A developing device includes a developer supporting member having an elastic layer and a surface layer covering the elastic layer for supporting developer; and a developer layer regulating member arranged to abut against the surface layer for regulating a layer thickness of the developer on the surface layer. The surface layer contains at least carbon black. The developer supporting member is configured so that the following equation (1) is satisfied when the surface layer has a dynamic friction coefficient μ between 0.4 and 0.9 (0.4≦μ≦0.9) and a ten-point average roughness Rz (μm) between 2 μm and 6 μm (2≦Rz≦6):2≦C≦0.5×Rz+3  (1)where C is a content of the carbon black (weight parts relative to the surface layer of 100).

The present invention relates to a developing device and an image forming apparatus.
In general, a conventional image forming apparatus of an electro-photography type includes a conventional developing device. The conventional developing device includes a photosensitive member as an image supporting member; a charging roller for uniformly charging a surface of the photosensitive drum; a developing roller as a developer supporting member for attaching toner as developer to a static latent image formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum to develop the static latent image; a supply roller as a developer supplying member for supplying toner to the developing roller; a developing blade as a developer layer regulating member for regulating a toner layer thickness on a surface of the developing roller; and the like.
In the conventional developing device of the conventional image forming apparatus, the developing roller is provided for attaching toner as developer to the static latent image formed on the surface of the photosensitive drum to develop the static latent image. The developing roller may include a surface layer (refer to Patent Reference).    Patent Reference: Japanese Patent Publication No. 2010-152024
According to Patent Reference, in the conventional developing device of the conventional image forming apparatus with the configuration described above, toner particles and an outer additive separated from the toner particles may be attached or fixed to the surface of the developing roller, thereby causing a phenomenon called toner filming. When the toner filming occurs, it is difficult to perform a printing operation with high quality.
In view of the problems described above, an object of the present invention is to provide a developing device and an image forming apparatus capable of solving the problems of the conventional developing device. In the present invention, it is possible to prevent toner particles and an outer additive separated from the toner particles from being attached or fixed to a surface of a developing roller, thereby preventing the toner filming.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.

Developing device and image forming apparatus having developer layer regulating member


A liquid crystal display and a fabricating method thereof for improving an aperture ratio are disclosed. A liquid crystal display (LCD) according to the present invention includes a gate line, a data line and a common line on the thin film transistor array substrate, the gate line crossing the data line to define a pixel region; a thin film transistor near the crossing of the gate line and the data line; a common electrode connected to the common line in the pixel region; and a pixel electrode connected to the thin film transistor in the pixel area for forming an in-plane electric field in association with the common electrode during an operation of the LCD, wherein an edge of the pixel electrode overlaps the common line with at least one insulating layer there between, and an edge of the common electrode overlaps the pixel electrode with said at least one insulating layer therebetween.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display, and more particularly to a thin film transistor array substrate and a fabricating method thereof that are adaptive for improving an aperture ratio.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, liquid crystal displays (LCD) control light transmittance of liquid crystal using an electric field to thereby display pictures. Liquid crystal displays are largely classified into a vertical electric-field-type and a horizontal electric-field-type depending upon a direction of the electric field driving the liquid crystal.
An LCD of the vertical electric-field-type drives a liquid crystal in a twisted nematic (TN) mode with a vertical electric field formed between a pixel electrode and a common electrode arranged in opposition to each other on the upper and lower substrates. The LCD of the vertical electric-field-type has an advantage of a high aperture ratio while having a drawback of a narrow viewing angle of about 90°.
An LCD of the horizontal electric-field-type drives a liquid crystal in an in plane switch (IPS) mode with a horizontal electric field between a pixel electrode and a common electrode arranged in parallel with each other on the lower substrate. The LCD of the horizontal electric-field-type has an advantage of an wide viewing angle of about 160°.
Hereinafter, a liquid crystal display of the horizontal electric-field-type will be described in detail.
FIG. 1 is a plan view illustrating a structure of a thin film transistor array substrate of a horizontal electric-field-type LCD according to the related art, and FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the thin film transistor array substrate taken along a II-II′ line in FIG. 1.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a thin film transistor array substrate according to the related art includes a gate line 2 and a data line 4 on a lower substrate 1 in such a manner to cross each other. The thin film transistor array substrate further includes a thin film transistor 30 near each crossing, a pixel electrode 22 and a common electrode 24 at a pixel area defined by the crossing between the gate and data lines for forming a horizontal electric field. The common electrode 24 is connected to a common line 26.
The gate line 2 applies a gate signal to a gate electrode 6 of the thin film transistor 30. The data line 4 applies a pixel signal, via a drain electrode 10 of the thin film transistor 30, to the pixel electrode 22. The common line 26 is formed in parallel to the gate line to apply a reference voltage to the common electrode 24 for driving the liquid crystal.
The thin film transistor 30 allows a pixel signal of the data line 4 to be charged and maintained in the pixel electrode 22 in response to a gate signal of the gate line 2. To this end, the thin film transistor 30 includes the gate electrode 6 connected to the gate line 2, a source electrode 8 connected to the data line 4, and a drain electrode 10 connected to the pixel electrode 22. Further, the thin film transistor 30 includes an active layer 14 overlapping the gate electrode 6, with a gate insulating layer 12 therebetween to define a channel between the source electrode 8 and the drain electrode 10, and an ohmic contact layer 16 for making an ohmic contact with the source electrode 8 and the drain electrode 10.
The pixel electrode 22 is connected, via a contact hole 20 in a protective layer 18, to the drain electrode 10 of the thin film transistor 30 and is provided at the pixel area 5. In particular, the pixel electrode 22 includes a horizontal part 22a connected to the drain electrode 10 and provided in parallel to adjacent gate lines 2, and a finger part 22b protruded from the horizontal part 22a in a direction parallel to the common electrode 24.
The common electrode 24 is connected to the common line 26 and is provided at the pixel area 5. In particular, the common electrode 24 is provided in parallel with the finger part 22b of the pixel electrode 22 at the pixel area 5.
Accordingly, a horizontal electric field can be formed between the pixel electrode 22 to which a pixel signal is supplied via the thin film transistor 30 and the common electrode 24 to which a reference voltage is supplied via the common line 26. In particular, a horizontal electric field can be formed between the finger part 22b of the pixel electrode 22 and the common electrode 24. When such a horizontal electric field is applied between the pixel and common electrodes 22 and 24, the liquid crystal molecules arranged in a horizontal direction between the thin film transistor array substrate and a color filter array substrate (upper substrate) rotate due to a dielectric anisotropy of the liquid crystal. An amount of light transmittance at the pixel area varies depending upon an extent of rotation of the liquid crystal molecules, thereby implementing gray-scale levels.
In the liquid crystal display of the horizontal electric-field-type according to the related art, the liquid crystal molecules at an area "A" between the common line 26 and an edge of the finger part 22b of the pixel electrode 22 and at an area "B" between an edge of the common electrode 24 and the horizontal part 22a of the pixel electrode 22 tend to respond differently than the liquid crystal molecules at other areas (for example, top part), when it is supplied with an electric field. In other words, the liquid crystal molecules at the areas "A" and "B" degrade picture quality by, for example, creating disclination, because they have a rotation angle and a rotation direction different from those of the liquid crystal molecules at other areas. As a result, there is a limit in increasing the aperture ratio to enhance the light transmittance of the LCD.

Thin film transistor array substrate and fabricating method thereof


A caliper for disk brakes for high-performance cars, which has a high degree of reliability, comprises a body having two side portions and two transverse bridges connecting the two side portions, cylinder-piston units arranged along each side portion, and a circuit for a fluid for cooling the cylinder-piston units, the circuit comprising wells which are formed along the side portions and are of a depth such that they extend substantially as far as the wall delimiting the cylinder-piston units, and which are closed by covers, the circuit also comprising connecting ducts between adjacent wells.

The present invention relates to a caliper for disk brakes for motorcars, particularly high-performance cars, of the type comprising a body having two side portions and two transverse bridges connecting the two side portions, cylinder-piston units arranged along each side portion, and a circuit with an inlet and an outlet for a fluid for cooling the cylinder-piston units.
As is known, in calipers of the type specified, it is necessary to cool the cylinder-piston units so that the braking fluid does not reach excessively high temperatures which would lead to boiling of the braking fluid and consequently to loss of braking efficiency.
In known calipers, although the circuits for the cooling fluid used up to now for preventing the braking fluid from reaching excessively high temperatures are substantially satisfactory, they have recognized disadvantages.
For example, there are known calipers which have cooling-fluid circuits constituted by ducts formed in the caliper body during casting. These ducts extend along the side portions of the caliper and their path extends past the walls of the cylinder-piston units. However, this known solution requires the caliper bodies to be produced by casting with the disadvantage of structural complexity of the body.
Calipers which have fluid ducts, particularly air ducts, which extend along the cylinder-piston units in the vicinity of the region of contact with the braking pads have also been proposed. However, this latter solution is penalized by the poor heat-removal capacity typical of air, and requires very large ducts.
The technical solution of fitting, on the caliper body, elements having ducts through which a cooling liquid, rather than air, is intended to flow, however, have the disadvantage of requiring dimensions which are notably large, although smaller than those of solutions in which the cooling fluid is air.
The problem upon which the present invention is based is therefore to devise a caliper of the type specified which has structural and functional characteristics such as to satisfy the above-mentioned need to cool the cylinder-piston units, at the same time overcoming the disadvantages mentioned with reference to the prior art.
This problem is solved by a caliper of the type specified which is characterized in that the circuit for the fluid for cooling the cylinder-piston units comprises wells formed along at least one of the side portions, the wells being of a depth such that they extend substantially as far as the vicinity of the wall delimiting at least one of the cylinder piston units, and the wells being closed by covers, the circuit also comprising connecting ducts for putting the wells into fluid communication with one another.

Caliper for a disk brake for a high-performance motorcar


The present disclosure discloses a method for controlling transmission power in a wireless communication system and an apparatus therefor. Specifically, in a method for performing repetition transmission of a wireless signal by a terminal in a wireless communication system, the method comprises receiving a configuration of multiple resources for repetition transmission of the wireless signal semi-statically by a base station; wherein a redundancy version sequence for repetition transmission of the wireless signal is pre-configured, performing repetition transmission of the wireless signal based on the redundancy version sequence on the remaining resources except for at least one particular resource among the multiple resources; and performing repetition transmission of the wireless signal on the at least one particular resource based on a redundancy version value pre-configured for the at least one particular resource.

Mobile communication systems have been initially designed to provide voice services while guaranteeing mobility of users. However, the mobile communication system has evolved to provide data services as well as the voice services. Recently, since a shortage of resources is caused and users demand higher speed services due to explosive increase of traffic, a more advanced mobile communication system is required.
Requirements of next-generation mobile communication systems are largely to accommodate explosive data traffic, and per-user transmission mobile communication systems have been developed to provide voice services while ensuring user activity. However, the mobile communication system has expanded not only to voice but also to data services, and now, due to the explosive increase in traffic, a shortage of resources is caused and users demand higher speed services, so a more advanced mobile communication system is required.
Requirements of the next-generation mobile communication system include accommodation of explosive data traffic, support of tremendous increase of a transfer rate per user, accommodation of a significantly increased number of connected devices, support of ultra-low end-to-end latency, and support of high energy efficiency. To meet the requirements, various technologies are being studied, including dual connectivity, massive Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO), in-band full duplex, Non-Orthogonal Multiple Access (NOMA), super wideband, and device networking.

Method for transmitting or receiving wireless signal in wireless communication system and apparatus therefor


A method and module for programmable power management and a system on chip are disclosed. The module includes: a token ring and an operation unit. The token ring is provided with a cyclically running token and forming a clock information. The operation unit is configured to perform a corresponding power management operation according to a predetermined operation step register and the token; wherein the step register records a time sequence for performing power management operations, the time sequence being represented by the clock information.

Power consumption and power management are issues that have been highly concerned ever since. As transistor counts continue to increase, coupled with reducing feature size, system complexities have being increasing as well. In portable devices, Internet of Things and memories and the like application fields, reducing system power consumption is becoming more and more important.
The most commonly used technology to reduce power consumption is to dynamically control power voltages and clock signals in a system on chip (SoC). When the system has not work load, a module for power management in the system may turn off the power voltage and/or the clock, such that the system enters a dormant state in which power consumption is low. However, if an interval or external event occurs and the system thus needs to perform a corresponding task, the system in the dormant state is waken up and corresponding power voltages and clock signals are started.
As the reduction of power consumption is critical in mobile and memory applications, the system on chip generally has a plurality of complicated voltage domains, and control power and clocks in various voltage domains in different ways.
In the aspect of management of power and clocks, it is very complicated and difficult to control power and clocks in different voltage domains. In most application scenarios, requests to enter and exit (that is, wake-up) the dormant state are initiated frequently. Even if some voltage domains are taking a procedure to enter the dormant state, the system may receive a wake-up request, and needs to restart as soon as possible to enter an operating state.
Therefore, the module for power management for implementing the method for power managements may control clock-gating, resets, clock sources, resources, signal isolations, power source and the like important signals when the system is in the operating state.
Some typical module for power managements implemented based on hardware control all the signals related to the power source. Such a module for power management is capable of quickly entering or exiting the dormant state, and has a small leakage loss. However, the module for power management needs to be configured with great caution, since the module for power management controls very important signals, for example, the clock signal, reset signal and power source signal. If there is a bug in the module for power management, it causes a critical failure of whole chip.
For better fault tolerance of the module for power management and for ease of modification and update of the system, in the prior art a module for power management implemented based on a processor has been proposed. This module for power management may modify turn-on and turn-off control of the power source by updating a firmware program in the memory of a central processing unit, with no need to modify the hardware structure of the module for power management.

Method and module for programmable power management, and system on chip


A method of treating a synucleinopathy with a peptide (C)DQPVLPD (SEQ ID NO: 59), (C)DMPVLPD (SEQ ID NO: 60), (C)DSPVLPD (SEQ ID NO: 61), (C)DQPVLPDN (SEQ ID NO: 64), (C)DMPVLPDN (SEQ ID NO: 65), (C)DSPVLPDN (SEQ ID NO: 66), (C)HDRPVTPD (SEQ ID NO: 70), (C)DRPVTPD (SEQ ID NO: 71), (C)DVPVLPD (SEQ ID NO: 72), (C)DTPVYPD (SEQ ID NO: 73), (C)DTPVIPD (SEQ ID NO: 74), (C)HDRPVTPDN (SEQ ID NO: 75), (C)DRPVTPDN (SEQ ID NO: 76), (C)DVPVLPDN (SEQ ID NO: 78), (C)DTPVYPDN (SEQ ID NO: 79), (C)DQPVLPDG (SEQ ID NO: 81), (C)DMPVLPDG (SEQ ID NO: 82), (C)DSPVLPDG (SEQ ID NO: 83), (C)DHPVHPDS (SEQ ID NO: 86), (C)DMPVSPDR (SEQ ID NO: 87), (C)DRPVYPDI (SEQ ID NO: 90), (C)DHPVTPDR (SEQ ID NO: 91), (C)DTPVLPDS (SEQ ID NO: 93), (C)DMPVTPDT (SEQ ID NO: 94), (C)DAPVTPDT (SEQ ID NO: 95), (C)DSPVVPDN (SEQ ID NO: 96), (C)DLPVTPDR (SEQ ID NO: 97), (C)DSPVHPDT (SEQ ID NO: 98), (C)DAPVRPDS (SEQ ID NO: 99), (C)DMPVWPDG (SEQ ID NO: 100), (C)DRPVQPDR (SEQ ID NO: 102), (C)YDRPVQPDR (SEQ ID NO: 103), (C)DMPVDADN (SEQ ID NO: 105), DQPVLPD(C) (SEQ ID NO: 106), and DMPVLPD(C) (SEQ ID NO: 107.

Synucleinopathies are a diverse group of neurodegenerative disorders that share a common pathologic characteristic: in neuropathologic examinations characteristic lesions can be detected containing abnormal aggregates of alpha-synuclein (alpha-syn) protein in selected populations of neurons and glia cells. Alpha-syn (initially identified as PARK1 and PARK4) is a 140 amino acid protein widely expressed in the neocortex, hippocampus, dentate gyrus, olfactory bulb, striatum, thalamus and cerebellum. Alpha-Syn is also highly expressed in hematopoietic cells including B-, T-, and NK cells as well as monocytes and platelets. The exact role in these cells is not known but it has been implicated in the differentiation of megakaryocytes (platelet precursors).
The most common synucleinopathies include but are not limited to Lewy body disorders (LBDs) like Parkinson's disease (PD), Parkinson's disease with dementia (PDD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB), as well as Multiple System Atrophy (MSA) or Neurodegeneration with Brain Iron Accumulation type I (NBIA Type I). The current treatment options for these diseases include symptomatic medications such as L-dopa, anticholinergic drugs as well as inhibitors of monoamine oxidase. However, all treatment opportunities currently present only lead to symptomatic alleviation but do not induce a long lasting, disease modifying effect in patients.
Lewy body disorders (LBD) are progressive neurodegenerative disorders characterized by tremor, rigidity, bradykinesia and by loss of dopaminergic neurons in the brain. In the case of DLB and PDD signs also include cognitive impairment. Up to 2% of the population above 60 years of age in western countries develop the typical signs of PD/LBD. Currently only symptomatic treatment is available. Unfortunately, these therapies only provide temporary relief from early symptoms and do not halt disease progression.
The pathogenesis of PD/LBD is still incompletely understood, but it appears that genetic susceptibility and environmental factors are involved in the development of the disease. Despite all genetic advances, PD/LBD is primarily a sporadic disorder with no known cause (also called idiopathic PD/LBD). Patients suffering from this disease develop characteristic ubiquitinated intracellular inclusions called Lewy bodies (LBs) in the cortical and subcortical areas of the brain. Especially regions with high content of dopaminergic neurons or neuronal projections show this typical pathologic feature.
Recently, several studies could show that the synaptic protein alpha-syn plays a central role in LBD pathogenesis. In LBD, alpha-syn accumulates in LBs throughout affected brain areas. Additionally, it could be demonstrated that single point mutations as well as duplications or multiplications in the alpha-syn gene are associated with rare familial forms of parkinsonism. Importantly, based on results from overexpression studies in transgenic (tg) mice as well as in Drosophila melanogaster its key role in the pathogenesis of PD/LBD is underscored as these animal models mimic several characteristics of PD.
Another very important synucleinopathy is Multiple System Atrophy (MSA). MSA is a sporadic neurodegenerative disorder that is characterised by symptoms of L-DOPA-resistant parkinsonism, cerebellar ataxia, and dysautonomia. Patients suffer from multi-system neuronal loss affecting various brain areas including striatum, substantia nigra, cerebellum, pons, as well as the inferior olives and the spinal cord. MSA is characterized by alpha-syn-positive glial cytoplasmic (GCI) and rare neuronal inclusions throughout the central nervous system. These inclusions are associated with striatonigral degeneration, olivoponto-cerebellar atrophy, and involvement of autonomic nuclei in medulla and spinal cord. The importance of GCIs for the pathogenesis of MSA is generally acknowledged and underscored by recent analysis of transgenic mouse models analysing the effect of alpha-syn overexpression in oligodendroglia. In tg mice overexpressing human alpha-syn both GCI-like aggregates and biochemical markers of MSA were observed.
Although the exact mechanisms by which accumulation of alpha-syn leads to the typical features of neurodegeneration in synucleopathies and the characteristic symptoms of synucleopathies are not fully understood, recent studies imply that abnormal formation and accumulation of oligomers of alpha-syn are involved in the degenerative processes underlying synucleinopathy. It is currently believed that such oligomer-formation for example in the synaptic terminals and axons plays an important role for PD/LBD development. Hence reduction of alpha-syn deposition and oligomerisation should be beneficial in the treatment of synucleopathies, especially of idiopathic LBD/PD and MSA and could present the first strategy for treatment of these neurodegenerative diseases in addition to the mere alleviation of symptoms resulting from current treatment strategies like L-DOPA application.
In Iwatsubo T. (Neuropathology 27 (5)(2007): 474-478) the correlation of alpha-synuclein depositions as well as its phosphorylation with a pathogenesis of alpha-synucleopathies is examined. The author of this publication found that serine 129 of alpha-synuclein deposited in synucleopathy lesions is extensively phosphorylated.
US 2007/213253 relates to mutant human alpha-synuclein as well as peptides derived therefrom which may be used for inhibiting the aggregation of the wild-type human alpha-synuclein.
In the WO 2004/041067 means and methods for preventing or treating diseases associated with alpha-synuclein aggregation are disclosed which comprise the use of alpha-synuclein fragments.
In the US 2003/166558 peptides are described which can be used to induce immune response to protein deposits.
US 2005/198694 relates to alpha-synuclein fragments comprising at least 100 amino acids and having a C-terminal deletion of 1 to 23 amino acids.
Although experimental therapies utilizing neurotrophic factors and grafting of dopaminergic cells have yielded promising results, alternative approaches designed to reduce the neuronal accumulation of alpha-syn are required.
Recently, active and passive immunotherapy has become of increasing interest as a potential new treatment strategy for neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease (AD), Prion Disease, as well as Chorea Huntington and Amyloid Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). For example, recent studies in tg mouse models of AD have shown that antibodies against beta-amyloid 1-42 (Aβ) promote the removal of amyloid from the brain, resulting in improved cognitive performance. Importantly, Aβ molecules are mainly located extracellularly and thus are constituting epitopes accessible to the immune system. In contrast to such 'classical' targets for immunotherapy, experiments have been performed to evaluate the potential of immunotherapy in reducing accumulation of intracellular pathogenic molecules. Vaccination approaches targeting prion protein and huntingtin have been shown to be effective in neurons of tg mice at reducing the accumulation of both molecules that, like alpha-syn, accumulate intracellularly. In addition recent experiments also describe anti-Tau and anti-SOD1 therapies as novel treatment strategies against intracellular pathogenic protein aggregates in AD and ALS respectively. Thus, there is compelling evidence accumulating that intracellular aggregates in brain cells might be targeted by immunotherapy. Indeed, recently a similar potential for the treatment of synucleopathies has been shown. Tg mice overexpressing human alpha-syn were vaccinated with human alpha-syn protein. In mice that produced high relative affinity antibodies upon vaccination, there was decreased accumulation of aggregated alpha-syn in neuronal cell bodies and synapses which was associated with reduced neurodegeneration. Furthermore, antibodies produced by immunized animals also detected abnormal aggregated forms of alpha-syn associated with the neuronal membrane and promoted the degradation of these aggregates, probably via lysosomal pathways. Similar effects were observed using passive immunotherapy with an exogenously applied alpha-syn-specific antibody. These results suggest that vaccination is effective in reducing neuronal accumulation of alpha-syn aggregates and that further development of this approach might elicit beneficial effects in the treatment of LBD and synucleinopathies.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Mimotopes of alpha-synuclein and vaccines thereof for the treatment of synucleinopathy


With a configuration in which a first pixel electrode (17a) electrically connected to a first transistor (12) and a second pixel electrode (17b) connected to the first pixel electrode (17a) through a capacitance are provided in a single pixel, a storage capacitance wiring (18j) is formed in the same layer with a data signal line (15j), a second transistor (212c) is electrically connected to the storage capacitance wiring (18j) and to the first pixel electrode (17a), and a third transistor (212b) is electrically connected to the storage capacitance wiring (18j) and to the second pixel electrode (17b), a capacitance coupling type active matrix substrate equipped with transistors for discharge suppresses the aperture ratio reduction and load increase on gate bus lines (scan signal lines).

In order to improve the dependence of view angle of γ (gamma) characteristics of liquid crystal display device (to suppress the display whitening problem or the like, for example), a liquid crystal display device in which a plurality of sub-pixels provided in one pixel are controlled for different luminance levels to display halftones by area gradation of the sub-pixels (pixel division system; see Patent Document 1, for example) is being proposed.
In an active matrix substrate disclosed in Patent Document 1 (see FIG. 41), three pixel electrodes (121a to 121c), three transistors (116, 421, and 422), and a control electrode 118 are provided in one pixel region, and a source electrode 116s of the transistor 116 connected to a gate bus line 112(n), two pixel electrodes 121a and 121c, and a control electrode 118 overlapping the pixel electrode 121b are electrically connected to each other. With this configuration, a coupling capacitance is formed where the pixel electrode 121b and the control electrode 118 overlap with each other, and the pixel electrode 121b, which is electrically floating, is connected to pixel electrodes 121a and 121c through the coupling capacitance (a capacitance coupling type active matrix substrate).
Also, a wiring 414 led out from a gate bus line 112(n−1) is connected to gate electrodes 421g and 422g, a wiring 424 led out from an auxiliary capacitance bus line 113 and a connecting section 423 are connected to each other, a transistor 421 for discharge is connected to the gate electrode 421g, the pixel electrode 121b, and the connecting section 423, and a transistor 422 for discharge is connected to the gate electrode 422g, the pixel electrode 121c, and the connecting section 423.
In a liquid crystal display device utilizing this active matrix substrate, sub-pixels that correspond to the pixel electrodes 121a and 121c can be bright sub-pixels, and a sub-pixel that corresponds to the pixel electrode 121b can be a dark sub-pixel. Halftones can be displayed by area gradation of bright sub-pixels (two sub-pixels) and a dark sub-pixel (one sub-pixel).
Also, when the previous gate bus line 112(n−1) is scanned (when transistors 421 and 422 for discharge turn on), the three pixel electrodes 121a to 121c can be connected to the auxiliary capacitance bus line 113. As a result, pixel electrode 121b, which is electrically floating, can be suppressed from being burned.

Active matrix substrate, liquid crystal panel, liquid crystal display unit, liquid crystal display device and television receiver


Disclosed herein is a positive electrode active material wherein at least one metallic element M1 different from a principal transition metal element A is present at least at part of a surface of a lithium-containing transition metal oxide containing the principal transition metal element A, and, further, a compound of a metallic element M2 different from the metallic element M1 is present in a coating manner or in the vicinity of the lithium-containing transition metal oxide.

The present application relates to a positive electrode and a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary cell, particularly to a positive electrode active material, a positive electrode and a nonaqueous electrolyte cell with which a high capacity and excellent charge-discharge cycle characteristics are secured and in which deterioration during use in a high-temperature environment is little.
Owing to the remarkable progress of mobile electronics technology in recent years, such electronic apparatuses as cellular phones and notebook size computers have come to be recognized as fundamental technology for supporting the advanced information society. In addition, research and development concerning enhancement of functions of these electronic apparatuses have been made vigorously, and the electric power consumption by each of the electronic apparatuses has also been steadily increasing accordingly. On the other hand, these electronic apparatuses are required to be driven for a prolonged time, and secondary cells and batteries as driving power sources for them have necessarily been desired to show an enhanced energy density. Besides, because of environmental concern, the secondary cells and batteries have also been desired to have a prolonged cycle life.
From the viewpoint of the volume, mass, etc. of the cell or battery incorporated in an electronic apparatus, a higher energy density of the cell or battery is more desirable. At present, lithium ion secondary cells or batteries have come to be incorporated in most of these apparatuses, because of their excellent energy density.
In lithium ion secondary cells, normally, lithium cobaltate is used for the positive electrode, while a carbon material is used for the negative electrode, and the operating voltage is set in the range of 4.2 to 2.5 V. The fact that the terminal voltage in the electric cell can be raised to 4.2 V is largely owing to the excellent electrochemical stability of the nonaqueous electrolyte material, separator and the like used in the cell.
Since the lithium ion secondary cells have a high charging voltage as compared with those of other cell systems, however, the lithium ion secondary cells have a problem in that their capacity would be deteriorated in a use mode in which the cells are left to stand for a long time in the charged state, resulting in a shortened battery life. In addition, where a lithium ion secondary cell is used in a high-temperature environment, a rise in internal resistance would proceeds, probably making it impossible to take out a sufficient capacity.
In order to solve the above-mentioned problems, Japanese Patent No. 3197763 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1) describes addition of a metallic salt or hydroxide to a positive electrode. Besides, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 5-47383 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 2) describes coating of surfaces of lithium cobaltate (LiCoO2) with phosphorus. Further, Japanese Patent No. 3172388 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 3) shows coating of a positive electrode active material or a surface of a positive electrode with a metallic oxide.
Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 7-235292 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 4) describes an approach in which a lithium-transition metal compound oxide is uniformly deposited on surfaces of particles or is diffused into the particles from the surfaces. Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2001-256979 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 5) describes a positive electrode active material in which lumps of a metallic oxide are deposited on a metallic oxide layer. Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2002-164053 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 6) discloses a positive electrode active material layer in which surfaces of particles containing a lithium compound are provided thereon with at least one surface treatment layer containing at least two coating elements. Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2003-221235 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 9) describes an approach in which the energy value of fluorine at surfaces of particles as measured by XPS (X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy) is specified.
Japanese Patent Nos. 3157413 and 3141858 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Documents 7 and 8) disclose a positive electrode active material in which a coating having a metallic fluoride is formed on surfaces of particles, and coating of particles with a crystalline metallic fluoride.

Positive electrode active material, positive electrode, and nonaqueous electrolyte cell


The present disclosure relates to an inner cylinder of an explosion-venting-type aerosol fire extinguishing device, including a cylinder body (3) and a cylinder cover component (4) arranged on one end of the cylinder body (3), and an explosion-venting device arranged on the cylinder body (3). The explosion-venting device includes a friction layer (11), a connecting rod (12), a guiding unit (13), and a limiting device (14). The connecting rod (12) are connected with the cylinder cover component (4). The friction layer (11) is provided between the connecting rod (12) and the cylinder body (3). The friction layer (11) provides a frictional resistance and a buffering force for the connecting rod (12) when the connecting rod (12) is displaced, under the guidance of the guiding unit (13), along a direction that a hot air stream of the cylinder body (3) is jetting towards. The guiding unit (13) is a device capable of providing guidance for the connecting rod (12) when the connecting rod (12) is moving. The limiting device (14), the cylinder cover component (4), and the connecting rod (12) are fixedly connected. The limiting device (14) limits the connecting rod (12) when an extremity thereof slides to the cylinder cover component (4). The present disclosure uses primarily the movement and limiting of the explosion-venting device to consume kinetic energy generated by deflagration, thus achieving the goal of safe and effective explosion ventilation, and preventing a grain (7) from causing injuries and damages when deflagrated.

Generally, an existing aerosol fire extinguishing device mainly includes an inner cylinder body, a cylinder cover component arranged on the cylinder body, and an ignition composition coated by a thermal insulation material, an ignition head, a coolant and a ceramic chip etc. arranged in the inner cylinder body in turn. Normally, after the ignition head ignites the ignition composition, a great amount of aerosol smoke is generated by a relatively fast stratified combustion of a grain. These high temperature aerosols are cooled by a coolant layer and then spouted out by a spout of the cylinder cover component to act on a fire source directly to suppress a fire. However, a coating defect, a pyrotechnic grain crack or a serious blockage of a gas channel may lead to a sudden rise of the pressure in the cylinder body to deflagrate the grain. A gas with an ultra-high pressure which is increased quickly is vented forward rapidly to thrust the spout aside and strike the nozzle out at an extremely high speed, thus causing a very large recoil force. The powerful recoil force drives the cylinder body to move backwards rapidly, which is very easy to cause a serious injury to an operator. At the same time, after explosion ventilation, a hot air stream will be accumulated in the cylinder body, and the inner cylinder cover component etc. of the aerosol fire extinguishing device will also disengage with the cylinder body at an extremely high speed and fly outwards for a relatively long distance, which may cause other accidents or even more serious accidents, such as an explosion of the cylinder body of the inner cylinder, and the like when an accumulated pressure is too high.
However, almost all inner cylinder bodies of existing aerosol fire extinguishing devices lack of explosion ventilation (prevention) measures. A method of pressing a front cover tightly is applied at most, which cannot vent explosion safely and still fails to solve the problems above. Therefore, all inner cylinder bodies of the existing aerosol fire extinguishing devices have potential safety hazards to great personal injuries or material damages caused by a powerful recoil force generated after deflagration of an composition, an explosion of a cylinder body and detachment of an inner cylinder cover component.

Inner cylinder of explosion-venting-type aerosol fire extinguishing device

XI'AN WESTPEACE FIRE TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD


The invention relates to a method for producing a rotor or stator blade (1a) of a gas turbine, in particular an aircraft gas turbine (2), comprising forming a airfoil (8a) made of at least one first material and attaching a blade root (4a) made of at least one second material to the airfoil (8a) by means of a thermal spraying method. The invention further relates to a rotor or stator blade (1a) produced according to such a method.

In the case of rotor blades and stator blades it is advantageous to use lightweight, high-temperature-resistant materials, such as TiAl alloys. The disadvantage of these materials in many cases is a high level of brittleness and susceptibility to cracking, which is critical in particular in the region of the blade root on account of the types of loads and notch effect that occur there.
A method for producing turbine components by cold-gas-spraying, in which a material is sprayed by means of a cold-gas-spraying method onto a carrier, for example a ceramic core, in order to form the blade leaf, is known from Patent Application EP 1 903 127 A1. Adaptation of the materials in individual regions of the blade is not disclosed so the problem mentioned at the beginning occurs.

Method for producing a rotor or stator blade and such a blade


A method and system for identifying one or more features represented in a plurality of sensor acquired data sets is described. The method and apparatus is particularly useful in automatic license plate recognition applications, where the sensor acquired data sets are data obtained from one or more digital cameras. This is achieved by determining a first probability of the identity of the one or more features (e.g., alphanumeric characters) from a first one of the data sets; determining a second probability of the identity of the one or more features from a second one of the data sets; and, using data fusion techniques, fusing the determined first and second probabilities to provide a fused probability. This fused probability is used to identify the one or more features from data sets.

Various methods of automatic detection and recognition of predetermined features from sensor data sets are known to the skilled addressee. For example, automatic license plate recognition (ALPR) from digital photography is presently used in several applications, including speed monitoring and infringement and toll management. In prior art methods, ALPR is usually accomplished using three processing steps, illustrated in FIGS. 1 to 3, after an image of a vehicle has been acquired. Firstly, the region of the license plate in the image is determined and a data set obtained including the data of the license plate (FIG. 1); secondly, the characters on the license plate are segmented for individual processing (FIG. 2); and thirdly, optical character recognition (OCR) techniques are employed on each segmented character to determined each character (FIG. 3).
The first step may be performed using a number of known techniques, including colour detection, signature analysis, edge detection, and so on. Any inclination from the horizontal line in the captured image is determined and the image rotated before it becomes ready for character recognition module. The image may also be further processed to remove noise.
For segmentation, a known histogram method may be used, where each character is labelled in the license plate image, and then each label is extracted. Each character in the plate is extracted in a single image and normalized prior to the recognition step.
With particular reference to FIG. 3, an example of an optical character recognition process is illustrated for determining the characters in the license plate of FIG. 1. To begin with, the segmented characters are first normalized and then fed into a neural network for character recognition. A back propagation feed forward Neural Network consisting of two layers has been selected. The input character size was resized to 20×50 pixels resulting in 1000 inputs to the input layer of neural networks. The output layer consists of 36 neurons each corresponding to one symbol of the alphanumeric character set. The neural network is then trained on 90 samples of noisy alphanumeric characters. As a result of the training, the output neuron corresponding to a certain character should give a value higher than the values of the other neurons when the same character is the input of the neural networks as shown in FIG. 3. For the neural network, each node in the output layer is associated with one character Ck with outputs which vary from 0 to 1, this value corresponding to frame n. The neural network outputs are normalized and used as estimates of the a posteriori probability of each character:
      p              (                        C          k                /                  f          n                    )        =            C      k                      ∑                  i          =          1                36                          C        i
For this prior art technique to work well, the quality of the acquired image must be of a level that allows a relatively clear photograph to be taken to increase the accuracy of the OCR techniques employed. This tends not to be an issue on open roads during daylight hours or under well lit street lighting. However, there are many situations where such optimum conditions are not available, such as at night time on roads with no or poor street lighting, during wet weather, in car parks, under bridges or in poorly lit tunnels. In such conditions, aforementioned prior art techniques may require the use of relatively expensive cameras which can operate in a variety of lighting conditions, and/or the use of additional lighting or flashes at the time of taking the photograph to illuminate the subject of the image being acquired. Also, error levels of such known methods have shown that about 1 in 5 license plates are incorrectly determined. There is a desire in the technical field to reduce this error.

Method and system of identifying one or more features represented in a plurality of sensor acquired data sets


A method for controlling devices connected together, and which includes determining a type of a first device, determining what key buttons on a remote controller are needed to operate the determined type of the first device, activating the key buttons on the remote controller that are needed to operate the determined type of the first device, receiving an input signal indicating a selection of at least one key button, transmitting the received input signal to a second device that is different than the first device, generating, by the second device, a remote control signal corresponding to the received input signal, transmitting, by the second device, the generated remote control signal to the first device, and performing a function on the first device corresponding the input signal indicating the selection of said at least one key button on the remote controller.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for controlling an external device and a remote controller thereof, and more particularly, to a method for controlling an external device in a system transmitting and receiving a media signal using a wireless network.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A display device includes a receiver that receives a media signal including video and audio from a broadcasting system, a cable system, and other external apparatuses (VCR, DVD, etc.) and processes and outputs the received media signal. The display device also includes a display unit that displays the video of the processed media signal on a screen. In addition, the receiver and the display unit can be individually separated from each other. For example, a wireless type display system can transmit a media signal received using an additional receiving device through wireless communication and displays the transmitted media signal on the display.
The display device can also be interfaced with several different types of devices such as a disc player, home theatre systems, game player devices, etc. Thus, the user must operate several different remote control devices to operate the individual devices. The operation of the several different devices is often cumbersome and tedious for users.

Method for controlling external device and remote controller thereof


The present invention provides a resin which generates an acid by irradiation and is a salt of an organic cation and an anionic polymer wherein the anionic polymer has no carbon-carbon unsaturated bond. The present invention further provides a chemically amplified resist composition comprising the same.

A chemically amplified positive resist composition is used for semiconductor microfabrication. As the chemically amplified positive resist composition, a chemically amplified positive resist composition comprising a resin which contains a structural unit having an acid-labile group and which itself is insoluble or poorly soluble in an alkali aqueous solution but becomes soluble in an alkali aqueous solution by the action of an acid and an acid generator comprising a compound which is not a polymer and which generates an acid by irradiation has been used (e.g. J. Photopolym. Sci. Technol., 11, 1998, 379).
In semiconductor microfabrication, it is desirable to form patterns having high resolution, and especially, in ArF excimer laser lithography process, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography process and electron lithography process, it is desirable to give patterns having higher resolution, and it is expected for a chemically amplified resist composition to give such patterns. In liquid immersion lithography process, the cation and anion components derived from the acid generator usually elute in water or a solvent having a high refractive index and it is expected for suppressing the elution of the cation and anion components.

Chemically amplified positive resist composition


An engine for a leisure vehicle equipped with an electronic control throttle system configured to operate an actuator based on a drive signal sent from a controller to the actuator in response to a rider's operation of a throttle operation device to cause a throttle valve of an air-intake device to open or close, including a first throttle position sensor configured to detect a movement position of the throttle valve; and a detection device configured to detect at least a predetermined position in an open state or a closed state of the throttle valve; wherein the controller determines a deviation between the predetermined position and the movement position of the throttle valve, compensates for a deviation by adjusting the drive signal based on a deviation if the deviation is above a preset value, and sends the adjusted drive signal to the actuator to cause the throttle valve to open or close.

In an engine for a leisure vehicle such as a two-wheeled motor vehicle, a three-wheeled motor vehicle, an all terrain vehicle (ATV), personal watercraft, etc., an air-intake device is mounted to supply fresh air to a combustion chamber of the engine.
A throttle valve is openably disposed in an interior of an air-intake passage of the air-intake device to control a supply amount of the fresh air. The throttle valve is moved by a throttle operation device (e.g., throttle lever, a rotatable throttle grip, and so on) configured to be hand-operated by a rider (see Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. Hei. 1-227838).
Generally, there are two types of throttle valve drive systems, namely, mechanical drive systems and drive-by-wire systems. In mechanical drive systems, the throttle operation device is mechanically coupled to the throttle valve via a wire or a rod. In the drive-by-wire system, a controller remotely controls an actuator disposed in the vicinity of the throttle valve based on an operation signal such as an electric signal or an optical signal generated by an operation of the throttle operation device, causing the throttle valve to open and close. In some cases, the drive-by-wire system is distinguished from so-called "fly-by-light" systems, which use an optical signal as the operation signal. However in this specification, drive-by-wire systems and fly-by-light systems are treated in the same manner and collectively referred to as drive-by-wire systems.
Since a drive-by-wire system is configured in such a manner that an electronic controller generates a drive signal based on the operation signal to drive the actuator, it may also be referred to as an "electronic control throttle system." Thus, the term "electronic control throttle system" is used through specification and claims.
Hereinafter, electronic control throttle systems will be described in detail. Upon the rider operating the throttle operation device, a sensor such as a throttle position sensor detects that the throttle operation device has been operated, and sends the detected operation signal, for example, a position signal, to an electronic controller such as an engine control unit (ECU) of the leisure vehicle through a signal line, etc. The electronic controller generates the drive signal based on the operation signal, and outputs the drive signal to the actuator to operate the actuator, causing the throttle valve of the air-intake device to open and close.
A throttle position sensor is attached to a movable member of the throttle valve of the air-intake device or a region in close proximity to the movable member. The throttle position sensor is configured to detect an open position or a closed position of the throttle valve.
Strictly speaking, the electronic control throttle system configured as described above contains a slight "deviation" associated with the control as compared to the mechanically coupled throttle system. The deviation is not substantially problematic to the rider in a high engine speed range, but makes the rider feel discomfort in a low engine speed range. For example, the deviation negatively affects responsiveness to the rider's operation just after cornering. For this reason, the leisure vehicle equipped with such an electronic control throttle system is comparatively low in responsiveness to rider control.


A storage control device includes a first rebuilding unit rebuilding information stored in one of a plurality of storages that fails by using information stored in the plurality of storages excluding said failed storage and storing rebuilt information in a spare storage replaced with the failed storage, a second rebuilding unit rebuilding information stored in two of said plurality of storages that fail by using information stored in said plurality of storages excluding the two failed storages and storing rebuilt information in two spare storages replaced with the two failed storages, and a rebuilding control unit for controlling said first rebuilding unit and second rebuilding unit where one of said spare storages fails during rebuilding the data stored in said two failed storages to replace the failed spare storage with other spare storage whereby said second rebuilding unit continues rebuilding the data.

1. Field
The present invention relates to a redundancy technique for storing information, such as data and parities, to be stored across a plurality of storage.
2. Description of the Related Art
With storages getting larger, amounts of data stored in the storages have been increasing. For storages connected with severs, Redundant Arrays of Inexpensive Disks (RAID) technique is employed to protect important data.
RAID enables a bunch of storages such as hard disk drives to be treated as a single storage. There are seven RAID levels from RAID 0 to RAID 6 depending upon their properties such as performance speed and reliability. In situations having fault tolerance from two storage failures, RAID 6 has begun to receive attention recent years. In RAID 6, two sorts of parity are generated from data to be stored. The data and the parities are striped and stored across a plurality of storages.
Storage systems generally include storages of the same model that are manufactured at the same periods. Consequently, the storages included in the systems may fail at the same mean time between failures (MTBF). Therefore, if one of the storages fails, a sequential storage failure may occur within a short period of time. During rebuilding the storages in RAID, storages are vulnerable because of overheads associated therewith due to streams of data reading. Since the concurrent-failure-tolerance of RAID 6 vastly increases data protection over RAID 5, RAID 6 has been receiving increased attention. Data and parities stored in failed storages in a RAID group are rebuilt and stored by replacing the failed storages with spares storages called hot spare (HS) and by using data and parities stored in the rest of the storages. Hereinafter, the data and the parities stored in the storages are collectively referred to as information.
Conventional storage control device capable of rebuilding storages in RAID 6 has been disclosed in Japanese Laid-open patent publication No. 2006-259894. Where other storage fails during rebuilding data stored in a failed storage, data stored in the two failed storages are rebuilt coordinately depending on a rebuilding progress of the data having been rebuilt before the second failure occurs. Since the storage control device rebuilds only stripes not having been rebuilt after the second failure occurs, the redundant data are effectively rebuilt.
In addition to the two storage failures, one of hot spares that are replaced with the failed storages may fail during rebuilding the data stored in the two failed storages. Thus, RAID 6 may have a scheme tackling with the likelihood of the hot spare failure.

Storage control device, storage control method and storage control program


The present invention provides a method and apparatus for reacting a natural oil with a short chain alcohol in the presence of alkaline catalyst, in which a mixture of natural oil, short chain alcohol and alkaline catalyst is fed in one direction along a pipe reactor under transitional or turbulent conditions, so that the reactants are mixed in a direction normal to the flow direction to a greater degree than in a direction parallel to the flow direction or so that the reactants are mixed in a direction normal to the flow direction, such that the time taken for 90% of the elements of fluid to pass through the reactor is within 20% of the mean residence time of reactant in the reactor. There is also provided a ship, comprising means for storing a raw material used in the synthesis of biodiesel, a plant for the synthesis of biodiesel and means for storing the biodiesel synthesized.

Biodiesel is manufactured by transesterification of animal or vegetable oils/fats. Such oils and fats comprise triglyceride esters containing long chain fatty acid moieties. In biodiesel synthesis, such triglycerides are transesterified with short chain alcohols, typically methanol and sometimes ethanol though other alcohols have been used. The reaction can be carried out in the presence of an acidic or basic catalyst and in general the basic catalysts are faster, with sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide being the most common. Typically, sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide with relatively low water level (particularly in powder or pellet form) is mixed with the alcohol, for example methanol, and then mixed with the oil.
For the commercial production of biodiesel, it is desirable to reach a relatively high degree of conversion of glyceride ester into biodiesel (preferably 96.5% or above) within a reasonable time period. In the past, it has been found that the time required to reach such a high level of conversion is comparatively long.
A problem has been encountered that basic methanol and oil do not mix very well, because of their different densities and because of the coalescing nature of their respective phases.
Conventional approaches to improving the overall kinetics having included raising the temperature, and applying large degree of shear by agitation.
For example, in the past, the transesterification reaction has been carried out in batch reactors provided with stirrers. Whilst reasonable results have been obtained with such reactors, for large scale industrial processing, a continuous system is preferred, rather than a batch process.
A pipe reactor is a suitable design of continuous reactor for the manufacture of biodiesel.
Various devices have been used in pipe reactors for providing high shear, but many of these (for example jets, mechanical mixers, oscillating flow) require high-energy input levels, which are expensive to run or involve relatively sensitive equipment. In many cases, high degrees of conversion are still not reached in a practical time span.
WO99/26913 discloses a method for production of fatty acid methyl ester in which a static mixer is used which creates high or powerful turbulence. There is a substantial pressure drop across the static mixer. This requires very high pressures to operate, which is uneconomic.


Systems and methods for determining a bias-corrected value of at least one component of a gravity gradient tensor using a gravity gradiometer and a measurement bias of the gravity gradiometer wherein the measurement bias varies with time, by taking at least three measurements with the gravity gradiometer positioned in at least two orientations. Any gravity gradiometer can be used, including a Cross-Component Gravity Gradiometer (CCGG), an Orthogonal Quadrupole Responder (OQR), an In-Line Responder (ILR), a Diagonal-Component Gravity Gradiometer, or a Multi-Component Gravity Gradiometer (MCGG).

A gravity gradiometer is an instrument which is capable of measuring one or more components of the spatial gradient of the gravitational specific force vector.
As Sir Isaac Newton first showed in his Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica (The Royal Society, London 1867), at every point in space there exists a vector field (the gravitational field) which exerts a force on any body located at that point which is proportional to the mass of that body. That force is a vector quantity, with three orthogonal components. Denoting the value of that vector at a location in space as , and denoting a reference frame A as A (using the vectrix notation from Appendix B of [Hughes, P. C., Spacecraft Attitude Dynamics, John Wiley & Sons, Toronto, 1986]), that vector can be expressed as a 3-element column vector by projecting it onto reference frame A, thusly:
                              a          A                =                                            ℱ                              A                                                                                ·                          a              _                                                      =            Δ                                          [                                                                                a                                          A                      x                                                                                a                                          A                      y                                                                                a                                          A                      z                                                                                ]                                              (        1        )            where, as shown in FIG. 1b, A has as its three orthogonal reference axes the unit vectors ,  and  (referred to here as the x, y and z axes of reference frame A), and aAx, aAy and aAz are the projections of the vector  onto those unit vectors.
The gravity gradient, which is the spatial gradient of the vector , is denoted here as , and is a second-order tensor. This tensor can be projected onto reference frame A to form a 3×3 matrix ΓA, thusly:
                              Γ          A                =                                            ℱ              A                        ·                          Γ              _                        ·                          ℱ              A              T                                                      =            Δ                                          [                                                                                Γ                                          A                      xx                                                                                Γ                                          A                      xy                                                                                Γ                                          A                      xz                                                                                Γ                                          A                      yx                                                                                Γ                                          A                      yy                                                                                Γ                                          A                      yz                                                                                Γ                                          A                                              zx                                                                                Γ                                          A                      zy                                                                                Γ                                          A                      zz                                                                                ]                                              (        2        )            where the elements of ΓA are the partial derivatives of aAx, aAy and aAz with respect to x, y and z. That is, ΓAxx=∂aAx/∂x, ΓAxy=∂aAx/∂y, ΓAxz=∂aAx/∂z, ΓAyx=∂aAy/∂x, ΓF*Ayy=∂aAy/∂y, ΓAyz=∂aAy/∂z, ΓAzx=∂aAz/∂x, ΓAzy=∂aAz/∂y and ΓAzz=∂aAz/∂z. Note that as a conservative field, two fundamental properties of that field are that the matrix ΓA is symmetric, that is, ΓAxy=ΓAyx, ΓAxz=ΓAzx and ΓAyz=ΓAzy, and that it satisfies Laplace's equation, with the result that the trace of ΓA is equal to zero, i.e., ΓAxx+ΓAyy+ΓAzz=0.
A gravity gradiometer is thus an instrument which, when oriented in a particular way relative to (for example) reference frame A, measures one of the components of the matrix ΓA, or some combination of the components of ΓA. Gravity gradiometers of several different types have been developed, including the torsion balance of Eötvös (the first gravity gradiometer, which measures a combination of ΓAxy, ΓAxx−ΓAyy, ΓAxz and ΓAyz), the gravity gradiometer of Lancaster-Jones (which measures a combination of ΓAxz and ΓAyz), the rotating gravity gradiometer of Forward (which measures a combination of ΓAxy and ΓAxx−ΓAyy, as described in de Bra, D. B., Harrison, J. C. & Muller, P. M., "A proposed Lunar orbiting gravity gradiometer experiment," The Moon, Volume 4, Issue 1-2, pp. 103-112), the rotating gravity gradiometer of Metzger (which measures a combination of ΓAxy and ΓAxx−ΓAyy, as described in Metzger, E. H., "Development experience of gravity gradiometer system," IEEE Position Location and Navigation Symposium 1982, PLANS 198, pp. 323-332), the cryogenic orthogonal quadrupole responder gravity gradiometer of van Kann (which measures a combination of ΓAxy and ΓAxxΓAyy, as described in Matthews, R., "Mobile Gravity Gradiometry," Ph. D. thesis, University of Western Australia, 2002), the cryogenic orthogonal quadrupole responder gravity gradiometer of Paik and Moody (which measures a combination of ΓAxy and ΓAxx−ΓAyy), the GOCE satellite's electrostatically levitated gravity gradiometer of Touboul et al. (which measures combinations of all of the components of ΓA, as described in Drinkwater, M. R., Flòberhagen, R. F., Haagmans, R., Muzi, D. & Popescu, A., "GOCE: ESA's First Earth Explorer Core Mission," Space Sci. Rev., Vol. 108, 2003, pp. 419-432), and the atom-interferometer gravity gradiometer of Kasevich (which measures ΓAzz, as described in McGuirk, J. M., Foster, G. T., Fixler, J. B., Snadden, M. J. & Kasevich, M. A., "Sensitive absolute-gravity gradiometry using atom interferometry," Phys. Rev. A, Vol. 65, 033608 (2002)).

Gravity gradiometer and methods for measuring gravity gradients


A structure for a network switch. The network switch may include a plurality of spine chips arranged on a plurality of spine cards, where one or more spine chips are located on each spine card; and a plurality of leaf chips arranged on a plurality of leaf cards, wherein one or more leaf chips are located on each leaf card, where each spine card is connected to every leaf chip and the plurality of spine chips are surrounded on at least two sides by leaf cards.

The present invention generally relates to network switches, and more particularly to the architecture and structure of a network switch having leaf cards surrounding spine cards on at least two sides.
Modern computer systems have sophisticated networks, either custom or based on evolving network standards. Although some systems have processing nodes that are self-interconnected (e.g., the IBM Blue Gene line of computers), most systems are based on cabling the computing or storage elements of the system into a network comprised of external switches or routers. In the industry, a switch connects a set of networked components into a local-area network, whereas a router connects sets of local-area networks. The places where cables are attached are called ports. For the present invention, switches and routers may be referred to as network switches.
Switches are based on switch chips. Switch chips for Ethernet or Infiniband, two popular standards, are typically built of CMOS. For example, an Ethernet switch comprising 48 places, with each place allowing data to be sent and received at a data rate of 10-Gigabits-per-second, is referred to as a "48-port, 10-Gb/s switch". Another example is a 36-port, 56-Gigabit-per-second-per-port Infiniband switch, which has 36 places where data can be sent and received as 4 parallel lanes, each at 14 Gb/s.

High-density, fail-in-place switches for computer and data networks

International Business Machines Corporation


A method of storing digital data in non-biological sequence-controlled polymers includes converting a digital data file into a monomer sequence, synthesizing polymer chains according to the monomer sequence, and encapsulating the polymer chains into microfluidic droplets and providing the microfluidic droplets with addresses. A polymer data storage system has a first converter to convert digital data to a polymer sequence, a polymer synthesizer to produce polymer chains according to a pre-determined monomer sequence, a fluidic encapsulation system to encapsulate the polymer chains in microfluidic droplets and to apply addressing materials to the microfluidic droplets, a storage for storing the microfluidic droplets, a droplet sorting system having at least an actuator to sort the droplets, a sequencer to derive the polymer sequence from the polymer chains contained in the droplets, and a second converter to convert the polymer sequence to digital data. A composition of matter wherein polymer chains comprising alternating segments of flexible linkers and one or more rigid monomer blocks, and wherein the rigid blocks are defined in a meaningful manner to store in a sequence in the polymer chain that represents digital data.

Data is one of the most important resources in today's information-driven society. There's an emerging need for archiving digital data in a form that allows retrieval over a long period of time. This demand for data storage technologies has been exponentially-growing as we generate more and more data through the ubiquity of sensing and computing modalities but the capacity of existing data storage methods has not been keeping up. For an example, the IDC estimate that entirety of the digital universe to be 16 Zettabytes (1 Zb=1021 Bytes). For the data fraction that we choose to archive, the incumbent storage medium is magnetic tape due to its extended longevity of up to 30 years when kept in optimal environmental conditions, typically cold storage. The infrastructure and cost for magnetic tape storage is however very high and resource-intensive. Recently, Facebook constructed an Exabyte (1 Eb=1018 Bytes) data center which has a capacity of 1 Eb spread over several acres of land and an energy footprint of about 200 MW. This places the 10-year total cost of ownership to be about 1 billion dollars.
As a solution to the non-tractable, resource-intensive mode for state-of-the-art data storage, people have started looking at alternative data storage media such as DNA. There had been earlier suggestions of using DNA to store data from decades past since DNA is a relatively stable biomolecule and can store biological information for centuries. The main bottleneck was, however, the synthesis of arbitrary DNA sequences to be mapped to digital data on-demand, so-called de novo synthesis, and the ability to sequence the DNA, spurred by advances in genomic tools and next-generation sequencing.
In fact, the modern era of DNA data storage started around 2012 from a paper published by George Church and co-workers of Harvard University, who made advances in de novo DNA synthesis and reported the storage and retrieval of several files, totaling about 643 kB in de novo synthesized DNA. Shortly thereafter, Nick Goldman and colleagues from the European Bioinfomatics Institute reported a similar effort and stored about 739 kB. In addition, Goldman launched the Davos bitcoin challenge and distributed multiple copies of their DNA encoded information to anyone would want to decode it, with the promise of a bitcoin for the first successful decoding. Since then, multiple other groups have demonstrated digital data storage in DNA in various capacities.
These include the advances by the Microsoft-University of Washington collaboration which in 2018 reported the largest encoded synthetic DNA pool to-date, corresponding to 200 MB with random access capability of up to 48 addressable mini-files out of their total of 3240 pools, which is the largest level of random access at present. In terms of encoding efficiency and the realization of the theoretical Shannon capacity of DNA, the most advanced coding scheme, binary sequence to DNA nucleotide sequence, is that of Erlich and Zielinski which enables an 86% realization of the Shannon capacity of DNA although their system does not provide random access capability.
While strides have been made to advance DNA data storage into its present level, most approaches rely on the current hardware layer that DNA data storage inherits from modern biotechnology. For example, on-demand de novo synthesis of DNA sequences for information writing and next-generation sequencing technologies for information reading. The workflow for these processes, particularly the writing part typically rely on off-site processes, such as Twist Bioscience for DNA synthesis. In contrast, sequencing is slowly moving from sequencing-by-synthesis approaches, as in Illumina MiSeq, to next-generation sequencing approaches—such as that by nanopores, such as Oxford Nanopore MinION, small devices that are easy to integrate in more self-contained workflow. As such, the main bottleneck for further scaling and future economic viability is the information writing step which is currently expensive and limited in the length of DNA oligonucleotides that can be synthesized (typically 150-200 nucleotides). There are still strides to be made in terms of information reading, for example to make the reads more accurate and faster but the cost of sequencing has been driven down largely by the genome project.

Exabyte-scale data storage using sequence-controlled polymers


This invention relates to transducers for indicating position. In particular, this invention relates to circuitry for accurately measuring either rotary or linear displacement of an inductive coupling member within a voltage displacement transformer (LVDT or RVDT).

This invention relates to an improved linear variable displacement transducer (LVDT) or rotational variable displacement transducer (RVDT) and improved circuitry for the operation thereof.
LVDTs and RVDTs are used to generate an electrical output proportional to the mechanical displacement of a moveable core generally of ferromagnetic material. The electrical output provides an electrical measurement of distances and displacements which in turn may represent, for example: force, torque, pressure, velocity, or acceleration. As such, LVDTs and RVDTs are in common use in a number of well known configurations. The basic elements include a moveable core, a primary coil and a pair of secondary coils which are so arranged as to have the moveable core magnetically link the primary coil with the secondary coils.
The advantages associated with the use of differential transformers over other displacement transducers, such as the resistance potentiometer, are the absence of contacts, infinite resolution, low and near constant output impedance, and input-output isolation. The disadvantage is that operation has heretofore been limited to excitation by conventional alternating voltages, with the accompanying drawbacks of residuals, transients, harmonic generation, and shielding problems.
Two recent patents representative of the state of the art for conventional AC excitation of the primary coil within an LVDT are U.S. Pat. No. 4,514,689 issued to William A. Gerard and U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,443 issued to Charles R. Dolland. The 4,514,689 patent detects the peak value and polarity of each secondary coil output voltage and provides an output voltage representative thereof. The 4,450,443 patent converts the output of the secondary coil from a sinusoidal (AC) waveform to a square-wave signal prior to sampling a value proportional to the peak value of the output waveforms. Both feature high resolution and accuracy, however, both also retain some of the inherent limitations associated with the use of an AC excitation signal.

Position transducer apparatus and associated circuitry including pulse energized primary winding and pair of waveform sampled secondary windings


A phosphor device contains phosphor particles for emitting light beams, is shaped like a pyramid or cone and includes first and second faces opposed to each other and having different areas. The first face and the inclined faces have reflection layers configured to reflect light beams emitted from the phosphor particles. The second face a reflection preventing film and is an input face for excitation light and also an output face for the light beams. A first film is provided on the first face and parts of the incline faces, allows passage of excitation light and reflects light beams toward the second face.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a phosphor device, and an illumination apparatus and projector apparatus, both using the phosphor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Some light source apparatuses use a phosphor that emits a light beam having a wavelength different from that of the excitation light coming from a light source and applied to the phosphor. The light source apparatus of this type is utilized as a light source in, for example, illumination apparatuses and image display apparatuses.
The light source apparatus of this type has a light source, which is a semiconductor light source, such as a light emitting diode (LED) or a laser diode (LD), in most cases. In the light source, phosphor particles are dispersed in a resinous binder, such as transparent silicone or epoxy resin, forming a light emitting layer.
The resinous binder may be degraded with the excitation light coming from the semiconductor source, or may be damaged if the excitation light has high intensity. The resin, such as silicone or epoxy resin, in which the phosphor is dispersed, has low thermal conductivity. The temperature of the phosphor therefore rises, inevitably shifting the emission wavelength of the phosphor or causing a phenomenon such as temperature quenching that lowers the emission intensity. Consequently, the luminance the light source apparatus achieves will decrease.
A technique which involves use of an inorganic transparent material such as transparent silicone or epoxy resin as a binder in place of a resinous binder is known. Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2003-258308 discloses the use of a transparent inorganic material such as glass. Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2006-282447 and Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2010-024278 discloses the use of a ceramic having high thermal conductivity.
The light emitting layer composed of the transparent ceramic binder and phosphor is used in place of the above-mentioned phosphor layer composed of the resinous binder and phosphor in most cases. Inevitably, the transparent ceramic binder does not have a structure fit for use in a light source apparatus configured to emit light from phosphor.

Phosphor device, illumination apparatus and projector apparatus


xcexUVt sampling is employed to achieve high resolution imagery without sub-wavelength system tolerances. An exemplary application is a 20 meter outside diameter orbiting, earth-watching ring telescope utilizing 40 identical commercial, off-the-shelf (COTS)-grade convex primary mirrors of 80 cm diameter each. Its nominal orbit is geosynchronous, with a designed ground resolution of approximately 1 m at 500 nm. It is configured such that there is no macro-structure pointing, where the primary mirrors are solely responsible for gross target pointing and no phasing whatsoever. The overall wavefront error budget is on the order of xcex or even worse, rather than the more traditional xcex/10.

The present invention relates to telescopes, and more particularly relates to telescopes employing an array of sensors, e.g., in a ring configuration.
Applicant""s prior inventive work in the field sought to reduce the cost of achieving diffraction limited imaging performance through turbulent atmospheres on very large ground based telescopes. Some of those approaches were loosely based on work published by Primot in 1989, known as xe2x80x9cdeconvolution from wavefront sensingxe2x80x9dxe2x80x94an advance on speckle imaging methods. Applicant""s work, in part, extended those methods to include very wide fields of view, set within the context of strong anisoplanatism (the point spread function changing rapidly as a function of field angle). The designs and computer simulations were validated at that time, further independent work in the field has generally validated the overall approach, and applicant""s work led to, among other things, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,412,200, 5,448,053, 6,028,300 and 6,084,227.
The present work expands on the foundation set by the earlier work.


A communication system causes a base station to transmit a downlink control signal to a mobile station through a downlink control channel, and causes the base station to transmit a downlink data signal to the mobile station through a downlink data channel. The communication system includes a diversity judging unit configured to judge whether or not transmission diversity control for adjusting a carrier phase difference between multiple downlink signals transmitted through multiple antennas is performed. The communication system also includes a power offset value deciding unit configured to control transmission power of the downlink control signals based on a result of judgment by the diversity judging unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a communication system for controlling a transmission power of a downlink control signal, a base station, a radio network controller, and a transmission power controlling method.
2. Description of the Related Art
A phenomenon of fluctuation in a receiving condition of a data signal received by a mobile station or a base station (such a phenomenon is so-called a "fading phenomenon") may occur in the radio communication, and occurrence of a fading phenomenon may lead to substantial deterioration in the transmission quality (namely, characteristics including a bit error rate and the like).
Meanwhile, a technique called "transmission diversity control" is generally known to be a method for reducing deterioration of the transmission quality attributable to occurrence of a fading phenomenon. Now, "closed loop transmission diversity control" a type of the "transmission diversity control" will be described below.
Specifically, a transmitter side (hereinafter referred to as a base station) generates downlink data signals and downlink control signals for two lines (hereinafter collectively referred to as downlink signals) and common pilot signals for the two lines, and then generates multiplexed signals for the two lines by multiplexing the downlink signals with the common pilot signals. Then, the base station transmits the multiplexed signals for the two lines to a receiver side (hereinafter referred to as a mobile station) through two antennas.
At this time, the base station multiplies the downlink signals by complex weights corresponding to the respective downlink signals based on feedback information (hereinafter abbreviated as FBI) received from the mobile station, and spreads the downlink signals that are multiplied by the complex weights. Here, the downlink data signals are carried by a downlink dedicated physical data channel (DPDCH), while the downlink control signals are carried by a downlink dedicated physical control channel (DPCCH).
Meanwhile, the base station spreads the common pilot signals for the two lines by use of an identical spreading code. Here, the spreaded common pilot signals are configured to be mutually orthogonal and are carried in an identical carrier phase by a downlink common pilot channel (CPICH).
On the other hand, the mobile station despreads the common pilot signals for the two lines transmitted through the two antennas, and calculates a carrier phase difference between the common pilot signals for the two lines. Then, the mobile station generates the feedback information (the above-mentioned FBI) for adjusting a carrier phase difference of the downlink signals based on the calculated carrier phase difference between the common pilot signals. Here, the FBI is carried by an uplink dedicated physical control channel (DPCCH).
In this way, the base station reduces deterioration in the transmission quality attributable to occurrence of the fading phenomenon by adjusting the carrier phase difference of the downlink signals, which are transmitted through the two antennas, based on the FBI received from the mobile station.
Here, there is a possibility of an error of the FBI in a radio section. If the base station adjusts the carrier phase difference of the downlink signals based on the erroneous FBI, the "closed loop transmission diversity control" will not function effectively.
A technique called antenna verification is known in this regard. In the antenna verification, the mobile station estimates the carrier phase difference of the downlink signals based on dedicated pilot signals which are transmitted through the downlink dedicated physical control channel and the common pilot signals.
In this way, even if there is an error of the FBI in the radio section, the mobile station can decode the downlink signals accurately by estimating the carrier phase difference of the downlink signals in accordance with the antenna verification and performing demodulation and decoding of the downlink signals by use of the estimated carrier phase difference (3GPP TS25.214 V6.4.0).
As described above, the downlink control signals (such as the dedicated pilot signals) transmitted through the downlink dedicated physical control channel is used for the antenna verification that complements the closed loop transmission diversity control.
Therefore, in order to allow the antenna verification and the closed loop transmission diversity control to function effectively, it is preferable to apply large transmission power to the downlink control signals that are transmitted through the downlink dedicated physical control channel.
In the meantime, power resources have a limitation in the radio communication. Accordingly, it is unfavorable to apply large transmission power excessively to the down link control signals that are transmitted through the downlink dedicated physical control channel.

Communication system, base station, radio network controller, and transmission power controlling method


A night vision system including a power system having a low voltage unit coupled to a high voltage unit. The low voltage unit includes a low voltage controller and a low voltage table correlating step values to pulse widths, the low voltage controller obtaining a desired pulse width and accessing the table to obtain a step value. The high voltage unit including an opto-isolator for receiving the step value from the low voltage controller, a high voltage controller response to the step value accessing a high voltage table correlating step values to pulse width to obtain a pulse width, the high voltage controller generating a control pulse in response to the pulse width.

Night vision systems are used in a number of applications, including military, industrial, commercial, etc. In general, the systems operate by multiplying light received at an image intensifier tube to generate a visible image. Power conservation is typically an issue with personal night vision systems that are powered by portable, battery supplies. Thus, it is beneficial to incorporate power conservation features in the night vision system in order to extend the operation of the night vision system.

Method and system for communicating pulse width in a night vision system power system


A substrate to substrate interconnect and standoff assembly (10) comprises an electronic coupling (39) between the bottom of a first substrate (14) and the bottom of a second substrate (12), an electronic coupling (24) of the top of the first substrate to the bottom of the second substrate, a stand-off (20) between the first substrate and the second substrate, and a mechanical coupling (16) between the first substrate to the second substrate.

Board to board interconnections requiring standoffs typically use more parts and labor than required and have poor mechanical and electrical characteristics due to misalignment of parts. Moreover, additional parts are typically used to connect conductive runners on the bottom of a first substrate to the bottom of a second substrate when standoffs are used. Thus, a need exists for reducing the labor intensive procedures of existing board to board interconnecting standoff assemblies and improving the mechanical and electrical characteristics of these assemblies.

Substrate to substrate standoff assembly


According to various embodiments, disclosed is an electronic device comprising at least one sensor, a display comprising a touch panel, at least one pressure sensor disposed in the upper or lower layer of the touch panel such that pressure applied to at least a part of a region of the display can be sensed, and at least one processor, the at least one processor configured to: sense whether the electronic device is in a submerged state by using the at least one sensor or the display, receive a user input with respect to the at least a part of a region of the display while the electronic device is sensed to be in the submerged state, acquire the pressure and the position of the user input by using the at least one pressure sensor, and process the user input on the basis of the acquired pressure and the acquired position.

With a development of an information technology (IT), various types of electronic devices, such as a smartphone, a tablet personal computer (PC, and the like, have been widely used.
The electronic devices may utilize a user's touch as an input through a display containing a touch panel. For example, when the user touches a specific position of the display, the electronic device may activate an interface displayed at the position or execute an application corresponding to the position in response to the touch.
In one example, recently, electronic devices to which a waterproof or dustproof function is applied have appeared. Through the waterproof or dustproof function, the electronic device may provide a wider use environment to the user.

Electronic device acquiring user input when in submerged state by using pressure sensor, and method for controlling electronic device


A DTV signal detector detects DTV signals received by a receiver on a selected DTV channel in a Digital Television System. The DTV detector includes a first DTV signal detector that detects a first characteristic of the received DTV signals, and a second DTV signal detector that detects at least a second characteristic of the received DTV signals. A controller responds to the first DTV signal detector and the second DTV signal detector to control a selection of the DTV channel being selected by the receiver. The receiver can be synthesized to select from more than one DTV channel.

A number of proposals have been made to allow the use of TV spectrum by unlicensed devices, provided that the unlicensed users do not create harmful interference to the incumbent users of the spectrum. It is envisioned that these unlicensed devices will possess the capability to autonomously identify channels within licensed television bands where they may transmit without creating harmful interference. Pilot detectors have been proposed to determine the presence of an active television channel. However, there are a number of problems associated with the detection and identification of licensed Digital Television (DTV) transmissions for the purpose of determining whether or not an unlicensed device can share a particular television channel. Since the DTV signal includes a strong pilot tone (relative to the power spectral density of the DTV signal) it has been used for detection of DTV transmissions in AWGN channels. However, in frequency selective fading channels, a frequency null can occur at the pilot signal frequency, leading a pilot detector to erroneously conclude that the channel is not utilized by a licensed TV service. As a result the unlicensed device could begin transmitting on an active television channel, causing interference to users in close proximity to the device.