A piezoelectric speaker comprises a plurality of diaphragms, connecting components, and piezoelectric elements. The plurality of diaphragms are each formed by a laminated material in which a core layer made of an insulating material is laminated to skin layers each made of a conductive material so as to form the skin layers on both surfaces of the core layer. The connecting components each corresponds to a plate-shaped component of the insulating material and connects between at least two of the plurality of diaphragms. Piezoelectric elements are mounted on surfaces of the plurality of diaphragms, respectively. The plurality of diaphragms are insulated from each other such that separate voltages are applied to the piezoelectric elements mounted thereon, respectively.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a piezoelectric speaker for use in an acoustic device and the like, and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Background Art
Conventionally, a piezoelectric speaker, known as a compact and low-current driven acoustic device in which a piezoelectric material is used as an electro-acoustic transducer element, is used as an acoustic output device for use in a compact device (for example, see Patent Document 1). In general, the piezoelectric speaker has a structure in which a piezoelectric element having formed thereon an electrode of silver thin film or the like is adhered to a metal diaphragm. A sound output mechanism of the piezoelectric speaker is such that an application of an AC voltage to both surfaces of the piezoelectric element causes a generation of a shape distortion of the piezoelectric element, so that the metal diaphragm is vibrated, thereby generating a sound.
On the other hand, a low-frequency reproduction capability of a speaker unit greatly depends on a volume of air to be released using an amplitude of vibration of the diaphragm included in the speaker unit. Therefore, in order to increase a reproduction bandwidth at a low-frequency side in the speaker unit, the speaker unit has to be constructed so as to increase an area of the diaphragm or increase a stroke of the diaphragm. However, when the speaker unit is mounted on a compact device or the like, the speaker unit is required to have a restricted diameter and thickness depending on a volumetric capacity of a casing of the device and other devices to be mounted thereon.
In recent years, while a market trend requires reductions in thickness, size, and weight of a mobile device such as a mobile telephone, an acoustic system mounted thereon is required to perform both high quality sound reproduction and stereo reproduction, resulting in the required number of speaker units being plural for realizing such reproductions. However, it is difficult to increase the sizes of the casing and the speaker against the trend or to leave the size of the device having a plurality of speaker units mounted thereon unchanged from a current size. Under such circumstances, although the high quality sound reproduction is expected, the compact device has mounted thereon an electrodynamic small-diameter micro speaker which provides a poor low-frequency reproduction performance.    Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2001-16692
Here, as one of indexes used for determining a capability represented as an acoustic characteristic of a speaker unit, a lowest resonant frequency (hereinafter, referred to as an F0) is used. The lowest resonant frequency F0 is obtained using equation (1) as follows.P=(2πf)2×ρ0a2/2πl  (1)where P: sound pressure (N/m2), a2: effective vibration area (m2), ρ0: air density, f: frequency (Hz), x: amplitude (m), l: measured distance (m).
According to equation (1), when a speaker (for example, a piezoelectric speaker) having a flat plate diaphragm performs a sound reproduction, the sound pressure P is proportional to the square of the frequency f. Therefore, in order to obtain a constant sound pressure throughout all bands, the lower the reproduction frequency is, the larger the vibration area a2 and the amplitude x have to be, such that a volumetric capacity from which air is released by the diaphragm is increased.
Focusing on a portabililty, a mobile device such as a mobile telephone or a PDA (personal digital assistant) has such a favorable casing as to allow reductions in thickness, size, and weight of the device. Therefore, the speaker unit is often mounted in a restricted mounting space in a casing of the mobile device. Further, in a case where although the speaker unit is designed for stereo reproduction, the aforementioned space in which the speaker unit is mounted remains unchanged, the width, height, and depth thereof are restricted. When two speakers are mounted on the same plane, each of the speakers has its diameter halved. For example, when each of the speakers has a round shape, the vibration diameter area thereof is reduced to a quarter, thereby exerting a substantial influence on the low frequency reproduction.
Further, in general, since a user is allowed to rotate a display screen mounted on the mobile telephone or the PDA, the user can view a moving picture on the display screen oriented in two directions, i.e., oriented vertically and horizontally. That is, in order to maintain a stereo sound field at sound reproduction regardless of whether the display screen is oriented vertically or oriented horizontally, it is necessary to mount at least three (preferably at least four) speakers. However, since the speaker unit is to be mounted in a restricted space as described above, it is difficult to realize a stereo performance using a diameter of a speaker providing a mono performance as well as to increase the size of the speaker, taking into consideration places into which a plurality of speakers are mounted. That is, although the compact mobile device has to include a unit having a thickness and a diaphragm diameter increased so as to perform the low-frequency reproduction, it is difficult to provide a space for mounting the plurality of speakers capable of performing the stereo reproduction and the like because of a reduced volumetric capacity for mounting the speaker units.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a piezoelectric speaker, which is mounted in a reduced volumetric capacity, capable of performing both a low-frequency reproduction and a stereo reproduction, and a method for manufacturing the same.

Piezoelectric speaker and method for manufacturing the same


Disclosed are apparatus and methods for providing images of memory objects. A computing device can receive a plurality of memory objects for one or more executable software components. The computing device can classify the plurality of memory objects in accord with a plurality of object classifications. A particular object classification can represent a probability that a memory object classified with the particular object classification is to be written to during execution of the one or more executable software components. The computing device can order the plurality of memory objects based on the plurality of object classifications. The computing device can provide an image for the one or more executable software components using the computing device, where the image includes the ordered plurality of memory objects.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Many computing devices are initialized using disk or memory images. A disk image includes one or more files that together hold the contents and structure of part or all of a data storage device, such as a hard drive, an optical disk, or a flash drive. A memory image includes one or more files that together hold the contents and structure of part or all of a computer memory, such as a random access memory (RAM). Typically, disc or memory images are created by creating a "snapshot" or page-by-page copy of RAM or a sector-by-sector copy of a disc or other drive. Thus, the disk or memory image can be an exact copy of the structure and contents of a storage device or memory independent of a file or memory system used to store files on the data storage device. Depending on the image format, a disk or memory image may span one or more computer files.
One example disk or memory image is a boot image which includes the software and related data to allow a device to be powered up; i.e., be booted. For example, a boot image for an application runtime is created by taking a snapshot of RAM storing the application and saving the snapshot to one or more files representing the boot image. The boot image can then later be loaded, perhaps using a single memory mapping command provided on several modern computing systems.

Apparatus and methods for optimizing dirty memory pages in embedded devices


A feedback position control system and method of extracting feedback phase or position information therefrom. A resolver or similar device such as an inductosyn is connected to each movable member of a machine tool such that the phase of the resolver output signal is indicative of the displacement of each movable member about its respective axis. The stator windings of the resolver are excited with reference and quadrature signals to generate a periodically varying output signal. The zero crossings of the output signal are monitored and the digital count in a reference counter (C.sub.A and C.sub.B) corresponding to the times of zero crossing are stored. The scaled sum of the counts C.sub.A and C.sub.B is determinative of the phase of the output signal relative to the reference signal.

Field of the Invention
This invention relates to feedback position control systems for numerically controlled machine tools. More particularly, to a feedback control systems having a transducer operatively attached to a movable member of the machine tool wherein the feedback transducer produces a variable phase signal correlatable to the position of the movable member.

Position feedback control system for a numerically controlled machine tool


A mobile event data recorder is described providing a contained environmental control system for a hard drive module for use in, or with, a vehicle. A hard drive housing with multiple hard drives and a vibration isolation system are provided within a hard drive module chassis. The vibration isolation system simultaneously provides triaxial isolation in each of two different orientations of the hard drive module. First and second vibration isolators connect the hard drive housing with adjoining walls of the chassis, the first and second vibration isolators positioned to achieve a natural resonant frequency suitable to isolate frequencies in the hard drive operating range, taking into account the forces that will be applied to the vehicle. The natural resonant frequency can be about 10 Hz or less, in order to isolate the hard drives from frequencies of greater than about 10 Hz.

Event recorders are used to measure events, such as operator inputs to a train or other vehicle. Such event recorders are similar to "black boxes" in airplanes. Most on-board event recorders record all of this information into (solid state) memory. Data from the solid-state memory can be uploaded if it must be analyzed or reviewed. Solid-state memory is presently 70 times the cost of hard disk storage; therefore, there is a commercial advantage if hard drives could be used. However, recording technologies for use in rail applications and similar applications must be incredibly rugged.
FIG. 1 shows one approach in which a hard drive 10 is provided within an event recorder data pack 12, for mounting to a mounting surface 14 of a vehicle. The entire event recorder data pack unit 12 including all elements housed within the outer casing is vibration isolated using external vibration isolators 16. External connections 18, which can be rigid or semi-rigid, will also affect the isolation system performance, and the degree of their effect is uncontrollable in that it is dependent on the installation. This approach can be difficult because of the size of the envelope. Also, the vibration isolators to isolate the entire unit from the exterior are expensive.
FIG. 2 shows another approach in which only a hard drive housing 20 is vibration isolated within a hard drive module 28 provided within the outer casing of an event recorder data pack unit 22. Using internal vibration isolators 26, vibration isolation is done internally to the hard drive module chassis. Other environmental control functions can also be performed internal to the hard drive module chassis. This reduces cost, and improves application since, as shown in FIG. 2, the unit 22, or a mobile digital video recorder in which it is mounted, can be bolted directly to a mounting surface 24 of a vehicle. One such approach for using hard disk storage in a mobile event recorder is described in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/106,515 filed on Apr. 15, 2005 entitled "Contained Environmental Control System for Mobile Event Data Recorder", which is incorporated herein by reference. New storage requirements demand the use of multiple hard drives of larger (though fairly standard) physical size and capacity.
Most approaches isolate vibration forces from more than one direction. U.S. Pat. No. 7,234,153 issued on Jun. 19, 2007 to Jensen and is entitled "Vibration Damper for Dampening Vibrations at Low Frequencies". In this approach, two springs are mutually connected on the same side of a vibration sensitive item to dampen vibration in a way that can compensate for both horizontal and vertical vibration. It is intended to isolate light vibration sensitive elements from a vibration generating base at relatively low frequencies (below 180 Hz). This system does not provide vibration isolation in more than one mounting orientation of the vibration sensitive item.
It can be advantageous to provide a ruggedized environment, including enhanced vibration isolation for more than one hard drive mounting orientation. United States Patent Application Publication No. 2006/0158968 published Jul. 20, 2006 of Vanman et al. is entitled "Method of and System for Mobile Surveillance and Event Recording". Four silicon oil-filled dampers stabilize the floating mechanism. An oil filled damper can usually only provide damping or isolation in one direction. A spring must be manually pivoted so that it can handle a gravity load in the direction of mounting. It therefore cannot provide multiple orientation vibration isolation without a manual change to the system.
Another known isolator configuration shown in FIG. 3 attempts to deal with vibration in multiple orientations. A hard drive housing 30 including two standard hard drives is isolated within a chassis of a hard drive module 32. Two isolators 34 on the bottom of the hard drive housing 30 are intended to provide isolation, and two further isolators 36 on the right are intended to provide stabilization. However, this approach using two isolators on the side does not permit practical motion because it is too stabilized. This system does not isolate all of the vibrations in various hard drive operable ranges, as they vary based on applied force of vibration, since the natural resonant frequency is too high.
It is, therefore, desirable to provide an improved mobile event data recorder having a vibration isolation system that isolates vibrations in more than one mounting orientation and isolates frequencies in the hard drive operating ranges.

Mobile event data recorder with multiple orientation vibration isolation


A card (1) including a lower layer (2) and a layer (4) of solidified binder (6) in which various elements are incorporated, in particular a coil (12) electrically coupled to an electronic unit (8). The coil (12) exhibits a lower planar surface (30), the inner face (20) of the lower layer (2) exhibiting a relief (18) defining sunken valleys traversing said inner face (20).

A category of electronic cards concerned by the invention is made up by cards without exterior electrical contact and possessing a coil enabling electromagnetic coupling with an external arrangement.
By card is understood every object having a substantially planar structure defining a general plane of the object and exhibiting any contour whatsoever in such general plane.
The patent document EP 0 570 784 in the name of the present applicant describes various embodiments of an electronic card comprising a layer formed by a solidified binder in which is incorporated at least one electronic element electrically coupled to a coil. This document also describes various embodiments of a method of manufacture of such a card.
In a particularly advantageous embodiment, there is provided a positioning structure exhibiting at least one principal opening in which is housed the electronic element. In each embodiment described, the coil and the electronic element are housed within such principal opening. In all the proposed embodiments, the various elements incorporated within the solidified layer of binder are located facing entirely planar surfaces.
According to an embodiment of the method of manufacture described in the patent document EP 0 570 784, the following various steps for the manufacture of a card are provided:
I) the bringing onto a work surface of a first outer layer formed from a solid material;
II) the placing of at least one electronic element on the first outer layer;
III) the bringing of a binder onto the first outer layer;
IV) the bringing onto said binder of a second outer layer formed from a solid material and facing the first outer layer;
V) the application of a pressure on the first and second outer layers until such outer layers are located at a predetermined distance relative to one another.
In a final step, the binder is solidified in order to form an intermediate layer between the outer layers.
According to a specific characteristic of the method described hereinbefore, a positioning structure, defining at least one internal zone serving in particular for positioning the coil, is brought in between steps I and IV of the method.
According to a variant of the method described hereinbefore, it is foreseen to bring initially the planar outer layer and the various elements to be incorporated into the card, in particular the electronic element electrically coupled to the coil and also a positioning structure when the latter is provided. Next, the binder is applied in the form of a viscous liquid. Onto such binder is then applied the second outer layer. Finally, with the help of pressing means, pressure is exerted on the outer layers and consequently on the binder along a direction perpendicular to the work surface so as to form the layer of binder in which are incorporated various elements as provided.
The variant of the method described hereinbefore is very advantageous from an economic viewpoint since it enables producing large quantities of cards at low cost. Additionally, such variant is advantageous from the fact that it does not necessitate applying heat in order to melt the outer layers, thus avoiding the shrinkage phenomena of the material and buckling of the card once cooled. However, the applicant has observed in the course of numerous experiments that the method described hereinbefore brings results which are satisfactory for various specific embodiments, but that on the other hand a certain number of cards obtained by this method and having one of the structures proposed in patent document EP 0 570 784 does not exhibit a sufficiently satisfactory flatness such that for certain embodiments the industrial yield is relatively low.
Effectively, the requirement of flatness for electronic cards is particularly high, in particular when printing is provided on an external surface of such cards. Certain printing techniques require absolutely planar outer surfaces, lacking which deformations appear in the printed message.

Flat card having internal relief and incorporating at least one electronic element


Methods for reclaiming or reconditioning used tubulars are disclosed. One method includes performing non-visual, non-destructive inspection of used tubulars at a site of a reconditioning or reclaiming plant prior to the used tubulars being cleaned in preparation for reclaiming or reconditioning, followed by sorting the used tubulars based principally on the inspection. The non-visual, non-destructive inspection may be selected from magnetic flux leakage inspection, ultrasonic inspection, Eddy current inspection, acoustic emission inspection, and combinations thereof.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to the field of inspection and reconditioning of tubular goods such as sucker rods, and more specifically to methods of sorting used tubular goods prior to exposing the goods to reconditioning processes.
2. Background Art
Sucker rod is used as an example in the following discussion, but the methods are applicable to other tubular goods, such as production tubing, line pipe, and the like. It is assumed the reader is familiar with sucker rods and their use. As will be noted, the process involves many steps and it is an object of the present disclosure to pre-sort the rods so that only those rods worthy of returning to use are subjected to all of the steps.
Referring to FIG. 1, in convention methods, at a well site 2 or other site where used sucker rod is to be picked up for reclaiming or reconditioning (the difference between reclaiming and reconditioning is explained below), rods are loaded onto trucks using support stripping to prevent bending. In areas where multiple wells 2 are to be picked up, within short distance of a reconditioning plant, truck trailers having specially developed cranes may be used. After the used rods arrive at a plant 4 (indicated by dashed line box) they are lifted to a holding area 6 where they are uniquely identified according to size, quantity, company name and well location and tagged appropriately. This identity is maintained throughout the entire inspection and reconditioning process. In conventional methods, all used rods are then dipped in a hot kerosene bath 8 to remove paraffin, grease and other foreign materials. Once the used rods are clean, they are normally all moved into the plant 4, where the reconditioning or reclaiming process begins.
Visual inspection 10 is the first step in the convention reclamation and reconditioning processes. Visual inspection involves a human visually locating pitting, corrosion, wear, stretched rods and bent rods. Any rod failing to pass this visual inspection is temporarily removed from the plant. Any rods that are bent, bowed, or have rod guides on them are removed and sent to a rod straightening machine 12 and/or a rod guide removal machine 14. Once they are straight and have the rod guide removed, they are all returned to the plant 4 for the reconditioning or reclaiming process. From experience, one might surmise that some of these straightened and cleaned used rods might have unseen defects (cracks, for example), and that some of these defects may in fact make those rods unacceptable for their intended field use, but all the rods are nevertheless processed in the plant until a defect is found. In a typical plant 4, the next step 16 is for all couplings to be removed; in some cases this may be accomplished with a specially designed hydraulic device. Pin end areas are buffed and cleaned to parent metal. Once the pins are cleaned they are inspected and gauged. Any rod that is rejected in step 16 is removed from plant 4, as indicated by box 18, only after much effort and expense.
In reclaiming or reconditioning used sucker rod, rust, scale and other surface materials are removed by shot cleaning or shot peening 20. Shot peening defines reconditioning as opposed to simply reclaiming rods. Shot peening has been shown to increase the life of used rod from 50 to 100 percent. After exiting the shot cleaner or shot peener 20 the rod may pass through a magnetic normalizing device 24. Typically, used rods have a residual magnetic field in the body of the rod. This magnetic field is not consistent within the lot to be reconditioned. The magnetic inconsistency has a dramatic effect on Eddy Current inspection, causing inaccurate results. By creating a consistent magnetic field in the rod prior to Eddy Current inspection, consistent, reliable inspection results are achieved. Magnetic normalization increases the likelihood of flaw detection, and thereby greatly reduces the likelihood of a sucker rod failure caused by localized stress, fatigue, and improper normalization of the upset run out. Once the rod is either shot cleaned or shot peened, and after any magnetic normalization, it is full length inspected by an Eddy Current Device 26. This device identifies fatigue, embrittlement and irregular normalizing in the rod body. In some plants, any rejected rods are removed from plant 4, as indicated at box 28. It should be mentioned here that the use of symbols (boxes, circles, etc.) in the various figures is completely arbitrary unless specifically pointed out. Dashed boxes indicate optional processes, or processes that some plants may not practice.
Depending on the particular plant, rods to be further reclaimed or reconditioned may then progress into a rotating laser measurement unit 30 where the entire rod may be examined to determine if it is within diameter specifications. Rods to be further reclaimed or reconditioned then are passed into an EMI (electromagnetic inspection) unit 34 where injurious pits and cracks are identified. End areas of rods that remain acceptable are subjected to wet magnetic particle inspection, as indicated by box 38. Wet magnetic particle inspection detects cracks in the thread area, undercut area, wrench flat area, upset, and transition area. Liberal amounts of corrosion inhibitor lubricant and a new protector is applied to end areas of rods that remain acceptable after end area inspection station 38. The sucker rod is then run through a device 42 that removes the residual magnetic field in the rod that was induced for inspection purposes to an acceptable level. An amine-based corrosion inhibitor is typically applied at station 44, which will provide corrosion protection during storage, and approximately two weeks downhole protection. Each rod is color coded as to the final grade of the reclaimed or reconditioned rod. After the rod has been coded, it is removed from the plant 4 and placed into storage 46 for inventory control.
As noted, both reclaiming and reconditioning processes involve many steps, materials, manpower, and plant space. Most plants have no or minimal ways of getting rejects out of the plant that fail. This is a real problem addressed by the present disclosure; if rejects could be denied entry to the plant, then all of the processes being performed in the plant would be performed on acceptable material and not sub-standard material. These processes cost money and if the money is only being spent on acceptable products, then that is the most cost effective manner in which to operate the plant. This is an important issue; in many instances the ability to remove a product at the point of rejection in a reclamation or reconditioning plant is materially overstated. A problem with both reconditioning and reclaiming sucker rods and other tubulars is that the visual inspection 10 is not reliable and often fails to identify tubulars that are ultimately, after passing through many of the above-described steps, rejected. The result is a waste of time, materials, and plant space for those rods that are ultimately rejected.
The industry has long lived with the above-mentioned problem and has accepted it as a fact of the business. There is thus a long-felt but as yet unmet need in the art of reconditioning and reclaiming tubulars, and in particular sucker rod, for an effective method of solving this problem.

Method of sorting used tubular goods prior to reclaiming or reconditioning


A phase control switch with an RFI suppression inductor includes a first winding on the inductor in series with a triac. A first capacitor is in parallel across the series combination of the first winding and triac. The switch further includes a second winding on the inductor with a second capacitor connected in parallel across the second winding. When the second capacitor and second winding resonate, a Q rise in flux occurs in the inductor core, intercepting the flux in the first winding to produce a greater voltage drop across the first winding and a corresponding decrease in the rate of current rise in the triac. Fewer turns are needed in the first winding for proper RFI suppression, resulting in a smaller device.

The need for RFI suppression in phase controlled switches is well known in the prior art of phase control. Phase control switches with good RFI filtering tend to have bulky inductors in order to reduce heat dissipation and maintain adequate inductance. Phase controllers produce RFI frequencies during the step rise in current when the phase control switch is first activated. Typically an inductor is placed in series with the switch and a first capacitor is placed across the series combination. When the phase switch conducts, the inductor and capacitor form a resonant tank filter which has a break frequency which suppresses the RFI frequencies below a level which can cause interference with the AM broadcast band. This is well known in the prior art. A problem arises with attaining the maximum power control in the smallest package. When the phase controller is conducting and the load active, heat is dissipated by a first order phase switch voltage drop, and by a second order RFI inductor voltage drop. The RFI inductor must have many turns for the required inductance, and be of a large wire diameter to limit I.sup.2 R loss in the inductor.

Phase control switch with reduced heat dissipating RFI inductor


The present disclosure describes methods and apparatuses for satellite-based narrow-band communication. In some aspects, the systems include a user device (102) that establishes a Narrow-Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) wireless connection (106) with one or more orbital satellites (104) in order to transmit (108) and receive (110) data when other wireless connections are not available. The data may be relayed by the orbital satellite (104) to and from a base station (202) on Earth.

Wireless cellular-based communication has become a primary source of communication for many people, particularly when travelling outside of the home or office. In these situations, people rely on availability of a wireless cellular network to communicate with family, friends, emergency responders, doctors, or roadside assistance. One disadvantage of wireless cellular networks is that they have a limited communication range. For example, when travelling outside of a city, a user of a mobile device may be out of range of a wireless cellular network and may be unable to communicate.
In another example, a wireless cellular network that would otherwise be available may be unusable due to a disaster that has disabled a base station of the wireless cellular network (e.g. cell tower). For example, after a natural disaster, base stations of a network may be damaged, or power may be cut off leading to loss of network availability. Because of the limited communication range, a user device may be unable to reach an unaffected base station of the network and, thus, also unable to communicate remotely.


A method for using laser Doppler velocimetry to determine the mass flux (mass per area per time) of a polymer fiber stream without interfering with the flow of the fiber stream wherein a factor is determined for converting laser data rate information into stream flow mass flux values and to determine the diameter of a filament by measuring filament velocity without interfering with the flow of the filament.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the non-invasive, on-line measurement of fiber flow and other fiber/mat properties in various fiber handling processes such as melt spinning, melt blowing, spunbonding, air laydown and wet laydown. More particularly, but not by limitation, the present invention relates to the use of laser Doppler velocimetry to measure the mass flux (defined as mass per area per time) of fibers, or filament velocity, in the fiber stream of a melt blowing apparatus.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Since the construction of the first laser in 1960, the use of lasers in science, industry, and commerce has steadily risen. The use of lasers in the fiber industry is no exception. For example, a single laser beam, when shined upon a fiber, will produce a forward scatter pattern that is dependent on the fiber diameter. As a method of off-line, post-production fiber size measurement, use of this forward scatter pattern is more accurate and much faster than obtaining diameters by optical microscopy or scanning electron microscopy as shown by I. M. Fouda et al. in the article, "A Comparative Study of Three Methods for Measuring Fiber Diameter", Indian J. of Text. Tech., Vol. 13, pp. 11-16, 1988.
This forward scatter technique can also be used to measure the diameter of moving filaments. Thus, for example, the procedure can be used to monitor the diameter of a fiber during conventional melt spinning as indicated by A. A. Hamza et al., in "Production of Polyethylene Fibers and Their Optical Properties and Radial Differences in Orientation", Text. Res. J., Vol. 50, pp. 592-600, 1980. In addition, the back-scattered radiation from a moving (or stationary) filament can be used to measure refractive index as illustrated by H. M. Presby in "Refractive Index and Diameter Measurements of Unclad Optical Fibers", J. Opt. Soc. Amer., Vol. 64, pp. 280-284, 1974, and by J. M. Wilkes in "Calculating Fiber Index of Refraction from Laser Back-Scattering Data", Text. Res. J., Vol. 52, pp. 481-482, 1982. Besides the analysis of single filaments, single beam lasers can also be used to examine defects in yarns and fabrics. The randomness/texture of the surfaces causes the formation of a diffraction (speckle) pattern from which information on defects can be determined as shown by E. Toba in the article, "Determination of the Autocorrelation Function of Woven Fabrics Using Laser Speckles", Text. Res. J., Vol. 50, pp. 238-244, 1980. W. E. Wolf in the article, "On-Line Inspection for Nonwoven Fabrics", 12th Technical Symposium, Ass'n of Nonwoven Fabrics Industry, pp. 249-264, 1984, described a method for using lasers during post-production examination of nonwoven fabrics.
Another laser configuration that has found use in fiber science is laser Doppler velocimetry, or LDV. LDV is commonly used to measure fluid velocities by examining the Doppler shift in the laser light scattered by small particles moving with the fluid. In the usual dual-beam LDV system, two laser beams are focused so as to intersect and form a small measuring volume, or mv. Particles which pass through this mv produce Doppler bursts of scattered light. An LDV system is noninvasive and can measure velocities in the range of 10 .mu.m/s to 1 km/s.
In the textile area, LDV has been used for the measurement of the velocity of textile surfaces by W. Ringens et al., as indicated in the article "Optoelectronic Sensor for Motionless Velocity Measurement of Textile Surfaces", Textil Praxis International. Vol. 43, pp. 640-643, 1988. LDV has also been used for the measurement of fiber velocities in a fiber conduit during open end friction spinning by K. J. Brockmanns et al., in "Application of Laser Doppler Anenometry: Open-end Friction Spinning of Yarn", Textil Praxis International, Vol. 42, pp. 248-250, 1987, and by W. Bauer et al., in "Fiber Flow and Its Effects on the Characteristics of Open-end Spun Yarn", Textil Praxis International, Vol. 44, pp. 15-17, 1989. Lasers have also been used to measure the diameter of filaments and fiber bundles in-process by S. Holly and S. L. Chao in the article, "Noncontact Filament Diameter Measuring Technique", Instrument Soc. of America, 757 (pp. 1-7) (1974). Holly and Chao did not measure filament velocity to determine filament diameter but rather determined filament diameter by adjusting the interference fringe spacing to a minimum.
In the common application of LDV to a single-phase system (e.g., air or water), the fluid must often be artificially seeded with fine particles (e.g., oil droplets or a fine powder) in order for the laser light to be scattered and measured. The seed concentration is low and the seed sizes are small: 0.5 to 5 micron diameters are typical. A more complex problem is the application of LDV to two-phase flows such as air bubbles in water or large liquid drops in air as studied by F. Durst and M. Zare in "Laser Doppler Measurements in Two-Phase Flows", pp. 403-429, Proceedings of the LDA-Symposium, Copenhagen; Skovlunde, Denmark, 1975. In these two-phase flows, the size and concentration of the dispersed phase are much greater than the seed concentration in a single-phase system (of course, a seeded system is actually a two-phase system). Surfaces can be so large, in fact, that the mv intersection of the laser beams cannot illuminate the entire surface at one time.
For the particular case of spherical particles of one phase dispersed in a second phase, exact mathematical treatments are possible for relating the Doppler signals to the particle sizes. These treatments are discussed by W. M. Farmer in "Measurement of Particle Size, Number Density, and Velocity Using a Laser Interferometer", Applied Optics, Vol. 11, pp. 2603-2612, 1972; and by F. Durst and B. Ruck in, "Effective Particle Size Range in Laser Doppler Anemometry", Experiments in Fluids, Vol. 5, pp. 305-314, 1987. For cylindrically-shaped objects, such as fibers, the expected signals can be much more complex. If the cylinder moves with its major axis perpendicular to the plane of the crossing beams, the expected signals are very similar to the signals from a sphere. However, for a cylinder (i.e., fiber) with random orientation in space, prediction of the expected signals is mathematically intractable. Because of this, LDV has not previously been successfully applied to fiber technologies exhibiting random fiber orientations.

Method for on-line fiber flow measurement

The Board of Regents of the University of Oklahoma


Applicants have discovered methods for making, treating and using diamonds which substantially enhance their capability for low voltage emission. Specifically, applicants have discovered that defect-rich diamonds--diamonds grown or treated to increase the concentration of defects--have enhanced properties of low voltage emission. Defect-rich diamonds are characterized in Raman spectroscopy by a diamond peak at 1332 cm.sup.-1 broadened by a full width at half maximum .DELTA.K in the range 5-15 cm.sup.-1 (and preferably 7-11 cm.sup.-1). Such defect-rich diamonds can emit electron current densities of 0.1 mA/mm.sup.2 or more at a low applied field of 25 V/.mu.m or less. Particularly advantageous structures use such diamonds in an array of islands or particles each less than 10 .mu.m in diameter at fields of 15 V/.mu.m or less.

A field emission device emits electrons in response to an applied electrostatic field. Such devices are useful in a wide variety of applications including displays, electron guns and electron beam lithography. A particularly promising application is the use of field emission devices in addressable arrays to make flat panel displays. See, for example, the December 1991 issue of Semiconductor International, p. 11; C. A. Spindt et at., IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. 38 (10), pp. 2355-63 (1991); and J. A. Costellano, Handbook of Display Technology, Academic Press, New York, pp. 254-57 (1992), all of which are incorporated herein by reference.
A typical field emission device comprises a cathode including a plurality of field emitter tips and an anode spaced from the cathode. A voltage applied between the anode and cathode induces the emission of electrons towards the anode.
Conventional electron emission flat panel displays typically comprise a flat vacuum cell having a matrix array of microscopic field emitter tips formed on a cathode of the cell ("the back plate") and a phosphor-coated anode on a transparent front plate. Between cathode and anode is a conductive element called a "grid" or "gate". The cathodes and gates are typically intersecting strips (usually perpendicular strips) whose intersections define pixels for the display. A given pixel is activated by applying voltage between the cathode conductor strip and the gate conductor strip whose intersection defines the pixel. A more positive voltage is applied to the anode in order to impart a relatively high energy (400-1000 eV) to the emitted electrons. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,940,916; 5,129,850; 5,138,237; and 5,283,000, each of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Diamonds are desirable field emitters. Early field emitters were largely sharp-tipped structures of metal or semiconductor, such as Mo or Si cones. Such tips, however, are difficult to make, have insufficient durability for many applications, and require relatively high applied fields (about 100 V/.mu.m) for electron emission. Diamonds, however, have structural durability and negative electron affinity--properties that make them attractive for field emission devices. Field emission devices employing diamond field emitters are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,129,850 and 5,138,237 and in Okano et al, Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 64, p. 2742 et seq. (1994), all of which are incorporated herein by reference. Flat panel displays which can employ diamond emitters are disclosed in co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/220,077 filed by Eom et al on Mar. 30, 1994 and U.S. patent applications Ser. No. 08/299,674 and Ser. No. 08/299,470, both filed by Jin et al on Aug. 31, 1994. These three applications are incorporated herein by reference.
While diamonds offer substantial advantages as field emitters, it is highly desirable to employ diamond emitters capable of emission at voltages below those required by untreated diamonds. For example, flat panel displays typically require current densities of 0.1 mA/mm.sup.2. If such emission densities can be achieved with an applied voltage below about 25 V, then low-cost CMOS driver circuitry can be used in the display. This typically requires emission at fields below about 25 V/.mu.m. To achieve emission at such low fields, diamonds heretofore needed to be doped to n-type semiconductivity--a difficult and unreliable process. Accordingly, there is a need for improved diamond field emitters for low voltage emission.

Field emission devices employing enhanced diamond field emitters


The present invention provides a goalie blocking glove that features a non-binding front blocking board surface that incorporates a carbon fiber front layer over the ultra-high density internal foam core, for lighter weight and added protection under extreme impacts. An adjustment mechanism is also included in the blocker glove, to allow the goalie to customize the fit of the inner glove to his or her individual hand size.

In ice hockey, the goaltender, also known colloquially as the "goalie", is the player who defends his or her team's goal net by stopping shots of the puck from entering his or her team's net, thus preventing the opposing team from scoring. Because of the power of shots, the goaltender wears special equipment designed to protect the body from direct impact of the puck. Special goaltending equipment is subject to specific regulations. For example, many other professional and non-professional ice hockey leagues adhere to equipment size regulations based on International Ice Hockey Federation rules. The National Hockey League ("NHL") specifies maximum dimensions of goaltending equipment to prevent goalies from having an unfair puck blocking advantage. Current NHL rules for blocking gloves limit padding attached to the back or forming part of the goaltender's blocking glove to eight inches (8″) in width and fifteen inches (15″) in length at any point. Further, the blocking glove must be rectangular in shape. The flap protecting the thumb and wrist must be fastened to the blocker and must follow the contour of the thumb and wrist. This thumb protection must not exceed seven inches (7″) in extreme length when measured from the top of the blocking surface. Further, raised ridges are not to be added to any portion of the blocking glove. All goaltenders must use one of each of a blocking glove and catching glove that meet League-approved sizing specifications.


A surgical headrest which comprises two arcuate base segments and a pad affixed to each of the base segments. Each of the pads has a cavity in the surface which is affixed to the base in a shape to accept the base segment, thereby securing the pad to the base segment.

The present invention is directed to a surgical headrest of the type which is commonly referred to as a horseshoe headrest. The headrest employs padded material around a frame which is generally in the shape of a horseshoe and the patient's head is normally positioned face down and cradled by the padded material. This type of headrest differs from the type of headrest that uses skull pins which are driven into the skull of the patient to hold the patient in position or uses pressure pads to hold the head in position.
Typical of such headrests are those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,108,426 which includes both pins and pads. The headrest shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,545,572 is particularly adapted for children or infants and uses pads only to support the head in the proper position.
In addition to the above mentioned prior art headrests there is also been available a headrest made with arcuate shaped metal brackets to which foam pads are affixed by pressure sensitive fasteners such as hook and loop fasteners such as VELCRO fasteners. This headrest uses nylon hook fasteners secured to the metal portion of the bracket and a fibrous loop fastener which is secured to a foam rubber pad which can be then attached to the nylon hook fasteners to secure the pad in place. Although this type of device has been successful, there is a tendency of the nylon hook fasteners to be displaced if there is excessive movement of the head during the surgical procedure. In addition, the pads were configured in such a fashion that it is sometimes difficult to place the head of the patient in the proper position. Also, repetitive sterilization with ethylene oxide tends to degrade adhesives used to secure the fasteners to the metal brackets.

Surgical headrest with removable foam pad


A plasma display device (PDP) and method of driving it (during an address period) are provided. Such a PDP has an address electrode for receiving an address pulse and a capacitor. Such an address pulse has states including a first voltage and a smaller second voltage smaller. Such a capacitor stores a third voltage that is between the first and third voltages. Such a method includes: coupling the capacitor to the address electrode via the inductor; firstly energizing, via the inductor, the address electrode with the third voltage stored in the capacitor; secondly energizing the address electrode with the first voltage; thirdly energizing, via the inductor, the capacitor with voltage on the address electrode; and fourthly energizing the address electrode with the second voltage. Real power transfer during the first and third energizations is facilitated via reactive power transfer arising from LC resonance.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments relate to a plasma display device and a driving method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
A plasma display device may be a flat panel display for displaying characters or images by using plasma generated by gas discharges, and several to hundreds of millions of pixels are arranged in the matrix format thereon according to their sizes.
A frame (1 TV field) in the plasma display device is divided into a plurality of subfields which are weighted and driven accordingly. Each subfield has a reset period, an address period, and a sustain period with respect to time.
The reset period is for initializing the status of each discharge cell so as to facilitate an addressing operation on the discharge cell, and the address period is for applying an address voltage to a cell that is to be turned on (an addressed cell) and accumulating wall charges therein. That is, in the address period, a scan pulse is sequentially applied to a plurality of scan electrodes, and an address pulse is applied to the address electrode. In this instance, an address discharge is generated at the cell to which the scan pulse and the address pulse are simultaneously applied. In the sustain period, sustain discharges are generated corresponding in number to the weight of the corresponding subfield in the given cell that is to be turned on so that an image is displayed.
Significant amounts of reactive power may be required to provide a reference voltage to a plasma display panel (PDP) that represents a capacitive load in addition to discharging an address voltage from the PDP when performing an address operation. In this instance, further address power is consumed when there are many switching times for the switch for applying address data to the address electrode.

Plasma display and driving method thereof


A display device including a pixel, a drive transistor including a first and a second terminal and a gate, a first switching element controlling a connection between the second terminal and the gate, a storage capacitor of a second terminal connected to the gate, a second switching element controlling a connection between the storage capacitor and a first signal line, a third switching element arranged in parallel with the second switching element and controlling a connection between the storage capacitor and a second signal line, a fourth switching element controlling a connection between the drive transistor and a first power supply line, a light emitting element connected with the drive transistor and a second power supply line, a fifth switching element controlling a connection between the drive transistor and the light emitting element, a sixth switching element controlling a connection between the drive transistor and a third power supply line.

Display devices are being developed in which a light emitting element using an organic electroluminescence material is arranged in each pixel and an image is displayed by individually controlling the light which is emitted. A light emitting element includes a structure in which a layer having an organic electroluminescence material (also called an "organic layer") is sandwiched between a pair of electrodes, one being distinguished as an anode electrode and the other as a cathode electrode. A display device formed with a pixel using such a light emitted element includes a pixel electrode in which one of the electrodes is arranged in each pixel, and a common electrode in which the other electrode is applied with a voltage common to a plurality of pixels. A display device displays an image by individually controlling the voltage of a pixel electrode in each pixel and setting the voltage of a common electrode as a fixed voltage.
A light emitting element arranged in each pixel is connected to a transistor. Since the transistor drives the light emitting element, it is called as a drive transistor. A drive transistor arranged in each pixel in a pixel region arranged with pixels is ideally preferred to have uniform characteristics. However, a plurality of drive transistors actually arranged in a pixel region has variation in electrical characteristics. At times, there is variation in a threshold voltage of a drive transistor and due to this, even when the same gate voltage is applied to a plurality of drive transistors, a problem arises whereby a drain current fluctuates. As a result, it is known that variation in the luminosity of a light emitting element occurs which degrades the display quality of an image. In order to solve such problems, a technology has been developed which compensates for a threshold voltage of a drive transistor arranged in each pixel (for example, see U.S. Patent Application No. 2006/0023551 specification, and U.S. Patent Application No. 2007/00262931 specification).

Display device and method of driving display device


In a preferred embodiment applied to an automotive vehicle engine with an exhaust turbocharger and an exhaust treatment device operative at elevated temperature and located after the turbine in the exhaust system, warm-up of the treatment device is speeded by a bypass system and valve that cuts off exhaust gas flow through the turbine and supplies the engine exhaust directly to the treatment device until its operating temperature is reached, after which the bypass is closed and normal flow through the turbine is provided. Additional features are also described.

It is known in the art relating to internal combustion engines, including vehicle engines, to provide a turbine in the exhaust system to draw power from the engine exhaust gases. The turbine may be used for driving various devices and may be connected through a suitable power train with the engine output shaft to supplement the engine power output, thus forming a so-called turbocompound engine. Probably, however, the most common use of engine exhaust turbines is for driving a compressor in the engine induction system to compress the engine inlet charge in the manner well known in turbocharged engines.
The use of turbochargers as a means of increasing the maximum power of an engine has been known for many years. Nevertheless, until recently turbochargers have seen only limited application in automotive passenger vehicles and light duty trucks, in which adequate power has been obtainable merely by installing an engine of suitable displacement. Recently, however, the trend toward reducing the size of vehicle engines to increase the average fuel economy of the vehicle fleet has resulted in increased interest in and use of turbochargers as a means for providing additional power and performance from smaller sized engine packages.
At the same time, requirements for increasing control of vehicle exhaust emissions have resulted in recent years in the widespread usage of engine exhaust treatment devices for passenger and light duty commercial automotive vehicles, the so-called catalytic converter located in the engine exhaust system currently being the most commonly used treatment device.
The combination of these factors has resulted in the recent appearance of a turbocharged engine powered automobile having a catalytic converter exhaust treatment device located in the exhaust system after, or downstream of, the exhaust turbine. In this position the treatment device operates normally, when raised to its elevated operating temperature level by the heat of the exhaust gases, to promote the conversion of undesirable constituents in the exhaust gases, such as hydrocarbons and carbon monoxide, to uncontrolled compounds such as carbon dioxide and water. It is recognized, however, that, as emission control standards become more stringent, it may be necessary to provide additional means of arrangements by which the exhaust treatment device is more quickly brought to its operating temperature during warm-up so that the desired control of exhaust emissions is more quickly established.

Vehicle engine with turbine bypass for exhaust treatment device warm-up


Some embodiments of the present invention provide a system and method that incorporates a call to an alarm recovery sequence into a safety system for use within a fuel cell testing system. In other embodiments of the present invention there is provided a safety system and method, for use within a fuel cell testing system, which is able to suspend a fuel cell testing trail and initiate an alarm recovery sequence upon detecting that a corresponding alarm threshold has been violated. The safety system and method is then able to restart the trail if it is determined that the alarm recovery sequence was successful, in that the process and operating parameters that violated the particular alarm threshold have been brought back to within a safe operating range.

Fuel cells convert chemical energy of fuels into electricity. In some types of fuel cells hydrogen and an oxidant are used as the basic fuels in a set of complementary chemical reactions yielding electricity as one product. Theoretically, the only products of such reactions are electricity, heat and water. In reality, a number of practical factors affect the efficiency of the reactions, and, as a consequence, other undesirable by-products are also produced.
The development of a fuel cell requires rigorous testing to ensure that all of the reaction products produced can be predictably regulated during the foreseen operation of the fuel cell. Several testing systems have been developed for this purpose. An exemplary testing system is provided in U.S. application Ser. No. 10/244,609, which was incorporated by reference above. This testing system can be used to carry out trials during which process and operating parameters for a fuel cell are purposefully varied to mirror foreseen use and abuse.
A long-term trial may be stopped short due to breached alarm thresholds built into a testing system's safety controls. If one of the alarm thresholds is crossed during a trial a safety control mechanism included in the testing system may act to terminate the trial, even though corrective action may reverse alarm conditions in some scenarios. Such stoppages can severely slow down progress during the development of a fuel cell design and/or other systems concurrently being deigned to co-operate with it.

Alarm recovery system and method for fuel cell testing systems


A spirally fluted metallic heat transfer tube is disclosed wherein the finished tube has improved heat transfer performance through the provision of a predetermined number range of multiple start continuous helical flutes formed along its longitudinal length, the flutes having specific helix angle relation and flute height to tube hydraulic diameter ratio so as to establish a ratio of thermal diffusivity to momentum diffusivity greater than 1.

The transfer of heat in tubular heat exchangers is an operation that has widespread application in all industries, particularly in the process and power industries. As energy and capital costs have increased, the need for improving the efficiency of heat transfer surfaces has taken on greater importance. Because the cost of heat exchangers employing heat transfer tubes depends in substantial part upon the number of tubes used in the heat exchangers, it is highly desirable that the amount of tubing required to provide a given heat transfer be reduced. Furthermore, since the temperature of the tube wall is determined by the surface heat transfer coefficients on the inside and outside surfaces of the tube wall for given stream conditions, preferential control over one or both of these coefficients results in some measure of control of the tube wall temperature. This control can be employed to either increase or decrease the temperature of one of the process streams, i.e. either internal flow through the tubes or external flow over the outer surfaces of the tubes, for a given tube wall temperature, or to reduce the tube wall temperature for a particular process stream temperatures.
Heat exchangers frequently involve change of phase, e.g., water is sufficiently heated so as to be transformed to steam and steam is sufficiently cooled to become water. Augmented heat transfer is frequently desired in these applications; e.g., in steam condensers the internal thermal resistance of the single phase coolant can be three times as high as the external resistance. A similar need for augmented heat transfer arises in the boilers of steam bottoming cycles; in these units heat is supplied from the exhaust gases of a diesel engine or gas turbine, involves a low heating rate and thus requires a large heat transfer area unless the heat transfer can be augmented. In both boiling and condensing applications heat transfer is generally limited by the transfer characteristics of the single phase fluid. If this limitation is removed by suitable augmentation, the performance of a heat exchanger or condenser is then determined by two phase heat transfer characteristics.
The use of swirl to augment heat transfer is well known and may be established in a variety of ways. For example, twisted-tape inserts have been employed which provide means for increasing the heat transfer within the interior of tubing. Tangential injection of the fluid at the entrance to a tube has also been employed to provide an initial rotation which decays in the downstream direction but provides augmented heat transfer while it prevails.
The general objective of improvement to heat exchange tubing is the increase of the heat transfer relative to the frictional flow loss. For single phase flow on either side of a tube this is expressed by the Colburn factor. EQU 2.sub.j /f=2 N.sub.s P.sub.r.sup.2/3 /f
Where:
N.sub.s =Stanton Number PA1 P.sub.r =Prandtl Number PA1 f=Fanning friction factor PA1 .epsilon..sub.h =turbulent exchange coefficient for heat PA1 .epsilon..sub.m =Turbulent exchange coefficient for momemtum PA1 .tau..sub.t =.epsilon..sub.m /.epsilon..sub.h PA1 P is the perimeter of the enhanced and extended tube PA1 N.sub.s is the Stanton Number h/C.sub.p .rho.u PA1 W is the pumping power PA1 .lambda. is the friction coefficient PA1 C.sub.p is the specific heat at constant pressure PA1 u is the mean velocity PA1 h is the surface conductance coefficient PA1 .rho. is the density of the fluid
The Colburn factor is numerically equal to 1 for a smooth tube. Therefore, a tube performance factor can be defined as the ratio of the Colburn factor of an enhanced tube relative to a smooth tube. ##EQU1##
This performance factor can be related to the ratio of the turbulent exchange coefficients of heat relative to momentum, (the reciprocal of the turbulent Prandtl Number). EQU .zeta.=.epsilon..sub.h /.epsilon..sub.m =1/.tau..sub.t
Where:
The present state of the art of enhanced tubing for heat exchangers has an upper bound of 1 for the tube performance factor (or ratio of turbulent diffusivity of heat to that of momentum) which is the value for a smooth tube.
One attempt to provide improved heat-transfer coefficient is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,612,175 which shows an improvement in overall heat transfer coefficient by a factor of approximately 1.6 at a cost of increased pressure drop by a factor of 3.5 as compared to the heat transfer and pressure drop of a smooth tube. The ratio of increase in heat transfer is less than the increase in pressure drop relative to a smooth tube. Pat. No. 3,612,175 recognizes that it is highly desirable to provide for improved condenser tubing in which the heat transfer is maximized but the increase in the pressure drop kept as low as possible.
It can be established by mathematical analysis that the index for heat transfer per unit pumping power for a tube having a spirally fluted wall, which tube may thereby be defined as being enhanced and extended, relative to a smooth round tube is:
For fixed heat transfer; ##EQU2## Where: Q is the rate of heat transfer
For fixed coolant flow rate; ##EQU3##
It can also be established that the ratio of Stanton Number and friction factor or coefficient relates to the ratio of the turbulent exchange coefficients of heat and momentum as E.sub.h /E.sub.m =N.sub.s /.lambda.. From this it follows that an increase in the ratio of Stanton Number to friction coefficient, or alternatively, the ratio of turbulent exchange coefficient for heat to that of momentum, greater than that of a round smooth tube (that has a value of one) is highly desirable, particularly if the heat transfer area is increased as well. However, there can be an advantage when the frictional increase is greater than the Stanton Number increase if the frictional increase is less than the product of the cube of the Stanton Number increase and the heat transfer area increase for the case of a given rate of heat transfer.
It is generally recognized that in heat transfer tubes most of the resistance to heat transfer and most of the skin friction is associated with the fluid adjacent the wall of the tube, the so-called laminar sublayer where the transport of heat and momentum are dependent on the molecular transport; the thermal conductivity and the viscosity. Increasing the transport of heat can only be achieved in a straight round tube by increasing the shear through an increase of fluid velocity in the tube or increasing the level of turbulence by roughening the surface of the round tube. Either of these methods are bounded in their performance by the value of E.sub.h /E.sub.m =1. However, the creation of an instability in the vicinity of the laminar boundary sublayer can result in a greater increase in the turbulent exchange coefficient of heat relative to the turbulent exchange coefficient of momentum.


The linking device (9) includes a first bowed needle (17) mounted on a first shaft (13) and a second bowed needle (19) mounted on a second shaft (15). The first shaft (13) and the second shaft (15) are mutually inclined to each other and are controlled in order to pivot alternatingly around a pivot axis (A-A) of the first shaft (13) and a pivot axis (B-B) of the second shaft (15), respectively. The first shaft (13) is rigidly coupled to a first pin (27) pivoting therewith; the second shaft (15) is rigidly coupled to a second pin (31) pivoting therewith; and a slider (35) is slidingly mounted on the first pin (27) and on the second pin (31).

In the textile field, and especially in the hosiery and knitting industry, the production is well known of tubular knitted articles, for example stockings, socks and tights, using circular knitting machines. In some cases, the toe of the tubular knitted article shall be closed by linking or sewing. There are circular knitting machines producing tubular knitted articles with closed toe. These machines are however complex and expensive.
In many cases, the tubular knitted article exits from the circular knitting machine with the open toe, and shall be transferred to a sewing or a linking machine. To this end, there are devices taking the tubular knitted article from the needle cylinder of the circular knitting machine and transferring it to the sewing machine or the linking machine. Examples of this type of devices are disclosed in WO2004/035894, WO2010/086708, US20160024695.
Usually, the linking devices comprise two bowed needles provided with reciprocating rotary motion for linking by means of two yarns. A critical aspect of these devices is the adjustment of the needle position with respect to the members on which the tubular knitted article is engaged, constituted for example by spikes of a linking machine, or by pick-up hooks that are also used to take the tubular knitted article from the needle cylinder of the circular knitting machine (see US20160024695).
There is therefore a need for a simpler linking device wherein the adjustment of the needle position is easier.

Linking device and machine comprising said device


An information processing apparatus can save an electric power when it is not in use and can be made active immediately after an operation medium such as a pen and a finger or the user approaches or comes in contact with the apparatus, the arrangement being such that a housing portion of the apparatus includes therein a sensor for detecting the approach or contact of a user operation medium or user and a state display unit for informing the user that the apparatus is in the active state or in the standby state, a power saving control unit controls a controlled object concerning a power consumption in response to the approach, contact or separation of the operation medium or user, and a timer included in the electric power saving control unit determines whether or not the operation medium or user is separate from the apparatus.

The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus which is low in power consumption and high in operability. More particularly, this invention relates to information processing apparatuses such as personal computers and word processors that are operated via keyboards and to information processing apparatus of a wide variety of application fields of a pen-base personal computer, a pen-base word processor, an electronic calculator, a portable electronic note book, a handy terminal device, a console of a plant, a kiosk such as a vending machine, an ATM (automated teller machine) and a street information service apparatus or a household furniture such as a table having a touch-sensitive display unit, etc.
In order to save an electric power of a primary battery, a secondary battery or a solar battery of an electronic apparatus such as a portable personal computer, a word processor or the like, an electric power saving control operation such as a resume operation for interrupting the supply of the whole power after information necessary for continuing work had been saved in a nonvolatile memory has heretofore been carried out when a user operation medium such as a keyboard or a mouse is not in use for a long period of time. Further, as a technique for preventing a battery from being consumed uselessly, JP-A-1-271796, for example, describes such a technique where a quantity of light of a back light that illuminates a display screen of a liquid crystal display device is adjusted in accordance with a quantity of external light. This previously-proposed method is effective, to a certain extent, for electronic equipments such as a portable personal computer, a word processor or a pen-based electronic equipment having a liquid crystal display panel with a back light in saving an electric power and also in improving viewability of picture screen. This method, however, has no consideration of the situation that the user operates these electronic equipments. There is then the problem that, when the user has left his seat and the electronic equipment has not been in use during a long period of time, the battery thereof is consumed uselessly.
Further, according to the above-mentioned conventional methods, in electronic apparatus having no user operation medium such as a keyboard or a mouse and operated with a pen or fingers, for example, the operation situation of these operation media cannot be utilized as a power saving control information.

Information processing apparatus including arrangements for activation to and deactivation from a power-saving state


A method of separating high-level prosodic behavior from purely articulatory constraints so that timing information can be extracted from human speech is presented. The extracted timing information is used to construct duration templates that are employed for speech synthesis. The duration templates are constructed so that words exhibiting the same stress pattern will be assigned the same duration template. Initially, the words of input text segmented into phonemes and syllables, and the associated stress pattern is assigned. The stress assigned words are then assigned grouping features by a text grouping module. A phoneme cluster module groups the phonemes into phoneme pairs and single phonemes. A static duration associated with each phoneme pair and single phoneme is retrieved from a global static table. A normalization module generates a normalized syllable duration value based upon the retrieved static durations associated with the phonemes that comprise the syllable. The normalized syllable duration value is stored in a duration template based upon the grouping features associated with that syllable. To produce natural human-sounding prosody in synthesized speech, the duration information is then extracted from the selected template, de-normalized and applied to the phonemic information.

The present invention relates generally to text-to-speech (tts) systems and speech synthesis. More particularly, the invention relates to a system for generating duration templates which can be used in a text-to-speech system to provide more natural sounding speech synthesis.
The task of generating natural human-sounding prosody for text-to-speech and speech synthesis has historically been one of the most challenging problems that researchers and developers have had to face. Text-to-speech systems have in general become infamous for their unnatural prosody such as "robotic" intonations or incorrect sentence rhythm and timing. To address this problem some prior systems have used neural networks and vector clustering algorithms in an attempt to simulate natural sounding prosody. Aside from being only marginally successful, these "black box" computational techniques give the developer no feedback regarding what the crucial parameters are for natural sounding prosody.
The present invention builds upon a different approach which was disclosed in a prior patent application entitled "Speech Synthesis Employing Prosody Templates". In the disclosed approach, samples of actual human speech are used to develop prosody templates. The templates define a relationship between syllabic stress patterns and certain prosodic variables such as intonation (F0) and duration, especially focusing on F0 templates. Thus, unlike prior algorithmic approaches, the disclosed approach uses naturally occurring lexical and acoustic attributes (e.g., stress pattern, number of syllables, intonation, duration) that can be directly observed and understood by the researcher or developer.
The previously disclosed approach stores the prosody templates for intonation (F0) and duration information in a database that is accessed by specifying the number of syllables and stress pattern associated with a given word. A word dictionary is provided to supply the system with the requisite information concerning number of syllables and stress patterns. The text processor generates phonemic representations of input words, using the word dictionary to identify the stress pattern of the input words. A prosody module then accesses the database of templates, using the number of syllables and stress pattern information to access the database. A prosody template for the given word is then obtained from the database and used to supply prosody information to the sound generation module that generates synthesized speech based on the phonemic representation and the prosody information.
The previously disclosed approach focuses on speech at the word level. Words are subdivided into syllables and thus represent the basic unit of prosody. The stress pattern defined by the syllables determines the most perceptually important characteristics of both intonation (F0) and duration. At this level of granularity, the template set is quite small in size and easily implemented in text-to-speech and speech synthesis systems. While a word level prosodic analysis using syllables is presently preferred, the prosody template techniques of the invention can be used in systems exhibiting other levels of granularity. For example, the template set can be expanded to allow for more grouping features, both at the sentence and word level. In this regard, duration modification (e.g. lengthening) caused by phrase or sentence position and type, segmental structure in a syllable, and phonetic representation can be used as attributes with which to categorize certain prosodic patterns.
Although text-to-speech systems based upon prosody templates that are derived from samples of actual human speech have held out the promise of greatly improved speech synthesis, those systems have been limited by the difficulty of constructing suitable duration templates. To obtain temporal prosody patterns the purely segmental timing quantities must be factored out from the larger scale prosodic effects. This has proven to be much more difficult than constructing F0 templates, wherein intonation information can be obtained by visually examining individual F0 data.
The present invention presents a method of separating high-level prosodic behavior from purely articulatory constraints so that high-level timing information can be extracted from human speech. The extracted timing information is used to construct duration templates that are employed for speech synthesis. Initially, the words of input text are segmented into phonemes and syllables and the associated stress pattern is assigned. The stress assigned words can then be assigned grouping features by a text grouping module. A phoneme cluster module groups the phonemes into phoneme pairs and single phonemes. A static duration associated with each phoneme pair and single phoneme is retrieved from a global static table. A normalization module generates a normalized duration value for a syllable based upon lengthening or shortening of the global static durations associated with the phonemes that comprise the syllable. The normalized duration value is stored in a duration template based upon the grouping features associated with that syllable.
For a more complete understanding of the invention, its objectives and advantages, refer to the following specification and to the accompanying drawings.

Generation and synthesis of prosody templates

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A variable bandwidth phase-locked loop clock generator circuit is disclosed. The PLL circuit includes a phase comparator which presents pump-up and pump-down signals, indicating the polarity of the desired frequency change. The phase comparator also generates multiple level control outputs to control the rate of the frequency change. A current source includes a reference leg having a plurality of resistors which are shorted out according to the control outputs, from which a bias signal is generated. The level of the bias signal controls current sources in the output leg of the current source to control the rate of change of the voltage applied to the voltage controlled oscillator. In addition, the bias signal also controls the slew rate of an active low-pass filter according to the desired response characteristic; the output of the filter is applied to the voltage controlled oscillator for generating the output clock signal. This construction of the PLL circuit allows for the control signals to control the rate of change both for advancing and retarding the output clock frequency, and allows for on-chip implementation of the filter components in a manner compatible with MOS technology.

Recent advances in integrated circuit manufacturing technology have enabled the implementation of higher numbers of transistors on single integrated circuit chips, and also have increased their performance, especially for high density synchronous circuits, such as microprocessors, math co-processors, single-chip microcomputers and the like. Such higher performance is generally obtained from synchronous circuits by increasing the frequency of the clock signal controlling the circuit. For example, the microprocessors in modern personal computers and workstations currently operate at clock frequencies of up to 40 MHz, with higher frequencies expected to follow.
Particularly at extremely high clock frequencies, parasitic impedances, propagation delays, and other effects can cause the clock signals that are applied to different integrated circuits within a computer to be skewed in time relative to one another. As a result, inter-chip communication within such computers is made more difficult at higher frequencies, requiring wait states or other techniques to be used to reliably communicate data. The synchronization of multiple chips thus tends to degrade the rate at which data can be communicated within the system, and thus degrading overall system performance. In addition, high frequency clock signals are especially vulnerable to certain instabilities in their duty cycle, to noise, ringing, and other similar effects, each of which may cause errors in the internal operation of the integrated circuits receiving such signals.
Phase-locked loops (PLLs) are conventionally implemented onto integrated circuits to overcome these problems. As is fundamental in the art, a PLL consists of a phase detector circuit, a low pass loop filter, and a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO). The phase detector circuit compares the phase of the input clock signal with the output of the VCO, and presents a control voltage to the VCO (after filtering by the loop filter) to adjust the frequency of the output signal. After several cycles, the PLL locks onto the input clock signal, and presents an output having a stable frequency and phase. A frequency divider may be connected to the output of the VCO, depending upon the VCO free-running frequency, so that the PLL output frequency matches that of the input clock signal. In addition, as is well known, frequency dividers in the output and feedback loops of the PLL can also allow frequencies other than that of the input clock signal to be generated. U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,748, issued Jun. 5, 1990, describes an implementation of one example of a phase-locked loop in an integrated circuit such as a microprocessor.
A particularly useful type of PLL for high speed integrated circuits is the charge-pump PLL. As described in Gardner, "Charge-Pump Phase-Lock Loops", IEEE Trans. Commun., Vol. COM-28 (November 1980), pp. 1849-1858, a charge pump may be provided to charge or discharge a capacitor in the loop filter according to the polarity of the phase difference between the input clock signal and the output signal. FIG. 2b of this reference illustrates a typical implementation of a charge-pump loop filter, where the phase detector generates an up (U) signal or a down (D) signal according to the polarity of the phase difference, and where the charge pump connects either a charging or a discharging current source to the capacitor according to the U and D signals. A conventional phase detector for generating the U and D signals is described in Jeong et al., "Design of PLL-Based Clock Generation Circuits", IEEE J. Solid State Circ., Vol. SC-22, No. 2 (April, 1987), pp. 255-261.
In the art of PLL-based clock generation, one must generally tradeoff fast response of the PLL to a new input clock frequency, on one hand, with frequency stability, on the other hand. By way of further background, U.S. Pat. No. 4,771,249, issued Sep. 13, 1988, describes a charge-pump PLL having a wide-bandwidth mode and a narrow-bandwidth mode. The charge pump disclosed in this reference includes a current mirror which sets a fixed current in an output leg based on a fixed current in a reference leg. In the wide-bandwidth mode, the charge pump is controlled to switch in an additional output leg to source or sink additional current; the additional output leg is switched out in the narrow-bandwidth mode. Control of the switching in and out of the additional output leg is disclosed as being dependent on the output frequency varying above and below the desired frequency a predetermined number of times. By way of further background, U.S. Pat. No. 4,920,320, issued Apr. 24, 1990, discloses a circuit for stabilizing the switching operation in the charge-pump PLL disclosed in the above-referenced U.S. Pat. No. 4,771,249.
By way of further background, U.S. Pat. No. 4,745,372 describes a PLL clock generator circuit including a current-variable charge pump operable in modes having different bandwidths, depending upon a phase lock signal generated by the phase comparator. As shown in FIGS. 10 and 11 of this reference, in one disclosed embodiment, two current mirrors are used to control the rate at which charging and discharging of the pumped output node, according to complementary signals generated by integrating the phase lock signal.
By way of further background, passive loop filters in conventional PLLs generally require the use of a sufficiently large capacitor that integration of the capacitor into the PLL integrated circuit is not practicable. As such, conventional PLLs generally require an external capacitor to be connected to a terminal of the circuit. Such use of an external capacitor is, of course, generally undesirable due to the increased manufacturing cost, the incrementally increasing likelihood of failure due to an additional connection, and the effects of the additional parasitic inductance of the external connection, especially at high frequencies. Furthermore, variations in the capacitance value of an external component will generally not match variations in the manufacture of the integrated circuit, and thus the performance characteristics of such PLLs may widely vary.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a fully-integrated charge pump PLL having a fast response time to input frequency changes as well as highly stable behavior in the phase-locked condition.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a circuit which has selectably variable response times in the loop filter.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a circuit in which the slew rate of the loop filter is controlled according to the relationship between the input and feedback clock signals.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a circuit which is especially useful for high frequency operation.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a circuit which may be efficiently implemented into the integrated circuit.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a circuit which may have several selectable response rates.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a circuit in which the bandwidth may be selected independently of the polarity of the desired change in output clock frequency.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a circuit which may be selectably enabled and disabled.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art having reference to the following specification in conjunction with the drawings.

Integrated charge-pump phase-locked loop circuit


A method of assisting a steering effort in a hydraulic steering system is provided. The method includes measuring a pressure with a pressure sensor assembly. The method also includes calculating an input torque with a controller. The method further includes measuring at least one vehicle condition with at least one vehicle sensor and sending a vehicle condition signal to the controller. The method yet further includes determining a current required to operate an actuator with the controller.

The present disclosure relates to a steering system having a pressure sensor.
Hydraulic power steering systems use a power steering pump to provide pressurized hydraulic fluid to a steering gear. The level of assist provided by the hydraulic power steering system is determined by the amount of torque applied by the driver to a steering valve integrated into the steering gear.

Steering system having a pressure sensor

Steering Solutions IP Holding Corporation


A heat transfer system, method, and computer program product are provided for use with multiple circuit board environments. In use, a heat transfer component configured to be situated between a first circuit board and a second circuit board is provided. Such heat transfer component is in thermal communication with a first processor of the first circuit board and a second processor of the second circuit board. Furthermore, the heat transfer component is situated between the first circuit board and the second circuit board.

In the past, typical processor circuit boards (e.g. graphics processor boards, etc.) each included a dedicated on-board heat transfer component. Additionally, even dual-processor circuit boards (e.g. boards with two graphic cards, etc.) utilized a dedicated on-board heat transfer component. Thus, a single heat transfer component was utilized for controlling a temperature of an associated processor circuit board. However, use of dedicated on-board heat transfer components has been associated with various limitations.
For example, while a problem of cost is inherent with systems, since each processor circuit board has required a dedicated on-board heat transfer component, other problems exist as well. For example, due the typical location of dual-processor circuit boards on a motherboard, one of the processors typically receives cooling air via a "choked" channel (i.e. one which is constrained or obstructed by other motherboard components, etc.). To this end, the processors operate at different temperatures and thus at different speeds. Further, since speed symmetry is often desired among the processors, a performance of one of processor must be manually degraded to obtain such symmetry.
There is thus a need for addressing these and/or other issues associated with the prior art.

Heat transfer system, method, and computer program product for use with multiple circuit board environments


An image data processing apparatus has: a reading portion for reading an image of an original and outputting the image data thereon, an encoding portion for encoding the image data which has been output from the reading portion, an image memory for storing the encoded data which has been output from the encoding means, and a DMA control portion for DMA transferring the encoded data which has been output from the encoding portion to the image memory. The DMA control portion successively selects a plurality of DMA channels, and DMA transfers the encoded data using a selected DMA channel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image data processing apparatus for processing image data in a facsimile and so on, by encoding image data read from a reading portion and by storing the resultant encoded data in a memory.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a conventional reading device provided with an encoding circuit which is incorporated in a certain type of hardware, e.g., a facsimile. As is clear from the figure, a line memory 703 is interposed between a reading portion 701 such as a CCD and a coding portion 702 and is adapted to temporarily store data read by the reading portion.
In the above-described type of reading device, analog data is read out from the reading portion 701 for each picture element of the CCD that forms the reading portion in synchronism with a basic clock generated at a fixed timing. The reading device has the above-described configuration because, if binary data obtained by converting the analog data is directly input to the coding portion 702 which performs coding utilizing the well-known modified Huffman coding scheme (MH) or modified READ coding scheme (MR), the coding device must process data at an extremely high speed.
Further, even if such high-speed processing were to be realized, it would be very difficult to DMA transfer the coded data to an image memory 705 in a system through a system bus 704 of a general-purpose microcomputer 706 due to the time required for DMA transfer.
It has therefore been the practice to temporarily store at least the data which represents one line of an original in the line memory 703. The coding portion 702 processes encoding using the data stored in the line memory 703. In this way, even though the encoding process must be temporarily suspended to take account of the rate of DMA transfer, erasure of data which has been read can be avoided.
Thus, the conventional arrangement requires the line memory 703 to be interposed between the reading portion 701 and the coding portion 702, and this necessitates provision of an address generating circuit, a line memory selecting circuit and so on, which are used to control the line memory.
Further, since the code lengths of encoded data vary greatly since the length depends on the contents of the data read, the times required for encoding and the times required to DMA transfer the coded data differ accordingly. Thus, the drive needed for reading one line of the original assumes an intermittent form. In consequence, in order to increase the speed at which one line of the original is read, an expensive pulse motor driven by a self-started frequency must be used to feed the original.
Furthermore, since a large scale memory generally has a capacity on the order of several M bytes (millions of bytes), not all of it is disposed on the physical address space of the microcomputer, but it has a bank structure. In consequence, when data is DMA transferred over to the separate banks, the DMA operation must be suspended once in order to execute the program required to change the bank address.
Furthermore, the CPU cannot obtain access to other banks while the data is being DMA transferred to one of them.