The present invention relates to a drive train of a wheeled vehicle having an engine and at least one driving wheel, the drive train essentially including a first clutch connected to the engine for receiving driving force therefrom and for outputting the driving force in a variable manner according to driver operation driver; a transmission connected to the first clutch effective for receiving the driving force from the engine as varied by the driving transmitting it a varying rotational speed; and a second clutch connected to the transmission for receiving such driving force from the transmission and transmitting it to the driving wheel by automatically varying the transfer ratio between the transmission and the driving wheel according to the rotational frequency of the transmission output. The method essentially includes the steps of; setting a transfer ratio at the first clutch means according to an operation of a driver; automatically setting a transmission ratio at the transmission; and automatically setting a transfer ratio at the second clutch means according to a rotational frequency of the driving force outputted by the transmission.

The present invention is related to a drive train of a wheeled vehicle having an engine and at least one driving wheel. The present invention is also related to a method for controlling the drive train of a wheeled vehicle.
A prior technology as regards a drive train of a wheeled vehicle is disclosed in a Japanese Patent Application published with a first publication No. 61-278630. The prior technology is briefly described as follows.
The drive train according to the prior technology comprises a first clutch, a transmission and a second clutch which are disposed in this order between an engine and a driving wheel. The first clutch receives driving force from the engine and transmits the driving force to the transmission. The transfer ratio of the first clutch is controlled by a driver through the operation of a clutch lever. Hereinafter, the transfer ratio designates a ratio of output torque outputted by a clutch to an input torque inputted thereto. The transmission receives driving force from the first clutch and transmits the driving force to the second clutch. The transmission ratio is controlled automatically by a control unit taking into account a throttle aperture operated by the driver and other factors, such as speed of the vehicle, etc. The transmission ratio hereinafter designates a ratio of rotational frequency of input driving motion inputted to the transmission to rotational frequency of output driving motion outputted thereby. The second clutch receives driving force from the transmission and transmits the driving force to the driving wheel. The transfer ratio is determined automatically. The second clutch is further equipped with a governor and a control unit. The governor sends a signal to the control unit, the signal being responsive to the rotational frequency of the input driving motion inputted to the transmission. The control unit automatically controls the transfer ratio of the second clutch on the basis of the output signal of the governor.
Control of the transfer ratio according to the above-mentioned construction is described more in detail as follows.
At first, while the engine speed and the speed of the vehicle are lower than respective prescribed values, that is, while the vehicle is standing still for example, the transfer ratio of the second clutch is null, that is, the driving force of the engine is disconnected from the driving wheel at the second clutch. At a same time, the transmission ratio of the transmission is kept at a high ratio. When the driver wishes to start running the vehicle, he gradually opens the throttle. Consequently, rotational frequency of the engine increases and so do the transfer ratio of the second clutch and the speed of the vehicle. At the same time, the transmission ratio decreases gradually so that the vehicle is accelerated effectively. That means, rotational frequency of the engine and the driving motion being inputted to the transmission increases more moderately than rotational frequency of the motion being inputted in the second clutch.
The construction results in the fact that the transfer ratio at the second clutch, which is controlled based on the rotational frequency of the input driving motion transmitting driving force to the transmission, increases more dully compared to an operation of the throttle.
FIG. 3(B) shows the relations of engine speed and vehicle speed for different transmission ratios while the clutches are not slipping. The two solid lines Y and Z, both passing the origin, correspond to a high transmission ratio and a low transmission ratio respectively. The value X indicates a minimum engine speed necessary for normally controlling the vehicle at a low transmission ratio. Vehicle velocity corresponding to the value X in the line Z indicates the stall speed Vo for the low transmission ratio. When the transmission ratio is low and the vehicle speed is lower than the stall speed Vo, the engine does not generate enough power necessary for controlling the vehicle. Therefore, the transmission ratio has to be increased or the clutch has to be disconnected so as to raise the engine speed. By the way, the hatched area in the figure designates combinations of engine speed and vehicle speed at which transfer ratio of the second clutch is set to be lower than 1.0 according to the prior technology. While the condition falls in the area the second clutch is slipping. Slip occurs when the engine speed is lower than the threshold value X irrespective of the speed of the vehicle. But in reality the minimum engine speed depends on the transmission ratio, and the minimum engine speed is lower than the value X when the transmission ratio is higher than the above value. Because the hatched area is applied also to higher transmission ratios, slip in the second clutch spoils a rapid acceleration of the vehicle and wastes fuel while the transmission ratio is higher.
A solution to avoid such inconveniences may be to lower the threshold to X2. But if the threshold is lowered, the engine does not generate enough power at lower transmission ratios and the acceleration is spoiled in such cases.
Further, when the vehicle is stopped rapidly, the second clutch is cut off, triggered by a sharp drop of the engine speed before the transmission ratio is sufficiently increased. Therefore, the vehicle is obliged to restart with a small transmission ratio resulting in a dull acceleration. It is because the transmission ratio is changeable only when the transmission is rotating in the case of an automatic transmission having an endless belt for transmitting torque.

Drive train of a wheeled vehicle and method for controlling the same


An apparatus (1) for erasing a storage phosphor layer (2) includes a radiation source (8) for producing and emitting erasing radiation, a drive (5) for producing a relative movement between the storage phosphor layer (2) and the radiation source (8), the storage phosphor layer (2) lying or being moved in a holding plane (7), and a reflector (11) for reflecting radiation. The reflector (11) is arranged and designed to reflect erasing radiation reflected by the storage phosphor layer (2) in the direction of the storage phosphor layer (2). A further reflecting surface (31) is provided for reflecting erasing radiation which is positioned opposite the reflector (11), as considered in a direction at right angles to the direction (6) of the relative movement.

Apparatuses for erasing a storage phosphor layer with a radiation source for producing and emitting erasing radiation are used in particular in the field of computer radiography (CR) for medical purposes. A picture is produced of an object, for example a patient or a body part of the patient, by means of X-ray radiation. The picture is stored in a storage phosphor layer as a latent picture. Therefore, this type of X-ray picture contains X-ray information about the object. In order to read out the X-ray information stored in the storage phosphor layer, the storage phosphor layer is stimulated by means of an irradiation device. As a result of this stimulation the storage phosphor layer emits radiation that has an intensity corresponding to the X-ray information stored in the storage phosphor layer. The radiation emitted by the storage phosphor layer is collected by a detection device and converted into electrical signals, which contain an image of the X-ray information. The electrical signals are further processed and the X-ray information stored in the storage phosphor layer is then made visible. The X-ray information can be displayed directly on a monitor, for example, or be written onto a photographic X-ray film by means of a printer used especially for X-ray pictures.
After reading out the X-ray information from the storage phosphor layer, remains of the latent picture remain in the latter. Furthermore, noise information can be stored in the layer. In order to be able to use the storage phosphor layer for further X-rays, it is important to erase this information. For this procedure, a radiation source is used that emits erasing radiation onto the storage phosphor layer. An apparatus for erasing a storage phosphor layer is known from U.S. Pat. No. 7,075,200 B 2. As a radiation source, this erasing apparatus contains two lines with light emitting diodes, disposed parallel to one another, for emitting the erasing radiation. For erasure, the storage phosphor layer is pushed in a direction of conveyance through a ray path of the lines of light emitting diodes. The two lines of light emitting diodes are integrated with reflectors which are spaced apart from one another. The reflectors serve to reflect erasing radiation emitted by the light emitting diodes in the direction of the storage phosphor layer. The reflectors have a groove-shaped cross-sectional surface with obtuse inner angles so that the groove-shaped profile of the reflectors opens from the light emitting diode arrangement in the direction of the storage phosphor layer. The width of the reflectors here in the direction of conveyance is adapted to their function of guiding the radiation of the erasing radiation emitted by the light emitting diodes.

Storage phosphor layer and system and method for erasing same


A zoom lens system is disclosed which includes a first lens group with negative optical power, a second lens group with positive optical power, and a third lens group with positive optical power, arranged in that order from an object side to an image side. The zoom lens system performs zooming by changing distances between the lens groups. The first lens group includes at least two negative lenses, and one of the negative lenses is adjacent to the second lens group and satisfies the following criteria

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a zoom lens system, and more particularly, to a light-weight zoom lens system used in cameras.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditionally, a zoom lens system widely used in digital cameras includes a first lens group with negative optical power, a second lens group with positive optical power, and a third lens group with positive optical power, arranged in order from an object side to an image side.
In recent years, due to remarkable development in digital cameras, the trend of digital cameras is moving toward a small and thin size and light weight. In addition, for photo elements used in digital cameras, such as a charge-coupled Device (CCD), the trend is moving toward higher resolution. Accordingly, a zoom lens system, disclosed in JP Patent Application No. 2000-284177, utilizes a third lens group to rapidly focus and attain a clearer image and to modify its optical aberrations.
Nevertheless, the demand for an increasing of pixels as well as smaller size of each pixel for cameras makes modifying the spherical aberration more urgently necessary. Further, the zoom lens system disclosed in JP Patent No. 2000-284177 fails to modify spherical aberration to satisfy current standards.

Abstract: 0.08    <                                  R                                                              1                          R                                                              2                            <    0.52    ,where R1 is the curvature radius of the first surface facing toward the object side, and R2 is the curvature radius of the second surface facing toward the image side.


A power distribution box assembly having a power distribution box, a plurality of wire assemblies, a holder and a plurality of sets of resilient fingers. The power distribution box having a housing, which defines a plurality of terminal cavities, and a plurality of conductive busbars, each of which terminating at a busbar terminal that is received in a corresponding one of the terminal cavities. The wire assemblies are coupled to the busbar terminals and extending from a rear side of the housing. The holder is received in the rear side of the housing and engaged to the housing in a snap-fit manner. The holder has a plurality of wire channels, each of which receiving an associated one of the wires. Each set of resilient fingers has at least one finger that is resiliently coupled to the holder and configured to engage an associated one of the wires.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Power distribution boxes are often used in vehicles to connect battery power to various electrical components to reduce and/or simplify the vehicle wiring. Bus bars within the power distribution boxes distribute power from one or two power input wires routed from the battery to many power output lines routed to the components, eliminating the need for wiring from the battery directly to each individual component.
Some power distribution boxes employ a secondary mechanism that locks to the housing of the power distribution box when terminals are matingly coupled to the bus bars are located in their correct position and are fully seated in the housing of the power distribution box. Some of these secondary mechanisms engage the terminals to hold them in the housing of the power distribution box.
In some instances, movement of wires that are coupled to the terminals can create stress on the terminals. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for an improved power distribution box assembly that reduces stress on the terminals of a power distribution box.


A screen control device includes: a history storage unit that stores history information associating information on a process executed in an image forming apparatus with user information that identifies a user who executed the process; a periodic process determination unit that determines whether a process executed by the user is a periodic process executed periodically based on the history information; an execution schedule calculation unit that calculates, in a case where the process executed by the user is a periodic process, an execution scheduled date when the periodic process is executed next time; a periodic process management unit that manages the periodic process in association with the user and the calculated execution scheduled date; and a display controller that displays a screen that allows an execution of the periodic process on a display when the user uses the image forming apparatus during a given term including the execution scheduled date.

(i) Technical Field
The present invention relates to a screen control device, an image forming apparatus, and a computer readable medium.
(ii) Related Art
There are routine tasks executed periodically (e.g. weekly, monthly) in companies and the like. Routine tasks include tasks using an image forming apparatus. Recently, as multiple functions and highly-functions are incorporated in an image forming apparatus, a number of buttons to receive various settings are located on an operation screen that receives instructions to the image forming apparatus from the user. This makes the operation to the image forming apparatus, which a user needs to carry out to perform routine tasks using an image forming apparatus, complicated and cumbersome.

Device, image forming apparatus, and non-transistory computer readable medium for displaying and executing a periodic process


A corner wear plate assembly includes a base having first and second base plates formed to each other along a corner, and a wear plate having first and second wear bodies formed to each other along a corner. The second base plate includes a slot with an enlarged aperture. The wear plate includes a hold. The assembly includes a nut to receive a key. The nut is applicable through the aperture into the slot, and then is moveable into a position offset from the aperture where the nut is captured under the second base plate. In an applied condition of the wear plate on the base, and in the offset position of the nut, the bore is registered with the slot and the hold to define a keyway, and the key is applicable to the keyway for engagement with the nut to lock the wear plate on the base.

Heavy machinery equipment are used in excavation, demolition, construction, and similar activities. The parts of heavy machines used for digging are exposed to a great amount of wear in operation. For instance, the bucket of an excavator can be used to dig, rip, crush, cut, or lift dirt, rock, concrete, metal, or other rugged materials, all of which constantly wear against and abrade the surface of the excavator's bucket.
Heavy machinery parts are expensive and time-consuming to maintain. To replace a worn bucket on an excavator, for example, a new bucket must be ordered and shipped, the excavator must be taken out of operation, the old bucket must be removed, and the new one must be installed. This requires significant time and effort, and workers are often injured during the replacement process, which usually involves sledgehammers and blowtorches.
Various attempts have been made to protect heavy machinery parts to avoid having to replace an entire part. For instance, on the buckets mentioned above, various guards and shrouds are frequently bolted onto the lower edge of the bucket. Sometimes the bolts binding these shrouds to the edge become damaged or cemented, and the shrouds become very difficult to remove. Further, a number of manufacturers make shrouds to fit buckets, but the shrouds are not identical; each is of just slightly a different dimension. However, all rely on the same fixtures to secure to the bucket. This often results in slight play of the shroud on the bucket, which results in premature wear. An improved system for protecting heavy machinery equipment is needed.


In one aspect, a device includes a processor, a microphone accessible to the processor, at least a first sensor that is accessible to the processor, and storage accessible to the processor. The storage bears instructions executable by the processor to receive first input from the microphone that is generated based on audible input from a user. The instructions are also executable by the processor to receive second input from the first sensor, perform natural language understanding based on the first input, augment the natural language understanding based on the second input, and provide an output based on the augmentation.

As recognized herein, current audible input-enabled devices can incorrectly interpret a person's voice input of a command to execute a function such as an Internet search. While such devices can employ various tactics to interpret the voice input, they merely do so based on the audible input itself. There are currently no adequate solutions to the foregoing computer-related problem.

Systems and methods for natural language understanding using sensor input


There is provided wireless transmitter that includes a poly phase filter (PPF) configured to receive an input differential intermediate frequency (IF) signal and to generate an in-phase differential IF signal and a quadrature differential IF signal. The wireless transmitter further includes a transformer-based circuit configured to receive an input differential local oscillator (LO) signal and to generate an in-phase differential LO signal and a quadrature differential LO signal based on the input differential LO signal. In addition, the wireless transmitter includes a mixer configured to multiplicatively mix the in-phase differential IF signal with the quadrature differential LO signal to produce a first RF signal component and to multiplicatively mix the quadrature differential IF signal with the in-phase differential LO signal to produce a second RF signal component, the mixer further configured to provide a differential RF signal comprising a (filtered or unfiltered) combination of the first RF signal component and the second RF signal component. Furthermore, the wireless transmitter includes an amplification stage configured to amplify the differential RF signal, the amplification stage comprising a driver stage and a power amplifier stage.

Fifth generation (5G) communication promises a substantial (potentially ten to one hundred times) increase in data-rates, which can radically change the future of wireless connectivity and applications. In response to increased data-rates, millimeter-wave (mm-wave) bands can potentially deliver extreme data rates and higher capacity compared to low-GHz bands. Accordingly, with the shift toward millimeter-wave (mm-Wave) frequencies there is a need to support the fast and dynamic future of electromagnetic application scenarios. However, facilitating faster data rates poses further challenges associated with broader bandwidth. For example, the 3GPP 5G NR standard specifies stringent functionalities on future networks for covering wide bandwidth including 24, 28, 37, 39, 43 and 46 GHz bands.
Wideband poses further design challenges for a transmitter associated therewith. For example, obtaining adequate image rejection with on-chip circuits can be difficult due to wideband in-phase quadrature (IQ) generations, especially at mm-Wave frequencies. Moreover, since broadband transmitters normally operate at high output power, their output signals may include both the desired signals and their image signals (as the signal paths or the local oscillator (LO) paths are imbalanced); thereby introducing interference signals which can jam the corresponding receiver via the output image signal.
Therefore, there is a need for a wideband transmitter and method thereof that obviates or mitigates one or more limitations of the prior art.
This background information is provided to reveal information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present invention. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present invention.

Wideband transmitter for millimeter-wave wireless communication


A group III nitride composite substrate includes a support substrate and a group III nitride film. A ratio st/mt of a standard deviation st of the thickness of the group III nitride film, to a mean value mt of the thickness thereof is 0.001 or more and 0.2 or less, and a ratio so/mo of a standard deviation so of an absolute value of an off angle between a main surface of the group III nitride film and a plane of a predetermined plane orientation, to a mean value mo of the absolute value of the off angle thereof is 0.005 or more and 0.6 or less. Accordingly, there is provided a low-cost and large-diameter group III nitride composite substrate including a group III nitride film having a large thickness, a small thickness variation, and a high crystal quality.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a group III nitride composite substrate and a method for manufacturing the same, a laminated group III nitride composite substrate, and a group III nitride semiconductor device and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Description of the Background Art
Group III nitrides such as GaN have superior semiconductor properties and are therefore used as materials suitable for semiconductor devices.
For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2009-126722 discloses a free-standing group III nitride substrate to be used as a substrate for a semiconductor device. The free-standing group III nitride substrate has a diameter of 25 mm or more and 160 mm or less and a thickness of 100 μm or more and 1000 μm or less. It discloses, as a specific example thereof, a free-standing GaN substrate having a diameter of 100 mm and a thickness of 400 μm.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2008-010766 discloses a GaN-thin-film-bonded substrate to be used as a substrate for manufacturing a semiconductor device. The GaN-thin-film-bonded substrate includes a heterogeneous substrate whose chemical composition is different from that of GaN, and a GaN thin film having a thickness of 0.1 μm or more and 100 μm or less and bonded to the heterogeneous substrate. It discloses, as a specific example thereof, a GaN-thin-film-bonded substrate having a diameter of 50.8 mm and including a sapphire substrate and a GaN thin film having a thickness of 0.1 μm or 100 μm and bonded to the sapphire substrate.
Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2010-182936 discloses a composite substrate to be used as a substrate for a semiconductor device. The composite substrate includes a support substrate, a nitride semiconductor layer, and a joint layer disposed between the support substrate and the nitride semiconductor layer. It discloses, as a specific example thereof, a composite substrate having a diameter of 50.8 mm and including a sapphire substrate, a GaN layer, and a joint layer formed by press fitting between the substrate and the GaN layer, in which the GaN layer has a thickness of 5 to 220 μm.

Group III nitride composite substrate and method for manufacturing the same, laminated group III nitride composite substrate, and group III nitride semiconductor device and method for manufacturing the same


A quick-release adapter consists of a top unit and a base unit. The top unit has a cylindrical hub with multiple lobes extending radially outward from the hub. The lobes each have an inclined upper surface and a flat, horizontal lower surface. The base unit has a cavity that is sized and shaped to match the lower portion of the top unit, with multiple lobe-shaped openings and side walls with inclined upper surfaces that match the incline of the upper surfaces of the lobes. A detent plunger protrudes through the lower surface of the cavity at a location that is 45° offset from the center of one of the lobe-shaped openings. In operation, the top unit is inserted into the base unit and rotated until the detent plunger engages the recess in the lower surface of one of the lobes. This locks the top unit from further rotation.

This invention relates generally to hunting equipment and, in particular, to a mounting arm for spotting scopes and/or firearms.
In hunting, shooting or other outdoor activities it is often advantageous to be able to mount binoculars, spotting scopes, firearms or other equipment to a solid structure, such as the roll bar of an off-road vehicle. Often the equipment is carried inside the vehicle for protection, however, when it is needed, the equipment must be quickly mounted to the vehicle hard mount. In some cases multiple pieces of equipment, for example a rifle and a spotting scope need to be exchanged on the mount. Accordingly, what is needed and what the prior art does not offer is a mounting arm that can be rigidly attached to a vehicle or other solid structure that includes a feature for quickly changing the mounted equipment.


A method for random access to a base station by a user equipment (UE) in a mobile communication system using carrier aggregation in which communication is conducted over a plurality of component carriers, and a terminal for the method are disclosed. When the UE performs a contention-based random access procedure in the mobile communication system to which CA technology is applied, the UE considers an uplink grant signal as a contention resolution message when receiving the uplink grant signal from a eNB only when the uplink grant signal is received through a downlink CC corresponding to an uplink CC used to transmit a random access preamble or a third message, to thereby prevent contention resolution from being erroneously ended.

A brief Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a mobile communication system evolved from Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS), standardized by an international standardization organization, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The configuration of an LTE system is illustrated in FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 is a view referred to for describing the configuration of an LTE system.
The LTE system may be divided largely into an Evolved UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRA) and an Evolved Packet Core (EPC). The E-UTRAN includes UEs and evolved Node Bs (eNBs). A UE is connected to an eNB via a Uu interface and one eNB is connected to another eNB via an X2 interface. The EPC includes a Mobility Management Entity (MME) responsible for control-plane functions and a Serving GateWay (S-GW) responsible for user-plane functions. An eNB is connected to the MME via an S1-MME interface and an eNB is connected to the S-GW via an S1-U interface. These two interfaces are collectively called an S1 interface.
For the Uu interface being an air interface, a radio interface protocol is defined. The radio interface protocol horizontally includes a physical layer, a data link layer, and a network layer and vertically includes a user-plane (U-plane) for user data transmission and a control-plane (C-plane) for control signaling. Based on the lowest three layers of the Open System Interconnection (OSI) reference model, this radio interface protocol can be divided into Layer 1 (L1) including a physical layer PHY, Layer 2 (L2) including a Medium Access Control/Radio Link Control/Packet Data Convergence Protocol (MAC/RLC/PDCP) layer, and Layer 3 (L3) including a Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer. These layers are defined in pairs between a UE and an E-UTRAN, for data transmission via the Uu interface.
Now a description will be given below of a Long-Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-A) system.
LTE-A is a system developed from LTE to meet 4th Generation mobile communication requirements, that is, IMT-Advanced requirements recommended by the International Telecommunication Union-Radio communication sector (ITU-R). The 3GPP which developed the LTE system standard is now actively working on standardization of the LTE-A system.
Major technologies added to the LTE-A system are carrier aggregation for extending a used bandwidth and flexibly using the bandwidth and use of relays for improving coverage, supporting group mobility and enabling user-centered network deployment.
FIGS. 2 and 3 are views referred to for describing radio protocol layers.
At L1, the PHY layer provides information transfer service to a higher layer on physical channels. The PHY layer is connected to the MAC layer through transport channels and data is transferred between the MAC layer and the PHY layer on the transport channels. The transport channels are largely divided into dedicated transport channels and common transport channels depending on whether the transport channels are shared or not. Data is transmitted on physical channels using radio resources between different PHY layers, that is, the PHY layers of a transmitter and a receiver.
There is a plurality of layers at L2. The MAC layer maps logical channels to transport channels and performs logical channel multiplexing by mapping a plurality of logical channels to one transport channel. The MAC layer is connected to a higher layer, namely the RLC layer, through logical channels. Depending on the types of information carried on the logical channels, the logical channels are classified into control channels that deliver C-plane information and traffic channels that deliver U-plane information.
The RLC layer at L2 adjusts a data size to be suitable for data transmission in the air interface from a lower layer by segmenting and concatenating data received from a higher layer. In order to guarantee various Quality of Service (QoS) requirements of each Radio Bearer (RB), the RLC layer provides three operation modes, Transparent Mode (TM), Unacknowledged Mode (UM), and Acknowledged Mode (AM). Especially, an AM RLC performs a retransmission function through Automatic Repeat and Request (ARQ), for reliable data transmission.
The PDCP layer at L2 compresses a header to reduce the size of an Internet Protocol (IP) packet header of a relatively large size containing unnecessary control information to efficiently transmit an IP packet such as an IPv4 or IPv6 packet via a radio link having a narrow bandwidth. The header compression function enables transmission of necessary information in a header only, thereby increasing the transmission efficiency of a radio link. In addition, the PDCH layer performs a security function in the LTE system. This security function involves ciphering for preventing a third party from eavesdropping and integrity protection for preventing a third party from maliciously modifying data.
The RRC layer at the highest of L3 is defined only in the C-plane. The RRC layer takes charge of controlling logical channels, transport channels, and physical channels in relation to configuration, reconfiguration, and release of Radio Bearers (RBs). An RB is a logical path provided by L1 and L2 in the radio protocol architecture, for data transmission between a UE and a UTRAN. In general, configuring an RB means defining the features of a radio protocol layer and channels needed to provide a specific service and setting specific parameters and an operation scheme. RBs are classified into a Signaling RB (SRB) and Data RB (DRB). The SRB is used as a path via which an RRC message is transmitted on the C-plane and the DRB is used as a path in which user data is transmitted on the U-plane.
Now a description will be given of Carrier Aggregation (CA) in the LTE-A system.
FIG. 4 is a view referred to for describing CA.
As described above, the LTE-A standard is designed as an IMT-Advanced candidate technology of the ITU to satisfy IMT-Advanced technical requirements. Accordingly, extension of a bandwidth from the legacy LTE system is under discussion to satisfy IMT-Advanced technical requirements. For bandwidth extension, carriers available to the legacy LTE system are defined as Component Carriers (CCs) in the LTE-A system. Aggregation of up to 5 CCs is under discussion, as illustrated in FIG. 4. Because a CC may occupy up to 20 MHz as in the LTE system, the CA technology of the LTE-A standard is a concept of extending a bandwidth to up to 100 MHz. The technology of aggregating a plurality of CCs is called CA.
Hereinbelow, a random access procedure performed in the LTE system will be described in greater detail.
In the LTE system, a UE may perform the random access procedure,
when the UE initially accesses an eNB without an RRC connection having been established therebetween,
when the UE initially accesses a target cell during handover,
when the random access procedure is requested by a command from the eNB,
upon generation of uplink data in a situation in which uplink time synchronization has not been acquired or specified radio resources for use in requesting radio resources have not been allocated, or
when radio link failure or handover failure is recovered.
Based on the above description, a general contention-based random access procedure will be described below.
FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a signal flow for operations of a UE and an eNB in a contention-based random access procedure.
(1) Transmission of First Message
The UE may select a random access preamble randomly from a random preamble set indicated by system information or a handover command, select Physical Random Access CHannel (PRACH) resources, and transmit the random access preamble through selected Physical PRACH (PRACH) resources (S501).
(2) Reception of Second Message
After transmitting the random access preamble in step S501, the UE attempts to receive a random access response within a random access response reception window indicated through the system information or the handover command by the eNB (S502). To be more specific, the random access response may be transmitted in the form of a Medium Access Control Protocol Data Unit (MAC PDU) and the MAC PDU may be delivered over a Physical Downlink Shared CHannel (PDSCH). To receive information on the PDSCH successfully, the UE preferably monitors a Physical Downlink Control CHannel (PDCCH). That is, the PDCCH preferably carries information about a UE to receive the PDSCH, information about the frequency and time of radio resources of the PDSCH, and information about the transmission format of the PDSCH. Once the UE succeeds in receiving the PDCCH destined therefor, the UE may successfully receive a random access response over the PDSCH according to information carried over the PDCCH. The random access response may include an identifier (ID) of the random access preamble (e.g. a Random Access Preamble ID (RAPID)), an Uplink (UL) Grant indicating uplink radio resources, a temporary Cell-Radio Network Temporary Identify (C-RNTI), and a Timing Advance Command (TAC).
The reason for including the RAPID in the random access response is that because one random access response may contain random access response information for one or more UEs, it is necessary to indicate a UE to which the UL Grant, the temporary C-RNTI, and the TAC are valid. It is assumed in step S502 that the ID of the random access preamble is identical to the RAPID included in the random access response. Thus, the UE may receive the UL Grant, the temporary C-RNTI, and the TAC.
(3) Transmission of Third Message
Upon receipt of a valid random access response, the UE processes information included in the random access response. That is, the UE applies the TAC and stores the temporary C-RNTI. In addition, the UE may store data to be transmitted in a message3 buffer in correspondence with the reception of a valid random access response.
Meanwhile, the UE transmits data (i.e. a third message) to the eNB using the received UL Grant (S503). The third message should include an ID of the UE. In the contention-based random access procedure, the eNB cannot identify UEs that perform the random access procedure. However, the eNB should identify the UEs to avoid later-collision among them.
Two methods have been discussed to include the ID of the UE in the third message. One of the methods is that if the UE has a valid C-RNTI allocated by the cell before the random access procedure, the UE transmits its C-RNTI in an uplink signal corresponding to the UL Grant. On the other hand, if a valid C-RNTI has not been allocated to the UE before the random access procedure, the UE transmits its UE ID (e.g. S-TMSI or a random ID) in data. In general, the UE ID is longer than the C-RNTI. If the UE transmits data corresponding to the UL Grant, the UE activates a Contention Resolution (CR) timer to avoid contention.
(4) Reception of Fourth Message
After transmitting its ID in data according to the UL Grant included in the random access response, the UE awaits reception of a command for contention resolution from the eNB. That is, the UE attempts to receive a PDCCH in order to receive a specific message (S504). For PDCCH reception, two methods may be considered. When the third message is transmitted using the C-RNTI according to the UL Grant as described above, the UE attempts to receive a PDCCH using the C-RNTI. If the ID included in the third message is the UE ID, the UE may attempt to receive a PDCCH using the temporary C-RNTI included in the random access preamble. In the former case, if the UE receives a PDCCH using the C-RNTI before expiration of the CR timer, the UE ends the random access procedure, determining that the random access procedure has been performed normally. In the latter case, if the UE receives a PDCCH using the temporary C-RNTI before expiration of the CR timer, the UE checks data received on a PDSCH indicated by the PDCCH. If the data includes its UE ID, the UE ends the random access procedure, determining that the random access procedure has been performed normally.
Meanwhile, a contention free random access procedure is ended only by transmitting first and second messages, which is different from the contention-based random access procedure shown in FIG. 5. However, the UE is allocated a random access preamble by the eNB before it transmits a random access preamble as the first message to the eNB. The UE transmits the allocated random access preamble as the first message to the eNB, and ends the random access procedure by receiving a random access response from the eNB.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method for a user terminal to random access a carrier aggregation mobile communication system


An electronic component that can be prevented from being shifted from a normal mount position and can be manufactured with a low cost is provided. The component is configured by stacking a plurality of insulating layers and a plurality of inner conductors provided on the respective insulating layers. The connection conductors have respective exposure portions that are each exposed between corresponding ones of the insulating layers at a surface of the stack. An outer electrode is formed, for example, by plating on the lower surface so that the exposure portions are covered with the outer electrode. The plurality of exposure portions do not have uniform thicknesses or are not arranged at uniform intervals in the stacking direction.

As a conventional electronic component, for example, an electronic component described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 5-29173 (Patent Document 1) is known. The electronic component includes a body and outer electrodes. The body is embedded with a circuit element and has a rectangular-parallelepiped shape. The outer electrodes are provided so that both ends in the longitudinal direction of the body are covered with the outer electrodes. Each of the outer electrodes is provided with a groove in its surface. With the electronic component described in Patent Document 1, the surface area of the outer electrodes is increased, and hence a component holding force provided by adhesion of solder cream is increased. As the result, the electronic component is prevented from being shifted from a normal mount position in a period from a mounting step to a reflowing step.


A transmission (G) for a motor vehicle includes an electric motor (EM), an input shaft (GW1), an output shaft (GW2), two planetary gear sets (P1, P2), and at least five shift elements (K1, B1, K2, K3, K4), wherein different gear ratios between the input shaft (GW1) and the output shaft (GW2) are selectable by actuating the at least five shift elements (K1, B1, K2, K3, K4) and, in addition, in interaction with the electric motor (EM), different operating modes are implementable. A drive train for a motor vehicle including such a transmission (G) and to a method for operating same are also provided.

In the case of hybrid vehicles, transmissions are known which include not only a gear set, but also one or multiple electric motors or machines. In this case, the transmission is usually configured to be multi-stage, i.e., multiple different transmission ratios can be selected, as gears, between an input shaft and an output shaft by actuating appropriate shift elements, wherein this is preferably automatically carried out. Depending on the arrangement of the shift elements, the shift elements are clutches or even brakes. The transmission is utilized in this case for suitably implementing an available tractive force of a drive machine of the motor vehicle with respect to various criteria. In this case, the gears of the transmission are mostly also utilized in conjunction with the at least one electric machine for implementing purely electric driving. Frequently, the at least one electric machine can also be incorporated in the transmission in order to implement various operating modes in different ways.
DE 10 2013 013 947 A1 describes a transmission for a motor vehicle, which is composed of two planetary gear sets and one electric machine. The two planetary gear sets are each formed by the elements sun gear, planet carrier, and ring gear, wherein, in addition, a total of five shift elements are provided, via which different power paths can be implemented via the planetary gear sets. In this way, multiple gears can be implemented between an input shaft and an output shaft of the transmission during driving with the aid of an upstream drive machine as well as via two gears during driving with the aid of the electric machine.


The analog-to-digital converter comprises a first stage in which a voltage to be converted is applied to the input of a first comparator. The first comparator delivers a first digital result representative of the comparison between the voltage to be converted and the reference voltage on a first digital output. The first digital output is connected to means for calculating a first intermediate voltage. A second comparator compares the first intermediate voltage with the reference voltage and delivers a second digital result on a second digital output terminal. The digital output terminal is connected to second means for calculating a residual voltage according to the voltage to be converted, the first and second voltages and the first and second digital results.

The invention relates to an analog-to-digital converter comprising at least a first stage comprising:                an input terminal on which a voltage to be converted comprised within a first range of voltages defined by first and second voltages is applied,        first means for comparing the voltage to be converted with at least a first voltage representative of division of said first range into at least two equal sub-ranges or three sub-ranges, said first means for comparing delivering a first digital value on at least a first bit representative of said comparison on a first digital output,        first means for calculating delivering a first intermediate voltage according to the voltage to be converted, to the first digital result and to said first and second voltages.

Analog-to-digital converter on two bits with successive approximations

Societe Francaise de Detecteurs Infrarouges-Sofradir


A polymer suitable for the preparation of liquid toners for developing electrostatic images and liquid toners incorporating such a polymer. The polymer is a reaction product of an epoxy resin and carrier soluble nitrogen bearing polymeric compound. The epoxy resin may be a reaction product of bisphenol A and epichlorhydrin and the carrier soluble nitrogen bearing polymeric compound may be an alkylated polyvinylpyrrolidone.

This invention relates to a polymer suitable for the preparation of liquid toners for developing electrostatic images and liquid toners incorporating such a polymer for developing electrostatic images.
A liquid toner formulation for the present invention generally comprises chemically modified polymer particles which may contain pigments or dyes as colorants, dispersed in a liquid carrier having an electrical resistance of at least 10.sup.9 ohm-cm and having a dielectric constant of not more than 3.5.
In general, such a liquid toner for developing electrostatic images is prepared by dispersing an inorganic or organic colorant such as iron oxide, carbon black, nigrosine, phthalocyanine blue, benzidine yellow, quinacridone pink and the like into a liquid vehicle which may contain dissolved or dispersed therein synthetic or naturally occurring polymers such as acrylics and their copolymers, alkyds, rosins, rosin esters, epoxies, polyvinyl acetate, styrene-butadiene, cyclised rubber, ethylene vinyl acetate copolymers, polyethylene, etc. Additionally, to impart or enhance an electrostatic charge on such dispersed particles, additives known as charge directors or charge control agents may be included. Such materials can be metallic soaps, fatty acids, lecithin, organic phosphorus compounds, succinimides, sulphosuccinates etc.
The object of the use of such liquid toners is to produce a visible image as an outcome of an electrostatic or electrophotographic imaging process. In some cases the final visual image needs to have certain mechanical properties such as high abrasion resistance. For this reason the solid thermoplastic epoxy polymers have been used in historical liquid toners. For these applications an epoxy resin is usually defined as the reaction product of bisphenol A and epichlorhydrin. Such compounds are often called diglycidyl ethers of bisphenol A, abbreviated to DGEBA. The structure of resins of this type is: ##STR1##
These materials have been shown to be useful in liquid toners because of their ease of comminution in non-solvents for epoxies, such as aliphatic hydrocarbons by either grinding or emulsification; their intrinsic positive polarity in such liquid carriers; and for the quality of images they produce regarding robustness, either as the unreacted thermoplastic polymer or after post imaging reaction using suitable crosslinking agents.
However, extensive work with these particular materials over the years has revealed certain shortcomings in the quality of liquid toners incorporating these polymers. In particular, stability of the dispersions containing these has been only fair due to the reactivity of DGEBA resins. Typical failure modes of these toners have been agglomeration of the dispersed epoxy, reduced redispersibility and loss of particle charge.
In order to overcome the limitations discovered, investigations were carried out to determine the probable source of this reactivity and discover a means of minimising it.
Epoxy resins, and in particular DGEBA as previously described, have long featured in liquid toner patents, for example U.S. Pat. No. 5,609,979 to Lawson. Advantage has been taken of their thermoplasticity for image fusing purposes, adhesiveness and high glass transition points for ease of particle size reduction. What has not been addressed before has been the instability of such materials in the presence of commonly used charge control agents having a slightly acidic nature.
It is well known in the surface coatings industry to modify epoxy resins by reacting with, for example, silicone resins to produce a silicone epoxy condensate or vegetable oils to produce epoxy esters. Such a silicone reaction is described by both Dow Corning and Shell Chemical in technical bulletins outlining uses of their products. In this case the reaction occurs between the hydroxyl groups pendant to the structure of the DGEBA molecule and the hydroxyl groups of the reacting silicone molecule. In the case of vegetable oils, it is the carboxylic acid group of the oil which reacts with the hydroxyl group of the DGEBA. The epoxy group terminal to DGEBA structure is not opened or altered by these reactions.
We have found in addition, and unexpectedly, that another class of materials will react with the epoxy resin in a similar way, i.e. at the hydroxyl groups, and result in a compound with very suitable liquid toner polymer attributes.
Thus an object of the invention is to provide a liquid toner containing a modified epoxy resin as the primary image forming polymer suitable for developing electrostatic images.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a liquid toner composition containing a modified epoxy resin having reduced reactivity towards metallic soaps or other toner constituents with an acidic nature.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a liquid toner composition having a modified epoxy polymer which retains its capability of crosslinking via the epoxide group contained within the DGEBA molecule.

Research Laboratories of Australia PTY Ltd.


The present invention provides compositions comprising an antisense oligomeric compound hybridized to at least one shorter sense oligomeric compound. The sense oligomeric compounds can be covalently linked to the antisense oligomeric compounds. At least a portion of the antisense oligomeric compound is complementary to and hybridizes with a nucleic acid target. Methods for modulating gene expression are also provided using the compositions of the present invention.

In many species, introduction of double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) induces potent and specific gene silencing. This phenomenon occurs in both plants and animals and has roles in viral defense and transposon silencing mechanisms. This phenomenon was originally described more than a decade ago by researchers working with the petunia flower. While trying to deepen the purple color of these flowers, Jorgensen et al. introduced a pigment-producing gene under the control of a powerful promoter. Instead of the expected deep purple color, many of the flowers appeared variegated or even white. Jorgensen named the observed phenomenon "cosuppression", since the expression of both the introduced gene and the homologous endogenous gene was suppressed (Napoli et al., Plant Cell, 1990, 2, 279-289; Jorgensen et al., Plant Mol. Biol., 1996, 31, 957-973).
Cosuppression has since been found to occur in many species of plants, fungi, and has been particularly well characterized in Neurospora crassa, where it is known as "quelling" (Cogoni and Macino, Genes Dev. 2000, 10, 638-643; Guru, Nature, 2000, 404, 804-808).
The first evidence that dsRNA could lead to gene silencing in animals came from work in the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans. In 1995, researchers Guo and Kemphues were attempting to use antisense RNA to shut down expression of the par-1 gene in order to assess its function. As expected, injection of the antisense RNA disrupted expression of par-1, but quizzically, injection of the sense-strand control also disrupted expression (Guo and Kempheus, Cell, 1995, 81, 611-620). This result was a puzzle until Fire et al. injected dsRNA (a mixture of both sense and antisense strands) into C. elegans. This injection resulted in much more efficient silencing than injection of either the sense or the antisense strands alone. Injection of just a few molecules of dsRNA per cell was sufficient to completely silence the homologous gene's expression. Furthermore, injection of dsRNA into the gut of the worm caused gene silencing not only throughout the worm, but also in first generation offspring (Fire et al., Nature, 1998, 391, 806-811).
The potency of this phenomenon led Timmons and Fire to explore the limits of the dsRNA effects by feeding nematodes bacteria that had been engineered to express dsRNA homologous to the C. elegans unc-22 gene. Surprisingly, these worms developed an unc-22 null-like phenotype (Timmons and Fire, Nature 1998, 395, 854; Timmons et al., Gene, 2001, 263, 103-112). Further work showed that soaking worms in dsRNA was also able to induce silencing (Tabara et al., Science, 1998, 282, 430-431). PCT publication WO 01/48183 discloses methods of inhibiting expression of a target gene in a nematode worm involving feeding to the worm a food organism which is capable of producing a double-stranded RNA structure having a nucleotide sequence substantially identical to a portion of the target gene following ingestion of the food organism by the nematode, or by introducing a DNA capable of producing the double-stranded RNA structure (Bogaert et al., 2001).
The posttranscriptional gene silencing defined in Caenorhabditis elegans resulting from exposure to double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) has since been designated as RNA interference (RNAi). This term has come to generalize all forms of gene silencing involving dsRNA leading to the sequence-specific reduction of endogenous targeted mRNA levels; unlike co-suppression, in which transgenic DNA leads to silencing of both the transgene and the endogenous gene. Introduction of exogenous double-stranded RNA (dsRNA) into Caenorhabditis elegans has been shown to specifically and potently disrupt the activity of genes containing homologous sequences. Montgomery et al. suggests that the primary interference effects of dsRNA are post-transcriptional; this conclusion being derived from examination of the primary DNA sequence after dsRNA-mediated interference a finding of no evidence of alterations followed by studies involving alteration of an upstream operon having no effect on the activity of its downstream gene. These results argue against an effect on initiation or elongation of transcription. Finally they observed by in situ hybridization, that dsRNA-mediated interference produced a substantial, although not complete, reduction in accumulation of nascent transcripts in the nucleus, while cytoplasmic accumulation of transcripts was virtually eliminated. These results indicate that the endogenous mRNA is the primary target for interference and suggest a mechanism that degrades the targeted mRNA before translation can occur. It was also found that this mechanism is not dependent on the SMG system, an mRNA surveillance system in C. elegans responsible for targeting and destroying aberrant messages. The authors further suggest a model of how dsRNA might function as a catalytic mechanism to target homologous mRNAs for degradation. (Montgomery et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 1998, 95, 15502-15507).
Recently, the development of a cell-free system from syncytial blastoderm Drosophila embryos that recapitulates many of the features of RNAi has been reported. The interference observed in this reaction is sequence specific, is promoted by dsRNA but not single-stranded RNA, functions by specific mRNA degradation, and requires a minimum length of dsRNA. Furthermore, preincubation of dsRNA potentiates its activity demonstrating that RNAi can be mediated by sequence-specific processes in soluble reactions (Tuschl et al., Genes Dev., 1999, 13, 3191-3197).
In subsequent experiments, Tuschl et al, using the Drosophila in vitro system, demonstrated that 21- and 22-nt RNA fragments are the sequence-specific mediators of RNAi. These fragments, which they termed short interfering RNAs (siRNAs) were shown to be generated by an RNase III-like processing reaction from long dsRNA. They also showed that chemically synthesized siRNA duplexes with overhanging 3′ ends mediate efficient target RNA cleavage in the Drosophila lysate, and that the cleavage site is located near the center of the region spanned by the guiding siRNA. In addition, they suggest that the direction of dsRNA processing determines whether sense or antisense target RNA can be cleaved by the siRNA-protein complex (Elbashir et al., Genes Dev., 2001, 15, 188-200). Further characterization of the suppression of expression of endogenous and heterologous genes caused by the 21-23 nucleotide siRNAs have been investigated in several mammalian cell lines, including human embryonic kidney (293) and HeLa cells (Elbashir et al., Nature, 2001, 411, 494-498).
Most recently, Tijsterman et al. have shown that, in fact, single-stranded RNA oligomers of antisense polarity can be potent inducers of gene silencing. As is the case for co-suppression, they showed that antisense RNAs act independently of the RNAi genes rde-1 and rde-4 but require the mutator/RNAi gene mut-7 and a putative DEAD box RNA helicase, mut-14. According to the authors, their data favor the hypothesis that gene silencing is accomplished by RNA primer extension using the mRNA as template, leading to dsRNA that is subsequently degraded suggesting that single-stranded RNA oligomers are ultimately responsible for the RNAi phenomenon (Tijsterman et al., Science, 2002, 295, 694-697).
Several recent publications have described the structural requirements for the dsRNA trigger required for RNAi activity. Recent reports have indicated that ideal dsRNA sequences are 21 nt in length containing 2 nt 3′-end overhangs (Elbashir et al, EMBO (2001), 20, 6877-6887, Sabine Brantl, Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, 2002, 1575, 15-25.) In this system, substitution of the 4 nucleosides from the 3′-end with 2′-deoxynucleosides has been demonstrated to not affect activity. On the other hand, substitution with 2′deoxynucleosides or 2′-OMe-nucleosides throughout the sequence (sense or antisense) was shown to be deleterious to RNAi activity.
Investigation of the structural requirements for RNA silencing in C. elegans has demonstrated modification of the internucleotide linkage (phosphorothioate) to not interfere with activity (Parrish et al., Molecular Cell, 2000, 6, 1077-1087.) It was also shown by Parrish et al., that chemical modification like 2′-amino or 5′-iodouridine are well tolerated in the sense strand but not the antisense strand of the dsRNA suggesting differing roles for the 2 strands in RNAi. Base modification such as guanine to inosine (where one hydrogen bond is lost) has been demonstrated to decrease RNAi activity independently of the position of the modification (sense or antisense). Some "position independent" loss of activity has been observed following the introduction of mismatches in the dsRNA trigger. Some types of modifications, for example introduction of sterically demanding bases such as 5-iodoU, have been shown to be deleterious to RNAi activity when positioned in the antisense strand, whereas modifications positioned in the sense strand were shown to be less detrimental to RNAi activity. As was the case for the 21 nt dsRNA sequences, RNA-DNA heteroduplexes did not serve as triggers for RNAi. However, dsRNA containing 2′-F-2′-deoxynucleosides appeared to be efficient in triggering RNAi response independent of the position (sense or antisense) of the 2′-F-2′-deoxynucleosides.
In one experiment the reduction of gene expression was studied using electroporated dsRNA and a 25 mer morpholino in post-implantation mouse embryos (Mellitzer et al., Mehanisms of Development, 2002, 118, 57-63). The morpholino oligomer did show activity but was not as effective as the dsRNA.
A number of PCT applications have recently been published that relate to the RNAi phenomenon. These include: PCT publication WO 00/44895; PCT publication WO 00/49035; PCT publication WO 00/63364; PCT publication WO 01/36641; PCT publication WO 01/36646; PCT publication WO 99/32619; PCT publication WO 00/44914; PCT publication WO 01/29058; and PCT publication WO 01/75164.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,898,031 and 6,107,094, each of which is commonly owned with this application and each of which is herein incorporated by reference, describe certain oligonucleotide having RNA like properties. When hybridized with RNA, these oligonucleotides serve as substrates for a dsRNase enzyme with resultant cleavage of the RNA by the enzyme.
In another recently published paper (Martinez et al., Cell, 2002, 110, 563-574) it was shown that double stranded as well as single stranded siRNA resides in the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) together with eIF2C1 and eIf2C2 (human GERp950 Argonaute proteins. The activity of 5′-phosphorylated single stranded siRNA was comparable to the double stranded siRNA in the system studied. In a related study, the inclusion of a 5′-phosphate moiety was shown to enhance activity of siRNA's in vivo in Drosophilia embryos (Boutla, et al., Curr. Biol., 2001, 11, 1776-1780). In another study, it was reported that the 5′-phosphate was required for siRNA function in human HeLa cells (Schwarz et al., Molecular Cell, 2002, 10, 537-548).
In one recently published paper the authors claim that inclusion of 2′-O-methyl groups into the sense, antisense or both the sense and antisense strands of a siRNA showed greatly reduced activity (Chiu, Ya-Lin and Rana, Tariq, M., RNA, 2003, 9, 1034-1048).
Recently, it has become clear that non-coding RNA genes produce functional RNA molecules with important roles in regulation of gene expression, as well as in developmental timing, viral surveillance, and immunity. Not only the classic transfer RNAs (tRNAs) and ribosomal RNAs (rRNAs), but also small nuclear RNAs (snRNAs), small nucleolar RNAs (snoRNAs), small interfering RNAs (siRNAs), tiny non-coding RNAs (tncRNAs) and microRNAs (miRNAs) are now known to act in diverse cellular processes such as chromosome maintenance, gene imprinting, pre-mRNA splicing, guiding RNA modifications, transcriptional regulation, and the control of mRNA translation (Eddy, Nature Reviews Genetics, 2001, 2, 919-929; Kawasaki and Taira, Nature, 2003, 423, 838-842). RNA-mediated processes are now also believed to direct heterochromatin formation, genome rearrangements, and DNA elimination (Cerutti, Trends in Genetics, 2003, 19, 39-46; Couzin, Science, 2002, 298, 2296-2297)
A large class of small non-coding RNAs known as microRNAs (miRNAs) plays a role in regulation of gene expression. In C. elegans, Drosophila, and humans, miRNAs are predicted to function as endogenous post-transcriptional gene regulators. The founding members of the miRNA family are transcribed by the C. elegans genes let-7 and lin-4, and were first dubbed "short temporal RNAs" (stRNAs). The let-7 and lin-4 miRNAs act as antisense translational repressors of messenger RNAs that encode proteins crucial to the heterochronic developmental timing pathway in nematode larva. (Ambros, Cell, 2001, 107, 823-826; Ambros et al., Current Biology, 2003, 13, 807-818).
Mature miRNAs originate from long endogenous primary transcripts (pri-miRNAs) that are often hundreds of nucleotides in length (Lee, et al., EMBO J., 2002, 21(17), 4663-4670). These pri-miRNAs are processed by a nuclear enzyme in the RNase III family known as Drosha, into approximately 70 nucleotide-long pre-miRNAs (also known as stem-loop, hairpin or foldback precursors) which are subsequently processed by the Dicer RNase into mature miRNAs (Lee, et al., Nature, 2003, 425, 415-419). The current model is that the pri-miRNA transcript is processed by Drosha in the nucleus, and the pre-miRNA hairpin precursor is exported from the nucleus and cleaved by Dicer in the cytosol to yield a double-stranded intermediate (similar in size to siRNAs), but only one strand of this short-lived intermediate accumulates as the mature miRNA (Ambros et al., RNA, 2003, 9, 277-279; Bartel and Bartel, Plant Physiology, 2003, 132, 709-717; Shi, Trends in Genetics, 2003, 19, 9-12).
miRNAs, like siRNAs, are processed by the Dicer enzyme, are approximately the same length, and possess the characteristic 5′-phosphate and 3′-hydroxyl termini. The miRNAs are also incorporated into a ribonucleoprotein complex, the miRNP, which is similar to the RNA-induced silencing complex, i.e., the RISC complex, through which siRNAs act (Bartel and Bartel, Plant Physiology, 2003, 132, 709-717). More than 200 different miRNAs have been identified in plants and animals (Ambros et al., Current Biology, 2003, 13, 807-818).
While siRNAs cause gene silencing by target RNA cleavage and degradation, miRNAs are believed to direct translational repression, primarily. This functional difference may be related to the fact that miRNAs tolerate multiple base pair mismatches whereas siRNAs are perfectly complementary to their target substrates (Ambros et al., Current Biology, 2003, 13, 807-818; Bartel and Bartel, Plant Physiology, 2003, 132, 709-717; Shi, Trends in Genetics, 2003, 19, 9-12).
Like the RNAse H pathway, the RNA interference pathway of antisense modulation of gene expression is an effective means for modulating the levels of specific gene products and may therefore prove to be uniquely useful in a number of therapeutic, diagnostic, and research applications involving gene silencing. The present invention therefore further provides compositions useful for modulating gene expression pathways, including those relying on an antisense mechanism of action such as RNA interference and dsRNA enzymes as well as non-antisense mechanisms. One having skill in the art, once armed with this disclosure will be able, without undue experimentation, to identify preferred compositions for these uses.

Double stranded constructs comprising one or more short strands hybridized to a longer strand


A first on-off valve (2) and a second on-off valve (3) each are a two-port valve. A first passage block (5) is provided with a first on-off valve-corresponding inflow passage (11) and a first on-off valve-corresponding outflow passage (12). A second passage block (6) is provided with a second on-off valve-corresponding inflow passage (14) and a second on-off valve-corresponding outflow passage (15). The second on-off valve-corresponding outflow passage (15) is in communication with an upstream side portion of the first on-off valve-corresponding outflow passage (12) via a communicating passage (13) formed in the first passage block (5). An orifice (20) is provided between the second on-off valve-corresponding outflow passage (15) and the communicating passage (13).

In the gas supply section of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, a shutoff-opening device is used, and such a shutoff-opening device is obtained by assembling a plurality of on-off valves and one or more passage blocks (Patent Literature 1). FIG. 7 shows an example of the shutoff-opening device.
In FIG. 7, a shutoff-opening device 31 includes: a first on-off valve 32 disposed on a downstream side; a second on-off valve 33 adjacent to an upstream side of the first on-off valve 32; a third on-off valve 34 adjacent to an upstream side of the second on-off valve 33; a first passage block 35 having the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped and supporting the first on-off valve 32; a second passage block 36 having the shape of a rectangular parallelepiped and supporting the second on-off valve 33 and the third on-off valve 34; and a joint 37 provided on an end surface of a downstream side of the first passage block 35 and to be connected to an external device.
The first on-off valve 32 is a three-port diaphragm valve, the second on-off valve 33 is a two-port diaphragm valve, and the third on-off valve 34 is a two-port diaphragm valve.
The first passage block 35 corresponding to the first on-off valve 32 is provided with: a first on-off valve-corresponding first inflow passage 41; a first on-off valve-corresponding second inflow passage 42; and a first on-off valve-corresponding outflow passage 43.
The second passage block 36 corresponding to the second on-off valve 33 and the third on-off valve 34 is provided with: a second on-off valve-corresponding inflow passage 44; a second on-off valve-corresponding outflow passage 45; a third on-off valve-corresponding inflow passage 46; a third on-off valve-corresponding outflow passage 47; and a first on-off valve-corresponding communicating passage 48.
The second on-off valve-corresponding outflow passage 45 is in communication with the first on-off valve-corresponding second inflow passage 42 at a butt surface of the first passage block 35 and the second passage block 36 via a seal portion 49.
The first on-off valve-corresponding communicating passage 48 consists of: a first portion 48a having one end that is open to a rear surface thereof and having the other end that is in communication with a lower end portion of the third on-off valve-corresponding outflow passage 47; and a second portion 48b that is contiguous with the first portion 48a and extends forward. The second portion 48b is in communication with the first on-off valve-corresponding first inflow passage 41 at a butt surface of the first passage block 35 and the second passage block 36 via a seal portion 50.
The first on-off valve-corresponding second inflow passage 42 and the first on-off valve-corresponding outflow passage 43 that are passages leading to the first on-off valve 32, which is a three-port diaphragm valve, are normally in communication with each other via an annular groove 52a of a valve chamber 52.
In a state where the first on-off valve 32 is closed and the second on-off valve 33 is open, when a fluid is caused to flow into the second on-off valve-corresponding inflow passage 44 as shown by arrows in FIG. 7, the fluid flows through the second on-off valve-corresponding outflow passage 45 to the first on-off valve-corresponding second inflow passage 42 and then flows through the first on-off valve-corresponding outflow passage 43 to be supplied to the external device side.


Embodiments of the present invention provide methods, computer program products, and systems. Embodiments of the present invention can allocate a dedicated traffic channel to a plurality of connected devices. Embodiments of the present invention can dynamically determine an appropriate visualization for one or more connected devices of the plurality of connected devices based on received information. Embodiments of the present invention render the dynamically determined appropriate visualization for the one or more connected devices of the plurality of connected devices using the dedicated traffic channel.

The present invention relates in general to telecommunications networking and Internet of Things (IoT) devices and in particular to generating dynamic electrochromic visualizations for road use.
Advanced telecommunications networks, including 5G networks, offer certain features that are far more sophisticated and flexible than predecessor technologies. For example, 4G networks offer trilateration capabilities that allow a carrier to locate a user's position within about a hundred feet by comparing signals from multiple cell towers. 5G and later networks, however, can trilaterate a device's location with at least one order-of-magnitude greater precision, allowing a user's position to be identified within a range of tens of feet.
5G and similar networks can also handle far more simultaneous connections, making them more practical for Internet of Things applications, which can associate numerous IoT sensor devices with a single user. Such networks can also open high-bandwidth ad hoc channels that exhibit very low latency, allowing large groups of users to connect and disconnect at will in a dynamic mesh network. In addition, these networks can integrate artificially intelligent or cognitive applications directly into their network infrastructure, rather than requiring such functionality to be implemented as extrinsic services hosted by a cloud-computing service or other third-party resource.
5G networks enable the mass deployment of IoT devices by providing the ability to dynamically manage very large numbers of devices on ad hoc mesh networks. If, for example, a thousand people watching a parade are each carrying an average of five IoT devices, a legacy Internet Service Provider (ISP) would likely be unable to simultaneously manage and correlate the resulting large number of connections. The flexible service-orchestration capabilities of a 5G network, on the other hand, after detecting the presence of a mass assembly, allow the network to dynamically create an ad hoc mesh network that continuously adds and removes users as IoT devices log in and log out. Unlike legacy networks, which would require an extrinsic application, such as a hosted cloud service, to even approximate such features, 5G platforms support such high-speed ad hoc infrastructure through integrated, native orchestration services.
Smart traffic signs (e.g., lights, road markers, etc.) combine traditional traffic lights with an array of sensors and artificial intelligence to intelligently route vehicle and pedestrian traffic. Unlike other dynamic control signals that adjust the timing and phasing of lights according to limits that are set in controller programming, these smart traffic sings combine existing technology with artificial intelligence. In other words, these systems adapt to information that is received from a central computer about the position, speed and direction of vehicles and communicate with cars to alert drivers of impending light changes and reduce motorists' waiting time considerably.
An electrochromic device (ECD) controls optical properties such as optical transmission, absorption, reflectance and/or emittance in a continual but reversible manner on application of voltage (e.g., electrochromism). This property enables an ECD to be used for applications like smart glass, electrochromic mirrors, and electrochromic display devices. As the color change is persistent and energy need only be applied to effect a change, electrochromic materials are used to control the amount of light and heat allowed to pass through a surface.

Generating dynamic electrochromic visualizations

International Business Machines Corporation


A dry nail polish appliqué to be applied to a fingernail. The nail appliqué has several layers. A bottom layer hides the color of the natural nail upon which the appliqué is applied. A top layer of a different color is applied on top of the color-hiding layer. The color of the top layer is, as such, uninfluenced by the natural nail color and it therefore appears sharp and crisp. The top layer could be of a translucent quality such that the top layer and bottom layer visually combine to produce a unique appearance.

Nail polish is a popular nail adornment. Traditional nail polish is brushed onto a fingernail in a liquid form. More recently, advancements to the art have been made by the instant inventor, whereby nail polish is applied as a dry nail polish appliqué obviating the need for a liquid polish and avoiding the disadvantages associated with applying a liquid product. Dry nail polish appliqués are comprised of liquid nail enamel that is applied to a substrate. Before the enamel is fully dried—it is sealed in a protective package to prevent complete drying. The enamel thus fully cures on a fingernail once applied thereto—similarly to the manner in which conventional nail polish cures.
Nail polish, both thy and liquid, come in various colors, textures and styles One problem associated with many of the common nail polish styles is that once applied to a fingernail, the natural color of the nail bed shows through the nail polish layer. As a result, the color of the nail polish is diminished, and it is not as lustrous as possible. In order to completely neutralize the effect of the underlying nail color, one would need to apply more than one layer—and sometimes several—in order to achieve a desired effect. With liquid nail polish, one would need to wait for each coat to dry completely before applying another.

Multi-layered color-enhancing nail applique


An ECU calculates the thermal margins of the in-wheel motors, on the basis of the thermal capacities of the in-wheel motors, the allowable limit temperatures, and the motor temperatures. Next, the ECU distributes the total requested torque between the requested torques for each wheel using the percentages of the thermal margins. The ECU controls the operation of an inverter such that the in-wheel motors generate the requested torques for the wheels. Thus, the four in-wheel motors generate uniform amounts of heat.

As one form of electric cars, an in-wheel motor type vehicle in which a motor is arranged in or around the wheel placed under the vehicle body spring and drives the wheel directly is developed. In the in-wheel motor type vehicle, it is possible to control the driving force or the braking force given to each wheel independently depending on the traveling condition of the vehicle by an independent drive (power running) control or an independently regenerative control of a motor provided to every wheel.
Because a motor is arranged in or around the wheel in such an in-wheel motor type vehicle, generated heat by the braking/driving movement of the motor is hard to be emitted and the motor is easy to be full of heat. Thus, for example, in the driving force control device proposed to Patent Literature 1, when the temperature of the motor was detected and it was estimated that the motor temperature would exceed a permission limit temperature based on the increasing ratio of the detected temperature, the ghosting of the motor is prevented by correcting the driving force of the wheel corresponding to the motor in which it was estimated that the motor temperature would exceed the permission limit temperature so as to decrease the driving force. Further, when the wheel corresponding to a motor in which it was estimated that the motor temperature would exceed the permission limit temperature is the one side of the front wheel, is prevented by correcting the change of the behavior of the yaw rate by correcting the driving force of the wheel of the same side in the rear wheel so as to increase the driving force.

Vehicle braking/driving force control device


According to one embodiment, a display device includes a mount portion, a first metal layer, a second metal layer, an interlayer insulating film which is thinner in a non-display area than in a display area, a plurality of lines, a first end, a second end, wherein at least one of the first and second ends comprises a slit formed therein along a second direction from a display area side thereof to a opposite side of the display area side.

Liquid crystal displays include an alignment film formed on a surface in contact with a liquid crystal layer of an opposing substrate to achieve initial alignment of liquid crystal molecules in a liquid crystal layer. If there is a stepped portion in the surface of a flattening film located under the alignment film, the alignment film may suffer a film formation error. Under these circumstances, there has been proposed a technology of avoiding the occurrence of a large step by providing a thin film portion in an edge portion of the pattern of the flattening film.


Method and apparatus for generating an oxy-fuel flame with lowered NOX products by confining the oxy-fuel flame produced in a concentric orifice burner along a path defined by the rate of flame propagation and the diameter of the burner.

In completely or partially combustion heated high-temperature furnaces such as a glass melting furnace, pollution is a frequently encountered problem. High emission levels of pollutants such as oxides of nitrogen (NO.sub.x), sulfur dioxide (SO.sub.2), carbon dioxide, and particulates, which often exceed the maximum levels permitted by the Environmental Protection Agency Regulations, are typical for furnaces with air-fuel fired and oxygen enriched air-fuel fired burners.
In the past, the problem has been addressed by using post-combustion pollutant reduction techniques. However, these processes require equipment that makes the solution extremely capital intensive and costly to operate.
Another and more efficient method is using oxygen in the combustion process to eliminate nitrogen from the air and reduce the NO.sub.x and particulate emissions to below the guidelines suggested by the Environmental Protection Agency. In addition, the use of oxygen in combustion reduces carbon dioxide emission through an increase in heating efficiency of the furnace and brings numerous other benefits ranging from increased production capacity to savings in batch chemicals.
Oxygen-fuel burners may be divided into two major groups, those that are water cooled and those that are gas cooled. A frequently en-countered problem with the burners of either group is the lack of a diluent and carrier gas, e.g., nitrogen, which increases partial pressures of volatile batch components and accelerates corrosion rates of metallic and ceramic materials used for burner construction. Thus, build-up and corrosion on water or gas cooled burner nozzles are the most common problems in high temperature furnaces. A large temperature difference between the cooled burner nozzles and furnace gases causes condensation of volatile and corrosive species and build-up on the burner nozzle. This is reported in an article entitled "Oxygen Firing at Parkersburg" by D. Shamp and D. Davis in the December 1990 edition of American Glass Review. In gas cooled or water cooled burners where the water cooling is not at optimum flow rates, building on the nozzles can cause flame deflection and im-pingement on the burner nozzle leading to damage or destruction of the burner.
A second problem encountered with water and gas cooled oxy-fuel burners is the fact that the refractory burner block, often used to enable installation of the burner into a furnace and/or to increase flame stability, involves an opening with an inner diameter much larger than the flame jet diameter causing entrainment of corrosive furnace gases or particulate material inside the block and contact with the burner. This type of burner is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,690,634.
Another problem, to both the water and gas cooled burners is low flame luminosity because of a high burning velocity and rapid mixing rates encountered in such combustion systems. This decreases the heating efficiency since radiation is the major heat transfer mechanism in a high temperature furnace such as a glass melting furnace.
In addition, water cooled oxy-fuel burners require capital investment and maintenance. Such burners may lower the overall heating efficiency of a furnace by extracting considerable heat from it with the flow of cooling water. For example, for a burner cooling water flow rate of 5 gallons per minute, and output to input water temperature difference of 50.degree. F., heat loss per burner is approximately 125,000 Btu's per hour. For a 10-burner furnace the heat loss due to the water-cooling amounts to about $30,000 per year. In addition, there is always the possibility of water leakage into the furnace if a burner is not maintained properly and there is a risk of clogging and corrosion of the burner water cooling channels if poor water quality is the only means of cooling available to the user.
Gas-cooled oxy-fuel burners can present a problem in the case of interruption in the fuel or oxygen supply. Such burners have to be immediately removed from the firing port in the furnace to prevent possible damage from the high temperature present in the furnace. If such burners rely upon metal fins at the burner face to cool the burner, these fins can collect condensation and result in corrosion problems with the burner.

Method and apparatus for oxy-fuel heating with lowered NO.sub.x in high temperature corrosive environments


Simultaneous measurement of neutron flux and temperature is provided by a single sensor which includes a phosphor mixture having two principal constituents. The first constituent is a neutron sensitive 6LiF and the second is a rare-earth activated Y203 thermophosphor. The mixture is coated on the end of a fiber optic, while the opposite end of the fiber optic is coupled to a light detector. The detected light scintillations are quantified for neutron flux determination, and the decay is measured for temperature determination.

It is well known that emission properties of phosphors vary in accordance with temperature. This correlation has been used to devise various types of thermometry hardware. For example, surface temperature of a rotating flywheel has been measured by inducing fluorescence from a pulsed nitrogen laser in a material that includes lanthanum oxysulfide doped with europium. The temperature dependence of the phosphor emission has been shown both in amplitude and lifetime changes. With a pulsed laser as the stimulating source, either the ratio of two emission line intensities (amplitudes) or the lifetime of some selected line can be used to determine the temperature.
In the field of nuclear reactor engineering, the interactions of neutrons with nuclei are important to the release of nuclear energy in a form capable of practical utilization. Inelastic neutron collisions do not occur below energies of about 0.1 Mev, but elastic collisions between neutrons and nuclei will be effective in slowing down the neutrons until their average kinetic energy is the same as that of the atoms of a scattering medium. This energy depends on the temperature of the medium, and is thus referred to as thermal energy. Neutrons whose energies have been reduced to values in this region are designated "thermal neutrons".
Phosphors have been used to measure thermal neutron flux. A mixture of boron-containing plastic and ZnS(Ag) phosphor has been used to provide a slow-neutron scintillator. A slow neutron passing through the scintillator is captured by a B10 nucleus. The resultant energetic alpha and lithium particles reach a ZnS(Ag) granule with sufficient residual energy to cause a scintillation. Light from the scintillation travels to the photomultiplier photocathode and reaches it with sufficient intensity to cause a recognizable pulse at the anode. The slow-neutron scintillators have been made by using a transparent bioplastic mold cast from a negative steel mold. In use, the surface of the scintillator faces a photomultiplier, while the opposite surface is covered with aluminum foil or other light reflective coating. See, for example, "High Efficiency Slow-Neutron Scintillation Counters", NUCLEONICS, by K. H. Sun et al. (July, 1956).
The extreme environment of some nuclear reactor cores, with temperatures in the range of 1,000.degree. C., presents a difficult problem for sensing both temperature and neutron flux. A need exists for an improved sensor capable of simultaneously measuring both neutron flux and temperature.

Dual neutron flux/temperature measurement sensor


An apparatus for delivering a button body with a hub and a flange applied to a part between a chute through which the button body is fed gravitationally from a hopper and a button feeder of a button applicator to which the button body is delivered. According to a preferred embodiment, a receiving member, which is pivotably fixed to a stopper placed facing an outlet of the chute and which is urged to the chute by a spring, has a receiving projection as well as a cam projection. A pusher moving backward and forward along a space between the receiving member and the outlet of the chute is provided with a cam receiving surface including a notch on its side face facing the receiving member. A pocket is formed by the fore end of the pusher and the inner face of the receiving projection in order to receive the hub of the button body. The receiving projection is pivotable moved off or moved in close to the chute in conjunction with the movement of the pusher by the cam receiving surface including the notch, the cam projection and the spring so that the button body can be passed to the button feeder smoothly without being forced by any other members.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for delivering a button body with a hub and a flange fed from a chute to a button feeder of a button applicator for caulking a tack member to a button body through a fabric piece.
2. Description of the Prior Art
According to an apparatus for delivering button body of this kind disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,964,661, a receiving member receives a button body fed from a chute, and a pusher pushes the button body to a pocket below a ram through a button feeder. The receiving member is urged to the chute by a spring. Accordingly, when the button body is delivered to the button feeder, the receiving member is forced to open against the spring by the button body itself.
In order to deliver the button body from the receiving member to the button feeder, the receiving member is forced to open against the spring. In this case, the button body is rubbed by the receiving member to be damaged and can not be delivered smoothly.


A technique for efficient representation of dependencies between electronically-stored documents, such as in an enterprise data processing system. A document distribution path is developed as a directional graph that is a representation of the historic dependencies between documents, which is constructed in real time as documents are created. The system preferably maintains a lossy hierarchical representation of the documents indexed in such a way that allows for fast queries for similar but not necessarily equivalent documents. A distribution path, coupled with a document similarity service, can be used to provide a number of applications, such as a security solution that is capable of finding and restricting access to documents that contain information that is similar to other existing files that are known to contain sensitive information.

Almost all organizations now store a substantial amount of their information, including sensitive information that may contain intellectual property, as electronic files in a variety of formats. There are many reasons for this trend, including the low cost and widespread availability of computers, the ever decreasing cost for electronic and magnetic storage media itself, access control, and the relative ease with which archival backups of information may be maintained.
One strong motivation for electronically storing data is the ease with which one can then efficiently query large quantities of files for specific information. Several algorithmic approaches have been proposed to address this problem. One widely known technique is limited to textual content and is most commonly used in Web-based search engines. In this approach, a user types a word or a set of words into a search engine and the search engine then processes a pre-indexed image of a huge data collection to fetch documents that contain the word and/or words specified in the search criteria.
A refinement of this approach enables the user to input the information in a more user-friendly, human language form (as opposed to a set of words or word combinations linked with Boolean-logic like operators, e.g. "dealer AND truck AND Boston AND sale"). These so-called "natural language" interfaces permit a user to input a query such as "Which truck dealer in Boston area is currently advertising a sale?". Other techniques such as image pattern recognition and mathematical correlation can be used for finding information in non-textual data collections, such as in pictures (e.g. to find if a person whose face is captured by a security camera is located in a database of known criminals).
As technology has evolved, and as hardware has become more available and affordable, computer users gained the ability (and actually prefer) to keep multiple copies of the same document. Such copies often differ only by a small amount of edits: text appended, removed or rearranged; images cropped; one document split into two, or a few documents merged. A document might be also converted to a different format, e.g. a text file with typesetting instructions can be converted into a print-ready form. These multiple copies of the same or a very similar document might be kept on the same computer. However, they may also be distributed among many computers connected to a local area network or wide area network, thus residing in different departments, or may even be in multiple locations that are physically many thousands of miles apart.
The ease with which multiple copies of the same document may be created, however, causes certain problems. Among these concerns are    data security—the more copies of a document there are, the harder it is to control access to its content.    document classification—copies of similar documents may need to be processed in the same way, without user intervention, and it is desirable to be able to do this automatically.    genealogy—identifying the history of how a particular document evolved    forensics—identifying who may have tampered with a document    regulatory compliance—certain laws and rules in the health and financial industry now require that documents be access controlled and/or automatically destroyed after certain time periods.
Existing data mining algorithms are not efficient, accurate or scalable enough to calculate similarity between documents and reconstruct document distribution paths.

Identifying history of modification within large collections of unstructured data


A semiconductor integrated circuit includes a circuit that has characteristics that can be changed by an electrical signal supplied from the outside of the integrated circuit. An output terminal that is used during the normal action of the semiconductor circuit is used as the output of the filter when testing the characteristics of the filter. A switching from the output terminal during normal action and during testing of the filter is performed by a plural mode switch.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit and an inspection method for its characteristics. More particularly the invention relates to a semiconductor integrated circuit incorporating a characteristic changing circuit which changes characteristic in response to an external signal and to the method of testing characteristic of semiconductor integrated circuit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As semiconductor technology has advanced it has come possible to integrate circuit elements to a high density on a single semiconductor integrated circuit chip. The composition of the semiconductor integrated circuit is complicated, and circuit elements possessing multiple functions are incorporated into a single semiconductor integrated circuit chip. Such chips are used in various electronic apparatus.
For example, in a semiconductor integrated circuit for processing multiplex voice signal in a television receiver, circuit elements requiring adjustment of characteristic of the circuit elements such as a filter, are often incorporated into a single semiconductor integrated circuit chip. In such a semiconductor integrated circuit, in addition to the input and output terminals necessary for the intrinsic action of this semiconductor integrated circuit, that is, the multiplex voice signal processing action, output terminals for adjustment in order to pick up signals necessary for adjusting the characteristic of the filter are separately provided.
In such semiconductor integrated circuit, it is necessary to provide the output terminals for adjustment in order to sense the filter output that is necessary only in the step of adjusting the filter characteristic, and these output terminals for adjustment occupy a large portion of the limited area of the semiconductor integrated circuit chip and its package leads. In particular, as multiple functions are incorporated into a single semiconductor integrated circuit, the number of input and output terminals has increased, and it is desired to achieve multiple functions by having a small number of terminals.

Semiconductor integrated circuit and test method for characteristics