A leash mount for floating boards has a base and a cap. The base has a seat and a connecting assembly protruding from the seat. The connecting assembly is has a connecting tube and a leash tie hole. The connecting tube has at least one pair of mounting recesses. The pairs of mounting recesses are formed diametrically on the connecting tube. The cap is rotatably mounted detachably in the connecting tube and has multiple bosses. The bosses correspond to and are mounted in the mounting recesses to hold the leash mount securely. Therefore, a leash tie can be mounted on a surfboard through the leash tie hole of the leash mount easily and securely whilst being remolded quickly for cleaning or maintenance.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a leash mount, and more particularly to a leash mount that connects a leash to a floating board.
2. Description of the Related Art
Floating boards are used at the beach or swimming pools and include surfboards, bodyboards, skin boards and the like, where a person, stands, sits or lies on the floating board. For convenience and safety, a leash is attached to the board and detachably to the person in case they fall off the floating board.
With reference to FIG. 9, a floating board (61) is implemented with a leash (60) mounted through the floating board (61). The leash (60) has a bolt (623), a nut (624) and a rope (625). The bolt (623) is mounted in the floating board (61). The nut (624) has a head, a neck (6241) and a rope mounting hole (6242). The neck (6242) is tubular, corresponds to and is mounted rotatably on the bolt (623), is formed coaxially on and protrudes from the base and has an inner surface and a thread formed on the inner surface of the neck (6242). The rope mounting hole (6242) is formed through the head of the nut (624).
The rope (625) has a connecting end that is inserted through the rope mounting hole (6242) and wound around the neck (6241) before the nut (624) is mounted on the bolt (623) that is held securely once the bolt (623) is tightened. Therefore, a person can attach the rope (625) to prevent the floating board (61) from causing harm to other people in the water, damaging or losing of the floating device (61).
However, assemble and disassemble of the leash (60), required for regular maintenance and cleaning, is complicated since the rope (625) must be wound around the neck (6241). Furthermore, if the rope (625) is not wound properly around the neck, the rope (625) may unexpectedly detach from the floating device (61) causing harm to other people in the water, damaging or leading to the loss of the floating device (61).
The present invention provides a leash mount to obviate or mitigate the shortcomings of the conventional leash mount for a surfboard.


A modular electronic cooling system with moving parts, composed of a base unit and individual modules inserted into this base unit in respect to the expected upper limit of the heat load may utilize thermoelectric power generation and the heat load itself to allow for operation independent of any external power source. By the same mechanism the cooling system scales within a range automatically reacting to and dissipating a dynamic heat load via forced convection, and doing so passively, without the need for specific programming. This cooling system uses porous material or multi-layered mesh parts, thermoelectric components, a modular assembly system and independent enclosure parts for described porous material or multi-layered mesh, an electronics control system that may be passively activated, and a motor assembly. Altogether the system provides maximum efficiency in terms of form factor.

In the microprocessor industry, formerly each next iteration of a product used to be characterized by noticeably better performance due to significant increases in both clock speed and part count. Each next product generation also had greater power consumption, and consequently, increased heat output [Chen, C., and Lu, T. J. Thermal Transport and Fire Retardance Properties of Cellular Aluminum Alloys. Acta Mater, 1999, vol. 47(5)]. This necessitated the application of more powerful cooling systems.
Heat-sinks had to be increased in size and forced convection replaced passive cooling, adding a fan to every heat-sink [Republic of Korea Patent No. KR20030085737]. Mesh or foam heatsinks, and microchannels are being studied, and although when compared with a standard finned heatsink they exhibit better use of space. A forced convection heat dissipating potential of the heat sink alone is still inadequate for potential heat output of modern and future microprocessors, and like devices [U.S. Pat. No. 7,219,715]. Improvements in thermal pastes, packaging, and heat spreading continued, but the next big step was debated [Wilson J. and Guenin B. Cooling solutions in the past decade, Electronics Cooling, 2005, vol. 11(4)]. Popular leaps contemplated included the use of mediums besides air, namely water, low-boiling point hydrocarbons, liquid metals and alloys, and cryogens [Lasance, Clemens J. M. and Simons R. E. Advances in high-performance cooling for electronics, Electronics Cooling, 2005, vol. 11(4)].
Heat-sinks incorporating thermoelectric elements and similar schemes are already available on the market, and despite being solid-state units, are nevertheless not widely used due to limited heat dissipation relative to power consumption [US Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0079615]. Heat-sinks incorporating thermosyphons, where refrigerants are boiled at a higher than ambient temperature and then passively condense, are widely used as aftermarket heat-sink products (that are not usually bundled with electronics components.) For heat pumping from an enclosed space to another point in the system, or for better area-of-effect heat spreading from a point, these systems allows for complex heat sinking assemblies and better heat dissipation relative to power consumption, at an additional monetary cost [U.S. Pat. No. 7,149,086].
The boiling of cryogens displays greatest heat dissipation versus time [U.S. Pat. No. 7,243,507]. Unfortunately, it is often challenging to offer the equipment needed for that type of setup outside an industrial setting; cost of items, cost of use, skill to maintain, and system bulk are prohibitory [U.S. Pat. No. 6,070,414]. That a cycled cryogenic cooling system is preferable in such circumstances is a further complication [U.S. Pat. No. 5,647,217 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,333,460]. The same, to a lesser degree, can be said to have stalled the total widespread use of relatively more affordable water cooling and refrigeration. In a mandatory mass deployment (of the new cooling equipment), by computer system builders the service cost alone would alienate much of the end-user market, and yet, available so-called mainstream alternatives that could be bundled with products were inherently limiting.
In response, hardware manufacturers adopted a new production process strategy: to increase the overall number of processors while lowering clock speed per processor [U.S. Pat. No. 7,043,405]. With heightened precision of manufacturing, this strategy was swiftly realized in the form of so-called multi-core processors, where multiple otherwise self-contained processors, or cores as they are called, exist on a single processor die. Provided the continued support of the software sector, the practice appears to have thus far been successful.
Regardless, whether clock speed increases or increases in part count through an increase in the number of processor cores, increased heat output is eventually unavoidable if there is to a an increase in performance. Besides a consumer's demand for greater performance, there is also a continued demand for mobility, which are goals at opposite ends of a spectrum when concerned with electronics cooling. Furthermore, whereas high power consumption is common in the workstation or server application, it is unacceptable in mobile platforms, where the conflict may not necessarily lay in the cost of use but more so in that access to a sufficient power source is likely impossible.

Modular semi-conservative and self-scaling electronics cooling system


A flow pattern is generated from a single flow, in which the flow pattern describes a plurality of flows that are structurally similar to one another and perform similar tasks. End users are then capable of exploring the different flows of the pattern and selecting one or more flows based on high-level goals.

This invention relates, in general, to facilitating processing within a computing environment, and in particular, to constructing, parameterizing and deploying data processing flows.
Data flows or data mashups, in which data from one or more sources are combined into a single tool or visualization, have become increasingly popular over the past few years. In addition, there are a number of tools that support the building of data-plus-code mashups, in which data is obtained from one or more sources and further processed by one or more components. Examples of such tools are Yahoo Pipes, offered by Yahoo Inc.; Microsoft Popfly, offered by Microsoft® Corporation; and IBM® Mashup Center, offered by International Business Machines Corporation. Yahoo!® is a registered trademark of Yahoo! Inc.; Microsoft® is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation; and IBM® is a registered trademark of International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, N.Y. Other names used herein may be registered trademarks, trademarks or product names of International Business Machines Corporation or other companies.
A data-plus-code mashup, also known as a data processing flow, is described as a graph of data sources and black-box processing components. Data is obtained from one or more static or real-time sources, processed using different components, potentially applying complex mathematical or statistical analytics on them, and the results are stored or visualized in different ways. Data processing flows appear in various component based systems, such as Event-Driven Systems, Stream Processing Systems, Service-oriented Systems, Extract-Transform-Load systems and the Grid, as examples.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Constructing and deploying patterns of flows

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


Process and device (1) for applying a thread (3) onto a support (9) while parting to the thread (3) a sinuous shape, which are characterized by the following features:. a) the thread (3) is delivered with a controlled linear speed of value V.sub.1 ;. b) the thread (3) is displaced transversely to its direction of advance;. c) it is applied onto the support (9), the thread (3) and the support (9) at the contact being driven with a linear speed V.sub.2 which is less than V.sub.1 ;. d) the conformation ratio of the thread (3) is thus defined by the ratio V.sub.1 /V.sub.2.. Plies obtained by the process and device (1) of the invention.. Articles, in particular tires, made using such plies.

The present invention relates to a process and device which make it possible to apply threads onto a support, particularly a support of plastic material or rubber, this process and device permitting, for instance, the production of reinforcement plies, in particular reinforcement plies for tires. The invention relates, in particular, to a process and device which permits the application of threads onto a support while imparting a sinuous shape to them.
Devices which permit the application of threads onto a support while imparting a sinuous shape to them are described, for instance, in the following patents or patent applications:
FR-A-2 042 859, FR-A-2 325 497, U.S. Pat. No. 1,800,179, U.S. Pat. No. 5,002,621, U.S. Pat. No. 4,820,143. PA1 complexity, giving rise to frequent failures, or requiring costly and frequent maintenance; PA1 lack of precision in the laying of the threads, so that the plies obtained have a heterogenous geometry and therefore have physical properties which vary along their length; PA1 slow speed. PA1 a) the thread is delivered with a controlled linear speed of value V.sub.1 ; PA1 b) the thread is displaced transversely to its direction of advance; PA1 c) it is applied onto the support, the thread having the sinuous shape as a result of the transverse displacement, the thread and the support thus in contact being driven in such a manner that the linear speed of the support has a value V.sub.2 which is less than V.sub.1 ; PA1 d) the conformation ratio of the thread thus applied onto the support is thus defined by the ratio V.sub.1 /V.sub.2. PA1 a) it has means making it possible to deliver the thread with a controlled linear speed of the value V.sub.1 ; PA1 b) it has means permitting the displacement of the thread transversely to its direction of advance; PA1 c) it has means making it possible to apply the thread onto the support, the thread having the sinuous shape due to the means which permit displacing it transversely, as well as means making it possible to drive the thread and the support thus in contact in such a manner that the linear speed of the support has a value V.sub.2 which is less than V.sub.1 ; PA1 d) the conformation ratio of the thread thus applied onto the support is thus defined by the ratio V.sub.1 /V.sub.2.
These devices have at least one of the following drawbacks:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,981,542 describes a device employing two clamps for applying yarns onto a support. This device makes it possible to deposit the threads with great precision, but the speed of deposition is relatively slow as a result of the complicated succession of movements of the clamps which require the stopping of the support upon the transverse movements of the threads before they are applied onto the support and upon the application of the threads onto the support.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,242,520 describes a device for applying threads on a support by means of a drum having fixed teeth and movable teeth, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,393,364 describes a device for applying threads on a support by feeding the threads with a controlled speed onto a drum, the sinuous form being obtained by means of teeth which are displaced with respect to the other teeth parallel to the axis of rotation, at least some of said teeth being flexible between a free end in contact with a thread and an anchoring zone. These devices make it possible to deposit the threads with great precision and with substantial speed, but they are relatively complicated and costly.

Process and device for applying a thread onto a support

Compagnie Generale des Etablissements Michelin--Michelin & Cie


Any packet loss is detected very quickly by means of only a series of sequence number in a multi-path environment where a transmitter and a receiver are connected to each other by way of a plurality of networks when no inversion of sequence arises in any of the networks. A communication apparatus includes a plurality of sequence buffers arranged at each network to accumulate packets until a sequence acknowledgement and an absence detecting section adapted to determine the occurrence of an absence of a packet when one or more packets are accumulated in all the sequence buffers. With this arrangement, the absence detecting section of the receiver monitors the packets staying in the sequence guaranteeing buffer arranged in each of the network, paying attention to the characteristic that packets are stored in the sequence buffers of all the networks when a packet loss takes place.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a communication technique for extending the band by distributing data to a plurality of paths. More particularly, the present invention relates to a communication apparatus, a communication system, an absent packet detecting method and an absent packet detecting program for detecting any packet loss (absence) very quickly by means of only a series of sequence number in a multi-path environment where a transmitter and a receiver are connected to each other by way of a plurality of networks when no inversion of sequence arises in any of the networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
Communication techniques of branching a single communication flow of date being used between a transmitting terminal and a receiving terminal into a plurality of flows and restoring the original flow are known. They include a proposed method of arranging gateways respectively at the first LAN (local area network) to which the transmitting terminal belongs and the second LAN to which the receiving terminal belongs, allocating the data of the TCP (transmission control protocol) transmitted from the transmitting terminal to communication paths at the gateway of the first LAN on the basis of units of packets and restoring the data at the gateway of the second LAN, correcting the inverted sequence of the packets received from the plurality of communication paths according to the sequence numbers of the TCP (see, for example, Patent Document 1: JP 2000-261478A).
They also include a proposed method of utilizing efficiently a plurality of communication lines and improving the capacity factor of the communication lines by adding functions to the TCP of terminals so as to utilize a plurality of TCP connections for communications that hitherto employ only a single TCP connection (see, for example, Patent Document 2: JP 2003-110604A). With such a method, the communication that is realized by a single communication flow from the transmitting terminal to the receiving terminal is divided into a plurality of communication flows and a data is transmitted in parallel. When data is transmitted from a transmitting terminal to a receiving terminal, the communication protocol of the transmitting terminal divides the data of the single communication flow into a plurality of communication flows and adds a new header to each TCP/IP packet as restoration information for restoring the plurality of communication flows produced by the division to the original single communication flow (by using two series of sequence numbers) in order to transmit the data by way of a plurality of communication flows. The communication protocol of the receiving terminal restores the original single communication flow from the plurality of communication flows by referring to the restoration information of the data it receives.
However, the above-described known methods are accompanied by problems.
The first problem is that a packet loss is detected only slowly.
The communication method described in the Patent Document 1 is designed to determine the absence of a packet by seeing the abnormal sequence, if any, on the basis of an assumption that the TCP of a terminal is employed on a single communication path. Therefore, an erroneous detection of an absent packet (a packet loss or an abandoned packet) occurs when a plurality of communication paths are employed for communication and inversion of sequence arises due to the difference of delay time of the communication paths. In other words, the method cannot discriminate an abandoned packet and inversion of sequence. When any absent packet due to an abnormal sequence is neglected in order to avoid this problem, detection of a packet loss becomes a slow operation because an absent packet can be determined only by means of retransmission timeout.
The TCP employs detection of a packet loss as trigger for retransmission. Therefore, when a packet loss is detected only slowly, the retransmission also starts only slowly to reduce the throughput. Then, the potential of the communication paths cannot be exploited satisfactorily.
The second problem is a rise of communication cost.
The communication method described in the Patent Document 2 requires headers arranged in two stages and two series of sequence numbers. Two series of sequence numbers by turn requires a complex arrangement for packet transfers and system management to raise the communication cost.

Communication apparatus, communication system, absent packet detecting method and absent packet detecting program


A tensioning device for the chain (3) of an internal combustion engine, for example of a control gear, comprises a guide rail (8), a pivoted tension lever (15) and a tension element (13) which exerts a tensioning force on the sliding block (18) through a compression spring (14). According to the invention, two sliding blocks (17, 18) acting in different directions on the chain (3) are arranged on the tension lever (15) which has a fixed axis of pivot (16). The device of the invention can thus be used in a very small mounting space and is able to compensate large chain elongations.

Modern internal combustion engines with unchanged or even enhanced performances are being constructed with ever decreasing outer dimensions. Besides this, due to the employment of multi-valve techniques, more and more engines have an increasing number of camshafts. This results in a considerable reduction of the design space disposable for the control gear. Many known tensioning devices are too large and therefore not usable.
Tensioning devices are known from the documents GB,A, 1 206 705 and DE,C, 3 623 903. In the device of the latter document, a tensioner housing for lodging the tension element, a guide rail for the chain and a pivoted sliding block are arranged separately from one another on the engine casing. The space requirement of this tensioning device is therefore considerable and its assembly complicated.


A method for optimizing the production of nitration grade toluene from a solvent extraction process that produces an aromatic rich extract and a saturate rich raffinate, comprising adding an effective amount of the raffinate back to the extract.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the production of a nitration grade toluene product. More particularly, this invention relates to the production of a nitration grade toluene product from the process of thermal cracking hydrocarbons.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Thermal cracking of hydrocarbons is a petrochemical process that is widely used to produce olefins such as ethylene, propylene, butenes, butadiene, and aromatics such as benzene, toluene, and xylenes. In an olefin production plant, a hydrocarbonaceous feedstock such as ethane, naphtha, gas oil, or other fractions of whole crude oil is mixed with steam which serves as a diluent to keep the hydrocarbon molecules separated.
This mixture, after preheating, is subjected to hydrocarbon thermal cracking using elevated temperatures (1,450 to 1,550 degrees Fahrenheit or F.) in a pyrolysis furnace (steam cracker or cracker). This thermal cracking is carried out without the aid of any catalyst.
The cracked product effluent of the pyrolysis furnace (furnace) contains hot, gaseous hydrocarbons of great variety (from 1 to 35 carbon atoms per molecule, or C1 to C35 inclusive, both saturated and unsaturated). This product contains aliphatics (alkanes and alkenes), alicyclics (cyclanes, cyclenes, and cyclodienes), aromatics, and molecular hydrogen (hydrogen).
This furnace product is then subjected to further processing to produce, as products of the olefin plant, various, separate and individual product streams such as hydrogen, ethylene, propylene, and fuel oil. After the separation of these individual streams, the remaining pyrolysis gasoline contains essentially C4 hydrocarbons and heavier. This remainder is fed to a debutanizer wherein a crude C4 stream is separated as overhead while a C5 and heavier stream is removed as a bottoms product.
The C4 stream can contain varying amounts of n-butane, isobutane, 1-butene, 2-butenes (both cis and trans isomers), isobutylene, acetylenes, and diolefins such as butadiene (both cis and trans isomers).
The C5 and heavier stream contains primarily (in major proportion, greater than 50% by weight) C6 through C8 hydrocarbons, both aromatic and non-aromatic (alkanes and alkenes). Aromatics are separated from this stream by way of a solvent extraction process, and the aromatics in the extract are themselves separated to recover individual plant product streams such as a benzene product, a toluene product, and the like. The non-aromatics are typically passed to the gasoline pool.
There are several marketable grades of toluene product that can be recovered from the aromatic rich extract that is recovered from the solvent extraction process. The grades of toluene product are "commercial" which contains at least 95 weight percent (wt %) toluene, "nitration grade" which contains at least 98.5 wt % toluene, and "TDI grade" which contains at least 99.9 wt % toluene, all wt % based on the total weight of the product.
This invention is directed toward producing an optimum amount of nitration grade toluene product from the aromatic (primarily benzene and toluene) rich extract of a solvent extraction.


A semiconductor device has a first operation mode and a second operation mode in which power supply with a higher voltage value than that in the first operation mode is provided. The semiconductor device includes a memory portion having memory cells for storing data and a power supply circuit portion supplying a first voltage and a second voltage to the memory portion. The memory portion writes or reads data to or from the memory cells based on the first voltage and the second voltage, and the power supply circuit portion provides a smaller voltage difference between the first voltage and the second voltage in the second operation mode as compared with the voltage difference in the first operation mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, particularly to a semiconductor device on which a defect detection test is performed.
2. Description of the Background Art
Due to the recent progress in semiconductor manufacturing technology, a logic-merged memory has been implemented that has, on the same chip, a logic circuit and a memory and data can be communicated between the logic circuit and the memory. Since such a logic-merged memory can have an improved transfer rate between the logic circuit and the memory, high-speed data processing can be achieved.
In the logic-merged memory, in terms of high-speed operation and power consumption for example, a memory cell configured with a thin-film transistor for logic applications that can provide high performance with a low voltage is used. As for the memory cell structure, a so-called twin cell structure comprised of, for example, two MOS transistors (access transistors) and two capacitors is employed. Further, in most cases, a memory cell is formed with a P-channel MOS transistor whose power consumption due to gate leakage current or the like is approximately one-third as high as that of an N-channel MOS transistor. The thin-film transistor is a transistor having a lower operating voltage relative to an input/output circuit for external elements of the semiconductor device. For example, relative to the operating voltage 3.3 V of the input/output circuit, the operating voltage of the thin-film transistor is 1.2 V.
Here, a description is given about a reliability test for such a device as logic-merged memory. Generally, device failures are roughly divided into three periods that are initial failure period, random failure period and wear-out failure period in order of time. The initial failure refers to a failure occurring immediately after the start of use, due to deficiencies in device manufacturing process. For example, the initial failure includes the state in which the resistance value of a metal interconnection is larger than a standard value and the state in which a memory cell has large leakage current. Such states are not critical defects at the start of use of the device. These defects relevant to tolerances that are failures becoming critical as the device is used belong to the initial failure. The initial failure rate rapidly decreases with time, and subsequently the random failure period starts in which a low failure rate lasts for a certain long period. Then, the wear-out failure period starts in which the end of useful life of the device is being reached and the failure rate sharply increases. It is desirable that the device is used in the random failure period, and the random failure period corresponds to the useful lifetime of the device. Therefore, in order to improve the device reliability, it is required that the random failure period lasts for a long time and the failure rate in the random failure period is low and constant.
In order to remove initial failures in advance, screening is generally carried out by performing accelerated operation aging on the device for a certain time so as to remove defectives. For effectively performing the screening in a short period of time, it is desirable that the initial failure rate immediately decreases in a short period of time and the random failure period starts earlier. Currently, as one of screening methods, high-temperature operation test (burn-in test) is generally conducted.
Generally, in normal operation, an external voltage according to specifications is supplied to the semiconductor device for reading data and writing data for example. In contrast, in burn-in test, a higher external power supply voltage than that in normal operation is supplied to the device. Accordingly, high electric field stress is applied to the device and thus the degree of acceleration of the burn-in test is increased.
In particular, for the state of wafer, wafer level burn-in test is effective. The wafer level burn-in test is a method by which a dielectric film of a transistor or the like can be directly evaluated using the actual device. Various factors of defectives such as short circuit between interconnections can be revealed in accelerated manner by applying high temperature and high electric field stress.
In the case where the memory cell stores H data (data having a logically high level) and the access transistor is OFF for example, application of the same voltage as H data to the gate of the access transistor could be insufficient to cause electric charges stored in the memory cell capacitor to flow out from the gate, resulting in flow of off-leakage current. This is a problem for a thin film transistor having a small gate voltage for turning the transistor ON. Therefore, when the access transistor is OFF, a voltage higher than the level of H data has to be supplied to the gate of the access transistor.
Further, for the logic-merged memory having a memory cell whose access transistor is P-channel MOS transistor, a negative voltage has to be supplied to the gate of the access transistor in order to write L data (data having a logically low level) to the memory cell.
Therefore, within the device, it is necessary to generate a voltage higher than the level of H data as well as a negative voltage from an external power supply voltage and supply the generated voltages to the memory cell. Then, for example, excessive stress could be imposed between electrodes, for example, between the gate and drain and between the gate and source of the transistor provided in the output stage of the supply voltage to the memory cell for example.
Furthermore, since the external power supply voltage in burn-in test is larger than that in normal operation as described above, further excessive stress is imposed on the transistor, which could cause the gate oxide film of the transistor to be broken.
In contrast, a semiconductor device disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 10-092200 (Patent Document 1) is configured to accelerate initial defects by applying a cell plate voltage in burn-in test that is different from the one in normal operation. However, no measures are taken to address malfunctions due to a larger voltage difference between two voltages supplied to a memory cell or the like. Further, a semiconductor device disclosed in Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2002-298599 (Patent Document 2) is configured to accelerate initial defects by making switch between a plurality of internal power supplies in normal operation and burn-in operation. However, no measures are taken to address malfunctions due to a voltage difference between two voltages supplied to a memory cell or the like.
Therefore, for the semiconductor devices disclosed in Patent Documents 1 and 2, it is necessary to provide a lower external power supply voltage in burn-in test for avoiding breakage of the thin film transistor. Thus, high electric field stress cannot be applied to the device, resulting in the problem that the burn-in test takes a long time. In addition, since the external power supply voltage cannot be increased, stress for revealing initial failures cannot be applied to the gate oxide film for example of the transistor, resulting in the problem that initial defectives cannot be removed sufficiently.
Moreover, a voltage different from that in normal operation may be externally supplied in burn-in test so as to apply high electric field stress to the device and thereby shorten the burn-in test time. However, a pad for applying a power supply voltage except for the external power supply voltage for normal operation has to be provided, which could increase the circuit size and area.

Semiconductor device undergoing defect detection test


A device 1 for measuring a propagation time of a sound wave comprises a sound source means 11 and a calculation means 12. The sound source means 11 outputs a time stretched pulse as a sound source signal input to a speaker 3. The calculation means 12 calculates a cross-correlation function of the time stretched pulse and the sound signal which is output from the speaker 3 and is received in a microphone 4. Based on the cross-correlation function, the propagation time of the sound wave between the speaker 3 and the microphone 4 is found.

In some cases, it is necessary to measure a propagation time of a sound wave from a speaker to a microphone in a space in which an acoustic system is installed. This corresponds to, for example, cases where a frequency characteristic of the acoustic system is measured at a listening position, and a signal having a frequency characteristic that varies with time is used as a sound source signal for measurement. In such cases, measurement with higher precision is sometimes achieved by taking in a signal from the microphone installed at the listening position after passing the signal through a filter that varies its frequency characteristic according to a time variation in the frequency characteristic of the sound source signal for measurement, rather than by directly taking in the signal from the microphone installed at the listening position. In this case, it becomes necessary to delay the variation in the frequency characteristic of the filter by time for which the sound wave propagates over a distance from the speaker to the listening position, instead of simultaneously progressing the variation in the frequency characteristic of the sound source signal for measurement and the variation in the frequency characteristic of the filter. For this purpose, it is necessary to measure the propagation time of the sound wave from the speaker to the microphone installed at the listening position.
Accordingly, there has been conventionally proposed a method of measuring a propagation time of a sound wave between a speaker and a microphone using a pulse (see for example, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application Publication No. 2001-112100 (see page 3, FIGS. 1 and 2)). Specifically, a propagation time of a pulse sound which is output from the speaker and arrives at the microphone is measured.
Measurement using the pulse sound can be conducted with relatively higher precision unless it is affected by a noise. However, since the pulse sound has a small energy with respect to its amplitude, it is difficult for the microphone to receive the sound with a preferred S/N ratio. In this method, therefore, accurate measurement is not always conducted.
In order to improve this method, the applicant has made an attempt to measure a propagation time of a sound wave having a sweep signal as a sound source, as a signal having a relatively large energy with respect to its amplitude. Specifically, the sweep signal which is frequency-swept in a short time is input to a speaker, which outputs a sweep sound, which is received by a microphone. And, arrival time of the sound wave is measured for each frequency band.
If the sweep signal as the sound source signal is known, it is possible to know when a component in each frequency band is output from the speaker. In addition, it is possible to know arrival time of the component in each frequency band by band pass filtering the signal received by the microphone.
By finding an effective value of the signal in each frequency band received by the microphone for a fixed duration while slightly shifting a time starting point, a root-means square (RMS) value as a function of the time starting point may be found, and a time point at which the RMS value becomes maximum may be assumed to be the arrival time of the component in each frequency band. This enables more accurate measurement of a distance.
This method has advantages as follows: {circle around (1)} A frequency band with a higher level can be selected because of the use of a plurality of frequency bands. {circle around (2)} Interference from a noise is less because of the use of the band pass filter. {circle around (3)} The sweep signal is resistant to a noise because it has an energy larger than that of the pulse.
On the other hand, this method has disadvantages as described below. The response is slow because of the use of the band pass filter. A measurement value may be corrected in view of a known delay of a response time. But, if the response time of the band pass filter is larger than the propagation time of the sound wave between the speaker and the microphone, measurement precision is not ensured. While the signal is less affected by the noise as the frequency band of the band pass filter decreases, the response time of the band pass filter increases.
The response time of the band pass filter decreases as the frequency band of the band pass filter increases, but the signal is susceptible to the noise. Further, a frequency characteristic of an acoustic system in that frequency range may appear, which may cause a peak value of the signal in a frequency other than a target frequency to be detected. This may lead to inaccurate measurement.

Method and device for measuring sound wave propagation time between loudspeaker and microphone


A method and apparatus is disclosed for performing a multi-equalization of a transmitted signal on a channel having varying characteristics comprising equalizing the transmitted signal using a plurality of setting defining a plurality of equalizing functions to provide a corresponding plurality of symbol signal, synchronizing each of the plurality of symbol signals to provide a plurality of synchronized signals, selecting at least one of the plurality of synchronized signals according to at least one transmission performance criterion and providing the selected one of the plurality of synchronized signals.

Channel equalization is known to be a powerful technique to reduce intersymbol interferences (ISI) caused by multipath propagation phenomenons as well as amplitude or phase distortions. For several years, the use of equalizers led to high numerical complexity filters. However the evolution of microelectronics offers today the possibility to design much more complex equalizers at a relatively low cost in terms of power or silicon surface consumption.
High quality filters are needed for wireless communication systems which are used over a wide range of link configurations. In these communication systems, channel equalization consists of an adaptive filtering algorithm.
Unfortunately, choosing the optimal filtering structure depends on channel characteristics that are often unknown a priori and time varying. Even if channel characteristics are known or estimated, it is very difficult to select the optimal equalizer and to predict the converging properties or the channel tracking capabilities of any equalizer.
There is a need for a method and apparatus that will overcome the above-identified drawbacks.

Ecole de Technologie Superieure Polyvalor, Limited Partnership


Process for the meiotic recombination in vivo of partially homologous DNA sequences having up to 30% of base mis-matches, wherein eukaryotic cells containing the sequences and in which an enzymatic mismatch repair system is defective, are maintained under conditions to effect meiosis. Preferably the enzymatic mismatch repair systems of the eukaryotic cells are defective by virtue of at least one mutS protein and/or at least one mutL protein being defective or missing. The eukaryotic cells may be unicellular organisms such as yeasts.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to the field of meiotic recombination of partially homologous DNA sequences.
2. Description of the Related Art
Genetic recombination is dependent on the formation of a near perfectly paired heteroduplex joint molecule containing complementary strands from two homologous DNA duplexes. Reduced homology between substrate molecules decreases the efficiency of recombination. A striking example of this can be seen during interspecific crosses between Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhymurium. The genomes of these two bacterial species are diverged by approximately 16%. At this level of heterology the frequency of recombination during conjugational crosses is reduced by up to 5 orders of magnitude. The barrier to recombination is largely dependent on the activity of the mismatch repair system The "disrupted species barrier" and "chromosomal instability" phenotypes, seen in bacterial mismatch repair mutants, are thought to result from a failure to prevent interactions between homeologous (closely related but non-identical) DNA sequences. This process has been termed antirecombination, although its molecular basis remains unclear. The existence of this activity has led to the proposal that the mismatch repair system is involved in controlling the fidelity of genetic exchanges. By only permitting crossovers between truly homologous sequences, such a process would suppress ectopic interactions between dispersed homologous sequences and thereby avoid potentially lethal chromosome rearrangements. Hence, the recognition of mismatches in duplex DNA may play a role in maintaining the structural integrity of chromosomes.
Many of the elements of the long-patch mismatch repair system that are believed to be involved in antirecombination have been organism of which the enzymatic mismatch repair system is defective or has been inactivated transitorily, particularly by saturation, for a time to obtain recombination between the DNA sequences. Although the specification envisages the possibility of performing such recombinations in bacteria, yeasts, plant or animal cells, in fact the experimental data provided only demonstrate such recombinations in bacteria of different genera, where the recombinations are achieved by a process of mitotic recombination.
In eukaryotes, the enzymatic mismatch repair systems are more complex than in prokaryotes. Also, the enzymatic mismatch repair systems involved in meiosis are to some extent different from those involved in mitosis. It was therefore not predictable that the technique generally described in the aforesaid European patent specification could be successfully applied to eukaryotic cells undergoing meiosis.

Meiotic recombination in vivo of partially homologous DNA sequences


A tape-form packaging system is provided having an elongated carrier tape on which a plurality of elongated article-receiving loops are mounted on a face of the tape in transversely oriented relationship to the longitudinal axis of the tape with the axial ends of the loops spaced a distance inwardly from the longitudinal edges of the tape. Gating elements are affixed to the carrier tape with a gating element positioned between each axial end of a loop and the adjacent longitudinal edge of the carrier tape and operative to block axial movement of an article into or out of the respective loop. The carrier tape is flexible and upon flexing of the marginal edge portion of the tape, the gating element is displaced out of blocking relationship to the loop permitting axial displacement of an article into or out of a loop.. A tape-manipulating apparatus is provided for flexing of a marginal longitudinal edge portion of a strip-form tape packaging system to temporarily remove a gating element from blocking relationship with respect to a respective article-receiving loop. Guide rails are provided to engage with the longitudinal edges of the tape as it passes through an article-transfer station to prevent displacement of the tape in its plane transversely to its longitudinal axis and to restrain the tape against displacement laterally with respect to its plane. A bending rail is positioned in the article-transfer station to bring an edge of the rail that is inclined to the path of movement of the tape into contacting engagement with the tape and effect flexing of a marginal edge portion of the tape a sufficient distance out of the plane of the tape as to displace the gating elements out of blocking relationship to an axial end of a respective loop. An elongated back-up rail is supported in contacting engagement with the face of the tape opposite the loops and at a position to maintain the loops in a planar path of movement through the article-transfer station.

Manufacturing operations very frequently involve assembly of a number of components into a finished product unit. It is highly advantageous from an economic standpoint to automate as many as possible of these assembly operations and, in particular, it is advantageous to provide apparatus and mechanisms that enable mechanized delivery or assembly of components or subcomponents of an assembly at least to the extent of providing those components at a work station where personnel may manually effect the assembly. Even more advantageously, it is desirable that automated mechanisms including robotics may effect the assembly once provided with the component and effect the placement of that component in association with either a subassembly or major component of a product unit.
Packaging systems designed to meet this general objective have been heretofore designed and utilized. These packaging systems generally comprise elongated flexible tapes of strip-form that are readily rolled or folded into compact packages for both economy of storage space and also minimizing transport costs. A previously patented example of a packaging system of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,583,641 granted Apr. 22, 1986 to John R. Gelzer, the named inventor in this application. That prior art packaging system consisted of an elongated carrier tape to which a secondary or packaging tape was removably secured and the two tapes cooperatively retained articles in loop-form assemblies. The packaging tape was mechanically interconnected to the carrier tape by means which enabled the two to be readily separated at the assembly or utilization point and thereby release the article or component previously retained with the packaging system. Such a packaging system as shown in this identified patent required that the two tapes be mechanically joined while concurrently receiving the articles to be packaged. At the point of utilization of the articles, the two tapes were mechanically separated and if desired, the tapes could either be reused by returning them to the source of supply for the articles and reassembled in packaging of additional articles. Alternatively, they could be simply shredded and the material then disposed of or recycled through remanufacture into new tapes for subsequent use in packaging of other articles for storage and transport to the utilization station.

Gated-loop packaging system and manipulating apparatus


A connector with ground pin for boards includes an insulative connector body (4), and an electromagnetic shielding shell (9) covering a surface of the connector body (4). A ground pin (22) fixed to the connector body (4) has electrical conductivity with the shell (9). A cylindrical lock portion (25) of the ground pin (22) is inserted through a mounting hole (21) of a circuit board (20). The lock portion (25) resiliently engages the mounting hole (21) substantially on its overall circumference, thereby stably tacking the connector to the board (20). A solder build-up is formed substantially along the overall circumference of the lock portion (25).

The present invention relates to a connector having a ground pin for boards for providing grounding connection in a circuit board.
There has been provided a connector of this type which is fixed to a board by tacking the connector to the board by way of a ground pin of the connector inserted in a mounting hole of the board, and then soldering a distal end of the ground pin to a back side of the board (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No.1(1989)-63082).
In this connector, however, the ground pin is screw-held to a metallic shell and therefore, an increased number of assembly steps and increased production costs result. The distal end of the ground pin comprises a nib-like claw, which is only capable of engaging a part of an inner periphery of the mounting hole when inserted therein. Therefore, the connector is tacked to the board in such an unstable manner that the connector may be dislocated relative to the board. If the dislocated connector is soldered to the board, the soldered portion is prone to receive an excessive force during the use of the connector. This leads to a problem of the durability of the fixed portion. Furthermore, a positive fixing cannot be ensured because a solder build-up can be formed only on opposite side edges of the claw.
There is provided an alternative connector arranged such that the ground pin formed integrally with the shell has a semi-circular section and that the ground pin is soldered to the boards substantially along a semi-circumference of the mounting hole (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.9(1997)-35782). In this case, the fixing strength at which the connector is soldered to the board is somewhat increased but not to a sufficient degree.
By the way, the connector of this type includes a locked member having a snag portion adapted to be locked to an engagement portion of a counterpart connector when this connector is coupled to the counterpart connector in paired relation.
When the counterpart connector is pulled out, the locked member is subject to such a great load that the locked member may sometimes be bent. Therefore, a high strength is required of the locked member.
In this connection, there is provided a connector wherein the locked member is formed integrally with the connector body by die-casting (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No.7(1995)-335333). However, this method involves high production costs. Furthermore, a screw is used for fixing the connector to the board and hence, the increased number of assembly steps results in increased production costs.
On the other hand, there is provided a connector wherein the ground pin is formed integrally with the locked member by sheet metal (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No.2(1990)-12175). In the case of the one-piece construction, however, the following disadvantages exist although the production costs can be reduced. Specifically, the locked member is required of high rigidity such as to withstand the pulling load from the counterpart connector while on the other hand, the ground pin is required of high resilience in the light of mountability to the mounting hole. Hence, in the case of the one-piece construction, it is quite difficult to satisfy the both requirements of the high strength of the locked member and the mountability of the ground pin. Furthermore, this connector is arranged such that the locked member, snag portion and ground pin are substantially aligned on one straight line. This leads to a fear that the pulling load applied to the snag portion directly acts on the ground pin, resulting in the breakage of the solder around the ground pin.
In view of the foregoing, the present invention has been accomplished. An object of the invention is to provide a connector with ground pin for boards which assumes a stable position when tacked to the boards and is capable of being readily and rigidly fixed to the board.
For achieving the above object, a preferred mode of the invention comprises an insulative connector body accommodating a plurality of contacts; an electromagnetic shielding shell partially covering a surface of the connector body; and a ground pin fixed to the connector body as having electrical conductivity with the shell, wherein the ground pin includes a cylindrical lock portion resiliently deformable in radial direction so as to be inserted through and locked to a mounting hole of a circuit board, and wherein the lock portion resiliently engages the mounting hole substantially on its overall circumference when inserted through the mounting hole.
In this embodiment, the ground pin is tacked to the board by way of the resilient engagement between the lock portion inserted in the mounting hole of the board and the mounting hole. At this time, the tacked connector is less liable to totter because the connector engages an almost entire periphery of the mounting hole. Particularly where the board in an inclined position is subject to a soldering process, the connector can be tacked thereto in a stable manner. Furthermore, the ground pin can be positively fixed to the board because a solder build-up can be formed substantially along the overall periphery of the cylindrical lock portion inserted in the mounting hole of the board.


An improved tape storage device having information for converting longitudinal physical positions written in a medium to logical positions used by a tape drive. The conversion information, an offset and an optional maximum physical position value, are stored in one or more locations in the tape storage device. Methods of operating the tape drive are disclosed to determine and store the conversion information in the tape storage device. Another method of operation enables the tape drive to read the conversion information and convert the physical positions to logical positions. The method works for both center loading and end loading medium. Possible numeric rollover of the physical positions is detected by one of several methods including the step values between adjacent physical positions, comparing the logical positions with an upper and lower boundary, and generating a lookup table where the rollover is represented by a wraparound between the top and bottom of the table.

The present invention relates to the field of tape recording medium longitudinal position sensing.
Tape recording devices have a recording medium wound around one or two spools inside a housing. The medium is moved at a low speed during read and write operations, and at a higher speed during search and rewind operations. A common mechanism for estimating the longitudinal position of the medium with respect to a read-write head is a tachometer coupled to one of the spools. Linear tape movement is translated into rotational motion by the spool. The rotational motion is translated into electrical pulses by the tachometer. Counting the electrical pulses provides an approximate relative distance traveled by the medium. When referenced to one end of the tape, the relative distance traveled becomes an absolute longitudinal position.
Knowing the absolute longitudinal position of the medium is useful when searching for specific data stored at a known position. A typical search operation involves two phases. First, the medium is accelerated to the search speed to move the desired position on the medium near the read-write heads. While the medium is moving at the higher search speed, the tachometer""s electrical pulses are counted to estimate the medium""s longitudinal position. The second phase begins as the desired position draws near the read-write heads and the medium is slowed to the lower read-write speed. The second phase of the search operation is conducted at the low speed by reading information from the medium until the desired data is found.
The time required to complete the search operation is determined in part by the accuracy in the estimated longitudinal position of the medium. Greater estimated position accuracy during the higher search speed allows the desired location on the medium to be positioned closer to the read-write heads without overshooting. Closer positioning at high search speed results in less search time at the lower read-write speed.
One approach to improve the estimated position accuracy has been to incorporate pre-written physical positions in the medium. Typically these physical positions are written in the servo tracks in such a way that they can be read while the medium is moving at the high search speed. The numeric range and physical spacing of the physical positions are selected so that on any given tape recording device each physical position is unique. Knowing the longitudinal position of the desired data in terms of the nearest physical position allows for fast search operations.
The physical positions are normally written into the medium before the medium is cut to the proper length, wound around the spools, and installed in the housing. This causes the first physical position in each medium to have a random value. It also causes the physical positions in some tape recording devices to rollover from the highest value to the lowest value in adjacent positions. As a result, the tape drive cannot treat the physical positions as an indication of an absolute position from the end of the medium For instance, a physical position having a value of zero may be near the start of the medium, near the end of the medium, or not in the medium at all.
Randomness in the initial physical position is easily compensated for with end loaded media. The first physical position read as the medium is loaded can be used as a reference point from which all relative, or logical positions on the medium can be determined. The first physical position may be added to all relative or logical positions to convert the relative or logical positions to the actual physical positions. Alternatively, the first physical position may be subtracted from all other physical positions to convert the physical positions to the relative or logical positions.
This approach of using the first physical position read after loading the medium as a reference point does not apply when the media is first loaded at the center, or at another non-end position. The tape drive has no quick means to determine if the first physical position read after a load is truly at the physical center of the medium or not. Tolerance in the servo system of any given drive, variations from drive to drive, and random unloads can cause the medium to load at different position at each independent load operation. The tape drive could move to one end of the medium immediately after loading to read the physical position nearest that end, but doing so defeats the purpose of loading the medium at the center.
Variations in the medium load position can cause several different problems. First, the medium is usually formatted immediately after the first load. Formatting assumes that the medium was loaded at or near the true physical center. When this assumption is false then an Media Information Region (MIR)(which contains administrative data) will be formatted off-center and the medium to either side of the MIR will be of different lengths. When writing to the short side of the MIR, the physical end of the medium may be reached unexpectedly. When writing to the long side of the MIR, part of the medium may remain unused. Other problems surface on subsequent loads if the medium is loaded at different initial longitudinal positions. For example, the MIR may be missed entirely, causing the tape recording device to be interpreted as a blank tape. This may make the tape look like a scratch tape to the host system and customer data could be lost. Another problem is that data written near one end of the medium after an earlier load may be beyond the servo limits computed from the present load position. The data is still in the medium and thus can be recovered, however, performance will suffer for those tape recording devices that are loaded off-center.
In center load situations, the tape drive must assume that the medium is loaded at or very near to the center. Once loaded, an initial scan of the medium around the load position can be made to find the MIR or another recognizable information that can be used to establish a reference position. If nothing is found by the scan, either an assumption is made that the medium is blank, or time must be spent searching for one physical end of the medium.
The present invention is an improved tape storage device and methods of using the tape storage device. Existing tape storage devices have pre-written physical positions stored in the longitudinal direction of the medium. Physical positions are pre-written in the medium before the medium is cut and spooled, so the first physical position in any given tape storage device has a random value. The improvement is storing offset information in one or more locations in the tape storage device to enable a tape drive to convert the physical positions into logical positions without the need to find one physical end of the medium. Optionally, the largest value of the physical positions (called a maximum physical value) may also be stored in the tape storage device. The maximum physical value supports the physical position to logical position conversion when the physical position values undergo a rollover in mid-tape. The tape storage device may hold the conversion information in the medium, or in a nonvolatile memory embedded inside a housing that surrounds the medium.
A method of determining and storing the offset and maximum physical value information in the tape storage device is also provided by the present invention. An offset is determined by an initial physical position read immediately after the medium is loaded in the tape drive. The initial physical position will be either the physical position nearest one end of the medium, or a central physical position. To determine the maximum physical value, all of the physical positions are read and the largest value remembered. Once the conversion information has been determined, it is written into one or more locations in the medium, or into the nonvolatile memory.
The present invention includes methods of using the offset and maximum physical value information. After loading, the offset is read from the tape storage device. The maximum physical value may be a constant known to the tape drive if all compatible tape storage devices use the same physical position range of values. Alternatively, the maximum physical value may be read from the tape storage device itself, allowing different lengths of medium to use different ranges of physical positions.
All conversion methods start with the basic process that the logical positions are the physical positions minus the offset. Variations in the conversion methods are described to account for a rollover condition where the values of adjacent physical positions step between the maximum physical value and the smallest physical value. One method of rollover detection checks the change in the physical position values between the current physical position and a prior physical position. A second method performs the basic physical position to logical position conversion and then checks to see if the resulting logical positions fall between set boundaries. A third method creates a lookup table that provides a one-to-one relationship between the physical positions and logical positions.
An advantage of the improved tape storage device and associated methods is that they allow subsequent loads of the medium at random longitudinal positions. The tape drive does not have to find one physical end of the medium to establish synchronization between the physical positions and logical positions. Conversion from the physical positions to the logical positions can begin with the initial physical position read anywhere along the longitudinal length of the medium. This ability allows center loaded tape storage devices to maintain their fast initial search capability as compared to end loaded tape storage devices.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved tape storage device that stores conversion information that enables a tape drive to convert physical positions pre-written into the medium into logical positions.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method of determining and storing the conversion information in the tape storage device.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a method of converting the physical positions read from the medium to logical positions, taking into account the possibility of a rollover of the physical positions at any point along the longitudinal length of the medium.
These and other objects, features and advantages will be readily apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Method of synchronizing physical and logical positions in a magnetic tape recording device


A gold alloy wire for a bonding wire contains one kind or two kinds of Pt and Pd of 5000 ppm to 2% by mass in total, Ir: 1 to 200 ppm, Ca: 20 to 200 ppm, Eu: 10 to 200 ppm, Be: 0.1 to 30 ppm, if necessary, and La: 10 to 200 ppm, if necessary. At least two kinds of Ca, Eu, Be, and La are in a range of 50 to 250 ppm in total.

Recently, semiconductor devices such as a transistor, an LSI, or an IC are used under a high-temperature environment, for example, in the vicinity of an engine, and an operating temperature of a high frequency IC tends to be increasingly high. Therefore, even though the semiconductor devices are exposed to the high-temperature environment, a high degree of reliability is required.
As a gold alloy wire for a bonding wire for connecting an electrode on an IC chip which is used under the high-temperature environment to an exterior lead part, a gold alloy wire for a bonding wire (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication No. Hei 06-112251 ("JP '251")) having a component composition comprising at least one kind of Pd, Pt, Rh, Ir, Os, and Ru of 1000 ppm to 5% by mass in total, at least one kind of Ca, Be, Ge, Si, Fe, Y, and rare earth elements of 1 to 50 ppm in total, and the balance being Au and inevitable impurities has been known. The gold alloy wire for the bonding wire as described above contains a large amount of platinum group metals to improve bonding strength of a compression ball and an Al pad at a high temperature, and further contains Ca, Be, or the like to increase hardness and improve stability of a loop. Generally, in order to connect the electrode on the IC chip to the exterior lead part by using the gold alloy wire for the bonding wire, a method of bonding the gold alloy wire by an ultrasonic wave-combined thermal compression has been mainly used.

Gold alloy wire for bonding wire having high bonding reliability, high roundness of compression ball, high straightness and high resin flowability resistance


A projection optical system for projecting, while enlarging, an image formed on an image formation surface onto an image projection surface from an oblique direction relative thereto has at least three optically powered reflective surfaces and a refractive lens surface having a non-rotation-symmetric free-form curved surface and disposed between the first and second reflective surfaces as counted from the image formation surface side.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image projection apparatus, and more particularly to an image projection apparatus having reflective and refractive optical surfaces incorporated in an oblique projection optical system in a construction suitable for rear projection.
2. Description of Related Art
A common rear projection apparatus incorporates a rear projection optical system that achieves slimming-down by bending the optical path of the light exiting from a projection optical system with a single reflective mirror disposed behind a screen. However, since the projection optical system used here is a coaxial optical system, the ray incident on the image center on the screen surface needs to be substantially perpendicular to the screen surface. This makes it difficult for a rear projection optical system to have a thickness smaller than a certain thickness.
For further slimming-down, therefore, various optical constructions have been proposed. For example, Patent Publications 1 to 5 listed below propose rear projection optical systems in which the optical path of a projection optical system is bent with two flat-surface reflective mirrors.                Patent Publication 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H4-27928        Patent Publication 2: U.S. Pat. No. 5,191,472        Patent Publication 3: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H2-153338        Patent Publication 4: Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. H2-146535        Patent Publication 5: U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,050
With conventional rear projection optical systems, however, either satisfactory slimming-down is difficult, or slimming-down causes new problems. For example, the rear projection optical system proposed in Patent Publication 1 adopts a re-imaging projection optical system that projects a displayed image onto a screen surface after once imaging the image. This makes it inevitable for the projection optical system to become unduly large. Moreover, this construction requires a so-called oblique projection optical system that permits the ray incident on the image center on the screen surface to be incident thereon at a large angle of incidence. The Patent Publication 1, however, gives no description of any practical optical construction of such an oblique projection optical system. Likewise, the rear projection optical systems proposed in Patent Publications 2 to 5 also require oblique projection optical systems for slimming-down, but Patent Publications 2 to 5 leave the constructions of those projection optical systems unexplained.
An oblique projection optical system is usually realized by using part of a coaxial optical system. To slim down a rear projection optical system, however, the angle of projection of the principal ray needs to be made extremely large. This makes it necessary to use part of an extremely wide-angle coaxial optical system. A wide-angle optical system typically requires a large number of lenses, and these lenses tend to have extremely large diameters. Thus, using a wide-angle optical system makes the entire optical system unduly large.
As examples of wide-angle projection optical systems, oblique projection optical systems employing curved reflective surfaces alone are proposed in Patent Publications 6 and 7 listed below, and optical systems employing both a curved reflective surface and a refractive surface are proposed in Patent Publications 8 and 9 listed below.                Patent Publication 6: U.S. Pat. No. 6,513,935        Patent Publication 7: U.S. Pat. No. 6,779,897        Patent Publication 8: U.S. Pat. No. 6,008,948        Patent Publication 9: U.S. Pat. No. 6,850,361
In the projection optical system proposed in Patent Publication 6, however, four curved reflective surfaces alone are responsible for correction of aberrations. As a result, when this projection optical system is used as a wide-angle projection optical system, to correct aberrations that appear because of a wider angle, the curved reflective mirrors having those curved reflective surfaces formed thereon, in particular the one disposed at the enlargement-side end, need to be made larger. This is disadvantageous in terms of mass producibility, cost, and product size reduction. The projection optical system proposed in Patent Publication 7 includes many curved reflective surfaces each formed as a free-form curved surface. Free-form curved surfaces are generally more difficult to deal with, in terms of mold fabrication, molding, evaluation, adjustment, etc. than rotation-symmetric aspherical surfaces and spherical surfaces. Thus, using many free-form curved surfaces as optically highly sensitive optical surfaces may lead to low mass producibility. The optical system proposed in Patent Publication 8 is composed solely of a free-form curved surface prism. The last optical surface here is a refractive surface, and thus, when this optical system is used as a wide-angle projection optical system, its size is unduly large. This makes it extremely difficult to perform molding with high accuracy. In the optical system proposed in Patent Publication 9, an aberration correction surface is disposed only near an aperture stop. This results in unsatisfactory correction of distortion, curvature of field, and astigmatism, which are notably large in a wide-angle optical system, and thus does not contribute to mirror size reduction. Moreover, here, only spherical and rotation-symmetric aspherical surfaces are employed as reflective surfaces. This makes it extremely difficult to realize a wide-angle, high-performance projection optical system.


An extractor fan assembly for an extractor of a sugarcane harvester comprises a motor, fan blades, and a clamshell hub. The motor comprises an output that rotates about an axis of rotation. The clamshell hub comprises a base and clamp jaws. The base is coupled to the output for rotation therewith about the axis of rotation. The clamp jaws are positioned angularly about the axis of rotation. Each clamp jaw is fastened to and cooperates with the base to clamp a respective fan blade of the fan blades therebetween to position the fan blades angularly about the axis of rotation.

Sugarcane harvesters often have a chopper, an elevator, and one or more extractors. The chopper chops sugarcane stalks harvested by the sugarcane harvester into segments called "billets." The elevator lifts the billets to a higher elevation for discharge into a wagon for transport to a mill. A primary extractor is located between the chopper and the elevator. In sugarcane harvesters that have a secondary extractor, the secondary extractor is mounted to the upper discharge end of the elevator. Each extractor has a fan to induce a flow of air to separate leaves of the harvested sugarcane plants from the billets so as to clean the billets.

Extractor fan assembly with clamshell hub


The folding camping trailer includes a trailer body having partial height sidewalls and end walls, a vertically extendable roof section, an expandable enclosure connecting the sidewalls and end walls to the roof section, and a flush toilet disposed in the trailer body. The toilet includes a waste holding tank for storing sewage waste, a toilet bowl attached to the holding tank, a drain outlet situated on the holding tank for draining the sewage waste, and a vent conduit extending from the holding tank to the roof section. The vent conduit includes a vent pipe connected to the holding tank and a vent hose connected between the vent pipe and a vent opening in the roof section. The vent hose is extendable from a first length when the roof section is in a retracted position to a second longer length when the roof section is in a raised position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to recreational vehicles such as travel trailers, fifth-wheelers, and folding camping trailers and, more particularly, to a folding camping trailer having an integrated, permanently mounted, and fully flushable toilet.
2. Background and Description of Related Art
Generally, there are two major types or categories of vehicles in the recreational vehicle industry, namely motorized vehicle or towable vehicles. Motorized recreational vehicles ("RV's) are self-propelled. Towable RV's, or trailers, have one or more axles and require a coupling device for engaging a mating towing hitch on a towing vehicle. The invention to be disclosed herein relates generally to towable RV's or trailers.
Towable RV's or trailers have three general forms and include travel trailers, fifth-wheelers, and folding camping trailers. Conventional travel trailers and fifth-wheelers have solid, full-height sidewalls, end walls, a fixed roof, and floor. The sidewalls, end walls, roof, and floor form the internal living space of the travel trailer or fifth-wheeler. It is common in travel trailers and fifth-wheelers to have an outward extendable slide-out room or living space, generally referred to as slide-outs or slide-out areas. One such example is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,561,570 to Gehman et al.
Folding camping trailers, by contrast, do not have full-height sidewalls. Folding camping trailers generally have a floor panel, two partial-height sidewalls, two partial-height end walls and a vertically extendable roof section. To expand the useable living space, folding camping trailers typically include a flexible, typically fabric (i.e., tented), section or enclosure extending from the roof section to the sidewalls and end walls. When the roof section is in the extended or "up" position, the fabric enclosure or, alternatively, folding rigid panels may be deployed between the roof section and sidewalls and end walls to form an enclosed living space. The fabric enclosure or folding rigid panels may be referred to as the expanded living enclosure of the folding camping trailer. Folding camping trailers may include extendable sleep areas or extendable slide-out areas in much the same manner as travel trailers. An example of a folding camping trailer with extendable sleep areas is generally described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,217,106 Reckner, Jr. assigned to the same as assignee as the present application and which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. In the retracted or "down" position of the roof section and expanded living enclosure, the folding camping trailer provides a lightweight, low-profile vehicle that is easily towed.
A recent evolution in the RV industry combines the solid walls of a travel trailer with the lighter weight and expandability of folding camping trailers in a single unit and are referred to as "hybrids". Hybrids have the stowed appearance of a travel trailer but when set-up for occupancy they feature a slide-out area or sleep area typically with a fabric (i.e., tented) enclosure. An example of a hybrid trailer is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,992,920 to Bailey et al., the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety. Some recent hybrid trailers known in the art even include an extendable roof section for increased headroom within the travel trailer or for ventilation purposes. However, these roof-extendable hybrid trailers are more closely related to traditional travel trailers than to folding camping trailers and do not typically include fabric (i.e., tented) enclosures or folding panels.
It is known in the industry that folding camping trailers encompass a variety of embodiments. For example, some folding camping trailers do not require tenting or folding rigid panels to form an expanded enclosed living space when the roof section is raised. Specifically, such folding camping trailers have the roof panels permanently attached to sections of the sidewalls that are generally one-half the height of a total wall section. The other half-height sidewall section is permanently attached to the trailer floor. The roof panels and the corresponding upper wall sections create an inverted four or five-sided box, which overlaps a similar but smaller and not inverted four or five-sided box including the floor and the corresponding attached lower wall sections. The roof section may be raised via numerous methods, including, but not limited to, a vertical fashion or an arcing vertical/lateral motion. In other embodiments, folding camping trailers have a multi-piece roof with two pieces overlapping horizontally in the towing mode. When the folding camping trailer is converted into the occupation mode, the two roof pieces arc upward to form an "A"-shaped peak. The vertical sides of the "A" shape are rigid panels that arc upward and latch into place, thereby forming an expanded enclosed living space. The aforementioned camping trailers are considered in the industry to be folding camping trailers because they exhibit expandability from a towing mode to an occupation mode. Additionally, such folding camping trailers share many of the numerous and unique challenges inherent in the design, engineering, and construction of folding camping trailers.
One of the most problematic and challenging creature comforts to incorporate into a folding camping trailer is a toilet. Prior art toilets presently utilized in folding camping trailers include portable toilets and cassette toilets. Portable toilets are well known devices that incorporate a toilet seat, a bowl, and a lid into a package that also includes a small flushwater reservoir and small waste holding tank. However, portable toilets are increasingly frowned upon by consumers who seek greater levels of creature comfort and convenience. Cassette toilets are an improvement over portable toilets in that the bowl, seat, and lid are part of an assembly that is permanently installed inside the recreational vehicle interior, thereby giving the toilet a seemingly more "residential-like" appearance. However, as is the case with portable toilets, cassette toilets feature a small flushwater reservoir and a small waste holding tank that must be emptied to a sanitary waste dump station somewhere in a campground. Additionally, like a portable toilet, cassette toilets are constructed primarily of plastic and do not have the customary look and feel of a residential toilet.
Thus, it can be understood that neither portable toilets nor cassette toilets offer the increasingly sought after convenience of being able to directly connect to a sanitary sewage system at a campground nor have the desired look and feel of a residential toilet. What folding camping trailer enthusiasts are increasingly seeking, and manufacturers are thereby desirous of providing, is a residential-type toilet featuring a residential-style toilet bowl that is permanently installed, provides enhanced flushwater capacity, and includes the ability to connect to either an enhanced waste holding tank or a sanitary sewage system.
The low towing profile and compact size of most folding camping trailers limits the ability to incorporate a sizeable permanently mounted waste holding tank on the folding camping trailer. It is well known that a larger tank provides greater convenience to a user by extending the time between waste holding tank "dumps". Additionally, incompatibilities exist between portable or cassette toilets and portable waste holding tanks currently provided on folding camping trailers. Further, plumbing industry code compliance mandates that a suitably dimensioned vent structure be used in conjunction with permanently mounted waste holding tanks. Specifically, the vent structure must allow waste gases to be suitably vented to the atmosphere. Numerous obstacles have prevented the ready addition of a permanent vent structure in folding camping trailers, such as slide-outs, folded tenting, and/or rigid internal structures provided in the enclosed living space of the trailer.
The foregoing limitations have restricted folding camping trailers to using the aforementioned portable toilets or cassette toilets. It is, therefore, desirable to overcome these problems and others by providing a folding camping trailer having a toilet facility that provides residential-style comfort and convenience by featuring a residential-style toilet bowl, greater flushwater and waste storage capacity, and compatibility with on-campsite/campground sanitary sewage collection systems.

Folding camping trailer with flushable toilet


The operation of this invention is such that a rotational quantity of a motor is determined in accordance with a rotation indicating command of a motor, rotation actuating control of the motor is changed according to the determined rotational quantity of the motor, and a magnetization maintaining time of a magnetization phase of the motor is varied based on the rotation actuating control of the motor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a motor control system for controlling a rotation of a stepping motor such as, e.g., a paper feed motor or the like in a printer.
2. Related Background Art
In general, a paper feed motor in a printer, etc. has hitherto involved the use of a stepping motor. In this type of printer, a high carrier accuracy of the recording paper has been required because of the attaining of a more sophisticated color reproducibility in color printing as well as of the fact that a high-accuracy and high-density printing operation could be obtained with an advancement of the printing technology.
For enhancing such a paper feed accuracy, the ratio of transmission from a paper feed motor to a carrier mechanism is reduced, and the paper feed quantity is controlled by employing a feedback technique, etc, thereby attaining sufficient accuracy. If the deceleration ratio is thus increased, however, the paper feed velocity decreases for the rotation of the motor. A large-sized motor has to be adopted to compensate for this decrease. As a result, there arise problems that the printer system increases both in size and in costs, and consumed the electric power increases.
Besides, during actuation of the stepping motor, if actuation does not occur from a self-starting range, the stepping motor can not be started up. Hence, the stepping motor is normally driven by effecting a ramp-up (acceleration control) from a low self-starting range. Typically, in the printer which uses a small-sized stepping motor, the least paper feed quantity required is matched with the minimum step angle of the stepping motor, thereby defining a deceleration ratio. The paper is fed in a through-area in combination with the ramp-up described above. At the same time, noises caused by the motor are reduced, and the paper feed control adapted to control the paper feed velocity is executed with a small amount of electric power consumed.
Generally, however, all the paper feed operations can not be necessarily controlled by the ramp-up operation. For instance, in a paper feed operation controlled by 3-step ramp-ups, in which paper feeding is less than three times the minimum step angle of the stepping motor, the paper feed comes to an end during these ramp-ups. As described herein, in the case of the small paper feed quantity, the paper has to be fed by rotating the stepping motor in the self-starting range. When operating the stepping motor in the self-starting range in this manner, however, the rotating power of the stepping motor increases. This causes vibrations and noises as well.
FIG. 2A is a diagram illustrating the vibrations caused when paper feeding is executed and then stopped after the actuation in the self-starting range described above. FIG. 2B is a diagram showing the vibrations caused when paper feeding is stopped after the actuation in a through-area. When the next operation command is inputted during the occurrence of vibrations after actuating the stepping motor, the next phase can not be surely magnetized because of an instability of a rotor state due to the vibrations. This results in the occurrence of an out-of-synchronism state. For preventing such an out-of-synchronism state, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 54-49026, the positioning phase continues to be magnetized by causing an electric current to flow thereto until the vibrations of the rotor are stopped. A positional relation between the rotor and a stator is thereby established, thus preventing the out-of-synchronism state. This method, however, presents the following problem. After operating the stepping motor, there is needed a waiting time until the vibrations of the rotor and the stator are stopped invariably for a period of several 10 ms through several 100 ms. Thus, the throughput is reduced, correspondingly.


A reclinable passenger seat having a seat frame mounting a seat bottom, a seat back extending upwardly from the seat bottom, and a seat bottom/seat back articulation assembly for simultaneously varying the adjustment of the seat bottom and seat back relative to each other. A translation linkage is provided for mounting the seat bottom and seat back for translating movement of the seat bottom relative to the seat back as the seat back is reclined from an upright position and raised to an upright position. The translation linkage extends the effective length of the seat bottom relative to the seat back to provide additional support to the buttocks and legs of the seated passenger.

This invention relates to a passenger seat, such as is used on public transportation such aircraft, trains and buses. The invention has particular application aircraft, where passenger seats must be quickly and safely moveable between an upright landing and take-off position, an intermediate recline position and a fully reclined sleep position. Seats must also accommodate a wide variety of passenger sizes and weights. Proper leg support is particularly important on long flights, where improper seat support can cause discomfort and swelling in the lower extremities.
It is an object of the invention to provide a passenger seat which is comfortable.
It is another object of the invention to provide a passenger seat which provides a combination of articulating movements which is space-efficient.
It is another object of the invention to provide a passenger seat which is lightweight.
It is another object of the invention to provide a passenger seat which has an extensible legrest.
It is another object of the invention to provide a passenger seat which has a combination of pivoting and translational movement which optimizes adjustment of the seat with an economical use of space.
These and other objects of the present invention are achieved in the preferred embodiments disclosed below by providing a reclinable passenger seat having a seat frame mounting a seat bottom, a seat back extending upwardly from the seat bottom, and a seat bottom/seat back articulation assembly for simultaneously varying the adjustment of the seat bottom and seat back relative to each other. A translation linkage is provided for mounting the seat bottom and seat back for translating movement of the seat bottom relative to the seat back as the seat back is reclined from an upright position and raised to an upright position. The translation linkage extends the effective length of the seat bottom relative to the seat back to provide additional support to the buttocks and legs of the seated passenger.
According to one preferred embodiment of the invention, the translation linkage is adapted to initially raise a front end of the seat bottom into a recline position and subsequently lower the front end of the seat bottom into a sleep position wherein the seat bottom is in substantially the same plane as the seat back.
According to another preferred embodiment of the invention, the translation linkage includes a slot carried on the seat frame and cooperating with a pin carried by the seat bottom, the slot being curved to cause movement of the pin in the slot as the seat back is reclined to initially raise a front end of the seat bottom into a recline position relative to the seat back and subsequently lower the front end of the seat bottom into a sleep position wherein the seat bottom is in substantially the same plane as the seat back in a fully reclined position.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, a bolster is positioned in a position foreward of the seat bottom for providing additional support to the legs of the passenger.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, means are provided for moving the bolster into and out of a position forward of the seat bottom and to the rear of a extendable leg rest assembly.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, the seat includes an extendable legrest.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, the legrest is movable relative to the seat bottom for providing a longer effective leg-supporting length to the passenger.
According to yet another preferred embodiment of the invention, the invention includes a bolster mounted for movement between a stowed position and a use position between the front end of the seat bottom and an uppermost end of the legrest.

Passenger seat with variable length seat bottom


A process for assembling a storage device such as a disk drive storage device using a laser welding technique. A welding fixture holds a storage device component in a predefined three dimensional location with a small gap relative to a second component so that improved dimensional accuracy is achieved. This welding of components that do not touch allows for assembly tolerances that are independent of component tolerances. The welding fixture can use magnetic force.

This invention relates to assembly techniques for storage systems. More particularly, the invention relates to a process for the assembly of disk drive parts on a disk drive chassis.
Disk based data storage devices for storing digital electronic information have been in use in the computer industry for several decades. The storage devices operate by storing digital information on magnetic disk media, which can be either rigid or flexible and are mounted on a rotating hub. These storage devices are commonly referred to as disk drives. Disk drives come in two varieties: removable media and fixed media drives.
Removable media drives accept the disk media in the form of a removable cartridge. When the cartridge is inserted into a disk drive, a spindle motor in the drive couples with the disk hub in order to rotate the disk within the cartridge at a given speed. In fixed media drives, by contrast, the disk hub is permanently attached to the spindle motor. Disk drives typically employ either a linear actuator mechanism or a rotary actuator mechanism. The actuator positions the read/write head(s) of the disk drive on the recording surface(s) of the disk.
The general technological trend is one of shrinking component sizes. This trend also applies to the disk drive industry. For example, 2" inch disk drives (and smaller) are becoming prevalent. Correspondingly, disk components and tolerances are shrinking as well. In such drives, the relative placement of components becomes a key technical issue. For example, to ensure proper operation of the disk drive, the actuator to spindle motor placement becomes critical. Particularly with removable media disk drives, if the dimensional relationship of the actuator and spindle motor is inconsistent among drives, the drive may fail to operate reliably.
Traditionally, disk drive components such as spindle motors and actuators were attached to the drive chassis by screwing components in place, using slip rings, or snap in features. However, where the coplanarity and dimensional relationship of the components is critical, the traditional method provide insufficient precision.
Traditional welding techniques of metal components use lap joints or butt joint of metallic components. However, where the dimensional tolerances are critical the lap joint and butt joint methods may be untenable. If lap joint methods were used in such critical applications, such as the assembly of disk drives, small variations in components tolerances, such as bends and burrs in the metal components that occurs during stamping, may be enough to cause tolerance problems in the finished disk drive. The dimensional tolerance problems would eventually prevent further technological advances due to the reduction of drive components and drive size. Moreover, to account for the component tolerance variations, the components themselves would have to meet extreme tolerances. As a result of the extreme component tolerances that would be necessary, the cost of components would ultimately drive up the drive cost.
The extreme component tolerances and higher drive costs could be circumvented by an improved assembly process. Thus there is a need for an improved economical assembly process of storage devices that improves dimensional relationships of components.

Laser weld chassis assembly process for tolerance nullification


A fat skimmer for separating an unwanted fat liquid from a wanted liquid is provided which consists of a transparent cone shaped jug for storing the unwanted fat liquid and the wanted liquid that is to be separated. The jug has a tapered exhaust conduit formed at a central bottom end through which the wanted liquid will pass by force of gravity. A valve is within the conduit for selectively permitting passage of the wanted liquid through the conduit into a vessel which is positioned below the conduit, while the unwanted fat liquid is retained within the jug.

The instant invention relates generally to devices for separating immiscible liquids and more specifically it relates to a fat skimmer which provides a structure for separating two liquids of different weights.
There are available various conventional devices for separating immiscible liquids which do not provide the novel improvements of the invention herein disclosed.