In order to provide a suitable packaging system, mesh pieces are deposited across the width of a moving run of flexible wrapping material and are deposited in longitudinally overlapping relationship along the length of the wrapping material, by feeding the mesh pieces on a belt which moves more quickly than the wrapping material; the mesh pieces are ejected from the end of the belt onto the wrapping material. The direction of movement of the wrapping material is inclined downwards so that the trailing ends of the mesh pieces contact the wrapping material before the leading ends contact the preceding mesh piece. The wrapping material, with the mesh pieces on it, is then rolled up under tension into a spiral bale so that the overlapping edges curl down and prevent the mesh pieces slipping out.

GB-A-2 120 475 describes a way of strengthening a particulate matrix in which relatively small, light weight, generally flat pieces of flexible, open plastics mesh structure are randomly embedded in the matrix. GB-A-2 120 475 can be referred to for details. Such pieces each weigh less than 5 g, and have a weight of less than 80 g/m.sup.2 or more particularly less than 50 g/m.sup.2.
The normal way of embedding the mesh pieces in the matrix is to mix them together. The supply of the mesh pieces to the point of mixing has given significant problems. In GB-A-2 120 475, it is suggested that a continuous length of mesh can be cut up into the pieces immediately before mixing, but in practice, this is not convenient. End-users wish to buy the mesh pieces already cut. This requires that the mesh pieces should be packaged so that they occupy a relatively small space, and the mesh pieces must be flat and relatively easy to disentagle from each other.
The high flexural recovery of the mesh pieces makes them very difficult to package in a dense form. Attempts have been made to stack the pieces and then ram them so that they can be wrapped with film in a compact bale.
It was not found possible to stack the mesh pieces without creasing, and the mesh pieces became very tightly interlocked after compression and were difficult to separate by the end user.
The size and weight of each individual mesh piece is so small that it is very easily moved by vibration, air flow, static electricity or contact with moving parts, so that there are immense difficulties in providing any ordered arrangement. Furthermore, because the mesh pieces are flat and severed from the same sheet of mesh material, they are very close to each other, and a minimum of movement of any mesh piece will cause interlocking with its neighbour and a chain reaction with other mesh pieces. If this happens, it is nearly impossible to handle the mesh pieces. Because of the way in which the mesh pieces are slit, each piece will have protruding strands around its edges, which easily engage the protruding strands of the next mesh piece, or indeed lock into the meshes of the next mesh piece.


A portable electrocardiogram monitor includes: an upper housing and a lower housing coupled to each other via a hinge; and a positive electrode formed on lateral sides of the upper and lower housings, which are disposed opposite sides centering on the hinge.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrocardiogram, and in particular to a new construction of a folder-type portable electrocardiogram monitor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electrocardiogram is a medical method for determining whether there is an abnormality in heart function by monitoring a weak electric signal of a living body occurring when the heart contracts and relaxes. A conventional electrocardiogram monitor is an apparatus for monitoring a living body's electric signal related to the activity of a heart. This is performed by contacting electrodes to a body of a person to be monitored in terms of the activity of the heart.
When arranging electrodes, a total of twelve standard limb leads designed by Einthoven, i.e. three standard limb leads, three unipolar limb leads, and six precordial leads, are arranged on the arms, the legs, and an area surrounding the heart of a patient. To record a more precise diagnosis, fifteen to eighteen electrodes may be arranged. In general, for an electrocardiogram examination it is necessary to go to a hospital or medical office, which is troublesome. Therefore, there is an increasing demand for portable electrocardiogram monitors which allow an individual to simply and conveniently conduct daily electrocardiogram monitoring. Some medical machine manufacturers, including Omron, have provided a market with related portable products.
Since employing an arrangement of twelve or more electrodes in a portable electrocardiogram monitor is not practical, a single electrode of lead-I or lead-II is used among the limb leads. Many kinds of arrhythmia diagnoses can be conducted with a single electrode signal. Considering the convenience and ergonomics of the above-mentioned monitoring, it is suitable to position a positive (+) electrode at an edge of the monitor.
An electrocardiogram monitor includes an electrode and a filtering and amplifying means in order to detect a weak signal of a living body. In particular, in a miniaturized portable electrocardiogram monitor, to obtain a good waveform it is necessary to form a contact area of an electrode as wide as possible so as to minimize contact impedance in relation to a body of an individual to be monitored.
FIG. 1 shows a prior art portable electrocardiogram monitor. Referring to FIG. 1, the prior art portable electrocardiogram monitor 100 includes a monitor button 120, a ground electrode 130 (negative (−) electrode), a positive electrode 140, and an image display 110 for displaying a monitored result to a user.
The prior art portable electrocardiogram monitor 100 can monitor an electrocardiogram by pushing the monitor button 120 while the index finger of the user's right hand or the like is in contact with the ground electrode 130 and while the positive electrode 140 positioned at the opposite side is being retained in contact with the user's another body part, such as the left area of the chest, an arm, or the like. The monitored electrocardiogram waveform can be provided to the user through the image display means 110.
The above-mentioned portable electrocardiogram monitor 100 requires electrodes having a wide area to be in contact with the user's body so as to minimize the impedance, thereby obtaining a good waveform.
In particular, the portable electrocardiogram monitor 100 of FIG. 1, has a shape in which the thickness of the monitor increases toward the positive electrode 140 so as to maximize the area of the electrode to be contacted with the user's body.
Therefore, the prior art portable electrocardiogram monitor has a problem in that its thickness and volume are relatively large in order to retain the wide electrode, which affords a limitation in both portability and storage of the portable monitor.

Folder-type portable electrocardiogram monitor

Samsung-ro, Yeongtong-gu, Suwon-si, Gyeonggi-do


An electrostatic charge image developing toner includes toner particles containing a colorant, a binder resin, and a release agent and an external additive, in which the external additive contains inorganic particles which include saturated hydrocarbons having from 9 to 35 carbon atoms on the surfaces thereof.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an electrostatic charge image developing toner, an electrostatic charge image developer, a toner cartridge, a developer cartridge, a process cartridge, an image forming apparatus, and an image forming method.
2. Related Art
A method such as electrophotography in which image information is visualized through an electrostatic charge image, is currently being used in various fields. In electrophotography, an electrostatic charge image (electrostatic latent image) is formed on the surface of a photoreceptor (image holding member) through charging and exposure processes; and the electrostatic latent image is developed using a developer containing a toner and visualized through transfer and fixing processes. As the developer used in this case, there is used a two-component developer including a toner and a carrier; and a single-component developer in which a magnetic toner or a nonmagnetic toner is used alone. In addition, as a preparation method of this toner, a kneading and pulverizing method is normally used in which a thermoplastic resin is melted and kneaded along with a pigment, a charge-controlling agent, and a release agent such as wax, cooled, finely pulverized, and classified. Optionally, during toner preparation, inorganic or organic particles for improving fluidity and a cleaning property may be added to the surface of toner particles.

Electrostatic charge image developing toner, electrostatic charge image developer, toner cartridge, developer cartridge, process cartridge, image forming apparatus, and image forming method


A retractable handle assembly for a luggage includes an outer pipe, an intermediate pipe, an inner pipe, and a control handle. Each of the inner pipe and the intermediate pipe has a bottom end provided with a support seat and a locking device. The support seat includes a housing and an end cap. The locking device includes at least one press member, at least one locking pin, and at least one positioning pin. Thus, the inner pipe and the intermediate pipe are positioned exactly and stably so that the inner pipe and the intermediate pipe will not slip when the retractable handle assembly is folded and expanded, thereby facilitating a user operating the retractable handle assembly.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-stage retractable handle assembly for a luggage, and more particularly to a retractable handle assembly having a locking and positioning effect.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional retractable handle assembly 10 for a luggage in accordance with the prior art shown in FIGS. 8 and 9 comprises a handle 11 having two ends each provided with an outer pipe 14, an intermediate pipe 13 movably mounted in the outer pipe 14 and having a plurality of locking holes 131, an inner pipe 12 movably mounted in the intermediate pipe 13, and a link 121 pressed by the handle 11 and extended into the inner pipe 12. Each of the inner pipe 12 and the intermediate pipe 13 has a bottom end provided with a locking device 15 including a fixing seat 151, a locking pin 153 movably mounted in the fixing seat 151 and having a first end detachably locked in one of the locking holes 131 of the intermediate pipe 13, an elastic member 154 mounted in the fixing seat 151 and biased between the fixing seat 151 and a second end of the locking pin 153 to push the locking pin 153 toward the respective locking hole 131 of the intermediate pipe 13, and a V-shaped control member 152 pivotally mounted in the fixing seat 151 and having a first end rested on a lower end of the link 121 and a second end locked on the second end of the locking pin 153.
However, when the locking pin 153 of the locking device 15 attached on the inner pipe 12 is locked in the respective locking hole 131 of the intermediate pipe 13, the locking pin 153 of the locking device 15 attached on the intermediate pipe 13 is movable in the outer pipe 14, so that the intermediate pipe 13 is not positioned in the outer pipe 14 and easily slips in the outer pipe 14 when the retractable handle assembly 10 is folded. In addition, the locking pin 153 of the locking device 15 is usually made of a metallic material to withstand a larger force, so that the locking pin 153 of the locking device 15 rubs the outer pipe 14 and the intermediate pipe 13 during movement of the outer pipe 14 and the intermediate pipe 13, thereby producing greater noise.


An extractor for the removal of cartridges from the cylinder bores of a revolver. The extractor includes an extractor plate having a plurality of arms extending radially outward from an inner portion of the plate. The arms form an inner surface between adjacent arms. The inner surface substantially conforms to the profile of a bore of the cylinder and has an arc length that is greater than one-half the circumference of a cartridge disposed within the cylinder bores of the revolver. The inner surface contacts the rim of a cartridge and facilitates the removal of the cartridge from the bore. The inner surface may also include a beveled edge and the arms may have convex or concave end portions. The extractor also includes a tubular stem mounted to the inner portion of the extractor plate.

Extractors used for removal of spent cartridge cases from the cartridge chambers of a revolver cylinder, referred to herein as "cylinder bores" or "bores," are generally in the form of an extractor plate mounted adjacent one end of a tubular stem. The extractor plate typically has a plurality of radially extending arms equally spaced apart and defining, between each adjacent pair of arms, a cylindrical, concave, radiused surface that conforms to the shape of a bore of the cylinder. The radiused surfaces are adapted to fit under and engage the rims of cartridge cases disposed in the cylinder bores.
Prior art extractor plates fit within a recess in the rear surface of the revolver cylinder. The recess typically has a depth that is approximately equal to the thickness of the extractor plate. As the extractor plate fits within the recess in the cylinder, the concave, radiused surfaces of the plate form part of the bores in which the cartridges are disposed. Typically, the recess also includes edge portions adapted to conform to the shape of the outer perimeter of the extractor plate. In prior art extractor designs, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,148, herein incorporated by reference in its entirety, the ends of the extractor arms that define the outer perimeter of the extractor plate fit in a contiguous parallel relationship with the upright edges which define the perimeter of the recess. This contiguous parallel relationship limits the rotation of the extractor plate.
Although prior art extractors have proven extremely reliable, it is possible that prior art designs may provide insufficient contact between the extractor and the rim of the cartridge case creating the possibility of an angular misalignment of the extractor with the cartridge. Additionally, prior art extractors may have difficulty extracting rim fire cartridges as such cartridges are thin walled and have the tendency to expand against the cylinder bores under the pressures generated during firing. Such expansion could potentially make extraction difficult as the prior art extractor plates form part of the cylinder bores.
In light of the above, an object of the present invention is to provide an improved extractor for revolvers by increasing the contact area between the extractor and the cartridge.
An additional object of the present invention is to provide an improved extractor for rim fire ammunition. This object is accomplished by providing an extractor that does not form part of the cylinder bores and engages only the rim of the cartridge. The bores are entirely disposed within the cylinder thereby allowing the rim fire case to expand outwardly upon firing without affecting the extractor.
This and other objects and advantages of this invention will be more readily appreciated from a reading of the application in conjunction with the drawings annexed hereto as follows.


A clutch adjustment and lockup system is disclosed. The system is adapted for use with a centrifugally actuated friction clutch of the type wherein clutch plates and clutch disks are engageable with each other. The conventional friction clutch includes a weight support member having apertures concentric with the plates and disks and is interlocked with the plate for rotation therewith. The conventional support member includes a plurality of pivotable weights causing the plate to frictionally engage the disk upon rotation of the support member. Springs are provided to counteract the weights, thereby resisting frictional engagement of the plates and disks until a predetermined speed is achieved. The improved adjusting system allows remote setting of the speed at which the plates frictionally engage the disk while the vehicle is moving and a lockup system provides increased frictional engagement of the clutch plate and disks.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a clutch and more particularly a system for remotely adjusting and locking up a friction clutch.
2. Description of Prior Art
Friction clutches that engage at a predetermined speed have been known for some time and are particularly useful in combination with motors, such as internal combustion engines, that are not capable of starting under load conditions. The engine is permitted to accelerate freely with the clutch disengaged until a point on the power curve is achieved where the engine produces sufficient torque. At this predetermined speed the clutch automatically engages to transfer the torque.
Previously known centrifugal friction clutches have exhibited a number of important shortcomings. U.S. Pat. No. 4,111,291 discloses a centrifugally actuated friction clutch, designed for a small displacement internal combustion engine, connected to the rear axle of a go-cart. This clutch uses centrifugal force to transmit the engine's torque to the wheels. Spring force in the clutch is adjusted to counteract the engagement by centrifugal force until the engine reaches a predetermined speed. Then the clutch hooks up and stays hooked up until the engine drops below this predetermined speed. The '291 patent discloses a plurality of screws for adjusting the spring force that are accessible through apertures in the clutch cover to allow adjustment without disassembling the clutch. This accessibility, while allowing fine adjustment of the engagement speed by trial and error of on-track testing, still requires that the go-cart be taken off the track and stopped so that a screw driver may be inserted into the apertures to make the required adjustments.
This prior art clutch is undesirable because of (1) the consumption of time required for an empirical analysis to achieve the right adjustment for different track conditions; (2) inability of the operator to have immediate feedback of the operation of the clutch while the vehicle is moving; and (3) lack of an engagable and disengagable lockup mechanism to provide enhanced engagement of the friction clutch while the vehicle is moving.


A system includes a first group of cassettes, each cassette including a first stationary bar, a first plurality of fixed contact members, and a first plurality of movable contact members, each of which is electrically coupled and rotatably connected to the first stationary bar and configured to contact one of the first plurality of fixed contact members. The system includes a second group of cassettes each including a second stationary bar, a second plurality of fixed contact members, and a second plurality of movable contact members, each of which is electrically coupled and rotatably connected to the second stationary bar and configured to contact one of the second plurality of fixed contact members. The system includes at least one operating mechanism to control opening and closing of the movable contact members. The first stationary bar is coupled to the second stationary bar.

An automatic transfer switch (ATS) is used to switch an electric load back and forth between power sources (e.g., a primary power source, such as a utility grid, and a secondary power source, such as a generator). More specifically, an automatic transfer switch allows for transferring power from one or more sources to a load. A transfer of the load from a primary source to a secondary source happens, for example, when the primary source experiences a power outage or other failure. When the power outage is over, the automatic transfer switch switches the power source from the secondary source back to the primary source.


A motor drive system used with industrial robots, processing machines, and the like comprising an external interface part ready for connecting a plurality of kinds of host controllers generating a command signal; a sensor interface part to which a motor rotation detecting sensor is connected; a main control part operating for feedback control of a motor according to signals provided by way of the interfaces; and a power amplification part for feeding a current to motor coils according to a control signal from the main control part and wherein the external interface part, the sensor interface part, the main control part, and the power amplification part are separate and modularized as cards. Advantageously, the various controllers, sensors and power systems are changeable to flexibly meet different user requirements.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a motor drive system used with industrial robots, processing machines, and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventional motor drive systems use sensors to detect the rotation of a motor, and with the detection signals from the sensors as feedback signals a host controller generates a command signal to control the rotational position and speed of the motor based on the feedback signals. A drive object, such as a robot arm or the like, is shifted to a target position, at a desired speed, by the motor being subjected to the above feedback control.
In such a system, it is desirable that the characteristics of the motor driving circuit, power source, etc, be modifiable to cope with the user's various requirements.
The host controller, which provides commands to the system, includes various types of controllers or controller functions, such as providing command values in the form of digital signals, providing command values in the form of analog signals, etc. It is, therefore, desirable that the motor drive system be connectable to these various host controllers.
The sensor for detecting motor revolutions may be an optical resolver or a magnetic resolver. Generally, the optical resolver is of high precision and high resolution, but, is expensive. On the other hand, the magnetic resolver is relatively inexpensive, but is inferior in precision and resolution as compared to the optical resolver. Because of the differences in characteristics, the optical resolver and the magnetic resolver are usually used selectively according to whether precision or cost is most desired.
Also, a different motor drive system is used for the optical resolver and the magnetic resolver.
According to the embodiment, the motor drive system to be used with the sensor must be selected properly each time so as to cope with the particular sensor to be used therewith. The motor drive system is originally expensive. Thus, if the entire motor drive system has to be replaced to handle different applications, the costs will be disadvantageously expensive.
For driving a robot arm on the motor drive system, there may occur a case where the absolute rotational position of the motor must be identified so as to ensure the position of the arm, etc. However, an absolute type sensor is expensive to install originally. Accordingly it is desired to have a system which is inexpensive and readily usable for detecting the absolute rotational position.
On the other hand, in case an incremental type sensor is used, the origin of the rotational position will be required. An origin detection means which is moderate in cost and high in precision is preferable.
As mentioned, the motor drive system has many desired requirements However, no motor drive system satisfying all of the desired requirements concurrently has yet been realized.


A telecommunications network arranged for controlling the flow of SNMP trap notifications from Subtended Network Elements and subtending Gateway Network Elements to a Management System, the network being provided with a Network Analyzer arranged for determining the number of Network Elements that are subtended by each Gateway Network Element, and a Notification Threshold Manager arranged for calculating a Notification Throttling Threshold (an upper limit for the rate at which a Subtended Network Element may send SNMP trap notifications to the Management System in dependence upon the number of Network Elements that are subtended by the Gateway Network Element. The Notification Throttling Threshold is transmitted to the Gateway Network Element and Subtended Network Elements by the Management System. Also disclosed is a method for controlling the flow of SNMP trap notifications in the above-described network.

A typical DCN comprises an Operational Support System (OSS) arranged for managing a plurality of Gateway Network Elements (Gateway NEs), each Gateway Network being arranged for subtending a number of Network Elements (subtended NEs). In this respect, the subtended Network Elements are arranged at a lower hierarchical networked level than the respective Gateway Network Element, such that the subtended Network Elements are interconnected to the DCN via an Ethernet Interface (Gateway NE). The network elements may also be connected via embedded channels inside the traffic lines such as Synchronous Transmission Module-n (STM-n) for Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) or optical channels for Dense Wavelength Divisional Multiplexing (DWDM). These embedded channels are called, depending from the kind of frame overhead they use, Data Communications Channels (DCCs), Optical Supervisory Channels (OSCs), General Communications Channels (GCCs), and others.
For protection purpose, several DCC channels can be activated between nodes flowing same or separated optical links, and the routing algorithm metrics will allow the proper routing path selection. The same configuration policy is used for DWDM, which deploys OSC for the embedded channels, and for Ethernet links, where a specific Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) tag is used to carry management data.
If functioning under normal operating conditions, the Network Element management from the OSS ensures that the network is able respond at nearly real-time to a given task. If, however, there is a problem with a Network Element, then the Network Element will send an alarm trap notification to the OSS to notify the OSS of the problem. The capability of the Operational Support System (OSS) to receive alarm traps from the managed Network Elements is a key feature in the monitoring of the network. It allows the operator to take the appropriate actions required to ensure optimal network performance and preserve business. In the event of a high alarm condition, a Network Element or a plurality of Network Elements may send a large number of alarm traps to the Operational Support System.
It will be appreciated that the Operational Support System is only capable of processing alarm trap notifications at a certain rate, and that the Operational Support System will be overloaded if the actual rate of alarm trap notifications exceeds this maximum rate (so-called "Trap Storms"). Accordingly, it is desirable to limit the rate at which alarm traps are sent.
In order to limit the rate at which alarm traps are sent, it is known to allocate a Notification Throttling Threshold to each Network Element. It will be appreciated that if the Throttling Threshold is set too high then an alarm burst may occur, this alarm burst potentially exceeding the capacity of the receiving Network Manager and this incapacitating the network. If, however, the threshold is set too low then it can cause the Network Element to unnecessarily cease its transmission of alarm trap notifications.
One existing technology for limiting the rate at which alarm traps are sent is based on a notification throttling mechanism that enables a customer to allocate a Throttling Threshold to each Network Element. The Throttling Threshold may be based on the Network Element's software and hardware features. The throttling mechanism discards any alarm traps that exceed the customer configurable threshold and the Management System of the OSS polls the Network Element to discover any lost alarms from the alarm log (a so-called "trap recovery mechanism"). One problem with this existing technology is that, in the case of a connectionless algorithm (e.g. SNMP) the trap recovery mechanism will be activated as soon as the next notifications are received causing an unnecessary network overload due to alarm realignment. Another problem is that Network Elements are treated as stand-along elements and their role within the network is not considered. In particular, the problem of a communication bottleneck at the Gateway Network Element is not addressed. In particular, a customer may set the Notification Throttling Threshold for a Network Element appropriately for a given network configuration, but if the configuration of the network is subsequently changed (e.g. a Network Element may go offline) then the previously set Throttling Threshold is no longer suitable.

Method and system for controlling flow of notifications within a telecommunications network


A savings box housing comprises a front panel with a transparent window and an opaque rear panel and light-opaque side panels extending from the front to the rear panels. The front and rear panels are disposed symmetrically with respect to a partition located in a plane extending across a central location of the housing interior to divide the housing interior into a front compartment on the window side and a rear compartment on the rear-panel side. A mirror extends over substantially the entire surface of a front side of the partition facing the window. A slide assembly consisting of two slides mounted in slots formed in the housing wall on respective opposite sides of the partition for receipt in the front and rear spaces, respectively, is provided in the housing for sliding movement between a first, coin receiving position, in which the slide assembly is withdrawn from the housing enabling a coin to be set on the slide assembly and, a second, coin depositing position in which the slides are received in the front and rear compartments, respectively, with the coin deposited by the rear slide in the rear compartment concealed during deposit behind the mirror surface and partition so that it cannot be seen through the window, providing the illusion that the coin has gone somewhere outside the housing or that the coin is simply missing.

An example of savings box of the above kind, is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,967,953 issued Nov. 6, 1990 to Sugawara. The savings box comprises a housing composed of six opaque panels. A transparent window is formed in one of the six panels. A partition is disposed in a plane defined by a diagonal of a predetermined one of the four panels adjacent to the panel having the window and by a diagonal of another panel opposite to the predetermined panel and which is parallel to the diagonal of the certain panel. The partition divides the internal space of the housing into first and second, front and rear, spaces or compartments. A light-reflecting or mirror surface is provided on substantially the entire surface of one side of the partition that faces the window. The housing has formed therein a coin slot which communicates with the second, rear compartment.
A coin that has been inserted through the coin slot and received or deposited in the rear compartment is not visible when viewed through the window as the coin is hidden behind the mirror surface and partition. As a result of reflection by the mirror, when the front compartment of the housing is viewed through the window, the housing interior will look like a hollow box, without the mirror and partition. Thus, the deposited coin is not visible, providing the illusion that it is missing.
In the prior savings box, the mirror is disposed on the diagonal so as to be deliberately concealed so that the housing appears entirely hollow and empty.


An image converter (1) for the visualizing an intensity distribution of an electromagnetic radiation (3), the image converter (1) comprises a converter layer (2), which at least partly converts the incident electromagnetic radiation (3) into heat and hence converts the intensity distribution of the incident electromagnetic radiation (3) into a temperature distribution over the converter layer (2), and a heating device (5, 7) for increasing the temperature of the converter layer (2).

An image converter for amplifying the light intensity of an intensity distribution of an electromagnetic radiation is known from DE-Patent 535 208. A photoelectric layer is provided as a converter layer, out of which the electromagnetic radiation releases electrons, and which at the same time serves as a cathode of an adjacent flat tube. In the tube, the released electrons are accelerated against an anode, which emits light due to the incident electrons, the light being usable for illuminating an adjacent photographic layer. The spectral properties of the photoelectric layer define the spectral sensitivity range of the image converter, which is limited to 200 to 1300 nm and which often is much narrower.
The image converter known from DE-Patent 535 208 is, for example, used in so-called night vision devices. Infrared light not visible to the human eye or residual light insufficient for the human eye is made visible to the human eye with night vision devices, the accelerated and usually additionally amplified electrons being caught by a luminescence screen consisting of material luminescent in the visible range. Here, the electrons activate the luminescence, the distribution of which over the luminescence screen corresponds to the intensity distribution of the infrared or residual light incident on the photoelectric layer. The luminescence screen can be directly viewed with the eye or imaged onto an image sensor array.
In a variant of the image converter known from DE-Patent 535 208 which has been developed by the company PROXITRONIC in Darmstadt, light which is to be made visible is imaged onto a flat tube in which a suitable gas is subject to high voltage. The light incident in the tube results in an ionization of the gas. Due to the applied high voltage, the electrons of the ionized gas are accelerated towards a luminescence screen and cause luminescence, the distribution of which over the luminescence screen corresponds to the intensity distribution of the light to be made visible incident on the flat tube.
All image converters based on the general principle known from DE-Patent 535 208 are only designed for very low intensities of the viewed electromagnetic radiation and thus not suitable for visualization of an intensity distribution of a stronger electromagnetic radiation. To nevertheless enable them for this purpose, the incident electromagnetic radiation has to be strongly artificially attenuated. Doing this, however, the sensitivity of the image converter for weak intensity gets lost.
A further image converter working according to the general principle known from DE-Patent 535 208 is known from U.S. Pat. No. 2,572,494. This image converter comprises a heating device for raising the temperature of the photoelectric layer out of which the electric radiation releases electrons into the range of 40° C. or 50° C. At this temperature the electron current through the acceleration tube shall be in the order of 10−10 A/cm2. I.e. the increase in temperature provides a minimum electron current through the tube.
Further image converters are known in which the electromagnetic radiation the intensity distribution of which is to be made visible is directly incident on a luminescence screen used as a converter layer. Here, the electromagnetic layer may not only activate luminescence, but alternatively also deactivate an existing luminescence by stimulated emission resulting in a negative image of the intensity distribution of interest. The activation of the luminescence may be due to a quantum optics excitation of the luminescence screen or due to a quantum optics or thermal stimulation of a luminescence screen preloaded with short wave radiation. All luminescence screens with luminescence excited or de-excited by quantum-optical effects only have a small banded spectral sensitivity range.
Image converters having a so-called microbolometer array make use of temperature dependent electrical properties of individual elements of the microbolometer array to register a temperature distribution over the elements of the microbolometer array caused by an electromagnetic radiation incident on the microbolometer array.
It is known to apply thermochrome paint layers, for example made of liquid crystals, onto surfaces to visualize temperature distributions over surfaces.
In an image converter known from DE 101 58 859 B4, the converter layer is the reflecting coating of a laser mirror. The temperature distribution over the reflection layer caused by the incident laser radiation which is essentially reflected by the reflection layer is made visible in that the reflection layer is arranged on an expansion layer which expands depending on its temperature, and in that the resulting deformations of the reflection layer due to local thermal expansions of the expansion layer are registered with a laser interferometer. No direct image of the intensity distribution of the laser radiation is obtained in this way, and high efforts have to be taken to at all register the local thermal expansions of the expansion layer occurring at a very low level. Vice versa, the known image converter having the features of the preamble of claim 1 is suitable for a high bandwidth of intensities of the incident electromagnetic radiation inclusive of laser radiation of high local intensity, and it has a big spectral sensitivity range.

Image converter with heatable converter layer


A method for effect display of an electronic device, and the electronic device thereof are provided. The method in the electronic device includes obtaining a correlation among a plurality of objects extracted from an image, and displaying at least any one of the plurality of objects by adding an effect, on the basis of the correlation. Further, other exemplary embodiments are also included in the present disclosure in addition to the aforementioned exemplary embodiments.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to a method for effect display of an electronic device, and the electronic device thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Objects may be displayed by using various techniques, such as Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and the like. VR is a technique which permits a user to be immersed into a virtual world. AR is a technique for displaying objects by superimposing the objects onto real-word images. When VR is used, the user is immersed in a virtual environment and thus cannot see the user's actual environment, whereas when AR is used, the actual environment is mixed with a virtual object, and thus the user can see the actual environment.

Method for effect display of electronic device, and electronic device thereof


The present invention present methods and architectures for the pipelining of read operation with write operations. In particular, methods are presented for pipelining data relocation operations that allow for the checking and correction of data in the controller prior to its being re-written, but diminish or eliminate the additional time penalty this would normally incur. A number of architectural improve are described to facilitate these methods, including: introducing two registers on the memory where each is independently accessible by the controller; allowing a first memory register to be written from while a second register is written to; introducing two registers on the memory where the contents of the registers can be swapped.

This invention pertains to the field of semiconductor non-volatile data storage system architectures and their methods of operation, and has application to data storage systems based on flash electrically erasable and programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs) and other types of memory system.
A common application of flash EEPROM devices is as a mass data storage subsystem for electronic devices. Such subsystems are commonly implemented as either removable memory cards that can be inserted into multiple host systems or as non-removable embedded storage within the host system. In both implementations, the subsystem includes one or more flash devices and often a subsystem controller.
Flash EEPROM devices are composed of one or more arrays of transistor cells, each cell capable of non-volatile storage of one or more bits of data. Thus flash memory does not require power to retain the data programmed therein. Once programmed however, a cell must be erased before it can be reprogrammed with a new data value. These arrays of cells are partitioned into groups to provide for efficient implementation of read, program and erase functions. A typical flash memory architecture for mass storage arranges large groups of cells into erasable blocks, wherein a block contains the smallest number of cells (unit of erase) that are erasable at one time.
In one commercial form, each block contains enough cells to store one sector of user data plus some overhead data related to the user data and/or to the block in which it is stored. The amount of user data included in a sector is the standard 512 bytes in one class of such memory systems but can be of some other size. Because the isolation of individual blocks of cells from one another that is required to make them individually erasable takes space on the integrated circuit chip, another class of flash memories makes the blocks significantly larger so there is less space required for such isolation. But since it is also desired to handle user data in much smaller sectors, each large block is often further partitioned into individually addressable pages that are the basic unit for reading and programming user data; although the size of a write page need not be the same as the size of a read page, in the following they are treated as being the same in order to simplify the discussion. Each page usually stores one sector of user data, but a page may store a partial sector or multiple sectors. A "sector" is used herein to refer to an amount of user data that is transferred to and from the host as a unit.
The subsystem controller in a large block system performs a number of functions including the translation between logical addresses (LBAs) received by the memory sub-system from a host, and physical block numbers (PBNs) and page addresses within the memory cell array. This translation often involves use of intermediate terms for a logical block number (LBN) and logical page. The controller also manages the low level flash circuit operation through a series of commands that it issues to the flash memory devices via an interface bus. Another function the controller performs is to maintain the integrity of data stored to the subsystem through various means, such as by using an error correction code (ECC).
FIG. 1 shows a typical internal architecture for a flash memory device 131. The primary features include an input/output (I/O) bus 411 and control signals 412 to interface to an external controller, a memory control circuit 450 to control internal memory operations with registers for command, address and status signals. One or more arrays 400 of flash EEPROM cells are included, each array having its own row decoder (XDEC) 401 and column decoder (YDEC) 402, a group of sense amplifiers and program control circuitry (SA/PROG) 454 and a data register 404. Presently, the memory cells usually include one or more conductive floating gates as storage elements but other long term electron charge storage elements may be used instead. The memory cell array may be operated with two levels of charge defined for each storage element to therefore store one bit of data with each element. Alternatively, more than two storage states may be defined for each storage element, in which case more than one bit of data is stored in each element.
If desired, a plurality of arrays 400, together with related X decoders, Y decoders, program/verified circuitry, data registers, and the like are provided, for example as taught by U.S. Pat. No. 5,890,192, issued Mar. 30, 1999, and assigned to SanDisk Corporation, the assignee of this application, which is hereby incorporated by this reference. Related memory system features are described in co-pending patent application Ser. No. 09/505,555, filed Feb. 17, 2000 by Kevin Conley et al., which application is expressly incorporated herein by this reference.
The external interface I/O bus 411 and control signals 412 can include the following:
CS—Chip Select.Used to activate flash memory interface.RS—Read Strobe.Used to indicate the I/O bus is being used totransfer data from the memory array.WS—Write Strobe.Used to indicate the I/O bus is being used totransfer data to the memory array.AS—Address Strobe.Indicates that the I/O bus is being used totransfer address information.AD[7:0]—Address/This I/O bus is used to transfer data betweenData Buscontroller and the flash memory command,address and data registers of the memory control450.
In addition to these signals, it is also typical that the memory have a means by which the storage subsystem controller may determine that the memory is busy performing some task. Such means could include a dedicated signal or a status bit in an internal memory register that is accessible while the memory is busy.
This interface is given only as an example as other signal configurations can be used to give the same functionality. FIG. 1 shows only one flash memory array 400 with its related components, but a multiplicity of such arrays can exist on a single flash memory chip that share a common interface and memory control circuitry but have separate XDEC 401, YDEC 402, SA/PROG 454 and DATA REG 404 circuitry in order to allow parallel read and program operations. More generally, there may be one or two additional such data registers typically arranged into the sort of master slave arrangements developed further in U.S. Pat. No. 6,560,143, which is hereby incorporated by reference. Another arrangement for a flash memory architecture using multiple data buffers is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,822,245.
Data is transferred from the memory array through the data register 404 to an external controller via the data registers' coupling to the I/O bus AD[7:0] 411. The data register 404 is also coupled with/to the sense amplifier/programming circuit 454. The data registers 404 can similarly be connected/coupled to the same sense amplifier/programming circuit 454. The number of elements of the data register coupled to each sense amplifier/programming circuit element may depend on the number of bits stored in each storage element of the memory cells, flash EEPROM cells each containing one or more floating gates as the storage elements. Each storage element may store a plurality of bits, such as 2 or 4, if the memory cells are operated in a multi-state mode. Alternatively, the memory cells may be operated in a binary mode to store one bit of data per storage element.
The row decoder 401 decodes row addresses for the array 400 in order to select the physical page to be accessed. The row decoder 401 receives row addresses via internal row address lines 419 from the memory control logic 450. A column decoder 402 receives column addresses via internal column address lines 429 from the memory control logic 450.
FIG. 2 shows an architecture of a typical non-volatile data storage system, in this case employing flash memory cells as the storage media. In one form, this system is encapsulated within a removable card having an electrical connector extending along one side to provide the host interface when inserted into a receptacle of a host. Alternatively, the system of FIG. 2 may be embedded into a host system in the form of a permanently installed embedded circuit or otherwise. The system utilizes a single controller 101 that performs high-level host and memory control functions. The flash memory media is composed of one or more flash memory devices, each such device often formed on its own integrated circuit chip. The system controller and the flash memory are connected by a bus 121 that allows the controller 101 to load command, address, and transfer data to and from the flash memory array. (The bus 121 includes 412 and 411 of FIG. 1.) The controller 101 interfaces with a host system (not shown) with which user data is transferred to and from the flash memory array. In the case where the system of FIG. 2 is included in a card, the host interface includes a mating plug and socket assembly (not shown) on the card and host equipment. Alternatively, there are removable cards, such as in the xD, SmartMedia, or MemoryStick formats, that lack a controller and contain only Flash Memory devices, so that the host system includes the controller 301, which interfaces the card via Flash Media Interface 302.
The controller 101 receives a command from the host to read or write one or more sectors of user data starting at a particular logical address. This address may or may not align with the first physical page in a block of memory cells.
In some prior art systems having large capacity memory cell blocks that are divided into multiple pages, the data from a block that is not being updated needs to be copied from the original block to a new block that also contains the new, updated data being written by the host. In other prior art systems, flags are recorded with the user data in pages and are used to indicate that pages of data in the original block that are being superseded by the newly written data are invalid. A mechanism by which data that partially supersedes data stored in an existing block can be written without either copying unchanged data from the existing block or programming flags to pages that have been previously programmed is described in co-pending patent application "Partial Block Data Programming and Reading Operations in a Non-Volatile Memory", Ser. No. 09/766,436, filed Jan. 19, 2001 by Kevin Conley, which application is expressly incorporated herein by this reference.
Non-volatile memory systems of this type are being applied to a number of applications, particularly when packaged in an enclosed card that is removable connected with a host system. Current commercial memory card formats include that of the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association (PCMCIA), CompactFlash (CF), MultiMediaCard (MMC), MemoryStick-Pro, xD-Picture Card, SmartMedia and Secure Digital (SD). One supplier of these cards is SanDisk Corporation, assignee of this application. Host systems with which such cards are used include personal computers, notebook computers, hand held computing devices, cameras, audio reproducing devices, and the like. Flash EEPROM systems are also utilized as bulk mass storage embedded in host systems.
Such non-volatile memory systems include one or more arrays of floating-gate memory cells and a system controller. The controller manages communication with the host system and operation of the memory cell array to store and retrieve user data. The memory cells are grouped together into blocks of cells, a block of cells being the smallest grouping of cells that are simultaneously erasable. Prior to writing data into one or more blocks of cells, those blocks of cells are erased. User data are typically transferred between the host and memory array in sectors. A sector of user data can be any amount that is convenient to handle, preferably less than the capacity of the memory block, often being equal to the standard disk drive sector size, 512 bytes. In one commercial architecture, the memory system block is sized to store one sector of user data plus overhead data, the overhead data including information such as an error correction code (ECC) for the user data stored in the block, a history of use of the block, defects and other physical information of the memory cell block. Various implementations of this type of non-volatile memory system are described in the following United States patents and pending applications assigned to SanDisk Corporation, each of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference: U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,172,338, 5,602,987, 5,315,541, 5,200,959, 5,270,979, 5,428,621, 5,663,901, 5,532,962, 5,430,859 and 5,712,180, and application Ser. No. 08/910,947, filed Aug. 7, 1997, and Ser. No. 09/343,328, filed Jun. 30, 1999. Another type of non-volatile memory system utilizes a larger memory cell block size that stores multiple sectors of user data.
One architecture of the memory cell array conveniently forms a block from one or two rows of memory cells that are within a sub-array or other unit of cells and which share a common erase gate. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,677,872 and 5,712,179 of SanDisk Corporation, which are incorporated herein in their entirety, give examples of this architecture. Although it is currently most common to store one bit of data in each floating gate cell by defining only two programmed threshold levels, the trend is to store more than one bit of data in each cell by establishing more than two floating-gate transistor threshold ranges. A memory system that stores two bits of data per floating gate (four threshold level ranges or states) is currently available, with three bits per cell (eight threshold level ranges or states) and four bits per cell (sixteen threshold level ranges) being contemplated for future systems. Of course, the number of memory cells required to store a sector of data goes down as the number of bits stored in each cell goes up. This trend, combined with a scaling of the array resulting from improvements in cell structure and general semiconductor processing, makes it practical to form a memory cell block in a segmented portion of a row of cells. The block structure can also be formed to enable selection of operation of each of the memory cells in two states (one data bit per cell) or in some multiple such as four states (two data bits per cell), as described in SanDisk Corporation U.S. Pat. No. 5,930,167, which is incorporated herein in its entirety by this reference.
In addition to increasing the capacity of such non-volatile memories, there is a search to also improve such memories by increasing their performance and decreasing their susceptibility to error. Memories such as those described above that utilize large block management techniques perform a number of data management of techniques on the memory's file system, including garbage collection, in order to use the memory area more effectively. Such garbage collection schemes involve a data relocation process including reading data from one (or more) locations in the memory and re-writing it into another memory location. (In addition to many of the above incorporated references, garbage collection is discussed further in, for example, "A 125-mm2 1-Gb NAND Flash Memory With 10-MByte/s Program Speed", by K. Imamiya, et al., IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 37, No. 11, November 2002, pp. 1493-1501, which is hereby incorporated in its entirety by this reference.) This data relocation time is a main contributor to all garbage collection routines. Prior art methods describe the data relocation operation as a consecutive data read, then data integrity check and error correction, if necessary, before writing the data to a new location, so that there is a high constant performance penalty of data transfer and verification. In the case of data error, additional time must be spent to correct the data before write.
Other prior art methods exploit an on-chip copy feature, writing the data from one location to another without a pre-check of the data integrity. Such a method is described, for example, in "High Performance 1-Gb NAND Flash Memory With 0.12 μm Technology", by J. Lee, et al., IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, Vol. 37, No. 11, November 2002, pp. 1502-1509, which is hereby incorporated in its entirety by this reference. The integrity check is done concurrently with the data write so that, in the case of error, there is a high probability of the need to rewrite the entire block with a high penalty in performance and time-out/latency.
An example of a simple copy sequence in the prior art, where the data is checked/corrected before being reprogrammed, is shown in FIG. 3. This shows a first set of data (DATA 1) sequentially being read from memory 400 into data register 404 (R), then the read of the buffer by the controller (RB), the data being checked and any errors corrected (EC) in the controller, the writing the checked/corrected data from the buffer (WB) back to the register 404, from where it is programmed (Program) back into the memory array 400. After the entire process is complete for DATA 1, the same steps are sequentially repeated for the next data set DATA 2, followed by DATA 3 and so on. For each set of data, the entire process is completed before it begins for the subsequent data set so that the all of the error correction times accumulate.
An example of the timing for data relocation where the data is read from the memory array 400 into the register 404, and then read to the buffer in the controller and concurrently programmed directly back into the memory is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,266,273, which is hereby incorporated by reference. This simple copy sequence, but now with the data checked after the start of programming, is shown in FIG. 4. As shown there, after reading the data set to the register (R), it is then both read into the controller's buffer (RB) and written back to the memory array (Program). Once the data set is buffered in the controller, it can then be checked/corrected for error (E); however, even though there will now be a corrected set of data in the controller that can be supplied to the host, if there are errors to correct, these errors are written back to the memory as programming has begun before the data set has been checked and corrected. As with the process of FIG. 3, the entire process of FIG. 4 has to be completed each set of data before it can begin for the subsequent data set.
Prior art system flash/EEPROM architectures do not allow independent access to the data in one on-chip buffer to while another buffer is used for concurrent read or program operation. Thus, operations that include mixture of reads and writes, like garbage collection, cannot be pipelined in prior art systems.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Pipelined data relocation and improved chip architectures


The so-called single-longitudinal mode of operation of a tunable laser beam source requires active control of the band-pass filters mounted in the laser resonator. As a rule, this entails one, or a combination of several filter elements, as for example birefringent filters, as well as etalons. In either case, the band-pass filter needs to be so adjusted as to locate precisely one of the feasible longitudinal modes of the laser at the exact maximum transmission of the band-pass filter. The invention consists in regulating such filter setting by way of a program-controlled digital signal processor DSP in such a way that the DSP modulates the filter element with an adjustable frequency, and such regulation exploits the phase of the laser intensity fluctuations induced thereby to regulate the optimal position of the band-pass filter.

Numerous scientific and technical applications require laser beams of adjustable, yet precisely defined wavelength. This necessitates the laser device to emit the radiation of a single, precisely defined mode of the laser resonator.
By means of appropriate geometry of the optical resonator, it is possible to ensure that only one transverse mode of the system oscillates. Beyond that, however, it is also necessary to restrict it to one longitudinal mode in order to afford the desired limited spectral bandwidth of the laser beam. The so-called single longitudinal mode (SLM) operation must be ensured by means of frequency-selective optical structural elements, the optical band-pass filters. The high spectral resolution of a band-pass filter requires an active regulation of the filter parameters in order to ensure that only one longitudinal mode oscillates in the laser resonator. A detailed illustration of the design of such band-pass filters can be found in Koechner's 1992 volume on Solid State Laser Engineering
In the past, the adjustment of band-pass filters was accomplished by the use of a so-called "hill-climbing" servomechanism, utilizing an analog modulation of the mid-setting, followed by analog demodulation of the intensity signal. Modulation took place at a fixed frequency (for example six kilohertz). The U.S. Pat. No. 3,543,181 by Lee at al. (1968) describes the construction of a simple embodiment of such a control.
With discrete analog circuits and/or processes of the aforesaid type it was heretofore technically difficult and/or economically unwarranted to normalize the control input signals. Hence, use was made either of simplified calculations, for example subtraction in lieu of division (that is to say, the first element of Taylor's series expansion), or by varying the gain of the next following control elements as a function of the laser power. Inasmuch as this involved, in part, a rough simplification of the required mathematical operations, the results were correspondingly unsatisfactory. With a variation of the laser output, the adjustments became unstable and the single longitudinal mode of operation was not ensured, leading to a so-called mode-hopping.
The analog modulation oscillators in use are limited to a fixed frequency. Since the modulation frequency is modulated upon the laser beam, it is necessary for the user to take this into account in using the laser, being correspondingly limited for example in the lock-in frequency of his own structures.
Most band-pass filters consist of several stages, all of which must as a rule be adjusted, which always involves the risk that the individual control circuits may interfere with each other. An analog control affords no chance to recognize this and afford suitable remedial measures. Optionally, individual components are not adjusted, which again unnecessarily limits the spectral tuning range of the laser system.
Customarily, the adjustment parameters of analog control circuits are established with the aid of discrete structural elements, such as for example trimming potentiometers. Such elements can only be adjusted manually and in sequence, a time-consuming procedure not reproducible beyond certain limits.
The "interim results" of an analog computation are not directly available, but must be laboriously prepared for the user with the aid of additional metering devices, such as for example the oscilloscope.
The operating amplifiers utilized in analog circuits require compensation of the so-called offset voltage, whereby the multi-stage control circuits utilized at this time involve the addition of offset voltages, that is to say, the adjustment is subject to distinct temperature and time-dependent drifts.

Optimization of mode selection in a laser resonator


A water absorption treatment material includes a core portion and a coating portion. The core portion is approximately circular column-shaped and has a side surface, a first bottom surface, and a second bottom surface. The coating portion is provided so as to cover the core portion. A region of 80% or more of the side surface of the core portion is covered by the coating portion. A region of 80% or more of the first bottom surface of the core portion is exposed without being covered by the coating portion.

Patent Document 1 describes an example of a conventional water absorption treatment material. The water absorption treatment material is provided with a core portion formed into a granular shape and a coating portion that covers the core portion. The coating portion has a function of adhering pieces of the water absorption treatment material together, which have absorbed liquid during use. Accordingly, a clump composed of multiple pieces of the water absorption treatment material is formed after use.

Water absorption treatment material and method for manufacturing the same


A powertrain has an electrically variable hybrid transmission having an electro-hydraulic control system, plurality of electrical power units, and a plurality of torque transmitting mechanisms selectively engageable by the electro-hydraulic control system to provide four forward speed ranges, a neutral condition, an electric low speed mode, an electrically variable low and high speed mode, and two electrical power off drive home modes. The electro-hydraulic control system of the present invention has a multiplexed trim system for an electrically variable hybrid transmission. The multiplexed trim system allows engagement control of four torque transmitting mechanism and individual control of fluid flow to effect cooling of two motor/generators by multiplexing three trim valves with two logic valves.

Multi-speed power transmissions, particularly those using planetary gear arrangements, require a hydraulic system to provide controlled engagement and disengagement, on a desired schedule, of the clutches and brakes or torque transmitting mechanisms that operate to establish the ratios within the planetary gear arrangement.
These control systems have evolved from substantially pure hydraulic control systems, wherein hydraulic devices produce all of the control signals to electro-hydraulic control systems, wherein an electronic control unit produces a number of the control signals. The electronic control unit emits electrical control signals to solenoid valves, which then issue controlled hydraulic signals to the various operating valves within the transmission control.
With many of the early pure hydraulic and first generation electro-hydraulic control systems, the power transmission utilized a number of freewheel or one-way devices which smooth the shifting or ratio interchange of the transmission during both upshifting and downshifting of the transmission. This relieves the hydraulic control system from providing for the control of overlap between the torque transmitting mechanism that was coming on and the torque transmitting mechanism that was going off. If this overlap is excessive, the driver feels a shudder in the drivetrain, and if the overlap is too little, the driver experiences engine flare or a sense of coasting. The freewheel device prevents this feeling by quickly engaging when the torque imposed thereon is reversed from a freewheeling state to a transmitting state.
The advent of electro-hydraulic devices gave rise to what is known as clutch-to-clutch shift arrangements to reduce the complexity of the transmission and the control. These electro-hydraulic control mechanisms are generally perceived to reduce cost and reduce the space required for the control mechanism.
In addition, with the advent of more sophisticated control mechanisms, the power transmissions have advanced from two-speed or three-speed transmissions to five-speed and six-speed transmissions. In at least one presently available six-speed transmission, just five friction devices are employed to provide six forward speeds, neutral condition, and a reverse speed. Such a gear arrangement is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,070,927 issued to Polak on Jan. 31, 1978. The use of the planetary gearset shown in the Polak patent has given rise to a number of electro-hydraulic control mechanisms, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,601,506, issued to Long et al. on Feb. 11, 1997. The torque capacity of a torque transmitting mechanism (on-coming or off-going) involved in a shift may be conveniently controlled by the combination of an electrically activated solenoid valve and a pressure regulator valve or trim valve, as disclosed, for example, in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,911,244 to Long et al., issued on Jun. 15, 1999, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, and incorporated herein by reference. In a typical system, the solenoid valve is activated by pulse-width-modulation (PWM) at a controlled duty cycle to develop a pilot pressure for the pressure regulator valve or trim valve, which in turn, supplies fluid pressure to the torque transmitting mechanisms in proportion to the solenoid duty cycle.
Additionally, an electrically variable hybrid transmission has been proposed to improve fuel economy and reduce exhaust emissions. The electrically variable hybrid transmission splits mechanical power between an input shaft and an output shaft into a mechanical power path and an electrical power path by means of differential gearing. The mechanical power path may include clutches and additional gears. The electrical power path may employ two electrical power units, or motor/generator assemblies, each of which may operate as a motor or a generator. With an electrical storage system, such as a battery, the electrically variable hybrid transmission can be incorporated into a propulsion system for a hybrid electric vehicle. The operation of such an electrically variable hybrid transmission is described in the U.S. Pat. No. 6,551,208 to Holmes et al., issued on Apr. 22, 2003 and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
The hybrid propulsion system uses an electrical power source as well as an engine power source. The electrical power source is connected with the motor/generator units through an electronic control unit, which distributes the electrical power as required. The electronic control unit also has connections with the engine and vehicle to determine the operating characteristics, or operating demand, so that the motor/generator assemblies are operated properly as either a motor or a generator. When operating as a generator, the motor/generator assembly accepts power from either the vehicle or the engine and stores power in the battery, or provides that power to operate another electrical device or another motor/generator assembly.
It is important to reliably and inexpensively provide torque transmitting mechanism engagement and disengagement in the above described torque transmitting mechanism controls to enable shift progression. Historically, the engagement and disengagement has been accomplished by placing a torque transmitting mechanism in selective fluid communication with a dedicated trim valve. The trim valve is operable to provide engagement control to the torque transmitting mechanism only, so additional torque transmitting mechanisms would need additional discrete trim valves to effect engagement.

Multiplexed trim valve system for an electrically variable hybrid transmission


An improved thermal neutron flux detector and measuring apparatus of the neutron induced transmutation type. The disclosed apparatus employs a plastic film electret and a fissionable material such as uranium-235 for generating energetic ion fission fragments-fragments which alter the electric potential of the electret in a measurable manner. Electret characteristics and fissionable material member fabrication are also disclosed along with uses of the instrument for dosimetry and other purposes.

This invention relates to the field of thermal neutron flux detection and measuring apparatus.
An electret is a dielectric material that is possessed of a quasi-permanent electrostatic polarity ---- a polarity in which the static electric potential at one surface is greater than at the other. This condition can be produced by the preferential orientation of dipolar molecules within the material, and by the trapping of electrons or ions near one surface of the material.
Electrodes, placed at the surfaces of an electret and temporarily shorted, will transfer electrons around the shorting circuit to exactly neutralize the electret's external field. Once this occurs, no signal is detectable from the undisturbed system. If, however, an event occurs which either reorients some of the trapped dipoles or frees a portion of the trapped charges, the electret field is no longer exactly neutralized and a detectable voltage difference will appear between the electrodes. The more effective the event is at destroying the electret field, the greater the observed voltage.
Electrets are currently used in several radiation detection arrangements. In one of these arrangements, the electrostatic field from the electret is used to replace the high voltage power supply in an ionization chamber. In another arrangement of this type, as reported by M. Ikiya and T. Imki in Health Physics Volume 39, page 797, November, 1980, an electret supported charge multiplication arrangement is disclosed. In another example of this type, as disclosed in the patent of S. Hellstom, U.S. Pat. No. 3,949,178, an electret which is maintained in a stable voltage condition through the use of radioactive material excitation is used in a microphone and in other devices. Electrets are also desirably used in dosimeters where their simplicity and the absence of electret displaced electronic apparatus is of significant advantage. In such dosimeter devices the electret is usually received in a gas chamber where ionizing radiation produces electron-ion pairs in the gas. These pairs are then separated by the electric field of the electret. The collection of electrons or ions on the electret surface, however, tends to depolarize such electrets and they must be maintained by recharging or by arrangements such as is disclosed in the Hellstrom patent above.
Other known electret dosimeter arrangements use the gross depolarization of an electret by direct flux interaction to accomplish radiation measurements. Such devices are suitable for large or megaroentgen radiation doses but are generally considered too insensitive for use as personal dosimeter instruments. In such dosimeter arrangements, the degree of electret discharge by the radiation interaction is measured by comparing the electric field strength at a fixed position above the electret to that observed before the irradiation event. Alternately, a thermally simulated discharge, wherein current flow between surface electrodes of the electret is measured during a slow heating sequence, may be used to measure the degree of electret discharge. The Patent of P. E. Homart, U.S. Pat. No. 2,663,802 describes a neutron detector in which reliance on this gross depolarization concept is used.
Electrets have also been used in electrostatic particle traps that are employed for radon daughter dosimetry purposes. In this arrangement the electret is used as an electrostatic precipitator so that dust particles bearing radon daughters are attracted to and entrapped on the electret charged surface. In such instruments, the electret provides dust collection of the electrostatic precipitate without requiring a high voltage power supply.
The patent art reveals the prior use of fissionable materials such as uranium in a variety of applications including the neutron stimulated generation of fission fragments. In such uses uranium is often formed into the configuration of a foil to enable its bombardment by thermal neutrons. Such bombardment can generate fission fragments that are employed for a variety of useful purposes, such as the acceleration of deuterium and tritium particles to generate higher energy neutrons, for example. One apparatus of this type is shown in the Patent of L. G. Miller et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,976,888.
The actual fabrication of electret devices is, as is implied above, known in a number of variations in the art. One example of electret formation is moreover to be found in the Patent of S. W. Sapieha. U.S. Pat. No. 4,407,852.
Electrets therefore have found several uses in dosimetry and other forms of radiation detection, however, the use of electrets in sensitive neutron flux instruments and in the detection of individual radiation events appears not to have been practiced. It is notable in this regard that the absence of electrical charge in a neutron makes direct neutron detection somewhat difficult to accomplish. It is parenthetically notable, however, that a sufficiently energetic radiation event such as the interaction of a fission fragment with an electret material can be detected directly as a change in field strength at the surface of the electret.
As a result of the absence of more readily detected charge, therefore, the detection of neutrons is usually accomplished through recognition of one or more secondary effects of a neutron interaction rather than by direct detection of the neutron particle itself. The principal methods of neutron detection used in present day apparatus are therefore classifiable as detectors relying upon neutron induced transmutations with detectable products, neutron activation of target nuclei and elastic scattering of neutrons with detection of the recoil product.
Neutron-induced transmutations involve such reactions as neutron generation of alpha particles (n,alpha), as well as (n,gamma), (n,p), and (n,fission) detection arrangements. An example of the (n,alpba) type detector is the boron trifluoride gas chamber wherein boron-10 undergoes an (n,alpha) reaction when it absorbs a thermal neutron. This reaction has a cross-section of about 1000 barns and yields 2.78 million electron volts. For this type of neutron detector, gaseous boron trifluoride is placed in an ionization chamber where the resulting alpha particle is readily detected. A similar detector using the (n,p) reaction is found in the helium-3 gas chamber detector. In this detector helium-3 undergoes an (n,p) reaction with a cross section of 5,400 barns and an energy yield of 675 keV. The energy (divided between a tritium atom and a proton) ionizes krypton gas in a chamber to produce the detectable signal. Both the boron and helium gas chamber detectors provide good efficiency and sincerity but are sensitive to other forms of radiation, particularly gamma radiation.
The fission track dosimeter is an example of the (n,fission) reaction. In this instrument a detector material consisting of a layer of mica or special plastic is placed next to a layer of uranium enriched in uranium-235. Fission events in the uranium-235 drive fission fragments into the detector material producing damage tracks. After appropriate chemical treatment, these damage tracks become visible and may be counted under a microscope. The number of damage tracks is, of course, related to the total thermal neutron fluence. The track detector makes a practical personnel dosimeter but its readout requires costly and time-consuming chemical treatment and optical counting.
Neutron detection by activation differs from transmutation detection in that the activation product has a reasonably long half-life before producing detectable products while transmutation produces detectable products almost immediately. The use of activation foils is a prime example of this detection method. In these detectors one of several elements, including indium, gold, silver, vanadium, and others, absorbs neutrons to produce radioactive isotopes. Foils of these materials are placed in a neutron flux and the resulting foil activity is then used to determine the flux intensity level. Since many of these materials have an effective neutron energy threshold for activation, the use of several different foils also yields neutron energy spectrum data. A drawback of activation analysis is, however, the high radiation fluences required for accurate results.
Neutron detectors using elastic scattering are almost exclusively proton recoil devices. When fast neutrons interact with a hydrogenous material, hydrogen nuclei are struck and absorb up to 100 percent of the neutron's energy. An ionization chamber filled with, for example, a hydrocarbon gas and lined with polyethylene can therefore measure an absorbed dose and also effectively rejects gamma energy. This type of detector can be fairly neutron-specific and sensitive but is not useful for detecting thermal neutrons.
For low-level thermal neutron fluxes, another detector, a semiconductor doped with boron-10, helium-3, or lithium-6 provides reasonable efficiency but at the cost of physical and electronic complexity, as well as, sensitivity to other forms of radiation.
Each of these types of neutron detectors therefore have certain advantages and disadvantages. Fission track dosimeters are small, simple and fairly sensitive but measure only total fluence and cannot be read without complex processing. Activation detectors require high flux levels; elastic scattering detectors are not useful for low energy thermal neutrons; and semiconductor detectors involve complex electronics. There is clearly, therefore, a need in the art for a low-level thermal neutron detector that is simple, compact, neutron-specific, and capable of real-time readout.

Electret enabled thermal neutron flux detection and measurement

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Air Force


A signal processor for an AF video signal in an electronically controlled camera, including: a photosensor of the self-scanning type having an electric charge accumulating part for accumulating electric charge therein which corresponds to object brightness, an exposure monitor for accumulating electric charge therein which corresponds to the amount of signal electric charge accumulated in the electric charge accumulating part, and a dark charge monitor for accumulating dark charge therein. The photosensor is adapted to sequentially transmit the signal electric charge accumulated in the electric charge accumulating part for transfer to an A/D converter, and an automatic gain control circuit is provided for amplifying, and thereby automatically gain controlling, the AF video signal produced from the photosensor when the object contrast is low, in such a manner that a low-contract corresponding level difference, which is the difference between a high-luminance corresponding level and low-luminance corresponding level of an AF video signal arising from a low-contrast object, approaches a high-contrast corresponding level difference, which is the difference between a high-luminance corresponding level and a low-luminance corresponding level of an AF video signal arising from a high-contrast object.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement in a signal processing device for an automatic-focusing video signal in an electronically controlled photographic camera.
2. Related Prior Art
Electronically controlled photographic cameras have in general an automatically focusing optical system provided therein for detecting focus conditioning of the object to be photographed. FIG. 18 is a schematic diagram showing the arrangement of such automatic-focusing optical system, wherein 1 denotes a taking lens, 2 the object to be photographed, 3 a visual field mask, 4 condenser lens, 5 a diaphragm mask, 6 and 7 a separator lenses forming an image splitting optical element, and 8 a photosensor. The automatic-focusing optical system consisting of these elements is referenced 9.
In the automatic-focusing optical system 9, the visual field mask 3 is positioned near a film-equivalent plane 10, which plane 10 is in optically conjugate positional relationship with the object 2 through the taking lens 1; on the film-equivalent plane 10 there is formed a sharp image 11 of the object 2 when the taking lens 1 is suitably focused. The condenser lens 4 and the diaphragm mask 5 have the function of splitting the light passing through the taking lens 1 into two separate beams; the separator lenses are situated in a position which: is optically conjugate with the taking lens 1 through the condenser lens 4. The image 11 of the object formed on the film-equivalent plane 10 is reproduced by the separator lenses 6 and 7 as images 11' on two regions of an electric-charge accumulating part PD of the photosensor 8.
Assuming that the spacing between the suitably focused reproduced images 1 1 ' is l.sub.o, as shown in FIGS. 19 (a) and 20, the spacing between the images is narrower than l.sub.o when the taking lens 1 is positioned to focus before the plane 10 as shown in FIG. 19 (b), but the spacing between the reproduced images is wider than l.sub.o when the taking lens 1 is positioned to focus behind the plane 10. Since the change in the spacing between the reproduced images is proportional to the amount of defocusing of the taking lens 1, the spacing is measured and the data is processed by an AF-CPU(a central processing unit for automatic-focusing) so as to move the taking lens 1, depending on the direction and extent of defocusing of the lens 1, to thereby position the lens 1 at the suitable focusing position.
In order to perform such a process, it is necessary to process the AF video signal from the photosensor 8 in a predetermined manner. Electronically controlled cameras have a signal processor for processing the AF video signal for performing such predetermined process.
The signal processor for the AF video signal comprises: a self-scanning photosensor having a charge accumulating part for accumulating electric signal charge therein which corresponds to the luminance of the object, an exposure monitor for accumulating electric charge therein which corresponds to the electric signal charge accumulated in said electric charge accumulating part, and a dark-charge monitor for accumulating dark electric charge, the self-scanning photosensor being adapted to sequentially transmit the signal charge, which has been accumulated in said electric charge accumulating part, as the AF video signal; and a comparing circuit for setting a reference level by shifting the output level from the dark-charge monitor in such a manner that the potential of the electric signal charge accumulated in the charge accumulating part is driven to a predetermined level, and for providing, upon reversal of the reference level and the output level from the exposure monitor, an output signal which causes the AF-CPU to provide a command to cause the signal electric charge accumulated in the electric charge accumulating part to be transferred. In this signal processor for the AF video signal, the transfer command from the AF-CPU is used to drive a driving circuit for causing the signal electric charge accumulated in the electric charge accumulating part to be sequentially transferred as the AF video signal to an analog-to-digital (A/D) converter.
Meanwhile, a dark, low-contrast object will cause a relatively small amount of signal electric charge to be accumulated in the electric charge accumulating part, and will thus produce an AF video signal whose low-contrast corresponding level difference, which is the difference between high-luminance corresponding level thereof and the low-luminance corresponding level thereof, is relatively small. Thus, there is a disadvantage in that the AF-CPU cannot produce proper distance data using the AF video signal arising from such low-contrast object, since the repetition pattern in such AF video signal is weak.

Signal processing device for automatic-focusing video signal in electronically controlled photographic camera


The present invention relates to phosphopeptide compositions and anti-phosphopeptide antibody compositions. Also provided are methods of identifying phosphorylation sites in phosphorylated peptides and phosphorylation site motifs.

Protein phosphorylation is an important regulatory event in eukaryotic cells, guiding primary biological processes such as cell division, growth, migration, differentiation and intercellular communication (Hunter, 2000; Pawson and Scott, 2005). Protein phosphorylation plays an important role in normal organ development and function, such as liver, kidney, and other organismal tissue systems.
Several phosphorylation-related (PI3K and Akt signaling) liver phenotypes have been reported that are related to altered lipid and glucose metabolism through insulin control (Du et al., 2003; Stiles et al., 2004) and liver regeneration (ribosomal protein S6; Ruvinsky et al., 2005). Previously, only two studies have examined phosphorylation sites from primary liver tissue with observation of 26 sites (Jin et al., 2004) and 339 sites (Moser and White, 2006).
Proteins often contain multiple sites of phosphorylation, resulting in a high degree of versatility in functional regulation. Those sites can be modified independently or in a concerted manner to modulate a range of protein functions, from a single specific activity to higher order processes (Cohen, 2000; Roach, 1991; Yang, 2005). Each additional phosphorylation site attributed to a protein represents an exponential increase in the total number of possible molecular states and, therefore, in complexity and fine tuning potential for regulation.
Although the phosphoproteome of mammalian cells in culture has been extensively studied, acquired knowledge is limited to less than 8,000 known phosphorylation sites (Diella et al., 2004; Hornbeck et al., 2004).
A problem in conducting large-scale phosphorylation analysis concerns data processing and validation. There are three main issues. First, studies of posttranslational modifications cannot rely on redundant peptide identifications for correctness, i.e., multiple unique peptides assigned to the same protein. This results in the net confidence of identification resting solely on single peptide identifications.
Second, during protein fragmentation for amino acid sequence identification, phosphoserine- and phosphothreonine-containing peptides can produce fragmentation patterns that are often dominated by β-elimination products through loss of neutral phosphoric acid, which results in suppression of sequence-informative ions and consequently produces lower scores than unmodified peptides during database spectral matching.
Third, the presence of multiple serine, threonine and tyrosine candidate residues in a phosphopeptide can produce ambiguity when assigning the precise site of phosphorylation.
The prior art has previously resorted to tedious manual validation after database searching, which can be subjective and has become impractical as data sets have grown in size. There is a clear risk in supplying a phosphorylation site without also establishing an associated probability of correct site localization, in particular when attempting to associate a function for that particular modification.
There is a need for compositions and methods to obtain phosphorylated peptides and antibodies of these phosphorylated peptides.

Phosphopeptide compositions and anti-phosphopeptide antibody compositions and methods of detecting phosphorylated peptides

President and Fellows of Harvard College


An inflator, which is shorter than a reaction can of an airbag restraint assembly and which has a flanged base at one end thereof, is mounted in the reaction can. The mounting structure for the flange based inflator has a generally circular open cylindrical shape, with its sidewall terminated on one end in a mounting flange and terminating in an inwardly tapered conical flange at the other end. The mounting structure is located in an access opening in an end wall of the reaction can, with the inwardly tapered conical flange frictionally engaging and holding the flanged base of the inflator in the reaction can by biased radially compressive force, thereby providing essentially rattle- and squeak-free retention of the flange based inflator in the reaction can in an appropriately positioned and centered manner.

A vehicular airbag restraint system generally includes a pyrotechnic inflator which may comprise a cylindrical housing which encloses some form of gas generating material which, when ignited, generates a non-toxic inert gas under pressure within the housing. The inflator, along with an uninflated, folded airbag which is to be inflated by the gas, is disposed in an internal cavity of a reaction can along with means to control deployment. In an emergency situation inert gas is generated in the inflator housing and the gas is directed rapidly through a plurality of nozzles formed in the inflator housing and into the airbag to force the airbag out of the reaction can to inflate the airbag. One location for such a vehicular airbag restraint system is in the instrument panel or dashboard on the passenger side of the vehicle for passive protection of a passenger in the vehicle.
Some inflators are constructed with a flanged base at one end of the cylindrical housing. In many cases, packaging and weight limitations may require airbag inflators to be shorter than the reaction cans in which they are housed. This situation requires an inflator to reaction can interface that is cost effective, durable and squeak- and rattle-free.

Retention structure for a flange based inflator of an airbag restraint assembly