The invention relates to an exhaust gas heat exchanger comprising a bundle of pipes which consists of exhaust gas pipes and a bypass channel, and a housing which can be cross-flown by an aqueous cooling agent. The bundle of pipes and the bypass channel joins in a common exhaust gas inlet, wherein an exhaust gas valve is arranged for controlling the exhaust gas flow through the bundle of pipes or the bypass channel. According to the invention, the bypass channel is embodied as a special steel tube (10) comprising a covering (11) which is made of a high-temperature resistant plastic and wherein the housing, which can be cross-flown by the cooling agent, is arranged.

Exhaust gas heat exchangers are known—in particular in motor vehicles—as exhaust gas heaters, so-called additional heaters or as exhaust gas coolers. DE-A 199 62 863 from the applicant has disclosed an exhaust gas heat exchanger which can be used in particular as an additional heater in motor vehicles with consumption-optimized engines, in order to compensate the heating heat deficit of said engines. The exhaust gas dissipates its heat via a tube bundle of exhaust gas tubes to the coolant which flows through the heating body of the vehicle heater. In the event that the exhaust gas heating is no longer required, an exhaust gas valve switches the exhaust gas flow such that it flows through a bypass duct which is thermally insulated from the exhaust gas tubes, by means of a partition which largely suppresses any heating effect. The exhaust gas tubes are thus arranged in a housing which is traversed by coolant, while the bypass duct is accommodated in a separate, thermally insulated space. An advantage of said solution is the integration of the exhaust gas tubes and bypass duct; a disadvantage is the space-consuming thermal insulation of the bypass duct.
DE-A 102 03 003 has disclosed an exhaust gas heat exchanger which can be used predominantly as an exhaust gas cooler in an exhaust gas recirculation system (EGR system). Here, exhaust gas is extracted from an exhaust gas line of the internal combustion engine, is cooled in the exhaust gas cooler by the coolant of the coolant circuit, and is supplied back to the engine for complete combustion. Here, too, a bypass duct is connected parallel to a tube bundle of exhaust gas tubes, with the exhaust gas flow being conducted either through the tube bundle for the purposes of cooling or through the bypass duct in the case of non-cooling.


Thermoplastic polyolefin compositions useful for soft touch applications comprise, in weight percent based upon the weight of components A and B, about:

This invention relates to thermoplastic polyolefin (TPO) compositions. In one aspect, the invention relates to compositions comprising at least one polypropylene and at least one ethylene copolymer while in another aspect, the invention relates to compositions in which the ethylene copolymer is of low crystallinity. In still another aspect, the invention relates to compositions in which the xcex1-olefin of the copolymer comprises at least four carbon atoms. In yet another aspect, the invention relates to articles manufactured from the compositions.
Soft touch applications such as automotive overshoot parts (e.g., door handles and skins such as dashboard, instrument panel and interior door skins), tooth brush handles, grips, shoe soles, and toys, are requiring ever more flexible TPO compositions. The TPO compositions presently used for soft touch applications comprise a polypropylene and a nearly amorphous ethylene/propylene (EP) or an ethylene/propylene/diene monomer (EPDM) rubber. The EP and EPDM rubbers, which have relatively high glass transition temperatures (Tg) and are blocky (i.e., the ethylene/propylene sequence distribution is highly regular and uniform throughout the polymer), tend to have a flexural modulus at room temperature (25xc2x0 C.) that is higher than desired for the soft touch applications. To obtain the desired flexibility, these TPO compositions require the use of a plasticizer but over time the plasticizer migrates from the composition and this in turn, fogs the composition and/or results in a loss of impact and/or modulus. As such, a need and an interest exists for TPO compositions for use in soft touch applications that require little, if any, plasticizer.
According to this invention, TPO compositions useful for soft touch applications comprise, in weight percent based upon the weight of the composition, about:
A. 1 to about 99 percent of a least one polypropylene homopolymer or copolymer; and
B. 99 to about 1 percent of at least one homogeneously branched ethylene /xcex1-olefin copolymer in which the xcex1-olefin contains at least 4 carbon atoms and the homogeneously branched copolymer has a crystallinity of less than about 3 percent.
The polypropylenes of these TPO compositions include high and low crystallinity homopolymers and/or copolymers (e.g., propylene and ethylene), while the ethylene/xcex1-olefin copolymers are of low crystallinity, preferably amorphous or nearly amorphous. Preferably, the ethylene copolymer is a substantially linear ethylene/xcex1-olefin copolymer.
The TPO compositions of this invention exhibit unexpectedly lower modulus and/or higher impact and/or higher tensile properties then those exhibited by TPO compositions comprising a polypropylene and a conventional amorphous EP or EPDM rubber. These unexpected and desirable properties allow for the use of these compositions in soft touch applications with little, if any, plasticizer. When plasticizer is added, a smaller amount is added to the TPO compositions of the invention in order to obtain the same or better flexibility compared to prior plasticizer-containing EP or EPDM TPO compositions.

Soft touch TPO compositions comprising polypropylene and low crystalline ethylene copolymers

Abstract: A. 99 to about 1 percent of at least one polypropylene homopolymer or copolymer; and

Abstract: B. 99 to about 1 percent of at least one homogeneously branched ethylene/xcex1-olefin copolymer in which the xcex1-olefin contains at least 4 carbon atoms and the homogeneously branched copolymer has a crystallinity of less than about 3 percent.


A movable floor mechanism (10) is adapted for placement in the bed of a truck. The mechanism includes a frame (12, 14, 16), a movable floor (26) encircling the frame, a motor (24) attached to the frame, and at least one sprocket (22) attached to the motor, the sprocket engaging the movable floor. The frame is made from a pair of longitudinal beams (12), a plurality of lateral beams (14) attached between the longitudinal beams, and at least one guide rail (16) attached to the lateral beams. The movable floor (26) is made from a plurality of interengaged floor elements (26a, 26b). Each of the floor elements is made from a central portion, a connector, and a receptor, wherein the receptor is configured to accept the connector of an adjacent floor element. The receptor contains an axial slot (52) and the connector contains a pin receiving hole (56). When two floor elements are engaged the axial slot of the first floor element and pin receiving hole of the second floor element align to receive a pin (54).

Trucks have long been used to haul material to a location for unloading. To unload the material from the truck bed, the operator might have to physically remove the material by hand, or perhaps with the aid of a shovel. Dump trucks were developed to allow the front of the truck bed to be elevated, allowing gravity to pour the material from the truck bed. While eliminating the physical labor, dump trucks do not provide much control over the amount of material being unloaded. Additionally, the action of pivoting the trailer bed produces significant stress on the underlying vehicle frame. These stresses necessitate the use of heavier frames.
A solution to the problems presented by standard dump truck design is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 4,518,303 to Moser entitled "Movable Floor Self-Unloading Trailer" which issued on May 21, 1985. Moser '303 discloses a self-unloading trailer having a frame with a rotatable sprocket shafts supported at each end and engaged with an endless conveyor type floor. The floor is comprised of a series of side-by-side floor plates which are interconnected by hinge pins and are provided with a plurality of laterally spaced bearing shoes which slide in elongated longitudinally extending channel shaped bearing rails. The movable floor includes a drive sprocket assembly characterized by a series of sprocket segments which are configured to engage the floor plates along the bearing hinge portions. The movable floor is particularly adapted for use in conjunction with a modified general cargo type truck trailer.
An alternate design is disclosed in Moser '089 issued on Apr. 8, 1975 and entitled "Conveyor Equipment, Especially Cargo Loading and Unloading Equipment for a Vehicle." The conveyor includes a slatted floor carried on lugs that are in turn mounted on a closed loop cable. The cable is trained over and driven by notched sheaves at each end of the conveyor frame. The lugs evenly spaced and the slats are attached to the lugs. In one embodiment, the ends of the slats are bent upwardly to provide a conveyer surface which is generally trough shaped.
A need exists for an improved movable floor mechanism. An improved movable floor mechanism should provide a practically seamless surface adjacent to the loaded material. Any open seam is likely to catch large particles such as pebbles and stones which could jam the mechanism. Any exposed seam should be self-cleaning when the floor goes from a curved to a flat configuration. The improved movable floor mechanism should be self interengageable, thereby not requiring the placement of any hinge pins to couple adjacent floor elements. The improved floor should also freely slide over its frame, not relying upon the alignment of bearings with a bearing slide rail.


A self-service terminal (10) for preventing fraud and a module (50) for use in a fraud-resistant self-service terminal (10) are described. The SST (10) comprises a fascia (12) defining a card entry slot (22), and a card reader module (50) located behind the card entry slot (22). The SST (10) further comprises a terminal shutter (34) operable to cover the card entry slot (22), and sensors (68,86,88,90,94) for detecting the location of a card within the module (50). If the sensors detect a card within the module (50) that cannot be transported then the SST (10) operates the shutter (34) to cover the card entry slot (22) and prevent access to the card. A method of preventing fraud using the SST (10) is also described.

The present invention relates to a self-service terminal (SST). In particular, the invention relates to a fraud-resistant SST, such as a fraud-resistant ATM (automated teller machine), and to a motorized card reader module for use in such an SST.
ATMs typically store large amounts of cash. This makes them vulnerable to attack by thieves. To combat physical attack, ATMs include a safe for storing the cash. However, ATMs are also vulnerable to attack by fraud.
One type of fraud involves a third party placing a length of thin, strong, material over a card entry slot in the ATM. The material is so thin that it may not be noticed by an unwary user of the ATM. The material is selected so that it prevents a user""s card from fully entering a motorized card reader module located behind the card entry slot. This causes the card to jam so that it cannot be drawn in or ejected by the card reader module. When this happens, the user generally assumes that the ATM has gone out of service and goes away from the ATM, leaving his/her card jammed in the card reader module.
The third party can then extract the card from the card reader module, remove the thin material, and (if the third party has observed the user""s PIN) use the card to withdraw cash from the ATM.
It is an object of an embodiment of the present invention to reduce the possibility of this type of fraud.
According to a first aspect of the present invention there is provided a self-service terminal comprising a fascia defining a card entry slot, and a card reader module located behind the card entry slot, characterized in that the terminal further comprises a terminal shutter operable to cover the card entry slot in response to the card reader module detecting a card within the module that cannot be transported.
By virtue of this aspect of the invention when a card is stuck within the module the terminal is able to cover the card entry slot, thereby preventing a third party or the authorized card holder from removing the card. This safeguards the card without damaging it in any way.
It will be appreciated that the card entry slot is a slot defined by the fascia through which a card passes to enter or exit the card reader module.
It will also be appreciated that the terminal shutter is provided in addition to any shutter that is located within the card reader module.
Preferably, the shutter is retractable. The shutter may be retracted by a manually operable electronic or mechanical mechanism accessible on opening up the terminal. For all example, a latch mechanism for opening the shutter may be accessible when the fascia is opened.
In one embodiment, the shutter covers only the card entry slot. The shutter may be located to the front of the card entry slot, or to the rear of the card entry slot. If the shutter is located to the front of the card entry slot, the slot may be located in a recess.
In another embodiment, the shutter covers the entire fascia, thereby covering any display, keypad, or other user interface element located within the fascia. In such an embodiment, the shutter may be transparent, or may have a transparent portion, to allow a user to view a message on the display explaining what has occurred.
The terminal may activate an alarm on detecting a card within the module that cannot be transported. This alarm may be audible or visual, and may be relayed automatically to an appropriate person, for example to a person authorized to service the terminal.
The card reader module may detect that a card cannot be transported using sensors. The event of a card having jammed may be indicated by any convenient technique. For example, where a first sensor detects the presence of a card and a second sensor does not detect the presence of the card a predetermined time after the first sensor detected the presence of the card. Another example is where a sensor continuously detects the presence of a card for a predetermined time interval. A further example is where a sensor detects the presence of a card for a predetermined time during attempted transportation of the card in a forward direction and the same sensor detects the presence of the card for a predetermined time during attempted transportation of the card in a reverse direction. Any one or any combination of these techniques may be used to detect that a card cannot be transported.
The terminal may be an ATM.
According to a second aspect of the present invention there is provided a self-service terminal including a card reader module, characterized in that the terminal includes a terminal shutter operable to block access to the card reader module in response to the card reader module detecting a card jammed within the module.
According to a third aspect of the present invention there is provided a method of preventing fraud, the method comprising the steps of: providing a terminal shutter for covering a card entry slot, where the slot guides a card between a user and a card reader module; detecting entry of a card into the card reader module; monitoring transport of the card within the card reader module; and, in response to detection of a failure of the card reader module to transport the card correctly, activating the shutter to cover the card entry slot.
The method may include the further step of displaying on a monitor a message informing the user about the capture of his/her card.
The method may include the steps of detecting continued activation of a first sensor but not detecting activation of a second sensor within a predetermined time. The first sensor may be a width sensor for sensing the width of the card, and/or a magnetic stripe detecting sensor for detecting the correct orientation of a card. The second sensor may be a read head sensor located in the vicinity of a magnetic card reading head within the card reader module.
According to a fourth aspect of the invention there is provided a motorized card reader module for use in a self-service terminal, the module comprising at least two sensors for detecting the presence of a magnetic stripe card, characterized in that the module generates an alert signal in the event that a card has entered the module but cannot be transported by the module.
By virtue of this aspect of the invention, a card reader module provides a signal for alerting an ATM controller that an obstruction may be present in the module, where the obstruction may be the result of an attempted fraud.


A stopper has an elongated body and a cap that detaches from one end. The body has a seal proximate the cap for engaging a drain ring. The cap can have various decorations upon its upper surface such as logos, team mascots, and patterns applied by painting or waterproof durable adhesive label. The decorative attachment device has a cap that separates from the body with a male button within a chamber at the end of the body. The cap has a cooperating female button on its lower surface. Another embodiment has the cap separate from the body, hook and loop fastener, and a centered aperture. The cap has female loop fastener and a centered pin depending beneath the cap. The pin engages the aperture to align the cap to the body. Alternatively, the cap has a magnetic link to the body.

The decorative attachment device generally relates to bathroom accoutrements and more specifically to a device upon a sink stopper visible to a user of the sink. More particularly, the invention attaches a two dimensional or a three dimensional decoration to the top of an existing sink stopper.
People use sinks in many places at work, at home, when travelling, and elsewhere. Sinks allow for delivery of water in a convenient location without the water running over the location, excepting a drain blockage. Sinks can be in a bathroom, a kitchen, a laundry room, a wet bar, an entertainment room, an entertainment area, and the like. In those locations, people may use water to perform various functions as commonly known.
Some sinks though may see less use than others. In homes, select bathrooms may remain in a heightened state of preparedness for guests or other visitors. In other homes, the homeowner may select a bathroom for heightened decoration because of personal preference. In other locations, the sink may see little use as people rarely visit the location. Public areas, such as hotels, convention centers, airport terminals, restaurants, and the like, also have sinks. These preceding sinks provide the opportunity for decorating each sink and its surroundings.
People enjoy many items as decorations. Painting and wall paper may decorate a room, such as a bathroom, to make it a bright and inviting place. Plants and sculptures break up the linear outlines in a bathroom and bring an element of the natural into the room. Even with those decorations, the humble sink retains its functional use for delivering and collecting water.
Over the years, sinks have received some decoration through coloration and pigments added to the constituents of the sink material. These forms of decoration occur at the time of manufacturing and remain through the life of the sink. Very rarely do people add decorations to a sink as those decorations must resist the intermittent or occasional use of the sink. At the bottom of the sink, the drain stands ready to release any collected water into the wastewater system. The drain may have a closure from a stopper as desired by the homeowner or other person using the sink. Most drains have their closures last for a short time or on an intermittent basis. Opening and closing a drain with a stopper involves raising and lowering the stopper using levers and pivoting rods as presently done. Because stoppers move and drains encounter water and other substances placed into them, decorating of drains and stoppers has lagged far behind the rest of the decorations in a bathroom or other setting.


Image artifacts caused by flowing spins during a fast spin echo pulse sequence are suppressed by employing gradient moment nulling. The first moment of one or more gradients is nulled at each RF refocusing pulse in the sequence, and in alternative embodiments, the first moment is also nulled at each acquired NMR echo signal.

The field of the invention is nuclear magnetic resonance imaging methods and systems. More particularly, the invention relates to the reduction of motion artifacts in NMR images produced using Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) pulse sequences.
Any nucleus which possesses a magnetic moment attempts to align itself with the direction of the magnetic field in which it is located. In doing so, however, the nucleus precesses around this direction at a characteristic angular frequency (Larmor frequency) which is dependent on the strength of the magnetic field and on the properties of the specific nuclear species (the magnetogyric constant .gamma. of the nucleus). Nuclei which exhibit this phenomena are referred to herein as "spins".
When a substance such as human tissue is subjected to a uniform magnetic field (polarizing field B.sub.0), the individual magnetic moments of the spins in the tissue attempt to align with this polarizing field, but precess about it in random order at their characteristic Larmor frequency. A net magnetic moment M.sub.z is produced in the direction of the polarizing field, but the randomly oriented magnetic components in the perpendicular, or transverse, plane (x-y plane) cancel one another. If, however, the substance, or tissue, is subjected to a magnetic field (excitation field B.sub.1 which is in the x-y plane and which is near the Larmor frequency, the net aligned moment, M.sub.z, may be rotated, or "tipped", into the x-y plane to produce a net transverse magnetic moment M.sub.t, which is rotating, or spinning, in the x-y plane at the Larmor frequency. The practical value of this phenomenon resides in the signal which is emitted by the excited spins after the excitation signal B.sub.1 is terminated. There are a wide variety of measurement sequences in which this nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) phenomena is exploited.
When utilizing NMR to produce images, a technique is employed to obtain NMR signals from specific locations in the subject. Typically, the region which is to be imaged (region of interest) is scanned by a sequence of NMR measurement cycles which vary according to the particular localization method being used. The resulting set of received NMR signals are digitized and processed to reconstruct the image using one of many well known reconstruction techniques. To perform such a scan, it is, of course, necessary to elicit NMR signals from specific locations in the subject. This is accomplished by employing magnetic fields (G.sub.x, G.sub.y, and G.sub.z) which have the same direction as the polarizing field B.sub.0, but which have a gradient along the respective x, y and z axes. By controlling the strength of these gradients during each NMR cycle, the spatial distribution of spin excitation can be controlled and the location of the resulting NMR signals can be identified.
Most NMR scans currently used to produce medical images require many minutes to acquire the necessary data. The reduction of this scan time is an important consideration, since reduced scan time increases patient throughput, improves patient comfort, and improves image quality by reducing motion artifacts. There is a class of pulse sequences in which a complete scan can be conducted in seconds rather than minutes.
The concept of acquiring NMR image data in a short time period has been known since 1977 when the echo-planar pulse sequence was proposed by Peter Mansfield (J. Phys. C.10: L55-L58, 1977). In contrast to standard pulse sequences, the echo-planar pulse sequence produces a set of NMR signals for each RF excitation pulse. These NMR signals can be separately phase encoded so that an entire scan of 64 views can be acquired in a single pulse sequence of 20 to 100 milliseconds in duration. The advantages of echo-planar imaging ("EPI") are well-known, and variations on this pulse sequence are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,996; 4,733,188; 4,716,369; 4,355,282; 4,588,948 and 4,752,735.
One variant of the echo planar imaging method is the Rapid Acquisition Relaxation Enhanced (RARE) sequence which is described by J. Hennig et al in an article in Magnetic Resonance In Medicine 3,823-833 (1986) entitled "RARE Imaging: A Fast Imaging Method For Clinical MR." The essential difference between the RARE sequence and the EPI sequence lies in the manner in which echo signals are produced. The RARE sequence utilizes RF refocused echoes generated from a Carr-Purcell-Meiboom-Gill (CPMG) sequence, while EPI methods employ gradient recalled echoes.
Movement of the spins being imaged can produce artifacts in the reconstructed image. Such movement may occur, for example, by patient respiration during the scan or it may occur during each pulse sequence as a result of CSF and blood flow. Flowing spins can introduce phase errors into the acquired NMR data set which result in the production of ghosts or in blurring of the reconstructed image. Such errors are particularly troublesome with CPMG sequences and the image artifacts are, at times, worse than with images reconstructed from conventionally acquired NMR pulse sequences.
One method for reducing motion artifacts in conventionally acquired NMR images is referred to in the art as "gradient moment nulling". This method requires the addition of gradient pulses to the pulse sequence which cancel, or null, the effect on the NMR signal phase caused by spins moving in the gradients employed for position encoding. Such a solution is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,731,583 entitled "Method For Reduction of NMR Image Artifacts Due To Flowing Nuclei By Gradient Moment Nulling". Other references which describe gradient moment nulling in NMR pulse sequences include:
P. M. Pattany, J. J. Phillips, L. C. Chiu, J. D. Lipcamon, J. L. Duerk, J. M. McNally, S. N. Mohapatra, J. Comput. Assit. Tomogr. 11: 367-377 (1987). PA0 E. M. Haake, G. W. Lenz, Am. J. Roentgenology 148: 1251-1258 (1987). PA0 D. G. N'ishimura, J. I. Jackson, J. M. Pauly, Mag. Res. Med. 22: 481-492 (1991). PA0 J. L. Duerk, O. P. Simonetti, J. Mag. Res. Imag. 1: 643-650 (1991).
When gradient moment nulling is applied to CPMG pulse sequences the result is unsatisfactory. Some reduction in flow artifacts usually results, but the amount of improvement varies considerably from scan-to-scan and the improvement is seldom as good as when gradient moment nulling is applied to conventional NMR pulse sequences.

Gradient moment nulling in a fast spin echo NMR pulse sequence


A flat-panel display device comprises: a display panel having a pixel area for matrix imaging; a plurality of driver IC chips mounted in a row on a fringe part of the display panel; extension wirings extended out from wirings within the pixel area and electrically connected to terminals of the driver IC chips; and a marking visible with naked eye, which is disposed between a group of the extension wirings connected to one of the driver IC chips and another group of the extension wirings connected to other one of the driver IC chips, and which indicates boundary between said one group and said another group of the extension wirings.

Liquid crystal display devices and other flat-panel display devices are widely used in various fields as image display devices for personal computers, portable information devices or the like in various kinds; in view of their small depth dimension and small weight as well as small electric power consumption. In particular, the flat-panel devices have come to be widely used as the image-displaying devices for; the television sets, ranging from small portable ones to big wall hanging ones; small laptop computers, and other portable information terminals; and car navigation systems or the like.
In following, a light transmissive one of the active-matrix LCD devices is exemplified for explaining its construction.
An active-matrix LCD device is comprised of a matrix array substrate (hereinafter referred as array substrate) and a counter substrate, which are closely opposed to each other with a predetermined gap, and of a liquid crystal layer held in the gap.
The array substrate has signal lines and scanning lines, which are arranged in a latticework on an insulator substrate such as a glass plate, and are overlapped to sandwich an insulator film. On each rectangular patch defined by the signal and scanning lines, a pixel electrode is disposed and formed of a transparent electro-conductive material such as Indium-doped tin oxide (ITO). At around each crossing of the signal and scanning lines, a pixel-switching element is disposed for controlling a respective pixel electrode. When the pixel-switching element is a thin film transistor (TFT), gate and signal electrodes of the TFT are respectively connected with scanning and signal lines; and a source electrode of the TFT is connected with a pixel electrode. The counter substrate has a counter electrode formed of a transparent electro-conductive material such as indium-doped tin oxide (ITO), on an insulator substrate such as a glass plate. When to realize color display, color filter layers are formed on the counter or array substrate.
On the fringe part of the flat-panel display device, for example, the array substrate protrudes from an edge of the counter substrate as to form a shelf region, at along a fringe along length direction or width direction of the substrates. Onto the shelf region, arranged in a row or rows are connector pads for inputting of driving signal from outside into the signal lines and/or scanning lines. As ways for arranging driver IC chips on the fringe part as to input the signal to the connector pads, adopted are "outer lead bonding" (OLB) and "chip on glass" (COG) arrangements. In the "outer lead bonding" (OLB) arrangement, rectangular flexible circuit boards referred as tape carrier packages (TCPs) are mounted on the shelf region. In the "chip on glass" (COG) arrangement, the driver ICs are directly mounted on the shelf region. On most occasions for such mounting, electrically conductive stuff such as anisotropic conductive film (ACF) or the like is used to attach and mount onto the shelf regions, electric terminal faces at ends of the TCPs or terminal-arranging reverse faces of the driver IC chips. In other words, "face-down mounting" is adopted. Such mounting procedure is performed usually by using a heat-press tool so that the ACF, which has been attached on reverse faces of the driver IC chips for example, is heat-pressed at 170-200° C. for 10-20 seconds.
In following, a typical construction of the fringe part is explained exemplarily for the COG arrangement. A shelf region along a length-direction fringe (X fringe) of the flat-panel display device is mounted with a plurality of the driver IC chips that are the X-side driver IC chips for inputting image signals, i.e. data signals, to the signal lines; and another shelf region along a width-direction fringe (Y fringe) is mounted with one or more of the driver IC chips as the Y-side driver IC chip(s) for inputting gate voltage for driving TFTs, consecutively to the scanning lines.
For inputting the signals to the X-side and Y-side driver IC chips, a long band-shaped flexible printed circuit board, which is to be abbreviated as FPC hereinafter, is used as arranged along the X fringe, for example; and signal inputting to the driver IC chips is made through FPC-IC connecting wirings that have been formed by a patterning on beforehand, on the shelf region.
Assembling process of flat-panel display devices are exemplified by follows. A reverse frame for receiving or upbearing the display panel is assembled with a bezel cover as an obverse frame by fixing with screwing or the like as to clamp marginal part of the display panel and thereby secure the display panel. On course of such assembling, the display panel is positioned to a predetermined location, by rib-shaped projections on the reverse frame. Then, in such an aligned state, the display panel and the bezel cover are secured to be non-shiftable onto the reverse frame. When the flat-panel display device is of a backlight type, a surface illuminant device is arranged on reverse face of the display panel. In general, a light-guide plate of the surface illuminant device is received within the reverse frame.
On course of manufacturing the flat-panel display devices, "dynamic operating inspection" is made when the driver IC chips are mounted on the display panel in order to know whether all pixels make normal operation. If and when imaging defect on the screen is found on such inspection, a faulty portion has to be determined; and various investigations for facilitating such determining have been made. Please see JP-2005-115129A or Japan's patent application publication No. 2005-115129. The dynamic operating inspection may reveal that a row of pixel along a signal line exhibits the imaging defect referred as a line defect, and the line defect may be considered to be due to defect of the driver IC chip. In such occasion, the driver IC chip associated with the line defect is picked off and then new one is mounted as a replacement.

Flat-panel display devices including markings and manufacturing method therefor

Toshiba Matsushita Display Technology Co., Ltd.


A method and system are disclosed for allowing significantly increased migration of a molecule across a lipid bilayer membrane. The method includes combining an aqueous solvent medium, in which the lipid bilayer membrane and the molecule are disposed, with a solute. The aqueous solvent medium, the lipid bilayer membrane and the molecule are then exposed to a sufficient partial pressure of the solute to cause the solute to dissolve in the aqueous solvent medium, whereby a significant portion of the solute migrates to the hydrophobic fatty acyl portion of the lipid bilayer membrane. The solute thereby allows a significantly increased migration of the molecule across the lipid bilayer membrane.

Manipulation of molecules relative to living cells, such as drug delivery into cells or isolation of cell components, including, for example, integral membrane proteins, has been limited by the nature of living cell membranes. The integrity of living cells is maintained by cell membranes which include a bilayer of phospholipids. Phospholipids are comprised of a hydrophilic lipid head group and one or more hydrophobic fatty acyl chains They are characterized as being amphipathic because they have both a hydrophilic component and a hydrophobic component. A cell membrane lipid bilayer includes substantially aligned hydrophobic fatty acyl chains of the phospholipids and two layers of the hydrophilic lipid heads which shield the fatty acyl chains from a medium in which the cell is disposed.
The amphipathic nature of phospholipids causes cell membranes to be substantially impermeable to ions and, with the exception of water, most polar molecules Migration of nutrients and waste products across cell membranes are generally mediated by specific transport mechanisms of integral membrane proteins. Integral membrane proteins typically span cell membranes and include hydrophobic side chains at one portion of the protein surface and hydrophilic side chains at another portion of the protein surface. However, delivery of water-soluble molecules, such as many drugs, into a cell through a cell membrane is limited because the hydrophobic fatty acyl layer between the two hydrophilic lipid head group layers substantially prevents migration of the molecule from an aqueous medium, in which the cell is disposed, across the cell membrane and into the cell.
Attempts to improve delivery of drugs and other molecules across cell membranes have included, for example, modification of the molecule, encapsulation of the molecule in vesicles which are tailored for uptake into specific types of cells and attachment to other molecules which are actively transported across cell membranes. However, most methods of delivery involve either adulteration of the composition to which the cell is exposed or limiting the effectiveness of the molecule, such as in the case of delivering a drug, by changing the structure of the molecule.
The amphipathic nature of lipid bilayers and integral proteins also causes manipulation of cell membranes and isolation of integral proteins to be difficult. For example, isolation of cell components, such as integral membrane proteins, often requires that the cell component be solubilized. Integral membrane proteins are typically isolated by exposing cells which include the proteins to a medium having a surfactant disposed therein. The surfactant is present in an amount sufficient to exceed a critical micelle concentration, or CMC, whereby micelles are formed. Simultaneously, the cell membranes typically dissolve and the integral membrane proteins of the cells become incorporated into the micelles of the surfactant as the micelles form, thereby solubilizing the integral membrane proteins. Hydrophobic portions of the surfactant molecules cluster around the hydrophobic portion of the integral membrane protein while the hydrophilic portions of the surfactant molecules are exposed to the surrounding aqueous medium.
However, the solubilized membrane proteins are contained in protein-detergent micelles of heterogeneous size and shape. These heterogeneous populations are difficult to crystallize, and separation of individual proteins is often compromised. Attempts to increase the resolution of proteins separated from cell membranes generally employs solvents, such as ionic detergents or alcohols, that denature proteins, thereby reducing the utility and yield of the proteins isolated.
Therefore, a need exists for a method of allowing significantly increased migration of a molecule across a lipid bilayer which overcomes or minimizes the above-mentioned problems.

Method and system for allowing increased migration across a lipid bilayer


A generic address scrambler for a memory circuit test engine. An embodiment of a memory device includes a memory stack having one or more of coupled memory elements, a built-in self-test circuit including a generic programmable address scrambler for the mapping of logical addresses to physical addresses for the memory elements, and one or more registers to hold programming values for the generic programmable address scrambler.

To provide more dense memory for computing operations, concepts involving memory devices (which may be referred to as 3D stacked memory, or stacked memory) having a plurality of closely coupled memory elements have been developed.
A 3D stacked memory may include coupled layers or packages of DRAM (dynamic random-access memory) memory elements, which may be referred to as a memory stack. Stacked memory may be utilized to provide a great amount of computer memory in a single device or package, where the device or package may also include certain system components, such as a memory controller and CPU (central processing unit).
As memory devices increase in size and complexity, there is an increase need for effective and efficient testing of such devices, where testing includes accessing each physical address of the memory.
However, the memory dies within a stacked memory device may vary in design, and in particular such memory may vary in the logical to physical addressing of the memory, thereby complicating the task of providing a complete test of the memory device.

Generic address scrambler for memory circuit test engine


Provided is a force-controlled hydro-elastic actuator, including a hydraulic actuator, having a connection to hydraulic fluid and including a mechanical displacement member positioned to be mechanically displaced by fluid flow at the actuator. A valve is connected at the hydraulic actuator connection and has a port for input and output of fluid to and from the valve. At least one elastic element is provided in series with the mechanical displacement member of the hydraulic actuator and is positioned to deliver, to a load, force generated by the hydraulic actuator. A transducer is positioned to measure a physical parameter indicative of the force delivered by the elastic element and to generate a corresponding transducer signal. A force controller is connected between the transducer and the valve to control the valve, based on the transducer signal, for correspondingly actuating the hydraulic actuator and deflecting the elastic element.

This invention relates to hydraulic actuators for use in, e.g., robotic applications, and more particularly relates to force control of hydraulic actuators.
An actuator is generally defined as a device or mechanism that converts some form of energy into mechanical force or torque and linear or rotary velocity. A hydraulic actuator typically is connected to a high pressure fluid source and a flow control valve, e.g., a spool valve. Application of a small signal to the valve deflects the valve, allowing the fluid to flow, e.g., into one or more chambers driving a mechanical mechanism such as a piston provided in one or more of the chambers. With this action, the hydraulic actuator converts fluid flow into mechanical piston velocity, and provides the ability to control this velocity and corresponding mechanical position.
Hydraulic actuators are particularly well-suited for velocity and position control of robots and heavy equipment. Hydraulic systems also are generally characterized by the highest power density of modern controllable actuation systems because they are often operated at a pressure of as much as 3000 psi or greater. Hydraulic systems can also support large loads indefinitely while consuming minimal power. Given these attributes, hydraulic actuation systems are frequently the optimum choice for high force, high power density motion control applications such as automobile steering systems, airplane control surfaces, and heavy equipment operations employing, e.g., construction machinery.
While hydraulic systems are in many respects optimal for velocity and position control, a number of inherent hydraulic system limitations constrain their applicability for force control. For most applications, force control requires an ability to sense and correspondingly control the forces of interaction between an actuator and the actuation environment. But in hydraulic systems, a measurement of the primary system variable, hydraulic pressure, does not fully enable such. Specifically, the pressure in a hydraulic chamber, e.g., a piston chamber, is not in general a good representation of the force at the actuator output. Hydraulic systems are in general very sensitive to contamination, such as foreign particles, in the hydraulic fluid. In order to limit such contamination, it is preferable to employ tight fluidic seals at the hydraulic piston and cylinder. Tight seals are found, however, to typically produce substantial stiction and coulomb friction during sliding, and to require a very high breakaway force, all of which contribute to force noise at the hydraulic actuator output and thereby limit the ability to accurately estimate output force. Dynamically, a range of factors, including non-linear flow characteristics, can be very difficult to control.
There have been attempts to reduce the sliding friction and stiction characteristic of tight hydraulic seals by, e.g., reducing the piston seal tolerance. In one example alternative, two or more sets of loose seals are employed, the first seal allowing leakage from the supply fluid pressure chamber and the second and following seals scavenging the leakage. Although this configuration can improve sliding characteristics, it is not cost effective for most applications and in practice can be very prone to leaks. As a result, for most applications only tight hydraulic seals can be employed.
Given this fundamental difficulty in estimating the output force of a hydraulic actuator as function of hydraulic pressure, hydraulic actuators have been largely limited to velocity and position control applications. Implementation of force control for robotic and other applications in a manner that exploits the high power density of hydraulic actuation has heretofore not been fully practical.
The invention provides the ability to effectively and precisely implement closed-loop force control of a hydraulic actuator, provided in accordance with the invention as a hydro-elastic actuator. The hydro-elastic actuator of the invention includes a hydraulic actuator, having a connection to hydraulic fluid and including a mechanical displacement member positioned to be mechanically displaced by fluid flow at the actuator. A valve is connected at the hydraulic actuator connection and has a port for input and output of fluid to and from the valve. At least one elastic element is provided in series with the mechanical displacement member of the hydraulic actuator and is positioned to deliver, to a load, force generated by the hydraulic actuator. A transducer is positioned to measure a physical parameter indicative of the force delivered by the elastic element and to generate a corresponding transducer signal. A force controller is connected between the transducer and the valve to control the valve, based on the transducer signal, for correspondingly actuating the hydraulic actuator and deflecting the elastic element.
The hydro-elastic actuator of the invention can be configured such that the force controller is connected to accept an input indicative of a desired actuator output force to be delivered to the load. Here the force controller is connected between the transducer and the valve to control the valve based on the transducer signal and the input, for correspondingly actuating the hydraulic actuator by an amount that delivers to the load the a desired actuator output force.
The hydro-elastic actuator of the invention provides the ability to make a high-fidelity measurement of the output force of a hydraulic system without measuring pressure or flow characteristics of the hydraulic system. The feedback control loop enables precise hydraulic system force control and control stability to a level not previously achievable without complicated control schemes to accommodate hydraulic characteristics. The high power and high force generation capabilities of the hydraulic actuator are preserved while providing shock tolerance and low system output impedance.
The hydro-elastic actuator of the invention is well-suited for an extremely broad range of applications, and is particularly effective at addressing high-force, high-power density applications. Robotics applications and heavy equipment operations, such as robotic fire fighting and earth moving, as well as telerobotic and haptic systems, are particularly well-addressed. Further, the important and growing class of biomimetic robots, and particularly dynamically-stable legged robots, which primarily rely on force control-based locomotion algorithms, are enabled by the invention to take on mass and scale not previously attainable.
In accordance with the invention, the hydraulic actuator can be provided as a hydraulic actuation chamber in which the mechanical displacement member is disposed with respect to the fluid connection. Here the fluid connection preferably consists of a fluid inlet and a fluid outlet of the chamber. This enables control of displacement of the displacement member by fluid flow into and out of the chamber. The valve can be connected to the fluid inlet and fluid outlet, and preferably is provided as a flow control valve. Whatever connection is employed between the valve and the fluid inlet and outlet, it preferably is dimensionally fixed. The valve port can include a connection for receiving fluid pumped by a fluidic pump.
In embodiments of the invention, the valve control signal is based on proportional or proportional-integral control of actuator output force. The valve control signal is in one embodiment an electrical current. This electrical control current is directed to the valve and is indicative of a controlled fluid flow to be produced through the valve. The electrical control current can be indicative of a controlled bi-state valve operation between a state of zero fluid flow and a state of maximum fluid flow through the valve. The force controller can further be connected to produce a fluid source control signal directed to a fluid source connected to the valve port. Here the fluid source control signal can be indicative of a controlled pulsed delivery of fluid to the valve in synchrony with the bi-state valve operation.
In accordance with the invention, the hydraulic actuator, when provided as a chamber, can consist of a linear piston chamber having a linear piston and a piston push rod extending out of the chamber, a rotary piston chamber having a rotary vane and a rotary shaft extending out of the chamber, or other suitable chamber configuration. When employed, a piston can be double- or single-acting. Preferably either a substantially non-leaky seal is provided at a location where the piston push rod or shaft extends out of the chamber or alternatively, at least one leaky seal and at least one leakage scavenger seal can here be employed.
In embodiments of the invention, the elastic element can be provided as a linear or a nonlinear elastic element. The elastic element can be provided specifically as at least one spring disposed in series with the hydraulic actuator displacement member, or as a plurality of springs positioned to together result in an elasticity provided in series with the hydraulic actuator displacement member. One or more coupling elements can be provided in series with and between the elastic element and the hydraulic actuator displacement member, as well as in series with and between the elastic element and the load.
The transducer can be provided as a potentiometer, a strain gauge, or other suitable sensing configuration, e.g., as a magnetic position sensor or an optical position sensor. In one embodiment, the transducer signal is based on deflection of the elastic element.
The hydro-elastic actuator of the invention can be produced of lightweight, low-cost, easily manufactured components. The elastic element force feedback control of the system preserves the high power and high force or torque generation of the system while providing precise force control and good force control stability. These characteristics are ideal for robotic and other mechanistic systems that interact with their environment. Other applications, features, and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description and associated drawings, and from the claims.


A female blade terminal assembly including a female blade terminal having a cage structure adapted to receive a male blade terminal and a shroud of seamless tubular cross sectional configuration adapted to fit over the cage structure in surrounding relation to the beam portions of the cage structure. The female blade terminal is formed from a single piece of conductive sheet material of a given thickness and the beam portions have a thickness less than the given thickness. The cage portion further includes front and rear annular collar portions of the given thickness with the reduced thickness beam portions extending between the annular collar portions. The shroud precludes outward splaying of the cage structure in response to insertion of the male blade terminal, limits the outward deflection of the beam portions to preclude plastic deformation of the beam portions, and precludes the entry of contaminants into the electrical interface between the beam portions and the male blade terminal. A method of forming the female blade terminal assembly is also disclosed.

This invention relates to electrical connectors and more particularly to a female blade terminal comprising a part of an electrical connector.
Electrical connectors comprising interengaging male and female terminals are well known in the art and are in wide use for establishing electrical connection between various electrical components. One popular and widely used electrical connector comprises a male blade terminal adapted to be slidably received in a cage or socket defined by a female blade terminal.
There are many design parameters that must be considered when designing a connector of the blade type. Specifically, the connector must have a simple and inexpensive design; must have a relatively small size; must provide maximum current carrying capacity; must provide a low insertion force so as to allow easy connection and disconnection of the terminal elements; must provide sufficient grasping action as between the terminal elements to preclude inadvertent separation of the elements; must provide reliable and consistent operation for sustained periods of time; and must discourage corrosion and contamination of the electrical interface provided by the connector.
Whereas a myriad of electrical connectors of the blade type have been proposed and are in common usage, none of the prior art blade type connectors totally satisfy all of the noted design parameters.


A circuit board assembly with a substrate having a laminate construction of ceramic layers, such as an LTCC ceramic substrate. The substrate is configured for the purpose of improving the thermal management of power circuit devices mounted to the substrate. Thermally-conductive vias extend through the substrate from a first surface thereof to a second surface thereof. A circuit device is mounted to the first surface of the substrate and is electrically interconnected to conductor lines of the substrate. The device is also thermally coupled to the thermally-conductive vias with a first solder material. A heat sink located adjacent the second surface of the substrate is bonded to the thermally-conductive vias with a second solder material, such that the first solder material, the thermally-conductive vias, and the second solder material define a thermal path from the device to the heat sink.

The present invention generally relates to thermal management of electronic circuit components. More particularly, this invention relates to promoting heat transfer from a surface-mount circuit device to a heat sink through direct attachment of thermal vias to the heat sink.
A variety of approaches are known for dissipating heat generated by semiconductor devices, such as integrated circuit (IC) chips. In the case of high-power IC chips, such as power flip chips, substrates of choice are typically formed of ceramic materials, such as alumina (Al2O3), which have higher thermal conductivities than printed circuit board (PCB) materials.
Laminate-type ceramic substrates known as low temperature co-fired ceramics (LTCC) have a number of process-related advantages over conventional ceramic substrates. LTCC substrates are conventionally made up of multiple green tapes containing a mixture of glass and ceramic fillers in an organic binder. The tapes are collated (stacked), laminated, and then fired (co-fired), during which the organic binders within the laminate stack are burned off and the remaining materials form, according to the combined composition, a monolithic ceramic substrate. Though having the above-noted processing advantages, LTCC substrates have relatively low thermal conductivities, typically about 3 W/mK as compared to about 20 W/mK for alumina. Consequently, LTCC substrates have been formed with green tapes containing a metal powder to promote heat dissipation through the substrate. However, a limitation of this approach is that the resulting metal-containing layers of the LTCC substrate are also electrically conductive to some degree.
In applications where individual layers of an LTCC substrate are to carry conductor patterns, resistors, etc., thick-film pastes for these components are often printed using screen printing techniques on individual tapes prior to collating and laminating the tapes. The tapes, along with their conductive, dielectric, and resistive pastes, are then co-fired, during which the binders of these pastes burn off to yield conductors, dielectrics, and resistors on and within the substrate. Because circuit components and their associated interconnect vias within an LTCC substrate generally necessitate that the ceramic layers they contact are nonconductive, improved thermal conductivity cannot be obtained by the use of metal-containing ceramic layers. A solution to this problem is represented in FIG. 1, and involves forming multiple thermal vias 116 through the thickness of an LTCC substrate 110 to conduct heat in a vertical direction from a die-and-wire type power chip 114. The thermal vias 116 are formed by punching vias in each green tape and then filling the vias prior to printing the conductors, resistors, etc. Interconnect vias 118 required to electrically interconnect components on different layers of the LTCC substrate 110 can be formed and filled at the same time as the thermal vias 116. The tapes are then laminated so that the filled vias are aligned to form through-vias, after which the tapes are fired such that the via fill material is co-fired along with conductor and resistor materials printed on surfaces of individual tapes. The entire LTCC substrate 110 (composed of bonded ceramic layers 112) is then bonded with a nonelectrically-conductive adhesive 120 to a heat sink 122 so that the thermal vias 116 conduct heat from the chip 114 to the heat sink 122.
While able to promote the conduction of heat away from power devices, thermal vias in an LTCC substrate do not provide heat spreading because of their through-thickness orientation. Furthermore, thermal vias may be inadequate to achieve suitable thermal management of certain power devices, particularly devices of the flip-chip type. For example, thermal vias alone can be inadequate because the solder bumps of a flip-chip device provide the primary thermal path from the device, and consequently the number of vias is limited by the number of solder bumps and the configuration of the solder bump pattern. In addition, the use of thermal vias is complicated by the fact that the solder bumps usually require electrical isolation as a result of also providing the electrical connection between the device and the substrate.
In view of the above, further improvements would be desirable for thermal management of power IC's, and particularly flip-chip power IC's, on LTCC substrates.

Thermal management of surface-mount circuit devices on laminate ceramic substrate


An auxiliary lighting system to be used with a high intensity discharge lamp having a solid state or electronic ballast. An auxiliary lamp is connected to a source of power through the normally closed contacts of a relay. The relay coil is in the input line to the solid state ballast. Above a predetermined threshold current to the ballast, the relay coil causes the normally closed contacts to open thereby extinguishing the auxiliary lamp. When the high intensity discharge lamp is turned on, or when there is an interrupt, the power requirements for the HID lamp are at a low point. Thus the input current to the solid state ballast is below the threshold, the contacts are closed and the auxiliary lamp is turned on.

This invention relates to auxiliary lighting systems for use with high intensity discharge (HID) lamps and more particularly to provision of auxiliary lighting when the HID lamp is first turned on and when the HID lamp turns off due to power interrupt. These two conditions are known as cold start and hot interrupt.
The need for an auxiliary lamp and some of the background of the operation of these HID lamps is set forth in U. S. Pat. No. 4,005,331 issued Jan. 25, 1977 and entitled "High Intensity Discharge Lamp With Auxiliary Light".
High intensity discharge (HID) lamps have the great advantage of being energy efficient. High pressure sodium and metal halide lamps for example provide both high light levels and good color characteristics. The operation of many types of HID lamps requires the addition of ignitors to the ballast circuit in order to enable the arc to be struck. Conventional ballasts and solid state ballasts have been designed for use with HID lamps. Even with the inclusion of ignitors, there is still a period of time during initial start-up when the light output from the HID lamp is insufficient to enable safe entry into areas illuminated by these devices. This is called cold start. A period of several minutes may elapse before these lamps achieve their full light output.
Additionally, despite the inclusion of ignitors which generate high voltages to establish the arc within the HID lamp, if there is a momentary interruption in the power source, the lamp will not re-establish its arc for a period of time ranging from a minute to several minutes. This is called hot interrupt. During this time, as well as during normal start-up, it is desirable to provide auxiliary light.
When conventional ballasts are employed for HID lamps, it is common to place a relay which has a current sensing coil in the ballast secondary, in series with the HID lamp. A set of normally closed contacts is placed in series with an incandescent lamp and an AC power source. When the arc is established in the HID lamp, current flows through the current sensing coil and the normally closed contacts are driven open thereby extinguishing the auxiliary light. A device of this type provides auxiliary light only during times of hot interrupt. During hot interrupt, the HID lamp is too hot to enable the ignitor to re-establish an arc. As soon as the arc is re-established, the current flow to the HID lamp causes the current coil of the normally closed relay to drive the contacts open thereby switching the incandescent lamp off.
If auxiliary light during cold start is desired, i.e. when a cool HID is to be energized, additional components must be added. In view of the fact that the ignitor delivers pulses up to several thousand volts to the HID lamp, it is impractical to place voltage sensing coils across the HID lamp in order to sense normal operating parameters and open circuit conditions. The placement of such a voltage sensing coil is common with mercury vapor and conventional metal halide lamps which do not have ignitors. For HID systems which incorporate ignitors, the general means of providing auxiliary lighting during cold start is to employ a current sensing relay with normally open contacts in series with the ballast output and the HID lamp. The normally open contacts of this relay close when current flows to the HID lamp and, in turn, control a normally closed timing device which turns off the auxiliary incandescent lamp after a pre-determined time period.
Solid state ballasts which incorporate the ignitor function have been developed for HID lamps. They offer advantages of cooler operation, less power loss and quieter operation. The use of a solid state ballast and ignitor creates difficult operating conditions for auxiliary lighting controls. The high voltage ignitor pulses which they generate require wire with special insulation characteristics which precludes the use of a conventional current sensing relay in series with the ballast output and the HID lamp. A typical ballast system of this type was developed by General Electric Company. Their 32 watt metal halide lamp that provides a light output similar to a 150 watt incandescent. The solid state ballast HID lamp combination uses a total of only 37.5 watts. The system provides 66.6 lumens/watt (over 3 times the 150 watt incandescent). The ignitor voltage and wire insulation requirements of the ballast precludes its use with conventional HID auxiliary lighting controls.
Accordingly, it is a major purpose of this invention to provide an auxiliary lighting system that can be employed with HID lamps having a solid state ballast and ignitor.
More particularly, the purpose of this invention is to provide a simple auxiliary lighting system with a minimum number of components, which is relatively inexpensive and can be employed with a wide range of HID lamps having a solid state ballast.

Auxiliary lighting system for high intensity discharge lamp


Deduplication in a hybrid storage environment includes determining characteristics of a first data set. The first data set is identified as redundant to a second data set and the second data set is stored in a first storage system. The deduplication also includes mapping the characteristics of the first data set to storage preferences, the storage preferences specifying storage system selections for storing data sets based upon attributes of the respective storage systems. The deduplication further includes storing, as a persistent data set, one of the first data set and the second data set in one of the storage systems identified from the mapping.

The present invention relates to data storage management, and more specifically, to deduplication in a hybrid storage network environment.
Cloud computing is a paradigm in which tasks are assigned to a combination of connections, software and services that are accessed over a network. This network of servers and connections is collectively known as "the cloud."
Based on the number and type of resources that make up the cloud, these resources may require a great deal of storage space. Advances in disk and storage technologies have helped to manage performance and space requirements of network clouds. For example, deduplication techniques have been developed for maximizing available storage space in which redundant data or files are eliminated from storage, thereby increasing the storage capabilities of the cloud.
While deduplication processes remove duplicate entries of files in storage, these processes do not consider factors such as file characteristics or the disk technology on which the files will be stored, nor do the processes consider redundant array independent disk (RAID) configurations or RAID rebuilding processes. For example, if multiple copies of a file are located on storage systems that employ different disk technologies, the deduplication processes do not consider which disk technologies or RAID configurations may provide better read and write performance. Further, during a RAID rebuild process, the RAID array remains accessible to users (e.g., a RAID controller allocates system resources to process user I/O requests, which in turn, uses CPU resources that may slow down overall performance).

International Business Machines Corporation


Systems and methods for communications systems and more particularly to systems and methods for locating a mobile communication device are disclosed. When attempting to locate a misplaced, lost or stolen mobile communication device, if the mobile communication device may be in the possession of another party, the mobile communication device may be remotely controlled such that remote operations are independent of the normal mobile communication device operations.

Mobile communication devices such as mobile cellular telephones have become one of the primary means of communication used today. Throughout the world, the mobile cellular telephones and other mobile communication devices provide people, businesses, governmental agencies and virtually all other entities with the capability to instantly communicate with each other. In particular, the mobile cellular telephone has evolved from a device that is simply used for verbal communication to a device that is used to transmit video and text messages, access the World Wide Web and watch television.
Accordingly, a system and method for locating a mobile communication device would be well received in the art.

Systems and methods for locating a mobile communication device


A method of cutting between a first image sequence and a second image sequence displayable on a screen which defines a screen plane, wherein the first image sequence includes a stereoscopically viewable object perceivable by a viewer on a first image plane different to the screen plane and the second image sequence including a second object perceivable on a second image plane different to the first image plane, the stereoscopically viewable object comprising a first image at a first screen plane position and a second image at a second screen plane position, the method comprising: identifying the first screen plane position of the first image and the second screen plane position of the second image; inserting into a first post-cut frame of the second image sequence a first copy of the second object substantially at the first screen plane position and inserting a second copy of the second object substantially at the second screen plane position, and inserting the first copy of the second object and the second copy of the second object into a predetermined number of subsequent frames at positions on the screen which are closer to the screen position required to view the second object at the second image plane, than the first and second screen plane position.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for processing video images.
2. Background
In order to enhance a viewer's experience when watching video material, it is possible to apply known techniques in order to give a viewer the impression that certain images within the video material have a three dimensional (3D) quality. This is achieved by arranging the video to include a sequence of stereoscopic images in which a viewer sees a first image through one eye and a second image through the other eye. If the first image and the second image are of the same object but the images are horizontally displaced from each other with respect to the viewing plane that the viewer sees (e.g. a television display or a cinema screen), then the viewer reconciles this visual information by perceiving there to be a single image of the object and that this image has a certain degree of depth (i.e. is positioned either in front of or behind the viewing plane). The 3D effect can be enhanced by arranging the two images to be of the same object but captured from slightly different angles. Because human eyes are spaced apart by a small distance, this mimics the information that a viewer sees when a real object is viewed through both eyes thus the viewer perceives the displayed image as a 3D object.
Unlike conventional two-dimensional (2D) video sequences, in order for a viewer to view a 3D image, their eyes must be pointing in slightly different directions due to the horizontal displacement of the displaced version of the same object. When viewing stereoscopic images, unnatural movement of the viewer's eyes can take place. For instance, a viewer's eyes may unnaturally diverge, may converge too much or may vertically diverge (as a result of vertical parallax in the images). This can lead to discomfort. It can therefore be useful to analyse 3D video sequences to determine the extent to which a viewer must point their eyes in different directions by producing a disparity map which indicates the relative position of the first and second object.
Furthermore, when combining the display of 2D images with 3D images in a video sequence, careful considerations must be made to ensure that the 3D illusion does not break down. This is particularly important in live footage where objects in the footage may move "through" the captions.

Method and apparatus for processing video images


A two-wheeled vehicle simulation apparatus includes a vehicle simulator having a saddle which the driver sits on and handlebars operated by the driver, a mat switch laid on a floor in the vicinity of the vehicle simulator, and a monitor displaying information and images based on signals obtained from pedals, the handlebars, and the mat switch. Two or more of the mat switches are provided to independently sense respective placement of one or both feet on the floor by the driver. When two detectors substantially alternately detect placement of the driver's right and left feet on the floor, an image of a two-wheeled vehicle and a person walking the two-wheeled vehicle is displayed on the monitor. The vehicle simulator permits simulation of the action of a driver putting his/her foot on a road surface to achieve more realistic simulation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a two-wheeled vehicle simulation apparatus having application to traffic safety education, games, and physical training.
2. Description of the Background Art
Simulation apparatuses have been proposed and developed that simulate the operation of airplanes, automobiles, motorcycles, bicycles and the like. Some of the simulation apparatuses have been put to practical use. Among known simulation apparatuses, a bicycle simulation apparatus has some similarity to a motorcycle simulation apparatus, but is significantly different therefrom because a bicycle, and thus its associated simulation apparatus, has cranks and pedals. An example of a known bicycle simulation apparatus is disclosed in Japanese Registered Utility Model No. 2589581.
In the course of driving a two-wheeled vehicle, the driver is not always in one posture on a seat, which is different from driving an automobile or the like. For example, when operating a two-wheeled vehicle, a driver puts his/her foot on the road when temporarily stopping at an intersection or the like, and walks the bicycle on a pedestrian dedicated road such as a sidewalk. However, the conventional two-wheeled vehicle simulation apparatus employs a system performing driving simulation in which the driver always remains astride the seat. Thus, the actions of getting on and off the vehicle, the action of putting his/her foot on the road when the vehicle temporarily stops, and the action of walking the vehicle cannot be reproduced in the simulated environment. Accordingly, the simulation lacks a hands-on feeling compared to real operation of the two-wheeled vehicle. Moreover, the actions of the driver putting his/her foot on the road and walking the vehicle are necessary actions in traffic safety education, for example, and thus it is desirable for the two-wheeled vehicle simulation apparatus to simulate these actions.
Furthermore, in the conventional two-wheeled vehicle simulation apparatus, the driver is required to perform operations of turning on and off the power supply and of starting and terminating the driving simulation when getting on and off the two-wheeled vehicle simulator. Thus, prior to use, a user may be required to read an operation manual or the like, or to be instructed by an instructor. In addition, traffic safety education is often conducted particularly for children, and it is desired that the basic operations of the two-wheeled vehicle simulation apparatus do not require a manual or the like, and be easily performed even by children.
The present invention was made in light of such problems, and an object of the present invention is to provide a two-wheeled vehicle simulation apparatus capable of simulating the action of the driver putting his/her foot on the road to achieve a more realistic driving simulation. Another object of the present invention is to provide a two-wheeled vehicle simulation apparatus capable of performing driving simulation using easy operations.

Two-wheeled vehicle simulation apparatus


Systems and methods for an implantable medical device which utilizes a patch antenna for communicating with an external device. The implantable medical device includes a housing, a header, and a patch antenna formed using an RF plate and a ground plate, which may be or include a metal surface of the housing. Also, a material of the header forms a dielectric of the patch antenna.

Implantable pulse generators (IPGs) come in a variety of forms for different applications. For example, some IPGs, such as pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), are used in the treatment of cardiac conditions. Other IPGs, such as neuromodulators or neurostimulators, are used in chronic pain management or the actuation and control of other body systems. These devices, which are known as implantable medical devices (IMDs), commonly include a housing (i.e., can), feedthrus, and a connector assembly that is enclosed in a header. Electrical stimulation originating in the housing is led to the connector assembly through the feedthrus. The connector assembly serves to transmit electrical signals out of the implantable medical device and to a lead electrically connected to the connector assembly, the lead transmitting electrical signals between the implantable medical device and patient tissue.
IMDs often communicate with an external unit while the device is still implanted. Traditional wireless implantable devices have used inductive telemetry to communicate. However, an inductive interface requires a relatively short distance (on the order of centimeters) between the implanted device and the extracorporal unit with which it communicates. This, in turn, may be inconvenient for the patient as well as impractical for the personnel conducting the procedure. Moreover, the maximum data rate for an inductive interface is relatively low, which results in practical limitations as to the amount of data that can be communicated.
Still other wireless implantable devices use the MICS (Medical Implant Communication Service) frequency band of 402-405 MHz. At this frequency, antennas need to be relatively large compared to the size of the header in order to function well. This has led to the widespread use of wire type antennas such as the monopole (open loop), closed loop, or inverted F. These antennas have proven to be very versatile with their ability to conform to the shape of the header and route around bore holes and lead connectors. However, this means that any changes to an existing or new header on the IMD can lead to significant or complete redesigns of the antenna. Also, header sizes may have to grow in height to accommodate these antennas.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a communication system for IMDs which is small enough to fit within a device header.

Systems and methods for incorporating a patch antenna in an implantable medical device


A therapeutic apparatus for strengthening the tongue. The device is a water-filled unit comprised of clear tube with two bulbs on each end. The exerciser is activated in the mouth by pressing the pressurized bulb with the tongue against the hard palate. A floating indicator in the tube offers visual feedback and elevates as the tube is compressed. The device is adjustable in difficulty. The presenting invention is simple in design and operation. It has limited moving or articulating parts, requires no customization, is non-electrical, can be operated with one hand and is inexpensive to manufacture. The Tongue Press Oral Exerciser is an affordable means of strengthening swallowing and speech intelligibility.

The present invention relates in general to a swallowing and speech therapeutic device for strengthening the lingual musculature through the use of a water-filled tube with pressurized bulbs on each end. The bulb is placed in the mouth and pressed against the hard palate with the dorsum of the tongue. The compression of the pressurized bulb exercises the tongue in an upward movement as is performed by the tongue during the act of swallowing and for speaking.
Speech and swallowing disorders can result from a number of causes including: stroke, brain disease, brain injury, developmental disorders, spinal cord injury, multiple sclerosis, amyotrophic later sclerosis (ALS), muscular dystrophy, Alzheimer's disease, Huntington's disease, Parkinson's disease, cerebral palsy, autism, and cleft palate. Loss of tongue strength as a result of these etiologies can lead to swallowing disorders and impaired speech intelligibility. Head and neck cancers of the throat or mouth with or without concomitant radiation can result in impaired swallow or speech. Disorders of the swallow (dysphagia) can lead to lengthy or repetitive hospitalizations, a number of resulting illnesses such as pneumonia and a loss of the enjoyment of eating. Communication loss as a result of tongue weakness leads to dependency on others for care and emotional decline.
In addition to medical causes, tongue strength can also decline in the elderly. This age related tongue weakening can result in physical disease and reduced pleasure in eating
Dysphagia treatment may involve modification of the patient's diet to foods or liquid consistencies that are easier to swallow. Swallowing therapy incorporates exercises for strengthening and coordinating the swallowing muscles and stimulating the nerves that trigger the swallow to respond. The size, strength and power of the tongue are important components to safe swallowing of liquids as well as solid food.
Dysarthria is the loss of speech clarity due to weakness of the oral musculature.
Speech pathologists use speech sound drills and motor exercises to increase the strength of the tongue as well as the lips and palate. More specifically, exercises to increase the strength of the tongue, the range of movement and the speed of tongue movement are a large focus in this type of care.
Equipment and devices are available to exercise the tongue in the therapy setting but very few are available for patients to purchase for home exercise. An example of a tongue exercise clinical tool is the Iowa Oral Proficiency Instrument (IOPI), which is described in the article, Swallowing and Tongue Function Following Treatment For Oral and Oropharyngeal Cancer, by Lazarus, et al. 2000, Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research 43, 1011. The IOPI uses an air-filled bulb, which is connected by a hose to a manometer instrument. The free moving small balloon is placed on the patient's tongue and pressed by the patient against the hard palate. The instrument provides a digital quantitative score of tongue strength in kilopascals. It has a light display that can be set manually to a desired level and lights up as the air-pressured bulb is pressed. This light acts as visual feedback to motivate the patient to press with greater effort. The IOPI can be used to diagnostically measure tongue strength and to exercise the tongue but due to its cost it can only be used in direct care. Research has clearly supported the use of this device with such populations as the elderly who often experience age related tongue weakness leading to increased difficulty eating or drinking.
A similar oral exercise system used for swallowing and speech rehabilitation was described by Hewitt et al. in the article, Standardized Instrument for Lingual Pressure Measure, 2008, Dysphagia 23: 16-25. This tool is the Madison Oral Strengthening Therapeutic device (MOST). As presented, this device has a multi-sensor custom molded mouthpiece, which is connected to an electronic annunciator. The custom molded mouthpiece is placed in the patient's mouth and measures contact pressures between the tongue and the hard palate. As with the IOPI, MOST's cost preclude purchase or use by patients outside of research and direct care.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,050,961 reveals a system designed to address tongue weakness in the treatment of dysarthria and dysphagia. This tool utilizes a pair of planks and a pneumatic bulb positioned between the planks. The bulb is coupled to a meter that displays the strength and the duration of the force applied to the pneumatic bulb by the patient's tongue. Although this system provides feedback to the user, it is relatively complex, expensive, of limited durability as the bulb weakens or punctures and is not suited for regular use by the patient as part of an exercise regime.
The National Institutes of Health described a device to measure tongue strength termed the APLSILT. This instrument used a disposable tongue depressor mounted on a load cell held by a mechanism on an adjustable table. Only the tongue depressor was placed within the patient's mouth with the remaining portions of the mechanism being outside of the patient's mouth and supported by the table. This tool's availability is unknown but the complexity of this load cell device precludes its home use.
Robbins et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,238,145 and 7,438,667 B2 describes an oral-lever resistance exercise device, which was portable and simple in design. The device patented consists of two levers that fit in the mouth and are connected by a spring or pin joint. During exercise, the user compresses the levers between the tongue and hard palate. Springs or circular rubber belts similar to O-rings provide adjustable resistance but the hard palate adaptor must be custom-molded.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,376,912 B1 by Dedvukaj 2013 describes a facial muscle exercise ball-like device and method for toning the facial and/or jaw muscles. The device is placed in the mouth and held in place by the teeth. The resistance afforded by this device is available in various psi strengths. The resistance portion of the device is outside of the mouth. This device is designed for the face and the jaw. Swallowing with the mouth open is not recommended and strengthening of the tongue is not the goal with this device. Although affordable, there does not appear to be any feedback mechanism with this tool.
Methods or systems of providing resistance exercise vary. U.S. Pat. No. 8,425,385 B2 Resistance Therapy describes utilizing fluid contained bladders that communicate with each other so that compression of one bladder causes the fluid to be transferred to a neighboring bladder. This system is adjustable to provide different workout levels and uses both bladders for working complementary muscle groups. Resistance could be adjusted by the thickness of the bladder, by valve, by size of the bladders and by viscosity of the fluids. However, this system does not use indicators, graduations, or any feedback mechanism. Nor does this method use floating devices to increase or decrease the resistance of the exercise by increasing the weight or length of items in the fluid within the bladders.
The present invention, Tongue Press Oral Exerciser was developed out of response to a need for an affordable tool for speech therapy patients to use at home. Equally as important, the device was designed to provide an exercise that would compliment the goals of care and subsequently increase the speed of recovery. As important as affordability, the device was purposely constructed to be simple to operate by patients of all levels of ability. The exerciser was developed to be capable of providing visual feedback, varying levels of difficulty, specificity of activity and isotonic/isokinetic exercise. Lastly, the present invention was engineered to be easily manufactured to insure commercial availability to patients in need of improved swallowing and speech.


A method of soldering without the use of flux, wherein a plurality of solder bumps are deposited on a first surface and a plurality of solder pad locations are prepared on a second surface. The first and second surfaces are placed immediately adjacent to one another, placing each the plurality of solder bumps in the proximity of a corresponding solder pad location on the second surface. The first surface, the second surface and the solder are placed in a chamber which is evacuated to a low pressure. A plasma is excited within the chamber which heats the first and the second surfaces, thereby heating the plurality of solder bumps and the plurality of solder pad locations by heat conduction and reflowing the plurality of solder bumps on the first surface and on the plurality of solder pad locations on the second surface to form a plurality of solder bonds therebetween.

Soldering involves the physical and electrical connection of components or devices using a low melting point alloy. Examples of suitable alloys include tin-lead (approximately 60% -40% by weight) solder having a melting point of approximately 178 degrees Celsius (.degree.C.) and indium-lead (70% -30% by weight) solder having a liquidus temperature of approximately 174.degree. C., as well as many others. Such solders may be used to solder particular materials, for example, the indium-lead solder mentioned above is useful for soldering gold or gold plated components which are chemically and/or metallurgically attacked by tin-lead solders. Such gold or gold plated components may comprise gold bearing alloys such as, by way of example, eutectic alloys of gold-tin, gold-germanium, gold-silicon and other gold bearing materials as are well known in the art.
Soldering processes involve the basic steps of cleaning and de-oxidizing, solder reflowing and flux residue removal. Cleaning and de-oxidizing are usually accomplished by applying a flux material to remove contaminants and oxides from the surfaces to be soldered. Oxides typically have higher melting points than solder alloys and may form an insoluble barrier, preventing wetting of the surfaces to be soldered if the oxides are not removed prior to the solder reflowing. Solder reflowing joins the surfaces to be soldered when the solder is heated above its melting point. Residue removal involves stripping of flux residues left from the cleaning and de-oxidizing step and this becomes more difficult as the physical size of components to be soldered decreases. This is because it is more difficult for the residue cleaning agents to penetrate small gaps between the components and the substrate.
Hand soldering involves soldering each solder joint by hand, one at a time. This method also requires use of flux during soldering and subsequent flux removal after soldering. In hand soldering, components are subjected to localized heating which may affect the material in the component or substrate, depending on the time and temperature required in order to make the solder joint. The substrate and component are each subjected to a high temperature in a localized area. Because of the thermal mass of the component or area being soldered, the material in the area being soldered generally must be heated 20.degree.-40.degree. C. above the solder melting temperature, increasing the potential for damage. Hand soldering is labor intensive inasmuch as each soldered connection must be made sequentially. These limitations have led to intense development of alternative methods wherein multiple solder connections are effected by a single operation.
Examples of such methods include both wave soldering and vapor phase soldering. These techniques may be used to heat the solder (and the substrate on which the components are to be mounted) to the melting or the liquidus temperature of the solder. Both methods heat all components and the substrate to the soldering temperature and also require use of a flux. Thus, all components must be capable of withstanding the soldering temperatures and cannot be affected by either the flux or the cleaning solutions utilized to remove flux residues.
The cleaning solutions employed for flux removal pose environmental hazards on use and on disposal, may pose health hazards for workers, and may necessitate expensive apparatus for their use and for exhaust and effluent scrubbing. A further issue which use of some solvent cleaning methods raise is that of minimizing the risk of fire due to presence of flammable solvent vapors.
Another disadvantage of soldering methods wherein fluxes are included is that complete removal of residues from the flux is not possible. As a result of this, standards for specifying post-soldering flux criteria are directed to determining residual concentrations of flux which are acceptable for a given application.
Several fluxless soldering processes have been developed to replace the pre-soldering cleaning step and to eliminate need for post-soldering flux residue removal and the attendant need for and risks associated with solvent use. Among these processes are sputtering, fluorinated gas plasma use and use of oxygen and pure nitrogen plasmas. Sputtering is limited in accuracy and penetrates for only short distances. Also, sputtering may damage the substrates and components.
Fluorinated gas plasmas attack certain materials (e.g., glasses) and require exhaust scrubbing systems in order to meet environmental regulations. Oxygen plasmas are useable with gold eutectic solder alloys, but badly oxidize tin-lead solder. Pure nitrogen plasmas do not generally provide sufficient fluxing action to allow tin-lead solder to wet either the substrate or the components to be soldered. Also, solder reflow in fluorinated gas, oxygen or nitrogen plasmas is typically accomplished by conventional heat application from a heat source other than from the plasma itself (e.g., infrared heat sources, laser heating, et cetera).
An additional series of problems are encountered in attempting to solder a two-dimensional array of solder connections captive between two planar surfaces which are in close proximity to one another. There is difficulty in removing flux from between two planar, closely spaced surfaces. A further difficulty occurs in inspecting for complete flux removal after soldering without destructive physical analysis.
What is needed is a method for fluxless soldering obviating post-soldering flux removal, which does not require direct contact between the plasma and the surfaces to be solder joined, allowing solder connections to be formed which are shielded from the plasma. What is further needed is a method for fluxless soldering which does not pose environmental concerns, which allows a plurality of solder joints to be simultaneously established and which will not attack the components being soldered.

Plasma based soldering by indirect heating


High-strength Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 -based material with a narrow range spread of values for mechanical properties useful for producing thick-walled ceramic parts for internal combustion engines, thick-walled ceramic fittings or cutting tools is produced by molding a powder-form starting mixture comprising powdered Si.sub.3 N.sub.4, finely divided elemental silicon and sintering additives, and subsequently heat treating the mixture to obtain a sintered molding very near the theoretical density of the material.

Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 materials and parts are normally produced by mixing sinterable Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 starting powder characterized by high fineness and purity with sintering additives, such as MgO, Y.sub.2 O.sub.3, Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 and/or ZrO.sub.2, in concentrations of<15% by weight, molding the resulting mixture and subsequently densifying the molding by a heat treatment. The heat treatment may be carried out under atmospheric nitrogen pressure by sintering or axial hot pressing or under elevated gas pressure in N.sub.2 or a mixture of N.sub.2 and an inert gas by gas pressure sintering or hot isostatic pressing. The reaction of the sintering additives with the oxygen typically present in silicon nitride starting powders, in which it may be assumed to be present as SiO.sub.2 or Si.sub.2 N.sub.2 O, produces a liquid phase so that sintering mechanisms, such as rearrangements induced by capillary forces and solution-reprecipitation processes, can occur. These processes are promoted by oxidic impurities, such as alkali metals, alkaline earth metals, iron and other metal oxides, because they contribute towards formation of the liquid phase. After densification, the liquid phase remains in the material, generally as a glass-like secondary phase at grain boundaries and triple points, and adversely affects the properties of the material, above all at relatively high temperatures.
In addition to this adverse effect on the mechanical properties by the grain boundary phase, other impurities, such as elemental Si, metals or silicides, which melt at temperatures below the sintering temperature, can impair the mechanical properties because the spherical droplets formed during melting are no longer dissolved by the liquid phase. These droplets remain in the material as foreign particles after the solidification of the liquid phase and, because of their different thermal expansion and elastic properties by comparison with the matrix material, lead to stress concentrations which often act as failure-initiating defects (Evans, A. G.: Non-Destructive Failure Prediction in Ceramics, in: F. L. Riley (ed.) "Progress in Nitrogen Ceramics", Martinus Nijhoff Publ., Boston, 1983, pages 595 to 625).
Accordingly, since the strength of a material is reduced by such inclusions, a quality criterion for Si.sub.3 N.sub.4 powders is that their content both of metallic impurities and of free silicon should be as low as possible.
In addition to these particulate inclusions, large pores, voids or internal cracks, of which the causes can generally be attributed to inhomogeneities in the starting powder, granule defects or stresses in the moldings, act as failure-initiating defects and have a strength-reducing effect accompanied by an increase in the spread of the properties. In many cases, stress-induced cracks are formed on heating to the sintering temperature, being promoted by thermal gradients in the specimens.

Process for production of a Si.sub.3 N.sub.4, based material