The present invention relates to a drill string diverter apparatus for reducing surge pressure when lowering a liner into a partially cased wellbore. The diverter apparatus is connected in a pipe string above a liner being lowered into a wellbore. The diverter apparatus comprises a tubular housing with ports defined therethrough to communicate and redirect fluids received in the liner to the annulus between the diverter apparatus and casing previously set in the wellbore. The diverter apparatus has an open position whereby the ports are open and communication is established and a closed position whereby flow through the ports is prevented. A sliding sleeve is disposed about an outer surface of the tubular housing and engages the casing. The sleeve moves vertically relative to the tubular housing once the diverter apparatus has been lowered into the casing to selectively open and close the flow ports. A J-slot means is provided for locking the diverter apparatus in its closed position. The diverter apparatus includes upper and lower locking elements which will engage the J-slot when the diverter apparatus is moved to its closed position to prevent relative movement between the sleeve and the tubular housing.

The present invention relates generally to a diverter apparatus and methods and more particularly to a drill string diverter apparatus which will redirect fluids that have entered a casing string while the casing string is run into a wellbore.
In the construction of oil and gas wells, a wellbore is drilled into one or more subterranean formations or zones containing oil and/or gas to be produced. The wellbore is typically drilled utilizing a drilling rig which has a rotary table on its floor to rotate a pipe string during drilling and other operations. During a wellbore drilling operation, drilling fluid (also called drilling mud) is circulated through a wellbore by pumping it down through the drill string, through a drill bit connected thereto and upwardly back to the surface through the annulus between the wellbore wall and the drill string. The circulation of the drilling fluid functions to lubricate the drill bit, remove cuttings from the wellbore as they are produced and exert hydrostatic pressure on the pressurized fluid containing formations penetrated by the wellbore to prevent blowouts.
In most instances, after the wellbore is drilled, the drill string is removed and a casing string is run into the wellbore while maintaining sufficient drilling fluid in the wellbore to prevent blowouts. The term "casing string" is used herein to mean any string of pipe which is lowered into and cemented in a wellbore including but not limited to surface casing, liners and the like. As is known in the art, the term "liner" simply refers to a casing string having a smaller outer diameter than the inner diameter of a casing that has already been cemented into a portion of a wellbore.
During casing running operations, the casing string must be kept filled with fluid to prevent excessive fluid pressure differentials across the casing string and to prevent blowouts. Heretofore, fluid has been added to the casing string at the surface after each additional casing joint is threadedly connected to the string and the casing string is lowered into the wellbore. Well casing fill apparatus have also been utilized at or near the bottom end of the casing string to allow well fluid in the wellbore to enter the interior of the casing string while it is being run.
One purpose for allowing wellbore fluid to enter the casing string at the end thereof is to reduce the surge pressure on the formation created when the casing string is run into the wellbore. Surge pressure refers to the pressure applied to the formation when the casing being run into the wellbore forces wellbore fluid downward in the wellbore and outward into the subterranean formation. One particularly useful casing fill apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,641,021 to Murray et al., assigned to the assignee of the present invention, the details of which are incorporated herein by reference. Although such casing fill apparatus work well to reduce surge pressure, there are situations where surge pressure is still a problem.
Liners having an outer diameter slightly smaller than the inner diameter of casing that has previously been cemented in the wellbore are typically lowered into a partially cased wellbore and cemented in the uncased portion of a wellbore. The liner is lowered into the wellbore so that it extends below the bottom end of the casing into the uncased portion of the wellbore. Once a desired length of liner has been made up, it is typically lowered into the wellbore utilizing a drill string that is connected to the liner with a liner running tool. The liner will typically include a well casing fill apparatus so that as the liner is lowered into the wellbore, wellbore fluids are allowed to enter the liner at or near the bottom end thereof.
Because the drill string has a much smaller inner diameter than the liner, the formation may experience surge pressure as the fluid in the liner is forced to pass through the transition from the liner to the drill string and up the smaller diameter drill string. Thus, there is a continuing need for an apparatus that will reduce the surge pressure on the formation when lowering a liner into a wellbore. Furthermore, because there are circumstances where it is necessary to manipulate the liner, there is a need for an apparatus that in addition to reducing surge pressure will allow for rotational and reciprocal movement and manipulation of the liner in the wellbore while the diverter is locked in a closed position.

Drill string diverter apparatus and method


The invention relates to a method and an arrangement for the detection of shorts circuits in the electrical system in a vehicle provided with a battery comprising—measuring and storing the value of the battery voltage at a first moment in time,—measuring the value of the battery voltage at a second moment in time,—comparing the values of the battery voltage at the first and second moments in time,—checking, if the battery voltages at the two moments in time differ from each other by more than a predetermined value, whether one or several of certain predefined systems in the vehicle have been engaged during the interval of time between the first and the second moments in time, with a short circuit being assumed to have taken place if none of the systems in the vehicle have been engaged during the interval of time.

The present invention relates to a method and an arrangement for detection of short circuits in a vehicle. By means of the invention, short circuits in a vehicle can be detected in a simple and reliable way and can accordingly be remedied.
In modern vehicles, such as, for example, trucks, buses and construction vehicles, there is a very large amount of electrical cabling. Due to, for example, incorrect laying of cables and movements of the vehicle, the cables' insulation can be damaged, whereby short circuits can arise. These short circuits can be of short duration and intermittent, which means that the fuses in the vehicle are not able to react, which can be very trying and irritating for the driver of the vehicle. In addition, various electrical systems in the vehicle can be disturbed by a short circuit of short duration, with an error function as a result. For example, a processor in a control unit can restart when the supply voltage drops below a certain level.
To be able to detect short circuits in a vehicle reliably at an early stage is therefore an important function in a vehicle.
Document JP 11055848 describes an arrangement that is intended to detect short circuits in the electrical system in a car. A disadvantage of this arrangement is that it can only detect short circuits on the specific cable to which it is connected.
It is desirable to produce an arrangement and a method for being able to detect short circuits that are of short duration and/or intermittent in the electrical system in a vehicle, suitably a truck, at an early stage in a quick and reliable way.
In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a method is provided for detection of short circuits in the electrical system in a vehicle provided with a battery. The method comprises measurement and storage of the value of the battery voltage at a first moment in time, measurement of the value of the battery voltage at a second moment in time, and comparison of the values of the battery voltage at the first and second moments in time.
If the battery voltages at the two moments in time differ from each other by more than a predetermined value, it is checked whether one or several of certain predefined systems in the vehicle have been engaged during the interval of time between the first and the second moments in time, with a short circuit being assumed to have occurred if none of the systems in the vehicle have been engaged during the interval of time.
In a further aspect of the invention, an arrangement for carrying out the method steps as described above is provided.
The method is suitably carried out continually while the vehicle is operation, and in the same way, an arrangement according to the invention can be running and carrying out measurements and comparisons continually while the vehicle is in operation.

Detection of short circuits in a vehicle


A method for providing system information (SI) by a base station in a wireless communication network is disclosed. The SI includes minimum SI and at least one other SI block. The method includes broadcasting the minimum SI having an area identification (ID) and at least one value tag, and receiving a radio resource control (RRC) message requesting the at least one other SI block from a user equipment (UE) when the area ID is different from a stored area ID on the UE or when the value tag is different from a stored value tag on the UE.

In a wireless network, such as an evolved-universal terrestrial radio access network (E-UTRAN), a user equipment (UE) needs to perform a system information (SI) acquisition procedure to acquire various parameters of Access Stratum (AS) and Non Access Stratum (NAS). These parameters are common for all the UEs in the same cell and are traditionally broadcast in all the wireless technologies. The UE may acquire SI for various purposes, such as system access (e.g., after handover, after entering E-UTRA from another RAT) and idle mode procedures (e.g., cell selection and re-election, and etc.).
Traditionally, system information can be grouped into a Master Information Block (MIB) and a number of System Information Blocks (SIBs). For example, in a long term evolution (LTE) network, system information may include a MIB and multiple SIBs (e.g., SIB1 through SIB20). The MIB defines the most essential physical layer information of the cell that is required to received other system information parts. The MIB provides the system frame number (SFN), downlink (DL) system bandwidth, and physical HARQ indicator channel (PHICH) configuration. It may be transmitted every 40 ms and the scheduling information is standardized. The SIBs are characterized by the type of information each SIB carries. For example, SIB1 contains information for evaluating whether a UE is allowed to access or camp on a cell and further defines the scheduling of other SIBs. SIB1 also contains cell access-related information (e.g., PLMN identity list, public land mobile network (PLMN) identity, cell identity, cell status, and etc.), cell selection information (minimum receiver level), and scheduling information (SI message type and periodicity, SI window length, and etc.). SIB2 provides information about common and shared channels which includes random access channel (RACH), physical RACH (PRACH), broadcast control channel (BCCH), physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and etc. SIBs 3 to 8 provide information required for cell reselection. SIB3 provides information on intra-frequency cell reselection except neighbor cell information. SIB4 provides information on neighbor cell information. SIBS is for inter-frequency cell reselection. SIB6, SIB7, and SIB8 are respectively for UTRAN, GERAN, and CDMA related cell (re)selection.
A UE may read system information during an initial attach process. Once the UE is camped to a new cell, it reads the relevant SI. If some SI values have changed, the network may page the UEs to inform the UEs about the changes. The UEs may read the SI during the next modification cycle. The modification cycle is a cell specific parameter that is signaled in the SIB2. Once the UE receives a paging indicating a SIB modification, it may invalidate all the SI and retrieve all the SI again.
New Radio (NR) has been discussed in the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as a key technology for supporting the operation of the next generation wireless network. In NR systems and networks, fast and efficient SI distribution is desirable. However, specific SI distribution mechanisms have not been extensively studied.
As mentioned above, conventionally, cells broadcast SI in all the wireless technologies, without taking into consideration of the conditions and/or characteristics of the UEs in their coverage areas. Such SI delivery method undesirably consumes radio resource and increases operation overhead.
Thus, there is a need in the art for an effective SI delivery method to provide SI to UEs, where the SI delivery method takes into consideration of the conditions and/or characteristics of the UEs.

Method and apparatus for system information delivery


Welding headwear comprises one or more image sensors, processing circuitry, and a display. The image sensor(s) are operable to capture an image of an unpowered weld torch as the torch passes along a joint of a workpiece to be welded. The processing circuitry is operable to: determine, through processing of pixel data of the image, one or more welding parameters as the torch passes along the joint to be welded; generate, based on the one or more welding parameters, a simulated weld bead; and superimpose on the image, in real time as the torch passes along the joint, the simulated weld bead on the joint. The display is operable to present, in real time as the torch passes along the joint, the image with the simulated bead overlaid on it.

Welding is a process that has increasingly become ubiquitous in all industries. While such processes may be automated in certain contexts, a large number of applications continue to exist for manual welding operations, the success of which relies heavily on the proper use of a welding gun or torch by a welding operator. For instance, improper torch angle, contact-tip-to-work-distance, travel speed, and aim are parameters that may dictate the quality of a weld. Even experienced welding operators, however, often have difficulty monitoring and maintaining these important parameters throughout welding processes.


An electronic device having a modularized press key disposed therein. The electronic device is provided with a switch, and the modularized press key is composed of a key cap, an identification part, and an extension part. The key cap is provided with a connection hole and is disposed in the electronic device and facing the switch. The identification part is disposed in the connection hole, and the extension part has a specific color and is engaged to the identification part in a specific direction. The other end of the extension part is pressed against the switch. As such, through the uniqueness of the assembly and the distinction of the colors, the fool-proof assembly and fault inspection and detection of the modularized press key are achieved.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a press key structure and an electronic device utilizing such a press key structure, and in particular to a modularized press key having a common structure and an electronic device having such a modularized press key.
2. Related Art
In general, all kinds of electronic devices are provided with press keys to be utilized for data input purpose. However, their designs can be varied depending on the actual requirements. As such, different types of press keys must be designed and manufactured to be used in different products/devices. However, currently such kinds of press keys are made by the injection molding method. Therefore, a unique mold of press keys is required for each of the different products. For the structures of the press keys to be assembled on two different electronic products, refer to FIGS. 1A and 1B. As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the press keys of the two products are provided with the key cap 100 of the same shape, however, their respective top blocks 110 have different lengths. Since the key cap 100 and the top block 110 are produced utilizing the injection molding method, as such, the key caps 100 used for the two different press keys are the same, yet the lengths of the respective top blocks 110 are different, thus two different molds are required. Therefore, it is quite uneconomical due to the high production cost of mold.

Electronic device having a modularized press key


A pharmaceutical composition and a therapeutic method wherein an antibody-drug conjugate and an immune checkpoint inhibitor are administered in combination, and the antibody-drug conjugate is an antibody-drug conjugate in which a drug-linker represented by the following formula (wherein A represents the connecting position to an antibody) is conjugated to the antibody via a thioether bond; and a pharmaceutical composition and a therapeutic method for use in treatment of a disease that can be ameliorated through an antitumor immunity-activating effect wherein the antibody-drug conjugate is included.

An antibody-drug conjugate (ADC) having a drug with cytotoxicity conjugated to an antibody, whose antigen is expressed on the surface of cancer cells and which also binds to an antigen capable of cellular internalization, and therefore can deliver the drug selectively to cancer cells, is thus expected to cause accumulation of the drug within cancer cells and to kill the cancer cells (Non-Patent Literatures 1 to 5).
As one of such antibody-drug conjugates, an antibody-drug conjugate including an antibody and exatecan, which is a topoisomerase I inhibitor, as components is known (Patent Literatures 1 to 7). Among these, anti-HER2 antibody-drug conjugates (Non-Patent Literatures 6, 7), which exert a particularly superior antitumor effect and safety, are currently under clinical studies.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors are agents that inhibit the immune suppression system and activate antitumor immunity (Non-Patent Literatures 8 to 10). Known examples of immune checkpoint inhibitors include nivolumab (Patent Literature 8) and pembrolizumab (Patent Literature 9) each of which is an anti-PD-1 antibody; atezolizumab (Patent Literature 10), durvalumab (Patent Literature 11), and avelumab (Patent Literature 12), each of which is an anti-PD-L1 antibody; and ipilimumab (Patent Literature 13) and tremelimumab (Patent Literature 14), each of which is an anti-CTLA-4 antibody.
As a case in which an antibody-drug conjugate and an immune checkpoint inhibitor are administered in combination, a study on the use of trastuzumab emtansine (T-DM1) and an anti-CTLA-4/PD-1 antibody in combination is known (Non-Patent Literature 11).

Combination of antibody-drug conjugate and immune checkpoint inhibitor


Disclosed in the embodiments of the present application are a communication method, a network device, and a terminal device, the method comprising: a first network node receives a radio resource control (RRC) connection recovery request sent by a terminal device in a non-activated state, the RRC connection recovery request comprising indication information, and the indication information being used for indicating whether to change the anchor network node of the terminal device; the first network node is the network node currently serving the terminal device, and a second network node is the anchor network node of the terminal device.

In the existing communication system, in order to reduce the need for air interface signaling and quickly recover the wireless connection, a new Radio Resource Control (RRC) state, that is, an inactive state (RRC_INACTIVE), is introduced in the terminal device. In the RRC_INACTIVE state, the network can be configured with a paging area for radio access network (RAN) paging. When a terminal device moves within the paging area, it is not necessary to notify the network side. when the terminal device moves out of the paging area, if the downstream data of the terminal device arrives, the network node that is used to maintain the terminal device connected to the RAN and the Core Network (CN), that is, the network node currently serving the terminal device, will trigger sending a paging message to the terminal device in all cells in the paging area, so that the terminal device in the RRC_INACTIVE state resumes the RRC connection and performs data reception.
The terminal device may enter the RRC connection state from the RRC_INACTIVE state, based on the following trigger conditions:
1. the downlink data of the terminal device arrives;
2. the terminal device initiates the RAN location area update;
3. the terminal device has the needs for sending uplink data.
However, no matter what kind of trigger condition, context information of the terminal device needs to be obtained, and the context information of the terminal device is stored on the anchor network node of the terminal device. In this case, how to recover the RRC connection to reduce signaling overhead of the network is an urgent problem.

Communication method, network device, and terminal device

GUANGDONG OPPO MOBILE TELECOMMUNICATIONS CORP., LTD.


An image display device is configured to cut out and display a moving object within an omnidirectional image. The image display device includes: a moving object position acquisition unit configured to acquire a position of the moving object within the omnidirectional image; a determination unit configured to determine whether to correct an upward direction of a cutout image; a parameter correction unit configured to correct a cutout parameter when the determination unit determines to correct the upward direction of the cutout image; a cutout unit configured to cut images including the moving object out of the omnidirectional image based on the cutout parameter corrected by the parameter correction unit; and a display unit configured to display the images including the moving object, which are cut out by the cutout unit.

Up to now, there has been proposed that the omnidirectional image of 360 degrees is acquired, and a desired image is extracted from the acquired omnidirectional image to create and display a new image. For example, "an image generating device and system" disclosed in Patent literature 1 sets a center orientation and a field angle of surrounding images acquired from one or a plurality of cameras, and extracts images having the set center orientation as the center position and located in a range corresponding to the set field angle, from all of a part of the acquired surrounding images, to create a panorama image.
Also, up to now, there has been proposed that a desired image is cut out of shot images that have been sequentially shot, and enlarged and displayed. For example, "an image processing device, a cameral device, and an image processing method" disclosed in Patent Literature 2 detect a moving portion of a shot image caused by a change in an object from the shot images obtained by sequential shooting, cut out an area including the shot image of the detected moving portion as a moving area image, subject the cutout moving area image to correction processing of distortion caused by a taking lens, enlarge the cutout moving area image, and to enlargement processing, and generate a corrected enlarged image.
Incidentally, when the omnidirectional camera is installed so that an optical axis thereof extends just downward, an intended image (for example, a person image) is detected by the aid of differential information from the omnidirectional image obtained by the camera, and an image is cut into a given rectangular shape centered on the detected intended image, outward directions from a center of the omnidirectional image match upward directions of the cutout image. An outline of this configuration is illustrated in FIG. 16. In the figure, a point indicated by reference numeral 100 denotes an image center, and images indicated by reference numeral 110 are cutout images. Also, arrows indicated by reference numeral 120 are upward directions of the cutout images. Also, FIG. 16 illustrates only frames representative of the rectangular cutout images 110, and the omnidirectional image (a portion indicated by a circle 130 indicates the omnidirectional image) is omitted.

Image display device and image display method


A small and compact coupler plug for a planar broadband lambda probe includes a housing having a basic body and a cover element as well as electrical components, which can be inserted into the housing and fixed in place, as well as an adjustment unit for a probe, in particular a planar broadband lambda probe, the adjustment unit being arranged within the coupler plug or outside the coupler plug via a further contact element. The cover element can be mounted over the balancing unit, and primary and secondary locking devices that cooperates with the cover element may be provided, the secondary locking device being configured as a fixing element to fix in place at least one electrical contact that is inserted in the housing, and this fixing element also having support elements that point to the cover element, such that the cover element closes in the end position of the secondary element.

The present invention relates to a coupler plug connector, in particular, for a plug connector for a planar lambda probe.
Coupler plugs are used for the connection between a cable harness plug and a lambda probe. The terminals provided in the coupler plug are used for the adjustment, the signal, and/or the heating of the probe. Currently, lambda probes in combination with lambda regulation and 3-way catalytic converters, are used for exhaust-gas purification. The lambda probe, which can be screwed into, for example, an exhaust gas system, includes a sensor for ascertaining the oxygen content in the exhaust gas.
The residual oxygen content is very well suited as a measuring variable and regulates the air-fuel ratio, because the latter indicates precisely whether the air-fuel mixture is burning completely.
In this context, the lambda probe generates a voltage signal, which represents the instantaneous value of the mixture composition, and which follows the mixture changes. The fuel supply to the engine is regulated by a carboration system in accordance with the signal from the lambda probe such that a stoichiometric air-fuel ratio xcex=1 is achieved. In accordance with the design of the exhaust gas system and with the conditions for use, heated or unheated probes are used. The lambda probe has other uses apart from motor vehicles, e.g., for regulating gas motors or oil/gas burners.
In particular, broadband lambda probes have a modular design and, in conjunction with planar techniques, can be integrated in a plurality of functions. They typically have functional layers, which are made up of a porous protective layer, an external electrode, a sensor foil, an internal electrode, a reference air channel foil, an insulation layer, a heating element, a heating foil, a resistor or an adjustment element, and terminal contacts.
Because the broadband lambda probe is made up of the combination of a Nernst concentration cell (sensor cell) and a pump cell that transports oxygen ions, it is able to carry out very precise measurements not only in the stoichiometric point at xcex=1, but also in the lean and rich range.
Every probe is individually adjusted for a balancing effect. For this purpose, the probe has a built-in resistor (xe2x80x9cmini-hybridxe2x80x9d). The adjustment may be accomplished by ablating the resistor layer that is situated on a ceramic substrate using a laser beam, thus generating a change in the resistance and resulting in a balancing.
In a given embodiment, the adjustment unit, or the resistor, may be arranged on the probe. In an alternative exemplary embodiment, the resistor is arranged outside, for example, on a cable harness plug that is coupled to the probe.
Heretofore, the balancing has been carried out by transporting the housing of the coupler plug to the balancing position without the cover element, the resistor being installed in the coupler plug. According to this technique, after the appropriate laser treatment for the balancing, the cover element is then subsequently mounted at a different assembly position.
To prevent humidity, contamination, or the like from penetrating into the coupler plug, and to assure that the appropriate atmosphere is present within the coupler plug, the cover element has additional seals. In addition, pressure compensating elements are arranged on the housing of the coupler plug.
One disadvantage of this design is that additional working and assembly steps are necessary after the balancing to close up the coupler plug in a functionally correct manner.
In addition, it is necessary to separately manufacture a supplemental cover element along with a seal, and to make this cover element available in the balancing area.
An object of the present invention is to provide a coupler plug for a planar broadband lambda probe that can be produced in a cost-effective manner and have very small dimensions.
This object may be achieved by providing a coupler plug that includes a cover element that can be mounted over the adjustment element, and that has primary and secondary locking device that cooperates with the cover element, the secondary locking device being provided as a fixing element to fix in place at least one electrical contact that is installed in the housing. The fixing element also has support elements that point to the cover element, such that the cover element only completely closes in the end position of the secondary element (the fixing in place of the electrical contact).
According to an example embodiment of the present invention, the coupler plug is configured so as to be of small dimensions, because, due to the compact installation of electrical contacts in a basic body and the arrangement of the adjustment element likewise in the coupler plug, the external dimensions of the coupler plug, which may be arranged between a cable harness and a lambda probe, are very small.
In addition, according to an exemplary embodiment, the coupler plug according to the present invention may include only a small number of parts. As a result, a cost-effective and efficient manufacturing process can be implemented.
Because the basic body may be completely surrounded by the cover element, it is possible to seal off the interior of the coupler plug through an arrangement of sealing lips within the cover element, or an arrangement of seals in the basic body, so that the coupler plug is protected, particularly from spray water and/or soiling.
This also aids in the latching of the cover element to the basic body. According to an embodiment of the present invention, a first and second latching device, or a primary and a secondary locking device, are provided. The latter may be configured such that the cover element has latching arms, which, in the closed state of the cover, are in contact with the basic body of the coupler plug and bring about a coupling there using latching hooks.
According to a further embodiment, the primary locking device operates in two stages. In a first stage, the cover element latches such that it is held on the basic body. As a result of continued pressure of the cover element in the direction of the basic body, the fixing element embedded in the basic body may be fixed onto the electrical contact element running in the basic body, for example, a planar plug sleeve, which is connected to the lambda probe. However, the fixing only takes place by the fixing element being pressed onto the contact element, so that the contact element and the fixing element have a secure connection. In addition, the fixing element may be restrained in the basic body, which means that, in the mounted state of the contact element, the fixing element moves only in the axial push-on direction of the cover. In addition, support elements may be provided on the fixing element, pointing away from the fixing element, the support elements extending in the direction of the cover element.
In the non-actuated state of the secondary locking device, i.e., the non-fixing of the contact element, the support elements may extend far beyond the basic body of the coupler plug such that the cover element is held only by the first latching action of the primary locking device. In response to a complete activation and thus the proper fixing in place of the contact element, the cover element undergoes the second latching action of the primary locking device.
This has the advantage that it is possible in a simple manner to check whether a successful contacting and therefore securing of the electrical contact element has been achieved with respect to the lambda probe, and that the cover element is tightly closed with respect to the basic body.
Advantageously, hanging devices may be provided on the periphery of the cover element which make it possible to secure the coupler plug on another part, for example, using a groove-and-tongue connection, or, alternatively, through hanging devices such that electrical lines can be mounted on the coupler plug.
Mounting possibilities are optionally provided for spray-water sleeves.
A further advantage of the present invention is that the aforementioned seals on the cover element can be injectionmolded, so that they are arranged in a nondetachable manner.
To assure a constant transition resistance between the adjustment unit and the electrical contact elements, a solder connection is provided.
The cover element is advantageously made of PBT (polybutylene terephthalt) or equivalent materials.
In a further advantageous exemplary embodiment of the present invention, the cover element is configured so as to be transparent. As a result, it is possible that the cover element can be mounted even before the balancing, because, if the cover elements are transparent, the balancing can be carried out through the cover element using a laser beam.

Small-dimensioned coupler plug, especially for a planar broadband lambda probe


A printing system provided with a printer and a host computer which transfers image data to the printer includes a data transfer unit configured to transfer the image data as image data of a first data format in the case where a connection between the printer and the host computer is first connection means, and transfer the image data as image data of a second data format in the case where a connection between the printer and the host computer is second connection means, wherein the second connection means has less data communication amount per unit time than the first connection means, and when given image data is transferred, image data of the second data format, corresponding to the given image data, has less data amount than image data of the first data format, corresponding to the given image data.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a printing system including a data transfer apparatus, and a printing apparatus which receives image data having been transferred from the data transfer apparatus and performs printing based on the received image data.
2. Related Art
Regarding printing, there are some known technologies which enable execution of printing processing at high speed (for example, refer to Japanese Patent No. 4,621,766). Particularly, in recent years, the acceleration of speed at which a printing apparatus forms an image on a printing medium (i.e., the acceleration of an image formation speed) has been progressing.
In a printing system including a data transfer apparatus which transfers image data and a printing apparatus which receives the image data and forms an image on a printing medium, when considering the speed of a printing process (a printing speed) stating from the reception of an instruction from a user for starting the printing process until the completion of the printing process, that is, the completion of forming an image on a printing medium, along with the acceleration of the image formation speed, a rate at which the data transfer apparatus transfers image data to the printing apparatus (a data transfer rate) sometimes becomes rate limiting. For this reason, there has been a request for further accelerating the printing speed by shortening the time necessary for the data transfer.

Printing system and data transfer method


A multi-function peripheral device and method for printing from a multi-function peripheral device are presented. When a facsimile function is executed, half of an empty area of a flex memory and a FAX transmission/reception memory are set as a FAX transmission/reception memory. When a printer function is executed, half of an empty area of the flex memory and a printer memory are set as a printer memory. When a printer priority function is executed, all the empty area of the flex memory and the printer memory are set as a printer memory.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a multi-function peripheral device having various functions such as a copy function, a facsimile function, a printer function, etc.
2. Description of Related Art
A multi-function peripheral device constructed in such a manner that various functions such as a copy function, a facsimile function, a printer function, etc. are installed and implemented in one device, is well known.
According to the multi-function peripheral device thus constructed, when the device receives a facsimile communication while printing print data transmitted from a computer connected to the multi-function peripheral device, image data received through a telephone line are stored into a memory and then printed on a sheet by a printer. At this time, if a special-purpose sheet for the printer function such as a high-quality sheet for an ink jet printer or an OHP transparent sheet is set for print, the image data received through the facsimile communication are unintentionally printed on this special-purpose sheet. In order to avoid this printing, the multi-function peripheral device is provided with a printer priority function that stores the image data received through the facsimile function into a memory when the printer function is executed and executing the print operation based on the printer function preferentially to the print operation of the image data received through the facsimile communication (Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. Hei-7-759).
However, even when the printer priority function is executed, the capacity in which the print data can be stored is equal to that when the printer function is executed, so that when the print data input from a computer are high-resolution and complicated print data, all the print data cannot be stored at a time. In this case, it is necessary to input the print data from the computer time at many times. Accordingly, even when the printer priority function is executed, the print output time cannot be shortened.
The invention overcomes the above problem of the prior art, and has an aspect that provides a multi-function peripheral device with which a memory having a larger capacity than that when a printer function is executed is allowed to be used when a printer priority function is executed and thus a suitable print output can be achieved even when print data input from a computer are high-resolution and complicated.
In order to attain the above aspect, the multi-function peripheral device operates such that when a printer function (first function) is executed, print data are allowed to be stored until the amount of the print data reaches a first storage capacity in any data storage area, and when a priority mode of executing a printer function preferentially is executed, the print data are allowed to be stored until the amount of the print data reaches a second storage capacity larger than the first storage capacity.
According to the above multi-function peripheral device, even when the print data input from a computer are high-resolution and complicated, a large amount of print data at the time the printer function is executed can be stored when the priority mode is executed, thereby avoiding a memory full state. Further, the print data from external devices can be input at any time, and thus the print output time can be reduced.
Furthermore, when a facsimile function (second function) is executed, image data received through a telephone line may be allowed to be stored until the amount of the image data reaches a third storage capacity smaller than the second storage capacity. In this case, when the facsimile function is executed, even a large amount of the image data can be received. In addition, the residual storage capacity of any data storage area can be used as a recording buffer.
The second storage capacity may be set to be substantially all the storage capacity of any data storage area. In this case, the storage capacity for print data input from the computer can be maximized. Therefore, even when the print data are high-resolution and complicated, a full memory state can be avoided, and print data from the external sources can be input at any time, thereby reducing the print output time.

Multi-function peripheral device and method for printing from the multi-function peripheral device


Various examples are provided related to the preparation of electrodes on carbon fiber reinforced polymer (CFRP) composites with low contact resistance. Laser-based surface preparation can be used for bonding to CFRP composites. In one example, a method includes preparing a pretreated target area on a CFRP composite surface using laser pulsed irradiation and bonding an electrode to exposed fibers in the pretreated target area. The surface preparation can allow the electrode to have a low contact resistance with the CFRP composite.

In recent times the use of modern composite materials is becoming increasingly widespread. However, the failure modes of composite structures are extremely complex and, unlike metals, they may suffer significant degradation with barely visible surface damage. Since the damage may cause serious decrease in material strength and lead to catastrophic failure, the development of reliable structural health monitoring (SHM) techniques can have a tremendous impact on the life-cycle cost spent for inspection and repair.
As a result, a number of nondestructive evaluation techniques have been put forward, including dielectric spectroscopy, ultrasonic evaluation, vibration analysis, phased array analysis, shearography, thermography, infrared thermography, ultrasonic phased array, sampling phased array (SPA), synthetic aperture focusing technique (SAFT), flash thermography, dynamic modulus measurements, and acoustic emission monitoring.

Preparation of electrodes on CFRP composites with low contact resistance comprising laser-based surface pre-treatment

KING ABDULLAH UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY


A secondary battery includes an electrode assembly. The electrode assembly includes a first electrode plate provided with a first tab portion, a second electrode plate provided with a second tab portion, and a separator interposed between the electrode plates. In the electrode assembly, the width of the first or second tab portion is in the range from over 0.5 of the half of the width of each of the electrode plates to below the half of the width of each of the electrode plates, and the first or second tab portion is provided to have a spacing distance b from a central portion of the first or second electrode plate to a starting portion of the first or second tab portion. The spacing distance is in the range from over 0 mm to less than half of the half (¼) of the width of the first or second electrode plate.

1. Field of the Invention
An aspect of the present invention relates to a secondary battery.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an electrode assembly includes a positive electrode plate, a negative electrode plate, and a separator interposed therebetween. A secondary battery is manufactured by accommodating the electrode assembly and an electrolyte in an outer case.
In a large-capacity secondary battery, as the size of an electrode plate increases, a region in which current does not flow may exist in the electrode plate. Therefore, the capacity efficiency in a high-capacity battery using a large-area electrode plate may be decreased.
The above information disclosed in this Related Art section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and therefore it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known to a person of ordinary skill in the art.


A communication device including a caller identification feature. Radio frequencies are associated with preferred calling numbers. When a telephone call is received from a preferred calling number, a radio is tuned to the associated frequency. When an SMS message or an MMS message is received, the radio is tuned to an associated frequency. The person receiving the telephone call or message may be able to identify the calling number by the particular radio station. Further, the invention is a method of indicating the telephone number of a calling telephone or receipt of an SMS message or MMS message by tuning a radio to an associated frequency. The invention also includes a storage medium having instructions which control a communication device to indicate a telephone number identifying a telephone from which a telephone call originated or to indicate receipt of an SMS or a MMS message.

A telephone to which an incoming call is directed receives an incoming call signal which includes alternating ringing current intervals and silent intervals. By way of example, each ringing current interval might have a duration in the order of about two seconds, and each silent interval might have a duration in the order of about four seconds. During the ringing current intervals, a current at the receiving telephone activates an indicator which provides an indication of an incoming call, for example by causing an audible ringing tone. During the silent intervals, other information might be transmitted to the receiving telephone at a frequency which does not activate the incoming call indicator. U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,956, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, shows a method and apparatus for providing information at a telephone during the silent interval between ringing current intervals. One type of information that might be transmitted during the silent intervals is caller identification information which indicates the telephone number of the telephone from which the incoming call originated.
Many, telephones have the ability to respond to the caller identification information by providing an indication of the telephone number of the originating telephone. When the caller identification is indicated in a visual display on the telephone, it is necessary for the person receiving the call to observe that display in order to determine the identity of the calling number. With a cellular telephone, this might involve removing the telephone from a carrying case in order to view the display. With a land line telephone, it might involve going to the telephone to view the display. Even if the person does not wish to answer incoming calls from certain persons or from unknown persons, still it is necessary for him or her to view the telephone display in order to determine whether the call is from someone with whom he or she wishes to talk.
Telephones are available in which a listing of preferred calling numbers is stored, and when a call is received from one of those stored numbers, a unique ringing tone is provided. Thus, each of several preferred calling numbers can have its own unique ringing tone. In order to be distinguishable, there must be a reasonable difference between the several unique ringing tones. Only a limited number of ringing tones are available. Users of telephones, particularly cellular telephones like to have unique and surprising indications of an incoming call. Further, such telephones frequently are able to receive short message service ("SMS") messages and multimedia messaging service ("MMS") messages. Users of such telephones like to have unique indications of receipt of those messages.

Communication device providing diverse audio signals to indicate receipt of a call or message


An apparatus and method for use in printing a swath in a multipass printing device are disclosed. The method comprises selectively depositing a drop of ink associated with a pixel to be printed on a print media based on a substantially uniform print mask function during a first pass of a print head, and selectively depositing a further drop of ink associated with the pixel on the print media based on a ramp print mask function during a further pass of the print head.

Inkjet printers print dots on a print medium by ejecting small drops of ink from one or more nozzles. Commonly, a number of nozzles are carried on a moveable print head which can be scanned across a surface of the print medium. Each nozzle may be controlled individually to eject a drop of printing fluid, such as ink when commanded. By appropriate control of each nozzle as the print head carrying the nozzles is scanned across the surface of the print media, a desired pattern of printing fluid drops can be deposited on the print medium.
In order to print a color image using a limited number of colors of ink, halftone techniques are used whereby each pixel of the color image is formed from a number of dots of ink of the available colors. For each color of ink deposited a limited number of drops of ink may be deposited for each pixel in a single pass. Typically, this is limited to a single drop of ink of a particular color being deposited at a given pixel in a single pass as the print head is scanned across the print medium.
Thus, while light color pixels may be printed in a single pass of the print head, darker color pixels may require more ink drops to be deposited and, therefore, require multiple passes of the print head.
Print heads may carry an array of nozzles allowing ink to be deposited in a number of lines of pixels, or a swath, in a single pass of the print head. To allow a full image, consisting of a number of swathes to be deposited on the print medium, the medium is advanced through the printer to allow subsequent swathes to be deposited. However, it is common for errors in the advance step to result in undesired artifacts in the final image produced.
Typically, if the print medium is advanced by too small amount, printed swathes may overlap leading to darker or more saturated bands of color, while advancing the print medium by too large a step may result in areas between swathes with insufficient or no ink drops. Such banding is undesirable.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A FET load circuit consists of two depletion-mode FETs connected in series. The gate of one FET is connected to ground. The gate of the other FET is connected to its source. This load circuit reduces power dissipation and provides superior operational stability, particularly in gallium-arsenide DCFL logic and memory circuits.

This invention relates to a field-effect transistor load circuit, and more particularly to a metal semiconductor field-effect transistor load circuit, for a circuit such as a gallium-arsenide integrated logic circuit or for the bit line of a gallium-arsenide integrated memory circuit.
Hereinafter a field-effect transistor will be referred to as an FET and a metal semiconductor field-effect transistor as an MESFET. The source electrode gate electrode, and drain electrode of an FET will be referred to as simply the source gate, and drain. An enhancement-mode FET, that is an FET which is normally in the off state, will be denoted an EFET. A depletion-mode FET, that is, an FET which is normally in the on state, will be denoted a DFET. The symbol Vdd will denote the supply voltage of the circuit under discussion, and Vss will denote the ground potential of 0V.
Due to their high operating speeds, integrated galliumarsenide logic and memory devices are coming into use in cache memories and peripheral logic devices for high-speed microprocessors, and in other digital applications in which speed is a critical factor. A circuit design that has been widely employed in these applications is the direct-coupled FET logic (DCFL) design described for example in the first edition of Kagobutsu Handotai Debaisu II (Compound Semiconductor Devices II) by Imai, Ikoma, Sato, and Fujimoto, published by Kogyo Chosakai on Jan. 10, 1985, pages 6 to 9, and illustrated in FIG. 1.
The device in FIG. 1 is an inverter logic circuit comprising an input terminal Vin 1, an output terminal Vout 2, and an EFET 3 that receives an input signal Vin from the input terminal 1 at its gate and provides the inverted signal from its source to the output terminal 2. The prior-art load circuit 10 connected to this logic circuit comprises a DFET 11, the gate and source electrodes of which are electrically coupled to each other and to the drain of the EFET 3. The drain of the EFET 3 and source of the DFET 11 are also coupled to Vss through a Schottky diode 20 that is present between the gate and channel of the next-stage logic transistor. This diode will hereinafter be referred to as a parasitic diode. The drain of the DFET 11 is connected to Vdd; the source of the EFET 3 is connected to Vss. The interconnection between the source and gate of the DFET 11 assures that the DFET 11 is always in the on state, permitting load current to flow.
The operating characteristics of this circuit are illustrated in FIG. 2, which shows the relationship between the load current 1 and the output signal voltage Vout. In FIG. 2. L denotes the load curve of the load circuit 10 in FIG. 1. Cl denotes the characteristic curve of the EFET 3 when the input signal Vin denotes at the High logic level. Ch is the characteristic curve of the EFET 3 when the input signal Vin denotes at the Low logic level, and Cd is the forward characteristic curve of the parasitic diode 20 in the next stage. When the input signal Vin is High, the circuit operates at the point of intersection Pl of the L and Cl curves, and the output signal Vout is at the Low potential V1, which is approximately 0.1V. When the input signal Vin changes from High to Low, the characteristic curve of the EFET 3 changes from Cl to Ch. If the output terminal Vout 2 were unconnected, the circuit would operate at the point Pha and the output voltage Vout would be close to Vdd. Because the circuit is connected to a next-stage DCFL logic circuit, however the output voltage cannot rise substantially above the forward turn-on voltage Vf of the next-stage parasitic diode 20, which thus clamps the output signal Vout to a value of approximately 0.6V to 0.8V. This accordingly becomes the High output logic level Vh, and the circuit operates at the point Ph. In the region between the Low and High output logic levels, the load DFET 11 saturates and operates as a constant-current source so the current flowing through the load circuit is clamped to a substantially constant value Icr.
The comparatively small DCFL logic swing of 0.5V to 0.7V and the extremely high electron mobility of gallium arsenide combine to enable circuits of the type illustrated in FIG. 1 to operate at high speeds. A problem is present with the circuit shown in FIG. 1, however, in that the relatively high current times voltage product at the point Ph causes an unnecessary amount of power to be dissipated in the High output state. A further problem is present in that if a load DFET 11 with a large current gain coefficient .beta. is employed to increase the driving power of the circuit the resulting large inflow of clamp current to the gate of the next-stage EFET creates a large voltage effect in the source resistance of this EFET. which raises the Low logic level of the next-stage circuit. Since the logic swing of the circuit is only 0.5V to 0.7V to begin with, elevation of the Low logic level seriously reduces the operating margin of the circuit and can lead to instability.


A system may include a host processor, a coprocessor for accelerating tasks received from the host processor, and one or more memory dies mounted to the coprocessor. The coprocessor and the memory die may be part of an integrated circuit package. The memory die may convey configuration bit streams to one or more logic sectors in programmable circuitry of the coprocessor over through-silicon vias. Each logic sector may include one or more data registers that are loaded with configuration data from the memory die. Multiple data registers may be loaded with configuration data simultaneously. The configuration data may be loaded onto an array of configuration memory cells using the data registers. Multiple data registers may be pipelined to allow simultaneous loading of configuration data into multiple sub-arrays of the array of configuration memory cells.

This relates to integrated circuits and, more particularly, to programmable integrated circuits.
Programmable integrated circuits are a type of integrated circuit that can be programmed by a user to implement a desired custom logic function. In a typical scenario, a logic designer uses computer-aided design tools to design a custom logic circuit. When the design process is complete, the computer-aided design tools generate configuration data. The configuration data is loaded into memory elements on a programmable integrated circuit to configure the device to perform the functions of the custom logic circuit.
Configuration data may be supplied to a programmable device in the form of a configuration bit stream. After a first configuration bit stream has been loaded onto a programmable device, the programmable device may be reconfigured by loading a different configuration bit stream in a process known as reconfiguration. An entire set of configuration data is often loaded during reconfiguration.
Programmable devices may be used for coprocessing in big-data or fast-data applications. For example, programmable devices may be used in application acceleration tasks in a datacenter and may be reprogrammed during datacenter operation to perform different tasks. However, the speed of reconfiguration of programmable devices is traditionally several orders of magnitude slower than the desired rate of virtualization in datacenters. Moreover, on-chip caching or buffering of pre-fetched configuration bit-streams to hide the latency of reconfiguration is undesirably expensive in terms of silicon real estate. Additionally, repeated fetching of configuration bit-streams from off-chip storage via the entire configuration circuit chain is energy intensive.
Situations frequently arise where it would be desirable to design and implement programmable devices with improved reconfiguration speed, reduced energy consumption, and parallel reconfiguration capabilities.
It is within this context that the embodiments herein arise.

Programmable integrated circuit with stacked memory die for storing configuration data


In combination, a blood glucose testing meter comprising a slot for receiving a test strip, a display, one or more control devices, and a battery compartment and a lancing device for releasable coupling to the blood glucose test meter over the battery compartment. The lancing device releasably couples directly to the testing meter over the battery compartment. Optionally, the lancing device is mounted to a mounting clip releasably coupled to the testing meter over the battery compartment. The lancing device comprises a housing, a lancet opening disposed at one end of the housing, an energizing member for charging the lancing device, and a release button for activating a lancet within the lancing device.

Many medical procedures require puncturing of the skin, and sometimes underlying tissues, of an animal or human subject. For example, a sharp lancet tip is commonly used to puncture the subject's skin at a lancing site to obtain a sample of blood or other body fluid, as for example in blood glucose monitoring by diabetics and in blood typing and screening applications. A lancing device having a spring-loaded or otherwise energized drive mechanism is often used to carry the lancet along a path of travel, between a retracted or shielded position and an extended position wherein the lancet tip punctures the skin.
Various forms of lancing devices are known. Many users, however, have found known lancing devices to be too bulky and inconvenient to carry and stow in a pocket or bag. Also, some users find it inconvenient to carry multiple separate components for sampling and testing, such as a lancing device and a meter. Perceived inconvenience can lead to non-compliance with a prescribed testing regimen, potentially adversely affecting the subject's health.
Thus it can be seen that needs exist for improvements to lancing devices to provide a smaller and thinner lancing device. Needs further exist for a lancing device that can be attached to a blood glucose meter for convenience and to avoid loss. It is to the provision of an improved lancing device meeting these and other needs that the present invention is primarily directed.


A subsea wellhead assembly is disclosed with an extension spool secured thereto and an in line tree assembly locked within the extension spool. Ball valves are disposed within the vertical bores of the in line tree assembly. Valve actuators are disposed radially on the extension spool with a cylindrical sleeve mounted coaxially around the one end of the actuator and rotatable relatively to the actuator about the common axis of the actuator and the sleeve, so that, when the actuator engages with the corresponding ball valve, the sleeve bridges the gap between the extension spool and the in line tree assembly to lock the in line tree assembly to the extension spool.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a subsea wellhead assembly, of the kind comprising a spool assembly having a vertical production through bore for receiving an insert comprising at least one valve element having a vertical bore coaxial with the vertical production through bore, and a valve actuator for rotating the or each valve element to control fluid flow through the insert, the actuator being fixed on the spool assembly and being advanceable, in use, radially of the coaxial bores into the valve insert so that one end mates with the valve element allowing operation of the valve element. Such a wellhead assembly will be referred to as the kind described.
2. Description of Related Art
Examples of such a wellhead assembly can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,078,921 and 3,115,934.


A low-cost, highly-responsive temperature sensor has a thermistor element surface-mounted in a circuit defined by an electrically-conducting layer of a three-layer circuit substrate to be in close thermal coupling to a metal base layer on an opposite side of the substrate. The base layer is adapted to be disposed in heat-collecting relation to a surface whose temperature is to be monitored. An intermediate layer of the substrate has a binder electrically insulating the thermistor from the metal base layer and has thermally-conducting particles dispersed in the binder to improve thermal coupling of the thermistor to the heat-collecting substrate base layer. The circuit defines terminal pads surface-mounting the thermistor element at one end of the substrate and defines interconnected terminal pads at an opposite end of the substrate which are connected to device lead wires in substantial thermal isolation from the thermistor element.

The field of the invention is that of temperature sensing devices and the invention relates more particularly to a low-cost but highly-responsive temperature sensor which provides an electrical signal corresponding to a sensed temperature.
A variety of conventional, thermally-responsive elements such as thermistors and the like are available for providing an electrical signal corresponding to a sensed temperature. Many of the thermally-responsive elements which are commercially available are made at low cost by volume manufacturing techniques. However, it is then found that adapting the thermally-responsive elements to particular temperature-sensing applications and electrically connecting the elements in a circuit to permit use of the element output signal in a control circuit or the like tends in result in substantial mounting expense and frequently results in some loss of responsiveness to temperature changes.


A control circuit of a power converter according to the present invention comprises an output circuit, at least one input circuit and an input-voltage detection circuit. The output circuit generates a switching signal for regulating an output of the power converter in response to at least one feedback signal. The switching signal is coupled to switch a transformer of the power converter. The input circuit samples at least one input signal for generating the feedback signal. The input signal is correlated to the output of the power converter. The input-voltage detection circuit generates an input-voltage signal in response to the level of the an input voltage of the power converter. The input circuit will not sample the input signal when the input-voltage signal is lower than a threshold. The control circuit can eliminate the need of the input capacitor for improving the reliability of the power converter.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to power converter, and more specifically, the present invention relates to the control circuit and control method for power converter providing output regulation without input capacitor.
2. Description of Related Art
Nowadays, various power converters have been widely used to provide a regulated output (output voltage and/or output current). The power converter has an input capacitor for the energy store. Normally, the input capacitor is an electrolytic capacitor that is bulky and low reliability. Furthermore, without using a high value of input capacitor, the power factor (PF) of the power converter can be improved. Therefore, one of the objects of present invention is to eliminate the need of the input capacitor for improving the reliability of the power converter. Other objects of the present invention include improving the PF, reducing the size and the cost of the power converter.
FIG. 1 shows a prior art of a flyback power converter that has an input electrolytic capacitor 40 for the energy store. As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional flyback power converter includes a rectifier 12. The rectifier 12 receives an input line voltage VAC and rectifies the input line voltage VAC. The input electrolytic capacitor 40 is coupled to an output terminal of the rectifier 12 for the energy store. A voltage VDC is provided by the input electrolytic capacitor 40. A transformer 10 has a primary winding NP, a secondary winding NS and an auxiliary winding NA.
A terminal of the primary winding NP is coupled to receive the voltage VDC. Another terminal of the primary winding NP is coupled to a transistor 20. The transistor 20 is utilized to switch the transformer 10. A terminal of the secondary winding NS is coupled to a terminal of a rectifier 60. An output capacitor 65 is connected in between another terminal of the rectifier 60 and another terminal of the secondary winding NS for providing an output voltage VO to a load 70. The load 70 and the output capacitor 65 are connected in parallel.
A terminal of the auxiliary winding NA is coupled to a voltage divider. The voltage divider has resistors 51 and 52. The resistors 51 and 52 are connected in series. The voltage divider generates a voltage-sense signal VS. The resistor 52 is further coupled to the ground. A switching controller 50 is coupled to a joint point of the resistors 51 and 52 for receiving the voltage-sense signal V. The switching controller 50 generates a switching signal SW. The switching signal SW controls the transistor 20 to switch the transformer 10 for regulating an output (output current IO and/or the output voltage VO) of the power converter. When the transistor 20 is turned on, a switching current IP will flow through the transformer 10. Through a resistor 30, the switching current IP further generates a current-sense signal VCS. The current-sense signal VCS is coupled to the switching controller 50.
The waveforms of the input line voltage VAC and the voltage VDC are shown in FIG. 2. The voltage VDC is the voltage on the input electrolytic capacitor 40. The minimum voltage of the voltage VDC maintains the power converter operated properly. A low voltage of the voltage VDC may cause the feedback open loop of the power converter. The output voltage VO of the flyback power converter can be expressed as,
                              V          O                =                  N          ×                      V                          D                                                                                C                                ×                                    T              ON                                      T              -                              T                ON                                                                        (        1        )            where the N is turn ratio of the transformer 10 (N=NS/NP; NP is the primary winding, NS is the secondary winding); the VDC is the voltage provided to the transformer 10; TON is the on-time of the transistor 20; T is the switching period of the transistor 20.
In order to achieve a stable feedback loop for the power converter and prevent the transformer saturation, the maximum duty cycle "TON/T" is limited, such as <80% in general. If the voltage VDC is too low, the maximum on-time TON will be unable to maintain the regulated output voltage VO (shown in equation (1)), which will cause the feedback open loop. When the feedback loop is significantly on/off in response to the change of the input line voltage VAC, an overshoot and/or undershoot signal can be easily generated at the output of the power converter.

Method and apparatus for a flyback power converter providing output voltage and current regulation without input capacitor


A failure diagnosis device for an ignition circuit, comprising: an ignition plug; an ignition coil; a capacitor series connection including a high side capacitor and a low side capacitor; a switching-element series connection including a high side switching element and a low side switching element; an inter-terminal voltage detection unit for detecting an inter-terminal voltage of the capacitor series connection; an intermediate voltage detection unit for detecting an intermediate voltage at the connection point of the high side capacitor and the low side capacitor; and a determination unit for determining a failure location of the ignition circuit based on at least one of the inter-terminal voltage and the intermediate voltage.

In recent years, in order to improve the fuel economy of an automotive internal combustion engine, studies are being conducted on techniques related to lean burn control (lean burn engines) or EGR which returns combustion gas to the cylinder of the internal combustion engine. In these techniques, various ignition systems for effectively burning the fuel included in the air-fuel mixture have been proposed, such as the multiple ignition scheme in which the ignition plug generates discharge a plurality of times consecutively at the ignition timing of the internal combustion engine, and the DCO scheme in which the ignition plug generates discharge continuously for a fixed period of time which is close to the ignition timing. In these ignition devices, for example, when a short failure or an open failure occurs in the ignition coil, it becomes difficult for the spark plug to generate a spark discharge.
The ignition device that performs multiple ignition described in PTL 1 comprises a capacitor, and the electric energy stored in the capacitor is supplied to the ignition coil by turning on a switching means called a second switching means. A large secondary current flows through the secondary coil due to the inrush current at this time, and spark discharge is generated at the spark plug. Then, the switching means is turned off, a large secondary current flows through the secondary coil, and spark discharge is generated at the spark plug. It is described that, according to such an ignition device, any failure in the ignition device can be monitored by reading the current flowing through the switching means.

Failure diagnosis device for ignition circuit


Unique phase morphologies of incompatible thermoplastic polymers, including a higher melting temperature polymer and a lower melting temperature polymer that has been sufficiently chemically compatibilized to form a stable interface in a two-phase system, are achieved by pre-melting the higher melting temperature polymer, adding the compatibilized lower melting temperature polymer in solid form thereto, and thereafter melting the lower temperature polymer with mixing. In particular, in poly(ethylene vinyl alcohol)/modified polyolefin systems, compositions containing between about 35 and about 55 wt. percent EVOH are formed in which the poly(ethylene vinyl alcohol) exists as a continuous phase and the modified polyolefin exists as discrete domains dispersed therein. Such blended compositions have gas barrier properties comparable to homogeneous poly(ethylene vinyl alcohol).

It can be desirable to produce solid blends of two immiscible thermoplastic polymers, i.e., polymers which do not mix so as to form a homogeneous composition, but which are sufficiently compatible so as to form a generally uniform composition in which each of the polymers exists in distinct domains of the solid composition. To achieve the compatibility of the two polymers that allows them to interface without complete phase separation, it is often necessary to chemically compatibilize the polymers, for example, by grafting compatibilizing chemical moieties to one of the thermoplastic polymers.
The properties of a blended composition of two immiscible polymers is not only a function of the natures of the two polymers and their relative proportions, but also of the phase morphology of the composition, e.g., whether one polymer or the other forms a continuous phase or the sizes of the domains of the immiscible polymers. Applicants have found that the phase morphology may be altered, depending upon how the two immiscible polymers are mixed together and have found that novel phase morphologies can be obtained by varying the normal order of mixing the two polymers. In some cases, it has been found that by using a particular mixing procedure, a particularly desirable blend can be achieved at certain proportions of the two immiscible polymers in which one of the polymers forms a continuous phase with the other polymer existing as distinct, dispersed domains therein.
A particular problem addressed by Applicants was to provide a relatively low-cost gas barrier layer based upon ethylene vinyl alcohol (EVOH). By EVOH is meant, herein, a copolymer of ethylene (between about 20 and about 50 mole percent) and a vinyl ester, e.g., vinyl acetate (between about 50 and about 80 mole percent) which has been substantially saponified (at least about 90 percent) subsequent to polymerization. EVOH exhibits excellent gas barrier properties and is therefore particularly desirable as a gas barrier layer in a multi-layer laminate for forming containers for food. EVOH, however, is a relatively expensive polymer. Manufacturing constraints often demand a layer of a certain thickness, thereby requiring a certain total amount of material in such a layer. It has therefore been proposed that EVOH be blended with less expensive thermoplastic polymers, such as polyolefins; such blends are taught, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,975,463 to Hirata et al., the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference. U.S. Pat. No. 4,971,864, the teachings of which are incorporated herein by reference, addresses the relatively poor gas barrier provided by EVOH/polyolefin blends, relative to homogeneous EVOH. As the continuous phase of such blends is normally the polyolefin, gas may seep through the polyolefin and around the EVOH domains. The problem is addressed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,971,864 by extruding in such a manner that in an extruded layer of the blend, there exist overlapping EVOH domains that require that gas travel a tortuous pathway through the layer. However, because the continuous phase is still the polyolefin, a less-than-complete gas barrier is formed.
There exists the need for EVOH/polyolefin blends having better gas barrier properties.
The present invention is directed to producing blends of immiscible polymers with particular phase morphologies. Of interest are blends of two immiscible polymers in which a desired one of the polymers forms a continuous phase with the other polymer existing as dispersed domains therein. Of particular interest are blends of EVOH and a polyolefin, that is modified so as to be able to blend with the EVOH as a two-phase polymer composition in which the EVOH forms a continuous phase containing dispersed discrete domains of the polyolefin.

Blends of immiscible polymers having novel phase morphologies


A transport shaft for a folding machine includes a shaft body (12), which has an annular cross section, and at least one transport element (14, 16) of annular cross section mounted in a rotationally fixed manner on the shaft body (12). The shaft body (12) is made from carbon-fiber synthetic material.

Folding rollers and cutter shafts currently in use have shaft bodies which are made from steel and therefore have a relatively great weight. This makes handling more difficult when the transport shafts are installed in and removed from the folding machine. In addition, the overall weight of the folding machine is increased. Furthermore, the deflection of the known transport shafts is relatively great at large operating widths, as a result of which, along the length of the transport shafts, different forces act on a sheet to be transported.

Maschinenbau Oppenweiler Binder GmbH & Co. KG


A communications adapter for facilitating electronic communications with an electronic device is disclosed. The adapter is remotely reprogrammable by a provider computer through a communications network. The adapter includes a communications port for electronically connecting the adapter to the electronic device. The adapter also includes communications hardware for communicating with the provider computer through the communications network. In addition, the adapter includes a processor and memory. The memory is programmed with instructions to cause the adapter to receive new data sent by the provider computer via the communications network. The new data comprises device instructions for communicating with the electronic device through the communications port.

This invention relates generally to computer technology for electronic communications, and is more particularly directed toward systems and methods for facilitating and/or enhancing communications with an electronic device.
In recent years there has been a great increase in the amount of computer technology that is involved in daily life. In today""s world, computer technology is involved in many aspects of a person""s day. Many devices being used today by consumers have a small computer inside of the device. These small computers come in varying sizes and degrees of sophistication. These small computers include everything from one microcontroller to a fully-functional complete computer system. For example, these small computers may be a one-chip computer, such as a microcontroller, a one-board type of computer, such as a controller, a typical desktop computer, such as an IBM-PC compatible, etc.
The small computers, (which can be rather large computers depending on the particular need which is being met by the computer), almost always have one or more processors at the heart of the computer. The processor(s) usually are interconnected to different external inputs and outputs and function to manage the particular device. For example, a processor in a vending machine for soda pop may be connected to the buttons used to select the pop, to the switch that allows a pop to drop down to a user, and to lights to indicate that the machine does not have any more pop of a particular variety.
Computer technology is involved in many aspects of daily life. Many appliances, devices, etc., include one or more small computers. For example, refrigerators, telephones, typewriters, automobiles, vending machines, and many different types of industrial equipment usually have small computers, or processors, inside of them. Computer software runs the processors of these computers and tells the processors what to do to carry out certain tasks. For example, the computer software running on a processor in a vending machine may cause a soda pop to drop to a user when the correct change has been entered by a user.
These types of small computers that are a part of a device, appliance, tool, etc., are often referred to as embedded systems. The term xe2x80x9cembedded systemxe2x80x9d usually refers to computer hardware and software that is part of a larger system. Embedded systems usually do not have typical input and output devices such as a keyboard, mouse, and/or monitor. Usually, at the heart of each embedded system is one or more processor(s).
It is an object of the present invention to provide systems and methods for communications with an electronic device.
A communications adapter is disclosed for facilitating electronic communications with an electronic device. The adapter is remotely reprogrammable by a provider computer through a communications network. The adapter includes a communications port for electronically connecting the adapter to the electronic device. In addition, the adapter includes communications hardware for communicating with the provider computer through the communications network. The adapter also includes a processor and memory. The memory is programmed to cause the adapter to receive new data sent by the provider computer via the communications network. The new data comprises device instructions for the processor for communicating with the electronic device through the communications port.
Embodiments may utilize various types of communications networks, including, for example, a pager network, a global communications network, a cellular network, etc.
The new data may include a translator that includes an object representation of the electronic device. The new data may include a translator that includes a functional representation of the electronic device. The new data may include new instructions that are executable by the processor for communicating with the electronic device through the communications port without altering any program code on the electronic device.
The memory may also be programmed to cause the adapter to identify the electronic device and to further send an identification of the electronic device to the provider computer via the communications network.
In certain embodiments, the electronic device may have an external communications port. The adapter may include a communications port for electronically connecting the adapter to the external communications port of the electronic device.
The communications pathway between the communications hardware and the provider computer may include a wireless link.
A method for facilitating electronic communications with an electronic device is also disclosed. The method includes connecting a communications adapter to the electronic device. The method also includes establishing communications with the provider computer through the communications network. In addition, the method includes receiving new instructions from the provider computer through the communications network, wherein the instructions are executable by the processor. The new instructions may be stored in the memory of the adapter. The new instructions may be used to communicate with the electronic device.
The communications adapter may include the functional elements of means for communicating with the electronic device; means for processing; means for storing data; means for communicating with the provider computer through the communications network; and means for causing the adapter to receive new instructions sent by the provider computer through the communications network, wherein the new instructions are executable by the means for processing for communicating with the electronic device without altering any program code on the electronic device.

Remotely reprogrammable communications adapter for providing access to an electronic device


User inputs are received on a visual display, when a user is generating visual content. The user inputs trigger guide functionality, and guides are displayed to guide the user in creating the visual content.

Computer systems are currently in wide use. Some computer systems help users generate content.
For example, some presentation applications include functionality that assists users in generating slide presentations. In addition, word processing applications allow users to insert not only text, but objects, such as tables, images, etc., into documents. A wide variety of other computer systems allow users to create content as well.
In creating content, especially where the content is to be presented to an audience, users often wish to generate content with an overall consistency. For instance, when a user is generating a slide presentation, the user may wish to have objects on one slide be generally aligned with objects on a subsequent slide. Also, users may wish to know when objects are aligned with one another even on the same slide.
Currently, some presentation computer systems (or applications) display guides that indicate to a user when objects are aligned on a slide during drag and resize events. For instance, when a user drags an object around the user interface display, indicators are displayed when the edges of that object align with the edges of another object on the slide, or when three or more shapes are equidistant from one another. Some functionality is also provided in order to snap objects into alignment, once they are within a threshold distance of alignment.
The discussion above is merely provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.


Compounds having a cyclolanostane skeleton such as 9,19-cyclolanostan-3-ol and 24-methylene-9,19-cyclolanostan-3-ol are used as an active ingredient of a drug and food or drink for improving pancreatic functions.

The pancreas is an organ constituted by endocrine gland tissues called the pancreas islets (Langerhans islets) and exocrine gland tissues secreting digestive enzymes. The β cells, α cells, δ cells, pancreatic polypeptide cells, and so forth exist in the Langerhans islets, and they greatly affect the control of blood glucose and metabolism. Among these, the β cells play a particularly important role as cells producing insulin.
Diabetes mellitus is a highly frequently observed metabolic disorder recognized in 10% of Japanese adults. According to the epidemiology of the β cell dysfunction of the pancreas, which is considered one of the causes of diabetes mellitus, while the β cell dysfunction is of course observed in individuals with borderline type hyperglycemia, individuals exhibiting normal glucose tolerance also include individuals exhibiting clearly reduced β cell functions at a rate of 30%. Moreover, it is said that adults who lead average social life in present-day Japan highly frequently causes insulin resistance more or less, and it is considered that, as for persons suffering from insulin resistance, in those who do not suffer from β cell dysfunction, the blood glucose level does not increase, and in those who suffer from β cell dysfunction, the blood glucose level increases from a level corresponding to normal glucose tolerance to a level corresponding to borderline type hyperglycemia (Non-patent document 1).
At present, although therapies for promoting spontaneous recovery of the pancreatic functions based on removal of causative pathological conditions or factors are used for pancreatic function disorder, any therapeutic method or agent for positively restoring pancreatic functions once degraded has not been used so far, and agents for protecting pancreatic cells or agents for improving damaged pancreatic cells are desired in the clinical field.
The pancreatic function disorder means a pathological condition that the endocrine or exocrine gland functions of the pancreas are lowered or abnormally enhanced.
As the prior art of agents for curing pancreatic function disorder, those containing neurotrophic factors such as BDNF as an active ingredient (Patent document 1), those containing glycerol derivatives as an active ingredient (Patent document 2), pancreatic function improving agents containing betacellulin proteins or muteins thereof (Patent document 3), and so forth. It has been so far considered that BDNF is released from the central end of small DRG neuron with other transmitters at the time of inflammation or nerve damage, and involved in promotion of pain signal transduction via tyrosine phosphorylation of the NMDA receptor on the dorsal horn cells (Non-patent document 2), and thus it is considered to be restricted for actual use.
Further, the glycerol derivatives disclosed in Patent document 2 are the compounds described in Patent document 4, and are agents having antiplatelet-activating factor (PAF) activity for therapeutic and prophylactic treatment of DIC, shock, allergy, acute pancreatitis, brain twitch at the time of subarachnoid haemorrhage, and so forth, and they are also found to have an organopathy preventing, curing and improving effect for preventing, curing and improving organopathy caused in processes of preservation of organ in ischemic condition, blood flow obstruction caused by post-graft blood reperfusion or surgery, and so forth. However, it is hard to say that these agents are suitable for chronic pancreatic diseases without these symptoms.
Moreover, the pancreatic function improving agents containing betacellulin proteins or muteins thereof disclosed in patent document 3 also have an action of acting on undifferentiated pancreatic stem cells and thereby promoting differentiation of them into the pancreatic β cells producing insulin, and an action of inducing differentiation of undifferentiated stem cells into other cells of the pancreas such as F cells producing pancreatic polypeptides, and the effect cannot be expected under a condition that immature cells are depleted. In addition, although mRNAs of these proteins are detected in various organs other than the brain, for example, liver, kidney, pancreas, etc., the details of the functions thereof are not clarified almost at all, and therefore it cannot be said that they can be immediately used for clinical cases.
Furthermore, it has been disclosed in patent document 5 that compounds having a lanostane skeleton or 3,4-secolanostane skeleton have an insulin action enhancing activity. The effect of these compounds is to enhance the insulin action in regulation of adipocyte differentiation, and the effect thereof on pancreatic diseases remains unknown.
Furthermore, as the prior arts concerning compounds having the cyclolanostane skeleton, a method for producing cyclobranol or cyclobranol ferulic acid ester (Patent document 6) as well as tranquilizers (Patent document 7), hypolipidemic drugs (Patent document 8), interferon inducers (Patent document 9), ovulation inducing agents (Patent document 10) and oncogenesis preventive drugs (Patent document 11) containing 24-methylenecycloartanol as an active ingredient have been disclosed. Further, it has not been reported so far that the compounds having the cyclolanostane skeleton have pancreatic function protecting action or pancreatic tissue protecting action.
The genus Aloe in the family Liliaceae is a group of plants including Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis Miller), Aloe arborescens (Aloe arborescens Miller var. natalensis Berger) and so forth, and they are empirically known to have various efficacies. The prior arts regarding the use of plants of the genus Aloe include immunomodulating polysaccharides (Patent document 12), immunosuppression improving agents containing a butanol fraction of an aloe extract or aloin (Patent document 13), HSP60 family protein synthesis suppressing agents containing aloin derivatives (Patent documents 14 to 16), proteins having lectin activity derived from aloe leaf-skin (Patent document 17), use for improvement of blood glucose levels (Non-patent document 3 to 5, Patent document 18 to 21) and so forth.    [Patent document 1] International Publication No. WO 00/62796    [Patent document 2] Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 07-285866    [Patent document 3] Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 09-188630    [Patent document 4] Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 10-045604    [Patent document 5] Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 10-330266    [Patent document 6] Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 50-160262    [Patent document 7] Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 55-153719    [Patent document 8] Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 59-027824    [Patent document 9] Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 59-036623    [Patent document 10] Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 59-073600    [Patent document 11] Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2003-277269    [Patent document 12] International Patent Application Unexamined Publication in Japanese No. 2001-520019    [Patent document 13] Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 08-208495    [Patent document 14] Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 10-120576    [Patent document 15] Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 10-045604    [Patent document 16] Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 10-036271    [Patent document 17] Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 09-059298    [Patent document 18] Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 60-214741    [Patent document 19] Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2003-286185    [Patent document 20] U.S. Pat. No. 4,598,069    [Patent document 21] U.S. Patent Application Publication No.    [Non-patent document 1] Nippon Rinsho, No. 748, Vol. 1, pp. 615-617, 1999    [Non-patent document 2] Nippon Rinsho, No. 808, Vol. 2, pp. 405-409, 2002    [Non-patent document 3] Phytomedicine, Vol. 3, pp. 245-248, 1996    [Non-patent document 4] Phytotherapy Research, Vol. 15, pp. 157-161, 2001    [Non-patent document 5] Phytotherapy Research, Vol. 7, pp. 37-42, 1993

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Drug and food or drink for improving pancreatic functions