of the tissue region during the procedure, for example, to ensure that only the target tissue region is destroyed during an ablation procedure without damaging surrounding healthy tissue.
As the desire to use MRI-guided ultrasound therapy in clinical practice has become more widespread, a need for efficient testing in preclinical models of human disease has been recognized. Such testing commonly involves small animals such as rats and mice, which are used in biomedical research for such preclinical models. However, the small size of these animals makes focused ultrasound experiments difficult. Furthermore, large numbers of animals are required to achieve statistical significance in drug studies, requiring focused ultrasound systems capable of high throughput. To date, there is no focused ultrasound exposure system adapted for use in small animals with the capability to precisely position ultrasound energy to a target location within the animal body, as such ultrasound energy targeting may be required to be accurate within distances of, for example, 0.5 mm or less.
It would therefore be desirable to have a system and method that provides precise spatial positioning capabilities to focused ultrasound systems. It is further desired that such a precise positioning system also be useable with magnetic resonance (MR) imaging guidance to deliver focused ultrasound to a pre-determined target location.

Computer controlled focused ultrasound positioning system for sequential beam emitting to sonicate discrete and interleaved tissue locations


Methods and systems for a vehicle are provided. A transmission system includes, in one example, a first planetary gear set including a first ring gear and a first sun gear, a second planetary gear set that includes a second ring gear and a second sun gear, and a third planetary gear set that includes a third ring gear and a third sun gear. The transmission system further includes a first brake device configured to selectively ground the first ring gear, a second brake device configured to selectively ground the second ring gear, and a first lock-up clutch configured to selectively ground the first ring gear, wherein the first sun gear, the second sun gear, and the third sun gear are coupled in series.

Electric vehicles use multi-speed transmissions with discrete gear ratios. Some transmissions deploy planetary gear sets coupled to one another to achieve multiple selectable gears in a compact arrangement. When a transmission exhibits a power interruption during shifting, vehicle performance is decreased and vehicle drivability is diminished due to driver perceived noise, vibration, and harshness (NVH). The NVH may in certain scenarios cause premature degradation of transmission components. To increase performance and decrease NVH, such as vehicle jerks occurring during gearshift events, some vehicle applications (e.g., electric trucks) have made use of automatic and dual clutch transmissions for smoother gear shifting. In these automatic transmissions, friction clutches and brakes provide gearshift operation.
However, friction clutches may be relatively large in size and high in cost. Transmission brakes have been used in certain transmissions. Transmission inefficiencies may stem from the extended use of the transmission brakes. The brakes generate waste heat that may decrease brake efficiency and flow to brake actuators such as solenoids or hydraulic pumps, in some cases. Brake actuator performance may diminish due to the elevated actuator temperatures.
To overcome at least some of the aforementioned challenges, a transmission system is provided. The transmission system includes a first planetary gear set that includes a first ring gear and a first sun gear. The transmission system further includes a second planetary gear set that includes a second ring gear and a second sun gear as well as a third planetary gear set that includes a third ring gear and a third sun gear. In the system, the first, second, and third sun or ring gears are coupled in series. A first brake device configured to selectively ground the first ring or sun gear is included in the system. A second brake device configured to selectively ground the second ring or sun gear is further included in the system. A first lock-up clutch, in the system, is configured to selectively ground the first ring or sun gear. In this way, the brake devices and the lock-up clutch form a space efficient arrangement that provides multiple gear ratios. The system's adaptability is therefore increased. Using the brake devices and lock-up clutch in the aforementioned arrangement may also reduce the complexity and, in some cases, cost of the system when compared to transmissions utilizing friction clutches and brakes. Providing multiple gear ratios in the transmission enables an electric machine that may be attached to the transmission to operate more efficiently across a wider range of operating conditions, if desired.
In one example, the transmission system further includes a second lock-up clutch coupled to the second and third ring gears. The transmission system further includes a controller including executable instructions stored in non-transitory memory that cause the controller to coordinate operation of the first lock-up clutch, the second lock-up clutch, the first brake device, and the second brake device to transition the transmission system between a first gear ratio mode and a second gear ratio mode. For instance, the coordinated operation of the lock-up clutches and brake devices may include activating the first brake device while the first lock-up clutch is disengaged. After the first lock-up clutch is disengaged, the second brake device may be activated while the second lock-up clutch remains engaged. In this way, the transmission system may smoothly transition between the first and second gear ratios, if wanted, resulting in increased transmission efficiency and decreased NVH.
In another example, the first and second brake devices may be deactivated in the first gear ratio mode, preceding the transition between the first and second gear ratio modes. Consequently, the transmission system may operate more efficiently in the first gear ratio mode due to the lock-up clutches, in certain embodiments, consuming less energy while engaged than brake devices held in an activated state.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.

Vehicle transmission system and method for operation of the transmission system


A shifting compensation circuit which employs a ranging circuit having a variable direct voltage source, to compensate for abnormally large vehicle magnetic fields. A ranging circuit is coupled between a microcomputer and a flux-gate. The microcomputer monitors the output of an integrator through a buffer amplifier to minimize variations in the integrator output caused by temperature variations, and directs the variable direct voltage source to add a direct voltage reference, in opposition to the vehicle's magnetic field signal and within the output voltage range of the integrator, to the output signal of the flux-gate, such that the combination of the two signals is within the output voltage range of the integrator for all vehicle headings.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to electronic compasses, and more specifically to a method for compensating for excess vehicle magnetic fields in an electronic compass.
2. Discussion
The present invention is related to and is an improvement of U.S. Pat. No. 4,622,843 to Hormel issued Nov. 18, 1986 and entitled "Simplified Calibration Technique and Auto Ranging Circuit for an Electronic Compass Control Circuit". The present invention is also related to U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,462 issued Feb. 28, 1989, to Rafi A. Al-Attar and entitled "Method for Performing Automatic Calibration in an Electronic Compass." The disclosures of these patents are hereby incorporated by reference.
The present invention is related to and combinable with the commonly assigned patent application "Scaling System and method for an Electronic Compass" Ser. No. 07/815,347. This application is hereby incorporated by reference.
Normally, electronic compass systems employ a magnetic flux-gate sensor. The operation of the flux-gate sensor is well documented. See "Magnetic Field Sensor and Its Application to Automobiles", SAE Paper No. 800123, pages 83-90, February, 1980, by Hisatsugu Itoh; and "A Magnetic Heading Reference for the Electro/Fluidic Autopilot" Sport Aviation by Doug Garner, Part I, pages 19-26, November, 1981 and Part II, pages 20-32, 51, December, 1981. The disclosures of these documents are also hereby incorporated by reference.
Electronic compasses are capable of processing ordinary vehicle and earth magnetic fields. In the '843 patent to Hormel, the output of an integrator is summed with the output of a ranging circuit, the sum is fed back to the flux-gate sensor. The feedback current reduces the output voltage of the flux-gate sensor until the microcomputer senses that the feedback current generates a magnetic field that is equal in magnitude but opposite in direction to the field sensed by the sense coils due to the external measured magnetic field (the earth and vehicle magnetic fields). The microcomputer employs a ranging technique found in commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 4,750,349 issued Jun. 14, 1988, to Luitje, entitled "Microcomputer Controlled Quick Ranging Technique and Digital Filter." The disclosure of this patent is also hereby incorporated by reference.
However, the primary purpose of the ranging circuit is to bring the output of the integrator into a range that can be resolved clearly by the A/D which then can feed this information to the microcomputer to handle. Therefore, the ranging circuit is not capable of compensating for abnormally large vehicle magnetic fields, making the geometric method of calibration such as the one found in the '462 patent difficult to perform, where resolving power is defined as the ability of the analog-to-digital converter to partition an analog voltage signal into distinct voltage ranges and assign a different digitized value to each ranges. The feedback current is further limited by the size of the feedback resistors, and the inherent limitations of the ranging circuit.

Shifting system and method for an electronic compass system