Vehicle data are collected in a method in which one or more motor vehicles suitable for road traffic are assigned tasks, wherein the method involves: transmitting first information from a first of these motor vehicles to a backend that can communicate with multiple instances of these motor vehicles; and the backend taking this first information as a basis for assigning a first of these tasks to the first motor vehicle; wherein performing the first task includes transmitting second information; and wherein the first information is transmitted from the first motor vehicle to the backend via a mobile radio link, and/or the first task is assigned via a mobile radio link.

The present invention relates to a method for communicating with motor vehicles. The invention relates, in particular, to the communication between a backend system (or "backend" for short) and one or more motor vehicles, in particular using the mobile radio network. The invention also extends to a suitable motor vehicle and a suitable backend. The invention also comprises a system which has a backend of this type and one or more motor vehicles of this type.
In connection with the present invention, the term "backend" means, in particular, a device, typically a substantially stationary device (that is to say not mobile, unlike a vehicle). Such a backend may have a central processing unit, for example a computer system operated by a company, wherein such a company may be, for example, a vehicle manufacturer, a service company or the like.
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention can be used to collect vehicle data, for example. Within the scope of the present invention, the data captured in a vehicle by the sensor system installed in the latter, inter alia, are referred to as vehicle data. In this case, the sensor system can capture inputs from the vehicle environment (for example objects in the vehicle environment which are captured by a camera), inputs from the driver (for example actuation of an adjusting lever) and inputs from the technology installed in a vehicle (for example degree of opening of the throttle valve). The data can be transmitted to a central processing unit (backend) by means of an air interface and via a mobile radio path.
Systems which are already known for collecting vehicle data are statically implemented in the vehicle for dedicated applications (for example updating of traffic flow information of a map). The inventors of the present invention have recognized that these systems transmit vehicle data even when there is no need (for example: the necessary information has already been reported by a sufficiently large quantity of vehicles or a specific item of information is not of interest in a particular geographical region) and, as a result, require resources on the control devices of a vehicle and generate costs for transmitting and processing the data. In addition, the inventors have recognized that systems for collecting vehicle data which have been implemented statically—that is to say in native software—can be updated only to a very limited extent on account of extensive interactions with further systems in the vehicle. The problems which possibly result therefrom are considered in more detail below:
1) Need for resources on the control devices of a vehicle
In this context, the following topics, in particular, are combined under resources: processor computing time, persistent storage space, main memory usage and bandwidth used on communication media and buses. If a system for collecting vehicle data is permanently partitioned on one or more control devices, fewer resources are available for other applications (functional reduction) or the resource budget of the control devices is selected to be too large (unnecessary costs).2) Costs of transmitting the vehicle dataWhen transmitting vehicle data on the path from the vehicle to a central processing unit (backend), it is possible to pass through sections for which use-dependent costs arise. For example, the mobile radio network used in all mobile radio transmissions is operated by a mobile radio provider that typically determines the costs on the basis of the transmitted volume of data. If unnecessarily many or redundant data items are transmitted, the volume of data and therefore the costs incurred increase without this resulting in added value.3) Costs of processing the vehicle dataThe processing of vehicle data requires—just like their collection in the vehicle—resources such as processor computing time, persistent storage space, main memory usage and bandwidth used on communication media. The costs of this processing generally increase monotonously with the volume of data.4) Restricted ability to update native systemsIf the software which transmits data is natively implemented, this does not allow the amount and the transmission times to be adapted or changed within short periods (for example 1-3 months) in order to exclude interaction with other systems.
Against this background, the object of the present invention is to ensure efficient communication between a backend and one or more motor vehicles and/or to better take into account the utilization of one or more motor vehicles during such communication, for example for the purpose of collecting vehicle data.
The invention provides a method, a motor vehicle, a backend and a system according to the independent claims. Advantageous developments emerge from the dependent claims.
According to one embodiment, the invention relates to a method for allocating tasks (for example collecting and transmitting vehicle data) to one or more motor vehicles suitable for road traffic. The method comprises transmitting a first item of information from a first of these motor vehicles to a backend which can communicate with a plurality of these motor vehicles. With this first information, the first motor vehicle can inform the backend that the first motor vehicle is available for performing tasks. As explained in more detail below, the first information may have, for example, details of vehicle properties, the position of the motor vehicle or the utilization of the motor vehicle. On the basis of this first information, the backend allocates a first of these tasks to the first motor vehicle. In this step, the backend can therefore decide which task(s) is/are allocated to the first motor vehicle. As a result of the fact that this takes place on the basis of the first information, nonsensical or unnecessary allocation of tasks can be avoided. The performance of the first task comprises transmitting a second item of information. Vehicle data which have been collected by the motor vehicle according to the allocated task come into consideration as such an item of second information, in particular. The first information is transmitted from the first motor vehicle to the backend via a mobile radio path and/or the first task is allocated via a mobile radio path. This embodiment therefore differs from some known methods in which the motor vehicle can communicate with systems outside the vehicle only during a workshop visit or the like in order to receive (new) tasks.
According to one exemplary embodiment, the method comprises the step of transmitting the second information via a mobile radio path. Therefore, the collected vehicle data can also be transmitted without a workshop visit being required for this.
The performance of the first task can comprise transmitting the second information to the backend or to a unit associated with the backend, although it would also be possible, as an alternative, to transmit the second information to another, independent unit.
According to one exemplary embodiment, the first motor vehicle is equipped to transmit the first information to the backend and/or to receive an allocation of the first task from the backend and/or to possibly transmit the second information, while the first motor vehicle is in road traffic. Tasks can therefore be allocated in real time and vehicle data can be transmitted as quickly as possible.
The second information may have data relating to the first motor vehicle, in particular its state. For example, a vehicle manufacturer may be informed of the state of motor vehicles, which can contribute to the improved further development of vehicle models, for example.
Additionally or alternatively, the second information may have data relating to an environment of the first motor vehicle. For example, traffic sign data or data relating to the volume of traffic or weather conditions can thus be collected and transmitted.
According to one exemplary embodiment, the backend allocates the first task to the first motor vehicle only when the backend expects, on the basis of the first information, that the first motor vehicle can perform the first task. Unnecessary data transmission and processing can thus be avoided.
For example, the backend can expect that the first motor vehicle can perform the first task if the backend determines, on the basis of the first information, that the first motor vehicle satisfies technical prerequisites needed to perform the first task. For example, a technical prerequisite for performing a task which comprises collecting traffic sign data is that the first motor vehicle is equipped with at least one camera. The first information preferably has technical data relating to the first motor vehicle, with the result that the backend is informed of the technical equipment (for example the installation of cameras) of the first motor vehicle on the basis of the first information. On the basis of this information, the backend can determine whether the technical prerequisites corresponding to the first task have been satisfied.
Additionally or alternatively, the backend can expect that the first motor vehicle can perform the first task if the backend determines, on the basis of the first information, that the first motor vehicle is in or close to a geographical area or approaches this geographical area in which it must be situated in order to be able to perform the first task. For example, a task may be restricted to a particular geographical area—for example the collection of traffic sign data in a particular town. For example, the first information provides information on where the first motor vehicle is situated, with the result that the backend can determine whether the first motor vehicle is possible for the first task from a geographical point of view.
According to one exemplary embodiment, the backend is informed of utilization of the first motor vehicle by means of the first information. It is therefore possible to avoid the situation in which the first motor vehicle is "overloaded" because, in a case of the load, it cannot perform the first task or can perform the first task only with a delay.
According to one exemplary embodiment, the backend compares the first information with a corresponding item of information transmitted by a second of these motor vehicles to the backend and decides, on the basis of this comparison, which of the motor vehicles the first task is allocated to. Better or more uniform utilization of the motor vehicles can thus be ensured, for example. In this context, there may well be a difference between better and more uniform utilization of the motor vehicles. More uniform utilization could ensure, for example, that tasks are preferably allocated to those motor vehicles whose utilization is lower than the utilization of other motor vehicles. In contrast, better utilization could (also) take into account other factors even if (somewhat) more uneven utilization arises as a result. For example, a task could be allocated to a motor vehicle A, even though a motor vehicle B has lower utilization, if the motor vehicle A is better suited to performing the task than the motor vehicle B from a technical point of view, for example. Better suitability from a technical point of view could involve, for example, higher-quality sensors being installed in the motor vehicle A than in the motor vehicle B, as a result of which the data determined by these sensors in the motor vehicle A are also more accurate than in the motor vehicle B.
According to one exemplary embodiment, the first motor vehicle takes into account a data protection setting applicable to the first motor vehicle when transmitting the first information. For example, it may be the case that a driver of the first motor vehicle has input, to the first motor vehicle, particular data protection settings which restrict the availability of the first motor vehicle for particular data collection tasks, for example via a user interface. The driver can specify, for example, that the first motor vehicle can be used to transmit (second) information which is possibly used to improve the safety of vehicles, but not that information from which the location of the first motor vehicle can be determined.
Provision is also made, in the interests of data protection, for the first and/or second information to respectively have first and second portions, wherein the first portion is personal or personalized and the second portion is not personal and is not personalized. The personal or personalized portion is typically needed to enable communication via the mobile radio network. However, the first and second portions are separated from one another over the course of the method. The second portion is used further and the first portion is not used further. This separation of the first and second portions preferably takes place in the backend. It can therefore be ensured that data protection provisions can be taken into account, in which case the first motor vehicle can nevertheless contribute to performing tasks.
According to one exemplary embodiment, one or more priorities are allocated to the task(s), preferably by the backend, for example a performance and/or transmission priority. This priority or these priorities can influence the order in which the tasks are performed and/or the order in which the second information is transmitted.
According to one embodiment, the invention also relates to a motor vehicle which can be used in the method described above. The motor vehicle has means for transmitting a first item of information to a backend via a mobile radio path, in particular a mobile radio device (transceiver), with which the motor vehicle can gain access to the mobile radio network, and an associated data processing device which stores the first information or requests it inside the vehicle and forwards it to the mobile radio device. The motor vehicle also has means for receiving a first task from the backend via a mobile radio path. These means can in turn have a mobile radio device (transceiver), wherein the means for transmitting the first information and the means for receiving the first task can at least partially overlap. That is to say, the (same) transceiver can definitely be used to transmit the first information and to receive the first task. The motor vehicle also has means for performing the first task, wherein the performance of the first task comprises transmitting a second item of formation. The second information can in turn be transmitted via a mobile radio device (transceiver), for example via the same transceiver which is used to receive the first task and/or to transmit the second information.
According to another embodiment, the invention relates to a backend which is equipped to allocate tasks to one or more motor vehicles suitable for road traffic. The backend has means for receiving a first item of information from a first of these motor vehicles with which the backend can communicate. The backend also has means for allocating, on the basis of this first information, a first of these tasks to the first motor vehicle, wherein performance of the first task by the first motor vehicle comprises transmitting a second item of information by the first motor vehicle. The first information is transmitted from the first motor vehicle to the backend via a mobile radio path and/or the first task is allocated via a mobile radio path. The means for receiving and allocating may in turn have a mobile radio device (transceiver), wherein the same transceiver can be used for receiving and allocating.
According to another embodiment, the invention relates to a system having at least one motor vehicle as described above and a backend as described above.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of one or more preferred embodiments when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Bayerische Motoren Werke Aktiengesellschaft


Process and apparatus for improving fluxing gas dispersion in treating molten aluminum by increasing the fluxing gas surface area. The process includes the use of a molten body of aluminum and a gas dispersing unit in the body of molten aluminum, the dispersing unit having at least two, upper and lower dispersers (rotors) mounted on a shaft extending into the molten aluminum. The dispersing unit is rotated, and simultaneously with the rotating, a fluxing gas is added to the molten aluminum adjacent the lower disperser. The fluxing gas is dispersed by the lower disperser to provide finely divided bubbles and then re-dispersed with the upper disperser to effectively increase the fluxing gas surface area in the molten body.

It has long been appreciated in the aluminum industry that sound products and good operating economics require treatment of molten metal to reduce certain types of defects in the product made from the metal caused by impurities in the metal prior to casting the metal. This is especially true for ingots which are subsequently worked to produce wrought products. One impurity commonly encountered is gas entrapped or dissolved in the metal during its melting and transfer. The gas is primarily hydrogen probably generated by moisture contacting the aluminum while molten. Likewise oxygen is acquired on the surface of molten aluminum which oxidizes the aluminum quite readily. Upon solidification of the metal, a considerable amount of gas and oxide particles are trapped within the metal. In subsequent fabrication, such entrapped impurities develop voids or discontinuities within the fabricated product that create weak areas in the product. The problem becomes more acute in high strength aluminum devices where voids and discontinuities not only create areas of weakness but can give rise to further defects, as explained below, which may constitute sufficient cause to reject the devices.
Other impurities commonly present in aluminum are dissolved trace elements, e.g., sodium, calcium, and lithium. This is introduced in the smelting process or in remelting of scrap metal. While trace elements, in the amounts generally encountered in aluminum, may not create severe difficulties in the final product itself, even miniscule amounts of trace elements give rise to serious problems in rolling and other drastic working operations especially in alloys containing magnesium. For instance, as little as 0.001% sodium or calcium can cause very serious edge cracking in the hot rolling of aluminum slabs, containing 2 to 10% magnesium, in a reversing mill.
It has been found that if the sodium and calcium content can be reduced to 0.0002% or less and especially to 0.0001% or less, on a commercial rather than mere laboratory basis, marked improvements in hot rolling can be realized such that heavy reductions of 20% or more per roll pass at temperatures of about 750.degree. F. or more can be readily employed even on relatively thick stock without excessive edge cracking. In addition, such very low sodium and calcium levels foster increases of 20% or more in continuous casting rates for aluminum ingots.
Various methods have been proposed to reduce the oxide, trace elements, and gas content of molten aluminum and in this connection reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 3,767,382, granted to Marshall Bruno et al and incorporated herein by reference, wherein a process is described in which molten aluminum is treated with selectively maintained salt flux in a compact system to decrease its oxide, gas, and trace elements. Gas removal is further aided by stripping with a non-reactive stripping gas. The system features an intensely agitated zone for contacting the metal and the salt flux followed by a quiet separation zone. Molten metal introduction, agitation, and flux characteristics are utilized to achieve required efficiencies.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,839,019 and 3,849,119 granted to Marshall Bruno et al and both incorporated hereby reference describe processes in which aluminum is purified by chloridizing a molten body of aluminum. High metal chloridization rates are achieved in a system wherein chlorine utilization efficiency is 100% or very closely approaches this level. The system includes a chlorine-metal contacting technique which includes an agitator and which controls and maintains contacting conditions to optimize efficiency.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,390,364 granted to Ho Yu and incorporated herein by reference describes a method of treating molten metal containing suspended particles typically comprising buoyant liquid such as liquid salt or suspended phases are treated to coalesce or agglomerate the particles so that they are more readily separated by gravity in the molten metal.
Each of these processes includes some provision for agitating or stirring a chlorinaceous fluxing gas in the molten metal to disperse the gas and thereby increase its surface area and effectiveness in removing impurities. These methods have achieved commercial success. However, lowering the gas and trace element content in aluminum alloys is very difficult.
One example of the difficulty in reducing the trace element content by chlorination is that the magnesium present in the aluminum alloy melt reacts simultaneously with the chlorine. This occurs even though chlorine, or the reaction product of chlorine with aluminum, aluminum chloride, react with sodium and calcium preferentially over magnesium at equilibrium conditions.
It is believed that chlorine released in the melt would first be expected to largely form aluminum chloride because aluminum is by far the major component in the melt. Next in sequence, some of the aluminum chloride may encounter and react with magnesium in the melt to form magnesium chloride because magnesium is usually more concentrated than the other melt components capable of reacting with aluminum chloride. Finally, if contact with the metal is maintained long enough, the magnesium or aluminum chlorides encounter the trace amounts of sodium and calcium and react to form the final equilibrium product, sodium, and calcium chlorides. The rate of chlorination and magnesium concentration are factors determining how far and how rapidly reaction proceeds through this sequence to the final equilibrium product, sodium and calcium chlorides.
At commonly used chlorination rates, final equilibrium is difficult to achieve without long contact times. Accordingly, it has been difficult to achieve extremely low sodium and calcium levels under commercial production plant conditions which require comparatively large amounts of molten metal to be treated rather rapidly.
In view of the foregoing, it is obviously desirable to be able to reduce all three mentioned types of impurities, oxide particles, trapped gas, and chemical impurities such as calcium, sodium, magnesium, and lithium and the like, in a continuous process and at a single station or operation. It is also highly desirable that any such process be compatible with existing level pour molten metal transfer systems. As is known, aluminum's affinity for oxygen has fostered widespread use in the aluminum industry of substantially horizontally level molten metal transfer systems to avoid the turbulence and surface agitation, and resulting oxide formation, which could be encountered if the metal were permitted to drop significant heights during transfer.

Purification of molten aluminum using upper and lower impellers


Peptides having, as constitutive amino acids, (1) 4 glutamine residues, 1 glutamic acid residue, 1 serine residue, 2 valine residues, 1 isoleucine residue and 5 leucine residues, and having a 3-hydroxydecanoyl group bonded, via an amide linkage, to the N-terminal leucine residue thereof; (2) 4 glutamine residues, 1 glutamic acid residue, 1 serine residue, 3 valine residues, and 5 leucine residues, and having a 3-hydroxydecanoyl group bonded, via an amide linkage, to the N-terminal leucine residue thereof; or (3) 4 glutamine residues, 1 glutamic acid residue, 1 serine residue, 2 valine residues, 1 isoleucine residue and 5 leucine residues, and having a 3-hydroxydodec-5-enoyl group bonded, via an amide linkage, to the N-terminal leucine residue thereof. The peptides have an antiviral activity. A strain capable of producing the above peptides and belonging to a new species of genus Pseudomonas.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to novel peptides, derivatives thereof. The present invention also relates to salts of the novel peptides and derivatives thereof.
Also, the present invention relates to a strain belonging to a novel species capable of producing the novel peptides.
Further, the present invention relates to a process for producing the novel peptides.
In addition, the present invention relates to an antiviral agent comprising, as an active ingredient, at least one member selected from the group consisting of (a) the novel peptides, derivatives thereof and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof and (b) the strain belonging to a novel species.
2. Description of the Related Art
Microorganisms, e.g., viruses and bacteria, are known to be causing agents of various infectious disease. Research and development of antibiotics, etc., against bacterial-causing infectious disease are advancing, and many pharmaceuticals preparations are in actual use. On the other hand, pharmaceutical preparations against infectious disease caused by viruses are not as advanced as the antibacterial agents, under the present circumstances, although causative viruses themselves have been identified with the development in virology in recent years.
For example, against viral infections occurring in farms of fishery product such as fish and shellfish, only vaccines are in actually used against Iridovirus of red sea bream and infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus of salmonid fish and etc. In this field, antiviral agents are still at the stage of research and development, and have not yet been put to practical use.
As literature on antiviral agents in the fishery field, mention can be made of, e.g., Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 1-95792. This publication describes that a substance (46NW-04A) produced by Pseudomonas sp. 46NW-04A (FERM P-9579) has an antiviral activity against viruses such as the salmonid herpes virus (OMV) and the infectious hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHNV).
The above-described substance is also described in Fisheries Science Series 79, "Kaiyo Biseibutu no Seibutsukassei Busshitsu" (Biologically Active Substances of Ocean Microorganisms), supervised by The Japanese Society of Fisheries Science and published by Koseisha Koseikaku Co., Ltd. on Apr. 15, 1990. According to its description, the substance (46NW-04A) having an antiviral activity described in the above publication is referred to as white powder-with the molecular formula C54H95N9O16, having, as constitutive amino acids, 1 threonine residue, 2 serine residues, 1 valine residue, 1 glutamic acid residue, 1 isoleucine residue and 3 leucine residues, and having a 3-hydroxydecanoyl group that is bonded to the N-terminal leucine thereof. It is described therein that the above substance (46NW-04A) has a structure very similar to that of the viscosin reported by Hiramoto et al. (Tetrahedron Letters, vol. 13, pp. 1087-1090, 1970). It is also reported that the microorganism of the genus Pseudomonas producing this substance (46NW-04A) was identified as Pseudomonas fluorescens biovar I.
In addition to the above report, several kinds of analogues to the above-mentioned viscosin have been reported for various objects and uses.
Although a large number of reports on development directed to prevention or treatment against viral diseases of fish have been made, besides the above report, the commercially available pharmaceutical preparations for marine products directed to prevention or treatment of the viral diseases are limited to the vaccines for Iridovirus of red sea bream, salmonid INHV and etc., as described above, and the antiviral agents are not yet put to practical use.

Peptides, derivates thereof, process for producing the same, novel strain producing the same, and antiviral agent comprising the same as active ingredient


A fuse state detection circuit is comprised of a first fuse element, a second fuse element, and an output for carrying an output signal, the output signal represents a first logic state when the first fuse element is blown and the second fuse element is unblown and the output signal represents a second logic state when the first element is unblown and the second element is blown. The fuse state detection circuit produces an output signal whose state is recoverable from a negative triggering event and is capable of resolving itself to the correct state without the need for a reset pulse. Methods of using the fuse state detection circuit, such as a method of using fuse elements to control a setting within an electronic circuit, the improvement comprising using a pair of fuse elements to control a single setting, are also given.

The present invention relates generally to integrated circuits and more particularly to a circuit and/or method for detecting fuse states in an integrated circuit.
Fuse elements (such as laser fuses, anti-fuses, transistors, etc.) are used to establish a variety of settings within an integrated circuit. In a memory device, for example, fuse elements may be used to establish the part configuration (e.g., ×4/×8/×16) and/or various trimming settings (such as voltage levels, part timings, row and column repair/replacement, etc). One type of fuse that is utilized is referred to as a "laser fuse." Typically, the memory device includes one or more strips of metal within a circuit that may be programmed, or "blown", using a laser. The blown laser fuse causes a latch to be set to a specific state within the circuit. The state of the latch may then be used to set the operation of the memory device. Because a laser is used to program the laser fuses, the fuse setting process must be completed prior to memory device packaging. Accordingly, laser fuse settings cannot be modified after packaging is complete.
Another type of fuse element that is utilized is referred to as an "anti-fuse". In an "unblown" (i.e., unprogrammed) condition, an anti-fuse functions as a capacitor presenting a very high resistance on the order of 10 Megohms to the circuit in which it is placed. In a "blown" (i.e., programmed) condition, the connections of the anti-fuse are shorted together (using a very high voltage, for example) providing a relatively low resistance (approximately 200 to 500 ohms) path through the anti-fuse. Because a laser is not required for programming, anti-fuses can be programmed after device packaging is completed.
FIG. 5 is a detailed view of a fuse state detection circuit 100 according to the prior art. The fuse state detection circuit 100 produces an output signal (X) having either a logic 1 (i.e., Vcc level) or a logic 0 (i.e., ground level). The output signal X is responsive to the state of the anti-fuse 106. For example, the fuse state detection circuit 100 illustrated in FIG. 5 produces an output signal X with logic 1 (i.e., Vcc) if anti-fuse 106 is "blown" and with logic 0 (i.e., GND) if anti-fuse 106 is "unblown."
The operation of the prior art fuse state detection circuit 100 will now be discussed in more detail. The signals CGND, FA, BSELY_, MRG_, and DVC2F are used for programming the anti-fuse 106 and/or reading the state of anti-fuse 106. When the memory device is operating under normal conditions, it is assumed that CGND=logic 0, FA=logic 0, BSELY_=logic 0, MRG_=logic 0, and DVC2F=logic 1. Under these conditions, the fuse state detection circuit 100 can be "simplified" as illustrated in FIG. 6.
The simplified circuit illustrated in FIG. 6 is basically a simple latch with a reset p-channel transistor M2 and anti-fuse 106. The output of the latching circuit (i.e., signal X) is responsive to (and thus indicates) the state of anti-fuse 106. As seen in FIG. 6 when anti-fuse 106 is "blown", anti-fuse 106 functions as a resistor and the voltage at node A is set at logic 0 (i.e., pulled to GND). Inverter 104 inverts the voltage present at node A such that when anti-fuse 106 is "blown," the output signal X of fuse state detection circuit 100 is set to logic 1 (i.e., representing that anti-fuse 106 is blown).
When anti-fuse 106 is unblown, node A is floating because anti-fuse 106 acts as a capacitor, isolating node A from GND. In this case, the state of the Read Fuse signal (RDFUS_) is used to determine the logic state of output signal X. Initially, RDFUS_pulses "low," turning on p-channel transistor M2 and pulling node A to logic 1 (i.e., to Vcc). Accordingly inverter 104 inverts the voltage present at node A setting the logic state of output signal X to logic 0 (i.e., representing that anti-fuse 106 is unblown). When RDFUS_returns "high" (i.e., when the "low" pulse times out), p-channel transistor M2 is turned off and feedback inverter 102 latches the logic state of output signal X at logic 0 (i.e., which continues to represent that anti-fuse 106 is unblown).
As is apparent from the above-description, when anti-fuse 106 is unblown the output state of fuse state detection circuit 100 is dependent upon the ability of the feedback inverter 102 to latch. Due to its weak driving signal, however, the latching ability of feedback inverter 102 may be easily overcome. Thus, the fuse state detection circuit 100 is susceptible to negative triggering events. A negative trigger event refers to any event that causes a node or point within a circuit to undesirably change states (e.g., to cause a node or point to change from a negative logic to a positive logic and/or to cause a node or point to change from a positive logic to negative logic). A negative triggering event may or may not cause the output of the fuse state detection circuit 100 to produce and erroneous signal X. Negative triggering events may be caused by voltage spikes due to signal coupling, a radiation particle strike, power bus drop, and/or a collection of positive or negative charge which can lead to circuit instability, among others.
If a negative triggering event occurs, the fuse state detection circuit 100 may produce an erroneous output signal X. For example, assume that anti-fuse 106 is unblown. As discussed above, node A is set to logic 1 and the output signal X set at logic 0. If a negative triggering event overcomes the latching ability of feedback inverter 102, node A is forced to logic 0 and output signal X is forced to logic 1 erroneously representing that anti-fuse 106 is blown. If this were to happen, the device responsive to output signal X may not work properly. Fuse state detection circuit 100 requires that a new RDFUS_pulse be applied to reset the latch.
Although periodically pulsing RDFUS_to reset the latch 102 seems like an easy solution to the problem, such pulsing typically requires large amounts of current. More specifically, because some devices may include up to 10,000 anti-fuses, each with a fuse state detection circuit, a large amount of current is consumed each time the RDFUS_signal is pulsed. Accordingly, during normal operation RDFUS_is pulsed very infrequently to reduce the amount of current consumed by the device.
Thus, there exists a need for a fuse state detection circuit that resists negative triggering events, that resets itself without using a RDFUS_pulse should a negative triggering event cause the fuse state detection circuit to produce an erroneous output signal, and which overcomes other limitations inherent in prior art.

Circuit and method for stable fuse detection


A process and system for database storage and retrieval are described along with methods for obtaining semantic profiles from a training text corpus, i.e., text of known relevance, a method for using the training to guide context-relevant document retrieval, and a method for limiting the range of documents that need to be searched after a query. A neural network is used to extract semantic profiles from text corpus. A new set of documents, such as world wide web pages obtained from the Internet, is then submitted for processing to the same neural network, which computes a semantic profile representation for these pages using the semantic relations learned from profiling the training documents. These semantic profiles are then organized into clusters in order to minimize the time required to answer a query. When a user queries the database, i.e., the set of documents, his or her query is similarly transformed into a semantic profile and compared with the semantic profiles of each cluster of documents. The query profile is then compared with each of the documents in that cluster. Documents with the closest weighted match to the query are returned as search results.

The number of documents contained in computer-based information retrieval systems is growing at tremendous rates. For example, the world wide web is thought to contain more than 800 million documents already. People looking for specific information in that sea of documents are often frustrated by two factors. First, only a subset of these documents is indexed and, second, of those that are indexed, many are indexed ambiguously. The present invention does not address directly the first limitation of document retrieval, but this limitation nonetheless plays a role in addressing the second limitation.
The main method currently used for document retrieval is keyword or free-text search. A user enters a search query consisting of one or a few words or phrases and the system returns all of the documents that have been indexed as containing those words or phrases. As more documents are indexed, more documents are expected to contain the specified search terms. For example, one world wide web search engine recently returned more than 755,000 documents in response to a query for the word "pitch." Adding the word "shot" to the query resulted in 797,000 documents. These large quantities of documents cannot be usefully examined by the user, and there is no guarantee that the desired information is contained by any of them. Increasing the likelihood that a search using such a system will retrieve a desired document necessarily demands decreasing the specificity of the search.
Furthermore, many of the documents retrieved in a standard search are irrelevant to a user's needs because these documents use the searched-for terms in a way different from that intended by the user. Human word use is characterized by polysemy. Words have multiple meanings. One dictionary, for example, lists more than 50 definitions for the word "pitch." We generally do not notice this ambiguity in ordinary usage because the context in which the word appears allows us to pick effortlessly the appropriate meaning of the word for that situation.
Human language use is also characterized by synonymy. Different words often mean about the same thing. "Elderly," "aged," "retired," "senior citizens," "old people," "golden-agers," and other terms are used, for example, to refer to the same group of people. A search for one of these terms would fail to select a document if the author had used a different synonym. Psychological studies have shown that people are generally poor at remembering which specific words were used earlier to express an idea, preferring instead to remember the gist of the passage.
Current search engines use Boolean operators to try to address these problems, but most nontechnical users do not seem either to know or use Boolean operators. A study of actual searches submitted to the Alta Vista search service found that 80% of searches employed no operators whatever. See Craig Silverstein et al., Analysis of a Very Large Alta Vista Query Log, SRC TECHNICAL NOTE, 1998-014 (Oct. 26, 1998). Another way that users could solve these problems is to include enough terms in a query to disambiguate its meaning or to include the possible synonyms that the document's author might have used. Again, people do not seem inclined to use such strategies in that the average number of terms entered in a query was found to be just over 2.0, and two-thirds of all queries employed two or fewer search terms. Perhaps one reason for this is that adding additional terms typically changes the order in which page links are displayed for the user. Another reason may be that additional terms often increase the number of documents that are retrieved.

Process and system for retrieval of documents using context-relevant semantic profiles


A vehicle air brake system is presented with an improved service work brake arrangement. The arrangement may provide a service work brake function or both a service work brake function and a parking brake function for the vehicle. The arrangement may provide an improved service work brake arrangement disposed within a housing for reducing the number of components and plumbing required to achieve this functionality versus prior known systems. The arrangement may utilize a pneumatic latching valve to deliver pressurized air for applying a vehicle's service brakes. The pneumatic latching valve opens upon receiving a pneumatic control signal from an electronically controlled valve and closes upon receiving a pneumatic control signal from another source. In addition, a controller and control logic may be provided for controlling the arrangement.

Commercial vehicles, for example tractor trailers, often utilize air brake systems. A typical air brake system is capable of performing a service brake function and a park brake function. Service braking or normal braking refers to actuating the vehicle's brakes by depressing a brake pedal to deliver compressed air to a brake actuator. Service braking is used to slow the vehicle or bring the vehicle to a stop. Once stopped, the driver may wish to apply the park brakes to prevent the vehicle from rolling. Typical vehicle air brake systems utilize spring brakes to perform the park brake function. Spring brakes, as are known in the art, utilize spring force to engage the brakes and hold the vehicle stationary. Air pressure is used to disengage the brakes by compressing the spring in order to allow the vehicle to move.
Some vehicle air brake systems also include a work brake function for commercial vehicles that stop and start frequently, such as for example waste collection vehicles. Work braking refers to using a service brake application to perform a temporary park brake function. In other words, utilizing compressed air to apply the service brakes to keep the vehicle from rolling while the vehicle is parked. Utilizing service brakes in applications with frequent stopping and starting is preferable to utilizing park brakes because the service brakes are more durable and use less compressed air.
Typical work brake systems, however, are either not fail safe or have complicated fail safe systems. A fail safe work brake system will apply the park brakes if a particular vehicle condition exists or a contemplated specific system failure occurs, such as loss of compressed air. An example of a complex fail safe work brake system can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,402.
Furthermore, electro-pneumatic brake systems for commercial vehicles have been developed, though presently are not widely used. Present work brake systems, including known systems with complex pneumatic fail safe systems, have no provisions for providing fail safe operation in case of an electrical failure or driver error (e.g. the driver turns the ignition off while the work brake is engaged).


A removal device for removing at least one low-germ liquid from a conduit system is disclosed. The removal device comprises at least one removal connection piece. The removal device further comprises at least one coupling bend, which is detachably connected to the removal connection piece. At least one tube end of the removal connection piece protrudes into an interior of the coupling bend and is sterilizable with pure steam on its inner face, its outer face and its end face within the coupling bend.

This disclosure relates to a removal device by which low-germ liquids, in particular pharmaceutical water of injection quality or of lower quality, are removed from a conduit system. This disclosure moreover relates to a conduit system for making available low-germ liquid, in particular pharmaceutical water, to a method by which low-germ liquid, in particular pharmaceutical water, is removed from a conduit system, and to a use of the removal device according to the disclosure. The devices and methods according to the present disclosure can be used in particular in the pharmaceutical industry, for example, for the production of infusion or injection solutions. The devices and methods according to the present disclosure can be used in particular for water for injection (WFI), highly purified water (HPW) or also generally for pure water and ultrapure water. It is possible in particular to use water of the qualities WFI, HPW or AP (aqua purificata) according to the European Pharmacopeia, for example, according to Ph. Eur. 8th edition, volume 3, pages 5248-5257. Other fields of use are also possible.
The provision of low-germ liquids, in particular of sterile liquids, is essential in many technological and scientific fields. Without excluding further possible fields of use, embodiments are described below with regard to making available sterile water for injection (WFI). Besides this, however, there are many other possible applications in which sterile liquids are used, for example, in laboratory diagnostics or in biochemical research.
In the production of parenteral drugs, i.e., infusion or injection solutions, it is customary to use water, also referred to as water for injection or WFI. To produce this water, various preparation techniques are used, often in combination, in particular distillation methods, reverse osmosis or ultrafiltration. The water is generally stored in tanks, pumped around at regular intervals and made available at the place of use by way of suitable conduit systems.
DE 27 55 155 A1 discloses a device for cleaning dispensing systems having at least one compensator tap. The device is characterized by a storage container for a cleaning liquid with at least one outflow nozzle and with a connecting tube to the outlet of the compensator tap, and by a restrictor element which is attachable to the end of the tap line directed away from the compensator tap.
Furthermore, WO 2005/016814 A1 describes a dispensing system for beverages, particularly beer, and a method for cleaning the system. The dispensing system contains a beverage tank, a tap, which is located above the beverage tank and is situated at a distance therefrom, and a beverage line whose first, upper end is connected to the tap and whose second, lower end is connected to the beverage tank. Moreover, a cleaning system is provided for introducing a cleaning agent into the beverage line. The cleaning system has, at the first end of the beverage line, an inlet, and, at the second end of the beverage line, an outlet for the cleaning agent.
Moreover, WO 2012/066626 A1 discloses a dispenser comprising a cold water plumbing system for supplying chilled water, and a hot water plumbing system for supplying heated water, wherein both systems are connected to one filling port by a three-way valve, which is a valve having three ports. The dispenser is characterized by a sterilization process which is performed by passing water through the cold water plumbing system and the hot water plumbing system by the three-way valve, and by circulating hot water through both of the plumbing systems using a convection phenomenon caused by the difference in water temperatures. The dispenser is capable of performing thermal sterilization with the aid of a very simple structure in which only a three-way valve is additionally used. A cold water filling port, in which the propagation of bacteria most likely occurs, can be sterilized by heat, using the filling port both for cold water and hot water.
Furthermore, DE 10 2005 023391 A1 describes a device for thermal disinfection of structural units of a respiratory system that carry respiratory gas, comprising a carrier unit which can be coupled to the structural unit and contains at least one air treatment component for the disinfection of the structural unit, an air inlet opening and an air outlet opening, such that the structural unit, in the disinfection mode, is acted on by an air stream heated to a predefined minimum temperature, wherein the air inlet opening of the carrier unit can be attached to an existing air outlet opening of the structural unit, and the air outlet opening of the carrier unit can be attached to an existing air inlet opening of the structural unit, and the structural unit has at least one air treatment component, such that in the disinfection mode the heated air circulates in a circuit formed by the carrier unit and the structural unit.
Moreover, DE 32 38 434 A1 discloses a method and a device for the heat treatment of goods, in which the goods to be treated are guided axially through an annular chamber whose outer and inner boundary surfaces are heated under thermostatic control. The inner boundary surface is formed by an inner body which is configured as a worm and can be driven by motor, while the outer boundary surface is composed of a double-jacket tube which is provided on the inner face with volutes. The outer tube, insulated on its outer surface, is provided with steam admission and condensate discharge ports attached at the interspace between the jacket surfaces. The rotating inner body is provided with a condensate lifting device.
Furthermore, Bobe et al. ("Anforderungen an Werkstoffe und Werkstoffoberflächen bezüglich Reinigbarkeit und Beständigkeit", CHEMIE INGENIEUR TECHNIK, vol. 78, no. 11, Nov. 1, 2006 (2006-11-01), pages 1615-1622, XP055423970, Weinheim; DE, ISSN: 0009-286X, DOI: 10.1002/C.200600095) describe the current state of research as regards the effects of material surfaces on cleanability. They moreover discuss causes of possible corrosion damage on non-stainless steels, including the possibilities of preventing damage, and the field of use of EPDM as an elastomeric sealing material.
Moreover, WO 01/56613 A2 discloses a sterile water generator which, on demand, generates a stream of sterile water. A water heater heats incoming, unsterile water to a sufficient temperature to achieve sterilization of the water. The sterile water is then passed through a heat exchanger which transfers excess heat from the sterile water to the incoming water. This reduces the energy consumption of the water heater and reduces the temperature of the sterile water that is ready for use. The sterile water is delivered to a site, at which the water is to be used, through a sterile delivery path in order to avoid contamination of the water. A first portion of the delivery path is pre-sterilized by flowing steam or hot water, which is produced by the water heater, along the delivery path. A second portion of the delivery path is sterilized by an antimicrobial liquid. The first and second portions of the delivery path comprise at least one common section.
Furthermore, EP 1 852 131 A1 describes a closed water dispenser comprising a water dispense system with a cold water reservoir for dispensing chilled water from an outlet and a hot water reservoir for dispensing hot water from an outlet. The cold water reservoir comprises an inlet, wherein the inlet is releasably connectable to an inverted bottle for replacing dispensed water. The system is periodically disinfected to kill bacteria in the system by temporarily connecting the outlets and circulating steam or hot water generated in the hot water reservoir.
A technical challenge in the preparation of liquids, in particular WFI, is generally that the removal point at which the WFI is taken from the conduit system should be low in germs. Otherwise, germs and pollutants can enter the conduit system and the sample via the removal point. In many laboratories, the removal point, for example, a tap or connection piece, is therefore sterilized before and/or after the removal, for example, by means of a burner. However, a disadvantage of such methods is that they require attentiveness on the part of the operating personnel. Carelessness in some cases affects the entire conduit system. Moreover, conventional techniques for sterilizing the removal point, for example, the use of a burner, place a strain on the removal point and are generally difficult to automate.

Removal device by which liquids for producing parenteral drugs are removed from a conduit system


A chain link fence assembly is provided. This assembly includes a chain link wire fencing, a bottom horizontal channel, and a top horizontal channel. The assembly also includes a plurality of slats, which have lock tabs at the bottom ends thereof. The bottom channel has a web, which has a plurality of spaced cutouts, that receive the respective lock tabs. Each slat, which can be a vertical slat or a diagonal slat, has a central tubular portion, a left edge fin portion and a right edge fin portion. The lock tab, which is an extension of the slat tubular portion, has opposite edge recesses, which receive the opposite edges of its cutout, and has opposite projections, which hook behind the opposite edges of its cutout.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a chain link fence, and in particular the invention relates to a chain link fence having interwoven slats with respective lock tabs and having a bottom horizontal member with respective tab holes.
2. Prior Art
A prior art chain link fence is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,725,044, to Cluff. Other related prior art patents include U.S. Pat. Nos.
3,958,794, to Suprunuk, et al., 3,356,343, to Taylor, 3,355,150, to Taylor. 1,852,910, to Williams, et al., 603,938, Brock, and 79,854, to Patterson.
Prior art, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,725,044 to Cluff describes a prior art chain link fence assembly which includes a chain link wire fencing, a plurality of spaced slats which are interwoven in the chain link wire fencing, and which have respective tab holes, a bottom horizontal member which has a plurality of tab holes, and a plurality of lock strips, each having a top end lock tab and each having a bottom end lock tab for connection to the respective tab holes.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 3,958,794 to Suprunuk. et al., describes a chain link fence assembly which includes chain link wire fencing, a plurality of vertical slats which are interwoven in the chain link wire fencing, with each slat having a bent portion engaging an adjacent portion of the chain link wire fencing.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 3,356,343 to Taylor describes a chain link fence assembly which includes chain link wire fencing, a first plurality of diagonal slats disposed along one face of the chain link wire fencing, a second plurality of diagonal slats disposed over the first plurality of diagonal slats, each slat of the first and second pluralities of slats having a bent portion near the middle thereof engaging the chain link wire fencing.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 3,355,150 to Taylor describes a chain link fence assembly which includes chain link wire fencing, a first plurality of diagonal slats disposed along one face of the chain link wire fencing, a second plurality of oppositely slanted diagonal slats disposed over the first plurality of diagonal slats, each slat of the first and second pluralities of slats having a bent tab portion near the end thereof engaging the chain link wire fencing.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 1,852,910 to Williams. et al., describes a fence assembly which includes a pair of horizontally spaced fence posts, a plurality of pairs of twisted, horizontally disposed, vertically spaced wires, and a plurality of vertically disposed, horizontally spaced slats connected to the plurality of pairs of wires, each slat being disposed between the wires of each pair of wires.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 603,938 to Brock describes a fence panel. Such panel includes a pair of horizontally disposed, top and bottom stringers, a plurality of horizontally spaced, vertically disposed stays, and a plurality of vertically spaced, horizontally disposed wires, connected by clips to the stays.
Prior art U.S. Pat. No. 79,854 to Patterson describes a fence. Such fence includes two horizontally spaced fence posts, two pairs of twisted wires connected at their end portions to the respective fence posts, and a plurality of vertical slats each slat having four grooves respectively receiving the four wires of the two pairs of wires.
One problem with the prior art chain link fence assemblies is that the lock strips become disengaged from the tab holes connected thereto whereby the lock strips become separated from the fence assembly, and are lost.


Devices, systems, and methods are disclosed to offload the usage of a cellular network by intelligent selection of broadband network connections such as Wi-Fi access points. A Wi-Fi transceiver on a mobile device is activated when certain conditions are met, such as a time, location, recognition of a radiofrequency (RF) environment, etc. The conditions are correlated with a database of known locations in which a one or more Wi-Fi access points are determined to exist. The Wi-Fi transceiver on the mobile device is activated and commanded to connect to a particular Wi-Fi access point. Dynamic intelligence ensures that the appropriate connection method is used, and minimizes handovers to networks or access points that are unreliable or that are predicted to become inaccessible to the mobile device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to mobile communication systems. In particular, the present invention relates to intelligent selection of access points to a network by a mobile device having a plurality of transceivers.
2. Background of the Invention
Mobile devices such as cellular telephones, PDAs, etc. are proliferating like never before. Almost everyone has some sort of mobile device, and some people have multiple devices. Users can access several different networks using a single mobile device, and can access voice, text, and multimedia data from other network entities such as servers and other mobile devices. Further, mobile device complexity is increasing, with more and more advanced and power-efficient processors, display interfaces, and applications to provide a user experience like never before. Such devices include, for instance, the iPhone, iPad, Droid, and other PDAs/netbooks. Consequently, users are using their mobile devices more frequently, and have larger bandwidth requirements for data, email, voice, etc.
This increased usage puts a tremendous strain on the network that provides these services. Even with the advent of 3G and 4G networks that use Internet Protocol (IP) addressing, Session Initiation Protocol (SIP), etc., there are certain network elements that get overwhelmed and create a bottleneck for data flow, such as cellular base stations (or Node Bs) and their associated gateways. Several users within the range of one or more base stations who are downloading high-volume data from the network will have greater transmission power requirements from the base station. This may cause reduced signal strength per mobile device, and consequently a lower quality connection. Transmission power control can alleviate some but not all of these issues. This further causes higher battery usage on the mobile device itself.
Network operators generally offer alternative means to connect to their core networks, or to the Internet. Femtocells, Fiber-to-the-node (FTTN), and wireless local area network (WLAN or Wi-Fi) access points can provide access to various networks for mobile devices having more than one type of transceiver. For instance, the iPhone includes a Wi-Fi transceiver. A Wi-Fi hotspot/access point can be used to connect to a network, with broadband speeds, and the load on the cellular network can be reduced. However, there are specific issues that prevent the efficient selection of an access point. For instance, many users appear to disable Wi-Fi due to either a) concerns over battery life, or b) to avoid the annoying messages to connect to Wi-Fi every time an open access point is detected. Consequently, users often don't enable Wi-Fi as they may forget to turn it off afterwards. Leaving it on leads to a faster battery drainage, and leaving it off leads to connectivity issues as well as sub-optimal power usage as the cellular transceiver may have to use more power for high-throughput communication with a base station. Constant user interaction with a connection manager to enable/disable the Wi-Fi transceiver does not provide for a seamless and streamlined user experience.
Consequently, what is needed is a means to intelligently determine if a mobile device is likely in the vicinity of an access point, and to determine if it is the optimal connection type based upon the circumstances at any given time and location.


A spider shaft coupling transmitting torque via deformable legs of a spider-like flexible element in which the spider is designed as a captive assembly of a holding base (internal or external) and deformable legs comprising thin-walled solid or wound shells.

The invention relates to connecting elements for mechanical transmissions and in particular to shaft couplings.
Shaft couplings in which a resilient member is provided between the driving and driven parts (hubs) of the coupling are known and widely used. Since small size and low values of weight and rotary inertia are frequently of critical importance, and since smaller couplings are usually less costly, spider or jaw couplings are quite popular. It is known (e.g., see E. Rivin, xe2x80x9cDesign and Application Criteria for Connecting Couplingsxe2x80x9d, in ASME Journal of Mechanisms, Transmissions, and Automation in Design, 1986, Vol. 108, No. 1, pp. 96-105) that the spider couplings have the smallest size and the lowest weight and rotary inertia for a given rated torque. However, they also possess the highest values of torsional stiffness as well as radial stiffness which is important for misalignment compensation (see the quoted paper). Thus, spider couplings of conventional designs provide a poor isolation of torsional vibrations and also poor compensation of forces on bearings of the connected shafts due to inevitable shaft misalignments. In addition, the high stiffness values result in very small damping contribution of the spider coupling to the transmission system, while damping enhancement in the transmission system is often highly desirable. Since spider couplings are usually equipped with elastomeric flexible elements, they cannot be used in high temperature and other aggressive environments, as well as in the environments wherein special non-contamination and sanitary requirements are specified (e.g., in food and cosmetics processing machinery).
Another shortcoming of the conventional spider couplings is relatively fast deterioration of the elastomeric spider due to stress concentrations in the sharp corners of the spider legs, usually having rectangular cross sections.
While the issues of excessive torsional and misalignment compensation stiffness, as well as the issue of stress concentration had been addressed in our U.S. Pat. No. 4,557,703, the issues of applicability in the extreme environments were not. There are known cases when spiders are fabricated from a material acceptable in the extreme environments, such as bronze, but use of such spiders results in even higher torsional and compensation stiffness values.
The present invention addresses the shortcomings of the conventional spider couplings by providing a coupling which, while maintaining the advantageous small size and small weight characteristics, can be used in aggressive or contamination-sensitive environments, has reduced torsional and compensation stiffness, may possess a significant damping and also may positively influence the damping characteristics of the transmission system wherein the subject coupling is installed.
Some embodiments of the present invention can be retrofitted into existing installations of the spider couplings without replacement of the already installed hubs. There is also a possibility of fine tuning of the coupling characteristics with the same hubs in place.
This invention is directed to an improved form of connecting coupling for mechanical assemblies, especially for power transmission shafts. Broadly, the invention involves using a spider made from metal or from other rigid material, in which the load-carrying xe2x80x9clegsxe2x80x9d of the spider are shells of revolution of a tapered, barrel, or cylindrical shape. These shells can be solid or wound from wire in a manner of helical coil springs. These legs are attached by mechanical means to the holding base of the spider (centrally or peripherally situated), while being capable to freely deform under radial loading by tangential forces transmitted by the coupling, as well as under axial loading by forces radial to the coupling and generated due to misalignment of the connected shafts. When even larger deformations are desirable, the shells can be generated by coiling them from wire, like helical coil springs.
Even greater deformations can be achieved if the wire made from a superelastic alloy is used for coiling the shells.
The radially deformable shells of revolution can accommodate large tangential forces in torque-transmitting couplings. Deformations of the shells (thus, torsional stiffness of the coupling) can be adjusted or tuned by varying wall thickness of the deformable shells, with increase of maximum deformation (thinner walls or thinner wire in the wound shells) being accompanied by reduction of the rated torque of the coupling.
The shells are attached to and are held together by the holding base, either a centrally located xe2x80x9ccentral basexe2x80x9d to which the shells of revolution are connected as spider legs, or a ring surrounding the coupling to which the shells are connected in a similar way. The latter embodiment allows replacement of the xe2x80x9cspiderxe2x80x9d without a need to disassemble the whole setup, e.g. consisting of a motor driving a hydraulic pump.
The shells are attached to the holding base in such a way that they cannot separate from the base (are xe2x80x9ccaptivexe2x80x9d), while having some relative mobility thus allowing free deformation of each loaded shell.


A dual gate oxide high-voltage semiconductor device and method for forming the same are provided. Specifically, a device formed according to the present invention includes a semiconductor substrate, a buried oxide layer formed over the substrate, a silicon layer formed over the buried oxide layer, and a top oxide layer formed over the silicon layer. Adjacent an edge of the top oxide layer, a dual gate oxide is formed. The dual gate oxide allows both specific-on-resistance and breakdown voltage of the device to be optimized.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a dual gate oxide high-voltage semiconductor (SOI) device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a high-voltage semiconductor device, such as a lateral MOSFET or a diode, having two gate oxides for optimizing breakdown voltage and specific-on-resistance.
2. Background Art
In fabricating high-voltage power devices, tradeoffs and compromises must often be made in areas such as breakdown voltage, specific-on resistance, size, conduction losses, manufacturing simplicity, and reliability. Frequently improvement of one characteristic such as breakdown voltage can lead to degradation in another such as specific-on-resistance. For example, to reduce the specific-on-resistance of a device, silicon doping is often increased. However, an increase in doping causes an increase in a magnitude of the electric field, which degrades the breakdown voltage of the device. Thus, the specific-on-resistance and breakdown voltage can be competing concerns.
Heretofore, several attempts have been made to improve the basic SOI structure. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,246,870 and 5,300,448, both commonly assigned with the present application and herein incorporated by reference, attempt to improve breakdown voltage by providing a linear doping profile in the drift region. Specifically, these SOI devices include a drift region positioned between a body region and a drain region. The drift region is provided with various features such as a thinned portion and a linear lateral doping intensity profile in an attempt to provide increased breakdown voltage. However, to maintain high breakdown voltage, the total amount of conduction charge near the source side of the drift region must be kept very small. This often leads to bottlenecking for current flow, and preventing optimum reduction in conduction losses.
Another improvement over the basic SOI structures is shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,969,387 and 6,221,737, both commonly assigned with the present application and herein incorporated by reference. These references disclose a SOI device (and method for forming the same) having a graded top oxide and drift region in an attempt to yield a better tradeoff between breakdown voltage and saturation current. However, the formation of the graded top oxide and drift region of these references relies upon a two-dimensional oxidation process in which an oxidation mask is patterned with a series of sequential openings.
In view of the foregoing, a need exists for a high-voltage SOI device in which both breakdown voltage and specific on-resistance can be optimized. A further need exists for a high-voltage SOI device having a dual gate oxide so that doping in the silicon can be increased without increasing the magnitude of the vertical electric field.

Dual gate oxide high-voltage semiconductor device and method for forming the same


A system and method for placing ads on a client-side video replay system. The described embodiments of the present invention allow a client to make a determination of ad placement priority separately from the function of serving ads to a requesting application. A described dynamic ad placement engine reorders ads when the context of the system is changed to yield a next ad to be placed. Thus, at a later time, when an application sends an ad request, the dynamic ad placement engine can quickly respond with the ad to be placed. The ads also are preferably reordered after an ad is placed. Placement of ads is controlled in the described embodiment by interpreted rules for each ad.

Advertisers have long tried to make sure that the right people are watching their advertisements. Television advertisers spend large amounts of money trying to make sure their advertisements ("ads") are aired during television shows having the proper demographics. Thus, television advertisers attempt to match the ad to the demographics of the audience for particular television programs, purchasing advertising slots for those television programs that they hope will attract the proper audience for their ads. Unfortunately, there is no way for the advertisers to know in real time whether people are watching their ads or whether the ads are reaching the targeted demographic groups. Similarly, there is no way for television advertisers to determine the viewing patterns of individual viewers or to target ads to individual viewers since the same ads are broadcast to everyone watching a particular program.
Advertisers on the Internet have been targeting their ads for several years. An Internet advertiser can currently register for an ad-serving service, which attempts to distribute the advertiser's ads to users who will be receptive to the ads. To view a web page on the Internet, a user enters the URL of the web page or clicks on a link to the web page. The web page itself is fetched from the appropriate web server, and an ad is fetched from the ad service. The ad service attempts to determine which ad to send to the user based on which web page the user has requested and on various other factors known about the user (such as, for example, information about the user gleaned from cookies or from user registration procedures). Because the ad service is located on the server side, the ad service generally relies on one-size-fits-all rules to determine which ads to display for a particular page request. Because the ad selection process is centrally located, performance requirements often necessitate a simplification of the logic used to select an ad.
In addition, an Internet ad service is "coupled" to the user request. An Internet ad server bases the ad it serves, at least partly, on the URL of the requested web page. It is also important to note that the Internet ad server needs to send an ad to the user as quickly as possible, because the user is expecting to receive the requested web page (along with any other third party content, such as ads) as soon as possible. The fact that the typical Internet ad server is time-constrained makes it more difficult for the ad server to perform elaborate methods to determine which ads to send. Overcoming this problem typically requires the use of very high-end computers to serve the ads.
Ultimately, Internet ad serving solutions are request-based. That is, an ad is served from the central server in response to a request. Because many requests are fulfilled in parallel, ads for competing products may be served for each of the separate requests. While in theory the server could track ads being served to each client and eliminate the serving of two competing ads to the same client, the centralized ad serving environment, with millions of users and with ad serving distributed over many actual servers, makes this extremely difficult.
Moreover, an Internet ad server needs to be in substantially constant communication with the Internet, since ad requests are received constantly. Such a system was not designed to work in situations where the ad receiving client is only intermittently connected to the Internet.
What is needed is a way to deliver ads to receptive audiences where there is ample time to determine who might be the best target for each particular ad and where the decision is sensitive to the context in which the ad request was made. Lastly, it is desirable to be able to place ads extremely quickly for each individual user.

Method and system for dynamic ad placement


An XML data model and systems and methods for using the same are described herein that enable entities to interact with a remote directory service, such as an LDAP-style directory service, using industry standard Web services protocols that represent resources using XML, such as WS-Transfer and WS-Enumeration.

Directory services exist in the form of software systems that store, organize and provide access to information in a directory. As used herein, the term directory generally refers to a set of objects that are organized in a logical and hierarchical manner. Various protocols exist by which clients may interact with a directory service to perform operations with respect to objects in a directory, such as creating, deleting, updating or running queries against objects in the directory. For example, the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) is a protocol by which clients may interact with a directory service over a TCP connection. The LDAP protocol was designed by University of Michigan to provide access to the X.500 Directory while not incurring the resource requirements of the Directory Access Protocol (DAP). This makes it very suitable for use on the Internet. Generally speaking, in an LDAP-style directory service, the directory comprises a tree of directory objects, wherein each object consists of a set of attributes. An attribute has a name (an attribute type or attribute description) and one or more values. The attributes are defined in a schema.
It may be deemed desirable to implement systems in which clients can interact with a remote directory service, such as an LDAP-style directory service, over a network using industry standard Web services protocols. For example, it may be deemed desirable to enable clients to interact with a remote directory service using industry standard Web services protocols that represent resources using Extensible Markup Language (XML). Examples of such Web services protocols include, for example, SOAP-based protocols such as WS-Transfer and WS-Enumeration.
SOAP, which was originally defined as Simple Object Access Protocol, is a protocol specification for exchanging structured information in the implementation of Web Services in computer networks. SOAP relies on XML as its message format, and usually relies on other application layer protocols (most notably Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP)) for message negotiation and transmission. SOAP can form the foundation layer of a Web services protocol stack, providing a basic messaging framework upon which Web services can be built.
WS-Transfer describes a SOAP-based protocol for accessing XML representations of Web service-based resources. WS-Transfer defines how to invoke a simple set of familiar verbs (Get, Create, Put, and Delete) using SOAP. An application protocol may be constructed to perform these operations over resources. WS-Transfer is described in more detail at http://www.w3.org/Submission/WS-Transfer.
WS-Enumeration describes a SOAP-based protocol for enumerating a sequence of XML elements. WS-Enumeration enables an application to provide an enumeration message to a Web service, requesting a representation of all objects that match designated criteria. The Web service responds to the enumeration message with an enumeration context, which may be used by the application to retrieve the objects that match the designated criteria. In this way, WS-Enumeration is useful for reading event logs, message queues, streaming, or other applications for which a simple single-request/single-reply metaphor is insufficient for transferring large data sets over SOAP. WS-Enumeration is described in more detail at http://www.w3.org/Submission/WS-Enumeration.
Although it may be deemed desirable to enable clients to interact with a remote directory service, such as an LDAP-style directory service, using industry standard Web services protocols that represent resources using XML as noted above, industry standard Web services protocols such as WS-Transfer and WS-Enumeration do not specify how LDAP-style directory data should be modeled in XML.

XML data model for remote manipulation of directory data


Security is provided for enterprise local area networks (LANs) by pre-vetting and identifying the security characteristic and actions of any new wireless networks that tries to connect to a secure LAN network. The disclosure herein provides for identification and classification of IEEE 802.11 wireless networks by using monitoring sensor system within and managed by a centralized cloud. The monitoring sensors interrogate the network mimicking the behavior of known platforms, such as an end-user's workstation or mobile device followed by random actions simulating a human person. The response characteristics of the wireless network including the behavior patterns relating to the LAN system and human behavior are collected. The security system uses methods of classification provided through analysis of the collected information using methods including data science approaches, correlation analysis, and machine learning classification methods to determine the security classification of the newly detected wireless network.

In most local area networks (LAN)s, there is typically continuous removal and entry of new devices, and networks. Even if the LAN had been secured from any intrusions and attacks from outside, the new devices and networks that connect to the LAN need not be secure and may provide a path-way for security breaches and cyber-attacks. Currently the IEEE 802.11i and the Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) methods from the internet engineering task force (IETF) for wireless networks are the two standards that support secure wireless LAN deployments. These when implemented are expected to provide protection from security breaches and cyber-attacks on the secure WLANs that conform to 802.11 group of wireless networks. The two current security methods under 802.11i and EAP for WLAN security typically only implement 802.1X access control with EAP-having transport level security (TLS) referred to as the 802.1X with EAP-TLS protocol for mutual authentication and performing a negotiation phase allowing for the granting of access based on Pre-Shared Keys (PSKs) or successful authentication through IEEE 802.1x exchanges. IEEE 802.11i provides a Robust Security Network (RSN) with two new protocols: the 4-Way Handshake; and the Group Key Handshake. These utilize the authentication services and port access control described in IEEE 802.1X to establish and exchange the appropriate cryptographic keys.
FIG. 1 shows example components and actions (100) of 802.1X with EAP-TLS protocol. A new network or device designated supplicant (101) requests access to the network through the authenticator (102), which is a gateway or hot spot to the secure local area network (SLAN). The authenticator (102) responds to the supplicant (101) with an EAP protocol request to identify itself. The supplicant (101) provides EAP protocol identification response to the authenticator (102) which is passed on to the authentication server (103) which generate the necessary security keys or challenge to be sent to the supplicant (101). The authenticator sends the key using EAP protocol to the supplicant who responds to the challenge which when checked and accepted by the authentication server (103) result in a successful connection between the supplicant and (101) and the SLAN through the authenticator. This process of secure connection using IEEE 802.11i provides for further security as explained based on the interaction between the access point (AP) which is the authenticator 202 and the supplicant station (STA) which is the client (201) using FIG. 2. The current IEEE 802.11i uses a four-way handshake to establish and ensure the secure and authenticated connection. The initial authentication process is carried out either using a pre-shared key (PSK), or following an EAP exchange through 802.1X (which generally requires the presence of an authentication server). This process ensures that the client station (STA) is authenticated with the access point (AP). After the PSK or 802.1X authentication, a shared secret key is generated, called the Pairwise Master Key (PMK). In a pre-shared-key network, the PSK is the PMK. If an 802.1X EAP exchange was carried out, the PMK is derived from the EAP parameters provided by the authentication server. The PMK is used by both the STA and AP to decrypt messages.
FIG. 2 shows an example sequence of actions 200 used to generate an additional secure key, the pair wise transient key (PTK), and also the Group Temporal key used for multicast and broadcast messages to provide further protection for the paired master key (PMK) under the 802.11i process.
A four-way handshake is used to establish the Pairwise Transient Key (PTK). The PTK is generated by concatenating the following attributes: PMK, AP nonce value (ANonce), STA nonce value (SNonce), AP MAC address, and STA MAC address. The product is then put through a pseudo random function.
The actual messages exchanged during the handshake for generation of PTK are depicted in FIG. 2 and explained below. All messages are sent as EAPOL-Key frames:
The AP (202) sends a nonce-value (ANonce) to the STA (201). The client STA (201) now has all the attributes to construct the PTK (215a) in the first step of the process S211.
The STA sends its own nonce-value (SNonce) to the AP together with a Message Integrity Code (MIC), including authentication, which is really a Message Authentication and Integrity Code (MAIC), in the second step of the process S212.
The AP now constructs the PTK (215b) and the GTK using the information received and sends the GTK and a sequence number together with another MIC. This sequence number will be used in the next multicast or broadcast frame, so that the receiving STA can perform basic replay detection in the third step of the process S213.
The STA sends a confirmation to the AP as the fourth step and completing the process S214.

Systems and methods for providing wireless access security by interrogation


A fruit picking device includes a head for receiving the fruit, a first pair of bails pivotally mounted to the head in spaced relation to each other across the housing opening, a second pair of bails pivotally mounted to the head in spaced relation to each other across the housing opening substantially perpendicularly to the first pair of bails, and cutter blades carried by the latter bails and effective, when the bails are pivoted to their closed positions, to engage and cut the stem of the fruit within the head.

The present invention relates to a fruit picking device for picking fruit in a quick and efficient manner. The invention is particularly useful for picking fruit whose stems have to be cut, such as oranges, grapefruits, avocados, mangos, and the like, and is therefore described below with respect to this application, but it will be appreciated that it could be used for many other applications as well.
Oranges and most other fruits are generally picked by hand, which is a slow and tedious operation. Although there have been a number of proposals to mechanize fruit picking, such proposals have generally not found widespread use particularly with respect to fruit whose stems have to be cut.


A method is provided for determining a control scheme for a voltage source converter (VSC) with a topology of three bridge legs between each of three phases of a grid and a neutral point. The method includes: analyzing the waveform of the grid and/or a load voltage and determining an allowed period for no-swilching of the corresponding bridge leg; operating the VSC with different clamping carrier modulator frequencies, and then analyzing the balance in the operating junction temperatures and/or power losses across the active switches and also analyzing the total losses of the VSC; comparing the balance and the total losses of different clamping carrier modulator frequencies and selecting the clamping carrier modulator frequency; operating the VSC with the selected clamping carrier modulator frequency, and optimizing the balance in the operating junction temperatures and/or power losses across the active switches and the total losses of the VSC.

Shunt active power filters are used to minimize the harmonic disturbances created by non-linear loads as they improve the filtering efficiency, and also solve many issues arising with classical passive filters. During the design of such a system, special attention has to be paid to the load currents, which are intended to be compensated. Together with the modulation strategy employed, the load currents are the variables that determine the circulating current in the power devices of the selected Voltage Source Converter (VSC). Especially in 3-level NPC (Neutral Point Clamped) active filters, the commonly irregular load can lead to an uneven loss distribution in the semiconductors of a bridge leg. As in every converter, the losses in the most stressed device limit the switching frequency and the power capability, a de-rating of the converter current can become mandatory to ensure long term-stability of the system.
The semiconductor chips assembled in a standard commercial 3-level NPC bridge leg module are mostly dimensioned and rated neglecting the loss distribution over the specific elements. In this manner, due to the issue of loss distribution, the usage of these devices often results in an oversized design with expensive and weakly utilized semiconductor area. Additionally, modulation schemes used to enhance the system efficiency can contribute even more to the uneven loss distribution, increasing the difference of the operating temperature of the transistors and diodes inside the power module and/or widening their thermal cycling. The thermal mismatch of components leads to induced thermal stresses on the materials within the module and thermo-mechanical damage could arise. Consequently, the design of 3-level NPC active filters becomes rather complex as the desired characteristics of high power density, efficiency and component reliability could work against each other.
Due to the unequal distribution of losses and consequent mismatch of junction temperature distribution among the bridge-leg's semiconductors, in the situation of high power converters, for example, the usage of NPC power modules can result in low semiconductor utilization. In this way, the usage of single semiconductor devices, rated differently, are more indicated to build the bridge-legs of the converter. NPC systems, employing single semiconductors similarly rated, usually have these devices installed in separate heat sinks, in order to achieve a good thermal decoupling of the individual components. However, the usage of different single semiconductors and/or separate heating sinks can result in cost increments and bulky systems.

Method and device for determining a control scheme for an active power filter


An image forming apparatus comprises a fixing part for fixing a toner image formed on a transfer material to the transfer material, a fan provided on the downstream side of the fixing part, for blowing air to the transfer material having passed through the fixing part, and an airflow control part for controlling the amount of air to be blown from the fan. When the basis weight of the transfer material is larger than a first threshold value, the airflow control part sets the amount of air to be blown to a value smaller than that in a case where the basis weight of the transfer material is smaller than the first threshold value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a laser beam printer.
2. Description of the Background Art
In an image forming apparatus (a laser beam printer and the like), a large amount of heat is given by a fixing unit or the like, to thereby fix a toner image formed on paper to the paper. Then, the paper having passed through the fixing unit further passes through a conveyance roller pair for output, to be outputted on a paper output tray.
In continuous printing wherein a plurality of printed matters are continuously outputted, the plurality of printed matters (sheets of paper) are stacked on the paper output tray. At that time, the sheets of paper on the paper output tray have considerably high temperature. For this reason, there occur some phenomena where a toner image on a sheet of paper among the plurality of stacked sheets of paper is adhered to another sheet of paper, where adjacent sheets of paper are adhered to each other through the mediation of a toner image on one sheet of paper, and the like. These phenomena may cause degradation of the image and are considered to be disadvantageous.
In order to avoid these phenomena, there is a technique of blowing air to sheets of paper having been subjected to a fixing process in order to cool these sheets of paper. For example, an image forming apparatus disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Gazette No. 2000-95414 (Patent Document 1) comprises a cooling fan for blowing air to sheets of paper to be outputted to a paper output tray. In Patent Document 1, the amount of air to be blown from the cooling fan is controlled to be relatively large when OHP sheets are outputted and the amount of air to be blown from the cooling fan is controlled to be relatively small when sheets of plain paper are outputted.
In an image forming apparatus such as a laser beam printer, sheets of paper having different thickness, such as plain paper and thick paper, are used.
In printing of thick paper, generally, by controlling the fixing speed to be relatively low, a sufficient amount of heat can be given to the sheet of paper (see e.g., Japanese Patent Application Laid Open Gazette No. 9-281833 (Patent Document 2)).
When the fixing speed is set to be low in printing of thick paper, however, the image forming speed also becomes low.
Therefore, in order to suppress a decrease in the image forming speed, it is preferable that the fixing process should be performed, accompanying high-speed conveyance.
Also in such a fixing process accompanying high-speed conveyance, in order to avoid degradation of an image due to adhesion of the image or the like, there is a possible case where air is blown to cool the sheet of paper.
The inventor of the present invention has learned, however, that when the same amount of air is blown to both the thick paper and the plain paper in the fixing process accompanying high-speed conveyance, either one type of paper cannot be appropriately cooled. The inventor also has learned that even if the amount of air to be blown from the cooling fan is controlled to be small when sheets of plain paper which are relatively thin are outputted, it is not possible to perform appropriate cooling.

Image forming apparatus with fan for blowing air to transfer sheet

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


Devices and apparatus for limb positioning and instrument calibration are disclosed for use in radiographic imaging systems. In one aspect of the invention, a limb positioning device is disclosed, including a support surface for placement of a limb (e.g., typically a wrist) thereon, a pair of side blocks, at least one of which is moveable to accommodate placement of the limb therebetween, a biasing mechanism for urging the blocks together, and a clamping mechanism for immobilizing the limb between the side blocks and upon the support surface. In another aspect of the invention, a calibration apparatus is disclosed, including a positioning means for positioning a limb between a radiation source and a detector, and at least two blocks of material having different radiation absorptive properties, each block being disposed adjacent to the limb and also between the radiation source and the detector, such that differences in the intensity of radiation transmitted through materials can be sensed in the detector and used to calibrate the images of the limb during operation. In one embodiment, the two dissimilar materials further include a bone equivalent material and a tissue equivalent material.

The technical field of this invention is radiology and, in particular, bone absorptiometry by radiographic measurements.
The depletion of bone mineral content, typically referred to as osteoporosis, is a common consequence of a variety of diseases and natural aging processes. In addition to metabolic bone diseases and aging, bone minerals can be lost as the result of drugs, stress, dietary deficiencies, pregnancy or lactation. When skeletal bone mass drops below the level necessary to provide mechanical support, the depletion of bone mineral content becomes an important cause of morbidity, particularly in elderly patients.
Unfortunately, at present there are no reliable and inexpensive systems for gauging bone mineral content (BMC) with any high degree of precision, particularly during the early stages of osteoporosis or other mineral depletion disorders when dietary supplements and therapeutic agents may reverse the course of demineralization and prevent debilitating fractures or otherwise slow the progress of the disease.
Conventional methods for determining bone mineral content typically involve measurements of radiation absorption in the bone. U.S. Pat. No. 3,715,588 issued to Rose on Feb. 6, 1973, is illustrative of a prior art "bone scanner" in which a collimated X-ray beam is passed through a bone (e.g., the wrist) and detected by a radiation detector mechanically coupled to the X-ray source. The system scans back and forth across the bone to produce a complete measurement of the bone and surrounding tissue. Because of inherent differences in tissue and bone absorption, bone density (and, hence, mineral content) can be inferred from a logarithmic ratio of the intensity of radiation detected after transmission through the two media.
One problem with bone absorptiometry systems often lies in the inability of the apparatus to physically constrain the patient's limb efficiently for good spatial resolution of the bone and accurate repositioning. Another problem can arise when the limb clamping mechanism leave gaps around the limb, such that absorption irregularities are introduced. Yet, another problem lies in the difficulty in determining the thickness of the limb section insofar as the thickness may vary with the patient's age and current health.
Moreover, additional errors in bone mineral constant measurements can be caused by changes in the energy of the radiation source during operation and from one measurement to the next (or if measurements are taken with different machines). Furthermore, these problems can be compounded by variations in the fat content of a patient's soft tissue over time.
These defects often lead to BMC errors on the order of five percent or more for individual patients, precluding effective use of radiographic imaging techniques for monitoring progressive changes in bone mineral content.
There exists a need for more precise bone absorptiometry systems that can be used by the general medical community. In particular, there exists a long-felt need in the field for better limb positioning and calibration systems for radiographic imaging.

Limb positioning and calibration apparatus for radiographic imaging