The present invention provides a method for isolating human neural stem cells from amniotic fluid of a patient whose fetus has been diagnosed to have a neural tube defect. Use of the isolated human neural stem cells in the treatment of neurological disorders is also provided.

Neural stem cells (NSCs) found in the central nervous system (CNS) have the capacity both to self-renew and to differentiate into each of the major cell types in brain. Ever since they were first described in mouse brain, NSCs have been the subject of intensive investigation because of their potential therapeutic use in treating neurodegenerative disorders [1, 2]. Specifically, transplanting NSCs may induce cellular repair and recovery of function after CNS injury or disease [3-6]. Previous studies have demonstrated that NSCs grafted into the CNS not only form new neurons but also express protective and trophic factors that are released into the damaged area.
Previously identified sources of NSCs in the adult mammalian CNS include the subgranular zone of the hippocampus and the subventricular zone of the ventral forebrain [7]. Human NSCs are typically obtained from aborted fetuses, post-mortem brains or surgical specimens [7-9]. However, the variability in donor age, storage, viability and potential contamination of these samples make it difficult to use them in therapeutic applications [10]. Other barriers include limited availability, technical difficulty in harvesting, and ethical concerns. Finally, the slow kinetics of human NSCs growth in primary cultures imposes a severe limitation on the ability to obtain enough quality cells for clinical applications. Recently, some immortalized neural stem/progenitor cell lines have been established [11, 12], which possess a relatively higher capacity for proliferation than typical NSCs while still retaining the ability to differentiate into different neural cell types. However, the use of oncogenic genes and viral infection in establishing these lines raises vital concerns over risk in medical-oriented applications. Other groups have established lines from pluripotent sources of stem cells such as embryonic stem cells or induced pluripotent stem cells [13-15]. While these methods do introduce a new source of NSCs, the possibility remains that undifferentiated cells will persist in these populations and could consequently form teratomas [16]. Therefore, the ability to use pluripotent stem cell-derived NSCs for therapeutic applications is limited by ethical issues, safety concerns, and poor efficiency.
Neural tube defects (NTDs) are the most common defects when a neural tube develops abnormally, and they affect approximately 1 in 1000 pregnancies [17]. The neural tube is formed during embryonic development and eventually gives rise to the entire CNS. When the neural tube does not close completely on either end, an NTD occurs. In humans, the most common NTDs are anencephaly and myelomeningocele. The former results from a failed closure of the rostral end of the neural tube and is characterized by a total or partial absence of the cranial vault and cerebral hemisphere, while the latter is a defective closure of the caudal neural tube and the vertebral column [18-20]. Anencephaly results in incomplete formation of the brain and skull and is therefore lethal. Most individuals with myelomeningocele have a multiple system handicap and a limited lifespan. Either ultrasound technology or measurement of maternal serum alpha-fetal protein levels can be used to detect an NTD in utero [21]. Follow-up testing typically measures the levels of alpha-fetal protein and acetylcholinesterase in the amniotic fluid to confirm that an NTD is present [22].
Amniotic fluid (AF) is known to contain multiple cell types that are derived from the developing fetus, and previous studies have demonstrated that multipotent stem cells can be isolated from this substance via amniocentesis. These AF-derived stem cells (AFSCs) express some pluripotent markers and can differentiate into cells of mesenchymal or neural lineages under inductive conditions [23-25]. Although AFSCs exhibit neural potentiality both in vivo and in vitro, they lack some typical properties of NSCs, such as proper growth, morphology and the potential to form neurospheres. To date, no group has been able to isolate NSCs directly from normal amniotic fluid samples of any species. Recently, one group reported that NSCs could be established from the amniotic fluid of pregnant rats in which the fetus had an NTD [26].
Human neural stem cells (NSCs) are a particularly valuable tool for the study of both nerve system development and the function of adult neurogenesis. NSCs also have great therapeutic potential in treating neurodegenerative disorders. However, current sources of human NSCs are limited for technical reasons such as the difficulty in isolating them and the time needed to expand the population.
Therefore, there is still a need to develop a method to obtain human NSCs which can be expanded for long periods without losing their stem cell-specific properties.

Isolation of human neural stem cells from amniotic fluid of patients with neural tube defects

FOOD INDUSTRY RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE


A driver circuit for receiving a voltage supply at a supply input and driving a load through a load output, the circuit comprising: a charge inductor and a discharge inductor; a switching array comprising a plurality of switches; and a load switch coupled between a first terminal of the charge inductor and the load output; the switching array being arranged so that: in a first mode it can couple a second terminal of the charge inductor to the supply input and the first terminal of the charge inductor to ground to load a flux on the charge inductor; in a second mode it can decouple the first terminal of the charge inductor from ground so that, when the load switch is closed, flux can flow from the inductor to the load output; and in a third mode it can couple the discharge inductor between the load output and ground so that flux can be loaded on the discharge inductor from the load output.

An ink-jet printhead typically comprises of a number of piezoelectric elements which are coupled to a driver circuit. The driver circuit can develop a voltage across each piezoelectric element which causes the element to distort. That distortion causes a droplet of ink to be expelled from the respective element of the printhead.
In the voltage domain, the waveform typically applied across a piezoelectric printhead element is a series of trapezoidal pulses. The trapezoids have rising and falling ramps connected by periods of time where the voltage remains constant. The constant voltage plateaux may be required to have any voltage between 0V and maximum output voltage, depending on factors such as the size of the droplet required and the current state of the piezoelectric element.
Typically, such waveforms are generated by a digital-to-analogue converter (DAC) whose output is fed into a linear amplifier. The output of the linear amplifier is coupled across the piezoelectric element so as to develop the required voltage across the piezoelectric element. A problem with the conventional approach is that the charge applied by the linear amplifier to the piezoelectric element is lost to ground after each actuation of the piezoelectric element. This is inefficient. In a large ink-jet printer the power consumed by driving the ink-jet heads can be considerable.
"MOSFET Current Source Gate Drivers, Switching Loss Modelling and Frequency Dithering Control for MHz Switching Frequency DC-DC Converters" (W A T Eberle) describes a current source gate drive circuit for power MOSFETs. In the circuit, an inductor stores gate energy and then returns it to the driver supply to recover some of the gate energy. To drive a power MOSFET the circuit provides a two-state output: high and low.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,079,396 discloses a driver for an ink-jet head in which a fly-back transformer is used to return some of the energy from the head to the input supply.
There is a need for an improved driver for driving entities such as piezoelectric elements in ink-jet printheads. Preferably such a driver should be capable of delivering pulses having a range of voltages.


A rope elevator has a car and a counterweight hanging on suspension ropes and moving in opposite directions along guiderails in a hoistway. The elevator is driven by a drive unit with a traction sheave that is placed above the travel-path of the counterweight so that the upper part of the car can reach a position in the hoistway above the drive unit. The suspension ropes run from a first hitch-point in the vicinity of the counterweight-side side-wall and around one or two pulleys of the counterweight, around the traction sheave, down and horizontally/diagonally across two pulleys underneath the car, and up to a second hitch-point on the car-side side-wall of the hoistway. The drive unit is fastened by a supporting construction exclusively to the two counterweight guiderails and to the car guiderail on the counterweight side of the car.

The present invention relates to a rope elevator which has a car and a counterweight which hang on suspension ropes and move in opposite directions along guiderails in an elevator hoistway, the car guide-plane formed by two car guiderails running parallel to the car-front and approximately through the center-of-gravity of the car, the elevator being driven by a drive unit with traction sheave which is so placed in the hoistway overhead above the travel-path of the counterweight that the upper part of the car can reach a position in the hoistway above this drive unit, and the suspension ropes running down from a hitch-point situated in the hoistway overhead in the vicinity of the counterweight-side side-wall of the hoistway and around one or two pulleys of the counterweight, then up and around the traction sheave of the drive unit, then down again and horizontally/diagonally across under two pulleys underneath the car, and finally up again to a second hitch-point on the car-side side-wall of the hoistway.
From DE 197 12 646 Al a machine-room-less rope elevator is known whose drive unit with traction sheave is arranged on a concrete plinth projecting into the elevator hoistway. However, this solution has certain disadvantages. The elevator hoistway and/or the landing floor have to be designed with strength in the vicinity of the proposed concrete plinth for the maximum stresses arising on the drive unit due to operation of the elevator. The necessary construction by builders of such a concrete plinth in an otherwise simple, cubical space causes considerable extra outlay. If the plinth is not executed as drawn, problems and delays in the installation of the elevator can occur.
FR 2 773 363-A3 discloses the machine-room-less arrangement of an elevator drive unit. This is mounted on a support which is fastened at one end to two counterweight guiderails and a car guiderail and at the other end via a console to a wall of the normally concreted elevator hoistway. Such a solution has significant disadvantages. The hoistway wall has to absorb an undefined proportion of the vertical forces acting on the drive unit. Furthermore, strain occurs in the support fastened to the hoistway wall and guiderails as a result of building shrinkage of the (concrete) hoistway wall and as a result of differing thermal expansion of the guiderails and hoistway wall (because of these problems the guiderails are fastened to the hoistway walls in longitudinally movable manner).
The task of the present invention is to propose a solution by means of which the advantageous arrangement of the drive unit can be realized while avoiding the disadvantages stated.
This task is solved according to the invention by the distinguishing characteristics of Patent claim 1. With the proposed fastening of the supporting construction of the drive unit on three guiderails, the operating forces acting on the drive, and the force of its weight, are essentially transmitted via these guiderails directly into the foundation of the elevator hoistway, which allows the required strength of the hoistway wall to be substantially reduced.
Advantageous embodiments and further developments of the invention are stated in the subclaims.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, placing the drive unit with its traction sheave, and usually also with the counterweight pulley(s), diagonally results in the center-of-gravity of the counterweight, which is located below the center of the counterweight pulley(s), coming to lie closer to the hoistway wall than is possible with an arrangement of the traction sheave and pulley(s) parallel to the counterweight, because of the distance of the traction sheave from the hoistway wall given by the dimensions of the drive unit. The space-saving arrangement of the counterweight achieved in this manner allows the use of a car with greatest-possible width.
A further preferred embodiment of the invention is achieved by the section of suspension rope running vertically from the traction sheave to the first car pulley being arranged in the free area of the hoistway between hoistway wall and car side-wall, which is not occupied by the travel-path of the counterweight and the guiderail fastening brackets surrounding it. Different from the arrangement of suspension ropes given as state of the art, where the stated section of suspension rope is guided between the guiderail fastening brackets surrounding the counterweight and the car side-wall, the preferred suspension rope arrangement proposed here causes no loss of installation space for the car. This is especially advantageous if, in the case of large building heights, substantial vibrations of the stated section of suspension rope are to be expected, and therefore relatively large free spaces needed around it.
Included in the advantageous embodiments of the invention is also that the first hitch-point of the suspension ropes is provided on the supporting construction of the drive unit. This saves time and costs for mounting a hitch-point support on the hoistway wall during installation of the elevator, and avoids a possible source of error.
In a further preferred embodiment of the rope elevator according to the invention, the drive unit is executed as a worm gear, the drive motor being arranged vertically in order to reduce the space required.
Also included in the preferred embodiments is that the counterweight is arranged at the side of, and adjacent to, the car, and with its guide-plane formed of two counterweight guiderails parallel to the side-wall of the car. Firstly, by this means an optimal utilization of the hoistway space is achieved, because free space at the side of the car is required for the opened access doors. Secondly, the drive unit can, if necessary, be made observable and accessible by means of inspection windows and/or service doors in the usually freely-available front of the hoistway.


A passive dual modulating regulator that responds to a pressure differential between a hydrogen-side and an oxygen-side of one or more proton-exchange membrane (PEM) cells is provided. The passive dual modulating regulator includes a flexible diaphragm that is clamped along its periphery between hemispherical chambers. A bi-directional valve assembly extends through the flexible diaphragm and includes opposing valve plugs for selectively closing the output ports of the respective hemispherical chambers. Large or sustained pressure imbalances between the hydrogen-side and the oxygen-side of a hydrogen generation system are avoided without active control inputs of any kind, and consequently a rupture of the PEM is entirely avoided.

Water electrolysis is the process by which water is separated into hydrogen and oxygen through the application of electrical energy. Among existing electrolysis technologies, proton-exchange membrane (PEM) electrolyzers use a proton-exchange membrane as an ionic conductor. The proton-exchange membrane consists of a thin, solid ion-conducting membrane instead of an aqueous solution as found in alkaline electrolyzers. The membrane transfers the H+ ion (i.e., proton) from an anode to a cathode and separates hydrogen and oxygen gases.
PEM electrolysis is generally preferred over alkaline electrolysis because no caustic electrolyte is used in PEM electrolysis. In addition, PEM electrolysis has faster ion transportation due to the thin membrane (e.g., Nafion from DuPont), which is important under fluctuating conditions. In addition, alkaline cells suffer from cross-contamination, as both gases (hydrogen and oxygen) and alkaline would be present in the output gas, requiring scrubbers to remove the oxygen and alkaline contamination from the hydrogen gases. This is particularly important because just 3% of oxygen in hydrogen is enough to form an explosive mixture.
PEM electrolyzers include differential pressure designs and balanced pressure designs. In either differential or balanced pressure designs, pressure regulation of hydrogen and oxygen gases is extremely important to the efficiency and life of the PEM electrolyzer. Accordingly, there remains a continued need for an improved pressure regulator for PEM electrolyzers. In particular, there remains a continued need for an improved pressure regulator for balancing oxygen and hydrogen gases with no cross-contamination.

Passive dual modulating regulator for hydrogen generation


The present invention relates to an overturning device (10) for overturning a molten material (200) in a melt channel (110) comprising a melt inlet (20) and a melt outlet (30), wherein between the melt inlet (20) and the melt outlet (30) at least a melt guidance means (40) is assembled for a rearrangement of molten material (200) from the centre (22) of the melt inlet (20) at the edge (34) of the melt outlet (30) and for a rearrangement of molten material (200) from the edge (24) of the melt inlet (20) in the centre (32) of the melt outlet (30).

It is known that extrusion devices are used in order to generate a plastic melt. This plastic melt can be continued to use in different manners. Thus, it is for example possible to introduce the molten material into a cavity of an injection moulding device in order to generate corresponding components by injection moulding. Likewise, it is known that the molten material is provided for a so called blow extrusion method with which a blow film is extruded. In all cases it is necessary that at the end of the extruder the liquefied molten material is transported to the respective place of use via corresponding melt channels. These channels can be arbitrarily complex and particularly divide up to single channels.
It is a disadvantage with known solutions of the extrusion device that they involve a high effort for the change of material. Thus, a so called purge process has to be performed in case the change of material from a first molten material to a second molten material should occur. In case with a blow extrusion device a certain time a product with a blue film colour is produced and subsequently a change to a transparent film colour is desired, thus initially the blue film colour and the corresponding molten material has to be purged out from the single melt channels. Herefore, the extrusion device is already operated with the subsequent material until the largest part of the old material of the molten material is purged out.
Since with melt channels in the edge area of these melt channels the transport velocity is mainly equal zero, the old material so to say sticks and the purge process is very time consuming. With blow extrusion devices with a through-put of up to approximately 120 kg molten material per hour thereby a purge process can normally take 20 minutes up to 1.5 hours. For each film layer for which a change of material should occur this leads to 120 kg or more waste material of the molten material. With multiple film layers the amount is multiplied with the amount of the film layers even if only one single film layer is purged. Therewith, the rejection rates of up to 1000 kg can be achieved. Simultaneously, the purge time comprises a dead time for the machine in which no useable production can occur. Accordingly, the known extrusion device with a corresponding purge process is afflicted with significantly recognizable disadvantages concerning the time effort and concerning the resulting costs and the waste material.

Overturning device for overturning molten material and purging method


A new spray carnation cultivar particularly distinguished by its very short and bushy growth, its continuous and prolific production of very small flowers, and the very light pink or spiraea red color of the outer two-thirds of the flower petals with more than one-half of the inner third of the petal body covered by a dark violet color. This very striking color combination provides a very dainty and distinctive blossom, suitable to be worn as a buttonhole decoration, and the plant itself has a vigorous, upright and rapid growth habit with abundant foliage providing a rather dense plant body particularly suitable for pot plant culture.

This new spray carnation originated as a sport of the pot carnation `Hiltiny` (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 7,413) discovered by me in 1985 in my greenhouse at Aalsmeer, The Netherlands, this new plant being distinguished from its parent by the very much lighter pink coloration of its flowers, and I chose to propagate this sport, by means of cuttings, in the hope of producing a short, bushy pot variety suitable as a companion for the parent plant in the market place. This sport was propagated by me at my nursery in Aalsmeer with such satisfactory results that I directed that propagation of this new plant be continued through several successive generations to determine its capability of maintaining its distinctive characteristics from generation to generation and so that its homogenetic character could be assured for commercial production.


Embodiments of the invention are directed to metal- or metal alloy-coated sheet materials (hereinafter, “metal-coated sheet material”) including, but not limited to, fabrics and veils which have a metal content of between one (1) and fifty (50) grams per square meter (gsm). The metal-coated sheet materials may be used as-is or in conjunction with prepregs, adhesives or surfacing films to provide lightning strike protection (LSP) and/or bulk conductivity, among other benefits, to the resultant composite article. In one embodiment, the metal-coated sheet material is impregnated with a resin. According to embodiments of the invention, a metal is applied to one or two sides of the fabric or veil by a physical vapor deposition coating process. The resultant metal-coated fabric or veil may be used as a carrier in surfacing films to impart surface conductivity; may be used as a carrier in adhesives to form conductive adhesive-bonded joints; may be interleaved (one or more metal-coated veils) between layers of prepreg to impart surface and/or bulk conductivity as well as toughness; or may be used to fabricate composite articles.

Materials used in the fabrication of component parts in the aerospace industry must have certain characteristics to protect the parts from damage or hazards caused by common environmental occurrences. Lightning, an example of a common environmental occurrence, can severely damage and/or punch through component parts if such parts are not adequately conductive and grounded through the aircraft. If lightning strikes a wing component of an aircraft during flight, the event has the potential of causing a dangerous surge current in addition to causing serious physical damage of the component itself. The surge current is particularly concerning because it may eventually come into contact with a fuel reservoir causing an explosion to occur. As a result of an actual fatal plane crash caused by a lightning strike, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) implemented a system to categorize various zones for commercial aircraft based on probability and severity of being struck by lightning. Thus, it is crucial that such component parts are manufactured to have characteristics which, among other characteristics, prevent or alleviate damage caused by lightning strikes.
Electromagnetic interference (EMI) is another electrical concern of composite parts in the aerospace industry. EMI waves consist of electric and magnetic fields which can induce electrical transients to induce excessive energy levels in the electrical wiring and probes of the fuel system. A method to prevent and/or reduce these occurrences is to add shielding materials to absorb or reflect the impinging radiation. Without proper shielding from these events, the waves can interfere with an aircraft's electronic and avionic equipment operation or even lead to ignition of fuel tanks. Absorption losses have been shown to be proportional to the thickness, conductivity and permeability of the shield material. Conventional shielding methods include housings made from cast and sheet metal, and plastics with conductive fillers or coatings.
Electrostatic discharge (ESD) is yet another concern for composite parts in the aerospace industry. ESD is the sudden and momentary electric current that flows between two objects at different electrical potentials caused by direct contact or induced by an electrostatic field. Non-conductive materials, paints, plastics have insulating properties and therefore are subject to accumulation of static charges. The resulting charges must be controlled to protect aircraft electronics and fuel tanks. Conventional ESD methods include adding fibers which have static elimination characteristics to a material, e.g., carbon fiber, or adding wicks and/or rods at the tips of aircraft components.
Static charge is imparted to a material through friction. An airplane becomes charged simply by passing through the air. Flight through precipitation (clouds or rain) increases charge accumulation, as there is more material contact. Static charge is routinely discharged in air at sea level, which is slightly conductive, and also in air with higher humidity. However, air with humidity below 20 percent and/or at higher altitudes is a poor conductor. The latter permits static charge to build up on aircraft surfaces, especially those of composite aircraft, where charge does not readily move. The build-up of charge on a structure creates a voltage potential that increases with the amount of charge. On metal structures, this voltage potential is the same everywhere because metal conducts electricity evenly. On composite structures, however, the voltage will vary. This voltage potential, in turn, generates an electric field which is most intense at areas of acute curvature such as wing tips, propeller tips, trailing edges, tips and edges of jet engine blades, etc. Built-up charge wants to travel-like charges repel and unlike charges attract. Eventually, the difference in charge between the air and structure becomes so great that the need to discharge the voltage potential takes over, resulting in a mass "dumping" of the excess charge into the atmosphere. Static charge build-up can trigger lightning within clouds or in charged atmospheric conditions.
At the same time, such component parts must be manufactured to target certain weight requirements in order for the aircraft to achieve designed distance and also to overcome the gravitational force of its own weight to gain flight without using an inordinate amount of fuel. Additionally, such component parts must be manufactured to resist damage to common environmental occurrences. This characteristic is generally described as "toughness" with respect to composites. Thus, concerns of damage tolerance and resistance to common environmental occurrences while maintaining a practicable weight of these component parts must be evaluated very carefully in the manufacturing process of such parts. Various methods are used to strike this balance in the manufacturing process.
A conventional method for imparting lightning strike protection to component parts in the aerospace industry is the use of expanded aluminum, copper, titanium or bronze mesh, screen or foils, or woven wire fabrics, incorporated into the composite part. Although such meshes are generally effective as lightning strike protection, many of these expanded mesh/screens are difficult to handle for both production and repairs. Additionally, they generally require isolation materials (e.g., a fiberglass isolator ply) to prevent undesirable galvanic corrosion in the presence of other materials, especially aluminum with carbon composite structures. Moreover, when used in large quantities, expanded mesh/screens are very heavy and may significantly add to the weight of the overall part thereby decreasing the efficiency of the aircraft.
Another method of imparting lightning strike protection is the use of metal-coated carbon fiber material incorporated into the composite part. Generally, the carbon fibers are coated with nickel, palladium, tin, copper or a combination thereof using an electroless plating process. These metal-coated fibers may then be formed into a uniform nonwoven material. The nonwoven material with metal-coated fibers is incorporated into the composite effectively replacing the metal mesh/screen which would otherwise be needed for adequate lightning strike protection. Reports of composite parts having such nonwoven materials with metal-coated fibers therein are reported to have a metal content of between about sixty (60) and one-hundred (100) grams per square meter (gsm) of metal. Other reports cite a 10% to 65% metal by weight content for carbon tows between 6K (6000 filaments) to 80K (80,000 filaments). The metal-coated veil materials are made with metal-coated fibers lightly bonded together with non-conductive resin (e.g., PVA). Thus, the weight of the overall composite still presents issues with respect to efficiency of the aircraft. Moreover, the electroless plating process presents manufacturing issues such as plating waste streams and higher manufacturing costs.

Methods of imparting conductivity to materials used in composite article fabrication and materials thereof


A system for clustering vertices in a streaming graph includes a structural sampler configured to receive a stream of edges. The structural sampler includes a reservoir manager configured to receive the stream of edges and create a structural reservoir and a support reservoir and a graph manager configured to receive the structural reservoir from the reservoir manager and to create a sampled graph from the structural reservoir, wherein the sampled graph includes one or more clusters that each include one or more connected vertices.

The present invention relates to streaming graphs, and more specifically, to methods and systems for identifying clusters in a streaming graph.
Graphs are effective tools for representing collections of relationships between entities. These relationships could be, for example, social ties between people, communications links between computer systems, links between web-pages, transportation channels between locations, or chemical bonds between atoms or molecules. Graphs are rich sources of information regarding how the entities behave and interact with each other. The field of graph analytics, or graph data mining, is devoted to understanding and decoding this information by studying structural properties of the graph and observing how graphs evolve with time. This information can then be put to use in several applications like online marketing, ranking search results, recommendation systems, churn prediction in mobile networks, disease control and drug discovery, to name a few.
One area of graph analytics includes the clustering or partitioning of nodes, or vertices, of graphs. Graph clustering has been the subject of research mainly in an offline setting where the entire graph is given beforehand. Graph clustering has been used for a wide variety of applications such as detecting communities in social networks, constructing phylogenetic trees or analyzing human genes, and load balancing in distributed computing. However, current clustering methods are not suitable for use with streaming graphs where the updates to the graph include streaming edge and/or vertex additions or deletions.

International Business Machines Corporation


A thermal sensing system includes an electrical contact, a sensing element, and at least one position sensor. The electrical contact releasably connects to a mating contact for establishing a conductive path across a mating interface. The electrical contact defines a channel therein that extends from an opening along an outer surface of the electrical contact. The sensing element is at least partially outside of the channel and is configured to move relative to the electrical contact from a first position to a second position based on a temperature increase within the channel that exceeds a designated threshold temperature. The at least one position sensor is spaced apart from the electrical contact and is configured to detect a position change of the sensing element from the first position to the second position, indicating that the temperature within the channel exceeds the designated threshold temperature.

The subject matter herein relates to thermal sensing systems and methods that monitor a temperature of electrical contacts within electrical devices, such as, but not limited to, electric vehicle charging devices.
Electric vehicles, including fully electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles, have electrical charging systems for charging batteries that provide current used to propel the vehicles. The charging systems include a charging inlet on the vehicle that releasably couples to a mating connector connected to an external power source. Because the vehicle is immobilized during charging operations, there is a desire to reduce the duration of charging operations to reduce the amount of time that the vehicle is immobile. The charging duration can be reduced by increasing the rate of power (e.g., electric current) transfer. During high current charging, the electrical contacts of the charging inlet generate heat due to electrical contact resistances. If left unchecked, the heat can damage the components of the charging system and could potentially start a fire.
To prevent heat-related damage and fire, some known charging systems have temperature sensors for monitoring the temperature within the charging devices. The charging systems are programmed to derate (e.g., slow or potentially stop) the power transfer during the charging operation if the measured temperature exceeds a designated threshold. The decreased power transfer rate reduces the amount of heat generated to enable maintaining the temperature at a safe level that is unlikely to cause damage. However, the temperature sensors in known charging devices may be inaccurate and/or have a delayed response times, which reduces the efficacy of the sensors. For example, to prevent electrical arcing or other interference from the high power charging circuit to the low power temperature sensing circuit, known charging devices attempt to electrically isolate the temperature sensors and associated circuitry from the charging circuit by positioning the sensors relatively far away from the electrical power contacts and/or behind walls or other intervening structures. But, the separation distance and intervening structures result in a significant temperature gradient between the electrical power contacts and the temperature sensors, reducing the sensitivity of the sensors and slowing the response time. As a result of the low sensitivity and slow response time, known charging systems have limited control over the charging operation.
A need remains for a thermal sensing system that can more accurately and quickly monitor the temperature of electrical contacts of an electrical device.

Electrical contact thermal sensing system and method


A heating device for pre-heating liquid fuel, especially diesel fuel and for heating devices of a low heating performance which are independent from a motor having a heating performance which is suitable for mounting into vehicles, which are driven by the liquid fuel. The pre-heating is effected by a transmission of heat of the exhaust gas to the fuel of the heating device, the fuel being lead through a continuous tubular wrapping in one layer or through a hollow cylinder formed or positioned around the exhaust pipe. This wrapping or hollow cylinder is part of the fuel main from the fuel tank to the fuel supply pump of the heating device. A pre-heating of the content of the tank is effected by the return of the pre-heated, but not burnt fuel through a fuel return main back into the tank. A heat transmitting jacket is advantageously disposed between the wrapping, or a hollow cylinder and the exhaust gas pipe.

Field of the Invention
This invention relates in general to liquid fuel heaters and in particular to a new and useful device for the pre-heating of liquid fuel for heating installations in mobile units.
The present invention comprises a fuel tank and a fuel line or main between the tank and the fuel pump, which is part of the heating installation as well as comprising a fuel return pipe and an exhaust main, which leads the exhaust gases out of the combustion chamber of the heating installation.
Such heat installations are used, for example, for automobiles, in order to heat the inside space independently from the motor and for water cooled motors for pre-warming the motor. Other fields of use are boats and construction machines. Corresponding to the conditions for mounting, and to the volume to be heated, these heating devices are relatively small and have only a small consumption of fuel.
For this reason the fuel lines or mains have a small diameter. Naturally these heating devices have to work reliably, especially when there is a very low outside temperature. Especially for heating devices working with diesel fuel, it is known that there is a risk at low temperatures that the fuel becomes like a jelly, and this causes inevitably the heating installation to get out of commission. For this reason improvers of fluidity are added to the fuel, in order to keep it from becoming like a jelly.
For the operation of a mechanical atomizer (burner) heating a pre-heating of the nozzles is sufficient even when the outside temperatures are low. However, this pre-heating of the nozzles is effective only if the fuel is supplied in a sufficient quantity and consistency. This pre-heating of the nozzles requires additional electric-energy out of the power supply for plane communication apparatus, and therefore should be driven only during the starting-operation. In general, when the device is started, the heat, which is in the heating device is sufficient for the further operation.
The disadvantages of the known installations relate especially to the fact that not only during the starting process, but also during the whole operating period electric energy is necessary from the supply on board, which, in the cold period of the year, is already highly strained with the connection of additional, energy consuming devices such as a heater of the vehicle and of the panes as well as the lighting system.

Fuel pre-heater for liquid fueled engine


A control circuit to vary the intensity of an electro luminescent display. The circuit is connected between a power source and a display and comprises a pair of conductors to be connected to the display for applying a voltage from a voltage generator. A switch controls application of the voltage from the generator to the conductors. A gating circuit connects selectively one or other of the conductors to the voltage source. A controller operates upon the switch to vary the duty cycle and upon the gating circuit to alternate periodically the relative polarity of the conductors. The voltage source includes an inductor and the switch controls current flow through said inductor.

EL displays are frequently used to display images such as graphics, text and other types of visual information under ambient light conditions which can vary greatly. In high intensity ambient light conditions, it may become difficult to properly view the images displayed on the EL display. As well, under low ambient light conditions, the images displayed on the EL display may be overly bright.
Accordingly, it is helpful if the EL display is controlled by a dimmer so that image brightness may be increased when the intensity of the ambient light is high. When the intensity of ambient light is low, the brightness of the image may be decreased. The intensity of the display is a function of the maximum voltage applied and in the art the voltage is controlled by a silicon controlled rectifier (SCR). Control of SCR is difficult and has a significant power consumption. Moreover, with portable devices the battery voltage used as a power source will also vary over time and accordingly the intensity of the display tends to fluctuate with the battery voltage.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present application to obviate or mitigate the above disadvantages.


A switch includes: a housing having a box shape; a plunger movable in a first direction intersecting an opening surface; and a movable piece arranged inside the housing and is elastically deformable in a second direction intersecting the first direction. The plunger has a touching portion which is arranged so as to face the movable piece in the second direction inside the housing and to be able to elastically deform the movable piece in the second direction by touching the movable piece, and further, a lubricant retaining portion that can retain a lubricant is provided in at least one of the touching portion of the plunger and a touched portion of the movable piece.

Patent Document 1 discloses a push-button switch. This switch includes a base, a key that can be moved up and down with respect to the base, and a fixed touch piece and a movable touch piece attached to the base. The fixed touch piece is provided with a fixed contact portion, and the movable touch piece is provided with a movable contact portion facing the fixed contact portion. Further, the movable touch piece is arranged so as to be movable by touching the key when the key is moved up and down with respect to the base, and is configured such that the movement of the movable touch piece causes the movable contact to touch or separate from the fixed contact.

Push-button switch with lubricant retaining portion


One or more techniques and/or systems are disclosed for an ignition control module for a gas appliance. The housing of the ignition control module, and/or the mounting points for mounting the module to a gas appliance, can be configured to dispose the battery in a manner that provides for potential battery leakage to flow away from most operable components of the module. Further, the ignitor connection terminals can be configured to provide for ease of connection, by providing a connector guide disposed in a cylindrically-shaped terminal housing. Additionally, an ignitor actuator terminal can be configured to selectably engage with an ignitor actuator connector, where the ignitor actuator terminal comprises at least two connector points that engage with a single ignitor actuator connector.

Gas appliances, such as gas grills and other cooking devices, often utilize ignitors mounted onto the appliance. Some are powered by a power source, such one or more batteries, and such devices typically comprise a control module to control the ignition source. An ignition module can comprise or be coupled with an actuator switch, used by a user, and one or more ignitors, for igniting the fuel. The module itself is often mounted on the appliance, and it can be mounted in a variety ways. For example, some modules have the actuator switch engaged with the module, while others have a connector, such as a wire, leading from the switch to a remotely mounted module. Modules with the actuator switch, such as a button, directly engaged with the module typically utilize a battery compartment that protrudes through the panel of the appliance to which the module is mounted. In any event the battery within the module can provide electrical power to an electronic circuit therein in order to generate a voltage potential. If the voltage is applied to an electrode (e.g., in the ignitor), and the voltage is sufficiently large enough, the air across a gap on the electrode will be ionized and a spark will be generated, thereby enabling an air/gas mixture surrounding the gap to be ignited.


An image retrieval system contains a database with a large number of images. The system retrieves images from the database that are similar to a query image entered by the user. The images in the database are grouped in clusters according to a similarity criterion so that mutually similar images reside in the same cluster. Each cluster has a cluster center which is representative for the images in it. A first step of the search to similar images selects the clusters that may contain images similar with the query image, by comparing the query image with the cluster centers of all clusters. A second step of the search compares the images in the selected clusters with the query image in order to determine their similarity with the query image.

The invention relates to an image retrieval system comprising:
a database with candidate images,
entry means for entering a query image,
comparison means for comparing the query image with one of the candidate images, and
presentation means for presenting at least the candidate image with the largest similarity with the query image.
The invention further relates to a method for retrieving images from a database with candidate images, the method comprising the steps of:
inputting a query image;
comparing the query image with candidate images to establish respective similarities between these candidate images and the query image; and
presenting at least the candidate image with the largest image similarity with the query image.
The invention further relates to a method for organizing images in a database.
The invention further relates to a system for organizing images in a database.
The invention further relates to a database with a plurality of images.
Image retrieval systems are of importance for applications that involve large collections of images. Professional applications include broadcast stations where a piece of a video may be identified through a set of shots and where a shot of video is to be retrieved according to a given image. Also movie producers must be able to find back scenes from among a large number of scenes. Furthermore art museums have large collections of images, from their paintings, photos and drawings, and must be able to retrieve images on the basis of some criterion with respect to their contents. Consumer applications include maintaining collections of slides, photos and videos, from which the user must be able to find back items, e.g. on the basis of similarity with a specified query image.
An image retrieval system and a method as described above, are known from the article xe2x80x9cTools and Techniques for Color Image Retrievalxe2x80x9d, John R. Smith and Shih-Fu Chang, Proc. SPIE-Int. Soc. Opt. Eng (USA), Vol. 2670, pp. 426-437. The image retrieval system comprises a database with a large number of images. A user searching for a particular image specifies a query image as to how the retrieved image or images should look like. Then the system compares the stored images with the query image and ranks the stored images according to their similarity with the query image. The ranking results are presented to the user who may retrieve one or more of the images. The comparison of the query image with a stored image to determine the similarity may be based on a number of features derived from the respective images. The image feature or features used for comparison are called a feature vector. The article describes the usage of a color histogram as such a feature vector. When using the RGB (Red, Green and Blue) representation of an image, a color histogram is computed by quantizing the colors within the image and counting the number of pixels of each color. To determine the similarity, a number of techniques are described to compare the two color histograms of the respective images. An example of such technique is the histogram intersection, where the similarity is the sum over all histogram bins of the minimal value of the pair of corresponding bins of the two histograms.
In a practical set up, the number of images can be very large. On the Internet for example, the number of images can be of the order of millions and is ever growing. Even if the time to compare the query image with a candidate image is very short, the cumulative time needed to compare the query image with all images in the database will be long. It is a drawback of the known system that a user searching for an image in such a large database must wait a long time after having submitted the query image in the system.
It is an object of the invention to provide an image retrieval system of the kind set forth in which the time for finding candidate images similar with the query image is reduced. This object is achieved according to the invention in an image retrieval system comprising:
a database with clusters, each cluster comprising a respective set of candidate images and a cluster center which is representative for that set;
entry means for entering a query image;
cluster comparison means for comparing the query image with respective cluster centers to establish respective cluster similarities between the query image and the respective clusters;
selection means for selecting at least the cluster with the largest cluster similarity with the query image;
image comparison means for comparing the query image with the candidate images in the selected clusters to establish respective image similarities between the query image and the respective candidate images; and
presentation means for presenting at least the candidate image with the largest image similarity.
By selecting one or more clusters that are most similar with the query image and subsequently comparing the query image with only the candidate images in the selected clusters, fewer comparisons are needed. This reduces the time needed to find the candidate images that are similar with the query image. Since the number of clusters is much smaller than the number of images, the number of additional comparisons for comparing the query image with the clusters is much smaller than the number of saved comparisons because of not comparing the query image with the images in the not selected clusters. Clustering of the candidate images into clusters according to their similarity does not require the presence of any query image. Therefore, the clustering is done in advance and is not done at the time the user is actually searching for images on the basis of the query image. So the time needed to cluster the images does not add to the waiting time the user of the system experiences when searching.
An embodiment of the image retrieval system according to the invention is defined in claim 2. The similarity between images may be determined on the basis of their color histograms. The average of the respective histograms of a number of representative images of a cluster can advantageously be used as a representation for the whole cluster.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method for retrieving images of the kind set forth with a reduced time for finding candidate images similar with the query image. This object is achieved according to the invention in a method for retrieving images from a database comprising clusters, each cluster comprising a respective set of candidate images and a cluster center which is representative for that set, the method comprising the steps of:
inputting a query image;
comparing the query image with respective cluster centers to establish respective cluster similarities between the clusters and the query image;
selecting at least the cluster with the largest cluster similarity with the query image;
comparing the query image with respective candidate images of the selected clusters to establish respective image similarities between these candidate images and the query image; and
presenting at least the candidate image with the largest image similarity.
By first determining which of the clusters are similar with the query image and by subsequently comparing the query image with only the images in those clusters, far fewer comparisons are needed. This greatly reduces the time needed to find the candidate images that are similar with the query image.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a method for organizing images in a database, which resulting database allows to find images that are similar with a given query image in a reduced time. This object is achieved according to the invention in a method for organizing images in a database, the method comprising the steps of:
defining clusters each comprising a subset of the images, whereby the images in a cluster are similar with each other and whereby at least one of the clusters comprises more than one image, and
determining a cluster center for each of the clusters.
By grouping mutually similar images in respective clusters and by defining respective cluster centers for these clusters, a subsequent search to images that are similar with a given query image can be performed more quickly. The search can first determine on the basis of the cluster centers which of the clusters might contain images that are similar with the query image. Subsequently the search may limit the further comparisons between the query image and the images in the database to these clusters. Consequently fewer comparisons are needed, resulting in a shorter time for finding the similar images.
An embodiment of the method for organizing images in a database according to the invention is defined in claim 5. Determining among all clusters, which two clusters are most similar with each other and by merging these two clusters into a new cluster is a good procedure for creating a database with clusters whereby a cluster comprises mutually similar images. This procedure may be repeatedly executed, each time merging the two most similar clusters into a new cluster and thereby reducing the number of clusters by one, until a required number of clusters has been reached or until the similarity between the two most similar clusters has dropped below a given threshold.
An embodiment of the method for organizing images in a database according to the invention is defined in claim 6. The average of the similarities between all pairs of images in two clusters is a good measure for the similarity between those two clusters, since every image in both clusters contributes to this measure.
An embodiment of the method for organizing images in a database according to the invention is defined in claim 7. When the cluster center of a particular cluster is determined on the basis of a few images of that particular cluster, it is advantageous to select for this purpose respective images from the clusters that were merged into this particular cluster. The fact that these clusters were disjunct at some earlier stage indicates that an image of one of the clusters is less similar with an image of the other cluster than with an image from its own cluster. So selecting an image from each of the clusters gives a better representation of the diversity of the images in the particular cluster that resulted from merging the clusters.
An embodiment of the method for organizing images in a database according to the invention is defined in claim 8. Since the cluster center may be based on only a number of representative images, an image may exist that is more similar with a cluster center of another cluster than with the cluster center of its own cluster. If it is determined that one or more such images exist, then these images are moved to the respective other clusters thus creating an optimized organization of images into clusters with cluster centers. This step of moving the images may be followed by a recomputation of the cluster centers of the clusters involved, i.e. the clusters from which an image is moved and the clusters to which an image is moved, and by again checking whether one or more images exist that are more similar with another cluster center than with its own. These steps may be repeatedly executed until the number of images to be moved is below a given threshold.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a system for organizing images in a database, which resulting database allows to find images that are similar with a given query image in a reduced time. This object is achieved according to the invention in a system for organizing images in a database, the system comprising:
clustering means for defining clusters each comprising a subset of the images, whereby the images in a cluster are similar with each other and whereby at least one of the clusters comprises more than one image, and
center determining means for determining a cluster center for each of the clusters.
By grouping mutually similar images in respective clusters and by defining respective cluster centers for these clusters, an organization of the images is made through which a subsequent search to images that are similar with a given query image can be performed more quickly. A first step of the search determines which of the clusters may contain images similar with the query image. Then a second step of the search compares the query image with the images in these clusters. This greatly reduces the number of comparisons needed to find images that are similar with the given query image.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a database with a plurality of images in an organization that allows to find images that are similar with a given query image in a reduced time. This object is achieved according to the invention in a database with a plurality of images, the database comprising:
clusters each comprising a subset of the images, whereby the images in a cluster are similar with each other and whereby at least one of the clusters comprises more than one image, and
a cluster center for each of the clusters.
The grouping of mutually similar images in respective clusters and the respective cluster centers for these clusters, make it possible that a subsequent search to images that are similar with a given query image can be performed more quickly.


A metering pump is joined to the stepping motor, includes an eccentric mechanism converting a revolving motion of the stepping motor into a reciprocating motion of a plunger, and makes a constant liquid delivery by sucking and discharging an anesthetic agent through variations in the cubic volume of a cylinder caused by the reciprocating motion of the plunger. The control section: calculates a suction and discharge cycle T of the metering pump on the basis of a set anesthetic-gas concentration and a fresh-gas flow rate; sets a discharge period T2 of the cycle T to be longer than a suction period T1 of the cycle T; and controls the revolution speed of the stepping motor so that the travelling speed of the plunger is kept constant during the discharge period T2.

FIG. 5(a) shows the configuration of a conventional anesthesia apparatus (refer to Non-Patent Document 1). In FIG. 5(a), the anesthesia apparatus includes: an operation section 51, a control section 52, an anesthetic agent bottle 53, a motor driver 54, a stepping motor 55, a metering pump 56, a vaporizing chamber 59, an anesthetic-agent identifying sensor 61, an anesthetic-agent detecting sensor 62 and a fresh-gas flow-rate sensor 63. An anesthetic agent is stored in the anesthetic agent bottle 53 and is sent through an anesthetic-agent flow path 71 to the suction port of the metering pump 56. A fresh gas is a mixture of oxygen, a nitrous oxide and air and is supplied through a gas pipe line 75 to the vaporizing chamber 59.
Upon setting an anesthetic gas concentration in the operation section 51, the control section 52 calculates a required volume of an anesthetic gas (gaseous matter) on the basis of the set anesthetic-gas concentration value and a fresh-gas flow rate detected by the fresh-gas flow-rate sensor 63. On the basis of Avogadro's law, the control section 52 converts the volume of the anesthetic gas (gaseous matter) into a volume of an anesthetic agent (liquid matter). In order to allow the metering pump 56 to discharge the calculated volume of anesthetic agent, the control section 52 regulates the revolution speed of the motor 55 via the motor driver 54. From the metering pump 56, the anesthetic agent is discharged in the fixed volume corresponding to the set anesthetic-gas concentration value. Then, the anesthetic agent is delivered through a flow path 72 to the vaporizing chamber 59, and in the vaporizing chamber 59, the anesthetic agent is mixed with the fresh gas. This operation is continuously executed, and thereby, even if the set anesthetic-gas concentration value or the fresh-gas flow rate is varied, then the variation is followed by a real-time variation in the volume of liquid delivered from the metering pump 56.
In the conventional anesthesia apparatus, the metering pump 56 needs to deliver a predetermined volume of liquid precisely at an extremely-low flow rate in units of microns. In order to make such a liquid delivery, a metering pump (e.g., see FIGS. 1(a) to 1(d)) is employed which: is driven by the stepping motor 55; includes an eccentric mechanism converting a revolving motion of the stepping motor 55 into a reciprocating motion of a plunger of the metering pump; and makes a constant liquid delivery by sucking and discharging a liquid through variations in the cubic volume of a cylinder of the metering pump caused by the reciprocating motion of the plunger.
When the stepping motor 55 revolves at a constant speed, the reciprocating motion of the plunger in the axial directions becomes a substantially sinusoidal reciprocating motion. Accordingly, as shown in FIG. 5(b), the temporary variation in the suction volume and discharge volume of the metering pump traces a sinusoidal transition. Consequently, during the discharge period, an anesthetic agent is delivered such that the discharge volume varies in a sinusoidal form with time, thereby giving a pulsation to the discharge volume of the metering pump. As shown in FIG. 5(c), the effect of the pulsation remains even though in the vaporizing chamber 59, the anesthetic agent vaporizes gradually to smooth the temporary variation in the anesthetic gas concentration.
FIG. 6(a) shows a result of gas concentration measurements where the anesthetic-gas concentration value is set to 1.0[%] and the fresh-gas flow rate is varied in accordance with the periods: it is 0.5 [L/min] during a period of Y0 to Y1, 1.0 [L/min] during a period of Y1 to Y2 and 6.0 [L/min] during a period of Y2 to Y3. A conspicuous pulsation appears during the period Y0-Y1 when the fresh-gas flow rate is relatively low. Then, the pulsation amplitude lowers during the period Y1-Y2 when the fresh-gas flow rate is doubled, and further, the pulsation becomes almost inconspicuous during the period Y2-Y3 when the fresh-gas flow rate is much higher. In short, the effect of a pulsation appears conspicuously when the fresh-gas flow rate is low and the revolution speed of the metering pump 56 (stepping motor 55) is relatively low.
As described above, a metering pump has the problem of a pulsation, and hence, measures to solve the problem have been taken in various fields including an anesthesia apparatus. For example, Patent Document 1 and Patent Document 2 disclose a technical method in which a plurality of plunger pumps are joined together to adjust the total discharge flow rate to a fixed value.
The document JPH0264273A and US2004/151594A1 disclose plungers having cylindrical pistons which move up and down within a cylinder.

Driving method for metering pump, driving apparatus for metering pump, vaporizer, and anesthesia apparatus


Provided is an electromechanical transducer which is capable of correcting or compensating a fluctuation in the transmission/reception characteristics of an elastic wave transmitting/receiving unit due to applied pressure. The electromechanical transducer (102) which transmits/receives elastic waves such as ultrasound includes the elastic wave transmitting/receiving unit (201) for transmitting/receiving elastic waves, a pressure detecting unit (203) for detecting pressure that is applied to the elastic wave transmitting/receiving unit, and a correcting unit (204). Based on pressure information which is detected by the pressure detecting unit, the correcting unit performs at least one of a correction of elastic wave transmitted/received signals relevant to the elastic wave transmitting/receiving unit and a correction of the transmission/reception characteristics of the elastic wave transmitting/receiving unit.

There has been employed a measuring method in which an ultrasound probe is used to transmit ultrasound to an object and receive ultrasound reflected by the object, thereby obtaining information of the object (see US 2006/0004290 A1). In ultrasound diagnosis according to this measuring method, an ultrasound probe is used under a state of being pressed against a living body, which is an object to be measured, through gel or the like. Probes of this type include transmission/reception transducers for generating/detecting ultrasound, such as piezoelectric transducers (PZTs) and polymer membrane (polyvinylidene fluoride: PVDF) transducers. Other transducers for this type of ultrasound probe include capacitive micromachined ultrasonic transducers (CMUTs). CMUTs can be manufactured by a micro-electro mechanical systems (MEMS) process, which is an application of a semiconductor process, and have a wide band. A measurement with an ultrasound probe that uses a CMUT therefore yields detailed information of an object, compared to a measurement with a probe that has a narrow band.


A device and method for controlling a phase transformation temperature of a shape memory alloy is provided. The device includes a primary wire composed of the shape memory alloy. The primary wire defines first and second ends, the first end being attached to a fixed structure and the second end being able to displace. An activation source is thermally coupled to the wire and is operable to selectively cause the primary wire to reversibly transform from a Martensitic phase to an Austenitic phase during a cycle. A loading element is operatively connected to the primary wire and configured to selectively increase a tensile load on the primary wire when an ambient temperature is at or above a threshold temperature, thereby increasing the phase transformation temperature of the primary wire.

A shape memory alloy may be used as an actuator, sensor or in another capacity in various devices. Two phases that occur in shape memory alloys are often referred to as Martensite and Austenite phases. The Martensite phase is a relatively soft and easily deformable phase of the shape memory alloys, which generally exists at lower temperatures. The Austenite phase, the stronger phase of shape memory alloys, occurs at higher temperatures. The temperature at which the shape memory alloy remembers its high temperature form, referred to as the phase transformation temperature, can be adjusted by applying stress and other methods. In nickel-titanium shape memory alloys, for example, it can be changed from above about 100° C. to below about −100° C. In applications with higher actuation temperature requirements, the stress applied to a shape memory alloy element may be increased to increase its phase transformation temperature. However, this increase of stress reduces the fatigue life of the shape memory alloy. In other words, continuously operating the shape memory alloy at a higher actuation temperature results in a much shorter life cycle.

Apparatus and method of controlling phase transformation temperature of a shape memory alloy


Representative implementations of devices and techniques provide analog to digital conversion of time-discrete analog inputs. A redundant split-capacitor arrangement using a successive approximation technique can provide a fast and power efficient ADC. For example, a successive approximation capacitor arrangement may include multiple arrays with non-binary bit weights.

Analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) convert time-discrete analog input values to a digital form. A type of ADC, the successive approximation (SA) ADC, digitizes the analog input values using a successive approximation search algorithm. While the internal circuitry of the SA-ADC may run at a higher frequency (such as several megahertz (MHz), for example), the sample rate of the SA-ADC is generally a fraction of that frequency (such as several kilohertz (kHz), for example) due to the successive approximation search algorithm used. For example, normally each bit of the SA-ADC is fully realized prior to proceeding on to the next bit.
In general, each bit-weight of a successive approximation register (SAR) arrangement of a SA-ADC may be represented by a physical element (e.g., capacitor, resistor, current source, etc.). A search algorithm may be used with the physical elements to determine the closest digital approximation to an analog input value. Commonly, a binary search algorithm is used with an arrangement having physical elements with binary bit-weights, for example. While this technique may be the simplest to implement, it is generally not the most power efficient or the fastest. Split-capacitor techniques can be more power efficient, but have a higher complexity. A typical non-binary or "redundant" technique can be faster, but has an even higher complexity since it normally uses a non-binary search algorithm. Also, some non-binary techniques can be difficult to calibrate.

Data conversion with redundant split-capacitor arrangement


A receiving circuit includes a frame memory to store received data of one frame, a de-rate matching circuit to generate data before encoding by reading the received data from the frame memory and performing de-rate matching in a reverse manner to rate matching performed on the received data at a transmitting end, and a TTI memory to store the data before encoding.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a receiving circuit and, particularly, to a receiving circuit that receives data on which data matching for equalizing data size of each frame has been performed at the transmitting end.
2. Description of Related Art
A semiconductor device that is mounted on a portable device such as a cellular phone needs to be small so as to achieve a small-size device. In order to achieve a small-size semiconductor device, it is necessary to reduce a circuit scale. In light of this, a technique to reduce the circuit scale of a de-interleaving device that is used in a receiving circuit, which is one of the semiconductor devices to be mounted on a portable device, is disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-14000.
FIG. 22 shows the configuration of a de-interleaving device 200 described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-14000. A radio frame buffer 211 is a memory to store a radio frame that is input from the outside (e.g. a de-interleaver that is placed in the previous stage of the de-interleaving device 200 and performs de-interleaving before radio frame combining). The radio frame combiner 212 is a functional section to combine the radio frames stored in the radio frame buffer 211 to form a TTI frame, and it stores the formed TTI frame into a TTI frame buffer 213. Addition of a P-bit is not performed at this time, which is different from a de-interleaving device heretofore used.
A de-interleaver 214 reads the number of P-bits to be inserted into the TTI frame to be de-interleaved from a P-bit information table 215 and further reads a replacement rule from a replacement rule table 216, and then performs bit replacement on each bit of the TTI frame. The TTI frame after replacement is output to the outside of the de-interleaving device 200. Specifically, it is output to a decoding block for decoding the de-interleaved TTI frame.
In the technique disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-14000, data after radio frame combining is stored in the TTI buffer. After that, de-interleaving is performed by the de-interleaver 214, and then de-rate matching is performed in the subsequent stage. The technique disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-14000 reduces the capacity of the TTI frame buffer 213 by not adding a P-bit to the TTI frame buffer 213 at this time.
The present inventors, however, have found the following problem. If data is received according to 3GPP specifications, the received data contains data other than data to be decoded because of the rate matching performed at the transmitting end. Thus, de-rate matching, which is the processing reverse to the rate matching performed at the transmitting end, is performed at the receiving end in the 3GPP specifications. The data before the de-rate matching possibly becomes 6.6 times the maximum number of bits (the total of all TrCH) before encoding. It can thus become about 2 times at maximum (in the case of the encoding rate=⅓) the data after encoding, which is before the rate matching. Because the TTI frame buffer of the related art needs to store data before the de-rate matching as described above, it is required to have about two times the capacity of a necessary size as an input of a decoder, causing an increase in circuit scale.


Micro-plasma is generated at the tip of a micro-spring by applying a positive voltage to the spring's anchor portion and a negative voltage to an electrode maintained a fixed gap distance from the spring's tip portion. By generating a sufficiently large voltage potential (i.e., as determined by Peek's Law), current crowding at the tip portion of the micro-spring creates an electrical field that sufficiently ionizes neutral molecules in a portion of the air-filled region surrounding the tip portion to generate a micro-plasma event. Ionic wind air currents are generated by producing multiple micro-plasma events using micro-springs disposed in a pattern to produce a pressure differential that causes air movement over the micro-springs. Ionic wind cooling is produced by generating such ionic wind air currents, for example, in the gap region between an IC die and a base substrate disposed in a flip-chip arrangement.

A semiconductor package is a metal, plastic, glass, or ceramic casing containing one or more semiconductor electronic components typically referred to as integrated circuit (IC) die. Individual discrete IC components are formed using known semiconductor fabrication techniques (e.g., CMOS) on silicon wafers, the wafers are then cut (diced) to form individual IC die, and then the IC die are the assembled in a package (e.g., mounted on a package base substrate). The package provides protection against impact and corrosion, holds the contact pins or leads which are used to connect from external circuits to the device, and dissipates heat produced in the IC die.
Flip-chip packages are a type of semiconductor package in which two structures (e.g., an IC die and a package base substrate) are stacked face-to-face with interconnect structures (e.g., solder bumps or pins) disposed in an intervening gap to provide electrical connections between contact pads respectively formed on the two structures. The gap between the two structures ranges from microns to millimeters.
A micro-spring package is specific type of flip-chip semiconductor package in which electrical connections between the IC die and the package base substrate are provided by way of tiny curved spring metal fingers known as "micro-springs". Micro-springs are batch-fabricated on a host substrate (i.e., either the IC die or the package base substrate), for example, using stress-engineered thin films that are sputter-deposited with a built-in stress gradient, and then patterned to form individual flat micro-spring structures having narrow finger-like portions extending from associated base (anchor) portions. The narrow finger-like portions are then released from the host substrate (the anchor portion remains attached to the substrate), whereby the built-in stress causes the finger-like portions to bend (curl) out of the substrate plane with a designed radius of curvature, whereby the tip end of the resulting curved micro-spring is held away from the host substrate. The micro-spring package utilizes this structure to make contact between the host substrate (e.g., the IC die) and a corresponding package structure (e.g., the package base substrate) by mounting the IC die such that the tip ends of the micro-springs contact corresponding contact pads disposed on the corresponding package structure.
For high performance and high power IC's such as microprocessors, metal blocks combining with a bulky fan are attached directly to the backside (i.e., non-active surface) of chips disposed in a flip-chip arrangement for cooling purposes. Most of the heat (˜80-90%) is conducted across the bulk of the chip, and then metal block, and finally dissipated through force convection by the fan. If avoid sticking a bulky fan on chip's back, the heat dissipation path needs to be engineered.
Driven by the trend of thinner, lighter and more and more functions in electronics products like cell phones and TVs, higher power density in semiconductor packaged devices is an unavoidable trend. Therefore, there is a need to manage the heat generated in the package in a more efficient and controllable way. Bulky fan is no longer an efficient way to manage the heat, especially the chips tends to be stacked horizontally as well as vertically (3D stacking). Passive methods like heat spread, underfill, and thermal interface materials, all of them are hard to be applied to chip stacking applications. Active cooling like micro fluidic channels can be used for 3D stacking, but fluid is not common in consumer electronics.
Ionic wind (or ion wind) is a dry process that may be used for IC cooling. Ionic wind works by applying high voltage between a high curvature (emitting) and a low curvature (collecting) electrodes. High electrical field around the emitting electrode ionizes the air molecules. The ions accelerated by electrical field and then transfer momentum to neutral air molecules through collisions. The resulting micro-scale ionic winds can potentially enhance the bulk cooling of forced convection at the location of a hot spot for more effective and efficient cooling. Various approaches have been developed that have been shown to generate ionic wind using, for example, wire based corona discharge. However, these approaches are difficult to implement using existing high volume IC fabrication and production methods.
What is needed is a practical, low cost method for generating ionic wind that can be implemented between circuit structures (e.g., a base substrate and an IC die) in a semiconductor circuit assembly (e.g., a flip-chip package) to cool the circuit structures.

Micro-plasma generation using micro-springs


A method capable of stably manufacturing a SiC single crystal in the form of a thin film or a bulk crystal having a low carrier density of at most 5×1017/cm3 and preferably less than 1×1017/cm3 and which is suitable for use in various devices by liquid phase growth using a SiC solution in which the solvent is a melt of a Si alloy employs a Si alloy having a composition which is expressed by SixCryTiz wherein x, y, and z (each in atomic percent) satisfy0.50<x<0.68, 0.08<y<0.35, and 0.08<z<0.35, or   (1)0.40<x≦0.50, 0.15<y<0.40, and 0.15<z<0.35.  (2)x, y, and z preferably satisfy 0.53<x<0.65, 0.1<y<0.3, and 0.1<z<0.3.

Silicon carbide (SiC) has advantageous physical properties such as a wide band gap, a high thermal conductivity, and a low dielectric constant, which make it possible to realize semiconductor devices having a lower operational loss and a high resistance to temperature than silicon (Si) semiconductor devices. As a result, it is expected that silicon carbide can be used in a wide range of applications including as a material for power devices for electric power control, as a material for high frequency devices having high breakdown voltages, as a material for environmentally resistant devices for use in high temperature environments, as a material for radiation-resistant devices, and the like.
Each of these applications requires a high quality SiC single crystal and particularly a single crystal substrate having a diameter of at least 2 inches, and more specifically a SiC epitaxial wafer which comprises a SiC single crystal substrate having thereon an epitaxially grown SiC single crystal thin film which forms an active layer of a device.
The liquid phase epitaxy (LPE) method is known to form a SiC single crystal thin film having good crystalline quality. In the LPE method, first, carbon is dissolved in a melt of Si or a Si alloy to prepare a SiC solution having C (carbon) dissolved in the melt which serves as a solvent to a concentration close to its saturation point. A substrate as a seed crystal such as a substrate of a SiC single crystal is immersed in this SiC solution, and a supersaturated state of SiC is formed in the solution by creating a supercooled condition of the solution at least in the vicinity of the substrate, thereby causing epitaxial growth of a SiC single crystal on the substrate. This method can also be used to grow a SiC bulk single crystal. In this case, the crystal growth method is referred to as the solution growth method. Below, the LPE method and the solution growth method will collectively be referred to as the liquid phase growth method.
The LPE method, which is a liquid phase growth method, can have a higher film forming speed compared to the CVD method, which is a vapor phase growth method which is also capable of growth of a high quality SiC single crystal. In addition, in contrast to the CVD method which usually uses a so-called off-axis substrate in which the c axis is inclined, the LPE method has the advantage that the crystal orientation of the substrate is not limited so that it is possible to use a so-called on-axis substrate in which the c axis is not inclined. Use of an off-axis substrate is disadvantageous since it is known to have a tendency to easily introduce defects such as lattice defects into the single crystal being grown.
When application to an electronic device is contemplated, it is necessary to adjust the electrical conductivity of a SiC single crystal by controlling the carrier density thereof. For example, when a SiC single crystal thin film formed on a substrate is used as an active layer of a power device such as a MOSFET (Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor), it is necessary to control the carrier density in the SiC single crystal to a desired value within the range of 1015/cm3 to 1016/cm3. When a SiC bulk single crystal is used as a substrate of a light emitting element (a thin film of GaN or the like is grown on the substrate), it is desirable to make the carrier density on the order of 1017/cm3 and to make the crystal transparent so that light can be emitted from its rear surface.
In the case of film formation of an active layer of a SiC single crystal by a vapor phase growth method such as the CVD method, carrier control is relatively easy since a SiC single crystal is grown under a reduced pressure in a glass vessel using high purity raw material gases.
However, growth of a SiC single crystal by the liquid phase growth method which uses a melt is usually carried out at atmospheric pressure in order to minimize vaporization of the melt, thereby making it difficult to control the carrier density of a SiC single crystal with good reproducibility. This is because in a SiC single crystal obtained by the liquid phase growth method, nitrogen gas which remains in a crystal growth chamber due to adsorption by a heat insulating material or the like unavoidably penetrates into the SiC single crystal being grown and replaces carbon sites of the crystal. As a result, the concentration of nitrogen atoms in the grown SiC single crystal reaches a level from 1018/cm3 to 1019/cm3. Furthermore, the resulting single crystal is strongly colored, and in general, it has a deep green color.
In a SiC semiconductor, nitrogen acts as a carrier in the form of an electron donor. Therefore, the carrier density increases as the nitrogen concentration increases. Accordingly, the above nitrogen concentration level indicates that the carrier density greatly exceeds the above-described preferred range. As a result, a SiC single crystal thin film grown by the LPE method and a SiC single crystal obtained by the solution growth method both have too high a carrier density, and they always exhibit a low specific resistivity on the order of several tens of milliohm-centimeter.
As described above, a SiC single crystal which is obtained by liquid phase growth is colored since it has a high carrier density due to incorporation of a large amount of nitrogen. Therefore, when a SiC single crystal obtained by the solution growth method is used as a substrate for a light emitting element, there is another problem in that it is difficult to discharge light from the rear surface of a substrate by the so-called flip chip mounting technique, and the SiC single crystal cannot be used as a substrate for lighting unit.
In addition, when a SiC thin film is used as an active layer of a power device such as a MOSFET, the SiC film becomes unsuitable for use as an active layer when the carrier density reaches a high level of 1018/cm3 or greater. Therefore, it is necessary for the SiC thin film deposited by the LPE method to again deposit thereon a SiC active layer having a thickness of several micrometers and a controlled carrier density by the CVD method or the like.
In this manner, with conventional liquid phase growth techniques for growing a SiC single crystal, since incorporation of nitrogen cannot be controlled, it was not possible to grow a SiC single crystal film having a suitable carrier density for an active layer of a power device on a substrate. In addition, because coloration was unavoidable, a bulk SiC single crystal manufactured for use as substrate could only be used in applications as a colored electrically conducting substrate, which made its uses extremely limited.
In below-identified Non-Patent Document 1, it is reported that growth of a SiC thin film with a low carrier density of 2×1016/cm3 was realized by growing a SiC single crystal by the LPE method (using molten Si as a solvent) in a graphite crucible under a reduced pressure of 5×10−4 Pa. However, in liquid phase growth under a reduced atmosphere, because the melt which acts as a solvent evaporates in a short period of time, it is not possible to stably carry out crystal growth over a prolonged period.
In below-identified Non-Patent Document 2, it is reported that a low carrier density of 8×1015/cm3 could be achieved by allowing a SiC solution in a solvent of a Si melt to heave by application of electromagnetic force so that the contact of the solution with the vessel wall is prevented and performing growth of a SiC single crystal in that condition under a reduced pressure of 5×10−5 torr. However, even in that method, because crystal growth is carried out under a reduced pressure, as described above, vaporization of the melt is unavoidable. Furthermore, because the melt is held in a heaved state by application of electromagnetic force, there is a limit to the weight of the melt that can be used, and it is difficult to grow a SiC single crystal film on a large substrate with a diameter of at least 2 inches.
Below-identified Patent Document 1 proposes a method of manufacturing a SiC single crystal by the LPE method using a SiC solution formed from a melt consisting of Si, C, and at least one transition metal (the solvent is a Si-transition metal alloy). That method is intended to enable the manufacture of a bulk single crystal (self-supporting crystals) of SiC with an increased growth speed, and there is no description concerning decreasing the carrier density or suppressing coloration of a SiC single crystal. Furthermore, the only actual examples of transition metals which are used in the examples are Mo, Cr, or Co used individually (namely, the solvent is a Si—Mo, Si—Cr, or Si—Co alloy).

Method of manufacturing a silicon carbide single crystal


A system that generates natural language content. The system generates and maintains a dialogue state representation having a process view, query view, and data view. The three-view dialogue state representation is continuously updated during discourse between an agent and a user, and rules can be automatically generated based on the discourse. Upon a content generation event, an object description can be generated based on the dialogue state representation. A string is then determined from the object description, using a hybrid approach of the automatically generated rules and other rules learned from annotation and other user input. The string is translated to text or speech and output by the agent. The present system also incorporates learning techniques, for example when ranking output and processing annotation templates.

Dialogues systems are designed to interact with users and, at some point, need to determine what to say and how to say it. For slot filled systems of the prior art, they systems are designed with a fixed number of behaviors that the system can perform. Hence, for a specific behavior, a human engineer has written what should be said by the slot filled system. What is needed is an improved dialogue assistant that provides output to a user.