Semiconductor quantum well devices and methods of making the same are described. In one aspect, a device includes a quantum well structure that includes semiconductor layers defining interleaved heavy-hole and light-hole valance band quantum wells. Each of the quantum wells includes a quantum well layer interposed between barrier layers. One of the semiconductor layers that functions as a barrier layer of one of the light-hole quantum wells also functions as the quantum well layer of one of the heavy-hole quantum wells. Another of the semiconductor layers that functions as a barrier layer of one of the heavy-hole quantum wells also functions as the quantum well layer of one of the light-hole quantum wells.

A quantum well typically is made by forming a narrow bandgap semiconductor layer between two wide bandgap semiconductor layers. The narrow bandgap semiconductor layer is referred to as the quantum well layer and the wide bandgap semiconductor layers are referred to as barrier layers. Multiple quantum wells may be formed from an alternating series of narrow bandgap semiconductor layers and wide bandgap semiconductor layers.
Quantum well structures have been incorporated into a wide range of optoelectronic devices, including EAMs (Electro-Absorption Modulators), EMLs (Electro-absorption Modulated Lasers), detectors, wave-guides, inline optical amplifiers, as well as integrated structures that use a combination of these devices.
Polarization independence is a desirable feature for many types of optoelectronic devices. The quantum confinement in semiconductor quantum well devices, however, lifts the degeneracy of the heavy-hole and light-hole valence bands. In unstrained semiconductor material, the heavy-hole ground state is lower in energy than the corresponding light-hole ground state. The resulting differences in the bound state energies for light-holes and heavy holes causes the light holes and the heavy holes to couple differently to electromagnetic waves. For example, TE (transverse electric) mode light couples conduction band electrons with the heavy-hole valence band, whereas TM (transverse magnetic) mode light couples conduction band electrons with the light-hole valence band. Depending on the semiconductor materials and the type of strain, one of the light-hole or heavy-hole valence bands is shifted to a higher energy level while the other valence band is shifted to a lower energy level. Therefore, in many semiconductor quantum well devices the bandgap energy, which determines the optoelectronic properties of the device, is a function of the polarization of light traveling through a quantum well structure.
Different types of polarization-independent semiconductor quantum well devices have been proposed. In one approach, a slight tensile strain is introduced in the quantum wells to move the transition energies for light holes and heavy holes to the same energy level. In this way, the wave-guide dispersion for TE and TM polarizations may be made small enough to achieve polarization independence. Another approach has used a combination of two groups of quantum wells that are interspersed in a single active region and are suitably configured such that one group of quantum wells provides TE mode optical coupling and the second set of quantum wells provides TM mode optical coupling. In this approach, the waveguide dispersion for TE and TM polarizations is substantially reduced by configuring the two quantum well groups (one set for TE and a second set for TM) so that the level of TE mode optical coupling is approximately the same as the level of TM mode optical coupling.
In each of the above-described approaches for achieving polarization-independent operation, all of the electron-hole transitions occur within the quantum wells. Because of the conservation of the oscillator strength/matrix element, the available oscillator strength in the slightly tensile strained quantum well active structure is split equally between TM-mode coupling and TE-mode coupling. Hence the level of optical absorption available for a given polarization is roughly one-half of what it would be if the device were designed for a single type of polarization. For the case with two separate groups of quantum wells (one set for TE and the other set for TM polarization), a relatively thicker (e.g., twice as thick) quantum well active region is needed to achieve the same level of coupling for each polarization mode as a device designed for a single type of polarization, but this is not always feasible. In this approach, the waveguide effectively has been diluted by including quantum wells for both polarizations. Complications such as carrier transport problems as well as output coupling problems due to the stronger optical confinement also may arise in this approach.

Avago Technologies Fiber IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


A back electromotive force monitoring circuit has a speed detection voltage generator which biases a back electromotive force generated by a voice coil motor with a predetermined reference voltage to generate a speed detection voltage, and a calculator which generates a motor control signal in accordance with the speed detection voltage. The calculator includes a subtracter which subtracts the reference voltage from the speed detection voltage prior to generation of the motor control signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention described in this specification relates to an A/D [analog-to-digital] converter, an operational amplifier, or a back electromotive force monitoring circuit.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, an A/D converter is proposed, which performs a plurality of times of A/D conversion processing sequentially (cf., JP-A-2009-033861). However, the A/D converter leaves room for improvement as to an increase in processing speed.
Generally, an operational amplifier is proposed, which comprises an offset adjustment function (cf., JP-A-2008-004156). However, the operational amplifier leaves room for improvement as to reduction of a circuit scale and linearity of the offset adjustment.
Generally, a back electromotive force monitoring circuit is proposed, which monitors the back electromotive force generated by a motor (cf., JP-A-2002-063773). However the back electromotive force monitoring circuit leaves room for improvement as to accuracy in monitoring.

Back electromotive force monitoring circuit, motor drive device, magnetic disk storage device, and electronic appliance


A method of electrically connecting an electronic component to the flexible printed wiring board may comprise the steps of: Providing an air permeable platen having a substantially flat front surface and a back surface; placing the flexible printed wiring board on the front surface of the platen; lowering the pressure at the back surface of the platen; and electrically connecting the electronic component to the flexible printed wiring board.

This invention relates to the electrical interconnection of electronic components in general and more specifically to a method for wire bonding electronic components to flexible printed wiring boards.
Flexible printed wiring boards or flex boards are generally used to transmit electrical signals between electronic devices that are moveable with respect to one another. For example, flex boards may be used to transmit electrical signals from the central processing board or xe2x80x9cmother boardxe2x80x9d of a laptop computer to the display screen. A typical flex board may comprise one or more layers of metal circuit paths or conductors that are bonded onto a thin, flexible, insulating substrate. The circuit paths or conductors are commonly thin copper strips and the flexible, insulating substrate typically comprises a polyimide material, although other materials may be used. Depending on the complexity of the electronic circuit, the flex board may be single sided, double sided, or may comprise multiple layers of circuit paths or conductors, as in a multi-layer flex board.
Traditionally, flex boards of the type described above did not include any electronic components and merely served as a means to interconnect the electronic components mounted to various rigid printed wiring boards. However, recent developments in flex board technology have allowed such flex boards to support some kinds of electronic components, thus allowing them to be substituted for conventional rigid boards in certain types of circuits. Of course, the ability to replace conventional rigid printed wiring boards with flex boards creates many new design opportunities for electronic devices.
One common method of mounting electronic components, such as integrated circuits (ICs), to flex boards is to solder them directly to the copper conductors on the flex board; the soldered connection providing not only the required electrical connection, but mechanical support as well. Unfortunately, however, the soldering process is not without its disadvantages, and limitations on the maximum density of electrical connections limits the maximum miniaturization that can be achieved with soldering.
One technology that does allow for high density electrical connections is wire bonding. While several variations exist, the basic wire bonding process begins by firmly attaching the back side of the electronic component, usually an integrated circuit (IC), onto the substrate using either an organic adhesive, a glass, or a metal-alloy reflow process. Once the IC is attached to the substrate, it is electrically connected to the various circuit conductors on the board by a plurality of fine wires. The wires are bonded or welded, one at a time, to the pads on the IC and on the board using a special tool, such as a wedge or a capillary, and a combination of heat, pressure, and/or ultrasonic energy.
Although wire bonding to rigid boards was originally done manually, with the operator""s skill controlling every aspect of the bonding process, it has progressed rapidly to a fully automated process as the density of IC interconnections has increased. In the automated wire bonding process, an automatic wire bonding machine senses the locations of the bonding pads on both the IC and the board and then automatically connects the appropriate pads with the fine wire. Such automated wire bonding processes are well-developed and have kept pace with the ever increasing number of connections required as well as shrinking bonding pad size. For example, it is not uncommon to bond ICs requiring 300 connections and having two rows of alternating perimeter bonding pads with pad sizes as small as 50xc3x9750 xcexcm (2xc3x972 mils) with 100 xcexcm (4 mils) between on-row pad centers.
Obviously, such high density wire bonding requires very accurate placement of the IC on the board and requires that the board itself be accurately aligned with respect to the wire bonding machine. While such problems have been addressed and solved with respect to rigid substrates or boards, considerable problems remain with respect to flex boards. For example, flex boards by their nature provide little mechanical support for the electronic components, which makes it difficult to securely hold the flex board with respect to the wire bonding machine during the wire bonding process. Another problem is that the thin flex boards tend to lift or wrinkle when placed on a flat surface, thus making it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the wire bonding machine to make the necessary wire bond connections.
One method that has been tried to securely hold the flex board in fixed relation to the automated wire bonding machine, and to hold it flat, has been to use double sided adhesive tape to secure the back side of the flex board to a suitable flat support platen. While the double sided tape solves the problem of securely holding the flex board flat with respect to the wire bonding machine, it is difficult to remove the double sided adhesive tape after the wire bonding process without damaging the delicate wire bonds or the flex board itself. Also, such a process does not readily lend itself to automated production techniques.
Consequently, there remains a need for an apparatus and a method for electrically connecting electronic components to a thin, flexible wiring board. While it would be preferable to use a wire bonding process to electrically connect the components to the board, the problems heretofore associated with accurately locating the flex board with respect to the wire bonding machine, as well as holding it flat, must be solved.
A method of electrically connecting an electronic component to the flexible printed wiring board may comprise the steps of: Providing an air permeable platen having a substantially flat front surface and a back surface; placing the flexible printed wiring board on the front surface of the platen; lowering the pressure at the back surface of the platen; and electrically connecting the electronic component to the flexible printed wiring board.
A significant advantage of the present invention is that it provides a means for securely holding the flex board with respect to the wire bonding machine without the need to resort to adhesives, with all their associated disadvantages. Another advantage is that the air permeable platen provides a solid support surface for the flex board while at the same time allowing more evenly distributed external air pressure to hold the flex board flat against the front surface of the air permeable platen.

Method for wire bonding to flexible substrates


A system and method for producing olefin via dry reforming and olefin synthesis in the same vessel, including providing feed including methane and carbon dioxide to the vessel, converting methane and carbon dioxide in the vessel into syngas (that includes hydrogen and carbon monoxide) via dry reforming in the vessel, and cooling the syngas via a heat exchanger in the vessel. The method includes synthesizing olefin from the syngas in the vessel, wherein the olefin includes ethylene, propylene, or butene, or any combinations thereof.

Low molecular-weight saturated hydrocarbons, such as methane, ethane, and butane, may be feedstocks to generate products including intermediate products. A source of these low molecular-weight saturated hydrocarbons may be natural gas processing plants.
Ethane, propane, and butane may be subjected to steam cracking to generate olefins including, for example, ethylene, propylene, and butadiene. These olefins are produce primarily through this steam cracking. Ethylene and propylene are significant sources of industrial chemicals and plastics products including polyolefins and other polymers. Butadiene is used in making synthetic rubber.
Methane, which may be labeled as the simplest hydrocarbon, may be subjected to steam reforming to generate synthetic gas (syngas) that includes hydrogen (H2) and carbon monoxide (CO). The hydrogen may be separated from the syngas to produce hydrogen. The syngas may be distributed including to different facilities to make ammonia or methanol. The syngas may be transported to a facility having a Fischer Tropsch (FT) reactor that converts the syngas into FT liquid/wax products.
Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas emitted through human activities. Carbon dioxide (CO2) may be generated in various industrial and chemical plant facilities. At such facilities, the utilization of CO2 as a feedstock may reduce CO2 emissions at the facility and therefore decrease the CO2 footprint of the facility. The conversion of the greenhouse gas CO2 into value-added feedstocks or products may be beneficial.

Olefin production via dry reforming and olefin synthesis in a vessel


A method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display is provided, which includes: forming a sealant on a first panel; dropping liquid crystal on the first panel to form a plurality of liquid crystal dots; assembling a second panel with the first panel, wherein the first and the second panels have a striped array of pixel areas, each stripe extending in a first direction, and a first distance in the first direction between the liquid crystal dots is equal to or smaller than a second distance in a second direction perpendicular to the first direction between the liquid crystal dots.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a liquid crystal display.
(b) Description of the Related Art
Generally, a liquid crystal display (LCD) includes upper and lower panels provided with field-generating electrodes and a liquid crystal (LC) layer interposed therebetween. The upper and the lower panels are combined with a sealant printed along periphery thereof and enclosing the LC layer and they are spaced apart with a gap supported by a plurality of spacers.
The LCD applies voltages to the field-generating electrodes to generate an electric field in the LC layer having a dielectric anisotropy and controls the magnitude of the voltages applied to the electrodes to control the strength of the electric field, thereby controlling the transmittance of light passing through the LC layer to display images.
One of the techniques of filling the liquid crystal in the gap between the two panels is so called drop filling. The drip filling defines a filling area enclosed by a sealant having a closed-loop shape on one of the two panels and drops the liquid crystal in the filling area. The two panels are assembled in a vacuum state and the sealant is hardened. An important issue is to make the thickness of the liquid crystal kept constant without any void in the filling area of the panel for obtaining a uniform cell gap.
The uniformity of the cell gap is determined by the uniformity and the amount of a liquid crystal coated in the filling area on the panel. In order to improve the uniformity of the cell gap and to remove the voids in the liquid crystal layer as well as to match the process time in a manufacturing line, it is preferable to shorten the tact time by using one drop filling that has an advantage of filling accurate amount of the liquid crystal. It is because although each drop causes a minute deviation, the accumulation of the minute deviations for several drops causes significant errors.
However, the one drop filling has a disadvantage of the prevention of voids. The voids are mainly formed by different diffusion distances when diffusing the dropped liquid crystal. In particular, the voids are more probable to be generated near the corners of the panels. The difference in the diffusion distances is resulted from several causes such as the rectangular shapes of the panels, the difference in the materials of the diffusion surfaces, the evenness of the diffusion surfaces, existence of the sealant, and so on.
The probability of the generation of the voids depends on the characteristics of the liquid crystal and the modes of the LCD. For example, a twisted nematic (TN) mode LCD, an in-plane-switching (IPS) mode LCD, and an optically compensated birefringent (OCB) mode LCD, which employ homogeneous (or horizontal) liquid crystal alignment, has less probability of the void generation than a vertically aligned (VA) mode LCD employing homeotropic (or vertical) liquid crystal alignment. The voids generated in the display area is called AUA (active unfilled area), while the voids generated near the sealant is called SUA (surface unfilled area).

Manufacturing method of liquid crystal display


The lead-frame in an integrated circuit package, a standard package designated SOT-89, has a plurality of leads of which at least one is an extension of a die-attach pad. At least one ground wing is formed as an extension of a peripheral portion of the die-attach pad and extends upward to approximately the plane of the top of the die. The ground wing has an upstanding portion and a horizontal portion that are at an angle to each other so as to lock the distal end of the wing in the body of encapsulating resin. An integrated circuit die having at least one electrical connection which is grounded electrically via a terminal and wire bonded to the distal part of the ground wing. A contact surface near the distal end of wing is positioned approximately in the plane of the top of the die. This ground circuit can parallel and can be redundant to a ground circuit through the die via the conductive bond that attaches the bottom of the die to the die-attach pad. The ground lead that is an extension of the die-attach pad serves both to remove heat from the die and to provide an electrical ground connection. The contact surface of the wing provides a point of ground-wire attachment that does not move relative to the encapsulating resin as do other peripheral parts of the die attach pad during temperature cycling and mechanical stress. Thus, a common failure mode, which is called heal-cracking, is substantially eliminated.

This invention relates to an integrated circuit package having one or more lead-frame leads serving both as a ground lead and heat sink means, and more particularly pertains to such a package in which the one or more leads are an extension of and thus are connected to the die-attach pad and are connected electrically via a wire to a terminal on the top die surface.
In packages of the prior art, especially those at the heart of which is an integrated circuit die including logic and power devices, it is known to provide a terminal on the top surface of the die that is connected electrically via a fine connecting wire (commonly, of gold, aluminum, or copper) to one lead of a lead frame, wherein that lead extends directly from the die support pad of the lead frame. That one lead will be able to conduct heat from the bottom of the die to the printed wire board circuitry to which that lead would normally be attached by soldering and the like, and thus the lead serves the dual purpose of removing heat and also provides an electrical connection to the terminal at the top of the die. A molded resin body encapsulates the die, the proximal end of all of the lead-frame leads, and all of the fine wire connections between die and proximal ends of the leads.
In the package which is the subject of this invention, namely the SOT-89 package, the prior art practice was that the fine wire lead from the above-mentioned die terminal connects the terminal directly to the proximate end of the lead-frame ground lead which extends from the die attach pad. This design of SOT-89 package has been found to be prone to an unacceptable failure rate after repeated temperature cycling typical of the normal use environment. Temperature cycling tests have indicated that the high failure rate is due to occurrence of a wedge bond (heel) failure of the grounding wire that is used for these devices. The failure mode was identified as a rupture or fracture occurring at the heel of the bond located on the lead frame, particularly on the die pad periphery, on or near the ground lead. Experimental observations indicated that the mechanism of the bond fatigue failure is plastic flow and rupture in the heel area induced by cumulative cyclic strain during thermal fluctuations. The identified failure mechanism can briefly be described as follows: i) An excessive reduction in the heel cross-sectional area, accompanied by plastic deformation, is caused by the edge of the bonding tool. ii) The bond knee, which represents the junction between the heel and the wire span, sustains high localized stress by virtue of stress concentration effects. iii) This stress will be intensified by the superimposed molding stress. iv) As the package undergoes temperature changes under temperature cycling conditions the heel is displaced. The displacement has both a horizontal and a vertical component. The horizontal component results from the shear force which is due to thermal coefficient mismatch between the molding compound and the lead frame, while the vertical component results from the molding compound normal stress. v) Due to very low yield strength and high ductility of the wire, the displacement will produce a large amount of plastic strain, i.e., permanent deformation, at the knee for each temperature cycle. This plastic strain will accumulate during the course of the temperature cycling. vi) In addition, during the high-temperature part of the cycle, a significant reduction in the wire yield strength could occur and the wire can behave as a perfectly plastic material which will yield a very large cyclic strain at the knee and the molding compound interface. vii) As the plastic straining continues and the cumulative magnitude of cyclic plastic strain reaches critical value (wire fracture strength), the heel will rupture at the knee and a fatigue crack can initiate, marking the beginning of the bond failure.
These and other difficulties experienced with the prior art devices have been obviated in a novel manner by the present invention.
It is an object of this invention to provide an integrated circuit lead-frame package having one or more simple low resistance ground-lead and heat-sink means and having a high tolerance to repeated temperature cycling.

Integrated-circuit lead-frame package with failure-resistant ground-lead and heat-sink means


A system and method for an enterprise-to-enterprise compare within a data center. Image backups are typically used to identify the configuration of each system within a data center. The configuration data for one or more enterprises may be combined with feedback and/or performance data to determine an known good model configuration for a given enterprise type. Enterprises within the data center stray from the original configuration and are compared with an enterprise model to yield recommendations for upgrades or maintenance or component substitution.

Data centers and timesharing have been used for over 40 years in the computing industry. Timesharing, the concept of linking a large numbers of users to a single computer via remote terminals, was developed at MIT in the late 1950s and early 1960s. A popular timesharing system in the late 1970's to early 1980's was the CDC Cybernet network. Many other networks existed. The total computing power of large mainframe computers was typically more than the average user needed. It was therefore more efficient and economical to lease time and resources on a shared network. Each user was allotted a certain unit of time within a larger unit of time. For instance, in one second, 5 users might be allotted 200 microseconds apiece, hence, the term timesharing. These early mainframes were very large and often needed to be housed in separate rooms with their own climate control.
As hardware costs and size came down, mini-computers and personal computers began to be popular. The users had more control over their resources, and often did not need the computing power of the large mainframes. These smaller computers were often linked together in a local area network (LAN) so that some resources could be shared (e.g., printers) and so that users of the computers could more easily communicate with one another (e.g., electronic mail, or e-mail, instant chat services as in the PHONE facility available on the DEC VAX computers).
As the Information Technology (IT) industry matured, software applications became more memory, CPU and resource intensive. With the advent of a global, distributed computer networks, i.e., the Internet, more users were using more software applications, network resources and communication tools than ever before. Maintaining and administering the hardware and software on these networks could be a nightmare for a small organization. Thus, there has been a push in the industry toward open applications, interoperable code and a re-centralization of both hardware and software assets. This re-centralization would enable end users to operate sophisticated hardware and software systems, eliminating the need to be entirely computer and network literate, and also eliminating direct maintenance and upgrade costs.
With Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Application Service Providers (ASPs) and centralized Internet and Enterprise Data Centers (IDCs), or Network Operation Centers (NOCs), the end user is provided with up-to-date hardware and software resources and applications. The centers can also provide resource redundancy and "always on" capabilities because of the economies of scale in operating a multi-user data center.
Thus, with the desire to return to time and resource sharing among enterprises (or organizations), in the form of IDCs and NOCs, there is a need to optimize the center's resources while maintaining a state-of-the-art facility for the users. There is also a need to provide security and integrity of individual enterprise data and ensure that data of more than one enterprise, or customer, are not co-mingled. In a typical enterprise, there may be significant downtime of the network while resources are upgraded or replaced due to failure or obsolescence. These shared facilities must be available 24-7 (i.e., around the clock) and yet, also be maintained with state-of-the art hardware and software.
An attribute of a data center environment is that the computing resources are most often "replaceable units" that can be easily substituted for each other. Units that have "strayed" in their configuration from the standard baseline often represent a problem.

System and method for an enterprise-to-enterprise compare within a utility data center (UDC)

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A three piece sofa bed recliner has an end frame, seat frame and back frame. The frame ends are linked overlapped. Interengaging the seat frame with the back frame enables a simple conversion process from sofa bed to recliner. The back frame and end frames fold toward each other as the interlocked seat frame is moved backward. The end frame and back frame interlock with the end frame leg and the seat frame and back frame interlock releases during conversion. Reconversion is a simple forward pull unfolding the respective frames on their legs with an extending pivoted leg set between the end frame and back frame. Wheels facilitate movements. The end frame may be used to be a chaise lounge.

The present invention is a three frame sofa bed recliner, an improvement of U.S. Pat. No. 4,642,823. and U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,611 and includes a chaise lounge feature.
The present invention is a unique combination of many elements including some known in the art to provide a inexpensive to produce, easy to use, space saving, sturdy light weight, three frame sofa bed recliner made of wood with an improved structure and ease of conversion and reconversion advancing the the prior art.
The particular sofa bed recliner of the present invention is primarily of wood and can be placed against a wall. The converting from sofa bed to a recliner moves the back frame and end frame forward and downward from the recliner position to horizontal position. In so doing, the linked end frame, back frame and seat frame move forward allowing the sofa bed recliner to be fully opened without having to move the sofa bed recliner backwards from its fixed position, particularly when it is against the wall. The entire structure has the advantage of being able to interact to transform from recliner to sofa bed.
A panel on the end frame is available to be raised and supported to convert the bed configuration to a chaise lounge.
The end frame, seat frame and back frame are pivotally linked free of any main frame and each include fixed support legs and retractable legs to support a sofa bed position.
The retractable legs provide support between the end frame and back frame and prevent jackknifing.
A simple system is provided for converting and reconverting the wooden sofa bed recliner from one position to another, interlocking the seat frame and back frame for simultaneous movement from sofa bed to recliner and a pulling forward for reconverting to a sofa bed. It is desirable to be able to lift the seat frame from the horizontal position, engage it with the back frame and then easily swing the interengaged frames, including the end frame, into the recliner position without any difficulty.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, the length and width of the end frame, back frame and the seat frame are such that, when opened into sofa bed position, the bed portion is like a full double bed or larger.
The present invention is particularly adapted for use with a futon. Futons have become popular, offering the advantage of convertible structure adaptable for both sitting and sleeping. The present invention acts as a support structure for a futon, having the combined advantage of being a sturdy seat and a sofa bed recliner.
The present invention has the advantage of the space saving of a futon supported on a structure, which also saves space. The futon serving as a recliner cushion and as a mattress. The simplicity of the structure is economical without sacrificing utility. As a recliner there is no separate base, as a sofa bed all the frames are properly supported.
In recliner position, the end frames support legs firmly engage the back frame so the frames are locked in use. A simple wheel system improves the conversion and reconversion process.
Prior art elements are simplified combined and improved to provide a simple to construct, inexpensive to produce, easy to use three frame sofa bed recliner.
The present invention also is an improvement over U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,611. The frame sofa bed recliner provides an inexpensive means for the seat frame and back frame to interengage to be easily convert and reconvert to a sofa bed position and to a recliner position. Lifting of the seat frame enables easy interengaging of the seat frame and back frame. Then the interengaged frames are returnable to the recliner position. In moving the interengaged seat frame and back frame to resume the recliner position, the interengagement is released as the seat frame is moved backward. The reconverting is substantially easy facilitatable with wheels, with the end frame interfolding with the back frame.
The engaging means employed in the present invention to interengage the seat frame and back frame is similar to the detent disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,829,611. The legs of the end frame and seat frame interlock with the back frame. The lockably engaged as a unit, lock by the weight of the person or persons seated. In moving the interlocked seat frame and back frame to resume the reclining position, the interlock also is released once the sofa bed recliner is in recliner position.
Wheels on the back frame support legs and on the seat frame extension facilitate the conversion and reconversion.


The present invention provides a method for mixing three or more fluids inside a capillary. The present invention further provides a method for optimizing efficient mixing of two or more fluids inside a capillary, and a computer-readable medium for use by a processor to carry out this method. Additionally, the present invention provides an automated system for mixing two or more fluids inside a capillary. Also provided is a system for optimizing efficient mixing of two or more fluids inside a capillary.

Many antibodies, ligand receptors, regulatory enzymes (e.g., kinases, glycosyltransferases, and lipid transferases), and other biomolecules are attractive therapeutic targets. Antigens, ligands, peptides, substrates, and small molecules that bind to, activate, and/or inhibit these biomolecules are considered to be potential drug candidates. High-throughput screening of combinatorial libraries of potential drug candidates is pivotal to the identification of large numbers of lead compounds for drug development.
Methods of screening for reagents that bind to, and modulate, biomolecules can be divided into two broad categories: homogeneous methods and separation-based methods. In homogeneous methods, the formation of a reaction product is monitored without its separation from any unreacted reagents. In separation-based methods, the reaction product is separated from any unreacted reagents by chromatography (e.g., capillary chromatography) or electrophoresis (e.g., capillary electrophoresis), prior to detection. An "ideal" method for high-throughput screening should require only nanoliter volumes of the biomolecule and the candidate drug.
Microreactors, which facilitate chemical processes in nanoliter and sub-nanoliter volumes, are highly attractive for high-throughput screening (Steger et al., The dispensing well plate: a novel device for nanoliter liquid handling in ultra high-throughput screening. Journal of the Association for Laboratory Automation, 9(5):291-99, 2004) and a variety of other applications, including multiplexed bioanalyses (Moser et al., Microsphere sedimentation arrays for multiplexed bioanalytics. Analytica Chimica Acta, 558:102-09, 2006), studies of single molecules (Lee et al., Single-molecule spectroscopy for molecular identification in capillary electrophoresis. J. Chromatogr., A., 1053:173-79, 2004), and analyses of the chemical contents of single cells (Hellmich et al., Single cell manipulation, analytics, and label-free protein detection in microfluidic devices for systems nanobiology. Electrophoresis, 26:3689-696, 2005). The primary requirements for microreactors include: (i) easy and reproducible mixing, (ii) negligible evaporation, and (iii) interfacing with sensitive and informative analytical tools. These requirements can be met, for example, by confining the nanoliter-volume reaction mixture in a microfabricated well (Chang et al., A microfabricated device for the characterization of biological species. Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B, 20(5): 2058-064, 2002), oil drop (Hiroyauki, Noji, Single cell manipulation, analytics, and label-free protein detection in microfluidic devices for systems nanobiology, Nature Biotech., 23:361-65, 2005), or capillary format (Shen et al., Capillary sodium dodecyl sulfate-DALT electrophoresis of proteins in a single human cancer cell, Electrophoresis, 22(17):3677-682).
The known formats for microreactors have their specific advantages and limitations. For example, the well and oil-drop formats require precise microprinting instrumentation for accurate mixing of reactants. Additionally, the well format may require complicated technological solutions for closing the wells to prevent evaporation. Both of these formats are not easily interfaced with separation techniques and are limited to in situ optical detection. Furthermore, these two formats require either the use of relatively noisy fluorophore-quencher systems for monitoring non-covalent binding or the use of rare fluorogenic substrates for studying enzymatic reactions.
Capillaries perfectly suit the evaporation and analysis requirements of microreactors. Indeed, due to the extremely small liquid-air interface at the capillary orifice, evaporation can be neglected for as long as days. In addition, capillary microreactors are naturally interfaced with highly-efficient analytical techniques, such as capillary electrophoresis and chromatography. In turn, capillary separation can be readily interfaced with different types of detection, including optical, electrochemical, and mass spectrometric detection, thereby providing ultimate analytical capabilities. However, to date, the challenge that has prevented the widespread practical application of capillary microreactors has been the requirement for easy and reproducible mixing of reactants.
Two methods have been proposed for mixing reactants inside capillaries: electrokinetic mixing and mixing by longitudinal diffusion. However, as discussed below, neither of these methods provides a generic way of mixing reactants in a capillary, which is required for practical application of capillary microreactors.
Electrokinetic mixing is based on different velocities of reactants in an electric field applied to the ends of a capillary (Hiroyauki, N., Nature Biotech., 23:361-65, 2005). This mode of mixing requires knowledge of the electrophoretic mobilities of the reactants; this cannot be calculated, and should be experimentally determined. Electrokinetic mixing becomes impractical when the reactants are dissolved in different buffers, or when three or more reactants are to be mixed.
Mixing by longitudinal diffusion is based on diffusion through transverse interfaces between separately-injected plugs of reactants (Okhonin et al., Transverse diffusion of laminar flow profiles to produce capillary nanoreactors. Anal. Chem., 77:5925-929, 2005). The characteristic length of an injected plug is 1 mm; several plugs have a cumulative length of several millimetres. Longitudinal diffusion through several millimetres can take as long as several hours. Thus, longitudinal diffusion is impractical for a typical geometry of plugs. Furthermore, it is inapplicable to the mixing of three or more reagents inside a capillary (see, e.g., Taga and Honda, J. Chromatogr., A., 742:243-50, 1996).
Due to the lack of a generic approach to mixing multiple reagents inside a capillary, capillary separation has, until now, required pre-mixing components in a vial outside of the capillary. This limits the minimum volume of reagents consumed per analysis to approximately 1 μL—three orders of magnitude greater than the requirement. This results in wastage of the reagents. Additionally, if mixing by longitudinal diffusion is performed for studies of reactions, the reactions can proceed to a significant extent because longitudinal diffusion takes a very long time; this will prevent separate modeling of mixing and reaction kinetics. Simultaneous modeling of mixing and reaction kinetics is much more demanding, as it requires the knowledge of rate constants, which are often not available.
Accordingly, in view of the foregoing, there exists in the art a need for a separation-based method of drug screening that requires only nanoliter or subnanoliter volumes of reagents and permits two or more reagents to be mixed inside a capillary. There also exists in the art a need for a universal numerical model which accurately simulates mixing of two or more reagents inside a capillary.

Method for mixing inside a capillary and devices for achieving same


Various embodiments of the present technology may comprise methods and apparatus for an amplifier circuit. Methods and apparatus for an amplifier circuit according to various aspects of the present invention may be utilized in a digital-to-analog converter. The amplifier circuit may comprise a first operational amplifier with a feedback circuit. The feedback circuit may comprise an inverting amplifier circuit.

Many electrical systems utilize a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) to convert a digital signal into an analog signal. The DAC typically employs one or more amplifier circuits to achieve a desired output. In many cases, it is desired that the DAC perform at a high standard, which may be measured according to the DACs total harmonic distortion (THD) and signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). For example, a high-performance DAC may have an SNR greater than 105 dB and a THD less than −90 dB. DACs, however, are sensitive to changes in the supply voltage, temperature changes, and variations in the manufacturing process. As a result, the total harmonic distortion and the signal-to-noise ratio are not stable when such changes occur. In addition, due to process miniaturization, the noise characteristics and the current-voltage characteristics of the transistors that are used to form the DAC deteriorate as the transistors are made smaller and smaller.

SEMICONDUCTOR COMPONENTS INDUSTRIES, LLC


Various methods are thus provided for identifying degradation in a fuel system. In one embodiment, a method of operating a fuel system comprises applying a pulse to a fuel pump responsive to detecting that lift pump pressure corresponds to a fuel vapor pressure, ceasing application of the pulse responsive to detecting that the lift pump pressure corresponds to a relief setpoint pressure, and indicating degradation in the fuel system if the detected lift pump pressure deviates from an expected fuel rail pressure, including distinguishing among degradation in the fuel pump, a lower pressure fuel pressure sensor, a fuel rail pressure sensor, and a pressure relief valve.

Lift pump control systems are used for a variety of purposes including vapor management, injection pressure control, temperature control, and lubrication. In one example, a lift pump supplies fuel to a high pressure fuel pump that provides a high injection pressure for direct injectors in an internal combustion engine. The high pressure fuel pump may provide the high injection pressure by supplying high pressure fuel to a fuel rail to which the direct injectors are coupled. A fuel pressure sensor may be disposed in the fuel rail to enable measurement of the fuel rail pressure, on which various aspects of engine operation may be based, such as fuel injection. Degradation in the fuel rail pressure sensor and/or lift pump may cause the fuel rail pressure to deviate from a desired or expected fuel rail pressure, which in turn may result in the injection of undesired fuel quantities, degrading engine operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,832,375 discloses systems and methods for addressing fuel pressure uncertainty during engine startup. In particular, a fuel rail pressure sensor may be determined to be in a degraded state if the sensor indicates a fuel rail pressure that deviates from an estimated fuel rail pressure by a predetermined amount. In some examples, the estimated fuel rail pressure is determined based on a lift pump pressure. In response to determining that the fuel rail pressure sensor is operating in a degraded state, the fuel rail pressure may be increased by appropriately operating high and low pressure fuel pumps.
The inventors herein have recognized an issue with the approach identified above. Under some conditions, a difference between a fuel rail pressure measured by a fuel rail pressure sensor and an estimated fuel rail pressure may be the result of degradation in a lift pump, alternatively or additionally to degradation in the fuel rail pressure sensor. Degradation in the operation of a pressure relief valve may also contribute to such a difference. This difference may manifest as the measured fuel rail pressure being less than the estimated fuel rail pressure by a threshold, for example. As such, differences between measured and estimated fuel rail pressures may be interpreted incorrectly, potentially leading to actions being taken that are not intended for the actual cause of the differences.
One approach that at least partially addresses the above issues includes a method of operating a fuel system, comprising applying a pulse to a fuel pump responsive to detecting that lift pump pressure corresponds to a fuel vapor pressure, ceasing application of the pulse responsive to detecting that the lift pump pressure corresponds to a relief setpoint pressure, and indicating degradation in the fuel system if the detected lift pump pressure deviates from an expected lift pump pressure, including distinguishing among degradation in the fuel pump, a lower pressure fuel pressure sensor, a fuel rail pressure sensor, and a pressure relief valve.
In a more specific example, the expected lift pump pressure is determined based on a voltage supplied to the lift pump and a fuel flow rate.
In another aspect of the example, the expected lift pump pressure is the fuel vapor pressure.
In yet another aspect of the example, the expected lift pump pressure is the relief setpoint pressure, and indicating degradation in the fuel system includes, if the detected lift pump pressure exceeds the relief setpoint pressure, assuming a fault in a lower pressure fuel pressure sensor, the fuel rail pressure sensor, and/or the pressure relief valve, and if the detected lift pump pressure is less than the relief setpoint pressure, assuming a fault in the fuel rail pressure sensor, the lower pressure fuel pressure sensor, the pressure relief valve, and/or the fuel pump.
In this way, the cause of degradation in a fuel system can be definitively identified and compensated. Thus, the technical result is achieved by these actions.
The above advantages and other advantages, and features of the present description will be readily apparent from the following Detailed Description when taken alone or in connection with the accompanying drawings.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.


An inkjet printer includes an ink cartridge including an ink container storing ink and fixed to a body of a printer, a printhead assembly including a plurality of nozzle plates, each including a plurality of nozzles ejecting ink supplied from the ink container, disposed on the bottom of the ink cartridge, and extending in a direction perpendicular to a paper moving direction, a platen disposed a predetermined distance below the printhead assembly, the platen supporting a sheet of paper moving in the paper moving direction, and having a plurality of slits extending in a direction perpendicular to the paper moving direction such that they correspond to the nozzle plates, and a wiping apparatus within the platen, the wiping apparatus protruding through the slits, moving in the direction perpendicular to the paper moving direction, and wiping the nozzle plates.

1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a wiping apparatus cleaning nozzles of a printhead assembly that covers the width of a sheet of paper.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ink cartridges for inkjet printers store ink and print predetermined images by ejecting droplets of the ink at desired positions on a recording sheet through a printhead. Ink containers of the ink cartridges must be kept at a lower pressure than their atmosphere to prevent leakage of an excessive amount of ink through the printheads or a wetting phenomenon at the printheads.
When nozzles of the printheads are clogged with dust, the ink cartridges are moved to a service station, and the printheads are wiped by wiping blades. Conventional printheads having one nozzle plate are commonly used in inkjet printers. The printhead is located on the bottom of the ink cartridge, which is mounted on the carriage moving in a main scanning direction perpendicular to a paper feeding direction. A plurality of nozzles formed at the printhead eject droplets of ink on a printing medium when the printhead is moving in the main scanning direction.
Inkjet printers having large-sized printheads including a plurality of nozzle plates have recently been developed. Japanese Patent Application No. 2001-1510 discloses a large-sized printhead having a plurality of nozzle plates arranged parallel to the paper feeding direction, and thus, a plurality of lines can be printed in one swath.
On the other hand, U.S. Pat. No. 6,592,200 discloses a printhead assembly including a plurality of nozzle plates arranged in the main scanning direction. When this printhead assembly is used, printing can be performed by moving only a sheet of paper while the printhead assembly remains stationary.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,592,200 discloses wipers corresponding to printheads. There are as many of the wipers as nozzle plates of the printhead assembly.


A spray gun is designed for use with a texture pumping unit which requires of air through the spray gun in order to start the pump. A bleed valve is provided which alternatively directs air to the front of the gun or may be bled to the outside to allow the pumping unit to operate without the gun actually spraying atomized material.

Elastomeric and acoustic materials are popular for use as architectural coatings. One such pumping unit for applying such materials is shown in my U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/901,527, filed Jun. 19th, 1992 (the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference). In this unit, the fluid pumping mechanism is triggered by the flow of air through the hose and into the gun.


A head gimbal assembly for supporting a disk drive includes a slider, a load beam, a ring gimbal affixed to the load beam, a plurality of microactuators, and a flexure. The flexure includes a first end extending along the load beam through a center region of a longitudinal axis of the head gimbal assembly and second end that includes a plurality of bond pads electrically coupled to the slider. The flexure includes a plurality of support features. Each support feature of the plurality of support features spans a respective microactuator of the plurality of microactuators. Each support feature includes a support protrusion and a support base. Each support protrusion is coupled to the ring gimbal at a distal side of the respective microactuator and each support base is coupled to the flex circuit on a proximal side of the respective microactuator.

Hard disk drives (HDDs) utilize a slider to read and write data on magnetic storage media. Typically, the slider is mounted on a head gimbal assembly (HGA). The HGA moves the slider on a thin cushion of air or gas just above the surface of the magnetic storage media. External forces exerted on the HDD may cause mechanical vibrations that match the natural resonant frequencies of the HGA. In some examples, if the frequency of the external vibrations match the natural resonant frequencies of the HGA, the slider may incorrectly read and/or write data on the magnetic storage media. Exciting the resonant frequencies of the HGA may potentially damage the slider or other components of the HGA, such as the microactuator.

Head gimbal assembly with structural yaw stiffener


A method of installing a seat belt system (100) into a passenger compartment of a vehicle, the system of the type including a seat belt retractor (501), a height adjuster (102) and a web guide (104), the method including the steps of: a) providing a height adjusting mechanism having a bar or track and a carrier; b) securing the web guide to the carrier so the height adjuster and web guide form a subassembly; c) locating and securing the retractor to a desired location within the vehicle and; d) lifting the subassembly and manipulating the height adjuster to a desired location in the vehicle and securing the height adjuster to the desired location, wherein the step of lifting the subassembly simultaneously locates the web guide to its desired location.

The present invention generally relates to a height-adjusting mechanism for a D-ring (also called a web guide) of a seat belt system.
Reference is made to FIG. 5, which shows a portion of a passenger compartment 600 of a typical automotive vehicle 602. The front and rear doors and windows 604 and 606 are shown diagrammatically with a B-pillar 610 therebetween. FIG. 5 also shows the components of a typical three-point seat belt system generally identified by numeral 500. This system 500 includes a seat belt retractor 501, a length of seat belt webbing (belt) 502, a tongue 504, which is slidingly received on the seat belt webbing, and which divides the seat belt webbing into a shoulder belt portion 506 and a lap belt portion 508. The lap belt portion 508 is secured via a first anchor 510 to the vehicle floor or other structural component of the vehicle. The shoulder belt portion slidably receives a web guide (D-ring) 512 that typically has a support surface over which the shoulder belt slides. Web guides and D-rings are used interchangeably. U.S. Pat. No. 5,601,311 is illustrative of a simple web guide and is incorporated herein by reference.
It is now commonplace to mount the web guide on a vertically adjustable mechanism, which is typically called a height adjuster 550. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,050,907 and 5,230,534 are illustrative of this type of adjustable mechanism and are incorporated herein by reference. The system 500 further includes a seat belt buckle 520 that is secured to the vehicle floor or seat frame 534. The height adjuster 550 will most usually include a rail or track 552 that is secured to the upper regions of the B-pillar by one or more fasteners. The height adjuster 550 further includes a carrier 554 that is slidably received on the track or rail 552. The rail, track and carrier can take many forms. The carrier 554 will include a threaded bore to receive a shoulder bolt 556 that is used to secure the D-ring 512 to the carrier. Historically these tracks have been secured to the B-pillar by two threaded fasteners inserted within corresponding openings 551 within the track or rail. Alternatively, the lower portion of the track or rail can be formed as a hook that is received through an opening within the B-pillar, thereby securing the lower end of the track. With this design the upper end of the track is secured by a single threaded fastener. In FIG. 5, the vehicle seat is identified by numeral 530. For the purpose of illustration, the seat 530 has been moved rearward, see arrow 532, from its normal installed position and from the B-pillar 610 of the vehicle.
The manufacturer of the seat belt system 500 will supply the system to the automotive assembly factory in three parts: the height adjuster 550, the buckle 520 and a subassembly 560 comprising the retractor, seat belt, tongue, D-ring, and anchors.
The installation of the seat belt system into the vehicle is relatively straightforward. The track/rail 552 is moved in the direction of arrow 570 to the B-pillar 610 and secured by the required number of fasteners. The buckle 520 is secured by a fastener such as 522 to its mounting surface (the vehicle floor or seat belt frame). Subsequently, the retractor 501 is secured typically by one bolt to a lower portion of the B-pillar. Thereafter, the web guide (D-ring) 512 is lifted (see arrow 572) toward the previously mounted carrier 554 and aligned to the carrier 554. With the D-ring in place, the installer obtains shoulder bolt 556 and twists the shoulder bolt into the threaded bore.
In a production line environment in which the vehicle may be moving down the assembly line, it is difficult to hold the D-ring in place and maintain the alignment of the D-ring to the carrier and then insert the shoulder bolt 556 while holding the D-ring in place. Additionally, the shoulder bolt can be dropped or misplaced, adding valuable time and cost to the assembly process. Further, the assembler must hold the D-ring in one hand, insert and thread the shoulder bolt with another hand and then, once the shoulder bolt is partially threaded to the carrier, locate, lift and use a power screwdriver to complete the installation. As can be appreciated, each of the installation steps takes time, and under certain situations some of these installation steps have to be repeated, as these steps may not have been done properly during the first instance.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved height adjusting assembly for a seat belt as well as an improved method of assembly.
Accordingly the invention comprises: a seat belt system as well as a method of installing the seat belt system into a passenger compartment of a vehicle, the system of the type including a seat belt retractor, a height adjuster and a web guide, the method including the steps of: a) providing a height adjusting mechanism having a bar or track and a carrier; b) securing a web guide to the carrier so the height adjuster and web guide form a subassembly; c) locating and securing the retractor to a desired location within the vehicle and; d) lifting the subassembly and manipulating the height adjuster to a desired location in the vehicle and securing the height adjuster to the desired location, where the step of lifting the subassembly simultaneously locates the web guide to its desired location.
Many other objects and purposes of the invention will be clear from the following detailed description of the drawings.

Seat belt assembly and method of installation


A method of measuring similarity of a first object represented by first set of feature values to a second object represented by a second set of feature values, comprising determining respective feature distance values between substantially all corresponding feature values of the first and second sets of feature values, selecting a subset of the determined feature distance values in which substantially all feature distance values that are selected to be within the subset are smaller in value than feature distance values that are not selected to be within the subset, and summing the feature distance values in the subset to produce a partial feature distance measure between the first and second objects.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to use of object features to ascertain a perceptual distance between the objects.
2. Description of the Related Art
Perceptual distance means a quantitative-based measure of human perception on similarity between objects. Research in content-based image/video retrieval has steadily gained momentum in recent years as a result of the dramatic increase in the volume of digital images and videos. To achieve effective retrieval, an image/video system should be able to accurately characterize and quantify perceptual similarity. However, a fundamental issue—how to best measure perceptual similarity—remains a challenge. Various perceptual distance measurements, such as the Minkowski metric (See, M. W. Richardson, Multidimensional psychophysic, Psychological Bulletin, 35:659–660, 1938 (including the recently proposed fractional distance, C. C. Aggarwal, A. Hinneburg, and D. A. Keim, on the surprising behavior of distance metrics in high dimensional space, ICDT Conference Proceedings, 2001)), histogram Cosine distance (See, I. Witten, A. Moffat, and T. Bell, Managing Gigabytes: Compressing and Indexing Documents and Images, Van Nostrand Reinhold, New York, N.Y., 1994.), and fuzzy logic (See, J. Li, J. Z. Wang, and G. Wiederhold. Irm: Integrated region matching for image retrieval. Proceedings of ACM Multimedia, October 2000), have been used to measure similarity between feature vectors representing images (and hence video frames). A problem addressed by these distance measurement processes has been to accurately measure the degree to which objects are perceptually similar to each other. Conversely, the same problem can be characterized as accurately measuring the degree to which objects are perceptually different from each other.
The Minkowski metric is one example of a process that has been used in the past for measuring similarity between objects (e.g., images). Suppose two objects X and Y are represented by two p dimensional vectors (or expressions) (x1, x2, . . . , xp) and (y1, y2, . . . , yp), respectively. The Minkowski metric d(X, Y) is defined as:
                              d                                (                          X              ,              Y                        )                          =                              (                                          ∑                                  i                  =                  1                                p                                                                                                                                        x                      i                                        -                                          y                      i                                                                                        r                                      )                                1            r                                              (        1        )            where r is the Minkowski factor for the norm. Particularly, when r is set as 2, it is the well known Euclidean distance; when r is 1, it is the Manhattan distance (or L1 distance); when r is set to less than 1, it is the fractional distance. An object located a smaller distance from a query object is deemed more similar to the query object. Measuring similarity by the Minkowski metric is based primarily on the assumption that similar objects should be similar to the query object in all features.
Parameter r can also help determine the separation between similar objects and dissimilar objects. In principle, in high dimensional spaces, r should be small (e.g., less than one). In low dimensional space, r can be large (e.g., 2 or 3).
In other words, parameter r is a scaling factor, which optimal value is dataset dependent, and can be learning from the way that we learn m.
We try different r values and pick the r that can achieve the maximum separation for similar and dissimilar objects.
A variant of the Minkowski function, the weighted Minkowski distance function, has also been applied to measure image similarity. The basic idea is to introduce weighting to identify important features. Assigning each feature a weighting coefficient wi (i=1 . . . p), the weighted Minkowski distance function is defined as:
                                                                                d              w                                                  (                              X                ,                Y                            )                                =                                                    (                                                      ∑                                          i                      =                      1                                        p                                                                                w                      i                                                                                                                                                              x                            i                                                    -                                                      y                            i                                                                                                                      r                                                                      )                                            1                r                                      .                                              (        2        )
By applying a static weighting vector for measuring similarity, the weighted Minkowski distance function assumes that similar images resemble the query images in the same features. For example, when the function weights color features high and ignores texture features, this same weighting is applied to all pair-wise distance computation with the query image.
The weighted Minkowski function, described by J. Rocchio, Relevance feedback in information retrieval, In G. Salton, editor, The SMART retrieval system: Experiments in automatic document processing, Prentice-Hall, 1971, and the quadratic-form distances described by M. Flickner, H. Sawhney, J. Ashley, Q. Huang, B. Dom, M. Gorkani, J. Hafner, D. Lee, D. Petkovic, D. Steele, and P. Yanker, Query by image and video content: The QBIC system, IEEE Computer, 28(9):23–32, 1995, and by, Y. Ishikawa, R. Subramanya, and C. Faloutsos, Mindreader: Querying databases through multiple examples, VLDB, 1998, are the two representative distance functions that match the spirit of Equation (3). The weights of the distance functions can be learned via techniques such as relevance feedback. See, K. Porkaew, S. Mehrota, and M. Ortega, Query reformulation for content based multimedia retrieval in mars, ICMCS, pages 747–751, 1999, and J. Rocchio, Supra, and discriminative analysis. See, X. S. Zhou and T. S. Huang, Comparing discriminating transformations and SVM for learning during multimedia retrieval, Pros. of ACM Conf. on Multimedia, pages 137–146, 2001. Given some similar and some dissimilar objects, the weights can be adjusted so that similar objects can be better distinguished from other objects.
An assumption made by these distance functions is that all similar objects are similar in the same respects. See, X. S. Zhou and T. S. Huang, Comparing discriminating transformations and SVM for learning during multimedia retrieval, Pros. of ACM Conf. on Multimedia, pages 137–146, 2001. Specifically, a Minkowski-like metric accounts for all feature channels when it is employed to measure similarity. However, there are a large number of counter-examples demonstrating that this assumption is questionable. For instance, the psychology studies of D. L. Medin, R. L. Goldstone, and D. Gentner, Respects for similarity, Psychological Review, 100(2):254–278, 1993, and A. Tversky, Feature of similarity, Psychological Review, 84:327–352, 1977, present examples showing that the Minkowski model appears to run counter to human perception of similarity.
Substantial work on similarity has been carried out by cognitive psychologists. The most influential work is perhaps that of Tversky, Id., who suggests that similarity is determined by matching features of compared objects, and integrating these features by the formula,S(A, B)=θf(A∩B)−αf(A−B)−βf(B−A)  (3)The similarity of A to B, S(A, B), is expressed as a linear combination of the common and distinct features. The term (A∩B) represents the common features of A and B. (A−B) represents the features that A has but B does not; (B−A) represents the features that B has but A does not. The terms θ, α, and β reflect the weights given to the common and distinctive components, and function f is often assumed to be additive, see, D. L. Medin, R. L. Goldstone, and D. Gentner, Supra.
Murphy and Medin, (See, G. Murphy and D. Medin, The role of theories in conceptual coherence, Psychological Review, 92:289–316, 1985), provide early insights into how similarity works in human perception: "The explanatory work is on the level of determining which attributes will be selected, with similarity being at least as much a consequence as a cause of a concept coherence." Goldstone (See, R. L. Goldstone, Similarity, interactive activation, and mapping, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 20:3–28, 1994), explains that similarity is the process that determines the respects for measuring similarity. In other words, a distance function for measuring a pair of objects is formulated only after the objects are compared, not before the comparison is made. The relevant respects for the comparison are identified in this formulation process. The identified respects are more likely to be those that can support coherence between the compared objects. Although Goldstone had the right intuition, no one has been able to formulate a process that can measure similarity by selecting features in a partial and dynamic way.
Thus, there has been a recognized need for improvements in measurement of perceptual distance between objects. The present invention meets this need.

Dynamic partial function in measurement of similarity of objects


A distributed computer system includes a first subnet including a first group of endnodes, each endnode in the first group of endnodes having a unique destination location identification (DLID) within the first subnet. A second subnet in the distributed computer system includes a second group of endnodes, each endnode in the second group of endnodes having a unique DLID within the second subnet. A communication fabric is physically coupled to the first group of endnodes and the second group of endnodes. A partitioning mechanism associates a first partition key to every DLID in the first subnet for enabling communication between the first group of endnodes over the communication fabric. The partitioning mechanism associates a second partition key to every DLID in the second subnet for enabling communication between the second group of endnodes over the communication fabric.

A traditional computer system has an implicit ability to communicate between its own local processors and from the local processors to its own I/O adapters and the devices attached to its I/O adapters. Traditionally, processors communicate with other processors, memory, and other devices via processor-memory buses. I/O adapters communicate via buses attached to processor-memory buses. The processors and I/O adapters on a first computer system are typically not directly accessible to other processors and I/O adapters located on a second computer system.
For reasons stated above and for other reasons presented in greater detail in the description of the preferred embodiments section of the present specification, there is a need for an improved partitioning mechanism in distributed computer systems to permit efficient direct accessibility by processors and I/O adapters on a first computer system to other processors and I/O adapters located on a second computer system.

Partitioning in distributed computer system


An electric power system includes an energy management system configured to control a generated power output level of one or more electric generator resources, and a configuration of two or more high-voltage transmission lines, for efficient operation based, at least in part, on a topology error estimation using binary values corresponding to switch statuses. Increased accuracy of network topology estimates facilitates improved state estimation, which in turn enables production of more highly optimized control of electric generator resources and configuration of high-voltage transmission lines.

An electric power system is a complex system-of-systems, including generation, transmission, and distribution subsystems, along with many institutions or entities involved in its planning, operation, and oversight.
Over time, the electric power system evolved from a configuration in which electric utilities operated as regulated monopolies, to today's configuration in which generation resources and transmission resources are operated in a regulated market environment. In this marketplace, electric power generation resources and electric power transmission resources are not necessarily owned and/or operated by a single market participant. In this market environment in which wholesale electricity is bought and sold, and delivered to customers over great distances, a number of government regulations, designed to ensure adequate supplies of electricity, and to maintain operational reliability of the electric power system, have been put into place.
To meet the regulations, a market planning and control mechanism can be implemented by an entity, such as, an independent system operator (ISO) or a regional transmission operator (RTO). An ISO is an entity that operates an electricity marketplace, and coordinates, controls, and monitors the operation of the electric power system within its designated territory. An RTO is similar to an ISO, but may have some additional responsibilities for transmission networks. For example, the United States and Canada have several ISO/RTO entities, each entity playing a role in the management and control of the electric power grid in its own respective territory. A map of North American ISOs and RTOs is maintained by the United States Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) at http://www.ferc.gov/industries/electric/indus-act/rto-elec-ovr-rto-map.pdf. Entities other than ISO/RTO entities, such as for example, utilities may also operate or control various portions the electric power grid.
To carry out their functions as electricity marketplace operators, and their coordination, control, and monitoring obligations, the ISOs/RTOs put energy management systems in place. Likewise, non-ISO/RTO entities may also use energy management systems. Energy management systems receive large amounts of data about the electric power grid, electric generation resources, transmission resources, weather forecasts, fuel costs, unplanned outages, requests for maintenance outages, bids to buy and/or sell electricity, and so on. In order to maintain the stability and reliability of an electric power system, the energy management systems of the ISOs/RTOs use such data to manage, or control, the output of the various electric generation resources, manage, or control, the configuration of the transmission resources, the schedule of maintenance outages, and so on. Because an electric power system is complex, accurate methods and apparatus for controlling it help the electric power system to operate efficiently and profitably.

Methods and apparatus incorporating topology error estimation for management of an electric power system


A computing device, having: a processor; memory; a first cache coupled between the memory and the processor; and a second cache coupled between the memory and the processor. During speculative execution of one or more instructions, effects of the speculative execution are contained within the second cache.

A memory address in a computing system identifies a memory location in the computing system. Memory addresses are fixed-length sequences of digits conventionally displayed and manipulated as unsigned integers. The length of the sequences of digits or bits can be considered the width of the memory addresses. Memory addresses can be used in certain structures of central processing units (CPUs), such as instruction pointers (or program counters) and memory address registers. The size or width of such structures of a CPU typically determines the length of memory addresses used in such a CPU.
Speculative execution is a computing technique where a processor executes one or more instructions based on the speculation that such instructions need to be executed under some conditions, before the determination result is available as to whether such instructions should be executed or not. Speculative execution can lead to security vulnerabilities, such as Meltdown and Spectre that were made public in 2018.

Shadow cache for securing conditional speculative instruction execution


A cooking oven for foods is described, comprising a cooking chamber, a variable speed electric fan arranged for generating forced ventilation of the air inside the chamber, a regulating system for regulating the speed of the motor of the electric fan including at least one resistive electric element in the electrical supply circuit of the motor, in order to obtain the variation of the speed of the fan as a result of the electrical supply of the resistive element, wherein the resistive element is provided inside the cooking chamber of the oven, so that the heat generated by the resistive element is recovered and maintained within the cooking chamber in the thermal balance of the chamber, during the cooking of the foods.

In the technical sector in question, in particular in the field of cooking ovens for foods, apparatuses are widely used which are equipped with fans acting within the cooking chambers and capable of providing forced air circulation, necessary for adequately ensuring the process of cooking the food. Typical applications relate to the use of fans driven by electric motors. In this field there is a need to be able to vary the rotation speed of the fan in order to control the temperature inside the cooking chamber, according to the cooking cycles required. One type of known regulating system provides for the use of inverter devices, which however prove to be particularly troublesome in the range of apparatuses to which the invention is addressed. Other known types provide for "wave-cut" systems or "multi-winding" motors, these systems also proving rather expensive in relation to the functional character required in the respective applications. Moreover, such systems often have characteristics and degrees of accuracy in the regulation of the fan speed which are rather high, and which prove unjustified in relation to the temperature gradients which are in any case acceptable in the cooking cycles, and having much wider tolerances than those ensured by the aforesaid systems. In addition, the aforesaid regulating devices in any case involve dispersions of thermal energy, more or less significant, which however have a negative effect on the thermal balance of the cooking apparatus.
Another known system provides for the use of electric motors in which the speed variation is obtained by connecting one or more electrical resistors in series with the motor. By means of the electrical supply of such resistors, corresponding reductions in the rotation speed of the motor are obtained. These systems however, although proving to be simpler than those previously mentioned, involve the limitation of the dispersion of thermal energy, produced in the electrical resistors as the current passes through, with a consequent lower overall output of the apparatus.

Cooking oven for foods with variable speed electric fan and device for regulating the speed with heat recovery


A blocker and swirl inducer hole configuration for use in connection with a high pressure turbine is described. In one embodiment, the blocker holes are oriented to a 45-degree tangential angle with respect to the direction of rotation of the seal, which results in pre-swirling the air before being injected into the swirl cavity. In addition, the number of blocker holes is reduced by as much as 50% of the number of blocker holes used in the known CFM56 turbine. Further, rather than injecting the air into the first swirl cavity as is known, the air is injected into a second swirl cavity. The combined effect of orienting the holes to the 45-degree tangential angle with respect to the direction of rotation of the seal, locating the holes to open into the second swirl cavity, and reducing the flow area by about 50%, results in an increase in blocker hole pressure ratio. Increasing the blocker hole pressure ratio results in a higher hole exit velocity which maximizes the cavity inlet swirl. The blocker holes therefore not only provide back-pressure, but also function as swirl-inducers. By inducing swirl into the air injected into the second swirl cavity, better turbine disk rim cooling effectiveness is provided. This result facilitates maintaining reasonable metal temperatures at increasingly severe cycle conditions without the normally expected engine performance penalties.

Gas turbine engines generally include a high pressure compressor for compressing air flowing through the engine, a combustor in which fuel is mixed with the compressed air and ignited to form a high energy gas stream, and a high pressure turbine. The high pressure compressor, combustor and high pressure turbine sometimes are collectively referred to as the core engine. Such gas turbine engines also may include a low pressure compressor, or booster, for supplying compressed air, for further compression, to the high pressure compressor.
If the disk rim temperature in the high pressure turbine approaches operational limits, rim cavity cooling systems are necessary. Low friction devices such as windage covers and straight or step-up seals have been used to control cooling temperatures and thereby protect critical components from increasingly severe engine cycle conditions. In addition, a combination of forward outer seal (FOS) flow and FOS bypass flow have been used to supply the forward rim cavity with reasonably cool air. The FOS bypass flow is effective because such flow is not affected by the friction heating in the seal. Such bypass flow, however, reduces performance of the high pressure turbine and high pressure turbine blade cooling flow.
FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a portion of a CFM56 turbine 10 including a known blocker hole configuration. Turbine 10 includes rotating components 12 and stationary components 14 as is known. One of rotating components 12, for example, is a seal 16. A plurality of flow paths extend through at least portions of turbine 10, such as a forward outer seal (FOS) flow 18 and a FOS bypass flow 20. Flow path 18 extends, for example, through a first swirling cavity 22 between seal 16 and stationary components 14 to a forward rim cavity 24. Air is supplied to flow path 18 from both seal compressor delivery pressure (CDP) exit air 26 and nozzle cooling air 28. Air is supplied to FOS bypass flow from CDP seal exit air 26.
As shown in FIG. 1, a blocker hole 30 is formed in stationary component 14, and seal exit air 26 flows through blocker hole 30 into first swirling cavity 22. Airflow through blocker hole 30 provides back-pressure to seal 16 and limits the leakage of high pressure turbine blade cooling air through seal 16. In practice, and in the CFM56 turbine, a plurality of blocker holes 30 are provided.
Airflow through blocker holes 30, however, results in injecting unswirled air into first swirling cavity 22. As a result, rotating seal 16 imparts more net torque on, and therefore more heat into, the cavity air. Injecting more heat into the cavity results in reducing the performance of the high pressure turbine and high pressure turbine blade cooling flow.
As performance targets become more aggressive, the FOS bypass flow must be reduced or eliminated. Of course, reducing or eliminating such flow should not adversely affect satisfying the cooling requirements.

Reduced windage high pressure turbine forward outer seal


A clamp with a fixed jaw; a groove with the fixed jaw mounted thereon; a moveable jaw slidably mounted on the groove; a connecting member having one end secured to the moveable jaw and including a hollow cylinder at an other end disposed in the fixed jaw, and a strap interconnecting the cylindrical element and the hollow cylinder; a gear including a plurality of teeth disposed on the fixed jaw; a biasing member disposed on the fixed jaw opposite to the gear; a bifurcated handle put on the fixed jaw to cover both the gear and the biasing member; a first pawl in the handle; a lever secured to the first pawl; a rotatable pin with the hollow cylinder fastened thereon, the pin being for fastening the handle, the biasing member, the fixed jaw, the hollow cylinder, and the gear together; and the second pawl in the fixed jaw.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to hand tools and more particularly to a bar clamp having two ratchets.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional ratchet clamp comprising a first limb including a first handle and a first jaw; a second limb including a second handle and a second jaw; a common pivotal bearing for the relative pivotal movement of the first and second limbs; and a ratchet mechanism for fixing relative pivotal positions of the first and second limbs; and a slide rail arranged on the first handle, the first jaw being guided on the slide rail in a displaceable manner.
Notwithstanding the conventional ratchet clamp, the invention is neither taught nor rendered obvious thereby.


A microcapsule produced by a method involving a primary dispersed particle and a secondary dispersed particle, the capsule formation occurring at the interface of the secondary dispersed particle. A microcapsule containing a diazonium salt represented by a specific formula. A recording material utilizing the microcapsule.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for producing microcapsules, microcapsules obtained by the method, a recording material including the microcapsules, and a heat-sensitive recording material.
2. Description of the Related Art
Techniques of encapsulating a main active ingredient are utilized in wide areas such as heat-sensitive or pressure-sensitive recording materials, clothing fields (such as perfume capsules), medical fields (such as drug delivery systems), and food fields (such as artificial salmon roe). Such a microcapsule is generally formed in such a manner that the active ingredient diffuses to the out side of the capsule only when its separating function is lost by external action such as heating, light irradiation, pressure, pH, enzyme or hydration. Therefore, the desired function is exhibited only when such an operation is conducted.
A heat-sensitive recording material is a material which records an image by being heated with a thermal head. The heat-sensitive recording material has been popularized in a wide variety of fields because the heat-sensitive recording material is relatively inexpensive, and its recording device is simple, highly reliable, and maintenance-free. Under such circumstances, there has been an increasing demand in recent years for higher performance including high image quality and improvement in storage stability. Extensive studies have been conducted on color developing density, image quality and storage stability of the heat-sensitive recording material.
As the heat-sensitive recording material, a large number of heat-sensitive recording materials using diazonium salts as color-developing components have been developed for the purpose of fixation of recording images after thermal recording. An image is formed on the heat-sensitive recording material containing a diazonium salt by heat, and light is applied to the image so as to decompose a residual diazonium salt and to fix the image. When the diazonium salt is encapsulated, raw storage stability and color developing density can be improved significantly.
A method of forming a microcapsule is generally divided into a chemical technique, a physicochemical technique, and physical technique. Various specific methods have conventionally been proposed. Examples of the disclosed methods include: a method utilizing coacervation of a hydrophilic wall forming material (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,800,457); an interfacial polymerization method (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,287,154, U.K. Patent No. 990443, and Japanese Patent Publication (JP-B) No. 38-19574); a method using polymer precipitation (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,418,250); a method using an isocyanate polyol wall-forming material (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,796,669); a method using an isocyanate wall-forming material (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,914,511); a method using urea-formaldehyde-based and urea-formaldehyde-resorcinol-based wall forming materials (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,001,140); a method using a polymer including polyurethane-polyurea as a main component (see, for example, JP-B No. 04-75147); a method using a mixture of xylylene diisocyanate and polymethylene polyphenyl isocyanate (see, for example, JP-B No. 06-86154); a method of using a polyvalent isocyanate previously reacted partially with monoalcohol (see, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 5-317694); a method using wall forming materials such as melamine-formaldehyde resins, hydroxypropyl cellulose or the like, (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,025,455); an in situ method utilizing monomer polymerization (see, for example, JP-B No. 36-9168); an electrolytic dispersion cooling method (see, for example, U.K. Patent No. 952807); and a spray drying method (see, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,111,407).
In the interfacial polymerization method, an oil phase in which a core material is dissolved or dispersed in a hydrophobic organic solvent is poured into an aqueous phase containing a water-soluble polymer. This mixture was emulsified by using a homogenizer, followed by heating. Accordingly, a polymer forming reaction occurs at an oil-water interface. Consequently, a microcapsule wall made of a polymer substance is formed, and the core material is encapsulated. This interfacial polymerization method can provide a microcapsule whose storage stability is excellent and whose particle diameter is uniform, in a short period of time. Interfacial polymerization method having such advantages is extensively utilized.
In the in situ polymerization method, a capsule wall is formed by a polymerization film of a radical polymerizable monomer, and there are two cases: one case is a case where a polymer is deposited from the interior of a core material to form a capsule film; and the other case is a case where a polymer is deposited from the exterior of the core material to form a capsule film. As one of the characteristics of this method, a core material to be encapsulated is not limited to liquid, and solid or gas can be used in place of liquid.
In the in situ polymerization method, capsule walls are formed from polymer walls of radical-polymerizable monomers, and there is the case where the capsule film is formed by polymer deposition starting from the inside of the core substance or from the outside of the core substance, and there is an advantage that not only a liquid but also a solid or gas can be capsulated as the core substance.
In the conventional interfacial method and in situ polymerization method, however, there is a problem that when the core substance has a poor solubility in an oil phase solvent or a highly surface-active substance is contained, the emulsion polymerization reaction on the interface is easily inhibited, which results in gradual leakage of the core substance or in formation of secondary aggregates. When irregular microcapsules having such a poor inclusion ability are used in a heat-sensitive recording material, the substance in the microcapsule easily leaks out of the capsule to color the background area. Therefore, in that case, it is difficult to imagewise record an image.
In the field of a microcapsule used for a recording material, it is required to control the properties of a capsule in accordance with the target performance. Examples of the required properties of the capsule include: (1) excellent storage stability in a solution; (2) excellent long-term raw storage stability; (3) ability to suppress background fogging; (4) high transparency of material at heating; (5) stable high color development density; (6) less variation of heat sensitivity; (7) excellent light fastness or water resistance; (8) less yellowing or blemish; and (9) heat resistance or moisture resistance. For meeting these various needs, it is desirable that various wall materials can be used for forming microcapsules and the microcapsules are produced with the minimum restrictions and problems.
In the conventional methods, however, when a wall material is added to an oil phase which is to become a core substance, a necessary amount of the desired wall material cannot be added in some cases because of a change in solubility or deterioration in compatibility. Consequently, in such cases, the reaction of forming the capsule wall does not proceed, an the core substance cannot be sufficiently covered with the capsule wall. Particularly when a heterocyclic diazonium salt having an improved heat stability and a higher ability to donate an electron to a diazonio group is used, the solubility of the diazonium is in the oil phase is decreased owing to π electron-π electron stacking, compared to conventional aryl diazonium salts. This poor solubility causes a serious problem of a reduction in the degree of whiteness in the background area.
When the core substance and capsule wall material easily react with each other, they react with each other at mixing to cause fogging and coloring. Since heat is generated upon contact with water or high-speed stirring at emulsification, in some cases, the reaction proceeds partially to inhibit sufficient emulsification. There are also problems that after the capsule-forming reaction is completed, unreacted wall material remains in the core substance, and that the size of the capsule particle cannot be sufficiently reduced.
Because of the problems such as a limited range of selection of microcapsule wall materials for desired performance and lack of production suitability as described above, there are considerable restrictions on the wall material which can be actually formed into microcapsules. Therefore, there is a strong demand for a method for producing microcapsules having an arbitrary capsule characteristics.
Particularly when microcapsules are used in heat-sensitive recording materials and the like, there are various restrictions. There are problems such as a limited range of selection of microcapsule materials if the recording material has to have characteristics such as high sensitivity, excellent raw storage stability and background whiteness, and such microcapsules are not suitable for production. Therefore, there is strong demand for development of a new method for producing microcapsules by which microcapsules suitable for heat-sensitive recording materials and the like can be widely and freely designed. There are also demands for development of a microcapsule obtained by the method and a heat-sensitive recording material including the microcapsule.

Method for producing microcapsules, microcapsules, recording material, and heat-sensitive recording material