The operation of a variable speed electric driven pump turbine is monitored continuously during pumping to detect the operation point of the pump turbine, and to prevent it from falling into a hump characteristic region, which is recognizable on a graph of total dynamic head versus flow rate. Stalling occurs in the hump characteristic region as a result of a partial reverse flow of the water with respect to the runner. When the operation point of the pump turbine approaches the hump characteristic region, a corrective action is taken that includes increasing the output level of the electric driven pump turbine to increase its rotating speed, temporarily.

The present invention relates to a variable speed pumping-up system, and more particularly to a variable speed pumping-up system provided with a pump or a pump turbine which exhibits a stall characteristic with a reverse flow called a hump characteristic in an operating region of high total dynamic head.
The present invention relates to a variable speed pumping-up system, and more particularly to a method of controlling a variable speed pumping-up system sharing an upstream side pipe line or a downstream side pipe line with another hydraulic machine and having a pump or a pump turbine which exhibits a hump characteristic (a reverse flow characteristic) in a pump operation region.
It is considered that, in a pump turbine of a variable speed pumping-up system, the occurrence of the hump characteristic (wherein an operation of the pump turbine becomes dH/dQ>0, wherein H is a total dynamic head including head loss in the upstream and downstream pipelines; and Q is a flow rate), which is shown by a region indicated by z in FIG. 7, in a higher total dynamic head operating region of the pump cannot generally be avoided.
The operation of the pump turbine in the hump characteristic region is unstable and causes vibrations and noises. Moreover, since a flow rate Q of water can never be stabilized in the range of z on the H versus Q curve of FIG. 7, an operating point of the pump turbine which has been approaching the point (Q.sub.X, H.sub.X) from the larger Q side changes suddenly to the point (Q.sub.Y, H.sub.X) as soon as the total dynamic head H reaches H.sub.X. Thus abnormal water hammering phenomena occur in the upstream and downstream pipe lines.
The degree of depression of the hump characteristic differs depending upon the degree of opening of a guide vane as shown in FIG. 8. Each degree of opening of the guide vane in FIG. 8 is pointed out as Y.sub.4 <Y.sub.3 <Y.sub.2 <Y.sub.1. Even when a clear depression portion does not appear in the hump characteristic region, a similar problem occurs, more or less, since the flow of water in a runner of the pump turbine becomes unstable.
It is said that the cause of such a problem resides in that, when the total dynamic head of the pump turbine is too high under a given guide vane opening, the flow of water is remarkably reduced and distorted allowing partial reverse flows as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. In this condition, the flow of water separates from the surface of the runner, and is put in a so-called stalling state.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 186069/1987 includes a description about the effect that, when a load on a variable speed pumping-up apparatus is to be increased, the steps of initially increasing an output level of an electric drive unit so as to set a rotating speed of a pump turbine higher, and thereafter increasing a degree of opening of a guide vane should be taken for the purpose of preventing an operation point of the pump turbine from falling transitionally into the above mentioned hump characteristic region.
This publication also discloses a proposal that, when the load on the variable speed pumping-up apparatus is to be reduced, the closing of the guide vane and the decreasing of the rotating speed of the pump turbine are performed simultaneously so that the closing operation of the guide vane terminates earlier than the rotating speed decreasing operation of the pump turbine.
A case where the pump turbine shares its upstream side pipe line or downstream side pipe line with some other hydraulic machines, namely a case where a plurality of hydraulic machines are provided so that the hydraulic machines are connected to the pipe lines branching from a single pipe line, will now be considered.
When the operation condition of any of the additional hydraulic machines including the flow rate of water therein is changed, water hammering phenomena occur in this hydraulic machine and is transmitted to the pump turbine under consideration as well via the common pipe line, so that the pump turbine is necessarily influenced by the water hammering phenomena.
Especially, when the total dynamic head in an independent variable speed pumping-up system is swung higher, it is possible that the operation point of the pump turbine therein falls into the hump characteristic region even if the variable speed pumping-up system itself is set in a perfectly controllable region.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 149583/1986 discloses a pump turbine starting method for a variable speed pumping-up system, in which, when a pump turbine is started, namely, when the pump turbine operation is shifted from a priming pressure established state with guide vanes fully closed to a regular variable speed pumping-up operation with a desired load, the rotating speed of the pump turbine is increased in proportion to the opening of the guide vanes, whereby a proper rotating speed of the pump turbine and a proper degree of opening of the guide vane with respect to the desired load are finally attained.
However, this known patent publication does not refer at all to a control method for a variable speed pumping-up system to be used after a regular variable speed pumping-up operation has been commenced.
As may be understood from the above stated description, the conventional controlling method for the variable speed pumping-up system for preventing the operation point of the pump turbine from falling into the hump characteristic region discloses only a part of the control needed for an independent variable speed pumping-up system.
Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 175271/1986 discloses a controlling method for a variable speed pumping-up system, in which, when the static head, i.e., difference between water level; of an upper reservoir and water level of a lower reservoir has a predetermined value, the rotating speed of the pump turbine is raised and corrected in accordance with an overshoot thereof.
However, nothing is referred to with respect to the operation point of the pump turbine falling into the hump characteristic (the reverse flow characteristic) region by a temporary and much faster increase of the total dynamic head of this pump turbine due to the water hammering phenomena in the shared pipe line to which the present invention is directed.
As may be understood from the above stated description, the conventional controlling method for the variable speed pumping-up system for preventing the operation point of the pump turbine from falling into the hump characteristic region discloses only a part of the control that needs to be applied to an independent variable speed pumping-up system.
Namely, a countermeasure of the operation point of the pump turbine falling into the hump characteristic region due to the water hammering phenomena in the shared pipe line has not yet been proposed at all.


Exemplary methods, apparatuses, and systems generate a plurality of possible branch traces for a computer program. Each possible branch trace represents different sequences of branch instructions that may be executed while the computer program is running. Each branch instruction has a corresponding identifier. A branch trace value is generated for at least one of the plurality of possible branch traces. Generating the branch trace value includes performing a mathematical or logical operation between a first identifier and each subsequent identifier of the possible branch trace to obtain the branch trace value. An output including a branch trace is generated based upon a match between a run-time branch trace value and the at least one generated branch trace value.

A call stack is a data structure that stores information about the active functions (subroutines) of a computer program. For example, when a function is called, a combination of one or more of a return address, arguments, and local variable(s) is pushed onto the stack. Upon completion of the function, the combination is popped off of the stack. A stack trace is a report of the active stack frames at a point in time during the execution of a computer program. A stack trace enables the tracking of the sequence of nested functions called up to the point when the stack trace is generated.
Similarly, a branch trace is a report of branch instructions executed at a point in time during the execution of a computer program. In response to the execution of a branch instruction, the branch instruction address and/or destination instruction address is saved to memory. A branch trace enables a more detailed tracking of the sequence of instructions executed up to the point when the branch trace is generated.
The context provided by a stack trace or branch trace at a given point in a computer program is useful in debugging. For example, a computer program may record log messages to provide an audit trail that can be used to understand system activity and to diagnose problems. Log messages typically do not include calling context beyond the function from which each log message was called. Saving an entire stack trace or branch trace in log messages is not practical. The log message would lose its brevity and writing these messages would be inefficient. Additionally, saving branch traces is costly in terms of memory and execution speed.


A cycle time to digital converter includes a dual delay lock loop, multi phase sampling detector and VDL sampling detector. The dual delay lock loop generates the first voltage corresponding to the first delay time and the second voltage corresponding to the second delay time. The multi phase sampling detector receives first start signal, first stop signal and first voltage to detect a coarse delay time, generates the first group signals according to the coarse delay time, delays the first stop signal by a common delay time to generate the second stop signal, and delays the first start signal by the coarse delay time and the common delay time to generate the second start signal. The VDL sampling detector receives first voltage, second voltage, second start signal and second stop signal for detecting a fine delay time and generates the second group signals according to the fine delay time.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a cycle time to digital converter, and in particular relates to a cycle time to digital converter with a pulse divider, a decoding circuit and an interface circuit.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a conventional time to digital converter (TDC) 10. Time to digital converter 10 comprises dual delay lock loop (dual DLL) 12, multi phase sampling detector 14 and vernier delay line sampling detector (VDL sampling detector) 15. Dual DLL 12 generates first voltage VBNF and second voltage VBNS according to reference clock signal CLOCK, transmits first voltage VBNF to multi phase sampling detector 14 and VDL sampling detector 15 and transmits second voltage VBNS to VDL sampling detector 15. Multi phase sampling detector 14 receives input signal INPUT, reference clock signal CLOCK and first voltage VBNF to generate digital codes (P0˜Pn−). VDL sampling detector 15 receives input signal INPUT′, first voltage VBNF and second voltage VBNS to generate digital codes (V0˜Vm−).
However, conventional TDC 10 can only detect the time difference between input signal INPUT and reference clock signal CLOCK, but it can't detect high frequency input signal INPUT.

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A system, method and computer program product for detecting and reacting to a network discrepancy within a data center network environment. The method comprises monitoring network traffic between a first computer configured as a first hypervisor inter-networked within the data center network environment and a second computer inter-networked within the data center network environment in order to detect a presence of a predetermined condition representing a presence of the network discrepancy in the data center network environment between a recorded state of the data center network environment and an observed state of the data center network environment. The monitoring includes determining the observed state of the data center network environment using one of: polling, event-based or a combination thereof. The method also comprises rectifying, upon the detection of the presence of the predetermined condition, an effect associated with the presence of the predetermined condition in the data center network environment.

Hypervisor technology efficiently facilitates the concurrent virtual operation of multiple guest operating systems, including multiple instances of the same operating system, on a non-virtual host computer. The hypervisor presents each guest operating system with a virtual operating platform and monitors the execution of each guest operating system in a way that all guest operating systems can properly and efficiently share the hardware resources available to the host computer. Through the use of a hypervisor, each guest operating systems appears identical to the host computer. Users of each guest operating system may be able to install applications on each guest operating system without impacting users of other guest operating systems operating on the host computer. When one guest operating system experiences a malfunction or a failure, the hypervisor will efficiently isolate that malfunction or failure from impacting the operation of other concurrently running guest operating systems. A proper distribution of guest operating systems over hypervisors can allow hypervisors to efficiently share their compute resources and avoid resource contention bottlenecks. Hypervisor vendors and other software providers have tools for managing guest operating systems in cloud computing environments and determining the proper guest operating systems placement.
Hypervisors are an important tool often used in consolidation of computers in order to reduce electricity, cooling, facility and other costs involved in running data centers. Hypervisors can also be used to migrate entire data centers from one geographic location to another and to construct various cloud computing environments. These environments are composed of hypervisors which together may host a multitude of guest operating systems. These environments are notable for their scalability i.e. if more compute power is needed to handle an increased workload, the hypervisors may provide additional resources to guest operating systems they host. The hypervisors may also increase the number of hosted virtual guest operating systems and, if necessary, additional hypervisors can be added to the compute cloud. As workload eases, the hypervisors may be powered off, or be put into a lower power state, in order to conserve electricity and other operating costs, or removed from the compute cloud entirely.
There are many types of hypervisors in the marketplace and a platform virtualization infrastructure may be composed of a combination of hypervisors. This is called a hybrid infrastructure. A hybrid compute cloud is a composite cloud which includes virtual resources from at least two independent compute clouds. Often, a company may operate a private compute cloud within its own data center. If the company needs additional compute resources, to handle increased demand in a busy time of the year, for example, the company may purchase virtual servers from a vendor compute cloud, such as AMAZON WEB SERVICES®.
The hypervisors are typically connected to each other through a computer network. Computer networks are well known in the art and Ethernet based computer network based on an IEEE 802 standard is predominant. Currently, Ethernet is standardized as IEEE 802.3, which is incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein. An Ethernet computer network typically connects computers via Network Interface Cards (NIC) and one or more network routers and network switches. Network firewalls are used to limit information flow between computer networks and provide data and other resource protection.
Cloud computing networks provide a management interface, such as a web page or a communication protocol, by which guest operating systems can be controlled. New guest operating systems can be provisioned for, started, stopped, paused or deleted via the management interface. Guest operating systems can also be moved from one hypervisor to another. Because the hypervisors provide a common level of virtualization, guest operating systems may be moved from being hosted on one hypervisor to another without the knowledge or intervention of the users of the cloud. Other interactions with the guest operating systems via the management interface involve controlling hibernation, which is an operation where the compute state of the virtual guest operating system is recorded and the guest operating system is powered down. The compute state of the guest operating system can then be restored, possibly on a different hypervisor or even in a different compute cloud, at a later time. Further, by initiation via the management interface one or more copies of a guest operating system's compute image may also be cloned and started as additional guest operating systems. Hence, the compute cloud offers clients a great deal of agility in the creation and management of guest operating systems since guest operating systems can be created, destroyed, hibernated, cloned and moved.
The high agility of guest operating systems virtualized by hypervisors introduces many problems. Data centers are typically designed for a static environment where computers are physical entities, which often do not move. Computers are connected to network switches and other devices in a planned fashion and they are not disconnected except during maintenance and decommissioning. The tools and information repositories used to maintain data centers reflect these older best practices.
The increased frequency of guest operating systems entering and leaving a compute cloud, or physical computers off-loading computing needs to guest operating systems in a hybrid cloud manner, introduces many complications. It is important, but difficult, to maintain and track an accurate inventory of guest operating systems and know which cloud or hypervisor is hosting which guest operating systems at any given time. Auditing techniques are desired to ensure the integrity of the extended data center. An accurate inventory of guest operating systems is also important for purposes of accounting, billing, customer support, security and right-sizing of compute resources.
Furthermore, errors may occur during the creation, deletion, movement, cloning and/or hibernation of guest operating systems. For example, an error in the hypervisor may leave a guest operating system, which is supposed to be powered-off, in a powered-on state. This error, in combination with guest operating system movement, may cause an unwanted copy of the guest operating system to be running. If an error occurs during guest operating system movement, then it may be difficult to determine where the guest operating system is.
Also, tools for guest operating system placement and redistribution may introduce errors in the hypervisors and inventory records particularly if two or more guest placement tools, or engines, are used. There is no established standard for orchestrating guest operating system placement engines and they may inadvertently compete against each other. Placement engines typically operate directly in-conjunction with the hypervisors and do not directly notify other inventory systems.
Often, polling and an adherence to data center best practices and management mandates are used to alleviate these problems. That is, hypervisors are periodically polled to determine which guest operating systems they are hosting and the managers of data centers typically allow only a single guest operating system placement engine to be used in a cloud. Also, strict adherence to documentation and process are mandated in order to maintain cloud synchronization and reduce the creation of rogue guest operating systems. However, even these practices may have limitations because the polling is typically slow and cannot keep pace with the agility of the cloud. Users also may desire features offered by their preferred placement engines. Finally, best practices of documentation and process are also subject to human error.

Reactive monitoring of guests in a hypervisor environment

International Business Machines Corporation


An electrical spring contact having an inner spring contact with an inner spring base and inner spring arms. A box-shaped outer spring with an outer spring base and outer spring arms is connected to the inner spring base of the inner spring. The outer spring arms are bent inwardly in a funnel-shaped way at the plug-in end, and the inner spring and the outer spring are formed by molded sheet metal parts. The outer spring has a bending slot extending across its total length, and the spring contact is insertable in a chamber of a receiving casing and arrestable in the latter by holding members. The lateral surfaces of the outer spring extending between the two outer spring arms are provided with recesses bordered by support surfaces. The support surfaces are axially supported by holding members projecting into the chamber of a receiving case.

1. Field Of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical spring contact with an inner spring consisting of an inner spring base and inner spring arms. A box-shaped overspring is attached to the inner spring base. The overspring is bent inwardly in a funnel-shaped form at the plug-in end. The inner spring and the overspring are formed by molded sheet metal parts, whereby the overspring has a bending slot extending across its total length. The spring contact is insertable in a receiving case and retained therein by holding members.
2. The Prior Art
A known contact spring (German Patent No. 9,106,775) has an inner spring and an overspring in the shape of a box. The contact spring is located in a receiving case and attached thereto by means of spaced arresting lances arranged near the plug-in end of the overspring and projecting beyond the outer contour of the spring contact. The arresting lances, when assuming their spread positions, support themselves in undercuts or perforations of the receiving case. Aside from the fact that the arresting lances are complicated in design, attachment of the spring contact by means of arresting lances is unstable and unsafe mechanically, as well. Furthermore, the arresting lances must be bent back to dismantle the spring contact, which is difficult.
Finally, the arresting lances require an increased size of the contact, which prevents miniaturization of the spring contacts.

Framatome Connectors Daut & Rietz GmbH & Co. KG


A method of transmitting control information in a multiple antenna system includes obtaining a channel quality indicator (CQI) of a first layer, obtaining a differential value between a CQI of a second layer and the CQI of the first layer, transmitting the CQI of the first layer, and transmitting the differential value.

A multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) system uses multiple transmit antennas and multiple receive antennas to improve efficiency of data transmission and reception. A MIMO technology includes spatial diversity and spatial multiplexing. The spatial diversity is a technique in which the multiple transmit antennas transmit the same data and thus transmission reliability increases. The spatial multiplexing is a technique in which the multiple transmit antennas simultaneously transmit different data and thus data at high data rate can be transmitted without increasing a system bandwidth.
In conventional wireless communication system, one base station (BS) provides services to a plurality of user equipments (UEs). In order to efficiently provide a data service to the plurality of UEs, the BS schedules and transmits user data according to a channel condition. For this, the UEs transmit a channel quality indicator (CQI) to the BS in a subframe. The subframe is a scheduling unit of transmission. User data and control information are carried together in the subframe. In the subframe, a channel for carrying the user data is referred to as a data channel and a channel for carrying the control information is referred to as a control channel.
The subframe has a fixed interval which is called as transmission time interval (TTI). Amount of radio resources for the data channel and the control channel are restricted by each other in the subframe. When large amount of radio resources are allocated to the control channel, that of radio resources for the data channel is decreased, and thus a data rate is decreased. Therefore, amount of radio resources for the control channel is smaller than that of radio resources for the data channel in order to improve the data rate.
The multiple antenna system can transmit multiple data streams on a plurality of spatial layers. To efficiently scheduling the plurality of spatial layers, a BS needs to know various control information. A CQI indicates downlink channel condition. If a CQI for each of the plurality of spatial layers is reported, the number of CQI which is transmitted on the control channel by a UE increases as much as that of the spatial layers. As a result, amount of radio resources for the control channel increases. In addition, a precoding matrix indicator (PMI) and a rank indicator (RI) are also required to be reported to the BS in the multiple antenna system. The PMI is used to determine a precoding matrix for the BS to perform precoding. The RI is used to determine the number of spatial layer.

Method of transmitting control information in multiple antenna system


A data conversion server reduces a data amount of a path that constitutes drawing data. The data conversion server adds information used to adjust a scale of the drawing data to the drawing data, wherein the information is obtained based on a length of the path before the data amount is reduced. For example, in a case of data in the SVG format, path length information before the data amount is reduced is set to an attribute (pathLength) as the information used to adjust the scale.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing system, a control method for an information processing apparatus, and a storage medium.
Description of the Related Art
A File in SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format is described by XML (Extensible Markup Language) format and can be displayed in a standard web viewer. Thus, SVG format is suitable for use in a mobile terminal having the web viewer as a standard. Therefore, PDF (Portable document format) files or Microsoft Word files and the like are often used by temporally converting them to SVG format, which can be displayed to any mobile terminals. However, compared to a PC terminal, a mobile terminal has limitations such as a small memory, a weak CPU, small screen display, low speed communication and the like.
Furthermore, a file to be displayed is not stored in the mobile terminal, but often stored in an external server such as the cloud, and for acquiring the file, preferably the size of a SVG file is small as possible. Accordingly, since the screen size is relatively small, for a complicated figure, the mobile terminal sometimes thin a part of points of a coordinate point sequence expressing the figure up to the level at which the appearance is not changed. Hereinafter, a coordinate point sequence from a start point to an end point, which is representing a figure, is referred to as path, and thinning out the points of a part of the path is referred to as path thinning. Note that a coordinate point sequence that configures a path may include a control point which indicates a curve.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H9-205539 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H2-10476 disclose an image processing apparatus that reduces file size and the load of the figure drawing processing. Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H9-205539 discloses an image processing apparatus that converts figure data representing a polygon in which a path is defined by 3 or more regulation points to figure data representing a simple polygon that has fewer specified points than the figure. Also, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H2-10476 discloses a polygonal line approximation apparatus for a curve that changes the number of polygonal lines that is approximated according to a curvature of the curve, and approximates the curve to a polygonal line.
However, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H9-205539 and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H2-10476, do not consider that difference in drawing results may occur due a change in the length of a path, when a data amount of the path in drawing data is reduced and, for example, complex drawing is performed such as a line drawing of a path, a character string drawing along a path, or the like. Note that a length of a path is a sum (total distance) of distances between a coordinate point sequence from a start point to an end point representing a figure, and hereinafter, this is called a path length. As an example of the difference between the drawing results, there are changes in the appearance of a dash pattern upon a line drawing, changes in a number of character that can be drawn in the path on a character string drawing, and the like, where a description will be given with reference to FIGS. 10A to 10C and FIGS. 12A to 12C.

Information processing apparatus, information processing system, control method for information processing apparatus, and storage medium


A differential amplifier of the present invention comprises transistors where to each of which one of two inputs to said differential amplifier is provided; current mirror circuits where each of which delivers one of the outputs of the differential amplifier to the load side; and cut-off prevention units where each of which is connected to the connecting point of a transistor to which a monitor current of one of the current mirror circuits flows, and one of the transistors to which the inputs are provided, and applies a current for preventing cutting off the transistor to which the monitor current flows, when the input to the transistor to which the input is provided is L.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, and more specifically to a differential amplifier having a current mirror circuit which delivers an output to the load side by an electric current, for example, a high-speed operation system of a differential amplifier used as a high-speed data transfer driver.
2. Description of the Related Art
A differential amplifier is used in a wide range of fields. FIG. 1 shows a general configuration of such a differential amplifier. This differential amplifier is a combination of a differential pair with a diode-connected load and a source follower circuit, and a current mirror circuit is constituted by said combination, and the output of the differential amplifier is delivered to the load side by an electric current.
The differential pair and source follower circuit which constitutes the differential amplifier are described in the following documents.    Non-patent document 1: "Design of Analog CMOS Integrated Circuits," Basic Edition, page 83, written by B. Razavi, translated by Tadahiro Kuroda, published by Maruzen    Non-patent document 2: "Design of Analog CMOS Integrated Circuits," Applications Edition, page 394, written by B. Razavi, translated by Tadahiro Kuroda, published by Maruzen
In FIG. 1, a transistor 100 and a transistor 101 to which a non-inverting input and an inverting input are supplied respectively are connected to a grounding wire by a power source 102, and are connected to a source voltage VDD by transistors 103 and 105. Diode-connected transistors 103 and 105, transistor 104, transistor 106 constitute a current mirror circuit, and the transistor 104 and the transistor 106 to which a copy electric current flows in the current mirror circuit are connected to resistors 107 and 108 on the load side respectively, and the voltage applied to the resistors 107 and 108 is taken out as an output voltage.
In FIG. 1, when either an input signal VIN+ or an input signal VIN− becomes H, the voltage of a node 1 or a node 2 begins to drop from the source voltage VDD. When the electric potential of the node 1 or the node 2 becomes lower than the value obtained by subtracting a threshold voltage from the source voltage, an electric current begins to flow to the transistor 103 and the transistor 105, and this electric current flows to the side of the output resistor by the current mirror circuit, and an output voltage is generated.
However, in the circuit shown in FIG. 1, a delay time exists from the time when an input signal is on, or H to the time when an electric current flows to the transistor 103 or 105. FIG. 2 is an explanatory drawing of this delay time. In FIG. 2, when an input signal is on, or H, the voltage of the node 1 or the node 2 begins to drop, but an electric current does not flow to the transistor 103 or the transistor 105 until the value of the voltage becomes equal to or lower than the value obtained by subtracting the threshold voltage from the source voltage. Consequently, the time when the rising of the electric current on the copy side of the current mirror starts, i.e. the time when the rising of the current which flows to the transistor 104 or the transistor 106, starts is accordingly delayed, and the output voltage delayed by the same amount.
When a differential amplifier is used as a driver circuit for high-speed data transfer, this delay time becomes a serious problem. Particularly, in order to realize the transfer speed of 480 Mbps as set forth in the USB (Universal Serial Bus) 2.0 Standard, a delay time of 100 ps or so becomes a problem. Furthermore, in order to satisfy the stress test standard of USB 2.0, there is a problem in that it is difficult to use a low withholding voltage and high-speed transistor, and it is necessary to make a large electric current flow, so the size of the transistor becomes large, and the load capacity becomes large, and the delay time also becomes long.
The following documents are available as prior art concerning such a differential amplifier.
Patent document 1: Kokai (Jpn. unexamined patent publication) No. 10-209844 "Small level signal input interface circuit"
Patent document 2: Kokai (Jpn. unexamined patent publication) No. 11-127042 "Differential amplifier"
Patent document 3: Kokai (Jpn. unexamined patent publication) No. 2001-251149 "Amplifier Circuit"
Disclosed in patent document 1 is an interface circuit which improves the operation speed in an ordinary operation mode other than the IDDQ test mode which is a test method of a semiconductor integrated circuit, which reduces the number of clocked inverters in order to reduce the circuit area, and which improves the performance.
Disclosed in patent document 2 is a differential amplifier which can reduce an average consumption of electric current within a range of the whole current input by making the output electric current variable according to the level of a non-inverting input voltage.
Disclosed in patent document 3 is an amplifier circuit which has a stable mutual conductance, is not influenced by changes in surrounding temperatures or variations in process conditions during manufacturing, and can maintain stable amplification ratios and output resistance.
However, the aforesaid prior art could not solve the problem in that in a differential amplifier having a current mirror circuit shown in FIG. 1, the transistor constituting the current mirror circuit is cut off when the corresponding input voltage is L, and a delay arises in the operation.
Furthermore, there was a problem in that delay arises in the operation when, for example, a semiconductor device including a differential amplifier is implemented for USB standard data transfer, and data transfer is started when both of two input signals, VIN+ and VIN−, to the differential amplifier are in an L state.


The invention provides a form of reacting on security or vulnerability information relevant for a system comprising computer software and/or hardware or electronics, wherein a service provider with a first subsystem (1) is providing activation tokens to be received by a customer with a second subsystem (2). The activation tokens including activation information and naming of system characteristics in machine readable and filterable manner. The second subsystem (2) comprises receiving means (11) for controlling the receiving of the activation tokens, checking means (12) for automatically determining whether the activation information is relevant for the second subsystem (2) by checking whether the second subsystem has characteristics corresponding to the naming of an activation token, and transforming means (13) for transforming relevant activation information into at least one activation measure for the second subsystem (2). The activation measures will reduce the vulnerability of the second subsystem.

The amount of security relevant news and information published on a daily basis increases rapidly. It is no more a background task for a system administrator to read this information and act in response to it. Even security services and compacted security news sources have the disadvantages of offering too much information causing a large time delay between time received and time read. Therefore the time between public knowledge and acting in respect of said security relevant information is increasing. This is also due to the fact, that the security or vulnerability information is published at different time zones during daytime, at night and over weekends. The growing window of vulnerability increases the chance of attack. The attacking by system crackers is described by James Riordan in "Patterns of network intrusion", Günter Müller and Kai Rannenberg, editor, Multilateral Security in Communications, Information Security, pages 173-186, Addison-Wesley, 1999. System crackers build large databases of what versions and revisions of software various systems are running. With this knowledge crackers can immediately react on announcements of vulnerabilities with a wide scale of exploitation of this vulnerability. In order to prevent exploitation of vulnerability, the administrator has to shut down, restrict or replace at least one service of the system. An other possible reaction is installing patches or upgrades without the discovered security problem. Since the system administrator has difficulties to cope with the increasing amount of security information, taking or at least suggesting measures could be done by a security service provider. The service provider could provide several clients with information on relevant measures for their systems. Since the service provider would be contacting the vulnerable system from outside, there will be the need of cryptographic security. The service provider would have to know the exact characteristics of the clients systems. This external knowledge and the possibility to find out what groups of clients receive the same information about necessary measures, could supply system crackers with information about vulnerabilities of the clients systems.
A concept for secure shutting down of mobile services is described by Christian Tschudin "Apoptosis the Programmed Death of Distributed Services", in J. Vitek and C. Jensen, editors, Secure Internet Programming—Security Issues for Mobile and Distributed Objects, pages 253-260, Springer, 1999. Active networks with services run by mobile code have to have the functionality of creating and ending services. The apoptosis concept of self-destructing mobile services is borrowed from cell biology and designates there the programmed cell death. The apoptosis process is suggested to start as for cells by two different ways. A service may depend on a continuous stream of credentials or positive signals. Once these credentials run out, the service will shut down. According to the second way a negative signal causes the service to shut down. The apoptosis entry point of a mobile service would be a primary target for an attack. Therefore the apoptosis concept should be implemented with cryptographic security functions. Cryptographic security functions are described by J. Riordan and B. Schneier, Environmental Key Generation Towards Clueless Agents, in G. Vigna, editor, Mobile Agents and Security, volume 1419 of LNCS, pages 15-24, Springer, 1998. The shut down has to be induced by an apoptosis activator. Applying the above mentioned apoptosis concept does not change the disadvantage that a system administrator or a security service provider has to induce the shut down procedure.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,484 describes a method and system for distributing and executing executable code. This method is applied in a client-server environment in which executable objects are downloaded or otherwise distributed from a distributing authority and executed on a different computer. While it is very desirable for a client to execute server-provided software, the potential threat to security is a serious drawback. For a client to be willing to execute server-defined functionality, the client must be assured that no adverse effects will occur. Specifically, there must be a guarantee that existing client data will not be read or modified and that hostile code (viruses, Trojan horses, etc.) will not be generated and installed on the client system. Since server provided programs would have access to the full resources of the client computer environment, they could potentially perform any of various different types of dangerous or hostile operations. Binary executable code also has the disadvantage of being architecture specific. It is a significant complication for the server to determine the computer hardware in use by the client and the operating system, and to provide different executable modules for use with different systems. These issues lead naturally to consideration of an interpreted language. This approach allows a server to create program scripts that can be executed on the client to extend its functionality, while providing a more controlled execution environment and architecture neutrality. Interpreter systems, as for example Java, allow the generation of complex applications including I/O operations and rely on trust relationship between the server and the client. In order to eliminate the requirement of a trust relationship the invention of U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,484 classifies different types of security related operations and services, which might potentially be performed by externally provided code, into different categories. When providing executable code, a distributing authority also provides a privilege request code, indicating a set of privileges or privilege categories that the executable code might perform on the client machine. The distributing authority digitally signs the executable code and the privilege request code, and also provides a certificate that can be traced by the client to a known certifying authority. The certificate indicates an authorized set of privileges that the distributing authority has been authorized to include in distributed code.
If a solution according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,484 would be used to prevent exploitation of vulnerability, the distributing authority would have to transmit code and the privileges for shutting down, restricting or replacing insecure services at the client. Since the vulnerability depends on the actual characteristic, specification or version of the service, the distributing authority would need to know this information for any client service at any time accurately. The chance that a service or underlying code is updated at a client without reporting it to the distributing authority is rather high. Without accurate information about all services secured by the distributing authority, the distributing authority can not guarantee a security service. An other disadvantage of a security service supplied by a distributing authority is the fact that information about characteristics, specifications or versions of the services transferred from the services to the distributing authority and information about security measures transferred from the distributing authority to a service could be used by system crackers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,825,877 describes an other solution for the delivery of software through distribution systems such as networks. This solution provides a form of authentication wherein a trusted third party signs a certificate to identify the author of a program and to secure its integrity. The program code is encapsulated or otherwise associated with the certificate and an access control list. The access control list describes the permissions and resources required by the code. An enforcement mechanism allocates system permissions and resources in accordance with the access control list. Upon downloading the code and the access control list with the corresponding certificate a verifier first checks to see if the certification agency's signature on the certificate is valid (using the certification agency's known public key). The verifier then computes the cryptographic hash of the code/access control list and verifies that it matches the value in the certificate. If the signature is not valid or the hash does not match, the code and the access control list are rejected. If the verification is ok, an access control list manager is invoked. The access control list manager displays the access control list to the client via a client interface and ascertains whether the client wishes to allow or disallow the individual items in the access control list. The access control list manager stores the code as directed by the client via the client interface and stores the access control list together with permission flags. The access control list consists of two parts: the physical resource table containing the physical resources required by the code and the logical resources table containing the permissions and logical resources required by the code. If such a solution would be used for shutting down, restricting or replacing insecure services at a client system, it would have the same shortcomings as described in respect of a solution according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,484.

System, method and software for supplying activation information to a subsystem


A child-resistant dispenser includes a housing (110); and a slider (150) disposed on the housing and configured to slide from a closed position to a dispensing position, the slider comprising a movable engagement portion (148) that engages a stop (122) on the housing, wherein the engagement between the movable engagement portion and the stop restricts movement of the slider to the dispensing position and the movable engagement portion is configured to disengage from the stop in response to a release force applied to the slider.

Containers for dispensing solid products intended for human consumption, such as pharmaceuticals, snacks, mints, gum, candy, and the like, are often configured as hand-held containers that can be easily stored and transported. Some consumable products, such as pharmaceuticals, require containers having a certain level of child resistance. Child resistance features are intended to delay a young child's access to the contents of the container. Generally, commercially available child-resistant packaging designs rely upon working principles that require a combination of: hand-finger strength, hand-finger dexterity, and specific cognitive abilities. For example, pharmaceutical pills are often packaged in a bottle having a cap that can only be removed by applying downward pressure while twisting the cap. The downward pressure requires a certain level of strength, the combination of downward pressure and twisting requires a certain level of dexterity, and the combination of downward pressure and twisting is not intuitive and is unlikely to be discovered by accident, thus requiring a certain level of cognitive ability.
Conventional bottles with twist-and-press caps have certain disadvantages. For example, if a child does manage to open the bottle, immediate access is provided to the entire contents of the bottle. Further, if an adult user fails to place the cap in the properly secured position, there is no secondary mechanism for preventing access by a child. Some aged adults or adults with disabilities may lack sufficient strength or dexterity to open the twist-and-press caps. Additionally, extracting the right amount of product once the cap is removed may be difficult for those with reduced dexterity who may not be able to reach into the bottle to pull out the desired amount of product. The contents of the container may be poured out, but this requires that the unused contents to be put back in the container, which may be problematic for those with reduced dexterity. Additionally, pouring the contents out also poses a risk of contamination of the unused contents.


A circuit for detecting a substance in motion. A light source (11) emits light which is received by a first photodetector (16) and a second photodetector (18). Each of the photodetectors (16) and (18) receives substantially equal light intensities from the light source (11). The first photodetector (16) generates a first output voltage (17) which corresponds to light intensity. The second photodetector (18) generates a second output voltage (19) which corresponds to light intensity. A differential amplifier (21) has a first input coupled to the first output voltage (17) and a second input coupled to the second output voltage (19). A moving substance (13) passing between the light source (11) and the first (16) or second (18) photodetectors generates a differential voltage which is amplified by the differential amplifier (21).

This invention relates, in general, to motion detector circuits, and more particularly to high sensitivity motion detector circuits.
There are many types of electro-mechanical devices which manipulate small moving substances. Substance parameters such as speed, location, or substance size is common information needed by control circuitry. Obtaining this information accurately can be extremely difficult for substances of small sizes, substances traveling at high speeds, or for transmissive substances. Under these types of conditions, sensing circuitry must be able to detect very small signal levels generated by the substance. The difficulty with detecting small signal levels is that the magnitude of the signals may be very dose to noise levels of the system.
An example which embodies all conditions listed above is an ink jet printer. A small droplet is fired from a nozzle of an ink jet pen. The size of a droplet is approximately 70 picoliters and moves at a velocity exceeding 10 meters per second. Further adding to the problem is that an ink droplet is approximately 98% transmissive to infrared light which makes detection very difficult. A secondary problem is that ink jet printers also have multiple pens each firing a different color. A detection circuit must be able to equally detect characteristics of different colored ink droplets.
Generally, detection of a small moving substance, such as an ink droplet, involves a transmitted signal which the ink droplet disrupts and a receiver which detects changes in the transmitted signal. The receiver or sensor typically outputs a small signal which is amplified to increase signal magnitude. Sensing a substance becomes difficult when the substance is small or moves too fast to generate an appreciable signal. If the change in signal magnitude caused by the moving substance approaches noise levels at the input of the amplifier detection will be difficult.
Detection circuits currently being used are capable of sensing ink droplet sizes in the 70 picoliter range. Smaller droplet sizes (less than 70 picoliters) would generate signal levels which would be difficult to detect due to noise problems. Yet, smaller ink droplet sizes are being considered because printer resolution or print quality is directly related to ink droplet size. High resolution ink jet printers are being developed which fire ink droplets that are approximately 20 to 30 picoliters. It would be of great benefit if a circuit could be developed with increased sensitivity to allow detection of even smaller moving substances.

Circuit for detecting a droplet in motion and method therefor


A holding structure for a touch panel has a display panel for configuring a display screen and a touch panel for allowing input operation. The structure has an elastic supporting frame for holding the display panel at an entire peripheral edge and supporting the touch panel in parallel with the display panel. The structure has piezoelectric devices for applying vibration to the touch panel in accordance with the operation of the touch panel. The structure has a casing for holding the display panel and the touch panel by way of the elastic supporting frame and the casing has an opening through which the touch panel is exposed. The elastic supporting frame holds the touch panel at an entire peripheral edge of the touch panel and includes a plurality of touch panel supporting portions for supporting the touch panel at a side edge of a rear surface of the touch panel.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to a holding structure for a touch panel, which is provided at a display or an operation unit of a variety of electronic devices and is used as an input device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, electronic devices having a touch panel function as input means at the display surface have been widely used. One of the structures of the touch panels is a touch panel of a resistance-sensitive type. In the touch panel, usually ITO (indium oxide) film is formed in a predetermined pattern on the surface of the touch panel glass. Electrodes are connected to the end portion of the ITO film and the peripheral edge portions are coated by overcoating. And dot spacers are provided between the upper and lower panels both on which ITO films are deposited. When an operator presses the panel, the ITO films on the upper and lower panels get in contact with each other. The pressed position on the panel is detected in accordance with the resistance value at that time.
In the touch panel device, an operator carries out an input operation by directly touching such a display surface as a liquid crystal display panel. Even though the ITO films on the upper and the lower panels get in contact with each other when the operator presses the surface of the touch panel, the operator can neither feel nor be sure whether the contact is closed or not. And so, there is a touch panel equipped with so-called force feedback function which vibrates the touch panel by detecting the press operation and gives an operator an operation feeling.
As it is shown in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-227712 or in FIG. 4, the touch panel device equipped with the force feedback function is applied, for example, to handheld information equipment or the like. The device is composed of the liquid crystal panel 2 and the touch panel 4 being accommodated in a casing 6 made of resin or the like. The touch panel 4 is equipped with piezoelectric devices 3 for the force feedback function at the side edge portion. And elastic supporters 5 made of rubber or the like are disposed between the liquid crystal panel 2 and the touch panel 4 at four corners in the casing 6. The elastic supporters absorb the vibration of the touch panel 4 due to the piezoelectric devices 3 and hold the touch panel 4.
In the case of the touch panel device with the force feedback function and taking the structure disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-227712, an interspace is formed between the liquid crystal panel 2 and the touch panel 4 and the peripheral edges are open. Because of the openness, dusts are liable to come into the interspace between the liquid crystal panel 2 and the touch panel 4. And so, there is a touch panel device equipped with a protective sheet 7 which is applied to the outer front surface of the touch panel 4 covering the touch panel 4 and covering the opening portion 6a of the casing 6 as it is shown in FIG. 4. In the touch panel device taking the structure mentioned above, an operator can get a sure operation feeling because the piezoelectric devices 3 vibrates in accordance with the press operation of the touch panel 4. In addition, because the surface of the touch panel 4 is covered with the protective sheet 7, the dust-proof feature is high at the outer front surface side and the drip-proof feature can be given.
On the other hand, as it is shown in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 09-115378, a structure which holds the liquid crystal panel fitting to a first elastic member of the frame and holds the touch panel with a second elastic member is proposed as a holding structure for a touch panel with high dust-proof feature and drip-proof feature. Furthermore, the second elastic member is integrally formed with a casing. In this way, the interspace between the liquid crystal panel and the touch panel is surrounded and sealed with the first elastic member, and the dust-proof feature of the interspace between the liquid crystal panel and the touch panel is designed.
In the case of the holding structure for a touch panel shown in FIG. 4 of the related art mentioned above, the dust-proof feature is effective against the dust coming from outside of the device. Since the interspace between the liquid crystal panel 2 and the touch panel 4 is supported only by the supporters 5 at the four corners, however, the interspace between the liquid crystal panel 2 and the touch panel 4 is open except the four corners and the dust is liable to attach to the front surface of the liquid crystal panel 2.
Furthermore, as it is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 09-115378, in the case that the liquid crystal panel takes a structure of being surrounded and held with the elastic member of the frame and being folded with a touch panel, the vibration of the touch panel of which an entire peripheral edge is tightly held with an elastic member of the frame is suppressed and the vibration is not liable to be effectively transmitted to the operator's fingers even though trying to apply the force feedback function to the touch panel.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Disclosed is an apparatus for the production of a blown tubular film (FT). The apparatus includes an independent device for the localized thickness adjustment at the strips adjacent to the folding edges resulting from the flattening of the tubular film (FT) by means of adjustment elements formed in angular sectors of limited extension symmetrically arranged 180° apart. The independent device for the localized thickness adjustment being a volumetric type device having a rotating ring that performs a rotating adjustment of the flow rate of a cooling air stream which takes into account the angular offset resulting from the operational parameters of the apparatus.

The extrusion plants for blown bubble films produce a tubular film with a diameter and an average thickness defined starting from an extrusion head with a nominal diameter and extrusion gap calculated during the project, the desired actual values being obtained by adjusting, in manual or automatic mode, two parameters of plant operation.
A first parameter is the volume of gas (typically air) blown inside the bubble through suitable supply ducts passing through the body of the head and this volume of gas can be stationary, i.e. supplied only once at the beginning of the process and possibly corrected and topped up through suitable control means such as sensors, valves, etc. or it can be constant but subject to continuous replacement of the cooling gas (so-called Internal Bubble Cooling=IBC), so that the volume of gas is obtained from the balance between supply and extraction fans of the cooling flow. In the following specific reference will be made to air as a cooling gas but it is clear that any other suitable gas can be used.
The effect of the internal inflation of the bubble is a reduction in the thickness of the film compared to the initial thickness of the melt escaping from the extrusion head, due to the radial expansion produced, and the ratio between the diameter of the inflated bubble and the diameter of the extrusion head is called the inflation ratio (so-called Bubble Up Ratio=BUR).
The second parameter is the advancing or drawing speed of the bubble in relation to the speed of rotation of the extrusion head feeding screw(s), which defines the hourly flow rate of the molten material flowing into the extrusion head. A haul-off, fixed or rotating, usually consists of one or more pairs of motorized calender rollers and regulates, manually or more often automatically, the speed of advancement of the bubble determining a reduction in thickness in the longitudinal direction, i.e. the direction of advancement of the product that can be arranged along a vertical axis, from top to bottom or vice versa, or horizontally. This second reduction in thickness is generally greater than the transversal or radial thickness reduction due to the inflation of the bubble, and the ratio between the final speed of the tubular film and the dispensing speed of the melt from the extrusion head is defined as the draw ratio (Draw Ratio=DR).
When passing through the haul-off, the tubular film is flattened into a flat film having a width (so-called layflat) equal to the semi-circumference of the tubular film, so that it can be collected in reels and/or folded and/or cut lengthwise to produce a plurality of films collected in reels such as width submultiples, trimmings, etc. The thickness of a film thus produced, measured on a number of equally spaced points along its circumference or on the equivalent width in reels, shall have a mean thickness and a dispersion of values around the mean value, with a maximum value, a minimum value, a standard deviation and a variance. Here we disregard considerations related to the contraction due to the variation in density of the plastic material at varying temperatures, which is obviously considered by the automatic adjustment systems present on modern extrusion lines.
In order to obtain an increasingly higher film flatness, over the years many types of manual and automatic devices have been developed to reduce thickness dispersion. The prior art devices that allow this adjustment essentially operate in two ways, namely through heating elements that increase the temperature of the molten material near the lip of the die or the air flow, or through actuators that regulate the flow rate (see for example EP 1284180, DE 4218993). In the first type of device the heating elements can be arranged in the die of the extrusion head and/or in the cooling ring, while in the second type of device the actuators can be arranged in the cooling ring or in a special adjustment ring connected to the cooling ring or independent from it (typically placed between the extrusion head and the cooling ring).
In particular, automatic rings, such as the one described in WO 2012/080276, with a discrete number of actuators and/or heating elements arranged around the circumference of the bubble in formation so as to influence the extent of the reduction in thickness of the angular section of the film associated with them, are very widespread. Other times control systems, usually radiant furnaces with a discrete number of control sectors, can be installed around the bubble along its path.
In the case of automatic adjustment systems, the extent of the adjustment requires knowledge of the thickness profile of the bubble (so-called base profile) obtained by means of thickness sensors (capacitive, optical, nuclear, ultrasonic, etc.) installed on the line. The latter measure the thicknesses thanks to a relative rotary motion of the sensor around the bubble in the stretch of plant between the extrusion head and the calender haul-off, or at any other point where the film has tubular geometry in the form of a bubble, or make readings by performing transversal scans with respect to the direction of advancement of the product in the case of flattened tubular or sheet film obtained by opening the bubble.
A constant and accurate control of the base profile is essential because if the film collected in the reel layer after layer overlaps longitudinal strips with constantly stable and aligned thickness defects, the resulting reel will have evident compact and swollen areas where maximum thicknesses are superimposed and generally above the average, alternating with other soft and less cohesive areas with an external diameter below the average in correspondence with the strips of film characterized by minimum or lower thicknesses.
To minimize this phenomenon, known as creasing, the extrusion head or the line haul-off are rotated continuously or alternately, i.e. have a rotating or oscillating movement, and in the following the term "rotating" will be used for either type of rotation. In this way a relative rotation between the head and the haul-off is created so that the folding edges of the flattened film will rotate around the line axis while the effect on the reel will be a distribution of the thickness defects over the partial or whole width of the reel (see for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,474,160). The slow translation of each longitudinal section perpendicularly to the axis of the reel is effective and sometimes necessary even in the presence of automatic thickness adjustment systems, capable of minimizing but not eliminating the dispersion of thicknesses around the mean value.
Another type of procedure for obtaining a cylindrical coil is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,178,806, in which systematic thickness errors of n layers wound in reel are compensated for by subsequent n layers with opposite thickness errors.
A particular technique of production of bubble films consists in the further reduction of the thickness after its flattening in the haul-off, obtained with a longitudinal stretching of the film by means of motorized rollers and/or additional calenders placed between the first haul-off roller and the winder placed at the end of the line. The operation of further longitudinal stretching can be performed on cold film or with partial softening of the film, and its extent may vary according to the purposes of this operation.
A small amount of longitudinal stretching applied to a film already subject to the action of automatic thickness adjustment devices can give the film a further reduction in the dispersion of the thickness profile, while significant amounts of additional stretching are imposed on the bubble film tubular in the in the case of production of pre-stretched film.
The tubular film, in this case, is guided through one or more stretching stations and subjected to large elongations up to the limit of 350% of the initial length, in order to reduce the final thickness of the product compared to the thickness of the extruded bubble and to reduce the residual elasticity of the film itself, so as to obtain mechanical properties of resistance to breakage, tear and rupture significantly different from those of the original film.
The additional longitudinal stretching process is accompanied by an inevitable transversal contraction of the tubular film (so-called neck-in), which is so much greater as the greater is the degree of longitudinal expansion and the distance between the rollers that impose such expansion. The tubular film will therefore have a large central area, between the two edge folds, characterized by a longitudinal expansion and a consequent reduction in thickness that are relatively uniform, while near the edge folds the reduction in thickness is less than in the central area and also is not uniform and regular for an extension in width depending on the extent of the expansion and the neck-in phenomenon.
Therefore, the lateral strips having a greater and irregular thickness are trimmed and removed and only the central area of the film is collected in reels, with more or less significant waste in percentage terms according to the width of the tubular film and to the entity of the neck-in phenomenon.
The final thickness profile will therefore be the superimposed effect of two separate dispersions, i.e. a first "base profile dispersion" generated by the extrusion, inflation, cooling, etc. system and a second "localized profile dispersion" generated by the local stretching deformation effects in the edge area.
The base profile dispersion is stationary in a reference system fixed in the extrusion head while the localized profile dispersion is rotating in the same reference system, and vice versa in a reference system fixed on the haul-off the base profile dispersion is rotating while the localized profile dispersion is stationary, therefore in both reference systems the two overlapping adjustments will be one stationary and the other rotating.
From a theoretical point of view, it is therefore possible to imagine four different systems for adjusting the thickness profile, arranged in the extrusion head reference system and/or in the haul-off reference system, depending on whether independent adjustment devices are used with a software that coordinates the two devices taking into account the necessary phase control due to the distance between head and haul-off, or whether they are "mixed" devices in terms of stationary/rotating operation in the case of a combination of several devices in the same reference system.
In the case of independent control devices, a first type of system includes a primary adjustment device located in the extrusion head reference system (e.g. automatic ring, automatic head, etc.) which corrects the dispersion defect of the base profile, while a second device dedicated to the correction limited to the two opposite sectors of the bubble coinciding with the folding edges shall be located on the haul-off upstream of the first drive roller (e.g. between the collapsing boards) or interposed between the first drive roller and the subsequent drive rollers.
The principle of adjustment of a device located on the haul-off may be of various nature (thermal, volumetric or mechanical), and the response speed of the system will not be particularly critical since the device is stationary in that reference system. Also the number of control points, i.e. the angular amplitude of the sector controlled by a discrete number of actuators, is independent of the primary adjustment system and can be sized and designed according to the type of error introduced by the localized profile dispersion.
A second type of system still includes two independent adjustment devices such as those referred to above, but in this case the second device shall be located in the same reference system as the extrusion head and shall have a rotation with respect to the extrusion head with all the appropriate phase controls. Also in this case, the number of control points, i.e. the angular amplitude of the sector controlled by a discrete number of actuators, is independent of the primary adjustment system and can be sized and designed according to the type of error introduced by the localized profile dispersion.
In the case of mixed adjustment devices, a third type of system (already known, for example, from EP 2277681) comprises a single stationary adjustment device located in the extrusion head which adjusts the thickness profile according to both the base profile dispersion and the localized profile dispersion, i.e. with a control software which adjusts the adjustment setting of the device by adding a 'stationary' and a 'rotating' profile superimposed on it. In this case, it will be necessary to adapt the number of control points to the smallest of the angular sectors to be controlled, and in particular if in the edge area there is required a control of angular sectors of the bubble smaller than in the central areas of the flattened tubular, each angular section of the device must be split in accordance with this small angle.
As a result, the number of device control points and the associated costs will increase since the edge control passes, rotating, through each angular section of the device. Conversely, keeping the number of control points unchanged to avoid the increased complexity and cost of the device would not provide sufficient angular resolution for effective intervention in the strips adjacent to the folding edges.
In addition, the response time of the control mechanisms must be suitable to allow the system to adapt the adjustment to the speed of rotation of the edges themselves. For example, a thermal control system with the associated inertial phenomena would impose very long system rotation times, and even if an increase in installed power could allow a reduction in response times it would at the same time make the convergence and stability of the control system more critical.
Finally, in a fourth type of system (also known from EP 2277681) the base profile dispersion adjuster and the localized profile dispersion adjuster are still combined in one device, but part of the device has an independent rotational movement and local adjustment capability to achieve a controlled rotary variation of the base profile adjustment.

Apparatus and method to adjust the thickness profile in the production of blown films


An electronic component element housing package is produced by firing a ceramic substrate for housing an electronic component element and a metal layer for bonding to the ceramic substrate to form an electrical path, simultaneously in a reducing atmosphere. The ceramic substrate comprises alumina (Al2O3), a partially stabilized zirconia by forming solid solution with yttria (Y2O3) and a sintering agent. The sintering agent comprises magnesia (MgO), and at least 1 type selected from silica (SiO2), calcia (CaO), or manganese oxides (MnO, MnO2, Mn2O3, Mn3O4).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a layered ceramic electronic component element housing package for mounting and housing semiconductor elements, liquid crystal oscillators, and other electronic component elements, and more specifically, to a smaller and lower-profile electronic component element housing package capable of reducing the size and thickness of the ceramic substrate in order to house electronic component elements in a package and reduce the thickness and size of the device on which the elements are mounted.
2. Background Art
Conventionally, a plurality of ceramic green sheets was used in layered ceramic electronic component element housing packages. The ceramic green sheets were made by adding a sintering agent such as silica (SiO2), magnesia (MgO), or calcia (CaO) at the rate of 6-9% by weight to 91-94% by weight of alumina (Al2O3), mixing in an organic binder, a plasticizer, and a solvent or the like to make a slurry, which is then formed into a sheet shape by the doctor blade method. On the respective ceramic green sheets, metalized printed wiring for electrical conduction use having a via conductor and a through hole conductor for forming an electrically conductive state between layers above and below is formed by screen printing using a conductive paste made by mixing high-melting point metals such as tungsten (W) and molybdenum (Mo) with a solvent or the like. In addition, the plurality of ceramic green sheets on which the metalized printed wiring is formed is layered by aligning and applying heat and pressure, then simultaneously firing the ceramic green sheets with high-melting point metal at a temperature of 1550-1600° C. in a reducing atmosphere to form a layered ceramic electronic component element housing package having a ceramic substrate surface, an interior, and inter-layer metalized layers. This electronic component element housing package is configured so that the sintering temperature of the sheets is lowered by adding the sintering agent to the sheets, thus making it possible to perform sintering without any difficulty for sintering with the tungsten and molybdenum. In addition, the electronic component element housing package is configured so that the ceramic constituent material in the ceramic substrate other than the 91-94% by weight of alumina powder is a sintering agent such as silica (SiO2), calcia (CaO), or magnesia (MgO), and is configured so that the bond strength of the metalized layers of tungsten and molybdenum formed on the ceramic substrate can be increased by the glass component of the sintering agent.
However, electronic component element housing package of mainly alumina as described above contains a comparatively large amount of sintering agent at 6-9% by weight. While the firing temperature can be lowered, the bending strength of the ceramic substrate itself drops to around 320 MPa. Thus, there is a limit to which the thickness of the ceramic substrate can be reduced. Consequently, if the thickness of the ceramic substrate is reduced, the electronic component element housing package becomes unable to withstand thermal stress during metal cover bonding after electronic component mounting. In addition, if the thickness is increased, after the electronic components are mounted this electronic component element housing package becomes unable to be used as a small, low-profile package capable of being mounted on module capable of supporting thinner and smaller sizes.
A disclosure has been made of an invention in which a sintered body is formed containing 2.0-27.0% by weight of zirconium oxide on at least one of the ceramic substrate or the cover in order to increase the bend strength of ceramic substrates in conventional electronic component element housing packages (for example, see Patent Document 1). According to this invention, a container having a ceramic substrate and a cover seals semiconductor elements airtight inside the container, and after a semiconductor device is rendered, the airtight seal can be maintained completely even if outside force is applied to the ceramic substrate or the cover.
In addition, an invention has been disclosed in which a ceramic substrate having improved bending strength for use as a semiconductor device is made from a sintered body with alumina as the main constituent element and zirconia added. The material composition of the ceramic substrate is selected from within a range of 70-90% by weight for alumina and 10-30% by weight for the zirconia additive (for example, see Patent Document 2). According to this invention, the ceramic substrate has a higher bending strength and pliability (toughness) than those made of alumina, thus making a thinner ceramic substrate possible.

Electronic component element housing package

Nippon Steel & Sumikin Electronics Devices Inc.


A light-emitting panel includes a plurality of pixels, a plurality of first regulators, and a plurality of second regulators. The plurality of first regulators extends in a first direction and defines each two of the pixels that are adjacent to each other in a second direction orthogonal to the first direction. The plurality of second regulators extends in the second direction and defines each two of the pixels that are adjacent to each other in the first direction. The plurality of pixels at least includes a first pixel and a second pixel that have different lengths in the first direction from each other and share a light-emitting layer. The first pixel and the second pixel are at least adjacent to each other in the first direction with the second regulator being interposed between the first pixel and the second pixel.

The disclosure relates to a light-emitting panel, an electronic apparatus, and a method of manufacturing a light-emitting panel.
A variety of panels have been proposed as light-emitting panels including light-emitting elements. For example, an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) panel including an organic material as a light-emitting element has been launched. Such OLED panels are disclosed in, for example, International Publication No. WO 2009/057342, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (JP-A) No. 2008-216357, and JP-A No. 2002-222695. Moreover, a quantum dot light-emitting diode (QLED) panel in which an inorganic material is used for a light-emitting layer of a light-emitting element is currently under development. For OLED panels and QLED panels, coating is used in forming light-emitting elements.

Light-emitting panel, electronic apparatus, and method of manufacturing light-emitting panel


An adjustable eyebolt key includes a flat stem element having side limiting bars extending along the length thereof, an underside center section of a lesser thickness connecting the side limiting bars and which defines a recess therein and two key rings at opposite ends thereof; a tongue slidably positioned in the recess on the upper surface of the underside center section, with the ends of the tongue having the same thickness as the key ring within which it is slidable so as to adjust the grip of each key ring; a worm rotatably secured on the stem element for engagement with gear teeth at an edge of the tongue for actuating the tongue to move along the stem element so as to adjust the grip of each key ring; and a cross-tie in the vicinity of each key ring which secures the tongue on the stem element so as to permit movement of the tongue along the stem element.

The invention relates to an adjustable eyebolt key.
In a ring wrench of a known adjustable eyebolt key, the tongue is held on the stem element by pins which prominently project from the tongue through a slot in the stem element and are supported with their heads on the rear side thereof. Different problems result in this known design. For example, when loosening screws that are very firmly lodged, the tongue breaks away slightly upwardly and perpendicular to its surface. This problem is particularly hard to avoid when the screw spanner is not quite correctly superposed on the screw or is actuated perpendicular to the direction of the screw when it is handled. Further, the force applicable to a nut to be loosened or tightened is relatively weak, since the tongue is designed very flat, that is, of a smaller width than the remainder of the tool, so that the tongue grips the nut in an equally flat or narrow area. If a stronger force is applied, the nut is destroyed.


A functional fluid composition comprising a naphthenic bright stock base oil and a Fischer-Tropsch derived base oil, wherein the functional fluid composition has a Viscosity Index (according to ASTM D 2270) of above 95.

It is to be noted that, although the present invention has been explained below whilst referring to a functional fluid for particular use as a marine cylinder oil, the present invention is not limited in any way to such a marine cylinder oil; the present invention can be equally applied to lubricating composition intended for other applications.
Marine cylinder oils used in marine diesel engines are subject to particularly high levels of stress due to the fact that marine diesel engines are usually run continuously at near full load conditions at high temperatures and pressures for long periods of time.
Marine cylinder oils are so-called "total loss" compositions and their purpose is to provide a strong oil film between the cylinder liner and piston rings. If the oil film breaks down under the high operating temperatures and pressure, the internal walls of the cylinder will be subjected to adhesive wear (known as "scuffing").
Apart from providing a strong oil film between the cylinder liner and piston rings, the marine cylinder oil is typically formulated to provide for good oxidation and thermal stability, water demulsibility, corrosion protection and good antifoam performance.