A process for the production of endotropine by catalytically reducing tropanone with hydrogen with Raney nickel or Raney copper. This process is conducted with tropanone in an aqueous solution absent of organic solvents, in a closed system, at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperature and subject to turbulent action at 1000 to 1500 r.p.m. The process leads to average yields of 94%. The process improves on prior art processes which use an overpressure and organic solvents which involve a high fire and explosion risk.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a process for the production of endotropine by the reduction of tropanone with hydrogen catalytically activated by Raney nickel or Raney copper catalyst. Tropine is also known as 3.alpha.-tropanol, 3.alpha.-hydroxytropane, 1.alpha.H, 5.alpha.H-tropan-3.alpha.-ol, and 8-methyl-8-azabicyclo-[3,2,1]-nonan-3.alpha.-ol (CAS [120-29-6]).
2. Description of the Prior Art
Endotropine is an important substance for the production of nortropine by oxidative methylation, which is in turn used for the production of important azoniaspironortropanol esters, which are used as pharmaceuticals, particularly spasmolytics (cf. German patent 1 194 42).
U.S. Pat. No. 2,366,760 describes the preparation of tropine from tropanone by catalytic reduction with hydrogen activated by a Raney nickel catalyst, without giving the yield. The reaction is performed under pressure and in an organic solvent, preferably ethanol, giving a quantitative yield. This procedure involves high apparatus expenditure with pressure vessels or autoclaves. By the use of organic solvents in conjunction with Raney nickel catalysts there is a high fire or explosion risk when working up the reaction batch. Corresponding accidents are well known from practical experience.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,746,976 describes the preparation of tropine, using an autoclave as the reaction vessel and an organic solvent, at an operating pressure of 60 atmospheres overpressure. The aforementioned disadvantages once again arise. Chemical Abstract 99 (15), 122, 721 a describes a catalytic hydrogenation of tropanone in the presence of a rhodium-phosphine complex.
Processes in which endotropine is produced by the hydrogenation of tropanone in the presence of a Raney nickel catalyst are shown in (Chemical Abstracts 97 (23), 198, 428q, Chemical Abstracts 93 (13), 132 665a and Chemical Abstracts 83 (23), 193 5611). In the first-mentioned literature reference, a yield of 92% is given. Thus, the hitherto known processes only make it possible to produce tropine in the presence of organic solvents and when using a high pressure.
It has now been surprisingly found that it is possible to reduce tropanone selectively and with good yields without using a high pressure and without using organic solvents so as to give tropine when an aqueous mixture of tropanone is reduced by hydrogen when subjected to turbulent action at atmospheric pressure and ambient temperatures at 1000 to 1500 r.p.m. It could not be foreseen on the basis of the hitherto known processes that this reaction would take place smoothly and also stereoselectively supplies the desired endotropine compound.

Process for the production of endotropine


A system and method for detecting a target area of user interest within a multimedia content element are provided. The method includes receiving the multimedia content element from a user computing device; partitioning the multimedia content element into a number of partitions, each partition having at least one object therein; generating at least one signature for each partition of the multimedia content element, wherein each of the at least one signatures for each partition represents a concept; determining a context of the multimedia content element based on the concepts; and identifying at least one partition of the multimedia content as a target area of user interest based on the context of the multimedia content element.

Wearable computing devices are clothing and accessories incorporating computer and advanced electronic technologies. Such wearable computer devices may be watches, bracelets, glasses, pendants, and so on that include one or more sensors in order to capture the signals related to the user activity.
Some wearable computing devices are further equipped with a network interface and a processing unit by which they are able to provide online content respective of the user activity, to the user. Wearable computing devices that are designed to collect signals related to user activity which the user carries in order to ease daily life are expected to become more and more common.
Due to the large amount and variety of signals, the problem with such wearable computing devices is that the task of identifying the exact content in which the user is interested in of the collected signals is quite complex, especially in cases where content related to the user activity changes fast due the dynamic and inconsistent daily activities of users.
It would therefore be advantageous to provide a solution that would overcome the deficiencies of the prior art by identifying the target area of user interest within the collected content.

System and method for identifying a target area in a multimedia content element


A gain stage control method may include providing a control current signal; generating a regulation current signal connected to the control current signal; transforming the regulation current signal into a biasing current, proportional to the regulation current signal; and biasing the gain stage by using the biasing current. The biasing current may be related to the control current signal by an exponential law.

As it is well known, components realized with integrated technologies are presently the most used to realize the power amplifiers required, for example, by mobile phones and particularly, in the field of wireless telecommunication systems. To realize these components, it may be extremely important to control the power outputted from the power amplifier for a correct operation thereof and for the operation of the other circuits connected thereto.
This control should be usually ensured in the different circuit operating conditions, both in steady operation periods and in transient periods. It is known to control the output power from an electronic circuit by feedback or closed-loop control circuits like the one shown in FIG. 1. In particular, a closed-loop power control system has been globally and schematically indicated by reference numeral 10, which has an input terminal IN1 suitable to receive an input signal RFin and an output terminal OUT1 suitable to provide an output signal RFout. In particular, the output signal RFout is a power signal to be controlled.
The system 10 essentially comprises a power amplifier 11, connected between the input terminal IN1 and the output terminal OUT1, and having a control terminal Tc suitable to receive a control signal, particularly a power control voltage Vc. To control the output power signal RFout, the system 10 also comprises a control circuit realized by a feedback loop 12 connected between an output terminal and the control terminal Tc of the power amplifier
In particular, the feedback loop 12 comprises a directional coupler 13 inserted between the output terminal of the power amplifier 11 and the output terminal OUT1 of the system 10 and connected to an envelope detector 14, connected, in turn, to an input terminal of an error amplifier 15 in the feedback loop 12. This error amplifier 15 has a further input terminal Tr connected to a reference signal, particularly to a reference voltage Vref, as well as an output terminal suitable to provide the control voltage Vc to the control terminal Tc of the power amplifier 11. It should be noted that this reference voltage Vref is essentially a feedback control signal set according to the control of the output power signal RFout to be obtained.
In summary, the system 10 latches, by the feedback loop 12, the output voltage from the envelope detector 14 to the reference voltage Vref, thus controlling the output power signal RFout as this reference voltage Vref varies. In particular, the feedback loop 12 forces the output voltage from the envelope detector 14 so that it is equal to the reference voltage Vref.
Although advantageous under several aspects, this first feedback approach has several drawbacks including:
a power loss, a high complexity and a cost increase of the system as a whole linked to the presence of the directional coupler 13;
a dynamic control range limitation due to the presence of the envelope detector 14, which comprises, as it is well known, at least a diode; and
during the power signal regulation transients, a considerable variation of the feedback system loop gain within the control dynamics, with the subsequent possible instability problems.
A second approach described, for example, by D. Brunel et al. in: "Power control with the MRFIC0913 GaAs IPA and MC33169 support IC", Motorola Semiconductors application note AN1599, 2000, provides the use of a voltage regulator connected to an external control voltage, as shown in FIG. 2. In particular, this FIG. 2 globally shows a system 20 comprising, as for the example of FIG. 1, a power amplifier 11, connected between an input terminal IN1 and an output terminal OUT1 and having a control terminal Tc suitable to receive a control signal, in particular a power control voltage Vc. This control terminal Tc is connected to an output terminal OUT2 of a voltage regulator 21, inserted, in turn, between a first and second voltage reference, in particular a power supply VBATT and a ground GND, and having an input terminal IN2 receiving an external control voltage Vext.
It should be noted that this external control voltage Vext is essentially a regulation signal of the amplifier 11 regulated according to the control of the output power signal RFout to be obtained. The voltage regulator 21 essentially comprises an error amplifier 22 having a first input terminal, in particular the inverting input terminal (−), connected to the input terminal IN2 of the regulator 21, as well as an output terminal connected to a control terminal of a power transistor M20, inserted, in turn, between the supply voltage terminal VBATT and the output terminal OUT2 of the regulator 21. It is known to use a P-channel MOS transistor as a power transistor. The error amplifier 22 has also a further input terminal, in particular the non-inverting input terminal (+), connected, by a first resistive element Ra1, to the ground GND, as well as, by a second resistive element Ra2, to the output terminal OUT2 of the regulator 21.
Essentially, the signal being outputted from the error amplifier 22, applied to the control terminal of the power transistor M20, allows the voltage at the drain terminal D20 to be linearly varied when the external control voltage Vext varies and, subsequently, a variation of the range allowed when the signal is present is obtained, when the control terminal Tc is used as a supply terminal of the amplifier 11. The linear regulator 21 thus allows the required power control voltage Vc to be obtained and the power output signal RFout of the amplifier 11 to be regulated.
It should be noted that the use of the linear regulator 21 allows the output power to be set without using a feedback loop, avoiding the losses due to the presence of the directional coupler being required with the feedback control, as previously seen with reference to the example of FIG. 1.
This approach has some drawbacks including:
it is necessary to use a power transistor having a low turn-on resistance RDS(ON) to reduce the efficiency loss in the highest output power condition;
when the power transistor is an external component, the presence thereof involves additional costs and a higher complexity of the system construction;
when the power transistor is integrated with the amplifier 11, the silicon area occupation of the system as a whole is penalized; and
the linear voltage control performed by the linear regulator 21 determines a high control curve slope in correspondence with low output power levels, since a linear function results in a logarithmic function when expressed in dB/V.

Gain stage control method and related control circuit


A master-slave flip-flop comprises master and slave latches, with the data output of the master latch connected to the data input of the slave latch. The latches receive clock signals CKM and CKS at their respective clock inputs; each latch is transparent when its clock signal is in a first state and latches a signal applied to its input when its clock signal is in a second state. A clock buffer receives an input clock CKin and generates nominally complementary clock signals CKM and CKS such that one latch is latched while the other is transparent. The clock buffer is arranged to skew CKS with respect to CKM such that the slave latch is made transparent earlier than it would without the skew, making the minimum delay (tpd) between the toggling of CKin and a resulting change at the slave latch's output less than it would otherwise be.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of flip-flops, and particularly to master-slave flip-flops and methods to improve their timing margins.
2. Description of the Related Art
A master-slave flip-flop 10, such as that shown in FIG. 1, is formed by connecting a first D latch 12—the "master"—in series with a second D latch 14—the "slave", and clocking the latches with complementary clocks CKM and CKS, respectively. For a negative-edge triggered master-slave flip-flop, a signal applied to each latch's D input is transferred to its Q output—i.e., the latch is "transparent"—when its clock is high, and the latch "locks" an applied input signal when its clock is low. Thus, a signal applied to the D input of master latch 12 is transferred to slave latch 14 when CKM is high, is latched by master latch 12 and transferred to the Q output of slave latch 14 when CKM goes low and CKS goes high, and is latched by slave latch 14 when CKS goes low. Since CKM and CKS are complementary, the master-slave flip-flop is never fully transparent.
Master-slave flip-flops are widely used. One application in which they are commonly found is that of a memory register, which employs multiple master-slave flip-flops to store respective data bits. Some memory registers, such as those found in DDR2/3 DRAM devices, must comply with specifications promulgated by the JEDEC Solid State Technology Association. One parameter so specified is that of propagation delay (tpd), which is defined as the delay between the toggling of an input clock (CKin) from which CKM and CKS are derived, and a resulting change at the slave latch's output. For some high-speed memory systems, the tpd specification may be necessarily short, and difficult or impossible for some master-slave flip-flops to meet.

Master-slave flip-flop and clocking scheme


Computer apparatus and method determines correspondence between two shapes or drawings. Included is a computer matcher which determines point by point matches/correspondence between a source object or drawing and a target object or drawing. As applied to the generation of animation sequences, the computer matcher is given as input a source drawing, a target drawing and at least four working points on the first drawing matched to four working points on the second drawing. The matcher defines a transform vector from the initially given working points of the first drawing and working points of the second drawing and their association. With the transform vector, the matcher performs a vector transformation of each of the remaining points on the first drawing to a respective point on the second drawing. This generates a correspondence and thus match between remaining points on the first drawing with respective remaining points on the second drawing. Additional processing with a ranking function provides a single match from possible multiple matches for each of the remaining points on the first drawing with a respective remaining point on the second drawing. The ranking function also confirms matches made by the vector transformation.

In an animated sequence, there is a series of images showing changes in subject position/pose, and/or in background, foreground or other features. For each image, there are multiple frames of drawings. Without the aid of computer animation, each frame of a given image must be redrawn. The process of redrawing each frame is tedious and time consuming.
A computer can be used to generate frames of animated drawings. Instead of drawing each frame in the animated sequence, a fewer number of key frames are actually drawn by hand or other means. Then the computer generates the necessary intermediate frames between pairs of the initial key frames to form the animation sequence. This is known as "in-betweening".
Generally, the computer generates in-between drawings using interpolation techniques on point data in an initial key-frame drawing and in a final key-frame drawing. A method of in-betweening using interpolation is described by Poggio and Brunelli in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/819,767. To be successful, each point on the initial drawing must be matched to a corresponding point on the final drawing. In computer animation, it is necessary to correspond control points of the initial and final key-frame drawings so the computer can interpolate between the key frames.
Matching every point between two drawings by hand is feasible when there are only a small number of control points. As the number of control points increases, the task becomes more complex and error-prone. If the drawings are matched incorrectly, then any in-between drawings generated will be incorrect.
Accordingly, there is a need for improvement in generating frames of an animation sequence, and in particular, in "in-betweening", i.e., generating in-between/intermediate drawings between given key frames.

Computer method and apparatus for matching between line drawings


An actuation system for assisting the operation of the natural heart includes a framework for interfacing with a natural heart and which is coupled with tissue of the heart. An actuator element is adapted to be coupled to the framework and is configured for extending along a portion of a heart wall exterior surface. The actuator element is operable for deforming the portion of the heart wall to effect a reduction in the volume of the heart. A protective sheath is configured to extend along the heart wall between the actuator element and the heart wall portion for protecting the heart wall portion from damage by the actuator element. The protective sheath is flexible and operable to transmit, to the heart wall portion, a force thereon by the actuator element for indenting the heart wall portion.

The natural human heart and accompanying circulatory system are critical components of the human body and systematically provide the needed nutrients and oxygen for operation of the body. As such, the proper operation of the circulatory system, and particularly, the proper operation of the heart, are critical in the life, health and well-being of a person. A physical ailment or condition which compromises the normal and healthy operation of the heart can therefore be particularly critical and may result in a condition which must be medically remedied.
More specifically, the natural heart, or rather the cardiac tissue of the heart, can degrade for various reasons to a point where the heart can no longer provide sufficient circulation of blood for maintaining the health of a patient at a desirable level. In fact, the heart may degrade to the point of failure and thereby may not even be able to sustain life. To address the problem of a failing natural heart, solutions are offered to provide ways in which circulation of blood might be maintained. Some solutions involve replacing the heart. Other solutions are directed to maintaining operation of the existing heart.
One such solution has been to replace the existing natural heart in a patient with an artificial heart or a ventricular assist device. In using artificial hearts and/or assist devices, a particular problem stems from the fact that the materials used for the interior lining of the chambers of an artificial heart are in direct contact with the circulating blood. Such contact may enhance undesirable clotting of the blood, may cause a build-up of calcium, or may otherwise inhibit the blood's normal function. As a result, thromboembolism and hemolysis may occur. Additionally, the lining of an artificial heart or a ventricular assist device can crack, which inhibits performance, even when the crack is at a microscopic level. Such drawbacks have limited the use of artificial heart and assist devices to applications having too brief of a time period to provide a real lasting health benefit to the patient.
An alternative procedure also involves replacement of the heart, but includes a transplant of a natural heart from another human or animal into the patient. The transplant procedure requires removing an existing organ (i.e. the natural heart) from the patient for substitution with another organ (i.e. another natural heart) from another human, or potentially, from an animal. Before replacing an existing organ with another, the substitute organ must be "matched" to the recipient, which can be, at best, difficult, time consuming, and expensive to accomplish. Furthermore, even if the transplanted organ matches the recipient, a risk exists that the recipient's body will still reject the transplanted organ and attack it as a foreign object. Moreover, the number of potential donor hearts is far less than the number of patients in need of a natural heart transplant. Although use of animal hearts would lessen the problem of having fewer donors than recipients, there is an enhanced concern with respect to the rejection of the animal heart.
Rather than replacing the patient's heart, other solutions attempt to continue to use the existing heart and associated tissue. In one such solution, attempts have been made to wrap skeletal muscle tissue around the natural heart to use as an auxiliary contraction mechanism so that the heart may pump. As currently used, skeletal muscle cannot alone typically provide sufficient and sustained pumping power for maintaining circulation of blood through the circulatory system of the body. This is especially true for those patients with severe heart failure.
Another system developed for use with an existing heart for sustaining the circulatory function and pumping action of the heart, is an external bypass system, such as a cardiopulmonary (heart-lung) machine. Typically, bypass systems of this type are complex and large, and, as such, are limited to short term use, such as in an operating room during surgery, or when maintaining the circulation of a patient while awaiting receipt of a transplant heart. The size and complexity effectively prohibit use of bypass systems as a long term solution, as they are rarely portable devices. Furthermore, long term use of a heart-lung machine can damage the blood cells and blood borne products, resulting in post surgical complications such as bleeding, thromboembolism function, and increased risk of infection.
Still another solution for maintaining the existing natural heart as the pumping device involves enveloping a substantial portion of the natural heart, such as the entire left and right ventricles, with a pumping device for rhythmic compression. That is, the exterior wall surfaces of the heart are contacted and the heart walls are compressed to change the volume of the heart and thereby pump blood out of the chambers. Although somewhat effective as a short term treatment, the existing pumping devices have not been suitable for long term use.
Typically, with such compression devices, heart walls are concentrically compressed. A vacuum pressure is then needed to overcome cardiac tissue/wall stiffness, so that the compressed heart chambers can return to their original volume and refill with blood. This "active filling" of the chambers with blood limits the ability of the pumping device to respond to the need for adjustments in the blood volume pumped through the natural heart, and can adversely affect the circulation of blood to the coronary arteries. Furthermore, natural heart valves, between the chambers of the heart and leaching into and out of the heart, are quite sensitive to wall distortion and annular distortion. The compressive movement patterns that reduce a chamber's volume and distort the heart walls may not necessarily facilitate valve closure (which can lead to valve leakage).
Therefore, mechanical pumping of the heart, such as through mechanical compression or distortion of the ventricles, must address these issues and concerns in order to establish the efficacy of long term mechanical or mechanically-assisted pumping. Specifically, the ventricles must rapidly and passively refill at low physiologic pressures, and the valve functions must be physiologically adequate. The myocardial blood flow of the heart also must not be impaired by the mechanical device. Still further, the left and right ventricle pressure independence must be maintained within the heart.
The present invention addresses the issues of heart wall stiffness and the need for active refilling by assisting in the bending (i.e., indenting, flattening, twisting, etc.) of the heart walls, rather than concentrically compressing the heart walls. Because of the mechanics of deformation in hearts having proportions typical in heart failure (specifically, wall thickness/chamber radius ratios), the deformation from bending and the subsequent refilling of the heart requires significantly less energy than would the re-stretching of a wall that has been shortened to change the chamber volume a similar amount. The present invention facilitates such desirable heart wall bending and specifically protects the heart wall during such bending.
Another major obstacle with long term use of such pumping devices is the deleterious effect of forceful contact of different parts of the living internal heart surface (endocardium), one against another, due to lack of precise control of wall actuation. In certain cases, this coaptation of endocardium tissue is probably necessary for a device that encompasses both ventricles to produce independent output pressures from the left and right ventricles. However, it can compromise the integrity of the living endothelium.
Mechanical ventricular wall actuation has shown promise, despite the issues noted above. As such, devices have been invented for mechanically assisting the pumping function of the heart, and specifically for externally actuating a heart wall, such as a ventricular wall, to assist in such pumping functions.
Specifically, U.S. Pat. No. 5,957,977, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, discloses an actuation system for the natural heart utilizing internal and external support structures. That patent discloses an internal and external framework mounted internally and externally with respect to the natural heart, and an actuator element or activator mounted to the framework for providing cyclical forces to deform one or more walls of the heart, such as the left ventricular wall. The invention of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/850,554, which is also incorporated herein by reference in its entirety, further adds to the art of U.S. Pat. No. 5,957,977 and specifically sets forth various embodiments of activators or actuator elements which are suitable for deforming the heart walls and supplementing and/or providing the pumping function for the natural heart.
The actuation provided by such systems uses mechanical elements which engage, act upon and shape a portion of a heart wall. The heart wall is living tissue and, therefore, a concern with such heart wall actuation systems is the prevention of damage to the heart tissue during actuation. Specifically, it is desirable to prevent significant trauma to the outer tissue surfaces of the heart walls acted upon by the actuator elements.
It is therefore an objective of the present invention to further assist in the operation of such systems with the natural heart.
Specifically, it is an objective of the invention to prevent damage to the tissue of the heart, and particularly to prevent damage to the outer heart surface due to abrasion, pinching or other trauma to the heart associated with a heart wall actuation system.
It is still another objective of the present invention to provide long term actuation and assistance for the heart by reducing friction on the heart wall from a heart wall actuation system.
It is a further objective of the present invention to encourage the creation of a layer of flexible fibrous or scar tissue on the heart for further protection of the heart with a heart wall actuation system.
These objectives and other objectives are addressed by the invention as described and claimed below.

Protective sheath apparatus and method for use with a heart wall actuation system for the natural heart


A driver includes first and second input terminals for receiving first and second input voltages, respectively, of a differential input signal, first and second switches coupled to the first and second input terminals, respectively, third and fourth switches coupled to the first and second input terminals, respectively, first, second, third and fourth current references coupled to the first, second, third and fourth switches, respectively, first second, third and fourth current mirrors coupled to the first, second, third and fourth current references, respectively, a first output terminal coupled to the first and third current mirrors, and a second output terminal coupled to the second and fourth current mirrors. When the first input voltage is less than the second input voltage, a first output current generated by the first and fourth current mirrors flows in a first direction between the output terminals, and when the first input voltage is greater than the second input voltage, a second output current generated by the second and third current mirrors flows in a second direction between the output terminals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to drivers, and more particularly to high speed differential drivers for providing bi-directional output currents in response to differential input signals.
2. Description of Related Art
Differential drivers are used for driving cables interconnecting integrated circuits, peripheral devices, traces, and so on. The driver receives a differential input signal that includes a first voltage representing a logic state and a second voltage representing the complement of the logic state. For instance, when the logic state is a "1" the first voltage is high and the second voltage is low, and when the logic state is a "0" the first voltage is low and the second voltage is high. The driver generates an output current in response to the differential input signal. When the first voltage is high and the second voltage is low the output current flows in a first direction, and when the first voltage is low and the second voltage is high the output current flows in a second direction opposite the first direction. Typically the output current has the same magnitude in both directions.
Differential drivers are implemented with bipolar and CMOS technology. CMOS drivers are described by Kyongho Lee et al in "A CMOS Serial Link for 1 Gbaud Fully Duplexed Data Communication," 1994 Symposium on VLSI Circuits Digest of Technical Papers, pp. 125-126, and by Niantsu Wang in "Digital MOS Integrated Circuits," Prentice Hall (1989), pp. 156-157.
Unfortunately, like their bipolar counterparts, these CMOS drivers dissipate a considerable amount of power via steady state current which does not contribute to the output signal. For instance, the CMOS driver described by Wang includes two current sources coupled to the supply voltage and two switching transistors coupled to ground. The switching transistors are responsive to the differential input signal. A first output terminal is coupled to the first current source and the first switching transistor, and a second output terminal is coupled to the second current source and the second switching transistor. When the differential signal causes the first switching transistor to open and the second switching transistor to close, the current from the first current source flows from the first output terminal through a load to the second output terminal and through the second switching transistor to ground, however, the current from the second current source flows through the second switching transistor to ground and is wasted. Likewise, when the differential signal causes the first switching transistor to close and the second switching transistor to open, the current from the second current source flows from the second output terminal through the load to the first output terminal and through the first switching transistor to ground, however, the current from the first current source flows through the first switching transistor to ground and is wasted.
A driver that essentially eliminates wasted current is described by Robert J. Bosnyak et al in U.S. application Ser. No. 08/653,788 filed May 28, 1996, entitled "Fully Complimentary Differential Output Driver For High Speed Digital Communications." In one embodiment, the driver includes a first current source coupled to the supply voltage, a second current source coupled to ground, first and second switching transistors coupled to the first current sources, third and fourth transistors coupled to the second current source, a first output terminal between the first and third switching transistors, and a second output terminal between the second and fourth switching transistors. When the differential signal causes the first and third switching transistors to close and the second and fourth switching transistors to open, the current from the first current source flows through the first switching transistor to the first output terminal, from the first output terminal through a load to the second output terminal, and from the second output terminal through the third switching transistor to the second current source to ground. Likewise, when the differential signal causes the first and third switching transistors to open and the second and fourth switching transistors to close, the current from the first current source flows through the second switching transistor to the second output terminal, from the second output terminal through the load to the first output terminal, and from the first output terminal through the fourth switching transistor to the second current source to ground. In this manner, a constant current between the first and second current sources is steered in alternating directions through the load. A drawback, however, is that the power supply voltage must normally exceed the combined threshold voltages of four transistors (two current sources and two switching transistors) in order to keep these transistors in saturation.
It is often desirable to reduce the power supply voltage, for instance from 5 volts to 2-3 volts, for several reasons. First, this reduces power dissipation, which can be of great importance in portable electronics such as laptop computers and cellular telephones. Second, this increases reliability. That is, as MOS transistor dimensions are reduced, the electric field in the channel region near the drain tends to increase. If the electric field becomes strong enough, it can give rise to so-called hot-carrier effects, in which hot electrons overcome the potential energy barrier between the substrate and the gate insulator and are injected into the gate insulator. Trapped charge in the gate insulator can accumulate over time and lead to a permanent change in the threshold voltage of the device, which can cause the device to turn on and off at the wrong voltage levels.
In CMOS circuits, the power supply voltage normally exceeds the combined threshold voltages of the N-channel and P-channel devices to assure that N-channel and P-channel devices connected in series between the power supply terminals can be driven into saturation. Thus, CMOS circuits that require power supply voltages on the order of four threshold voltages are not well-suited for low voltage operation.
Accordingly, a need exists for a CMOS differential driver that reduces power dissipation yet operates at low voltages.

Differential high speed driver for low voltage operation


Method and apparatus for galvanizing steel sheet in a single galvanizing hot dip pot of the careless induction type, with great flexibility for frequent changes of galvanizing alloys, whereby the productivity of the single pot plant is increased and its investment costs are considerably lowered, in contrast with the current practice of operating plants with two continuously heated galvanizing pots, one in operation and one in stand-by. The single pot having a plurality of associated ingot molds of a capacity to hold a full charge of the alloy being discharged from the pot and a pumping system to empty a molten charge of one alloy composition from the pot into at least some of the stand-by ingot molds (ready for re-use later) and a transport system for replacing the removed charge by an alternate charge in the form of solid ingots of a different alloy composition (which can be either recycled ingots formed from a molten charge previously removed from the pot and/or fresh ingots). Part of any charge can first pass through a pre-melter. The pot preferably also has a heated cover to prevent thermal shock during the charging and discharging of the pot.

Galvanizing of continuous steel sheet is normally carried out by dipping said steel sheet in a bath of liquid metal, usually zinc, aluminum or mixtures thereof along with other additives, in order to form a thin coating of metal on said sheet.
Galvanizing plants usually process continuous steel sheet which is uncoiled at one end of the plant and is cleaned, prepared and dipped in the hot liquid coating metal, cooled down and recoiled at the other end of the plant. All of the equipment and process is designed and operated so that the quality of the surface of said sheet is optimal and with the aim of processing great lengths of steel sheet without interruption.
Most of the galvanizing plants, currently under operation, use two channel type electric induction pots to hold a bath of hot liquid coating metal (zinc or aluminum based coatings), one of the pots in operation and the other in stand-by position. These types of induction pots cannot be frequently emptied and refilled, because as a result of their design the induction coils would be damaged and lost. Consequently, they are always kept hot filled with liquid metal, consuming electricity during the stand-by periods in the order of 8,400 kwh per day for a pot with a capacity of about 100 metric tons. The continuous heating of both pots can last for a number of years. The common practice is to carry out monthly production runs to produce coated sheet with two different alloys according to the production schedule. Duration of each run per alloy varies normally between about 5 and 15 days. Some plants also have a pre-melt furnace, of the gas fired type or of the electric induction type for melting solid ingots of zinc to fill the operating pots. Another variation of the prior art (with off-set melting by coreless induction furnaces) is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,970 (which is incorporated herein by reference). The flexibility of the current galvanizing plants for carrying out short runs or frequently changing the metal coating is very limited and the two-pot arrangement is expensive (both in duplicative capital cost and in added standby heating costs). In order to change the coating composition, the operating pot is moved to the stand-by position and the other pot is moved to the operating position. Another alternative is to move the strip being immersed into the operating pot to a second position where it is immersed in the other pot. If three or more different coatings are desired, the practice of the prior art to have one separate pot for each different coating composition is not practical and would be very expensive.
The present invention overcomes the disadvantages of the prior art and uses a single dip pot of the coreless type, which is also capable of melting solid metal ingots and of forming the required galvanizing liquid bath rapidly without the necessity of maintaining a second galvanizing pot in stand-by (with the consequent expense of electric energy and the other financial costs of a second pot). If more than three different coating compositions are desired, this invention provides a way of having solid ingots of each desired coating ready to be used, while in the prior art practice only two different compositions at a time were contemplated.

Method and apparatus for operating a system for galvanizing steel sheet


An image forming apparatus of the present disclosure includes a developing device, a support frame, a developer supply mechanism, and a shutter member. The developing device has a developer bearing member that supplies a developer to the image bearing member. The support frame is capable of disposing the developing device selectively at a mounting/demounting position and at a developing position. The shutter member opens a replenishment port formed at the connection portion in tandem with the movement of the developing device from the mounting/demounting position to the developing position and closes the replenishment port in tandem with the movement of the developing device from the developing position to the mounting/demounting position. A direction in which the developing device is moved is different from a direction in which the shutter member performs the opening/closing of the replenishment port.

The present, disclosure relates to an image forming apparatus including a demountable developing device, such as a copy machine, a facsimile, a printer, or the like and relates particularly to a connection structure between a developing device and a developer supply mechanism, that supplies a developer to the developing device.
Conventionally, for the sake of easy maintenance, a developing device incorporated in an image forming apparatus is tilled beforehand with a given amount of developer (toner) and upon running out of the developer, is replaced as a whole with a new one. Front the economical viewpoint, however, such replacement cannot be performed frequently, and hence, forming a somewhat large number of sheets of images necessarily requires an increase in developer capacity, rendering it difficult to achieve miniaturisation of a developing device of the above-described type. In order, therefore, to achieve miniaturization, of a developing device, there has been proposed a developing device of a type to which a developer is supplied from a developer supply mechanism such as a toner storage container, an intermediate hopper, or the like, which is provided independently of the developing device.
Furthermore, with respect to a ease where, due to a restriction on a layout inside ah image forming apparatus, a developer supply mechanism and a developing device cannot be disposed adjacently to each other, there has been known a configuration in which a flexible developer supply passage such as a toner feeding tube, a conveying pipe, or the like is provided to establish communication between a developer supply mechanism, and a developing device.
By the way, in the above-described image forming apparatus, in order to simplify replacement and maintenance of the developing device, preferably, only the developing device can be demounted, with the developer supply mechanism left mounted on a main body side of the image forming apparatus.
The configuration including the flexible developer supply passage such as a toner feeding tube, a conveying pipe, or the like, however, presents a problem that the flexible developer supply passage is flexibly connected to the developer supply mechanism and to the developing device, which results in poor connection, strength between the developer supply passage aid the developer supply mechanism or the developing device. Furthermore, in a case of a configuration in which a plug provided at a tip end of a toner feeding tube is connected to a swingable shaft of a developing unit every time the developing unit is mounted/demounted it is necessary that the plug be connected or disconnected, rendering an operation of mounting/demounting the developing unit complicated.
Moreover, in mounting/demounting the developing device in/from a main body of the image forming apparatus, in order to avoid interference between a developing roller (developer bearing member) and a photosensitive drum (image bearing member), if is necessary that the developing device be mounted/demounted in a slate where it has been moved to a position where the developing roller is separated by a prescribed distance from the photosensitive drum. When the developing device is at an operation position thereof, however, if there is a variation in positional relationship between the developing roller and the photosensitive drum an image failure might occur, furthermore, in moving the developing device, if a connection portion of the developer supply mechanism, which is connected to a developer supply port of the developing device, is fixed to the main body side of the image farming apparatus, moving the developing device might cause a deviation in positional relationship between, the connection portion and the developer supply port of the developing device, leading to a possibility that a connection failure occurs between the developing device and the developer supply mechanism or that, due to irregular rotation of the developing roller, there occurs a variation in positional relationship between the developing roller and the photosensitive drum.
Furthermore, even in a case where no such connection failure occurs, if an opening portion of the developer supply mechanism is being left opened at the time of mounting/demounting the developing device, there is a possibility dial a developer adhering to the opening portion drops into the main body of the image forming apparatus, causing contamination inside the apparatus.


A voice synthesizing system can make necessary calculation amount satisfactorily small and can make necessary file size small. The system includes a compressed pitch segment database storing compressed voice waveform segments, a pitch developing portion reading out the voice waveform segment from the database and decompressing the compressed data for reproducing an original voice waveform segment when the voice waveform segment necessary for voice waveform synthesis is demanded, and a cache processing portion temporarily storing the voice waveform segment already used in voice waveform synthesis, and when voice waveform segment necessary for voice waveform synthesis is demanded, returning demanded voice waveform segment to a demander when demanded voice waveform segment is already stored, and obtaining the voice waveform segment from the database via the pitch developing portion to hold the obtained voice waveform segment and return to the demander when demanded voice waveform segment is not stored.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a voice synthesizing system for synthesizing a voice by editing waveform, a segment generation apparatus for generating information necessary for voice synthesis, a voice synthesizing method and a storage medium storing a program for implementing the voice synthesizing method.
2. Description of the Related Art
There has been known a waveform concatenation system as a method for voice synthesis by rule.
The waveform concatenation system is a system for obtaining synthesized voice by extracting large amount of voice waveform segments in a pitch length, syllable length or so forth from a natural voice, storing the voice waveform segments in a storage device together with information of a phonemic environment, pitch shape in phonemes, amplitude, continuing period and so forth, and reading out optimal voice waveform segments according to rhythmic information or phonemic information set by synthesizing rule for obtaining a synthesized voice by connecting the read out voice waveform segments.
In the waveform concatenation system, while high quality synthesized voice can be obtained easily, it encounters a problem in that a large amount of voice waveform segments for generating synthesized voice have to be stored to make file size of the voice waveform segments excessively large. Particularly, this is significant when the voice waveform segments are extracted per pitch unit from voiced sound, in which the voice waveform segment thus extracted will be referred hereinafter as "pitch segment").
As an approach for this problem, attempt has been made to store the voice waveform segments in compressed form in a storage device and read out them in decompressed form from the storage device. However, calculation amount to decompress the compressed voice waveform segments becomes large.
In the conventional voice synthesizing system, since the voice waveform segments to be used are decompressed individually upon voice synthesis respectively, calculation amount therefor becomes large. Particularly, increasing of calculation amount becomes significant at higher pitch frequency of the synthesized voice.
On the other hand, while the voice segment database included in the conventional voice synthesizing system may have the voice segment database smaller than that should be by compressing respective voice waveform segments, further smaller size of data base has been required in some applications. However, the conventional voice synthesizing system cannot satisfy such demand.

Voice synthesizing system, segment generation apparatus for generating segments for voice synthesis, voice synthesizing method and storage medium storing program therefor


In a turbo compounded air and fuel supply system for a gaseous fuel engine, separate turbochargers are utilized to compress the air and gaseous fuel. A first turbocharger has a first turbine connected to an exhaust line from the engine and a first compressor having an inlet open to a source of air. A compressed air supply line has one end connected to the outlet from the first compressor and its other end connected to an engine air inlet. A gaseous fuel supply line has one end connected to a source of low pressure gaseous fuel. A second turbocharger has a second turbine connected to the exhaust line from the engine and has a second compressor with an inlet connected to the gaseous fuel supply line. A high pressure gaseous fuel supply line has one end connected to the outlet of the second compressor and its other end connected to an engine fuel inlet. A computer controlled wastegate valve in the exhaust line allows a portion of the exhaust to be bypassed around the second turbine. Thus, the present invention utilizes waste energy from the engine to compress both the air and fuel supply to a gaseous fuel engine rather than by some external compressor or a device which draws power directly from the engine.

Gaseous fuel engines are well known in the art. They typically burn readily available natural gas but are capable of burning any suitable gaseous fuel such as butane, propane, methane or even hydrogen. Examples of typical gaseous fuel engines include the series G 3600 gaseous engines manufactured by Caterpillar, Inc. These engines are relatively large and stationary, and are often utilized to power generators and pumps, etc. These Caterpillar gaseous engines are capable of producing power in excess of 1200 horsepower up to about 4700 horsepower provided that the engine is supplied with an adequately pressurized source of gaseous fuel.
In order to put any substantial load on a gaseous engine of the type to which the present invention relates, the gaseous fuel supply pressure must at least be on the order of about 15 psig. Under full load conditions, the engine can require a gaseous fuel supply in excess of about 45 psig. Often because of safety regulations or other limitation factors, the available gaseous fuel supply is often less than about 2 psig. When the gaseous fuel is supplied at such a relatively low pressure, some means must normally be provided to raise pressure sufficiently to operate the gaseous engine with a substantial load. At the present time, those skilled in the art typically employ one of two different methods for raising fuel pressure, both of which suffer from relatively severe drawbacks.
In the first prior art method of raising fuel pressure, air and fuel are mixed at ambient pressure and then compressed as a mixture by a turbocharger attached to the exhaust from the engine. Because the compressed mixture is not only flammable but explosive, extreme precautions must be taken in order to prevent ignition and or leakage of the compressed air/fuel mixture. Because of the potential catastrophic consequences, this method of raising fuel pressure is extremely undesirable. In the more practiced prior art method of raising fuel pressure, a separate compressor unit is employed to generate a reservoir of gaseous fuel that is maintained at about 45 psig. While this method is considerably safer than the other prior art pressure raising method, it is undesirable because of the added expense and complexity in operating a separate compressor unit. In many cases this option is also undesirable because the compressor is either driven mechanically by the engine or by electricity produced by the engine. This undesirable load on the engine lowers the available horsepower to do other work.
The present invention is directed to overcoming these and other problems associated with air and fuel supply systems for gaseous engines.

Turbo compounded fuel supply system for a gaseous fuel engine


There is provided an automated warning system which includes a receiver/controller, an actuator, one or more relays electrically connected to both the receiver and the linear actuator, a flag holder and a mechanical linkage connecting the linear actuator to the flag holder such that movement of the linear actuator causes the flag holder to move between raised and lowered positions.

Many states require that boats towing waterskiers employ a brightly colored flag to alert nearby boats to the presence of the skier and/or ski rope. Beginning at the time the skier and/or the ski rope are in the water, the flag must be held in a raised position, visible to other boats, until either the skier is up on his or her skis, or the skier and/or rope are back inside the boat.
Many states further require that an observer other than the driver, located within the boat, be responsible for raising and lowering the flag. In addition to raising and lowering the flag, the observer often has other responsibilities including, but not limited to, assisting the skier in and out of the water, deploying and retrieving the ski rope, communicating the position and status of the skier to the driver, and ensuring the overall safety of the skier. Each of these responsibilities is time sensitive and must be coordinated with both the skier and the driver. As such, the observer often finds that manually deploying and constantly holding a ski flag in the raised position hinders his or her ability to perform the other responsibilities.
It should be understood that the same regulations generally apply equally to all water sports in which a person enters the water surrounding a watercraft including, but not limited to, wakeboarding, tubing, knee boarding and swimming.
In view of the foregoing there is a need for an observer-activated system for maintaining the flag in a visible or otherwise raised position while a person and/or a rope are in the water and maintaining the flag in a stowed or otherwise lowered position while the person is visibly atop the surface of the water or within the boat. The present invention addresses one or more of these needs.

Automated warning system for waterski boats


A multiple station knife sharpener in which a single pass of the blade of a knife accomplishes a coarse grind, fine grind and buff of the edge of the blade, and further having a station for the sharpening of a fish hook or the like.

The present invention relates generally to devices for sharpening knife blades and, more particularly, to electric knife sharpeners which will not only sharpen, but buff such blades in a single pass, and having an additional station for the sharpening of a fish hook or the like.
1. Field of the Invention
While the venerable whetstone remains a staple in the repertoire of the outdoorsman as a means of putting an edge on his or her knife, there is an ever increasing demand for devices which accomplish tasks faster, easier and better. To this end, there have been efforts to mechanize the sharpening process, resulting in an array of mechanical and electrical devices introduced to the marketplace.
2. Overview of the Prior Art
Perhaps the most rudimentary device for sharpening the cutting edge of a blade is the whetstone, and one of the more novel mechanical devices created in aid of the sharpening process is the device disclosed in Pregrove patent number U.S. Pat. No. 6,168,509 B1 for positioning a blade between a pair of angularly disposed stones 30.
Perhaps a more commercially acceptable device may be found in the teachings of Friel U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,431, although the motive power is, once again, human, with the blade being drawn through a slot in a housing and into contact with one or more abrasive surfaces.
More to the point, as relates to the novel sharpener of the present invention, are those sharpeners in which the abrasive surface is circular and driven by an electric motor, whether AC or DC. Exemplary of this class of consumer friendly electric sharpeners are Friel, Sr. et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,012,971 and 6,113,476. In these patents the abrasive surface is aligned with a slot in a housing so that the user may draw the blade through the slot against the rotating wheel to sharpen one side, or the other, or in some cases, both sides of a blade.
The present invention comprises a multi station powered blade sharpener in which a knife blade may be sequentially coarse ground, fine ground, and buffed in a single pass, in a device which is compact, very simply manipulated and easy to handle, and having an additional feature, dear to the heart of any fisherman, of being able to sharpen a fishing hook.
It is, accordingly, a principal objective of the present invention to provide the outdoorsman, and particularly a fisherman, with a compact device which can be carried in a back pack or tackle box and which will coarse grind, fine grind and buff a knife blade in a single pass and, additionally, sharpen a fish hook as needed. It is a corollary to the foregoing to provide such a device which may be powered by a 110V AC, or by a 12V DC motor, as the users"" circumstances dictate and, in either configuration, prevent overheating of the motor.
Yet another objective of the present invention is to provide a sharpener that will dress the back of a hook as well as sharpen the points thereof.


Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for training scoring models. One method includes storing data identifying a plurality of positive and a plurality of negative training images for a query. The method further includes selecting a first image from either the positive group of images or the negative group of images, and applying a scoring model to the first image. The method further includes selecting a plurality of candidate images from the other group of images, applying the scoring model to each of the candidate images, and then selecting a second image from the candidate images according to scores for the images. The method further includes determining that the scores for the first image and the second image fail to satisfy a criterion, updating the scoring model, and storing the updated scoring model.

This specification relates to ranking search results using scoring models.
Internet search engines provide information about Internet accessible resources, e.g., Web pages, images, text documents, and multimedia content, that are responsive to a user's search query and present information about the resources in a manner intended to be useful to the user. Internet search engines return a set of search results in response to a user submitted query, e.g., as a ranked (i.e., ordered) list of results. The search results can be ranked in an order according to scores for the search results. The scores can be determined by applying a scoring model to each of the search results. Different scoring models assign different scores to the search results.
Scoring models for scoring resources can be trained using machine learning techniques that train the model using positive and negative resources for the query. Conventional techniques for training scoring models focus on training scoring models to be good overall, for all positive and negative resources for the query.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Training scoring models optimized for highly-ranked results


A device may include a vertical pole, and a horizontal pole suspended at a top end of the vertical pole. The device may also include a mechanical pivot point between the vertical pole and the horizontal pole, and a handgrip suspended at a distal end of the horizontal pole. The device may also include a first chain suspended from the horizontal pole between the handgrip and the mechanical pivot point. The device may additionally include a mechanical device to removably couple the first chain to the handgrip such that when the first chain is coupled to the handgrip, a heavier user is able to use the device compared to when the first chain is not coupled to the handgrip.

Various exercise or play devices are known and have been around for years. For example, many children have used teeter totters where one child goes up, while the other goes down, while sitting on a board or plank balanced on a fulcrum. However, there are improvements that may be beneficial to such devices.
The subject matter claimed in the present disclosure is not limited to embodiments that solve any disadvantages or that operate only in environments such as those described above. Rather, this background is only provided to illustrate one example technology area where some embodiments described in the present disclosure may be practiced.


A method and device for use in reporting terminal capability, the method including: determining a frequency band pairing combination in an operating band that is supported by a terminal-side equipment, the frequency band pairing combination being composed of a first frequency band that consists of a first uplink operating frequency range and a first downlink operating frequency range as well as a supplementary uplink frequency band that consists of one or more second uplink frequency ranges; determining terminal capability information of the terminal-side equipment within the frequency band pairing combination, the terminal capability information including a first frequency band identifier, terminal uplink capability information and terminal downlink capability information that correspond to the first frequency band, as well as a supplementary uplink frequency band identifier and terminal uplink capability information that corresponds to a supplementary uplink frequency band; reporting the terminal capability information to a network-side equipment.

In the 3G and 4G networks, uplink coverage of a system has worse coverage capability than downlink coverage does, which affects transmission of uplink data. In the 5G network, the contrast between the uplink coverage and the downlink coverage is more obvious, especially for the uplink coverage of a high-frequency band, which can seriously affect a user's experience. Therefore, it is necessary to consider using both high and low frequency bands in coordination, and to perform data transmission using an uplink frequency within a low frequency band when uplink coverage within a high frequency band is limited.
A new way of using frequency is to pair a carrier within a high frequency band with a carrier within a low frequency band, that is, to configure two independent frequency bands into a natural frequency pair. It is unnecessary to activate a secondary carrier or to deactivate a secondary carrier in a manner similar to carrier aggregation, so as to avoid configuration delay and complexity overhead during of the carrier aggregation.
Particularly, an uplink frequency band (TDD format) of 3300-3800 MHz and an uplink frequency band of 880-915 MHz (FDD format) are paired in use. In this case, for a system, a downlink data is carried within the 3300-3800 MHz frequency range, and an uplink data is carried within the 880-915 MHz and/or the 880-915 MHz frequency band. Particularly, when a terminal is at the cell center, the uplink data may be carried by the frequency range of 3300-3800 MHz, and when the terminal is at the cell edge, the uplink data may be carried by the frequency range of 880-915 MHz. Therefore, a single terminal works only at one uplink frequency, while a network device can work at a plurality of uplink frequencies, which not only ensures coverage of the terminal by the network, but also avoids power consumption of the terminal.
However, in the new way of using a frequency, a radio frequency capability of a terminal in different frequency ranges may be varied, and it has become an issue as to how a network device provides a terminal with correct data scheduling.

Method and device for use in reporting terminal capability

CLOUDMINDS (SHANGHAI) ROBOTICS SYSTEMS CO., LTD.


Methods and systems for reducing imbalance in a wheel assembly are provided. The method includes determining an imbalance characteristic associated with a first plane, determining an imbalance characteristic associated with a second plane, and translating a component of the imbalance characteristic from the first plane to the second plane.

This invention relates generally to balancing automotive vehicle wheels and more particularly, to methods and systems for balancing automotive vehicle wheels with rims that are constructed with radially extending, spaced apart spokes.
Many automotive wheel balancer manufacturers offer a feature which balances spoked wheels where an imaginary vertical "plane" perpendicular to the wheel axis of rotation and located directly behind the spokes of the wheel is selected for application of balance correction weights. Spoke locations are made known to the balancer by user manual input or via optical methods as described by US2005/0052658 to Braghiroli. After the wheel imbalance is measured and the required angular placement is known for the required correction weight at the spoke plane, vector equivalent weights are resolved and displayed for placement behind two spokes. This feature is typically referred to as a "split" function.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,355,729 to Douglas describes a generic "split weight" function using incremental weights for the split with variable placement angle, U.S. Pat. No. 5,591,909 to Hofmann describes fixed placement angles for the split (two spokes) and variable weight magnitudes (rounded to increments), and U.S. Pat. No. 4,357,832 to Blackburn describes a turbine blade balancing procedure where fixed placement angles are provided (the blades) and variable weight removal from the blades accomplishes the "split" balance of the rotor. For automatic wheel balancing, spoke plane "split" functions are predominately applied during a "two plane (inner and outer) dynamic balance" mode where two weights simultaneously correct for both static imbalance (shake force due to radial off-center of mass) and couple imbalance (twist forces caused only during rotation). The inner plane weight can be a clip-on style, adhesive style, or even a balance patch on the inside periphery of the tire. Static single plane balance mode is also sometimes used, but for that case the single plane weight can be a clip-on style on the inside rim lip, an adhesive style near the center of the rim where it is too far behind spokes to make any "split" function effective (one would still see the split weights when not viewing the wheel exactly straight on), or a patch style inside the tire (which is not applicable to rim spokes).
Although the automotive wheel "split" function provides a way to hide weights on spoked wheels from view, it causes extra labor for the operator and increases the chance of weight placement error because two weights must be applied to the weight plane located behind the spokes. Three weights in total are added to the wheel instead of the usual two weights. Italian Patent No. IT1319713 to Buzzi addresses these problems by recognizing that the desired placement angle for the "unsplit" weight on the spoke plane is seldom located exactly between spokes. Analysis of placing a weight only at the spoke nearest the un-split vector reveals that the residual imbalance error caused on the "spoke plane" by applying weight at only one spoke can be less than a predetermined imbalance limit for the spoke plane, enabling the possibility to balance a spoked wheel using only one spoke weight placement instead of two. But there are limitations with this method.
The computations for the single spoke weight magnitude and the "residual error" after applying this weight are only performed at the spoke plane, limiting how often the single spoke method can be used. Italian Patent No. IT1319713 to Buzzi acknowledges that when the un-split location is not near enough to a spoke, it is necessary to revert back to a "conventional" split method where weights behind two spokes are employed. For cases when the method can be used, the residual imbalance has a static component which could stack up with other residual static imbalances due to user weight placement error and wheel centering error. The importance of minimizing static imbalance is well documented in for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,854,168 to Hofmann, U.S. Pat. No. 4,891,981 to Schenck, U.S. Pat. No. 5,915,274 to Douglas, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,689,069 to Corghi. A method of minimizing static imbalance is needed for all instances of wheel assembly balancing without causing any residual static imbalance and without restricting the method to being used only for certain imbalance conditions and spoke arrangements.

Methods and systems for balancing spoked wheels using weight behind a single spoke


The present invention relates to a luminescent photovoltaic generator (1) and a waveguide for use in such a photovoltaic generator. The photovoltaic generator comprises a photovoltaic cell (4) and a waveguide comprising a transparent matrix (2) having particles of an inorganic luminescent material dispersed therein and/or an inorganic luminescent material disposed at at least one side thereof (6). The waveguide is associated with the photovoltaic cell (4), such that, in use, at least some of the light emitted from the luminescent material passes into the photovoltaic cell (4) to generate a voltage in the cell. In preferred embodiments, the inorganic luminescent material is a line emitter and the emission is due to a forbidden electronic transition within the material. The inorganic luminescent material may be selected from an inorganic phosphor, an inorganic fluorescent material and quantum dots, quantum rods and quantum core/shell systems. The photovoltaic generator (1) is an alternative to or an improvement upon known photovoltaic generators, which generally suffer from a lack of power yield per area.

A photovoltaic generator is a device that generates electricity from light. There has been a constant effort over the past few years to increase the efficiency of photovoltaic generators. Traditional solar panels, having an array of solar cells, have become efficient to a point that commercialisation is now widespread. Such traditional panels nevertheless have their disadvantages. For example, to maximise power yield, they should be adapted to follow the sun as it crosses the sky. Additionally, the traditional panels do not generate electricity particularly well if the incident light is diffuse, for example on a cloudy day.
In an effort to overcome some of the problems associated with traditional panels, research has recently been carried out into developing photovoltaic generators that can be used in stationary systems and that can operate more efficiently when ambient light is diffuse. One type of photovoltaic generator that has been developed is a luminescent photovoltaic generator. This type of device includes a photovoltaic cell and an associated luminescent portion. The device is typically arranged such that incident light passes into the luminescent portion, at least some of the incident light being absorbed, then emitted and passed to the photovoltaic cell, where the light generates electricity. The luminescent emission of the light is typically in all directions, so that suitable reflectors ideally should be placed around sides of the luminescent portion to minimise loss of emitted light, and to guide as much of the emitted light to the photovoltaic cell. Luminescent photovoltaic generators, although promising in theory, have yet to reach an efficiency that allows them to be used commercially. There is a constant desire to improve efficiency of luminescent photovoltaic generators.
Recent research in the field has been focussed on the use of organic luminescent materials. This is exemplified in a paper by Currie et al in Science, 11 Jul. 2008,
Vol. 321. no. 5886, pp. 226-228, entitled High-Efficiency Organic Solar Concentrators for Photovoltaics. This paper discloses organic luminescent solar concentrators for use in generating electricity with solar cells. The solar concentrators comprise a glass substrate having a thin film of an organic dye on a surface thereof. Two types of organic dye were used: 4-(dicyanomethylene)-2-t-butyl-6-(1,1,7,7-tetramethyljulolidyl-9-enyl)-4H-pyran (DCJTB), a fluorescent dye, and platinum tetraphenyltetrabenzoporphyrin [Pt(TPBP)], a phosphorescent dye.
The organic luminescent solar concentrators disclosed in the paper mentioned above by Currie et al have fairly broad emission spectra, in common with most organic luminescent materials. With such materials, reflectors on the outside of the luminescent portion of the concentrators need to be able to reflect most, if not all, of the emitted light. On the side of the device on which light is incident, the reflector must allow incident light of an appropriate wavelength through to the luminescent material so that this light can be absorbed, but it must prevent emitted light from the luminescent material passing through the reflector, and instead reflect this, so that it can reach the solar cell. Such reflectors are termed light or wavelength filters. It can be costly to provide light filters that reflect across a broad range of wavelengths.
Organic luminescent materials also suffer from degradation over an extended period, particularly from incident UV light.

Luminescent photovoltaic generator and a waveguide for use in a photovoltaic generator


TV software can be updated by receiving updated from a USB drive or wirelessly, in either case preferably over a synchronous bus for speedier data transfer.

Televisions have become increasingly advanced, providing viewers with ever more control and viewing options. As but one example, electronic program guides (EPG) can be displayed on a TV in response to a command generated by a remote control device, with the EPG showing a channel listing and show descriptions. As another example, TV processors may execute code to control the drivers of TV displays for improving picture presentation, and may also execute backend code for undertaking advanced functionalities.
As understood herein, the code executed by the TV processors may require updating from time to time, and it would be desirable to provide a convenient, simple, and fast way to do so, speed being desired to minimize the chance of interrupted data transmission.

Synchronous bus download of TV software update


A chucking apparatus for a workpiece with honeycomb structure includes a table that can be supplied with vacuum and a clamping plate which can be placed on the table and which accommodates the workpiece in the region of an already profiled surface determined by the face ends of the honeycombs, whose receiving surface, which corresponds to the profiled surface of the workpiece, is provided with suction openings to the table. In order to provide advantageous chucking conditions, the clamping plate has an open-cell structure.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a chucking apparatus for a workpiece with honeycomb structure, comprising a table that can be supplied with a vacuum and a clamping plate which can be placed on the table and which accommodates the workpiece in the region of an already profiled surface which is determined by the face ends of the honeycombs, whose receiving surface corresponding to the negative shape of the profiled surface of the workpiece is provided with suction openings to the table.
2. Description of the Related Art
Lightweight components, as are used in the construction of aircraft for example, comprise a core with honeycomb structure which is joined with cover layers into a composite body. Since the core represents the shaping element, the two surfaces determined by the face ends of the honeycomb must be machined by means of cutting or milling tools. The proper chucking of said workpieces with honeycomb structure for machining does not pose any problems as long as the workpiece has a flat surface on one side, because in this case the workpiece can be tightly held ready for machining on an air-permeable table that can be supplied with vacuum according to the state of the art (DE 10 2011 100 702 A1, DE 41 30 623 A1) after masking the honeycomb openings on the side of the flat surface with an air-impermeable film, which occurs over the entire chucking surface. After the profiling of the one surface, it is necessary to turn the workpiece for machining the opposite surface, so that the workpiece needs to be chucked via the already profiled surface. A clamping plate is used for this purpose (DE 41 30 623 A1) which forms a receiver for the workpiece which corresponds to the negative shape of the profiled workpiece surface and which rests flush on the contact surface of the clamping plate after the closure of the honeycomb openings with a film. The workpiece can be sucked towards the table through the clamping plate via its already machined surface by means of suction openings provided in the clamping plate. The clamping effect is considerably reduced in comparison with direct suction of the workpiece to the table due to the limited number of suction openings, even when the receiving surface of the clamping plate is provided with distributing grooves connected to the suction openings. It is an additional factor that the machining of the clamping plates, which are usually made of a light metal, is work-intensive. In order to avoid this effort for machining the second surface, it has already been proposed (DE 10 2011 100 702 A1) to machine the honeycomb-like workpiece on the one side in such a way that after bending of the workpiece not only the machined surface but also the flat surface required for clamping the workpiece assume the required surface contours. However, such bending is only possible within limits and unsuitable for some applications.

Chucking apparatus for a workpiece with honeycomb structure


A light emitting diode and the method of the same are provided. A light emitting diode epitaxy structure is formed on a substrate, and then the light emitting diode epitaxy structure is etched to form a recess. The recess is then filled with a transparent dielectric material. An ohmic contact layer and a reflective layer are formed sequentially, and then are etched to expose the transparent dielectric material. Finally, forming an adhesive conductive complex layer to fix the ohmic contact layer and the reflective layer on the light emitting diode epitaxy structure.

Since Light emitting diodes (LEDs) have the advantages of low production cost, simple structure, less consuming power, small size and easy installation, they are widely applied in light sources and display devices.
Traditionally, an LED includes an LED epitaxy structure, a reflective layer and an ohmic contact layer, which are sequentially formed on a substrate. The LED epitaxy structure includes an n-type semiconductor layer, an active layer and a p-type semiconductor layer. The reflective layer is used to reflect lights produced from the LED epitaxy structure, making lights emit toward a same direction and increasing the brightness of the LED. Silver having high reflective index, is therefore widely used as the material of the reflective layer. However, silver may migrate into the LED epitaxy structure as time elapses, causing the leakage of electricity and decreasing the performance of the LED. Therefore, the ohmic contact layer over the reflective layer is provided to prevent silver from migrating into the LED epitaxy structure.
In addition, peelings may occur between the reflective layer and the LED epitaxy structure due to poor adhesion between silver and the LED epitaxy structure, and cracks may also occur between each layer in the LED epitaxy structure due to variation of the process temperature during a conventional lift-off step for the substrate.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a light emitting diode and its fabricating method to enhance the adhesion between the reflective layer and the LED epitaxy structure or between each layer in the LED epitaxy structure.


An electrolyte membrane made of a phosphate-containing siloxane-based polymer for fuel cell, where the polymer comprises a siloxane backbone and a poly(meth)acrylate chain to which phosphate groups are attached, and the polymer is formed by vinyl polymerization of a silane compound having a (meth)acrylate functional group or a hydrolysis-polycondensation product thereof and a (meth)acrylate compound having a phosphate group, followed by siloxane crosslinking. The electrolyte membrane of a siloxane-based polymer has a high conductivity for a fuel cell.

As an organic material for use as a proton conductive material, there have been reported polymers belonging to so-called cation exchange resin, such as polystyrenesulfonic acid, polyvinylsulfonic acid, perfluorosulfonic acid polymer, or perfluorocarboxylic acid polymer (cf. Polymer Preprints, Japan, Vol. 42, No. 7, p 2490-2492(1993), Polymer Preprints, Japan, Vol. 43, No. 3, p 735-736(1994), and Polymer Preprints, Japan, Vol. 42, No. 3, p 730(1993)). Such organic material provides an advantage capable of easily forming a membrane on a substrate or directly onto an electrode from a polymer solution, and is already used in practice as a solid electrolyte of a high energy density, for example, in a fuel cell for a rocket (for example Nafion). Although the organic materials show a high proton conductivity at a room temperature in a water-containing condition, they have a drawback that the conductivity tends to decrease at a high temperature of 100° C. or higher.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-114834 discloses a polymer electrolyte using a polymer of acrylate ester compound having phosphate group. Such a membrane basically constituted of organic main chains has drawbacks of low heat resistance and low barrier property to hydrogen gas or methanol used as a fuel.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-90946 discloses a proton conductive membrane made of an electrolyte which comprises a composite of an inorganic material and an organic material bonded by urethane bond in nano-level and a phosphate compound introduced thereto as a conductivity-providing agent. This membrane can function in a high temperature condition.
Also Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2002-184427 discloses a proton conductive material having a siloxane network with a sulfonic acid functional group. Introduction of such an inorganic component improves the heat resistance of the membrane, but there still remains a drawback of low water resistance.
Also Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H02-110121 discloses a UV-curable composition constituted of acrylorganosiloxane, polyacrylate or polymethacrylate, a phosphate-containing acryl monomer and a photopolymerization initiator. This composition gives a film having satisfactory adhesiveness to a substrate material, but cannot be used as an electrolyte membrane because it has little proton conductivity.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the aforementioned prior arts, and is to provide an electrolyte membrane of siloxane-based polymer having a high proton conductivity in the wide ranges of temperature and humidity and excellent in resistance to water and methanol. It also is to provide a solid polymer fuel cell utilizing such an electrolyte membrane.

Electrolyte membrane of siloxane-based polymer and solid polymer fuel cell utilizing the same


A tape guide device has a guide member, a support shaft, flanges, a main shaft, a coil spring, a height adjustment nut, and a vibrating device, wherein the support shaft is disposed inside the guide member, the support shaft has teeth facing to a position of a node when the guide member is vibrated by the vibrating device, the teeth and the guide member are fixedly bonded to each other by an adhesive that presents a feature of a resilient member after the adhesive was cured, the main shaft is engaged with the support shaft so as to become freely slidable, the flange is attached to the support shaft with a clearance kept between it and an end face of the guide member and the guide member and the flanges can be adjusted in height under or against the bias of the coil spring by turning the height adjustment nut. The support shaft and the guide member are fixedly bonded to each other by the adhesive that becomes a resilient member after having been cured. Therefore, the ultrasonic vibration tape guide device that can prevent the vibration of the guide member from being attenuated due to the contact with the flanges and that can make the guide member inexpensive has a function to adjust the guide member and the flanges in height with high accuracy.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tape guide device for use in a video tape recorder or the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Tape guides for use in video tape recorders or the like are roughly classified into rotary tape guides and fixed tape guides.
The rotary tape guides are advantageous in that they impose less resistance to tapes guided thereby. However, the speeds of travel of the tapes guided by the rotary tape guides tend to reflect irregularities in the rotational speeds of bearings used in the rotary tape guides. Furthermore, if the direction in which a tape travels when it is guided by a rotary tape guide is not perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the rotary tape guide, then the tape is subjected to a transverse force applied by the tape guide. The latter drawback is aggravated when the tape is transversely shifted until an edge thereof is damaged by contact with a flange of the rotary tape guide, for example. Therefore, rotary tape guides are required to be machined and assembled with high accuracy, and hence cannot be manufactured easily.
The fixed tape guides allow tapes guided thereby to run stably, but present large resistance to the running tapes.
There has been a demand for a fixed tape guide which imposes smaller resistance to a running tape. One of such fixed tape guides that meet such a demand is an air tape guide for ejecting air from small holes defined in the surface of a guide body to float a tape off the guide body for thereby reducing the resistance applied to the tape. The air tape guide is still problematic since a compressor is required as an air pressure source.
To eliminate the drawbacks of the conventional tape guides, the assignee of the present application has previously proposed an ultrasonic vibration tape guide device (see Japanese Patent Application No. 02-103627). The ultrasonic vibration tape guide device employs an ultrasonic energy to reduce resistance to a running tape while allowing the tape to run stably as with fixed tape guides. The ultrasonic vibration tape guide device is adjustable in height. The proposed ultrasonic vibration tape guide device will be described below with reference to FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings.
The ultrasonic tape guide device, generally designated by reference numeral 1, includes a main shaft 5 mounted vertically on a base 18, and an ultrasonic vibrator 3 fixed to a guide member 2 that is supported on support teeth 7b of a cylindrical support shaft 7 of brass.
Lower and upper flanges 9, 10 are disposed in abutment against lower and upper ends, respectively, of the support shaft 7, for guiding edges of a tape wound around the guide member 2.
The main shaft 5 extends through the lower and upper flanges, 9, 10 and the support shaft 7.
A height adjustment screw 6 is fitted in an upper end of the support shaft 7, and threaded over a screw 23 formed on the upper end of the main shaft 5.
The upper flange 10 is fastened to an upper end surface of an attachment 8 by a screw 15. The lower flange 9 is fixed to a lower end surface of the attachment 8 by fixing screws 22, 24.
The attachment 8 has an ultrasonic vibrator storage space 8a defined therein which houses the ultrasonic vibrator 3 therein. As shown in FIG. 2 of the accompanying drawings, the ultrasonic vibrator space 8a is defined as a hole in the shape of a rectangular parallelpiped between side walls 8b having respective stopper insertion holes 8c defined therein.
Disc-shaped stoppers 39 made of rubber have engaging protrusions 39a fitted respectively in the stopper insertion holes 8c. The ultrasonic vibrator 3 is sandwiched between the stoppers 39 to prevent the guide member 2 from rotating with respect to the attachment 8.
The attachment 8 keeps the lower and upper flanges 9, 10 parallel to each other and spaced from each other by a distance that is about 0.1 mm larger than the length of the guide member 2.
As shown in FIG. 1, the lower flange 9 is normally urged upwardly under the bias of a coil spring 35 disposed around the main shaft 5 between the lower flange 9 and the base 18. The base 18 has a pin insertion hole 20 in which there is inserted an end of the fixing pin 22 that projects downwardly from the lower flange 9.
When the height adjustment screw 6 is turned, the guide member 2 is adjusted in height under or against the bias of the coil spring 35.
FIG. 3 of the accompanying drawings shown standing-wave vibrations caused of the guide member 2 when an AC voltage is applied to the ultrasonic vibrator 3, the standing-wave vibration being illustrated along line X--X.
In FIG. 3, dotted lines N--N represent nodes on the guide member 2 where the vibrations have zero amplitude. The nodes N on the guide members 2 are axially spaced from the ends of the guide members 2 by a distance n, and the support teeth 7b are also axially spaced from the ends of the guide member 2 by the distance n, i.e., are positioned at the nodes N.
In the example of the conventional tape guide device, as will be clear from the foregoing description, the guide member 2 sandwiched by the upper and lower flanges 9, 10 attached to the attachment 8 is adjusted in height by turning the height adjustment screw 6 that is threaded over the main shaft 5. This arrangement makes the tape guide complex in structure and the main shaft 5, the upper and lower flanges 9, 10 and the attachment 8 become complex in shape, which hinders the tape guide from becoming inexpensive.
The guide member 2 and the support shaft 7 are assembled by the engagement of the inner diameter of the guide member 2 and the outer diameters of the teeth 7a, 7b of the support shaft 7. Therefore, the inner diameter of the guide member 2 and the outer diameters of the teeth 7a, 7b are required to be machined with high accuracy in dimension. Further, the conventional tape guide becomes complex in structure and hence cannot be assembled easily, which also hinders the reduction of its cost.
Furthermore, the upper and lower flanges 10, 9 urge the PG,6 upper and lower ends, respectively, of the guide member 2 so that the vibration of the guide member 2 is caused to be attenuated. Therefore, the conventional tape guide cannot allow the tape to be guided and to run satisfactorily.


An assembly for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of a patient and a method of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of a patient using different MRI scanners is disclosed. In one example, the assembly includes a plurality of RF coils, wherein the RF coils are configured to be positioned adjacent to an anatomy of interest, a patient support structure configured to support of the patient, a base removably coupled to the patient support structure, the base and the patient support being configured for receipt in the bore of an MRI scanner, and an interface coupled to the plurality of RF coils and to the MRI scanner and configured to connect the plurality of RF coils and the MRI scanner and to selectively control a first RF coil and a second RF coil included in the plurality of RF coils.

In magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) signals given off by protons in the presence of a strong magnetic field are detected after excitation by a radio frequency (RF) signal using antennae termed "RF coils". Generally speaking, there are two types of RF coils: whole body RF coils, which are used to image large segments of a patient, and "local" or "surface" RF coils, which are configured to image specific anatomies of interest, such as the knees, shoulders, neck, breasts, hands and head.
Whole body RF coils are typically provided with commercially available MRI imaging systems. These RF coils provide a large field of view to accommodate, for example, the chest and abdominal regions of a human subject, and as a result, their fields couple to large amounts of tissue outside the region of interest being imaged. Because of the large field of view, the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the signal in the anatomy of interest is relatively high, and quality factor of the RF coil is low.
Local RF coils are reduced in size and designed to couple solely with tissue in the region of interest. Local RF coils, therefore, are typically positioned as close as possible to the anatomy of interest, and limit the field of view of an MRI scan to the selected region. The result is a significantly improved SNR and quality factor, and a reduced image size that provides higher resolution of the area of interest.
To provide high resolution images of selected anatomy at high SNR, it is increasingly common to use a number of local RF coils simultaneously in parallel imaging techniques. In these techniques, images are acquired from multiple receive channels, for example 8, 16 or 32 channels receiving signals from 8, 16 or 32 RF coils respectively. In a typical multiple coil array arrangement, for example, several adjacent coils are provided for receiving signals during imaging. Coil switching, multiplexing, or dynamic coil selection strategies are used to optimize a subset of coils for imaging of anatomies of a smaller volume, or to switch between areas of interest during the image acquisition or imaging procedure.
To facilitate these parallel imaging techniques, there is a need for a device that allows an operator to position various types of RF coils adjacent an anatomy of interest while in the bore of a MRI scanner. Such a device should further facilitate connections between the MRI scanner and the RF coils, and allow for circuitry to switch between the coils. The present invention addresses these issues.

Open architecture tabletop patient support and coil system