A method of stirring and apparatus for stirring are provided. The method includes: a) providing a number of electro-magnetic stirrer units, each stirrer unit being moveably mounted on a stirrer support carriage; b) providing a number of locations at which stirring is to be provided by a stirrer unit; c) providing stirring at a first location from amongst the number of locations using a stirrer unit; d) providing stirring at a second location from amongst the number of locations using the same stirrer unit, the second location being different to the first location; and wherein the stirrer unit has a first position relative to the stirrer support carriage during movement between the first location and the second location and the stirrer unit has a second position relative to the stirrer support carriage at the first location and at the second location during stirring.

Electromagnetic stirrers are frequently used to stir molten metals in furnaces and other vessels. Hence they can encounter high heat levels are a result of their operating environment and, to varying extents, as a result of their own operation.
Existing approaches using such stirrers generally use a single stirrer for a single location at which stirring is to be provided.

Apparatus for stirring and methods of stirring


A multi-monitor display system is described having an arm adapted for supporting a plurality of monitors containing display screens. The system also includes a column for supporting the arm, a monitor controller assembly for electronically controlling images displayed on the screens, and a graphics assembly for sending signals to the monitor controller assembly to produce the images. The system is used in conjunction with a central processor located in a computer housing. The monitor controller assembly is disposed outside of the monitors and/or the graphics assembly is disposed outside the computer housing.

The number of multi-monitor or multi-screen computer display systems has increased in recent years as computer users in various industries adapt their use to new environments. For example, a multi-monitor display system can be used to create the illusion of a larger screen, thereby allowing a securities trader to view a large single spreadsheet over several displays. Alternately, the trader may view individual applications on individual screens (for example, one screen may display a Web Browser, a second a new service and a third a spreadsheet of financial data).
Individuals working with still or moving images, such as graphics artists, video or film editors or medical diagnosticians may also use multi-monitor display systems. A given image may be viewed across several screens or two images may be viewed side-by-side (such as two x-ray images used to assess the extent to which a broken bone has healed). Although the potential uses for multi-display systems appear to be limited only by the user's imagination, there may be barriers to their widespread use.
One barrier concerns the large size and weight of multi-monitor display systems. With the number of monitors per display system reaching four, six or even greater, the weight and size of the display system can become unwieldy.
Another barrier arises when a user of a single-monitor computer system wishes to upgrade to a multi-monitor system. In addition to acquiring the additional monitors for the upgrade, the user typically also has to replace the single-monitor graphics card in the computer system with a multi-monitor graphics card, or install at least one more single-monitor graphics card. Such a replacement is time consuming and can be costly if the user enlists the help of a technician to replace or add the graphics card.
Therefore, any innovation that can reduce the weight and/or size of multi-monitor computer systems, and that can obviate the need to replace or add a graphics card in the computer to achieve multi-monitor functionality is desirable.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Graphics and monitor controller assemblies in display systems


A 3D printer is provided herein. In some embodiments, a 3D printer includes an ink tank for storing ink comprising a magnetic body, an injection nozzle which is linked to the ink tank and is adapted to inject ink, a substrate on which the injected ink is deposited, a heating unit so as to heat the ink coated onto the substrate by means of induction heating, and which is positioned behind the injection nozzle such that injection of ink occurs prior to induction heating of the ink; a carriage unit for changing the positions of the injection nozzle and the heating unit relative to the substrate: and a control unit for controlling the heating unit and the carriage unit.

A 3D printer is a printer that outputs objects three-dimensionally and has various printing methods depending on materials of inks.
As the 3D printing method, for example, a method of melting and extruding an ink through a heated print head using a thermoplastic polymer fiber as the ink, or a method of photo-curing an ink through a laser using a photo-curable resin as the ink has been used. However, when the thermoplastic polymer fiber is used as the ink, there is a disadvantage that the resolution is low, and when the photo-curable resin is used as the ink, the resolution is high, but since the optical equipment must be used, there is a disadvantage that the volume of the apparatus becomes large.
In addition, there is a problem that 3D inks are produced in accordance with each printing method, so that there is little interchangeability.


A test and measurement instrument and method for providing post-acquisition trigger control and presentation of associated waveforms on a display. An electrical signal under test is sampled and digitized, and stored in an acquisition memory as a data record. A display device draws a waveform associated with the signal under test. After the acquisition of the digital samples is stopped, a user selects trigger criteria using trigger controls such as a trigger level control. A trigger circuit detects a post-acquisition trigger event in the data record based on the trigger criteria causing an automatic adjustment of the waveform to conform to a time of the post-acquisition trigger event. One or more configurable trigger controls can be used to adjust a display of post-acquisition trigger events and waveforms. Upon resumption of the live-acquisition of data, the live waveform conforms to the newly selected trigger criteria as previewed during the post-acquisition mode.

This disclosure relates to test and measurement instruments, in particular to test and measurement instruments and methods relating to post-acquisition trigger control and presentation of associated waveforms on a display.
Modern digital oscilloscopes can acquire an electrical signal under test and store digital data corresponding to the acquired signal as a data record. Such oscilloscopes can be used to display one or more waveforms while acquiring the electrical signal under test. In addition, the previously-stored digital data from the data record can be viewed as a waveform on a display of the oscilloscope even though acquisition of the electrical signal under test has stopped. While older oscilloscopes would generally acquire a relatively small data record corresponding to an amount of time that could be displayed, advancements in the areas of memory speed, memory capacity, and processor speed have led to newer oscilloscopes having improved functionality in this area. Consider that most digital oscilloscopes now have the capability of storing a significantly larger data record, which corresponds to more time than can reasonably be displayed at once.
As a result of the larger data records, additional functionality can be made available to the user. For example, most oscilloscopes allow a user to adjust a horizontal or vertical control, thereby changing a position of the waveform on the display. In addition, some oscilloscopes allow a user to "scroll" through the waveform—particularly after the data record has been acquired. However, since the data record now represents much more time than can be displayed at one time, the user's time interval of interest may be short compared to the full acquired record, and scrolling through an entire data record can be impractical. This causes difficulty in finding and analyzing the time interval of interest. Moreover, the full record may contain other events of interest that are different from the one event being displayed.
Some oscilloscopes provide a search feature to flag events of interest in the data record. But due to the rapid advancements in memory capacities, the size of data records continues to expand, which can hinder or otherwise slow down conventional search techniques. In addition, none of the conventional approaches provide for post-acquisition trigger events that are controlled and displayed intuitively by emulating a live trigger mode using standard trigger controls.

Test and measurement instrument and method for providing post-acquisition trigger control and presentation


An electrified propulsion system for a rotary wing aircraft includes a flight control computer that receives a signal indicative of a power demand on an engine; an engine control system that is in communication with the engine and is configured to control operation of the engine at a selected operating point; a generator that is in mechanical communication with the engine and is configured to receive mechanical power from the engine and convert the mechanical power to electrical power; an electric motor that is in electrical communication with the generator and is configured to receive the electric power; and a rotor that is in mechanical communication with the electric motor; wherein the electric motor is configured to control rotation and provide the mechanical power demand of the rotor at the selected operating point in response to the received signal.

The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to propulsion systems and to, in particular, a rotary wing aircraft having an electrified propulsion system.
Rotary wing aircraft utilize propulsion systems to power aircraft flight. These propulsion systems convert stored energy into mechanical work to drive one or more rotor systems for flight. Energy (typically stored in chemical form as fuel) is supplied to an energy conversion device (typically a plurality of internal combustion engines such as a turbine engine, spark ignition engine, or compression ignition engine), which converts the energy into mechanical work. A drive system transmits mechanical work through a plurality of transmission mechanisms (e.g., main rotor gearbox(es), a tail rotor gearbox, auxiliary propulsor gearbox(es), drive shafts, drive couplings, etc.) to drive the rotary wing aircraft's thrust generating rotors. As these mechanical transmission devices transmit mechanical power from the rotorcraft engines along a chain of components, they experience a large number of fatigue cycles. Each component designed for fatigue life is typically overdesigned to meet the component life requirement, which adds weight to the component. Each component in the chain that physically engages another such as, e.g., gears and bearings, generates heat from friction and requires lubrication to minimize friction losses and a cooling system to reject heat. Lubrication and cooling systems add weight to the conventional rotorcraft. Additionally, these mechanical transmission devices must also be supported by strengthened airframe structure which further increases vehicle weight. To change the direction of the mechanical transmission, angled bevel gears requiring thrust force reaction are needed. This thrust force reaction along the gear requires additional weight from bearings, shafts and housing structure.
Additionally, electricity for supplying the aircraft's electrical load may be supplied through a plurality of generators which are mounted to the main rotor gearbox(es) or engine(s). For a typical aircraft, the energy demand of the engine differs depending on the flight segment such as steady/level flight, take off, vertical landing, hover, or during emergency conditions, etc. As a result, the engine may not operate near its peak efficiency during off-design point power conditions. For missions where the rotorcraft demand is mostly for the off-design point power segment of flight, the rotorcraft may generally exhibit lower efficiency. A propulsion system for a rotary wing aircraft that provides optimal operating efficiency of the engine would increase the fuel efficiency of the vehicle and provide greater value to the operator of the aircraft. Furthermore, a propulsion system that reduces mechanical complexity would also decrease total vehicle weight, improve its reliability and reduce its maintenance burden to provide greater value to the operator of the aircraft.


Systems and techniques are provided for Topology-Static (TS) architecture within a computer system, and more particularly to the management of a Topology-Static architecture incorporating a storage area network (SAN). A SAN management system for monitoring and controlling zone integrity of a SAN. The SAN management system includes a monitoring module coupled to a SAN zone that includes at least one loop and optionally at least one fabric switch. When the status of the SAN zone changes, the monitoring manager sends an intimating signal to a zone manager. The zone manager determines whether such intimating signal is associated with a change pertaining to a node of any TS-Zone in “I” mode. If so, the zone manger sends a request to a switch manager for execution. After the execution, the zone manager further updates information stored in an internal storage relating to the change event.

A storage area network (SAN) has significantly changed the manner of storing and accessing data from a conventional local database, such as file servers, to a remote network of its own. With the increasing amount of data to be stored, the local database associated with a computer is no longer capable of storing all the data. The SAN has solved the problem by providing a network of storage that allows the multiple servers to share and access from separate networks of their own. The SAN is a dedicated and centrally managed information infrastructure that primarily provides communications and data transfers between computer nodes or interconnected devices, such as disks and tapes, storage nodes, servers or other devices. The SAN facilitates multiple users to access and share a pool of storage servers. Management of these types of systems plays an important role to secure the data access (i.e., who is authorized to access the data or who can access which devices and at what point in time.)
Fiber channel is a primary technology used in more recent SAN systems. Due to their high-speed, fiber channels enable the SAN to interconnect between servers and storage devices at data transfer rates of up to 200 Mbps in a dual loop configuration or 100 Mbps in a redundant mode. Typically, a fiber channel can be configured in various ways, such as a point-to-point configuration, a fiber channel arbitrated loops (FC-AL) configuration, and a switched fiber channel fabrics (FC-SW) configuration. The point-to-point fiber channel is a simple way to connect two devices directly together. The FC-AL includes a set of hosts and devices that are connected into a single loop. The FC-AL can support up to 126 devices and hosts on a single loop. In FC-SW, devices are connected in many-to-many topology using fiber channel switches. In this configuration, the number of devices that can be connected is unlimited.
A switched fiber channel fabrics FC-SW configuration employs at least one switched fiber channel fabric. A switched fiber channel fabric (or hereinafter "fabric") is a collection of fiber channel switches that connect the individual devices in the many-to-many topology. A storage fabric is a collection of the many fiber channel switches that connect the individual devices (e.g., hosts, nodes) in a SAN. With all of the data stored in a single, ubiquitous cloud of storage, controlling which hosts have access to what data is extremely important. Zoning, in this respect, provides an isolation boundary for such management.
Zoning may be employed to group devices according to operating system, application, function, physical address, or other criteria as needed. Zoning separates the SAN into logical sub-networks. A port (e.g., host adapters or storage controller ports) can be configured as part of a zone. A port may separate a zone, or a SAN into physical sub-networks. The storage fabric may be configured so that only ports in a given zone can communicate with other ports in the same zone. Typically, zoning is implemented at the port level with zone access controlled by the ports configured to allow access or prevent access in the fabric, or zoning is implemented using simple name server (SNS) software that operates on the fabric switch. With zoning implemented using a SNS software, a node is identified using the node's world wide name (NWWN) and a port is identified using the port's world wide name (PWWN). Using SNS a defined zoning table may be developed listing devices by availability within a specific zone, and accessibility by a specific list of hosts. In either zone implementation when a host entity attempts to connect to a SAN and requests a list of available storage devices, the host will only receive access data for those storage devices that the host was configured to receive through a specific port configuration, or a defined zoning table.
Although the zoning in the SAN segregates storage access, zoning implicitly binds the technology of SAN (e.g., servers and storage arrays that can access each other through managed port-to-port connections). Devices within a specific zone can recognize and communicate with each other, but may not be able to with devices in other zones, unless a device in that zone is configured for multiple zones. Hence any change in the SAN topology may affect the localized zone or zones, and any change within a zone may affect SAN topology.
Due to the characteristics of the zoning in the SAN, there exist a number of problems in conventional SAN management. Certain devices may be required for specific zone deployments and configurations. In deployments supporting very important data storage, redundant devices (e.g., secure servers or hubs) provide added reliability and security, and assist with maintaining a zone's integrity. In addition to security and protective features, specific deployments may have certain devices configured for specific internal routines (e.g., redundant disk arrays for rapid data recovery). For example, when a node in the SAN becomes non-functional, replacing the non-functional node may disturb the overall zone integrity, especially if a replacement node is not available. With any change in a particular entity, for example changing from a functional node to a non-functional node, another entity will directly or indirectly perceive the change. Oftentimes, a change in a particular entity is promptly corrected, especially when the resources exist within the dedicated local area. However, with larger and more complex architectures, often containing many different systems specifically designed to operate separately, prompt management and resolution architectures are not always available, and changes in a particular entity might cause significant operational problems affecting an entire network or collection of network resources. Even when operational problems affect only a small amount of network resources, the changes may cause deleterious effects to the associated zone integrity.
What is needed is a system and method that relates generally to Topology-Static (TS) architecture within a computer system, and more particularly to the improved management of a Topology-Static architecture.


A method of determining the cardiac output of an infant, the method comprising the steps of: (a) measuring the infant's weight; (b) measuring the velocity time integral and stroke distance of blood flowing from the heart of the patient; and (c) utilizing the two measurement in step (a) and step (b) to determine the cardiac output of the infant.

Cardiac output and measurement of cardiac dimensions and haemodynamics are very important indicators in measuring health or detecting disease. The cardiac output, the volume of blood ejected by the heart per minute, is an essential measure of cardiac health.
Unfortunately, it is often difficult to measure actual cardiac output. Whilst normal fluid flow outputs consist of a flow velocity times a cross section area, it is often difficult to accurately measure the cross sectional area of cardiac vessels. Hence, there is often a large degree of error associated with actual cardiac measurements.
This is particularly the case with small pre-term infants and, even, foetuses. It would be desirable to be able to measure the cardiac output of such individuals.

Method and apparatus for determining blood flow characteristics in small infants


Method and system of fault diagnosis in a data network. Specifically, one embodiment of the present invention discloses a method for automating the process of determining faults in a data network. A network management station (NMS) receives filtered fault data from the various subnetworks of computer systems that comprise the data network. Each of the subnetworks have an associated performance manager that monitors, collects and filters fault data from the subnetwork. Each of the performance managers send their respective filtered fault data to the NMS. The NMS further analyses the filtered fault data to identify the fault and locate a source of the fault within the topology of the data network. The NMS can further query the network for additional fault data as necessary. The NMS displays the fault, cause, and location of the cause to a network engineer for correction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of network management. More specifically, the present invention relates to the self-diagnosis of faults within data networks.
2. Related Art
Today's high speed data networks are heterogeneous, more complex and increasingly data intensive. Thus, the networks are becoming more difficult to manage due to network complexity and size. Network engineers (NEs) manage the data networks and must be familiar with their specific data network's topology, the behavior of all the devices on their network, and be able to process huge amounts of seemingly unrelated data.
An important activity in network management is network diagnosis. A single fault in the data network can produce hundreds and even thousands of alarms that must be analyzed by the NE, which is a prohibitive task. Traditional network fault diagnosis required the direct involvement with a NE who analyzed large amounts of seemingly unrelated fault data to determine what is causing the data network to operate improperly.
The NE necessarily must have expertise in troubleshooting, an understanding of network device behavior, and specific knowledge regarding their network, such as, topology, typical traffic conditions, applications, and legacy systems. One problem with the management of data networks is that fewer NEs with the necessary specialized expertise are available. Thus, NEs are responsible for more area within the field of network management to overcome the lack of NEs in the field. However, allocation of the resources provided by the NE is inefficient. A NE spends an inordinate amount of time monitoring and troubleshooting a data network in order to resolve problems on the network. That time could be better spent accomplishing other network management tasks.
Prior Art FIG. 1 is an illustration of the traditional fault management as a process. A NE 150 has access to network data 130 and alarms 120 from a data network (e.g., local area network (LAN) 110). A network management tool can be used to monitor and collect performance data in the form of remote monitoring (RMON) data (e.g., RMON-1 and RMON-2), alarms, or events where present thresholds have been crossed. This data is aggregated and displayed to the NE in the form of display data 140, such as, graphs and tables.
Typically a troubleshooting episode is triggered by a user (not shown) of the data network 110. The user contacts the NE 150 with a problem regarding the network 110. For example, the user may be experiencing slowness in responses transmitted through the network 110, or the user may have lost connectivity.
At this point, it becomes the duty of the NE to isolate the fault and take corrective action. The NE can analyze the display data 140 to manually troubleshoot the problem. Many times, the display data 140 is insufficient, and so the NE must query the data network, as represented by the path 180 of queries, to further isolate and diagnose the fault. This usually takes the form of scripts, such as, ping, or traceroute, and through the use of sniffers. The network 110 then sends back to the NE query results in path 185.
Block 190 illustrates a flow chart of the process engaged by the NE 150 to perform troubleshooting. In step 160, the NE 150 analyses the fault data presented and diagnoses the fault. In step 165, the NE 150 develops and then implements a plan to correct the problem. Thereafter, the NE must verify the problem has been eliminated, in step 170. A NE may submit a report of the incident in step 175.
Thus, network diagnosis in the prior art was a manual process conducted by the NE. As FIG. 1 illustrates, the NE is responsible for isolating and identifying faults that are causing the problem. This can be time consuming and tedious, especially for large enterprise networks. As such, the analysis of fault data by the NE in today's larger heterogeneous networks is prone to error due to the large amounts of fault data to be manually processed.
Thus, a need exists for lessening the burden on a network engineer in the process of diagnosing faults within a data network. A further need exists for increasing efficiency in the process of diagnosing faults within a data network.

Method and system for fault diagnosis in a data network


A freestanding portable liquid filtration device (18) having an upper housing (24), a lower housing (32) and a base (36) which are secured together with an interference fit, with an enclosed lower portion of the upper housing (24) fitting within an open top of the lower housing (32) and an enclosed bottom of the lower housing (32) fitting within an upwardly facing opening of the base (36). A filtration element (26) having a first portion disposed with the upper housing (24) and a second portion from which fluid is discharged disposed within the lower housing (32), wherein liquid flows from the upper housing (24) through the filtration element (26) and into the lower housing (32). The upper and lower housings (24, 32) being formed of transparent materials, and the lower housing (32) including a light source (38) for illuminating at least a portion of the lower housing (32).

There is a great need for the effective passive filtration of liquids in remote areas, third world countries and by those who are mobile and for those who may not have access to modes of filtration that rely on electricity, water pressure or other external means of forcing such liquids through a filtration element.
The use for such filtration devices encompasses the need to filter such liquids as fuels, solvents, chemicals such as herbicides and pesticides, lubricants, water and such.
Examples of such need are missionaries who travel from place to place in remote areas of third world countries, personal involved in military expeditions, relief organizations that go into disaster areas such as earthquakes, floods, storm areas, war torn areas, and the like. Individuals involved in recreational activities such as hunting, camping, mountain climbing, and RV travel. Also in situations wherein activity is taking place in remote cabins and properties that do not have access to such things as treated water or electricity. In such situations where electricity may not be present, there is often a need to be able to filter various liquids in periods wherein no or low light conditions exist such as is found at nighttime, inside caves, and other dark enclosures. In such environments, portability of the filtration system is often a requirement.
Water is one of the most common liquids requiring filtration in environments wherein external means for forcing the liquid though a filtration element is not available. In such situations portability is often a requirement. For example missionaries who travel from place to place in remote areas of third world countries, military personal, relief organizations providing relief to various disaster areas throughout the globe, individuals involved in recreational activities such as hunting, camping, mountain climbing, RV travel, etc. Portability is also a big need for many health conscious individuals traveling to various locations on a regular basis; this is especially true for those who travel to countries outside the US such as businessmen and diplomats.
Most water filtration systems require some external means of forcing water through a water filter; the most common means are pumps requiring the use of electricity or water pressure provided from municipal facilities. Water filtration companies have long sought for adequate solutions when these are not available. The most common solution for creating pressure to force water through a filtration element is through the use of manual pump devices. However, these have three drawbacks that can make them inconvenient and often impractical in meeting the above needs. First, to force water through a filtration element with a pore structure small enough to remove pathogenic bacteria, filtering as little as 16 ounces of water can be quite exhausting. Second, such devices are virtually useless when large volumes of filtered water are required such as is found in war torn areas or other disaster areas wherein large numbers of people have been affected. Thirdly, such systems require travel to the source of water at the time when water is required. This may not be practical in certain situations such as in warfare conditions or at night when it may be difficult or nearly impossible to find such sources of water when no or low light conditions exist.
Passive systems that do not require any manual means for forcing the water through a filter element are more practical for such situations. These systems are generally referred to as drip filters or gravity filters. The most common design for such passive systems consists of an upper housing containing a filtration element and a lower housing. Raw unfiltered water is poured into the upper housing, the water then passes through a filtration element as it seeks a lower level and passes into the lower housing, which collects the filtered water. The filtered water is then accessed through the use of a flow control valve attached to the lower housing. In other embodiments, the flow control valve may be replaced with a fitting to which a flow line is connected. Such systems are practical because they do not require that they be tended while the filtration process is taking place. The user fills the upper housing with unfiltered water and is then able to leave the system unattended. The system will automatically filter the water over time thus freeing the user to attend to other matters while the process of filtration is taking place.

Passive freestanding portable liquid filtration device


A method of driving a solid-state image pickup device includes steps of using vertical charge-coupled devices each having a pixel section and a vacant packet section to fetch all the electric charges stored in photoelectric conversion elements to the pixel sections of the vertical charge-coupled devices, feeding vacant packets into the vertical charge-coupled devices from a horizontal charge-coupled device at every N-th row, thereby dispersing the vacant packets while transferring the electric charges to the lowermost row of the vacant packet section, feeding the vacant packets corresponding to one row to the vertical charge-coupled devices from the horizontal charge-coupled device during only a horizontal blanking period of each horizontal period to thereby cause the vacant packets to be transferred upwardly along the vertical charge-coupled devices by M rows (where M<N), while during a horizontal scanning period, the transfer along the vertical charge-coupled devices is interrupted and the electric charges corresponding to one row are transferred along the horizontal charge-coupled device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an image pickup device. More particularly, the present invention is concerned with a solid-state image pickup device comprised of photoelectric conversion elements such as semiconductor photodiodes PD and charge transfer paths formed by charge-coupled devices (hereinafter also referred to as the CCD in abbreviation). The invention is also concerned with a method of driving the same.
2. Description of Related Art
As the typical one of the solid-state image pickup devices, a CCD transfer type device is known and finds utilization in electronic cameras, copying machines or copiers, video apparatuses, and other applications.
In an interline-type solid-state image pickup device, a large number of photodiodes are disposed in the vertical and horizontal directions to thereby form a pixel matrix, wherein a vertical charge transfer path (VCCD) (hereinafter also referred to as a vertical CCD in abbreviation) constituted by charge-coupled device is provided adjacent to each of the photodiode columns. Further, a horizontal charge transfer path (HCCD) (hereinafter also referred to as a horizontal CCD in abbreviation) is formed adjacent to terminal ends of the individual vertical charge transfer paths to thereby allow video charge signals to be read out on a row-by-row basis.
In recent years, there arises a great demand for implementation of the solid-state image pickup device in a reduced or miniature size. In this conjunction, it is noted that even when the chip size is decreased from one inch to 2/3 inches, 1/2 inch or 1/3 inch in an effort to meet the demand, the number of the photodiodes will have to remain substantially unchanged because the number of the pixels in the vertical direction (i.e., columnwise direction) of the solid-state image pickup device has to satisfy the requirements imposed in view of the NTSC (National Television System Committee), PAL (Phase Alternation by Line) standard or other standards.
In order to read out the electric charges from all the photodiodes concurrently and independently from one another, at least two electrodes must be provided for one photodiode PD for enabling electric charge to be stored and isolated from one photodiode to another. However, with the provision of the two electrodes, it is impossible to transfer the electric charge. In other words, in order to transfer the electric charges without mixing them, it becomes necessary to provide at least three electrodes for each of the photodiodes.
However, reduction of the chip size will encounter a limitation in respect to the fine pattern processing or fine patterning, making it difficult to form three or more electrodes for each of the photodiodes PD.
In this conjunction, according to the standards NTSC, PAL or the like, interlaced image signals may be used and thus one frame can be obtained by scanning twice every other line on a field-by-field basis. In other words, one frame is constituted by two fields. To this end, there is employed the vertical charge transfer path having two transfer electrodes for each row of the photodiodes.
FIG. 10 shows only schematically a structure of a conventional solid-state image pickup device known heretofore. Referring to the figure, a number of photodiodes designated by A1, A2; and B1, B2 are disposed in a matrix form, wherein a vertical charge transfer path (VCCD) is disposed in the close vicinity to each of the columns of the photodiodes. Disposed on the vertical charge transfer path (VCCD) are a pair of transfer electrodes for each of the photodiodes in such a manner that each photodiode is coupled to one of the electrodes (shown in phantom) of the vertical charge transfer path (VCCD) for electric charge transfer to the latter. The vertical charge transfer paths (VCCD) have respective bottom ends (as viewed in the figure) which are coupled to a horizontal charge transfer path (HCCD). With such structure of the solid-state image pickup device, electric charges corresponding to every column of photodiodes are transferred to the horizontal charge transfer path (HCCD) in parallel by way of the associated vertical charge transfer paths (VCCD), respectively, whereon these electric charges are serially transferred through the horizontal charge transfer path (HCCD) to the left as viewed in the figure.
The photodiodes (PD) are classified into two sets for a field A and a field B, respectively. The photodiodes for the field A as designated by A1, A2 and so forth and the photodiodes for the field B as designated by B1, B2 and so forth are arrayed alternately with each other in the columnwise direction. Upon reading the field A, only the electric charges of the photodiodes A1, A2 and so forth are transferred to the vertical charge transfer paths (VCCD). Thus, there are available four electrodes for each of the electric charges. Accordingly, the electric charge transfer through the vertical charge transfer paths (VCCD) can be realized by adopting a conventional four-phase driving scheme.
The electric charges read out to the vertical charge transfer paths (VCCD) are then transferred to the horizontal charge transfer path (HCCD) in parallel by one row during a horizontal blanking period to be subsequently transferred serially through the horizontal charge transfer path (HCCD) during a horizontal scanning period to be thereby read out for further processing.
By the way, in order to meet the demand for still image pick-up with a high fineness (or high definition), it is desired to read out or extract the electric charges from all the photodiodes concurrently en bloc. This is because the number of the pixels should be as large as possible for generating a picture of high fineness (or definition). In case all the electric charges are read out from all the pixels simultaneously to the vertical CCD, the electric charges will be present underneath every other transfer electrode in the vertical charge transfer path (VCCD).
As a method of reading all the electric charges from the image pickup device concurrently en bloc, there may be mentioned an accordion type electric charge transfer method. (For more particulars, reference should be made to, for example, an article of A. J. P. Theuwissen and C. H. L. Weijtens contained in PHILIPS TECHNICAL REVIEW, Vol. 43, No. 1/2, 1986.)
According to the accordion type electric charge transfer scheme mentioned above, only the electric charges resident at the lowermost electrode row of the vertical charge transfer paths (VCCD) are first transferred to the horizontal charge transfer path (HCCD). Subsequently, from the second rows of electrodes of the vertical charge transfer paths (VCCD) as counted from the bottom, electric charges are transferred to the horizontal charge transfer pa th (HCCD). When the electric charges of the second row from the bottom move downwardly by a distance corresponding to one electrode, there makes appearance a space corresponding to two electrodes between the electric charges of the third row and those of the second row. This means that the electric charges of the third rows are in the state ready for being transferred. In this manner, the electric charge transfer is carried out progressively from the bottom electrode row of the vertical charge transfer paths (VCCD) by converting an electric charge distribution per two electrodes to an electric charge distribution per four electrodes.
However, when the electric charges are read out by increasing twice the length of electric charge distribution, the electric charges near to the uppermost row of the vertical charge transfer paths (VCCD) are forced to be held at same locations for an extended period. By way of example, let's suppose a pixel matrix including vertical charge transfer path arrays having one thousand pixel rows. In that case, it is only after a distribution of electric charges for five hundred rows has been formed that the electric charges of the uppermost row can start to shift in and along the vertical charge transfer paths (VCCD). To say in another way, representing by 1H a single horizontal period, it is only after lapse of 500H that the transfer of the electric charges in the uppermost electrode row can be started.
At this juncture, it is to be mentioned that the electric charge transfer path realized by a semiconductor material is accompanied with a dark current which exhibits a location dependence characteristic. More specifically, an amount of dark current generated during a predetermined period differs from one to another place or location (position) in the electric charge transfer path. Thus, when the electric charge stored in the vertical charge transfer path (VCCD) is retained at a same location without being transferred, there makes appearance a defect which may be referred to as white defect due to the dark current.
Such being the circumstances, the transfer of electric charges in the uppermost electrode row of the vertical charge transfer paths (VCCD) should be started as early as possible in order to prevent or suppress the occurrence of the white defect due to the location-dependency of the dark current.
In addition, the amount of dark current accompanying the transfer of the electric charge depends on a length of time period during which the electric charge of concern is held in the semiconductor. As mentioned previously, the electric charges in the lowermost electrode row of the vertical charge transfer paths (VCCD) are read out during the first horizontal period, while the electric charges in the uppermost row are read out during the 1000-th horizontal period. Such difference in the time duration for which the electric charges are held in the vertical charge transfer paths (VCCD) before being read out brings about gradual variation or difference in the amount of the dark current on an average, incurring dark current difference or gradation which is referred to as the shading. In order to reduce the difference or variation in the dark current, the time taken for reading out all the pixels (i.e., frame period) should be shortened to a possible minimum.

Solid-state image pickup device using charge coupled devices with vacant packet transfer


Status information is provided from an electronic signaling system to an array of N light emitting diodes (LEDs) connected in series between high and low voltage sources, where Nxe2x89xa72, and where N is selected so that the potential difference between the voltage sources is less than the sum of the cut-in voltages of the N LEDs in the array. Control signals are delivered from the electronic signaling system to the LED array over M control lines (N greater than Mxe2x89xa71), each of which is connected between two of the LEDs in the array. The control signals cause the LEDs to conduct. The control signals are timed so that the LEDs in the array conduct one or two at a time.

This application relates to electronic signaling and, more particularly, to driving a visual status indicator array in an electronic signaling system, such as those found in network repeaters and switches.
Many computer networks rely on network repeaters and switches to facilitate the exchange of information among the computers in the network. In many networks, such as Ethernet networks, information is exchanged in the form of data packets that pass through each of the repeaters or switches in the network. The repeaters or switches usually monitor the data packets to collect information on the status of network resources. Network administrators then use the status information to manage the network resources.
One way of conveying the status information from a repeater to a network administrator is through visual indicators, such as an array of light emitting diodes (LEDs). In many cases, each LED in the array is dedicated to presenting information about a particular status condition on a particular repeater port. The network administrator can determine whether a particular status condition exists on a repeater port by observing whether the corresponding LED in the array is illuminated. One problem with this technique is that additional pins must be added to the repeater chip to deliver status signals to the LED array, thus driving up the cost and complexity of the repeater chip.
Sophisticated techniques have been developed to reduce the number of signal lines required to drive an LED indicator array in a network repeater. In one such technique, a 16xc3x975 array of LEDs provides information about five status conditions for each of sixteen repeater ports. The LED array is driven by eight time-multiplexed signals, each of which carries information about all five status conditions for two of the sixteen repeater ports. While this technique for driving the LED array succeeds in placing a great deal of information on very few status lines, the technique requires a relatively sophisticated multiplexing circuit in the repeater chip and an equally sophisticated demultiplexing scheme at the LED array. This technique is much more suited for use with large LED arrays than it is for small arrays, such as a 4xc3x974 or a 6xc3x973 array.

Driving a visual indicator array in an electronic signaling system


A directionally solidified nickel-base superalloy article has a defect therein extending parallel to the solidification direction. The article is repaired by removing any foreign matter present in the defect, and then heating the article to a repair temperature of from about 60 to about 98 percent of the solidus temperature of the base material in a chamber containing a protective gas that inhibits oxidation of the base material. The defect is filled with a filler metal while maintaining the article at the repair temperature. The filling is accomplished by providing a source of the filler metal of substantially the same composition as the base material of the directionally solidified article, and melting the filler metal into the defect progressively while moving the source of the filler metal relative to the article in a direction parallel to the solidification direction. Optionally, additional artificial heat extraction is accomplished in a heat-flow direction that is within about 45 degrees of the solidification direction, as the filler metal solidifies within the defect. The article may thereafter be heat treated.

This invention relates to the weld repair of articles having an oriented grain structure produced by directional solidification, and, more particularly, to the weld repair of directionally solidified nickel-base superalloys.
Metallic articles may be made with a directionally solidified grain structure to enhance their mechanical properties at elevated temperatures. In directional solidification, molten metal in a mold defining the shape of the article is cooled unidirectionally from one end of the mold. The metal solidifies first at the end from which heat is removed, and then along the length of the mold as the temperature falls below the solidus temperature. The resulting structure has a number of grains that are elongated along the length of the mold parallel to the heat flow direction. The grain boundaries are parallel to the heat flow direction as well. The grains typically exhibit an oriented grain structure according to the fastest growing crystallographic direction or a seeded orientation introduced at the end first solidified. The grain orientation is selected to achieve good high temperature properties.
In service, the article made by directional solidification is positioned such that the major mechanical loading is applied parallel to the heat flow direction during solidification. The orientation of the grain structure parallel to the heat flow direction places the greatest material strength in this direction. Additionally, the orientation of the grain boundaries parallel to the heat flow direction reduces the incidence of grain boundary creep. Directional solidification is used to fabricate cast articles of nickel-base superalloys to be used in the hottest portions of aircraft gas turbine engines.
When the article is directionally solidified, there may be casting defects, both of types common to all casting processes and also of types unique to directional solidification. These defects are often manifested as cracks, particularly intergranular cracks, that extend parallel to the direction of the solidification. There may be other types of defects produced during solidification and also during service.
The directionally solidified articles are relatively expensive to produce. It is therefore desirable to repair the defects produced during casting or service, if such repair is feasible. In one approach, the defect may be repaired by a welding process, in which the defect is filled with a filler metal and solidified, or by other filling procedures. Such techniques are known for equiaxed articles. However, when applied to directionally solidified articles, the result is an inadequate repair that has an inhomogeneous microstructure and whose mechanical properties are unacceptably low. The repaired article may also tend to be of less ductility than the defect-free article.
There is a need for an improved approach to the repair of directionally solidified metallic articles. The present invention fulfills this need, and further provides related advantages.
The present invention provides a method for repairing directionally solidified articles. This approach produces a chemically homogeneous structure, and a grain structure that is oriented similarly to that of the remainder of the article. The result is that the repaired article has properties which are the same as or quite close to those of the defect-free portion of the article. The repaired article may therefore be used in service without substantial reduction in properties as compared with a defect-free article.
A method for repairing a directionally solidified article comprises the steps of furnishing a directionally solidified article comprising a base material having a solidus temperature and having a repair region with a grain structure of grains elongated substantially parallel to a solidification direction. The repair region includes a defect that is elongated parallel to the solidification direction. The article is heated to a repair temperature of from about 60 to about 98 percent of the solidus temperature, preferably from about 60 to about 80 percent of the solidus temperature, of the base material in a chamber containing a protective gas that inhibits oxidation of the base material. The defect is filled with a filler metal while maintaining the article at the repair temperature. The step of filling includes the steps of providing a source of a filler metal of substantially the same composition as the base material of the directionally solidified article, and melting the filler metal into the defect progressively while moving the source of the filler metal relative to the article in a direction parallel to the solidification direction, so that the filler metal solidifies within the defect. Optionally, heat may be artificially extracted from the article in a heat-flow direction that is within about 45 degrees of the solidification direction.
The article is preferably made of a nickel base superalloy. The defect in the article is typically a crack extending parallel to the solidification direction, and more typically is an intergranular crack. The invention is also operable to repair other types of defects as well. Prior to heating, it is preferred to remove any foreign matter present in the defect. The removal of the foreign matter is usually accomplished by grinding away base material around the defect, creating a cavity that is to be filled with the filler metal, and chemically cleaning the repair region containing the defect.
The present approach produces a repaired region in which the original defect is filled with the same material as the base metal of the article. The heating of the article to a high temperature during the filling of the defect reduces the incidence of incompatibility between the filler metal and the base metal, and also reduces the likelihood of failures of the base metal due to low ductility of the base metal in intermediate temperature ranges.
The grain structure of the repaired region that originally contained the defect is similar to that of the rest of the article. The grain structure of the repaired region has grains of the base-metal composition oriented parallel to the original heat flow direction, and the grain boundaries are also parallel to the heat flow direction. The grain size may be different, but the oriented grain structure of the repaired region results in no impairment of properties as might be observed if the grain structure in the repaired region were equiaxed or had grain boundaries perpendicular to the original heat flow direction.
The present approach thus allows defects in as-cast or service-utilized directionally solidified articles to be repaired with very little, if any, reduction in the properties of the articles. Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following more detailed description of the preferred embodiment, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of example, the principles of the invention. The scope of the invention is not, however, limited to this preferred embodiment.

Weld repair of directionally solidified articles


An apparatus for supplying a power to a motor for driving a mechanism that conveys a cartridge of a storage medium includes an accumulating unit that accumulates a regenerative power generated by the motor in a capacitor; and an adjusting unit that adjusts, when the power is supplied to the motor, a ratio of power supply from a power source to power supply from the capacitor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power supplying apparatus and power supplying method for supplying power to a motor that drives a mechanism, such as a disk auto-changer in a library apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Library apparatuses including a mechanism that conveys storage medium cartridges have been commonly used. I the library apparatus, the storage medium cartridges, such as electromagnetic tapes, electromagnetic disks, optical disks and magneto-optical disks, are stored in a rack. The mechanism conveys the storage medium cartridges between the rack and a drive device that performs reading/writing of data in the storage medium.
When a position to store a cartridge in the rack is designated, the mechanism moves according to a predetermined movement pattern, and an electric current is supplied to a motor that drives the mechanism according to the movement pattern.
FIG. 4 is a schematic for illustrating a relation between movement of the mechanism and the electric current flowing into the motor. When the mechanism conveys a cartridge from the rack to the drive device, or from the drive device to the rack, a state of the mechanism transitionally changes from a stop state, an accelerating state, a constant-speed state, a decelerating state, and back to the stop state.
In the accelerating state, the motor requires a stable supply of electric current to accelerate movement of the mechanism at a fixed rate.
In the decelerating state, if the motor is operated as a power unit, mechanical energy is converted into electric energy. Thus, theoretically, the same amount of electric current as an amount of the electric current input to the motor is generated as a regenerative current. However, practically, the amount of the regenerative current is not the same as the amount of the electric current input to the motor due to an energy conversion loss.
In conventional library apparatuses, the regenerative current is converted into heat to be disposed. FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a conventional power supply system, and FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a conventional power supply system that includes an uninterruptible power supply (UPS).
The power supply system shown in FIG. 5 includes an alternating-current (AC) power source 1 and a library apparatus 2. The AC power source 1 supplies power to the library apparatus 2 at a voltage of 100 volts (V) to 220 V. The library apparatus 2 has the same configuration as described above.
The library apparatus 2 includes a power source 3, a driving-power amplification circuit 4, a commutator 5, a control circuit 6, a motor 7, and a resistance 8.
The power source 3 receives power from the AC power source 1, and supplies the power to the driving-power amplification circuit 4. The driving-power amplification circuit 4 amplifies the power supplied from the power source 3.
The commutator 5 changes a direction of the current to change a direction of rotation of the motor 7. The control circuit 6 controls the commutator 5 to make the direction of the current change.
The motor 7 drives a mechanism (not shown) in the library apparatus 2. A regenerative current is generated in the motor 7 while the mechanism is moving in the decelerating state. The resistance 8 converts the regenerative current into heat to be disposed.
The system shown in FIG. 6 further includes a UPS 9. The UPS 9 is an uninterruptible power supply unit including a lead accumulator that accumulates power. Therefore, even when there is a momentary power failure in the AC power source 1, the power accumulated in the lead accumulator is supplied to the library apparatus 2, so that the library apparatus 2 does not stop operating.
However, in these power supply systems, the regenerative current generated in the motor 7 is wasted to be disposed as heat without being used. Moreover, cost of the power supply system increases if the UPS 9 is provided to counter momentary power failures.
A technology for using the regenerative current and countering momentary power failures is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. H7-99740. In the technology, a power unit includes a first capacitor with large capacitance and high anode resistance, a second capacitor with relatively small capacitance and low anode resistance, and a direct current (DC)-DC converter that connects the first capacitor and the second capacitor.
In this power unit, when power is supplied to the first capacitor from an external power unit, the power is supplied to the second capacitor through the DC—DC converter, and then to a load connected to the second capacitor.
Furthermore, when regenerative power generated in the load is supplied to the second capacitor, the DC—DC converter supplies the power to the first capacitor. When the voltage of the second capacitor decreases due to power consumption by the load, the DC—DC converter supplies the power to the second capacitor, and the power is supplied to the load.
However, when the mechanism continuously repeats conveyance of storage medium cartridges for many times, a speed at which the motor consumes power exceeds a speed at which power is accumulated in the first capacitor from the external power unit. Thus, the first capacitor cannot supply enough power to the second capacitor before the power runs out.
Theoretically, the same amount of power consumed by the motor can be obtained by using the regenerative power, however, the same amount of power cannot be obtained by the regenerative power due to the energy conversion loss. As a result, the motor requires power from the external power unit.
Therefore, it is imperative to develop a power supply system that uses regenerative power to reduce power consumption and that supplies a stable amount of power even when power consumption is large.

Power supplying apparatus and power supplying method


Methods and structure for detecting that arbitration is delaying discovery. One embodiment is a Serial Attached Small Computer System Interface (SAS) expander. The SAS expander includes multiple SAS ports, a port monitor, and a controller. The port monitor is able to track physical link events during arbitration for at least one of the ports while discovery is in progress at the expander, and to detect based on the physical link events that arbitration is delaying discovery. The controller is able to prioritize discovery requests at the expander responsive to detecting that arbitration is delaying discovery.

SAS domains often utilize a large number of interconnected devices (e.g., initiators, targets, and expanders) to store, retrieve, and/or maintain data for a host. At start-of-day, these devices engage in a process known as discovery, wherein they identify other SAS and/or Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (SATA) devices that are available for communication on the domain. A number of processes may trigger discovery within a SAS domain. For example, discovery may be triggered when an initiator fails or is disconnected during a period of heavy Input/Output traffic with other devices, causing an established SAS link to fail.

Arbitration monitoring for serial attached small computer system interface systems during discovery

Avago Technologies General IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


An audio jack connector includes an insulating housing and a first set and a second set of conductive contacts. A plurality of recesses is provided in the insulating housing. Each contact has a fixing portion, a contacting portion and an elastic compressing portion. The first and second sets of conductive contacts are received in the plurality of recesses, the elastic compressing portions of the first set of conductive contacts is located at a middle position of a lateral wall of the insulating housing; the elastic compressing portions of the second set of conductive contacts are located at a middle position of the opposite laterally wall of the insulating housing. While the audio jack connector is assembled with an external printed circuit board having a gap, the audio jack connector embedded into the gap, so the assembly height of the audio jack connector is reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector, and more particularly, relates to an audio jack connector.
2. The Related Art
An audio jack connector is widely used in electronic devices for transmitting audio signals. A conventional audio jack connector includes a plastic housing and a plurality of contacts. The plastic housing has a receiving cavity for receiving a complementary plug connector. Pluralities of recesses, which extend through the receiving cavity, are provided in the plastic housing. Each contact has a contacting portion and a soldering portion. The contacts are received in the recesses, and the contacting portions are revealed in the receiving cavity for electrically connecting the complementary plug while the soldering portions is soldered to an external printed circuit board (PCB).
However, the contacts of the conventional audio jack connector as described above soldered to the external printed circuit board are easy to be loosen, and such disengagement may affect audio signals transmission.
To solve the above question, Taiwan patent No. 474500 issued on Jan. 21, 2002 discloses an audio jack connector having elastic compressing structures so as to electrically connect with an external printed circuit board by the compressing contacting members. The audio jack connector includes an insulating body, a set of contacts and an adapting member. Each of the contacts includes a contacting portion and an elastic compressing portion. The set of contacts are received in the insulating housing, and the contacting portions electrically contact with the complementary plug connector while the elastic compressing portion are elastically compressed and contacted with the external PCB.
As described above, the assembling height of the disclosed audio jack connector in Taiwan Patent No. 474500 can be appropriately adjusted by adjusting the elastic compression portions of the contacts while the audio jack connector assembled in an electronic device. However, the audio jack connector is assembled above the external printed circuit board, the assembling height of audio jack connector cannot be further reduced while assembling and therefore occupies the interior space of the electronic device.


A receiver for digital information transmitted over a dispersive channel. Where the channel has a storage depth of n bits, memory requirements for an adaptive equalizer are reduced by storing transition states for only 2.sup.n' states, where n'<n, and storing at least n previous bits for 2.sup.n' states in a memory path register. At the same time the equalizer may be based on a reduced state model with 2.sup.n' states. Only n' bits are determined directly by state transitions; the remaining n-n' bits appear from each memory path leading to the respective state, stored in the memory path register.

The invention relates to a receiver for a digital transmission system comprising a transmission channel having a storage depth n with an analog signal processing section; and more particularly to such a receiver which comprises an analog-to-digital converter and an equalizer which has a digital signal processing section that includes a memory means with a register for storing state transitions.
Such receivers are necessary for the future pan-European mobile radio system (GSM system). In this mobile radio system speech signals are transmitted in digitized form together with other digital signals according to a time-division multiple-access method. These data are transmitted by a transmitter of the mobile radio system via a suitable modulation. As a result of reflections and multipath propagation on the transmit path the transmitted signal reaches the receiver in various superposed signal portions presenting different delays and phase shifts. This distorts the signal transmitted by the transmitter. These distortions cause the bits contained in the received signal to be affected by preceding bits (intersymbol interference). Between transmitter and receiver there is a transmission channel having a storage depth n, where n is an integer and denotes the number of interfering neighbouring bits. For recovering the original data content of the signal, it is necessary to equalize the received signal.
DE-A 39 11 999 to which U.S. Pat. No. 5,119,400 corresponds discloses a receiver for a digital transmission system of the type described above. The receiver comprises an equalizer for forming binary estimates on the basis of a sequence of signal sample values. Each sample value can be assigned with time to a transmitted bit having the binary "0" or "1" value and depends on this bit and also on n immediately preceding bits. The equalization is then performed with the aid of the so-called Viterbi algorithm. According to this algorithm 2.sup.n states and a probability parameter for each transition from one state to a time-consecutive state are assigned to each sample value. By stringing the state transitions together, paths are formed and an overall probability parameter is formed from all the probability parameters of one path. From all the paths leading to one state only the path having the smallest overall probability is taken into consideration. A transition from a state determined by the bits b.sub.i-1 . . . b.sub.i-n at a discrete instant i with a binary value b.sub.i-n =0 (="0"-transition) to a next state determined by the bits b.sub.i . . . b.sub.i-n+1 at an instant i+1 determines so-called "0"-paths; and with a binary value b.sub.i-n =1 (="1"-transition) determines so-called "1"-paths. From the overall probability parameters of all the possible "0"-paths and from the overall probability parameters of all the possible "1"-paths, always the smallest overall probability parameter is selected. The path defined by the bit sequence b.sub.i, . . . b.sub.i-n for b.sub.i-n =0 or b.sub.i-n =1 respectively, and having the smallest overall probability parameter of all the 2.sup.n possible "0"-paths or "1"-paths characterizes the minimum "0"-path or minimum "1"-path respectively. The binary number, i.e. zero or one, assigned to the smaller of the two selected overall probability parameters denotes the estimate, while reliability information for this estimate is formed on the basis of the two selected overall probability parameters. The reliability information is estimated in a decoder following the equalizer in the system. The costs of realizing the equalizer are in a first approximation proportional to the number of states 2.sup.n, i.e. they exponentially increase with the storage depth n of the transmit channel.

Digital receiver with reduced memory requirement for Viterbi equalization


A power semiconductor apparatus includes a mold portion, a panel that is conductive and in a flat plate shape, and a plurality of fins. The mold portion includes a power semiconductor element and a base plate that are molded. An opening is formed in the panel into which the base plate is inserted. The plurality of fins is fixed in grooves of the base plate. The panel has a plurality of protrusions on side surfaces forming the opening. Each protrusion has a fifth surface a cross section of which has a shape that tapers down toward an end of the protrusion, the cross section being parallel to a plane extending in the Z direction and a direction in which the protrusion protrudes. The base plate has cover portions covering the fifth surfaces, and is plastically deformed to allow the panel to be fitted in the base plate to fill gaps.

Conventionally, there has been proposed a power semiconductor apparatus having a structure in which fins are fixed to a base plate having good thermal conductivity so as to cool a power semiconductor element that generates a large amount of heat. Such a power semiconductor apparatus has a structure in which a base plate is inserted into an opening in a panel made of a plate-shape conductive material such that the panel is sandwiched and fixed between the base plate and the fins.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a power semiconductor apparatus in which a protrusion is provided on a side surface of a panel in which an opening is formed. In the power semiconductor apparatus disclosed in Patent Literature 1, the protrusion is press-fitted into a base plate when the base plate is inserted into the opening in the panel. That is, in the power semiconductor apparatus disclosed in Patent Literature 1, the base plate is plastically deformed to cause the protrusion to dig into the base plate. As a result, in the power semiconductor apparatus disclosed in Patent Literature 1, the panel is held by the frictional force of a contact interface between a side surface of the protrusion and the base plate so that the panel does not fall off the base plate.
Patent Literature 2 discloses a power semiconductor apparatus in which a positioning portion that has a recessed shape and is used for positioning a panel is provided in an outer peripheral surface of a base plate. In the power semiconductor apparatus disclosed in Patent Literature 2, a protrusion is provided on the base plate on the inner side of the positioning portion. The protrusion has an upper surface that is located at a position lower than an upper surface of the base plate. In addition, in the power semiconductor apparatus disclosed in Patent Literature 2, a positioning portion formed as a protrusion is provided at a position corresponding to a positioning portion provided on a surface of the panel that forms an opening. In the power semiconductor apparatus disclosed in Patent Literature 2, the base plate is inserted into the opening in the panel in a state where the positioning portion of the base plate and the positioning portion of the panel are aligned, and a load perpendicular to the panel is applied only to the protrusions to plastically deform the protrusions. As a result, in the power semiconductor apparatus disclosed in Patent Literature 2, material forming the plastically deformed protrusions spreads between the positioning portion of the base plate and the positioning portion of the panel, and comes into close contact with the panel, so that the panel is fixed to the base plate.

Power semiconductor apparatus and method for manufacturing the same


A earwax trap used with hearing-aid apparatus comprises a) in a first part (6) a space (8) adapted to communicate acoustically an interior part of the hearing-aid apparatus with the external auditory meatus of the user's ear, and b) an arrangement for preventing earwax having entered the space (8) from leaving same towards the interior part (3). The latter arrangement comprises at least one piston- or plug-shaped member (7), which is adapted by relative movement between itself and the first part (6) containing the space (8) to enter that space (8) in a first direction away from the interior part of the hearing-aid apparatus, and to leave the space (8) in the opposite direction and thus re-establish the acoustic connection between the interior part and the space (8). In this manner, earwax (15) having collected in the space (8) communicating with the user's external auditory meatus, can be expelled without using an external device, such as pipe cleaners or the like, and without risk of damage to the internal parts of the hearing aid.

Earwax traps of this kind are known from the European Patent Application No. 0 326 513 and Japanese Patent Publication No. 55-61194. In the earwax traps thus known, there are no means to remove the earwax, which has to be removed by external means, such as pipe cleaners or the like, which may damage the earwax trap and/or internal parts of the hearing-aid apparatus, such as the so-called receiver converting electric signals into sound.

Earwax trap for use with hearing-aid apparatus, and hearing-aid apparatus with such a trap


Divalent and trivalent metal salts are added to the solution containing the fluorine compound to precipitate the layered double hydroxide containing the fluorine compound between layers. By these processes, the fluorine compound can be fixed with high rate. Moreover, if necessary, the precipitated layered double hydroxide can be recovered to separate the fluorine compound or its salt between layers. Therefore, the burden to environment or the ecosystem by the fluorine compound can be reduced.

The anion surface-active agent having the per-fluorocarbon chain as a main component is used as an indispensable material of a production process in many fields, such as an emulsion polymerization process of PTFE (poly-tetra-fluoro-ethylene), and a production process of an electronic parts industry. Moreover, said anion surface-active agent is also widely used as a material, which are various paints, a coating agent, and a fire-extinguishing agent, etc. However, in these production processes, the above-mentioned anion surface-active agent has been used as a dilute solution, such as several % to 0.01% by weight, so that the efficient fixing and recovering said anion on an industrial scale has been difficult. Moreover, the problem of this fixing and recovering has not been considered in general because this solution is dilute. Furthermore, the fluorine compound, such as said anion surface-active agent, is a hard material to be processed by the activated sludge processing, which has been widely used as a wastewater processing. However, a harmony of chemical materials to environment or ecosystem is required strongly in recent years, and, also about this fluorine compound, it is started that the necessity of the technology about the closing system by fixing, recovering and reproducing is recognized strongly.
According to the fixing and recovering of this anion surface-active agent, the technology using the layered double hydroxide has been examined to be in practical use about a phosphate anion or an organic anion, as a scavenger or a removal agent of anions. However, about molecular anion having the per-fluorocarbon chain as a main component, such examinations have not been done previously. In addition, as a conventional technology, it is known that the process, in which an ammonium salt of fluoroalkane acid is extracted to recover by using an organic solvent, such as dichloro-methane or trichloro-methane, was proposed (Japanese Patent Raid Open No. Shou 61-215346), but this process uses an organic solvent containing chlorine, so that it is not enough for reducing the burden to environment.
In addition, the inventors have already reported the layered double hydroxide having anion between layers (Zn2Al(OH)6C7F15CO2) for the purpose of a material synthesis (the 76th spring annual meeting of the Chemical Society of Japan), about a high concentration aqueous solution of per-fluoro-octanoic acid ammonium, i.e., about 8.6% by weight. However, this report was not for the purpose of fixing and recovering of the anion like this invention, about the solution having the wide concentration range including the dilute solution of 0.1% by weight. Therefore, the process about fixing of such fluorine compound has not been reported yet.

Method of treating fluorine compounds and treated substance


Techniques for cognitive corpora analysis are provided. Vector representations are generated by processing documents in a corpus using a passage encoder. One or more concepts are identified in the documents by processing the documents with the passage encoder, where the concepts are assigned respective importance scores by the passage encoder. Further, a selection of a document is received, and a sub-corpus of documents is generated by computing a similarity measure between the vector representation of the first document and the vector representation of at least one other document in the corpus. An overall importance score is generated for a first concept, with respect to the generated sub-corpus, by identifying a respective importance score of the first concept in at least two respective documents in the sub-corpus, and aggregating the respective importance scores. Finally, an indication of the generated overall importance score is provided.

The present disclosure relates to corpus analytics, and more specifically, to applying cognitive models to improve identification of co-located concepts in various corpora.
Many data models, such as machine learning models, rely on large corpora of data in order to sufficiently operate. Similarly, a corpus of documents may be interrogated or navigated by users (such as healthcare professionals) to identify co-located concepts, patterns, and the like. Generally, use of a larger corpus enables increased depth of understanding and improved results. However, with increased corpus size, it becomes increasingly difficult to navigate the corpus and identify important collocations, without becoming distracted or mislead by irrelevant or tangential artifacts and correlations. Use of targeted sub-corpora for each particular task would improve efficiency and accuracy, but existing solutions do not provide for practical refinement of larger corpora.

Identification of co-located artifacts in cognitively analyzed corpora

International Business Machines Corporation


A method for the diagnostic detection of diseases associated with protein depositions (pathological protein depositions) by measuring an association of substructures of the pathological protein depositions, structures forming pathological protein depositions, structures corresponding to pathological protein depositions and/or pathological protein depositions as a probe;

The present invention relates to a method for the diagnostic detection of diseases associated with pathological protein depositions.
A number of diseases is associated with the occurrence of pathological protein depositions. It is often unclear whether the protein depositions are only manifestations of a clinical picture, or whether such protein depositions themselves are the pathogens and thus the cause of the disease. Thus, neurodegenerative diseases are known in which, for example, protein depositions referred to as amyloid plaques can be detected in the brain of afflicted persons. Such diseases include, for example, Alzheimer""s disease, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD), laughing death syndrome, scrapie, and possibly other diseases which were referred to as xe2x80x9cslow virusxe2x80x9d diseases in the past. More recently, the BSE disease, in particular, has become a focus of public attention, which is due to the fact, inter alia, that BSE has been connected with the Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. Today, the mechanisms by which the protein depositions affect the pathological process are still unclear. The relationship, observed by Prusiner, between infectiosity and the concentration of certain proteins which play a role in the pathological process of scrapie, a neurodegenerative disease in sheep, is remarkable. Pathological protein depositions appear not only in diseases of the neuronal system, but are observed in other organs as well, such as in a disease of diabetes type II.
A survey of prion diseases has been published by D. Riesner in xe2x80x9cChemie in unserer Zeitxe2x80x9d (1996), p. 66-74. Inter alia, it is set forth therein that a reliable and quick diagnosis is a priority problem of prion research, not only to ensure biological safety, but also to promote the basic research which involves a lot of open questions as to the replication and pathogenesis of prions. Especially for Alzheimer""s disease, the pathological picture has been described relatively well. xe2x80x9cSenile plaquesxe2x80x9d, which substantially consist of aggregated amyloid-xcex2 protein, and xe2x80x9cpaired helical filamentsxe2x80x9d, which are constituted of abnormally altered tau protein, are closely connected with Alzheimer""s disease. The present state of the art of the biochemical diagnosis of Alzheimer""s disease is the immunological concentration measurement of soluble Axcex2 peptides (Motter et al., reduction of xcex2-amyloid peptide1-42 in the cerebrospinal fluid of patients with Alzheimer""s disease, Ann. Neurol. 38: 643; 1995) or of the soluble tau protein (Vadermeeren et al., Detection of tau proteins in normal and Alzheimer""s disease cerebrospinal fluid with a sensitive sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, J. Neurochemistry 61: 1828-1834; 1993) in the cerebrospinal fluid. In the U.S. Pat. No. 5,593,846, a method for determining the concentration of soluble amyloid-xcex2 protein has been described. However, the actual pathological component, the protein depositions themselves, cannot be measured with this method.
After having concentrated cerebrospinal fluid, Townsend found structures therein which can be stained with the long known dye thioflavine S which is specific for protein aggregates (Townsend et al., 1987, Neurochemical Pathology, 6, 213-229).
In the corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,460, a method for diagnosing Alzheimer""s disease is described in which concentrated cerebrospinal fluid is plated on a glass surface and, after having dried, stained with thioflavine S. However, this method is inconvenient in practice. In addition, the staining method with thioflavine S is not unambiguous for pathological protein depositions linked with Alzheimer""s disease (see above). The method described did not meet with any further attention in the relevant art, and neither did the corresponding publication.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,434,050, Maggio describes a method for diagnosing Alzheimer""s disease by associating Axcex2 peptides to Axcex2 aggregates, which are present as a solid bound structure, e.g., as a brain slice material. However, this diagnostic method can be practiced only post mortem, as in the living patient, it would require a severe surgical intervention for obtaining brain biopsy material.
Therefore, it has long been desired to perform a measurement in body fluids, such as cerebrospinal fluid.

Method for measuring the association of substructures of pathological protein depositions

Abstract: to substructures of the pathological protein depositions structures forming pathological protein depositions, structures corresponding to pathological protein deposition and/or pathological protein depositions as targets;

Abstract: characterized in that the target is detected in liquid phase wherein, in the case of detecting Alzheimer""s disease, the liquid phase is obtained from body fluids or is itself a body fluid;

Abstract: with the proviso that the association of the probe to the target is measured before self-aggregation of the probe predominates.