The armchair comprises a seat where an armchair user is seated and at least one armrest that can be folded between a substantially horizontal position and a substantially vertical position, that is characterized in that the at least one armrest describes a downward trajectory when moved from the substantially horizontal position to the substantially vertical position. The armrest does not bother the armchair user when it is in its substantially vertical position, thus enabling manufacturers to exploit the maximum width allowed for this type of armchairs.

Armchairs used currently in public transport vehicles, such as coaches, trains, buses or airplanes, comprise a seat in which the armchair user is seated alongside a backrest. To increase the user's comfort, the backrest may be articulated to the seat, thanks to which it can be reclined or be in a substantially vertical position.
This type of armchairs usually also comprise armrests that can be folded from a substantially horizontal position to a substantially vertical position.
Armrests are usually articulated in the back part of the seat so that when the armrest is placed in its vertical position parting from the horizontal position, the armrest in a vertical position by the backrest. This position leaves practically the whole of the armrest protruding from the front part of the set.
This type of armrests are inconvenient because they are a bother when in a vertical position, as they take up space, an aspect that is extremely important given that the armchairs used in public transport vehicles are only allowed a maximum width.
This inconvenience is increased when two armchairs are placed side by side with armrests between both armchairs. Given that they take up space when in a vertical position, armchairs are usually equipped with a single armrest measuring the normal width of a regular armrest, which implies an inconvenience for the users of both armchairs.

Fabricación Asientos Vehículos Industriales, S.A.


A technique is disclosed for controlling a plurality of devices in a building. The technique includes detecting a first network event at a first device, updating a network state on the first device based on the first network event, determining at the first device an action based on the network state, and transmitting a second network event to a second device.

Control systems provide electronic control of home or office devices, such as lighting and distributed audio systems. Most existing systems include a central processing unit. Dependence on a central processing unit creates a single point of failure. Because control is not localized, the network becomes another single point of failure. For example, if there is a switch that controls lights in a room, and there is a network failure between the switch and the central processing unit, the switch can no longer control the lights in the room.
All devices being controlled are wired back to the central processing unit. For example, in an electronically controlled building, each lighting circuit must have its own electrical wiring all the way back to the dimming module. This creates a large increase in the amount and complexity of the electrical wiring in a building. Because of the cost and complexity of the wiring, most implementations are wired so that related fixtures are all wired together on one lighting circuit. This leaves little room for flexibility in the system once it is fully installed.
It would be desirable to develop a control system that does not rely on a central processing unit and in which devices are locally controlled, both logically and physically.


A system, apparatus, and method for attenuating pulsations in a pumping system.

A fluid, whether gaseous or liquid, may flow through a conduit or duct. The fluid may be propelled by a pressure creating device, such as a compressor or other type of pump. One type of compressor used to propel fluid, particularly gas, is a reciprocating compressor. Effective control of the pressure pulsations generated by reciprocating compressors is desirable to prevent damaging shaking forces and stresses in system piping, vessels, and mechanical equipment and structures, as well as to prevent detrimental time-variant suction and discharge pressures at the compressor cylinder flanges. The pressure and flow delivered by reciprocating compressors varies throughout the stroke of each compressor cylinder piston, thus creating pressure variations over time.
A reciprocating compressor may have a piston that is moved alternately toward one end of a cylinder and then to an opposing end of the cylinder and fluid may be propelled from the cylinder by the piston in either one or both directions of piston movement. Reciprocating compressors may use single-acting pistons or double-acting pistons. The double-acting pistons compress gas at the discharge of the compressor using both strokes of the piston. Exemplary double-acting compressors are those manufactured by Ariel Corporation of Mount Vernon, Ohio. The pumping action of each single-acting or double-acting piston creates complex cyclic pressure waves. The pressure waves of a double-acting piston generally have a primary frequency at twice the compressor operating speed with many harmonics. Variations in pressure within conduits and ducts created by such pumping actions are commonly referred to as pulsations.
To reduce the amplitude of the pressure waves upstream and downstream of the compressor, which could otherwise excite system mechanical natural frequencies, overstress system elements and piping, and interfere with meter measurements, it has been customary to dampen the pressure waves through the use of expansion volume bottles, choke tubes, orifices, baffles, etc. These devices are used singly or in combination to dampen pressure waves and reduce the resulting forces. However, those approaches generally result in significant system pressure losses on both the suction and discharge sides of the compressor, reducing compressor efficiency and flow capacity. Since the flow is pulsating as it moves into and out of the compressor, the amount of pressure drop typically increases with the amplitude of the pulsation.
Pressure pulsations may be controlled with a system of primary and/or secondary volume bottles, often with complex internal choke tubes, baffles, and chambers, as well as various orifice plates installed at specific locations in the system piping. These devices accomplish pulsation control by adding resistance, or damping, to the system, and they result in pressure losses that may exist both upstream and downstream of the compressor cylinders. For common pipeline transmission applications, particularly those having low pressure ratios, such as natural gas pipeline systems, pressure losses can noticeably degrade system operating efficiency. As larger high-speed compressors have been increasingly applied to pipeline transmission applications, these influences are thought to have become more detrimental to performance, due to the higher frequency pulsations that must be damped. In extreme cases in the field, traditional methods of pulsation control have been reported to add 20 percent or more to the driver horsepower requirements for high-speed, low-ratio compressors.
An investigation of a new tuning technology that involves cancellation of pulsations, rather than dampening, has been undertaken to assess its potential use for the design of reciprocating gas compressor systems. Simulations predict that this new pulsation attenuation technology can control pulsations to 1.0 percent peak-to-peak over a reasonable speed range with less than 0.1 percent overall system pressure drop.
Study has been made as to the effect of the use of differing length parallel tubes to cancel sounds of a particular wavelength. Acoustic wave interference in pipes was studied in 1833 by Herschel, who predicted that sound could be canceled by dividing two waves from the same source and recombining them out of phase after they followed paths of different lengths. Experiments by Quincke in 1866 verified that Herschel's system did suppress sound.
Variations on the Herschel-Quincke solutions have been proposed including a method for controlling exhaust noise from an internal combustion engine by using bypass pipes such as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,633,646 to Hwang (hereinafter "Hwang") See FIG. 1 and FIG. 5. In such an apparatus, a main exhaust pipe is provided with two U-shaped bypass pipes through which the exhaust passage of the main pipe is partially diverted before being reintegrated. With such a construction, the phase difference between the main noise components of the exhaust gas passing through the fixed pipe and the noise components of the exhaust gas passing through the first bypass pipe is adjusted 180 degrees, thus suppressing the main noise component and its odd harmonics. The length of the second bypass pipe is adjusted so that the noise component having a frequency of two times the frequency of the main noise component is suppressed. However, the above method does not effectively attenuate the 4th harmonic, i.e., the noise component having a frequency four times the main noise component, nor any other harmonics divisible by 4. Such an arrangement furthermore operates on a single primary frequency and certain of its harmonics and so is unlikely to provide effective noise attenuation over a range of noise frequencies. Furthermore, Herschel, Quincke, and Hwang directed their efforts toward sound attenuation, not pulsation attenuation. While attenuation of sound and pulsations may be achieved by similar means, they operate differently by degrees to achieve different results. For example, reduction of sound is frequently directed to human comfort and reduction of high frequency wavelengths that are bothersome to human beings. Conversely, pulsation reduction frequently focuses on reducing low frequency wavelengths that may cause damage to mechanical systems, such as pipes, conduits, ducts, mechanical equipment and structures, sometimes in critical safety applications such as natural gas pipelines.
Thus, certain embodiments of the present pulsation attenuation apparatuses and methods attenuate pulsations in a conduit or duct. While sound wave propagation cancellation and pulse propagation cancellation may be based on some of the same principles, it should be recognized by one skilled in the art of wave dynamics that reduction of sound wave propagation has a different goal and operates differently from reduction of pulse propagation.
Certain embodiments of the present pulsation attenuation apparatuses and methods may further preserve the integrity of piping and vessel systems subjected to pulsations and certain embodiments of the present pulsation attenuation apparatuses and methods may increase flow of a fluid through such systems.
Embodiments of the inventions described herein reduce pulsations in pumping systems, including pumping systems utilizing reciprocating compressors and rotary pumps (collectively referred to herein as "pumps").
Embodiments of the inventions described herein reduce energy consumption when compared with existing systems.
Embodiments of the inventions described herein increase flow in pumping systems when compared to existing systems.
Embodiments of the inventions described herein reduce the pressure differential against which pumps operate.


A wearable data processing system includes a high power radio module and a low power radio module. The high power radio module may retrieve data from radio frequency identifier (RFID) tags. The low power radio module may transmit data to a base station data pertaining to the detected RFID tags. The low power radio module may also receive a power management signal from a gate radio. The gate radio may have an adjustable range. A power management engine in the wearable data processing system may determine whether the low power radio module is receiving the power management signal from the gate radio. The power management engine may also activate and deactivate the high power radio module, depending on whether the low power radio module is receiving the power management signal from the gate radio. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Research is currently underway to develop more effective and efficient ways to use RFID tags and RFID readers to track human activity. For instance, a caregiver may want to know what kind of activities an elderly person or some other subject has engaged in during a certain time period. For example, the caregiver may want to know whether the subject has risen from bed, taken a beverage out of a refrigerator, taken medications, etc. This kind of activity tracking may be automated by giving the subject an RFID reader to wear, and providing various objects (e.g., the door to the bedroom, the beverage container, the medicine container, etc.) with distinct RFID tags.

Methods and apparatus for efficiently tracking activity using radio frequency identification


A glass substrate used as a substrate of an information recording medium such as a magnetic disk, magneto-optical disk, DVD, or MD, and a glass composition used to make such a glass substrate, contains the following glass ingredients: 40 to 70% by weight of SiO2; 1 to 20% by weight of Al2O3; 0 to 10% by weight, zero inclusive, of B2O3; SiO2+Al2O3+B2O3 accounting for 60 to 90% by weight; a total of 3.0 to 15% by weight of R2O compounds, where R=Li, Na, and K; a total of 2.0 to 15% by weight of R′O compounds, where R=Mg, and Zn; and a total of 1.0 to 20% by weight of MOx (TiO2+ZrO2+LnxOy), where LnxOy represents at least one compound selected from the group consisting of lanthanoid metal oxides, Y2O3, Nb2O5, and Ta2O5. Here, the following condition is fulfilled:0.070<(total content of R′O compounds)/(SiO2+Al2O3+B2O3)<0.200.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a glass substrate for an information recording medium (hereinafter also referred to simply as "a glass substrate") and to a glass composition used to make such a glass substrate. More particularly, the present invention relates to a glass substrate for use as a substrate of an information recording medium such as a magnetic disk, magneto-optical disk, DVD, or MD and to a glass composition used to make such a glass substrate.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, magnetic disks for use in stationary devices such as desk-top computers and servers typically have substrates made of aluminum alloy, and those for use in portable devices such as notebook computers and mobile computers typically have substrates made of glass. However, aluminum alloy is prone to deformation, and is not hard enough to offer satisfactory surface smoothness on the surfaces of a substrate after polishing. Moreover, when a head makes mechanical contact with a magnetic disk, the magnetic film is liable to exfoliate from the substrate. For these reasons, substrates made of glass, which are less prone to deformation and which offer satisfactory surface smoothness combined with high mechanical strength, are expected to be increasingly used in the future not only in portable devices but also in stationary devices and other home-use information devices.
Commonly known types of glass substrate include: those made of chemically strengthened glass, in which the alkali elements present near the surface of the substrate are replaced with other alkali elements in order to obtain increased mechanical strength; those made of crystallized glass, which have been subjected to crystallization treatment; and those made of soda lime glass.
These types of glass material, however, have the following disadvantages. Chemically strengthened glass requires a complicated ion-exchange process, and does not permit reprocessing once ion exchange is complete. This makes it difficult to achieve high yields. Moreover, to permit ion exchange to take place in the glass substrate, alkali metal ions need to be left easily movable therein. Thus, the alkali metal ions that are present near the surface of the substrate may move to the surface and exude therefrom during the heating process when the magnetic film is formed, or erode the magnetic film, or degrade the bond strength of the magnetic film.
Crystallized glass does not offer satisfactory surface smoothness, and therefore it is difficult to achieve high-density recording therewith. To solve this problem, there have been proposed, for example, crystallized glasses that contain either a solid solution of quartz or enstatite as the main crystal (U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,294,490 and 6,627,565). However, these crystallized glasses have a high surface hardness, and are thus difficult to polish, making it difficult to control the surface shape by tape polishing or the like.
Soda lime glass is not mechanically strong nor chemically durable enough to be suitable as a material for substrates for information recording. In addition, like the chemically strengthened glass described above, soda lime glass contains alkali metal ions. Thus, the alkali metal ions that are present near the surface of the substrate may erode the magnetic film, or degrade the bond strength of the magnetic film. To solve this problem, there have been proposed, for example, glasses that contain no alkali metal oxides (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. H9-12333). However, these glasses need to contain large amounts of alkaline-earth metals or boron oxides to obtain satisfactory fusibility. This makes them prone to devitrification, and reduces their fracture toughness, greatly lowering their processing yields.

Glass composition, glass susbstrate employing it for an information recording medium, and information recording medium employing it


A UV treatment cartridge having an exterior housing and a UV treatment module located inside of the exterior housing. The UV treatment module having a UVLED array for UV treatment of a fluid passing through the UV treatment module. An internal annular space between the exterior sidewall and the module sidewall forms an entry flow path to the UV treatment module thereby substantially balancing fluid pressure acting on the inside of the module sidewall and acting on the outside of the module sidewall.

Replaceable cartridge filters of the throw away type are often interchangeably connected to a filter manifold that is secured to the appliance or machine requiring the fluid filtration. Some manifolds use quarter turn filter cartridges where approximately a 90 degree revolution of the filter cartridge engages and disengages the filter cartridge from the manifold. Such filter cartridges and manifolds are often used to supply point of use treated water to beverage dispensing applications for soda or brewed coffee.


The invention relates to a novel and distinct hybrid plant named xe2x80x98Palampur Queenxe2x80x99 (Gladiolus sp) characterized by its attractive Capsicum red colored flowers with Chartreuse red color on the lip petals.

The present invention relates to a novel hybrid plant named xe2x80x98Palampur Queenxe2x80x99 and belonging to the family Iridaceae. The novel plant being a hybrid, has been developed in a breeding program. The novel plant xe2x80x98Palampur Queenxe2x80x99 is propagated vegetatively by corms and hence can be maintained as a stable genotype. The plant of the invention is an ornamental plant widely cultivated for beautiful flowers which are of commercial and export value.
The Latin name of the novel hybrid plant of the present invention is Gladiolus sp.
The seedling named xe2x80x98Palampur Queenxe2x80x99 produced one corm and 11 cormels in the first year after harvesting. The corm and cormels were sown in a field during the next growing season. The cornmels became flowering size corms within a year. Again in the next year corms and cormels were sown in a field to produce a large number of corms and cormels. This process was repeated in subsequent years to increase the corm and cormel population.
The above method is the asexual reproduction used to propagate xe2x80x98Palampur Queenxe2x80x99.
The hybrid xe2x80x98Palampur Queenxe2x80x99 has remained stable and uniform for its morphological characters and showed consistency in performance for various growth and flowering parameters during its evaluation and vegetative multiplication since 1992. Throughout the evaluation period of xe2x80x98Palampur Queenxe2x80x99 no variants were found from the normal population. The genotype xe2x80x98Palampur Queenxe2x80x99 was bred at the Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT) under the program of development of new varieties of gladiolus.
The present invention relates to a new and distinct variety of gladiolus, a member of the Gladiolus genus. The novel plant is the hybrid between the gladiolus plants Green Woodpecker and Oscar which are hybrid varieties. The Green Woodpecker and Oscar hybrid varieties have been in cultivation in India for more than 20 years and are believed to be un-patented in the United States. Additionally, the Green Woodpecker and Oscar hybrid varieties are not known to be the subject of any currently pending U.S. patent applications.
Gladiolus is one of the important cut flowers throughout the world. The commercial cultivation is wide spread in temperate, tropical and subtropical climates. The demand of new varieties with better color, quality flowers, and planting materials is always existing in the floriculture trade.
The modern garden cultivators gladiolus come from diverse genetic parentages. It has cumulative heterozygosity for many characters inherent with complex genetic constitution. In gladiolus, diverse parents are crossed together and the cultivars and the species that differ widely in chromosome numbers are also cross-fertile. In the present invention, the desirable strains obtained in F1 generation were perpetuated vegetatively without being segregated in the following generations, so that the cultivars which are available today may be F2, F3 to F8 or so of a particular cross further blended with some extra parents at nearly every generation. Thus they are not allowed to segregate freely in further generations because it is desirable to grow the plants asexually. Because of this reason, now the available modern cultivars have become so complex that the offspring obtained by crossing them, even two seedlings, do not appear similar [(Misra, 1975) Gladiolus Br. Assn. Newsletter, No. 12, pp. 2-5].
The Applicants collected germplasm of different cultivars and hybrid varieties of gladiolus from National Botanical Research Institute Lucknow, India as per the list of gladiolus cultivars grown in India and described in the bulletin of xe2x80x98gladiolusxe2x80x99 Economic Botany Information Service by Sharma et al. published by the Director National Botanical Research Institute Lucknow, 1988. Germplasm of gladiolus was also collected from Netherlands in 1991 and various nurseries of Kalimpong, Darjeeling, West Bengal, India. The record of the collected germplasm of gladiolus was maintained in the accession register of the Floriculture Division of the Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology (IHBT), Palampur, India.
The applicants initiated a breeding program to develop better types of gladiolus hybrids suitable to wide range of climatic conditions, and having wide range of characteristics such as better color, increased number of florets and spike length as per the international standards, better yield of corms and cormels, tolerant to the common diseases etc. The collected germplasm of gladiolus was planted in the experimental field of IHBT for their propagation and multiplication. In this breeding programme conventional breeding method (hybridization) was used. More than 100 cross combinations were made by using distinct varieties such as Oscar, Jester, Snow Princess, Eurovision, Ballerina, King Liar, Cherry Blossom, Her Majesty, Green woodpecker, Friendship, Vink""s Glory, Aldebaran, Red Beauty, Top Brass, Copper King, Bonfire, White Goddess, Sunny Boy, Tropic Sea and Friendship Pink etc.
Flower color description of some of the parentage as described in NAGC Bulletin.
Oscar: Turkey red, throat blotched sulphur yellow.
Green Woodpecker: Pea green, throat blotched pea green spotted ruby red.
Eurovision: Signal red, throat streaked pea green.
Friendship pink: Dawn pink, throat blotched pea green having splashes ruby red.
Aldebaran: Straw yellow and throat bloched signal red.
As the aim is the production of seed of known parentage, emasculation in first three flowers in a selected spike is done before the opening of the flowers and stigma becomes receptive. Anthers are removed carefully from each flower. Emasculated flowers were covered with butter paper bags used for breeding purposes. Pollination was done in the emasculated flowers next day morning with in 24-30 hours with the pollens of the desired parents in the month of April-May 1991. The seeds were collected from mature pods in the month of August-September and were sown in beds under open field conditions and covered with dry grasses for moisture preservation in December 1991. The resultant seedlings were space planted in the field at Palampur in March-April 1992.
Many seedlings came out from a single cross combination. These plants were critically evaluated and tagged as per the desired color combinations, growth and flowering parameters. The corn and cormels of the selected hybrid plants were replanted continuously four years in the filed for further evaluation and multiplications. Based on the superior performance for attractive color combination, compactness of flower spike, number of flowers per spike, length of flower spike, number of corm and cormels per plant evaluation and selection of superior quality hybrids were made.
Thus, the breeding program involved hybridization of commonly available gladiolus plants. In other words, the hybrids were developed by crossing parental genotypes involving sexual hybridization in the breeding program.
The program yielded a number of hybrid plants out of which one genotype, namely IHBT-GH-425, was selected and christened as xe2x80x98Palampur Queenxe2x80x99. This plant was found to have new color, flower size, number of florets per spikes, length of flower spikes, better yield of corm and cormels and less prone to common diseases. Growing the plant on a commercial scale offers the horticulturists an improved and new variety, which can be commercially cultivated.
Thus, the invention provides a new genotype christened as xe2x80x98Palampur Queenxe2x80x99. This plant has been developed through planned breeding experiments conducted at Institute of Himalayan Resources, (IHBT) Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, India with defined aim to develop superior gladiolus genotypes. For this purpose, gladiolus varieties were collected from different sources and grown in the fields at Palampur, India for facilitating breeding program. The emasculation and pollination in different varieties were carried out during the months of April-May 1991. The seeds were collected in July-August 1991 and sown in beds under open field conditions and covered with dry grasses in December 1991. The resultant seedlings were space planted in the field at Palampur in March-April 1992. The corms and cormels of surviving hybrid plants were replanted continuously four years for screening and multiplication.
Based on the superior performance for attractive color combination, compactness of flower spikes, number of flowers per spikes, length of flower spikes, number of flowers remains open at a time, number of corm and cormel production per plant, the plant of this invention, the xe2x80x98Palampur Queenxe2x80x99, was selected for further observation and evaluation.
Considering the superior characteristics like excellent color, number of flowers, compactness of flower spikes, plant height, ruffled-ness of flower petals, regeneration potential and freedom from common diseases, it was asexually reproduced through corm and cormels to maintain purity.
The selected hybrid was christened as xe2x80x98Palampur Queenxe2x80x99 and grown at row distance of 1 feet and plant to plant distance of 6 inches for four consecutive years to study its growth and flowering performance and multiplication. Data were recorded on randomly selected twenty plants every year. The xe2x80x98Palampur Queenxe2x80x99 maintained uniformity in its growth and flowering performance.
With regard to the age and the growing conditions of the xe2x80x98Palampur Queenxe2x80x99, the present hybrid was raised in the calendar year 1991 through conventional breeding and the age of the hybrid is presently in excess of ten years. The hybrid was grown under open field conditions in the Palampur area of Himachal Pradesh. The altitude of the Palampur area is about 1300 meters above sea level. The climate zone of the region is sub-humid, sub-temperate, having maximum and minimum average temperatures of 30xc2x0 C. and 10xc2x0 C. The average annual rainfall in the region is approximately 250 cm.
The hybrid xe2x80x98Palampur Queenxe2x80x99 has remained stable and uniform for its morphological characters and showed consistency in performance for various growth and flowering parameters during its evaluation and vegetative multiplication since 1992. Throughout the evaluation period of xe2x80x98Palampur Queenxe2x80x99 no variants were found from the normal population.
The genotype xe2x80x98Palampur Queenxe2x80x99 possesses decorative type flowers of Capsicum red (RHS-33A) with Chartreuse yellow (RHS-2D) color on lip petals. The flower petals are slightly ruffled which is quite clear from FIG. 1.
The genotype xe2x80x98Palampur Queenxe2x80x99 is distinct in regeneration potential.

Gladiolus hybrid plant named xe2x80x98Palampur Queenxe2x80x99

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research


A semiconductor integrated circuit device comprising a negative differential resistance element, such as an RHET and RBT, and a field effect transistor, such as an SBFET and heterojunction type FET, which are formed on the same semiconductor substrate, a base layer of the negative differential resistance element and a channel layer of the field effect transistor being formed on the same epitaxial layer, and the same conductive material is used to simultaneously form an emitter electrode and a gate. A monolithic integration of both the element and transistor can be achieved both rationally and easily.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, and more particularly, to a semiconductor integrated circuit device comprising a field effect transistor (FET) and a negative differential resistance element, such as a resonant tunneling hot electron transistor (RHET) and a resonant tunneling bipolar transistor (RBT), which are monolithically integrated, and a method of producing the same.
Recently, much research has been made into semiconductor devices provided with novel functions by using heterojunctions of compound semiconductor layers, especially, a resonant tunneling barrier structure. The negative differential resistance elements have the functions described below, and further development of the circuits including these elements is expected.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 1 is a schematic sectional view of an RHET, as one example of the differential negative resistance elements. The RHET comprises a semiinsulating GaAs substrate 21, the semiconductor layers 22 to 26 as shown in Table 1, an emitter electrode 27, a base electrode 28, and a collector electrode 29.
TABLE 1 ______________________________________ Impurity Semiconductor Dosage Thickness Layer Composition (cm.sup.-3) (nm) ______________________________________ 22 Collector GaAs n - 1 .times. 10.sup.18 300-500 23 Collector Al.sub.0.2 Ga.sub.0.8 As Undoped 100-300 Barrier 24 Base GaAs n - 1 .times. 10.sup.18 20-100 25 Emitter Barrier 25a Al.sub.0.3 Ga.sub.0.7 As Undoped 3-5 25b GaAs Undoped 3-5 25c Al.sub.0.3 Ga.sub.0.7 As Undoped 3-5 26 Emitter GaAs n - 1 .times. 10.sup.18 .perspectiveto.400 ______________________________________
The emitter barrier layer 25 between the emitter and base of the RHET has a resonant tunneling barrier structure having a quantum well, in which the GaAs well layer 25b is sandwiched between the AlGaAs barrier layers 25a and 25c, and electron energy levels in the quantum well correspond to the discrete values, i.e., resonant levels.
The RHET of the negative differential resistance element is operated by providing the base 24 and the collector 22 with potentials positive to the emitter 26. As shown in an energy band diagram of the RHET of FIG. 1B, when the electron energy level in the emitter 26 corresponds to the resonant level E.sub.1, namely, when a base voltage V.sub.BE between the emitter 26 and the base 24 is about 2E.sub.l /q (q is an electric charge 35 of the electron) at a peak voltage (V.sub.P), the electrons (hot electrons) are injected from the emitter 26 into the base 24 by a resonant tunneling effect. Accordingly, the electrons pass through the base 24 at an ultra-high speed, go across the collector barrier 23, and then reach the collector 22.
When the base voltage V.sub.BE is smaller or larger than 2E.sub.l /q, it does not meet the conditions for producing resonance tunneling, and an amount of electrons injected into the base 24, i.e., the collector current, is decreased. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 2 in which an example of an emitter ground collector current measured at a temperature of 77.degree. K is shown, the collector current has a peak value at a certain value (V.sub.P) of the base voltage V.sub.BE.
In consequence, an inverter gate using the RHET shows the differential negative resistance characteristics whereby an output is decreased, has a lowest value, and thereafter is increased together with the increase in an input voltage V.sub.BE. For example, a 2-input exclusive-NOR gate having the following logic mechanism can be constituted with one RHET and three resistance elements, as shown in FIG. 3, although 7 or 8 elements are necessary if transistors are used.
______________________________________ A B C 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 0 ______________________________________
in addition to the above-mentioned RHET, the negative differential resistance element may be, for example, an RBT having an n-p-n bipolar transistor structure in which the base layer is p-type. The use of these negative differential resistance elements enables functional effects such as a decrease in the number of elements in a logic circuit, a curtailment of time lags, and the like to be obtained. Therefore, where a desired logic circuit is constituted, it is necessary to mono-lithically integrated a transistor (e.g. FET) having a usual switching mechanism with the differential negative resistance element.
However, the differential negative resistance element is entirely different from an FET in the constitution of a semiconductor multilayer structure, and therefore, the constitution of the semiconductor multilayer structure and the method of producing same are problems in the process of monolithic integration.

Method of producing a semiconductor integrated circuit device composed of a negative differential resistance element and a FET transistor


A delay-locked loop (DLL) acquires correct lock when the delay line on the DLL delays a reference signal by one clock period. False lock occurs when the delay line delays the reference signal by more than one clock period. False lock may be detected by a false lock detector. The false lock detector may include (1) flip-flops to take samples of the delay line outputs and (2) combinational logic for detecting patterns in the samples that may indicate false lock. Once false lock has been detected, a hold circuit may ensure that false lock persists for at least the amount of time required by the DLL to acquire lock (i.e., to prevent reset of the DLL before it has acquired lock). After this determination is made, a reset generator may produce a reset signal for resetting the DLL.

This invention relates to delay-locked loops (DLLs) and, more particularly, to circuitry for eliminating false lock in DLLs.
A DLL may be used to provide delayed copies of a reference signal (e.g., a clock signal), which may be routed to digital circuit elements (e.g., flip-flops, registers, etc.). The DLL may include delay elements, which may be connected in series to create a delay line. When the total delay on the delay line is equal to one period of the reference signal, the DLL is considered to have acquired lock. The DLL detects for this by determining when the reference signal and the delay line output are edge-aligned. Once the DLL has acquired lock, the outputs of the individual delay elements may be used to provide the reference signal, with various amounts of delay, to digital circuit elements.
DLLs serve many useful purposes in digital systems. In one example, DLLs may be used in clock distribution networks to compensate for delays between a clock distribution source and a load. For example, if the clock distribution source is located at a distance from the load, the clock signal will not be received by the load instantaneously, i.e., there will be a delay in the time it takes to receive the clock signal. A DLL may be used to compensate for this delay by adding an additional delay to the transmitted clock signal such that the received clock signal is delayed, in total, by exactly one clock period from the transmitted clock signal. For example, if a clock signal is received 1 nanosecond after it is transmitted and the clock signal has a period of 4 nanoseconds, then a DLL may provide a delay of an additional 3 nanoseconds. In this approach, the transmitted clock signal and the received clock signal have no discernable difference.
In another example, DLLs may be used in subsampling systems. A DLL may produce signals of various phases to the subsampling system.
However, DLLs may also suffer from problems. One possible problem is that a DLL may acquire false lock and provide more delay than intended. Many DLLs assume that correct lock has been acquired when a reference signal is edge-aligned with the output of the delay line. In false lock, the output of the delay line is still edge-aligned with the reference signal. However, the delay line has more than one period of delay. For example, if a DLL has acquired correct lock, delay elements in a three-element delay line each provide a third of a period of delay. In another example, if the DLL has acquired false lock and the delay line has two periods of delay, each delay element provides two-thirds of a period of delay, instead of a third of a period of delay under correct lock. The additional delay in false lock may be undesirable. When false lock is not detected and is allowed to persist, outputs of digital circuit elements using DLL output signals may become skewed and further delayed themselves.

Circuitry for eliminating false lock in delay-locked loops


A system for microphone noise reduction includes first and second filter portions and a control processor adapted to adapt the first and second filter portions in response to a one of a plurality of stored vectors. Each stored vector is representative of acoustic transfer functions in accordance with a model of a vehicle and a respective position within the vehicle. A method for processing microphone signals includes selecting a vehicle model, selecting positions within the vehicle model, measuring acoustic response vectors at the positions, storing the response vectors, selecting one of the response vectors, and adapting first and second filter portions in accordance with the selected response vector.

As is known in the art, a portable hand-held telephone can be arranged in an automobile or other vehicle so that a driver or other occupant of the vehicle can place and receive telephone calls from within the vehicle. Some portable telephone systems allow the driver of the automobile to have a telephone conversation without holding the portable telephone. Such systems are generally referred to as "hands-free" systems.
As is known, the hands-free system receives acoustic signals from various undesirable noise sources, which tend to degrade the intelligibility of a telephone call. The various noise sources can vary with time. For example, background wind, road, and mechanical noises in the interior of an automobile can change depending upon whether a window of an automobile is open or closed.
Furthermore, the various noise sources can be different in magnitude, spectral content, and direction for different types of automobiles, because different automobiles have different acoustic characteristics, including, but not limited to, different interior volumes, different surfaces, and different wind, road, and mechanical noise sources.
It will be appreciated that an acoustic source such as a voice, for example, reflects around the interior of the automobile, becoming an acoustic source having multi-path acoustic propagation. In so reflecting, the direction from which the acoustic source emanates can appear to change in direction from time to time and can even appear to come from more than one direction at the same time. A voice undergoing multi-path acoustic propagation is generally less intelligible than a voice having no multi-path acoustic propagation.
In order to reduce the effect of multi-path acoustic propagation as well as the effect of the various noise sources, some conventional hands-free systems are configured to place the speaker in proximity to the ear of the driver and the microphone in proximity to the mouth of the driver. These hands-free systems reduce the effect of the multi-path acoustic propagation and the effect of the various noise sources by reducing the distance of the driver's mouth to the microphone and the distance of the speaker to the driver's ear. Therefore, the signal to noise ratios and corresponding intelligibility of the telephone call are improved. However, such hands-free systems require the use of an apparatus worn on the head of the user.
Other hands-free systems place both the microphone and the speaker remotely from the driver, for example, on a dashboard of the automobile. This type of hands-free system has the advantage that it does not require an apparatus to be worn by the driver. However, such a hands-free system is fully susceptible to the effect of the multi-path acoustic propagation and also the effects of the various noise sources described above. This type of system, therefore, still has the problem of reduced intelligibility.
A plurality of microphones can be used in combination with some classical processing techniques to improve communication intelligibility in some applications. For example, the plurality of microphones can be coupled to a time-delay beam former arrangement that provides an acoustic receive beam pointing toward the driver.
However, it will be recognized that a time-delay beamformer provides desired acoustic receive beams only when associated with an acoustic source that generates planar sound waves. In general, only an acoustic source that is relatively far from the microphones generates acoustic energy that arrives at the microphones as a plane wave. Such is not the case for a hands-free system used in the interior of an automobile or in other relatively small areas.
Furthermore, multi-path acoustic propagation, such as that described above in the interior of an automobile, can provide acoustic energy arriving at the microphones from more than one direction. Therefore, in the presence of a multi-path acoustic propagation, there is no single pointing direction for the receive acoustic beam.
Also, the time-delay beamformer provides most signal to noise ratio improvement for noise that is incoherent between the microphones, for example, ambient noise in a room. In contrast, the dominant noise sources within an automobile are often directional and coherent.
Therefore, due to the non-planar sound waves that propagate in the interior of the automobile, the multi-path acoustic propagation, and also due to coherency of noise received by more than one microphone, the time-delay beamformer arrangement is not well suited to improve operation of a hands-free telephone system in an automobile. Other conventional techniques for processing the microphone signals have similar deficiencies.
It would, therefore, be desirable to provide a hands-free system configured for operation in a relatively small enclosure such as an automobile. It would be further desirable to provide a hands-free system that provides a high degree of intelligibility in the presence of the variety of noise sources in an automobile. It would be still further desirable to provide a hands-free system that does not require the user to wear any portion of the system.

System and method for noise reduction having first and second adaptive filters responsive to a stored vector


A high-speed stack molding device utilizing a rotary multi-mould, including a base having a moving rail formed on an upper surface thereof; a mould-rotating unit disposed on the base and supporting both ends of a multi-mould to selectively rotate the multi-mould; a movable driving frame including vertical frames extending upward from slide-coupling parts, which are moved forward and rearward along the moving rail and an upper frame connecting upper end portions of the vertical frames to cover an upper portion of the multi-mould; a fiber-reinforced resin supplying unit connected to the movable driving frame and supplying a fiber discharged from a supplying roller to the upper frame through pressure rollers; and a stacking head provided at an end portion of an articulated robot arm connected operably to the upper frame for pressurizing and stacking the fiber-reinforced resin.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a stack molding apparatus, and more particularly, to a high-speed stack molding apparatus utilizing a rotary-type mould, in which a reinforced fiber material is stacked on a surface of the rotary-type mould utilizing the rotary-type mould to reduce processing time and enhance productivity.
2. Discussion of Related Art
In general, an article of composite materials is formed by stacking layers of materials consisting of fiber, fabric, tape, film and foil. At this time, the fiber can be made up of glass, carbon, aramid fiber, or quartz as a material. Fibers formed into a woven sheet are called "fabric" and fibers arranged in a unidirectional ribbon are called "tape."
The composite material articles are formed with various structures from a plane sheet or panel having a relatively simple configuration to a large-sized and complicated structure. At this time, the composite material article may be manufactured through a process called "fiber placement." However, the above fiber placement consists of the steps of stacking a molding material (i.e., prepreg) obtained by pre-impregnating reinforced fiber with a matrix, and heating and pressurizing it to harden the resin. At this time, according to the shape, the reinforced fiber is classified as a one-way prepreg or a cross prepreg, and a thermosetting resin such as an epoxy resin is mainly utilized as the reinforced fiber.
The above composite material article has been utilized for structural frames of aircrafts, vessels, ground effect vehicles, trains, sports equipment, blades of wind power generators, which require light weight and high strength, and the fiber placement process is typically achieved by a hand lay-up method.
At this time, the above hand lay-up method is a method in which the fiber in various fabric forms such as a woven form, a knit form and a sewn form is placed on a surface of a mould, the fiber is impregnated with a resin by means of a roller and a brush, and the fiber is dried in the air. After hardening, the fiber is separated from the mould to produce the article.
However, a conventional method is disadvantageous in that when the resin to be hardened is exposed to the atmosphere, a great deal of a volatile substance such as styrene gas is released from the resin into the air, and the volatile substance of the high concentration is bad for the operator's health.
In addition, the above conventional method can be used to manufacture one hull or a few hulls. However, since the operator stacks the composite material on a surface of the mould manually and dries it, it is impossible to mass-produce due to the time required for stacking and drying the composite material, which means that productivity is low.
Furthermore, it is difficult to impregnate the fiber material with a resin at an optimum ratio and a layer of composite material stacked on a surface of the mould does not have a uniform thickness, and thus a surface of the hull is not evenly formed. Therefore, an external three applied to an outside of the hull is concentrated on a portion having a thin thickness, which deteriorates the strength of the hull.

High-speed stack molding apparatus utilizing rotary-type mould

RESEARCH INSTITUTE OF MEDIUM & SMALL SHIPBUILDING


An upper body section of a vehicle body of the type having a generally U-shaped roof side gutter, interposed between a roof and a body side frame and stretching the full length of the roof, has a structure comprising a gutter rail formed by an inside half of the gutter rail integrally formed with a roof panel and an outside half of the gutter rail integrally formed with a side frame panel. A roof reinforcement beam is laid so as to extend between center pillars and is secured to the roof panel. A corner gusset extends across the gutter rail, overlaps both the center pillar and the roof reinforcement beam, and is secured to both the center pillar and the roof reinforcement beam.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure for an upper body section of a vehicle body of the type having a generally U-shaped roof side gutter extending in the lengthwise direction of the vehicle body along each side of a roof panel to which an upper body side frame is secured.
2. Description of Related Art
Some types of vehicle bodies have upper body sections having a structure in which a generally U-shaped roof side gutter, opening upward, is interposed between a roof and each side frame. This generally U-shaped roof side gutter is defined by a U-shaped gutter rail comprising an inside half of gutter rail integrally formed with a roof panel and an outside half of gutter rail integrally formed with a side frame panel. Such an upper body section is reinforced by a roof reinforcement beam extending in a transverse direction of the vehicle body between left and right center pillars and secured to the roof panel. The inside half of the gutter rail is laid to overlap the outside half of the gutter rail and located on the inner side of an inside pillar member of the center pillar.
In vehicle bodies having upper body sections of the type having no roof side gutter structure, as shown in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 1-57967, there is provided a roof side rail, extending along a top end of the upper body section, to which a roof panel, a roof reinforcement beam and a center pillar are secured. The roof side rail, at a section where an end of the roof reinforcement beam is connected, is covered by inner and outer brace members to form a closed cross section.
In the event of a lateral or "flank" collision, the energy of an impact reaches a center pillar via the side body. If the center pillar and a body section surrounding the center pillar do not have a sufficient structural strength or rigidity, then it is hard to prevent the vehicle body from deformation of the center pillar which can possibly injure a passenger in the event of a flank collision. In vehicle bodies of the type having a U-shaped roof side gutter, stress due to the energy of an impact caused upon a flank collision concentrates at the roof side gutter before the energy reaches the roof reinforcement through the center pillar. Because the roof side gutter is formed by two separate gutter rail sections, namely inside and outside halves of gutter rail sections, deformation of the center pillar due to a flank collision is enhanced.

Structure for upper body section of vehicle body


Provided is a cross-departmental decision support system for early diagnosis of a chronic kidney disease based on knowledge graph, which comprises a patient information model building module, a patient information model library storage module, a knowledge graph association module, a knowledge graph inference module and a decision support feedback module. According to the present application, by constructing a patient information model and utilizing an OMOP CDM standard terminology system, patient electronic medical record data is constructed into a patient information model with unified concept coding and unified semantic structure; making full use the advantages of semantic technology in data interactivity and scalability, so that the system has better adaptability and scalability to heterogeneous data in different hospitals.

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) is a major chronic disease that seriously endangers human health, and will significantly increase the morbidity and mortality of cardiovascular diseases. Epidemiological survey in China shows that the prevalence rate of the CKD has reached 10.8%, and it is estimated that there are more than 100 million CKD patients in China. However, the survey shows that the awareness and awareness rate of kidney diseases in basic hospitals and non-nephrologists in China is low: the awareness rate of chronic kidney diseases among the general population is only 12.5%, while the treatment rate is as low as 7.5%. International research shows that the basic level physicians of non-nephrology have only 30% knowledge of diagnosis and treatment of chronic kidney diseases. The lack of non-nephrologists for cognition of chronic kidney diseases leads to many patients with chronic kidney disease failing to find their illness in time, which leads to an increase in the risk of end-stage kidney diseases and cardiovascular diseases, and brings a huge medical burden. Therefore, it is necessary to study the cross-departmental clinical decision support method and system for early diagnosis of chronic kidney diseases for non-nephrologists, so as to assist non-nephrologists to discover the risk of chronic kidney diseases in time and improve the awareness rate and treatment rate of chronic kidney diseases.
There are two main technical solutions for early diagnosis and decision support of chronic kidney diseases: one is an expert system based on electronic medical records, which sets certain criteria for judging chronic kidney disease indicators and combines with electronic medical records to diagnose and warn chronic kidney diseases. The other is based on machine learning technology, using support vector machine (SVM), convolutional neural network (RNN) and other algorithms to provide auxiliary support. For example, the risk of a chronic kidney disease is given by modeling and evaluating the clinical examination indicators of the patients; by analyzing the similar cases of the patients, it can provide physicians with similar previous cases of the chronic kidney disease.
The existing decision support technology for early diagnosis of chronic kidney diseases has the following problems: (1) the current expert system based on the electronic medical record is often deeply integrated with the hospital electronic medical record system, and uses specific data structure and medical terminology system, which leads to its poor scalability and portability, and is often not suitable for many different hospitals; at the same time, the established diagnostic rules are difficult to expand and cannot be updated with the changes of clinical guidelines for chronic kidney diseases. (2) based on the auxiliary support of machine learning, it is necessary to input a large number of patient clinical examination and diagnosis data as the training features of the model, and the patient electronic medical record data often lacks sufficient examination results, resulting in poor applicability of the machine learning model; in addition, the machine learning model cannot give a clear diagnosis reason, but can only provide the risk level, resulting in the lack of trust of the clinicians in the system.

Cross-departmental chronic kidney disease early diagnosis and decision support system based on knowledge graph


A reproduction device for improving reading performance. A storage processing unit includes a detection circuit for detecting a sync code from read data, which includes alternately arranged sync codes and data segments. An analysis circuit analyzes a read status of the sync code detected by the detection circuit. A storage processing circuit adjusts a position at which one of the data segments between two sync codes is stored in a main memory based on the analysis of the analysis circuit.

1. Field
It is related to a reproduction device and a reproducing method, and more particularly, to a device and method for reading information recorded on an optical recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
An optical disc is a recording media for recording information with high density. Information is optically read (reproduced) from the optical disc. When a blemish or smear is on the surface of the optical disc, data cannot be accurately read from the optical disc. Further, when the optical disc rotates irregularly during data reading, the amount of data recorded on the disk may differ from the amount of data generated by processing reflection light from the disk. Accordingly, in addition to user data, code information (correction code) for correcting the read data (error correction) is recorded on the optical disc. However, the read data may not be corrected depending on the condition of the read data. Thus, there is a demand for improvements in reading performance of the optical disc.
In the prior art, to improve the reading performance, a correction code calculated for every predetermined amount of user data is recorded on an optical disc, such as a digital video disk or digital versatile disk (DVD). As shown in FIG. 1, a data block BD recorded on an optical disc includes a predetermined amount of user data UD (172 bytes×192 rows (12 rows×16 sectors)), a ten-byte correction code PI for each row of the user data UD calculated from the data in the column direction of the user data UD (B(x, 0) to B(x, 171)), and a sixteen-byte correction code PO (B(192, y) to B(207, y)) for each column calculated from the correction code PI and data in the row direction of the user data UD (B(0, y) to B(191, y)). Some of the correction codes PO are also used as the correction codes PI. The correction codes PI and the correction codes PO are used in error correction (processing for identifying a data error position and calculating a correction value) performed when data is read from the optical disc. The data arrangement sequence (order) of the data block BD is important in the error correction.
In the error correction, each row and column of the data block BD is processed as a codeword, and each column and row undergoes the error correction. More specifically, one data block BD is processed as 208 data rows H0 to H207 or as 182 data columns V0 to V181 as shown in FIG. 1. Errors are corrected in the user data UD and the correction code data PO for each of the data rows H0 to H207 using the user data UD or the correction code data PO and the correction code data PI. Further, errors are corrected in the user data UD and the correction data PO for each of the data columns V0 to V181 using the user data UD or the correction code data PI and the correction code data PO.
As shown in FIG. 2, each of the data rows H192 to H207 for the correction codes PO in the data block BD is inserted (interleaved) between every twelve data rows of the user data UD. One recording sector is constructed by the twelve rows of the user data UD and one row of the correction code data PO. As a result, one data block BD includes sixteen recording sectors C0 to C15.
Data included in the data block BD undergoes eight-to-sixteen modulation. More specifically, eight bits of data, or one byte, is modulated into data having sixteen channel bits (cb). As shown in FIG. 3, one of eight synchronization (sync) codes SY0 to SY7 is added to every 91 bytes (1456 cb) of modulation data. Each sync code has two bytes (32 cb). One sync frame is formed by the 91-byte modulation data and the 2-byte sync code. The sync codes are added to the modulation data in a predetermined order. The sync codes enable identification of the modulation data that is currently being read. The data shown in FIG. 3 is recorded to an optical disc sequentially from the top left. Data is read from the optical disc in order starting from the top left in FIG. 3.
When data is correctly read from the optical disc, a processing circuit receives the read data as a plurality of data segments divided by sync codes as shown in FIG. 4. The processing circuit stores the data segment between two sync codes in a memory 100. When the each data segment reaches 91 bytes, a data block BD (FIG. 1) recorded on the optical disc is stored in the memory. Thus, error correction is accurately performed on the user data with the correction code data PI and the correction code data PO.
A blemish or smear on the surface of the disc or irregular rotation of the disc may result in loss of a sync code or some of the user data. This may also produce excessive data. For example, referring to FIG. 5, when two bytes of data between two sync codes SY5 are missing, the processing circuit stores 91 bytes of data segment (D1) following the former one of the two sync codes SY5 in the memory 100. Then, the processing circuit processes the following two bytes as a sync code and stores the 89 bytes of data segment (D2) following that sync code in the memory 100. When the missing two bytes correspond to the sync code SY1 shown in FIG. 4, the data segment D2 is stored in the memory 100 at a position deviating by two bytes from its correct storage position. Thus, each value in the data segment D2 is processed as an error when the error correction is performed in the direction of the correction code PO. In other words, 91 bytes of data segment are determined as being defective. Such defective data may not be corrected depending on the position or amount of the defective data. In such a case, the entire data block BD is determined as being defective. This lowers the reading performance of the optical disc.

Reproduction device and reproducing method


The present invention relates to a method for transmitting signals in a wireless communication system, in which signals are transmitted from a first communication device to a second communication device, said signals being transmitted in consecutive frames, each frame having a preamble section including preamble information, at least one of said first and said second communication devices having a narrow beam antenna which is adapted to be steered to different positions, each of said different positions corresponding to one of a number of different transmissions paths from said to said second communication device, including the steps of transmitting and receiving a first preamble section including preamble information enabling the estimation of a channel quality of a current transmission path, while said narrow beam antenna is in a current position corresponding to said current transmission path, steering said narrow beam antenna from said current position to a different position corresponding to a candidate transmission path, and transmitting and receiving a second preamble section including preamble information enabling the estimation of a channel quality of said candidate transmission path while said narrow beam antenna is in said different position. The present invention further relates to a corresponding transmission device as well as a receiving device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a device for transmitting signals in a wireless communication system, as well as to a receiving device for receiving signals in a wireless communication system with a special frame structure enabling a high data rate transmission and reception with at least one steerable narrow beam (sharp beam) antenna.
2. Discussion of the Background
Wireless communication is used in a large variety of technical fields, such as mobile telephone, wireless LAN, walky-talkies, broadcast radio systems, point-to-point radio systems and many other known and future applications. The communication radius covered by a respective wireless communication system basically depends on the technique used. Whereas cellular communication systems, such as the GSM and the UMTS system, are adapted for a communication radius up to about 10 km (or more), wireless LAN is in the range of about 100 m (or more) and the Bluetooth system is in the range of several 10 m (or more). The major influences on the communication range of a wireless communication system are the radio frequency and output power used. Although only little absorption of electromagnetic waves in the atmosphere occurs at the radio frequency used for GSM and UMTS, a significant absorption occurs in the 60 GHz range, which makes it quite well suited for low range and indoor wireless communication. Furthermore, the kind of transmission and/or reception antennas used for a respective wireless communication technique varies depending on a respective field of application. For example, if a number of receivers has to be reached or if the location of the receivers is unknown or varies frequently, e.g. due to movement, wide beam antennas or omni-directional antennas are sometimes used. However, the utilization of wide beam antennas in high data rate millimeter wave wireless communication systems is problematic, because of the multi-path fading effect. For example, if wide beam antennas are used both on the transmitter and the receiver side and if the direct line of sight (LOS) link is blocked by an obstacle, such as a moving human being, a vehicle or the like, there exist a lot of reflection paths between the transmitter and the receiver, i.e. transmission paths in which the transmitted electromagnetic wave is reflected at least once by objects before it reaches the receiver. The channel delay spread might be over tens of symbol periods when the data rate is high, e.g. over 1 Gbps, which leads to severe inter-symbol interference due to deep frequency selective fading.
Two conventional solutions exist for such kind of non line of sight (NLOS) user scenarios, whereby both of these solutions need high-speed and complex signal processing circuits. One solution adopts a channel equalizer including linear, decision feedback or maximum likelihood sequence estimation (MLSE) equalizer. When the channel delay spread is much longer than the symbol duration, the equalizer becomes complex and needs a lot of processing power. Another solution is the orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) technique, which is already adopted in wireless LAN systems. However, due to its inherent linear modulation and high peak to average ratio problems, the power consumption of the power amplifier (PA) in such systems is very high. Obviously, a high speed Fast Fourier Transformation and other signal processing modules are required for demodulating a 1 Gbps signal. Therefore, it is important to find other solutions which do not require complex and high speed base band circuitry for high data rate millimeter wave range communication systems.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and device for transmitting signals in a wireless communication system, receiving device for receiving signals in a wireless communication system, with a special frame structure


This invention is intended to overcome the problems with conventional phosphor materials, specifically to overcome the problems of insufficient luminance and of color impurity on the screens of color display units when green phosphor materials have blue or red light emission. This invention is intended to provide vacuum ultraviolet excited green phosphor materials that include terbium, gadolinium-doped rare-earth aluminum scandium borate represented by the following general formula: (Y1-x-yGdxTby)Al3-zScz(BO3)4 (0≦x≦0.5, 0<y<0.5, 0<z≦3). The phosphor materials of this invention can be used for light-emitting devices. Using the phosphor materials in combination with blue phosphor materials and red phosphor materials enables the formation of white emitting device.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a vacuum ultraviolet excited green phosphor material and a light-emitting device using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
At the present time, fluorescent lamps containing mercury are in common use as illumination. This mercury vapor lamp generates ultraviolet radiation using mercury vapor discharge and then causes 3 phosphor materials, R (red: red wavelength region with peak emission wavelength of 600 to 615 nm), G (green: green wavelength region with peak emission wavelength of 535 to 570 nm) and B (blue: blue wavelength region with peak emission wavelength of 440 to 470 nm) (hereinafter abbreviated as R.G.B), to emit light to illuminate a white fluorescent lamp. However, these fluorescent lamps use in their inside mercury harmful to the environment and therefore the development of mercury-free fluorescent lamps, which use rare gases such as xenon, are being actively pursued. The mercury-free fluorescent lamps containing xenon gas emit vacuum ultraviolet light using xenon discharge and cause the phosphor materials of 3 colors, R. G. B, to emit light to yield white light.
On the other hand, in conventional display units using a CRT system, their weight and thickness are becoming problematic with the recent growing tendency toward large-sized display screens and there have been strong demands for light-weight and thin type display units. As a result, the development of flat flat-panel displays such as plasma display panels and liquid crystal displays are being actively pursued.
In plasma display panels, color display is obtained by generating plasma by electrical discharge in rare gas, producing vacuum ultraviolet light through the generated plasma, and causing phosphor materials of 3 pixel colors, R, G and B, to emit light by the vacuum ultraviolet excitation.
In liquid crystal displays, on the other hand, since they are not self luminous type of displays, reflection type displays, which use external light, and backlight type displays, which use back light on the back side of liquid crystal, are used. In large-sized liquid crystal displays, however, backlight type is commonly used. To provide color display, a backlight emits white light, which contains R, G and B light, from the back side of a liquid crystal device and a color filter separates the white light transmitting the liquid crystal device into R, G and B.
The phosphor materials used in the plasma display panels and backlights of liquid crystal displays are also required to have optical characteristics such as luminance, chromaticity and aging characteristic of the same.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-297291 discloses cerium, terbium-doped lanthanum phosphate (LaPO4: Tb, Ce) and terbium-doped magnesium cerium aluminate (CeMgAl11O19: Tb) phosphor materials as green phosphor materials whose emission peak wavelengths are at 505 to 535 nm.
Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-96448 discloses aluminum borate green phosphor materials represented by the formula: Y1-a-bGdaTbbAl3(BO3)4 (0.3≦a≦0.55, 0.003≦b≦0.44) which have high luminance and are low in decrease of luminance due to their exposure to plasma.
Fluorescent lamps using xenon discharge, which have lately attracted considerable attention as mercury-free fluorescent lamps, are poor in energy conversion efficiency compared with fluorescent lamps using mercury discharge. To use them in household applications, they are required to have high luminance. If the luminance of xenon fluorescent lamps is increased to the same level as that of mercury fluorescent lamps and is put to practical use, power consumption can be reduced. Thus, it is indispensable to increase the luminance of phosphor materials.
Plasma displays and liquid crystal displays are alternatives to cathode ray tubes. To allow them to be used in homes, they are also required to have high luminance. However, in plasma display panels in current use, it is hard to say that they have luminance that fully meets such a requirement. In liquid crystal displays, since their luminance is obtained from their backlights, the requirement can be met by increasing the luminance of the backlights. However, from the viewpoint of power consumption, there have been demands for more efficient and thinner liquid crystal displays. Thus, it is indispensable to increase the luminance of fluorescent tubes which enable the easy formation of flat light-emitting devices.
Meanwhile, there have been strong demands for higher luminance and higher color purity of the green phosphor materials shown in the description of prior art.
Demands for increase in luminance and improvement in color purity are particularly noticeable in plasma display panels. This may have to do with the fact that the system of TV broadcasting is moving toward the Hi-Vision digital production system from the conventional NTSC system. The Hi-Vision digital production system requires 1920×1080 pixels Full Spec; however, the current 37″ to 42″ plasma display panels have only 1024×768 pixels. And if plasma display panels are produced while maintaining the current pixel sizes, the resultant panels are 55″ to 63″ ones. For around 40″ plasma display panels, which are of size commonly used in homes, to comply with the standard of Hi-Vision full spec, it is necessary to decrease the pixel size to ⅔ or less of the current one. If the pixel size is decreased to ⅔ of the current size, the luminance of the phosphor materials is required to be 1.5 times or more as much as that of the current luminance. Thus, it is indispensable to increase the luminance of the phosphor materials.
There also exists a problem of color purity with conventional phosphor materials. For example, when the green phosphor materials have blue- or red-emission, color impurity may occur.
This invention is intended to provide phosphor materials that overcome the above described problems.

Vacuum ultraviolet excited green phosphor material and light-emitting device using the same


A method, system and apparatus is disclosed for drying a wet web quickly and efficiently on the surface of a steam heated drying cylinder in a continuous papermaking process. A steam-heated drying cylinder having an exterior surface is rotated under a drying hood adjacent the exterior surface of the drying cylinder. The hood comprises a drying zone of heated air, with nozzles adapted to supply hot air streams into the drying zone. A wet web is adhered to the drying cylinder and rotated through the drying zone of the hood. Then, hot air streams are directed from the nozzles upon the wet web. A hot air stream is provided from a nozzle at a lead angle that deviates from perpendicular between about 3 and about 30 degrees, in a lead direction towards the downstream end of the web drying process.

A common method of drying lightweight paper web products after manufacture of such webs is to adhere the wet web to the exterior surface of a steam heated Yankee dryer. A Yankee dryer is a cylindrical dryer that is heated internally by way of steam that passes through its interior, thereby supplying heat energy to the exterior surface of the dryer. While adhered to the Yankee dryer, supplemental drying is provided by an air impingement hood that blows high velocity, heated air onto the exposed surface of the paper web. The air must be provided at relatively high velocity and extremely high temperatures to adequately dry the wet web in the short amount of time that the wet web is exposed to the air.
Using a standard wet pressed paper manufacturing operation, the level of adhesion to a Yankee dryer by the wet web is generally high enough to prevent disruption of the sheet during the drying process. In many other manufacturing processes, the wet web may be undesirably disrupted (i.e. damaged) by the force of high velocity air impinging on the wet web. Disruption of the wet web causes portions of the sheet to come loose from the surface of the Yankee dryer. This leads to scorching of the paper web from the high temperature impingement air and ultimately to plugging of the hood causing fires.
Impingement nozzles apply air at high speed from a drying hood to the surface of a cylindrical dryer. In general, the space between the wet web on the cylindrical dryer and the hot air hood is only a few inches.
What is generally needed in the industry is an apparatus, system, and method that is capable of adequately drying the wet web while it rotates on a cylindrical drum, below the dryer hood. A system of applying hot air at useful velocities to adequately dry the web, while also avoiding disrupting the web on the surface of the dryer, is needed. Furthermore, a system that can achieve these results while stabilizing the wet web on the surface of the drying cylinder would be particularly useful.
In the application of this invention, several different embodiments are possible, and this specification is intended to show multiple embodiments. Other embodiments not shown herein are possible as within the spirit of the invention.
A web drying method is presented, the method comprising providing a rotating steam-heated drying cylinder having an exterior surface. Further, a drying hood is located adjacent the exterior surface of the drying cylinder, the hood comprising a drying zone of heated air, the hood further comprising nozzles adapted to supply hot air streams into the drying zone. A step of applying a wet web to the exterior drying surface of a cylinder is provided. Furthermore, a web is rotated upon the exterior surface of the cylinder through the drying zone of the hood. Hot air streams are directed from the nozzles upon the surface of the wet web. At least one hot air stream is provided from a nozzle at a lead angle that is deviated from perpendicular between about 3 and about 30 degrees.
In a further method of the invention, the web is secured to the surface of the cylinder while substantially avoiding disruption of the web upon the surface of the cylinder. In some instances, the lead angle is deviated from perpendicular between about 5 and 20 degrees. The lead angle, in other embodiments, is deviated from perpendicular about 10 degrees.
The method also is provided in which the web is traveling at a speed, relative to the hood, of between about 1,000 and 6,000 feet per minute. In some instances, the speed of the air stream exiting the nozzle is between about 20,000 and 30,000 feet per minute.
For some applications of the invention, the temperature of the hot air stream is between about 500 degrees Fahrenheit and about 1100 degrees Fahrenheit.
The nozzle direction may be angled towards the edges of the web from the midline, at a compound angle. That is, in some applications of the invention, the angle of the nozzles is deviated in two directions, one direction leading the web (alpha angle), and one direction along the axis of the rotating dryer (beta angle).
A method also is provided in which a hot air stream is directed at a deviation angle beta from perpendicular that increases as the nozzle distance from the midline increases. That is, the angle is greater out near the edges of the web, and smaller near the midline. There would be no compound angle (i.e., beta angle) at all at the midline, in most cases.
A web drying apparatus is provided in another embodiment of the invention. The apparatus comprises a rotating drying cylinder, the cylinder having an exterior drying surface adapted to receive a wet web. Further, the apparatus includes an air hood, the air hood comprising an air blowing means capable of providing a stream of high speed heated air upon a wet web on the exterior surface of the drying cylinder. A plurality of air nozzles are connected to the air hood, the air nozzles being oriented to eject air from the hood towards the drying cylinder at a predetermined angle alpha, the angle alpha being deviated from perpendicular between about 3 and about 30 degrees. Depending upon the web rotational speed, and the air speed, the appropriate lead angle of the nozzles may be only about 5-15 degrees.
In some applications of the invention, there is a deviation of the nozzle angle along both the alpha direction and a beta direction. That is, in some applications of the invention, the web further comprises a midline along its middle with a left and right edge, further wherein nozzles of the hood located on either side of the web midline. The nozzles eject hot air upon the web, wherein the direction of air ejected is angled towards the edge of the web in both the left and right directions. The nozzles on the left of the web generally are angled to the left edge of the web, while the nozzles located to the right of the web midline are directed or angled to the right edge of the web. The angle in the beta direction is known as a compound angle.

Yankee drying hood and method comprising angled impingement nozzles


An adjusting device for the rotational position of the camshaft of a reciprocating piston engine relative to the crankshaft, has an actuator for adjusting the rotational position that is connected into a control circuit. The control circuit has a controller, which is linked to a data memory, in which controller coefficients for a transfer function of the controller are stored. The data memory has at least two memory areas in which various sets of controller coefficients are stored. The control circuit is connectable with the aid of a mode selector, optionally or alternately, in such a way to one of the data memory areas that the controller coefficient set stored in the particular data memory area is used for the control. A device for ascertaining the operating state of the adjusting device and/or of the reciprocating piston engine is connected to the mode selector in such a way that the controller coefficient set used in the particular case for the control is dependent on the operating state.

An adjusting device of this kind having an actuator that is provided with two mutually engaging gear wheels having helical toothing, is known from the German Patent Application DE 44 08 425 A1. One of the gear wheels is coupled to the camshaft, and the other is driven via a chain by the crankshaft. The gear wheels can be axially shifted towards one another by a hydraulic mechanism, thereby producing a relative torsion between the crankshaft and camshaft due to the helical toothing. The hydraulic mechanism is driven by an actuating signal generated by a control circuit. The hydraulic mechanism is controllable in each instance by one of three values, namely by an early value for adjusting the camshaft toward an early opening of the intake valves of the combustion engine, by a late value for adjusting the camshaft toward a late opening of the intake valves, and by a hold value for holding the active actual angular position. The control circuit executes a control program, which, for each program run, estimates the adjustment speed that will exist at the beginning of the following program run. From this estimated value and the known time response of the camshaft adjustment following the switching of the hold value over to the actuating signal (early or late value), the adjustment angle that the angular position of the camshaft would still change to, if the actuating signal were changed over to the hold value at the beginning of the next program run, is estimated. When the deviation between the estimated value for the adjustment angle and the setpoint angular position of the camshaft lies within a range of tolerance, the switch is made from the early or late value to the hold value. The adjustment speed that will presumably exist at the beginning of the following program run, is estimated from the current adjustment speed, using a first-order transfer function and a final adjustment speed. The final adjustment speed is adapted under specific conditions. In this way, according to the patent application, estimated values for the current position can be determined very precisely even when operating parameters of the hydraulic mechanism change, such as the viscosity of the hydraulic fluid, due to heating of the same. Nevertheless, the control accuracy of the control circuit is still in need of improvement, above all in different operating states. Thus, for example, an overshooting of the signal to be controlled can occur in certain operating situations.

Luk Lamellen und Kupplungsbau Beteiligungs KG


A temperature sensor (1) including a cylindrical metal tube (3) having a front end side blocked, a thermistor element (2), and a sheath member (8) connected to the thermistor element (2) and held in the inside of the metal tube (3), wherein: the metal tube (3) has a small-diameter portion (33) located on the front end side and entirely having an inner diameter smaller than the outer diameter of the sheath member (8), and a large-diameter portion (36) located on the rear end side of the small-diameter portion (33) and having a diameter larger than the outer diameter of the small-diameter portion (33); and a thermistor sintered body (21) is held in the small-diameter portion (33) and cement (10) is filled in between a front end of the thermistor sintered body (21) and a front end of an inner wall of the metal tube (3) and on the front end side viewed from a rear end surface of the thermistor sintered body (21).

There has been heretofore known a so-called exhaust gas temperature sensor using a thermistor element as a thermal sensing element for detecting the temperature of exhaust gas flowing in an exhaust gas flow path such as the inside of a catalytic converter of an exhaust scrubber of a car or the inside of an exhaust pipe. As this type temperature sensor, there is known a temperature sensor having a structure in which a thermistor element is disposed in the front end side inside of a metal tube shaped like a bottomed pipe while a sheath member having a sheath pipe in which metal cores connected to electrode wires of the thermistor element are held while electrically insulated is inserted into the metal tube (e.g. see Patent Documents 1 and 2). In such a temperature sensor, heat of the exhaust gas is received by the metal tube and then transmitted from the metal tube to the thermistor element to thereby detect the temperature.
[Patent Document 1]
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-162051 (FIG. 1)
[Patent Document 2]
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-350241 (FIG. 2)


A balance system for implementation within an engine crankcase, as well as an engine employing such a system and a method of balancing forces as performed by such a system, are disclosed. In at least one embodiment, the balance system includes a crankshaft with at least one eccentric portion and a counterbalance assembly having at least one connecting arm and a counterbalance weight with first and second ends, where each of the at least one connecting arm includes a respective circular orifice that is positioned around and supported by a respective one of the at least one eccentric portion. The balance system further includes first and second hinged arms rotatably coupled proximate the first and second ends of the counterbalance weight, respectively, where the arms at least indirectly link the ends of the counterbalance weight to a portion of the engine crankcase and guide movement of the counterbalance weight.

A major cause of vibration in a single cylinder engine is piston reciprocation. The piston is started and stopped twice during each rotation of the crankshaft, and reactions to the forces that accelerate and decelerate the piston are imposed upon the engine body as vibration in directions generally parallel to the piston axis. When operated in a device such as a lawn mower, the engine produces vibrations that can be transmitted through the device to the operator. This vibration is uncomfortable and could produce operator fatigue. Even when operated in a device in which there is no issue of operator fatigue (e.g., sump pumps or portable generators), engine vibration is undesirable because it causes maintenance problems and tends to reduce the useful life of the machine.
To some extent such vibrations can be decreased by providing the engine with a counterweight fixed on its crankshaft, and located at the side of the crankshaft axis directly opposite the crankpin by which the piston (through the connecting rod) is connected to the crankshaft. Such a crankshaft counterweight arrangement, in which the counterweights rotate with the crankshaft, can be designed to cancel some or even all of the primary acceleration and deceleration forces on the piston assembly along the piston axis. However, the centrifugal force of such rotating crankshaft counterweights also has a component transverse to the piston axis that produces lateral vibration, the amount of which increases in direction proportion to the degree to which the crankshaft counterweights successfully cancel out the acceleration and deceleration forces on the piston assembly. For this reason, many single cylinder engines incorporate crankshaft counterweights having a mass that provides a condition of about "50% overbalance", such that the centrifugal force due to the counterweights has a component along the piston axis that is equal to about 50% of the acceleration and deceleration forces on the piston assembly. Yet the use of such counterweights having a 50% overbalance condition does not fully eliminate the undesirable vibration occurring in single cylinder engines.
For this reason, additional techniques have been employed to further reduce such vibration. A number of these techniques employ one or more additional counterweights that, in contrast to the crankshaft counterweights discussed above, do not rotate with the crankshaft but instead either reciprocate (that is, move back and forth in a strictly linear manner) with respect to the crankshaft or alternatively move back and forth relative to the crankshaft while also rotating somewhat (in a "wobbling" motion). Such counterweights often are coupled to the crankshaft by way of connecting arms, which have near ends coupled to the counterweights and far ends coupled to the crankshaft. In order that these counterweights move back and forth relative to the crankshaft in opposition to the motion of the piston, circular apertures at the far ends of the connecting arms are supported by eccentric journals on the crankshaft. As the crankshaft rotates, the eccentric journals rotate such that the centers of the eccentric journals rotate about the central axis of the crankshaft, and consequently the far ends of the connecting arms also move around the central axis of the crankshaft. This causes the near ends of the connecting arms, and the counterweights attached thereto, to move back and forth relative to the crankshaft.
Certain existing designs employing this second type of counterweight are configured to produce counterweight movement that includes both movement of the counterweight back and forth relative to the crankshaft as well as additional rotational movement relative to the crankshaft. In one conventional design, a pair of counterweights is not only connected to the crankshaft eccentrics by way of a pair of connecting arms, but also is connected the inside surface of one of the walls of the crankcase within which the counterweights are moving by way of a hinged arm that is rotatably coupled to both the wall of the crankcase and to the counterweights. The hinged arm generally serves to guide movement of the counterweights back and forth in relation to the crankshaft. The movement of the counterweights relative to the crankshaft is not strictly linear, however, since the point at which the hinged arm is attached to the counterweights must follow a nonlinear path determined by the radius formed by the hinged arm relative to the point on the crankcase about which the hinged arm rotates.
While the above-described conventional design for a balance system successfully balances to a high degree the forces associated with piston reciprocation (and thus diminishes undesirable vibrations associated therewith), this conventional design has certain disadvantages. In particular, in addition to experiencing motion back and forth relative to the crankshaft, as well as rotational motion about an axis parallel to the crankshaft axis, the counterweights coupled to the crankshaft by way of the connecting arms may also have a tendency during engine operation to experience torquing and even small amounts of rotation about axes perpendicular to the crankshaft axis, something which can result in further undesirable weight shifting and consequent vibrations in the engine. Such motion can result in relative leading/lagging in terms of the relative positions of the connecting arms with respect to the respective eccentric journals on which they ride, something which is exacerbated by the fact that different counterweights are coupled to the different eccentrics. Although the hinged arm coupling the counterweights to the crankcase does to some extent tend to counteract gross movements by the counterweights in these directions, the hinged arm is less able to prevent small movements in these directions, and thus is incapable of preventing some of the undesirable vibrations associated with such movements.
In view of the above discussion, therefore, it would be advantageous if an improved balancing system capable of being used in a single-cylinder internal combustion engine could be developed. In at least some such embodiments, it would be advantageous if the improved balancing system was designed so that any relative leading or lagging experienced in terms of the positioning of different connecting arms on their respective eccentrics was minimized, and so that any movements of the counterweights about axes other than those parallel to the crankshaft were reduced, such that associated weight shifting, vibrations, and other undesirable effects were less likely to occur than in conventional embodiments of balancing systems. It would further be advantageous if at least some embodiments of the improved balancing system were more easily manufactured and/or assembled than many conventional balancing systems.