A motor driving device includes, a PWM converter that performs power conversion between AC power and DC power in a DC link, an inverter that converts the DC power in the DC link to AC power for a motor and that converts the AC power from the motor to DC power for returning to the DC link, a power storage unit that stores the DC power, a switch that connects or disconnects between an AC power supply and the PWM converter in response to a command, and a command unit that continues outputting a connection command to the switch while a DC voltage in the DC link is boosted up to a prescribed voltage by the DC power, and that initiates outputting a disconnection command to the switch after the DC voltage in the DC link reaches the prescribed voltage and before the inverter initiates powering operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motor driving device that converts AC power supplied from an AC power supply side to DC power and outputs the DC power to a DC link, and thereafter, further converts the DC power to AC power for motor driving and supplies the AC power to a motor. In particular, the present invention relates to a motor driving device having a PWM converter as a power converter for converting AC power on the AC power supply side to DC power.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a motor driving device that drives a motor within machine tools, forging machines, injection molding machines, industrial machinery, or various robots, AC power supplied from the AC power supply side is temporarily converted to DC power and thereafter is further converted to AC power, and the AC power thus obtained is used as driving power for a motor provided for each drive axis. The motor driving device includes a converter (rectifier) that rectifies AC power supplied from the AC power supply side to output DC power, and an inverter (reverse converter) that is connected with a DC link, which is the DC side of the rectifier, and that performs power conversion between DC power in the DC link and AC power as driving power for or regenerative power from the motor, wherein the speed and torque of the motor connected to the AC side of the inverter, or the position of a rotor are controlled. A capacitor is provided in the DC link, which connects the DC side of the converter and the DC side of the inverter. The capacitor has a function as a smoothing capacitor for suppressing the ripple components of the DC output of the converter, and a function as a power storage device that may store DC power. The same number of inverters are provided as the number of motors, in order to drive-control the motors by supplying the driving power to the individual motors respectively provided correspondingly to the plurality of drive axises. A single converter is generally provided for the plurality of inverters, in order to reduce the cost of the motor driving device and the space occupied.
In recent years, as a converter in a motor driving device, a PWM control type converter (hereinafter, simply referred to as a PWM converter) that enables regenerative power generated during motor deceleration to be returned to the AC power supply side has been widely used, in view of the demand for saving energy. The PWM converter has a power factor of approximately 1 and is advantageous in that a DC voltage in a DC link can be boosted up to a desired voltage equal to or more than an input voltage peak value of an AC power supply. The PWM converter is constituted of a bridge circuit having semiconductor switching elements and diodes connected in reverse parallel therewith, and performs power conversion between AC power on the AC power supply side and DC power in the DC link side with switching operations of the semiconductor switching elements therein being PWM-controlled. Regenerative power generated in a motor during deceleration of the motor is converted from AC power to DC power by an inverter, and the DC power is input to the PWM converter via the DC link and is further converted to AC power by the PWM converter, thereby being regenerated to the AC power supply side. At this time, the DC voltage in the DC link where a capacitor is provided varies corresponding to the amount of regenerative power generated in the motor and the amount of AC power regenerated to the AC power supply side via the inverter, the DC link and the PWM converter.
As described in, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2000-236679, there is known a motor driving device wherein a power storage device is provided in the DC link side of a PWM converter, the magnitude of input current (input power) to be fed from an AC power supply to the PWM converter by PWM control is limited, the peaks of power to be supplied from the AC power supply are suppressed by use of energy stored in the power storage device for accelerating a motor, and during deceleration of the motor, the peaks of power to be regenerated to the AC power supply side are suppressed, thereby achieving reduction in the capacity of the PWM converter.
In the motor driving device, when driving power necessary for motor acceleration is denoted by X[W] and a limit value of input power (corresponding to input current) to be fed from the AC power supply to the PWM converter by PWM control is denoted by Y[W], power is short by Z[W] (=X[W]−Y[W]) for motor driving but is supplied from the power storage device for the short power Z[W]. When a time period for accelerating the motor is denoted by T[s], energy E[J] to be supplied as the driving power for the motor from the power storage device is represented by expression (1).E=Z×T  (1)
When the driving power for the motor is supplied from the power storage device, a DC voltage (power storage device voltage) in the DC link drops. When a DC voltage in the DC link before the supply of the driving power for the motor from the power storage device is denoted by V1[V], a dropped DC voltage in the DC link after the supply of the driving power for the motor from the power storage device is denoted by V2[V], and a capacitance of a capacitor as the power storage device is denoted by C[F], relational expression (2) holds.
                    E        =                              1            2                    ×          C          ×                      (                                          V                1                2                            -                              V                2                2                                      )                                              (        2        )
In addition, as described in, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 4917680, there is a motor driving device wherein a power storage device is charged with power from the AC power supply or regenerative power generated during motor deceleration, for the amount of DC voltage in the DC link (power storage device voltage) that has dropped when energy stored in the power storage device is used for motor acceleration, and the energy thus stored in the power storage device is used as driving power for next motor acceleration.
It is possible by PWM control to limit input current to be fed from the AC power supply side to a PWM converter only when the DC voltage in the DC link, which is the DC side of the PWM converter (i.e., power storage device voltage), is higher than an input voltage peak value on the AC power supply side of the PWM converter.
However, when the DC voltage in the DC link drops down to be equal to or lower than the input voltage peak value, current flows into diodes connected in reverse parallel with semiconductor switching elements and therefore the configuration is equivalent to that of a diode rectification-type converter. Consequently, even performing PWM control on switching operations of the semiconductor switching elements does not make it possible to limit the input current to be fed from the AC power supply side. Therefore, when motor acceleration is continued afterwards, all of the power necessary for the motor acceleration has to be fed from the AC power supply side and this makes it impossible to achieve the objective of suppressing the peaks of the power supplied from the AC power supply. In addition, since it may be impossible to limit the input current to be fed from the AC power supply side, there is a risk of breakage of the diodes in the PWM converter or the power storage device due to overcurrents.
FIGS. 10A to 10D are diagrams illustrating operation of a conventional motor driving device having a power storage device and a PWM converter that is provided in order to suppress the peaks of power to be supplied from the power supply during acceleration of the motor and the peaks of power to be regenerated to the power supply during deceleration of the motor, FIG. 10A illustrating a motor output, FIG. 10B illustrating a power supply current to be fed from the AC power supply to the PWM converter, FIG. 10C illustrating current flow in the power storage device, and FIG. 10D illustrating a DC link voltage.
Firstly, a case in which a DC voltage in a DC link has already been boosted up to an input voltage peak value of an AC power supply at time t0 is considered. In FIG. 10D, V1 represents a DC voltage in the DC link before driving power for the motor is supplied from the power storage device. V2 represents a dropped DC voltage in the DC link after the supply of the driving power for the motor from the power storage device and is set to a value larger than the input voltage peak value of the AC power supply side.
During a period between time t0 and time t1, the PWM converter converts AC power on the AC power supply side to DC power, while being PWM-controlled in a manner such that a power supply current (AC current) to be fed from the AC power supply does not exceed a preset input current limit value (FIG. 10B). The power storage device is charged with the DC power output from the PWM converter (FIG. 10C), and the DC voltage in the DC link (i.e. power storage device voltage) gradually increases (FIG. 10D).
After the DC voltage in the DC link reaches a prescribed voltage V1 at time t1, neither the power supply current (FIG. 10B) nor the power storage device current (FIG. 10C) flows until motor acceleration is started.
When motor acceleration is started at time t2 (FIG. 10A), the power supply current (input current) that is fed to the PWM converter from the AC power supply increases (FIG. 10B). No power storage device current flows (FIG. 10C) until the power supply current reaches the input current limit value.
When powering of the motor continues and the motor output continues increasing (FIG. 10A) even though the power supply current has reached the input current limit value at time t3 (FIG. 10B), the limited input power to be supplied from the AC power supply side is not enough for the driving power and, as a result, the shortage of the power is compensated by the power discharged from the power storage device. Accordingly, the power storage device current flows (FIG. 10C) and the DC voltage in the DC link (i.e. power storage device voltage) gradually decreases (FIG. 10D).
If the DC link voltage is greater than the input voltage peak value of the AC power supply when the motor output further continues increasing even though the DC link voltage falls below V2 at time t4, it is possible to limit by PWM control the magnitude of the input current to be fed from the AC power supply side to the PWM converter (FIG. 10B).
When the motor output further continues increasing even though the DC link voltage falls below the input voltage peak value at time t5, current flows through the diodes in the PWM converter and, as a result, it is impossible to limit the magnitude of the input current to be fed from the AC power supply side. Accordingly, breakage of the diodes in the PWM converter or the power storage device may occur due to overcurrents, or in order to avoid this, the motor driving device itself may be stopped by alarm.
In the above-described motor driving device having the PWM converter and the power storage device, it is important to perform control such that the DC voltage in the DC link that has dropped after the supply of the driving power for the motor from the power storage device (V2[V] in expression 2) does not fall below the input voltage peak value on the AC power supply side.
For example, such control is conventionally performed that the dropped DC voltage in the DC link (V2[V] in expression 2) does not fall below the input voltage peak value on the AC power supply side by designing a capacitance C[F] of a capacitor as the power storage device based on expression 1 and expression 2 as follows. In other words, the DC voltage V1[V] in the DC link before the supply of the driving power for the motor from the power storage device is set equal to or lower than withstand voltages of the diodes in the PWM converter and the power storage device, and the dropped DC voltage V2[V] in the DC link after the supply of the driving power for the motor from the power storage device is set to a value greater than the input voltage peak value on the AC power supply side and equal to or greater than a minimum voltage necessary for driving the motor. As for driving power X[W] necessary for motor acceleration and a time period T[s] during which the motor is accelerated are determined based on motor operation conditions, and a limit value Y[W] of the input power (corresponding to the input current) to be fed from the AC power supply to the PWM converter by PWM control is limited to power capable of being supplied by the AC power supply.
According to expression 2, making a difference V1[V]−V2[V] large between the DC voltages in the DC link before and after the supply of the driving power for the motor from the power storage device can reduce the capacitance C[F] of the capacitor as the power storage device. However, the DC voltage V1[V] in the DC link before the supply of the driving power for the motor from the power storage device needs to be set to a value smaller than the withstand voltages of the diodes in the PWM converter and the power storage device, and therefore has an upper limit. In addition, the DC voltage V2[V] in the DC link after the supply of the driving power for the motor from the power storage device needs to be set to a value larger than the input voltage peak value on the AC power supply side, and therefore depends on the AC power supply to be connected to the motor driving device. For example, in the case where the AC power supply is of high voltage, the DC voltage V2[V] in the DC link after the supply of the driving power for the motor from the power storage device may not be made low, and therefore the difference V1[V]−V2[V] between the DC voltages in the DC link before and after the supply of the driving power for the motor from the power storage device may not be made large. Accordingly, it is necessary to make the capacitance C[F] of the capacitor as the power storage device large in order to sufficiently ensure energy E[J] to be supplied as the driving power for the motor from the power storage device, resulting in a problem that the cost and installation area of the power storage device would be increased.
Further, by limiting the magnitude of the input current (input power) to be fed from the AC power supply to the PWM converter by PWM control and by using energy stored in the power storage device for the shortage of power for motor driving, the capacity of the PWM converter can be made small, and therefore it is possible to make a selection of a PWM converter having a capacity smaller than the motor output. However, when the motor output is larger than is assumed due to some cause or when the capacitance of the capacitor as the power storage device decreases due to aged deterioration, the situation may also be considered to occur that the DC voltage (power storage device voltage) in the DC capacitor is equal to or lower than the input voltage peak value of the AC power supply because of using the energy stored in the power storage device for motor acceleration and, as a result, a motor load would be directly applied to the PWM converter. In this case, if the selected PWM converter has a small capacity with respect to the motor output, it may be impossible to limit the input current (input power) to be fed from the AC power supply to the PWM converter, and therefore, there would arise a problem that breakage of the diodes in the PWM converter or the power storage device may occur due to overcurrents, or in order to avoid this, the motor driving device itself may be stopped by alarm.

Motor driving device having PWM converter


A mobile communications device with a wireless module and a controller module is provided. The wireless module performs wireless transmissions and receptions to and from a first service network and a second service network. The first service network and the second service network are in compliance with a first communication protocol and a second communication protocol, respectively. The controller module performs measurements on the first service network via the wireless module, and generates a measurement log according to the measurements results. Also, the controller module receives a handover request from the second service network via the wireless module for handing over from the second service network to the first service network, and transmits a handover response indicating availability of the measurement log to the first service network via the wireless module.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to radio measurement collection for Minimization of Drive Tests (MDT), and more particularly, to apparatuses and methods for report availability of the MDT logs during inter-Radio Access Technology (RAT) handovers.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a typical mobile communication system, an operator needs to run manual drive-tests to adjust network settings for performance optimizations, including radio coverage optimization, mobility optimization, network capability optimization, channel optimization, Quality of Service (QoS) verification, network planning, and others. In order to reduce the cost and time consumed for the manual drive-tests, a Minimization of Drive Tests (MDT) concept has been proposed, which requires the user equipment (UE) to log its measurement results and report the measurement logs (referred to herein as MDT logs) to the service network, so that the operator may analyze the MDT logs and adjust the network settings without too much burden of the manual drive-tests.
Taking the Long Term Evolution (LTE) technology in compliance with the 3GPP TS 37.320 specification, v1.0.0 (referred to herein as the 37.320 specification), and the 3GPP TS 36.331 specification, v1.0.0 (referred to herein as the 36.331 specification) as an example, after a UE is powered on and connected to a UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (UTRAN) or evolved-UTRAN (E-UTRAN), the UTRAN or E-UTRAN may initiate an MDT measurement configuration procedure with the UE by transmitting an IdleMDTConfiguration message, to indicate the configuration parameters for logged MDT measurements in an idle mode, as shown in FIG. 1. When the UE enters the idle mode from a connected mode, it performs measurement logging according to the configuration parameters in the IdleMDTConfiguration message. Later, when the UE is paged or the user of the UE wishes to make a call, it initiates a Radio Resource Control (RRC) connection establishment procedure by transmitting an RRCConnectionRequest message to the UTRAN or E-UTRAN. Upon receiving the RRCConnectionRequest message, the UTRAN or E-UTRAN replies to the UE with an RRCConnectionSetup message. According to the configuration parameters included in the RRCConnectionSetup message, the UE establishes the RRC connection with the UTRAN or E-UTRAN and further transmits an RRCConnectionSetupComplete message to the UTRAN or E-UTRAN upon completion of the RRC connection establishment. Particularly, the UE includes the information concerning the availability of the MDT logs in the RRCConnectionSetupComplete message. As shown in FIG. 2, if the availability of the MDT logs is indicated, the UTRAN or E-UTRAN may request the UE to report on the MDT logs, by transmitting a UEInformaqtionRequest message to the UE. When receiving the UEInformaqtionRequest message, the UE replies to the UTRAN or E-UTRAN with a UEInformaqtionResponse message which includes the measurement logs.
However, there are situations where the UE can not indicate the availability of the MDT logs to the UTRAN or E-UTRAN, causing the UTRAN or E-UTRAN unable to retrieve the MDT logs. Taking an inter-RAT (Radio Access Technology) handover procedure from a UMTS system to an LTE system as an example, the UE is initially camped on the LTE system and configured to perform MDT measurement logging for the LTE system. Upon moving to an area with stronger signal coverage of the UMTS system, the UE stops the MDT measurement logging and reselects to the UMTS system. Later, in response to a request for a Mobile Originated (MO) call or a Mobile Terminating (MT) call, dedicated radio link(s) is established for the UE to the UMTS system. During the MO call or MT call, the UE is handed over to the LTE system from the UMTS system if the UE is moved back to the area with the stronger signal coverage of the LTE system. It is noted that, although MDT logs for the LTE system are available from the MDT measurement logging performed before reselection to the UMTS system, the UE does not report to the LTE system about the information concerning the availability of the MDT logs when being handed over back to the LTE system. As a result, the LTE system is not able to retrieve the MDT logs from the UE. Similarly, in another example of an inter-RAT handover procedure from an LTE system to a UMTS system, if the MDT logs for the UMTS system are available from a previously performed MDT measurement logging and the UE is handed over back to the UMTS system from the LTE system during an ongoing MO call or MT call, the UE does not report to the UMTS system about the information concerning the availability of the MDT logs. Thus, it is desirable to have an efficient way of reporting the availability of the MDT logs to the service network.

Apparatuses and methods for reporting availability of measurement log


A cooling system support structure for removably supporting a cooling system module on a vehicle chassis is disclosed. The structure includes a frame having first and second sides and configured to support the cooling system module, first and second mounting points coaxially mounted along the first side and a third mounting point mounted along the second side. The mounting points are positioned to mate with corresponding chassis mounts on the vehicle chassis and a flexible coupling is provided for connecting each mounting point to the respective chassis mount such that the frame is movably supported by the vehicle chassis.

This invention relates generally to vehicles, and in particular, to a modular cooling system and a structure for mounting the same in a frame of a vehicle such a bus.
As is known, engines are used to propel vehicles such as buses, cars and the like. In order to prevent the engine of a vehicle from overheating, a cooling system is often interconnected thereto. The cooling system includes a radiator operatively connected to the engine such that coolant from the engine flows through the radiator. A heat exchange is effectuated between the coolant in the radiator and the outside, ambient air in order to remove heat from the coolant flowing through the radiator and back to the engine. A fan may be provided to blow air across the fins of the radiator in order to facilitate the heat exchange.
Radiators are often formed from a plurality of metal parts such as tubes and fins. Since the prior art radiators are often times rigidly connected to the vehicle chassis adjacent the engines of the vehicles, radiators see all of the vibrations associated with the operation of the vehicles. Due to these vibrations, stress may develop at certain points on the radiator resulting in the radiator cracking and/or breaking at such points. In addition, the chassis of a vehicle, such as a bus, is flexible. For example, the chassis will deflect as the bus travels along a road or receives passengers. This deflection of the chassis of the bus may be transmitted to the radiator of the vehicle as additional unwanted stress. Since replacement of a radiator is both labor intensive and expensive, it is highly desirable to provide a mounting structure for a cooling system which eliminates the stress points on a radiator during operation of the vehicle.
Depending on the type of vehicle, vehicle cooling systems may also contain additional components such as a radiator shroud, a transmission and/or other oil cooler, a heater core, a fan clutch, an expansion tank, and/or other items which may be necessitated by the application.
The installation and/or replacement of a cooling system for a vehicle is both time consuming and costly due to the fact that prior art cooling systems utilize numerous parts and sub-assemblies. Typically, individual cooling system components are installed essentially one at a time, making installation a very cost and time-inefficient process. Consequently, it is also highly desirable to provide a cooling system which may be quickly and easily installed in a vehicle.
Therefore, it is a primary object and feature of the present invention to provide a modular cooling system which may be quickly and easily installed in a vehicle.
It is a further object and feature of the present invention to provide a cooling system for a vehicle which may be mounted to the chassis of the vehicle at a location remote from the engine.
It is a still further object and feature of the present invention to provide a cooling system for a vehicle which is simpler and less expensive to manufacture than prior art cooling systems.
It is a further object and feature of the present invention to provide a mounting structure for a cooling system which eliminates the stress points on the cooling system during operation of the vehicle.
In accordance with the present invention, a cooling system module and a structure for mounting the same in a frame of a vehicle such as a bus is provided. The modular cooling system allows a user to install a single unit into the chassis of a vehicle thereby eliminating the time and labor associated with installation and/replacement of prior art cooling systems. The cooling system may include such items as a radiator, fan, fan drive, charged air cooler, transmission oil cooler, surge tank and/or other items which may be necessitated by the application.
A preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a cooling system support structure for removably supporting a cooling system module on a vehicle chassis, comprising a frame configured to support the cooling system module. The frame has a first side along which are coaxially mounted first and second mounting points and a second side on which a third mounting point is mounted. Each of these mounting points is positioned to mate with corresponding chassis mounts on the vehicle chassis. A flexible coupling connects each mounting point to the respective chassis mount such that the frame is movably supported by the vehicle chassis.
In a highly preferred embodiment, the mounting points of the support structure are positioned such that the cooling system module is supported in a balanced state. The term xe2x80x9cbalanced statexe2x80x9d herein refers to the condition such that when the vehicle is generally level and not moving, the weight of the vehicle cooling system is approximately evenly distributed onto the three mounting points. This is accomplished by determining the placement of the cooling system components on the cooling system frame and by choosing the location of the mounting points on the cooling system frame. Mounting the cooling system to be in a balanced state allows each flexible coupling to be utilized to the full extent of available displacement while the vehicle is subjected to vibration, starting and stopping of the vehicle, chassis distortion, or any other loading that might put on the vehicle.
In an additional embodiment of the invention, the frame of the support structure includes top and bottom frame members each having spaced apart ends and first and second end frame members. The first and second end frame members are secured to a respective spaced apart end of said top and bottom frame members.
Preferably, the frame of the support structure further includes a first mounting bracket rigidly connected to a first end of the first side, a second mounting bracket rigidly connected to a second end of the first side, and a bracket support element which rigidly connects the first and second mounting brackets. It is highly preferred that the support structure has a first mounting point secured on the first mounting bracket and the second mounting point secured on the second mounting bracket such that the first and second mounting points are aligned coaxially.
The cooling system support structure preferably includes a first mounting point comprising a first outer bushing secured with respect to the first mounting bracket and a second mounting point comprising a second outer bushing secured with respect to the second mounting bracket, the first and second outer bushings being coaxially aligned. Further, a flexible inner bushing is coaxially secured within each of the first and second outer bushings. These flexible inner bushings are positioned to mate with corresponding chassis mounts on the vehicle chassis.
In an additional highly preferred embodiment of the present invention, the third mounting point includes a mounting point bracket rigidly connected to the second side of the frame and a flexible coupling comprising a connecting rod flexibly connected to the mounting point bracket and connecting the mounting point bracket to the vehicle chassis. The preferred connecting rod comprises a first rod end secured to a first rod outer bushing and a second rod end secured to a second rod outer bushing, such rod outer bushings positioned at opposite ends of the connecting rod with axes parallel one to the other and perpendicular to the axis of the connecting rod. The connecting rod also includes a flexible inner bushing coaxially secured within each rod outer bushing, the flexible inner bushing secured to the first rod outer bushing being positioned to mate with a mounting point bracket on the second side of the frame, and the flexible inner bushing secured to the second rod outer bushing positioned to mate with a corresponding chassis mount on the vehicle chassis.
When all or most of the cooling system components are mounted together as a unit, herein called a cooling system module, installation is both less costly and less time-consuming. When the module is flexibly mounted using the three point mounting arrangement of this invention, the components of the cooling system are subjected to much less stress, shock, and vibration, resulting in longer component life.
The cooling system may be positioned at a remote location with respect to the engine such that vibrations from the engine will not be transmitted directly to the cooling system. Further, by having the cooling system positioned at a location remote from the engine, vibrations from the engine and the chassis may dissipated along the length of the chassis.

Cooling system module and structure for mounting same in a vehicle


The present invention provides methods of modulating of cancer immunity using type 2 innate lymphoid cells (IL-C2s), interleukin 33 (IL-33), IFI44 or combination thereof. Also provided are methods of preventing tumor metastasis and/or cancer progression by treatment with therapies comprising type 2 innate lymphoid cells (ILC2s), interleukin 33 (IL-33), IFI44 or combination thereof. Also provided are diagnostic methods for assessing cancer prognosis.

Cancer is the leading cause of death in the developed world and arises as a result of genetic mutations that occur in oncogenes and tumor suppressor genes. These mutations cause uncontrolled cell proliferation and may enable primary tumors to continue to mutate and evolve into the metastatic form of the disease that is often lethal (Hanahan and Weinberg, 2011; Janeway et al., 2008). Genomic profiling of tumors has revealed a "metastatic gene signature" common to many different tumor types (Hanahan and Weinberg, 2011). This metastatic signature distinguishes tumors with localized growing potential from those genetically configured to disseminate to distant sites. As such, genes mediating tumor cell motility, invasion, immune evasiveness, angiogenesis and colonization are classified as metastasis progression genes. The proteins encoded by these genes allow tumor cells to overcome cell-to-cell adhesion forces, move to distal sites, survive and colonize distal organs, while being immunologically undetectable.
The immune system limits the emergence of tumors. The cellular arm of the immune system is critical in providing protection against metastatic cancers. CD8+ T cells of the immune system are able to distinguish between normal cells and cancerous or virus-infected cells by monitoring major histocompatibility complex class I (MHC-I) molecules on the cell surface. MHC-I molecules, known in humans as the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes, are displayed by virtually all cells and form a complex with fragments of protein, or peptides, from the cell. Tumors express proteins that are related to the neoplastic transformation event and subsequent growth and expansion of the tumor. Antigenic peptides from these proteins termed tumor-associated antigens (TAA) are the focus of current immunotherapeutic approaches. Thus, the current paradigm holds that the emergence of tumors should be limited by a robust adaptive immune response that recognizes aberrant expression of TAAs (Setiadi et al., 2008; Zhang et al., 2008). During cancer development, neoplastic cells can undergo multifarious chromosomal alterations that cause a phenotypic shift to immunologically unrecognizable forms. Analogous to genetic drift in Influenza A and B viruses, in the absence of the counterbalance of the immune recognition, the resultant immune-escape clones may have growth advantages that actuate metastasis (Alimonti et al., 2000a; Gabathuler et al., 1994). The gene expression profile in tumor tissue is influenced to a significant extent by the local microenvironment termed the connective tissue framework. This framework consists of normal cells, such as stromal fibroblasts, infiltrating immune cells, as well as extracellular matrix. It is now generally accepted that tumor-infiltrating immune cells, as well as cytokine-related signaling pathways, are intimately linked to the kinetics of tumor growth. The metastatic gene signature is a combination of genes acting together to define the malignant potential of a tumor. Complementation of expression of genes lost during immune-escape selection could render them immunologically recognizable and potentially halt immune-evasion of tumors (Alimonti et al., 2000a; Gabathuler et al., 1994).
There are several mechanisms for immune evasion in tumors including down regulation of expression of the major histocompatibility class I gene (MHC-I)/human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genes. The loss of HLA class I molecules is associated with tumor aggressiveness and metastatic potential. Several types of cancer, including breast, renal, melanoma, colorectal, head and neck squamous cell, cervical and prostate cancer show a correlation between HLA down-regulation, poor prognosis and metastatic spread of the disease.
An important group of immune cells are innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) (Spits et al., 2013). The ILC family is a cytokine-producing group of cells phenotypically characterized by the absence of re-arranged antigen-specific receptors and the expression of stem cell antigen 1 (Sca1), lymphoid progenitor marker IL7Ra (CD127), IL2Ra (CD25), IL17BR (a subunit of IL25R), the IL-33 receptor T1/ST2 chain (Walker et al., 2013). ILCs are currently divided into three main groups, which are defined by the cytokines they produce (Lanier, 2013). Group 2 ILCs (ILC2), can produce type 2 cytokines (e.g. IL-5, IL-9, IL-13), and are considered to be innate helper cells (Neill et al., 2010; Roediger and Weninger, 2015). ILC2s respond to pro-allergenic cytokines such as IL-25 and IL-33 that are produced by epithelial cells in mucosal membranes (Martinez-Gonzalez et al., 2015). In addition, asthma-like symptoms mediated by ILC2s have been induced in mice that lack T and B cells using IL-33 alone (Nabe, 2014).
Group 3 ILCs are defined by their capacity to produce cytokines IL-17A and/or IL-22. They are important in facilitating responses to extracellular bacteria, with a particular role in mediating the balance between the intestinal immune system and the natural microbiome of the host.
Interleukin 33 (IL-33) is a cytokine belonging to the IL-1 superfamily (Cayrol and Girard, 2014; Gao et al., 2015; Guabiraba et al., 2014; Kearley et al., 2015; Martin, 2013; Musolino et al., 2014; Pascual-Figal and Januzzi, 2015). IL-33 is a dual-function protein that acts as a nuclear factor and pro-inflammatory cytokine. Nuclear localization and association with heterochromatin is mediated by the N-terminal domain and allows IL-33 to function as a novel transcriptional regulator of the p65 subunit of the NF-κB complex. The C-terminal domain is sufficient for binding to the ST2 receptor and activating the production of type 2 cytokines (e.g. IL-5 and IL-13) from polarized Th2 cells (Carriere et al., 2007) and ILC2 cells.
Interferon Induced Protein 44 (IFI44) is an IFN-alpha inducible protein which has previously been shown to have anti-proliferative activity in two human melanoma cell lines. (Hallen et al., 2007).

Modulation of cancer immunity with type 2 innate lymphoid cells, interleukin 33, and/or interferon induced protein 44


A developing apparatus for developing an electrostatic latent image on an electrostatic latent image carrier includes a toner tank for storing toner, a developing roller, toner and a blade for supplying the toner from the toner tank to the developing roller. The apparatus further includes a regulation member having one end portion fixedly supported and the other end portion being slidingly held in contact with the outer surface to define a contacting area. The regulating member is bent at an angle .alpha. outwardly from the outer surface to define a bent portion such that the bent portion is located closely adjacent the developing roller with respect to the contacting area.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a developing apparatus for in use an electrophotographic copying apparatus, a printer or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many of the patents issued in various countries disclose a developing apparatus having a regulation member, which is pressed slidingly against a developing roller for the supply of the toner towards the developing process directory or indirectly. The regulation member is operable to form an electrically charged toner layer on the peripheral surface of a developing roller.
For example, Japanese Patent Application SHO 62-17774, published Jan. 26, 1987, discloses a regulation blade having a generally orthogonally bent end. An outer surface of the bent corner is pressed slidingly against a developing roller. However, because this blade is brought into a line contact with the developing roller, a nip (contact) width between the bent corner of the regulation blade and the developing roller is so small as to result in insufficient electric charging of toner. Furthermore, it is impossible to form a uniform thin layer of toner stably in service over a long time because of the influence which would be brought about by the adhesion of toner to the regulating portion of the blade.
Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 4,566,402 discloses the use of two regulation blades of different constructions. One blade is constructed by two pieces of elastic plates bonded at one end with each other. The other blade is constructed by a single elastic plate which is bent at center portion thereof. Both blades are slidingly pressed against the developing roller at their end portion apart from the bonded or bent portion respectively. However, each of these blades can not contact uniformly the developing roller over the entire length of the roller over because the respective blade is flexible and deformable. Therefore this hampers the uniform formation of toner layer and hence results in a varying density of copied image.


Various embodiments attempt to predict items in a new product category that may be of interest to a particular user when the user has not interacted with or made purchases in that product category. In accordance with various embodiments of the present disclosure, this is accomplished by training machine learning models, such as deep neural networks, using both the historical purchase data from the particular user as well as the historical purchase data from many other users to infer what new category of items the particular user might be interested in. In some embodiments, the previous purchase data of the other users are used to construct a graph, and the graph is used to train the machine learning model rather than the raw data. The graph can represent the entirety of the previous purchase data with less actual data, thereby requiring less memory and other computational resources.

Online shopping, whether for physical items or media content, has become increasingly popular both for the convenience it provides as well as the large selection of items available. Customers are even able to purchase products from a wide variety of categories from a single e-commerce platform. For example, an e-commerce platform may offer clothing, toys, housewares, books, and even digital content such as movies or music, which may be instantly streamed or downloaded upon purchase. However, despite the availability of such a wide array of product categories, a customer may typically purchase products from a limited number of categories. For example, a customer may have only purchased books and toys on the e-commerce platform, and may not be aware that other product categories, such as groceries, are also available. It is also a challenge for the e-commerce platform to recommend products to a customer from categories that a customer has not made any purchases in, as there is no data available for that customer in those product categories.

Method and system for determining new categories with which a target user has not interacted


A method of generating timestamps for isochronous data includes locking a data stream time and an isochronous network time to a local clock signal such that a bi-directional mapping may be made between the two time domains. Timing information is extracted from both IEEE 1394 based data packets and a conventional house reference signal in order to obtain scale and offset factors that exist between the two signals. The scale and offset factors are applied to a generated video clock signal in order to predict a future video time in terms of IEEE 1394 time.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of audio and video processing. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method of generating timestamps for isochronous data.
2. Background Information
One characteristic that all isochronous transport mechanisms share is the ability to transmit data within certain fixed time constraints whereby maximum data latency and minimum bandwidth allocation is guaranteed. Isochronous transport mechanisms are useful, for example, in the transfer of multimedia data where synchronization of audio and video upon playback is important. To that end, a sound or picture transmitted from a device such as a digital video camera, across a network to a display device, for example, should be received at the display device at nearly the same rate the data was transmitted from the video camera.
Isochronous networks typically grant the highest priority access to a device known as a cycle master that maintains a common clock source for the network. Timing information is exchanged within isochronous networks through the use of timestamps within network packets. Using timestamps, the cycle master transmits to all isochronous nodes, a periodic timing request known as a "cycle start" indicating the start of each isochronous cycle. Each node with isochronous service contains a 32-bit "cycle timer register". The low-order 12-bits of the register represent a module 3072 count, which increments once every 24.576 MHz clock period. The next 13 higher order bits represent a count of 8 kHz cycles, and the highest 7 bits represent a count of seconds. If a cycle start is delayed, the amount of time that the cycle start was delayed is encoded within the data packet which is broadcast to the cycle timer register of each node on the network. The cycle master copies its cycle timer register to all isochronous nodes along with the cycle start request, thereby synchronizing all nodes to be within a constant phase difference.
The IEEE Standard for a High Performance Serial Bus, IEEE Std. 1394-1995 published Aug. 30, 1996 (1394-1995 Standard) and its progeny provide a high speed serial protocol which permits implementation of high speed data transfers of both asynchronous and isochronous data. The existing progeny includes P1394a Draft Standard for a High Performance Serial Bus (1394a Standard) and P1394b Draft Standard for a High Performance Serial Bus (1394b Standard). Generically, networks implementing 1394-1995, 1394a, 1394b or subsequent revisions and modifications thereof are referred to herein as IEEE 1394 networks. Additionally, information regarding a general isochronous packet format used in conjunction with IEEE 1394 may be found in the International Electrotechnical Commission standard 61883-1:1998-02 (hereinafter "IEC 61883").
In order to preserve data ordering on an IEEE 1394 network, each isochronous packet of audio/video data is time-stamped before it is transmitted. Each timestamp is based upon the current cycle-time of the isochronous network as determined by the cycle master. It is possible, however, that the audio/video data may have been generated based upon an external reference signal (e.g. a house reference signal) having an operating frequency that is asynchronous to that of the cycle master. Because isochronous packets are consumed (i.e. replayed) at destination nodes according to the packet's respective isochronous timestamps independent of the frequency at which the data was originally generated, audio/video playback may be adversely affected if the reference clocks and IEEE 1394 clocks are allowed to drift from one another. Furthermore, because isochronous packets are based on a first time domain as determined by the cycle master, and audio/video data is based upon a second time domain, typically a house reference signal, it is often difficult to accurately reconstruct audio/video data after it has been transmitted over an isochronous network.

Method of generating timestamps for isochronous data


A layered filter composite comprises a filter medium, and on the upstream surface thereof a homogeneous or graded layer of nonporous spherical glass microbeads as a filter aid. A method for filtering or prefiltering a liquid mixture is disclosed wherein a layer of glass microbeads is used as a filter or filter aid. The layered filter composite is useful in analytical applications as well as in large scale industrial and remedial (clean-up) applications.

Methods for filtering suspended solids from liquids through filter media frequently rely on filter aids to prefilter the liquid-based mixture and extend the life of the filter media. A filter aid is typically added to a liquid to be filtered prior to processing through a filter medium, or added to the top of a filter medium through which a liquid will be processed. A filter aid inhibits the formation of a densely packed film or cake of solid material that forms on the surface of a filter medium during the process of filtration.
Suspended solids can generally be divided into two groups, deformable and nondeformable. Deformable solids are particularly problematic because they can be compressed readily into densely packed beds, often called flocs or slime. They are primarily biological in origin, and tend to fall into a very specific size range between just under 1 to several dozens of micrometers. Deformable solids are present in higher concentrations in setting water systems (lakes and ponds).
In contrast, moving water systems (rivers, streams, etc.) are likely to have larger concentrations of non-deformable particles. Nondeformable solids are typically inorganic in nature and can vary in dimension from submicrometer to millimeters.
Filter aids function with non-deformable solids by increasing the overall porosity and, therefore, loading capacity of the filtration system. Additionally, filter aids slow the progress of non-deformable solids to the surface of filter media where they can readily penetrate into the pore structure and completely block the flow of liquid. Further, filter aids interrupt the formation of the packed solid film or cake. Filter aids are less efficient in removing non-deformable suspended particles compared to deformable suspended particles.
The Chemical Engineers Handbook (5th Edition, McGraw Hill Book Co., New York (1973) p 19-63) teaches that preferred filter aids are porous and have low bulk density to minimize settling. Conventional filter aids, which are naturally occurring materials, conform to these characteristics. Typical filter aids are diatomaceous earth, sand, cellulose fibers (paper pulp), perlite, fuller's earth, asbestos, sawdust, magnesia, salt, gypsum, and carbon. The most commonly used filter aid is diatomaceous earth.
Additionally, the shape of a material bears on its ability to function as a filter aid. Irregular materials are more susceptible to the formation of very densely packed beds which have correspondingly smaller sized pores which leads to high pressure drop and premature plugging. Another phenomenon associated with the irregular shape is that the surface of these particles can consist of jagged edges which mechanically interlock adjacent particles together and can interfere with bed formation if these locking forces are not overcome. This leads to the formation of "super pores" or channels which negate the intended effect of the filter aid by allowing the suspended solids to pass straight through to the filter medium. The traditional technique to minimize these packing phenomena is to use a low density material that will not rapidly settle out of the liquid and, therefore, will not form a densely packed bed and/or one that has innate porosity which serves to minimize the impact of dense packing.
The use of spherical materials as a filter aid has been broadly described in the prior art. Japanese patent document No. JP59-40767 describes a method for making amorphous non-fused titania particles in the size range of 0.05 to 0.1 micrometer and is broadly disclosed as a filtering agent. U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,338 describes metal oxide based porous spherical beads having a size 5 to 500 micrometers and surface area of 100 to 600 m.sup.2 /g which are stated to be useful for filtration applications, with all utility examples directed to gel permeation chromatography.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,128,291 describes a similar procedure for producing porous titania or zirconia spheres with chromatographic properties and also references the utility of such materials as catalyst supports.
Another standard technique in the filtration industry is to utilize graded beds to maximize particulate removal efficiency. This practice involves forming a series of discrete layers of filter media with the smallest average particle size medium at the bottom of the bed and with succeeding layers having larger particle size than the previous layer. Typical practice utilizes at least two bed layers including anthracite, basalt, tuff, sand, and granular activated carbon with the liquid phase entering from the top of the bed. See for example, A. Adin et al., Filtration & Separation, January/February 1991, pp 33-36.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,153,661 relates to a composite article that can comprise a fibrillated polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) matrix with glass beads distributed therein. The article is said to be useful as a semipermeable membrane. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,810,381, 4,906,378, and 4,971,736 relate to composite chromatographic articles comprising a fibrillated PTFE matrix with non-swellable sorptive particles enmeshed therein and optionally comprising glass beads to act as a property modifier and processing aid.
JP 76032728 (abstract) discloses a method for melt spinning polyamide wherein a two layer filter can comprise a layer of glass beads of 70-150 mesh and a layer of sintered metal or wire mesh.
Beds of large glass spheres have been disclosed as useful models to study filtration processes, as disclosed in C. Ghilaglia et al., Journal of Physics D: Applied Physics, 24 (1991) 2111-2114.

Glass microbead filter and method of filtering

Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company


Systems and methods for adjusting the frame rate of transmitted video based on the level of motion in the video are provided. Some methods can include receiving a video data stream from a video capture device at a first frame rate, identifying a level of motion in one or more frames of the video data stream at a regular interval, identifying a plurality of second frame rates for the video data stream, and transmitting the video data stream to a storage device or a display device at respective ones of the plurality of second frame rates, wherein each of the plurality of second frame rates can correspond to the level of motion in a respective frame of the video data stream.

Known video systems in the surveillance industry include a plurality of video sources, encoders, recorders, streamers, cloud server devices, and client devices, such as web applications, mobile applications, desktop applications, and the like. Known video flow includes capturing a scene, then encoding video of the captured scene, and then streaming or recording the encoded video. The video can be transmitted over a plurality of different channels, such as a LAN, a WAN, or the Internet. However, the size of the video data is critical when accessing the video from the Internet, where bandwidth is both limited and valuable.
For example, when streaming or recording video, the challenge always exists to provide adequate and enough details about the captured scene, without providing more or less than is necessary. Indeed, when streaming or recording video of a static scene, providing more or extra frames will not provide any advantages to a user viewing the video. Conversely, when streaming or recording video of a dynamic or high motion scene, providing fewer frames will cause the video to be jerky. Indeed, a user may want to utilize all available bandwidth when a captured scene includes motion so that the user can view each and every movement.
Notwithstanding the above, some known video systems in the surveillance industry are configured with a low and constant frame rate, resulting in jerky video when streaming and recording video of a dynamic or high motion scene, and resulting in missing video details when movements in a dynamic or high motion scene are quick. Conversely, some known video systems in the surveillance industry are configured with a high and constant frame rate, resulting in video that includes more information about a captured scene than is necessary, and resulting in wasted bandwidth and other limited and valuable resources. Indeed, known video systems that are configured with a constant frame rate, such that the same number of frames is streamed in every situation, inefficiently use bandwidth. Furthermore, known video systems that are configured with a constant frame rate, such that the same number of frames is stored in ever situation, inefficiently use storage space, for example, by storing a high number of frames or a high amount of video information, which can include useless information when captured motion is static or low.
FIG. 1 is a view of a timeline 100 of the frame rate of video vs. the level of motion in the video in accordance with known systems and methods. As seen in FIG. 1, in known systems and methods, the frame rate of the streamed and recorded video is constant over time. However, the level of motion in the video changes over time. Accordingly, during non-peak hours, as indicated at 110, when the level of motion in video may be low or a captured scene may be static, bandwidth is often wasted because the video streams and records more details than is necessary. While the constant bandwidth may be appropriate during hours when the level of motion in video is at a medium level, as indicated at 120, during peak hours, as indicated at 130, when the level of motion in video may be high or a captured scene may include crowds or high speed moving objects, the available bandwidth is often not sufficient to stream and record all of the details in the captured scene. Accordingly, many details may be lost by the video captured during peak hours.
In view of the above, there is a continuing, ongoing need for improved systems and methods.


In a lens system in which a plurality of lenses are combined while the lenses are disposed in such a manner that their optical axes are aligned with each other, at least one ceramic lens is used which is produced using a light-transmitting ceramic as a lens material, and the ceramic lens is disposed in the vicinity of a position where chief rays of light of respective image points on an image plane overlap.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a small and high performance group of lenses for an optical system that is suitable for use mainly for small photographic devices such as digital cameras.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, in optical equipment such as digital still cameras and video projectors, small and high performance zoom lenses are used.
In a combination lens such as a zoom lens that is used in such optical equipment, compactness and high resolution are required.
Due to this, the applicant of this patent application has filed a patent application for an invention for specifying combination conditions for a small and high performance zoom lens for digital still cameras which is an inexpensive combination lens with a small number of lenses which makes up a zoom lens (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-057542).
In addition, in these days, light-transmitting ceramics have been developed. These light-transmitting ceramics have higher refractive indices than those of optical glass, and their hardness and flexural strength exhibit higher values than those of optical glass. This has allowed to produce lenses which are suitable for the tendency of making optical systems small in size and thin in thickness.
As has been described above, since light-transmitting ceramics have the higher refractive indices and greater hardness and flexural strength, when used for lenses, the light-transmitting ceramics become optimal for use in making a optical system in optical equipment smaller in size.
In the light-transmitting ceramics, however, since there exists a difference in light transmission properties in wavelength in visible areas, images look as being tinged with yellow, and since bubbles referred to as voids exist in a crystal grain interface, there is caused a problem that the visibility of images formed by ceramic lenses is reduced compared with that by lenses of optical glass.

Lens system utilizing light-transmitting ceramic and camera assembly using lens system utilizing light-transmitting ceramic


A design tool provides a graphical user assignable register map. The design tool graphically displays a register map that indicates locations of system variables in a memory of a processing device for an embedded application. The design tool further provides a user interface element for a user to arrange an order of the system variables in the register map.

Shortened time to design and user error reduction are essential to the success of application development environments. Current application development environments are geared towards system engineers. System engineers often need to monitor the values of important system variables when developing an embedded application. System variables may include, for example, input, output, and configurable variables defining the system behavior. The values of the system variables are generally stored in a memory and can be accessed by a user. Conventional application development techniques generally do not provide a clear visual map of system variable locations in the memory and generally do not offer efficient tools for the access of the system variables. In particular, when a user wishes to retrieve the system variables that are not located in contiguous memory locations, the user would typically have to calculate and provide a memory address for each of these system variables. Similarly, a user wishing to change or update the system variables in the application would have great difficulty in doing so. A user may need to hand code in assembly or C code in order to access the system variables. Such an approach may be too low level for system designers. Thus, conventional approach is inflexible, inefficient, and error prone.


The present invention provides improved methods, compositions and kits for short read next generation sequencing (NGS). The methods, compositions and kits of the present invention enable phasing of two or more nucleic acid sequences in a sample, i.e. determining whether the nucleic acid sequences (typically comprising regions of sequence variation) are located on the same chromosome and/or the same chromosomal fragment. Phasing information is obtained by performing multiple, successive sequencing reactions from the same immobilized nucleic acid template. The methods, compositions and kits provided herein are useful, for example, for haplotyping, SNP phasing, or for determining downstream exons in RNA-seq.

Short read next generation sequencing (NGS) analysis has some limitations in both research and diagnostics. One key drawback is the problem of phasing. That is, when interrogating multiple loci of sequence variation, it is often impossible to determine which loci are co-located on the same chromosome or on the same chromosomal fragment. One example of a phasing problem occurs in diploid organisms in which two parental chromosomes, one from the mother and one from the father, are inherited, resulting in two copies of each gene (except for the genes carried on the sex chromosomes). Within each copy of the two copies of a gene in a diploid cell are regions of sequence variation, or loci, that fall within distinct sequence types known as alleles. Thus, allelic variation across different loci might exist within a single chromosome (maternal or paternal) of a chromosome pair, or across both chromosomes of a chromosome pair. Determining which loci or regions of sequence variation are co-located on the same (maternal or paternal) chromosome is useful for a variety of reasons, as discussed further below.
The pattern of alleles within each individual chromosome is referred to as haplotype. Haplotyping has many diagnostic and clinical applications. For example, two inactivating mutations across different loci within a single gene might be of little or no consequence if present on the same individual chromosome (i.e. chromosome of either maternal or paternal origin), because the other copy of the gene product will remain functional. On the other hand, if one of the inactivating mutations is present in the maternal chromosome and the other in the paternal chromosome, there is no functional copy of the gene product, resulting in a negative phenotype (non-viability, increased risk for disease and others). Haplotyping is also used to predict risk or susceptibility to specific genetic diseases, as many genetic associations are tied to haplotypes. For example, the various haplotypes of the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system are associated with genetic diseases ranging from autoimmune disease to cancers.
Another instance in which phasing information is useful is distinguishing between functional genes and their non-functional pseudogene counterparts within the genome. One well known functional gene/pseudogene pair is the genes SMN1 and SMN2, which differ in sequence by only five nucleotides over many Kb of sequence, yet one of the nucleotide differences renders the SMN2 gene almost completely non-functional. Using short read sequencing, a mutation may be found in one of the two genes, but unless the mutation happens to occur within the sequencing read that also covers one of the known nucleotide differences between SMN1 and SMN2, it will be impossible to know which of the genes (the functional gene, or the nonfunctional pseudogene) is mutated.
The present NGS methods employ short read sequencing to query regions of variable DNA sequence (polymorphisms etc.) interspersed within regions of conserved DNA sequence. As significant blocks of conserved sequence are typically interspersed between the variable regions, short read sequencing does not lend itself to phasing analysis. Although methods have been developed to obtain phasing information, these methods (for example, Sanger sequencing and subcloning), are typically labor intensive and/or costly.
There is a need for improved NGS methods that provide phasing information. Such methods would ideally provide a highly parallel platform for performing multiple sequencing reactions from the same immobilized templates. The invention described herein fulfills this need.


An agricultural header includes: a main section including a main frame carrying at least one cutting element; at least one wing section pivotably coupled to the main section and including a wing frame; and a linkage pivotably coupling the at least one wing section to the main section, the linkage including an upper bar and a lower bar which are both coupled to the main frame and the wing frame, the upper bar defining an upper bar axis and the lower bar defining a lower bar axis which is non-parallel to the upper bar axis.

An agricultural harvester known as a "combine" is historically termed such because it combines multiple harvesting functions with a single harvesting unit, such as picking, threshing, separating and cleaning. A combine includes a header which removes the crop from a field, and a feeder housing which transports the crop matter into a threshing rotor. The threshing rotor rotates within a perforated housing, which may be in the form of adjustable concaves and performs a threshing operation on the crop to remove the grain. Once the grain is threshed it falls through perforations in the concaves onto a grain pan. From the grain pan the grain is cleaned using a cleaning system, and is then transported to a grain tank onboard the combine. A cleaning fan blows air through the sieves to discharge chaff and other debris toward the rear of the combine. Non-grain crop material such as straw from the threshing section proceeds through a residue system, which may utilize a straw chopper to process the non-grain material and direct it out the rear of the combine. When the grain tank becomes full, the combine is positioned adjacent a vehicle into which the grain is to be unloaded, such as a semi-trailer, gravity box, straight truck, or the like; and an unloading system on the combine is actuated to transfer the grain into the vehicle.
To remove crop material from the field, the header of the combine harvester may be equipped with a cutter bar assembly having many sharp cutting elements that reciprocate sidewardly, relative to a forward direction of travel, to sever the crop material from the field before entering the feeder housing. The header may include a rotating reel with tines or the like to sweep crop material toward the cutting elements.
To closely follow the ground and produce a consistent cut stalk length, many agricultural harvesters have flexible cutting elements, such as cutter bars, which can flex during harvesting. Flexure of the cutter bar(s) can help compensate for terrain irregularity encountered by the header during travel across a field. Some flexible cutter bars may allow, for example, 3 inches of travel in either direction from a normal, unflexed position, allowing the flexible cutter bar to compensate for up to 6 inches of ground irregularity across a width of the header.
Recent trends in agricultural vehicles have resulted in agricultural harvesters with relatively wider headers to allow more crop material to be cut in each pass of the harvester, reducing the number of passes necessary to harvest the crop material on a field. For example, some headers may have a width of 45 feet or more. Increasing the width of the header has been done in a variety of ways, including having a main section of the header which couples to one or more wing sections.
While widening the header allows for fewer passes to completely harvest a field, several challenges are presented by the increased widening of the header. As previously described, some flexible cutter bars can compensate for up to 6 inches of ground irregularity across a width of the header. As the header becomes wider, it has been found that more ground irregularity compensation may be needed to allow the header to consistently follow the ground due to many fields having more than 6 inches of ground deviation across a width of 45 feet or more.
What is needed in the art is an agricultural header which can follow the ground at increasing widths of the header.

Agricultural header with one or more movable wing sections


A slave controller for a remote vehicle starting system. The slave controller is mounted in a vehicle having an internal combustion engine started by a starter motor. The slave controller has an antenna circuit input for connection to an antenna circuit suitable for picking up an RF signal and an output. The slave controller also has a control module, coupled to the antenna circuit input. The control module is responsive to a signal transmitted through the antenna circuit input and originating from the antenna circuit to generate a command signal at the output for directing the starter motor to crank the internal combustion engine. The control module is operative to establish a data communication with an external entity through the antenna circuit input to perform a maintenance procedure.

A typical remote starting system for a vehicle has a slave controller mounted in the vehicle and a hand held command module. When the user desires to remotely start the engine of the vehicle, he or she depresses a button on the command module that generates an RF signal. The slave controller pick-ups the RF signal and performs an engine starting sequence. The starting sequence includes energizing the starter motor to crank the engine and, once the engine has started, turning off the starter motor.
Currently available remote starting systems for a vehicle are usually designed to be installed in a wide range of vehicles. It follows that during the installation of the remote vehicle starting system in a particular vehicle, the slave controller must be properly configured to match the vehicle parameters, such as the type of engine (gasoline or diesel), the number of cylinders, the starter cut-off RPM limit and the idle speed, among others. This configuration is usually effected by setting the position of Dual In-line Package (DIP) switches on the housing of the slave controller. This approach is time consuming, which is undesirable.
Another drawback of currently available remote vehicle starting systems is the difficulty to perform repairs. The technician attempting to diagnose a malfunction has little information about the problem, in particular when it is an intermittent one. This renders the diagnostic operation time consuming, complex and may result in the replacement of good parts.
Accordingly, there is a need in the industry to provide remote vehicle starting systems that are easier to configure for installation in particular vehicles and also facilitate diagnosis of malfunctions.


A method and apparatus for beneficially controlling the impact between a club head and a golf ball are described. A golf club head (such as on a driver, iron, or putter) has a body and a face mechanically supported thereon, wherein the face and body are elastically tailored to create beneficial face motion and deformation at impact. The tailored clubhead compliance is shown to influence impact properties and resulting ball parameters such as speed, direction and spin rates resulting from the impact event between the face of the club and the golf ball. Several embodiments are presented for controlling ball spin through design of the elastic and dynamic response of the face and body under impact loading.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the field of advanced sporting equipment design and in particular to a golf club head system for a putter, driver, or iron designed for control of spin resulting from impact between the club head and a golf ball through elastically tailoring normal and tangential impact compliance.
2. Background Art
The present invention pertains to achieving an increase in the accuracy and distance of a golf club (e.g., a driver, putter or iron) through the application of structural design techniques and elastic tailoring of the club and in particular to enhancing or diminishing ball spins. There have been many improvements over the years which have had measurable impact on the accuracy and distance which a golfer can achieve. Typical passive performance improvements such as head shape and volume, weight distribution and resulting components of the inertia tensor, face thickness and thickness profile, face curvatures and CG locations, all pertain to the selection of optimum constant physical and material parameters for the golf club.
The impact between the ball and the head can be modeled as an impact between two elastic/deformable bodies each having freedom to translate and rotate in space i.e., full 6 degrees of freedom (DOF) bodies, each having the ability to deform at impact, and each having fully populated mass and inertia tensors. The typical initial condition for this event is a stationary ball and high velocity head impacting the ball at a perhaps eccentric point substantially on or substantially off the face of the club head. The impact results in high forces both normal and tangential to the contact surfaces between the club head and the ball. These forces integrate over time to determine the speed and direction, forming velocity vector and spin vectors of the ball after it leaves the face, hereafter called the impact resultants. These interface forces are determined by many properties including elasticity of the two bodies, material properties and dissipation, surface friction coefficients, body masses and inertia tensors.
The present invention pertains to the design of the elastic structural parameters of the head and in particular the attachment between the head body and the face or face insert such that the impact resultants benefit from the elastic/dynamic response of the clubhead under the impact forces. For example the structural design can be such that the face deflections and dynamic response are selected to maximize or minimize ball spin resulting from the impact. There has been much work in the area of elastic tailoring of a golf club head to influence the impact of the head and the ball and the resulting ball flight.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,498,672 to Bulla issued Feb. 12, 1985 discloses a clubhead designed so that the elastic response of the club in the normal direction is tuned such that it's flexure frequency matches a distortion frequency of the ball. The goal is to increase flight distance by increasing the Coefficient of Restitution (COR).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,299,807 to Hutin issued Apr. 5, 1994 discloses a clubhead designed with a thin visco-elastic sheet sandwiched between a face and a club head for improving impact performance and feel. There's no mention of spin, but the patent describes an elastically supported face.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,298 to Hutin issued May 31, 1994 discloses a club head designed with a constrained layer visco-elastic damping treatment mounted on the face and or the body for noise tailoring. There's no mention of spin control or control of impact resultants, but the patent discloses an elastically supported face.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,505,453 to Mack issued Apr. 9, 1996, perhaps the closest to the present invention, discloses several (2) designs for an elastically supported impact plate whose support can be tuned to maximize normal response and exiting ball velocity for a given player. It essentially uses advanced analytical models (1-d) normal impact only to determine the optimal support stiffness in the normal direction to maximize ball velocity after impact. The patent shows two designs each applied to drivers, irons and putters. There's no mention of spin, but the patent discloses an elastically supported face.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,674,132 to Fisher issued Oct. 7, 1997 discloses a club head designed with an elastically tailored face insert designed to have an desired rebound factor and/or feel/hardness. There's no mention of spin, but the patent discloses an elastically tailored face.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,697,855 to Aizawar issued Dec. 16, 1997 discloses a clubhead (iron and driver) designed with an elastically supported face insert designed to have a desired damping factor. There's no mention of spin, but the patent discloses an elastically supported face insert.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,807,190 to Krumme et al. issued Sept. 15, 1998 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,277,033 to Krumme et al. issued Aug. 21, 2001 disclose a clubhead (iron and driver—190, and putter—033) designed with an elastically tailored face comprising a number of pixels each selected for its elastic properties and selectively arranged to give a desired face effect (sweet spot etc). There's no mention of spin, but the patent discloses an elastically tailored face design.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,001,030 to Delaney et al. issued Dec. 14, 1999 discloses a club head, (putter only) designed with a face insert constructed "with controlled compression", i.e., a rigid face impact plate elastically supported where the support is designed to provide a certain normal motion behavior depending on impact intensity and/or impact location. There is no mention of spin, but the patent discloses an elastically tailored face design.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,302,807 to Rohrer issued Oct. 16, 2001 discloses a golf club head (preferably putter) designed with variable energy absorption. It discloses designs for viscoelastic supported faces constructed to maximize dissipation in ideal hits and lower dissipation in off center miss-hits. There's no mention of spin, but the patent discloses an elastically tailored face design.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,328,661 to Helmstetter et al. issued Dec. 11, 2001 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,478,690 to Helmstetter et al. issued Nov. 12, 2002, "Multiple Material Golf Club Head with a Polymer Insert Base" disclose a golf club head (preferably putter) designed with a polymer face insert of carefully defined hardness and rebound i.e., an elastically tailored insert to effect impact COR and feel.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,332,849 to Beasley et al. issued Dec. 25, 2001, "Golf Club Driver with Gel Support of Face Wall" discloses a golf club head (preferably driver) designed with a viscoelastic member supporting the face and connected between the center of the face and the back of the hollow body of the clubhead.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,354,961 to Allen issued Mar. 12, 2002, "Golf Club Face Flexure Control System" discloses a golf club head (preferably driver) designed with a pneumatic piston/cylinder supporting the face and connected between the center of the face and the back of the hollow body of the clubhead. The piston is designed to make contact and change effective stiffness in a predetermined impact velocity range.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,364,789 to Kosmatka issued Apr. 2, 2002, "Golf Club Head" discloses a golf club head designed with an annular deflection enhancement member disposed between the club head body and a stiff face. The stiffness of the annular member is preferably lower then the face to enhance deflection of the face at impact and increase COR.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,478,693 to Matsunaga et al. issued Nov. 12, 2002, "Golf Club Head" discloses a golf club head (preferably driver or iron) designed with a variable thickness face with step changes in multiple tiered thickness regions. The centroids of the regions are designed and located to maximize the region of uniformity of strike response—i.e., increase the sweet spot under normal impact.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,488,594 to Card et al. issued Dec. 3, 2002, "Putter with a consistent Putting Face" discloses a putter designed with a face insert designed to maximize dissipation in ideal hits and lower dissipation in off center miss-hits. There's no mention of spin, but the patent discloses an elastically tailored face design.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,592,468 to Vincent et al. issued Jul. 15, 2003, "Golf Club Head" discloses a golf club head designed with a viso-elastically supported insert for increasing the damping in vibrations in the club caused by impact.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,595,057 and 6,605,007 to Bissonnette et al. issued Jul. 22, 2003 and Aug. 12 2003, respectively, "Golf Club Head with High Coefficient of Restitution" discloses a golf club with a face whose thickness is tailored to maximize COR. The face has a higher stiffness central zone and a lower stiffness surrounding zone.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,602,150 to Kosmatka issued Aug. 5, 2003, "Golf Club Striking Plate with Vibration Attenuation" discloses a golf club with a variable thickness face (thicker central portion) on which is disposed a viscoelastic material for face vibration attenuation.
All of the aforementioned patents deal with clubhead designs such that the elastic response of the head and face during impact impart a benefit to feel and or COR of the clubhead. None of the aforementioned patents has addressed the design of the elastic/dynamic response of the clubhead so as to effect beneficial control of the ball spin. U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,806 to Burkly issued Mar. 16, 1993, discloses a clubhead designed with a circular shape contact surface to effect spin control, but does not teach the use of clubhead elastic response to achieve this. The face is assumed to be rigid. Numerous patents have attempted to address spin control through surface treatments of the contacting bodies, but none directly address control of spin by elastic/structural design of the clubhead.

Method and apparatus for elastic tailoring of golf club impact


Embodiments of apparatus and methods for an energy efficient set write of phase change memory with switch are generally described herein. Other embodiments may be described and claimed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a field of electronics including semiconductor devices, and more specifically to improving a write SET operation for a phase change memory with switch (PCMS).
2. Discussion of Related Art
Dynamic Random Access Memory (DRAM) and Static Random Access Memory (SRAM) technologies are widely used to store information in electronic systems. However, both DRAM and SRAM are volatile memories that lose stored information whenever electrical power is interrupted. To avoid loss of data and/or code, it is desirable to store certain information in non-volatile memory, especially for portable electronic systems such as mobile internet devices (MID)s or mobile stations.
Flash memory is a type of non-volatile memory. However, despite possessing high density, flash memory may not be scalable to very small dimensions since information is stored as charge in a floating gate. A reduction in the number of electrons per bit can ultimately degrade the reliability of stored information.
Phase-change memory with switch (PCMS) is a type of non-volatile memory that is scaleable to extremely small dimensions. A PCMS device may be configured to allow for bit selective erase since every memory cell may be addressed separately by selecting a combination of bit line and word line.

Energy-efficient set write of phase change memory with switch


A composite wall for storage of organic liquid is disclosed. The wall has an outer layer and the outer layer is a resin that is reinforced with chopped glass strands. The wall has an inner layer that is positioned adjacent the outer layer. The inner layer is in contact with the organic liquid. The inner layer comprises a resin containing an inorganic filler and the inner layer provides an inner surface that is resistant to organic liquids to reduce the effect of the organic liquids on the wall.

The invention relates to chemical storage tanks and piping systems and more particular to such systems that can handle organic chemicals. Chemical storage tanks and piping systems use a laminate with a resin rich layer with a non-reinforcing glass veil on the interior surface that comes into contact with the chemicals. There is a structural portion to the laminate that is comprised of a resin reinforced with glass fibers positioned behind this interior surface. The resin rich layer with the glass veil is used to provide a barrier to prevent chemicals from coming into contact with reinforcing glass fibers that are located in the structural portion of the laminate. The layer of resin is generally not affected by inorganic chemicals and provides a suitable barrier for such chemicals. The resin rich layer is necessary to protect the reinforcing glass fibers in the structural portion of the laminate as the inorganic compounds chemically attack the glass fibers. If the inorganic compounds are allowed to attack the glass fibers this can seriously reduce the strength of the laminate and can result in a failure in the storage tank or piping system.
This type of containment system laminate for inorganic compounds has gained wide acceptance and has also frequently been used in storage tanks and piping systems for organic compounds. However, the organic compounds attack the resin portion of the laminate and do not have any real impact on the reinforcing glass fibers used in the laminate. Accordingly, there is a need in the industry for improved laminates that can be used in storage tanks and piping systems that handle organic compounds.
It is an object of the invention to provide an improved laminate that can be utilized to make storage tanks and piping systems and handle organic compounds.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a laminate having an inner wall formed of a resin containing an inorganic filler. The filler can be mechanically or chemically bonded to the resin.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent after reviewing the following description of the invention.


The invention relates to a melting furnace having an electric or external heating system for storing melts and having a melt discharge outlet comprising a cooling device. An instrument for mechanically removing plugs which are blocking the melt discharge outlet is arranged at the melt discharge outlet.

The invention relates to a device and a method for the trouble-free drawing-off or casting of hot melts which are kept in storage until they are converted into a casting.
In high-temperature technology, the handling of liquid melts is a task which is frequently encountered. The handling of liquid melts at temperatures above 1000° C. is to be found for example in foundry practice, in the glass industry or in high-temperature gasification in accordance with the THERMOSELECT process, to mention just a few examples. Basically the melts are stored in melting furnaces, which are provided with an electric or external heating system, and are then cast or drawn-off for further processing (continuous casting, surface casting, dead-mould casting or similar).
In the case of high-temperature gasification according to the THERMOSELECT process of different types of waste, such as domestic, industrial or special waste, unsorted waste is for example introduced into a reactor. The inorganic constituents, e.g. iron, are melted at temperatures of approx. 2000° C. The mineral melt is then passed over a cooled copper ring and granulated with H2O. Above the cooling ring are arranged burners in order to guide the melt securely into the granulating system.
What is problematic about these methods, especially the THERMOSELECT process, is the formation of so-called "plugs" at the outflow. Due to the formation of such solidified melt plugs at the outflow from the furnaces, very often interruptions in or problems with operation occur. For example in the THERMOSELECT process, where there are large proportions of iron, the melt, which solidifies as it flows out, begins after some time to adhere to the cooling ring. A plug is formed. Only after the plug has been manually removed can the process of casting be continued.

Device and method for casting and drawing out molten iron-containing and mineral materials