In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a novel composition of matter having the formula:

The present invention relates to novel compounds formed from acyclic carbonyl compounds and unsaturated hydrocarbons.
Various unsaturated hydrocarbon polymers have been reacted with maleic anhydrides to form a variety of maleic anhydride adducts of unsaturated hydrocarbon polymers. The reactivity of maleic anhydride with many unsaturated hydrocarbon polymers is poor and in some instances, as for example with EPDM rubber, even employment of extensive heating is ineffective. Free employment of extensive heating is ineffective. Free radical reactions which graft maleic anhydride onto the unsaturated hydrocarbon polymer have been utilized as alternative routes. Free radical grafting leads to chain scission, crosslinking and solvent grafting if the solvent is sufficiently reactive. The reaction of acyclic carbonyl monomers with the unsaturated hydrocarbon polymer overcomes these aforementioned deficiencies in that the acyclic carbonyl monomers can be reacted with the unsaturated hydrocarbon polymer at moderate temperatures in either the bulk or solution state without the employment of free radical initiators to form novel polymers which are useful as solution viscosifiers.
In accordance with the present invention, there is provided a novel composition of matter having the formula:
wherein Ra, Rb, Rc, Rd and Re are independently selected from the group consisting of H, alkyl groups and substituted alkyl groups having about 1 to 106 carbon atoms, alkenyl groups and substituted alkenyl groups having about 3 to 106 carbon atoms, wherein the substituents on the alkyl and/or alkenyl groups are selected from the group consisting of alkoxy, halogen, CN, OH, HO(CH2CH2O)x (X=1-10), acyl, acyloxy and aryl substituents.
These novel compounds are formed by contacting a hydrocarbon having the formula:
with an acyclic carbonyl having the formula:
for a time and at a temperature sufficient to form the compounds, and in which Ra, Rb, Rc, Rd, Re, X and Y are as described above and Q=HOH, MeOH, EtOH, or n-BuOH; n=0,1, greater than 1; X or Y are selected from the group consisting of xe2x80x94OH; xe2x80x94OR1; NR1R2; R1; wherein R1 has about 1 to about 18 carbon atoms,
wherein R2 is hydrogen or any alkyl group of from about 1 to about 18 carbon atoms, xe2x80x94NR3R4 wherein R3 and R4 are alkyl groups of from about 1 to about 18 carbon atoms; OR5 wherein R5 is hydrogen or an alkyl group having about 1 to about 18 carbon atoms, xe2x80x94COOR6 wherein R6 is hydrogen or an alkyl group having about 1 to about 18 carbon atoms, xe2x80x94CN, and xe2x80x94SR7 wherein R7 is an alkyl group having about 1 to about 18 carbon atoms. Typical monomers are ketomalonic acid, esters of ketomalonic acid including alkyl and aryl esters; other useful keto-acids are alpha keto succinic acid, diketo succinic acid, and any alpha ketohydrocarboic acid and alpha, beta-diketohydrocarboic acids and their ester and amide analogs which have a molecular weight of about 130 to 500. Useful ketones include dimethyl, diphenyl and di-tolyl tri- and tetraketones.
The compounds of the present invention are useful as solution viscosification agents.
Compounds having the formula:
are prepared by contacting an olefinic compound and an acyclic carbonyl compound for a time and at a temperature sufficient to form the compound. Thus, a typical reaction to produce these novel carbonyl compounds is represented by the equation:
wherein Ra, Rb, Rc, Rd and Re are independently selected from the group consisting of H, alkyl groups and substituted alkyl groups having about 1 to 106 carbon atoms, alkenyl groups and substituted alkenyl groups having about 3 to 106 carbon atoms, wherein the substituents on the alkyl and/or alkenyl groups are selected from the group consisting of alkoxy, halogen, CN, OH, HO(CH2CH2O)x (X=1-10), acyl, acyloxy and aryl substituents. Q=HOH, MeOH, EtOH, or n-BuOH; n=0,1, greater than 1; X or Y are selected from the group consisting of xe2x80x94OH; xe2x80x94OR1; NR1R2; R1; wherein R1 has about 1 to about 18 carbon atoms,
wherein R2 is hydrogen or any alkyl group of from about 1 to about 18 carbon atoms, xe2x80x94NR3R4 wherein R3 and R4 are alkyl groups of from about 1 to about 18 carbon atoms; OR5 wherein R5 is hydrogen or an alkyl group having about 1 to about 18 carbon atoms, xe2x80x94COOR6 wherein R6 is hydrogen or an alkyl group having about 1 to about 18 carbon atoms, xe2x80x94CN, and xe2x80x94SR7 wherein R7 is an alkyl group having about 1 to about 18 carbon atoms. Typical monomers are ketomalonic acid, esters of ketomalonic acid including alkyl and aryl esters; other useful ketoacids are alpha keto succinic acid, diketo succinic acid, and any alpha ketohydrocarboic acid and alpha, beta-diketohydrocarboic acids and their ester and amide analogs which have a molecular weight of about 130 to 500. Useful ketones include dimethyl, diphenyl and di-tolyl tri- and tetraketones.
Especially preferred olefinic hydrocarbons are alkenes having from 8 to 30 carbon atoms and olefinic polymers containing an allylic hydrogen and having molecular weights ranging from about 500 to about 10,000,000. The olefinic hydrocarbons may, of course, be substituted with functionalities such as xe2x80x94CN, xe2x80x94OH, HO(CH2CH2O)x (x=1-10), alkoxy, halogen, and
wherein Wxe2x95x90C, N; Vxe2x95x90O, S, SO2; and X is selected from the group consisting of OH; xe2x80x94OR1, NR1R2; R1; wherein R1 has about 1 to about 18 carbon atoms,
wherein R2 is hydrogen or any alkyl and has about 1 to about 18 carbon atoms, xe2x80x94NR3R4 wherein R3 and R4 has about 1 to about 18 carbon atoms, OR5 wherein R5 is hydrogen or an alkyl group having about 1 to about 18 carbon atoms, xe2x80x94COOR6 wherein R6 is hydrogen or an alkyl group having about 1 to about 18 carbon atoms, xe2x80x94CN and xe2x80x94SR7, wherein R7 is an alkyl group having about 1 to about 18 carbon atoms. Typical substituted alkenes include oleic acid, oleyl alcohol, methyl oleate, 2-octadecenyl succinic anhydride, octadecenyl benzene, octadecenyl methyl ketone, octadecenyl phenyl sulfide, octadecenyl phenyl sulfone, octadecenyl chloride, octadecenyl phenol, chlorobutyl, polyisobutenyl succinic anhydride, and related functional olefins and polyolefins.
Among the preferred polymers are butyl rubber and EPDM polymers. The expression xe2x80x9cbutyl rubberxe2x80x9d as employed in the specification and claims is intended to include copolymers made from a polymerization reaction mixture having therein from 70 to 99.5% by weight of an isobutylene and about 0.5 to 30% by weight of a conjugated multiolefin having from about 4 to 14 carbon atoms, e.g., isoprene. The resulting copolymer contains 85 to 99.8% by weight of combined isoolefin and 0.2 to 15% of combined multiolefin.
Butyl rubber generally has a Staudinger molecular weight as measured by GPC of about 20,000 to about 500,000, preferably about 25,000 to about 400,000, especially about 100,000 to about 400,000 and a Wijs Iodine No. of about 0.5 to 50, preferably 1 to 15. The preparation of butyl rubber is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,356,128, which is incorporated herein by reference.
For the purposes of this invention, the butyl rubber may have incorporated therein from about 0.2 to 10% of combined multiolefin; preferably about 0.5 to about 6%, more preferably about 1 to about 4%, e.g., 2%.
Illustrative of such a butyl rubber is Exxon butyl 365 (Exxon Chemical Company), having a mole percent unsaturation of about 2.0% and a Mooney viscosity (ML, 1+3, 212xc2x0 F.) of about 40 to 50.
Low molecular weight butyl rubbers, i.e., butyl rubbers having a viscosity average molecular weight of about 5,000 to 85,000, and a mole percent unsaturation of about 1 to about 5%, may be sulfonated to produce the polymers useful in this invention. Preferably, these polymers have a viscosity average molecular weight of about 25,000 to about 60,000.
The EPDM terpolymers are low unsaturated polymers having about 0.5 to about 10.0 wt. % olefinic unsaturation, more preferably about 2 to about,8, most preferably about 3 to 7 defined accordingly to the definition as found in ASTM-1418-64 and is intended to mean terpolymers containing ethylene and propylene in the backbone and an olefin residue in the side chain as a result of multiolefin incorporation in the backbone. Illustrative methods for producing these terpolymers are found in U.S. Pat. No. 3,280,082, British Patent No. 1,030,289 and French Patent No. 1,386,600, which are incorporated herein by reference. The preferred polymers contain about 40 to about 75 wt. % ethylene and about 1 to about 10 wt. % of a diene monomer, the balance of the polymer being propylene. Preferably, the polymer contains about 45 to about 70 wt. % ethylene, e.g., 50 wt. % and about 2.6 to about 8.0 wt. % diene monomer, e.g., 5.0 wt. %. The diene monomer is preferably a nonconjugated diene.
Illustrative of these nonconjugated diene monomers which may be used in the terpolymer (EPDM) are 1,4-hexadiene, dicyclopentadiene, 4-ethylidene-2-norbornene, 5-methylene-2-norbornene, 5-propenyl-norbornene, methyl tetrahydroindene and 4-methyl-methylene-2-norbornene.
A typical EPDM is Vistalon 2504 (sold by Exxon Chemical Company, Houston, Tex.), a terpolymer having a Mooney viscosity (ML, 1+8, 212xc2x0 F.) of about 40 and having an ethylene content of about 50 wt. % and a 5-ethylidene-2-norbornene content of about 5.0 wt. %. The Mn as measured by GPC of Vistalon 2504 is about 47,000, the Mv as measured by GPC is about 145,000 and the Mw as measured by GPC is about 174,000.
Another EPDM terpolymer Vistalon 2504-20 is derived from Vistalon 2504 (also sold by Exxon Chemical Company) by a controlled extrusion process, wherein the resultant Mooney viscosity at 212xc2x0 F. is about 20. The Mn as measured by GPC of Vistalon 2504-20 is about 26,000, the Mv as measured by GPC is about 90,000 and the Mw as measured by GPC is about 125,000.
Nordel 1320 (sold by Dupont, Wilmington, Del.) is another terpolymer having a Mooney viscosity at 212xc2x0 F. of about 25 and having about 53 wt. % of ethylene, about 3.5 wt. % of 1,4-hexadiene, and about 43.5 wt. % of propylene.
The EPDM terpolymers of this invention have a number average molecular weight (Mn) as measured by GPC of about 10,000 to about 200,000, more preferably of about 15,000 to about 100,000, most preferably of about 20,000 to about 60,000. The Mooney viscosity (ML, 1+8, 212xc2x0 F.) of the EPDM terpolymer is about 5 to about 60, more preferably about 10 to about 50, most preferably about 15 to about 40. The Mv as measured by GPC of the EPDM terpolymer is preferably below about 350,000 and more preferably below about 300,000. The Mw as measured by GPC of the EPDM terpolymer is preferably below about 500,000 and more preferably below about 350,000.
Other suitable olefin polymers having Mn of about 500 to 106 include polymers comprising a major molar amount of C2 to C5 monoolefins, e.g., ethylene, propylene, butylene, isobutylene and pentene. The polymers may be homopolymers such as polyisobutylene, as well as copolymers of two or more such olefins such as copolymers of ethylene and propylene, butylene and isobutylene, propylene and isobutylene and the like.
The reaction of the acyclic carbonyl compound with the olefinic containing compound can occur in solution, in a melt and in polymer processing equipment such as a rubber mill, a Brabender, an extrude or a Banbury mixer.
Ene adductions can also be effected with acid catalysts such as kaolin, montmorillonite, silicates, SnCl4, FeCl3, and BF3, which facilitate adduct formation. Moreover, the acid catalysts can produce lactones, secondary ene adducts and cyclic ethers, the product ratios varying with reaction conditions, and catalyst and reactant types.
The time and temperature for contacting can be varied widely and will depend, in part, on whether a catalyst is present. In general, the acyclic carbonyl compound is contacted with the olefinic containing compound in solution at temperatures ranging from about 50xc2x0 C. to about 220xc2x0 C. for times ranging from about 4 to about 40 hours.
Typically, the olefinic compound is dissolved in a suitable solvent, such as tetrahydrofuran, xylene or mineral oil and heated to temperatures ranging from about 50xc2x0 C. to about 220xc2x0 C. The carbonyl compound, as a hydrate or hemiketal of methanol, butanol, or a suitable alcohol, is dissolved in a suitable solvent such as tetrahydrofuran, dioxane, or butanol, and added to the heated olefin solution. The reaction mixture is heated, with stirring, until infrared and NMR analysis of the mixture indicates that the ene-addition of the carbonyl monomer to the unsaturated polymer is complete. Depending on temperature and concentration, reaction periods of about 4 to 40 hours are sufficient to achieve high conversions to mono- and/or multiple ene adducts.
Optionally, bulk reactions can be carried out at about 80xc2x0 C. to about 200xc2x0 C. for approximately 3 to 300 minutes, depending upon the polyolefin used, the carbonyl compound reactivity, and use of a catalyst.
If necessary, products can be isolated by solvent removal by evaporation, or by adding the reaction mixture to a polar solvent such as acetone, which induces the precipitation of the functionalized polymer.


A contact lens including a single component lens sized and dimensioned for placement on a cornea of an eye. The single component lens includes a first base curve for the back surface of the single component lens, wherein the first base curve is associated with the first sub-axis; a second base curve for the back surface, wherein the second base curve is associated with the second sub-axis; a third base curve for back surface, wherein the third base curve is associated with the third sub-axis; and a fourth base curve for the back surface, wherein the fourth base curve is associated with the fourth sub-axis. The first base curve, the second base curve, the third base curve, and the fourth base curve are selected to form a shape for the back surface of the single component lens that conforms to a measured shape of the cornea.

1. Technical Field
The present invention is directed generally toward a contact lens and a method for making a contact lens. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a contact lens having a base curve that conforms closely to the shape of a cornea of an eye.
2. Description of Related Art
Contact lenses are becoming increasingly sophisticated in their optical characteristics. The optical characteristics of a contact lens are created by changing the nature of the front side of the contact lens. For example, a multi-focal soft contact lens that has a main carrier lens and a smaller near vision lenslet supported on the carrier lens is known. Other contact lenses change the wavefront properties of the front side of the contact lens for correcting high order aberrations. Furthermore, contact lenses may be made that are specifically tailored to an individual person's eyes.
However, a problem associated with known contact lenses is maintaining the position of a contact lens on the human eye. As a person blinks and moves his or her eyes, the contact lens will move. This movement causes the contact lens to shift on the person's eye. This shift typically causes rotation of the contact lens towards the person's nose. The result of this type of rotation is that the optical axis of the contact lens no longer matches the optical axis of the eye. Because the contact lens has specially tailored optical properties that depend on the orientation of the visual axis vis-à-vis the person's eye, the movement of the contact lens can cause the person's vision to become distorted. In addition, the shifting of the contact lens can cause discomfort in the person's eye. These two factors cause many patients to be reluctant to wear specially tailored contact lenses.
The problem of fitting a contact lens on a patient's eye so that the visual axis of the contact lens matches the patient's visual axis is known. One known method of addressing the problem is to use large diameter soft contact lenses. These contact lenses use a plastic portion outside of the visual portion, or central region, of the contact lens to orient the contact lens on the patient's eye. The plastic portion increases the amount of contact lens contacting the cornea. The plastic portion also may be formed to rest against or contact the patient's eyelid or eyelids to help maintain the contact lens in a particular orientation. However, this type of contact lens is often uncomfortable for the patient.
Another presently used method of addressing the problem of sitting contact lenses is to create a toric base curve on the contact lens to create a toric lens. Generally, the base curve is the shape of the back surface of a contact lens at any particular point or associated with any particular axis defined with respect to the contact lens. The base curve of a toric lens may be defined by two perpendicular meridians that each define a spherical curve, though the radius of curvature for each meridian is different. However, the patient must have a significant amount of astigmatism or corneal deformation for this type of lens to be a viable option. In addition, a contact lens with a toric base curve will induce astigmatism that must be negated on the front surface of the lens. Further, a patient who requires only a slightly toric lens would experience more lens rotation while wearing the contact lens and which would create more visual problems. Based on the distribution of high astigmatism in the population, this type of contact lens is only suitable for between about ten percent and about twenty percent of the population.
The problems associated with seating specially tailored contact lenses have resulted in patients with unmet optical needs. Furthermore, the business of specially tailored contact lenses is limited because only a relatively small fraction of patients can or will use these types of specially tailored contact lenses. Therefore, it would be advantageous to have an improved contact lens for seating a contact lens on the cornea of an eye.


A torque converter for a vehicle having a substantially reduced axial length relative to a conventional circular-shaped torus cross section. The torque converter includes a turbine and an impeller, with a stator mounted generally therebetween. The stator is one piece and formed with axial pull shaped blades that have a reactor blade base axial length that extends for the majority of the radial length, a reactor shroud axial length that is less than the reactor blade base axial length, and a taper in the blade between the two axial lengths.

The present invention relates to torque converters employed in vehicles with automatic transmissions.
Conventionally, torque converters employed in automotive vehicles have been designed as close to a circular-shaped torus cross section as possible. The reason for this is that the circular shape provided a smooth turning of the fluid and thereby an efficient hydrodynamic torque transfer between the impeller and turbine in the torque converter. With vehicles employing front wheel drive, however, the vehicle packaging space limitations make packaging a torque converter with a circular-shaped torus cross section difficult. In particular, there is a need to reduce the axial length of the torque converter as much as possible. However, this must be accomplished while still maintaining a certain amount of efficiency in transferring torque.
As a result, some have produced torque converters with a somewhat axially-squashed torus cross section, also sometimes called an oval torus. There has been some success at a reduction in axial length with components having a radial pull type of blades. A radial pull type of casting or molding process is one where two die halves are separated with a radial motion in order to release a finished part from the dies. For a torque converter stator formed with this process, the shroud portion of the stator cannot be molded integrally with the stator hub and blades. It must be formed separately and then attached. This adds expense to the manufacturing process. Further, the dies employed in the radial pull process are relatively complicated and expensive. A less expensive and simpler process than the radial pull process is axial pull casting or molding. In this process, the two die halves are separated with an axial motion in order to release the finished part. As for stators with the axial pull type blades, attempting to reduce the axial length of the torque converter makes it difficult to package a stator with reasonable blade length. When attempting to obtain a great deal of reduction in the axial length of the torque converter with axial pull type blades, the efficiency of the torque converter becomes too low. Consequently, the axial length reduction of torque converters is generally less than thirty present as compared to a round torus shape.
Thus, it is desirable to have a torque converter with a substantially reduced axial length compared to a conventional round torus shaped cross section that allows for the use of axial pull blades, while maintaining adequate efficiency in transferring the torque through the torque converter.
In its embodiments, the present invention contemplates a torque converter for use in a vehicle with an engine, which has a crankshaft, and a transmission, which has an input shaft and a stator shaft. The torque converter includes a cover, adapted to rotatably mount to the crankshaft, an impeller having an impeller housing rotatably coupled to the cover, and a turbine, adapted to rotatably mount to the input shaft and located generally within the cover and impeller housing. The torque converter also includes a stator assembly, located generally between the impeller and the turbine, having a one-way clutch adapted to mount to the stator shaft, and having a stator hub, a stator shroud, and a plurality of axial pull blades that extend in a generally radial direction from the stator hub to the stator shroud, with axially straight intersections between the blades and the hub and between the blades and the stator shroud, and with the stator hub, stator shroud and stator blades integrally formed as a single unit and mounted on the one-way clutch.
An embodiment of the present invention allows for a torque converter with an axial reduction over a conventional round torus shaped cross section of greater than thirty percent while still maintaining adequate efficiency of the torque converter.
An advantage of the present invention is that a stator of a squashed torque converter can still be formed with the less expensive axial pull type blades, and yet still maintain a high level of efficiency in transferring torque.

Axially reduced torque converter with axial pull stator


A display device may be constructed with a first substrate having a first electrode and a second electrode, a second substrate formed on the first substrate and facing the first substrate, and a liquid crystal layer interposed between the first substrate and the second substrate. The liquid crystal layer may be constructed with a polymer-stabilized liquid crystal (PSLC), and a size of domains of the PSLC is 200 nm or less.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device and a method of manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to a display device using a polymer-stabilized liquid crystal display (LCD) and a method of manufacturing the display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
The rapid development of the information technology (IT) industry is dramatically increasing the use of display devices. Recently, there have been demands for display devices which are lightweight and thin, consume low power, and provide high resolution. To meet these demands, liquid crystal displays (LCDs) are being developed.
Modes of LCDs include a twisted nematic (TN) mode, a vertical alignment (VA) mode, an in-plane switching (IPS) mode, and a fringe field switching (FFS) mode.
TN mode LCDs, even in a dark state, experience leakage of light at the sides thereof due to optical anisotropy of liquid crystals. Thus, they need an optical film to compensate a viewing angle. In VA mode LCDs, liquid crystals are vertically aligned to secure a high front contrast ratio. However, viewing angle compensation is required to realize a wide viewing angle by suppressing the leakage of light at the sides. In the case of IPS or FFS mode LCDs, a dark state is realized by horizontally aligning liquid crystals such that an axis of the liquid crystals matches a polarizing plate. Therefore, IPS or FFS mode LCDs have a better dark state at the sides than LCDs of other modes. However, a bluish dark state is shown at the sides due to a pretilt angle of liquid crystals. To solve this problem, optical compensation is needed.
When impact is applied on a panel of a conventional LCD, liquid crystals may flow, causing pooling. In addition, when an impact point is moved, bruising may occur. With the recent introduction of touch panel technology to displays, pooling and bruising are recognized as main causes of a reduction in display quality of the displays. Furthermore, to manufacture a conventional LCD, a thin-film transistor (TFT) substrate and a color filter (CF) substrate are manufactured separately, and liquid crystals are injected or dropped between the TFT substrate and the CF substrate. This manufacturing process requires a lot of time.

Display device and method of manufacturing the same


Methods and apparatus for a low energy accelerator processor architecture with short parallel instruction word. An integrated circuit includes a system bus having a data width N, where N is a positive integer; a central processor unit coupled to the system bus and configured to execute instructions retrieved from a memory coupled to the system bus; and a low energy accelerator processor coupled to the system bus and configured to execute instruction words retrieved from a low energy accelerator code memory, the low energy accelerator processor having a plurality of execution units including a load store unit, a load coefficient unit, a multiply unit, and a butterfly/adder ALU unit, each of the execution units configured to perform operations responsive to op-codes decoded from the retrieved instruction words, wherein the width of the instruction words is equal to the data width N. Additional methods and apparatus are disclosed.

Microcontroller units (MCUs) are increasingly used in systems for providing automated control and for sensing applications. Example applications for MCUs include industrial controls, medical instruments and medical technologies, metering including remote metering such as utility and network metering, automotive applications, telecommunications including cellular base stations, and use on a variety of portable computing platforms including tablet computers, smart watches, smart phones, and the like. Additional applications include remote sensing and equipment monitoring, RF tag sensing such as used in toll systems, retail security and asset location, and in enabling "Internet of Things" or "IoT" applications. Demand for portable and battery powered implementations for MCUs are increasing. Because these applications often require receiving analog signals as inputs from sensing devices, mixed signal processors (MSPs) have also been introduced. Prior known MSP devices often include embedded analog to digital converters and analog comparison functions along with microprocessor units. The analog circuitry is used to receive analog input signals and to convert these to digital representations for use in performing computations. Additional example analog sensors include pressure, temperature, speed and rotation sensors, gyroscopes, accelerometers, optical sensors and the like.
While embedded microprocessors are currently used in MCUs and MSPs to perform various functions, these devices are increasingly used in applications where both stand-by and active device power consumption are of great importance. While adding functionality to increase computational performance of a microcontroller unit is always desirable, and demand for these added computation features is always increasing, the need for reduced power consumption is also increasing. Reducing power consumption results in longer battery life, extending time between battery charges or between battery replacements, and increases the time between needed services of remote sensing equipment, for example. For a portable consumer device, a battery life of at least one day in very active use is particularly desirable so that the consumer does not have to find a charging location while using the device away from home or office locations, for example.
Data processing tasks that are commonly performed by such mixed signal control and sensing devices typically include vector operations. Vector operations are often used in signal processing applications. Typical operations using vector computations include Fourier transforms such as Fast Fourier Transforms (FFT), Finite Impulse Response filtering (FIR), Infinite Impulse Response (IIR), cryptanalysis computations, and similar vector functions. While the microprocessor embedded within a microcontroller device needs to be able to perform general processing computing functions such as controlling memory accesses, data input and output functions, display and user input, communications, data transmission and the like, the need for performing these vector arithmetic functions creates a challenge for efficient computation in most general purpose microprocessors. In order to achieve high computation performance for these vector operations, a variety of prior known approaches have been used. In one approach, a digital signal processor (DSP) can be added to an integrated circuit MCU or to an integrated circuit or module that includes a microprocessor unit. While the added DSP can efficiently perform certain signal processing functions such as vector operations much faster than can be achieved by using software running instructions on the MPU, the added DSP also substantially increases the number of transistors (increases gate count) and silicon area used to implement the integrated microcontroller device, and the corresponding costs for device production also rise. Further the addition of a DSP to a microcontroller device adds additional functionality and increases silicon area for certain features of the DSP which are not necessary just for performing the vector operations. In addition, because for CMOS semiconductor technology currently in use, in CMOS integrated circuit devices the power consumed is roughly directly proportional to the number of transistors (or gates) on the device, active device power consumption tends to increase in roughly direct proportion with increasing device performance when this approach is used. This is problematic for any integrated circuit design and is particularly undesirable for the applications considered here, where in fact a substantial decrease in power consumption is needed.
Additional prior known approaches include the use of dedicated hardware accelerators specifically designed to perform certain vector operations. While performance will be increased using these dedicated hardware accelerators for each vector operation to be computed, this approach also tends to increase silicon area as a separate hardware function is added for each type of vector computation to be accelerated. Further the time to market and integrated circuit design process can be quite lengthy when using a dedicated hardware solution, as the dedicated hardware needs to be changed to address different applications. While computational performance will be increased when a dedicated hardware block is used to execute certain vector computations, the disadvantages of non-flexibility and an inability to modify the computations outweigh the potential benefits. Further, dedicated hardware accelerators are not used for operations other than the particular dedicated function are being performed, so the integrated circuit designs with dedicated hardware accelerators can be an inefficient use of silicon area, depending on how often the particular function is performed.
A continuing and increasing need thus exists for an accelerator processor architecture that is compatible with current and future CMOS integrated circuit technology, which is optimized for commonly used vector arithmetic operations, and which provides excellent computational performance with reduced silicon area and reduced gate count and correspondingly, exhibits reduced power consumption when compared to the prior known solutions.

Low energy accelerator processor architecture with short parallel instruction word


The present application provides an array substrate and a manufacturing method thereof, and a display device, to solve the problem in the prior art that the resistance of the common electrode is large due to an improper layout of the common electrode so that the common electrode is easily affected by other signals to cause voltage fluctuation and thus the quality of the display is influenced. In the array substrate and the manufacturing method thereof, and the display device provided in the present application, since the first common electrode is provided in the source/drain metal layer and the second and third common electrodes are further formed, connection of the first, second and third common electrodes effectively enables a low-resistance common electrode, which is not easily influenced by other signals to cause voltage fluctuation, therefore, the quality of the display can be improved.

A thin film transistor liquid crystal display (LCD) is the most popular display device, and is adopted in most of the electronic products such as mobile phone screen, monitor screen, TV, etc. Due to its excellent display quality, the thin film transistor liquid crystal display can provide customers with good viewing experience, and thus can occupy a favorable position in the fierce market competition. In particular, a dual-gate thin film transistor liquid crystal display has competitive advantage due to its low cost. However, due to an improper layout of a common electrode in the dual-gate thin film transistor liquid crystal display, the common electrode has large resistance, so that the common electrode is easily affected by other signals to cause a voltage fluctuation, and therefore the quality of the display is influenced, for example, flash occurs during displaying.

Array substrate and manufacturing method thereof, and display device

BEIJING BOE DISPLAY TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD.


The present invention relates to chemically defined and xenogeneic material-free methods for deriving endothelial cells from human pluripotent stem cells. In particular, the present invention provides highly efficient and reproducible methods of obtaining human endothelial cells from human pluripotent stem cells, where endothelial cells derived from the methods provided herein are suitable for clinically relevant therapeutic applications.

Pluripotent stem cells offer a potentially powerful tool for improving in vitro models and investigating the underlying mechanisms of human blood vessel formation, but many challenges remain in generating human pluripotent-derived endothelial cells (ECs) suitable for large-scale use. For example, standard protocols for generating and expanding EC populations use animal-derived reagents that are often poorly defined, pose safety concerns for use in clinical applications, and contribute to highly variable results and limited reproducibility. The majority of studies have been performed in rodent models, leaving much to be desired for the study of the human cell type. There remains a need in the art, therefore, for efficient, reproducible, and xenogeneic material-free methods for differentiating human pluripotent stem cells into endothelial cells suitable for clinical cell therapies and for predictive analysis of candidate toxic agents.

Human pluripotent stem cell-based system for generating endothelial cells


A set of numeric values may be represented using a data structure. The data structure is a graph having a root and leaves. A route in the data structure may represent a mask that represents a set of values. A mask may represent a term in a DNF representation of numeric values. A mask may represent numeric values that correspond to limitations set by the mask, such as having a predetermined value in a predetermined digit. The data structure comprises edges and nodes, each may be associated with a label. The label may represent a portion of a mask.

The present disclosure relates to representing numeric values in general, and to Disjunctive Normal Form (DNF) representation of Constraint Satisfaction Problem (CSP) domains in particular.
There are various techniques for generating tests that may be used for testing a target computerized system, such as software, hardware, firmware or the like. Some of those techniques utilize CSP solvers as a basis for generating tests. CSP may be used for defining a test template configured to define a test which may falsify an aspect of a target computerized system being tested. The test template may define an at least one constraint defining relation between portions of the test, such as for example writing to a memory address and reading from the same memory address or writing to a first memory address and writing to a second memory address that is relatively close to the first memory address.
A CSP Solver may use big variable domains, such as for example, represented by 32 bits, 64 bits or the like. In some cases, a constraint on the domains is utilized to limit the set of values of the domain that is represented. The constraint may be a mathematical constraint, such as represented using an equation or formula, such as for example A=B+C or A>B. The constraint may be a constraint on a portion of the bits of a variable, such as for example the ten Least Significant Bits (LSB) of A are all zeros. The constraint may be a bitwise constraint, such as A is a shifting of B by 2 bits or A is a XOR between B and C.
Test generation may use big variable domains in CSPs. The big variable domains may represent big numbers, such as 32 bit, 64 bit, 128 bit or the like. Efficient representation of the values in the domain may be required to support efficient constraint propagation.

Representation of a set of numeric values in a computerized environment

International Business Machines Corporation


A linear sensor composed of substantially like-sized segments generates a high definition television signal from a line scan of a motion picture film. By staggering the linear segments and overlapping adjoining ends thereof, the sampled signal outputs of the several segments can be applied to a series of digital filters that operate independently to provide filtered output signals that can be grouped together without processing artifacts at the crossover points. More particularly, the overlapping regions of the linear segments are configured in relation to the processing kernal required by the digital filters such that contiguous, processed samples on either side of each crossover point are derived from sample strings wholly within a respective linear segment.

1. Technical Field
This invention pertains to the field of electronic image generation and, more particularly, to scanning apparatus for producing electronic picture signals from an original and to signal processing techniques for use therewith.
2. Background Art
Although generally useful in the electronic imaging art, this invention has special application to a linear array film scanner used in a telecine machine for producing a high definition television signal from a motion picture film. A linear array film scanner typically uses a light-sensitive linear charge-coupled device (CCD), which provides a serial output representing a line of a television raster. The film is driven at a uniform rate between the linear array device and a light source in a direction perpendicular to the linear dimension of the sensor array. The film motion provides the vertical (frame) scan and the linear cycling of the CCD array provides the horizontal (line) scan.
The extension of linear array techniques directly to high definition television, which requires more lines of much higher resolution than in conventional television, is difficult for several reasons. To begin with, existing arrays will not work fast enough to read out at the data rates required for high definition scanning. For example, a high definition frame of 1920 pixels/line for 1035 lines/frame requires a very high output data rate of at least 60 mH--partly due to higher resolution in the horizontal (line) scanning direction and partly due to increased line scans in the vertical (frame) scanning direction. (Indeed, the data rate of 60 mHz would only be adequate if the full frame height could be used to provide data. In practice, because the high definition aspect ratio is 16:9 whereas the conventional motion picture film aspect ratio is 4:3, only about 62% of the film frame height is used. As a consequence, a much higher data rate of about 100 mHz or more is needed.) Furthermore, considering the very short linear scanning times involved in reading the required resolution, the sensitivity of existing devices is not high enough to provide good signal-to-noise performance.
These problems are addressed by U.S. Ser. No. 373,309, filed Jun. 29, 1989, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Generating a High Definition Electronic Signal from a Line Scan of a Color Original," by R. A. Sharman and R. T. Lees, and assigned to the same assignee as the present application. U.S. Ser. No. 373,309 discloses a motion picture film scanner for generating a high definition television signal from the combination of a high definition detail component and a plurality of lower definition color components. The lower definition color components are obtained from three low resolution linear array sensors producing unsharp red, green and blue signals. The detail component is obtained from a luminance array divided into four like-sized segments arranged end-to-end in a single line; multiple registers, one for each segment, are then used to reach the data rate required for high definition scanning. The color photosites are larger than the luminance photosites for improved sensitivity and signal-to-noise performance. By further selecting the number of photosites in each luminance segment to be a submultiple of the number of photosites in a color array, a common, achievable clock signal is used to read out all the linear arrays. Plural lines of luminance are thus output for each line of color, thus yielding lower color resolution in the vertical as well as the horizontal scanning direction.
Misalignment problems are significant with line scanning apparatus employing a multiplicity of linear array segments to form one line. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,092,632 the array segments are offset or staggered in relation to each other in the direction of scan with adjoining ends overlapped. During readout, crossover from one array segment to the next is effected within the overlapped areas pursuant to a microscopic (visual) determination of the optimum crossover point. (A similar sensor architecture in U.S. Pat. No. 4,707,615 depends on a calibration procedure using a special test pattern that spans the overlapped areas.)
Despite an acceptable spatial alignment at the crossover point, an artifact may still appear at the "seam" between staggered segments when an image is reconstructed from the line scan. This artifact is typically due to gain and/or DC offsets between the outputs of each of the segments and by differences in charge transfer inefficiency between segments, which degrades the image modulation transfer function (MTF) according to the number of transfers a given charge packet sees.

Line scanning apparatus using staggered linear segments with adjoining overlap regions


A method and apparatus for enabling an improved experience by better matching of the auditory space to the visual space in video viewing applications such as those that may be used in video teleconferencing systems using window-based displays. In particular, in accordance with certain illustrative embodiments of the present invention, one or more desired sound source locations are determined based on a location of a window in a video teleconference display device (which may, for example, comprise the image of a teleconference participant within the given window), and a plurality of audio signals which accurately locate the sound sources at the desired sound source locations (based on the location of the given window in the display) are advantageously generated.

Video teleconferencing systems are becoming ubiquitous for both business and personal applications. And most such prior art video teleconferencing systems make use of at least two audio speakers (e.g., either loudspeakers or headphone speakers) to provide the audio (i.e., the sound) which is to be played concurrently with the associated displayed video. Moreover, there are many video teleconferencing systems which make use of a window-based display, including both "personal" (e.g., PC-based) teleconferencing systems, as well as more sophisticated commercial teleconferencing systems for business (e.g., corporate) use.
However, such prior art systems rarely succeed in (assuming that they even try) matching accurately the auditory space with the corresponding visual space. That is, in general, a prior art video teleconferencing system participant viewer who is watching a window-based video display while listening to the corresponding audio will often not hear the sound as if it were accurately emanating from the proper physical (e.g., directional) location (e.g., an apparent physical location of a human speaker visible in a given video window on the display). Even when a stereo (i.e., two or more channel) audio signal is provided, it will typically not match the appropriate corresponding visual angle, unless it happens to do so by chance. Therefore, a method and apparatus for accurately matching auditory space to visual space in video teleconferencing applications using window-based displays would be highly desirable.

Method and apparatus for improved matching of auditory space to visual space in video teleconferencing applications using window-based displays


A rectangularly-shaped exercise apparatus (20) having an endless frame (22) formed by angular elements (24) joined together at their adjacent corners (25) that include shoulders (45) and gussets (46). A bed (29) of fabric is disposed within frame (20) and joined to it by coiled springs (31) attaching the bed""s grommets (33) to pins (38) extending from horizontally-oriented flanges (26) of angular elements (24), being held to pins (38) by washer-nuts 41/42). A socket (29) is securely mounted at the corners (25) to the undersides (39) of flanges (26) and into which deep-stroked leg assemblies (52) having springs (56) are slip fit. The leg assemblies (52) include an additional stroke displacement over the spring""s stroke displacement by a plunger (53) over which the spring""s tubular cylinder (54) displaces.

This invention is directed to an exercise apparatus containing a full suspension system of a bed, a flexing frame and deep-stroked shock-absorbing legs.
The device of this invention advances the art of exercise apparata by a unique construction in its system of a full suspension construction of elements including a distinct flexing frame, a bed as a compliant component of the device, and deep-stroke supporting legs, all of which not heretofore found in exercise apparata or trampolines of a personal compact size. Playful and fun-jumping trampolines in the past have been used as exercising devices, however, are limited in terms of use as an exercise device.
In prior art exercising equipment of a nature including a bed on which an exerciser (human being) would maneuver in a bouncing technique on it, sagging of the bed would occur as a result of loss of tension between bed and frame. Rebounding magnitude and movement would be retarded, and/or relaxing of muscles throughout the user""s body would occur. However, in this invention, the exercise bed or platform provides for a non-traumatic movement of body tissues as part of a non-exertion exercise device or system. With the full suspension system of this apparatus, rebounding and bouncing movements forces all of the body muscles to flex simultaneously and uniformly, and with regular use of the apparatus an improved healthier body and mental condition occurs. This exercise apparatus is a step forward for returning or recycling energy into human beings who desire to become healthier in mind and body.
Disclosures of prior art trampoline construction are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,561,564; 3,677,368; and 3,892,403.
The exercise apparatus of this invention comprises generally a rectangular flexible (non-rigid) frame formed of lightweight steel construction with elasticity in the construction of the apparatus to make it flexible, a bed formed of fabric resiliently supported in a tightly stretched condition within the frame by a series of coiled springs connecting the bed interiorly of and to the frame. Hook ends on corresponding series of coiled springs are attached to the bed by means of grommets about holes along the margins of the fabric, however, the hooks on the other ends of the coiled springs attach to studs or pins strongly secured to horizontally-inclined flanges of angular elements forming the frame while nuts or other suitable elements prevent the loss of the attachment of the hook ends of the coiled springs from their corresponding pins or studs after such attachment. Deep-stroking leg assemblies provide for a full suspension in their locations at the corners of adjacent angular elements forming the frame. In the exercising action on the apparatus by an exerciser (human being) at any point of the bed, one or more of the frame""s angular elements displace in degree and kind, i:e., twist and bend, and by which flexing of the frame occurs, vis-a-vis non-flexing in a rigid frame, due to different displacements of the strokes in the various leg assemblies, in a manner distinct from the movements of rigid frame members of prior art teachings. A healthier condition for the exerciser coincides with the full suspension system and flexing of the frame than was produced or achieved in or with heretofore known exercising apparata.
An object of this invention is to provide a full suspension system in the construction of an exercising apparatus.
Another object of this invention is to provide in the exerciser as a result of exercising on the apparatus stimulation of the brain and body cells, oxygenation of blood and tissues, reduction of stress, development of muscle control, a positive increase of coordination, rhythm, and balance, and a build-up of strength and endurance, all of which promote good health.
Another important object of the invention is to eliminate trauma and shock associated with older types of exercising equipment.
A further object of this invention is to provide for complete compliance of the bed in relation to the deep-stroke leg assemblies of the apparatus so that bottoming out of the bed in exercising on it is eliminated.


Methods of packaging devices such as MEMS devices are disclosed. An illustrative method of packaging a device in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the present invention can include the steps of providing a substrate having an device provided therein or thereon, attaching a cap to the substrate and sealing the device within an interior cavity of the capped substrate, inserting the capped substrate into a vacuum chamber and evacuating gasses and/or contaminants contained within the interior cavity, and then injection molding a package about the capped substrate in the vacuum chamber. A number of small-sized openings disposed through the cap can be utilized to create a controlled vacuum pressure within the interior cavity of the device when the device is in the vacuum chamber, prior to injection molding the package about the capped substrate. In some embodiments, an inert gas can be injected into the evacuated interior cavity to create a partial pressure for the inertial sensor, prior to injection molding the package about the capped substrate.

Microelectromechanical system (MEMS) devices employ the use of semiconductor fabrication techniques to create microscopic mechanical structures on the surface of a substrate. In the production of MEMS gyroscopes and accelerometers, for example, such fabrication techniques are utilized to create a number of moving structures on the substrate that can be used to sense displacement and/or acceleration in response to movement of the device about an input or "rate" axis. In navigational and communications systems, such moving structures can be used to measure and/or detect slight variations in linear and rotational motion of an object traveling through space. In other applications such as automotive systems, for example, such moving structures can be used in vehicle dynamic control (VDC) systems and antilock braking systems (ABS) to sense changes in vehicle and tire motion.
The packaging of MEMS devices remains a significant hurdle in the fabrication process. Typically, MEMS devices are fabricated by first removing a portion of the substrate surface to form the moving structures of the device, and then bonding the processed substrate to a cap that hermetically seals the structures within an interior cavity. In some designs, for example, the moving structures can be formed on the surface of the substrate using an etching and/or grinding process, and then subsequently attached to the cap using a suitable bonding process such as thermocompression bonding or thermoelectric (e.g. anodic) bonding. Once the substrate is processed and capped, a separate packaging structure is then fabricated and secured about the assembly to protect the contents. In some techniques, a lead frame can be coupled to the substrate to provide a means for electrically connecting the MEMS device to other external components, if desired.
Due to their size and composition, the mechanical structures of many MEMS devices are extremely susceptive to damage in high-G applications, and from particles, moisture or other such contaminants that can become entrained within the interior cavity of the capped substrate. In some cases, the difficulty in accurately regulating the pressure within the interior cavity during the fabrication process may affect the vibration characteristics of the device, reducing its efficacy in detecting subtle changes in motion. The process of separately forming the substrate and package and then connecting the two members together to form the final structure is often expensive and time-consuming, and may require additional steps be performed during fabrication. Moreover, such techniques do not resolve the issues of contaminants introduced within the interior cavity that can cause a reduction in device performance. As such, there is a need for robust packaging solutions for MEMS devices that offer both superior vacuum performance and protection against high-G environments while also providing high volume throughput and low cost.

Injection-molded package for MEMS inertial sensor


A semiconductor circuit is provided including a comparator section that compares discharge sections, each including a first signal line connected to a high potential side of each of a plurality of battery cells that are connected in series, a second signal line connected to a low potential side of each of the plurality of battery cells, a resistance element provided between the first signal line and the second signal line, and a discharge switching element connected in series to the resistance element, wherein the comparator section compares a threshold voltage, set according to a potential difference between a potential of the first signal line and a potential of the second signal line, with a voltage according to a potential between the resistance element and the discharge switching element.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor circuit, a battery cell monitoring system, a computer readable medium storing a diagnostic program, and a diagnostic method. In particular, the present invention relates to a semiconductor circuit, a battery cell monitoring system, a computer readable medium storing a diagnostic program, and a diagnostic method, employed for battery voltage monitoring.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally a battery with plural cells (battery cells) connected together in series is employed as a battery for high output with large capacity for use in such applications as drive motors of hybrid vehicles or electric vehicles (a specific example thereof is a lithium ion battery). There are known battery cell monitoring systems for monitoring and controlling voltages of cells in such batteries.
A conventional battery cell monitoring system is configured with a battery cell group including plural battery cells, and a semiconductor circuit for measuring and controlling the voltages of the battery cells contained in the battery cell group.
In a conventional battery cell monitoring system, cell voltage equalization processing (to equalize the voltage values of each of the battery cells) and discharge control processing (to control the discharge voltage of each of the battery cells) is performed on the group of battery cells based on voltage value data of each of the battery cells obtained from a semiconductor circuit for measurement use. In such a battery cell monitoring system, due to appropriate voltage equalization processing not being performed, defects may occur.
Therefore methods for diagnosing faults relating to a discharge circuit are known. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 2008-175804 discloses a method for diagnosing open failure of switches employed in a discharge circuit, by detecting whether or not voltages from each end of a switch that has been switched ON state are a fixed value or less, or whether or not the voltages from each end of the switch when it has been switched OFF state are higher than a specific voltage. Further, JP-A No. 2010-95449 discloses a chopper-type comparator serving as a comparison circuit and configured with capacitors connected in parallel at the input side.
However, since the above technology requires processing in a dedicated section, such as an abnormality diagnostic section, processing time may be required and the associated power consumption may increase.

Semiconductor circuit, battery cell monitoring system, computer readable medium storing diagnostic program and diagnostic method


A method including identifying a first connection location on a chip having a first connection type and a second connection location on the chip having a second connection type, applying a first solder alloy to the first connection location, heating the first solder alloy to a temperature sufficient to cause the first solder alloy to reflow, applying a second solder alloy to the second connection location, and heating the second solder alloy to a temperature sufficient to cause the second solder alloy to reflow.

The present invention generally relates to packaging integrated circuits, and more particularly to joining a chip to a substrate with two or more different solder alloys.
A semiconductor chip may be joined to a substrate (also known as a composite substrate, a laminate substrate, or an organic laminate substrate) using a plurality of solder connections to form a semiconductor package.
An example of the solder connection includes controlled collapse chip connection (also known as C4 or flip-chip connection). Generally, solder connections may generally include an array of small solder balls on the surface of the chip before the chip is joined to the substrate. More specifically, each individual solder connection may include a bonding pad on the chip, a solder bump, and a corresponding bonding pad on the substrate. A typical joining sequence may begin with depositing or applying a plurality of solder bumps on a plurality of bonding pads on the chip. The plurality of solder bumps are then heated to a temperature sufficient to cause them to reflow. Next, the chip, including the plurality of solder bumps, is aligned to and placed on a chip site on the substrate. In doing so, the plurality of solder bumps contact the plurality of bonding pads on the substrate. The plurality of solder bumps are again heated to a temperature sufficient to cause them to reflow. The final solder connections may electrically connect and physically join the chip to the substrate and create a semiconductor package.
The primary function of the solder connection is to electrically connect and physically join a chip to a substrate. Further, each individual solder connection may serve a different electrical function, or may form a different type of solder connection. For example, some solder connections may be used for grounding or to supply higher current voltages and subsequently form a voltage connection between the chip and the substrate, while other solder connections may be used to transmit signal data and subsequently form a signal connection between the chip and the substrate. In general, the signal connections may experience relatively low current density under normal operating conditions and the voltage connections may experience relatively high current density under normal operating conditions. Power transfer and signal transmission may be examples of specific operational requirements of a particular solder connection.
Typical solder connections use a lead-tin (Pb/Sn) solder with high lead content of 95% or more, by weight. The tin content is kept to a minimum, usually less than 5%, by weight, because tin may undesirably react with the copper and form undesirable intermetallics. The higher the tin content, the more the solder reacts with the copper. Consequently, there may also be a nickel (Ni) or cobalt (Co) barrier layer to either protect the copper layer from being consumed by the solder or to protect various layers underneath the copper layer.
Solder alloys containing lead are now recognized as being harmful to the environment, and there is a considerable interest in using lead-free solder alloys. For example, two commercially-available lead-free solder alloys include tin-silver (Sn/Ag) and tin-silver-copper (Sn/Ag/Cu). Current technologies rely on a single solder alloy to form all the solder connections used to join a chip to a substrate. For example, all the solder connections between the chip and the substrate may include a tin-silver-copper solder alloy having a silver content of 1.4%, by weight, and a copper concentration of 0.5%, by weight.

Joining a chip to a substrate with solder alloys having different reflow temperatures


A method and apparatus for conducting a survey to determine the location and elevation of a buried pipeline located in a shallow water environment. The method includes determining whether submerged obstacles are located between the ends of that portion of the line being measured and measuring the depth of the line by taking magnetic sounding of the buried line at spaced intervals by crossing the line at longitudinally spaced points with the magnetic survey apparatus. The apparatus includes a towed sled for carrying the magnetic sensing device.

There are several thousands of miles of submerged pipelines installed in the Gulf of Mexico and adjacent bays and in other submerged lands in which oil and gas production occurs. Many have a shore landing and many are in shallow coastal bays. While these lines are initially buried beneath the surface of the bottom, over time due to currents, storms and other forces the fill or overburden beneath which the lines are buried is disturbed so as to cause portions of the line to be exposed or part of the overburden to be shifted or removed. This has proven to be a dangerous condition because the exposed pipelines are subject to be hit and possibly ruptured by vessels navigating or fishing in shallow waters or being caught by anchors or nets drug along the bottom by fishing boats and particularly by shrimp trawls.
Since the pipelines carry hydrocarbons such as natural gas and/or oil at relatively high pressures, a break in the line can result in explosion or fire as well as the accidental discharge of oil and/or gas with adverse environmental consequences.
It is therefore desirable to periodically inspect the pipeline to determine whether any portion of the line is exposed or whether the overburden has been disturbed so that the pipeline is buried at a shallower depth then desired.
Apparatus is available for tracking submerged pipelines in relatively deep water, say at depths exceeding 10-12 feet. Such apparatus includes a Remote Operating Vehicle (R.O.V.) for carrying the magnetic sensors. This apparatus is tethered to a surface vessel and steered by remote control guidance means carried on the R.O.V. Such guidance means includes jet propulsion pumps and motors for raising and lowering the submarine as well as for turning it from side to side to steer it along the path of the pipeline at a desired distance off of the bottom. The sheer size of the submarine and its associated support equipment carried by the surface vessel renders operation in shallow water impractical, if not impossible. For example, the weight of the handling equipment for launching and retrieving the submarine from the surface vessel typically weights in excess of 20 tons and thus requires a large displacement vessel to carry such weight. The present invention however eliminates these disadvantages and provides means for tracking a pipeline buried in shallow water without the need for a large displacement vessel.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a submergible sled adapted to rest on the bottom for transporting an array of magnetic sensors for locating a submerged pipeline.
A further object of the present invention is a method of gathering data with electronic sensors by moving the sensor array laterally across the pipeline at longitudinally spaced points and gathering data with respect to the depth of the pipeline beneath the surface of the bottom at each pass and correlating the data from the longitudinally spaced points to determine the location of the pipeline with respect to the surface of the water bottom.


Provided is a pile integrity detection system based on cross-hole sonic logging method. The operator sets the ultrasonic detector into the measuring tubes of the to-be-detected pile, subsequently inputs the project data and activate the ultrasonic detector, by an acoustic wave transmission among a transmitter and a receiver, a wave energy data of the to-be-detected pile can be obtained, and the wave energy data and a project data will be automatically transmitted to the cloud computing module, thereby the integrity level of the to-be-detected pile can be determined without any manual analysis to the wave energy data, preventing from any error or deflection due to manual operation, whereby it greatly improves the accuracy and efficiency of detection and reduces the error rate.

The bored cast-in-place pile is a concealed work, and the quality of poured pile shafts is critical to the stability and safety of supporting superstructures. Due to the effects of the hydro geological conditions in the construction site, the technical level of technicians and the construction process, the pouring pile shafts commonly have some flaws of intercalated soil, cavity, segregation and brokenness. Therefore, the pile foundation needs to carry out the integrity detection before use, which is of great significance to the reliable judgment of the bearing capacity of pile foundations. The current methods for evaluating pile integrity mainly include core drilling method, low strain integrity testing method, high strain dynamic testing method and cross-hole sonic logging method. Each method has its own technical characteristics and range of application. The cross-hole sonic logging method is widely used to perform the pile foundation integrity detection in the fields of construction projects, hydraulic projects, transportation projects, due to its relatively flexibility, convenience, reliability, reasonable cost and wide range of application.
The cross-hole sonic logging method to judge the integrity of the pile is based on the observation and analysis of the acoustic wave parameters such as the propagation velocity and amplitude of wave in different media. In the prior art, the detection process generally includes, the transmitter and the receiver are placed in the measuring tubes inside the pile foundation, then the acoustic wave data between the transmitter and the receiver is collected, recorded, and then stored using the acoustic wave measuring instrument. The integrity of pouring pile shafts will therefore be evaluated according to the wave signal data and the known discrimination method, subsequently a detection report can be made. However, the accuracy and efficiency of the current detection, to a certain extent, depend on the selection of the discrimination method and the influence of the construction environment. The inclination of the tubes during construction and the unevenness of the pouring concrete of piles at different heights will both cause the variation of the acoustic wave measurement data along the pile depth. The difference in the arrival time of the first wave for various measuring points on the same acoustic wave detecting section may result in the critical value and the abnormal point analyzed by the mathematical statistical method or the PSD method, which is different from the actual one. In order to avoid misjudgment, some acoustic wave signal data needs to be corrected manually, which consumes a lot of manpower and time and reduces the detection efficiency.

Pile integrity detection system based on cross-hole sonic logging method

GUANGZHOU TESTING CENTRE OF CONSTRUCTION QUALITY AND SAFETY CO., LTD.

GUANGZHOU INSTITUTE OF BUILDING SCIENCE CO., LTD.


An internal rotor for an electric machine includes a rotational axis, an outer circumferential face which delimits the internal rotor, a pole arrangement comprising a centroid, and an actuating mechanism for moving the pole arrangement towards the rotational axis or away from the rotational axis to set a first spacing between the outer circumferential face and the centroid. In an example embodiment, the actuating mechanism has an actuator for moving the pole arrangement. The actuator has a hydraulically operable piston, a pneumatically operable piston, an electric motor actuator, or converts an axial force to a radial force. In an example embodiment, the actuating mechanism is operatively connected to the pole arrangement. The actuating mechanism is arranged between the rotational axis and the pole arrangement, or the actuating mechanism is arranged between the outer circumferential face and the pole arrangement.

Various refinements of radial, transverse and axial flux machines are known from the prior art. For instance, EP 2 985 893 A1 discloses an axial flux synchronous machine for the active air gap adjustment between the rotor and the stator. Furthermore, US 2006/091752 A1 discloses a passive adjustment of the air gap between the rotor and the stator in the case of external rotor radial flux synchronous machines. Shown generally, the presented prior art aims at a reduction of losses and an increase in the degree of efficiency.

Electric motor with switchover elements in the magnetic circuit


The present invention relates to a system for transferring an interactive movie located at a server via a network and displaying the same at a user station, which comprises: (a) a display unit at the user station for displaying movie frames; (b) a control device at the user station for enabling the user to navigate within the movie; (c) a map of the movie describing the links between the individual movie frames and the index of each movie frame, said map also maintains at any given time the present virtual location of the user within the map; and (d) a prediction unit for receiving inputs from said map and from a user control device, and based on said inputs predicting those future frames that may be required for view by the user, and instructing the server to convey said predicted future frames to the user station.

Virtual movies are widely used for a variety of purposes, such as exhibitions, remote guidance and touring of places, education, training, electronic games, etc. Some of such movies are animated, and some others are real, in the sense of involving real frames that are photographed within a real, physical site and some combine a mixture of real and animated frames. (It should be noted herein that throughout this application the term "frame" is used to indicate a unitary view that is introduced to the user at a specific time unit. In this respect, it should be noted that there is no distinction as to how this frame is produced, whether by acquiring it fully from the multimedia content, or producing it from a previous frame by completing only the differences from that previous frame in a manner as some compression tools operate). The present invention relates to all such cases, but mostly to the latter case; i.e., to the case where the preparation of a virtual and interactive movie enables a user to interactively explore a real site; i.e., to a case in which a user wishes to watch a movie of a site, and navigate interactively within the site.
In recent years there have been extensive efforts to streamline the playing of multimedia over computer networks with no need of a full movie preload prior to a continuous playback. Throughout this application, a discussion is made to video movies (or clips), although some aspects of the invention may be relevant to other types of multimedia. Most existing solutions take into account the fact that the network bandwidth is limited, and that the speed of transfer dynamically varies. Some solutions suggest the reduction of the amount of data transferred (e.g., by means of compromising the media quality, or by means of compressing the data), and adjustment of the amount of data transferred to the network speed. The main objective is to obtain a smooth experience with maximum image quality for a given bandwidth. One common solution suggests the performing of a preload of a multimedia sequence (such as a movie clip), to balance the stream of the information loading during playback, in order to improve the availability of the clip portions at the user's station, and to prevent delays and suspensions. Throughout this application, the term "station" relates to any type of computer, processor, terminal, workstation, PDA, cellular phone, etc. which has a player for playing a content. Other factors that may affect the proper manner of handling multimedia information at the client side are the size of the data file and the amount of free storage at the user's end. Because the multimedia file at the remote (server) side is usually large, the fact that it cannot always be fully stored or fully preloaded to the client side must be taken in to account. In such a case, the user's experience may be hindered due to the need for a relatively long wait for the data he wishes to play.
The above prior art solutions are relatively satisfactory when playing a continuous conventional multimedia clip. However, such solutions cannot meet the stringent requirements of playing an interactive movie via a network of limited bandwidth. In a conventional movie the sequence of the movie frames is well defined, and therefore the maintaining of a FIFO type register at the user station can assist in the availability and integrity of the currently played sequence. However, this is not the case when playing an interactive virtual movie in which, during many stages of the movie, the user is given several options from which to select and continue with different sequences of the movie. This requirement to provide several video sequences to the user at any given time introduces a burden to the effective playing of an interactive virtual movie via the Internet (or any other bandwidth limited) network.
WO 2004/049263 by the same inventors discloses a method and system for the preparation of an interactive movie, which simulates the walking of a user within a real site and which enables a user to explore the site. Such a virtual movie can be streamed and displayed to a user relatively smoothly, in a high resolution and fast manner. However, any attempt to transfer and simultaneously display this interactive movie via a network, such as the Internet, at a station remote from the location in which the movie is stored, faces difficulties, particularly in satisfying the interactivity and smoothness requirements.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and system for the playing of a virtual movie via a bandwidth limited (sometimes very low bandwidth) network, such as the Internet.
It is another object of the invention to enable playing of such a movie in a manner that minimally affects the quality that the user experiences.
It is a particular object of the invention to enable the viewing via the Internet (or any other network) of a virtual movie for exploring a site.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent as the description proceeds.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and system for displaying via a network of an interactive movie


An electronic component tray includes: a tray main body housing an electronic component; and a mark provided by the tray main body to represent mass of the tray main body.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electronic component tray and an identification method of a similar electronic component tray.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an electronic component tray (hereinafter, referred to as a "tray") has been sometimes used when electronic components such as semiconductor devices are delivered to a customer. In recent years, used trays are reused in view of environmental protection and the like.
Concretely, used trays are collected from customers, and usable trays are sorted by electronic component maker to be returned to respective electronic component makers. The electronic component maker puts electronic components in the returned trays again and delivers the electronic components to customers. The trays are sorted based on inscribed product names, maker's names, or the like, or based on the appearance such as the arrangement of resin inlet traces.
Currently, trays properly made by some makers (hereinafter, referred to as "proper trays") are followed by a large number of trays (hereinafter, referred to as "similar trays") that are produced by different makers but are identical or closely similar to the proper trays, not only in shape but also in inscribed product name or maker's name, the arrangement of resin inlet traces, and so on.
Constituent materials of these similar trays are unknown and possibly contain, for example, toxic substances and the like having a damaging effect on the environment. Therefore, it is not desirable to put electronic components in returned trays including similar trays to deliver them to customers. The included similar trays may possibly be a cause of loss of reliability from the customers.
Under such circumstances, it is necessary to identify similar trays that might be included in the returned trays. However, the identification of similar trays based on their appearance is difficult since even the inscribed maker's names and the like are identical or closely similar as described above.
There is disclosed an art to bury an electronic tag in a tray, the electronic tag being made of a mu-chip storing information on a tray such as its ID, maker's name and product number, and information on electronic components such as their product name, quantity, and lot number (see JP-A 2004-284601 (KOKAI)). However, burying the electronic tag in the tray is not practical since it requires a lot of trouble and increases cost.
There is disclosed another art in which a mark for identifying the type or the like of electronic components is borne on a side face of a tray (see, for example, JP-A 9-188383 (KOKAI)). However, this mark is not for enabling the identification of a similar tray but for enabling easy discrimination on the type of electronic components to be put in the tray even when the trays are in a stacked state. Further, if this mark is also imitated, it is difficult to identify a proper tray from a similar tray.

Electronic component tray and identification method of similar electronic component tray


Systems and methods of theft prevention of communication devices are provided. In one embodiment, the method may include, for example, one or more of the following: registering a communication device being used at a home, where the device is connected to a communication network; entering validation information relating to the communication device; and analyzing the validation information to determine whether the communication device is authorized for use in the communication network.

Today, digital media devices such as, for example, digital camcorders, digital cameras, and MP3 players are standalone devices that may be connected to a PC (personal computer) through a USB (universal serial bus) interface to download digital files without any form of user authentication or authorization.
When a user roams with a digital media device and is not near a PC, the user is limited by the memory capacity of the digital media device and any additional memory for the device (such as memory sticks or tapes) that the user may have with him.
Digital files within a digital media device may be downloaded to a PC, encrypted by the PC, attached to an email message, and sent to another PC via the Internet. Also, the digital files may be sent over a network using, for example, FTP (file transfer protocol). However, neither the Internet nor the network has any knowledge of the original source of the digital files (i.e., the digital media device).
If a digital media device is stolen, it may still be used by the thief as if he were the owner.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.

Theft prevention of media peripherals in a media exchange network


A controller device receives power information and location information from a first radio base station, the power information indicating, for each frequency, the power of the signal arriving at a radio terminal in the communication area of the first radio base station from a second radio base station, and the location information indicating the location of the radio terminal. The controller device is provided with an identifying unit which, based on the power information and location information received from the first radio base station, identifies an interference location and identifies an interference frequency, the interference location being the location where the power of the signal arriving at the communication area is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, and the interference frequency being the frequency of the signal arriving at the interference location.

In general, a cellular radio communication system covers a wide service area by dividing the wide service area into units of communication areas called cells and equipping each of the communication areas with a radio base station in charge of radio communications with a radio terminal in the communication area.
Meanwhile, in radio communication systems based on one-cell frequency reuse, i.e., in radio communication systems in which adjacent radio base stations use the same frequency, a radio terminal located in an edge of the communication area (cell edge) is mainly affected by interference from a radio base station in an adjacent communication area (hereinafter, an adjacent base station), and therefore has the throughput of in the downlink communications reduced.
For the radio communication systems of the aforementioned kind, there are known a method to avoid the interference by designing the communication areas strictly, a method to avoid the interference by adjusting antenna tilt angles and the like at the time of installing the radio base stations (hereinafter, a first background art).
Furthermore, a method called frequency scheduling is known (hereinafter, a second background art). In the frequency scheduling, a frequency with which a radio terminal is less affected by the interference from an adjacent radio base station is allocated to the radio terminal. To put it more specifically, the radio terminal measures a reception quality (received SINR, for example) for each frequency and then reports a CQI (Channel Quality Indicator) indicating the measurement result to the radio base station. The radio base station allocates a frequency less affected by the interference from an adjacent radio base station to the radio terminal in accordance with the reported CQI (refer to Non-PATENT DOCUMENT 1).

Radio communication system, radio terminal, radio base station, controller device and radio communication method


Techniques and devices for extending a piston, for example connected to a medical device such as a mechanical CPR device, to accommodate different sized patients, are described herein. In some cases, a piston of a mechanical CPR device may include an inner piston at least partially slidable into an external piston sleeve. In one aspect, an external piston spacer may be attached to an outward surface of the inner piston to extend the length of the piston. In another aspect an internal bayonet sleeve may contact one or more locking rods at various positions, enabling adjustment of the length of the inner piston. In yet another aspect, a piston adapter may be removably attached to the end of the piston. In all aspects, the change in length of the piston may be detected and used to modify movement of the piston, for example to more safely perform mechanical CPR.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a medical procedure performed on patients to maintain some level of circulatory and respiratory functions when patients otherwise have limited or no circulatory and respiratory functions. CPR is generally not a procedure that restarts circulatory and respiratory functions, but can be effective to preserve enough circulatory and respiratory functions for a patient to survive until the patient's own circulatory and respiratory functions are restored. CPR typically includes frequent torso compressions that usually are performed by pushing on or around the patient's sternum while the patient is lying on the patient's back. For example, torso compressions can be performed as at a rate of about 100 compressions per minute and at a depth of about 5 cm per compression for an adult patient. The frequency and depth of compressions can vary based on a number of factors, such as valid CPR guidelines.
Mechanical CPR has several advantages over manual CPR. A person performing CPR, such as a medical first-responder, must exert considerable physical effort to maintain proper compression timing and depth. Over time, fatigue can set in and compressions can become less consistent and less effective. The person performing CPR must also divert mental attention to performing manual CPR properly and may not be able to focus on other tasks that could help the patient. For example, a person performing CPR at a rate of 100 compressions per minute would likely not be able to simultaneously prepare a defibrillator for use to attempt to restart the patient's heart. Mechanical compression devices can be used with CPR to perform compressions that would otherwise be done manually. Mechanical compression devices can provide advantages such as providing constant, proper compressions for sustained lengths of time without fatiguing, freeing medical personnel to perform other tasks besides CPR compressions, and being usable in smaller spaces than would be required by a person performing CPR compressions.
Mechanical CPR devices, and other medical devices, may provide advantages to performing medical tasks manually, for example, on patients having average dimensions. However, adjustability is needed in these devices to accommodate smaller and larger patients, to provide assistance in performing medical operations on these patients, without causing added risk.


A machine is for selectively dispensing a plurality of coupons including at least two different inscriptions thereon to be respectively redeemable for at least two different promotions or bargains. The machine includes a cabinet and a display area on the cabinet indicating the different bargains capable of being acquired by redemption of the respective coupons and a specific amount of money required to obtain each respective coupon. Selection buttons mounted on the cabinet are used to select a desired one of the different bargains and the respective coupon therefor. A coin slot and collection box in the cabinet are used to receive various amounts of money. The coupons are stored in the cabinet and are aligned with a coupon dispenser which is capable of dispensing each coupon to the exterior of the cabinet through a slot. A printed circuit board in the cabinet electrically coupled to all of the components includes control circuitry which is capable of determining that the desired one of the different bargains selected by the buttons and that the amount of money for the desired one of the different bargains as selected has been deposited in the coin slot and collection box. The control circuitry then causes the coupon dispenser to dispense the respective coupon for the desired one of the different bargains.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a machine which is capable of being utilized to selectively dispense different coupons which can be redeemed for different bargains and to the method of dispensing such coupons.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of coupons to promote various products and services is well known in the business community. Coupons often appear in magazines and newspapers and are offered to interested customers buying or reading the magazine or newspaper to cut out and redeem for various products or services. Obviously, the percentage of readers that specifically read and/or use such coupons is so small that the cost of printing and advertising must be critically analyzed to see if it is justified in light of the possible response. Similarly, coupons are often sent to potential customers through the mail. Business concerns spend a great amount of money and effort trying to acquire, select and refine mailing lists to insure that the benefits and response sought will be as great as possible in view of the cost of printing and postage.
For both coupons through the mail and in publications, the overall cost is usually borne by the business or organization offering the coupon. However, some businesses and organizations have employed a system which tends to reduce the cost by reducing the number of potential customers and to further defray the cost by requiring the customer to pay for the coupons. For example, a car washing business may offer a coupon book to customers for ten dollars which includes coupons which can be redeemed for a number of car washes which would otherwise cost twenty dollars. Similarly, some independent organizations have contracted with various restaurant, hotel and entertainment businesses to produce coupon books that are sold to customers who may or may not then take advantage of a large number of coupons redeemable at the contracting businesses. The coupons often include two items or services for the price of one.
The business of providing coupons can include an endless number of decisions which can result in either an effective, worthless or detrimental promotional effort. Some of these decisions must be made months or years in advance. Although many large companies and manufacturers have significant experience in the promotion and use of coupons, many smaller companies and manufacturers have neither the means nor the way to determine the most effective manner to employ coupons. Clearly, any new way to provide coupons that is more flexible, at less expense and includes a greater likelihood of positive effect can be attractive to both large and small business concerns.

Method and machine for dispensing coupons


Included is a radio transmission system comprising a plurality of power amplifiers (PAs); a plurality of Volterra Engine (VE) linearizers corresponding to the PAs; a plurality of feedback loops corresponding to the PAs; at least one digital hybrid matrix (DHM) coupled to the VE linearizers; and an analog hybrid matrix (AHM) coupled to the PAs, wherein the feedback loops are connected to the AHM and the VE linearizers but not to the PAs to reduce the number of feedback loops. Also included is a radio system comprising a plurality of PAs; a Volterra DHM (VDHM) coupled to the PAs; a plurality of feedback loops corresponding to the PAs; and an AHM coupled to the PAs, wherein the feedback loops are connected to the AHM but not to the PAs to reduce the number of feedback loops.

In wireless communications, signals are forwarded using radio transmission and receiving systems. Radio transmission systems may include power amplifiers (PAs), signal linearizers, such as a Volterra-series or Volterra Engine (VE) linearizers, which may be coupled to other system components such as antennas, and signal processing components. A digitally configurable radio (DCR), or agile radio, is a type of configurable radio transmission system that supports smart antenna operation modes, such as Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output (MIMO) or Single-Input and Single-Output (SISO), without hardware changes or upgrades, for instance using software or firmware. Accordingly, the agile radio can support different signal or beam related features, such as power combining, beam forming, sector power pooling, or combinations thereof.

Minimum feedback radio architecture with digitally configurable adaptive linearization