A system for controlling the mixture of an air flow and an exhaust gas flow in an engine is disclosed generally comprising an air conduit for the inlet air, which has an exhaust gas inlet passing through the wall thereof for introducing recirculating exhaust gas into the conduit, and a sleeve having an inlet end through which air enters the sleeve and an outlet end through which air exits the sleeve into the conduit, where the sleeve is movable along the conduit to vary the extent to which the outlet end thereof occludes the exhaust gas inlet, thereby regulating the introduction of exhaust gas into the air conduit, which in some embodiments, is completely closed off. In some embodiments, the outlet end of the sleeve is reduced, and certain embodiments include a streamlined body to regulate the air exiting the sleeve.

It is generally recognized that the production of noxious oxides of nitrogen (NOx), which pollute the atmosphere, are undesirable and, in many cases, are controlled by limits established by local, state and federal governmental regulations. The formation of NOx constituents in the exhaust gas products of an internal combustion engine must therefore be eliminated, minimized, or at least maintained below some threshold limit or level.
It is generally understood that the presence of NOx in the exhaust of internal combustion engines is determined by combustion temperature and pressure as well as by the air/fuel ratio (lambda). An increase in combustion temperature causes an increase in the amount of NOx present in the engine exhaust. Therefore, it is desirable to control the combustion temperature in order to limit the amount of NOx present in the exhaust of an internal combustion engine.
One method suggested by the prior art for limiting or controlling the combustion temperature has been to recirculate a portion of the exhaust gas back to the engine air intake. It was reasoned in these early methods that since the exhaust gas is low in oxygen, this will result in a dilute combustion mixture which will burn at a lower temperature. The lower combustion temperature, it was reasoned, would, in turn, reduce the amounts of NOx produced during combustion.
Also, it had, until recently, been common practice to run an internal combustion engine at or near an ignition timing that produces peak combustion pressures, which maximize combustion efficiency. However, unacceptably high levels of NOx may be produced in the combustion chambers when the engine operates at or near such conditions. Therefore, in order to inhibit the formation and emission of NOx, it is necessary to limit the peak combustion pressure to a threshold value.
One technique suggested by the prior art for limiting combustion pressure involves the recirculation of exhaust gases through the induction passage of the combustion chamber since it is well-known that an increase in recirculation of exhaust gases will reduce peak combustion pressure, and thus, the attendant levels of undesirable NOx.
Therefore, it has become generally well-known that the formation of undesirable oxides of nitrogen may be reduced by recirculating a portion of the exhaust gas back to the engine air/fuel intake passage so as to dilute the incoming air/fuel mixture with inert H2O, and CO2. The molar specific heat of these gases, and especially of CO2, absorbs substantial thermal energy so as to lower peak cycle temperatures and/or pressures to levels conducive to reducing NOx formation.
While NOx formation is known to decrease as the exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) flow increases to where it represents a threshold percentage of the exhaust gas constituents, it is also known that this is accompanied by a deterioration in engine performance including, but not limited to, an increase in engine roughness with increasing EGR. Therefore, one factor limiting the magnitude of EGR is the magnitude of EGR-induced performance deterioration or roughness that can be tolerated before vehicle drivability becomes unacceptable.
Accordingly, various systems have been suggested to control the amount of exhaust gas flowing through the system, such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,456 to Bollinger and U.S. Pat. No. 6,502,397 to Lundqvist. These systems uses valves or sleeves to partially block the flow of exhaust gas before it mixes with inlet air, thereby controlling the amount of exhaust gas versus inlet air existing in the resultant mixture.
However, these arrangements result in a number of disadvantages. One problem with these devices is that they require extra components in addition to the standard piping for the inlet air and exhaust gas flows that, in addition to increasing the cost and difficulty of manufacture and assembly, requires additional space in the vehicle. Moreover, the specific components employed and the arrangement thereof do not facilitate as efficient of a mixing of the two gas flows as is possible. Additionally, the particular arrangements of these parts result in systems that are less accurate than desirable in obtaining both precise amounts of both gas flows and a precise ratio between the two different flows. Finally, such systems are unable to completely terminate the flow for whichever of the gas flows it may be desired to do so.
What is desired, therefore, is a system for controlling the mixture of inlet air and recirculating exhaust gas that optimizes the mixing efficiency of the two flows. What is further desired is a system for controlling the mixture of inlet air and recirculating exhaust gas that does not require additional components connecting to the existing piping requiring excess additional cost and space. What is also desired is a system for controlling the mixture of inlet air and recirculating exhaust gas that can precisely control the ratio of inlet air versus exhaust gas, including the complete termination of whichever gas flow may be required.

Movable sleeve exhaust gas recirculation system


A fixing member has a securing portion to be placed in a space formed between a first fixed area and a second fixed area, the second fixed area being placed facing opposite to and being apart from the first fixed area, having an opening, and not being allowed to displace relative to the first fixed area. The securing portion is formed in a shape rotatable with respect to the first fixed area around the rotational axis L that extends in a direction penetrating the opening, and has a first abutting portion abutting on the first fixed area and a plurality of second abutting portions at a plurality of positions on the circumference of the opening at the end. The plurality of the second abutting portions have inclined guide faces around the rotational axis L, the inclined guide faces inclining in circumferential direction.

According to the prior art, to fix various kinds of members to another member, a fixing member such as a screw is used, or a fixing means such as a threaded portion is provided directly on various kinds of members to use the various kinds of members themselves as fixing members.
For instance, as shown in FIG. 19, a proximity sensor 99 described in the following patent literature 1 has a structure with a lead switch 98 buried in soft resin 97 and a surface covered with hard resin 96.
To attach this proximity sensor 99 to, for example, an air cylinder, as shown in FIG. 20, a groove 94 with its cross section formed into an approximately round shape corresponding to the shape of the cross section of the proximity sensor 99 is formed on a mount 95 in advance, and the proximity sensor 99 is housed in this groove 94 and fixed using a screw 92. More specifically, before the proximity sensor 99 is placed in the groove 94, the screw 92 is inserted into a screw hole 93 formed at the front of the proximity sensor 99 and screwed to the extent that it does not get caught by the groove 94.
In this state, the proximity sensor 99 is inserted from an end 94a of the groove 94 and slid through the groove 94 to a desired detection point. At the same time, a protruding portion 99a of the proximity sensor 99 and a lead wire 91 are moved through an opening 90 of the groove 94. With the proximity sensor 99 accurately aligned at a desired detection point, the screw 92 is fastened to fix the sensor at that position.
As shown in FIG. 21, when the screw 92 is made to abut on the bottom 94b of the groove 94 and fastened, a reaction force of the screw 92 pushes up the proximity sensor 99 toward the opening 90, and an outer surface of the proximity sensor 99 with its cross section formed into an approximately round shape is pressed against a circumference of the opening 90 on the inner wall surface of the groove 94.
Then, when further fastened, the screw 92 is strongly pressed against the bottom 94b of the groove 94 by a screwing force against the screw hole 93; accordingly, the proximity sensor 99 is firmly fixed at the desired detection point.

Fixing member and mounting structure of a proximity sensor


An adjustable mounting bracket for the installing of a level table surface by use of an adjustable mounting system. The wall mounting bracket includes a bracket having a wall end and a table end and an adjustable bracket system for the bracket on the wall. An adjustable table mounting bracket is provided for mounting a level table on the bracket, even where the wall is not true or perpendicular to the floor.

In home, restaurant and commercial design applications, tables and counters are frequently cantilevered from a wall or other vertical surface by mounting the table or counter top on a wall bracket. For example, in many restaurants using booth seating arrangements, it is typical to find the eating table cantilevered from a wall. One of the advantages of such a design construction is that it eliminates the table pedestal or base from interfering with the user's legs and feet while sitting at the table. A further advantage of a cantilever table system is that in cleaning, it is possible to mop or sweep directly under the table without having to maneuver around table legs or a pedestal.
While table top cantilever systems have become well-known and widely used in various industrial and commercial applications, the systems are based on brackets that require the wall or support surface to be true to perpendicular. That is, one portion of the bracket is mounted onto the wall and a portion upon which a table top may be affixed extends outward at a right angle therefrom. Exemplary is a right angle wall mount bracket, one side of which mounts to the wall, and the other side of which extends perpendicularly outward from the wall. The table or counter top is mounted on the side extending from the wall. Another existing bracket used to cantilever mount a table on a wall is a bracket that has a middle portion angling between two perpendicular portions. Such a bracket also requires that the wall and table be perpendicular to one another.
Even in new building facilities, however, it is not uncommon for a wall to be slightly deviated from perpendicular to the ground. Accordingly, wall mounting systems frequently result in a table top being mounted at an angle which is perpendicular to the wall, but which is not necessarily a true or level angle. Because the table top is uneven, objects may slide when placed thereon. In the past, the installer would "shim" the table top by placing a thin piece of wood or metal (commonly called a "shim") between either the wall and the bracket or the table top and the bracket. The shim serves to level the surface of the table top. Other less frequently used methods of leveling the table top include actually bending the bracket to fit the wall and planing the underside of the table top or wall. Such approaches are not only quite time consuming and difficult and with respect to bending the mounting brackets, may result in metal fatigue.


An integrated circuit and method for receiving and transmitting signals of different frequency bands utilizes a switching device on a bypass current path to selectively route incoming and outgoing signals by circumventing a capacitive device on a receive signal path. The bypass current path is used to selectively conduct current through a variable resistance device on a transmit signal path to transmit or block signals through the variable resistance device.

The current trend for the cellular technology is cellular phones that can be used in areas of different wireless communication standards. As an example, there are four Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) bands in use around the world. Two of these GSM bands, GSM 850 and GSM 1900, are used almost exclusively in North America, while the other two bands, GSM 800 and GSM 1800, are widely used in other parts of the world. The numbers after "GSM" refer to the center frequency in megahertz (MHz). Since there are four GSM bands, cellular phone components such as switch modules and power amplifiers have been developed to support some or all of the available GSM bands.
A prior art switch module of interest includes two bi-directional signal paths to both receive and transmit signals on each of the bi-directional signal paths. The first bi-directional signal path is used to receive and transmit signals in the GSM 1800 and GSM 1900 bands, while the second bi-directional signal path is used to receive and transmit signal in the GSM 850 and GSM 900 bands. Each bi-directional signal path is connected to an exclusive receive signal path and an exclusive transmit signal path. The switch module utilizes high and low pass filters to direct incoming signals to the proper bi-directional signal paths. Furthermore, since GSM cellular phones are half-duplex cellular phones, the switch module utilizes diodes to isolate the receive path from the corresponding transmit signal path to switch between receiving and transmitting modes. The use of diodes is superior to the use of transistors with respect insertion loss for simple switches such as above.
A prior art power amplifier module of interest that can be used with the above-described prior art switch module includes two signal paths that connect to the corresponding transmit signal paths of the switch module. On each of these two signal paths of the power amplifier module, an amplifier, an output matching network and a capacitor are connected in series. The amplifier provides amplified signals for transmission. The output matching network transforms the impedance of the amplifier from it's native impedance (e.g., 1 or 2 Ohms) to the required impedance of the antenna (e.g., 50 Ohms). The capacitor blocks current from being conducted to downstream circuits in the switching module so that the downstream circuits are not biased inadvertently.
Similar to other electronic components for handheld devices, there is a continuing need for smaller cellular phone components, such as switching modules and power amplifier modules. This continuing need is driven by the desire of consumers for compact cellular phones, as well as cellular phones with increased functionalities, such as color screens, digital cameras and/or Global Positioning Systems (GPS). These functionalities require additional space, which necessitates even smaller traditional cellular phone components to produce the compact cellular phones. In addition to space, each of these functionalities places a demand on the cellular phone battery, which reduces the overall operable life of a cellular phone. Therefore, the traditional cellular phone components such as switching modules and power amplifier modules need to be small in size and power efficient.

Integrated circuit and method for receiving and transmitting signals of different frequency bands

Avago Technologies Wireless IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


A semiconductor laser device according to the present invention includes: a semiconductor laser chip 1 for emitting laser light; a stem 3, 4 for supporting the semiconductor laser chip; a plurality of terminal electrodes, inserted in throughholes provided in the stem 3, 4, for supplying power to the semiconductor laser chip; and a cap 5 having an optical window 6 which transmits laser light and being affixed to the stem 3, 4 so as to cover the semiconductor laser chip 1. Between the stem 3, 4 and the terminal electrodes 7, this device includes insulation glass 8, which does not release silicon fluoride gas when heated to a temperature of no less than 700° C. and no more than 850° C.

In order to increase the recording capacity of an optical disk, it is necessary to reduce the wavelength of laser light which is required for data read/write. In currently prevalent DVD players or recorders, red semiconductor lasers having a wavelength band of 660 nm are widely used. Such a red semiconductor laser is produced, for example, epitaxially growing an InGaAlP-type compound semiconductor on a GaAs substrate.
In recent years, vigorous development efforts are directed to next-generation optical disks, in order to realize an increased recording capacity over that of the DVD. A light source for such a next-generation optical disk will be required to stably emit blue-violet laser light (wavelength band 400 nm), whose wavelength is even shorter than that of red light. A GaN-type semiconductor laser of the wavelength band of 400 nm is considered as a most promising light source for the recording/reproduction of next-generation optical disks such as the Blu-ray Disc (trademark).
Patent Document 1 discloses a semiconductor laser device which is suitably used as a short wavelength light source in an optical disk apparatus.
[Patent Document 1] Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-59087

Semiconductor laser device which is capable of stably emitting short-wavelength laser light


The invention proposes a sampling phase detector in which a first sampling transistor with a very high sensitivity determines the phase of a signal to be sampled. A signal representative of the phase is supplied to a second sampling stage. The second sampling stage retains the phase value determined in this way. The invention provides a phase signal that is more stable and more sensitive. The invention also provides a method and an oscillator employing the method.

The present invention relates to phase detectors and in particular to sampling phase detectors.
Microwave and RF, Jul. 1993, pages 103 to 111, describes a hybrid circuit sampling phase detector. The detector includes a step recovery diode (SRD) and a sampling circuit. During a change of polarity at its terminals the diode conducts and supplies an impulse which constitutes a low-frequency reference to an input of a sampling circuit which also receives a high-frequency or radio-frequency signal to be sampled. The frequency of the signal to be sampled is N times higher than the frequency of the reference impulses, where N is an integer. The sampling circuit compares the impulse signal to the signal to be sampled. When the rising edge of the impulse reaches a level that is equal to the level of the signal to be sampled, a corresponding constant voltage level is supplied at the output of the sampling circuit. An output voltage proportional to the phase of the radio-frequency signal relative to a reference signal is therefore obtained. The sampling circuit includes a sampling transistor having a gate of intermediate width which represents a compromise between good phase sensitivity and a good DC output signal from the sampling circuit.
The above sampling phase detector has drawbacks. Firstly, the hybrid circuit implies a large overall size. Secondly, to generate adequate impulses, the SRD needs a high-power supply. These drawbacks are a particular handicap in aerospace applications. Also, this type of circuit requires many adjustments prior to use and its unit cost is high.
The document WO-A-99/18691 describes a totally digital phase comparator which indicates the phase between two clock signals. A radio-frequency analog signal is digitized and its digital approximation is compared to a digital model. The phase difference between the digital signals is then coded as a function of its amplitude in the form of a digital word.
Patent Abstract of Japan JP-0214009, xe2x80x9cSampling phase detectorxe2x80x9d, describes a sampling phase detector in the form of a monolithic integrated circuit which is produced on a Gaxe2x80x94As substrate and uses a field-effect transistor which is switched by amplitude limiting circuits, a delay circuit and an AND gate. Two signals are combined in a NOR gate to generate an impulse at a reference frequency.
The above sampling circuit has drawbacks. The field-effect transistor used has too low a resistance when it is turned off and too high a resistance when it is turned on. The phase sensitivity and stability of the output signal are therefore inadequate.
There is therefore a need for a sampling phase detector resolving one or more of the above drawbacks and there is also a need for a local oscillator including a phase detector as claimed herein.
The invention therefore proposes a sampling phase detector comprising a first sampling transistor having an input for a signal to be sampled at a frequency RF, an input for a control signal, an output for supplying a first sampled signal as a function of the phase between the signal to be sampled and the control signal, and a resistance between the input and the output when it is turned on less than (0.1xc3x9710xe2x88x9212xc3x97RF)xe2x88x921, and a second sampling transistor having a resistance between the input and the output when it is turned off greater than 100 ohms and having an input to which the first sampled signal is applied, an input for a control signal, and an output for a second sampled signal.
In an embodiment, the sampling transistors are field-effect transistors, the drain of the first transistor is the input for the signal to be sampled, the gate of the first transistor is the input for a control signal, the source of the first transistor is the output for the sampled signal, the drain of the second transistor is the input for the first sampled signal, the gate of the second transistor is the input for the control signal, the source of the second transistor is the output for the second sampled signal, and the resistance between the input and the output of the second transistor when it is turned off is greater than the resistance between the input and the output of the first transistor when it is turned off.
In an embodiment the source of the first transistor is shunted by a first capacitor and the source of the second transistor is shunted by a second capacitor.
In an embodiment the detector further comprises a control signal generator for supplying pulses to the inputs for control signals of the first and second transistors.
In an embodiment the control signal generator is implemented monolithically with the transistors.
The control signal generator can have an input for an AC reference signal and an inverter circuit for connecting the AC reference signal input to the input for a control signal of the first or second transistor.
In an embodiment the inverter circuit includes an SCFL gate.
In an embodiment the inverter circuit comprises three or four inverter stages.
In an embodiment the control signal generator supplies respective control signals in phase opposition to the first and second transistors.
The invention also provides a local oscillator including a phase detector as claimed herein.
The invention further provides a sampling phase detection method comprising the steps of providing a first sampling transistor having a resistance between its input and its output less than (0.1xc3x9710xe2x88x9212xc3x97RF)xe2x88x921 when it is turned on, providing a second sampling transistor having a resistance between its input and its output greater than 100 ohms when it is turned off, sampling the signal to be sampled in the first sampling transistor, and sampling the sampled signal in the second sampling transistor.
In an implementation the method further comprises the step of applying control pulses to the transistors to trigger the sampling steps.
In an implementation the control pulses are in phase opposition.
In an implementation the method further comprises a step of smoothing the sampled signals.


A system produces orthodontic aligners by CNC machining. A digital model of the patient's dental anatomy is manipulated using CAD software to create a solid CAD model of an aligner. A CNC milling machine is then used to machine the inside and outside surfaces of the aligner from a block of suitable material. A progressive series of aligners can also be designed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of orthodontics. More specifically, the present invention discloses a system for producing orthodontic aligners by CNC machining.
2. Statement of the Problem
The infiltration into dentistry of new computer-based processes involving 3D imaging of human teeth began in the early 1990's. Particularly in orthodontics, these new digital technologies are providing orthodontists with fundamentally new tools for delivering orthodontic treatment. Early patents in this field such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,139,419 to Andreiko et. al. described the early methods for the 3D imaging of teeth. The subsequent manipulation of virtual occlusion to obtain information necessary for orthodontically correcting tooth position according to a virtually-determined ideal has been a key step in advancing the standard of care within orthodontics. In recent years laboratory processes related to the 3D imaging of a patient's dentition have continued to expand and have served as the basis for the provision of a number of new commercial services that have become available to orthodontists.
An example of the successful orthodontic application of these digital technologies is seen in the commercial service known as the Invisalign program. The Invisalign program is based on U.S. Pat. No. 5,975,893 (Chishti et al.), and many related patents including in particular U.S. Pat. No. 6,398,548. The Invisalign program is described in full detail below because it illustrates all of the technical aspects of digital applications within orthodontics. It illustrates the business aspects of new digital services, and it depicts the advantages of new types of technology being introduced into the practice of orthodontics. The current invention accommodates or impacts many of these areas. To follow then is an exhaustive description of the Invisalign program to best contrast the description of the improvements and advantages provided by the present invention that follows.
The Invisalign program involves the creation of a patient's virtually treated finished occlusion. This is the finished or ideal occlusion produced strictly within the confines of computer software that can be displayed on a computer monitor. From that, output methodologies are used to fabricate a series of progressive polymeric tooth positioners. Invisalign positioners, called aligners, are generally similar in appearance to appliances known as mouth guards worn by sports participants or the soft plastic appliances worn at night to protect teeth against the destructive effects of bruxism. The Invisalign program is marketed to the general public as an improved alternative to conventional orthodontic braces and is referred to in TV advertising as "invisible braces."
Invisalign tooth positioners are thin, transparent U-shaped plastic appliances formed over computer-generated physical forming patterns grown from the virtual model of the virtual teeth described above. The process for forming aligners uses a combination of vacuum, pressure and heat. This forming process is informally referred to within the orthodontic laboratory community as the "suck down" process and as such, aligners are informally considered to be suck-down-type appliances.
The Invisalign-type tooth aligners are formed from a thinner material than the traditional mouth guard-type appliance. One commonly used material known as polycarbonate (PC) is a harder but still relatively flexible and somewhat elastic polymeric material. Other materials such as co-polymers including ethylene vinyl acetate and polypropylene as well as polypropylene alone, and other olefin-type plastics are also used for sucking-down aligners. In the vast majority of cases, the raw material is in sheet form. In other words, aligners are formed from small sections of standard industrial polymeric sheet materials. The materials used are mostly sourced industrially, and they are not necessarily produced specifically for orthodontic aligner application. The commodity-type sheet material is typically manufactured using a continuous extrusion process or a casting process. Sizing of the sheets typically used for suck-down-type appliances can be many feet wide by many feet long, and can range in thicknesses from 0.75 mm (0.030 in.) up to 2 mm (0.079 in.) but thinner and thicker materials are used in special cases.
In order to produce a series of Invisalign-type tooth aligners, an Invisalign technician first scans a patient's upper and lower model set as a means to obtain CAD-manipulatable virtual models of a patient's teeth, gums and soft tissue. A model set normally consists of one upper and one lower plaster model of the teeth, palate and gums. Like Andreiko's methods, such a digital model, once obtained in this manner can be displayed and altered using a software tool known as a computer-aided design (CAD) program. Once the virtual model of the original malocclusion has been obtained, an Invisalign technician will then undertake steps involving extensive manipulation of the virtual malocclusion. This involves extensive repositioning of the teeth according to a comprehensive and sequential procedure, ultimately arriving at a finished or ideal occlusion for that patient. The finished occlusion, even though virtual, is nonetheless consistent with the complete repositioning of the patient's upper and lower occlusion that would result at the end of fully successful conventional orthodontic treatment.
As can be appreciated, after the steps described above are accomplished, an Invisalign technician then possesses two versions of the patient's teeth available within the virtual CAD environment. One version represents the original malocclusion and the other represents the ideal occlusion. In other words, the technician has the beginning and the end states.
It must be noted that the Invisalign technician is not a trained orthodontist. Since the 3D imaging and the corrected case are virtual, they can easily be made available to the patient's doctor online through the internet. Using a special viewing and metrix tool package provided to the doctor online over the internet, the doctor can examine the correctness and precision of the steps taken by the Invisalign technician in full detail. The doctor can approve the work performed by the technician, or provide additional instructions to insure that the actions of the technician are consistent with the doctor's treatment plan for the patient. Ultimately, the doctor must provide his formal approval for the process to continue.
After the attending doctor approves the technician's work-up, the next step in the Invisalign process involves the creation of typically 15 to 25 incremental progressive physical forming models. Each of these forming models represents a snapshot of the patient's future occlusion at specific incremental steps along his or her proposed treatment sequence falling between the beginning and the end conditions as described above. To accomplish this, the Invisalign technician creates a virtual "first transition model" that sees a slight repositioning of all or most of the teeth. This first transition model sees some or all of the teeth being subtly moved from their original pre-treatment positions to a virtual first transition position that is in the direction of their intended finished positions. Similarly, a second virtual transition model is created that sees the virtual teeth being moved again slightly further in the desired directions. The objective of the Invisalign technician is to create a series of progressive models, each biased slightly further than the previous one, and each moving the teeth slightly closer to their finished target positions. A final forming model will take the teeth from the series of transition positions and move them into their final, desired positions.
Once such a series of virtual intermediate forming models has been created and a final forming model has been created by the Invisalign technician, the digital code representing each of the models in the series is directed to operate a digital, computer numerically-controlled (CNC) machine known as a rapid prototyping machine. Within a rapid prototyping machine, the series of physical forming models are grown using one of a group of known processes, such as stereo lithography or 3D printing. The growing step results in the production of hard, physical duplicates of each of the series of virtual intermediate models and the final model. These are not virtual models but rather hard, physical models that can be held by hand.
The next step of the Invisalign process sees each of the series of physical models being in turn mounted in a suck-down machine where a combination of pressure, heat and vacuum is used to form the actual series of progressive aligners from plastic sheet material of a constant thickness. Once the series of progressive aligners are formed and trimmed, they are sequentially labeled, packaged and shipped to the attending orthodontist. The orthodontist then schedules an appointment for the patient, at which time the aligners and instructions for their use are given to the patient. The patient will be instructed to begin wearing the first set of aligners for a period of time, typically two weeks. After that, the first set is discarded and the patient transitions to the next set of the series and so on.
The aligners serve to urge the patient's teeth to move according to the positional biases created virtually be the Invisalign technician. The teeth are progressively biased and urged to move in desired directions toward their predetermined finished positions by the resilience of the polymeric material of the aligner. In response to the gentle but continuous forces delivered by the aligners, certain physiological processes involving the creation and resorbtion of the bone supporting the roots of the teeth are initiated. The net result is the slow, progressive orthodontic movement of the roots of the teeth through the underlying bone toward desirable positions and orientations.
The orthodontists role in aligner-based treatment is essentially relegated to that of monitoring the physiological response of the teeth and monitoring the patient's cooperation with the treatment schedule. The attending orthodontist is not required to establish the progressive sequence or otherwise direct the treatment because the functionality of the aligners and the tooth-moving protocol is determined off-site by the Invisalign technician at the orthodontic service center. The orthodontist still must evaluate and approve the work-up provided by the Invisalign program.
As a whole, digital advancements in orthodontics have increased the versatility of the virtual occlusion data and have expedited or eliminated some traditional operatory steps. These trends can involve the introduction of new equipment and software into the orthodontic practice that has not been considered as standard dental laboratory equipment in the past. For example, doctors must acquire and become familiar with 3D analytical software, which is included with the Invisalign program in order to view the virtual occlusion created by an Invisalign technician as described earlier. Another example is CAT scanning equipment optimized for use in dental operatories, which is becoming commercially available for in-office installation. Similarly, acquisition of in-office scanning equipment and rapid prototyping equipment would move some of the Invisalign process steps from the commercial service center directly to the "back room" laboratory of an orthodontic practice. These are all aspects of what some refer to as the emerging "digital orthodontics."
However, the large capital expenditures and technical sophistication required for existing digital orthodontic systems, such as the Invisalign program, have required the use of a central facility to produce aligners. This tends to increase costs and introduces an element of delay in meeting the needs of patients.
The conventional suck-down techniques of the type produced through the Invisalign program also limit the types of aligners that can be formed. Ideally, a thin sheet of polymeric material is used to form an aligner having an approximately constant wall thickness. In fact, vacu-forming often results in regions in the aligner having reduced or uneven wall thicknesses, which can be undesirable. Also, it is sometimes desirable to selectively create a thicker aligner wall adjacent to specific teeth (e.g., molars or an especially mal-positioned tooth) to exert greater corrective forces. This is very difficult or impossible to accomplish with conventional suck-down forming techniques.

System for producing orthodontic aligners by CNC machining


The disclosure relates to a method for the situational transmission of surroundings data of a vehicle, comprising the steps: determining a driving situation of the vehicle; determining relevant surroundings data from recorded surroundings data based on the driving situation, wherein the relevant surroundings data are a subset of the recorded surroundings data that are relevant to the driving situation; and providing the relevant surroundings data to an external data processing device.

It needs to be taken into consideration for at least partly self-driven vehicles that there are sometimes situations in which a vehicle is not able to make an explicit decision with regard to further travel. In such cases, a remote operation service provider usually contributes to further clarifying this undecidable situation in order then to allow the vehicle to travel further in an at least partly automated manner. For this purpose, it may be necessary for a remote operator to have to monitor the further travel of the vehicle, including for a relatively long period of time.
A vehicle usually comprises a multiplicity of surroundings sensors, such as cameras, radar systems or lidar systems, in order to monitor said vehicle. The surroundings information recorded thereby is usually transmitted wirelessly to the remote operator, where the recorded surroundings information is displayed to the remote operator. Due to the multiplicity of surroundings sensors, the recorded surroundings information generally comprises a comparatively large amount of transmission data.
The desire for improved transmission of surroundings information may therefore arise.

Method and controller for the situational transmission of surroundings information of a vehicle


A headlight produces low-beam and high-beam outputs without requiring moving parts. Low-beam LED array (7) near first focus (F1) of ellipsoidal reflector (3) directs light laterally against reflector (3) which directs it toward second focus (F2) of reflector. Cut-off edge (4; 5; 63) near second focus forms a bright/dark edge in low-beam output. Cut-off edge is a vertically-oriented light baffle (4) whose top edge forms the bright/dark edge. Cut-off edge is a horizontal light occluding member (16) whose front edge (63) forms bright/dark edge. Cut-off edge is a corner of a heat sink (200). Cut-off edge is located near focal point of lens (2) which transmits low-beam output with a bright/dark edge. Stationary folding mirror (5) near second focus of reflector directs light from high-beam LED array (8) to lens (2). Additive light reflecting from folding mirror (5) transmitting through lens (2) forms high-beam output lacking a bright/dark edge.

Automobiles are equipped with both low-beam and high-beam outputs from their headlights. The low-beam output is usually angled downward and slightly away from oncoming traffic, in order to reduce glare for oncoming vehicles on the opposite side of the road. The high-beam output is brighter and lacks the directional requirements of the low-beam output, and as such is suitable only when alone on the road. Because of the different angular requirements of the low-beam and high-beam outputs, switching between low and high beams is not as straightforward as making the headlamp brighter or dimmer.
For many years, until the mid-1980s, automobiles were typically equipped with separate headlamps for the low-beam and high-beam outputs. The low-beam and high-beam headlamps were mounted adjacent to each other on the front of vehicles, and were aimed appropriately to meet the angular requirements of the low and high beams.
For a variety of reasons, it is desirable to have a single headlamp produce both low-beam and high-beam outputs.
One example of a single headlamp that produces both low-beam and high-beam outputs is known as a projector lamp. Essentially, the typical configuration for the projector headlamp uses a shield or light baffle that is movable by a solenoid or other actuator. For low beams, the shield is in place, deliberately blocking a portion of the lamp output in order to achieve the desired angular output. For high beams, the shield is moved out of the way and uncovers the brightest part of the beam.
One potential drawback of this known configuration of projector lamp is that includes moving parts, which are more prone to failure than comparable stationary parts.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a configuration of projection headlamp that produces both low-beam and high-beam outputs but lacks moving parts.
Other headlamps are known in U.S. Pat. No. 7,563,008 (Chinniah, et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 7,134,774 (Iwasaki) and U.S. Pat. No. 7,178,957 (Schug, et al.).

Headlamp featuring both low-beam and high-beam outputs and devoid of moving parts


A method for solid free-form fabrication of a three-dimensional metal object includes depositing a particulate blend in a defined region, the particulate blend including a number of metal or metal alloy particulates and a peroxide, and selectively ink-jetting a binder system onto a predetermined area of the particulate blend to form a green part, wherein the liquid phase binder includes a water soluble monofunctional acrylate-based monomer, a water soluble difunctional acrylate-based monomer, an amine, and water.

The efficient production of prototype three-dimensional compositions or objects can provide an effective means of reducing the time it takes to bring a product to market at a reasonable cost. A typical approach for preparing prototypes has required specific tooling, such as molds and dies, which can be a slow and cumbersome process.
Recently, computerized modeling has alleviated some of the need for building prototypes by providing a good idea of what a product will look like without a specialized tooling requirement. However, the fabrication of a tangible object is still often preferred for prototyping. The merging of computer modeling and the physical formation of three-dimensional objects is sometimes referred to as solid free-form fabrication.
Solid free-form fabrication (SFF) is a process whereby three-dimensional objects, for example, prototype parts, models, working tools, production parts, molds, and other articles are manufactured by sequentially depositing layers of a structural material. Computer aided design (CAD) is commonly used to automate the design process. Using a suitable computer, an operator may design a three-dimensional article and then create that object by employing a positionable ejection head that selectively emits the structural material. Various techniques that employ solid free-form fabrication have been explored.
Traditional methods of forming solid free-form fabrication objects include using commercially available gypsum and biopolymer systems or acid-base cements. Traditional methods have also been developed to form solid metal objects. These traditional methods create parts with relatively low green strength.

System and method for fabricating a three-dimensional metal object using solid free-form fabrication

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A high capacity capacitor is used in an appliance to enable a power circuit of the appliance to power a heating element or other electrical load concurrently with powering one or more additional electrical loads in the appliance using power from both a powerline source and power from the high capacity capacitor such that a combined power consumption in the appliance may be at least temporarily at a level above the power rating of the powerline source.

Appliances, and in particular residential major appliances such as refrigerators, dishwashers, ovens, stovetops, ranges, etc., are inherently limited in the amount of power they can instantaneously consume by the power rating of the electrical circuit they are connected to. As an example, a residential dishwasher for use in the United States is generally is limited to a total draw of about 1500 Watts at any given time as it is generally designed for use with a standard residential powerline source such as a 15 Amp, 110-120 Volt residential electrical circuit. As a result, the sizes of the primary electrical loads in a dishwasher, most notably the pump and heating element used to circulate and heat wash fluid, are often limited so as to stay within the power rating of a standard residential powerline source. Doing so, however, can lead to lower performance than might otherwise be desired, as for example a smaller heating element has a lower heating capacity, and thus incorporating such a heating element in a dishwasher can lead to longer cycle times to accommodate the time required to heat the wash fluid to a suitable temperature for washing dishes. Likewise, for refrigerators, compressor sizes may be limited due to the amount of current draw at start up.
Similar issues exist for other appliances, often leading to design compromises being made and/or lower performance being realized to accommodate the power ratings of powerline sources. Therefore, a need continues to exist in the art for an improved manner of optimizing appliance performance within the power constraints of standard residential circuits and other powerline sources.


A metallizing apparatus vacuum deposits a metal onto a workpiece. Filaments having a metal thereon extend between a pair of electrode rods and are heated by conduction of electric current. The end portions of the filaments are secured to the respective rods by a securing apparatus which includes a support member, an interposed member, and a depressing bolt. The support member is fastened to an electrode and has a recess facing the electrode. The interposed member is in the recess and has extended positions which guide it along an axis toward and away from the electrode. The interposed member has a fitting groove for receiving an end portion of a filament. The fitting groove is in a face of the interposed member which faces the electrode. The opposite face of the interposed member is in contact with an end of the depressing bolt, which passes through the support member into the recess and presses the interposed member to press the filament against the electrode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a metallizing apparatus, and more particularly to an apparatus in which a metal is vacuum deposited on a surface which is intended to be a signal surface of an optical disk, such as a digital audio disk, a video disk or the like, to form a reflecting film thereon.
2. Prior Art
FIGS. 5-8 show a conventional metallizing apparatus.
Referring to FIG. 5 a housing 2 defines an evaporation chamber which provides a metal evaporation environment in a vacuum and within which a circular base 1 is placed.
On the base 1 are provided a plurality of rotary shafts 3 in equally spaced relation around the circular base. Each of the shafts 3 is provided with a plate-like disk holder 6 for holding an optical disk 5 to be metallized. A drive means, though not shown, is provided for driving the base 1 into rotation together with the respective rotary shafts 3.
As shown in FIG. 6, a pair of electrical feeding rods 8 serving as an electrode, is provided such that the rods are in parallel to each other in the middle of the base 1. A plurality of filaments 10, which carry a metal, such as Al, to be deposited onto the optical disk substrate, are arrayed in parallel between the feeding rods. Each of the filaments 10 has a voltage applied thereto from a power supply 11 through the feeding rods 8 by an ON/OFF switch 12.
FIGS. 7 and 8 illustrate means for securing the ends of the filaments 10 to the feeding rods 8.
As shown in the figures, the securing means is formed of a supporting member 15 and a depressing bolt 16. The supporting member 15 has a recess portion 15a facing the electrical feeding rod 8 and is secured to the electrical feeding rod 8 by means of a bolt 14 passing therethrough. A depressing bolt 16 depresses the filament 10, passing through the recess 15a, against the electrical feeding rod 8.
With the aforementioned prior art metallizing apparatus, the filament 10 is in contact with the electrical feeding rod 8 through only the area of a "spot" portion at which the filament is depressed against the electrical feeding rod 8 by means of the depressing bolt 16. This can result in a poor contact between the electrical feeding rod 8 and the filament 10, which leads to the problem that the metal vapor of sufficient density cannot be obtained and thus the reflecting film deposited on the optical disk substrates 5 is not of uniform thickness. Non-uniform thickness of the reflecting film causes the reflectivity of the thus produced optical disk to be less than a predetermined level. This problem needs to be solved to improve yield.
As shown in FIG. 8, since the tip end portion of the depressing bolt 16 is exposed at the recess portion 15a on the supporting member 15, the metal vapor can be deposited on the threaded portion which is exposed, causing difficulty in unscrewing the depressing bolt when replacing the filament 10.
Further, in the aforementioned arrangement, the depressing bolt must be rotated many times to secure the filament to the feeding rod or to disconnect from the feeding rod, and therefore the replacement of the filament is a rather time-consuming job and is a nuisance to the workman. Also the prior art suffers from the problem that, as shown in FIG. 8, the filament 10 may easily slip off the bolt 16 when the depressing bolt 16 is rotated. As a result it is difficult to secure the filament in position.

c/o Pioneer Video Corporation, No. 2680, Nishi Hanawa, Tatomi-cho


A process for producing a material in the form of nanosheets by ball milling of crystals of the material, wherein the ball milling takes place in the presence of a reactive gas.

Two-dimensional materials, such as graphene, boron nitride (BN), and transition metal dichalcogenides (TMD) nanosheets, have exceptional electronic, mechanical and physical properties, which are appealing for both fundamental science and practical applications. With successive thickness reduction of the bulk crystals to nanometer scale, the inherent properties of these bulk materials are altered. For example, electrons in graphene behave as Dirac fermions, MoS2 nanosheet undergoes a phase change from an indirect to direct band gap semiconductor, and BN nanosheets exhibit an exceptional ability to adsorb molecules.
These wonderful materials have been produced in large quantities using various techniques. Ball milling or grinding can be used for thickness reduction of layered materials and even for graphene and nanosheet production but liquid surfactants or solid exfoliation agents have conventionally been used in the milling processes as most ball milling treatments of starting bulk crystals can destroy the material structure and/or introduce a great number of defects. To reduce the damage, low milling energy has been used together with various surfactant solutions (i.e. MDF, NMP). Wet milling media can effectively reduce the structural damage and prevent agglomeration events, but this also introduces contaminants which may be difficult to remove, consequently affecting nanosheet properties and applications.
Dry milling of bulk crystals with solid exfoliation agents (such as dry CO2, sulphur, salt, etc.) is another successful approach. For example, dry CO2 has been used in a ball milling process to produce graphene sheets with carboxylated edges and a significant amount of oxygen is introduced into graphene.
However, in these processes, post-milling treatment is required to remove the surfactants or the agents from the nanosheets, which adds to production costs and can also introduce other contaminations.
The present invention seeks to provide an alternative process for the production of nanosheet materials that may overcome the disadvantages associated with the known processes described above.

Preparation of nanosheets via ball milling in the presence of reactive gases


A system for operating a configuration platform. The system comprising a conversion pipeline, the conversion pipeline allowing converting a first set of data associated with a computer-aided design (CAD) system into polygon meshes suitable for rendering of the portion of a monument and configuration data. The system also comprising a content management system, the content management system storing the polygon meshes and the configuration data; and a 3D real-time engine, the 3D real-time engine allowing to determine, based on the configuration data, at least one of the positioning of the monument, the material surface associated with the monument, the material grain direction associated with the monument, the lighting associated with the monument, the annotations associated with the monument, the alternate states associated with the monument and the kinematic sequence associated with the monument; and to render the portion of the monument by the 3D real-time engine.

High end business aircraft, such as the Challenger™ and the Global™ business aircraft from Bombardier Inc., require a high level of customisation to meet customer requirements that typically make each cabin interior unique from one aircraft to another. In addition to handling such high level of customisation, aircraft OEMs also need to ensure that standards and regulations (such as, but not limited to, regulations from the Federal Aviation Administration, Transport Canada and the European Aviation Safety Agency) are also met. This result in a highly complex process to be conducted before a final cabin interior configuration can be set and be ready for engineering and manufacturing. Such process typically comprises customer needs analysis, cabin interior configuration and optimization, cabin interior configuration rendering and multiple iterations between the aircraft OEM teams and the customer.
Cabin interior configuration modeling systems currently available require a manually intensive process that has very limited abilities to produce real-time rendering. As a result, aircraft OEM personnel has to manually capture customer requirements, for example through one or more in-person meetings with the customer (or personnel acting on behalf of the customer), to then be able to generate aircraft cabin interior prototypes, for example by using 3D CAD/CAM (computer aided design/computer aided manufacturing) tools.
Current approaches provide limited real-time interactions between the customer and an aircraft cabin interior prototype as 3D modeling may require days of work, a dedicated team and dedicated systems to properly operate the 3D CAD/CAM tool used to create a representation of the aircraft cabin interior prototype. This limitation may be even more prevalent in the context of configuring a business aircraft cabin interior, as in-person meetings between the aircraft OEM personnel and the customer may occur outside of the premises of the aircraft OEM.
In addition, aircraft cabin interior typically comprise a vast number of commodities, monuments and accessories for which corresponding engineering data is typically stored and managed by aircraft OEMs and/or suppliers of the aircraft OEMs. The engineering data may comprise all the required information to generate 3D model but typically comprise too much information and details to be efficiently use for the purpose of aircraft interior configuration. In many instances, the engineering data needs to be manually trimmed so that only information relevant to the rendering of the aircraft cabin interior are used in the context of configuring the aircraft cabin interior. This process may be cumbersome, difficult to manage and/or prone to errors and/or inconsistencies.
Due to the high level of customization of each one of the commodities, monuments and accessories and the complexity of the associated engineering data, determining appropriate configurations that meet certain constraints (e.g., customer requirements, regulations requirements, etc.) require a thorough understanding of both available customizations and constraints by the individual in charge of generating a given aircraft interior configuration. This approach may lead to substantial turnaround time between a configuration request for a given customization is made and the deliverables created of the resulting given customization (which may comprise the rendering of the given customization).
Even when the given customization is properly rendered, modifications including, for example, propagating a given customization associated with a given monument to other monuments sharing a same monument category may need to be done manually. As an example, but without being limitative, such situation may occur when there is a need for propagating a given customization of a surface material associated with an armrest of a passenger seat to surface materials associated with armrests of other passenger seats.
Improvements may be therefore desirable.
The subject matter discussed in the background section should not be assumed to be prior art merely as a result of its mention in the background section. Similarly, a problem mentioned in the background section or associated with the subject matter of the background section should not be assumed to have been previously recognized in the prior art. The subject matter in the background section merely represents different approaches.

Method and system for operating a configuration platform


Described herein are techniques for directional cloning an insert DNA segments into a target vector. The techniques mix the target vector, the insert DNA segment, a restriction enzyme, and a DNA ligase to generate a recombinant DNA molecule.

Molecular cloning is a process used to create recombinant DNA molecules. Components for formation of recombinant DNA include a cloning vector, a small DNA segment, multiple enzymes, and living cells. The cloning vector is a DNA molecule that replicates within the living cells. The small DNA segment contains a gene to be cloned. During the cloning process, the gene may be combined with the vector using various methods to form the recombinant DNA molecules. The recombinant DNA molecules are then transformed into the living cells, which are then screened and duplicated. However, conventional techniques for molecular cloning involve multiple processes under various conditions. Therefore, there is a need for a simple, efficient, inexpensive method of molecular cloning of a DNA segment into a target molecule.

Innovative Cellular Therapeutics CO., LTD.


A set of analytic forms provide empirical data used to determine the material properties of a part following its fabrication. Multiple of families of the forms are identically processed to provide a variety of data, including the reaction of the part material to compression, tension and bending stresses. The forms in each family have a structural feature that singularizes the directional effect of gravity on a test cross section of the material. The dimensions of the test cross section progressively vary within each family so that data can be generated for multiple levels of stress.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention broadly relates to analytical tools and techniques for evaluating manufacturing processes, and deals more particularly with analytic forms used to evaluate part designs, materials and processes, especially those involving powder metal.
2. Description of the Related Art
The properties of a manufactured part, such as powder metal part, often depend on the materials and processes used to manufacture the part, as well as the part design. Powder part metallurgy is a forming and fabrication technique comprising three primary processing stages. First, the primary material is physically divided into many small individual particles. Next, the powder is formed to produce a structural shape near the true shape and dimensions of the object ultimately to be manufactured. Finally, the end part is solidified in a radiant thermal, microwave or ultrasonic furnace by applying pressure or vacuum, high temperature, microwave, or sonic energy, or any combination thereof during which self-welding among the powder particles occurs. The end product is a useful metallic part in net or near net shape that exhibits favorable material properties of the parent powder material.
Both the dimensions and other mechanical properties of powder metal parts may be affected by a variety of processing parameters such as molding pressures/times, sintering temperature, curing period etc. Accordingly, it is desirable to observe the part at each stage of the manufacturing process in order to develop information about process controls and the materials that can be used to make adjustments in order to improve part quality. It is impractical, however, to observe the reaction of the powder metal part during the sintering process for example, because sintering is normally performed within a furnace where it may not be possible to directly monitor or observe the part. In addition, it is desirable to have a means of performing comparative analyses on parts that yield data for mechanical properties of the powder material during all phases of the sintering process.
Accordingly, there is a need for an analytical tool that can be used to develop data reflecting the behavior of the powder metal during the manufacturing process, which can then be used to optimize material selection, part design and process guidelines. The present invention is directed toward satisfying this need.

Analytic sintering forms and method for using same


In a case where transmission power control is performed for a plurality of CCs in CA, information transmitted between a transmitter and a receiver in terms of the transmission power control is reduced. A wireless communication apparatus according to the present invention is a wireless communication apparatus configured to perform communication using at least two or more types of component carriers, including transmission power control units 106-1 to 106-3 configured to select one calculation formula from a plurality of different calculation formulas depending on a type of the component carrier and calculate transmission power of the component carrier, and an RF unit 107 configured to perform communication using the component carrier based on the calculated transmission power.

Transmit power control (TPC) is a technique used in uplinks to control transmission power by a mobile station such that intercell interference is reduced to a minimum necessary level while maintaining necessary quality in communication with a base station by controlling transmission power. In a 4-th generation mobile communication system called an LTE (Long Term Evolution)-Advanced system or the like whose standard is being established by 3GPP (The Third Generation Partnership Project), a technique called carrier aggregation (hereinafter referred to as CA) is employed to realize a wide band greater than 20 MHz. In the CA technique, one system band that supports LTE Rel. 8 is used as a component carrier (hereinafter referred to as CC), and communication is performed by simultaneously using a plurality of CCs. CA in an uplink is explained below for a case where transmission power is controlled independently for each of a plurality of CCs.
FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a transmission apparatus of a mobile station that performs transmission to a base station by using three CCs. Note that for simplicity of illustration, only blocks necessary in describing the background art are shown.
Each independent information data to be transmitted by each one of CCs is subjected to error correction encoding performed by respective encoders 1-1 to 1-3, and further subjected to a modulation process such as QPSK (Quaternary Phase Shift Keying), 16QAM (16-ary Quadrature Amplitude Modulation) or the like by modulation units 2-1 to 2-3. The modulated signals are respectively subjected to DFT (Discrete Fourier Transform, also called DFT Pre-Coding) performed by respective DFT units 3-1 to 3-3 thereby being converted into frequency-domain signals and then allocated to resource blocks (which are minimum units each including one or more subcarriers used by a mobile station in accessing a base station and which hereinafter will be referred to as RBs) to be used by resource mapping units 4-1 to 4-3.
In a case where RBs allocated by the resource mapping units 4-1 to 4-3 are contiguous, OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) signal generation units 5-1 to 5-3 generate contiguous DFT-S-OFDM (Discrete Fourier Transform Spread Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) signals. However, in a case where the RBs allocated are not contiguous, clustered DFT-S-OFDM signals are generated. Therefore, the transmission apparatus illustrated in FIG. 8 is capable of operating switchably in two access modes, that is, a contiguous DFT-S-OFDM mode and a clustered DFT-S-OFDM mode. The transmission power control units 6-1 to 6-3 are capable of controlling transmission power individually for each CC. Note that each block is given a number in a range from 1 to 3 following a hyphen for convenience in describing communication using three CCs. An RF (Radio Frequency) unit 7 combines signals and up-converts the combined signals to a carrier frequency band. A control unit 8 controls transmission power control units 6-1 to 6-3. The transmission power control units control power according to one of methods described below.
The methods of controlling transmission power by the transmission power control units 6-1 to 6-3 are described below. Transmission power PPUSCH,c(i) of PUSCH (Physical Uplink Shared Channel which is a so-called physical channel for transmitting data) transmitted for each CC is given by formula (1). Note that the transmission power given by formula (1) is for a case where only PUSCH is transmitted in uplink (NPL 1).
                                                                [                      Formula                                                                          1                    ]                                                                                P                          PUSCH              ,              c                                                      (            i            )                          =                  min                                {                                                                                P                                                  CMAX                          ,                          c                                                                                (                        i                        )                                                              ,                                                                                10                                                                                log                                10                                                                                (                                                                                M                                                                          PUSCH                                      ,                                      c                                                                                (                                    i                                    )                                                                                )                                                                                +                                                                                P                                                              O_PUSCH                                ,                                c                                                                                (                              j                              )                                                                                +                                                                                α                                c                                                                                (                                j                                )                                                                                ·                                                                                PL                            c                                                    +                                                                                Δ                                                              TF                                ,                                c                                                                                (                              i                              )                                                                                +                                                                                f                              c                                                                                (                              i                              )                                                                                }                                              (        1        )
A function min returns a minimum element of arguments. Here, PCMAX,c(i) is maximum transmission power assignable by the mobile station to a c-th CC, c is a CC index, i is a subframe number of a subframe that transmits PUSCH to be controlled, MPUSCH,c(i) is a number of RBs in PUSCH. Furthermore, j has a different value depending on a scheduling method of a radio resource of PUSCH used by the mobile station, and more specifically, j=0 in a case where semi-persistent scheduling is used in which a radio resource is assigned periodically, while j=1 in a case where dynamic scheduling is used in which a radio resource is dynamically assigned. On the other hand, j=2 when used to transmit a random access preamble (a signal that is transmitted at first from a mobile station to a base station to establish a connection between the base station and the mobile station). PO_PUSCH,c(i) prescribes minimum power necessary in a reception apparatus, and is determined by the sum of PO_NOMINAL_PUSCH,c(j) notified from the base station and PO_UE_PUSCH,c).
αc(j) is a value notified from the base station to the mobile station. When j=0 or j=1, one value is selected from {0, 0.4, 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, 0.9, 1}, while when j=2, 1 is given. PLc is a value of a transmission path loss (path loss) (which is also called a coupling loss and which may be a loss taking into account an antenna gain and the like) which is estimated by the mobile station using a reference signal transmitted in downlink and which is expressed in units of dB. ΔTF,c(i) is a value determined by a modulation method or a coding method used by the mobile station. fc(i) indicates that transmission power is controlled by a closed loop, and fc(i) is a TPC command notified from the base station (a control value of transmission power transmitted from the base station) used in transmission power control by the closed loop.
The value calculated by formula (1) gives transmission power that allows the base station to achieve a particular reception level when the mobile station transmits PUSCH using CCs specified by c. If this transmission power is less than maximum transmission power PCMAX,c(i) of PUSCH allowable in the mobile station, then the transmission is performed using this transmission power. If the above-described transmission power is larger than PCMAX,c(i), then the transmission is performed using PCMAX,c(i) as the transmission power.

Wireless communication apparatus, wireless communication method, program, and integrated circuit


A fuel tank support structure for a saddle-type vehicle includes a head pipe which steerably supports a front wheel, a main frame section extending rearwardly and downwardly from the head pipe, and a pair of left and right lower frame sections extending substantially horizontally rearwardly from a lower portion of the main frame section. A fuel tank is disposed in back of the main frame section and between the lower frame sections, and a step floor is disposed over the fuel tank. In the fuel tank support structure, floor support members are disposed under the step floor as support members. The floor support members are disposed in a left-right pair on the outer sides relative to the lower frame sections. The fuel tank is supported by the floor support members. The lower frame sections are disposed so that their lower edges extend along a lower surface of the fuel tank.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fuel tank support structure for a saddle type vehicle, and to a body frame incorporating the novel fuel tank support structure. More particularly, the present invention relates to a fuel tank support structure which is formed, in part, by a portion of a body frame assembly, and to a body frame incorporating same.
2. Description of the Background Art
In relation to saddle type vehicles, there has been known a fuel tank support structure in which a main frame section extending rearwardly downward from a head pipe, and a pair of left and right lower frame sections extending substantially horizontally rearward from a lower portion of the main frame section are provided, a fuel tank is disposed between the pair of left and right lower frame sections, and the fuel tank is fixed to the lower frame sections (see, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2002-331979).
Meanwhile, in order to secure the capacity of a fuel tank, it is desirable to extend the fuel tank in the left-right direction (vehicle width direction). In the above-mentioned saddle type vehicle in the related art, however, the lower frame sections are located on the left and right sides of the fuel tank. This makes it difficult to dispose the fuel tank so as to project to the outer sides relative to the width between the left and right lower frame sections.
The present invention has been made in consideration of the above-mentioned circumstances. Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to ensure that, in a fuel tank support structure for a saddle type vehicle, the capacity of a fuel tank can be enlarged by extending the fuel tank in the left-right direction.

Fuel tank support structure for a saddle-type vehicle, and body frame incorporating the fuel tank support structure


The present invention provides an apparatus for achieving precise manufacturing of drain passages such as those used for oil return and blow-by gas discharge in a cylinder block. Grid-like oil drain passage and corresponding core structures are disclosed herein; the oil drain passage structure comprises a plurality of vertical passages that are arranged longitudinally with respect to the cylinder block, wherein the vertical passages are interconnected by a connecting passage that runs longitudinally through the central portions of the vertical passages.

Cylinder block structures are well known in the art. Generally, a cylinder block contains numerous internal passages that are oriented in directions directions. Among these internal passages are oil drain passages that individually extend from an upper valley of the cylinder block to the oil pan. It follows that a mold used to cast the cylinder block should comprise a plurality of cores which form these oil drain passages.
However, a problem frequently encountered in the art involves the undesirable shifting of these passage cores upon the addition of molten metal during the casting process. As a result, the cylinder block produced has drain passages that deviate from the original design and undercuts the performance of the engine, e.g. Noise, Vibration, and Harshness (NVH) levels, and structural rigidity of the cylinder block.

Oil drain passage structure of cylinder block and core structure thereof


A method includes triggering, through an interface of a data processing device, cropping of a display screen area of a display unit of the data processing device. The method also includes initiating, through a driver component associated a processor of the data processing device, an operating system executing on the data processing device and/or an application executing on the data processing device, the processor to process pixel data to be displayed on the display screen area based on the triggering. Further, the method includes rendering, through the processor, the processed pixel data on a cropped portion of the display screen area of the display unit.

A data processing device (e.g., a desktop computer, a laptop computer, a notebook computer, a netbook, a mobile device such as a mobile phone) may have a display unit associated therewith. The display unit may be illuminated by a backlight of the data processing device. The display unit may be a component of the data processing device consuming maximum power from a battery thereof. In the case of the data processing device being a mobile phone, a user of the mobile phone may most frequently check a current time displayed on the display unit and/or a remaining battery time without performing any other action on the data processing device. By default, an entire display screen area of the display unit may be illuminated by the backlight, thereby consuming a lot of power from the battery.

Customized cropping of a display screen area of a display unit of a data processing device


Source signals emitted in a reverberant environment from different locations are processed by first receiving input signals corresponding to the source signals by a set of sensors. Then, a sparsity-based support estimation is applied to the input signals according to a reverberation model to produce estimates of the source signals and locations of a set of sources emitting the source signals.

Compressive Sensing and Sparse Models
Compressive sensing (CS) and sparse models provide theories and tools for signal acquisition and signal processing applications. A sparse model assumes that a signal, when transformed to an appropriate basis, has very few significant coefficients that model signal energy. Promoting sparsity in some appropriate domain is a very efficient computational method to capture the structure of most natural and man-made signals processed by modern signal processing systems.
Sparsity is useful when inverting an undetermined linear system of the formy=Ax,  (1)where y is an M-dimensional measurement vector, A is a mixing matrix, and x is an N dimensional sparse signal vector. For the underdetermined system, the following optimization determines a sparsest solution
                                          x            _                    =                                    arg                                                                                min                  x                                                                                                      x                                                              0                                                                                s                    .                    t                    .                                                                                y                                                                        ≈            Ax                          ,                            (        2        )            where an l0 norm counts the number of non-zero coefficients of the signal vector x. This is a combinatorially complex problem. Under certain conditions on the mixing matrix A, a solution is possible in polynomial time using a convex relaxation of the l0 norm, or a number of available greedy procedures. These include orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP), Compressive Sampling Matching Pursuit (CoSaMP), Subspace Pursuit (SP), and iterative hard thresholding (IHT) procedures.
Joint and group sparsity models, and their variations, provide further structure to the signal of interest. Joint sparsity can be considered as a special case of group sparsity, thus only the latter is described herein. Under this model, the signal coefficients are partitioned into groups Gi, which partition the coefficient index set {1, . . . , N}. The group sparsity model assumes that only a few of these groups contain non-zero coefficients, and most groups contain all-zero coefficients. Group sparsity can also be enforced using a convex optimization problem, or greedy procedures.
In joint sparsity models, multiple sparse signals are measured concurrently. The assumption is that all the signals share the same sparsity pattern. In other words, the significant signal coefficients are located at the same positions for all signals. By considering the whole acquisition as a linear system, these models are a special case of group sparsity models, and a similar approach can determine the sparse output.
Model-based CS enables more complex constraints and structure than typical sparsity or group-sparsity problems. It is possible to modify conventional methods, such as CoSaMP, to enforce model-based sparsity. All that is necessary is a model-based thresholding function, which replaces the conventional thresholding function, and truncates the signal according to the model.

Method for localizing sources of signals in reverberant environments using sparse optimization

MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC RESEARCH LABORATORIES, INC.


An arc shield is used in projection welding. The projection welding is performed for welding the lower end of a metal stud to the upper surface of a metal plate. The stud has a head and a stem connected securely to the central portion of the lower surface of the head. The arc shield includes an annular horizontal top wall defining a hole therein, and an annular vertical side wall having an annular top end connected securely to the outer peripheral portion of the top wall, and an annular bottom end having a plurality of notches. The annular side wall defines a chamber therein. The hole of the top wall has a size slightly greater than the diameter of the stem of the stud so as to allow for extension of the stem of the stud into the chamber through the hole of the top wall. When the projection welding is being performed, the electric arc is enclosed within the arc shield, while the surplus gas and molten metal that occur in the chamber flow from the arc shield through the notches of the annular side wall.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an arc shield for use in projection welding, which encloses the electric arc therein.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the architectural art, a metal stud is often used in projection welding to couple a steel member or a plurality of steel members with a concrete layer. Referring to FIG. 1, a metal stud (1) is welded to an H-shaped steel member (3) and is embedded within a concrete layer (5). Referring to FIG. 2, in order to weld the lower end of the vertical cylindrical stem (1A) of the stud (1) to the upper surface of the top plate of the steel member (3), a generally semicircular metal filler (11) is attached to the lower end surface of the stem (1A) of the stud (1). A welding gun (2) holds the horizontal head (1B). When an electric current is applied to the stud (1) from the welding gun (2), an electric arc is created between the stud (1) and the steel member (3). Accordingly, molten weld metal (12) is produced between the stud (1) and the steel member (3). Solification of the molten weld metal (12) welds the stud (1) to the steel member (3).
Referring to FIG. 3, in order to weld a plurality of steel members (3') (only one is shown) to a concrete layer (not shown), a metal coupling plate (6) is provided so as to weld the steel members (3') thereto. The coupling plate (6) is coupled with the concrete layer by a stud (1') and a welding gun (2') in the same manner as the steel member (3) of FIG. 1.
The above-mentioned welding process suffers from the following disadvantages:
(1) If no arc shield is used, the electric arc may damage the eyes of the operator;
(2) When the operator holds an arc shield with one hand, it is difficult with one-hand operation to accurately position the stud on the steel member. Furthermore, it is time-consuming to perform this one-hand operation.
(3) Because the molten weld metal is exposed to the atmosphere during welding, dust may enter therein, thus forming bubbles in the solidified weld metal. The bubbles reduce the tensile strength of the solidified weld metal.

Arc shield for use in projection welding


A bus bar module of a battery system includes a bus bar, a sensing circuit carrier, and a fuse assembly. The bus bar is held by a tray and configured to electrically connect two battery cells of the battery system. The sensing circuit carrier includes at least a first electrical conductor and a dielectric insulator surrounding the first electrical conductor. The fuse assembly includes a first holder terminal, a second holder terminal, and a fuse disposed between and electrically connected to the first and second holder terminals. The first holder terminal is electrically connected to the first electrical conductor of the sensing circuit carrier, and the second holder terminal is electrically connected to the bus bar such that the fuse assembly defines a segment of a voltage sensing line from the bus bar through the sensing circuit carrier towards a control device.

The subject matter herein relates generally to battery systems, such as battery systems for electric vehicles.
Battery systems that can be installed within fully electric or hybrid vehicles typically include a plurality of cells grouped together to form a battery pack. Each of the battery cells includes positive and negative cell terminals, and the cell terminals of different battery cells are electrically connected together using bus bars.
Known battery systems typically include electrical components that are configured to measure operating parameters of the battery cells, such as voltage, current, temperature, pressure, and the like, for monitoring a state of the battery system. For example, the battery system may include a central controller that is connected via conductive circuit paths to the bus bars and/or sensors to receive data representing the operating parameters. Spikes in electrical current from the bus bars through the conductive circuit paths can interrupt operation of the battery system by shorting the central controller, generating excess heat, and/or damaging the central controller, the sensors, or other electrical components.
One potential solution for providing overcurrent protection between the bus bars and the central controller is to install one or more fuses on a printed circuit board, and to connect the printed circuit board along the circuit path between the bus bars and the central controller. However, it may be difficult and/or expensive to electrically connect the circuit board to the bus bars. For example, the battery system may require the addition of discrete wires that connect to the circuit board and the bus bars to provide conductive bridges between the circuit board and the bus bars. In addition to the added assembly time and expense, it may be difficult to provide a reliable electrical connection at the joint between the wires and the bus bars attributable to the bus bars and the wires being composed of different types of metal that do not readily join together. For example, the wires may be copper and the bus bars may be aluminum, and soldering or welding the copper to the aluminum may produce a brittle intermetallic layer at the interface, resulting in a brittle joint. The brittle joint may risk breaking during operation of the battery system, because stresses, strains, vibrations, and other forces may be transferred to the joints.
A need remains for providing reliable, efficient, and cost-effective overcurrent protection of the sensing circuits within the battery systems.


Provided are a system and method for setting an adaptive set of handoff parameters. The system includes a user terminal configured to transmit an authentication request to a network and receive a set of handoff parameters from the network; an access point (AP) belonging to the network and configured to receive the authentication request from the user terminal, transmit the authentication request to a central management server, receive the set of handoff parameters from the central management server, and transmit the set of handoff parameters to the user terminal; and the central management server, which is configured to store and manage a plurality of network-specific sets of handoff parameters for one or more networks, authenticate the user terminal using the authentication request received from the AP, and transmit a set of handoff parameters of a network to which the authenticated user terminal connects to the AP.

1. Field
The present exemplary embodiments relate to handoff technology in a wireless network such as a wireless local area network (WLAN).
2. Discussion of Related Art
Recently, the widespread use of wireless terminals, such as, for example, smart phones, has driven up demand for wireless communication networks, such as wireless local area networks (WLAN). In general, WLAN has an advantage in that a network is cheaply available and a transmission speed is fast, as compared to a mobile communication network such as a third generation (3G) network. Consequently, WLAN is widely used as a supplement or replacement for the mobile communication network.
At present, there are Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11a/b/g/n standards for WLAN, but they do not explicitly describe a handoff method between access points (APs). Growing demand among users for the seamless use of WLAN on the move has been motivating an increasing amount of research aimed at smoothly supporting a handoff, even in WLAN environments.

System and method for setting adaptive handoff parameters


The present disclosure is directed to a peptide of formula (I), or a pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, and uses thereof: R1—C—R—X1—X2—P—X3—X4—X5—X6—C—R2 (I) wherein X1, X3, X5, and X6 is an amino acid residue selected from the group consisting of serine, alanine, valine, leucine, isoleucine and glycine; X2 is alanine, arginine or lysine; X4 is glutamic acid or aspartic acid; R1 is selected from the group consisting of S, HS, GHS, PGHS, APGHS, EAPGHS, SEAPGHS, SSEAPGHS, PSSEAPGHS, DPSSEAPGHS and IDPSSEAPGHS, or R1 is absent; and R2 is selected from the group consisting of S, SS, SSK, SSKF, SSKFS, SSKFSW, SSKFSWD, SSKFSWDE, SSKFSWDEY, SSKFSWDEYE, SSKFSWDEYEQ, SSKFSWDEYEQY, SSKFSWDEYEQYK, SSKFSWDEYEQYKK, SSKFSWDEYEQYKKE, or R2 is absent; and wherein the peptide of formula (I), or the pharmaceutically acceptable salt thereof, is a cyclic peptide formed by a disulphide bond between the two cysteine residues.

All references, including any patents or patent application, cited in this specification are hereby incorporated by reference to enable full understanding of the invention. Nevertheless, such references are not to be read as constituting an admission that any of these documents forms part of the common general knowledge in the art, in Australia or in any other country.
Neuropathic pain is caused by a primary lesion, malfunction or dysfunction in the peripheral or central nervous system. Unlike nociceptive pain, which serves a protective biological function by warning of ongoing tissue damage, neuropathic pain has no protective effect and can develop days or months after an injury or after resolution of a disease state, and is frequently long-lasting and chronic.
Neuropathic pain may result from nerve damage caused by a trauma such as a sporting injury, an accident, a fall or a penetrating injury or the nerve damage may result from a disease process such as stroke, viral infections, exposure to toxins, including chemotherapeutic agents, degenerative diseases and diabetes. The prevalence of disease states which may result in the development of neuropathic pain conditions such as diabetic neuropathy and post-herpetic neuralgia is increasing and therefore an increasing number of people are suffering chronic neuropathic pain symptoms.
Although there are effective remedies for treating nociceptive pain, neuropathic pain is often resistant to available analgesic drugs. In addition, current therapies such as tricyclic antidepressants, anticonvulsants, opioid and non-opioid analgesics have significant side effects such as sedation and sleepiness and in the case of opioid analgesics, the risk of drug tolerance and drug dependency or addiction. Thus, there is an urgent need for new and improved treatment options that are effective for alleviating neuropathic pain, including symptoms thereof, with limited or no side effects.


A hood latch includes a base coupled to a frame or a panel of a vehicle, a fork having a first fork protrusion, a second fork protrusion and a third fork protrusion and is coupled to the base to fix a striker positioned on a vehicle hood, a trigger which has a first trigger protrusion, a second trigger protrusion, and a third trigger protrusion, the first trigger protrusion is configured to contact the second fork protrusion or the third fork protrusion, thus controlling a rotation of the fork, a trigger connecting link configured to contact the trigger to rotate the trigger, and a trigger varying link coupled to a first side of the trigger connecting link. A rotating angle of the trigger is based on a contact between the trigger connecting link and a third trigger protrusion or a contact between the trigger varying link and the second trigger protrusion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hood latches. More particularly, the present invention relates to a hood latch, which is intended to open a vehicle hood only in response to a user's manipulation in the interior of a vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
According to regulations (land ministry ordinance No. 229) pertaining to automobile safety standards, it is provided that a vehicle hood should employ a secondary locking structure or two locking structures. In order to satisfy such regulations, a hood latch that is used currently is primarily unlocked by primarily manipulating a lever in a vehicle, and then is secondarily unlocked by a secondary manipulation of a user after he or she gets out of the vehicle. Hence, this is problematic in that a user must move to get out of and get into the vehicle so as to open the hood, thus causing an inconvenience. Particularly in the case of a vehicle wherein the hood is equipped with a gas cylinder allowing it to be automatically opened, it is impossible for a user to automatically open the hood with a single manipulation, thereby causing annoyance to the user.

Hood latch having dual unlocking function