An assembly and method for effecting the condition of a mitral valve annulus of a heart includes a guide wire configured to be fed into the coronary sinus of the heart, and a mitral valve annulus therapy device configured to be slidingly received on the guide wire and advanced into the coronary sinus of the heart on the guide wire. A guide tube may further be employed for guiding the device into the coronary sinus. An introducer which may be employed for pushing the device into or pulling device out of the heart has a mechanism for releasably locking to the device. This enables substitution of the device if needed. Also, the crossover point of the circumflex artery and coronary sinus may be determined and avoided when the device is deployed.

The human heart generally includes four valves. Of these valves, a most critical one is known as the mitral valve. The mitral valve is located in the left atrial ventricular opening between the left atrium and left ventricle. The mitral valve is intended to prevent regurgitation of blood from the left ventricle into the left atrium when the left ventricle contracts. In preventing blood regurgitation the mitral valve must be able to withstand considerable back pressure as the left ventricle contracts.
The valve cusps of the mitral valve are anchored to muscular wall of the heart by delicate but strong fibrous cords in order to support the cusps during left ventricular contraction. In a healthy mitral valve, the geometry of the mitral valve ensures that the cusps overlie each other to preclude regurgitation of the blood during left ventricular contraction.
The normal functioning of the mitral valve in preventing regurgitation can be impaired by dilated cardiomyopathy caused by disease or certain natural defects. For example, certain diseases may cause dilation of the mitral valve annulus. This can result in deformation of the mitral valve geometry to cause ineffective closure of the mitral valve during left ventricular contraction. Such ineffective closure results in leakage through the mitral valve and regurgitation. Diseases such as bacterial inflammations of the heart or heart failure can cause the aforementioned distortion or dilation of the mitral valve annulus. Needless to say, mitral valve regurgitation must not go uncorrected.
One method of repairing a mitral valve having impaired function is to completely replace the valve. This method has been found to be particularly suitable for replacing a mitral valve when one of the cusps has been severely damaged or deformed. While the replacement of the entire valve eliminates the immediate problem associated with a dilated mitral valve annulus, presently available prosthetic heart valves do not possess the same durability as natural heart valves.
Various other surgical procedures have been developed to correct the deformation of the mitral valve annulus and thus retain the intact natural heart valve function. These surgical techniques involve repairing the shape of the dilated or deformed valve annulus. Such techniques, generally known as annuloplasty, require surgically restricting the valve annulus to minimize dilation. Here, a prosthesis is typically sutured about the base of the valve leaflets to reshape the valve annulus and restrict the movement of the valve annulus during the opening and closing of the mitral valve.
Many different types of prostheses have been developed for use in such surgery. In general, prostheses are annular or partially annular shaped members which fit about the base of the valve annulus. The annular or partially annular shaped members maybe formed from a rigid material, such as a metal, or from a flexible material.
While the prior art methods mentioned above have been able to achieve some success in treating mitral regurgitation, they have not been without problems and potential adverse consequences. For example, these procedures require open heart surgery. Such procedures are expensive, are extremely invasive requiring considerable recovery time, and pose the concomitant mortality risks associated with such procedures. Moreover, such open heart procedures are particularly stressful on patients with a comprised cardiac condition. Given these factors, such procedures are often reserved as a last resort and hence are employed late in the mitral regurgitation progression. Further, the effectiveness of such procedures is difficult to assess during the procedure and may not be known until a much later time. Hence, the ability to make adjustments to or changes in the prostheses to obtain optimum effectiveness is extremely limited. Later corrections, if made at all, require still another open heart surgery.
An improved therapy to treat mitral regurgitation without resorting to open heart surgery has recently been proposed. This is rendered possible by the realization that the coronary sinus of a heart is near to and at least partially encircles the mitral valve annulus and then extends into a venous system including the great cardiac vein. As used herein, the term "coronary sinus" is meant to refer to not only the coronary sinus itself but in addition, the venous system associated with the coronary sinus including the great cardiac vein. The therapy contemplates the use of a device introduced into the coronary sinus to reshape and advantageously effect the geometry of the mitral valve annulus.
The device includes a resilient member having a cross sectional dimension for being received within the coronary sinus of the heart and a longitudinal dimension having an unstressed arched configuration when placed in the coronary sinus. The device partially encircles and exerts an inward pressure on the mitral valve. The inward pressure constricts the mitral valve annulus or at least a portion of it to essentially restore the mitral valve geometry. This promotes effective valve sealing action and eliminates mitral regurgitation.
The device may be implanted in the coronary sinus using only percutaneous techniques similar to the techniques used to implant cardiac leads such as pacemaker leads. The device is implanted using an elongated introducer configured for being releasably coupled to the device. The introducer is preferably flexible to permit it to advance the device into the heart and into the coronary sinus through the coronary sinus ostium. To promote guidance, an elongated sheath is first advanced into the coronary sinus. Then, the device and introducer are moved through a lumen of the sheath until the device is in position within the coronary sinus. Because the device is formed of resilient material, it conforms to the curvatures of the lumen as it is advanced through the sheath. The sheath is then partially retracted to permit the device to assume its unstressed arched configuration. Once the device is properly positioned, the introducer is then decoupled from the device and retracted through the sheath. The procedure is then completed by the retraction of the sheath. As a result, the device is left within the coronary sinus to exert the inward pressure on the mitral valve to restore mitral valve geometry.
The foregoing therapy has many advantages over the traditional open heart surgery approach. Since the device, system and method may be employed in a comparatively noninvasive procedure, mitral valve regurgitation may be treated at an early stage in the mitral regurgitation progression. Further, the device may be placed with relative ease by any minimally invasive cardiologist. Still further, since the heart remains completely intact throughout the procedure, the effectiveness of the procedure may be readily determined. Moreover, should adjustments be deemed desirable, such adjustments may be made during the procedure and before the patient is sent to recovery.
Unfortunately, the human anatomy does impose some obstacles to this recently proposed procedure for treating mitral regurgitation. More specifically, the human heart includes a coronary artery which descends from the aorta. One branch of the coronary artery is the circumflex artery which, in turn, includes the left marginal branch of the circumflex artery. As used herein, the term "circumflex artery" is taken to include the circumflex artery itself or any branch therefrom. The circumflex artery extends distally generally along the coronary sinus but at a point proximal to the coronary artery, it passes under the coronary sinus. The circumflex artery supports blood flow important to the viability of the heart. Hence, reduction in this blood flow must be avoided. As a result, a device placed in the coronary sinus must not be permitted to extend within the coronary sinus beyond the crossover point of the circumflex artery and the coronary sinus to avoid constriction of the circumflex artery. This contemplates the need to know the location of the circumflex artery and coronary sinus crossover point. It also contemplates accurate positioning of the device within the coronary sinus to assure that the device does not extend over the circumflex artery.
The above is further compounded by the fact that the human heart anatomy and indeed the mitral valve condition will vary from patient to patient. Hence, after deployment of an initial therapy device, the initial device effectiveness must be tested. Should a further device having different properties or configuration be deemed more efficacious, there must be provided a way to easily remove the initial device and then deploy the further device with the same deployment accuracy to avoid the crossover of the circumflex artery with the coronary sinus.
The present invention addresses these issues. The present invention provides a therapy system and procedure which enables avoidance of the crossover of the circumflex artery with the coronary sinus by permitting accurate placement of an initial device or any substitute device within the coronary sinus. Further to that end, the present invention enables the crossover point of the circumflex artery with the coronary sinus to be readily determined and, if desired, continuously observed during the therapy procedure. Still further, the present invention contemplates a mitral valve therapy device which is configured to avoid constricting the circumflex artery even though it passes over the circumflex artery within the coronary sinus.

Mitral valve therapy device, system and method


A cooling apparatus for an engine includes a main circuit, a warm-up circuit, a coolant passage, a coolant pump, a pre-branching passage, a coolant temperature sensor and an agitator. The warm-up circuit allows a coolant to bypass the main circuit. The coolant passage is provided inside an engine body. The coolant pump is configured to cause the coolant to flow through the coolant passage. The pre-branching passage is communicated with an outlet side of the coolant passage, and communicated with the main circuit and the warm-up circuit. The coolant temperature sensor is configured to detect a coolant temperature inside the pre-branching passage. The agitator is disposed downstream of the coolant temperature sensor in a direction of coolant flow when the coolant pump is operating. The agitator is disposed at a boundary between the pre-branching passage and the main circuit or in a vicinity of the boundary.

1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to a cooling apparatus for an internal combustion engine.
2. Description of Related Art
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2011-21482 describes a cooling apparatus for an automobile engine (internal combustion engine). In this cooling apparatus, a main circuit and a warm-up circuit are connected to the outlet side of a coolant jacket formed inside an engine body. The main circuit is provided with a radiator. The warm-up circuit allows a coolant flow to bypass the main circuit. This cooling apparatus includes a coolant pump and a thermostat. The coolant pump is operated in response to an operation of the engine. The thermostat is switched between a closed state where a coolant discharged from the coolant jacket is introduced into the warm-up circuit, and an open state where the coolant discharged from the coolant jacket is introduced into the main circuit, depending on the coolant temperature.
The thermostat is kept in the closed state during cold start of the engine. Thus, the coolant discharged from the coolant jacket is introduced into the warm-up circuit to bypass the radiator, so that the engine is promptly warmed up. Upon completion of warm-up of the engine, the thermostat is switched to the open state. Thus, the coolant discharged from the coolant jacket is introduced into the main circuit, and heat recovered from the engine body is released into the atmosphere by the radiator.
Some cooling apparatuses are provided with a coolant temperature sensor disposed at a position at the outlet side of the coolant jacket and upstream of the position at which the main circuit is connected to the coolant jacket, and control the engine (e.g., control the fuel injection amount) based on the coolant temperature detected by the coolant temperature sensor. After cold start of the engine, before the thermostat is switched to the open state, that is, before the thermostat makes switchover from the state where the coolant discharged from the coolant jacket flows through the warm-up circuit to the state where the coolant discharged from the coolant jacket flows through the main circuit, the engine stops and thus the coolant pump stops, and then the engine is restarted within a short period of time, in some cases.

Cooling apparatus for internal combustion engine


A liquid crystal display device includes first thin film transistor with a first polysilicon active layer in which a first channel area has first grain boundaries, wherein the first thin film transistor has a first channel direction different from a first grain boundary direction of the first grain boundaries, and a second thin film transistor with a second polysilicon active layer in which a second channel area has second grain boundaries, wherein the second thin film transistor has a second channel direction parallel to a second grain boundary direction of the second grain boundaries, wherein the first and second transistors have a substantially same electrical characteristic.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display device, and more particularly to a liquid crystal display. Although the present invention is suitable for a wide scope of applications, it is particularly suitable for increasing resolution.
2. Description of the Related Art
Silicon is generally classified into amorphous silicon, polycrystalline silicon, and monocrystalline in accordance with a crystallization state of the silicon. The amorphous silicon can be deposited as a thin film at a low temperature of 350° C. or less. Because amorphous silicon can be deposited at a low temperature, amorphous silicon is typically used as a thin film transistor (hereinafter, referred to as 'TFT') for a liquid crystal display device. As size of liquid crystal displays increases, materials with fast electrical characteristics are required to drive large-sized liquid crystal displays. Thus, amorphous silicon can not be used in large-sized liquid crystal display devices, since amorphous silicon has a low mobility of 0.5 cm2/Vs or less.
Polycrystalline silicon (polysilicon) has a high mobility from several tens of cm2/Vs to several hundreds of cm2/Vs. Realizing large-sized liquid crystal display device by using polysilicon as the semiconductor layer in a TFT has been actively researched. By using a polysilicon TFT in the liquid crystal display device, there is an advantage in that the drive IC and the TFT array substrate of the display area can be integrated into the same substrate.
A sequential lateral solidification (hereinafter, referring to as 'SLS') of silicon in which an excimer laser is irradiated onto an amorphous silicon thin film to completely melt the thin film and crystallize from the side in a cooling process is mainly used as a method of forming polysilicon. During the cooling process, crystalline striations extend from the sides and grain boundaries extend between the striations. In the case of a TFT using polysilicon, the electrical characteristic of channel mobility is limited by a grain boundary in the channel area of the TFT. To improve the electrical characteristic of the TFT using polysilicon, the orientation of the grain boundaries in the channel should be controlled such that the number of the grain boundaries traverse by current flow in the channel area is minimized. Such a control of the orientation of the grain boundaries can be done by crystallizing the amorphous silicon directionally with the SLS method. In other words, the amorphous silicon is directional crystallized using the SLS process to minimize the grain boundaries traversed by a current in the channel, thereby increasing the mobility of the channel. As a result, the electrical characteristic of the TFT is improved by use of the directionally grown polysilicon. The electrical characteristic of the TFT being dependent upon the grain boundary direction in the channel will be explained in conjunction with FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIG. 1 is a diagram representing polysilicon in the active layer of a liquid crystal display device in the related art. More specifically, FIG. 1 represents a case 1 when a current direction of the TFT channel is parallel to the direction of the grain boundaries, a case 2 when a current direction of the TFT channel forms a 45° angle with the direction of grain boundaries, and a case 3 when a current direction of the TFT channel forms a right angle with the direction of the grain boundaries. The TFT characteristics of the three cases for the current direction of the TFT channel with respect to the direction of the grain boundaries shown in FIG. 1 are given in Table 1. Hereinafter, the term "channel direction" is the current direction in the channel area. Further, the term "grain boundary direction" is the direction of grain boundaries.
TABLE 11 Solid Line2 Dotted Line3 Dashed LineChannel OrientParallel45 degree90 degreeMisOrientedMisOrientedMobility340 cm2/v · sec230 cm2/v · sec140 cm2/v · secVth1.3 V1.3 V2.0 VS-Factor0.45 V/dec0.44 V/dec1.56 V/dec
As shown in Table 1, the polysilicon TFT is known to be different in accordance with the channel direction of the TFT with respect to the grain boundary direction of the polysilicon. Further, polysilicon TFT's within the panel having the same channel direction with respect to the grain boundary direction of the polysiliicon will all have similar electrical characteristics. The highest mobility is when the channel direction of a TFT is parallel to the grain boundary direction of the polysilicon in the channel area. The mobility depends on the number of the grain boundaries or the density of the grain boundaries when the channel direction of a TFT is parallel to the grain boundary direction of the polysilicon.
FIG. 2 is a graph representing a current characteristic for a voltage in the three cases of FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 2, case 1 is a solid line for when a channel direction of the TFT is parallel to the direction of the grain boundary direction of the polysilicon in the channel area, case 2 is a dotted line for when a channel direction of the TFT forms a 45° angle with the direction of the grain boundary direction of the polysilicon in the channel area, case 3 is a dashed line when a channel direction of the TFT forms a right angle with the direction of the grain boundary direction of the polysilicon in the channel area, and when a drain voltage Vd is 10V and 0.1V respectively. Further, the x axis represents a gate voltage Vg and the y axis represents a drain voltage Id.
As shown in FIG. 2, a sub-threshold slope and a threshold voltage Vth are known to depend on the density of the grain boundary direction of the polysilicon in the channel area. The sub-threshold slope is an S shape in Table 1. If a gate voltage is increased slowly in the TFT, the current increase from a voltage below the threshold voltage to finally reach an on-current Ion that drives the TFT, and the sub-threshold slope is an increased amount of the gate voltage when the current is increased ten times from the voltage below the threshold voltage.
In the case when a channel direction of the TFT is parallel to the grain boundary direction of the polysilicon in the channel area such that the number of grain boundaries is minimized in the channel area, the threshold voltage becomes 1.1V and the sub-threshold slope becomes 0.46V/dec. Further, in the case when a channel direction of the TFT forms a right angle with the grain boundary direction of the polysilicon in the channel area such that the number of grain boundaries is maximized in the channel area, the threshold voltage becomes 2.0V and the sub-threshold slope becomes 0.56V/dec. In the case when a channel direction of the TFT forms a 45° angle with the grain boundary direction of the polysilicon in the channel area such that the number of grain boundaries has an intermediate value between the two above cases in the channel area, the threshold voltage becomes 1.4V and the sub-threshold slope becomes 0.47V/dec. Thus, the sub-threshold slope and the threshold voltage depend on the density of the grain boundaries in the channel area.
FIG. 3 is a diagram representing the directions for the current and grain boundaries in the channel area of a thin film transistor in the liquid crystal display device of the related art. All of the channel directions in the channels of TFTs within an LCD panel are typically formed to be parallel to the directions of the grain boundaries in the channel areas' of the TFTs, such as the crystallization growing direction, as shown in FIG. 3. However, to form the polysilicon so that the grain boundaries are in the same direction as the channel direction of the TFTs decreases the layout freedom for the TFTs such that fewer devices can be integrated into an area. The decreased integration can cause other problems. For example, it the area for the drive circuit part of a display panel, which is integrated into the display panel, is increased; the aperture ratio of the pixel is decreased in the case of a high resolution display panel.


Provided according to embodiments of the invention pharmaceutical capsules that include a capsule body and a capsule cap, wherein the capsule cap envelops an open end of the capsule body to form a capsule core; and an adherence sheath that envelops a portion of the capsule core. Related capsules and methods of making such capsules are also provided herein.

Non-compliance of patients to drug regimens prescribed by their physicians results in excessive healthcare costs estimated to be around $100 billion per year through lost work days, increased cost of medical care, higher complication rates, as well as drug wastage. In addition, non-compliance of drug regimens by patients during clinical trials may result in denial of FDA clearance for otherwise viable drugs. It is estimated that the average non-adherence rates among patients in clinical trials receiving treatment for chronic conditions can be as high as 57%. See, The New England Journal of Medicine in 2005 (Lars Osterberg, M.D. and Terrence Blaschke, M.D., "Drug Therapy: Adherence to Medication"). If a drug fails to achieve approval in part because participants are not taking the study medication, significant money is wasted and drugs that may be useful to patients never gain approval. Non-compliance refers to the failure to take the prescribed dosage at the prescribed time which results in under-medication or over-medication.
Devices, systems and methods for breath-based monitoring medication adherence are known in the art. Examples of such devices, systems and methods can be found, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,820,108, and U.S. Publication Nos. 2014/0294675, 2010/0255598 and 2014/0341983, the contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. Despite the success of such methods, there remains a need in the art for improved products, devices, systems and methods for medication adherence monitoring.

Pharmaceutical capsules for medication adherence monitoring and methods of forming the same

University of Florida Research Foundation, Inc.


An apparatus for scanning bar code data recorded on a target includes a source emitting a beam of radiation, and optics for deflecting the beam of radiation along an axis normal to the beam. The apparatus further includes an electronic shutter element defining a plurality of adjacent regions, each region independently capable of assuming a substantially transparent state, and, digital logic, for causing the adjacent regions of the shutter element to assume substantially transparent states in a sequential, directional manner along the axis to affect directional transmission of less than all of the deflected beam onto the target. The apparatus further includes a detector for sensing the presence of radiation reflected from the target, and, optics for converting the radiation reflected from the target into a beam and for focussing the beam onto the detector.

Commercially available bar code scanners typically utilize moving elements, such as rotating mirrors, parabolic reflectors, or the like to scan a circular beam of radiation over a bar code. As such, these scanners are susceptible to the effects of friction and wear, and often require substantial power to drive electric motors contained therein.
In addition, the size or resolution of the circular beam generated and detected by such scanners, particularly high resolution scanners, is not suitable for reading bar codes of poorer quality. It has been found that the different types of printers utilized for generation of bar codes, the roughness of the material on which the bar code is printed, and the physical condition of the printing device can cause irregularities in the bar code. Such irregularities often cause erroneous scanning, particularly where the scanning aperture is smaller than the resolution of the printer, i.e., dot-matrix printer, used to generate the bar code.
An optical scanner for bar code scanning is proposed herein that overcomes the problems associated with scanners containing moveable parts and which further is less susceptible to the variations in bar code quality.


An informative priors image search result summarization system and method that summarizes image search results based on the image relevance (as determined by a search engine's initial ranking) and the image quality. Embodiments of the system and method cluster the image search results, rank images within each cluster based on a computed image score, and then select a summary image for the cluster. Each cluster is analyzed and an image in the cluster having the maximum image score is included in a selected summary collection. The image score is computed using the image relevance and the image quality, as well as a cluster coherence, a density, and a diversity. The selection of images from a collection of candidate images generates an image search result summarization, which is presented to a user. The summaries are presented to the user in a ranked order based on their image scores.

An image search engine provides a convenient tool for users to retrieve their desired images from the large amount of images on the Web. However, users often find it difficult to identify the interesting images in the returned results that typically are returned by the search engine due to the excessive amount of images contained in the returned results. One way to lessen the time involved for a user to find interesting images in the returned results is image search result summarization. In general, image search result summarization selects representative images from the returned results for presentation to the user and alleviates the need for users to browse each of the images in the returned results.
For example, consider the situation where a user issues a query "apple" and the search engine returns hundreds of images sorted by relevance. The images returned for query "apple" may range from the fruit apple to Apple Inc. products, and even to apple-shaped rock. It is quite inefficient for a user to browse each image in the returned results to find the desired images. Actually, when several topics for "apple" are presented, users are able to obtain their targets more conveniently.
There are a variety of image collection summarization (ICS) techniques that are effective in selecting representative images from an image collection. In particular, one image collection summarization technique for automatically creating image summaries from an image collection formulates the problem as an optimization problem. This technique takes the image coverage and diversity into consideration and then describes a greedy algorithm to solve the optimization problem. Another technique uses landmark summarization and employs K-Means to cluster the images into visually similar groups. Then the technique select images from the clusters according to some heuristic criteria including visual coherence and interest point connections. Yet another technique computes an optimal partition based on a mixture-of-kernels technique and uses a sampling algorithm to select representative images. Still another technique uses a greedy method to recommend canonical images. This technique first adopts visual words to represent the visual features in a scene and then iteratively select the images that cover the most informative visual words. Another technique clusters photographs by utilizing image content and associated tags to summarize general queries, such as "love", "CLOSEUP" and so on.
Although the above image collection summarization techniques are effective in selecting representative images from a collection, they are not optimal to summarize image search results. This is due to several reasons. One reason is that an image search engine often returns some noisy images that ideally should not be contained in the summarization result. Thus, selecting images primarily by coverage and diversity (as most of the ICS methods do) is not a good strategy in noisy circumstances. A second reason is that these image collection summarization techniques tend to ignore image relevance and assuming the images in the collection are all relevant. However, the relevance obtained from the search engine is useful prior information for images to be selected as summaries. The third reason is that the image quality in the summarization result is desirable for a quality users' experience. Low-quality images are non-informative for users if they occur in the summaries, since users cannot get the "complex" idea from such small-sized thumbnails. Studies have shown that a user's experience significantly suffers from low-quality summaries and that most users cannot tolerate any thumbnail images with low resolution.

Image search result summarization with informative priors


A method and apparatus for manufacturing a carbon fiber. Pressure is applied to a filament to change a cross-sectional shape of the filament and create a plurality of distinct surfaces on the filament. The filament is converted into a graphitic carbon fiber having the plurality of distinct surfaces. A plurality of sizings is applied to the plurality of distinct surfaces of the graphitic carbon fiber in which the plurality of sizings includes at least two different sizings.

Carbon fibers have high stiffness, high tensile strength, low weight, high chemical resistance, high temperature tolerance, and low thermal expansion. These properties make carbon fibers particularly useful in certain applications, including aerospace, civil engineering, military, and other types of applications. One of the most common uses of carbon fibers is in the formation of composites. For example, carbon fibers may be combined with resin to form a composite.
Typically, carbon fiber is supplied in the form of a continuous tow, which is a bundle of hundreds to thousands of individual carbon filaments. These carbon filaments are cylindrical in shape and comprised almost entirely of carbon. Carbon fibers may be derived from different types of materials including, but not limited to, polyacrylonitrile (PAN), rayon, and petroleum pitch.
One method of manufacturing carbon fibers using polyacrylonitrile (PAN) filaments includes forming a plurality of PAN filaments from PAN material, with the PAN filaments having a cylindrical shape. The PAN filaments may be spread out in a single-layered row, forming a tow band. The tow band is tensioned and heated to carbonize the PAN filaments in the tow band. The tow band may then be further tensioned and heated to graphitize the carbon filaments in the tow band.
A sizing, which is a type of coating, may be applied to the carbon fiber. The sizing may protect the carbon fiber during handling and processing and may hold the filaments of the carbon fiber together. Further, when the carbon fiber is to be used in the fabrication of a composite, the sizing may be selected based on the type of resin to be used in forming the composite. In certain situations, it may be desirable to apply multiple sizings to carbon fibers to improve the quality of the composites formed using these carbon fibers.
Additionally, design and manufacturing costs using carbon fibers manufactured through the process described above may be more expensive than desired. Some of the carbon fibers manufactured through this process may not have a desired level of stiffness. Further, the time required for carbonization and graphitization may also be longer than desired. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and apparatus that take into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.

Method and apparatus for manufacturing carbon fibers


An infrared imaging signal is generated. An image of an exit signal of the infrared imaging signal is captured. The infrared imaging signal is within a frequency band.

Rising healthcare costs put economic pressure on families and businesses in addition to constraining access to healthcare to those that can afford the increased cost. Some modes of medical imaging are large cost drivers in medical expenses since the systems and devices that facilitate the medical imaging are valued in the millions of dollars. As a result of the high price of some medical imaging systems, alternative testing and/or less accurate modes of medical imaging are standard-of-care, even though the more expensive medical imaging system is a better diagnostic tool. In developing nations, the high price of medical imaging systems such as MRIs (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) limits access to medical imaging because of both price and physical access since the sparse geographical distribution of medical imaging systems also imposes a travel barrier for those that would benefit from them.


An apparatus for manufacturing dunnage including a plurality of rollers for pulling a web of material through the machine, a nozzle with at least one port through which gas or liquid flows, a plurality of ceramic elements in opposing positions such that the web of material can pass between the plurality of ceramic elements. A heating element is routed through each of the plurality of ceramic elements such that heat will radiate through openings in the top surfaces of the ceramic elements that will melt the portion of the material that is passing between the opposing ceramic elements. The apparatus may be equipped to manufacture multiple pieces of dunnage simultaneously.

Various materials are used to insulate goods from shock during shipping. Solid materials such as polystyrene "peanuts," cups and "worms," pellets of foam rubber, plastics and expanded polyurethane foam are in common use as a shock protector. Air cushioning material, or "air pillows," are generally preferred over the above types of dunnage because it is lighter in weight, can be supplied and dispensed in a controlled manner, and can be manufactured on site. Air Pillows are typically manufactured using rolls of sheet material, which is also easier to dispose of than the individual pieces of plastic dunnage after the product is removed.
Air pillows are typically manufactured on site because it is inefficient to ship preformed air pillows since they take up considerably more volume than the sheet material. Various devices have been described to produce sealed air dunnage, or air pillows, from sheet material. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,188,691, 5,203,761, and 4,576,669 all propose devices for producing air filled dunnage, typically bubble wrap, from plastic sheets on an "on demand" basis.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,341,473, 6,889,739 and 6,948,296 each disclose a process for producing dunnage on site from plastic sheets where the plastic sheets are sealed after inflation using heating elements that contact the plastic sheets and weld them together.
However, these aforementioned processes and devices are disadvantageous in that because the heating elements must directly physically contact the plastic sheeting, they can become fouled from plastic that melts when the plastic sheeting stops moving through the devices. When heating elements become fouled, the dunnage producing machines must be cleaned or the heating elements must be replaced, resulting in down time and lost production. It is a further disadvantage that the aforementioned processes and devices are limited in their production speeds because of the need to allow the air pillow material to be physically melted between the heating elements to seal the air pillows, and because when the heating elements are fouled, speeds must be slower. Current air pillow producing machines run at speeds between 18-40 feet per minute.
Another feature of existing dunnage machines are the use of two rubber wheels that engage the plastic sheeting to pull it through the inflation and sealing process. However the use of rubber wheels is disadvantageous because when the rubber wheels get dirty, slippage in the pillow material can occur.


The present invention relates to a blocking mechanism for a parking lock of a shaft in a motor vehicle. The blocking mechanism includes a pawl pivotable about a pivot axis and which, in a blocked position, engages into at least one latch cut-out of a ratchet wheel connected to the shaft. The blocking mechanism includes an actuating mechanism having an actuating device for moving an actuation slider. The pawl is pivotable by a movement of the actuation slider. The actuation slider includes a first U-shaped component and a second U-shaped component which each have two side sections and a transverse section connecting the side sections. The first component and the second component are plugged into one another in opposite directions such that the transverse section of the one component at least partly closes the open end of the U shape of the component and vice versa.

This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Such blocking mechanisms are used, for example, as parking locks to secure a motor vehicle when stationary. For this purpose, for example, a transmission shaft of a motor vehicle is rotationally fixedly locked. Parking locks are in particular used in motor vehicles having automatic transmissions and/or in hybrid vehicles or electric vehicles.
On the actuation of the parking lock, substantial loads on the components involved can occur. If the vehicle is still rolling, for example, on the actuation of the parking lock, a torque is applied at the shaft of the vehicle to be locked. The components of the parking lock have to take up the forces related thereto to effect the reliable locking of the shaft.


An extreme pressure, anti-wear additive for lubricating compositions which is the reaction product of a 2,5-dimercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole, an aldehyde and a primary or secondary, aliphatic or alicyclic amine.

The present invention relates to an anti-wear additive for lubricating compositions and specifically to an extreme pressure, anti-wear additive.
Lubricating compositions reduce friction and reduce or prevent destructive contact between moving metal surfaces as long as a lubricating film is maintained between the moving surfaces. This particular type of lubrication is referred to as hydrodynamic lubrication.
Some anti-wear additives enhance the hydrodynamic lubrication of motor oils and the like. However, when the pressure and/or rubbing speeds between the moving metal surfaces increase, the lubricating film is forced out from between the moving metal surface. This results in metal-to-metal contact and wear. Lubrication under these extreme pressure conditions requires an additive that is adsorbed by or reacts with the metal to form an adherent protective film having a lower shear strength with the metal. This type of lubrication is needed under conditions called boundary lubrication, and additives enhancing this type of lubrication are known as "extreme pressure, anti-wear additives."
Many extreme pressure, anti-wear additives are known, with the most commercially used additives being phosphorus containing compounds, such as dialkyldithiophosphates. While these phosphorus-containing compounds provide a high degree of boundary lubrication, there is a move away from these types additives, especially for use in internal combustion engines because of the belief that, when these compounds or their oxidation products are carried by the exhaust gases, they react with and reduce the life of emission control catalysts.
Various types of other extreme pressure, anti-wear additives are known, such as the boron-containing compounds disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,975,135; 3,509,054; 3,347,793; 3,356,707 and 4,115,286. While these boron-containing compounds provide some degree of boundary lubrication, other additives of similar or superior properties to the dialkyldithiophosphates are still being sought, and particularly those which will not poison or otherwise interfere with automotive emission control catalysts.
Certain derivatives of 2,5-dimercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole have been disclosed as useful in lubricating compositions as corrosion inhibitors, such as the reaction product of a diamine and 2,5-dimercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole (U.S. Pat. No. 2,910,439) and the reaction product of formaldehyde, a diaryl amine and 2,5-dimercapto,1,3,4-thiadiazole (U.S. Pat. No. 2,765,289). Other derivatives of 2,5-dimercapto-1,3,4-thiadiazole used as corrosion inhibitors in lubricating compositions are reaction products with an unsaturated ketone (U.S. Pat. No. 2,799,652); with an unsaturated cyclic compound (U.S. Pat. No. 2,764,547); and with formaldehyde and alcohol (U.S. Pat. No. 2,850,453). Also disclosed as corrosion inhibitors are thiadiazolyl dithiocarbamates (U.S. Pat. No. 2,690,999) and the carboxylic ester derivatives (U.S. Pat. No. 2,760,933).


In order to reduce the amount of time it takes to collect images of defects, this defect inspection device is provided with the following: a read-out unit that reads out positions of defects in a semiconductor wafer that have already been detected; a first imaging unit that takes, at a first magnification, a reference image of a chip other than the chip where one of the read-out defects is; a second imaging unit that takes, at the first magnification, a first defect image that contains the read-out defect; a defect-position identification unit that identifies the position of the defect in the first defect image taken by the second imaging unit by comparing said first defect image with the reference image taken by the first imaging unit; a third imaging unit that, on the basis of the identified defect position, takes a second defect image at a second magnification that is higher than the first magnification; a rearrangement unit that rearranges the read-out defects in an order corresponding to a path that goes through each of the read-out defects exactly once; and a stage-movement-path generation unit that selects the chip where the reference image corresponding to each defect is to be taken and generates a stage-movement path by determining stage-movement positions for the first and second imaging units.

As a method for observing foreign matters and defects in detail by observing a sample, there is, for example, a method disclosed in Patent Literature 1. This method is configured such that, when, on the basis of coordinate data of a defect detected beforehand by another inspection device, an observation image of the defect is imaged, a reference image is captured at a low magnification at a position corresponding to the defect position of the chip of a wafer other than the wafer including the defect, then the stage holding the sample is moved so that the defect image is captured at the low magnification, the defect position on the defect image is identified by comparing the reference image with the defect image, and then the defect is enlarged and imaged.

Defect inspection method and defect inspection device


In accordance with embodiments, there are provided mechanisms and methods for managing business deals. The mechanisms and methods for managing business deals may enable embodiments to provide a dynamic and interactive user-interface including any combination of contacts, accounts, opportunities, allowing users to create tasks, events, leads (e.g., from Data.com), reports, dashboards, instant messenger, external deal spaces, email service (e.g., Outlook), a cloud-based productivity suite for businesses that allows work on any device (e.g., Google apps), mobile access, private messaging, lead management, mass email templates, social media monitoring (e.g., from Radian6), role-based sharing and security, and/or additional storage, for example. In an embodiment, the number of contacts may be unlimited.

The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches, which in and of themselves may also be inventions.
Many small businesses use disorganized ways of tracking contacts and deals, such as, through a combination of spreadsheets and a low-end crm product. Methods are needed for small businesses to track and organize bigger deals at a reasonable budget.
In conventional database systems, users access their data resources in one logical database. A user of such a conventional system typically retrieves data from and stores data on the system using the user's own systems. A user system might remotely access one of a plurality of server systems that might in turn access the database system. Data retrieval from the system might include the issuance of a query from the user system to the database system. The database system might process the request for information received in the query and send to the user system information relevant to the request. The rapid, secure, easy to use, and efficient retrieval of accurate information and subsequent delivery of this information to the user system in a manner that is easy to understand has been, and continues to be, a goal of administrators of database systems.
Unfortunately, the user of conventional database approaches for managing business deals might be slow and inefficient.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide techniques enabling a user to manage business deals in a multitenant database system to improve performance, security, efficiency, and the ease of use of the database system.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and system for managing business deals


Apparatus and method of even harmonic distortion compensation are provided for digital data detection in a disk file. The disk file includes a magneto-resistive (MR) head or other magnetic transducer head and an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) for providing a sampled readback signal. An even harmonic filter is coupled to the ADC for providing a filtered readback signal having only even harmonic components. An adder subtracts the filtered readback signal from the sampled readback signal for providing a compensated output signal. The compensated output signal is applied to a digital channel of the disk file.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to digital signal processing, and more particularly to a method and apparatus for even harmonic distortion compensation for digital data detection in a direct access storage device (DASD).
2. Description of the Prior Art
Computers often include auxiliary memory storage units having media on which data can be written and from which data can be read for later use. Disk drive units incorporating stacked, commonly rotated rigid magnetic disks are used for storage of data in magnetic form on the disk surfaces. Data is recorded in concentric, radially spaced data information tracks arrayed on the surfaces of the disks. Transducer heads driven in a path toward and away from the drive axis write data to the disks and read data from the disks. A slider supports one or more magnetic heads. The slider is lightly biased to cause the heads to move toward the recording surface when the disk is stationary; but as the disk is brought up to operating speed, an air bearing is generated which moves each slider and hence the heads away from the recording surface toward a preselected flying height. Achievement of a higher data density on magnetic disks has imposed increasingly narrow transducing gaps.
A magneto-resistive (MR) transducing head exhibits a change in resistance when in the presence of a changing magnetic field. This resistance change is transformed into a voltage signal by passing a constant current through the MR element. The value of DC voltage, for a given head, is the product of the constant bias current and the total resistance between the head lead terminals. The temperature coefficient of resistivity of the MR material is 0.02%/.degree.C.
Even harmonic distortion in the readback signal for recording heads, particularly heads having magneto-resistive readback elements, causes excessive data error rates if not compensated. A thermal asperity (TA), for example, is a physical defect on a magnetic disk surface that when struck by the magneto-resistive (MR) element on a recording head causes a thermal response. For example, thermal asperities can locally increase the strip temperature by more than 100.degree. C. Many of the TA's are associated with build contamination, and the TA's can grow over time. For example, it has been shown that a small disk surface defect can act as a nucleation site where debris can accumulate over time. This becomes a grown defect and eventually a TA. If not compensated for properly, it will cause customer hard data errors. The readback signal during the TA event shows large even harmonic components associated with the signal baseline shift. As heads fly lower approaching contact recording, TA's will be increasing in frequency and possibly severity. Other head non-linearities that produce baseline shift or signal asymmetry also produce even harmonic distortions that must be compensated to prevent errors which can affect file performance and cause hard data errors. When contact recording is used, MR TA events may be numerous; and the correction techniques applied will be crucial to customer acceptance.
Disadvantages of the known analog arrangements for minimizing the effect of thermal asperities on the read data include the hardware required and the corresponding electronics cost and the required error burst length for a given thermal transient amplitude. Higher data rates will require ever decreasing reaction times necessary for thermal asperity compensation. Known analog techniques will be too slow.

Even harmonic distortion compensation for digital data detection

International Business Machines Corporation


A method of transferring sets of video line data and macroblock data, includes the steps of determining a macroblock period and a video line period longer than the macroblock period, dividing each set of video line data to be transferred within the video line period into two or more portions according to the difference between the determined macroblock period and video line period, aligning a burst transfer of each of the portions of the divided set of video line data and each set of macroblock data to the macroblock period, and initiating the burst transfer of the sets of video line data and macroblock data at macroblock period intervals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a memory transfer controller and method of transfer control for video line data and macroblock data. The memory transfer controller can be a bridge between a video system and a standard bus system for access to an external memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
The prior art has generally focused on the organization of data in memory and the use of controller circuits to facilitate the efficient transfer of video data between a video system and external memory.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,581,310 by Vinekar et al., entitled "Architecture for a High Definition Video Frame Memory and an Accompanying Data Organization for Use Therewith and Efficient Access Therefrom" describes an architecture for a memory with a wide word width particularly suited for use as a high definition video frame store memory and an accompanying organization for storing pixel data therein to facilitate efficient block and raster access therefrom. Specifically, the memory relies on storing n-byte words (n=m1×m2) across m2 independent memory segments with pre-defined positional offsets between m1-byte words stored in successive memory segments. All these segments are simultaneously accessed on a read or write basis. This structure of storage allows two widely differing forms of memory access, part of raster line or sub-block of macroblock, to be accessed easily using appropriate pipeline shuffling circuitry.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,892,522 by Moutin, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Addressing a Memory Area of MPEG Decoder", describes a method and apparatus for addressing a memory area assigned to bi-directional images from a decoder according to an MPEG standard and organized in rows of macroblocks constituted by blocks containing data relative to a group of pixels of the image. The method, by dividing each data block into a half block of odd lines and a half block of even lines and then sequentially arranging all half-blocks of the same type in the same row of macroblocks, enables the reduction of memory area for storing bi-directional images.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,028,612 by Balakrishnan et al., "Picture Memory Mapping to Minimize Memory Bandwidth In Compression and De-compression of Data Sequences", describes a method of partitioning the picture into 2 or more stripes, each having a pre-determined number of columns and sequentially mapping each row of the stripes to a subsequent word in memory that can reduce bandwidth when retrieving an array portion of the picture from memory. This was extended for the case of interlaced video sequences where a frame picture can be stored in a field organized memory with similar mapping schemes.
In a typical video encoding and decoding system, large amounts of video data are required to be transferred over a shared system bus, which may support other peripheral devices, especially for video encoding systems like MPEG-2, which eliminate temporal redundancy by motion estimation and inter-picture coding.
Optimal memory bandwidth usage is important for implementation. Some conventional methods that minimize bandwidth usage limit the data processing required to be performed, for example by implementing a smaller motion estimation search window or reducing or eliminating video pre- or post processing. Often, these methods achieve a lower bandwidth at the expense of encoded picture quality.
On the other hand, a faster and wider memory access can be developed to increase bandwidth to maintain picture quality. This can, however, increase power consumption and implementation complexity.
The problem of bandwidth usage can be described more specifically in relation to an MPEG compression system that consists of a video pre-processing sub-system that processes data at the video line rate and a video encoder sub-system that processes data at the macroblock rate. This represents two independent periodic data transfer events on the system bus.
The difference between video line data rate and macroblock data rate on the system bus gives rise to a situation, where both types of data transfers occur simultaneously, known as peak memory access bandwidth. This may cause unacceptable latency in data transfer which may crash the video pre-processor sub-system that is receiving digital data input in real time and may cripple the real time processing of the video encoder sub-system.
The worst case memory access bandwidth may be further aggravated where additional bus load is caused by other peripheral devices and or external memory access on the same system bus on top of the peak memory access bandwidth of the two sub-systems. This additional bus load may be unpredictable and difficult to control.
Solutions such as higher memory access and system bus throughput and/or using a larger memory buffer or usage of cache can improve efficiency but have the drawback of increasing implementation costs significantly.
During normal operation, the frequency of macroblock data transfer is higher than that of video line transfer. The video pre-processor sub-system requires video line data transfer at least every 64:s and 63.6:s for a PAL and NTSC system respectively. The video encoder sub-system requires macroblock data transfer at least every 24.7:s for a D1 picture.
On the other hand, the video line transfer has a larger amount of data transfer than the macroblock data transfer. For example, a luminance image video line transfer comprises of 720 bytes while the luminance image macroblock transfer comprises of 256 bytes.

Memory transfer controller and method of transfer control of video line data and macroblock data

STMicroelectronics Asia Pacific Pte. Ltd.


A fluidized bed system in which a plate is disposed in an enclosure and is adapted to support particulate material. A nozzle is supported by the plate for receiving air and water and directing the air and water and into the particulate material to fluidize and cool same.

This invention relates to a fluidized bed system and a nozzle for use therein and, more particularly, to such a system having a bed of particulate material in an enclosed space which is fluidized and cooled by the introduction of air and water into the bed through a plurality of nozzles.
Fluidized bed reactors, such as gasifiers, steam generators, combustors, and the like, are well known. In these arrangements, pressurized air or other fluidizing media is passed, via a plurality of nozzles, through a bed of particulate material, including a fossil fuel such as coal and an adsorbent for the sulfur generated as a result of combustion of the coal, to fluidize the bed and to promote the combustion of the fuel at a relatively low temperature. The entrained particulate solids are usually separated externally of the bed and recycled back into the bed. The heat produced by the fluidized bed is utilized in various applications such as the generation of steam, which results in an attractive combination of high heat release, high sulfur adsorption, low nitrogen oxides emissions and fuel flexibility.
However, fluidized bed reactors require careful control of several parameters, including particle size distribution to avoid increasing the volume of the relatively fine particles in the reactor to unacceptably high levels. Also, bed temperature must be controlled in order to prevent undesirable temperature excursions and agglomeration of the bed material.
Particle size distribution is often controlled by removing the relative fine particles from the reactor, stripping them with a stream of air in a secondary fluidized bed and recirculating them back to the reactor. An example of this technique is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,912, assigned to the assignee of the present invention. These secondary fluidized beds can also perform a cooling function and are often termed "stripper/coolers". A stripper/cooler located adjacent the furnace section of the reactor can accomplish both the recirculation of the finer portions of the removed, particulate material and the removal of heat from the removed but non-recirculated, particulate material. In these types of arrangements, the stripper/cooler receives the particulate material from the furnace section through a drain pipe and air is blown through a first section of the stripper/cooler to strip, or entrain, some of the finer portions of the particulate material which are returned to the furnace section. The remaining particulate material in the stripper/cooler is then usually passed to a cooler section where heat is removed from the particulate material by passing water/steam in a heat exchange relation to the particulate material or by blowing air through it before it is discharged from the system. When air is used to remove the heat from the non-recirculated particulate material, this air is often returned to the furnace section as preheated combustion supporting air.
However, in some situations, such as when fuels that generate an excessive amount of relatively fine ash are used, or when a relatively large amount of relatively fine adsorbent has to be used with fuels having a relatively high sulfur content, the relatively fine particle material stripped in the stripper/cooler and returned to the furnace section increases the volume of the fines in the furnace section, or the upper furnace loading, to unacceptably high levels. Excessive upper furnace loading requires larger and more expensive stripper/coolers and separators and/or requires that the furnace be operated at a low stoichiometric condition, which is inefficient.
This upper furnace loading is made worse when the method used to cool the particulate material in the cooler section of the stripper/cooler is by blowing air through the material. To achieve a high cooling rate, the air velocity and flow rate through the cooler section must be relatively high. A high air velocity and flow rate, however, entrains greater amounts of particulate material resulting in an even greater volume of fines returned to the furnace section when this air is used as combustion supporting air, thereby further increasing the upper furnace loading. To complicate the matter even further, a high air velocity in the cooler section is also necessary to prevent agglomeration of the particulate material in the stripper/cooler caused by relatively high temperatures in the stripper/cooler due to the combustion of unburned carbon. Making the stripper/cooler larger in area to alleviate this concern does not help since unacceptably high amount of combustion air is used in the stripper/cooler, thereby leaving less than adequate air for proper process control requirements.
Thus a significant need arises for improved temperature control of a fluidized bed reactor and stripper/cooler.

Fluidized bed system and a fluidization and cooling nozzle for use therein


The present invention relates to a method and related structure for reducing ground bounce during write operations from a microprocessor. More specifically, the address and data signal lines of the microprocessor are divided into three transmission groups. The first transmission group transitions its data onto the bus lines with no delay. The second transmission group transitions its signal lines onto the bus with a half clock period delay of the core frequency clock. Finally, the third transmission group transitions its signal lines onto the bus with a full clock period delay of the core frequency clock. In this way, parallel writes by the microprocessor have their current sinking associated with that write distributed over an entire clock period of the core frequency clock such that ground bounce associated with that current sinking is reduced.

Not applicable.
Not applicable.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to microprocessors for computer systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to writing information to address and data buses by a microprocessor in a computer system. More specifically still, the invention relates to reducing ground bounce during write operations by a microprocessor.
2. Background of the Invention
Computer systems generally comprise many components, but the heart of any computer system is the microprocessor or central processing unit. Early computer systems may have had a single microprocessor that was responsible for performing instructions and doing calculations as commanded by software operating in the system. As computer software technology advances, computer systems may comprise many microprocessors with varying degrees of computing capability. Some computer systems may have parallel processors to ease the processing load on any one microprocessor. Other computer systems may distribute microprocessors throughout the system with each dedicated to particular functions, for example, there may be a dedicated microprocessor to operate an array of storage devices for the computer system.
In having the ability to execute programs and perform calculations, vast amount of information must be transferred to and written from any particular microprocessor. Microprocessors typically write information from over a plurality of communication buses.
While microprocessors generally have some limited serial communication capabilities, the bulk of microprocessor data communication occurs over parallel communication buses. Using a parallel bus, significant amounts of information exchange between devices in each transfer clock period. For example, an address bus may have fifteen address signal lines coupling the microprocessor to a device with which the microprocessor wishes to communicate. By selectively driving this plurality of address data lines high or low, the microprocessor communicates an address relevant to a write operation. All these exemplary address lines in a parallel scheme transition simultaneously. That is, the microprocessor drives each of these plurality of address signal lines to a high or low state at the same time.
Likewise, data transfer in a parallel bus scheme involves driving a plurality of data signal lines to a high or low state to represent binary information. A data bus could be, for example, 64 data lines wide with the high or low state of each data line representing one bit of information. If a byte represents 8 bits of information, it is clearly seen that a 64 bit wide data bus has the capability of transferring 8 bytes of information in a parallel fashion. Just like the address lines described above, when a microprocessor transfers data across the data bus, the microprocessor places eight bytes of information, that is 64 bits, onto the data lines. The microprocessor accomplishes this task by driving the data lines high or low to represent bits of information. The microprocessor drives these lines simultaneously to facilitate the parallel transfer of information. Thus, for a single parallel exchange of information, a microprocessor may have to drive as many as 79 address and data lines simultaneously. Systems with large cache may require more address lines, e.g. 20. Moreover, server systems may have as many as 512 data lines. The number of data lines a microprocessor may have to drive increases with the addition of clock forwarding for groups of address and data lines as well as error correction lines used in error correction coding schemes.
While many types of bus architectures exist, a common bus architecture of the prior art is the open drain bus architecture. In a bus having an open drain architecture, each address and data signal line attaches to a high voltage through a pull up resister. When the address and/or data bus lines are not in use, the pull up resister pulls the voltage on each line to a high level. When a microprocessor writes information to the address and data lines, the microprocessor selectively leaves the bus in a high voltage condition, to indicate a first state, or pulls the bus down to a low voltage condition, to indicate a second state. In this way, devices writing to buses having an open drain architecture need not source current to charge the bus transmission lines associated with each address and data signal line; rather, the writing device need only sink or drain the current from the address and bus signal lines. While this technique may solve problems related to sourcing current for write operations, new problems arise with respect to sinking current by a writing device.
Resistance and inductance are generally parasite in the design of electric circuits. One of these circumstances is electrically coupling various electronic devices in a modular type computer system. Every location where a detachable electrical connection is made has some inherent resistance and inductance. The resistance element may be attributable to the physical coupling between two electrical conductors. The inductance element may be attributable to other conductive traces located in close physical proximity to the electrical connection at issue. Regardless of the source of the resistance and inductance, these electrical parameters cause undesirable voltages to develop across electrical connectors.
All the current drained to ground or common by the microprocessor must pass through the electrical connector that couples the microprocessor to the motherboard. As the microprocessor simultaneously drives address and data lines by sinking current, there is marked increase in current flow through the ground or common connector associated with this current sinking operation. The resistive element creates a voltage directly proportional to the current flow through the connector. However, the inductive element of the electrical connector creates a voltage that increases with the rate of change current through the electrical connector. Thus, in the instant in time when the microprocessor simultaneously drives all of its address and data signal lines, significant parasitic voltages are created across the electrical connector. Because of these parasitic voltages across the ground or common connector, the operating voltage of the microprocessor drops. This phenomenon is known as ground bounce. If the parasitic voltage across the electrical connector becomes sufficiently high, and therefore the operating voltage seen by the microprocessor becomes sufficiently low, operation of the microprocessor may be impaired.
Prior art devices address this phenomena of ground bounce by having multiple ground or common connectors through which to sink current during write operations by the microprocessor. While this technique may have helped the ground bounce phenomenon by reducing resistance and inductance, those effects are still felt in current microprocessor design technology.
Despite the desirability of reducing ground bounce during write operations of a microprocessor, no suitable system has been developed.
The problems noted above are solved in large part by a technique and related circuit which delays driving of selected address and data signal lines within a clock period of the core frequency clock. Delaying the sinking of currents across the ground connector reduces the voltage created associated with the parasitic inductance of a physical connector. More specifically, the plurality of address and data signal lines associated with a write by a microprocessor are grouped into three transmission groups. A first transmission group preferably comprises only the address signal lines. The microprocessor preferably asserts the address signal lines without delay inasmuch as the receiving device, most likely a bridge circuit, needs the address lines as an indication of what to do with the associated data. The data signal lines are preferably grouped into two further transmission groups. The microprocessor delays assertion of a first of these two transmission groups by half a clock period of the core frequency clock. That is, the microprocessor delays the sinking of current of any of the data signal lines in the second transmission group by half a clock period of the core frequency clock. Further, the microprocessor preferably delays by an entire period of the core frequency clock assertion of the data signal lines associated with the third transmission group.
In this way, the change in current flow through any particular ground connector is distributed over a period of time being the period of one complete clock signal of the core frequency clock. Thus, voltage build up across the connector associated with the parasitic inductive element is reduced because the change in current flow associated with a particular write operation is spread over an entire clock period of the core frequency clock rather than having the microprocessor sink all the current associated with all the address and data signal lines at one time. This reduces the voltage build up across the ground or common connectors which therefore reduces ground bounce.

System and method for reducing a ground bounce during write by selectively delaying address and data lines with different multiple predetermined amount of delay


A vapor chamber that includes a housing, a wick structure joined to a major inside surface of the housing, and a working liquid enclosed inside the housing. The wick structure is joined to the housing at a joint portion within a joint region, and a proportion of a total area of the joint portion within the joint region to an area of the joint region is 50% or less.

In recent years, an amount of heat emitted by a microelectronics device has tended to increase due to high degree of integration and demand for high performance. Meanwhile, a product has become smaller in size, which causes heat generation density to increase. Dissipating heat has become an important issue. This situation is found especially in the field of mobile terminals, such as smartphones and tablet devices. In recent years, a graphite sheet or the like has been often adopted as a heat dissipating member. However, the heat transport capacity of the graphite sheet is not large enough. Accordingly, application of various other heat dissipating members, in particular, use of a vapor chamber has been studied. The vapor chamber is a tabular shaped heat pipe that can transport heat very efficiently.
The vapor chamber has a structure that includes a housing in which a working liquid is enclosed and a wick structure is disposed. The wick structure transports the working liquid by using capillary forces. The working liquid absorbs heat and evaporates at an evaporation section of the vapor chamber that receives heat from a device that generates the heat. The working liquid that has evaporated moves within the vapor chamber to a condensation section where the working liquid is cooled and returns to a liquid phase. The working liquid after returning to the liquid phase moves toward the device that generates heat (i.e., toward the evaporation section) due to the capillary forces of the wick structure and thereby cools the device. By repeating this process self-supportedly without using external power, the vapor chamber can quickly dissipate heat two-dimensionally by utilizing the latent heat of vaporization and condensation of the working liquid.
Patent Document 1 discloses a panel-shaped heat pipe as a type of the vapor chamber described above, in which a wick structure is disposed inside a panel-shaped container and a working liquid is enclosed therein at a reduced pressure. More specifically, Patent Document 1 discloses the panel-shaped heat pipe in which a wick structure made of an aluminum alloy is soldered to a main body made of aluminum.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2004-28442.


A tape transport includes a deck, and magnetic tape supply and take-up reels associated with the deck for rotation to transport magnetic tape along a predetermined path therebetween; rotary head structure disposed along the path and associated with the deck, for interaction with the tape; a rotary capstan carried by the deck to engage and advance the tape along its path; there being an air flow channel along the path for channeling air to flow adjacent the tape and from the supply reel to the take-up reel to assist tape travel to the take-up reel. A rotary apparatus rotatably supports and rotates the take-up reel, and is ported to receive and discharge air flow from the channel.

This invention relates generally to tape transports, and more particularly to said transports wherein air or gas is utilized to feed tape along a channel between tape supply and take-up reels.
Simplification of tape transmitting, loading and threading, between rotating supply and take-up reels is an important objective in the design, construction and operation of magnetic tape transports. This is critical as respects high speed initial threading of the tape lead-end, via a complex tape path, between said reels; and in the past, cumbersome and sometimes unreliable mechanical means were utilized to achieve such threading and transport. There is great need for simple, reliable and simple, inexpensive apparatus to achieve tape threading and transport; and there is need to achieve tape threading at high tape speeds, with simplicity (i.e. without moving transport elements, such as guides, pins, etc.) of the loading mechanism and of the transport mechanism. cl SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a major object of the invention to provide improved apparatus meeting the above needs.
Such apparatus, in accordance with the invention, includes:
(a) a deck, and magnetic tape supply and take-up reels associated with the deck for rotation to transport magnetic tape along a predetermined path therebetween,
(b) rotary head or rotary head drums (i.e. read/write means), such as magnetic heads, mounted in rotating cylindrical assembly, disposed along said paths and associated with the deck,
(c) a rotary capstan carried by the deck to engage and advance the tape along said path,
(d) there being an air flow channel along said path for channeling air to flow adjacent the tape and to the take-up reel to assist tape travel to said take-up reel.
It is a further object to provide a rotary shaft to support and rotate the take-up reel, said shaft being ported to receive and discharge air flow from the channel. Such a take-up reel typically has a tape winding surface with at least one air passing perforation to pass said air flow to a port defined by the shaft; and a blower has its suction side connected in air flow receiving relation with said port defined by the shaft.
Another object is to provide a chamber on the deck that receives the supply reel for rotation therein, there being an air entry port to said chamber and in which air flows past the periphery of the supply reel to said channel. As will be seen, the air entry port is located to pass said air flow past the free end of tape on the supply reel to urge said free end into said channel, as the supply reel rotates.
An additional object involves the provision of a chamber on the deck that receives the take-up reel for rotation therein, as by a rotary shaft, and there being an air discharge port from said chamber and via which air flows across or through the periphery of the take-up reel to discharge from said chamber
Further objects include provision of a cartridge associated with said deck, the supply reel located in said cartridge to advance tape from the cartridge into the channel in the deck; and provision of a rotary head drum having fixed and rotating cylindrical surfaces along which the tape travels in a helical path as the tape travels along said path. This allows tape travel between two spaced planes. In this regard, the two reels may be in two different planes, and they may be co-axial, or out of axial alignment.
The invention finds especially advantageous use in video or rotary head apparatus.
These and other objects and advantages of the invention, as well as the details of an illustrative embodiment, will be more fully understood from the following specification and drawings, in which:

Magnetic tape free end threading assisted by air flow between reels


Systems and methods for producing background-reduced fluorescence imaging signals include an illumination system that provides illumination light from an illumination source to a targeted area on the sample platform, a sensor adapted to detect light and having an array of sensing locations, and collection optics arranged and configured to project light emanating from the sample platform onto the sensor. In typical operation, light from the targeted area is projected onto a first portion of the sensor comprising a first plurality of the sensing locations and light from proximal to the targeted area on the platform is projected onto a second portion of the sensor comprising a second plurality of the sensing locations, and a second signal detected by the second portion of the sensor is subtracted from a first signal detected by the first portion of the sensor to produce a background-reduced signal, e.g., a signal with reduced background related noise.

The present invention relates to optical imaging with reduced background, and more specifically to systems and methods for directly measuring the amount of background noise and removing it from the detected signal.
Optical imaging is becoming more and more the method of choice for many measurement applications that demand high sensitivity and quantification. Recent scientific advances benefit from reliably detecting small and/or weak targets. In order to obtain reliable representations of such targets, it is desirable to use an imaging system that has low noise levels. Fluorescence imaging is one of the techniques that have significant capabilities to reliably achieve sensitive, quantitative measurements. With fluorescence imaging, the target to be imaged is illuminated by an optical signal having a first spectral content (excitation light), and a portion of such a signal is absorbed by at least part of the target and is re-emitted as an optical signal of a second spectral content (emission light). The emission light is then detected by a detection system as a measure of the properties of the target.
A fluorescence imaging system typically includes one or more sources and components that generate and deliver the excitation light to the target area. The system also includes components to collect light from the target area, separate the emission light from the excitation light, and deliver it to an optical sensor. One common method for separating the emission light from reflected and/or scattered excitation light is optical filtering. Various other methods are also used to achieve similar results. However, with all the techniques known to date, it is often difficult to completely prevent reflected and/or scattered excitation light from reaching the sensor. This adds an amount of non-fluorescence signal to the emission signal which, in turn, results in a non-accurate measurement of target properties such as quantity of fluorescence material. This is one type of optical background noise. Another known type of optical background is auto-fluorescence which results from non-target elements in the system absorbing a portion of the excitation light and re-emitting it as fluorescence, a portion of its content being within the second spectral range. Examples of components that can generate auto-fluorescence background noise include the media where the target resides, optical filters, and lenses. Yet another source of optical background noise is light generated by sources other than the excitation light sources that makes its way towards the sensor. There are also a number of other non-optical background sources, such as dark signals generated by the sensor itself and the electronics that drive it. They, too, cause an increase in the background noise and if not eliminated or reduced, limit the performance of the imaging system.
There are a number of techniques and implementations for improving the sensitivity of fluorescence imaging systems (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,921,908; 6,495,812; 7,286,232; and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/785,308, the contents of each of which are hereby incorporated by reference for all purposes). These techniques range from hardware configurations to software processing of acquired images. Methods that rely more on hardware techniques are often preferred because they aim at the root-cause of the problems not at their symptoms. Within the hardware solutions, the most efficient are those that leverage any differences between the optical properties of target fluorescence emission and background noise to favorably select the former. And, as is well known in the optical imaging industry, techniques that work best for one type of background noise may not work well for others. There are also techniques that address more than one type of background noise in one design, but there still is a need for a more general way to eliminate or reduce the background noise irrespective of its origin or type.
Therefore it is desirable to provide systems and methods that overcome the above and other problems.

Differential scan imaging systems and methods


A voltage-mode line driving circuit is provided. The voltage-mode line driving circuit includes a driving circuit, the driving circuit receiving, as an input signal, a feedback signal, and outputting an output signal. The voltage-mode line driving signal also includes an adaptive tuning circuit coupled to the driving circuit, the adaptive tuning circuit receiving as input signals the feedback signal and the output signal and adaptively outputting a modifying signal to the driving circuit which modifies the feedback signal.

1. Technical Field
Embodiments consistent with the present invention are related to a circuit for driving a line, and, in particular, a voltage-mode line driving circuit having adaptive impedance matching.
2. Discussion of Related Art
In today's communication industry, coaxial and twisted-pair cables are widely used in transmitting E1/T1 data due to their practicability and low cost. However, as more media, particularly streaming video and audio, are transmitted over E1/T1 lines, traditional transceiver products are encountering increasing technical difficulties in transmitting and receiving the greater bandwidths of data over greater distances. For example, a line driver which is typically used to improve the transmission reliability, especially over long distances, may encounter problems with signal reflections as the signal is transmitted. To minimize reflections, the driver's output impedance should be equal to, or matched with, the characteristic impedance of the line, and be independent of process, temperature, and load variations. Moreover, the output waveform shape must meet ITU template standards.
Traditionally, there have been two ways to implement impedance matching for line drivers. FIG. 1A shows a line driver having impedance matching according to a first design. As shown in FIG. 1A, matching resistors 10 and 20 are serially connected to a voltage amplifier output 30, used to drive a voltage over line 40 which is coupled to load 50, through a transformer. However, the source voltage and power of a circuit using impedance matching as shown in FIG. 1A is consumed by matching resistor 10 or 20. Due to the voltage and power drop, a higher output voltage is required at the source end to provide a signal at the far end of line 40 with an acceptable voltage amplitude. The higher output voltage requirements make such a circuit difficult to incorporate into modern circuits which strive for smaller size, lower voltage, and lower power.
FIG. 1B shows a line driver having impedance matching according to a second design. As shown in FIG. 1B, a matching resistor 60 is connected in parallel to a current amplifier output 70. The circuit shown in FIG. 1B uses a current output to eliminate the problem that signal voltage amplitude is restricted by the source voltage, as illustrated in FIG. 1A. Although the circuit shown in FIG. 1B may be able to use a lower voltage supply (for example, 3.3 V), the current and power is similarly consumed by matching resistor 60.
With advancements in sub-micrometer processing and fabrication techniques, a C-mode line driver has been developed and widely used. It uses a current-mode signal as a driving signal and also has internal impedance matching. The C-mode line driver successfully overcomes some of the problems, such as, for example, large power consumption and power supply voltage restriction, that occur in the traditional line drivers shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B.
FIG. 2A illustrates a schematic of a conventional C-mode line driver circuit 200. As shown in FIG. 2A, the input voltage Vin is converted to a current output Io via a transconductance amplifier 202, which drives current output Io through resistor 206 creating an output voltage Vout. Output voltage Vout is sampled and then fed back to the input side of another transconductance amplifier 204, which outputs a feedback current Ifb accordingly. By sampling output voltage Vout to output feedback current Ifb which is fed back to transconductance amplifier 204, the input impedance is matched to the output impedance.
As shown in FIG. 2A, it is expected that an output voltage increment, denoted v will also cause a current variation, denoted i. This output current variation i is caused by, and depends on, the internal resistance R204 of transconductance amplifier 204. According to Ohm's Law,v=i×R204.Moreover, the output impedance Zout of circuit 200 is given by:Zout=v÷i=R204.Thus, the active output impedance is R204.
FIG. 2B is a schematic showing the circuit implementation of the C-mode line driver circuit 200 shown in FIG. 2A. As shown in FIG. 2B, transconductance amplifier 202 is achieved in the circuit through resistor 208 and 1:N current mirror 210. Moreover, the internal resistance of transconductance amplifier 204 is equivalent to the inverse of the resistance of resistor 212. Based on these relationships, the following show that the output impedance Zout of circuit 200 depends on the resistance of resistor 208.
                    R        202            =                                                  N              +              1                                      R              208                                                                                R            204                          =                  1                      R            212                                ;              i      =                        v                      R            208                          +                              v                          R              208                                ×          N                      ;              Z      out        =                  v        i            =                                    R            208                                1            +            N                          .
Because resistor 208 is an on-chip resistor, the resistance R208 will vary with varying process conditions and varying temperatures. Accordingly a tuning circuit may be utilized for the adjustment of Zout to ensure that Zout matches an input impedance of load 206.
Conventional C-mode line drivers that successfully implement internal impedance matching eliminate the signal voltage loss or signal current loss occurring to the traditional driver shown by the circuits in FIGS. 1A and 1B, which can be as much as a −6 dB loss. Moreover, C-mode line drivers, produced using sub-micrometer processes, are able to be easily integrated as on-chip solutions.
C-mode line drivers, however, are unable to be implemented via a fully differential circuit. This is because they can only be constructed to have a dual-end output by duplicating two single-end output drivers, which leads to higher circuit complexity and higher static power consumption. Moreover, C-mode line drivers have poor common-mode suppression due to lack of a common-mode feedback circuit, which affects the transmitted signal quality. In addition, output impedance Zout has to be preset, and cannot be auto-tuned.
There is, therefore, a need for a driver which drives the line with a voltage-mode signal and features a simple structure with high power efficiency, better common mode rejection and the capability of adaptive impedance matching.

Voltage-mode line driving circuit having adaptive impedance matching