The present invention is to provide a process for preparing a highly polymerized aromatic polycarbonate resin, which comprises the steps of a highly polymerizing step for reacting an aromatic polycarbonate prepolymer and an aliphatic diol compound in the presence of a transesterification catalyst to obtain a highly polymerized aromatic polycarbonate resin, a cyclic carbonate removal step for removing at least part of the cyclic carbonate by-produced in the above highly polymerizing step out of the reaction system, and a recycle step of hydrolyzing the cyclic carbonate removed in the cyclic carbonate removal step to obtain an aliphatic diol compound and using the obtained aliphatic diol compound as at least a part of the aliphatic diol compound to be used in the highly polymerizing step.

A polycarbonate is excellent in heat resistance, impact resistance and transparency, so that, in recent years, it has been widely used in many fields.
In a preparation process of the polycarbonate, many investigations have heretofore been done. Among these, a polycarbonate derived from an aromatic dihydroxy compound, for example, 2,2-bis(4-hydroxyphenyl)propane (hereinbelow, also referred to as "bisphenol A" or "BPA") has been industrially produced by any preparation processes of the interfacial polymerization method or the melt polymerization method.
According to the interfacial polymerization method, the polycarbonate is produced from bisphenol A and phosgene, but poisonous phosgene must be used. Also, there remain the problems that the apparatus is corroded by a chlorine-containing compound such as by-produced hydrogen chloride and sodium chloride, and methylene chloride used as the solvent with a large amount, etc., and that removal of the impurities such as sodium chloride, etc., and remaining methylene chloride which cause effects on the polymer physical property, is difficult.
On the other hand, as a method for preparing a polycarbonate from an aromatic dihydroxy compound and a diarylcarbonate, for example, it has been known a melt polymerization method from long ago in which bisphenol A and diphenylcarbonate are polymerized in a melt state by transesterification, while removing the by-produced aromatic monohydroxy compound. The melt polymerization method has merits that it does not use a solvent, etc., different from the interfacial polymerization method.
With regard to the melt polymerization method, various attempts have been investigated to solve the problems that the polymerization degree is difficultly raised, etc. (for example, see Patent Documents 1 to 13). However, according to these methods, it cannot be said that the tasks to accomplish higher polymerization while maintaining good qualities of the polycarbonate inherently possessed can be sufficiently solved.
The present inventors have previously found out a novel process, as a process for obtaining an aromatic polycarbonate which can accomplish a rapid polymerization rate and gives good quality, in which end-capped terminals of the aromatic polycarbonate is connected with an aliphatic diol compound to elongate the chain (for example, see Patent Document 14; WO 2011/062220A pamphlet). According to this process, an end-capped terminals of the aromatic polycarbonates are linked to the aliphatic diol compound to elongate the chain, whereby an aromatic polycarbonate resin with a high polymerization degree having an Mw of about 30,000 to 100,000 can be produced within a short period of time.
The present inventors have also previously proposed a preparation process of a highly polymerized polycarbonate resin comprising the steps of highly polymerizing an aromatic polycarbonate prepolymer by reacting with a linking agent which comprises an aliphatic diol compound having a specific structure in the presence of a transesterification catalyst, and also removing at least part of a cyclic carbonate by-produced in the highly polymerizing step out of the reaction system (for example, see Patent Document 15; WO 2012/157766 A pamphlet).
The method of highly polymerizing the polycarbonate by using the linking agent comprising an aliphatic diol compound has merits that a structural unit derived from the linking agent is scarcely remained in the main chain of the obtained highly polymerized polycarbonate resin, the obtained polycarbonate resin has the same skeletal structure as that of the conventional polycarbonate obtained by the interfacial method so that the polycarbonate resin having excellent physical properties as those of the conventional ones can be obtained.
In such a preparation process of the highly polymerized polycarbonate resin, it has been desired to develop an industrial preparation method which can use the starting materials with good efficiency by recycling these materials, but in the preparation process of the polycarbonate resin, some proposals concerning reuse of by-produced phenol, etc., have been merely done (for example, see Patent Documents 16 and 17).

Process for preparing highly polymerized aromatic polycarbonate resin


In order to provide a broad-band non-grounded type ultrashort-wave antenna which has sufficiently high sensitivity characteristics and broad-band VSWR characteristics even in an expanded frequency band, is able to use a small-diameter antenna element, is light in weight and simple in structure, and can be manufactured inexpensively, an antenna element parallel resonance part, that is formed by the inductance and distributed capacitance of the rod-form antenna element which has an electrical length close to lambda/2 or an integral multiple of lambda/2, and a metal member parallel resonance part, that is formed by the electrostatic capacitance between first and second metal members which are installed parallel to each other and have respective electrical lengths of lambda/4 and the inductance of the first metal member, are electrostatically coupled by the stray capacity that exists between the antenna element and an electrostatic coupling piece projected from the second metal member, thus forming a double-tuned circuit. The antenna thus constructed has the VSWR characteristics of a twin-peak form, thus being suitable for a broader frequency trend and having a desired gain for the entire frequency band used.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a broad-band non-grounded type ultrashort-wave antenna which is desirable as, for example, a wireless telephone antenna used in an automobile telephone system, etc.
2. Prior Art
In recent years, there has been a rapid expansion in the development and utilization of the so-called "mobile communication systems" such as automobile wireless telephone systems, and even more recently, there has been a technological shift toward a high degree of digitalization. As for the frequency band used in automobile wireless telephone systems, new frequency bands have been added to both ends of the currently used frequency band in order to achieve a wider diffusion of digital systems while using such digital systems along the conventional analog systems.
At NTT (Nippon Telegram and Telephone Corporation in Japan), for example, a band that extends from 865 MHz to 945 MHz (i.e., a band with a width of 80 MHz) was used in the past; but with a rapid development of digitalization, this has been changed to a band width of 810 MHz to 960 MHz (i.e., a band with a width of 150 MHz). In other words, the band width presently used is approximately twice the conventional band width.
One of the antennas used in the past has an electrical length set at lambda/2 (.lambda./2), and another uses a so-called "constant-K filter." These antennas have satisfactory sensitivity characteristics and impedance characteristics (especially the VSWR characteristics), both required for mobile communications for the conventional 80 MHz band width. However, with respect to the new band width of 150 MHz which is approximately double the old band width as described above, the conventional antenna is unsatisfactory for either one or both of the sensitivity and impedance characteristics (especially the VSWR characteristics).
More specifically, in the antenna which has an electrical length of lambda/2, the sensitivity characteristics are good, but the impedance characteristics, especially the VSWR characteristics, are more or less unsatisfactory. On the other hand, in the antenna which uses the constant K filter, the impedance characteristics, especially the VSWR characteristics, are more or less good but the sensitivity characteristics are unsatisfactory.
As seen from the above, though the band width of the frequency band used for automobile wireless telephone systems has been approximately doubled due to the digitalized communications systems, the conventional antennas cannot satisfy the sensitivity characteristics nor the impedance characteristics, especially the VSWR characteristics.
One way to improve the VSWR characteristics or to achieve the broad band characteristics is to enlarge the diameter of the antenna element so as to reduce the inductance of the antenna element and to increase the capacitance, thus lowering the Q value of the antenna. However, in the automobile antennas, the wind pressure resistance increases as the diameter of the antenna element becomes larger. Accordingly, to increase the antenna diameter is not desirable from the design standpoint. Thus, there are inherent limits in the effort to increase the diameter of the antenna elements.
Another method to achieve the broad band characteristics is to incorporate lambda/4 matching devices into a multiple number of stages of the antenna element. This method, however, requires that the antenna itself be made to have broad band characteristics. Ordinarily, therefore, broad band characteristics are realized by a combination of a use of lambda/4 matching devices and a use of enlarged diameter antenna elements. However, in this combination, the structure tends to be complex and a high degree of technical skill is required to build the antenna. Furthermore, the cost of the antenna rises and the weight of the antenna increases.

Broad-band non-grounded type ultrashort-wave antenna


Technologies are generally described for systems, devices and methods effective to generate a message that may be sent to a social network. Power information from an electronic device may be detected by a power detector and received by a processor. For example, a power consumption profile of an appliance may be detected. The processor may classify the power information to produce descriptive data. For example, the processor may determine that an oven has been turned on for a period of time. The processor may generate the message by applying one or more rules to the descriptive data. For example, the processor may generate a message relating to consumption of dinner based on the determination that the oven has been turned on.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Appliances and other electronics may be equipped with network technology and may be capable of communicating with one another. Additionally, devices equipped with networking technology may allow for communication with a power grid. Use of some devices may be detected by analyzing a power consumption profile used by the device.

Device usage message generator indicative of power consumption of an electronic device


A method and system for performing ternary verification is disclosed. Initially, a ternary model is generated from a binary model of a logic circuit design. The pairings used to encode the ternary model are then recorded. Next, the number of the recorded gate pairings is reduced by removing all invalid gate pairings. A ternary verification is performed on the ternary model having a reduced number of gate pairings.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to integrated circuit verification tools in general, and more particularly, to a method and system for performing equivalence checking on logic circuits. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to a method and system for performing ternary verification.
2. Description of Related Art
Binary modeling is a common framework for evaluating logic designs. With binary modeling, logic gates in the form a hardware design representation are evaluated with 0,1 valuations. For example, when evaluating an AND gate, if any of its input signals is a logical 0, then the AND gate should evaluate to a logical 0; otherwise, the AND gate should evaluate to a logical 1. Given a set of 0,1 valuations to the primary inputs of a netlist, a simple deterministic binary simulation algorithm can be used to evaluate the 0,1 valuations to all gates within the netlist.
Ternary modeling evaluates logic designs with 0,1,X valuations, where X represents an "unknown" condition. Given a set of 0,1,X valuations to the primary inputs of a netlist, a simple deterministic algorithm can be used to evaluate the logic gates within the netlist with ternary modeling. For example, when evaluating an AND gate, if any of its input signals is a logical 0, then the AND gate should evaluate to a logical 0; however, if none of its input signals is a logical 0 while one of its input signals is X, then the AND gate should evaluate to X.
Ternary modeling has several practical benefits. First, if used effectively, ternary modeling can effectively double the coverage of binary evaluation for every X that is injected in place of a logical 0 or 1 input value. For example, if simulating a data-independent property of a logic circuit design, a circuit designer may simulate 0,1 values to the control inputs, and X values to all data inputs of a logic circuit design. If a run has N input valuations that take the X value, and if a property under consideration can be consistently evaluated in that ternary simulation (such as the run does not become inconclusive by propagating X values to the signals being checked with the property), such run correlates to 2N binary simulations.
Second, a circuit designer may automatically infer properties with ternary modeling. For example, a circuit designer may verify that a particular Xed input valuation does not propagate or persist in a netlist by checking the downstream logic does not evaluate to X. In contrast, when using binary evaluation, such a property will not be as simply expressed.
Third, in equivalence checking applications, a circuit designer may validate that one model refines the other by checking not just that a set of signals of one logic design always evaluate to the same values in the other, but by relaxing the equality check so that equality of signals (as well as conditions where one model exhibits an X but the other exhibits a 0,1 value) are accepted.
Despite all its advantages, ternary modeling has a significant drawback. In order to accommodate a three-valued interpretation of an inherent binary netlist, each gate in the binary netlist must be modeled with two gates. This results in inefficiencies during ternary evaluation. Consequently, it would be desirable to provide an improved method and system for performing ternary verification.

Method and system for performing ternary verification

International Business Machines Corporation


A broadband mobile phone antenna with a parasitic antenna and a mobile phone thereof are disclosed. The mobile phone antenna includes a main antenna and a matching circuit thereof, a first antenna switch connected with the main antenna and the matching circuit thereof. The first antenna switch is used to perform frequency band switching of the main antenna. The mobile phone antenna also includes a parasitic antenna, at least two second matching circuits, and a second antenna switch connected with the parasitic antenna and the second matching circuits. The parasitic antenna is set on one side of the main antenna. The second antenna switch is controlled by a mobile phone base band chip and is used to make the parasitic antenna switch between the second matching circuits.

Mobile networks have recently developed from 3G to LTE (Long Term Evolution). Meanwhile, traditional 2G and 3G mobile networks are still in use. Therefore, LTE mobile phones are required to be capable of covering multiple frequency bands including 2G/3G/4G. Accordingly, a very wide mobile phone antenna band width is required. However, size of mobile phone motherboards are limited. Therefore, available space for a mobile phone antenna is also limited. Furthermore, a traditional mobile phone antenna cannot be used satisfactorily to cover different frequency bands as required, and, particularly, cannot realize low frequency bandwidth-intensive coverage.
As shown in FIG. 1, an antenna part of a traditional mobile phone radio frequency front end includes a main antenna and a matching circuit thereof, wherein the main antenna is controlled by a main antenna switch to switch between different frequency bands. Logic of the main antenna switch is generally set by a radio frequency hardware engineer together with a radio frequency software engineer.
In order to enable a mobile phone antenna to cover a wider frequency range, researchers have proposed adding a parasitic antenna on a traditional mobile phone antenna. However, it has been found in tests that, even if a frequency band coverage requirement is fulfilled, antenna performance requirement is very difficult to satisfy. Particularly, when covering a low frequency bandwidth-intensive of 700 M (LTE Band12, B17 and the like)—960 MHz (GSM900, WCDMA Band8), antenna performance requirements are difficult to satisfy.
Therefore, the prior art still needs to be improved and developed.

Broadband mobile phone antenna with parasitic antenna and mobile phone

HUIZHOU TCL MOBILE COMMUNICATION CO., LTD.


A coloring device for use, for example, in a color image display device, includes a rotary filter rotated by a motor and includes color filter sections of the three colors which pass over the screen of a monochromatic display device in a predetermined sequence as the rotary filter rotates. The coloring device may include two or more sets of color filter sections to enable reduction of the speed of rotation. For size reduction, a member to be detected, used for detection of the rotation of the rotary filter, may be provided on the rotor of the drive motor, or the filter assembly having the rotary filter may be directly mounted to the rotor of the motor. The rotary filter may be in the form of a disk or a cone. In the latter case, it is advantageous that the color filter sections are formed of a transparent base provided with filter sheets attached thereto or coatings having a transparency only to light of the respective color.

The present invention relates to a coloring device used in combination with a monochromatic display device to form a color image display device or in combination with a monochromatic image pick-up device to form a color image pick-up device.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional color image display device using a monochromatic image display, such as a black-and-white CRT (cathode-ray tube).
As illustrated, it includes a black-and-white CRT 10 and a coloring device 20 including a filter assembly 22 and a D.C. (direct current) rotary motor 30. The filter assembly 22 has a disk-shaped rotary filter 24 formed of color filter sections FR, FG and FB permitting transmission of light of red (R), green (G) and blue (B) and each extending over an angular range of 120, as illustrated in FIG. 2. In other words, the disk-shaped rotary filter 24 is divided by radially extending lines 24rg, 24gb and 24br into three equal sectors FR, FG and FB, each having a vertex angle of 120.degree. and respectively serving as color filters for red (R), green (G) and blue (B). The rotary filter 24 is fixed by a connection member 26 to a motor shaft 32 of the motor 30, and is rotated by the motor 30.
As the motor 30 rotates, the filter sections FR, FG and FB sequentially pass over a screen 12 of the CRT 10.
A rotation sensor 40, which may comprise a Hall element, detects the rotation phase of the rotary filter 24. A magnet 50 is attached to the shaft 32 of the motor 30 and serves as a detection member (member to be detected by a sensor) by the rotation sensor 40. That is, each time the shaft 32 rotates, the magnet 50 passes by the sensor 40, which thereby detects the passage of the magnet 50, on the basis of the magnetic field emanating from the magnet 50, and generates a rotation sync pulse P.
The rotation sync pulse P is supplied to a control device 60. The control device 60 also receives a vertical sync signal VD directly and also via a frequency converter 62. The frequency converter 62 converts the vertical sync signal VD into a triple-frequency vertical signal V3 having a frequency three times that of the vertical sync signal VD.
The control device 60 supplies the motor 30 with a drive signal. The rotation of the motor 30 is controlled such that the rotary fitter 24 rotates once per vertical. period, and the rotation sync pulse P is produced at a constant phase angle relative to the vertical sync signal VD.
Another frequency converter 68 converts a horizontal sync signal HD into a triple-frequency horizontal signal H3 having a frequency three times that of the horizontal sync signal HD.
Image signal memories 66R, 66G and 66B receive and store color image signals SR, SG and SB of red, green and blue together forming a color image.
The memories 66R, 66G and 66B are supplied with a horizontal sync signal HD and the vertical sync signal VD as reference sync signals for writing, and are supplied with the triple-frequency horizontal signal H3 and the triple-frequency vertical signal V3, as reference sync signals for reading.
The color image signals SR, SG and SB are sequentially written in the memories 66R, 66G and 66B. The color image signals for one field are stored at a time, and the color image signals SR, SG and SB for one field are repeatedly read three times, each in a period of one third of the vertical period. The writing and reading are carried out concurrently. Thus, color image signals SR3, SG3 and SB3 of a triple rate, and repeated three times, each for a period of one third of the vertical period, are obtained from the memories 66R, 66G and 66B.
FIGS. 3A to 3C show the color image signals SR, SG and SB supplied to the memories 66R, 66G and 66B, and FIGS. 4A to 4C show the color image signals SR3, SG3 and SB3 output from the memories 66R, 66G, and 66B. The waveforms are shown schematically to facilitate distinction between the three color image signals. The reference marks R1, R2, G1, G2, B1 and B2 show that in reading the same color image signals are repeatedly read three times, at a triple rate. For instance, the color image signal R1 of red for one field is written over one vertical period, and is read three times, each in one third of a vertical period.
The triple-rate color image signals SR3, SG3 and SB3 output from the memories 66R, 66G and 66B are supplied to the multiplexer 64, which is controlled by a switching signal S supplied in synchronism with the signal V3. As a result, one of the color image signals SR3, SB3 and SB3 corresponding to the filter section FR, FG or FB which is passing over the screen 12 of the CRT 10 is supplied from the multiplexer 64 to the CRT 10.
The triple-frequency signal H3 is supplied from the frequency converter 68 to a horizontal deflection circuit 70, and the triple-frequency signal V3 is supplied from the frequency converter 62 to the vertical deflection circuit 72. Horizontal and vertical deflection signals are supplied from the deflection circuits 70 and 72 to horizontal and vertical deflection coils (not shown) in the CRT 10. The CRT 10 therefore conducts horizontal and vertical deflection scanning at a rate three times that of ordinary scanning.
FIGS. 5A to 5D show the relationship between the rotation phase of the rotary filter 24, the scan line SL of the CRT 10 and the switching of the multiplexer 64.
The multiplexer 64 is controlled to operate in synchronism with the triple-frequency vertical signal V3 as described above, and is made to select the color image signals corresponding to the filter section that is passing over the screen 12 of the CRT 10, in accordance with the rotation sync pulse P. The multiplexing is so made that when the boundary 24br between the filter sections FB and FR is passing over the center (the midpoint in the vertical direction) of the screen 12 of the CRT 10, supply of the blue color image signal SB3 for one field to the CRT 10 is terminated and supply of the red color image signal SR3 for one field is commenced (FIG. 5A). Similarly, when the boundary 24rg between the filter sections FR and FG is passing over the center of the screen 12 of the CRT 10, one third of the vertical period later, supply of the red color image signal SR3 for one field to the CRT 10 is terminated and supply of the green color image signal SG3 for one field is commenced (FIG. 5D). Similarly, when the boundary 24gb between the filter section FG and FB is passing over the center of the screen 12 of the CRT 10, one third of the vertical period later, supply of the green color image signal SG3 for one field to the CRT 10 is terminated and supply of the blue color image signal SB3 for one field is commenced (not illustrated)
With the above configuration, the triple-frequency signals SR3, SG3 and SB3 are sequentially supplied from the multiplexer 64 to the CRT 10, while the horizontal and the vertical deflection scans are conducted at a triple rate, so black-and-white images due to the color image signals SR3, SG3 and SB3 are sequentially displayed on the screen 12, each in a period one third that of the vertical period.
As described above, the selection between the color image signals SR3, SG3 and SB3 is made in conformity with the filter sections FR, FG and FB of the rotary filter 24 which is passing over the screen 12 of the CRT 10, so that as the image due to the color image signal SR3, SG3 or SB3 is displayed on the screen 12, the corresponding filter section FR, FG or FB is positioned over the screen 12 of the CRT 10.
Accordingly, red, green and blue images by virtue of the color image signals SR3, SG3 and SB3 are obtained through the filter sections FR, FG and FB of the rotary filter 24, at the one-third vertical period. The net effect is that a color image is seen to the viewer observing the image through the filter sections FR, FG and FB.
Because the color image display device in the prior art is configured as described above, the space between the stator 33 and the rotor 35 combination of the motor 30 and the filter sections FR, FG and FB of the rotary filter 24 must be wide to permit disposition of the rotation sensor 40 between the stator 33/rotor 35 combination and the rotary filter 24, and this imposes a limitation on size reduction.
Another problem is that the speed at which the rotary filter 24 must be rotated is high. That is, the drive motor 30 is required to rotate the rotary filter 24 at the frequency of the vertical sync signal. The voltage applied to the motor must therefore be high, and the power consumption is large.
In another example of the prior art shown in FIGS. 6 and 7, the rotary filter 124 is in the form of a truncated circular cone and is radially divided, into equal parts, which form filter sections of red, green and blue. The conical rotary filter 124 has its small-diameter end 124a mounted to the output shaft 132 of a motor 130, and is provided so that it can rotate about its axis 124x of the cone in the direction of the arrow 124r. As shown in FIG. 6, the screen 12 of the CRT 10 is provided to confront the outer conical surface of the rotary filter 124. By utilizing the space efficiently in this way, the size of the overall device can be reduced.
The arrangement of FIGS. 6 and 7 suffers from the same problem as the arrangement of FIG. 1 if a magnet for detection of the rotation phase is attached to the shaft 132.
Another problem is that the conical rotary filter 124 with three sections having different filter characteristics is difficult to fabricate.
It is also possible to form a color image pick-up device by using the coloring device 20 and a monochromatic image sensor, such as a line sensor, but such an image pick-up device has similar problems.

Coloring device with rotary filter and detection sensor mounted on the drive motor rotor


An integrated circuit for routing of an electrical connection include a first metal layer having a first set of dummy conductive segments discretely arranged, and a second metal layer having a second set of dummy conductive segments discretely arranged. The segments of the first and second sets are interleaved with vertically overlapped areas for providing a predetermined link path between a selected first and a selected second nodes on two dummy conductive segments by selectively connecting a predetermined subset of the first and second dummy conductive segments through their vertically overlapped areas.

The present invention relates generally to an integrated circuit (IC) layout design, and more particularly to the implementation of interleaved dummy conductive segments to simplify a rerouting of electrical connections.
The designing and fabricating ICs have become more difficult, due to the increasingly smaller device size and more complicated circuit designs, as the semiconductor technology advances. The circuit complexity and device density often create design errors, such as electrical circuit errors, design rule violations, pattern congestion, timing errors, noise, crosstalk, etc. In order to correct these errors, a redesign of the IC is required by engineering change orders (ECOs). One typical ECO is to reroute the electrical connection from a first node to a second node of the IC. The electrical connection is often composed of a plurality of metal lines on various metal layers, and certain interconnection units interposed there among. A rerouting usually requires a change of at least three layers, two layers for the metal lines, and one layer for the interconnection units. From the fabrication point of view, each of the three layers requires a separate mask to define its patterns. This means that a change of design will necessitate a redesign of the three masks for the three layers. In some worse cases, a change of design often involves more than five masks. This incurs significant costs.
Therefore, desirable in the art of IC designs are new layouts and methods to simplify the process in rerouting of electrical connections.

Integrated circuit design for routing an electrical connection

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


In an integrated development environment, there is a tight coupling between a design surface providing a visual representation of the various physical and logical entities in a software model and the underlying code structures that support the entities. The model can include varying combinations of a component model, a high level design whiteboard, or a physical model. Every object defined within the design surface is capable of being mapped directly to an underlying code structure. The model is a graphical representation of the actual code, thus providing two way updating, i.e., the model is updated when the programmer changes the code and vice versa.

In medium to large software projects, visual modeling is often critical to successful development. Visual modeling tools allow programmers to construct a picture of the various components of a software application and allow the programmers to see how the various components interface and interact. Traditionally, these modeling tools only have been used during the "analysis" and "design" activities at the beginning of the development process. Conventional modeling tools operated under the premise that an analysis and design model would be created first, and then code would be generated (manually or automatically) from the model. In theory, any subsequent changes or enhancements should be accomplished by changing the model, and then generating new/revised code. In practice, this approach was unworkable because many of changes are made at the code level during all phases of the development process including the testing, debugging, and maintenance phases.
With conventional modeling tools, when the code diverges from the initial design a large amount of work is required to keep the model and the underlying code in agreement. In a few cases, however, modified code can be processed by the modeling tool in order to update the model. Although useful, this approach suffers from the fact that the model and the code are two separate elements that are processed to generate one from the other rather than being two views of the same information. In addition, because the model and the code are separate entities, models are often developed that are very difficult, if not impossible, to implement. Another deficiency is that semantic information is lost during the process.
Recently, visual programming has received a great amount of attention, mainly because of its promise to make programming easier, thus allowing not only computer experts but also novices to implement software to solve problems with the computer. The goal of visual programming is to aid the development of complex software applications and increase productivity by allowing the programmer to abstract the software to a visual level. The programmer could theoretically develop and manipulate a software module of interest graphically, thereby replacing the need to code complex programming statements with the ability to directly manipulate a graphical object or objects representing the software module.
Conventional visual programming environments, however, failed to meet this lofty goal and typically consist of browsers for manipulating text, an editor to create graphical user interfaces (GUI's) and a rudimentary application skeleton generator. Conventional visual programming environments do not truly allow for software visualization and do not provide a true visual programming environment. Furthermore, as the programmer transitions from the graphical design to the actual programming, they typically lose structural information and semantic information.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a visual development environment that offers both a method for visualizing an application and graphically constructing an application. There is a need for an environment that is a two-way development process, i.e., changes made graphically are instantly made textually and vice versa.

Visual programming environment providing synchronization between source code and graphical component objects


Heat transfer compositions, methods and use wherein the composition comprising: (a) from about 5 to about 20% by weight of HFC-32; (b) from about 70% to about 90% by weight of HFO-1234ze; and (c) from about 5% to less than about 20% by weight of HFC-152a and/or HFC-134a.

During the course of the past several years, substantial effort has been devoted to developing more environmentally friendly alternatives to materials which had previously been frequently used for refrigeration and air conditioning purposes. During this time, the main refrigerant used for mobile air conditioning (MAC) systems had been HFC-134a. Although HFC-134a possesses many properties that make it attractive for use in MAC systems, it has a relatively high global warming potential (GWP) of about 1430 (100 years).
The fluorinated olefin HFO-1234yf has emerged after much research and development effort by the assignee of the present invention as the material of choice to replace HFC-134a in MAC systems. The emergence of HFO-1234yf as the next-generation material of choice for MAC systems is due primarily to its exceptional ability to provide a combination of difficult to achieve properties, such as excellent heat transfer characteristics, low toxicity, low flammability, and chemical stability, among other properties. Furthermore, HFO-1234yf is capable of providing this combination of properties with little or no need to be blended with other materials.
Despite the exceptional and extraordinary success of HFO-1234yf as the next generation refrigerant for many applications, including particularly MAC systems, the present applicants have come to appreciate that circumstances may arise in which HFO-1234yf is not readily available as a result of production capacity limitations, especially in the near term. Accordingly, applicants have come to recognize the need for the development of other materials which might approach the commercial success of HFO-1234yf as the next generation refrigerant.
Prior to and subsequent to the development of HFO-1234yf, much of the effort directed toward next-generation refrigerants was focused on the development of heat transfer compositions comprised of a blend or mixture of two or more components. However, these efforts have thus far been generally less than fully successful because of a failure to fully realize one or more of the myriad of properties required for a successful next generation refrigerant.
The fluorinated olefin 1,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene (HFO-1234ze) has also been identified in an application assigned to the assignee of the present invention as a next generation refrigerant due to its advantageous combination of properties. See, for example, WO 2009/089511. While this application discloses that HFO-1234ze is very attractive as a refrigerant in many applications, it also reveals that it has a substantially lower capacity relative to HFC-134a than does HFO-1234yf in certain air conditioning applications when each is used as the sole refrigerant.
Blends comprising such fluorinated olefins (e.g. 1234ze or 1234yf) have been suggested for use in a wide variety of applications, including heat transfer compositions. For example, WO 2009/089511, discloses blends comprising as a first component one or more fluorinated olefins according to a particular structure and a second component selected from a list of compounds comprising chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) water and CO2. However, the specific combination of components in the particular concentration ranges required by the present invention are not disclosed, and no particular combination of these components is identified in WO 2009/089511 as having the advantageous and beneficial properties described herein.
US Application No. 2010/0044619, which is also assigned to the assignee of the present invention, discloses blends comprising fluorinated olefins for use in connection with heat transfer compositions. This application describes blends comprising as a first component dichloromethane (HFC-32), second component comprising multi-fluorinated olefins having from 2 to 5 carbon atoms, and optionally a third component selected from fluorinated alkanes having to 2 to 3 carbon atoms, CF3I, and combinations of these. According to this application, the second and/or third component of the blend is incorporated for the purpose of acting as of an agent for reducing the flammability of the material relative to HFC-32 alone. Once again, however, the specific combination of components in the particular concentration ranges required by the present invention are not disclosed, and no particular combination of these components is identified in US Application No. 2010/0044619 as having the advantageous and beneficial properties described herein.
Although it is believed that the blends of materials disclosed in the above-noted applications are generally acceptable for use in heat transfer applications under certain circumstances, applicants have found that unexpected yet highly beneficial advantages can be achieved by careful selection of materials within a specific concentration range for forming a heat transfer composition blend which is at once capable of achieving highly desirable heat transfer properties, extraordinarily beneficial environmental properties and exceptionally and unexpectedly nonhazardous compositions from the standpoint of combustion ignition.
The burning velocity of a material is one measure that has heretofore been used to assess the hazardousness of the material from a flammability or explosive nature stand point. Thus it has heretofore been considered in many applications that a material having a burning velocity below a value of 10 (measured as described hereinafter), is not only important or essential for many applications, but also that such a material would be considered generally a non-hazardous material from a flammability or explosive nature stand point. Applicants have found that certain compositions exhibit an undesirably high level of hazardousness even when such compositions contain components that would indicate that the material is acceptable for use from a burning velocity stand-point, as discussed more fully hereinafter.

Low GWP heat transfer compositions containing difluoromethane, a fluorinated ethane and 1,3,3,3-tetrafluoropropene


Disclosed is a method for changing a performance controlling parameter of a mobile telecommunication terminal, in which the parameter is changed by using an SMS message of the mobile telecommunication terminal. The method preferably includes receiving a short message including a performance controlling parameter to be changed and applying the performance controlling parameter to the mobile telecommunication terminal. When the parameters which control a performance of the mobile telecommunication terminal by a change of the mobile telecommunication system are changed or when the performance controlling parameter of the mobile telecommunication terminal is to be changed by a need of the mobile telecommunication provider/manufacturer, on-line A/S is possible and a cost generated by off-line A/S can be reduced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mobile telecommunication terminal, and more particularly to a method for changing a performance controlling parameter for a mobile telecommunication terminal using a short message service (SMS).
2. Background of the Related Art
The short message service (SMS) was developed by taking advantage of the digital architecture of modern mobile telecommunication networks. Specifically, digital data can be transmitted throughout the mobile telecommunication network. The SMS allows for transmission of characters, such as numbers, letters, and other symbols, in the form of a short message. Thus, a user can send and receive a short sentence of 80-160 bytes using a mobile communication terminal, without requiring additional equipment.
Usage of SMS has increased dramatically in recent times, as greater numbers of people have begun using mobile communications. Unlike e-mail, an SMS message is transmitted to a recipient almost instantaneously upon its being sent. Hence, SMS has become firmly rooted as a means of telecommunication. Additionally, various information services employ SMS to transmit information such as weather forecasts, news reports, and stock market information. Moreover, the SMS message can include both an origination number and a message.
Usage of SMS has also expanded into the realm of electronic commercial transactions and/or electronic settlements. For example, SMS can be used with credit card companies to transmit transaction approval content to a mobile telecommunication terminal. Among other benefits, such a commercial use can prevent unauthorized credit card transactions.
FIG. 1 illustrates a construction of an SMS system of a general mobile telecommunication network. As shown in FIG. 1, the SMS system includes a mobile telecommunication terminal 1 with software therein that supports the SMS, an SMS message center 4 for routing a short message transmitted through a base station 2 and an exchanger 3, and an SMS server 5 where an application program for various additional services connected to an external network is mounted.
An operation of the SMS system will next be described. First, a short message that has been transmitted by a user through the mobile telecommunication terminal 1 is transmitted to the exchanger 3 through the base station 2. The exchanger 3 certifies that the transmitted message is an SMS message and transmits it to the message center 4. The message center 4 determines to where the message has to be transmitted by using a destination telephone number of the short message and thereby performs a routing.
The SMS provided through the above system is typically transmitted using either a point-to-point service or a broadcasting service.
Point-to-point service is a service for sending a short message to a user of a specified mobile telecommunication terminal to which reliable transmission is possible. That is, the message center checks a state of the destination mobile telecommunication terminal and completes a transmission of the short message according to the determined state.
Broadcasting service is a service for sending a short message to each of a plurality of mobile telecommunication terminals in a group. The group can be established in any manner, such as based on region information or subscription information. In the broadcasting service, since the short message is simultaneously transmitted to the group of users, if a given user turns the power of the mobile telecommunication terminal off or if the user's line is busy, the corresponding short message will not be received.
The related art system and method have various problems, For example, the related art mobile telecommunication terminal has to be upgraded by off-line A/S in order to control special performance features or to change a parameter used to realize the performance.
That is, in order to change the parameter which controls the performance of the mobile telecommunication terminal, the entire software has to be upgraded. Also, when the performance is required to be changed by the mobile telecommunication provider or the mobile telecommunication terminal provider, the user has to visit an agent or a customer service center to receive the off-line A/S.
The above references are incorporated by reference herein where appropriate for appropriate teachings of additional or alternative details, features and/or technical background.

Method for changing performance controlling parameter for mobile telecommunication terminal


The present invention is related to LoCation Services (LCS) in General Packet Radio Service (GPRS). Because the specification of LCS was missing in the first versions of the technical specifications of GPRS, but already introduced in the GSM specifications, there will be a number of MSs having LCS capabilities when attached to circuit switched serving nodes (MSCs) but not when attached to packet switched serving nodes (SGSNs). When a location request for one such MS attached to both an MSC and an SGSN is directed to the SGSN first, an error may occur. The present invention discloses a method solving this problem by informing the associated HLR if the MS supports location service in packet switched mode or not at the time the MS attaches the network. The information is stored in the HLR, and when the location service node in the network receives a location request for that MS, the location node invokes the HLR for the information. If the MS does not support location service in packet switched mode, the HLR informs the location service node to firstly request the MS attached MSC for the location of the MS.

Higher data speed in cellular phone systems allows offering of new types of services. One of the service types that is expected to have a breakthrough with the launch of GPRS is the Localization Services. These are services providing mobile telephone users with information about where objects or persons are localized. This information may be presented on the user terminal on e.g. a digital map, or simply through statement of position, address or place name.
Further, Location Services may be considered as a network provided enabling technology consisting of standardised service capabilities, which enable the provision of location applications. The main component in LCS is the GMLC (Gateway Mobile Location Centre), to which all location requests are transmitted, providing the requested location from the mobile network. The application(s) may be service provider specific, for example tracking of persons or vehicles. However, the description of the numerous and varied possible location applications that are enabled by this technology are outside the scope of the present document.
As mentioned above, LSC will probably not become common in the GSM environment before the launch of GPRS. However, LSC was specified for GSM already in GSM 03.71, Release 4, but not in originally for GPRS. LSC was introduced in GPRS as late as in the 3GPP TS 23.271 released in 2001.
As a result of this, a large number of GPRS/GSM MSs will support LSC for GSM, but not for GPRS. This applies for MSs that have already been manufactured and for those being manufactured in the near future. Consequently, there will exist a large number of MSs with inconsequent LCS capabilities in many years ahead.
The problem then occurs when an LCS Client (another MS, a service node etc.) wants to track the position of a Mobile Station (MS) via GPRS, i.e. via an SGSN node, and that MS does not support LCS Capability for GPRS.
Due to that LCS for GPRS is standardised in a later release of the standard than LCS for GSM and even later than GPRS itself, it is entirely possible (even likely) to have MSs that support both LCS for GSM and GPRS, but does not support LCS for GPRS.
In this case, if the request for positioning is initially sent to the SGSN node, the positioning may fail in SGSN if the MS does not support LCS for GPRS, whereas if the request had been sent to MSC node (circuit switched GSM), it would have been successful.
The only known solution today is that the SGSN returns an error message, and that the GMLC due to this retransmits the location request towards the MSC.
The problem with the solution as described above is that the fetching of the positioning might be time critical, meaning that the response will be returned to the LCS Client too late if we first have to try against SGSN and then perform a second try against MSC.

Method for checking whether a mobile station supports a location service (LCS) in a packet switched mode


A method is provided for increasing the outflow of fluid through Schlemm's canal that is useful for treatment of glaucoma. The implant is placed in Schlemm's canal by use of a flexible delivery instrument attached to the implant. The instrument and implant are positioned within the canal, the implant is released and the distal and proximal ends of the implant are connected to apply sufficient axial tensioning force on the inner wall of the canal to increase fluid permeability. In another embodiment a delivery instrument attached to the implant is positioned in the canal securing one of the distal or proximal ends of the implant within the canal. The implant provides sufficient axial tensioning force on the inner wall of the canal to increase fluid permeability of the inner wall of the canal. The other of the distal or proximal ends may be secured to maintain the tensioning force on the inner wall of the canal.

Glaucoma is a disease condition of the eye in which increased intraocular pressure (IOP) is created by blockage of the drainage mechanism for the aqueous fluid produced in the anterior portion of the eye. Such aqueous outflow conditions are usually treated by topical drugs in the form of eye drops, but may result in surgical treatment if drug treatment becomes ineffective due to loss of response to the drug or poor patient compliance.
Ophthalmic research has indicated that the greatest resistance to aqueous outflow is in the trabecular meshwork, more specifically, the juxtacanalicular tissue at the inner wall of Schlemm's canal (Grant, M. W., Arch. Ophthalmol. 1963; 69:783-801.) Traditional glaucoma surgery such as trabeculectomy, involves a flap dissection of the eye and the removal of a portion of scleral tissue and of the trabecular meshwork to bypass the normal aqueous outflow pathway and form a direct flow path from the anterior chamber. The aqueous fluid is directed posteriorly under the surgical flap and to a sub-conjunctival lake known as a bleb. Post-surgical complications and bleb management are significant issues with trabeculectomy and similar procedures.
Recently developed surgical treatments for glaucoma involve surgically accessing Schlemm's canal by manner of one or more surgical flaps and subsequently dilating the canal to increase aqueous humor drainage into the natural drainage pathway instead of a bleb. The mechanisms involved in dilating Schlemm's canal to aid aqueous outflow are not fully elucidated. Dilation or expansion of the canal may cause a direct communication between Schlemm's canal and the juxtacanalicular space and may enhance aqueous outflow (Smit, B. A., Johnstone, M. A., Ophthalmology, 2002; 109:786-792). In addition, dilation of the canal may also limit the ability of the inner wall to be distended outward by increased intraocular pressure and press against the outer wall to increase aqueous outflow resistance (Ellingsen, B. A., Grant, W. M., Investigative Ophthalmology, 1972; 11(1): 21-8).
Various approaches and devices for glaucoma surgery involving Schlemm's canal have been described in the prior art. Stegmann, et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,165 disclose a microcannula designed for delivery of substances to Schlemm's canal during glaucoma surgery. In US 2002/0013546, Grieshaber, et al. disclose a device for holding an expanded lumen of Schlemrnm's canal in a permanently expanded position. Lynch, et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,464,724 describe a stent device to expand and maintain the patency of Schlemm's canal. Neuhann in U.S. Pat. No. 6,494,857 describes an implantable longitudinally curved tubular device.
Other methods for improving aqueous humor drainage into Schlemm's canal involve placing a shunt that forms a fluid passage between the anterior chamber and the canal. See Lynch et al. in U.S. Pat. No. 6,450,984, Hill in U.S. Pat. No. 6,533,768 and Gharib et al. in US 20020165478.
Cholinergic drugs such as pilocarpine are the oldest effective medical treatment for glaucoma. These drugs work by a mechanical action by increasing ciliary muscle tone that pulls the scleral spur adjacent to the trabecular meshwork toward a posterior and inward direction. Tension is thereby applied to the trabecular meshwork, opening the intertrabecular spaces, increasing aqueous outflow, and reducing intraocular pressure. The present invention describes an implant that resides within Schlemm's canal of the eye and provides tension to the trabecular meshwork similar to the action of cholinergic or miotic drugs. The use of an implant provides continuous tension and increase in aqueous outflow without re-administration of a drug and without drug side effects. In addition, since the implant applies tension to the trabecular meshwork directly, optical effects to the eye such as fluctuating myopic shift and decreased vision in dim illumination produced by cholinergic drugs are avoided.
While the prior art describes various ways to bypass or to stent the lumen of Schlemm's canal, it does not teach a way to increase aqueous outflow by applying non-drug induced tension to the trabecular meshwork at the inner wall of the canal. The present invention describes a novel approach in surgical treatment of glaucoma by placing an implant in Schlemm's canal that is designed to impart mechanical tension to the interfacing trabecular meshwork on the inner wall of the canal, thereby increasing aqueous outflow and reducing intraocular pressure.
This invention is directed at an ophthalmic implant, which may be directly inserted into Schlemm's canal to improve aqueous outflow through the normal trabeculocanalicular pathway for an extended period of time. The invention is directed to embodiments of and materials for such an implant, and also to tools for placing the implant by minimally invasive methods.

Ophthalmic implant for treatment of glaucoma


An air outlet of an air conditioner is opened and closed by a door. A D.C. motor is operably connected to the door for opening and closing the door. The D.C. motor is supplied with D.C. power in response to the operation or stopping of the air conditioner.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus to actuate a door for opening/closing a discharging outlet of an air conditioner.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In general, for the purpose of preventing dusts or foreign substances in the room from passing into the indoor unit of the conventional air conditioner during the standby state, the air conditioner is equipped with a discharging outlet door which enables a discharging outlet for discharge of air heat-exchanged by an evaporator to be closed. Namely, when a stop command signal is input during an operation of the air conditioner, or when the air conditioner is under the stand-by state after the operation of the air conditioner is completed, a relay employed for effecting the upward motion of the discharging outlet door under the control of a control unit is energized, thus allowing an AC door motor to be driven. Accordingly, an operation of the AC door motor moves the discharging outlet door in the upward direction to thereby close the discharging outlet.
Meanwhile, if an operation command signal is input during the stand-by state of the air conditioner, another relay employed for effecting a downward motion of the di s charging outlet door under the control of a control portion is energized, thus allowing the AC door motor to drive in a reverse direction. Accordingly, the AC door motor is operated to move the discharging outlet door in the downward direction to open the discharging outlet.
At this time, either an open ed state or a closed state of the discharging outlet is detected by means of photo-sensors, each being provided at a predetermined position around upper and lower portions of the discharging outlet, and the photo-sensor produces a door open/close signal. This signal is then applied to the control unit which determines whether the discharging outlet door is at the opened state or closed state, based upon the door open/close signal from the photo-sensor, while it also controls the normal operation or the standby state of the air conditioner.
However, there is a problem with the conventional apparatus employing the above described schemes, in that the AC door motor for moving up and down the discharging outlet door and relays for supplying the power to said AC door motor are expensive, and malfunction of the air-conditioner caused by moisture contained within the air conditioner having the AC door motor may occur.

Method and apparatus for using D.C. power to open and close an air outlet of an air conditioner


A process for preparing a polyarylene thioether, comprising oxidation coupling polymerizing with oxygen and a catalyst in the presence of an acid, at least one compound selected from the group consisting of thiophenols of the formula (II): ##STR1## wherein R.sup.9 to R.sup.12 are identical or different and each is hydrogen, alkyl having 1 to 10 carbon atoms, halogen or alkoxyl having 1 to 10 carbon atoms. Reaction conditions of the process are very mild, and the process is relatively simple and easy. In addition, the process is commercially advantageous in that very inexpensive reactants and catalysts can be used.

Polyarylene thioethers including polyphenylene thioether have heretofore been prepared by condensation polymerization of an aromatic dihalide and an alkali metal sulfide in a polar solvent at a high temperature under pressure.
This condensation polymerization has, however, such problems that (i) an alkali metal salt remains in polyarylene thioether and deteriorates its electrical properties and (ii) this production cost is high because a great amount of energy is consumed due to carrying out polymerization at a high temperature under pressure.
A process in which thiophenol monomer is polymerized in the presence of a catalyst such as MoCl.sub.5 /CF.sub.3 COOH is disclosed in USSR Patent No. 698,988. However, the product resulting from that process is poly(arylene thiol), and the process is not advantageous in industrial use since the catalyst used is expensive.
Furthermore, another process using sulfuric acid as a catalyst is known, but said process has such a disadvantage that much by-products and a considerable amount of cross-linked polymers are produced.
Processes for preparing polyarylene thioethers using diphenyldisulfide and/or thiophenol have been disclosed also in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos. 213526/1988 and 213527/1988, but they have the problems that expensive Lewis acids and oxidizing agents must be used in large amounts.
The present invention was accomplished under above circumstances, and the object of it is to dissolve the problems mentioned above, and to provide a process, which is greatly advantageous in industrial use, for producing a polyarylene thioether having excellent electric, mechanical and chemical properties, particularly a substantially straight-chain polyarylene thioether with little by-production of cross-linked polymers, with a simple and easy procedure, under mild polymerization conditions, and at a low cost.

Process for preparing polyarylene thioether from thiophenol

Research Institute for Production Development


The present invention provides a pressure control system for an injector. The pressure control system includes a compliant piston or piston extension member that connects to the plunger of a injector-actuated syringe to prevent pressure overshoots when a closed or blocked fluid delivery pathway is encountered during an injection procedure.

The present invention relates generally to medical injectors and syringes used therewith and, more particularly, to pressure control systems for injectors.
A number of powered injectors and injector-actuated syringes for use in medical procedures such as angiography, computed tomography (CT), ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) have been developed. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,006,736 discloses an apparatus for injecting fluid into the vascular system of a human being or an animal. Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 4,677,980 discloses an angiographic injector including a rotating turret for housing two angiographic syringes in readiness for injection. Furthermore, U.S. Pat. No. 5,383,858 discloses a front-loading injector and a syringe mountable thereon for injection procedures. The disclosures and drawings of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,006,736, 4,677,980 and 5,383,858 are hereby incorporated by reference.
Syringe-based injection systems are susceptible to maximum pressures that are higher than the desired programmed pressure when the fluid delivery path is closed or becomes blocked during an injection procedure. Fluid delivery paths can become closed or blocked for any number of reasons, including a closed stopcock or kinked tubing along the fluid path.
The programmed maximum pressure may be exceeded in the syringe due to the rapid rise of the fluid pressure in closed or blocked fluid delivery paths. In normal, open fluid path injection procedures, the control systems of conventional injectors are able to detect when the programmed maximum pressure is achieved and take control steps to decrease the injection speed to prevent pressure overshoots. However, the control systems are unable to deactivate or reverse the injector motor without inducing large and undesirable pressure fluctuations in the syringe and associated disposables. Therefore, during a normal injection, the control systems slow the injection as much as possible by terminating the current to the motor at a rapid controlled rate, thereby avoiding the large pressure fluctuations.
Unfortunately, these conventional control systems are unable to manage the problem of higher maximum pressures experienced during a closed or blocked fluid path injection.
In addition, powered injectors typically need to accommodate syringes having varying stiffness properties. For example, powered injectors may use both plastic and glass syringes, while utilizing the same pressure control algorithm.
The present invention provides pressure control systems that control pressure overshoots in injector-actuated syringes and associated disposables caused by, for example, closed or blocked fluid delivery paths.
Further, the present invention provides pressure control systems for injectors that accommodate syringes having different stiffness properties, such as plastic and glass syringes.
According to a first aspect of the present invention, a pressure control system lowers pressure overshoots in syringes and associated disposables during an inadvertent closed or blocked fluid path injection.
According to a second aspect of the present invention, a pressure control system allows an injector to accommodate syringes having varying stiffness properties, while not increasing pressure overshoots during closed or blocked fluid path injections. For example, the pressure control system allows an injector to accommodate both plastic and glass syringes, while utilizing the same pressure control algorithm.
According to a third aspect of the present invention, a pressure control system correlates stiffness characteristics of one configuration of syringe to those of a different syringe. Therefore, the pressure control system is able to accurately control pressure overshoots incurred during an inadvertent closed fluid path injection on all suitable syringe types.
In one embodiment, the pressure control system comprises a compliant injector piston that engages a plunger on an injector-actuated syringe.
In another embodiment, the pressure control system comprises a compliant piston extension member that is connected to a conventional injector piston and a plunger on an injector-actuated syringe.
The present invention, along with further aspects and attendant advantages, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Pressure control systems for medical injectors and syringes used therewith


A mounting system for a brake pad in the housings of a disk brake yoke in which the brake pad comprises at its ends two mounting ears (10), each ear being mounted in a housing of a disk brake yoke. The mounting system comprises for each pad ear, a spring (5) of linear or lamella shape, intended to bear, on the one hand, below a lower face (12) of the ear and, on the other hand, on the lower face of the housing of the yoke so as to separate the lower face (12) of the ear from the lower face of the housing.

The invention relates to a mounting device for a brake pad in the housings of a disk brake yoke and, in particular, a device making it possible to facilitate the displacement of a brake pad support which is produced during braking and which makes it possible to avoid noise which often occurs during such an operation. The invention also relates to a disk brake provided with mounting devices according to the invention.
In a vehicle provided with disk brakes, each wheel which has to be braked by such a braking system comprises a brake disk fixed to the wheel and a braking device fixed to the chassis of the vehicle which brakes the rotational movement of the disk by friction. The braking device comprises, on each side of the brake disk, a brake pad consisting of a pad support bearing a brake pad. Each brake pad is mobile perpendicular to the plane of the disk (in a direction which will be referred to as the axial direction) and is guided by two of its ends known as "ears" in the housings of a yoke. Control members make it possible to exert a pressure on the brake pads in the axial direction. The two brake pads arranged on both sides of a disk thus permit the disk to be gripped during braking and its rotation to be braked.
During braking, the brake pads are driven in a direction which is tangential to the disk and the ears come into abutment, occasionally violently, with the base of their guide housing producing a noise known as "clonking" or knocking. To dampen the impact of the ears in their housing and thus reduce the noise, in the known manner a spring is provided which is located between each ear and its housing. This damping effect is obtained by deformation of the spring. The shape of the spring thus has to be adapted to the force exerted by the brake pad during its tangential displacement. This force depends on the mass of the pad and its driving speed. The calibration of the spring therefore, in principle, has to take account of the type of vehicle and the type of pad.
Moreover, the pad has to be able to be displaced axially as has been explained above. The ears of the pad thus have to slide in the retaining spring.
Thus there has to be both a sliding effect and a spring action on a single part.
Once the pad is in place and, due to the geometric inconsistencies and the spring action, the sliding system is deformed and produces a resilient/stiffening effect affecting the generation of noise during braking.
The subject of the invention is thus a device making it possible to improve the sliding of the ears of the pad when activating the braking.
The subject of the invention, therefore, is a mounting device for a brake pad in the housings of a disk brake yoke. Such a brake pad comprises at two of its ends two mounting ears and each ear is mounted in a housing of a disk brake yoke. The mounting device according to the invention comprises, for each pad ear, a first spring of linear or lamella shape, intended to bear, on the one hand, on the lower face of the housing of the yoke so as to separate the lower face of the ear from the lower face of the housing of the yoke.
According to one embodiment of the invention said spring comprises:                a first bearing limb which is placed against the lower face of the ear of the pad and which is intended to bear against said lower face;        a second sliding limb in contact with the lower face of the housing of the yoke. This limb has a curved shape. It is located parallel to a plane perpendicular to the plane of the ear and it has a convex surface intended to slide on said lower face of the housing of the yoke; and        a third limb and a fourth limb connected to one another and making it possible to connect the first limb to the second limb to separate them from one another.
According to a variant, the device according to the invention comprises a second spring which comprises:                a first bearing limb intended to be placed against a lateral face of the ear of the pad;        a second sliding limb intended to be in contact with a lateral face of the housing of the yoke. This limb is located parallel to a plane perpendicular to the plane of the ear. It has a curved shape and has a convex surface intended to slide on said lateral face of the housing of the yoke;        a third limb and a fourth limb connected to one another and making it possible to connect the first limb to the second limb to separate them from one another.
According to one advantageous embodiment of the invention, said first and second springs each comprise a fifth limb connected to the second limb of the spring and making it possible to grip the axial faces of the ear in cooperation with the third limb.
It may also be provided advantageously that said first and second springs each comprise a sixth limb connected to the first limb of the spring and make it possible to grip the axial faces of the ear of the pad in cooperation with the third limb.
According to a variant, said first and/or second springs each comprise a seventh limb connecting the sixth limb to the second limb of the spring.
According to a preferred embodiment of the invention, said first and second springs are in the form of a wire and their different limbs are located parallel to a plane which is perpendicular to the plane of the pad.
According to a variant of the invention, the mounting device may comprise a device having at least one slide plate. A first slide plate is intended to be inserted between a lateral face of a mounting ear of the pad and a lateral face of a housing of the yoke. This first slide plate is coupled mechanically by a resilient hinge of which the resilience is greater than the resilience of the first slide plate to a fixing device intended to be fixed to the yoke.
Advantageously, the first slide plate is coupled at one end to the fixing device such that its opposing end is intended to exert a pressing force on the face of said housing of the yoke when said mounting device is mounted on the yoke.
Advantageously it may also be provided that one edge of said first slide plate is coupled to an edge of a second slide plate forming part of the fixing device. This second fixing plate is intended to be pressed against a radial face of said housing of the yoke, said hinge comprising at least one connecting element of which the length is less than the length of said edges of the first and second slide plates.
According to an advantageous embodiment of the invention, the angle formed by the first and second plate, when the mounting device is not mounted on a disk brake yoke, is greater than the angle formed by the lateral and radial faces of the housing of a yoke on which the mounting device is intended to be mounted.
It may possibly be provided, therefore, that said angle formed by the first and the second plate, when the mounting device is not mounted on a disk brake yoke, is greater than 90°.
According to one embodiment of this fixing device, this device comprises a first leaf spring which cooperates with the second slide plate to grip a fixing part which forms part of the yoke.
It may also be provided that the fixing device comprises a second and a third leaf spring which grip said fixing part which forms part of the yoke.
According to one advantageous embodiment of the invention, the first slide plate and/or the second slide plate are made of stainless steel.
According to a further variant of the invention, the mounting device may comprise a coupling device fixed to the face of the pad, intended to be located opposite a brake operating piston, substantially in a central region of the brake pad. This coupling device is intended to couple the pad to the brake operating piston and comprises resilient blades which are intended to grip the periphery of said operating piston.
This coupling device comprises two blades located in a lateral direction (X) and intended to be diametrically opposed relative to the axis of the brake operating piston.
Advantageously, a further blade located in a radial direction (Y) is also provided, and intended to be above said brake operating piston.
The invention also relates to an application of the mounting devices thus disclosed to a disk brake, to guide the brake pads.
Advantageously, such a disk brake comprises a mounting device associated with each ear of the brake pads.


A system and method is provided for optimizing the data transfer performance between a host computer and a peripheral data storage device adapted to transfer data in accordance with an internal set of configurable, performance setting parameters which determine the device's data transfer performance. A device driver program evaluates the I/O request stream of application programs hosted by the computer, and identifies any patterns evident in the I/O request stream. Identified I/O request patterns are matched to a corresponding set of data storage device performance setting parameters, i.e., mode parameter pages, which have been predetermined as able to optimize the data transfer performance of a data storage device for the identified I/O pattern. The new performance setting parameters are written to the data storage device which is operated in accordance therewith, thus tuning the data storage device for an application's I/O request pattern. An I/O emulator and characterization program determines various optimized performance setting parameters for a particular data storage device issuing I/O requests in an arbitrary pattern, iteratively adjusting the performance setting parameters, and evaluating the data transfer performance resulting from each parameter setting alteration until an optimized data transfer rate is achieved for that particular pattern.

Most of the personal computer systems in use today, throughout the world, consist of little more than a central, arithmetic instruction processing unit, its associated main memory, basic input/output (I/O) control devices and a structured, architectured bus, provided on the computer's primary circuit board, onto which "peripheral" devices may be connected in order to make the computer system fully functional. Some of the more popular, and indeed necessary, of these expansion devices include sound cards, enhanced graphics adapters for video support, and I/O interface adapters which provide the capability for connecting peripheral data storage devices such as disk drives, CD-ROM drives, DAT tape drives, and the like, to the computer system. Although peripheral data storage devices are available in several architectures, the most prevalent peripheral devices operate in accordance with either an architecture termed IDE, an acronym for integrated device electronics, or an architecture termed SCSI, an acronym for small computer systems interface, and communicate with the computer system over a bus architecture termed either the IDE bus or the SCSI bus. The central instruction processing unit (CPU) executes the instructions of a particular application program, which, along with its attendant files and data, resides in main memory at the time of program execution. Accordingly, before an application program can be run, it must be loaded into main memory from a mass storage device, such as a disk drive. The data to be processed by the program is either accessed from the mass storage device or provided by an input device such as a keyboard. In well known fashion, the CPU accesses main memory at least once during the performance of each program step in order to read the corresponding machine instructions for that step. Indeed, several CPU access calls are usually required in order to read and write data.
Accordingly, main memory is very tightly coupled to the CPU by means of a main system bus, providing simplified and, above all, fast information transfer between memory and the CPU.
In contrast, mass storage devices, and other I/O devices such as keyboards and the like, are much further removed from the CPU and communication between such devices and the CPU is consequently slower and more complicated. Communication between the CPU and peripheral devices is accommodated over an interface such as IDE or SCSI, on the other end of which is an interface controller, which in turn communicates with the CPU in main memory.
Even though the configuration and architecture of a peripheral bus plays an important role in determining the I/O performance of a data storage device, the configuration and operational parameters of the device itself are more immediately important in determining such performance characteristics, particularly with regard to speed of the I/O (reads, writes, and seeks). The basic physical design of disk drives and the organization of data on the storage medium are pre-set during the disk drive manufacturing process. Also pre-set at the factory are the various control parameters which control the manner in which data is moved on and off of the storage medium, data block size, cache controlling, and the various transfer lengths of data being moved through the disk drive control circuitry between the data storage device and CPU. Not only do these factory pre-set parameters control the I/O performance of a typical disk drive, they have the effect of changing the drive's I/O performance characteristics depending on the size of a particular data transfer being performed between the drive and CPU.
For example, when the computer system is running a typical word processing application, a typical data I/O transfer size is in the 2 k to 4 k range, meaning that a relatively small amount of information is being communicated between a disk drive and the CPU during a typical I/O call. In contrast, when the computer system is executing a 3-D graphics, digital video editing, digital video capturing, or desktop publishing application, a typical I/O request will involve communicating data between the drive and CPU in 64 k to multi-megabyte transfer request sizes. If the disk drive I/O performance is factory pre-set to median values that allow an acceptable data transfer rate across a range of transfer sizes, it will be evident that optimum performance may not be achieved in any given band of transfer sizes, or indeed optimum performance may not be achieved at any data transfer size.
More recently, advances in computer hardware and software have strained the capabilities of disk drives to provide huge quantities of data on demand, in a timely manner. Full-motion video applications, complete with accompanying sound, pre-press data and video processing for large-scale publishing applications, and indeed Internet access, have all combined to present an all but insolvable problem to a disk drive with factory pre-set (pre-tuned) performance parameters. In particular, multi media and full motion video requires multi-megabyte sized data transfers between a storage device and the CPU without substantial loss of data. Under these conditions, a disk drive must be able to respond to a data read or write, no matter what the transfer size, as fast as technically possible.
One means by which present day systems address this problem is by storing information in a Redundant Array of Independent Drives (RAID) by using one of the various RAID protocols, at least data reads can be more quickly performed, because various portions of a particular file may be "striped" across two, or more, drives, each of which is read separately and the data combined in downstream processing circuitry.
While RAID offers some relief to the problems of providing fast data throughput, the RAID solution is not available for computer systems with single disk drives, or multiple disk drives not configured as an array. Furthermore, even in a RAID environment, the data throughput characteristics of each individual disk drive comprising the array is limited by its factory pre-set performance parameters. Thus, even when configured as an array, disk drive data transfer performance is not optimized for particular data transfer sizes, resulting in less than optimal overall data transfer times.
Because data transfer speed has become the hallmark of efficient computer operation, there is a need for a system which allows the individual performance characteristics of a disk drive to be optimized (tuned) to accommodate maximum data throughput at particular bands of data transfer sizes. Such a system should interactively determine a particular application's data throughput requirements, and dynamically adjust a drive's performance parameters in run-time mode. In addition, such a system should be able to evaluate the data throughput requirements of a particular application, log these requirements in a parameter set file, and provide an initial pre-tuned parameter set to a disk drive upon a corresponding application's being invoked, to further speed the dynamic, run-time parametric optimization.

System for transparently identifying and matching an input/output profile to optimal input/output device parameters


An LCD panel driving method and device with charge sharing is disclosed. The LCD panel includes a plurality of switches, a plurality of data lines, a signal driving circuit for generating a plurality of image signals, a charge sharing common voltage driving circuit and a common capacitor having one end connected to the charge sharing common voltage driving circuit through a common voltage node. The method turns the switches on to thereby form the charge sharing common voltage driving circuit and the signal driving circuit as a short circuit, such that charges stored in the common capacitor flow into the data lines to drive the common voltage node to enter in an inverse phase state in order to sequentially turn the switches on and then off to accordingly sample the respective data lines.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a technical field of flat displays and, more particularly, to an LCD panel driving method and device with charge sharing.
2. Description of Related Art
Current portable electronic products, such as PDAs, MP3 players and the like, are getting more and more popular with the development of the electronics industry. In general, the portable electronic products typically are equipped with a small-scale liquid crystal display (LCD), such as a thin-film transistor LCD (TFT-LCD).
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a typical TFT-LCD panel. The panel includes four scan lines (SL1-SL4) 102, three data lines 104, twelve pixels 106, a gate driving circuit 108, a signal driving circuit 110, a common voltage driving circuit 126, three switches (SW1R, SW2R, SW3R) 112, a switch control circuit 114 and a common capacitor 116. Each pixel 106 has a transistor 118 and a capacitor 120 to store charges. Each data line 104 has parasitic resistors 122 and parasitic capacitors 124.
The ends of each capacitor 120 are connected to the respective electrodes at two ends of a liquid crystal (not shown). The transmittance of a liquid crystal is changed by changing the voltage stored in the respective capacitor 120. Further, each capacitor 120 has one end connected to a drain of a respective transistor 118 and the other commonly connected to a common voltage node Vcom, and the transistor 118 has a source connected to a data line 104 and a gate connected to a scan line 102. The panel is driven by first using the gate driving circuit 108 to send a switch voltage to the scan lines 102 in order to sequentially turn the transistors 118 on, then using the switch control circuit 114 to sequentially switch the switches 112 on, and finally using the signal driving circuit 110 to sent a voltage to the data lines 104 in order to charge the capacitors 120 through the respective transistors 118, thereby reaching a specific voltage.
To prevent a liquid crystal from being dissolved and becoming unusable, an alternating current (AC) power is typically used to drive an LCD. One well-known technique is the common voltage swing drive method. Namely, a voltage of each data line 104 is alternately higher and lower than a voltage of the common voltage node Vcom, and accordingly the liquid crystals receive alternate positive and negative driving of the AC to thus prevent a damage from being driven by a direct current (DC) voltage. FIG. 2 is a diagram of voltage waveforms of a data line 104 and the common voltage node Vcom. FIG. 3 is a flowchart of the common voltage swing drive method. FIG. 4 is a diagram of waveforms that are presented on nodes T1-T4 when using the common voltage swing drive method. As shown in FIG. 4, when the common voltage node Vcom is phase inverted, the signal driving circuit 110 requires driving the data lines to a target voltage, which consumes much power and has a very long rising time.


A multi-slat combination blind of rotation type, that includes a main slat (1) and rotating slat(s) (2). The main slat (1) is composed of a outside part (11) and a inside part (12). A joint section is the edge of the outside part meets the inside part at the width direction. The included angle between the outside part and the horizontal plane is γ1, and the included angle between the inside part and the horizontal plane is γ2. The rotating slat is hinged on the main slat, which is driven by the mechanism system. The blind of present invention can block and guide sunlight according to different seasons and personalized requirements.

Louver allows too much sunlight into room near window, resulting in glare near the window and indoor overheat, but insufficient bright at deep room. It is impossible to bright a big office evenly by natural light with commercial blinds available in current market. In sunshine day, sunlight is kept out to reduce the light and heat, which causes office too dark, and artificial lighting has to be used to get bright enough illumination. That results in more energy expense, people's uncomfortableness and lower work efficiency. Therefore, a new kind of sun-shading and light-guiding blind is invented. This invention can anti-glare and prevent overheating as commercial blind, also guide the sunlight into deep room, which makes the room lighted by sunlight evenly, and heated by sunlight in winter to reduce the heating costs.
Generally speaking, sun-shading and light-guide blind may be divided into upper and lower two parts (usually the boundary between upper and lower part takes human-height as benchmark, which is 1.9 m in West and 1.8 m in Asia properly), the louver rotating gradient of these two parts may be dependent or independent. Usually the lower louver may be set as anti-glare and prevention overheating, and the upper louver may be set to import the light into deep room. Besides increasing design cost, this system has a fault—the functions of two parts, anti-glare or guiding light, are defined in advance, therefore cannot be adjusted according to users, seasons and specific lighting condition of workplace.
Indoor illumination condition depends upon not only seasons, sun position, sky condition (cloudy or sunny), but also working condition, such as work types, height, work location, and distance from the window. Obviously, sun-shading and light-guiding blind defined by architects and architectural lighting engineers cannot meet all said requirements but a compromise among them. In addition, the costs of design and blind are increased seriously if different blinds were installed for different situations.
European patent (EP0400662B1) publishes a sun-shading blind, including outside and inside parts. They are linked by rotating shaft; and their activities are controlled by rope respectively. Outside part can block sunlight to outdoor by rotating to special position, and inside part can guide sunlight to deep room if necessary. Based on EP0400662B1, Germany patent (DE29814826U1) introduces artificial fiber hinged film brackets whose shapes are close to each slat's radian shape. Rope can easily control two slats' rotation around hinge. Germany patent (DE10147523A1) makes improvement on the rope control structure based on European patent (EP0400662B1), finding a better rope control structure for blind. However, these patents did not consider the combination blind's transparency, retro-reflection, deflection light guiding and optimal light adjustment according to personalize demands for sunlight.
European patent (EP1212508B1) describes a blind with differently shaped slats, with toothed or smooth surface. The curved slat with teeth and the W-shaped slat showed excellent properties respectively on retro-reflection, light-guiding and transparency. The transparency of W-shaped blind can reach 74%, while that of curved blind with teeth can reach 88%. But these blinds cannot meet the above season changing and specific needs—Blind is demanded to keep higher transparency while low solar elevation angle, and while more sunlight is required to guide into room, the blind has to be close to prevent glare.
German patent (DE10016587A1) introduces V-shaped and W-shaped advertising shutter. Transparency of such fixed shutter is about 56%. It reflects a part of sunlight back to the outdoor space to avoid overheating and glare, and guides some sunlight into deep room to make the whole room illuminated evenly. However such fixed shutter has two problems: 1. sunlight gets into the indoor space when solar elevation angle is lower than 25 degree, incurring glare, hence another scroll window shade should be installed to keep out the sunlight in such case; 2. to guide part of sunlight around some range of solar elevation angle into the indoor space to light up whole room regardless of season or other specific factors may cause the indoor space too bright and overheating.

Multi-slat combination blind of rotating type


A camera photographic light source determining apparatus has a photometric section for measuring light in a plurality of different ranges, a determination section for determining a photometric range of the plurality of different ranges, in which a main light source for illuminating an object is present, in response to the photometric section, and a detection section for detecting the type of the main light source in response to the determination section.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a light source determining apparatus for determining the type of a photographic light source so as to improve photographic results regardless of the type of camera used, such as a still or movie video camera or a silver salt camera.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is conventional that a video camera has a colorimetric sensor for providing white balance. Japanese Patent Publication No. 58-53327 discloses a technique that in a silver salt camera, a light source is detected, and the detected information is recorded on a film so as to automate or simplify classification of negatives during printing. U.S. Pat. No. 4,947,196 discloses a method of recording photographic information corresponding to each photographic frame on the transparent magnetic layer coated on the film base side.
In the above conventional light source detection techniques, it is assumed that a light source is composed of a single color. These techniques employ a single colorimetric sensor or an imaging device. On the other hand, under the condition in which different light sources are mixed, for example, when a fluorescent lamp is used for artificial lighting, in combination with natural light, i.e., daylight, streaming through a window, a dominating light source at a camera position or in a camera angle of view is frequently different from a light source illuminating a main object to be photographed. In this case, the conventional techniques have the drawback that the color of the main object cannot be satisfactorily reproduced.

Camera photographic light source determining apparatus


An apparatus includes a first terminal, a second terminal, a bi-directional regulator circuit, and functional circuitry. The bi-directional regulator circuit generates a voltage across a first power supply node and a second power supply node in response to an input current flowing through the first terminal and the second terminal with a first polarity. The bi-directional regulator circuit also generates the voltage across the first power supply node and the second power supply node in response to the input current flowing through the first terminal and the second terminal with a second polarity opposite the first polarity. The functional circuitry is powered by the voltage and is configured to generate a signal using the voltage. The signal is indicative of the input current in response to the input current being supplied to the first terminal and is indicative of the input current in response to presence of the input current.

Field of the Invention
This invention relates to isolation technology and more particularly to providing isolation between systems having different voltage domains.
Description of the Related Art
In a typical application, an electromechanical system provides one or more signals for monitoring and/or receives one or more signals for controlling the electromechanical system. During normal operation, a large DC or transient voltage difference may exist between the domain of the electromechanical system and the domain of the monitor or control system, thus requiring an isolation barrier between the electromechanical system and the monitor or control system. For example, one domain may be grounded at a voltage that is switching with respect to earth ground by tens, hundreds, or thousands of volts while the other domain has a 3 V or 5 V voltage swing. Accordingly, an intermediate system includes isolation that prevents damaging currents from flowing between the electromechanical system and the monitor or control system. Although the isolation prevents the electromechanical system from being coupled to the monitor or control system by a direct conduction path, an isolation channel allows communication between the two systems.
Opto-isolation is a technique used to provide the desired isolation. Referring to FIG. 1, an exemplary programmable logic control (PLC) application uses an opto-isolator to provide isolation between the exemplary electromechanical system, which has a voltage domain of 24 V, and driver 107 of a monitor system having a voltage domain of typically 5 V, but may vary, depending on the application. In response to a current being supplied through node 101, light emitting diode (LED) 103 emits light that is received by photo transistor 105, which generates a signal that turns on driver 107. Driver 107 may be coupled to a microcontroller unit of the monitor system.
One shortcoming of the opto-isolators of FIG. 1 is that the output of LED 103 is dependent on the strength of the current through node 101. That is, the stronger the current through node 101, the stronger LED 103 is driven, and the stronger the output of LED 103, which may result in undesirable switching characteristics. In addition, opto-isolators may be susceptible to common mode input transients, requiring an external resistor 111 to overdrive LED 103 to keep LED 103 on when a common mode transient occurs during an output high state. However, the use of external resistor 111 reduces efficiency during operation when the control current is turned off via control transistor 112 due to power dissipation through external resistor 111.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide improved isolation technology with greater immunity to input common mode transients and improved operating efficiency.

Isolator including bi-directional regulator