A method is provided for protecting against and/or treating ulcerative gastrointestinal conditions, including anti-inflammatory drug-induced gastrointestinal ulcers, using a thromboxane A.sub.2 receptor antagonist. In addition, a combination is provided which includes a thromboxane A.sub.2 receptor antagonist and an anti-inflammatory agent which combination may be used to treat inflammatory conditions, such as arthritis, while inhibiting formation of and/or treating gastrointestinal ulcers.

Anti-inflammatory drugs, such as aspirin, indomethacin, ibuprofen, meclofenamate, naproxen, phenylbutazone, piroxicam and various corticosteroids are effective in treating or controlling pain, including headache, and in decreasing joint swelling, tenderness, pain and stiffness in conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis. Unfortunately, although such anti-inflammatory drugs are effective in treating pain and inflammatory conditions, they cause development of gastrointestinal ulcers thereby seriously limiting chronic use of these drugs.
It has now been found that when an anti-inflammatory drug is used in combination with a thromboxane A.sub.2 receptor antagonist, the anti-inflammatory drug is still effective in treating inflammation, while the thromboxane A.sub.2 receptor antagonist is effective in inhibiting and/or treating gastric erosion and/or gastrointestinal ulcers which may result from treatment with the anti-inflammatory drug. Thus, in effect, thromboxane A.sub.2 receptor antagonists are useful for the prevention and treatment of gastric and intestinal lesions in response to anti-inflammatory drugs.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,854 to Hall et al, discloses 7-oxabicycloheptane substituted oxa prostaglandin analogs having the structure ##STR1## wherein R is hydrogen, lower alkyl, alkali metal or trihydroxymethylaminomethane, R.sup.1 is lower alkyl, aryl, aralkyl, cycloalkyl or cycloalkylalkyl, R.sup.2 is hydrogen or lower alkyl, A is --CH.dbd.CH-- or --(CH.sub.2).sub.2 --, n is 1 to 4, and m is 1 to 8.
The Hall et al compounds are disclosed as being selective thromboxane A.sub.2 receptor antagonists and certain of these compounds are also thromboxane synthetase inhibitors or cyclooxygenase inhibitors, or anti-inflammatory agents in the manner of aspirin and indomethacin.
Mochizuki et al, "Thromboxane A.sub.2 Antagonistic Action of a New Anti-Ulcer Agent, Azuletil Sodium (KT1-32)," Scand. J. Gastroenterol 1989, 24 (suppl 162), 194-197 disclose that KT1-32 (sodium 3-ethyl-7-(1-methylethyl)-1-azulenesulfonate), a competitive TXA.sub.2 /PGH.sub.2 receptor antagonist "may be a promising drug for the treatment of peptic ulcers accompanied by hemorrhage (page 197)."

Method of protecting against and/or treating ulcerative gastrointestinal conditions using a thromboxane A.sub.2 receptor antagonist and combination useful in preventing and/or treating ulcers and/or inflammation


Method, system, and programs for calibrating battery pack voltage are disclosed. A negative terminal voltage of a cell is changed from a first to a second negative terminal voltage so that a cell voltage is changed from a first to a second output voltage. A positive terminal voltage of the cell is maintained at a substantially constant level. A differential-mode calibration parameter is calculated based on a difference between the first and second output voltages and a difference between the first and second negative terminal voltages. The negative terminal voltage of the cell is then changed from the first to second negative terminal voltage so that the positive terminal voltage of the cell is changed from a first to a second positive terminal voltage and the output voltage is changed from a third to a fourth output voltage. The cell voltage is maintained at a substantially constant value. A common-mode calibration parameter is calculated based on the differential-mode calibration parameter and a difference between the third and fourth output voltages and a difference between the first and second positive terminal voltages.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to a method and system for calibrating the voltage of a battery pack.
2. Discussion of Technical Background
A battery pack usually includes a plurality of cells connected in series for supplying electric power to electronic equipment, such as an electronic vehicle, portable computer, electronic camera, or the like. The battery pack is usually equipped with a voltage detection apparatus that detects the voltage of each cell for capacity calculation and protection of each cell. The detected cell voltage level may be a floating voltage, which is measured by taking across the positive and negative terminals of each battery cell. In some cases, it may be desirable to translate the floating cell voltage to a ground referenced voltage so that a ground-based A/D converter (ADC) can be used to measure the translated voltage accurately.
One conventional approach to translating the floating cell voltage to a ground referenced voltage utilizes a differential operational amplifier with four externally coupled resistors. However, for battery packs having two or more battery cells connected in series, this conventional approach requires the use of a high voltage operational amplifier to accommodate the relatively large potential difference between the inputs of the operational amplifier. A high voltage operational amplifier may have a supply voltage between about 10 volts and 40 volts and may have a larger common-mode gain and offset voltage errors compared with a low voltage operational amplifier having a supply voltage less than or equal to about 5 volts. These errors may then need to be corrected by balancing all four resistor values in a complex calibration process that may require making fine adjustments to at least one of the four resistors. Otherwise, since the offset voltage errors are related to common-mode voltages, all the cell terminals should be connected to a battery management system (BMS) in a given order for accurate voltage measure. However, it would raise the special requirement for the BMS assembly, which may increase the cost and bring the inconvenience to the customs.
Accordingly, there exists a need to provide an improved method and system for calibrating the voltage of the battery pack, which reduces voltage translation error and simplifies calibration process.

Method and system for calibrating battery pack voltage based on common-mode calibration parameter and differential-mode calibration parameter


The present invention relates to serine protease mutants of the chymotrypsin superfamily that are resistant to inhibition by their cognate inhibitors, and genes that encode the same. The present invention also relates to serine protease inhibitor mutants that inhibit the serine protease mutants of the present invention, and genes that encode the same. The serine protease, mutants and serine protease inhibitor mutants are useful as, e.g., pharmacological agents.

I. Serine Proteases
Serine proteases (E.C. 3.4.21) are the sub-sub class of endopeptidases that use serine as the nucleophile in peptide bond cleavage (Barrett, A. J., In: Proteinase Inhibitors, Ed. Barrett, A. J. et al, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pages 3-22 (1986); and Hartley, B. S., Ann. Rev. Biochem., 29:45-72 (1960)).
Serine proteases are well known in the art and two superfamilies of serine proteases, i.e., the chymotrypsin superfamily and the Streptomyces subtilisin superfamily, have been observed to date (Barrett, A. J., In: Proteinase Inhibitors, Ed. Barrett, A. J., et al, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pages 3-22 (1986); and James, M. N. G., In: Proteolysis and Physiological Regulation, Ed. Ribbons, D. W. et al, Academic Press, New York, pages 125-142 (1976)).
Examples of serine proteases of the chymotrypsin superfamily include tissue-type plasminogen activator (hereinafter "t-PA"), trypsin, trypsin-like protease, chymotrypsin, plasmin, elastase, urokinase (or urinary-type plasminogen activator (hereinafter "u-PA")), acrosin, activated protein C, Cl esterase, cathepsin G. chymase and proteases of the blood coagulation cascade including kallikrein, thrombin, and Factors VIIa, IXa, Xa, XIa and XIIa (Barrett, A. J., In: Proteinase Inhibitors, Ed. Barrett, A. J., et al, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pages 3-22 (1986); Strassburger, W. et al, FEBS Lett., 157:219-223 (1983); Dayhoff, M.o., Atlas of Protein Sequence and Structure, Vol. 5, National Biomedical Research Foundation, Silver Spring, Md. (1972); and Rosenberg, R. D. et al, Hosp. Prac., 21:131-137 (1986)).
Some of the serine proteases of the chymotrypsin superfamily, including t-PA, plasmin, u-PA and the proteases of the blood coagulation cascade, are large molecules that contain, in addition to the serine protease catalytic domain, other structural domains responsible in part for regulation of their activity (Barrett, A. J., In: Proteinase Inhibitors, Ed. Barrett, A. J., et al, Elsevier, Amsterdam, pages 3-22 (1986); Gerard, R. D. et al, Mol. Biol. Med., 3:449-457 (1986); and Blasi, F. et al, In: Human Genes and Diseases, Ed. Blasi, F., John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., pages 377-414 (1986)).
The catalytic domains of all of the serine proteases of the chymotrypsin superfamily have both sequence homology and structural homology. The sequence homology includes the total conservation of:
(i) the characteristic active site residues (e.g., Ser.sub.195, His.sub.57 and Asp.sub.102 in the case of trypsin); PA1 (ii) the oxyanion hole (e.g., Gly.sub.193, Asp.sub.194 in the case of trypsin); and PA1 (iii) the cysteine residues that form disulfide bridges in the structure (Hartley, B. S., Symp. Soc. Gen. Microbiol., 24:152-182 (1974)). PA1 (i) the common fold that consists of two Greek key structures (Richardson, J., Adv. Prot. Chem., 34:167-339 (1981)); PA1 (iii) detailed preservation of the structure within the core of the molecule (Stroud, R. M., Sci. Am., 231:24-88 (1974)).
The structural homology includes:
(ii) a common disposition of catalytic residues; and
A comparison of the sequences of the members of the chymotrypsin superfamily reveals the presence of insertions or deletions of amino acids within the catalytic domains (see for example, FIG. 1). In all cases, these insertions or deletions map to the surface of the folded molecule and thus do not effect the basic structure of the molecule (Strassburger, W. et al, FEBS Lett., 157:219-223 (1983)).

Board of Regents of the University of Texas System


An apparatus to detect stations having duplicated addresses, the stations of the type connected in a computer communications network, the stations of the type capable of having an assigned address and having a list of addresses for comparison with a destination address field of a frame detected on the network is disclosed. The apparatus does a transmit self test, and sets a self indicator to "pass" in the event that the self test frame is received, and sets the self indicator to "timeout" in the event that a timeout occurs. The apparatus does a neighbor response test, and sets a neighbor indicator to "timeout" in the event that a timeout occurs, and sets the neighbor indicator to "pass" in the event that a received response frame indicates no destination address match, and sets the neighbor indicator to "fail" in the event that a received response frame indicates that a destination address match did occur. The apparatus tests both the self indicator and the neighbor indicator, and in response to the testing of the self indicator and the testing of the neighbor indicator sets a duplicate address indicator in one of three states, a first state of the three states indicating that there is no duplicate address detected, a second state of the three states indicating that there is a duplicate address, and the third state of the three states indicating an unknown condition.

Each station on a computer communications network has a unique address, referred to as "my address", or MA. (Hereinafter quote marks ". . . " will be used to set off variable names, and in some instances, a value assigned to a variable in order to clarify the presentation. Also, in order to clarify the presentation, variable names, and sometimes their values are capitalized. Quote marks and capitalization are also used to set off compound nouns.) Also, many stations have a list of address for various purposes. In the event that two stations have the same address, the operation of the network may be destroyed through a failure mode. Also, if one station has an inappropriate entry in a list of the address of stations on the network, the operation of the network also may be destroyed through a failure mode. Failure modes are discussed more fully in the Appendix hereinbelow, and also some of the specific failure modes possible in the Fiber Distributed Data Interface, FDDI, type of communications token ring network are disclosed in the Appendix.
As an example, the "Ringop/Claim Oscillation" failure mode occurs in systems using source address stripping, and may paralyze the communications system. In order to describe the Ringop/Claim Oscillation failure mode several points must be made: 1, a station strips its own frames from a logical ring communications system by comparing the source address field of the frame with its own station address; 2, a station having an address duplicating the address of the transmitting station inappropriately strips from the ring the frames created by the transmitting station; 3, stations lying between the duplicate address station and the transmitting station will receive no frames for the time period that the transmitting station transmits; 4, each station has a timer, referred to as the TVX timer, which causes the station to reinitalize the ring in the event that the station does not receive frames or tokens within the timing interval of the TVX timer; 5, in the event that the transmitting station transmits frames for a time period exceeding the timing interval of the TVX timer, the downstream stations from the duplicate address station will timeout their TVX timers and consequently reinitalize the communications ring. That is, the ring will unexpectedly be reinitalized as a result of source address stripping by a duplicate address station.
A number of tests have been devised to test a computer network for the presence of duplicate station addresses. One such test used in ring configured communications networks is the "Transmit Self Test", and consists of having a station transmit a frame to itself. This test relies on the fact that the ring uses source address stripping to strip frames from the ring. If the frame circumnavigates the ring, then the ring passes the test, and it is assumed that no address duplicating the station's address exists on the ring. If a duplicate address did exist on the ring, it is assumed that the station having the duplicate address would have stripped the frame from the ring because the ring uses source address stripping. However, there are several conditions where this test can give either a missed detection of a duplicate address existing on the ring, or a false alarm that there is a duplicate address. For example, if one station on the ring is broken and simply does not repeat frames correctly the test will fail, and thereby give a false alarm of the existence of a duplicate address of the transmitting station. Also, there is no positive indication of a duplicate address, only a timeout condition of the station transmitting a frame to itself.
A second test used for testing a communications ring for a duplicate address involves two stations, and is called the "Neighbor Response Test". In the Neighbor Response Test an initiating station transmits an inquiry frame with the broadcast destination address and its own address as the source address of the frame. The first station to receive the inquiry frame then transmits a response frame. The response frame has its destination address field containing the address of the initiating station. The first station to receive the inquiry frame is the downstream nearest neighbor of the initiating station. The response frame is then detected and repeated by each intervening station until the response frame reaches the initiating station. The test is based on the fact that as a station detects and repeats a frame, it checks the destination address of the frame against a list of addresses held within the station for frame reception decisions. When the response frame reaches the initiating station, the initiating station checks the indicator bit in order to determine if the indicator bit shows that the initiating station's address was detected in any of the repeating stations. In the event that the indicator bit is "set" when the response frame is received by the initiating station, the ring network fails the test, and it is assumed that the initiating station has its addresses duplicated in one of the repeating stations. However, there are several conditions where the Neighbor Response test can give a false alarm indicating the presence of a duplicate address when there is none, and can also give a missed detection indication that there is no duplicate address of the initiating station on the ring when there is one. A missed detection indication that the ring is clear of duplicate addresses is given by this test when the duplicate address is in a list in a station, where the list is used to source frames such as in a bridge forwarding list, because the destination address of the frame is not tested against such a list; stated succinctly, the initiating station's address is not in the "receive destination address set", also referred to as the "receive DA set", but is used by the duplicate station to strip. A false alarm indication that there is a duplicate address is given by this test in the event that the source address of the frame is in a receive destination address set in the station, but the station does not use this list to transmit frames onto the ring.
No satisfactory test for the presence of duplicate addresses on a ring communications network for computers is available to overcome the false indications that the present tests give.

Testing a communications network for duplicate station addresses


An Access System can provide identity management and/or access management services. Examples of access management services include authentication and authorization services. In some implementations, users of an Access System want to use the authorization services of the Access System but do not want to use the authentication services of the Access System. The present invention allows some or all of the resources protected by the Access System to use the authentication services of the Access System and some or all of the resources protected by the Access System to use external authentication services.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to providing authorization services with external authentication.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the impact of the Internet continues to alter the economic landscape, companies are experiencing a fundamental shift in how they do business. Business processes involve complex interactions between companies and their customers, suppliers, partners, and employees. For example, businesses interact constantly with their customers—often other businesses—to provide information on product specification and availability. Businesses also interact with vendors and suppliers in placing orders and obtaining payments. Businesses must also make a wide array of information and services available to their employee populations, generating further interactions. To meet the new challenges and leverage opportunities, while reducing their overall cost-of-interactions, many organizations are migrating to network-based business processes and models. Among the most important of these is Internet-based E-business.
To effectively migrate their complex interactions to an Internet-based E-business environment, organizations must contend with a wide array of challenges and issues. For example, businesses need to securely provide access to business applications and content for users they deem authorized. This implies that businesses need to be confident that unauthorized use is prevented.
To meet the needs of the E-business environment, products have been introduced that provide various E-business services. For example, some products provide authentication services, some provide authorization services, some provide identity management services, etc. Users have to configure these often disparate system to work together. The integration of these different systems is difficult and often unsuccessful. To remedy this problem, vendors offer integrated solutions that include multiple services in one package. For example, products are available that authenticate and authorize users to access various content.
While the integrated solutions have satisfied many E-businesses, there are some who want many of the services of an integrated solution, but wish to continue using a legacy authentication system.

Authorization services with external authentication


A vision-testing device for examining the crepuscular vision, which has several visual signs which can be placed at random into the beam path, and a glare light source, all in a closed housing. The device has in extension of the axis of the eye a partially transparent mirror inclined with respect to the axis of the eye and a refractive element. The vision-testing device is compact, light and robust in design and enables a testing of the crepuscular visual acuity and the dazzle sensitivity. The refractive element consists of an achromatic lens inserted into the beam path, and covering the visual range of both eyes or a concentrating reflector, at the focal point of which is provided the visual sign location. The carrier for the visual signs to be located at the visual sign location can be arranged movably such that any of the multiple visual signs placed on the carrier can be moved into the beam path. A filter can also be swung into and out of the beam path between the light source and the visual sign location. The glare light source is arranged stationarily next to the transilluminated visual sign location. One or several diaphragms with varying diaphragm openings are provided above the visual sign carrier, which diaphragms can be moved selectively into the beam path.

A vision-testing device of the above-identified type, which is used to examine the crepuscular visual acuity and glare sensitivity, is known from the DE-C-30 03 588. A screen is used in this vision-testing device for examining the crepuscular vision and the dazzle sensitivity, which screen is illuminated by two projectors simultaneously, whereby in the beam path of the one projector there is arranged a visual optotype and the light intensities of both projectors are coupled with one another such that the light intensity of the one projector increases in the same manner as the one of the other projector decreases. This known vision-testing device, which is a clear-vision device, is expensive to make, demands four projectors and many adjustable mirrors in order to create the desired visual sign. This relatively complicated device requires also a large housing and a relatively heavy construction thereby making its transporting ability is limited.
Furthermore vision-testing devices are known from the DE-A 24 09 747 and the DE-A 2 321 570 and have a closed housing, however, do not guarantee clear vision. Moreover these devices demand that a pair of lenses be arranged in front of each eye, which pair of lenses must be very precisely focused so that the visual sign is viewed as a unit and a jump or a shift in the visual sign does not occur. Such devices are, on the one hand, complicated to adjust and are moreover also sensitive to impact so that their transporting ability is limited. It is known from these references to arrange the visual signs on a disk-shaped carrier, which is transilluminated by a light source.
The basic purpose of the invention is to provide a vision-testing device of the above-identified type in such a manner that same is, on the one hand, compact and light and furthermore robust in design, which permits a testing of the crepuscular visual acuity and the dazzle sensitivity, and in addition as a variation to determine the daytime visual acuity or stepped vision values under crepuscular conditions. A further purpose of the invention is to provide a vision-testing device in such a manner that it can be computer-controlled operated and thus the testing input can be significantly reduced.


A sewing machine capable of embroidery stitching with a label print function. A label printing mechanism is provided for printing on a tape-shaped label, and a ROM card storing a number of stitching designs is detachably mounted on the sewing machine. The sewing machine prepares print data from the stitching data of a stitching design selected from the stitching designs stored in the ROM card, and prints on the label using the label printing mechanism. A character sequence formed of character designs can be printed as descriptive information regarding stitches. Various designs read by an image scanner can also be printed.

1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to a sewing machine with a function of printing information regarding stitches onto a label.
2. Description of Related Art
Electronic-controlled sewing machines have been developed for practical use, in which stitch data regarding a plurality of stitch designs (stitching designs), normally including character designs, object designs and the like, is stored, in correspondence to a number assigned to each stitch design, into a non-volatile memory, such as an internal ROM or an external ROM and the like, provided in a control device. Thus, it is possible to form a stitch design selected by operating a design select key. While such a selected design is produced permanently in a cloth in the form of stitches, the selected design is temporarily displayed in a display of the sewing machine and erased from the display after the stitching operation. The designs formed as described above include, for example, object designs stitch-embroidered as one-point marks, character designs composed of character sequences representing person's names, brand names and the like, and practical-use designs, such as straight patterns, zigzag patterns and the like.
Although such conventional sewing machines are equipped with an indicating device, such as a display, they are not equipped with a printing device that prints and outputs stitching designs or character sequences or the like in relation to stitching designs. Therefore, the conventional sewing machines are unable to print and output stitching designs or character sequences or the like in relation to stitching designs by exploiting the large amounts of information stored or input for producing the stitching designs.
More specifically, if a stitching design is input, a conventional sewing machine merely produces the stitching design in a cloth, leaving a recording operation for an operating person to perform. To record which stitching designs have been completed, the operator needs to take the time to write the designs or character sequences on slips of paper or other recording media to indicate the contents of stitching. Moreover, in a case where a stitched cloth (product) is packed in an opaque paper sheet or bag, so that the product inside cannot be seen from outside, it often becomes necessary to hand-write on a surface of the package the design or character sequence that indicates the content of stitching design of the product inside the package. Further, in many households, a sewing machine is often used to embroider a child's belongings, such as clothes or handkerchiefs, with the child's name or initials. However, for non-clothing articles that cannot be stitched, the child's name or initials must be written by hand.

Sewing machine with a label print function


A process for producing a flexible vulcanized joint between two electric power cables includes the steps of: producing an exposed conductor joint between each end of the two cable ends to be joined; producing an inner semi-conducting layer thereby radially surrounding and covering the exposed conductor joint; winding an insulation tape including an organic peroxide around the inner semi-conducting layer thereby radially surrounding and covering the inner semi-conducting layer; curing the insulation tape to produce an insulation layer; and producing an outer semi-conducting layer thereby radially surrounding and covering the insulation layer. The step of winding the insulation tape around the inner semi-conductor layer is performed under an oxygen-free atmosphere. The present invention also provides a flexible vulcanized joint produced by this process, and an electric power cable including such a joint.

Electric power cables are used to transmit electric power at a medium or high voltage. Different insulation materials can be used in power cable applications, including paper and oil, mass-impregnated cables and polymeric materials. Extruded power cables comprise normally a conductor and radially surrounding polymeric insulation system comprising at least two semi-conducting layers and one insulation layer comprising polymeric material. Electric power cables may be buried into the ground whereby they are called land cables. The electric power cables may also be buried into a sea bed or they may extend between two fixing points in sea water and cables of this type are called submarine, sea water or underwater power cables. Areas where energy is on the one hand needed and on the other hand produced may be located at a long distance from each other, which increases a need for safe power transfer.
In order to meet the demands for safe power transfer, the insulation systems in the cables need to be of high quality to ensure correct electrical and mechanical behavior during the transmission of electric power. To electrically insulate the conductor, an insulation system including semi-conducting and insulating polymeric layers is arranged to surround the conductor. Unless the power cables are appropriately insulated, significant leakage currents will flow in the radial direction of the cables, from the conductor to the surrounding grounded screen. Such leakage currents give rise to significant power losses, as well as to heating of the electrical insulation. The heating of the insulation can further increase the leakage current due to the reduction of the resistance with the increasing temperature. To avoid power losses and possible thermal runaway, the leakage current should therefore be kept as small and stable as possible.
There are limitations to the length of cable that can be continuously manufactured. Therefore, in order to be able to transfer power over the large distances required, it is necessary to be able to safely and effectively join separate lengths of cable. When a cable has to be joined, or spliced, with another cable, all of the cable layers of one cable must be joined to the corresponding layers of the other cable. The present invention concerns in particular issues related to the cable insulation in such a cable joint.
A common type of electric power cable is a cross-linked polyethylene insulated cable, which is usually called XLPE cable for short. This type of cable has an insulation layer produced by extrusion of a low density polyethylene (LDPE) base polymer comprising an organic peroxide cross-linking agent. The extruded insulation layer is then subjected to high temperature and pressure curing conditions in order to homolytically cleave the organic peroxide, forming free radicals that facilitate cross-linking of the polyethylene, thus forming XLPE.
Cables may be joined using a variety of methods. Land cables are commonly joined using prefabricated joints, which are pre-molded devices to which the cable ends are connected. Submarine cables are commonly joined using sea joints, also known as factory joints or flexible vulcanized joints (FVJ).
When producing a flexible vulcanized joint, first of all the conductor ends are denuded of all external layers, commonly by tapering down the cable insulation system to form a conical shape with the exposed conductor protruding from the top of the cone. The conductors are then electrically and mechanically connected to each other, often by welding, soldering or brazing. Next, the electric insulation system is systematically restored. This is done by first restoring the inner semi-conducting layer by winding an extruded semi-conducting tape around the conductor, followed by melting and curing. Then, the insulation layer is restored by winding an extruded insulating tape around the newly produced inner semi-conducting layer, followed by melting and curing. Finally, the outer semi-conducting layer is restored by winding an extruded semiconducting tape around the newly produced insulation layer, followed by melting and curing. The goal is to recreate the cable in the joint by building it from the inside out and thus restore all layers of the cable in the joint.
It is essential that no impurities are incorporated into the insulation system during the production of the joint, since this could lead to impaired insulating properties, the incidence of stress points, and ultimately joint failure. Therefore, the layers of the insulation system are produced under clean conditions. Each step of winding the extruded tapes is performed in a glove box under a positive pressure of clean air to avoid contaminants. The partly-produced joint is then transferred to a vulcanization tube where it is cured using elevated temperatures under a nitrogen atmosphere.
However, despite the meticulous conditions used, joints prepared in this manner still have a higher leakage current than the extruded XLPE cables and therefore an increased risk for thermal runaway, and ultimately failure. Therefore, there is a need for a process that provides flexible vulcanized joints that have a higher robustness and stability.

Flexible vulcanized joint between two electric power cables and process for producing said joint


A turbine (5) having at least two sets of co-axially mounted, rotatable blades (10, 15) arranged so that one set cannot eclipse another. Preferably, the sets of blades (10, 15) are contra-rotatable. Each set of blades (10, 15) may be operable to extract similar amounts of energy, thereby to minimise the net reactive torque.

Diminishing oil reserves, Governmental incentives and increased awareness of environmental issues have seen a rise in the use and desirability of generating power from renewable energy sources such as wind, solar and hydro energy. However, whilst renewable energy sources often have advantages in terms of sustainability and environmental impact, in many cases they also suffer from disadvantages such as unpredictability in supply. For example, generating energy by harnessing wind or solar energy is limited to when the wind blows or the sun shines brightly. These situations are subject to a high degree of uncertainty, especially in time scales of the order of a week or greater. This leads to difficulties in maintaining a constant supply to the electricity grid and may lead to difficulties in scheduling power generation resources and the need for standby generation capacity.
In recent years, one of the most high profile forms of renewable energy has been wind power. Wind turbines are used to harness wind power to generate electricity. Wind turbines generally have two or more open blades, optimised for rotation by wind and mounted to a shaft that drives a generator via a gearbox. Typically, the blades are mounted high on a support. To obtain utility levels of power, several turbines are often grouped together. Thus, wind turbines used for power production on a large scale are generally large, visually intrusive structures and often located in areas of natural beauty. As such, wind turbine developments are often subject to objections by local residents, environmentalists and natural heritage groups.
Hydropower is another well-known form of renewable energy. This may be extracted via a range of technologies. These include the damming of rivers to allow a controlled release of the water through turbines and the use of tidal dams that allow water to flow through the dam via sluices during rising tides and stored water to flow through turbines during low tides. However, these methods suffer from a range of problems including high construction costs, a lack of suitable sites and adverse environmental impact due to the need for sizable structures and flooding of land.
Another form of hydropower is wave power. This may be harnessed by various means, including funneling devices that channel waves up into a chamber either driving a turbine directly or causing air flow that drives the turbine. Another approach is to deploy a multi-segmented floating structure that uses the relative movement between segments caused by waves to actuate a piston that drives a generator. These methods also suffer from drawbacks, including a low capture efficiency and exposure to potentially damaging storms and extreme sea conditions.
One promising means of hydropower extraction is through the use of water turbines. These are devices that utilise blades that are turned by water flow, for example in rivers or due to tidal currents. An advantage of this approach is that power generation equipment can often be submerged or sited out at sea, away from habitation to avoid visual impact. As such, movement of water in the form of tidal currents is an ideal and under-exploited source of renewable energy.
Conventional water turbine technology typically uses a turbine having a single rotor, each rotor having two or more blades, arranged so as to rotate under the action of water currents. The rotor may be open or enclosed within a cowl. Power take-off is generally by means of a shaft coupled to the rotor that drives a conventional generator. Alternately, the turbine can be used to pressurize a hydraulic fluid to drive a hydraulic motor that in turn operates an electrical generator. The speed of rotor shaft rotation may be controlled to the optimum generator speed by providing a gearbox between the rotor and the generator. Turbines may be hung below floating pontoons or be anchored to the sea floor or riverbeds.
Despite the advantages of using tidal and river power, there are some challenges that must be overcome in exploiting this energy source. As water is denser than air, water turbines generally tend to be slower turning and are subjected to higher torque than equivalent wind turbines. In order to operate a generator at an efficient speed, the rotational speed of the water turbine generally needs to be increased through the use of gearing. Due to the high torque, the required gearings are generally heavy and inefficient. In addition, they add excess weight and complexity to the system and require increased maintenance. Also, operation of conventional water turbines can create a turbulent downstream flow of water, akin to a wake from a boat. This can lead to a scouring of the sea floor or riverbed downstream of the turbine.
Maintenance of water turbines can also be problematic due to the detrimental effect of fouling caused by the growth of waterborne organisms on the system and the corrosive effect of salt water. These problems are compounded by the difficulty of turbine access. Installation and removal of these devices can also be problematic. Due to the high torques experienced by water turbines, firm securing means, such as piling, are generally used. These require a high degree of installation time, are costly and can have an adverse environmental impact. An alternative approach is to use a heavily weighted base. However, this is unsuitable for systems having a high reactive torque, which may result in movement of the turbine installation.
An object of the present invention is to provide a solution to at least one of the above problems.


Main line data as video data and low-resolution data obtained by lowering the resolution of the video data and the data amount thereof is recorded on an optical disk. The main line data and the low-resolution data are read from the optical disk. While the main line data and the low-resolution data are decoded, the main line data is detected for an error. If the main line data is found not having an error, then the decode result of the main line data is outputted. If the main line data is found having an error, then the decode result of the low-resolution data is outputted.

The present invention relates generally to a data processing apparatus for facilitating data error concealment.
Recently, recording media significantly enhanced in recording rate, such as optical disks and so on, are in practical use, realizing the long-time recording of video data with comparatively high picture quality.
However, as compared with audio data and text data, video data are huge in data volume, so that the processing of video data requires significantly much heavier load than that in the processing of audio data and text data, despite of the rapid enhancement in the recording rate of recording media.
In order to reduce the recording rate while restricting picture quality deterioration, a method is known in which video data is compressed by means of MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) encoding for example.
However, if video data is compressed by the MPEG encoding for example, the decoding of compressed video data sometimes takes much time.
To be more specific, in MPEG, a long GOP is sometimes employed as a GOP (Group Of Pictures). With a long GOP, the reproduction of a frame (or a field) sometimes requires to reproduce another long-GOP frame.
Because MPEG is required to decode another frame in order to decode a certain frame as described above, it is difficult to cope with errors, if any, in the data read from an optical disk, namely it is difficult to execute error concealment.
To be more specific, if a long GOP is employed, one GOP is formed by 15 frames, in order to decode a P-picture and a B picture in the frames forming this one GOP, an I-picture or a P-picture that is another frame must sometimes be required. Therefore, if an error occurs in an I-picture frame forming a long GOP, failing the decoding thereof, all frames forming this long GOP, namely 15 frames, may not be decoded. As a result, let the frame period be 1/30 second, then the video data cannot be outputted for as long as 0.5 (=15× 1/30) second.
Further, with a long GOP, the decoding of the B picture of a GOP may require the P-picture of a GOP one step before that GOP. Therefore, if the I-picture forming a GOP cannot be decoded due to an error, all frames of that GOP and some of the frames of the next GOP may not be decoded.
For this reason, when video data is encoded by MPEG and recorded to an optical disk, counter error measures such as enhancing error correction capabilities may be taken; however, it is still difficult for this approach to perform high redundant, complete error correction.
For the encoding within a frame other than a long GOP frame, error correction may be sometimes impossible.
To solve this problem, a method is proposed in which same video data is recorded in separate recording areas of an optical disk before hand and, if an error occurs on the video data recorded in one recording area, the failing error portion is replaced with the video data recorded in another recording area.
However, if an error occurs on the video data recorded in a particular recording area and the video data recorded in another recording area are read in replacement, a seek time, a rotational delay time, and a time for reading the video data are required, thereby making it difficult to reproduce the video data real-time.
Also, a method is proposed in which, if, in recording video data on an optical disk, an error occurs at a position on the optical disk due to the recording of pixels or blocks in a spatial or temporal proximity with each other to discontinuous positions on the optical disk, the video data in a frame is protected from total destruction by the error and the failing video data portion is interpolated with the error-free corresponding video data.
However, in this method, if an error occurs, a circuit dedicated to video data interpolation, namely a circuit dedicated to error concealment, is required, thereby enlarging equipment scale. In addition, this method involves the degradation in compression efficiency because pixels and blocks in a spatial or temporal proximity with each other are recorded to discontinuous positions on an optical disk.

Data processing apparatus having error concealment function


RF switches are known from the art for selecting an RF signal from a multiple of inputs. For instance a TV-tuner and TV-Front-end can have two or more antenna inputs but are implemented with a relative bad cost performance. The present invention relates to an RF selection switch circuit (200). The switch comprises a first switch (202), a second switch (204) with both an RF input port and a common RF output port a control signal circuitry (206). In a preferred embodiment the switches comprise pin-diodes. The RF output port comprises two transistors (T1, T2), one of which at a time can put the non-selected switch to a low-impedance level in order to minimize signal leakage the common output port.

RF switches are known from the art for selecting an RF signal from a multiple of inputs. For instance a TV-tuner and TV-Front-end that have two or more antenna inputs such as one for cable TV and one for terrestrial TV or one with provided with two cable TV inputs (A/B).
Two main solutions are known today for an RF switch, an electro-mechanical switch and an electronical switch. The electromechanical switch is bulky, relatively expensive (BOM), high voltage and current compared to electronics means. In the electronics solution, if good isolation is required (e.g., FCC requirement) more than one RF switch in cascade may be required in order to meet an isolation requirement.
In both the cases of RF switch, a control circuit is needed. FIG. 1 shows an example of a prior art electronical switch with a 2× diode RF switch cascaded with a MOSFET SPDT (Single Pole Double Throw) switch. An IC can implement a switching control circuit.
Examples of RF switches can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,400,735 (named "Multi-component video system controller", described by Stramello), U.S. Pat. No. 3,047,741 (named "Multiple channel electronic switching circuit" and described by Snow), U.S. Pat. No. 4,742,249 (named "RF switch with diode network and control latch sharing common element" and described by Alpaiwalla) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,650,199 (named "RF A/B switch with substantial isolation" described by Dobrovolny).
In an application where the RF module is connected to the two antenna inputs, for example cable and terrestrial inputs, certain isolation is needed to ensure that there is no undesired signal leaking through or cross interference between two inputs signal either when the device is power on or off. Beside the fitness for use, it is a regulatory requirement such as an FCC recommendation. The FCC require an isolation between two inputs as follows:
 54 MHz to 216 MHz80 dBmin216 MHz to 550 MHz60 dBmin550 MHz to 806 MHz55 dBmin
To meet the above requirement, relatively expensive and complicated RF switches have been deployed in the prior art. Beside the isolation requirement, a good RF switch should have as minimum insertion loss as possible to ensure the good sensitivity still visible.
The inventor proposes an alternative for the relative expensive and complicated switch, such as an existing RF switch solution used in the Philips' TUV1236D, namely the TUV1236D RF switch.

RF selection switch for multiple antenna input


An internal combustion engine includes combustion chambers, each having a controllable intake valve opening and closing an intake port, a controllable exhaust valve opening and closing an exhaust port, a piston displaceable back and forth in the combustion chamber between a top dead center and a bottom dead center, and a fuel injector. The engine further including an intake manifold connected to the intake port of each combustion chamber. The engine can be operated in a low load mode, wherein each combustion chamber is driven in four-stroke operation including a 720 crank angle degrees cycle, and opens the intake port during the exhaust stroke, the intake port starting to open in 610-690 CAD, closing the exhaust port during the exhaust stroke, becoming fully closed in 630-710 CAD, forcing exhaust gas into the intake manifold by the piston, and mixing fuel and exhaust gas in the intake manifold.

In internal combustion engines operated in four-stroke cycles, a mixture of air and fuel is provided into a combustion chamber, i.e. cylinder, during an intake stroke. The air-fuel mixture is compressed during a compression stroke, and in connection with the end of the compression stroke the air-fuel mixture is ignited, either by a spark plug or spontaneously due to the compression. The heat and energy released by the burning of the air-fuel mixture causes a further rise in pressure in the combustion chamber which is used to do work against a movable wall of the combustion chamber, i.e. the piston, which work is converted into rotational movement of a crank shaft attached to the piston via a piston rod, during a power stroke. The exhaust gas formed from the burning of the air-fuel mixture is then evacuated from the combustion chamber, during an exhaust stroke, and thereafter a new cycle begins. The cycles of the different combustion chambers of the internal combustion engine are offset in relation to each other.
With rising concerns of the environment and pollution caused by the exhaust gas from internal combustion engines there is a need to lower harmful emissions from internal combustion engines while at the same time maintaining or increasing the efficiency of conversion of the chemical energy in the fuel to kinetic energy of the crankshaft, thereto it is a need to decrease fuel consumption.
One known attempt to reduce emissions is to recirculate a part of the exhaust gas from the exhaust manifold of the internal combustion engine for mixing said recirculated exhaust gas with fresh air before introduction into the internal combustion engine, so-called external Exhaust Gas Recirculation.
Another known attempt to reduce emissions is to pre-condition the fuel in order to improve ignitability. Such a system, called internal Exhaust Gas Recirculation, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,305,364. In '364 the exhaust gas, due to a generated underpressure in the intake manifold, is sucked into the intake manifold during a prolonged intake valve and exhaust valve overlap period, during the exhaust stroke. According to '364 the fuel has to be injected during the valve overlap period entailing that fuel may escape through the open exhaust port.

Internal combustion engine and method for controlling such an internal combustion engine


In monitoring anomalies in a measurement process comprising a main measurement process Sa which performs a measurement by forward rotating a screw 3 having a back-flow prevention valve 2 installed on the tip and a post-measurement process which performs a post-measurement process Sb for closing said back-flow prevention valve 2 after this main measurement process Sa ends, after said post-measurement process Sb ends, an injection process Si wherein said screw 3 is put in a freely-rotatable state and moved forward is performed, the amount of rotation Rd of said screw 3 since the start of this injection process Si is detected, and if the detected amount of rotation Rd exceeds at least a preset amount Rs, an anomaly processing (S9) is performed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an anomaly monitoring method of an injection molding machine that can monitor anomaly in closing a back-flow prevention valve after performing measurements with a screw having a back-flow prevention valve installed.
2. Description of the Relevant Art
In general, an inline screw injection molding machine prevents back flow of molten resin at the time of injection by installing a back-flow prevention valve (ring valve) at the tip of the screw. In addition, a conventional practice in this kind of injection molding machine is to forcibly close the back-flow prevention valve by reverse rotating the screw by a tiny number of rotations (angle of rotation) after performing measurements by rotating (forward rotating) the screw.
For example, disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 11 (1999)-240052 is an operation method of an inline injection molding machine wherein the amount of measured molten mix-kneaded resin to be injected is prevented from varying the amount at the time of suck back or injection, reducing the scatter in the amount of filling. In this operation method, after finishing the measurement of molten mix-kneaded resin stored in the tip of a heating cylinder, the screw is rotated in reverse to move a check ring until it makes contact with a check sheet, closing a resin path formed between the check ring and the check sheet, and afterwards a suck-back process is performed.
On the other hand, in normal injection molding, because measured resin includes a cushion amount, the amount of filling can be supplemented by adding a dwell pressure even if the amount of resin or density may somewhat change, providing a good product in the case of a general-use product or a molded product for which precision is not strictly demanded. However, in recent years, a high level of molding precision has come to be demanded due to miniaturization and higher precision of molded products. For example, a narrow pitch connector of several millimeters in size needs to be formed only by a filling process with no dwell pressure added in order to prevent deformation of an inserted connector pin, and in a thin optical disk formed by injection compressed molding, because the amount of filled resin directly causes unevenness of the thickness of the disk, a constant amount of resin always needs to be supplied to a cavity. Therefore, in forming such a precision molded product, securing a precise amount of filling (amount of resin) is always required, important in securing a precise amount of filling whether a back-flow prevention valve is completely closed or not. If closure is incomplete, back flow of resin occurs, and even if such back flow is a tiny amount, it will immediately cause scatter in the amount of filling.
In this manner, in forming a precision molded product, it is important to precisely monitor the closed state of a back-flow prevention valve. An injection molding machine which can check such closed state of a back-flow prevention valve is disclosed known in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application No. 63 (1988)-227316, which comprises an injection molding machine equipped with a back-flow prevention valve at the screw tip inside a heating cylinder, constituted by providing a communication means inside the screw which communicates a position change accompanying the opening/closing of the back-flow prevention valve to the outside, and a position detection means in rear of the screw which detects the position change communicated by the communication means.
However, the conventional injection molding machines which monitor (checks) the closed state of the back-flow prevention valve had the following problems.
First, because its construction comprises a communication means which communicates the position change of the back-flow prevention valve to the outside and a position detection means which detects the position change communicated by the communication means, there are many mechanical communication mechanisms, which limit precision in detecting a tiny displacement of the back-flow prevention valve, making if impossible to perform highly reliable or stable monitoring of whether the back-flow prevention valve is completely closed or not.
Second, because it requires the communication means inside the screw and the position detection means in rear of the screw, its structure becomes intricate and complex, with significant cost increase and scale increase accompanying the parts cost and manufacturing cost.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Anomaly monitoring method of an injection molding machine


A charging fluid suctions module is provided for an internal combustion engine, comprising a housing forming a flow path for a gaseous charging fluid, particularly air, a gas, and/or an air/gas mixture. Whereby, a heat exchanger is disposed in the housing for the gaseous charging fluid. In order to allow for an improved exhaust gas return the housing comprise an inlet channel for an exhaust gas, and the inlet channel flows into the flow path downstream of the heat exchanger for the gaseous charging fluid.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a charging fluid intake module for an internal combustion engine with a housing that is configured to form a flow path for a gaseous charging fluid, wherein a heat exchanger for the gaseous charging fluid is arranged in the housing.
2. Description of the Background Art
A gaseous charging fluid intake module serves to supply the gaseous charging fluids needed for a combustion process in an internal combustion engine, in particular in the form of charge air or a charge air/gas mixture, which is preferably compressed.
In addition, concepts for charge air cooling serve, among other things, to reduce pollutants, in particular nitrogen oxides, in the exhaust gas. One such concept is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,143, for example, in which a heat exchanger in the form of an intercooler designed as a separate component is provided for cooling the charge air.
In addition, an especially space-saving variant can be implemented by the means that—as in the aforementioned charging fluid intake module—a heat exchanger for the gaseous charging fluid, in particular charge air, is arranged in the intake plenum. Such a charging fluid intake module is described in DE 10 2004 025 187 B3, for example.
In another, further-reaching concept, exhaust gas recirculation is carried out, as described in, e.g., US 2006/0060172, for purposes including reducing fuel consumption and reducing pollutants in an internal combustion engine, such as a diesel engine or a gasoline engine. In this process, an exhaust gas is regularly cooled by means of a separate, external heat exchanger in the form of an exhaust gas recirculator cooler. In so doing, and possibly as a function of the engine operating point, a partial stream of the exhaust gas is taken from behind the engine, cooled in a heat exchanger in the form of an exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) cooler, and then mixed into the intake air. The quantity of exhaust gas that can be recirculated depends on the pressure drop between the exhaust gas side and the intake side and on the operating behavior of the engine.
Thus a distinction is drawn between high pressure exhaust gas recirculation and low pressure exhaust gas recirculation, for example. In high pressure exhaust gas recirculation, exhaust gas recirculation takes place between pipe sections that are under comparatively high pressure, for example through an exhaust gas recirculation line that exits on the engine exhaust side ahead of an exhaust driven turbine and enters on the engine intake side after a compressor. In contrast to this, low pressure exhaust gas recirculation generally takes place through an exhaust gas recirculation line between pipe sections that are under comparatively low pressure, for example through an exhaust gas recirculation line that exits on the engine exhaust side after an exhaust driven turbine and enters on the engine intake side ahead of a compressor. The performance or throughput of an exhaust gas recirculation system is generally determined by the volume (quantity) of recirculated exhaust gas that can be delivered, and hence by the available pressure difference. In the case of a low pressure exhaust gas recirculation system, a pressure difference—also called a scavenging drop—at the compressor is the critical factor, and can be increased if necessary for an exhaust gas quantity recirculated through an EGR cooler. In the case of a high pressure exhaust gas recirculation system, only the pressure difference between an engine exhaust side and an engine intake side is typically available for the exhaust gas flow rate.
Thus, for example, in the case of a high pressure exhaust gas recirculation system, the admixture of an exhaust gas into a compressed charge air normally takes place in the section between an intake pipe and an intercooler, as is the case in DE 10 2004 025 187 B3, for instance.

Charging fluid intake module and internal combustion engine


In an aspect, a binder for a lithium battery electrode, a binder composition including the binder, and a lithium battery including the binder are provided. The binder may include a water-soluble electroconductive polymer having a carboxylate functional group.

1. Field
This disclosure relates to a binder for a lithium battery electrode, a binder composition including the binder, and a lithium battery including the binder.
2. Description of the Related Technology
Along with the trend toward small, light-weight, and high-performance portable devices, the demand for lithium batteries with a higher capacity and a longer lifetime is increasing. Accordingly, the development of materials and processes for achieving a high capacity for positive electrodes of lithium batteries is under investigation. For example, using an active material with a higher capacity, an electrode mixture with an increased density and a membrane with an increased thickness have been suggested for higher-capacity batteries. With regard to negative electrodes, research to replace existing graphite-based active materials with a high-capacity material, such as silicon, a silicon-silicon oxide composite material, a silicon-graphite composite material, a tin (Sn)-based material, or an alloy thereof has been undertaken.
To improve the capacity, lifetime, and stability of lithium batteries, other materials for lithium batteries, including an electrolyte, a separator, and a binder, are also being actively researched.

Binder for electrode of lithium battery, binder composition including the binder, and lithium battery containing the binder


The present disclosure is directed to an optical device including at least one temperature-dependent tunable element for controlling a wavelength of an optical signal, a first temperature control circuit for controlling a temperature of a first region of the optical device; and a second temperature control circuit for controlling a temperature of a second region of the optical device. The second region may include a portion of the first region. The second region may be smaller than the first region. The tunable element may be positioned in the second region such that a temperature of the tunable element is controlled based on the second temperature control circuit controlling the temperature of the second region. The tunable element may be one of (i) a laser for transmitting an outgoing optical signal and (ii) an optical filter coupled to a photodetector for receiving an incoming optical signal.

In optical transmission systems, cables, such as fiber-optic cables, are used to transmit information. In some systems, the cables extend from an optical line terminal ("OLT") or other optical device to one or more optical network units ("ONUs"). Optical signals of a certain group of wavelengths are transmitted (upstream signal) from the optical device to the ONUs. Additionally, optical signals of a certain group of wavelengths, which may be different from the group of wavelengths of the transmitted optical signals, are received (downstream signal) from the ONUs at the optical device.
In order for the optical device to transmit or receive at a desired wavelength from among the group of wavelengths, the device must be tuned. For an upstream signal, the signal generator (e.g., laser) of the device may be tunable to provide what is effectively a "pre-filtered" signal. Alternatively, the laser may transmit an optical signal to a destination ONU with an optical transmission made up of multiple wavelengths (with minimal or no filtering applied), and the optical signal can be filtered from the transmission at the destination ONU. Similarly, the ONU may transmit a multiple-wavelength optical signal to the optical device, and the signal can be filtered at the optical device. In order to filter such a signal, a tunable optical filter may be provided. To accommodate for transmitting and receiving both "pre-filtered" and non-"pre-filtered" optical signals, the optical device may include either or both of a laser and optical filter that can be tuned to a frequency that corresponds to the desired wavelength. Conventionally, this tuning is performed by changing the temperature of the laser/optical filter. Thus, tuning at the optical device may be performed using a temperature dependent tunable element.
As passive optical networks (PONs) become increasingly faster, it becomes increasingly more important for the tunable element to be tuned at a high speed. At the same time, while it is important to be able to tune the tunable element at a high speed, it is also necessary for the tuning to be precise and accurate in order to minimize attenuation of the desired downstream or upstream signal (e.g., as it passes through the cable or filter). In other words, it is desirable to both rapidly and precisely change a temperature of the tunable element. It is further desirable for the optical device to have a relatively compact size, and to minimize the cost of the temperature control components, as well as the cost of their installation.
It is generally known that a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) may be used to stabilize the temperature of an optical device in order to stabilize the wavelength of the upstream or filtered downstream optical signal. However, the TEC changes the temperature of the device at a relatively slow rate. The TEC would need to be able to change the temperature of the tunable element at a faster rate in order to be a suitable tuning mechanism.
In the case of a laser that is operated in burst-mode, it is also generally known that a heater may be used to stabilize the temperature of the laser, thereby stabilizing the wavelength of the light emitted from the laser. Without temperature stabilization achieved by the heater, the wavelength of light emitted from the laser could drift due to temperature fluctuations in the laser caused by the abrupt transitions between on (emitting light) and off (not emitting light) modes. Generally, the heater is used to keep the laser warm while it is off so that there is no temperature fluctuation when the laser is turned on. However, operating the heater in an efficient manner is challenging. It is only necessary for the laser to be kept warm just before it is turned on; therefore, it is not necessary to operate the heater the entire time the laser is off. But because of the unpredictable nature of status transitions when operating the laser in burst-mode, it is not known when the laser will turn on. Additionally, the amount of time for which the laser is off varies from cycle to cycle, making the amount of time and energy needed to warm the laser inconsistent as well.

Temperature control of an optical device


The present invention provides loosely-coupled cluster systems comprising a plurality of servers based on storage attached to the plurality of servers. Videos, or other assets, are automatically replicated within the server system to increase the number of concurrent play requests serviceable. The server systems can detect spikes in demand that may exceed the guaranteed number of concurrent play requests serviceable and dynamically transfer the high-in-demand or ‘hot’ asset to servers in the cluster that do not have the video. Alternatively, instead of transferring the entire asset, varying length prefixes of the asset may be transferred depending on the availability of resources. The remainder of the asset is transferred in some embodiments on demand with sufficient buffering or other storage to guarantee playback to the user or subscriber according to the required quality of service (QOS).

In order to deliver (or stream) real-time or time-based data from a server system to an end-user system, a number of system resources must be tightly managed. Typically, a video server system comprises video server hardware and software while an end-user system refers to a set-top box and TV, Personal Computer (PC), or other user device. Resources that must be tightly managed include Input/Output (I/O) resources such as disk drive (or other storage media) space and disk drive (or other storage media) bandwidth, CPU resources, memory, and network bandwidth.
Real-time and/or time-based media streaming, such as video streaming or video-on-demand (for example, movie, music, or other multi-media on-demand on a settop-box or other device connected to a television set or other receiver) is an extremely cost-sensitive business. Because of the bandwidth required to deliver a high quality video stream (typically 3 to 8 Megabits/second/user), these applications place tremendous load on the video server's memory, disk (or other storage media) and network subsystems. When such an application scales from serving a few users (for example, tens to hundreds) to very large numbers of users (for example hundreds of thousands or millions), the total solution cost, using today's technologies become cost-prohibitive. Business economics for example may initially benefit from a small low cost system that can service a limited number of users or subscribers. As the number of users or subscribers grows the initial system is augmented to add additional capacity. Desirably the initial system is retained and the initial system architecture is retained and scaled to serve the larger set of users.
Typical video-on-demand deployments start small and grow. A small server system capable of serving a few hundred users eventually must become part of a larger system that serves hundreds of thousands. Heretofore, there have generally been two approaches that have been taken to address this system size or system capacity scaling problem: (1) Deployment and use of tightly-coupled multiprocessor systems delivering a large number of streams, and (2) Loosely coupled clusters that are composed of small, off-the-shelf computers, but connected using standard computer networks.
Examples of these types of configuration are described relative to FIG. 1 and FIG. 2. With reference to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a portion of one embodiment of a tightly-coupled multiprocessor system, server 50, delivering a large number of streams. Server 50 has the capacity for a large number of processors, usually embodied as processor boards. Accordingly, server 50 comprises a plurality of slots, such as slots 60, 62, 64, 66, and 68. In one embodiment, server 50 has 256 slots, and is therefore capable of comprising 256 processor boards. Typically, server 50 begins service with a few processor boards, such as boards 70, 72, and 74, and boards are added as the system grows. Such a system tends to be very costly and does not usually meet the strict cost constraints placed by business. There is also the potential for failure of one board, such as processor board 72, to cause total failure of server 50. Further, as the system grows, the cost of computational power decreases, and the processor boards required to update the system may be outdated by the time a system administrator is prepared to grow the server system.
Examples of the loosely coupled clusters that are composed of small, off-the-shelf computers, but connected using standard network may for example use Gigabit Ethernet or Fiberchannel networking and use software to manage the collection of systems as a single entity capable of meeting some scalability and quality of service requirements. An exemplary system according to this loosely coupled cluster concept is illustrated in FIG. 2. FIG. 2 depicts servers 80 and 82 operating together as a cluster, receiving requests from load balancer 79 (a Layer 4 switch). Servers 80 and 82 each have access to all assets—including asset 86, asset 88, and asset 90 through fiber-channel switch 84. The shared storage includes additional components—fiber-channel switches, switch adapters, disks that are fiber-channel capable, etc. All are additional cost components and add complexity to the scalability of the network.
In addition, the shared storage cluster shown in FIG. 2 does not solve the resource management problem. For example, a video stored on a disk attached to a shared fiber channel switch still has its limitations on the amount of bandwidth available from the disk or through a fiber channel link. Thus, if a particular asset, or video, becomes in high-demand or is "hot" (where a lot of subscribers are requesting the video simultaneously and exceeding any disk's capacity to serve it or any one server's capacity in terms of disk or network bandwidth, to serve it), additional mechanisms are required to handle it. Many conventional systems attempt to copy high-demand or 'hot' assets onto switch memory or server physical memory 84 for faster access. However, these schemes fail beyond a certain size file or asset, as the system resource requirements become prohibitive for large video files.
Further, conventional load balancing handles requests from client devices and spreads them across to various servers to effectively balance network bandwidth as well as connection overheads (usually in software). However, the present solutions fail to take into account the I/O problem—the problem that happens at the I/O subsystem where contention for a video file or for storage system video file retrieval bandwidth causes the disk subsystem to run out of resources.
This input/output problem is endemic to any time-based media (such as audio and video) and real-time content delivery, and is especially true for "high-quality" or "high-value" video content. For example, a typical movie for a movie-on-demand application generally needs to be delivered at 4 Mbps to 8 Mbps today and up to 20 Mbps for a high-definition (HD) system and over a period of 90 to 120 minutes. For such an application, continued availability of resources—such as disk or other storage subsystem bandwidth, memory, network bandwidth, and CPU resources—over a long period of time is required to deliver a video service. Customers simply will not subscribe to a paid service to see a full length movie at lower than broadcast quality and may not even be inclined to subscribe unless the movie is the quality of a DVD or equivalent movie.
This is in contrast to existing load balancing/cluster systems for solving computational problems or data delivery problems (such as serving web pages from a server cluster at an aggregation site). Computational clusters usually tax the disk subsystems very little whereas data clusters for non-time-based data (such as graphics images or web pages) tax the disk subsystem, but they do not have real-time delivery semantics associated with them. For example, users will generally tolerate parts of a web-page loading slowly whereas breakups in audio and video are considered less tolerable or intolerable. Subscribers simply will not subscribe to a video (movie) delivery service where the play is broken or erratic in time, or the required frame-rates (typically 24 or 30 frames/second) cannot be maintained.
A single copy of a video on a server's disk subsystem can only service a certain number of concurrent play requests. This number is typically limited to by the hard disk's bandwidth. For example, if a disk provides 30 Megabytes of bandwidth for read/write access, it implies that it can support delivery of videos encoded at 5 Megabits/second to 48 users concurrently ((30 Megabytes×8 bits/byte)/5 Megabits/second=48 per second). Striping techniques, where a file system is built on top of a number of such disks, increase the number of concurrent users. However, there is an upper limit to the number of concurrent users the subsystem can server. When a video (or other content) becomes "popular", more copies of that video need to be provided to increase the concurrent number of plays available given the disk drive bandwidth. (Note that this disk drive bandwidth requirement is entirely different from disk drive storage capacity.) If the relative popularity of the video is known, a predetermined number of copies can be provided. However, dynamic spikes in interest or demand for a particular video movie or other real-time deliverable video content item may occur in a real-time streaming system.
Accordingly, there is a need in this art for a scalable server system, method, architecture, and topology that is able to cost-effectively, timely, and easily increase the number of users serviceable. Such a system should be viable for time-based media delivery, including streaming of broadcast, DVD, and HD movie quality video.
There is a further need in this art for a server system, method, architecture, and topology capable of managing system resources and load balancing to effectively provide real-time asset streaming, including streaming of broadcast and DVD movie quality video assets. Management of resources would extend to disk management, CPU management, memory management, and network bandwidth management.
There is still a further need in this art for a server system, method, architecture, and topology capable of dynamically adjusting to content delivery service demand in a real-time system. That is, a server system capable of automatically and dynamically increasing its capacity for playing out a specific asset, such as a specific video movie, when demand for that asset increases.

System and method for highly-scalable real-time and time-based data delivery using server clusters


A surface acoustic wave filter includes a device chip, one principal surface of a piezoelectric substrate having a wiring pattern including IDTs and pads electrically connected to the IDTs, that is disposed so as to oppose a mount board, with the pads being electrically connected to lands of the mount board through bumps. A resin film covers the other principal surface of the piezoelectric substrate and the principal surface of the mount board to seal the device chip. In the piezoelectric substrate, the area of the one principal surface is greater than the area of the other principal surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a surface acoustic wave filter and a method of producing the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
As with conventionally used large scale integrations (LSIs), various packages having external dimensions that are approximately the same as those of chip size packages (CSPs) have been used for surface acoustic wave filters, that is, device chips have been provided.
For example, a surface acoustic wave filter 1 shown in cross-section in FIG. 1A includes a device chip 10x mounted to a mount board 2 having an external terminal (not shown) by a flip chip pound mounting method. The device chip 10x is sealed with a resin film 6 such that a space is provided at a vibratory portion (surface acoustic wave propagation portion) of the device chip 10x. The device chip 10x includes a wiring pattern provided on one surface 11a of a piezoelectric substrate 11x which includes, for example, pads 16 and comb electrodes (IDTs) 14. Lands 3, which are metallic portions electrically connected to the external terminal of the mount board 2, and the pads 16 of the device chip 10x are electrically connected through bumps 4, such as metallic bumps including Au bumps or solder bumps.
The surface acoustic wave filter sealed by the resin film 6 in this manner is typically fabricated by a heat press method as shown in FIG. 2. More specifically, after mounting a plurality of device chips 10x to one board aggregate 2x by the flip chip pound mounting method, the device chips 10x are covered with the resin film 6. While heating the resin film 6, the resin film 6 is pressed in the direction of arrows 9 with a hot press 8 or by roll lamination. The resin film 6 softened by heat is pressed in contact with the mount board 2x at spaces between the device chips 10x that are adjacent to each other, and the device chips 10x are embedded in the resin film 6. By simultaneously dicing portions of the aggregate board 2x and portions of the resin film 6 between the adjacent device chips 10x, packages are severed into individual packages (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-17979 (Patent Document 1) and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-32061 (Patent Document 2).
However, when the resin film 6 is pressed with the hot press 8 or by roll lamination, air enters between the resin film 6 and peripheral surfaces 12x extending between a pair of principal surfaces of each piezoelectric substrate 11x. As a result, large voids 6x are formed near portions at which the resin film 6 is in close contact with the board aggregate 2x, that is, the mount board 2.
More specifically, since the peripheral surfaces 12x of each piezoelectric substrate 11x are perpendicular to the pair of principal surfaces, at the initial stage of heat pressing the resin film 6, the resin film 6 is separated from the peripheral surfaces 12x of each piezoelectric substrate 11x. As a result, as shown in FIG. 1B, the voids 6x are formed due to air entering the corners or longer sides of each rectangular piezoelectric substrate 11x.
When such large voids 6x are formed, the sealing width of the surface acoustic wave filter 1 (that is, the size of a portion at which the film 6 and the mount board 2 are in close contact between the outside and the internal space of the surface acoustic wave filter 1) is reduced. Therefore, the surface acoustic wave filter 1 is less reliable, particularly in terms of moisture resistance.

Surface acoustic wave filter and method of producing the same


A magnetic relay device having a substrate of semiconductor material houses two through magnetic vias of electrically conductive ferromagnetic material. At least one coil is arranged underneath a first surface of the substrate in proximity of at least one between the first and second magnetic vias, and a contact structure, of ferromagnetic material, is arranged over a second surface of the substrate and is controlled by the magnetic field generated by the coil so as to switch between an open position, wherein the contact structure electrically disconnects the first and second magnetic vias, and a close position, wherein the contact structure electrically connects the first and second magnetic vias.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a magnetic relay device made using MEMS (microelectromechanical systems) or NEMS (nanoelectricalmechanical systems) technology.
2. Detailed Description
As is known, relays are traditionally used as switches in power circuits, for example for controlling actuators and DC electric motors, due to their capacity for carrying and interrupting high electric currents.
For example, relays are used in applications requiring a very high resistance in an open condition (e.g., a resistance of the order of megaohms) and a very low resistance in the closed condition (e.g., a resistance of tens of microohms).
Traditional relays, such as reed relays and the like, are, however, very cumbersome, to the point of being at times much bulkier than the devices to be controlled.
This dimension relationship is becoming increasingly more evident, given the trend towards miniaturization of control and driving devices and, at times, of the utilizers.
In the last few years, integrated relays have thus been proposed that have dimensions comparable to those of integrated circuits and may be directly connected to logic devices. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,320,145 discloses a magnetostatic relay or switch obtained using the MEMS manufacturing technique and having a beam extending as a cantilever above a substrate. The beam, of conductive material and provided with a magnetic material layer, such as permalloy, or made directly of magnetic material, is mobile under the influence of a magnetic field generated on an opposite side of the substrate so as to touch, or move away from, a contact formed on the substrate, thus closing and opening a circuit.
Even though this solution enables a reduction in dimensions, it may be improved. In fact, the distance between the magnetic-field generator and the contact structure does not ensure proper operation of the relay, unless strong magnetic fields are used, which may prove disadvantageous or impossible in certain applications. In addition, upon opening of the contact, sparks are created that deteriorate the material, reducing the service life of the relay. In addition, with use, the beam tends to undergo deformation, also on account of the existing electrostatic forces, rendering more difficult proper contact and/or separation during switching.

Magnetic relay device made using MEMS or NEMS technology


Systems and methods for creating a detector network across one or more existing communications systems. In one implementation, a system is provided. The system includes a plurality of hosts, each host hosting one or more detectors operable to detect an occurrence of an event, the hosts including functionality that is not related to the detectors and including communication functionality. The system also includes a management device for managing the detectors and one or more communications networks linking the detectors and the management device using the communication functionality of the respective host.

The present disclosure relates to detection systems.
Conventional detectors provide identification and alert functionality in response to one or more different source events. The sensitivity and range of a particular detector can vary depending on the type of detector and the strength of the source event. For example, a radiation detector can identify the presence of a radiological event within a predefined sensitivity range. The radiation detector uses a measurement device, such as a Geiger counter, to detect radioactive particles that come into contact with the detector. Other types of detectors include biological detectors and chemical detectors. Biological and chemical detectors, for example, can sample air surrounding the detector at regular intervals for analysis (e.g., using mass spectroscopy).
Typically, conventional detectors operate as independent units, which can be automatic or user operated. For example, if a detector, such as a radiation detector, detects an event (e.g., a source which exceeds some predefined threshold amount), the detector can respond by triggering an alarm.


A lens assembly made of porous ceramic is provided with concave sections into which an adhesive for fixing lenses inserted into a lens frame is injected. Each of the concave sections has an outward opening and a spacing wall provided between a hollow part of the lens frame and the opening. The adhesive injected into the concave sections passes through multiple pores in the lens frame made of porous ceramic, and reaches the periphery of each of the lenses, thereby fixing the lenses to an inner wall of the hollow part of the lens frame.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lens frame into which two or more lenses are inserted, a lens assembly equipped with the lens frame, and an image-taking apparatus provided with the lens assembly.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, automobiles have been provided with cameras. Meanwhile, nowadays, automobiles are equipped with display screens thanks to the widespread use of car navigation systems. Therefore, many of cameras installed in automobiles can display the state of a blind spot for a driver on a display screen provided in front of the driver's seat.
Incidentally, automobiles may be left outdoors in hot summer and in freezing winter and therefore, a camera installed in an automobile is required to operate properly over an extremely wide range of temperatures. In order to guarantee the proper operation of a vehicle-mounted camera, a lens assembly employed in such a camera needs to be not only lightweight and robust as generally required, but also resistant to stretching and shrinking with temperature for the purpose of preventing the occurrence of a blur due to a change in temperature. To meet these needs, ceramic barrels have been devised (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publications No. 2006-284991 and No. 2006-292927). Also, the inventors of the present application have proposed to apply porous ceramic to an optical component (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-238430). The porosity of the porous body described in the specification of Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-238430 is equal to or more than 10%.
Further, for instance, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-279557 describes a lens assembly having such a structure that lenses and spacing rings are inserted into a lens barrel through the front opening of the lens barrel, and a pressing ring is screwed on a front part of the lens barrel, thereby fixing the lenses to the lens barrel. A structure in which a porous ceramic barrel is applied to the structure of Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2007-279557 will be described.
FIG. 1 is a diagram that illustrates an example of the structure of a lens assembly provided with a lens frame made of porous ceramic.
A lens assembly 1 illustrated in FIG. 1 is provided with a barrel 10, and the barrel (lens frame) 10 has a hollow part 100 having an object-side opening 101 and an image-forming-side opening 102. Formed on an object-side periphery of the barrel 10 is a male thread SR1. From the object-side opening 101, lenses L1 trough L4 and spacing rings SP1 through SP3 are inserted while being aligned along the optical axis. These elements L1 through L4 and SP1 through SP3 may be collectively referred to as optical members. In this example, as shown in FIG. 1, the lenses L1 trough L4 and the spacing rings SP1 through SP3 are alternately disposed and sequentially inserted into the hollow part 100 of the lens barrel 10.
Furthermore, the lens assembly 1 illustrated in FIG. 1 is provided with a pressing ring 11 that fixes the optical members L1 through L4 and SP1 through SP3 inserted into the hollow part 100 of the barrel 10, by pressing these optical members from the side where the object-side opening 101 is formed. The pressing ring 11 has: a mounting opening 110 into which an object-side part of the barrel 10 is inserted; and an optical opening 111 for making a central part of the lens L1 exposed. Among the optical members inserted into the barrel, the lens L1 is the one disposed at the position closest to the object. Formed on an inner wall on a mounting opening side of the pressing ring 11 is a female thread SR2 in which the male thread SR1 is engaged. When the male thread SR1 is engaged in the female thread SR2, the edge of an object-side surface of the lens L1 disposed at the position closest to the object on the object side is pressed by the pressing ring 11.
The lens assembly 1 shown in FIG. 1 is assembled by using the pressing ring 11 that presses the lenses L1 trough L4 and the spacing rings SP1 through SP3 in the barrel 10 toward the image-forming-side opening.
When the lens assembly 1 assembled in this way is installed in an automobile, the strength of the barrel 10 made of porous ceramic comes into play, making it possible to sufficiently deliver predetermined performance.
In the lens assembly with the structure described above, the lenses and spacing rings are inserted to be alternately disposed inside the hollow part and finally the lens closest to the object on the object side is pressed by the pressing ring, so that the lenses and spacing rings are disposed at predetermined positions inside the hollow part. Therefore, after the lens assembly 1 illustrated in FIG. 1 is installed in an automobile, there is a possibility that the spacing rings and the lenses disposed inside the lens assembly may sequentially move in response to movement such as vibration produced while running or shock caused by acceleration or deceleration. If the spacing rings and the lenses sequentially move, predetermined performance cannot be achieved.
In this respect, it is conceivable to fix lenses in a lens frame to the lens frame with adhesion by using the technique of Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2006-292927. Specifically, it is conceivable to provide an adhesion part and an adhesive applied part in the barrel (lens frame) 10 having the hollow part illustrated in FIG. 1, so that each lens can be fixed by externally applying an adhesive to the adhesive applied part with a needle every time the lens is inserted. However, this makes the structure of the lens frame as well as the assembly work complicated, which is a problem. In order to simplify the structure of the lens frame and the assembly work, it is conceivable to fix the lens with adhesion to the lens frame by injecting an adhesive into a through hole formed in the lens frame.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating the structure of a lens assembly 1A having a lens frame 10A provided with holes H1 and H2 into which an adhesive is to be injected.
As illustrated in FIG. 2, the hole H1 and the hole H2 are formed at positions corresponding to a lens L3 and a lens L4 of the lens frame 10A, respectively. The lens L3 and the lens L4 are fixed to the lens frame 10A with adhesion by injecting the adhesive into the hole H1 and the hole H2. This structure makes the assembly work simple, without increasing the size of the lens frame 10A.
In the structure illustrated in FIG. 2 however, there is a possibility that light may enter the lens frame 10A through the holes H1 and H2 formed in the lens frame 10A, affecting the optical performance inside the lens frame 10A.

Lens frame, lens assembly and image-taking apparatus


While engaged in a dedicated channel, a User Equipment (UE) may get stuck on it. A method and the computer program product detects whether the UE is stuck on the dedicated channel (202). When it is detected that the UE is stuck, the UE or the corresponding network in which the dedicated channel is located carries out a local release of the UE from the dedicated channel (204), and the UE is placed in idle mode (206). Locally releasing the UE from the dedicated channel curtails unnecessary battery consumption in the UE and limits wastage of network resources and bandwidth.

Existing wireless communication systems include a User Equipment (UE), a Radio Access Network (RAN), and a Core Network (CN). The UE may be connected to the CN through a dedicated channel. The dedicated channel may be used for operations including circuit-switched voice transfer, packet-switched voice transfer or data transfer. In the Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) network, CELL-DCH state refers to the state in which the UE is engaged in the dedicated channel. In the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network, the Traffic Channel (TCH) state refers to the state in which the UE is on a dedicated channel. The GSM network uses the TCH channel for the transfer of voice, circuit-switched data and circuit-switched related signaling.
While it is engaged in a dedicated channel, however, a UE may get stuck on the dedicated channel. This may happen due to an error or a fault in at least one UE, RAN and CN. When the UE is stuck on the dedicated channel, the UE and the RAN keep performing actions that are necessary to maintain the channel. For the WCDMA Radio Access Technology (RAT), the actions include UEs sending MEASUREMENT REPORT messages and RANs sending MEASUREMENT CONTROL messages and ACTIVE SET UPDATE messages on the relevant Radio Bearers (RBs). In spite of the UE and the RAN performing the necessary actions, no useful data is exchanged between the UE and the CN for a significant period of time. In other words, there is no higher layer signaling and no data transfer over non-signaling RBs carrying user data or voice.
When stuck on the dedicated channel, the UE can suffer from several problems. First, battery consumption is high in a UE stuck on the dedicated channel. The dedicated channel is the highest battery consumption mode for the UE. In the dedicated channel, the UE continually monitors the downlink and transmits on the uplink. Second, this situation also results in the wastage of network resources. Maintaining a dedicated channel for the UE requires a significant amount of RAN resources and bandwidth. When the UE is stuck on the dedicated channel, these RAN resources and bandwidth are wasted, without any useful data being exchanged.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.

Method to detect a user equipment stuck on a dedicated channel