A motor-driven power steering apparatus and method for a vehicle are able to avoid frequent on-off operations of an electromagnetic clutch 14 as much as possible, which connects or disconnects a motor 13 with or from a steering system, thus improving the durability of the clutch 14 and suppressing the generation of undesirable noise and shocks upon connection and disconnection of the clutch 14. The motor 13 is deenergized by a motor controller 191 when the vehicle speed V is equal to or greater than a predetermined value Vo. The clutch 14 is turned off to disconnect the motor from the steering system when an abnormality in the steering system is determined during high speed travel of the vehicle. Such an abnormality is determined if the motor current flowing through the deenergized motor is not equal to zero, or if the steering torque is equal to or greater than a predetermined value and a voltage across the motor when deenergized is equal to zero, or if the rotational speed of the steering wheel is equal to or greater than a predetermined value and the motor voltage is equal to zero.

This invention relates to a motor-driven power steering apparatus and method for a vehicle in which a motor is operatively connected with steerable road wheels of the vehicle through a clutch for assisting the steering operation of the driver. More particularly, it relates to such an apparatus and a method as described in which the clutch is turned off to disconnect the motor from the steerable road wheels only when an abnormality in the power steering operation is detected when the vehicle is travelling at high speeds.
FIG. 4 is a schematic representation of a conventional motor-driven power steering apparatus as described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 62-255273 or Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-215461.
Referring to the figure, designated at reference numeral 1 is a steering wheel which is turned by the driver of a vehicle for steering operation. A steering shaft or column, generally designated at 2, serves to transmit torque imparted by the driver to the steering wheel 1 toward steerable road wheels (not shown) through a pinion and rack mechanism. The steering shaft 2 includes a first shaft section 2a which is connected at its upper end with the steering wheel 1, and a second shaft section 2b which is connected at its upper end via a universal joint 4a with the first shaft section 2a. A steering torque sensor 3 is mounted on the steering shaft 2 for sensing the steering torque T of the steering wheel 1. The pinion and rack mechanism includes a first pinion shaft 5 which is connected via a universal joint 4b with a lower end of the second shaft section 2b of the steering shaft 2, and a rack rod 6 which is connected at its opposite ends with the unillustrated steerable road wheels and which has a first threaded portion 6a engaged with the first pinion shaft 5, and a second threaded portion 6b. The elements 1 through 6 together constitute a steering system.
A vehicle speed sensor 10 senses the speed V of the vehicle at which the vehicle is travelling, and generates a corresponding output signal to a control unit 9. The control unit 9 includes a microcomputer for controlling a motor 13 in the form of a DC motor and a clutch 14 in the form of an electromagnetic clutch based on the steering torque T and the vehicle speed V as sensed by the steering torque sensor 3 and the vehicle speed sensor 10 so as to properly perform power assist for steering. A battery 11 mounted in the vehicle is directly connected to the control unit 9 for supplying power thereto, and it is also connected through a key switch 12 and the control unit 9 to the motor 13 and a clutch 14 to be described later for energizing them, the key switch 12 being connected between the battery 11 and the control unit 9. The motor 13 has an unillustrated rotating shaft which is connected via the clutch 14 with a worm shaft 15 which is in meshing engagement with a worm wheel 16. The worm wheel 16 is connected with a second pinion shaft 18 which is engaged with the second threaded portion 6b of the rack rod 6. The worm shaft 15 and the worm wheel 16 together constitute a speed reduction mechanism for transmitting the output torque of the motor 13 to the rack rod 6 at a reduced speed for power assist.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram showing the detailed construction of the control unit 9 of the conventional power steering apparatus of FIG. 4. The control unit 9 includes a motor control means 91 for calculating a motor current Io to be supplied to the motor 13 based on the steering torque T and the vehicle speed V and for driving the motor 13, and a clutch control means 92 for supplying a clutch control signal or current C to the electromagnetic clutch 14 to control it such that the clutch 14 is switched off into a disconnected state when the vehicle speed V is equal to and above a predetermined speed Vo (for instance 50 km/hr.), and switched on into a connected state when the vehicle speed V is below the predetermined speed Vo, and a motor current sensing means 93 in the form of a grounded resistor for sensing an actual motor current I flowing through the motor 13 and feeding data thereof back to the motor control means 91.
The motor control means 91, while being fed back with the motor current I sensed by the current sensing resistor 93, applies a voltage to the motor 13 such that a current corresponding to the calculated motor current Io is supplied from the battery 11 to the motor 13 via the control unit 9. When the clutch control means 92 determines a failure or abnormality in the power steering apparatus on the basis of signals output from the various sensors when the vehicle is travelling at low speeds less than the predetermined speed Vo, the clutch control signal or current C is made to a low level to turn off the clutch.
FIG. 6 is a graph showing the clutch control signal C and the calculated motor current Io. As shown at (a) in FIG. 6, the clutch control signal C is "on" or at a high level (e.g., indicative of a clutch current of about 1 ampere) when the vehicle speed V is lower than the predetermined vehicle speed Vo and it is "off" or at a low level (e.g., indicative of a clutch current of 0 ampere) when the vehicle speed V is the predetermined vehicle speed Vo or above.
As shown at (b) in FIG. 6, the calculated motor current level Io increases with the decreasing vehicle speed V and also with the increasing steering torque T when the vehicle speed V is lower than the predetermined vehicle speed Vo, and it is equal to zero when the vehicle speed V is the predetermined vehicle speed Vo or above. Usually, the steering wheel 1 is heavy to turn (i.e., a greater steering torque is required to turn the steering wheel 1) during low speed travel, whereas it is light (i.e., a smaller steering torque is required) during high speed travel irrespective of the road and other conditions. Accordingly, the auxiliary torque or power assist by the motor 13 should be increased with a decrease in the vehicle speed V.
The operation of the conventional motor-driven power steering apparatus shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 will now be described with reference to FIG. 6.
When the vehicle speed V is lower than the predetermined vehicle speed Vo during low speed travel, the clutch control means 92 in the control unit 9 makes the clutch control signal C to a high level to turn the electromagnetic clutch 14 on into a connected state. The motor control means 91 generates a motor current signal Io based on the vehicle speed V from the vehicle speed sensor 10 and the steering torque T from the torque sensor 3 thereby cause the motor 13 to generate a necessary torque for power steering.
More specifically, with a reduction in the vehicle speed V, the required steering torque T increases, so the motor current level Io corresponding to the output torque of the motor 13 is thus set to an increased level in accordance with the decreasing vehicle speed. When the required steering torque increases due to some cause such as a change in the road condition or the like, the motor current level Io is set to a value corresponding to the increased level of the steering torque T.
Thus, the amount of steering torque or force required of the driver can be held substantially constant irrespective of the driving condition or the like.
When a system failure or abnormality is detected during low speed travel, the clutch control means 92 makes the clutch control signal C to a low level to turn the electromagnetic clutch 14 off, so that the motor 13 is disconnected from the worm shaft 15 to ensure safety in steering. For example, a system failure or abnormality is determined in such a case as when the motor current level Io as calculated by the motor control means 91 or the motor current I as sensed through the current sensing resistor 93 is of an abnormally high value, or when the output of the torque sensor 3 shows that the steering wheel 1 has not been operated by the driver for an unusually long period of time.
During high speed travel in which the vehicle speed V is greater than the predetermined vehicle speed Vo, the clutch control means 92 makes the clutch control signal C to a low level to turn the electromagnetic clutch 14 off, thereby disconnecting the motor 13 from the worm shaft 15. At the same time, the motor control means 91 operates to stop or interrupt the power supply from the battery 11 to the motor 13 via the key switch 12, and hence the motor 13 is stopped. In this situation, even if a system failure such as an abnormality or malfunction in the motor 13, the sensors 3, 10 or the like takes place during high speed travel in which the electromagnetic clutch 14 is turned off to disconnect the motor 13 from the rack rod 6, there will be no trouble or problem in the manual steering operation of the driver.
Subsequently, when the vehicle speed V decreases below the predetermined value Vo, the clutch control signal C from the clutch control means 92 becomes high again to turn on the electromagnetic clutch 14, and the motor control means 91 controls the motor current I on the basis of the vehicle speed V and the steering torque T as noted above.
Generally, in the event of a failure of the control unit 9, an improper motor current level Io can be supplied to the motor 13, thus causing undesirable forced rotation of the steering wheel 1 without regard to the driver's steering effort. In addition, in the event of a mechanical failure of the motor 13 with the clutch 14 held in a connected state, it becomes difficult for the driver to turn the steering wheel 1, that is, the state of incapability of steering results. Although the driver can deal with these failures by turning the clutch off during low speed travel, it is extremely difficult to well cope with them during high speed travel, thus spoiling safety in driving as is well known in the art.
Accordingly, to avoid the above-described situations, when the vehicle speed V exceeds the predetermined vehicle speed Vo, the clutch control signal C is made to a low level to provide for fail-safe operation and hence safe driving.
To summarize, as described above, with the above-mentioned conventional motor-driven power steering apparatus, the electromagnetic clutch 14 is normally connected, but disconnected only when a system failure is determined during low speed driving, whereas it is always disconnected during high speed driving irrespective of any system failure.
Therefore, each time the vehicle speed V decreases below or increases above the predetermined vehicle speed Vo, the electromagnetic clutch 14 is operated to turn on and off. Such frequent on-off operations of the clutch 14 produce great sounds, thus resulting in increased noise and an uncomfortable ride. In addition, the durability of the electromagnetic clutch 14 is accordingly reduced. Further, upon the electromagnetic clutch 14 being turned on and off, the driver gripping the steering wheel 1 is frequently subject to undesirable steering shocks.

Motor-driven power steering apparatus and method


A mounting for acoustically insulating a first building component from a second building component, said mounting having a first insulating portion extending around a fastener, a second insulating portion extending around said fastener, a neck insulating portion extending between said first insulating portion and said second insulating portion, such that a shaft of the fastener is covered by one or more of the insulating portions between the first building component and the second building component.

In order to reduce structure-borne vibrations and airborne noise between a pair of building components, such as a primary masonry wall and a secondary framed wall, when those two walls require support bridging connection between them for structural purposes, a mounting, consisting of brackets and rubber washers or pads have been mounted on a bolt, connecting the two building components together. A particular problem arises with the order in which the brackets, bolt and rubber elements are assembled, being that if a piece of construction debris, such as a small piece of timber, or a loose construction element, such as a stray fastener, lodges itself between one building component and the mounting, it inadvertently short circuits the isolation properties of the mounting and negates the intended attenuation of the vibration of noise, causing loss of amenity and function through noise annoyance.
Furthermore, some arrangements require the installer to interact with, adjust or affix the assembly bolt, either as the means by which the building component is connected to the mounting, or as a mechanism to adjust the distance between the building component and the mounting. The assembly bolt is generally tightened at the manufacturer's premises in a controlled environment to a precise value to ensure the compression of the rubber isolation elements is correct. The compression amount is highly critical to the acoustic performance of such mountings and any uncontrolled variation to the compression amount by way of the on-site installer interacting with the assembly bolt is likely to have a detrimental effect on the acoustic performance of the entire building.
The present invention seeks to overcome any one or more of the above disadvantages by providing a mounting that improves the acoustic and vibration isolation between two building components, eliminates the risk of the isolation elements being ineffective, and removes the need for the installer to interact directly with the assembly bolt that is critical to the isolation performance of the mounting.


An engine includes variable valve mechanisms and a variable compression ratio mechanism. An ECU executes temperature balance control when a fuel-cut operation is executed. In the temperature balance control, valve opening characteristics of an exhaust valve are controlled based on a magnitude relation between an actual catalyst temperature and a target catalyst temperature and a magnitude relation between a water temperature and a required cylinder wall temperature. When executing a fuel-cut operation, it is thereby possible to control both the actual catalyst temperature and the water temperature in a well-balanced manner so that the actual catalyst temperature falls within a temperature range suitable for operation of the catalysts, and the water temperature becomes close to the required cylinder wall temperature.

The conventional technology includes a control device for an internal combustion engine that controls a valve timing during a fuel-cut operation as disclosed, for example, in Patent Literature 1 (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-79517). According to the conventional technology, if it is predicted that a catalyst will enter a supercooled state during a fuel-cut operation, an opening timing or a closing timing of an exhaust valve is controlled to an advance side. As a result, according to the conventional technology, heat around a combustion chamber is efficiently transferred to air (fresh air) that flows into a cylinder during a fuel-cut operation, and a decrease in the catalyst temperature is suppressed by increasing the temperature of the fresh air.
The applicants are aware of the following literature, which includes the above described literature, as literature related to the present invention.

Control device for internal combustion engine


A preferred thermal energy storage and delivery unit includes a chamber for containing a phase change material and one or more air channel members which pass through the phase change material for conveying air into heat exchange relationship with the phase change material. The unit also includes a fluid circuit for conveying a thermal potential charging fluid, for example engine coolant or refrigerant, into heat exchange relationship with the phase change material. The unit optionally may include a fluid circuit through which engine coolant passes, and a fluid circuit through which refrigerant passes. In this manner, systems which incorporate the unit and selectively provide heated or cooled air to condition an interior vehicle space are provided. Also described are improved vehicular environmental conditioning systems which include a front HVAC unit and a rear thermal storage apparatus, and which are flexibly operated in a number of environmental conditioning and/or thermal storage modes.

The present invention relates to a thermal energy storage and delivery apparatus and a vehicular environmental control system incorporating the apparatus.
As background, the use of heating and cooling systems for vehicular applications is common and well established to maintain a comfortable environment within the vehicle while the vehicle engine is operating. When the occupants of the vehicle stop driving to rest, the interior space in the vehicle can become very uncomfortable due to the air temperature within the vehicle increasing or decreasing. In most vehicles, the heating and cooling system maintains comfort levels within the vehicle only during engine operation. These heating and cooling systems do not provide space conditioning to the interior of the vehicle when the engine is turned off.
Phase change materials ("PCMs") store heat during phase transition, typically liquid/solid phase transitions. For example, water, paraffins, alcohol, salts and salt hydrates have notably high energy densities over temperature ranges of practical significance. A large amount of thermal energy can be stored as latent heat of fusion during the melting of an appropriate PCM. The stored heat can then be extracted from the liquid PCM by cooling it until it solidifies. Thermal energy can also be stored as sensible heat in PCMs. Various attempts have been made to incorporate PCMs into heating and air conditioning systems, including heat pump systems, solar collection systems, and more conventional heating and air conditioning systems. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,540 to Carr describes a cool storage reservoir positioned in the air duct of a vehicle or the like. A plurality of elongated sealed containers are positioned in the cool storage reservoir, each of the sealed containers being filled with a gas/water medium capable of forming a gas hydrate. U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,038 to Carr also implements a thermal storage system into a vehicle using gas hydrates.
Gas hydrates, however, may possess a variety of disadvantages. Gas hydrates suffer from the development of significant pressures during decomposition and may be subject to excessive supercooling. They may also require specific devices to initiate nucleation. Another disadvantage of the U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,038 patent is that the vehicle's air distribution system is required to discharge the stored thermal energy. The vehicle air distribution system has a high power blower which drains power out of the batteries very fast. Further, the U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,038 patent discloses storing high and low temperature thermal energy of the same temperature. This does not permit the system of the U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,038 patent to provide comfortable thermal conditioning of a vehicle interior. In addition, the system disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,277,038 patent is not compatible with electric powered vehicles (EV) which don't have vehicle heating and cooling systems.
Another example is the "heat battery" designed to provide "instant" heating to a vehicle cabin. (Automotive Engineering, Vol. 100, No. 2, February, 1992). The core of the heat battery includes a series of flat, sheet metal PCM envelopes in spaced-apart relationship. The heat battery and an electric coolant pump are installed in a coolant line running from the engine to the cabin heater, forming a closed circuit capable of very rapidly heating the cabin when the engine is turned on.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,662 describes a thermal energy storage system operable in various heating capacity storage and discharge modes for maintaining a temperature in a vehicle compartment. Generally, the systems described in this '662 patent represent improvements over prior known systems. In the specific system disclosed, an extra pump is used in the operation of the thermal storage system, and air is circulated around the exterior of the chamber containing the thermal storage medium to recover positive or negative thermal potential. In addition, the specific thermal storage system described is not operable to condition the vehicle compartment when the engine is running, and it is not configured in a fashion which allows for discharge of the thermal storage system and simultaneous operation of the vehicle's HVAC system.
In light of this background, there remains a need for thermal storage system designs which can be operated flexibly, alone or in conjunction with conventional HVAC units, and which possess improved heat transfer properties. The present invention is addressed to these needs.

Thermal energy storage and delivery apparatus and vehicular systems incorporating same


In order to eliminate or at least to reduce a possible unbalance of the propulsive system, counterweights are brought in locations that are provided on the hub envelope, near the ends of the latter and away from the planes of the propellers. More particularly, the counterweights are provided as discrete elements located in two planes spaced from the propellers and orthogonal to an outer surface of the hub envelopes, or are provided as a non-uniform mass ring.

It is known that, in such propulsive system, generally so-called CROR (for "Contra-Rotating Open Rotor"), each propeller comprises a hub concentrically surrounded by a hub envelope, each hub envelope projecting on either part of the plan of the corresponding propeller. In such propulsive system type, the centre of gravity of each propeller is adapted to be deviated from the axis of rotation thereof, thereby resulting, upon its rotation, in a radial unbalance phenomenon. Now, such unbalance is able to generate mechanical vibrations being able to be transmitted to a piece of equipment—in particular the nacelle of an aircraft receiving passengers—to which the propulsive system is attached, which can be unpleasant for them.
In order to eliminate (or at least to reduce) such possible radial unbalance, it is already known to fit a set of counterweights on locations provided on the propulsive system, in the plan of each propeller, being orthogonal to the axis of rotation thereof. It will be understood that "plan" in this application means the same as "plane," and these terms are used interchangeably herein. The centre of gravity of each propeller can then be repositioned relative to the axis of rotation thereof by appropriately arranging, on said locations, counterweights, the masses of which are adequately selected taking their locations into account, which can be for example performed upon test phases of the propulsive system, either on the ground, or in flight conditions.
However, such balancing for the propulsive system is frequently found insufficient. Indeed, when the propulsive system is in flight, the propeller blades are subjected to a set of aerodynamic forces, amongst which axial aerodynamic thrust and resistance forces. It results in additional forces and moments occurring, to which said propellers are subjected, thereby unbalancing all the more the propulsive system.
The object of the present invention is to remedy such disadvantage.

Method for balancing a propulsive system having non-hull contra-rotating propellers


This technology relates to a single-phase differential conversion circuit for improving the linearity of input/output characteristics, a signal processing method for use with the circuit, and a reception apparatus. The single-phase differential conversion circuit includes a first source-grounded amplifier and a second source-grounded amplifier. Each of the amplifiers includes a transconductance amplifier section including a transistor for converting an AC component of input potential to a current, a diode load section including a transistor in a diode connection configured as a first load, and a large-signal distortion compensation circuit configured as a second load connected in parallel with the first load. The transistors of the first source-grounded amplifier are each a P-type MOS transistor, and the transistors of the second source-grounded amplifier are each an N-type MOS transistor. This technology is applied advantageously to a reception apparatus for receiving TV signals, for example.

Differential signals are less susceptible, for example, to the effects noise (in-phase noise) than single-phase signals. Alternatively, The differential signal may otherwise be doubled in signal range. Thus differential circuits are frequently used in cases where analog signals with relatively small amplitude, for example, are to be dealt with.
A single-phase signal is converted to a differential signal by a single-phase differential conversion circuit before being supplied to a differential circuit. In particular, in the case where analog signals having relatively small amplitude are to be handled, it is important to improve signal-to-noise ratio (S/N ratio). Patent Literature 1, for example, discloses a single-phase differential conversion circuit that minimizes noise.

Single-phase differential conversion circuit, signal processing method for use therewith, and reception apparatus

SONY SEMICONDUCTOR SOLUTIONS CORPORATION


An all epitaxial process performed entirely in a CVD reactor is employed to grow heavily doped layer on lightly doped layer on a heavily doped substrate, eliminating the need for separate diffusion, even for high impurity concentrations. The process starts with a heavily doped silicon substrate of carrier concentration typically greater than 1.times.10.sup.19 per cm.sup.3. To minimize outdiffusion, the substrate is "capped" by growing very thin and heavily doped silicon layers which are depleted by hydrogen purges. A first epitaxial layer is grown over the "capped" substrate. This layer is relatively lightly doped, having a resistivity of more than 200 ohm.cm. A second epitaxial layer is then grown over the first epitaxial layer. The second epitaxial layer has a polarity opposite to that of the substrate and is heavily doped to a resistivity of less than 0.005 ohm cm.

The present invention relates to semiconductor wafers and more particularly to a unique multilayer epitaxial structure having heavily doped layers and to a method for fabricating same by epitaxial techniques in a single continuous operation in the chamber of a chemical vapor deposition reactor.
Semiconductors of many types are formed on wafers which are commonly made of silicon crystal material. The material is produced by an epitaxial grown process in accordance with well known chemical vapor deposition principles. The growth of the material takes place in vessels called chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactors specially designed for this purpose. Such reactors have facility to control growth conditions such as temperature and pressure, as well as impurity concentrations.
Certain types of semiconductors such as power diodes and Zener diodes have specific electrical parameter requirements, for example, forward voltage drop, leakage current and breakdown voltages, which are difficult to accurately control by conventional diffusion means. A multilayer epitaxial structure as proposed in this disclosure will provide accurate controls to meet the device electrical parameters requirements. In addition, the said proposal will eliminate the need for impurity diffusion.
The said multilayer structure is epitaxially grown with a top layer having high impurity concentration and middle layer having light impurity concentration deposited on a substrate of high impurity concentration with opposite or same dopant type.
However, the formation of heavily doped layers by epitaxial growth usually means slow growth rates and the presence of high impurity concentrations in the material leads to problems with "outdiffusion", where the high dopant concentration layers tend to contaminate low concentration layers, as the material containing the heavily doped layer is heated to high temperature for processing. Another problem associated with heavily doped epitaxially grown layer is "autodoping" in which dopant moves into the gas stream. This autodopant together with highly concentrated dopant gas used, contaminates epi reactor chamber and quartz ware and therefore tends to degrade resistivity control on subsequent runs (the so called "memory effect"). Consequently, where high impurity concentrations are required, it has been necessary to form the doped layer by diffusion in a separate vessel called a diffusion tube.

Method for fabricating a multilayer epitaxial structure


A reflective type liquid crystal display device excelling in uniformity and capable of making a bright display is presented. At the front side of the liquid crystal display element, that is, at the observer side, a light guide plate is disposed, and a pair of lamps are disposed at the outer side of the confronting side surfaces of the light guide plate. Collimators for limiting the incident angle .theta. to the upper surface of the light from the lamps are disposed between the light guide plate and lamps. That is, by the collimators, the incident angle .theta. to the upper surface is defined so that the incident light may be totally reflected, and that the reflected light may not be totally reflected by the lower surface 61b. As a result, the light from the lamps will not reach the observer directly, and a uniform illumination of the liquid crystal display element may be realized. Besides, at the observer side of the liquid crystal display element, a light guide plate forming protrusions is disposed, and a pair of lamps are disposed at the outer side of the confronting side surfaces of the light guide plate. Furthermore, between the light guide plate and lamps, collimators for limiting the incident angle .theta. of the light from the lamps into the upper surface are disposed. Accordingly, the light from the lamps does not reach the observer directly, and the light entering the protrusions formed on the light guide plate is emitted to the liquid crystal display element side. Thus, a uniform illumination into the liquid crystal display element is realized.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a so-called reflective type liquid crystal display device used in word processor, personal computer, other office automatic appliances, view finder of portable video tape recorder, and various monitors of video signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
The EL (electro-luminescence), CRT (cathode ray tube), and LED (light emitting diode) are display devices which emit light by themselves, while the liquid crystal is a display device which does not emit light by itself but receives light and exhibits a display. Therefore, it requires a light source in order that the display be visualized so as to be visible by the human eye. Hitherto, many structures have been proposed and realized for the light source device of direct-viewing type liquid crystal display devices. Principal examples are given below.
(a) Illumination lamp type
FIG. 1 is a sectional view showing a constituent example of a liquid crystal display device using a light source device of illumination lamp type. Lamps 11a, 11b are disposed on both sides of the front side of a liquid crystal display device 12. The light from the lamps 11a, 11b passes through the liquid crystal display device 12, and is reflected by a reflector 13, and is projected again to the liquid crystal display device 12 to be display light. In the case of the illumination lamp type, the lamps 11a, 11b as the light source may be installed at the front side of the display surface of the liquid crystal display device 12, and the number of parts is small, and a simple and inexpensive liquid crystal display device service is presented.
(b) Reflector mirror type
FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a constituent example of a liquid crystal display device using a light source of reflector mirror type. In the reflector mirror type, the light utilization efficiency is high, and a high luminance is obtained, and hence it is widely employed. On the opposite side of a liquid crystal display device 24 of a lamp 23, a reflector 22 is disposed, and the light from the lamp 23 is efficiently radiated to the front side (the liquid crystal display device 24 side). By the reflector 22 alone, the high luminance portion is deviated to the periphery of the lamp 23, and it tends to be uneven in luminance, and therefore a diffusion plate 21 is disposed in front of the lamp 23 and the luminance uniformity is improved by varying the thickness of the diffusion plate 21. The light from the diffusion plate 21 is projected to the liquid crystal display device 24.
(c) Flat plate lamp type
FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the constitution of a liquid crystal display device using a light source device of flat plate lamp type. A fluorescent compound is applied to the both inner surface of a front glass plate 35 and a rear glass plate 36, and a fluorescent plane 31 is formed. At both right and left ends of the fluorescent plane 31, discharge electrodes 32a, 32b are disposed, and by discharge between the discharge electrodes 32, 32b, the fluorescent plane 31 emits light. The light from the fluorescent plane 31 is projected to a liquid crystal display device 37. In this flat plate lamp type, the lamp itself is a flat plate, which may be disposed at the rear side of the liquid crystal display device 37, and the optical system is not necessary, so that the efficiency of utilization of light is high.
(d) Light guide plate type
FIG. 4 is a diagram for showing the constitution of a liquid crystal display device using a light source device of light guide plate type. The light radiated from a lamp 41 is guided by multiple reflection of the inner surface of a light guide plate 43 composed of acrylic resin excellent in light transmissivity. A reflector 42 is disposed on the opposite side surface of a liquid crystal display device 45 of the light guide plate 43, and the light from the lamp 41 is taken out through a diffusion plate 44 only from the front side, and is projected to the liquid crystal display device 45. Here, the lamp 41 focuses the light by making use of the reflector 42 and a slit not shown, and the utilization efficiency of light is improved, but since this light source device is not designed to make use of total reflection of the light guide plate 43 in its principle, the reflector 42 and the slit are not for limiting the incident angle of the light. This light source device is relatively thin, and is excellent in uniformity of luminance, so that it is applicable to thin design of electronic appliances utilizing portable liquid crystal display devices.
(e) EL type
The EL is a thin, lightweight, flat light source device, excellent in uniformity of luminance, possessing properties as the light source device for liquid crystal display device, but it is low in surface luminance, narrow in selection width of light color, and fast in color deterioration during use, and it has been replaced by the fluorescent lamp in the color trend of liquid crystal display device. Recently, however, the EL of high luminance and long life is being developed, and the EL lamp is being reviewed in the background of the thin design of liquid crystal display device.
(f) Transparent reflector type
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the constitution of a liquid crystal device using a light source device of transparent reflector type. The light radiated from a lamp 51 is reflected by a front reflector 54 disposed at the front side (the observer 55 side) of a liquid crystal display device 52, and passes through the liquid crystal display device 52, and is reflected by a rear reflector 53, and passes through the liquid crystal display device 52 again and then the front reflector 54, and reaches the observer 55 looking at the liquid crystal display device 52. The liquid crystal display device making use of this light source device has not been realized yet.
Recently, the word processor, personal computer, and other office automation appliances are becoming small and portable progressively. In the portable appliance, considering the convenience of carrying, thin size and light weight are essential conditions, and the keyboard, display device and battery are rapidly becoming thinner in size and lighter in weight. On the other hand, reduction of power consumption is also important, and the reflection type liquid crystal display device shows the display that is visible only with external light in the sufficiently illuminated environments, and the display device without light source device is widely employed. In this type of liquid crystal display device, however, the display is hard to read when the ambient illumination becomes dark, which often causes troubles in use.
To solve these problems, what is needed is the reflective type liquid crystal display device with a light source device capable of illuminating the entire surface of the display device uniformly, being light in weight and thin in size. In the reflective type liquid crystal display device, since it is not possible to illuminate from the rear side, a transparent light source device must be disposed in front of the display surface. The reflective liquid crystal display device having a transparent prepositional light source device presents a display visible with external light only without using light source device built in the appliance as far as the ambient illumination is bright enough, and the light source device built in the appliance may be used when the ambient illumination is insufficient, and thus the light source device may be used only when required, so that the power consumption may be saved.
Of these six types of prior art above, in the (b) reflector mirror type, (c) flat plate lamp type, and (e) EL type, structurally, the light source device cannot be disposed before the liquid crystal display device. The (d) light guide plate type has the reflector, which cannot be place at the front because the light source is not transparent.
Both (a) illumination lamp type and (b) transparent reflector type can be both installed before the liquid crystal display device, but uniform illumination is difficult. In the (f) transparent reflector type, the light source device becomes large and thick. In addition, in the display mode using polarizer, such as TN-LC (twisted nematic liquid crystal) and STN-LC (super-twisted nematic LC), the liquid crystal molecules in the liquid crystal display element is twisted by 90 to 270 degrees as initial orientation, and the liquid crystal display elements are disposed between a pair of polarizers, end display is made by making use of the optical properties of the liquid crystal display elements, that is, the optical rotation characteristics without electric field and optical rotation cancellation characteristics in voltage applied state, but in the (a) illumination lamp type or (f) transparent reflector type, since the light source device must be disposed outside of the two polarizers, the light source light passes through each polarizer twice, or four times in total. Accordingly, the light absorption by the polarizer is large, and the utilization efficiency of light source light is lowered, and the display becomes dark.

Liquid crystal display device with edge lit lightguide reflecting light to back reflector by total internal reflection


In an internal combustion engine, a piston reciprocating in a cylinder and a crankshaft are linked with each other by a piston-crank linking mechanism. The crankshaft includes a counterweight. When the piston is located in the proximity of a bottom dead center, an outermost portion of the counterweight crosses an imaginary extension line extended from a piston pin in an axial direction of the piston pin.

The present invention generally relates to an internal combustion engine having a piston crank mechanism for reciprocating a piston, and more particularly, to a diesel engine or an inner-cylinder direct injection gasoline engine having such a piston crank mechanism.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-227367 discloses a variable compression ratio mechanism of an internal combustion engine using a multilink piston crank mechanism, which was previously proposed by the applicant of the present application. This mechanism links a piston and a crankpin with each other by an upper link and a lower link. One end of the upper link is connected with the piston via a piston pin. The other end of the upper link is connected with the lower link via a first connection pin. The lower link is mounted rotatably on the crankpin of a crankshaft. This mechanism restrains movement of the lower link by a control link having one end connected with the lower link via a second connection pin. The other end of the control link is supported on a lower part of a cylinder block, for example, via a cam mechanism. The center of swinging motion of the other end of the control link can be shifted by the cam mechanism so as to vary a top dead center of the piston, and thereby vary a compression ratio of the engine.


The present invention relates to an organic thin film transistor which includes an organic layer comprising an organic compound facilitating the ohmic contact between a semi-conducting layer and electrodes and serving as the semi-conducting layer.

Thin film field-effect transistors (FETs) are the basic building blocks in the fields of microelectronics. These FETs have three electrodes (e.g., a source electrode, a drain electrode, and a gate electrode), an insulating layer, and a semi-conducting layer. The FET functions as a capacitor where the semi-conducting layer is a conducting channel between two electrodes, i.e., the source electrode and the drain electrode. The density of charge carriers in the channel is Adjusted by a voltage applied to the gate electrode, so that the electric charge flow between the source and the drain electrodes can be controlled by the voltage applied to the gate electrode.
Recently increasingly interest has focused on the development of FETs using organic semi-conducting materials. When using the organic semi-conducting materials in FETs, electronic devices can be manufactured by means of a printing method, such as screen-printing, ink-jet printing, or micro-contact printing. In addition, these materials can be processed at a much lower substrate temperature and with little or no vacuum involved, as compared with the typical inorganic semi-conducting materials. Therefore, electronic devices, including FETs, which use organic semi-conducting materials, can be easier and less costly to produce as compared with those using inorganic semi-conducting materials.
Different types of organic materials such as small molecule, polymers and oligomers have been studied for the uses as organic semi-conducting materials in FETs since the 1980s. With concerted effort in this area, the performance of the organic FET has improved from 10−5 cm2/Vs to 1 cm2/Vs in terms of charge carrier mobility in a FET (J. M. Shaw, P. F. Seidler, IBM J. Res. & Dev., Vol. 45, 3 (2001)). The performance of the organic thin film transistor is now in the level of comparable to that of an amorphous silicon transistor, so that organic thin film transistors can be applied to E-papers, smart cards and display devices.
Important electronic devices, which can be manufactured using semi-conducting organic materials, include organic light emitting diodes, organic solar cells, and organic transistors. In these devices, the electrical contact between the semi-conducting organic materials and the electrodes is crucial to improving the performance of these devices. For example, charge-carrier injection layers, such as hole-injection and electron-injection layers, are interposed between semi-conducting layers and electrodes to improve the performance of organic light emitting diodes. Even though the operation mode of the organic transistor is different from that of the organic light emitting diode, electrical contact between the semi-conducting layer and the source and drain electrodes has a profound effect upon the performance of the organic transistor.
It has been reported that the performance of the organic transistor depends upon the source/drain materials (Y. Y. Lin et al. Materials Research Society Symposium Proceedings (1996), 413(Electrical, Optical, and Magnetic Properties of Organic Solid State Materials III), 413-418. CODEN: MRSPDH ISSN: 0272-9172). According to this report, metals with high work functions (for example, Pd, Pt, and Au) showed excellent performance while metals (for example, Al) with relatively low work functions showed a significantly degraded performance. Therefore, metals with high work functions such as gold have been used for the source/drain electrodes in most organic transistors.
However, such the metals having high work functions, which are noble metals, are expensive and hard to process using industrial methods, thus restricting their application processes and application structures in the organic transistors.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Organic thin film comprising pyrene derivatives

Abstract: The organic thin film transistor according to the present invention has excellent electric contact between the semiconductor layer and the source electrode/drain electrode, and thus can be widely used as components for electric/electronic devices. As a result, as the materials for the source electrode or the drain electrode in the organic thin film transistor, materials which are less expensive and excellent in processibility though they have a low work function as the materials can be used.


A memory module with power management system, and a method of operation of a memory module with power management system thereof, including: a base power plane; a power management circuit electrically connected to the base power plane; a managed power plane electrically connected to the base power plane only through the power management circuit; and a memory array electrically connected to the managed power plane.

There is a continual need in the area of electronics and electronic computing systems toward smaller systems and/or systems with greater computing performance for a given space and within a given power profile. Within these systems, the integrated circuit and memory modules are the building block used in high performance electronic systems to provide applications for usage in products such as automotive vehicles, computers, servers, data centers, cell phones, intelligent portable military devices, aeronautical spacecraft payloads, and a vast line of other similar products that require small compact electronics supporting many complex functions.
Products must compete in world markets and attract many consumers or buyers in order to be successful. It is very important for products to continue to improve in features, performance, and reliability while reducing product costs, product size, and to be available quickly for purchase by the consumers or buyers. As environmental concerns grow larger in the mind of consumers, power management becomes more and more important. In a time of devices which must work on demand, it is not enough to simply turn off unused components, which can impact the user experience.
Thus, a need still remains for robust and easily implemented power management of integrated circuit devices and components. In view of the strong demand for "green" products, it is increasingly critical that answers be found to these problems. In view of the ever-increasing commercial competitive pressures, along with growing consumer expectations and the diminishing opportunities for meaningful product differentiation in the marketplace, it is critical that answers be found for these problems. Additionally, the need to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and performance, and meet competitive pressures adds an even greater urgency to the critical necessity for finding answers to these problems.
Solutions to these problems have been long sought but prior developments have not taught or suggested any solutions and, thus, solutions to these problems have long eluded those skilled in the art.

Memory module with power management system and method of operation thereof


The invention provides polymer particles useful in a variety of applications, including coating applications such as packaging coatings. The polymer particles preferably have a volume-averaged particle size of less than 40 microns, more preferably less than 20 microns. In preferred embodiments, the polymer particles are precipitated particles, more preferably precipitated polyester particles, which are optionally free of low-molecular weight surfactant.

A wide variety of coatings have been used to coat the surfaces of packaging articles (e.g., food and beverage cans). For example, metal cans are sometimes coated using "coil coating" or "sheet coating" operations, i.e., a planar coil or sheet of a suitable substrate (e.g., steel or aluminum metal) is coated with a suitable composition and hardened (e.g., cured). The coated substrate then is formed into the can end or body. Alternatively, liquid coating compositions may be applied (e.g., by spraying, dipping, rolling, etc.) to the formed article and then hardened (e.g., cured).
Packaging coatings should preferably be capable of high-speed application to the substrate and provide the necessary properties when hardened to perform in this demanding end use. For example, the coating should preferably be safe for food contact, not adversely affect the taste of the packaged food or beverage product, have excellent adhesion to the substrate, resist staining and other coating defects such as "popping," "blushing" and/or "blistering," and resist degradation over long periods of time, even when exposed to harsh environments. In addition, the coating should generally be capable of maintaining suitable film integrity during container fabrication and be capable of withstanding the processing conditions that the container may be subjected to during product packaging.
Various coatings have been used as interior protective can coatings, including epoxy-based coatings and polyvinyl-chloride-based coatings. Each of these coating types, however, has potential shortcomings. For example, the recycling of materials containing polyvinyl chloride or related halide-containing vinyl polymers can be problematic. There is also a desire by some to reduce or eliminate certain epoxy compounds commonly used to formulate food-contact epoxy coatings.
What is needed in the marketplace is an improved binder system for use in coatings such as, for example, packaging coatings.

Polymer particles and coating compositions formulated from the polymer particles


Grinding apparatus including a grinding disc for grinding a tool having tungsten carbide tips is disclosed, and a recirculating coolant system is provided with a magnetic separator for removing particles of tungsten carbide from the recirculating coolant. The magnetic separator includes an elongated, labyrinthine flowpath through which the coolant flows while the tungsten particles are separated from the coolant by a magnetic field.

In the manufacture of saw blades, for example, tungsten carbide tips are fixed by any suitable means (such as brazing) around the periphery of the blade to form the teeth thereon. While the tips will be supplied to the blade manufacturer with the appropriate shape within reasonable tolerances for the cutting operations they are eventually to perform, a final grinding operation is always required on them to ensure they are sharp and have the more accurate tolerances required in the final product.
The final grinding operation may be conducted in one or two stages depending on the particular saw blade being made and this is achieved in a grinding apparatus comprising means to hold the blade in a number of different angular positions to bring each tip in turn into proximity with one or more grinding wheels disposed in the apparatus and adapted to be moved across each tip to grind it in a particular plane. The grinding wheel is rotated by the apparatus to perform the grinding operation and comprises a hard composite material containing industrial diamond particles capable of grinding and removing material from the tungsten carbide tip.
In the process, the feed rates and relative speeds involved between the tip and the grinding wheel generate considerable frictional heat, not to mention very fine tungsten carbide dust. Thus a coolant is arranged to wash each tip as it is ground and the coolant comprises water and various known additives to assist the grinding process. Not least of these additives is a rust inhibitor to nullify the corrosive properties of water.
Environmental considerations alone would discourage disposal of the coolant after use, but in any event the cost of the various additives employed would prohibit employing fresh coolant on a continuous basis. Thus each grinding apparatus further comprises a coolant sump into which used coolant drains and from which a pump collects the stored coolant for recycling to the grinding region of the apparatus.
The tungsten carbide dust generated during the grinding process is of course largely entrained and held in suspension in the coolant and because it is so fine it has no opportunity to settle out in any quantity in the sump before it is recycled with the coolant. Thus after only a matter of hours after a fresh charge of coolant is introduced to the grinding apparatus, the coolant becomes heavily contaminated with primarily tungsten carbide dust. Of course, dust is also generated from wear of the grinding wheel, but this accounts for less than 10% of the total dust generated.
This contamination leads to further problems. One problem is an environmental one in that some of the coolant at the point of grinding gets converted into a spray which enters and carries into the atmosphere the entrained dust. Thus in some jurisdictions, it is a requirement in such grinding apparatus to provide a screen and vacuum extraction apparatus in the grinding region to remove contaminated air from the region and away from the potential surroundings of the grinding apparatus operators. The need for this would be considerably reduced if clean coolant was employed all the time. A further problem is simply the contamination of the apparatus, and particularly its moving parts, with a fine, very hard dust which significantly reduces the working life of the apparatus.
It has, of course, long been appreciated the benefits which would accrue from employing clean solution, and an obvious answer is to filter the coolant before it is recycled. However the average size of particles suspended in the coolant is of the order of one micron and this necessitates the use of disposable ceramic filters and a pressure system to force the coolant through the filter. Such an arrangement is prohibitively expensive.
Another solution is to provide a large central coolant reservoir serving a multitude of grinding machines and into which the sump of each machine drains and from which fresh solution is drawn. The hope is that, given sufficient time and sufficiently still conditions, at least the larger heavier particles will have settled out of suspension before the coolant is reemployed. However, it is the small light particles which are particularly responsible for the problems outlined above, because it is they which get carried into the vapour spray and which tend to drift towards operators and deposit themselves in unwanted places. It is unlikely that the central reservoir can be rendered sufficiently large, given economic constraints, to ensure settling out of these small particles. Besides which, smaller particles may be held as a colloid rather than in suspension and in which case will never settle out.


A configurable fluid retention apparatus includes a plurality of detachable panels configured to interlock with each other to form an outer structure of the configurable fluid retention apparatus, an internal bladder secured to at least one of the plurality of detachable panels, and comprising an intake connection, an outlet connection, and an air relief device. An intake valve is fluidly coupled to the internal bladder at the intake connection and configured to allow unidirectional fluid flow. Each of the plurality of detachable panels includes a plurality of interlock members and interlock gaps of substantially equal widths positioned along a perimeter of each detachable panel, a plurality of variable connection openings extending through the body of each detachable panel, and the orientation panel comprises an orientation portion comprised of two interlock members extending substantially perpendicular to each other.

Fluid tanks may be bulky, heavy, and cumbersome to handle, leading to difficulty in transporting and/or shipping the fluid tank. Additionally, fluid tanks may have fixed volumes, which may cause users to replace fluid tanks depending on changing needs. Finally, fluid tanks may not be aesthetically pleasing, increasing the difficulty of incorporating fluid tanks positioned within outdoor landscapes or on rooftop surfaces, for example.
Accordingly, alternative fluid receptacles may be desired.

Configurable fluid receptacles with internal bladders


An implantable system which includes a gene/protein delivery device and a pulse generator, as well as method of preparing the gene/protein delivery device and using the system, are provided. In one embodiment, the implantable system detects a predetermined condition or event and, in response, delivers gene(s) and/or protein(s) in conjunction with delivering pacing and/or defibrillation pulses.

Many techniques currently exist for delivering drugs or other medicaments to body tissue. These include topical or transcutaneous administration where the drug is passively absorbed, or caused to pass, into or across the skin or other surface tissue; oral administration; injection directly into body tissue such as through an intramuscular injection or the like; and intravenous administration, which involves introducing a selected drug directly into the blood stream. Transcutaneous drug delivery systems are usually limited to external administration of a drug through the patient's skin or other surface tissue, and thus is inefficient because some of the drug may be absorbed by healthy tissue before it reaches the diseased or damaged area, or carried beyond the diseased or damaged area. Oral administration, injection, and intravenous administration are systemic and so fail to concentrate the drug in a local area.
Transportation of a drug using a localized drug delivery system may be enhanced through means such as iontophoresis. Iontophoresis typically involves an interaction between ionized molecules of a drug and an external electric field, which results in the migration of charged molecules. The migration is accomplished by placing two electrodes across the tissue to be treated and charging the electrodes with a relatively low, direct current (DC), voltage. One of the electrodes acts as a source electrode and is typically in contact with the drug solution. The other electrode acts as a return electrode and may be filled with an electrolyte solution. The electric field generated between the two electrodes causes the charged molecules to migrate from one electrode into the tissues to be treated.
Nevertheless, problems are associated with introducing an electrical current into the body, including muscle stimulation and contraction, as well as pain or other unwanted sensations. More importantly, the problem of cardiac arrhythmia (irregular rhythm) can easily arise when electrical current passes through the heart. The current source causing that problem can originate from an external source, within the heart itself, or adjacent to the heart, such as from a coronary artery.
Intensity (current density), frequency, waveform and duration of the electrical current used in iontophoresis have an effect on whether cardiac arrhythmias and other problems will occur, as well as the magnitude of those reactions. The threshold at which ventricular fibrillation occurs with various transthoracic and intracardiac electrical levels increases with higher frequency currents. The threshold of sensation also increases with higher frequencies. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,087,243 discloses a method which attempts to minimize the risk of iontophoresis-induced arrhythmias. An implanted myocardial iontophoresis patch system is disclosed therein which a pulsed current is supplied to the anodal patch. Electrical activity in the patient's heart is monitored and the iontophoresis current is pulsed on and off in synchronization with ventricular depolarization to avoid the interval during which the heart is vulnerable to electrically induced arrhythmias or unnatural heart rhythms.
What is needed is an improved apparatus for local, transient delivery of gene(s) and/or protein(s), e.g., one which is employed in conjunction with electrical therapy.

Method and apparatus for controlled gene or protein delivery


Isolated polypeptides of CD44 are provided. Accordingly, there is provided an isolated polypeptide consisting of an amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NOs: 1-3. Also provided is an isolated end-capping modified polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence selected from the group consisting of SEQ ID NO: 1-3, wherein the modified polypeptide comprises an anti-inflammatory activity. Also provided are compositions of matter, fusion proteins and pharmaceutical compositions and their use in the treatment of inflammatory disease.

The present invention, in some embodiments thereof, relates to an isolated polypeptide of CD44 and, more particularly, but not exclusively, to an isolated polypeptide of CD44vRA and its use in the treatment of inflammatory disease.
CD44 is a cell surface adhesion molecule involved in multiple cellular functions, including cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions, cell migration, programmed cell death (apoptosis), or, conversely, cell survival and proliferation.
CD44 is the major cell surface receptor for hyaluronic acid (HA) but it has also been shown to bind proteins such as collagens, fibronectin, fibrinogen, laminin, mucosal vascular addressin and osteopontin. CD44 is essential for recruitment of circulating lymphocytes to the site of inflammation and marked accumulation of CD44, and sometimes hyaluronic acid, is detected in areas of intensive cell migration and cell proliferation, as in wound healing, tissue remodeling, inflammation, morphogenesis and carcinogenesis.
The genomic sequence of mouse and human CD44 includes 5 constant exons at the 5′ terminus, and 5 constant exons at the 3′ end. The mouse CD44 gene includes 10 variant exons in the middle of the molecule, designated V1-V10, resulting in a total of 20 exons. The human CD44 gene comprises only 9 of these 10 variant exons (V2-V10) thus comprising a total of 19 exons. Differential V2-V10 alternative splicing generates many isoforms of CD44 that express various combinations of variant exons (designated exon Vx, x=1-10), which are inserted in the membrane proximal domain and constitute the variable region of the molecule. These molecules are designated CD44 variants (CD44v). A few dozens isoforms of CD44 are known to date.
CD44s, which does not contain any variant exon, is the most ubiquitous form and is expressed by most cell types [Ponta, H., et al. Nat Rev Mol Cell Biol. 2003 January; 4(1):33-45]. CD44 variant proteins, in which one or more of the 10 variant exons are included, are mostly reported in association with cancer, and autoimmune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis [see e.g. Naor et al. Adv. Cancer Res.,71, 241-319,1997; and Naor et al. Critical Reviews in Clinical Laboratory Sciences. 39, 527-579, 2002].
Joint inflammatory cells of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) display a sequence of alternatively spliced CD44 variant designated CD44vRA. Human CD44vRA contains the same sequence as that of keratinocytes CD44v3-v10 isoform with an addition of extra alanine in the splicing junction between variant exon 4 and variant exon 5, which does not interfere with the reading frame. Mice with collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) contain at the same site a similar sequence that also includes the alanine. The CD44vRA sequence is expressed on joint inflammatory synovial cells of RA patients and Psoriatic Arthritis (PA) patients, but neither on keratinocytes nor peripheral blood leukocytes (PBLs) of healthy donors. Furthermore, while joint inflammatory cells of RA patients express CD44vRA, PBLs from the same patients and synovial fluid cells from osteoarthritis patients hardly express this variant, demonstrating the exclusivity of this isoform. (Nedvetzki et al., J Clin Invest 111:1211-1220, 2003; Golan et al., J Autoimm 28:99-113, 2007).
It has been reported that administration of anti-CD44 antibodies, CD44 proteins, peptides or derivatives can be used for treating various autoimmune diseases (e.g. Naor et al., Adv. Cancer Res., 71, 241-319, 1997; Naor et al., Critical Reviews in Clinical Laboratory Sciences. 39, 527-579, 2002; Turley E A, and Naor D. Front Biosci. 17:1775-1794, 2012). In addition, anti-CD44vRA monoclonal antibodies and CD44vRA-derived peptides were previously suggested (Golan et al., J Autoimm 28:99-113, 2007, International Application Publication Nos: WO2010/058396, WO 2005/007700; WO 2003/014160, WO 2000/075312; U.S. Pat. Nos: 7,534,605 and 8,193,311; and US Patent Application Publication No: US 20060019340).

Isolated polypeptides of CD44 and uses thereof

Yissum Research Development Company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem Ltd.


An apparatus for automatically raising and lowering boat motors includes a mounting configuration that allows the motor to move up out of the water and down into the water. A hydrofoil is connected with the motor. When the boat is propelled by a second motor, the water pushes up on the hydrofoil, forcing the first motor up out of the water. A locking device can be used to maintain the first motor in the up position. The locking device can be disengaged to allow the motor and hydrofoil to fall into the water. Alternatively, the motor and hydrofoil can be maintained in the up positon by the force of water against the hydrofoil. When the second motor is shut down the motor and hydrofoil automatically drop into the water.

Fishing boats are commonly equipped with secondary propulsion means such as electric trolling motors that supplement the primary internal combustion motors. The trolling motor is used to provide quiet propulsion at slow speeds during fishing operations.
When not in use, the trolling motor is stored out of the water, in order to minimize drag on the boat and to prevent damage to the trolling motor when the boat is propelled by the main motor. Prior art trolling motor mounting apparatuses typically require a manual raising and lowering of the trolling motor. Thus to ready the boat for trolling operations, the fisherman must go over to the trolling motor and lower the trolling motor into the water before going to his fishing position. When the fisherman is finished trolling and ready to use the main motor, he must go back over to the trolling motor and lift the trolling motor out of the water to its stowed position. It would be more convenient and easier for the fisherman if the trolling motor could be automatically raised and lowered.
Hamp, U.S. Pat. No. 3,881,443 exemplifies another type of motor mounting apparatus. A small electric motor is provided to automatically raise and lower the trolling motor. The trolling motor and the positioning motor share the same battery. A disadvantage with this type of motor mounting apparatus is that the positioning motor drains the battery and reduces the length of time that the trolling motor can be operated before recharging the battery. The reduction in trolling motor running time becomes noticeable if the positioning motor is frequently used. This same disadvantage is applicable to hydraulically actuated motor mounting apparatuses, which use electrical power from a battery to power the hydraulic pump. Another disadvantage with these types of motor mounting apparatuses is that the trolling motor can be inadvertently left in the down position, which may result in damage to the trolling motor if the boat is operated at high speed by the main motor.

Apparatus for automatically raising and lowering boat motors


Disclosed herein is a display device, including: a display panel having a display area having a plurality of pixels each composed of one or more sub-pixels, a first image and a second image being alternately displayed adjacent to each other in the sub-pixels, the first image and the second image being displayed in visual directions different from each other so as to be adapted to be discriminated from each other; and a crosstalk correcting portion having a crosstalk correcting table, configured to carry out crosstalk correction for images different from one another by using the crosstalk correcting table; wherein the display area is divided into a plurality of areas, and gamma correction which differs so as to correspond to the plurality of areas obtained through the division, respectively, is carried out for an image as an object of the crosstalk correction.

The present application relates to a display device having a display panel for displaying a first and second image sub-pixels for which are alternately adjacent to each other in different visual directions, respectively, so as to allow the first image and the second image to be discriminated from each other by light blocking of slits.
A liquid crystal display panel is used for display in many electronic apparatuses because the liquid crystal display panel has the features such as light-weight, thinness and low power consumption as compared with a Cathode Ray Tube (CRT). On the other hand, an electronic apparatus for displaying a plurality of different images in respective visual directions different from one another so as to allow a plurality of different images to be discriminated from one another has been developed along with the diversification of the recent electronic apparatuses. This technique is such that sub-pixels each a minimum unit in different images are displayed on a panel alternately so as to be adjacent to one another, thereby being separated from each other in the different visual directions so as to allow the different images to be discriminated from one another. A first example of this separating technique is based on a lenticular lens and, for example, is described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 7-103784, hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1 (refer to FIG. 6). A second example of this technique is based on stripe-shaped protrusion patterns provided on both sides of a position facing a signal line, respectively, and, for example, is described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-276591, hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 2 (refer to FIG. 1). A third example of this technique is based on a light blocking pattern of a light crystal shutter, and, for example, is described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2006-184859, hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 3 (refer to FIGS. 3 and 14). Also, a fourth example of this technique is based on a light blocking pattern of a light blocking member, and, for example, is described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 2005-091561, hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 4 (refer to FIG. 3) and 2008-262157, hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 5 (refer to FIG. 18). With regard to a shape of this light blocking pattern, there are a stripe-like pattern which is shown in FIG. 3 of Patent Document 3, and a checkered pattern which is shown in FIG. 10 of Patent Document 5.
A first example of application of this technique is a stereoscopic image display device in which right-hand and left-hand side eyes are set so as to correspond to the different visual directions, respectively. This content, for example, is described in a paragraph number of 0008 of Patent Document 2. A second example of application of this technique is a display device for teaching materials in which a teacher and a student facing each other through a display panel are set so as to correspond to the different visual directions, respectively. This content, for example, is shown in FIG. 4 of Patent Document 4. A third example of application of this technique is a display device in which two directions corresponding to a driver's seat and a passenger seat, respectively, are set as the different visual directions, respectively. This current, for example, is described in Patent Documents 1, 2, 3 and 5. Also, a fourth example of application of this technique is a display device in which three directions corresponding to a driver's seat, a passenger seat and a rear seat, respectively, are set as the different visual directions, respectively. This content, for example, is shown in FIG. 14 of Patent Document 3. In particular, for safe driving, for the purpose of prohibiting an image received by a television set or an image reproduced by a DVD player from being displayed in the driver's seat direction during the driving, many display devices in each of which the two directions corresponding to the driver's seat and the passenger seat, respectively, are set as the different directions, respectively, are offered commercially.
On the other hand, with the liquid crystal display panel, even in the case where even when a voltage corresponding to a predetermined gradation is applied to a sub-pixel, the gradation of a sub-pixel adjacent to the sub-pixel is different from that of that sub-pixel, different luminances are obtained in the sub-pixels adjacent to each other, respectively, due to generation of electrical crosstalk. With regard to the cause of the generation of the electrical crosstalk, it is thought that a spike generated along with the switching of a voltage of a scanning line fluctuates an effective value of a voltage applied to the pixel. In particular, in the above electronic apparatus for displaying a plurality of different images in the different visual directions, respectively, so as to allow a plurality of different images to be discriminated from one another, the different images are inputted to the adjacent sub-pixels, respectively, a lot of electrical crosstalk is generated.
For this reason, in the liquid crystal device using the liquid crystal display panel, the voltages for each of which the electrical crosstalk is corrected are applied to the liquid crystal display panel. With regard to the correcting method, as shown in FIG. 2 of Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-080237, hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 6, a designer previously obtains correction data on all combinations of the gradations of the sub-pixels to be corrected, and the gradations of the sub-pixels adjacent thereto, respectively, based on experiments. Thus, the designer creates an electrical correction table (hereinafter referred to as "a Lookup Table (LUT)") and stores the resulting LUT in an EEPROM or the like of the liquid crystal display device. The liquid crystal display device reads out correction data on the gradation of the sub-pixel to be corrected, and the gradation of the sub-pixel adjacent thereto from the electrical LUT, and adds the correction data thus read out to the gradation of the sub-pixel to be corrected, thereby outputting the resulting data to the liquid crystal display panel.
In addition, as described in Patent Documents 1 to 6, optical crosstalk due to a slit of the light blocking pattern is also generated in the electronic apparatus having the light blocking pattern. The optical crosstalk is caused by light leakage which is generated by diffraction of lights from the sub-pixels having the same color in the adjacent pixels through the slits of the light blocking pattern. With regard to the correcting method, as shown in FIG. 3 of Patent Document 6, the designer previously obtains the correction data on all the combinations of the gradations of the sub-pixels to be corrected, and the gradations of the sub-pixels having the same color and being adjacent thereto, respectively, based on the experiments. Thus, the designer creates an optical LUT, and stores the resulting optical LUT in the EEPROM or the like of the liquid crystal display device. The liquid crystal display device reads out the correction data on the gradations of the sub-pixels to be corrected, and the gradations of the sub-pixels having the same color and being adjacent thereto, respectively, and adds the correction data to the data on the gradations of the sub-pixels to be corrected, thereby outputting the resulting data to the liquid crystal display panel.


Methods and apparatus for displaying images, e.g., text characters, on display devices which have multiple separately controllable luminance elements per pixel. Multiple alpha values are generated per pixel, e.g., one per pixel sub-component. Filtering is then performed to generate a filtered alpha value for each pixel sub-component. The filtering operation uses as its input multiple alpha values. The alpha values used for the filtering operation may come from neighboring pixels. Accordingly, in the case where character glyphs are combined to form larger images, e.g., text strings, the filtering operation performed on glyph edge pixels depends on the content of a neighboring character glyph. In one embodiment unfiltered alpha values used to represent character glyphs are stored in a glyph cache. To avoid repeated filtering of character glyphs, in another embodiment, character glyphs are padded along their vertical edges, filtered and then stored in the glyph cache.

1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to display methods and apparatus and, more particularly, to methods and apparatus for displaying images, such as text on display devices which have multiple separately controllable luminance elements per pixel.
2. Background and Relevant Art
The display of images, e.g., text characters, on display devices is of high importance. This is particularly the case given the ever increasing use of computers and other types of devices which rely on displays to convey information.
Pixels are used to represent display images on a display device. The term pixel, which is short for picture-element, is commonly used to refer to one spot in, e.g., a rectangular grid of thousands of spots which can be used to represent an image. Pixels are normally used individually by a computer to form an image on the display device.
Color display devices have become the principal display devices of choice for most computer users. The display of color on a monitor is normally achieved by operating the display device to emit light, e.g., a combination of red, green, and blue light, which results in one or more colors being perceived by a human viewer.
In color displays, the intensity of the light emitted corresponding to the additive primary colors, red, green and blue, can be varied to get the appearance of almost any desired color pixel. Adding no color, i.e., emitting no light, produces a black pixel. Adding 100 percent of all three colors results in white.
In cathode ray tube (CRT) display devices, the different colors of light are generated via the use of phosphor coatings which may be applied as dots in a sequence on the screen of the CRT.
Liquid crystal displays (LCDs), or other flat panel display devices are commonly used in portable computer devices in the place of CRTs. This is because flat panel displays tend to be small and lightweight in comparison to CRT displays. In addition, flat panel displays tend to consume less power than comparable sized CRT displays making them better suited for battery powered applications than CRT displays.
As the quality of flat panel color displays continues to increase and their cost decreases, flat panel displays are beginning to replace CRT displays in desktop applications. Accordingly, flat panel displays, and LCDs in particular, are becoming ever more common.
Unlike CRT displays, LCD displays use square or rectangular light emitters, usually positioned adjacent one another, as the source of red, green and blue light for each pixel. Due to manufacturing limitations with regard to the size of light emitters in LCD displays, it is difficult in an LCD display to achieve the same resolution commonly found in CRT displays.
Unfortunately, the limited resolution provided by commonly used flat panel displays such as LCDs tends to be less than ideal for the display of text. LCD display resolution problems are particularly noticeable when displaying text at small font sizes which are commonly used on personal data assistants and other hand held devices. When the size of a pixel is treated as the smallest unit of size which can be used to represent a position of a character or other image, the relatively large pixel size compared to the character size tends to produce characters with jagged edges.
The use of LCD displays with small characters can also produce less than desirable representations of, e.g., bold text. In the case of bold text it is desirable that bold character stems have stem weights that are 10–20% higher than the corresponding non-bold character stem. At small sizes a character stem may be only one or two pixels in width. Given such stem widths, adjustments in stem weights in one pixel size increments as is commonly done in the art, can lead to far more than the desired 10–20 percent increase in stem weight for bold characters.
FIG. 1 illustrates a known computer system 100 which comprises a housing 101, keyboard 104, disk drive 105 and an LCD display 102. The LCD display comprises a plurality of pixels, two of which are identified by reference numbers 110, 112. Each of the pixels 110, 112 includes separate red (R), green (G) and blue (B) pixel subcomponents which may be controlled as independent luminous intensity sources. In the computer system 100, the R, G and B pixel subcomponents are arranged to for vertical stripes.
In known systems, in the case of text, a high resolution representation of a text character, sometimes referred to as an analytic representation, is normally sampled. The samples are then used to generate luminous intensity values, e.g., red, green and blue pixel sub-component luminous intensity values, which control the light output of the R, G and B pixel sub-components of each pixel, respectively. In conventional systems, the R, G, and B pixel sub-component luminous intensity values are normally generated from the same set of image samples.
FIG. 2 illustrates one known image rendering technique used to control the light output of a set of pixels. In FIG. 2, the grid 220 represents a source image, e.g., a foreground/background color representation of a text character, which has been divided into 9 segments corresponding to 3 rows R(N), R(N+1), R(N+2) and 3 columns C(N), C(N+1), C(N+2) of source image pixel segments. Each one of the 9 segments corresponds directly to one pixel, e.g., pixel 240, of the display screen represented by grid 230. Red, green and blue pixel sub-components 232, 234, 236 are illustrated in FIG. 2 using medium, dark and light speckling, respectively.
In the known image rendering technique, each portion of a source image corresponding to a pixel, referred to herein as a source image pixel segment, is oversampled by a factor of 4 in the vertical and horizontal dimensions. Thus, a set of 16 samples, represented by the circles 222 with x's inside, is generated for each pixel.
The 16 samples corresponding to each pixel segment are then filtered to produce the red, green and blue luminous intensity values used to control pixel sub-components 232, 234, 236. The filtering of the samples is represented by the arrow extending from source image segment 223 to pixel 240. Thus, in the illustrated system, the same portion of the source image is used to generate each of the red, green and blue pixel sub-component luminous intensity values of a pixel. In the known FIG. 2 system, the filtering performed to generate pixel sub-component luminous intensity values does not cross pixel boundaries indicated in the image 220 by the use of solid lines. Accordingly, the luminous intensity of each pixel is not affected by neighboring source image pixel segments. As will be discussed below, this allows different images, e.g., text characters, to be sampled, filtered, stored and then subsequently concatenated without impacting the filtering since the filtering does not depend on neighboring image portions beyond a pixel boundary.
As is known in the art, there are generally two stages associated with the display of text images, e.g., characters, 1) the glyph rendering stage and 2) the glyph display phase. The glyph rendering stage involves the generation of one or more character glyphs and the storage of the glyphs in a glyph cache for subsequent use, e.g., during the display phase. The glyph display phase involves retrieving glyphs from the font cache as need, and, in many cases, combining them prior to display to form text strings.
In the glyph rendering stage one or more character glyphs are rendered, i.e., generated, from corresponding high resolution representations, e.g., outline representations, of the rendered characters. The high resolution character representations from which characters are frequently rendered include character shape and size information. The shape information is frequently in the form of lines, points, curves and/or arcs. Areas within the character outline correspond to the foreground color while areas outside the character outline correspond to the background color.
As part of one known character glyph rendering process, the high resolution representation of the character image from which the glyph is being generated, is sampled multiple times per pixel in both the horizontal and vertical directions as illustrated in FIG. 2. The samples corresponding to each pixel of an image are then filtered, e.g., summed, to perform a filtering operation. The value associated with each pixel resulting from the filtering operation is then stored, along with character spacing information, in a font glyph cache. In the known system one value, referred to as an alpha value, is generated per pixel as a result of the filtering operation.
Alpha values indicate the proportion of the foreground and the background color which contribute to the image area to which the alpha value corresponds. In the known system a single alpha value is generated for each pixel and is used to control the red, green and blue luminous intensity values of the pixel as a function of foreground and background colors which are subsequently applied.
Alpha values are usually normalized to a value in the range of 0–1 before being used in the application of foreground/background colors to a rendered character glyph. In the known system a normalized alpha value of 1 indicates that the region to which the alpha value corresponds is a foreground color region. A normalized alpha value of 0.5 indicates that the foreground and background colors contribute equally to the color of the region corresponding to the alpha value. In addition, a normalized alpha value of 0 indicates that the region to which the alpha value corresponds is a background color region.
In the known system, rendered glyphs, which include character spacing information and one alpha value per pixel, are stored in a glyph cache. The stored alpha values are non-normalized values which are generated by summing the individual samples, having a value of 0 or 1, corresponding to a pixel region.
By storing rendered glyphs in a glyph cache, the known system avoids the need to render a character glyph each time it needs to be displayed, e.g., as part of a text string.
The second phase of rendering text, the glyph display phase, involves reading out glyphs from the glyph cache, applying foreground/background color selections, a gamma correction operation and then outputting the resulting values to a display buffer for storage until being used to control the display device to display the desired character images.
The above described process can be used to generate and display opaque or transparent characters. In the case of opaque characters, a uniform background color is applied. In the case of transparent characters, the background color may vary as a function of the background image over which the characters are placed.
FIG. 3 illustrates one known embodiment of the above described glyph rendering and displaying process as applied to rendering and displaying opaque characters. In FIG. 3, and the various other process diagrams included in the present application, ovals are used to illustrate steps, rectangles are used to illustrate hardware devices, e.g., storage devices, and non-rectangular parallelograms are used to represent data, information, or other values.
The known process 300 begins in step 302 with the sampling of source image pixel segments of a character image. The pixel segments are sampled at a rate of 4× in both the horizontal and vertical directions as illustrated in FIG. 2. The image samples (16 per pixel) 304 are then filtered in step 306 using a box filter to produce a value between 0 and 16 per pixel. Next in step 308, values of 16 are clipped to 15 so that the alpha value for each pixel can be represented using 4 bits. This permits the alpha values to range between 0–15 and allows the alpha values to be stored using 4 bits each as opposed to 5 bits which would be needed for the range 0–16. The alpha values produced by clipping step 308, on per pixel, are stored in the font glyph cache 310 as a glyph corresponding to the sampled image. Multiple character glyphs may be stored in the font glyph cache 310.
The glyph display phase of display text begins with glyphs being output by the glyph cache 310. The output of glyphs is in response to a glyph identifier which identifies the stored glyph to be output.
The alpha values, one per pixel, included in the output glyphs are processed to apply selected foreground and background colors in blending step 312. As part of step 312, the alpha values are normalized to a value between 0 and 1. Foreground and background colors are then applied, to generate R, G, and B luminous intensity values, on a per pixel according to the following equation:R=∝RF+(1−∝)RBG=∝GF+(1−∝)GBB=∝BF+(1−∝)BB
Note that foreground and background colors are specified as gamma corrected values, i.e., values which have been processed to take into consideration the non-linear response characteristics of a display device. Before use in the color blending operation 312, the gamma corrected foreground and background colors are inverse gamma corrected in steps 311 and 312 to produce the foreground and background luminous intensity values used in the color blending process.
The R, G, B foreground and background luminous intensity values used for blending are indicated through the use of an F subscript for a foreground value and a B subscript for a background value.
The generated luminous intensity values are gamma corrected in step 314 prior to being stored in the display buffer 316. Gamma correction is a well known process for adjusting luminous intensity values to take into consideration the non-linear nature of the light output of a display device in response to voltage control signals.
FIG. 4 illustrates another embodiment of the known process for rendering and displaying opaque glyphs. In the FIG. 4 process 400, a pre-computed look-up table 402 is used to perform a combined color application and gamma correction procedure. A different look-up table 402 is used for each supported set of foreground/background colors. The look-up table 402 receives as its input one four bit alpha value per pixel and outputs one set of R, G, B values for each alpha value supplied thereto.
FIG. 5 illustrates a known process 500 for rendering and displaying transparent glyphs. In the FIG. 5 embodiment, gamma correction is performed in the alpha color space in step 502 on the alpha values output by the font glyph cache 310. The gamma corrected alpha values are then supplied to compositing step 504. Since gamma correction is performed in alpha space inverse gamma correction operations need not be performed on the foreground/background color values prior to color blending. Compositing step 504 is responsible for performing color blending using a fixed foreground color and a background color obtained from a background image. Accordingly, in the process 500, background image data is retrieved, on a per pixel basis, from the display buffer 516 in compositing step 504 for color blending purposes. The background information is retrieved from the pixel location in the display buffer 516 corresponding to the image location of the pixel being prepared for display. The R, G, B luminance values produced for each pixel are stored in the display buffer 516 at locations indicated by the glyph location information supplied to compositing step 504.
While the known text display methods work satisfactorily in many applications, as discussed above, in the case of LCD displays and small display sizes, images can suffer from blur, jaggedness, and other problems due to a lack of resolution. This is due, in part, to the fact that pixels are treated as single entities in most known image display processes.
In view of the above remarks, it is apparent that there is a need for new and improved display methods and apparatus. It is desirable that at least some of the new methods and apparatus be capable of displaying small size text on LCDs at reasonable quality levels. It is also desirable that some of the new methods and apparatus be capable of displaying text in a computationally efficient manner allowing for the use of lower cost processors than might otherwise be required.

Methods and apparatus for filtering and caching data representing images


A combination of treadmill and stair climbing machine includes a single roller supported on a shaft between two lugs on two sides of the frame of the combination and two rear ends of two pedals are respectively connected to the roller and supported on the two lugs. Two front ends of the two pedals are respectively connected to two hydraulic cylinders. A switch member is pivotably connected to a front end of the frame and can be set in a horizontal position when the combination is used as stair climbing machine, and an inclined position when the combination is used as treadmill. An L-shaped plate is connected to the frame and each pedal has a connection plate which has two elongate holes in which two protrusions on each side of the L-shaped plate are movably engaged, such that the pedals are pivotably supported on the L-shaped plate when used as stair climbing machine.

A conventional combination "A" of treadmill and stair climbing machine is shown in FIGS. 6, 6A, 6B and 6C, and generally includes a frame 50 with two posts 20 connected to two sides of a front end of the frame 50 and a U-shaped handle 30 is connected to the two posts 20. Two rollers 70 are connected to a rear end of the frame 50 and driven by a wheel 71 which is driven by a motor "C". An L-shaped plate 9 is connected to the rear end of the frame 50 and supports the shafts of the two rollers 70. Two pedals 10 respectively connected to the two rollers 70 and each pedals 10 has a running belt "B" reeving the roller 70 and a front end of the pedal 10. Two hydraulic cylinders 40 are respectively connected between the two pedals 10 and two connection ports 41 on the two posts 20. Each pedal 10 has an extension 8 connected to an underside thereof and a swing mechanism 80 is connected to the two pedals 10 so that when the combination is set to be a stair climbing machine as shown in FIG. 6A, the two pedals 10 can be alternately stepped downward at the front end thereof. A T-shaped switch member 1 is connected to the front end of the frame 50 and one of two ends of its transverse bar is pivotably connected to a link 3 which is connected to a support frame 4 on which two support pieces 5 are located. Two springs 6 are respectively connected between the two support pieces 5 and the frame 50. Each extension 8 has a block 7 connected to a distal end thereof so that when operating the T-shaped switch member 1 to the position as shown in FIG. 6, the blocks 7 are supported on the support pieces 5. At this position, the two pedals 10 cannot be pivoted about the rollers 70 and are used as a treadmill.
It is noticed that the structure for transferring the treadmill and stair climbing machine, including the T-shaped switch member 1, the link 3, the support frame 4, the support pieces 5, the blocks 7, and the extensions 8, is too complicated and costly. Besides, the two pedals 10 are supported by the rollers 70 which are easily to be off-centered and this could damage the motor "C".

Combination of treadmill and stair climbing machine