Track shoe assembly for a tracked vehicle, comprising a) a track shoe member with a chassis assembly having a pair of tubular housings (80) connected by a spaced web-portion, b) a replaceable rubber pad (9) with a curved sheet metal (13) having rims to hold the rubber pad rigidly and precisely in position, and c) an end connector (26) having a pair of bush holes (267) which accept an end of a track shoe pin (60) extending through a tubular housing, thus connecting adjacent track shoe members at either side in a pivotally flexible track. The chassis (9) also has a guide member (91) which is located on one a sleeve holding a housing and has a shape tapering towards its top end.

Tracked vehicles such as armored personnel carrier vehicles (APC) and light/medium armor track vehicles have long been used in military exercise maneuvering and even warfare scenarios. Various aspects of development of these vehicles have been attempted so as to improve their efficiency.
Development of track shoes for these types of vehicles has also been attempted so as to improve mobility of the vehicle, reduce maintenance costs, etc.
The track shoe consists of small parts, for example a shoe body, rubber pad, end connector, etc. According to an inventor's study, the service life of each of these parts is different. They are categorized into short-term, middle-term and long-term service life. Parts with short-term service life are generally rubber parts such as the rubber pad. Parts with medium-term and long-term service life are metal parts such as the connector and metal shoe body. In the short-term category, the life cycle of the parts is extremely short. In order to realize that the short-term life cycle of the rubber pad compares with the long-term category, the life cycle of the metal shoe is not cost effective for production; rather it has to be replaced on the metal shoe body even if it is still in good condition because the rubber bushing is worn out.
Generally, conventional track shoes are divided into two types. The first type is a whole-metal shoe body type which is widely used in the United States, Russian, European countries as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,332,976 (Saurer et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 3,357,750 (Reynold et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 2,353,124 (Burgress) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,262,972 (Falk). Their advantages are a replaceable rubber pad and long service life of the metal shoe body. The replaceable rubber pad provides long service life by replacing the rubber pad whenever the rubber wears out. However, there are many disadvantages such as high weight, shortened short-term service life of the rubber pad, less stability and more vibration during vehicle motion. Moreover, the whole-metal shoe body requires a grouser to hold the rubber pad. The grouser limits the life-span of the rubber pad because the height of the grouser is about half the thickness of the rubber pad so the rubber pad can be used at only half of its capacity. Further, its service life reduces to 50% according to the capacity of rubber. The rubber pad is consumed whenever it hits the grouser and is thus worn out. Moreover, the grouser always damages the road when the vehicle operates in an urban environment. In addition, the elongation of rubber is also limited by the grouser. One of the problems often encountered with the grouser is that, when the track laying vehicle operates at high speed and turns abruptly, the grouser will cut the rubber pad like a knife because of vehicle speed, load and grouser's position.
The second type is rubber-block type track shoe as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,694, U.S. Pat. No. 4,765,695, U.S. Pat. No. 4,840,438, U.S. Pat. No. 4,871,216, U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,510 of General Dynamics and U.S. Pat. No. 2,375,170 of Wingfoot Corporation. The advantages are light weight, longer short-term service life of the rubber pad, more stability and less vibration during vehicle motion owing to absorption of vibration in the rubber block, as well as being economical in terms of production and fuel used. Moreover, rubber can be extended up to its full elongation and can be used up to its maximum capacity of life-span until it is thinned to a minimum thickness of rubber at the shoe body without limitation to the grouser. However, its disadvantage is shortened service life of long-term service parts because complete rubber block set has to be replaced. Even if one tried to replace only the rubber pad, this would be impossible due to the structure of metal parts.
Several well-known track shoes for tracked vehicles such as those used in conventional armored personnel carrier vehicles and light/medium combat tanks are made of a metal shoe body with a single pin and combined with a rubber pad. The rubber pad is directional and replaceable. The disadvantage of this type of track shoe is that the directional rubber pad will produce an indication in the trace making it easy to determine the direction in which the vehicle is heading, which is undesirable under warfare scenarios. In addition, with this type of track shoe, an octagonal metal rod connector is used for connecting the track shoes so as to form flexible, i.e., pivotally consecutively interconnected, track shoes. Due to the small area allowance of the bushing, one often encounters the serious problems with this type of assembly that the connector is prone to disengaging from its position or sliding off, and will then scratch against the vehicle body and damage it. Further, this type of track shoe is not suitable for maneuvering the vehicle on snow-covered terrain. If a vehicle is to be adapted to such conditions, the rubber pad must be removed which is very inconvenient. Moreover, the bare-metal track shoe only yields greater ground pressure, which causes higher friction damages to the ground or road surface, which is particularly annoying when the vehicle is operated within a town.
From the past, the army has been developing its efficiency to destroy an enemy or other target and improving its ability to go through armor. On the other hand, the armor has been improved to protect against ammunition (fire attack) accordingly. In fact, improving the defensive armor will generally increase the weight of armored plate on the vehicle. Therefore, all armored track laying vehicles have been upgraded from time to time to carry high defensive armor, for example by increasing the engine power, improving the transmission and suspension to heavy duty requirements. All those upgrades and armor have been increasing the weight of the vehicle. However, nobody has succeeded in improving the track shoe and rubber pad for higher weight vehicles. As a consequence of the high load upon each rubber pad, one of the serious problems often encountered in high temperature terrains, such as in the Middle East, is heat build up phenomena in the rubber pad; the internal rubber may even become explosive when the vehicle runs at high speed and turns abruptly.
The U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,510 (Cory) describes a track for a track laying vehicle including a track shoe, a replaceable road pad, a pin assembly for connecting pairs of the track shoes with hollow pins, and an end connector for connecting ends of the pins cooperating with a center connector in connecting the shoe assemblies.
Another, similar, known type of track shoe has been used with light tanks such as the Scorpion tank of England. However, the major disadvantage of this type of track shoe is that the rubber pad is not replaceable. Once the rubber pad becomes worn or damaged, the entire track shoe needs to be replaced, resulting in higher maintenance costs.
Therefore, there is the need for an improved track shoe assembly for tracked vehicles that enhances the mobility of the vehicle, increases the efficiency of the vehicle and makes it suitable for operation or maneuvering under various terrain types, offers high stability and vibrant absorption, provides longer service range and lifespan, is easy and economical to maintain, and is cost effective between production and utilization. The ultimate goal is to increase the capability of the vehicle when it is operating in practice or warfare scenarios with cost effectiveness and reliability of maintenance.


A system and related techniques permit a search service operator to access a variety of disparate relevance measures, and integrate those measures into idealized or unified data sets. A search service operator may employ self-learning networks to generate relevance rankings of Web site hits in response to user queries or searches, such as Boolean text or other searches. To improve the accuracy and quality of the rankings of results, the service provider may accept as inputs relevance measures created from query logs, from human-annotated search records, from independent commercial or other search sites, or from other sources and feed those measures to a normalization engine. That engine may normalize those relevance ratings to a common scale, such as quintiles, percentages or other scales or levels. The provider may then use that idealized or normalized combined measure to train the search algorithms or heuristics to arrive at more accurate results.

The increasing demand for Web-based search engines and services has helped fuel a corresponding demand for ever more accurate and cogent search results. A number of Web search services exist which permit a user to type in desired search terms and in response be presented with a ranked list of Web sites containing material which is potentially relevant to that search. As the number of available Web pages has grown into the billions, the necessity for an accurate assessment of the relatedness or relevance of Web site results to a user's search terms has grown even more acute.
There are a variety of known techniques for assessing the relevance of search results to a user's query. Those include the examination of search or query logs, for instance logs stored on a server, to examine search terms, the resulting list of ranked results and the user's ultimate click-through or other selection choices from amongst that list. The results which users most frequently choose to access may be empirically presumed to be the results which they as consumers of the information judged to be most relevant to their query.
Results may also in cases be evaluated by teams of human search analysts, who may review search terms and results and formulate their own assessment of the relatedness of search hits to that query. Human-annotated results may require more time to complete and therefore may sometimes not represent a practical large-scale or real-time rating scheme. However, because of the ability of human reviewers to reach judgments about relevance with greater flexibility than many algorithmic or heuristic approaches, those relevance measures may be considered equally or more likely to be accurate than other metrics when available.
Similarly, a company deploying a search service may perform evaluations of the quality of its search relevance algorithms by consulting the result rankings for the same or similar searches produced by other public or commercial Web search engines or sites. A significant divergence between the relevance ratings generated by two separate search services may indicate that the evaluation methods of one or both engines may be inaccurate or incomplete.
A company deploying a search service may desire to make the quality and accuracy of its search results as high as possible, to attract more users, deliver greater satisfaction to those users, and to make the search experience as efficient as possible. Service providers in that position may therefore wish to consult the relevance measures generate by various diverse sources such as query logs, human-annotated ratings, other search service ratings and other sources, in order to assess and improve the accuracy of their own engines. For example, providers may wish to assimilate those diverse relevance ratings to train the self-learning or other heuristics or algorithms employed in their search infrastructure, to adjust weights and other functions to generate more accurate and satisfactory results.
However, no mechanism exists to access and assimilate the relevance ratings of disparate sources to generate a higher-level, composite rating or "ideal set" of relevance rating data. This is in part because diverse sources of relevance ratings may each generate or encode a ranking of relevance in a different scale than the others, making direct comparisons, averaging or other aggregate processing impossible. Other problems in search technology exist.

System and method for generating normalized relevance measure for analysis of search results


A transfer device for transferring small items from one conveyor belt to another includes a plurality of independent wedge-shaped sections, supported by at least one rod. A tapered end of each section is preferably positioned proximate a moving conveyor belt. Each wedge-shaped section includes a substantially smooth continuous surface extending across the gap between the conveyor belts. The smooth surfaces are coplanar with the surfaces of the belts and help prevent tipping of items transferred.

The present invention is directed to a device for use in a conveyor belt application and, more particularly, to a transfer device for facilitating the transfer of small items between adjacent conveyor belts.
As will be recognized by those skilled in the art, many conveyor belt applications involve the use of multiple belts. The belts are typically configured in an end-to-end configuration. Such configurations, though, often result in a gap being formed between the moving surfaces of the adjacent belts due to the turning radius required for many such belts. This gap is particularly problematic when the conveyor belts are used to transport small items. Although the prior art has made various attempts to address this problem, there still exists a need in the art for a transfer device which can span the gap between adjacent belts and facilitate the transfer of small items thereacross.


An electrical connector assembly is provided for mounting onto a panel having a panel opening. The connector assembly includes a connector and a latch. The latch is configured to mount on the connector, and attach to the panel as the housing is inserted into the opening.

The present invention relates generally to electrical connectors, and in particular to electrical connectors having latching features that facilitate mounting of the electrical connectors on panels.
Panel mount connectors are conventionally mounted to panels using fasteners such as brackets, clamps, bolts, or screws that form a mechanical connection between a given connector and the associated panel. These types of fasteners typically increase the overall footprint of the electrical connector, and can necessitate spacing between adjacent connectors substantially greater than that which would otherwise be required. The conventional fasteners can also necessitate multiple assembly steps to mount the connector on the associated panel.

Panel-mount connectors with latching features


An article clamp (10) of the band type including an elongated flexible band (11) having on one side a plurality of spaced teeth (20) and a head (14) having a chamber (22) for receiving screw (23) for cooperation with the teeth (20) on the band (11), a proximal end (12) of the band (11) being connected to the proximal end (15) only of the head (14) such that the distal end (16) of the head (14) is spaced from and free of the band (11), the head (14) further having a passage (30) therethrough for receiving a distal end (13) of the band (11) to form the band (11) into a loop.

A number of different designs and types of hose or pipe clamps are currently available. Generally, the known hose or pipe clamps include a metal strap which is fixed at one end to a separate metal housing, the housing defining a recess which has its longitudinal axis aligned with the axis of the strap. A worm screw is captured within the housing recess and cooperates with an end of the strap which is looped about an article to be gripped. For this purpose, the strap is provided with spaced recesses or slots for cooperation with the threads on the worm screw such that when the worm screw is rotated in opposite directions the metal strap loop is tightened to grip the article or loosened to free the article. The housing is attached to the one end of the strap by a number of different arrangements. In one arrangement, the housing has extended side flanges which are turned over on the underside of the strap and which have opposite tongues which extend into slots in the strap. Alternatively, the housing may be welded to the strap. Examples of the above type of clamp strap are shown in DE 3121202 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,473,798. Whilst these clamps generally function efficiently, they are not suited to being manufactured from plastics. Further, as a number of steps are required in their construction such as joining of the housing to the strap, the cost of manufacture of clamps of this type can be high. A disadvantage of the above clamps is that the housing in use is held against the periphery of the article being gripped however because the housing is often of planar form on its side adjacent the article, it will not lie flush with a curved surface around which the strap is looped. This can make tightening of the strap difficult and further when tightening occurs, the full circumference of the curved surface is not closely gripped because of the planar surface of the housing is in contact with the curved surface of the article.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,047,268 discloses a moulded plastics worm gear clamping apparatus in which the housing for the worm screw is formed integrally with a strap and extends a distance along the strap, the housing having a curved surface to match the surface of an article to be clamped. The strap is looped about the article and passed into the worm screw housing to be engaged by the screw which when tightened reduces the size of the looped strap to effect a clamping action about the article. As however, the housing forms part of the strap and is coextensive with the strap, tightening of the strap about the article will apply a radially inwardly directed force tending to cause a radial distortion of the housing leading to possible screw slippage. This will limit the extent to which the strap can be tightened and therefore limit the applications to which the strap can be put. This disadvantage is further amplified if the curved surface of the housing does not match a curved surface of the article being clamped. If the clamp is used with articles of smaller diameter, incomplete clamping of the article about its periphery is achieved leading to potential leakage in pressure applications. In articles of a larger diameter, again an area adjacent the driving head will not be evenly clamped. Thus a range of different clamps are required to suit the radius of each size article to be clamped. Further the angled outer surface of the housing creates additional problems in that radial distortion of the driving head will substantially increase the risk of the screw slipping or substantially reduce the pressure which can be applied by the clamp. Similar disadvantages to those referred to above are associated with the clamps shown in GB 2326438, DE 3400681 and U.S. Pat. No. 3,914,832.
International Publication No. WO 98/23889 discloses a metal strap clamp in which the strap is attached to or extends from the front end of the screw housing via a bearing or flange which is of greater thickness than the strap, the bearing or flange being curved to match the curve of an article to be clamped. The flange is formed integrally with the housing and rigid with the housing and the strap will bend about its join to the rigid flange when tightened thus limiting the extent to which the clamp can be applied to smaller articles. Thus again many different size clamps with flanges of different radii will be required to suit different size articles.


A hack saw attachment for converting a power driven saber saw or other reciprocable tool to a power driven hack saw includes a plate having a hack saw frame fixed perpendicular thereto. The sole plate of a saber saw is provided with openings for releasable connectors whereby the plate of the attachment is easily connected to the saber saw sole plate. The hack saw frame carries guides at its inner and outer ends, the inner end of the blade passes through the inner guide for attachment to the saber saw arbor. The outer guide carries a second arbor for the outer end of the blade and a spring acts on the outer arbor to ensure proper tension of the hack saw blade during cutting. The hack saw frame carries a handle to facilitate manual reciprocation of the hack saw as it is also reciprocated by the saber saw drive to ensure even wear of the hack saw teeth along the length of the blade.

Though the present invention has use with any reciprocating power driven tool it will be described primarily in connection with a power driven saber saw.
Though power driven hack saws are well known such units are either complete of themselves or require elaborate mechanism for converting the rotary action of an electric drill, say, into reciprocating action necessary for operating a hack saw. Power driven saber saws are also well known and consist of a motor mounted on a sole plate having a slot at one end through which a saw blade, connected only at its inner end to a motor-driven arbor for reciprocation through the slot, cuts the material on which the sole plate is slidingly supported. So far as applicant is aware, no one heretofore has ever attempted to provide an attachment for quickly converting a conventional saber saw or similar reciprocating tool to a power driven hack saw and vice versa.

Attachment for converting a reciprocating power tool into power driven hack saw


Electric power cable used as a riser (15) and/or feeder cable (16) in a Direct Electric Heating system for oil or condensate pipelines (10), comprising at least two conductors (1, 5) and insulation layers (3, 6). An outer concentric conductor (5) is connected to a near end of the pipeline, and a central conductor (1) is connected via a piggyback cable (12) to a far end of the pipeline, to provide power for the heating. Another aspect is a terminal assembly adapted to providing an electric connection of the electric power cable with the pipeline (10), where a cone (41) is adapted to squeeze the concentric conductor (5) against a concentric conductor adapter (40).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the field of subsea electric power cables. More specifically, it relates to a coaxial dynamic riser and feeder cable for direct electric heating (DEH) of an oil or condensate pipeline and a termination of the coaxial feeder cable to the pipeline.
2. Description of the Related Art
The temperature of the oil or condensate in the underground reservoirs is typically about 90° C. The oil or condensate well stream contains several liquid substances that freeze when the temperature drops. This is a problem when the pipes are cooled in seawater, particularly during a shutdown of production, which causes the flow in the line to be impeded or even blocked due to the formation of hydrates or wax plugs. To solve this problem chemical treatments are mainly used. However, this method has considerable operational costs and presents a risk to the environment should a leakage occur.
As an alternative to chemical treatment, electric heating has been suggested. Three methods may be used: i) electric heating cables, ii) electromagnetic induction heating, or iii) direct electric heating of the pipeline. The first alternative is found to be rather inefficient, and the second very expensive.
The direct heating system is based on the fact that an electric current in a metal conductor generates heat due to ohmic loss. The power supply is then connected directly to the electrically insulated steel pipe.
For heating of oil or gas pipelines in order to prevent hydrate and ice formation on the pipeline walls, the present applicant has developed a direct electrical heating system that is described, inter alia, in British patent specification No. 2.373.321. For current supply to such a heating system a common practice is to install a current supply cable as a so called "piggyback" cable, which is traditionally made simultaneously with the laying of the pipeline. More specifically such a single-core cable is strapped to the pipeline during installation thereof. The return current should of course as a whole flow through the pipeline walls in order to generate the heating effect aimed at.
GB 2 341 442 A describes an example of a heating system which can be used for pipelines on the sea floor. In this system, the metallic tube of the pipeline is electrically and thermally insulated and connected to a power supply which feeds a current through the metallic tube, whereby an efficient heating is achieved with alternating current.
For the energy supply of electric devices on the seafloor subsea cables are known which contain one or several conductors with high voltage insulation, outer sheath(s), and possibly metallic armoring. The (possibly dynamic) cable connecting the topside energy supply to the (static) subsea cables may comprise a number of power cores. Only single core static cables are know to have been used in earlier direct electric heating projects.
The cable may be squeezed during installation between the pipeline and hard objects. As the pipeline expands and contracts during operation, the cable is generally subject to stretching and sliding forces against the seabed. These problems are aggravated, if the pipeline spans valleys between reefs or boulders on the seabed.
A sufficient protection can be achieved with a steel armoring if the cable carries both the feeding and the return current. The direct electric heating system, however, requires only a single conductor because the metallic tube of the pipeline is used as conductor. In this case, an alternating current causes excessive electric losses if a metal armoring is applied to the cable.
Any feasible Direct Electric Heating system will require a large current, and thus also a considerable conductor cross-section area (typically>400 mm2). It is difficult to achieve good dynamic properties with a cross section that comprises two (large) conductors, as bending properties become very dependent on the bending plane. For improving the properties in this respect, it would be possible to design and use a three-core dynamic cable, and consider one core as spare, but this solution results in dimensions, weight and cost being far from optimized.
The coaxial power cable according to the first aspect of the invention solves the dynamic problems by providing a two-conductor, high voltage, submarine cable design suitable for dynamic applications. This two-core cable is primarily intended for connection to topside supply for (single-phase) DEH (Direct Electric Heating) systems.
This coaxial cable also meets a common additional requirement regarding inclusion of non-electric elements, e.g. steel tubes or fiber optic cables, within the dynamic cable cross section. Such integration must take into consideration electromagnetic induction from the two power cores.
Electric connection between a dynamic cable and the piggyback cable and the pipeline's near end, respectively, is known to have been accomplished by means of a pair of individually armored single-core feeder cables. Replacing the single-core cables by a single, armored coaxial feeder cable eliminates the added risk of AC corrosion due to induced, circulating amour currents.
Another aspect of the present invention is related to termination of the above coaxial or concentric cables. Technical problems solved by the invention are to prevent corrosion of the outer threads and to secure enough mechanical contact between the conductor and termination head.
According to the invention, the terminal assembly comprising a concentric conductor adapter, is adapted to providing an electric connection of the electric power cable with a pipeline, where at least one cone (conically shaped metallic ring) is adapted to squeeze the concentric conductor of the electric power cable against an electric conductive part of the of the concentric conductor adapter.
A press-plate may be used to press the cone inwards and a number of threaded bolts may be used to press the plate against the cone. Electric contact between the concentric conductor and the pipeline is achieved via a concentric conductor adapter and a concentric conductor connection point.
The cone and the press plate may be made of different types of materials including steel. In some embodiments non magnetic material may be used to avoid excessive power loss due to electric currents.
To summarize, the electric power cable according to one aspect of the invention has the excellent dynamic and electromagnetic properties required to solve central problems related to such cables. The terminal assembly according to another aspect of the invention, is, compared to prior art solutions, easy to make corrosion resistant, relatively fast and easy to mount at site and cost effective.

Power cable for direct electric heating system


A method for recognizing and determining GnRH receptors on abnormal cells of a tumor originating in the brain and/or nervous system and/or the meninges and/or on Kaposi sarcoma. Also, preparing diagnostic kits for tumors originating in the brain and/or nervous system and/or the meninges and/or for Kaposi sarcoma. Further, a method for decreasing cellular replication of GnRH-positive glioma, oat-cell carcinoma, malignant melanoma, or Kaposi sarcoma comprising administering to a cell or to a subject a replication decreasing amount of a GnRH agonist.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to tumor diagnosis and therapy. In particular, it is directed to the diagnosis and therapy of tumors carrying GnRH receptors.
2. State of the Art
Post-operative treatment of prostate and mammary carcinomas with agonists of gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH, in the literature also referred to as luteinizing hormone releasing hormone; LH-RH) is a standard treatment; cf. Gonzalez-Barcena et al., 1994, The Prostate 24, 84-92; Emons and Schally, 1994, Human Reproduction Update 9, No. 7, 1364-1379. The GnRH receptor is a well-known target in tumor therapy.
Thus, in various steroid hormone (sexual hormone) dependent malignant tumors, such as mammary carcinoma, prostate carcinoma, ovarian carcinoma, and endometrial carcinoma, a double effect has been observed in clinical studies upon treatment with GnRH agonists:
1) an indirect anti-proliferative activity by uncoupling of the positive endocrine (estrogenous or androgenous) effect on tumor growth;
2) a direct anti-proliferative activity by an unknown mechanism via GnRH receptors in the tumor tissue itself; cf. Emons and Schally, 1994, Human Reproduction Update 9, 1364-1379.
This indirect effect due to steroid hormone dependence has been known for decades for the prostate and the mammary carcinoma; cf. Gonzalez-Barcena et al., 1994, The Prostate 24, 84-92; Jonat et al., 1995, European Journal of Cancer 31A, 137-142.
The direct anti-proliferative effect of GnRH agonists and GnRH antagonists on e.g. prostate carcinomas, mammary carcinomas, and ovarian carcinomas has been confirmed by clinical studies. Some of the GnRH agonists employed in these treatments having a direct anti-proliferative effect are known by the following trademarks of the medicaments approved in Germany: for example ZOLADEX®, ZOLADEX 10.8®, ZOLADEX GYN®, PROFACT®-DEPOT, PROFACT® PRO INJECTIONE/NASAL, SYNARELA®, ENANTONE MONATS-DEPOT®, UNO-ENANTONE®, ENANTONE GYN MONATS-DEPOT®, TRENANTONE®, SUPRECUR®, CARCINIL®, or DECAPEPTYL® 0.5 mg/0.1 mg, DECAPEPTYL® DEPOT, DECAPEPTYL® GYN as well as DECAPEPTYL® DIAGNOSTIK.
Research with cell culture has revealed that GnRH receptors are present on human primary liver cell carcinomas and pancreas adenocarcinomas. In addition, the beginning of a biochemical metabolization with respect to cleavage of GnRH between tyrosine 5 and glycine 6 in rat glioma and rat neuroblastoma has been described; cf. Tao et al., 1991, Neuropeptides 20, 125-131. Ligand binding of GnRH to the GnRH receptor and its signal transduction, however, takes place in a different way, namely at the eighth amino acid of GnRH, arginine, and this exclusively occurs in the case of an intact conformation of the GnRH molecule and its amino acid side chains (Naor, Z., Schacham, Sh., Harris, D., Seger, R., and Reiss, N., 1995, Signal Transduction of the Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone (GnRH) Receptor: Cross-Talk of Calcium, Protein Kinase C (PKC), and Arachidonic Acid. Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology, vol. 15, 527-545). In normal rat adenohypophysis where GnRH receptors reside, GnRH leads to an increased cAMP production, however, it is still unclear whether this is a direct or an indirect effect (paracrine interaction). For the function of the GnRH receptor in rat including secretion of LH as well as an increased production of LH stimulated by GnRH, the biochemical metabolization of GnRH, e.g. by means of cAMP, plays only an indirect role (Abdilnour, G., and Bourne, G. A., 1995, Adenosine 3′,5′-cyclic mono-phosphate and the self-priming effect of gonadotropin-releasing hormone. Molecular and Cellular Endocrinology, 107, 1-7). Naturally, there were found GnRH receptors on human gonadotropin producing pituitary adenomas (Alexander, J. P., and Klibanski, A., Gonadotropin-releasing Hormone Receptor mRNA Expression by Human Pituitary Tumors In Vitro, 1994, Journal of Clinical Investigation, 93, 2332-2339).
In the case of glioma and other malignant tumors of ectodermal origin, such as malignant melanoma and in particular in the case of diffusely growing tumors in the nervous system or in the case of metastases (formation of disseminations, for example, in other organs such as oat-cell carcinoma in the lung) life expectancy is not optimistic. The same is true for Kaposi sarcoma. "Glioma" refers to mainly brain-localized true tumors of the central nervous system (CNS) originating in the neuroglia, i.e. from the covering and supporting tissue of the nervous system which is derived from ectoderm. These gliomas are present in various differentiation stages. Subtypes of glioma are spongioblastoma, oligodendroglioma, astrocytoma, glioblastoma, and retinoblastoma. In particular, the Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) type of brain tumors is characterized by fast growth and extremely high recidivation rate (i.e., the percentage of patients with brain tumor recurrence following surgical macroscopic excision).
Malignant melanoma occurring in the CNS, primary or as metastasis, as well as malignant melanoma which primarily occurs in the skin and/or malignant melanoma which disseminates (metastasizes) further in the skin and/or in other body organs belong to nerve system derived tumors; cf. Shamamian et al., 1994, Cancer Immunol. Immunother. 39, 73-83; Florenes et al., 1994, Cancer Research, 54, 354-356. Malignant melanomas are derived from neuroectoderm, an embryonic layer. Burg et al., 1997, Deutsches Ärzteblatt 94, 890-895, describe a tumor growth inhibiting effect of tamoxifen for the malignant melanoma. Furthermore, glioblastoma and malignant melanoma have several tumor markers in common; cf. Shamamian et al., 1994, Cancer Immunol. Immunother. 39, 73-83; Florenes et al., 1994, Cancer Research 54, 354-356. In the case of metastases, the prognosis is very poor; cf. Burg et al., 1997, Deutsches Arzteblatt 94, 890-895.
Tumors originating in brain and/or nervous system and/or the meninges further comprise the neuroblastoma and the medullablastoma which in their entirety have been classified as the so-called primitive neuroectodermal tumors, abbreviated as PNET. These tumors further include the pinealoma originating in pineal body parenchyma and/or primordial germ cells in the pineal body region or the brain median. Moreover, the pineal body is associated with the origin of craniopharyngeoma (a tumor producing β-HCG or LH-like glycoprotein, respectively; cf. Tachibana et al., 1994, J. of Neurosurgery 80, 79-84) which is considered to be an ectodermal tumor and originates in the front/upper face of the pituitary.
Both for craniopharyngeoma and meningeoma which is considered to be a benign tumor originating in arachnoidal cover cells and often adhering firmly to the inner surface of the meninges (dura mater), progesterone receptors and estrogen receptors have been described. Furthermore, androgen receptors have also been established in the case of meningeoma. In clinical studies using anti-progesterone medicaments, tumor-shrinking effects have been observed.
Up to now, the investigation of other therapies (different forms of chemotherapy, radiotherapy, etc.) in numerous clinical studies has failed to provide a substantial improvernent of the prognosis for tumors originating in brain and/or nervous system and/or the meninges. At present, the standard therapy in the case of Glioblastoma multiforme consists of an as complete as possible surgical excision of the tumor followed by conventional radiotherapy. Under this standard therapy the statistically reported mean survival time is 9-13 months with individual variations and particularly a slightly better prognosis for younger patients having been observed.
About 30% of patients with recurrent Glioblastoma multiforme showed constant size or shrinking, respectively, of the inoperable residual brain tumor under sustained high-dosage of Tamoxifen, an anti-estrogen preparation. This tumor-inhibiting effect in glioblastoma treatment has not been attributed to its anti-estrogenic effect but to its inhibition of protein kinase C (an intracellular signal mediator); cf. Puchner et al., Zentralblatt für Neurochirurgie, Supplement 1996, 47. Jahrestagung Deutsche Gesellschaft für Neurochirurgie, page 44; Pollack et al., 1995, The Efficacy of Tamoxifen as an anti-proliferative Agent in vitro for Benign and Malignant Pediatric Glial Tumors, Pediatr. Neurosurgery 22, 281-288). Moreover, Tamoxifen is said to increase the sensitivity of tumor cells for platinium-containing therapeutics as well as for radiotherapy.
For Glioblastoma multiforme (WHO grade IV astrocytoma) and for glioma with a lower grade of malignancy (WHO grade II-IV astrocytoma) steriod hormone receptors have been observed in a smaller percentage of the cases (cf. Paoletti et al., 1990, J. Neurosurgery, Characteristics and biological role of steroid hormone receptors in neuroepithelial tumors, 73, 736-742). Up to now, an indirect anti-proliferative effect in the case of Glioblastoma multiforme and glioma grade II-IV has been observed in clinical studies in only about 30% of the cases by a response of the tumor to Tamoxifen (an anti-estrogen preparation).
Although recently, several relatively reasonable new developments in Glioblastoma multiforme therapy have been described, the prognosis quod vitam for patients with Glioblastoma multiforme remains poor due to the extremely high recurrence rate despite the therapy forms tried and tested so far and due to the lack of a specific therapy and early diagnosis. The oat-cell carcinoma, another malignant tumor, is frequently found in lungs and is also derived from neural cells (Tecimer et al Arch. Pathol. Lab. Med., 124, 520-525, 2000).

Methods for reducing GNRH-positive tumor cell replication


A dialog system is described that is capable of maintaining a single dialog session covering multiple user utterances, which may be separated by pauses or time gaps, and that continuously determines intent across the multiple utterances within a session.

An increasing number of devices now enable users to interact with the devices directly using voice or spoken speech. For example, a user can speak to such a device in a natural language where the user may ask a question or make a statement requesting some action to be performed. In response, the device performs the requested action or responds to the user's question using voice output. Since interacting directly using voice is a more natural and intuitive way for humans to communicate with their surroundings, the popularity of such speech-based systems is growing at an astronomical rate.
In conventional systems, the interaction between a user and a device that implements such as dialog system is based upon a single-input-single-response paradigm. For example, a user initiates or wakes up the dialog system by saying a wake word or pressing a "begin-dialog" button. The wake word or button press causes the dialog system to initiate a new dialog session. The user's spoken speech utterance immediately after the wake word or button press is received. A pause for a period of time or a time gap of silence marks the end of the speech input. The speech input is processed by the dialog system and a response generated and output the user. The dialog session is terminated after the response is output to the user. Once the dialog session is terminated, if the user wants to start a new dialog, the user has to speak the wake-word or press the begin-dialog button. This single-input-single-response paradigm creates an unnatural flow to the dialog and can be frustrating to the user.

Dynamic contextual dialog session extension


An electricity supply system comprises: a battery module, a control module, and a distribution box. The battery module includes at least two in-series modules, each comprising at least two battery groups connected in series. The control module is connected with the battery module and includes an IGBT module, a relay module, and a relay control module. The relay module includes a plurality of relays K. Each in-series module is connected to the relay module. The relay module is connected to the IGBT module. The relay control module is configured for controlling ON or OFF of each relay K so as to select an in-series module to work with the IGBT module. The distribution box is connected with the control module.

One of core components of an electric vehicle is battery. Some electric vehicles use lithium ion batteries. Performance of a lithium ion battery is generally poor at a low temperature. Thus, it is required to heat the lithium ion battery. An electric vehicle battery heating system has become a technical challenge. An in-series IGBT (insulated gate bipolar transistor) heating is one of conventional methods for heating an electric vehicle battery.
Because electric vehicle batteries are mostly configured in series to form a battery pack, for the IGBT heating, the IGBT is connected with the battery pack in series, and the battery pack is heated via a pulse current which is generated by an instant short circuit of the entire battery pack. If a performance of the battery is poor, a pulse short circuit current may not be overlarge (for instance, less than 3000 A) because of a large resistance of the battery, thus an entire pack in-series IGBT heating is feasible. However, with an improvement of the performance of the battery, the resistance of the battery is greatly decreased so that the pulse short circuit current of a hybrid vehicle battery pack may be 5000 A, and that of a pure electric vehicle battery pack may be 7000 A, which are too large for the IGBT, a fuse plug and the battery itself.
In addition, on one hand, because the battery pack generally includes hundreds of batteries connected in series, a non-uniform discharge of each single battery may be caused during a repeated charge-discharge process, which may cause a capacity loss of the battery pack; and on the other hand, for the in-series IGBT heating, a discharge difference may be caused because of different battery groups, thus a voltage difference of the battery pack may be caused accordingly.


A method is disclosed for controlling a concentration of oxygen that is measured by an oxygen sensor of an after-treatment system of an internal combustion engine when a regeneration of an after-treatment device is required. The method may be a computer-implement method. An oxygen sensor target value is lowered in a stepped phase as a function of an exhaust gas flow speed as the exhaust gas passes through the after-treatment system. The oxygen sensor target value is lowered evenly as a function of the exhaust gas flow speed and by a filter phase when a measured air/fuel ratio value is less than or equal to an AFR threshold value and until the oxygen sensor target value is equal to an oxygen sensor final target value. The oxygen concentration is controlled by applying the oxygen sensor target value.

It is known that the exhaust system of an internal combustion engine can be equipped with one or more after-treatment devices. Such an after-treatment processing device may be any kind of device that is configured so as to modify the composition of the exhaust gases. Some examples of after-treatment devices include NOx traps for lean operation (LNT) and particulate filters (DPF).
In particular, the NOx trap for lean operation as an inexpensive alternative to a system for selective catalytic reduction (SCR) is an after-treatment technology for reducing NOx emissions from an engine based on a NOx storage capacity during the Diesel engine standard working condition, that is to say in lean combustion phases. The NOx is then reduced during a rich combustion phase (DeNOx regeneration). The rich combustion phase is induced by a special control of the air and fuel supply.
Both LNT and DPF controllers use specific models in order to control these devices. The models need several inputs, the most important of which for correct functioning is the quantity of oxygen in the exhaust line.
Such an oxygen quantity signal is typically provided by an air/fuel ratio sensor (also called an oxygen sensor). Depending on the after-treatment configurations, it is possible to have a single oxygen sensor disposed upstream of the LNT or two oxygen sensors one upstream and another downstream of the LNT.
Exhaust gas oxygen sensors are used regularly in diesel applications to control fuel injection in order to remain in compliance with emission standards during the operating life of the vehicle and statutory requirements concerning on-board diagnosis (OBD II) regarding system faults in the fuel injection system. In particular, the oxygen signals are used to detect injector drift and balance the system setting and pilot injection deviation, thereby reducing combustion noise and ensuring good emissions performance. In some applications, oxygen measurement is also used to control and monitor the regeneration event of the NOx trap for lean operation.
In such a case, modulation of the post-injections is extremely critical during the rich combustion phases using a standard step target value adjustment for the oxygen sensor, especially if the sensor is functioning more slowly than the nominal condition due to possible deposits of hydrocarbons (HC) and soot on the probe. The transition from a lean to a rich combustion phase takes place in a sudden step change in the air/fuel ratio (AFR) target value, e.g., from 1.5 to 0.95. The standard adjustment of the oxygen sensor is made on the basis of proportional-integral (PI) control, which acts on the post-injection quantity in conjunction with the AFR target value. The standard control causes the ratio to fall below the AFR (AFR values as low as 0.9 are achieved, for example), which in turn results in an increase in the hydrocarbon quantity, thus contributing to soiling of the sensor probe. This phenomenon slows the sensor performance down, and the situation is aggravated further by the ageing of the sensor.
Therefore, there is a need for a method to control the oxygen concentration, with which the drawbacks described above may be overcome. In one aspect, the method is embodied as a computer-implemented method.

Method for controlling an oxygen concentration


The address translation capabilities of packet-switched mobile networks are exploited to achieve bidirectional LAN communications therethrough. A multi-dash user VPN can be provided by encapsulating a multi-user LAN communication protocol for traversal of a packet-switched network. By encapsulating a commonly available multi-user LAN communication protocol, for example ethernet, remote LAN connectivity can be extended without requiring any host reconfiguration.

The following documents are incorporated herein by reference: (1) RFC3378: EtherIP: Tunnelling Ethernet Frames in IP Datagrams; (2) RFC2661: Layer Two Tunnelling Protocol "L2TP"; (3) RFC2784: Generic Routing Encapsulation (GRE); and (4) RFC3022: Traditional IP Network Address Translator.
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) allow an on-the-go user to access hosts on the user's home network, such as a fixed local area network (LAN), from remote locations. VPNs typically utilize existing public network infrastructures, for example the Internet, to achieve this remote access. To create a typical VPN, a secure connection is established between an entity at the remote-end, for example software on the user's PC, and a corresponding entity (for example a security gateway) at the network. Data is transported between the remote host and the home network using the publicly available network infrastructure.
Many conventional approaches to achieving connectivity between the remote end and the home end of a VPN utilize "virtual" point-to-point connectivity over a packet-switched network within the public network infrastructure. One conventional approach to achieving this connectivity is to create an IPSec "tunnel" over the public network between the remote-end host and the home-end host. For example, IPSec tunnels frequently traverse a private corporate intranet, and then the public Internet, thereby enabling corporate users to utilize the public Internet to access their corporate intranet. However, this IPSec tunnel solution is relatively complicated to implement, because the remote-end host must be specially configured and provided with specialized software, and because firewall and security gateways are needed at the home network.
Another known approach to achieving VPN connectivity is the SSL-based VPN. This approach is simple to use, because it is web browser-based. However, this means that only web-based applications may be run from the remote-end host. This may be undesirable for various reasons, especially when it is desired to establish VPN connectivity to a remote-end host running a legacy application that is not web-based.
In order to make connectivity to LANs more flexible, wireless LANs (WLANs) are increasingly common. (Hereinafter, the acronym "LAN" can generically refer either to a wired LAN or a wireless LAN.). In WLANs, PCs or other hosts within a WLAN coverage area, or "hotspot", are able to connect to the LAN via an RF connection. However, the aforementioned WLAN hotspots are limited in coverage. For example, a typical WLAN hotspot has only a relatively short radio coverage range, typically on the order of 100 meters. Furthermore, each WLAN hotspot needs to be installed and supported, both technically and financially, by an operator or provider of some kind. Users subscribe to this provider's service in order to be able to utilize the WLAN connectivity. If, for example, a user moves about frequently, this could necessitate subscribing to numerous different providers for the appropriate hotspot accesses. It can become increasingly difficult for the user to manage and administer these various subscriptions if, for example, the user needs to connect from different cities or even different countries.
Packet-switched mobile networks, for example cellular mobile networks such as the General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) have been used conventionally to extend connectivity of a remote user to hosts on a fixed IP network (e.g., Internet). If the packet-switched mobile network utilizes IP as its transport mechanism, then packets from the remote user are transported within the IP datagrams of the mobile network's transport mechanism. However, mobile networks conventionally assign a private IP address to the host of the mobile (remote) user. Therefore, only unidirectional communications from a mobile host of the remote user to hosts on the fixed IP network are possible. For example, in conventional systems, a browser on a mobile terminal of the remote user can access a web-server on the fixed IP network. However, a browser running on a host of the fixed IP network cannot access a web-server on a host of the remote user.
It is desirable in view of the foregoing to provide for multi-user VPN connectivity with reduced implementational complexity in the hosts, to extend the range of wireless LANs, and to provide for LAN communications across packet-switched mobile networks.
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention use tunneling to exploit the address translation capabilities of packet-switched mobile networks in order to achieve bidirectional LAN communications therethrough. Exemplary embodiments according to the invention can also provide for a multi-user VPN by encapsulating a multi-user LAN communication protocol for traversal of a packet-switched network. Some embodiments encapsulate a commonly available multi-user LAN communication protocol, for example ethernet, thereby extending remote LAN connectivity without requiring any host reconfiguration.

Using tunneling to enhance remote LAN connectivity


A variable pressure oil pump assembly for use with a vehicle having a controller includes a pump body having an inlet, an outlet, a valve chamber, a first passage disposed between the inlet and the valve chamber, and a second passage disposed between the outlet and the valve chamber. The assembly further includes a pressure relief valve subassembly having a movable plunger that is disposed at least partially in the valve chamber for controlling flow of oil through the valve chamber so as to control outlet oil pressure at the outlet. A plunger adjustment mechanism is associated with the valve subassembly and adapted to communicate with the controller. The plunger adjustment mechanism is operable to control movement of the plunger based on control signals provided by the controller.

The invention relates to a variable pressure oil pump for use with an engine, such as an internal combustion engine of a motor vehicle.
A typical motor vehicle includes an internal combustion engine and a lubrication system for providing oil to various lubrication locations of the engine. Such lubrication locations include sleeve bearings that support a rotating shaft, such as a camshaft. The oil produces a viscous friction drag on the rotating shaft, and the frictional drag converts mechanical energy from the shaft into heat energy within the oil. To prevent the oil from overheating within the bearings, the bearings are continually provided pressurized, lower temperature oil from an oil pump of the lubrication system. The pressurized, lower temperature oil is forced into the bearings and displaces heated oil out of the bearings.
When the engine is cold, such as during a cold start, however, the oil in the bearings is cold and the viscosity of the oil is high. As a result, it is not desirable to replace this oil with pressurized, low temperature oil.
Systems have been developed to vary oil pressure of oil provided to bearings of an internal combustion engine. U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,776, for example, discloses a lubrication system that includes an oil pump that draws oil from an oil sump, and a bypass valve that is capable of diverting oil supplied by the oil pump back into the oil sump without routing the oil to the bearings. Because high pressure oil is dumped back into the sump, however, aeration of the oil may occur. Furthermore, the oil dumped back into the sump will likely experience significant heat loss.
The present invention addresses the shortcomings of the prior art by providing a variable pressure oil pump assembly that can vary outlet oil pressure based on one or more operating conditions. Furthermore, outlet oil pressure may be varied without diverting high pressure oil into an oil sump.
Under the invention, a variable pressure oil pump assembly for use with a vehicle having a controller includes a pump body having an inlet, an outlet, a valve chamber, a first passage disposed between the inlet and the valve chamber, and a second passage disposed between the outlet and the valve chamber. The assembly further includes a pressure relief valve subassembly having a movable plunger that is disposed at least partially in the valve chamber for controlling flow of oil through the valve chamber so as to control outlet oil pressure at the outlet. A plunger adjustment mechanism is associated with the valve subassembly and adapted to communicate with the controller. The plunger adjustment mechanism is operable to control movement of the plunger based on control signals provided by the controller.
The plunger adjustment mechanism may be any suitable mechanism that is configured to affect movement of the plunger. For example, the plunger adjustment mechanism may include a solenoid subassembly connected to the pump body and adapted to be electrically connected to the controller. With such a configuration, when the solenoid subassembly is energized, the solenoid subassembly draws the plunger toward an open position for allowing oil to flow through the valve chamber.
In another embodiment of the invention, the plunger has an enlarged head having first and second sides, and the plunger adjustment mechanism includes a housing connected to the pump body and defining a housing chamber that receives the enlarged head. Furthermore, the housing including first and second apertures. The first aperture is in fluid communication with the first side of the enlarged head. The second aperture is in fluid communication with the second side of the enlarged head and is further connected to the inlet. In addition, the plunger adjustment mechanism includes a solenoid valve adapted to be electrically connected to the controller and further connected to the first aperture, the inlet and the outlet. When the solenoid valve is energized, the first aperture is exposed to the outlet oil pressure. When the solenoid valve is de-energized, the first aperture is exposed to inlet oil pressure.
In yet another embodiment of the invention, the plunger has an enlarged head having first and second sides, and the plunger adjustment mechanism includes a housing connected to the pump body and defining a housing chamber that receives the enlarged head. Furthermore, the housing includes first and second apertures. The first aperture is in fluid communication with the first side of the enlarged head. The second aperture is in fluid communication with. the second side of the enlarged head and is further connected to the inlet so as to expose the second side of the enlarged head to inlet oil pressure. In addition, the plunger adjustment mechanism includes an additional pump connected between the first aperture and the inlet and adapted to be electrically connected to the controller. When the additional pump is not activated, the additional pump provides the inlet oil pressure to the first aperture. When the additional pump is activated, the additional pump provides oil pressure to the first aperture that is greater than the inlet oil pressure.


A reproducing apparatus for a video disc which detects a residual spurious component included in a reproduced video signal, and signal levels of a pair of cross carrier components are controlled and composed in accordance with the detected residual spurious components to thereby form a spurious correction signal, whereby the spurious component included in the reproduced video signal is removed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to reproducing apparatus for a video disc and, more particularly, is directed to a reproducing apparatus for a video disc for eliminating spurious components included in a video signal reproduced from the video disc.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Conventionally, as shown in FIG. 1, on an optical video disc, there are recorded in frequency multiplication a frequency modulated video signal VFM having a sync-tip frequency of 7.6 MHz and a white peak frequency of 9.3 MHz, and a frequency modulated audio signal AFM of two channels (right and left channels). Carrier frequencies of the two channel frequency modulated audio signals AFM are 2.3 MHz and 2.8 MHz, respectively.
Upon recording, the frequency modulated video signal of a shorter period shown in FIG. 2A and the frequency modulated audio signal of a longer period shown in FIG. 2B are added to form a composite signal shown in FIG. 2C. The composite signal is limited in its amplitude to thereby be converted into a recording signal as shown in FIG. 2D. In the recording signal, a change in a repetition frequency thereof represents a frequency modulated component of the video signal and a change in a pulse duty factor thereof represents a frequency modulated component of the audio signal.
In the optical video disc, the frequency modulated video signal VFM and the frequency modulated audio signal AFM are recorded in frequency multiplication as set forth above. Thus, upon reproduction, due to inter-modulation of the frequency modulated video and audio signals, there are generated many spurious components including a difference mixing component and a sum mixing component between a carrier frequency fv of the frequency modulated video signal VFM and a carrier frequency fa of the frequency modulated audio signal AFM. Thus, the conventional reproducing apparatus for an optical disc has the disadvantage that beat-shaped noises appear in a reproduced image due to the spurious components of a demodulated video signal having frequency components almost equal to the carrier frequency of the frequency modulated audio signal AFM, thereby degrading quality of the reproduced video image.
One method of eliminating the spurious noises has been proposed by the same assignee of the present application in Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 61-199271. In this method, synchronous detection is performed based on a carrier frequency component (spurious component) of a frequency modulated audio signal included in a demodulated video signal and a carrier frequency component of a reproduced frequency modulated audio signal. Then, a level of the carrier frequency component of the reproduced frequency modulated audio signal is adjusted by an output of the synchronous detection, thereby the spurious components of the demodulated video signal being eliminated.
FIG. 4 shows an arrangement of the conventional reproducing apparatus for a video disc shown in the above-described publication.
Referring to FIG. 4, a reproduced radio frequency (RF) signal is outputted from an optical pickup (PU) 1 positioned in opposition to a video disc D, and then supplied to a video signal demodulator 12 through a band pass filter (BPF) 11 having a center frequency fv. Also, the reproduced RF signal is supplied to a pair of audio signal demodulators 15 and 16 through a pair of band pass filters 13 and 14 having center frequencies fa1 and fa2, respectively. Thus, an audio signal and a video signal are reproduced by the demodulators 15, 16 and 12, respectively. An output of the video signal demodulator 12 is, on one hand, supplied to an adder 19 through a low pass filter (LPF) 17 and a delay circuit 18 having a delay time T.
The output signal of the video signal demodulator 12 is, on the other hand, supplied to spurious correction circuits 20 and 30. In the spurious correction circuit 20, the output signal of the video signal demodulator 12 is supplied to a synchronous detection circuit 21 through a band pass filter 22 having a center frequency fa1. Also, a reproduced audio signal Sa1 is supplied from the band pass filter 13 to the synchronous detection circuit 21 through a delay circuit 23 having a delay time Ta1.
An output signal of the delay circuit 23 is also supplied to a level adjusting circuit 24. An output signal of the synchronous detection circuit 21 is supplied through a low pass filter 25 to the level detection circuit 24, which thereby controls an output signal level of the delay circuit 23. The signal thus adjusted in its signal level by the level adjusting circuit 24 is supplied to the adder 19 through a phase conversion circuit 26.
In the other spurious correction circuit 30, in the same manner as the spurious correction circuit 20, the output signal of the video signal demodulator 12 is supplied to a synchronous detection circuit 31 through a band pass filter 32 having a center frequency fa2. An output signal of the synchronous detection circuit 31 is supplied to a level adjusting circuit 34 through a low pass filter 35. The reproduced audio signal is supplied to a delay circuit 33 having a delay time Ta2 from the band pass filter 14. An output signal of the delay circuit 33 is supplied to the synchronous detection circuit 31 to perform the synchronous detection, and also supplied to the level adjusting circuit 34, which in turn controls an output signal level of the delay circuit 33 in accordance with an output of the low pass filter 35. An output signal of the level adjusting circuit 34 is supplied to the adder 19 through a phase inversion circuit 36.
In the synchronous detection circuits 21 and 31 of the spurious correction circuits 20 and 30, spurious components Ss1 and Ss2 having center frequencies fa1 and fa2 which are separated from the demodulated video signal are multiplied by audio carrier components Sa1 and Sa2 which are made in phase with the spurious components Ss1 and Ss2 by the delay circuits 23 and 33, respectively. Thus, the synchronous detection circuits 21 and 31 deliver detection signals Sd1 and Sd2 accorded with the spurious components Ss1 and Ss2, respectively.
Signal levels of the audio carrier components Sa1 and Sa2 are adjusted in accordance with the detection signals Sd1 and Sd2 by the level adjusting circuits 24 and 34, respectively. Thus, the level adjusting circuits 24 and 34 deliver correction signals Sc1 and Sc2 accorded with signal levels of the spurious components Ss1 and Ss2, respectively.
The correction signals Sc1 and Sc2 are inverted in their phases by the phase inversion circuits 26 and 36 and then supplied to the adder 19, respectively, whereby the spurious components Ss1 and Ss2 included in the demodulated video signal are eliminated in the adder 19.
In the thus constituted conventional reproducing apparatus for a video disc, since the spurious correction circuits 20 and 30 employ synchronous detection circuits 21 and 31, it is required to coincide the phases of the audio carrier components Sa1 and Sa2 for the synchronous detection with those of the spurious components Ss1 and Ss2 by using the delay circuits 23 and 33, respectively.
However, since the spurious component of the demodulated video signal differs at every disc, the conventional reproducing apparatus for a video disc has the disadvantage such that the delay times Ta1 and Ta2 of the spurious correction circuits 20 and 30 must be adjusted at every disc, respectively.

Video disc reproducing apparatus with phase shifter to eliminate inter-modulation distortion between reproduced audio and video signals


A object oriented attribute handle for parsing and packing object attributes for communication thereof between virtual and physical devices in an object oriented programming environment. The handle comprising the steps of creating a plurality of attribute description files for each class of object instances and either parsing or packing instance attributes in accordance with a corresponding one of the plurality of attribute description files. The handle using a suite of routines to parse or pack instance attributes in accordance with the corresponding predefined attribute description file.

The usage of network file systems ("NFS") permit remote files to be treated as a "virtual file" which resides locally on a desktop. Moreover, NFSs permit sharing and manipulation of centrally located information without the burden of added complexity. In another context, NFSs permit remote hardware to appear as virtual devices which reside locally in a desktop computer or workstation. As one example, automated controllers whose physical components may reside near the devices they control can be made to appear as a "virtual device" which resides in the desktop computer or workstation.
In general the virtual device approach provides software objects which logically behave as if the hardware device itself is locally resident on the desktop PC or workstation. The advantage of this approach is to effectively hide the complexity of communications, data caching and refreshing, persistent storage, and on-line/off-line functionality from the user interface applications. In short, the goal of the virtual device approach is to abstract out as much detail as possible for potential clients.
The ASA virtual device architecture developed by Allen-Bradley Company, Inc., the assignee of the present application comprises a set of objects which provide functionality for supporting all of the complex behavior mentioned above. This set of objects can be used as the basis of creating specific virtual objects for representing any of a family of devices. For example, a developer can use this platform to create a virtual automation controller module which comprises many classes of objects such as a Task, Program, Data, Memory and I/O Map objects. Each of the classes, in turn, comprise a plurality of instances or specific individual objects wherein the instances of each class have similar attributes.
At times it is desirable to inspect or set all or some of the attributes associated with any of the instances which make up a particular object within a module. In the past this has been accomplished via a set of functional interfaces that handled each attribute on an individual basis. While this method works well in a system with few attributes, it becomes unmanageable when many attributes are involved. This is especially true when an attribute's format changes as this requires changes to every reference to that attribute in every software object.
Accordingly, there is a present need for a method for handling instance attributes in a system comprised of many classes of instances each having a plurality of attributes wherein attributes are not required to be handled on an individual basis. More generally, there is a present need for a method of communicating instance attributes between virtual and physical devices in a more efficient manner.


The present invention is a receiver having a radio frequency (RF) front end, a pulse detector operatively coupled to the RF front end, and a data recovery unit operatively coupled to the pulse detector. The data recovery unit is configured to receive spread spectrum RF signals having different pulse repetition frequencies and using different modulation techniques. The receiver may operate in conjunction with a transmitter as a transceiver. The receiver may also operate in a networked environment in which a network of transceiver node devices comprise a first slave transceiver having a receiver configured to receive spread spectrum signals, and a second slave transceiver configured to communicate with the first slave transceiver. Additionally, a master transceiver is in communication with the first slave transceiver and the second slave transceiver. The master transceiver is configured to manage data transmissions and synchronization between the first slave transceiver and the second slave transceiver.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to systems and methods for a wireless data receiver. More particularly, the invention relates to an ultra wideband receiver for receiving base band signals.
2. Description of the Background Art
Wireless communication increasingly relies on the transmission of data in digital formats. Typically, a data stream is modulated onto a carrier frequency, and the modulated carrier signal is transmitted over a communications channel from a transmitter to a receiver. Generally, these communication systems use conventional narrow band modulated carriers for wireless network communication.
There are important disadvantages associated with using conventional narrowband modulated carrier frequencies. Particularly, in multipath environments such as inside rooms and buildings, data communication degrades because of multipath propagation or fading and can result in poor signal reception. Further, the rapidly increasing use of wireless consumer products has "crowded the airwaves" and will result in increasing interference with reception of data. Still further, narrow band modulated carriers rely on use of relatively expensive components such as high-Q filters, precise local high-frequency oscillators, and power amplifiers.
Spread-spectrum signals for digital communications were originally developed and used for military communications either to provide resistance to jamming or to hide the signal by transmitting the signal at low power and, thus, make it difficult for an unintended listener to detect its presence in noise. More recently, spread-spectrum signals have been used to provide reliable communications in a variety of civilian applications, including mobile vehicular communications.
There are several types of spread spectrum signals. In one type, the basic elements of a spread spectrum digital communication system include a channel encoder, modulator, channel decoder, demodulator, and two synchronized sequence generators, one which interfaces with the modulator at the transmitting end and the second which interfaces with a demodulator at the receiving end. These two generators produce a binary-valued sequence that is used to periodically change the carrier frequency and thus spread the transmitted signal frequency at the modulator and to follow the carrier frequency of the received signals at the demodulator.
In carrier-based frequency-hopped spread spectrum the available channel bandwidth is subdivided into a large number of non-overlapping frequency slots. In any signaling interval the transmitted signal carrier occupies one of the available frequency slots. The selection of the frequency slots in each signal interval is made either sequentially or pseudorandomly according to the output from a pseudo-noise generator. The receiver tuning follows the frequency hopping of the transmitted carrier.
Another alternative spread spectrum communication system uses base band signals. In base band spread spectrum communication, information may be transmitted in short pulses, modulated by relatively simple keying techniques, with power spread across a frequency band. With the signal spectrum spread across a frequency band, frequency selective fading and other disadvantages of narrow band communication can be avoided. Base band technology has previously been used in radar applications, wherein a single short impulse is directed to a target. The short impulse, spread across a large bandwidth, has significantly reduced spectral power density and thus has a reduced probability of detection and interference.
Ultra wide band (UWB) is a wireless technology for transmitting large amounts of digital data over a wide spectrum of frequency bands with very low power. UWB is an extension of conventional spread spectrum technology. The major distinction is that while conventional spread spectrum signals require a few megahertz to about 20 to 30 MHz of bandwidth, UWB uses vastly more spectrum from a few megahertz to several gigahertz. Therefore, UWB communication systems broadcast digital pulses that are timed very precisely on a signal across a very wide spectrum. The transmitter and receiver must be coordinated to send and receive at the proper time. One of the applications for UWB is to allow low powered voice and data communications at very high bit rates.
The transmission and reception of digital data of short pulses over an UWB spectrum would avoid the problems associated with narrow band data communications, and the cost and complexity of spread spectrum communications. Suitable, cost effective receiver architectures for receiving such data transmissions, have heretofore been unavailable.
Accordingly, there is a need for a UWB base band receiver system and method which can receive data in the form of short UWB pulses which can be used with a network of transceiver node devices, which is not susceptible to multipath fading or interference with a narrowband communication system, which can be used for indoor applications, and which is relatively simple and inexpensive to implement. The present invention satisfies these needs, as well as others, and generally overcomes the deficiencies found in the background art.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to provide an invention having a base band receiver apparatus and method which efficiently receives data in the form of ultra-short, spread spectrum pulses.
It would also be beneficial to provide a baseband receiver system and method capable of receiving signals transmitted with different modulation methods.
It would be further beneficial to provide a baseband receiver system and method capable of receiving signals transmitted with variable pulse repetition frequencies.
It would be beneficial to provide a baseband receiver system and method capable of receiving signals transmitted using two different modulation methods such as on-off keying and pulse amplitude modulation.
It would be beneficial to provide a base band receiver apparatus and method which allows synchronization to a master clock of a remote master transceiver device in a multiple transceiver device network.
Further benefits of the invention will be brought out in the following portions of the specification, wherein the detailed description is for the purpose of fully disclosing the preferred embodiment of the invention without placing limitations thereon.


A printed wiring board includes an insulative substrate having a penetrating hole, a first conductive layer formed on a first surface of the insulative substrate, a second conductive layer formed on a second surface of the insulative substrate, and a through-hole conductor formed in the penetrating hole through the insulative substrate such that the through-hole conductor is connecting the first conductive layer and second conductive layer. The penetrating hole has a first opening portion formed on a first-surface side of the insulative substrate and a second opening portion formed on a second-surface side of the insulative substrate such that the second opening portion has a depth which is greater than a depth of the first opening portion and the second opening portion has a volume which is greater than a volume of the first opening portion, and the through-hole conductor formed in the second opening portion includes a void portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printed wiring board having a through-hole conductor shaped like an hourglass, and to a method for manufacturing such a printed wiring board.
2. Description of Background Art
JP 2006-41463A describes forming in an insulative substrate an hourglass-shaped penetrating hole made up of a first blind hole and a second blind hole, and filling the penetrating hole with plating. The entire contents of this publication are incorporated herein by reference.

Printed wiring board and method for manufacturing printed wiring board


A safety-belt arrangement for use in a motor vehicle has a safety-belt (5), one end of which is connected to a retractor (8), a sensor (11) generates a signal representative of the amount of safety-belt paid-out from the retractor. A force limiter (10) is associated with the retractor to permit safety-belt to be paid-out with a variable force limiting effect. A control arrangement (12) changes the level of force applied by the force limiter (10) in dependence upon the length of safety-belt paid-out from the retractor.

1. Field of the Invention
THE PRESENT INVENTION relates to a safety-belt arrangement, and more particularly relates to a safety-belt arrangement intended for use in a motor vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
A simple safety-belt arrangement, as in widespread use, comprises a lap-and-diagonal safety-belt arrangement, (or "three-point" safety-belt) with one end of the safety-belt being anchored to part of the vehicle, an intermediate part of the safety-belt being provided with a tongue releasably engageable with a fixed buckle, and the other end of the safety-belt, which may pass through a pillar-loop, being wound on to the spindle of a retractor. The retractor incorporates a mechanism which locks the spindle of the retractor to prevent further safety-belt being paid out from the retractor when an accident or a potential accident situation is sensed. If the safety-belt is locked in this way, however, the safety-belt can, in certain circumstances, apply a very great retarding force to the occupant of the vehicle, decelerating the occupant very swiftly, and also possibly injuring the occupant.
Thus it has been proposed to provide a force limiter in a safety-belt system, the force limiter being adapted to enable a certain length of safety-belt to be paid-out, with a force limiting or energy absorbing effect, when very high forces are applied to the safety-belt.
It has been proposed to provide an arrangement in which the force limiting effect can be varied, at the start of or during an accident situation, in dependence upon the load required to be absorbed by the safety-belt arrangement. An arrangement of this type is disclosed in WO 9749583-A in which the reel of a retractor is provided with a torsion element arrangement which provides the force limiting effect. The torsion element arrangement includes an axially extending torsion bar and a co-axial torsion sleeve. The torsion bar and the torsion sleeve each terminate with a portion having a respective toothed periphery which can be releasably engaged by a respective ratchet element. In this way the level of force of the force limiting effect can be selected, by selecting either the bar, or the sleeve, or both, to provide the force limiting effect.
It is desirable, in a typical accident situation, for the force limiter to provide a high force limiting effect during the initial stages of the accident, as the occupant of the seat begins to move forwardly relative to the chassis of the vehicle, and to provide a lower force limiting effect at a subsequent stage in the accident when the occupant has moved forwardly and begins to impact with an inflating air-bag. It has, therefore, been proposed to have an arrangement in which the force level (or energy absorbing level) of the force limiter is adjusted after a predetermined period of time has elapsed following the sensing of an accident or a potential accident situation, and thus after the pretensioner has been triggered. However, an arrangement of this type suffers from various disadvantages.
Many accidents start with minor or short interaction with a first object, such as an impact with a car having a relatively low speed, or an impact with the edge of the road, or a crash barrier, with this minor or short interaction being followed, some moments later, by a severe impact with a second object, such as an on-coming high speed car, a tree or a building. In such a situation the first interaction would be sensed by the sensor provided in the motor vehicle to detect an accident or a potential accident situation. The sensor may control various safety devices within the motor vehicle, such as a pre-tensioner and an air-bag, but would also start the operation of the timer associated with the force limiter.
In an accident of this type, the force limiter would exhibit a high level of force for a period of time following the minor or short interaction, but the occupant of the vehicle may not move forwardly at all, or may move forwardly only by a very short distance during this period of time. Before the severe impact with the second object, the timer may have timed-out, and thus the force limiter would only have the lower level of force. Then, when the severe impact occurs, which will cause the occupant to move forwardly, relative to the chassis, the level of force provided by the force limiter might well be too low to absorb all of the energy of the occupant before the occupant hits the steering wheel or the dashboard.


A position detector is provided for detecting the relative movement of first and second members which are mounted for relative movement along a measuring path. One of the members comprises a magnetic field generator for generating a magnetic field and the other member comprises first and second conductors which are inductively coupled to said magnetic field generator. The arrangement of the first and second conductors and the magnetic field generator is such that output signals are generated in a first and second receive circuits whose position varies with the relative movement between the two members. In addition to carrying information relating to the relative position between the two members, the signals induced in the receive circuits also comprise information defining the relative orientation of the two movable members, and by suitable processing of the received signals the relative orientation of the two members can also be determined. In a preferred form of the invention, the system operates to define the relative position and orientation of the two movable members in first and second directions from which the relative orientation of the two members in a plane containing the two directions can be determined. The signals induced in the receive circuits can also be processed to give an indication of the gap between the two circuits and to provide an indication of the full relative orientation of the two members.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to position sensors generally. The invention has particular although not exclusive relevance to non-contact linear and rotary position encoders. The invention is particularly suited for use in systems where the object whose position is being sensed can be tilted relative to the measurement direction.
Many types of non-contact linear and rotary position encoders have been proposed for generating signals indicative of the position of two relatively moveable members. Typically, one of the members carries one or more sensor coils and the other carries one or more magnetic field generators. The magnetic field generators and the sensor coils are arranged such that the amount of magnetic coupling between them varies as a function of the relative position between the two members. This can be achieved by, for example, designing the sensor coils so that their sensitivity to magnetic field varies in a predetermined manner along the measurement path. Alternatively, the magnetic field generators can be designed so that the magnetic field which they generate varies in a predetermined manner along the measurement path.
One example of this type of position encoder is the Inductosyn, which comprises a contactless slider which is arranged to detect the field generated by a stationary track, or vice versa. The stationary track comprises a repeating pattern of conductors which generates a magnetic field of substantially sinusoidal variation in the measurement direction when a current is applied to them. This magnetic field is detected by the moving slider, which comprises sin and cos detector tracks. The position of the two relatively moveable members is then determined from the spatial phase of the signals detected by these two detector tracks.
The applicant has proposed in its earlier International Application WO95/31696, a similar type of position encoder in which one member carries an excitation coil and a number of sensor coils and the other member carries a resonator. In operation, the excitation coil energises the resonator which in turn induces signals in the sensor coils which sinusoidally vary with the relative position between the two members. A similar system is disclosed in EP 0182085 which uses a conductive screen in place of the resonator. However, the use of the conductive screen in place of the resonator has the disadvantages that the output signal levels are much smaller and that the system cannot be operated in a pulse-echo mode of operation, in which a short burst of excitation current is applied to the excitation winding and then, after the excitation current has ended, detecting and processing the signals induced in the sensor coils.
A problem common to all of these known position sensors is that a positional error is introduced into the measurements if the moveable member is tilted relative to the other member. In some applications, such as machine tool applications, it is possible to physically restrict the movement of the two relatively moveable members, e.g. by using guide rails or the like. However, sometimes this is not possible. For example, in an X-Y digitising tablet, such as the one described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,496, the moveable member (the stylus) is moved by a human operator and its tilt relative to the tablet varies considerably during normal use.
Most digitising tablets which have been proposed to date employ a large number of overlapping but separate excitation and sense coils which are spread over the active area of the digitising tablet. The system identifies the current position of the stylus by detecting the excitation and sensor coil combination, which provides the greatest output signal levels. Some systems, such as the one disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,496 mentioned above, perform a quadratic type interpolation to try to determine more accurately the current position of the stylus. However, this type of system suffers from the problem that it requires a large number of excitation coils, which must be individually energised, and a large number of sensor coils, which must be individually monitored for each energised excitation coil. There is therefore a trade off between the system""s response time and the accuracy of the tablet. In particular, for high accuracy, a large number of excitation and sense coils are required, however, as the number of excitation coils and sensor coils increases, the system""s response time decreases. The number of excitation and sense coils used in a given system is therefore governed by the required application.
EP-A-0680009 discloses such a digitising tablet system which is also arranged to process the signals from the different sensor coils in order to determine the orientation of the stylus in the X-Y plane.
The present invention aims to at least alleviate some of these problems with the prior art position sensors and to provide an alternative technique for determining the orientation of, for example, a stylus relative to a digitising tablet.
According to one aspect, the present invention provides a position detector comprising first and second members mounted for relative movement along a measuring path; said first member comprising a magnetic field generator for generating a magnetic field; said second member comprising first and second conductors which are inductively coupled to said magnetic field generator, the magnetic coupling between said first conductor and said magnetic field generator varying with a first spatial frequency and the magnetic coupling between said second conductor and said magnetic field generator varying with a second different spatial frequency, as a result of which, in response to a magnetic field generated by said magnetic field generator, a first signal is generated in a first receive circuit which first signal varies in dependence upon the relative position and orientation of the first conductor and the magnetic field generator and a second different signal is generated in a second receive circuit which second signal varies in dependence upon the relative position and orientation of the second conductor and the magnetic field generator; and means for processing said first and second signals to determine the relative position and orientation of the two moveable members in dependence upon said first and second spacial frequencies.
The different spatial frequency variations of the output signals are preferably achieved by shaping the conductors in a predetermined manner over the measurement path. In particular, the two conductors preferably extend in a geometrically varying manner having different characteristic dimensions along the measurement path. This can be achieved, for example, by using windings having a different pitch along the measurement path. By using such windings, a position measurement can be obtained across the entire measurement path and an indication of the relative tilt of the two members in the measurement direction can be obtained. This system therefore avoids the need for having a large number of overlapping windings which are spread out over the measurement path and therefore does not suffer from the problems discussed above.
By providing a similar position detector for detecting the relative position and orientation of the two members in a second direction, the relative orientation in a plane containing the two directions can be determined. Further still, by providing two or more magnetic field generators on the first member, the complete relative orientation of the two members can be determined from the signals provided by the two or more magnetic field generators. Therefore, a complete six degrees of freedom position detector can be provided for detecting the position of an object over a planar set of windings. The system does not require a set of windings in two different planes which are inclined at an angle to each other. This position detector is therefore suitable and convenient for many applications especially children""s toys and games and for use in controlling a pointing device on a personal computer, where the windings are embedded behind, for example, the LCD screen.


A liquid composition containing a liquid crystalline polyester, a solvent, and a boron nitride having a volume average particle diameter of not less than 10 μm and not more than 80 μm, wherein the amount of the boron nitride is 30 to 90% by volume based on the total amount of the liquid crystalline polyester and the boron nitride.

In recent years, in response to advancements in high-density packaging such as power transistors and hybrid ICs, metal base circuit substrates (such as metal-based wiring substrates and metal-based substrates) have been proposed that take due consideration of the heat generated from these heat-generating components. For example, as disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2, technology has been reported in which, in order to enhance heat dissipation from a metal base circuit substrate and stabilize operation of the mounted components, a heat-conductive filler (such as an inorganic powder or a spherical inorganic filler) is included within an insulating film (such as an adhesive layer) that is interposed between the metal substrate (also referred to as the "metal base") and the conductive foil used for forming the circuit (such as a thin metal or metal thin layer). In Patent Documents 1 and 2, an insulating film composed of a polymeric compound such as an epoxy resin is used as the insulating film, and alumina, aluminum nitride, boron nitride or some other compound is used as the heat-conductive filler.
On the other hand, it is known that liquid crystalline polyesters exhibit high thermal conductivity compared with epoxy resins and the like, and use of such liquid crystalline polyesters as the material for the insulating film that constitutes part of a metal base circuit substrate can be considered.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Liquid composition and metal-based circuit board