A magnetic filtration device for installing as a replacement to a standard drain plug commonly positioned at the bottom of the reservoir. The magnetic filtration device may attract and capture magnetic (ferromagnetic) particulate circulating throughout a mechanical system. Applications for the device include engines, motors, pumps, compressors, gear boxes, transmissions, hydraulic systems, and generators. The magnetic filtration device may comprise a magnet core enclosed within a magnet casing, with additional magnetic rods affixed to and/or arranged around the magnet casing.

Lubrication liquids, commonly a lubrication oil or other oil such as hydraulic oil, are often used in mechanical systems, such as gear boxes, transmissions, hydraulic systems, motors, pumps, compressors, and generators to protect interacting component surfaces from excessive wear. To eliminate the metallic particles that become entrained within the oil due to components shedding, many mechanical systems include a filtering system in conjunction with the lubricating liquid flow path of the system to remove such debris. However, some systems are isolated such that filtration is impractical or impossible, and thus, oil circulates unfiltered. When not removed, these metallic particles will freely circulate through the system until they are finally removed when the oil is drained. These particles may cause damage.
One particularly harmful type of foreign matter in lubricating oil is small metallic magnetic particulates which are created by frictional contact between moving metal parts of mechanical systems. The magnetic particulates are shards of metal from the metal parts of the mechanical system that are dislodged during operation. As oil is circulated to lubricate the various moving components, the metallic particles entrained in the oil are carried to be unwittingly interfaced between the moving components. At these locations, the hardness of the metallic magnetic particulates causes metal to bear against metal, and reliance is placed solely on the oil to maintain a lubricating film. When these metallic magnetic particulates are brought to the interfaces, damage to the adjoining surfaces is likely. This damage eventually results in a degradation of the close tolerances between the moving parts, causing a loss in operating efficiency and more frequent maintenance in the form of repairs. By some estimates, these metallic magnetic particulates are the cause of more than one-half of the wear in said systems.
Two solutions exist for removing these metallic particles from a closed lubrication system of mechanical systems. The first solution involves the permanent installation of a permanent magnet within the lubrication compartment to attract and hold magnetic particles until a later date at which they can be removed, such as a complete rebuild of the mechanical system. The second solution is to install a magnetic drain plug in the housing of the power transmission unit. The magnetic drain plug attracts magnetic particles in the vicinity of the plug as the lubricant passively travels by the device.
Magnetic drain plugs have existed for quite some time with the most common being similar in form to those outlined in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,949,317 and 5,420,557 which simply have a small magnet fastened on the end or nested inside of the drain plug. Several disadvantages exist with such designs. First, the magnet does not project far beyond the plug and has limited surface area for particle capture. Second, the magnet does not extend very far into the liquid reservoir and therefore experiences limited exposure to the lubricant entraining the magnetic particles flowing throughout the mechanical system. Finally, when the mechanical systems are running, the flow of liquid throughout travels at a very high flow rate, so a common problem is the plug's inability to hold onto the magnetic particles during operations. The only particles collected for removal are those gathered shortly before the drain plug is removed and when the system is turned off. These magnetic drain plugs fail to provide significant functionality when needed the most.
Another magnetic bolt assembly is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,564,526 which involves the installation of a magnetic attachment over the external head of a steel drain plug. The magnetic flux coming from the magnetic attachment is channeled through the steel drain plug and creates a magnetic field on the opposite end of the plug which is exposed to the lubricant reservoir. This design places the source of the magnetic field on the outside of the lubrication reservoir and severely limits the attraction and capture of magnetic particles within the lubrication fluid.
Accordingly, what is needed is a device that may more aggressively capture magnetic particles generated during the normal operation of mechanical systems.


A self recording meter for recording water currents is described. The current meter comprises a housing having a vertical axis, three accelerometers each having a sensitive axis mounted at 90.degree. to each other within the housing wherein the sensitive axis of one of the accelerometers is coincident with the housing vertical axis, and the other axes are substantially horizontal, a magnetic compass disposed within the housing for measuring an angle defined between magnetic North and the sensitive axis of one of the substantially horizontal accelerometers, a depth sensor, and circuitry for emitting electronic signals from the accelerometers, compass and depth sensor indicating magnitude of horizontal current relative to depth, direction of horizontal current relative to depth, and magnitude and direction of vertical current relative to depth.. The meter is releasably secured to a weight such that it drops to the water bottom where a release mechanism separates the weight from the meter housing and a switching circuit concurrently activates the meter electronic circuitry such that current measurements are made as the meter rises to the surface. The meter electronic circuitry is deactivated upon the meter reaching the surface at which time a flashing light and radio beacon are activated.. Current measurements are recorded on a cassette tape for subsequent interpretation.

The present invention relates to current meters and, in particular, is directed to current meters for simultaneously measuring horizontal and vertical components of a current relative to depth.
The need for the measurement of currents in oceanography and ocean engineering has resulted in the development of many different types of current meters. With respect to their use, current meters can be divided into two large groups. The first group comprises current meters that measure current as a function of time. These meters are either moored to the ocean bottom or move freely with the current as neutrally buoyant floats.
The moored meters use a variety of principles, the most widely employed principle being exemplified by the Savonius rotor-type meter. Electromagnetic meters, acoustic meters, meters that use hot film anemometry and meters that use the vortex shedding principle are also known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,695,103 discloses a meter, fastened to the sea floor or river bed, which uses strain gauge sensing devices. The neutrally buoyant floats measure horizontal current by monitoring displacement or vertical current by counting the number of revolutions around a vertical axis in a fixed time period due to the vertical current.
The second group of current meters measures currents as a function of depth. This group can again be divided into two types. The first type which is most widely used is lowered from a ship by means of an oceanographic winch, thus giving a number of current versus depth values. The second type, which is not commonly used, is a free falling or rising meter which can measure horizontal currents only. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,834,229 and 3,972,231 typify such types of current meters.
It is an important object of the present invention to introduce into the field of oceanography and ocean engineering a new type of current meter which is based on the measurement of acceleration due to the action of currents on an immersed unrestrained body.
It is another important object of the present invention to provide an improved current meter which can measure simultaneously both horizontal and vertical current components as a function of depth.
A further object of the invention is to provide a current meter which can measure substantially continuously, uninterrupted current profiles, i.e. profiles with a high vertical resolution for determining the magnitude of both horizontal and vertical current components and their direction of flow.
It is another object of the invention to provide a current meter which can measure water current with high sensitivity and resolution, i.e. the meter is sensitive to small current changes.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a free falling current meter which can measure ocean currents up to a depth of 6000 m.
It is another object of the invention to provide a simple, compact and lightweight current meter which can be operated by unskilled personnel without sophisticated equipment for deployment and retrieval but which can be manually deployed and retrieved.


A double ball-bar measuring system includes a calibration unit, at least two double ball-bars and a measuring module. Among the double ball-bars, at least one is a measuring double ball-bar and at least one is a reference double ball-bar. The measuring double ball-bar is installed on a measurement apparatus to measure or calibrate a target machine. The reference double ball-bar is disposed on the calibration unit to measure thermal errors. When the target machine is driven for measurement or calibration, the geometric and thermal errors of the measuring double ball-bar are compensated so that the measurement apparatus can achieve highly accurate measurement.

Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to double ball-bars in measurement apparatuses and in particular to the compensation of geometric and thermal errors of double ball-bars in hexapod measurement apparatuses or machines.
Description of Related Art
A double ball-bar has precision ball and socket joints at its two ends. It is used to measure the absolute bar length or the change of bar length between the two precision balls. Its applications can be found in both machine tools and hexapod coordinate measurement machines. The displacement sensor for a double ball-bar includes linear variable differential transformer (LVDT), laser interferometer, linear magnetic encoder and linear optical encoder, and the measurement principle can be either incremental or absolute.
In the present disclosure, the distance between the centers of the two connected ball and socket joints is defined as the center distance. Like any other precision machines, the double ball-bar also has geometric and thermal errors. One example of the geometric errors is the misalignment between the sensor measuring direction and the center line connecting the two ball centers. Another geometric error is the deflection of the double ball-bar due to the gravitational force. When a double ball-bar has stiffness problem and becomes curved due to its own weight, the difference between bar length and center distance is not ignorable. For a highly accurate double ball-bar, the displacement sensor is meant to measure the center distance, not the bar length. Further, the accuracy of a double ball-bar is sensitive to ambient temperature. The measurement apparatus or machine may be used in a workshop without temperature control. A change in ambient temperature will cause the double ball-bar to expand or contract between the two ball and socket joints, which results in thermal errors in the measured center distance.
Investigations have shown that the readhead of an optical linear encoder or a magnetic linear encoder is also a heat source and may cause thermal error in the double ball-bar. Although the power of the electrical circuit in the readhead is low, the generated heat may raise the temperature of the readhead and the neighboring elements notably as their mass is small.
Because of the geometric and thermal errors, the relationship between the center distance and the measured displacement amount is non-linear and time-variant. For highly accurate applications like hexapod measurement apparatuses or machines, it is important to identify these errors and to compensate them.

Double ball-bar measuring system and errors compensation method thereof


An automatic tool changer for transferring single tools and/or multiple spindle toolheads between a tool storage magazine and a horizontal spindle of a machine tool. A plurality of single tools and/or toolheads are stored in the tool storage magazine with their shanks in a vertical position. A first tool change arm transfers a selected tool or toolhead from the storage magazine to a tilt unit which tilts the shank of the tool or toolhead by 90.degree. from a vertical to a horizontal position parallel with the axis of the spindle. A second tool change arm removes the tools or toolheads from the tilt unit and spindle simultaneously, interchanges them, and inserts the interchanged tools or toolheads into the spindle and tilt unit. The tilt unit then tilts by 90.degree. back to the vertical position, and the first tool change arm returns the tool or toolhead in the tilt unit back to the tool storage magazine. Each multiple spindle toolhead has support and clamp means on its rear portion which coacts with support and clamp means on the spindlehead of the machine to support the toolhead and hold it stationary while the shank and tools of the toolhead are rotating with the spindle.

This invention relates to automatic tool changers for machine tools.
In the past, many different types of automatic tool changers have been built, including some tool changers which are adapted to handle either single tools or small multiple spindle tool heads, but not large multiple spindle tool heads. The principal object of this invention is to provide an automatic tool changer which is capable of handling single tools and/or relatively large multiple spindle tool heads, e.g. tool heads that weigh as much as 1,000 pounds. Another object of the invention is to provide a novel multiple spindle tool head which can be handled by an automatic tool changer that is adapted to handle single tools. Other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the detailed description herein.


A vapor sensitive resistor, or switch, is connected in a bridge network having the input connected to the battery of a marine engine. A window signal comparator includes a high limit operational amplifier and a low limit operational amplifier, each have a first input connected to the opposite sides of a reference resistor in the bridge network to establish relatively high and low reference voltages and second inputs connected in common to the sensing resistor. The amplifiers include a positive feedback and two outputs are connected to an "OR" logic gate which is connected to drive a two-stage transistor amplifier wholly on or off. An alarm device is connected in series with the amplifier to the battery. A test switch varies the circuit connection of the vapor sensitive resistor to simulate a high or low limit condition and thereby test circuit operation.

This invention relates to a vapor detector for detecting combustible vapors such as gasoline in marine propulsion apparatus.
In marine propulsion apparatus, the internal combustion engine is housed within a suitable enclosure. The enclosure not only protects the operating personnel from the operating components and the engine from the external environments, but provides a high degree of sound proofing. The enclosures are generally therefore made relatively complete to establish maximum sound deadening.
When the engine is not operating, and particularly before initial engine start-up, gasoline vapors and the like may accumulate within the enclosure resulting in an explosive condition. Generally, in inboard engines mounted within a bilge chamber or within an enclosure of an inboard-outboard drive, fan units are provided for exhausting of the enclosure immediately before the starting of the engine. In addition, vapor sensitive devices have been mounted in the enclosure for monitoring of the presence of any combustible gases and generating of a suitable visible and/or audible alarms in the presence of dangerous levels of combustible vapors. A satisfactory vapor sensing element is shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,045,198. The element is a semi-conductor which has resistance with increases within the presence of combustible vapors. The element has generally been connected in a voltage dividing network and generates a voltage signal which is connected to a multistage transistor amplifier connected to drive various alarm means in parallel. Although providing a satisfactory system, the conduction and gain of transistors varies with temperature in such a manner that an erroneous alarm condition may be signaled. As a practical matter, the amplifier is also driven from the conventional supply battery, the output of which may vary over a reasonable range. As the system employs a voltage dividing network, the alarm set point also varies with the supply voltage. Further the combination of the sensor with the amplifier does not provide a fail safe operation for both shorted and open circuit conditions. Further, where a heavy repeater load is also driven from the output of the amplifier, the output transistor may malfunction and fail to produce an alarm. The inventor's analysis has indicated that the amplifying circuit with a finite gain tends to slowly turn on as the resistance of the sensor element increases over the period of time associated with the increase in the combustible vapors. The repeater load connected to the output may hold the transistor only to fifty percent of saturation, resulting in a maximum heat dissipation within the output transistor. If a heavy load, such as a repeater, is connected in the output circuit, the dissipation rating of the output transistor may be exceeded and the transistor destroyed.

Vapor detector for marine propulsion apparatus


A new and improved smoker's utility apparatus includes a base assembly which has a longitudinal axis and a transverse axis. A plurality of wells are contained within the base assembly. The wells include first wells adapted to receive containers. The wells include second wells adapted to receive pipe tools, and the wells include a third well extending substantially an entire longitudinal dimension of the base assembly adapted to receive a plurality of loose items. A plurality of containers are adapted to be received into the first wells in the base assembly. A plurality of pipe tools are adapted to be received into the second wells in the base assembly. A rough-surfaced striking surface is supported by the base assembly for igniting nonsafety matches struck on the rough-surfaced striking surface. One of the containers received in the wells of the base assembly is an ash tray. The ash tray includes receiving areas adapted to receive a cigar or a cigarette. The ash tray includes a clamp assembly adapted to receive and support a pipe. The pipe clamp assembly is supported by a support column which is supported by a floor portion of the ash tray. The containers include air-tight containers. The air-tight containers include body portions and lid portions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to utility boxes and, more particularly, to utility boxes adapted for satisfying the needs of a tobacco smoker, especially a pipe smoker.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Forms of tobacco that are smoked are numerous and include cigarettes, cigars, and pipes. For convenience, a number of forms of tobacco can be stored in one location to give smoker a choice as to which form of tobacco to smoke. In this respect, it would be desirable if a device were provided which conveniently stored a number of forms of tobacco.
To preserve their freshness, some forms of tobacco should be stored in airtight containers. In this respect, it would be desirable if a tobacco storage device were provided which included air-tight containers.
To smoke tobacco, the tobacco must be lit by a flame. For convenience, it would be desirable if flame producing devices, such a matches, were kept near the tobacco so that the tobacco could be readily lit.
Smoked tobacco products inevitably form ashes. In this respect, it would be desirable if a tobacco storage device were provided with an ash receptacle for receiving the tobacco ashes.
When a cigar or cigarette is smoked, oftentimes the smoker wishes to set down the burning article for a brief period of time. For this purpose, ash trays often include support structures for supporting a burning cigar or cigarette.
A pipe is a smoker's article that has certain unique characteristics which differentiate it from a cigar or cigarette. Cigars and cigarettes are substantially cylindrical objects, and, as a result, their weight is distributed symmetrically about their center of gravity which lies on their longitudinal axes. With their center of gravity located along their longitudinal axes, there is little or no tendency of a cigar or cigarette to tip over. On the other hand, a pipe is an L-shaped article that includes a bowl and a stem. The center of gravity of the pipe is generally located above the longitudinal axis of the pipe stem. As a result, there is a strong tendency for the pipe to tip over when the pipe is set down on the pipe stem. When a pipe is lit and has burning tobacco in the bowl, substantial danger and inconvenience can result when the pipe tips over. In this respect, it would be desirable if a tobacco storage device were provided which included a pipe rest that is adapted to prevent a pipe from tipping over when the pipe is placed in the pipe rest.
Pipe smoking involves more than simply placing tobacco in the pipe bowl and lighting up. An important aspect of pipe smoking is the cleaning and maintenance of the pipe. For pipe cleaning and maintenance, certain pipe tools are especially useful. In this respect, it would be desirable if a tobacco storage device were provided with pipe tools to facilitate cleaning and maintenance of the pipe.
For smoking tobacco, an ignition source must be provided for lighting the tobacco. For this purpose, matches are often used. There are two kinds of matches: safety matches; and nonsafety matches. To ignite a nonsafety match, the match must be struck along a rough surface. In this respect, it would be desirable if a tobacco storage device were provided with a rough surface that is suitable for igniting nonsafety matches.
As mentioned above, it would be desirable for a smoker's utility device to include air-tight containers. However, when a plurality of air-tight containers are employed, there may be a tendency for the containers to move about and bump into one another. In this respect, it would be desirable if a tobacco storage device were provided which included a plurality of air-tight containers that are prevented from moving around and bumping into each other.
Throughout the years, a number of innovations have been developed relating to smoker's utility devices, and the following U.S. Pat. Nos. are representative of some of those innovations: 3,566,882; 4,267,926; 4,300,675; 4,588,076; and 5,074,412. However, none of the devices disclosed in the cited patents provides the beneficial features discussed above for a smoker's utility device.
Thus, while the foregoing body of prior art indicates it to be well known to use storage containers for smoker's articles, the prior art described above does not teach or suggest a smoker's utility apparatus which has the following combination of desirable features: (1) conveniently stores a number of forms of tobacco; (2) includes air-tight containers; (3) retains matches near the tobacco so that the tobacco can be readily lit; (4) provides with an ash receptacle for receiving the tobacco ashes; (5) includes support structures for supporting a burning cigar or cigarette; (6) includes a pipe rest that is adapted to prevent a pipe from tipping over when the pipe is placed in the pipe rest; (7) provides a rough surface that is suitable for igniting nonsafety matches; and (8) includes a plurality of air-tight containers that are prevented from moving around and bumping into each other. The foregoing desired characteristics are provided by the unique smoker's utility apparatus of the present invention as will be made apparent from the following description thereof. Other advantages of the present invention over the prior art also will be rendered evident.


Video editing using contextual data may include collecting metadata from a sensor concurrently with recording a video, wherein the metadata is synchronized in time with the video, detecting attributes within the metadata and attributes from the video, and correlating the attributes with a plurality of editors. An editor may be selected from the plurality of editors according to the correlating and a video editing workflow may be automatically initiated. Content discovery using clusters may include receiving a user request for video content from a device, determining a behavioral cluster for the user according to demographic data for the user, determining a video of interest associated with the behavioral cluster, and providing a video of interest to the device using the processor.

Usage of mobile communication devices equipped with video recording capabilities has become widespread. More users than ever are using these devices to record video on a regular basis. Despite the ease with which video may be recorded, other tasks such as video editing and video sharing remain less accessible to many users.
With regard to video editing, for example, users often need specialized knowledge of video equipment and/or sophisticated software tools. Editing video typically has involved transferring the recorded video from one's mobile communication device to a more powerful computer-based video editing system. Even with advanced knowledge and tools, however, video editing has remained a time-intensive task. Available video editing tools are largely unsuited for use by the growing number of mobile communication device users recording video.
Once a video is edited to a user's satisfaction, the user may wish to share the video with one or more other users through a social networking system. Sharing videos is often time consuming since the videos are typically uploaded to social networking systems. Another aspect of sharing is the ability of other users to find videos of interest. Locating videos of interest is often difficult given the vast amount of video content that is created and uploaded on a daily basis.

Video editing using contextual data and content discovery using clusters


An application programming interface (API) may provide accessing an active directory and searching for a native active directory object to identify data stored in the active directory. The procedure may also include retrieving schema information associated with the active directory applying the schema information to an application and overriding the application configuration based on the schema information. The procedure may also include translating the native object into a different language dictionary than a current language dictionary.

Conventionally, application programming interfaces (APIs) have provided computer programmers with the capability to integrate existing applications with new and advanced functionality. In general, an application programming interface (API) is an interface for software components to communicate with each other for integration, editing, and other features. An API is a library that may include support for routines, data structures, object classes, and variables.
An API specification may include libraries of a programming language, e.g. standard template library in C++ or in a JAVA API. APIs are also useful for online resources, such as websites and other remotely accessible applications. APIs may also provide specific classes for each object type but do not generally provide the same flexibility.
An active directory (AD) is a directory service created by MICROSOFT for WINDOWS domain networks, and is included in most WINDOWS SERVER operating systems. An AD domain controller authenticates and authorizes all users and computers in a WINDOWS domain type network by assigning and enforcing security policies for all computers and installing or updating software. For example, when a user logs into a computer that is part of a WINDOWS domain, the AD checks the submitted credentials and determines whether the user is an administrator or a normal user. The AD may use a lightweight directory access protocol (LDAP).
The attributes could be translated between an application and an AD but such a translation would likely include every attribute from the source. Ideally, the user would be permitted to select which attributes will be returned in a particular destination format. Not only does this configuration provide flexibility but it also expedites system performance.


Disclosed are systems, apparatus, devices, methods, computer program products, and other implementations, including a method of controlling navigation tasks on a mobile device that includes obtaining data representative of a route of travel for the mobile device, obtaining a list of navigation tasks associated with the route of travel for the mobile device, and performing one or more navigation tasks in accordance with the list of navigation tasks based, at least in part, on proximity of the mobile device to one or more points on the route of travel. Performing the one or more navigation tasks includes one or more of, for example, obtaining satellite positioning assistance data in response to a determination that the mobile device is transitioning from an indoor area to an outdoor area, and/or establishing a communication link with an access point.

Mobile devices are often configured to enable position determination and navigation functionality in one or more geographical environment types (e.g., indoor, outdoor) and/or one or more operational environments (e.g., to be configured to communicate and operate with different types of communication networks/technologies). However, when a mobile device is configured to operate in more than one geographical and/or operational environment, there may be a delay, or a pause, in the device's operations as the device transitions from one environment to the other. Such a delay or pause may be due to the time it takes the device to obtain information relevant to the new environment (e.g., map information, signal acquisition information) and/or the delay in performing various tasks required to enable the device to operate in the newly transitioned environment (e.g., establishing communication links, determining its position, etc.) Additionally, when a device is configured to operate in more than one environment, there may be some power waste if the device continues operating sensors and other modules that are not required for proper operation of the device in its current environment, but are required for proper operation in one of the other environments the device is configured to operate in.

Predictive scheduling of navigation tasks


The present invention relates to compounds that are useful as metal ligands and which can be bound to a biological entity such as a molecular recognition moiety and methods of making these compounds. Once the compounds that are bound to a biological entity are coordinated with a suitable metallic radionuclide, the coordinated compounds are useful as radiopharmaceuticals in the areas of radiotherapy and diagnostic imaging. The invention therefore also relates to methods of diagnosis and therapy utilizing the radiolabelled compounds of the invention.

Radiolabelled compounds may be used as radiopharmaceuticals in a number of applications such as in radiotherapy or diagnostic imaging. In order for a radiolabelled compound to be employed as a radiopharmaceutical there are a number of desirable properties that the compound should ideally possess such as acceptable stability and, where possible, a degree of selectivity or targeting ability.
Initial work in the areas of radiopharmaceuticals focussed on simple metal ligands which were generally readily accessible and hence easy to produce. A difficulty with many of these radiolabelled compounds is that the complex formed between the ligand and the metal ion was not sufficiently strong and so dissociation of the metal ion from the ligand occurred in the physiological environment. This was undesirable as with the use of ligands of this type there was no ability to deliver the radiopharmaceutical to the desired target area in the body as metal exchange with metal ions in the physiological environment meant that when the radiopharmaceutical compound arrived at the desired site of action the level of radiolabelled metal ion coordinated to the compound had become significantly reduced. In addition where this type of exchange is observed the side effects experienced by the subject of the radiotherapy or radio-imaging are increased as radioactive material is delivered to otherwise healthy tissue in the body rather than predominantly to its place of action.
In order to overcome the problem of metal dissociation in the physiological environment a number of more complicated ligands have been developed and studied over time. Thus, for example a wide range of tetra-azamacrocycles based on the cyclam and cyclen framework have been investigated. Examples of ligands of this type include DOTA and TETA.

Unfortunately, even with these ligands there is still dissociation of the metal with certain derivatives. For example, some derivatives suffer from dissociation of Cu from the chelate as a consequence of transchelation to biological ligands such as copper transport proteins either as Cu2+ or following in vivo reduction to Cu+.
In order to increase the stability of radiolabelled compounds therefore hexaminemacrobicyclic cage amine ligands, known by their trivial name sarcophagines have been developed. These cage ligands form remarkably stable complexes with metals such as Cu2+ and have fast complexation kinetics even at low concentrations of metal at ambient temperatures. These features therefore make ligands of this type particularly well suited in radiopharmaceutical applications, especially those applications involving copper.
Once the problem of stability of the complex between the ligand and the metal had been overcome attention turned to developing ways in which the ligand could be functionalised to incorporate targeting molecules within the ligand without compromising the stability of the metal ligand complex or the ultimate biological activity of the targeting molecule. A number of different targeting molecules are known in the art and the issue became how best to attach these to the ligand molecules.
In general the targeting molecule (or molecular recognition moiety as it is sometimes known) is attached to the ligand to provide a final compound containing both a ligand and a molecular recognition moiety. Whilst these compounds may contain a single molecular recognition moiety they may also be multimeric constructs where the ligand is attached to two (or more) molecular recognition moieties. This is typically desirable as a multimeric construct can possess higher affinity for a target receptor than its monomeric equivalent. This is in part due to an increase in the local concentration of the targeting group, allowing it to compete more effectively with endogenous ligands. In addition in circumstances where there is sufficient length between two or more targeting groups within a multimeric construct, then cooperative binding is possible, and two or more targeting groups will bind to two or more receptor sites at the same time. Indeed it has been observed that in vivo, a multimeric construct often demonstrates higher target tissue accumulation than its monomeric equivalent. Without wishing to be bound by theory it is thought that this is due to the higher affinity of the multimeric construct for the target receptor than that of the monomeric construct. Furthermore, the multimeric construct has a higher molecular weight than the monomeric construct and therefore prolonged bioavailability (as it is more resistant to degradation in the physiological environment). This can result in increased accumulation and retention in target tissue.
Initial work in the caged ligand area looked at direct coupling reactions of the primary amines of the cage amine 'diaminosarcophagine', 1,8-diamino-3,6,10,13,16,19-hexaaza bicyclo[6.6.6] icosane ((NH2)2sar), with peptides using standard coupling procedures. Unfortunately for a variety of reasons this has proven to be relatively inefficient and work in this area ceased. Workers then focussed on the incorporation of an aromatic amine to produce SarAr. The pendent aromatic amine can be used in conjugation reactions with the carboxylate residues of peptides or antibodies and it has been shown that SarAr could be conjugated to anti-GD2 monoclonal antibody (14.G2a) and its chimeric derivative (ch14.8) and the conjugate has been radiolabelled with 64Cu.

A difficulty with this approach is that in reaction of the aromatic amine in the conjugation step there are 8 other nitrogen atoms in the SarAr molecule that are available for competing reactions leading to the potential for the creation of a large number of impurities that is undesirable from a pharmaceutical sense. Whilst these could potentially be overcome by the use of substantial protective group chemistry this is clearly undesirable from a synthetic standpoint and scale up on a commercial scale.
An alternative approach has been to elaborate the ligand to incorporate carboxylate functional groups and incorporate peptides or antibodies via their N-terminal amine residues and this approach is of particular importance when the C-terminus is crucial to biological activity. Studies have shown that (NH2)2sar, can be functionalised with up to four carboxymethyl substituents via alkylation reactions with chloroacetic acid and the introduced carboxymethyl arms can be used as a point of further functionalisation and EDC-coupling reactions can then be used to introduce amino acids.
Unfortunately a potential disadvantage of these systems is that intramolecular cyclisation reactions can still occur in which the carboxymethyl arm reacts with a secondary amine of the cage framework to form lactam rings resulting in quadridentate rather than sexidentate ligands. Accordingly whilst this approach can be followed the potential for unwanted side reactions is clearly undesirable from a commercial perspective.
Further studies directed towards the functionalisation of ((NH2)2sar) was based around its reaction with activated di-carbonyl compounds such as acid anhydrides leading to the formation of an amide bond to the amine nitrogen and a free carboxylic acid moiety which was available for further elaboration to the desired binding onto a molecular recognition moiety. This lead to the formation of a carbonyl moiety as the "stick" end on the cage ligand and this was not always easy to elaborate by attachment to the molecular recognition moiety as was optimal. Accordingly there was a desire to probe ways in which the cage ligand with a pendant carboxylic acid moiety could be attached to a biological entity to make this step in the overall process more efficient.

Cage amine ligands for metallo-radiopharmaceuticals


A Tray input-output module, comprising a power unit, a clamp unit and a support unit, is capable of automatically retrieving a tray from a transport device and automatically delivering a tray to a transport device for facilitating automation in chip sorter operation, reducing manual work and raising productivity.

The present invention relates to a tray input-output module and in particular relates to a tray input-output module, capable of delivering a tray to a transport device and retrieving a tray from a transport device, automatically. Allowing full automation of chip sorter, the tray input-output module is able to save manpower, eliminate human error and elevate production efficiency.
While automation has been the target of modern industry in the perpetual quest for efficiency and competitiveness, manual operation exists in certain processes and full automation remains a future goal. Efficiency and competitiveness continue to advance as more automatic processes replace manual operations.
a. Prior art
The chip sorter in the semiconductor industry is being used to illustrate the prior art. FIG. 1 shows the known chip sorter in the prior art, comprising a platform 10, a robot arm 11 and a transport device 12. A wafer is divided into a number of dies 21 and placed on a platform 10. The main function of the chip sorter is to pick up a die 21 and place it onto a tray 3. First, an operator sets a tray 3 on one end of transport device 12, which then carries the tray 3 to a sorter position. Robot arm 11 of chip sorter picks up die 21 on platform 10 and loads it onto tray 3 until the tray 3 is full. The tray 3 is transferred by transport device 12 to a next stop before being removed by another operator.
It is clear from the above description that the chip sorter in the prior art is not capable of automatically delivering tray to transport device and retrieving tray from transport device. Requiring manual work, such operations are less efficient due to additional labor cost.
Aimed at resolving the above disadvantage, it is the object of the present invention to provide a tray input module, capable of delivering a tray to transport device and retrieving a tray from transport device.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a tray output module, capable of retrieving a tray from transport device.
The following Description and Designation of Drawings are provided in order to help understand the features and content of the present invention.

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A gate driver and an operation method thereof are provided. The gate driver includes clock transmission wires and driving circuits. The clock transmission wires are configured to transmit clock signals having different phases. Each of the driving circuits has a clock input terminal, a pre-charge terminal, a discharge control terminal and an output terminal. The output terminals are configured to drive gate lines of a display panel. The driving circuits are grouped into several driving circuit groups. The driving circuits belonging to a first driving circuit group among the driving circuit groups are called first driving circuits. The clock input terminals of the first driving circuits are coupled to different transmission wires among the clock transmission wires. The pre-charge terminals of the first driving circuits commonly receive a first pre-charge signal. The discharge control terminals of the first driving circuits commonly receive a first discharge control signal.

Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a display apparatus and more particularly, to a gate driver of a display panel and an operation method thereof.
Description of Related Art
In order to achieve cost saving for currently available crystal display panel produces, a gate driver is commonly manufactured using an amorphous silicon transistor. When a display panel is designed, a gate driver circuit is directly manufactured in a thin film transistor array (TFT Array) of the display panel, which is called a gate on panel (GOP) circuit or a gate on array (GOA) circuit in this industry. This method can effective achieve reduction in pin counts of driver chips. The GOP circuit has been a well know technique; however, corresponding scan lines (or gate lines) in the current GOP circuit structure are turned on/driven according to a fixed order, without any variability.

Gate driver of display panel and operation method thereof


A lithographic projection apparatus includes an active reflector in a radiation system providing a projection beam of radiation and/or in a projection system. The active reflector includes a body member, a reflective multilayer and at least one actuator controllable to adjust the surface figure of the reflecting multilayer, wherein the actuator exerts a substantial force component in a direction parallel to the surface figure of said reflective multilayer. The actuator may be operative to apply torques to said reflector.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a lithographic projection apparatus and more specifically to a lithographic projection apparatus including a controllable reflector.
2. Background of the Related Art
The term "patterning structure" as here employed should be broadly interpreted as referring to means that can be used to endow an incoming radiation beam with a patterned cross-section, corresponding to a pattern that is to be created in a target portion of the substrate; the term "light valve" can also be used in this context. Generally, the said pattern will correspond to a particular functional layer in a device being created in the target portion, such as an integrated circuit or other device (see below). Examples of such patterning structure include:
A mask. The concept of a mask is well known in lithography, and it includes mask types such as binary, alternating phase-shift, and attenuated phase-shift, as well as various hybrid mask types. Placement of such a mask in the radiation beam causes selective transmission (in the case of a transmissive mask) or reflection (in the case of a reflective mask) of the radiation impinging on the mask, according to the pattern on the mask. In the case of a mask, the support structure will generally be a mask table, which ensures that the mask can be held at a desired position in the incoming radiation beam, and that it can be moved relative to the beam if so desired;
A programmable mirror array. An example of such a device is a matrix-addressable surface having a viscoelastic control layer and a reflective surface. The basic principle behind such an apparatus is that (for example) addressed areas of the reflective surface reflect incident light as diffracted light, whereas unaddressed areas reflect incident light as undiffracted light. Using an appropriate filter, the said undiffracted light can be filtered out of the reflected beam, leaving only the diffracted light behind; in this manner, the beam becomes patterned according to the addressing pattern of the matrix-adressable surface. The required matrix addressing can be performed using suitable electronic means. More information on such mirror arrays can be gleaned, for example, from U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,296,891 and 5,523,193, which are incorporated herein by reference. In the case of a programmable mirror array, the said support structure may be embodied as a frame or table, for example, which may be fixed or movable as required; and
A programmable LCD array. An example of such a construction is given in U.S. Pat. No. 5,229,872, which is incorporated herein by reference. As above, the support structure in this case may be embodied as a frame or table, for example, which may be fixed or movable as required.
For purposes of simplicity, the rest of this text may, at certain locations, specifically direct itself to examples involving a mask and mask table; however, the general principles discussed in such instances should be seen in the broader context of the patterning structure as hereabove set forth.
Lithographic projection apparatus can be used, for example, in the manufacture of integrated circuits (ICs). In such a case, the patterning structure may generate a circuit pattern corresponding to an individual layer of the IC, and this pattern can be imaged onto a target portion (e.g. comprising one or more dies) on a substrate (silicon wafer) that has been coated with a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist). In general, a single wafer will contain a whole network of adjacent target portions that are successively irradiated via the projection system, one at a time. In current apparatus, employing patterning by a mask on a mask table, a distinction can be made between two different types of machine. In one type of lithographic projection apparatus, each target portion is irradiated by exposing the entire mask pattern onto the target portion at once; such an apparatus is commonly referred to as a wafer stepper. In an alternative apparatus—commonly referred to as a step-and-scan apparatus—each target portion is irradiated by progressively scanning the mask pattern under the projection beam in a given reference direction (the "scanning" direction) while synchronously scanning the substrate table parallel or anti-parallel to this direction; since, in general, the projection system will have a magnification factor M (generally <1), the speed V at which the substrate table is scanned will be a factor M times that at which the mask table is scanned. More information with regard to lithographic devices as here described can be gleaned, for example, from U.S. Pat. No. 6,046,792, incorporated herein by reference.
In a manufacturing process using a lithographic projection apparatus, a pattern (e.g. in a mask) is imaged onto a substrate that is at least partially covered by a layer of radiation-sensitive material (resist). Prior to this imaging step, the substrate may undergo various procedures, such as priming, resist coating and a soft bake. After exposure, the substrate may be subjected to other procedures, such as a post-exposure bake (PEB), development, a hard bake and measurement/inspection of the imaged features. This array of procedures is used as a basis to pattern an individual layer of a device, e.g. an IC. Such a patterned layer may then undergo various processes such as etching, ion-implantation (doping), metallization, oxidation, chemo-mechanical polishing, etc., all intended to finish off an individual layer. If several layers are required, then the whole procedure, or a variant thereof, will have to be repeated for each new layer. Eventually, an array of devices will be present on the substrate (wafer). These devices are then separated from one another by a technique such as dicing or sawing, whence the individual devices can be mounted on a carrier, connected to pins, etc. Further information regarding such processes can be obtained, for example, from the book "Microchip Fabrication: A Practical Guide to Semiconductor Processing", Third Edition, by Peter van Zant, McGraw Hill Publishing Co., 1997, ISBN 0-07-067250-4, incorporated herein by reference.
For the sake of simplicity, the projection system may hereinafter be referred to as the "lens"; however, this term should be broadly interpreted as encompassing various types of projection system, including refractive optics, reflective optics, and catadioptric systems, for example. The radiation system may also include components operating according to any of these design types for directing, shaping or controlling the projection beam of radiation, and such components may also be referred to below, collectively or singularly, as a "lens". Further, the lithographic apparatus may be of a type having two or more substrate tables (and/or two or more mask tables). In such "multiple stage" devices the additional tables may be used in parallel, or preparatory steps may be carried out on one or more tables while one or more other tables are being used for exposures. Twin stage lithographic apparatus are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,969,441 and WO 98/40791, incorporated herein by reference.
In a lithographic apparatus the size of features that can be imaged onto the wafer is limited by the wavelength of the projection radiation. To produce integrated circuits with a higher density of devices, and hence higher operating speeds, it is desirable to be able to image smaller features. While most current lithographic projection apparatus employ ultraviolet light generated by mercury lamps or excimer lasers, it has been proposed to use shorter wavelength radiation of around 13 nm. Such radiation is termed extreme ultraviolet (XUV or EUV) or soft x-ray and possible sources include laser-produced plasma sources, discharge plasma sources or synchrotron radiation from electron storage rings. An outline design of a lithographic projection apparatus using synchrotron radiation is described in "Synchrotron radiation sources and condensers for projection x-ray lithography", J B Murphy et al, Applied Optics Vol. 32 No. 24 pp 6920–6929 (1993).
Lithographic projection apparatus using EUV radiation are intended to image mask patterns with a critical dimension of 90 nm or less. This imposes extremely severe accuracy criteria on the illumination and especially the projection optics. For the projection system, the required accuracy is defined by the wavefront aberration (WFA) which is twice the magnitude of the surface figure error. For a four-mirror system it has been calculated (Gwyn, C. W. et al, Extreme Ultraviolet lithography, J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 16, (November/December) 1998, pp 3142) that a WFA tolerance of ≦1 nm rms is required for low frequency errors, i.e. those of spatial wavelength of greater than 1 mm. Independent errors of each mirror must therefore be no greater than 0.25 nm, since in a system of N mirrors the maximum permissible error of each mirror is (2√N)−1 times the total error for the system. For mid-spatial frequency errors, of wavelength 1 mm to 1 μm, surface roughness must be less than 0.2 nm rms as roughness in this spatial frequency range reduces image contrast. High-spatial frequency errors, of wavelength less than 1 μm, cause large angle scattering, a loss mechanism for the beam, and so surface roughness for these frequencies must be less than 0.1 nm rms.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,986,795 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,436 both disclose the use of adaptive mirrors in photolithography using EUV radiation. In the mirror described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,986,795, a number of actuators are provided between a reaction plate and a face plate bearing a reflective coating suitable for the radiation used in the lithography apparatus. The actuators may be piezoelectric, electroresistive or magnetoresistive and act generally perpendicularly to the face and reaction plates. The reaction plate is more flexible than the face plate. U.S. Pat. No. 5,420,436 describes a similar arrangement, having an array of piezoelectric actuators acting perpendicularly between a reaction plate and a face plate; in this case however the face plate is more flexible than the reaction plate.

Lithographic apparatus device manufacturing method and device manufactured thereby


The amount of information that must be transmitted from an Internet server to a user's computer or workstation when the user requests an Internet object, for example, by clicking on a URL in a web browser application, is reduced using a cache-based compaction technique in which the requested object is encoded in the server using information relating to similar objects that were previously supplied to the user. Similar objects available in both a client side cache and a server side cache are selected by comparing the URL of the requested object to the URL's of stored objects. Differential encoding is performed in the server such that the server transmits to the client information indicative of the differences between the requested object and the reference (similar) objects available in the server cache. A corresponding decoding operation is performed in the client, using the encoded version and reference objects available in the client cache.

Despite the phenomenal growth of the Internet, the advances in the means and speed of access to the Internet has not caught up. In particular, the last hop between (a) the Internet site to which the user is connected, such as the user's Internet Service Provider (ISP) and (b) the computer or workstation on is which the user is running a browser application, is still mainly implemented as a connection over a telephone line using a traditional modem, with communication speeds up to only 56 kbps. The emerging cable modem and ADSL technology promise to change that, but their widespread deployment and adoption are still years away.
Separately, the use of wireless communications links in the last hop is gaining popularity. Its growth is fueled by the confluence of 3 factors: (1) the development of digital air interface protocols that support data (e.g., CDPD, IS-95, IS-136, GSM/GPRS); (2) the availability of new classes of portable Internet-capable end devices (e.g., Palm Pilot, Handheld PC, Nokia 9000) and wireless modems (e.g., Novatel Wireless); and (3) the falling usage cost for wireless communications. Again, the raw bandwidth available on most wireless channels is low (e.g., 19.2 kbps for CDPD), which can be further impaired by their multiple-access contention nature and protocol overhead. For example, the effective application layer throughput of CDPD is about 8 kbps without contention.
In a nutshell, Web browsing behind slow (wireline or wireless) access links will persist for years to come. Wireless Internet access, which is emerging only now, will present an even more severe problem.
A number of previous approaches have been suggested in order to reduce the delay incurred in the last hop. Most of these approaches involve increased usage of storage or computation to make up for limitations in the communication medium. This typically amounts to a trade-off, since storage and computational complexity each add overhead and cost to the system. The key to the success of any of these processing techniques is that the increase in processing delay should be more than offset by the decrease in transport delay, thus resulting in a decrease in the overall latency.
One technique, known as "caching", stores earlier responses, and reuses them to satisfy a repeated request. Traditionally, caching algorithms search for identical objects and the search is limited to objects with the same URL. These known compression algorithms do not take into account the presence of other objects in the cache. This topic has been studied extensively in the literature. See for example, Adam Dingle and Tomas Partl, "Web Cache Coherence", Fifth International World Wide Web Conference, May 1997; Bradley M. Duska, David Marwood, and Michael J. Feeley, "The Measured Access Characteristics of World-Wide-Web Client Proxy Caches", USENIX Symposium on Internet Technologies and Systems, Dec 1997; James Gwertzman and Margo Seltzer, "Worldwide Web Cache Consistency", Proceedings of the USENIX Technical Conference, 1996; A. Lutonen, H. F. Nielsen, and T. Berners-Lee, "Cern httpd", In http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Daemon/Status.html, July 1996; and Duane Wessels and K. Claffy, "Icp and the Squid Web Cache", IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communication, 16(3):345-357, April 1998.
Another technique, known as "prefetching", tries to predict, fetch and store a response before it is needed. In both caching and prefetching, the stored objects must be transferred at least once. In some cases, this transfer can be optimized by first transforming or compressing the objects to a smaller size. Prefetching, like caching, is based on fetching in advance the exact object that will be needed in the future. The utility of prefetching was studied by Venkata N. Padmanabhan and Jeffery C. Mogul, "Using Predictive Prefetching to Improve World Wide Web Latency", Computer Communication Review, ACM, July 1996, using a statistical algorithm described by James Griggioen and Randy Appleton in "The Design, Implementation, and Evaluation of a Predictive Caching File System", Technical Report CS-264-96, Department of Computer Science, University of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky., June 1996.
Compression can be achieved by the use of differential transfer to transmit only changes between current and past information. Usually, only two objects of the same URL are considered at a time. Some of the differencing algorithms used are UNIX diff and vdelta, as described by J. Hunt, K. P. Vo, and W. Tichy, "An Empirical Study of Delta Algorithm", IEEE Software Config. and Maint. Workshop, March 1996; and J. Hunt, K. P. Vo, and W. Tichy, "An Empirical Study of Delta Algorithms", IEEE Software Config. and Maint. Workshop, March 1996; In a paper by Gaurav Banga, Fred Douglis, and Michael Rabinovich, "Optimistic Deltas for WWW Latency Reduction", USENIX, 1997, the difference between two versions of the same page was computed in order to reduce transfer size. Dynamic pages including output of CGI scripts with different parameters, were also considered for differencing. The issue of what objects should be used in differencing has been mentioned in the literature, but is at present considered to be an open question. The benefits of delta coding was also studied by Jeffery C. Mogul, Fred Douglis, Anja Feldmann, and Balachander Krishnamurthy, "Potential Benefits of Delta Encoding and Data Compression for Http", Proceedings of the ACM SIGCOMM, pages 181-194, 1997.
The limits of latency reduction obtainable from caching and prefetching, based on search for objects with same the URL, was studied by Thomas M. Kroeger, Darrell D. E. Long, and Jeffrey C. Mogul, "Exploring the Bounds of Web Latency Reduction from Caching and Prefetching", USENIX Symposium on Internet Technologies and Systems, December 1997. They have found that caching and prefetching can reduce latency by at best 26% and 57%, respectively. Accordingly, there is a significant need for an improved latency reduction technique.

Cache-based compaction technique for internet browsing using similar objects in client cache as reference objects


A prescaler (200) includes a first frequency divider (204, 206) configured to receive an input signal at an input frequency. The prescaler further includes a phase rotator (208) coupled to the first frequency divider to produce a plurality of signal phases in response to the input signal. A frequency control circuit (214) is configured as a one-hot decoder to select one signal phase of the plurality of signal phases. The one-hot decoder provides maximum speed of operation of the prescaler by eliminating decoding of the feedback signal.

The present invention is generally related to frequency synthesis circuits. More particularly, the present invention is related to a dual-modulus prescaler using a one-hot decoded phase shift circuit.
Frequency synthesizers are an important building block of transceivers in radio devices. The frequency synthesizer is used to generate the local oscillator signal for demodulating received radio signals and modulating signals for transmission. For ideal performance of the transceiver, the frequency synthesizer and its component parts must operate at high precision. Since many modern radios are portable devices, small size and minimal current design are further design goals for a frequency synthesizer.
Conventional frequency synthesizers employ a phase locked loop (PLL), illustrated in FIG. 1, for tracking output frequency with an input, high precision oscillator frequency. Along with a prescaler 102, the PLL 100 typically includes a phase detector 104, a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) 106 and a loop filter 108. A reference frequency labeled fref in FIG. 1 is received at an input 110 and the output signal at frequency fout is provided at an output 112. The prescaler 102 divides the frequency of the output signal from the VCO 106 by a variable division ratio to a certain low frequency. The low frequency signal is locked by the PLL 100 onto a very stable reference frequency, fref. A mode signal is provided at a mode input 114 of the prescaler 102 to select a modulus of division.
The prescaler 102 must include the logic necessary to select the desired modulus. The added dual modulus logic slows the operation of the prescaler 102 and even limits the upper frequency of operation of the prescaler 102 and the PLL 100. The prescaler 102 and the VCO 106 are the only blocks in the PLL 100 operating at the full frequency fout of the output signal. In a radio such as a cellular telephone, this frequency is in the range of 800 MHz and 2.0 GHz.
One improved prescaler design has been proposed by Craninckx and Steyaert in 1.75 Ghz/3-V Dual-Modulus Divide-by-128/129 Prescaler in 0.7 xcexcm CMOS, IEEE Journal of Solid-State Circuits, xcexc 31, no. 7, July 1996, page 890. FIG. 2 illustrates this prescaler 200.
The prescaler 200 includes an input buffer 202, a divide by two block 204, a divide by two block 206, a phase rotator 208, a divide by (n/4) block 210, a logic gate 212 and a frequency control circuit 214. The input buffer 202 receives a differential signal, labeled VCO_Clk+ and VCO_Clkxe2x88x92 in FIG. 2. This signal is buffered to suitable logic levels and passed to a clock input of the divide by two block 204. The divide by two block 204 is any suitable divider such as a D-flip flop. The output of the divide by two block 204 is fed back to the input of the block 204 and also to the clock input of the divide by two block 206. The divide by two block 206 is configured as a master-slave flip flop and provides two differential output signals. The output signal of the slave flip flop is provided as the differential output labeled SQ and SQB in FIG. 2. This output signal is fed back to the input of the divide by two block 206, labeled D and DB. The output of the master flip flop is provided as the differential output labeled MQ and MQB in FIG. 2.
The four outputs from the master slave flip flop provide four quadrature signals. Each of the signals SQ, SQB, MQ and MQB is related to the input signal by a phase shift that is a multiple of 90 degrees. Thus, quadrature signals having phases 0 degrees, 90 degrees, 180 degrees and 270 degrees different from the input signal are available.
The phase rotator 208 selects one of the quadrature signals and passes the selected signal to the divide by (n/4) circuit 210. The selection is made based on an input signal from the frequency control circuit 214. This provides a divide by N operation. The output signal from the divide by (n/4) circuit 210 is the output signal from the prescaler 200. This output signal is passed to the logic gate 212, which is gated by a mode signal received at a mode input 216. Once a modulus or mode signal is provided to the mode input 216, an output edge signal from the divide by (n/4) circuit 210 provides a reference to switch phases for an N+1 division operation through the feedback path of logic. Thus, the mode signal disables and enables the feedback path to perform the needed N and N+1 frequency division ratio of the prescaler.
The feedback path of the phase shifting prescaler 200 is the critical path of this circuit. The feedback path includes the logic gate 212 and the frequency control circuit 214. The propagation delay through this circuit will limit the maximum operation frequency of the prescaler 200 and of any PLL and frequency synthesizer utilizing the prescaler 200.
FIG. 3 illustrates one proposed circuit 300 for implementing the frequency control circuit 214. The circuit 300 includes a first switchable amplifier 302, a second switchable amplifier 304 and a multiplexer 306. By finding the sum or difference of the signals received at the switchable amplifiers 302, 304 the circuit 300 obtains the four necessary quadrature phase signals. To implement the proper sequence of signals for controlling the amplifiers 302, 304, the input signals labeled C1 and C2 are tied together to obtain 0 and 90 or 180 and 270 degree phase shifts of the intended signal. The control line labeled CO selects between the 0 or 90 and 180 or 270 degree phases of the intended signal. A two bit counter or other logic circuit is necessary in the feedback path for frequency control.
FIG. 4 illustrates a two bit counter 400 suitable for controlling the frequency control circuit 300 of FIG. 3. The counter 400 includes a D flip flop 402, an exclusive OR gate 404, a D flip flop 406 and an exclusive OR gate 408. The counter receives a clock signal at an input 410 and provides a two bit output, including a most significant bit (MSB) at output 412 and least significant bit (LSB) at output 414. The table in FIG. 4 illustrates the counter sequence that allows phase shifting to occur in the control circuit 300 of FIG. 3 used in the prescaler 200 of FIG. 2.
FIG. 5 is a plot of voltage versus time displaying proper operation of the prescaler 200 using the circuit 300 and the counter 400 for a divide by N+1 operation. FIG. 5 shows a first signal 502 and a second signal 504 along with the output signal 506 of the PLL. The second signal 504 lags the first signal 502 by a 90 degree phase shift.
The major short coming of the circuitry of FIGS. 3 and 4 is a possibility of glitches on the output signal 506. This may be more properly referred to as a metastable state. A metastable state is a concern because its presence may cause an incorrect frequency division and will cause the PLL using the prescaler to become consistently unlocked from its designed local oscillator frequency. Also, metastability at the output of the switchable amplifiers 302, 304 of FIG. 3 could cause improper division by the divide by (n/4) circuit 210 in the prescaler 200 of FIG. 2. This results in a large amount of phase noise in the frequency synthesizer employing the prescaler 200.
FIG. 6 is a plot of voltage versus time displaying signals of the prescaler 200 of FIG. 2 when a metastable state occurs. The metastable state occurs when the switchable amplifier 302, 304 switches abruptly in an unsafe switching region to cause metastability as shown in FIG. 6. The metastability is manifested as glitches 602, 604 in the output signal 506.
FIG. 7 is a plot of voltage versus time displaying signals of the prescaler 200 of FIG. 2. In FIG. 7 illustrates times when the phase shifting prescaler 200 may safely switch to avoid the metastable state. In the illustrated example, a prescaler operating at 2.5 GHz has a phase delay of 400 ps between each succeeding phase since the frequency has been divided by four prior to the phase rotator circuit 208 (FIG. 2).
Thus, the propagation delay through the divide by (n/4) circuit 210 (FIG. 1), frequency control circuit and both stages of the phase selection circuit 300 must be very well controlled to switch only during the safe counter clocking regions 702. However, this is a long chain of circuitry which inherently has a significant propagation delay. This makes phase switching within a safe counter clocking region 702 difficult to achieve and control. In a conventional CMOS process, the propagation delay of a single flip flop such as the flip flops 402, 406 used to implement the two bit counter 400 (FIG. 4) is 400 ps. This places a difficult constraint on avoiding metastability and achieving low current design.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved prescaler which provides operation at least to 2 GHz while avoiding metastable states and providing low current operation.
By way of introduction only, a prescaler in accordance with the present invention improves on the performance of previous phase shifting prescalers by employing a one-hot decoded phase control circuit. The one-hot circuit minimizes the propagation delay in the feedback loop of the prescaler. Further, enhancements to the design of the phase rotator and the logic circuit used in the feedback loop also increase the operational range of the prescaler.
The foregoing discussion of the preferred embodiments has been provided only by way of introduction. Nothing in this section should be taken as a limitation on the following claims, which define the scope of the invention.


A method of displaying nodes within a network topology. Using a processor coupled to a display screen, the method involves forming a first layer of a multi-layer representation wherein at least two nodes are represented separately; and grouping the nodes of the first layer into group nodes to form a second layer in the multi-layer representation. In addition, the method groups the group nodes of the second layer into a third layer, the third layer having at least one connected-superset node containing group nodes with nodes connected to each other, and at least one isolated-superset node containing group nodes having nodes isolated from each other. The method displays the superset nodes in the third layer so the connected-superset node is separate from the isolated-superset node and such that the connected-superset node is selectively expandable to display group nodes and connections between the nodes, and the isolated-superset node is selectively expandable to display group nodes of the second layer.

The present invention relates in general to computer user interfaces and more specifically to a method for rendering node displays in a network topology.
Conventional techniques for rendering node displays in a network topology are well known. The importance of enabling a user to view, via a graphical display, the nodes and connection paths in a network cannot be overemphasized. For example, in a network such as a storage area network (SAN), connection paths between nodes are displayed on the graphical display of a user interface associated with the network. If a problem exists with any of the connections or paths, the problem is quickly detected and rectified. Another example is when a switch within a network malfunctions, the problem is quickly traced to the switch and rectified. In addition, the ability to view networks simplifies tasks such as future upgrades to the network or associated devices.
Conventionally, a graphical display is used to show a given configuration of the layout, wherein every connection path is shown separately. Disadvantageously, the display is static, in that it corresponds to a given layout of the network, and a fixed representation of the display is shown to the users. The display in complex networks having large numbers of connection paths, can become quite confusing to view. Moreover, graph drawing algorithms for creating the displays do not scale well to complex graphs, associated with large networks. The nodes in a complex network can appear barely visible in the display, rendering the view of the overall network topology difficult to interpret by the user. Further yet, when the graphs used to produce the display do not have a simple tree structure, the scalability problem is accentuated because the display of all connection paths at a single time constitutes a complex maze of datapaths which can not be easily simplified for viewing purposes.
In the above-referenced related application, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/539,350 entitled "METHOD FOR DISPLAYING NODES OF A NETWORK USING A MULTI-LAYER REPRESENTATION WHEREIN NODES CAN BE SELECTIVELY COLLAPSED OF EXPANDED," filed Mar. 31, 2000, a mechanism was described for grouping nodes for a network and for expanding or collapsing these groups. Examples were given on what these groups can consist of. In addition, U.S. application Ser. No. 09/539,350 describes how the group of nodes can be themselves grouped into a second level of groups, etc.
Although the node expansion method described the above provides for simplified display of networks, there remains a need to distinguish network subsets which are not connected.

Method for displaying supersets of node groups in a network


A lever apparatus includes a lever operated by a user, a biasing member that is a source of an operation reaction force of the lever, and a linkage mechanism configured to link the lever and the biasing member. The linkage mechanism includes a lever-side rotating body pivoted according to pivoting of the lever, and a biasing member-side rotating body engaged with lever-side rotating body and installed closer to the biasing member than the lever-side rotating body. The linkage mechanism varies a ratio of a variation of a rotation angle of the biasing member-side rotating body to a variation of a rotation angle of the lever-side rotating body according to an operation amount of the lever.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lever apparatus.
Description of Related Art
In the related art, a clutch-by-wire system configured to electrically connect a clutch lever and a clutch apparatus is known. For example, the clutch-by-wire system includes an actuator configured to drive the clutch apparatus, an operation amount detection means configured to detect an operation amount of the clutch lever, and an electronic control unit configured to control an action of an actuator on the basis of a detection value of the operation amount detection means.
In a clutch-by-wire system, in order to produce an operation load of a conventional clutch lever mechanically connected to a clutch apparatus by a hydraulic pressure, a cable, or the like, a mechanism configured to apply an operation reaction force to a clutch lever is provided (for example, see Japanese Patent No. 5639142). Japanese Patent No. 5639142 discloses a gear box including a clutch lever and a plurality of coils configured to stepwisely vary a rate of increase of an operation reaction force of the clutch lever as biasing forces thereof are applied in stages.


A failure diagnostic apparatus for an intake air stream control valve which is provided in an intake system for an internal combustion engine, and which forms an air stream in the combustion chamber by changing a flow of intake air when the intake air is introduced to the combustion chamber of the internal combustion engine. In the failure diagnostic apparatus, an ignition device is provided in the combustion chamber; an ECU changes ignition timing such that an engine rotational speed of the internal combustion engine becomes equal to a target rotational speed immediately after the engine is started while the engine is cold; and the ECU performs a failure diagnostic control for determining whether a failure has occurred in the intake air stream control valve based on whether the changed ignition timing is different from the reference ignition timing that is a reference for the failure diagnosis.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a failure diagnostic technology, and more particularly to a failure diagnostic apparatus for an intake air stream control device provided in an intake system for the internal combustion engine.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an example of such an internal combustion engine, an internal combustion engine is known, which includes an intake air stream control device such as a swirl control valve (hereinafter, referred to as "SCV"), and a jet flow port. Also, an internal combustion engine is known, in which a swirl or a tumble flow suitable for a present operating state is formed in a combustion chamber by operating the intake air stream control device, whereby lean burn operation that is known can be performed.
More specifically, fuel in appropriate concentration is diffused to appropriate portions of the combustion chamber by forming the air stream in the combustion chamber, and this diffusion of the fuel makes a combustion state stable while only a small amount of the fuel is used.
In relation to the intake air stream control device, for example, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-9-42021, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-7-83101, and Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2001-20782 disclose failure diagnostic technologies for the SCV.
According to the failure diagnostic technology disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-9-42021, a failure of the SCV is detected using pressure in a cylinder (hereinafter, referred to as "cylinder pressure") and an output of an air-fuel ratio sensor.
More specifically, a degree of stability of the combustion in the engine is monitored by detecting the cylinder pressure using a pressure sensor when the SCV is closed. In addition, under this situation, an air-fuel ratio is controlled to become the leanest value at which the degree of stability of the combustion in the engine can be maintained, and the leanest value is regarded as a lean limit value. When the lean limit value is leaner than a reference air-fuel ratio, it is determined that the SCV is not operated normally.
Also, according to the failure diagnostic technology disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-7-83101, a combustion period from when the ignition is started until when the cylinder pressure reaches a peak value is detected based on a signal of a crank angle sensor when the SCV is in a closed state or in an opened state during normal operation; an actual combustion period is detected based on a signal of a cylinder pressure sensor; and it is determined whether a failure has occurred in the SCV by comparing the combustion period detected based on the signal of the crank angle sensor to the actual combustion period.
Also, according to the failure diagnostic technology disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-2001-20782, a combustion state when the SCV is in the closed state and a combustion state when the SCV is in the opened state are detected, for example, based on an output value of a knock sensor; and when it is determined that the combustion state deteriorates as a result of comparison between both of the combustion states, it is determined that a failure has occurred in the SCV.
In the conventional failure diagnostic technologies, a change in the combustion state which depends on the position of a valve element of the intake air stream control device is detected by the cylinder pressure sensor or the like, and the failure diagnosis for the intake air stream control device is performed by comparing a normal change in the combustion state to the detected change in the combustion state.
Therefore, for example, when the valve element incorporated in the intake air stream control device falls off the intake air stream control device, or when the intake air stream control device remains in the opened state, it is not possible to accurately detect the change in the combustion state when the intake air stream control valve is in the closed state. Accordingly, it is necessary to additionally provide an opening degree sensor for directly detecting the position of the valve element of the intake air stream control device.
As described above, in the failure diagnostic technologies disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-9-42021, and the Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP-A-7-83101, the failure diagnosis is performed by detecting the combustion state based on the output value of the cylinder pressure sensor. The cylinder pressure sensor is more expensive than other sensors, and it is necessary to perform extensive machining operation for a cylinder head when the cylinder pressure sensor is installed. Thus, it costs much, and it is troublesome to employ the conventional failure diagnostic technologies for an existing internal combustion engine. Accordingly, the conventional failure diagnostic technologies need to be further improved.

Failure diagnostic apparatus for intake air stream control device and control method of failure diagnostic apparatus


A memory circuit is configured for storage of completion queues. Each completion queue can store completion descriptors associated with transfers of data from interrupt source circuits to the memory circuit. A direct memory access circuit provides access to the memory circuit for the interrupt source circuits. An interrupt engine issues interrupt messages for processing the completion descriptors in the completion queues in response to satisfaction of a set of trigger conditions specified in an active interrupt moderation mode. The active interrupt moderation mode is one of multiple available interrupt moderation modes. The interrupt engine bypasses issuing interrupt messages in response to the set of trigger conditions of the active interrupt moderation mode not being satisfied.

In networked applications, each completion of a job involving DMA reads from or writes to host memory through a communications link can be communicated back to the host processor through an interrupt. In many applications, such as para-virtualization, taking interrupts on all processor cores may be undesirable in order to preserve the quality of service (QOS) for virtual machines executing on the processor cores. In those applications a dedicated processor for a hypervisor could take the interrupt and schedule the job to a virtual machine without affecting the QOS.
In certain environments, the operating system may be unable to provide many interrupt vectors and yet need to use many queues to distribute the traffic to available CPU cores. Some networking protocols, such as remote direct memory access (RDMA), require many queues (typically more than 64K queues) for point to point communication in applications such as high-performance computing (HPC), cloud storage etc. to reduce latency. Most implementations poll the queues by software, but implementations use asynchronous notification, which requires interrupts. In para-virtualization each virtual core (vCore) can have dedicated queues for sending and receiving packets. However, for QoS a hypervisor may take interrupts on fewer CPU cores or threads and distribute the processing to vCores. Events and interrupts can be aggregated to reduce the number of interrupt vectors.
Interrupt moderation is a technique by which the issuing of interrupts to a host processor is managed in order to avoid overloading the host processor. Moderating interrupts issued as a result of network communications may adversely affect the processing of interrupts from other types of applications. However, without sufficient moderation of interrupts resulting from network communications, the performance of other types of applications may still suffer as a result of barrages of network-triggered interrupts.

Interrupt moderation and aggregation circuitry


A method for analyzing a droplet fraction of an oil mist sample of a gas turbine is provided. A collecting device collects the oil mist sample, wherein the collecting device is arranged within a breather pipe which is coupled to the gas turbine such that oil mist is flowing through the breather pipe. The droplet fraction is separated from a gaseous fraction of the oil mist sample by a filter device, wherein the filter device is soaked with the droplet fraction, the droplet fraction is extracted from the filter device by using a tetrachloroethylene solvent. A composition of the droplet fraction is analyzed by a spectrometer.

In the technical field of gas turbines there is a commercial requirement to measure the emissions from gas turbine engines in order to comply with national and regional environmental standards. In particular, there is a need to measure lube oil breather emissions from a gas turbine. The lube oil breather emission flows through a breather pipe in a liquid (droplet) and/or a gaseous aggregate state. The lube oil breather pipe comprises a relatively small diameter and the flow of the lube oil (mist) is relatively low and comprises high temperatures.
Hence, in order to receive a proper measurement result, a measurement sample has to be taken from the oil mist inside breather pipe. In particular, the hydrocarbon amount of the oil mist in the gaseous phase and in the liquid phase is measured, so that a total amount of hydrocarbon of the oil mist and hence the lube oil breather emissions is analysed.
GB 2 408 798 A discloses a light scattering oil mist detecting device with means for preventing oil droplets entering the casing. The oil mist detecting device comprises a casing having an oil mist introducing chamber arranged in a crank-case of on internal combustion engine. A light emitting means and a photo detecting means of the oil mist detecting device may measure the oil mist introduced into the introducing chamber.
GB 2 398 382 A discloses an oil mist sampling device. The oil mist sampling device comprises light emitting means for radiating light and photo receiving means for receiving the radiated light. The photo receiving means outputs a signal corresponding to the intensity of the received light.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,369,890 B1 discloses a particle separation and detection apparatus. The apparatus comprises an analysing chamber which receives a gaseous fluid by diffusion from a receiving chamber connected via an inlet to an area being monitored. The gaseous fluid is measured by a photodiode which detects light scattered by particles in the gaseous fluid.
EP 1 936 358 A1 discloses an oil mist detector. A light emit-ting device irradiates light to a detection region in which oil mist is injected. The light is radiated through a transparent window. The received light is received through the transparent window by a receiving device.
Liquid emissions may be caught on a fiber packed filter assembly with a backup membrane filter. A conventional method of determining the liquid oil catch is weighting before and after exposure but this may be prone to possible errors. The more accurate method may be to extract the liquid oil catch from an exhausted oil mist by using a solvent and then analyzing the concentration of the liquid oil catch (e.g. its hydrocarbons) in the solvent.

Infrared spectrometer measurement of droplets collected from an oil mist in a breather pipe of a gas turbine


A swivel hardware assembly which includes a bail having a base with an opening therethrough. A shank, terminating in a head, passes through the opening to form a pivotal connection between the bail and the shank. The first thrust washer is juxtaposed between the head and the base. A second thrust washer is juxtaposed between the head and the base. Each thrust washer has at least one surface covered with a self lubricating material, the self lubricating surfaces mating with each other to form a bearing surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a swivel hardware assembly for a load handling device. In particular, the present invention relates to a swivel hardware assembly having improved resistance to wear under heavy load situations.
2. Prior Art
Swivel hardware assemblies are used with a wide variety of load handling devices. These hardware assemblies are designed to connect rope, webbing or wire and support large working loads. Often times, the hardware assembly is composed of a pair of fittings, one fitting having an extending shank received through a circular opening of the other shank.
The hardware assembly allows a pivoting action between the fittings about the shank. The hardware assemblies are designed with great tensile strength so that working load limits may be up to thousands of pounds. Because of the longitudinal tensile forces, there exists bearing surfaces between the head of the shank and the base of the adjoining fitting.
Prior art includes swivels designed with needle, roller, and ball bearings. These are subject to higher costs and do not provide as good a life under the working loads of the swivels.
It is, therefore, a principal object and purpose of the present invention to provide a swivel hardware assembly having high load capacity, heat dissipation ability, and resistance to wear.


Novel tools and techniques might provide for implementing application programming interface (“API”) use compliance, and, in some cases, by implementing application auditing for API use compliance within virtual environments in which target APIs are executed. In some embodiments, a method might comprise identifying misuse of an application programming interface (“API”) that is used in a developer channel, by intercepting data streams between the API and one or more computing systems, parsing the intercepted data streams, and determining whether the API is use non-compliant, based at least in part on identifying use non-compliant characteristics in the parsed data streams.

Software developers often use application programming interfaces ("API's") during the development of mobile applications. The use of an official API requires that the developer, and API provider (hereinafter, "API provider" or "API owner"), enter into a written agreement stating that they will abide by the Terms of Service ("TOS") specific to developer access to the API. The API provider will provide a set of unique identifiers (or keys) to the developer upon acceptance of the TOS or Developers Agreement. Currently, API owners are responsible for the ongoing compliance management of their developers throughout the life-cycle of the application. Management of compliance on an official API is fairly straight-forward. However, those same applications that are outside of the API owner's system become problematic to audit. There are some common areas of abuse for most API providers including, but not limited to, Trademark Use/Abuse, Copyright or Logo Use/Abuse, Common Abuses Using Official API(s), and/or the like.
In some cases, Trademark Use/Abuse might include, without limitation, (1) the brand (inappropriately or inaccurately) implying partnership, sponsorship or endorsement; (2) use of part or all of a trademark phrase or title in the company or app title without explicit consent from the trademark holder; (3) the developer including any sort of manipulation or distortion of the trademarked term, which could include, but is not limited to, using foreign language equivalents, phonetic equivalents, or use of letter or number equivalents, and/or the like; (4) using a trademarked term in the Description of the App without additional words such as "for," "powered by," or "compatible with" (which is generally permitted if those additional words are used); and/or the like.
Copyright or Logo Use/Abuse might include, but is not limited to, (i) using the official logo, when using their official API (which is usually not permitted by brand holders); (ii) using part or whole of an owned graphic or logo as the company or product logo of a non-affiliated application; (iii) using the official logo within the application (instead of using a platform provided developer logo); (iv) creating similar copyrighted images, or logos to imitate official copyrighted material owned by the platform, thus creating confusion with the developer's application and the official application; and/or the like.
Common Abuses Using Official API(s) might include, without limitation, (a) using the official API in order to reverse engineer the core product(s), website(s), dashboard(s), or stream(s); (b) failing to verify that applications are safe and secure, adhering to specific industry standards such as the Open Web Application Security Project ("OWASP"); (c) developing the application without some form of integrated error handling; (d) developing the app such that the functionality, reliability, or performance of the app is not to the standards set in the Developer Agreement or Terms of Service; (e) using a deprecated API in an application, contrary to the API provider's explicitly statements in their Terms of Service; (f) developing a mobile application that is not properly encoded or that is using a character set encoding that is not approved by the API owner; (g) attempting, by a developer, to conceal its identity during the process of entering into a developers agreement, in order to receive API credentials ("keys"); (h) failing to implement safeguards that can limit the amount of data that can be requested from an official API; (i) developing an application so that an official API can be used to spam, incentivize, or harass users; (j) using data from an official API in order to create advertisements or marketing materials, or for targeted advertising campaigns; (k) using the official API use to disrupt, negatively affect, or inhibit the user experience; (l) making any attempt to circumvent any content-filtering techniques; (m) using an official API for any application that constitutes, promotes, or is used in connection with spyware, adware, or any other malicious programs or code; (n) using data that is harvested, or scraped from an API owners website, and is used to supplement the data provided from the API; (o) using multiple member tokens ("oAuth") to circumvent any restrictions put in place by the platform, such as showing non-registered members' content from the platform (each user must authenticate individually); (p) attempting to access services that the developer is not authorized to access normally, through use of the official API; (q) copying or distributing any object related code that calls the API (which is considered part of the API, and is solely for inclusion as part of API Client(s)); and/or the like.
Hence, there is a need for more robust and scalable solutions for implementing API use compliance, by, e.g., implementing application auditing for API use compliance within virtual environments in which target APIs are executed, or the like.