Methods and apparatus are provided for preventing over-shifting in electric vehicles having a multi-gear transmission and an electric motor operable in a drive mode and a regenerative braking mode. The method includes: (a) predicting the speed of the electric motor resulting from downshifting from a current gear being used to a next lower gear based on a current speed of the electric vehicle, a current speed of the electric motor, and a gear ratio of the next lower gear; (b) determining if the speed of the electric motor predicted in (a) will cause an overvoltage condition from regenerative braking or an overspin condition in the electric motor; (c) preventing downshifting to the next lower gear when it is determined that the downshifting will cause an overvoltage condition or an overspin condition in the electric motor; and (d) repeating steps (a), (b), and (c) a plurality of times.

The present application relates generally to electric vehicles such as, e.g., electric motorcycles, tricycles, and all-terrain vehicles (ATVs). More particularly, the application relates to methods and apparatus for preventing over-shifting on such vehicles.
One benefit of electric vehicles is the ability to re-capture energy during braking or on a downhill descent, often called regenerative braking—or "regen" for short. An electric motor, when supplied energy, will drive the traction wheel(s) of the vehicle, which then propel the vehicle forwards. When no energy is supplied to the motor, but the traction wheel(s) supply mechanical motion to the motor, the motor itself will become a generator supplying energy that can be used to assist in recharging the vehicle battery system. The higher the motor rotor is spun by mechanical means, the larger the voltage produced as a result.
For electric vehicles with a fixed gear system, the motor speed and corresponding output voltages are generally closely matched for the system it is designed into. With a gearbox equipped electric vehicle that supports selection between multiple gears, an issue arises that if a too low gear is quickly selected at high speeds, the resulting regen voltages become excessively large as the motor spins above maximum rated revolutions per minute (RPM). An example of this is a motorcycle with a multi-gear transmission traveling in one particular gear at maximum motor RPM, which then quickly downshifts one or more gears while maintaining the same or similar speed. The result would be the motor spinning faster than the maximum RPM speed allowed (overspin) with a resulting voltage generation that exceeds system design parameters (overvoltage), which can cause damage to the vehicle.

Method and apparatus for preventing over-shifting on electric vehicles


An onboard cooling system diagnostic strategy utilizes at least one temperature sensor fluidly positioned between an electronically controlled engine and a thermostat. The diagnostic algorithm operates by monitoring coolant temperature during engine startup. By comparing the actual coolant temperature during engine start-up to a predicted coolant temperature that should occur if no cooling system error is present, a cooling system fault condition may be identified. If a cooling system fault is detected, the diagnostic logic may activate the engine cooling fan or intrusively open an electrically controlled thermostat while monitoring the coolant temperature response to the intrusive action. If there is a substantial change in coolant temperature responsive to the intrusive action, this phenomenon can be utilized to correctly distinguish between a thermostat failure and a vehicle configuration error corresponding to an overcooled vehicle. The present disclosure also can utilize a similar strategy to diagnose problems associated with other vehicle fluid coolers that exchange heat with ambient air moved by a circulation fan.

Emissions from an internal combustion engine can be significantly affected by the operating temperature of the engine. If a faulty thermostat is stuck in an open position, excess undesirable emissions can result due to an extended warm up period for the engine. Alternatively, if too many heat exchangers that exchange heat with engine coolant are added to a final machine, the engine might also warm up slowly. In extreme situations the engine may not be able to warm up completely to normal operating temperatures. An overcooled vehicle configuration may be misdiagnosed as a thermostat failure.
The present disclosure is directed to one or more of the problems set forth above.

Engine cooling system onboard diagnostic strategy


The present invention relates to a translucent structure having a surface unevenness shape which has: an area ratio of surface flat regions in which an angle formed with a flat surface is in a range of 0° to 0.5° of in a range of 0% to 5.8%; a projection density of in a range of 0.0001/μm2 to 0.05/μm2; a projection area ratio of in a range of 5.5% to 50%; a skewness Ssk which represents the degree of non-symmetry of in a range of −0.5 to 1.1; a load area factor Smr1 at a boundary between a projected mountain portion and a core portion of in a range of 0% to 14.5%; and an arithmetic average surface roughness Sa of in a range of 0.06 μm to 0.143 μm.

In image display devices (liquid crystal displays, organic EL displays, plasma displays, etc.) provided in various devices (e.g., TV receivers, personal computers, smartphones, and cellphones), vehicles, etc., the visibility is lowered by a reflection image of external light such as indoor illumination light (from, for example, fluorescent lamps) or sunlight shining on the display screen.
To suppress reflection of external light, the surface of a substrate (e.g., glass plate) as the display surface of an image display device is subjected to antiglare treatment. Antiglare treatment is treatment for making the surface uneven, thereby scattering incident light. Because of diffuse reflection of incident light, a reflection image is blurred and hence the reflection of external light is made less influential. Among known antiglare treatment methods are etching the surface of a substrate and forming an antiglare layer having an uneven surface. One known antiglare layer forming method is a method that a coating liquid containing a silica precursor such as a hydrolytic condensate of alkoxysilane is applied to a substrate by spraying and then baked (refer to Patent document 1, for example).
However, in the case where antiglare treatment is performed on the surface of a substrate, a problem arises that the visibility of an image lowers because of increase of the haze value, increase in sparkle, etc.
As one of surface shape parameters for obtaining high resolution, there is a method of showing that an area of flat portions is small in a condition of (H1-H2)/Ra≥0.25, in which H1 is a height at the area ratio of 70% and H2 is a height at the area ratio of 99% in a bearing curve of rough curved surface of uneven surface. This condition shows that an area of flat portions lying at valley bottom of the unevenness is small, but does not give any definition for flat portions lying at high portions in the height direction. However, the specular reflection occurs also on the flat portions lying at the high portions in the height direction. Therefore, the above-described definition is not sufficient for evaluating the flat portion ratio by obtaining gradient for all portions (refer to Patent document 2, for example).    Patent document 1: JP-A-2009-058640    Patent document 2: WO 2015/137196


A data analytics platform may be configured to construct an inferential model for a multivariate observation vector using inferential modeling in combination with component analysis, which may enable the data analytics platform to evaluate only a subset of the variables in the observation vector and then output a predicted version of the multivariate observation vector that includes predicted values for the full set of variables that was originally included in the observation vector. In turn, the data analytics platform may use the predicted version of the multivariate observation vector output by the inferential model to determine whether an anomaly has occurred.

Today, machines (also referred to herein as "assets") are ubiquitous in many industries. From locomotives that transfer cargo across countries to farming equipment that harvest crops, assets play an important role in everyday life. Because of the increasing role that assets play, it is also becoming increasingly desirable to monitor and analyze assets in operation. To facilitate this, some have developed mechanisms to monitor asset attributes and detect abnormal conditions at an asset. For instance, one approach for monitoring assets generally involves various sensors and/or actuators distributed throughout an asset that monitor the operating conditions of the asset and provide signals reflecting the asset's operation to an on-asset computer. As one representative example, if the asset is a locomotive, the sensors and/or actuators may monitor parameters such as temperatures, pressures, fluid levels, voltages, and/or speeds, among other examples. If the signals output by one or more of the sensors and/or actuators reach certain values, the on-asset computer may then generate an abnormal condition indicator, such as a "fault code," which is an indication that an abnormal condition has occurred within the asset. The on-asset computer may also be configured to monitor for, detect, and generate data indicating other events that may occur at the asset, such as asset shutdowns, restarts, etc.
The on-asset computer may also be configured to send data reflecting the attributes of the asset, including operating data such as signal data, abnormal-condition indicators, and/or asset event indicators, to a remote location for further analysis.

Computer system and method for detecting anomalies in multivariate data


The present invention provides a bar pin attachment for bush assembly. The assembly comprises a longitudinally extending control arm, a bush eye clamp, and a hanger bracket. The control arm has a bush end, a mid-region, an axle mount formed opposite of the bush end. A bush, having an integral bar pin molded laterally therethrough, is inserted in the bush eye and retained therein. The hanger bracket is attached to, and depends from, the chassis and includes two spaced-apart, downward oriented flanges between which the bush eye clamp is positioned. The bush end is pivotally attached to the hanger by fastening the bar pin ends directly to each adjacent hanger flange.

A variety of devices have been designed and used to attach a vehicle suspension systems between the vehicle body and an axle. Many vehicles employ suspension systems utilizing longitudinally extending trailing beams or rocker beams, also known as control arms. These beams are typically pivotally connected to the vehicle chassis or frame undercarriage at a first end, and attached to a transversely mounted axle at or near a second end. The first end may include a suspension bushing mounted within a suspension hanger depending from the vehicle frame.
For each axle, one beam is generally located near each of the left and right sides of the vehicle. Often, a suspension member, such as an air spring, leaf spring or coil spring, is positioned between the vehicle chassis and the axle mounting end of the suspension beam. In this configuration, when the vehicle axle encounters a rough surface and is displaced by movement of the tires attached thereto, the suspension member can manage the magnitude and speed of the displacement of the control arm while such beam pivots about the first end pivot connection.
A strong yet resilient first end pivot connection is critical to suspension performance because of loads imparted on the pivot end during suspension actuation and side or lateral loading which occurs as the vehicle turns. Current trends in heavy vehicle suspension designs include providing a generally annular resilient bushing mounted within an annular housing at the first end of the suspension beam. The bushing has a laterally positioned bore which, when the bushing is positioned within a suspension hanger, aligns with openings formed in both sides of the hanger. Generally, the bush is fastened within the hanger by passing a bolt through the hanger walls and the bushing bore. Some designs include an elongated bolt opening in each hanger wall to facilitate alignment of the suspension arm respective to the vehicle chassis.
The bush, often made from a hyperelastic material, is subject to periodic replacement due to wear and aging. Excessive wearing of the bush also occurs when the bolt securing it within the hanger has unwanted movement, often created by wear and tear or due to the bolt becoming loose during suspension movement. It is desirable to firmly secure the bush within the housing to limit wear and to eliminate unwanted movement of the bush within the suspension hanger which may affect suspension alignment. It is further desirable to mold the bush directly to the through bar, in this inventive device, a bar pin.
Another problem inherent in known suspension systems arises from the industry desire to decrease overall suspension weight and cost. Low weight and cost effective unitized suspension systems often include first pivot end bush housings without adjustments which makes bush replacement difficult, and often lead to premature replacement of the entire system when only bush replacement was necessary. Thus, it is desired to have a suspension system providing ease in bush replacement without necessitating the replacement of the whole system, and without requiring the use of specialized tools or equipment.
Hence, there is a need for an apparatus and and method for securing a bar pin end within a bush assembly and suspension hanger that overcomes one or more of the drawbacks identified above.


The thermal printing apparatus includes a base supported registration wall. The registration wall has claps mounted thereto for supporting a thermal ribbon cassette. Also, mounted to the registration wall is a thermal print head which extends over the deck of the thermal print apparatus to define a print station. A platen roller support assembly is mounted in the base for supporting the platen roller parallel to the thermal print head and causing the platen roller to bias an envelope against the thermal print head and causing the envelope and thermal transfer ribbon to simultaneously traverse the thermal print head during a print cycle of the thermal printing apparatus under the influence of a drive motor. An encoder is mounted to the registration wall to interact with the thermal transfer ribbon for position encoding displacement of the thermal ribbon of the thermal ribbon cassette relative to the thermal print head. The output of the encoder is proportional to the rate of change of the position encoded displacement. A microcontroller system is provided for causing the drive motor to drive the platen roller as a select speed and for comparing the output of the encoder means to a desired print speed. If a difference is detected, the microcontroller incrementally increases the drive motor speed until the difference is within a desired minimum range.

The present invention relates to thermal printing systems and, more particular, to a thermal printing postage meter having a thermal transfer ribbon cassette.
In a novel thermal printing postage arrangement a line matrix thermal print head is employed. It is considered advantageous to use thermal ribbon cassette in combination with a rotating platen. Generally, a suitable configuration includes a postage meter base having an envelope transport which include a rotatively driven platen. The line matrix thermal print head and thermal ribbon cassette are mounted to the base such that the envelope is captured between the platen roller and the thermal ribbon with the thermal print head serving as a backing. The platen roller applies a basing force such that rotation of the platen roller cause the envelope to travel in the print direction. The platen action is used to drive both the envelope and cassette ribbon past the thermal print head in this manner the opportunity for print smearing is minimized.
In order to monitor the printing process, it is advantageous to provide some means of verifying the print speed. In this context, the actual print speed may vary from the set print speed as a function of envelope thickness.

Thermal ribbon encoder assembly for a thermal printing postage meter


A contact equipped with a bypass element has a contact portion element at one end of a warped element and a male terminal at the other end thereof. The contact comprises a bypass element disposed within the warped element. One end of the bypass element is formed of a rigid portion element and the other end thereof is formed of an elastic portion element. An area at a connecting portion between the rigid portion element and the elastic portion element and a free end of the rigid portion element are contacted with the inner surface between one end and the other end of the warped element to short the circuit between the contact portion element and the male terminal. A free end of the elastic portion element is abutted against an inner surface on the warped side of the warped element in order to elastically support the rigid portion element.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a contact for connecting an electric part such as an IC package, etc., and particularly to a contact equipped with a bypass element suitable for incurring an electric signal of high frequency.
2. Prior Art
A contact disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Early Laid-open Publication No. Sho 63-117084 is designed such that when a warped element having a contact portion element at one end portion thereof is displaced downward, the contact portion element is abutted against a projecting element on the side of a male terminal disposed on the other end portion of the warped element to elastically displace the projecting element against the spring force, so that the contact portion element and the male terminal are bypassed.
Another contact disclosed in Japanese Patent Early Laid-open Publication No. 57-21081 is designed such that when the contact portion element is displaced, a short element extending from the side of the contact portion element is slide contacted with a spring element extending from the side of a male terminal, so that the contact portion element and the male terminal are bypassed.
Still another contact disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Early Laid-open Publication No. Sho 63-164191 is designed such that a projection element projecting toward a contact portion element side from a male terminal side has no elasticity. An inclined surface is provided on an inner surface of the projection element and on an inner surface of the contact portion element, and when the contact portion element is displaced downward, the inclined surface of the contact portion element is abutted against the inclined surface of the projection element and then displaced backward along the inclined surface on generate a pushing force to the contact portion element and projection element, so that the contact portion element and the male terminal are bypassed.
As the conventional contact of this type inevitably has various tolerances, such as the dimensional tolerance of a contact portion of an objective electric part, dimensional tolerances of a contact and a socket board, etc., irregularity occurs in the displacement amount of the warped element. However, in the contacts of Japanese Utility Model Early Laid-open Publication No. Sho 63-117084 and Japanese Patent Early Laid-open Publication No. Sho 57-21081, the bypass element is provided with the property of a spring, and in the contact of Japanese Utility Model Early Laid-open Publication No. Sho 63-164191, the warped element is elastically displaced in the vertical direction and backward in order to absorb the irregularity in the displacement amount of the warped portion.
However, in Japanese Utility Model Early Laid-open Publication No. Sho 63-117084 and Japanese Patent Early Laid-open Publication No. Sho 57-21081, as the bypass element is warped to provide a spring characteristic, the distance for bypassing the contact portion element and the male terminal is not the shortest. In the case of the latter, the distance for bypassing is merely slightly shorter than the length of the warped element, depending on the irregularity of the displacement amount of the warped element. Besides, the pushing force on the contact portion element owing to elasticity of the bypass element jeopardizes the smooth displacement of the warped element. Accordingly, it is necessary to strictly adjust the elasticity of the bypass element and the warped element, and production is thus difficult.
Also, in Japanese Utility Model Early Laid-open Publication No. Sho 63-164191, it is required to generate contacting force between the contact element of the electric part and the contact portion element of the contact and contacting force between the contact portion element and the projection element by vertical and backward displacement of the warped element. Also, as both the contacting force is difference in direction for having elasticity requested in the warped element, the design of the warped element becomes very difficult. Furthermore, a large load is applied to the warped element. As a result, the mechanical life of the warped element is lowered.


A Text Object Compiler and Language able to produce binary and text objects that are not machine language code. An object oriented computer language that produces target files of information in any text or binary format; files are defined by the programmer as "pages" and file locations are defined by the programmer as "targets." The compiler compiles the language to produce any variety of output, which include text formats (such as HTML, SGML, and other scripting languages) and binary formats (such as graphical pictures, binary data, or other multimedia information).

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of software compilers, and more particularly relates to a method of generating files of information from one or more source files.
2. Description of the Related Art
In March, 1989, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics or CERN (Conseil Europeen pour la Recherche Nucleaire) developed the World-Wide-Web (WWW, or simply, "the web"), an Internet-based computer network that allows users on one computer to access information stored on other computers through a world-wide network. With an intuitive user-interface, known as a web browser, the web rapidly became a popular way of transmitting and accessing text and binary information. Since then, there has been a massive expansion in the number of World-Wide-Web sites, and the amount of information placed on the web.
Information, in the form of electronic files, documents, images, sounds and other formats, forms the basis of internet and web content, and the key to creating a useful and meaningful web-site.
To place information on the web, the information must be stored in a binary or text format in a "file." Binary documents are saved in known formats that depend upon the information being stored. For example, two-dimensional pictures are often stored in "Joint Photographic Experts Group" (JPEG) or "Graphical Image Format" (GIF) standard formats. Audio files and moving images have other formats as well, such as "WAV," "MOV," and "MPEG." For text documents, documents are stored in a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) format. The HTML format dictates the appearance and structure of a web text document, also referred to as a "web page."
Although these formats are required to create compatibility for web browsers, modifying web sites and updating information in these rigid formats is difficult and time consuming. For example, suppose every web page had a copyright notice on it. To update the copyright notice on every page, a web-site administrator would have to either change every page by hand, or use a method of global-search-and-replace. However, because of the non-uniform manner of some web-sites, a global-search-and-replace may not work. More complicated web page changes, such as modifying small applications, known as "applets," are even more difficult. It would be much better if there was a single location or file that could be updated, and the change would be propagated to the entire web-site, or just the appropriate web pages. Very simply put, the problem of maintaining and generating large amounts of data, in any format, is difficult and highly time consuming.
Several solutions have been proposed, each has its problems.
Some web developers choose to generate web pages through a "what you see is what you get" (WYSIWYG) web-page editor. Such editors assemble web pages through a graphical interface, which makes designing pages simpler, but the results are limited because it does not solve the need to maintain the information. Using the above example, to update the copyright notice on every page, a web-site administrator would still have to edit the web pages individually, or the web-page editor program may use a method of global-search-and-replace.
Alternatively, simple pre-processor programs have been used to assemble HTML files. Such pre-processors allow web-page designers to pre-process documents and insert listed documents into a master document. For example, to include another listed document file called "foo.doc" into the master document, a web-page designer could type:
#include "foo.doc"
and the listed document would be included. While this allows fragments of common HTML code to be inserted into documents, as a web-site grows, and more pages are added to the site, the maintenance of such a system quickly becomes a logistical nightmare. Also, the fragments cannot be redefined at the point that they are included in a document. Moreover, such a system is limited strictly to text-based documents, and cannot handle binary forms of information.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,181,162, issued Jan. 19, 1993 to Smith et al. entitled "Document management and production system," discloses a system of decomposing documents into logical components, which are stored as discrete "objects" in an object-oriented computational environment. The system relies on queries to a relational database which occur every time the document is printed, displayed electronically, or electronically transmitted. For a web site, which may transmit pages thousands of times per minute, this solution is a burden on the web server's computing resources. Consequently, the system would be slow, and of limited usefulness to such a high-demand environment. Similarly, the use of a relational database to deliver pages of information on client machines has been attempted; while this provides dynamic construction of documents when they are delivered to the client machines, this solution also burdens the server's computing resources because page information would be constantly regenerated. Although caching generated pages may solve some of the computing resource problems, it creates a new problem because cached pages may be outdated.
Several related patents, U.S. Pat. No. 5,668,999, which issued Sep. 16, 1997 to Gosling ("System and method for preverification of stack usage in bytecode program loops,"), U.S. Pat. No. 5,692,047, issued to McManis ("System and method for executing verifiable programs with facility for using non-verifiable programs from trusted sources,") and U.S. Pat. No. 5,706,502, issued to Foley et al. ("Internet-enabled portfolio manager system and method,"), also fail to solve the problem. Collectively, these patents disclose a method and system of verifying the integrity of computer programs written in a bytecode language to run applications remotely on a client workstation. While this solution may create dynamic client-machine applications, it does not solve the problem of maintaining information in a system.
What is needed is a more flexible way of handling both binary and text information that can produce files of different file formats and still be easy to maintain.
The invention, a Text Object Compiler method, allows users to abstract information, and produce information in virtually any file format.
Almost every contemporary computer is a register-based Von Neuman computer that responds to a machine language. These machine languages include instructions which operate on the contents of registers. Originally, computer software instructions were organized in terms of machine language operations. As computers became more complex, programming in machine language became difficult and increasingly cumbersome. Consequently, computer scientists abstracted machine instructions, creating higher-level languages, known as source languages, structured in terms of expressions and procedures. As software evolved, two strategies for converting source languages into instructions in machine language developed, interpreters and compilers.
An interpreter, written in the native machine language, configures the computer to execute programs written in one of the source languages. The primitive operators or commands of the source language are implemented as a library of subroutines written in the native machine language of the given machine. Interpreters read the source language, one line at a time, and then perform the specified operation. A program to be interpreted, the source program, is represented as a data structure. The interpreter traverses this data structure, analyzing the source program. As it does so, it simulates the intended behavior of the source program by calling appropriate primitive operators from the library.
Instead of analyzing and translating the source program into machine language during execution, it is possible to perform these tasks before execution, enabling more efficient program execution. This alternate method of converting source languages into instructions is called compilation. The program that does the analysis of the source program and reduces the source program to machine language is called a compiler. As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional (i.e., prior art) compiler 2 for a given source language and machine translates computer source code 1 (i.e., a program written in a high level "computer language") into an object code 3, a program written in the computer's native language, referred to in the art as "machine language."
Illustrated by FIG. 2, a conventional compiler 2 is composed of a lexical analyzer 10, a parser 20, and code generator 30. A lexical analyzer 10 takes computer source code 1 and divides the code into lexical tokens. Such lexical tokens can be based on instructions or other keywords in the relevant high level computer language. A parser 20 takes the tokens and groups them together logically based on the relationships established by the source language and the computer source code 1. Lastly, a code generator 30 takes the relationships established by the parser 20 and translates them into an executable computer object code 3 in computer machine language.
Conventional compilers are well known in the prior art, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,560,015 ("Compiler and method of compilation" issued to Onodera on Sep. 24, 1996), U.S. Pat. No. 5,442,792 ("Expert system compilation method" issued to Chun on Aug. 15, 1995), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,592 ("Method and apparatus for managing profile data" issued to Chang on Jun. 16, 1998).
Conventional interpreters and compilers convert high-level computer source code into object code to be executed on a computer. In effect, the interpreter and the compiler allow computer programmers to write computer programs at a higher level of abstraction, and generate object code.

Text object compilation method and system


An apparatus and method for unfreezing a window from a window seal are disclosed. According to some embodiments of the present disclosure, the apparatus includes a vehicle door assembly including a vehicle door and a window. The apparatus further includes a window seal that receives an upper edge of the window and a heating element coupled to the upper edge or the window seal. The system further includes a power source that provides an electrical current to the heating element and a control module configured to receive a remote unlock signal from a remote device, obtain a temperature signal indicating a temperature in response to the remote unlock signal, compare the temperature indicated by the temperature signal to a temperature threshold, and cause the power source to provide the electrical current to the heating element when the temperature is less than the temperature threshold.

Some vehicles may be equipped with frameless door assemblies, which include a door and a door window ("window"). In these vehicles, the vehicle frame may include a window seal which receives an upper edge of the window when the door window is in the full up position. When a passenger attempts to enter the vehicle by engaging the door handle, a vehicle controller may command a lift motor to drive the window down a short distance, e.g., one or two centimeters, so that the upper edge of the window is no longer in the window seal. Similarly, when the passenger closes the door, the vehicle controller may command the lift motor to drive the window up a short distance, so that the upper edge of the window is in the seal.
When the temperature in or around the vehicle drops below freezing and there is moisture in the seal or on the upper edge of the window, the window may become frozen to the seal. This may make it more difficult to open the door.

Apparatus and methods for unfreezing vehicle door window from window seal


A slave and a communicating method between a slave and a master that includes checking whether the command to be sent is one of a write command and a read-out command if the master attempts to send a command to the slave, determining whether a processing of a previous command sent by the master is entirely completed if the command to be sent is the write command, and sending an acknowledgement signal that allows a transfer of the command to the master if the processing of the previously sent command is determined as one of entirely completed and the command to be sent is determined as the read-out command. The master sends the command to the slave in response to the acknowledgement signal sent by the slave.

Generally, through a serial bus communication protocol called I2C, a command delivery from a master provided to a host system to a slave loaded with a microcontroller unit is performed. In this case, the host system uses polling to check whether the slave has completed the processing of a previous command. If a command having been delivered to the slave from the master through I2C is still being processed, the slave makes a response in a manner of sending a non-acknowledgment signal (NAK) to the master. On the contrary, if the processing of the previous command is completed, the slave makes a response in a manner of sending an acknowledgement signal (ACK) to the master through the I2C. Therefore, the master is able to determine whether the processing for the previous command is completed by the slave using the ACK signal or the NAK signal.
The host waits until the I2C communication enters a normal state, i.e., until the ACK signal is sent from the slave. If the ACK signal is sent to the host from the slave by the I2C communication, the host is able to deliver a command to the slave. Accordingly, if the slave is processing a previous command, the slave sends NAK to the master unconditionally. However, even if a command the master attempts to send is not a write command but a read command, NAK is sent to the master. Hence, the master is unable to read data from the slave.

Slave and communicating method between a master and the same


To provide a drive unit and a drive module which include a shape memory alloy as a drive source to move a driven member and are capable of the high-precision movement of the driven member to a reference position. A drive unit and a drive module can be provided by controlling, in the drive unit and the drive module which include the shape memory alloy as the drive source to move the driven member, the shape memory alloy so that the resistance of the shape memory alloy is equal to the resistance when the driven member is located at the reference position.

In recent years, a personal apparatus represented by a mobile phone has been equipped with a digital camera function as a standard function. In this situation, an increasing demand for a smaller camera module has been raised. In the meantime, the camera module is required to meet the heavy demands for more and more sophisticated functions such as an auto-focusing function and image stabilizing function. An actuator for driving the optical system is essential to implement the sophisticated functions of the camera module. An actuator for the sophisticated functions while meeting the requirements for more compact and lightweight configuration attracts attention.
In this situation, an actuator using a shape memory alloy is attracting attention. The shape memory alloy is typically represented by a titanium-nickel alloy, and can be defined as the alloy that, after having been subjected to deformation below a predetermined temperature, comes back to the original status due to martensite transformation by raising the temperature above that predetermined temperature. This property of the alloy is utilized to provide the performance of the actuator by heating.
When the aforementioned personal apparatus typically represented by a mobile phone is used for imaging operations, it is a common practice that the liquid crystal screen mounted on the apparatus is used as a camera finder. Thus, the framing is performed by viewing the preview image displayed on the liquid crystal screen when imaging operations are performed. To determine the framing, the focus of the preview image must be adjusted at a predetermined distance such as infinity.
However, in the conventional camera module, the auto-focusing function is not executed to focus the camera on a subject until the imaging is executed. Thus, when the preview image is displayed, the image focused on nowhere is displayed because the image taking lens is positioned at the position closer to the image pickup element (so-called over-infinite position) than infinity. This over-infinite position is provided to absorb the manufacturing errors and the fluctuation caused by temperature dependency in the focal distance of the image taking lens, and the manufacturing errors and the fluctuation caused by temperature dependency of the lens barrel.
To address these problems, a proposal has been made in a control apparatus using an actuator containing a shape memory alloy, taking a camera shutter unit and image stabilizing unit as examples. According to this proposal, the driven member is moved to a predetermined reference position by applying a standby current to the shape memory alloy to preheat it prior to the control of the driven member by the actuator (Unexamined Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-263221). This technique can also be used to the aforementioned focus adjustment.

Drive unit, movable module, and autofocus control method


Light box assembly (10) has a removably mountable viewing panel (30), a cabinet (20), and a film media hanging means (40). Upon insertion, the viewing panel (30) is maintained in position by pressure applied by a stopping surface (70) a second surface opposite a camming surface (60) of an arm (62), along with a bottom panel positioner (72). Naturally resilient film (52) is inserted into a film receiving means (50). The film is guided along a guide surface (74) such that the leading edge of the film (52) follows the camming surface (60). Upon reaching film receiving bight (66), the operator releases the film. Due to the film's natural resiliency and the relative positions of the film receiving bight (66), the engaging edge (58), and an outer edge of the viewing panels' notch (32), the film is maintained in a secured position without the need of any moving parts. Such a configuration allows films of various thickness is to be secured.

The present invention relates to displaying film flexible articles. The invention is particularly applicable to the hanging of x-ray films to the illuminated translucent panel of a light box and will be described with particular reference thereto. It is to be appreciated that the invention will also find application for hanging other sheet material.
In order for doctors to view the images contained on the thin flexible x-ray film, various film illuminators or light boxes have been developed. These film illuminators have a translucent front panel mounted in front of fluorescent or incandescent lamps. Light from the lamp is diffused through the front panel backlighting the x-ray film to facilitate inspection of the x-ray film.
In order to maintain the x-ray film in a fixed position against the illuminated viewing screen, various mounting apparatus's and techniques have been developed. Commonly, a spring clip is mounted at the top of the light box. U.S. Pat. No. 4,698,930 discloses other devices for hanging film that proport to be an improvement over the common spring clip. The first embodiment uses a horizontally recessed groove located on a vertical surface, the bottom of the groove has a ridge extending in an upward fashion. A cover for the groove has a mantle portion the leading edge of which is bent in a downward direction fitting over the top of the ridge and resting on the ridges' backside. The cover is a weighted material which rests on the vertical surface along the bottom edge of the groove. Holding an object in the embodiment, requires urging the cover in an upward fashion and slipping the object between the bottom edge and the vertical surface. Thereafter, the cover is allowed to come back to its resting point pinching the object and holding it fast.
The second embodiment disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,698,930 includes a recessed groove, located within the groove is a horizontally extending pin or pintle which is the mounting means used to effect pivoting of a front cover. In this manner, the cover pivots upon the pin or pintle in the groove creating a space between the bottom edge of the vertical surface. An object is introduced into the space and thereafter the front cover pivots down and holds the object.
Yet a third embodiment, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,698,930 uses a rounded recessed groove. The inside of the groove is curved in such a manner that a ball placed in the groove rests naturally at a point in the groove between the bottom of the groove and the backside of the front cover. The bottom of the groove slopes downward and forward providing a track for the ball, placing the ball in close proximity to the bottom edge of the front cover. The object held is slipped into the space between the bottom of the front cover and the vertical wall whereupon the ball weighs down the top of the object.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,527,347 shows yet another manner in which gripping of a thin film x-ray is accomplished. A resilient member comprising an anchoring portion, a thinner hinge or pivoting means, and an engaging portion having a pointed portion are used to hold the x-ray film. The engaging portion is supported by a lower horizontal or slightly upwardly sloping part of a profiled frame element. The rear surface of the anchoring portion is fixed to the inner surface of the vertically extending part of the profiled frame element. An inserted x-ray film results in the engaging portion of the resilient member being deflected or bent upwardly, in this manner, the x-ray is held as a result of the pressure exerted when the engaging portion is compressed in its length direction.
A disadvantage with these prior art film hangers is that the film engaging portions require moving parts to hold the x-ray film. This creates the potential for mechanical breakdown of the moving parts, eventually requiring their removal and replacement. Removal of such an integrated piece of the film illuminator is accomplished with great difficulty.
Furthermore, x-ray films are often observed immediately after being processed. The film surface is frequently still damp or soft from the developing chemicals. In using the prior art described, the developing chemicals softened emulsion from the film tend to accumulate within the gripping or fixing sections of these devices. This build-up causes a degradation in the fixing or gripping ability of these devices. Further, the accumulated emulsion tends to stick the gripper to the film impeding release. Therefore, it becomes necessary to either replace or clean the device. This cleaning is difficult due to the inaccessibility of the location needed to be cleaned.
Yet another drawback to the known art is that they do not securely hold sheets of varying thicknesses. Specifically, the prior art apparatae use moving parts, one of such parts being pressed against another part, to secure and hold the sheet. However, when thick and thin sheets are pressed between the same moving parts only the thicker sheet is engaged thereby causing poor, or no holding pressure to the thinner sheet.
The subject invention contemplates a new and improved sheet hanging apparatus that overcomes all of the above referenced problems and others.


This invention concerns in general treatment of diseases and pathological conditions with anti-VEGF antibodies. More specifically, the invention concerns the treatment of human patients susceptible to or diagnosed with cancer using an anti-VEGF antibody, preferably in combination with one or more additional anti-tumor therapeutic agents for the treatment of ovarian cancer.

Cancer remains to be one of the most deadly threats to human health. In the U.S., cancer affects nearly 1.3 million new patients each year, and is the second leading cause of death after heart disease, accounting for approximately 1 in 4 deaths. For women with ovarian and peritoneal cancer, after initial surgical diagnosis, staging and cytoreduction, the standard primary systemic chemotherapy for women with advanced epithelial ovarian, and peritoneal primary cancer consists of chemotherapy with a platinum and taxane combination, usually carboplatin and paclitaxel. See, e.g., McGuire W P, et al. Cyclophosphamide and cisplatin compared with paclitaxel and cisplatin in patients with stage III and stage IV ovarian cancer. N Eng J Med 334:1-6, 1996; Piccart M J, et al. Randomized intergroup trial of cisplatin-paclitaxel versus cisplatin-cyclophosphamide in women with advanced epithelial ovarian cancer: three-year results. J Natl Cancer Inst 92:699-708, 20003; Alberts D S, et al. Improved therapeutic index of carboplatin plus cyclophosphamide versus cisplatin plus cyclophosphamide: final report by the Southwest Oncology Group of a phase III randomized trial in stages III and IV ovarian cancer. J Clin Oncol 10:706-17, 1992; du Bois A, et al. A randomized clinical trial of cisplatin/paclitaxel versus carboplatin/paclitaxel as first-line treatment of ovarian cancer. J Natl Cancer Inst Sep. 3; 95.(17):1320.-9. 95:1320, 2003; Ozols R F, et al. Phase III trial of carboplatin and paclitaxel compared with cisplatin and paclitaxel in patients with optimally resected stage III ovarian cancer: a Gynecologic Oncology Group study. J Clin Oncol 21:3194-200, 2003; and, Swenerton K, et al. Cisplatin-cyclophosphamide versus carboplatin-cyclophosphamide in advanced ovarian cancer: a randomized phase III study of the National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group. J Clin Oncol 10:718-26, 1992. While advances have been made in patient management, this disease still carries a high fatality to case ratio for all gynecologic malignancies diagnosed in the United States. It is estimated that in 2004, 25,580 new cases will have been diagnosed and 16,090 women will have died of the disease. See, e.g., Jemal A, et al. Cancer statistics, 2004. CA Cancer J Clin 54:8-29, 2004. Improvements are needed in primary therapeutic strategies.
Angiogenesis is an important cellular event in which vascular endothelial cells proliferate, prune and reorganize to form new vessels from preexisting vascular network. There are compelling evidences that the development of a vascular supply is essential for normal and pathological proliferative processes (Folkman and Klagsbrun Science 235:442-447(1987)). Delivery of oxygen and nutrients, as well as the removal of catabolic products, represent rate-limiting steps in the majority of growth processes occurring in multicellular organisms.
While induction of new blood vessels is considered to be the predominant mode of tumor angiogenesis, recent data have indicated that some tumors may grow by co-opting existing host blood vessels. The co-opted vasculature then regresses, leading to tumor regression that is eventually reversed by hypoxia-induced angiogenesis at the tumor margin. Holash et al. Science 284:1994-1998 (1999).
One of the key positive regulators of both normal and abnormal angiogenesis is vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF)-A. VEGF-A is part of a gene family including VEGF-B, VEGF-C, VEGF-D, VEGF-E, VEGF-F, and PlGF. VEGF-A primarily binds to two high affinity receptor tyrosine kinases, VEGFR-1 (Flt-1) and VEGFR-2 (Flk-1/KDR), the latter being the major transmitter of vascular endothelial cell mitogenic signals of VEGF-A. Additionally, neuropilin-1 has been identified as a receptor for heparin-binding VEGF-A isoforms, and may play a role in vascular development.
In addition to being an angiogenic factor in angiogenesis and vasculogenesis, VEGF, as a pleiotropic growth factor, exhibits multiple biological effects in other physiological processes, such as endothelial cell survival, vessel permeability and vasodilation, monocyte chemotaxis and calcium influx. Ferrara and Davis-Smyth (1997), supra. Moreover, studies have reported mitogenic effects of VEGF on a few non-endothelial cell types, such as retinal pigment epithelial cells, pancreatic duct cells and Schwann cells. Guerrin et al. J. Cell Physiol. 164:385-394 (1995); Oberg-Welsh et al. Mol. Cell. Endocrinol. 126:125-132 (1997); Sondell et al. J. Neurosci. 19:5731-5740 (1999). VEGF expression is upregulated in a majority of malignancies and the overexpression of VEGF often correlates with a more advanced stage or with a poorer prognosis in many solid tumors.
Since ovarian cancer is still one of the most deadly threats, additional cancer treatments for patients are needed. The invention addresses these and other needs, as will be apparent upon review of the following disclosure.

Anti-angiogenesis therapy for the treatment of ovarian cancer


Provided is a system and method for assessing a design layout for a semiconductor device level and for determining and designating different features of the design layout to be formed by different photomasks by decomposing the design layout. The features are designated by markings that associate the various device features with the multiple photomasks upon which they will be formed and then produced on a semiconductor device level using double patterning lithography, DPL, techniques. The markings are done at the device level and are included on the electronic file provided by the design house to the photomask foundry. In addition to overlay and critical dimension considerations for the design layout being decomposed, various other device criteria, design criteria processing criteria and their interrelation are taken into account, as well as device environment and the other device layers, when determining and marking the various device features.

In today's semiconductor manufacturing industry, large-scale integrated circuit (LSI) devices continue to be developed at increased levels of integration and complexity. These increased levels of integration require minute and highly accurate LSI patterns to be developed and produced. These patterns require highly accurate pattern formation technologies for forming the minute pattern features. According to conventional technologies, semiconductor devices such as integrated circuits, are fabricated on a semiconductor substrate using a photomask set, each photomask used to form a complete exposure pattern at a particular device level. The exposure pattern is transferred onto the device using photolithography and other operations and may also be referred to as a device pattern. When the exposure pattern is formed in a masking layer such as photoresist, it is used as a mask for implantation, etching or any of various other processing operations that are carried out upon the semiconductor substrate to produce the device pattern. As device features continue to become more miniaturized and formed in closer proximity, and as the dimensions of the device features approach or become smaller than the wavelengths of the light used to expose the particular features, one approach has been to use DPL, double patterning lithography, to form the device pattern on the semiconductor substrate.
According to conventional methods, a design house provides a design layout of the exposure pattern typically in an electronic file, such as a file stored on a computer readable storage medium. The design layout may be generated using CAD, computer-aided design, techniques and the exposure pattern is provided to a mask foundry which manufactures photomasks according to the design layout. According to DPL techniques, the design layout is decomposed into two separate portions, each formed onto a separate photomask. The decomposition results in two photomasks and a pattern is formed in a layer of the semiconductor device by first performing a lithography operation using one photomask, then performing an etching or implantation or other operation upon the layer, then performing a second lithography operation using the other photomask and performing a separate etching or implantation or other operation upon the layer.
The design layout of the exposure pattern is conventionally provided by the design house to the mask foundry. The decomposition of the design layout is conventionally done by the foundry which decomposes the design layout into two design layouts based essentially only on minimum spacing design rules for the design layout at hand, and then produces the two masks from the two decomposed design layout patterns. A shortcoming of present DPL techniques is that the mask foundry does not take other factors into account when decomposing the masks. According to conventional techniques, when a particular design layout is used in conjunction with different devices or different processing technologies, or used in different device environments, these differences are not considered by the mask foundry when decomposing the design layout.
Present DPL techniques are therefore beset with various shortcomings and limitations.

Decomposition and marking of semiconductor device design layout in double patterning lithography

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd


A coding method, a decoding method, a coder, and a decoder, where the coding method includes obtaining the pulse distribution, on a track, of the pulses to be encoded on the track, determining a distribution identifier for identifying the pulse distribution according to the pulse distribution, and generating a coding index that includes the distribution identifier. The decoding method includes receiving a coding index, obtaining a distribution identifier from the coding index, wherein the distribution identifier is configured to identify the pulse distribution, on a track, of the pulses to be encoded on the track, determining the pulse distribution, on a track, of all the pulses to be encoded on the track according to the distribution identifier, and reconstructing the pulse order on the track according to the pulse distribution.

In the vector coding technology, residual signals subsequent adaptive filtering generally undergo quantization coding using algebraic codebooks. After the information about the position and the sign of the optimum algebraic codebook pulse on the track is searched out, the corresponding index value is calculated out through coding such that the decoder can reconstruct a pulse order according to the index value. One of the main objectives of researching and developing the algebraic codebook pulse coding method is to minimize the bits required by the coding index value on the precondition of ensuring lossless reconstruction.
The extended adaptive multi-rate wideband (AMR_WB+) coding method is an algebraic codebook pulse coding method in the conventional art. Depending on the coding rate, one to N pulses may be encoded on each track. With the increase of coding pulses, the bits required for encoding such an amount of pulses also increase. For example, for a track with M=2m positions, encoding one pulse on the track requires m+1 bits, and encoding six pulses on the track requires 6 m-2 bits. In the process of developing the present disclosure, the inventor finds that in the algebraic pulse coding in the conventional art, a recursion-like coding method is applied to break down a coding pulse with many pulses into several coding pulses with fewer pulses, thus making the coding process rather complex. Meanwhile, with the increase of coding pulses on the track, the redundancy of the coding index accrues, thus tending to cause waste of coding bits.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Coding method, decoding method, coder, and decoder


A discharge electrode 5 for generating ions and a high-voltage generating circuit unit 2 that supplies the discharge electrode 5 with a high voltage are housed in a housing 3. A discharge opening 12 for discharging the generated ions is formed in the housing 3. The housing 3 is covered by an exterior case 15. The exterior case 15 is connected to the high-voltage generating circuit unit 2 and functions as an induction electrode. A passage opening 33 leading to the discharge opening 12 is formed in the exterior case 15. An insulating sheet 36 covers the periphery of the passage opening 33 in the exterior case 15 facing a space into which the ions are discharged so that the discharged ions do not attach to the exterior case 15. Decrease in the amount of discharged ions can be prevented while using a peripheral component of the discharge electrode 5 as the induction electrode.

An ion generating apparatus that generates ions by corona discharge has a discharge electrode and an induction electrode. To perform stable corona discharge, the distance between the discharge electrode and the induction electrode is required to be maintained with high accuracy. This issue can be resolved if the induction electrode is eliminated. In PTL 1, an ion generating apparatus that uses a constituent component provided near the discharge electrode as the induction electrode is described. In this ion generating apparatus, a support body that is a circuit board that supports the discharge electrode is connected to a high-voltage generating circuit, and the support body functions as the induction electrode.


Disclosed is a communication system which accommodates at least one central office network line and a plurality of extensions, and which is adapted to control line connection between the central office network line and the plurality of extensions. When a call from the central office network line is detected, it is determined in response to the call whether a control signal characteristic of data communication, such as a CST signal, is being sent by the other party's device. If such a control signal is being sent, a line to which a data processor is connected is selected and connected to the calling line. This makes it possible to connect an information processor and a telephone to a common central office network line, and to connect a call answered by another telephone to a desired information processor rapidly through a simple operation. Accordingly, it is unnecessary to assign a special-purpose central office network line to an information processor. When the information processor is not in use, therefore, another telephone may employ the same line. This improves the efficiency of line utilization.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a communication system having a plurality of communication procedure control functions.
Further, the invention relates to a communication system comprising a telephone control unit which accommodates at least one central office network line and a plurality of extensions, and which is adapted to control line connection between the central office network line and the plurality of extensions, telephones connected to the extensions, and at least one data processor connected to the extensions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
By virtue of a reduction in cost and an improvement in the capability of modern information processors, it has now become possible to install these information processors (e.g., personal computers) in ordinary offices. Moreover, these devices can be connected to other computers via central office network lines to make possible the retrieval and exchange of information.
In the prior art, however, these information processors are connected to pay station lines dedicated to special equipment separate from the other telephone equipment located in the office. Moreover, in most cases these processors are equipped with private telephones and calls are both sent and received via dedicated lines therefor. Even when a call is received a response is made separately by the telephones dedicated to the aforementioned equipment provided on the information processors or installed in the vicinity thereof, and when necessary a line is switched over from a telephone to the information processor side by a manual operation. Alternatively, a received call is answered in the form of an overall data transmission without providing for a telephone.
Consequently, when the information processors are not being used these idle lines cannot be employed by the other telephones. This represents a significant waste.
In an effort to solve this problem, it has become possible to connect a signal information processor to the extensions of a telephone control unit which performs network control between the telephones and lines, and transfer the call of a response by another telephone under well-known telephone transfer control.
In the transfer processing, however, it is necessary first to search for the extension telephone number already assigned to the information processor, then input the pertinent extension telephone number and execute actual transfer processing. With this arrangement, extremely complicated processing cannot be avoided and the response timer of the information processor on the calling side can run out of time and result in the call being disconnected, thereby running up an unnecessary telephone fee.
There is known in the art a communication device having two communication control functions, namely a communication procedure control function in accordance with the "Personal Computer Communication Device Recommendation System" (hereinafter referred to as the "JUST-PC communication system") of Notification No. 971 of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications, and a facsimile communication procedure control function.
In a communication device having such a JUST-PC communication procedure control function and a facsimile communication procedure control function, a problem which arises is that after a call is automatically received, it cannot be determined whether the call received from the other party's terminal is a call for the purpose of communication in accordance with the JUST-PC communication system or a call for the purpose of communication in accordance with the facsimile communication system.

Communication system having a first and second communication procedures


An apparatus for clamping the trailing edge of a supply of recording media on the external drum of an imaging system. The trailing edge clamping apparatus includes a plurality of magnetic clamp sections. Each magnetic clamp section includes: a body having a top portion and a pair of legs, wherein a bottom surface of each leg forms a clamping surface of the magnetic clamp section; a plurality of apertures formed in the top portion of the body for receiving a corresponding plurality of lift pads of an actuating system; a set of permanent magnets mounted to an underside of the top portion of the body; and a cover for encapsulating and protecting the set of permanent magnets, wherein the cover includes a raised portion for accommodating the set of permanent magnets, and a pair of flanges for securing the cover to the underside of the top portion of the body.

The present invention is in the field of imaging systems. More particularly, the present invention provides an apparatus for clamping the trailing edge of a supply of recording media, such as a printing plate, on the external drum of an imaging system.
In external drum imaging systems, a movable optical carriage is commonly used to displace an image recording source in a slow scan direction while a cylindrical drum, having recording media mounted on an external surface thereof, is rotated with respect to the image recording source. The drum rotation causes the recording media to advance past the image recording source along a fast scan direction that is substantially perpendicular to the slow scan direction.
The image recording source may include an optical system for generating at least one imaging beam that is scanned across the surface of the recording media. Each imaging beam may be separately modulated according to a digital information signal representing data corresponding to the image to be recorded.
The recording media to be imaged by an external drum imaging system is commonly supplied in discrete, flexible sheets, hereinafter collectively referred to as xe2x80x9cprinting plates.xe2x80x9d Each printing plate may comprise one or more layers supported by a support substrate, which for many printing plates is a plano-graphic aluminum sheet. Other layers may include one or more image recording (i.e., xe2x80x9cimageablexe2x80x9d) layers such as a photosensitive, radiation sensitive, or thermally sensitive layer, or other chemically or physically alterable layers. Printing plates that are supported by a polyester support substrate are also known and can be used in the present invention. Printing plates are available in a wide variety of sizes, typically ranging, e.g., from 9xe2x80x3xc3x9712xe2x80x3, or smaller, to 58xe2x80x3xc3x9780xe2x80x3, or larger.
A cassette is often used to supply a plurality of unexposed printing plates to an external drum imaging system. The printing plates are normally supplied in stacks of ten to one hundred, depending upon plate thickness, and are stored in the cassette. A plate manager may be used to automatically and selectively unload and feed a printing plate from a plurality of different cassettes to the external drum imaging system for imaging.
Many clamping systems are available for holding the trailing edge of a printing plate on the external drum of an external drum imaging system. One commonly used type of clamping system, for example, employs a plurality of magnets to hold the trailing edge of a printing plate in place. An example of a magnetic trailing edge clamping mechanism is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,412,413, incorporated herein by reference. Although this type of trailing edge clamping mechanism is effective, it has several drawbacks. For instance, a magnet of the trailing edge clamping mechanism may break apart from impact loads during normal operational conditions. It this should occur, small pieces of the magnet may adhere to the surface of the external drum. Since this may adversely affect the quality of the imaging provided by the imaging system, the external drum must be carefully cleaned to ensure that all pieces of the broken magnet have been removed. The trailing edge clamping system must also be repaired. This requires that the external drum imaging system be shut down and serviced by a technician, which reduces the throughput of the imaging system (e.g., the number of plates/hour that can be imaged by the system).
The present invention provides an apparatus and method for clamping the trailing edge of a printing plate on the external drum of an imaging system.
Generally, the present invention provides a trailing edge clamping mechanism for securing a trailing end of a printing plate on an external drum of an imaging system, comprising:
a plurality of magnetic clamp sections, wherein each magnetic clamp section includes:
a body having a top portion and a pair of legs, wherein a bottom surface of each leg forms a clamping surface of the magnetic clamp section;
a plurality of apertures formed in the top portion of the body for receiving a corresponding plurality of lift pads of an actuating system;
a set of permanent magnets mounted to an underside of the top portion of the body; and
a cover for encapsulating and protecting the set of permanent magnets, wherein the cover includes a raised portion for accommodating the set of permanent magnets, and
a pair of flanges for securing the cover to the underside of the top portion of the body.
The present invention further provides an imaging system comprising:
an external drum for supporting a printing plate;
a system for recording image data onto the printing plate;
a leading edge clamping apparatus for clamping a leading edge of the printing plate on the external drum; and
a trailing edge clamping apparatus for clamping a trailing edge of the printing plate on the external drum, wherein the trailing edge clamping apparatus includes a plurality of magnetic clamp sections, and wherein each magnetic clamp section includes:
a body having a top portion and a pair of legs, wherein a bottom surface of each leg forms a clamping surface of the magnetic clamp section;
a plurality of apertures formed in the top portion of the body for receiving a corresponding plurality of lift pads of an actuating system;
a set of permanent magnets mounted to an underside of the top portion of the body; and
a cover for encapsulating and protecting the set of permanent magnets, wherein the cover includes a raised portion for accommodating the set of permanent magnets, and a pair of flanges for securing the cover to the underside of the top portion of the body.

Media clamping apparatus for an external drum imaging system


Search-based contact initiation methods and apparatus are provided. In particular, a contact initiator enters search terms in the form of qualifications or characteristics desired of a contact recipient. The search term are used to search qualifications records that include qualifications entered or selected by candidate qualifications recipients. When a match or best match between search criteria and a record associated with a candidate communication recipient is found, the contact initiator is placed into communication with that communication recipient. Communications between the communications initiator and the communication recipient are established using a contact address associated with the qualifications of the communication recipient.

Contact centers are commonly used by organizations to provide customer support information or information to potential customers or consumers. In a typical arrangement, a customer will initiate a contact or communication by dialing a telephone number associated with the organization from which the customer desires information. The call may then be routed to particular support groups within the organization based on information entered by the user. For example, the user may respond to prompts to make selections that assist the organization in routing the call to a group that is capable of effectively responding to the customer's inquiry. Routing may also be accomplished by providing particular telephone numbers or other contact addresses based on the nature of the customer's inquiry.
Once a customer contact has been routed to an organization or to a group within an organization, that contact is directed to an agent or other resource that is determined to be capable of handling the inquiry. For example, agents may be grouped according to their skills and/or areas of expertise, and assigned to handle inquiries that are determined to be within the capabilities of those agents. In a typical contact center, customer inquiries are placed in queues if an agent deemed capable of responding to the inquiry is not currently available. Agents are then assigned to queued inquiries as agents become available.
If a customer or other contact initiator has a particular problem or is in need of a particular piece of information, it can be more efficient for the contact initiator to establish communications with a party having the specialized knowledge required to handle the inquiry directly, rather than attempting to reach such a person through normal routing procedures. However, such direct routing requires that the contact initiator have a phone number, e-mail address or other contact address associated with the correct agent or resource. However, contact centers typically do not provide an efficient means for providing or discovering such information. This is because the formal menu structures that are typically used for routing contacts are by nature inflexible and are not well-suited to routing inquiries concerning atypical or non-supported requests. Indeed, in a typical scenario, contact information identifying an expert with respect to a particular field of inquiry is usually obtained through informal processes, such as recognition of a need for routing a call to a particular agent by another agent that has been placed in communication with the contact initiator through normal routing procedures. Accordingly, reaching an appropriate resource can be a time-consuming and frustrating process for a contact initiator.

Search-based contact initiation method and apparatus


Antenna device for a radar detector, which has a circuit board having an electrically insulating substrate, on which a respective electrically conductive layer is arranged on each of two opposing sides, wherein the layer of at least one first side is configured as at least one main antenna. According to the invention, in addition to the at least one main antenna in each case, at least one antenna structure is provided which is integrated with the substrate, wherein each antenna structure integrated with the substrate comprises: a plurality of cutouts which are formed in the substrate and arranged in a waveguide and in each of which an electrically conductive material is arranged at least partially, and a feeder cable formed by the electrically conductive layer of one of the sides for feeding an electromagnetic wave into the antenna structure integrated with the substrate.

Currently, radar sensors or radar detectors with a simple radiation characteristic are used. That means that a radar antenna transmits preferably in a main radiation direction and receives from this direction. The monitoring range for a number of radar applications is broader, however, than what one radar antenna alone can cover. Consequently, generally two or more than two independent radar antennas are used, which each cover a separate angular range by having their main radiation directions arranged at an angle to each other. This way, the two radiation characteristics of the radar antennas overlap to form a broader overall characteristic. In aggregation, the entire monitoring range is detected by the different radar antennas.
To provide an antenna device that is as compact as possible, the goal is to arrange the radar antennas required to cover a specified monitoring range or detection range on a single printed circuit board (PCB—Printed Circuit Board). When several radar antennas are arranged on a single circuit board, however, this board becomes too large. This prevents a more compact arrangement of a radar detector.
Conversely, if the range is specified, a circuit board is desired on which as many radar antennas as possible can be used in the same main radiation direction to improve or increase the spatial resolution of the radar detector.

Antenna device for a radar detector having at least two radiation directions, and motor vehicle having at least one radar detector


Lamp assemblies and methods of making the same are provided. Such a lamp assembly can include a heat sink and a light-emitting diode package that can be mounted to the heat sink. The light-emitting diode package can include a substrate with a top surface and bottom surface, a lens, and electrical contacts on the surface of the substrate. The lamp assembly can also include a printed circuit board with a face surface, a rear surface opposite the face surface and an opening extending from the face surface to the rear surface. The printed circuit board can have electrical contacts thereon for electrical connection with the electrical contacts of the light-emitting diode package. The substrate of the light-emitting diode package can engage the opening of the printed circuit board to mechanically couple the light-emitting diode package to the printed circuit board. When assembled, a bottom surface of the substrate can be flush and aligned with a rear surface of the printed circuit board.

Solid-state lighting is becoming increasingly important in the lighting industry. Solid-state lighting refers to a type of lighting that uses semiconductor light-emitting diodes, organic light-emitting diodes, or polymer light-emitting diodes as sources of illumination rather than electrical filaments, plasma (used in arc lamps such as fluorescent lamps), or gas.
Various implementations of light-emitting diode lighting fixtures are becoming available in the marketplace to fill a wide range of applications. Such different lighting application in which light-emitting diodes can be used include domestic lighting, billboard and display lighting, automotive and bicycle lighting, emergency lighting, traffic and railway lighting, and floodlight and flashlight use. Light-emitting diodes are smaller than incandescent bulbs and use less energy. In addition, light-emitting diodes have a longer life than standard incandescent light bulbs. Accordingly, the use of light-emitting diodes in lighting applications can provide significant energy savings, increased lamp life, smaller lamp size, and flexibility in the design. For these reasons, lighting manufacturers are increasingly interested in unique lighting fixtures incorporating light-emitting diodes that may also have appeal to their intended customers.
While providing many benefits, light-emitting diode lighting fixtures can still be time consuming to manufacture and can therefore be expensive. Additionally, the use of solder in the manufacturing process can raise cost and safety concerns. Further, heat dissipation has to be addressed with light-emitting diodes.


An apparatus for confining the movement of an animal to a defined area includes a transmitter that generates a continuous, coded radio signal through an antenna defining the area. The transmitter can variably modify the amplitude of the continuous, coded radio signal and variably modify the code of the continuous, coded radio signal, thereby modifying the type and rate of a stimulus provided to the animal. The apparatus also has a portable radio receiver for detecting the amplitude of the continuous, coded radio signal and for decoding the continuous, coded radio signal for the rate and type of stimulus provided to the animal. The portable radio receiver is attached to the animal and is positioned for delivering the stimulus to the animal in response only to the detected continuous, coded radio signal.

This invention relates to apparatus for confining the movement of animals, and particularly to apparatus for limiting the range of movement of an animal to a space within a defined boundary.
In one known approach to discouraging an animal from leaving a prescribed area, an aversive stimulus such as an electric shock is delivered to the animal whenever the animal approaches the perimeter of the prescribed area. One sort of apparatus for this approach includes a radio transmitter and a radio frequency receiver, carried by the animal, that includes electrodes for delivering an electric shock to the animal's skin; electronic circuitry in the receiver causes delivery of the electric shock in response to a signal from the transmitter. The transmitter can be configured to send the signal through a closed wire loop, which can be arranged about the perimeter of the prescribed area to form a so-called "invisible fence". Whenever the animal approaches within the field surrounding the wire loop, the receiver is triggered to deliver the aversive shock, from which the animal escapes by returning to within the prescribed area.
Radio frequency interference from a variety of sources in and around the domestic site can trigger the aversive shock stimulus, causing needless discomfort to the animal and breaking down the animal's specific conditioned response to the perimeter wire, compromising the effectiveness of the apparatus.


Systems and methods are presented for forming a gate structure comprising an insulative portion, whereby the insulative portion is utilized to electrically isolate an electrically conductive portion of the gate structure from a conductive element located in the vicinity of the gate structure. The insulative portion is formed by chemically modifying a conductive portion of the gate. Chemical modification is an oxidation process, converting aluminum conductor to aluminum oxide insulator material. Utilizing a chemically modified gate structure enables self aligning contact technique(s) to be utilized with semiconductor devices comprising a replacement metal gate(s). The chemical modification process can be performed prior or after forming a contact opening.

Silicon large-scale integrated circuits, among other device technologies, are applied ubiquitously throughout modern society to accommodate the needs for digital information and digital control. An integrated circuit may be composed of a plurality of semiconductor devices, such as transistors or the like, which can be produced according to a variety of techniques. To facilitate increased integration and speed of semiconductor devices, a trend of continuously scaling semiconductors (e.g., reducing size and features of semiconductor devices) has emerged. Reducing semiconductor and/or semiconductor feature size provides improved speed, performance, density, cost per unit, etc., of resultant integrated circuits. However, as semiconductor devices and device features have become smaller, conventional fabrication techniques have become limited in their ability to produce finely defined features.
A particular development in the range of semiconductor devices are field effect transistors (FETs) where metal oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFET or MOS) and complimentary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) can utilize both p-type and n-type (PMOS and NMOS) transistors in conjunction with a gate structure(s). Of particular concern is the increased likelihood of a shortage occurring across a gate and a proximately located conductive element, such as a contact.
FIG. 49 illustrates an ideal scenario (continuous bold line) where a contact 950 (e.g., connecting with a trench silicide 920 forming a source/drain) is ideally located between replacement metal gate (RMG) structures 910a and 910b. In an embodiment, contact 950 may comprise of a self aligned contact (SAC), however such technology may not be amenable to RMG structures owing to the degree of positional tolerancing (±q) required that can be inherent to self aligned structure technology. A constraint regarding how far critical dimensioning can be reduced is where consideration has to be made with regard to the distance between a pair of structures when a subsequent structure is to be placed between the pair of structures. Further, as the distance between respective RMGs in a semiconductor device is reduced, as a function of scaling, the ability to accurately locate a contact, whether it be self aligning or otherwise, becomes difficult. For example, a pair of FET gates (e.g., gates 910a and 910b, which can be any combination pairing comprising a pair of nFET gates or a pair of pFET gates) are separated by a source/drain region (e.g., source/drain 920), where, in a subsequent operation, a contact has to be formed to connect with the source/drain region while not coming into contact with either of the FET gates 910a or 910b.
For example, FIG. 50 illustrates an undesirable arrangement where contact 960 has been erroneously located and gate shortage can occur along electrical pathway S1. In another example, as illustrated in FIG. 51, even with the approach of utilizing a metal line 970 having a tapered profile, and while the metal line is located on source/drain region 920, the distance S2 between the gate 910a and the interconnect 970 may be of such a short distance that current leakage can occur at S2.
Hence, as shown in FIGS. 50 and 51, owing to the diminished sizes with which semiconductor devices are being manufactured, the ability to accurately locate contact(s) with respect to other device features (e.g., RMGs) is being tested. Hence, while technologies facilitate further miniaturization of semiconductor related devices and components, issues regarding construction of the devices (e.g., gate formation, surface profiles, etc.) are still to be addressed.


A fixing apparatus has a belt-shaped rotary member, a pressure member urged against the rotary member to form a nip portion, and a heater for the rotary member. A portion of the rotary member is maintained so that the belt portion has a radius of curvature smaller than an inner diameter of the rotary member, and after the apparatus is stopped a predetermined time, when the rotary member is rotated again, a control sequence is carried out in which the portion of the rotary member including the smaller radius of curvature is conveyed and positioned in the nip portion and the heating is performed while rotation of the rotary member is stopped, or, after the apparatus is stopped more than a predetermined time, when the rotary member is rotated again, a control sequence is carried out while conveying the portion of the rotary member including the smaller radius of curvature through the nip portion once at a speed smaller than a normal conveying speed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image heating apparatus for heating an image formed on a recording material by using an electrophotographic system or an electrostatic recording system. Such an image heating apparatus can be used, for example, as a fixing apparatus in a copier, a printer, a facsimile or the like.
2. Related Background Art
In image forming apparatuses such as electrophotographic copiers, printers or facsimiles, after an electrostatic latent image is formed on a photosensitive member, the electrostatic latent image is developed as a toner image which is then fixed onto a paper by thermally fusing and pressurizing the toner image. A fixing apparatus for fixing the toner image onto a recording material (paper or recording medium) is incorporated in such an image forming apparatus.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H06-318001 (1994) discloses a fixing apparatus of belt type (belt fixing apparatus). This belt fixing apparatus comprises an endless fixing belt, a fixing roller, a heating roller and a pressure roller. The heating roller and the fixing roller are disposed in parallel with each other and the fixing belt extends between and is wound around the heating roller and the fixing roller. The pressure roller is disposed in parallel with the fixing roller with the interposition of the fixing belt therebetween and is biased toward the fixing roller. As a result, pressure is generated between the fixing roller and the fixing belt. When the pressure roller is rotated, the fixing belt wound around the heating roller and the fixing roller is driven. A main heating source is arranged within the heating roller and an auxiliary heating source is arranged within the pressure roller. A recording material carrying a toner image is passed through an area (nip portion) where a portion of the fixing belt is pinched between the pressure roller and the fixing roller. While the recording material being passed through the nip portion, heat is applied to the recording material from the fixing belt and pressure is applied to the recording material from the pressure roller. In this case, the recording material is also subjected to auxiliary heat from the pressure roller. By the heat and the pressure applied to the recording material being passed through the nip portion, the toner image or non-fixed image is fixed onto the recording material.
Further, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H04-44075 (1992) proposes a fixing apparatus of belt heating type for performing the heating via a belt having small heat capacity, as a system (on-demand system) having a high heat transferring efficiency and fast rising-up of the apparatus. In this apparatus, a heat resistive resin belt (fixing belt) as a heating rotary member is closely urged against heating means (heating heater) by a pressurizing rotary member (elastic) roller and is slidingly conveyed thereby, and a recording material as a heated material carrying a non-fixed image is introduced into a nip portion defined by the heating means and the pressurizing member with the interposition of the belt so that the recording material is conveyed together with the heat resistive resin belt. In this way, the non-fixed image is fixed onto the recording material as a permanent image by heat from the heating means via the belt and a pressurizing force of the nip portion.
In recent development of colorization of electrophotographic techniques, it has been requested for the fixing member contacted with the recording material to provide soft fixing. In the conventional fixing apparatuses of belt heating type, it is pointed out that, due to rigidity of a surface layer comprised of mold releasing resin such as fluororesin, toner particles may be crushed thereby to deteriorate a resolving power of the image and that, during color image fixing, since plural color layers are laminated, poor color mixing may occur. Provision of an elastic belt in which an elastic layer is provided between a base layer and a surface layer as means for solving these problems has been proposed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H10-321352 (1998).
In view of recent energy saving, it is known to provide a method in which consumption of electric power of the heating means is reduced by increasing thermal conductivity of the belt base layer by using metal such as nickel as the base layer of the belt in place of the heat resistive resin and to provide a technique in which a fixing property is further improved and further high speed can be achieved and uniformity of a temperature in a longitudinal direction of the nip portion is also enhanced, by increasing thermal conductivity of the belt base layer by using metal.
However, in the fixing apparatus of belt heating type, after the fixing operation, if the fixing apparatus is not used within a predetermined time period after the driving of the fixing belt is stopped, at a contact area between the fixing belt and the heating roller, the base layer and the elastic layer of the fixing belt are cooled and hardened in a condition that these layers are deformed. As a result that, when the fixing belt is used again, the fixing belt cannot be restored from the deformed condition quickly. Particularly when a diameter of the heating roller is reduced in order to achieve compactness of the apparatus, a winding mark (referred to as "winding curl" hereinafter) of the fixing belt is generated. Consequently, when the image is formed firstly in a day or when the image is formed after a long inoperative time, glossy unevenness and/or streak(s) is generated in the image due to such winding mark or a protruded portion is generated on the fixing belt due to the winding mark before the belt is introduced into the nip portion, with the result that poor image such as scattering of the image would be occurred during the fixing.
Further, in the above-mentioned fixing apparatus of belt heating type, curvatures of the rising-up portions of the belt at both ends of the nip portion are increased. As a result, if the apparatus is not used within the predetermined time period after the driving of the fixing belt is stopped after the fixing operation, bending marks may be formed on belt portions at the both ends of the nip portion having great curvature, with the result that, in response to such belt bending, glossy unevenness and stripe(s) may occur in the image.

Image heating apparatus with endless belt operation in a nip


Systems and methods for performing a pattern matching operation in a memory device are disclosed. The memory device may include a controller and memory arrays where the memory arrays store different patterns along bit lines. An input pattern is applied to the memory array(s) to determine whether the pattern is stored in the memory device. Word lines may be activated in series or in parallel to search for patterns within the memory array. The memory array may include memory cells that store binary digits, discrete values or analog values.

Memory devices are made up of different memory arrays, where a memory array is further made up of individual memory cells. Data is stored in memory cells. A memory cell may be accessed by activating word lines and bit lines to reading out the values stored in the memory cell. Memory cells may also store values by writing values to the memory cells. A generic processor may be coupled to the memory device and configured to perform read and write operations to process data stored in the memory device.