An auditory ossicle prosthesis, which at one end has a first securing element for mechanical connection to a member of the ossicular chain, which securing element is designed in the form of a loop that encloses the member, is partially open to the outside via a slit-like aperture and engages with a force fit around the member, the slit-like aperture being considerably smaller than the diameter of the member engaged by the loop, wherein, after attachment, the loop bears with a force fit on the engaged member via at least three areas, and that, in the circumferential direction around the engaged member, at least three areas of the loop do not touch the engaged member but instead each extend at a distance from the surface of the latter.

An auditory ossicle prosthesis of this kind is, for example, known from German Utility Model DE 296 09 687 U1, from WO 02/069850 A1 or from U.S. Pat. No. 6,554,861 B2.
The role of the middle ear in humans, with its auditory ossicles, is to take up the sound waves impacting the tympanic membrane via the external acoustic meatus and transmit them to the fluid-filled inner ear. The three auditory ossicles are the hammer (malleus), which is attached to the tympanic membrane, the stirrup (stapes), which is connected via its footplate (basis stapedis) to the inner ear, and the anvil (incus), which is situated between the hammer and the stirrup and is connected to these in an articulated manner. In otosclerosis, a disease of the human petrous bone (the bone in which the whole ear sits), inflammatory-like processes affecting the bone may lead to a fixing of the normally loosely oscillating stirrup. As a result of this, the sound signal is not transmitted, or is transmitted only incompletely, to the inner ear via the ossicular chain, and this leads to impaired hearing.
Auditory ossicle prostheses are used to transmit sound from the tympanic membrane to the inner ear when the ossicles of the human middle ear are entirely or partially absent or damaged. The auditory ossicle prosthesis has two ends, and, depending on the individual circumstances of the patient, one end of the auditory ossicle prosthesis is fixed, for example, to the process of the anvil or to the manubrium of the hammer, and the other end is, for example, secured to the stirrup or plunged directly into the inner ear. With the known auditory ossicle prostheses, the sound conduction between the tympanic membrane and the inner ear is often made possible only to a limited extent, since these prostheses are able only to an extremely limited extent to replace the natural anatomical features of the ossicular chain.
An important problem when fitting an auditory ossicle prosthesis lies in the connection of the prosthesis to a member of the ossicular chain, since this connection should of course on the one hand be secure and permanent, but on the other hand should also be reasonably easy for the operator to establish. U.S. Pat. No. 3,711,869 A and U.S. Pat. No. 5,370,689 A, for example, have disclosed auditory ossicle prostheses that are secured on the process of the anvil by means of a slotted eyelet. However, special tools are needed to widen the eyelet and to make it easier to push the prosthesis onto the process of the anvil, and also to fix the prosthesis by pressing the slotted eyelet together, which proves quite awkward in practice.
An auditory ossicle prosthesis known from the above-mentioned German Utility Model DE 296 09 687 U1 of the Applicant is distinguished by being relatively easily to implant, by simply clipping it onto the long process of the anvil. It holds in place solely by the clamping action of the clip. No further securing means or special fixing methods are needed.
However, in the course of implantation, tilting of the prosthesis could occur, which would make the operation more difficult for the surgeon. To overcome this problem, in a "successor model" of this prosthesis, which is described in DE 202 12 771 U1, the clamp is lengthened with at least one of its legs protruding past the opening outward in the form of an arc, with which the prosthesis can be suspended, before being slipped on, from the long process of the anvil of the human middle ear, thus affording the surgeon the possibility of changing the surgical instruments and, for example, using a small hook to slip the prosthesis onto the long process of the anvil. In addition, this measure also allows the spring characteristic of the structure to be made considerable "softer". This results in considerably improved handling of the auditory ossicle prosthesis, because greater differences in the individual shape and size of the point of attachment on the auditory ossicle of the respective patient can also be easily compensated for, without having to keep different prostheses ready.
The known auditory ossicle prostheses according to the aforementioned WO 02/069850 A1 or U.S. Pat. No. 6,554,861 B2, which are made from a shape-memory metal, can also be fixed relatively easily at a desired site of an auditory ossicle with the aid of the first securing element likewise designed as a loop. By application of heat, the shape-memory metal, for example nitinol, is provided with the impulse to close. The prosthesis loop then "remembers" its original state and is in this way secured on the process of the anvil. Consequently, this appears to be an elegant alternative to the push-on clip, which is slightly more expensive to produce, according to DE 296 09 687 U1 or DE 202 12 771 U1.
However, the known loop prostheses of the kind described in WO 02/0698590 A1 or U.S. Pat. No. 6,554,861 B2 have the considerable disadvantage that they completely enclose the corresponding point of attachment on the auditory ossicle, generally the process of the anvil or the manubrium of the hammer, which in practice can often lead to strangulation of the mucosa lying on the surrounded bone area and, consequently, to necrosis of the structures lying behind this.
Although this problem is solved by an auditory ossicle prosthesis according to EP 0 809 982 B1 from the Applicant, said prosthesis is once again a prosthesis with a clip acting as the securing element.
By contrast, the object of the present invention is now to design the known loop prostheses using the simplest possible means, in such a way that many different geometries and external diameters of the individual points of attachment in the middle ear of the respective patient can be covered with a single auditory ossicle prosthesis, while nonetheless avoiding complete strangulation of the point of attachment on the auditory ossicle and ensuring that the vessels inside the mucosa of the bone are not damaged or that they can follow a new path after the auditory ossicle prosthesis has been secured.
With an auditory ossicle prosthesis of the type defined at the outset, this complex object is achieved, according to the invention, in a surprisingly simple but effective manner, by virtue of the fact that the loop is designed in such a way that, after attachment of the auditory ossicle prosthesis, it bears with a force fit on the engaged member via at least three inner areas, and that, in the circumferential direction around the engaged member, at least three inner areas of the loop, one of which can comprise the slit-like or slit-shaped aperture, do not touch the member engaged by the loop but instead each extend at a distance from the surface of the engaged member, and in which the inner areas bearing on the engaged member and the inner areas of the loop not touching the engaged member each alternate in the circumferential direction around the engaged member.
In this way, without major technical outlay and in a simple way, the advantages of the above-described known auditory ossicle prosthesis of WO 02/069850 A1 or of U.S. Pat. No. 6,554,861 B2, which define the generic type, can be made use of, while at the same time neatly avoiding their important disadvantages compared to the prostheses according to documents DE 296 09 687 U1, DE 202 12 771 U1 or EP 0 809 982 B1. As in the "push-on clip with gaps", which is slightly more complicated and expensive to produce, the modified loop of the first securing element of the auditory ossicle prosthesis according to the invention touches the supply vessels on the auditory ossicle only in the bearing areas. The other vessels run in the areas where the loop does not bear on the auditory ossicle, with the result that the supply of nutrients to the auditory ossicle, for example the long process of the anvil and the lenticular process, is not endangered.
A particularly preferred embodiment of the auditory ossicle prosthesis according to the invention is distinguished by the fact that the loop is constructed from flat band material and bears flat on the engaged member of the ossicular chain, as a result of which the pressure exerted locally by the securing element on the bone is distributed over a large surface area and in this way can be quite considerably reduced. In this way, it is possible to avoid the formation of constrictions and, therefore, the potential development of local necrosis.
Alternatively, however, the loop can also be constructed from wire material, which simplifies production, but can still entail the disadvantages described above.
These disadvantages can be avoided, or at least largely alleviated, in developments of this simple embodiment in which the wire material has a rectangular cross section, and the loop bears with a rectangle surface on the engaged member of the ossicular chain. In this way, as also in the case of the loop made from band material, the surface contact and the pressure exerted on the bone is distributed and locally reduced.
Embodiments of the invention are very particularly preferred in which the bearing points of the securing element on the auditory ossicle are distributed such as to ensure signal transmission free from distortion. This can be achieved by the fact that the areas via which the loop bears with a force fit on the engaged member of the ossicular chain are distributed symmetrically about the circumference of the engaged member.
In the auditory ossicle prosthesis according to the invention, the loop is generally arranged at one end of an elongate shaft that connects the loop to the other end of the auditory ossicle prosthesis, as is well known per se from the prior art.
In a geometrically particularly preferred development of this class of embodiments, an area via which the loop bears with a force fit on the engaged member of the ossicular chain is arranged in direct continuation of the shaft at the loop end of the latter. In this way, in the direction of the signal transmission through the auditory ossicle prosthesis, a force is introduced free of torque directly at the location of the mechanical attachment of the first securing element to the auditory ossicle.
In developments of the above embodiments, provision can alternatively or additionally be made that an area via which the loop bears with a force fit on the engaged member of the ossicular chain is arranged, in relation to the engaged member, lying diametrically opposite the direct continuation of the shaft at the loop end of the latter, as a result of which a favorable introduction of force during signal transmission is again achieved.
Other developments of the above-described class of embodiments are distinguished by the fact that an area that can comprise the slit-like aperture of the loop, and that does not touch the member of the ossicular chain engaged by the loop, is arranged in direct continuation of the shaft at the loop end of the latter.
After the prosthesis according to the invention has been placed surgically in the middle ear and the tympanic membrane has been closed again, the so-called incorporation phase starts. During this period, scars form and generate unpredictable forces, which can lead to the prosthesis shifting from its local position. For this reason, it is very useful if, after the operation, the prosthesis is able to compensate independently for a changed position in the middle ear. Since the anatomical features of the ear, for example the position, shape and size of the stirrup, anvil, hammer and tympanic membrane, also vary between individuals, it is generally very advantageous if auditory ossicle prostheses are not made rigid, but instead have a certain flexibility or variability. To achieve this flexibility or variability, various securing and coupling devices for auditory ossicles are known that have elastic parts and/or hinges. Such a hinged connection between a securing element, mounted on the footplate of the stirrup, and an elongate shaft of the auditory ossicle prosthesis is described per se in EP 1 181 907 B1 and is offered by the Applicant under the brand name "Ball-Joint-Prothese". In a particularly preferred embodiment of the auditory ossicle prosthesis according to the invention, at least one ball joint is therefore provided on or in the elongate shaft.
In addition to the post-operative change of position, a further problem also arises after implantation of auditory ossicle prostheses. This is due to the fact that the middle ear of the human body constitutes a "semi-open bearing". Any implantation material introduced into the body, in the context of a reconstruction of the middle ear and of its structures, is therefore subject to a particular stress arising from the fact that it lies in a contaminated and infected environment, which generally attacks the material. Since the aim of implanting an auditory ossicle prosthesis must be that the implant remains in the patient's middle ear for as long as possible and without complications, a protracted attack of the material can lead to damage of the prosthesis and/or to local infection. Both consequences are unacceptable. To prevent damage of the implanted material and also of the surrounding tissue on a permanent basis, another particularly preferred embodiment of the invention involves a biologically active coating, in particular a coating that inhibits growth and/or promotes growth and/or has an antibacterial action, being provided at least in some areas of the surface of the auditory ossicle prosthesis.
The auditory ossicle prosthesis according to the invention or parts thereof can be made of titanium and/or of tantalum and/or of steel and/or of an alloy of said metals. In addition to its strength and excellent sound conduction properties, the material titanium in particular is also known to have excellent biocompatibility in the middle ear in humans.
In view of the above-mentioned post-operative adjustment of position, embodiments of the invention are advantageous in which the prosthesis or parts thereof, in particular the loop, is made of a material with shape memory or with superelastic properties, preferably nitinol, which is known per se from, for example, the documents cited at the outset, namely WO 02/069850 A1 or U.S. Pat. No. 6,554,861 B2.
However, embodiments of the invention are also possible in which the prosthesis or parts thereof is/are made of biocompatible plastics, in particular silicone, polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) or composite fiber materials. Post-operative rejection reactions can also in most cases be avoided using these materials.
An embodiment of the device according to the invention is particularly preferred in which the weight distribution of the individual parts of the prosthesis is calculated as a function of a desired, predefinable frequency response of the sound conduction in the middle ear. It is thus possible, without major additional technical outlay, to achieve a degree of tuning of the sound propagation properties by means of an individually configured auditory ossicle prosthesis.
Such a tuning effect can be achieved, in particular embodiments, by the fact that at least one additional weight is secured on a part of the ossicular chain or of the prosthesis as a function of a desired, predefinable frequency response of the sound conduction in the middle ear.
In advantageous developments of these embodiments, the additional weight is secured on a part of the ossicular chain or the prosthesis by means of a clip. In addition, the additional weight and/or the clip can also be coated with a biologically active coating.
Depending on the individual defect that is to be remedied in a patient by use of the auditory ossicle prosthesis according to the invention, or that is at least to be alleviated in terms of its effects, the construction of the prosthesis is designed accordingly. In many embodiments, for example, the prosthesis can be secured at one end to the process of the anvil and at the other to the stirrup, or it can be plunged directly into the inner ear. In still further embodiments of the invention, the prosthesis is secured at one end to the manubrium of the hammer and at the other end to the anvil or to the stirrup, or is plunged directly into the inner ear. In this connection, an advantageous design is one in which the auditory ossicle prosthesis is located at the end point of the hammer (umbo) or directly next to it, as a result of which the maximum lever action is achieved for mechanically transmitting sound through movements in the artificial or natural ossicular chain. Other particularly preferred embodiments of the device according to the invention are distinguished by the fact that the auditory ossicle prosthesis is at one end coupled directly to the inner ear, in particular via a plunger, by means of perforation of the footplate of the stirrup (stapedectomy or stapedotomy) and/or by means of opening the human cochlea (cochleotomy).
In alternative embodiments of the auditory ossicle prosthesis according to the invention, the other end of the prosthesis remote from the loop can be provided with a second securing element, particularly also designed as a loop, as a closed bell, as a bell with one or more slits, or as a clip, for mechanical connection to a further member of the ossicular chain.
In further, particularly simple embodiments, the other end of the prosthesis remote from the loop is provided with a second securing element, designed in particular as a stamp or simple wire, for mechanical connection to the footplate of the stirrup without perforation.
A further embodiment of the invention, finally, is distinguished by the fact that the prosthesis is connected to an active vibration part of an active, in particular implantable hearing aid. In this way, further hearing damage can also be largely remedied by application of modern electronics or can at least be substantially alleviated in terms of its effects, in which case, on account of the above-described coating, a physical connection of the prosthesis to the outside world does not cause any problems resulting from increased bacterial ingress into the area of the middle ear, if the coating is made suitably antibacterial.
Further features and advantages of the invention will become clear from the following detailed description of illustrative embodiments of the invention, from the figures in the drawing, which shows important details of the invention, and also from the claims. The individual features can each be realized singly or in any desired combinations in variants of the invention.


Disclosed are a method and device for uplink control signal transmission, a user terminal and a storage medium. The method includes: sending, by the user terminal, K predefined sequences on M transmission symbols in a Transmission Time Interval (TTI) to transmit B-bit uplink control information, wherein M is a positive integer, K is an integer, 1≤K≤2B, the B is an integer greater than or equal to 1, one of the K predefined sequences is sent on each of the M transmission symbols, the predefined sequences have a length of N and are mapped to N subcarriers of corresponding transmission symbols, N=2n with n being a positive integer.

In Long Term Evolution (LTE) and LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) systems of a 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), a Transmission Time Interval (TTI) is a basic unit for scheduling downlink and uplink transmission in a time domain. For example, in an LTE/LTE-A Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) system, a time dimension is divided into radio frames having the length of 10 ms, herein each of the radio frames includes ten sub-frames and the length of the TTI is equal to the length of the sub-frame and is 1 ms. Each of the sub-frames includes two time slots and each time slot is 0.5 ms long. Each downlink time slot contains seven Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols (six OFDM symbols are included under an extended cyclic prefix), and each uplink time slot contains seven Single Carrier-Frequency Division Multiplexing Access (SC-FDMA) symbols (six SC-FDMA symbols are included under the extended cyclic prefix).
Compared with the LTE/LTE-A system, 3GPP subsequent evolution such as a 5th Generation (5G) mobile communication system will support a higher rate (Gbps), a massive link (1M/Km2), an ultra-low time delay (1 ms), higher reliability, hundredfold energy efficiency improvement and the like so as to support a new change in a demand. Among them, the ultra-low time delay as a key index in a 5G technology has a direct impact on the development of time delay constrained services such as an Internet of vehicles, industrial automation, remote control and an intelligent power grid.
However, an air interface time delay index of the existing LTE/LTE-A system is about 10 ms, which no longer meets the demand. An effective solution is to reduce the length of the TTI. For example, by reducing the 1 ms length of the TTI to 0.5 ms length or even 1-2 OFDM symbols, the minimum scheduling time may be reduced manyfold and thus the single transmission time delay is reduced manyfold.
When the length of the TTI is reduced, a transmission structure for sending an Acknowledgement (ACK) instruction, a Negative Acknowledgement (NACK) message and a Scheduling Request (SR) in an existing Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) will not be directly used. And meanwhile, with the reduction in the number of the symbols in the TTI, the overhead of Reference Symbols (RS) is too large. Therefore, there hasn't any appropriate technical solution yet at present.

Method and device for uplink control signal transmission, user terminal, and storage medium


A surrounding information obtaining unit determines whether a first vehicle has traveled on a different road than a road on which a host vehicle travels, on the basis of information indicating roads and a facility present around the host vehicle and a travel state of the first vehicle. A difference checking unit checks whether a target road determined to have been traveled by the first vehicle is included in host vehicle map information. A wireless communication unit inquires whether an unknown target road confirmed not to be included in the host vehicle map information is included in master map information in a server device. When the unknown target road is included in the master map information, the wireless communication unit receives updating map information including the unknown target road from the server device. A map updating unit updates the host vehicle map information using the updating map information.

For example, a navigation device described in Patent Literature 1 creates new road information from a travel path of a host vehicle when the host vehicle is traveling on a road that is not included in map information, and adds the new road information to the existing map information, and thereby updates the map information.

Map updating device, map updating system, and map updating method


A method and apparatus for updating databases are disclosed. In response to a flashback request, a database object is restored to a state as of a specified flashback time. The changes introduced into the database object are reversed in a sequence starting with a change introduced into the database object immediately before issuance of the flashback request and ending with a change introduced into the database object immediately after the specified flashback time.

In database systems, a "transaction" refers to an atomic set of operations performed against a database, which may access, create, modify or delete database data or metadata. A "commit" occurs when the transaction has completed its processing and any changes to the database by the transaction are ready to be permanently implemented in the database system.
Transaction log records can be maintained in a database system to allow data recovery in the event of an error, that may include hardware failure, network failure, process failure, database instance failure, data access conflicts, user errors, and statement failures in database access programs.
Various types of transaction log records can be maintained in a database system for data recovery. One type of log record that may be maintained is the "undo" record. Undo records contain information about changes that were introduced into the database system. For example, if a row in a table was modified, the changes will be stored in the undo record associated with the block of the database system that includes the modified table row.
Conventional database systems do not include built-in mechanisms to undo changes made by a committed transaction without taking database systems offline. Moreover, conventional database systems do not include built-in mechanisms to recover data after several committed transactions took place without taking database systems offline.
There are several data recovery mechanisms currently available and utilized for some type of data recovery, however, neither one solves the above stated problem. For example, a "flashback database" feature is an off-line operation that provides backup of the entire database. Maintaining a backup copy of the entire database system requires configuring and utilizing a lot of resources. Moreover, even when recovery is required for only a single row of a singe table, the entire database system is replaced with the backup copy.
Another existing recovery mechanism, attempting on unsuccessfully solving the above-stated problem, is Create Table As Of (CTAF) query that returns a copy of the specified table as of the specified time. However, this operation does not preserve indexes and constraints and simply re-creates the data. Moreover, if only a single row was changed and needs to be recovered, the CTAF operation re-creates the entire table regardless of its size.
Import/Export operations may be used in conventional database systems to achieve table recoveries in case of system errors, however, import/export operations also recover entire tables even in situations wherein recovery of only a single row of data is necessary. In addition, in order for the import/export operation to succeed, the export operation has to take place at the flashback time.
What is needed, therefore, is a solution that overcomes these and other shortcomings of the prior art.

Online recovery of user tables using flashback table


A device for guiding objects that are connected to one another in a strip form and that are to be individually applied to packaging containers includes a feed wheel for receiving the objects and feeding them in a forward direction. A guide plate surrounds an end of the feed wheel and the guide plate is connected to an arrangement that allows the position of the guide plate to be adjusted relative to the feed wheel.

Within the packaging industry, e.g. in the manufacture of parallelepiped-shaped packages with liquid foodstuffs, objects e.g. straws or spoons will often be applied to the packaging container. These various objects for application are often found in connected strip form where each single object is individually prepacked between two thin plastic films. The object is separated from the connected strip and applied to each packaging container.
Within the packaging industry various types of straws have been developed such as straight tubes of various lengths or various diameters, U-shaped tubes or telescopic tubes. These different types of tubes often require individual height positioning on the packaging container for each type of tube and for each size of packaging container, so that the tube does not project beyond the periphery of the packaging container. This con entail a disadvantage when the packaging container is often collectively distributed in some form of collective container.
Hitherto in order to satisfy the requirement for different straws on packaging containers, a number of different feed wheels has been used, i.e. drive mechanisms for onward feed of the connected straw strip. The feed wheel has been adjusted in height with a spring-loaded plate placed under the feed wheel. This has entailed an ever greater requirement for different spare parts and also difficulties when it is wished to change the feed wheel quickly in order to change the length of straw when production is in progress.

Device for guidance of objects connected in strip form


An electronic test plate includes a test plate comprising plurality of wells, each well configured to contain a substance to be analyzed. Sensors are arranged to sense characteristics of the substance and to generate sensor signals based on the sensed characteristics over time. The sensors are arranged so that multiple sensors are associated with each well. At least one sensor of the multiple sensors senses a characteristic of the substance that is different from a characteristic sensed by another sensor of the multiple sensors. Sensor select circuitry is arranged on a backplane disposed along the test plate. The sensor select circuitry is coupled to the sensors and enable the sensor signals of selected sensors to be accessed at a data output of the backplane.

A number of applications in biology, medicine, and toxicology involve real-time sensing of complex biophysical, biochemical, and functional characteristics of cells in physiologically-relevant 3D environments. Because these characteristics may alter heterogeneously and transiently during progression from normal to disease state and/or upon exposure to drugs and toxicants, it is desirable for cells (in single or colony states) to be monitored in parallel and continuously.


An apparatus for determining the profile of a cylindrical workpiece whose radius varies with axial position. The apparatus is equipped with a spindle head and a pair of detectors. The spindle head supports and rotates the workpiece. The detectors are mounted on opposite sides of the axis of rotation of the workpiece and detect the position of the outer surface of the workpiece. When the workpiece is being rotated, the spindle head is moved parallel to the axis of the spindle. As a result, the detectors cross the outer surface of the workpiece. Also, the detectors are moved radially along an ideal profile of the workpiece in synchronism with the movement of the head. A control unit calculates the average of first and second output signals from the detectors, respectively, and produces the average as the profile error. In another embodiment, only one detector is used. The control unit measures the profile while the detector is positioned on one side of the axis of the spindle. The output signal from the detector is stored as a first output signal in the control unit. Then, the detector is moved to the opposite side of the axis of the spindle. Under this condition, the profile is again measured. The output signal from the detector is stored as a second output signal. The profile error is calculated from the average of the stored, first and second output signals.

An X-ray microscope has a mirror for gathering light. This mirror is indicated by M in FIG. 1(a) and has a hyperboloid R1 and a paraboloid R2. In order to form this mirror M by molding, a molding die having the same hyperboloid R1 and paraboloid R2 as those of the mirror M as shown in FIG. 1(b) is employed. This die is machined by a machine tool such as a lathe. In order to efficiently gather feeble x-rays coming from outer space, it is necessary to machine this die with high profile accuracy and with small surface roughness.
In such accurate machining, it is necessary to determine the profile of the workpiece machined by the machine tool at an accuracy of the order of 0.1 .mu.m. However, when the above-described die is used, the diameter varies by several millimeters with axial position and, therefore, it is impossible to determine the profile at the required accuracy. That is, with the prior art measuring apparatus, it has been impossible to determine the profile of an object whose diameter changes greatly, at an accuracy of the order of 0.1 .mu.m.
Where the profile of a workpiece is determined, a measuring instrument is installed outside a machine tool. The workpiece is removed from the machine tool. Then, the profile is determined. A correcting machining operation is carried out according to the result of the measurement. In this method, the machined workpiece is needed to be shifted from the machine tool to the measuring instrument for the determination of the profile. To machine the workpiece again, it is required to be returned to the machine tool. In this way, the efficiency of the operation is low. Also, when the workpiece is mounted again on the machine tool, the position at which the workpiece is installed deviates from the original position. This makes it impossible to accurately correct the contour of the workpiece that has been once machined.
In an attempt to eliminate the foregoing problems, the present inventor has contemplated a method of determining the profile of a workpiece while it is held on a machine tool. In this method, a detector for detecting the radial position of the outer periphery of a workpiece is mounted on one side of the axis of rotation of the workpiece. The spindle head which holds and rotates the workpiece is moved parallel to the axis of rotation of the workpiece. The manner in which the radius of the workpiece varies with axial position is known from the output signal from the detector. The profile of the workpiece is determined from the relation of the radius to the axial position.
In this method, the workpiece is displaced radially while the spindle head is moving because of an error introduced in the straightness of the table that supports the spindle head. As a result, the output signal from the detector involves the straightness error. Hence it is impossible to accurately measure the contour of the workpiece.

Method and apparatus for determining profile of cylindrical object


A bicycle disk brake pad comprises a backing plate and a friction member. The friction member comprises a friction brake part and a wear indicating part, wherein the friction part is adapted to contact a rotating brake member, and the wear indicating part is mounted to the backing plate. The friction brake part and the wear indicating part each comprise a common material and a harder material that is harder than the common material. A proportion of the harder material in the wear indicating part is greater than a proportion of the harder material in the friction brake part.

The present invention is directed to bicycles and, more particularly, to a bicycle disk brake pad.
Disk brake pads normally pinch a disk brake rotor that rotates along with the wheel in order to brake the wheel. Resin pads are known examples of conventional disk brake pads. Such pads are shown in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application (Kokai) 6-74267. As shown in that reference, resin pads may comprise a backing plate and a friction member attached to the backing plate by an adhesive. The friction member may comprise several powdered elements joined together by a synthetic resin binder. When the friction member wears down to the backing plate, the backing plate contacts the disk brake rotor and makes noise, thus warning the user that the friction member is worn. Unfortunately, such contact between the backing plate and the rotor also can damage or essentially destroy the rotor, since the backing plate usually is made of the same material as the rotor.

Bicycle disk brake pad with friction and wear indicating parts


Antigen binding proteins that bind to human CGRP receptor (CGRP R) are provided. Nucleic acids encoding the antigen binding protein, vectors, and cells encoding the same are also provided. The antigen binding proteins can inhibit binding of CGRP R to CGRP, and are useful in a number of CGRP R related disorders, including the treatment and/or prevention of migraine headaches.

The instant application contains a Sequence Listing which has been submitted via EFS-Web and is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. Said ASCII copy, created on Dec. 14, 2009, is named A14720US.txt, and is 293,258 bytes in size
The calcitonin superfamily of peptides includes at least five known members: calcitonin, amylin, adrenomedullin, and two calcitonin gene-related peptides ("CGRP"), CGRP1 (also known as ctCGRP, or CGRP) and CGRP2 (also known as βCGRP). CGRP is a 37 amino acid vasoactive neuropeptide expressed in both the central and peripheral nervous systems, and has been shown to be a potent vasodilator in the periphery, where CGRP-containing neurons are closely associated with blood vessels. CGRP-mediated vasodilatation is also associated with neurogenic inflammation, as part of a cascade of events that results in extravasation of plasma and vasodialation of the microvasculature and is present in migraine. Amy1 in also has specific binding sites in the CNS and is thought to regulate gastric emptying and have a role in carbohydrate metabolism. Adrenomedullin is a potent vasodilator. adrenomedullin has specific receptors on astrocytes and its messenger RNA is upregulated in CNS tissues that are subject to ischemia. (Zimmermann, et al., Identification of adrenomedullin receptors in cultured rat astrocytes and in neuroblastoma glioma hybrid cells (NG108-15), Brain Res., 724:238-245 (1996); Wang et al., Discovery of adrenomedullin in rat ischemic cortex and evidence for its role in exacerbating focal brain ischemic damage, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 92:11480-11484 (1995)).
Calcitonin is involved in the control of bone metabolism and is also active in the central nervous system (CNS). The biological activities of CGRP include the regulation of neuromuscular junctions, of antigen presentation within the immune system, of vascular tone and of sensory neurotransmission. (Poyner, D. R., Calcitonin gene-related peptide: multiple actions, multiple receptors, Pharmacol. Ther., 56:23-51 (1992); Muff et al., Calcitonin, calcitonin gene related peptide, adrenomedullin and amylin: homologous peptides, separate receptors and overlapping biological actions, Eur. J. Endocrinol., 133: 17-20 (1995)). Three calcitonin receptor stimulating peptides (CRSPs) have also been identified in a number of mammalian species; the CRSPs may form a new subfamily in the CGRP family. (Katafuchi, T and Minamino, N, Structure and biological properties of three calcitonin receptor-stimulating peptides, novel members of the calcitonin gene-related peptide family, Peptides, 25(11):2039-2045 (2004)).
The calcitonin superfamily peptides act through seven-transmembrane-domain G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). The calcitonin receptor ("CT", "CTR" or "CT receptor") and CGRP receptors are type II ("family B") GPCRs, which family includes other GPCRs that recognize regulatory peptides such as secretin, glucagon and vasoactive intestinal polypeptide (VIP). The best characterized splice variants of human calcitonin receptor differ depending on the presence (formerly CTRII+ or CTR1, now known as CT(b)) or absence (the major splice variant, formerly CTRII− or CTR2, now known as CT(a)) of 16 amino acids in the first intracellular loop. (Gorn et al., Expression of two human skeletal calcitonin receptor isoforms cloned from a giant cell tumor of bone: the first intracellular domain modulates ligand binding and signal transduction, J. Clin. Invest., 95:2680-2691 (1995); Hay et al., Amylin receptors: molecular composition and pharmacology, Biochem. Soc. Trans., 32:865-867 (2004); Poyner et al., 2002). The existence of at least two CGRP receptor subtypes had been proposed from differential antagonist affinities and agonist potencies in a variety of in vivo and in vitro bioassays. (Dennis et al., CGRP8-37, A calcitonin gene-related peptide antagonist revealing calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor heterogeneity in brain and periphery, J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 254:123-128 (1990); Dennis et al., Structure-activity profile of calcitonin gene-related peptide in peripheral and brain tissues. Evidence for multiplicity, J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 251:718-725 (1989); Dumont et al., A potent and selective CGRP2 agonist, [Cys(Et)2,7]hCGRP: comparison in prototypical CGRP1 and CGRP2 in vitro assays, Can. J. Physiol. Pharmacol., 75:671-676 (1997)).
The CGRP1 receptor subtype was found to be sensitive to the antagonist fragment CGRP(8-37). (Chiba et al., Calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor antagonist human CGRP-(8-37), Am. J. Physiol., 256:E331-E335 (1989); Dennis et al. (1990); Mimeault et al., Comparative affinities and antagonistic potencies of various human calcitonin gene-related peptide fragments on calcitonin gene-related peptide receptors in brain and periphery, J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 258:1084-1090 (1991)). By contrast, the CGRP2 receptor was sensitive to linear human CGRP (hCGRP) analogs, in which the cysteine residues at positions 2 and 7 were derivatized (e.g., with acetoaminomethyl [Cys(ACM)2,7] or ethylamide [Cys(Et)2,7]) but CGRP2 receptor was insensitive to fragment CGRP(8-37). (Dennis et al. (1989); Dennis et al. (1990); Dumont et al. (1997)).
Ligand specificity of calcitonin receptor and calcitonin-like receptor ("CL", "CLR" or "CRLR") depend on the co-expression of members of a family of accessory proteins called the receptor activity modifying proteins (RAMPs). The RAMP family includes three polypeptides (RAMP1, RAMP2 and RAMP3) that act as receptor modulators that determine the ligand specificity of receptors for the calcitonin family members. RAMPs are type I transmembrane proteins that share about 30% amino acid sequence identity and a common predicted topology, with short cytoplasmic C-termini, one trans-membrane domain and large extracellular N-termini that are responsible for the specificity. (McLatchie et al., (1998) RAMPs regulate the transport and ligand specificity of the calcitonin-receptor-like receptor, Nature, 393:333-339; Fraser et al., (1999) The amino terminus of receptor activity modifying proteins is a critical determinant of glycosylation state and ligand binding of calcitonin receptor-like receptor, Molecular Pharmacology, 55:1054-1059).
In 1998, the CGRP1 receptor was identified as a heterodimer composed of a novel single transmembrane domain accessory protein, receptor activity-modifying protein 1 (RAMP1), and CRLR. (McLatchie et al., supra). Cross-linking experiments suggested the CGRP receptor consisted of a one-to-one stoichiometric arrangement of CRLR and RAMP1 (Hilairet et al. JBC 276, 42182-42190 (2001)), more recent studies using several methodologies such as BRET and BiFC revealed that the functional CGRP receptor complex may be composed of asymmetric homo-oligomer of CRLR and monomer of RAMP1 (Heroux et al. JBC 282, 31610-31620 (2007)).
A purified CRLR N-terminal domain has been shown to specifically bind 125I-CGRP (Chauhan et al. Biochemistry 44, 782 (2005)), confirming the important and direct interaction between the CRLR with CGRP ligand. In particular, Leu 24 and Leu 34 of CRLR are believed to constitute the docking site of the C-terminus Phe37 of CGRP (Banerjee et al. BMC Pharmacol. 6, 9 (2006)). Furthermore, Koller et al. (FEBS Lett. 531, 464-468 (2002)) obtained evidence that that the N-terminal 18 amino acid residues of CRLR contributes the selective interaction with CGRP or adrenomedullin, and Ittner et al (Biochemistry 44, 5749-5754 (2005)) suggested that the N-terminal amino acid residues 23-60 of CRLR mediate association with RAMP1.
A structure-function analysis of RAMP1 identified residues 91-103, which correlate to "helix 3" (Simms et al. Biophys. J. 91, 662-669 (2006)), as potentially significant in interaction with CRLR, and residues Trp74 and Phe92 as potentially interacting with the CGRP ligand in connection with its binding to the CGRP receptor complex. Ligand binding studies using a human/rat RAMP1 chimera suggest that the binding site for certain small molecule inhibitors of CGRP R (e.g., BIBN4096BS), is located within a region which includes amino acids 66-102 of RAMP1 (Mallee et al. JBC 277, 14294-14298 (2002)).
CRLR has 55% overall amino acid sequence identity with CTR, although the transmembrane domains are almost 80% identical. (McLatchie et al. (1998); Poyner et al., International union of pharmacology. XXXII. The mammalian calcitonin gene-related peptides, adrenomedullin, amylin and calcitonin receptors, Pharmacol. Rev., 54:233-246 (2002)).
CRLR has been shown to form a high affinity receptor for CGRP, when associated with RAMP1, or, to preferentially bind adrenomedullin when associated with RAMP2 or RAMP3. (McLatchie et al. (1998); Sexton et al., Receptor activity modifying proteins, Cellular Signaling, 13:73-83 (2001); Conner et al., Interaction of calcitonin-gene-related peptide with its receptors, Biochemical Society Transactions 30(Part 4): 451-454 (2002)). The glycosylation state of CRLR is associated with its pharmacology. RAMPs 1, 2, and 3 transport CRLR to the plasma membrane with similar efficiencies, however RAMP1 presents CRLR as a terminally glycosylated, mature glycoprotein and a CGRP receptor, whereas RAMPs 2 and 3 present CRLR as an immature, core glycosylated adrenomedullin receptor ("AM" or "AMR" or "AM receptor". (Fraser et al. (1999)). Characterization of the CRLR/RAMP2 and CRLR/RAMP3 receptors in HEK293T cells by radioligand binding (125I-adrenomedullin as radioligand), functional assay (cAMP measurement), or biochemical analysis (SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis) revealed them to be indistinguishable, even though RAMPs 2 and 3 share only 30% amino acid sequence identity. (Fraser et al. 1999)). Differences have been observed, however, in the pharmacology for CRLR expressed with RAMP 2 versus RAMP 3. Both CGRP and CGRP8-37, as well as adrenomedullin and the adrenomedullin-derived peptide AM 22-52, are active at the RAMP 3 heterodimer, indicating that this complex may act as both a CGRP and an AM receptor. (Howitt et al., British Journal of Pharmacology, 140:477-486 (2003); Muff et al., Hypertens. Res., 26:S3-S8 (2003)). Co-expression of human CRLR with rat RAMP1, and vice versa, suggested that the RAMP1 species determined the pharmacological characteristics of the CRLR/RAMP1 complex with respect to several small molecule CGRP receptor antagonists tested. (Mallee et al., Receptor Activity-Modifying Protein 1 determines the species selectivity of non-peptide CGRP receptor antagonists, J. Biol. Chem., 277(16):14294-14298 (2002)). Unless associated with a RAMP, CRLR is not known to bind any endogenous ligand; it is currently the only GPCR thought to behave this way. (Conner et al., A key role for transmembrane prolines in calcitonin receptor-like agonist binding and signaling: implications for family B G-protein-coupled receptors, Molec. Pharmacol., 67(1):20-31 (2005)).
Calcitonin receptor (CT) has also been demonstrated to form heterodimeric complexes with RAMPs, which are known as amylin receptors ("AMY", "AMY R" or "AMY receptor"). Generally, CT/RAMP1 receptors (referred to as "AMY1" or "AMY1") have high affinity for salmon calcitonin, amylin and CGRP and lower affinity for mammalian calcitonins. For CT/RAMP2 receptors ("AMY2" or "AMY2") and CT/RAMP3 receptors ("AMY3" or "AMY3"), a similar pattern is principally observed, although the affinity for CGRP is lower and may not be significant at physiologically relevant ligand concentrations. The precise receptor phenotype is dependent on cell type and CTR splice variant (CT(a) or CT(b)), particularly for RAMP2-generated amylin receptors. For example, a pure population of osteoclast-like cells reportedly expressed RAMP2, CTR, and CRLR, but not RAMP1 or RAMP3. (Hay et al. (2004); Christopoulos et al., Multiple amylin receptors arise from receptor activity-modifying protein interaction with the calcitonin receptor gene product, Molecular Pharmacology, 56:235-242 (1999); Muff et al., An amylin receptor is revealed following co-transfection of a calcitonin receptor with receptor activity modifying proteins-1 or -3, Endocrinology, 140:2924-2927 (1999); Sexton et al. (2001); Leuthauser et al., Receptor-activity-modifying protein 1 forms heterodimers with two G-protein-coupled receptors to define ligand recognition, Biochem. J., 351:347-351 (2000); Tilakaratne et al., Amylin receptor phenotypes derived from human calcitonin receptor/RAMP co-expression exhibit pharmacological differences dependent on receptor isoform and host cell environment, J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther., 294:61-72 (2000); Nakamura et al., Osteoclast-like cells express receptor activity modifying protein 2: application of laser capture microdissection, J. Molec. Endocrinol., 34:257-261 (2005)).
Table 1, below, summarizes the relationship of the receptor components discussed above.
TABLE 1ReceptorCT (calcitoninComponentCRLR (CL)receptor)RAMP1CGRP receptorAMY1 receptorRAMP2AM1 receptorAMY2 receptorRAMP3AM2 receptorAMY3 receptor
Therapeutic uses of CGRP antagonists have been proposed. Noda et al. described the use of CGRP or CGRP derivatives for inhibiting platelet aggregation and for the treatment or prevention of arteriosclerosis or thrombosis. (EP 0385712 B1). Liu et al. disclosed therapeutic agents that modulate the activity of CTR, including vehicle-conjugated peptides such as calcitonin and human αCGRP. (WO 01/83526 A2; US 2002/0090646 A1). Vasoactive CGRP peptide antagonists and their use in a method for inhibiting CGRP binding to CGRP receptors were disclosed by Smith et al.; such CGRP peptide antagonists were shown to inhibit CGRP binding to coronary artery membranes and to relax capsaicin-treated pig coronary arteries. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,268,474 B1; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,205 B2). Rist et al. disclosed peptide analogs with CGRP receptor antagonist activity and their use in a drug for treatment and prophylaxis of a variety of disorders. (DE 19732944 A1).
CGRP is a potent vasodilator that has been implicated in the pathology of a number of vasomotor symptoms, such as all forms of vascular headache, including migraines (with or without aura) and cluster headache. Durham, N. Engl. J. Med. 350:1073-1 075, 2004. Migraine pathophysiology involves the activation of the trigeminal ganglia, where CGRP is localized, and CGRP levels significantly increase during a migraine attack. This in turn, promotes cranial blood vessel dilation and neurogenic inflammation and sensitization. (Doods, H., Curr. Opin. Investig. Drugs, 2:1261-1268 (2001)). Further, the serum levels of CGRP in the external jugular vein are elevated in patients during migraine headache. Goadsby et al., Ann. Neurol. 28:183-7, 1990. Intravenous administration of human ci-CGRP induced headache and migraine in patients suffering from migraine without aura, supporting the view that CGRP has a causative role in migraine (Lassen et al, Cephalalgia 22:54-61, 2002).
Migraine is a complex, common neurological condition that is characterized by severe, episodic attacks of headache and associated features, which may include nausea, vomiting, sensitivity to light, sound or movement. In some patients, the headache is preceded or accompanied by an aura. The headache pain may be severe and may also be unilateral in certain patients. Migraine attacks are disruptive to daily life. In US and Western Europe, the overall prevalence of migraine sufferers is 11% of the general population (6% males; 15-18% females). Furthermore, the median frequency of attacks in an individual is 1.5/month. While there are a number of treatments available to alleviate or reduce symptoms, preventive therapy is recommended for those patients having more than 3-4 attacks of migraine per month. Goadsby, et al. New Engl. J. Med. 346(4): 257-275, 2002. Some migraine patients have been treated with topiramate, an anticonvulsant that blocks voltage-dependent sodium channels and certain glutamate receptors (AMPA-kainate), potentiates GABA-A receptor activity, and blocks carbonic anhydrase. The relatively recent success of serotonin 5HT-I B/ID and/or 5HT-1 a receptor agonists, such as sumatriptan, in some patients has led researchers to propose a serotonergic etiology of the disorder. Unfortunately, while some patients respond well to this treatment, others are relatively resistant to its effects.
Possible CGRP involvement in migraine has been the basis for the development and testing of a number of compounds that inhibit release of CGRP (e.g., sumatriptan), antagonize at the CGRP receptor (e.g., dipeptide derivative BIBN4096BS (Boehringer Ingelheim); CGRP(8-37)), or interact with one or more of receptor-associated proteins, such as, RAMP1. Brain, S. et al., Trends in Pharmacological Sciences 23:51-53, 2002. Alpha-2 adrenoceptor subtypes and adenosine Al receptors also control (inhibit) CGRP release and trigeminal activation (Goadsby et al., Brain 125:1392-401, 2002). On the other hand, treatment with compounds that exclusively inhibit neurogenic inflammation (e.g., tachykinin NKI receptor antagonists) or trigeminal activation (e.g., 5HT10 receptor agonists) appears to be relatively ineffective as acute treatments for migraine, leading some to question whether inhibiting release of CGRP is the basis of effective anti-migraine treatments. Arulmani et al., Eur. J. Pharmacol. 500:315-330, 2004.
Although the precise pathophysiology of migraine is not yet well understood, the therapeutic use of CGRP antagonists and CGRP-targeting aptamers has been proposed for the treatment of migraine and other disorders. (E.g., Olesen et al., Calcitonin gene-related peptide receptor antagonist BIBN 4096 BS for the acute treatment of migraine, New Engl. J. Med., 350:1104-1110 (2004); Perspective: CGRP-receptor antagonists—a fresh approach to migraine, New Engl. J. Med., 350:1075 (2004); Vater et al., Short bioactive Spiegelmers to migraine-associated calcitonin gene-related peptide rapidly identified by a novel approach: tailored-SELEX, Nuc. Acids Res., 31(21 e130):1-7 (2003); WO 96/03993). Further, a potent small-molecule CGRP antagonist has been shown to relieve moderate-to-severe migraine attacks, including migraine pain and migraine-associated symptoms, in a recent Phase III clinical trial (Connor, et al. Efficacy and Safety of telcagepant (MK-0974), a Novel Oral CGRP Receptor Antagonist, for Acute Migraine Attacks. Poster, European Headache and Migraine Trust International Congress, London, England, September 2008).
CGRP may also be involved in chronic pain syndromes other than migraine. In rodents, intrathecally delivered CGRP induces severe pain, and CGRP levels are enhanced in a number of pain models. In addition, CGRP antagonists partially block nociception in acute pancreatitis in rodents (Wick, et al., (2006) Surgery, Volume 139, Issue 2, Pages 197-201). Together, these observations imply that a potent and selective CGRP receptor antagonist can be an effective therapeutic for treatment of chronic pain, including migraine.


An automotive glove box assembly. The glove box assembly includes a storage bin and a door disposed in hinging relation to the storage bin. The door includes an expansible body having a face portion facing towards a vehicle occupant and a back portion in opposing relation to the face portion. The expansible body is operatively connected to at least one gas emitting unit such that upon discharge of gas from the gas emitting unit, the expansible body is pressurized and the face portion is projected outwardly to an extended position so as to intercept lower extremities of the occupant.

This invention relates generally to inflatable vehicle protective devices and, more particularly, to an inflatable knee bolster incorporated within an operable glove box door at a passenger side of a transportation vehicle.
Inflatable knee bolsters have been developed to enhance vehicle occupant protection in the event of sudden vehicle deceleration. Such devices increase the duration of deceleration of an occupant""s femurs and serve to control upper torso kinematics during a frontal impact event. In operation the bolster impact surface is moved from a stored position to an extended position so as to intercept an occupant""s knees early in the impact event. This allows the knees more time to decelerate to the vehicle""s final velocity. The initial positioning of the bolster impact surface in a retracted stored position allows more styling flexibility and enhances occupant entry and egress from the vehicle during day to day use.
One prior inflatable knee bolster construction has utilized an inflatable air bag sandwiched between an impact surface and a reaction surface. When a gas generating inflator is triggered, the air bag expands so as to move the impact surface a predetermined distance to an active position. This position may be controlled by tethers extending between the impact surface and the reaction surface. While such a construction may provide a desired degree of protection, past constructions have been relatively complex and may require a substantial amount of space within the vehicle. The space requirements for mounting the bolster apparatus may be particularly problematic on the passenger side of the vehicle where little room may exist under the dash panel.
It would be desirable to provide a simple inflatable knee bolster which is suitable for disposition in front of a vehicle occupant seated on the passenger side of the vehicle in a substantially unobtrusive manner so as to promote substantial freedom in the design of the vehicle interior.
The present invention provides advantages and alternatives over prior knee bolster installations by providing an inflatable knee bolster which may be incorporated within an operable hinging door for a glove box disposed in opposing relation to a vehicle passenger. Heretofore, inflatable knee bolsters on a passenger side of a vehicle have been located at positions generally below the glove box in a separate installation. An independent glove box door was nonetheless used to open and close a glove box opening. The present invention offers the benefit of providing both the traditional opening and closing function of the glove box door as well as the inflatable protective function of a knee bolster within a single unit. This combined function provides substantial additional flexibility in the design of an aesthetically pleasing vehicle interior without sacrificing occupant protection.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description. While the invention will be described in connection with certain illustrated embodiments, constructions and procedures, it is to be understood that such embodiments, constructions and procedures are exemplary and explanatory only and are in no way to be construed as restrictive of the invention. On the contrary it is the intent of the applicants to cover all alternatives, modifications, and equivalents as may be included within the true spirit and scope of the invention.


A PMR writer with a tapered main pole layer and tapered non-magnetic top-shaping layer is disclosed that minimizes trailing shield saturation. A second non-magnetic top shaping layer may be employed to reduce the effective TH size while the bulk of the trailing shield is thicker to allow a larger process window for back end processing. A sloped surface with one end at the ABS and a second end 0.05 to 0.3 microns from the ABS is formed at a 10 to 80 degree angle to the ABS and includes a sloped surface on the upper portion of the main pole layer and on the non-magnetic top shaping layer. An end is formed on the second non-magnetic top shaping layer at the second end of the sloped surface followed by forming a conformal write gap layer and then depositing the trailing shield on the write gap layer and along the ABS.

Shield pole perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) writers are commonly used in current PMR (hard disk drive) HDD products. PMR writers have become the mainstream technology for disk drive applications beyond 200 Gbit/in2, replacing longitudinal magnetic recording (LMR) devices. Due to the continuing reduction of transducer size, high moment soft magnetic thin films with a Bs above 22 kG are required for write head applications. A PMR head combines the features of a single pole writer and a soft magnetic underlayer to offer a great advantage over LMR in providing higher write field, better read back signal, and potentially much higher areal density. In particular, a shielded pole head can provide a large head field gradient at the trailing side due to the presence of a trailing shield and substantially improve the write performance.
Referring to FIG. 1a, a prior art shield pole PMR writer 1 is depicted from a side-track view. There is an essentially flat write gap layer 4 which separates a main pole layer 3 and a trailing shield 5 by a constant (WG) thickness. One end of the main pole layer is formed along an air bearing surface 6 that is positioned above a magnetic recording medium 2. The height of the trailing shield also known as throat height (TH) is the distance from the side of the trailing shield along the ABS to the side opposite the ABS and is typically about 0.1 to 0.3 microns. The PMR writer moves along the ABS in a negative z direction during a write operation. From a down-track perspective in FIG. 1b, the main pole layer 3 is comprised of a write pole 3a that terminates in a pole tip 3t at the ABS 6-6, and a yoke 3b that flares outward at an angle θ from the end of the write pole opposite the ABS. The end of the write pole 3a lies along the plane 7-7 that is a neck height (NH) distance from the ABS. The intersection of the yoke 3b and write pole 3a is at the neck 8. In order to optimize both write field gradient and write field magnitude, TH (FIG. 1a) is preferably short. However, in prior art PMR writer structures, a short TH can be very challenging to control during the fabrication process. Furthermore, if the TH becomes too small, saturation of the trailing shield and degradation of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) may occur. Therefore, an improved PMR writer design is desired that is more tolerant of short TH dimensions and enables improved writability while minimizing trailing shield saturation and avoiding loss of process control during fabrication.
A routine search of the prior art revealed the following references. In U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0219743, a single pole vertical write head is described having a trailing shield tapered to the same angle as the main pole with a constant write gap thickness between the trailing shield and main pole.
In U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2005/0237665, the main pole is tapered at the leading side to maintain high trailing field gradients and is shielded on four sides to minimize adjacent track erasure.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0203395 discloses a perpendicular recording head with a tapered magnetic shield to minimize stray fields at the recording surface. The ABS is post-lapped using an ion milling process to produce a recess in the shield away from the ABS at a shallow angle.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,600,519, first and second magnetic layers in a magnetic head are progressively widened (tapered) between a zero throat point and a flare point so that the length of the magnetic yoke layers between the aforementioned points is saturated nearly simultaneously to provide a constant write field about a saturation value.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,173,821 discloses a write/read head wherein a stepped pole tip effectively forms a wide gap when the head operates as a recording head and forms a narrow gap when the head functions as a read head.

Perpendicular shield pole writer with tapered main pole and tapered non-magnetic top shaping layer


A resin tube fitting prevents backwaters between its body and inner ring. The fitting includes a body, an inner ring, and a union nut. The body has main, outer, and inner sleeves, and a groove. The inner ring has a cylinder, an insert, and outer and inner protrusions. The union nut has a body and a pressing member. The inner sleeve has a through hole serving as a channel. The inner protrusion extends from the cylinder to an axial direction to contact the inner sleeve. The inner protrusion has a through hole serving as another channel connected with the inner sleeve's channel. The tip of the inner protrusion has an inner diameter not less than the minimum inner diameter of the inner sleeve. An inner peripheral surface is located at the inner periphery of the inner protrusion and causes it to reduce in inner diameter toward another axial direction.

A kind of resin tube fittings is known, which is used in devices in technical fields such as manufacture of semiconductors, medical devices, and drugs, food processing, and chemical industry. See, e.g., Patent Literature 1. The kind of resin tube fittings is used to connect tubes for transporting fluid such as ultrapure water and chemicals to other tubes or fluid devices. The fittings are designed to be coupled to longitudinal ends of the tubes. Each of the fittings has a fitting body, an inner ring, and a union nut.
The fitting body includes a main sleeve, an outer sleeve, an inner sleeve, a groove, and a first thread. The outer sleeve extends coaxially from the main sleeve to a first axial direction. The inner sleeve is disposed inside the outer sleeve and extends coaxially from the main sleeve to the first axial direction. The groove has the shape of a ring and is located between the outer sleeve and the inner sleeve to be open to the first axial direction. The first thread is located at an outer periphery of the outer sleeve.
The inner ring includes a cylinder, an insert, an outer protrusion, and an inner protrusion. The cylinder has an annular shape and is placed inside the outer sleeve of the fitting body. The insert has an annular shape and extends from the cylinder to the first axial direction to be pressed into the longitudinal end of the tube. The outer protrusion has an annular shape and extends from the cylinder to a second axial direction to be pressed into the groove. The inner protrusion has an annular shape and extends from the cylinder to the second axial direction to axially contact the inner sleeve. The inner protrusion is placed inside the outer protrusion to radially face the outer protrusion across the inner sleeve contacting the inner protrusion.
The union nut includes a nut body, a second thread, and a pressing member. The nut body has an annular shape. The second thread is located at an inner periphery of the nut body to be engaged with the first thread of the fitting body. The pressing member is designed to press the insert of the inner ring with the tube in between when the second thread is engaged with the first thread.
The configuration of the fitting allows the fitting body to be connected to the longitudinal end of the tube with the inner ring in between to form a radial sealing area between the groove of the fitting body and the outer protrusion of the inner ring and to form an axial sealing area between the inner sleeve of the fitting body and the inner protrusion of the inner ring. In the radial sealing area, a sealing force acts in a radial direction. In the axial sealing area, another sealing force acts in an axial direction. Thus, the fitting is coupled to the longitudinal end of the tube.


An asymmetric object, such as a lighter and ashtray, a clock and a base, a model airplane, etc has a base and the object levitates from the base. The base defines an interior space housing a base magnet. A support plate extends perpendicular to the base. The base also defines an interior space housing at least one base magnet. The base magnet is a permanent magnet having a north pole and a south pole. The lighter has an interior space, a base end, a levitating end, and a midpoint. The lighter has a conventional mechanism to create a flame. The lighter has at least one lighter magnet connected thereto. Lighter magnet is a permanent magnet having a north pole and a south pole and the lighter is selectively levitated from the base. Another group of levitated objects are selected from the group comprised of a toothbrush, hairbrush, comb, razor, lipstick, ruler, calculator, calendar, photograph frame, notepad and flashlight. These objects will be levitated from a base in substantially the same manner as the lighter is suspended above the ashtray.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to levitating objects using magnetic fields. More specifically, the present invention relates to levitating common objects above a specific base. These objects contain permanent magnets and are levitated over abase also containing permanent magnets.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The principals of magnets and magnetic properties have been well known in the art for centuries. Most important of these properties is the knowledge that a magnet contains two (2) poles, one north (N) and one south (S). It is commonly known that opposite poles attract, i.e. N to S, and that the same poles repel (N to N, or S to S).
Common objects like cigarette lighters, clocks, model airplanes, toothbrushes, hairbrushes, combs, razors, lipsticks, rulers, calculators, photograph frames, calendars, note pads, and flashlights are also well known in their respective arts. However, all of these objects have one thing in common, they are all effected by gravity. Also, objects like cigarette lighters, toothbrushes, hairbrushes, combs, razors, lipsticks and rulers are typically light and thin objects. The size of these objects pose some problems. Most of these objects, in their typical embodiment, are simple to pick up for the average person. However, fine motor skills are required to pick the object up off a flat surface (i.e., a desk or sink). Some persons with physical disabilities have great difficulty with the common task of removing a light, small, flat or low aspect object from a flat surface. Some physically challenged persons do not possess the fine motor skills to accomplish these tasks. Specialized versions of most of the above objects, especially in the area of personal hygiene, are available to assist the physically challenged in utilizing these objects. Most other specialized versions increase the size or add extra grasping locations to ease grasping.
Other larger, heavier objects like clocks, calculators, notepads, flashlights and photograph frames require size to increase their visibility. The preferred location for all three objects are at a distance up off the surface they are resting on. This will increase their visibility and thus their utility to the owner. However, the current inventions need large housings to hold the objects up off the surface. These housings require extra material and molding steps to produce. These housings increase the weight and bulkiness of the object without any added function. Also, typically these objects can be produced rather inexpensively and the added housing only serves to increase the cost. Another difficulty with a clock occurs during its primary use, which is to awaken the user. Most users are disoriented upon being awakened and have difficulty with either small or heavy objects. This is a problem when a user is attempting to engage the alarm delay switch (a.k.a. the xe2x80x9csnoozexe2x80x9d button) or trying to pull the alarm clock closer to switch off the alarm. An object that is light and quick and easy to grasp will assist many a user in utilizing a clock to the fullest.
As for model airplanes, many people collect scale replicas of actual aircraft or photographs of the aircraft. A problem with scale models is that they can usually only be displayed in the xe2x80x9clandedxe2x80x9d position, that is with the landing gear down or if the landing gear is up, the aircraft is still resting on the surface. The benefit of photographs of actual aircraft is that the aircraft can be depicted in mid-flight. Viewing an aircraft in mid-flight affords the pleasure of viewing the object in its element and is usually preferred. A drawback with photographs are that they are not three-dimensional and are in a fixed setting. Thus, there is a need in the art for a device that can display a model (such as an airplane) in three-dimensions and in mid-flight.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,178,707 to Littlefield discloses a magnetically suspended model airplane. This invention tethers aircraft containing permanent magnets over a magnetic base to suspend the model aircraft. Because Littlefield""s invention requires the airplane to be tethered, the aircraft is required to be set at a distance from the tether point. Thus, the size of the entire device is increased because the base must be larger to accommodate the length of the tether. Also, the tether fixes the model airplane to the base. Therefore, the tether must be permanently or firmly affixed to both the model and base. The attachment of the tether restricts the user from taking the model from the base to enjoy it at a closer distance. The tether also disturbs the aesthetics of the model airplane. Real aircraft do not have tethers. The models contained in the Littlefield device can never be a perfectly accurate model because of that limitation. The current invention requires no tethers and, thus, can be created to be a perfectly accurate scale model of any airplane.
A known invention is a pen suspended horizontally by magnetic fields using the principals similar to the current invention. However similar, there are still a number of distinctions from the levitating embodiments. First, the pen is small, light and symmetric across all three axises and essentially perfectly balanced at the midpoint. Thus, a suspended pen is extremely simple to manufacture, but vastly limits what objects can be suspended. Any non-symmetric product substituted for the pen would cause the device to fall out of balance and not be levitated properly. The current levitated embodiments of the claimed invention can be non-symmetric and can have a balance other than at the midpoint. Thus, the current invention can levitate more complex objects, due to the object""s lack of symmetry and balance, because it discloses differing magnets of differing power.
Another known object is a pen disposed vertically from a clock by the use of magnetic forces. However, the clock is not suspended or levitating, it is held in place physically by an arm. This is completely different from any embodiment of the present invention, as described below. Next, the pen is disposed, not levitated. The pen in the illustration is positioned using simple magnetic attraction. This is in opposite to the complex magnetic interaction required to levitate all of the embodiments of the current invention. Plus, this object disposes the pen vertically, while the current invention levitates objects horizontally.
A third and fourth known object is a levitating photograph frame in the shape of a cube and a levitating globe of the earth. Both of these objects levitate the frame and globe between two opposed electromagnets with the frame or globe levitating between them. The use of electromagnets require the device to be powered. Also, the globe device requires the user""s manual adjustment to achieve levitation of the object. In opposite, the current invention uses permanent magnets, no electric current is necessary. Thus, the current levitating embodiments are improvements over an electromagnetic invention. There is no power or user intervention required to levitate any of the below described embodied objects.
Thus, there is still a need in the art to levitate common objects off a flat surface. For small and light objects, levitating them in mid air will allow persons without fine motor skills or other physical challenges to pick them up and use the device. Also, other embodiments will allow for disposable items to be placed within a holder that will levitate. This will reduce the waste and loss of usefulness of the object. Objects such as razors, toothbrushes, and lipsticks have a limited span of use. An embodiment will allow for the item to be replaced so as not to dispose of the entire device once the item is expended. For heavier objects, the visibility of the object can be increased without the addition of a bulky and heavy housing. For a clock containing an alarm, levitating the clock can aid in the recently awakened user to either delay or shut off the alarm. By having the clock levitate, it may be easier for the user to grasp or pull the item close so as to utilize the controls thereof. For model aircraft; depicting the aircraft in flight and having a three dimensional model are both preferred ways of viewing the model. The ability to levitate the model aircraft combines both preferred versions of displaying a model aircraft.
It is the foregoing and various other drawbacks of the prior art which the present invention seeks to overcome by providing a lighter and an ashtray, a clock and a base, a model airplane or other asymmetric object having a base and an object that levitates from the base. A support plate extends perpendicular to the base. The base also defines an interior space housing at least one base magnet. The base magnet is a permanent magnet having a north pole and a south pole. The lighter has an interior space, a base end, a levitating end, and a midpoint. The lighter has a conventional mechanism to create a flame. The lighter has at least one lighter magnet connected thereto. The lighter magnet is a permanent magnet having a north pole and a south pole and the lighter is selectively levitated from the base.
Another group of levitated objects can be selected from the group comprised of a toothbrush, hairbrush, comb, razor, lipstick, ruler, calculator, photograph frame, calendar, note pad, and flashlight. These objects will be levitated from a base in substantially the same manner as the lighter is suspended above the ashtray.

Ashtray with levitating cigarette lighter and other objects


A wireless data display system has a receiver/display unit tuned to the same frequency as a sensor/transmitter unit for monitoring wheel rotation for a vehicle such as a bicycle. The two units are preferably battery powered, and their circuits are designed for low power consumption. Both units have directed antennas positioned in alignment with each other. The receiver includes a tunable antenna to enhance signal reception and reduce sensitivity to a transmitter of an adjacent system, as well as filter and latch circuitry to reduce interference from EMI or RFI or from adjacent operation of a similar transmitter/receiver pair.

It is often desirable to effect electrical control of certain devices from a remote location or to sense some physical parameter at one point and to process and display the data at some remote point. For example, speed and distance data are often sensed electronically at the wheel of a vehicle and processed by a remote computer which converts time-dependent pulses from a wheel rotation sensor into instantaneous velocity or a summed measure of distance. Various means have been used to accomplish transmission of such pulse data between the remote points. Direct wiring between the sensor and the computer is commonly used, however such direct wiring is often cumbersome or inconvenient on some vehicles such as bicycles.
Bicycling computers typically employ a magnetically sensitive switch on the bicycle frame and a magnet on a road wheel. The switch/magnet pair is mounted so that the switch is closed by detection of the magnet once for each rotation of the wheel. Electrical wires connect the switch with a computer typically incorporating an oscillator, pulse detector/counter, arithmetic unit, and data storage for determining velocity, distance, or various derivatives thereof. A visual display such as an LCD is often used to present the calculated data to the user. Typical devices are shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,898,563 to Erisman, U.S. Pat. No. 4,007,419 to Jasmine, U.S. Pat. No. 4,071,892 to Genzling, U.S. Pat. No. 4,156,190 to Chittenden, U.S. Pat. No. 4,352,063 to Jones, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,633,216, 4,636,769, and 4,642,606 to Tsuyama. U.S. Pat. No. 4,334,190 to Sochaczevski and U.S. Pat. No. 4,434,801 to Jimenez et al. teach similar monitoring devices. However, such devices have the problem that the wires used to connect the sensors and the computer are often aesthetically intrusive, functionally cumbersome, and subject to being damaged during use.
Some remote sensor devices utilize wireless telemetry to transmit pulse data or other signals to a processor or display unit. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,625,733 to Saynajakangas teaches wireless telemetry of pulse data between a user's chest and a remote display unit. However, such remote sensor devices have no particular application to the technical problems encountered in the field of cycling computers. The typical devices tend to have complex transmitter and receiver units and requisite amplifier circuits which make them undesirable for bicycling uses where low unit cost, power consumption, and size are key factors. In addition, the transmitters typically radiate signal energy over a broad three-dimensional field which makes them unsuitable for bicycling use where interference from an adjacent bicycle with a similar transmitter/receiver could produce erroneous speed and distance measurements.
Furthermore, EMI or RFI may be present in the environment where such remote control or telemetry function is desired. Such interference may be generated by electrical appliances such as televisions, computers, and monitors, anti-theft devices, motor vehicle ignition systems, etc., as well as by operation of two telemetry devices in close proximity to each other. Operation of a receiver circuit in the presence of stray RF interference would produce high, inaccurate speed readings which, over a period of time, would produce erroneous average speed, distance, and other readings.
A typical approach to such interference problems might include reprogramming the processor unit to filter or mask out signals which fall outside of acceptable limits. However, reprogramming the processor unit would involve considerable complexity and expense, and would not prevent inaccurate readings within the defined limits. In addition, such filtering or masking would not solve the problem of adjacent operation of similar transmitter/receiver units with similar operating parameters.


A method, device, base station and UE for uplink transmission main carrier switch and control to enable the uplink transmission main carrier of the UE to switch among multiple different cells providing service for the UE, enhance the transmission flexibility of the uplink transmission main carrier of the UE, and at the same time take account of the transmission requirements of transmission power and UE services. The method for uplink transmission main carrier switch and control includes: determining the transmission resources of the cell set used for providing service for the UE, the transmission resources being configured for the user equipment (UE), wherein the transmission resources include the configured resources of uplink transmission carrier of multiple cells, the transmission resources being used for enabling the uplink transmission main carrier of UE to switch among the uplink transmission carriers corresponding to different cells; informing the UE of the transmission resource of the cell set.

As the coverage area of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) network is growing constantly, and the LTE technologies are developing constantly, a demand for a capacity may be difficult to satisfy in the traditional scheme of coverage by a macro cell due to an increasing number of subscribers, and a growing demand for a bandwidth, so that a demand of subscribers for traffic may not be satisfied simply in the simple macro coverage scheme particularly in some densely populated region where there may be a blind area in the homogenous coverage scheme, thus discouraging the subscribers from an access thereto. In view of this, the heterogeneous network has been introduced in LTE so that the LTE network can be deployed in a more flexibly pattern, and also the concept of a small cell has been proposed in that the small cell typically has a smaller coverage area and lower transmit power, and the small cell can be deployed at a shorter distance from the subscribers, e.g., indoors, to thereby improve the data rate of the subscribers.
There are significantly improved required peak rates of the Long Term Evolution-Advanced (LTE-A) system up to 1 Gbps in the downlink and 500 Mbps in the uplink as compared with the LTE system. The LTE-A system is also required to be well compatible with the LTE system. Carrier Aggregation (CA) has been introduced to the LTE-A system to thereby accommodate the improved peak rates, compatibility with the LTE system, and full use of spectrum resources as needed.
Carrier aggregation refers to such a mechanism that a plurality of cells can be aggregated for a User Equipment (UE) (also referred to a terminal), and can provide the UE concurrently with a data transmission service. Carriers corresponding to the respective cells in the system with carrier aggregation can be consecutive or inconsecutive in frequency, and there is a bandwidth up to 20 MHz of a carrier of each cell for compatibility with the LTE system, where there may be the same bandwidth or different bandwidths of the respective component carriers.
With carrier aggregation, the cells over which the user equipment operates include one Primary Cell (PCell) and several Secondary Cells (SCells), where the primary cell is responsible for the majority of control and signaling, for example, transmitting an A/N feedback for downlink data, a Channel State Information (CSI) report, a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS), and a Dedicated Scheduling Request (D-SR), making a Contention Based Random Access (CBRA), etc., where a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) is only active over the PCell; and the secondary cells are primarily responsible for acting as resources over data are transmitted, where a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH) and an SRS can be transmitted in the uplink.
At present, the UE can not be configured with a set of serving cells beyond a capacity of aggregated carriers for the UE, that is, the UE for which no uplink carriers can be aggregated can only operate over the PCell in the uplink, that is, an uplink transmission primary carrier can only be active over the PCell.
In the scenario of carrier aggregation, in order for the UE to save its power, the activation/deactivation mechanism has been introduced. In the LTE-A system, a cell is activated or deactivated, particularly explicitly or implicitly, without distinguishing between the uplink and the downlink. It shall be noted that the cell can be deactivated only implicitly.
In the explicit activation mechanism, the base station transmits an activation or deactivation Media Access Control-Control Element (MAC CE) to control the active state of the aggregated cells of the UE. FIG. 1 illustrates the format of the activation or deactivation MAC CE, where the length of the activation or deactivation MAC CE is 8 bits including C7, C6, C5, C4, C3, C2, C1, and R respectively, each of which corresponds to a cell, that is, the last bit corresponds to the PCell, where since the PCell will never be deactivated, the R bit is defaulted as 0; and the other bits correspond respectively to respective SCells, that is, Ci corresponds to the SCell numbered i. If Ci is "i=1", then it will indicate that the SCell is activated, and if Ci is "i=0", then it will indicate that the SCell is deactivated.
In the implicit deactivation mechanism, the cell is deactivated implicitly by introducing a deactivation timer configured per UE, and maintained per cell. If the base station does not configure the timer, then the length of the timer will be defaulted as the infinity.
The deactivation timer is maintained per cell as follows: if the UE receives activation signaling for some cell, then the UE will start/restart the deactivation timer corresponding to the cell; and while the timer is operating, once the UE receives scheduling signaling for uplink or downlink transmission over the cell, then the UE will restart the deactivation timer of the cell. It shall be noted that if there is across-carrier scheduling, then both the deactivation timers of the scheduling and scheduled cells will be started, where the scheduling signaling for uplink or downlink data transmission will be carried over a Physical Control Channel (PDCCH); and if the deactivation timer expires, then the UE will deactivate the cell.
In summary, there are base stations of a macro cell and small cells in the scenario of heterogeneous network deployment. Since the distance between the UE, and a transmitter of the macro cell is typically longer than the distance between the UE, and a transmitter in a network of the small cells, if carriers are aggregated for transmission by the UE, then if the macro cell is configured as a PCell of the UE, then an uplink transmission carrier of the UE will be transmitted only over the PCell at high transmit power, thus resulting in significant interference to another UE; and if a small cell is configured as a PCell of the UE, then since there is such a small coverage area of the small cell that a cell handover has to be made frequently while the UE is moving, thus interrupting service transmission during the handover, which may significantly degrade the performance, and also increase a signaling load in a core network. In the prior art, the cell handover is made as a handover among the cells for both the uplink transmission carrier and a downlink transmission carrier of the UE instead of a handover among the cells for only the uplink transmission carrier of the UE, thus failing to consider both the transmission advantages of the different cells.

Method, device, base station and UE for uplink transmission main carrier switch and control

China Academy of Telecommunications Technology


A compression-ignition engine control system is provided, which includes an intake variable mechanism and a controller. Within a first operating range and a second operating range on a higher engine load side, the controller controls the variable mechanism to form a gas-fuel ratio (G/F) lean environment in which an air-fuel ratio inside a cylinder is near a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio and burnt gas remains inside the cylinder, and controls a spark plug to spark-ignite mixture gas inside the cylinder to combust in a partial compression-ignition combustion. The controller controls the variable mechanism to advance the intake valve open timing on an advancing side of a TDC of the exhaust stroke, as the engine load increases within the first range, and retard the intake valve open timing on the advancing side of the TDC of the exhaust stroke, as the engine load increases within the second range.

Recently, Homogeneous-Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) combustion in which a gasoline fuel mixed with air is combusted by self-ignition inside a sufficiently compressed combustion chamber has attracted attention. HCCI combustion is a mode in which the mixture gas combusts at a plurality of positions simultaneously without flame propagation, and thus has a higher combustion speed of the mixture gas than in SI combustion (spark-ignition combustion) which is adopted for general gasoline engines. Therefore, HCCI combustion is said to be significantly advantageous in terms of thermal efficiency. However, in a case of implementing HCCI combustion in an engine of an automobile for which improved thermal efficiency is desired, there are various issues to be solved and an engine which suitably performs HCCI combustion has not been put into practical use. That is, while the engine mounted on the automobile greatly changes in operating state and its environmental condition, HCCI combustion has issues such as a combustion start timing of the mixture gas (a timing at which the mixture gas self-ignites) greatly varies due to external factors (e.g., atmospheric temperature) and control during a transient operation in which an engine load sharply changes being difficult.
Therefore, instead of combusting all of the mixture gas by self-ignition, it is proposed to combust a portion of the mixture gas by spark-ignition using a spark plug. That is, after forcibly combusting a portion of the mixture gas through flame propagation caused by spark-ignition (SI combustion), the remaining mixture gas is combusted by self-ignition (CI combustion). Hereinafter, such combustion mode is referred to as "SPCCI (SPark Controlled Compression Ignition) combustion."
For example, JP2009-108778A discloses an engine adopting a similar concept to the SPCCI combustion. This engine causes flame propagation combustion by spark-igniting a stratified mixture gas which is formed around a spark plug by a supplementary fuel injection, and then performs a main fuel injection inside a combustion chamber warmed up by an effect of the flame propagation combustion, so as to combust through self-ignition the fuel injected in the main fuel injection.
The CI combustion of the SPCCI combustion occurs when a temperature inside a cylinder (in-cylinder temperature) reaches an ignition temperature of the mixture gas determined by a composition of the mixture gas. Fuel efficiency is maximized by causing the CI combustion when the in-cylinder temperature reaches the ignition temperature near a top dead center of compression stroke. The in-cylinder temperature increases as pressure inside the cylinder (in-cylinder pressure) increases. An increase of the in-cylinder pressure on the compression stroke when the SPCCI combustion is performed is caused by two factors: a pressure increase due to a compressing action of a piston and a pressure increase due to heat from the SI combustion. The pressure increase due to the SI combustion becomes more significant as a combustion speed, i.e., a flame propagation speed, is higher. When an amount of burnt gas remaining inside the cylinder (residual gas amount) is large, the flame propagation speed becomes slower since the burnt gas, which is also inert gas, interrupts the flame propagation. Therefore, the pressure increase due to the SI combustion is smaller as the residual gas amount is larger. Thus, in order to control the pressure increase due to the SI combustion so that the CI combustion occurs near TDC of compression stroke, it is considered to increase the combustion speed of the SI combustion by reducing the residual gas amount as an engine load is lower where a fuel amount is smaller and a heat generation amount inside the cylinder is smaller.
On the other hand, when the fuel amount is large and the heat generation amount inside the cylinder is large, that is when the engine load is high, a temperature of exhaust gas, i.e., the temperature of the residual gas, increases. Therefore, on the high engine load side, the residual gas amount at high temperature is increased to raise the temperature inside the cylinder and improve stability of the SI combustion.
Such an adjustment of the residual gas amount can be considered to be achieved by advancing an open timing of an intake valve on exhaust stroke as the engine load increases (or retarding the open timing as the engine load decreases). For this reason, the present inventors have intensively studied about the open timing of the intake valve. As a result, it was found that by simply advancing the open timing of the intake valve on the exhaust stroke as the engine load increases, another issue arises that excessive combustion noise is generated when the engine load is high. Therefore, to put the SPCCI combustion into practical use, the open timing of the intake valve needs to be controlled more suitably.

Control system for compression-ignition engine