An agricultural planter having left and right hinged wing sections includes seed storage tanks carried by the planter frame and feeding individual row units, mounted fore and aft of the main toolbar, by flexible conduits. The tanks are mounted to permit the wings to flex independently to follow ground contour while extending the tanks from a wing section onto the center frame section.

The present invention relates to agricultural planters. Although the illustrated embodiment is in the form of an agricultural row crop planter having multiple frame sections which are hinged together to permit the planter to follow ground contour more closely, the invention has application to single frame planters and to grain drills as well. A row crop planter deposits individual seeds in rows. Typically, a row crop planter has a plurality of xe2x80x9crow unitsxe2x80x9d which are independently mounted to a pull frame. Each row unit forms a furrow, deposits separated or xe2x80x9csingulatedxe2x80x9d seeds at a fixed spacing along the furrow and closes the furrow, covering the seed and lightly packing the soil above the seed.
A planter row unit, in addition to having a furrow opening device, a seed meter or xe2x80x9csingulatingxe2x80x9d mechanism for separating and depositing individual seeds in the furrow, and a furrow closing device, also typically has a separate hopper (or small tank) to store a supply of seed. A hopper for a planter row unit typically holds about 120 pounds of seed which is generally delivered to the farmer in 50 lb. bags. Seed is stored in the hopper which supplies the seed meter. The seed, upon being singulated by the meter, flows under gravity through a rigid delivery tube into a formed furrow immediately behind a disc furrow opener. The number of acres a farmer may plant with such a system without stopping to refill the hoppers, for a given number of row units and equal seeding rates, is determined by the seed storage capacity of the individual hoppers on the row units.
All of the hoppers on a planter are not necessarily filled with equal amounts of seed. Thus, some row units will run out of seed before others. When a row unit hopper runs out of seed, the farmer is alerted by a monitor normally mounted within the operator""s vision on the tractor which displays in real time the xe2x80x9cpopulationxe2x80x9d or number of seeds being planted per linear unit of measure or per acre. Individual row units have their own sensors and if one row unit runs out of seed, the farmer is alerted immediately. Even though other planter row units may still have seed, the farmer must stop planting and refill all the tanks to reduce the number of stops.
A modern row crop planter may have twelve, sixteen, eighteen or twenty-four row units. It is a very strenuous task to load eighteen empty or nearly empty hoppers using 50 lb. seed bags in the field. The seed bags must be lifted by hand, normally from a pick-up truck, carried to a particular row in the planter; and the farmer must then negotiate between adjacent row units, carrying the seed bag at approximately shoulder level, maneuver the seed bag over the hoppers and dump the seed into the hopper. It frequently happens that the farmer fills one hopper and still may have twenty to forty pounds of seed remaining in that sack, which must be loaded into a seed tank of another row unit or returned to the truck. This exercise can be repeated as many as thirty times to fill a sixteen-row, 30-inch planter with splitter rows.
The example being discussed is not an isolated incident. In fact, farms have become larger with time; and many farmers plant not only the land they own but rented land as well. The same planter often is used to plant a number of separate fields so that the total acres planted per machine has also increased substantially. Yet, the time for planting obviously remains the same. As a result, seed suppliers have begun delivering seed to the farmer in bulk containers typically holding 1500 to 2000 lbs. of seed. Such large containers require handling equipment, such as forklifts. The trend toward shipping in bulk containers, while reducing cost and saving time, has rendered the filling of individual seed tanks impractical due to difficulties in positioning the handling equipment and controlling the starting and stopping of the seed flow out of the bulk containers when desired, and without spillage.
Another disadvantage with individual seed hoppers is that in order to inspect or repair the seed meter, the hopper and meter must be removed together from the row unit to gain access to the mechanism in the meter. The combination can be heavy to lift, particularly if the hopper is full or nearly full, and the operation can result in spillage of seed or require that the hopper first be emptied.
There are some existing planters which do have centralized storage and distribution of seed. Most such systems use a separate trailing vehicle, namely a drawn cart for storing the seed. The seed is then moved forward to the planter from the rear cart by means of forced air. The seed is then distributed to the individual row, or in the case of seed drill, to the openers. Another commercial planter uses a centralized seed storage tank mounted directly on the planter frame, but the planter frame is rigid. This limits the width of the overall planter to approximately twenty feet (eight rows of thirty inch spacing between adjacent rows). A planter with a rigid frame of twenty feet obviously does not adjust to variations in ground contour as does one with a width of ten feet or less.
A row crop planter of twelve or more rows having a capability of planting at a thirty or thirty-six inch spacing will preferably have three planter frame sections, a center section, a left wing section and a right wing section. The wing sections are articulated respectively to the outboard ends of the center frame sectionxe2x80x94that is, the wing sections are hinged to rotate independently of one another about horizontal axes parallel to the direction of travel, so that the overall planter frame may follow variations in ground contour more closely. There are currently no commercial row crop planters having a multiple section frame and a centralized bulk seed storage carried directly on the planter frame.
Modem grain drills are typically constructed using a continuous seed tank placed above the furrow openers. A seed metering device is usually attached to the bottom of the tank for each opener, and a flexible hose attached to each seed meter directs the seed flow to the furrow. This generally accepted configuration has some drawbacks. 1). The seed tank must be positioned high enough that there is sufficient room below the seed meter to allow the seed flow hose to flex through the range of motion of the openers. This usually means that some sort of operator platform is necessary for filling the tank with seed. 2). The tanks are generally flat bottomed with holes for mounting seed meters spaced to match the spacing of the openers. When planting row widths of 10-15 in., a considerable amount of seed is left in the tanks between the seed meter openings. Also, the tank must be filled evenly across its length so that all the meters are supplied with seed. As the tank becomes empty, the farmer must stop and rake the seed level across the bottom of the tank to use up all the seed. 3). Farmers frequently change seed varieties as they move from field to field. With current grain drill designs, it is necessary to drain the tank at each individual seed meter and then sweep out the remaining seed, if left, when changing seed varieties or types.
The present invention includes a row crop planter having a drawn frame supported by wheels. The main frame includes a double toolbar construction (i.e., fore and aft mounting bars) and includes a center section and left and right wings. The center section is supported by wheels; and the outboard ends of each wing is also supported by one or more wheels which may be adjustable in height. As used herein, the term xe2x80x9ctoolbarxe2x80x9d is broadly construed to mean an elongated frame member, extending transversely of the direction of travel, to which individual row units are mounted. Thus, the present invention includes a frame having a forward toolbar and a rear toolbar. Individual push-type row units are mounted by conventional four bar linkages in front of the forward toolbar, and conventional pull-type row units are mounted by four-bar linkages behind the rear toolbar and located between the forward units. If only the rear row units are used, as is typically the case for planting corn, for example, the row spacing may be thirty inches, by way of example. When the planter is set up to plant beans, both the front row units (sometimes referred to as xe2x80x9csplitterxe2x80x9d units) and the rear units are used at the same time and the inter-row spacing is fifteen inches.
In the illustrated embodiment, the double-toolbar planter frame has a center frame section, a right wing frame section hingedly mounted to the center frame section for movement about a horizontal axis parallel to the direction of travel, and a left frame section similarly mounted to the left side of the center frame section for vertical movement (i.e. articulated) which permits the overall three-section planter to follow ground contour more accurately. Since the individual row units are independently amounted by four-bar linkages, the planting depth for each individual row unit is accurately maintained.
The individual frame sections (that is, left section, center section and right section) are strengthened by means of lattice frameworks extending directly upwardly from each of the forward and rear toolbars for each planter frame section. The toolbars for each planter frame section are further strengthened and formed into an integral frame by means of spaced frame members extending between and welded to the front and rear toolbars.
Thus, each of the center section, right wing section and left wing section includes a frame in the general form of a xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d when viewed from the side, the forward portion of the xe2x80x9cUxe2x80x9d being formed by the forward upright lattice framework, the rear portion being formed by the rear upright lattice framework, and the bottom being formed by the toolbars and fore-to-aft connecting members.
A storage tank or very large hopper having an open top covered with a removable lid is mounted above each wing frame section, and each seed storage tank is received between and supported by the upright lattice frameworks, fore-and-aft, of each wing frame section. Moreover, the seed storage tanks are elongated in the direction of extension of the wings and they extend inboard of the associated wing pivot joint. That is, the inboard end of each of the seed storage tanks extends into the U-shaped frame of the center frame section, and is supported by the forward and rear upright lattice frames of the center frame section as well as by its associated wing frame section. Each seed storage stores seed for as many as ten or more row units. Each row unit may have a small hopper, called a buffer hopper.
Each seed storage tank is mounted at its outboard end to its associated wing lattice framework, in both the front and rear, by means of a generally upright support link, pivotally mounted at its upper end to the seed tank and pivotally mounted at its lower end to the adjacent upright lattice framework of a wing frame. The inboard end of each seed storage tank is connected, both front and rear, by a generally horizontal link having its outboard end pivotally connected to the adjacent lattice framework of the center section, and its inboard end pivotally connected adjacent the inboard end of the horizontally elongated seed storage tank. The inboard end of each storage tank is provided, both in front and rear, with an inboard pivot support member and an intermediate support pivot member. Thus, each seed storage tank extends along its associated wing section over a major portion of the lateral dimension thereof, and for a substantial portion of the adjacent central frame section.
As a wing section rotates downwardly in adjusting to a downwardly-sloping ground contour, the associated seed storage tank is supported by the intermediate pivot members; and the inboard end of the storage tank is raised slightly above the center section by the intermediate pivot members mounted to the seed storage tank, both front and rear. The intermediate pivot members are arranged to engage, and pivot about the lattice framework of the center frame section, slightly inboard of the hinge location between the wing frame section and the center frame section. The horizontal link connecting the inboard and the tank of the seed storage tank to the framework of the center frame section is in compression, resisting lateral, downward movement of the entire seed storage tank.
When a wing section moves upwardly to adjust to ground contour, the inboard end of the tank is supported by the inboard pivot members located at the inboard end of the seed tank, and the horizontal link is in tension, resisting inward movement of the seed storage tank toward the center of the planter. This support structure and linkages for the seed storage tanks not only permits the tanks to move relative to the row units and the frame sections in order to accommodate variations in ground contour, but it reduces the amount of such motion and makes it possible to mount the seed tanks in low profile above the planter frame which is believed to be of considerable importance and value to the farmer, and it limits the number of seed storage tanks in a multi-section planter to two while increasing their storage capacity by permitting them to extend over, and be supported by, adjacent articulated frame sections.
In this manner, the seed storage tank is permitted limited vertical movement relative to the articulated frame sections, and limited lateral movement, while adjusting to the hinging motions of the adjacent articulated frame sections during use. Moreover, each seed storage tank, one on the right side and one on the left side, is mounted for independent movement relative to the other seed storage tank so that they may independently accommodate the articulating motions of the left and right planter wing sections. Further, the total storage capacity of seed is greatly increased over individual hoppers on row units, and the number of storage tanks is limited to two. Because of the is large size of the storage tanks and the large top opening in each seed storage tank, they are easily loaded by machine to reduce the loading time and effort.
The seed storage tanks are received in, and mounted to, the U-shaped channels formed by the upright lattice frameworks and dual toolbar construction of the planter frame sections. This enables the seed tanks to have a low, attractive profile, yet provide a substantial volume for seed storage. A low tank profile has a number of advantages. First, a low tank profile provides safety features in that it does not interfere with overhanging gates or other structures when passing. Secondly, the farmer operator has an unobstructed view of the region behind the planter insofar as the height of the tanks is lower than the normal vision line of a farmer operator seated or standing on the tractor. Further, a substantial operational advantage is provided in that the center of gravity for the seed tanks is lower than if the tanks were located further above the planter frame. In addition, the seed storage tanks extend laterally and occupy substantially the entire width of the planter in the field use position. This distributes the weight of the seed tanks (which is substantial when they are full), laterally over the width of the planter while increasing total seed storage capacity.
A seed handling mechanism inside the tanks also provides substantial advantages in operation. The seed handling mechanism within each tank includes an auger conveyor located near the bottom of the tank and extending substantially the entire length of the tank. The length of the floor auger conveyor extends transverse to the direction of travel of the planter. The tank, at its bottom, is narrowed to form a trough to enhance the effectiveness of the floor auger in clearing the tank of substantially all remaining seed. The seed is delivered from the bottom of the tank, by means of an elevator, to an elongated distribution manifold located at the top of each tank and extending longitudinally of the tank. The distribution manifold also contains an auger which conveys the seed longitudinally of the tank. A discharge manifold and flexible connection hose are coupled to the distribution manifold for delivering seed under gravity from the distribution manifold to individual small, closed tanks, sometimes referred to as xe2x80x9cbuffer hoppersxe2x80x9d which supply the seed metering devices associated with each row unit.
Some discharge manifolds extend forwardly and others rearwardly; and they may thus be positioned nearly directly above their associated row units. The discharge manifolds are positioned near the bottom of the elongated distribution manifold so that the flexible delivery hose may remain generally vertical but be routed either slightly forwardly (to supply push-type planter row units) or slightly rearwardly (to supply pull-type planter row units). Thus, locating the seed storage tank at a position above and between the front and rear toolbars of the planter frame not only achieves a more uniform weight distribution for the seed tanks along the planter frame, but it also reduces the lateral distance over which seed is delivered from the distribution manifold to the individual buffer tanks. The upper location of the distribution manifold in the seed tank permits the seed to be delivered from the storage tank to the planting units under gravity, while maintaining the advantages described above of a low profile seed tank structure.
Using the present invention, a grain drill could be constructed with the seed meters located at a high point in the tank, above the bottom. The lift augers would bring the seed up to the meters and evenly distribute the seed to all openers. The delivery hoses would extend to the openers form a position along the bottom of the seed tank, and have enough length to flex with the movement of the opener device. Draining the system to change seed varieties or type could be done with the floor auger. The over-all machine height could be lowered and the function of the machine improved.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent to persons skilled in the art of the following detailed description of one embodiment accompanied by the attached drawing wherein identical reference numerals refer to like parts in the various views.

Centralized seed distribution system for planter


A device for dissecting an object, such as a cell colony includes a handle and an incision knife module that can dissociate the colony into several colony pieces. In accordance with features of the invention, users can use this dissecting device to cut an object into several pieces quickly and smoothly at a time.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a device for dissecting an object, and more particularly to a device for dissecting a cell colony into at least one colony piece.
2. Description of the Related Arts
A number of recent discoveries have raised expectations that stem cells may be a source of replacement cells and tissue for cells and tissues that are damaged in the course of disease, infection, or because of congenital abnormalities. Various types of putative stem cells differentiate when they divide, maturing into cells that can carry out the unique functions of particular tissues, such as the heart, the liver, or the brain
A particularly important discovery has been the development of human embryonic stem (hES) cells (reviewed by R. A. Pedersen, Scientif. Am. 280(4):68, 1999). These cells have the capacity to differentiate into essentially all types of cells in the body. For example, human embryonic stem cells have been used to generate cells that are committed to a number of different cell lineages, which retain their capacity to proliferate. Since these embryonic cells are truly pluripotent, they have the potential to provide a stock supply of different types of cells for regeneration of essentially any type of failed tissue.
The usual method for culturing human embryonic stem cells is to grow them on a layer of embryonic fibroblast feeder cells, such as mouse embryonic fibroblasts.
Human embryonic stem cells are routinely passaged by manual dissociation. Unlike mouse embryonic stem cells, the human cells cannot be enzymatically dispersed into single cells without causing unacceptable levels of death and differentiation. When the colonies reach 1-to-2 mm diameter, they are cut into 5 to 10 pieces with a pulled glass pipette and colony pieces are then re-plated on new feeder layers to proliferate. However, using the pipette to dissociate the colony into several clumps takes a lot of time, resulting in inefficiency. Thus, the dissecting device in accordance with the present invention is designed to overcome the foregoing drawbacks with the prior device.

Industrial Technology Research Institute


A computer implemented environmental process control apparatus for displaying the condition of selected attributes of a plurality of environmental control components or zones within a facility. One embodiment of the apparatus is configured to create a river of time display including a rivulet having an historical and future data segment corresponding to each of the plurality of components or zones. In order to create the river of time, the apparatus includes a memory having a plurality of first instances of a data structure and a plurality of second instances of a data structure for storing historical and future data, respectively, means for establishing a look back value, means for establishing a look forward value, an historical data processing module, a future data processing module, a graphic engine, and a data access logic device. The historical and future data processing modules receive and commnunicate historical and future data, respectively, to the first and second instances of the data structure. The data entries are then selectively retrieved by the data access logic device and communicated to the graphic engine such that the graphic engine creates the river of time display over a time interval that the data access logic device calculates based upon the look back and look forward values.

1. Technical Field
This invention generally relates to an apparatus for displaying the condition of a plurality of zones or components. More particularly, the invention relates to a computer implemented environmental process control apparatus that communicates with a plurality of control components or environmental zones in a facility and is adapted to display the condition of each component or zone in a manner that allows the facility operator to recognize trends and relationships in the data.
2. Discussion
It is not unusual for modern buildings to include heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems that contain in excess of 400,000 set and control points. Accordingly, as the operation of these systems often requires significant human involvement, effective management of facilities with HVAC systems requires an operator interface that displays or otherwise communicates the status of each system component or zone in a manner that is understandable by the operator. Particularly, the operator interface of the facility management system should display information relating to the condition in each of the zones, the status and state of the system controlled components, and related data in a manner that allows the operator to recognize trends and relationships in the data. A holistic view of the zones and components within the system allows the operator to quickly determine the state of the various components of the facility and to take a pro-active stance before alarms report, equipment fails, or people start calling in complaints.
Commonly, prior art systems display the relevant facility information with traditional line graphs and the like. However, given the flood of information generated by facility sensors and components, line graphs are unable to clearly convey a visual display of the necessary information to the operator. As a result, multiple line graphs with overlays or similar complicating features have proven to be an unacceptable display option particularly for large HVAC systems.

Analog spectrum display for environmental control


A semiconductor device includes a semiconductor layer used as a substrate formed on an insulating film, a plurality of MOS transistors arranged on the semiconductor layer and each having a gate, a source, and a drain, a pair of MOS transistors of the plurality of MOS transistors constituting a detection circuit for detecting magnitudes of potentials applied to the gates as a difference between conductances of the pair of transistors, and a diffusion layer region of the same conductivity type as that of the semiconductor layer, arranged on one of portions of the sources and drains of the pair of MOS transistors constituting the detection circuit, for connecting portions serving as the substrates of the pair of MOS transistors to each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device in which a MOS transistor is formed on a semiconductor film on an insulating film and, more particularly, to a semiconductor device in which a MOS transistor constituting a sensor amplifier or a boosting circuit of a DRAM is improved.
2. Description of the Related Art
High performance of a recent semiconductor integrated circuit in, especially, a silicon MOS transistor technique is considerably developed. In this silicon MOS transistor technique, it is known that a micropatterned, high-speed, and high-performance element can be realized by forming a MOS transistor on an SOI (Silicon-On-Insulator) film (to be referred to as an SOI-MOSFET hereinafter).
FIG. 1 is a plan view showing a layout pattern of a conventional sense amplifier using such an SOI.multidot.MOSFET, and FIGS. 2A and 2B are sectional views showing the conventional sense amplifiers along lines 2A--2A and 2B--2B in FIG. 1, respectively.
FIG. 1 shows a sense amplifier SA, a bit line BL, a control line 1 for connecting a common source terminal of the sense amplifier SA, a source-contact portion 2, a drain-contact portion 3, and a gate-contact portion 4.
FIGS. 2A and 2B show a p-type monocrystal silicon film 7 as an SOI film. A silicon oxide film (SiO.sub.2 film) 6 is formed on the bottom and side surfaces of the p-type monocrystal silicon film 7. The silicon oxide film 6 on the bottom surface is an insulating film of an SOI substrate, and the silicon oxide film 6 on each side surface is an element isolation insulation film.
An n-type source region 8 and an n-type drain region 9 are selectively formed in the p-type monocrystal silicon film 7. A gate electrode 11 is arranged on the p-type monocrystal silicon film 7 in a channel region between the n-type source region 8 and the n-type drain region 9 through a gate oxide film 10.
In the SOI.multidot.MOSFET, due to a so-called substrate floating effect, problems such as a low drain breakdown voltage or an unstable drain current in a switching operation are posed.
In particular, in a flip-flop type sense amplifier used in a DRAM or the like or a current mirror type differential amplifier, when an n-type SOI.multidot.MOSFET is used in a potential difference detection unit, holes are stored in an SOI.multidot.MOSFET channel portion, and the threshold value of the SOI.multidot.MOSFET decreases. Since the decrease in threshold value depends on the number of stored holes, the decrease in threshold value depends on a transistor. For this reason, the threshold value is unbalanced, and detection sensitivity to a potential difference. When the decrease in threshold value is considerably large, an erroneous operation may be caused.
In a pump circuit constituting a boosting circuit or a lowering circuit, when a capacitor constituting a pump has first and second electrodes, and an SOI.multidot.MOSFET is used as a switching means for connecting the first electrode of the capacitor to an output, a decrease in drain breakdown voltage is caused by the substrate floating effect of the SOI.multidot.MOSFET.
For example, in the lowering circuit, when the first potential is boosted at a timing at which the potential of the second electrode is charged by a is capacitor driver circuit, the SOI.multidot.MOSFET must be turned off. When an n-type SOI.multidot.MOSFET is used the above SOI.multidot.MOSFET, the potential of the first electrode serving as a drain is boosted, the capacity coupling between the drain and the substrate portion of the SOI.multidot.MOSFET boosts the potential of this substrate portion, and the cut-off characteristics of the SOI.multidot.MOSFET are degraded. In the worst case, drain breakdown is caused. In addition, holes generated by slight drain breakdown are stored for a reason except for the above capacity coupling, and drain breakdown is caused by the substrate floating effect.
Furthermore, although an accurate reference voltage generation circuit is required to use the reference voltage as a reference for checking whether an input signal is set to be "H" or "L" in a DRAM or the like, a bulk type pn diode used in a conventional DRAM or the like cannot be used in the SOI.multidot.MOSFET without increasing the number of steps (costs). Therefore, means for generating a stable reference potential without largely increasing the number of steps is desired.
As described above, since no contact with the substrate can be obtained in the semiconductor device using the conventional SOI.multidot.MOSFET, a substrate floating effect is disadvantageously caused. In particular, in sense amplifiers for amplifying a fine potential read out on a bit line pair, since the substrate potentials of two transistors constituting a pair of sense amplifiers are set in a floating state, the threshold values of the transistors are difference from each other, and an accurate sensing operation cannot be performed (subject matter 1). In addition to realization of the accurate sensing operation, high-density integration (subject matter 2), moderation of design rules (subject matter 3), and a countermeasure against noise (subject matter 4) must be realized.
Furthermore, in a pump circuit constituting a boosting circuit or a lowering circuit, the cut-off characteristics of an SOI.multidot.MOSFET are degraded, and drain breakdown is caused in the worst case (subject matter 5). In the SOI.multidot.MOSFET, a stable reference potential cannot be generated without largely increasing the number of steps (subject matter 6).


A method of testing trunks grouped in tributaries to evaluate interoffice transmission quality across a TDM network of all trunks in the office. The method includes performing a testing cycle testing only one trunk in each tributary in the central office to verify transmission quality. Testing includes setting up an interoffice connection to the one trunk, performing a transmission test on the one trunk. The method can also include attempting a connection to every trunk in each tributary in the testing cycle. The method can also include performing a plurality of testing cycles until all trunks in the central office have been tested, wherein each testing cycle includes testing one untested trunk in each tributary.

The present invention relates to a method of interoffice trunk testing, and more particularly to a method of increasing trunk testing capacity and efficiency while evaluating interoffice transmission quality across a TDM network of all trunks in a central office.
To provide communication across a communications network the calling parties at each end are connected by a circuit. TDM communications networks typically provide a channel dedicated to the circuit for the duration of the call. Network operators have central offices which include a large number of lines, or trunks, which connect to other central offices across the network to form portions of the circuits for these calls.
Network operators routinely test each trunk on a regular basis, such as once a month, to ensure that they can properly connect the central offices and support quality voice transmission in an interoffice connection. In today's central offices, automated trunk testing is typically accomplished using software processes which attempt to test every trunk in the office by seizing an idle trunk, initiating an interoffice test call, allocating test equipment at both ends of the trunk, running a test to verify the transmission quality of the connection, and then disconnect the test equipment. Each trunk is tested during a testing cycle. The duration of each trunk test typically takes between 10 and 60 seconds to execute depending on the type of trunk being tested. Though multiple trunk tests can be run simultaneously, this can consume valuable call processing resources.
Typically in the past, central offices have not exceeded approximately 90 thousand trunks per office. A testing cycle, testing each of the 90,000 trunks could be completed in about a month thereby meeting the network operator's testing requirements. However, to meet the increased communications needs of customers network operators have been increasing the capacity of their central offices to handle larger numbers of calls. With the introduction of large circuit tandems, the number of trunks at central offices have grown to 256,000 trunks or more.
As the number of trunks has increased, the testing time required to complete a test cycle testing all of the trunks has become too long to meet the testing requirements of the network operators. One solution to this problem would be to test more trunks simultaneously, though this would require purchasing more testing equipment and/or consuming more valuable call processing resources. It is desirable to provide an improved trunk testing scheme which provides a higher testing capacity to ensure reliable trunk operation while minimizing the need for additional testing equipment and processing resources.


A method of determining an energy load on a power distribution component, and a system for storing such method are presented. The method entails collecting meter data (in various formats) and weather data. The meter data and the weather data are correlated to generate tuning equations, each of which is associated with at least one of the meters and indicates a weather sensitivity of that meter. Any meter data that is in the hourly or daily format are normalized to generate normalized hourly loadshapes that are independent of weather conditions and weekly variations. These normalized hourly loadshapes are combined with the tuning equations to generate a set of model coefficients for each of the meters. The set of model coefficients reflects weather conditions and weekly variations for one of the meters, and is useful for determining an energy load on the power distribution component.

Power is generated at power plants and distributed to customers through a network of power plants, transmission lines, substations, and distribution systems. For example, in the case illustrated in FIG. 1, power is generated at a Power Plant A 10 and a Power Plant B 12 and transmitted to a substation 14 through high-voltage transmission lines 16. The high-voltage transmission lines 16 form part of a power grid that connects power plants and substations across a wide area. At the substation 14, power is "stepped down" in voltage and eventually supplied to various end users 18 (e.g., residences and businesses) through distribution transformers 19 that are located near the end users 18. The distribution transformers 19 are organized by feeder circuits (group of power lines) that transmit power from the substation to the individual transformers 19. At least one feeder circuit comes out of each substation 14, and each feeder circuit feeds one or more transformers 19. The distribution transformers 19 step voltage down to a line voltage, which is a step down of between about 4 kV and 34 kV.
The distribution transformers are sized to comfortably meet the expected maximum peak load. Although this "oversizing" of transformers comes at a price, this price is a relatively cheap insurance against outages that can result if transformers are overloaded.
FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate the effect of excess-capacity loading on the lifespan of a transformer. If a transformer were operated continuously at the nameplate capacity and rated ambient conditions, its typical expected lifespan is about 10–20 years. However, if a transformer load exceeds capacity even for a few hours on a few days of the year, the transformer can suddenly fail long before the expected lifespan is reached. FIG. 2A shows the temperature fluctuations between about May 2001 and August 2001, and illustrates how transformer load correlates with outdoor temperature. In late July/early August, when the temperature exceeded 80° F., the transformer load exceeded 100% of the load capacity. As shown in FIG. 2B, the consumed life of the transformer during this period increased dramatically, from about 500 hours to about 1,400 hours. Due to this sensitivity to excess loading, a transformer experiences almost all of its annual "aging" in a relatively small number of overload events.
Accelerated aging of the transformer leads to an earlier failure of the transformer, usually at an unexpected time. Typically, about 1% of transformers fail unexpectedly in a given year. While this relatively small number may appear to be an acceptable risk, the location of such failures is difficult to predict and their timing is often coincident with other problems typical for a peak day. The replacement is costly in terms of labor that must be rushed to the site as well as fines that may be levied by the PUC in some states. Failure of a transformer can also incur non-monetary costs, such negative effects on public relations.
These costs can be dramatically reduced by a reasonably accurate prediction on transformer failure. Thus, a method and system for predicting transformer failure could be extremely beneficial to various entities in the power supply chain, for example to utility companies.

Distributed asset optimization (DAO) system and method


A ferrite magnet device, a nonreciprocal circuit device, and a composite electronic component are provided. The ferrite magnet device includes a ferrite element having a plurality of central electrodes arranged to intersect one another in an electrically insulated state, and a pair of permanent magnets fixed to both main surfaces of the ferrite element so as to apply a direct current magnetic field to the ferrite element. The central electrodes are made of metal foils provided on both main surfaces of the ferrite element, with adhesive layers therebetween. Electrodes provided on the upper and lower surfaces of the ferrite element are formed by plating in through holes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ferrite magnet device, a nonreciprocal circuit device including the ferrite magnet device, and a composite electronic component including the nonreciprocal circuit device. The nonreciprocal circuit device may be an isolator or a circulator, for example, used in a microwave band.
2. Description of the Related Art
Typical nonreciprocal circuit devices, such as isolators or circulators, have a characteristic in which a signal is transmitted in a predetermined specific direction and not transmitted in the reverse direction. To utilize this characteristic, an isolator, for example, is used in the transmitter circuit unit of a mobile communication apparatus such as a vehicle telephone or a cellular phone.
Usually, such a nonreciprocal circuit device includes a ferrite magnet device including a ferrite element having central electrodes provided thereon and a permanent magnet arranged to apply a direct current (DC) magnetic field to the ferrite element, and a predetermined matching circuit device including a resistor and a capacitor. A module, such as a composite electronic component having a plurality of nonreciprocal circuit devices or a composite electronic component including a nonreciprocal circuit device and a power amplifier device, is also currently available.
Various nonreciprocal circuit devices have been proposed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-299912, Japanese Patent No. 3649162, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-208943, for example. The nonreciprocal circuit devices described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2002-299912 and Japanese Patent No. 3649162 require complex assemblies, which cause variations in characteristics due to deviations in the assembly, since the permanent magnet and ferrite element having central electrodes are not combined. The nonreciprocal circuit device described in Japanese Patent No. 3649162, in particular, has a problem in which the central electrodes that are made of a photosensitive conductor paste undergo shrinkage after sintering, and thus, the precision is limited due to variation in the degree of shrinkage.
In the nonreciprocal circuit device described in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-208943, the ferrite element including central electrodes is supported by a pair of permanent magnets so as to be combined with the permanent magnets. Thus, the problem of assembly deviations is solved due to this simple configuration. However, the problem of variation in the degree of shrinkage has not been solved since the central electrodes require sintering.

Ferrite magnet device, nonreciprocal circuit device, and composite electronic component


An aerosol tilt valve has an integrated molded hollow stem shaft and molded conical stem cup. An upper outer circumferential edge of the stem cup normally fully seals, except when the valve is tilted, against a gasket surrounding the stem shaft. The outer lower wall of the stem shaft and the inner wall of the stem cup define an annular space. At least one molded metering orifice below the upper edge of the stem cup extends from the annular space through the stem shaft. The stem shaft is molded with a molded annular recess about the lower shaft end and with the at least one molded metering orifice. The molded stem shaft is inserted in a mold cavity. A lower portion of an annular shield blocks the metering orifice, and together with the mold cavity and lower part of the stem shaft, defines the stem cup shape. The stem cup is molded having an annular projection extending into the annular recess to form a strong and fully integrated stem cup and stem shaft functioning essentially as one piece. The lower portion of the shield also defines the annular space.

In a known construction of an aerosol tilt valve assembly, a hollow stem discharge shaft is mounted in a resiliently deformable sealing gasket at the top of the container, the stem shaft extending both outwardly from and inwardly into the container through the gasket. The portion of the stem discharge shaft extending outwardly from the container has an axial or lateral outlet, and the portion of the stem shaft extending into the container has at least one lateral inlet metering orifice. When the valve is actuated by tilting, product flows from the container into the lateral inlet orifice, up the hollow stem shaft, and out the axial or lateral outlet.
Further in this known construction, the tilt valve has a substantially conical stem cup provided under the sealing gasket having an outer circumferential edge that normally fully engages the under surface of the sealing gasket inside the container. The cup and the sealing gasket define an annular space surrounding the stem shaft, which space is connected to the hollow interior of the stem shaft by the lateral inlet metering orifice. The stem cup, by virtue of its outer circumferential edge normally engaging the under surface of the sealing gasket, usually prevents product flow from the aerosol container into the aforesaid annular space and into the stem shaft inlet orifice. However, when finger pressure is applied to the stem shaft extending above the mounting cup, the outer circumferential edge of the stem cup is partly disengaged from the surface of the sealing gasket. Product from the container (under the action of propellant) then flows between the disengaged outer circumferential cup edge and the gasket into the aforesaid annular space, then through the inlet metering orifice, up the stem shaft, and is dispensed from the stem shaft outlet. When the finger pressure is removed from the stem shaft, the outer circumferential edge of the stem cup again fully engages the sealing gasket. The aforesaid annular space and inlet orifice are then cut off from the product in the container. In such known construction, a spring also is used to bias the stem cup, particularly its outer circumferential edge, against the sealing gasket.
One of the difficulties of the above-described known construction is that the lateral inlet metering orifice is very difficult to form if the stem shaft and stem cup are of one-piece construction. To be effective, that orifice must be fully within the annular space surrounding the stem shaft and defined by the sealing gasket and stem cup. In other words, the metering orifice must lie below the sealing gasket and the top of the stem cup. In order to conventionally form the inlet orifice, a special tool has been inserted down the top of the hollow stem shaft to punch out the metering orifice from inside the shaft; or a special tool has been inserted through the bottom of the stem during molding to form the metering orifice, the bottom of the stem thereafter being closed. Alternatively, because of the limited space between the cup wall and the stem shaft, a drill had been extended at an angle over the circumferential edge of the stem cup to drill a downwardly extending angled inlet orifice into the stem shaft. All of these operations for forming the metering orifice are less than satisfactory for reasons of complexity and/or controllability of the metering orifice.
It is likewise desirable in tilt valve assemblies of the above general construction to have the stem shaft and stem cup in fixed position with one another for lateral and vertical stability and controllability of the tilt valve operation. The shaft and cup may be made of one piece, in which event there are the aforementioned difficulties in connection with forming the inlet metering orifice. However, if the shaft and stem cup are formed in two separate pieces, subsequently connected together, a permanent assembly operation to prevent disassembly on operation is required in which the two parts must be carefully positioned with respect to each other and locked together to prevent significant movement with respect to each other when the tilt valve is operated. This is difficult to obtain in practice, however. When the stem shaft and stem cup are separately molded of a desirable material such as nylon, which is hygroscopic, and subsequently assembled, the swelling of the assembled parts in their environment may result in disassembly of the shaft and stem cup. Further, if the two separate pieces are not carefully designed, operation of the assembled tilt valve may dislodge the stem shaft from the stem cup.

Aerosol tilt valve and method of forming same


An integrated circuit incorporates flip chip and wire bonding techniques to provide an improved integrated circuit device. The integrated circuit device includes a package having a first plurality of bonding pads and a semiconductor substrate within the integrated circuit package and including a second plurality of bonding pads. A semiconductor substrate has a surface area. A plurality of wire bonds connect the first plurality of bonding pads to the second plurality of bonding pads. The device further includes an interconnection substrate mounted on the semiconductor substrate. The interconnection substrate has a surface area smaller than the semiconductor substrate surface area.

Integrated circuits, and more particularly integrated circuit packaging techniques are well known in the art. One packaging technique referred to as flip chip bonding is particularly suited for use in devices having moderately high I/O count. With flip chip bonding, an integrated circuit is bonded directly to a package substrate with solder/bumps carried on the integrated circuit metalization. The package substrate, which is usually multi-layered, includes layers of conductive patterns which makes selective contact with the solder/bumps through vias in the substrate. Flip chip bonding is desirable due to lowered power supply distribution impedance and resulting lowered supply voltage noise. However, flip chip bonding can be expensive. This cost is driven, in important part, by very high routing density demands placed on the package substrate.
Wire bonding is another well known packaging technique. Here, the integrated circuit includes a plurality of bonding pads. The package substrate also includes bonding pads. The bonding pads of the integrated circuit are wire bonded to the package substrate bonding pads. Wire bonding is generally a low cost technique. It places significantly less demands on packaging substrate routing density.
There are many low cost applications where flip chip bonding would not be an economically viable bonding technique while wire bonding would be an economically viable bonding technique. However, many of these applications would benefit from the advantages of flip chip bonding in terms of power distribution throughout the integrated circuit. The present invention addresses this issue by providing a low cost integrated circuit having the advantages of both flip chip bonding and wire bonding.

Integrated circuit incorporating flip chip and wire bonding

Avago Technologies General IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


Disclosed is an animal feed. The animal feed includes fat, preferably vegetable oil; a solid nutritive source; such as a whole seed or grain or a fraction thereof; and a binder, the binder comprising hemicellulose. Also disclosed are methods for preparing an animal feed and for feeding an animal. When formulated into pellets, the disclosed animal feeds have excellent durability, such that pellet fracture and dust formation are minimized.

It is desirable to provide an animal feed in the form of a formulated ration that contains desired and necessary nutrients. The preferred presentation of the formulated ration is in the form of a compact pellet. Such pellets are convenient for the operator to provide to the animal, and are palatable to the animal.
Often, it is desired to provide a high-fat animal feed in order to supply the animal with optimum nutritional energy. It is difficult, however, to incorporate high levels of fat into a pelletized formula. Specifically, when an animal feed pellet is formulated with a fat level greater than about 10% by weight, the intrapellet cohesive strength is substantially weakened, thereby making the pellet more likely to fracture and to create dust and wastage.
In recognition of this problem, the prior art has provided numerous pellet binders in an attempt to improve the intrapellet cohesive strength of animal feed pellets. For instance, the use of inorganic binders composed of calcium salts is taught in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,988,520, 5,714,184 teaches the use of the digest of wood chips with soda ash as a binder in animal feeds. Condensed soybean solubles are used as the binder in animal feed blocks in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,349,578, and 5,871,802 teaches the use of liquid by-products such as corn steep liquor and condensed distillery solubles as binders in animal feed pellets. Wheat gluten is taught as the binder for animal feed pellets in U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,671, and hydrolyzed starch is used as the binder in U.S. Pat. No. 4,048,268 for extruded animal feeds made to contain antibiotics. Another document, U.S. Pat. No. 4,976,977, teaches a combination of clay and molasses as a pelleting agent for animal feed. Collagen, an animal-derived binder, also is sometimes used as a binder.
For various reasons, the binders taught in the foregoing references are less than satisfactory. Generally, the binders taught in the foregoing references allow modest levels of fat to be incorporated into the pelleted product, but such binders are not suitable for higher fat animal feeds. Certain of the foregoing binders suffer from other drawbacks. For instance, recent outbreaks of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies, such as Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (commonly known as "mad cow disease") have received concerns about the safety of use of animal-derived products such as collagen in feedstocks for other animals.
At present, the most common method for providing high-fat animal feeds is to formulate a low-fat feed and to spray a vegetable fat onto the feed. However, although fat levels can be increased using the foregoing technique, other difficulties arise. For instance, the fat-covered feed is difficult to handle and transport. For these and other reasons, fat-sprayed feeds are generally unsatisfactory.
In light of the drawbacks inherent in the foregoing known binders and feeds, it is a general object of the invention to provide an animal feed that incorporates a satisfactory binder.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Animal feed, method for preparing animal feed, and method for feeding an animal


This application discloses methods for modulating plant growth and biomass comprising stably incorporating into the genome of the plant a genetic construct comprising a gene promoter that is active in wood-forming tissues, a polynucleotide sequence encoding polypeptide regulators of cell division and a gene termination sequence.

The cell cycle plays an essential role in the regulation of growth and development of eukaryotes. While there are similarities in the core molecular machinery of cell cycling in animals, plants and yeast, there are aspects of cell cycle regulation that are unique to plants.
The cells of a plant are surrounded by rigid cell walls and, as a consequence, are relatively immobile compared with animal cells and yeast. Plant environmental cues such as light, temperature, nutritional and osmotic stresses, gravity, and wounding play significant roles in initiating and controlling plant growth, and the cell division cycle is responsive to these cues. Cell division, cell expansion and cell death all play important roles in plant growth and architecture. All of the cells of a plant arise from meristematic tissues which form in the early embryo and continue to proliferate and participate in organ formation during the lifetime of the plant. Mature non-proliferative differentiated plant cells remain totipotent and can be induced to resume proliferation and regenerate entire plants under appropriate culture conditions.
Two cell cycles, the cell division cycle and the endoreduplication cycle, are operative in plants and each plays specific roles in the development of plant form. The plant division cycle involves cell growth, DNA replication and mitosis, and is subject to environmental controls (e.g., plant hormones, nutrients and light) which control the rate and orientation of cell division in response to changes in the environment, and local and global pattern controls, which are involved in morphogenesis (Meijer and Murray, Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 4:44-49 (2001)). The endoreduplication cycle is a foreshortened cell cycle in which cell growth and DNA synthesis continue in the absence of mitosis. Many plant species exhibit endoploidy (i.e., greater than diploid genomic DNA content) (see Kondorosi et al., Curr. Opin. Plant Biol. 3:488-492 (2000) (review)). In some plants, endoploidy is restricted to certain cells or tissues, whereas in others, it is exhibited in all or most cell types. Plant cells can exit the mitotic cycle and enter the endocycle in a regulated manner (Cebolla et al., EMBO J. 18: 4476-4484 (1999)). Endocycling is common in differentiated plant cells and is closely linked to cell differentiation and control of cell size (Nagl, W. Endopolyploidy and Polyteny in Differentiation and Evolution: Towards an Understanding of Quantitative and Qualitative Variation of Nuclear DNA in Ontogeny and Phylogeny (North-Holland, N.Y., 1978)). Endocycling is implicated in the regulation of gene expression in functionally specialized cells.
The basic features of cell cycle regulation are common to all eukaryotes. The cell division cycle is divided into four distinct phases: S phase (DNA synthesis), M phase (mitosis), G1 (the gap before S phase) and G2 (the gap after S phase). These events are repeated in the sequence G1, S, G2 and M for each round of cell division.
The cell cycle is driven by the formation of protein complexes containing cyclins and cyclin-dependent protein kinases (CDK) which regulate the G1-to-S and G2-to-M transitions (Mironov et al., Plant Cell 11: 509-521 (1999); Forsburg and Nurse, Annu. Rev. Cell Biol. 7: 277-256 (1991); Norbury and Nurse, Annu. Rev. Biochem. 61: 441-470 (1992); Nasmyth, Trends in Genetics 12: 405-412 (1996)). These are the key checkpoints for controlling cell cycle progression. The binding of cyclin to CDK is necessary for protein kinase activity and for determining target specificity (Nigg, BioEssays 17: 471-480 (1995); Morgan, Nature 374: 131-134 (1995)). Several classes of plant CDKs have been identified (see Tables 1 and 2 in Mironov et al., 1999)). These can be distinguished by differences in their transcription patterns during the cell cycle, their cyclin binding motifs, and their biological activities. Different cyclin-CDK complexes control different stages of cell-cycle progression. D-type cyclins induce CDK activity after stimulation by growth regulators and transduce extracellular signals for stimulation of cell division (Riou-Khamlichi et al., Science 283:1541-1544 (1999); Fuerst et al., Plant Physiol. 112: 1023-1033 (1996); De Veylder et al., Planta 208:452-462 (1999)). The activity of CDKs is positively regulated by CDK-activating kinase (CAK) and negatively regulated by CDK inhibitors (CKIs) (Inze et al., Plant Cell 11:991-994 (1999); Umeda et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 97:13396-13400 (2000); Wang et al., Plant J. 15:501-510 (1998); Wang et al., Nature 386:451-452 (1997)).
CDKs phosphorylate a wide range of substrates including retinoblastoma (Rb) proteins that are repressors of cell cycle transcription factors of the E2F family. Rb acts by binding to and negatively regulating E2F transcription factors that are required for transcription of genes involved in DNA replication and progression of the cell cycle (Inze et al., (1999) Ibid.; Dynlacht, Nature 389:149-153 (1997); De Jager and Murray, Plant Mol. Biol. 41:295-299 (1999)). Rb is inactive when phosphorylated by a CDK. Plant D cyclins have been shown to be able to bind retinoblastoma-related proteins (Nakagami et al., Plant J. 18:243-252 (1999); Ach et al., Mol. Cell. Biol. 17:5077-5086 (1997)) and also together with Cdc2 phosphorylate a Rb-related protein (Nakagami et al., Ibid.). It is proposed that progression through S phase is controlled by cyclin A kinases, and that entry of cells from G2 into mitosis is controlled by the expression of B-type cyclins and activation of cyclin B-CDK complexes. During M phase, mitotic cyclins are degraded by anaphase-promoting complex (APC) and the kinase complexes deactivated thereby facilitating cells exit from mitosis. Downregulation of mitotic cyclins and/or inhibition of mitotic CDK/cyclin complexes prior to the M-phase transition point induces endoreduplication. Overexpression of a prereplicative complex involved in initiation of DNA replication in S-phase has been shown to induce endoreduplication in leaf cells (reviewed by Meijer and Murray, Curr. Opin. Plant Biology 4:44-49 (2001); Meeting Report, "Cross-Talk" between Cell division Cycle and Development in Plants", The Plant Cell 14:11-16 (2002)).
In addition to the core cell cycle genes described above, other genes have been implicated as regulators of cell division and cell expansion. These genes include the peptidyl prolyl cis/trans isomerases (PPIases) (Vittorioso et al., Mol. Cell. Biol. 18:3034-3043, 1998), G-protein (Ullah et al., 2001, Science 292:2066-2069), MAP kinase (Jouannic et al., 2001, Plant J. 26:637-649) and histone acetyltransferase (Howe et al., Genes Dev. 15:3144-3154 (2001)). Systematic analysis of the genes in chromosome III of C. elegans using RNAi technology has identified 133 genes that are required for proper cell division in the worm embryos (Gonczy et al., 2000, Nature 408:331-336). An analysis of 6000 yeast gene deletion lines has identified 500 genes involved in cell division and cell size control (Jorgensen et al., 2002, Science 297:395-400).
Peptidyl prolyl cis/trans isomerases (PPIases) catalyze the energetically unfavorable and intrinsically slow process of cis/trans isomerization of peptide bonds to amino-terminal to a proline (Hunter, 1998, Cell 92:141-143). Of the three structurally distinct families of PPIases that have been identified thus far, there is evidence that the highly conserved Pin1-type proteins (Lu et al., Nature 380:544-547 (1996)) are essential for cell survival.
As an essential mitotic regulator in budding yeast and HeLa cells, Pin1 binds to a defined subset of phosphoproteins, many of which are also recognized by the mitosis- and phospho-specific monoclonal antibody MPM-2 (Yaffe et al., 1997, Science 278:1957-1960)). Furthermore, Pin1 regulates the functions of its binding proteins, including inhibiting the mitosis-promoting activity of Cdc25C (Shen et al., 1998, Genes Dev. 12: 706-720). Depletion or mutations of Pin1 induce premature mitotic entry and mitotic 20 arrest in yeast, HeLa cells, and Xenopus egg extracts (Lu et al., 1996, Nature 380:544-547; Hani et al., 1999, J. Biol. Chem. 274:108-116; Winkler et al., 2000, Science 287: 1644-1647; Crenshaw et al., 1998, EMBO J. 17:1315-1327; Shen et al., 1998, ibid.). Pin1 is also required for the replication checkpoint in Xenopus extracts (Winkler et al., 2000, ibid.).
Recently, plant homologs of the Pin1-type PPIases have been reported. Plant Pin1 homologs, such as AtPin1 of Arabidopsis (Landrieu et al., 2000, J. Biol. Chem. 275: 10577-10581) and MdPin1 of apple (Yao et al., 2001, J. Biol. Chem. 276:13517-13523), lack an NH2-terminal WW domain but have significant homology to the PPIase domain of Pin1. In the standard protease-coupled PPIase assay, MdPin1 exhibits the same phosphorylation-specific substrate specificity, as is the case for human Pin1. Interestingly, like Pin1, both MdPin1 and AtPin1 are able to rescue the lethal mitotic phenotype of a temperature-sensitive mutation in the Pin1 homologue ESS1/PTF1 gene in S. cerevisiae (Yao et al., 2001, J. Biol. Chem. 276:13517-13523). However, it has not been described whether AtPin1 has any role in plant cell cycle progression and plant development.
The genetic manipulation of cell cycle genes in plants holds great promise for engineering improvements in traits of agronomic importance, such as wood growth and quality, fruit size and crop yield. The growth of fruit, wood and most plant organs reflect changes in cell proliferation (cell division) and expansion (endoreduplication). Wood, the xylem tissue of trees, is derived from cells generated by the cambial meristem through cell division. The cells derived from cambium undergo a significant increase in size before they differentiate into mature xylem cells with thick secondary cell walls. Endoreduplication is responsible for this increase in cell volume.
The growth of a fruit after anthesis starts by stimulation of cell divisions in the tissues forming the fruit flesh. The cell division activity is usually restricted to an initial period of fruit development, followed by cell expansions that make the greatest contribution to the final fruit size. The length of cell division phase during fruit development varies among plant species, for example, it is seven to ten days in tomato and approximately four weeks in apple. During cell expansion in fruit tissue, there are repeated cycles of DNA synthesis without intervening cell divisions (endoreduplications) resulting in endopolyploid cells.
The relation between cell division and plant development is very complex and still not well understood (Hemerly et al., 1999, BioEssays 21: 29-37). In order to reliably predict the effects of transgenic modification of plants with cell cycle regulatory genes, a better understanding of how cell cycle regulation is integrated with morphogenesis and plant adaptation to environmental changes.
Nevertheless, experiments have been reported which suggest the possibility of modulating plant growth by transgenic expression of cell cycle genes without adverse effects on plant development and morphogenesis. For example, transgenic tobacco plants that express the Arabidopsis CDC2a gene carrying a dominant negative mutation, which reduces the number of cell divisions, contained fewer cells but exhibited normal morphogenesis (Hemerly et al., 1995, EMBO J. 14:3925-3936). Increased expression of Cyc1At under the control of Cdc2aAt promoter in transgenic Arabidopsis plants produces plants with longer roots containing an increased number of cells (Doerner et al., 1996, Nature 280:520-523). Transgenic tobacco plants that over-express a D-type cyclin gene (cycD2At) show elevated overall growth rates, an increased rate of leaf initiation and accelerated development at all stages from seedling to maturity, but normal cell size. Cells within the shoot apical meristem had a faster division rate due to a reduction in the length of the G1 phase of the cell cycle (Cockcroft et al., Nature 405:575-579 (2000)).

Methods for modulating plant growth and biomass


A light-emitting wand is configured for selective cooperative coupling with a handset. The wand extends between longitudinally opposed wand-body proximal and distal ends, the distal end being configured to retain a light-emitting element. Extending in mutual parallel alignment between the proximal and distal ends are electrically-conductive first and second core members. Each core member has, at the distal end, a light-source contact configured for electrical contact with a respective pole of the light-emitting element and, at the proximal end, a power-source contact configured for electrical contact with a respective terminal of an electrical-power source. The core members are maintained in mutual electrical isolation and overmolded with an electrically-insulative material through which the power-source contacts are exposed in order to enable selective electrical connection with electrical-power source terminals. In addition to carrying electrical current, the core members serve as heat sinks to dissipate the thermal output of the light-emitting element.

Light-emitting wands find various applications across numerous industries such as, by way of non-limiting example, the curing of photosensitive compounds used in dentistry. Traditionally, such wands incorporated a light-emitting element such as an incandescent light bulb. Increasingly, however, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) have replaced incandescent bulbs.
Regardless of the light-emitting element used in a light-emitting wand, the efficient removal of heat generated by the light-emitting element is a widely recognized concern that has been the subject of alternative solutions of varying success. Some solutions have involved the inclusion of fans in the vicinity of the light-emitting element, an arrangement that, while effective, adds undesirable bulk to the wand. In at least one case, a phase change material is encapsulated in a thermally conductive container situated adjacent the light-emitting element and absorbs heat in changing from a first to a second phase. Numerous alternative designs have involved the inclusion of thermally-conductive heat sink material along some portion of the wand length. However, the inclusion of heat sinks along with separate electrical components (e.g., wires) required to deliver electrical current to the light-emitting element has resulted in wands of unwanted mass and larger-than-desired spatial dimensions.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a light-emitting wand that facilitates the effective removal of heat from, and the delivery of electric current to, a light-emitting element situated at a distal end thereof in a more spatially-efficient and mass-efficient manner.

Light-emitting wand with electrically-conductive heat sinks


A microporous sheet having both acoustical and structural functionality and a process for producing the sheet. Construction of the sheet requires, first of all, providing a sheet capable of functioning as a structural element of a component. A laser device capable of producing a free electron laser beam is provided, and the free electron laser beam is directed to a surface of the sheet to penetrate the sheet at a plurality of sites and thereby form a plurality of apertures. These apertures are generally uniformly dispersed and of a size and number sufficient to enable the sheet to function as an acoustical noise suppressor while retaining capability of functioning as a structural element. Use of free electron laser technology permits formation of smooth-walled, circular or non-circular apertures tailored to exact geometry specifications controlled to a nanometer in size, and produces a microporous sheet having structural functionality while meeting acoustic requirements with clean, unclogged apertures and with low friction-to-surface and/or boundary-layer control airflow.

Certain elements of manufacture require both acoustical and structural qualities in particular applications. One example of such a requirement is found in a jet engine housing for an airplane. In particular, an engine housing must function as both a noise suppressor and a structurally sound encasement of the engine therewithin disposed. This dual task now is accomplished by employing two-sheet fabrication comprising a porous first sheet or "skin" for acoustical control and a second perforated skin for structural stability. Both functions cannot be accomplished by present porous-sheet construction since normal laser-drilled or chemically-etched apertures yield sheets that are poor in structural and fatigue strength and thus require a second perforated sheet for structural capability. Specifically, apertures formed by normal laser drilling or chemical etching have rough edges and cannot be tailored to indicated geometric and size characteristics for particular applications, and the sheets so constructed experience poor fatigue life and structural integrity. Further, because of the limited quality and geometric choice of these prior-art apertures, friction-to-surface values can be relatively high which can cause clogging and resultant airflow disruption.
In view of the above considerations, it is apparent that a need is present for a metallic or non-metallic sheet having both acoustical and structural functionality, and for a process for producing such a sheet. Accordingly, a primary object of the present invention is to provide an acoustically and structurally functional porous sheet and a process for its formation.
Another object of the present invention is to provide such a sheet wherein a plurality of apertures therethrough are formed by a free-electron laser beam.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide such a sheet wherein the plurality of apertures are of a size and number sufficient to enable the sheet to function as an acoustical noise suppressor while retaining capability of functioning as a structural element.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a jet engine housing constructed of a single sheet of the inventive acoustically and structurally functional porous sheet defined herein.
These and other object of the present invention will become apparent throughout the description thereof which now follows.

Laser perforating process for producing an acoustical and structural microporous sheet


There is provided a split mold insert and a mold stack incorporating same. The split mold insert for defining, at least partially, a neck area of a preform suitable for blow molding into a final-shaped article, in particular, is provided. The split mold insert comprises a body having (i) a cavity defining portion for defining, in use, a portion of the neck area and (ii) a top projecting portion and a bottom projecting portion located at opposite sides of the body; a first female taper portion associated with the top projecting portion; a second female taper portion associated with the bottom projecting portion; the first female taper portion and the second female taper portion for cooperating, in use, with a first male taper of a first mold component and a second male taper of a second mold component, respectively, for aligning the body into an operational configuration.

Molding is a process by virtue of which a molded article can be formed from molding material by using a molding system. Various molded articles can be formed by using the molding process, such as an injection molding process. One example of a molded article that can be formed, for example, from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) material is a preform that is capable of being subsequently blown into a beverage container, such as, a bottle and the like.
As an illustration, injection molding of PET material involves heating the PET material (ex. PET pellets, PEN powder, PLA, etc.) to a homogeneous molten state and injecting, under pressure, the so-melted PET material into a molding cavity defined, at least in part, by a female cavity piece and a male core piece mounted respectively on a cavity plate and a core plate of a mold. The cavity plate and the core plate are urged together and are held together by clamp force, the clamp force being sufficient to keep the cavity and the core pieces together against the pressure of the injected PET material. The molding cavity has a shape that substantially corresponds to a final cold-state shape of the molded article to be molded. The so-injected PET material is then cooled to a temperature sufficient to enable ejection of the so-formed molded article from the molding cavity. When cooled, the molded article shrinks inside of the molding cavity and, as such, when the cavity and core plates are urged apart, the molded article tends to remain associated with the core piece. Accordingly, by urging the core plate away from the cavity plate, the molded article can be subsequently demolded by ejecting it off the core piece. Ejection structures are known to assist in removing the molded articles from the core halves. Examples of the ejection structures include stripper plates, stripper rings and neck rings, ejector pins, etc.
When dealing with molding a preform that is capable of being subsequently blown into a beverage container, one consideration that needs to be addressed is forming a so-called "neck region". Typically and as an example, the neck region includes (i) threads (or other suitable structure) for accepting and retaining a closure assembly (ex. a bottle cap), and (ii) an anti-pilferage assembly to cooperate, for example, with the closure assembly to indicate whether the end product (i.e. the beverage container that has been filled with a beverage and shipped to a store) has been tampered with in any way. The neck region may comprise other additional elements used for various purposes, for example, to cooperate with parts of the molding system (ex. a support ledge, etc.). As is appreciated in the art, the neck region can not be easily formed by using the cavity and core halves. Traditionally, split mold inserts (sometimes referred to by those skilled in the art as "neck rings") have been used to form the neck region.
With reference to FIG. 1, a section along a portion of an injection mold 50 illustrates a typical molding insert stack assembly 52 that can be arranged (in use) within a molding machine (not depicted). The description of FIG. 1 that will be presented herein below will be greatly simplified, as it is expected that one skilled in the art will appreciate configuration of other components of the injection mold 50 that will not be discussed in the following description
The molding insert stack assembly 52 includes a split mold insert pair 54 that together with a mold cavity insert 56, a gate insert 58 and a core insert 60 defines a molding cavity 62. Molding material can be injected into the molding cavity 62 from a source of molding material (not depicted) via a receptacle (not separately numbered) in the gate insert 58 to form a molded article. In order to facilitate forming of the neck region of the molded article and subsequent removal of the molded article therefrom, the split mold insert pair 54 comprises a pair of complementary split mold inserts (not separately numbered) that are mounted on adjacent slides of a slide pair (not depicted). The slide pair is slidably mounted on a top surface of a stripper plate (not depicted). As commonly known, and as, for example, generally described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,799,962 to Mai et al (granted on Oct. 5, 2004), the stripper plate is configured to be movable relative to the cavity insert 56 and the core insert 60, when the mold in arranged in an open configuration, whereby the slide pair, and the complementary split mold inserts mounted thereon, can be laterally driven, via a cam arrangement (not shown) or any other suitable known means, for the release of the molded article from the molding cavity 62.
A typical neck ring insert has a body that includes a pair of projecting portions 66 that extend from a top and a bottom face of a flange portion 68. As is shown in FIG. 1, the pair of projecting portions 66 include two male tapers—a top projecting portion 66a and a bottom projecting portion 66b. This type of an arrangement is commonly known in the art as a "core lock type split mold inserts". In an alternative prior art configuration, it has been known to arrange the top projecting portion 66a as a male taper and to arrange the bottom projecting portion 66b as a female taper. This type of an arrangement is commonly known in the art as a "cavity lock type split mold inserts". In either case, within a typical prior art implementation, the pair of projecting portions 66 serves a dual function—an alignment function and a locking function (i.e. preventing lateral movement of the neck rings under injection pressure).

Split mold insert and a mold incorporating same


The present disclosure provides methods, computing device readable medium, devices, and systems having a dental appliance binding structure. One method can include to create a treatment plan based on a virtual model of a jaw of a patient, wherein the treatment plan includes use of a dental appliance having a first surface that defines a plurality of cavities shaped to receive a plurality of teeth, modify the virtual model of the jaw in a first configuration to include a virtual binding structure on a second surface, the platform shaped to receive a specialized feature that provides one or more force characteristics, select a particular specialized feature as an attachment to the dental appliance, and adjust the virtual model of the jaw from a first configuration to a second configuration, based at least in part on a modeled force provided by the virtual binding structure and the particular specialized feature.

The present disclosure provides methods, computing device readable medium, devices, and systems that utilize a dental appliance binding structure during dental treatment. Dental treatments involve restorative and/or orthodontic procedures to improve the quality of life of a patient.
For example, restorative procedures may be designed to implant a dental prosthesis (e.g., a crown, bridge, inlay, onlay, veneer, etc.) intraorally in a patient. Orthodontic procedures may include repositioning misaligned teeth and changing bite configurations for improved cosmetic appearance and/or dental function. Orthodontic repositioning can be accomplished, for example, by applying controlled forces to one or more teeth or a jaw of a patient over a period of time.
As an example, orthodontic repositioning may be provided through a dental process that uses positioning appliances for realigning teeth. Such appliances may utilize a shell of material having resilient properties, referred to as an "aligner," that generally conforms to a patient's teeth but is slightly out of alignment with a current tooth configuration.
Placement of such an appliance over the teeth may provide controlled forces in specific locations to gradually move the teeth into a new configuration. Repetition of this process with successive appliances in progressive configurations can move the teeth through a series of intermediate arrangements to a final desired arrangement (e.g., a corrected jaw position).
Such systems typically utilize a set of appliances that can be used serially such that, as the teeth move, a new appliance from the set can be implemented to further move the teeth without having to take a new impression of the patient's teeth at every increment of tooth movement in order to make each successive appliance.
In various instances, teeth of a patient's upper jaw and teeth of the patient's lower jaw may contact in an incorrect or suboptimal manner (e.g., crowding, crossbite, deep bite). A proper fit of the occlusal surfaces of the teeth is necessary for proper biting and chewing, as well as desirable for aesthetic appearance. Otherwise, premature wear of the teeth, undesirable forces on the teeth, and/or undesirable forces on dental restorations may be experienced by the patient.
Appliances have been previously proposed to handle these issues but the design of the appliances to handle some issues cannot be created with the manufacturing processes being utilized presently or their manufacture is too complicated to be feasible using current manufacturing techniques.
With respect to jaw repositioning, previously proposed devices typically have not allowed for teeth to be repositioned while the jaw adjustment is ongoing. Further, such appliances are typically not comfortable or aesthetically pleasing.


An encoder aligning apparatus includes: a first support member connected to a moveable unit moved along a base; a second support member connected to the first support member through a resilient member, the second support member being provided with an encoder facing a linear scale attached to said base; and an adjustment member penetrating the first support member to contact the second support member for adjusting the distance and the angle between the first support member and the second support member so as to properly align the encoder with the linear scale.

An encoder is provided in the stage of an automation system, a semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, a display apparatus manufacturing, etc., so as to be used for measuring the movement position or distance of a transfer unit moving along the base of the stage.
The encoder is connected to a transfer unit so as to move along with the transfer unit. The encoder moves without contacting the base having the linear scale attached thereto to electromagnetically read the linear scale. Thus, the encoder measures the moving position or distance of the transfer unit.
Meanwhile, if the encoder is properly aligned with the linear scale, the measurement by the encoder of the moving position or distance measured is not erroneous because the encoder can properly read the linear scale.
However, if the encoder is not properly aligned with the linear scale, the measurement by the encoder of the moving position or distance measured is erroneous because the encoder cannot properly read the linear scale.
Conventionally, there has been no structure for properly aligning the encoder with the linear scale. Hence, it has been difficult to properly align the encoder with the linear scale, and even realizing the misalignment of the encoder with the linear scale during operation, it is difficult to correct it.
Accordingly, the productivity has been lowered working with the equipment employing the encoder such as the automation system, semiconductor manufacturing apparatus, or display manufacturing apparatus.


In various embodiments, options for data striping to FLASH memory are provided. In one embodiment, an apparatus is provided. The apparatus includes an SATA to ATA bridge, an ATA to USB bridge coupled to the SATA to ATA bridge, and a USB interface coupled to the ATA to USB bridge. The apparatus also includes a first FLASH memory controller coupled to the USB interface. The apparatus further includes a first FLASH memory module coupled to the first FLASH memory controller. The apparatus also includes a second FLASH memory controller coupled to the USB interface and a second FLASH memory module coupled to the second FLASH memory controller. A method for block striping data to or from a plurality of read or write channels.

ATA and Serial ATA (SATA) interfaces are well known for use with disk drives and similar mass storage devices. This wide knowledge makes these interfaces popular among system designers and those who approve system designs for reliability and quality. The identifiable name or acronym provides a basic level of comfort to everyone involved, along with the requirements that related standards impose on devices which are said to be ATA or SATA compatible.
In many embedded systems, a hard drive would be overkill in some ways and budget-busting in other ways. Additionally, the hard drive might not be reliable under the conditions in which the embedded system may operate. Excess vibration, for example, may ruin a hard drive in short order. Similarly, while a 100 MB hard drive was a large storage volume in the early 1990s, it is a small storage volume today. Thus, embedding a hard drive as part of an embedded system may be unwise.
One may then attempt to provide an alternative to a hard drive in an embedded system. One may desire that the alternative provide reliability without all of the moving parts of a hard drive, for example. Likewise, one may desire that the alternative provide an interface which is very well understood and characterized. Thus, it may be useful to provide an embedded hard drive with a SATA interface and a reliable structure, but without significant moving parts.
Moreover, one may desire an expandable format. In some systems, the ability to add more storage capacity at a later date may be very valuable. Thus, it may be useful to provide a drive design that allows for expansion.
Conventional data storage devices and data storage systems have also traditionally used known RAID implementations for striping data between multiple drives for both increased performance and improved data protection through redundancy. These conventional methods typically use a striping arrangement in which data is striped between drives either one-bit or one-byte at a time. For rotating hard disc drives, this arrangement gives improved performance for both small and large packets of data. For other drive types performance may not be improved or efficient.
For example, the use of higher capacity solid state storage devices and drives is becoming more commonplace, particularly flash memory solid state drives that use a Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface. In particular, some such solid state drives may use an array of NAND flash memory based drives striped in parallel to improve performance. Using a traditional RAID implementation is not as efficient for such NAND flash based drives. For one thing, conventional off-the-shelf controllers do not currently support a write or read smaller than one sector of data (where a sector of data may be 512 Bytes). Therefore, if the host requests reading of a single sector of data and that data is striped across a plurality of drives such as across four drives, then 512 Byte must be read from each of the drives, thus increasing the total transfer time even though some of the transferred data is redundant and does not communicate useful information. Furthermore, if the host is writing a single sector, then 512 Bytes must be written to each of the plurality of drive even though not all of the data represents useful information. In this particular example where striping is across four drives, and where the drive is a flash memory device drive, only ¼ of the sector on each flash memory device is used for data storage and the rest is filled with invalid or at least non-useful data. This is not a very efficient use of available flash memory drive storage space. Furthermore, and perhaps more significantly, since NAND flash has a limited number of write cycles before it wears out, the extra write operations will cause more wear on the flash and a shorter useful life. These shorter lifetime may usually apply even where known wear leveling procedures or algorithms are used in the NAND flash memory.
Therefore, there remains a need for a data striping system, device, and method that overcomes these problems and limitations and provides speed, lifetime extension, and other operational benefits to storage devices and systems of all types generally, and to flash memory based storage devices and systems in particular.

Block-based data striping to flash memory


An axial roller bearing, in particular an axial needle bearing, having a first annular bearing disk and a second annular bearing disk that are each made of a thin-walled sheet steel and are arranged at a distance from one another on a common center axis, and a plurality of rolling elements, arranged next to one another, that roll between the axial inner sides—implemented as races—of the two bearing disks and that are held at uniform distances from one another by a bearing cage. The bearing disks are implemented as disk springs that deflect as a function of load and have races positioned at an angle, and are arranged relative to one another such that the rolling elements have low-friction point contact in the unloaded state of the axial roller bearing and only have load-bearing line contact with the races in the fully loaded state.

The most common implementation of automotive automatic transmissions is what is known as torque converter transmissions, which differ from conventional and automated manual transmissions primarily through a shifting process that does not interrupt tractive force. Such automotive automatic transmissions generally use a hydraulic torque converter as the starting clutch, consisting of an impeller, a stator, and a turbine wheel, and are composed primarily of a varying number of multi-plate clutches and a combination of multiple planetary gear sets. All shifting and clutch operations in this design take place by means of various one-way clutches and with the multi-plate clutches, which establish the frictional connection of the individual planetary gear set stages with the input and output shafts of the automatic transmission. A gear change thus takes place through gradual uncoupling of one control element consisting of a clutch and a shaft of a planetary gear set, and simultaneous coupling of a second control element for the next gear consisting of another clutch and another shaft of a planetary gear set, until the full torque of the first control element is taken on by the second control element at the end of the gear change.
Because substantial axial forces also act in the hydraulic torque converter and, during the individual shifting operations, between the multi-plate clutches and the planetary gear sets, in modern automatic transmissions the impeller and the turbine wheel, as well as the individual clutch carriers and planet carriers, are braced against one another by up to 17 axial needle bearings depending on the number of gears, in order to avoid frictional and efficiency losses. Axial needle bearings of this nature are known from the applicant's "Roller Bearings" catalog, January 2006, on pages 776 to 782, under the product designation AX, and consist essentially of a first annular bearing disk and a second annular bearing disk that are each made of a thin-walled sheet steel and are arranged at a distance from one another on a common center axis. The axial inner sides of the two bearing disks are implemented as races, and between them roll a plurality of bearing needles arranged next to one another, which are held at uniform distances from one another by a bearing cage; the bearing needles and bearing cage together form a needle roller and cage assembly.
However, under continuous operating conditions of such automatic transmissions, it has been shown that the axial needle bearings used still cause frictional losses that are a contributing cause of a reduction in the desired efficiency of the automatic transmission, and the reduction in said losses thus offers considerable potential, particularly against the background of present demands for reduction of CO2 emissions from motor vehicles with internal combustion engines. The reduction in efficiency here can primarily be attributed to the frequent change of the axial needle bearings between the loaded and unloaded states resulting from the individual shifting operations in the automatic transmission. In this context, the axial needle bearings have high frictional torques in the loaded state that result from the line contact of the rolling elements to the races of the bearing disks and from the rolling element slip caused by the different rotational speeds at the inner and outer circles of the rolling elements. Although the frictional torque resulting from the line contact of the rolling elements with their races is reduced in the unloaded state of the axial roller bearings, the aforementioned rolling element slip increases in this state to such a degree that a kinematically undesirable rolling of the rolling elements on the races takes place to the point where the rolling elements or the entire needle cage comes to a standstill, with the rolling elements merely sliding over their races and thus producing a torque of similar magnitude to the loaded state of the axial roller bearing. Moreover, when sudden loading of the axial roller bearing and the associated abrupt acceleration of the needle roller and cage assembly take place, so-called smearing of the rolling elements on their races occurs, which in addition to frictional heating of the rolling elements causes increased wear of the races and is ultimately responsible for shortened service life of the axial needle bearings.
In order to avoid the disadvantages resulting from rolling element slip in axial roller bearings, DE 199 24 018 A1 proposed designing the races of the rolling elements with an inward curvature over their entire width, but such a measure was not able to attain the desired effect, or to attain it in full, since the axial deflection stiffness of bearing rings designed in this way has proven to still be too high, and the rolling element slip described above continues to occur in certain intermediate load regions; this slip is the cause of continuously high frictional torques in both the loaded and unloaded states of the axial roller bearings.

Axial anti-friction bearing, in particular axial needle bearing


A bulb socket which can receive both a round base bulb and a wedge base bulb. A bulb-receiving portion (23) is provided in its interior with a pair of bulb insertion grooves (26) which are symmetrically spaced at an angle of 180.degree.. The groove (26) has a guide portion (27) extending axially from an open edge to an inner part and an engaging portion (28) turning circumferentially at an inner end of the guide portion (27). A pair of projections on the base of the round base bulb are inserted into and secured to the bulb insertion grooves (26), respectively. Opposite side edges of a base of the wedge base bulb are inserted into and secured to the guide portions (27), respectively. The bulb-receiving portion (23) is provided in its interior with contact piece insertion grooves (30a, 30b) which receive a pair of positive and negative contact pieces for the round base bulb and a pair of positive and negative contact pieces for the wedge base bulb and which are disposed symmetrically at positions shifted circumferentially from the respective bulb insertion grooves (26).

(1) Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a bulb socket which can receive both a round base bulb and a wedge base bulb.
(2) Statement of the Prior Art
Heretofore, two kinds of bulbs have been used in lighting fixtures for an automobile, namely a round base bulb and a wedge base bulb. The round base bulb includes a glass bulb body which accommodates a filament, a round base attached to a lower end of the bulb body, and positive and negative contacts provided on an end face and a peripheral face of the base. The wedge base bulb includes a glass bulb body which accommodates a filament, a flat base attached to a lower end of the bulb body, a pair of lead wires which are connected to the opposite ends of the filament and drawn out of a lower end of the base, and positive and negative contacts which are formed by turning an end of each lead wire onto a side face of the base so that the respective ends are disposed on opposite sides. These bulbs are inserted into the respective bulb receiving holes so that the respective contacts of the bulbs contact with the respective contact pieces mounted in the respective holes.
Since the round base bulb is different from the wedge base bulb with respect to a configuration of a base to be inserted into the bulb, a configuration and an arrangement of contacts on the base and a configuration of contact pieces to be contacted with the contacts, configurations of the bulb sockets to receive the bulbs and contact pieces are naturally different from each other.
Accordingly, conventional bulb sockets for the round base bulb and the wedge base bulb had different structures. However, it will be preferable for the respective bulb socket to receive both kinds of bulb in order to lower production costs.