Optical signals transmitted through an optical cable are converted into digital data of bits “1” and “0” on the basis of a reference voltage, and errors generated during transmission of the optical signals are corrected using Forward Error Correction (FEC). A method includes extracting numbers of occurrence of errors for bits “1” and “0” recovered through the FEC. Thereafter, the extracted numbers of occurrence of errors for bits “1” and “0” are compared with each other. A reference voltage used to judge levels of the signals to be level “1” or “0” is controlled if the numbers of occurrence of errors for bits “1” and “0” are not equal to each other. The current reference voltage is maintained if the numbers of occurrence of errors for bits “1” and “0” are rendered equal to each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method of optimizing an output signal of an optical receiver using FEC and an optical receiving system using the method, and more particularly to a method of optimizing the output signal of an optical receiver using FEC and an optical receiving system using the method that can maintain an optimized output signal of the optical receiver at an optimum level using the FEC in an optical communication system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, an optical communication system that converts data into optical signals and transmits the optical signals through an optical cable at high speed employs a Forward Error Correction (FEC) method so as to correct errors generated during transmission of the optical signals.
The FEC method is an error correction method that is used in applications necessarily requiring real-time transmission. The FEC method transmits redundancy data together with data in order to recover original data, and recovers the original data using the redundancy data when received data are damaged.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a schematic construction of an optical communication system using FEC. The optical communication system includes an FEC encoder 2, a data modulator 3, an optical transmitter 4, an optical cable 5, an optical receiver 6, a clock and data recovery unit 7, and an FEC decoder 8. The FEC encoder 2 encodes optical transmission data 1 in one of various formats such as SONET (Synchronous Optical NETwork), Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH), Internet Protocol (IP), gigabit Ethernet, and Asymmetric Transfer Mode (ATM) formats. The data modulator 3 modulates data output from the FEC encoder 2 to be transmitted. The optical transmitter 4 converts transmission data output from the data modulator 3 into optical signals and transmits the optical signals. The optical cable 5 provides a path through which the optical signals transmitted from the optical transmitter 4 are passed. The optical receiver 6 converts the optical signals transmitted through the optical cable 5 into electric signals. The clock and data recovery unit 7 recovers a clock and data from the electric signals output from the optical receiver 6. The FEC decoder 8 corrects transmission errors of the data recovered by the clock and data recovery unit 7.
Referring to FIG. 1, an error measurement equipment 9 is a means for outputting a Bit Error Rate (BER) calculated in the FEC decoder 8.
In the optical communication system described above, data S4 transmitted in the form of an optical signal through the optical cable 5 are distorted due to optical loss, the nonlinear effects of an optical line like as optical dispersion of optical fiber, and optical noise factor generated from erbium-doped fiber amplifiers. The optical signal distorted during transmission is compensated for its distortion in various fashions. In general, an optical amplifier is employed to compensate for distortion caused by the optical loss, and an optical dispersion compensator is employed to compensate for distortion caused by the optical dispersion. However, there is no way to compensate for distortion caused by the nonlinear effect, so distortion of the optical signal caused by the nonlinear effect increases the BER.
FIG. 5a is a block diagram showing a general construction of an optical receiver 6 having a distortion compensation function. The optical receiver 6 includes an electro-optical converter 61, a post-amplifier 62 and a limiting amplifier 63. The electro-optical converter 61 converts transmitted optical signals into electric signals. The post-amplifier 62 amplifies the electric signals output from the electro-optical converter 61. The limiting amplifier 63 amplifies the electric signals output from the post-amplifier 62 to electric signals "1" or "0" and outputs the electric signals "1" or "0".
FIG. 5b is a view showing signal output characteristics 151 to 153 and probabilities of occurrence of errors 160 to 162 with respect to variations of a reference voltage S12. When the reference voltage S12 is at an optimum level, the output signal of the limiting amplifier 63 exhibits a symmetric characteristic as indicated by reference numeral 152, and has a minimum distribution of probabilities of occurrence of errors as indicated by reference numeral 161 with probabilities of occurrence of errors for bits "1" and "0" being equal to each other.
In contrast, when the reference voltage S12 is at an excessively low or high level, the output signal of the limiting amplifier 63 exhibits an asymmetric characteristic as indicated by reference numerals 151 and 153, and has a broad distribution of probabilities of occurrence of errors as indicated by reference numerals 160 and 162 with one of probabilities of occurrence of errors for bits "1" and "0" being greater than the other.
As a result, in order to reduce a probability of occurrence of a bit error, the reference voltage is required to have an optimum level.
In the optical communication system, optical signals transmitted through optical amplifiers and optical cables undergo phenomena in which the optical signals are compressed or spread due to the dispersion and nonlinear effects of an optical cable and noise is added to "1" level signals of the optical signals due to the naturally emitted noise of an optical amplifier. Therefore, in order to obtain optimal data characteristics by judging levels of signals to be levels "1" or "0" in the clock and data recovery unit 7, that is, a minimum BER, it is necessary to control the distributions of probabilities of errors for levels "1" and "0" of electric signals output from the optical receiver 6.
However, since in the prior art, a reference to judge levels of signals to be levels "1" or "0" is fixed, variations in the intensity of received optical signals or in judging level according to the eye-diagram of transmitted optical signals cannot be taken into account.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,079 entitled "Broadband optical receiver with active bias feedback circuit" discloses an optical receiver that is capable of minimizing distortion and a Signal-to-Noise ratio (SN). The patented optical receiver is provided at its reception stage with an attenuator and controls an attenuation ratio on the basis of the feedback of the levels of received signals, so the optical receiver can monitor and warn of the loss of signals using a signal loss monitor while maintaining the output levels of analog received signals to be constant. The patented optical receiver achieves output of a certain level at an analog signal stage and monitors only the loss of signals. Accordingly, the patented optical receiver does not disclose a solution to the distortion of signals.

Method of optimizing output signal of optical receiver using FEC and optical receiving system using the method

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


An exposure apparatus includes a vacuum chamber, a load-lock chamber disposed between the vacuum chamber and outside the exposure apparatus, a reticle cassette configured to hold a reticle, a conveying unit configured to convey the reticle cassette between the vacuum chamber and the load-lock chamber, and an opening and closing unit configured to open and close the reticle cassette. The opening and closing unit is disposed within the vacuum chamber.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an exposure apparatus used in manufacturing a device having a fine pattern, such as a semiconductor device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Semiconductor manufacturing systems perform multiple processes on a wafer, and each process is performed in a state controlled so that an environment appropriated for the process is maintained. However, since environments appropriate for apparatuses vary with one another, it has become necessary to control an environment around the wafer during each of the processes and conveyance the wafer.
In exposure apparatuses for transferring a fine pattern, such as a circuit pattern, to a semiconductor wafer or a substrate, such as a substrate used for a liquid crystal display, a finer transfer pattern and an improved throughput are required. To obtain the finer transfer pattern, it is necessary for an exposure apparatus to reduce the wavelength of exposure light. Therefore, in addition to an exposure wavelength of an I line of 365 nm, recently, a krypton-fluoride (KrF) excimer laser of 248 nm and an argon-fluoride (ArF) excimer laser of 193 nm have been developed. For further finer patterns, development of a fluorine (F2) excimer laser of 157 nm and extreme ultraviolet (EUV) light is required.
However, because exposure light with a short wavelength, as described above, significantly decreases in the atmosphere, it is necessary to perform exposure in a decompressed space or a space purged with inert gas (e.g., N2 or He). Therefore, an exposure portion in an exposure apparatus is accommodated within a chamber whose environment is controlled.
To efficiently carry a wafer or reticle in and out of such a chamber, a load-lock mechanism is provided at an interface between an interior space and an exterior space. The load-lock mechanism includes a load-lock chamber and a gate valve capable of opening and closing communication between the load-lock chamber and each of the interior and exterior spaces.
For carrying the wafer or reticle out of the exterior space, the waver or reticle is first carried in the load-lock space in a state in which the load-lock chamber is isolated from the interior space. Then the load-lock chamber is decompressed or purged after the load-lock chamber is isolated from the exterior space. Then communication is established between the load-lock chamber and the interior space, and the wafer or reticle is carried in the interior space.
For carrying the wafer or reticle out of the interior space, the wafer or reticle is carried in the load-lock chamber in a state in which the load-lock chamber is isolated from the exterior space. Then the load-lock chamber is opened to atmosphere after the load-lock chamber is isolated from the interior space. Then communication is established between the load-lock chamber and the exterior space, and the wafer or reticle is carried to the exterior space.
The reticle is carried in and out while being contained in a reticle cassette in order to avoid dust from attaching to the reticle. Japanese Patent No. 3,320,628 discloses that, for carrying a sample in a vacuum processing chamber, a reticle cassette is carried in a load-lock chamber, the load-lock chamber is evacuated to a vacuum atmosphere, and the sample is then taken out of the reticle cassette.
When the reticle is taken out of the reticle cassette, dust is inevitably generated from a mechanism for opening and closing the reticle cassette. When the reticle cassette is opened and closed within the load-lock chamber, as described above, dust may rise during breakage of a vacuum of the load-lock chamber, and the dust may attach to a wall or ceiling of the load-lock chamber. The dust attaching to the ceiling or the like may fall onto the reticle taken out of the reticle cassette. This may cause common defects of an exposed device pattern or deteriorate flatness of the reticle, so that the quality of exposure may decline.
In the case where the reticle is taken out of the reticle cassette in the load-lock chamber and the reticle is stored in the vacuum processing chamber, because no protection of the reticle against dust is present, there is a possibility that the reticle is contaminated with the dust when being stored or conveyed.
In particular, if a vacuum of the vacuum processing chamber is broken when a problem occurs, dust in the vacuum processing chamber may rise and attach to the ceiling or the like, and the dust may fall onto the reticle. This may cause common defects of an exposed device pattern or deteriorate flatness of a reticle, so that the quality of exposure may decline.


An air precleaner arrangement for an internal combustion engine comprises a screen, a shroud, a fan, a first cyclone filter and a second cyclone filter. The screen has air permeable openings sized to retain debris. A fan is cooperating with the screen to provide an air stream from an upstream surface through the openings of the screen to a downstream surface. The shroud encloses the fan and the screen. The first cyclone filter has an air inlet receiving air on the downstream surface of the screen, an air outlet and a scavenge port in communication with interior of the screen and thus with the air stream of the fan. The second cyclone filter has an air inlet connected to the air outlet of the first cyclone filter, an air outlet connected to the air inlet of the internal combustion engine and a scavenge port connected to an exhaust venturi in the exhaust stream of the engine.

An internal combustion engine of a self propelled vehicle or machine needs to be provided with clean air for the combustion process. Especially if the vehicle or machine is used in an agricultural harvesting environment, where the ambient air contains large amounts of dust and plant material being generated from the harvesting machinery, an efficient air precleaning and filter arrangement is required. For a combine harvester, this is in the prior art generally done with a single large cyclone precleaner and a porous filter downstream the cyclone precleaner to provide the final stage of filtering needed for the engine combustion air.
The cyclone precleaner, also named vortex-type filter, comprises a vortex generating inlet passage and a cooperating outlet passage. Both passages may be cylindrical or somewhat conical, and are axially aligned to each other. The entrance of the outlet passage is smaller than the exit of the inlet passage and located proximate to the exit of the inlet passage. The passages extend within a filtration chamber that is separated from the entrance of the inlet passage and the exit of the outlet passage. From this filtration chamber, the separated material is drawn by an external source through an aspiration port, also named scavenge port.
In operation, unfiltered fluid enters the inlet passage, where a vortex motion is imparted in the fluid flow. The heavier material in the flow, be it fluid or debris, is thrown radially outward toward the inlet passage walls by the centrifugal force of the vortex motion. Thus, the flow is separated into a lighter portion at the center of the inlet passage and a heavier portion near the wall of the inlet passage. As the fluid exits the inlet passage, the heavier separated portion flows past the entrance of the smaller outlet passage and into the filtration chamber, while the lighter filtered portion enters and flows through the outlet passage. The material from the filtration chamber is drawn through the scavenge port into exhaust flow of the engine.
A problem with this precleaner arrangement is that the single large cyclone filter is in a number of cases not efficient enough to pre-filter enough of the dust out of the air stream. This results in heavy dust loading on the air filter element. The life of this filter element is thus reduced and when the filter gets plugged, the air flow to the engine is restricted and the engine loses power. The filter then either needs to be replaced with a new one or blown out with compressed air, what is a time-consuming and filthy task. In some crops and conditions, the filter needs to be serviced in this way as often as once per day. This is unacceptable to most users.
In DE 103 36 206 A, it was proposed to use a block containing a number of cyclone precleaners arranged in parallel, whereby two such blocks are arranged in series upstream and downstream a turbocharger, for precleaning combustion air for an engine of an agricultural vehicle. This document does not disclose how the scavenge ports of the cyclone filters are aspirated.
Thus, there is a need for a precleaner arrangement for an internal combustion engine providing an efficient precleaning effect.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an effective precleaner arrangement for an internal combustion engine.

Air precleaner arrangement for an internal combustion engine comprising two cyclone filters


A semiconductor material handling system including a frame mounting a wafer cassette and a plurality of load ports thereon, and a wafer moving robot including a robot body which has a lifting member mounted in the frame and vertically moving along a predetermined lifting shaft, an articulated arm which has a driving link mounted in the lifting member and a plurality of driven links whose end part transversely moving along the frame having the load ports, a swing unit which is mounted in the end part of the driven links and rotates along a vertical rotation shaft, and a crossing arm which comprises a base mounted in the swing unit, a plurality of sliding units mounted in the base and reciprocating transversely, and a wafer hand mounted in the sliding units and picking up a wafer from the wafer cassette and storing the wafer back in the wafer cassette.

1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses consistent with the present invention relate to a semiconductor material handling system (equipment front end module, EFEM), and more particularly, to a semiconductor material handling system (equipment front end module, EFEM) which picks up a wafer from a wafer cassette, moves and stores the wafer in a processing equipment of a semiconductor production line.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, semiconductor manufacturers are focusing on manufacturing chips that are small, cheap and provide high performance. Thus, there is a growing demand for developing a micro line technology and a semiconductor manufacturing equipment which has excellent throughput and reduces footprint.
Meanwhile, high cleanness is required in the semiconductor manufacturing equipment and manufacturing plant to apply the micro line technology to manufacturing the chips. Generally, a front open unified pod (FOUP), a kind of a wafer cassette, is used as a standard transfer unit to protect a wafer from particles.
A semiconductor material handling system (equipment front end module, EFEM) includes an interface module which connects a wafer cassette and a processing equipment in a semiconductor wafer manufacturing process. FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional semiconductor material handling system (EFEM) which is provided in a semiconductor manufacturing line. FIG. 2 illustrates an internal part of the conventional semiconductor material handling system (EFEM).
As shown in FIG. 1, the semiconductor manufacturing line includes a wafer cassette storage 10, a mono rail 20, a semiconductor material handling system (EFEM) 30, and a processing equipment 40. A wafer is supplied to the processing equipment 40 through a wafer cassette 50.
More specifically, the wafer cassette 50 is supplied from the wafer cassette storage 10 to the semiconductor material handling system (EFEM) 30 through the mono rail 20. A wafer moving robot which is mounted in the semiconductor material handling system (EFEM) 30 picks up a sheet of wafer from the wafer cassette 50 and supplies it to the processing equipment 40, and stores the processed wafer back to the wafer cassette 50.
As shown in FIG. 2, the conventional semiconductor material handling system (EFEM) 30 includes a frame 33 which forms an external appearance of the semiconductor material handling system (EFEM) 30, a load port 32 which receives the wafer cassette 50, a wafer moving robot 31 which moves a wafer 60 within the semiconductor material handling system (EFEM) 30 and a pre-aligner 34 which aligns the wafer 60.
The wafer moving robot 31 is mounted in a moving unit 36 which reciprocates a rail shaft 35. The wafer moving robot 31 moves to a desired load port 32 along the rail shaft 35 and picks up the wafer 60 from the wafer cassette 50 stably seated in the load port 32, and stores the wafer 60 back to the wafer cassette 50 after the processing operation is completed.
In the semiconductor material handling system (EFEM) 30, the wafer moving robot 31 moves along the rail shaft 35. Thus, there is a high possibility of disturbing laminar flow of a fan filter unit (FFU) which removes particles from the EFEM 30. As the movement of the moving unit 36 may generate particles, the moving unit 36 may not be appropriate for the semiconductor material handling system (EFEM) 30 which requires high cleanness. Furthermore, the rail shaft 35 requires an additional space other than an actual moving distance, thereby occupying a relatively large footprint.
The conventional semiconductor material handling system (EFEM) 30 includes the pre-aligner 34 to adjust a direction of the wafer 60 before supplying the wafer 60 to the processing equipment 40 or before storing the wafer 60 back to the wafer cassette 50.
The wafer processing speed is an essential factor in determining performance of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment. The performance of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment is much influenced by every 0.1 second. However, if the pre-aligner 34 aligns the wafer 60 while the wafer 60 is moved, the throughput of the semiconductor material handling system (EFEM) 30 is lowered.
Also, the pre-aligner 34 requires an additional space to be installed, thereby further increasing the footprint.


Apparatus and methods according to the present invention preferably utilize electroosmotic pumps in fluid handling and field sampling applications. The electroosmotic pumps used in these applications are capable of generating high pressure and flow without moving mechanical parts and the associated generation of unacceptable electrical and acoustic noise, as well as the associated reduction in reliability. Having multiple small flow channels in parallel provides both a high flow rate and high pressure in liquid handling. These electroosmotic pumps are fabricated with materials and structures that improve performance, efficiency, and reduce weight and manufacturing cost relative to presently available micropumps. These electroosmotic pumps also allow for recapture of evolved gases and deposited materials, which may provide for long-term closed-loop operation. Apparatus and methods according to the present invention also allow active regulation of the fluid handling and field sampling devices through electrical control of the flow through the pump. Electroosmotic pumping enables precise dispensing of samples to form genetic, proteomic, or small molecule arrays. A fluid sensor which can be optical, capacitive or other type of electrical sensor is integrated with the electroosmotic pump for measuring liquid levels in liquid drawing and dispensing operations.

There has been extensive research into the development of micropumps. These research efforts include pumps based on oscillating piezoelectric membranes, peristaltic pumps, electrohydrodynamic pumps, and others. These pumps, to date, appear to be incapable of generating the pressure and/or flow in a compact and reliable device.
The phenomenon of electro-osmosis has been known since the work of F. F. Reuss in 1809. A simple description of this phenomenon is that liquid flow is induced on a region of net charge that develops at the liquid/wall interface known as the electric double layer. The charged fluid layer occurs as a result of a spontaneous chemical reaction between the surface and the electrolyte in the fluid that generates the charge separation at the liquid/solid interface called the "electric double layer". An externally imposed electric field forces the diffuse ions (charges) in the electric double layer (EDL) into motion. The diffuse ions drag the neutral bulk liquid. The magnitude of the force is proportional to the applied electric field, and the quantity of the charged species available in this region of net charge. Larger flow rates can be achieved for systems with large cross-sectional areas. Large pressure generation requires flow channels with small characteristic length scales. Porous structures and many small flow channels in parallel provide structure with high surface to volume ratio.
Miniature pumps based on the phenomenon of electro-osmosis (i.e., electroosmotic pumps) were originally developed by Theeuwes (U.S. Pat. No. 3,923,426), in which a porous ceramic structure was used to provide a multitude of micron-sized pathways with charged surface layers. Theeuwes describes the importance of selecting pumping structures which feature high porosity, high electroosmotic mobility for a given working fluid, small diameter pores, and discusses the possibility of the use of quartz or glass ceramics, possibly comprised of beads, and porous polymer matrices. The working fluid in the Theeuwes pump was suggested to have a high dielectric constant, low viscosity, and low electrical conductivity. Example liquids that the Theeuwes pump used include deionized water, ethyl-alcohol and alcohol-water mixtures, and many organic solutions.
Moreover, there exists a need for a highly reliable miniature pump that is capable of generating the high pressure (for example, pressure greater than 10 PSI) and/or high flow (for example, a flow rate greater than 0.01 ml/min) that are necessary for various applications in the biochemical assay space. Such a pump should overcome or address the shortcomings of the conventional pumps. EO pumps are compact devices and/because they have no moving parts are potentially very reliable.

Electroosmotic micropumps with applications to fluid dispensing and field sampling

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University


A content use management system includes a content-providing system and a content-using device. The content-providing system includes a providing unit that provides, to the content-using device, digital content having content identification information corresponding to user-side-specific information specific to the content-using device or a user of the content-using device, and a primary distribution destination field. The content-using device includes a first control unit that, when receiving an instruction for using digital content from a user, allows use of the digital content when content identification information included in the digital content corresponds to user-side specific information specific to the content-using device or a user of the content-using device, and executes a control process in accordance with a value of the primary distribution destination field of the digital content when the content identification information included in the digital content does not correspond to the user-side-specific information.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to technology for managing use of digital content.
2. Related Art
Conventionally, various types of systems have been developed for protecting the rights of an owner of copyright and other rights for digital content such as an electronic document, audio data, and multimedia data (hereinafter referred simply as "content"). In one known example system, an acquisition record is kept when a user obtains content from a database on a network. Such an acquisition record serves to deter unauthorized use of content. Further, in another known system, ID information is previously embedded in content, and a user, when attempting to use the content existing in his/her terminal, transmits the ID information from the terminal to a management server on a network and the management server then uses the ID information for keeping a record of use of the content.

Content use management system, content-providing system, content-using device and computer readable medium


A communication method in a communications network is provided. The method includes, in a communications network in which a communication link has been communication link having been allocated by a resource manager module in accordance with a first value of a characteristic of data rate, latency or jitter required for providing a first service on the said link between a first and a second communication terminal, the steps of transmitting a request to replace the said first communication service by a second communication service between at least the first and second terminals; further to receipt of the said request by the resource manager module of the network, replacing by the said resource manager module of the first value of the said characteristic by a second value required for providing the said second service; and providing the second communication service instead of the first communication service between the first and second terminals on the said communication link.

For example, in networks of Long Term Evolution type (LTE) a resource manager module called PCRF node (Policy and Charging Rules Function) allows the allocation of communication resources needed to provide a requested service.
A certain number of communication services require communication resources having different characteristics.
For example, alternate bidirectional communications of voice type also called Half-Duplex voice or Push-To-Talk (PTT), alternate bidirectional communications of voice and video type (comprising the real-time transmission of voice at the same time as video) also called Half-Duplex video and voice or Push-To-Video, simultaneous bidirectional communications of voice type also called Full-Duplex, voice, simultaneous bidirectional communications of voice and video type (comprising the real-time transmission of voice at the same time as video) also called Full-Duplex voice and video, require resources having characteristics which differ in terms of communication data rate and/or latency and/or jitter.
Document U.S. Pat. No. 7,526,306 for example describes communications of PTT type.
Document US 2006/0114314 describes Half-Duplex video and voice communications.
Document US 2006/0172754 describes Full Duplex communications in a PMR network (Private Mobile Radiocommunication).
In networks of LTE type, further to a request for a first service e.g. a PTT service between two user terminals A and B, an exchange via a PCRF interface between an application server supervising the said first service and the PCRF node gives rise to the allocation by the PCRF node of a communication resource between the user terminals A and B having characteristics particularly in terms of data rate and/or latency which are required for this first service.
This interface, called Rx, is defined in version 9 of standard ETSI 3GPP relating to LTE technology.
When one of the user terminals A and B desires a second service e.g. of Push-To-Video type, it must close the first service thereby freeing the corresponding resource. It then submits a request for providing of the second service. An exchange, via the Rx interface, with the application server supervising the said second service gives rise to the allocation of a communication resource between the user terminals A and B with the characteristics particularly in terms of data rate and/or latency and/or jitter required for this second service.

Communication method, communication terminal, supervisor terminal and related computer programmes


Disclosed is a method for determining haplotypes useful for large-scale genetic analysis, within a genomic reference sequence of interest, for a human subpopulation. The method can applied to statistically evaluating the genotypes of subjects for any statistically significant association with a phenotype of interest, such as insulin resistance or coronary artery disease. Thus, also disclosed are a method of detecting a genetic predisposition in a Mexican-American human subject for developing insulin resistance and methods of detecting a lower than normal risk in a Mexican-American human subject for developing insulin resistance or coronary artery disease.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of medical genetics.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
The insulin resistance syndrome (also called the metabolic syndrome) is a clustering of factors associated with an increased risk of coronary artery disease (CAD; 21). The syndrome affects over 20% of adults in the United States, with the highest age-specific prevalence rates in Mexican-Americans (22). Insulin resistance, whether or not it is accompanied by other features of the metabolic syndrome, has been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events and death (23, 24).
There is evidence in the Framingham offspring study that three factors or syndrome clusters, underlie the clustering of basic risk variables that form the insulin resistance syndrome: a diabetic predisposing syndrome characterized by impaired glucose tolerance, a cardiovascular metabolic syndrome, and a hypertension syndrome. Numerous lines of evidence from epidemiological studies support the idea that these factors occur many years prior to the onset of overt coronary artery disease.
The clustering of insulin resistance, hypertension, central obesity, and dyslipidemia in the metabolic syndrome is receiving much attention as a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The central component of this syndrome, insulin resistance, has been found to increase cardiovascular risk. In the San Antonio Heart Study, insulin resistance, estimated by homeostatic model assessment (HOMA), was an independent predictor of incident cardiovascular events over 8 years of follow-up (24). In the Helsinki Policemen Study, 970 men free of diabetes or CAD at baseline were followed for 22 years; those with the highest levels of insulin resistance as estimated by insulin area under the curve during oral glucose tolerance testing had the highest rates of CAD events and death (23). High fasting insulin concentrations were an independent predictor of ischemic heart disease events among 2103 non-diabetic Canadian men (51). A genetic basis for the components of the insulin resistance syndrome has been demonstrated by familial aggregation (52, 53). For this reason, investigators have asked the question as to whether genetic determinants of insulin resistance also influence the other components of the metabolic syndrome (54).
As an example, lipoprotein lipase (LPL) plays a major role in lipid metabolism. Located on capillary endothelium, LPL hydrolyzes triglycerides of chylomicrons and very low density lipoproteins, generating free fatty acids and monoacylglycerol. Complete deficiency of LPL results in the familial chylomicronemia syndrome. Because LPL activity affects the concentration of triglycerides, an important cardiovascular risk factor, LPL has been studied as a candidate gene for atherosclerosis. Several studies have identified linkage and association of the LPL gene with hypertension (25, 1), indirect or surrogate measurements of insulin resistance (2, 3), dyslipidemia (2, 26, 27), obesity (28), and atherosclerosis (4, 29, 30). LPL is an excellent candidate connecting insulin resistance to atherosclerosis because it controls the delivery of free fatty acids (FFA) to muscle, adipose tissue, and vascular wall macrophages, wherein lipid uptake influences peripheral insulin sensitivity, central obesity, and foam cell formation (31, 32).
Wu et al demonstrated linkage of the LPL locus to systolic blood pressure in non-diabetic relatives of Taiwanese subjects with type 2 diabetes (1). The HindIII polymorphism in intron 8 of the LPL gene has been associated with measurements of insulin resistance in normoglycemic Caucasian and Hispanic subjects (2) and Chinese subjects (3). The Ser447Stop polymorphism has been found to be associated with decreased atherosclerosis risk (4). Both the HindIII and Ser447Stop polymorphisms are in the 3′ end of the LPL gene, downstream of a recombination hotspot (5).
The LPL gene has emerged as a candidate gene for features of metabolic syndrome, including insulin resistance. LPL hydrolyzes triglycerides carried in chylomicrons and very low density lipoproteins, the rate-limiting step in delivery of free fatty acids (FFA) to muscle and adipose tissue. By controlling the delivery of FFA to muscle, LPL may affect insulin sensitivity by influencing levels of intramyocellular lipid, which correlate with muscle insulin resistance (55, 56). Also, LPL may influence insulin resistance by affecting FFA delivery to visceral adipose tissue, which is increasingly viewed as an endocrine organ, capable of secreting mediators of insulin resistance (57). LPL action also regulates the plasma triglyceride concentration, an important atherosclerosis risk factor (58, 59). LPL activity indirectly raises HDL-cholesterol levels because LPL-mediated hydrolysis of VLDL provides surface components that merge with HDL3 to form HDL2 particles (60). LPL-mediated delivery of FFA and lipoprotein remnants to vessel wall macrophages plays a role in foam cell formation, an early event in the development of atherosclerotic plaque (32). Thus, functional variation in LPL may impact both insulin resistance and atherosclerosis.
Most studies that have reported association of the LPL gene with insulin resistance used only surrogate measurements of insulin resistance, including fasting glucose (8, 33), fasting insulin (2, 34–36), and insulin area under the curve (AUC) during oral glucose tolerance testing (OGTT; 37). One study evaluated the steady state plasma glucose during the insulin suppression test (3). In addition, all except one (36) of these studies only examined association of the intronic restriction fragment length polymorphisms PvuII and HindIII. Thus, current evidence that variation in LPL plays a role in insulin sensitivity has been indirect. Assessment of glucose infusion rate (GINF) during the euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamp study is widely regarded as the most direct physiologic measurement of insulin sensitivity (28, 29). An analysis of indices of insulin sensitivity in the Insulin Resistance Atherosclerosis Study showed that direct physiologic measurements of insulin sensitivity have a higher heritability than measures based on fasting values (such as HOMA; 61). Thus, use of physiologic indices rather than simple fasting indices should provide more power to discover genes that contribute to insulin sensitivity.
While various polymorphisms in the 3′ end of LPL, such as HindIII, have been associated with surrogate measures of insulin resistance and with atherosclerosis (2, 3, 29, 30), published reports of positive linkage or association of variation in LPL with indices of insulin sensitivity have typically examined only one or two single nucleotide polymorphisms (e.g., 2, 3, 8, 33–37). However, a haplotype-based analysis recently demonstrated an association of LPL 3′ end haplotypes with coronary artery disease in Mexican-Americans (30).
Published studies reporting association of the LPL gene with insulin resistance used only single variants, usually HindIII or PvuII (2, 3, 8, 33–37). In some cases, the results are in conflict; studies have reported the T allele of HindIII associated with insulin resistance (2), others report the G allele associated with insulin resistance (3, 37), and others show no association of HindIII with insulin resistance (8). This demonstrates a limitation of the common approach of examining one or two polymorphisms per candidate gene in an association study.
With the sequencing of the human genome it has become apparent that variation in individuals is quite extensive. There is increasing evidence that this variation is best described by groups of associated polymorphisms referred to as haplotypes (13–15).
Recent studies suggest that the extensive variation in human beings is best described by groups of associated polymorphisms referred to as haplotypes (13–15). Haplotypes encompass chromosomal blocks that have remained unbroken by recombination during the population evolutionary history of the gene. Haplotypes are more likely to identify disease associations than single polymorphisms because they reflect global gene structure and encompass the majority of common variation in a gene. Identification of a haplotype associated with increased or decreased disease risk should facilitate identification of the actual functional variant that affects disease risk, because this variant should lie on chromosome regions identified by that haplotype (17).
Thus, haplotypes capture the majority of common variation in a gene; consequently, the use of haplotypes is more likely to identify disease-variation associations than is the use of a random single polymorphism. Identification of a haplotype associated with increased or decreased disease risk should facilitate identification of the actual functional variant that affects disease risk, because this variant should lie on chromosomes identified by that haplotype (16, 17). Genotyping to determine haplotype structure and frequencies is required for this type of analysis. A major challenge is determination and selection of the polymorphisms that will be used to determine haplotypes in a given population.
Currently there is much interest in the use of haplotype data in the genetics of common diseases, such as coronary artery disease and insulin resistance. Investigators are faced with the considerable challenge of how many and which variants or markers to genotype in a given candidate gene for haplotype determination. Gabriel et al (15) sequenced 13 megabases across the genome in subjects from Africa, Europe, and Asia; it was shown that the human genome is organized in haplotype blocks (most of which are longer than 10 kilobases), with three to five commonly occurring (>5%) haplotypes per block. Only six to eight variants were sufficient to define the most common haplotypes in each block. There is a need for a way to select these variants, or markers, efficiently and affordably.
Accordingly, the present invention provides such a method of selecting useful haplotypes, as well particular haplotypes useful for predicting predisposition to insulin resistance in Mexican-Americans. These and other benefits are described hereinbelow.

Method of haplotype-based genetic analysis for determining risk for developing insulin resistance and coronary artery disease

The Regents of the University of California


In manufacturing of the stator unit 2 according to one preferred embodiment of the present invention, a plurality of terminal pins are arranged in an axially spaced manner from a plurality of the coils during a twining process of the wires from the coils 232 to the terminal pins 241. Then, after the wire is twined to the terminal pins, the terminal pins connected to the coils are moved along the outer side face of the sleeve housing, functioning to as a guide portion 2201 for the terminal pins. By virtue of the configuration, the terminal pins 241 may be approximated to the coils without applying the tension on wire, and the stator unit may be made thin with preventing the open circuit of the wires.

Conventionally, axial fans and centrifugal fans used for cooling electric devices are driven by electrically powered motors. Such a motor includes a rotor unit having a rotor magnet around a center axis of the motor and a stator unit having a stator generating torque between the rotor unit and the stator unit. The stator unit includes a plurality of coils formed by winding wires around a plurality of teeth. The ends of the wires wound around the teeth are electrically connected to a circuit board such that the electricity is provided to the stator.
There are various methods of connecting the ends of the wires forming the coils and the circuit board. In a publicly available example of such method, firstly, a conductive pin axially protruding from the bottom side of the stator toward the circuit board is provided. Then, after twining the wire to the pin at below the stator, the pin is inserted into the bore provided on the circuit board and soldered.
Recently, the electronic devices are designed so as to miniaturize their dimensions, and the demands for small cooling fans have been rising. In such a small motor, the space between the pin to which the wire is twined and such as the stator core, the coil and the circuit board is so narrow that the needle of the wire-winding machine can not be easily placed therebetween. Therefore, it is difficult to mechanize (automate) the twining process of the wire.
In addition, the wires used for the small motor have so small diameters that they may cut during the process of attaching the wires to the circuit board. For example, in the motor using the conductive pin as mentioned above, the wire may cut, during the process of inserting the pin, to which the wire is twined, into the bore provided on the circuit board, by scratching the wire with the edge of the bore.

Method of manufacturing stator unit, and motor using the stator


The present invention provides a selective coating of an endodontic file, in which the distal end of the file is uncoated or alternatively leaving the outermost part of the blades of the distal end portion uncoated. The distribution of the nanoparticles is thus non uniform along the surface of the file leaving only a part of the file coated. In the present invention, the distal end of the device being subjected to the highest torque is either uncoated at all, or has a coated core and uncoated blades.

Shape memory (SMA) and superelastic alloys, such as NiTi (nitinol) are extensively used and explored for medical applications [1, 2]. These include among others cardiologic, orthopedics, laparoscopic surgeries, and dental applications [3]—e.g. endodontic files (EF) used for root canal treatment. In the last decade, NiTi rotary instruments have become an integral important adjunct in endodontics [4]. NiTi instruments have substantially reduced the incidence of several major clinical problems in endodontics, mainly by maintaining the original shape and curvature of the canal, thus, reducing the likelihood of procedural errors. As illustrated in FIGS. 1A-1B, the majority phase in rotary endodontic files is austenite. FIG. 1A schematically represents an endodontic file, while shaping and cleaning the root canal. In the figure, the vector represents the torque (T) when the file rotates clockwise; the vertical arrow (A) represents the direction of the apical force. FIG. 1B illustrates structural changes following austenite-martensite stress induced phase transformation. When the file is twisted, the chemical structure transforms from austenite (cubic structure) into martensite (monoclinic). The stressed file transforms to the (detwinned) martensite phase, which is more elastic. When the load on the file is removed, the NiTi files reversibly revert back to the austenite phase [3, 5]. This stress-induced phase transformation results in reversible strains as high as 8% (superelasticity) [3].

Endodontic files and method of preparation thereof

HADASIT MEDICAL RESEARCH SERVICES & DEVELOPMENT LTD.


An alternating current (AC) solar power apparatus includes a photovoltaic cell and a circuit or device for causing a signal generated by the photovoltaic cell to oscillate in a negative differential resistance range, thereby producing an AC output voltage. The photovoltaic cell exhibits negative differential resistance in its current/voltage (IV) curve in the presence of high flux illumination, wherein when the output voltage is within a negative differential resistance range, an incremental increase in the output voltage produces an associated decrease in generated current. By connecting the terminals of the photovoltaic cell to a resonator (e.g., an inductive-capacitive circuit) or other device that produces oscillation within the negative differential resistance range, the photovoltaic cell is caused to produce AC power.

Solar cells are typically photovoltaic (PV) devices that convert sunlight directly into electricity. PV cells typically include a semiconductor (e.g., silicon) that absorbs light irradiation (e.g., sunlight) in a way that creates free electrons, which in turn are caused to flow in the presence of a built-in field to create direct current (DC) power. The DC power generated by several PV cells may be collected on a grid placed on the cell. Current from multiple PV cells is then combined by series and parallel combinations into higher currents and voltages. The DC power thus collected may then be sent over wires, often many dozens or even hundreds of wires.
The DC power generated by solar cells is suitable for small-scale DC systems, such as solar powered calculators or remote sensors, but presents several problems when utilized on a larger scale, such as in homes and businesses.
A first problem associated with the large-scale use of solar power is that the DC power must first be converted using an expensive power inverter into a suitable alternating current (AC) signal before it can be used to power common household appliances, or transformed to high voltage for transmission over the power grid. Over a century ago, Nicola Tesla and Thomas Edison battled each other on the merits of AC versus DC for power transmission. Edison fought stubbornly and lost. AC power became recognized as the superior form of electricity for power distribution for several important reasons, including cost, reliability, and efficiency. As a result, household appliances that utilize distributed power (i.e., by way of a plug that is inserted into a wall socket) are configured to run on AC power. Because solar cells generate DC power, this DC power must first be converted into the AC power required to run the appliances. Currently, this DC-to-AC power conversion requires the use of a power converter, which is an expensive device that makes up a significant portion of the total cost of generating AC power using solar energy.
The high DC-to-AC conversion expense may be avoided by utilizing solar cells in large DC systems, but this approach generates several expensive obstacles as well. First, large scale DC power use causes corrosion or electro-migration under some conditions that stems from the high DC currents, and current capacity limitations are imposed by these DC currents that increase system cost. Even if these technical problems can be solved, the conversion to DC power would require the wholesale replacement of conventional AC appliances with a new line of DC powered appliances. Due to these issues, although there have been pilot projects to wire buildings with separate DC power systems to specifically accommodate solar installations, it is unlikely that there will be broad adoption of this approach as long as solar cells generate DC power.
What is needed is a solar power apparatus that generates AC power without the need for power inverters.

Alternating current solar power apparatus


An upper node is provided for use in a wireless communication system using a relay scheme. The upper node includes means for transmitting, upon a request of a lower relay station for an initial connection of the lower relay station, downlink section information for communication with the lower relay station for a relay service to the lower relay station; and means for transmitting, after the initial connection with the lower relay station, frame configuration information for communication with the lower relay station for a relay service to the lower relay station through the downlink section. The downlink section information includes configuration information of the downlink section for communication with the lower relay station for a relay service.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a multi-hop relay wireless communication system, and in particular, to an apparatus and method for transmitting frame information from a Base Station (BS) or an upper Relay Station (RS) to a lower RS in a multi-hop relay wireless communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
In fourth-generation (4G) communication systems, radii of cells are reduced to achieve a higher transmission rate and accommodate a larger number of calls. Centralized network design with conventional technology is not viable for the 4G mobile communication systems. Thus, the 4G mobile communication systems should allow for distributed control and implementation, and cope actively with an environment change, such as addition of a new BS. For this reason, the 4G mobile communication systems should use a self-configurable wireless network.
Technologies used for an ad-hoc network are introduced to the 4G mobile communication systems for deployment of a self-configurable wireless network. A primary example is a multi-hop relay network configured by introducing a multi-hop relay scheme used for the ad-hoc network to a cellular network using fixed BSs.
Since communications are performed between a BS and a Mobile Station (MS) via a direct link, a highly reliable radio communication link can be easily established between them in the cellular network. However, the fixedness of BSs impedes flexible wireless network configuration, which makes it difficult to provide efficient services in a radio environment that experiences a fluctuating traffic distribution and a significant change in the number of calls.
To avert this problem, a relay scheme is adopted in which data is conveyed through multiple hops via neighbor MSs or neighbor RSs. A multi-hop relay scheme facilitates fast network reconfiguration adaptive to an environmental change and renders an overall wireless network operation efficient.
Also, the multi-hop relay scheme can provide an improved radio channel quality to an MS by installing an RS between the BS and the MS and thus establishing a multi-hop relay path via the RS. In addition, the multi-hop relay scheme can expand cell coverage because it can provide high-speed data channels to MSs in a cell boundary area where channel conditions from the BS are poor.
FIG. 1 illustrates the configuration of a wireless communication system using a conventional relay scheme.
Referring to FIG. 1, a first MS (MS1) 110, which is located within a service area (i.e., coverage) 101 of a BS 100, communicates with the BS 100 via a direct link. A second MS (MS2) 120, which is located outside the service area 101 of the BS 100 and thus is in poor channel condition, communicates with the BS 100 via a relay link of an RS 130.
That is, using the RS 130, the BS 100 can communicate with MSs that are in a poor channel condition because they are located outside the service area 101 of the BS 100 or in a shadowing area experiencing severe shielding effects from buildings.
In order to support a relay link using RSs, the wireless communication system using a relay scheme must perform communication using a structure illustrated in FIG. 2, which particularly is a frame structure for a wireless communication system using a conventional relay scheme.
Referring to FIG. 2, the frame is divided into a DownLink (DL) subframe 200 and an UpLink (UL) subframe 230. The DL/UL subframe 200/230 is divided into a first section 210/240 for a direct link service and a second section 220/250 for a relay link service.
The first section 210 of the DL subframe 200 includes a BS preamble channel 211, a control channel 213, and a traffic channel 215, for transmission from the BS through a direct link to an RS and an MS.
The second section 220 of the DL subframe 200 includes an RS preamble channel 221, an RS control channel 223, and an RS traffic channel 215, for transmission from the RS through a relay link to an MS.
The first section 240 of the UL subframe 230 is used to transmit control information and traffic data from the RS and the MS, which is connected through a direct link, to the BS. The second section 250 of the UL subframe 230 is used to transmit control information and traffic data from the MS, which is connected through a relay link, to the RS.
As described above, in order to support a relay scheme, the wireless communication system performs communication using the frame structure illustrated in FIG. 2. However, the frame structure of FIG. 2 supports only two-hop wireless communication systems because it has no section for RS-RS communication. Thus, the wireless communication system using a relay scheme needs a frame structure for supporting a multi-hop relay service.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Apparatus and method for transmitting frame information in multi-hop relay broadband wireless access communication system


A method of allocating network bandwidth in a network that includes several tenant virtual machines (VMs). The method calculates a first bandwidth reservation for a flow between a source VM and a destination VM that are hosted on two different host machines. The source VM sends packets to a first set of VMs that includes the destination VM. The destination VM receives packets from a second set of VMs that includes the source VM. The method receives a second bandwidth reservation for the flow calculated at the destination. The method sets the bandwidth reservation for the flow as a minimum of the first and second bandwidth reservations.

Software defined data centers (SDDCs) virtualize the physical network to provide isolated virtual networks for respective tenants. In order to achieve this goal, the network resource has to be shared among multiple unrelated tenants. For resources such as computation, memory and storage, which are allocated locally, there have already been some effective sharing mechanisms. But for network resource, fair sharing is more challenging because it is distributed by its nature and involves multiple components.
Significant research has addressed the problem of how to share the network in data centers, especially how to share the bandwidth resources among tenants in a fair manner. Some proposed solutions enforce the traffic control at the edge, while others require control in middle physical nodes. The software-based edge control is a more feasible direction, because changes to physical nodes (e.g. switches and routers) are expensive, slow to standardize, and hard to customize once deployed. Existing edge control approaches introduce a scheduler at the hypervisor. The scheduler allocates the bandwidth among entities, which are typically virtual machines (VMs) or flows identified by source-destination VM pairs, based on the entities' policies. The policy usually contains bandwidth reservation, share, and limit. With a feedback mechanism, the allocation is changed periodically. However, these approaches calculate the allocations without considering the peers' weight. All peers are treated equally, and the VM's policy is just divided equally to them.

Methods and systems for controller-based datacenter network sharing


A versatile USB controller comprises a serial interface engine (SIE) for connection with a host. The SIE is capable of simulating a disconnect/connect sequence in situations where a reboot of the device is appropriate. The controller further includes a control store for keeping track of multiple endpoints of a device. A FIFO provides data transfer between each of the endpoints and the host. A state machine provides transaction sequencing with the host for each endpoint. In a variation of the preferred embodiment, a second FIFO is included to provide additional buffering capability.

The Universal Serial Bus (USB) specification is an industry-defined interface for connecting peripherals to the system bus of a personal computer. USB features a single interface for a wide variety of peripherals, including mice, keyboards, monitors, printers, mass storage drives, modems, faxes, and the like. This reduces manufacturing costs and makes it easier for personal computer users to configure their systems.
USB uses a token-based bus architecture, similar to other similarly-based buses such as the token ring network. A USB host broadcasts tokens on the bus, and a USB device that matches an address contained in a token responds either by sending data to the host or accepting data from the host.
To enhance the functional versatility, a USB device can support multiple logical channels of communication with the host. In the parlance of the USB specification, such logical channels are referred to as "pipes." Each pipe provides a unidirectional flow of data between a software client resident in the host and an endpoint defined within the device. Functions implemented within the device receive data from the host at their respective endpoint(s), and transmit data to the host by writing to their respective endpoint(s).
A USB device 10 is shown schematically in FIG. 10. Data is communicated over a pair of differentially driven signal lines D+, D-. A serial interface engine (SIE) 12 provides packet generation and decoding, NRZI conversion, CRC generation and verification, and bit stuffing, all in accordance with the USB specification. A controller 14 handles the data flow for the various transactions, namely IN, OUT and SETUP. As shown in FIGS. 11A and 11B, a transaction comprises up to three packets: TOKEN, DATA, and HANDSHAKE. A bus transaction begins with the host issuing a TOKEN-type packet comprising a PID field, an address field which identifies the device, and an endpoint field which identifies a channel within the device. This is followed by a DATA-type packet, flowing in a direction from the addressed device to the host, FIG. 11A, or from the host to the addressed device, FIG. 11B. In the latter case, the data received by the device is stored in a FIFO corresponding to the endpoint identified in the TOKEN packet. The recipient of the data then transmits a HANDSHAKE protocol to the transmitter of the data.
Returning to FIG. 10, typical implementations of a USB device include a bank of n FIFO's 16, allocating one FIFO (FIFO.sub.1 -FIFO.sub.n) for each endpoint E1-En supported by the device software 18. For example, the Intel.RTM. x8930Ax USB microcontroller chip defines six endpoints, each having an associated transmit FIFO and receive FIFO. The Cypress CY7C634xx family of controllers appear to support two device addresses: "A" and "B". Device address "A" has three associated endpoints while device "B" has two associated endpoints, each endpoint having a corresponding FIFO. The Xilinx.RTM. controller features support for three endpoints, with on-chip FIFO's for each endpoint. A more flexible alternative is one by CAE Technology which offers a function core for FPGAs. The function core features a user definable number of endpoints, and a FIFO for each endpoint having a user definable depth.
Continuing with FIG. 10, the device software 18 provides the functional capabilities of the device. Each functionality communicates with its associated endpoint E1-En, receiving or transmitting data via the FIFOs corresponding to those endpoints. A special endpoint, endpoint 0, is reserved for the purpose of providing access to the device's configuration, status, and control information.
The above-mentioned designs share the common trait in that the number of endpoints possible in a device is fixed. This is true even for the CAE Technology function core. Although the CAE function core provides a user definable number of endpoints, that number is fixed once the design is committed to silicon.
Increasing the number of endpoints in a given design brings up another shortcoming of these design approaches, namely the silicon real estate consumed to support the FIFO's becomes prohibitive since each endpoint requires a FIFO. This is especially true with the INTEL.RTM. design where each endpoint is associated with two FIFO's, one for receive and the other for transmit.
What is needed is a controller that, once designed and tested, is capable of supporting any number of endpoints in a device, up to the USB-defined maximum of sixteen. It is desirable that the controller exhibit efficient use of silicon while at the same time be readily configurable to use any number of endpoints.
Another feature of USB is its support for a technique known as bus enumeration, wherein the host identifies and configures a device upon its attachment to the bus. When the device has been detected by the host, the system software interrogates the device, determines its capabilities, assigns a device address, and configures the device. Although USB provides for situations in which a device is no longer able to communicate with the host, it would be desirable for the device to be completely rebooted so that the host can reconfigure the device as if the device had just been attached to the host by a user.

Universal serial bus device controller comprising a FIFO associated with a plurality of endpoints and a memory for storing an identifier of a current endpoint


Systems and methods for supplying gaseous fuel to an internal combustion engine are presented. In one example, a gaseous fuel pump is selectively activated to extend a vehicle's operating range. The methods and systems may be useful for operating an engine that includes directly injected gaseous fuel.

Gaseous fuels may provide several advantages over liquid fuels for operating an internal combustion engine. For example, gaseous fuels may be inexpensive, may have high octane rating, and may mix more readily with air at colder ambient temperatures. Improved fuel-air mixing may reduce engine emissions and it may also improve engine starting at lower ambient temperatures. However, gaseous fuels may also present challenges for powering internal combustion engines. For example, gaseous fuels may be port injected to an engine, but the engine may exhibit a loss in output power as compared to if the same engine were operated with liquid fuel. On the other hand, if the gaseous fuel is direct injected, it has to be stored at a higher pressure so that it may be injected into a cylinder during the cylinder's compression stroke. A direct injection gaseous fueled engine may provide improved power output, but a significant amount of fuel stored under pressure in a fuel storage vessel may not be usable because pressure in the storage vessel is reduced as fuel is consumed by the engine. Consequently, the vehicle's driving range may be reduced.
The inventor herein has recognized the above-mentioned disadvantages and has developed an engine operating method, comprising: directly injecting a gaseous fuel to an engine in response to a pressure of a gaseous fuel stored in a fuel tank exceeding a threshold pressure; and activating a gaseous fuel pump only when the pressure of gaseous fuel stored in the fuel tank is less than or equal to the threshold level.
By selectively activating a gaseous fuel pump, it may be possible to extend a vehicle's operating range even though gaseous fuel stored in a fuel storage tank is at a lower pressure. In particular, a gaseous fuel pump may be activated when pressure in a gaseous fuel storage tank of vessel does not reliably support direct injection of gaseous fuel into engine cylinders. However, if pressure in the gaseous fuel tank supports direct injection of gaseous fuel into engine cylinders, the gaseous fuel pump may be deactivated and gaseous fuel may be directed from the fuel tank to engine cylinders. In this way, the gaseous fuel pump is operated only when gaseous fuel stored in the fuel tank is less than a pressure that supports direct injection of gaseous fuel into engine cylinders. Additionally, transmission shift schedules and torque converter locking may be adjusted if the gaseous fuel pump has a flow capacity less than is desirable for operating the engine at all speeds and demand torques.
The present description may provide several advantages. For example, the approach may improve a vehicle's driving range. Further, the approach may allow gaseous injection of gaseous fuel through only direct injectors as opposed to systems that utilize both port and direct injection. Further still, the approach may adjust vehicle operation to accommodate a lower flow rate gaseous fuel pump so that system cost may be reduced.
The above advantages and other advantages, and features of the present description will be readily apparent from the following Detailed Description when taken alone or in connection with the accompanying drawings.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.

Systems and methods for supplying gaseous fuel to an engine


Various techniques relating to drive train control are disclosed. In an embodiment, in a first mode of operation communication between a controller and a submodule of the drive train takes place via a first communication channel and optionally additionally via a second communication channel. In a second mode of operation, upon failure of the first communication channel, communication with the submodule of the drive train takes place via the second communication channel.

Drive trains, for example for automotive applications, may comprise various devices, for example electric motors, which may be controllable to ensure correct functioning of the drive train. For example, an electric motor may comprise a plurality of coils, and to ensure correct operation of the electric motor appropriate currents have to be supplied to the coils. Such currents may for example comprise multi-phase alternating currents (AC) which may be generated by appropriate direct current/alternating current (DC/AC) converters based on a DC voltage provided for example in an automotive environment like a car. A proper control of the DC/AC conversion or other parameters involved in operating the electric motor may ensure an operation of the electric motor which corresponds to a desired operation.
Controlling operation of a drive train may involve the use of communication channels to transmit signals like control signals. Failure of such a communication channel may in some circumstances render the drive train inoperable.


Provided is a mold part for resin molding and a manufacturing method. A mold part for molding resin includes a base material layer, a design section and uneven sections which abut an inner surface so as to form ventilation sections. The design section has a design surface transferred by a reverse master having an uneven surface. At least the design section out of the base material layer and the design section is formed of a heat resistant material, and the mold part for resin molding is interchangeably attached to the molding tool so that a molding pressure acts in a direction to press the uneven sections against the inner surface of the molding tool at the time of molding the resin molded article.

Conventionally, a mold for resin molding in which an uneven mold surface for forming an uneven pattern is formed on a resin layer bonded to a base material and whiskers having a length of 10 to 300 μm are mixed in the resin layer has been known as an example of a mold for resin molding for manufacturing a resin molded article having an uneven pattern on a surface thereof (e.g. patent literature 1). In this mold for resin molding, the resin layer is neither deformed nor altered by heat or external force and a fine uneven pattern can be formed on a surface of a resin molded article, and a reduction in weld lines at the time of molding brought about by a heat insulation effect of the resin layer is also expected.
However, in the case of using in a vacuum molding tool for which exhaust holes need to be secured, this mold for resin molding cannot be used as the vacuum molding tool as it is since the exhaust holes are concealed by providing the surface-textured resin layer on the mold. To secure the exhaust holes formed in the mold, it is thought to perforate holes at the same positions as the exhaust holes (hereinafter, referred to as a hole forming operation) in this case by forming holes in the resin layer by wire materials inserted through the exhaust holes from the underside of the mold after the surface-textured resin layer is provided on the mold surface. However, since the vacuum molding tool has many exhaust holes, substantial effort is required for the hole forming operation. In addition, there may arise a problem that the exhaust holes are clogged at the time of vacuum molding. In such a case, it is essential to clean the holes, which also requires substantial effort.
Accordingly, it has been proposed a mold for resin molding which has air permeability without requiring substantial effort. That is, this mold for resin molding includes a molding tool, a design layer formed on an inner side of the molding tool and an air-permeable intermediate layer used to provide the design layer on an inner side surface of the molding tool. The molding tool is formed with through holes for ventilation, the design layer is formed of a resin having an uneven shape on its surface, and through holes for ventilation are perforated to communicate with the through holes for ventilation, and the air-permeable intermediate layer is continuously provided on the inner side surface of the molding tool so that an inner side surface of the design layer, the through holes for ventilation of the design layer and the through holes for ventilation of the molding tool communicate with each other (see, for example, patent literature 2).
In this mold for resin molding, exhaust holes can be easily provided at desired positions without perforating the surface-textured layer made of the resin with exhaust holes communicating with exhaust holes provided in the vacuum mold in advance. In this mold for resin molding, the exhaust holes can be easily perforated by bonding and fixing the surface-textured layer made of the resin to the mold via the "air-permeable intermediate layer" instead of directly bonding and fixing it to the mold.
That is, since the air-permeable intermediate layer is provided in this mold for resin molding, it is possible to eliminate the need for forming holes at the same positions as the through holes for ventilation, i.e. exhaust holes provided in the mold in advance and relatively easily form the through holes for ventilation, i.e. holes for exhaust. Thus, in the hole forming operation of forming the through holes for ventilation that is performed after the design layer is provided, the holes can be formed at arbitrary positions as long as they have a depth to reach the air-permeable intermediate layer. Therefore, if the through holes for ventilation are clogged during molding, holes can be easily formed at other positions even if the holes are not cleaned.


A width of a voltage pulse signal is directly proportional to a difference between first and second resistances in a pulse generator. The voltage pulse signal is generated with a ramp signal, two reference voltages, and two comparators. The first reference voltage is generated with the first resistance and a first current, and the second reference voltage is generated with the second resistance and a second current. The first comparator produces a first comparator output in response to the first reference voltage and the ramp signal, and the second comparator produces a second comparator output in response to the second reference voltage and the ramp signal. A logic circuitry generates the voltage pulse signal in response to the two comparator outputs.

Pulse generator circuits are common in electronics for generating voltage pulses for a variety of purposes. Many different circuit topologies or designs can be used to achieve a desired output for the pulse amplitude and/or width. Some pulse generator designs use two comparators with inputs that result in triggering the comparator outputs at different times, so that the outputs can be used to control the voltage pulse signal. However, it is not easy to accurately control the comparator inputs in order to achieve high timing precision in the width of the resulting voltage pulse signal, particularly for very short pulse widths, e.g., less than 10 nanosecond durations.
Some two-comparator pulse generator designs use two ramp signals (one for each comparator) and a single reference voltage (provided to both comparators), so that the difference between the two ramp signals relative to the reference voltage results in triggering the comparators at different times. However, it can be difficult to coordinate the timing of both ramp signals in order to ensure that the generated voltage pulse has the desired width or duration, particularly if the ramp signals are nonlinear. Additionally, using the same circuit design in different implementations (for generating voltage pulses of different widths) often requires a complicated and/or time-consuming reanalysis or redesign of the components that generate the ramp signals.
Some other two-comparator pulse generator designs use a single ramp signal (provided to both comparators) and two different reference voltages (one for each comparator), so that the difference between the two reference voltages relative to the ramp signal and its slope results in triggering the comparators at different times. However, adjusting the slope of the ramp signal provides for a rather limited range for the width of the generated voltage pulse. Additionally, optimizing such circuitry for different implementations often requires a complicated and/or time-consuming reanalysis or redesign of the components that generate the ramp signal and the reference voltages.

Generating voltage pulse with controllable width


A bumper structural body (100) includes a bumper reinforcement (10), energy absorbing members (30a, 30b), and intermediate members (50a, 50b). The sloped sections (12a, 12b) of the bumper reinforcement (10) are connected to the energy absorbing members (30a, 30b) and the intermediate members (50a, 50b). The intermediate members (50a, 50b) are each formed in a quadrilateral by connecting a first portion (51) contacting the energy absorbing member (30a, 30b), a second portion (52) contacting the bumper reinforcement (10), and portions connecting the first portion (51) and the second portion (52).

A bumper structural body for absorbing impact at a time of collision is provided at the front and the rear of most automobiles. Bumper structural bodies typically include a bumper reinforcement and energy absorbing members. Such bumper structural bodies have a structure whereby impact is received by the bumper reinforcement and the energy absorbing members deform to suppress damage to the vehicle body.
Currently, there is a need to reduce the weight of the bumper structural body, but there are constraints due to vehicle design and the many other required functions such as fine wrapping performance. As such, with regards to shape, it is thought that the design radius of curvature of the bumper reinforcement will become smaller than that of existing bumper structural bodies. If the radius of curvature of the bumper reinforcement becomes smaller, the energy absorbing members will become sloped and, at a time of collision, stress concentrations will occur in the front ends of the energy absorbing members and in the bumper reinforcement. As a result, it is possible that the bumper reinforcement will buckle or crack before the energy absorbing members buckle/deform, thereby making it impossible to efficiently absorb the energy.
Patent Literature 1 proposes a bumper structural body in which an intermediate member is arranged for the purpose of efficiently absorbing impact energy.


An electrophotographic imaging member including a charge generation layer and a hole transport layer, at least the charge generation layer or charge transport layer comprising a polyarylamine polymer represented by the following formula: ##STR1## wherein: n is between about 5 and about 5,000. p is between about 5 and about 5,000 PA0 X' and X" are independently selected from a group having bifunctional linkages, and PA0 Q is a divalent group derived from certain hydroxy terminated arylamine reactants.

This invention relates in general to electrophotographic imaging systems and, more specifically, to electrophotographic imaging members utilizing polymeric tertiary arylamine compounds.
In the art of electrophotography an electrophotographic plate comprising a photoconductive insulating layer on a conductive layer is imaged by first uniformly electrostatically charging the surface of the photoconductive insulating layer. The plate is then exposed to a pattern of activating electromagnetic radiation such as light, which selectively dissipates the charge in the illuminated areas of the photoconductive insulating layer while leaving behind an electrostatic latent image in the non-illuminated areas. This electrostatic latent image may then be developed to form a visible image by depositing finely divided electroscopic toner particles on the surface of the photoconductive insulating layer. These toner particles may be applied to the surface in dry form or dispersed in a liquid carrier medium. The resulting visible toner image can be transferred to a suitable receiving member such as paper. This imaging process may be repeated many times with reusable photoconductive insulating layers.
As more advanced, higher speed electrophotographic copiers, duplicators and printers were developed, degradation of image quality was encountered during cycling. Moreover, complex, highly sophisticated, duplicating and printing systems operating at high speeds have placed stringent requirements including narrow operating limits on photoreceptors. For example, the numerous layers found in many modern photoconductive imaging members must be highly flexible, adhere well to to adjacent layers, be mechanically compatible for flexible belt photoreceptors, and exhibit predictable electrical characteristics within narrow operating limits to provide excellent toner images over many thousands of cycles. There is also a great current need for long service life, flexible photoreceptors in compact imaging machines that employ small diameter support rollers for photoreceptor belt systems compressed into a very confined space. Small diameter support rollers are also highly desirable for simple, reliable copy paper stripping systems which utilize the beam strength of the copy paper to automatically remove copy paper sheets from the surface of a photoreceptor belt after toner image transfer. However, small diameter rollers, e.g. less than about 0.75 inch (19 mm) diameter, raise the threshold of mechanical performance criteria for photoreceptors to such a high level that spontaneous photoreceptor belt material failure becomes a frequent event for flexible belt photoreceptors.
One type of multilayered photoreceptor that has been employed as a belt in electrophotographic imaging systems comprises a substrate, a conductive layer, a charge blocking layer a charge generating layer, and a charge transport layer. The charge transport layer often comprises an activating small molecule dispersed or dissolved in a polymeric film forming binder. Generally, the polymeric film forming binder in the transport layer is electrically inactive by itself and becomes electrically active when it contains the activating molecule. The expression "electrically active" means that the material is capable of supporting the injection of photogenerated charge carriers from the material in the charge generating layer and is capable of allowing the transport of these charge carriers through the electrically active layer in order to discharge a surface charge on the active layer. The multilayered type of photoreceptor may also comprise additional layers such as an anti-curl backing layer, an adhesive layer, and an overcoating layer. Adhesive layers are often required to overcome inadequate adhesion between substrate, blocking and generator layers. The elimination of this layer would remove a fabrication step, resulting in processing time savings, reduced costs and an increasing yield due to the decrease in handling. In addition it would eliminate potential electrical problems often associated with interfaces. Although excellent toner images may be obtained with multilayered belt photoreceptors that are developed with dry developer powder (toner), it has been found that these same photoreceptors become unstable when employed with liquid development systems. These photoreceptors suffer from cracking, crazing, delamination, crystallization of active compounds, phase separation of activating compounds and extraction of activating compounds caused by contact with the organic carrier fluid, isoparaffinic hydrocarbons e.g. Isopar.RTM., commonly employed in liquid developer inks which, in turn, markedly degrade the mechanical integrity and electrical properties of the photoreceptor. More specifically, the organic carrier fluid of a liquid developer tends to leach out activating small molecules, such as the arylamine containing compounds typically used in the charge transport layers. Representative of this class of materials are: N,N'-diphenyl-N,N'-bis(3-methylphenyl)-[1,1'-biphenyl]-4,4'-diamine; bis-(4-diethylamino-2-methylphenyl)-phenylmethane; 2,5-bis-(4'-dimethylaminophenyl)-1,3,4-oxadiazole; 1-phenyl-3-(4'-diethylaminostyryl)-5-(4"-diethylaminophenyl)pyrazoline; 1,1-bis-( 4-(di-N,N'-p-methylphenyl)-aminophenyl)-cyclohexane; 4-diethylaminobenzaldehyde-1,1-diphenylhydrazone; 1,1-diphenyl-2(p-N,N-diphenylaminophenyl)-ethylene; N-ethylcarbazole-3-carboxaldehyde-1-methyl-1-phenylhydrazone. The leaching process results in crystallization of the activating small molecules, such as the aforementioned arylamine compounds, onto the photoreceptor surface and subsequent migration of arylamines into the liquid developer ink. In addition, the ink vehicle, typically a C.sub.10 -C.sub.14 branched hydrocarbon, induces the formation of cracks and crazes in the photoreceptor surface. These effects lead to copy defects and shortened photoreceptor life. The degradation of the photoreceptor manifests itself as increased background and other printing defects. The ink vehicle and its vapor, may penetrate the photoreceptor layers exacerbating adhesion failures which lead to complete physical photoreceptor failure.
The leaching out of the activating small molecule also increases the susceptibility of the transport layer to solvent/stress cracking when the belt is parked over a belt support roller during periods of non-use. Some carrier fluids also promote phase separation of the activating small molecules, such as arylamine compounds and their aforementioned derivatives, in the transport layers, particularly when high concentrations of the arylamine compounds are present in the transport layer binder. Phase separation of activating small molecules also adversely alters the electrical and mechanical properties of a photoreceptor. Although flexing is normally not encountered with rigid, cylindrical, multilayered photoreceptors which utilize charge transport layers containing activating small molecules dispersed or dissolved in a polymeric film forming binder, electrical degradation is similarly encountered during development with liquid developers. In addition, even non-flexing photoreceptors can suffer from adhesion failure brought about by solvent penetration. Sufficient degradation of these photoreceptors by liquid developers can occur in less than eight hours of use thereby rendering the photoreceptor unsuitable for even low quality xerographic imaging purposes.
Photoreceptors have been developed which comprise charge transfer complexes prepared with polymeric molecules. For example, charge transport complexes formed with polyvinyl carbazole are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,047,948, 4,346,158 and 4,388,392. Photoreceptors utilizing polyvinyl carbazole layers, as compared with current photoreceptor requirements, exhibit relatively xerographic performance in both electrical and mechanical properties. Polymeric arylamine molecules prepared from the condensation of di-secondary amine with a di-iodo aryl compound are disclosed in European patent publication 34,425, published Aug. 26, 1981 and issued May 16, 1984. Since these polymers are extremely brittle and form films which are very susceptible to physical damage, their use in a flexible belt configuration is precluded. Thus, in advanced imaging systems utilizing multilayered belt photoreceptors exposed to liquid development systems, cracking and crazing have been encountered in critical charge transport layers during belt cycling. Cracks developing in charge transport layers during cycling can be manifested as print-out defects adversely affecting copy quality. Furthermore, cracks in the photoreceptor pick up toner particles which cannot be removed in the cleaning step and may be transferred to the background in subsequent prints. In addition, crack areas are subject to delamination when contacted with blade cleaning devices thus limiting the options in electrophotographic product design. A hole transporting polymer which produces an easy to clean surface would enable less aggressive cleaning systems to be used resulting in less wear, and hence longer life, of the photoreceptor.
Photoreceptors may need to have surfaces with special properties. The use of an overcoat has been one approach to achieve this. However, an adhesive layer has been found necessary for some overcoats to be mechanically functional. An adhesive layer, in addition to requiring an extra processing step, also introduces additional interfaces which may impact electrical performance. The use of an adhesion promoting transporting polymer for the transport layer can eliminate the need for an additional adhesive layer.
Photoreceptors having charge transport layers containing small molecule arylamine compounds dispersed or dissolved in various resins such as polycarbonates are known in the art. Similarly, photoreceptors utilizing polymeric arylamine containing molecules such as polyvinyl carbazole and polymethacrylates possessing pendant arylamines are also known. Further, condensation polymers of a di-secondary amine with a di-iodo aryl compound are described in the prior art. Moreover, various polymers derived from a reaction of certain monomers with aromatic amines such as N,N'-diphenyl-N,N'-bis(3-hydroxyphenyl)-[1,1'-biphenyl]-4,4'-diamine have recently been described.
Recently photoreceptors having charge transport layers containing charge transporting arylamine polymers have been described in the patent literature. These polymers include the products of a reaction involving a dihydroxy arylamine reactant and are described for example in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,806,443, 4,806,443, 4,801,517 and 4,818,650, the entire disclosures of these patents being incorporated herein by reference. Although these polymers form excellent charge transport layers, many other polymeric derivatives of dihydroxy arylamines do not meet the numerous stringent requirements of sophisticated automatic electrophotographic systems. For example, the polymeric reaction products of dihydroxy arylamines and 1,3-diiodopropane form charge transport layers that possess very poor mechanical properties, are soft and non-robust and are of low molecular weight.

Electrophotographic imaging member containing arylamine terpolymers with CF.sub.3 substituted moieties


A fluorescent display tube has a filament support integrally formed of a metal sheet with a shield for protecting a driving semiconductor element accommodated in the vacuum container. Shield connections for joining the filament support and the shield are in the form of a plurality of fine wires formed from the same metal sheet and extend from two opposing sides of the shield. Each shield connection is fitted into a sealing area between the cover glass and the anode substrate. These shield connections are designed so as to improve heat dissipation at the time of the getter flashing following vacuum-sealing of the fluorescent display tube.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fluorescent display tube and more particularly to a fluorescent display tube having a built-in driving semiconductor element in a vacuum container.
2. Description of the Related Art
Fluorescent display tubes of the sort described above have been known to include a metal shield to prevent a driving semiconductor element from being damaged at the time of getter flashing which is formed integrally with a filament support.
More specifically, as shown in FIG. 1(a), a shield 1 has outward extending eaves 3 of the minimum size necessary to cover a driving semiconductor element 2 and a wire bonding area. The shield connections 5 for joining the filament support 4 to the shield 1 are in the form of a plurality of fine wires extending from opposing sides of the shield 1 to each lead 6. Each shield connection 5 has a width ranging from about half the thickness to about the same thickness of the metal sheet blank from which the metal shield is formed. The shield connections 5 comprise a plurality of fine wires which are subjected to plastic deformation to provide the solid form shown in FIG. 1(b). The solid form is composed of fixing parts 7 for supporting filaments, a getter fitting part 8, the shield 1, the shield connections 5 and the outward extending eaves 3. Any other part which is not a solid body in the shield support structure is made flat so as to reinforce the structure of the filament support 4. Before the fluorescent tube is vacuum sealed, a part of the filament support 4 in combination with the lead 6 is fitted into the sealing area 9 between the cover glass and the anode substrate which form the vacuum container. In this way, a fluorescent display tube is produced.
The fluorescent display tube needs a getter film to improve and maintain the degree of the enclosed vacuum. As the getter film is impenetrable to light, the common practice has been to form the getter film not within the domain of the display portion (not shown) but on the side of the filament support 4 having the shield 1 so as not to affect the visual display.
As set forth above, the getter film essential for improving and maintaining the degree of the vacuum inside the fluorescent display tube is formed by locally heating the getter by induction heating to evaporate and deposit the getter material inside the tube. However, since each shield connection 5 located close to the getter fitting part 8 forms a closed circuit as shown in FIGS. 1(a) and 1(b), there is a possibility that the shield connections 5 will be heated by the high-frequency induction current which flows at the time the getter is locally heated by high-frequency induction heating.
Although the filament support 4 is held between the cover glass and the anode substrate for sealing purposes, both the filament support 4 and the shield connections 5 tend to float off the anode substrate (not shown) because, with the exception of the sealing area 9, there exists a small gap with the anode substrate. Consequently, the heat dissipation property of the shield connection 5 in the conventional shield support structure is poor when it is heated by high-frequency induction heating, and the shield connection 5 may ultimately fuse with the rise in temperature. This has been the reason for the low production yield of the fluorescent display tubes.

Vacuum fluorescent display tube having a built in driving semiconductor element therein