A headpiece for a cochlear implant system includes a transcutaneous transmission coil that transfers power and/or data to an implantable device implanted under a user's skin. The headpiece includes a magnet for holding the transmission coil in close proximity to the receiver coil in the implanted device, which also contains a magnet, and provides the desired alignment between the coils so that inductive coupling may efficiently occur. The headpiece has a bottom surface for skin contact that includes a plurality of flexible bumps configured to distribute pressure over a large surface area while allowing blood flow throughout the area. This also provides friction contact with the skin to help secure the headpiece, reducing movement due to lateral loading, while reducing skin irritation and erosion.

The present invention relates to the transfer of electromagnetic energy between coils, and more particularly, to an external device secured to the skin of a patient, having a coil for transmitting power and/or data to an implanted device and/or to a replenishable power source associated with the implanted device.
The present invention will be described in the context of a cochlear implant system; however, it should be understood that it is also useful for other medical devices such as neuromuscular stimulators, implantable pumps, and other implantable devices that are designed to be surgically inserted within a patient's body to carry out a medically related function for an extended period of time. Indeed, the present invention can be used in any device having an implantable portion including an implanted coil and an external portion containing an external coil for placement on the skin of the patient in alignment with the implanted coil. In a cochlear implant system, the portion of the system containing the external coil is placed on the head and is referred to as the "headpiece". The term "headpiece" will be used herein to refer to the portion of the system containing the external coil, regardless of where it is used on the body.
A common way of achieving alignment between an external coil and an implanted coil is to employ a magnet in both the headpiece and the implanted device. The magnetic attractive force associated with such magnets holds the external coil in close proximity to the implanted coil and provides the desired alignment between the coils for efficient electromagnetic coupling, which may be RF, inductance, optical, or the like.
However, a known problem is that the pressure of the headpiece against the skin may cause skin irritation and/or tissue damage due to blood flow restriction. The issue is further compounded by variable skin curvatures resulting, in part, from the shape of the implanted device and variable skin thicknesses among patients. Because of this, force may be applied over a small area of the skin flap, resulting in very high local pressures, which can lead to irritation, soreness, redness, and even necrosis of the skin flap tissue or extrusion of the implanted device. Reducing magnetic forces to address the pressure issues has the undesirable effect of poor headpiece retention.
Attempts have been made to improve headpiece comfort and retention by providing a textured elastomeric material at the periphery on the skin side surface of the headpiece, or providing a ring or disk of textured rubber having adhesive on one side to stick to the skin side surface of the headpiece. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/741,411, filed Dec. 19, 2003, which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses a shell for covering a headpiece in which portions of the shell that come into contact with skin are covered with or made of a material that is comfortable against the skin; a material such as fabric or foam or other material with similar qualities may be used to maintain a comfortable feel against the skin in moist environments, such as when a user sweats. Other headpiece designs have used an open antenna coil design having a ring of rigid plastic bumps at the perimeter on the skin side surface.
In view of the above, what is needed is a headpiece that can transmit power and/or data transcutaneously to an implanted device, wherein such headpiece is readily attachable to the skin in close proximity to the implanted device, easily and reliably retained in proper alignment with the implanted device, and does not promote skin erosion, irritation, or discomfort, even with minor changes of the skin that commonly occur.


A wireless mesh network enables multiple devices near each other to transmit simultaneously, thus allowing increased network bandwidth. Prior to transmitting, a device may determine various parameters of the wireless medium on which it desires to transmit. For example, the device may determine whether the intended recipient device is close enough, and verify that any other transmitting and receiving devices are far enough away. If these or any other suitable criteria are met, the device can transmit simultaneously with other devices in the vicinity.

In wireless mesh networks, multiple devices or "nodes" communicate wirelessly with one another by sending and receiving wireless messages, which are often radio frequency (RF) messages that conform to a protocol, such as IEEE Standard 802.11. Mesh networks allow the nodes of the network to communicate with one another without the direct exchange of RF messages between the two nodes in communication. For example, two devices that are not within range of each other may communicate via one or more other nodes in the network. Wireless messages are received at a node and re-transmitted, such that the message is passed from node to node until the message reaches the destination node. Since there may be many suitable paths through the mesh network, wireless mesh networks can be more robust than traditional wireless networks. For example, if a node along a chosen path fails, the message can be rerouted through a different path. Such rerouting may be performed automatically, enabling the wireless mesh network to be self-healing in response to node failures. Another advantage of wireless mesh networks is that they can reduce the need for fixed infrastructure, as nodes can communicate with one another at a distance without the need for fixed access points.
One difficultly with mesh networks is that of coordinating the transmissions of various devices that are in the vicinity of one another. If multiple devices near each other transmit at the same time, the transmissions may interfere with one another and reduce the data rate that is achievable. To prevent this type of interference, various types of media access control (MAC) protocols can be used. Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Avoidance (CSMA/CA) is one such MAC protocol, in which a device informs other nodes in the vicinity of its intent to transmit, prior to transmitting. Upon receiving notice that a device intends to transmit, the other nodes in the vicinity then wait to transmit, so as to avoid transmitting at the same time, thereby reducing the likelihood of interfering transmissions.

Wireless mesh networking with multiple simultaneous transmissions by nearby network nodes


A novel process is disclosed for the preparation of dihydropyridine compounds and derivatives thereof, and more particularly felodipine. The process to prepare felodipine involves a two step procedure condensing 2,3-dichlorobenzaldehyde with methyl acetoacetate in the presence of a catalyst system. The resultant benzylidine intermediate is sequentially reacted with ethyl aminocrotonate to provide felodipine. The novelty of the present invention resides in part on (1) a new catalyst system not previously disclosed for the preparation of felodipine, (2) the absence of acid(s), (3) the control of reaction conditions to yield lower amounts of unreacted aldehyde compared to known reactions, (4) a simplified purification process, and (5) formation of negligible quantities of symmetrical diester byproducts.

Felodipine, Formula 1, is a 1,4 dihydropyridine derivative for use as an antihypertensive and muscle relaxant drug. Other phenyl-1,4 dihydropyridine compounds have been disclosed which have therapeutic activity in the treatment of heart disease, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,310,917. ##STR1##
The preparation of felodipine and related compounds typically involves a multistep synthesis, the last step of which usually involves formation of the dihydropyridine ring. U.S. Pat. No. 5,310,917 describes a synthesis involving heating a mixture of a benzylidine with an amino crotonate ester in the presence of a strong acid to yield the desired dihydropyridine product U.S. Pat. No. 4,600,778 describes a process for the preparation of dihydropyridine compounds by reacting a ketocarboxylic ester with an aldehyde, and a catalytic amount of piperidine acetate in an aliphatic alcohol as solvent. Both patents are herein incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Disadvantages with most of the disclosed syntheses for the preparation of dihydropyridine derivatives, and in particular felodipine, include (1) an extractive workup to isolate the desired product; (2) the formation of symmetrical ester byproducts which are difficult to isolate from the desired final compound; (3) use of acids in the reaction which require a neutralization step(s) to remove. The extractive workup and removal of byproducts are labor intensive procedures. From a commercial viewpoint, the use of acids is often costly and environmentally unfriendly. It is preferred to avoid their use and any potential dangers associated with the use of acids.
There is thus a continuing need for a commercially viable, synthetic route for the production of dihydropyridine compounds and, in particular felodipine.

Process to prepare dihydropyridine and derivatives thereof


Methods of measuring an anomaly, any induced change in physical parameters such as strain, temperature, and so forth, in an optical fiber. One method may include launching a plurality of probe pulses from a probe source; recording a Brillouin scattering spectrum from a plurality of reflection signals generated in the optical fiber, responsive to the plurality of probe pulses; determining a relative motion between the optical fiber and the anomaly during the recording the Brillouin back-scattering spectrum; and dynamically adjusting the Brillouin back-scattering spectrum according to the relative motion, or performing an adjustment of the Brillouin back-scattering spectrum after acquisition of the Brillouin back-scattering spectrum.

Optical fibers are employed ubiquitously for applications such as communications in land and sea based technology. For example, optical fibers having lengths as great as 100 km or more are commonly employed in undersea fiber optic cables. These undersea fiber optic cables are commonly employed for transmitting data across expanses of ocean between terrestrial landing sites which are often located in different countries and on different continents.
Techniques including backscattering techniques, such as Brillouin Optical Time Domain Reflectometry have been adapted for analyzing defects or anomalies in optical fibers, either intrinsic or induced by environmental physical parameters around the optical fibers, where defects may be located at any position along many kilometers of an optical fiber. This technique may be used to determine the location of strain or temperature differences in an optical fiber. This technique is non-destructive and therefore allows for measurement of the optical fiber at any suitable location, including at the factory, during installation, or in-situ after installation of an optical cable.
Notably, a backscattering measurement may be performed as a distributed measurement at multiple wavelengths, to allow the acquisition of sufficient distributed spectral property information. During backscattering measurement such as when manufacturing and deploying cable, a relative motion may take place between the optical fiber used as a sensor and the location and distribution of fiber anomalies or physical parameters. This relative motion may accordingly skew the spatial profile of spectral properties from the backscattering measurements, as required to determine the profile of physical parameter within the fiber, leading to degraded spatial resolution and therefore limited accuracy.
It is with respect to these and other considerations that the present improvements may be useful.

Techniques and apparatus for improved spatial resolution for locating anomalies in optical fiber


A display apparatus is having a first substrate and a second substrate facing the first substrate. An electrode is located on an inner surface of the first substrate or an inner surface of the second substrate. An electron emitter is located on the electrode. A barrier rib structure is disposed between the first substrate and the second substrate to define a sealed inner space therebetween. The barrier rib structure is comprised of a conductive material. A gas is located between the first substrate and the second substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a display apparatus, and, more particularly, to a display apparatus having a structure in which electron beams proceed toward sides of a sealed inner space between substrates.
2. Description of the Related Art
A field emission display (FED) apparatus is a flat panel display apparatus in which cathodoluminescent light is generated by colliding electron rays such as cathode tube rays with a phosphor layer in a field emitter array (FEA) matrix that is a cold cathode electron source. In the case of a FED apparatus, a cathode luminescence (CL) phosphor layer is used, and the light emission efficiency thereof is low.
A PDP is a display device that displays desired numbers, letters, or images using visible light emitted from phosphor layers which are excited by ultraviolet rays generated during a gas discharge initiated by applying a direct or alternate current voltage to a plurality of discharge electrodes formed on a plurality of substrates after a discharge gas is sealed between the plurality of substrates.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional three-electrode surface discharge type plasma display panel 100.
Referring to FIG. 1, the conventional three-electrode surface discharge type plasma display panel 100 includes a first substrate 101, a second substrate 102, sustain discharge electrode pairs 105 each having an X electrode 103 and a Y electrode 104 formed on an inner surface of the first substrate 101, a first dielectric layer 106 that buries (or covers) the sustain discharge electrode pairs 105, a protective film layer 107 formed on a surface of the first dielectric layer 106, a plurality of address electrodes 108 formed on an inner surface of the second substrate 102 and extending in a direction crossing the sustain discharge electrode pairs 105, a second dielectric layer 109 that buries (or covers) the address electrodes 108, a barrier rib structure 110 formed between the first and second substrates 101 and 102, and red, green, and blue phosphor layers 111 formed (or defined) in discharge cells. An inner space formed by the combination of the first substrate 101 and the second substrate 102 is a discharge space and a discharge gas is filled in the discharge space.
The conventional three-electrode surface discharge type plasma display panel 100 having the above structure can be readily fabricated using a thick film forming technique such as a printing process. However, due to process limits, it is difficult to display images of high quality and high resolution.
In the conventional three-electrode surface discharge type plasma display panel 100, visible light is obtained through a series of processes in which electrons are continuously produced through discharges, and accelerated electrons collide with neutral particles to generate excited particles that emit vacuum ultraviolet rays, and the vacuum ultraviolet rays excite the phosphor layer 111 to emit visible light.
However, ions that are not advantageous for generating light are also produced in the above processes, and the energy utilized to accelerate these ions consume more than half of the total energy used. Therefore, due to the unnecessary energy consumption, which lowers energy efficiency, the conventional three-electrode surface discharge type plasma display panel 100 has a low light emission efficiency.


An LCD includes parallel scan lines, and parallel data lines orthogonal to the scan lines, to define a plurality of pixel regions. Each of the pixel regions includes a red, a green, and a blue sub-pixel region. The red sub-pixel region includes a first and a second red sub-pixel zones received scanning voltages from a same scan line and data voltage signals from different data lines. The green sub-pixel region includes a first and a second green sub-pixel zones received scanning voltages from a same scan line and data voltage signals from different data lines. The blue sub-pixel region includes a first and a second blue sub-pixel zones received scanning voltages from a same scan line and data voltage signals from different data lines. All the first and second sub-pixel zones alternately display black images or images corresponding to pre-determined gray scales during two adjacent frames of the LCD.

Because LCD devices have the advantages of portability, low power consumption, and low radiation, they have been widely used in various portable information products such as notebooks, personal digital assistants (PDAs), video cameras, and the like. Furthermore, LCD devices are considered by many to have the potential to completely replace CRT (cathode ray tube) monitors and televisions.
FIG. 7 is a schematic, side cross-sectional view of a conventional LCD. The LCD 10 includes a TFT (thin film transistor) substrate 11, a color filter substrate 12, and a liquid crystal layer 13 interposed between the substrates 11, 12.
FIG. 8 shows an abbreviated circuit diagram of the TFT substrate 11. The TFT substrate 11 includes a plurality of rows of parallel scan lines G1, G2 . . . , and a plurality of columns of parallel data lines D1, D2, D3, D4 . . . orthogonal to the rows of parallel scan lines. The crossing scan lines and data lines define a plurality of pixel regions. Each of the pixel regions includes a pixel electrode 111 and a TFT 114. The TFT 114 is positioned near the crossing of a corresponding scan line and a corresponding data line. A gate electrode of the TFT 114 is electrically coupled to the scan line, and a source electrode of the TFT 114 is electrically coupled to the data line. Further, a drain electrode of the TFT 114 is electrically coupled to the corresponding pixel electrode 111.
FIG. 9 shows a top plan view of parts of the color filter substrate 12. The color filter substrate 12 includes a plurality of red, green, and blue color filter units 121, 122, 123, and a black matrix 125 filled in gaps between the color filter units 121, 122, 123. Each of the color filter units 121, 122, 123 corresponds to one of the pixel electrodes 111, and has an area equal to that of the corresponding pixel electrode 111.
In operation, voltage signals are provided to the pixel electrodes 111 via the data lines, so as to control the liquid crystal molecules of the liquid crystal layer 13 to twist to a pre-determined orientation. Thereby, an exactly quantity of light passing through the color filter units 121, 122, 123 is controlled. The white light beams are converted into red, green, or blue light beams after passing through the red, green, or blue color filter units 121, 122, 123, respectively. Thus, the red, green, and blue light beams with different brightness mix together, so as to display light beams of numerous different colors.
The light beams passing through the color filter 12 may be divided into several brightness levels, which are called gray scales. The more gray scales that are defined for the LCD 10, the higher the resolution of images that can be displayed on the LCD 10. In order for the LCD 10 to display different images, the gray scale of each of the pixel regions may change, whereby the liquid crystal molecules need to twist to a pre-determined orientation according to the variation of the gray scale. The twist speed of the liquid crystal molecules is proportional to the voltage signals applied thereto, which in turn are proportional to the voltage signals provided to the pixel electrodes 111. When the image of the LCD 10 changes from a white image to a black image, the voltage signals applied to the liquid crystal molecules are the largest, whereby the liquid crystal molecules undergo the largest change in twist orientation at the fastest twist speed. In addition, when the image displayed on the LCD 10 changes in a smaller range of the gray scale, the voltage signals applied to the liquid crystal molecules are smaller, whereby the liquid crystal molecules undergo smaller changes in twist orientation at slower twist speeds.
The LCD 10 often displays colored images, and the variations of the gray scale are usually relatively small, with the voltage signals applied to the liquid crystal molecules being correspondingly small. Therefore the liquid crystal molecules are liable to twist at low speeds, whereby the LCD 10 has a low response time.
It is desired to provide an LCD and method for driving the LCD which can overcome the above-described deficiencies.

Liquid crystal display with sub-pixel zones and method for driving same


The present teaching relates to methods, systems, and programming for financial management. In an example, a method for performing financial management is presented. A first set of rules associated with a first access credential to an account and a second set of rules associated with a second access credential to the account are provided. The second set of rules is at least partially different from the first set of rules. A determination is made whether the access credential received from a first user matches the first access credential. A first request related to the first user with respect to a transaction is received, and information regarding the transaction is extracted. At least one action is determined with respect to the first request based on the information and the first set of rules.

The use of cash or currency is being increasingly replaced by the convenience afforded by payment cards, such as credit, debit, and pre-paid cards, including virtual or mobile cards and tokenization, as well as electronic funds transfers, e.g. electronic checks or online funds transfer services such as PayPal™. Merely by way of example, many children, however, do not have the requisite accounts needed to complete such transactions, e.g. access to/the ability to open and maintain payment cards or funds transfer accounts, and often do not even have a bank account (e.g. savings, checking) into which to receive funds or monetary gifts, e.g., those from relatives or friends, or from these residing in countries using different currencies.
For instance, card and electronic funds transfer (EFT) accounts used by children are those of a parental account, or a sub-account that is linked to or associated with a primary account held by the parent (or guardian). That is, while the child (or any other dependent) may be able to use or is authorized to initiate charges using such a payment system, the parent (or guardian) is ultimately responsible for paying for such charges. Accordingly, it may be desirable to exert some level of control over the types of purchases or transactions a child is permitted to make using a parental or subsidiary account.
Various Internet websites may be used to purchase goods through the use of a payment card or electronic funds transfer (EFT) system (e.g. PayPal™). In order to purchase goods, the purchaser must typically enter his/her card or account information for each purchase. However, many children do not have their own payment accounts. Some parents may choose to let their children borrow their own cards/accounts for specific purchases. Alternatively, some parents may either provide their children with their own (sub-account) cards or purchase pre-paid cards for their children. While this may work for a few instances, it is not a viable option with the rapid growth of websites, online games and online applications appealing to children and the ever-increasing online footprint of children. Fearing unlimited access to the Internet and usage of the card or account, a parent may be hesitant to give his or her card or account to a child without supervision.
These systems may also be troubling since they often provide no control or limitation on what, where, when or how much the child may purchase or transact, or in general, volunteer (confidential) personal or financial information. Further, it is often difficult for a parent to track the amount of purchases made from each website by a child, for each child, and/or how much he or she is spending, and as such, may not become aware of such transaction at least until the credit card bill is received at the end of the billing cycle.
With the rapid proliferation of websites, online games, and online applications designed for children under 14, there is also a need for a system that parents may setup and children may use to purchase goods and services while limiting or obviating a child's need to provide their personal information. Thus, a system is needed that may enable a parent to manage a child's access and personal information provided to websites, or in the alternative provide parental consent to the collection and use of certain necessary information as well as to control how money is spent by a child.
One other area of concern in online financial transactions is the issue of protecting the privacy/personal information of minors, particularly children under 14, from financial institutions, vendors and other service providers. Examples of children's privacy information include date of birth, email addresses, telephone numbers, physical address, and purchase history. There is a need to impose access controls so only the public portion of any account is visible to financial institutions, vendors and other service providers, unless explicit authorization from the parent(s) is granted to access this information or the information shared is in a form that is not personally identifiable.
Further, typically, a parent, other family member or friend may wish to give a gift to a child in the form of cash, which may saved and/or later be used by that child to purchase goods or services. It is often difficult for parents to maintain these funds segregated from their own until the point at which the child wishes to spend the money and to keep track of how much money the child has spent. Therefore it is difficult for the parents, the child and the gift-giver to be certain that the gifted money has been utilized by the child as intended.
Some retailers, service providers and websites enable such a person to purchase a gift card, which may be redeemed by a recipient, e.g., a child. However, such gift cards are often mailed to the recipient in order for him to receive it. As a result, there is a risk that the gift cards may not be received. Alternatively, gift cards may be lost by the recipient, and therefore may be inappropriate for certain individuals such as young children.
Additionally, gift cards are typically purchased on a periodic basis, e.g. for holidays or birthdays when a one-time gift is intended. However, in many instances an individual, such as a parent, may wish to give a repeated or recurring gift over a period of time to another individual, such as a child. Additionally, if a parent wishes to limit a child's use of the money to or a child wishes to spend his money on certain particular websites, the parent would have to purchase gift cards for each website, or for a single week's allowance, or for a larger sum intended to cover multiple weeks. Additionally, by relying on gift cards, the child is limited to spending the funds and with that particular vendor. Thus, the child may not learn (or have an incentive) to save his or her money as a parent or even another gift-giver may have intended.
Alternatively, as parents and children acquire more and more cards from issuers and vendors, managing these cards may become a burden. Physical cards take space, and often only a small number of cards may be carried in one's wallet. One may try to squeeze many cards in his wallet. It is often frustrating for him to find and extract a card to use and squeeze it back into the crowded wallet after use. Less frequently used cards often have to be stored somewhere other than in one's wallet, and it is an additional challenge to have the right card for the right occasion.
Furthermore, generally, strict privacy regulations (prohibiting the sharing of the sensitive data to payment processors), age restrictions as well as a lack of any credit history (e.g. no regular income), prevent children from obtaining their own payment cards or electronic payment accounts. Alternatively, parents are often reluctant to obtain new cards as accepting a new card usually means carrying another card (i.e., another card to squeeze into a wallet) and/or to safeguard and keep track of, or replacing an existing card. Moreover, for the financial institutions or vendors, issuing a physical card carries costs related to their design, manufacturing, distribution, and operation.
Therefore, there is a need for a more secure, monitorable (in real time, for example) and controlled financial management mechanism for parents (or guardians) to allow their children or dependents to aggregate or segregate their own funds (e.g. from gifts or 'allowances') and to purchase goods and/or services on the Internet, or at physical stores or point-of-sales locations. Such a financial management mechanism may be used in other contexts, e.g., companies and their employees, sports or other clubs and their members.

System and method for financial management


Foaming composition for cleaning the skin, which has the appearance of a transparent gel, including:. (i) a fatty phase, PA1 (ii) at least one C.sub.5 -C.sub.7 carbohydrate fatty ester, PA1 (iii) at least one polyol, PA1 (iv) at least one foaming surfactant.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to foaming compositions for cleaning the skin which preferably are rich in oils, gelled in appearance, transparent and water-rinsable.
2. Discussion of the Background
Cleaning the skin is very important for face care. It must be as effective as possible because the fatty residues such as excess sebum, residues of the cosmetic products which are employed daily, and make-up products, especially the water-resistant "waterproof" products, accumulate in skin folds and at the surface of the skin and can block skin pores and entail the appearance of spots. Poor cleaning quality, and in particular poor rinsing, are often responsible, among other causative factors, for a sallow complexion.
A number of major types of products for cleaning the skin are known: lotions and foaming detergent aqueous gels and oils and rinsable cleaning anhydrous gels, milks for removing make-up, and foaming creams which are usually soap-based.
The lotions and the foaming detergent aqueous gels have a cleaning action by virtue of the surfactants which place the fatty residues and the pigments of the make-up products in suspension. They are effective and cosmetically pleasant because they foam and because they are easily removed. Insofar as they do not contain any cosmetic oil, they have the disadvantage of making the skin dry owing to their lipid-removing action.
This is the case, for example, with the products described by document WO 95/05769, which teaches lotions for cleaning the skin, which are very fluid, pressurizable and which produce a beautiful foam, but these products destroy the hydrolipid film of the skin and leave the skin clean but rough.
The creams and the milks for removing make-up contain, at the same time, oils, emulsifiers and detergent surfactants in a quantity which is sufficiently low not to destabilize the emulsion. Despite their good effectiveness, these products are not foaming and have an insufficient rinsability which requires the use of a complementary detergent tonic lotion to complete the rinsing and the removal of the soiling. Besides its astringent character, the use of this second product can in the long term result in making the skin dry.
In the field of skin cleaning, the removal of make-up of water-resistant "waterproof" products, of transfer-free products and of heavy make-ups, like stage make-ups, requires the use of oily compounds to be effective.
Oily compositions are recognized for their effectiveness as a cleaning agent and/or make-up remover. They in fact allow lipophilic soiling and make-up to be dissolved very easily, in particular the "waterproof" and transfer-free make-ups which are known to be difficult to remove. These products are effective and well tolerated. They have the disadvantage of not foaming and not imparting a feeling of coolness on application, and this is a disadvantage from a cosmetic viewpoint. Besides, the oily compositions which have the appearance of a gel are usually thickened with waxes, silicas, modified clays or polyvalent salts of fatty acids, which give them an appearance that is usually turbid or opaque and not very attractive; their stability over time is often limited.
Attempts have been made to design cleaning foaming products which are perfectly rinsable with water, including oils in large quantities so as to optimize the cleaning of the skin and to hydrate and nourish the latter while avoiding any phenomenon of drying out and of irritation. In addition, attempts have been made to prepare compositions which have an attractive appearance, that of a transparent gel, these compositions being easily removed by rinsing with water and being perfectly stable in storage.
To produce such a product it is not possible merely to introduce oils into a lotion or an aqueous gel. In fact, oils have a tendency to inhibit the foaming properties of these formulations; it is said that the oils "kill" the foam.


A workpiece conveyer apparatus of a machine tool corresponding to the unequal pitches among the individual processing stations, smaller in the number of operation steps, shorter in the traveling distance, shorter in the cycle time, capable of saving the space, capable of saving energy, and capable of enhancing the durability. Having a processing station block with five processing stations disposed straightly, slide rails extended and provided straightly along the processing stations, and four sliders movably provided on the slide rails, for loading or unloading workpieces on the processing station, distances of the processing stations are unequal pitches, the longitudinal dimension of the processing station block is set as small as possible, two outside sliders in the longitudinal direction of the processing station block are integrally coupled to each other, and two inside sliders are integrally coupled to each other.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a workpiece conveyer apparatus of a machine tool, and more particularly to a conveying and processing technology for performing a series of operations of workpiece conveying and processing steps including delivery and discharge of a workpiece outside of a machine, and loading and unloading of a workpiece into or out of workpiece conveying means inside of a machine, in a machine tool such as a surface grinder having a grinding wheel for plane grinding of a workpiece.
Description of the Related Art
For example, a surface grinder having a grinding wheel for plane grinding of a workpiece is designed to perform exchanging (loading, unloading) workpieces mutually between a delivery machine for delivering workpieces, a discharge machine for discharging workpieces, and a surface grinder, automatically by the workpiece conveying and processing device.
A workpiece conveyer apparatus of this kind has, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open Publication No. 2002-130421, a so-called double hand type slider comprising two work hands for loading and unloading a workpiece. This slider slides and moves on moving rails by means of a drive source, and the work hands are positioned and stopped at every specified processing station (delivery station, in-machine station, discharge station, etc.), and the workpieces are exchanged among the processing stations.
In a general workpiece conveyer apparatus of a machine tool, not limited to delivery, in-machine, and discharge stations, as shown in FIG. 8A, in total, five stations are often disposed such as delivery, rotation phase fixing, in-machine, inspection and measurement, and discharge stations S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, and the interval of these stations S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, that is, conveying pitches p are mutually equal (p1=p2=p3 p4).
By the simple so-called pick and place system of the double hand slider, that is, only by the lifting operation and placing operation by the work hands, a workpiece at a certain station is moved to a next station.
Incidentally, since the required space is different among the five stations S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, in particular, for the purpose of shortening the dimension of the entire facilities of the apparatus, it is considered effective means to define the distances among these five stations S1, S2, S3, S4, S5 at unequal pitches instead of equal pitches.
For example, as shown in FIG. 8B, conveying pitch p1 between delivery station S1 and rotation phase fixing station S2 outside of the machine and conveying pitch p4 between inspection and measurement station S4 and discharge station S5 are set smaller than conveying pitch p2 between rotation phase fixing station S2 and in-machine station S3 and conveying pitch p3 between in-machine station S3 and inspection and measurement station S4 (p1=p4<p2=p3).
However, to correspond to such unequal pitch conveying among these five stations S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, by using an expensive NC slider as the slider, it is necessary to employ a method of transferring workpieces by sequentially exchanging the workpieces at stations S1, S2, S3, S4, S5 by this NC slider and double hands of this slider. As a result, to transfer all workpieces at stations S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, as described below, it requires a number of operation steps, and the slider moving distance is extended, and thereby the cycle time becomes very long.
To shorten this transfer time, the slider may be moved at a high speed. But in such configuration, components of the workpiece conveyer apparatus are worn heavily, and the durability of the apparatus is lowered.
These problems are not limited to the workpiece conveyer apparatus of a surface grinder discussed above, but are commonly observed in other workpiece conveyer apparatuses of machine tools.

Workpiece conveyer apparatus of machine tool


An apparatus for electopolishing a helix used for a traveling wave tube has the following structure. A bath is provided which receives an electrolyte solution for etching the helix. A holder is further provided for holding the helix in the electrolyte solution without any displacement or any vibration, wherein a part of the helix is electrically connected to an anode. A controller mechanically supporting a cathode is provided for moving the cathode around the helix at substantially a constant speed in a direction substantially parallel to a longitudinal direction of the helix so as to keep a distance of the cathode from the helix to be substantially constant.

The present invention relates to an apparatus for electropolishing of a helix for a microwave tube, and more particularly to an apparatus for a uniform electropolishing of a helix for a precision microwave tube which is weak to vibration.
Traveling wave tubes are used in the field of microwave communication networks such as communication satellite broadcast. FIG. 1 is a cross sectional view illustrative of a conventional traveling wave tube The conventional traveling wave tube has a cylindrically shaped body accommodating a helix 6 which comprises a metal tape in the form of helix spirally extending along a longitudinal direction of the cylindrically shaped body. The helix 6 is terminated at input and output portions 41 and 42. The cylindrically shaped body of the conventional traveling wave tube has an emitter side which accommodates an electron gun 42 which emits an electron beam. The cylindrically shaped body of the conventional traveling wave tube also has a collector side which has a collector 45 so that the electron beam emitted from the electron gun 43 travels through the inside of the helix 6 to the collector 45. The helix 6 is applied with a radio frequency current. Actually, a majority part of the radio frequency current or the high frequency current flows in the surface region of the helix 6. The radio frequency current has an interaction with the electron beam 44 whereby the high frequency current is amplified and fetched from the output portion 42. The above helix 6 may be made of a metal such as molybdenum and tungsten. The helix 6 serves as a delay circuit of the traveling wave tube, for which reason the helix 6 is an important element which determines characteristics of the traveling wave tube. It is extremely important that the helix 6 has a precise pitch, a high cleanliness level and accurate dimensions or sizes. An efficiency of the traveling wave tube depends upon the smoothness of surface of the helix 6, for which reason the surface of the helix 6 is required to have a high smoothness. The helix 6 is smoothed by electropolishing thereof.
The helix 6 is then subjected to the electropolishing. FIG. 2 is a schematic view illustrative of a conventional apparatus for electropolishing of the helix of the traveling wave tube. The conventional electropolishing apparatus has an electropolishing bath 5 which is cylindrically shaped and filled with an electrolyte solution 4. The electropolishing bath 5 has a cathode 12 which is so cylindrically shaped as to have a co-axis with the cylindrically shaped electropolishing bath 5. The cathode 12 may comprise a metal plate in the form of cylinder such as stainless. The electropolishing bath 5 has a cathode which is also immersed into the electrolyte solution 4. The helix 6 is immersed into the electrolyte solution 4 and also positioned to extend along a longitudinal direction of the cylindrically shaped electropolishing bath 5. The helix 6 is electrically connected to an anode. A current of a few amperes is applied across the anode connected to the helix 6 and the cathode 12 for carrying out the electropolishing of the helix 6.
Conventional methods for the electropolishing of the helix are disclosed in the Japanese laid-open patent publications Nos. 7-159113 and 56-123400. FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrative of a structure of an electropolishing apparatus disclosed in the Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 56-123400. A sample 50 to be polished is fed by a pair of a feeder roll 52 and a roll 61 into an electropolishing bath 55 for further feeding by rolls 62 and 63 through the electrolyte solution in the electropolishing bath 55 and subsequent pick up by a pair of a feeder roll 53 and a roll 64. The sample 50 is subjected to the electropolishing during the feeding through the electrolyte solution in the electropolishing bath 55. A cathode 51 is provided in the electropolishing bath 55 so that the cathode 51 is immersed into the electrolyte solution and the cathode 51 faces to the sample 50 extending between the rolls 62 and 63. Currents are supplied via the feeding rolls 52 and 53 through the sample 50 and the electrolyte solution to the cathode 51. Namely, the current is applied between the sample 50 and the cathode 51 through the electrolyte solution for electropolishing of the sample 50. When the sample 50 is subjected to the electropolishing during the feeding of the sample 50 between the rolls 6 and 63, then the sample 50 is positioned closer to the cathode 51. In the above conventional electropolishing apparatus, the sample 50 to be electropolished is moved in the electrolyte solution 54.
The above conventional electropolishing apparatuses shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, however, have the following problems. The conventional electropolishing apparatus shown in FIG. 2 has a problem in variation in etching amount by which the helix is etched. The helix 6 has a helical structure of not less than 100 millimeters in length and a resistance of about 0.1 .OMEGA. cm, for which reason even if a constant current is applied, then a voltage drop appears thereby causing a variation in etching amount by which the helix is etched, for example, about 20 micrometers in thickness. In this case, it is no longer possible to use the helix electropolished by the above conventional electropolishing apparatus shown in FIG. 2.
On the other hand the movement of the helix causes disturbance in pitch of the helix. Since, however, the pitch of the helix provides a remarkably large influence to the characteristics of the traveling wave tube. A slight vibration of the helix may cause a disturbance in pitch of the helix whereby the yield of the helix is dropped.
In the above circumstances, it had been required to develop a novel apparatus for electropolishing to a helix used for a traveling wave tube free from the above problems.

Apparatus for electropolishing of helix used for a microwave tube


A processing unit of the embodiments includes an instruction memory that holds a plurality of instructions specified by addresses, and that cannot execute read and write operations concurrently, an error correction circuit that detects and corrects an error in the instruction, a program counter, an instruction buffer that holds the instruction corrected as a corrected instruction, a program counter buffer that holds an address of the instruction where an error has been detected, a selector that selects and outputs any of the output of the error correction circuit and the output of the instruction buffer, and a control unit that controls the read and write of the instruction specified by the address from and into the instruction memory. The control unit writes the corrected instruction in the instruction memory using an address held in the program counter buffer when a predetermined condition is satisfied after the occurrence of the error.

Instruction data of a processor is read from an SRAM at a level in a memory hierarchy that is closest to an arithmetic pipeline. With the objective of preventing the execution of an illegal instruction by things such as a soft error occurred in the SRAM, syndrome bits are added to implement an Error Correcting Code (ECC) circuit that detects and corrects the occurrence of an error in the data.
Meanwhile, an arithmetic path length of a circuit for the generation of FCC syndrome bits and for detection and correction with its result tends to be longer than an operation cycle of the pipeline, and the operation frequency of an entire block is limited. Hence, it is conceivable that the ECC circuit is divided into stages. However, one or more cycles are required upon error correction, and corrected data is written back into the SRAM to prevent the accumulation of errors. Accordingly, a situation where instructions cannot be continuously provided into the pipeline arises, which results in reduction in an instruction execution throughput.

Processing unit and error processing method


A laser output measuring apparatus in which an optical separator is disposed in a position that is rotated by a predetermined angle about an optical axis of a laser beam converged by a lens, and further rotated by a predetermined angle about the optical axis of the laser beam and a straight line perpendicular to an incident surface of the laser beam.

Heretofore, in adjusting an output of a laser beam oscillated from a laser oscillator, an intensity of the laser beam oscillated from the laser oscillator is measured using a laser output measuring apparatus.
FIG. 12 is a configuration diagram showing a conventional laser output measuring apparatus disclosed in the following Patent Document 1.
As shown in FIG. 12, the conventional laser output measuring apparatus is configured with an optical separator 102 that reflects a part of a laser beam emitted from a laser oscillator 101 as a monitoring beam, and a photodetector 103 that detects an intensity of a reflected beam from the optical separator 102.
The intensity measured by the photodetector 103 is fed back to the laser oscillator 101, and the output of the laser beam is adjusted according to a measurement result of the intensity.
On the other hand, the laser beam transmitted through the optical separator 102 is used for an original purpose of the laser beam.
In this case, the optical separator 102 is disposed in a state inclined at a predetermined angle (usually, inclined at 45°) with respect to a direction of an optical axis 104 of the laser beam emitted from the laser oscillator 101.
Further, in order for a reflection surface of the optical separator 102 to have an intended reflectivity, a partially reflective coating of a dielectric multilayer film is usually applied thereon.
Since the partially reflective coating serves to reflect the part of the laser beam for the purpose of measuring an intensity of the laser beam, it is usually the coating in a low reflectivity region.
The dielectric film of the partially reflective coating has a property in which the reflectivity changes due to absorption of atmospheric moisture or due to temperature.
For example, when the optical separator 102 of 1% in reflectivity (99% in transmission) is used, a change of 0.1% in reflectivity results in an output change of 10% (=0.1%/1.0%) in the output change of the laser beam reflected by the optical separator 102.
Accordingly, even though deterioration occurs in the dielectric film of the partially reflective coating, and the reflectivity thereof varies slightly, a large output change in the reflected laser beam occurs.
Incidentally, the following is known: it is difficult to control a dielectric film having a low reflectivity, so that a large variation thereof occurs, and also the formation of the film is costly.
In the conventional laser output measuring apparatus, the photodetector 103 detects the intensity of the laser beam reflected by the optical separator 102 as mentioned above; however, when the laser beam emitted from the laser oscillator 101 enters the optical separator 102, an incident angle of the laser beam differs depending on an incident position thereon, so that the reflectivity of the laser beam reflected by the optical separator 102 differs depending on the incident position. For this reason, it is difficult to measure accurately the output of the laser beam emitted from the laser oscillator 101.
Thus, instead of the dielectric multilayer involving a larger variation in reflectivity depending on the incident angle, a method that applies a coating of a metal film on the reflection surface of the optical separator 102 is considered; however, even in this case, the formation of the film is costly, which makes the laser output measuring apparatus expensive.


A self-control type bus arbitration circuit and an arbitration method are disclosed, in which a bus arbiter is not needed, but entities commonly connected to a bus share 3 kinds of information, so that the entities can arbitrate the bus ownership use for themselves, and can occupy the bus in accordance with the priorities without mutual conflicts. Further, in order to solve the problem of the limit in the number of the sharing entities, the entities are made to use a clock information contained in the 3 kinds of information, i.e., the clock, the reference pulse and the in-use signal information, in such a manner that the clock is multiplied by an integer within the entities.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a bus arbitration technique which is the most important part of the conventional cell bus forming technique in which data transmissions are carried out with packets of a certain size. Unlike the conventional bus, the cell bus generally contains the addresses of the transmitter and receiver within the packets, and therefore, a high speed data transmission is possible at 1 to 1 or 1 to N (where N is the number of arbitrary groups or all nodes). Therefore, this technique is applied to multi media ATM terminals, ATM concentrators, and small scale ATM switching systems.
The present invention relates to a self-control type bus arbitration circuit and an arbitration method, in which the bus arbiter of the conventional technique is not required. More specifically, the present invention relates to a self-control type bus arbitration circuit and an arbitration method, in which bus modules (to be called "entities" below) for transmitting the data through parallelly connected buses arbitrate the buses for themselves by utilizing a proper common information, so as to control the access priority of the buses.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the conventional technique, a plurality of entities which are connected to cell buses first request for a bus ownership to a bus arbiter. The bus arbiter grants the right of use of bus to a particular entity based on a procedure or method. The granted entity uses the bus, and then negates the bus request, while the bus arbiter recovers the bus ownership. Therefore, in the conventional technique, additional signal lines for requesting for a bus use are needed, and the number of entities which can request for bus use is inevitably limited to the number of the signal lines.
For example, in the case where 32-bit data bits are used as the bus request signal, only 32 entities can be connected to the same bus, and a discriminating information for recognizing a bus request cycle is separately needed. Further, the buses are connected to the entities which are assigned with different priorities, and therefore, the priorities have to be arbitrated. Therefore, not only signal lines for requesting for bus uses are needed, but also the priorities of the entities have to be transmitted to the bus arbiter.
That is, the information such as video and audio information which is sensitive to the time delay should be granted a minimum time delay, while the entities which processes less time-sensitive data should be granted lower priorities. Further, in the case where a bus arbiter is separately present, a separate procedure or method for granting the bus ownership has to be necessarily provided.

Self-control type bus arbitration circuit and arbitration method therefor

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


A fan-out semiconductor package includes: a support wiring structure including a support wiring conductive structure, a plurality of support wiring insulating layers including a first support wiring insulating layer having a recess area and a second support wiring insulating layer on the first support wiring insulating layer and enveloping the support wiring conductive structure, a pad layer enveloped by the second support wiring insulating layer and connected to the support wiring conductive structure, and an under-bump metallurgy (UBM) layer enveloped by the first support wiring insulating layer and connected to the pad layer; and a semiconductor chip on the support wiring structure, wherein the UBM layer includes a body portion and a protrusion protruding from the body portion and arranged in the recess area.

The inventive concept relates to a semiconductor package, and more particularly, to a fan-out semiconductor package including an under-bump metallurgy (UBM) layer.
Due to the significant progress in the electronics industry and the demand of users, electronic devices are becoming more and more compact and multi-functional and have greater capacity, thus requiring a highly integrated semiconductor chip.
Accordingly, a semiconductor package having connection terminals, with which connection reliability is ensured, is designed for highly integrated semiconductor chips in which the number of connection terminals for input/output (I/O) is increased; for example, to prevent interference among connection terminals, a fan-out semiconductor package in which a distance between the connection terminals is increased is being developed.

Fan-out semiconductor package including under-bump metallurgy


An outlet housing includes a plurality of electrical outlets directed through a front wall thereof in electrical communication with a plug member mounted to a rear wall of the housing. A first selector switch is arranged to control electrical communication of the electrical plug with the outlets when below a predetermined temperature, or selectively above that predetermined temperature. A second selector switch is arranged to effect selective bypassing of a control circuit to effect direct electrical communication of the electrical plug with the electrical outlets bypassing a thermostatically controlled control circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
The field of invention relates to electrical outlet apparatus, and more particularly pertains to a new and improved thermostatically controlled electrical outlet apparatus wherein the same effects electrical communication dependent upon ambient air temperature.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various thermostat control devices are utilized in the prior art for effecting electrical communication based upon temperature sensitivity. Such apparatus is exemplified in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,824,013 to Gouldey; U.S. Pat. No. 3,999,099 to Herion; U.S. Pat. No. 4,864,270 to Gouldey; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,948,044 to Cacciatore.
It may be appreciated, however, that there continues to be a need for a new and improved thermostatically controlled electrical outlet apparatus as set forth by the instant invention which addresses both the problems of ease of use as well as effectiveness in construction in providing for selective electrical communication of an electrical source with electrical outlets selectively above or below a predetermined temperature and in this respect, the present invention substantially fulfills this need.

Thermostatically controlled electrical outlet apparatus


In an apparatus and method for processing information, the font sizes of characters in display content are changed in different magnifications for each of the font sizes so as to display the content in a legible size when the size of the display area is changed. A program makes a computer execute the method.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method for processing information, in which display content containing characters is processed, and to a program for making a computer execute the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, apparatuses have been increasingly equipped with displays. Such displays vary in size, from a size of a display for a small device to a size of a large screen. These displays display various pieces of information such as operator guidance, menus, and documents to provide the users with information.
A user sometimes changes the size of a display area to display a plurality of pieces of information. To view display content that has become larger than the display area as a result of a reduction in size of the display area, the user moves the display content using a scroll bar or the like. When display content contains characters, the user can output the display content by scrolling the characters in a display area. Further, for example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Nos. 10-083271 and 4-278992 disclose methods in which the size of display content is changed in proportion to a change in size of a display area so that the display content is made to fit into the display area.
However, when information is to be displayed in a small display area, characters and images become small and the entirety of the information cannot be viewed. This has lead to poor legibility. For example, in the case where the size of display content that originally contains small characters is changed in proportion to a reduction in size of the display area, the characters become extremely small. Further, characters that cannot be displayed in a display area as a result of a reduction in size of a display area need to be scrolled. This has lead to a problem that it is difficult to grasp the entirety of the display content.

Apparatus and method for processing information, and program for making computer execute the method


The present invention relates to a method for obtaining enlarged Cu grains in small trenches. More specifically it related to a method for creating enlarged copper grains or inducing super secondary grain growth in electrochemically deposited copper in narrow trenches and/or vias to be used in semiconductor devices.

Interconnects have been, are, and will continue to be a limiting factor for the performance and cost of integrated circuits. As technology scales down further, the problems associated with interconnects become ever more pressing. The introduction of low-resistive copper as an alternative interconnect material for aluminum presents researchers with some new challenges, since copper cannot be implemented in the same manner as aluminum alloys.
As feature sizes shrink, narrower copper trenches need to be formed. Also to facilitate closer packing and multilevel connections, trenches are getting proportionally smaller as they get narrower. These deep trenches etched into the dielectric must be filled completely, without voids or defects.
Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) has long time been one of the techniques of choice for metallization in integrated circuits. In particular, sputter deposition has been widely used in the manufacturing of high-performance on-chip interconnect. However, due to the limitations of the PVD techniques and the continuing feature sizes it is generally believed that the applicability of PVD for the filling of deep trenches is coming to an end. Sputtering techniques are however widely used to deposit a thin layer of diffusion barrier and/or seed layer in said features. Unfortunately, PVD suffers from shadowing effects if the aspect ratio of features to be filled is sufficiently large. Said shadowing effects can form overhanging structures at the top corners of the trenches and vias. These effects can lead to void formation when attempting to fill a feature. Due to the geometrical shadowing, the film is preferentially deposited on the top corners leading to a "void" within the trench or via.
Electroplated (also referred to as electrochemically deposited or ECD) copper has therefore become the method of choice for filling narrow interconnect features in the back-end-of-line processing for microelectronics applications. However, as the trench width decreases, the influence of the PVD deposited seed layer becomes more important when its thickness is not scaled accordingly. This changes the grain growth dynamics in trenches as the volume fractions of ECD and PVD change significantly.
Typically copper lines are fabricated by patterning trenches into a dielectric layer with optical lithography. A barrier layer and Cu seed are deposited within the trenches, followed by electroplating in order to fill the structures. A Chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) step is used to remove excess copper and barrier material. A standard hot-plate anneal step (e.g. 30′ at 250° C.) is introduced before CMP to enhance re-crystallization of copper in both seedlayer and plated copper.
The grain growth mechanism in thin PVD copper seed films and in plated (ECD) copper has been described by many authors. Typically, two growth modes are seen to occur simultaneously, known as normal and secondary grain growth to those working in the field. The latter leads to grain sizes of several times the thickness of a thin film or width of a trench and grain boundary motion is erratic. Normally grain growth in the seedlayer is intently retarded through process conditions in order to create a stable film for the subsequent ECD process.
Recently, a novel highly concentric grain growth mode, different from the commonly observed secondary grain growth (SGG) in ECD copper as described above, referred to as super-secondary-grain-growth (SSGG) has been discovered in thick PVD copper films by Vanstreels et al. Said SSGG was shown to occur only on alpha-Ta and produce copper grains of many tens of micrometers. In a second stage the SSGG grains initiated in the thick Physical Vapor Deposited (PVD) copper on alpha-Ta were shown to also be able to recrystallize a bilayer of said layer and an ECD Cu layer. In both the 'PVD-only' and the 'PVD-ECD bilayers' on alpha-Ta, the SSGG and SGG are both active and their rivalry determines the final grain structure obtained. It was shown by Vanstreels et al that SSGG dominates at low temperature, but that SGG gains in importance when the temperature is increased.
Because the SSGG produces [100] oriented super grains of several tens of micrometers, less grain boundaries are obtained and hence the resistance in copper having these super grains is lower. This makes the application of SSGG in interconnect structures very attractive. There is however still a need to understand the growth mechanisms of said SSGG, and to have said SSGG lead to large grains in interconnect structures (e.g. trenches) in semiconductor devices. So far, only growth in thin films has been demonstrated because the required thickness needed to make SSGG possible is larger than typical trench dimensions.

Method to create super secondary grain growth in narrow trenches


In one embodiment, the present invention provides a buffer brush. When rotating, the buffer brush acts as a centrifugal pump. The buffer brush contains a core having a first side and a second side and the brush extends racially from the surface of the core. The first and second sides have at least one opening configured to allow air to flow laterally through the core. Vents on the surface of the cure are configured to allow air flowing laterally through the core to also flow radially through the vents into the brush.

Buffer brushes are used in a variety of applications. For example, buffer brushes are used for removing the tread of worn tires. Tire buffing is part of the tire retreading operation. However, buffer brushes used in the process of removing the tread of worn tires often wear out and must be replaced frequently. Buffer brushes are also used to add texture to the surface of a newly manufactured tread.
Typically the tire casing selected for retreading is buffed to remove excess rubber to provide a substantially evenly textured crown for receiving a tread strip and to provide a predetermined tire casing profile. Prior to retreading, the casing must be buffed, generally to a predetermined characteristic crown radius corresponding to the upper contour of the belt package. The casing is buffed to leave only a predetermined thickness of material remaining over the top belt. The shoulder of the casing is also buffed to eliminate or reduce voids or patterns in the shoulder created by the original tread, and to provide a relatively straight profile between the casing side walls and the crown. A worn casing from each of the various models and sizes of new tires has a characteristic tire casing profile of a particular crown width, crown buffing radius and should trim angle which must be created as an initial step in the buffing process.
In present retreading processes, it is important that the surface of the tire casing be carefully buffed about the shoulder areas of the tire to ensure that the tread layer width is approximately the same as the buffed surface of the casing. If the shoulder areas are not sufficiently buffed and trimmed, the tread edges may come loose and/or the cushion gum extending beyond the tread edges will not bond to the casing shoulder. Such problems can reduce the longevity of the retreaded tire and adversely impact the appearance of the retreaded tire.
The tire casing is buffed to remove tread material and to achieve a desired surface texture. Typically, it is desired for the crown and the shoulders of the tire casing to have different textures. The surface texture can be measured on a visual scale propounded by the Rubber Manufacturer's Association (RMA) with a numerical value between 1 and 6 with 1 being the finest and 6 being the roughest texture. Typically, it is desired for the crown of the tire casing to have a RMA number of between 3 and 4 and for the shoulder to have an RMA number of about 2. The shoulders of the tire casing typically are subjected to the largest stresses encountered by the tire during service. The finer texture on the shoulders promotes better adhesion of the tire tread to the casing at these high stresses. If the shoulders received too much texturing, crack propagation in these areas is more likely. In instances where the shoulder receives too little texturing, the bond between the tire casing and the tread is poorer.
The current state of the art in tire casing buffing allows for a multiplicity of tread removal passes, substantially in a sideways, pass after pass method. U.S. Pat. No. 6,745,809 to Mory et al. and assigned to Bandag Licensing Corp. describes a tire buffing apparatus and is incorporated herein in its entirety for everything that it teaches.


Prior to transferring to a radio communication system, at least one data block is encoded according to predetermined quality-of-service requirements with the aid of a first code. Subsequently, the data block, encoded by the first code, is further encoded according to the radio transmission properties of a usable radio transmission source with the aid of a second code.

Described below is a method for encoding data blocks for transmission in a radio communication system.
So-called "multicarrier" transmission methods, in which a plurality of carriers are simultaneously modulated, are becoming increasingly important in third-generation and fourth-generation mobile radio networks. One typical multicarrier transmission method is the so-called "Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM)" radio transmission method in which carriers which are referred to as "subcarriers" are used to transmit symbols. A multicarrier transmission method affords the advantage of high-data-rate transmission with little receiver complexity. In addition, it is very robust to temporal fluctuations in properties of the radio transmission channel.
Radio transmission resources, which are referred to as so-called "chunks", are used in a multiplicity of radio transmission methods—thus during OFDM radio transmission as well. A "chunk" is dimensioned, on the one hand, by a number of multicarriers or subcarriers and, on the other hand, by a defined time slot which can be assigned to the multicarriers or subcarriers. For example, a plurality of adjacent subcarriers are used to dimension a "chunk".
In these methods, a limited number of bits is assigned to each radio transmission resource for the purpose of transmission. Additional control information which is concomitantly transmitted as a so-called "signaling overhead" is in turn assigned to the bits of a radio transmission resource. Such control information disadvantageously reduces a throughput of useful data which is referred to as the "payload".
The dimensions of a "chunk" are determined on the basis of properties of the radio transmission channel. The properties of the radio transmission channel are determined using channel estimation methods, for example. Depending on the properties of the radio transmission channel, a transmission power and/or selected modulation of the transmission signal is/are adapted at the transmitter end and suitable subcarriers or multicarriers are selected.
A "chunk" under consideration is advantageously dimensioned with regard to so-called "flat fading" in the frequency domain and a constant temporal behavior in the time domain. The dimensioning makes it possible to adapt the radio transmission to be carried out to the properties of the radio transmission channel in an adaptive manner.
So-called "quality of service (QoS)" requirements which depend on wishes and selected services of a subscriber must also be complied with during radio transmission.
Encoding methods or error correction codes are used to adapt the radio transmission to the properties of the radio transmission channel in an adaptive manner and to meet the QoS requirements. In this case, a throughput of useful data which can be achieved depends on the encoding method used since a large number of redundancy bits must be transmitted, for example, in the case of very secure data transmission with a complex error correction code.
If a so-called "turbocode (TC)" or a so-called "Low Density Parity Check Code (LDPC)" is used, for example, for encoding, a relatively long code sequence is required for good-quality transmission.
If low-level modulation, for example BSPSK modulation, is used during OFDM radio transmission, only a maximum number of 64 bits per "chunk" can thus be transmitted.
As regards this maximum number of bits, a short code sequence could be used to encode the bits but this could result in a loss of data during transmission.
If, in contrast, a long code sequence is intended to be used and the encoded bits are then divided among the "chunks", a suitable code length for respective modulation operations could be found only with difficulty. Independent adaptation of encoding, on the one hand, and modulation which can be set in an adaptive manner, on the other hand, are possible only with difficulty for desired optimum transmission of useful data.
For the purpose of encoding, a number of error correction codes with different code lengths are typically provided and a compromise is made between the possibility of correcting errors, on the one hand, and delays when transmitting the useful data as part of the QoS requirements, on the other hand. Data blocks are then encoded and are mapped to, or divided among, available "chunks".


A process is disclosed for sampling textile fiber skeins. A fiber skein (2) continuously moved in the longitudinal direction (23) is intermittently brought to a stop within a defined section (4, 28). The profile of the immobilized section (4, 28) of the fiber skein (2) is flattened at least in partial region (24) and the textile analysis is carried out on this temporarily immobilized, flattened partial region (24) of the fiber skein.

In the sense of the method of the invention, the term "fiber strands" is used to include both ordered and irregular strands of textile single fibers (slivers) and furthermore also webs.
It is known in the textile industry to use mechanical or capacitive sensors to monitor automatically mass fluctuations of continuously moving fiber strands or slivers for purposes of quality control. On the other hand, foreign particles and foreign fibers are measured manually by a lab technician who randomly pulls apart slivers on a luminous table and visually searches for foreign particles and counts them. The properties of the individual fibers cannot be measured at all, and therefore it is impossible to ascertain changes in parameters (for instance length, crimping) caused by processing conditions.


A multiple loop antenna is provided which may be connected to either a transmit circuit, a receive circuit, or a transmit/receive circuit. When powered by a transmit circuit, the antenna generates radio frequency magnetic fields in an area or zone proximate to the antenna, but which are substantially canceled at a distance approximately one wavelength and more from the antenna, thereby defining a surveillance zone proximate to the antenna. The loop antenna includes a first, upper loop and a second, lower loop. The upper and loser loops lie in separate, spaced, parallel planes and are preferably disposed at a fixed angle with respect to the surveillance zone.

The present invention relates to radio frequency antennas and more particularly, to loop antennas which generate fields that are generally canceling at distances of one wavelength or more from the antenna.
In certain known types of electronic systems it is known to provide one or more loop antennas wherein coupling between an antenna and its proximate surrounding is high, but wherein the design of the antenna is such that coupling between the antenna and its distant surrounding (i.e., about one wavelength or more distant from the antenna) is minimized. Such antennas are generally used for near-field communications or sensing applications where the term "near field" means within one half wavelength from the antenna. Examples of such applications include communications with implanted medical devices, short range wireless local area communications networks for computers and radio frequency identification systems including electronic article surveillance (EAS) systems. Generally, the coupling to these loop antennas is primarily via magnetic induction.
For example, radio frequency EAS systems usually include both a transmit antenna and a receive antenna which collectively establish a surveillance zone, and tags which are attached to articles being protected. The transmit antenna generates a variable frequency electromagnetic field within a range of a first predetermined frequency. The tags each include a resonant circuit having a predetermined resonant frequency generally equal to the first frequency. When one of the tags is present in the surveillance zone, the field generated by the transmit antenna induces a voltage in the resonant circuit in the tag, which causes the resonant circuit to generate an electromagnetic field, causing a disturbance in the field within the surveillance zone. The receive antenna detects the electromagnetic field disturbance and generates a signal indicating the presence of the tag (and thus, the protected article attached to the tag) in the surveillance zone.
The design of these antennas should satisfy two objectives: (1) to maximize the coupling to the tag over as wide a distance between the transmit and receive antennas as possible, and (2) to minimize the coupling to the far-field. These are conflicting objectives. Prior art antennas, such as those described by Lichtblau in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,243,980, 4,260,990 and 4,866,455, herein incorporated by reference, generally incorporate two or more co-planar loops such that in combination the sizes of each loop, the magnitude of the currents within the loops and the direction of the currents generate fields which, when measured at a point distant from the antenna, generally cancel. In other words, the fields created from each of the loops, when summed, net a field which approaches zero. Such far-field cancellation is not possible when only one loop is used. In figure-eight loop antennas, the loops are generally rectangular, arranged in a coplanar configuration, and offset in position such that at least one side of each loop is proximate to a side of another loop. In other words, the shared sides are immediately adjacent to each other.
The present invention provides an antenna having both much reduced far-field coupling properties and increased coupling in a wide area between a transmit antenna and a receive antenna. Generally, the antenna (either transmit or receive) comprises first and second loops of generally equal dimensions and shape wherein the loops are disposed in a fixed position on opposite sides of a central axis extending between the loops. Further, the loops are positioned in separate, spaced, parallel planes. The loops are connected to each other and to either a transmit circuit or a receive circuit by a crossover conductor. Preferably, a length of the crossover conductor from the first loop to the (transmit or receive) circuit is equal to a length of the crossover conductor from the second loop to the circuit. The current in the loops flows in opposite directions and thereby generates substantially canceling fields. The present invention provides an antenna which is highly sensitive to externally emitted signals within a zone proximate to the antenna and highly insensitive to distant emitted signals.


A display apparatus which has a display unit includes: a communication unit which communicates with an external source supplying a image signal including a plurality of still images; an image processor which processes the image signal; and a controller which controls the image processor to perform a slide show function sequentially displaying the supplied still images on the display unit in every predetermined display cycle if the still images are supplied from the external source.

1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate to a display apparatus and a control method thereof, and more particularly to a display apparatus which receives a still image from an external source, and a control method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the development of wireless communication protocols such as Bluetooth, communication between mobile terminals is actively encouraged. Thus, a user terminal may transmit various contents such as audio and video clips and images to other terminals, and may play the transmitted content without difficulty.
Among profiles of Bluetooth, Basic Imaging Profile (BIP) supports reception of images from an external device or transmission of images to an external device. File Transfer Profile (FTP) supports reception and transmission video and audio files as well as images.
However, the BIP and FTP only support transmission of contents, and do not supporting playing transmitted content automatically. The transmitted contents are stored in an embedded memory of the terminal or in an external memory, and then played through an additional play process.

Display apparatus and control method thereof


A motor unit and a grill shutter driving device are disclosed. The grill shutter driving device according to an exemplary embodiment of the present inventive concept includes a body unit interposed between a plurality of grill shutters, a motor unit installed inside the body unit for generating driving power to drive the grill shutter, a control unit for controlling generation of driving power of the motor unit, and a connection unit for providing driving power of the motor unit to the grill shutter. The motor unit includes a plurality of coil units in which electric coil is rolled, a stator to be magnetized, a rotator having magnetism with a permanent magnet and rotating due to interference of the magnetization of the stator, wherein the plurality of coil units are separated with each other in a radial form with even number, and any one side of the mutually facing coil units includes electric coil rolled in, thereby forming an asymmetry coil structure.

Air input inside a motor during drive prevents overheating while the air exchanges heat with engine cooling water in the radiator. However, the air input during drive works as resistance, accordingly, it causes energy loss. Thus, air input from outside may be shut off at the point of cooling not required by installing a grill shutter which is capable of being opened and shut selectively and an actuator for the operation of the grill shutter at the rear side of the front bumper which is front at the driving direction basis.
Meanwhile, the actuator applies a motor including both a stator and a rotator. However, such the actuator has a problem in controlling detail position and low responsiveness in response to shaking in high-speed driving. In addition, the process of interposing electric coil to a stator is complicated, thereby causing degenerating efficiency.

Motor unit and grill shutter driving device including the same


A method of securely implementing functions in a secure software application, including: determining, by a processor, two functions to be implemented by the secure software application; generating a first function lookup table; encrypting the first function lookup table; sorting the first function lookup table by encrypted operand; generating a second function lookup table; encrypting the second function lookup table; sorting the second function lookup table by encrypted operand; generating a flattened lookup table from a combination of the encrypted first and second function lookup tables; permutating the flattened table indices e.g. by use of public key cryptography encryption; and sorting the flattened table by the permutated flattened table indices.

The Internet provides users with convenient and ubiquitous access to digital content. Because the Internet is a powerful distribution channel, many user devices strive to directly access the Internet. The user devices may include a personal computer, laptop computer, set-top box, internet enabled media player, mobile telephone, smart phone, tablet, mobile hotspot, or any other device that is capable of accessing the Internet. The use of the Internet as a distribution medium for copyrighted content creates the compelling challenge to secure the interests of the content provider. Increasingly, user devices operate using a processor loaded with suitable software to render (playback) digital content, such as audio and/or video. Control of the playback software is one way to enforce the interests of the content owner including the terms and conditions under which the content may be used. Previously many user devices were closed systems. Today more and more platforms are partially open. Some users may be assumed to have complete control over and access to the hardware and software that provides access to the content and a large amount of time and resources to attack and bypass any content protection mechanisms. As a consequence, content providers must deliver content to legitimate users across a hostile network to a community where not all users or user devices can be trusted.
Secure software applications may be called upon to carry out various functions. In order to counter attacks, these algorithms have to be obfuscated (hidden) in order to prevent reverse engineering and modification of the algorithm or prohibit obtaining the user-specific secure information. Accordingly, the functions of the secure software application may be carried out by various functions as defined by the instruction set of the processor implementing the secure software. One way to obscure these functions is by the use of lookup tables.
Content providers must deliver content to legitimate users across a hostile network to a community where not all users or devices can be trusted. This has lead to the development of white-box cryptography. In the white-box cryptography scenario it is assumed that the user has complete control of the hardware and software that provides access to the content, and an unlimited amount of time and resources to attack and bypass any content protection mechanisms. The secure software code that enforces the terms and conditions under which the content may be used should be tamper resistant. Digital rights management is a common application of secure software applications. The general approach in digital rights management for protected content distributed to user devices is to encrypt the digital content using for example, DES (Data Encryption Standard), AES (Advanced Encryption Standard), or using other known encryption schemes, and to use decryption keys to recover the digital content.
The two main areas of vulnerability of digital rights management relying on encryption are the software modules which enforce the terms and conditions under which the content may be used, and the key distribution and handling. Typically, the software module enforces the terms and conditions under which the content is to be used. An attacker aiming to bypass these terms and conditions may attempt to achieve this through tampering of the program code of the software module.
Regarding key distribution, a media player has to retrieve a decryption key from a license database in order to play back the media. The media player then has to store this decryption key somewhere in memory for the decryption of the encrypted content. This leaves an attacker two options for an attack on the key. First, an attacker may reverse engineer the license database access function allowing the attacker to retrieve asset keys from all license databases. In this situation the attacker does not need to understand the internal working of the cryptographic function. Second, the attacker may observe accesses of the memory during content decryption, thus the attacker may retrieve the decryption key. In both cases the key is considered to be compromised.
The widespread use of DRM and other secure software has given rise to the need for secure, tamper-resistant software seeks to complicate tampering with the software. Various techniques for increasing the tamper resistance of software applications exist. Most of these techniques are based on hiding the embedded knowledge of the application by adding a veil of randomness and complexity in both the control and the data path of the software application. The idea behind this is that it becomes more difficult to extract information merely by code inspection. It is therefore more difficult to find the code that, for example, handles access and permission control of the secure application, and consequently to change it.
As used herein, white-box cryptography includes a secure software application that performs cryptographic functions in an environment where an attacker has complete control of the system running the white-box cryptography software. Thus, the attacker can modify inputs and outputs, track the operations of the software, sample and monitor memory used by the software at any time, and even modify the software. Accordingly, the secure functions need to be carried out in a manner that prevents the disclosure of secret information used in the secure functionality. Further, the secure functions carried out by the white-box cryptography system are any type of secure functions, for example, addition, multiplication, OR, AND, XOR, etc. White-box cryptography functions may be implemented in various ways. Such methods include: obscuring the software code: using complex mathematical functions that obscure the use of the secret information: using look-up tables: or any other methods that carry out cryptographic functions but hide the secret information needed for those secure functions. Typically a white-box implementation will also contain components to bring anti-debugging and tamper-proofing properties.

Secure software components anti-reverse-engineering by table interleaving


A video signal processing apparatus in which a video signal channel-selected and received by a tuner is supplied through a switch to a video output circuit and a signal from the video output circuit is supplied to a cathode ray tube (CRT), thereby being displayed on a picture screen of the CRT. Also, the video signal from the tuner is supplied to a video memory of one frame, for example, and an output of the video memory is supplied to the switch. Further, the video signal from the tuner is supplied to a non-signal detecting circuit and a control signal from the non-signal detecting circuit is supplied to the video memory and the switch. Then, when there is no video signal, the switch is changed in position to allow the signal stored in the video memory to be output. Therefore, a picture displayed in the absence of video signal can be stabilized.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to video signal processing apparatus and, more particularly to a video signal processing apparatus for use in video monitor apparatus, such as a television receiver or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In video monitor apparatus such as a television receiver or the like, it is frequently observed that, when a supply of a video signal to be displayed thereon is interrupted a picture screen is disturbed and the brightness of the picture screen is changed considerably. More specifically, when a reception channel of a television receiver, for example, is switched, a synchronization disorder and a fluctuation of the brightness of the picture screen or the like occur until the channel-selection or tuning operation is finished. During such tuning operation the picture screen becomes quite unstable. As a result, there arise the following disadvantages:
(1) A picture is difficult to see; PA1 (2) A circuit is stressed; PA1 (3) A superimposed video signal such as a display on the picture screen and a superimposed picture of a so-called picture-in-picture, become unstable so that the picture is difficult to see or its content cannot be discriminated. PA1 (1) A stress applied to the circuit by the synchronization disturbance cannot be alleviated; PA1 (2) Nothing is displayed on the picture screen and this condition cannot be distinguished from the condition that a video apparatus is turned off; PA1 (3) A variety of superimposed video signals cannot be seen; and PA1 (4) Operation conditions of the video apparatus cannot be understood.
Further, when there is not a video signal, a vertical oscillation becomes a free running oscillation and a free running frequency is generally set to be lower than a normal frequency. As a consequence, a vertical amplitude is extended and it is frequently observed that a superimposed video signal such as a display area provided on the upper and lower ends of the picture, that is a superimposed picture of a picture-in-picture system, is displayed on the outside of the picture screen and cannot be correctly displayed.
According to the conventional video signal processing apparatus, in order to eliminate the above-mentioned disadvantages, the picture screen is processed by a blanking process when an input video signal is switched, for example, so as to prevent a unstable picture from being displayed on the picture screen. However, this proposal has the following disadvantages:

Video signal processing apparatus for displaying stored video signal during channel selection


A plate-link chain for a motor vehicle drive system. The chain includes a plurality of link plates hingedly connected with each other by rocker members that extend transversely to the longitudinal direction of the plate-link chain and are positioned in openings of the link plates. The rocker members and link plates each have curved contact surfaces. The rocker members also have curved rolling surfaces along which the rocker members roll against each other. The rocker members are shaped asymmetrically in the height direction, and the contact surfaces are provided on upper and lower contact surface regions. The rocker members also have at least two regions with different curvatures in the regions of their rolling surfaces.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plate-link chain, in particular for a motor vehicle drive system. The chain includes a large number of link plates hingedly connected with each other by rocker members, wherein the rocker members run transversely to the longitudinal direction of the plate-link chain and are positioned in openings in the link plates. There are curve-shaped contact surfaces located on each of the rocker members and link plates, along which contact surfaces the rocker members and link plates are in contact with each other to transmit power. There also are curve-shaped rolling surfaces on the rocker members, along which the rocker members roll on each other to transfer power. The rocker members are shaped asymmetrically in the height direction of the rocker members, viewed in a cross section running in the longitudinal direction of the plate-link chain, and the contact surfaces between rocker member and link plate are provided on upper and lower contact surface regions in the height direction of the rocker member.
2. Description of the Related Art
A plate-link chain of the type described above can be employed in a vehicle drive system. When used in a continuously variable, belt-driven conical disk transmission (CVT) as part of the vehicle transmission, the rocker members have specially shaped faces by which the tractive force is transmitted between the conical disks and the plate-link chain as a frictional force. In many other applications in vehicle drive systems the plate-link chain is a toothed chain, so that it has teeth on at least one edge, by which the tractive force is transmitted between the chain and toothed wheels. Such a plate-link chain in the form of a toothed chain can be employed in a distributor gear unit of an all-wheel-drive motor vehicle, for example, or also for bridging center distances to a differential, or also as a power transmission means in a secondary drive or for an auxiliary unit of the motor vehicle, for example.
The plate-link chain is made up in that case of a large number of link plates that are hingedly connected with each other by rocker members. The link plates can be arranged in the form of plate sets in such a manner that a plurality of link plates bounding on and adjacent to each other are penetrated by the rocker members, so that a plate-link chain results that can transmit large forces when it is under tension.
Such a plate-link chain has become known on the basis of U.S. Pat. No. 5,651,746, for example. That known plate-link chain has rocker members that rest against each other on rolling surfaces to transfer force. The radius on which those rolling surfaces are based is designated as optimal within a spacing-dependent window. The intended object of that is that the known plate-link chain will not suffer any lasting prior damage in the region of the rolling surfaces during preloading. If a tensile force is transmitted with that known plate-link chain, then the geometry of the rolling surfaces of the rocker members can result in an unfavorable distribution of forces in the region of the contact surfaces of the rocker members and the link plates, which increases the danger of the rocker members twisting in the openings of the link plates, thus resulting in stress peaks that promote premature failure of the plate-link chain.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide a plate-link chain with which there is more favorable distribution of forces in the region of the contact surfaces of the rocker members and the link plates, so that the described problem is eliminated.

Plate-link chain for a motor vehicle drive system

LuK Lamellen und Kupplungsbau Beteiligungs KG